Resurgence (final version)

"Nuclear winter."

And thus Resurgence endeth, played through GlBoom+ 2.5.1.5 on UV difficulty. A varied and challenging wad for sure from the authors of Speed of Doom, but how does it compare to it, and is it just Speed of Doom worship or is there much more going on? Is there any point in comparing the two? Well let's find out, shall we.

Resurgence is a 32-level megawad designed with pistol starts in mind, by the authors of Speed of Doom, focused on fast paced and intense action with skillful enemy usage/placement. It comes with a new background menu, fonts, status bar, intermission screens, music, and enemies, namely Scythe 2's Afrit/Red Baron and Plasma Marine.

Resurgence explores various themes, therefore the action does not take place in a single location, or only one theme/motif is present on all levels. It takes place on locations very reminiscent of Plutonia in terms of gameplay and aesthetics, techbases, some of which look fairly futuristic and modern, while others resemble vanilla Doom, Hell, and various places on Earth, even massive libraries. Some maps are set during different seasons, such as winter. Even remakes of Speed of Doom levels are present, MAP24 being one (originally MAP01 in SoD, which is now set during winter).

The difficulty curve is interesting. This is because it's not exactly the traditional kind, but it isn't always consistent between levels. It starts easier, but it is not necessary for the following map to be more difficult, often a difficult map seems to be followed by one that is noticeably easier to finish than the previous. It also follows Scythe's pattern with suicide exits at the end of an episode, which also signifies a visible ramp up in difficulty that is noticed immediately in the maps that follow the suicide level. Since comparisons between Resurgence and Speed of Doom are more-or-less inevitable, one key difference between the two lies here. Unlike SoD, Resurgence does not force the player on quite a few occasions to do the maps in one, very specific way, namely punching everything in sight because the ammo is so tight there's no point in struggling to kill enemies with fire weapons, apart from those that actually need to be taken care of. Resurgence has plenty of resources in the levels so the player doesn't feel forced into a particular gameplay style that doesn't work for them. Should they choose not to punch everything in sight on the maps that feature Berserk packs, they can do just that, and vice versa. Another difference is the fact that Resurgence does not rely excessively on monster pop-ins. SoD put some of them to good use, as demonstrated in the open area with the SMMs on MAP01, but those are usually notorious for being cheap ways to kill the player, and rightfully so. When they can't be anticipated because nothing in the area indicates a potential ambush, they claim the lives of unsuspecting victims almost instantly, an encounter should test a player's abilities, and these traps fail to do so, requiring other things instead in order to be avoided or triumphed over, prior knowledge of the maps being the key factor. Otherwise, the gameplay is very varied, with slaughter maps, others that are tight and unforgiving to mistakes and resource mismanagement and similar to vanilla aesthetically, while others not too dissimilar to what is usually seen in wads like Valiant, with environmental traps, crushers, platforming, pretty much everything one can think of, Resurgence has most of them. Some maps are short and straight to the point, while others are long and complex, with plenty of puzzles. Others might seem generous and tame at first glance, only to have a big twist later on. The enemy count goes no higher than close to 1000 on certain slaughter maps, and is usually oscillating between 100-500.

Resurgence also features 2 new enemies first introduced in Scythe 2, the previously mentioned Afrit and Plasma Marine. This time, however, the Afrit has less health, and the Plasma Marine is much, much slower than the original which was lightning fast, but also has increased health, therefore they can no longer be killed with one well-placed SSG blast to the face.

The music is great and ranges between more peaceful tracks and more action oriented ones, originating from various sources and made by different authors.

The final map is a bit of a mixed bag. This is because the beginning area, on a map which features a forced pistol start from a suicide exit, is very tight with low and mid-tier monsters and no powerful weapons to be picked up until the exit of the pyramid is reached, and the outside, final portion is noticeably less difficult where the player can just rely on enemy infighting to get rid of the most dangerous enemies, the big group of Afrits located where the red and blue switches are. There isn't much point in having a MAP30 that is noticeably less difficult than a previous map (MAP29 alone has some very ugly parts for instance), or doesn't try to do anything new. It is also boring visually. A bit of a lackluster finale, but, it also doesn't take much time to finish and it doesn't have overly complicated puzzles or anything of sorts. It features almost 800 enemies, less than a previous level.

All things considered, Resurgence ends up as a challenging but high quality megawad. It has lots of variety for just one megawad, both in themes and gameplay, and plenty of fun, with the exception of a few very punishing sections here and there. It could be seen as a spiritual successor to Speed of Doom because some maps do play very similarly, but without its flaws/drawbacks. It is so fundamentally different that it is very much its own thing and is easily able to stand on its own feet. A perfect candidate for players looking for a challenge, and it also features difficulty settings so it can be enjoyed by a wide range of players with different skill levels. My favorite maps are going to be the ones seen in the first half, the slaughter levels, and the library one, and don't dislike or hate any of them. Lo and behold, Speed of Doom has been revived and reinvented, and is better than ever, so pick your guns and move fast, but thoughtfully.

Done with these settings:

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 9.

- Hurt Me Plenty.

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

After SoD and some other Joshy's random maps here and there, I thought "is this going to be overwhelming too?". The answer is, no. As a matter of fact, the brutal style is there, but the way each map develops their encounters, it's more forgiving than I expected. Of course, the mapset is hard, each map starts with monsters looking at you, where a first sound wakes up the horror. There's a variety of traps and encounters that I happened to like them all. Exceptions might be some fastpop big bads right in your face, or some random teleporting enemies to drain your health in a matter of milliseconds. Like every modern hard wad, archviles and revenants play a big role in very nasty ways. Cybers and Queen spiders were used well too, in general as the typical big thing to worry about in tight situations. I died more against spiders than their higher-HP counterpart, despite them being more frequent. All the other enemies are used in very demanding ways too. Then the two custom enemies, one is the afrit, a flying baron with a deadly attack, problematic in closed spaces, and the plasma marine, another bastard way more tolerable than the ones in Scythe 2, actually, somewhat lovely.

Visuals are great, some custom textures here and there, but mostly Plutonia textures painted in beautiful palettes (red is omg). Snow-like levels look so good, and I like how the mapset starts in a hellish environment. Very good secrets, some at the first levels could have been done better, like a visible path after a fake wall, just so you can see what's inside before. Mixed feelings with all the obligatory strafejumping through distant platforms, map 11 start pissed me off a little bit. 

My favourite maps are umm, I don't know, I really liked them all in the same level. Map 24 sticks in my mind as it does a great homage to the first three Joshy's SoD maps, with connections that, from my perspective, resemble maps 02 and 04 from Darkwave. Other maps also homage AV and Plutonia pwads of course (also other wads I haven't played yet, according to kmxexii). Map 25 is just amazing. Most slaughter maps are really stressful due to length, map 28 was the most exhausting of all. 

So, an excellent wad to practice and improve your reflexes. It's not overwhelming, neither a walk in the park, all enjoyable in my opinion. I'll give this a solid 9/10

EDIT: Goddamn I forgot to point out map 19 midi is awesome and the most memorable. Nice music!