Fish

Screenshots

A Doom level about fish? No, this one isn't but that would be interesting don't you think. Fish is a single level addon for ZDoom - an addon in that there are also some nicely done new monsters with new bahaviours.

So what's changed. When you kill a pistol guy his spirit may keep on fighting, shotgun guys have been replaced by some type of green robot guy that looks really familiar but I can't place. Imps have upgraded fireballs and also some zombie guys have opted for rocket launchers... Did I mention you get an enhanced chaingun - ripped from New Breed (I think).

The level itself appeared fairly large at first, but after a run or two through the level the layout becomes fairly intuitive. The start room has a few surprises in store for you, and you have a couple of ways to go from there - swimmable water anyone?

Essentially your aim is to find three switches to solve 'the puzzle'. I still fail to see its purpose really since you're going to have to go everywhere to get all the keys etc. Anyway, there is a lot of neat scripting throughout the level - in the form of triggered messages mainly that either provide subtle clues or taunt you to press a certain switch...

The architecture is probably just above average, but nothing too detailed. I'm putting this down to the short build time of 12 hours... maybe a bit more time could have been spent detailing the level up somewhat. Texture use is fairly well done, with quite a variety overall but each room is usually in the one texture.

I wouldn't say the level was easy on UV - you'll have to be careful with those new monsters gunning for you. I was particularly prone to dying from those new imps... Funnily enough you get the Super shotgun on the higher difficulties but not the lowest. Maybe the author decided it wasn't needed.

Not having played m(any) new levels for ZDoom outside of Doom2K this level had a lot of new features at least I hadn't seen before - which were all very well done I thought. I'd have to say that the scripting and ZDoom effects definitely added a lot to the gameplay, and maybe masked the lack of detail somewhat throughout the level. A bit more time spent on the architecture would have been nice. Definitely glad that I played it.

Rating 8/10

Reviewed by Chief