Thread:Deathstalker666/@comment-1496755-20180827202615/@comment-1496755-20181215174412

And if we play the evergreen "I Must Break You", we can replay the same level the moment we beat it. Genius!

I think you are onto something with your observations. For many years I have seen a trend in many old games - the second episode tends to be darker and grittier in tone than the first (usually shareware) episode. We had this in Wolf 3D, where Episode 2 has the mutants and generally takes place in a decaying and rather depressing castle, we had it in Doom, Duke 3D, even Quake, where the whole game is dark and gritty, actually, but E2 somehow manages to be more depressing than the others. Sometimes these second episodes are a slog, other time not. There are many more examples for this phenomenon... Doom's second episode can be a slog too, though I enjoy the idea behind it - human bases that are slowly being twisted and altered by the encroaching demonic corruption; a fusion of the visual styles of the other two episodes (sci-fi base & infernal gothic). Contrary to most Duke 3D fans, I generally tend to like its Episode 2 as well - mostly because it stands out from the rest, level design is a bit more abstract, not focused on recreating realistic locations like most levels in the other episodes do. It is also the episode that is closest to the more dystopian/cyberpunk aesthetics of the previous Duke Nukem games (the two platformers). Anyway, this Episode 2 trend seems to disappear in the late 90's. But what is causing it? Is it some kind of attempt for a mood whiplash after beating the shareware episode (the "poster boy" of the game), an attempt to raise the difficulty... I don't know.

Yeah, Quake's first episode benefited from being the shareware one, so it had to look nice, have variety, and be attractive to prospective buyers. E3 is pretty dark, but not in the depressing way E2 is. I am very fond of E4 as well, it truly has this feel of a highly malevolent ancient civilisation that you are exploring.

Eh, I am quite okay with being crazy, so I wouldn't mind staying sober. My colleagues tried to get me drunk last night but (expectedly) it didn't work and I barely felt anything. Bulgarian parties are known for two things - lots of stuff to eat and even more stuff to drink. If the table's legs aren't bending under the weight of all the bottles and glasses, then there isn't enough to drink :P

You know what Carmack said about having a story in a video game. Doom and Quake are both embodiments of this philosophy. Quake 2 seemed to try to have a little bit more plot going on. And then Quake 3 is multiplayer-focused and whatever "story" it has is just manual filler for the few geeks like us who actually read this stuff. Quake 4 followed Doom 3's lead, so it is noticeably more story-driven than any other Quake.

Another thing about canon - developers sometimes decide to modernize it and start making retcons... which can be annoying, if you happen to enjoy the old canon more than the new one.