The Realm of Parthoris - 2015

pretty good, has interesting music selection, overall gameplay isn't too rough. the wait at E1M8 could've been way shorter. most of the maps are reasonably sized and no real troubles with progression, apart from E1M9 which is more of a puzzle map actually.

Done with these settings:

- ZDoom 2.8.1. plus a DECORATE that twists some RNG values.

- Thou Art a Smite-Meister (skill 4)

- Continuous combined with a wand start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

Super fun episode as expected. This is the second Heretic pwad I've played, and I truly enjoyed it from start to end. The visual side is absolutely great, it's notable that the authors designed their maps to fit the new textures in the best way possible, and make each section distinguishable and memorable. Dynamic use of lights to add difficulty in traps, slippery snow that messes up with your dodging, lite platforming on lava not inescapable, varied geometry that aren't just corridors and rectangles, are among other things what the wad offers in terms of details and layout. Besides, custom music, and very enjoyable ones, particularly E1M5's midi which fits perfectly with the start of the map. 

While the maps don't have any special sort of connection with each other, thematically speaking, they do offer a cohesive style of combat that isn't seen in the iwad. It's very trap based, but also has a lot of incidental combat that can easily overwhelm a careless player. The enemy placement isn't just there for cleanup, despite the differences of RNG with Doom monsters, on wand starts you have to cross through the crossfire to find your weapons, which can be tricky here since the more you advance, more enemies will teleport in and cannot be simply ignored forever. TROP also comes with its own puzzles courtesy of an author who I read is a fan of them (Obsidian ahem...), his E1M9 is what I would consider the "infamous" map of the set, as it requires an unusual approach to reach the exit, plus some quite interesting hazards like automatic exploding pods. The rest of the maps don't have any cryptic clues for progression, they can be linear or non-linear, but since their general size is big (except E2M1 which is clearly a speedmap), exploration is an important feature. What else?... oh yeah, crushers, good old crushers just when you didn't expect them! Hopefully all of these things will catch your attention in a positive way, as much as they did to me. 

Secret-wise, I'd actually recommend to find them as some will contain a powerful weapon, so the gameplay won't be crossbows-only. They aren't so hard to find, given the new textures it just takes some careful observation. There is one unreachable secret in E1M5, a hidden switch that doesn't work will prevent you to grab a visible item from another room. I also found some HOMs here and there, but nothing that affects the gameplay. No favourite maps, because I enjoyed them all pretty much the same. 

Overall, no gripes, no dislikes, the mapset is a must-play even if you're only keen to Doom. My rate is 9/10.