This is the second Quake expansion by MachineGames, released in 2021. In this one there are five short episodes with a central hub that you keep returning to. Each episode is two levels long, and is activating part of a giant machine in the hub level. After this there is a final boss level where you once again fight Chthon, the lava beast from the original game’s first episode.
The atmosphere of this one is very dark. It reminded me of Dark Souls quite frequently. Some of the levels are very creative. There is one where you are fighting through an upside-down castle, clambering across ceiling fixtures. In another you are making your way through holding cells for each of the monstrous creatures in Quake.
This expansion tries to tell more of a story than the usual Quake level set. I think in fact that it’s tying in parts of Quake II. There are parts about people travelling on space ships to these places and mining in holy sites to retrieve fuel. I wonder if that is potentially meant to be the Strogg.
In one section near the end I was in a room with a window looking down onto a large area. There were several enforcer enemies roving around. When I pressed a button in front of me large doors opened to reveal a shambler. This led to a fight which the enforcers won. I was very impressed with this tiny section, it felt like the kind of thing that was revolutionary in Half-Life. I found it impressive they managed to make a set piece in an engine that I don’t think really gives you the tools you would expect to do that.
