Is Plutonia 2 worth playing?

[Lila Feuer]

Perhaps what I meant was arbitrary difficulty, there's a very high degree of random to it depending on which vile sees you first, where they go and if your cover matters or not, they are designed to drive you out and induce panic in such a small arena. I did some other attempts before getting launched out but wasn't happy with any of the results due to it seemingly like unavoidable high damage, the fight just plays out extremely sloppy for me.

[Finnisher]

I agree the ending of map 11 is a wtf moment. It seems you can access the exit without triggering the AVs though by sticking to the side of the stairs leading to the last room.

 

I guess the sides start lowering the barrier while the center has the encounter trigger (could check in DB to verify). They're differently textured too so clearly there's a split.

[volleyvalley]

Plutonia 2 is definitely worth playing, even if it deviates alot from the classic Casali blueprint in a few maps, but every single level made by Gusta more than makes up for it, both for their architecture and ferousity.

[HavoX]

Is Plutonia 2 worth playing? Absolutely!

Is it like the original? Well, that's for you to decide.

[bofu]

I actually prefer Plutonia 2 to Plutonia, though obviously Plutonia is the original. The levels feel more varied and interesting to me.

 

Say what you will about TNT, but I remember everything about it like the back of my hand, while there are several maps in Plutonia where I feel like the John Travolta meme as I spawn in, like, "oh yeah, this map exists I guess." I don't feel that way with Plutonia 2, as its levels feel more distinct to me.

[LadyMistDragon]

In a word, yes. It's one of the best wads released between 2005-2015 easily and might even be the best. There are maybe a few weaker maps but everyone brings a) plenty of action and b) something new to the table. I'll defend it to the death if I feel so inclined.

[Lucius Wooding]

Perhaps one of the biggest things it has going for it is the fact that mappers like Gusta and Erik Alm among others really haven't been prolific since this WAD came out. A number of the mappers on this project have seemingly retired from mapping which makes this an incredible time capsule in a way. Many of the popular WADs in the community are made by the usual suspects in the last 10-12 years so having such a collection of very talented mappers which many people haven't really been exposed to before is a breath of fresh air. For me it's a bit more modern than something like Alien Vendetta or Hell Revealed but it's still made by expert mappers with a bit more of an old school sensibility. It holds up amazingly well for what it is IMO.

 

-It's ugly, but definitely very well crafted and combat focused. In spite of having a fairly bare bones aesthetic and drab texturing like the original, it manages to pull off some pretty cool atmosphere in some of the maps, like map 28.

 

-There's some good custom MIDIs to be had and most of the time you might be running for your life rather than looking at the scenery.

 

-Every inch of the levels has a tactical purpose behind it and clever players will thrive in finding good strategies. Like the original, most of the monsters tend to be difficult to kill with very devious placement, although a couple of the later maps have some good slaughter elements where monsters are served to you on a platter.

 

It's a lot better than most Plutonia based sequels IMO, though there have been a couple I've played lately that have been quite good. I feel the quality is pretty consistent even though it mixes in some extremely long maps where I mostly prefer the shorter and mid length ones. It also has some brutally hard ones while most are fairly manageable, though you'd better be able to beat the original if you want to have a decent time with any of these.

 

-Many of the starts are extremely tough and a few of the maps are very unforgiving on resources. This WAD tends to punch a bit above its weight if you're doing pistol starts, but continuous it's a bit more beatable though there are still lots of deadly fights.

[june gloom]

This seems to be the most recent Plutonia 2 thread and I didn't want to make an entirely new thread for this, but I've gone ahead and made a small MIDI pack to cover the eight songs that Plutonia 2 either did not replace from Plutonia 1, lifted from Doom 1 outright, or borrowed from Duke Nukem 3D. I used the Ultimate Doom MIDI pack for the MIDIs. This was an extremely lazy job, I basically just grabbed the songs that corresponded to the levels that the original Plutonia MIDIs originally came from. For "Gut Wrencher" I think I just grabbed whatever was equivalent with "On The Hunt" which P2 otherwise uses as a title theme (I replaced that with the Ultimate Doom MIDI pack title theme.) My intent was to use some of the MIDI tracks that would have otherwise gone unused since I don't use the full replacement when I play Doom 1.

 

Please share any comments, critiques or suggestions.

 

PL2MIDI.zip

[Li'l devil]

Whether Plutonia 2 is worth playing is a philosophical question and the answer would depend on many factors, including your personal world view, the circumstances you're in, as well the overall historical context of your time period.

[valkiriforce]

Short answer: yes

Long answer: yes *savegame buffer overflow*