NOVA: The Birth

This is a great megawad! Most of maps are well designed, balanced and pretty fun to play. The first hard part of megawad is MAP 15, the final fight (2 parts). After that, MAP 17 is other major spike in difficulty. Then, MAP 28 and 30 are very hard, with 30 being the hardest of the set. Anyway, favorite maps = 18, 20, 25, 28 and 30 (half of it really). The only bad map I've found is MAP 31. Overall it's a megawad I recommend but be warned MAP 30 is very though in UV, I had to play this in HMP instead. I will certainly replay this one eventually!

Remember when maps weren't planed all around coreographed encounters and turrets of enemies, and just tried to be originals, creative, and with a satisfying challenge that its not a walk on the park but also doesn't is a slaughterfest?
Well, Nova: The Birth is that and much more.
Maps and maps of pure and sheer creativity without restrictions.
Love it from the get go!
Some maps draw a little as they are a little too big or with a little too much arenas to be totally enjoyable, but most of the maps are around the medium to large with interesting areas and neat effects.

Its not a 5 because last map, beside being a great achievement, have a really unfair an slaughterish arena that isn't funny at all and diverges too much from all the other parts of the megawad. Also, there are heavy ramps-up in difficulty on some maps, not that is bad, but a little more balance could have been better.

It is a great achievement from new and fresh mappers with some aid and contributions by amazing veterans that offered some really marvelous maps to the set.
 

Probably gonna play it a lot in the future as i really enjoyed it!

[ SUPER LONG REVIEW ]

I like the idea of a WAD being created by inexperienced and/or new mappers: it can showcase new idiosyncracies and allow little (in most cases, I guess)-known people to make a name for themselves on these forums.

Having beat this for the third time and knowing how a good chunk of the levels worked, I also turned my focus to design and thematic consistency. Thankfully, the levels all seem to have about the same sort mapping skill on an aesthetic scale (with a few exceptions). This isn't a negative, by the way; if there's anything I dislike, it's seeing a beautiful map followed by a vastly inferior-looking one. That sort of thing doesn't gell well. The first NOVA on the other hand is consistent on that front. And, besides, considering the whole nature of the WAD, maps not looking quite as polished as stuff you'd see in Sunlust or BTSX isn't at all bad.

So, what comes to basic looks, the WAD comes together nicely. How do the mappers themselves, what comes to gameplay, fare? Above-average, I'd say.

PRIMEVAL, who made the first level (Outpost) and co-made The Seventh Circle (Map28) goes for typical pistol gameplay in the former. Kinda stale type of gameplay, but it works for a simple Map01.

Jaws in Space only made Map02 (Administration Center), a sort of fast-ish paced techbase level with a nukage-cavern and ocean backdrop. Besides the hideous-looking toilets (well, I suppose that's the point), it looks fine. Gameplay can be a bit annoying, considering you'll have to use the Pistol for a bit.

mrthejoshmon ups the game, making 3 levels: his first (Map03: Water Treatment Plant) is a compact map with some bigger monsters. It's alright: okay secrets and a non-official SSG (while I do like). Compound (Map08) is a kind of tribute to Containment Area (or I guess Storage Facility from TNT?) and has some secrets that weren't placed too good. Again, it's compact, and slow-paced. Luckily his third and last entry, Incubator (Map12) is a faster run-and-gun through an admittedly blocky-looking tech area (it uses that ugly black-and-white texture quite a lot). Still, a fun map is a fun map, so I can't complain too much.

EvilNed is one of the more prolific mappers in this particular WAD, authoring 5 maps: 04, 07, 10, 14 and 17. All have a distinct look to them: tech levels that contain some form of liquid, whether it be simple water, lava, etc.. I must admit, his secret placement isn't what I'd personally call stellar, and the gameplay is really hit-and-miss: for some maps, like Map07, it's really fun (besides that damn ending!), others are adequate (04 and 14, the latter of which I'd argue has TOO many Mancubi, in spite of the map's jokey name "Man Cub Up") and the other two are just a bit frustrating (in 10, some areas shut off and potentially ruin a 100% run, and 17's ending is flat-out annoying, and has pretty shaky pacing).

Next up is kildeth. Not a fan of his first map, Hazard Facility (Map05), what with the damaging floors everywhere, monster placement that I found obnoxious and, in my mind, crappy secrets. His second entry, Sensorium (Map27) is weird in that it's quite large but has sub-100 enemies. The first time I played it I hated it, but using the current UV-max strategy, it's more bareable.

Arjak's two levels are quite different from one another: the first, Sewage Processing (Map06) is a compact map with a lot of secrets (relatively easy to find, one of which has an SSG!) and rather fun gameplay. Map20 (Castle Bloodletting) is a much larger level, with an annoying start that has enemies just about everywhere, but progressively gets better. The ending is quite tense.

FuzzyFireball's only level is Suspend (Map09), a very linear massacre through hallways where the enemy fodder becomes stronger as you progress. Tense and fun.

Phobus Anomaly (Map11) is a very Phobus level; rather small, and precise (and concise) enemy placement. I will admit though that I wasn't a huge fan: some of said enemy placement did feel annoying.

sgt dopey delivers one of the first bigger maps in the form of Warehouse District (Map13). The start isn't great; for one thing, there's a slow lift that you have to manually activate to proceed, and falling from where you end up meand you have to repeat a dumb ascent to a switch, blah blah blah. The highlight is the ending in a city-looking area, with a fight with a Cyberdemon.

Cannonball is a mapper who, in general, is REALLY hit-and-miss for me, and his NOVA levels are no exception. His first outing, The Prisoner (Map15) is not one of his masterpieces: aggitating enemy placement and Arch-Vile traps that bugged me to no end. The ending's quite tense, but it doesn't make up for the rest. Power Core (Map18) is our first real taste of slaughter-ish gameplay; it's okay. The Hell Revealed-inspired "maze" looks neat but plays like crap, but besides that, the map's serviceable with enough resources and well-thought secrets.

Paul D made Teleportarium (Map16), quite the fun "go-left-or-right-to-find-whatever-key" sort of level, featuring an ever-increasing growth of enemies that swarm the centre of the map. He revisits some of the areas of this map with his second entry, Immaterium (Map23), which is sort of Map16 if it was merged with Hell. Cool design, but I don't think the gameplay elevated it to quite the former map's status.

Cyriak (or mouldy) is one of the mappers (along with Cannonball and dobu) whose aesthetics rise above most of the others, and sort of fucks with the consistency I was on about above. Despite this, his maps are fun to play and you can see his surreal design bearing fruit (and being perfected in Going Down). Bad Blood (Map19) is apparently his first Doom map ever, and it's quite impressive. The ending with the Hellish tentacles are very Cyriak-y. Vile Arterium (Map25) has the fatal sin of being beatable in less than 30 seconds: you can literally run straight to the exit with a Hell Knight and maybe a Cyberdemon in your way, whom you can avoid. Besides that, it's okay, with a lot of diverse areas like a blood sewer (?), machinery, vents, etc.. The Seventh Circle is, I'm guessing, mostly a product from him, and is possibly my favourite map in the WAD; a large cave, a library and prison-like areas... also, inventive traps.

joe-ilya delivers a couple of Hell-themed maps, the first being Beta Base (Map21), which does have ammo and the like, but just enough to kill everything. It's weird since the last level didn't have a death exit, so why do this? I dunno, maybe for pistol starters. In any case, okay, the ending with the enemies in the field is dumb. Hell's Playground (Map26) is a "jog"-paced (between slow and fast) map revolving around the chaingun and the shotguns. It's more of a filler level than anything.

Getsu Fune's two maps are distinct for having large rooms: Broken Confluence Point (Map22) starts off with a few monsters, then gradually opens up revealing Hellish caverns and gives you a nice dose of heavy artillery to help out. The ending involving telefragging teleporters sucks, though. The secret map Riptide (Map32) is a borderline-Tyson adventure underwater. Interesting idea, just very slow and not well executed in my opinion.

Stygian gives us one of the big maps, Rings of Gyges (Map24). Getting some of the secrets is a pain, and a lot of the enemies feel like they're there just to boost the monster count up. Some fun areas involving key traps, but that's about it.

dobu gabu maru's secret map Iron Exuviae (Map31) can be beaten pacifist, but going for the super secret exit, that's a whole different story. I actually enjoy the non-fighting portions, since the areas where you DO engage with enemies are generally poorly conceived. The first area is tight and has a ton of corners that you can easily get pushed into and it's game-over, and the last has a massive swarm of Revenants and a bunch of pillars you can easily rocket yourself into. Nice design and music, but otherwise bothersome.

Memfis and fiend-o-hell collaborate on the same map, the penultimate one: Extorta Nova (Map29). Usually a map made (or at least co-made) by Memfis is a good sign, but sadly the first half is a bit daft, waiting on slow lifts to get you into areas with 20-dealing damage floors and, once again, telefrag teleporters. To me, that is indeed "artificial difficulty". Just teleport the player near the start. The Cyberdemons are in tight corridors. God help those playing this from pistol start.

So, that should be just about all the mappers. Some of them (namely: kildeth, dobu, Cannonball, Cyriak and Arjak) collaborated for the behemoth of a final level, Megiddo! Each made their own section. Only three are required, but for completion's sake I did them all! Arjak's is probably the easiest and has by far the least enemies, though the Revs and the Spider Mastermind can be bitches. Dobu revisits some areas from the previous maps (that's an idea I've always wanted to see, so cool), which flows quite nicely. Cannonball goes for slaughter-like gameplay, and it's quite fun actually, and can get really intense. Cyriak is more fiendish, using Arch-Viles especially to catch the player off guard. I can see this frustrating some people beyond belief, but knowing this stuff beforehand, it's fine; I also like the blue design. kildeth, I suppose, made the southwestern portion which I stand by as the "bullshit" section: a wide-open cavern with Pain Elementals, a few Cyberdemons, Arch-Viles and hitscanners galore. Sure, there's an Invulnerability, but even so, it's dumb. Also, 20-damaging floors are aggravating! The actual ending looks cool, and isn't that tough: a small clan of monsters, then focus on a trio of Cyberdemons then shoot into the boss brain. You win!

All-in-all, a mostly consistent (I have a limited vocab, I know), interesting WAD that warrants a try.

Best Maps: 06, 09, 16, 19, 28, 30

Worst Maps: 05, 15, 31

Better than the second entry in the series.

What shines brightest in this pack is the third episode, although the previous two are also pretty good, though of course, all containing some black sheep.

Although I don't judge a work by the author's name, I was very impressed with the work from the beginners here. There's passion in these levels, their greatest aim was to be fun. I have good memories from these levels.

It's worth a check, it might be someone's deal.

There were fun maps and there were okay maps - some of them blur my memory after a while due to an abundance of techbases, but there are some solid earth/brick maps and of course hell maps to be found later on. My highlight experience would have to be mouldy's contributions as well as dobu's metal map puzzle and likely a few others - otherwise there wasn't much here I felt was spectacular which is understandable given it's a beginner's project.

Maps of interest: 20, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29.

on the surface, NOVA looks like another community megawad, you'll find the level that sparks your interest, then you move on, possibly finding another one that sparks your interest, and then you move on from there. that's much of the experience with it, and it's not something bad at all. mostly standard fare, with a number of nuances here and there due to the idea that NOVA was made by and for the newbies out there, which I also participated in somewhat. regardless of any discrepancies that may have been exaggerated during playtesting, the wad maintains consistency in fun factor and even the weak levels work out for the better. while NOVA II ended up with more standouts, this one still holds pretty decently, with the two secret levels, Megiddo (the five mapper trend coming after it) and mouldy's maps marking the high strides of the megawad.