The DWmegawad Club plays: Community Chest

[PeceMan]

Level 21, Avenger

    The beginning of the level was beautiful. I really, REALLY wanted to like the level. But the level made it hard.

 

    The level can be absurdly confusing at times. If the player forgets to press a single switch, then there's  nothing left to do but run around the

    maze-like level, searching for the missing switch. 

 

    The layout is not EXTREMELY confusing, but the level is big enough that the player will manage to get lost  anyway.

 

    But the architecture was beautiful, and the encounter design was not bad. So I actually played the level twice. And I can confidently say, the

    level is pretty decent the second time through. But no level should require two  playthroughs to be fun. And the second time, once I was already

    tired of the level's visuals, I didn't really appreciate the looks of the level, even if I enjoyed the gameplay.

 

    I really want to say it is a good level. But I just can't. It's a beautiful level, and clearly a lot of effort went into it. But the progression is simply

    confusing beyond the point I or anyone else should have to tolerate.

 

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

Five Stars:        
            02 Nullth Precinct; 18 Sudden Death

 

Four Stars:            
            04 Outer Base; 05 The Forgotten Prison; 07 The Boardwalk; 08 Battery; 10 Termination Center; 11 Mandrel; 14 Substation; 

            20 Technodrome

 

Three Stars:        
            01 Pistol Panic; 03 Ground Floor; 09 Flow; 13 Another Dead Hero; 15 Infernal Reaches; 16 Methods of Fear; 17 Inflictions of Hate;

            32 The Citadel; 21 Avenger

 

Two Stars:        
            12 No Tomorrow; 31 Mt. Chaos

 

One Star:    
            06 Goin' Down

 

[Book Lord]

MAP 22 – Future Grave by Jason Allison (rf’)

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

 

I was not expecting an E1 tech-base at this point. For pistol starters, Future Grave was a radical return to basic weaponry, as nothing but the single-barrelled shotgun and the chaingun were available. The enemy variety was also restricted to the Doom bestiary, except for Chaingunners and Hell Knights to replace the tougher Barons. The visuals were what you expect from a Phobos Base spin-off, but with lower ceilings, fantasy staircases, and narrow passageways that did not make it look any better.

Spoiler

The first segment had the RK as objective and it must be recovered from a network of nukage channels and pools, lacking the customary Radiation Suits. The nearby red door led to an elevator that descended into a basement with CEMENT textures, hosting a classic trap involving Imps. The BK was mine as soon as I convinced myself to press a blue marked button, which was intended to raise the bars that blocked the way to the corresponding key. I hate when the coloured strips have the opposite meaning if compared to IWADs, it only creates confusion.

 

The blue door teleporter took me back to the start. After pressing some redundant switches, I took a superfluous YK from the storage and continued my journey through a nonsensical area made of winding corridors and steps. In the next courtyard, a small maze with former humans disappeared as soon as I climbed the stairs. The UAC door sent me into another ambush of Imps, but the exit was within a few steps. I noticed the Soul Sphere and backtracked to see if a corridor upstairs had opened: it had, and it brought me to an area dedicated to the Soul Sphere secret, the only one that I scored. The remainder were invisible walls or unmarked secret doors, not hinted by anything.

Spoiler

This was the very first map by Jason Allison, now a regular participant at the Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions and a multiple Cacoward winner. While it did not entirely displease me, Future Grave was an underwhelming proposition at this point. It could have fared better in an earlier slot. Still, a good beginner’s effort that launched a successful mapping career.

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 20: Technodrome - The Ultimate Doomer

87% kills and 50% secrets

Time: 34:43

Deaths: 2

 

Semi-unrelated story: As I've been playing this WAD, lately I've been listening to some 3 hour relaxing VGM vids on YouTube. I wanted to listen to them while playing more Doom, but I also want to play Elementalism, and there's no way I'm playing that without the cool soundtrack to it. So I put Elementalism on the backburner and downloaded Fragport for the first time in 7+ years and started playing it. I'm 14 maps in, and there's not a voodoo doll or 3D bridge in sight. It is very brown though. Still, it's been fun, and I do hope we play it for the club soon, just to see what people think about it. There's some design choices that I don't think that would be made again today, but I don't think anything has been egregiously bad or anything. It's just a lot of brown.

 

Of course, Fragport came out 2 years before CC1, so I'm guessing TUD used this to experiment a little bit his contributions, given the voodoo dolls and 3D floors. The voodoo dolls haven't shown up in the stuff of his I've played since, though the 3D floors did a ton in Super Sonic Doom. You'd think this map's gimmick is also another experiment, but it's actually not. TUD did something similar in map 30 of Fragport. Map 29 is the IoS map, and it has you blow up a reactor. Map 30 is the escape, and as soon as you move forward, you have 10 minutes to escape. This map is a little different as you have to find a switch, hit it twice, then you have 2 minutes to escape. It's a little more refined in that aspect, since you trigger the escape sequence yourself.

 

As for the map itself, not going to lie, I'm surprised at the amount of negative opinions for it here, as I think it's one of the best in the WAD so far. It could be cause of my history with his maps, but I really don't see the complaints outside of the voodoo and bridges. This is probably the map where the bridges broke the most for me, but it was only in the crate area. I actually like the symmetry in the main hub area. This area itself looks really good, better than anything in Fragport so far in terms of detailing. I like how the elevated area has all the weapons, and that the center has a lot of powerups (and a surprise ambush). The Keens I think should have been more hidden than out in the open like that, making it a very easy secret megasphere to find. The crate area was pretty fun (aside from bridge trouble). The blue maze was whatever, tho the ambush at the north got me. Wasn't expecting that one. Hooray for the BFG on that one. The cage area was surprisingly tricky. The revs were easy to rocket, but it took a while to find where I was getting shot from. The chaingunners are at tricky spots for autoaim to hit at times, making them a little bit if a threat, and there's more archies here than I expected. The side rooms here have some tight ambushes that work pretty well. I liked how the 2nd one adds damaging floor making it a little tougher. The final side room opens up with 3 pain elementals and an archie, plus like 3 voodoo dolls. I'm assuming the BFG can hit the dolls, so plasma. I actually like this implementation of them, since the BFG would be the best way to clear this room, but having the dolls there make you change your technique. It's a cool way to limit what you can do without straight-up taking the weapons away. The final reactor area is my favorite area. You have several rad suits and megaspheres in order to deal with a cyb (death 2), and 3 waves of enemies. Ration them out efficiently. You finally find the bomb, so hit it and flee. Again, BFG would make the most sense to clear a path in the main hub, but the dolls are an issue. Again, plasma. The final path to the end is revs and mancubi that can be BFGd with no worries, and the final archie sandwich is kinda mean, but you can quickly take one out and/or escape. 

 

So yeah, overall I really liked this one! Looks good, has 4 distinct areas, and the gimmick is pretty solid. The dolls honestly add a unique challenge, though the 3D floors are more likely to break here. Solid stuff.

[LadyMistDragon]

5 hours ago, Book Lord said:

 

 

Don't give up!

I'll be lying if I say that it will get better, cause the MAP25-MAP29 streak has some real trouble, especially for pistol starters.

 

I am sure you know what lies ahead, thanks to Dean of Doom & the like. Since you have been informed that pistol starting is not feasible, play continuous before it's too late. It's better than not playing.

Yeah Breakout (still Kaiser's hardest map in the set) and Necrophobia aren't really so bad, but the rest are....let's just say I need to finish Breakout first because that map has a monster count practicallly as high as No Tomorrow, with estimated completion time for most (probably) be something like 25 minutes.

[brick]

MAP21: Avenger

I didn't feel as strongly about this map as others, but I didn't like it that much either. I like the overall architecture and the big-picture layout of the various sections, there's some really nice design there, but the map is confusing to navigate in parts, and progression is sometimes hidden by a tiny and easy to overlook trick, and if you do overlook it you can easily spend half an hour running around trying to find what you missed (and getting lost, again, in the process). I didn't feel up to getting so lost so I did consult a walkthrough twice, and both times rolled my eyes (using the candle platform to hop over the barrier is way too obscure). I also got lost for a while in the "town" but eventually figured it out on my own. Not really sure what to think of this one.

 

MAP22: Future Grave

I found this one more inoffensive, though I kept forgetting which locked door was which and ran back and forth between them a few times, on top of the obligatory back and forth backtracking the map forces on you. Thankfully it's not very large and getting lost is unlikely. Just like the previous map I don't have much to say about this one, but Ravage would go on to make Hocus Pocus Doom so it's hard to hate on him.

Edited March 22, 2022 by brick

[RHhe82]

MAP22: Future Grave. DSDA v0.24, HMP-PS, 129/129 kills, 3/5 secrets. Completion time 16:28.

 

I had little better time with this one, but not by much. Brown techbase, and it's still a bit confusing, mostly because set pieces look very similar. Cramped hallways with steep stairs. It almost feels like it's procedurally generated, if not for a couple of cool looking places, and some aesthetical variation increases toward the end.

 

I couldn't find all the secrets, not that I really tried to. Some of the secrets I did find, however, seem like I stumbled them accidentally. I could swear, one of them was just a regular wall where I just happened to press use button, and a switch was suddenly revealed.

[Yumheart]

Map22 "Future Grave" by ravage

An appreciated breather, in theory, Future Grave is a completely unchallenging, weirdly late-game techbase. I think Bad Bob's map04 would have felt more at home in hell than this, if you absolutely needed to put a short, basic techbase in the 22nd slot. Combat & visuals are inoffensive, except for the occasional shotgunning of some HKs, which is kind of annoying. I still got a little confused with the progression, doesn't look like I'm the only one.
Nothing special, but okay enough and a decent wind-down after Map21.

You can get the non-secret Pinky & Berserk by pressing on this little indentation down in this area.

Spoiler

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Yumheart

[kalaeth]

MAP22 - Future Grave :

oh more metal names, this one kinda sounds like some 80s heavy metal from Judas Priest or so. Brown base, part I've lost count. First I'll do the walk around without entering nor opening anything. Ok, I've seen everything in the first corridor, I'll start by a small door next to the yellow key.. Ah, it leads to a closed door. Up the stairs, another door leading to a red door. So.. Down the sludge river it must be. Closed by some bars, the blue key. And a teleport. From there.. Open up some bars and go down some stairs. Bunch of lost souls, door, sludge with a 'port. Tiny room, open the door, red key in sludge and another door up ahead. Down some steps and it's the other small door. Red door now, kill imps, jump a chasm, another door, switch, lift down, and now.. Basement. Small armory, another door and walls come down, now.. Side door first. HK, switch to open the backtrack door and the next door with another HK and a switch, for the bars maybe? No, for the face that will open the bars. and teleport again. Tiny room, switch, caco! And then a switch marked blue but it doesn't need the key, so I'm guessing it will make the key available? Ah yes, lowers the bars. Now.. cross red door, find blue door, in the basement. Pinkies! And then the floor collapses! Imps show up, switch, switch, floor goes back up, teleport! Again a tiny room with a button. I'm starting to see a pattern. Button, yellow key, yellow door, Hks and lost souls, steps up steps up, imps, steps down, press a wall somewhat at random and open up a switch, first secret of five, a room with backpack, armor bonus and potions. Down, more imps, more shotgunners, and finally, outside! Now.. There's two doors but I can enter either and some steps up. Up, reach a closed place but now both doors can be reached.. Hum.. big door first. Wow! Imps! Many. Kilçl them all, button, open door, chaingunners, a visible soulsphere secret, small door and big door... small. It's the exit, but closed up. Big door : chaingunners and a button. Press, to the exit, another button, another imptrap! And I can exit now, but I'm 4 secrets and a few enemies short. Oh, the upstairs corridor is now open too! A caco waits me, and after him imps and pinkies guarding a button. Few more imps and pinkies and then there was one enemy left. Press a button, jump down and it's not a small door but a button! Pressing it lowers a wall revealing another button that opens up another secret, a green armor. Now, as expected, the bluesphere is now up for grabs. Now missing one enemy, two secrets. Probably both way back. Ok, found a non-marked secret in the sludgeriver, and the final enemy. I've humped so many walls! Found another secret, a small stash of bonus and potions, and then there was one. And.. X marks the spot? There's a visible X on the map.. And a path to it.. And shots disappear into the wall! Fake wall! Another stash it was.  All done,

 

K/I/S : 100% / 100% / 100%

time : 27:25 / 9:39:48

deaths : 0 / 31

 

Ok, I really liked this level! It's big but not gigantic, never gets confusing despite the jumps and backtracks.. And the way we advance each time more into the base is great! 

edited to add : indeed the map would feel more at home in the first episode, but I'm not expecting consistency from this wad.

Edited March 22, 2022 by kalaeth

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 22: "Future GRAAAAAVE" by Jason "ravage" Allison

Music: "And Blood Will Spill" by David Shaw from Memento Mori II

Played continously with Hellbound class from Final Doomer.

 

Jason Allison is today a fairly celebrated mapper that regularly participates in Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions and also won a couple of Cacowards in previous years, such as for the partial TC of a beloved Apogee game Hocus Pocus in 2019. But back in 2002, he had just started mapping and when Dale Harris issued the call for a Memento Mori-esque community gathering, he was among the respondents. No doubt Dale wad grateful that people like Jason and Black Void were willing to step up when the only other options were to cobble some maps from the selections of Gene Bird, Daniel Trim and Spahgne. Yet, he sort of proves that he should've left the compiling to someone else, as this map would've been better placed before Boardwalk, or perhaps between the two latter Bad Bob maps with its difficulty and overall 'theme.'

 

Because this map once again falls back on the old Community Chest cliche of brown, brown literally everywhere and also lacking in any sort of light variation. Jason was probably just following new mapping advice or something, which works out quite well as it's certainly solid and competently designed, other than making the switch lowering bars in the sewers blocking the way to the blue key blue-bordered but the combat basically feels like someone who's just learning monster placement and feels rather cautious about overwhelming the player. I'm not sure it's quite as easy as Mt.Pain would have you believe, but there's zero rational explanation for it's late game slot at any rate. And it does end rather suddenly. I'll say this though: it's still a more engaging effort than Andy Leaver's own quite unconfident debut, BITEB.WAD

 

Where this map has its biggest successes is with it's secrets. While the one where you leap into a closed-off area near the end is kind of dumb, I can only assume Jason has a talent for hiding secrets that only manifests more strongly in his later maps. I was never able to access the secret Supercharge for instance, and though most rewards are considerably lesser than that, it's nice that they exist.

 

Still, this might be the blandest map in the set so far. I'd probably rank it somewhere in the lower 5 or 6, probably above Forgotten Prison, but otherwise, I can't say much about it.

Edited March 22, 2022 by LadyMistDragon

[PeceMan]

Level 22, Future Grave
    I had fun. Aesthetics were pretty solid. The secrets were interesting, and gameplay was entertaining.

 

    The map is tangly, but never confusing. Having said that, it is a bit more linear than one might think at first.

 

    A lot of lightweight enemies. Only a couple of Cacodemons and a small bunch of HKs. Maybe the mapper intended for their map to be located

    near the beginning of the wad?

 

    It's nice to play something that is just simple and solid. Nothing excesively big or complicated. A single map, with consistency both in its aesthetics

    and its gameplay. If all of the levels in a wad were like this, the wad would be pretty good.

 

 

 

Scoring:

Spoiler

Five Stars:        
            02 Nullth Precinct; 18 Sudden Death

 

Four Stars:            
            04 Outer Base; 05 The Forgotten Prison; 07 The Boardwalk; 08 Battery; 10 Termination Center; 11 Mandrel; 14 Substation; 

            20 Technodrome; 22 Future Grave

 

Three Stars:        
            01 Pistol Panic; 03 Ground Floor; 09 Flow; 13 Another Dead Hero; 15 Infernal Reaches; 16 Methods of Fear; 17 Inflictions of Hate;

            32 The Citadel; 21 Avenger

 

Two Stars:        
            12 No Tomorrow; 31 Mt. Chaos

 

One Star:    
            06 Goin' Down; 19 Monster Mansion

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by PeceMan

[Silhouette 03]

Map21: Avenger-Sphange

New spaces, worn out places.

 

I can't help but feel that this map seems to suffer from the same issues as previous maps in the wad, which is strange considering that most of these maps came from different authors from different mapping backgrounds and styles. Low ammo and health, overly long length (which to me wouldn't be as much of a problem if not for the first problem I mentioned) and confusing layouts. Though in this case there is less ammo than health. The layout is confusing as there is just so much ground to cover and so few landmarks. You'll probably either get lost or not remember what door leads where. I'm not going to complain about the ammo/health as I'm sure you are all  probably tired of me complaining about the lack of ammo and health in some of these maps. I know I am.

 

I'm tired of tearing maps apart.

 

kills: 89%
Secrets:11%

 

 

 

    

 

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Silent Wolf

[Poncho1]

Map22: Future Grave

Author: Jason Allison (ravage)

 

So we go from a techbase (Map20) to full-on Hell (Map21)... back to full-on techbase? This would've worked so much better in the first 5 or 6 maps. Actually yeah, Map06 should've been here, since it did indeed have a Hellish section, at least. ravage's sole entry in Community Chest is rudimentary and simple in its design, making use of some very dull beige textures, broken up only be grey poles or the nukage. So, come to think of it, it's very much like Map05 in that regard. The gameplay evokes Ultimate Doom with the heavy use of Imps and zombies, with the odd Hell Knight or whatever breaking up the monotony. In spite of the extremely easy combat and the fact that the overall level isn't very big, it's surprisingly easy to get lost, which I chalk up to the aforementioned texturing that makes everything look the bloody same. There are very few points of interest, such as a very basic maze with Pinkies where the walls eventually lower to turn the room into a courtyard, and maybe an ambush where Imps descend from all sides, but that's about as difficult at the map gets. An entirely forgettable entry.

[Jaccident]

Map 21: Avenger

I liked the start of this map, and in theory I'm not against this kind of map. It's just that when you make a level incredibly labrynthine, with loads of nooks and crannies to explore, if you tie progression to just one of those nooks or crannies then it becomes very east for the player to miss the only one of them that matters, or to think they've already gone down that path and continually look over it. This is what happened to me. I enjoyed the start of the level, and that feeling of being lost and truly exploring, but eventually I missed the door that takes you to the yellow key room and spent far too much time looking for it (which is the reason I am now a day behind!). Still, with a bit more obvious signposting or multiple paths through, this kind of map could work very well. My only other problem with this map was the insane resource scarcity, which forced me to play this map tyson style for quite a bit of it. This wasn't enjoyable, but that's more personal preference than anything else. Still, far from the worst this wad has to offer, and considerably better the map before it (although if somehow I had slogged through map20 on a casual playthrough this would have absolutely been the nail in the coffin for such a playthrough)

Edited March 22, 2022 by Jaccident

[NiGHTS108]

MAP22: Future Grave

By Ravage

Kills: 75%

Items: 31%

Secrets: 20%

Time: 12:39

 

One of the very easiest and single most misplaced map in the megawad, Future Grave is a bland-as-beige tech base that has no business being here, perhaps the most interesting note about this map is Megasphere's "NM100S Pistol Start Or Else" is an about as appropriate MIDI as this map's placement, the visuals are very samey in the first part which definitely flipped me around a lot, in my memory of Future Grave, I recall spending more time trying to find one door I kept missing than anything else in the level, it's all just a meek grind in my head, in this megawad I think this map is most comparable to MAP03: Ground Floor

 

Grade: C-

Difficulty: E

 

 

7 days left.

Edited March 22, 2022 by NiGHTS108

[finnks13]

Been away over the weekend visiting some friends, and while I've already finished the wad, I wasn't able to post about it so here's 4 day's worth of stuff at once!

 

~~~

 

MAP19 - Monster Mansion by Gene Bird:
What can I say? It's another Gene Bird map. I like the retreading of your steps through the main little hub, while the red and yellow key wings aren't particularly great themselves, this strikes me as a departure from the very linear, room-by-room style that most Gene Bird maps tend to be. I like the "Monster Mansion" itself, while the doomcute inside it is pretty rough, I still love doomcute and appreciate any amount of it! The final couple of areas have some decent combat in them, with the outside area with the three buildings being quite fun to clear out, and the ambush in the ASHWALL cave is easily the best one I've seen Gene Bird do. Overall, I'd say I enjoyed this one in spite of it's simplicity.

 

MAP20 - Technodrome by The Ultimate Doomer:
A mixed bag. While I like the intensity of the fights here, as they're generally much more interesting than pretty much everything that has come before, there's a few parts to this map that really irritate me. To start, the premise of the map, and way it's set out using a standard hub layout is fine and I like the premise of setting a bomb, and having to flee the map - I've actually done an "escape sequence" gimmick in a couple of my own maps. The exit is very obvious, so after actually setting the bomb, the way to leave is not hard to find which is important for this concept. I also really liked the area in the nuclear reactor - it's a very fun fight that I can play aggressively since there are no voodoo dolls there.

 

Oh, right, the voodoo dolls. I really hate them in this map. They were a bit weird, but fine in Map01, but here they are just placed obnoxiously. The first time I rounded a corner and immediately unloaded an SSG shot at one, which killed me instantly was quite funny, but after this, my interactions with them were pretty negative. In theory, having them there so you think carefully about your shots, and use of the BFG is a good idea. However, in practice dying to them just isn't fun. Apart from the moments where I carelessly shot near them, I managed to die twice in ways that felt completely unfair - once to an infighting chaingunner hitting one while I was in a completely different room going to gather some health and another to a rocket managing to pass through a massive horde of monsters and blow up a voodoo doll that happened to be behind them. They really hold back this map from being genuinely pretty great.

 

The 3D floors are used decently, even if they're still pretty jank, your time spent fighting on them is minimal and I appreciate that. Overall, this could have been a highlight of Community Chest 1, but choices by the map author ruin the experience.

 

MAP21 - Avenger by Sphange:
This lengthy opener to episode three is the first of Sphange's three contributions to Community Chest. All of his maps are apparently maps made between 1995 and 1999, which were then retextured to fit the constraints of CC1, and while the layout does give this fact away, being very mazey, a lot of the combat feels far more modern than that to me. That being said, I'm fairly sure that attaining 100% kills would be impossible without grabbing the secret rocket launcher and plasma gun, and I feel that a lot of the ambushes are very limp - the yellow key ambush, for example, is a few pinkies, a cacodemon, a revenant and a hell knight, which is just a bit lame compared to what came before. I like that monsters are able to roam all around the map, I was surprised a fair few times by stuff I had left alive that had managed to get over to me.

 

The map appears to have quite a lot of options of how to navigate it, thought the actual progression path is very linear (not that linearity is a bad thing, mind you) and I do think that this map has pretty obvious progression routes, the only slight troubles I had were when I forgot about a yellow key door I had seen previously. The map looks decent, it's a mix of themes, being predominantly techbase and brown-brick themed. I enjoy punching stuff so I didn't mind the pretty heavily enforced berserk combat (and Map21 is the traditional tyson map spot) but I do wish the map gave out a bit more powerful ammo so some of the longer fights could be cut down a bit. Overall, a pretty fun, if exhausting map.

 

MAP22 - Future Grave by Ravage:
Probably the "OK-est" map so far, Future Grave is a pretty run of the mill techbase with some decent areas and fights. The map is incredibly brown, and nearly every part of the main area is textured with BROWN1 and while the CEMENT and BROWNGRN sections break up the monotony a bit, they're also textured with pretty much one texture with some lights built into the wall. I think the layout itself is the best bit of the map, it loops well and there's plenty of windows to allow for monsters to hit you unexpectedly. Unfortunately, there is almost no threat to the blind player in this map, the strongest foe you fight is a hell knight, and you don't even get an SSG. This makes the map really dull with almost all of the fights and ambushes being 90% imps and 10% demons or zombies. I'm absolutely embarrassed I died to the imps surrounding me in the hexagonal room before the exit, maybe I shouldn't play Doom this tired - I don't think this map helped on that front though.

 

RANKINGS:

Spoiler

Really Liked: MAP02, MAP07, MAP17, MAP21
Liked: MAP04, MAP09, MAP13, MAP14, MAP31, MAP16, MAP18
The Boring Zone: MAP03, MAP11, MAP15, MAP32, MAP19
Didn't Like: MAP01, MAP05, MAP08, MAP12, MAP20, MAP22
Really Didn't Like: MAP06, MAP10

 

 

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 21: Avenger - Sphange

100% kills and 66% secrets

Time: 39:02

Deaths: 4

 

This one was a drag. Overly big, with no real direction. It actually reminded me of some of the more unwieldy maps from BTSX, that are pretty non-linear. There's nothing really showing the way to where the yellow key is, so you're just wandering around this giant beast of a map looking for something, hitting switches and hoping they did anything. The layout is kind of confusing, especially in the outside brown area just north of the start. Ammo drought is huge here, putting me under half capacity a couple times for everything, even as a continuous player. Some of these ambushes I have no idea how'd you be able to beat them without that extra ammo. Health is scarce too, even if there are a lot of berserk packs. I did like some of the secrets at least, but for the most part this map just wasn't that fun for me. It could use some considerable trimming and focus. Maybe my least favorite in the WAD so far honestly. 

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP20: "Technodrome" by The Ultimate Doomer

UV, pistol start, saves

88% kills, 2/5 secrets

 

I thought with the note on the floor this one might be quick and simple, but no, the monster count tells the truth here. It's another rather lengthy affair, albeit with a more straightforward layout. As the note on the floor says, you must locate the bomb, press it twice, and exit the level within 2 minutes. The 2 minute counter starts after the first press, as that triggers a crusher to come down on a poor voodoo doll surrounded by barrels. The hallmarks of the previous map by this author show again here, with frequent use of 3D bridges and voodoo dolls littered around, although the dolls are used more cunningly here than the arbitrary manner they were used in MAP01. The visuals in the map are very good in my opinion, it's a solid looking classic techbase.

 

The combat in this one has its hits and misses. The starting area is a hit, it features 100 monsters scattered around the large techy area, and you'll have to trigger lifts in order to obtain weapons to fight back with, and you'll find every weapon in the immediate area. Only knock on it is the 3D bridges connecting the weapon areas are a little janky, and likely to pop up monsters in your face. The damaging reactor area is quite hectic, you have a large amount of enemies including a cyberdemon to deal with as you try and trigger your way out, with the threat of running out of radsuits being quite a severe one. I thought the time crunch along with the combat made this an exciting area. There were some things I didn't like though, the blue maze area was a little annoying, I wasn't too fond of those rude chaingunner squads in the caged area, and I'm still not sure whether the voodoo dolls being a more relevant obstacle in this one is a good thing. Probably just an idea I don't like in general.

 

Overall though, I thought this was a pretty decent map. Compared to its large size, the map felt a lot shorter than it really was, which likely signifies that I mostly enjoyed myself.

[Book Lord]

MAP 23 – Blood Runners by @Sphagne

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

 

Just like Avenger, the second map by Sphagne was individually released on idgames with its own plot line. Doomguy was given the mission to eliminate a savage tribe called Blood Runners, living on the high flat of the mountains. I could not force myself to believe the hellspawn were organised in tribes, and this level did not exactly resemble a mountain hideout. Nevertheless, I perceived that I was slowly climbing up a blood stream, heading for its blasphemous source.

Spoiler

Considering the smaller size and that it was a much more linear affair than MAP21, I surprised myself to enjoy this map. The first half consisted in approaching the lair of the Blood Runners following the harmful river, managing the Radiation Suits and the limited arsenal, in case of pistol start. There was hefty opposition but also barrels to detonate, and I liked that I must find a backdoor entrance because the main gate was blocked. The rooms were not very memorable but sufficiently challenging, and I liked the absurdity of the Arch-Vile guard post at the spiral staircase.

Spoiler

The best part of the map was inside the hideout. Firstly, I got a glimpse of the BSK outside the wood area with gargoyle faces; then I suddenly found myself on top of the plateau, where a herd of Pinkies was grazing like cows. A pistol starter cannot waste ammo on them, but the intended course of action was to let the faraway Hell Nobles kill them for you. The big area had a lot of monsters, so I decided to escape to the east, where I entered a sort of underground bunker mainly populated by Imps and zombies. Lost Souls were spawned on a red star in a slow fashion, giving me some trouble as I was mowing down hitscanners coming out or their quarters. The gameplay, the visuals, the secrets; all was excellent in this section.

Spoiler

Quite the opposite, I did not like the crate room because the height was disproportionate to the surface. There were dozens of elevated snipers out of sight; moving back and forth to methodically kill them was necessary, but tedious. However, it did not last for too long, as I quickly located the RSK and a nearby teleporter put me exactly in front of the door, and on a shiny Combat Armour. I gave up the Computer Area Map, BFG, and plasma rifle secrets, as they apparently required a lot of strafe-jumping I was not in the mood for.

 

In the same vein of MAP21, Blood Runners wrapped things up quickly after finding the first key. I grabbed the BSK, returned to the plateau and assaulted the structure on top, where a meat crusher was used to squeeze living creatures (in this case, an unseen Cacodemon) and generate a continuous blood flow. I always approve when Doom mappers bring forth gruesome images. Picking up the YSK released a Cyberdemon inside the exit tower for a final confrontation. This was the most pleasing donation from Sphagne to Community Chest: a well-rounded adventure with strong sense of place, interesting combat, and a good secret department. Two thumbs up.

[PeceMan]

Level 23, Blood Runners
    This one reminds me a lot of level 21, which was made by the same person. Clearly, they have a very specific mapping style.

 

    I'm not saying this level "looks" similar to avenger, but that it is, conceptually, very similar.

 

    I like to score them with a 3 out of 5. They're not mediocre, at all. It's completely different. I love them, but I also hate them. I'd like to give them 

    a 5/5. But I know some parts of them deserve a 1/5. So I have to average my love for them with my hatred towards Sphagne, and give them a

    3/5.

 

    Starts great. Flows nicely. Aesthetics are great. Gameplay is solid and fun. And then, all of a sudden, WHERE ARE THE FUCKING KEYS????!!! 

 

    And the level flow stops abruptly, as I am given no choice but to spend 30 minutes roaming around, searching  for the one switch I forgot to

    press. Because in Sphagne's levels, every switch is necessary for progress, but most  switches are either easily forgetable or straight up missable. 

 

    I literally gave up and had to open up the editor to find the keys, only to find out I had missed a switch.

 

    Also, the crate room was horrible. I hated it. It probably wasn't that bad, and I'm being excesively harsh, but after 30 minutes of frustration

    trying to figure out what to do, the crate room really wasn't what my lust for Doom needed.

 

 

 

    I've noticed a certain pattern in maps from these times: A lot of hitscanners, and a lot of invisibility spheres. I guess people just weren't used

    to dodging projectiles yet?

 

    If you're not good at dodging projectiles, hitscan enemies and projectile enemies are pretty similar.

 

    But if you are good at dodging projectiles, then the invisibility sphere is actually harmful, to the point where I always either conciously avoid

    grabing them, or if I had to grab them, I'd sit tight in a corner, waiting for the invisibility to run out.

 

 

 

Scoring:

Spoiler

Five Stars:        
            02 Nullth Precinct; 18 Sudden Death

 

Four Stars:            
            04 Outer Base; 05 The Forgotten Prison; 07 The Boardwalk; 08 Battery; 10 Termination Center; 11 Mandrel; 14 Substation; 

            20 Technodrome; 22 Future Grave

 

Three Stars:        
            01 Pistol Panic; 03 Ground Floor; 09 Flow; 13 Another Dead Hero; 15 Infernal Reaches; 16 Methods of Fear; 17 Inflictions of Hate;

            32 The Citadel; 21 Avenger; 23 Blood Runners

 

Two Stars:        
            12 No Tomorrow; 31 Mt. Chaos

 

One Star:    
            06 Goin' Down; 19 Monster Mansion

 

[Silhouette 03]

Map22: Future grave-Ravage

Better than the last one.

What we have here is a very traditional tech base map, except with mostly narrow walkways and corridors. There's not really much to actually talk about. It's traditional to the point where it is very unremarkable to say the least. The layout does however flow quite nicely ( when you're not getting lost like yours truly) and  the combat feels good. I just don't think it's really anything special.

 

Sorry for the shorter than usual post. I don't want to drone on and on about a map that doesn't  really warrant a  detailed/ somewhat detailed analysis.

 

Kills: 91%

Secrets: 0%

 

 

 

[kalaeth]

MAP23 - Blood Runners :

Let's run some blood! There's more brown, but behind a small pool with dead cacos gives some color to this starting corridor. Speaking of corpses, there a lot here. Imps on a ledge with a caged HK to one side, a pool of blood with a rad suit on the other. Grab the berserker, grab the suit, and.. Go up. A big cavern filled with blood, there I enter a face door and climb some steps, but then I go back down to kill a caged caco and better explore the caves before entering the upper part of the map. There I go trough a tunnel into the upper level of the blood river, and from there cross a cave to inside the building. A wall open up with a pinkie and a invisibility sphere, there's a couple of rad suits that I'll leave for when required, a switch that does nothing i can see, a door and we go from grey to E1M1 green, circular stairs with a secret pack of rockets and a chaingunner inside, a switch lowers a wall and we are in a river of blood dominated room, and from there I reach back to the caged HK from the start. Back up, door, and now it's wooden! The wooden corridor has some windows outside and I jump, eyeing the blue key there. I go out, the caco goes in. I can't reach the BSK, so I open the door and go back into the corridor, to take the side door, ups some marble steps and it's outside again, this time a big courtyard filled with pinkies! I decide to have some fun so I kill half with the chainsaw before SSGing the rest and then rocketing the HKs. One of the towers has a invincibility sphere and I can enter it by the river of blood, so. jump, lift, and I got invincible for no good reason. I end up following a ledge and reaching a door to a blood walled room with a lift, that lowers back into the grey part of the map, a pentagram with a secret blue armor on it, a weirdly shaped room with a RL I can't grab, and then the room where I first entered the building from but went back down. Now.. A corridor with 4 doors. I start by the one further away, shotgunner, zombie, bluesphere!c Shotgunner, zombie, chaingunner and a switch. It opens up a wall, I chaingun a rev from a window, the next room has 3 shotguns and the final / first has a secret! Not marked as such : it leads to the RL. Back to the 4 doors and I enter the 5th : the one that was behind the wall. small room with a lowering floor and a specter trap, a door leading to crates through a computer corridor and steps up.. Door first. Kill caco, reach small crate room and it lowers to a crate filled room,  where imps wait in small niches, one guarding a plasma, another a BFG. I enter yet another, that reveals a hidden chaingunner and a teleport to the top of those stairs from before. Reentering the teleport it goes down and now I'm staring at the auotmap, just out of reach, and so I fall down and now I'm looking at the RSK. I grab it, press a button that opens a 'port.. Oh, it's the blue armor! Back to the top of the crates, then all the way down : there's more to discover here in this room! An elevator leads to a monitor corridor which leads to a cave corridor with a rad suit, and I'm back at the start. Retracing my steps, the blood walled room with a lift now also has a teleport.. To the top of the stairs. Now, there's more to grab there, at least 2 more secrets, but I can't seem to reach them, so I advance the plot a bit, back to the red door. From there, I reach the secret room with a chair seen at the start of the level, press the TV, shoot the tv but nothing happens. SO I climb the stairs, jump to the secret square and from there I grab the backpack. Following, I reach the blue key. Now.. Blue door outside in the courtyard, but there's a teleport here too.. I try it. all the way back to the start! what a waste of time. Ok, blue door. A squished but alive caco still guards the key and a trio of barons show up after. Speaking of barons I get rid of two through the windows before I open the YK room, that has some caged chaingunners and a switch that lowers the floor to another switch that, unmarked, leaves the level. Luckily I saved just before. time for a break, the best break, the lunch break. (For the curious, it's at 98/60/33 at 38:29)

 Ok, back at the crates room, I reached the berserker. Now from here... I can reach the secret with the cells and from here maybe jump into the plasma gun? Yes! But from here there's no path to the BFG.. So, back to the top and jump from where? It seems that it should be possible from the cells secret.. Ah ah! Some 5 tries latter I managed the jump! Now, 5 secrets 2 enemies to go. Now, one more secret is here, the automap. But how to reach it? Oh, from the other room! I see. Now.. There's a couple of hidden rooms at the start, I go grab a suit, go there and find that neither of them opens. OK, one of them is a shoot at me door, I shoot at it. The other one.. I can't open. So I go back and find a river of blood I hadn't yet crossed, cross it and find another secret! A switch does something but not opening up the megasphere I see. And meanwhile a manc got teleported somewhere. While searching for a way to the megasphere (I believe there's a door to it...) I pass by the not so secret jump secret with a chaingun, 10/12 accounted for, ah! I was right about the 'sphere! One secret to go. 2 enemies. So.. I'm gonna go to that teleport to the start, because maybe it opens up the wall? In the meantime, here's the manc! Hum.. no. My teleport idea didn't work. Hum.. Oh! Shoot at the pillar?! Not marked as a switch? Evil. Final secret, final enemy, off to the exit!  

 

K/I/S : 100% / 100% / 100%

time : 1:02:27* / 10:42:15

deaths : 0 / 31

*I left the game running for some 10 minutes or so, I don't think I actually spent 30 minutes of play trying to find the secrets? Maybe? 

Long level, nice secrets, interesting visuals. I approve of it.

[RHhe82]

MAP23: Blood Runners. DSDA v0.24, HMP-PS, 213/216 kills, 5/12 secrets. Completion time 29:46.

 

At first sight I was prepared to have miserable time, but in the end, Blood Runners turned out to be an okay map. It's downsides are some minor thematic inconsistency - I mean, I like the warehouse design, but I couldn't see just how it fits with the rest of the level. On the other hand, any deviation from beige-brown is very much welcome at this point.

 

The map's a bit too long, and the combat is mostly uninspired - but not obnoxious. It's a mediocre map, but on a higher rung of mid-tier levels compared to MAP21.

[finnks13]

MAP23 - Blood Runners by Sphange:
Sphange's second map is much like his first - long, mazey, suprisingly linear and filled with punching. The ammo deprivation here isn't quite as bad as in Avenger but you'll still want to punch a lot because the SSG is placed very late into the level. I didn't really miss it, as most of the enemies you're forced to fight are either fodder imps and zombies, or easily punchable revenants, cacodemons and hell knights. The few mancubi and arachnotrons aren't too annoying to have to single shotgun down as they're pretty rare. The action is pretty good for the most part, it can be a bit of a slog (the pinky demon courtyard is the worst offender for this) but overall it's well done for the time.

 

The aesthetics jump around again, there's caves, marble castles, techbases and warehouses to be found here. I really liked the warehouse section, it's very funny with how large it is, even though the fights in here aren't great with infinitely tall monsters enabled - I'm not sure if this would have been tested that way considering it's age. The layout is excellent, it loops around in some surprising places and overall the progression is refreshingly simple. I don't like this map quite as much as Avenger, it's definitely less exhausting but less memorable for me. Overall, this is another pretty good map from Sphange.

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

Really Liked: MAP02, MAP07, MAP17, MAP21
Liked: MAP04, MAP09, MAP13, MAP14, MAP31, MAP16, MAP18, MAP23
The Boring Zone: MAP03, MAP11, MAP15, MAP32, MAP19
Didn't Like: MAP01, MAP05, MAP08, MAP12, MAP20, MAP22
Really Didn't Like: MAP06, MAP10

 

[DavitW]

MAP21: Avenger

All these lame attempts at Magnum Opuses are starting to do me in, but once again I can't really fault the mappers for that one. No surprise they wanted to create the biggest, baddest map possible to show off their talents, unfortunately the end result is often of dubious quality as we can see here. The demo was my first attempt at a blind playthrough of the map. I didn't get very far but I did go back and take a further look at the map. It has the same problems so many others in this wad have had so far, ugly as sin, confusing layout, and a severe lack of ammo. It's the lack of ammo that's the big problem, it just completely saps the fun right out of these maps.

 

MAP22: Future Grave

I got through this one on my first try, but it's still not a very good map. It's so damn bland and ugly it comes across as uninspired, like the author spent 5 seconds texturing this thing. Another confusing one as well, there's no flow or logic to be find within these halls. And finally the gameplay is sorely lacking as well, consisting entirely of using the single shotgun and chainguns against imps and zombies in completely meaningless fights, with a few hell knights thrown in every now and then just to waste your time. There's not much else to be said here.

 

MAP23: Blood Runners

Okay, so this map actually seems to have an interesting concept, like some sort of cave out on a remote island occupied by demons. It's very clearly made by the same author as Map 21, but a significant improvement by most accounts. I had fun all the way up to the point I died. I just felt the SSG could have came a bit sooner, we already had to face a Baron and a few Cacodemons up that point and trust me, nobody likes killing Barons with a chaingun. Going further into it however, the map suddenly takes an abrupt left turn into some horrible, tall, crate maze thing. Not a fun time dealing with infinitely tall monsters blocking your path and trying to kill the imps in all their little cubby holes.

cc21.zip

cc22.zip

cc23.zip

[Yumheart]

Map23 "Blood Runners" by Sphange

This map left very little impression on me, which is weird, considering it's relatively long runtime. I liked it more than Map21, and that's entirely because of the progression being far less obtuse, I always had a pretty clear idea of where to go next at any point.
The combat here was a huge step down though, imo, kind of similar to Map18, in that no battle really poses a threat, despite big crowds of monsters. The Pinky army in the main courtyard was particularly useless, I just bottlenecked and punched them all to death and I didn't really see a way of handling the situation differently.
This map is pretty inconsistent with it's theme and I didn't particularly enjoy the looks of anything, aside from the neatly organic-looking opening area, I think Sphange could've leaned into that a bit more.
Highlights? The BFG and the Plasma were fun to obtain, I guess. Aside from that it's not bad, just whatever.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Yumheart

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 22: Future Grave - Ravage

99% kills and 100% secrets (still have no idea where the missing kill is, even after IDDT)

Time: 14:23

 

After the last few maps, it's nice to get an easy one. This is a very tan/beige techbase, with a few green-walled areas. There's a surprising amount of height variation in the floors here. Lots of the inside corridors have you going up and down, which is something I actually liked quite a bit. These narrow corridors usually just send fodder enemies after you, though there are the occasional caco and hell knight. Nothing stronger than the hell knight appear in this map, so why it's map 22 and not earlier, Idk. There's a few imp ambushes in the larger areas, but nothing to worry about. A few secrets are tough to find. The only reason I knew about the backpack secret is cause I could see which wall it was behind. I could just barely make out the opening, but hiding the switch behind a nearby curved wall was sorta obtuse. The 2 in the retracting maze were easy to spot tho. Not much else to say other than this was a nice coffee break map. Relatively simple, basic but effective visuals and combat, but enjoyable nonetheless. 

[Dusty_Rhodes]

Map20: Technodrome

 

@The Ultimate DooMer's second and last contribution to CChest brings varied results. Firstly, thank goodness I am not pistol - starting. If you thought earlier levels were bad for our challenge - seeking friends, this is where it really ramps up (I've pistol started a lot of the levels in the past, I'm not doing so now, it really isn't worth it). Alright, back to Technodrome: the level starts with a neat premise, find a bomb, arm it, and escape in under 2 minutes or else death. Since @Cadman specified not to use Boom or MBF linedef actions; I have no clue how this was done, especially since this is before the discovery of Mikortals. Either way, wait long enough and you will die after arming the bomb. To help out the player, The Ultimate Doomer gives a Megasphere . . . and nothing else. Granted, I already have all seven weapons, a backpack, and now 200 \ 200. As you walk forward, you'll be teleported to the main tech base, a wheelspoke hub with four compass points to follow. A lot of the fights are really, really, fun. The hidden ambush in the blue vent area, the teleport fight in the reactor room (another clever use of realism and vanilla Doom features, in this case, damaging floors being used as radiation), and the main run around in the hub are are great.

 

BUT

 

Remember, those silly voodoo dolls in the mediocre Map01: Pistol Panic? Well, they're back and they're here to mess you up. What was a complete nonissue in Map01 has come back with a vengeance, the voodoo dolls suffocate you. It stops what would be a fun fight and slows it to a crawl. Oh, you wanted to make it through this fight by blasting baddies with the RL and BFG? Well, f*** off, those tracers and splash damage numbers will completely stop that from happening. This map has beautiful visuals, fun fights, and interesting concepts, so why ruin the fun factor? There are some great battles, why stifle them? Simply giving less cell ammo, or maybe having a door with health* to remove the cells would both stop BFG spam and balance the map better. What a waste . . . .

 

Otherwise, very, very fun and creative map.

 

Map21: Avenger

 

Oh hi, @Sphagne

 

I hate this map, I'm too tired to write about it, sorry. I will say, last week when I played it, I was shooting the shit with @Yumheart and @finnks13 over on Discord. He thought that nearly every monster being awake was interesting and dynamic. I thought it was lazy, frustrating, and signified a novice mapper. Maybe others have input? I think it makes for interesting discussion, nonetheless.

 

Idk, this has been a rough week, and I'm being too mean, as all of Sphagne's maps are 1995 levels that were spruced up to help out Cadman (or so I've heard), but I'm tired, the combat is frustrating, and the progression is just terrible. There's a couple redeeming fights, it's just not that great. I hate it less than some upcoming maps** so that's a plus I guess.

 

Sorry. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Side note, the Heretic music goes hard, even if I've heard it a hundred times.

 

Map22: Future Grave

 

I can totally see people calling this relaxed tech base boring, and I even understand it. That said, just like with Map01, Map03, and Map11, I have a soft spot for this level. Mediocre tech bases with nice detailing seems like a lost art. I don't really know why, but there's something just kind of enamoring about them, maybe it's nostalgia, I don't really know. Anyway, there's a lot of good things here, the progression and secrets are satisfying and easy to follow, the combat is at least competent, and even if they're basic, the visuals work. I like this map, nothing special, but I remember hearing Tarnsman talk about why having a few mediocre maps can be good for the wad as a whole, giving perspective to the truly great maps. Maybe he's wrong, because Ancient Aliens exists, but I think there's definitely a solid point to be had there. My only real complaint is that the ending section is tedious, but I've played this wad a billion times, so I don't really mind it.

 

Anyway, as basic as it is, I like Future Grave.

 

Map23: Blood Runners

 

Welcome to the only Sphagne map in the wad that I like. There's some trademark weird Sphagne progression stuff going on, but mostly this level is energetic and full of good fights. Great midi too. Not too much more to say, I've already been writing for too long.

 

 

 

*

Spoiler

For those that don't get the joke or if it's lost in translation, "Door with Health" is a tongue - in - cheek phrase for the Baron. They aren't hard to kill, just tedious.

 

**

Spoiler

Map25: Blood Demesne and Map27: Afterlife

 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Dusty_Rhodes

[brick]

1 hour ago, Dusty_Rhodes said:

back to Technodrome: the level starts with a neat premise, find a bomb, arm it, and escape in under 2 minutes or else death. Since @Cadman specified not to use Boom or MBF linedef actions; I have no clue how this was done

I got curious too so checked it after finishing the level. It's beautifully simple: there's an S1 linedef right in front of the actual switch and it starts the crusher over voodoo dolls, the 2nd use will activate the actual switch (now that the invisible linedef is "used up") which opens the doors to the exit and to release all the monsters. The only problem of course is that the timer starts after the first press. I had a save just before then pressed both in quick succession, but it's technically possible to screw yourself over if you press once then wait.

[Dusty_Rhodes]

21 minutes ago, brick said:

I got curious too so checked it after finishing the level. It's beautifully simple: there's an S1 linedef right in front of the actual switch and it starts the crusher over voodoo dolls, the 2nd use will activate the actual switch (now that the invisible linedef is "used up") which opens the doors to the exit and to release all the monsters. The only problem of course is that the timer starts after the first press. I had a save just before then pressed both in quick succession, but it's technically possible to screw yourself over if you press once then wait.

Nice, that's super interesting. As simple as it is, I feel a W1 linedef would've been more fitting. Oh well, the map works. Maybe the extact linedef he needed only was defined by S1, kinda like how there's no G1Door Open, only GR. Just one of those vanilla things I guess.

[Crusader No Regret]

Map 20: A map I remember from 2005, this one has some legwork to do on pistol start.  It's not that awful; doesn't take that long to realize where all the weapons are given the symetry of the first area.  Bait some infights, grab some guns while the guards are occupied, and repeat for each quadrant.

 

Now if one is stubborn/unwilling to use saves, repeating this step every time after dying does get old.  So dropping a save after this first step would be a smart move.  I was too stubborn to use a save slot back then so experienced more frustration than I needed in this map.

 

I'd played Fragport before CChest so I already had a general idea of what to expect with combat and generally when a big army will warp in.  The idea of arming a bomb and having a time limit to beat feet gives the map some identity.  Those damn voodoo dolls though, showing up in some awkward spots where they're likely to be hit either by the player or stray attacks from monsters.  Bold design choice but not fun to play through.  Often, I'd resort to luring monsters away from the proximity of the dolls which had the effect of dragging out the playtime of the map without providing anything of substance.  I never finished the map except for the one time I turned on god mode to tour the place.  Could probably do it with save spam but ick, that would require downloading CChest which I don't want to do.

 

Heh, part of me likes this map for concept and its experimental and bold choices and another part thinks that first part is nuts.  The running for the exit is only a small part of the map though with the rest mostly feeling like stock mapping (the radioactive core that requires radsuit protection is neat though).  And there's not much reason to play this when CChest3 exists with its spin on the premise: a global time limit to disarm a bomb to stop a horrible death.  And there are no awkwardly located voodoo dolls in that one.