Well this is certainly a fairly unique storyline: Having foolishly stepped into a virtual reality dooberie called 'Dreamscape' it goes wrong, creates a Strogg filled nightmare and proceeds to set about killing you. Well you have to admit it makes a pleasant change from shutting down (not very) secret Strogg facilities. Another thing the plot does justify well is the constantly teleporting in monsters. When this first happened I thought it would get annoying pretty quickly, but it actually adds to the tension no end. After a while you really begin to dread hearing the noise of something arriving and start fumbling for a weapon while searching for something to hide behind. It's good stuff. It also introduces a new threat to the level in the fact that you can get telefragged by something arriving fairly often if you're unlucky (just save regularly and it's fine).

Upon loading it, the first thing that strikes you about the level is the sheer number of crates it contains. Now if a levels' storyline revolves around it being a warehouse then crates are fair enough and perhaps even a necessity. But if the storyline revolves around it being a virtual reality simulator where absolutely anything, real or imagined, can be created, why stick with crates? The author could have gone for floating space dogs with beanie hats, or giant macaroons, or Elvis impersonating Molemen, or, or.... Hmm, perhaps crates were a good idea after all.

Cratey goodness aside, this level does look pretty damn good. The combination of some reasonably complex design work with some fantastic lighting works well. What I particularly liked was the way the author has used contrasting colours in the lighting, but has done it subtly enough that you just get the overall impression instead of going "Aaiiee! Green, orange and purple together? My eyes!" The fact that some of the lighting has no visible source is a minor quibble and so I'm not even going to mention it. Apart from then I mean. Nevermind.

There's something like 150 monsters spread out over the course of the two levels (the second of which is pretty much a boss fight), and most of them seem to have been modified in some way. These modifications range from the slightly surprising (the first time a Brain grabs you with its' extra long tentacles) to the frankly terrifying (the new Gladiators with their one hit one kill, no matter how much health you have, weapon). So with this many bad guys moving around and you trying to remember how they've been tweaked, there's certainly enough combat to satisfy anybody (unless your name is 'Horatio Neverbloodysatisfiednomatterhowmanymonstersthereare' I suppose. But that's just plain silly, I mean who calls their kid Horatio?). The only slight let down in the combat stakes is the fact that the last fight against the rabbit headed boss is more of a trial of patience rather than an exciting battle to the death. Y'see because there isn't much in the way of health in his area you really can't afford to be hit by his BFG. As a result the fight rapidly boils down to nipping out from behind a pillar, pinging him (it?) with the Railgun and then hiding again. Repeat until bored. But as I said, other than that the combat is all good.

Weapons wise things are a little.... odd. Not bad, just odd. It's not so much the fact that you pick up almost all the weapons (bar the BFG and Chaingun and that might just be because I couldn't find them), it's the amount of ammo you find. Like most people, when I'm playing a level I watch my ammo counts and avoid using any weapons that drop too low. However while playing this level I watched my ammo counts and avoided using any weapon that wasn't on 100% maximum ammo at the time. There's ammo absolutely everywhere. No really, I mean everywhere. Some of the trickiest bits were trying to avoid picking up the big box of railgun slugs in the middle of a fight because it would be a waste! Sheesh!

As well as slightly excessive ammunition, the other interesting thing about the weapons is the inclusion of two of the guns from one of the Quake 2 addons (I forget which one exactly, possibly the good one. Can't remember). Anyway, although you're laden down with such a ridiculous amount of firepower the new guns are completely unnecessary, it still makes a nice change to have them.

All in all Machine Reborn is good stuff. It packs enough combat and surprises into the pair of bsps to keep you going for quite a while, looks good and contains plenty of new stuff to poke. As a result I definitely recommend this to all you Q2 fans out there looking for some hot action (or anyone looking for a level with plenty of combat. Ho ho!). The other thing that strikes me is that, although I haven't tested it, this seems like it would indeed make a top co-op level. Especially as you'd get to point and laugh when your friend gets telefragged by a new Tank arriving...