Review by Colin Phipps

Those of you who have played any of Michael Krause's levels will need no introduction to his style - big, spacious rooms and outdoor areas, grand futuristic architecture. But the author has outdone even himself this time, because RUNBUDDY takes these characteristics further than ever before. The level is so vast that it took me longer to play it than many episodes that I download (my time was into the 'sucks' zone by at least 6 hours, I'm sure). The vast hallways and rooms seemed even bigger than he usually makes them.

The level is I suppose in the industrial style, but there was very little 'industry' in evidence. Almost every wall in the level is textured in BROWN1; many of the rooms only had a few computer cabinets to break up the monotony. Indeed, the whole level seems to just be a series of boring brown buildings, with very little purpose (even the computer cabinets were just machinery, no flashing lights or displays). The level is too spacious to really be a warehouse or storage facility either, so I didn't get any feel for what it was supposed to be. Maybe it does have a purpose, but whatever it is isn't an exciting place to play Doom in, that's all I know ;P.

There were some good rooms, where all the usual impressive architecture of this author's levels was in evidence. Unfortunately these rooms were also often the same ones in which he placed cyberdemons (there are 4 at the level), which left me little time to admire the view. 4 cyberdemons isn't as bad as it seems all in the level, given how large the level is; there is plenty of space and rockets in all of the fights, so they aren't a big problem.

The fights are the interesting part of this level. There is plenty of ammo and plenty of opposition throughout the level, though health is restrained enough that you can't get too carried away. The author makes good use of cleverly placed chaingunners in the large open areas, which keeps the player very alert. As the level goes on, the author makes good use of revenants and arachnotrons to make those open spaces even more dangerous. There are some good tricks with teleports, so keep an eye out behind you too.

The level imports the usual Quake sound scheme that Michael uses with all his levels. And there is a new night sky, which adds some atmosphere to the outdoor areas.

RUNBUDDY is massive, because of which it requires the Boom engine to run. I'd also suggest a powerful computer, P100 at least, because it is so huge that it can slow down even a usually fast Boom setup. I dread to imagine how long it took to make. But in the end I would prefer a level half as long with more detail and variety instead. The fights are good though, so if you like this style of level then I'd say download it.