Chex Quest 3 (2008)

:in tick voice: Spooooooon.

In a way it is great fun just to see ALL the references to doom. Your chex warrior mugshot's eyes dart back and forth, it's almost like shamlessly lifting every bit of doom and trying to make it as kid-friendly as possible. (There is also a commercial for this game and an intro for it on youtube i just saw. the commercial shows some slime going over a kids head and it looks like the STRAFE 'teaser'. While the intro shows the helmet of chex warrior's chex suit closing it looks a lot like the doom helmet in a cool way.)

There is something very disturbing about trying to market something that at the time was determined not to be for kids (doom), yet trying to make it have a wide audience with youngsters. In some ways this game might even promote violence. a kid isn't going to attack his sibling with a chainsaw. But he might just stab them with a spork if he saw it done in this game.. (the chainsaw is replaced with a rotating spork.)

the spork is killer. Ammo isnt much of a problem for the weapons but for the most part the spork alone can be used almost exclusively. The weapons and ammo are a bit odd and its not so clear what ammo goes for what weapon. Yes, they are all lifted straight from doom. The shotgun basically looks like a bigger taser pistol, but the ammo for each weapon when you pick it up and find it on the ground isnt very intuitive. The maps themselves are also a bit confusing (i found) and not so well done (imo). Heck the game is pretty amazing for what it is: something that's publishing costs were covered by America Online and came for free in a box of cereal. (this was when people would pay something for demo's of games, you realize...) Still, it's short and there isnt too much wandering around. The combat is easy enough for anyone to play. I reccomend the game if you curious about this weird bit of history. It's fun and funny, and actually decently done. So it's not nearly as bad as i was expecting.

So I downloaded this about two hours ago (from here; it's free) and beat it about half an hour ago. It's that short. Chex Quest 3 includes the prior two "official" Chex Quest releases along with a new third episode, but unlike Doom I, the Chex Quest episodes are only five maps long.

Being a modification of Doom, all of the weapons are just reskinned Doom weapons. The enemies, on the other hand, are changed to be mostly melee enemies, with the only ranged enemies firing projectiles. The first episode has very few enemy types, but each subsequent episode introduced more enemies, even if 90% of the flemoids you encounter are melee enemies. The maps are good, particularly those of the latter two episodes; the first episode has an abundance of shortcuts-as-secrets (something that irks me a little) and far too many secrets are disguised as grates or other holes you can pass through.

Seeing as this was meant for kids as a cereal promotion, it's probably no surprise that Chex Quest isn't a difficult game. In fact, I rarely dipped below 200% health and armor in the first two episodes. And then the third episode started getting a little hard. Namely, I found myself very short on zorch (ammo) throughout E3M4, and one area in that level has about three dozen flem mines (lost souls) that will mob you and murderize you in very quick fashion if you don't have plenty of zorch coming in. Said area is easily the most difficult part of the entire game. (As in, I died there. Once.) Then again, with 90% of the enemies being melee, the super bootspork (chainsaw) tears through most of the game with little difficulty.

Despite the flaws, Chex Quest 3 was actually a pretty fun game to run through. It's worth a try if you're a fan of the classic Doom games.