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.

Hover mouse over pictures for captions, if available.

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: 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

Happy Halloween

Today is the 31st of October, or Halloween as we all know it by.

Why am I posting about this here? Because today is the last day you may submit missions for the Halloween Speed Build of 2011 - a Dark Mod competition which was announced in September. All in all there were four submissions for the competition. Most of them arrived just in time - the authors of these missions took the time to polish their FMs.

The five FMs are:

A Night to Remember by Fieldmedic
The Creeps by Mortem Desino
House in Blackbog Hollow by Stumpy
Samhain Night on Bone Hill by PranQster
Dragon's Claw by Bikerdude

A sixth mission, Let Sleeping Thieves Lie was uploaded during this period, but is not an official competition entry.

I haven't played them all - only Samhain. But I will get around to playing and reviewing them now on All Hallow's Eve! Expect the winner of the contest to be announced... some other time. Personally my fave would be either "The Creeps" or "House in Blackbog Hollow".

By the way, if you hadn't noticed, the TDM website has changed its look - again.

New TDM FM Release: Let Sleeping Thieves Lie

Hot on the heels of PranQster’s entry in the Halloween Speed Build contest this month, “Samhain: Night on Bone Hill”, comes a new fan mission for The Dark Mod.

This one is called "Let Sleeping Thieves Lie", and it’s by Sir Taffsalot, with a bit of help from Bikerdude. I've played a bit of it so far and it's no too bad. Will get a review of it up soon.

You can check out the FM details page here.

TDM FM Release: Samhain: Night on Bone Hill

After a 3 and a 1/2 month drought with no TDM FMs, this mission comes in to save us all from boredom.

It’s the first entry in the Halloween Speed Build contest of 2011, and it’s called “Samhain: Night on Bone Hill”. It’s an average size mission which weighs in at about 10 MB. It was released just this week, by PranQster. He also brought you the above-average mission, “Siege Shop” – his first.

You can grab the mission over at the usual places. I might well have a review of the thing up at some point, too.

FM Discussion thread
FM details page with download links