I thought I'd go back and play
the 1997 Quake TC, Your Path of Destruction.
This TC is probably the largest attempt to bring
to Quake some of the specific elements of its
preddessor, the Doom series. Doom in Quake?
That's right. How does it fare? We shall see...
Your Path of Destruction begins
in the Doom Guy's 'House' where he recieves
a warped telephone call signalling the return
of the hellish space-hordes. He then flies in
his spaceship to another world, shown through
a rather impressive cut-scene, where (things
never go according to plan, do they?) he crash-lands
and is stuck in Doom-world - the only way out
being through.
The first thing you'll notice
is that this really is a conversion. The player's
HUD, the gamespeed, things like that, have all
been altered and doomified. All of the weapons
have been replaced with Doom weapons, and you
won't find a single Quake monster left in the
hordes you'll fight.
There are quite a few levels,
I lost count exactly, but probably around 12-15.
Some are quite small while others are huge.
Most only have 40 or so monsters on hard, though,
so this TC isn't, for the most part, very hard.
About half are remakes of levels from Doom 1
and Doom II - the first map from each game,
plus such fun Doom II maps as 'Dead Simple'
and 'Barrels 'o' Fun.' They also included 'The
Suburbs' from Doom II, which was the wrong thing
to do. At least they didn't include 'Tricks
& Traps!'
The entire TC was done basically
by two people, so its lack of proffessionalism
is forgivable. There is some quite polished
content, such as the plasma gun (later used
in other modes) and some of the monsters such
as the Hell Baron and the Imps. Other monsters
are poorly done (Demons, army grunts) however.
The standard of quality is really all over the
place. There are also some bugs, including an
extremely annoying one where if you are killed,
your screen will take a while to fade back to
normal (from red). As well sometimes the weapons
models don't show, and sometimes monsters end
up on noclip mode somehow. Some annoyances but
no show-stoppers.
Leaps and bounds have been
made in level design since 1997, so judging
these maps by current standards will be harsh.
The maps are really simple and oversized, with
a rather bland choice of texturing in almost
every case and lighting that is far too flat
and symmetrical. As well, certain maps such
as the Suburbs do *not* port well to Quake -
Quake is about complex, multileveled layouts
and architecture, not huge plain outdoor areas.
Ugh.There are a few maps that look pretty cool
- the first proper map for instance, an original
map called 'Cloning Facility' is really rather
well-done, with moody lighting (lots of different
styles) being the highlight. However this map
also suffers from really bad texture choice
and alignment. As well the gameflow realy could
have used work; when you push a button there
is no message, sound, or any hint of any sort
as to what the hell you've just done. Still
though this map was quite fun to play and is
probably the best in the pack.
Other maps are a mix of similar
quality and worse quality. The original ones
are for the most part not very well done, while
of the converted maps, half are decent while
half didn't port well at all. Such maps as 'The
Hangar' and 'Dead Simple' turned out well, but
they were the exception rather than the rule.
Despite some of the monsters
being lackluster (their models and behaviour,
mainly), this TC's strength is combat. YPOD
manages to thrown many many Doom monsters at
the player, and with Doom weapons this can get
to be really enjoyable. Some of the weapons
are really powerful - the chaingun is almost
ridiculous, makes Q2's chaingun seem like a
nerf toy - while others are alright (shotgun,
Rocket Launcher which is damned fun to use)
and the double shotgun is even slightly underpowered.
A couple of maps feature end-boss creatures
(Mastermind and Cyberdemon) so you're not going
to be able to rush around slaughtering *everywhere.*
The last combat map is a real dissapointment
though in that you start with nothing and within
10 virtual feet of you are these two end bosses.
You have to run around hitting buttons to bring
down elevators which have items on top - not
my idea of a good time.
YPOD has some serious flaws
and proffessionalism issues, but it's safe to
say that if you liked Doom, you will probably
find this a good diversion.
