Deus Vult II

Very good! Nice slaughter, design and all. Good pace of combat, I just got stuck once on Unholy Cathedral level and gave up after 45 minutes search and just used idclip, but otherwise it's not harsh on keys/puzzles/triggers. Sounds are nice touch too. Overall, I can 100% recommend to play when you want to relax after long day's work just holding fire on your rocket launcher and strafe killing hordes of enemies.

"The infidels have returned... "

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Probably a bit of both. Thus, Deus Vult II has been finished, played through PrBoom+ and GlBoom+ 2.5.1.5 on HMP difficulty. It's back and better than ever, so let's see what we have here.

Deus Vult II is the sequel of the popular challenge megawad Deus Vult, focused primarily on gameplay and difficulty and is split into multiple episodes. It comes with new textures, music, background menu, intermission screen, sounds, status bar, weapons and enemies. The new enemies include the Cleric, a small knight capable of firing multiple Imp fireballs, is somewhat tough, and moves fast, and the other one is the Red Baron, which is a flying version of the vanilla Baron but with far deadlier attacks, capable of firing multiple Mancubus fireballs and Revenant rockets, also seen in Scythe 2. It also has increased health, acting as a mini boss on its own. The new weapons are Sauron's Gantlets, originally seen in Hexen, and the pistol is replaced with a dual wielding version.

In terms of level design, Deus Vult II marks a significant departure and improvement over the original. It is much more experimental and does a great deal of things, both in terms of locations and actual gameplay. The original relied mostly on techbases and Hell, whereas DVII explores a variety of places: Mars, different regions of Hell, mysterious dimensions, and space. Some Earth levels for instance have an Asian or an Egyptian setting. The Asian one, MAP03, appears to take inspiration from over-the-top kung fu/fighting movies in the design of its encounters and general aesthetic, taking place somewhere in a forest and fighting demons both in rings and small waves outside of them. As the name implies ("Crouching Demon, Hidden Arch-Vile"), the most interesting fight is the one in the dojo with the AV and the resulting assault, although it can be a bit tricky to locate it. There are 3 main teleport pads and although they can be seen clear as day on the automap, reaching them can prove to be a bit problematic due to being hidden behind trees. If you fall from the (mountain? Or whatever it is) you can either take the teleport down there to go back up, or actually climb on it as there are some very small stairs around. Whatever you do, make sure you don't play this level (at the very least) with a Software render, the performance seems to be very poor, stick to OpenGL instead. The Egyptian one on the other hand is rather similar to what can be seen in Epic 2, but more straightforward and doing some neat tricks with the portals. You also have to climb steps in order to reach it. In fact, climbing stairs to reach the main location seems to be a recurring theme in DVII: a mountain, a pyramid, a fortress/castle, but the pathway is fun as, obviously, it features gameplay. And speaking of portals, both sides usually teleport you to different locations. One side to advance, and the other side for secrets. 

The levels are incredibly more modern and polished compared to the predecessor, this is obvious especially in the Hell maps that aren't just your average temple or cave, with high quality assets, complexity, and fun, same for the mysterious dimensions. Although one of them kinda bites more than it can chew. MAP21 has a bit of an obtuse progression as some switches, particularly those in the library area, are incredibly easy to miss. In fact, you can say the whole library portion of the map is one, big puzzle. Despite being cryptic, it's actually fun, and very creative. MAP21 also features some crazy traps, such as the one that leads to the blue skull where you need to step on pentagrams around a pillar to replenish your health due to being on a damaging floor, and monsters slowly teleport to your location. Mandatory damage? Yes, absolutely, but using the gantlets or the fist to destroy everyone proves to be satisfying. Similar to MAP03, only 2 keys are actually needed to finish the level. Then there's the space maps, which look very futuristic and are incredibly modern, kinda similar to Ancient Aliens. Although it can be easy to get lost on a few occasions, but having 2 of the main switches being in the same room and the other one around the corner helps. Additionally, the rooms containing the cards cannot be missed once located.

I haven't talked about the difficulty and balance. Overall, DVII has vastly superior balancing compared to the predecessor, with a more traditional difficulty curve, starting (somewhat) easy and increasing gradually over time. Moreover, the actual encounters, while getting more difficult as you progress, are fair at all times, no longer giving you enough resources while at the core, the fights themselves weren't well balanced. Obscenely difficult maps are also completely gone, MAP02 of the original being the worst offender here with the insane placement of the enemies, notably the AVs. Sure, it was perfectly doable, but without previous knowledge there's just no way you weren't going to die a lot and it would immediately become frustrating, turning into a real test of patience. It placed far too much emphasis on the challenge part while forgetting the fun element almost completely. "Torture Chamber"? Yes, very much so. To add insult to the injury, the Singleplayer version of the levels was also advertised as being exceptionally balanced, but that wasn't always the case. Difficult or not, DVII is fun from the first moment up until the very end.

Speaking of which, DVII features 2 different endings. Sort of. After escaping from the Red Barons on MAP22, then the slaughterfest on MAP23, the players find themselves in Heaven, where they are tasked with choosing their destiny. Going through the left gate ends the game, with a final intermission screen. This is most likely the canonical ending. Going through the right gate actually takes the player back to the original DV to play it all over again. It appears to be the single map version of DV.

All things considered, DVII is a dramatic evolution and improvement over the original, expanding and correcting its flaws. The sequel takes what DV got right and expands upon it, while bringing a great deal of new, refreshing ideas to the table. It completely eclipses the original. My favorite maps are going to be MAP01, MAP02, MAP03, MAP12, MAP19, MAP21, and MAP22. The only problems of DVII would be: 1) The fact that, although the maps go up to 29 (or 32, if counting the secret levels), only 12 of them or so are actual levels, the rest are skipped through some kind of countdown to the next one, and 2) The final levels in particular are full of easter eggs. They're almost everywhere, some even in the title ("You Shall Not Pass!"). Au contraire, I shall. Quite unnecessary, especially in such large quantities, probably the result of logic going south.

Looking for a fair, fun challenge? Look no further, DVII has this, and more. While there aren't a lot of maps in DVII, they can take a while to complete, so it's best to experience them when you have some spare time.

Two words: badass.

One of the best wads ever made. The level design, the enemy placement, the architecture, the difficulty... Everything in this wad is just on point. Epic.

Done on HMP/continuous/saves

A nice, port? Is that how this sort of mapsets are called? Anyway... Fun wad. Amazing visuals and effects, I just loved every theme, from mounts to forest to egyptian to space base to church, my favourite being the mountains with trees around, plus the sky used blends perfectly with the environment. Linearity is present in some maps, in others, it's full of different ways to approach the main mission of the map, such as in map 21.

Encounters in general vary on some slow sniping, grinding and slaughter. I would say the least used monster was the SMM, I think I saw her in just 3 or 4 maps, not even casually. On the other side, there are two new enemies, cleric (from Hexen), who shoots a volley of 3 fireballs and it's not hard to tackle, but you'll mostly see him in ambushes, and the flying baron (afrit) with less health than the one in Scythe 2, and weird sounds. There are also two new weapons, double pistols, which are way more efficient than the single pistol, and the magic gauntlets, very powerful, not useful against big (size talking) enemies. They look like the tomed gauntlets from Heretic btw. 

Secrets, ok, many many easter eggs and weird textures and screens (you might cringe a lot), these lasts at least were optional but in order to get all secrets in every map, you'll inevitably see them. Midis, some of them can only be heard if using ZDoom. Since I used PrBoom+, most of them are iwad midis, which is fine. 

There are also a lot of homage from different wads, most notably Alien Vendetta, specially in map 13, which is one of my favourite maps. Map 29 is Deus Vult I in one map, and it took me almost 8 to complete it, the most exhausting map I've ever played. It was fun though, the 30-secrets hunt was worthy. 

Overall, a nice fun mapset, recommended mainly for visuals, 9/10.   

good. great. amazing. better than the first with many different themes tackled, and there's only like four or so maps that have slaughter in them. I just wish it was fully complete though. and it looks like it is being worked on yet again. these levels are properly themed and designed accordingly, first level feels like a true entryway level, while the next one is a techbase with some good lab stuff, then the (in)famous Asian-themed map with chess boards. like the previous Deus Vult, there's quite a few easter egg secrets, and the pictures in MAP23 are somewhat silly when put into the medieval slaughtermap that the level is in. you can even traipse through the original Deus Vult if you wish.

great ideas abound in this wad, having to rumage through the greenery in Minas Morgul, getting lost in Stargate, and secret hunting in Unholy Cathedral. plus the famous MAP22 along with the secret level which gives you all your pickups but expects you to defeat hordes with what you've got. amazing stuff. to make it even better, guess what, this wad has the single greatest text file of all time, describing all sorts of great things about the development of DVII as well as using the ideal gas law to describe how to play the game. you really shouldn't miss this current iteration of DVII.