Anomaly Report - Released! A new 33-level megawad for vanilla Doom II.

[Cacodemon]

A little review from my side.

 

(Played Anomaly Report on Gzdoom 4.8.x Linux; in combination with Brutal Doom 2.1; UV skill setting; mostly 100/100/100, but took its time)

It was a pleasurable experience. Good looking maps, with old schoolish vibes, nice and sometimes pretty challenging gameplay, lots of new music (mostly good) and a few new textures. Should be playable with classic doom. I did not encounter bugs. Ammo/Health/armor distribution is okay, maybe once in a while a little more armour would've been helpful.
I found like 95% of secrets, they're hidden, but can be found and there are hardly any outright unfair parts; however some hard traps do exist.

 

Few points to complain: In the early to mid levels skill varied up and down (which isn't really hurting). There was one nasty design decision iirc. on map26 with invisible "walls", there was seemingly free area, but you'd hang on the street's sides while you tried to evade the hailstorm of Revenant missiles. Extremely deadly (esp. with Brutal Doom). A few maps do not feature "equal" amounts of ammo, but this likely also is a matter of playing preference. And I never really ran critically low on ammo.

Traps are traps and you likely die on some the first time (esp. with enhancements like brutal doom). But therefore it's a trap. ;)

 

Vedict: Good megawad with a couple of old schoolish touches, with good gameplay. Likely no advanced ports needed. Definitely some quality time spent in my life.

 

PS: I did not find an entry point to map33, but it also looks like some experimental insanity map... ;)

PS2: Map 30 is a real battle, luckily there is some space, but it was one of the few occasions in my DooM life where I really found myself BFG-spamming. :D

[markklem]

I am going to try this out, but if the music sucks, I will delete my computer.  I have a funny feeling that I have seen the last of my computer :(

[Egyptian Guardian]

I'm probably going to get flack for this, but is this wad compatible gameplay wise with something that altars the combat like Brutal Doom or Project Brutality? 

[Shepardus]

2 hours ago, Bernie said:

I'm probably going to get flack for this, but is this wad compatible gameplay wise with something that altars the combat like Brutal Doom or Project Brutality? 

I haven't tried it with those mods myself, but I expect it would be compatible. The poster two above your post said they played it with Brutal Doom.

[Egyptian Guardian]

On 3/17/2023 at 4:11 PM, Shepardus said:

I haven't tried it with those mods myself, but I expect it would be compatible. The poster two above your post said they played it with Brutal Doom.

I'm on level 28 playing with Project Brutality. I couldn't think of a better wad to play with. Everything is so well balanced. Love the nostalgic level design. This wad even got support from Bethesda.

 

Guys I think we have a modern masterpiece on our hand here.

Edited April 3, 2023 by Bernie
Wanted to add how much I liked this wad.

[princetontiger]

Glad I flipped thru the latest wadazine... This wad has been a ton of fun, and I'm glad I came across it.

[Finnisher]

Finished this a while back and enjoyed every minute!

 

I love the level design and look, very classic design but with its own spin. Not very difficult and not meant to be I'm sure. Map 31 is a nice change of pace though.

 

I especially like how AR manages to have several grounded feeling levels that look like actual places this always appeals to me, probably since it's not so easy to do in classic Doom.

 

If your looking for a chill, classic style campaign wad this is it.

[JoeyKelastiof]

Very enjoyable megawad; good maps with great length ( not too long nor too short ) ; great atmosphere and level architecture, very good job on Los Alamos btw. I really enjoyed the first "chapter" of the megawad with the clear sky skybox. ( even though I really enjoyed the rest I just thought I'd say how much I liked these first maps ).