The DWmegawad Club plays: Hellscape & Preacher & Deadly Standards 2

[Steve D]

32 minutes ago, Capellan said:

 

I'm not sure you set your difficulty right, Steve.  That green armour is only there on Easy :)

 

 

Nope, I was on UV. The mistake I made was in seeing it out there when I checked the map in GZDB and assuming I must have picked it up when playing. Instead, I went completely without armor until I found the other one behind a door while getting ready for the BK fight. No wonder I had such trouble surviving those post-crate room battles.

[Summer Deep]

Deadly Standards E2M4

 

(UV pistol start, GLBoom+). Played through this three times and completed it with no saves on the final run. It was pretty complex, with lots of switches and teleporters,  but the main drawback was that the environment was too drab and generic, and I was just never able to really engage with this map. It wasn't clear how some things worked - I got the blue armour on one occasion, but I've no idea how.

 

Strangest part was that area near the start. 'CAU' wtf??!! And what was the point of that poor Baron in the small room? He seems to have been there just for the purpose of getting crushed.....

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by Summer Deep

[gaspe]

@Capellan Oh I forgot you had a map in CC4. I think I played Nuclear Halls too, but I guess it was 5 years ago when it was released.

 

E2M4: If you want to see something classic you can't go wrong with Walter. For the most the level is your usual abstract techbase with a distinct Doom 1 feel, lots of nukage that flows into the place, but the first place you can visit is the prison which is done with a more realistic approach (with cells, showers) and there's even an execution room where a baron gets crushed. It starts as a rather normal looking place but later on you start to see some hellish details and depending on how much you explore sooner or later you'll have a view of the outside and discover the sea of lava that surrounds the place. The level looks complex at first and many secret and optional parts take you into separeted areas with teleports (the secret computer map was one of my favourite) and they make yo go back and forth and can deceive you but the progression is linear and with a wise usage of some teleports you are always took back on the right track.

Now for the flaws I think that the lighting was really lacking, the whole map has almost the same light level and everything looks more dull. Just adding few more light sources here and there and enhancing the shadows would have been enough. About the gameplay I liked the usage of closets and teleport traps but most of the combats are on a flat level. It needed more variety and I would have liked to get the RL earlier or finding a PR in one of the secrets. I think that the exit part was meh and don't stand out much, though I liked how it's connected to the blue armor secret.

Edited February 23, 2020 by gaspe

[riderr3]

E2M3

There are a lot of symmetrical forms, and this is especially noticeable in the first half of the map and begins to repeat.
A small example from my own experience:

Spoiler

 

It's impossible to create unique and interesting encounters on purely symmetrical maps, because they do not allow the most efficient use of monsters, so your encounters and traps should influence the layout of the map from the start.
Try taking one half of that symmetrical room and reshaping the vertices to create something asymmetrical. Some of the best gamespaces I ever created were a result of just dragging vertices around. Never underestimate the power of splitting linedefs.

 

Figure 1: quick example of plain, symmetrical room design

Figure 2: quick example of improved, asymmetrical room design

Symmetry is usually good when making CTF maps in order the teams to have equal advantages.

 

I got a little lost and only then realized that I needed to jump from a blood cliff to an idle elevator in order to move on.

Otherwise, I have no particular complaints, at least I found items here just when I needed them. On such maps, the most requested weapon is chaingun.

E2M4

I played this map in the old days and even with pistol-start, so this time it will be a simple walk.

Here we have to go through a bunch of locations, most of them we will visit many times, and some will only visit once and forget. There are also many gimmicks, such as couches, show with a crusher and baron, e.t.c. Sometimes there is a lack of radsuits and I have to break through.

A large number of tight locations will be encountered on our way, but in Doom 1 this is not a special problem, since monster cast is different here and we feel more or less normal in places that would be claustrophobic in Doom 2.

The pop-ups with shotgunners feels like moments from Plutonia.

Fine map, it might even be better if it was shorter.

Edited February 23, 2020 by riderr3

[Steve D]

GZDoom, UV, Pistol Starts, Savescumming, Keyboard Only

 

E2M3:Ore Refinery by The_Slovinator

Kills:100%  Items:92%  Secrets:40%  Death Count:Zero

 

Very attractive map with a nice texture flow. Combat was fairly easy but had a few hectic moments, especially when I teleported back and got flanked by 2 Barons. Luckily, I had the Plasma Gun plus health and armor well above 100%. I missed out on the Plasma Gun fight because the 2-teleport pathing allowed me to accidentally take the one where I approached the PG from below, so when I got it, I was stunned to discover that I had already killed everything and there was nothing warping in. That area also has a decorative door, something I find irksome. Call me crazy, but I think door textures should actually be operating doors. Later, I went back and took the other teleport, but I'm guessing the PG fight would be easy even when you land in the correct place, since you can snipe most of the monsters from above.

I sucked at secret finding, but at least I found the high-priority Rocket Launcher. There's enough Cacos and Barons in this map to have made it a real slog without the RL.

 

All in all a good-looking map showing some stylish elements, if a bit mild in gameplay.

Edited February 23, 2020 by Steve D

[Roofi]

Having contributed to Deadly Standards 2, I'm going to make small comments on each map, based on what I played 6-7 months ago. :)

However , I will make a long comment on E2M7 and especially E2M8. :)

 

 

E2M1 : An introduction map worthy of the name. The level contained a large amount of detail with a lot of exploration.

 

E2M2 : A particularly tense level that makes ingenious use of an armada of cacodemons. Ammunition and health are scarce, the search for secrets is highly recommended!

 

E2M3 : A map I liked for its use of textures to give a rather dark atmosphere. The gimmick is based on the use of teleporters but it's far from being as annoying as the E3m5 of the original doom. On the other hand, I don't think the music has been changed in the meantime, which is a shame in my opinion.

 

E2M4 :I have to say I had a bad feeling when I started the map, to be honest. It's not really for its classic side but rather that it's a map that could appear at first glance in episode 1. But in reality, it was only an impression because there were a lot of elements reminiscent of episode 2 of Doom. And more generally, it's a very good map thanks to its many secrets and the vanilla tricks.

 

 

Edited February 23, 2020 by Roofi

[Andromeda]

E2M4: Underground Prison (Deadly Standards 2)

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

 

If I hadn't played Ultimate Doom to death, I'd be inclined to think this was an actual E2 level! It looks and plays just like a Shores of Hell mission, despite being a bit longer than the average one from the original. There's an attempt at recreating a simple prison here, while it's not the most realistic example I've seen in Doom it works well and even has an execution room where a baron of hell gets crushed (you get first row tickets to watch it from an adjacent area).

 

I'll be honest, if I was being held captive in this prison I wouldn't bother escaping, it's a long, hazardous path to freedom. We're talking about Doomguy though, a little under 200 guards is something to scoff at for him. About gameplay, it's not a particularly challenging level, though there's many traps that will keep you on your toes and your health/armor can get depleted without you noticing. One thing I like is these traps tend to release a few hitscanners that can be lined up fairly easily for a satisfying multi kill with the shotgun :).

 

There's lots of secrets here, making this a good level for secret hunting. They're not particularly tricky to find and provide supplies to ease your task of escaping, as well as access to balconies from which you can see various parts of the level, a neat touch. I feel the secret megaarmor is found a bit too close to the non secret one, but that's a minor complaint. There's a few spots where you have to jump into the nukage to progress without a radiation shielding suit, but thankfully these are rather small so you won't take much damage.

 

The combat is primarily shotgun based, though there's a few rockets here and there to take down the meatier foes quickly. The highlight of the level to me is the cacoswarm before the end - it's a scripted moment, where you hear teleporting noises and just when you're wondering what's happening they enter the room from the windows. The room is somewhat small and the stairs hinder your movement a bit so the flying tomatoes can give you quite a bit of trouble if you wasted all of your rockets. After this, between us and the exit is a measly demon that's easily dispatched with just about any weapon you've collected along the way. Cool stuff, really enjoyed this little adventure!

 

Levels in order of preference:

Spoiler

E2M2: Vulpine

E2M4: Underground Prison

E2M1: Outpost Lima Charlie

E2M3: Ore Refinery

Edited February 23, 2020 by Andromeda

[Capellan]

Deadly Standards E2M4

Rather too much backtracking in this one for my tastes, especially those cases where you teleport out of an area and are then expected to more or less go back to where you came from, looking for a new path that was opened.  I never got stuck, but progression did not feel intuitive or coherent.  I guess that's not entirely unreasonable for an E2 map, but I was never a fan of Sandy's more arcane progression tricks.

 

I guess the progression has to be challenging, though, because the monsters certainly aren't going to present much threat.  There might be around two hundred of them, but they're rarely in what I would call threatening location.  Even the *rolleyes* pop up monsters come out of the floor at half speed, giving you some time to be react to them.

 

Looks-wise it is basic, but I didn't really mind too much as I was playing.  I appreciated the few bold splashes of bright light, though I would have l liked more.  Also more red or other bright colours.  I like STONE1 and STONE2 a lot, but there's a lot of them here, without much to break them up.

 

@Andromeda I didn't even realise there was a caco ambush on those stairs near the end.  I ran up them and out, and then past the baron and demon (who promptly started infighting) wiwhout ever seeing an FTM.  Also, looking at it in GZDB, there are nowhere near enough of them to be considered a 'swarm' :)

 

[Summer Deep]

Deadly Standards E2M5

 

This is more like it - a much more colourful, playable and entertaining map than the previous one. There's always plenty going on, but it's not especially difficult and I only had one mishap, when taking things too casually in one of the nukage-filled rooms and falling foul of a couple of Barons. One or two people complained about the lack of radsuits in E2M4, but that's certainly not a criticism you can make of this one!

 

I didn't get the point of the Cyberdemon, if there was one. He was around for a minute or so, locked safely away behind a barrier, then he teleported out and only returned for about three seconds later on before vanishing again. Was this a joke by the mapper, or could I have found him (the Cyber, not the mapper) if I'd looked hard enough? On the subject of looking for things, the secret exit was hardly a secret at all, and probably around half of the people who play this map will find it before getting to the normal exit.

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by Summer Deep

[Roofi]

E2M5 : A map that had a more "modern" layout in my memories. I really liked this map because of its ability to let us explore a bit as we want. The map had some interesting details like a very strong use of brown textures for the rock or the red lights at the very beginning of the level.

[Steve D]

GZDoom, UV, Pistol Starts, Savescumming, Keyboard only

 

E2M4:Underground Prison by Walter Confalonieri

Kills:99%  Items:100% Secrets:90%  Death Count:Zero

 

I tend to view the difficulty in Doom maps in terms of stress factors, and these are the factors I recognize;

 

Monster

Health/Armor

Weapons/Ammo

Environment

Progression

Puzzle

Platforming

This map is very heavy on Progression Stress, since you get about primarily by teleporting, and if you do something wrong, for example if you don't take a teleport, you may find that further progress is impossible. That's what happened to me. I decided to backtrack once and thus a door didn't open and I ended up wandering aimlessly because I didn't know the teleport triggered the door. This map is also a switch hunt, and the switches typically trigger something you can't see, except for the one near the Rocket Launcher that lowers a Blue Armor platform. I found 2 Blue Armors in this map, which was much appreciated.

 

The start reminded me of one of Nicolas Monti's Favilesco E1 maps. Nice and hectic. I found the lighting extra dim since I play in GZDoom with Sector Light Mode set to Dark, so there were areas where I could see virtually nothing. ;D 

 

It's not often that I survive big maps with 275 monsters in them. I'm pistol starting with keyboard only, after all, and I'm a pretty bad player, too. :D I was never in imminent danger of death, but I was never actually bored by the combat, either. Walter made good use of classic Doom traps, and I was always getting trolled by hitscanners, especially when I was lured into punching Pinkies only to discover that Sergeants and imps had me targeted. I probably took a third of my damage that way. I will note that I agree with @Capellan re: monsters popping out of the floor. I've done that myself, of course, but that was back in 1998. Now I'm a solid citizen and only have them rising from liquids. ;) 

 

I tend to agree with those who think Walter should have done more visually. This is a very large map for such a limited texture theme, and having the areas be more distinct would have helped. 

So in the end I found this map to be a confusing switch hunt, and on top of everything else, Walter put a Medikit in front of that switch leading to the exit, a mandatory pick-up when I was at 98% health. Luckily, I was able to deal with the Cacoswarm without taking any damage, so I never lost the 2 health points I gained. ;) The map also had a ton of secrets and I managed to find 90%, so I'm very happy about that, as secret hunting is one of my favorite activities, and a lot of these secrets were very clever. All in all a kind of middling map for me. 

Edited February 24, 2020 by Steve D

[Andromeda]

E2M5: The Star Child (Deadly Standards 2)

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

 

Right off the bat we notice some cool texture usage, with the red lights on the floor and ceiling. After pressing the first switch and firing a shot a Cyberdemon wakes up. We'll find it soon enough, within view through a window near a switch, but it vanishes shortly afterwards. The combat so far is much in the vein of the previous level, very trappy but not too challenging. This will change as the floor lowers revealing a new area, where several cacodemons and three barons of hell are alerted to your presence.

 

Trying to escape this cramped area will only result in even more enemies being alerted. Your best bet to survive is to keep moving, try to instigate infighting between the nobles and the tomatoes and finish off the survivors. If things get too overwhelming there's a tucked away teleporter that brings you to the stairway, where you can gather your bearings, collect supplies and then return to the fray. Once things calm down, you can explore around.

 

All three keys can be found in this level, though only the red key is mandatory. The blue key unlocks the secret exit, while the yellow key unlocks the regular exit. To obtain the yellow key you need the red key first, but you can collect the other two in any order. I opted to go for the blue key first since there's lots of rockets on the way, which help to dispatch the meatier foes faster. The secrets are quite rewarding here, two of them are easy to find while the other two are less obvious.

 

I like that the pillars for the megaarmor secret vanish into thin air once you reach its platform. The secret exit is really easy to find and you might think it's actually the regular exit, like me. Good thing I'm pistol starting anyway :P. If you've read this far, you might've forgotten the Cyberdemon. Thing is it never appears again, as it's teleported to a platform inside a room outside the level. There's teleporting linedefs around the platform that suggest the Cyberdemon would be teleported to the top of the hill near the red key, but the platform is too tall for the monster to step down from it and thus never teleports out. I think if the Cyberdemon teleported out it would increase the challenge for the final trek before the red key, but it's in my opinion a small blemish in an otherwise excellent level.

 

Levels in order of preference:

Spoiler

E2M2: Vulpine

E2M5: The Star Child

E2M4: Underground Prison

E2M1: Outpost Lima Charlie

E2M3: Ore Refinery

Edited February 24, 2020 by Andromeda

[NeedHealth]

@Andromeda the cyber always teleported correctly in testing. What complevel where you on? It might however be that you skipped a linedef... which is mea culpa.

Edited February 24, 2020 by NeedHealth

[Andromeda]

1 minute ago, NeedHealth said:

@Andromeda the cyber always teleported correctly in testing. What complevel where you on? It might however be that you skipped a linedef...

I'm using -complevel 3. It's very possible that I skipped a linedef since I tend to zoom through the levels :P

[NeedHealth]

2 minutes ago, Andromeda said:

I'm using -complevel 3. It's very possible that I skipped a linedef since I tend to zoom through the levels :P

None of the linedefs in this map is slanted to account for that.

Edited February 24, 2020 by NeedHealth

[gaspe]

So we post about the secret map tomorrow?

 

E2M5: I remember NeedHealth from Nova III, this time he teamed with Walter but I think that the former was more prominent in shaping the map. It looks rather characteristic for sure, it doesn't have the iwad-esque footprint that the other maps had. It has the bad luck to come after a long map that simiarly has a lot of frontal combat so this map was rather anonymous in this thing to me, though it has nice traps like the cacos and barons when the floor lowers. And the cyberdemon that it's a sort of jumpscare as it appears when you don't have the adequate weapons or in cramped spaces where it would impossible to fight it.

[Horus]

+++64KB Challenge (Vanilla Megawad)

[Summer Deep]

Deadly Standards E2M9

 

UV Pistol Start, GLBoom+, 'one or two' saves

 

Not absolutely sure I'm posting about the right map for today, apologies if not, but here goes....

 

A well constructed level, not the toughest in the set from a combat point of view, but needs a fair bit of thought to play it effectively. Basically you have a starting hall with rooms on either side, an underground cavern, and an impressive huge central arena. Some decent puzzles in the side rooms, I liked the ledge feature in the yellow key room and the secret accessed from the lift leading out of the crusher room. Never managed to get the blue armour visible in the former room or the Soulsphere in the latter room though.

 

The star of the show is a Cyberdemon in the middle of the main arena. Was this the one who went AWOL in the previous map? Very difficult to kill him, but I somehow managed to do so from the blood pit on one occasion. That feature is actually perhaps the level's most annoying obstacle - you need to cross it several times to get from one area to another, and with good planning and management of the radsuits it probably ought to present few problems, but that might be easier said than done. Similarly, I didn't make very efficient use of the two invulnerabilities, which made the overall task all the more difficult. A very decent map, very solid from both a visual and gameplay aspect.

 

 

+++ Oscillation & Alkylation & Bedlam

 

Edited February 25, 2020 by Summer Deep

[Summer Deep]

15 hours ago, Andromeda said:

I'm using -complevel 3. It's very possible that I skipped a linedef since I tend to zoom through the levels :P

 

Interesting - I've played through the level three times:

 

(1) First in GLBoom+ 'Default' compatibility: the Cyberdemon was present in his enclosure early on in the map, teleported out, then reappeared briefly for a few seconds somewhere outside the building that houses the red key.

 

(2) Then in GLBoom+ 'Latest PrBoom' compatibility: As before, but the Cyber reappeared briefly again in the exit room.

 

(3) In GZDoom, exactly as in the previous case.

[SiFi270]

E2M5

Was the Cyberdemon supposed to reappear? Because there was this point near the non-secret exit where a big square floor with nothing on it rose up, but he seems to be stuck down here:

Also I've been meaning to share this for most of the month. In the second map of Hellscape, the entrance to the first secret is untagged and therefore inaccessible in Boom. So I made this fix to load after the main file.

d2hs-fix.zip

[Roofi]

E2M9: A rather good level. I remembered its almost total non-linearity and the area with the cyber-demon particularly memorable for its size.

[riderr3]

E2M5

These round holes at the beginning look like the roof was shot through by laser beams. On this map there is a good distribution of radsuits and barrels. Everything is in order with the arrangement - each monster performs its role with dignity.

There are a lot of secret areas, as well as just nooks and gates that you can skip, and then find these nice bonuses later. Curly stairs can lead to different places. The very non-linear architecture also has a positive effect - I did not notice how these 27 minutes passed.

A cyberdemon is not a hassle unless you intentionally release him from his room.

E2M9

Here we have 4 choices where to teleport, but one way or another we will visit these locations later. This time I examined most of the places before getting into the huge central area.

Probably in this location I needed to make instant-raise platforms at the edges, but instead there are slowly rising ones, and some players may simply not pay attention to them and jump down. If you fall down, there may be a panic, but that is until taking a radsuit.

Before you take the yellow key, you can find a secret valve that releases water into a dangerous pool, and now you can walk safely.

[gaspe]

E2M9: Lots of non-linearity here, it wasn't very difficult but making the "wrong" choices will punish you in a hard way and some routes are obviously easier since you can get the good weapons and some secrets. I went for the YSK area at first, not knowing what was there and it was hard to get out of the YSK room on a pistol start with only the SG and CG. I eventually made it through and noticed only later the secret that removes the damaging blood. The main area with the cyberdemon gives also lots of opportunities. You can get a couple of invuln orbs to deal with the chaos you'll encounter there. I killed the cyberdemon but I regretted it when the little swarm of cacos came to the arena. Very fitting for the secret slot.

[Andromeda]

E2M9: Soul Converting Centre (Deadly Standards 2)

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

 

A very nonlinear level. Like E2M3, you've got to choose which teleporter you want to take, this time there's four to choose from. I like to take the one that leads to the big arena, where you can kill all the enemies easily with the two invulnerabilities (if you find the secret one, three). The three barons of hell standing on a red platform are really begging to be crushed and sure enough you can activate a crusher via a touchplate tucked away in a corner.

 

There's other three main areas, two of them are optional but contain lots of supplies. I like that the areas are so different from each other yet are linked in a natural manner, not a single one feels like filler or out of place. With eight secrets there's lots of secret hunting to be done, they're well placed and are quite creative. Interestingly, you can find a pair of secrets in three of the main areas, while the remaining two lie in the starting room.

 

My favourite secrets are in the area to the east of the start, with a clever lift mechanism for the first one and a tricky jump for the supercharge. The secrets in the yellow key area are also interesting, with a lift leading to a plasma gun (that you can grab from the wall from the starting room if you care) and the other one leads to a megaarmor, rocket launcher and a BROWELL texture that functions as a valve, turning the blood in the yellow key room into water and thus safe to walk on.

 

There's weapons in each of the teleporter destinations, so you're never ill equipped for the encounters you'll face. Also of note is some neat platforming for the blue key and the start/stop mechanism for the crushers, reminding me of E5M4 in SIGIL. I don't like one thing in the level, which is the cacodemons placed in high up cages in the big arena - they're annoying to kill but aren't very dangerous. I don't mind the imps and the shotgun guys in similar spots since those are quick to kill at least. All things considered though, a great secret level.

 

Levels in order of preference:

Spoiler

E2M2: Vulpine

E2M5: The Star Child

E2M4: Underground Prison

E2M9: Soul Converting Centre

E2M1: Outpost Lima Charlie

E2M3: Ore Refinery

Edited February 25, 2020 by Andromeda

[Capellan]

Deadly Standards E2M5

Apparently everyone found the secret exit but me.  I reached the normal exit, poked around for a couple of minutes looking for old seekereto, and then shrugged and figured I may as well get the upcoming @Steve D map over and done with sooner rather than later ;)

 

Looking in GZDB, it turns out if was through an always available teleporter that you have to walk past as part of the progression.  Alas, I opted to clear out the rest of that area and took the other teleporter.  Oh well, no secret map for me!

 

This was fine, I guess?  The impassable nukage drop-off in the east annoyed me because it had no justification.  Otherwise my only real complaint would be the bitsy, teleport and backtracking based progression.  Of course, "bitsy, teleport and backtracking based progression" is kind of an IWAD E2 thing, so I can understand why it was done.

 

I did think the baron usage in this one was pretty good.  I liked the ambush that's a baron/caco infighting generator: expect that was a deliberate nod to the original E2M9.

 

[Summer Deep]

Deadly Standards E2M6

 

UV Pistol Start, GLBoom+, with (quite a few) saves

 

Very tough going indeed for the most part. The 'red' reactor room was hard enough, with the Cacos and Spectres in the main area, then the hitscanners in the larger adjacent section. The 'blue' area was an absolute pig however: there's no doubt that playing from a UV pistol start in these circumstances is a notch above my true ability level, and it's notable that when I played the map later on HMP, it was entirely manageable. In the central 'blue' room, it was impossible to survive for more than a few seconds after the main event kicked off, so I tried the option of getting into the larger side-room and conducting the battle from there, but that also proved a task too far, despite around 30 attempts - a seemingly endless supply of Cacodemons, with Lost Souls and Spectres as backup, was just overwhelming, especially when rockets were the main type of ammunition. Eventually worked out that the only hope for survival lay in getting into the smaller side-room, activating the switch which unlocked the doors to the blue area, and getting the hell out of there, which was finally achieved after about ten attempts. This was undoubtedly one of the most nightmarish dooming experiences I've had, and more difficult than anything I've seen outside of a slaughter map.

 

In comparison, the 'yellow' area was a bit of an anticlimax, if that's the right word. Mainly imps and lower grade hitscanners, no real problem against the chaingun. There's also a large section beyond this, accessed via the watery area, which seems to be entirely optional. There's a pretty nasty ambush in UV after taking the teleporter here.

 

I was cursing Steve D for much of this map, for obvious reasons, but felt a decent sense of achievement after (just about) completing it. Credit to the mapper also for not using ambushes every time a key was picked up, and for creating a challenging map almost entirely free of the wretched 'damaging floors', which seems to be a pretty rare phenomenon these days...

 

Edited February 26, 2020 by Summer Deep

[Capellan]

Deadly Standards E2M6

Giving @Steve D a ribbing is one of my favourite pastimes, but it's usually for things like "how does an old fart like you know all these weird-ass bands?". Today, I have a genuine complaint to make.

 

No, it's not all the cacoswarms.  This is me, after all.  And it's not the way he mixes in lost souls, demons or spectres at the same time, so you end up Good At Dooming yourself.  That's dickishness I approve of.  It's not even the ninja sergeants hiding behind corners.

 

Nope, it's the distant, frequently high-up hitscanners.  Four or five times in this map, I found my health being plinked away by enemies that auto-aim limits meant I couldn't shoot.  This is Doom: please don't give me enemies I can't shoot!

 

Fortunately, there are quite a lot of resources around the place to recoup your losses, but still.  Bad Steve D!

 

Unapologetic hub-spoke design here, though later on you can find connections that allow you to explore widely back and forth between the paths.  Poking around and finding several secret 'jumps' and passages was pretty fun.

 

The exit feels a bit underwhelming.  A closely grouped bunch of imps is just a speed bump by that point, and not a very interesting one.

 

Niggles aside, pretty fun map.

[galileo31dos01]

I normally don't do this... who am I kidding I do this everytime I can, anyways here's my playthrough of Preacher's final map, plus my playlist accounting 10 videos of each map including map 10, if anyone hit a wall and needs help, or is bored and has nothing better to do. I remember when this wad came out and long before it went buried in the shadows by new daily content I spread the word around for more people to see it, and many streamers loved it as much as I did. Then I made videos after @Darch returned to bring us a brand new addition to the mapset, besides fixing stuff and uploading to idgames.

 

I put off map 09 for a good year and a half for couple reasons, and just beat it two nights ago, fucking finally. This mammoth killed frames like crazy no matter what settings seemed most optimal at first except the renderer set on opengl did improve performance substantially. There was always that troublesome spot that demanded double the care, the RSK side in particular, but as long as the majority runs somewhat smoothly I could live with that. And then multiple attempts happened and ended in the blink of eye since this map evolves into a hot mess in seconds.

 

The map is relentless, slaughtery, and is pure adrenaline, because pretty much 85% of the carnage is incidental, so logically the more you wake up the less control you have over their shift, but that's part of the deal because it is more fun than clearing each area methodically, and gives room to infighting, although not too much to be noteworthy. The most damage usually comes from hitscan and a few stray fireballs if you are careful (arachnotrons included), so the secrets are great to keep the fast-pace up. I only got close to a full cleanup like three times or so, one dying at the finale and another probably on that RSK entrance bearing with slowdown. I had to make sure interference was minimal to zero by the time I got there, hence it was smart to camp the fliers first. As for the IoS, the most notable thing is, well the holy stick 9000 is a must, but that it doesn't deviate too much from the original concept: hitting the head requires good timing and accuracy, because it has to touch the hitbox, apparently (?), whatever, but 30 minutes in that map and if I died there again I would have quit doom (not really). When the last shot killed it, which if you see my reaction it shocked me, I felt really relieved, so much that I forgot to record the credits map in the same demo. I then decided to dedicate a separate video to it because why not (:

 

 

Playlist:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2020 by galileo31dos01

[vdgg]

+++Marswar

 

Not reviewed in onemandoom, I am having a love/dislike relationship with this classic (?). Some maps are great.

Edited February 26, 2020 by vdgg

[Roofi]

E2M6: A level recognizable by its great architecture and its large number of enemies. I liked some fights like surviving an invasion of lost souls for example.