No End in Sight

Absolutely amazing. The hellish ones are the best. More puzzles please.

Wad begins in a sense as a sample of the idea "let's do it as Id did" and, perhaps, analogs comparable to him in terms of such level will not be easy to find. In subsequent episodes authors deviate from this idea and it's already acquires his own style. Contain 4 episodes, each of which are lesser or greater extent copies the general bypass that was laid down in the extended version of the original Ultimate Doom. Revenants and elementals of pain here, respectively, will not available. Such an approach, on the one hand, will appeal to those who miss exactly "that very style", on the other hand, even supporters of such will face the fact that it was interesting "then" and today it has become anachronism thing in case of game mechanics and is objectively inferior to options which are typical for less "old-school" wads.

Settings and other:

* GzDoom.

* Mod Complex Doom.

* 38 levels, 6 of them secret.

* The plot of E1-E3 covers events similar to The Ultimate Doom, E4 - Doom II. classic bosses - 2 barons of hell, cyberdemon, mastermind, which, in this case, instead of E2, is located at the end of E3.

* Cunningly hidden secrets. For this reason I missed the bulk of those, as well as in general, in terms of knocking out numbers close to 100%, here I have made the least progress against the background of the previously reviewed creations.

* As in the original Doom episodes are not loaded one by one. Each must be passed separately.

* The monsters are also arranged according to the spirit of the original, even if you play with Complex Doom. For example in E1, until the finale, you will only meet ordinary zombies, imps and pinkies.

* Difficulty - "Ultra-Violence".

* There are false trap exits on a number of levels.

* Plasmagun can be picked up on E2M1. To take it use the switch to the right of the exit - to the right of the place where the blue key was a section with a red one will open. This key in turn allows you to open the door which leads to the desired weapon.

* Often a checkerboard black-and-white floor acts as a decorative element.

Secret levels.

? 1. On E1M9: Quarantine Silos I did not find a way out, but judging by the video from YouTube it is nothing interesting.

? 2. E1M0: Tom's Halls. Also did not step in. It looks more interesting, but, again, nothing special. The name reflects the spirit of the map - many long corridors.

* 3. E2M9. Castle of Illusion. You can get here from E2M5. To do this you will need to find the blue key in a small secret behind the wall, not far from the switch which is relatively close to the main exit. A red key can be found behind the blue door, which will lead to a secret exit. The main feature of the level, as the name suggests, is the fact that it is largely based on the idea of expanding the level from the same episode.

* 4. E3M9. Lake of Fire. Oddly enough, the usual exit from the E3M4 leads here. The level is rather not a secret, but a bonus one.

? 5. Exit to E4M9: Vile Cross is on E4M2, but I have not figured out how to get there. Judging by YouTube the secret map itself is quite ordinary, nothing interesting.

? 6. Exit at E4M0: RGC Alpha is behind the exit on E4M8: No End In Sight (note: not sure about that it was the last level, perhaps forgot the right name), which is a huge complex map with a lot of masterminds and cyberdemon. I only collected 4 out of 15 local secrets and could not find a way to exit. E4M0 itself is a sufficient compact map, playing on the theme of mechanisms and gears.

Pros:

+ The spirit of "vanilla".

+ E1M5 - Warehouse. A classic warehouse with lots of pitfalls to accompany a long-familiar melody.

+ E1M8 - Enigma. A direct reference to the E1 finale.

+ E2M3 - Contagion Engine.

+ E2M5 - Deep Storage. Wisely designed warehouse combined with sewerage system.

+ E3M9 - Lake of Fire.

+ E3M7 - Netherworld Citadel. A huge complex map on which there are 747 enemies, many dangerous zones and switches, as well as as many as 20 secrets, among which there are notable ones, such as

what can come in handy after visiting a local attraction - cemetery.

Go down and the barons of hell will rise from the graves in an attempt to stop the player from entering the crypt, where the red key is hidden. Will you be able to cope with those by fighting the last battle on the level, or escape with the key, leaving the summoned demons alone?... I chose the latter, stopping the counter of killed enemies at 716/747 and collected secrets at 10/20. Even with the BFG in the arsenal dealing with around 30 barons proved to be a daunting task. As well as being able to contemplate the entire map, collecting leftover secrets can also be time consuming.

+ E4M3 - Square Zero. A compact location with a yellow key hidden in secret. Can assume that it opens an exit to the secret level? It's not - it's frees the cyberdemon.

+ E4M4 - Wartorn Precinct.

+ E4M6 - Sanctuary of Filth.

+ E4M7 - Vacuum Consortium. An arena with a large number of enemies, caves and cacodemones, an oval-like location with many barons, imps and lost souls in combination with extremely thin paths for movement, then a few more small arenas with different opponents in an abstract space. In my case, the counter froze at 541/546. It seems that not all demons were able to cope with movement in such kind strange structures.

+ E4M8: No End In Sight. The last level directly refers to the epilogue of Doom II. There was also a place for two easter eggs, one of which plays up the last screensaver of the original.

Contras:

- Directly opposite to the first point from pros. If you are not a supporter of this then a significant part of the maps, especially in episode 1, will seem terribly boring for you, or, like they said, "boring as hell".

looks really COOL, I'll wanna play that, soon as I get back home, cause my chromebook will NOT run doom.

For me, the finest Doom1 classic megawad I have played. DTWiD was awesome, but sometimes felt like 'design by committee.' This wad captures the spirit and essence of classic Dooming. Everything that made the original Doom1 great, but bigger, meaner, tougher, more artistic. Superb.

"One eternity later..."

And thus, No End in Sight has endeth, played through Eternity 4.01.00 on UV difficulty. What a seemingly endless journey, but was it for the better or worse? Well, let's find out.

No End in Sight is a 4-episode long megawad for Ultimate Doom with a design philosophy similar to DTWID, sticking close to it and the original Doom, but adds its own spin to the formula. It comes with a new menu background, intermission screens, status bar, and textures. The action takes place on techbases and in Hell, both incorporating open sections in various places.

The difficulty curve is mostly the traditional kind, starting easier and getting more difficult as the player advances in the episodes, but shows an occasional spike on the more combat focused levels. The levels themselves are very faithful to the original game but are much more complex and look a bit more modern. The first point is probably where the biggest flaw of NEIS lies. It places its main focus on exploration and puzzles, which can easily lead to a tedious or tiresome experience depending on the execution. The latter can get quite obtuse and it's difficult to find what has actually changed in the levels as the automap doesn't help too much either. Pressing a switch does not usually do something more obvious as the are no visual or auditory clues, requiring the player to roam around the map in search for what has now changed. Additionally, there are other design choices that appear to serve to confuse the player even more. For instance, there are maps with multiple doors of the same color (up to 3, and potentially even more), some of which also featuring fake exits, only serving as more frustration and general confusion. This is primarily noticed from Episode 3 onward which starts with a pure puzzle level.

The first 2 episodes have decent flow and are more straightforward, as a result it is easier to find your way through and enjoy them, but navigation simply turns into a nightmare from Episode 3 onward. Other problems include the fact that it is difficult to see everything in the levels on a first run as they appear to have many hidden or secret areas, yours truly finding himself finishing maps with as low as 40% kills, barely any items, and no secrets. Yet another design issue is related to damaging sectors. Every liquid sector in NEIS seems to be damaging on a lot of occasions, be it blue water, toxic slime, or blood. Some retexture choices are also strange, those being primarily related to the skies. Episode 1 and 3 present great takes on the originals, the first indicating that the action now takes place during the night, which works wonderfully for the atmosphere, however the sky used in Episode 2 is bizarre as the mountains are now in an almost glowing yellow color. This makes them stand out in the environments, notably in the darker sections, but not exactly for the right reasons. After all is said and done, the episodes usually end with fights that present fresh takes on the iconic originals, such as the Mastermind on E3M8 and the 2 Baron brothers on E1M8, with greatly altered environments and new tricks up their sleeves.

The combat is generally satisfying, fast, and fun, but at the same time it reveals that it was not the main focus of the wad, despite the presence of various environmental traps and tricks. The puzzles are the main focus here. Some enemies are also overused, namely the Specters and hitscanners. While Barons are used sparingly, they sometimes block the path on small corridors and stairs, thus leading to awkward situations where executing them is not fun or engaging at all. Resource management also plays a crucial role in NEIS as some of the maps are punishing, where mistakes are costly, but at the same time, they are not cruel or unfair. The balancing is fairly good overall, especially if the player is paying attention to the game.

To sum up, NEIS manages to capture the essence of the '90s but does not deliver its fullest. It ends up being more frustrating and tedious than fun. It does not mean that it is all bad despite some objective flaws in its design, but it is indeed divisive. If you enjoy puzzle oriented wads with exploration cranked to 11, this is going to be a perfect pick and you're going to have a blast with NEIS. If you prefer more straightforward, combat-focused wads, it will likely prove to be a struggle to beat and unenjoyable most of the time. In that case, I would recommend Lunar Catastrophe, Doom the Way id Did, Moonblood, Exomoon, and Adonis: Escape from Urania instead, the last 3 having plenty of puzzles and nonlinear progression in addition to good, fast paced combat that doesn't fall behind. Personally, I've managed to enjoy only the first episode and parts of the second, it went south after the third for me.

It was alright.

Some maps contained too many enemies & as a result, became a chore to fight them. Some gimmicks were interesting, especially E3M1.

Didn't finish E4 for the reason I mentioned above.

Not worth your time all that much.

Possibly my favorite Ultimate Doom megawad. Although its first half feels like DTWID, it quickly becomes a much more twisted and demented take on the familiar techbase/hell aesthetic. Expect well hidden secrets, tight corridors, and some tough encounters in large, complex levels. In keeping with Ult Doom's tone, NaturalTvventy layers the atomphere on thick to create levels that feel genuinely hostile and evil, even more so than in the original. 

If you have a soft spot in your heart for the original Ultimate Doom, this megawad is a must play. NEIS makes you realize how rock solid the original Doom formula is, even without the SSG and revenants. 

Absolutely amazing 4-episode wad. Excellent gameplay mechanics balanced with old school and newer (at times) designed areas. Secrets are difficult to find and some maps are quite vast so there is a lot of replay value here.

Very challenging difficulty towards the end too so be alert!

All in all, I loved this.

This wad was quite a love/hate relationship for me. Episode 1 and 2 were fantastic. They flowed so well and were challenging without being stupid. Sadly once I got to episode 3 the wad took a turn for the worst. Most of episode 3 is too dark, too big, too confusing, and too full of mandatory damaging sectors without a radsuit. Episodes 1 and 2 were a blast but 3 and 4 just felt like a lot of work. I had to use the console to give myself radsuits and light amp goggles many times. Its no fun to find a secret soul sphere if you're just gonna burn it all away crossing lava without a radsuit. In the end I'd highly recommend the first 2 episodes. They're what Doom is all about; fast fun simple maps. The later half was quite the opposite.

Done on HMP/continuous/saves

This was so fun and challenging! Certainly a very well done megawad to feel nostalgic with its pace, the midis, the feeling of playing something made by the original authors of Doom. Very tough maps, since I played continuous, there was almost never a problem with ammo, but I still saw that for pistol starters the thing would be totally different. For the most part, great. 

What I found a little (too much) overused was many mandatory type 16 damaging floors (except the ones to get to secret exits) in some E3 maps, at least they were the minority. Some maps can be veeeery mazy, which is cool, for those maps I spent over 1 hour or 2. There is a bug in E4M7 with a pool of spectres that doesn't raise. Didn't play E1M0 and E4M0 as they are not supported by the ports I use, I'll try them someday...

In general, monster placement was fine for me. A couple of annoying moments, with lost souls, everywhere... E4M6 was incredibly long to maximize or complete, whatever the word is. I think I died a whole load of times there, every single monster from the tiniest to the biggest became a singular problem. Regardless, liked the map. Lovely ending in E4M8 to simulate hell's fall.

Secrets were very UD-ish, and a few very clever ones. Liked the secret hunt in E4M6, it's practically the most memorable episode for me lol.

So yeah, recommendable, my overall rate would be 8/10. 

Bloody amazing!

Nice Doom 1 megawad with a good difficulty curve across the 4 episodes. Starts similar to DTWID but eventually finds its own niche with a higher degree of challenge and some rather complex secrets. 4/5

now this is a treat, lots of cool concepts in these maps, makes it all seem fresh, and many maps are quite fun too. some of the really long maps do get weary after a while though. but even then, where else can you find an Ultimate Doom mapset quite like this? this is probably the single most unique one to date, and even upon replaying it, you still find yourself enjoying the maps a lot. making things cooler is how well the mappers like to hide their secrets or give you wonky progression to work around. highlighted some spoilers below

many other maps besides the ones mentioned above are very memorable and pretty tough too, loads of small enemies to push through plus the bigwigs every now and then. be prepared for a long haul with this one.