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Dark Fortress and the House That Sits in the Center

   (1 review)
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This edition combined the two wads together with added new sky and music.

GZDoom features like 3D floor, mirrors, and swimmable water. A simple fortress wad and a simple house wad.

MAP01 and MAP02
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baja blast rd.

baja blast rd.

· Edited by rdwpa

  

These two maps have a similar floorplan: Outside is an enormous gloomy yard with the floor space to fit an entire Sunder map, but that is staffed by a single-digit number of monsters. Centralized, there is a small building that hosts most of the actual progression.

 

The buildings have rudimentary visuals (lax alignment is the M.O.) and monsters are thrown in messily. I did find map02's My House -- full of beds, 3D floor balconies, and even a large bedroom mirror -- charming, at least. The moody lighting is no small part of that, making it a step up from map01's uniformly lit MODWALL Hitler office complex.  

 

Progression can be obtuse, which is sometimes intentional -- as with map02 gating progression behind a "puzzle" that requires knowledge of how the engine works -- but is sometimes sloppy. That can be magnified by the vast space you can end up covering before you wind up needing a key or something and have to trek back for it. 

 

Combat is not just easy but "naive," in that '90s way of giving you a single baron in a big room as an end-level boss, or two invuls and two megaspheres to deal with a cyberdemon and a few archviles. Outside of demibosses like these, and rock-climbing gunners that pelt you in the outdoor space when you get within hitscanner range limits (yes, it's that big), most monsters are easy "shooting gallery" pickings. The combined monster count is under 100, but spheres and blue armors are in abundance. 

 

Both maps have the feel of a My First Map made in the '90s if GZDoom were around back then. There is a lot of experimentation with 3D floors, and also with stretched textures and flats (map02 ends on a single GATE teleporter pad stretched to over 256x256) but it doesn't make up for fundamental weaknesses. 

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