The much anticipated release
of Tronyn's partial conversion, Soul Of Evil,
is finally here. What started off as an episode
to follow Phantasmal Garrison and Coven of Ebony,
quickly flourished into a collosal two-episode
Quake adventure with several others joining
in the project.
Inside you'll find two 6-map
episodes with secret maps, a start map and end
map. If you expect to play this in the evening
after a long day at work or school, don't expect
to get any sleep. I enjoyed it so much that
I basically played it all in one sitting, a
good 4-5 hours long.
The story is about a land being
attacked by Quake's evil forces. Unable to fight
themselves, they summon the heroic human we
all know just as he has taken care of the hell-mother
Shub-Niggurath.
You'll battle through swamps,
castles, villages, caves and more. There is
plenty of variety in the level design. The style
is quite old skool with few custom textures
used. Mainly ID, Rogue and Hipnotic with a few
other ID variations. The theme of a fantasy
medieval world is created well with plenty of
detail inside and out. But while the maps are
flowing with good design, there were very few
truly spectacular scenes. Nothing to drop your
jaw.
The layouts are all good, as expected from Tronyn.
Button pressing is abundant. There are plenty
of overlapping paths and backtracking.
My only real complaint about the levels is the
texturing. Some of the texture combinations
are rather odd and don't work very well. Although
you get used to it in-game, that sky pictured
in the screens does not look good! Also personally
I would like to have seen some more custom textures
used. Something to give the levels a more unique
and refreshing view.
The gameplay is even better
than the design. Progression is good, with the
first couple of levels fairly easy and slowly
building up as you collect weaponry. The RL
and LG are not collected until late in the second
episode. An interesting and suitable choice
which forces you to switch between shells and
nails, and practise your accuracy with the GL.
For sure the RL would have made the episode
too easy. Ammunition and health was kept in
good supply. Only a few times I got low on ammo,
but nothing to really worry about. Health and
armor was always where it was needed.
There are a number of new monsters,
some continued on from COE with improvements.
Axeman returns, Grunts and Enforcers shoot nails
but are otherwise the same, and there is a new
class of Hell Knight that has alot more health
and occasionally fires a deadly fireball. I
would have liked him to use the fireball a bit
more often though. The Disciples of the Bane
(originally from COE) also return with two classes
that are fortunately not rediculously difficult
as in COE. The long forgotten dragons in Qtest
are here, and also the COE boss returns. A good
selection alongside the usual Quake monsters.
A number of the monsters have new skins and
sounds. The humans are now Goblins, with suitable
green skins. Alot of fussy players will not
like the skins. Personally I didn't really mind
them, although they do look a little childish
and non-threatening. The Vore, Shambler, Fiend
and Scrag all have new skins too, which were
all interesting but not great. The Disciples
of the Bane and new Scrag skins were quite good
though.
With great level design, combined
with hours of action, Soul of Evil is a must
download.
