Dawn of Reality

An extremely impressive WAD which is very detailed, but has some issues. I could not complete the map without cheating myself a key, even after careful searching.

The idea to replicate a city environment is successful, but it's clear why those don't make for great gameplay. Fences block you and monsters in, making smooth maneuvering awkward. The layout leads to confusion about where to go. I eventually cleared out all the monsters I could find and after an hour  of gameplay and scouring the map for any possible missed places, I was stuck. I resorted to the IDDT cheat to see if I could find out where any of the keys were. I couldn't see a Yellow Keycard anywhere even with that. Presumably it has to be spawned in with some script, but I had been everywhere to no avail. Well, everywhere except the places barred by the flesh barriers, but I didn't find anything to open those up. There was one promising-looking switch which suggested it lowered the barriers, but that didn't seem to do anything either normal or impact activation. There was another switch reachable only through a tunnel and teleporter that I never found the function of.

There are also many places which are completely and totally dark. Unplayably dark, in fact. I was using GZDoom and even with the settings as close to the recommended ones as I could get, I had give myself light amp goggles in many interiors. Is it too much to ask to be able to see where I'm going?

Too many monsters. You step outside and immediately get fucked in the ass by hordes of shit, and they make it lag worse than the map itself. And even without them, the whole thing's one of those maze-like mindfuck maps where you have no idea where to go. I really like the atmosphere and the ideas it presents, but God damn it this thing unplayable!

A large city map for GZDooM that aims to transfer a real life location to DooM with an occult twist. The author has crafted a number of high resolution textures and sprites to create a credible realistic feeling. There are also many smaller details, such as everyday utensils, furniture, paintings etc. This all makes the city feel more concrete and believable. The theme is Lovecraftian horror and it's done with great taste. I especially liked the way the author used those flashback cut scenes to create the atmosphere. The background ambient/soundtrack was a crucial part of the theme too. When you enter the map the very first thing you hear is lightning piercing the sky. This perfectly instills the mood on the player right from the start.

Gameplay is predominantly exploratory. Sometimes perhaps a bit too much. Although the level making is very admirable I found myself a bit frustrated at times. It felt like I had to try every single doorway in every wall (multiple times) to progress. One of the most annoying sticking points was the door that opened the barriers to the grocery store. That door closed too fast and I thought the button that opened it activated something completely different. Sure, I could have probably heard that the door opened but the cacophony of the nearby Arachnotrons walking suppressed the poor door trying to make its case. Well, eventually I did get past that. And it looks like the author did put in an effort to make the map not a Hexen-esque paingrimage. For example there were Duke Nukem 3D like video monitors that showed what the most important switches did.

what do you expect. with high-res graphics and lots of things in it, it's gonna lag. very well done city with killer gameplay. as it stands, the gameplay gets rough on the onset, loads of enemies of various kinds all on the streets of this large city. the incentive of exploration is very rife here once you manage to silence things, but it could get rather hard to find out where you need to go next. not helping are those dark areas, especially the tunnel part which was lame and difficult to see. the cutaways to jumpscare people aren't really too effective, and the overall fights you come to at the ends of the map play out pretty well. if you can get through this gargantuan level, consider yourself proud, as it's a big one.