Travelogue: Exploring Quake: Scourge Of Armagon Level By Level

Scourge Of Armagon is one of the strangest expansions to a game you’ll play, because it veers off into darker more difficult, more frustrating realms the further you wade in. Lets take a look at what made it so good. And painful.

Storage Facility

Of all the military base levels in Quake, Storage Facility is the one that feels most like a real place. It’s got the same textures as everything else, but the layout is all more logical; maybe it’s just the way you are opening up tunnels and connecting bridges from nearby rooms that overlook where you need to go. By the way, the bridge you connect is a trail of blood from one side of a room to another, it is ridiculously cool.

It’s also a real nice touch how enemies are now following you through the slipgate. You are being pursued by the forces of Quake after all, or is it Armagon? It’s part of the mystique of Quakes lore that it blends everything together in a way that’s incoherent yet cool.

The Lost Mine

The lost mine is one of the coolest levels we’ve got so far in Quake. The caverns you explore are full of zombies, and you notice that everything so far is thematic. From the enemies that jump out of the slipgate after you, to the way every level so far has some kind of set-piece; if it was the bridge of blood in previous levels, it’s collapsing terrain here.

I think it’s really cool to add falling terrain to Quake, but one thing they could have done better is it shouldn’t affect your movement; especially here when they are going to expect you to stay on a narrow train track while zombies throw arms from out of their (redacted) at you; adding in shaky movement to the controls here is a bit much.

The one thing you really notice about the Lost Mine, is you really could be playing a Dark Forces game; because the look of everything is right out of Star Wars. Take a look at Jedi Outcast 3 for another of my favorite mine levels. Has anyone else noticed that mines beat factories and sewers every time? It’s true.

Research Facility

You notice as we come to the end of these military base levels, the sky is getting darker. It makes the whole thing feel connected to a time and place. You fight your way through a pretty interesting looking military base. Although it’s only the green-blue tinted skybox outside, as you look through the windows it will feel as if you’re in an underwater facility.

The addition of mutated fish and the first appearance of actual monsters in the level being at the bottom of the facility only validates that idea.

The final set-piece is an eclectic beam trap and drop into the machinery of the facility. There after you eliminate some more scorpion tanks; you’ll finally get to see something you never knew you wanted, the inside of a slipgate. I have to say it’s one of the coolest sights in Quake; that skybox melting like a gigantic lava-lamp is really evil, and really cool.

As the final level in this four map episode (we will not be counting the secret level), this ends things on the right note.

Ancient realms

This Tom Mustaine level is the reason people don’t live this expansion. It’ as if he saw the nice time you were having, stroked his chin and said “that’s nice but were’s the challenge?”. So you lose all your weapons obviously, which is normal enough, but then you are put against an army of the monsters you were only rarely encountering in episode 1.

In terms of what these realms actually are, they seem to be a circular room with three switches and different linking corridors. It’s simple enough except you’ve to do this escaping a Shambler flanked by Vores and Scrags, the spider type things that follow you around. In fact they just throw every monster at you, add in some gremlins, and give yout he ability to summon a rottweiler in retaliation, as some kind of sick joke.

At the end of the level, The fiend leaping out of the door leaping out at you is just the icing on the cake/ It really epitomises what Ancient Realms is all about.

The Black Cathedral

As the name suggests, you play in some kind of fallen Cathedral. Considering the Quake design team found some of the aztec environment textures boring, in my opinion it’s the castle that tends to bore me sometimes. This level however, has a thunderstorm going on outside, and it is one of the better levels with this theme. There’s even a cool clock at the beginning, that actually works.

Pretty challenging. I think it’s here you’ll catch on fast that you need to start using the rocket launcher all the time, as the enemies are increasing.

There are alters, libraries and a masonic kind of symbol to check out (at the start of the level), this will also be your way out. This level improves on Ancient Realms because although it’s tough it’s a lot more fun to play.

The Catacombs

The lead up to the catacombs is probably the highlight here. It’s pretty fun navigating over the lava and taking alternate paths to the wretched temple underground. Once you fight your way across the bridge, you’ll do some exploration to find keys (of course_, but you do this nicely by jumping into old coffins to access even deeper depths of the Catacombs.

The final coffin you open is the exit for the level, which overall is another nice thematically designed mission. The final design on the wall is like something from the game Blasphemous, and isn’t appreciated. I don’t think it really fits Quake either.

The Crypt

The Crypt opens with you climbing out of a coffin, which ties back to the end of the previous level and is also just the best way to start a level in general. Every Quake level should begin with you getting out of a coffin.

You ever hear that Megadeth song, Black Curtains? Well that’s what this place is the visual embodiment of. There’s a part in Quake we all reach, where the game starts to be a bit much. You know, a bit too heavy, where you’re not sure if you want it to be that heavy. That’s the Crypt. A bleak… depressing level that has gremlins that steal your weapons, and neverending dark hallways. It’s pretty great, but you want to turn the game off afterwards.

Mortum’s Keep

You’ll be navigating the twisting tunnels of another empty keep, as in empty of whatever Mortum is. You may be expecting a boss of some kind, but that’s not really happening.

This is a short level, and the most you can say about it is the thunderstorms have gotten a hell of a lot more severe, and you have to do some more key hunts. It’s got that cool final level music that can’t help but make things feel more epic, and in some ways after levels like Ancient Realms, less is more here.

As you get your way towards the end of everything, you’ll encounter a machine that shoots electricity at you. All you’ve to do is turn it off, which was your objective all along.

I can’t really say if these levels are better than the fort/keep levels in the base Quake game, but they have their moments in Scourge Of Armagon. You wouldn’t do without them, but they are kind of bland after how good the military bass episode was.

Tur Torment

Most of the space limit in this map is to create a big canyon at the start, and give you the impression of opening up a strange facility. Inside there is a shambler, and a pretty looking gateway. As the description for the episode reads, it’s like the real world, only somethings off. It’s like the dissolution of reality. It alright, I suppose.

Pandemonium

Is nothing like the name suggests. There is a hub area, you will get some keys. There’s two switches you have to shoot to lower a bridge to hit the third switch, which you can’t shoot for some reason. There’s a shambler at the end.

The soundtrack that was so good at the beginning of the expansion is starting to get really annoying. And this answers what it would have been like if Quake had a more Doom influenced OST instead of what Trent Rezner did.

Limbo

Agony of agonies. This is what pandemonium really is. Limbo throws everything at you; and the best chance you have is to take the quad damage upgrade and destroy the arena full of monsters to grab the first key, then slide down the waterways away from the shambler. Then you ascend from the depths, up to the top of the facility. It’s this journey that makes the level memorable, even though it’s not a fun ride at all. You breath a sigh of relief when this is over, only to find yourself in the Gauntlet.

The Gauntlet

As a wise man once said, sometimes you have to wade through rivers of blood to get what you want and that’s what you’ll be doing here. I like the Gauntlet; it feels like a fitting end to Quake, more so than what we got in the base game. A challenge that throws almost every idea from the game at you, collapsing floors, traps, keys, every monster under the sun and still the annoying gremlins and slaughterfish.

I do really think the blood you actually wade through makes the penultimate level feel even more twisted. You’ll be one twisted patriot by the time you open the final door. I think the enemies inside that room are so heinous, so horrendous, they were assembled there in their multitudes, so you jump, with the last rocket or two you have straight through the portal; straight into the hands of Armagon: the Strogg.

Armagon’s Lair

Half nightmare, half machine; Armagon makes quite the entrance, descending from a power cube into physical reality, where he’s going to shoot rockets and generally impose himself on you, while you circle strafe and shoot out all your ammo until he’s dead. There’s not a huge amount of challenge here, but it’s certainly a fun end to proceedings. It’s really a nice touch to see him explode into bloody chunks at the end. He leaves behind only his machine powered “legs”, which hint towards a new breed of enemy, the Strogg, which you’ll encounter in Quake 2, although I won’t. I’ll be playing something much cozier next time.