The DWmegawad Club plays: Ad Mortem & Wormwood 1/EU/3

[Azure_Horror]

MAP07 - “Shadow over Silverspring” by Bartekmil

 

One of my favorite maps, a likely contender for one of top 3 spot.

Good mix of atmosphere and combat, effective use of new enemies, and some fun secrets.

 

My favorite encounter is the courtyard fight agianst a Vile, a Rev and a bunch of small flies. The quirk of this fight - the player has only berserk, single shotgun and a machinegun at this point. Normally, I hate fighting archviles with isuffisient aarsenal, but this particular battle provided a very nice array of cover, leading to very engaging and high-stakes game of hunter-and-hunted against our favorite Angry Martian.

 

The SSG catacombs felt surprisingly consintent and fair, despite all the archvile nonsense inside. This makes for another strong showing.

 

Finally, I adore the final battle. For most intents and purposes, the final battle is a power fantasy, but it can go wrong. Minimal cover provided makes CyberLiches and archviles into pretty nasty threats!

 

The new foes continue to be fun to fight. Gargoyles allow for more diverse low-tier fights. Skeletons are a great semi-fodder. Under optimal conditions, the skele bois are only slightly more dangerous than pinkies, but their quick ranged attack makes them a threat at range, and, like revenants, the skeltons are very punchy in melee. Satyrs continue to be scary in close quarters. Quick, deadly, and relatively beefy. But of all the new foes, used on “Shadow over Silverspring”, the CyberLiches are the scariest. In both health and damage numbers,they seem to be pretty close to archviles. However, their homing rocket attack is less predictable than archvile flame blast. Dodging homing rockets is hard, if the combat space does not have convenient columns or corners. And most CyberLich fights on “Shadow over Silverspring” are almost column-less!

 

Finally, visuals are great, and the "parallel dimension" theme of secrets very beatiful.

 

 

[brick]

MAP07 - “Shadow over Silverspring” by Bartekmil
Oh hey it's Silverspring from Heretic II, with another track by AD_79, this time fittingly from the Raven MIDI Pack. The opening docks are unmistakable but I'm not sure how much the rest of the map deviates from the source of inspiration. When I activated the secret teleporter switch I thought it was brilliant, getting silently teleported into a distorted version of the room, with everything looking slightly off, more Halloween decorations, and a bizarre portal behind a tech door that looks eerily out of place. However I didn't understand the significance of the keycard there until much later, at which point I backtracked until I found the other similar secrets and keycards. I like that the existence of the secret exit is hinted in many ways if you take the time to explore the map, and a seemingly-unrelated secret will even spell out what you need to do. The secret exit itself is a bit of rollercoaster. The first room you enter looks amazing, then picking up the sword sends you into an area full of SS and a big WTF moment (I actually went to DSDA-Doom to check this wasn't GZDoom choking on some MBF21 trick). The healing room behind this looks even weirder, though the Yin/Yang looks really cool. Despite (or because of?) some of the oddities it's another great map, made even better by the very careful design of the progression to the secret exit.

 

@dobu gabu maru OP makes it look like we're doing all 3 secret maps at the end, but wouldn't it make more sense to do them in the "order of appearance", since they're all seamlessly linked through the wad progression?

[finnks13]

MAP07 - Shadow over Silverspring by BartekMil:

21:34/1 Death
Not quite as fond of this map as the previous one, but it certainly nails the atmosphere. I really like the medieval town that we're exploring that I believe is loosely inspired by Heretic 2's first area (by complete chance I'd watched Civvie's video on Heretic 2 yesterday, so I recognised the docks!), and the dinginess of the setting with the teal sky really set a dour mood - along with the excellent MIDI from the Heretic MIDI pack.

 

The start of the map left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, you're very under-equipped for the encounters in the first few minutes which became a bit of a slog, and are then given so much powerful ammo and health by the end that the map stops posing any threat. That being said my favourite fight in the level was the small archvile skirmish in the hedge maze near the beginning, since you don't have anything better than a chaingun, you're forced to move carefully and punch it to death which I really enjoyed. I also like the final major fight, sure it's very circle strafey and you have a billion cells, but the archviles and armoured skeletons that appear at the end spice things up in a way that surprised me.

 

The secrets are great, you're whisked away to spookier versions of the areas you've already explored with a very nice orange and black colour scheme and have to deal with slightly more dangerous versions of the combat that originally appeared in them. I really liked this concept, and given they hide a secret exit, they were well hidden, but not completely impossible for someone as unobservant as me to find. Overall, it's a solid map that's let down a little by it's combat.

 

~~~

 

On 10/7/2022 at 2:54 PM, RHhe82 said:

Apropos, are we playing secret level today, tomorrow, in ten days?

Despite the OP (I think dobu just assumed that the secret exit would be on Map15 like it normally is), I think that playing the secret maps now makes the most sense since Map07's got the secret exit in. I suppose I'll just follow what most of you guys do though :P

Edited October 13, 2022 by finnks13
fixed author name

[dobu gabu maru]

3 hours ago, finnks13 said:

Despite the OP (I think dobu just assumed that the secret exit would be on Map15 like it normally is), I think that playing the secret maps now makes the most sense since Map07's got the secret exit in. I suppose I'll just follow what most of you guys do though :P

 

Secret Maps will be played when encountered, so if one pops up after MAP07, then the 8th will be for that secret map.

I don't personally when the secret maps appear, so just correct for my ignorance.

[Pseudonaut]

Map31 (Some deaths):
The most obvious comparison to make is Scythe 2's secret map, as the evil marines here are basically the same, but seemingly more manageable. Maybe they have less health (didn't check), maybe they're a little slower (also didn't check), or perhaps it's just that the level design limits their movement more. I eventually noticed that the rocket launcher works pretty well when they're constrained to a small space, and is unreliable otherwise. It's a good idea to lure these guys into a place where their sideways movement is limited (e.g. the bridge at 5:05 in the video) so that rockets are likely to hit and they die quickly. Neat.

 

Also there's a broken secret at the end.

 

 

Here's a demo:

am31m227.zip

 

 

[RHhe82]

MAP31: Pumpkination. Played on DSDA v0.24, UV, PS. 21/21 K, 1/2 S, 2/2 I. Completion time 7:12.

 

At first I was afraid, I was petrified by the presumption of low kill count indicating lots of archviles. Instead we get 21 angry Decinos. I actually have never played Scythe 2 far enough (I gave up on MAP15 I think when I first attempted the wad a year ago), but I get the hunch I'm not going to like it. Here we stay on the side where it's still, I wouldn't say fun necessarily, but where the novelty doesn't wear off. Pumpkination is a small map, and rocket launcher is your best buddy here.

 

I first spent a lot of time trying to find either of the secrets, thinking they'd be resource caches hidden in the map. The first one (or, more precisely, the secret switch leading to the secret exit) I found by exhausting all the other options, and the last one I discovered by automap and IDCLIP -- so to corroborate Pseudonaut's finding: the other secret is regrettably broken. Otherwise solid map.

[ViolentBeetle]

Sorry about broken secret. Back in a day I asked Vaeros to fix it for me, but I guess he wasn't available, but then I kinda forgot. I should get an update in myself then.

[finnks13]

MAP31 - Pumpkination by ViolentBeetle:
5:42/7 Deaths
I've gotta be honest, I did not like this map at all. One monster maps rarely work well for me, and thrive on being gimmicky to stand out and this map does have a gimmick, in that the one monster it uses is Mr X from Scythe 2. Unfortunately, since the club has covered Uprising before, I've already played a one monster map that uses Mr X so the potential novelty of that concept didn't apply to me. I do like the pumpkin man reskin that Mr X has gotten and the high visual standard in this wad is certainly kept up here, the painting of the pumpkin guy in the red key area being a particular highlight.

 

I do not think that Mr X is a fun enemy to fight, and so a map that's entirely built around fighting them is just not going to work for me without a lot of work going into the atmosphere of the map. Mr X is bloody terrifying when used correctly (see Uprising Map31 and Scythe 2 Map16) and these maps accomplish this by building up the feeling of dread before setting Mr X on you. This map immediately pits you against four of them with little time to prepare and get immersed in the level. As it is, this map made me feel irritated when I first saw that it was using Mr X as a gimmick, and then frustration from dying repeatedly to them. Gimmicky maps like this one tend to excel or crash and burn, and this map unfortunately falls into the latter category.

[Azure_Horror]

MAP31 - “Pumpkination” by ViolentBeetle

 

I am not a biggest fun of Mr X maps, however this map felt relatively fun. Definetly better than Scythe 2 maps of similar design. Unlike Eric Alm's maps, “Pumpkination” allows the player to engage the Evil Marines on somewhat favorable terms, which reduces frustration quite a lot. No marine teleports in your face, and you don't need to navigate multiplle turrets at once.

The Halloween decor adds quite a lot to this map memorability and also leaves pretty positive impression. Thumbs up for adding a spooky wake up sound for a spooky enemy! Makes everything feel more special!

 

Overall, pretty nice map. That said, I prefer @Cheesewheel's version of Mr X map. (see Uprising megawad.)

[cannonball]

MAP31 - “Pumpkination” by ViolentBeetle

 

So you are faced with Decino armed with a plasma gun who has managed to clone himself 20 times....

Yeah that is about the most positive spin I can put on this map. Honestly this lacks the feeling of dread seen in Scythe 2 map16, the smoothness of a deathmatch arena in Scythe 2 Map31. The layout just feels like a normal small map that has these monsters instead of the normal roster of enemies. As such encounters feel rather clunky, especially as the monster reveals tend to be more annoying than horrifying. 

If you want to play a great map with the Mr X character, Uprising Map31 nails every element. This is more of a miss I'm afraid. I do like the sprite and as I mentioned, the spin I may have wrongly interpreted is the only factor that prevents this being from being branded as a complete miss.

Edited October 8, 2022 by cannonball

[NiGHTS108]

MAP07: Shadow Over Silverspring

By Bartekmil

Kills: 102%

Items: 69%

Secrets: 80%

Time: 20:37

 

Shadow Over Silverspring was honestly quite a bit of fun. I really enjoyed the setting here, a toxic and poisonous medieval city that I believe is a reference to Heretic II? I wouldn't know, I've never played it, but I'm going to assume so especially since this MIDI sounds like Heretic music. I didn't really have the same issue with the combat as seemingly at least a few other people did, it didn't really jump out to me as very restrictive or unpleasant frankly, although the star of this map was most definitely the method of obtaining the secret exit. It's hinted at pretty obvioulsy near the start and I find the secrets satisfying to find, not too easy, not too hard, just right. The battles in the void area as well are pretty unique, fun and memorable. The map combat wise probably peaks near the end, I like this row of enemies on the dock near to the final temple area and inside there lies a pretty neat BFG fight, which despite being simple, is pretty fun. Also can anyone tell me what's with the secret room in the area where you take the secret exit? Thanks.

 

Grade: B+

Difficulty: C-

 

 

MAP31: Pumpkination

By ViolentBeetle

Kills: 100%

Items: 100%

Secrets: 50%

Time: 3:03

 

Eh... Yeah this one is a miss. Everything good about Pumpkination has nothing to do with the map itself. It's cool to see Mr. X again, this actually happens to be an enemy I kinda like, their decino reskin is cute, as well as the painting of one in the wooden building... and that's it. Compared to the other maps that exclusively feature this enemy, there's no wit or charm or personality or mystery at all. It deadass just is a pretty small and basic looking map that sure guarantees it can use this enemy concept in the most obnoxious way possible. I mean like, at least for Scythe II MAP31, a map that nobody I know likes, at least the concept of a deathmatch arena with Mr. X as the bots is an idea that is actually cute, creative and fits a secret slot nicely. For a better example, Uprising MAP31 while considerably more subtle with the gimmick did have an idea that allowed for some pretty epic suspense and had architecture that made fighting off the enemies actually fun and interesting. (Same for Scythe II MAP16 partly.) Pumpkination has neither of that, As I said, the only good parts of this map aren't even actually to do with it. No point wasting any more time here, play Uprising MAP31 for an infinitely better experience.

 

Grade: D

Difficulty: B+

 

 

[Pseudonaut]

Map32:
"Tricks N' Treats" is a great title for a Halloween-themed Doom map, and it's surprising that I'm not aware of any others by the same name. The midi is cool too, I thought it sounded like Touhou and that turned out to be the case. Didn't care for the gameplay, though. I skipped a lot of fodder because I just didn't feel like killing them given the circumstances. Otherwise, a lot of time would have been spent chaingunning mid-tiers... bleh. The archviles in the ending were entertaining, at least.

 

 

[cannonball]

MAP32 - “Tricks n’ Treats” by NepNep

 

A generally passable map, the outdoor cavern was okay to get through. Again this is another map that could have done with the bigger weapons being available earlier, the big point being the red key where clearly the best route is to simply grab the key and run for the red door, get the Winchester and return to finish off the bony cabal later. The final room was pretty basic, but offers some thrills. Do not waste you big gun ammo until the last switch is pressed, I finished the Barons off with the SSG as I had just enough to deal with the archvile quartet.

 

Overall an okay but frankly unmemorable map that I struggle to see how it is "Secret slot worthy".

[RHhe82]

MAP32: Tricks 'n Treats. Played on DSDA v0.24, UV, PS. 180/191 K, 3/6 S, 43/66 I. Completion time 21:01.

 

An okay map, that leaves a sour taste in mouth. The midi sounds like some power metal band hit instrumental, and I like it. There are some nice locations here, like the canyon, cemetery, but some of the places look like something out of CC1, such as the building leading to the final area. Even the door raises up to the sky.

 

This is a problem, there are touches of sloppiness here and there; like in the final arena there seems to be some invisible block that caused at least one of my deaths when I ran into it. The final arena encounter is decent, though, although the final wave, I don't know, I may be underskilled for sure, but it wasn't that fun trying to hide behind narrow pillars to avoid the unavoidable and hope the archies dabble in infighting. 

 

It's a shame, because for a moment there I was enjoying myself. I would overlook some small inconveniences (like having to use single-barrel shotgun for so long), but in the end it turns out you can't backtrack to cater for UV-MAX compulsions. That'd be okay, for example if the final arena was such that player believes it's beyond point of no return, but you can actually track back to the mostly empty graveyard / grove area, all the way back to the teleport exit where you can hear the chaingunners left alive in the valley area, separated by some wooden planks.

[General Roasterock]

Map 31: Pumpkination

 

  I really am torn about this one. I consider myself to be one of the largest Evil Marine apologists out there. I feel that it's one of the best custom enemies ever created with DeHackEd. It is a great test of the player's speed and reflexes, and is great for a single target that requires priority. He has weaknesses, and in certain environments he can be insurmountably bullshit, but I feel that WADs simply don't give him enough love in that regard. 

  This map makes all the mistakes with this monster that could be made, and the combat takes a beating because of it. Walking out of the first building to collect the plurality of your supplies will immediately sick several Evil Marines on you from multiple directions, including one on the ground that can close the distance incredibly quickly. Not knowing the placement of every single one of these guys makes first time encounters a very quick death at any point. Any turned corner can turn into a loss of half of your health supply, and there is not a hug amount of it to go around to replace anything you lose. All the doorways are designed to easily catch the corner of your shirt, which results in precious frames lost to the wandering Marines. I feel this map relies way too much on the Rocket Launcher, where not only can the monsters survive a single missile, but they also have no issue juking such a slow moving projectile, and time between shots on the RL is just too long when it comes to the speed of the Marines and the spacing of the map, which is simply nowhere near enough. The secret fight is solely RNG, as the only way I could survive is escaping the cellar, which required tactful and lucky dodging of the final Marine rush. I can't be too upset at the untaggable secret since it is being addressed, but it's still an unfortunate miss. 

  Visually there's nothing to write home about. Yes it does make use of the theme to make some gothic buildings, but they feel empty, aside from the one with the massive Pumpkinguy portrait of course. Ultimately, I feel this map is essentially a holiday reskin of Scythe 2's "Secret", which has to be the intent, the two are just far too similar to not have been an inspiration. While not a bad thing on its own, there was way too much opportunity with the current technology to pass up an advancing of the concept this map doesn't quite do. Maybe someday, Mr. X. 

 

Map 32: Tricks n' Treats

 

  Tricks n' Treats is clearly the work of a freshly inducted mapper. It is very rudimentary detailed, structured in a straight line to the end, and loose with the combat to a point that makes selected engagement leisurely. I still enjoyed it though, as it mostly had solid core values. Despite the simplistic detailing, the setting was still nicely developed, and I'm a sucker for a good gorge fight. This definitely isn't the first graveyard filled with Revenant-adjacents, and it definitely won't be the last, but the concept is novel and was bolstered by the Rocket Launcher in one of the first secrets. Said secrets were all relatively easy to find, and didn't make or break the flow of combat.

  My big tilt for this map is the final fight, which is a big square boring monster brawl that has two waves of what the hell ever, and a final wave of a group of obligatory Arch-Viles. The former is as easy to avoid as walking away from all of the combat, save maybe the two Pain Elementals in the back, and the latter is a huge off-kilter spike in difficulty as the first two waves have likely sucked all your ammo down, ammo that you definitely need to kill that many Arch-Viles. Having to juggle them with cover that is essentially just large enough to block one, maybe two if they're together, is frustrating, especially since the largest block of cover in that fight disappears to reveal those Viles in the first place. 

  For a relatively new outing, there's definitely potential, but it feels like one train of thought that was pressured into an aggravating climax by its contemporaries. I of course have no way to prove that, but seeing as maps in the earlier stages of a career are usually made from entrance to exit chronologically, it's not baseless. 

 

Power Rankings

Spoiler

1. Darkwood
2. The Imps in the Walls
3. Shadow over Silverspring
4. Catacombover
5. Caco's Keep
6. Tricks n' Treats
7. Pumpkination
8. Beneath Bloodstone
9. Pumpkin Delight

 

[LunaticRedEyes1]

10 hours ago, cannonball said:

Overall an okay but frankly unmemorable map that I struggle to see how it is "Secret slot worthy".

It was put in the secret slot more due to not being considered up to par with the rest of the maps quality-wise, a sentiment I completely agree with since I am NepNep.

8 hours ago, RHhe82 said:

This is a problem, there are touches of sloppiness here and there; like in the final arena there seems to be some invisible block that caused at least one of my deaths when I ran into it.

I thought I fixed that in an updated version of the map, although I'm not sure if it's in the current release of the wad. I had accidentally marked some of the lowering pillars as Impassable.

 

4 hours ago, General Roasterock said:

Tricks n' Treats is clearly the work of a freshly inducted mapper

Why yes, yes it is. Thank you for the detailed feedback, btw.

Edited October 9, 2022 by LunaticRedEyes1

[RHhe82]

1 minute ago, LunaticRedEyes1 said:

I thought I fixed that in an updated version of the map, although I'm not sure if it's in the current release of the wad. I had accidentally marked some of the lowering pillars as Impassable.

I hope I am playing the latest version, then :P There was an issue in the previous map the author thought they had already fixed :\

[General Roasterock]

14 minutes ago, LunaticRedEyes1 said:

Why yes, yes it is. Thank you for the detailed feedback, btw.

Of course, keep it up, it's a solid early step for combat design for the most part.

 

15 minutes ago, LunaticRedEyes1 said:

I thought I fixed that in an updated version of the map, although I'm not sure if it's in the current release of the wad. I had accidentally marked some of the lowering pillars as Impassable.

I had an issue with that too, but it wasn't significant enough for me to realize it at the time. I'm using version 4.2 that was linked back in the first page, and there's still one line on one of the east pillars that's impassable. That should definitely get fixed before finalization.

[finnks13]

MAP32 - Tricks n' Treats by NepNep:

9:09/4 Deaths
Well this map doesn't feature Mr X in any capacity so that at least gives it a boost over Map31 :P

 

There's nothing much to say here, it feels like someone's first attempt at mapping, and for a first map there's certainly potential and I can see that a lot of effort has been put into it just from the rather large scale of the level. I like the graveyards full of revenants and skeletons (speaking of which, the gibbing animation for the skeletons seems to have a slight issue with low ceilings as the bones just sort of get stuck on the sky!), and the section in the canyon is pretty decent too. The rest of the level is rather flat and boring, most of the detail coming from the tree props that are spammed everywhere.

 

The final arena feels like it was meant to be a grand finale, but falls quite flat. The first wave gives you way too much space and cover, letting you circle-strafe around everything without a care in the world and the second wave sets four archviles on you and removes most of the cover. My four deaths in this map were all due to these archviles and I really wish there were a couple more places to hide from them. Being very low on plasma, and out of rockets, I eventually decided to just leave since the exit's wide open and I couldn't be arsed to kill them. This isn't a bad map for a beginner, but the lack of decent combat made this one of lesser maps in the set.

[Monsieur E]

I was a bit busy last week so couldn't get any writeups up. Also, I've switched over to Woof rather than dsda-doom. Anyways, let's catch up!

Map03- Beneath Bloodstone by Wolpentiger
100% kills 

I did two playthroughs of this map because the first one went absolutely ass. For whatever reason (I did play this before I was notified of the new update so my apologies if this was rectified), the ammo and health balance here is extremely tight but it comes more off as poorly designed than an intentional decision. I was struggling throughout, trying to minimize combat since I was very low on ammo, the goddamn lift in the pits take forever to lower, the map feels claustrophobic and tedious to move around and has a lot of narrow corridors, I completed the level with only 76% kills eager to move onto the next one.

However, I decided to give it another shot after reading a bit here regarding a secret, and thanks to a youtube video (by EnragedEggplant who actually made the next map!) , I managed to get the berserk hidden in a very obtuse secret to which I wonder, how exactly are you supposed to intuit this? With the help of the berserk pack and foreknowledge, map03 actually became a decent experience. I would chalk this down to the fact that a significant number of the enemies are skeletons who are ideal to deal with the berserk. They move quickly and make sharp turns occasionally, thus it's easy to miss your shotgun shots in a map which already suffers from scarcity. The map still suffers from claustrophobia overall and the resource rationing is still harsh, however, on replay with the berserk pack and foreknowledge, I ended up having a decent experience. Furthermore, this map visually looks pretty good with its caverns and blood vats. Decent map I suppose but definitely harsh on first playthrough.  

Map04- Pumpkin Delight by EnragedEggplant 
100% kills 

This is a pretty little map, the combat here is nothing too special but flows well enough. My favorite would be the one with the evil eye but not exactly too challenging. I really like the cute doomcute pumpkins here and again, visually it looks pretty good. However, what I appreciate the most in this map is the MIDI selection which introduced me to ""Supreme" by Robbie Williams". And even in its MIDI rendition, it still sounds really good. Although a part of me does wish it played in a longer map. Either way, map04 is a fun map that I enjoyed playing. 

Map05- The Imps in the Walls by ASO3000
96% kills 

Now this was quite adventurous. I was bit apprehensive going into the map since I heard that it's kind of long however, I was engaged from the beginning, barring the MIDI which I found to be grading. The huge landscape offered at the start while empty definitely feels well crafted by placing a couple of landmarks and as you scale the cliffside, the ambient wind noises sound excellent. Infact, I think throughout the mapset, the usage of these soundclips is excellent since they help set the scene in various areas. In particular in more urban settings (including later in this level), the screaming and groaning help make the maps feel more alive in a enjoyable horror film sort of way, which I imagine was the intention.

Back to the map itself, once you enter the large manor, the level really shows its hard. I was less partial to the tightness of the map here since it more than makes up for it with the large amount of doomcute and better combat encounters. I really like the gargoyles pouring through the window and the library fight was pretty good, changing its layout to develop the fight. However, my favorite encounter in the entire map was the silly rocket monster encounter which surprised me after I grabbed the secret in the chapel. It's not technically a fight and is literally one enemy I know but frankly I just find it so unbelievably charming I can't help but love it, especially with the running noises it makes. My favorite segment would be the subterranean town located seemingly beneath the land, I expected it to be abandoned however the sprinkling of the aforementioned screams and groans made me wonder if there was something more horrific occurring. It played well setting up the atmosphere, however, the combat felt lackluster here for the large area provided. But what was here is good enough. Overall, I think this map's personality is the real star here, extremely charming and creative, excellent work.

Map06- Darkwood by A2Rob
100% kills

This map feels more combat oriented than the prior maps, with a lot of enjoyable setpieces here. I like the usage of barrels which pack a sleek new retexture and let out a cool looking explosion graphic. The progression while linear still felt interesting and as per usual, the visuals look great.  I think this map overall feels more like a traditional doom map in a halloween coat of paint as opposed to the other levels in the set so far which felt more akin to, doom halloween maps; there isn't quite as much doomcute or decor placed (not to say the map looks ugly, I just think these particular aspects prominent in the set so far aren't quite as prevalent) and it seems more designed around the combat to take place here as opposed to the visual setpiece with combat dropped in prior maps. Again, I want to stress I don't think this is bad in any way but I just think it stands out from its companions in that sense.

My favorite fight would be the cyberdemon and his army of fodder, they don't do much straight up damage to you however they obstruct your movement making it harder to duel with the siege cow, simple fight overall but pretty good and well designed I'd say. Another fight I really enjoyed was the final skeleton crowd due to its enjoyable nature, particularly with the silly "gibbing" animation and the fact that, due to the skeletons high speed, they can actually fuck you up if you play sloppily and let them pour into your alcove where they will distract you from controlling the crowd. Very fun map, love it. 

Map07- Shadow over Silverspring by Bartekmil
98% kills

Arriving at the port of silverspring, this is another pretty adventurous map. The map is set in the rather old-timey town and you explore it, parts of the map again feel quite alive with the use of ambient noises. Again, most of the combat is fine but it has a few good fights; for how annoying it may be, I think the archvile fight towards the beginning is pretty well made, you have to balance the revenants and imps while berserk punching (or shotgunning) the archvile, it's simple but works and keeps you moving. Another very well crafted fight is the BFG fight at the end, you can circle strafing around watching an infight go down, however then the King Boners dropped in and due to the sharp turning of their rockets, you can't juke them like you would for your regular skeletons so they often keep tracking you plus their relatively slower speed makes them a more serious threat to dispatch. However, to place the icing on the cake, archviles immediately pour afterwards and they'll restart the party and make dealing with the king boner projectiles more tough. Not too challenging but still enjoyable nonetheless. 

Again, the visuals here are top notch, mixing the dark dungeons of the town, its urban setting and the strange.. temple structure ? at the end indicating a sense of mysteriousness which is further cemented by an excellent hunt for three additional colored keycards responsible for guarding the secret exit. However, the catch is they are in these parallel dimensions of some sort which are themed around the color corresponding to its keycard and make for fun optional areas. Just a solid map overall. 

Map31- Pumpkination by ViolentBeetle
100% kills

Not you again- 
I am not a fan of the Evil Marine at all, much less of maps that make them their central gimmick. I've never been into deathmatching plus I got bad doom skills so my opinion is already biased. That being said, this was about as tolerable as this map concept could be for me In comparison to Uprising map31, I think what this lacked in atmosphere, it made up in being way less ambush heavy and actually giving me more time to react. Plus, the more restricted layout of the spaces here allowed for your attacks to be dodged less by the decinos. Speaking of that, their redesign is another extremely silly and charming design choice which I love. However, the rest of the map unfortunately lacks a lot of that charm, even map04 felt more pumpkin festive than this :P. Overall, my personal opinions regarding the marine drags this one down unfortunately. 

[brick]

MAP31 - “Pumpkination” by ViolentBeetle
It's a gimmick map, as expected from a secret slot. Unfortunately for me the gimmick is a bunch of supersonic-speed plasma troopers. I have hated these enemies and the maps where they appear in every wad I've played, and this one is no exception (though the pumpkin heads are a cute touch and made it almost worth it). The super secret exit is clever, though it triggers by far the toughest fight of the map and maybe the wad (6 of the bastards on UV, in close quarters - have fun). The map is just not my thing at all.
Others have already pointed out the unreachable secret sector at the secret exit.

 

MAP32 - “Tricks n’ Treats” by NepNep
It was bound to happen eventually, but this is the first map that displays oddities with GZDoom, the fences in the starting area render underground in software mode (they're not even visible in hardware). It's not a big problem though since it doesn't affect gameplay too much. As always the palette and decorations make everything look pretty nice. Going through the house puts you in a chasm with lots of enemies at the bottom, clearing them accesses a teleporter to woods on the other side of the chasm. The woods then lead into a small building, which opens into the final arena, a series of combats that unlock in order. I didn't like that arena much, the combat elsewhere was ok, my feelings overall are a bit muted. Learning afterwards that this was done by a novice mapper increased my appreciation, for a first or early try it's not a bad at all, and as General Roasterock pointed out the core design is solid and has some fun moments.

 

MAP33 - “Ungle Reggie’s Candy Factory” by African Equus-Sapien
This definitely belongs in the secret slot, what a strange map. Combat is mostly quite claustrophobic. There's some typical doomcute sitting besides some strange designs, such as the series of radsuits that have no purpose, or the silent teleporter at the Berserk, and then there's the utter weirdness of that Keen... actually everything about that Keen room is weird. Not quite sure what to think of the map, there's a lot of goofiness but it can be entertaining if you're in the mood. Either way it's pretty short and quick playing.

[RHhe82]

26 minutes ago, brick said:

This definitely belongs in the secret slot, what a strange map

I’ll post my pre-written capsule review later today, but gotta say, this map really reminded me of Going Down, which is a very positive thing.

[cannonball]

MAP33 - “Ungle Reggie’s Candy Factory” by African Equus-Sapien

 

Far too many moments in this map consisted of roll of the dice moments as to whether you will survive or not. The start is doable I guess, but if that chaingunner starts shooting from the first moment then the chances are you will not make it to cover in time. The worst moment is behind the yellow key door, again it is pure luck if you survive this as the monsters are in your face straight away and you need to pray for good fortune as to whether the monsters behind attack first and instigate infighting. The rest of the map wasn't as harsh, but there are plenty of strange design decisions throughout, especially towards the end with the random commander keen etc.

Overall this is another map that was probably placed here away from the main roster, this was quite aggravating to be honest, I guess there are some redeemable qualities though.

[Pseudonaut]

Map33:
Cramped, but ok overall. Some encounters require deft footwork to make it out alive, like the archviles at the end. But there are a few moments that involve little more than peekaboo shooting, such as the encounter by all the radsuits, where some perched revs and hitscanners can be safely ignored as long as you hide from them, and all the enemies on the ground can be fought out of their sight. When it's time to move on, the peekaboo process can begin. The SSG trap can be quite nasty if the player does anything other than the correct course of action, which then makes it trivial: immediately break through the imps to the right and keep running (not seen in the video, I just got lucky there). There's a dark room (8:55 in the video) with a switch that can't be pressed; a scrapped portion of the map, perhaps?

 

 

Edited October 10, 2022 by Pseudonaut

[RHhe82]

MAP33: Uncle Reggie's Candy Factory. Played on DSDA v0.24, UV, PS. 96/96 K, 0/0 S, 9/9 I. Completion time 11:33.

 

A sudden step up in quality, Uncle Reggie's Candy Factory is a not-so-distant cousin of Going Down with tight and confined spaces with an eye for detail and toilets! Even combat is reminisicient (though perhaps it is a slightly more distant cousin) of GD with some tight encounters you can't simply cheese.

 

Needless to say, I liked it. It's short and sweet, and only the final area with the couple of archviles feel like mapper ran out of steam (although I found it funny as I interpreted the exit is plunging down a chimney).

[NiGHTS108]

MAP32: Tricks N' Treats

By NepNep

Kills: 110%

Items: 43%

Secrets: 66%

Time: 8:10

 

Oh Tricks N' Treats... What a delightfully uneven hunk of junk. Okay look, I'm just gonna cut the shit here, this map is bizarre, boxy and ugly and virtually the only good thing about it is the Arch-Vile fight at the end, which isn't great but I feel officially saved this from an F, COOL! Anyway this map definitely gives me hardcore early 90s vibes with an Ad Mortem coat of paint over it, there's virtually no height variation except for in the valley early on, and most of the combat takes place in flat and dull rooms. Yes the outdoors visuals are... not bad all things considered, but that's mainly because it has the afformentioned Ad Mortem coat of paint to back it up. I can very easily imagine a version of this map without that texture set. The secrets are also pretty scattershot, one of them literally just being a patch of grass with some ammo on it you can very easily find without thinking about, and another pretty broken secret with a rocket launcher and soulsphere early on behind a slightly brighter part of the wall. I'll conclude with something more positive, the final fight is pretty alright, sure before the Arch-Viles show up it's basically rocketing clumps of demons but it's fun enough and at least more entertaining than the fight in the valley which you can just completely run around, and also when the Arch-Viles show up it actually gets pretty tricky to manage as well. Again, this fight isn't great, but I enjoy it enough. It really seems like Ad Mortem is just hiding away the worse maps behind secret exits. (Which I know it is now, at least with 32.) Let's just hope MAP33 is okay.

 

Grade: D-

Difficulty: C

 

 

[Pseudonaut]

Map08:
Resources are scarce for the first half of the map. It wasn't felt at first, but eventually I had to deal with those narrow hallway goats with no shells. They can be lured out to make the situation more favorable, though. Rationing ammo is also an option. A box of shells is found soon after those bastards, and ammo isn't a problem after that. Not much else to say, it's a decent map that doesn't really stand out.
 

 

[cannonball]

MAP08 - “The Torture Garden” by Velcrosasquatch

 

A reasonable map to play, though it does appear to be partially broken in the newest edition. The red skull will open the door that allows access to the final room where I suspect it is the red keycard that should be doing this. As such a sizable portion of the map can be skipped. I will add there is a door that requires a purple keycard that appears to be marked with the red variety on the door.

Again the map mostly consists of cramped fights mixed with brief outdoor excursions. The interior houses quite a few of the custom hell knight types that actually work quite well considering they carry a bigger threat + lower health. The map is reasonably presented with a few neat moving parts (Path to the red key card).

[RHhe82]

MAP08: The Torture Garden. 103/103 K, 7/8 S, 25/25 I. Completion time 33:52.

 

A solid level that at times has a cramped (going-downy) design, and at other times it's a bit empty, like the cemetery garden. I liked most of the fights, there's nothing too hard or dickish. In fact, maybe I'd have preferred a slightly shorter level with at least one of the fights be harder. Not that I had it easy - at some point I was really starving for health, but I guess that's more on me, and the situation was sorted out later.

 

I couldn't find the final secret. I saw it in my automap, some room near the cemetery area, that looked like it would be accessable from another secret, but no. Got all the kills and items, though. Ammo, health or weapon cache?

[NiGHTS108]

MAP33: Uncle Reggie's Candy Factory

By African Equus-Sapien

Kills: 94%

Items: 55%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 7:16

 

This one is weird. Uncle Reggie's Candy Factory is a story of descent, pretty much. It's kind of insane how cute and charming this map starts off only to rip that all away by the end. The detailing (for part of it) was pretty cool, the grungy toilet and furnace were pretty neat, and the combat in the library (?????) area was cool. It's simple but there's some nice height variation. Sadly this is where the map peaks and it's all downhill from here. After grabbing a key you head into a door near the start and the map completely disintegrates into a random and bizarre mess of rooms that feels nothing like the original map. It's odd, there's a trillion RAD suits, large colourful pillars, silent teleporters, killing a Commander Keen to progress, and exiting the map by raising the sky ceiling so you can fit in a hole. Yeah. I guess this map is a bit more fitting for the secret slot, and I'll admit I kinda love it just from an ironic perspective, but this was still uneven to put it lightly.

 

Grade: C-

Difficulty: C

 

 

MAP08: The Torture Garden

By Velcrosasquatch

Kills: 98%

Items: 92%

Secrets: 12%

Time: 15:04

 

The Torture Garden was an... uh... interesting map!.. This one honestly confused me. It has some neat visuals outside of the rectangular gravestone prism sometimes, even if it's probably too much for it's own good, but the progression here feels downright unfinished. It's super bizarre. It's not really hard to figure out, but I was pretty consistently baffled by everything happening in the map. There's a completely optional wild goose chase for a red keycard near the end which doesn't seem to do anything at all, there are two doors that seem like they should open with a red keycard right next to each other that actually need a purple keycard and red skull, I don't know if the map has a purple keycard in it because thankfully you can get the rocket launcher it's guarding through a secret openable wall. Or you can get it through this secret at the start too through the vents in the crate room. Also this map's visuals are really scattershot and unfocused, although they all do generally fit a mansion theme it can't keep to a consistent visual style to save it's life. Oh and the combat? Uhhhhh, it was fine. Honestly didn't leave an impression on me. I might be a hypocrite saying all this because I feel this review is getting a little scattershot itself, so tl;dr, I really feel the mapper bit off more than they could chew here. More testing necessary.

 

Grade: D

Difficulty: C-