Reviews  Ones  Brett Johnson  2001 GDR  2002 GDR  2003 GDR


 

The DooMer's RecesS proudly presents:

  B R E T T   J O H N S O N ' S   " 6 P A C K "

Here's Brett's own homepage! Well worth a visit!

THE STORY

Well the name isn't exactly right. It covers a level pack with 6 different levels put together named "Terror", "R_I_P", "Dethmetl", "The Keep", "The Quad" and "The Final Terror". And what is this anyway? Well "6Pack" was made a long time ago by a man now more known for his work in the professional gaming industry. Brett Johnson worked for Valve when they made the amazing First Person Shooter "Half-Life". His work on this grand game includes some of the most memorable levels such as the levels pre and post the disaster! However, he also worked on the scripting system which pushed the Quake engine, at which "Half-Life" was built, to its limit. The Quake engine was no stranger to Brett as some amateur work of his for this game came to Valve's attention and lead to his employment at Valve Software. Levels such as "Stalkyard" and "The Hunted" might ring a bell by those who play mulitplayer "Half-Life". They too are made by Brett. After his work for Valve he went over to Gas Powered Games where he became the design lead for Dungeon Siege. However some of the monsters in this game are also his creations. His current occupation is more or less a secret, but he reveals that the end product is going to be great! I for one am convinced already! Not only for his professional work, but also for "6Pack" has he won my gaming heart!

"6Pack" is old and thus suffers a little under the occasional mis-aligned texture, but when thinking about it and its age considered, you can't help but to be impressed! Firstly there's the atmosphere. Although better in some of the levels than others, you really can't help but to have an overall impressed feeling with the way in which these levels reek of evil! But that's far from the best thing about these 6 levels. The gameplay is out of this world! Brett has carefully examined the little quirks which lie within the doom engine and found things I've never even thought about myself! The real fun comes when you are surprised at seeing a Cyber Demon in the lowest of the skill levels and a Arch Vile and some Pain Elementals instead at the higher skill levels! This is because Brett found out that, with his own words: "In short, skill level 1 isn't necessarily easier at all. Because you have more ammo per weapon, and take less damage, I offset this with different monsters and placement." So you're in for a surprise and a superb gaming experience! Or what about the marine you can shoot and kill at the end of a level, which then revives with an evil grin! And as you can see on the below screenshots, Brett also took the effort as to throw in some cool new textures, sky, music, sprites and some really good new sounds! However, it doesn't end here! Be sure to play these levels in DM mode. There's a great deal of fun to be found, especially in "Dethmetl" and "The Quad". All things considered this level pack beats the crap out of most new levels released today, and would have totally dominated if it wasn't for a few old-school design faults! This pack is the product of great thinking and care to make a complete pack of levels which has a lot to offer us Doom gamers! Be sure to download this and learn from a master!

SCREENSHOTS




DOWNLOAD

Please be aware that these maps were designed for the original Doom 2 executable. There's a batch file in the zip
which you must run to add the new various textures and such. All described in the txt file. Also, please be aware that especially the "R_I_P" level doesn't work properly with some sourceports such as Legacy; if you don't face some resurrected monsters, which are hard to kill, then it isn't working right!

Click here to download.

E-mail the author Brett Johnson at this address: graveljaw@hotmail.com