Hardfest 2 - Various

Doom 2, Boom-compatible, 40+ maps

Y'all like challenge?!

You could probably leave it at that and it would still sell the concept of this project to an entire subset of the community (as it did, being a sequel) but let's put it in perspective - if we're not engaging with that instantly recognizable flavor of Doom gameplay for that quick moment-to-moment gratification of removing all obstacles from our paths, we're doing it to push ourselves past a series of difficult encounters and feel that palpable satisfaction of accomplishment, the traversal of a truly imposing barrier... likely comprised of immense mobs of monsters.  It's a curve that continues to climb ever higher, an escalation with no end, yet we continue to press on, just to see how far we can take it and, in turn, how far we can take ourselves... ok, perhaps that's a bit melodramatic.  Look, you like killing demons, right?  Do you like killing lots of demons, relentless droves numbering in the thousands?  Is your mind open to movement-based challenges, or intense resource management?  Have you played the Slaughterfest series and thought "why did it have to end?!"  If so, you're in for a treat, one that'll take time to digest and will most certainly leave you satiated.

Hardfest 2 is the follow-up to the series debut from last year that does everything a good sequel should do: expand and refine what made the original tick, and then some.  The number of maps is effectively doubled in this iteration, and these aren't breezy affairs, as the Slaughterfest name drop wasn't intended to be a token comparison.  By and large, these maps are massive, starting off modestly but gradually approaching Sunder in terms of size and time to completion.  True to the template of slaughter sets past, the maps are disjointed vignettes spanning traditional technological complexes and curious collections of city streets and mansions, but also stretching beyond the farthest reaches of the known universe to mind-bogglingly titanic alien monoliths.  It's an eclectic progression, rich in variety and each meticulously constructed, playing host to prolonged showdowns with Hellspawn that push you to survive and stick in your memory.  Unlike the original, which stuck to the standard roster, custom threats are included and used to great effect, while occasional appearances by the infinite rocket launcher inject new life into encounters.  There are some intriguing wildcard entries in the set like the mostly-monsterless Acrophilia, a rocket-jumping tour de force inspired by the Quake Explore Jams, and the avant-garde Weeping Angel, a captivating experimental adventure through a crumbling tower lost to time, bridging dimensions and packed with enough architecture and doomcute to provide a welcome reprieve from the chaotic combat.  The musically dynamic duo of Korp and LPad return, along with some first-time guest composers, and put in some of their best work to date.  Scoring such a massive megawad is no easy feat and I'd fully expect these two to be mentioned alongside the midi masters like Jimmy and Stewboy in the coming years.

Hardfest 2 represents the evolution of a team and the continuation of a concept honed to a razor edge.  It shows that taking the template of a project and giving it so much extra polish and attention is in itself a success and should be cause for celebration every time.

- @Vile

Hexen: Veil of Darkness - @Captain Toenail

Hexen, UDMF/GZDoom, 1 hub

A veritable PWAD cryptid, Veil of Darkness is a complete hub for Hexen, introducing a few new elements and an updated perspective on the original's classic gameplay loop, while remaining true to its real soul -- its immersive world.

The game features a handful of extra attack items for the toolkit and a variety of new foes to test steel and spell against, chief among them the Sorceress herself, who periodically appears at highly inopportune times to taunt, trap, and torment you in a far more active and painful way than Korax was ever inclined to get off his scaly ass and manage. These additions are generally meant to increase both tempo and variety in combat, either attacking in ways that require more active evasion, or by being more dynamic themselves, ala the twitchy, slippery serpent-men, or the chain-slinging gladiators who can be entertainingly dispatched by Falcon-punching them miles into the distance via a timely Disc of Repulsion. Hard to find good help these days, eh, Lady Nox?

Though presented as a side-story to the events of the original game, Veil slyly functions as more of a remix and re-imagining of its most memorable locales and quest arcs. Dismal bogs, frozen grottoes, blighted steppes, sordid castles hiding occult rituals, and much more are all here, hidden beneath the shadowed boughs of an eternally benighted wood. While the expanse and layered complexity of this unexplored region of Cronos will appeal to any Hexen veteran, new players or those wary of the original game's convoluted labyrinths of switches, portals, and backtracking need not worry -- whatever the path inclination, intrigue, or simple bloodlust happens to lead you down, you're sure to find not only a thrilling and dangerous new biome or surprise boss battle, but also satisfying progress in at least one of the adventure's many overlapping subquests, all cleverly woven together in a web designed to naturally lead you towards its center no matter your angle of approach, provided you've the mettle to keep pulling on any of its many threads.

Modern in conception, and endearingly nostalgic at heart, Veil of Darkness will hopefully spark something of a revival of interest in this often underappreciated classic, even as we wait for the continuation of the quest set up in its climactic confrontation.

- @Demon of the Well

Austrian Avian Association - @MundyC

Doom 2, Boom-compatible, 8 maps

For all the mountains and medieval castles we’ve visited in this old game, all the time travel and alternate histories, I don’t think anyone had “folklore-inspired 1898 Austrian Alps” on their list of places Doom would take us this year. Austrian Avian Association is the kind of whimsical project that you never knew you wanted, set around the turn of the 20th century in a world where creatures of European myth are real, including the Schnabelperchten, a somewhat morally gray society of bird people who watch over the local human population. If the humans stay in line, they’re rewarded generously, but if they shirk their duties, the Schnabelperchten don’t hesitate to taxidermize a few folks. You are a Schnabelperchten named Katarina Berger, and instead of waking from your long summertime snooze and going to see who is on the naughty and nice list this year, it’s the humans (along with a horde of monsters) who have arrived on your doorstep. And they’re fixing for a fight.

The unique setting of AAA means an entirely new reality to discover and soak in, and lack of familiarity with the folklore the project is based on may actually make it an even more engaging experience. The lonely mountain passes are a wintery and foreign place, where every new weapon and enemy you encounter is simultaneously a thing to marvel at and a huge ratcheting-up of the stakes. Each insurmountable new beast that challenges you, there’s often an equally devastating weapon revealed not far behind. For a WAD that starts the player off with a measly straw broom and some throwing axes, you’ll be floored by the kind of arsenal you amass by the end.

Still, exploring the snowy hamlets and Alpine forests is its own reward, full of a sort of tragic, lived-in vibe where everyday rural existence was only just turned upside down moments earlier – the wine and sausages still sitting on the table. Counterintuitively, it was during AAA’s most straightforward and almost bare-bones map that I realized I was playing something truly special. Even in a level with such little mechanical complexity as map03, MundyC is able to hold the player’s interest with a combination of atmosphere, tension, and curiosity. The experience of slogging through these cramped, dank caverns, genuinely unsure what could be around the next corner (and whatever it is, you’ve just got a few bullets and axes to defend yourself with), is unforgettable. It only gets better and better in later maps, where you’ll be darting between buildings, taking cover from the absolute warzone outside, scrounging for a handful more shotgun shells in the hopes they’ll get you out of this alive. Those moments of chaos and uncertainty in this strange land – that’s what AAA is all about.

Austrian Avian Association is a total conversion in every sense: not only a graphical overhaul with new weapons and enemies, not merely an exercise in fleshing out a previously unseen world, but a completely new animal in pacing and tone as well. MundyC has created something that draws heavily from the old and the somewhat forgotten, but which feels so novel and original. It is a joy to exist in, plain and simple, whether you’re taking in the scenery or surviving by the skin of your teeth. And gosh, when that final map hands you more weapons and ammo than you know what to do with, then lets you go ham on the biggest horde of monsters in the WAD – there’s not much better than that.

- @scwiba

Solve Et Coagula - Nicolás Monti

Doom, limit-removing, 9 maps

In the past I have described Nicolás Monti as a magician – one who creates works of high art out of base elements that, according to common wisdom, should not work together. But perhaps I’ve had it wrong all this time.

Solve Et Coagula takes its name from an old concept in alchemy that everything must first be broken down before it can be formed into something new. A perfect fit, then, for a project that deconstructs the visual language of The Shores of Hell and transmutes its cramped corridors into vaulted, stunning setpieces. Each map is a monument to the aesthetics of Doom, reimagined in Monti’s gorgeous style – cathedrals of chrome and circuitry, sculptures of flesh and bone, shrines to the almighty FIREBLU.

What may impress more, however, is how compelling (and threatening!) Solve is able to make Doom’s limited bestiary and vanilla sector effects. Even zombies, imps, and demons keep their teeth razor-sharp to the very end, simply by way of clever placement and trap design. And the devilishly cruel gauntlets of damaging floors turn many maps into a hectic race against the clock.

That said, Solve Et Coagula is something of an outlier even for Monti, eschewing some of his stranger sensibilities. Much has been made of the unorthodox musical choices in the mapper’s earlier WADs, but this one features no new midis whatsoever, nor does it make use of custom textures or DeHackery. Instead we have a sort of Monti unplugged, pure mapping craft laid bare – sink or swim. And these maps could swim a marathon.

Solve’s final flourish comes in E2M8, where the building blocks are disassembled yet again, only to come together in a form you cannot possibly see coming, but which is easily my favorite map of the year. It seems that whatever raw materials Nicolás Monti works with, they flow back out of him as a river of solid gold. So rather than a magician, maybe I’ll start calling Monti our resident alchemist.

- @scwiba

DBK03: Shrine of the Silver CyberPrimate - @Big Ol Billy et al.

Doom 2, ZDoom, 6+ maps

You wake up in your cell. The monitor is blaring something about a new game show. Curious, you take a stroll down the hall, moving toward door that says “qualifying rounds.”  After going up the elevator, a strange marble face greets you with four words.

“Big money! Big prizes!”

Shrine of the Silver CyberPrimate is a techno-Mesoamerican adventure in the form of a game show where you, the player, get to run through makeshift Mayan temples, caves and jungles in the quest for gold, glory, and a mysterious silver monkey! The first level, the qualifying round, is actually the longest in the entire campaign, while the other levels expand upon some concepts the player was faced with before, while still keeping the exhilarating theme at the forefront.

The brilliance of this mapset is achieved through so many creative methods: a highly-destructible environment, where almost all of the walls, obstacles and cameras react to your weapons; custom enemies that feel right at home with the Mesoamerican setting, such as giant wasps or cultist zombies; soda machines thrown inside temple hallways, holographic bridges across mossy caverns with lava – the list just goes on and on at how the environmental storytelling is used at every possible moment during the campaign. Anytime you might forget you're part of a game show, turning around after an intense fight will most likely greet you with a glass window and a cheering crowd behind it, reminding you that all you’re doing is serving as a tool of entertainment. And if you're ever annoyed by the incessant jeering, worry not, for almost every crowd window is accessible via secrets, and once you find your way there you can be sure the crowd will run away screaming for their lives.

The campaign also has a fun personal side-quest of sorts – to hunt down every hidden camera in each level. A lot of them may be hard to find, but some are not even hidden and in fact purposeful – such as the one at the end of “The Lost Village of Cheap Documentary B-Roll”, which outright mocks you for trying to exit. Destroying them will make it show the names of the authors behind the map, and if you are thorough enough, you might get access to some bonus levels after the main campaign is over.

Big Ol’ Billy is known for being an outside-the-box thinker, and a leader of projects with unique themes. We’ve seen him featured in many mapsets in the past, wishing that one day he would make a “magnum opus” of his own. While this project isn’t 100% made by Billy, it’s safe to say that he’s behind the great majority of it – from taking part in all but one map, to crafting a full-on post-game bonus campaign, as well as being the project lead in general. We’re all overjoyed to finally have a project where Billy could go all out with such creativity, and I personally cannot wait for the next DBK iteration, or whatever else he may work on in the future. A day might come when Billy just decides hosting a real game show is his calling in life and that's how he's gonna make some big money, but for now we can all enjoy his Doom maps as the true big prize for us all.

- @Terminus

What Lies Beneath - @ViolentBeetle et al.

Doom 2, MBF21-compatible, 11 maps

This year ViolentBeetle has continued to be a diligent orchestrator of inspired team projects. The latest is What Lies Beneath, which explores all sorts of haunted places at the interstice between the real world and its uncanny shadow: corrupted houses, forlorn ruins, abandoned bases, the innards of flesh monsters, astral fortresses, you name it. Save for a longer finale, the experience unfolds as a mix of briefer, more action-driven concept maps, and mid-length ones that idle in menacing silence while intermittently lashing out into violent battles. And this, combined with the grim atmosphere and a taste for compelling movement -- the winding scenic paths within levels, and how the story whisks you between its highly varied settings -- creates What Lies Beneath's large-scale sense of flow, which feels like drifting like a ghost through an unraveling world that occasionally erupts like a firestorm. 

What elevated What Lies Beneath to one of my favorite releases of the cycle was the work of Muumi and DFF, who aren't household names but are certainly a couple of the community's best mappers. Muumi's "Mansion Halls of Madness" -- an opener that paints an enigmatic portrait of the mansion's weird benefactor -- nails not just the Doomcute, which has stylized angular contours that are crafty rather than just cute, but also the light horror atmosphere and deftly sculpted architecture. Thanks to this mix, it's an expertly made combo of two design modes that meet only rarely. And DFF's "Blacksite" is a somber adventure in the "powering on a derelict techbase" subgenre that reminds me of the gritty, high-fidelity aesthetic of Russian Realism, everything soaked in shadow or a blue energy glow. It's another masterfully crafted map that stews in loneliness and abandonment while every now and then bursting into these rambunctiously fun fights, which captures how narrative-first authors of today have become so capable of embracing combat too. Neither map steals the show with length or with unusually high-fidelity design by project standards, either; rather, they help set up and build on what comes around them. With that baton pass, the rest of the team does not disappoint.

- @rd.

The Settlements - @dashlet

Doom 2, Boom-compatible, 3 maps

I've often had dreams about familiar places taken and twisted around, as if they're melting into one another. I see roads that would never curve like that, rooms that should never logically connect to one another, and sometimes I find myself in a rotated room, walking on the walls or on the ceiling. These dreams, and the spaces within, are always hazy and hard to remember clearly, in an oddly comforting way.

Liminality and dream-like "spaces between" are something that dashlet has explored before, being half of the team that produced Liminal Doom. The Settlements can be considered a spiritual successor to that WAD, with a less grounded approach. Where Liminal Doom often came across as being lightly unnerving with its musical choices and claustrophobic locations, The Settlements is like being stuck in that hazy twilight where everything is just a little off. These room shapes don't make sense -- there are so many bookshelves in this living room that it might as well be a library -- and why does it exit directly into the garden? The road goes everywhere and nowhere at the same time, almost like it was free-form painted onto the ground, and there's this lamppost that keeps appearing no matter where I go.

The residents of these drowsy worlds lie in wait, sleeping unless the player stumbles upon them, until dashlet decides to play a few tricks. Some areas feel primed for a certain kind of encounter but then pull the rug out from under the player, like being forced to jump into a pit to activate a switch, only to be greeted with an initial slow trickle of Lost Souls before the wall comes down with a pair of low-HP Cyberdemons behind it. From a pair of dream-like urban environments, to the zany nonsensical structure of The Carpet House, The Settlements constructs spaces that only exist within dreams and brings them to life in Doom.

- @Maribo