The DWmegawad Club plays: Community Chest 2

[Veeda Vidlak]

Map 29: Event Horizon (GZoom, complevel 9, UV pistol start)

 

Now at the penultimate level, we are treated to a work about as good as an early 2000s map29 could be. Event Horizon is an engrossing, boom-laden adventure that nicely caps off the traditional maps of Community Chest 2.

 

First, we have the visuals and presentation, which are among the best in the entire wad. It starts in a techbase you will soon discover is being subverted by demonic influence and you have to kill a six-eyed hell beast that has burrowed in (or at least put out its eyes), teleport to hell, and fight a horde of monsters before escaping. Oddly, the premise is the exact same as To Hell and Back… you’re in a UAC techbase and need to travel to hell to retrieve a skull key(s) to leave. Deja vu notwithstanding, the base and outlying areas look outstanding. The Cyriak Harris like monster with the teeth is wonderfully creepy, the ceiling fans are impressive, and the floor turning to blood is immersive. The layout of the base is also well done, mostly intuitive and quick to move around in despite its size. My main complaint is that it isn't always clear where you need to go next (another trait it shares with To Hell and Back).

 

Side note: I have seen the movie Event Horizon and this level could very well be an homage.

 

Now for the combat, we are given a subdued but enjoyable challenge that plays well following the much harder map28. You start with the SSG and are sent on a quest to put out the eyes on each side of the hell beast, requiring the red and blue keycards to do so. While the fights are mostly intermittent, your resources are well calibrated, adding some intrigue to the otherwise pedestrian tussles. It’s worthy difficulty for the 29 slot and I appreciate Boris not trying to bust my balls, allowing his storytelling to take center stage.

 

A couple moments are worth mentioning. Hitting the blue key switch lowers a wall revealing two cyberdemons, which are fought in an open enough area to not be much trouble. If you found the hidden yellow key on the way I’d recommend running past them and grabbing the BFG (in a cute secret) to return and pulverize them with. The ending fight has an immobile arch-vile in open terrain along with sniping revenants that can scam you if you’re injured. The big encounter, of course, is the hell sequence in which you travel through a teleporter and grab the blue skull key in a massive demonic tower. There is a wave of cacodemons (outside the tower), a horde of pinkies, and a rush of hell-knights and revs, the later two in a confined space. The tower presents a satisfactory final fight, and you really want the BFG for it (including the pinkies, who did more damage to me than the knights/revs did). The cacos are superfluous though, and its annoying to have to pick off any who float away across the damaging blood lake.

 

All of this adds up to a great penultimate level. A map that presents an interesting concept and holds up its end of the bargain, sprinkling in a handful of memorable moments for good measure. It was a wise decision to end the 20s with this one.

[Book Lord]

Final Thoughts

 

In December 2003, some months after releasing Community Chest, the project that started the whole trend of community projects, Dale Harris received the first letters of intent asking for a sequel. In contrast with the first instalment, roughly based upon the simple question “Hello Doomworld! Show me what maps you have got!”, Community Chest 2 was conceived to showcase more Boom-compatible features, a few custom textures and music tracks, and more time was given to the team to submit their finest work.

 

The megaWAD took almost 1 year to be completed, with Cyber-menace joining Cadman in the project lead at some point. While the overall quality of the submissions registered a drastic improvement from the 2003 compilation, including a few ground-breaking maps of great historical significance, the long development time did not allow for proper playtesting and troubleshooting. Release candidates and request for forum feedback were not as common in 2004 as they are nowadays, and the result was tarnished by some glaring flaws. Despite being planned as a Boom-compatible map set, Community Chest 2 was largely built and tested for ZDoom, to the point that some maps cannot be maxed out or even completed if a strict Boom compatibility is enforced.

 

Despite a broader number of mappers being involved, gathering 32 original submissions must have been harder than expected; several idgames releases, not necessarily planned to appear in this megaWAD, were borrowed from the participants to fill the missing slots. The main contributor was once again Gene Bird, who integrated his brand new MAP25 with four older Blind Alley levels, thus getting a big exposure that gained him an unwarranted bad name in the next decades. In all honesty, he did not grab the spotlight from anyone with his humble offerings, and he provided good breathing spots when most needed. Ian Cunnings submitted three levels, small gems of modern over-detailing with their own share of positives and negatives. The young Thomas Lutrov was the true revelation of Community Chest 2, leaving a strong impression with both his delightful MAP06 and with the abrasive, slaughterish MAP22, designed in cooperation with Jimi.

 

All the remaining pieces of the mosaic came from different authors, either members of the old guard or recent comers, destined to increase their importance within the community. It must be noted that all these mappers continued their outstanding work, accomplishing greater things that were recognised in the Cacoward ceremonies in the following years. For this reason, Community Chest 2 was an authentic showcase of the best authors hanging about Doomworld in 2004; only a few of them stopped their activity in the aftermath of this project, and one of them was the author of MAP24.

 

I am a supporter of persistence and dedication, and I will always prefer people showing those qualities to artists relying on whimsical inspiration. It might be sour grapes, because I am lacking in creative flair; conversely, B.P.R.D. was full of talent and original ideas, and he probably had no choice but to move on from Doom to continue expressing himself. The Mucus Flow was a highly influential map, its merits and legacy have been discussed for decades and once more during this DWMC month, where it stole the scene as usual. It is great to have it, complete with its critical bugs and excruciating gameplay. Community Chest 2 will always be remembered for this map that combined strict resource management with progression choices against overwhelming odds, thus leading to a unique atmosphere that is still palpable in 2022.

 

With MAP24 in permanent spotlight, it is easy to overlook the richness of the other contributions. This is a shame, because the megaWAD has plenty of nice environments to explore, including a high number of wonderful tech-bases. No aura of perfection pervaded these maps; quite the opposite, there was something that blemished even the strongest concepts. My favourites are listed below, but many other levels deserve to be mentioned in a summary, such as the solid opener by Erik Alm, the city sandbox puzzle of MAP15, the Limbo spin-off at MAP20, the mysterious vibe of MAP26, and the hellish tour de force that was MAP27. Such a multi-faceted proposal cannot appeal to everyone in the same fashion, and this explains the variable reactions elicited from the DWMC.

 

A mixed bag megaWAD with no thematic progression seems the ideal one to pistol start everything, but according to the other club members there were some problems. I had no prior knowledge of the maps and I played continuous on Ultra-Violence, with savegames mid-level (not during encounters to cheat the RNG or to facilitate anything), which is always a good choice to limit playing time and frustration. The full game still required 13 and ½ hours for completion; considering that some maps were notably shorter, it testifies for the sheer length of the most ambitious entries. I maxed out most of the maps in the first episode, then I noticed that the average 25 minutes per map were already too much to extend them further with secret hunting. I rarely felt challenged by the combat in Community Chest 2, and my only deaths took place in the schizophrenic and claustrophobic MAP05, in the toughest moments of MAP22, in the purposely unfriendly MAP28, and in the exhausting final stretch of MAP24.

 

Just like its predecessor, Community Chest 2 is an excellent time machine, a trip to the roots of Doomworld and modern mapping. I would not count the gameplay or the consistence among its best features, as they were not the priority 19 years ago, but it was still a pleasurable experience. The participants just wanted to show off their ideas and obtain the desired “wow” effect, so there is quite a bit of technical skill to admire here. While it is encouraging to see so much effort and enthusiasm put into the creation of Doom levels, its excesses should be a lesson to everyone. The magnum-opus syndrome in community projects rooted in that age of mapping; much has been done since then to keep it under control with rules and restrictions, but it still burns beneath the ashes like any form of artistic expression. Great inspiration and productivity are blessings for any creator, though in my opinion their right place is neither in community projects nor in 32-map megaWADs.

 

Best maps:

MAP 06 – The View by Thomas Lutrov

MAP 19 – The Marbelous Three by Jan Engelhardt

MAP 23 – Death Mountain by Cyber-menace

MAP 29 – Event Horizon by Boris Iwanski

 

Other standout maps:

MAP 07 – To Hell and Back by Ian Cunnings

MAP 11 – Beyond Pain by Dennis Meuwissen

MAP 13 – Annihilation Invention by Jeffrey Graham

MAP 32 – Sodding Death by Chris Hopkins

 

Special mentions map:

MAP 24 – The Mucus Flow by B.P.R.D

Edited January 31, 2023 by Book Lord

[Poncho1]

Map30: In Threes

Author: Mike Watson (Cyb)

 

Well, our final map is certainly better looking than the same author's Hell Revealed II entries, but plays about as well. The first half is a woefully unexciting, repetitive switch-press/key-grab gimmick that only gets riveting at the end when Arch-viles come out of the woodwork. BFG dealt with them rather swiftly. Before entering the Icon of Sin room, I accidentally skipped the bulk cells, so I went in with maybe 2 BFG shots worth of cell ammo... not that it mattered, because the final boss here is pathetically easy. All you do is grab the remaining keys from the all-key switch platforms, then go round again and press them all, after which the boss will spontaneously combust. *Almost* as easy as van der Velden's final map from last time, only here it feels anticlimactic, seeing as how this WAD's Map29 wasn't insanely challenging. Bah.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Well, Community Chest 2 is very similar to the first entry in the series: it has its ups and downs, and a massive variety of mapping styles that don't gel together (given as the order can go from Boom-trickery, highly-detailed works like The Flange Peddler's To Hell and Back to Gene Bird's fun but highly-underdetailed The Pit). There are also many stretches of levels that I personally didn't enjoy much: Map32 to about Map22 was, for the most part, quite underwhelming - Map17 being an exception - and made for some depressing playthroughs. With the exceptions of Gene Bird and The Flange Peddler, just about every other map was a unique entry from a single author (Lutrov could be lumped with the first two as he kinda co-made Map22), so we have a plethra of unique voices, which is nice on one hand, but having to resort to fall back on Gene's Blind Alley series once again showed that, just with the first Community Chest, the development leaders either didn't give authors enough time to make more than one map, or were simply just inexperienced and thought that that was the only way to reach the 32-map limit. As such, as with that 8 map stretch I mentioned, good chunks of the WAD can be a massive slog, which isn't helped by some of the individual levels being quite lengthy, which is an issue that plagued the first entry. It's not quite as bad as with the first (no level takes 2 hours like Magikal's magnum opus), though it seems to be a recurring theme in the series to have maps that take well over 10 minutes to beat, even UV-Max speedrunning them.

 

That said, some of these levels are genuinely good. The Ultimate DooMer absolutely redeemed himself for his shocking Pistol Panic last time around with City Heat, one of my favourite city maps of all time; Andy Leaver proves to once again be adept with his combat as well as his competent visuals, cementing himself as the go-to Map17 guy; psyren's semi-slaughter tech rampage managed to set itself apart from most of the WAD's other levels with its fast-paced gameplay; Gene Bird, in spite of a few hiccups this time around, still delivered the unpretentious goods when needed, and thus never deserved to become Doomworld's habitual punching bag; Use3D, like DooMer, redeemed himself with Gethsemane, a very fun adventure map that was neither too confusing nor annoying, and focused on being a fun big-weapons raunch of a time; Lutrov, considering he was quite young making his maps, proved to also be a shining newcomer; The Flange Peddler's first two levels were competent techbase shootouts that used Boom wizardry in fun ways; and, of course, B.P.R.D. left an undeniably influential mark on the community at large with his infamous The Mucus Flow that, though flawed, still won me over with its intense combat and perfect atmosphere.

 

It's thus a little sad that some contributors never returned either to the series or to mapmaking in general since Community Chest 2's release: Gene Bird hasn't touched a Doom editor since, it seems; B.P.R.D. made a handful of other maps before abandoning the community to focus on Commander Keen mods; though I didn't like his map, Draconio also vanished off the face of Doomworld; The Flange Peddler indeed returned for the third entry, but disappeared right after, too. It's almost as if Community Chest 2 put a curse on some of these mappers that obliged them to never touch a map editor again (or at least less frequently). Which is a shame, since I can't be the only person who'd like to see what a modern B.P.R.D. or Gene Bird map would look like today. Only time will tell...

 

Best Level: Map15 (City Heat)

Honourable Mentions: Map13 (Annihilation Invention); Map27 (Gethsemane); Map24 (The Mucus Flow)

 

Worst Level: Map28 (No Room)

Dishonourable Mentions: Map21 (Undead Nation); Map05 (Elixir); Map18 (Internal Reaches 3)/Map32 (Sodding Death)

 

So, first 2 entries down, the last 2 to go. I've only gone through the first third of Community Chest 3 before giving up, and about half of Community Chest 4 (before accidentally overriding my save file with another WAD years ago); since the fourth entry was this club's very first covered WAD, I suppose Cchest3 might be in the future, and I hear it's leagues better in terms of quality over the first two. We shall see...

Edited February 5, 2023 by Poncho1

[Veeda Vidlak]

Map 30: In Threes (GZoom, complevel 9, UV pistol start)

 

I tend to skip IOS maps as I never like them. I’ll obviously do this one because I’m reviewing the wad.

 

In Threes hardly improves my opinion of this style of level. The start is unpleasant, requiring the player to perform the same repetitive task several times (grab key, open a key door, fight awkward imps/chaingunners/revenants). There’s damaging blood everywhere you’ll take unacceptable amounts of damage from, and I got telefragged by an imp my first run about ten seconds in. Joy. This section ends with an invul and four arch-viles porting in which you're intended to use rockets on then Tyson when you run out. They’re pointless, just use the invul to run past them and proceed to the IOS. They can’t pursue you there.

 

The Icon section is thankfully quick and painless. You have three little shrine things with keys and switches (that take all six keys to activate, three of which you already have). There are three more switches that allow you to access said shrines, which are closed off initially. There’s a ton of spawners but their endpoints are clearly marked so telefrags are largely avoidable. Get the three keys and activate all three shrine switches and you win. Perfunctory and short, thank God.

 

Alright, recap

 

First things first, I was surprised by how many levels I liked. I remembered so little from my playthrough years ago I figured CC2 would be Mucus Flow & Co. filled with boring, dated slogs and sleep-inducing combat. But I largely enjoyed this one, honestly about as much as CC3 (which I’ve played much more recently and can recall its levels better). City Heat, Sodding Death, Thematic Elements, Beyond Pain, Event Horizon, Death Mountain… These are just some of the more prominent examples in my mind of rewarding players who stick with it after putting up with Elixir (which, being map05 can be compared to CC3’s map05. Is this a trend? I won’t speculate further because the club hasn’t played CC3 yet).

 

And its not like the rest of the wad is total dreck. Most the other maps I found entertaining, quirky, or at least short and speedmappy. Gene Bird’s contributions were fun SSG slaughterfests that got the juices flowing, encouraging me to pretend I’m a speedrunner. Maplets like The Marbelous Three, Idee Fixe, and The Transformer served as breaks, pleasant to spend a few minutes in without overstaying their welcome. Brutal epics like Sodding Death and No Room present dazzling visuals and punishing gameplay, appealing to those that have acquired the taste. And of course, there is The Mucus Flow, a legendary piece of history that is among my favorite maps of all time.

 

That said, if there is one pervasive theme in CC2 it is resource deprivation. It’s not just the Mucus Flow (which turns out to be a great thematic fit for this mapset), every other level seems to demand Spartan management of health and/or ammo, presenting attrition as the greatest threat. This gets discouraging after a while and Elixir in particular seems to gatekeep the wad seeing how early it’s placed. One of the reasons I appreciate The View, City Heat, and Bird’s maps (among a couple others) is that they don’t do this. You can let loose with your weapons without fear you’ll eventually be forced into a boxing simulator (or softlocked by cyberdemons, it happens).

 

At the end of the day, I love this game and its hard to make killing demons boring. Community Chest 2 is not an advanced megawad but even compared to some recent mapsets I’ve played I had a good time. I enjoy variety, difficulty swings, and perhaps most importantly, roughness. It’s not uncommon I prefer to play a wad filled with experimentation and questionable oversight over 32 tuned levels with a unified theme (all else being equal), drawing me to initiatives like community chests and the DMPs. Community Chest 2 certainly fits the bill, with the only unifying theme being how uneven the entries are. It was fun to review this, and I’ll see everyone in February (yes, I know that’s tomorrow).

 

My top 5, in no particular order

 

The Mucus Flow

City Heat

Sodding Death

Event Horizon

Then take your pick of The View, Thematic Elements, or Death Mountain.

Edited February 1, 2023 by Veeda Vidlak

[Crusader No Regret]

Is it my memory being shaky or does map 28 have inescapable pits and falls?  Though if I am remembering correctly, that sort of thing would fit in with all the other trolling in the map.

 

Map 15:

 

    With a bit of foreknowledge (where the weapons are and how to get through the building 8 slime maze) this map is lots of fun.  I've finished Fragport before so the monster placement is very on-brand for The Ultimate Doomer but it does keep the player engaged even when it gets predictable.  Gave it a few tries and after a stumble or three, got into the groove of the map.  Even with my health going up and down like a seesaw, there's enough resources around to recover from all the lumps.  Until it went straight to zero when a cyber rocket impacted my marine.  Didn't remember the second cyber in the last timed wave and it snuck up on me.  Tended to stay low on rockets so my route could use some tweaking.

 

  On top of all the other praise for the map, there's the fact that all the secret exits switches are reachable without needing to hit any of the green switches.  Which is a neat bit of trivia and also helps narrow down where to search for them.  Another interesting element is how there's no blue armor other than the starting (forced so no saving it for later) megasphere and one other so got to be choosy about when to use them.

 

  Fantastic map for making your own route based on your own preferred playstyle and what you want to accomplish.  Want to grab all the weapons before seeking out all the switches?  Sure.  Prefer to fullclear every building in one trip?  It's your sandbox (as long as your armaments are up to the task)  Want to push through swiftly that an exit is available before the last timed wave even shows (and the second if you're really swift)?  That's a valid option.  And anything in between too.  The timed waves also serve a purpose of encouraging fast progress (access to ammo and health making going quickly worthwhile even for methodical playstyles) without being heavyhanded about it.  So even my inclination towards infighting doesn't feel like the author intends to punish me for trying.  I feel that this map is in the running for best map of the megawad and its playability has endured the passage of time much better than 24.

[Devalaous]

Completed two maps the other day while my previous ISP decided to threaten us and terminate our account...because we hadn't payed $0 that was due, an error on their side. With the downtime switching ISPs, I had some time for Doom again.

 

Beyond Pain was interesting, a rather nonlinear base to invade with three main directions to go in at your choice. Took me quite a while to finish.

 

Redemption is easily the best Gene Bird map so far, and I definitely had fun with it.