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Just tried Malice
About Malice
Malice is a total conversion for Quake. It's like a different game actually. It was widely hailed as the best TC for Quake, and that is probably true.
You're Damage, hired gun working for a company. Your boss lets you do the dirty work but soon decides to eliminate you when you keep asking for money.
Contains new weapons and monsters, many new levels (also DM) with new textures, many toys like submarines (!!!) and hoverboards (!!!!). The story is often humorous, sometimes cheesy (a gangster comedy, perhaps).
Differences from Quake:
- higher moving speed (352?), insane bunnyhopping
- real falling damage
- weapons need reloading (impulse 12)
- destroyable environment (often necessary to proceed)
- no armor or powerups
- so-called toyz (hoverboard, minisubs, etc.)
- completely new sounds
- higher difficulty
Pros:
very good models (monsters and weapons) and good sounds
destroyable environment
many funny ideas (squishable rats, Damage talking...)
vehicles (mini submarines) !
a story
cutscenes (funny ones)
probably very enjoyable deathmatch
Cons:
sometimes cheesy (fire extinguishers)
mediocre level design
it is often unclear what to do next
some enemies have perfect aim, can jump over missiles etc.
very difficult to avoid getting hurt (strafing often useless)
The weapons are especially enjoyable, the models are quake2-like with moving parts etc. and the sounds are cool. Some weapons can/must be reloaded (bind).
Here is a list.
Trusty .44: Pistol, unlimited ammo, nice.
Hellfire: launches flaming projectiles (pretty cheesy)
Vert-barrel shotgun: like the buckshot. OK.
Uzi: what it says. pretty nice, sounds OK.
Minigun: a really cool chaingun. superb sound and model. *likes*
Mortar gun: shoots napalm, sets enemy on fire. OK.
Punisher: some kind of plasma gun.
Missile launcher: a bit like quake2's rocket launcher. Mediocre.
The Atomic What-was-it-called: In DM, instead of the quad. Mega weapon.
I ended up liking the pistol, the uzi and the minigun most.
The monsters are inventive, sometimes cliche (swatmen roping from the ceiling, rioteers with baseball clubs), sometimes astonishing (giant robots), sometimes annoying (mercbabes, female mercenaries who can teleport at will, have perfect aim and can JUMP OVER ROCKETS). Also the boss fight is one of the more annoying ones. Really.
The SP levels are acceptable. There are new textures. The DM levels are usable, but not spectacular (no DM4 or E1M2 here).
The game sometimes feels too much like Tomb Raider, because of the pistol/uzi, the cheesy jokes, the minisubs, the simple-minded brutes and the endless switch-pressing. It may also be the somewhat plain level design, although the traps are missing (Dissolution of Eternity does a much better job at ripping off TR in this department). I don't know, it reminds me of TR 2 and 3. Damage would be the perfect male counterpart for Lara. Too bad he can't do flic-flacs or rope-climbing.
Malice, although a TC, comes in the usual .pak format. JoeQuake had no problems with it, so no special engine required. Just type "map start".
All in all, it's surprisingly entertaining. I would rate it better than Dissolution of Eternity, much better than X-Men or Abyss of Pandemonium (no contest) and about equal to Scourge of Armagon. It's no Quake, though.
Scourge clearly has much better level design. Malice has the better enemies, weapons that make you empty the magazine and reload just for the feel, and that cheesy gangster humour.
If you can somehow get your hands on Malice, grab it. It's worth a try.
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