The DWheretic Club plays: Heretic

[Capellan]

 

[Zedonk]

E2M1 The Crater

Secrets: 2/2

This map introduces the Weredragon which is basically just an undead warrior with more hitpoints and a bigger hitbox.  If you play passively and safely, this map can feel a little grindy because of the Weredragons' large health pool. 

 

In one of the secret areas you can find the hellstaff for the first time which is very similar to the plasma gun from doom.  Unfortunately, by the time I got it there no enemies to use it on so you'll have to wait to the next map in order to see me use it.

 

Also, near the green key, I discovered an unofficial secret I had no idea existed containing a mystic urn and some wand ammo.  Always nice to find new things in old games. : D

6/10

 

 

[Doritos420]

E2M1 - The Crater

Starting off the map after fighting a horde of gargoyles you’re introduced to a new enemy, a Weredragon. Although visually intimidating I found that the crossbow can make short work of them. There’s a lot of lava traversal in this level, which I’m not a fan of, although they give you wings or wrath to counteract this. One thing I dislike about this level is that despite the name, it doesn’t have much verticality.

[antares031]

E2M2 - “The Lava Pits”
BP-WS, KIS(%): 100/100/100

 

The giant lava pit introduces a new monster, called Sabreclaw. It's basically a pinky demon with faster firing rate, so just make sure to stay away from a group of it. Moving around a hot lava pit without any radiation suit could b... oh, nevermind. This game actually doesn't have a radiation suit-equivalent item. Anyway, moving around a hot lava pit with a few stone islands could be a little bit annoying, especially some of them will sink down to the lava, once you step on them. Always make sure to minimize the time on any lava in this episode.

 

There are two yellow key doors near the lava pit, but both of them lead the player to the same staircases. Once you go outside, there's a green key door on the right. But the key marker, a statue that is holding a ball with key's color, are missing on hard difficulty for some reason. Go past the locked door, and look for a switch from one of rooms. It will open the iron mask door in the northwest, revealing some golems, a pair of undead warrior ghosts, and a green key. The forementioned locked door with no markers will show you the exit teleporter, but feel free to look for more secret areas, before you leave the level.

 

There's one secret, which can be found, after visiting the secret room near the exit teleporter. The secret area near the iron mask door is guarded by a boss monster of the first episode, and you can obtain the new armor item, Enchanted Shield. This is basically a blue armor of Heretic, but even better protection rate. While Doom's blue armor can absorb 50% of incoming damage, the enchanted shield's protection rate is 75%, making it really helpful for survival. In case you're wondering, a silver shield has 50% protection rate.

[Walter confetti]

E2M1: The first map of the hell episode, pretty reminiscent of Doom E3M1 only done slightly better and includes the cavernous / canyon theme that will be followed in all the episode and the Weredragon, a beefy big guy with a homing fireball attack... For the rest, nothing else to say, is a cool starter map, not at the levels of E1M1 but still cool.

[ReaperAA]

E2M1: The Crater

Kills = 45/45

Secrets = 2/2

Deaths = 0

 

Welcome to Hell. The very start of this episode has some nasty surprises and some liberal use of the lava damaging floor. The starting area has us fighting a horde of gargoyles. You can use the wand to slowly kill them, or just run to the cave and get the shotgun..er I mean the crossbow to deal with when.

 

Once you press the switch in the cave, a passage opens, revealing the new enemies (Weredragons). As antares031 mentioned, Weredragons are slightly more powerful than the undead warriors actually quite a bit more powerful than undead warriors when playing with Wayfarer's Tome. Actually, it is funny that while Episode 1 is made easier by the mod, this map I feel is made harder by WT.

 

Still, this map isn't hard and dealing with the weredragons is easy, except for the one that is in the lava guarding the yellow key. I actually got close to death there (13% health) because I decided to save the wings of wrath for the final room. In the final room, there are some easy-to-kill gargoyles and also the dragon claw, green key and a secret wall near the green holding a morph ovum. The wings of wrath is useful here to avoid damage while collecting the goods.

 

Once you have taken everything in that room, head back to the weredragon room and you will find a wall opened, revealing the Hellstaff. The Hellstaff is the plasma gun equvalent of Heretic, only not as powerful (unless you are using Wayfarer's Tome :D )

Edited April 10, 2021 by ReaperAA

[Alper002]

E2M1:The Crater
Key count: 2

Past Hell's maw is Hell itself, and within are faces we haven't seen before. The first of these demonic monster types is introduced in the first map of this episode, presumably to please the folks who've played the shareware a lot already and want something new!
The weredragon looks strong, large, and dangerous from a standstill, but in-game they are surprisingly frail and nonthreatening. That's not to say they're not dangerous at all, but a first glance suggests they are a bit more.
I also just noticed how the biggest teeth on their jaw gets in front of their eyes, which I could only imagine being useful for aiming those fireballs. Maybe it'd be good for keeping focus on a target in other ways, but the fireball burping is what really comes to my mind.
Oh yeah, the level itself...
The starting area is the only part that feels like a crater, what with the open sky and the general shape of the area. The rest of the map in comparison seems to me more like lava-filled caves that were at least partially there before the crater was made. There are plenty of lava pits in said caves, but they were all made to be escapable. This includes a pit with a quartz flask that doesn't look like it even has an escape route, but lets you get out safely despite your reckless behaviour if you fall in there!

There's also a secret featuring a new weapon, but you need to know of it beforehand to get any use out of it when playing wand starts. On continuous(which is to say normal play) it's a good bonus though, as another enemy which will get introduced this episode has a chance to drop ammo for it...

Edited April 10, 2021 by Alper002

[Silhouette 03]

E2M1: The Crater

Everything is on fire...

 

We've arrived in Hell's Maw( Which is legally distinct from Hell... even though it looks like Hell) and we're treated to a good old fashioned hot start, with around half a dozen ranged gargoyles greeting you as you enter the crater(?). The pathway between the doors leads to a switch, as well as the ethereal crossbow. The switch in question opens the second door( from the right) and we are.. formally... introduced to a new enemy, the Weredragon.

 

The weredragon is a ranged enemy that has high HP and his projectiles deal ridiculously high damage. So now that you've fought one of them, here's five more to fight, and you're only armed with the wand and crossbow. Have fun!

 

After traversing the pain sector and fighting another Weredragon ( because you just can't have enough Weredragons), you gain access to the yellow key door. The next area shouldn't be too much of a challenge, considering that you should have access to a new weapon from a secret area: the Hellstaff. The Hellstaff fires projectiles very quickly, and is one of the most useful weapons in your arsenal, and can stunlock enemies with ease. The empowered version is also pretty cool, as it fires a projectile that causes an invisible cloud to appear over an enemy that rains down projectiles on them. Really cool to watch.

 

Fairly good opening map to Hell's Maw, and I really like the scorched earth, fire and brimstone visual aesthetic that they have created. 

 

I'm really concerned as to the implications of the Weredragon. The "were" part of their name implies that they can turn back into humans, or at least a race that isn't a monster. Are we killing humans, or am I looking too much into this? Probably....

 

Silhouette's stats:

Kills: 107/107

Secrets: 5/5

Deaths: 2

 

[LadyMistDragon]

I was feeling depressed earlier, and didn't think I could add anything for E1M8 yesterday so here we go.

 

The Crater

 

The opening of episode 2, this isn't a terribly difficult map, but I'm glad to be using the Wayfarer's Tome because the opening shootout would be so horribly tedious otherwise. You are on the outside of some volcanic mountain, with a pair of doors leading into the interior. I don't really understand why this level requires keys at all because the structure's incredible simple, more so than The Docks. Anyways, the first room you can enter after hitting a switch or whatever leads you to a new enemy: Weredragons. Despite that you'll shortly pick up a Crossbow, this fight seems tedious, but if you spot a slightly lighter-textures wall to the left of the entrance, you can pick up a Tome of Power, along with some gargoyle guardians.

 

Another thing this map makes massive use of is lava, Heretic's equivalent of damaging floors, and a main feature of both of the indoor rooms. The blatant Doom copying is just absolutely amazing at times. However, the Wings of Wrath, located close to the ledge in the first room, will help you avoid it and possibly take zero damage from it. When you enter the Yellow door room and step onto the bridge over the lava, you'll open a passage to the other room, along with another secret in the same room with a bag of holding and the Hellstaff. It's a little useless to pistol starters because the Dragon's Claw is located in the room in the bridge to the right, but it'll definitely help you if you're playing continuously....which I'm not. I also missed the Mystic Urn untagged secret next to the green key platform which I can vaguely remember finding in the past, but yeah. The music is excellent and has some nice energy behind it in the second part, but is the perfect representation of why I sometimes find Heretic overly gloomy, though the muted sound effects are certainly part of that too.

 

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

Heretic

 

Russian Heretic emulated through WINE, bringest them oneth, wand starts.

 

E2M1: The crater (Another map that requires two keys)

 

So, I did get wine to run Russian Heretic, and it runs at a surprisingly high frame rate (I say that cuz my machine is kinda crappy lmao)

 

Well, we're in E2, I decided to do wand starts and we'll meet more bad guys, this time, we're greeted by a lot of  fire gargoyles and the weredragons (who were supposed to have a ghost version), they can do what is known as bullshit damage, so try to avoid melee weapons with them, they can leave ethereal arrows so the crossbow is a good choice against them. Not much to say of the map itself, looks like a cavern with lots of lava, it's short, but it's still a decent way to start the E2. Sorry to say that the music is kinda boring, at least IMO.

Now that we're going to play some harder maps, I'd recommend you check out this playlist.

 

Edited April 11, 2021 by Lol 6

[TheOrganGrinder]

E2M1: The Crater

 

The game's second episode doesn't get off to what I would consider to be a particularly enthralling start, with lots of homogeneous grey caverns to stumble your way through and most of the opposition taking the form of the now-familiar gargoyle family, shovelled at you in ever-greater numbers.  The player is introduced to the first of the episode's new monsters here in the form of the weredragon, which is a name that turns an okay monster into a somewhat goofy concept - yes, I know that were is from Old English and implies man, so the creature's name is approximately man-dragon, but you can't just ask me to set aside years of penny dreadful novellas and Hammer Horror stereotypes that have me imagining these beasties as humans cursed by a dragon's bite and assuming hybrid form under the full moon.  There's also an opportunity to rapidly rebuild your arsenal of ethereal crossbow and dragon claw here, plus a backpack and the new Hellstaff, though the last is tucked away such that it's entirely possible that you'll have cleared the level of monsters before you double back and find it, and so won't really see what it can do until the next map.

[Gez]

1 hour ago, TheOrganGrinder said:

yes, I know that were is from Old English and implies man, so the creature's name is approximately man-dragon

He's a man, or maybe he's a dragon-man, or maybe he's just a dragon, but he's still TROGDOR!

TROGDOR!

[TheOrganGrinder]

E2M2: The Lava Pits

 

E2M1's grey caves give way here to... more grey caves, at least at first, though soon enough you'll escape the volcanic caverns via the yellow doors and make your way to... grey stone passages, not unlike those of E1M2.  It does get better!  But for now, our hero's descent into Hell's Maw depicts the realm of D'Sparil's minions as a bleak and grey place; we'll get to more luridly colourful interpretations of the setting in due course.  Mostly this map feels like an introduction to the episode's second new monster, the sabreclaw, which is another design that I feel is simply okay; on the one hand the combination of segmented tail, snarling toothy face, chitinous armour, and bladed extremities make it look a bit like a low-budget xenomorph with an axe for a hand, and on the other hand like the weredragon it's... another mostly-brown humanoid?  Lacking a ranged attack, it can be thought of as filling the same role as Doom's pinky demon, though its low mass can make for some entertaining scenes when your weapons fire sends it sliding away from you (we'll see more of this in the ice levels later).  You also get more of an opportunity here to try out the Hellstaff, which again is... okay?  Rapid-fire, projectile-based, it's easy to think of it as the plasma gun to the dragon claw's chaingun, but I don't know that it's really as effective as that comparison would suggest; it often feels low-impact in use, like you're turned a firehose of cherry-red plasma against a hored of enemies and burned through half your available runes without a whole lot of apparent effect.  With a Tome of Power it's more interesting, and more effective, and I don't know how much I should weigh that powered-up mode in my assessment of the game's weapons versus the default modes that are going to be seeing more use.

 

Of note here is the fact that the orbs that highlight the green door are tagged to appear only on the middle difficulty; the map's not large or intricate enough for this to be an issue, it's just an odd little oversight.  Overall it's a map that feels about one-half filler, with the first few areas delivering crumbling islands atop a crusty sea of half-cooled magma and a sluggish cataract of ash and flame that the player can descend in search of artifacts, and the rest of it consisting of angular rooms and one-brick-thick walls as though it were drawn out on paper by a level designer determined to use every available square inch of the page; there's a certain classic quality to that, but also a feeling that it's creates more space than interesting ideas to fill it.

[Capellan]

 

[Zedonk]

E2M2 The Lava Pits

Secrets: 5/5

This map introduces the sabre claws which are very dangerous if they manage to surround you.  This maps gives you plenty of tomes of powers (3 in all I think) and is quite generous with the weapons. There's also a hellstaff located in a secret area which is very useful if you're running low on ammo.  Overall, I found it quite fast-paced and fun.  Can't wait until the next map which has one of my favourite and most memorable music tracks from heretic.

 

9/10

 

 

[Walter confetti]

E2M2: A kinda generic map sets in the hellish caves you see at the end of E2M1 with a little human-like build section (that looks kinda pointless with the main theme), with a nice but not ground-breaking looking layout where the only part that really stands is the lava falls on the second lava pit and the inclusion of new things like the sabreclaw, a pretty strong melee monsters with a fast sword attack, pretty similar to the doom Demon monster in terms of HP and attack, but faster and also a new weapon, The Hellstaff (that is literally the plasma gun from Doom, but reskinned and swapped by slot, from slot 6 of Doom to slot 5) and the (almost) most useless item of the game, the Chaos Device, a item that brings you back to the start of the map. These two last things are both find into the secret areas. Also the secret areas have Disciples of D'sparil in it.

Gameplay itself is hard-ish, especially for the lowering floors and lots of lava all around the map and the big amount of the Sabreclaws in the map, but is not really that hard.

[LadyMistDragon]

The Lava Pits

 

This map sure lives up to its name. From the outset, you're greeted by a large room filled with what you'd expect and a mass of gargoyles. You're also introduced to a new enemy shortly after this called the sabreclaw. They are a sort of demon equivalent, though tankier and stupidly overused in many places, though they aren't too bad here.The next room you can access contains a lava waterfall. Continue on the lava past the room and you'll be greeted with a mass of enemies and several items, including some wings of Wrath. There's a caged area past the yellow door containing lots of undead warriors that's kind of interesting. I actually think the use of small room and grey brick is effective here, even though one room is completely useless. Watch out for one particularly nasty secret containing Weredragons. You might want to use your Ring of Invincibility here if you're pistol-starting because this is a highly claustrophobic room to fight in. Otherwise, use your Rome of Power and hope for the best. This map isn't hard for the most part though. Disciples are placed around corners a bit though, which is annoying.

[Silhouette 03]

E2M2: The fire pits

More pain sectors, more fire, more enemies.... and the return of an old foe.

 

There's a lot to talk about in this map, and I'll be damned to give a run through of this one, So I'll give an analysis of this one.

 

We're still in a cavernous, twisting cave system where each step could lead to a fiery, painful death. Pain sectors in heretic hurt a lot, and hurt you very quickly. A new mechanic of sorts is introduced: platforms that , once you stand on them, sink back into the lava. I don't understand it's inclusion in the map, as it is used in only one area. Why would you introduce something, but only use it once in a map?

 

We're also introduced to a new enemy, the Sabreclaw. The Sabreclaw is.. an odd inclusion to the bestiary. The reason I say this is because it's a melee enemy, and it is a bullet sponge, though only a discernable threat in groups. I don't know why it was included. The game already has two melee enemies, so what's the point of adding a third that doesn't add much to combat?

 

The combat is.. serviceable, but I don't recall any fights that you'd call memorable, or do something different from what we've already seen. Pretty standard stuff in all major categories, really.

 

 

Though there is one thing that I do find memorable about this map. In one of the secrets, you come face to face with an Iron Lich. Yes, they're standard enemies now, and they're going to become a lot more frequent as of this map. HAVE FUN!

 

Silhouette's stats:
Kills:  107/107

Secrets: 5/5

Deaths: 1

 

 

 

[Doritos420]

E2M2 - The Lava Pits.

I quite liked this level. You’re introduced to the Saberclaw here, which is basically this game’s Pinky Demon. They’re very fast and make an annoying sound and can easily surround you if you’re not careful. Luckily you get the crossbow early on which is useful in dealing with them. I actually missed the yellow key in the starting level and ended up jumping down the lava waterfall for a bunch of goodies and an ambush. To escape the pit they provide you with some wings of wrath. I wish there was a teleporter here instead so I could use the wings later. From here you need to go back to the yellow doors to a fork shaped room, there’s a cheeky little ambush here where you open the doors to leave and another door opens behind you. After that you can get the scroll fairly quickly. I like that I get to see the secret areas, but I find it’s a little annoying how you just have to wait for those areas to open up, I’m still not sure what triggers the secret doors to open. Was very surprised to see an Iron Lich in a secret area, thankfully I was able to dispatch him without much trouble. Very fun level. Felt like there were more enemies than there were just because a lot of them were very tanky.

[ReaperAA]

E2M2: The Lava Pits

Kills = 107/107

Secrets = 5/5

Deaths = 0

 

Thematically, this map is a continuation of the first map. At the very start of the map, we are forced to cross a lava field, with some platforms (containing health vials, bow ammo and the crossbow) that lower into the lava once you step on them. Not just that, but there are also gargoyles and sabreclaws (blade wielding melee creatures that are a bit more powerful than the Doom's pinkies).

 

In the room with the yellow key, follow the lava to the bottom area that contains many goodies like bag of holding, tome of power, wings of wrath and a good amount of ammo for various weapons. Be careful though, as there is an ambush waiting for you there.

 

Once you get the yellow key, you can go to either of the two yellow key doors near the lava as they both lead to the same area. As antares031 mentioned, once you go outside, there's a green key door on the right, but the key marker statues for some reason are missing from it (I assume they are present on easier skills based on antares's comment, but I didn't check). Go past the locked door, and look for a switch from one of rooms. It will open the iron mask door in the northwest, revealing some golems, a pair of undead warrior ghosts, and a green key.

 

Also as antares mentioned, there is a secret in the northwest part of the map, which can be found, after visiting the secret room near the exit teleporter in the green key room. That secret area near the iron mask door is guarded by an Iron Lich (the boss monster of the first episode, but will be regular enemies from E2 onwards), and holds the Enchanted Shield as a reward. The Enchanted Shield is the blue armor equivalent of Heretic, but with 75% protection rate instead of 50% protection offered by Doom's blue armor.

Edited April 12, 2021 by ReaperAA

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

Heretic

 

Russian Heretic emulated through WINE, bringest them oneth, wand starts.

 

E2M2: The lava pits

 

Another map with some caverns and lots of lava, we meet the sabreclaws, and believe it or not, the staff is a good weapon against them due to their low pain chance. It's actually a nice map, with rather nice combat, you can get the hellstaff in this map too. For a wand start in medium, it's rather easy. My advice is: Don't let yourself get cornered, use the shadowsphere in the ghost skeletons and the iron litch. Not a bad map, the midi could have been better, but it's ok.

[Omniarch]

Right, so I tried out Wayfarer's Tome today, and gave E2 a shot.

 

I'm sad to say, E2M1 really put me off, even with WT and playing on Black Plague the grind was just too much. Additionally, 90's era naturalism is probably one of the least appealing styles in existence, and the new enemy introduced in that level just strikes me as mechanically uninspired. At this point, I am simply no longer having fun, and any further write-ups from me would likely either feel overly negative or obligatory.

 

Since I paid good money for Heretic, I will continue my playthrough at whatever pace suits me. I hope more maps on the level of E1M4, 5 and 7 are forthcoming.

 

Regardless, I will not be writing about every map. I may summarize my overall experiences with a given episode, and I intend to write a full analysis of the game by the end of the month, so anyone who cares still has that to look forward to I suppose.

 

Anyway, I'm sorry for being such a flaky club-member, burning out at the drop of a hat. I try to apply my analytical skills to everything I write about, and if the subject is a) overwhelmingly complex or b) insufficiently interesting I tend to burn out or lose interest.

 

Still, it has been fun reading all you guys' posts. It is nice to see so many other Doomers writing about the hobby, gives me a sense of camaraderie. I wish you all fun times and the best of RNG in your respective playthroughs!

[Walter confetti]

E2M3: This map have a neat music and a imposing river of fire that crosses it. For the other parts, this level is... not totally bad, the theme of river of fire is cool but it's another filler map, pretty much it makes the work of E2M2 but on a larger, harder scale.

 

Also the "human" / castle sections are better implemented here and gives you two new weapons, with the firemace, the world famous balls of steel © gun that have the 25% of chance to appear in the game that shoots small (or big) balls of steel © that annihilate your enemies and the Phoenix Rod, a wonderful golden that acts as a RL in it's standard form and as a flamethrower when you activate the tome of power, making it the best gun of the game.

[Capellan]

 

[TheOrganGrinder]

E2M3: The River of Fire

 

I think this map suffers a bit from the way that its titular feature and supposed centrepiece is basically a big loop that goes nowhere; it's been a great many years since the very first time I played this, but I do recall a certain sense of disappointment at following the great burning river, with its meanders and undulations, only to end up right back where I started.  The level frontloads its combat encounters, with a big and fairly free-flowing brawl erupting as soon as you step away from your starting position and down toward the river; the gargoyles and sabreclaws can follow you pretty much wherever you might go, while the bulkier weredragons can't fit down the stairs and end up playing more of a defensive role.  After that, things get somewhat "bitty," with lots of smallish rooms and modestly-scaled encounters and not a lot for you to get your teeth into.  The map's exit doesn't come as a surprise but it is a bit of an anticlimax.

[antares031]

E2M3 - “The River of Fire”
BP-WS, KIS(%): 100/100/100

 

Imagine a sewer level, but filled with really hot lava. The lava is so hot that it introduces a new environmental hazard, volcano. It occasionally erupts magma balls, and it cannot be destroyed, making the deadly lava pits even more dangerous. To spice up the situation, an ambush with weredragons is waiting for you, right at the beginning. The layout is pretty simple and highly symmetric, with some differences for each side. Just make sure to grab the yellow key on the west side, you won't get lost in this level. The yellow key room introduces yet another new feature of Heretic; "ice physics". Kinda ironic that this land of fire has cold ice like this. Thankfully the ice is not cold enough to hurt you, but it's slippery enough to slide you into poison pits, if you move around careless.

 

After you proceed the level, and press the switch right behind the blue key, you'll be able to get a new weapon near the one of lavafalls. Behold Phoenix Rod, the rocket launcher of the game. Since Heretic's monsters have lesser health, compare to Doom, any direct hit may give a significant damage to  mid-tier monsters, and maybe even kill them with a single shot. Empowering the rod will make it act like a flamethrower, spitting flame for every single tic, and one ammo is capable of fuel the rod for 10 seconds, if you hold down the fire button. Using a rod, a tome, and a ring will make you unstoppable, incinerating anything that blocks your path. The downside is that it has low ammo capacity, 20 shots in default, and the fireball itself is counted as physical attack. But its splash damage and empowered flame will still hurt any ghost monsters.

 

This level also introduces the secret weapon of this game, called Firemace. Like walter mentioned, any level with firemaces has 75% chances to spawn one firemace to one of spawn points. While it occupies the last slot number 7, it's actually weaker than Hellstaff, unfortunately. It shoots a flood of balls of steel ©, and it occasionally shoots slightly bigger balls of steel ©, which have higher damage, and spawn two balls of steel ©, whenever they hit the ground. Despite it's a projectile weapon, it has its own spread, making the weapon less accurate. The balls are affected by gravity, like a grenade with no splash damage, and they can be sunk down to any liquid floors, such as water and lava. Empowering the mace will make it shoot SUPER-ULTRA-HEAVY BALLS OF STEEL ©, killing any non-boss monsters in a single shot. Lastly, both normal and empowered balls are counted as physical attack.

 

While the level itself is pretty simple, it introduces lots of new features of Heretic, and you can finally get every weapon in this game, if the level spawns the secret weapon. It's still kinda underwhelming that this game has no BFG, but at least we have a tome of power.

[antares031]

E2M4 - “The Ice Grotto”
BP-WS, KIS(%): 100/105/100

 

Remember the ice physics from the previous level? If you don't, this level will make sure to remember it. The giant ice plate on the lava(ice on the lava? what kind of black magic is this?!) is filled with gargoyles and weredragons. The fortress with lava moat is guarded by a bunch of disciples, throwing purple fireballs at you from afar. So this place could be a little bit annoying, with the combination of projectile storm and slippery ice.

 

Entering the guard tower with a yellow key rewards you with a phoenix rod, instead of other mid-tier weapons. The teleporters in the room will lead you to the top of the tower, guarded by disciples. Make sure to grab a green key, and head to the starting area, where you can enter the fortress with a teleporter behind the green key door. Inside of dark, gloomy fortress has several middle-age-themed buildings, and you can get a blue key from one of buildings. If you didn't find the secret room in E2M2, this is the place, where you meet an iron lich again. If you found a shadowsphere from the fortress, this is the time to use it. Alternatively, you can use your powerful phoenix rod, since iron liches are actually not immune to splash damage, just like barons of hell in Doom.

 

This level also has an exit to the secret level of this episode. Once you clear the entire blue key cave, make sure to backtrack the level to find a locked iron face door somewhere. In conclusion, ice physics may look interesting first, but it could be really annoying to dodge projectiles from everywhere. But still, the concept of ice on the lava always gets me for some reason.

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

Heretic

 

Russian Heretic emulated through WINE, bringest them oneth, wand starts.

 

E2M3: The river of fire

 

 

First hot start, I almost died  twice, but luckily I survived, I like the main esthetic of a river of lava, but, I don't like that if you want ammo or weapons (The dragon claw and the phoenix road [The rocket launcher of the game]) you have to sacrifice 5 HP. The combat is rather good, the start can be a pain, but once you have some weapons and some items, you're good to go. You can break the game if you use the wings of wrath and bump into the blue key lmao. The music is good. If you have a ring of invincibility, I'd recommend you store it until you get the green key (especially in Black Plague) If you have low ammo, don't be afraid of using the staff against sabreclaws. Sadly I didn't find the Balls of steel © weapon. So, good level, hard start but once you get your arsenal, it's not that hard.

 

Here's the info of the firemace, if powered up, it does the damage of a telefrag, meaning that it can kill an invulnerable player (good for deathmatch I guess)

Source: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Firemace#Data

Edited April 12, 2021 by Lol 6

[ReaperAA]

E2M3: The River of Fire

Kills = 92/92

Secrets = 0/0

Deaths = 0

 

As if the first 2 maps didn't have enough damaging floor. This map is not just filled with lava everywhere, but it also introduces the mini volcanoes that erput magma balls. Not only that, but at the start of the map, you are pretty much forced to go straight towards the hazardous environment in order to obtain the crossbow. There is also a switch here, which will open the paths to the green key doors and one of these paths (the west path) contains the yellow key.

 

After this, you can follow one of the paths along the lava river to obtain goodies (which include the silver shield and the ring of invincibility at each lava falls) and also obtain the dragon claw near the yellow key door. Once you go through the yellow door, you are introduced with yet another feature of Heretic, the ice physics. The ice floor doesn't hurt you, but it does make your movement slippery and thus dodging projectiles becomes much harder. You will also get the wings of wrath here which can make the parts after the blue door a bit easier.

 

This map also introduces 2 new weapons, the Phoenix Rod and the Firemace, both of which can be found near the lava falls after pressing the switch that is revealed behind the blue key. The Phoenix Rod is the rocket launcher equivalent of Heretic that turns into a flamethrower when using a Tome of Power, while the Firemace rapidfires balls of steel with the Tomed version firing massive balls of steel.

 

Read antares031's comment to learn about the Firemace. I will only say that Firemace is unfortunately not as great of a weapon as the BFG of Doom.

 

What's funny is that I managed to obtain the Hellstaff, Phoenix Rod and Firemace AFTER I got all the kills in the map. I am "Good at Heretic (tm)".

[Silhouette 03]

E2M3: The River Of Fire

DISCLAIMER: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN TRACE AMOUNTS OF FRUSTRATION, PAIN AND MISERY. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION. 

 

I.. loath... this map. Just everything about it rubs me the wrong way, and I'm honestly struggling to gather my thoughts in a manner that is coherent, not frustrated rantings. So I'll try and tear this thing apart. Can't say I'm looking forward to this, but oh well.

 

Okay, so this is another cavernous map set around the eponymous river of fire. Set one foot forward and you'll be attacked by a horde of weredragons. Running is pretty much your only option, which will split up the horde. You'll be fighting gargoyles and sabreclaws along the river bank, where dodging projectiles becomes incredibly difficult due to the massive pain sector running through the middle of the map. The pain sectors seriously hurt the combat of the entire map, and make encounters needlessly awkward. The map also has some castle areas, where the combat does improve, but not by much. The encounters as a whole just feel underwhelming.

 

In my previous post, I also forgot to mention the chaos device. Once used, it instantly teleports you to the start of the map. It exists...

 

The final two weapons are also in this map: the phoenix rod, which acts like a rocket launcher, and when the projectile hits an enemy, the projectile shape changes into that of a phoenix and the Firemace, which is the most underwhelming weapon in the game. It fits in the number 7 slot, The BFG slot, and simply fires projectiles at enemies very quickly. It's empowered version is decidedly more powerful, as it fires larger spheres at enemies that do high damage.

 

This map also introduces one of my most hated mechanics in games: slippery ice physics. I'll spare you a rant, but that mechanic is awkward and I hate it. There, I said it. Let the defenders of this mechanic come out of the undergrowth of the vast, hellish landscape known as the internet, and argue with me until world peace is achieved. Let them come....

 

Silhouette's stats:

Kills: 92/92

Secrets: 0/0 ( took me a while to find all the secrets in this map. They were hidden very well.)

Deaths: 0