Download Duke Nukem 3D: Blast Radius (last update: 03/04/2024; v. 5.0.2)
The Earth may have exploded, but Duke Nukem's universe isn't toast yet. All the while escaping the overrun EDF space station from Blast Radius level 10 "Postmortem" aboard Commander Keen's Bean-With-Bacon Megarocket, our hero (?) can only clench his teeth and grip his gun as fiercely as he still clings to the hope of not being the sole survivor of the armaggeddon machine. "Silent Scream" signifies the rupture of Duke's psyche and his literal descent into an episode of uncertain destination but the next zap or zot.
"Silent Scream" is a short, interactive transition level that announces Blast Radius' imminent, true end game and challenge all along (by design, the hardest one Duke has ever faced).
It serves the purposes of physically transporting Duke onward to the immediate next settings, but also of marking a literal 90-degree shift - 3D style - of the stakes by consisting in two successive, separate, perpendicular halves.
Duke will traverse chunks of the previous levels which were blown into orbit:
here, (both layers of) the Pula Arena from level 6 "Koj Stil Borac",
and the Palais Galliera reinterpretation
from level 7 "Lights, Camera, Revolution".
The first minute of the level is spent force-scrolled along and through the longest line that is possible in the Build engine, inside Keen's ship that traverses the totality of the available Mapster32 grid (after maxing it out in the .cfg file) from its southernmost extreme to its northernmost point in a straight direction.
Remains of structures from level 2 "Embarco's Most Blasted" and
of the Brooklyn Bridge from level 3 "Big Apple Smoke Toke".
The Bean-With-Bacon Megarocket is being attacked from all sides this whole time and, inside, Duke only has so much room to move; thankfully, there are multiple windows out of which he can watch and fight back, a seat to provide some occasionally helpful elevation and, last but not least, several refills of "ZAP" and "ZOT" to feed the supplied Shrinker/Expander gun until his cosmic train eventually derails.
After the most horizontal possible of all Build engine journeys culminates with the ship entering the atmosphere of a mysterious planet, the map then breaks into a second half which now turns entirely vertical (infinitely so due to complex silent teleporter sequencing) and introduces a new gameplay mechanic based on free fall and Duke's reaction to the emergence of deadly obstacles as he keeps dropping down.
The Russian police cars from level 8 "Norilsk No-Reward"
flirting with the Sunplaza building from level 9 "Nakano Nightmare".
Dodge the red lights!
After he's avoided crash landing on all the rooftops, Duke shall be ready to traverse the purgatory of his own that is the prison planet of Blast Radius level 12: "Zarathustra".
History: "Silent Scream" also chronologically was the eleventh map designed for Blast Radius, started right after the rough finalization of "Postmortem" had happened which, in planning terms, made sense by design: with every Earth-based level finally out of the way came the now certain possibility of deconstructing and disassembling all the existing locations from the formerly established universe, in order to compose a credible medley map.
From the start, the concept was the one of introducing the most radical rupture possible with the absolute horizontal plane brutally turning infinitely vertical, forming an upside-down L to precipitate Duke into the reality of the episode and thus, closer to the true source of the blast.
"Silent Scream" was started on January 8th, 2022 and then completed on January 18th, 2022.
In addition to the Commander Keen series tie-in, it openly embraces inspiration from the 1997 Nintendo 64 video game by Nintendo, "Star Fox 64"/"Lylat Wars"; thematically, "Silent Scream" also is inspired by the 1995 Parallax Software MS-DOS classic, "Descent".
Walkthrough:
The first two-third of the level is, essentially, an interactive autoscroller aboard a sophisticated one-way train.
Directly continuing from the discovery of the Bean-With-Bacon Megarocket at the end of level 10 "Postmortem", Duke finds himself at the commands of the ship after successfully escaping the EDF space station.
Immediately, the ship is under attack. Our hero (?) should grab the Shrinker/Expander gun in front of him and get ready to fight back.
The entire section consists in anticipating the incoming enemy waves all the while constantly alternating between the Shrinker and Expander modes of the gun.
The Expander will easily neutralize most nuisances, with its practically perfect hitscan and enemy stunning capabilities (especially against Sentry Drones).
The Shrinker will come in handy for neutralizing the various Assault Commander variants, preferably before they get to fire at the ship, or infiltrate the cabin.
The spinning chunks of rock and various Earthly remains in the debris scattered throughout sometimes conceal Assault Trooper snipers Duke ideally should and thus shall consider wiping out.
Sentry Drones and Assault Commanders always will favor frontal assault of the Megarocket, but occasionally will be assisted by alien ship-mounted U.T.E.R.U.S. Expander turrets which will try and catch up from the side, to target Duke through the wall there.
For that reason, straight ahead shouldn't be Duke's exclusive line of focus, so as to avoid whiplash.
If Duke eventually runs low on ammunition, the commands of the ship feature two switches he can take the most appropriate time to use: on the left side, operating the lever ("ZOT") will result in a Shrinker crystals refill, whereas using the rightmost "ZAP" one shall replenish the Microwave Expander.
Each switch is independent and can generate up to four full refills.
About halfway through the ride, the Megarocket will commence entering the atmosphere of a nearby planet.
After some turbulence, the ship will reappear in a different zone, closer to the planet, only to continue ahead in its direction.
In lieu of the formerly encountered enemies, this part of the level now has the Russian Pig Cop cars from Norilsk which somehow survived being blasted into space, one of them even with its radio.
Duke may decide to study the effects of the Microwave Expander on pork in such exceptional settings; in space, no one can hear you squeal.
Eventually, the Megarocket will get caught within the atmosphere of the mysterious planet for good (and from this point of Blast Radius onwards, Duke will start occasionally 'hearing voices').
After some more turbulence, Duke's ride will stabilize and commence dying out, indicating it is now viable for him to escape by jumping out of the cockpit after the ship has stopped.
Leaping over the commands, then down the pit at this point marks the end of the horizontal segment of the level, and the sudden start of the vertical, free falling section.
After hopping out of the dying Megarocket, Duke instantly finds himself face-to-face with a gigantic alien defense spaceship that is just as prompt at appearing as it is at dropping a horde of Assault Troopers on him, just to provide him with extra deadly company during his fall.
Duke shall need to vanquish them all as to fend off his way ahead, but also around the buildings below, the rooftops of which protrude at various heights and would kill our hero (?) were he to catch one during his endless fall.
As the ground approaches closer and closer, more and more buildings will emerge from underneath, obstruct the space and risk impaling Duke.
Thankfully, all the rooftops emit red lights, which announce their imminence by recoloring Duke just in time to warn him so that he gets to move out of the way, and dodge all the possible crash landings.
After he's bypassed all the rooftops, Duke can freely lead his fall towards, then inside the now apparent beam of green light; which, eventually, shall welcome him into the despair that is the prison planet of Zarathustra.
Par time route: For the most part being a short, survival autoscroller type of level with no health item pick-ups, there only is relatively little leeway for optimizing one's time through "Silent Scream".
The difference between the "PAR TIME" and "3D REALMS' TIME" only is of one single second, and can be attained - if not just barely beaten - by escaping out of the Megarocket into the pit of the last free fall section immediately as the ship stops (jumping out as it's still moving will kill Duke), and then hovering towards where the level exit will appear before the sector with the green light beam even shows, as to enter it on the earliest correct frame possible.
One more aspect that is worthy of note for speedrunning is "Silent Scream" is in fact designed to allow 100% kills, which is possible once the patterns mesmerized, although ignoring the enemies and letting the Megarocket bypass them might leave a select few of them behind for good (whereas some, such as the Commanders, might be able to catch up again if Duke remains inside the ship for a long time after it has stopped).
A couple of enemies in particular were implemented specifically to be particularly tricky to gun down, with only a limited time window, or view out on the surrounding space to react to (case in point: the last U.T.E.R.U.S. Expander turret). But the challenge isn't impossible and just difficult enough to add last minute end game stressful stakes in the context of the eleventh level during a serious 100% kills run.
In the most desperate of those situations, more often than not it should be possible for Duke to turn around inside the Megarocket and hopefully catch up with a missed enemy by shooting out of the back of the ship, through the clutter; although, that would temporarily expose his back to any other oncoming threat ahead for as long as he's not looking, thereby solidifiying the dilemma.
Particularities: The curiosity of its base concept aside as well as the one of featuring one of the longest Build engine sectors possible, "Silent Scream" mostly is a cosmetic, arguably gimmicky transition level the only contraption of which that technically may be worthy of a mention is the functioning of the last free fall section, featuring Duke's endless drop through an increasing number of protruding rooftops which all emit red light as a warning of their imminent appearance, below his feet, so that he can maneuver out of the way just in time.
In order to function, that part of the level in fact consists in multiple successive zones Duke is given to fall through, each 'layer' of the drop changing not just to fill up more of the space with the dangerous skyscrapers but also to announce the imminent next, with the color of the clouds constantly adjusting to match in the corresponding spots (as well as Duke's palette: turning full red announcing instant death within the next two seconds unless he moves to evade the oncoming sectors).
Level editor view of the four zones.
The choice of multiple zones is justified by technical requirements such as for the gradual skybox change (hinting at the imminence of new settings throughout Duke's fall), or regarding the number of sprites the Build engine can accept rendering at once.
Execution is relatively basic as proof of concept, and yet in this state already amounts to a relatively complex network of 500+ interconnected 'silent teleporter' Sector Effectors with precise positioning and tag values to generate the seamless traversal, and then infinite loop as soon as the lowest layer with the level exit is reached.
Level editor view (close-up) showing part of the network of 500+ Sector Effectors.
The design of the clouds in itself is rather seriously Build resource-consuming, involving just about 11000 (!) floor-aligned, semi-transluscent, animated and colored FLOORPLASMA (lava) sprites all carefully aligned as to never render through the solid walls when using the classic/software renderer, and also arranged in a precise vertical pattern for a stroboscopic effect that is relatively smooth on the eyes since calculated around Duke's falling speed and thus only so intrusive.
Level editor side view of the four zones.
Landing on Zarathustra.
Soundtrack: "Silent Scream" by Slayer / "South of Heaven" / American Recordings, LLC, 1988 (MIDI version)
This pick should be self-explanatory on multiple levels; although, it is relevant to mention here that "Silent Scream" being a short, timed transition level into Blast Radius' end game, the corresponding MIDI had to be this crucial of a choice in that it would need to complement not just the tone, but also the choreography of the level design, with a progression and length that would echo the play of the settings and the events that seem to be unfolding and evolving in real time around Duke.
Automap:
Map stats (as of v. 2.0.5): 1760/4096 sectors, 16004/16384 walls, 14760/16384 sprites.
Download Duke Nukem 3D: Blast Radius (last update: 03/04/2024; v. 5.0.2)
