The DWmegawad Club plays: Hell Revealed 2

[Horus]

MAP13 - “Hardcore” by Jonas Feragen

 

Well this write up is 24 hours after I actually played the level because reasons, so this write-up is a bit sparser on the details :P. Anyway I enjoyed this one more than most of the previous levels. It is not so ugly and the combat is enjoyable, none of the dickish traps, more of the classic HR rocket / plasma spam, and constant movement.

[DuckReconMajor]

MAP13: Hardcore 

glBoom+ 2.5.1.7um , skill 1 pistol start, no saves

 

Now this is a level that looks what I think of when I think Hell Revealed.

And shifting down to skill 1 starts to pay off dividends immediately as I had a ton of fun and I only died about 3 times.

It's one of those levels where you're wading through demon soup trying to figure out some sense of the progression.

Of course a lot of it is by walk trigger traps as @tchkb mentioned so it's not straightforward at all the first playthrough.

I got to the end and found I had maxed the map trying to find the exit. Ugh.

 

The mastermind key section was kind of annoying, as others mentioned it forces you to kill the spiders but at that point in the level you're decked out and they don't pose much of a threat anyway.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[3saster]

MAP10: Base Blaze

I really don't know who the author thinks he's fooling with that fake exit. A curious level, in some respects resembling a Plutonia level more than a Hell Revealed 2 level (a trait shared with one of the author's later maps). Rest assured, the monster density is still through the roof in some places, but the style feels more trappy than before. The most difficult encounter is the cyberdemon, it's hard not to take splash damage in such a small space. There is a way to telefrag him if you are clever and lucky, but that's not shown here. My standout fight is the revenant/HK ambush in the room with the megasphere; neat use of the sardine can approach, though there is really only one way to do it as intended. There is a cheese strat for this room, but I'll let you find that one out. A decent level, but I like Yashar's 2 later levels much more.

MAP11: Raw Hatred
One of the grindier map in HR2, though not too hard. This once again shows off the sardine can approach to HR2, but nicely shows how to misuse it. The arachnotrons at the beginning pose little threat, and many of the monsters are in large quantities mostly for the sake of it. There are still some cool traps though; I like the archvile hidden among the demons, and the Spidermastermind/Revenant encounter is neat (though I played it poorly). The section past the cyberdemon is odd; I really don't know how you are supposed to handle the Hell Noble/Dual Archvile encounter without the secret BFG. Not the most memorable level ever, but inoffensive.

MAP12: Anti Static
Like MAP09, this is another gimmick level. Unlike MAP09, in my opinion it isn't pulled off as well. The gimmick here is that you are on a large open field, with dozens of monsters pouring in, and a large amount of archviles. The idea is that you have to get the archviles to infight, then pop in and kill them off. All well and good, but the problem is the space has very little cover, and getting the archviles to infight here is unreliable. Thus, the map really wants you to cheese it, with the speedrun strat for UV Max to abuse infinite height by shooting rockets at a wall. I use a somewhat less cheesy strategy here, where I abuse a choke point to kill of most of the archviles. I still kind of like this level; it has a weird charm to it, and the gimmick is silly enough to be entertaining to me, plus the music, as always, is nice. A fun enough gimmick level, but I think MAP09 can execute its gimmick far better. Tip for ZDoom ports users: turn "Use Doom's point-on-line algorithm" ON; otherwise, four arachnotrons will not teleport in.

[joe-ilya]

MAP14

*Checks the calendar

 

Has it been that long since I played a good HR2 map? Since MAP08?!

And what coincidence, it's made by Sam Woodman again, guess I'm a sucker for maps that don't make you grind for proper weapons and have actually threatening enemies that come to you and don't encourage camping all that much.

 

The start is nice, you get to dance with the enemies instead of camping them from afar, which the last few maps did too much.

The invasive enemies are done much better than in previous maps, there's multiple tight openings that enemies can crawl through, one by one, this creates a more subtle and strategic gameplay mechanic as you have to watch out for several of the openings, while being only slightly overwhelmed.

The cyberdemon placements are also really good too, you actually have small opportunities to telefrag some of them, the first one you can easily telefrag by not waking him up and heading into the marble icon at the start. The cyberden cybers you have to time it just right as soon as they teleport into the arena, but no worries, if you fail, you can kill them quickly with plasma from the rifle or the BFG (if you take the right path).

The revs in the cages aren't too bad, you can run past them somewhat safely and get your reward to knock them dead later, I like that, because only a few rockets or a well placed BFG shot can completely remove an entire cage of them, which is very satisfying, quick, and fun.

I also love how you only need to kill half the enemies in the map to get to the exit, with the side quests for a more varied weaponry, you don't need to have the BFG or the RL, and it's still manages to be fun even without them, that's great design, would love to see more from this guy.

The exit looks really cool too when it teleports in gibs in front of it.

I still prefer MAP31 from Plutonia, due to the asymmetry.

Still a 5/5 tho

 

Maps in order of preference:

Spoiler

(5/5)

MAP07: Not That Simple II

MAP14: Metal Meltdown

MAP08: Ballistics

(4/5)

MAP01: IGNITION!

MAP02: High Voltage

MAP06: Revival

(1/5)

MAP03: Shackled

MAP13: Hardcore

MAP10: Base Blaze

MAP11: Raw Hatred

MAP04: Reluctant Pain

MAP05: Insatanity

(0/5)

MAP09: The Siege II

MAP12: Anti Static

Kind of a shame that currently, my top 2 maps have taken ideas and concepts from other maps, HR2, should really get working on something of its own, right now it lacks an identity of its own.

[tchkb]

MAP14 "Metal Meltdown" (Sam Woodman)

Spoiler

Another speedrun-friendly level, enabling lots of very high-risk high-reward running past enemies to group them for quick BFG cleanups with lots of cell ammo availability. Unfortunately, this one has a bunch of issues when it comes to casual play.

 

First of, the starting room, where you have a semi-secret teleporter that takes you to the far end of an H-shaped corridor connecting to the main chamber. Also neatly telefragging the Cyberdemon in the process. This would be fine as a speedrun option, but it’s more of a completely mandatory option, because dealing with that Cyberdemon without using the teleporter is practically impossible, so first-time players are in for some serious frustration, especially since that fight remains completely unchanged on lower skill levels. I guess the mapmaker intended that teleporter to be 100% mandatory in the first place, but then – why isn’t its existence more obvious?

 

Once in the main chamber (which is a pretty obvious homage to Plutonia MAP31), you have two “optional” side sections. I guess they are indeed optional in continuous play if you don’t care about getting 100% kills, but otherwise taking them is pretty crucial as one of them has BFG – a massive boon to your firepower. The problem is, the other section has Rocket Launcher that has literally zero use in the level, except in the scenario where you made a mistake to go into that section first instead of the BFG one, in which case you’re already at disadvantage as you’ve just activated one of the Cyberdemon fights in the main chamber and you don’t have BFG to deal with it yet.

 

Speaking of the two “optional” Cyberdemon fights after taking RL/BFG – thankfully the author did not make a mistake of dumping just a lone Cyberdemon, as the only way to get back into the main chamber is to teleport right into its center, which would be a “survive or die” coinflip (probably heavily rigged against you). Instead, there’s a bunch of HKs (HNTR), Revs (UV) or a mix of the two (HMP) teleporting in alongside him, which gives you an option to provoke an infight between them to make warping in safe.

 

Unfortunately all that’s left is cleaning the H corridor up (unless you grinded it earlier with SSG) and going back to the start to dispose some chaingunners in two small rooms and activating the remaining two solo Cyberdemons – nothing particularly engaging. And watching a silly and completely unnecessary ending “cutscene”.

 

So there’s quite a lot to fix here. H corridor fight could use a revamp to make taking the teleporter a speed vs safety tradeoff. The optional side sections should’ve been turned into mandatory ones with red/blue keys and the BFG given to you right in the main chamber. The ending after returning to the beginning with keys should’ve had a lot more monsters filling your path to exit instead of just 2 Cyberdemons. Also replace the unnecessary teleporters after key doors that require even more backtracking with a pair of switches that open the exit.

Personal rating: 4/5 for speedrun, 3/5 otherwise

 

[galileo31dos01]

Map 13

 

Finally the first non-stop fun map arrived, for me at least. It also coincides with my father's birthday so I gotta be concise today :P

 

Some of the points that others mentioned are perfectly understandable from a blind-playthrough perspective. I'd be taking my time to clean as much as is alive and roaming in the area if I didn't know what comes next. Since this is the kind of slaughtery map where you dispose of the order you want to tackle hordes, it's a lot more satisfying to keep certain durable threats alive that don't interfere too much, such as the only cyberdemon in the map to your criteria, or the symmetric groups of hell nobles in their symmetric corrals for when the spiderdemons are revealed. Space for plenty infight and somewhat comfort slaughtering needs to be acquired first, and that the stronger weapons - including the obvious hidden BFG - are indeed heavily guarded, even under loads of HP. But that's all done in a very calculated way that you're encouraged to feel vigorous and claim your toys.

 

There're a few ugly block lines between the main hub-like area and the yard to the north, that trivialize a bunch of hordes and exclude them from more juicy infighting, unless you still feel like using the cyberdemon somehow, though not the most spacious portion of the map to do so. Some hell knights in closets to the east aren't quite effective in those numbers, three or four would have been just okay. The double spiderdemons might end up being just walls of flesh and rust if there're no hell nobles left alive to get busy with, a cons of perhaps of opting for a more conservative approach, which this map never forces to anyone. So that said I really like how it drives the player to do more and more in little time (little to me is 10 minutes, it can be done way faster :P)

 

Mmm, yeah concise my ass, surely forgot something else to say, oh yeah I liked the references to the HR1 map, the archvile telefrag and stuff. Very nice map overall. Anyways, thanks to the people who watch or click on my videos, hope they provide some helpful content or just for entertainment. I make them for myself and I like sharing them too. 

 

 

 

[Horus]

MAP14 - “Metal Meltdown” by Sam Woodman

 

Yes, this is better now. The chaingunner spam won’t be to everyone’s taste (it makes the start and BK doors a bit campy) but overall the level is fun to play, and you can use infighting to your advantage here. The marble face teleporter is pretty useful to telefrag the opening cyberdemon, but you then have to be quick in order to avoid getting overwhelmed by the arch vile. Later on there is more cyberdemon action, again I fail at two-shotting lol. The sky design here is a bit lazy – you can see where the sky texture loops.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP13: Hardcore (HNTR/continuous)

14:21 | 100% Everything

Well, this was a clear riff on HR1!MAP25, to the point that afterwards I spent about 10 minutes clicking around on the Doom Wiki, trying to figure out exactly which map it was. (And wow, it's even closer to the original than I had thought!) Did. Not. Enjoy. I mean, it was mostly fun when the action was happening, but there were way too many times when I'd clear out the map and then just run around saying, "Where the !@#$ do I go now?" My eyes about rolled out of my head when I realized that the teleporters had different destinations depending on which side you enter; once I teleported up to the megasphere (that I didn't need but now couldn't avoid) more baddies popped out and progression resumed. The exit pillar has doors marked red key, but one of them opens by its own to reveal a switch late in the level, what? And then there was the laughable monster-blocking line dividing the north and south halves of the map: ha! eat my rockets, you worthless mob of revenants that can't actually approach me! Oh! and the knights in the central building who couldn't attack me because the windowsills were to high for them to shoot me through! And then the end of the map is key->door->switch->key->door->switch->key after I've already killed everything. I mean, come on guys...

Edited April 14, 2020 by Salt-Man Z

[3saster]

MAP13: Hardcore
A remix of Hell Revealed's MAP25. Unlike its predecessor, which was an easy breather between the two hardest levels in the wad, this one isn't holding any punches. That being said however, it keeps the free form nature of the original, with lots of ways to tackle it, both slow and fast. You have to work to get the big weapons; the SSG is inside a horde of imps, cacodemons, and Hell Knights; the rocket launcher and plasma rifle are guarded by mancubi, barons, and a ton of arachnotrons; the BFG lies behind an army of Revenants. It's quite thrilling and exciting the whole way through, and there is enough health lying around to allow for mistakes, or to allow some more fun strategies. It also once again manages to put Hell Revealed 2's signature sardine can style in, with dozens of monsters crammed into every square inch. If I had one complaint, it's that in between all the hectic action, the yellow key is very easy to miss. All-in-all, a great level as we approach the second half of Hell Revealed 2.

 

And with that, I'm all caught up (according to my timezone)! A heads-up for everyone else; starting with MAP15, the second half of the wad starts proper. These maps are generally much bigger, while still keeping the same difficulty style. As such, you may want to get a bit of a headstart if you're a little slower!

[Spie812]

Oh, we're doing Hell Revealed 2? I love Hell Revealed 2! And what better time to start than, umm, Map13?

 

Map13 Hardcore, Prboom-plus, UV Pistol Start

As has been said, it's a remix of HR25, and a damn fine one to boot. It takes a bit of effort to get a foothold, but once you're past that, you're golden. I forgot the SSG location, which made me do a bit more normal shotgunning than I would have liked in the opening segment, but everything worked out fine in the end. None of the other waves feel particularly threatening after that. The revenant swarm is definitely the most deadly of the lot, but most of them get trapped behind a block monster line. I did, however, run into some trouble with an arch vile reaching that pile of bones and resurrecting to its heart's content. Sneaky bastard. But beyond that hiccup, most of the level was smooth sailing.

 

Overall, a pretty fun level and a fine challenge, though it flounders a bit after the opening act.

[Snikle]

MAP14 - Metal Meltdown

This one was too repetitive for me. Almost nothing was only done once. The beginning of the level was the best part, with all the enemies flooding into the starting room, then telefragging the cyber (was the intended? I know it had already awoken by then and was prowling around, I guess it wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time). After that it got boring. The teleportation to the top areas was repetitive, the four cyber fights in there were repetitive (I just left the last one living, no use killing him too, I already killed 12,000 hit points worth of cyberass in this room alone). The key doors in the starting room were exactly the same, although these rooms were pretty small and also cool as hell so they get maybe a little more of a pass.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Snikle

[Roofi]

Map 14 : Metal Meltdown

 

 

 

As its title indicates, the level is known to use massively metal textures. Beyond that, it's a more subtle tribute to Plutonia map 31 with the 4 Cybers teleporting into a courtyard.

 

Honestly, I'm not a fan of this level. The whole thing is much too symmetrical, both in layout and combats.  Ballistics, by the same author, was certainly symmetrical, but much shorter.

 

I largely prefer Plutonia's map 31, which used that concept a lot better and offered a more diversified adventure.

 

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Roofi

[AFallingObject]

MAP14: Metal Meltdown

I agree with the earlier remarks on this map.  It could have been half the length with all the repeating parts cut out and it would have been much better.  What's there is good though.  This is the second straight map that overall I enjoyed.  If not for all the narrow areas I would swear the duplication was to make it deathmatch material.

100% Kills

0% Secrets

I wanted that damn soulsphere at the start.

[gaspe]

MAP14: Cool music and setting. The theme is quite unique for the wad since HR 2 loves more its bricks. I guess that maybe some people will find the non-tiling sky not so pleasant to look at but I must say I liked a lot how the author decided to use it anyway and create this floating fortress that isn't something I would call impressive but at least to me it leaves a mark and it's one of the map I remember the most. I feel this follows the spirit of some levels of the original HR like MAP26, and for once it tries to make something with the visuals too. It's completely symmetrical which is a thing that usually I don't like, though at least the map doesn't drag and compared to many other maps that will follow this acts also as a "breather map" that is nice to have. The Cyberden area was kinda cute

[Andromeda]

MAP14: Metal Meltdown (Hell Revealed II)

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

 

Likely inspired by Plutonia MAP31, this is a vast improvement on the concept. It's more cramped, slightly more symmetrical and with double the amount of monsters, including another siege cow. It seems we're in a floating fortress, best seen from the yellow and red key areas where we can appreciate the calm appearance of the clouds outside in contrast with the hellspawn inside. You dictate the pacing of the level which is something I really like, you can either take it slow by killing the Cyberdemons one by one or you can go nuts and tackle them all at once.

 

Another neat design decision is that two of the bosses are optional, though taking the teleporter that leads you to the BFG9000 and releases one of them is recommended from a pistol start for obvious reasons. The level isn't flawless: there's still the problem of unavoidable pickups seen in MAP08 by the same author, it was fixed for the most part but I still had to grab two supercharges while sitting at 200% health. Another thing that would make the level even better would be the addition of one or two more armors - knowing that even at 200% health but with no armor a single rocket can kill you makes battling more than one Cyberdemon risky, even with the BFG. I could also complain about the grindy first corridor but after watching the UV Max record it seems there's a way to telefrag the Cyberdemon and kill the arch-vile from behind, so that becomes a non issue. All things considered, a very fun and cool looking level, excellent stuff!

 

Levels in order of preference:

Spoiler

MAP14: Metal Meltdown

MAP07: Not That Simple II

MAP10: Base Blaze

MAP13: Hardcore

MAP04: Reluctant Pain

MAP03: Shackled

MAP05: Insatanity

MAP01: IGNITION!

MAP11: Raw Hatred

MAP12: Anti Static

MAP02: High Voltage

MAP06: Revival

MAP09: The Siege II

MAP08: Ballistics

Edited April 14, 2020 by Andromeda

[riderr3]

MAP13
Well, this map is trying to prolong the gameplay by repeatedly overflowing locations with monsters, and to an incredible extent - which made the playthrough longer despite its small size.

At first I did not notice, but it turned out that the metal frames turned out to be teleporters. Judging by the presence of waterfalls in wad, there are custom textures, but apparently they rarely appear. In general, it is a pity that the ID did not include the animated texture of the waterfall in Doom 2.

The appearance of cyberdemon was somewhat not expected, and the player has the option to get into the northern part of the map and shoot from there, or to return and meet cyberdemon there. I personally found a safe place on high pedestals where mancubi were seated and the cybie could not get me. The main feature here is the presence of a monster blocking line that basically divides the map into two zones.

Not bad, but there was a slight feeling that it would be better if either the dimensions of the map were expanded, or vice versa, the number of monsters was reduced.

MAP14
By the way, I just noticed that the sky has already changed to another. In the case of this map, you can observe how the sky repeats at the bottom and is not seamless vertically (this also depends on the source port settings). It is not entirely clear why the red and blue doors at the beginning were not marked with the corresponding color panels.

Here and there it is seen that this map was created by the CTRL+C and CTRL+V method. There is symmetry everywhere and sometimes it’s not clear on which side we are - for example, it needs at least identification signs or different things for better navigation.
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 encounters and traps should influence the layout of the map from the start. Honestly, at the Doomworld speedmapping events I saw more worthy examples that were created by the authors in 2-3 hours.

I simply missed the last cyberdemon because it was already very predictable and monotonous. Unless I was a little pleased with the “explosive” surprises of the finale.

[DuckReconMajor]

MAP14: Metal Meltdown 

glBoom + 2.5.1.7um , skill 1 pistol start, no saves

 

This map is my favorite, based solely on the fact that it's a skybase, my favorite thing in Doom maps.

It's pretty well done too. It looks great and at least on skill 1 was fun to play through.

Also the music is awesome.

I don't know how demons made an airship but I hope they made more.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by DuckReconMajor

[rehelekretep]

map14 fda

in contrast to many others i found this map to be dire. lots of ssg round corners to clear meat corridors. once i had figured out the key progression i couldnt wait to leave. the midi is ok though.

[Spie812]

Map14: Metal Meltdown, PrBoom-plus, UV Pistol Start

 

 

Cyberdemon 2 shot practice? Sounds like a blast! Figuratively, that is. The symmetry and repetition is poor, and the decoration errs on the side of nonexistent, but I still quite enjoy this map. The opening fight, the imp horde, and clearing the hallway are all simple fights but satisfying enough to play. The two wings with the revenant cages don't work quite so well, though you do get to choose whether you want the RL or BFG first. The former is overall more helpful for the majority of the enemies but the BFG does come in handy as well. Use its tracers to clear the side rooms of chaingunners instantly, and also use it for some of the aforementioned cyberdemon killing.

 

Also, the MIDI in this level is fantastic, one of my all time favorites. Reminds me of I song that I can't quite name.

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Spie812

[Arbys550]

 

Map14

Pretty good with nice music. I like the use of sky a lot. It makes the map seem more spacious than it is. I'm not really sure what's up with the random cyberdemon telefrag, who knows.

 

Ranking:

Spoiler

Map13: Hardcore

Map11: Raw Hatred

Map07: Not That Simple II

Map02: High Voltage

Map14: Metal Meltdown

Map03: Shackled

Map09: The Siege II

Map01: Ignition

Map06: Revival

Map10: Base Blaze

Map08: Ballistics

Map12: Anti-Static

Map05: Insatanity

Map04: Reluctant Pain

 

[3saster]

MAP14: Metal Meltdown

One of the more dull levels. The main sin of this map is simply the overly symmetric nature of it; what you have to do one one side, you have to do on the other, almost exactly the same. The only fundamentally different thing is that the right side contains the BFG; the left contains the rocket launcher. However, this doesn't really help much to change anything; once you know which side the BFG is on, it is objectively better to go for it first, as there is ton of cell ammo. There is still some neat fun here; telefragging the first cyber is neat, and removes a lot of would-be tedium in the getting across the beginning, and it provides good practice for two-shotting cybers (I was sloppier than usual here). While perhaps boring to some, like many early levels of HR2 I find a sort of charm in its simplicity and style. I don't get the point of the exit; it's not a death exit, so you keep your weapons/ammo for continuous play, and the next level contains a megasphere right in front of you, so you mitigate the health damage.

Just wondering, what day do the secret levels get posted about? On the 15th or 16th?

[joe-ilya]

@3saster The minimum day to post about the secret maps is on the 15th.

[Endless]

MAP13: Hardcore

Using LZDoom with Brutal Doom mod. UV.

 

I'm starting to think that maybe it was a bad idea to use the BD mod with this. Anyway, dull map, but better than the last one. The music was good, thats the best part.

 

MAP14: Metal Meltdown

Using LZDoom with Brutal Doom mod. UV.

 

Ah! Now this is much better! A better layout with a more key-hunting tarjet on mind, but executed in a simple yet fun way. The map texturing still is shit, but the overrall design was much better; a relief actually. The starting area is pretty fun and fast, like most maps, but this time it expands upon it and doesnt just throw you inside one big box. Also, Judas Priest reference? I hope maps get better now.

[joe-ilya]

MAP15

Finally a map that's a better version than in the first HR (MAP16), it's still quite dated in its heavy reliance on monster block lines, to block hundreds of enemies.

 

The start of the map is really bad, you have to pistol two imps, then shotgun a mancubus, and then do a leap of faith to get the BFG, if you fail the jump, you have to go through a long and grindy process before you can try again and might as well just restart the map, because it is not fun without the BFG, if you restart the map, you have to do the grindy pistol-shotgun action every time you fail the jump. Even if you make the jump, you can still ascend into the heavens because of the big stack of AVs on the side. So not only do you need to make a very difficulty leap of faith, you also have to get lucky with the reaction time of the AVs

If you fail the jump, you have to somehow grab the SSG that's guarded by an AV, while already having the big AV stack in the opening, that also requires extreme luck, just like the BFG jump, only with less of a reward.

With the SSG you then have to empty your entire cache on a bunch of stuck hell knights, so you can get the rocket launcher to kill the revs and the cyberdemon to go to the other area which also has a ton of enemies everywhere + more AVs on a watchtower, you have to kill the dozens of hell knights with the rockets while avoiding mancubus fire, after that you have to miraculously grab the PG after teleporting into the AV watchtower and make it out alive.

 

So you know what? Fuck all of that, BFG or GTFO.

It's the first time I'm saving in this mappack, but not because it's hard, but because that shitty jump requires so much luck and grinding imps and a mancubus (for 30 fucking seconds), that has been the only part I saved, the rest of the map was done saveless.

It's really easy with the BFG IMO, these mappers can shove as many revenants and hell knights as they want behind block monster lines, but it's not going to be any harder, even if they put hundreds like so.

The only area that was hard was the big rev trap up the stone stairs that locks in you in completely surrounded and trapped, but it's easily nullified with the semi-secret invul nearby.

The rest of the map was an unremarkable hallway spam, at least it was somewhat fun and satisfying with the big weapons, can't knock that.

The secret exit was kind of questionable, some of the secret shoot switches are actually hidden, but some of them are in plain sight, I'm not sure what's that all about.

Another thing I don't like about this map is how if you want to explore the rest of the map and find the secret exit, but already ended up in the exit room; you can't go back. That is so fucked.

2/5

 

MAP31

Oh boy, it's another concept taken from HR (same mapslot), let's see how this one does nothing new with it.

 

The entrance before the lift is a fun and well designed scramble, enemies can get you and infest areas quickly, a nice warmup before the meat.

Meat? Pfft, lemme just block the enemy teleport and wait peacefully until the elevator fully lowers, how come that exploit hasn't been fixed yet? Did people seriously not know you could block the teleport like this for over 5 years? This exploit was the first thing that popped into my head when I played the original map, and I was like 13 at the time, wut?

After quickly getting out of the elevator, you're back at killing enemies behind monster block lines, with full on cyberdemons and stuff. Like, why?

 

'Several door fights later'

 

A surprise drop down into a bunch of imps that was fun, quick and the first hard encounter of the map (not counting the elevator section that I completely cheesed).

But then you have to fight 4 godamn cybers that are perched in the most obnoxious way ever, saving the secret invul for that encounter helps speed it up so you don't have to circle strafe for an eternity.

The two traps at the exit were actually very effective, fun and challenging, as enemies actually come to you, it's such a breath of fresh air to have combat like that, why couldn't the rest of the map be like that? No idea.

Just like MAP15, if you miss any of the secret switches to get to the secret exit, but are already at the exit room, you cannot go back and find it, why the fuck is it designed this way twice? Fuck you.

1/5

 

Maps in order of preference:

Spoiler

(5/5)

MAP07: Not That Simple II

MAP14: Metal Meltdown

MAP08: Ballistics

(4/5)

MAP01: IGNITION!

MAP02: High Voltage

MAP06: Revival

(2/5)

MAP15: The Path II

(1/5)

MAP03: Shackled

MAP31: The Descent II

MAP13: Hardcore

MAP10: Base Blaze

MAP11: Raw Hatred

MAP04: Reluctant Pain

MAP05: Insatanity

(0/5)

MAP09: The Siege II

MAP12: Anti Static

 

[Snikle]

MAP15 - The Path II

This is more like it. Big and open, nothing too repetitive, fun layout, lots of shit to kill and plenty of ammo to do it with. One thing that plagued the level though was monster-blocking lines. The things were everywhere! That one Cyber near the start trapped in the little doorway, he was probably just as annoyed as I was about it. The other cyber overlooking the main central room being trapped at the end of the long hallway, easy to pick off with the SSG. The Rev mob in the big room with the Cyber on the stairs below trapped at the end of that hallway, unable to enter the other areas and actually cause chaos rather than just annoyance. Other than that, I really enjoyed this level. Didn’t wind up finding the plasma rifle until pretty close to the end, and I don’t think I used it at all once I did, since the cybers and spiders were all dead at this point. Never figured out the BFG secret in the main room either.

 

Also we're ten days out from picking WADs for next month, but I'm already debating in my head about what to nominate when the time comes. 

[Roofi]

map 15 : The Path II

 

 

 

One of the really difficult levels of HR2 like map 09 or map 04 or the future map 32, at least at the beginning. On the other hand, it is the first really long and big level of the wad.

 

It's the sequel to the famous "The Path" from Hell Revealed 1 which was very boring to be honest. This sequel is a lot more fun with its large number of monsters but also a lot harder because of the perched monsters, the BFG accessible by platforming or the sadistic traps such as the viles near the plasma gun or the revenant compartment near a blue armor.

 

As said before, the sequel is much more affordable because of the ridiculous use of monster block lines. The stuck revenant horde is really pathetic.

[tchkb]

MAP15 “The Path II” (Jonas Feragen)

Spoiler

 

Another remake of an HR1 map. The titular path plays a much bigger role here, as it goes across two enormous chambers filled with damaging floors. There’s a lot of opposition whose attacks you need to dodge while working your way across them and not that many radsuits, so it’s important to know when to take them. These chambers also feature each a line of Mancubus turrets raining fire down at you. There is a trigger at the end of the map that crushes all of them, so you don’t have to kill them yourself, and you probably shouldn’t anyway – what seems like a large amount of rockets this map gives you is actually not all that many once you find yourself unloading them en masse. Thankfully these guys are more of an annoyance than a threat, except when going for Invul secret, but more on that later.

 

Right at the start (featuring a pointless Mastermind telefrag) you have an option of going for a BFG secret. You can skip it on HNTR and still beat the map (even while maxing – you can retry this jump as many times as you want after taking Blue Key), but on HMP and UV it’s absolutely necessary to go for it right off the bat. But it’s an extremely obnoxious setup – not only is the jump very difficult, but you need to deal with one Mancubus sitting on top of BFG itself (you can trivially snipe it with shotgun from the starting platform, but it’s still a pointless waste of time) and 4 Arch-Viles (2 on HNTR) on a neighboring platform, which turn the prospect of a successful BFG grab into a coin toss.

 

With BFG and 440 cells you can run around to the other side of the arena (preferably grabbing a radsuit beforehand) and exterminate a horde of HKs guarding RL and a large rocket stash, then use it to carve a path through most the chamber’s denizens, especially the aforementioned Arch-Viles. You’ve also got a turret-like Cyberdemon in the central structure (which you can’t kill right now because you won’t have enough cells later) and another (except for HNTR) stuck in the path to the second chamber. Getting rid of that one is a matter of provoking Imps and HKs on the other side to hit him so he turns his attention at them, opening himself for a quick and easy backstab with BFG.

 

Second chamber’s name of the game is simple – run to the rocket supply to your right (plus a Soulsphere) and use it to quickly get rid of all the HKs around you. Here you’ve got two towers. One can be entered and has a lift that takes you to a ledge – from here you can jump down to get secret Invulnerability, which is harder than it sounds as you’ve got the line of Mancs almost in your face to your right and the jump itself needs to be pretty gentle. Taking it is an optional deal on HNTR, but necessary on higher skill levels for the next two fights that you need to do very quickly – enterting the second tower via teleporter to get rid of Arch-Viles inside and grab some cells + Plasma Gun, and going up the stairs to an area where you immediately trigger a nasty ambush with a horde of Revs right in your face and no place to fall back to. Invulnerability lets you rocket punch both on HMP, while on UV you’ll probably need some BFG as well. A bunch of random enemies later you get Blue Key and are ready to enter the map’s second half. Preferably stocking up on remaining rockets beforehand.

 

Right after Blue Door your way back is locked off and you’ve got a junction ahead. Ahead you’ve got some shooters that you want to get rid of by spamming rockets from distance without revealing yourself to deaf monsters on your left and right, which are Pain Elementals (Cacodemons on HNTR) and Pinkies respectively- lure them in once you’re done with what’s ahead. If you’ve saved enough cells for this, you can then go ahead and quickly kill some leftover shooters + a pair of AVs + Mastermind to refill your cell stock to 600 – at this point the risk of running out of ammo is pretty much gone and you’re free to rocket spam everything at leisure + BFG what seems too threatening for that.

Back on the junction – on the far side of eastern path you’ve got quite a sight of a massive army of Revs stuck on a monster blocking linedef. This would seem like an extremely boring and tedious “fight”, but take note of the other content of the chamber they’re in – a Cyberdemon stuck in a very annoying position. You can, however, exploit Revs’ AI (they don’t shoot from up close unless they’ve been hurt recently) to run up close to the horde and provoke an infight with that Cyberdemon – give them some time (though sometimes you’ll have to return and repeat the process if they stop infighting) and they’ll kill that bastard for you, or at least hurt him enough so that a few lazy BFG balls from far away will kill him anyway.

 

There’s a bunch more stuff to kill after this point, but this post’s getting long enough and the rest of stuff is mostly unremarkable, except for that Cyberdemon you’ve skipped back in the first chamber – you can either dance around with him up close with BFG, or – if you’re not confident enough – drop down and kill him slowly with Plasma Gun, preferably using one leftover radsuit to avoid floor damage. The only two fights I’m particularly disappointed with is the ending fight (just one Arch-Vile and a bunch of Pinkies) and that huge row of Pinkies before the aforementioned Cyberdemon (considering the huge rocket supply behind you, it would be a perfect place for a more slaughterish setup).

Overall pretty similar deal to MAP13 – a classic siege slaughtermap with routing puzzle elements. It’s got some annoying and/or boring parts, but the scale of the map and its adventure feel make up for them. Difficulty is also decently balanced across the three skill levels.

Personal rating: +3/5

 

 

 

MAP31 “The Descent II” (Mattias Berggren)

Spoiler

 

Another HR1 remake. This one takes the titular elevator fight and turns it into a much more elaborate setpiece than in the original. First there’s the initial duel vs Cyberdemon, which can be a little difficult due to the elevator’s layout. Then you’ve got a trickling of basic enemies in increasing threat from Zombiemen to Arch-Viles, and a short break later – a swarm of Imps and Pinkies + one of each midlevel monster. The most optimal strategy for casual play is to start with SSG and keep using it until increasingly quick and tanky monsters start pushing you into the back of the elevator, then fire a bunch of BFG shots to clean the swarm and switch to Rocket Launcher to spawnkill everything else up to Arch-Viles. Repeat the strategy (on a smaller scale) with the final wave.

 

Curiously, the author decided to leave the elevator fight completely intact on lower skill levels (removing an Arch-Vile or two aside). Certainly a cold shower for the beginners, but at least they can afford to spend a lot more resources here, as the rest of the map has notably reduced opposition.

 

The rest of the level is structured like a conventional 90s map, but with an HR-level punch to it. A lot of the fights can be breezed through with BFG, which is certainly tempting due to abundance of cells, but being overly wasteful here means you may be left dry for the ending, where a few spare BFG shots are an absolute necessity (unless you found the secret exit and don’t want to bother with 100% kills).

 

One of the map’s highlights is the room with 4 Cyberdemon turrets each guarding a switch. You need to make use of secret invulnerability here and rush all four in quick succession before the invul runs out. On HNTR their number is reduced to just two, so with some smart movement you can grind them down with BFG spam from below in case you missed the secret.

 

A good map overall, despite some lulls in the action (like the trivial fight against 5 sequential Arch-Vile teleports, or the intro where you just hold fire with Plasma Gun against a swarm of Pinkies). Where it really shines for me is the speedrun – there’s a lot of nuances to routing it, such as smart BFG use, orchestrating specific infights and various speed vs safety tradeoffs.

Personal rating: -5/5 for speedrun, 4/5 otherwise

 

 

MAP32 “Playground” (Jonas Feragen)

Spoiler

 

First of, I’m disappointed how there wasn’t even an honorable mention for this map in Top 100 Memoriable Maps list. As the slaughtermap with the highest number of archived UV-Max demos under its belt (beating Plutonia MAP32, Scythe MAP26 and HR MAP25 by a couple) and one of the most impressive history of record improvements over the years (corresponding to the emergence of doomgods), it was one of the most important milestones in both slaughtermapping and doom speedrunning. And let’s not forget that this map was created back in 2000 in its almost finished form!

 

Playground takes the siege slaughter paradigm and not only takes it to the extreme with a huge number of turret Arch-Viles making majority of the map an extremely unsafe environment to step into, but takes it so far that if flips the dynamic into you being besieged by an enormous amount of enemies – mostly Imps, Mancubuses and Arachnotrons – no matter where you try to go from the start.

 

It would seem that UV difficulty of this map would be reserved only for the absolute best – those able to dive headfirst into the danger zone and blast everything into smithereens while being just a hair width away from being blasted themselves. But there are in fact strategies to semi-reliably survive the brutal beginning even without that much dooming skills. My personal approach is to use starting secret Invulnerability to get rid of the starting Cyberdemon and the one on the southeastern platform, then stick to the vicinity of southeastern quadrant and eastern entrance to the central structure until all free-roaming enemies that can get to my location are dead. The good thing about this strategy is that I stay very far away from the 4 turrets populated by a huge number of Arch-Viles, leaving only a few individual turret Arch-Viles as a threat. The bad thing is that the huge Imp+Mancubus army and all the Arachnotrons that can backstab me at any time while dealing with the former can still push a lot of damage in if my micrododging and macromovement game isn’t perfect. Even worse, I have to deal with all of them with only the starting Megasphere, the nearby Blue Armor and 6-9 Medikits as the source of my health. I also have limited BFG ammo – the huge stash in southeastern square is burned through surprisingly quickly in this manner. But that’s still much better than the alternative of unlocking additional Megaspheres right away, which would also unlock even more additional monsters. And if I succeed, I turn the map’s dynamic towards the classic “spam Rocket Launcher from safe distance until everything’s dead” siege gameplay. For an alternative "safe" approach for the beginning, you can check this excellent UV-Fast speedrun by TimeOfDeath.

 

The 8 big towers placed around the central structure each contain a switch that opens part of path to Blue Key. More importantly, entering each tower opens one of the 8 large closets laid around the arena. Two of them are a Cacodemon army (+ 1 Megasphere each), two are HK army + 5 Cyberdemons, two are 8 Arch-Viles + a horde of Revs & HKs, one is 6 Masterminds (can be a threat when dealt with carelessly, but most of the time they’re just infight bait and also give you a free Megasphere). The hardest one contains a Rev army + a whooping 10 Cyberdemons. You have several options of dealing with them, but no matter what you choose you need to be mindful of them being able to take advantage of the layout to sneak around and suddenly hit you from the side.

 

Each tower also contains a Megasphere on top of a pillar. Lowering a pillar requires stepping into the tower on the opposite side and then running back before the pillar rises again – practically impossible to do if there’s even a single monster blocking your path, so it’s only an option once you carve yourself a lot of safe space around the towers (and preferably also clean at least one of their corresponding closets, unless you’re good enough to tackle two at once). Four of the towers also contain a teleporter that can be used to telefrag a turret Cyberdemon (it’s very unsafe to leave them alive in casual play – better just BFG them in advance) and lower said turret to let all their replacement skeletons and hell nobles teleport in at once for a quick BFG cleanup.

 

Exiting the map is just a matter of taking Blue Key after pressing all 8 switches, then visiting the northern and southern AV turrets to get two extra keys and exiting. I don’t like how disappointing of a climax the two Arachnotron ambushes are (yes, please give me more Cybers and AV to fight), but that’s basically my only nitpick with the map.

 

HMP is practically the same deal as UV, but with less monsters to make everything a bit easier. HNTR on the other hand removes almost all Cyberdemons and Arch-Viles, turning the map into a merry slaughter that even relatively new Doom players should be able to handle.

Personal rating: -5/5

 

 

[galileo31dos01]

Falling behind already, it had to happen soon or later.

 

 

Map 14

 

Huh, this definitely didn't get registered in my mind the first time, in spite of the obvious homage to Plutonia's least appealing map. While there's a predominance of non-brown on the visual side that I find refreshing, mostly because METAL is one of my trusty favourite stock textures, plus the aforementioned homage, I find this on the forgettable chunk of the megawad personally speaking. Maybe the reason is that it's encountered right in a sandwich of, again IMHO, two of the most undeniably remarkable HR2 maps, one that I dedicated a four-hour sitting of analysis prior recording and attempts - that being the next map. 

 

Nevertheless, this map has some interesting speedrun-ish points of value to consider on a replay. For testing purposes, I decided to give those a quick try to see how worthy it'd be to skip the first two chunks of meat, until I had to mow down some imps to progress, then look for the BFG as soon as possible and let it be heavy metal. The results were, not so bad, though I found that up to a certain degree the rng can grow a little annoying. That being said, if things go according to the plan then you can mitigate the grind and the forced camping in both symmetrical wings, which contain lazy monster usage, to put it subtly. Speaking of symmetry and laziness, what's the deal with repeating the same setups twice? I agree with Riderr3 that little to nothing was done to differentiate each wing, if only the key or weapon you'll get at the end. Then again I'm not sure what else could be added, in principle it'd still be a bunch of mirrored dull setups. Take the previous map for example, there was symmetry but more oomph in the combat and map flow to even notice. 

 

If something to highlight is the ample cell ammo to make quick work of the cybs and various clusters of meat, such as a preemptive BFG shot in each key room full of chaingunners. The downside is how grindy everything feels if taken conservatively until you get the BFG, which is how first timers unfortunately have it unless they somehow find the cyb telefrag by pure accident. Something in those cages of revenants feels awful just from watching them.

 

Some hours ago I wanted to replicate @3saster's start and here's what I got in 6:13, if someone's bored: hr2_14faster.zip. The "good rng" attempt, after a few that I quit because I always took too much hitscan. Only one green armor in the whole map doesn't leave you with much to rely on, specially when tanking max damage rev rockets, or a cyb rocket if one's shooting to where you teleport, or a random archvile hit supposing you ignored it before, or whatever other randomness. 

 

Otherwise, this one below is a much slower, as I didn't really plan out what to do or in which order.

 

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by galileo31dos01

[Roofi]

Map 31 : The Descent II

 

 

 

Another map based on a concept from the first opus. I'm not a fan of the fight in the elevator but I love the adventure that follows. I really like the music that reflects the hardcore atmosphere but also gives an "egyptian temple" atmosphere, I don't know how to explain it. The level gives the impression of exploring an underground temple.

Apart from the big elevator, the room with the 4 cybers who teleport is also very memorable but quite boring. Anyways I really like this level.

 

Map 32 : Playground

 

 

It's far from being the best time but I managed to do a uv-max in 15:36 last year and I'm pretty proud of it.

 

Otherwise, I think like tchkb, this map should have been in the top 100 of the most memorable maps. I'll go even further by putting it in the top 10 for its difficulty, its gameplay... It's as memorable as Go 2 it.

 

Not surprisingly, this is one of the most difficult maps of the wad, if not the hardest. On the other hand, I think it's one of the funniest maps in speedrun with map 29 and map 25.

 

This map, like go 2 it and other maps, is the father of modern slaughtermaps. I think that this way of forcing the player to practice "BFG spam" was quite unheard of at the time.

 

However, I think that even today it is one of the best slaughtermaps ever made. The management of space, enemies and health bonuses is perfect to provide a real challenge. The level is almost non-linear, allowing the player to adopt many different strategies. On the other hand, from the layout point of view, the level is extremely symmetrical. One of the big challenges too is not to get lost.

 

[joe-ilya]

MAP32

I wouldn't go so far as saying it's one of the most memorable Doom maps, it's gameplay and layout is quad-symmetrical, you repeat the same thing four times, sometimes just twice. MAP14 and MAP08 did this kind of layout better as it gave you new weapons along the way, but here your weaponry is maxed out, so you use the same weapons to dispatch each corner, it ends up really boring, so I ended up saving after the initial cleanup, so I could study what each tower opens up without having to redo the whole thing over and over, which already feels like you're doing it over and over even when you do it once, I don't want to bore myself to death, so I saved there, that was the only time I saved.

 

The very start of the map is really fun, with how you kill the enemies and get enemies creeping up from the back, but it's only until you have to kill all the hundreds of enemies that are stupidly perched up on the towers (as always per HR2), I used rockets as it does faster damage than the BFG in such scenarios.

The traps that open up with the switches on the towers seem hard at first, but all you have to do is lure the hordes out, so that you can circle strafe around them, these sections were repetitive, but were good fun, as enemies actually roam around the map and can get to you, so camping isn't an option, you have to get close with the BFG, that's one of the few good designs in this mapset so far, alongside the very first few minutes of the map.

 

So yeah, besides the boring and repetitive tower cleanup, the map was well designed and fun to play, good stuff.

4/5

 

Maps in order of preference:

Spoiler

(5/5)

MAP07: Not That Simple II

MAP14: Metal Meltdown

MAP08: Ballistics

(4/5)

MAP01: IGNITION!

MAP02: High Voltage

MAP32: Playground

MAP06: Revival

(2/5)

MAP15: The Path II

(1/5)

MAP03: Shackled

MAP31: The Descent II

MAP13: Hardcore

MAP10: Base Blaze

MAP11: Raw Hatred

MAP04: Reluctant Pain

MAP05: Insatanity

(0/5)

MAP09: The Siege II

MAP12: Anti Static

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by joe-ilya