Plutonia: Revisited Community Project

I played PRCP the month after Plutonia 2 and following DWMC playthrough of Cydonia. Among the various efforts wanting to build upon PLUTONIA.WAD and expand the style initiated by Dario and Milo Casali, this community project gets half things right and half things wrong, but it is consistently fun to play and with simpler progression if compared to its 2008 counterpart, hence the 4 stars.

 

The right things are the visuals, improving upon the original Plutonia and achieving good sense of place on several occasions, and the sadistic tone of the ambushes, with blatant abuse of Chaingunners, Revenants and Arch-Viles all through the way. The authors indulged into the same pleasures of the Casalis when they designed their maps, and the gameplay was always interesting and peppered. What felt wrong to me was the haphazard variation in level length and challenge, with overly ambitious maps placed side by side with more reasonable entries, attempting faithful homages that did not detach themselves enough from the original maps.

 

Plutonia is notably missing a difficulty progression, and the PRCP is similar in that regard. I remember quite a bit of shocks in the first 20 maps, while the last third did not feel like the challenge was ramping up. The size of the maps varied through the megaWAD, so the IWAD feel that the levels became larger towards the end was not replicated. I played the easy way, continuous with saves, and I found several setups that gave me a hard time, as a proof that there was generally better encounter design here than in Plutonia 2. Ammo scarcity was an issue in some maps; I could not figure out how a pistol starting UV-Maxer could destroy all those HPs, unless Tyson was the intended way.  

 

As opposed to Plutonia 2, my favourite maps of PRCP were in the last third of the megaWAD. Quotes abounded everywhere, so I bet that most entries were mapped for a specific slot. If I liked Joshy’s reimagining on MAP07: Caughtisle, MAP03: Escape from Ghost Town and MAP04: Emerald Pools had unfair setups that are likely to discourage a player that does not tolerate certain types of harassment. Darkwave0000’s MAP11: Will you be my NME? expanded the concept of a map heavy on Arch-Viles, but it turned out to be boring with its huge size and one-way paths, full of faraway Chaingunners.  After a positive trio of enjoyable maps, Xaser’s magnum opus MAP15: Enigma Helix weighed heavy like lead. A truly magnificent map with lots of paths to explore, compelling areas, polished visuals, and astounding secrets, it was just unbearable at the heart of a megaWAD that had already been overstretched and grueling at times. It left me so exhausted that I reluctantly played MAP31: Cyberdemon Vertigo, then decided to skip MAP32: Have @ It with its 786 monsters crammed into claustrophobic caves.

 

Things did not improve very much after that; while I liked evocalvin’s entries, except the unneeded Arch-Vile gauntlet at the end of MAP 18: Phantom Silence, I was totally crushed by MAP 19: Venom. So long, so cryptic, full of damaging floors, it almost made me give up everything. Luckily, the explicit homages in MAP 20: Sinister Daybreak and MAP 22: Suicide Mission made me feel at home again. WH-Wilou84 pleased me quite a bit with MAP 23: Necrogenesis and Xaser’s second contribution MAP 25: Wicked Garden was much more bearable than the first, while still holding the visual grandeur and strong atmosphere. MAP 26: Poison Ivy III had more monsters than ammo to vanquish them, but was quite fun on continuous play, while MAP28: Dance with the Devil was a sort of parody of Plutonian gameplay, with the ridiculous amount of consecutive monster closets. Mechadon’s MAP29: Atlatl was a worthy conclusion, a large exploratory adventure in a temple entangled in vines and soaked in blood. Thomas Van der Velden should be praised for designing another MAP30 with an Icon of Sin, even though I did not like the Beholder appearance and the Cyberdemons placed everywhere.

 

Plutonia: Revisited Community Project is a successful attempt to carry on the legacy of The Plutonia Experiment, delving deep into its gameplay and considerably increasing the size of the game. The monster placement is still efficient and dangerous, but their numbers range between 100 and 300, unless the authors used licence to go overboard as in MAP15 and a few other occasions. Obviously, this will test the abilities, the patience, and the endurance of the player. If you are looking for a bigger and meaner version of your favourite IWAD, and you do not mind a few maps lasting over 1 hour, give PRCP a try; if you just want more Plutonia then play Cydonia instead, as it is a polished, faithful, and reasonable opportunity to relive the Casali masterpiece under a contemporary point of view.

These maps made me want to slice my wrists.

Mostly a set of mediocre, unappealing, rushed and unoriginal levels, with little quality control. Baffling that these were made by multiple authors that had a month more than the Dario brothers to develop their levels.

 

Gameplay ranges from dull to sluggish.

 

Not much to say. It's just a boring map pack, and far from being like Plutonia in both design and quality perspectives.

 

Plays very well in multiplayer.

It's simply reskinning of original Plutonia.

Monsters are almost everywhere and I'm running out of ammo - that's a thing that will never be resolved.

Map07,Map11 and secret maps are pain in the ass. The best are Maps14-19 and Map29.

Slaughter linear key hunting maps is bad idea. It must be at least 3 ways to reach the exit.

Overall, it's far not better than Memento Mori 2

EDIT:

Why Map03 starts in the strange bricky box without Plutonia teleporter?

Why do I have to pick up that BFG on map04(If after I'd simply run out of cells on map05)?

Map05 Hitscanner traps is not good idea.

Map02 is so dark that you barely can distinguish colors.

Map06 suka blyat, where do I have to go to get this fucking blue key?

Map08 WTF is the door in front of the player starting pos?

Map09 Not bad.

Map10 I like the music.

Map11 When I started to go around some building, an archvile sent me to the exit area. Cool

"Deja Vu all over again."

 

Therefore Plutonia Revisited has been finished, played through GlBoom+ 2.5.1.5 on UV difficulty. A mostly pleasant surprise but could have offered more, so let's why that is.

 

Plutonia Revisited is a 32-map megawad consisting of revamped versions of the existing levels from Final Doom's Plutonia Experiment expansion, made by various members of the community. It comes with new textures, music, status bar, intermission screens, and fonts.

 

Unlike Plutonia 2, Plutonia Revisited does not aim to be a fan sequel of any sorts to the original IWAD, but rather aims to offer a different spin on the original maps from Plutonia while sticking to its design philosophy very closely and not taking too many liberties most of the time. Which is perhaps its greatest flaw.

 

Although most levels bear striking similarities with the original, they are sometimes taken to a whole new level where they basically descend into rip-off territory. This is due to preserving too much from the original levels on quite a few occasions where its no longer about staying faithful to the original as these places in maps are almost identical, apart from perhaps a few changes here and there. This can be observed both early in the wad as well as later, when nearing the end.

 

Another problem would be the music. The soundtrack is good and fits the theme, combat, and overall atmosphere of the levels, however it repeats the same mistake PL2 did, by being all over the place. Ultimate Doom, Doom II, and various sources or original works. Not particularly good for consistency.

 

Luckily, those are also the only (major) problems of Plutonia Revisited. It does a great job at preserving the overall atmosphere, gameplay, and otherwise essence of the original while also adding its own spin to the levels, and the liberties taken are fairly big sometimes. As it was the case with PL2, it seems that MAP11 is once again the map that stands out of the crowd by being a re-imagining of the original while keeping its core element intact. This time, the player finds themselves into a city-like map, not too dissimilar from Odyssey of Noises sometimes, with an occasional PL2 vibe to it, but its much larger with wide, open areas, many enemy types, and complete lack of the door gimmick. It does keep the many Arch-Viles in place though, and they ambush the player in many ways, but usually only one or two of them is encountered at one time, apart from a few instances.

 

Similar to PL2, the quality is fairly consistent considering the number of people who contributed to the project, but at the same time it's also easy to tell who made each map because they all play differently and have their unique play style and design. After all is said and done, the journey ends with the traditional IoS boss fight, short and straight-to-the-point, only needing to press a couple of switches to raise a platform and lower a lift, then blast the brains of the boss to pieces. It is by far a better take on the concept than PL2's effort with the awkward and hard to determine firing angles.

 

Overall, PLR manages to be a good effort at re-imagining the original Plutonia while adding its own spin. It's fun and refreshing, despite its occasional dick encounters/traps, which are very, very few, and easy to see coming unlike the various instances seen in PL2 which were also more numerous. It could have been better if it took more liberties or at least didn't almost copy-paste parts from the original with only a few changes in places. Worth a shot for fans of Plutonia and PL2. My favorite maps are going to be the ones seen in the first half, and my least favorite level is going to be MAP20, the single and most obtuse level in the package. So, grab your weapons and prepare for the Revenant and AV onslaught.

As someone who barely plays any wad made after 1996, this is a refreshing option. ALL the levels have the same feel as the Plutonia mapset.

 

However, the 2nd and 3rd episodes could have had more fights. (Map 27 has only 127 monsters and is not a very fun map). Aside from this, most of the maps have very good design and I do enjoy a good Thomas Van Der Velden map and a Tatsurd-cacocaco map.

 

Hopefully someone can make a TNT re-visited in this same style. Fingers crossed :)

Done with these settings:

 

- Crispy Doom 3.5

- Hurt Me Plenty, Ultra-Violence.

- Continuous on skill 3, pistol starts on skill 4 for the DW Megawad Club.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

 

This is a great community mapset. Many original ideas and also a lot of homages. The visuals are pure Plutonia, textures and detailing are on the iwad side, for example, lots of wooden pillars and walls in square shape, invisible bridges, vines, skull non-switches, and more. I like that many maps have unreachable spaces just for scenery. Midis are really good, particularly the ones from Xaser's maps (15 and 25), and map 11 sticks in my mind too. 

 

Gameplay is fun in the majority. Some maps are pure tribute of the iwad, including combat. There's a good variety of themes, sometimes triple key hunt, other times is straightforward linear, and other times non-linear exploratory. Progression is hardly ever obscure, aside from a few maps, you are usually exempted of backtracking, which is great. Most maps can be short, but a few are particularly really really long, map 15 is the best example. It's still a good map though, depends on your tastes. Combat is heavy, but in most cases you are able to elude big fight scenarios. Plutonia has never been about constantly closing you in traps with timers. It does have a lot of incidental challenging encounters. This doesn't mean it's always going to be fun, for example, chaingunners are abundant, and sometimes an obnoxious presence. Tributes of battles are present: there's a standout map dedicated to archviles, in the style of Hunted, including many other enemies; another one almost exactly like The Twilight, that is a new arena revealed and god mode chaingunners for sure; and the obvious secret maps alike Cyberden and Go 2 It, the last one goes crazy with infighting and I love that. Plus many more memorable parts, like a hitscan hell trap reminiscent to Ghost Town, or a ring of enemies similar to The Sewers, or an invisible bridge surrounded by snipers a la Aztec. 

 

Secrets are not always easy to find, I like the use of hidden switches which encourage good observation. They are mostly powerful and needed to make the gameplay smoother.

 

Favourite maps are 06, 10, 16, 23, 27, and 28. Least favourite maps are 18, 20, 21 and a "honorable" mention to map 30 for being a real nightmare to play. The rest of the maps are good, map 29 is mostly memorable for it's exploratory ambient, for example.

 

Overall, the mapset is fun, it's all Plutonia in the best way. So if you're a fan of the iwad's harshest quirks, I recommend it. My rate is 8/10.

to actually do the Plutonia style is pretty difficult. you want it to be tougher than Doom II but not tougher than basically any slaughtermap (or even Plutonia 2 itself), and Plutonia does that. Plutonia Revisited is obviously a community project exemplifying the course of Plutonia's signature styles. so you'll be expecting heavy hitters in loads of spots. compared to Plutonia 2 it don't compare at all though, many levels are simply tributes to those in the IWAD, even occupying the same slot that the particular Plutonia map is in. it has quite a few good maps throughout, and is quite Plutonic. I do not like 15 (worst Xaser map of all time) or 20 (chaingunners in the worst places possible) at all though. also you can get stuck in MAP31. surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly depending on how you put it, PRCP is significantly tougher than a number of slaughtermaps. it's how you place these guys in.

Disappointing compared to the original and PL2. Starts out promising but fades into small, cramped and aesthetically boring maps. Maps 11, 31 and 32 especially don't deliver. The story text is also epic maymay tier and doesn't help the overall lacking atmosphere. Map 15 is good though. 2/5

I enjoyed this pack less than 1 and 2, but that is to be expected with the fluctuating quality of a community project like this. Still decent

There are not many memorable levels like pl2 but it still keep the original plutonia flow.

very nice plutonia

A mixed bag of generally lower quality maps than Plutonia 2. Some pretty good ones, lots of variably successful remakes of known maps and also a number of notorious duds, among which map 11 sticks out like a sore thumb. I have huge respect for Darkwave0000 because of his brilliant work on SoD and some other favorites of mine, and cannot grasp how he could release such a huge monotonous snoozefest devoid of any action whatsoever (except for a bunch of pop-up archviles in open spaces. Barf...) 3/5

swag me teh fuk out m8

Very good mappack. Feels like playing Plutonia all over again, only harder.

Highly recommended for Plutonia fans

Bit strange that this is under /ports/ when its vanilla compatible.

Fantastically hard mapset that is very true to the original material while implementing some more modern design philosophies -- Basically Plutonia if it were actually good. (I only half kid) 5/5

I'll concede that I'm slightly invested in this .WAD, as I made the whole of one map. So I'll ignore that and say I loved playing through the other 32 maps. Very fun and a great Plutonia megawad with quite a few great maps! 5* -Phobus

Excellent work from the community. Mostly very consistent, and the weaker maps still delivers plutonic nostalgia and fun gameplay. Well done! 5 Stars.

Lots of nice maps in this set and a couple are really outstanding. If you liked the Plutonia experiment I recommend you give this a try. dwrTag

Great plutonia megawad, well worth playing.

Nice work! I'd play this over Mortal Kombat any day! LOL it was released the same day, too!

Very good megawad. At least as good as Plutonia 2. BTW Portal 2 was also released the same day - much better than Mortal Kombat.