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	Re: Evil Volunteers: Ten Thousand Spoons
	Posted By: Steve Levinson	Date: 1/21/04 12:56 p.m.
	In Response To: Evil Volunteers: Ten Thousand Spoons (Mark Levin) : We're taken from the bright, friendly warship, through a spooky chapter : screen, and thrust into a dark, mechanical nightmare reminiscent of : Marathon 1 and the Alien movies. But where the hell are we? We're forced to abandon ship and with a vast planet below we somehow transport down to this place that we'll shortly learn is a space ship. But what's it doing here? And why are the Pfhor here, too? : This level is our first encounter with : one of Evil's most impressive new features: the Devlins. These guys were : very impressive the first time through, and this level is one of the best : uses of them in the scenario. Once I got a good look at them in a lighted : area, I was less enamored of their spindly design and "busy" : walking animation, but they're still good for scares in a dark place like : this. The big question I have is where the Devlins came from. They look like they've been camped out in this space ship for some time, hiding out in the corners much as a spider would in an abandoned house. Are these an ambient life form on this planet, or yet another Pfhor client species? One important clue is that they replace the Fl'ichta sprite from the Infinity shapes file. Unlike the Fl'ichta, however, they only seem to attack us or, if we'er lucky, each other. They do not inherently attack the Pfhor. Maybe they just don't like the way the Pfhor smell or taste? : For the most part they're only present in the first half of the : scenario, but the mapmakers still get a lot of use out of them. I was : particularly impressed with the slaughter the player stumbles upon, as the : last humans are killed by a Devlin that got past their failing spotlight : seconds before you arrived. The fact that the devlins are only present in the first half tends to argue in favor of them being an ambient life form native to this particular planet. And the opening slaughter - definitely Frigidman's sense of humor - a nice touch in this case. : The mapmaking here is not one of the highlights of the scenario, consisting : mostly of plain hallways that rarely deviate from perfectly horizontal or : vertical. Perhaps it's a good thing that there's not much here to distract : you from the Devlins, but it took me a while to start liking this scenario : the first time through. The map design is definitely not a highlight of this level, but I agree, simplicity was important for your first encounter with devlins. : There are also some unfortunately uses of : "mysterious alien technology" that could make the level quite : frustrating, as we are never told that the mysterious round things are a : pattern buffer and computer terminal (and could they please at least look : different?) or that the buzzing room is actually a recharger? If you miss : any of these items, you're going to have a tough time finishing the level, : especially if you're not used to fighting Devlins. Well, there is an explanation of this on one of the terminals but, unfortunately, it is on one of these strangely shaped terminals. It would have been nice if the player could have been clued into it on the beam-in terminal. I figured it out right away, however - I was desperate! : Ammo is also extremely : tight, as the shotgun is the best weapon (so far) to use on the devlins, : but you have very few shells and also have to kill a few Pfhor. This level : also has gun turrets on it, significantly upgraded from their SONK : equivalents as it is no longer possible to even hit them with shots. The lack of ammo is my biggest gripe about Evil in general. I'm finding it much easier to get by with the ammo on hand this time through, but there just isn't room to be creative on this level, so you have to shoot the devlins. Aren't you glad you killed those 4 bobs on Mangle Him? : Another unfortunately decision here was the use of the Checkpoint terminal : section, which has always been buggy in Infinity and doesn't display : properly. Here it mostly works, but we'll run into much more problematic : screens later in the scenario. Mark, could you explain this a little - I'm not sure what a checkpoint terminal section is. : The story here is what you'd expect from a horror scenario: Several people : send you terminal messages shortly before getting killed, and the chain of : command eventually passes to a man named [General] Dire. But he only gets : a few words in before Karth Pa'Korh from SONK breaks into the transmission : to threaten you some more. Again, how did Dire in his moment of desperation on abandoning ship manage to find your way to this alien ship that, judging from the texture set, may be of Jjaro origin? In any case, Karth PaKorh was here first and he wants this ship.

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Replies:

	Evil Volunteers: Ten Thousand Spoons	Mark Levin	1/21/04 7:42 a.m.
	Re: Evil Volunteers: Ten Thousand Spoons	goran	1/21/04 11:58 a.m.
	Re: Evil Volunteers: Ten Thousand Spoons	Steve Levinson	1/21/04 12:56 p.m.
	Re: Evil Volunteers: Ten Thousand Spoons	Mark Levin	1/21/04 2:34 p.m.
	Re: Evil Volunteers: Ten Thousand Spoons	Dr. John Sumner	1/21/04 4:15 p.m.
	Re: Evil Volunteers: Ten Thousand Spoons	Steve Levinson	1/21/04 7:05 p.m.
	Re: Evil Volunteers: Ten Thousand Spoons	Dr. John Sumner	1/22/04 3:17 a.m.
	Re: Evil Volunteers: Ten Thousand Spoons	Andrew Nagy	1/25/04 2:46 p.m.
	Re: Evil Volunteers: Ten Thousand Spoons	Andrew "Document" Nagy	1/28/04 3:54 p.m.

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