Official Quakewiki Video - Quake - Aftershock for Quake - DeeP PRAY for your life!

2015-06-05 17

The level easily gives it away that this is another level created by Jack Vermeulen, designer of "DeeP FLICK is showing now!". This time around the level is inspired by a Doom level, though what the exact level is is not mentioned. Some parts do look familiar, but I can't think of a level that fits the bill for all parts of the layout.

This level is pretty simplistic in comparison to Vermeulen's previous map. We get a single building where we can explore the exterior and interior of. Based on the name of the level and the design of some of the structures, it is pretty easy to assume that this level is a church.

The building itself has great connectivity which could work in its favor for small Multiplayer games. Almost every wall in the place has at least one switch with an Elevator leading outside, while the exterior has two entrances into the stronghold. Sadly, Multiplayer would be pretty terrible on this level due to a complete lack of weaponry besides a Double-Barrelled Shotgun. Similar to how I felt about Prepare to DIE! DIE! DIE!, levels without a variety of Weapons just don't work and tend to fall into obscurity rather quickly (see DM1 for a prime example).

Most of the enemies are in the interior of the building, many standing on pews. The problem is that the AI doesn't know to drop to the lower floor, meaning that the Enemies will tend to stay on the pews unless due to some rare circumstance (Rottweilers, for example, can still leap when you get close). As most of the Enemies beyond the few Rottweilers are ranged, this isn't a issue that seems highly detrimental to the level.

Another issue that isn't detrimental but existent is that some of the Elevators, though they have Buttons, aren't triggered to be lowered when the Elevator is pushed. This means some of the Elevators don't work, leaving some of the Buttons to be rather pointless.

Speaking of pointless Buttons, we also get one that lowers a large pillar in the church. While this sounds like something significant, there is absolutely no benefit to having it lowered. It is good to have another feature, but it would be nice if that feature was actually useful or did something interesting.

Other textures show Buttons that aren't really Buttons but solid walls. For example, there is a fake button near one of the nonfunctional Elevators, which could perhaps serve as further frustration and confusion as the player is running across a group of Buttons that don't seem to be doing anything.

Another fake Button is the exit switch. We get a texture that runs the length of the wall on both sides saying Exit. We get a button underneath a slightly extended rock. The button, however, is not an actual Button and is just painted onto the wall. This means that we get an exit that isn't actually an exit, a look in the map file revealing that there is actually no exit from this level. Of course, we should perhaps expect this from this author, since DeeP FLICK pulled something to a lesser noticeable extreme with a locked door. At least the excuse there could be that it was intended to be the exit from the theater but not the level and that the Door to leave is locked. This level doesn't have those excuses, it is a blatant button mocking us and possibly trying to convince us to spend more time in the level just to find out how to leave. After all... the exit is there!

Though this level revolves around using just a Shotgun, I find it to be a lot easier than DeeP FLICK, where not properly conserving Quad Damages could easily be a problem. Perhaps this is because the level was designed with the Shotgun in mind, the other level had a lot more significant stuff that dropped out of the level (funnily enough, it is this level that acknowledges that stuff is known to fall out of the level, even though the drops are minimal at best). Due to glitches, we lose two boxes of Shells, which isn't really significant when the total number of boxes was equal to the number of Enemies.

Overall, this level isn't as appealing to me as DeeP FLICK was, even if it has some less glaring glitches. The pointless buttons can be frustrating for a first time player, the entire fight basically takes fight in a single room, and there is a lot less exploration involved. This level could have been better in Multiplayer, but it was horribly executed due to a lack of variety in Weapons. Well, at least we got to see a new yellow window texture used on a bunch of walls.