Survive In Hell Public Release 2

7.5/10

Good map set, but does not work well with BD but it's playable anyway.

If you like hard maps this is for you, like being in a small room with 3 cyberdemons

or 10 revenants. a couple of new monsters.

Not all maps are good though, some of them are lame and should be replaced with better

maps in relesse 3 if any.

Some stupid things like you flip a switch just to reveal another switch behind it you

have to flip again, happens all over the maps :/

The sole fact that I willingly came here to leave a review means a lot, I'll tell you that.

While I wouldn't call this innovative, it's definitely all-around solid. Can't really blame it for the lack of innovation though, since these are 2008-2012 maps. Speaking of maps, they're short and somewhat hard; monster counts are high, yes, but there's usually a plentiful supply of items, resulting not in a tedious ride of constant deaths but in a very satisfying ride of near-nonstop carnage. The new enemies are welcome too, even if they're mostly familiar faces. Lastly, the reason why I got the WAD to begin with: Map33. It's just a cute, wonderful treat. While I did come looking for the copper that was that map in particular, I legitimately stayed for the rest of maps that make up the gold when together.

Done with these settings:

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 9.

- Ultra-Violence

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset. Actual pistol start on map 33.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

Not bad, generally a well received megawad. No story, but I dig the overall theme being hell(ish), meaning red textures dominating the set. There are also some grey/green/brown rooms with tech stuff here and there, not making a huge contrast or for episodic purposes, and at least for me personally maps with only brown textures didn't look quite appealing, although the usage of green in map 29 was an attractive difference. I played with GlBoom+, but on ZDoom there are a few additional details, such as the lava moving different than usual, or smoke that comes out of things touching lava, anyway I think they are worth to check if you like reality effects in Doom. The soundtrack is a mix of stock tracks plus other cool midis that really bust the gameplay imo, the one that I loved hearing again was in map 23, the Jazz Jackrabbit bonus level track!. 

People who played Hell Revealed and its sequels will find themselves in constant deja vu here. The gameplay resembles the earliest conceptions of slaughter, as in monsters appearing en masse in front of the player where spam mostly hitscan ammo or maybe die is the key. Well that's what HR offered in general, don't know about the sequels, and here the author replicated not just the style but the maps' layouts too, with some minor differences, so it felt like playing the same thing again, which still wasn't much of an issue since JC added the "hellish" visual touch... Of course not everyone is familiar with the old-school too-many-monsters style, so what you can see here in terms of combat is, indeed hordes of monsters as the main concept, but number isn't always correlated with quality. While JC provided tons of cases for each weapon class, either preparing you for sweaty combat or a boring slog, more often you won't need to think twice about what you'll have to do, as these hordes can come in single types or mixed types, and you know what happens in the second case, but in the first case, it can happen that you have more than enough space to implement your ammo spamming without risk, or monsters can't go further due to block lines, which severely trivializes the combat. In other cases, it's possible to be overwhelmed if you don't react fast, or have no idea what's going on (e.g. being infinite-height-scratched when platforming). What can be attractive to some players is that many of these maps allow you to "choose" how many monsters you want in the same area, given size and space, which can elevate difficulty and infighting shows. There are also a few bite-sized maps that empathize in tight combat, those are probably the trickiest ones yet not that interesting on the weapon progression side. Oh and, about progression, generally linear, triple-key hunt, getting lost is never a thing here.

The new set of monsters have their ups and downs, mostly downs, and that's due to their usage: Belphegors are abundant, they are red buffed barons that attack twice, I liked them in general, but their usage as walls with health in some occasions really put me off. Afrits rarely appear, they are deadly flying barons that don't wait a second to spam their multiple projectiles, and in this case they can't be pushed too far away, I only wish their appearance was more casual. Last baron's cousin is the Cybruiser, though unlike Valiant's, this one shoots twice and their attack's frame is so short that it's nearly impossible to notice when it shoots, and that was super annoying, keeping a distance is recommended. Then there's the Poison Soul, a buffed skull that shoots green fireballs, they look cool, but hardly ever appear, if not just two times in the whole mapset. The new final boss isn't a joke at close range, I'd say his usage didn't favor him a lot, plus he isn't so aggressive, still a cool looking enemy though. Finally, last enemy is, basically a bomb, can only be found in the bonus map, hopefully fans of that particular game will know better what that thing is. Some stock monsters have been reskinned or modified too: Cacodemons are now grey, less cute unfortunately. Spiderdemons are slower and lack their "boss" class, meaning rockets are more effective on them, and you can't hear them from afar, there's only one case where its usage is hilarious, just pay attention. Revenants and pain elementals won't show blood when being hit with hitscan, which was confusing at first but not a big deal. 

Secret-wise, what mostly caught my attention is the tiny visual "thing" that can be found in all (or most) of the secrets, a neat something I've never seen in other wads. Aside of that, nothing in particular to point out, maybe the fact that one requires SR50 and can be frustrating for some maxers. For favourite maps I'll pick 22, 23, 24, 29 as they look gorgeous compared to the rest. 

Overall, while not providing always original contents, I think it's worth to check if merely for the music and all the red going on. Difficulty is there, but I doubt it'll impact on anyone there who has moved on from the 90's slaughter style. Still, if you are keen of the HR trilogy, this could be up your alley. My rate is 6/10.