dobu gabu maru Posted August 31, 2019 (edited) What is the DWmegawad Club? This is a place where we settle down, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice) and take a month to play through a megawad on our own, together! Any keen observations, criticisms, or frustrated ranting about it goes here in the discussion. As long as you want to say something about what you've played, feel free to speak your mind. Can I join? Sure. The only rule is that you have to play at least some of the levels in our monthly megawad to contribute, but you're generally encouraged to finish the whole thing, even if you've played it before. What levels am I allowed to post about? Whatever day of the month it is, is the upper limit for the map you can post on. So if it’s the 6th, you may discuss up to MAP06. Do I have to post an entry every day? Nope, not at all. This is only for our more enthusiastic members. As long as you play through it with us you’re part of the club. When do we vote on the next month’s megawad? Voting begins on the 25th of the current month. Remember to add one “+++” before your vote to make it easier to count. For example: +++ Ultimate Doom Note that you can only nominate up to three separate wads for a single month, and the wads must contain at least three maps each. The winning wad must receive at least four votes for a thread to be made. ---------- >>>DOWNLOAD BLOODSPEED (Beta 3) HERE<<< What’s this? Yet another pseudo-speedmap megawad with some fairly heavy hitting mappers? Why yes it is! 2018’s Bloodspeed is a compilation of “speedmaps” over at Doom Power, taking Doomguy from the invasion of earth to its icey climax! I hope you brought some band-aids! Author & Maplist: MAP01 - “Outer Base” by Shadowman MAP02 - “Waste Disposal Facility” by Chaingunner MAP03 - “Corrupted Industrry” by Memfis MAP04 - “Translocation Research” by Memfis MAP05 - “Devil’s Joy” by Chaingunner, Plut MAP06 - “Sprint” by Memfis MAP07 - “Nanotechnology Experiments” by Dragon Hunter MAP08 - “Symphony of Darox” by +Ku6EPyXOBEPTKA+ MAP09 - “Point of Accident” by Dragon Hunter MAP10 - “Last Hangover” by +Ku6EPyXOBEPTKA+ MAP11 - “Spider Caves” by RastaManGames MAP12 - “Village of the Black Sun” by Memfis MAP13 - “Moments in Doom” by Memfis MAP14 - “Temple of Hades” by Chaingunner MAP15 - “Fortress of Tears” by Chaingunner MAP31 - “Daemons of the Mind” by SHadowman MAP32 - “Fort Boyard” by Big Memka MAP16 - “Outskirts of Hell” by Chaingunner MAP17 - “Hell Sunrise” by Chaingunner, Memfis MAP18 - “Demonic Bloodpool” by Chaingunner MAP19 - “Pale Disease” by Memfis MAP20 - “Follow the Trail” by Dragon Hunter MAP21 - “Frozen Hideout” by Chaingunner MAP22 - “Cold Blood” by Man_With_Gun MAP23 - “Vainglory” by Eternal MAP24 - “Cyber Melter” by Wraith MAP25 - “Hermans Rest” by Pinchy MAP26 - “Lord of the City” by Shadowman MAP27 - “The Edge of Reason” by Obsidian MAP28 - “Captured” by Shadowman MAP29 - “Iced Sanctuary” by StormCatcher.77 MAP30 - “A Harsh Message” by BeeWen MAP33 - “!?” by Chaingunner BONUS CONTENT Doomworld topic -------- OLD THREADS Spoiler The DWmegawad Club Metathread 2012 BF_THUD! Community Chest 4 Jenesis MAYhem 2012 2013 Memento Mori Interception 2002: A Doom Odyssey Hadephobia Coffee Break & Fava Beans & Double Impact HYMN Stardate 20X6 & Monochrome Mapping Project Realm of Chaos Back to Saturn X E1 & Favillesco E1 Kama Sutra Unholy Realms & Zone 300 Vile Flesh Ultimate Doom 2014 Whitemare & Sacrament Scythe Epic 2 Whitemare 2 Sunder & Countdown to Extinction Doom 2 the Way id Did MAYhem2048 Stomper Back to Saturn X E2 Going Down Rylayeh & Crimson Canyon & Azagthoth Serenity & Eternity & Infinity 2015 Resurgence Requiem ConC.E.R.N.ed & Draft Excluder Doom 2 Reloaded Valiant Scythe 2 NOVA II STRAIN Icarus: Alien Vanguard Sunlust Plutonia 2 Revolution! 2016 50 Shades of Graytall & Erkattäññe Hell Revealed Vanguard, Hell Ground, Bloody Steel Eternal Doom Japanese Community Project Ancient Aliens Bloodstain Estranged Alien Vendetta THT: Threnody & No Rest for the Living Hellbound Echelon & Mutiny 2017 TNT: Evilution TNT: Revilution No End in Sight Speed of Doom Urania Newgothic Movement II & Deus Vult II Slaughter Until Death & The Evil Unleashed & Obituary Moonblood Crumpets & Stardate20X7 & Rush Plutonia Revisited Community Project 3 Heures d’agonie 3 The Darkening, The Darkening 2, & Crusades 2018 Reverie Tangerine Nightmare & UAC Ultra & Realm of Shades Eternal Slumber Party Super Mayhem 17 99 Ways to Die & The Troopers’ Playground & The Talosian Incident Dimension of the Boomed & MAYhem 2016 Struggle Disjunction, Scythe X, Counterattack Heroes’ Tales Doom 404 Memento Mori 2 Deathless 2019 A.L.T. Dawn of the Dead & Earth & Classic Episode Eviternity Avactor & Deadly Standards ESP 2 SIGIL & Nihility & Back to Basics Whispers of Satan Witness of Time & Monument & Unwelcome Edited May 8, 2023 by dobu gabu maru 5 Quote Share this post Link to post
Magicana Posted September 1, 2019 Looks like I'm opening the thread up. Pretty neat little map. Lot of stuff going on in a very small space. I heard a few things open, but still have no idea where. Can't wait to see where this wad goes! 3 Quote Share this post Link to post
Capellan Posted September 1, 2019 HMP continuous, prboom+, no music, frequent saves. MAP01 Some clever, more subtle than usual homages to e1m1 here, in a map that doesn't superficially much resemble anything from KDitD. There's a fair bit of ammo pressure if you don't make use of the berserk pack (which I didn't) but otherwise the difficulty is about what you might expect from an opening map. It's pretty easy to ignore most of the final teleport wave and rush the exit, which is what I did. Non-animated switches make me sad though. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
gaspe Posted September 1, 2019 (edited) I decided to record fdas too for this wad, at least for the maps that I never played, I recognize many maps for previous speedmapping contests. MAP01 fda : So it's to Shadowman to open the wad with what I can consider a remake of E1M1. Some places are easily recognizable but with a different twists, plus the map has its own visuals and textures and the progression is less straightforward to unfold. I was a bit confused by the switch that doesn't animate. You can open the red door without the red key and exit the level skipping everything. Edited September 1, 2019 by gaspe 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
dac Posted September 1, 2019 Play Info Source Port: GZDoom 4.2.0 Difficulty: Hurt Me Plenty Saves: Allowed when not fighting. Restrictions: Pistol start. MAP01 – Outer Base That eastern section does recall E1M1 when I look at it now. Anyway, a first map I felt was over too quickly, and part of that was my progression through the map, going west then east and avoiding the straight northern area and its chaingun until the very end. Also meant I had nothing but fists, pistol and shotgun to fight, which made the map slightly trickier than it should have been. Ammo is a bit stingy on HMP, but I wonder how much of that stinginess is having less zombies and shotgunners running around than on UV. In both cases, the map’s bestiary is kept simple enough to not be too brutal, even with multiple teleports. Also that strange switch, part of an obstacle course type secret. What was up with that one? 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
galileo31dos01 Posted September 1, 2019 Seriously want to put my grain of sand this month too. Currently up to map 11, I'll probably desist from making demos. Considering the length of many of these last maps from the first third in the wad, not to mention some of the authors who I can already sense the beasts they most surely created, I might limit myself to point out issues, bugs and the like (e.g. falling inside a 3D bridge and dying from suffocation), but we'll see. Voters yet not present, please give us a sign you're there, the club has to stay rolling somehow! 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Capellan Posted September 1, 2019 If the maps are large then I am unlikely to get very far in this, due to how time constraints, but we will see how we go. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Horus Posted September 2, 2019 (edited) Downloaded this, never heard of the map or authors (just started getting back into doom mods after around 7 years out) so not sure what I'm getting myself into here! Playing on UV, not playing pistol start, trying to minimise saves (but I know as it gets harder I will be saving mid-level. L1 - Outer Base Tough for an opening map, died on my first playthrough as the hitscanners got me. Once I got enough shotgun ammo the map became much easier. Also high on the monster count at 99. I don't know the background behind this mapset but I am enjoying it so far. 9/10 Edited September 2, 2019 by Horus 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
galileo31dos01 Posted September 2, 2019 (edited) @Capellan Large, possibly confusing if your sense of orientation isn't up to date, are only a few by the same authors and close to each other (07 to 10). Those took me over 30 minutes to complete with secrets included. In general the rest lean towards Plutonia-sized or even shorter, but to put an estimate 5-15 mins average on a first time with 100% everything. I was mainly worried about what the maps in the last third will be, particularly by Shadowman and BeeWeen, although I just saw the name "Big Memka" in the list and panicked. Edited September 2, 2019 by galileo31dos01 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
lirui1001 Posted September 2, 2019 Just want to know when this wad will be on idgames. The original thread hasn't been updated for almost 2 months. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Magnusblitz Posted September 2, 2019 MAP01: Outer Base by Shadowman 100% kills, 1/4 secrets Very much feels like the typical opener, with lots of small fry enemies, techbase setting and non-complicated layout. It's basically a big ring that you'll (supposedly) need to traverse a couple times, once to unlock the red key and then again to get to the exit. I was happy to see the berserk pack, especially since I found it right after I was thinking "ya know with all these zombies and imps, this map could use a berserk pack." That said the rooms are a big on the large side so I still used the shotgun/chaingun more. As @gaspe mentioned, for some reason the red door leading to the exit is instead just a platform you can lower without the key (which I happened to discover just trying it on a lark), meaning you can rush to the exit and exit the level in literally 10 seconds. Overall it's okay, a bit squarish and reliant on the textures for visual interest, and the green/red scheme didn't quite do it for me. Decent, inoffensive opener (aside from the obvious flaw of the red key door). 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
Spectre01 Posted September 2, 2019 Now usually when I see "speedmap" anywhere I skip right past it and play something else. But Bloodspeed sounds similar to Bloodstain, which makes me happy. I wasn't a fan of the previous "Russian speedmap" set the club played so I'll have to see how this goes. Doom has been low-priority on my radar. I'll be playing in GZDoom 4.2 because (strict) compat feels good enough these days and I prefer the look. UV, pistol starts, saves out of combat. MAP01 - “Outer Base” by Shadowman We start in a techbase somewhere up near the mountains with a slightly grittier texture set than usual for this type of theme. Doesn't feel like a speedmap to me and looks quite nice with occasional micro-detailing and plenty of indented wall decorations surrounded by lights. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Gameplay is pretty standard for an opener, featuring plenty of low-tier enemies and the odd Revenant which teleports in with a moderate wave of enemies near the end. I died once at the start because I kept running out of the 4 shells from Sergeant pickups. It's a pretty chill map after grabbing the box of shells and a green armour. Can't say I enjoyed the secret hunting because 2 secrets felt like random wallhumps on wire textures while the third was ye olde e1m1 get outside reference. Also, the switch texture looks incorrect after I flip it. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
Spectre01 Posted September 2, 2019 MAP02 - “Waste Disposal Facility” by Chaingunner Hey, this is pretty fun. Also, it's been a while since I've listened to them but the midi sounds like Jotun by In Flames. A large portion of the opener consists of pure Shotgun gameplay, later moving up to the SSG. I think a Chaingun would've been nice at some half-way point and the SSG is mostly overkill for all but 3 enemies. The outdoor sections are the visual highlight and it's no secret that indoor sewers are my least favourite theme in Doom. Normally I'd kvetch about the only armour being in a secret but the Soulsphere I managed to grab early on did the job of mitigating the whole 60% HP to dead in one shot scenario. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
gaspe Posted September 2, 2019 MAP02 fda : A very nicely detailed classic techbase with the staple themes of Doom mapping: sewers and city, all done with the stock textures. My favourite part was the YK building with the buring windows and the nasty lone hell knight. Combats are low-key and fitting for the early slot, just be careful with the scarcity of health in the initial parts. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Horus Posted September 2, 2019 L2 - Waste Disposal Facility Like L1, a high density of hitscanners to start off with, albeit less room to move around. Got me down to 20% health at one point. But after the initial wave the map gets a lot easier. Even as a secret, a soulsphere on map 2 seems a little overpowered. The hell knight was well placed - close enough to get you worried but far enough away not to get trapped. The automap secret kind of 'advertising' itself was neat. Not sure about that random 'halo' in the air in the outdoor section though. Overall decent map 7/10 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Catpho Posted September 2, 2019 MAP01 - “Outer Base” by Shadowman You can always depend on Shadowman to make a beaut. The custom textures here are tastefully applied, with dark, grimy metal/brick hybrids combined with verdant trims to bring this overgrown hellspawn-infested base to life, or rather into a pretty tech tomb. There are many cool bits of detailing, such as how the floor tiles are sometimes replaced with patches of grass; I'm always weak to those :P All in all a cool environment for some straightforward shotgun-panic gameplay, with the RK shenanigans being the standout (and yes switches not animating is a Doom mental hazard). I'm amused by all the E1M1 homages because there doesn't seem to be any reason for them to be there. Cute. One screenie: 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
Magnusblitz Posted September 2, 2019 MAP02: Waste Disposal Facility by Chaingunner The start can be really dangerous here, with limited supplies and lots of angry hitscanners with a lot of windows to shoot through. It felt a bit unfair that the first health you find is sitting in the 10% sludge that'll hurt you as much as the stimpacks will heal you unless you're lucky. Of course, would've helped if I had found the radsuit room earlier (I didn't clue into it until my return with the yellow key) If you find the secrets with the soulsphere and mega-armor it'll be easy going. Pretty standard techbase, with a few areas that felt like they would've had a bit more to them if not for being a speedmap. I did like the yellow key building, as it does feel subtly 'off' compared to the rest - there's some marble faces, torches, and staircases to nowhere. Good way to show some hellish influence without going full E2 style or something. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
galileo31dos01 Posted September 2, 2019 Just a heads up to everyone, the single exit in map 31 takes you to 16, and unless I urge an appointment with an oculist, it seems there's no straightforward way to map 32 but via idclev or warp commands. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
DuckReconMajor Posted September 2, 2019 Played through MAP01 and MAP02 on skill 4 and survived! Very fun and good-looking maps 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
dac Posted September 2, 2019 MAP02 – Waste Disposal Facility by Chaingunner From pistol start, this map’s opening is rather tricky, with narrow rooms, shotgunners and imp to weave in and out of. And while health is not exactly stingy in that area, it’s limited enough that those aforementioned shotgunners could cause a lot of hurt. The rest of the map is easier in comparison. There is that hell knight in that burning building, but a super shotgun is given before venturing deep into said building. There is a cacodemon and a pain elemental, but that encounter can be skipped by simply walking back. And the secrets turns the map into an even bigger cakewalk, especially the easily accessible soulsphere. It’s fitting for an early slot, at least. Oh yeah, missed the radsuits too. Well, it’s not like they were THAT needed to traverse the map. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Horus Posted September 2, 2019 I missed one of the secrets, sounds like that's the mega-armor one. Where in the map is that secret? Would've been handy near the start but if towards the end of the map that seems kinda unnecessary 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Chainie Posted September 2, 2019 5 minutes ago, Horus said: I missed one of the secrets, sounds like that's the mega-armor one. Where in the map is that secret? Would've been handy near the start but if towards the end of the map that seems kinda unnecessary It's behind this door: 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
gaspe Posted September 3, 2019 MAP03 demo: I already played this map and the session it was made for, but I didn't recognized it immediately. I need to go to check my old comments and see if my impressions changed :P The music is pleasant and it's the kind of strange track that can change a lot the mood of the level but it's a shame that the map is rather unispired and too simple. The outdoors and the YK area has a nice weird contrast to the other half of the map with the Doom 1 (or to be more precise E2M4) inspired corridors. Not the best effort of Memfis but you can still see the touch of a talented mapper in many things, I like the YK trap. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Magnusblitz Posted September 3, 2019 MAP03: Corrupted Industry by Memfis 98% kills, 1/3 secrets Very IWAD-style map here, not just in texturing scheme (the first half is very E2M4, and then the western area is very Doom II, with little in-between) but also in the general layout and design. Maybe not as polished, and a bit too simplistic at points, but it is a speedmap. At least there are lots of fun spots to use barrels in. Music felt very ill-fitting to me, feels like the soundtrack I'd expect when watching some sort of astral phenomenon on a 90s sci-fi show than something to murder demons to. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Horus Posted September 4, 2019 L3 - Corrupted Industry Yeah this one is very much in the vanilla style, Doom II monsters aside it wouldn't look out of place in the original Doom game. I actually liked the music on this one, it was soothing (a strange term to use with respect to Doom, I know!) and matching the very easy difficulty on the first half of the level (though the YK area was much harder). Agreed that this map lacks detail compared to the first two. But I still enjoyed it 7/10 On 9/2/2019 at 7:44 PM, Сhaingunner said: It's behind this door: Thanks, that would've come in helpful actually! This is the first speedmap wad I've played (didn't even know what one was until this thread), out of interest what were the particular constraints of this project? How long did each level take you roughly? 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
dac Posted September 4, 2019 MAP03 – Corrupted Industry by Memfis Okay, I might have to replay the original Doom one of these days, because the blue section of this map never registered as anything particular other than “Wow that is a LOT of blue”. Otherwise, this is the first map of the mapset I truly felt was a speedmap: rough cut, uneven in places, a bit scattered when it comes to what the map is. But as was said, you can feel the talented mapper behind the speed, especially with the yellow key fight. Especially if you didn’t find the rocket launcher secret. (Of all things, this map also brought to mind that one video with the artist drawing Spider-Man in decreasing amounts of time.) 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Spectre01 Posted September 4, 2019 MAP03 - “Corrupted Industry” by Memfis This map is very bare and severely lacking in the visual department. Could easily pass for a 90s map if there were more texture misalignments. As mentioned by others, the Vile trap is really the only section with a bit of tension while the rest is firmly in the IWAD "shoot stuff" territory. I like the blue comp textures though. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Demon of the Well Posted September 4, 2019 (edited) Bloodspeed is a WAD I've started a few times, but have never gotten anywhere near to finishing; something has always come up, be it the depredations of IRL or some other PWAD or etc. While the 'brand name' on the tin is a little different than in past, as of the time we're all posting about it here it stands as basically the latest missive from what is essentially the Russian community, which as a distinct group separate from Doomworld or ZDF or such has grown rather quiet of late -- hopefully Bloodspeed is not a swansong, however good it might be in its own right. I'll be playing on skill 4, doing pistol-starts, in PrB+ -cl 9. Map 01 -- Outer Base - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets The E1M1 homagery is a mite on-the-nose here, and while a tribute this direct is seldom something I'm personally excited to see, all things considered I do think that this is a fairly effective opener, which tics a lot of the usual boxes and evinces a lot of classic/familiar tropes for the m1 slot, but manages a nice gritty / more bloody than average feel, more reminiscent in tone of certain classic PWADs than actual IWADs, through its frequent use of point-focused waves of monster warp-ins and its simple but effective use of a circuit-like progression to have you visit and do battle in essentially all of its major chambers twice. The very first fight of the game, in particular, does a pretty good job of grabbing you, particularly if you immediately breach/clear into the iconic 'stairway' room just outside of the inner entry latch rather than immediately cutting left or right. Depending on your movements a shotgun may well not be immediately forthcoming here, and this time I ended up spending very nearly all of the starting compliment of 50 pistol rounds clearing the room and then beating back the incursion warping out of the start room, felt pretty good. Aesthetically it's very Shadowman -- meticulously clean and ordered, though very obviously squarish, perhaps to something of a fault, though the selection of grimy concrete and oilstained metal paneling and such suits the build and the scale enough to look fairly natural. The music track's pretty striking, at first it sounds like one of the marches straight out of Eternal Doom, though it goes other places from there, well chosen I'd say. There is a certain roughness evident in the presentation, as well, though, some of which may be a matter of artistic choice, but some of which most certainly is not. Famously, the Russian CP model has tended to center largely around 'polished and expanded speedmaps' -- something they generally do quite well -- in terms of visuals / theme this map immediately looks par for that particular course, though none of the switches being animated (or maybe one was?, but most aren't) seems odd and is something of a minor peeve of mine. More crucially, the red-marked latch doesn't actually require the red key to open, which allows you to skip the entirety of the second trip through the map, and a little over half of its population -- mite sloppy. Map 02 -- Disposal Facility - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets Yep, that's In Flames, all right. I've heard midi versions of this particular track used at least a couple of times before, though this particular rendition sounds nicer than I remember those being -- more low-end in the guitar synths, something like that. Or........maybe they're identical, and a month+ straight of playing very little but GZDoom stuff has ruined my ears as well as dulling my reflexes and inhibiting my capacity for 'reading a room', as it seems to have done. (just maybe) I don't reckon many folks will find this humble little map offensive in any particular way (a mite crampy maybe, though you're never required to do anything where this might pose some kind of real/concrete problem), though in contrast to m01 I did feel that it suffers from over-pandering to its early game slot, fielding very little but trite 1-3 monster encounters prosecuted from tiny, low-ceilinged rooms through tiny, narrow-jambed doorways into other tiny, low-ceilinged rooms. The only real joie de vivre to be found is the occasional opportunity for a nice shotgun multi-kill against bumbling little clusters of zombieboys. The secrets are also vastly overpowered (at least from the perspective of pistol-starting), and the soulsphere barely even qualifies as hidden, IMO. Depending on how allergic you are as a matter of principle to the level's very small/squat build scale (I'm generally not, per se, for what it's worth) I reckon it either looks fine enough or a mite absurd to the eye. While very small/cramped, on offer are some pleasant enough little detail ideas (the blending of different marble reliefs to create a new face in the YK building, etc.), and the pair of outdoor yards arrive timely enough to prevent the whole from feeling too entirely stuffy and clammy, though for my part these also had the effect of making me want for something a little more substantial to see/do, as well. Map 03 -- Corrupted Industry - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets Haha, well, it certainly makes sense that one might conclude that this map looks the way it does because it's a speedmap, though I'd venture that in this case that might actually have very little to do with it, given the author's later work being seized by a deep fascination for attempting to recreate the look, feel, and alleged "innocence" of the IWADs and particularly older PWADs. Having played many of these as they appeared in various forms and venues, my personal (villainous) assessment has often been that they're not particularly successful in this regard, both for strictly concrete, structural reasons (particularly a hesistancy to ever really go truly big/tall in scale) and for more abstract, subjective reasons (to me they all often feel like the same map, just with different textures each time). "Corrupted Industry", for its part, does seem very Deimos Labs-y, though the actual homagery is very slight in comparison to, for example, the E1M1 references from Shadowman's map 01, and the western extension of the map seems to be referencing something else entirely, though the theme of dirt caves and scrub grass and mortar is generalist/timeless enough for any specific allusions to elude me at the time of writing this. There is some noticeable sense of scale in the tall, blue hub room, and the long, somewhat desolate halls carry a sense of vague disquiet which is fairly successful at invoking the atmosphere of The Shores of Hell; there is of course a hollowness to these figures from a gameplay standpoint, though it is arguably a hollowness with a certain authenticity, in this case. The first secret also feels rather pointedly old-blood in its way, being a relatively involved sequence that nets you a somewhat unremarkable material prize (a box of bullets) but is interesting in its own right, since you had to/got to collect a radsuit and navigate a weird little behind-the-scenes bloodmaze to get there. But anyway, as to the hollowness, I confess a certain cynicism or prejudice at outset these days when I see something in this spirit by this author -- I kind of immediately expect it to be little more than a sort of 'a shell; an imp' sleepwalk for about five minutes and then promptly end, and while that's not terribly far off from the overall pace/pitch of the action here it would also be an unfair characterization. The first half is populated by clusters of zombies which can nearly all be dispatched with brutal efficiency by use of carefully placed explosive barrels if your aim is good enough and eyes (or intuition) are quick enough, while the second uses the game's first arch-vile in a straightforward but nevertheless somewhat unexpected reveal alongside a group of other creatures for just the slightest hint of a whisper of a dream of a memory of real spice. While quite gentle on the whole and really no more dangerous than m02 (unless you happen to gaffe yourself into the slow-crusher in the kiosk room I suppose), the action here being a little more 'designed', even if simply so, gives the map more of an effective early-game feel than the previous. Map 04 -- Translocation Research -- 100% Kills / 100% Secrets And here I eat my words! Gladly so, too. Also by Memfis, this is a casual but quite enjoyable romp through a spacious and sprawling Phobosian sort of place, much more sincerely reminiscent (to me) of the enjoyable qualities of the cream of older maps than the cheap n' cheerful approach of the previous map. There's a sort of "Polygon Base" feel to this map, I think, though this is surely somewhat less abstruse, and permits you to leave a good bit unsolved on the table if you're thus inclined. It strikes me that, as is the case with many big maps of a certain vintage, it can certainly play more or less smoothly depending on how lucky you are with your initial route (or your actual map knowledge of course) -- I ended up doing quite a lot of it before getting the rocket launcher from one of the optional wings in this playthrough, and so fought through the largest encounters with the combat shotgun as my primary weapon -- though it's never anywhere remotely near harsh enough for your route and armament (or relative lack thereof) to present any kind of truly legitimate obstacle to your gallivanting about, or to your actual progress, which is one of the traditional arguments in favor of this kind of balance, I reckon. Textured in neat but largely unadorned classical broadstroke and using light/shadow in similarly simple ways, the surface visual style here is on the plain side, but the installation itself is quite full-featured, with raising staircases, grand chambers, balconies, windows, pillboxes, and any number of long views; the playspace is not terribly elaborate or minutely articulated on the whole, but level progress consistently unfolds in new and smart ways, geometry shifting to open shortcuts and moderate monster surges set to flow out of newly opened areas to guide you onward and the like, with a bevy of easy-to-find but not always simple to solve sidetracks to become involved with if you so desire. I liked the level enough that I was happy to spend more time after reaching the exit proper to figure out how to get into the underground bunker at the facility's southernmost point; as it turns out, I was rather overthinking it there for a while, but it's still a neat little area to reach and offers an interesting perspective on your foray into the outer grounds, whether you find the way in at earliest opportunity or end up kind of reverse-engineering it after the fact, as I did. This is a good one. Memfis: more ambling & amiable, less cute n' congested, please! Edited September 4, 2019 by Demon of the Well 4 Quote Share this post Link to post
gaspe Posted September 4, 2019 MAP04 fda: We continue with another Memfis map that for a coincidence fits well together with the previous map with its obvious recalls to Doom 1 (in particular E2) while Translocation Research follows more the directives of KDitD but there are also more personal touches that turn this into a really interesting map. I think that this is big improvement over MAP03 that in comparison it looks like the failed attempt. The music of MAP03 would have been perfect here with the sense of adventure that you get from the big scale and for looking at the vast outdoor areas, this is the most distinct feature of the level. I liked the playful side of the map at the RL with the moving platforms and the arch-vile (the TEKLITE stairway was really cool) with the sequence of closets to open. Oh there's also the secret area to visit at the bottom of the lift. Another area that stand out is the YK room, nice use of the MM metal textures. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
galileo31dos01 Posted September 4, 2019 (edited) Second heads up, in regards to map 27, by Mr. @Obsidian: Spoiler The four mini platforms where the cacos are supposed to spawn on are missing "teleport things" It is so far the only real problem I've encountered in the whole set. Most were HOMs and probably missing things in seemingly monster closets. Oh and one sector in map 10 flagged secret that's impossible to trigger. Edited September 4, 2019 by galileo31dos01 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
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