We have made it to the Standalone series of levels for Aftershock. That means we shall be doing one-shots, levels intended to be played with no other level.
First up is a level called 222x3 (due to going in alphabetical order, as is usual for these types of level series). The name is easy enough to understand, it is referring to 666 (number of the beast) and making it in a way so that the blasphemous number is not written. Of course, that doesn't exactly explain why this is referring to Hell in the first place, but I can't answer everything!
This level, in terms of being a Deathmatch level (which is implied by the filename, which explicitly has DM on it), is absolutely worthless. All but one of the spawn locations are corrupt, meaning we get a level as useless in Deathmatch as something like Evil Palace from Q2.
Of course, at least Evil Palace had nonlinearity. This level has a few branches, but is mainly a linear walk through a couple of rooms. It appears to have been built for the Singleplayer stroll, which is odd as it would make all Weapons pointless, plus conflict with the Deathmatch name.
This level is a blink and you will miss due to being a strolling level with massive linearity and barely any weapons. Rooms are often lacking in proper lighting, creating odd shadows (such as the floor being completely covered in darkness). A lot of rooms are nothing much more than squares or basic corridors. Basically, level geometry is rather unappealing.
Deathmatch usually implies weapons. This time, we get very few weapons, meaning basically there is an entire imbalance in placement (and once more suggesting it was created for the sole purpose of taking a random stroll).
The one thing that stands out about this level and is possibly the most memorable feature is the custom messages. There are a couple pickup messages and a message when the player exits the level, meaning we get some interesting text. Of course, the ending text is not really visible (I tried wall-hugging to see if I could show it off if the trigger existed an inch before the End Tunnel, but as you can plainly see it failed).
As for the Weapon pickups, they are rather strange but definitely the thing to remember from this level. In front of the pit for the End Tunnel is a pit with Electric Pylon bolts firing over it. Dropping into the pit will result in you being stuck in a hole with a Rocket Launcher. You will receive the message "Kill Yourself", suggesting that the author didn't realize you could Rocket Jump out of it (as I do in the video). Rocket Jumping is also useful for getting out of a Slime pool (interestingly enough, there seems to be no normal way out of a room with 100 Health as you would be trapped in the Slime pit after taking it, as you cannot climb onto the Elevator like you would a normal brush). This means there are a couple sections where the player is intended to be trapped and thus not get certain items, but both can be circumvented by Rocket Jumping.
As for the second pickup message, it is perhaps the odder of the two. A Grenade Launcher exists on the map, picking it up results in the message "Throw grenade not Pin!" being displayed. I guess it is supposed to be a bit of humor, but it also appears to have been written in broken English. I suddenly get reminded of Engrish, old Japanese titles mistranslated into English. Well, go next level, forget this.
