Elmlea Single

Done with these settings:

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4.

- Ultra-Violence.

- Pistol starts.

- Saves every 10 minutes or no saving.

This is a funny memewad of concepts and tricks from the Boom engine. It's anything alike classic conventional Doom gameplay, ergo the chosen compatibility, and brings a specific gimmick in a satirical form for each map. Aesthetics are part of the idea too, by way of monotextured layouts of the simplest geometry, such as to find out which sector/linedef has an action, and mostly grey and brown as the predetermined colours, with a bit of green and red bricks in some levels. Besides, skies made of one resized texture, and music from TV series and movies, the ideal recipe for an experience in Doom one doesn't opt for everyday. 

Concept-wise, it's much appreciable to experience each map on its own, even more when the idea of carryovers will only block your progress in survival maps: better leave in bad shape and restart freshly than carry less than 15 hit points and be eternally murdered by former human ambushes. This example is one of Pinchy's numerous parodies of unconventional/inconvenient situations we've all been through in Doom. Humping walls to find progress like in primitive maps, having the screen constantly tinted because of pickups, being harassed by incoming projectiles from monsters out of your FOV, that fear of eating your own splash damage because the door can close at any moment, these are just a few of the most hilarious cases I've seen here. It wouldn't be bad to say not all of the gimmicks were clear enough to me, still don't know what's the meme in map 13. Same in some of the later maps, they seemed to have less ridiculous and more serious content, or at least not something different from earlier maps, but if anything I support that seemingly passion for zombiemen hordes, which held up my enjoyment most of the time. Funnily enough, it wasn't until the very last map that I laughed out loud at doomguy's surroundings, and there was nothing else than THE END messages under a sky in fireblu. Guess I couldn't hold my laugh for too long.

Secret-wise, it's interesting to me that in a wad of this category the only existing secrets serve as a combination of the gimmick in question and helpful extras for survival. The second map's way to hide secret sectors is quite funny indeed. As for favourite maps, I found the concepts in map 02, 04, 07, 09 and 15 to entertain me more, last one because it tickled my fancy for exploration. Some of the rest like 05, 07, 11 and 14 woke my other feelings, not only they made me laugh but also feel tense, those imps and troopers could not beat me!... not more than twice...

Overall, even if not all of the maps made sense, or had strange concepts I didn't understand, the point was to laugh, and I believe that was achieved here. Because laughter is good for the organism, check this out. My rate is 7/10. 

I actually haven't played this just yet, but I feel like I need to get something off my chest before I get to playing this wad. So read below:

Whoever is immediately downvoting my reviews as not helpful, even almost the instant I post them, get a fucking life. I want to know what I did that is making you hate everything I do. Come forward and speak, fucking coward. I try what I can to make my reviews worthy enough so that people can actually read some insight before playing a wad, and I'm as accurate as I can get. So then, whoever you are, tell me what I need to do to improve.

Still, downmarking everyone's reviews, especially the ones that just get recently updated, isn't really helping your cause. It isn't even helping any type of a cause, if you make of one. This hasn't happened to some of the more recent reviews right now, but it seems to happen more often to me than it does to others, and I bet this vote trolling isn't gonna stop soon. It should though. Either I'm doing something horribly wrong or someone just hates me or something.