Single player Quake? The Horror! Review

Single player Quake? The Horror!

What? Your telling me someone actually put some thought into single player Quake? Yes, that’s right! Don’t have a modem? Bored with Quake’s built-in single player (non)experience? Well, Mission Packs Number 1 and 2 are your answer! Brought to you by the masterminds at Ritual Entertainment (formerly Hipnotic Interactive) and Rogue Entertainment, you’re sure to have entertainment times 2!

First off I’ll spill the

beans on Mission Pack No. 1. The guys at Ritual must have had a stoke

of genius: take a cool new technology (Quake) and work on single player

levels for more than 5 minutes! (next time id, don’t throw together a game under

a multi-player shell) Everyone is wondering what’s new, right? Well besides

the awesomely designed levels, Mission Pack 1 gives you three new weapons. The

proximity mine launcher fires off a motion-sensitive mine that clings to walls

and ceilings (note to self: fun, fun, fun, for deathmatch!) The laser cannon

(ooh, innovative name!) emits a series of laser blasts that disintegrates what

ever you hit. Finally you have Thor’s war hammer, Mjolnir. When smashed on the

floor this bad boy sends lightning all over the place. While Ritual was adding

all these new weapons in, they decided to throw in some new power-ups too. The

Horn of Conjuring brings up a random creature to protect you (now the Shambler

is on my side!), while using the Empathy shield, anyone who hits you has the

damage split between you and them, and the wetsuit, well damn, it’s a freaking

wetsuit! Creatures? You want creatures? Mission Pack No. 1’s got ’em in the

form of the Gremlin, a creature that travels in packs and steals your weapon,

and the Centroid, an armor-plated scorpion that shoots nails. What does it all

boil down to? Mission Pack No. 1 is loads of fun, and actually gives you a reason

to play Quake cooperatively with friends!

Well, after seeing Mission

Pack No. 1 I’ll have to be honest, it was so cool that I don’t think anything

that came after could stand up to it. When I first played Mission Pack No. 2,

I thought it was a lot better than Quake, but I just can’t say I liked

it better than Pack No. 1. The new weapons, lava nails, multi grenades,

multi rockets, and plasma cells are all self-explanatory and not exactly what

I would call innovative. The anti-gravity belt and shield power-ups aren’t too

exciting either. Fortunately, the levels are still really well designed, and

Mission Pack No. 2 has something Pack No. 1 lacked, Capture the

Flag. This multi-player-only game is pretty famous in Quake terms and is probably

played equally (or more) than normal Quake deathmatch itself. The new enemies

are all here in the form of Phantom Swordsmen, a flying sword that slashes at

you, Electric Eels, Statues that come alive, Multi-Grenade Ogres, Wraths, which

are basically flying demons, and the Overlord, who fires heat-seeking energy

balls. If you want even more single player Quake and/or are really into Capture

the Flag, you should check out Mission Pack No. 2.