In the Mess of it

E1M1 here betrayes very little of what's to come but hints at it with some nice architecture that feels out of place in such a seemingly unassuming creation.  So at first i thought this was going to be 'a nice little set', but soon was proven wrong, as this is pretty much a masterpiece of design, and the combat too will get a bit more testing - especially on E1M8, which is a very cool take loosely based on the OG.  But just a couple maps in, the design rivals anything in the original E1, so don't let the unadorned aesthetics fool you.  i am not a modernist and not in favour of over-detailing, but even for me at first this seemed bare-boned, yet it was no issue once i got used to it, and i even came to appreciate it.

Have to give full five stars as i can't think of a single reason to take one off.

And: like others have said, E1M9 is special :)

feels like an old school doom wad. I very much liked.

A set that work pretty well :)

Just found out that this is by the same creator of JNNHangar and stuff, and as its previous map this mapset is good while staying on basic stuff, also the layout feels a little bit less linear for the good. I still find that it is rather not enough decorated and blend sometimes, but it is ok.

E1M8 was the little "challenge", fair last level !

+1 for the awersome secret level !

Played on UV.  Some surprising encounters.  Excellent use of KDitD beastiary.  Overall a great E1 replacement for vanilla Doom.  Also, the secret level was brilliant, an amazing combination!

Overall, good job!  Thanks Josh for making this and giving me a shoutout in the credits.  

I played this on HMP, continuous, and with GZDoom.  This WAD certainly hits a lot of the same (awesome) notes of Doom E1 without getting too close to the originals, and I think improves the final fight in E1M8.  It would get a 5 star rating except for two overall problems:

--There are decent stretches of map with a lot of the same wall texture  The opening area in E1M1 and the exterior wall in E1M5 are examples of this.

--In E1M6 and 7, there are a few hallways where it looks like I was supposed to approach from the other direction, and the monsters were either set to Ambush or behind two sound blocking walls.  Maybe split the orientations next time so half the monsters are facing one exit and half are facing the other way.

This WAD is definitely worth the time to play through, and it ends the way E1 should have ended.