File:E3M4 - The Red Room

Description
We are nearly finished with the Singleplayer campaign for Aftershock for Quake! Continuing the story from last time, we have left the military base (as well as the Grunts and Enforcers) behind us..

This level starts with an evil trap, an elevator that drops to the floor below. Luckily, it seems pretty easy to keep the Shambler on the far side from being alerted. Killing all 5 Enemies is necessary to proceed, the bottom step of the stairs otherwise is lowered and thus does not allow for entry.

Every time I see a pit of Lava I question if a secret can be found in it (I happen to know some people who feel the same way about Lava). While 95% of all pools can be ignored, especially as it only existed one time in the entire base game, there is the rare occurrence where something actually exists. This is one of those instances, which makes me grieve as I have to give up my Red Armor to get it. Still, at least a Yellow Armor offers some form of protection and I manage to keep my ammo levels pretty balanced (besides Rockets).

The first room is pretty large, but also serves to create a massive obstacle course. Many times have I blundered on that portion of the level, falling down over and over due to hugging a wall or doing something else that hinders my movement. It was quite surprising that I executed it perfectly, I was even able to showcase a ruined wall. The wall in particular appears to be a decoration, though it sticks out so much that you end up questioning its existence in an otherwise clean wall. If you hug the left wall, you can slowly climb the ruins to the opposite side (sorry about the boring climb, it wasn't fun for me either!). As I show off in the video, it is entirely pointless to come back here, though it is interesting to check out (I had to redo the video several times due to my impatience making me question if the climb was actually working, thus why I started using the level geometry as a guide).

The titular "red room" is a rather small part of the level, with the main feature being the place where the Gold Door exists. Still, it is a pretty attractive room and has nice details such as ruined floor pieces.

Later in the level, we do manage to get a Red Armor. It is at that point that I suddenly blunder (I should have stuck with the Yellow Armor, it wasn't cursed!). As soon as I land on the platform, a Death Knight starts shooting projectiles. Thinking myself save, I end up getting hit a couple times before I decide to fight him on the lower floor. I dropped to the ground, collecting a 25 Health without being able to look at it before accidentally going on the Elevator to the lower level. Realizing my situation, I end up collecting the 100 Health in order to get back to the Death Knights. The one useful thing is that the Death Knights moved up the corridor, making it easy to lob grenades at them (with the Zombies, which had entered the main corridor, stopping any projectiles from hitting me). Of course, then I manage to mess up the jump to the Gold Key (a jump I didn't need to do at that time, but was doing mainly to showcase the locked Bars), falling in Lava and chopping down my Armor by quite a significant amount...

This level is quite a fluid based level, most rooms consisting of either Water or Lava. As usual for a Gregory A. Macmartin level, the environment is going to be your worst enemy. Another trope of his levels, the Gold Door blocks an End Tunnel, though I feel this End Tunnel was a bit too visible and revealed no true exit (the best ones are the ones which fade into blackness).

Another interesting point is the final challenge to leaving the level, a Leap of Faith. We previously saw this in E1M4, though I do not believe that was a good demonstration as the goal was not that visible from your original orientation. Apparently, this was a scene inspired by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which explains why we got such a religious inspired hazard in various levels of different FPS. If going for accuracy, this one is probably the most accurate example to the movie, being a narrow invisible bridge over a massive chasm (this would be later reused in Unreal).

I apparently seem to be in a talkative mood, I am nearly out of characters to write this description! Maybe it is due to my hiatus between this and the previous level. Of course, it might also be compensation. I will not be doing a Deathmatch video due to no differences existing. Surprisingly, the first room is impossible to access in the Deathmatch version due to spawn locations. Another trope of Gregory A. Macmartin, spawn locations are also placed right next to each other in a very inconvenient manner (I am not surprised here due to it being a few small rooms). As usual, I wouldn't find this level to be appropriate for Deathmatch, mainly as it is still quite linear. For Singleplayer, this level isn't that bad, I find myself enjoying it a lot more than the military base. Still, platforming isn't really my thing...