The DWMegawadClub Plays: Dawn of the Dead & Earth & Classic Episode

[TheOrganGrinder]

E2M4: The Evil Base

 

This one offers a Van der Veken twist on the classic The Shores of Hell themes: a techbase that's gradually succumbing to creeping decrepitude and infernal corruption, full of vicious little traps, unofficial secrets to help you along, and a pretty dense monster population that seems to be all about bleeding the health from you in creative ways.  There are cacodemons and a couple of Barons of Hell to worry about here, but I found that it was the lower-tier monsters that took bigger chunks out of me, whether that meant imps and shotgun sergeants pouring in from unexpected directions, or the eastern maze node with its spectres and lost souls to squeeze you into uncomfortable corners full of sharp teeth and burning bone.  Compared to E2M3 this map is a little on the claustrophobic side, with even its largest rooms being pretty modest in their scale; close quarters plus large population equals high pressure, and there's nowhere for it to go except whatever space you're occupying.

[Capellan]

I'm on vacation and didn't bring a computer so I'll catch up on my comments in a couple of days once I am back.

[tmorrow]

e2m5: Deimos Observatory

Like the last map, there are 3 barons to take care of, one of them in a smallish red key area. Our hapless marine earns one for his corner when he picks up what looks like an innocent chainsaw. "Is everything booby trapped"? The 6 secrets on the map are well worth sniffing out, the rocket launcher, soulsphere, armor and extra ammo will not go to waste. You won't have to hunt too hard to earn your right of passage to the secret map.

 

e2m9: Dissension

What a marvelous and ingenious map and my favorite in the set. During the frantic start, when you race to collect the green armor in a side room, you'll watch in amazement as the first room is unexpectedly changed with the central section sinking down, totally transforming the room.

The location of the secret mega armor is quite a surprise and you will want it to soak up some of the damage your marine will be taking.

Don't get too trigger happy when you spy a bunch of barons with their back to you at the top of a lift. If you are smart you can instigate a crushing defeat. You'll want the rockets for the final trap when you pick up the final key that allows exit to the map.

[Walter confetti]

E2M5: same formula of previous map, showing us a boxy, constricted E2 layout style but with less barons than the previous map (just 3) that are changed with more cacos, good and fun map again.

 

E2M9: I remember this one, the secret map in episode 4 style! Layout work is excellent here, some nice homages and a interesting way to reveal part of the map by entering a alcove that sink down the floor, revealing the rest of the doors of the level. I see a lot american mcgee tributes here, lots of traps, a grinding (almost a slaughter-ish style) gameplay with lots of barons near the end, and lots of hitscanners at the starting room, giving a kinetic and furious battling around the area... Enjoyed it a lot.

Edited February 24, 2019 by Walter confetti

[DJVCardMaster]

E2M4 The Evil Base - Jan Van der Veken (100% K/ 91% I /50% S):

Jan just moved out of the main E1 style a little bit by making a Spawning Vats-like map. Nothing much to say about this map, it is really good, but I feel it's nowhere near to Jan's best maps. There is a lot of shotgun action here, with little to no ammo of the other weapons to vary gameplay a bit, maybe a few bullets here and there, and a RL to make baron fights a little bit easier. Nothing to outstanding from this map.

Death counter: 5

Maps in order of preference: 

E2M3 (Great)
E2M2
E2M4
E2M1

It was a good map, but nothing stood out sadly.

[TheOrganGrinder]

E2M5: Deimos Observatory

 

This one has left me with a sense of the WAD's somewhat uneven pacing; within the nine-level structure of the episode, there's a general expectation that things will gradually escalate over the course of E*M1 to E*M8, with E*M9 typically representing a "wild card" that inverts, subverts, or sidesteps expectations, but although that escalation has been in play over the first few levels of this episode, this map feel like a step downward in terms of its difficulty and perhaps a step backward in terms of its scale and architectural ambitions.  And on the other hand the layout is one that feels very natural to navigate, with a great flow, nice interconnections in terms of lines-of-sight and eventual access, and intuitive secret areas.  The secret rocket room in the north-east is an absolute treat, very well-timed, and I like the decision to seed three chainguns across the map so that there isn't really a "wrong" route to pick in terms of exploring and gearing up; wherever you go, you'll find the tools for the job at hand.

[DJVCardMaster]

E2M5 Deimos Observatory - Jan Van der Veken (100% K/ 87% I /83% S):

This one is a mish-mash of E1 and E2, another pretty weird map, not sure about this one, I like the "circle" type of layout here, having two different ways to progress to the first keyblock, this one felt better than the last one, still, gameplay was kinda grindy with lots of demons and no other weapon than just the shotgun to progress. Also, some of the E2 styled areas felt copy-pasted from E2M4. 
There is like 4 green armors, pretty unnecessary if you ask, since I never felt in real danger.
No idea how I got to access the secret exit, anyway, I didn't even notice the step lifting up at any moment, but well, I got to the secret level.

Death counter: 5

Maps in order of preference: 

E2M3 (Great)
E2M2
E2M5
E2M4
E2M1

Secret level's review later this day, I don't feel like playing more Doom for this night.

[gaspe]

E2M5: Rather tough pistol start with few shells to work your way in the first areas but soon you can visit some rooms that will give you plenty of ammo, as well as the secrets that for the first time are quite many (6) and not far from the starting area you can get your chaingun. The secret are easy to find and some will be important, most of all the RL before the RK to face the barons of the level though I used some rockets at the RK ambush since I couldn't resist after seeing all those monsters packed in those cramped closets. The cacodemons in the courtyard can't come inside which is weird design decision, I think it could make things more interesting. The central bricks room looks inspired by the original E2M1. The YK room is oddly empty, it added some suspence and when you come back you have a little surprise but it feels like Van der Veken started to scribble something there but didn't know how to continue and then stopped abruptly.

 

E2M9: The secret level takes us to E4 in a dark castle-like dungeon made mostly of marble, metal and wood. The gameplay is faithful to the look from the first encounter that isn't so easy to get through then most of floor of the area collapses revealing the passages you have to take to progress. The YSK room is a nice claustrophobic trap. My favourite encounter, and area, is at the grey chapel with the BSK. I also loved the upper RL area with the sky, from where you can have a view of the first area and a blood lake (that with space constraints it looks a bit lazy).

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

E2M6

Eternity Engine 4.01.00, UV, pistol start, saveless

This entry room looks familiar. Oh, look, there's stuff behind it this time!

This is another map that would benefit from more rockets (probably they're in secrets, but the few I saw wasn't enough).

It flows nicely, and the gameplay is okay, but then it falls into the same trap several other maps do, where I have too few or no rockets or plasma to deal with multiple barons.

Maybe it's just because I don't have much of a nose for secrets, but I don't think the secrets should be a way to get the proper fun out of a map, and fighting barons with only the shotgun isn't very fun to me, so a lot of the time I just ran past them.

[Walter confetti]

E2M6: Is this somehow related to Dawn of the Dead? No, because this looks like the finished version of E1M5 from that mapset! ^_^

Being serious, this level actually gives the impression of being the finally finished version of Dawn of the Dead E1M5, with a interesting mixture of E1 and E2, again a boxy layout with lots of interconnections and lots of hard monsters, here in a swarm of barons of hell after you take the yellow key. A thing that doesn't make me smile is the fact that this level don't have a large amount of health and as Aquila says there's not a huge number of rockets and cells, and that's a pretty evil move imo, making you try to fight many hell spawns by using only your boom-stick... Layout-wise, it also remembered me somehow of MAP05 from Doom 2... Skipped the 3 final barons near the map end...

[tmorrow]

e2m6: Outpost 666

Veken and Soto perform a tag team on this map to make life hard for our marine. They have not only taken the gloves off but they've smashed our marine over the head with them. It is good to see Outpost 666 completed at last, I wondered where that map had got to.

In this base you pay dearly for every pickup from start to finish. For example, you have run through slime just to pick up a little old chaingun with some ammo. You may surprised to find that keys are not given up without a challenge or two.

Both of the secrets are required for max items, a soulsphere, partial invisibility, armor bonuses and an allmap. One thing I could not work out, even with the help of gzdoombuilder is how to collect the stash of ammo and health on an L shaped ledge in the room before the yellow key.

Edited February 24, 2019 by tmorrow
cosmetic change - added bold

[Pirx]

ok so here's a belated review of dodead, after which i'll jump to classic episode, in order to finish this in time. i've played earth some time ago, it has interesting graphics in places, but then parts where i just wanted to get out.

 

 

 

E1M1: "Warp Station"

 

i'm impressed by jan's ability to emulate the e1 architecture. everything looks and plays close to the original doom. including that zig-zag hommage with zombies. there's also a secret blue armor, although not needed for most people, i guess, as you get a green one from the start.

 

 

 

E1M2: "The Reactor"

 

also, a bit similar to the circular corridor from udoom. plenty of nukage sewers though, where we meet the first lost souls already. there are sufficient suits nearby. the last room is the only one that can get dangerous, if you run into it as i did, because of the barrels scattered there. got lousy 25% secrets. 

 

 

 

E1M3: "Space Port"

 

i had to replay this one in order to find all secrets, and by that i mean not only the secret exit, but also secrets that really make your life easier here, like the zerk and the rocket launcher, especially as the first time i  got chased around by the two barons as i had no ammo to take them down (wasted it on the imps that respawn on the pillars in the nukage area). then the yellow key secret with the bfg and 4 barons, those can simply be left in place. wandered around not realizing immediately that there were 2 identical red key lifts, including the zombies inside. so i happened to find the secret exit first, reloaded as its door locked me in here. the blue key seemed optional, but then i guess i was supposed to find that one first and not the yellow one.   rather intricate map, indeed reminding of the original toxic refinery, and a cute id homage room.

 

 

 

E1M9: "Hunted Down"

 

obvious similarities to "fear" and a fantic start, i just grabbed the berserk pack to clean up the demons and the gaggle of imps and then switched to the shotgun taken from one of the sergeants at the windows, since more of them spawn and can chip away the health. more action follows in spacious, rounded hallways with views of the outside area, and 2 fights where one can get easily trapped between 2 barons, however this is avoided with a bit of running around. most damage taken at the blue key fight was from those damn skulls, btw, as i insisted on punching them.

 

 

 

E1M4: "Atmospheric Processor"

 

enjoyable map, with a running start,a voiding nukage and using barrels to your advantage. a chaingun and an armor are quickly found. more compact more interconnected than the previous maps, with a more natural flow, meaning that when you have picked up a key, you'll be lead into the direction of the corresponding door without having to go around searching. many monster closets again and barrels nearby for a speedier play.

 

 

 

E1M5: "Outpost 666"

 

hm, i feel jan could have built at least something resembling a real map here, instead of releasing it in this state.

 

 

 

E1M6: "Fortress of Hate"

 

galileo wrote that these "fortress" maps from the 90s have fallen out of favor and one can see why. it's not bad, but neither is running around castle walls and sniping and shotgunner and imps particularly engaging gameplay, imo. at least there was a berserk pack, so i could play the infight and beat them up game with the bigger inhabitants, as theorgangrinder remarked, that "fight" with the player jumping around on the castle walls while the enemies were bashing each other's heads in below was particularly misplaced.

 

 

 

E1M7: "Death Awaits"

 

berserk and chainsaw should have switched places... the barons at the start can be handled with zerk, but vs the silly chainsaw they'll follow you in the narrow hallways while you're still collecting ammo and have nothing better than a ashotgun for them. at least, the trick with the differently colored torch is predictable... although it backfires at the blue key, summoning more enemies, but then, boxing a couple barons is particularly hilarious here, as they'll follow you around the pillars like sheep. same for the repeated trick of teleporting enemies behind you. i didn't find many secrets, but there's no need to rush things, as everything can be solved with thorough use of a shotgun, and there's plenty of ammo for it. the siege cow... yeah i realized that he would teleport away, unfortunately he was too dumb to follow the script, and just stood there not crossing the teleport line and shooting rockets at me, which i dodged all point blank, until i died of splash damage. what a crap. had to replay everything, and when i found him defending the exit gate, i just run past him, forgetting that i had a plasma gun.

 

 

 

E1M8: "At the Heart of it All"

 

thank you guys for explaining me why i got locked in the final area. as you see, i like simply running past these annoying ammo eaters when i don't have a zerk. 
so then... boss map, but the last 2 had barons in more challenging circumstances... i picked up the blursphere in the final arena because of the shotgunners and at least that made plinking at the barons at bit more than auto-sidestepping.

 

 

 

overall, i enjoyed the authentic e1 feel of this mapset and think it should have focused on varied fights witgh smaller enemies (like in the first 5 maps) to avoid those "door with health" scenarios that plagued the last maps.

 

[Magnusblitz]

E2M5: Deimos Observatory

100% kills, 6/6 secrets

 

This one definitely feels like we've moved into Shores of Hell territory here thematic-wise. It's also got a really tough opening on pistol start due to lack of resources and having a lot of monsters in tiny spaces, I felt like some foreknowledge (or luck) of knowing where that first shotgun box is was needed to avoid being overrun by imps at the start, and then moving to a chaingun before running out of shells. Once you reach a chaingun though it's fairly smooth sailing. Secrets are logical to find and well-placed (such as the RL right as the first barons show up). Lots of doors that are switch-only here so I feel like things slow down a bit and take a bit more thought than just blazing through an open layout. The secret exit is almost laughably easy to find, even without remembering the IWAD E2M5.

 

E2M9: Dissension

100% kills, 1/1 secret

 

Gotta say, I really dig how the floor lowers in the main chamber at the start, creating a nice two-tiered area. It's simple but effective and really sticks out. The fights near the end are good too, and I liked the setup with the barons under the crusher (that I didn't realize was a crusher at first, oops). While it definitely brings to mind the E4 aesthetic with the marble and metal (especially once the slime shows up) it feels novel and not entirely beholden to aping the IWAD design, which is nice.

 

[galileo31dos01]

E2M5: Deimos Observatory

 

Ok, we get it, but this is still Deimos half dressed as Phobos to me. Actually, I could care less, Veken's own reinterpretation is more than enough. Cheeky start, with the two sergeants, but compensated by having to rush for more shells in order to stand a chance. I really liked how the layout provided advantages for either the player or enemies, e.g. windowed rooms that allow enemies to attack from different points or you can detonate some barrels to do the work. Also enjoyed the trap-centric nature which was a nice change from basically incidental (you'd think locked-out cacos are pointless, when one of them appears to snipe your back in the RK trap). The standard approach implies nothing above SG/CG (plus chainsaw) to dispatch those barons in a fast way, since they weren't used to shine, so once again the secrets make an impact. I found the RL very late in my first time, possibly the berserk too but I don't remember, and those two are the biggest secrets. Funny thing, the secret exit is easier than ever to spot, because you only have to cross a certain linedef to raise a step, and everyone will go through the closest RK and eventually see that step. The funny part is that the idea is similar to the original E2M5, except that behind the fire textures it's only the exit switch.

 

 

[Snikle]

I don't know if I should vote for Eviternity or Refracted Reality (releases on March 1st). Eviternity definitely needs to be done by the DWMC, of course, but since so many people have played it recently I don't know if it'll be fun to do again. I already wrote DWMC posts for Eviternity when I played through it in December, just waiting to post them. On the other hand, Refracted Reality looks amazing, and having the DWMC play a project upon first release provides excellent feedback to the mappers so they can really do RC2 up real good. Plus, finally, Bridgeburner maps! RR's only 17 maps, so I don't know what we'd do for the rest of the month. Finely Crafted Fetish Film?

Edited February 25, 2019 by Snikle

[DJVCardMaster]

E1M9 "Dissension" - Travers Dunne and Jan Van der Veken (100% K/I/S):

This one is a totally unrelated Inferno-style map (Which is well accepted since it's a secret map and there is no obligation of sharing the same style). It has a really difficult start, and a really difficult ending, tons of claustrophobic areas packed with enemies and meatwalls, died 5 times until I discovered the already classic Jan-Style of secret where you hump a torch of a different color than the rest, to lower a Blue Armor, which really comes in handy. From this point, I only died twice before finishing the level. Pistol starting this is really tough, luckly you have a Berserk right at the start. The lowering floor is an interesting touch which expands the map a little bit more. There are more unusable doors at the red door area, still, a weird detail for me. 
The last part with the barons was really easy when you realize you can telefrag them.
Your price for getting through this map is finally a plasma gun, so I'll try not to lose it.

E1M6 "Outpost 666" - Jan Van der Veken and Anthony Soto (99% K/100% I/ 100% S):

Remember the filler map in DoDead? Well, we have a finished version on this one. The first area with the blue card is all made from Jan, the rest is all Anthony's. So sad this wasn't finished for DoDead, because I think this one would have been the best of that mapset, but now is the best of THIS mapset so far, mixing some hellish things to E1 techbases in a mixture of Jan and Anthony's architechture, both of which can do really seamless homages to the "Classic Episode". They are so similar in style, yet so good, you can barely spot the difference on what Jan or Anthony did on this one.

Death counter: 12

Maps in order of preference: 

E2M6 (Great)

E2M3
E2M2

E2M9
E2M5
E2M4
E2M1

So far all levels in this mapset are great, E2M6 almost reaching the "perfect" category for me. Only two maps left.

On the other hand, I see we'll have to vote for our next month, so...

+++ The Plutonia Experiment

Make it happen.

[T-Rex]

Okay, after that slog wad that is Earth, it's back to good stuff with The Classic Episode. Smooth sailing at last. Returning to more maps by Jan van der Veken, with Anthony Soto, Travers Dunne and Nick Baker. Pretty funny how the episode consists of mappers who worked on both Darkening episodes. Like Dawn of the Dead, The Classic Episode is a love letter to the Doom maps designed by id Software, which makes them all the more close to Doom the Wad Id Did than the actual megawads, in my opinion. Nevertheless, much like its predecessor, it manages to house some rather trickier gameplay than the original Doom, with a couple of maps that will put you in some very tough spots. Additionally, The Classic Episode is where you finally see Dawn of the Dead's placeholder map Outpost 666 in its complete form, though it is Anthony Soto who finished the map and not Jan. But enough rambling, let's get on with the last third of the set played for this month. The Classic Episode on vanilla Doom, Ultra-Violence difficulty.

 

E2M1: Foray (Anthony Soto)

100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 05:07

 

We're off to a good start with this episode. This map is a techbase in the style of John Romero, and it's loaded with a lot of monster closets that open up as you make progress. Although it is an introductory map, it throws you into the action straight off, and there's so much to do, like finding all three keys, for example. There's an blur sphere with a chaingun as a secret, which helps to avoid getting perforated by the gunners, though you'll have to be careful as it affects the aim of the imps' fireballs too. Tons of exploration, and although the map is techbase themed, it's got a nice variety of textures to keep it interesting. The windows are also a nice touch and it helps in rendering the map to feel very interconnected. Enemy resistance is all gunners and imps with some pinkies for good measure, so this is quite a meaty starter.

 

E2M2: Mars Outpost (Anthony Soto)

100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 06:45

 

Here is yet another Romero-style techbase map by Anthony Soto, but it's a bit more complex, and it immediately starts you off facing enemies, with some teleporting in as soon as you make your way out. If you keep your cool, however, you should be fine. The windows and locked key bars provide a lot of opportunities to snipe off the enemies so you won't have to bother with them when you get to the areas they're in. Get the radiation suit after getting the yellow key, so you could be able to wade through the toxic slime, which you'll need to a couple of instances to progress further. Lots of switches open up mandatory areas or secrets, and getting the keys will spring some ambush traps. When you get pass the red key bars, there are two switches, one will open the door to the blur sphere secret, while the other activates a crate elevator holding the rocket launcher. This map is definitely a lot of fun.

 

Right, I'm gonna take a break from here and continue more tomorrow. See you guys then, take care and have fun. Oh, and now that we're on the topic of what megawad to play next month, here's my vote:

 

+++ Dimensions of Time

[Capellan]

I'm back! :)

 

Did it tough the last couple of days, as you can see.

 

 

 

CLASS_EP e2m5

Slogging through barons with insufficient stocks of rockets is becoming something of a theme now. One case in particular, where said baron wouldn't actually target me through the window, and was just a big goat-footed fish in a barrel.

 

Looking at the map, it seems that finding at least one more secret would have helped, as there were some boxes of rockets to be grabbed. Alas, I missed them. I did however find the most important one: the exit to e2m9, which is "hidden" in only the most desultory of ways.

 

Odd little set-piece with the blur sphere, here. An optional room that locks you in and forces you to fight a very confused clump of imps. I suspect Jan was having a bit of a chuckle to himself when he designed that encounter.

 

 

CLASS_EP e2m9

Waiter, there seems to be some flesh consumed in my knee deep salad. It's all marble-y and full of shotgunners and barons!

 

It's also mostly pretty good fun. I like the way the start room transforms when most of it lowers. The layout is fun in general, with good use of the 'see it well before you can reach it' gambit, as with the sergeants in the perch way above the start.

 

The nicely clench-inducing but not actually that dangerous 'flick a switch under a crusher' moment is fun, too.

 

A welcome thematic break. I like it. There's even enough rockets and plasma that the barons don't have to be grindy. Though I admit I saved the plasma since there was so much shotgun ammo around.

 

 

[TheOrganGrinder]

E2M9: Dissension

 

The theme of the episode shifts here from progressively more corrupted techbase environments to one that's more clearly Hellish in the manner of Inferno or Thy Flesh Consumed; time will tell if this represents merely a sidestep into this new theme as a reward for finding the secret exit (and "You threw yourself through a wall of fire to find yourself in Hell!" is certainly an exciting transition to the secret level environment, if that's the case) or if the back-end of the episode, E2M6 through E2M8, will also hew close to this aesthetic.  The gameplay leans heavily on the ambushes and set-piece battles with not a lot of incidental combat and few opportunities for monsters to roam outside of their assigned hunting grounds; it's somewhat more fierce, but also somewhat less fluid, than the combat gameplay the episode has offered up so far.  I think this is also the first level in the WAD that has left me feeling as though the use of all three keys is genuinely unnecessary here; the map simply isn't large enough for their to be incidental encounters or any kind of exploration involved in the key > door > key > door progression from one space to the next.

Edited February 25, 2019 by TheOrganGrinder

[gaspe]

E2M6: So this is the map that was missing from DotD (E1M5). Certainly the design feels more E1-esque but with some personal touches to make it different. The YK area with the bridge on the nukage pools is cool, and you can see marble faces used as decorations where it seems that the map end but you actually go there later to find the RK and discover that that courtyard is linked to the YK shrine. I think that these maps are severely lacking in rockets compared to the number of barons that are used, not sure how many rockets you can save if playing continuous as they are given with the dropper. Even the plasmagun is missing so far. I skipped every monster from the RK courtyard, few pinkies and 3 barons, I was plenty of shells and bullets but killing barons with the SG was already getting boring on M4. That stash of ammo you can see before entering the RK area can't be picked (unless you use zdoom and jump), the sector isn't tagged so there isn't a line or a switch to lower it.

 

+++ Garrulismo

Edited February 25, 2019 by gaspe

[riderr3]

+++ Master levels, +++ Deadly Standards

[FrancisT218]

+++Whispers of Satan, it's been like a realllllyyyyy long time for the club to not pick that up yet...

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

E2M7

Eternity Engine 4.01.00, UV, pistol start, saveless

My favorite so far, for sure.

This one starts off chaotic, and I very much agree with the setup.

All you have available at the immediate beginning is a shotgun, but you can get a plasma rifle fairly close to the start, if you know what you're doing.

There's also a BFG available, which is very useful if you don't get it when half of everything is already dead like I did.

I like the setup, it's a three key set up like we've been seeing, but this map has the substance to pull it off well, in my opinion.

As well as the plasma and BFG, there's also a rocket launcher, all of these accessible by the same path, which I ignored, and so made some of the map far more difficult than it should've been.

It feels like Halls of the Damned, and acts like it, too, to the point I was hoping to be faked out at the exit.

A very good map.

 

+++Doom the Way id Did

Let's make this one happen.

[Catpho]

Come on guys, March is a 31 day month and delaying Eviternity kinda sucks :D

[Demon of the Well]

+++ Eviternity

[Snikle]

Yeah, +++ Eviternity

[NuMetalManiak]

+++ Eviternity

[SiFi270]

+++ Eviternity

[Walter confetti]

Ah, i've seen Eviternirty has next megawad club choice from a miles away''!

[onetruepurple]

+++ Eviternity