The DWmegawad Club plays: Uprising

[finnks13]

MAP28 - Olympus Mons:
The final "proper" map of Uprising, Olympus Mons is a bit of an oddity. I was expecting Mars City II from this map after the first few minutes due to this map's slow paced opening and stinginess with decent weaponry, but this map feels rather different to play for the majority of it. For one, this map is very linear, which puts it at odds with pretty much all of Uprising's longer, slow-paced levels which have normally been key hunts, though I think this works in the map's favour as this tighter control over the player's progress has allowed Cheesewheel to ensure that this map's pace is solid. I really wish that powerful weapons weren't AGAIN held away from the player for ages, over half of the map in the case of the plasma gun, but when you do actually get them, there's plenty of powerful ammo so they'll be useful.

 

There's a few good fights here, the small horde that spawns in the horseshoe shaped area after getting the yellow key is fun to take out, the little cyberdemon ambush before getting the red key uses lack of space and damaging floors very well. I also enjoyed the small swarm that happens after picking up the BFG for the first time, it genuinely caught me off guard because it doesn't happen immediately upon picking it up. The finale is great, it could have very easily devolved into a boring circle-strafe, but there's barely any space to maneuver so it becomes a very tense rush for space and health that I enjoyed.

 

I would be less forgiving of this map if I didn't have foreknowledge for what's coming in Map29 and 30 as I do feel like it still goes on for a bit too long and for being the last proper map in the megawad, there's very little escalation in the threat the monster placement provides outside of the final couple of ambushes which is a bit of a shame. 

 

Overall, this is a worthy penultimate map and serves as a culmination for all of Uprising's tropes, for better or worse.

 

N.B. I did like the use of Traitors here, it feels very Scythe 2 in their dickishness :P

[cannonball]

MAP28 - “Olympus Mons”

 

This is a real journey of a map, where you see various parts of the map from different vantage points as you gradually head upwards from the shuttle bay to the demonic conclusion. I have to be honest, the first 100-150 kills are a real slog as you are armed with only the shotgun/chaingun and the SSG arrival is shortly followed by one of the hardest fights in the map as you will have likely lost a lot of your health/armour. 

The good news is that once you have the rocket launcher, the combat in actually pretty decent and as a foil to the fact that this is probably the largest map in terms of playtime in the wad, you also get probably some of the best set pieces in the wad. The yellow key fight in particular shows that Cheesewheel can make a solid combat puzzles with just a handful of mid tier/high tier monsters. This is executed a few more times during the latter half of the map. The final fight was beaten on the second attempt, it is what is is, just be mindful to pull into the centre for supplies from time to time.

Overall - I think this is a map that you would love on a second playthrough, it is probably a little too long and getting rewards from this map takes time and patience as the first 10/15 minutes are a slog. The good news is that there wasn't many/if any fights that I disliked. I liked the clear Drake O'Brien tribute at the end before descending into the darkness. Wearing ones colours proudly I think.

Edited June 28, 2022 by cannonball

[kalaeth]

ok, so let us do this. 

 

MAP 29 - Uprising : 

Darkness and a voice saying something (it appears to be inverted, so I can't say what it says). Then a invisible megasphere and then a no-ammo BFG, the VBFG90000 and then a fireblu portal. And them as far as there can be a strategy, I'd say grab invuns, target as many archies as possible and then run for keys.. 4582 dead demons after, I have 2 keys. And saved for the first time. And then the YSK and it's time for the final 20 enemies. Including a ton of AVS, traitors, cybers and the super cyber! I killed him and ended the level with

99%, 50%, 100% K/I/S, 0 deaths and 14 minutes and 59 seconds.

 

MAP 30 - The End :

PRETTY!!! (Since it's a non-map I played it today, hope that's ok)

 

Totals :  99% Kills (12,719 / 12,817), 99% Items (840 / 909), 99% Secrets (63 / 64), 35 deaths, 11 hours, 36 minutes and 46 seconds.
 

It was a nice ride! I'll take tomorrow off to rest before we enter the next megawad and I'll play a bit of Jamal Jones.

[tonytheparrot]

(Played continuously on UV with Prboom+, saves are allowed)

Map 29: Uprising

117% kills, 67% items, 100% secrets

Time: 10:17

 

As soon as the first notes of Church of the Machine by Symphony X start playing, you know that you will have an absolute blast! Uprising sees Doomguy being given a golden BFG which works just like the normal one, but with infinite ammo, just like the red BFG from the Slaughterfest series. This golden BFG is just an absolute must to clear out the main area of this map: a hellish courtyard inspired by Scythe 2 and Speed of Doom's Twilight Massacre that contains almost 4000 demons including 610 revs, 438 cacobots, 886 drones, 552 dark imps and 59 archies. Luckily, you get a lot of space to move in and there are 20 megaspheres and 19 invulnerabilities to protect you. Despite that, you should still pay attention to the cacobots who can easily block you, as well as the archies in the yellow key area who can launch you far away into the lava. After grabbing all 3 keys on different sides of the map, press the switches at the center to reveal the final group of enemies which contains the chaosdemon, who is a grey and faster cyber with 30 000 health and who fires lots of mancubus and revenant fireballs. He serves as Uprising's fnal boss, but circle-strafe, shoot and you win. Outside of that small disappointment, Uprising is the best ending this wad could have gotten, an absolutely exhilirating BFG fest that follows on Twilight Massacre and Haunting Dreams's shoes while even improving on Haunting Dreams in my opinion. Outsanding level!

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

Love:

Map 29

Map 27

Map 9

Map 15

Map 13

Map 20

Map 32

Map 19

Map 26

Map 12

Map 4

Really Like:

Map 16

Map 6

Map 31

Map 1

Map 14

Map 28

Map 25

Map 22

Map 21

Map 23

Map 24

Map 10

Map 7

Map 3

Map 5

Map 2

Like:

Map 11

Map 18

Map 8

Mediocre:

Map 17

 

 

[Doomy__Doom]

Map 29 - Uprising

 

It is what it is - infinite-ammo BFG, a nigh-inexhaustible supply of invulns and megas, a sizeable horde to deal with. I wanted to spice it up by replacing invulns with megas and see how bad it would be, but node generation borked the whole level upon save and I don't feel like doing smart work today. Maybe I'll give it a bash tomorrow, since...

 

Map 30 - The End

 

... is a thanks for playing map, for some reason completely in blue. Is Uprisinguy's next job position going to be "Struggleguy"? Quite likely I say, seeing how he got plenty of experience with "faster shotgun" to put down on the resume.

 

 

In conclusion, some musings for the entire wad:

• Improvement of mapper skills is very evident from earlier to late maps.
• There are some fun little 'tropes' coming and going in different segments - for example, how almost every level in first half has a "lift into point blank enemies" somewhere, but then it kind of just disappears.
• The unfun trope that drags on for the entire set - reluctance to give out heavy weapons and having duplicates to support pathing for non-linear maps.
• Corollary to the above, secrets are quite unexciting. Feels like the author was not very fond of them in general, seeing how even with massive maps 2-3 is the usual number. Secret SSGs and plasmas could help out with the weapon drought.
• The fodder roster is probably one of the best out there, and Cacobots are a strategic-tier menace. Cybergunner is probably the most meh enemy, even though he's only 2 units slower than Eviternity's Cyberbaron, I rarely if ever felt pressured by them.
• Set pieces mostly don't do enough, at least for me personally. Either the rosters are too mixed or lock-ins are absent. My fav is definitely UAC HQ dark imp fight. Second place is fights from Communications (Map 15).
• Uprising definitely meets the "story-oriented" mark and feels like a continuos journey. In fact, I'm probably going to recommend playing it continuosly over pistol starting to drop the unfun angle of slow weapon progression.
• For my solo-net parallel runs, I'd say early maps are worth it, they get more populated and lively. Late maps - not so much, they already last long enough. And of course map 31, that's an experience in itself.

[cannonball]

MAP29 - “Uprising”

 

Honestly, I felt nothing for this one. I guess clean up time is minimal given you have unlimited BFG. But honestly this is a case of spam thousands of monsters and then counteract this by making the player essentially God. The final boss is a pushover once the rest of the chaos has been slain. I won't mark this too badly, but I struggle to think of the map that I could place this above. After all even the less exciting maps had something going for them, speaking of which, the inspiration for this one all had other things going for them. Haunting Dreams had the notion of revisiting brief spots in the previous episodes, it also constantly created bottlenecks that were not trivial to remove, Darkness without end was a timed survival run. This however has nothing else going for it and it is the easiest level in the wad once you know where everything is placed because you can essentially run the entire map in a bright white blur. 

 

MAP30 - “The End”

Nothing to say here, this is I assume a teaser for future work by Cheesewheel. The blue looks nice though and of course it is a real shift from the dominance of the red palette.

 

I will collect my thoughts and give an overall impression of the wad as a whole tomorrow.

Edited June 29, 2022 by cannonball

[Monsieur E]

Map29- Uprising
99% kills (missed 3), pistol-start

Unlimited ammo, near constantly invulnerability and megaspheres littered everywhere; it's just a recipe for a massive power trip. I know I harped on Map 27 for being in a similar vein but I'd say this one was more so created around the powerromp idea and well, it certainly succeeds in that regard and is one hell of a ride. I just don't have much more to say, it's just an extremely over the top and enjoyable final, marking the end of your uprising.

Map30- The End

A small ending level that looks neat but is not much else. I like the intermission text though, it's silly and cute in a way. 

I'll be posting my final thoughts on the wad as a whole tomorrow!

[finnks13]

MAP29 - Uprising:
Uprising ends with one of the most cathartic maps I've ever played - after 28 levels where it always feels like you're on the back foot due to the lack of weaponry, you've got an infinite BFG and a legion of monsters to tear down with a comical amount of invulnerabilities and megaspheres to help. I guess that's why we never got a chainsaw, not that I missed it :P 

 

While I have complained about the spamming of invulns around the slaughtery fights in this wad, I think it works here. I do love a BFG spam map, and while this is one of the most mindless one's I've played, I still really enjoyed it! We've not really got a chance to destroy hordes of the plasma drones yet and it is so satisfying to do that here. It is important to keep a mental timer of how far through your invulnerability you are, since it running out at an inopportune moment will guarantee a death, though it's not too hard to grab another one since they're everywhere.

 

After grabbing 3 keys and activating the exit switch, the star shape in the centre lowers to reveal what I can only describe as an absolutely terrifying sight - sure, there's some cyberdemons but also like 50 Traitors and archviles! Seeing this for the first time really made me pause and think "oh shit, how am I gonna do this" despite having an infinite BFG and being surrounded by invulnerabilities! The final boss of the wad the "Chaosdemon" is a grey cyberdemon with a load of health, he's not particularly difficult to take out and can be circle-strafed after his entourage is dead, but infinite BFG shots means he doesn't overstay his welcome and become an annoying projectile spamming mess that other custom final bosses sometimes are.

 

Overall, a very cathartic finale to the set that I thoroughly enjoyed.

[tonytheparrot]

Sent as a mistake, check below if you wanna read my thoughts about map 30 and Uprising as a whole.

 

Edited June 30, 2022 by tonytheparrot

[tonytheparrot]

(Played continuously on UV with Prboom+, saves are allowed)

Map 30: Tabula Rasa

Time: 0:17

 

Now this is jarring after last map! Tabula Rasa is Uprising's credits map, it's very blue, the midi is calming and you need to platform a bit and reach a portal which ends the episode. It's a nice way to finish the wad.

 

 

Final Thoughts:

 

Uprising is overall a very good megawad, it's detailed, very fun, feels like a continuous journey and the midi selections always impress, but that's not what I prefer with it. My favorite things about this project are the obvious evolution of it's scale and the noticeable improvement of Cheesewheel's mapping skills. When you compare maps like 4 with something like 20 or 28 for example, you can clearly see the differences between them as the latter 2 are bigger, more detailed and clearly show the improvement of Cheesewheel's mapping. Despite that, the earlier maps still don't disappoint for the most part and the whole package is still very cohesive and consistent overall, even if I thought that some parts were a bit boring and that the best moments were generally the ones when Cheesewheel decided to cut loose and be more aggressive. About the dehacked patch, the faster pistol was nice even if I stopped using it very quickly, the infinite BFG was a great addition for the last map and the new enemies were generally great. However, I don't think that making the chaos knight shoot 3 projectiles at a time was needed (maybe 2 would have been enough) and the cacobots are really annoying due to their high speed, health and damage potential. But overall, as I said, Uprising is a very good megawad and probably one of the best ones from last year.

 

Final Time: 6:58:02

 

 

Final Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 29

Map 27

Map 9

Map 15

Map 13

Map 20

Map 32

Map 19

Map 26

Map 12

Map 4

Really Like:

Map 16

Map 6

Map 31

Map 1

Map 14

Map 28

Map 25

Map 22

Map 21

Map 23

Map 24

Map 10

Map 7

Map 3

Map 5

Map 2

Like:

Map 11

Map 18

Map 8

Mediocre:

Map 17

Credits:

Map 30

 

 

Edited June 30, 2022 by tonytheparrot

[RHhe82]

MAP27: Armageddon. 545/545 K, 1/1 S. Completion time 31:54.   26:31.

 

Fun map, just about the right size, the sort of slaughter-ish map we've seen a few times. Armageddon doesn't feel that difficult, only I had difficult times before I found the rocket launcher and the plasma gun, and both came, in retrospect, quite early in the level. Again with proper routing, this'd be a never-ending plasma rocket fest that doesn't really have any annoying parts. Even the final clean-up cybies didn't annoy me, because you get an invuln sphere and a BFG to mop them up. (Well, I guess the sphere makes them a bit pointless, but honestly I like them better that way than to have a tacked-on chore-demon to take care of).

 

My actual completion time would have been something like 26 minutes, but it took me a while to find the final secret. I knew the solution had to be near, but still I couldn't see it. Geez.

 

Actually, I'll just load up my save at the end, with the foreboding train and tracks to somewhere far...

[NiGHTS108]

MAP29: Uprising

Kills: 97%

Items: 35%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 5:19

 

I'm gonna be upfront about this like Cannonball was. I do not care for MAP29.
There's honestly not much to really say about this map, you get virtually infinite health and literally infinite ammo, making all of the fights feel completely frivolous. Hooray! I don't think this is my "least favourite" map in the wad, it's over fast and... sort of fun enough to not bug me, but really, Twilight Massacre and Haunting Dreams this ain't. The enemies could be anything really, just let the world burn. Quite frankly, although there are maps I like less in this wad as stated, this is probably the most disappointing and easiest map in the wad to me. The very definition of "all bark, no bite."

 

Grade: B

Difficulty: E

 

-

 

MAP30: Tabula Rasa is Uprising's hilariously calm credits map after MAP29. I like Antares maps too.

 

 

- FINAL THOUGHTS -

Total time: 5:33:01

 

You know, at the start of this month, I felt a big downward feeling to Uprising ironically, especially in the context of the last two months of the club, and although I wouldn't say Uprising gets off to the best start ever, the name is completely accurate. Uprising has a really great sense of momentum overall. It does nothing but move forward. Although I find some of these maps a little dull, I can really appreciate the strong upward feeling to the wad. When the combat really gets out there, it usually succeeds really well, would honestly love for Cheesewheel to take on a more combat oriented wad if we get stuff this good here. My final grade is a B+. Again, it's not my number one, but I gotta show it some respect. My overall difficulty for this wad, I'm going for a C. It stays pretty meek until MAP15, and from there there isn't really much serious to worry about all things considered.

 

Whole playthrough

 

Now for the grand ranking!

 

Spoiler

20: Heroism :)
28: Olympus Mons
32: Beyond
23: Digital Demons
09: UAC HQ
31: Dereliction
26: Shrine Of Adam
22: Welcoming
27: Armageddon
15: Communications
19: Circuit Break
17: Digsite
21: Voidwalk
13: Sci-Labs
06: Sewer Rat
12: Bunker Bust
11: Shipping Zone
14: Lockdown

25: Bloodvine
04: Remnants
29: Uprising
24: Mars City
03: House Of Hate
18: Biodisaster
01: Emergence
02: Swamped
16: Thermal
07: Human Processing
05: Trainyard
10: Outskirts
08: Street Fighter

 

Edited June 30, 2022 by NiGHTS108

[Monsieur E]

Final Thoughts on Uprising

I enjoyed playing through Uprising. It started off unassuming and just "alright" initially but around Map 08 I'd say it picks up the pace and starts dropping levels with more engaging combat setpieces, themes and of course, increasing difficulty and as a whole, reaching its peak in Episode 3. I'd like to thank Cheesewheel for making an enjoyable wad that I had a lot of fun playing through this month and wish them the best of luck in any of their future endeavors! 

Other thoughts:
-> My biggest complaint throughout in Uprising was that the heavier weapons were held back or placed in such a way they could be missed by the player. 
-> I'd say that parts of episode 1 can be a bit too dark when playing on GZDoom's software renderer.
-> The custom roster was neat barring the cybergunner which was just, yeah. The cacobot was a bit more divisive I'd say, you had some good fights which utilized them and then you had a few fights like the rocket launcher ambush in Map20. I'll be honest, the small plasma drone is very forgettable, I haven't checked the exact numbers but it feels like it disappears for most of E3 and just becomes way less prominent. 
-> Ammo and health often felt unnecessarily tight in the first half of the wad, could have been a little more generous while preserving the difficulty.
-> I did not note the berserk in any level barring Map25
-> I liked the diversity in theming throughout the wad, my favorites being Maps 09, 13, 16, 17, 18, 21, and 26. 

Gonna make a top 5 of my favorite levels:

5) Map10- UAC HQ
4) Map26- Shrine of Adam (I'd also say this was the hardest level)
3) Map32- Beyond
2) Map20- Heroism
1) Map23- Digital Demons

As for levels I didn't enjoy, off of the top of my head: Map10- Outskirts, Map17- Digsite, Map24- Mars City
I wouldn't say any of these levels are bad, rather, most of them were just below average and felt uninteresting to play through. 

Uprising was overall a fun ride and doing this as a part of the club was a treat on its own :). Hope to see you guys again in the next megawad!

[cannonball]

In hindsight, after feeling down about Map29, I think I will upgrade my feelings about it from being a poor map to... well... meh... 

 

My overall impression of Uprising is overall a strange sense of frustration that I wasn't expecting to have. I must admit that my expectations were a little low, but in the end the wad exceeds this by quite a margin. On the flip side I sense a lot of missed opportunities that could have elevated this from a good wad to great or even a modern classic. The wad oozes atmosphere and the narrative flows really well, the midi choices were for the most part excellent. With the exception of one (Or technically two) monsters, the new beastiary works really well. I like the subtle changes like the baron of hell who now has less health, but carries elevated threat to the point where 90s levels of placement were not a bother. I liked the hi-tech upgrades with the drones and the cacobots (The latter I found to be a proper menace and perhaps provide better balance than the Afrit that carries the same attack pattern). The cybergunner frankly is a dud and there were a few places where they were tedious to kill.

My frustration regarding Uprising mostly stems from the combat. There are two major gripes for me, the first were levels that failed to balance the more non-linear maps properly (As such that the map only really has one correct route), there also tended to be much slower going. The other was the general poor execution of bigger fights or worse creating entire maps that essentially mandated the use of in-vulnerabilities (Map19 for example). It is a shame because when you factor in that the layouts are generally well constructed (For the most part the incidental combat is solid), you realise that a lot of the problems in this wad could have been fixed fairly easily in my opinion. In the end the maps I liked the most fell into two categories, the first being the long journeyman levels where your choices are limited and to a degree the combat was better showcased, the other type were generally the shorter and punchier maps where you can allow for a more fluid experience.

Overall mark - 3.5/5 Despite some of the complaints I have made, I still liked this one a lot and Uprising did a great drop immersing the player into the environment, even despite the heavy emphasis on the colour red.

favourite map - Map31 (Probably one of the best horror themed maps I have played, great job).

Honourable mentions - Maps 12, 20, 21, 23, 28  

[finnks13]

MAP30 - Tabula Rasa:
It's honestly quite a weird sensation spawning into this map for the first time - after 31 maps filled to the brim with bright red, it's weird to see a map that's so... blue. The relaxing colour scheme and MIDI make for a peaceful walk through this temple. It's set up perfectly as a space to reflect on the wad, and as a contrast to Map29's chaos, I think it's perfect.

 

Overall Thoughts on Uprising:

Uprising is a wad that I truly didn't expect to like as much as I do, it's aims and design seem very much opposed to my favourite sets - going for atmosphere and narrative over having a focus on gameplay. As it turns out, the monster roster changes, particularly the massively expanded fodder variety suits this very incidental style of map perfectly. It keeps the action flowing constantly, allowing for these maps to have a much higher body count than it feels like. These changes also make the chaingun much more useful, even though it hasn't had any changes.

 

I think the main places Uprising falters for me is in it's gameplay structure. As a gimmick for episode 2, I didn't mind the weapons being hidden deep into the levels and hard to find, but this seems to become something of an obsession of Cheesewheel's and becomes more irritating than fun. It also feels like these tight constrains on weapon availability impacted Uprising's willingness to throw more threatening enemies at you regularly - while I think the incidental combat is great, it doesn't really grow or change that much throughout the wad which is a shame. Cheesewheel seems to be terrified of players quitting the set in frustration during the times the wad decides to throw some more slaughtery fights at the player and smothers pretty much all of them in invulnerabilities to the point that victories in these don't generally feel earned.

 

That being said, I do think the atmosphere, layout design and music selection is superb in this wad and really elevates it into something special. It's obvious that Cheesewheel's mapping proficiency improves throughout the wad, but I think the thing he consistently nails is the feeling of dread these maps evoke, the ever-presence of red is unsettling and always makes it feel like something sinister is lurking around. The secret maps are an absolute highlight and worth playing on their own, they are both now among my favourite maps of all time. It's a wad I would definitely recommend to people, especially those who enjoy narrative driven stuff - though I may suggest playing continuously!

 

Top 5 Maps:

Map32 - Beyond

Map31 - Derelict

Map09 - UAC HQ

Map23 - Digital Demons

Map29 - Uprising

[RHhe82]

MAP28: Olympos Mons. 789/791 K, 3/3 S. Completion time: 86:17 (sigh)

 

It's like Mars City, but better. This time the frustration comes from mere longevity, and fortunately not confusion. Along the journey you just have to admire the scenery, the martian base built upon the "mount pain" of our solar system. What also works in favour of Olympos Mons is that Cheesewheel provides the player with the equipment - you have to fight a little to get the RL and PG, but it doesn't become annoyance anewhere, and I think it has to do - someone already pointed it out, I think - with the linearity, which often seems to be looked down on, but I think works quite well with this sort of level, which is big that you don't really notice linearity until you stop to think about it.

 

The final arena - well, I guess I was already exhausted at that point, but I wonder if anyone could survive it consistently without lots of retries (or, in my case, lots of rewinds). It feels such luck-based endeavour as opposed to the subtly structured mass murders we've seen in MSCP/Haste territory. But then, those also might have felt RNG-based when in fact they were not. I don't know, I'm a noob.

 

Completion time was a bit inflated because I had only 2 secrets upon reaching the final arena teleporter. I admit it, I had to first IDDT to even locate the secret, and then launch UDB twice to spot the way to access it. At least for me it was impossible to see the shootable switch from the (apparently) intended sniping spot. I also admit doing a little IDCLIPping on the way back, because at that point I was a bit frustrated and not keen on thought of entering the final battle after having suffered hurt floor damage.

[RHhe82]

MAP29: Uprising. 3958/3958 K, 0/0 S. Completion time: 13:34  ( :-) )

 

Earlier this week I idclev'd through the levels to see what sort of kill counts we're gonna get, and at first I figured MAP29's gonna be one hell of a beast. I got spoiled by this thread, luckily, because after MAP28 I wouldn't have been able to finish Uprising today.

 

So, we've got here a stress releasing final boss map of sorts, the end of the road with almost four thousand enemies closing in on you. I saw some critical comments, but I for one welcome this sort of "just go and kill everything" power fantasy map after so many marathon maps, this map leaves a relaxed and even a bit (trigger) happy feeling. I wonder if there was some narrative reason for the player to ascend to some sort of demigodhood?

 

 

MAP30: Credits

 

Beautiful blue. Thank you, Cheesewheel.

 

Maybe a few closing comments. It's amazing what sort of quality difference there is between the early levels versus these last ones. I can't begin to understand how these were made by one person in less than a year, but the growing skills of the mapper is evident. That said, this megawad also reinforces the notion that I like my levels shorter. The average completion time was 30:15, and the total completion time was 16 hours and 4 minutes. DoomLauncher recorded 21 hours and 17 minutes, which I guess includes all the retries and downtime.