The DWmegawad Club plays: NOVA III (Download RC2b)

[gaspe]

MAP22: From the 90's vibe of the previous map to a level that by contrast is very modern and it reminds a lot of BTSX E1. Maybe a bit's due to the music track and the techbase setting but the more I played the more I saw that the impression wasn't given only by those things on the surface but the free-flowing layout with many interconnected parts and the way the map is detailed shows that theres a more modern philosophy here. Lot's of incidental combat that is spiced up by the layout as the monsters can often come from the various openings and there some non-linearity until you figure out the layout. The level sort of runs out of steam after you deal with the mancubi at the "double S" corridor at south, the north-west part to reach the exit room is rather unispired. The final battle was good.

 

I disagree with the gentlemen above that MAP21 is objectively wrong, in Doom there's enough room for realism and it was all packed well in the context of that map. I would agree that the gameplay could become boring if there were more monsters to take down, turning the map into a slow grind, but the author did well to make the gameplay to go on tune with the cramped rooms and saving the big baddies at the finale where you finally set free to run amok.

[cannonball]

MAP22 - “Lunar Comms Station” by DMPhobos

A very good looking tech base map which certainly borrows a lot from the maps presented in BTSX, certainly a good start. This map also tends to take some inspiration perhaps from Double Impact in terms of having waves of incidental combat, where monsters in certain regions of the map get woken up and can approach the player from multiple directions. Oddly this is probably the more threatening aspect of the map as traps tend to be fairly easy to deal with here. It is possibly odd to get this far and probably experience one of the easier maps in the set, but actually the combat (apart from the exit room) is pretty low key. 

It is certainly a pleasant map to look at and indeed play, but perhaps this needed a little more spice here and there. 

[Pechudin]

I was playing around, trying out DECORATE these past few days, so I fell a bit behind. Time to catch up!

 

MAP20: Ritual Horror (HMP, Deaths: At least 10, Saveless: No)

    I have to agree with people, this map does feel like Plutonia, but on a much bigger scale.

 

    Unfortunately, with this comes a very distinct encounter style. Namely, walk over line -> ambush, switch -> ambush, do anything -> ambush, and this is very much not my cup of tea (a bit of an understatement). At least Plutonia maps have the courtesy of being short, not the case here, this dragged on for 30 minutes. Granted, this was impacted by my skill/playstyle.

    But enough vitriol (I got irrationally angry at this map, I tell you), what about good things? It looks very nice, the teleport into UAC base was very surprising (any time a map does something I've never/rarely seen, that scores big points in my book), and helped to lessen my anger. Upon entering the exit room I braced for another ambush, but that was the map's end, so in the end I had 72% kills.

Edited January 22, 2020 by Pechudin

[Octillion]

MAP19 - “Ancestral Domain” by Paul977.

 

    This map gave me Speed of Doom flashbacks, from the zimmer, the rocks and the atmoshphere. (And that instant-popup pain elemental duo... Damn.) Now, it's not as difficult as a SoD map, but it was a lot of fun. To be honest, I have almost no criticism here. The combat was enjoyable, the hectic start, the imprisoned vile outside, guarding the exit when you escape the revs from the RSK room, and the double vile beyond. (An overused trap, but still enjoyable.) The ending sequence is on the weak side here, the monster block makes it too easy to deal with the mancs and revs. The midi echoing the area truly enchants the experience, keeping that enigmatic feel when you finish an encounter and go to the next one. This definitely scores very high in my book from the set so far.

 

MAP20 - “Ritual Horror” by Scotty.

 

    Another goodie from Scotty here, a lavish architecture with a somewhat non-linear progression, cements itself as the final act for this temples theme. I will say that the shotgunners were really annoying here, that vertical advantage to us non-free look players is just deadly, they are also unnoticeable at first, allowing for a few pellets to land on the player. The ammo can be very tight in the initial stage as well, so if you miss a lot, you won't have a nice time. I see that some have mentioned "Plutionia" vibes here, I did feel it was Plutonia and Unholy Realms together, (Don't ask how.) there is one particular sector that ports in a lot of our favorite hitscanner after all. I had mixed feelings playing through this one, mainly irritation at myself for messing up a couple of times. (And failing the platforming section, ascending is always harder than descending for me.)

 

    One notable area gave me a headache, and that was the wooden door trap that spawned a variety of hell spawn, The mancubus really messed me up here and caused a few deaths. Eventually, I reached the final area and stumbled upon the BFG, it wasn't as brutal as I thought it would be, the nukage did more damage than the demons.

 

Death Counter:-

Spoiler

 

                   28

               One on Maps (3, 9, 32).

               Two on Maps (4, 6, 12).

               Four on Maps (10, 20).

               Five on Map (18).

               Six on Map (15).

 

 

Rankings:-

Spoiler

 

8/10 - Maps (3, 5, 10, 15, 19).

7/10 - Maps (1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 13, 31, 32, 16, 20).

6/10 - Map (2, 8, 11, 12, 14, 17, 18).

 

 

[Pechudin]

MAP21: Platform Base (HMP, Deaths: Too many, Saveless: Nope)

    In retrospect I shouldn't have played this map right after the last one, I was a bit peeved after the last one (and tired) and it did impact the way I played/impressions of the map. I will not replay it, but I did decide to sleep over my initial impressions so as to not write up another angry rant. Hopefully this will result in a more objective "review".

    So, the map certainly feels like something team TNT would make, namely something from Icarus. The mid-level in particular reminded me of MAP01/MAP24 of Icarus. This is a three-story map, detailed in the mid-late 90s semirealistic style. I really liked all the silly details, like the lingerie in one of the crew cabins or the various computer panels that pop up once switches in the control room are pressed.

    Unfortunately the thing on my mind while playing the map was "WHERE DO I GO!?" (Read this in Suitepee's voice). Maybe I was just unattentive (seems like other people did not have too much issue with the progression), but I spent 20 minutes looking for that damned red key. That is also something this map shares with a lot of TNT maps (example, MAP08 of Icarus).

    Final thoughts? If I was to replay this map it would probably feel a lot better. The combat was fine, even good at some spots, especially the roof fight, I did enjoy that one. So yeah, I'd like to apologize to the mapper for my rantiness and am looking foward to seeing more from them.

 

    Awards: Figure it out, Son. Usually maps are structured so that the player is naturally channeled to the appropriate door after finding the key. This however is not how realistic, lived in places work. This map tosses out that mapping tenent and embraces the backtrack/realism. The result is a jankier progression, but it does serve the narrative. Well, that's what the minimap is for!

[Demon of the Well]

Map 31 -- Solar Powered - 101% Kills / 100% Secrets

Big 'Ol Billy continues to be a strong concept-oriented mapper, and currently a very prolific one, too, which the wider community is fortunate to have. Without knowing its actual vintage (that is, how much of a truly 'early' work it is within his catalogue), I would remark that it shows a great deal of maturity, voice, and a balance between its thematic/conceptual trappings and the practicalities of its moment-to-moment action that place it as one of his strongest and most 'complete' works to date.

 

In contrast to the vaguely Doom-Egpyt look of most other maps in this second episode, this one has a decidedly Mesoamerican flair, married to some kind of mad-science sci-fi steampunk (stonepunk?) undercurrent; and so, we see layers of high-current wiring and circuitry showing through cracks and crevasses in the carved stone and petroglyphs like veins under skin, and indeed the overall impression is of something weirdly and almost unwholesomely organic, despite the absence of any flesh-horror or other expressly hellish elements. On that point, the majority of BoB's work to date is vaguely or not-so-vaguely comedic in tone, and while a certain sense of levity's not entirely absent here, it has a decidedly morbid bent to its presentation that I find very appealing, and very Doom-y -- in the center of a room you might have your wackadoo Dr. Who-vian solar array, yes, but in the corner you also have a sacrificial altar literally *heaped* with gutted corpses and body parts, and this contrast of gore and gleam persists throughout.

 

The pre-level text scrawl describes this whole setup as a "puzzle", which is not really true -- some have described it as more of a switch-hunt, but even that ascribes to the level a certain opacity that I think it (or its mainline progression anyway) doesn't really have, as nearly all of the interactive bits are colorfully highlighted in the design. The path splits at the start into two forks (the ground/surroundings, and the tower proper), and the main exit skywalk is accessed by powering up the tower to full capacity by engaging its various solar collectors, six in total. So, yes, in game terms you accomplish this by hitting a whole bunch of switches (and stepping on the odd 'pressure-pad' or two), but the experience doesn't really read as a Hexen-esque scavenge for switches which presumably cause "something" to happen "somewhere."  On the contrary, the effects of each usepress tend to be vividly highlighted with a lot of pomp and circumstance -- lights coming on, parts of the tower whirring to mechanical life, sunbeams bouncing from collector to collector, that sort of thing. I reckon it's not unreasonable that someone might not immediately grasp the overall goal of the level, but it's generally very clear when and how you're making progress, and Billy's imaginative stage-dressing does a fine job of creating the suspension of disbelief that you're accomplishing something specific in-world, a hallmark of a great 'adventure map.'

 

The author's handling of combat and other deeper gameplay elements is quite smart here, too, I thought. The tower path is very physically constrained and somewhat awkward to traverse (by design, presumably), so your engagement with monsters here is minimal, and focused on small engagements with very pronounced 'mechanical' bents -- boxing the arch-vile and specters in the center room, ducking and dodging attacks from an extreme high angle while you're down nearer the foot, that sort of thing. Most of the actual bodycount is harvested in the outer grounds, and indeed, I felt that the most fun fight was the generalized surge of monsters around the tower at about the halfway point: there are not really a terribly overwhelming number of creatures involved or anything, but the fight's quite satisfying because it smartly interacts with the level's drastically varying terrain, and gives you a lot of meaningful options for how you'd like to approach it, whether that be sticking to the tower to defend it (from cacos which can reach you anywhere on it) or leaping down to mix it up, or whathaveyou.

 

In contrast to the subtle (but firm) guiding which leads to the normal exit, more inquisitive players can enjoy something a little more earnestly brain-teasing in pursuit of the secret exit, which is quite thoroughly hidden behind a multi-part sidequest touching on several different broad disciplines of Doom-sleuthing, as well as a somewhat Plutonian final entrenchment of creatures. This last fight's a little more calculated and 'tactical' than what I'm used to seeing from the author, and the extra variety's a nice little extra reward for the secret-hunting to go along with being able to access the secret level. Very nice work @Big Ol Billy.

 

Minor issue: the mechanism for revealing the final group of revenants along the secret exit route is perhaps slightly too elaborate for its own good -- unless the player stands stock-still like a total numpty after hitting that switch, many of the revenants along the eastern and western parts of the periphery will never have the opportunity to 'see' him/her from their new window-slits, and thus will never awaken/teleport out.

 

[Demon of the Well]

Map 32 -- FIREBLU PALACE - 100% Kills / No secrets

Moo!

 

In a way, this map featuring as Nova III's super-secret level has the effect of 'dating' the project, hearkening back to FIREBLU's now (mostly) bygone time in the spotlight as a thing of Much Meme. For what it's worth, the actual treatment of that texture here is of some remark. Typically it's used (per Memes, or sometimes per The Way of Sandy) as a broad structural texture or as gaudy lava-lamp inset; here we see instances of both of these, but its predominant role is as a sort of 'cake' texture, neatly frosted within a rind or skin of rusty metal. Lighting choices are also interesting, implying that FIREBLU itself evidently only possesses a faint luminescence of its own. Weird. Music choice was very on-point as well, I thought, suiting both the visuals and the general gameplay equally well.

 

As for the gameplay, then, my overall impression is somewhat....lukewarm? I quite like the little stint of 'minotaur and the maze' that we've got going on in the opening, and I enjoyed the sudden/unexpected crash-landing of skellingtons outside of the final 4-cow blockade as well, but the meat of the thing boils down to doing the two-shot dance vs. cyberdemons (singly or occasionally in pairs) repeatedly, which gets a mite thin/transparent even given the map's wisely abridged runtime. Viles occasionally feature to mix things up, most notably the mini-wave guarding the yellow skull, but these are usually ineffectual (i.e. they appear somewhere and almost instantly get shitty with one of the bumbling siegecows), save for the final four, who can be *quite* obnoxious if they manage to knock you off of the edge, thus behooving you to platform back towards them to reach the exit (this happened to me). The overall balance is actually quite generous -- you can fuck up *quite* a lot and still win on a blind run, I'd warrant (see again: me) -- and for my part I appreciate that the authors opted to keep the very baldfaced mechanical-oriented gameplay to a shorter/punchier map, as opposed to a ToD-style 'das labor' of Sisyphean repetition. Still, my feeling was that something doesn't quite gel, and the map doesn't feel quite complete, somehow, perhaps because it's sort of conspicuously stranded between the two the worlds of 'niche' and more conventional fair, not really committing to either, and thus not really reaping the benefits of either.

[Pechudin]

MAP22: Lunar Comms Station (HMP, Deaths; 0, Saveless: Yes)

    A lot of people mentioned BTSX as what this map reminds them of, I suppose the comparison is inevitable given the techbase style and the generally very fluid flow of cobat/navigation. Generally, I am more inclined to compare it to Lunatic, probably because of the combination of light-gray walls and the blue carpet. And the white lunar rock, of course.

    Combat is generally quite easy on HMP, but do note I am playing continuous and as such had loads of rockets and cell ammo. Closest I came to dying was in the exit room when the floor started lowering and Revenants/Pinkies/Imps flooded onto the floor. Aforementioned cell ammo came in really handy here, running around with the Plasma Gun. I was afraid a Cyberdemon would come out of the central pillar, but thankfully it was only four Mancubi. The exit Archvile was largely ineffectual.

    Other than that, the map felt quite "standard", really. Fun to blast trough for sure but ultimately nothing that will remain in memory for too long. I did like the map transforming trough the lowering floor in the previously explored area, however.

[Big Ol Billy]

Thanks for the write-up @Demon of the Well, this is one of the best and most thoughtful things I've read about my work!

 

Btw, I'm also actually kinda unclear about the "vintage" of the map, too. I think it predates the DBP era, certainly the "modern" one (which began with DBP07) where most of my focus has been for the past year or so. It feels fairly early to me, combat-wise, not necessarily in a bad way but just in terms of how I think about things. I do know that it was initially made two DoomComputers ago (just got a new lil' clunker for Christmas XD), which means I don't have a good version archive to go back and look at. My whole mapping chronology is pretty jumbled in my own head, heh.

 

Also I fixed that revenant mechanism, updated version should be coming along (with a few other small tweaks/fixes) in v3 I think!

Edited January 23, 2020 by Big Ol Billy

[Pechudin]

MAP23: Lunatic Dais (HMP, Deaths: 2, Saveless: No)

    A moody MIDI to accompany the monster-devoid start. I am liking what I'm seeing, I always like it when maps set up the mood with some eerie music, let you explore the map before springin traps on you.

 

    ... Aaand then the map blows its load early with full frontal Revenant/Hell Knight attack, severely ruining the atmosphere. After this the map turns into the usual one-setpiece-at-a-time affair, not too hard but also not boring either.

    The map redeems itself in the final room, a quite enjoyable fight where the goal is to carve a path trough pinkies to get away from the Spider Mastermind and eliminating the Mancubus, thus defusing the trap. The real gold comes in the final room. The strategy is to goad SMM into aggroing all the Hell Knights, which is easily doable thanks to the spread of her chaingun. I was quite puzzled with the teleporting vodoo dool when it struck me, there is another way! You can telefrag the SMM with the vodoo dool! That was very cool and improved my opinion on the map a lot.

[DMPhobos]

Seems that the general consensus so far about my map (map22) it's that it lacks some punch, and i must agree with that, at the the time i was still experimenting with map layouts, it wasn't so much that i was looking to make a BTSX inspired map (at least not intentionally) but rather i was focused on how to avoid making a map that that felt squareish or boring to move around, so i started making this weird shaped rooms and hallways, and also try to make a way to make it interconnected by building it on 'circles' (building towards a direction that eventually lead you back to the starting point), as a result the layout ended up well suited for incidental combat, and also felt more in line with more modern maps, but the gameplay left a lot to be desired, combat feels uninteresting at times, and difficulty is low most of the time. I would probably would end up doing something more different nowadays using some of the same ideas if i were to redo the map again, but i still like this map even if it's lacking something to stand out more compared to the other maps on the set

[gaspe]

MAP23: A collab map where Paul977 here tackles a different theme from what he usually does, and it's something less abstract and that follow more lcosely what a space techbase would be. Could it be also the touch of his mapping partner Finakala which is an unknown name for me, I guess he did the RL and the PR room at least. The eastern outdoor part is clearly Paul's work, featuring 2 nice spiderdemon battles. I really liked the secret soulsphere area, pretty cool looking from the PR room and the trap there was fun. I think that the 2 different styles were coupled together well and I wouldn't think this was a collab if I didn't know it in advance. Hard but fair moments, a really good map overall.

Edited January 23, 2020 by gaspe

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP22: Lunar Comms Station

 

One of my habits when first exploring an unfamiliar map is to try and clear out as much of it as I can without opening a door, activating a lift, or flipping a switch, simply figuring out the boundaries of the initially accessible playing field and eliminatin its monster population to create a safe space to which I can retreat from other parts of the map if and when things go pear-shaped during later expeditions into the deeper reaches of the level.  The web-like layout of the opening areas of this particular map makes that a somewhat fraught task, with monsters (thankfully low-tiers for the most part) able to trace surprisingly long lines of sight through its convolutions and approaching from unexpected angles no matter how methodical an approach the player cares to take.  Keep at it, and you'll find yourself with a good chunk of real estate cleared out and something like a third of the map's monster population already slain and pooling their collected fluids onto the facility's floor; that's when you can start exploring further and the real fun begins.

 

As someone who is generally a fan of incidental combat I enjoy the extent to which it serves as the bread-and-butter of the gameplay here; monsters thoroughly infest this facility and you'll have something in front of your guns for the greater part of the map's running time, as zombies stagger from the shadows, imps skulk about corners, and cacodemons do their best with the level's somewhat limited open-air opportunities.  Things get a bit more staged toward the end of the map, especially the multiple phases of the final battle, though I feel it doesn't built to a climax so much as taper off toward the end, with the initial chaotic swarm giving way to a perfectly manageable number of mancubi and then a solitary arch-vile.  I'm inclined to agree with those who have made comparisons to Back to Saturn X and Lunatic; this is a very modern and polished sort of map which contrasts nicely with the more raw and experimental quality of the preceding level.  Oddly enough I suspect I might ultimately find MAP21's rough edges, concept-driven layout, and idiosyncratic gameplay to be more memorable in the long term than this smoothly professional offering.

 

MAP23: Lunatic Dais

 

After a polished, combat-heavy map dominated by bright lights and gleaming steel, this one offers up a contrasting combination of eerie gloom and peculiarly arranged interior spaces that can't help but induce paranoia and curiosity to equal degrees.  If Lunar Comms Station was vaguely reminiscent of a Star Wars space-base, Lunatic Dais draws its inspiration more from Aliens, conjoining the deadly to the inexplicable as you work your way steadily through the back-looping hallways of a place that seems not so much infested as haunted.  The excellent music track is a large part of that, opening with a deep ambient rumbling that evokes the sound of breathing, crashing waves, subterranean movement, or the grinding of some vast and distant machine in equal measure, then shifting to a low, steady, and menacing sequence that's a little reminiscent of some of the darker parts of the Portal II soundtrack.

 

Gameplay-wise I found it to be a bit of a mixed-bag, with a stop-start quality to the encounters, all neatly divided by doors and switches, that contrasts with the preceding map just as the rest of the level does, and not always in a favourable way.  There is a point, as you approach the blue door but before you have the blue key in hand, where you're left wondering if you've activated a trigger prematurely and broken an intended sequence, but the mappers have contrived a way to stop that from happening, although it does let you access one of the map's two secrets a little earlier than you otherwise might have.

[Andromeda]

MAP23: Lunatic Dais (NOVA III)

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, HNTR-PS, no saves, 100% everything

 

This level has quite a rough start. It doesn't shy away from using revenants/heavy weapon dudes in cramped rooms with little cover and the lack of health makes every mistake count. Thankfully, the difficulty lowers a bit after grabbing the supplies unlocked after the blue key trap (which looks harder than it is) and the rest of the level is smooth sailing. You do find two big fights afterwards, but the ample space really helps to control the incoming hellspawn adequately. The two Spiderdemons which are meant to be an ammo sink can actually be telefragged, so my preferred course of action is to do so as soon as possible, then kill the other monsters. I find this whole sequence to be pretty fun when done this way. The secrets are really easy to find. The MIDI is moody and coupled with the low lightning level really sets the atmosphere for the first few moments of the level. Great stuff!

 

Levels in order of preference:

Spoiler

MAP05: Blood Eagle

MAP07: Cannibal

MAP19: Ancestral Domain

MAP17: Khmeer Agul Tan

MAP10: A Partner of the 49th Day

MAP18: Napkin Math

MAP09: Scarlet Syzygy

MAP13: Tomb of Solitude

MAP23: Lunatic Dais

MAP15: Megiddo III

MAP14: El Dorado

MAP32: Fireblu Palace

MAP06: Fury Begins

MAP20: Ritual Horror

MAP04: Calm the Fire

MAP03: Dante Allegory

MAP08: The Crow Comes Last

MAP22: Lunar Comms Station

MAP01: Port Murder

MAP12: Beautiful Agony

MAP11: Terramin

MAP31: Solar Powered

MAP21: Platform Base

MAP02: Death Crypt

MAP16: Dregs of a Bitter Cup

Edited January 23, 2020 by Andromeda

[dobu gabu maru]

I'll be slowly plinking away at this over the next two weeks. I finished playing these maps with RC2B, and I'll be using RC3 for future maps.

 

MAP06: Heyyy, now this is a party! We got ourselves a big open map with plenty of large scale fights on our hand, and… a BFG? Now we’re cookin’! Rob’s second contribution shows that he’s a lot more flexible than one might assume, and the inclusion of the lovely naked archvile helps keep the gameplay quite fresh (I love the pinky & AV combo—a rarely used duo that’s pretty dangerous in close quarters!) While the map might be quite open it’s unfortunately mostly linear, but the combat is exciting enough to never make me groan about having to collect the keys one by one. What’s nice too is that there’s plenty of goodies around so that you can play like a nincompoop and still manage to be the last one standing. It might be a bit too generous at times—I think the blue armor in the final arena is a bit of overkill on UV, but like I said, the action-packed pace of this map is a breath of fresh air. The only knock I’d give to it is that showing teleport sectors on the ground is just a really nice and appreciable thing to do for the player, as I did rocket a pinkie point-blank, not realizing he would teleport in directly in front of me.

 

Gameplay wise, I’d suggest making the blue armor a soulsphere instead and removing two medikits from that final arena. Also, the lift to the red key is a little… hard to decipher, as I typically don’t think of that black texture as “lift”. Making it something more conventional would be a small improvement.

 

MAP07: What a start! The “teleport the AV (or cyber) away” trick at the start is old hat by now, but I love how he immediately rears his ugly head to start harassing you as you’re poking imps in the rump. This is a great map that has some interesting setups, fun encounters, and beautiful visuals. You can tell that Paul is just scratching at the surface of his mapping prowess, since some of the encounters can feel a little rough or weirdly balanced (the BFG fight can be easily fled from, and the double masterminds are great… but then proceed to pressure you 0% of the time). The YK and final fight are fairly good (the final fight in particular is real gnarly if you don’t just whip out your BFG and evaporate everything), and it’s a map I was having so much fun with that I wish it was longer. Looking forward to seeing more of Paul’s stuff.

 

No gameplay suggestions.

 

MAP08: Round and round and round we go, when the bloodbath stops, only Angry Saint knows. MAP07 may have had the makings of a difficult map, but the most deaths I’ve suffered so far go to this nasty little bugger, for reasons I don’t entirely like. The gameplay is… decent, for the most part. It has scads of enemies to chew through room by room, which you’ll have to do largely with the SSG until about halfway through the map. The constant presence of low walls means you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled for rev rockets and HK acid balls, but after a while it starts to get a bit exhaustive, especially since the setting and monster ambushes remain largely the same. The part I liked the most was the midtext maze, as the sudden rev made the chaingun a very valuable stutter tool. The ending fight was fairly neat too, but everything else remains a blur of rockets, giblets, and HKs moaning in pain.

 

Gameplay wise, since I see the RL has already been added earlier in RC3, I’d suggest removing a rev from each of the columns on the SSG bridge. Those fiends are among the most dangerous enemies on the map, and nobody’s got time to plink away at all four of them with a shotgun. Since the RL was added earlier, I think they’re probably a bit more tolerable now, but know what’s not? The chaingunners around the outer ring at the end. There’s literally no way to deal with them besides get lucky and not lose too much of your health. They add nothing to the map other than to torment you by firing at you out of autoaim range, and it’s a dull activity that feels way too reliant on chance. They’re obnoxious trash.

 

I’d also suggest maybe sprinkling a bit more health in throughout the map, primarily on the SSG bridge and in the RK courtyard. Taking an unlucky rev rocket in either scenario pretty much ensures you have to kill the next 50 enemies without taking damage to get back to 100%, which really sucks.

 

MAP09: This one feels like a meatier MAP04 with a bit more meat to it. The chainsaw AV duel at the start is deceptively evil, as I had no idea how risky that fight would be! At first it was a bit slow, but when the lost souls started trickling in, I knew I was in for a treat. Luckily after a few deaths, the AV launched me up to the RL platform and I was able to catch my breath. I still died every now and then due to the low health, but once I grabbed the soulsphere by the PG it was clear sailing. It’s a neat & clever map that feels like something I’d make when I was first starting out, though that might be because of the Ribbiks midi.

 

Gameplay wise, the only thing that’s awkward are the stairs on the way to the PG room, since if you backpedal when you hear the revs the stairs become a nightmare to fight on. Maybe shortening the distance between each step could help, but it’s probably not something that can be fixed without a lot of geometry adjustments. Just try not to put enemies so close to big ol’ stairways in the future (the RK room has a similar problem, but at least the player can move around in there).

[tourniquet]

M22: Cool map with a nicely crafted, sprawling layout with lots of different routes to pick, however progression wasn't overly confusing as you end up in the right direction no matter which way you go. Combat was mostly more of a incidental affair with a few traps here and there, generally not too demanding in terms of difficulty.

I can't really find any points of criticism, it's a very enjoyable effort, perhaps just lacking a real stand out moment or remarkable encounter, but yeah really good stuff.

 

FDA

 

M23: The space station theme will remain a consistent trademark of the final episode. However compared to the previous and some upcoming maps it's designed in a at least to me more appealing manner, with more emphasis on darkness, contrast and a rather uncanny, bleak atmosphere. Encounters vary between more harsh moments like the first trap and a bit more forgivable moments, probably due to being a collaboration effort, but generally very enjoyable. Personal highlights were the secret fight as well as both SM encounters, even if i think that the final fight is maybe a bit too easy to pacifist.

 

FDA

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP24: The Ship That Wore a Mask

 

I'm familiar with @Albertoni's mapping output only as far as this WAD's earlier MAP14: El Dorado, and there are points of both divergence and similarity to be had here.  Where El Dorado had a certain sketchbook quality to it, with areas of quite radically different design and appearance all assembled beneath a single thematic umbrella into a mostly-coherent whole, there is something more deliberate about The Ship here, its consistently measured corridors, its repeated door motifs, communicating a sense not of an artisanal, organic environment, but one that's been carefully planned, each part painstakingly machined and tested and bolted into its proper, designated place.  Both maps do share an intentional discontinuity and disjointedness in their layout, however; El Dorado offered up portals to alternate-reality versions of the same area and an underground tunnel that emerged onto the deck of a ship at sea, and The Ship presents a vast spacecraft that is slowly being transformed or subverted by demonic influence.  In this paradigm, the consistency and repeated motifs of its purely technological early areas serve to establish a baseline sense of reality from which it subsequently diverges, order giving way to disorder, the prosaic falling apart in the face of the weird.

 

This particular style of subverted or corrupted spaceship or orbital station, an initially technological thing that slowly crumbles to reveal the taint within, puts me in mind of Event Horizon, although the playful music track that accompanies your exploration and the checkerboard marble floors throughout much of the "transformed" portions of the ship are just as reminiscent of American McGee's Alice.  What's especially intriguing is the fact that there are different layers to the transformation as you delve deeper into the ship's subverted heart, technology giving way to metal and marble giving way to flesh and blood.  One other interesting touch is the occasional inversion of how light sources typically function, with candles and candelabras radiating pools of darkness rather than light.  Combat gameplay follow a fairly conventional pattern for the most part, with incidental combat early in the map ramping up through a handful of progressively larger pitched battles and ambushes until you're thrust into an arena fight including a Cyberdemon at the map's conclusion.  What I remember this map for probably won't be the battles, but the question of which parts of the place I explored were the ship itself, and which were the mask...

[obake]

The Crow Comes Last by Angry Saint

95% Kills 100% Items 100% Secrets

18:16

 

Took forever. I don't hate the map, but my computer sure did! For whatever reason, the frame rates in this particular one were absolutely sporadic, sometimes dropping to below 10 per second. That said, I pulled through.

 

I must say, I really like the looping design of this one, especially where monsters are set up so they can snipe back at you even if you run past their initial encounter. I'm sure if my computer weren't so fussy, it would have been even more fun.

 

Scarlet Syzygy by Xyzzy01

100% everything

6:03

 

Short and deadly. The Caco trap was my favorite part. The stairs lowering trap took me awhile to figure out. Good thing that the pistol in Guncaster is so ridiculously strong, allowing me to take down the Archie with relative ease. Overall, I like this one.

 

A Partner of the 49th Day by Kurashiki

96% Kills 80% Items 20% Secrets

52:51

 

I'm not familiar with Kurashiki's earlier works, but judging by this, they are extremely talented. This map is great, from the architecture to the gameplay (which for some reason, has consistent framerate unlike map 08).

 

My favorite portion is the first Cyber fight, which was just so much fun. Also, for a map this size, it does good work in not being too confusing to navigate.

 

What I want to know most is, what does the title refer to?

 

 

[Horus]

It’s the 25th somewhere, so....

 

+++Doom the way id Did

[gaspe]

MAP24: I wasn't feeling this map so much at first, the initial base part is okay but nothing special. In retrospect this works because it marks very well the shift from what looks like your average grey space station to subvert the place and your expectations with hellish areas of marble and blood. The transition between the tech parts and the gothic done with those gradient lighting was pretty unique and cool. With the final arena the gameplay that so far was allright tries to step up its game but resulting in some circle strafing to deal with the mancs and the spiders, then it's time for a totally skippable cyberdemon and at least the author was considerate to only use 2 avs instead of putting one in each of the 4 corners.

[riderr3]

+++DOOM II: Hellscape

+++Preacher

+++Deadly Standards 2

[Pechudin]

MAP24: The Ship that Wore a Mask (HMP, Deaths: 10, Saveless: No)

    Just magnificent. This is EXACTLY what I want from a map, a trippy but thematically cohesive travel trough innards of a ship stuck in some kind of temporal/spatial aberration, perhaps demons stranded it here? I see this map was made by the same author that made MAP14, and in my opinion this map is vastly better. I adore the use of the teleport lines and the motive of lightsources giving off darkness, oftentimes serving as limits between worlds. And the MIDI compliments the map very well too.

    The fighting is quite easy troughout the map and generally takes a backseat to the environmental narrative, that is until the final room. I  ... did not really like the final room that much. It was fine, but I think such a sharp difficulty spike and sudden orientation to combat kind of clashed with the spooky surreal theme of the map. This is where all but one of my deaths came from, all from the initial barrage of Arachnotrons/Mancubi until I found out a winning strategy. The final Cyberdemon/Archvile combo is not too threatening as it takes the Cyberdemon ages to reach you, leaving lots of time to kill the Archviles. That being said, I did leave the room with 6% health, thank God I left a Berserk Pack behind!

 

    Awards: All Time Favorite. What else to say? Just amazing. Of course it is an one-and-done deal, the second playtrough of the map will not be nearly as interesting because of the generally pedestrian (except the last room) fighting, but for a DooM tourist like me this is just a treat.

[Andromeda]

MAP24: The Ship That Wore A Mask (NOVA III)

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, HNTR-PS, no saves, 100% everything

 

Another lunar techbase, this one is similar to the previous in that it's fairly linear and you start outside. There's a completely optional room after the start that contains a rocket launcher, very useful considering the abundance of rockets, but it's well guarded. The fight itself isn't too difficult, but given the lack of armor and health it can be tricky to deal with the hitscanners, imps, cacodemons and the revenant with little cover.

 

Cool trick with the silent teleporter simulating a ventilation system. It won't be the last time we'll see these teleporters in this level - MAP14 by the same author also used them quite regularly. After entering a red portal we find ourselves in a vaguely hellish area in the void. Enemies are used more liberally here due to the larger space. This area also contains a really easy to find secret area and a really hard to find non secret BFG9000 (I spent like an hour looking at the editor trying to figure out how to access it, after playing the level).

 

There's a challenging fight at the blue key - lots of revenants spawn in and cover is limited, do your best to kill them before they kill you. There's lots of supplies afterwards, hinting at a large fight. After the teleport you arrive at a large arena, full of monsters on high platforms on the corners with their backs turned to you. You can make the most out of this situation by pressing the first switch, which spawns in a Cyberdemon, then make noise to awake the monsters and create some infighting. It's not the easiest infighting setup, but if you're patient the boss should be able to kill every single monster. You can kill it afterwards with a couple rockets. Shoutout to the cute spaceship at the start. Good level!

 

Levels in order of preference:

Spoiler

MAP05: Blood Eagle

MAP07: Cannibal

MAP19: Ancestral Domain

MAP17: Khmeer Agul Tan

MAP10: A Partner of the 49th Day

MAP18: Napkin Math

MAP09: Scarlet Syzygy

MAP13: Tomb of Solitude

MAP23: Lunatic Dais

MAP15: Megiddo III

MAP14: El Dorado

MAP32: Fireblu Palace

MAP06: Fury Begins

MAP20: Ritual Horror

MAP04: Calm the Fire

MAP03: Dante Allegory

MAP08: The Crow Comes Last

MAP22: Lunar Comms Station

MAP01: Port Murder

MAP24: The Ship That Wore A Mask

MAP12: Beautiful Agony

MAP11: Terramin

MAP31: Solar Powered

MAP21: Platform Base

MAP02: Death Crypt

MAP16: Dregs of a Bitter Cup

Edited January 24, 2020 by Andromeda

[Capellan]

I played the red key wing of map15 yesterday and the thought of two more wings like it (plus possibly an end game after that) has just about killed any chance I will proceed.  It all looks amazing and it played pretty well too, but there's just too much of it for my tastes.

[TheOrganGrinder]

For what it's worth, the red key wing of Megiddo III is, I think, by far the largest, longest, and most monster-crowded of the three wings; you've probably got the lion's share of the map behind you at this point.

[Pechudin]

    Aaaaand its midnight, so I'll throw my vote in. This one should fit in February nicely.

 

+++ DooM The Way ID Did

[Capellan]

1 hour ago, TheOrganGrinder said:

For what it's worth, the red key wing of Megiddo III is, I think, by far the largest, longest, and most monster-crowded of the three wings; you've probably got the lion's share of the map behind you at this point.

 

I just tried 5 minutes of the blue key wing.  No fun at all, definitely pulling the plug here.

[Spectre01]

Let's see if I can tackle some more of this after that RC3 release.

 

MAP10 - “A Partner of the 49th Day” by Kurashiki

By far the largest map yet, clocking at over 60 minutes to finish. The bulk is spent in a gruesomely detailed Cathedral and introduces an element rarely seen, the unlimited Rocket Launcher. There is so much rocket ammo available throughout the entire map that the only time to pause the launching is when the quarters get a bit too tight. The combat itself is, fine, I guess. Revenants are frequents and Viles not uncommon but they are rarely used in threatening ways. Most of the appeal stems from the visual and exploratory aspect, including a secret Fireblu area which burns the eyes. My favourite section has to be the fight in the church, which I assume is inspired by one of the Deus Vults. It's still a simple U-strafe with little danger, but provides for a decent spectacle. The ending vista is also nice, featuring a lonely Imp on a boat.

 

MAP11 - “Terramin” by P1NKAC1D

Nice microdetailing and theme transition from industrial mines to Egypt. I feel like this map could benefit from some darker interior sectors for additional contrast. The biggest problem gameplay-wise is the strong emphasis on SSG gameplay against multiple mid-tiers in the 2nd half. Killing 3 Hell Knights + 2 Barons in a spacious area with an SSG is neither fun nor challenging. Very few rockets and cells are provided until the end, when only a Cyber and 3 Viles are left. I'd suggest moving some of that ammunition and/or weapons earlier into the map, as this level suffers from a lot of the same problems as map08 before. And yeah, the 3 Mancs height-blocking is silly. Those should be relocated. Otherwise, I like the theme and midi.

 

Edit: It's also possible to softlock yourself by getting stuck behind this mine cart.

Edited January 25, 2020 by Spectre01
Softlock

[galileo31dos01]

+++ Hell Revealed 2

 

Actual vote: +++ Hellscape, Preacher, Deadly Standards

Edited January 31, 2020 by galileo31dos01

[Spectre01]

MAP12 - “Beautiful Agony” by sincity2100

Hard map dude. My main criticism here is from the visual angle: The level of detail, blue flat choice, and nearly complete lack of anything resembling texture alignment makes this look like it's from '94. If that's the intention, it's certainly successful.

 

MAP13 - “Tomb of Solitude” by dt_

Align those rocks, bro. I am aware there's a meme going around where people don't align rocks, some even going as far as to say that it "looks better that way" or some shit. Those people are crazy; align your rocks. And use a few other rock textures to break up the monotony and add some contrast to the cave areas. Also, Shotgunning mid-tiers is really damn boring, and that's all there is to work with until grabbing the Berserk. Then you end up punching the 3 Hell Knights that block your path but can't walk over a lift. The triple-Cyber fight is actually pretty good and makes the rest of the map feel like dragged out filler in comparison. Although I imagine the fun factor drops dramatically if you don't manage to grab the BFG via the blue key secret.

 

MAP14 - “El Dorado” by Albertoni

Cool map. I managed to find all 10 secrets, but for some reason this guy didn't teleport in. These bricks are also misaligned in all 4 corners of that dark room. Otherwise, I found the gameplay enjoyable and the scenery varied and interesting.

Edited January 25, 2020 by Spectre01