Pak Attack: Maps by Markie and more (2012-2023) [BQTN E181 | PC w/ vkQuake/Quakespasm]

Channel:

CnEY

Subscribers:

293

Published on March 11, 2023 12:30:08 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEl__GqW4NY

Game:

Quake (1996)

Duration: 3:32:21

292 views

14

Markie has popped into my stream on a few occasions (including when I played the absolutely mind-boggling Tears of the False God, which he composed the music for), and recently he asked if I've played his maps. I hadn't outside of map jams that I've played, so I sought to remedy that.

I ended up having enough time to throw in a few other assorted maps as well.

00:00 - Reliquary (Markie, 2021)

I was honestly intimidated about trying this pak, because I knew it intentionally pushes the envelope on difficulty. Fortunately, it does so in about as approachable a way as possible, renaming easy to normal, normal to hard, and hard to very hard. So I played on "normal" (skill 0), and it turned out to be pretty reasonable, though still with its fair share of exciting moments. I then went back and played on "hard" (skill 1, what I usually play on), and managed to scrape by, but there was a clearly significant increase in difficulty.

Reliquary includes some interesting tweaks, including axe knockback and double damage (I wonder if this inspired Dwell v2's berserk powerup), a pistol replacement for the starting shotgun with tighter spread, and a triple-barreled shotgun with enough of an uptick in damage to be easily worth the 3-shells-per-shot cost.

At least a couple of folks who reviewed this pak seemed to come down hard on it (or were outright confused by it) because of how it remaps the difficulties, which I think is an unfair assessment - I think Markie did just about everything he could to make it clear (and make the new "Normal" reasonable). I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I expected, although I was pretty awful at finding secrets.

1:14:58 - Slip Tripping (Markie, 2022)

Note: I found out too late that I was not playing the most recent release, which apparently features lit water. Apparently that version is only published on Slipseer (there was no Updates tab calling this out as there usually is); I downloaded from Quaddicted.

This map has an interesting premise - perhaps somewhat similar in spirit to Witch House Mixtape, except with the two dimensions remaining separated. (Incidentally, I think "never a dull moment" summarizes both CZG's and Markie's overall bodies of work pretty well.) I fared a lot better at finding secrets here than in Reliquary.

2:08:18 - The Containment Centre (Markie, 2020)

Unfortunately I haven't played Viscerafest so the reference is lost on me, but this is a neat little map. The beginning seems potentially a bit excessively brutal, as you are immediately greeted with a whole bunch of grunts and enforcers who are upset with you.

2:29:15 - Love Labyrinth (Shadesmaster, 2023)

Shadesmaster was hanging out in chat and reminded me that this map exists, and I had time, so I figured why not? Its aesthetic stands out as rather unusual among Quake maps, though less unusual among Shadesmaster's work in particular.

2:54:12 - Dead Memories (Scampie, 2012)

This map's lore incidentally falls somewhat in the same category as Slip Tripping, though most of the action takes place squarely within a techbase. This map seems extremely solid for 2012; one thing that stood out to me though was a catwalk with an uncanny resemblance to one seen in Dwell D1M1...

Playing this was preparation for playing the new maps in Alkaline 1.2 - all of its new maps are remixes, and this is the only one case I hadn't yet played the original.

3:19:34 - Primum non nocere & Ziggurat Sierpinski (Scampie, 2020)

These are two additional experimental maps by Scampie. Primum non nocere is very interesting aesthetically, and Ziggurat Sierpinski is...pretty much exactly what it says it is.

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For more BQTN (Better Quake Than Never), see details and the full playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfGxDQwmTH6y1mhQzUaCZ6XxXxspG7Z19

This was originally livestreamed. Catch Quake and other FPS playthroughs live on weekends at 8PM US Eastern on YouTube or Twitch! You can find links to both on my site at https://cney.stream/ along with a BQTN page listing all of the Quake paks I've played.

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