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This is not so much a level as it is a curiosity… a bit of Quake nostalgia, if you will. After being trimmed from the original game due to a self-imposed filesize limit, it sat forgotten and unused until released in 2001 by John Romero to commemorate the 5-year anniversary of the release of Quake. This level was meant to be the entrance to the original E2M6 [The Dismal Oubliette], and the first thing the player will notice is that the difficulty level is tuned with the assumption that he is carrying the ammo, weapons and armor accumulated during the previous 5 levels of the episode. Since you start the map with just the shotgun and 25 rounds (unless you use impulse 9), this makes for some extremely difficult fighting in the early going. It may be more prudent to try and dodge enemies where possible rather than clear all of the monsters from the level. However, since it is basically a narrow, winding passage climbing up to a series of ledges, this is quite hard to do, and it is likely the player will have to restart the level many times before he makes it safely to the end. There are some ammo caches which are helpful if they can be reached, as well as some much-needed powerups in the water below (made much easier to find since the level has been recompiled to support GLQuake’s transparent water), and there's even a secret which is highly recommended to get early on... this makes the first few encounters much more survivable. But rest assured that all of your Quake reflexes will be put to the extreme test as you make your way through this level. |
