dark castle - virgil the doom poet

Filename: dark_c.zip

File size: 623K

Author: Virgil the Doom Poet

Homepage: www.geocities.com/Virgil_32_0

Other work: AfterDoom

One of the first things I thought when starting to play these levels was,
"Blimey! Doesn't this look good!" This was one notion I had that was really
correct. The first level, "Outside Dark Castle" reminds me very strongly
of GothicDM, Crucified Dreams etc., not least because it uses the Gothic
textures to great effect. As does the second, "Inside Dark Castle". The
third, "A Portal to Hell", has something all its own; both a kind of Gothic
effect and an unearthly hellish one. All these levels have been very well
constructed, the second one possibly being the best (as far as construction
goes) There is some amazing Sverre-type architecture in these levels
(especially in the middle shot; a library in level 2.)

The gameplay isn't that bad; the main problem in the opening map is that
it is very repetitive. Push switch, trek around the moat, push another switch,
trek around the moat again, kill some more monsters, push switch... that is to
say, until you actually get within the castle walls, at which point it starts
to turn really good. In the first map, it's simple but fun, getting the keys.
In the second level, it really starts to get complicated; plenty of switch-
tripping, but fortunately for you treks across the map are not required. The
second level is the most dense. The third level has fairly simple play, but it
certainly has its moments. There are only one or two things I'd complain about.
Firstly: the monsters can be piled on slightly, which can make for frustrating
deaths. Secondly, due to the length of the first and second maps, the music
for them gets annoyingly repetitive. But that's a minor gripe.



No bugs; except that you can (apparently) fall through the quadruple (!) 3D-bridge
in the second level into lava. (I've seen that lava before, in Hexen2! ;-) It was
in a level called 'Bridge of Stars'...)

Aesthetic quality is sky-high; it's the best usage of the Gothic textures I've
seen, except possibly for the Gothic DMs themselves ;-) My jaw dropped to the
floor throughout level 2, with its dungeons, library and such... As it has been
said, there is no really odd texturing anywhere. Most attention-grabbing, I
think, is the multitude of rock formations in level 3, where they appear to
blink in a very strange manner.



Thing placement is good overall. Ammo can be a bit short in the first level, but
only if you don't use the berserk in the first part.

verdict