The Thing you can’t Defeat - Ultimate Doom WAD for GZDOOM - [8 maps]

[carlosanimax]

Very good My Friend, I love it this mod, you got me scared, it's awesome. O.o <3

[scwiba]

This is really brilliant.

[Shepardus]

Nicely done, the screenshot got my attention and I'm glad I gave this a playthrough.

 

Just a couple issues:

• I was playing with "Doom (strict)" compatibility settings, and in E1M6 after getting the yellow key I couldn't open the door to get out of the room. Given the context, it took me a while to realize that it wasn't working as intended and thought to change the compatibility flags.
• The music for E1M1 plays the beginning of E1M2's music at the end before looping back to the beginning. Seemed out of place to me, I'm guessing it's a mistake in trimming the audio.
• I also saw some halls of mirrors in various places but I'm not sure if those were intentional.

 

Spoiler

I like that the memory of E1M1 remains clear even at the end. In hindsight, it's fitting that the maze section in E1M2 is one of the first parts to undergo major distortion, because really, who actually remembers the layout of that area?

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by Shepardus

[Mercury Spade]

6 hours ago, Shepardus said:

Nicely done, the screenshot got my attention and I'm glad I gave this a playthrough.

 

Just a couple issues:

• I was playing with "Doom (strict)" compatibility settings, and in E1M6 after getting the yellow key I couldn't open the door to get out of the room. Given the context, it took me a while to realize that it wasn't working as intended and thought to change the compatibility flags.
• The music for E1M1 plays the beginning of E1M2's music at the end before looping back to the beginning. Seemed out of place to me, I'm guessing it's a mistake in trimming the audio.
• I also saw some halls of mirrors in various places but I'm not sure if those were intentional.

 

  Hide contents

I like that the memory of E1M1 remains clear even at the end. In hindsight, it's fitting that the maze section in E1M2 is one of the first parts to undergo major distortion, because really, who actually remembers the layout of that area?

 

Actually, in e1m1, the secret where you take an elevator was the first part to undergo a distortion and in the final level it's not there. It's what tricked me into not expecting what was coming lol

[RastaManGames]

7 hours ago, Shepardus said:

I was playing with "Doom (strict)" compatibility settings...

Um... I don't sure if it is a right way to do.

I mean... This map set is using ACS scripts and shenanigans like silent portals, after all.

[Shepardus]

1 minute ago, RastaManGames said:

Um... I don't sure if it is a right way to do.

I mean... This map set is using ACS scripts and shenanigans like silent portals, after all.

GZDoom's compatibility modes don't disable those advanced features, unlike, say, PrBoom's complevels. And it's not like I knew that when starting the wad - I was just going by the "I would recommend playing as vanilla as possible" in the opening post.

 

32 minutes ago, Mercury Spade said:

Actually, in e1m1, the secret where you take an elevator was the first part to undergo a distortion and in the final level it's not there. It's what tricked me into not expecting what was coming lol

Oh yeah, I forgot about that, which itself says something...

[RastaManGames]

1 hour ago, Shepardus said:

I was just going by the "I would recommend playing as vanilla as possible" in the opening post.

I guess that line was about playthrough with various mods. (. )(. )

[memeboi]

Cool stuff dude

[General Rainbow Bacon]

This was very unnerving and well done.  Creativity at its finest.  Now do Shores of Hell?  Not like it doesn't already have its unnerving sections.  

[sandwedge]

Very well done concept, and legitimately creepy and spine tingling at points.  I've definitely seen concepts similar to this before, in terms of messing with Episode 1 in weird ways, but you went all the way with the progression and the mp3s which added a lot to it.  It had many moments where I felt like I was starting to go crazy myself, wondering if I was remembering Episode 1 incorrectly or not, lol.  Fantastic work, and something I won't soon forget!

 

 

Edited August 6, 2022 by sandwedge

[Thysamithan]

This is a horror masterpiece.
But I hate it.
It hits too hard and now I´m sitting here in the middle of the night in my dark room and can´t shake your map off.
Couldn´t you scare me with monsters, ghosts, supernatural stuff or advertisements?
Something I could sort of shake off laughing after it is over (and none the less not be able to sleep that particular night, he he he...)?
The end after the long beep was the most hard hitting.
Up to that point I had a sneaking suspicion, but after the door opened and I saw the Map, I knew for sure.
And the familiarity hit hard, especially knowing that at that specific point all you see isn´t there anymore.
Just the one clear familiar thing.
Right before THE very last door.

Thanks for obliterating at least a week of proper sleep.
And did I mentioned that this is a masterpiece?
This goes in my 'Top 10 best of all time' folder.

[Thelokk]

Incredible stuff. This is the kind of thing Doom needs more of - a conceptual spark, manipulation of expectations, creative use of engine mechanics (dat ending) and a big middle finger to the 'mah gameplay' crowd. 

Right into my Cacoward mentions, and the list of mappers I'd love to work with someday.

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by Thelokk

[YourOpinionsAreWRONG]

7 hours ago, Thelokk said:

Incredible stuff. This is the kind of thing Doom needs more of - a conceptual spark, manipulation of expectations, creative use of engine mechanics (dat ending) and a big middle finger to the 'mah gameplay' crowd. 

Right into my Cacoward mentions, and the list of mappers I'd love to work with someday.

 

Oh wow! Thank you very much for mentioning my WAD. I'm happy to hear that the WAD left a impact on you :D

[QuaketallicA]

The thing you can't defeat?

 

More like...

 

The Thing...that Should Not Be

[paradaimon]

At first I was a bit skeptical because usually I don't play maps/mapsets that are not mod friendly, but after reading the brief description I decided to give it a try.

 

"Regret" isn't the most accurate word, but is close enough to what I felt. In a good way (but also a bad way).

 

Spoiler

 

It hit REALLY hard because after all these years getting lost on KDITD made me remember the horrible feeling on getting lost where I should know everything like the back of my hand and the anxiety attack it gives me (yes, I get lost THAT easily). After that the loneliness is so intense and frightening that you are desperate to find anything that is familiar, or something that isn't distorted walls. Never thought would feel such relief finding a monster closet ambushing me, and I REALLY hate ambushes. You realize how frightening being alone somewhere you are not familiar at all is, and how important even the things you hate can be.

 

The last room where you relieve your best memories before the end combined with the music were one the most emotional moments I ever had with art. Like, for real. I am still processing everything. Seeing something so familiar being distorted in such a way made me think about everything about it since yesterday. Dementia, the brain naturally degenerating until the final moments... it's like the Caretaker album Everything At The End of The World, but in a language that could be easily understood by an audience that can't sit for about four hours hearing weird music seeing random pics. The toughest part of it all is knowing that it's something someday I have to face: be it taking care of an elder in it's final moments or even myself if I ever reach such age (or just my brain decide to shut off earlier).

 

 

Sorry for the ramble, I am still kinda shaken from the whole experience.

[BCHQ]

Not gonna lie, this hits on a personal level, so I tried E1M5 just to give it a try and it was scary as fuck, especially the exit. Incredible work.

 

Will definitely give it a full playthrough one of these days.

[lunchlunch]

I always appreciate the genre of "weird DOOM" maps. Thanks for making this.

Edited February 12, 2023 by lunchlunch

[Serathis]

Cacoworthy at least a honorable mention. Especially if you expand it to Shores of Hell and Inferno.

[Origamyde]

A really creative mod when it comes to horror tropes and nods to Leyland Kirby's work. Congrats on the release, and let's hope you get an accolade at the Cacowards ;)

[ZethXM]

Enjoyed the hell out of this.  Especially found the more subtle techniques earlier on to be quite inspirational.

 

Spoiler

It's one thing to do the ol' "dead end hallway returns somewhere else" portal trick, but it's much more interesting to jump people ahead of where they expect to be, end levels early, or put rooms from later levels into this one to simulate "lost time".  These tricks largely rely on people being very familiar with the space, so E1 is the perfect use for the idea.  I'd love to explore more subtle of these techniques in an original map to low-key mess with players' encoding of the environment and memory formation.  Just to see how they fare!

 

[Big Ol Billy]

How did I miss this? Especially with the Caretaker influence, very interesting sounding! Grateful for the bumps y’all

[Rymante]

Spotted this from the Cacoward Mentionation thread & decided to give it a shot.  That mention is well earned, legitimately unnerving stuff here.

[RoastDoom]

Yeah this is an easy Cacoward winner for me. Up there with Grove. It's basically the experience I was hoping for with every 'Doom 1/Doom 2 but something's wrong' style WAD. Outstanding.

[Bri0che]

This comment highly spoil the WAD, play it before. Also, sorry for my terrible English.

 

Spoiler

 

I have so much to say, since your WAD touched me deeply, but I will content myself to tell my actual feelings and what I Really want to say.

I always been uncomfortable with mental illness, not in an instance where I reject peoples that are indeed sick, but it's something that I fear because compared to some physical damages, this can't absolutely be healed, and affect badly every aspect of an human's life : work, social, capacity, et cætera.

 

This WAD gave me hard chills. Because, during all the time I played it, I really felt like I actually had dementia and that it started to take me, more and more, after each map finished. The horrible sensation of being impotent (ironically enough, this is what transcribe your title, it's full of sens) about it made me feel for a moment the hideous sensation of an irremediable descent into hell (even more ironically, this is the main theme of Doom uh). This is definitively a good tribute to "Everywhere at the End of Time".

In a more game design aspect, you also did a good job, the "horrific" level scale well and gradually takes its place, so the player don't have time to realize the "fantasy", if I may say so. It's also a parallel to the stages of the disease level : It start with minor anomalies, continue with somewhat irregular cognitive damage, and finish with parasitic elements so extreme that reality is completely distorted, it no longer resembles anything in agreement ; then there is nothing left, or maybe just residual geometry of a former full consciousness, the memory is like blank, dead. But E1M7 proof that people who are mentally ill remain human, when you arrive again at E1M1, the initial point to clean health, it transcribes the hope of recovery, you want to Believe, as much as these poor people who suffer from it, but still the disease seeks to take you back into dark and solitude, like a world where E1M8 no longer exist for you ?...

 

So, just thank you for this unique experience, I have been playing a ton of very good classic Vanilla WAD's, very fun and really well made atmospheric Doom mods, I have discovered weird and very creative things into Doom community. But, my man, it's the first time a mod give me a strong emotion about such a real thing that is dementia. Video game isn't always absolutely divertissement, it's the most interactive form of exchange and form of art ever created by humanity. At least that's what I think.

 

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by Briøche

[FragsBunny]

Has anyone played A.L.T.? It also plays on some kind of surrealistic concept, but it is an action megawad like most others.

Just the name of MA23 says it all "God is dead"

 

I have to admit, dementia can be scary sometimes. There is a certain someone with clear dementia symptoms, constantly appearing in the news and on TV screens, and yet still it is certainly something that you can't defeat! You know who I am talking about.

Edited September 20, 2022 by FragsBunny

[Peccatum Mihzamiz]

Nicely done, thank you for making this and sharing it!

[DoomedFox]

Really really amazing mod concept, the corruption of the maps that get more and more screwed up give me the same feelings of unease that something like lippeth.pk3 did (I know there's back and forth between that mod, but to me it always unsettled me because of how absolutely corrupted it looked, this basically turned that concept to 11) the one thing I've seen some people mention is about the ending.

• Spoiler

  How the last level is e1m1, without any items or monsters feels like a good end to the entire thing, but you got to remember about with dementia. Usually the last moments before death is having complete memory of certain things. What the last level portrays is the level or the player, coming to full consciousness of remembering e1m1. But as they reach the exit the game crashes which is signifying death. Which is my theory on why and how the game or mod ends. 

  Incredibly great mod for Halloween, bravo! 

[Jacek Bourne]

Blind Playthrough because the idea piqued my interest.

 

 

[RastaManGames]

@YourOpinionsAreWRONG Can you, please, make a YT playlist with OST? Music track from one of the maps always gets me to tears...

Edited September 24, 2022 by RastaManGames

[Qoko]

Made an account (some may have seen me post on streams/videos of popular Doomtubers) just to recommend this short masterpiece. . This was a surreal hour that hits hard... whilst the thumbnail and no prior knowledge would make you assume you start a horror WAD, and then all of a sudden you start E1M1... almost. For me, a lot is in the details in combination with a eerily vibe, see the spoiler tag.

Spoiler

• The early exit in E1M2. Eerily, the enemy placement beyond the exit linedef is exactly the same as the original.
• The blue key being the red key in E1M3 and then requiring the blue key, followed by the teleporting. Goosebumps.
• Combining E1M4 and E1M5, ever so distorted: "wait, did I warp already?".
• In all honesty, the creepypasta that's E1M6 doesn't really do it for me, though I get the concept of total decay.
• Then E1M7, the terminal lucidity and E1M8 just not existing...
• E1M9 could have been included but as good as empty, like a secret that doesn't belong, or something, but I get it's not there.