Ol' No Name

This is a four level mapset with mainly an alien base theme and a little bit of open sky caverns at the end. Detailing is top notch, texture choices please the eye, level design well thought and monsters are a plenty. First and last map are smallish or standard size but the two levels in the middle are large.

Map01 begins as a pretty straightforward techbase. You start in the middle and have to travel to both ends to finish the level. Detailing is modern and you'll immediately get a feeling of the author's style - the rest of the levels must be worth checking out too. The level has a nice outdoor opening at the eastern end but otherwise it's a closed base. There are a couple of secrets and they are quite logical to find. The size of the level is on the smaller side so finishing up doesn't take that much time.

Map02 is my favorite one. It's huge and non-linear. I see two themes in this level. One side of the map is rusty dark metal with lava and slime, the other side is more light with beige panels and desert rock walls. I'm not sure if the author has made some new textures or if it's just a mixture of the originals, the Darkening, and some others I don't recognize but the texture combinations are very pleasing. There's a lot of impressive detailing on this level. I think I stopped at least twice to just look at stairs, how the author used lighting and textures to make them stand out from just another set of regular DooM stairs. I also liked the rocky outdoor opening with the lavafalls. Had to stop again and just look at it. And there are other similar details almost in abundance. Some are not even visual details but functional ones. Like the way the blue key opens up. Or the dysfunctional crusher ceiling in one of the secrets. Speaking of secrets there are a whopping nine of them so that brings replay value to the level too. Even though the level is large and non-linear switches usually open something quite close and there's not much wandering around but you do have to travel from the other side of the map to the other end.

Map03 continues the base theme. Light gray is the dominating color here. This map like the previous one is large and non-linear. Though this felt much less straightforward than map02. I had to wander a while to find the door in the corner that leads to the first key (blue). But after that I didn't get lost again. This map has a few floors that you run up and down. The floors are connected by circular rooms that lead to stairways. In addition to the base theme there are some dark brownish caverns with hanging vines which is a hint to the next level. Overall this level was much darker than the previous one. There were several almost pitch black areas in the map. There are six secrets. I was not able to find them all. I liked the underwater crossing secret the most, it was a nice detail. Also I found myself often looking at the ceiling and sky for nice details - like in the previous level.

Map04 is an open sky cavern with watery floor and vegetation hanging here and there from the ceiling. There's a central area and the main action in this level is jumping through the center from rock formation to another to reach the blue key. I don't usually like platformer scenes in DooM because falling usually leads to frustration but everything was executed so well here that I didn't fall even once. The center hub leads to another descending area where there's a Cyberdemon fight and after that you can reach the exit. So this level is short like the first one and is a perfect relaxing ending to the WAD.

One remark about the skill level. It's noticeable harder than average. You should definitely lower your skill level by one when playing through the first time. Ultra-violence feels like nightmare because enemies are constantly teleporting to places you have already been to.

Also note that this is single player only. No multiplayer starts but despite that I was able to successfully play this in coop, i.e. no showstopper traps. However I think there are not always enough items for coop but it's manageable.

Overall this is a beautiful quality WAD and I definitely want to play more levels from the author.

My rating: 4.4/5

Challenging and well made maps.

I have played at least 2 of those maps before, but I don't know where I got them from. This wad will tear you apart, tear you down and tear you to pieces and then it will leave you in tears. The maps are good, but I'd recommend cautious expectations or using lower difficulty levels.