Journal #7063

I just played Half-Quake Amen, an Austrian mod featuring unique aspects of puzzle gameplay never before explored by any other modder. For you, the player, this can be both a good and bad thing. Note that this is the second in a trilogy of half-quake mods and has prolly nothing to do with the retail Quake games.

The story is the same in all these titles. You are to be punished for no real reason and you will be killed solely for the entertainment of the modders. Now that sounds just like the premise to some troll mod, but believe it or not the third title in the series (Half-Quake Sunrise) was a candidate in the moddb "mod of the year" awards. This means that the mod is either really good, or that many players enjoy being killed in new and exciting ways.

ANYWAYS lets first get to the texturing. For the majority of the mod, you will be seeing textures that are black, white, and simplistic. Like the ones that Dimbark is practicing to make. So then, the first part of the mod is a big field of English letters with almost no clues about what to do. All the wrong letters are landmines that instantly kill and of course it will take you about 10 minute to figure this out. That's 5 minutes for looking for the modders' website and 5 minutes to find the walkthru for the mod. Pretty fun so far.

Story for this mod is conveyed thru diaries left behind by someone who experienced the same fate as you. It gets really intense as you read his entries because you can see how his mental state goes down and down until [spoiler hidden]. Anyway.

This isn't an action oriented mod at all. In fact, you will never get a HEV suit or any suit for that matter. For the majority of the mod, you will be using a crossbow fighting slaves. No variation. However, you do get a 'better' weapon when you get to "ambience" chapter.

Which brings us to the fun part of the mod. Ambience and Sapience goes 180 in mapping-style and replaces the simplistically-textured world with some rural medieval countryside. This is also where you get your "better" weapon. Sapience also has one of the most unique 'puzzles' I've ever seen in a FPS.

Unfortunately, where the good parts end, the even better parts begin. The next chapter is undoubtedly my favourite and will most definitely be your favourite as well. This chapter is called "Patience". Now, don't you trust the ten four or hangar 16 reviews concerning this particular chapter of the mod. This part is more fun than entire mods that I've played in the past. What better way to play a game than waiting for a train in a grayscale trainstation for what was it, 20 minutes? Yeah, now that is fun, even more so that the 20 minute boat ride in Swiss Cheese Halloween! Because you can just noclip to the end and skip the boat ride. Can't do that here! You will wait there for that train, and if when it comes, you will get on it, and proceed with your trivial endeavors.

Well, after that epic part, you are treated with a small dose of action and finally brought before your giant robot friend, Somos. Somos amigos. All you have to do then is press his buttons and get it on with him. Then you will be given a choice to pick 1 of 20 endings. Yet another mod that you simply cannot miss, and after you play it, simply cannot forget.

Play it. And play it legitimately. No cheating, no godmod, no noclip, and ESPECIALLY NO SKIPPING THE TRAINSTATION.