The Darkening

An 11-map episode consisting of bite-sized, not-too-difficult maps from the Doom community's transition to the modern era. Personally, I found it uneven in quality. Jan Van der Veken's and Travers Dunne's maps are full of excellent texturing, detailing, and lighting effects. However, John "Gestalt666" Bye's, Nick Baker's, and Adam Windsor's levels feel seriously below-par. They could've come from any random episode from 1995, albeit with better texture alignment. MAP04 and MAP05 were definitely the highlights for me with their Quake-esque 3D layouts. 3.5/5

I just played this for the first time in 2021 and I enjoyed it a lot! The maps are sort of old school but play very well.

Great classic Doom II episode in the style of Thy Flesh Consumed / American McGee / Quake.

Entering with the expectations in 90s mode, I was waiting for a good quality collection, of course, but what I have found I think is something much more promising (20 years later, ups.) The Darkening is a collection full of interesting little maps made with the idea of continuing a frenetic and relentless rhythm, it reminds me quite a lot of Scythe, we could say that it is a kind of prototype of the latter, excluding the difficulty. This wad is much easier compared to modern wads or even other classic wads. Both its simple design and its reduced number of demons contribute to this fact. However, who said that chilling out a little is no fun? 

For me, solid 3.5/5

Pretty interesting set of maps, ranging from small to medion size, but nothing too marvelous or amazing that stood up. Its just a very good mapset in the good old style of Doom: cramped corridors, dark areas, and with a few new textures.
Storywise its kind of a sequel to the original Doom 2, starting 3 years after the demise of the Icon of Sin.
Its not bad, but i felt that its needed something else to be way better. The new midis are interesting, but a full set of them would have been better.
Aside from that, i enjoyed the maps, but the not soo much appealing environment was really a let down, because, even original Doom 2 mapset have somekind of eye candy that one can stood, look at and say: yeah thats a hell of a picture!

A set of 11 fairly short, but still fun maps. The visuals are high-quality and the overall gameplay is fun, although it gets way too easy on later maps (especially when you move through narrow hallways and effortlessly mow down enemies in your way.)

that's odd, I never wrote a review for this. okay, would've honestly still thought that this is better than Darkening 2 only by sheer virtue that this set is fairly short. on the surface though, there's not a whole lot that Darkening really has to offer. it's just a standard 11-map set with short maps and decent, but not overly tough gameplay. the secrets can be really confusing, that's about all I can remember. Doomers these days yearn for more advanced stuff than this. it tries its best being a story-driven set, and it's just...well...humble I guess. that's about all this wad is though, humble. not great, not complete shit. note that you need RESOURCE.wad to get the textures right as well. there's also the DM-only set, something that Darkening 2 would also hold. all in all, it's short and can be a good quickie for on-the-go Doomers.

Mostly well-crafted, but all around forgettable content. From a total of 11 maps, there are like two or three standout fights and that's it. And all the maps look pretty much the same. Yeah, there just isn't much to say about this, even Adam Windsor's map is complete throwaway material somehow.

Cool wad to play, enjoyable, short maps with nice design.  Really interesting use of Quake I textures.  Sad it's a short mapset

I didn't really enjoy this wad; compared to the IWADs or other 90's PWADs that I've played. The visuals were 90% brown brick/rock. Pistol Start balance sucked. And the gameplay/map progression was mostly uninteresting. I'll keep the negativity to a minimum so - overall score: 1/5.

A nice little collection of well-made (albeit remarkably brown) maps, with a DM set coupled alongside as a nice bonus. I can't really comment on that seeing as I don't DM, but the SP maps themselves are really nice and the added textures compliment the stock ones used quite nicely. And above all, it's fun. 4 stars!