No Sleep for the Dead

Levels play and look great in Crispy Doom

A great tribute to the look and feel of the first episode. The twisty corridors really evoke the atmosphere and gameplay of episode one. As the levels progress, they get more difficult and traps are set for the player. I did get a sense of deja-vu sometimes with some parts of the levels being maybe too similar to Id's levels in places. I imagine that is a very fine line to tread giving the brief of the level, and after all, that's what we signed up for, so I can't complain on that front. The running and gunning builds to satisfying levels. Once you get in the groove, you should power through the early levels. As the levels progress, the author tries to vary the gameplay with some tricky puzzles, but these are always signposted visually or audibly. These break up the standard levels nicely and give some variety.

When the author departs from the standard layout of Episode One levels, the design work and layout is very good. This is more than a simple E1 rehash. This brought a lot of the nostalgia of the original Doom levels back to me, and challenged me at the same time. Recommended. 

Nice, clean and simple maps. Just like, I'm playing the old Doom 1!

I'd heard of this, but wasn't sure if I'd played it. Being a big fan of the much earlier Classic Episode, I knew I had to try. Jan Van der Veken gives us a really well made E1 replacement that recalls KDITD in a familiar and fresh way, one of those iterations on the original theme that is a bit bigger, more complex, and more challenging, but still just reeks of classic Doom. A touch of E2 and E3 can be observed in the later maps, adding to the variety. Really fun to blast through this, it gets a little more tough near the end but for the most part is fun, easygoing classic Doom. I didn't like E1M8 so much, but the rest was great. Great architecture and flow.

Best: E1M3, E1M5, E1M6, E1M7

Vanilla classic gameplay and level designed. I've enjoyed it a lot. 4.5/5