Struggle - Antaresian Legacy

Rarely see maps of such high quality as these. 5 stars... These maps of medium difficulty with small hard moments. I recommend it for most doomers except those who hate modified monsters and weapons...

Note: The description of the megawad is incorrect and so is the file, probably. Refer to the /idgames link for the correct download and description.

And the Struggle is over. But was it really a struggle? That depends. Played through PrBoom+ and GlBoom+ 2.5.1.5, with the first 12 levels from RC2 and the optimized version of MAP28 on HMP difficulty. A rather surprising and fresh experience, so let's see what do we have here.

Struggle is a 32-level megawad focused primarily on gameplay and atmosphere, especially in the latter half of the set. It introduces a new menu background, fonts, status bar, weapons, textures, sounds, and enemies, changing the overall tone and feel of Doom dramatically. Although it introduces new enemies, the old ones also receive a few enhancements, notably the Pinky which is now much faster, the Revenant fires rockets that are no longer capable of homing on the player's tail but are much faster and are always fired in numbers of 2, the Arachnotron is now equipped with a chaingun, the Spider Mastermind has a plasma cannon now, and the Cyberdemon has its rockets replaced with plasma but otherwise behave identically. While the Zombiemen and Sergeats do not enjoy an upgraded arsenal, they are much more aggressive and fire in rapid succession. The new enemies include the invisible Cacodemon, the Plasma Chaingunner, the Antaresia, a blue, walking serpent equipped with a trident and fires Cacodemon fireballs in addition to one, quick plasma at the end, its Elite version which has improved stats, is faster, and fires plasma in quick bursts, the Afriest, a flying wizard who fires different types of fireballs, the Leviathan, similar to the Afriest but bigger, tougher, faster, and is capable of firing multiple Mancubus fireballs rapidly, and the Spectroviathan, who is basically an invisible variant of the Leviathan, and of course, the unnamed final boss. Note, however, that due to the lightning and texturing the invisible enemies can be pretty difficult to see, particularly later in the megawad, which is why I recommend either using the Software render of a compatible port, or GZDoom's OpenGL render with the Fuzz effect set to Noise for playing Struggle in an optimal way. GlBoom renders them as shadows that lack the fuzzing effect entirely, the same way it renders the vanilla Spectre, which can be quite troublesome in certain scenarios.

The action takes place mostly on techbases, Hell, and mysterious dimensions. It is split in several episodes, with pistol starts enforced through suicide exits at the end, similar to Scythe and other modern megawads. The difficulty, however, does not necessarily increase as the pistol starts are generally used to introduce new enemies to the player as opposed to the traditional ramp up in difficulty. This makes the maps more unpredictable and adds a surprise factor, as you never really know what you're going to face next. It could be worse, it could be better. It could also be a boss map.

The maps are very well designed for the most part, with well placed enemies and engaging combat, however the first episode turns out to also be the weakest. This is because these maps turn out to be a bit too tight by their nature which can lead to some annoying instances, particularly when facing larger numbers of enemies. They do not really stand out visually either, so the players might feel a bit underwhelmed at first. This, however, changes as you progress and things get gradually better and more impressive, both visually and gameplay wise. The later techbase levels in particular are much more impressive, but similar to the earlier ones they share the same problem, but to a lesser degree: confusing layout. This can be particularly frustrating in the earlier levels as they involve a lot of backtracking and the same areas are visited multiple times, in addition to having a somewhat obtuse progression due to the fact that you sometimes end up pressing switches which don't always open something you notice immediately as the new routes are in less-than-obvious (or ideal) places, making you run around for a while without knowing where to go. Luckily, the automap helps in most cases so it shouldn't be that big of an issue.

Some of the later maps present some slaughter tendencies, but the enemy count never exceeds a few hundred and their gameplay is generally different. You might end up overwhelmed initially on a few occasions, but it's never anything crazy, and most of the time all you need to do is to figure out the mechanics of the specific encounter or level, which remedies the problem immediately. The balancing is also brilliant, with very few surprise traps that might take you down initially, but nothing unfair and no mandatory damage crap. It is surprisingly accessible too, something that's not very common in other modern megawads, therefore, if you can beat the original Scythe on UV or a similar megawad it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll be able to blast through Struggle with relatively little effort. It also doesn't require knowing the maps inside-out to get the best possible experience, or make extensive use of trial-and-error until the optimal tactic is found. It is surprisingly accessible on HMP, and that's a great thing in my book as it opens the gates to a wider potential audience. Everything culminates with a battle against an unnamed boss, a flying, blue demon head that literally rains Mancubus fireballs. Intimidating at first, but rather easy to deal with, after you figure him out. I'm not going to spoil the fun. I do not have any favorite maps but the last 2 episodes are going to be my favorite, easily the strongest part of the entire package.

The arsenal includes a new pistol that has a burst fire mode, dual-wielded pistols which replace the regular Chaingun and are more powerful, a different Rocket Launcher, a rifle instead of the Plasma, a new Shotgun, and a new BFG that fires rockets. They generally work in a similar fashion to the vanilla counterparts, with the exception of the RL, which requires the player to click the button every time they want to fire, the ability to hold it down and fire rapidly appearing to be removed. Despite being satisfactory to use, they have their own share of problems. More exactly, certain sounds, such as those of the pistols and SSG, are pretty loud and unpleasant to the ears, and as a result they tend to become irritating after hearing them over and over again for extended periods of time. They are nothing on the extreme side however. Another problem would be the fact that their sprites look really, really sharp, which can make everything look that way in lower resolutions.

All things considered, Struggle has a few shortcomings but none of them are big enough to detract from the overall quality of the megawad. Not very short, and not very long, but definitely fun and engaging while managing to remain accessible. Certainly one of the best megawads the community has made in recent years (and there's a lot of high quality content being made these days). Pick up your weapon and have fun blasting everything to pieces.

Antaresian Legacy is one of those few wads that start with adrenaline pumping action and manages to maintain that through all 32 maps. Under most circumstances this would lead to burnout as constant action eventually gets tiring but the "slow" maps are still high strung when compared to most other wads. Action is not the only thing this wad manages to constantly maintain. The quality of the levels, both gameplay and aesthetics, is outstanding throughout the entire megawad with the only exception being the early levels which are claustrophic to an annoying degree. But where Antaresian Legacy shines is its custom weapons. To not entirely ruin the sense of discovery, it is an amazing feat to make a pistol which is useful and fun to use. Overall I love this megawad but the claustrophobic early levels and constant arenas that make up of the last several knock off a few points.

I've finished the megawad right now and I can say I was very wrong in my first review. This megawad will getting better and better with the sucessive maps and the difficulty doesn't rise much. The first maps didn't do well for me but after MAP 11 till the end I had a blast! Besides, the textures are very beautiful and the maps are finely crafted, I can see why it get a cacoward! Favorite maps = 15, 31, 32, 19, 20, 27, 28, 29 and 30. Excellent job antares031, hope you keep mapping!

I'm not even skilled and I didn't have any problem with the ambushes. Just lower the difficult level if it's too hard.

It seem like a great wad at first,but as you progress to the later levels,there are more and more of those :

    -small areas stuffed with so many high-level monsters plus lots of cannon folders to block off your movement;If you dont clear out them very quickly it would be certain death,but it's impossible because they are mostly ambushes,you cant even figure out where those arch-viles or revenants are without excessive savescuming or level reciting,resulting in a horrible game flow;(even with those ,there are still some levels that need more luck than skill to beat)

    - large number of switches that controls something at random distant place,makes levels quite confusing(Automap helps,to a degree)

    -enemies that teleports behind your ass or right at your face without any indication,often resulting blocks off your way;and to make things worse,they usually cant be cleared quickly(takes more than one SSG, and you cant use RL at point-blank close range)

    -too much enviroment objects that randomly blocks your movement or your rockets(espeacially with autoaim),some of them are rather unnoticeable;

Althrough I gotta admit,the visuals and atomshperes are quite nice.

5 stars for levels itself,3 stars for puzzles,and 1.5 star for monster placements.

Awesome Doom 2 chaos with a fresh look and weapons. Cheers

The new weapons remind me of Q1 Malice. Loving the chainsaw replacement.

I found this to be a breath of fresh air.  The new weapons layout was fun, the monster encounters weren't overly difficult and the soundtrack was nice, the latter fitting the maps they were in well.

The only drawback I found was that some of the puzzles were a bit overly difficult.  But they didn't detract from the overall design of the maps.  Very clearly the developer put a lot of thought into their construction.  Some of the maps were quite frankly beautiful. 

tantalizing would be the key word to define what Struggle is, and it's a pretty good term to use for it. Struggle is more than just about numerous dehacked changes, changing enemies by making zombiemen actually dangerous and making revenant missiles non-homing, the upbringing of several new foes into the mix is sure to raise them eyebrows, especially when they get used heavily in the later maps. the antaresians and their super cousins are pretty tanky, the afriests prove annoyance with their crazy flying, while the leviathans are beasts to truly behold. oh yeah, and those turrets, yeah. compounding this are the new weapons in the arsenal, making matters slightly easier. the pistol is better, and dual-wielding them makes hitscan attacking pretty great. the rifle is a lot more powerful than i'd give it merit for, capable of felling a cyberdemon in about 15 seconds of continuous fire. the lechenfaust, which is the BFG replacement, is certainly difficult to use properly, but you'd obviously save it for the slaughter stuff which happens latter.

level-wise, there's a reason I gave it four stars instead of five, and that's because these layouts aren't really friendly to speedrun. fun to explore? sure, but finding a best route takes more time, combine this with the high monster counts and maybe there's a good reason why these par times are much larger than they appear. regardless, the maps in Struggle aren't worth missing, especially 28 and 29. and the new monsters are properly introduced as you go along too.

I used to criticize this megawad for its odd choice of weapon sprites, but after playing for a bit I began to love them and their increased rate of fire. The chaingun replacement is actually has much faster rate of fire than vanilla chaingun but there are enemies that also have that advantage. Each map I've played seems very well designed and with great enemy placement. Very challenging from the start and only gets more difficult, but it's not at all bordering on BS, every death has been my fault. This has quickly grew to become a personal favorite. 5 out of 5, be prepared for a fight:)

the whole package is pretty great. the progression of themes, the music, weapon and enemy replacements. i'll remember this one for a long time.