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4b8511d377ec3633a90d2d2c19ca98a7e0b4f4f735e7d0560ffd24de654aa7a4
overall_rating
4.439201451905626
58
Well, I’m giving it 4/5. Smej2 offers masterfully crafted maps, well-balanced, challenging level progression, while offering enough new content to be considered “unofficial add-on”. Still, it’s not my type of Quake-gaming, so 4/5 is purely IMHO. It is well worth of 5/5.
Combat is cool, but I would prefer more new monsters. There are only 3+ new beasts, including slightly buffed, but still the same Spawns, blue enforcers, flying enforcers and Sharlath-dogs. Standard, but challenging vanilla-Quake-like combat encounters are supported by some horde/arena segments. All feels great… but I’m more a fan of Tronyn’s works [Where he is, btw?].
Music is wonderful. Levels are great. Final level, though, will be a favorite of those who like puzzles and secret-finding. For more combat-oriented players like me… it was a chore. I cheated, sorry.
Final boss is … both unremarkable and… well… FUN!
–SPOILERS–
It’s a recolored Spawn with tons of health, teleporting ability and lightning attack, like that of Shamblers. It’s boring concept-wise, but fight itself is good, designed like something from Doom (2016)/Eternal.
OVERALL: please, smej crew, make a combat-oriented episode with tons of new enemies, bosses, and maybe… oh God… storyline?.. but the same music))) Still enjoyed the smej2 very much!!
Unregistered user “Vasya shkolnik” posted:
How get Hightmare? I spent about one hundred tries to jump, but with no result. I know the theory of bunny-hop - dont touch W, press A and turn mouse to left - but i have no results. I can only make curvy jump this way, but no extra acceleration. I heard that in oroginal Quake this trick required 1-tick-precise actions and extremely hard. Is it possible in Quakespasm without extra bindings?
"Gitty McGuddingson Guest
29 March 2021, 23:06
@aluminiumhaste If you’re having too much trouble, try a lower difficulty setting. It’s not the map pack’s fault you’re bad at the game."
Told you, GitGud… comment alert.
The only time I run into issues is when there’s not enough ammo for the amount of baddies, and I don’t want the enemies to kill each other, I WANT TO KILL THEM!!!
It’s a first person shooter, not a first person sit in corner while the level takes care of itself shooter.
User above got a warning for the use of “GitGut***”.
Slurs like that won’t be tolerated here. Be decent.
I understand spirit, it’s part of the Dark Souls memes, but I guess not everyone has participated in that community. Can I edit my post then?
Unregistered user “Gitty McGuddingson” posted:
Slurs aren’t cool, man.
Also, I can assure you there’s more ammunition on lower skill settings, as worse players don’t use ammunition as efficiently. Hope this helps.
People cannot edit their comments, sorry. I have removed it in your comment now.
Don’t let yourself fall for “Gitty McGuddingson”'s pathetic baiting. They are just trying to pull your strings by talking down. Ignore and move on.
Unregistered user “Polite Advice Guy” posted:
In earnest, do consider dropping a difficulty level, or even two, and revisit the levels on Hard with more knowledge of them.
The names id chose for the “skill” levels in 1996 are not a reflection of anyone’s real gaming capabilities in 2021, and there’s no shame in finding a specific set of maps more difficult than average on that particular skill setting.
And also, please understand: not every release is beholden to being equally difficult across the difficulty levels.
This will increase your enjoyment of custom releases a lot.
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Oh I went back and did it the way I guess it was supposed to be played, had the monsters mostly infighting and was bored to death.
Watching ogres and fiends and death knights slowly wail on each other while I sit and wait for them to be done is…just boring.
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Super interesting and quite challenging in many ways. It took a considerable amount of effort to finish this on hard. Definitely not a typical Quake content. Absolutely recommend if you want something different, unique, thought through, and a tough. Four stars only because I did not completely enjoy some of the puzzles - I solved all of them, but it felt exhausting and breaking the otherwise good pace.
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I got lost a lot, and would have enjoyed it more on skill 1 for my first play, and I cheated to get past the end puzzles. But it is a truly epic quake experience.
m1: A base map with wide areas. Running around wildly in the final fight was great.
m2: An enormous cavern. The main cavern area works as a big fight lasting the entire map forcing me to skip monster too far away, and constantly switch focus to new monsters.
m3: A outdoor castle that feels cramped. I love the constant ambushes from all directions, great monster jumps.
m4: A grand journey through all types of castle environments.
m5: A almost mini-episode in a single map that does not feel disjointed. Many novel arenas. Very difficult in every way: fights, low ammo, low health, few weapons. Getting to the recognizable ending truly felt epic.
end: Playing it was difficult and unfair with the ranger system and boring with the puzzles. But thinking back on it after a few days, I love it. id1 boss maps have the same problems, this follows that dupious tradition but makes it so much more epic. I played it again after a week without cheating and the 3 beams was by far the most difficult for me.
s1: The geometry feels 80% quake and 20% something else. Same with the monster placements, and the level progression, and the difficulty, and the general atmosphere. This map feels just as weird as a low gravity map, but weird in a way I cannot put my finger on. This weirdness makes it a great secret level.
I do not like the explode-on-death monster because it slows down game play waiting for them to explode. And I do not like the blue boys because their lasers are too difficult to predict and dodge. I moved far away and killed them slowly, which was a bit boring.
My first play through: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtUzU4eAHQpKz8HGG1ofbhq0CUosPqQ6e
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