Game:

Doom 3 (2004)

Duration: 35:16

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9

Download: http://www.hallowedmod.com/

In the beta version, first level is changed, and three new ones (two playable, one cutscene) were added.

On the first level, terrains were improved - now they are static meshes with vertex blending, which makes them more interesting to look at. Lighting was changed from green to red, and the sky was replaced with Doom3's Hell sky, which, sadly, takes away some of the novelty we felt when the location had green lighting and custom sky.

On the other hand, lighting was improved - now there are carefully placed lights instead of simple Sun+Ambient setup we've seen in the alpha. This step greatly improved the look of the area by adding more variety to it through brightness changes.

As usual, first level's unique point is old-school unexpected destruction of the area that reminds of similar scenes in Hexen. New nice point of interest is added in the beta - broken ladder.

At 5:56 you can catch a glimpse of z-fighting at the ceiling trim.

7:42 - you can't hurt enemies while they're riding the platform, but it doesn't look this way. They should have some shield around them to make it clear.

8:50 - a place where it's possible to get stuck.

Second level is a foggy town. It's a welcome change of scenery from old hellish temple. The layout is done well. It's interesting to explore, and you can't get lost here. Despite simplicity of design, there's enough variety of lighting, building layouts and unique details to give it a good atmosphere.

Stairs at 14:19 have nice shadows that aid the atmosphere.

17:49 - central patch it missing from the arch.

At some points (18:01, 25:14) entities are present in forms of black non-solid boxes.

Battles are very hard. A couple of times I didn't die only thanks to blind luck, due to which the monster suddenly turned around (19:16, 19:35). They were even harder in v2.0. Moving the Arch-Ville to third floor is certainly a welcome change.

19:00 is a very scary moment, because sound of firing BFG shots makes you think there's a Sabaoth nearby.

24:47 - excellent way to direct the player. Door opens after we complete the area, sound and particle draw attention. All these things make one considering jumping in the pit instead of thinking that it's a trap and walking around searching for way to advance.

Third level is like an old dream come true. For years we were waiting for release of Ratty Redemption's Hell map, updates on its development were posted at now non-existent Doom3World forums, but it never happened. But now something similar is finally here - a menacing Hell landscape with blending textures and interesting ruins to explore.

Very intense fights are waiting for us here. Cacodemons and especially Lost Souls can easily push us off the platform.

27:19 - very little time is given to take the ammo and jump back. Tense moment, maybe even too tense.

28:36 - possibly the longest Hell Knight jump caused by attack animation glitch in known history.

29:10 - good thing that this inviting part of the mountain is not a dead end where noclip has to be used. Secret ammo box and way to escape from the Pinky Demon are also nice.

In the end of the map we get into some pretty original situations with monsters that are hard to hit and especially at 33:40 where we have to realize that it's impossible to kill the Revenant and we need to use plasma gun to destroy his missiles instead.

The problem here is that the player might run into the portal thinking "I'll just read the email in the next map", but it's only temporary, it seems, because the next map is coming and it looks pretty promising: https://twitter.com/aphexjh/status/635689720325013504

Overall, it's a very good work. Exciting originality and strong atmosphere of the alpha version are now extended thanks to two more playable levels, and more are coming.

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