The DWmegawad Club plays: SKULLTIVERSE

[Book Lord]

MAP 30 – An Eye for an Eye by ViolentBeetle

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

The faith in my skills wavered a few times while playing Skulltiverse, even after I wisely decided to abandon UV -fast for normal UV. I thought I would not make it to the end, but against all predictions… here we are @ViolentBeetle! Having played four maps from the project leader, I expected the final battle against the Skull Lord to be much more of an Icon of Sin rehash.

 

I was not disappointed. The extradimensional hideout of the archvillain was less detailed and chiselled than the first entries (in map order) from the same author, but it offered substantial fights and quite a long preamble to the endgame. The Skull Lord stronghold displayed not more than three colours (blue, grey, and black), which were arranged in competent ways but did not strike me for anything. The encounters kept me busier than the visuals, and after emerging from the initial round pool there was almost no time to catch my breath and recover my wits.

Spoiler

I found the last BSK in the southern part of the map, but this time it was not used to leave through the Skullgate; quite the opposite, it summoned a Spider Mastermind along with other monsters and revealed the giant head of the boss, which stared at me with lidless eyes but remained silent. Two blue teleport pads could be entered, each one leading to a combat set piece to obtain one of the other skull keys. The YSK was guarded by Arch-Viles and Lost Souls; the RSK pitted me against a herd of Hell Nobles that I must kill while walking on crushers moving in a slow sequence. It was not instantly clear how to reach their ledge and I died there because of torpid thinking.

Spoiler

Once out of both areas, the skulls could be used to lower the BFG and open the centre of the map, where a small army featuring the whole Doom bestiary protected the structure. I must climb to have a shooting line to the Skull Lord and had to do it quickly, because the monster spawner had been alerted. Infighting was wild, but I had to discharge the BFG multiple time before I could break the demon ranks and obtain enough clearance to eliminate the Revenants and Arch-Viles on the top. Only then, I noticed that I had to push 4 switches as well. I eventually did that and sending rockets into the Skull Lord’s eyes ended the battle in a satisfying way. The picture used for the boss was cartoonish and very bright, it did not look like a terrifying creature, but the trick involving barrels, Wolfenstein SS and disappearing eye mid-textures was funny. I realised the connection with the name An Eye for an Eye with embarrassing delay.

Spoiler

Not too short, not overstretched, not trivial, not annoying; all things considered, this was a fair MAP30. @ViolentBeetle made sure to avoid the typical Icon of Sin mistakes people complain about, so kudos for that achievement. The map could have received a better graphic polish, since some areas would benefit from extra detailing and more texture variety. Maybe the project deadline was approaching too fast for the project leader to keep the same quality throughout his contributions, which were not less than five, more than anybody else, each one constructed around a Boom feature or unique concept. An extraordinary piece of work if you ask me. I would rather concentrate on the positive and commend this mapper, for both his individual efforts and the coordination of a worthy project like Skulltiverse.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Book Lord

[ViolentBeetle]

I will admit that the final map is somewhat underdetailed. MAP30 was one of the concept maps - that is, I have posted certain gimmicks that I wanted to see on it. After a while I decided to claim it myself, and at this point it was too late to back out on it. Specifically the gimmick was the grey and blue colour scheme. It proven to not be easy to work with when I actually tried. So I kinda shot myself in a foot detaling-wise. Still, I am happy with how it worked out, as I was able to make a map containing what I like about Icon of Sin - spawning monsters while I run through a gauntlet to try and level with it, while not doing a stupid timing puzzle.

The other concept maps were MAP20 (And I ended up doing it myself too) - the premise was to have an arena where you fight 3 or more cyberdemons in sequence, with each death level had to transform; MAP15 which required constant switching between two world (I'm really glad @El Inferno was able to do what he did with this prompt); MAP01 which was required to be chaingun-only as a semi-tribute to ironically the same mapper's contribution to Hellevator which was rocket-only; and, naturally, secret maps.

[Pseudonaut]

Map29:

Cool surreal map, enjoyable for both exploration and combat. The last fight was definitely my favorite; all the powerful ammo from earlier was gone, and I had to evade lots of enemies to find more, which turned out to include a BFG, my preferred method of dealing with cyberdemons.

 

Some amusing moments in the video:
At 6:35, I died inches away from a megasphere because some oversized spider hitbox was in the way. This was my only death on this map.
At 11:07, I tried to 2-shot a cyberdemon right after grabbing the BFG, but he was hit by a rev projectile and changed targets, firing his third rocket in a slightly different direction, which was off by just enough to hit me. It would have been a pretty narrow dodge anyway, I'm not certain I would have otherwise avoided the rocket.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP29: "World's End" by 7Soul

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/3 secrets

 

After the bloodbath that was MAP28, the penultimate map of Skulltiverse comes off as a little understated in comparison. The visuals are very neat, the void theme this time is populated with old wooden ships in various states of disrepair, so lovers of sector ships can rejoice. I do have one visual nitpick, in that I think the uniform brightness of the lighting in the "outdoor" areas doesn't really jive with the void backdrop so well in my mind, but I still think the level looks cool overall and is laid out nicely.

 

The combat is relatively lax for the first stretch, but it does throw a couple of dangerous fights at you towards the end. The big revenant horde with two archviles does give you a megasphere, but it can still be a bit of a problem because it's easy to lose track of the archviles amongst all the chaos and you only have so many rockets. The final battle is quite an exciting cap on the level, featuring two cyberdemons and a mess of other monsters dispersed all over the level. It also has the gall to lower in a blursphere, which should be avoided like the plague. The cyberdemons are bad enough without it, although it might make the chaingunners a little less dangerous. Very strong closer to the map.

 

Good level. Despite being a MAP29, it's probably the easiest level in some time, but maybe a breather was warranted. We'll see what the finale has in store.

[Biodegradable]

As some of you might've noticed, I quietly dropped out after MAP25. The succeeding maps unfortunately were just too difficult for me. I did consider starting over on a lower difficulty, but I didn't like the idea of pistol-starting MAP26, YEESH! lmao. Anyways, here's my Top Favourite Maps in Chronological Order:

• MAP03
• MAP05
• MAP07
• MAP09
• MAP17
• MAP19
• MAP23
• MAP25

Conclusion

I have to echo rd's sentiment. This is a rather harmonious community project and definitely one of the most consistent ones I've played in recent memory. Everyone involved was pretty much on the same page, worked intensely well with the limitations and created a rather strong and memorable WAD. While it did beat me in the end, I have nothing but respect for it and will definitely try my hand at it again one day. The central gimmick never got old as each mapper managed to distinguish themselves with how they stashed away the Blue Skull Key and how they set-up the devious challenges, traps and obstacles to keep you from getting it and to chase your sorry arse back to the teleporter once you grabbed it. I tip my hat to ViolentBeetle for putting together another very interesting concept for a community project together and all the mappers that contributed to it with gusto. Well done, kids.

[Lorenz0]

MAP30 - An Eye for an eye

hmp/continuous

 

What a finale. It's good to end a megawad on a high note once in a while.

 

This whole map is essentially a big arena densely populated with monsters, with even more spawning in at every opportunity. The only time you spend outside of the central battleground is when you venture into the two key paths, which both feature unique gimmicks. One setpiece contains 4 archviles and a wall lowering, which makes it so you have to kill them quickly. Pretty cool idea. The other path has a much weirder gimmick, with floors and ceilings raising and lowering (probably not) at random. Interesting space limitation for the player, I'll admit, but having to use one of these floors as a lift to get on the platform above is really annoying. And I especially don't like it, because you're swarmed with cacos as soon as you get up the platform, so it's easy to fall back down and have to repeat the whole process. Every time I had that happen I just used noclip to save my sanity lol.

 

The final fight when the Icon of Sin is revealed is the hardest in the map. It can be really difficult to prioritize the right enemies when they're all congested together. Especially because this map actually forces you not to use freelook! I guess it's to prevent cheesing the IoS, but it also makes all the previous fights harder, since your rockets never fly where you want them to. I can't believe some people like to play that way all the time, but I guess it's just a matter of preference. I didn't mind it for this one instance.

 

Btw this is honestly the exact kind of difficulty I expected from a wad closer such as this. It's not as challenging as map28, but comes close.

 

I also really like the midi used here. It's epic and dynamic. Very fitting for this kind of map.

 

- - -

 

So, about the whole wad; it's honestly better than I expected it to be. It's more consistently good than any of the Nova community projects, featuring a variety of maps similar to that of JPCP. It had its ups and downs but I'll always remember it fondly. It's also the first time I completed a megawad along with the DWmegawad club, so that's gotta count for something.

 

So for the last time... Order of preference:

Spoiler

MAP19

MAP09

MAP15

MAP21

MAP27

MAP30

MAP11

MAP07

MAP10

MAP23

MAP25
MAP04

MAP28
MAP05

MAP13

MAP22

MAP17

MAP12

MAP26
MAP01

MAP24

MAP14

MAP29
MAP03

MAP20

MAP16
MAP02

MAP18
MAP08
MAP06

 

^{I'll get to the secret maps in my own time eventually...}

[DuckReconMajor]

MAP30 -  An Eye for an eye - dsda-doom - skill 4 pistol start - rewinds used 

 

A well done and fitting finale. I loved the eye concept

The inversion of blue skull key not being the end tricked me, I couldn't find the other keys until i realized those pads were teleporters

The archvile quadrant tower on the way to yellow key was a lot of fun

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Awesome mapset. I love it.

Though the difficulty of the maps varied a lot, the theme overall was a cohesive force that kept things fresh throughout.

 

I played ahead more and more toward the end, at first to see if i could get the full vid processed in time (which I did!) but also I've found it less stressful overall. I have the videos to go back and review each time so it works out.

Ok oops, I just realized MAP05 to MAP07, (which I had to use Windows Game Bar recording for because computer trouble at the time) are corrupted :(

The individual videos for those are still up unlisted to i might fix this at some point

 

 

[ViolentBeetle]

Watching @DuckReconMajor's video made me realize two things:

1. I made a terrible mistake in spider mastermind closet (Souldn't come out very often unless you leave monsters alive)
2. Someone somehow shot boss' eye and I'm not sure how. This actually came up before, but back then cyberdemon was shooting at cacodemons.

[cannonball]

MAP30 - “An Eye for an Eye” by ViolentBeetle

 

The initial min skirmish was a little unnecessary, but that ends as soon as you hit the switch with the blue armour then you get essentially the main section of the map. It is quite difficult but manageable, it was quite nice to have mostly incidental combat up to the blue switch. Then you have the yellow/red key sections, the yellow key was really easy, the red was harder but more interesting in my opinion. Finally you are allowed to access the BFG and the central section that gains you the position to hit a giant blue skull. Again this is tricky but nothing you shouldn't be able to handle. Kill the monsters in the central room, hit switches to raise the stairs and then blow the skull into a place beyond oblivion.

A solid final map where the rocket in the hole game isn't frustrating. There are a lot worse than this that use this trope.

 

Overall;

 

I was unsure about this one to start and honestly the first impressions were rather nonchalant, however the quality seemed to improve overall as the wad progressed, what was a near average wad by the start of episode 2 became something that I would consider a success story. Okay this is still a mixed bag, but the high points definitely outscore the low points, the majority of the low points exist in the first episode. I have been introduced to some new mappers who I feel will produce some really stunning material over the coming years. The goal of this feels sort of like a Going Down community project (Start/Exit in the same place requiring a single key where the map takes places in a relatively constrained space). Now I don't think this matches the enjoyment I got from that, however there is a lot of fun to be had and the variety of themes and ideas in this definitely outpaces Going Down. I also appreciate the deviation from the traditional hell thematic, the flesh/void themes are a good change of pace and benefit from having mappers who knew how to fully utilise these themes. 

 

Anyway I think this is a definite must play, but with the caveat of being patient and having to get through a few duds in the early stages. You are certainly rewards and for those who like the combat on the hot side will get a real kick out of the later maps.

Overall score - 4/5

 

Favourite maps - 19, 23, 27 and 29* (*I wanted to name three maps, but I couldn't omit the penultimate map)

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP30 - "An Eye For An Eye"- ViolentBeetle (100%K/I/S):

Cool concept for an IOS fight, first, a regular "arena" level, you know what I think about most of theese by now, but still, was fun to play, a little bit on the monotonous side because of the only colors being gray and blue, aesthetically. The start of the room was something mixed for me, maybe it was there just to warm up before the real level. Simple progression, get the 3 keys, from the 3 altars/rooms, face a wave of enemies, clearing them out at first, wasn't that difficult, but when you have the pilar open to shoot rockets to the blue skull monster, difficulty ramps up nearly to MAP28 levels, pretty difficult for you to make good space to go up. A cyberdemon that can cause both infights and mess you around, compressed in-between many monsters, some archviles at the top and the many spawning monsters. a pain to deal with this final part, most of my deaths were here. So I've finally mowed down everyone without counting the casual spawning monsters, and the fuckers that were on top. So I could finally proceed and shoot rockets to the Skull's eyes (oh, I "see" what they did there with the name of the map).
Our journey is over, and the portal is now gone, moral of this story is:
Never enter blue portals.

Deaths: 351 (HMP - PrBoom+)

Order of preference:

 

Spoiler

MAP15 (Excellent)
MAP19

MAP10
MAP27

MAP31 (Great)
MAP29
MAP09

MAP13 (Good)
MAP23
MAP21
MAP11

MAP05
MAP26
MAP25
MAP12

MAP22 (Ok)
MAP16
MAP24
MAP30
 

MAP03 (Average)

MAP01
MAP20

MAP14 (Meh) 
MAP04
MAP07
MAP32
MAP08
MAP02

MAP06 (Bad)
MAP18
MAP28
MAP17

 

Review, always, later this day/tomorrow.

Edited September 30, 2021 by DJVCardMaster

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/Blind/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 30 - An Eye For An Eye - ViolentBeetle

IoS% kills and 100% secrets

Time: 13:07

Deaths: 5

 

We've reached the end of the Skulltiverse, and to finish things off, we have a mostly normal level. Kinda surprising, but I like normal levels as the final level, so I'm happy with it. You start in a small circle with a bunch of baddies attacking you. I circled the circle and got 'em all to infight. Hitting the switch reveals more area in the void, in fact it's the rest of the level. And wouldn't you know it, there's demons here! My first death revolved around getting cornered here, by a rev/mancubi platform. Once you make it around back, you can find the blue skull (after dealing with a pop-up ambush). Grabbing it spawns 2 archies, that I BFGd into oblivion. Now, for the very first time in this WAD, you use the blue skull for something other than leaving! The surprises keep on coming! Hit the blue switch near the beginning to spawn the Skull Lord and a Spider Mastermind, plus some revs. The Skull Lord is too chicken to do anything right now, so deal with the others. 2 teleports lower to the sides of the BFG switch. I took the one to its right first. Here you have a lowering central structure, with 4 archies on its corners, with a bunch of lost souls to deal with too. Hooray for continuous BFG, cause rockets would be annoying here. After that's done, grab the ammo and yellow skull and get out. The left teleporter takes you to a hell noble fight with a twist. They're on a platform above you, and you have to rocket them while avoiding crushing floors and lifts. You'll deal with a crushing ceiling, then crushing lifts, and that repeats. You can tell what section of the area to avoid by seeing with sector is lit up. Once the nobles are dead, take a lift up to their platform, and get ready to immediately deal with cacos, revs, and a mancubi. As you approach the red skull, an archie will be revealed too. After grabbing this key and getting out, platforms in the main area will lower with goodies, and 2 cybs spawn. Kill 'em and get ready for the final fight of the WAD. Hitting the red and yellow skull switch will open the middle structure with a bunch of demons, a cyb will spawn in behind everything, and the Skull Lord will finally start spitting spawn cubes. It's IoS time! Focus BFG blasts toward the center structure to get rid of the archies and revs on it. When there's enough space, head in to hit the 4 switches in the corners, to make stairs up to this platform. Once up there, rocket the eyes of the Skull Lord to take him out and beat the WAD! 

 

I liked this level a lot. Fun encounters, energetic MIDI, and nice blue/gray color palate. I appreciate that it didn't become an IoS thing until the end.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

 

I'm very glad I didn't get the Doom burnout I thought I would when this won. Even though I didn't vote for this, this was one I was looking forward to playing. I just didn't vote for it for the reasons I gave on the first page. Thankfully, I was able to see this through to the end. Even though I played through Hellevator earlier this year, I don't remember a lot of it off the top of my head. I do remember enjoying it though. That being said, I think I'll remember this one for sure. This is a really high-quality CP, with very few levels that I only thought were "meh". Making 6 distinct themes for this allowed for more consistency compared to other CPs I've played in the past. And since we're not stuck in a building this time, the maps could have a lot more variety to them. I'm not going to bust out a list of favorite maps, since I did enjoy a majority of them. I will shout out some mappers that caught my attention here whom I may not have been super familiar with before, but I now look forward to seeing more from. I know I played Shawny's Hellevator maps, but these ones here really stood out in terms of detail, level design, and combat fun. Plus, that map 32 was a real challenge and one of my favs. Myolden crafted 3 incredibly good maps, even if I thought map 23 was the weakest of theirs. All had solid encounters, with their map 13 having some of the most well-crafted ones in the entire WAD. El Inferno's map 15 was a very cool twist on the Wormhole concept that was very creative. I had seen screens of maps LordEntr0py had worked on before, so it was nice to finally play a map of theirs (or at least be aware of who they were when I played it). The 2 in this WAD were distinct from each other and were both highlights of the set. DFF's health-starved map was a nice change of pace toward the end of the WAD. The single map contributions from Juzza, Rune, Muumi, Rivi, and 7Soul were all top-notch as well. And finally, ViolentBeetle not only lead the project and contributed 5 maps of their own, but managed to invert one of my favorite map 7s effectively. VB did a great job making this WAD cohesive, and I applaud it. Everyone involved in this WAD did a bang-up job and I'm very glad we were able to cover this for the Club!

[DJVCardMaster]

Skulltiverse - ViolentBeetle et al.:

Nice community project focusing around different themes and a main gimmick which is the portal and its blue skullkey to exit, maps are compressed in a x by x map-unit area, but they never feel claustrophobic, in fact, you'll notice said map restriction when you are late in your playthrough. The only problem is, as in many other community mapsets, the variance in mapping experience you may find in this map, most maps, usually at the first set of levels, will look amateurish in comparison to others, that look way too professional even for the megaWAD standard, it's usually part of the experience, and it doesn't end being as bad as you may think. Music, may be all over the place, and I feel that is not the main focus here, some maps, have music that may sound silly for the map theme, making you feel at times you are not playing something as serious as it shows itself. First bunch of maps would feel like this, but at the middle of it all, maps will start showing some respectable features, good quality and gameplay. It's somewhat of a rollercoaster, but nothing you should miss, playing this is recommended, good experience overall.

Best maps:
MAP15 - Big example of a "Magnum Opus" map you may find lost inside a community project (just like Community Chest's MAP29 or  "The Mucus Flow"), great entry by El Inferno, and a map that will give the whole mapset a twist, so good that you can actually play it standalone (Even with the portal gimmick of the mapset)
MAP19 - One of the best Arena maps I've played in a long time, not stressful for my standards, and really beautiful to look at, great entry.
MAP10 - Atmospheric at best, and a great usage and reusage of the layout, where the author makes it possible for you to play the same game field three times with twists, pretty clever map, and also good looking, which sets the deal.

Worst maps:
MAP18 - It has a gimmick, symmetry, something you would miss and not care about, gameplay itself is not something you would like, it's a pretty simple map, it's not a hateable map atleast.
MAP28 - This one is a hateable map by its difficulty, to the point it is insane and spikes up a lot in comparison to the rest of the mapset, aesthetically, it is really good indeed, and feels professional, sadly, it often feels unplayable because of the infinitely-talling issue, and the absurd ammount of enemies in tight spaces you may find, of course a hit or miss rather than a bad map, but it was a miss for me.
MAP17 - This one has again a gimmick, and may be not only annoying, but ugly, the setup is some kind of hellish "house-of-fun", full of traps, and annoying design choices, not good to look at, and difficult to get the taste of its playstyle. Sticky floors are not used in maps for a reason, it has to be one of the most annoying things to deal in gaming in general, it is also buggy, so you may get totally stuck.

Score: 73/100 (Good)

Edited October 1, 2021 by DJVCardMaster

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP30: "An Eye for an Eye" by ViolentBeetle

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/1 secrets

 

ViolentBeetle is back, and the project leader caps things off with what is in my opinion their best work in the set. You're in a grey brick ruin in the void, and you have to fight your way through the hordes in the arena before taking down the big blue Skull Lord to finish things off once and for all. The Skull Lord himself is an Icon of Sin boss, but the meat of the map is the fights leading up to it, which are a ton of fun.

 

The opening of the map is right away very cool, having you fight demons on small wedges of ground, which trigger more demons when you step on the next one. After this is done the black walls, the arena around you is revealed and boy is it busy. The opening fight is a lot of fun and relatively tough. I actually found taking out most of the mancubi/revenants on one of the side structures and then hemming myself in the alcove at the opposite side and letting rockets fly into the ground monsters was a great strategy. Once you clear out that first area, the rest of the fights remaining in the main area are a bit simpler until you get to the fights for the yellow and red skull keys.

 

These keys are behind two portals that take you to each of them. The yellow skull key fight is a neat sort of timed battle gimmick. There are archviles on four corners of the central pillar of the arena and lost souls charging around the place. Gradually, the walls that form the central piller lower and once they lower all the way the archviles are let loose and you have no cover from them. So the goal is to kill the archies as quickly as possible while not getting too distracted by the souls, which I basically just held down the trigger on the plasma for. The red skull key area features alternating crushers going both downward and upward that you have to avoid while fighting the monsters that spawn on the ledge above. The upward ones were certain death if they got you, but the downward ones only did a bit of damage luckily.

 

After you have both skull keys, you have access to the BFG and the final fight triggers. The Skull Lord starts spawning monsters and 3 cyberdemons with a large group of other baddies spawn in. It's as dangerous as you'd expect a fight with 3 cybies to be, so watch those stray rockets and BFG the hell out of everything, then rocket the Skull Lord's eyes and you're done.

 

An excellent closer to the wad, I had a blast. Only gripe I had was, as others have already mentioned, the somewhat underdetailed and blocky visuals.

 

Final Thoughts: 

Being less experienced than most of the community, I wasn't yet familiar with most of the names mapping for this project, but it definitely put names on my radar. This wad was a ton of fun and what people did with the limitations at hand was just awesome. The themes were represented very well visually and everything felt quite cohesive, which is a great mark to hit as a community project. I also thought that the level of challenge it brought was pretty ideal for me, it gave me trouble but also wasn't too overwhelming. There were plenty of well tuned and clever fights, and the I enjoyed the usages of Boom gimmicks as well. There was a little bit of inconsistency in the opening episode, but after that the "meh" maps were few and far between.

 

It's honestly hard for me to pick a favourite map in this one. MAP15 might take it for being one of the best usages of the world-changing gimmick that I have seen, but there was also MAP19 for its great visuals and a fantastic final fight, MAP26 for introducing a new gimmick to me and doing a great job of it (plus I just adore the start of it), and MAP30 + MAP13 for both just containing super fun combat from start to finish. The hardest map was definitely MAP28, nothing else really came close to it in that regard.

 

Awesome wad that I'm very glad to have played. Looking forward to next month's wad!

[RiviTheWarlock]

4 hours ago, DJVCardMaster said:

Skulltiverse - ViolentBeetle et al.:

Nice community project focusing around different themes and a main gimmick which is the portal and its blue skullkey to exit, maps are compressed in a x by x map-unit area, but they never feel claustrophobic, in fact, you'll notice said map restriction when you are late in your playthrough. The only problem is, as in many other community mapsets, the variance in mapping experience you may find in this map, most maps, usually at the first set of levels, will look amateurish in comparison to others, that look way too professional even for the megaWAD standard, it's usually part of the experience, and it doesn't end being as bad as you may think. Music, may be all over the place, and I feel that is not the main focus here, some maps, have music that may sound silly for the map theme, making you feel at times you are not playing something as serious as it shows itself. First bunch of maps would feel like this, but at the middle of it all, maps will start showing some respectable features, good quality and gameplay. It's somewhat of a rollercoaster, but nothing you should miss, playing this is recommended, good experience overall.

Best maps:
MAP15 - Big example of a "Magnum Opus" map you may find lost inside a community project (just like Community Chest's MAP29 or  "The Mucus Flow"), great entry by El Inferno, and a map that will give the whole mapset a twist, so good that you can actually play it standalone (Even with the portal gimmick of the mapset)
MAP19 - One of the best Arena maps I've played in a long time, not stressful for my standards, and really beautiful to look at, great entry.
MAP10 - Atmospheric at best, and a great usage and reusage of the layout, where the author makes it possible for you to play the same game field three times with twists, pretty clever map, and also good looking, which sets the deal.

Worst maps:
MAP18 - It has a gimmick, symmetry, something you would miss and not care about, gameplay itself is not something you would like, it's a pretty simple map, it's not a hateable map atleast.
MAP27 - This one is a hateable map by its difficulty, to the point it is insane and spikes up a lot in comparison to the rest of the mapset, aesthetically, it is really good indeed, and feels professional, sadly, it often feels unplayable because of the infinitely-talling issue, and the absurd ammount of enemies in tight spaces you may find, of course a hit or miss rather than a bad map, but it was a miss for me.
MAP17 - This one has again a gimmick, and may be not only annoying, but ugly, the setup is some kind of hellish "house-of-fun", full of traps, and annoying design choices, not good to look at, and difficult to get the taste of its playstyle. Sticky floors are not used in maps for a reason, it has to be one of the most annoying things to deal in gaming in general, it is also buggy, so you may get totally stuck.

Score: 73/100 (Good)

I'm going to assume you mean MAP28 and not MAP27? If you're going to hate a map because you're bad at it at least hate the right one.

[Pseudonaut]

Map30:

This one was off to a good start. It's a hot start that keeps growing hotter until the main arena is revealed, and sorting out that chaos was pretty gratifying. It does devolve into circlestrafing cleanup if you take it slow like I did, but I'm sure this can be bypassed somewhat without too much increase in threat to the player, more stray projectiles = more infighting, less cleanup in the end.

 

The first part that felt like a misstep to me was the crusher/platform section. It just feels unpleasant to fight and move around in IMO, and waiting for the platforms to raise for progression was annoying.

 

After I had all the keys, I was a bit disappointed when I realized that the cyberdemon duo can simply be circlestrafe'd to death with absolute ease. The final battle was better since there's a lot more going on, but still very susceptible to a combination of circlestrafing and waiting for infighting to do some of the work for you. Still, the way the IoS equivalent was handled is smart. It's the same general concept as Doom 2's final boss (a wall with hole(s) you shoot rockets into) but avoids the unpopular trope of carefully timing your rockets while standing on a slow-rising lift. A satisfying finish.

 

I went back after finishing the level to see if I could make my own fun out of that cyberdemon duo by letting them live and starting the final fight immediately. The result is certainly harder than doing this fight normally, but plays out similarly, as circlestrafing and waiting for things to die from infighting is still the main gameplan. That takes longer than before, though, so it becomes more important to BFG infighting cyberdemons up close while their backs are turned, since enemies are spawning, but I'm not sure how serious the time pressure really is; I stopped trying after I died to what felt like a random telefrag.

 

Conclusion:
Top 5 maps (in no particular order):
- 15
- 19
- 21
- 23
- 29

 

Hardest: 28
Second hardest: 26

 

Skulltiverse is a pretty good wad. Many of these maps didn't leave much of a lasting impression on me, but there are several I can see myself revisiting, and not just the five favorites listed above (though I'll pass on map28, to be honest).

Edited October 1, 2021 by Pseudonaut

[DJVCardMaster]

5 hours ago, RiviTheWarlock said:

I'm going to assume you mean MAP28 and not MAP27?

 

Indeed, big oversight, thanks for mentioning it

[Shawny]

It is a bit late but I really would like to thank you for choosing and playing our (insert our bugs bunny meme here) wad.
Most of stuff I have read here (at least regarding my maps) was kind words and fair criticism which is very respectable.
Finally this month I was motivated and inspired to do some mapping again and you all was certainly a big part of it.

I am grateful for that.

Regarding my maps and post DWMC patch, I added crushers to the monster closets so that all the stragglers should get crushed.
Also some minor changes and fixes.
 

Have a good one and good luck in your next endeavors.

[Book Lord]

30-day months do not allow much time for a proper wrap-up of the commentary. I think these mappers deserved a final note of appreciation, even if I am a bit late.

 

Final Thoughts

When this megaWAD was chosen by the DWMC, my expectations were next to nothing. Some of the screenshots looked good though, so I followed the lead of more experienced Doomers and joined the journey through the Skulltiverse. It was also the first time I entered the Boom-compatible territory, which was also I milestone for my second youth Doom career.

 

I have not played Hellevator, of which this megaWAD was labelled the “spiritual successor”, but the secret maps offered a short retrospective of that project, by temporarily reinstating the Hellevator itself and the cross shape of the skyscraper levels. Skulltiverse brought back the concept of the starting point becoming the exit via the Skullgate prefab, always activated by the Blue Skull Key, and loosened the space constraints a bit, allowing the mappers to build the level within a square area of 2048x2048. If they wanted to maximize their layout size, they would have to respect the quirky 1024x512 wings at the cardinal points (thanks to DJVCardMaster for the information, excerpted from this post: DJVCardMaster's post).

 

A spiritual connection with the previous work under same leader ViolentBeetle was also in the mapping team, since some of Hellevator most prolific contributors were back, to show how their skills and original ideas have improved after only 8 months. Moreover, they were joined by other talented authors, most of them willing to contribute more than a single map. The result was an extremely varied map set, organised under 6 themes encompassing a multi-dimensional voyage (Tech-Base, Corrupted Tech-Base, Ruins, Marble Hell, Flesh Hell and Void) and gradually revealing the existence of the Skull Lord archvillain, which had to be confronted in a climactic final battle on MAP30.

 

After many DWMC months highlighting one-man efforts or smaller design teams, it was refreshing to play a community project. The Skullgate travel justified in a simple and believable way any abrupt changes in theme and aesthetics of the levels, which are quite normal when so many authors pool their work together. However, it should be noted that except a handful of maps the quality was consistently above average, both in the visual and in the gameplay department. The articulated guidelines from ViolentBeetle ensured that interesting experiments were carried out in the week-long speedmapping sessions, building upon fascinating ideas (e.g., MAP07, MAP10, MAP15) which could have received a more accurate execution within looser boundaries. Still, they stand out and bear witness to the sheer talent involved in this project.

 

I started my continuous playthrough on Ultra-Violence, with -fast parameter, and savegames mid-level (not during encounters to cheat the RNG or to facilitate anything). Everything was perfectly fine until MAP09, but from then on, I started struggling too much to have fun and to appreciate the visual and thematic achievements of each level. From MAP12 I switched to normal UV and my experience improved instantly, testifying that this was the target difficulty and that -fast is typically considered a setting for pros and weirdos. I still felt some maps as remarkable difficulty spikes, especially MAP28 which was on a totally different tier from the rest of the megaWAD, but nothing that I found insurmountable.

 

The megaWAD was obviously balanced for pistol starts and some of them looked quite demanding from a continuous player perspective. However, when I was forced to lose my equipment by death exits, I fought my way out naturally and without much trouble. Resources were generally well-balanced for the proposed tasks, except on rare occasions where scarceness contributed to the tense atmosphere of the level (e.g., MAP26). The team offered a variety of approaches to the design of combat set pieces, so it was impossible to experience déjà vu or repetitiveness while beating the maps. However, the concepts behind good Doom encounters were shared by the authors and well-organised gameplay soon became a constant feature of the playthrough. A good feeling that I will surely miss in my next playthroughs.

 

There were a lot of marvels to behold during the Skulltiverse voyage, both original graphic creations and masterfully executed combat scenarios. The long list below should speak for itself and highlight what I consider the must-see levels, but I shall expand on it and heap praise on the most committed mappers, which contributed the most maps that constituted the bulk of the experience: Shawny, Myolden, LordEntr0py and, last but not the least, the leader ViolentBeetle. Their contributions were not only numerous but consistent in quality, with LordEntr0py probably getting the gold medal for his exceptionally detailed and immersive works (despite me having more fun with the maps of the others).

 

This should not detract anything from the work of less active contributors, since almost every map in the WAD ranged from astonishing to perfectly fine for the job, with a few low-key entries located in the first maps. Considering the time and size constraints, I think the team pulled off an amazing product. I recommend Skulltiverse to anybody looking for good challenges and a first approach to Boom compatible WADs, since it offers a contemporary approach to design, plenty of engine tricks to experience, all applied to compact maps that rarely required more than 20 minutes to complete.

 

Best maps:

MAP 05 – Green Tech’s Embrace by Death Bear

MAP 09 – Electric Red by Myolden

MAP 11 – Cold Blood by ViolentBeetle

MAP 19 – The Crucible by LordEntr0py

MAP 21 – Fallen Dimension by Shawny

MAP 27 – Last Ruin by Muumi

 

Other standout maps:

MAP 07 – Constant Companion by ViolentBeetle

MAP 10 – Terminal Decay by LordEntr0py

MAP 12 – Ruins by Juza

MAP 14 – Sanctuary of Horae by Shawny

MAP 15 – A Crack in the Skull by El inferno

MAP 26 – Beyond Life by DFF

MAP 30 – An Eye for an Eye by ViolentBeetle

Edited October 2, 2021 by Book Lord

[Clippy]

I never have time to fully participate in this club but I did play one of these

 

Kudos @MAN_WITH_GUN