Quake Dissolution of Eternity - is it worth getting?

[T-Rex]

I am a Quake fan and enjoyed the original game and its expansion pack Scourge of Armagon. I am thinking of getting the second expansion pack Dissolution of Eternity, but I don't know if it is really worth spending a few bucks on it, since I know that despite it being a Quake game, it is quite different from the original and Scourge of Armagon in terms of gameplay.

The video playthroughs make it look promising, though. Aside from all the new enemies, bosses, items and powered weapons, it looks familiar yet fresh, especially with the first episode which continues the gothic theme of the previous games, while there's the time-travelling concept of the second episode which takes you through various settings like Greco-Roman, Egyptian, and Mayan-Aztec locales. One drawback I'm aware of though is the progression. The original Quake and Scourge of Armagon have a fast pace and sense of direction for the most part, while I hear Dissolution of Eternity is more labyrinth-like and somewhat cryptic in terms of level progression. Another is the lack of techbase levels, which Scourge of Armagon have an entire episode set on. Even so, I notice it still gets positive comments and reviews, and it is considered to be the better of Rogue Entertainment's mission pack sequels in comparison to their Ground Zero for Quake 2.

So, tell me, should I go ahead and get Dissolution of Eternity? I'm by no means a diehard Quake fan, but I liked the original and Scourge of Armagon, and enjoyed some of the custom maps that can be downloaded through Quaddicted.

[lil'devil]

I, personally, enjoyed Dissolution of Eternity as much as Scourge of Armagon, so i think it's worth getting.

[Voros]

Yes. It is worth it.

[printz]

I found Dissolution of Eternity even more evil than Scourge of Armagon, though they're both awesome and much better than Quake. Keep in mind DoE is designed by the Strife team, so you're bound to find similarities in level design.

[Avoozl]

I lean more towards Scourge of Armagon since it has more variety in weapons and whatever else.

[Gez]

How did you get Quake and SOA but not DOE? They're always bundled now, e.g. on GOG.

Personally I enjoyed both. DOE brings alt-ammo variants of most weapons (lava nailguns, multigrenades, multimissiles, plasma cannon) and several new enemies, of which the coolest-looking IMO are the Wrath and Overlord.

That said I don't know if I would buy it specifically. I'd advise you to just wait until GOG puts Quake: the Offering on sale so you don't have to pay full price for just the one expansion you lack.

[chungy]

I'd guess he got the original discs... in which case, both the expansion packs tend to be rather uncommon and expensive, compared to the base game. Buying on GOG is definitely cheapest 😀

[lil'devil]

Gez said:

How did you get Quake and SOA but not DOE? They're always bundled now

On Steam both mission packs are sold separately.

[printz]

Gez said:

of which the coolest-looking IMO are the Wrath and Overlord.

Are they based on the Heretic disciple? I even made a Dehacked mod with my child voice down-sampled to sound like their whisper, using the disciple sprites and reddened revenant fireballs looking like baron plasma.

[T-Rex]

chungy said:

I'd guess he got the original discs... in which case, both the expansion packs tend to be rather uncommon and expensive, compared to the base game. Buying on GOG is definitely cheapest 😀

Yes, bought Quake and Scourge of Armagon on ebay back at the tail end of 2009 and the start of 2010. Fortunately, they didn't cost much back then. The original game was fun, but I enjoyed Scourge of Armagon more due to the first episode using the techbase theme, the gameplay flow and level design was remarkable, and it's done by the guys who worked on Final Doom: TNT Evilution (Tom Mustaine and Jimmy Sieben), Rise of the Triad (Mark Dochtermann and Jim Dose), and Duke Nukem 3D (Levelord), so that's quite a talented team that started Ritual Entertainment. Still, looking at the comments, sounds like Dissolution of Eternity is just as enjoyable as the previous Quake titles, so I'm considering to search for it.

[Wild Dog]

It's worth the money, get it on Steam, get the music files somewhere else and then use a source port thbat supports musi playback. Those early quakes wuthout music are not the same.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

SoA is better but DoE is great too--the main letdowns are some enemies that (IMO) are kind of thematically clashing with the rest of Quake, and the annoying earthquake function they added (which makes you slip all around, not just shaking the screen like in Hexen).

[Gez]

Wild Dog said:

It's worth the money, get it on Steam, get the music files somewhere else and then use a source port thbat supports musi playback. Those early quakes wuthout music are not the same.

Get it on GOG and use the audioextractor to get the music tracks.

[Pencil of Doom]

Of course it is, what are you waiting for sonny jim, go get it.

[T-Rex]

Wild Dog said:

Those early quakes wuthout music are not the same.

I prefer playing Quake without the music. Makes the game more creepy, in my opinion. Still, I don't mind listening to the music as you can find them on YouTube. Trent Reznor's soundtrack for the original sound pretty awesome, though I like more what Jeehun Hwang made for the expansion packs.

[Avoozl]

I used to play the game without music until I found out how the game actually had music lol, it certainly made the game fresh again to actually hear the music play after installing the unofficial patch.

[Wild Dog]

Gez said:

Get it on GOG and use the audioextractor to get the music tracks.

How can he get it on GoG??? If GOG doesn´t have it? While Steam does have it.
On GOG they only have the Compilation for 10 Dollars, while for 2.5 dollars he can get only the part he needs.

I know some people may be anti steam.....

[chungy]

Steam requires you to own the base game on Steam too, which you're looking at $8 just for Quake + DoE. And that still lacks the soundtrack. Advising people to pirate the soundtrack just because of a Steam limitation is silly.

GOG includes the full soundtrack for all three.

[Gez]

Wild Dog said:

How can he get it on GoG??? If GOG doesn´t have it? While Steam does have it.
On GOG they only have the Compilation for 10 Dollars, while for 2.5 dollars he can get only the part he needs.

I know some people may be anti steam.....

As chungy points out, that still requires buying the base Quake game on Steam, so no you don't save much money. With GOG you get the soundtrack.


Also suppose there's a sale going on, with a big Quake pack being sold for cheap. On Steam he'll have to buy the full bundle; but on GOG you never need to buy stuff you've already bought to take advantage of sales.

[Wild Dog]

He has Quake already, he just needs the files, which is what you get with Steam.
No need to pay extra money to get what he already have.

When they do bundles for sale every single ítem is on discount and if you buy something that you already have on your library you, instead of adding it as a game, they add it as a gift, so you can give it to someone else.

[Gez]

Wild Dog said:

He has Quake already, he just needs the files, which is what you get with Steam.
No need to pay extra money to get what he already have.

He has Quake on CD from ebay, he does not have Quake on Steam. You want to buy DOE on Steam, you have to buy Quake on Steam. So to buy DOE on Steam for someone who has Quake but not Steam Quake, there is a need to pay extra money to get Steam Quake because he has Quake but not Steam Quake so he needs to buy Steam Quake even if he already has Quake but not on Steam so as to get Steam Quake so as to get Steam DOE. Steam.

Is that clear or do I need to explain it more? The choice is between:
- buying DOE on ebay
- buying Quake and DOE on Steam
- Buying Quake on GOG

The GOG choice is overall the best because it's not really more expensive and it legally comes with the soundtrack.

[Wild Dog]

You are mistaken.......
You don´t need to buy Quake on steam to buy DoE on Steam..... As matter of what if you only get DoE. You will get DoE retail files only.....

So i don´t know where you get that information, that you need to buy Quake on Steam as well if you get DoE on Steam....

When an expansion pack needs the "base" game, steams lets you know. For example

http://store.steampowered.com/app/352000/

They tell you, that if you want to play that content, you will need Resident Evil 5 STEAM.

Now let´s take a look at Quake DOE.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/9030/

As you can see they don´t tell you that you need Quake. They are just selling you the Retail Files....

So if you buy it, you can copy those files to your own Quake installation folder and run the expansion pack without any issue.

Plus i have them on Steam and if install only DoE. It just downloads the files for DoE...

chungy said:

And that still lacks the soundtrack. Advising people to pirate the soundtrack just because of a Steam limitation is silly.

GOG includes the full soundtrack for all three.

The issue with the Soundtrack is not Steam fault, it´s a legal issue that goes beyond Valve or GoG for that matter. GoG versión used to have the .ogg files but they werer forced to remove them, so they put those .cue with the extensión of .gog.... Which seems to be in the gray when it comes if it is legal or not.

[purist]

Wherever you get it from its worth getting. There's not much between he expansions so if you think SoA is worth getting separately you won't go too far wrong with DoE

[CARRiON]

I don't own Quake or its expansions on Steam, when I tried to add DoE to my cart it took it out and told me I needed Quake first.

It's not hard to check.

[HorrorMovieRei]

One thing that kind of bums me out about DoE is the final boss.

Spoiler

It's a dragon. He's a challenging foe, but not very fitting with Quake. Maybe it's just left over from when Quake was going to have a purely fantasy setting, but it just feels very underwhelming when you previously battled eldrich horrors such as Chthon, Shub Nigurath and Armagon. And the Dragon isn't even the leader or the mastermind of the invasion, he's just there to guard the portal thingy you have to destroy.

[Lila Feuer]

HorrorMovieGuy said:

One thing that kind of bums me out about DoE is the final boss.

Spoiler

It's a dragon. He's a challenging foe, but not very fitting with Quake. Maybe it's just left over from when Quake was going to have a purely fantasy setting, but it just feels very underwhelming when you previously battled eldrich horrors such as Chthon, Shub Nigurath and Armagon. And the Dragon isn't even the leader or the mastermind of the invasion, he's just there to guard the portal thingy you have to destroy.

Spoiler

I always thought he was very similar to the Death Wyvern from Hexen, except actually challenging.

[printz]

ETTiNGRiNDER said:

and the annoying earthquake function they added (which makes you slip all around, not just shaking the screen like in Hexen).

How can you say that? The game itself is called QUAKE. It was a disappointment the original material had no earthquakes.

I wish that Hexen/ZDoom/Eternity also had earthquakes that moved you around (in a way they do, but if set to do so they also cause huge damage!)