Cleimos

If you're looking for a pleasantly vintage experience and a good example of some of the earliest Doom community work, Cleimos is a good wad to check out. 

One of the most interesting wads from 1994, Cleimos was made by Rand and Steven Phares, a father-son duo who would later go on to create 3 fantastic maps for Icarus: Alien Vanguard. Rand was also a programmer who created number of tools for doom, some of which are packaged with Cleimos, and contributed to the Boom source port.

Cleimos is a full E2 replacement for Ultimate Doom, and includes 9 levels, new textures and new graphics.

It has probably the longest story for a wad I've ever seen, which is definitely worth reading before you play, because the greatest strength of Cleimos is its commitment to the narrative.

You start in a sort of hub level, and all the levels naturally transition into each other. The levels feature semi-realistic locations and use custom textures to put it into context of the story. There aren't many new textures but they are pretty good quality and serve their purpose very well.  

The most interesting aspect of the wad is that while it still suffers from many 1994 design tropes, such as long empty hallways, big mazes, mandatory secrets and inescapable pits, they contrast with unique architecture, fun experimental set pieces and creative use of environmental hazards. Thankfully, the less enjoyable tropes often don't go too far. The mandatory secrets may be annoying but are never really obtuse and the long hallways simply connect to far more interesting areas.

Visually, the maps are mostly on par with E2 of Doom. Some of the areas, and the entirety E2M8 are far more detailed, while others, especially in E2M5, much less. Overall, it looks pretty good for 1994, with few exceptions like E2M5, which is just ugly.

Gameplay is also on par with original Doom, except for much more emphasis on traps and environmental hazards. Monster encounters aren't very challenging but there are some traps which may catch you off guard. Pistol starting provides better challenge and you aren't likely to run out of ammo, though in some of the later levels, you'll have to be careful since the weapons aren't given to you at the start, so you'll have to maneuver around some opposition before being able to kill them.  

My fist playthrough on UV with pistol starts took around 1.5 hour, and it was mostly enjoyable experience. If you prefer modern, Ancient Aliens-tier wads, you probably won't enjoy this, but if you like classic 90's wads on par with original Doom, Cleimos should be a lot of fun.  

Nice 1994 wad

Really good Episode for Ultimate Doom.

The maps are puzzle-ish and maze-ish and cramped, also sometimes tight on ammo.

But the layouts are really fun and entertaining. Maybe adjusting sector light could have been better, but anyway, this is a good mapset with neat details and a good story, too.

I played this episode along this dehacked patch, that comes really handy to know what is happening at the end.

I hope Cleimos 2, the conclusion to this story, follows the same entertaining approach like this one.

Thanks Rand & Steven Phares for this complete episode for U.Doom