Operation: Eisenfaust Origins Level 4 & Level 6

Level 4 of Eisenfaust Origins is one of those levels of which I do not remember much in terms of creating it. Obviously when I see the level I recognize it, but otherwise I couldn't tell you much about it. Which is why I will discuss two levels in this post. Since Dean did the mapping for level 5, this means that I will talk about levels 4 & 6.

As I said, level 4 is a level I remember relatively little about. It's just 'one of the levels'; nothing remarkable happened during its creation. It's another prison level, and there are relatively few aspects of this level that truly stand out. As such, I see it as more of a filler level.

The only aspect that stands out for me about this level is the amount of backtracking required. You find one key on one side of the level and then have to travel all the way to the other side of the map. And that is pretty much the whole level. As such, I consider it to be one of the more sloppy levels. At the time though, I wasn't so against backtracking as I am now. I think it hampers the playing experience, as you constantly have to go back across a level where all the action has taken place already. It is fairly useless, and it's why I strive to let my levels be more connected, as to avoid unnecessary backtracking.

The same goes for level 6, really. It was the first level where I utilized the rain, and since it featured dogs, I called the level Rain Dog; a reference to the Rain Dogs album by Tom Waits (which is fantastic). The level is relatively big, yet at the same time, like level 4, it feels more like a filler level. It's not bad, and it doesn't have nearly as much unnecessary backtracking as level 4, but at the same time it doesn't have anything special about it. It lacks an element that stands out, something that levels like 3 and 5 do possess. For me, at least.

And for a level which has the word Dog in its title, the amount of dogs in the level is relatively scarce. In fact, dogs are the enemies that we utilized the least. The reason is simple: they are relatively challengeless, being easy to kill, and there are only so many ways in which you can use them. You can combine them with other enemies, but since it only takes one shot to kill them they can be taken care of with relative ease. And then there is the other option: place them in a large pack of hounds. This can be challenging, especially in large open areas where they can attack you from all sides. A good mapper, using interesting enemy placement, can create a challenging scenario out of this. However, that scenario gets old fairly quickly.

All in all, these are two levels which I personally wouldn't rank amongst the top levels of this game. They can provide a nice challenge, but at the same time they lack something special that would have made them stand out from the other levels.

You can download Operation: Eisenfaust Origins HERE.

You can watch Balames' playthrough of level 4 below;

And you can watch Balames' playthrough of level 6 below here;