First time I've played Q1 was like 1.5 years ago and I had rather good feelings about the game, tho my skill wasn't so good or I wasn't really proud of myself after completing the whole game with the expansions on Normal. I hated the Ogres, I hated the Spawns (note, still hate them), I didn't like the Double-Barrel Shotgun, so I had quite some trouble with specific levels or whole expansions (YES, DoE, I'm talking about you). Needless to say that after attempting the Nightmare difficulty in each expansion, I've just surrendered to the Quake's forces...
However, not so long ago, Dawn of the Machine dropped and I liked the Dimension of the Machine, those huge levels, it was beautiful, so I was hyped and immediately downloaded the game back to try it out. It was so much fun
[It was perfect, perfect, down to the last minute detail](
I liked the idea of HP and ammo reserves being halved, so you need to find backpacks or Ranger's heads in order to increase it, I've never explored Quake levels like this. New energy-gun was also cool, even tho I suddenly killed myself with it a few times (didn't know that ammo ricochettes, find out the hard way). The challenge of the new enemies was as well good - those Deathknights or Enforcer, which can turn into Fiends or Knights turning into Zombies - never before I've switched arms so fast. New Shamblers look amazing, however I think they have double the HP of the usual furry one - often I was left with no Nailgun/Thunderbolt ammo after encountering one of them. New Ogres are just morons xDD
[Skybox is absolutely beautiful](
The level-design perfected everything about the base game, in my opinion. Now quad damage are more rare, however you get them specifically when you REALLY NEED IT. No levels with Shamblers in the open, so you don't have the column to dodge his lightning attack, finally. No Ogre spam, almost no Spawns. Levels are big and there is always something to find, either an upgrade or a some ammo/armor, that you will definitely need. I liked ALMOST all of them, my favourites are Matriarch of Decay, Of Shattered Minds, Veils of the Old Ones and the Haunted Tower from the secret ones (those teleports are absolutely dope).
I hated the Nightmare Machine during my 1st playthrough tho. That acid pits, platforming and one specific section, where the padding goes down every 3 seconds - I just didn't hear the timer because of the intense shooting. Mist of Torment was a good one, but the brightness, I couldn't see anything. That's the problem with some of the places in the game - even with brightness at 20 it's dark like at night
[That's what happens, when you forgot to turn down the brightness](
On the positive note, I finally learned how to play the game not like a brain-dead raccoon - how to make DeathKnights use only their melee attacks, while destroying them with a Super Shotgun, how to side-step Ogre's grenades and kite him into the melee attack, how to dodge Shambler's lightning attack. Normal was a fun experience. I liked the expansion so much, that I've decided to give Nightmare a shot.
It was much easier than I thought. I haven't seen lots of differences from the Normal difficulty tho - 215 enemies or 255, who cares? Biggest difference was lack of Quad Damage on the first level (or maybe I have dementia and couldn't find it) and... the speed of Vore's projectiles. Even so, challenge was very fair, only final boss was tougher this time. The placement of ammo backpacks, armor or Quad Damage was perfect, I've never ran out of rockets or was low on shells.
I think I had 130 max HP and for the ammo 150 shells, 210 bolts, 100 rockets and 150 cells in my possession during the last level, but I'm 150% sure I've missed one or two of backpacks/health upgrades. I missed the Crooked Village level as well.
All in all, expansion is 11/10, amazing experience, both in terms of actual gameplay and self-fulfilment as now I can finally say with the pride that I've beated Quake's expansion on the Nightmare difficulty! Cheers everyone!
Lore-spoiler question ahead:
Spoiler
What was that "You feel something feed on your gratitude..." pop-up on Matriarch of Decay level about? I've replayed it on Nightmare without picking up power-ups as they weren't really needed and met Shub in the lower section of the map with Berserk, Quad and Pentagram:!!1). During the level, we are tasked with killing the "ungrateful ones", 3 Vores or so. As something "feeds on our gratitude", does it mean that one can become Vore if taken too much power-ups?!!2). Is it the same Shub we fought in the 1st game? Or it's just a made-up illusion by the Nightmare Machine?AndriyProg - ET pubs
See you on rng-et-1.
