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16/12/99: QII: Oblivion Review / Preview, Part 1
Update - 6/6/00:
6 months on, it seems very unlikely Oblivion will ever be released for public download. Therefore the only way to obtain it would be by back-ordering the issue of PC Gamer it came with, as detailed in the introduction.
Summary:
Good points:
> Impressive textures - rocks and sky are fantastic.
> Some great architecture, esp. in outdoor areas.
> Solid, well balanced gameplay.
> Some new weapons and items are cool.
> Neat, very fitting, spider monster.
> Cutscenes, voices and novelty features add entertainment.
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Bad points:
> Last unit is severely buggy and incomplete.
> A few Id textured maps can look and be quite boring.
> Often maps do not live up to their implied purpose.
> Some new weapons are useless.
> Most monsters needed better skins and Quake II styles.
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Introduction:
The Oblivion mission pack for Quake 2, an unofficial and indeed free add-on pack, was exclusively released on the cover CD of the Christmas 1999 issue
(# 77) of PC Gamer magazine in the UK. The team who made it,
Lethargy Software, will be releasing the pack for general download in the future, however the pack does require
some tweaking and bug-fixes, and this will be done before an internet release. Hence this exclusive review of this pack is perhaps more of a preview, as some aspects may be changed and
fixed. Nevertheless, this site is the first place you'll find out how worthwhile it is. Read on...
Beginnings and background:
The mission pack installed easily from a 45 meg zip. The manual comes in the form of a lengthy text which details all new enemy and items
(bar one), as well as setting the scene in a basic story: The mission pack takes place, I assume, in a Strogg base set on Earth, possibly before the counter-attack of
Q2 itself. The Strogg are continuing with their humanity devouring assault, using "Harvester" ships to transport captives to a battlestation called "Behemoth". Your task is to infiltrate
their beach-head base, stowaway aboard a ship, and presumably destroy Behemoth itself. The means to complete this mission is fairly standard: call in air strikes, pollute water supplies, collect
power cubes, as well as the usual switch pressing and killing lots of things malarkey.
Bugs:
Unfortunately, the bugs are prominent enough to warrant highlighting. I suspect the pack was rushed out for PC Gamer, as there are some "show stopper" bugs that repeatedly
crash maps in the Space unit, making a couple of the levels barely playable. Here's the full list of bugs I found: Red keycard door in the third Communications map won't open. Explosive
barrels and crates above the captured prisoners in the first Space map cause game to crash. In the same map, killing some monsters, including an Iron Maiden and a Gunner, causes the
game to crash. In the third space map, exiting at the bottom arena causes the game to crash, and the transfer from the cutscene is buggy. In the fourth Space map, there is an indestructible
Deatomiser monster who shoots you from the floor in the first room. Needless to say some of these are severely detrimental bugs, and this review is somewhat based on the team fixing them
before the public download release.
 
The maps and units:
The mission pack is based around a central "hub" map, with 4 offshoot units that comprise various parts of the mission. Firstly, a 4 map Communications unit, then a
5 map Water Treatment unit, then a 5 map Barracks unit, finally, a 5 map Ship/Space unit - at the end of this unit, you are left with a teaser for the final boss map, which will be made
available for download at the Lethargy site, presumably when the entire pack is downloadable. You complete
each unit and it's mission seperately, then return to the hub (which is subtly different each time), before moving onto the next unit.
The style, and quality of the maps varies with the their unit: Communications has comparatively plain, sparse maps in an Id style, Water Treatment has more complex and
impressive maps with some great designs, Barracks has some great maps with impressive outdoor sections, though some plain sections inside, and Space has simpler maps, but with a strong
style and increasingly good architecture. A noticable flaw is that some units do not live up to their implied purpose: Water Treatment is fine, full of pipes, pumps and, indeed, water. But
Communications, despite some satellite dishes and computers, mostly has empty areas with no indication that you are in a communications center. Barracks also fails to live up to initial
promise: aside from a few Gunners asleep in stasis, it simply isn't a barracks. Both of these omissions are unfortunate, as both those themes have strong images and ideas that could have
been used, and their lack reduces the pack's impact. Space does have a tasteful, spacey atmosphere, but again the map designs would be better with more purpose.
Architecture and textures:
Architecture is generally very good, but it varies from unit to unit. At it's best, it combines splendid and fairly natural looking outdoor sections, with impressive Strogg structures
and stylish, detailed interior sections. Barracks and Water Treatment are the best units, they have consistently good use of angles, great building fronts in canyons and courtyards, distinctive
hexagonal corridors, plenty of attractive if arbitrary structures and some cool ruined sections. There are some plainer sections that lack good designs, but overall these units are very pleasing.
Communications is less impressive, room designs are often very simple, structures and details are much sparser, though they do improve later in the unit, and the style is derivative of Id's Jail
maps. There are some nice arches and a few better designed areas, this unit is good overall, but not comparable to the rest. Space has a strong theme, with nicely subdued lighting and
ambient hums contributing to the theme, but the architecture is initially rather plain. However, it gets better, and the main Behemoth map has a really nice use of angles and hexagonal lights
that give it plenty of style, as well as better structures.
Textures are very important in this pack, as except for Communications, the maps are almost entirely clad in impressive custom textures. There's lots of grey and brown rusty
textures, rivetted panel textures, grilles, pipes, ribbing and other such detail textures. Most are very professional, very good, and superior to Id textures, they really give the pack a strong style.
Best of all are the rock textures and the sky backdrop - these are fantastic, almost photo-realistic in a blurry Q2 engined
type of way. The effect of cliffs that fade from a lichenous grey to a sunbleached sandstone, muddy conglomerate rock walls, and the mountainous backdrop on the common outdoor areas
should not be underestimated - and sadly the Communications unit looks comparatively bland in just Id textures. On the downside, the Water Treatment textures are a bit scruffy and look
confusing when used over large areas, more refinement was needed. Also there are some surprising texture misalignments, these probably won't stand out playing the unit, but they are there.
 
Lighting, sounds and effects:
Lighting is usually good and in keeping with the map's style. It's best in the outdoor sections, with brilliant sunlight, and the gloomier indoor areas, such as the orange tinged
Space maps. It all seems sourced well, without any obvious errors. But there are a few sections in some maps where coloured lighting is used too strongly. Not hideously used, and only in
small patches, but just some unnecessarily lurid colours compared with the better, more restrained lighting elsewhere. This doesn't detract much from the pack as overall the lighting is
generally done well.
Sounds are a bit problematic. Firstly, the good stuff: ambient sounds are generally good, sometimes excellent. Water Treatment with it's eerie natural sounds, and Space with it's
ominous hums, are particularly good. Voices are occasionally used, for effect and for mission guidance, and are thankfully clear and intelligible. The new items have their own sound effects,
there are fine. However, the new monsters sounds are copied and swapped around from other monsters, which is slovenly and spoils their effect. Sounds give new monsters distinctiveness,
and merely recycling sounds fails to do that. Annoyingly, new sounds have been included for the shotgun and machinegun - pointless as the current sounds are perfectly adequate. It's stupid
to create sounds for items that already have them, but not for new monsters that need them.
Effects are limited to new weapons effects and liquid effects. The new weapons have their own effects, using simple combinations of particles and transparent projectiles.
These are fine, they suit the weapon's purpose, though nothing special. The effect of one weapon that disintegrates enemy when they die is most appealing, again a simple particle effect,
but a cool one. There are some new liquids, most of which are nice enough, though a couple don't quite work. However, one liquid effect that is used for a forcefield, spartan streaks of blue
on a transparent background, is very effective, the most impressive liquid effect I've seen in Q2. This could have been used more often with different colours and styles, as it's definitely
eye-catching.
Progression, exploration and secrets:
Progression through the units is sometimes interesting and original, but sometimes typically unimaginative. Goals are the normal find keys, press switches, turn off lasers stuff. All
very standard and unexceptional, though sometimes it can be tricky when you have to shoot power conduits and controls. However, this is spiced up in a couple of ways: Firstly, changing
missions, which is always more interesting - you get given a goal, try it, it fails, and you have to do something much more complex. Again the goals you are left with are normal Q2 ones, but the
way you are unexpectedly forced into them keeps the motivation higher. Secondly, there are some cutscene effects used. These are simple, usually just different camera shots of some
scenes, but they definitely add interest to the pack, and occasionally some amusement, I would have liked to see some more of them used as it's a nice touch.
Other aspects are a bit weak: When back-tracking (as is common, there are a lot of doors unexpectedly opening behind you), monster reinforcements are rarely used to keep
the pace high. Some maps do have significant route choices for exploration, which is good, but many can be very linear. Secrets are okay, with some neat, exploratory secrets outdoors, and a
few complex secrets inside, but perhaps too many "hole in the wall" secrets that aren't so interesting to find.
Forward to Part 2: new items, new monsters, gameplay, balance... > > >
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