This is the sequel to Magic
Lamber: Power of Sewer, a massive nine level
unit. Magic Lamber Forever, released five months
after the original, also has nine great levels.
And I certainly liked this one alot better.
Each level is quite unique in design, with massive
structures such as the monolith Quake symbol
and the lamber processor at the very end. The
rooms can get colossal - my PIII 450, 128mb
Ram, TNT2 computer handled them fine, but some
of you on weaker computers may have trouble.
Huge buttresses and pillars support each room
which range from computer rooms, teleports,
labs, sewers, dungeons or even palaces. One
such level which I thought was particularly
well done was a great palace with mirrors for
floors. Of course Quake2 doesn't support mirrors
and reflections, but Mark did an excellent and
convincing job of making each room look like
a reflection on the floor. Along with that were
mystical sounds to create a very unique and
atmospheric level.
The gameplay was good, with
each level overflowing with enemies. There were
times when it seemed there was an endless supply
of enemies running around the corners. Particularly
with soldiers, who would always attack in huge
packs. There were times when the gameplay got
extremely hard. Such as one situation where
you take on six commanders with no cover. Unfortunetely,
that is much too hard for an average player,
and alot of you might need to cheat past this
fight. Ammunition was only just enough. At times
I felt a little uneasy as the ammo got quite
low, but I was never forced to use the blaster.
Over the last few levels it gets a little easier
as you'll have plenty of rockets and grenades.
But you'll probably want to save your cells
and slugs up for the huge end fight. I won't
ruin it, but it sure was a killer!
Of course, with grand level
design and tough gameplay, you would think this
must be a top release, but unfortunetely it
does have one major flaw - puzzles! There were
times when I had absolutely no idea where or
what I was supposed to do next. Then there were
times when I knew what I was supposed to be
doing, but couldn't figure out how to do it.
There was one time when I couldn't continue
as I couldn't find the security pass. I ended
up 'noclipping' and that wasn't the first time.
There are pure action levels where gameplay
is the focus, then there are levels which contain
puzzles where you need to use your brain to
figure out how to proceed. Magic Lamber Forever
was neither. Objectives simply were not obvious
enough.
Otherwise Magic Lamber Forever
is a great set of levels. It looks like there
may be another part in the series as the nightmare
continues, so I definetely look forward to more.
