Wow, this was quite the mixed bag. Episode 1 was excellent, and far exceeded the base games levels IMO. The new weapons and enemies were a ton of fun and the Duke 3d like level design of Ep1 combined with Quake's gameplay goes together like peanut butter and jelly.
However, Episode 2 is a slog. Filled with dickish and unavoidable traps. Like those fucking floating mines that will usually one shot you and often SPAWN BEHIND YOU. It's bullshit. They're not challenging in any way, it's just a tedious bore quick saving over and over again until you memorize where they spawn.
Thankfully, ep3 evens out a bit more. And while the final boss is a bit of a pushover (just like Doom 1's bosses), it's nice to even have a true final boss fight unlike the vanilla games final "boss" which is more of a weird combat puzzle than a straight-on fight.
Over all, Scourge of Armagon is a unique experience. Quite different than the vanilla game. If you love the vanilla Quake experience for exactly what it is, you'll probably hate SoA for how different its design approach is. I, however, felt it was quite refreshing when it wasn't being dickish with its traps.
At the end of the day, SoA has much higher highs than the OG Quake eps, but also much lower lows (which is exactly what I said about Vanilla Quake when compared to Doom's, now that I think about it lol.)
However, Episode 2 is a slog. Filled with dickish and unavoidable traps. Like those fucking floating mines that will usually one shot you and often SPAWN BEHIND YOU. It's bullshit. They're not challenging in any way, it's just a tedious bore quick saving over and over again until you memorize where they spawn.
Thankfully, ep3 evens out a bit more. And while the final boss is a bit of a pushover (just like Doom 1's bosses), it's nice to even have a true final boss fight unlike the vanilla games final "boss" which is more of a weird combat puzzle than a straight-on fight.
Over all, Scourge of Armagon is a unique experience. Quite different than the vanilla game. If you love the vanilla Quake experience for exactly what it is, you'll probably hate SoA for how different its design approach is. I, however, felt it was quite refreshing when it wasn't being dickish with its traps.
At the end of the day, SoA has much higher highs than the OG Quake eps, but also much lower lows (which is exactly what I said about Vanilla Quake when compared to Doom's, now that I think about it lol.)