The Dig

This map pack came as a surprise, and it took me a while to get around to playing and reviewing it. It contains game modifications, and although other recent releases (Egyptian Myth for one) have had some modified QC, this much new stuff hasn't been seen since my own CoE project.

The Dig starts off with a very small start map. From there, you will progress through two large maps and one boss map, all of which have a diversity of styles. Included are outdoors/night structures (very moody), both medieval and futuristic, as well as areas done in the styles of Quake 2, Hexen 2, and Half-Life. The amount of different themes is a little to jam-packed for two maps - even for a whole episoe, I would reccommend sticking to less themes. If there's a story, all these themes and structures probably fit into it, but I couldn't find one on the author's homepage or in the readme. That and the title might give you something to speculate on.

So how does it play? The Dig has some slightly difficult parts, but overall, the entire package isn't overly challenging. Monsters are mainly modified grunts (decent new skins), with different weapons, the deadliest of the bunch toting a rocket launcher. You'd never expect it from these guys, whom every Quake player is used to mowing down, but several hits from these fellows and you'll be meat. They never come too many at once, and there's almost always somewhere to retreat, if you're quick enough. There are some puzzles, some might make you stop for a second and figure them out, but they were done decently so even the most thick-headed Quake players won't get frustrated. Throu most of the Dig, the new entities seemed like merely something to gawk at, but I was quite impressed with the use of new effects at the end.

I ran into several difficulties when playing this, mainly GLQuake screwups, getting stuck in the floors, and video problems. But assuming you don't run into the problems I did, and you're ready to give something quite different a try, you should enjoy this.

The original zip didn't work, and the levels have texture mismatch problems (I couldn't continue from the 2nd to 3rd level without it crashing and had to do it from the console) but if you don't mind a few problems, then these levels are really good. I was quite impressed by the new enemies and gameplay, though there could have been a better end battle. Also the four levels could probably have been squeezed into one huge level. Very professional level design too, especially the terrain. And the new textures help to make it look fresh. I look forward to more from this author, though I hope it's not going to be another 2 years away.