The DWmegawad Club plays: Fragport

[galileo31dos01]

Hello! For those who are unaware and/or interested, in map 10 there is a specific pillar with an important key on top that you're supposed to lower with a switch, except in vanilla the setup is unfortunately dysfunctional. Boom or gzdoom users shouldn't need to worry about it, but for those who play in choco/dosbox/crispy/cl2 I'm offering my own patch that has that bit fixed: fragp10v.zip

 

Make sure you load fragport.wad first and the patch second. 

Edited March 6, 2023 by galileo31dos01

[Book Lord]

25 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Hello! For those who are unaware and/or interested, in map 10 there is a specific pillar with an important key on top that you're supposed to lower with a switch, except in vanilla the setup is unfortunately dysfunctional. Boom or gzdoom users shouldn't need to worry about it, but for those who play in choco/dosbox/crispy/cl2 I'm offering my own patch that has that bit fixed: fragp10v.zip

 

Make sure you load fragport.wad first and the patch second. 

Thanks! The topic has already been foreshadowed, but a patch to fix the WAD on the run is surely appreciated. 

 

The problem is likely to appear in most source posts. I played in DSDA Doom in cl2, which I am sure it's the same most people would choose to emulate a vanilla compatibile 2001 WAD. This might be one of the so-called ZDoom-ism typical of the early 21st century.

 

Maybe we should report @Xymph and other Doomwiki maintainers that the MAP10 page fails to mention this stuff. Fragport is old enough to have it covered. 

[Roofi]

Yes, I'm currently in map 23 and map 10 was the only map with a critical softlock for now. The Ultimate Doomer merged two sectors but the central sector can't work properly with the s1 "floor lower to 8 above highest floor" on cl2. 

 

 

 

Map 06 "Ironclad"

 

 

Yeah more ships ! And that one is a lot more imposing than the small boat we took to reach it. You have the mission to sink the boat by exploding the magazine with your RL (or the other weapons like your shotgun or chaingun). Before that, every part of the ship must be visited and cleaned out.

 

I love how the music of "Mid the way id did" fits so well with the theme. It really feels like I'm on a very risky mission, like I'm some kind of undercover agent. Unlike the previous maps which had a realistic look but also a bit of abstraction, here the layout follows the shape of the ship and the arrangement of the rooms seems credible. I think my favourite room is the pause room with all the zombies obviously having lunch. This room becomes a real ammunition storehouse after you've taken out everything! I mentioned it in the first map, but I really love how The Ultimate Doomer names the rooms it creates, and it's even more the case here. It shows that he doesn't draw anything randomly and that the rooms have a purpose: the bar, the magazine, "mess", the bridge...

 

Once you have neutralised the crew, an army of cacodemons storms the ship. Despite being quite well staged, the fight is more boring than anything else as the more shy cacodemons move away from you when you shoot at them. This forces us to wait for them to be finished off. This is not a big deal for a simple playthrough, but this type of scenario can quickly become a nightmare during an uv-max. It is also unclear how to finish this level. If you ever fall in the water, it's easy to believe that there's a softlock when all you have to do is shoot the magazine.

 

In any case it is an excellent map to justify the transition text. It is my favourite so far. Behind it is map 03, but map 03 didn't convince me as much in terms of exploration. you should play this map if you liked Overboard or the Frigate mission from Goldeneye 64

 

Grade : A

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Roofi

[Devalaous]

I updated my patch with the map 10 fix, thanks for that! (Credited accordingly too~)

 

I have to admit the 'one map a day' is stifling, I want to blast through more maps in this set after the first 'episode' enthralled me. While I *can* play ahead, I'll lose the memories of all the cool stuff pretty quickly. I guess I should try to catchup on CC2 in the meantime.

[Xymph]

1 hour ago, Book Lord said:

Maybe we should report @Xymph and other Doomwiki maintainers that the MAP10 page fails to mention this stuff. Fragport is old enough to have it covered.

You can update it yourself. It is, after all, a wiki. :)

 

[Book Lord]

49 minutes ago, Xymph said:

You can update it yourself. It is, after all, a wiki. :)

 

Good point, I surely will, even though I have not a DoomWiki.org account yet. I will create it for the job, as I already contributed some Wiki stuff in other topics.

 

1 hour ago, Devalaous said:

I have to admit the 'one map a day' is stifling, I want to blast through more maps in this set after the first 'episode' enthralled me. While I *can* play ahead, I'll lose the memories of all the cool stuff pretty quickly. I guess I should try to catchup on CC2 in the meantime.

 

The DWMC is less about playing, more about extensively talking/writing about the maps. As you might notice, the quantity of text and feedback elicited by each map is strongly subjective here. Some are OK with a small paragraph, some post a video and a few sentences, others write like a stream of consciousness. Users can keep up with the schedule as they see fit.

 

Reading what the others submit is part of the activity, and I find it much more bearable when I have to read about 1 map per day, with the 15th being an exception with its usual 3 maps (secret maps are not always short!). I also play ahead but I write down reviews in a separate file after playing, so that memories do not fade away, and I edit the piece once again before posting it on the target day. The file also helps containing the length, even though I sometimes exceed the 1-page maximum I auto-imposed myself.

Edited March 6, 2023 by Book Lord

[Helm]

MAP 06 - Ironclad

I'm on a boat! 

The chonky, fun, simple layouts conveying realistic spaces continue. This one is the titular Ironclad, a demon infested military vehicle Jody is going to promptly reclaim. The combat is a mix of more of what we've seen so far, to be quite honest. There is an archvile dominating the bar space for a moment while you go and find guns, dispatching some low and mid-tier on the decks threatening to cut off your space. The different rooms and compartments of the Ironclad are marked with text as is the author's want so far in the set. There is a sector helipad at the front of ship which I always like seeing. The way up through the 'Offices' shows hell nobility having taken over the choice spots, how greedy. I get so enraged with one of them I try to chainsaw them with righteous class zeal and get zero luck with the painchance and die. But where Jody came from there is another Jody!

We slowly take apart the nobles in the offices while the Smiths are going on about losing their faith with womanhood in my shuffle playlist and I'm like, Jody probably likes the Smiths (she fucking hates Morissey) and will unironically slaughter mancubi while listening to something like 'it takes courage to be gentle and kind' so that's the vibe. 

Ultimately we go in the bar with an SSG and make a commotion. The archvile isn't happy about it nor are his revenant bullies but the layout allows for them to be set on each other, if only just for fun. We get the red key from the bar along with many little drinks on sector tables. Most of our problems in life are because we aren't hydrated enough, Jody has a skincare routine involving bile collected from cacodemon cloacas but that's neither here nor there 

Red key grants us access to the bridge, which is a doomcute helm replete with a bunch of chaingunners that die comically to presage an archvile who also, in the middle of the room doesn't have more in him than to zap you once, perhaps. The ship is nearly ours. We only have to go down below deck. 

Long metal2 corridors with narrow little rooms that open up, notable in a hilarious galley filled with pinkies and pain elemental cook, an engine room with a long stairway straight out of TNT... the geometry there is such I managed to catch myself into and get punched to death by revs (excuse the minor rewind, I hadn't saved in a while).  The engine room has the last key, a megaarmor and a soulsphere that immediately repair whatever damage the map has thrown to us so far.

The mess hall has 40 little dudes packed as densely as possible in it and indeed we make a mess of them, what a messy hall. The mapset has a sense of humour. The Magazine is filled with annoying coal workers, and of course there are toilets with sector thrones. A Bog indeed.

All keys in hand we clear out the final underground room, the storage, flip a switch and go back on top to see some minor reinforcements complicating our exit, including a comically spottable vile inside a wall. As has been this set's theme, the final complication involves a cacocloud that is boring to fight in an open floor plan and not particularly likely to kill us at any rate. 

For an exit, the mapper has something odd in mind for us. Some extensions to lifeboats are revealed to us and we take the plunge, peppering the final few cacodemons as we realize that the engine of the Ironclad is exposed to our fire. We pump some  ammunition into the hidden romero head and make our escape from the presumably sinking Ironclad. Jody is such a badass! 

The danger in the set so far has been minimal. Everything up to this point is a fairly painless single segment, as I am seeing from the demos. We're having fun, though, the little storytelling goes a long way. footage
 

[Celestin]

MAP06: Ironclad

 

The boat from the previous level takes the hero a large ship in the middle of a sea. The upper deck is the least exciting part of the map. Plunder the officers' quarters for guns, crash the party at the bar and take control of the bridge (with an archvile ambush in a room with no cover - not cool). Here you can find a switch that opens the lower deck, a separate section of the map linked by a teleporter.

 

I'd say this is where the fun begins. Rooms like the sleeping quarters or the mess hall are stuffed with trash monsters that just ask to be mowed down with a chaingun, while the reactor room adds some verticality. Once reaching an explosives-filled cargo hold, you can return to the top deck and face two cacodemon clouds. You should have enough rockets and cells to dispatch them with ease, though they often tend to get pushed back and it takes time before they return. All there's left to do is to jump into the sea, find a glowing red hole and shoot it until it explodes.

 

It's a good, action-filled map with some neat details. Probably the best one so far.

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 06: Ironclad

Kills and Secrets: 100%

Time: 13:25

 

Looks like we've made it to a ship, and they're not really welcoming to people who are lost at sea apparently. This map reminded me a lot of Derelict from Duke Nukem Atomic Edition back in the day, but given this is a 2001 vanilla Doom mod, it's nowhere near as detailed and intractably designed. Still, this is a pretty good map! Most of the rooms are labeled on the ship, and they all look pretty much like what they're labeled as. Pistol starters will want to head to the officer's quarters to find the SSG, RL, and plasma, each guarded by a hell noble. The bar has a lively crowd, especially with the 2 rev dancers and archie bartender. A good chunk of the enemies happen to be the zombies in the mess hall, so don't worry about dealing with a ton of tough encounters in a ship. While the narrow confines of the ship may seem like the fights would resemble the mines, you can just door camp mostly everything and be fine. The toughest fight is in the reactor room, as the various height differences can make hitting things difficult. Rockets are the best way to quickly take out the revs at the bottom, but entering the room at such a high elevation makes hitting them tough, and taking the fight down to their level means you don't have a lot of distance between you and them. At least the mancs up at the top can't really hit you down there. The only tedious part of this map is taking out the 2 caco clouds at the end. I do like how the first one you see after coming back up from the ship's bowels look like they had flown in from far away. It might take a minute to find that parts of the front of the ship lowered allowing access to 2 boats at the bottom. Jump down, grab the rockets, and blast the red part of the ship, destroying it. Overall, a pretty fun map! 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 06: Ironclad

 

Oh man, it's Joe Satriani's greatest instrumental, ready to pummel our poor eardrums into oblivion but admittedly kind of appropriate for scuttling a ship. There isn't too much to it, but pistol-starters like us should not immediately head to the bar unless we want to get immediately blasted by an Arch-vile/chaingunner combo. Although the Arch-vile bartender and Revenant dancers are quite the sight. Anyways, we have to go down into the officer's quarters and retrieve some weapons before we can go take care of business, but not before having to shotgun at least one Hell Noble. Let's hope it's not the one with the Baron (it isn't). We draw a plasma rifle and then proceed to the bar, although we somewhat wish we'd at least gone for the SS for reasons that become clear in the demo. I don't think it's strictly necessary though.

 

What is necessary is heading to the captain's quarters at one end of the ship, killing the Arch--vile and chaingunner swabbies manning the equipment, then pressing the switch allowing us to go belowdecks. Although I'm not entirely certain that Stephen had learned to do a silent teleport at this stage because we're greeted with the Heretic teleportation sound at a certain point. We are taken to a place with a series of amusing situations that are largely in close quarters. Safe to say that I liked the reactor room best due to some measure of strategy when it comes to hiding from the Mancubi and dealing with the proper way to rocket/do whatever to the Revenants. Speaking of which the Revenant in the "magazine" (iron-smelting) room gave me an ouchie! The Lost souls in "Bog" (bathroom) were a little disappointing. But there are plenty of other wads that feature Imps on toilets.

 

Anyways, we'll terminate in a storage room which has a switch that oddly enough opens the way to the water near the helipad in addition to opening a closet with an Arch-vile who was sticking out of the wall and more concerningly, cause two swarms of Cacos to start streaming in our direction. After futzing around and ending up with 2 rockets, we weren't in the mood for other reasons so we then ran toward the helipad, spotted the space, dropped down, then spotted a red pillar similar to the reactor pillars and proceeded to lob 2 rockets into the core. Unfortunately, we also blew ourselves up in the process but the level complete conditions had been met.

 

Like the best map so far I suppose.

 

Edit: So the odd names are like modern British naval terminology then? Ok

lmd_fragport06.zip

Edited March 7, 2023 by LadyMistDragon
silly omitting typo, adding a little thing at end

[Ralgor]

MAP06 - “Ironclad”
dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl2, UV, Pistol start, blind run, single segment
100% kills and secrets

 

This is the sort of map I was wanting to see in this wad. You start on the boat you captured at the end of the last map, but you've pulled up alongside a large metal ship. Your job is to get on board and destroy it.

Once onboard you can choose whether to tackle the fore or aft section. I usually go aft to get the green armor and large supply of shells. The bar is filled with plenty of patrons though, and they will start shooting at you. The main threat is the barkeeper who will zap you through the windows. With a little patience it's not too hard to clear it out with just the shotgun. You will also end up with a chaingun here as well.

Now that you have a chaingun and plenty of ammo, you should go up to the officers quarters and kill them. They are keeping a personal stash of weapons that you will need for the rest of the ship. Then you can head to the bridge and kill the captain, and unlock the access to the lower decks.

I love how this map actually has two levels. A teleporter line separates them, but luckily the teleporter sound doesn't interfere with the effect. The bowels of the ship are appropriately cramped. There's plenty of different labeled rooms down here, but the most interesting one is the reactor room with the blue key. The geometry of the stairs here makes it difficult to actually walk down them, making this room way more dangerous than it should be. There's also an ambush that gets given away since you can see an arch-vile hand appear through the wall occasionally.

Once you poke your head back up, you'll find a caco cloud waiting for you. This is a bit annoying because they have a tendency to end up drifting away where you can't shoot them. Then you have to wait until they come back. Then you have to make your way to a boat out front and rocket the front of the ship to sink it.

I have to admit I kind of got spoiled with this map. I found out about how you exit the map early because I had to look at this map in an editor to figure out the progression. The captain kept killing me because I assumed that the officer's quarters were keyed. They are lit up orange and yellow, and of course this wad doesn't have those keys. But it was enough to confuse me. I died to the captain around 4 times before I decided to look in the editor to figure out what I had missed.

I had never heard of the term "bog" before this map. I love learning little irrelevant things like that from an unexpected source.

Grade: B

 

MAP06 - 19:25.51 (19:25)  K: 135/135  I: 61/61  S: 4/4

ralgor_fragport06.zip

[DFF]

Map06: Ironclad - UV, FDWL, Continuous

K: 100 | I: 100 | S:100

A rather fun and solid boat map, with plenty of decent setpieces. This was one of the handful of maps I distinctly remember from back in the day. Coming back its a fun map but definitely a bit too cramped. The above deck areas are fine but going below deck is a bit snug. I think the map could have gotten away with widening the halls to 96 or 128 units easily without losing too much. This map is funny in that there's an even spread of things i like and that i dont like. The mess hall was a funny slaughter fest but really was just a metric ton of monsters trying to cram into one door, The boiler room was nifty but the staircase design made going down it slow and cumbersome. The exit was another interesting idea, with the caco cloud being a nice final fight idea and also an annoying one due to them floating off into the horizon after a few bullets, not to mention the player can miss the goodies in the escape boat if they fall into the water.

Despite these details, the designs were fun, the teleportation transition below decks was rather smooth and would feel really fluid if this were boom compatible and was a silent teleporter. There was also some really nasty arch vile traps which felt refreshing and weren't too unfair. There are certainly some faults with this map but it was rather enjoyable. I never understood what the magazine was as a kid, and to this day I still don't. Looked like a nifty smelter/boiler room, but if i had to guess was probably ammo storage or something of the likes.

Rankings:

Spoiler

Map01

Map06
Map05

Map03
Map02

Map04

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by DFF

[Veeda Vidlak]

Map06 “Ironclad”

 

Anyone here play Goldeneye for the N64? Well this level brings me back in the best of ways. Ironclad is a bad-to-the-bone infiltrate and destroy mission that takes you aboard a demon-controlled military vessel, making me feel like an action hero tossing corny one-liners as I gun down the baddies.

 

This map starts exactly like Goldeneye’s Frigate. You’re in a small speedboat (commandeered from the vile) and are climbing aboard a large warship from the side. Getting a foothold can be problematic, the initial low-tier weapons take awhile to kill threats and there isn’t much room to move. At the stern is a bar packed with partygoers, hitscanners, hell knights, an archvile bartender, and revenants on stage providing entertainment. This blitzed crowd will require heavier artillery so head through the door labeled “officers” to find three doors housing the weapons you need to continue (and a secret berserk).

 

Each room has a hell noble that is awkward to take out. The baron is particularly annoying, but I’d still kill him first because the SSG trivializes eliminating his two CO subordinates. Now properly armed, its time to end happy hour so go disperse the crowd to claim the red key. Use it to access the bridge, which has some chaingunners and a very annoying pop up archvile that is probably best dealt with using plasma, conceding a fiery blast if you don’t stun. The switch here reveals another switch by the only unmarked door on the main deck, allowing entry to the bowels of the ship.

 

Take the stairs down to search the lower decks, transitioning via a teleporter that would be silent if this wasn’t a 2001 wad (thank you Book Lord). This area betrays Stephen Clark's britishness... though "labour" probably already did that (TIL bog means lavatory across the pond). It honestly just adds to the charm... in fact, everything about this section is charming. The mess hall of hitscanners you make a mess out of, the galley, the magazine room with the revenants… it’s all just delightful. Well, maybe not the reactor room, that one’s stressful. In fact, it’s one of the best combat setups of the wad so far, forcing Jody to tango with revenants amidst the uncomfortably cramped engines of the vessel.

 

After defeating the monsters manning the engines its time to complete your objective. Using the blue key, hit a switch in the storage room that exposes the magazine at the bow of the ship. That archvile who sucks at hide and seek gets released now, making it clear that its time for the final battle up top. To wrap up we have a pair of cacodemon swarms that approach from each side of the vessel, a fight that is a pain in the ass in practice. The tomatoes constantly float away to the edge of the map and multiple times I was just tapping my foot, waiting for them to come back. Once you’ve suffered through this test of patience (or just decided to flip them the bird and bail), jump into the water via a hole in the hull. Fire rockets into the red aperture to blow the ironclad sky-high, no doubt turning your back to speed away before the explosion like the badass you are.

 

Our first banger. I’m a sucker for ship maps but I don’t feel like I have to grasp at straws in any way for this one. Awesome theme, awesome narrative, awesome doomcute and world-building. Like Ralgor said, this is exactly the map I was hoping for when I loaded up Fragport. The combat is still mostly tame but even it has its moments, giving us tricky setups like the opening minute and the reactor room. Outside of the caco swarm (which I just realized you can jump in the water to easily hunt down) I liked every bit of this one. Best map so far and a nice shout-out to Goldeneye.

 

Fast monster note: This one is pretty nasty. The start is vicious (don’t try to chainsaw, you need that berserk), the cabin duals are terrible, and the reactor room is very dangerous. The demonic bar brawl is fun to watch at least, just show your face and they all fly into a rage and kill each other.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Veeda Vidlak

[Book Lord]

MAP 07 – Remote Island

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

 

Jody Russell watched his lifeboat sink, barely managing to bring him on the shore of a Remote Island. Although detached from the mainland and presenting a verdant, immaculate scenery, the isle was not deserted. A bunch of Imps, Hell Knights, and Demons were waiting for the marine to land, and killing them was all but an entertaining task. Not only it felt like busywork, but the same hitscan bug seen in the open areas of MAP06 resurfaced here, causing innumerable shots to miss their target.

Spoiler

Instead of being a wildlife sanctuary, the perfectly octagonal island resembled a tourist resort, complete with attractions advertised by signs: the Village, the Boathouse, the Maze and the Beach. I decided to visit the Village first, and it happened to be the right place to go, not only to find the RK that was required to access the Maze, but also to gather ammo and a useful Computer Area Map. The Boathouse was locked by a blue security door, and it obviously contained the watercraft I needed to leave the Remote Island.

Spoiler

Next stop: the Maze. Ahh, who does not love labyrinths, especially those vine & marble eyesores that are exclusive to Doom? Navigating the layout was ridiculously easy, with the only challenge being blind as a bat, unable to see the roaming enemies and their projectiles. A second red door (why not a normal door?) contained the GK, protected by a triple closet ambush. The second key was used to access the northern tunnels, leading to a chamber with the BK. Thankfully, new monsters were deployed only in areas without vines and not in the Maze, or I would have gone insane.

Spoiler

The way out of the labyrinth led to the unused Beach. It presented some doors with health and a generous Megasphere, granted to comfortably face the glorious Cacocloud that poured around the island. As with the welcome committee, the final monster surge was a chore to kill, not only because flying monsters tended to bounce off and get lost in the wide area, but mainly because of the annoying hitscan bug. When I noticed that all 32 Cacos were dead, I made a sigh of relief. There was only another useless Arch-Vile to vanquish, before Kill Crazy obtained his new motorboat and set out for the next destination. I really should have liked this level; it gave me Monkey Island vibes, being designed as a Remote Island with ‘sightseeing locations’, but the problem with hitscan weapons, the irksome Maze, and the pointless combat sessions left me with a mixed opinion.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Book Lord

[Helm]

Map 07 - Remote Island

We land on an island that is just shy of being the right type of chonky to qualify as Minecraft block terrain. The look is fun, there's some hills delineating two avenues of approach over the topography. East side is a 'Maze Beach'. A few imps, demons and hell knights come to greet you or each other here and there. Window dressing imps and SSG strolls through the scenic rightmost path that terminates to a red keybarred passage underground. Going west towards the Boathouse yields along the path a Library housing a full automap if one is to brave get the revenants to be quiet. An unfairly placed chaingunner at the top of very steep stairs is a slight marring spot in an Inn on the way and though blowing up the two Pain Elemental guests yields satisfying loot, this slow section more than anything feels like a humorous addition and world building. The mapper is having fun and laughing at things, which gives this playthrough so far a very airy feel. Some relation to Going Down / Overboard / a bit of silliness has been noted by other forum warriors. The low difficulty is contributing to the pythonesque romp but my shuffle decided to hit me over the head with a lot of raging thrash that didn't necessarily vibe with a surrealistic leisurely resort town stroll, instead Jody is hopped up on berserk uppers looking for demons to punch. 


Eventually we return to the red barred grassy passageway to the centre of the map, the titular maze. We dead drop in an extremely midtexture vine heavy maze that mostly features ambush imps you have to kill by sound, and since I was listening to fucking Dark Angel more than I was listening to imps, I get clipped by a lot of minor damage down there. This isn't an enjoyable part of this map at all. There's secrets in the vine maze as well, have fun! 

Eventually the vines open up to a green key blood basin that triggers a fight that could be pretty bad if you don't happen to be holding the plasma rifle but kind of throwaway if you were happening to be holding the plasma rifle, ymmv. There's a lot of ammo down here! 

With the green key we go even further down, darker still, to be ambushed by revenants in 64 wide corridors a couple of times. Ultimately this dank and dreary corridor stomp ends to a blue key arena space with a few arachnotrons as a first taste. The map does get to feel a bit exhausting by the time it springs its archvile key guard to you, and a strangely functioning lift being the main mechanism for defeating him doesn't allow this map any gold stars at any rate. My tiredness got me as then you get a monster closet to spring 8 mancubi in a firing squad formation in front of you and I ate shit the first time. On reload, with the help of Nekromanteon I manage to dodge the many manc projectiles and carry on with all keys down the 64 corridor, get even more berserk juice in Jody to escape to the surface for one more round of... you guessed it, cacoclouds as a climax. Jody had a lot of ammo on her and the terrain was more helpful to herd the red stuff down the rocket path, but in any case we can't keep down cacocloud ending every single time, friend!

It was a fun romp, though I get turned around here and there, I gave up on all secrets even with my automap all filled, the secrets just don't call out to me on this one.  Generally few deaths in this set up to this point, a chill time, listening to Jody's playlist and mowing down cacodemons as we finally return to the blue key locked Boathouse. There is an archvile on a boat and an extra nice touch, much like Half Life we get to drop the garage door before we take the boat, sans vile out for a spin. footage

Edited March 7, 2023 by Helm

[Devalaous]

Map 7 is a fun little island adventure, starting in the wrecked ship you drifted in on. Thankfully its not a hot start, and the boat has the decency to wait till your on land before it sinks fully. The island is pretty small, especially compared to the kind of stuff Ive seen Stephen Clark make later. I went right first and took out all the hell knights and imps all over the place, and defused a demon ambush on the beach, as well as taking out a hell knight (or was it a baron?) hiding behind the blue key pillar who would ambush me otherwise. Going left takes me to a 'village' which gives me a feeling that this little island used to be a small tourist spot with a gift shop, a small library/museum, and housing for two, with visitors likely coming on the boat in the boathouse. What is there to attract people on this island? Thats behind the red key pillar.

 

Under the island is an overgrown maze of tunnels with a mysterious room at one end. Honestly, it reminds me of my childhood and these old WW2 tunnels at this one hill that eventually got closed off and sealed. I had very little trouble in here, as its all imps and one caco. The big room had arachnotrons and mancubi, as its a Map07, and of course an extremely predictable archvile. I am calling almost every one of his traps by this point and its only map 7!

 

The way out lead to the corpse of the noble I had preemptively killed, and a pile of dead demons I had also killed, but I wasnt out of the woods yet, because there was a great cacocloud again. Honestly, I kind of hate cacoclouds. Its a spectacle the first time you see a huge swarm of them, but after that its a ho-hum exercise of shaping them into a group to be circled around and letting the air out of them one by one, or in twos if your lucky, and they take FOREVER to get rid of. Once they were all deflated, I took care of any stragglers, restocked, and headed to the boathouse to kill the extremely predictable archvile, open the boathouse (unneeded but immersive!) and headed out to sea.

 

Then in Map 8, well, Jody seems to be a bad driver, because hes sunk another boat. Thats four/five boats hes wrecked! Since im using Project Doom's TNT wad, the ludicrously energetic Metal theme blasted as I stormed the beach at high speed and took care of all the imps and demons on the rocky shore. Like the last map, the boat will only sink once youve hit the shore. Its unfortunate there isnt more to the beach, was hoping for a cave or two and maybe a rocky lagoon. The only way to go is up a little rocky staircase on the cliff that I fell off 5 or so times. Above is a winding rocky trail through the cliffs, with a frustrating amount of magical immersion-ruining pop up monsters *shakes fist*, and a glass pillar in a canyon that cacos are sitting on top of (its likely a level hack to simulate the cacos being in the air already as you turn the corner. All it did for me was cause a laugh as a caco died on top of it, its corpse mysteriously floating.)

 

Stephen really loves his square pressure pad secrets, they are still popping up in his more modern maps like City Heat from CC2. I am so used to how he does his traps in Fragport that at the end I sighed and said 'Hello Archvile 1, 2, 3..' as I revealed the obvious archviles guarding each exit switch.

 

It'll be a while before I get around to the next two maps.

[Roofi]

Map 07 "Remote Island"

 

 

 

 

It appears that The Ultimate Doomer thought about me because green is one of my favourite color. After a risky mission aboard the Ironclad, I felt relieved to touch so much fresh grass but aren't map 07 supposed to be a tad more menacing because of the timeless "Duel against mancs + spider" gimmick? Remote Island's breaks the rule and offers a rather relaxing stroll at the seaside instead, with some building housing a lot of goodies and  a mystic overgrown marbled temple.

 

Remote Island acts more as a breather because I considered easier compared to "Ironclad" which wasn't difficult too but contained a tighter ammo balance and crampier combat zones. I specifically love the outdoors of this map and how the mapper converted the grassy flats into wall textures in order to give a more unified look. In counterparts, the viny indoors maze was not only more confused but also very bland as it showed a real lack of inspiration. The Ultimate Doomer didn't aggravate this part by adding just a few monsters in the maze at least. 

 

The row of mancubus hidden in a closet surprised me a bit but this fight is nothing special apart from that. The flock of cacodemons that tried to kill you in map 06 comes back again, but they are much too slow and killing them is not a problem at all, especially thanks to the generous megasphere obtained just before...

 

Anyway, it's a lovely map. Green color and islands are my jam , and I like when map 07 don't respect the tradition.

 

Grade : A-

 

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by Roofi

[Celestin]

MAP07: Remote Island

 

A sinking boat land on the shores of a small island occupied by demonic hordes. It's mostly imps and hell knights on the beaches, even with a super shotgun it's a tedious task to kill them all. The only way that does not require a key leads to the village (a rather bold claim, it's just 3 buildings), where you can arm yourself and find the red key that opens the way to the maze.

 

I hate this part, it's an underground corridors with vines blocking your view and imps everywhere. Two ambushes here nearly killed me, one in green key room with all kinds of crap, the other in blue key chamber with a firing squad of mancubi.

 

Emerging from the maze, we have yet another flock of cacodemons and an archvile on a boat. Seriously, it's only 7th map and Stephen Clark is already recycling ideas from earlier levels. I like the narrative side (I think it's some sort of tourist spot, with ancient complex as the main attraction), but the gameplay here is pretty weak.

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 07: Remote Island

Kills: 100%, Secrets: 66%

Time: 17:25

Deaths: 1 (face rocket)

 

Our little boat has sunk and we've washed up on the shore of a tiny island. Why this tiny island has a shop, library, and a 2 room hotel, IDK. The outskirts of this island is mostly imps and hell knights just chillin'. Nothing too hard. You get the red key from one of the hotel rooms, and this gives access to the maze, the main portion of the island. Inside, there are vines everywhere, and they block your vision pretty well. Thankfully, it's all imps in the vine covered halls, so no big threat. The big threats are the other 2 key ambushes, that you can definitely predict (especially with the auto-map you get from the library). Leaving the maze with the blue key takes you back outside, with another lackadaisical caco cloud to deal with. Another archie captain awaits you in the boathouse, so smack them with 4 rockets, and you're good to leave this island. Overall, this map is fine. Maze is ok. I prefer exploring the outskirts and raiding the buildings. 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 07: Remote Island

 

 

After, in the words of those great generational commentators Jigsaw being "..blown sky hiiiiiiiiii," we find ourselves on the island indicated in the text screen. At least we're not being like the Lonely Island anymore, although that's only for the moment.

   Who really knows why we're here, but the name says it all. It's probably on the Azores or somewhere close if I were to hazard a guess. The vast and open grassland covering the entire island definitely suggests a colder climate than probably exists in the Seychelles or Mauritius. Given that, the midi choice does make a fair bit of sense. I'm really not familiar with Weezer at all but I have heard this song so I now know why; it's an incredibly generic example of 90s folk-adjacent rock music. Like one could've probably picked Gin Blossom's "Alison Road" or maybe that one Hootie and the Blowfish song and achived a similar effect.

 

But no matter, this map is actually built for pistol start because in addition to prolific amounts of ammo, weapons are handed out almost at the beginning! Probably best to not bother climbing the grass pyramids since the Hell Knights and Imps nearby will just climb after us anyways if they're not already on it. Head towards the wharf on the left and several enemies that always seem to include chaingunners at the store fronts will attack. There are valuable weapons here though. The building at the far end of the plaza has two rooms, each containing a Pain Elemental that is child's play to eliminate. One of these rooms contains a red key. This key opens a path into the hedge maze making up much of the island's terrain. We're not really fans of the ceiling, but at the same time, overgrown vines located periodically cunningly concealing Imps that can't really be dodged until it's too late. But a berserk pack was already injected somewhere in one of the above-mentioned wharf buildings so its fine. Well, it's a little repetitive and boring but it's also not the worst maze anyone has ever made. 

 

The green key triggers an old-school double-headed Stephen Clark trap, sans an Arch-vile. And that's another way this map rather departs from the rest in the set. Besides the fact that we're overloaded enough with rockets and plasma that disposing of these guys is fairly trivial, the traps sort of lack the bite that those in previous maps had. There is a secret backpack that's incredibly easy to miss because the fake wall in question is located in the middle of the maze. 

 

Still, either green door will lead to a long hallway, one containing a Revenant and the other containing a poor Arch-vile, both being too far away to really hurt us unless we're incredibly incompetent at side-stepping. Both of these hallways lead to a room that's kind of bland, probably like storage and/or disposal with an Arachnotron gazing out at us. Climb to the ledge they were on, press a switch, and unleash a quad of Mancubi that's actually far harder to dodge than you might expect! Maybe Stephen should have really gone more for the 'simple but effective' kinds of traps because we nearly were killed due to some carelessness and it was just a good thing we'd picked up a map because it revealed a hidden chamber with a berserk pack. 

 

Although it's probably a little useless because the blue key acquired in the same room will open another hallway out of here....containing a Megasphere which was honestly almost completely unnecessary. Like there are a few Imps that could probably have burned us alive otherwise and there are also masses of pinkies, as well as....Cacodemons because since they were at the end of the last map, they make complete sense here. At least there's plenty of ammo for your heavier guns to make this part not really that bad, and honestly, it's probably a little too much. But no matter, we head to the boathouse at the far end, unlock it with the blue key, and take out another Arch-vile that probably has their travel plans somewhere in the boat because we'd have no idea where to go otherwise.

 

I think this is probably better than Durncrag Town, but it does suffer from the same sort of monotonous texture usage, albeit with some hints of other ones. It does make a little bit more sense here and honestly, it's probably a little bit more fun overall, if lacking some of the claustrophobic explosiveness of the former. In any case, it probably took only slightly less time than the last map which probably says something about both Remote Island's flow and expansiveness.

 

PS: Recorded om HMP by mistake but in a wad like this, maybe that's better!

lmd_fragport07.zip

Edited March 8, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[Ralgor]

MAP07 - “Remote Island”
dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl2, UV, Pistol start, blind run, single segment
100% kills and secrets

 

I'm playing the "enhanced" version that is in frgprt07.wad. The only difference is that the straight lines of the standard version are replaced by numerous curved lines. It's a good improvement, but I know it won't run on the standard exe.

Now we've arrived at some resort island, replete with vacationers trying to relax. Well, they were before we showed up. We're going to crash this party. Step off your boat before it sinks into the sea. You can pick up the chaingun on the right pretty well immediately, but the for SSG you'll have to walk up the hill and then come back toward it. That should be all of the weapons you need to start eliminating the demons.

As soon as you get off of the boat, I recommend you turn left and visit the library for a map of the island. There's also a gift shop here with exactly what any visitor to a demon-infested island would want: a rocket launcher. There's also a plasma rifle in one of the hotel rooms adjacent to the shop.

Now you can head back past the start and into some vine-overrun ruins in the center of the island. I'm not exactly certain what all this is supposed to be, but it works. The vines really block your vision, making the imps that wander the halls much more dangerous than they would normally be. Eventually you end up in some sort of control room deep inside. You have to kill the resort manager (an arch-vile) to grab the blue key.

Once outside you'll find some nasty weather in the form of a caco-cloud. Clear them out, and then use your blue key to get access to the boathouse in the northeast containing a new boat for you. Kill the skipper and steal it, just like before. Hopefully it doesn't get sunk this time.

I had a lot of fun with this map. I think I just barely liked the previous map better, but it was close. There's plenty of color in this map too, unlike the previous levels.

Grade: B

MAP07 - 17:30.43 (17:30)  K: 145/145  I: 7/7  S: 3/3

ralgor_fragport07.zip

[Veeda Vidlak]

Map07 “Remote Island”

 

Stumbling off the sinking lifeboat, Jody finds himself (herself?) on a strange octagon shaped island. Currently marooned, we must find another ship to leave and continue our mission.

 

Right away we are presented with a rather nice-looking tropical locale, built in a terrace style comparable to Minecraft. Hell knights and imps patrol the outside in force but the starting weapons are more than sufficient to deal with them. It’s actually bothersomely grindy, though at least ammo isn't a problem. At the north of the island, we have some little shacks that imply this is a tourist destination, a library, a shop, an inn, and a boathouse housing the craft you need. For now we just need the red key up in one of the hotel rooms, which gives the amusing impression the occupant (PE) is on vacation and has it to go sightseeing at the island's main attraction.

 

The red key allows us to enter the mysterious blankness in the center of the island, accessed via a rocky tunnel guarded by pinkies. An ominous hole had me readying the plasma, but the landing zone turned out to be safe. We are now in the maze, an ancient ruin overgrown with vines that dramatically occlude sight. TUD seemed to realize how aggravating this area could be because he populated it almost entirely with imps, who don't hit hard enough to make this place a ragefest. Collect the many goodies scattered around (including a secret, which makes sense but is player-unfriendly to have here) and find the red door to get the green key. Rek the obvious ambushers with the plasma and head north to the green door(s) to conclude this section of the map.

 

At the heart of the ruins we find a fine treasure, the blue key needed to escape the island. It’s out of reach so to get it go up the lift and fight the most awkward of archviles, who guards a switch. Hit it to get the… wait! The back wall of the chamber now lowers, revealing six mancubi who demand you prove your worth. Pull out your rocket launcher and dance around the flames blanketing the suddenly frighteningly small room. When the last guardian falls, the blue key lowers, revealing this setup to be a cleverly disguised dead simple fight. I’ll give points for this. The encounter isn't bad, and did not have the “feel” of a Dead Simple clone despite being one on paper.

 

The blue key allows us to leave but beware… for opening the blue bar will unleash T3H C4COS!!! Feel your heart race as you hear their distant growls draw ever closer. Stare in horror as they descend upon you, darkening the sky with their numbers (if they don’t get stuck). Tremble with despair at the thought of having to kill most of these guys with the SSG because you foolishly used up your rockets like I did. While I respect the willingness to deploy such huge numbers, this fight is, again, just a time sink. TUD might want to ring up Angelo Jefferson for tips on cacodemon deployment, because the last 50 or so have just been meat piles.

 

Once your trigger finger stops cramping, return to the tourist trap and enter the boathouse. Just like in map05, tell the vile that you are the captain now and open the gate to leave.

 

Despite having complaints about basically every part of the map, I quite liked this one. Better than the sum of its parts I suppose. The quaint look of the island works for me, nothing fancy but with several monotonous brown maps behind us the basic green texturing is rather welcome. The gameplay is ok but I’m actually going to give kudos for what this map doesn’t do. Stephen showed restraint with the vine maze, and in doing so might have saved the level. I can’t imagine this one being very popular with me or the club in general if that place was a madhouse.

 

Fast monsters: This map is fast projectile dodging 102. That said, do not under any circumstances try to take on the blue key mancubi directly. Just run into one of the hallways and peekaboo shoot them.

[Terrcraft]

MAP03 is better than map02, especially with the water-raising gimmick
MAP04 finally has us exit the mines and back into the open air, although I wish there was a trickle of water from the MAP03 area, good but not notable, a lot of vast valleys with low detail or monster count.
MAP05 is the best of the mapset up to this point. with the houses and monster closets, along with the boat exit at the end really achieves the atmosphere the megawad is going for.
MAP06 would have been better than MAP05 in my book if I didn't need to no clip to get the blue key. but the ship was well designed, albeit a few too many 64x64 hallways below deck. and the ending with using a romeros head to blow up the ship engine was pretty cool.

MAP07 is an ok pace-breaker but not really that notable but it is still better than MAP02.

[brick]

GZDoom, Doom compat, hardware, HNTR, blind, continuous with saves.

Word of warning, I pushed ahead quite a bit and hit a nasty bug on MAP16. Once you get there do NOT go to the hotel until you have all 3 keys, and make sure you do the rooms and push the switches in order. I skipped around because I went there before I had all the keys and softlocked myself as a result.

 

MAP07 - “Remote Island”
The map opens with the escape boat sinking on the beach of a resort island. The detailing is again pretty barebone but most of the doomcute is great fun. There's a library (TUD seems to be a fan of these), a shop (no sunscreen, but plenty of guns), a cabin with a couple of bedrooms (beware the sleeping PEs). Seeing the boathouse makes it obvious this is the ultimate goal and a way off the island. Most of the map's playtime is on the following quest for the blue card, and is my least favourite part. The maze has vine midtextures to make it more difficult to see enemies and projectiles, and while it's not very big it's also pretty uninteresting and still manages to drag on a bit. Getting back outside on the beach, another swarm of cacos shows up (they must've hunted down Jody to the island after he sunk the Ironclad), the openness can make them dangerous as they can easily sneak behind Jody and there are a lot of them. Back to the boathouse, where we steal a boat from another poor archvile and leave the island. Aside from the maze I found the rest of the map quite fun.

 

MAP08 - “Barren Shores"
We're once again in a sinking boat, this time on a beach at the foot of a cliff face. There are steps carved in the rock that climb all the way up, to passages that run above a valley. Falling into the valley is meant to kill you, simulated by the damaging floor down there (this is vanilla after all). The passages look a bit odd, TUD varies both floor and ceiling heights, and because they're open sky and the way they're set up you can see weird jagged edges on the walls that make them look like the paper-thin linedefs that they are, which doesn't greatly help the illusion that they're mountains. No matter, the map is small and collecting all 3 keys goes by fast. One pressure plate secret makes a reappearance from MAP04, and once again I only noticed it by looking at the automap. The keys are used one at a time to open the exit and unleash a monster surprise, though they're easy to deal with. Not great, but not bad.

[Book Lord]

MAP 08 – Barren Shores

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

 

I imagine everybody was eager to admire another monument of ROCK5. Obvious jokes and critiques aside, Barren Shores featured a rather impressive beachfront dotted with a few rocks and enemies to slice with the chainsaw, and a hulking rock face to climb, provided that Kill Crazy spotted the thin staircase in that monotone brown canvas. On top of the cliff, the pistol starter might have some problems, since the level turned into a narrow open-air maze full of irritating pop-up ambushes, happening at every crossing, yard, or key pickup.

Spoiler

The map was a non-linear triple key hunt, allowing to take different directions and to tackle some encounters from various angles. The RK ambush to the east packed a respectable number of enemies and should probably be saved for later. Plenty of ammo was scattered in the landscape, whereas weapons were strictly guarded in uninviting places. The SSG was near, but fighting three Revenants with the immediate surroundings full of bulky monsters in ambush stance was uncomfortable. The plasma rifle and the rocket launcher might be easier to acquire in the northern portion, separated by a deadly chasm with thin bridges like the one at the end of MAP02.

Spoiler

A powerful weapon was enough to get a foothold and dispense death to the monsters springing out of the ground or emerging from the rock walls. The BK to the north and the GK to the west could be easily collected, and together with the aforementioned RK they should be used to unlock the exit. Every key released an Arch-Vile from the wall behind, so it was a good idea to use one key at a time and to prepare a quick weapon, even though each healer might be kept in his closet with minimum effort. Barren Shores tried to shake the routine by taking alternative approaches to the combat design and the key hunt construction, but it was not very successful. Still, the level can be entertaining to play on pistol start with foreknowledge, and it was one of the shortest levels in the first episode.

[Helm]

MAP 08 - Barren Shores

Our escape ship has crashed and flooded in the titular barren shores  of a new island. The continuous usage of monotextural natural areas with chonky topographical detailing continues. I actually quite enjoy how this looks, I quite like the monotextural rock look, the whole thing is at a granularity that is very coarse and that makes it look coherent on its own merits even today. 

At the shores we get equipped with the basic guns, a backpack and some green armor. We dispatch imps and demons and find the only little climbable path up the jagged rocks. Sad day that we have invisible walls blocking off the sides of the island, but in any case you do get the real sense the map will funnel you where you need to go for the most part, those half-life-isms land strongly enough so that you might accept to be taken on a thrill ride instead of on a fully immersive sandbox here and there.

Up on the canyon path things get more treacherous. This mapset throws us a difficulty spike under our unsuspecting sole, perhaps to change up the whimsical adventure game feel we've had so far. The way this map does difficulty though isn't so much baked into the encounters themselves but in that they spring up on you out of the ground, so if you make a run for it it's likely the cascading effect of strong mid tier or even higher tier demons joining the pinkies and imps that walk around the jagged rock paths will box you in and destroy you.  Although this map looks quite open to many avenues of approach it is best for Jody to take this one a bit cautiously and quietly and only spring one ambush at a time. She's listening to Earth 2, so the foreboding drone matches the now increased severity of this inland ingress. 

We gain space little by little, clearing out a path ahead and double checking our way back and still we get ambushed here and there by a stray demon. This is truly a treacherous series of ravines we have to thoroughly explore if we are to get all 3 keys and all the supportive items scattered around this desolate single texture canyon. The ammo balance on this map is much more considered than before.
In fact, the map pulls one of those curves on you where you start out overammoed but you have to spend nearly all of it on an early bit of carnage and after that you're back on scrounging. That first big ammo deposit gets nearly all spent on the red key ambush that converges a horde of pinkies, one of imps and most ammo-drainingly a cacocloud on top of everything. This is a grindy siege fight and it sets this grim tone of merciless slaughter of these demon forces with no quarter spared. A contrasting tone to the otherwise movement-encouraging encounters we've had in most of the open space maps so far. 

Further down we have to cross the canyon to the other side over thin sector traps, only to set off arachnotron and revenant ambush friends on our tail. We evade it all to run into a PE guarding the counterpass over the canyon, so now we have at least a circuit. We loop around to pull more low tier friends on our circuit, and we spot the blue key. So this map is more of the same, we arbitrarily need all 3 keys and they're all scattered about. There are a few hurtful traps involving revenants, but nothing too severe.

I must say I much prefer when mapper puts his monsters in good ol' monster closets or nooks and architectural compartments, instead of on instarising ground holes. The gameplay increased in severity on this map but not necessarily the right kind of challenge at all times. What is likely to happen is you'll run out of ammo and the ammo you need to take care of some persistent mid-tier like an arachnotron or two is gated behind some barons that are only going to pop up on your face as you actually move towards the ammo. So, without necessarily a lot of visual signposting for these encounters, the player is discouraged from moving too much to new territory and cannot strategize necessarily what the best use of limited ammo is. Were monsters to all be up and going you could encourage infight or at least prioritize better.

That said, because this scenario does happen to me in the map and I do scramble with little ammo to take care of a few problematic placements, this pushes me to be creative and think fast, which means the scenario the mapper laid out here, for some of its unforgiving qualities at least marks a different experiential result and a new message getting sent to the player re: difficulty. 

At the end I die once at one of the three viles that come out when you use all the 3 keys to allow exit from the map, but all in all the true difficulty marker of this map is memorex gameplay where you have to know what's going to pop up where to properly move on the map. However the treachery makes the play a paranoid one and that's a valuable thing to achieve through sparse means so I would call this a memorable map if not the most fun one in the set. footage


 

[Ralgor]

MAP08 - “Barren Shores"
dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl2, UV, Pistol start, blind run, single segment
100% kills and secrets

Woops, looks like we wrecked our boat again. Jody apparently isn't a great skipper, which is understandable since she's a space marine. Anyway, the beach is only lightly defended, and you can easily climb our way up the cliff face and enter a cleft in the rock.

At first this area is also only lightly defended, but you'll soon start to run into heavier defenders, usually popping up out of the ground to ambush you. This whole map is a maze, and finding better weapons isn't the easiest. The red key ambush can be quite spicy if you just have a shotgun. I ran here first, and ended up using a bit of infighting to thin their numbers.

Eventually you'll run across a chasm crossed by a very narrow bridge. There are three bridges in this map, and none of them are actually hard to cross. They do slow you down since if you go running headlong across the chasm you might fall to your death.

The green and yellow key ambushes are pretty weak. Ultimately all of these keys are used to open three doors that hide three identical switches. Each one will lower a barrier to leave the map, and also release an arch-vile to try to zap you from behind. These ambushes aren't hard, just annoying.

Overall, this map is a bit weak. Too many small ambushes, and not enough difficulty. The map also just looks very brown, with almost no other color to be found. Everything is cramped. The chasm looks a bit silly. Just... this map doesn't really invoke the beach storming I was hoping for.

Grade: D

MAP08 - 12:58.69 (12:58)  K: 94/94  I: 3/3  S: 3/3

ralgor_fragport08.zip

[Roofi]

Map 08 "Barren Shores"

 

 

The beginning of this map offers a stupendous view with its huge shoreline and colossal range of mountains. I felt like an american soldier during the Normandy landings except that the wehrmacht was replaced by demonic forces. And... once you controled the beach and decided to climb the mountain, you sadly realized most of the map consists to an insipid monotextured rocky maze. Map 08 is maybe one of the most disappointing map in this set because of this abrupt transition from a convincing set-up to a lame maze. So, map 08 shares a lot of aspects with map 02, my second least favourite map at this point but I want to say that even "Labour Mines" offered a tad more variety with its deep water pools.

 

"Barren Shores" doesn't have tough combats but I advice you to punch and saw the weakest demons in order to save some ammo because The Ultimate Doomer wasn't too generous with it. The last arch-viles guarding the colored-keys switchs may be troublesome if you wasted all your cells and rockets before. Map 08 also suffers from some cheap monsters popping-up from the floor for no real reason. 

 

The best compliment I could pay to this map is the non-linearity created by the three keys obtainable in the desired order. It's an easy way to encourage exploration but the problem is that no place is worth visiting.

 

At the end, I think "Barren Shores" figures as one of the weakest maps from Fragport. It's blatant that the author lacked of inspiration for that one. The gameplay isn't unbearable nor too long at least.

Grade : C

 

 

 

[Celestin]

MAP08: Barren Shores

 

Boats in Fragport clearly aren't sturdy, because it's the second time one sinks after reaching a shore. This time it's a large beach with tall cliffs in the distance. Try walking too far and you'll hit an invisible wall. For a game where the protagonist can't jump, there are much more organic ways to block off parts of a map. After dispatching a light opposition, you can climb the cliff and tackle the rest of the map.

 

Above is a network of rocky passages filled with ambushes and monsters popping up out of nowhere. This section is surprisingly non-linear, with three keys that can be found in any order. This also means the map can be unfriendly for blind players. I had a truly bad luck and picked the worst possible route, which deprived me of ammo and stronger weapons. With a full set of keys, you can lower three barriers, each revealing a monster closet with an archvile. Since they can be triggered individually, they are more of a nuisance than a threat.

 

I personally didn't have a pleasent time with MAP08, but depending on a taken route, your experiences might vary.

[Veeda Vidlak]

Map08 “Barren Shores” 

 

Perhaps “Loose Lips” should be Jody’s callsign, not even ten levels in and we’re responsible for four shipwrecks.  

 

Welp, we’ve crashed again, this time on a beach overlooked by a large cliff. Guess I’ll just grab this chainsaw and brutally murder everything in sight. It’s kind of fun. Charging across the vast beach at helpless demons with the chainsaw makes me feel like a maniac, which is almost certainly on brand. When you’re done relieving stress make sure you scour the beach for all the items here, ammo can get scarce at times. Find the camouflaged pathway up the Cliffside to continue (automap helps). 

 

Our next section, which constitutes the remainder of the map, involves searching the crags for the three keys needed to open the exit passage. I initially found this area intriguing, despite the return to overwhelming brownness. It’s nonlinear. It’s uncomfortable. There’s chasms you need to cross (falling is lethal). I could do without the pop-up ambushes (the hell-knights gave me a bloody heart attack) but the jagged fissures are uneasy terrain to fight in. Unfortunately, the overall gameplay turned out to be rather disappointing. The red key has a good crowd and you should take care not to let the closet viles at the end get loose but otherwise the shrimpy monster count fails to provide satisfying combat. 

 

Our second filler level of the mapset, Barren Shores has some interesting aspects but is ultimately mediocre. The colossal shoreline we arrive at feels more like collecting shells than storming Omaha Beach. The key fights other than red feature 2-6 enemies. I like the flow of combat in the crevasses but there just isn’t enough of it. “Barren Shores” couldn’t be a more appropriate moniker, poor Jody’s love of demon slaying is being left unfulfilled. 

 

Fast Monsters: The ending viles are hilariously easy, they just stay in their cubbies and get pummeled. Otherwise kind of tough, it’s challenging to dodge attacks in the mountain passes and you really need to watch your resources. I did find out you can chainsaw fast pinkies safely with enough space, which helps save shells.