The Community Chest Project

Great mapset! Like some users here: it's a mixed bag. Great maps with okay maps. But I really enjoyed it overall!

 

Note: Map 29 was overkill for me on Project Brutality 3 beta at the time of this message. It spawned over 1300 enemies and, phew, it was laggy. FYI for any those thinking of tackling this with PB.

This one along with CC 4 are the best community chests out there. Many maps are enjoyable and balanced properly, had a good time playing those. The Great maps for me are = 07, 10, 12, 15, 32, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 28. Good maps = 02, 04, 05, 13, 31, 16, 24, 26 and 27. Bad maps = 06, 21, 25 and 29. Found only 4 bad maps out of 32, worth 5 stars for me.

Done with these settings:

 

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 9.

- Hurt Me Plenty.

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

 

Pretty average megawad over here, a real mixed bag: it has some good maps, some ok, a couple of poor tries, and a few I don't think I'll ever replay. Each author has their own style, most of them created more than one map and once you play the first one it's easy to recognize from whom is the next one. There are some maps with neat visuals and impressive layouts, though not always mixed with entertaining gameplay. The ones that look bland (that is, same texture all over the place, misaligned textures, zero light variety), play either boring or bad, or both. One thing, as a personal recommendation, I'd suggest changing the option to walk under hanging corpses on, just so they don't interfere with your movement. There is no custom soundtrack, apart from a few midis, that's something this wad lacked. However, I played with a custom wad (thanks to Lingyan203) that really enhanced the gameplay, at least a little bit, so I'd also suggest playing with custom tracks.  

 

Combat is mostly very low-key, with very little moments of actual threat. I won't complain about this, it's pretty clear that these are amateur maps, perhaps what was considered "fun and challenging" in 2003, but in these days, the mapset doesn't hold its own very well. What you can see is, either incidental straightforward combat all over the map(s), or sheer lack of resources to survive, specially on pistol starts. And don't let the TITLEPIC fascinates you, you'll hardly ever find engaging high-tiers on HMP. Now, onto specific authors, I'd say Thomas van der Velden did the best ones (02, 30), he worked on good visuals and while combat isn't the best, there're some fun moments (e.g. in map 30 you can let all loose and watch enemies telefrag each other, plus a clear easy-to-kill IoS!), while Parsons (03, 11), Leaver (16, 17) and Metabolist (14) did some neat short maps. Bad Bob (08, 09) worked with ammo starvation and tysoning, that was fun for me. Kaiser's map 10 was actually fun, compared to his other maps (15, 26) which included too much backtracking and/or obtuse secrets. The Ultimate Doomer's maps (01, 20) provide some very symmetrical rooms with voodoo dolls as an extra challenge, I thought that was kind of interesting, although the dolls don't really affect gameplay that much. Other maps didn't appeal to me, whether it's for the lack of variation or threat, or a sense of progression, Magikal (RIP) maps were the worst cases (06 for random walls you have to hit, and 29 for being too long for its own sake, although it has a decent finale). Similar to Use3d maps (12, 13) regarding to progression, except he polished his maps to look good at least. There's map 25 which is the hardest in every non-fun way (lack of ammo, nonthreatening lost souls and spectres to waste the little ammo you get, pretty sure without a secret BFG you can't get 100% kills, and a dumb switch obscurely hidden to progress). As for the other authors' creations, nothing extraordinary, although agreed with Demonologist that some of those maps like 24 felt old-school, so that's a plus imo.

 

Secret wise, well, it's hard to find a secret when the map looks all the same, or when you are supposed to guess where did a random wall opened after you cross a random linedef. Further maps provide secrets that become mandatory, for example a berserk in map 22 (without it, you'll be punching shotgunners...) or the aforementioned BFG in map 25. To me the worst offender was the secret exit in map 15, there's no visual or audible clue for it, you just have to guess what did what and hope it magically becomes available!!. Some maps have more than 10 secrets, imagine to find 11 secrets in a 3-hour straightforward map, nope...

 

For favourite maps, I'll pick 02, 10, and 14, and a special shout-out to map 30 for a being a short, simple IoS map. As for the rest, I think I said it all before.

 

Overall, the set is uneven, that's what happens in community projects with free of choices, it wasn't that bad to be honest. However, do I recommend this to anyone?... No! At least, not entirely, give it a try if only for the maps I said good stuff. But if you like to play all the set, prepare some coffee before playing map 29, and check some videos for those you don't understand what to do. Also, play with a Boom-compatible port (PrBoom+ complevel 9) for a continuous experience, which is the one I recommend for a first time. Overall, my rate is 4,5/10.  

Maps of interest: 11, 12, 13.

Give it some slack, it's the first CC, it was a new community, and someone just died. Jesus, take things into consideration.

first Community Chest, wow it really is dated now, you can't really look at this one with a straighter face than the ones that supersede it. but this is the one that is not Boom-compatible, which makes it slightly unique, and you can tell the mapper's styles that they go for. Alex Parsons for examples makes short and blocky maps, a bit frantic but not much in the way of geometry or architecture and they are short. Gene Bird makes very generic maps overall as does Bad Bob. Kaiser's work is a good improvement over his DSV wads. Ultimate Doomer seems to put voodoo dolls in conspicuous places. weapon progression leaves maps to be desired, as the very first map shows that he was going for pistol only. most maps are average, but some of the larger ones really bring it down. Sphagne and Use3D make the most complex ones (MAP12-13 back to back really large maps? fuck no), and Magikal's maps have very little sense of progression. I'll say this, MAP29 IS beatable, but it'll take like a fucking hour to do it.

 

play it for its history, and maybe to tackle the infamous MAP29, but the rest is easily passable.

boring.

Some good maps, but very amateurish overall compared to the later CCs.

This wad is what really got the online community projects going. Some levels are average, some are very high quality. The effort though must be commended throughout. Map 29 is simply insane!! 4 Stars from me.

This megawad still has some good maps. It is 1/3 filler content (maps available elsewhere - namely Sphagne, Redux, and Blind Alley), but there are at least a reasonable number of other maps that are worth playing. Alex Parson has two nice short levels, and Use3D's Map12 is awesome. Kaiser also made 3 contributions that aren't less than you'd expect from him. TUD, Thomas, and Rex contributed good stuff here too. Not to mention play all the CC's to see how the community has progressed in 9 years!

A legendary game

I know that it takes tons of work to make even a simple map but damn. Some of these maps I find impossible. I will never play these maps again. Not one outstaning map in the entire fucking thing. I will give credit for time, energy, and the creditiblity for the credit of time and energy. I'm sorry to say that the bad outweighs the good. Emagin a single map, so large that it blows the mind of the ZDoom engin. So large that it takes up as much space as this entire megawad!!! 6/20/07

most of maps here is between poor and average quality, and few maps (01, 06, 20, 25, 29) really bad. overall 2/5

Très bon WAD, certains tableau demande de cliper, mis a part ... faut voir!! J'ai réussi apres plis d'un mois (16.27 hrs) et 121 vies pour tout faire un tableau après l'autre. - 5/5 -Eye's

Sorry but I just didn't like this at all.. boring levels and quite often frustratingly design yawn levels too. Giving up after 9 or 10 maps. Can't take it anymore!!! ....gonna try CC2 now!

MAP16 has a misplaced vertice in the exterior area causing a line to cross another line where it shouldn't and creating a visual glitch while playing, but it is easily fixed. 5/5 overall.

I have mixed feelings on this wad. Altough some are pure quality some are sadly rather below average, but nonetheless deserves 5 starz for the effort of these several people. Great Job. -NMN

ushily when i find a good megawad, i can come back to it after a few months and its fun eagean, but with cc1 after i have already beaten a level its like, "ben thair, done that" like it would be just as fun to just replay all the original doom2 maps but thats probibly just me, its still a solid megawad for the mostpart and worth atleast won play, 4/5

A great wad.

Sorry, 2/5 - Logan MTM

Random maps, nothing more and nothing else. Avoid unless you're a mindless player.

LEVEL 1 - should've been called SawPistol It was a clusterphobic remix of some of Doom II's early game maps. Taking out a Mancubus and other big enemies with a pistol was interesting. 5 of 5 for tricks 4 of 5 for fear 3 of 5 stars as a level LEVEL 2 POLICE STATION Great level! Loved the details like overturned tables and blown up walls. It was a lot of fun and the shooting range was a memorable moment. 5 of 5 as a level 3 of 5 for length 5 of 5 for fun!

Bunch of REALLY COOL maps! I Still remember MAP29...

Excellent wad. Does have some shortfall maps, but expected with that many authors. Most maps are quality and enough worthwhile in this wad for 5 stars. I might shave it to 4.5 if I could do half points just to cover the few levels that fall short, but enough good stuff to roung it up to a 5 (instead of down to a 4). BTW, all of the above applies for the sequel, CC2, as well.

This is prove that a community banded together can make masterpeice. 5 of 5