The DWmegawad Club plays: Plutonia

[Pseudonaut]

Map30: UV-Max in 1:26
It's the Icon of Sin, but harder and better. Unlike the finale of Doom 2, this one has a cyberdemon, and his position makes him practically impossible to 2-shot without relying on RNG, but I figure he could be safely taken out with the plasma gun. The process of killing the Icon differs from Doom 2 in that the lift raises more quickly, so you need to be more precise with the timing of your rockets to get them in. At the same time, this cuts down on the time spent waiting for the lift to rise or lower while you prepare to fire. Harder and better. The little pit containing the lift actually does a pretty good job of shielding you from enemy projectiles while you lower/raise the lift, so you have time for multiple failed shots.

 

 

pl30stuff.zip

 

Overall, I still think Plutonia is the best IWAD, though I did eventually feel that I'd rather be playing modern wads instead. It's also the most consistent IWAD, both in quality and difficulty; there are no terrible maps here. Not everyone will agree with that last statement, but as evidence of Plutonia's consistency, I expect there won't be much agreement on what the worst map is. If it were any other IWAD, when debating which map is the worst, most would settle on the usual unpopular maps, such as E2M9, The Chasm, Nirvana, or Habitat.

 

My favorites (in no particular order):
map04
map05
map09
map11
map15
map32
map21
map27
map29

 

Least favorite:
map25

[Silhouette 03]

Map 30: Gateway to hell, UV, continuous 

it's time to kill yet another menacing wall texture....

 

Much better than Doom 2's final fight. Prioritizing the cyberdemon above all else is key, as he will block your rockets from reaching the Icon's exposed Romero. A lot more difficult than than Doom 2's map 30 as well. You know the drill, pump 3 rockets into Romero's face and than you're done. You have survived this nightmare....

 

I'm just going to go lie down for a bit.... *slumps down face-first on the floor* 

Silhouette's Final stats:

Kills: infinite

Secrets: Not enough

Deaths: They'll need to invent new numbers to count my deaths

Fun factor of wad: -6666666666666666666666666666666666666²

 

I thought I'd close this off by saying That Plutonia, to me, will always be a masterpiece in making difficulty relentless, but fair. There are definitely harder wads nowadays, but plutonia is a different kind of difficult. A sadistic chess game, where thinking about your moves and playing smart is the only way to succeed. Something truly unique and that is hard to emulate. The Casali brothers are truly geniuses 

 

I would also like to thank all of you who took the time to read my posts and leave likes and comments. It really means a lot that you enjoy reading my posts and enjoy my feverish and cynical rants. I'd like to tag you all , but unfortunately due to the DDOS attack, things are extremely slow. So thank you all for allowing me to express my opinions and for making Doomworld a welcoming place in a time where I really needed to feel welcome and feel like I belong   

 

To all the people who voted for Plutonia this month.... Lock your doors and windows( this is not a threat  this is definitely a threat.. just kidding!) there are crazy people out there....

 

Have a safe and happy month end, friends!

 

Silhouette will return in...

DW megawad take 2: Electric Boogaloo

 

Edited February 1, 2021 by Silhou3tte

[Pechudin]

Damn, all my game time got gobbled up by another game. Also Plutonia burnout, the later maps (23+) are either hard or too long. I will finish it ... someday.

[Horus]

I managed to finish up earlier today

 

MAP27 - "Anti-Christ" by Milo Casali

 

This goes with Aztec and Death Domain in the ‘more fun in continuous’ category. It’s just more fun being able to engage with the enemies straight away rather than waiting for a gap to the PG/RL and hoping not to take too much damage in the meantime.

 

Chaingunner placement in this map is pretty dickish, especially that constantly resurrecting one. The invuln secret I found a bit tricky to get, took me a few tries, but it made the BK battle easier.

 

Needless to say this is another Living End clone, a tougher and more aesthetically interesting one than Final Frontier, but to be honest I have to say I enjoyed the Final Frontier more.

 

MAP28 - "The Sewers" by Dario Casali

 

After the harsh last map, this was a long easy map, most of the monsters appearing in a slow trickle, save for the two big battles later on.

 

It definitely goes all in on the aesthetic of a sewer, not much to look at, but it is visually cohesive. The optional YK room with a BFG was nice, and it especially helped thin out the horde on the two big battles, although infighting helps a lot in the first one too.

 

The MIDI fits the map but isn’t really to my taste. Overall, an okay inoffensive map but not one that grabs me.

 

MAP29 - "Odyssey of Noises" by Milo Casali

 

Well I didn’t expect this. Map 25 isn’t my least favourite map after all, it’s this one. A hellish city map that you could say took some influences from Downtown, but I found this one way worse to play. Just a boring trudge through a boring ugly city map, the monsters presented in slow trickles and often in irritating positions (such as that open chaingunner room), and lost of running round in circles, guessing what switches do, etc. Just not fun.

 

MAP30 - "The Gateway of Hell" by Milo Casali

 

And this one I actually preferred to Map 25 (and a few others). It’s an IoS map so it still sucks, but aside from the two pointless barons at the start, it removes most of the annoyances of the original Icon of Sin, thanks to the fast lift and its ability to be called frequently. The best IoS map in the IWADs imo, though that's not much of an accolade.

 

Overall

 

I had always considered Plutonia my favourite IWAD. But now I don’t. It’s probably on par with Doom II, and worse than TNT. Some of that might be due to pistol starting, as some maps definitely played worse that way, but for the most part the maps played fine that way, and were probably more enjoyable as pistol starting avoids the ‘super Doomguy’ problem that makes continuous playthroughs too easy and more boring as a result. But also, modern WADs have simply bettered the Plutonia formula. There are still classics, such as The Twilight, Abattoire and Tombstone. But many maps which I remembered fondly I no longer hold in such high esteem. That’s not to say Plutonia is a bad mapset – it’s not, and I enjoyed most of the maps here.

 

Now, time to watch MtPain27’s Dean of Doom video on Plutonia.

 

Final level rankings:

Spoiler

MAP15 - "The Twilight" by Milo Casali
MAP09 - "Abattoire" by Milo Casali
MAP23 - "Tombstone" by Milo Casali
MAP05 - "Ghost Town" by Milo Casali
MAP08 - "Realm" by Milo Casali
MAP07 - "Caughtyard" by Dario Casali
MAP04 - "Caged" by Dario Casali
MAP01 - "Congo" by Milo Casali
MAP26 - "Bunker" by Dario Casali
MAP22 - "Impossible Mission" by Dario Casali
MAP19 - "NME" by Milo Casali
MAP24 - "The Final Frontier" by Dario Casali
MAP12 - "Speed" by Milo Casali
MAP13 - "The Crypt" by Milo Casali
MAP02 - "Well of Souls" by Dario Casali
MAP17 - "Compound" by Dario Casali
MAP18 - "Neurosphere" by Milo Casali
MAP10 - "Onslaught" by Dario Casali
MAP06 - "Baron's Lair" by Dario Casali
MAP03 - "Aztec" by Milo Casali
MAP28 - "The Sewers" by Dario Casali
MAP27 - "Anti-Christ" by Milo Casali
MAP11 - "Hunted" by Dario Casali
MAP21 - "Slayer" by Milo Casali
MAP16 - "The Omen" by Milo Casali
MAP14 - "Genesis" by Dario Casali
MAP30 - "The Gateway of Hell" by Milo Casali
MAP31 - "Cyberden" by Dario Casali
MAP20 - "The Death Domain" by Dario Casali
MAP25 - "The Temple of Darkness" by Milo Casali
MAP29 - "Odyssey of Noises" by Milo Casali

 

[Walter confetti]

MAP29: Finally, the best map in Plutonia and the best city level in a commercial IWAD! This map is a big epic in this city corrupted by hell forces, including lots of red rock canyons with toxic blood in it, lots of interconnected places, lots of traps and a really thought and epic battles. The only problem is the fact that this map is confusing sometimes and you run around searching for a safe route but instead you found yourself in the usual places you've seen all the time. Awesome city map but a bit confusing sometimes. Also, why calling this map "Odyssey of Noises?". I get the Odyssey part, but not the Noises.

 

MAP30: And after the best city map (and best map), we have the final encounter with the best MAP30 in a commercial IWAD, that instead of being or just a boring arena like in Doom 2 or a way too complex map like in TNT, is a perfect mix of arena-style map and a challenging combat situation, good final battle.

 

Overall, a pretty good megawad with some downers like MAP28 but there's nothing truly atrocious. Maybe too similar in theme, is like an entire episode of 32 maps, like a old time version of "Oops! All chaingunners and revenants and bricks!".

 

BEST MAP(S):

MAP09

Almost all the episode 2

MAP22

MAP23

MAP29

 

"WORST" MAP(S):

MAP11 (don't hate me, i don't like it)

MAP16

MAP25

MAP28

 

Rest of the maps are pretty cool.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Walter confetti

[purist]

24. The Final Frontier (Dario Casali)

 

After a pair of very un-Plutonia type maps this was more like familiar terroritory. We are back to arena style battles with long distance firefights. The obvious IWAD inspiration here is the Living End with the narrow windy catwalk surrounding the cavernous poisonous pit and incoming fire from distant foes. There is little to do on the way to completing the circuit compared what I remember from the Doom II penultimate map and I think I was more fortunate rather than stumbling into the intended strategy when the baron and cyb started infighting in what could otherwise have been a frustrating roadblock. Said, cyberdemon is used as a turret in what is typical in Plutonia and as usual serves as a deadly pest until you earn a vantage point to take him out in the safety of cover (I did this from the blue key ledge) as it doesn't seem like he would get in the right spot to allow you to telefrag him. The pain elementals could be a pest but I had plenty of plasma to spare on them when needed and could even use rockets with no danger of splash damage when it seemed they could not get onto the ledge with the blue switch.

 

This is not what I would call a special map but, like Slayer it is short enough not to outlive it's welcome and has a few fun moments and it has a nice atmosphere with some creative flourishes like the crystal sectors and mid-tex bars giving the appearances of archviles and revenants in cages suspended from the ceiling. So Dario just about earns his purist point and takes a late 8-7 lead in what has proven to be a close contest so far.

 

25. The Temple of Darkness (Milo Casali)

 

Another misnomer here where there is not really much darkness. The area with the hell nobles, my favourite part of the level, is possible the titular Temple but the darkness is metaphorical at best. The level starts in a quite ugly but intriguing area, which but after this it is the normal Plutonia themes we have come to expect. The aforementioned hell noble fight killed me loads of times and is a classic example of how to use barons - tight areas where their HP becomes intimidating to whittle down rather than a chore. The initial trap where the baron will teleport in your position when you move is a delightful game of chicken and then the trick is find enough elbow room to work in the side annexes and even these are guarded by shotgunners taking up pressures seconds to waste before your exits are block. I found that running to the empty side frees up enough space to use rockets to thin the crowd before dashing to the opposite side to repeat if neccessary like a game of bulldogs - great fun.

 

Every fight here has it's dangers and we the well worn supprise chaingunner firing squad is employed again. I almost saved myself into an unwinnable position after missing the switches that open the final doors, which I thought was an unneccessarily mean design choice but complaining of this 25 levels into Plutonia seems redundant and outside of this quibble I had great fun so I donate 1 purist point to the temple and tie up the scores once again 8-8.

 

26. Bunker (Dario Casali)

 

A long (for Plutonia) unwieldy map that was not a great choice for "one more map before bedtime", which given the name I thought would be a safe gamble. The Casali brothers seem to have end-loaded their longer, switch-hunt maps as this is the third in this final episode but in my opinion the best of them so far. The level had a strange and sometimes exploratorily layout not really guiding you and spreading weapons in such a way you may need to back out of areas until you have the appropriate arsenal to fight. Whichever way you choose you will not be short of monsters to shoot at, particularly sergeants of which there are 42 in the HMP skill level I am playing. Unlike Impossible Mission and Tombstone the incidental encounters will keep you on your toes and there are more larger scale battles to add balance. The vast sunken bunker itself is a more atmospheric locale than the tech/hell styles clash in maps 22 & 23.

 

Early going it felt like I was continuously being given multiple options of travel and whichever I choose took me into vast areas and had me wondering whether I will later realised I have missed some important objectives (other than the rocket launcher it turned out I did OK) but other than that uncertain feeling it felt like an adventure. However, once I picked up the red key I  had covered enough of the map that searching for the red door became somewhat tedius. Again, where the Casali's rely on switch hunt progression they don't do a great job of indicating what your switches do or where your keys are used. In the end I don't think I ever used the blue key but could still end the level so that is apparently optional but the fact I had both suggests I covered the majority of the level.

 

The good in this one outweighs the bad and it turned out there was only one passage of play that I spent more time in the automap that not so I put Dario 9-8 ahead on purist points and will say goodnight for today, hopefully completing the final three levels before the weekend is over.

[Starduster]

Day 30 ~ Maps 29-30 ~ DSDA Doom/PRBoom+ 2.5.1.5 ~ NM100s ~ Pistol start ~ Midi pack

 

MAP29 - Odyssey of Noises

Deaths: 38 - Pretty frustrating for me. The red key section felt like pure RNG. Just learn the fastest route and rush the entire map.

 

MAP30 - The Gateway of Hell

Deaths: 2 - Getting an exit took only one try, but I wanted a better-looking run. I was alright at timing the Icon of Sin. Fun map :) GG. I finished this on Christmas eve, so it was like an early Christmas present. All maps done.

 

Favorites:

MAP32 - Go 2 It: Very over-the-top and still fun to play to this day.

MAP06 - Baron’s Lair: Only 60 monsters and it still manages to feel like slaughter.

MAP10 - Onslaught: Traps, traps, traps, and traps. Kinda funny to me.

MAP17 - Compound: Amazing gameplay and the midi rocks.

MAP23 - Tombstone: An engaging, nonlinear map that is always a joy to replay.

MAP24 - The Final Frontier: It’s an homage to the living end :) my favorite Doom 2 map.

MAP27 - Anti-Christ: Quite chaotic.

[RottingZombie]

What a great set of levels. Frustration, yes, but the good kind - if you're in the right mood. Never did get around to map 32, but someday...

 

 

[head_cannon]

(Crispy Doom, UV, Pistol Start, No Saves)

hc_plu18.zip

MAP18 - Neurosphere

 

Hey, remember that Chaingunner from Onslaught that shot you in the back when you were getting a drink in between maps? How about a crowd of zombies & imps, closing in before you even know where you are or what's going on?

 

The obnoxiousness of that "dead in five seconds" starting setup aside, this map is a chill adventure across a haunted village. And, at the very least, the opening view shows you the first weapon pickup which points the way to the sanctuary with the blue armor - the point where the player can actually get started and underway.

 

After the frantic opening gunfight has run its course and you emerge triumphant, Neurosphere settles down into a really solid The Inmost Dens clone. The pop-up Chaingunners on the red key path do have a bit of a bite to them, but mostly this is just low-key incidental combat as you explore, which is enjoyable in its own way but seems a little out of character for this mapset.

 

The final key of the map is protected by a diverse mob of mostly high-tier monsters. I used to be a lot more afraid of them before I learned that they can't leave their turret. If you can force your way through the front gate and break in to their castle, they're just corner-camp fodder.

 

Back before I discovered those monster-blocking lines, I would always just hide safely behind the southern red bars, shouting insults and making rude gestures. Despite the fact that I couldn't be hit, the mob of monsters had to try launching attacks anyway, and with how tightly packed together they were, it was inevitable that they'd sloppily end up hitting each other. Fights broke out among the ranks, and whenever one demon had turned its ire upon another and ripped them apart, the Arch-Vile overseer would keep patiently picking them up off the ground, putting all their blood back in, and releasing them to do it all over again, until he was caught in too many crossfires and perished. It was a slow, unsporting way to defeat a miniboss, but not only did it render the area safe when I finally got there, it resulted in a rich bounty of shotguns & chainguns to collect.

 

The exit room is unusually large. It's not a drag or anything, and the row of half-arches over the canal looks nice enough, but that one Chaingunner placed in front of the final switch just makes me wonder why there wasn't more, and why the space wasn't used as a proper combat encounter. That's really just a nitpick, though. Overall, Neurosphere looks good and plays briskly. Just like the previous one, it's a fine breather map.

[head_cannon]

hc_plu19-30.zip

 

Here we are at the end of the month. For posterity's sake, here's demonstrations of maps 19-30. It was great fun giving a full replay to The Plutonia Experiment this month - I do not write very fast but I'm glad I participated nontheless.

 

If you enjoyed this IWAD, there are several tribute sets made by mappers who grew up playing Plutonia and wanted to pay homage to it. I have not yet played Plutonia 2, but I can vouch for the overall quality and faithfulness of the Plutonia Revisited Community Project. This comes with the caveat that, like most community projects, you're much better off IDCLEV-ing around and sampling individual maps than you are if you try to consume the whole thing in one Continuous playthrough.

 

The megawad has its gems & its duds, but if nothing else, I guarantee that Matt Tropiano's, evocalvin's, Xaser's and Joshy's maps are absolutely worth your time.

 

-

 

...I might dump a gigantic wall of text in this thread later in 2021 with the remaining twelve writeups, but for now, as we wrap up, many thanks to the club members for sharing their knowledge about and their opinions on this classic.

[Shepardus]

MAP30 - The Gateway of Hell

UV Max (-solo-net) from pistol start

 

And so we reach the end... with an IoS map. At least it's better-looking than Doom II's, and it's still short enough that a few restarts isn't too painful. I was considering doing a UV Speed of this level instead of UV Max because I don't like trying to figure out what monsters are left to be killed in maps with a monster spawner, but it turned out that memorizing and killing all the initial monsters wasn't too hard - they're in accessible locations and except for the cyberdemon they all come in symmetrical pairs.

 

Exclusive to co-op on Ultraviolence difficulty is a second monster spawner, adding some extra time pressure, but I think if you can complete the map with one monster spawner, you can do it with two. I had several failed attempts but even I managed to pull it off. The walls around the lift do a good job of shielding you from most of the enemy fire, so you only need to be concerned about the closest enemies.

 

And now, for a roundup:

 

Playing through Plutonia with -solo-net was an interesting experience. Given how comparatively little attention co-op gets from both players and designers, especially as a serious single-player experience, I had little idea of what to expect going into this. I just knew of maps 01, 22, and 32, and wanted to see what else could be hiding behind the multiplayer flags. A lot of the maps aren't much different from their single-player versions, but the remaining ones exhibited a range of multiplayer tunings from troll cyberdemons to more thorough difficulty rebalancing and altered weapon progression. I wonder what else they might have tried had the Casalis had access to Boom's flags to tag things for specific modes rather than vanilla's simple boolean for multiplayer-only; there were a fair share of maps that seemed designed for deathmatch but not co-op. MAP06 at least tries to account for both multiplayer modes with its setup to hide items intended for deathmatch (which is still exploitable in co-op, but whatever). I'm pleased that I was able to single-segment UV Max all but one of the maps from pistol start (MAP22 being the sole exception), since I had no guarantee that that would even be possible.

 

A couple lists for those who want to give solo-net a try but aren't sure where to start:

 

Hardest (relative to single-player):

1. MAP22 (The Impossible Mission) - All thanks to the blue key room with the two cyberdemons and six arch-viles. Some other additions like the chaingunners and arch-vile at the start are troublesome too, but it all comes down to that one room. This was clearly not balanced for a deathless run, or for any mode of play really. It's a small miracle that it's possible at all if you get very lucky with your infighting (it requires a little less luck if you take in a BFG from previous levels, but is still a crapshoot).
2. MAP14 (Genesis) - Assuming you're playing from pistol start. The cyberdemon and the general ammo shortage are much less of a problem if you're carrying resources from previous levels, but this map is surprisingly tough from a pistol start on -solo-net, especially considering that it's normally one of the easier maps.
3. MAP19 (NME) - The two extra cyberdemons are very inconvenient and demand preparation. The second cyberdemon in particular is a bit of a crapshoot even with a proper plan.
4. MAP25 (The Temple of Darkness) - Like MAP14, there isn't a single addition here that's much of a problem on its own, but the sum of it all makes it noticeably tougher than in single-player. Similar to MAP14, ammo can be a problem, at least until you reach the blue key.
5. MAP10 (Onslaught) - This map's quite tough until you reach the sewer section, with the additional chaingunners at the beginning cutting down your health and the cyberdemon laying down pressure. It's significantly easier if you perform the skip into the building with the super shotgun, though.

 

Easiest (relative to single-player): I tried putting together a list for this, but scrapped it because it was hard to distinguish between the many cases of "almost the same as single-player but marginally easier due to more weapons/ammo, but maybe harder due to a few extra enemies." Special shoutout to MAP06 (Baron's Lair) for being a piece of cake if you grab the deathmatch BFG through the wall (it's still fun in its own right, though).

 

 

Most different from single-player:

1. MAP14 (Genesis) - Assuming you play from pistol start. Evading the cyberdemon while shooting a way through the revenants while trying not to run out of ammo is much different from breezing through the single-player version of this map.
2. MAP01 (Congo) - Co-op/solo-net makes this map a lot more focused on rockets... and revenants. Not necessarily harder, but different.
3. MAP06 (Baron's Lair) - Assuming you grab the deathmatch BFG at the beginning.
4. MAP03 (Aztec) - You get a super shotgun! And a BFG! And way more rockets! Sure the cyberdemon on the bridge is annoying, but the extra arsenal still makes it worth checking out.
5. MAP32 (Go 2 It) - This is the real "Cyberden"! It's debatable how much difference all these extra cyberdemons really makes

 

My favorite maps (either solo-net or not):

1. MAP11 (Hunted) - The OG arch-vile maze, and still the best one in my opinion.
2. MAP32 (Go 2 It) - Preferably in single-player (co-op/solo-net goes overboard with the cyberdemons IMO). It's simplistic and not too hard by modern slaughtermap standards, but I really like the open layout and how it scales a lot with how quickly you try to take it.
3. MAP15 (The Twilight) - There's a certain satisfaction to getting secrets left and right and blasting through the map with the powerups they grant.
4. MAP01 (Congo) - In single-player, this is the perfect intro to Plutonia, a remarkably well-balanced map that offers a little bit of everything without going too overboard.
5. MAP05 (Ghost Town) - I have a soft spot for how over-the-top this map seems without actually being too harsh for the well-versed player.

 

Least favorite maps:

1. MAP25 (The Temple of Darkness) - I have a lot of little annoyances with this level, and solo-net only serves to exacerbate them. The multiple sections to this map feel like filler to draw out the map and bait the player into making a costly mistake.
2. MAP02 (Well of Souls) - The Indiana Jones-esque vibe doesn't work for me, at least not the way it's done here with its weird progression and annoying traps.
3. MAP31 (Cyberden) - Nothing I really hate about this map (other than those arch-viles behind fake walls), but I just find this map dull and repetitive.
4. MAP28 (The Sewers) - Probably the most fully-realized setting in the wad, but the gameplay is boring and feels unfinished next to the rest of the wad.
5. MAP30 (The Gateway of Hell) - It's an Icon of Sin map. Far from the worst such map, but I don't think I'll ever enjoy the game of timing rockets while riding up a lift.

 

Plutonia's my favorite IWAD out of Ultimate Doom, Doom II, and Final Doom. The Casalis demonstrate a keen sense of how to prey on players' expectations and keep them on their toes, merging intense encounters with clean and (usually) not ugly locales. Most of the best the wad has to offer is in the first half, but even the second half never sinks as low as the lowest points of the other IWADs. There's more blatant inspiration/ripoffs from Doom and Doom II than I remembered, but Plutonia also injects its own flavor. Its influence on the decades of PWADs to follow cannot be understated, nor is it undeserved, but Plutonia still holds up well today and remains a unique experience despite said influence on other wads.

[golbeeze]

Maps 24-29 (I hate IoS maps)

Oh wow I haven't been posting. Uhhh, final maps here!

 

[Andromeda]

Was a bit busy in the last three days, will only post about MAP28 and MAP29 today to avoid writing a wall of text.

 

MAP28: The Sewers

 

An earlier poster compared this level to "Habitat" from TNT. I disagree, "The Sewers" is not as great as "Habitat" but it's good nonetheless. Feels somewhat out of place in Plutonia, might be another one of those TNT rejects. Looks wise this is the most architecturally sound level in Plutonia, yet another exhibit that the Casali brothers were ahead of the pack in 1996. It also evidences some theme mishmash, not to the extent of MAP13 but enough for it to be noticeable. Gameplay is nothing to write home about for the most part, other than a few big teleport traps and some unexpected (not as much nowadays) arch-vile deployments.

 

It's also a bit buggy, perhaps alluding to its "Habitat" heritage that frequently crashed the original executable. The bugs in "The Sewers" though, despite not being fatal they also affect most source-ports: apart from the already mentioned computer area map issue, the two big teleport traps are also flawed. The one near the megasphere is easy to skip, while the one near the exit is implemented in such a bad way that it's a 50-50 whether all monsters will teleport out, making this level one of the most feared in a D2ALL (whole game) UV Max run.

 

MAP29: Odyssey of Noises

 

Ah yes, this level. One of the earliest competent city depictions, only rivalled by Memento Mori MAP28 at the time, and the third and last exploration centric level in the wad. The difficulty is also toned down, following the tune set by the previous level, with only the rocket launcher trap being potentially cumbersome. Sure, there's a Cyberdemon and plenty of arch-viles, but the former is only a threat for a slow and careless player while the healers are placed for the most part to restrict movement rather than being a priority target (with one exception).

 

Killing all the monsters is annoying, what with the hitscanners on small turrets and the critters WAY in the distance across the blood pit. If you don't care to dispatch all the enemies though then the only thing you have to worry about is conserving your armor (only one megaarmor in the level if you don't find the secret megasphere). The final room houses three secluded arch-viles in a last ditch attempt to kill you as you're crossing the fragile platforms to the exit - ultimately futile if you survive, since there's a teleporter in the pit to bring you to safety, and another one that opens near the entrance to send you to the other side after the platforms collapse.

 

Good stuff.

[golbeeze]

No vote reached four?

[Horus]

35 minutes ago, golbeeze said:

No vote reached four?

 

The Rowdy Rudy group got four I think

[galileo31dos01]

changed my vote to the rowdys

[purist]

27. Anti-Christ (Milo Casali)

 

It's embarrassing to admit after playing Doom since 1994 but I only truly understood how easy it is to stun-lock a Spiderdemon until the end of this level but I went kamakazi with the plasma rifle and took great joy in keeping the poor mastermind in a perma-pain state until explosion. I liked this map but it felt a little lazy after having already had one retread of the Living End earlier in this same episode albeit we get Milo's variation on the theme. If anything this was a quicker, less stressful version despite being later in the map. There are moments where it really shows it's teeth but it also showers you in cells and, at least in the case of the blue key, an escape route if you don't mind melting some barons in close quarters.

 

In it's own right it is a small but fun level, it's just a bit redundant in the context of the episode. Dario got a purist point for the Final Frontier so it's only fair Milo gets one for his superior version to reset the scores 9-9.

 

28. The Sewers (Dario Casali)

 

I was expecting to hate this. The Sewers brings up an expectation of long mazey corridors, samey textures and damaging floors, all of which you get, plus the trademark Plutonia cruelty, which is debabately here as Dario actually goes pretty easy. Rad suits are plentiful, damaging floors are only unavoidable for small stretches where there is no protection and plenty of solid ground was available for larger scale fights. The mazey tunnels are not helped by the green brick textures everywhere but are kept to a minimum, the lighting is good and (two!) free computer maps are given away early on, which not only help with the layout but make secret hunting easy. There are a few monster heavy fights that look tough on first view (I got caught by the mancs before the red key with about 20 shells to kill them all before realising I must have missed an ammo cache somewhere and backtracking) but if you find the vast supplies in the library and later the BFG behind the yellow door you can comfortable circle strafe anything thrown at you. I even unintentionally cheesed what at worst looked to be a very tame final fight by blasting the lowering arch vile an impressive distance by quickly drawing my BFG before he lowered to the ground and the revenants failed to trigger until I backed back from the exit to see what I missed.

 

One thing I realised when playing this is that Melon was clearly inspired by this when making The Stench of Freedom, MAP03 of Hadephobia.

I'm probably giving it more credit than it deserves by virtue of not being as bad as I thought it would be but I am going to hand over what may be a vital purist point to Dario to edge him back in the lead 10-9.

 

29. Odyssey of Noises (Milo Casali)

 

I knew I was in for Plutonia's most epic map here. It is a city map in the penultimate spot so it was always going to be. What I didn't expect was that the Odyssey in question largely involves walking lost in the city street beyond the point of feeling like an adventure to where you just want to go home and forget the whole sorry affair much like anti-climax the end of so many good drunken nights.

 

Much of the mosters in this map are turretted and can largely be ignored until you have what feels like an infinite supply of rockets and you are positioned well to take them out. Alternatively, save them for a bit of target practice while you walking around trying to figure out where to go next. The other non-setpiece and non-turret monsters roam harmlessly around the huge area apparently as lost as I am.

 

This is a sandbox grid style city map straight out of Hell on Earth's second episode and whilst in some ways it does a better job than Sandy Peterson it still slips into every pitfall this map style suffers from.

 

Maybe when you know where you are going this is an absolute blast to play but I doubt it. Even inside the buildings where there is potential for locked-in setpieces the fights were pretty lame. If you die in this level it is probably from failing to pay attention to some revenant rockets that have been following you unbeknowst to you.

 

Without playing this level it was kind of the basis for my Dead Planet level, also a MAP29, in Hadephobia but comparing the two having played this the similarities are largely the theme, textures and a bit of roof running but otherwise they are very different, which maybe says something about the differences in my preferences in level design.

 

No purist point for you Milo, go away and think about what you have done. Milo has one unlikely change to even the series but it's too late in the night so I will hopefully be back to finish this thing tomorrow.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP30 - "The Gateway of Hell" - Milo Casali  (100%K/25%I/0%S) - 15 deaths:

The Icon of Sin finale we probably expected, but we don't deserve, luckly is a better rendition than the Doom II one, althought not as good as the TNT finale. Short map and to the point, sadly it teases you that is going to be a bigger map before the obvious ending, but it's not. The barons guarding the BFG are useless, avoid them. The good thing is that the rest is more challenging, as you get teleported into a room with two arch-viles inside, nothing too bad, the good thing to expand the map's duration is that there is a nasty cyberdemon blocking the IOS with its body, and the bad thing is that it is really challenging to kill him with rockets having so many fast monsters spawning close to you, making, in fact, trying to blast him melee range with BFG shots more effective than 1v1ing him. Once you kill him, the rest is the same as Doom II, but less annoying, lower the lift, hop on, shoot rockets, repeat until you kill Romero.

Lackluster map.

Deaths: 239 (UV Playthrough - Chocolate Doom)

 

Order of preference:
 

Spoiler

MAP23 (Excelent)
MAP22
 

MAP18 (Great)
MAP12
MAP14
MAP29

MAP17 (Good)
MAP11
MAP04
MAP01

MAP27 (OK)

MAP19

MAP10
MAP03
 
MAP26 (Average)
MAP09
MAP07
MAP05
MAP02
MAP13
MAP06
MAP28
MAP24

MAP08 (Bad)
MAP21
MAP20
MAP30

MAP16 (Awful)
MAP25

 

Sadly ID Software forced us to finish all our mapsets with an IOS fight forever, they could manage to make some weird script or a new enemy at least for the Plutonia finale, knowing that it is a new rendition, that could have changed things a lot, and that would have meant that people would have chosen Plutonia as their goto mapset to mod, instead of Doom II, but no, let's just rush another pack of maps.
I'll give my final impresions later.

[dobu gabu maru]

3 hours ago, golbeeze said:

No vote reached four?

 

3 hours ago, Horus said:

 

The Rowdy Rudy group got four I think

 

Indeed, the Rowdy trio has gotten four votes. Takes me longer to make the thread for 3 different wads.

[Starduster]

It's the 31st and I've already gone through and shared my thoughts on all the maps. Now I'd like to show off two demos, they are full-game runs of this WAD:

 

UV-Max (single-segment) in 3hr05m45s by me: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k4htdqx3yf06rqs/AAC-wVMkdUMCdtvvQM_tUuu0a?dl=0

I practiced a lot, learned the best strategies that I could find, had some terrible deaths, and this was the end result. Looking back, my first playthrough of Plutonia took lots of saving and dying to finish. Feels great to be able to say that I beat Plutonia in one sitting without dying at all :D.

 

Nightmare! all secrets (single-segment) in 1hr11m39s by JCD: https://dsdarchive.com/files/demos/plutonia/50767/30ps7139.zip

Now, let me talk about how insane this run is. Most of what I say here is what I learned from watching JCD's attempts on stream. The struggle starts at MAP01. Dying and resets there can get repetitive as there is no "safe" strategy for each section. MAP12 is easier with a BFG, but so many things can go wrong. Gotta save up HP for the rocket jump to the exit. The secret maps are where most runs would end. 31 needs to be played safely which involves tediously killing cyberdemons with rockets. If any respawn before you are able to finish the yellow key tower climb, the run could be in serious danger. MAP32 was for sure the scariest map to watch. You can die anywhere, but the real scary sections are at the blue key and blue door. Any run that made it past 32 was a real thing. 23-25 is a super duper scary stretch of maps. Not a lot of runs made it to 23, even fewer past that map. I felt like I was going to explode after witnessing this run happen.

 

GG!

[kalaeth]

time to finish this!

MAP 30 : In typical IoS fashion I am showered with ammo and weapons and a megasphere on the initial room, I take a deep breath and jump. A pair of Barons protect the BFG, and then there is a.. very suggestive shape for me to enter into and a pair of AVs to greet me, and after that, chaingunners. Unsure if it was the chaingunners that killed me or the cyberdemon that shows up in the distance, I restart.

Second go : this time I deal with the barons without damage, and then fall into the very damaging floor outside.

Third go : end up dying to a cyberocket right to the face.

Fourth go : good dodging and reoving the cyberdemon before going for the IoS proves to be the trick. 

3 deaths, 4m13 seconds, 94% kills.

 

TOTAL : 7 hours, 19 minutes and 16 seconds of plutonia after I can say I've finally finished it! YEY! 

[Andromeda]

On 1/30/2021 at 10:00 PM, Walter confetti said:

Also, why calling this map "Odyssey of Noises?". I get the Odyssey part, but not the Noises.

Perhaps the noises made by the demons eagerly awaiting to be killed? :P

 

MAP30: The Gateway of Hell

 

Whereas TNT opted to make a fully fledged level and append the IoS at the end, Plutonia reused the Doom II formula but adding some enemies to make it more challenging. And it was successful in that regard, as this is a short murder box with a Cyberdemon protecting the Gatekeeper (easily cheesed from the bottom of the stairs near the pit, reminding me of our first meeting back in MAP06), a pair of arch-viles and other assorted monsters. The lift is even more annoying than in the original version, but it's not too taxing to reset a few times until you manage to lob two or three rockets into the mastermind's brain. Not bad at all!

 

Final Thoughts:

 

My favourite of the IWADs and seems to be most people's choice as well, which is all the more impressive considering the short timespan these levels were made. It's a step up in difficulty over Ultimate Doom/Doom II and even the other half of Final Doom, but it's actually a fairly smooth ride on subsequent plays since much of it's challenge is tied to nasty traps rather than excellent monster usage (with a few exceptions, most notably on MAP25). Still, back then it was the hardest megawad around, Doomers had to wait until the following year to get their hands on Hell Revealed, a wad that on HNTR makes Plutonia on UV look like a cakewalk (speaking of HR, it was maxed on UV in a single sitting today for the first time, a massive achievement).

 

Favourite levels:

1. MAP11: Hunted

2. MAP23: Tombstone

3. MAP02: Well of Souls

[DJVCardMaster]

The Plutonia Experiment - The Casali Brothers:

The best IWAD yet, in par with NERVE.WAD but obviously better because of the length of Plutonia itself. It's just amazing that the Casali Brothers made this in 4 months, meaning that they had like 120 days to finish 22 maps (As they had 8 ready to showcase them to ID Software, and thus, get the project accepted). This means, a new map every 5 days, and considering how short are some of them, this feels kind of obvious, but trying to fit playtesting sessions, or trying to check the longer maps, and considering how long some other maps were, this really gets my attention. This is an amazing work whatsoever, even though some maps may be forgettable, or just not up to par.
The difficulty is at every moment, near to insane, you'll always need to be focus on every single thing you do, because some traps may get you by surprise. At some point in the wad, you'll kind of expect what's next, around map16, Plutonia has taught you everything you need to progress through the next 14 levels. This means, the first levels are the ones in which you'll die the most, because of your inexperience, or lack of "Doom" training, but not because they are any more difficult.
Mapstyles for both mappers can get a little repetitive, specially for Milo's maps, but Dario has a big set of different styles than Milo, both in terms of layout and aesthetics.
Plutonia can feel samey at moments, but there is always some "snowflake" moments which you will recognize pretty well, like MAP11, MAP26, the city in MAP29, or their constant references to ID Software's maps. 
For the average gamer, buying Final Doom and playing Plutonia without having any experience at Doom games, would have been a real pain, but I guess this timeline in which someone's first Doom experience was the "Final" one does not exist.
Maps may be short for the most part, and samey, but you can notice how professional the levels are in comparison to ID Software ones, or specially TNT ones, this is why Dario and Milo got to be map designers for other games.

Not only the best IWAD, but also one of the best Doom mapsets overall, I don't think it is top ten with so many contenders at this point, but yes, one of the greatests.

The Plutmid is a great addition to something Plutonia lacked, new music, but there are some places in which some tracks don't work with the levels.

Best maps:

MAP23 - It can be the opposite for others, but for me, Tombstone is a great experience, everything Plutonia has to offer packed in a long but not exhausting map, with great visuals, but its only problem may be how confusing it can be. Still it didn't ruin the experience for me.
MAP22 - The same I can say for this map than Tombstone, but with more amateurish things, this is an even longer journey than Tombstone, but still enjoyable, and I think is one of the best maps to play multiplayer, the only thing apart from the confusing aspect, may be its "Die or die" moments or that it feels out of place for Plutonia.
MAP18 - A sucker for The Inmost Dens homages like this, possibly the best ever made, and a fun map overall to play.

Worst maps:

MAP30 - An average Icon of Sin maps, has a better build-up than Doom II's, but it's still meh. We are sadly doomed to end our mapsets with this.
MAP16 - Not only short and dull, but also broken, specially at the end, not shooting a single bullet can make you rush to the hitscanner room without awakening anyone, and with free BFG shots to deal with them. Progression is just there, and you don't need the red key to open the bars, and talking about oversights, you can get softlocked in the nukage pit at the end, since it does not damage you, and you can't exit without cheats. How good it looks does not save this map.
MAP25 - Amateurish Milo map at its best, starts regular but gets even worse the more you play it, the only map I don't even want to replay in future playthroughs, not to mention is ugly as hell (No pun intended).
 

Score: 89/100 (Great)

I was really scared to miss the month in which we play Plutonia, I seriously wanted to tackle for once this mapset in UV.

[Rytrik]

Map 03 - Aztec

 

Finished this map. Tbh, I've been fighting going back to it & Plutonia all month long (was also not in a Plutonia mindset this past month). But today, on id's 30th birthday, I beat it. I certainly could've done a lot better, and done it at a higher difficulty. But it's done.

 

Overall impressions: It's an interesting level. TBH, I'm not fond of the 2 bridge sequences. I've noticed that the Casali's are rather dickish in places, and it's forever changed how I approach any situation in Doom (spoiler - pure suspicion..). So.. net positive?

 

I may continue my Plutonia journey at some point. It's not exactly my speed, but I know it's a WAD that deserves to be beaten. Into gibs. With various weaponry.

 

11/10

Edited February 2, 2021 by Rytrik

[T-Rex]

15 hours ago, Andromeda said:

Still, back then it was the hardest megawad around, Doomers had to wait until the following year to get their hands on Hell Revealed, a wad that on HNTR makes Plutonia on UV look like a cakewalk (speaking of HR, it was maxed on UV in a single sitting today for the first time, a massive achievement).

 

I have to disagree with that statement of Hell Revealed on HNTR making Plutonia on UV look like a cakewalk since I find it to be about as difficult as Doom 2 and TNT on UV, and Map 30 doesn't even have any monsters. However, I can say that it would be the case for Hell Revealed on HMP as it is slightly challenging on that difficulty than Plutonia on UV, though it still manages to be accessible for casual Doomers. At least in the lower difficulties you don't have to deal with 13 cyberdemons like in Go 2 It, with 9 being the highest amount (in Resistance is Futile, just 1 more than in Post Mortem and Top Hell) you'll be facing on HMP and 3 on ITYTD/HNTR. Speaking of Go 2 It, I looked up multiplayer settings for HR and there is not a single map that has over 30 cyberdemons. Whoever UV-maxed HR on UV in a single sitting deserves a gold medal.

[Andromeda]

4 minutes ago, T-Rex said:

I have to disagree with that statement of Hell Revealed on HNTR making Plutonia on UV look like a cakewalk

Might be worth mentioning I'm speaking from a pistol start perspective, on continuous play they're about the same.

[purist]

30. The Gateway to Hell (Milo Casali)

 

This is maybe a degree better than Icon of Sin but otherwise it is a standard spawn cube shooter. The cyberdemon guarding the platform is perhaps the only gameplay wrinkle but I found him quite simple to take care of with the BFG. The mechanism for rocketing the boss brain was at least mechanically simple to accomplish, which limited the frustration levels. The snag of having the platform sink below ground level being that I didn't get the satisfaction of a visual on the explosive finale having dropped down at the moment.

 

There's little to say about this. It looked fine, weird choice to place baron's in a place they cannot really hurt you at the beginning and having the cyb does buy time for the level to fill up a little with monsters to add pressure but I was able to largely ignore them anyway.

 

No purist point for Milo, which leaves him one short of Dario in the final 10-9 score. But then, having read T-Rex's posts, there is some debate over which Casali designed several of the maps so in the end it is a meaningless exercise.

 

The Plutonia Experiment

 

I went into this was some pre-conceived expectations. Some of which were met, arcady gameplay, area type maps, wicked traps, high ratios of revenants, arch viles & chaingunners. Whilst, some were not. Plutonia is difficult by IWAD standards but only basic strategies or sinply the benefit of hindsight are required for most levels and for my money it generally gets easier rather than more difficult so those finding the early maps tough but beatable should not be put off like I was initially. It also plays differently than I expected, sure it has the arcady approach to resource distribution, form-over-function layouts and gimmicky traps but this doesn't hold true over the whole WAD - particularly in the last episode where the longer, more conventional type maps are in greater frequency. Most of all it certainly does not have the guts 'n' glory, run and gun style that punishes conservative play that I had falsley assumed from largely experiencing it through speedrun demos and mistaking the widely discussed contrast in style to other IWADs. Yes, Plutonia typically favours the die-and-retry philosophy over exploration or attrition but it will punish those rushing aggressively and reward those willing to retreat or strategise ways to mitigate the uncoming threats.

 

Overally, this has been an eduction. Plutonia is a must-play. I would say more than any of the other IWADs for learning the mechanics of Doom and prime new players or shake the rust off old hands before moving onto the newer generation of hard maps. It feels like it has been made by good players and in this respect is the forefather of classic challenge WADs like Hell Revealed, Karma Sutra, Speed of Doom and Sunlust.

 

Favourite maps: MAP01 Congo (Milo), MAP05 Ghost Town (Milo), MAP14 Genesis (Dario), MAP16 The Omen (Milo), MAP21 Slayer (Milo), MAP27 Anti-Christ (Milo)

Least favourite: MAP03 Aztec (Milo), MAP09 Abattoire (Milo), MAP19 NME (Milo), MAP20 Death Domain (Dario), MAP29 Odyssey of Noises (Milo), MAP30 The Gateway to Hell (Milo)

[T-Rex]

On 2/2/2021 at 10:38 PM, Andromeda said:

Might be worth mentioning I'm speaking from a pistol start perspective, on continuous play they're about the same.

 

I see, though still, I felt it's a bit of a hyperbole to say HR on HNTR pistol start is harder than Plutonia on UV as it is much easier on the difficulty than on HMP and higher. Then again, I hear people say that Alien Vendetta and Kama Sutra are easier than HR despite having a much higher body count than their predecessor due to being more pistol-start friendly.

 

On 2/3/2021 at 7:40 AM, purist said:

No purist point for Milo, which leaves him one short of Dario in the final 10-9 score. But then, having read T-Rex's posts, there is some debate over which Casali designed several of the maps so in the end it is a meaningless exercise.

 

Yeah, while many would stick with what they got from the Doom wiki, as Andromeda said much earlier, the level design credit information wasn't completely accurate, particularly for Realm, The Crypt, The Temple of Darkness (which I believe were Dario's work if you compare it to the other maps he designed) and The Sewers (which I believe is Milo's as it gives off the same vibe as Abattoire). He did mention about having a look at the maps again to determine which maps were likely done by which Casali brother.