The Dark Mod FM Review: Winter Harvest

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): Shadowhide
Version: 1.1
Date released: 2011-05-08
Other info: Seasons Contest ‘11 entry
Theme: Builder/Haunted/Pagan

From what I’ve learned, Shadowhide is well known for putting others down when it comes to their FMs, and was criticised for having not churned out an FM himself. So he took to doing just that, and even he will admit – it failed miserably.

The layout isn’t all that good, and it took me a while, and with increased brightness and gamma settings, to find my way out of the first part of the initial map. In fact the lighting isn’t very good throughout the map – you have to rely on moonlight to get from place to place, or try and get a bead on the willow ‘o the wisp by the cemetery.

The atmosphere is sort of spooky, but the use of sound is dreadful. One sound is used over and over (which was supposed to be wind blowing through the trees) which made the spoken dialogue by characters barely audible. One good thing in this mission – and it was spoilt for the most part by some shoddy audio direction.

All the while I was expecting to come across a pagan or some animal of sorts in the forest, but that was a missed opportunity as well, as it is completely devoid of life apart from the two human characters – and you can’t even bump them off for fun seeing as you’ll fail a mission objective (“don’t hurt ever your friendlies”, or something to that effect). There could have been more care with spelling and grammar in some cases. I assume SH’s first language isn’t English. If it is, I pity him immensely.

The plot is a little thin, and it was hard to know what to do in some cases, as scripted sequences are badly programmed – such as when the haunt in the chapel (spoiler) is supposed to speak to you and tell you what to do next. If you don’t see it, then you’re on your own in figuring out the next part of the puzzle.

Basically you have to navigate your way around the map, open this, get this key, go here, put that object here before being inexplicably teleported somewhere else, and then another place. It’s too easy to get what you’re looking for in the first room of the stronghold, and too easy to escape. But I will say that this last place has some good ideas. The design is better, and there is more spoken dialogue without the annoying ambient noises getting in the way. There’s a glimpse of this FM’s potential – what could have been. There just aren't enough Builders or guards around the place, and the final boss battle is pathetic! Way too easy, or impossible to get past in some cases because the blighter took to hiding behind a wall.

Then getting back to the forest, once the curse of everlasting winter has been lifted, which was part of the storyline (this is a Seasons Content entry if you hadn’t noticed by now) it’s really an eyesore to see the forest in daylight. The Doom 3 engine wasn’t meant to handle this sort of thing, evidently. Another example is “Reap What You Sow” – this FM also looks pretty poor because it was set in the day. Textures look awful, the lighting is non-existent. Daytime missions don’t work in TDM, as far as I’m concerned.

This mission doesn’t play like you’d expect a TDM mission to. It’s more of an adventure, collecting inventory items and trading them for others. What could be done to save this FM in version 2.0 (which is actually out now at the time of writing this)? More AI characters, even creatures in the forest, some haunts in the cathedral, and just more of a challenge, overall. But I have come to the conclusion that although “Winter Harvest” might have had potential; promise at some points, it ended up being the worst TDM mission I’ve played so far to date. I’m not attacking the author personally, and I’m trying to remain unbiased, but I have to review this FM for what it is, and it’s not good. And that’s probably an understatement.

Pros:

+ Spoken dialogue

+ Level design isn’t too bad in some places

Cons:

- Terrible lighting and textures in the last daytime part of the mission

- Barely any challenge at all

- Confusing

FM score: 3/10

New TDM FMs released: Old Habits & WS1: In the North

Two new FMs were released for The Dark Mod this month. One of them is Old Habits, created by Obsttorte. The other one is of particular interest to me and is called WS1: In the North. WS stands for William Steele. This is the name of the protagonist, no doubt, and this is part 1 in a series of missions, much like Thomas Porter (Sotha) and Farrell (Thief’s Den).

I’ve seen William Steele on the list of upcoming missions for TDM for some time and am glad that the first one has finally been finished and put up for download.

You can get them both here in the missions section, as well as many more.

Two new TDM FMs

It’s been months, but finally there are two new TDM fan missions on TDM’s website available for download. One of these is Deceptive Shadows and the other Vengeance for a Thief.

Deceptive Shadows was developed by ShadowHide, who so far has the rather poor mission called “Winter Harvest” under his belt. It’s about 22 MB to download and sounds like it might be worth a try. It couldn’t be much worse than the aforementioned FM anyway. The short write-up provided by the author seems to indicate that it involves a Builder swiping the main character with a hammer.

Vengeance for a Thief is the other one, created by Sir Taffsalot. He collaborated with Bikerdude on “Let Sleeping Thieves Lie”. This one sounds as though it might be interesting as the player is thrown in jail and must escape. Now there are only really two or three jail-themed missions in the entire Thief series. Cragscleft in Thief: The Dark Project, Shoalsgate Station in Thief II: The Metal Age, and one that actually had Garrett in a cell, and that was Pavelock Prison in Thief: Deadly Shadows. The only FM for TDM I can think of that had a person start off in a jail cell behind bars would be Betrayal by FieldMedic.

TDM FM Review: The Caduceus of St. Alban

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): Bikerdude
Version Reviewed: 1.5.5
Date released: 2010-08-26
Other info: Summer Vertical Contest ‘10 entry
Theme: Builder

Bikerdude is likely the most prolific mapper when it comes to TDM. He’s made the most FMs out of all the authors that have churned out a mission in the last near three years since TDM’s original release. And while I wasn’t a fan of his FMs originally, I have since grown to like them.

Under the tutelage of Melan, he’s learned more than a few tricks, and just like his mentor, prefers to design city-based FMs, like “Business as Usual” or the excellent “St. Alban’s Cathedral”, with plenty to explore.

The Caduceus of St. Alban is the follow up to the aforementioned FM, and the scale with this one is somewhat smaller, but there’s no shirking when it comes to design. Caduceus was entered into the Vertical Contest of 2012, and it shows: great big spires that reach the sky, with plenty to climb, such as vines and pipes. It’s a veritable playground – on the outside anyway, with some fantastic atmospheric effects such as a low lying fog that hugs the ground.

On the inside there’s stairwells and lifts that take you to the several floors, which are broken up by the three or four spires – it can get confusing traversing from one to the other at first.

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But Caduceus isn’t without its faults. For one, combing through the TDM forum thread dedicated to this FM, you would find that there are some bugs in the mission, such as unpickable doors that need a key, that actually can be picked in the first place. Entering the “spider caves” can leave you stuck. It’s very hard to get out once you’re down there, and you might be forced to cheat by noclipping out of there. Another minor thing here, but more care could have been used with spelling with some of the items you acquire in the mission. “Armoury” (or “armory” if you speak yank) – well this mission yielded yet a third way to spell or misspell this word: “amory”. And “quarters” was misspelled as well. Things I don’t like to see.

Personally I think the design, apart from getting a bit lost in the spires, is excellent – particularly on the basement levels where you’ll find the armoury. The layout is great, smoothly travelling from lifts to stairs, through dark, torch-lit corridors. Mind that your brightness is set high enough though, otherwise you might miss a few doors down there. It’s poorly lit, but what would you expect in a place like this? It fits. But seriously, lighting could have been a bit better down in the dungeon and lower levels.

Climbing up the pipe to the top where the water tower is (one of the alternate ways up to this level) was thrilling, but once I got there, to the top, I was a little disappointed, being greeted with both the water tower and the bell tower, which were mainly for decorative purposes and didn’t serve much purpose as far as I could tell. Not that it’s a bad thing. But the view from up there was. There was just a background, much like you would have expected to see in a title like Half-Life or Quake II (I suspect Bikerdude is influenced by such games with a more modern, industrial feel, when I look at other maps such as Yan’s Test – a conversion of a Quake 4 multiplayer map), and it betrayed that former sense of awe I had on the lower levels, as it showed a disconnectedness; a floating island in the middle of nowhere. I understand this was probably to prevent a performance hit, as there are all ready FPS drops in the mission as it is, so it’s probably more of a design choice.

Pros:

+ Awesome level design, layout

+ Plenty of interactivity with the environment (vines, pipes to climb)

Cons:

- Needed more proof reading, beta testing

FM score: 8.6/10

The Dark Mod FM Review: The Rift

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): Baddcogg
Date released: 2010-08-15
Other info: Summer Vertical Contest ‘10 entry
Theme: Haunted/Underground

Starting off, this seems like just another “break in to a mansion and case the joint” kind of mission. You collect your thieving gear and get ready to exit via the window when you hear and feel a tremendous rumble coming from the earth.

As you drop down on to the street below, objectives change: forget going to some old doffer’s mansion – let’s investigate that hole in the ground instead. If you’re interested, you can still nip across the road and frob a few coins and gems from a table set outside some unpickable doors – this may or may not be the mansion you were going to visit this night. You’ll have to mind the guards and Builder along the way though.

So getting back to the rift that opened up after the earthquake: dropping down a bit, you’ll immediately notice that this must be a vertical contest 2010 entry. But instead of opting for the usual tower-based mission, Baddcogg went for an underground mission instead – a different way of looking at things, and it still counts, technically. You end up in some abandoned mines which have been sealed off for goodness knows how long, and it’s inhabited by bloody spiders. The big ones are especially brutish; the smaller ones don’t seem to be textured at all, they just appear grey – I don’t know if this is just on my PC, but I recall seeing some screenshots long ago that showed the same thing. In any case, spiders rarely crop up in TDM FMs, so it’s not a bad thing to see them here. You’re better off hacking them with your sword, although the big ones you might want to snipe with a couple of broadhead arrows.

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A bit farther down and you go beyond the mines and in to something akin to The Lost City from Thief: The Dark Project, except this is scaled down a bunch. It reminds me not only of Thief, but the better bits of Dark Messiah of Might And Magic as well. Within the building’s walls there’s a nice secret area or two to be found, and if you were worried at some point about not finding enough gems or gold to finish the mission, worry no more, for it is all here for you.

This mission isn’t easy to ghost. A lot of the light sources are inextinguishable, like crystals or mushrooms. Flaming zombies are less likely to notice that they’ve been doused than say, a guard with a torch, thankfully. The two occasions that I’ve played this mission, I ended up running for my life from the entry to the underground building, up the stairs and out again. I found being spotted by the zombies and spiders was therefore too common. The mission isn’t hard, but don’t expect to get a perfect stealth score without a lot of trial and error or patience. This is more Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider than your typical sneaking mission.

I was a bit disappointed not to find any belchers (you know what they’re really called). I was sure as I descended into the depths that I heard sounds that resembled these beasts. These ominous sounds did add a bit to the atmosphere and made me sit on the edge of my seat for a bit.

There are also some bugs – one game-breaking one that I should mention as well. After retreating from the mines on my first playthrough, I got back to the starting area and the mission didn’t end. I had to restart, tried a higher difficulty level, and got through. The only thing I did differently apart from changing the difficulty, was discover the one secret area.

Apart from all this, the mission’s not too bad. A bit on the linear side if not small, though, and involves simple backtracking to get out again. Perhaps a cave-in and having to find another route out would have been in order to make it a tad more interesting or challenging.

Pros:

+ Something a little different in theme.

Cons:

- Bugs

- Linear gameplay, and backtracking.

FM score: 7/10

The Dark Mod FM Review: Alberic’s Curse

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): Bikerdude
Version: 1.0
Date released: 2011-06-19
Other info: Seasons Contest ‘11 entry
Theme: Builder/Haunted

As soon as you see the name of this FM, you can’t help but know right away that there’s going to be some ghosties in here. This idea is reinforced once you read through the mission briefing. “Alberic’s Curse” is an homage to the original FM for Thief II: The Metal Age, called “Cathedral Of The Damned”. Bikerdude is no stranger to doing this sort of thing, as he’s also converted maps by other authors into TDM maps (with the original authors’ permission, of course), such as “Yan’s Test”. What I am surprised at is that this latest offering from said author could be classified as a departure of sorts, though not too vast, from his usual theme when it comes to TDM FMs. Either that or he’s added more atmosphere and life (no pun intended) into this FM.

I couldn’t help but smile a little as I started the mission. You’re greeted by a clichéd scene of a camp site off the beaten path – a gravel road that leads to Bridgeport. You walk over next to the fire and pick up the red book, giving it a bit of a read, only to find that once the semi-seriousness has ended, Bikerdude’s trademark sense of humour is displayed as he comically urges you to “get on with it” – a bit out of place in any TDM mission, let alone this one. Nevertheless.

At first, the way forward isn’t all that clear. Both sides are blocked off by various obstacles, and if you were to attempt to travel along the road to Bridgeport, you’d hit an invisible wall. But once you fumble along the wall and find the hole (Oh, do keep quiet!), you’re all set.

 

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Inside the grounds, there’s few things besides the cathedral to see, such as the cemetery. But there is a plethora of a ways to gain access to the cathedral itself. You could opt to climb up somehow on to the roof of the ground floor and enter through a door, or you could try for a trap door, or you could take the stealthy way in and enter through the underground tunnel into the catacombs below. Here you’ll find spiders – most of them are harmless, although the bigger ones you might want to take out with a broadhead arrow. There are zombies that litter the place, lying all over the floors of the cobweb-covered catacombs – as long as you don’t step on them you should be fine.

Inside the cathedral itself however you will come across several patrolling haunts. This place is practically devoid of  human presence unless you count the two deceased robbers who came before you and paid the price for their treachery.

Careful attention to detail and polish is noticeable, with cobwebs, dust particles and so on to be found. More emphasis on the Autumn theme could have been made, but there was some effort put in. One gripe I have with AC is the music and ambience. I don’t like how when in the cathedral, there are overlapping sound tracks, and the main one is not to my liking. It feels out of place, and there is unnecessary urgency and loudness in it. It’s a mess.

It’s not too hard to complete the main objectives for this FM, and it’s quite easily “ghostable” – a term which means to go through a level without raising any alarms and preferably obtaining a perfect stealth score, which would be 0.

Pros:

+ Great atmosphere, effects, textures.

Cons:

- Overlapping music/ambient tracks is a bit messy.

- Humour is misplaced.

FM score: 8.7/10

TDM FM Review: Business As Usual

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): Bikerdude
Version: 1.0
Date released: 2010-01-14
Other info: Grand Christmas Contest ‘09
Theme: City

This is a relatively small map made by Bikerdude – in fact it’s his first ever fan mission for The Dark Mod, and it’s not too shabby at that. Even though he received a lot of help from the TDM forum dwellers, Bikerdude all ready displayed a knack for making enjoyable, interactive, and challenging missions at this early stage.

You start off in your apartment, and go about collecting your gear. This makes a change from starting off with everything, as you usually find. You’d be wise to get your lantern and use it to make sure you have everything. Search the place thoroughly – in fact, this is a golden rule when it comes to every room, in every mission.

Once outside you'll see that there are several buildings, and unlike other maps of similar size, almost all of them are accessible – although not all of them have much inside and appear to be uninhabited. Or are they? Yes, there’s less waste of space or opportunity here than some maps. Places to explore include a tavern, where the civilians won’t react to you in any way, whereas the guards and city watch outside will hound you if seen on the streets which have quite a bit of electric lighting going on to make sneaking a tad more of a priority. There’s also the local City Watch post, and a hotel. These are the main three places on the street level.

On the subterranean level, there’s the sewer, accessible from at least to or three entry points, and there’s a “secret” or two here to be had – in fact it’s a critical mission objective, so if you can’t find the hidden area, then you are in trouble.

The hotel is likely where most of the action will take place, and in the guests’ rooms you’ll find… guests, mostly sleeping. Hardly guards are present here whatsoever, making things a little too easy. Even though there isn’t much in the way of story here – just a case of “I stole something, somebody stole it from me, now I need to get it back”, plus some other optional extras – the focus on level design and interactivity isn’t unappreciated. To me, a small map which has lots to do and places to poke around in is more enjoyable than a big map which doesn’t do much to make its needless waste of space any more enjoyable. This is a map that shows that a little can go a long way.

Bikerdude’s maps, including this one, are a bit tricky with secrets and the like, which forces you to frob just about everything to see if it serves a purpose or not, making the first playthrough the most challenging. After you know where to go and what to do though, the 2nd playthrough, and onwards, is a breeze for the most part, and allows for little replayability – particularly in a small map such as this.

Still, a good effort for a respected FM author’s first attempt.

Pros:

+ A few nice secrets.

+ More usage of what the map has to offer, with little wastage.

Cons:

- Not a big map.

- Not that challenging in terms of AI.

FM score: 8.5/10

New TDM FM Released: The Phrase Book

Earlier on this month, Sotha released the latest instalment in the Thomas Porter series. Going back a bit, if you’ve played Glenham Tower and The Transaction, you’ll vaguely remember something about a book that Thomas had to collect called De Vermis Mysteriis. In this FM, Thomas sets out to look for the Phrase Book, to help end the occurrences that have taken place since he took possession of this previously mentioned tome – namely being hunted down by the Hag.

I won’t spoil it too much for you, but you’re in for quite a treat with this one, as you’ll get to ride on the Thieves Highway yet again – for the first time in a long while!

You can read up about it and download it here.

TDM FM Review: Let Sleeping Thieves Lie

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): Sir Taffsalot, Bikerdude
Version: 1.0
Date released: 10-20-2011
Theme: City/Haunted
Download FM here

This FM was never going to be a magnum opus of any sort. The main reason why is the fact that it’s by a relatively unknown author, even though he had help from Bikerdude – one of the more seasoned FM creators.

You start off on the streets and it’s fairly straight forward. You have to enter the sewers to reach the hideout of one Jack Blackthorn - a man who some say is the devil himself. He’s wanted you dead for some time seeing as you refused to join the Unseen Thieves guild. Whispers around town say that he’s back from the dead, even though you assassinated him a little while back by putting an arrow through his heart. Now he wants you dead more than ever.

It’s best to go straight for the sewer. There’s plenty of time and motive to explore the rest of the city later on. The key is easy to find seeing as it’s hanging on the one patrolling citywatchman’s belt. Down here in the sewer, I was greeted by some ugly textures and level design. What else would you expect to find in a sewer, anyway? The water for instance didn’t look right – it wasn’t the same pretty, fluid liquid I’d seen in other FMs. And the reflection of items on said water surface just wasn’t done right.

 

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There were some nice additions, such as mushrooms decorating the entrance to the Unseen Thieves’ lair and water dripping from the pipes above. The lair itself has one eye-catching room with plenty going on, and without spoiling much, it’s the last room, and there’s a huge haul here – enough to fulfil your loot objective. There’s some other grisly things to see here, too.

Then after this it’s back to street level, and here you can rope arrow up to several rooms above you. Doing this will eventually lead you on the path to the crypts below the cemetery. This is probably the scariest, most atmospheric place in this FM, and there’s some good loot to be had here. After ascending to ground level it’s off to the church through the misty cemetery, where you’ll notice the empty grave – the one that was meant for Jack.

All in all this mission is too easy. There could have been more challenge in areas like the cemetery and church. But there’s these large, empty, unpopulated areas punctuated with some small interesting areas that have something going on. I see Bikerdude’s name when this FM loads, and in the credits – but this isn’t a Bikerdude mission. It’s not a bad first attempt by a new mapper. I have played worse, for sure.

I initially thought that this mission was an entry in the Halloween Speed Build Contest of 2011 – but it turns out that it isn’t. This FM has been a long time in the making, apparently. I was going to say that I’ve played moodier missions that weren’t submissions for this competition; that overall the theme was quite understated. But none of this matters seeing as it isn’t a submission for the contest, it turns out.

This counts against the map’s overall score, seeing as I could have overlooked most of its flaws if it were a speed build, but it isn’t. If that much time had been spent on it, I think more effort could have been spent on making it look and play a bit better, personally.

Pros:

+ The author gave it a good try.

+ One or two good moments to be had.

Cons:

- Ugly texturing.

- Clipping issues.

- Uninspired design.

FM score: 6.5/10

New Fan Missions Released

After a long spell where there were absolutely no new fan missions to be had for TDM, except for the release of a previously unreleased FM in “Closemouthed Shadows”, this month we finally have three new ones to download. They are “Sneak and Destroy”, “Rightful Property”, and In “Remembrance of Him”. And all three FMs seem to be from thus far little known authors, which isn’t a bad thing. New blood is always welcome, I say. Especially when there’s a fan mission drought going on.

These fan missions are entries in the new contest for 2012, the Beginners Contest.

Sneak and Destroy is a particularly weighty download, coming in at over 150 MB, making it one of the largest FMs in terms of file size, while Rightful Property is a lot less, but still bigger than average I would say. I’ve managed to play all of them all ready, so I may have reviews up at some point in future. I’ve mainly got a back log of old FM reviews that I’ve been trying to upload to make way for the newer ones, so no promises on when it will be up.

“When it’s done” ®.

Head over the thedarkmod.com to get the missions.

TDM FM Review: Crystal Grave

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): ERH+
Version: 1.0
Date released: 11-12-2011
Other info: First completely foreign FM 
Theme: Builder/Haunted
Download FM here

I first saw this FM up for download on The Dark Mod’s official website. But the file was actually hosted over at Darkfate – a thief fan site of sorts. A mirror still hasn’t been put up over at TDM.

I was a bit apprehensive about downloading and installing this FM. I’m just so paranoid, and the last thing I needed was some fan mission made in a foreign country. I tend to get a bit suspicious. That and it wasn’t hosted at the usual place, but off-site, and that made me a little wary.

But security concerns aside, I learnt by reading through the thread over at the TDM forum that this mission was well worth a play. So I decided to give it a go. Starting off, I found myself on an island. I’d somehow rowed out here, got past the large walls surrounding the property, and run aground. Ahead of me lay a large building, surrounded by water – perhaps a moat - which towered into the skies above. My FPS was getting a kick in the balls all ready.

I noticed straight off the bat that there are several entry points – from picking locked doors in the dock below, to climbing up ivy vines and pipes to reach one of the higher floors. I was highly impressed. Once inside, this feeling of amazement was extended by the rather good level design. A good mixture of small, pokey rooms, with larger occupied rooms – there’s not a lot of space wasted here. Everything seems functional. It works, and like I said: there are multiple ways to get from one floor to the next, whether you take one of the stairwells, or climb up a chain linked to a crane of sorts. The layout is rather good. There’s seemingly endless areas to explore. And just when you’ve seen it all, there’s more on the next level.

I will say that despite several keys being around for you to find, there’s once again on overreliance on lockpicking which is so addictive with mappers for TDM. And the locks aren’t even that complex to pick, ironically.

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Lighting is used to good effect in most areas, and there are different light sources – not just fire-lit torches, but also electric lighting, too. And most of the rooms have light switches that even AI interact with occasionally. I wasted most of my water arrows and holy water potions dousing a haunt after he saw me when switching on the bloody light in one room.

But despite this one experience, overall there isn’t much challenge as far as AI goes. There are two or three areas where AI is heavily concentrated, which means two things: first off, it’s easy to gain access to the place using most entry points, and two, it’s nigh impossible to get past said areas because the AI have overlapping, confusing patrol routes which guarantee the player will be seen and murdered instantly.

It’s also difficult to know where to go and what to do, as this FM’s greatest flaw is revealed right from the get go (and I mentioned it earlier too): it’s foreign. The objectives are in Polish, the text and readables in-game are in Polish too. It’s been weeks (months now) since its release, and someone has yet to come up with a decent translation for it. So I’m wandering around this otherwise great map but I don’t know what the hell is going on – and that takes away a lot of this map’s charm; it’s done almost everything else right. The good news is that not only will someone eventually get around to getting a translated version up, but from TDM v 1.07, internationalization is being featured in the mod, which is supposed to help in situations like this… somehow.

Crystal Grave (probably the most awesome name for an FM I’ve heard so far) reminds me a lot of “The Outpost” – one of the first TDM FMs ever released, back in late 2009 - except it’s probably bigger, and better in several respects. There are a few niggles with it, such as the ones outlined above. I’ll also add that the texturing could have been better, and there were a few bugs – particularly with lighting. I would stand in shadow and yet my lightgem was lit up like a Christmas tree (sorry for the reference, but it’s December at the time of writing this). That and opening some doors and windows resulted in the infinite looping slamming bug which would really put a damper on things if the AI actually noticed it.

Despite its flaws, it’s not bad; not bad at all.

Pros:

+ Great level design.

+ Layout provides smooth play.

+ Multiple entry points.

Cons:

- Foreign with absolutely no translations for text, objectives, etc.

- Buggy.

- Not too challenging.

FM score: 8.8/10

TDM FM Review: House in Blackbog Hollow

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): stumpy
Version: 1.0
Date released: 2011-10-29
Other info: Halloween Speed Build Contest 2011 entry
Theme: Builder/Haunted
Download FM here

Stumpy has made two missions in the past – neither of which I enjoyed much, to be honest. But “House in Blackbog Hollow” (which I will from now on refer to as HIBH – not a rude word) is mostly better than said missions. In case you’re wondering – the missions I speak of are “Lord Dufford’s” and “Illusionist’s Tower”.

You start off on the streets hidden away in an alley of sorts, and make your way in to the large area ahead. You’ve got two patrolling guards here but they’re easy to avoid. First thing you’ll notice is the large black house – more on this later. The mission is to grab some ancient treasure outside a warehouse nearby. But it turns out it’s not that simple: some bastard got there first and nabbed it – and he’s hiding in the house you couldn’t help but notice earlier.

I managed to enter the place after several minutes of mucking about; missing the obvious way in. After seeing a pumpkin kill a nobleman sitting at a table, I knew I was in for something else. From then on, I was wary of every bloody pumpkin I came across. I tried shooting them with arrows, or slicing them with swords – to no avail.

And there were spiders, too. Very large, patrolling spiders. This mission pretty much has everything scary you could possibly want in a mission. Never mind zombies – they’ve got nothing on seemingly invincible pumpkins.

Stumpy pulls some tricks similar to the ones seen in “Illusionist’s Tower”. Upon entering the house, it grows larger than initially thought. It’s positively massive with several floors to explore. There’s some interesting illusions besides this, such as walls that can actually be walked through to reach the corridor behind. It wouldn’t have been so obvious if it hadn’t been for the spiders, that basically showed me it was possible in the first place. Otherwise I’m sure it might have stumped (no pun intended) a few people. There’s also a crying baby, which turns out… not to be. Rather creepy, that part.

 

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There aren’t any guards anywhere, but you’ll come across some corpses every now and again – these are supposedly the people who lived here before the curse came along. I won’t spoil it too much for you, so that’s all I’m saying.

After some looking around, you reach the study near the top of the mansion and discover that there’s more to the pumpkins than you originally thought. The pumpkins you avoided earlier actually need to be collected and taken to a temple beneath the surface. They need to be used to end a curse that resulted due to the mansion being built on top of the temple. Sounds similar to the old “house that was built on top of a sacred Indian burial ground” cliché, but nonetheless. That’s what we were all expecting to come out of this competition: clichés.

So we went from trying to retrieve the treasure to helping end the curse.

The mission was enjoyable in the end. Stumpy pulled out the usual tricks; some new, and others old. From what I can tell, he’s not as amateurish as I thought he was initially and has shown that with some general messing around in DarkRadiant, he can put a decent, and sometimes challenging map together. But this mission is his best so far, because it doesn’t stray too far from the norm as far as a TDM mission goes. The level design isn’t anything too special, but it is a step up from the likes of Lord Dufford’s large, empty, uninteresting rooms. The soundtrack that accompanies the FM consists of some new tracks, as well as some old ones with a twist.

Lord Dufford’s was an average at best mission for several reasons among which included some gameplay faux pas that could have been avoided with some beta testing. That and it was a bit too loony for my liking. And Illusionist’s Tower was too frustrating – it tried to be overly technical. This mission is a sort of happy medium, or balance between the expected and outrageous. It’s not too challenging, and the best bit of the FM will be the story, more than likely, which isn’t bad.

Overall the FM is unconventional, rather wacky, but for this Halloween Speed Build Contest – it works; almost perfectly.

Pros:

+ Good story.

Cons:

-  Not that challenging.

FM score: 8.8/10

TDM FM Review: A Night To Remember

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): Fieldmedic
Version: 1.0
Date released: 2011-10-31
Other info: Halloween Speed Build Contest 2011 entry 
Theme: Mansion/Haunted
Download FM here

This FM takes a different turn to fit in with the horror theme expected in this contest. You are a nobleman who moonlights as something a more disreputable (but just barely): a thief. This is an inside job. Instead of having to break in to the mansion, you begin inside one of the rooms. You’re here as a guest but right off the bat, it seems as though somebody knows your ulterior motives.

You exit your room and wander around the mansion. There are no guards about as the lord of the manor does not want any patrols inside. This seems to make life easier as you explore the rooms that aren’t locked. Most of them are and you don’t possess any lockpicks or much equipment at all, initially. There’s a fair bit of lockpicking involved, but numerous doors actually require a key.

Judging by the design and the dates in the journals, Fieldmedic has practically ditched the Middle Ages in favour of a more modern feel, possibly Victorian or Colonial era – perhaps even later. But this isn’t anything new seeing as his previous mission, “Reap As You Sow”, exhibited a similar style. With the large, sprawling, practically empty estate, I couldn’t help but feel that this reminded me of one of my favourite horror-themed games of all time: Clive Barker’s Undying.

You make your way up to the study to steal some blueprints for an airship named Gottfried II – but it seems as though you might be too late. The rest of the mission is spent chasing after an individual who seems to have the same idea in mind as you.

 

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There are sections which contain ghostly figures who patrol the dark corridors of the servants quarters’ hallways and passages the lead to the more stately rooms of the manor. Getting near these spirits will damage you. If one of the beings spots you, you die instantly. So extra caution is advised in avoiding these spirits, much like Thief: Deadly Shadows’ infamous Shalebridge Cradle mission. There are pianos that play all by themselves, and you can hear the constant cries of torment coming from the ghosts of the beheaded servants.

Fieldmedic is an FM author who experiments with new ideas, such as “Reap What You Sow”, and obviously knows a little about scaring the player, which was evident while playing an earlier FM of his in “Betrayal”. Here he’s turned TDM in to yet another experience: that of fully-fledged horror, instead of just mildly tense. Once again it feels like a mod for a mod and not just an average FM. You lack most of the gear and weapons. You’re, for the most part, defenceless and vulnerable.

But like “Reap What You Sow”, it is flawed. ANTR has bugs – maybe some of you have experienced these, and others haven’t. But there’s a bloody annoying save game bug where if you save the game after a certain point, the game crashes. Saving the game before you come across the first ghost in the servant’s quarters works; after that point, it doesn’t. As long as you don’t save you’ll be fine. Some people play TDM this way by design. They shouldn’t have a problem (this bug seems to have been fixed since I installed TDM version 1.07 and restarted the FM).

When I first played this FM with this bug present, I hated it. But after I had patched TDM and replayed it, I realised how good it really is.

Pros:

+ Atmospheric.

+ Feels different from the normal FM.

Cons:

- Some bugs.

- Might be too much of a departure from conventional TDM gameplay.

FM score: 8.9/10

The Dark Mod FM Review: The Siege Shop

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): PranQster
Date released: 06-10-2011
Theme: City/Pagan
Download FM here

PranQster, to date, has made one FM, and I’ll say right from the start, that it’s a great one – all ready featured on my list of favourite TDM FMs available to date.

It’s called The Siege Shop, and the very beginning is misleading. You start off in the sewer, and after a minute or two of trying to squeeze in to the narrow pipes on either side of you, you eventually get the idea and climb up the ladder to the surface. After opening the door, you are greeted by a sight completely opposite to what you were expecting a few minutes earlier (perhaps a mission similar to “Special Delivery”).

You enter a cobblestone courtyard and are attracted instantly to two things: the horse (in a non-sexual way of course), and the hot air balloon. This is what you must use to get on to the rooftop of the siege shop, as the drawbridge over the moat is up. And knocking out the balloon operator isn’t enough. You have to jettison him from the craft, otherwise you’ll be too heavy to make it to the roof – very clever bit of programming, and realistic to boot.

I was impressed so far.

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Another thing that I found was a nice touch was being able to steal arrows from the quivers. Most of the guards you encounter here are armed with bows and the not the usual swords. So you can get at least a dozen broadhead arrows by pinching them from the guards’ quivers, and you can also obtain special arrows from the quivers in the guards’ quarters on the upper floor. Very handy if you forget something in particular from the buy screen before the mission started, such as not enough water arrows, for instance. And this is good seeing as there are plenty of extinguishable light sources in this mission.

On the floor below this, I heard some funny banging noises and I assumed that it was just somebody in a workshop with a hammer – this was after all, a siege shop. I was certain that some degree of construction must take place here. But another floor down and I, like some others who had played this mission, was flabbergasted to see something moving towards me. It lit up the floor in front of me with an inextinguishable light and made a terrible racket. Even though part of my form was caught in the beam as I desperately hugged the wall, I wasn’t noticed by the contraption – this steam beast had no eyes. This was the first time so far that I’d witnessed any sort of robot in a TDM mission, and I was understandably taken back to those days of Thief II: The Metal Age – the fear of coming across any one of Karras’ dreaded Builder’s Children.

Overall, this mission boasts originality, and like I’ve mentioned above, there are some nifty things that this author put in to make it an unforgettable experience. A very good effort for his first map, indeed.

Pros:

+ Level design.

+ Very inventive and original mission, this.

Cons:

- A few bugs.

FM score: 9/10

TDM FM Review: House of Theo

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): Theothesnoop
Version: 1.0
Date released: 2011-12-04
Theme: Castle
Download FM here

It’s great to see this year that more and more first-time-mappers are getting their FMs done and uploaded to the web for us to enjoy.

I’m not complaining about the existing mappers in any way, but it’s just good to see some new, refreshing ideas perhaps.

Theothesnoop is one of these new mappers on the scene, and after reading the title of the FM, I thought I was in for an adventure with Gary Stu (hey, somebody criticised one of my Thief fanfics like this once – now I’m the critic for a change). But I gave it a go like I do with all TDM FMs.

I started off in the snow on a hill overlooking the sunset. My mission was to infiltrate the castle and uncover some information. Upon turning around, the first thing that caught my eye was this rather large castle standing atop the hill. Conveniently, someone had left a window open and there just so happened to be a wooden beam above it, with a lantern acting as a neon sign highlighting the area. So I had my entry point thrust in my face.

Lighting is an issue in this mission. There’s too much of it for one – too many fire-lit torches, and not enough water arrows. So that might present a bit of a problem. Trying to dash across a corridor, I was sighted by a guard who then followed me down the stairs to my hiding spot and promptly cut me to ribbons.

Another issue this mission has is there’s initially too much backtracking. The mission isn’t entirely linear which is good, but when you creep along a path and all seems well, until you reach a door that can’t be picked and you have no key, forcing you to go all the way back to the area you started in – it feels a bit frustrating, to be honest. Initially the choice of path is just an illusion – there seems to be but one way. Once you get some keys, more pathways are open to you. But I suppose you could look on the bright side of life, and say that at least the mission doesn’t rely heavily on lockpicking for a change. There are several keys needed to make your way through the castle.

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I get the feeling while playing this mission that it’s quite like the new Bond game, GoldenEye: Reloaded. You’re often forced to look for other ways around the place, because an area might be too well lit; there’s too much activity, patrols, etc.; you don’t have the damn key, and you can’t pick the lock.

Having said that, there’s a nicely achieved balance when it comes to guard activity. There aren’t many guards in some areas – maybe one patrol if you’re lucky (or unlucky if you come across one in what seems to be broad daylight). Nearer the more important areas like the armoury, and chambers belonging to the royalty such as King Theo, there’s a larger guard contingent and even tougher, more heavily armoured guards are to be encountered at that.

The level design around and inside the castle is rather good – better than I originally anticipated. From towers to wide walkways, this mission does remind me a good deal of the first proper mission from Thief: Deadly Shadows – Garrett’s hunt for the Blood Opal at Lord Julian’s (or was it Lord Ember?). There are several different levels, and these can be accessed from ladders, stairs, and even an elevator. One section of the FM even sees you using a dumb waiter.

The backtracking that initially frustrated me then kind of made sense as the mission progressed. It made it more of a challenge. Without it, this FM probably would have been quite a lot easier, because it’s not that long or particularly difficult if I’m honest.

I quite liked the little side stories that were encountered in the mission, with one readable explaining why the attic was locked. But like with quite a few FMs available for TDM, there’s seemingly no larger plot revealed. Just get in, get the job done, and get out. A somewhat quick, not overly complicated, solid mission, then.

Pros:

+ Different approach to gameplay, whether intentional or not.

Cons:

- Lighting affects gameplay somewhat negatively, perhaps.

- Too much backtracking initially.

FM score: 8/10

TDM FM Review: Samhain: Night on Bone Hill

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): PranQster
Version: 1.0
Date released: 10-9-2011 (Oct. 09, 2011)
Other info: Halloween Speed Build ‘11 entry
Theme: Haunted
Download FM here

This is the first entry in the Halloween Speed Build contest of 2011. The title and loading screen that shows up is quite striking. It could be the name of a horror movie – probably not a very good one, but still.

In this FM, you’re off for a bit of tomb raiding, similarly to “Down in the Bonehoard” from Thief: The Dark Project perhaps. The ultimate goal is to nab a ruby which belongs to a noble family which came from pagan roots. And you plan to do this on the night of All Hallows Eve.

You start off in the graveyard outside and notice that you’ve somehow recently developed the very sneaksie ability to levitate – very handy. This is a bug that has been reported by several people (but I noticed it was fixed on my second playthrough using v 1.07). After deigning to set your feet down on the ground, you make your way past the tombstones and on to the entrance to the mausoleum. Here you see a group of pagans leaving after having paid their respects to their deceased relatives. PranQster was very keen to show off the new “plaque mask” here that was made by Nosslak, as well as the pumpkins by Springheel. But the masks don’t always appear for everyone which meant some had to download the texture separately.

Seeing the candles and the pentacle at the entrance, I got a feeling that things wouldn’t be so serene for long. Inside the mausoleum there’s some nice marble textures, and ahead lies the ruby you’re after. Just snatch it and it’s mission accomplished, right? Wrong. I almost bought in to it. But then the floor gave way and I ended up in water-filled tunnel below. The skeletons down in the water give an ominous look in to what lies ahead. It looks like I wasn’t the first sure-footed* thief to go after the treasure…

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Inside the caves there’s a nice showing off of lighting and colourful hues – reds, oranges, blues, greens; all colours of the rainbow from nicely placed light sources. Lovely. The place is filled with spiders, too, and this has led to some of the more anxious types being unable to progress in this mission. There’s some original ideas here, such as bats flying around which cast a light on the walls and ground, so there’s an extra bit of a challenge in avoiding being spotted by the spidies.

And being able to get to the crypt level where the sarcophagi are by climbing the spider’s web is a nice touch. PranQster demonstrated this knack for being inventive and introducing some fresh ideas in his previous, and first ever FM: “The Siege Shop”.

In the crypt area you need to find several switches or levers to find your way around, and this is all while having to put up with zombified skeletons who have sometimes erratic and unpredictable patrol routes (which was intentional on the part of the author). The King’s crypt is in this area and you’ll get some of your objectives here. Some of the loot is hard to obtain though and requires a bit of negotiation. You can also tell that there wasn’t a lot of beta-testing in this FM, as some people would lock themselves in the King’s crypt, and were unable to get out. Beta-testing was closed for this FM, according to the notes accompanying the download.

There are some other rooms that will open up as you accomplish objectives, and one of these areas even has a maze to navigate.

Samhain isn’t a bad mission. It’s got some good ideas. Not doing any beta testing is a recipe for disaster though, generally speaking. I understand that this is a speed build, and it shows off at least above-average quality for such a build - at least superficially, minus a few missing textures and such. But technically it could have used more time in development to get rid of some annoying bugs.

* sarcasm

Pros:

+ Original ideas.

+ Creepy.

+ Not a bad looking mission at all.

Cons:

- Some bugs.

- Some silly mistakes.

FM score: 8.1/10

TDM FM Review: The Creeps

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): Mortem Desino
Version: 1.0
Date released: 2011-10-30
Other info: Halloween Speed Build Contest 2011 entry
Theme: City/Haunted
Download FM here

MD or Mortem Desino is a name I’m sure I’ve read somewhere before, but to my knowledge this is his first mission. And it’s not too bad.

When starting up, I was greeted with a voiceover during the briefing section, which felt very Thief: Deadly Shadows-esque. A little bit of extra effort there, then. Indeed, at several points during the mission there are some voiceovers.

The mission is to sneak inside a “superstitious” family’s home while they’re out for the night, and case the joint. You begin on the streets outside as usual and make your way towards the tree in the centre of the courtyard. From here you fumble your way around, interact with some frobbable objects, and get inside a tower of sorts.

You eventually get around to jumping out the window and on to the roof outside. There’s plenty of open windows and multiple entry points in this mission – especially the Creeps’ manor – making for some interesting routes to take – and limited replayability. Most of these alternate ways you’ll only discover after having gone the long way perhaps.

After entering the Creeps’ household through one of several entry points, you’ll likely stumble upon the main focal point of the building: the dining room. Here you have a few surprises waiting for you.

There’s always the promise of some sort of encounter in this mission. I was expecting to run in to something or someone. I thought I’d be facing off against pagans – who rarely make an appearance in any TDM FMs, or maybe some zombies or a haunt. But there was hardly anything. It’s not really scary at all – maybe moody; a tad tense, perhaps. That’s the aim of the contest I suppose. Zombies and the like are so old hat; overdone, and not many players really like “undead missions” anyway. I don’t.

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I definitely noticed the contrasting use of colour and lighting between the starting point of the mission and the area in and around the Creeps’ place. It went from the more traditional blue, brown and grey hues you’d expect, to yellow and orange. This complements the Halloween theme and the season of Autumn (or Fall) quite nicely – even though it’s Spring over where I am at the time of writing this fan mission review.

But all that I’ve spoken of so far is what you’ll encounter on the surface level. There’s also a subterranean section which you’ll need to find in order to finish the mission (especially as far as loot goes on the highest difficulty setting). Here you’ll needless to say, get most of the loot, plus experience some scares, too – predictable, but it’ll make you jump, nonetheless. The style of scares is almost right out of a commercial title like F.E.A.R. – but the first one, which was best in the series. Let me just say that it’s very difficult if not impossible to get a perfect stealth score in this mission.

There was one nice touch that I liked in this mission, and that was another sort of object – an obstacle – to interact with. Up until now I’ve come across locked doors that you either need keys for, or you have to pick; there’ve been locked chests, too. These are the main two obstacles separating you from success, and after several FMs, I’m dying for a little originality. Well, it’s here in this FM, in the form of a mere padlock. You can only interact with this padlock once inside the house, but when you pick it and the window swings open – I must confess that I thought that was rather nifty. It’s a small thing and yet it adds positively to the overall impression I get from this FM. Also, the massive tree outside with the falling leaves was great, if a tad unrealistic. That tree drops leaves faster than my cat sheds hair.

There was that and a bit of texture misalignment, plus some messy management of heights as far as negatives go. You can climb on top of roofs and look in to the empty abyss which is the skybox that surrounds the map. It takes away from the good that this mission had going for it. That and there was another small error in mission objectives depending on difficulty settings. Playing the medium difficulty or “Spirit” was just the same as playing on easy, or “The Wind”, because the loot goal was exactly the same.

But all in all, for this author’s first FM - it’s quite good.

Pros:

+ Multiple entry points for some buildings.

+ Extra effort with the voiceovers.

+ Some tension and atmosphere.

Cons:

- Silly mistakes that could have been avoided.

- Quite short.

FM score: 8.4/10