NOVA II: New Dawn

Wouldn't say it's better than the first. It's quite poor in the gameplay department.

The many inconsistencies in design, be it switches, platforms and damaging floors, made it so maps looked like they were from different wads, and not part of the same package.

This is also in contrast to the poor quality control of these levels. Many maps definitely feel like filler just to achieve the 32-level mark.

A handful of the levels are almighty forgettable, that by the point I had reached the third episode, I didn't remember most of the levels I'd played previously, so I had to revisit them. 

The third episode (maps 20 and forward) featured the most annoying levels. There were some that were legitimately difficult, such as MAP29, which, at some point, felt like it should have ended sooner, instead of dragging itself arena after arena, with the same fights played over and over. Two things in common with all of the third episode's levels is their non-linear design -- badly constructed, which led me to get lost many times, just to, due to luck, at some point realize an obscure passage that led me to the next switch-hunt, or luckily, key. Although finding a key then would have me backtrack a long way to find the colored door again. The other thing is, their difficulty, which lied in foreknowledge of the level, so to arm myself properly.

Although coincidentally, most maps had some very poor gameplay in this one.

Not missing much by skipping it.

Definitely a step-up from the first one. The first few maps made me think it was going to be more of the same, but it really starts to pick up around map 5 and onward. It's surprisingly very well-detailed in more maps this time around, and the map layouts feel much more fleshed-out and not as cramped as the first one at times felt. I did get lost in a few instances like in map 15, but these were very few. Minor frustrations include the super secret map 32 having lots of arch-viles in the last area even on the easier difficulties and some other odd instances (I encountered more than one empty trapdoor on map 14 on easy) otherwise, it really wasn't too distracting. A number of maps felt a lot bigger this time around as well, reminding me of a more modern Memento Mori II, seeing that was also a large follow-up with a lot of the same authors from the first one. This also had a number of music tracks from both Memento Mori megawads, so I guess this comes as no surprise. It's a little hard to narrow down the highlights, seeing that most of the authors present (including some new ones) were much better experienced this time around, and it looks and plays better all around.

All in all, this is a good set of maps to play if you want to get immersed in bigger Doom maps with some original tunes mixed in with older ones. It was well worth the effort to play.

Maps of interest: 9, 11, 20, 27, 29.

the Community Chest series is fucking dead. originally these wads were made because we basically wanted to have a community megawad of 32 maps made by various members of the Doomworld community. with four iterations that got better and better each time, it's a telltale sign of how much the community has grown, but also a showmanship of the new standards that the community goes by.

why say this stuff for NOVA II? because I see quite a lot of people comparing it to the Community Chest franchise, and basically this wad and its predecessor function mostly as a limit-removing version of such wads. the takeaway is that this megawad was made by a few new members, as well as former members of the first NOVA, myself was included here. now, the overall design is truly a mixed bag, there's definitely those that certainly are more amateurish in design or gameplay, like Cyberdemon531's map, my own MAP04, joe-ilya's MAP07, obake's MAP22, and both of UOD's maps. but I see next to nothing truly wrong with any of these levels as they all play well enough. the showstealers are truly showstealers, with Megiddo II, an_mutt's MAP15, and tourniquet's maps all taking it all and making the experiences memorable. however, they don't eclipse the weaker maps at all and shouldn't to be frank. in the end it's just another dandy levelset to go through and there had been special care to prevent those from breaking the game by mistake (or deliberation).

my favorite map is STILL MAP19.