Recommendations for a good, balanced megawad

[Lord Snot]

Hi, this is my first post on Doomworld.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend me a good quality 'Id-type' megawad to try, for someone who's kind of at an intermediate skill level.

 

I don't want those kind of maps that just contain constant rooms stuffed with 12 Cyberdemons and 50 Revenants as I don't find that kind of gameplay fun. 

I've made a start on Scythe (although apparently the final map is almost impossible for anyone but an absolute uber-pro player) and was thinking of maybe giving Memento Mori a try based purely upon the description. Really I'm looking for something in a similar vein to the classic retail episodes, rather than these super-hard 'slaughtermaps'.

 

So, does anyone have a good recommendation?

 

Thanks in advance.

[termrork]

have you already tried doom2, doom, plutonia, av, pl2?

[Lord Snot]

14 minutes ago, termrork said:

have you already tried doom2, doom, plutonia, av, pl2?

 

I've been playing Doom since around 1994, so yes I've completed standard Doom and Doom 2 probably hundreds of times. I think I'd have to be pretty crazy to be looking for megawads if I'd never played the original game! :p

 

I'm not so familiar with Plutonia and TNT Evilution, because I got Final Doom pretty late. I've finished Evilution once,  I'm currently working my way through Plutonia as I speak, and am around half way through it - though the skill level is quite a bit higher than I'm used to. By 'pl2' I presume you mean Plutonia 2, and no I've never played it. Not sure what 'av' is - Alien Vendetta? Isn't that one of those super-hard 'slaughtermap' kind of games?

 

My skill level is like this:

 

Can complete standard three Doom campaigns and Doom 2 on UV without difficulty.

Can complete Thy Flesh Consumed on UV, but not perfectly, and I find the first two maps really tough.

Can complete TNT Evilusion on UV not perfectly, and I find some of the later maps very tough, but I'm OK.

Can get around half way through Plutonia but am struggling.

[Nine Inch Heels]

 

[yakfak]

my typical rec to people who want more doom 2 stuff on the level of the original sets:

 

Revolution! here

Doom 2, the way ID did here

A. L. T. here played on HMP :)) for if yer a fan of the weirdest side of Doom 2's levels and wanna get even more weird and adventure-y

 

i've been playing the game for decades too and I am still really bad so you can trust that these maps will be merciful

[Memfis]

I recommend Marswar.

[Lord Snot]

27 minutes ago, yakfak said:

my typical rec to people who want more doom 2 stuff on the level of the original sets:

 

Revolution! here

Doom 2, the way ID did here

A. L. T. here played on HMP :)) for if yer a fan of the weirdest side of Doom 2's levels and wanna get even more weird and adventure-y

 

i've been playing the game for decades too and I am still really bad so you can trust that these maps will be merciful

 

Thanks a bunch. All of those sound perfect.

 

Will take a look at Marswar too.

[Grazza]

This thread contains some relevant suggestions.

 

Also this one.

Edited September 20, 2018 by Grazza

[HAK3180]

If you wanted something more recent, I'm almost done with Good Morning Phobos, which I have really enjoyed, and you might too. The gameplay has a classic feel, albeit harder than Doom 2 or TNT. It will remind you of TNT, especially the levels that are obvious homages to specific TNT levels. 

 

In general, lots of wads are as hard or harder than Plutonia, so don't be afraid to start (or switch to) any given wad on Hurt Me Plenty or Hey, Not Too Rough.

[riderr3]

If about balance, I can recommend No Rest For The Living, though it's 9-level mapset.
And why exactly megawads? According to a recent poll, most people do not even reach their end for many reasons.

This is strange for person who plays Doom from 1994 yet didn't played AV and PL2 or such.

Also Plutonia difficulty is not too hard (as it's seems at first sight).

Edited September 20, 2018 by riderr3

[NuMetalManiak]

Going Down may have mostly slaughtermaps, but if you play on the easiest settings and figure out where all the invulnerabilities are in each level, it's one of those wads you can just breeze through given that they are all short maps.

 

Recently just replayed Vile Flesh. It's long, but pedestrian enough for new players I guess?

 

Also FYI, only very few maps in AV count as slaughtermaps, the majority of the other ones are exactly on Plutonia's level of difficulty.

[Doomkid]

It may be too easy for many players these days, but Fava Beans succeeds at being an 'id-like' wad, imo. I'll also shamelessly plug my own little episode called Sinister Seven which fans of chilled, cruisy Dooming seem to approve of.

 

As HAK3180 said, never hesitate to switch to lower difficulty settings. Modern wads are almost always harder than 90s wads but much of the time, easier modes are thoroughly implemented! The end of Scythe for example isn't actually that hard, I'm a middle of the road Doomer and I beat it and loved it, it just requires a bit of patience and care in your playing.

 

Loads of good suggestions here so far.

[Lord Snot]

1 hour ago, riderr3 said:

If about balance, I can recommend No Rest For The Living, though it's 9-level mapset.
And why exactly megawads? According to a recent poll, most people do not even reach their end for many reasons.

This is strange for person who plays Doom from 1994 yet didn't played AV and PL2 or such.

Also Plutonia difficulty is not too hard (as it's seems at first sight).

 

I specifically wanted a megawad because I wanted a long game - something that would keep me busy for a few weeks. I very rarely leave games unfinished. I'll usually push to the end, unless it's a game that I'm hating so much that I can't stand to play any more.

 

Once again I'm going to assume that AV and PL2 mean 'Alien Vendetta' and 'Plutonia 2'. At the time of writing this post I've not even completed the original retail Plutonia, so it's probably no surprise I've not looked at Plutonia 2. Back in the 90s I played Doom almost exclusively, and there was no other game like it. As the years went by I played Doom less frequently, and turned to other, more modern games. Doom (along with Heretic, Hexen etc.) became something I played far less frequently, and only really replayed for the occasional nostalgia fix. Consequently I'm not very knowledgeable about the more current mapping and modding scene. My Doom skills are also a bit out of practice.

But now I'm at a stage in my life where I'm starting to lose interest in a lot of recently-released games. They all seem to be becoming very 'consolized', and seem to cater for a different kind of audience than me. I've started to go back to my older games once again, and their simplicity and lack of handholding it's like a breath of fresh air. 

 

I guess that if I played and replayed Plutonia dozens of times (like I did the original episodes) I'd start to find it much easier, but my unfamiliarity with it, coupled with the very trap-focused nature of the maps makes it seem real hard right now. In particular I found both 'Caged' and 'Hunted' to be very, very, tough to complete. I'm not sure how I'll cope with 'Go 2 It'.

 

I'm also going to give Scythe a try once Plutonia is complete.

 

 

[bioshockfan90]

dunno if it's exactly on "Doom 2" level, but I find the Back to Saturn X duo (trilogy? 2019? please?) to be fantastic, and I beat both of them at a point in my Doom career where I wasn't able to beat Plutonia. Granted, some levels I was playing over and over for a long time, but I was doing this on pistol start, so I'd imagine continuous play on HMP should be much more lenient. Give it a go sometime! :)

[JDR]

Valiant has the most gratifying difficulty of all: nothing is too overwhelmening, but really engaging gameplay.

[Pegleg]

@Lord Snot

 

5 hours ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

 

 

I brought up the Top WADs thread in a post in a different thread where I suggested cross-referencing it with a variety of "best slaughtermaps" threads and removing them.

 

rdwpa followed up to my post by pointing out that the OP from that thread was using the term slaughterwad very broadly and so removed a number of the "Top WADs." Ultimately, you may have found some of those that were removed acceptable, but this should get you started. Also, some of those that remained on the list aren't large megawads ("Suspended in Dusk" is 4 maps, "Unloved" is 5 maps, and "Arcadia Demade" is 1 map), so I took them out for you.

 

12. Memento Mori

19. Requiem 

21. Icarus

25. Doom the Way id Did

26. Pirate Doom

27. A.L.T.

28. Memento Mori 2

29. Eternal Doom

30. The Adventures of Square

32. ZDoom Community Map Project II (not familiar with this at all but Graf Zahl gave it 10 points, which is telling)

46. Equinox

 

There are also many more recommendations in that other thread, so I suggest looking at the rest of it, too.

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Chex Quest 1 - 3?

 

Just food for thought.

[Grain of Salt]

Good easy megawads no one's mentioned yet: TVR!, Khorus' Speedy Shit, Demonfear, BTSX.

 

Bauhaus is also great. Play that even though it's only four maps.

 

18 minutes ago, Pegleg said:

Graf Zahl gave it 10 points, which is telling

 

Are you having a chuckle

[valkiriforce]

Check out Memento Mori, Memento Mori II, Requiem and Icarus: Alien Vanguard.

[HAK3180]

1 hour ago, Lord Snot said:

Once again I'm going to assume that AV and PL2 mean 'Alien Vendetta' and 'Plutonia 2'.

 

That is correct; often the file names are used as abbreviations. In general, expect a lot of shorthand/abbreviations on this forum. Internet, after all...

 

You remind me a lot of myself several years ago - Doomer since almost the beginning but very, very late to the pwad party. The good thing is that there's a wealth of content already available, including the type you describe. And if you stick around, you'll see lots of other stuff in various stages of completeness.

[Pegleg]

46 minutes ago, Grain of Salt said:

 

1 hour ago, Pegleg said:

Graf Zahl gave it 10 points, which is telling

 

Are you having a chuckle

rdwpa's words, not mine. I literally copied and pasted his list (removing the three I mentioned for the reasons stated). Perhaps I should've removed his comments.

 

And, @Lord Snot, in case it wasn't clear, yes, BTSX is "Back to Saturn X." I don't know if Grain of Salt was recommending a particular episode or both of them.

 

And even though you may see Plutonia 3 and think, "Hey, 1 was hard, but good and 2 has been recommended, so let me give 3 a try," resist the urge to play it. Lie down until the feeling passes if you have to.

Edited September 20, 2018 by Pegleg

[Grain of Salt]

15 minutes ago, Pegleg said:

rdwpa's words, not mine.

 

Oh okay :v

[Nancsi]

8 hours ago, termrork said:

have you already tried doom2, doom, plutonia, av, pl2?

 

Plutonia is certainly not something the guy is looking for.

 

The first stuff the guy should try are DTWID and D2TWID. Then the commercially available No Rest For The Living with buying the D3 BFG Edition. NRFTL is certainly the best thing since sliced bread for those, who want classic experience but with some novelty and high quality.

 

Not megawad, but he should also try Redemption of the Slain. Commercial quality PWAD, one large level, but it consists 5 mini levels and a secret one.

[Nancsi]

I'm not sure what anybody think of it, but I honestly don't care much about mapsets with too many map creators. The best ones are the ones which were made by a single guy or two guys together. When more people are involved, the megawad quickly becomes a map collection without any coherent direction and loses its appeal after 7 or so maps.

[Novaseer]

5 hours ago, riderr3 said:

Also Plutonia difficulty is not too hard (as it's seems at first sight).

Many maps in Plutonia I could only complete with two free resurrects per attempt.

Ancient Aliens, for me, was so tough that I just resurrected myself whenever I felt like it. (Even with the fantastically broken-OP BFG Final Doomer's Ancient Aliens pack provides.) I even had to IDDQD+IDKFA my way through MAP18 because I couldn't find any of the bloody keycards.

Both of these are on only HMP. And I could beat Doom (sans episode 4) and Doom 2 easily on UV.

[Grain of Salt]

If we judge a wad's difficulty by whether people who beat Doom 1 & 2 on UV find it hard, every single wad is hard.

[Phobus]

Simply an untrue statement, Grain of Salt.

[Grazza]

4 hours ago, Novaseer said:

Many maps in Plutonia I could only complete with two free resurrects per attempt.

I found that Plutonia punished poor movement - in particular a lack of fluent strafing - more severely than other fairly 'tough' wads. For many wads, even very violent ones such as HR, you can fiddle your way through without strafing being a fluent part of your game. When eventually (that is, in 1997, having heard it recommended repeatedly since some time in 1995) I adopted and got used to a standard mouse+WASD control system, Plutonia became far easier and more fun.

 

Phobus: Taken literally, sure, but it contains a large grain of truth (pun intended).

Edited September 20, 2018 by Grazza

[TakenStew22]

I'm currently playing Plutonia on Ultra-Violence and so far it isn't THAT hard, atleast for me. Maybe it's because I tend to abuse the save/load system, but classic Doom always had that. I didn't get to Map 32 yet though, and that one is considered the hardest map in the game.

 

Also, welcome to Doomworld! I just joined a few days ago aswell.

Edited September 20, 2018 by TakenStew22

[Spectre01]

Moonblood by Deadwing is a good megawad of short-medium maps that are not too difficult.