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

[NiGHTS108]

- Wormwood -

 

MAP01: Copse

Kills: 100%

Items: 100%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 4:14

 

What a great little mini-map we have here! Copse is simple but also delightful. The MIDI, visuals and especially the ending add a ton of charm to what could easily become a grain of salt compared to the main show here. After fighting your way through some chaingunners at the start, you'll ride a lift to the main sight of the level. A Cyberdemon/Revenant/Hell Knight cesspool where the only escape is killing the Cyberdemons in a pretty nice scripted event, after that you'll jump down, BFG a horde of Arch-Viles easily, and head into the ending room. Trick or treat!

 

Grade: A

Difficulty: B

 

 

Edited October 19, 2022 by NiGHTS108

[finnks13]

So, the Wormwood Trilogy - seems like a very cool set of levels and I'm surprised I've never really checked them out before since they seem right up my alley on the surface. The only map in the entire series that I have played is Map01 of Wormwood EU because I read about the bouncy walls and decided to check it out. Since it's recommended on the download page, I will do my blind playthrough on HMP and if I enjoy a map enough, I might revisit it on UV (with the aid of the wiki for the secrets that past experience tells me will be both incredibly useful, and completely impossible to find for me :P) and talk about the differences I found. 

 

Wormwood

 

Map01 - Copse by Grain of Salt:

HMP: 4:40/2 Deaths

UV: 4:39/4 Deaths
I don't know what it is about incredibly benign map names that I like so much, but a map simply being called "Copse" brings me more joy than it really should. The map itself is a fun little bite-sized arena, built around a main set-piece in the centre of this ruin. The visuals are gorgeous, the new palette brings tons of atmosphere, and the green + orange colour scheme contrasts really nicely with the starry sky and brown bricks that make up the main structure of the map. I liked the MIDI, it fits the spooooky tone of the wad, but is a bit silly too, which makes the map feel quite light-hearted while you're going through it.

 

You start off with a view of the main structure that makes up the map, and teleport down to the ground level to face off against a few chaingunners, which are no problem before taking the lift up to the main event. This encounter is a short challenge, about manoeuvring the cyberdemons into positions where they will fight with the revenant and hell knight hordes, without getting cornered yourself. It doesn't seem too bad at first, but the hell knights keep coming and since your best weapon is the rocket launcher, getting overwhelmed or dying to splash damage is hard to avoid. After killing the two cybers, the walls keeping you locked in lower and allow you to grab a BFG.

 

The BFG spawns in a big horde of archviles which aren't too difficult to take out because you've got loads of cells, but they're definitely a pulse-raising sight when they appear in that high a number. You're presented with a choice of "TRICK" or "TREAT" in the final room, and picking trick kills you in a genuinely hilarious manner, while picking treat boringly opens the exit! I did replay the map on UV, but honestly couldn't tell the difference so I expect the HMP warning refers to Map02 mostly. Overall, I really liked this map, it's well designed, looks excellent and has a fun sense of humour - great stuff!

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 09: Norwitch Garden

by @lunchlunch

 

When I first spotted the monster count, I groaned because I was convinced it was going to take forever. Turns out, it'll probably take under 20 minutes because around 80 percent of the monster count is concentrated inside the central mansion and out of that, the larger percentage of them are Imps. It was really much better than it sounded but I'll get to that!

 

The overall map might well be the best so far though. Between A2Rob and Lunch, I know who I'm gonna pick. At first, it seems starved of his tendency toward over-the-top action. Instead the focus is on creating an immersive and intricate environment of woods, mansion, and cliffs with some really cool and sometimes just funny secrets. Case in point: the circular room with the knives and the SS off in the corner, but little else of note other than a plasma rifle which you've certainly picked up at this point.

 

And it's certainly not without difficulty either. General ammo paucity and some rather nastily-placed Cyberdemons and Arch-viles keep things from becoming too relaxed. Eventually, you hit a switch at the far end of a canyon and open the mansion doors, revealing a pair of King Boners that killed us the first time around. They're not the hugest threat by any means.

 

Because walk to the far end of this place that's the most accessible and you're suddenly swarmed by Imps and skeletons. This might be the hardest fight but by no means the most intimidating. See, once you hit a switch at the far end, a large room's revealed, with Mancubi teleporting behind you, Revenants and Cacodemons on either side and nobles and Cybers on top of the stairs with 2 Arch-viles spawning into the previous area, the only clue to the Arch-viles presence being a random skleton that wandered to a spot behind the Mancubi. When all this is over with, pick up the yellow key, hit the yellow switch and do some slightly annoying platforming to exit.

 

I seriously would've probably played Map 10 as well if I had known this wouldn't take long. Although perhaps the combat style might be different, but look at the guy's name. Doesn't exactly sound like someone with sublety, eh?

[General Roasterock]

Map 02: Revenge of Demon House

 

  Being in Revenge of Demon House is humbling. This is something I could say for anything coming out of Ribbiks from Magnolia onward, but the way the elements come together for this map makes it a whole other beast when it comes to the presentation of Halloween.

  The easiest place to start is the MIDI, droning with creaky wind instruments and what could only be described as ghostly wails. It builds an imposing world of suffering in tandem with the harsh metal fences, weathered bricks, dusty tile flooring, and endless trails of lava pouring in from who knows where. Plutonia textures, specifically ones that I’ve known to be hacked together and ugly, have been given new life in the form of the palette, magnifying the intensity of the eeriness given off my lone torches in the darkness and vines winding down the walls. It’s also worth pointing out here the COLORMAP magic that allows for the greens to remain fulbright at any sector, making the eyes of the Cacodemons gleam in the darkness, and the plates on the floor highlight the detailing in the flats. This lighting trick is done better in Wormwood: EU, but it’s still worth mentioning the tentacled mass watching over the final fight, highlighted in a way that could only be achieved with how the greens are manipulated. 

  Trying to approach the map without foreknowledge makes it feel overwhelming, a feeling that more than prepares you for what’s to come. There isn’t a moment in this map where you aren’t being hounded by a Cyberdemon, and they are a consistent threat since plasma weaponry does not show until about halfway through the map and ammo is so tight. Rockets are a valuable resource, necessary for any larger fights, and pretty much assigned to certain monsters up until the final fight. On UV, it’s wince worthy to watch a rocket fly past a Hell Knight or Arch-Vile. It’s not impossibly tight though, I’ve gone into fights with good supply, especially considering how many different nonlinear checkpoints exist, such as the supply closet that requires a keycard, or the BFG requiring a Red and Yellow key. Knowing what there is to uncover here is a great offset to the overwhelming odds of some of the encounters.

  Combat in this map can only be described as exquisite. There are so many arenas that are maxed out in efficiency, requiring the highest of attentiveness to clear. The Red Key fight is a wondrous process, having the Cyberdemon clear out the Pinkies and then distract himself with the Barons such that you have space to kill the Arch-Vile is so high strung and consistent that it approaches magic. The secret fight is tense, a huge source of damage, but I’ve never found it inconsistent, especially when bringing a BFG into it. When full, that gun completely wipes the floor with that gimmick after only a few short seconds, and the surrounding pits of lava make it appear like a desirable destination amongst a wasteland. 

  The Yellow Skull fight is as bad as it can get in this map, where your success will be decided by how much ammo you can carry into the brawl. Any more than one BFG shot will render it on the milder side, allowing you to flay the Revenants before they can spread out and create an array of issues, but at least one feels necessary to clear the monsters without incurring Arch-Vile punishment. The second wave is far easier, allowing for the Cyberdemon to anger all of his support without fail, but the pressure brought on by so many infinitely tall Cacodemons is asphyxiating. It’s a wonderful visual, as the bulbous creatures float through the sky, but it’s a consistent aggravation in multiple fights beyond this, like the dual Arch-Viles past the start, as well as any others that remain before cleanup. 

  The final fight is a spectacle of fireworks, where the cast of thirty-two Arch-Viles scare you into charging into three mounted Cyberdemons and a whole horde of Knights, Cacos, and Imps flooding the floor. My whole solution is to simply sit in the southwest corner and hunker down with the Rocket Launcher, dodging any of the Cyberdemon support that comes my way, and keeping my exit unclogged with explosives, clearing a path with the BFG if I need any more rockets. It’s pretty consistent, and allows for infighting to take care of whatever I don’t, but that isn’t even the apex of the difficulty. Having to work my way into the Baron housed bunkers to pick up more cells and flip multiple switches is hell. It is very easy for a Cyberdemon to decide to lay a rocket on your head when taking care of the Barons, and this whole sequence only leads to five of the Viles being lowered into the fray, meaning you either have to flip a coin and rush them with any cells you can muster, or allow them to risk being a further distraction from the turrets. It certainly doesn’t help that one final Cyberdemon guards the switch that ends the horror. It’s a complete crapshoot that it will work out because of how many rockets are loose in the air by that point in the map.

  It’s important in every player’s life to have a sizable behemoth to conquer, a whole dimension of atmosphere to push through. Being able to fully grasp what this map can do, how it can hurt you, is a great step in being able to overcome it. Revenge of Demon House is one of my first behemoths in my journey to appreciating design back in 2019, it is invaluable to my life here. It has completely rewritten what I feel is possible with All Hallows' Eve thematics, and been great encouragement to appreciate maps that can exist on their ideas alone. It is an undeniable masterpiece. 

 

Map 03: ...

 

  Sealed away forever in the walls of Demon House, this closer is just a nice flourish for the greens in the COLORMAP in the forms of marine corpses and gibs. Doing things as simple as making a unique shape to wander around in, or change the key text to something more plot related does wonders for the emotion derived from maps like these, and the end of Wormwood knocks it out of the park. 

 

I still can't decide if Expanded Universe is my favorite Wormwood, but we'll see soon enough I suppose. 

[brick]

Wormwood

GZDoom, software mode, blind, continuous with saves (lots of saves. Even more reloads), ITYTD (half damage is practically required at my skill level)

 

This is a wad for skilled players and it makes this very clear very early on. Despite having to cheat to get through a few parts I still liked it a lot.

 

MAP01 - “Copse” by Grain of Salt
The map is quite small, and the main part is a fight with 35 revenants, 35 hell knights and 2 cyberdemons in very tight quarters, and almost no ammo. I tried repeatedly to clear this without cheating, and while I made some headway a couple of times I eventually gave up. you have to keep the infighting going for a long time and hitting a corner or getting boxed in guarantees death. The following part, a corridor of archviles, is easy by comparison, since there are plenty of nooks to break LOS. I found the final room very humorous (ok, I found it hilarious) and I admit I did save and try out the Trick.

 

MAP02 - “Revenge of Demon House” by Ribbiks
This is the meat of the wad, and it looks beautiful. There's impressive architecture, beautiful vistas, and even though the combat is out of my league (I cheated twice) it's a testament to the map's quality that I could still appreciate the setups. Progression is a bit convoluted in parts, it's not always clear what some of the switches do or where you're supposed to go, but the map is so well laid out and doesn't waste your time by making it easy to backtrack and check things, once you understand where everything is. There were some clever secrets, I think my favourite was the one with the fenced-in square in the NW corner. There are 4 keys to collect, at which point over a hundred baddies (mostly heavies) teleport into an arena barely big enough in size, and over 20 archviles start roasting you. Getting rid of the archviles is actually quite clever and involves some fun sector machinery.

 

MAP03 is just a stopper map, though it looks quite nice. I liked the resigned message brought up at the cross, as Roasterock mentioned small things like this can do so much to establish mood.

 

Overall the wad is clearly a work of great craftsmanship, whether in visuals, design and architecture, or thing placement and combat design. That the latter is so obvious even to someone cheating is doubly impressive. Unfortunately for me it is not very friendly to unskilled players. While lower skill levels are implemented, they both look more like very slightly toned down variations of UV rather than something truly on the easier side. Those who like their Doom rougher will be delighted though, and will have a great time cracking the combat setups while drinking in the visuals and atmosphere.

[Pseudonaut]

Wormwood Map02:
This must be one tough bastard to beat saveless. I've played it three times now, first on HMP, then on UV twice (the recorded playthrough is the third), all with plenty of saving and loading. All of that foreknowledge wasn't enough to prevent me from dying more times than I care to count, and needing to reassess some strats that seemed effective on the previous playthrough. The main example of that is the cyb+archvile wave at around 31:00 in the video. I had previously gotten lucky to have all archviles target the cyberdemon, making it easy to kill them and save plenty of ammo in the process. This time, I gave up on that a few tries later than I should have and started BFGing the viles. Nevermind, it actually works pretty consistently when you do it right.

 

The secret fight (36:55) is an interesting one. Ideally, the player controls where the cyberdemon's rockets go to minimize the number of enemies that wake up and get in the way. But because some enemies are in the way, there's only so much the player can do to avoid being hit while also avoiding a situation where everything wakes up and the player is screwed. The pain elementals add further complication; you obviously want them to die soon, and SSGing or berserking them is an option, but only if enough enemies have died that you can afford to wake the rest up. It's worth experimenting, I think. I was stingy with my BFG and didn't use it here, but now that I've seen Roasterock's review, and since I exited the map with so many cells to spare, it's probably better to trivialize this fight with a couple BFG shots. It also didn't occur to me that I can get the BFG before the yellow skull fight, which would certainly clean it up quickly.

 

The last big fight is my favorite. It starts off relatively simple, avoiding turret cybers while cutting through hordes of other shit that wants to kill you, being careful not to get too close to the area-denial archviles. When their numbers have been reduced enough, you can invade the little baron bunkers to open the next phase of the fight. The last of those bunkers in particular was a real pain in the ass, I usually caught a rocket or was already being targetted by the archviles I was about to charge; the best solution I can think of is speed and BFG shot timing. Taking out those viles and the cyber guarding the last switch is quite a rush, though I didn't anticipate that the outside archviles can still hit you down here, potentially ruining your attempts to dodge the cyberdemon rockets. Seems like just getting closer to the switch avoids this issue.

 

The level ends with the player walking into the mouth of what I like to imagine is some kind of doomcute Lovecraftian abomination, inside of which you'll find even more cool stuff; the creature's babies, maybe? Amazing map, I'd like to practice it more and record a UV-Max demo one of these days.

 

 

Wormwood Map03:
I guess I'm here forever...

[RHhe82]

MAP02: Revenge of Demon House. DSDA v0.24, HMP, PS. 410/410 K, 4/4 S, 24/26 I. Completion time 38:11.

 

Hoo boy. Well, it's gorgeous level. And I think it's the hardest so far this month. Ad Mortem had some troublesome fights towards the end of the wad, but Ribbiks' outing here is more consistently difficult and well-crafted from start to finish.

 

At first I was a bit confused on what to do: the map appears unlinear, but in the end I'm not sure there's too much freedom after all. If I were to replay the map, I still wouldn't be sure as to how go on about it. Red skull key first thru cyber telefrag, but how did I accomplish that...

 

Anyway, I headed for the RSK cyber area thru the infight corridor, slightly reminiscient of something I've seen in SD20x6. The lava-filled area is a bit chaotic, I'm happy the floor isn't damaging there. I'm not sure if you have to do the tiny pillar platforming at any point - there's a way out there if you don't want to ascent to the middle arena with two archviles on display, awaiting release.

 

I don't know if I cheesed the YSK fight. I mean I found it hard, my tactic was to head for the hell knights to make at least some of the revenants infight with them, and then I'd circle around that half of the arena, staying very far from the archvile pedestals. This way the archies wouldn't attack me, but if I stepped on their half of the field of glory, they'd spot me and I'd be dead. At the end only the archies were there, and I had to do mop-up work with them, something that Ribbiks has the very good taste of sparing the player. There's only one cyber you have to kill with guns (as far as I recall), the rest are either telefraggable or crushable. The same goes for the gadzillion archviles in the final arena, where the only tactic I came up was to run fast and far from the archvile end of the arena and hope for the best. I used a midfight save when all the freely roaming enemies were dead.

 

It's good that I didn't play on UV. HMP felt like my HMP run of SD20x6, which was clearly above my skills, but not so far as to cause lethal hypertension.

 

*

MAP03: ...

 

Beautiful place! I guess I'll just stay here forever.

[cannonball]

MAP02 - “Revenge of Demon House” by Ribbiks

 

Played on UV... died a lot. But I got through it (Though I missed two secrets).

The start is really quite something and honestly this is probably the most hair raising moment of the map as most of the monsters in this start area will kill you swiftly and efficiently, mistakes are punished severely. Ironically the map seemed to calm down for the yellow keycard and red skull key, both can be found in quick succession and are both only guarded by lighter incidental combat. 

The fun begins when getting the red keycard and yellow skull. Both of these have meaty fights to them, the red keycard is easier by a mile, but still presents the player with a dilemma of being able to move pieces around to instigate some infighting, the second part in particular places the cyber at the front with no projectile throwing monsters directly behind. In the end this was beaten on the second attempt and the first succumbed to some bad RNG.

The yellow skull is a different beast and in my opinion the hardest fight in the map (Notwithstanding secrets). I had the BFG at this point and concluded the best stratey was to put one shot into the revenants and hold on that side long enough to get a clear shot at the archviles. This strategy seems to be hindered somewhat by some janky BFG physics (Or specifically I fired at the archviles and for some reason most of the tracers vanished into thin air and the resulted corpse blasted into space.... I guess in the end the BFG probably hindered this fight for me, primarily because it encouraged me to try and bet the fight quickly, instead of letting the horde thin itself out enough to simply rocket the archviles and take cover. The second half of the key fight is much easier and honestly it was just fun to watch the monsters toil through a repeated cycle of being brought back to life/followed by death by cyberdemon.

The final fight isn't nearly as difficult as I imagined it might be, there is a megasphere that lowers in one corner, said corner also provided significant cover and in the event you have a few cells left over, you can actually spend most of your time here and simply rocket the imps/mid tiers and rush out with the BFG to give yourself some room. However the switches in here are plain evil, it is so easy to receive a rocket in those little pits with little chance of dodging them, especially as the switches are a little finicky to activate. The final archvile rush is pure popcorn and should be simple to dispatch and the end is goofy as heck, I like it.

 

Revenge of Demon House is frankly everything you could wish from a single Ribbiks map, both the incidental and set piece fights will murder you. However there are some spots to catch your breath and take in the stunning environment. This map also rewards players who are observant and remember that there are a few stashes of items that you can unlock with the keys that are not directly related to progression. The issue with the end fight is the only thing that stops the map from being perfect, unfortunately it is something that could probably cause single-segment players to rage at.

 

Map03 - Not much to say here. Forever is after all an absolute that probably won't be fulfilled...

 

[Azure_Horror]

Map 02: Revenge of Demon House by Ribbiks

UV, pistol start, DSDA-Doom, complevel 9, Lots of saving and rewinds

 

I am feeling like an edgy contrarian right now...

But I must confess: I do not like Revenge of Demon House that much. Do not get me wrong, it is a lovingly crafted and masterfully executed map. Ribbiks definitely put a lot of effort into it. But the end result felt a bit... I dunno... pale? pedestrian? Can't come with the right term, I am afraid...

 

In broad strokes, the following traits soured the experience for me

- The incidental combat and clean up sections of fights suffer from too much beefy monsters. They need a lot of time time to take down. Cybers are the worst, but mancubi and hell nobles can also be annoying.

- Archvile usage. All of the Viles here are either nasty zoners, or zap-happy roamers. They are either keep-away-and-ignore, or blast-right-now-dammit. There are no thrilling hide-and-seeks, and no resurrection-focused warp-ins.

- Mass archvile ambushes in the Yellow Skull battle and in the final fight do not help matters.

- Map uses deliberate awkwardness. The switches in the final fight are the worst, but the Plasma rifle set up and infinitely tall cacos in YSK battle are also unpleasant.

 

I didn't find the secret fight, so I cannot say anything about it.

Of all the battles I did play, only two felt interesting to me: the plasma rifle fight and the YSK fight.

- The plasma fight deploys an unusual monster combination to create a memorable mess. Pinkies are really unpleasant, when they are backed by a cyber! The fight sends all the monsters from a single hallway, but still presents a lot of moment-to-moment tactical decisions.

- The YSK fight, when fought without the BFG, is an interesting movement puzzle, despite all the infinitely tall cacos. However the final cyber + 6 archviles ambush felt more obnoxious than interesting... (Yes, I know that you can provoke infights between them.)

- The final fight, on the other fight, felt relatively meh. Its main part is won by spamming rockets from the megasphere corner, and after that, only awkwardness remains. Activating switches under cyberdemon fire is unpleasant due to geometry, and yet another gang of viles feels like a retread of YSK finale (I dispatched them with rockets before pushing the final switch, in a vain attempt to feel cheesy and contrarian)

 

Aesthetics of the map is beautiful, but it did not feel super-stunning. Geometry is too rectangular, and the brown walls are used in all kinds of doom WADs. Only those biting doomcute monstrosities in the end felt really memorable.

 

As far, as Ribbiks maps go, I prefer Oneira or Go map 29 Yourself from Sunlust. And if we are talking about "stuck in a twisted, cruel, cursed world" type of difficult maps - I prefer @antares031's Penetencia from Ozonia, @WH-Wilou84's Xanthophobie from 180mpv or @Roofi's two Rêve maps from the same WAD.

 

In conclusion - Revenge of Demon House is an impressive map, but it far from being among my favorites.

 

Map 03: ...

A ending map, which stops us from slipping into Doom2 IWAD levels.

"I guess, I am stuck here forever" says the cross. Or was it doomguy?

Edited October 21, 2022 by Azure_Horror
correcting lots of grammatical errors

[finnks13]

Map02 - Revenge of Demon House by Ribbiks:

HMP: 25:29/14 Deaths

An unnerving, tense map that has all the traits of a classic Ribbiks map, Revenge of Demon House is the main event of the first Wormwood and what a main event this is.

 

The map features the gargantuan, alien architecture that Ribbiks is known for, set against a bright orange sky that brings an unsettling vibe to the scenery. The full-bright greens are used much more commonly than in Map01, and give the map a very surreal look, which is especially notable on the abomination that watches over the final arena, and who's stomach contains the level exit. The music, an original composition, really adds to this surreal atmosphere, the bells that play through most of the song in the rhythm of a heart-beat really kept me on edge.

 

The fights are great, they require thought and planning to succeed though (on HMP at least!) have enough leeway that you could definitely win on the first attempt - I managed this on a couple of areas myself, which was pretty satisfying. The red and yellow keycards unlock some ammo (and a BFG in the final fight) whereas the red and yellow skulls are required for completion. I got the red keycard first, which was guarded by a fierce turret cyberdemon that became very useful as an infinite rocket dispenser, though you're given a plasma gun too which really helps to stop you from getting overwhelmed. The yellow key and red skull aren't guarded as harshly, but the incidental combat still has teeth and requires care to complete without depleting all of your resources.

 

The two highlights are the yellow skull fight, and the finale. The yellow skull fight takes place in a large courtyard, and features a load of hell knights and revenants on one side, imps, mancubi and archviles on the other and cacos from above. I initially tried nuking the archviles with rockets but quickly got mobbed by revenants, so I found the best strategy was to keep my distance and clear out the hell knights & revs before carefully picking off the archviles one by one. The finale starts off by scaring the shit out of you and revealing about 30 archviles perched on ledges, making you run for dear life, before spawning in a large mob of baddies. Like pretty much everyone else, I hid in the lower left part of the arena, mowing down the horde with rockets and BFG shots, while hiding from cyberdemon volleys when necessary. The switches in the baron pits are a bit annoying to hit, but I never got sniped by the cybers while hitting them, and pressing all three springs five archviles on you before allowing you to exit.

 

This map's great, though I don't think it's up there with Ribbiks' best - for all it's tricks, it didn't feel particularly unique compared to a lot of Ribbiks' other work to me. It's just a very solid Ribbiks map, and there's nothing wrong with that - not every map can be an Eastern Sun after all :P I didn't fancy revisiting the map on UV since I had fun on HMP and decided to nope out after seeing the first room. Maybe next year...

 

Map03 - ...
Blocking map, it looks pretty cool and I like the edited key door message telling the player a little bit of story. It's just a nice touch.

 

~~~
Feels a bit pointless doing a roundup for a 2-map wad, so I'll save that for when we've completed the whole trilogy.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 10: King Boner's House of Fisting

by punch you in the face man

 

This aggressively pugilistic mapper has managed to craft something far less in your face than you might think. I'm not sure why the hell you're behind a couple of other rather unwelcome customers to this cavern but no matter. This flesh cavern is cool, along with the library, the forest and even the little storage room giving this place a touch of realism. The puzzle in the forest did have me stumped for a bit before I realized switches were being revealed! And yes, the rocket leg ambush in the library got me a few times.

 

This map takes a left-turn basically after you collect the yellow key. When you try to leave the so-called exit room here, you're teleported to a mysterious, purple-tinged void. After another puzzle bit with pinkies and a cyberdemon,  , the fun really begins! Charge at the Arachnotrons and ignore the Imps here, kill the Arch-viles in the towers and hit the switch here which opens up a lower areas absolutely packed with skeletons. At the bottom was a large enough collection of Arch-viles I turned on god mode because I hadn't been able to get the BFG in that one room. The switch at the bottom reveals a Spider Mastermind and Cyberdemon along with several Cacodemons and Pain Elementals and perhaps a spare Arch-vile here or there. Doesn't matter too much because head back to the tower at the beginning and another area will have opened up. If the sight of the key bars here upsets you, the solution is just up a couple of stairs in a nearby water cavern, stacked with skeletons and some other enemies.

 

After that, you go through the blue bars, confronted by a Cyberdemon. Behind him is the final area, stuffed to the absolute floor with Revenants and Skeletons, along with some obligatory King Boners, that don't add all that much. Go hog-wild with the BFG, press the two switches here, then head down the flesh tunnel and emerge into hell!

 

      Between this and the last one, I couldn't tell you which one I like better, though perhaps lunchlunch is more gimmicky. No matter. I'd be playing the next one today too but I'm running low on time unfortunately.

[RHhe82]

MAP01: Never Mind, There was a Backdoor. Played on DSDA v0.24, HMP, PS. 1/1 K, 0/0 S, 2/2 I. Completion time 4:00.

 

Guess I'm not staying here much longer.

 

A nice opener, I like the interwad continuity. Supershotgunning a cyberdemon isn't particularly exciting, but what the heck was the gimmick?! I alert the cybie, and suddenly there are rockets flying around in very weird angles?! You can raise the walls around the arena, though on the first try they lowered after a while, leaving me vulnerable. On the second attempt, they stayed raised.

 

I tried this on UV as well, the map's basically the same, only one megasphere is replaced with two soulspheres. At first I thought the protective wall mechanism was somehow altered, so that the protection would last only for enough to clear the air of rockets once per switch activation. That made the arena VERY hard, I thought it's beyond me, until I managed to keep the walls raised once again. I think the trick is to activate both eye switches as fast as possible, so they only lower once, and thus rockets blocks the rockets for the remainder of the map. I don't think this is the intended way, though.

 

Anyways, second stats:

 

MAP01: Never Mind, There was a Backdoor. Played on DSDA v0.24, UV, PS. 1/1 K, 0/0 S, 3/3 I. Completion time 1:34.

[Pseudonaut]

Wormwood: Expanded Universe Map01:
Nevermind, there was a backdoor. This map continues where the previous wad left off, and introduces a cool mechanic: rockets bouncing off walls. The cyberdemon takes time to kill with the SSG, and rockets will surely be flying in every direction to the point that it's unmanageable unless the player uses the switches that raise normal walls in front of the bouncy ones for a few seconds. When I played this for the first time, I didn't realize you could press both switches immediately and they would only lower once, blocking the rockets from the bouncy walls for the rest of the run, but I suspect this behavior is intended. There are still some exposed bouncy walls in the center, so the fight isn't totally trivial this way, and the player should try to point the cyberdemon's rockets away from there.

 

Regarding speedrunning, 0:47 can certainly be improved, but more than a couple seconds of improvement would take unreasonable effort. Obviously the movement in general could be a bit better, but the rest just comes down to shotgun RNG or even skipping the switches (which is suicidal). I wonder if TAS could get below 40 seconds.

 

 

Demo:

https://www.doomworld.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=204157

[General Roasterock]

Map 01: Nevermind, There was a Backdoor

 

  More of an exercise than a map, the opening of Wormwood: EU builds off of the ending of the original that gives meaning to the term “Expanded Universe” without quite going along the straight definition of world building. It’s almost a parody of the term, undermining the impact of Wormwood’s conclusion in order to keep the party going, much like a large number of franchises seemingly stuck in reboot limbo. Whatever the reason, it’s worth it to be able to watch what Ribbiks has managed to put together in what can only be described as artistically driven. The drawing of the owl is stellar in both looking at it from the automap, and how it manages to fit into the environment seamlessly.

  The meat of the map, on the other hand, is of course the Cyberdemon fight. It is deceptively simply: chop down the cow with the SSG, but the real challenge reveals itself when its first rocket flies into the purple fire lining the room, and then comes back. The discovery of the scrolling fake floor trick is nothing short of a eureka moment, with only one of its applications truly explored in this map in the form of this fight. Within a minute, the entire arena turns from a vacant ring in which to dodge a Cyberdemon to a pinball table of missiles with very few areas to detonate them aside from yourself. The switches that raise the wooden walls to provide a momentary respite are life savers, not due to being completely necessary, but they allow for focus to be directed back to the Cyberdemon instead of the perpetual rockets. 

  Nevermind, There Was a Backdoor is full of cheek, cutting edge technology, and artistic accomplishment. It is the perfect length for what it sets out to do, and is approachable by just about any player. I don’t know about “masterpiece”, but this map is definitely wonderful.

[Jacek Bourne]

14 hours ago, RHhe82 said:

what the heck was the gimmick?! I alert the cybie, and suddenly there are rockets flying around in very weird angles?!

The rockets the cyber fires bounce off the purple fire walls. The odd angles are caused by the fact that the direction the rocket sprites are facing never changes despite the change in vector. 
 

The bouncy walls are a trick discovered in boom. You can find more information on Ribbiks’ website here: http://rbkz.blogspot.com/2020/10/cl9-bouncy-walls-wormwoodeuwad.html

[cannonball]

MAP01 - “Nevermind, There Was a Backdoor” by Ribbiks

 

I am not 100% certain that the method to break the cyber fight was intentional. Otherwise the tricks to make the rockets bounce is neat and quickly turns a simple encounter into a complete nightmare. The switches can be used only once (You get two moments of respite to detonate those rockets). Overall this is half world building and half proof or concept. It works absolutely fine here.

Edited October 21, 2022 by cannonball

[finnks13]

WORMWOOD:EU

Map01 - Nevermind, There was a Backdoor by Ribbiks:

HMP: 1:10/1 Death

UV: 1:04/1 Death

Only one monster?! Fear not, both the leadup to it, and the fight against that one monster are very well executed. We start in the Demon House from the end of Wormwood 1, and have to explore it to find the way out. I laughed when I got to the bottom of the stairs and saw the message "NOT HERE" in bright green letters, it caught me off guard completely. To escape, you have to phase through a fence on the staircase and this leads to a small outdoors area that is shaped like an owl on the automap which is really cute. Entering the ominous orange building to the north of this area brings you to the main event.

 

While a one-on-one fight with a cyberdemon in a large, open area seems pretty dull, Ribbiks has a trick up his sleeve. The purple fire surrounding you is a bouncy wall, so the cyber's rockets don't blow up when you dodge them, they just keep flying around. This becomes very intense very quickly, and you've only got two chances to raise the outer wall and blow up some of the rockets, timing this right is imperative to your survival. While you can cheese the fight by pressing both switches at the same time, that felt incredibly lame to me so I decided against doing the fight like that :P

 

The bouncy walls are a really cool gimmick, and this is a perfect introduction to them because it teaches the mechanic with no room for doubt in their function. Great start, and I look forward to cursing the bouncy walls name as their use inevitably becomes more and more evil!

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 11: The Other Dario

by @WashingMachineEnthusiasts

 

cool map, kind of. It's almost cartoonishly linear at first, having you climb several red towers with Cacodemons in lava poola wghile oversupplied. Eventually, you find yourself on a battlement which lowers as satyrs fire at you and a Cyberdemon looks on. Not so long after this, you can enter a mausoleum with some spectres and shotgunners inside. I didn't realize right off there was a usable swithc in front of the entrance. Perhaps that was fortunate however, as I was assaulted by a total of 4 Arch-viles, several pinkies, a Pain Elemental on each side and several chaingunners to round everything out. Never figured how I could get the Supercharge and Armor on each side thhough. Behind the last key door is a Spider Mastermind surrounded by several Arachnotrons on pillars which are constantly raising and lowering, along wioth chaingunners lurking between the pillars along with 2 arch-viles behind windows on each side, along with a sneaky spectre each. Exit has a sneak King Boner. I mostly liked this, it was probably better than Caco's Keep and probably even Map 03, but it did feel like there were a few ideas thrown together. It does work as a sort of continuation from the last map.

 

Map 12: Checkmate

by lunchlunch

 

Yeah, pretty much. The infighting you're supposed to trigger at the start is the easy part. I suppose you're supposed to kill the Cyberdemon here, but I didn't feel like it, just hit the switches and ran out of here and confronted a pair of skeletons who went down easy. What didn't gpo down so easy was the Revenant quad. This isn't exactly a friendly map to pistol-starters but probably nothing too hard unless you're playing ob UV. Whatever that means because cross the checkerboard field here, grab the Megasphere and before you hit the switch, shiotgunners teleport on to all the platforms here and no less than FOUR Arch-viles appear. And we still don't have a rocket launcher at this stage. Rather than deal with the frustration here, we ended up running up the stairs, smack into a collection of Pain Elementals and Chaingunners, killing some pop-up Satyrs after some more nonsense, and entered a mansion. At the end was a nasty trap with a mass of nobles and Cyberdemon in a very tight space and thankfully an Invulnerbility. Coming back, more dumbass Arch-viles. After plunging into the blue cave, I may be confusing a encounter from the next map with this one so I'll just say I gave up after exhausting all my health options and thusly becoming a free meal for a pack of Lost Souls spit out by some delinquents and backed up by some incredibly furious chaingunners. Sorry, this was just a bit much.

 

 

Map 13: Devil's Garden

by Anonymous

 

I wonder if this was the anon who made much of the art for the set, or maybe that was the person who did Map 15, which I'm told is an Icon of Sin map? No matter, this is quite beautiful, completely selling the image of a garden, and using MBF21 to insert some rather unusual wall-lowering tags when you kill enemies at certain points. That horde of Revenants atop the mansion with all those lights is a serious bear though. It makes handling the boneheads and Arachnotrons that much harder, although I think plunging back down to the floor is an option here. The indoor garden with the cherry blossom tress is cool. We were able to handle the ambush here by targeting the cyber-liches  and then taking care of the stragglers. The watery bit with the Satyrs, demons, and Arch-viles was also kind of nice, and berserking everything after the threat level went down also felt nice, although you may actually have enough rockets to handle everything. The blue key threat is a pretty cool Cyber/Revenant infight party. Behind the blue teleporter, you telefrag a cyberdemon in a field, pick up an Invulnerbility, then have to content with an absolutely gobsmacking amount of Cyberdemons or so it seems anyway. Since I can't exactly two-shot all that well to beging with, the Invulnerbility might as well have been a waste. Needless to say, I was too exhausted at this point and I couldn't finish. This definitely stacks up with the wad's best, just in terms of visuals and the overall fun factor. I wonder if any of the anons made multiple maps?

 

[Pseudonaut]

Wormwood: Expanded Universe Map02:
When aiming for speed, the time you get here is very dependent on the RNG you get in the map's only fight; you need good infighting to clear out the enemies quickly. When playing more casually, I found that it usually works to just use all the rockets on the arachnotrons immediately so you have room to move, trying not to damage the ones that are infighting. The jump at the end can be handled in a variety of ways, and I went with what seemed like the simplest/fastest. It's a coin flip for me though, precise enough that the difference between success and failure is barely perceptible to me until I see the outcome. Good map anyway.
 

 

Demo:

https://www.doomworld.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=204545

[General Roasterock]

Map 02: Mu

 

  With GrainOfSalt admitting this map was relatively rushed together at the last minute, Mu is definitely the weakest of her contributions, but not without its merit. It is essentially a singular arena with two loosely fitting platforming sections. Clearing out the handful of Arachnotrons and Knights still has some challenge with how small the arena is and how it changes over time, but the whole thing is over pretty quickly and consistently. Not really too many intelligent approaches to it beyond simply digging into a corner and staying mobile.

  The platforming is cute and harmless. The first section is my favorite of the two, getting a small cave environment to figure out as an appetizer before the fight. The column section before the exit does show the rushed edge of this map, as the whole thing can be solved with a single strafe 50, and that’s the entire map, the simplicity really weakens it in all honesty. I guess I can point out here how much more purple is in this WAD. It’s a really vibrant addition that complements the greens here, and is definitely more appealing to look at than the myriads of faded orange and brown in the last Wormwood. There’s a lot more character in the presentation of all the maps. Mu is fine, but this is as close as you can get to calling a map filler.

[cannonball]

MAP02 - “Mu” by Grain of Salt

 

There isn't much to talk about here, essentially one fight sandwiched between two bits of light platforming. The fight itself requires both good use of rocket splash damage and infighting to allow 100% kills, I sucked and was left with a couple of hellknights... So I left...

The map is fine, but the it is too short to really call it a map, heck it struggles to be called a vignette.  

[brick]

Wormwood: Expanded Universe

GZDoom, blind, continuous with saves, ITYTD

 

MAP01 - “Nevermind, There Was a Backdoor” by Ribbiks
The title is a humorous callback to the message at the end of Wormwood. Finding the backdoor is fun, and the outdoor area that follows is eerily beautiful. Then you end up in a boxed arena with nothing but the SSG and a Cyberdemon. Oh and his rockets bounce endlessly off the walls. You can briefly stop the bouncing and get them to explode by pressing switches - you can only do this twice.
Welp, so much for trying to get as far as possible into this one before I cheat.
I'll say though, that bouncing rocket wall is a marvelously clever discovery.

 

MAP02 - “Mu” by Grain of Salt
The combat arena was actually more fun than I expected. Beating it gave me a bit of confidence and made me want to complete the map without cheating. Terrible idea. I did manage to complete the platforming part after many many many many MANY reloads, so many that it doesn't seem worth it now.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 14: Autumn Mausoleum

by Anonymous

 

Well, this was certainly a map. Definitely falls a smidge above average but the semi-mazy-y layout made things a little hard to parse out. Like, why is it that we have to backtrack to another red key door rather than head to the nearest one with the blue key on the platform behind it? All that said, the little bits of detail like pumpkins and skeletons holding stuff as well as essentially constant action kept this map from getting boring. The celled hallway was a little annoying but it becomes considerably less so once we realize we should just duck into the hallways, shoot anything, and then repeat the process when the Revenants get too close. The secret that's not a secret where you take a brief trip to hell seemed....overly elaborate when I completely missed the secret tag. I did completely miss the opening in the fence leading to the adjacent courtyard the first time through here though. The best part was easily the massive fight in the southwest, featuring a mass  of the Castlevania skeletons, along with 2 Cyberdemons, several pinkies and Imps, along with Cacodemons and nobles to round out the roster.

 

After this, things become far more sedate. And I somehow completely missed the switch allowing access to the blue key and I was 28 minutes in, so I admittedly DNfd.

 

Map 15: Monster Mash

By Anonymous

 

The final map! Now I'm convinced the same Anon who made the map where rocket legs attack you before you've picked up any strong weapons also made this, because the instant we start because we're attacked by a pair of them and you can only take one hit from them. Yeah, I don't have time for this crap.

 

Totally departing from the horror themes of the rest, you're placed in one of those abstract void locations with only healthy and well-though placed hell textures. The Skellingtons continue to harry you from seemingly everywhere, although regular enemies will start to pile up eventually, and you may find some serious opposition next to the keys (the Cyberdemon pair near one for instance). Get all the keys, then you can finally access the Icon of Sin but not before dealing with more spookyscaryskeletons. Aiming here was actually somewhat satisfying

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

I'm going to be brief, this was very good. Unlike Doomer Boards that sometimes (more rarely) has unique themes, there was all sorts of little gameplay twists and detailing that go above and beyond what certain purists think is acceptable. 400 units of /vr/ has now officially moved up my list to be above....something I'm not remembering right now but regardless, go outside the secret maps and there was nothing remotely disappointing in the bunch. There were some maps that were less emphatic on the action than others certainly, but otherwise, this was an excellent time and didn't feel like some fucking retread like we've all gotten so used to.

[finnks13]

Map02 - Mu by Grain of Salt:

HMP: 3:25/0 Deaths

UV: 1:49/0 Deaths
Short and sweet, while Mu has more than one enemy in it, it still only contains one small fight, like Map01. You start the map by climbing a small set of hills with a purple lake at the centre - like in Ad Mortem, the purple colour range here is darker than what I normally see used, and I think it works really well with the halloween theme. The main fight is eight arachnotrons and eight hell knights in a very small arena. If you're aggressive with rockets, you should have no trouble taking out the arachnotrons and the hell knights don't pose much threat on their own. Be careful to not pick up all three boxes of shells in the middle of the map or you'll be forced to non-berserk punch some hell knights to death like I had to, in order to get 100% kills (I didn't have to do this, but I like a pointless and tedious challenge occasionally :P)

 

The map ends with a small platforming section that took me a fair number of tries, but you're given unlimited attempts to complete it so this didn't annoy me. As far as I can tell, there's no changes between HMP and UV for this map, but I'm not sure what you realistically could do to nerf this fight without ruining it so it doesn't matter, I enjoyed replaying it anyway.
 

[Pseudonaut]

Wormwood: Expanded Universe Map03:
Ribbiks expands on the mechanic introduced in the first map with three combat puzzles. Two soulspheres and two green armors provide some room for error, but you don't actually need them, so I skipped them to save time.

 

These three setpieces can be done in any order, but I chose the most straightforward. The first requires you to dodge projectiles from hell knights and mancubi, but the directions of the projectiles are somewhat randomized by a matrix of bouncy columns in front of you. Where the projectiles go can still be controlled somewhat by your position, so you can minimize the number that you're exposed to by moving from one side to another periodically. This is the least 'puzzley' encounter in the map, but a good strategy still makes a big difference.

 

Next was the room where bouncy walls are used to lead cyberdemon rockets into a crowd of archviles, while a room full of uninvolved archviles wait to ruin your day if you fire a shot. This one can go really wrong in a lot of ways, like if one or two archviles aren't hit by the first few rockets. Once most of the crowd is gone, they can no longer be affected by splash damage from a rocket that hit an adjacent archvile, and you need to directly hit them with a cyberdemon rocket (or hit a nearby wall). The precision required for this made it annoying, but fortunately, it wasn't always necessary. I still have only a vague idea of where to aim the cyberdemons to hit the viles, sometimes they're all aggroed right away, it feels luck-based. Another potential problem is archviles wandering behind the cyberdemons, making it impossible to aim rockets at them. They can still die from their own splash damage, but slowly. The amount of time this takes is entirely luck-based.

 

The final room is impossible if you haven't figured out how to do it, but easy if you have. Just fire lots of rockets into the bouncy walls at such an angle that they're stuck bouncing back and forth long enough for the archviles to be led into them. Enough rockets and you can just hide while they die, but you can also save some for yourself to shoot into the crowd.

 

All things considered, it's a great map. I'm still not sure if I should try to grind out a reality run...

 

 

Demo:

https://www.doomworld.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=204634

Edited October 23, 2022 by Pseudonaut

[KickAss]

GZDooM 4.8.2, PB 3.0, HeXeReTiC HUD, Weapon Neural Upscale, Glory Kills, SilentDoomguy, Flashlight, -iwad doom2.wad (ver 1.666), -skill 4 (UV)

 

Ad Mortem was realy fun to play so far but I couldn't made it any farther than map07 - Shadow over Silverspring. I made it exactly to the room where you normaly get the BFG but there is no BFG left there for me. PB 3.0 keeps offering the third reich heavy machine gun instead of the BFG but even with that weapon I can not take out all the enemys appearing in that room.

 

The Woodworm Trilogy isn't worth the download imho. You get three wad files where you can't get out of the first level ... this sounds like lots of fun.

 

Are there any file suggestions for the upcoming month or is already a vote going on?

[RHhe82]

MAP02: Mu. Played on DSDA v0.24, HMP, PS. 16/16 K, 0/0 S, 0/0 I. Completion time 2:11*

 

We start in an eerie caver with some minor platforming tricks to perform, nothing major; The jump to the cliff where you can easily reach the teleporter is the hardest.

 

Teleporter takes you to combat puzzle with hell knights and arachnotrons. I'm proud to tell you I survived without midfight saves :P I'm not sure how I survived, I think I just got lucky with arachnotron fire, and especially the hell knights I had to turn my back to behaved nicely.

 

The hardest part was only ahead, there's another platforming section. Not very long, fortunately. My completion time (*) remained low only because I used midplatforming saves. Had I not, You could probably add ten minutes to the completion time counter. At least the water in the pit wasn't damaging. Are all the maps going to be bytesized challenges?

 

 

MAP03: I am Rubber, You are Glue. Played on DSDA v0.24, HMP, PS. 314/314 K, 0/0 S, 12/12 I. Completion time 9:14.

 

I'm starting to think I should play this WAD on UV, because we seem to be dealing with combat puzzles that can be solved without being a Doom-God. I did all the puzzles without mid-"fight" saves, hardest one skill-wise was the infight arena, where you need to dodge cyberdemon rockets for a while. At first I made the mistake of cowering behind the corner once all the archviles had been alerted, and pressing the switch. Cybers died while one of the free archviles was still alive. I guess I could have settled with 99% kills, but nah.

 

The final arena was the hardest puzzle solving -wise. I first tried just rocketing towards the back of the arena, thinking the rockets would be reflected to AV pen, but nah. Then I tried releasing the bastards, and shooting rockets from the start end of the arena, but there are too many archies too close. After a while I discovered the trick: 

Spoiler

For some reason collision detection doesn't work in the blue flame alley, so I mined it with all the rockets, then lured archviles who'd kill themselves. Maybe it was so that you can't collide with your own rockets the whole time, I just haven't noticed that?

 

Clever stuff! After MAP01 I thought I'd hate the rocket reflection mechanic, but this is kind of a fun map. I was expecting some Monkey Island soundtrack, but I guess not (at least I didn't recognize such).

[RHhe82]

7 hours ago, KickAss said:

The Woodworm Trilogy isn't worth the download imho. You get three wad files where you can't get out of the first level ... this sounds like lots of fun.

 

What do you mean? So far I've been able to exit all MAP01's. Although I haven't started Wormwood 3 as of yet.

[Ravendesk]

1 hour ago, RHhe82 said:

 

  Hide contents

 Maybe it was so that you can't collide with your own rockets the whole time, I just haven't noticed that?

 

Yep, it was like that the whole time :)

[cannonball]

9 hours ago, KickAss said:

GZDooM 4.8.2, PB 3.0, HeXeReTiC HUD, Weapon Neural Upscale, Glory Kills, SilentDoomguy, Flashlight, -iwad doom2.wad (ver 1.666), -skill 4 (UV)

 

Ad Mortem was realy fun to play so far but I couldn't made it any farther than map07 - Shadow over Silverspring. I made it exactly to the room where you normaly get the BFG but there is no BFG left there for me. PB 3.0 keeps offering the third reich heavy machine gun instead of the BFG but even with that weapon I can not take out all the enemys appearing in that room.

 

The Woodworm Trilogy isn't worth the download imho. You get three wad files where you can't get out of the first level ... this sounds like lots of fun.

 

Are there any file suggestions for the upcoming month or is already a vote going on?

To be able to enjoy the experience of every wad this month, it is advisable to use a source port that works with MBF21 (DSDA doom and Woof), though GZdoom seems to be functional now. 
However using custom mods with any of these will eventually end badly because there is a lot of dehacked resources used, either in custom monsters and coding, which the mods will overwrite when loading them together.

Moral of the story, try to play the wads for the first as they are intended.