Monster Showcase – The Crusher!

Well, the time for our first release is fast approaching! Recently we’ve finished retexturing several of the monsters – none of which getting a bigger facelift than… THE CRUSHER!

Yeah... I think it's up to par now!

How much has this thing improved? I wasn’t even comfortable showing off the old ones in any screenshots or the trailer. In fact, most people have probably never seen the old version of this thing (it used to be red). But now? I think it’s one of the best looking monsters in the game.

So what do these suckers do? Many of you from the Doom community may be familiar with a custom monster known as the “stone imp”. Basically, these are slow-moving tanks armed only with one hell of a melee attack. The principle is the same with the crushers. Generally, they have a tough time hitting you, but when they do… MAN does it hurt! On hard, these monsters do a whopping 99 points of damage to your unarmored body! OUCH!

To make up for their lack of mobility, you’ll usually find them in enclosed areas – hallways, small/medium-sized sealed rooms, etc. If not used properly, they’re just big boring bullet sponges; but when used properly, they may require you to change your pants!

One last thing – the crusher is a great embodiment of one of the principles of Wrack – large health swings. Let’s say that in another game, you get hit 10 times over the course of a level, and take 200 points of damage total (20 points of damage per hit). Under Wrack’s design philosophy, you would take the same total amount of damage, but over FEWER hits – let’s say, 4 (200/4 = 50 points of damage per hit). So, what does this mean? Since each hit does more, your life is more likely to fall below 0 with each hit. This means that each situation is more dangerous, and that you have to be more careful. The game is much more a roller coaster-type experience, which ultimately leads to more fun!

So, what do you all think? Do you like how the crusher looks? How would you use them on a map? Let us know!

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3 Responses to Monster Showcase – The Crusher!

  1. steve says:

    nice looking robotic monster. It’ll look even nicer when I turn it into scrap metal when I buy the game.

  2. Zaranell says:

    How would I use them in a map? Simple. By pairing them up with complimentary enemies. I would put the player in a room with small, fast, and weak enemies, and then make them aware that a Crusher or two is coming after them. This would force them to prioritize their targets, and make a choice – do you focus on the Crushers and accept the moderate amount of damage from the smaller enemies? Or do you take out the cannon fodder first, and risk taking a huge amount of damage from the big guys?

    Since Wrack seems to have more emphasis on platforming than most other FPS’s, I would also try making a room with several small platforms, some of which have Crushers on them. This would be at a point where the player either does not have enough ammo to kill all of them, or no ammo at all. They would need to get to an exit on the other end of the room by jumping across the platforms. The shorter path would have Crushers, and the longer path would be clear. As this is a game that encourages speedrunning, it would offer a dangerous but rewarding shortcut for those trying to make the best time. If they’re good enough at dodging, they could shave off a few precious seconds from their time score. If they’re not good enough, they’ll get punched into acid. Assuming, of course, that the Crushers have a knockback. If not, the lesser skilled players will simply get pulverized. Either way works.

  3. Brad Carney says:

    That’s pretty interesting, Zaranell. One of the later levels actually have something pretty similar to the first scenario you describe. There’s a part where you’re stuck in a small area with a bunch of monsters along with a crusher. Since everything else is far more dangerous than the crusher, you basically have to just deal with it being there and run around killing off everything else first. If you try to take out the crusher first, you’ll get mauled/shot by everything else around you. It’s pretty nerve-wracking having to duck and swerve around the thing as you kill off everything around it :)

    The second scenario is interesting as well. Sounds like something you should feature in a map of yours! :D

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