Malice for Quake - The Academy & Prologue

Episode: Malice for Quake
Level(s): The Academy & Prologue
Secrets: N/A
Difficulty: Hard

Remember when I said my first 'proper' experience with Quake was when I got my hands on the Resurrection Pack for Quake bundle? Well, Malice for Quake was the other game that came part of the package. Suffice it to say, Malice is MUCH better than Q!Zone mainly because it's so far removed from what Quake was. Playing this back in the day just blew my mind (yeah I know, I was easily impressed). The reason being is that there were new additions to Malice that had never been done before in any other first person shooter to date if memory serves me well.

First off, you have 'Toyz' to play with. These come in the form of:
A 'Mini Sub' (complete with fireable torpedoes) you can drive around underwater. Scuba Gear - for those long ventures underwater when the Sub isn't available. A Parachute to survive those long falls (Damage isn't like Quakeguy when it comes to sheer drops) down to the ground. A Probe which you can use to scout out areas and plan ahead on how to eliminate threats. And finally, a Hoverboard which can be used for fast transportation and to reach those all-important 'Secret' areas you normally wouldn't be able to.

What else is new? Well, for the time, I'd never seen a FPS game that could offer a third-person view where the camera would zoom out behind the player and follow his/her movements accordingly. Another notable addition is that near enough all the weapons in this game have to be manually reloaded. I know that sort of thing is commonplace nowadays but back in the 90's, this was something that was completely new to players (myself included) in an FPS game.

One final feature that Malice brought to the table (and was also completely new to me at the time) was the involvement of cutscenes to advance the story. That's right, there's an over-arching story in Malice! The voice acting is cheesy at best but it's that wonderful kind of cheesy that I can't bring myself to hate. Especially when Damage is constantly grunting, thinking out loud whenever a message appears on screen or dryly uttering one-liners whilst gunning down a Grunt (model ripped straight from Quake no less!) in the rain.

Anyway, what's the story? Well, let me bore you with the details:
It's half-past the 23rd century and you assume the role of Damage - a tough-talking bandana-wearing mercenary working for Colonel Bossman and his underground crime syndicate. Tasked with bringing down the competition, Bossman promises Damage a large sum of money if he silences his main rival, Takahiro and his company, Takahiro Industries. Thus the stage is set for more mindless first-person carnage!

Just how I like it!

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• malice
• for
• quake
• the-academy
• prologue
• introduction
• damage
• colonel
• bossman
• takahiro
• industries
• pistol
• toyz
• mini-sub
• scuba
• gear
• parachute
• probe
• hoverboard
• team
• epochalypse
• ratloop
• quantum
• axcess

[terminegger]

Why does he yell "Oh Shiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeet!" in an overly dramatic fashion at the end of the first level? Is because the kills counter is zero, or something?

[galleyuk]

@terminegger We may never know the full truth.

He only does it at the end of The Academy though. The funny thing is is that it's one of two lines he can yell at the end of this level. Sometimes, he just goes "AAARRRGGGHHH!" instead. Very overdramatic I must say.

[Votapardo]

Hmmm...

Shall I wish you a happy New Year and thnk you for this new playthrough?

YEAH! I will.

[galleyuk]

@Votapardo The same right back at ya, my good man! Keep them witty comments coming.

[Votapardo]

@galleyuk :)

I say! Did you see that Shrak (Shark?) for Quake video in the right column? I had never heard of this expansion. Is it worth the playthrough?

[galleyuk]

@Votapardo Curiously, Shrak for Quake was made by one of the co-developers of this mod, Quantum Axcess. I've been trying to get a hold of a copy of Shrak for quite some time now. Nothing's turned up trumps as of yet though.

I don't know how good it is since I've never played it. Meanwhile, my search continues...

[Neotails8762]

I still have the disc for this and I'm still playing it (I was thinking a few weeks ago of doing an LP of this myself, but my PC doesn't like it when I record the screen (and my camera's out of action).

Secondly, only true badasses say "asswipe".

[jj98jj]

I've never played Mailce for Quake before. It looks pretty good just like Quake SOA, DOE and AOP. There are several Quake mods and addons like X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse, developed by Marvel and Zero Gravity Entertainment, and published by WizardWorks (who made the Q!Zone for Quake), which I've also never played.

[Saruman38]

@galleyuk Couldn't that be simply because he's falling down a pit not knowing how deep it is?

[MezzoForteAnonymousX]

@woot835 In the future: The world is so messed up that it looks all gray and swirly?

(Abit closed in and dome like too?)