The DWmegawad Club plays: Ray Mohawk 1 & 2 (It's Our Tenth Anniversary!)

[Alaxzandarz]

I'm playing on Seeking Validation with pistol starts on Crispy Doom.

 

Map 04: Little Oasis

 

The spiciest map in the set. Lots of hitscanners in areas with not that much cover so you are forced to play a little slower. I like the blind and deaf Archvile as the receptionist. I don't really know why, but I really enjoyed this map.

 

Map 05: Big Room with Baddies

 

I like how large and open the techbases have been in this set. This map too is very nice, it still has a lot of hitscan, but also more projectile monsters. The relatively large amount of cells for the plasma is great and allows you to quite painlessly run through the map. The AV ambush is fun. Really nice map again.

[Azure_Horror]

MAP03 “We Love Pollution” (by Doomkid)

Dsda-doom, SV-max, rifle start.

 

Ray coninues his assault on UAC nukage plant. This time. he reaches some actual nukage-processing facilities. Naturally, whoever designed those facilities does not care about polluting everything around.

One can even begin suspecting that the UAC... Love Polllution! (Badum-tss)

 

Love this scene, BTW.

Spoiler

 

In both Ray Mohawk WADs Doomkid shows his skill of creating multi-building techbase complexes. Map 02 and Map 03 of Ray 1 are both structured that way. We will see more examples of that in Doomkid's Ray 2 maps.

 

“We Love Pollution” is notable for the following things

- It introduces nukage. A pretty important plot element, if you have read the backstory.

- It hides both the chaingun and the berserk inside easy to miss secrets.

- It introduces lost souls. Kinda a big deal in open spaces with scarce health and hitscanners around...

- It introduces hell knights, mancubi, and arachnotrons. Small detail – all three monster types appear after first nukage spill. This can be seen as a suggestion that those beasts exist because of the nukage.

 

“We Love Pollution” is a nice map. It feels like a natural development of the previous maps. It is both a bit less carefree in its presentation and bit more difficult in its challenges. BTW, I like how Doomkid adds new monsters. Introduction of new enemies is done pretty subtly, but with enough care to show off their abilities.

 

 

MAP04 “Little Oasis” (by Doomkid)

Dsda-doom, SV-max, rifle start.

 

I love the concept of this map!

It is built in style of beginning Doom2 and Doom1 levels, but has a very unique approach to combat. During the start of the map, the most important weapons at the are the Chainsaw and Infighting! Ray's rifle helps too, but bullets are not infinite, you know?

This is a berserk-less map, where and the chainsaw is accessible right from the start. One can decide to ignore the saw and use the knife instead, but chainsaw seems slightly more powerful, if less convinient.

 

At the starting area, the Left door leads to chaingun, the right door leads to other stuff.

Personally, I prefer to go to the corridor on the right. Left door has a lot viciously placed damage threats, which are unpleasant to tackle at this stage of the game.

Right door, on the other hand, is made to provoke infights. After the corridor clears itself, you only need to lure rwo revs away from this area, and you will get an easy access to the following:

- Blue armor;

- Blur sphere from behind a waterfall;

- Shotguns from shotgunners;

- Chainfun Chaingun from a chaingunner;

- Supercharge.

That's quite a treasure trove.

 

Speaking of treasures...

That archvile at the start is incredible! It sits inside the booth, from which it can neither see, nor hear the player (a combination from sound blocking lines and reject lump tricks). This setup is really cool, because

- First of all, the archvile looks ominous.

- Second, the player can safely eliminate it, but it will cost a lot of bullets. Is it worth to spare 70-75 bullets for one scary martian, who seemingly does nothing? Everyone decides for themselves.

- The booth can be unlocked from the chaingun room on the left. This is good, because the booth stores 70 bullets, a backpack, and a blue armor. But entering the booth will set the vile free!

- Here the fun begins. The invisible sight-blocking line allows you to dodge archvile fire but jumpimg in and out of the booth. This way, the archvile duel becomes much less scary than it may appear at first. The cover does not obscure the sight of the archvile, and it also allows you to shoot back!

- Thus, you can defeat the vile by whatever means you want. You can even chainsaw it!

- However, there are likely some corpses nearby. Maybe even squished corpses inside the door frames... Don't let the Vile roam free, or zombies and ghost will go after you.

- In comclusion, “Little Oasis” has the best archvile introduction one can imagine! It brings everything to the table, even ghost monsters!

 

“Little Oasis”  is the most innovative map of the WAD, hands down. The archvile set up alone is worth a lot. But we also have the infighting-and-chainsaw focused approach to combat. A really unique approach for a casual-friendly map. I absolutely adore the wacky shenanigans on this map! Not only they are fun on their own, the also fit greatly to the music and the whole seaside techbase setting. IMHO, it is worth to play Ray Mohawk’s Manic Monday for this map alone.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Azure_Horror

[Monsieur E]

Map05- Big Room With Baddies
100% kills 

This is a bit too techbase-y for my taste in the visual department honestly, I liked the nukage rooms though, they looked good especially with the contrast of the bright blue sky. The combat is good here but I dunno if I played poorly but there was a shortage of health here I feel, more problematic than the other levels since this one is particularly chaingunner-happy. I liked the usage of the heavier monsters and in particular enjoyed the yellow key party, I had fortunately left my cells handy for this occasion. This level could've benefitted from more health as I previously mentioned but also from more bullets, wouldn't have minded trading it for a lower shell count. Anyways, this was another enjoyable map

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

Ray Mohawk's Manic Monday

 

Vanilla Doom, Hurt Me Plenty, Rifle start, No saves (Unless the level is too hard) 

 

Map 05: Big Room with Baddies

Results: 101%, 97%, 50%

 

Well, it's faithful to the title. But I do like that, instead of being just a literal square room with monsters, it has some detail. The blue room with zombiemen, the little fountain, the ledges above, good detail. However I will say that the first room feels empty. After that we can go up the stairs to a office? And the nukage section. The rad suit can help, both to neglect the nukage damage and to save the god sphere for the blue door. Once there we can go nuts with the plasma rifle and there's a secret supercharge if needed. The final fight is perhaps the hardest so far, the archvile and the revenants can be a big problem, so focus on the archvile or make him infight. In this particular fight and the blue room the blursphere and a few plasma cells should suffice. The final trap (The exit) really took me out of guard the first time I played the map.

Not a walk in the park, but beatable with little to no issues

Demo: DWMEG05.zip

[finnks13]

MAP05 - Big Room with Baddies:

6:12/0 Deaths
The title perfectly describes the map, it's a big room with baddies. Nothing more complicated than that. This map was a bit more trap-heavy than the other maps so far, but also much more generous with weapons and ammo - as long as you're willing to look around a bit, you'll be plentifully supplied for what's to come. There's more emphasis on mid-tier enemies than in previous maps, though there are still plenty of zombies to tear through. The two outdoor nukage areas feel very Knee Deep in the Dead in their design, but are definitely harsher with hitscanners. The radsuit's normally neon green filter has been swapped out for a grey one, which I'm not a fan of just because it dulls out the vibrant colours a bit too much.

 

We get both the SSG and plasma gun, and the latter is best saved for the red key trap that unleashes an archvile and a large group of revenants on you in the main area you've spent the whole time clearing of monsters (and then a second one by the exit door). The most memorable moment for me occurs when you open the yellow door and chaingunners teleport all around you - it's a mean trap, but you're well supplied so it shouldn't kill you. This is my favourite map so far.

[Capellan]

Hey DWMC.  It has been a while!

 

Here's my blind playthrough of a;; 6 maps of Ray Mohawk's Manic Monday.  PrBoom+, no music, HMP, continuous.

 

 

 

(I had no idea Doomkid really is so young)

[cannonball]

MAP05 - “Big Room with Baddies”

Well I missed the plasma gun thanks to it being covered in corpses. This would have made the later fights a little nicer. Of all the maps so far I found this to be the most "work". Even when the plasma gun is factored in, you will have to use the low key weapons for a significant portion of the map. You do get the SSG later on for the big yellow key ambush, which at least is sufficient for what is released. 

Overall I think I would have had more fun if I found the plasma gun, still this felt less compelling than the maps that preceded this.

 

MAP06 - “The Maw of Industry”

This one can be a little tough in places, though nothing too difficult. This feels a little more procedural in the sense of how the combat plays out. In general he combat breaks down into sections, rather than the more open layouts seen so far. The perched archvile flushes you down into the yellow/red key section. This was probably the strongest part of the map. The marble section and the final fight were a little disappointing, more bark than bite really. The constant stream of 80 damage revenant missiles through some rubbish RNG proved more dangerous than 4 siege cows. Ammo is tight for the finale so make those BFG cells count and finished off with the SSG.

The ending is chuckle worthy.

 

Overall I found Ray Mohawk to be a solid popcorn filler mapset. Lots of fun to run around, the tweaks to the gameplay and monster rosta are beneficial to the feel of the wad. I prefered the first half of this wad to the latter half personally, but overall the quality is consistently good.

Overall mark - 3/5

Edited August 6, 2022 by cannonball

[Azure_Horror]

MAP05 “Big Room with Baddies” (by Doomkid)

Dsda-doom, SV-max, rifle start.

 

In the context of Ray Mohawk 1 progression, this map is notable for introducing SSG and Plasma Gun, as well as putting the highly diverse monster roster to work.

 

In the context of Doom mapping, “Big Room with Baddies” is notable for the following

- It is the most classical map yet. It is structured like something from Doom 1 or Doom 2 IWADs.

- Nevertheless, it is a less grim than the sinilar maps from IWADs, or pWADs. The blue sky makes a huge difference. Enemy sprites also contribute, but the sky is more important, IMHO.

- The setting appears to be a techbase at first glance, but in fact it is more interesting. The map start looks like an office building lobby, with fountain and other stuff. And most of the tech parts are clean and made with bright or light-colored textures. This map is not your traditional Doom techbase! This map depicts corporate headquarters, or something like this. Essentially, this is Advanced Research Complex from Doom 2016, but remade for Doom 1.

- This map has a very smooth transition from Doom 1 IWAD style of combat to something from like Eviternity maps 06-07, or Valiant map 03. While the start of “Big Room with Baddies” has a Doom 1 style of gameplay, the part after the blue door has a pretty modern action-focused gameplay flow. (Uprising megaWAD could really have used a map or two like that).

- Secrets are highlighted with the use of computer map – I always like than the mappers do this!

- Archvile once again appears, and once again can summon some ghosts*, keeping with the theme from map 04.

 

At first, “Big Room with Baddies” may appear slightly unremarkable. But it has a lot of small details that make it pretty interesting. Another great map.

 

* I love, how archviles get introduced in Ray Mohawk Manic Monday! It is really drilled into the player that archviles are spooky mutant/Martian wizard things, who do not play by the common rules. In this context, their ability to transform squished corpses into ghosts feels not like a bug but like an especially nefarious feature.

[DavitW]

Playing through with Prboom+ on Ultra-violence, with 100% demos (excluding items) included as well. Just because I can.

 

MAP01: House by the Bay
Two gameplay changes to note right at the start. Your pistol is now a rifle that that seems to be more accurate and fire slightly faster, though I didn't notice it doing any more damage per shot. And your fist is replaced by a much faster, more powerful knife. Especially when paired with the berserk pack. I'm pretty sure I used it to single handedly clear out an entire building of monsters in the demo without taking a single hit. Slightly open ended but overall still fairly simple. The scenery and low quality posters on the walls all felt very 90s. My only small complaint with the map was some of the enemies in the inaccessible areas could be a bit of a pain to hit, lingering outside of view for too long.

 

MAP02: The Bridge
A bit more of a linear map than the first one. The hitscanners here felt like they managed to hit me harder than they did in the first map, but still a relatively easy going affair. The monster roster here is still mostly the same with the exception of a few underwhelming revenants thrown in towards the end. Something I should mention is that the chainsaw is made almost completely redundant with the introduction of the new knife. Even without the berserk pack the knife feels better in almost every situation. The chainsaws case isn't helped this time around either by appearing in a secret almost at the very end of the map.

 

MAP03: We Love Pollution
What's the world coming to when you can't even trust the nukage companies? This was a bit more difficult for me first time through, though that was likely just because I missed the optional path with the mega armor. Once I found that I was straight the second time through. There's also a nice little sniper post that comes along with the chaingun secret you can use to take out a few enemies. The rocket launcher is available in this map, and just enough rockets to take out all the big lugs you have to face this time. There's a pop up trap with the soulsphere, but you know what? We're all having a good time here. I'm not even going to pretend to be mad about it. I do feel bad for the zombie trapped in the tiny exit room behind a barrel though. Poor fool never stood a chance.

 

MAP04: Little Oasis
There are two paths you can take at the start, and I would suggest going through the left door first. It gives you a chaingun and a secret with a backpack and mega armor. Though it's not impossible if you go down the right path first. It's a close quarters map for the most part, with a number of barrels around you can strategically use to dispose of the enemies. It wasn't bad, but probably the weakest map of the set on all aspects, especially the music...

 

MAP05: Big Room with Baddies
You finally get the plasma gun and super shotgun in this map. What took them so damn long? It certainly is big, though I'm not sure if it does the gameplay or visuals any favors. The only thing to look out for here is the chaingunner ambush after you open the red door and the final trap in the main room. Apparently there was an invul sphere in this map which I either can't remember or didn't find. Either way it's not necessary to finish the map relative pain free.

MAP06: The Maw of Industry
First thing you want to do is get the secret behind you right at the start. It will make the beginning of this map much easier. Same goes for the BFG secret later on, you'll want to save all the plasma you can get for the four Cyberdemon fight at the end. There's really no rest here until you get the red key and clear the entire starting area of enemies, but once you do the remaining fights are made trivial with a bit of door camping. The second yellow key door is an optional area filled with enemies and supplies, and optional areas locked behind keys are always something I like to see in Doom maps. My strategy for the final fight was to push a few of the big bastards to the edge of their platforms with the BFG so they would get stuck while I deal with the rest. Finishing off the rest of the Cybers with the SSG wasn't exactly fun or challenging, but that's probably more the fault of my incessant need to kill every demon I see than a fault with the map.

mohawkdemos.zip

[KickAss]

Yes happy 10th year anniversary to the DWMegawadclub! I realy enjoyed playing (vanilla) Ray Mohawks Manic Monday. It's been a while but it was realy funny, great game. I haven't played the second part of the series yet. Lets see if it can surprise me. Checking out Ray Mohawk 2!

[KickAss]

I have made it straight to map04 "Surf's up in Nuketown" by Cheesewheel in RAY MOHAWK 2: Ray Wreaks Havoc! with vanilla settings (-skill 3) but now I am stuck there. I have found the yellow key and got to an switch, the only one I've found behind the yellow door upstairs from the big room, that calls an arch ville but nothing more happened and it won't get any farther for me in map04.

[Roofi]

Map 06 : "The Maw of Industry"

 

 

We left the beach and the refreshing natural outdoors for good to enter in a kind of hostile steel factory where scalding lava replace the toxic waste. Doomkid also incrusted a small temple made of hellish green marble. Contrary to the first maps, it's definitely not a place where you want to take vacation.

 

It's by far the hardest map from the megawad. Arch-viles became more numerous than ever and above all the surprise final which I will talk about in a dedicated spoiler. Contrary to the previous level, The Maw of Industry is a lot more cramped so play steadily and everything go pretty well.

 

I want to point out the yellow key's trap which was extremly odd. Maybe it's because of my playstyle , but once I started hearing the invisible sectors lowering, I immediatly went back so that I killed the vile without struggling. The yellow key leads to a supply room which is also supplied with enemies. The idea of creating supply rooms reminds me a lot of the megawad Struggle. It was an idea that I loved and that gave me great satisfaction every time I managed to unlock one of these rooms.

 

Now let's talk about the finale. I just want to mention that the final battle is a small foretaste of what you will encounter in Ray Mohawk 2 but on a much larger scale. If you struggle at the last fight, you'll not be ready for several maps from RM 2.

 

Spoiler

4 Cyberdemons ! Waw, I didn't expect that from Doomkid, but I eventually understood he was capable to create really tough map after playing Map 12 from Ray Mohawk 2. The last fight was more fear than harm but be accurate with your BFG shots because Doomkid wasn't so generous with ammo. The secret BFG you can obtain near the yellow really helps. Don't miss it ! Surviving the last combat mostly requires circlestrafing

 

As a last map, I really like it , the music rocks as usual.

 

PS : The circular marbled room looks like a flying bird from the automap.

 

Grade : B+

 

 

 

Short final thoughts about Ray Mohawk's Manic Monday!

 

 

I think this little episode was very solid overall. The short duration and the consistent quality of the maps make it easy to enjoy. 

 

Also the low difficulty blends well with the summer atmosphere and pop-culture music. I really like the spirit of Ray Mohawk, where the player is transported into an old-school universe, which probably take place in the 70's/80', that is sometimes challenging but still very accessible and doesn't require a lot of strategy to survive.

 

Without wanting to prematurely review the sequel, I find that the move to a community project had not only good effects. We'll see that several mappers have come up with some really ambitious maps that enhance the theme. However, a lot of them also designed very demanding maps that I think break with the relaxed mood of the serie. 

 

The grade I would give the first episode is B. It should be considered as an appetizer for the next episode, much more provided with longer and more difficult maps, a new weaponry etc...

Edited August 6, 2022 by Roofi

[KickAss]

 

4 hours ago, KickAss said:

I have made it straight to map04 "Surf's up in Nuketown" by Cheesewheel in RAY MOHAWK 2: Ray Wreaks Havoc! with vanilla settings (-skill 3) but now I am stuck there. I have found the yellow key and got to an switch, the only one I've found behind the yellow door upstairs from the big room, that calls an arch ville but nothing more happened and it won't get any farther for me in map04.

Duuhhhh ... the switch lowers the pedestal with the blue key on top to your left hand in front of the switch so I could move on. I don't know why I didn't recognized this. Now one of the Bleached Cyberdemons in map06 - "Hidden Ship in Pirate's Cove" by UberGewei got me out of the game. Am I the only one who plays "RAY MOHAWK 2: Ray Wreaks Havoc!" at the moment?

Edited August 6, 2022 by KickAss

[Silhouette 03]

Map06: The Maw Of industry

 

End of the road.

 

I can't really say I enjoyed the final map. This is mostly because of some awkward encounters, such as the arch-vile building with the yellow key, where you are forced to make use of doorfighting to eliminate him( I know that there is a gap in the front of the building, but this doesn't make the encounter any less awkward). The penultimate fight is also a bit frustrating if you missed the second door that is opened with the yellow key. It's manageable and a well constructed encounter, but I personally don't find it all that fun.

 

The final fight with the cyberdemons is something I don't really understand. There's not enough cells to take on all four of them. I probably missed something.

 

This is by no means a bad map, though. It just isn't really something I had fun playing.

 

Overall, Roy Mohawk's Manic Monday is a great mapset that has simplistic maps that are tons of fun to blast through. I can't wait to start playing Ray Mohawk 2: Ray wreaks havok tomorrow.

 

Kills: 96%

Secrets: 0%  

 

 

[Garlichead]

MAP06 - “The Maw of Industry”  108 Kills / 98 Items / 50 Secrets. 
11:56

This map used to kick my ass. On this run i did not had as much trouble.

On this run I died thrice on the map, first on the archiville room left of where you start and twice on the last room with the three cyberdemons before i figure out the unvulnerability secret.

I usually save at the beginning of an stage and depending on how i died i replay and use saves more frequently. On this particular run I managed to beat the level from beginning to end without save scumming on my third attempt.

It is the hardest map of the set, and the only one to introduce Hell Knights and the BFG9000. The fights are not unfair, but force you to bottle neck hitscanners while you try to get a shot of some archiviles that will keep the demonic forces ongoing. The architecture where you fight the revenants provide great cover to dodge their attacks while you nail them with the super shotgun.

*The only hell room in the entire wad*

The ending was insane the first time i played through this wad, you are transported to a hell room with 4 cyberdemons On this run i realized that you don't need to kill all of them, it is  nasty puzzle in which you need to find the way out of the room while the map author makes fun of your panic.

Overall i really love this map set, it is uncompromising fun with some great fights. The difficulty may be on the easy side and it is short enough to play it on a single sitting. One hell of a modern classic. 

[Rujasu]

MAP06: The Maw of Industry

Success: lol no

 

This is the part where I'm reminded that this is a six-map wad, and this is the finale. Archviles, plenty of close-range hitscanners; I even hear talk of Cyberdemons though I didn't get there even when I ran around in godmode for a little bit to check things out. I feel a little underqualified to say if the map is good or not, but architecturally it seemed solid. The beach resort aesthetic of the first half of the wad is completely gone, which makes sense I guess, but does make it stand out less compared to the earlier levels. Onwards to RM2!

[RED77]

MAP06 - “The Maw of Industry”

 

Well... That scaled quickly.

This map feels weird

fist of all there's a choice at the beginning, between death and no death... why?
Also, there are some weird choices in the encounters.
And the last fight was way more challenging than the rest of the WAD by far.
I like the false exit trap. but that's it.
My least favorite.

★★☆☆☆

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 06: The Maw of Industry

 

First thing I hear when I boot this up is the opening horn section of "Addicted to Love", typical 80s shallowness that can only induce eye-rolling. It kind of works for a finale though.

 

There are a series of tough encounters that can be alleviated by....opening the door behind your starting location. An Arch-vile near the starting location should be enough to let you know this map really means business, though I'm not sure it's really harder than the last map despite the intimidating monster placements. But the wild and chaotic combat here is easily among the best this wad has to offer. The yellow key building was largely taken care of through old-fashioned camping before rushing in and taking out the Arch-vile with a hidden BFG found behind the nearby crates. The Revenants in this area really caused me a great deal of trouble. RK door leads to a marble temple of sorts with the most intimidating monster placement thus far. You finally get an SS here, but you'll really want rockets for the stronger baddies which are in short supply. You might also see an Invulnerbility which I simply didn't bother with. The fake exit is one nasty trap though! The shotgunners here will teleport behind you, but they might not be the worst part here as much as said fake exit which I took care of by rocketing everything (there may have been ghost monsters here, but i guess explosions kill them)

 

But the best part is teleporting immediately to an entirely corrupted area with 4 Cyberdemons, some Revenants and pinkies. At 5 percent health, death was basically inevitable. However, some judicious rewinding got me to a teleporter that takes you to a silent Icon of Sin head and um, that's how it ends. What happened? Find out in Ray Wreaks Havoc! That was some cool TV music in the intermission screen, btw. 

 

PS. Kind of feels like a few different ideas were thrown into this last map.

lmd_mohawk_06.zip

[Azure_Horror]

MAP06 - “The Maw of Industry” (by Doomkid)

Dsda-doom, SV-max, rifle start.

 

Of the tropical paradise from map 01, only the blue sky remains. Even the sea is polluted by nukage at this area. Lava pools bubble around. Almost everything is build of metal, and only non-technological things are Hell-fortress elements.

 

Let me check my Nineties Games handbook real quick...

Hmmmm...

Seems very likely that we have reached the final level of the game WAD.

 

First things first. The previous map introduced the plasma rifle and SSG, remember?

Let's quickly check behind the starting door... Aha! We get the plasma, the SSG, and even the blue armor! "Check the starting door" secret areas are not new. Typically they feel very arcadey. How did we miss this stuff, if we entered the map from this direction? But on “The Maw of Industry” the starting area secret makes a lot of logical sense. This is just the stuff from the previous map! Canonically, Ray didn't miss it! The secret is a small continuity nod for Rifle (re)strarts.

 

As far as gameplay goes, I would describe “The Maw of Industry” as Subtle Plutonia Map.

From the very beginning to the very end, “The Maw of Industry” is a pretty challenging and cruel map, harder than quite a few Plutonia Experiment levels. However, the biggest risk is not the setups themselves, but their appearance. The challenges seem to be pretty casual at the first glance. This is not true. The monsters are set up in a very efficient way, and will punish the player for any mistake.

The yellow key setup is a nice self contained example of Subtle Plutonia Design. The room with archvile and hitscanners looks pretty tame. However, the monsters are set up in such a way, that the player has very hard time reaching priority targets. For bonus points, the room is very claustrophobic, which makes rocket launcher too risky. Head on assault is a deadly mistake.

 

The final room may appear too tough at first. But don't forget that you can escape the final battle at anytime and resupply! And doing so will give you invulnerability! This is more than enough to win.

Remember: you don't need to kill any of the four cybers! You just need to turn on the berserker teleporter and go get the titular Maw of Industry.

What? Someone wants to kill all the monsters? In the toughest battle of the toughest map? While playing on the "Seeking Validation" difficulty? Well, there had been plenty of warnings that the ultimate challenge can get pretty hard. Remember, dear players and mappers, Difficulty Names are not for show!

 

Conclusion 1: “The Maw of Industry” is a wonderful map. Like a true nineties final level, it takes place in a weird location, and has an even weirder final boss. The final arena is not some kind of hell fortress. It is some half-biological hell dimension. And the final goal is a literal demonic maw, which is supposedly destroyed by berserk-empowered knife. A real celebration of both Doom and nineties action games in general!

 

Conclusion 2: Our hero, Ray Mohawk only wanted to reach some UAC assholes and tell them what he thinks about their stupid Nukage (tm) and its environmental effects. To reach the UAC HQ, he needed to fight through many Nukage infested obstacles. What did he achieve in the end?

He defeated a horrific monstrosity. But he did not get any answers. Instead he was congratulated by general Kawasaki on successful completion of "The Mission". Huh? Ray wasn't tasked with any missions! I guess, it just a nineties end-game weirdness... Or is it?

 

We will see soon enough!

Edited August 6, 2022 by Azure_Horror

[KickAss]

5 hours ago, KickAss said:

 

Duuhhhh ... the switch lowers the pedestal with the blue key on top to your left hand in front of the switch so I could move on. I don't know why I didn't recognized this. Now one of the Bleached Cyberdemons in map06 - "Hidden Ship in Pirate's Cove" by UberGewei got me out of the game. Am I the only one who plays "RAY MOHAWK 2: Ray Wreaks Havoc!" at the moment?

I have beaten the two bleached Cyberdemons and made my way up to map08 - "Chocolate Island" by Egg Boy and now I am stuck in the trapped room after the blue switch. I'm missing some of the fun that I had with Ray Mohawks Manic Monday. It is a completly different kind of game.

[tonytheparrot]

(Played from pistol-start on Prboom+, saves are allowed)

Map 6: The Maw of Industry

104% kills ( I actually didn't kill 2 cybers), 90% items and 100% secrets

Time: 6:26

 

The Maw of Industry is where Ray's first adventure ends and consists of another techbase surrounded by nukage. You first need to grab the yellow and red keys, with the yellow one hiding a few enemies and the red one opening the way to the final room. Both of them are fiercely defended by fodder enemies accompaned by revs for the red one and an archie for the yellow one. After that, you clear the room past the red door and get to the final arena, in which you will have to press switches while you're being attacked by 4 cybers and some supporting mid-tiers. Sadly, I ain't a fan of this room as using the invuln correctly turns it into a joke and I am not sure if Doomkid considered the possibility to max this map since I ran out of ammo after only killing 2 cybers. Thankfully, the rest of Maw is really fun and exciting enough for me to remember it fondly.

 

Now, onto Ray Mohawk 2: Ray Wrecks Havoc! 

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 4

Map 1

Really Like:
Map 3

Map 6

Like:

Map 5

Map 2

 

 

 

 

Also, unrelated:

7 hours ago, KickAss said:

Am I the only one who plays "RAY MOHAWK 2: Ray Wreaks Havoc!" at the moment?

 

I am too.

Edited August 6, 2022 by tonytheparrot

[NiGHTS108]

MAP04: Little Oasis

Kills: 100%

Items: 100%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 3:58

 

Little Oasis is pretty good, I mean as stated by the name, it's possibly the shortest map so far, but it's likely not the easiest or least fun. Although it's simple, I enjoy the layout here, and the invisibility sphere is actually pretty helpful and fun to have surprisingly due to the amount of hitscanners in the level. I really like the Arch-Vile here, who seems to be "blind and deaf" until you shoot him but also guards resources you may find helpful. Overall there's not a whole lot to Little Oasis, but as a nice mid-wad semi-break map, it gets the job done nicely.

 

Grade: B

Difficulty: C-

 

 

[RHhe82]

MAP06: The Maw of Industry. SV, PS. 144/144 K, 2/2 S. Comp. time 16:39.

 

Basically the same applies here than with the previous 4 levels; Decent 90s vanilla maps that are made fun by having Ray Mohawk be the protagonist. The very ending leaves me with a tiny sour taste on the tip of my tongue, but that's on me insisting on SV-MAXing. I guess that's the price of seeking validation, but I had to chaingun down the final two cyberdemons, which wasn't very fun. I did like the final take on IoS, though :P

 

But aside from the Cyberdemon arena, the rest of the level is good ol' vanilla fun, I really digged the penultimate arena.

 

And that concludes the first adventures of our guy Ray. I don't if I have been sounding lukewarm on the wad after MAP01, but that hasn't been my intention, because even with it's flaws homages to mapping of yesteryear, I've been thoroughly enjoying manic monday. I think the wad is more than the sum of its parts; The character of Ray is cool, the soundtrack is cool, and I believe mapping-wise DoomKid achieves what he sets out to do: chill maps with some intense moments; or, ye olde vanilla mapping style but without without resorting to some more obnoxious old-school design choices (no shotgunning barons here, pistol starts are viable options, and while visual style is 90s simple, I didn't spot any glaring texture misalignments or other baffling decisions^{except for the final showdown cybers, why there had to be four and not enough ammo :-D}.

 

And I think I take a leave on the club for the rest of the month. I already played first map of Ray Mohawk 2 and even wrote a little capsule review on it, but as that review doesn't contain any original or particularly perceptive notions, I'll just not post it. Suffice it to say (It's not the 7th of August here in Finland for over an hour still, but it's the 7th somewhere already) I really liked the first map, and it's obvious the Ray Mohawks tempestuous tuesday is a step up in difficulty. I'm gonna play Ray Mohawk 2, probably more of it already in August, but due to real-life and summer vacation stuff, I don't want to stress myself because of the club.

 

And if Ray's adventures are representative of DoomKid's skill and ethos in Doom design, I'll be sure to play Rowdy Rudy as well!

[Capellan]

9 hours ago, KickAss said:

 Am I the only one who plays "RAY MOHAWK 2: Ray Wreaks Havoc!" at the moment?

 

Some people have likely started playing it already, but we only discuss a map a day, so right now (depending on time zone) everyone's on map06 of the first WAD, or just about to talk about map01 of RM2 (which is the map for the 7th).

 

[Azure_Horror]

1 hour ago, RHhe82 said:

except for the final showdown cybers, why there had to be four and not enough ammo :-D

 

I dunno. Why do you waste ammo ? :-D

 

More seriously, if you aim your BFG blatsts to hit one cyber with the projectile and multiple cybers with tracers, you can finish the job with SSG.

In theory, someone can BFG three of the cybers, and berserk-stab the last one.

 

With a bit of practice, I managed to achieve the following strategy, which is pretty quick and action packed.

- Enter the arena with secret BFG equipped and 140 cells, immediately grab 100 more cells.

- Use 360 cells to destroy both northeastern cyberdemons.

- Use 80 cells and some SSG to deal with the southern cyberdemon.

- Only the western cyberdemon remains. He stands on a blood column. this column is a lift, unlike other three.

- Go back for invuln, dive into the pit and lover the western cyberdemon.

- Stab the last cyber with berserk knife! (The invuln lasts long enoungh; I don't even need to dodge rockets)

- Profit! ^{Can I get my validation please?}

 

Edited August 6, 2022 by Azure_Horror
some words

[RHhe82]

41 minutes ago, Azure_Horror said:

I dunno. Why do you waste ammo ? :-D

 

But but but but... shouldn't map designers cater for my skills, and I deserve to feel all-powerful and haveitall waaaaaaahhh!

 

(I had this hunch, that I may have had wasted BFG blasts in the arena :P I tried learning two-shotting cybies once, but found out soon enough that there are some other barrier skills to attain before that... like juggling one cybie in close-range and juggling four in any sort of range :P).

 

Also, I keep forgetting just how powerful the berserk-buffed knife is! If I were to replay RM1 (and there's actually a good chance, because yet another positive is that none of the levels outstay their welcome, and the wad itself doesn't outstay its welcome, so it's easy to hop in mister Mohawk's lieu and go happy stabbin' whenever I wanna play Doom to some CCR and 80s pop/rock.

 

EDIT: And to continue my train of thought: I've really come to appreciate shorter wads because whole 32+ map megawads can feel such chores, even when they are of sublime modern standard professional quality stuff. It's comforting to play wads like Ray Mohawk 1, and say, Stardate 20x6 precisely because I know the end is in sight (no pun intended, if someone spots) that it's never gonna feel like a chore.

Edited August 6, 2022 by RHhe82

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

Ray Mohawk's Manic Monday

 

Vanilla Doom, Hurt Me Plenty, Rifle start, No saves (Unless the level is too hard) 

 

 

Map 06: The Maw of Industry

Results: 100% 98% 100%

 

A good ending for Ray Mohawk's worst monday ever. Before dropping down, I highly recommend grabbing the secret behind us to have even more odds in our favor.The beginning has us facing a lot of low-mid tier enemies, there are a couple archviles but the first is easy to kill, and the second can be made to infight to make it easier. While this part of the map doesn't have anything that stands out it's fun and health is plentiful. Next comes the green marble area, this is the second tension spot of the map, the first being the building where the keys are, this part IMO kills some of the momentum of the map, mostly because of the enemy placement and their quantity. This is where I'd like to save as much health and ammo as possible. After clearing this room and the archvile traps, we get the final fight. Oh boy, this is probably one of, if not the hardest in the entire wad. 4 cyberdemons, some imps, a pain in the ass elemental and shotgun guys. My recommendation is, like roofi said: Circlestrafe, and a lot, AND FOR ANYTHING IN THE WORLD fall into the pit, it's almost guaranteed you'll die if the 4 cyberdemons are alive, sure the secret invulnerability can help, but that's only 30 seconds of no damage, so you have to manage your time carefully. You'll see in my demo how that went. The IoS is cool though, love how the IoS opens his mouth. The main issue I have with this map is ammo, sometimes there's not enough ammo and of course I had to rely in the knife to save as much shells and cells as possible. And that's on Playing For Fun, IDK how Seeking Validation is but I assume it's worse.

 

Still, a good ending, you have to use all the skill you gathered in your playthrough and I like that.

 

Overall, I give the wad a solid 8/10. It's a good experience with very cool music and a cute aesthetic. It's problems are tiny and usually they don't affect the gameplay.

@Doomkid good job with this one :-)

 

Map 06 demo: DWMEG06.zip

[Capellan]

Ray Mohawk 2 MAP01

As always, playing HMP continuous with no music.

 

 

[KickAss]

7 hours ago, Capellan said:

 

Some people have likely started playing it already, but we only discuss a map a day, so right now (depending on time zone) everyone's on map06 of the first WAD, or just about to talk about map01 of RM2 (which is the map for the 7th).

 

For sure that is good to know that the DWMegawad club only discuss a map a day. If I get a brainstorming today about map01 from RM2 I'll post it here. I am trying to get through RM2 on vanilla settings (-skill 3) to get impresisons about the maps first. Have fun and enjoy!

[Roofi]

Map 01 : Back Ashore! 

 

 

Well, we just started the sequel and what do we see now? New weapons and monsters !

 

About the new weapons, they got seriously buffed. Your pistol can now kill an imp in two shots ! Your shotgun had been replaced by cool-looking shotgun from Duke Nukem 3D which acts more or less as a super shotgun. Moreover, you have an expanded backpack. The new arsenal in Ray Mohawk 2 is shockingly powerful, I love it.

 

About the new monsters, sadly for us, they are more powerful too. In the first level, you will meet some  imps armed with flame-throwers but also cacodemons now able to fire baron's fireballs. They're not extremly dangerous for now since Doomkid designed wide areas in order to dodge their attacks.

 

However, the most notable thing about the first map resides in the fact it's considerably harder and longer compared to the first map of Ray Mohawk 1.  In the first map of RM1, you only encountered low-tiers whereas in RM2 you already fight arachnotrons, revenants, armies of impies and even an arch-vile. I think that surprising difficulty rise had been created in order to highlight the improved arsenal but it stay a lot tougher anyway.

 

I honestly think this map was a bit too ambitious for its own good. I took at least 20 minutes to complete in my first try whereas the next map only last 5-10 minutes. Some areas were well designed like the dock where you begin or the large corridors full of imps but the pond near the end was dull. Lots of monsters are spread over the cliffs and killing them takes more time than it should in a first map.

 

Anyway, I like this opener and the cozy Frank Zappa's midi. Just wished it was a bit more concise. The first map of RM2 is larger than any level from RM1.

 

Grade : B

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by Roofi