Hell Revealed

oh Hell Revealed, you are touted as a fantastic megawad back in the Memento Mori/Requiem days of Doom modding, and that's particularly all because you are all "gameplay over graphics" as compared to everything else.

now, looking back at Hell Revealed, it's quite obvious that any and all inspirations to this wad have far eclipsed it. whether it be Kama Sutra, Alien Vendetta, and even Hell Revealed 2, Hell Revealed just doesn't hold onto any candles it used to have. but the keyword as to why Hell Revealed is considered so great is that it was inspirational. that's why people like it, that's why people reference it when they reference slaughter (though a look back at Hell Revealed reveals about 10 of the maps to actually be real slaughtermaps). the difficulty is still up there, higher than Plutonia for sure, and while the looks are not inspiring, the gameplay sure hits a boatload of strides, and shits at times.

so my biggest gripes with the set are, first of all, the problematic monster re-placement for different difficulty settings. most notable would be in MAP18, a map I despise for its deceiving difficulty. there's a few moments where I'm pretty sure playing on HMP is harder than it is playing on UV. take the big room that has two spiderdemons in an open space on UV that show up. these are replaced with archies on HMP and are harder to dodge, since the spiderdemons would probably just infight with each other. a number of other maps have this issue, where cyberdemons are replaced with archies when they could actually be a little harder to tangle with.

and the other issue with HR is that pretty much all of the maps are concept wads to some degree or have these interesting tidbit areas that while memorable, just don't play all that well in this day and age. the SSG room in MAP12 comes to mind, as well as the concept of MAP21, the usage of berserk in MAP09, and the reversal concepts in MAP28, plus the Cyberpunk maze and the notorious Afterlife which still remains the best map. HR doesn't go with a lot of proper themes either, the authors cared less about theming them appropriately for hard, scenario-based combat with some slaughters. Hell Revealed just isn't that good in 2019, but it sure inspired many creative children that further made modern sets better.