The DWmegawad Club plays: Overboard & Running Late 2 & Fractured Worlds

[Book Lord]

MAP 02 – Chinatown Beatdown

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

Plastered with dozens of cute Chinese custom textures borrowed from Shadow Warrior, Chinatown Beatdown made things clear from the very start: set guns aside and clench your fists, because this is a Tyson map. I did not carry much ammo from the previous map and the level contained about 20 shells on UV, so I can safely affirm that my continuous experience was no different from a pistol start. The chaingun was provided only on lower skills and I loathe the pistol, so I compelled myself to melee fighting against creatures I normally keep at a safety distance from, for example the Pain Elementals.

Spoiler

The layout granted a lot of freedom, as most places were readily accessible from the road crossing. Both RK and YK were mandatory for the exit; the first was recovered in the storage of the sushi bar, now converted to more varied types of raw meat, and after surviving a fierce aggression by melee monsters in a cramped space. I avoid punching Revenants at all costs, because I am afraid to receive a point-blank rocket, but I was forced to practice a lot against the Boxer variant in this level. The YK was spotted on top of a wooden beam in the rear garden but could be taken only after a martial arts ordeal in Lo Wang’s Dojo of Death. It consisted of a voodoo doll-scripted brawl in a tight room, with monsters gradually joining the fray. Reading it wrong resulted in taking high damage from hitscanners, and I reloaded the savegame at the end because I did not want to jump in the pit at 8% health.

Spoiler

Good idea, since the sewer area hosted more critters to beat up and a Pain Elemental with a few flaming skulls. Nice and varied ambush setup in this area. Since I cleared the YK area and wasted all my shells against the Cacodemons there, the rest of the path reserved little surprises, except the encounter in the area with the false 3D bridge. One last ambush to introduce the Plasma Guards and Chinatown Beatdown was over. Tyson is not my favourite type of gameplay, but the relative shortness, the oriental setting, and the interesting course of action made this an enjoyable entry. 

[Monsieur E]

Alright, second wad of the the month!

Running Late 2
By A2Rob (played with complevel -9 on dsda-doom, pistol starts, saves permitted, on skill 4 titled here as "I Hate Mondays")

Map01: Drip
95/99 kills, 1/2 secrets

Our adventure begins in a pretty techbase that doubles as some kind of water processing facility, I love the texture usage here, coupled with the lighting and upgraded palette, the place feels rather cozy so to speak. The combat here is pretty straightforward; pistol, shotgun and chainsaw are all you get but they're all you need. This map actually makes the chainsaw a viable option, particularly in the pinky-specter corridor which also tries to surprise you by sandwiching you between the bulls. The rest of the map is easy fun, nothing stands out too much until the ending where you're introduced to the boxer revenant, a melee only variety of our favorite skeleton. What I love here the most though is the detail of draining the water for progression and how it's indicated towards by the display next to the switch. Rather straightforward opener.

Map02: Chinatown Beatdown
117/117 kills, 1/1 secrets

Leaving the techbase, we're now in chinatown for a tyson map. Berserk is given right away to establish the style and the shotgun is provided only with limited ammo for certain situations if you really need it. This is another easy fun map, I liked the boxing challenges offered, in particular that arena which uses a texture from shadow warrior to indicate it's "Lo Wang's Dojo of Death", and the few flying enemies placed about can actually be a threat. The pain elemental guarding the secret ended up infighting with its spawn which just led to it producing more and more lost souls and the two cacodemons backing their fodder allies almost got me. I like how the map has a relative variety of locales for you to run around in; there's the aforementioned dojo, the sewer section, the warehouse, and the town itself; I can't read let alone understand mandarin so I don't know what the posters are saying but I appreciate the décor to help with the setting. The map ends by revealing a plasma marine variety which isn't completely terrible for once, infact (as of map02 anyways), I think they are the best I've seen, they fire in bursts and move quick enough but not to the extent of being obnoxious and have a low health pool. Just another quick fun map. 

[Azure_Horror]

Running Late

Map 02 Chinatown Beatdown

DSDA-Doom, UV, pistol start, complevel 9

 

A berserk-focused map, with a bit unusual decorations. Shadow Warrior has emerged from the shadows, if you get my drift...

 

'Zerking monsters is fun and all, but I would like to have more armor for a map 02 punchout with a heavy dose of hitscanners and new monsters. Blockmap bugs are especially unpleasant when you are on a rough footing and on a limited health budget.

 

New monsters:

- Lean-venants (Hobo Revs? Skele-boxers?). Those critters were introduced at the end of map 01. On the most basic level, they are revenants without a ranged attack. But they also seem to punch a bit faster than the normal skele-bros. This is nasty, if it is true. Miss-timing dodges is painful: revenant punches hurt as usual. And when you get no space to dodge - say goodbye. On map 02, Lean-venants can be pretty uncooperative. If they sneak a punch from behind - ouch! If a random monster blocks you from dodging a punch - ouch! If your melee attack gets mistimed, or eaten by a blockmap - ouch yet again! Personally, I feel that the Skeletons from Ad Mortem are more respectable opponents. They have a ranged attack, but they seem more punch-able than Lean-venants...

- Possesed Security. Yet another incarnation of a plasma trooper concept. Closest relatives – Uprising plasma marksmen. Compared to Uprising incarnation, Security from Running Late seem to be less treacherous and more mobile. Their second plasma bolt comes fast after the first one, thus there are much less trick-shot situations. Maybe the Plasma Security are also a bit squishier their then Uprising counterparts, but I am not sure.

 

Back to the map at hand – apart from a little bit of confusing progression and uncooperative Hobo Revenants, this map was pretty enjoyable, but not super-memorable in the gameplay department. The visuals are fantastic, however!

Edited December 11, 2022 by Azure_Horror

[KickAss]

GZDooM 4.9, PB 3.0, HeXeReTiC HUD PB3 v8.3RC2e, Weapon Neural Upscale, Simple Upscaled Enemies, Destroyable Decorations Definitive Edition, Glory Kills v29b, SilentDoomguy, Flashlight, -iwad doom2.wad (ver 1.666), -skill 4 (UV), continuous play, no saves.

 

MAP04 - “Cacotoa”, It took me a lot of time to take out all of the enemys to get the blue keycard and make it back on the boat to continue.

 

 

[Azure_Horror]

Overboard, part 1

DSDA-Doom, UV, pistol start, complevel 9

 

Playthrough of Going Down on UV is etched deep into my subconsciousness. I both cherish and fear that experience. This produced two strange ideas on my part:

- I delayed playing Overboard for a long time. (Scary Going Down gameplay is scary!)

- I consider Cyriak Harris to be some kind of supernatural spirit. So my impression when playing Overboard was less "Oh my God, how this is even possible???", and more "Of course those maps are amazing, you cannot expect less from an otherworldly being such as @mouldy". Even Ribbiks' WADs didn't leave such an impression!

 

I write all that because I caught myself understating the cool stuff in Overboard again and again. My first reaction to all maps was "well, good map, as expected". But after thinking more about any of the maps, I come to understand that all those levels are really impressive, and have lots of unique details.

 

Map 01 and Map 08 Cruisn’n UAC and NG+

Wonderful introductory level. Everyone who played Going Down would instantly recognize Cyriak's design style:

1) The level is super-interconnected, and monsters can walk quite far from their initial positions.

2) The lowly pistol-wielding zombies are dangerous and should not be understimated. (In my experience, Cyriak is very good at employing standard zombies for serious threats. This was very notable in Going Down, and it once again prominent in Overboard)

3) There is a lot of Doomcute.

4) Barrels go BOOM!

Doomguy's goal here is pretty simple – assess the situation, take the red key from the ship's hold, and escape using the motor boat at the stern of the ship. Visiting ship's hold shows that the UAC are into weapon smuggling business: there is a whole cyberdemon there, and also a secret compartment with military grade armor vest.

 

New Game Plus brings stronger weapons and stronger monsters. The explosive barrels at the stern can come very clutch here: exploding an army of imps may be funny, but exploding an army of revenants is very practical and saves a lot of headache on NG+. But the most notable trait of the NG+ is the roaming cyberdemon. The big machine of hate can patrol the whole deck of the ship, making running around a much more thrilling affair. Finally, NG+ deploys a lot of archviles. And while the ship's hold has the viles just for show, the viles on the deck are true menaces. They resurect a lot, and they also have a clear line of sight to zap the Doomguy from far away.

 

Both versions of the map are great fun to play, and they serve as a perfect foils for each other.

 

Map 02 and Map 09 Skeleton Coast and NG+

Here we have wooden shacks, tropical islands, mysterious caves, strange technology and military grade destructive equipment here. This is a lost level from 1000 lines 3 last episode, and nobody can convince me otherwise!

 

But let's start from the very start (pun accidental). The motorboat from the previous map is low on fuel. So Doomguy hops to nearby island to plan his next move. Good news: the island is inhabited, and even has some fuel. Bad news: all inhabitants are hellspawn , and they are happy to use the fuel can as bait for unsuspecting travelers... Every step forward unleashes some new monsters, and unlocks new passages. Going forward is important, because forward = more ammo for big guns. But do not hope to outrun the demons! They are perfectly capable of following you literally everywhere on this small island. In fact, best approach seems to be to advance constantly, but slowly, taking care to clear most ofl the attackers before unleasing the next wave.

 

Once you reach the fuel can shack, everything goes bananas. The aracnotrons and imps begin to teleport all over the island, while a platoon of revenants lands on the beach and goes after you. Monsters can reach any point of island, remember? This applies to the Revs too! Chaos ensues. To add insult to injury, the fuel can disappears right from under your nose and becomes bait once again. That peaceful pool in the middle of the isalnd? It is not peaceful at all...

 

NG+ once again has more monsters and more weapons. But it also has some pretty substantial healing items. And once I was able to pass through the initial archvile hurdles, the map felt less cruel than on a normal game. While I won't call NG+ to be easier to complete, I think it offers better recovery options. You face stronger challenges, but in exchange you are allowed more mistakes.

 

Great map! In both versions!

 

Map 03 and Map 10 Depth Charge and NG+

Exhibit A of my subconsciousness going "Cyriak made a good level, nothing to see here".

In reality, there is lot to see here! The doomcute submarine is a wonder to behold, and the gameplay is great too.

 

Most impressive part? The submarine is pretty cramped, yet the monsters can travel the whole length of the sub, from one end to the other. This allows for very memorable chases even on the non-plus version of the level. Those barons and revs are super-persistent, and floods of lowly hitscanners are once again much more dangerous than they appear.

 

But the interconnected design of the level truly shines on New Game +. First of all, multiple archviles can send real armies chasing after you. But wait, there is more: new game plus includes two full sized cyberdemons! One begins chasing Doomguy right from the start, and another one guards the exit hatch.

 

On New Game Plus, it is very worth to exit the sub early and re-enter it once again from the very start. This approach helps to evade the bigger part of the monster crowd. But even with monsters starting far away from you, the fight for 100% kills is not easy one!

Edited December 11, 2022 by Azure_Horror

[DFF]

Running Late 2: Map01 - Drip
FDWL (Prboom+), UV, continuous
K: 99 | I: 95 | S: 100

Drip has the right feel for a map opener. It sets the difficulty and tone right away with its moss and demon infested sewage plant (or water treatment facility). Despite choosing the rather notoriously monotonous sewer theme to start off the wad the map does well to create an open and easy to follow layout with many eye catching or uniquely noteworthy areas that it still looks pretty good. The detailing present reminds me of CC3-CC4 type of design, with attention to accented wall cubbies (such as the pipes and lights in the vents), cutouts for floor tile transitions, and metal SUPP beams around most structural transitions. Its a clean style i very much appreciate as the detailing gives a lot more sharpness to the map without feeling overdone. I still think the sewer theme is not the most exciting way to start, and the map is not amazing in its design, but it does well with its flow and variety. The length of the map as an opener is maybe a tiny bit on the longer side, but thats fine for me.

Combat was expectedly light for an introductory map, nothing too crazy but there are a few traps that make the combat feel good for its lighter heat, such as the pinky ambush in the water tunnels, or the double gotcha exit trap which also introduces some customs enemies in the form of melee-only revenants. was not expecting custom monsters but its a feature I always like in lower-compatibility WADs. I never died in this map, but there was a fair few times where my health dipped below 50% which i think is good. Definitely enjoyed this map a fair bit.

Running Late 2: Map02 - Chinatown Beatdown

FDWL (Prboom+), UV, continuous
K: 100 | I: 100 | S: 100

Map02 treats us to a rather unique locale as a majority Tyson map. I don't mind Tyson maps personally but for my enjoyment of a Tyson map, they usually need to be quick paced, health generous, and mostly lean on the content. This map does the health balance right, almost too much as there are medpacks everywhere and i think there was plenty excess even after the map. In terms of the quick pace and trimmed fat i think the map was a bit too bloated in places, specifically the yellow key area. I felt both the dojo showdown and the preceding sewer could have been a lot quicker, with the number of waves maybe reduced by two in the dojo and once in the sewer. I definitely died quite a few times on this map and maybe more at fault with doom's melee system than the map, but after punching out your 10th revenant the damage RNG and the lack of melee hitbox forgiveness made the combat feel frustrating at times. Minor point but the MIDI additionally felt like a misstep for this map. The Duke track is a decent one but i felt it was not the best fit for the map. I wasn't expecting something more japanese/chinese inspired or something from shadow warrior like the map alludes to often, but "In Hiding" definitely is a mid pace gritty but also somber track; although was used for the japanese bar map in Duke. I think something a bit higher temp maybe would have helped for the berserk rampage.

Overall a mostly uniquely aesthetic map with some good design, flow, and set piecing in most areas, but personally i could have done with less monsters and less switch locked arenas. The second new enemy: a somewhat standard plasma soldier pick, was also introduced like the last map and a map-end "mini-boss". this was not too bad dealing with melee but was good. I think overall i did still like the map.

 

Running Late 2: Map03 - Under Construction

FDWL (Prboom+), UV, continuous
K: 100 | I: 100 | S: 100

We are now present in some sort of storage facility next to a dilapidated computer base. This time the music choice was Duke's "Lemon Chillll" which definitely fits extremely well with the map's tone: gritty, low lit, and brooding. The scattered metal pipes and missing bricks in the walls do well to show how rundown the place is. The intact server room feels a bit odd next to the super raw main building but it works fine. due to the detailing choice the map feels more abandoned than under construction but its me being more nitpicky again. On the plus side the combat feels very well done here and I enjoyed all of it. The SSG is a very welcome sight and the combat encounters while not hugely varied in design, were much more engaging now that we are introduced to many of the regular doom roster, with first appearances from regular revenants, aracnotrons, and barons. Love the map aesthetics and combat was fun. 

On a side note, I appreciate how a lot of the secrets in RL2 are usually shown to the player in the automap or are clearly visible. So far many of the secrets in RL2 have been "here's the secret, go find a wall to lower to access it". I go both ways on this as i do like maps to have a variety of interesting and fun secrets, but i also greatly appreciate WADs where secrets are mostly uniform in that their access is consistent. It cuts down on player guessing and helkps devlop a strategy and understanding for secret hunting. If secrets are hidden switches i should be looking in little cracks for switches, in this case the secret is visible and likely to be access by pressing on a nearby logical wall, no need to go to random corners of the map looking for secret teleporters or anything that looks out of place.

Rankings:

Spoiler

Running Late 2:

MAP03 - Under Construction

MAP01 - Drip
MAP02 - Chinatown Beatdown

 

Overboard:

MAP06 - Seaside Siege
MAP02 - Skeleton Coast
MAP05 - Archi-Pelago
MAP03 - Depth Charge
MAP01 - Cruisin' UAC
MAP04 - Cacotoa

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by DFF

[finnks13]

Running Late 2

I've been looking forward to this, Running Late 2 is one of my favourite wads and a very big influence on my own maps. I revisited it a little earlier this year, trying to learn the UV-Max speedrun though I never actually ended up doing attempts (perhaps this will spur me on to do that again!) As before, I'm playing with DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, complevel 9, pistol starts, UV. Going for 100% kills, but I'm not too worried if I miss a couple here and there.

 

MAP01 - Drip:

6:08/1 Death
In classic Map01 fashion, Drip introduces us to a microcosm of Running Late 2 - clean, nicely textured maps with good lighting, flowing, easy to navigate layouts and gameplay that I would describe as a combination of skillsaw's "more bark than bite" take on run-and-gun combat with Erik Alm's fondness for traps and ambushes everywhere. I really enjoy the combat in this wad, it's satisfying to play and clear each ambush that is thrown at you and is the main reason why I like it so much. Drip plays around a lot with lowering floors, it's two main areas being revealed by the lowering water level in a central structure and I like that this is done in a way that feels like it makes sense in context of the map.

 

I played pretty poorly in my runthrough, and took one death to a caco fireball as I was cornered by pinkies, but this map shouldn't give people too much trouble, even on UV it takes it very easy on the player, and despite the occasional "surprise!" you're never thrown into a situation that will kill you with no hesitation. We are also introduced to the first of Running Late 2's custom enemies, a melee only revenant that looks incredibly goofy. They're a decent addition to the monster roster, being a slightly more scary pinky that you can still use the timing of revenant punches to deal with, though (from memory) they will appear in large hordes later on and be absolutely terrifying. I think this is an excellent opening statement for the wad.

 

MAP02 - Chinatown Beatdown:

7:38/0 Deaths
We exit the water treatment plant, and enter a Chinatown filled to the brim with Shadow Warrior textures that surprisingly don't look very out of place. Fitting for the name, this is a tyson map and of the two categories that tyson maps tend to fall into, them being "absurdly fucked up" or "pretty doable, if I'm being honest", this falls into the latter which is a nice change from some of the painful tyson maps I have played recently. There's a couple of harsh moments, but most of the monsters are very easily punchable (the only ones in the entirely map that aren't are two cacodemons) so those who aren't familiar with punching out the bulkier foes won't have a miserable time.

 

Entering Lo Wang's Dojo of Death starts a wave-by-wave ambush which I think is the hardest part of the map, the zombies will whittle away your health, the imps & pinkies will likely get a couple of hits in, but those shotgunners that are *slightly* out of punching range are downright mean. The ending of the map introduces the other custom monster, which is a plasma guy that fires plasma in bursts of two. They will be used a lot in the wad, and I really like them. I thought Duke 3D's In Hiding was an odd choice of MIDI when I first played the map, but I quite like how understated it is and combined with the red sky, the map has a lot of foreboding atmosphere for a map that is entirely based around punching stuff :P

[KickAss]

GZDooM 4.9, PB 3.0, HeXeReTiC HUD PB3 v8.3RC2e, Weapon Neural Upscale, Simple Upscaled Enemies, Destroyable Decorations Definitive Edition, Glory Kills v29b, SilentDoomguy, Flashlight, -iwad doom2.wad (ver 1.666), -skill 4 (UV), continuous play, no saves.

 

I have started playing Running Late 2 and I've lost all my Overboard autosaves except that from cacotoa. Frustrating.

 

Running Late 2, MAP01 - “Drip”, Nice DooM ][ vanilla architecture and texturing.

 

 

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

Running Late 2 time! This is the wad from this month that I haven't played any of, although I do know about it. Have also played some of the author's work in Nova 3 and Interception II and have enjoyed it quite a lot. Looking forward to this.

 

MAP01: Drip

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 2/2 secrets 

 

Love Doomguy's snazzy black glove. Our first map is a water techbase, with most of the techy areas having a predominant rusty brown colour, while the areas with water seem to favour switching it up a bit with greys and greens. The midi is from Megaman 8, and has a more action-packed feel to it than the original version. I quite like it. I actually had to dig a bit to find where it was from, as the txt file says it is from Metal Heroes which Doomwiki links to a Japanese TV series from the 80s. However, Metal Heroes is also the subtitle of Megaman 8 in Japan, so that's where that seems to come from.

 

As one might expect from a MAP01, lots of fodder enemies here. Things are kept relatively lowkey for much of the level's run times with mostly hitscanners, imps, and pinkies in your way. You will run into one mean little ambush with a cacodemon and lost souls though. I dig the progression that involves you lowering the water levels to get to the lower areas of the level, funnily enough I think A2Rob's Interception II contribution also involved messing with the height of the liquid of the level (blood in that case). Near the end, you'll be introduced to a custom monster: the boxer revenant. As the name suggests, it's a revenant without the missiles, but with an increased punching speed. Is it just me or do most revenant reskins/alterations look weirdly disturbing? These things freak me out.

 

Cool little introductory map.

 

MAP02: Chinatown Beatdown

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/1 secrets 

 

Tamawhatsi?!

 

A Tyson map in MAP02 eh? Well you do get a shotgun in the back half, but even then you'll be relying on your fist much more often than not in this map. There are of course lots of cute Chinese and Japanese visuals to be found here. In Blue Brews you'll meet some zombieman and imp fishmongers, and the highlight has to be inside Lo Wang's Dojo of Death, where you'll square off against several waves of enemies with only your fist in front of the Great Wave off Kanagawa. And of course where better to well acquaint you with the boxer revenant than inside a Tyson map. There are 9 that you'll have to engage in fisticuffs with, and it's honestly pretty fun to do without those annoying retaliation rockets that you have to time your way out of. 

 

I usually don't like Tyson maps as much, but this one was quite entertaining. I like.

[baja blast rd.]

6 minutes ago, DisgruntledPorcupine said:

Is it just me or do most revenant reskins/alterations look weirdly disturbing? These things freak me out.

 

>:D

 

 

 

[Book Lord]

MAP 03 – Under Construction

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

Returning to more standard gameplay and tech-base environments, our Security Doomguy entered a building that was still Under Construction: holes in the walls, piles of steel bars, dozens of crates, jammed doors, unfinished ceilings, exposed switchboards and terminals, cables and pipes hanging loose. The amount of thought and detail put into this small level was amazing, and I can only applaud A2Rob for his commitment towards realism. On the other hand, the combat was more straightforward than in MAP02, but the limited opposition and the respectable arsenal provided since the beginning gave me a false sense of security that almost caused my demise on a later stage.

Spoiler

Pistol starters would probably rampage through the opposition and use up the rockets, which I saved for another day preferring the trusted SSG for the close-range ambushes. Despite the free Berserk pack, I found it a much more reliable way to tackle Boxer Revenants in the BK area. The YK was in the western storage building, also holding a secret backpack, and protected by a varied crowd of enemies, both inside and in the nearby grassy courtyard. A blue-coded switch opened the door to the last indoor area, a control room with the RK and a lot of enemies. Approaching switches and said key activated teleport ambushes with great monster variety. I danced around them to seed hostility but took a few hard hits, especially from a Pain Elemental that I did not register. I escaped at the bottom of the stairs and fixed the mess from there, but it was a close call. Luckily, the Soul Sphere was quite a simple secret to figure out. The exit in the northern warehouse required all keycards, as I learned just before leaving. What can I say, except than it was another blast?

Spoiler

 

[RHhe82]

MAP03: Under Construction. Played on DSDA v0.24, UV, PS. 144/144 K, 2/2 S, 27/27 I. Completion time 14:54.

 

Another fun map, Under Construction shows bits and pieces of places of unfinished buildings amidst some places that seem more ready than others. We get to meet actual revenants here, and more of those plasma troops we saw in the last map (at least on UV, don't know about lower diffs).

 

Somehow this maps reminds of Vanguard's city maps, I guess the texture set is the same as is the polish I've come to expect from Skillsaw, and now from A2Rob (who I suddenly remember made some of my favourite maps from Ad Mortem, didn't they?). Under Construction isn't exactly difficult, but some of the fights did have me killed and reload a save, like the red key fight.

[Azure_Horror]

Running Late 2

Map 03 Under Construction

DSDA-Doom, UV, pistol start, complevel 9

Some places are in a permanent state of (re-)construction. You get to know those places, if they lie near your commute. And guess what? Our protagonist needs to navigate just such a place!

 

This map finally introduces big guns – the SSG and the Rocket Launcher. Plasma Security guards become pretty common, and Lean-venants continue their quest for punching interlopers. BTW, Lean-venant hp total seems to be a bit unusual - they often require two SSG blasts, but occasionally one blast is sufficient. They definitely have more than 150 hp (pinky health) but less than 300 (classical rev hp).

 

My skills are yet to fully adapt to melee revs. Even with SSG ready, I occasionally take heavy damage from them. Never thought that I would miss normal Rev behavior of shooting random rockets after painstun, but here we are...

 

And for the map itself – it is miniature and full of corners. Both you and enemies can use those corners to ambush each other. With big guns, diverse cast of foes and interesting non-linear layout this map is a perfect appetizer! But how long should I wait for the main course? I played three appetizers in a row!

[Monsieur E]

1 hour ago, RHhe82 said:

"A2Rob (who I suddenly remember made some of my favourite maps from Ad Mortem, didn't they?)"

They made map06 which was a pretty fun one!

Map03: "Under Construction"
140/144 kills, 0/2 secrets

We return to techbases, except this one is seemingly under construction. The place feels unfinished with crates littered about, walls with large holes in them (including one very conveniently connecting two rooms which I appreciated alot), wires hanging overheard, and so forth. What I love about RL2 so far is the commitment to each level theme even if it's minute details, making for a pretty pleasing level. We get our first super shotgun of the set, and thus, heavy hitters are deployed more frequently. I noticed that occasionally the boxer revenant can go down with only one good ssg shot, this incentives me to occasionally go in close to the boxer revenant for a shot at taking him down and save 2 shells, of course because of doom's rng this isn't a constant but I think this little modification added a bit of nuance to encounters where they're featured. In regards to the combat as a whole, again it's mostly simple fun but A2Rob increases the pressure with the Red Key fight being a highlight. Like I've said about previous levels, just simple clean fun.

[DFF]

Running Late 2: Map04 - Oil Rigged
FDWL (Prboom+), UV, continuous
K: 100 | I: 100 | S: 100

 

'Oil Rigged' is a very vertical oriented arena set on an ocean mining rig of sorts. The map is open from the start and semi-linear, with their being 2 main paths with keys at the end of each of them, and both are required to exit. There are lots of goodies scattered about but also a large amount of opposition, a very good blend of many threats that kept me moving almost constantly for the first half of the map. Despite its mostly open and visible appearance, there are a few good traps hidden in plain sight that meet you as you ascend the rig. The most notable but not so hidden trap is the plasma gun room, which locks you in a oil pump cage with imps clawing at you from behind some chain link fence. This was a cause of a few deaths due to a lack of health in this arena but definitely doable. Detailing is on-par with the rest of the wad so far which is good. While there are a few fun details such as various ships or sunken crates, a lot of the detailing is more functional, with tech pillars and vents serving as sniping platforms for the undead soldiers.

A very fun and well balanced map, but the overall atmosphere was not as interesting as map03 to me. Both are close in terms of my personal enjoyment but I  preferred the former map just slightly more.

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

Running Late 2:

MAP03 - Under Construction

MAP04 - Oil Rigged

MAP01 - Drip
MAP02 - Chinatown Beatdown

 

Overboard:

MAP06 - Seaside Siege
MAP02 - Skeleton Coast
MAP05 - Archi-Pelago
MAP03 - Depth Charge
MAP01 - Cruisin' UAC
MAP04 - Cacotoa

 

[Book Lord]

MAP 04 – Oil Rigged

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

As the name suggests, MAP04 was set on an offshore oil rig. Security Doomguy was also a champion swimmer and showed it off a lot in the first minutes, as most of the level population was alerted and should be confronted before searching for the two keys that unlocked the exit. Weapons and supplies were scattered around the platform and could be accessed more easily from the water than with a frontal assault to the facility.

 

Once the map was relatively quiet, I gave the proper attention to its solution. The various levels of the offshore rig were accessed by small staircases, placed in a way that made the ascent a bit awkward sometimes. Falling off ledges often required backtracking to get back on the intended route, which was time-consuming and rubbed me wrong on a pair of occasions. The RK was found on a detached platform reached by means of an orange teleport gate. Enemies were ready to pop-up while approaching it, including a flock of Cacodemons that worked perfectly on such an open layout.

Spoiler

The centre of the platform featured two towers: the first held the plasma rifle and a crusher & teleport combination; the second dome contained the first Arch-Vile of the megaWAD, revealed by a progression switch accessible only by running across a gap. A platforming path led to the dock tower that granted access to the harboured cargo ship, which held the YK on the command bridge. Once again, the captain was a Baron of Hell, but he was the less threatening foe to be found on board. The two secrets demanded keen eyes and ears to understand the environmental hints correctly, but a look at the automap would probably be enough as in previous levels. I liked the visual representation in Oil Rigged as well as the open layout, bringing about some good combat without a major increase in difficulty.

[KickAss]

GZDooM 4.9, PB 3.0, HeXeReTiC HUD PB3 v8.3RC2e, Weapon Neural Upscale, Simple Upscaled Enemies, Destroyable Decorations Definitive Edition, Glory Kills v29b, SilentDoomguy, Flashlight, -iwad doom2.wad (ver 1.666), -skill 4 (UV), continuous play, no saves.

 

Running Late 2, MAP02 - “Chinatown Beatdown”

 

 

[RHhe82]

MAP04: Oil Rigged. Played on DSDA v0.24, UV, PS. 188/188 K, 2/2 S, 23/23 I. Completion time 19:12.

 

If I'd have to be negative and sour, I would say I hoped the map would resemble a bit more of an oil rig than a tech base under an open sky, amidst a sea of fwater. That said, Oil Rigged continues the streak of solid maps that are fun to play, that are not too difficult (that's of course relative, and I did have a couple of deaths here and a lot of situations where health would run real low).

 

This time I'm more reminded of Valiant than Vanguard, although I don't know if that's just a coincidence and only because my limited experience connects the dots where no connections exist. The comparison is naturally not a downside, though, because I thoroughly enjoyed Oil Rigged (especially since I spotted the way to the blue armor secrets without automap hints, without UDB, and without spending dozens of minutes wandering aimlessly).

[finnks13]

MAP03 - Under Construction:

8:31/2 Deaths
Under Construction takes us back into a more technological setting, but with a twist. As you could probably guess from the name, the map we're fighting through is still Under Construction ^wahey. There's scaffolding and rebar everywhere, cracks in the walls, unfinished and broken doors and these details do a fantastic job of spicing up what could have been a fairly generic CC4-style techbase into something very memorable. The various broken walls and switches make the layout feel rather dynamic and I like how you initially get the rocket launcher in a wide-open street before being forced to use it in some very tight spaces later on in the map. Plasma gunners have basically joined the regular zombie rotation now, and I approve since I think they are an excellent addition to the game.

 

While you can go pretty much anywhere at the start of the map, you'll want to go to the blue key area first since it gives you both a berserk pack, and an SSG (along with hosting the easiest of the three key fights). The yellow key area is a bit annoying with the perched hitscanners and plasma guys but it's nothing compared to the red key ambush. I was very low on health going into this, and the pre-key ambush of some zombies & imps made sure to soften me up before the main event, which is by far the hardest part of the wad so far. You're given tons of rockets to slow down the flow of heavies, but the rocket launcher becomes a much less enticing option when you're on 20% health and in close quarters. The final little area gives you a choice of left or right door, and I'd recommend picking the right door because it takes you to the high ground, rather than a shotgunner firing squad. Go through the little security office to unlock the exit and you'll finish a very fun map.

MAP04 - Oil Rigged:

8:49/2 Deaths
This is the first truly excellent map in Running Late 2 in my mind, with a unique and great idea for a setting, unorthodox vertical-focused gameplay and a banging MIDI to go along with it. While the oil rig itself is a bit low-poly, like most facsimiles of real things in the Doom engine tend to be, it gets the idea across perfectly well to me and the small details of using small towers with crushers in to represent drills extracting oil, and the quaint cargo ship that we board in the last part of the map really come together to create a setting that feels very unlike anything else I've played.

 

The combat is very fun too, since the majority of the time you'll be fighting your way up the oil rig which is filled with fodder and a few nasty surprises the further up you get. The chaingunners on the bottom layer gave me the most trouble because it's hard to get in close to them because of the arachnotrons & cacodemons in the water, and while I'm trying to bully my way through them, I'm getting peppered with bullets. We get the plasma gun for the first time, and it's protected by a claustrophobic trap involving a crusher and a bunch of imps firing at you from the sidelines, and two surprise skeletons that scared the hell out of me before beating me to a pulp. The two key paths are fun too, and I like the series of fights on the ship, especially the wave of cacodemons, revenants & chaingunners that spawn in after grabbing the yellow key. I think this map is great!

[Monsieur E]

Map04: "Oil Rigged"
188/188 kills, 0/2 secrets

As the title implies, we're now on an oil rig. The combat here feels more eccentric, at the start you'll be shelled by enemies as you run around picking off your opponents, gathering weapons to further trigger more enemies, and generally stir up the mayhem. Once you're sufficiently armed and have weakened the opposition, it's time to go hunt for the two keys. My favorite fight in the map is the plasma gun crusher room, putting a twist on the cage gimmick by having a bunch of imps and lowtier allies trickling into the room proper, further complicating matters when coupled with a crusher that can be both a friend or a foe. Relatedly, so the boxer revenant seems to have 200 hp which is within the super shotgun damage range (although doomwiki specifies this is for "vanilla RNG"). I like the free-flowing nature of the combat overall, and coupled with the fun doomcute (especially that ship), this is another pretty solid map. 

[RHhe82]

MAP05: Rooftop Rampage. Played on DSDA v0.24, UV, PS. 460/460 K, 4/4 S, 65/65 I. Completion time 47:46.

 

I'm slightly conflicted here; On the other hand Rooftop Rampage is a great map, and yet it somehow rubbed me slightly wrong way. Maybe I was fumbling my way through, but I seemed to just take damage all the time, I don't know why. That's on me, but also the level seems a bit long. That may be on me, too, I'm sure other clubbers will have completed this faster, but I was starting to feel the level drags on.

 

And yet when I try and think of it objectively, I find very little wrong with it. Maybe I would have liked the cyberdemon to be hurt by infight a bit more, now I had to go through the trouble of taking care of him myself, wasting (fortunately plentiful) ammo. Maybe it's just that we already played Overboard, which reminds me how I like my maps shorter.

[DFF]

Running Late 2: Map05 - Rooftop Rampage
FDWL (Prboom+), UV, continuous
K: 103 | I: 98 | S: 100

This was a map that after entering the main arena just after the blue key, i was worried this was going to be another pretty but generic techbase map with some maybe city scape views. But after finally seeing the beautiful sunset skyline and letting the map's juices sink into me more, the more and more i started to enjoy the map. All things considered this map really hits all the right spots for me. The starting area is darker, gloomy, and a bit cramped but the combat sections flow well with the fast paced music and the expanding space as walls reveal various monsters. Its a fine area with decent combat and monster variation, but the real treat awaits once the player gets some fresh air. The arena design here is a simplistic 4-way pit with a center island and ledges around the player. Simple, but a great design as not only is low and high land combat utilized here, but is repopulated and used many times with different combat scenarios. great re-use of space. If the arena changed its geometry a bit between these revisits aswell i'd say it would have been perfect.

The map from here branches into two non-linear key hunts around the orange skylines. At first i though the views looked a bit odd, with assorted floating structures and mini buildings, until i noticed the very minute but excellent orange fade trim on the bottom of the buildings. This immediately shifted my view to realize the city was engulfed in the sky's orange clouds and that these rooftops were just above the cloud-line. A really simple and unimportant visual detail but one which its clarity makes the overall aesthetics so much more pleasing. To quickly summarize the combat sections between both keys are unique and distinguishable enough from each other and both are well designed (the outside staircase ambush was interesting with the revenants, but a bit weaker than i was anticipating). I greatly appreciated the two optinal-combat secrets aswell. Some people don't like monsters or gameplay hidden behind secrets but im very much in the other camp. The idea of rewarding the player for exploration with more gameplay is a favorable idea for me (as long as the gameplay is well crafted that is).

If there was any complaints for this map, ammo seemed a bit overgenerous despite finding all the secrets. And maybe more to this affect finding the BFG secret (which arguably was one of the easier ones for me) made a lot of the major encounters a lot easier. But this likely wasn't super avoidable. I found length manageable and clocked in only 20 minutes, The yellow key path was probably a bit more bloated than the red path.
Overall the maps design and locales were extremely varied but cohesively joined and well blended. Combat was great and enjoyable, a very memorable map, and the secret count is starting to reach much more preferable levels; with 4 secrets and one unmarked secret crusher. Superb points all around from me.

Rankings:
 

Spoiler

Running Late 2:
MAP05 - Rooftop Rampage

MAP03 - Under Construction

MAP04 - Oil Rigged

MAP01 - Drip
MAP02 - Chinatown Beatdown

 

Overboard:

MAP06 - Seaside Siege
MAP02 - Skeleton Coast
MAP05 - Archi-Pelago
MAP03 - Depth Charge
MAP01 - Cruisin' UAC
MAP04 - Cacotoa

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by DFF

[RHhe82]

42 minutes ago, DFF said:

found length manageable and clocked in only 20 minutes,

It’s always puzzling just how much faster people can complete these levels where I need double the time. But I guess that factors in me liking shorter levels more (on the average).

[Book Lord]

MAP 05 – Rooftop Rampage

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

The appetizer bit of the first long-winded adventure of Running Late 2 showed a clear change of pace in monster distribution and encounter setup. Pistol starters received an early SSG, and the rocket launcher lay not far away, but the areas were cramped and hitscanners ready to appear at odd angles at every step towards the BK. Especially the ambush that happened after entering the green teleport pad had that trademark dynamic nature, with monster spawns happening loudly and abruptly, just as ours truly wanted them to. This was the @A2Rob I remembered from the maps I have played from this author.

Spoiler

The next stop was a loading bay, acting as the level hub. From this central area, the various sections branched off and plunged me into one slaughter set piece after the other, offering the choice between the hectic RK section and the much longer YK quest. Eventually I went south, entering a series of connected towers surrounded by an orange sky dotted by other rooftops. I was not surprised by the unfolding of the events after picking up the plasma rifle: lots of zombies and mid-tiers, with a robust injection of Arch-Viles to increase their durability. It was a good mess, but I wasted too many cells to sort it out. There was a crusher to activate, but the last thing I needed were ghost Revenants. I regretted my squandering attitude in the Cyberdemon hallway, which was one of the most harrowing moments of the map. Took me about 7 attempts before I emerged alive with the RK.

Spoiler

The western path included multiple warm-up fights, starting with a ridiculous hall full of barrels. It seemed like A2Rob wanted me to prepare for something bigger and meaner, a slaughter sequence that gave itself away with a Soul Sphere, a Combat Armour, and a rocket arsenal. The real thorn in the side were the concealed Revenants shooting from a distant building, along with the irritating presence of Spectres amid the other foes. I died repeatedly, until I resorted to the unusual strategy of letting the Spectres surround me, working as a meat shield for the homing rockets, and killing just enough to avoid too many bites and escape. It was satisfying to perform, but I am not sure I could do it consistently.

Spoiler

The YK was obtained during a visit to the above-mentioned building. The extermination of the Revenant sniper squad was pure catharsis; they deserved a terrible death for making my life miserable in the L-shaped arena. Back to the level hub, reinforcements had arrived to keep me on my toes. Activating the triple key cube at the centre of the level brought me to an indoor place, where more battles awaited. I could have done without this part, as it felt like the unnecessary extra mile. I exited the map after 41 minutes with only 2 secrets out of 4: I found the Soul Sphere trigger and the optional Megasphere fight by looking at the huge automap, but I missed the indirect path to that lovely BFG and the heap of cells. I obviously missed the Berserk secret in the BK zone but lost quite some time searching for a switch I saw through the fence near the rocket launcher. It apparently did nothing, but seeing it appear and vanish tickled my paranoia for secrets. I cannot say Rooftop Rampage was not a great level, because it was non-stop action with excellent visuals and overflowing creativity. It was pretty long though, and some parts felt rather superfluous. I am now afraid of what could be achieved by amping this gameplay up to eleven in the next maps.

 

10 minutes ago, RHhe82 said:

It’s always puzzling just how much faster people can complete these levels where I need double the time. But I guess that factors in me liking shorter levels more (on the average).

 

Many people play without fear of death. They run about as fast as they can, get killed, rewind, go ahead with the same attitude until they hit the exit.

 

I try to beat the levels without dying, if possible, and explore them carefully, checking my health and ammo all the time, trying not to waste ammo when shooting. I also care for secrets. This easily doubles the required time.

 

My completion time for this map was 41:41, with only 50% secrets.

[finnks13]

MAP05 - Rooftop Rampage:

21:57/1 Death
Rooftop Rampage is also great. It's fast-paced gameplay starts to introduce the more slaughtery elements that will make their presence known as we go deeper into the wad, and it's use of custom textures to create the rooftop visuals are superb. The custom sky texture has a large orange area at the bottom which the custom textures fade into creating a really cool effect of the lower parts of these structures fading into the clouds - I remember that Ozonia did this too (and A2Rob has a guest map in that) so perhaps that's where that idea came from originally. The rooftop visuals aren't just for show either, parts of the map will take place on top of air vents, between buildings and on very precarious sections of concrete.

 

The opening area of the map reminds me a lot of the opening area of Free Parking from Vanguard, they're both very small and mazey arenas filled with zombies, imps & tripwires to surprise you. I took my only death to the final wave in this area - should not have tried to punch chaingunners in hindsight. Going up to the roof itself brings you to the central courtyard, which you'll be spending a fair amount of time in, as each area brings you back here and refills it with baddies. You can get the red and yellow keys in any order, though the yellow key path also lets you grab the BFG, which is absolutely overkill for the fights in this map, but it's quite fun anyway. The red key path is very claustrophobic, with the challenge being to clear the areas quick enough to give you space to rocket archviles before they resurrect everything, and there's also a the wad's first cyberdemon, and I'm very happy to report that he appears alongside some other monsters making this already more interesting than a lot of first cyberdemons in wads.

 

The yellow key path is much wider open, and more slaughtery. When you've cleared out the small rooftops with airvents, you drop into a corridor which spawns hell knights & imps on one side of you and mancubi on the other, with revenants firing at you from the next building over - this is a great fight and while I didn't have the BFG yet, it's not too difficult to rocket everything once you've got a little space. You then teleport over to the other building to deal with those pesky revenants up close. The final area is a little bit tame compared to this, and three archviles when you've got the BFG isn't particularly threatening, but that doesn't spoil the rest of the map at all!

 

~~~

 

8 hours ago, RHhe82 said:

It’s always puzzling just how much faster people can complete these levels where I need double the time. But I guess that factors in me liking shorter levels more (on the average).

One thing to remember for the times I post (can't speak for anyone else) is that they're the in game timer on the intermission screen, so any deaths are basically not included in my final time since I'll just reload before them!

My own playstyle is fairly aggressive too, especially for mapsets like Running Late 2 that I know fairly well, since I find playing in a way that's not particularly concerned with my own survival is more fun for me - in the same way, I don't tend to bother searching for secrets anymore since I don't find that very enjoyable. I know not everyone plays this way, and that's fine because part of the fun of reading write-ups for me is seeing how people who play in a very different way to me experience maps, and they often spot things my short attention span forces me to miss :P

[KickAss]

GZDooM 4.9, PB 3.0, HeXeReTiC HUD PB3 v8.3RC2e, Weapon Neural Upscale, Simple Upscaled Enemies, Destroyable Decorations Definitive Edition, Glory Kills v29b, SilentDoomguy, Flashlight, -iwad doom2.wad (ver 1.666), -skill 4 (UV), continuous play, no saves.

 

Running Late 2, MAP03 - “Under Construction”

 

 

[RHhe82]

3 hours ago, finnks13 said:

One thing to remember for the times I post (can't speak for anyone else) is that they're the in game timer on the intermission screen, so any deaths are basically not included in my final time since I'll just reload before them!

That’s precisely what I do, as well. The totally total tally is usually something like 1.5x bigger, depends on difficulty. But yeah, playstyles are different and I know play cautiously, I wander back on forth to make certain I didn’t miss anything, I diligently look for secrets, and that all increase the time.

 

Usually the real actual total time is not interesting, it takes citadels at the edge of eternity to really numb the sitting muscles without really being reflected in the intermission screen time.

[KickAss]

GZDooM 4.9, PB 3.0, HeXeReTiC HUD PB3 v8.3RC2e, Weapon Neural Upscale, Simple Upscaled Enemies, Destroyable Decorations Definitive Edition, Glory Kills v29b, SilentDoomguy, Flashlight, -iwad doom2.wad (ver 1.666), -skill 4 (UV), continuous play, no saves.

 

Running Late 2, MAP04 - “Oil Rigged”

 

 

[Book Lord]

MAP 06 – Rough Commute

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

The enemy count close to the 400 might feel intimidating, but this underground tram station was a much shorter and manageable affair than the previous map. Rough Commute was a series of slaughter set pieces taking place in broad tunnels, storage rooms, and depots littered with crates and groups of explosive barrels. The weaponry available right from the start was exaggerate, even if the access to the secret weapons store was missed. The first wave was probably the most dangerous because of Spectres, hitscanners, and two types of Revenants. I was face-rocketing like never before, so I retreated to the starting room, which was well-lit and acted as the perfect bottleneck for the enemies.

Spoiler

The broad spaces of the subway network allowed me to take it easy, as there was plenty of room to escape and prepare the counter-offensive. The BK and RK in the central warehouse were cleverly reached by hopping on crates but getting high enough was possible only after solving encounters both in the western and in the eastern section. Neither were too difficult, as all situations were straightforward, and it was always possible to dodge enemies. The pop-up zombies in the flooded area made me jump on my seat, but they went down like skittles with the chaingun and the Arch-Vile could not do much to revive them. His fellow zapped me once in the overgrown area, where I found no other way than strafe-running over the thin pillar to reach his platform, then hop to the RK.

Spoiler

I missed the secret behind the waterfall, but I found a way to grab the Soul Sphere in the locked tram and a hidden Invulnerability. The Pinky & Co. horde triggered by the lever behind coloured bars was easily dispatched after hiding in the north-western corner. One last arena was in store before the exit, but I saved the green power-up for it. There was quite a distance to cover from the secret to the pit with blue lights, but I arrived with enough seconds left to deal a lot of damage and gain an edge. Ammo was plentiful and the columns gave just enough cover to avoid being shredded by Chaingunners or blasted by the Arch-Viles. The lonely Commando near the YK was hilarious, and the corrupted room behind the glass window was a great touch. It seems that saving the Megasphere for the end of the level was not a great idea, after all. Rough Commute displayed a softer approach to slaughter encounters; I liked the platforming parts and secret hunting more than the gameplay, but it was appropriate after MAP05.

[KickAss]

GZDooM 4.9, PB 3.0, HeXeReTiC HUD PB3 v8.3RC2e, Weapon Neural Upscale, Simple Upscaled Enemies, Destroyable Decorations Definitive Edition, Glory Kills v29b, SilentDoomguy, Flashlight, -iwad doom2.wad (ver 1.666), -skill 4 (UV), continuous play, no saves.

 

Running Late 2, MAP05 - “Rooftop Rampage”