The DWmegawad Club plays: Hell Revealed 2

[Horus]

Did not enjoy map 31 at all to be honest. Just a grind. Might call it quits here

[Snikle]

MAP17 - An Eye For an Eye

I was dumb and didn’t make this writeup until the day after I played the level, so there might not be as much to say as usual. This level being pretty short doesn’t help with that. Anyway, on with it. The cyber in the starting area is a threat to be sure, can’t kill him until much later with the BFG. The revs that teleport into the little starting alcove are pretty useless, since they can’t leave when the player is on the other side from the door, where everything actually happens. The exit room was strange, with two more cybers and “The Gemini” written on the floor. Does this mean anything, or does the author just really like old rollercoasters or something?

[WH-Wilou84]

1 hour ago, Snikle said:

MAP17 - An Eye For an Eye

[...] “The Gemini” written on the floor. Does this mean anything, or does the author just really like old rollercoasters or something?

It's probably the author's signature (his nickname is GeminI).

[Bauul]

Map 17 - An Eye for an Eye

 

I lost my initial write up!  Bum.  So the TL;DR version:

 

Very brown map with series of mean, "surprise!" encounters that you either have to be lucky or have replayed the map to survive (I'm specifically looking at you, trap-you-in-a-64-x-64-wide-corridor-with-an-AV).  And multiple false exits just get boring.

 

By far and away the most memorable part of this map is the blue key fakeout.  I honestly, genuinely laughed at that.  Spending a few minutes winding your way around to line up the perfect jump to it, only to have it cheekily rise away out of reach showed a level of humanity this mapset has been rather lacking.  It's a shame they didn't follow it up with actual good map progress when they simply presented a different blue key moments later.  The fact I never got to get that original cheeky blue key is a disappointment, but I'm not surprised.  This map seems mostly to be a series of individual encounters, some of which aren't fully thought through.  Lots that could be improved.

[Roofi]

Map 17 - An Eye for an Eye

 

 

I think this level is quite unique in several ways.

 

First of all, I tend to think that this map is more beautiful than the others with more small details, a better use of textures and more elaborate lighting effects.

Secondly, I don't really find this level difficult, but it's the most stressful level I've played so far in the wad. The use of arch-viles is really vicious as you often have very little cover. The most typical case is the blue key trap. the last fight with the two cyberdemons is dangerous and oblige you to stay concentrated. Also add the very calm music.

 

Compared to a lot of levels, the level is not very strong. It is necessary to wait a lot of time before having an armor.

 

In short, a nice level even if it's not my favorite.

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by Roofi

[riderr3]

MAP31
This switch behind the engraving of the demon at the beginning is somehow connected with the secret exit, as well as the subsequent images.

As for the slowly descending platform near the beginning of the level. It seems that the author came up with a "brilliant" idea: let's create a slow platform that will go down and at this time there will be a fight and a monster arriving through a teleport. But only the implementation turned out disgusting:
1) 4 torches do not add detail, but only constantly block the path of the player.
2) Not enough space in relation to the number of monsters.
3) Well, it’s clear that the soulsphere, bluearmor and megasphere are certainly not enough to withstand such an influx of enemies.
4) As soon as the platform stops, the crowd will rush at you again with archvile. Gimme a brake, it would be better at this moment to provide the player with some kind of jigsaw puzzles or platforming, so that at least some kind of variety is present.

Constancy prevails on the level - open the door and you will meet a crowd of HKs with barons. Collect any more or less significant item - a crowd will rush at you from teleports. It is clear that such things are present in other wads, but here it repeats itself and becomes too predictable.
Layout and texture selection basically does not resemble anything physical or conceptual - just a set of interconnected rooms, so the level will not be memorable, unlike the previous one, at least.

The most ridiculous thing is that the player does not have the opportunity to return to the first location where I left a bunch of rounds and specially left berserk "for a rainy day" so to speak. In the entire final location there is not a single first aid kit or single potion. Even in the closet from which comes the crowd of revenants with archvile.
This is a clear example for the mappers better how not to do, because many players will be outraged by such an imbalance.

MAP32
Fortunately, in the beginning we were given a megasphere, at least you will be able to recover from the injuries received minutes earlier.
Sometimes it’s useful to check the metal door at the back of the player at the beginning, secrets are often placed there - as I noticed.

If you get this invul sphere you will have some short time to slip through and switch at least part of the necessary levers. Personally, for the sake of experiment, I just waited until the monsters scuffle in the locations behind the elevator near the yellow door, peering at the gradually decreasing counter of enemies. It is just ridiculous. I personally can make a bunch of such meaningless maps, but I won’t do it. The authors apparently scratched the top of their heads and decided: since this is a secret level, then we cram there so many monsters per square meter and another crowd of archviles that the player will not even land on the ground, but fly like a rocket with donkey thrust.

 

At the same time, there are places here, such as the northern narrow corridor, into which none of the monsters can get, and again we have an imbalance.

Edited April 17, 2020 by riderr3

[gaspe]

MAP17: It's very well done visually, good texturing and detailing, I like how few times it uses some stacked textures for a 3d-esque effect (like the ledge to before the YSK). I think this map feels like an improves version of the previous one. It's still a corridor-heavy linear layout but thanks to the traps that keep you on your toes constantly it's more fun, the level feels more playful itself. You can exploit some situations like at the YSK when you can camp behind the fence and the gameplay is sort of "mechanical". The exit area is meh, I wonder if the author just wanted to show his signature, the teleport to get there already looks like a typical exit.

[Arbys550]

Map17

Visuals are okay. Too bad the gameplay sucks! Caged cyber is no fun at all, just annoying. There's a part with 2 archviles that's complete RNG. Also tons of shotgunning barons. The trap after getting the yellow key is pretty fun though.

 

Spoiler

Map13: Hardcore

Map11: Raw Hatred

Map07: Not That Simple II

Map02: High Voltage

Map14: Metal Meltdown

Map03: Shackled

Map01: Ignition

Map06: Revival

Map10: Base Blaze

Map08: Ballistics

Map16: The Chapel of Black Granite
Map15: The Path II

Map09: The Siege II

Map32: Playground

Map32: The Descent II

Map17: An Eye for an Eye

Map12: Anti-Static

Map05: Insatanity

Map04: Reluctant Pain

 

[Andromeda]

MAP16: The Chapel Of Black Granite (Hell Revealed II)

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

 

Three levels in a row with a secret behind the start, it's almost a rule at this point! Not very impressed with the encounter design in this one - almost every fight here takes place in narrow corridors or is easily cheesable, the pointless small room where bars lock you in for 30 seconds and "forces" you to fight two toothless arch-viles is the cherry on top. There are some neat subtle homages to levels from well known older megawads, like the revenant/spectre corridor reminiscent of the starting area in Memento Mori II MAP03 and the more obvious three Spiderdemon room which has shades of the BFG9000 room in MAP11 from the original Hell Revealed (which is much, much grindier).

 

These are the only noteworthy moments until the last stretch and I was especially disappointed at the imps behind fake walls shortly before the red door, in a true Hell Revealed inspired level those would be barons of hell or even arch-viles! The final section contains the most interesting encounter, yet another unremarkable narrow corridor that opens up suddenly, releasing a lot of revenants and imps. Retreating here means death unless you found the secret BFG, so your best bet is to go forward and slaughter the wall of demons so that you have a minimal amount of space to handle the revenants. The exit lies between two rather pointless secrets, if you're not maxing you can just ignore them. Not a particularly memorable level, its only redeeming factors are the subtle homages and the final fight, which is great. 

 

Levels in order of preference:

Spoiler

MAP14: Metal Meltdown

MAP07: Not That Simple II

MAP31: The Descent II

MAP15: The Path II

MAP10: Base Blaze

MAP13: Hardcore

MAP04: Reluctant Pain

MAP03: Shackled

MAP05: Insatanity

MAP01: IGNITION!

MAP11: Raw Hatred

MAP12: Anti Static

MAP32: Playground

MAP16: The Chapel Of Black Granite

MAP02: High Voltage

MAP06: Revival

MAP09: The Siege II

MAP08: Ballistics

 

MAP17: An Eye For An Eye (Hell Revealed II)

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

 

Now this is a lot better! Sort of a breather level after the last handful, there's not really any challenging fights to be found but there's lots of traps so be careful. The start is a bit short on ammo although the situation improves in the blue key area. A bit before there's a megaarmor that will be really useful and should last almost the entire level. The blue key sequence is really cheeky, when you think you'll be able to jump to it is when its pillar rises up :P

 

Don't fret, a compartment holding a replacement key has opened up nearby, releasing an arch-vile that can be tricky to handle without cover. There's a few memorable encounters, like the corridor where you'll get locked in and have to fight two revenants with little wiggle room and the large teleporter trap in the yellow key room which can be hard to negotiate unless you keep a cool head and tackle it efficiently. Unfortunately the level loses some steam afterwards, but it's still enjoyable. In terms of looks this is perhaps the best level so far, still very brown but with some clever detailing that makes it stand out above the rest. Overall a great level, but perhaps a tad too easy considering its slot.

 

Levels in order of preference:

Spoiler

MAP14: Metal Meltdown

MAP07: Not That Simple II

MAP31: The Descent II

MAP17: An Eye For An Eye

MAP15: The Path II

MAP10: Base Blaze

MAP13: Hardcore

MAP04: Reluctant Pain

MAP03: Shackled

MAP05: Insatanity

MAP01: IGNITION!

MAP11: Raw Hatred

MAP12: Anti Static

MAP32: Playground

MAP16: The Chapel Of Black Granite

MAP02: High Voltage

MAP06: Revival

MAP09: The Siege II

MAP08: Ballistics

Edited April 17, 2020 by Andromeda

[Spie812]

MAP17: An Eye For An Eye, prboom+, UV pistol start, saves

This level pulls off the claustrophobic combat considerably better than the previous one. Most of the battles are pretty well executed and the combat is nice. The level also looks a lot better than the last one, which is always a plus. There are however as always a few things that I don't like. I feel like the opening cyberdemon could have been better used. It's only really a threat until you're past the first door. The final two cyberdemons I skipped entirely as there was no cell ammo and I wasn't gonna SSG them to death. In the same vein, there's maybe a bit too much shotgunning of barons in the first half of the level. Apart from that, this level is pretty solid; I like it.

[AFallingObject]

MAP17: An Eye for An Eye (UV Continuous)

Pretty good until the tedious double cyberdemon mess at the end.  I like how your best defense against many of the archviles is to block them from raising monsters with your body, rather than running for cover, which is lacking in many instances.  Continuous play allowed me the luxury of frying the cyberdemon at the start with my BFG, which lowered the pressure in that part.  All in all, this feels like Plutonia+ more than the more over the top style I associate with Hell Revealed.  I had a good time here.

 

89% Kills

0% Secrets

[joe-ilya]

MAP18

Starting room with the stairs is a little too grindy and cramped, but didn't last too long.

I really like the invul trap, you have to think a little bit where to go and get extra ammo and kill the AVs quickly, there were a couple of times where I was blocked from picking up the invul, but at least it's right at the beginning, so if you die, you don't lose too much progress.

I don't like the AV that is hidden behind a group of imps after the teleporter, you are guaranteed to take one blast, as there's no cover, seriously, just like in MAP17 there's no cover, I can't run ahead to get cover because there's imps in the way, the only cover you can take is by jumping into lava, which is forced damage anyways, I'll just take the hit I suppose, oof.

Then some actually fun hallway combat occurs, in which I have a wide array of weapons to kill the enemies efficiently, hallways filled with shotgunners and imps I can tear down quickly with the SSG, and various mid-tier enemies I can tear down with rockets and BFG, these were some solid encounters, one thing that kinda bothered me were the PEs behind the bars, it already happened in MAP17, but in here there's two of them, is that supposed to be harder or something? lol

 

The next teleporter has a really fun cacoswarm, but it's followed by a couple of dull encounters where you have to kill a dozen mancs and hell knights that are stuck on ledges and behind the bottleneck respectively.

The room with the cages was kinda lame too, spam some more rockets into a bottleneck and then SSG the 2 AVs behind the last cage, the only part I liked was the baron trap, I think this is the first instance in this megawad where barons are actually used right, using the BFG is a little tricky on them, and they are a big pressure in this tight space.

I also like the room with the chaingunners on the crates, it's a little tricky to snipe them, you could also just demolish that entire room with one BFG shot if you so desire, I like that non-linear approach.

The spectre drop down trap reminds me a lot of the demon trap in MAP08 of Doom 2, except it's much more tight and pressuring, overall a better trap, it makes you dance while going to a corner and then some. The trap also has a non-linear approach, you could easily get a foothold with the BFG, but it's also entirely possible to do it all with just the SSG.

The AV encounter afterwards is also very clever, one of the AVs can run back to the hallway and resurrect hell knights that you just killed, that can lead to an interesting situation, but also doesn't last too long.

The trek to the yellow key has a ton of non-linear approaches, depending how well you know the map, one thing I didn't like were the few cacodemons in the water cave, they can't get out or do anything, it's stupid.

The little lockdown with the shootable switch was cute, I like how subtle it is.

The arena with the four cybers is a lot of fun, there's a lot of pressure coming from the splash damage that can happen because of the pillars, the cells are placed strategically on the stairs, and the barons that guard the way out, this has been the second time that barons were used right, Jonas is picking up on how to use them right, this map shows.

The exit area was kinda neat too, I didn't like spamming rockets into the AV that's surrounded with barons, but the cybers were the scariest shit ever as they pressure you in the hallways, a great ending, though I don't understand why the second cyber appears when you're already at the exit, it was a fun bonus fight regardless.

Subtle map, a hit or miss, but it hits more than it misses, and even when it misses, it's not that bad, as you have rockets and BFG to get through it quickly.

4/5

 

Maps in order of preference:

Spoiler

MAP07: Not That Simple II

MAP14: Metal Meltdown

MAP08: Ballistics

(4/5)

MAP01: IGNITION!

MAP18: Excess Meat

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)

MAP16: The Chapel Of Black Granite

MAP09: The Siege II

MAP12: Anti Static

MAP17: An Eye For An Eye

 

[tchkb]

MAP16 “The Chapel of Black Granite” (Sam Woodman)

Spoiler

 

This map is pretty bad. Lots of extremely obtuse and just plain badly designed fights that waste a lot of player’s time while not providing all that much threat. I really don’t want to waste even more of my time narrating the entire thing explaining how everything works, or rather doesn’t. The absolute highlight for me is the extreme ease of softlocking the map by running through the windows after unlocking blue key bars.

One interesting point are the two secrets at the end that do absolutely nothing in normal map playthroughs, but give you 200 armor and 600 cells at the start of the next map in continuous play. Rather welcome, considering the next map is on the grindy side.

Personal rating: +1/5

 

 

 

MAP17 “An Eye For An Eye” (Yashar Garibzadeh)

Spoiler

 

This map goes back to the somewhat smaller scale layouts and fights, a bit claustrophobic and certainly difficult due to liberal use of high tier enemies. Most fights are decently made, though many of them require very specific strategies to avoid instant death. Some of these strategies, however, turn the entire fight into a rather pointless affair. Good example – yellow key arena with two Arch-Viles attempting to hide from the player behind door. If you ignore them and try to take them head-on, you’re likely dead, so you have to cheese them by peeking out and grinding them with SSG one by one. Combat against a single monster is almost always a boring affair.

There is a rather peculiar part in the previous section – press a switch to open tunnel, press another switch in tunnel to lock it behind you, press the switch lowered behind you to open closet with two Arch-Viles in front of you. The author’s intention was to rush into their closet, as crossing the linedef causes the door behind you to open once again – do it quickly enough and they won’t zap you. But everyone I’ve seen (including myself for the longest time, until I actually tried the legit way to see how it’s supposed to work) simply abuses the switches’ lack of sense of height to bypass the trap.

One glaring flaw I’ve noticed is a hole in the bridge to the room containing Blue Key. If you fall into it, you die instantly.

The very start has a nasty RNG toss in form of a caged Cyberdemon in a small junction you have to pass through, including a door you need to open while being almost right in his face. I guess it’s not such a big deal if that shit is put right at the start and continuous players can just use the aforementioned 600 cells from the previous level to kill him right there.

Low skill level reductions are adequate – make the map less grindy and, in HNTR’s case, removes the biggest threats. One general complaint I have for most of the maps from this point onward is how HNTR starts gutting the difficulty a little too much in relation to the mapslot placement. Good example here – the ending fight goes from 2 Cybers on HMP/UV to just 3 Mancubuses on HNTR, which makes for an underwhelming climax.

Personal rating: 3/5

 

 

 

MAP18 “Excess Meat” (Jonas Feragen)

Spoiler

 

This map’s title would be a pretty good alternative name for Hell Revealed itself and many of the 90s “huge hell noble swarms with no tools to kill them quickly” maps inspired by it. Thankfully not in this map’s case, as we’re back to the merry mass-slaughter, kinda like MAP15 except in smaller areas and against proportionally smaller opposition. Lots of Rocket Launcher use with occasional BFG for harder (or beefier) parts, though sometimes you’ll also have to switch to SSG to conserve rockets and cells. Fights vary a lot in threat presented and overall quality, but at least none of them overstay their welcome if you know how to approach them in advance and what you can get away with.

I have a personal beef (likely shared with most challenge-minded players) with Invulnerability use where this powerup lasts you through the entire meaningful portion of the fight, which is exactly what we have here in the intro rocket punching.

The map has some relatively novel at the time use of Cyberdemons. First, we’ve got four deaf Cybers behind columns in a large square area. The optimal survival strat is to carefully move around to trigger one and spam him with BFG, then lure the other three one by one for BFG two-shots. Of course if you’re ballsy (or sloppy) you can wake them all up and hope that they won’t punish you for trying to play the fight quickly (they probably will).

Second – the ending, where you need to go through two relatively thin and long hallways where you get trapped with one Cyber each. I think this may be the very first execution of this trope where the player is forced to fight Cybers on these terms – a nice bit of gameplay innovation (this level is also from 2000 HR2 beta, but I haven’t checked if there were any changes from the old version). Thankfully in this case you’re given 200 cells for each of them, so you can just spam them instead of going for two-shots and praying that they won’t decide to be assholes and refuse to fire until they’re right up in your face.

Personal rating: 4/5

 

 

[DuckReconMajor]

MAP17: An Eye For An Eye

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

 

The blue key area is indeed quite mean. Seeing it rise up higher is hilarious.

Someone else might have mentioned it too but you can see below me falling into the bridge hole @tchkb mentioned (3:20).

No chill with this blue key room!

I had a hard time trusting the bridge after that.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by DuckReconMajor

[Bauul]

Map 18: Excess Meat

 

Oh dear, things are starting to get pretty poor now.  Mostly the same style of combat encounters from the previous map, but now with added inescapable hidden death pits and required SR40 platforming!  Yay, all the things that Doom players love!  And of course it ends a cyberdemon trapping you in a tiny corridor.

 

I'm genuinely finding myself running out of things to say here.  The maps are starting to blend together into a mass of ugliness, both in terms of the geometry and the sad combat encounters.

[galileo31dos01]

Map 16

 

Oh so this is by Metabolist, who also made the "shells for days" meme map exactly eight maps before? Well that explains, I can very much see more of that similar goofy "thing" placement, that sometimes may or may not have a good explanation behind, though like in his other map 14 the "silliness" seems to be gone while instead presenting two more serious contributions, until we meet his last map precisely eight slots later which might bring back the silliness with another tint.

 

This is more of a wild guess nobody cares about but I suspect this could be one of his earliest maps ever created, judging by the number of mediocre encounters in the gameplay at least in comparison to his other maps. There's no information about specific map dates that I know of (or is there any?), so perhaps it was just rushed to meet a deadline. What starts in a crossfire with little protection available, followed by even more tension in extremely awkward confined hallways, peaking with a crowd of imps and double baron surprise that no one asked for, soon decreases into a hell knight cleanup that's basically rocket-spamming from a choke point, and goes downhill from there, repeating the same pattern but with different faces. Yeah not a whole lot to highlight when you find healthy monsters like archviles, cyberdemons, spiderdemons and whatnot desperate to move around but are unable to because they're trapped inside block lines or tiny closets. Oh, also walls that shoot imp fireballs, for unknown reasons. What's with all this overprotection? It's just awkward to engage every time, and some leaves them completely ineffectual so no actual combat exists. All of those archviles are literally waiting to get out of their misery.

 

The only thing that sort of speeds things up a bit is a gracious BFG before the key areas. Usually HR2 tuck these important goodies in secrets that no one would ever find if not by accident on a blind playthrough. A hole in the wall might just be a window connecting another area, specially since that's basically all you get to see, but when it's actually an accessible closet that holds a blue armor which is open via shootable wall, well, what's the hint there?.

 

Hmm, I'm running out of things to comment, it seems. Since there isn't much in terms of "positives", because after the juice of the map, what would correspond as the "climax" isn't exactly completing the map - when you find the exit but there's still another row of idle pinkies around the corner plus two more of those shoot secrets -, I'd say this is the weakest and my least favourite map in HR2 so far. Although I like the midi, maybe the only positive :x

 

 

 

AuThOrIaL eXpReSsIoNs in order of preference:

 

Spoiler

Pfff idk... ranging from 5 imaginary stars to 1, each in numerical order:

 

5. 01, 13, 15, Roofi's map

4. 07, 32

3. 02, 04, 05, 10, 11

2. 03, 06, 12, 14

1. 16, 31

0. reserved :p

 

[Snikle]

MAP18 - Excess Meat

This one had some good moments, but again was kinda forgettable. The large canyon area, I don’t know if I liked the look of that or not. Just seemed very bland, but not bad. Although the skull key markers in front of the doors being too tall to step over only got in the way very annoyingly. The cybers in the exit area were fun to BFG, but I didn’t bother with the ones in the red key area. Some areas had ceilings that were way too low for the Revs and AVs inside of them, looked weird as hell. Lucky for them we’re in hell.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP16: The Chapel of Black Granite (HNTR/continuous)

16:16 | 96% Kills | 60% Items | 42% Secrets

This one looks promising from the start: almost like the yards of a church, large and dark and foreboding, with fenced off mobs of imps to SSG to death. And then it turns into a corridor crawl. The surprise cyberdemon in the manc room killed me instantly: turn to the right, "Holy shi--", KERBLAM! dead. Another map where one needn't worry about ammo, since there's another box of shells or cells every two paces. The exit was incredibly nondescript, with a second mob of pinkies hidden around the corner from it for no apparent reason. Again I'm a bit peeved about not being able to get back from the exit area, unless there was a way via the blue armor secret, though I couldn't puzzle it out.

 

MAP17: An Eye For An Eye (HNTR/continuous)

15:00 | 99% Kills | 66% Items | 0% Secrets

This one wasn't too bad! I did fall through the unnecessary 3-D bridge over the lava, which required no-clipping out of (thankfully, the imp in my sight wasn't able to target me through the bridge.) And the dickish trap that teleports you back into the start area--along with two HKs in your face; that killed me, and made me a mite cross. >:| Otherwise, it was pretty fun. But oh, what was with the giant arena at the exit that contained two measly mancubi? I guess I could have gone back to hunt for secrets, etc., but it's midnight and I don't wanna.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Salt-Man Z

[galileo31dos01]

I just noticed what map is in the OP's image. Dobu, couldn't you have chosen anything better.... 

 

 

Map 17

 

"Too awkward to enjoy" feels like it sums up my thoughts. Whereas in the previous map we saw opposition forced to be confined against their will putting them in weak spots, this one does the opposite but to the player, forcing doomguy to stay so fragile and exposed to all sorts of heavy hitters, thus probably harming the gameplay once again for the less patient people like myself.

 

Okay, cramming monsters into small spaces is nothing new, and it's debatable to what extent it borders the line of "doable without mandatory damage", though I think in a couple special spots it crossed that line. There's the ledge of chaingunners, who aren't much of a worry but demand a safe approach once closer, and there's the revenants that greet you back to the start with a punch in the nuts or whatever's your most delicate spot. There's the archvile duo in the gargoyle switches little room that's a nonfactor once you figure out that weird escape, and there's the baron/archvile combo in a big open room lacking any pillars or nooks to hide, a coin-flip for players who got there low on health. There's the caged cyberdemon at the hub, who's very happy to paint the first door with your blood, unless you coax the outdoors chaingunners to distract him meanwhile (it can take a while til it happens), and it's in a tricky spot to kill efficiently with the BFG but a total chore with SSG. I think I made my point.

 

You're never going to find a green or blue armor until the very last setup before the climax, seriously if I'm deprived of armor for the most crucial parts just don't dump one when it's too late and pretend you're flattering me - I'm still going to be susceptible of dying from one rocket. Also, like all cool you wanted to leave your signature in your own map, we all love doing it, but couldn't you just not make short raised sectors that hinder my movement? I'd like to use no more than 4-5 BFG rounds on the two cybs without slipping to the sides. I can very much not fail on the BFG-cybs if I really put myself in the situation, but it's not the kind of map flow where going risk-reward and dying unexpectedly would be no big deal, imo. Had I gotten a blue armor way earlier, to tank the hitscan and potential archvile blast in that room, I'd probably have zero problem in repeating a run, but that wasn't the case. 

 

But there are positives this time! The blue key fakeout Bauul mentioned is a little cute setup that reminds me of old megawads like Requiem (though no map in particular, just the idea of teasing players with keys too high at first or for a particular narrative in the map). In the subject of encounters, again the various cybs and archviles are technically imposing for once (two of bigger enemies map 16 put to shame), more than they should feel like because of the strict armor deprivation combined with, sometimes, no cover. On the other side, this might be first map in a while (after map 03) to use so many barons deliberately, like going back to the roots of the universally acclaimed (Baron of)Hell Revealed, lol. Can't throw shade on the poor goats, they're just too pink to hate. 

 

I guess the real whatever is one of the secrets placement: a berserk behind a random wall. The other is a soulsphere plus 80 cells that are indeed very useful for the short time those extra 100 HP last, but hey better than bordering one-hits, just don't miss those two pointless spectres before jumping on boiling juice. Yeah, not a favourite map in the slightest, but generally an improvement over the previous map. If only it gave me armor earlier, ugh.

 

Pro tip: whoever's going to watch the video, just skip the segment 12:34-13:32. You're welcome.

 

 

[Roofi]

Map 18 : Excess Meat

 

 

Excess Meat is one of my favorite levels in HR2, especially for its adventurous aspect while exploring various places and its very natural theme with the use of rock, grass and water textures. The atmosphere is very relaxing but the gameplay is not.

 

The monsters are numerous and the traps are sordid, especially concerning the cybers. I hope you like killing cybers in corridors !

 

Anyway, I love the music of Metabolist in this map. However, I would have liked to see a more pronounced jungle/forest theme.

 

ATTENTION GREAT SELF PROMOTION MOMENT !

 

In 2017, I made a map inspired by Excess Meat, but I wanted to reinforce the theme by making liana bridges, trees... :) Here is the idgames link in case you are interested.

 

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/v-z/wc_v2

[gaspe]

MAP18: I wonder if this was one of Feragen's earliest levels he made for this wad, like MAP07 it looks  more dated compared to others maps he did so far. I liked the concept of being sent to different areas from a teleport hub. The first section you visit, that metal bunker, was my favourite part. I think the title is fitting, if you trim the encounters you'll still have a very fun classic map, but it wouldn't be HR after all and it's fine the way it is since it didn't drag for too long and knew when to stop.

[Andromeda]

MAP18: Excess Meat (Hell Revealed II)

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

 

Judging by the title and having played Hell Revealed MAP18 which is the grindiest level in the original I thought I was in for a borefest. It couldn't be further from the truth, this was a level with lots of fun RL and BFG action. If we're being picky the start is the only area where there's excess meat, but I'd rather use the shotgun against spectres than the SSG against barons of hell any day! This is followed by a fight that's practically impossible without the provided invulnerability, at least from a pistol start.

 

Afterwards we get to explore the metal area, which provides some nice hallway action and it's especially satisfying to blow the hitscanners to smithereens. There's also a megasphere in the lava which you might want to save for later if you're in good shape. The next section takes place in a canyon where you're immediately surrounded by a decent number of cacodemons. You have two options here - either drop down and kill them from below which is much easier, or you can stand your ground and destroy them as you manoeuvre around the ledges, which allows you to pick up a large amount of rockets.

 

Collect the supercharge if needed and make your way to the small warehouse on the other side of the canyon where you might want to kill the arachnotron behind the bars first to make it easier to deal with the next trap. Whatever you do, just don't retreat or you risk falling inside an inescapable pit. Once in the warehouse, place yourself on a corner and fire a BFG shot aimed to the opposite corner to clear all the enemies here quickly.

 

You need to do some tricky platforming to collect the blue key and don't forget to press the switch to seal the aforementioned pit. After the blue door there's two traps that can be easily cheesed, perhaps the least interesting part of the level. The next cavernous section is the best looking, though the combat is subpar. The most challenging encounter is after taking the white teleporter in the hub area at the beginning - a line of imps backed by four sneaky arch-viles. I died twice here before figuring out that the arch-viles are deaf, so just lure them out one by one to kill them easily. To exit you have to return to the canyon area and go through both doors to unlock the exit, but beware of the arch-viles that appear behind you. Solid level, with some decent looks and mostly great gameplay, not too fond on the platforming required to grab the blue key though.

 

Levels in order of preference:

Spoiler

MAP14: Metal Meltdown

MAP07: Not That Simple II

MAP31: The Descent II

MAP17: An Eye For An Eye

MAP15: The Path II

MAP18: Excess Meat

MAP10: Base Blaze

MAP13: Hardcore

MAP04: Reluctant Pain

MAP03: Shackled

MAP05: Insatanity

MAP01: IGNITION!

MAP11: Raw Hatred

MAP12: Anti Static

MAP32: Playground

MAP16: The Chapel Of Black Granite

MAP02: High Voltage

MAP06: Revival

MAP09: The Siege II

MAP08: Ballistics

Edited April 18, 2020 by Andromeda

[riderr3]

MAP16
So, if you still have spare cells, you can get rid of the first cyberdemon so that it does not interfere at the next meeting.

The map consists of a lot of narrow corridors in which even monsters manage to get stuck, these mancubi which cannot pass because of fire torches are simply ridiculous; and again we see ranks of chaingunners standing next to each other in 64-wide corridors (or 96?); you can simply skip the cyberdemons near red brick pillars. At the same time, for some reason, archvile are locked in boundary zones and are basically just blockers or time-wasters. Well, at least here we have enough ammunition and medkits.

By the way, if you jump out of the windows in the room behind the blue bars, then you will not be able to get back - the blue bars will already be closed.

Of the good points, perhaps the midi track, the name of the map and area with three masterminds, where they staged a shootout with imps and archviles seated at the top. I still could not take the blue armor near exit.

MAP17
This map is a clear improvement over the previous one, at least in design - there are lava lakes and burning walls; more outside areas and even such trifles as fountains. An unusual situation with a fake blue key, the pillar of which does not go down (as we might have thought earlier) but the goes away from the player up, leading to bewilderment.

But along with this, the monster blocking lines are simply abundant here. Well, couldn’t it just be that the floors were raised by 8-16 units, at least to make it look decent?

The only thing that revolted me was the teleport to the initial room filled with revenants. You can get out of there only when you have a BFG and you pulled the trigger before entering the teleporter.

I’ve already lost count of how many times the EXIT sign comes across and how many times I stumbled upon a fake exit.

Edited April 18, 2020 by riderr3

[Arbys550]

Map18

I absolutely loved this map! Awesome combat and a fantastic and fun layout. Lots of 2-shotting cyber practice in here, especially at the very final room. Lots of fun archvile moments in here too. The visuals are still kinda ugly, but not too bad.

 

Ranking:

Spoiler

Map18: Excess Meat

Map13: Hardcore

Map11: Raw Hatred

Map07: Not That Simple II

Map02: High Voltage

Map14: Metal Meltdown

Map03: Shackled

Map01: Ignition

Map06: Revival

Map10: Base Blaze

Map08: Ballistics

Map16: The Chapel of Black Granite
Map15: The Path II

Map09: The Siege II

Map32: Playground

Map31: The Descent II

Map17: An Eye for an Eye

Map12: Anti-Static

Map05: Insatanity

Map04: Reluctant Pain

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by Arbys550

[joe-ilya]

14 minutes ago, Arbys550 said:

Map32: Playground

Map32: The Descent II

This typo has been in several of your posts, just wanted to point that out.

[Arbys550]

26 minutes ago, joe-ilya said:

This typo has been in several of your posts, just wanted to point that out.

Oh okay thanks! I just copy from my last post so that's why.

[DuckReconMajor]

Yeah I just copy from whomever posted last lol

 

MAP18: Excess Meat 

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

 

Guess it's my turn to play dissenter. 

Fake exits*? Inescapable lava? Un-fun platforming segment?

It's all here, folks!

 

*Some might disagree but I think Doom 2 and enough wads have trained us enough to expect a sky floor is an exit

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP18: Excess Meat (HNTR/continuous)

20:31 | 100% Everything

Pretty weaksauce level, this. I agree with @DuckReconMajor about the sky-floor teleporters. And I think the blue key crate platforming can die in a fire. Having an arachnotron pinned behind bars that he can't shoot through but you can is lame. And the actual exit is soooo ridiculously nondescript! I will admit that I do feel a bit like that guy who insists on playing everything on UV and then complains about stuff being too hard; but I am finding HNTR to just not be very well-balanced. This map, for example, has no cyberdemons on HNTR, but it does still have a four-archvile arena fight, like, I'd probably enjoy the former more than the latter! There's just waaay too much ammo (I literally left a couple rockets behind) but at least that's one thing I won't really complain about. On the whole, this isn't a bad little adventure map, but with a title like "Excess Meat", I'd really like to see some excess meat! There are a couple of homogeneous fodder-swarms here of imps and zombies, but don't give me 10 former humans, give me 25! You can pack a lot of lower-tier dudes in to make it feel like a challenge without it actually becoming a challenge. I am really getting the urge to bump up to HMP, but I'm also afraid it'll just end up making me even more frustrated...

[Spie812]

MAP18: Excess Meat, Prboom+, UV Pistol Start, Saves 

Alright, I really dig this one. The opening starts out feeling like it's going to be another crampfest like the previous two. However, you get armed pretty quickly and after the first leg (which is fine in its own right) we finally get some more of the open combat I associate with Hell Revealed. Each segment of the map has some enjoyable fights for you to conquer. I quite enjoyed the cyberdemon arena and the cavern segment. I also quite liked the final two cybers which are a nice way to close it off. All in all, it's a really good level and the first in quite a few that feels like a proper continuation of Hell Revealed.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Spie812

[Uncle 80]

In case someone wants the "insight" provided by someone who basically doesn't care for the HR series in general, here's a couple of cents on HR2 so far, (purposely omitting the maps I have few positive comments on):

 

MAP01: A solid opener, and design-wise it sets the theme and style for what you can expect from the majority of the maps provided by original project leader Chrozoron (who basically retired from Doom mapping long before the full version of HR2 was released). Not too difficult, but careless players like myself will get roasted a few times before adapting to the general playstyle this map/wad requires.

 

MAP07: One of my favourite Dead Simple clones. Back in the day when HR2BETA was released, I was nowhere close to the skill I'm at now, and had a real hard time moving fast enough to avoid dying in the manc/arach section of the map. I really like the setup here, and how you can basically trade immediate power-ups/weapon-ups for later cover to shield you from the arach plasma. The second part of the map is really cool too, and a bit of a fun breather after the hectic start, which is good. My only nitpick with this map is that the 667 raising stair should have had an 8-unit tall texture on it instead of a 16-unit one; it's relatively common to trigger the double raise bug here since killing at least two arachnotrons simultaneously is pretty hard to avoid. Then you'd have a 24-unit step up to the bridge switch in normal cases, and a 16-unit step in the bug case. Otherwise, great fun.

 

MAP12: Despite its apparent geometrical blandness, this map has a surprisingly addictive gameplay! After this map, I basically never left a starting area in HR2 without checking the door behind me for power-ups, this map providing the first quite necessary one. Health is scarce, and without armor you'll burn through those medkits in the main area too fast. Also, pistol starters will have no cell weapon to feed all those battery packs into, so keep that rocket launcher stocked! Completing this map is basically geometry/line specials abuse, at least for me; the red key building provides excellent opportunity to instigate infighting and taking pot-shots from the balcony, and later through the windows. Let the infighting soften up the viles, then pick most of them off through the windows, go outside and mop up the rest. Whatever you do, don't open the door to let anyone in, especially when the second part of the monster closet opens. Be sure to have the secret megasphere by then, or get toasted by the couple of vile blasts you'll eventually take.

 

MAP32: When still in beta, I considered this map something of a joke and thought it was basically impossible to beat. Years later, i found that not only is it actually possible to beat, but it's a great map and fun as hell! But back in the day, my skill was nowhere near my current level, and I was also playing all my megawads on Doom2.exe - and this is one of the first maps of that era where the sprite max flickering becomes a problem. So it's way easier now with prboom where you can actually keep track of all the monsters and projectiles and not be fooled by flickering sprites into thinking you are in a safe spot when you really have 20 rev rockets on your tail :D Like map 12, don't leave the starting area without looking behind you, then snag the BFG out of the cyber's ass, and then take out one of the archie towers so you have a safe spot to breathe in and a storage to restock ammo in every once in a while. Then go nuts!

 

MAP17: A pretty good level, with a couple of faults only. Like that 3D bridge with an unintended hole in it, the almost pointless wade-through-lava-for-40-cells secret, and the 64x128 room with two viles you have to save up health for if you want to survive it without linedef abuse. Pretty stupid. The cyber in the main area I've gotten used to, though - it's not that hard to time a run into the HK/Baron room and getting there in at least half a piece. :D I like the general theme of the map, and the yellow key mechanic is pretty interesting, although it could have been a little more refined.

 

MAP18: This one and map32 are my absolute favourites of HR2 so far, the gameplay in this one is also really addictive. The invuln trap at the start is really fun and hectic, and the following sections are mostly solid-flowing gameplay all around. It's a little bland in the rocky area, and the stupid box jumping for getting the blue key should never have left beta. Other than that, this is great.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Uncle 80
splling