Dsv

most of the forgotten megawads tend to be the ones in the main megawads section not made by well-known community members. however, this one is an interesting exception, as it is a forgotten megawad made by the one and only Kaiser, way back in 2000 even and NOT in the megawads folder but rather in the TeamTNT return folder of all places, yet if people were to play something in the TeamTNT folder, they might not stumble on this one. DSV is one of the more complex wads I can think of judging by the download alone, with several packets that encompass several different source ports, like Boom, MBF, and ZDoom, and there are some subtle changes between the different versions of this megawad. some reviewers have noted stealth monster usage, which of course only applies to the ZDoom version. I only played the Boom version for this wad so this is what my review is based on. Also for those of you guys saying that there's missing textures, load the wad with RETRES.wad since it solves everything in that regard.

first and foremost, the weapon sprites are hideous as hell, especially the pickup sprites. they're also not too different from vanilla weapons. from what I see, some monsters only get sprite replacements from Heretic/Hexen enemies and that's it for them. rather lame. and level design? honestly, if you are familiar with Kaiser's most famous work, you'd see some pretty intricate design and gameplay, the kind that weaves back and forth between nasty techbases with some pretty difficult combat. just look at the Internal Reaches levels (two of which are in Community Chest 1-2) as well as the levels in CIF3 if you want examples of what I'm trying to say.

those examples? they aren't like this wad. DSV has boxy layouts and not a whole lot of good detail, with some levels approaching 1994 levels of detail, primitive, monster placement seemingly puts one type of monster in rooms and hallways, and some rooms and hallways are oversized and easy. supplies given are also abundant, pretty much voiding difficulty in a lot of places. most levels are generally medium sized, but only because of some padding which honestly isn't necessary in most places. there's some bad moments of backtracking too, which doesn't really help matters too much when enemies come in since some teleporter closets are not constructed right. MAP31 is an appropriate example of what I'm talking about, it's even called "First Level" owing to the fact it is Kaiser's first level, blatantly oversized, Nirvana MIDI, humongous and somewhat ineffective teleporter ambushes, and almost Maximum Doom levels of detail.

by judging some of the other levels though, we can tell Kaiser back in the day was still the console Doom fan he is now, since many levels share both names and similar designs to Doom 64 levels, also including PSX Doom's Twilight Descends and the Mansion as MAP17 and MAP25 along with a version of the console Hell Keep (MAP13 I think). it's not on the same level as Absolution or Doom 64 in Doom 2, but it tries. I wouldn't want to say it fails though, because the levels tend to be just bad at the very worst but not excruciatingly bad as in I don't want to play it again. the levels don't reach the stride of good maps of course. of course, the best I can say is it's average, and it shows. we should be glad Kaiser's best levels don't look anything like these.

A great megawad but I'll have to deduct 1 star due to 2 flaws IMO: first: use of stealth monsters, they're just a cheap way to create artificial dificult and they really aren't needed. Second: some switches needed to progress some maps are in secret spots, and if you don't find the secret you can't progress, this is just bad design. Aside for those flaws I liked the megawad, would recommended.