Pak Attack: The Spiritworld (2023) [BQTN E186 | PC w/ Ironwail]
3The Spiritworld is zigi and Newhouse's long-awaited pak inspired by Episode 4 from the original Quake campaign. It is very much a modern re-imagining, which becomes especially evident as you get beyond the first few maps.
The first few maps by zigi manage to keep a slightly vanilla feel, including various direct references to the original E4 maps. The moment you advance to Newhouse's first map, however, it becomes very clear that this far exceeds anything seen in vanilla Quake. I found that transition to be quite a rude awakening - it feels like a huge shift in level style between the 3rd and 4th maps.
Several reviewers of this pak recognize the degree of effort and skill that went into designing it, but also admit that it isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. A few said something along the lines of what I felt, which is that the episode gets to feel downright oppressive. Some maps become gargantuan towards the back half (Diyu in particular can feel overwhelming to fully explore), and there are so many traps and deadly ambushes that it can start to wear on the player (I argued at a couple of points that this felt more like SMEJ than E4). I figure this is precisely what the pak was going for, though, so if you're up for it, it does a really good job of it.
If you want to see a modern take on E4 and aren't afraid of large maps and some rude encounters, definitely give The Spiritworld a try. For me it was a worthwhile experience, and the oppressive atmosphere certainly plays a bit more into Quake's supposed "horror" aspect than a lot of paks, but it's definitely not the kind of thing I want to play every weekend.
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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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