You're Not Supposed To Be Here - Level Lore - "Norilsk No-Reward" (level 8/BRL8.map) news

Download Duke Nukem 3D: Blast Radius (last update: 03/04/2024; v. 5.0.2)

Duke Nukem does Norilsk, Russia in level 8 of Blast Radius, "Norilsk No-Reward" as part of his journey around Earth to gauge the aftermath of the mysterious alien attack. Non-stop action awaits as soon as our hero's contractually obliged ride shoot out leads to his trek across and through Leninsky Prospekt, over a diesel oil spill, around industrial blocks and into nickel mines to effectively effortlessly sanitize one of the coldest, most polluted closed cities in the world.

History: Chronologically, "Norilsk No-Reward" was conceived late in Duke Nukem 3D: Blast Radius development, being the tenth map out of fourteen built for the project. It was made July 1st - July 24th, 2021 including a two week hiatus and so maybe took the shortest construction time span, also thanks to its heavily symmetrical structure which facilitated sector copy-pasting techniques and greatly sped up progress.

Out of all the urban levels Blast Radius has to offer, due to its real-life status as a closed city - with no roads leading to it - and thus the need of governmental authorization to access the area, Norilsk actually is the only represented place I personally never had direct, prolonged life experience with as the project author, and had to solely rely on distant research to design.

That status in itself makes "Norilsk No-Reward" an exceptional enterprise in the episode as, from the very start, one strong guideline I had established for Blast Radius' settings specifically was to try and stick to representing locales the reality of which I personally was familiar with in order to dodge the creative trap of stereotypes and abusive vulgarization as much as possible, ideally. But the more I would document myself about Norilsk, the less refutable its inclusion would become in the context of not just Duke Nukem's new world tour, but also of Blast Radius' symbolism as a whole.

The northernmost city in the world, located just three hundred kilometers north of the Arctic Circle and sitting atop of the largest nickel, copper and palladium deposits on the planet (which its entire economy relies on against all the possible odds of a position in the continuous permafrost zone), Norilsk also is more or less arguably renowned as one of the harshest environments on Earth with omnipresent record-breaking industrial pollution - singlehandedly accounting for over 1% of global sulfur dioxide emissions - and the accompanying acid rains, in addition to the extreme cold.

Life expectancy for local residents is ten years less than the average Russian life expectancy, which as of 2013 was around 69 years. The surrounding ecosystem is completely ravaged with trees systematically dying off, and rivers regularly turning red from diesel oil spills.

In the context of Blast Radius: after the reassuring, relative but equally misleading trend of reasonable map scale established with the former two urban levels: "Koj Stil Borac" in Croatia and "Lights, Camera, Revolution" in France, "Norilsk No-Reward" reintroduces large spaces comparable to the ones of "Embarco's Most Blasted" and "Incapharnaum", with non-stop explosive action enhanced by all the new monster variants introduced since then (and even newer ones suddenly thrown into the mix), at the service of rather rudimentary progression for the sake of classic high-speed Duke Nukem 3D flow that is embellished by constant terrain-shifting triggers, gargantuan color-coded sights and general nuclear folklore.

It generally is the case with Blast Radius levels in general which tend to utilize every tone available from the Duke Nukem 3D palette as to convey certain clues or even just specific vibrations to the player, but clearly is evidenced in "Norilsk No-Reward" how color can direct the spontaneous reading of a map. Inspired by the real Norilsk saturated cityscapes, its pigmentation but also its specific architectural features, Duke naturally will fetch the blue key from the blue building, then the red key from the red building, to use around the red-and-yellow bicolor buildings and finally reach the industrial section of the city, past the orange river, which holds the yellow key.

Intended as a potentially very loosely restricted, but practically strongly directed bout of fast-paced intensity, environmental overload and combat frenzy, "Norilsk No-Reward" physically covers a lot of navigable ground (comprising vertical moments) but also focuses on clarity in its traversal with Duke's eventual goal in evident sight as soon as possible, and a Nokia 3310 "Snake"-inspired pattern in its progression dictating a succession of 90-degree angles through the entire layout until every block of the city has been covered. This results in a particularly simple to grasp, naturally explored two-dimensional pseudo-puzzle of a path Duke remains free to evade any time he wishes as to satisfy his explorer's cravings, catch a break from the toxicity, strategize around enemy presence or go restock on rockets.

Swiftness of the pedestrian action is then enforced by a monster selection comprising some of Duke Nukem 3D and Blast Radius' toughest foes, from the classic Battlelord, Overlord and Cycloid Emperor bosses now introduced as mid-point challenges (one difficulty notch above the Sentries due to the large variants' sponginess and their ability to squish Duke), Pig Cop Riot and Scorpion Tanks aplenty but also patrolling porcine representatives of the Bomb Squad, or Mistaken Assault Taxi Drivers hauling explosives at Duke with painfully accurate aim while Sentry Drones and Recon Patrol Vehicles guard the map's heights.

And once more, in typical Blast Radius fashion, if Duke ever happens not to be in the mood, then of course he's free to fly straight to the level exit - as soon and for as long as he's correspondingly equipped.

Walkthrough:

Duke's chopper ride out of Paris (or Blois depending on if he chose to also visit the secret level) gets shot down by alien scum as our hero athletically gets precipitated into a diesel fuel/lava spill around the Siberian closed city of Norilsk.

At least, unlike last time in Croatia, he's retained his equipment and can rather safely crawl out of the orange liquid before his health points drain.

Then once Duke has reached street level, he shall find the culprits: a duo of Cycoid Emperors he may dispose of by the means of, for instance, the RPG that is sitting on the lower part of the collapsed rubble, or the Devastator that is waiting at the entrance of the westernmost, red building. The front of the opposite, blue Norilsk Nickel building holds a full Freezethrower Duke can pick up for himself, too.

The city itself turns out to be large, but its layout simplistic and so it shall promptly come to Duke how his main destination should be the industrial block which covers the northernmost third of the map, but is separated from downtown by a massive diesel fuel-filled fault.

Unlike purple lava, the orange liquid won't harm Duke with its emanations for attempting to fly over it and so if he's got a jetpack, he can always do that. If he's out of that fuel however, before he can traverse, then he might need to collect Norilsk's first two keys in order to unlock some kind of passageway across.

The buildings of Norilsk are all color coded and so the blue key is waiting for Duke on top of the blue building, and the red key on top of the red building.

Exploring and clearing the streets and alleys surrounding the blue building will trigger a succession of explosive events and encounters and also uncover not just the Shrinker, but also this strange set-up involving a crate and some pipes going up the wall which Duke can climb.

Doing so shall take him to a red-lit lift he can activate and ride up the building, where foes aplenty await.

Once the scum out of the way, Duke may grab the blue key which in turn will cause a full-grown Overlord boss to react from the roof of the opposite red building, almost as an invitation.

Duke can use the blue keycard on the 'hell of a AC unit' Norilsk Nickel generator that is running just north of the red building, across the street.

Overloading the system will cause the entire street to blow up, with the whole facade of the red building collapsing and the terrain reshaping.

The event will also catch the vigilance of a bunch of Pigcops and Sentry Drones intervening from around the corners, as well as of Octabrains always rising en masse from underground.

After those have been taken care of, Duke may now climb up the rubble and facade (which may be perilous if so he decides), reach the roof, clear it out and snag the red key that is there. In case of need, a shotgun is also there, waiting, next to a bodied Pig Cop.

The aforementioned red key snagging will cause a full-grown Cycloid Emperor to spawn from the skies and cause part of the red-and-yellow building right across the street from Duke to crumble upon landing on top of it.

The enemy itself being a formality for Duke Nukem, that really just means a new pedestrian way inside the corresponding courtyard.

There, Duke may try and retrieve one tantalizing jetpack which surely would come in handy, but also be defended by another Overlord guardian; and/or he may crawl around the tall ledge around the area and reach another lift which will take him to the roof.

Once there, Duke shall find a prankster's hideout, complete with a selfie cam and a switch. Flicking the switch will reveal the pedestrian crossing on the street just down below to be elevator platforms, thus explaining the bus accident nearby.

Going back down there (for instance by leaping and dipping into the diesel fuel leak below) and using the platforms as stairs eventually shall lead Duke into the opposite courtyard, situated in the center of the easternmost red-and-yellow buildings.

Accessing that area will provoke the wrath of a full-grown Battlelord boss, and unveil a sewer cap Duke himself may explode or lure a stupid enemy into blowing up for him. Jumping down the hole will reveal an underground control room juxtaposed by an elevator Duke shall use the red key to unlock.

The elevator will go down, and eventually reach a long, poorly-lit tunnel which seems devoid of most everything but Protozoid Slimer eggs and a couple of Atomic Healths, a green light at its very end, and air Duke seemingly struggles to breathe in.

About halfway through his traversal of the tunnel however, the green light at the end will reveal the trigger of an elevator which is just about to flood Duke's path ahead with Sentry Drones; and just as an Ice Cold Battlelord ambushes him from the back, emerging from the first lift to try and literally send chills down our hero's spine.

One extra empathic flex later, Duke may finally reach and ride the green lift up; doing so shall lead him back outside, eventually, through the rubble and remains of a collapsed building and into the industrial region of the map at last. Upon Duke's arrival there, part of the cliffs will crumble, officializing the new possibility of crossing the red river from the surface and without the jetpack.

The industrial section consists in two whole factory blocks as its western half, a central segment with a network of four toxic liquid vats (at differing elevations), a round tower and machinery in the middle, and a suspicious lone building as its eastern half, for now terminating in a dead-end guarded by a suspicious crew of Bomb Squad Pig Cops. If not out of jetpack fuel, Duke may fly straight to the switch atop of the round tower already, the flicking of which shall reveal the exit but if he's stuck on (nonetheless mighty) foot, then he may have to retrieve the yellow key in order to make his way up there eventually.

That can be accomplished by venturing through the factory blocks and using either of the two lifts at their respective ends to, once again, reach the top of the buildings. The lifts can be activated by shooting switches on the wall nearby.

Riding the first lift Duke encounters will be quicker, but also trigger reaction on his (mechanically slow) way up - during which he may be protected from, or exposed to enemy fire depending on the progressive alignment of the missing panels on the outer structure.

Using the second lift on the other hand will take some further legwork and strong opposition against Cycloid variants (on the Come Get Some difficulty setting), but then lead to an interesting item cache, potential secrets and the advantageous opportunity to surprise take the elevated enemy occupation from behind.

The roofs of the factories conceal both the yellow keycard and the yellow keypad Duke shall fight for as Fat Commanders emerge from the surrounding smokestacks, then the city across the river and Sunburnt Battlelords start attacking from the vats down below.

That isn't to try and meaninglessly defend anything particular as swiping the yellow card will result in a hole exploding inside the lowest (and most accessible) one of the vats Duke can now submerge through as to swim into the second vat.

From there, he shall be able to emerge and find his collected self on top of the second vat, with a higher platform and a switch now in reach, close to the central machine.

Flicking the switch will once again overload the system and explode chunks out of the ground, reshaping the terrain around the central machine. Of course, that won't be without alerting some particularly zealous security.

After Duke has assured his own, he shall check on the state of his boots, then use the newly reformed patch of land to leap on top of the third vat, which is now accessible.

Dipping inside the (even more toxic) liquid will reveal a crack, the explosion of which shall lead Duke into, then on top of the fourth and final vat after he's traversed and emerged. From there, the switch on top of the round tower can be reached by means of one mandatorily stylish jump.

"Asses to ashes" - Duke comments as the lone easternmost building collapses under the weight of one last, angry Overlord duo, and one final desperate enemy wave breaks out on set to try and influence Duke's strict scenario.

Going around the back of the building and through the rubble shall bring Duke to one final, hidden mine, which had been condemned for who knows how long and conceals the remains of an aborted Japanese plan for the invasion of Russia via bacteriological means during World War II, complete with convenient, direct train access from and thus to Tokyo.

After he's flipped one final switch on the Kantokuen machine, taken one last full-sized Battlelord out of the surrounding contaminated misery and, then, whenever he's ready to ride, Duke is free to hit the Nuke Button on the aforementioned train to Tokyo and officialize it as his now personally designated expressway out of Norilsk.

Par time route: "Norilsk No-Reward" is another one of those Blast Radius levels where Duke's eventual exit point reveal trigger is sitting right there in plain sight, but potentially difficult to access depending on current equipment - therefore either forcing completion of each and every of the level's pedestrian tasks and keycard collection, or allowing victory in an almost instant, completely straightforward manner if Duke's freely able to just fly to the switch.

The registered par times for "Norilsk No-Reward" were, again, set off pistol start on the Come Get Some difficulty setting and achieved by meeting, then surfing on top of a crowd of Assault Trooper variants (a few of which are Assault Assaulters and thus really dangerous) that is guarding the blue keypad on the 'AC unit' as Duke would call it.

This allows for a skip up the tall ledge around the bicolor building which normally collapses upon the red key retrieval, and can lead to secret jetpacks which Duke can then use to fend a way off to the exit for himself.

Particularities: There actually isn't so much that is special about "Norilsk No-Reward" bar the strength of its theming, being intended and designed as a rather rudimentary, explicit Duke Nukem 3D action playground, just on an exaggerated, over-the-top scale and featuring some strongly saturated combat, architecture and colors.

Despite its urban disguise, not too dissimilarly to "Incapharnaum", "Norilsk No-Reward" really is a terrain-based map, the full completion of which entirely relies on its thorough scanning; albeit in a way that is more evidently dictated than in the Peru level, this time, since Duke's opposition has (somehow) gone up a few notches in intensity, and so the current context clearly calls for action over contemplation.

As alluded to earlier, the entire concept for Duke's traversal of this Siberian cityscape was directly inspired by the game "Snake" and most particularly its inception on the Nokia 3310. The idea is that the player shall be contained within the edges of a rectangular map with only 90-degree navigational options and so angular possible turns until they would collect the next colored keycard, then get to expand ahead and into the next line of the level. Successfully reaching all the few available 'goals' would mean coverage of the entire available terrain by the means of successive perpendicular maneuvers and conquests only, culminating with an exit all the way up north out of the map/screen, and the player possibly having just spent two hours playing "Snake" without ever realizing it.

"Norilsk No-Reward" also almost earned the particularity of being one of those very rare Duke Nukem 3D city maps (especially of a large size) with no doors, due to its emphasis on outdoor action and sceneries over indoor intricacies except that chance is disqualified by the existence of a singular set of swinging doors out of the control room, underneath the urban surface. However, Blast Radius' secret level, "Duke Du Quatrain" does count as one large city level with absolutely zero operable doors.

It may be argued that while Norilsk as a thematic for Duke Nukem settings of course was tempting and probably unavoidable in the context of Blast Radius, perhaps the subject of that city is one so rich in potential that it would have justified not just one dedicated level, but a full episode (or game) which would have featured smaller, more precisely focused individual maps set in, on and around a larger variety of distinctive local landmarks such as the mines, the factories and the oil rigs.

In order to further push the general theme, only so much of Duke's weaponry of choice in "Norilsk No-Reward" will consist in the common bullet or explosive weapons, with, instead, heavy emphasis on supplies for the thermal/chemical: the Microwave Expander (which always is super effective against Sentry Drones) and the Freezethrower, which Norilsk's Pig Cops (and Battlelord Sentries) also brandish.

It also is the Blast Radius level where full-sized, non game-ending versions of the original Duke Nukem 3D 1.3d episode bosses make their first appearance, hinting at how they may be mutations.

Last but not least, as a consequence of its somewhat experimental nature, "Norilsk No-Reward" tickles some hard limits regarding the mass of terrain the Build engine can cooperate with rendering on a given frame at once; occasionally, this may cause minor cosmetic issues from certain places and angles (rare clipping and 'hall of mirrors' effects), especially if Duke tries flying around the edges of the map, but also game crashes and general weirdness when using EDuke32's Polymost renderer (which Blast Radius markedly doesn't support, being designed in and thus for the software/classic renderer; shame on the behavorial discrepancies). At this time of writing - April 27th, 2023 - alleviating and eventually eliminating as many of those issues as possible in this particular level still is work in progress throughout ongoing Blast Radius updates. Software/classic video mode should be stable unless using an outdated EDuke32 build or possibly incompatible hardware (but detailed differing reports are welcome).

Soundtrack: "Acid Rain" by Liquid Tension Experient / "Liquid Tension Experiment 2" / Magna Carta, 1999 (MIDI version)

This one was another one of those MIDI track picks which were the result of a bit of a struggle when it came to finding music with a historical, cultural or at the very least thematical connection to each respective, represented real-life locale.

I ended up choosing to fully embrace the latter possibility at the expense of the former two, after some trial and error for this particular level, and opted to dedicate the soundtrack selection to a broader underlying subject than anything specifically Norilsk- or Russia-centric.

A decision which was sold for good the second I ran into a song straight up called "Acid Rain", by Liquid Tension Experiment, amongst some more .mid material of theirs. Not just the perfect match for Norilsk-themed settings, the Dream Theater connection would also discreetly consolidate the intended "Incapharnaum" callbacks in reference to map size, and both the torrential, corrosive heaviness of the sound textures and the track's length happened to perfectly match the level's pacing and so it instantly turned out to be a keeper.

Another song which, for a brief, earlier period of time also was rather seriously considered was "Sinister Rouge" by Bad Religion, mostly due to its intrinsic oppressive saturation but the short duration of that track would quickly render it redundant whilst stuck on a loop, and also the thematical connection would have been too loose.

Automap:

Map stats (as of v. 1.0.15): 1881/4096 sectors, 16384/16384 walls, 7363/16384 sprites.

Download Duke Nukem 3D: Blast Radius (last update: 03/04/2024; v. 5.0.2)