Roofi Posted May 22, 2023 Year 2 Month 05 Day 10 I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped. [1] This Space Intentionally Left Blank by Sophie Kirschner @meapineapple (2014) Forgot to take screens sorry. I will let you discover by yourself ! Quote More an experiment than anything else, it's a small map with intentionally strange elements. A sort of meme map where you fight in a bloody arena in which "This space intentionally left blank" is written with wooden flats. The rocket launcher seems to be your only weapon because I saw cell packs but no plasma weapons here and the spectres constitute the main opposition. The combat design wasn't really fun but I expected way more unsufferable stuff after reading the description and seeing the poor lonely red star only telling that people didn't like this experiment. The layout is open too, which is a good point too but it's far from sufficient to make a lazy jokemap great. Grade : D+ (7/20) [2] The Shrine by Scott Armatti (1995) Spoiler Quote Three main areas. The large area has a "shrine" in the center. There is a Rocket launcher and both blue power-ups here to draw players towards the center of the level. The main are also includes a large staircase leading up to a dark ledge and a small, dark maze where a player may run in and loose an attacker. The two smaller areas are great ambush sites. There's not a whole lot of ammo laying around so once you get a weapon, make your shots count. This level should DEFINATELY be played using -altdeath (DEATHMATCH 2.0) The shining shrine is the only noteworthy landmark in this blank DM map. The surrounding are just empty, dark and oversized random shapes. I highly doubt it plays well on DM but I'm maybe wrong. [3] who needs a title? by Pat Friedl (1995) Spoiler Quote This file is a Heretic Deathmatch level suited for up to 4 players. All weapons are present. I don't know how this will play in D.M. 'cause I didn't play it that way. It should work - I never had problems with making Deathmatch wads before. This Heretic map mostly designed for deathmatch will provides you a decent singleplayer journey as well. Despite being very unrestrictive, the layout features a minimal sense of progression with two keys to find in order to reach the exit. The visuals are pretty detailed in some areas such as detailed remparts, a star-shaped ceiling window near the exit or the wood timbers in the cavernous section. The open progression as well as the generosity in terms of powerful items results to a pleasant fast-paced heretic map. Grade : C+ (11/20) - From a singleplayer perspective [4] FACTORY.WAD by Kyle J. Stewart (1996) Spoiler Quote It is said that the old factory on the outskirts of town is still run by zombie employees. They say that the old workers went insane and started to slaughter each other a few years back. Few escaped and barricaded the place in hopes that nothing else would get out, and that nothing would go in. The 3 or 4 survivors said that the toxic waste within the structure caused the men to suddenly become overly paranoid and "loco". They began to kill each other, but something kept bringing the dead men back. Nothing ever dies forever in there..."sounds cool!" You say to yer friends. "Let's check it out, unless y'all are scared or something?" "Hell no!" your friends reply, "Let's do it." When you reach the towering building you tear down the door and enter... In making this level I used some techniques that I like to see in D-Match level...TRAPS! I have made two different traps (The Crusher and Incinerator) which are activated by a player. When yer opponent is stuck in one of 'em activate it by triggering the sensor triplines. (They look like two square pillars with lights...) and watch/hear your pitiful friend either become 2 inches thick or slowly cook. >-) Do not be discouraged to get the BFG, even though you're walking into a trap. Because if you can kill the other guy before he/she can activate the incinerator you will be set free...free with a BFG under your arm...time for a couple of easy frags... :) A story for a Deathmatch map? Why not but that one has monsters and an exit too ! You're in a cozy and roomy factory and a simplistic midi rendition of "Bullet with ButterFly Wings" plays in the background, which contribute making the place friendlier. About the crusher and incinerator traps, I only saw the incinerator one and that one is pretty creative : your opponent must lock yourself by grabbing a BFG and you have to reach a switch in his firesight which will lower the BFG sector's in order to transfom it into a pool of lava. If you try obtaining the BFG in SP, you"ll be locked but the zombies and imps populating this map will not last long in front of your shotgun so you don't need it. I like the easiness and ambiance of this map, the music adds a nice touch. Grade : C+ (11/20) from a singleplayer perspective Got assaulted by 4 mancubus stuck in cages from Hell's Eventide Spoiler 5 Quote Share this post Link to post
ICID Posted May 23, 2023 (edited) On 5/22/2023 at 1:07 PM, Roofi said: [1] This Space Intentionally Left Blank by Sophie Kirschner @meapineapple (2014) Hey, good ol' SILBLANK! This was an official selection some of us played in September 2021: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2382159 City Assault (2013) by Sergeant_Mark_IV Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: GZDoom A small, Doomcute-packed city map courtesy of a famously uncontroversial member of the Doom community. Progression is quite frustrating, especially since it involves a lot of jump-based platforming. Worse, unless I missed something, the only weapons you get for most of the level are the combat shotgun and chaingun, which is really annoying with how many barons and hell knights the WAD forces you to kill in tight corridors. So I can't quite recommend this one - but I really look the look and layout of it. It's got a ton of personality and attention to detail, helped greatly by Scuba Steve's Action Doom textures. Maybe I'm just a sucker for city maps. Grade: 5/10 War With The Imps (2003) by Taisto "Mephisto" Valdlo Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: GZDoom This is the first-ever release from frequent community project contributor and Skulltag guru Mephisto, and I found it quite charming! Gameplay-wise there's not much here - it's a series of four very short maps where you have to kill small handfuls of imps. Your greatest threat is actually the friendly marines, who exist only to block your way forward or shoot you in the back - I recommend engaging in highly illegal amounts of friendly fire wherever possible. The charm here is the story - almost every action you take is narrated by onscreen text describing your war with the imps from space to their homeworld and ultimately to a slime factory which you uh, need to shut down for some reason. I thought it was cute. Would obviously be improved by better gameplay or some less basic aesthetics but it's definitely too short and too pleasant to get mad at for those things. Grade: 6/10 Paradox 2 (2006) by Morbid DooMer Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: Crispy Doom A remake of Paradox, Tom Mustaine's contribution to the Master Levels. I haven't played those in ages (why would I) so I rewatched Decino's playthrough to refresh my memory of the original map, and Paradox 2 is definitely a lot better - it keeps the hot, hitscanner-choked start and difficulty but with a lot more texture variation to the brown and with the intensity spread out more over the entire map, instead of being pretty much over once you find the SSG and megasphere. It turns a decent Master Levels map into the intriguing, hub-based combat puzzle it always had the potential to be. Mustaine himself commented on /idgames and says "This version aesthetically puts mine to shame and I love it. Amazing work, seriously blown away." I have to agree. BTW, "Morbid DooMer" is one of the many usernames of Ronald Lubbelinkhof, now known as Dutch Doomer. Lubbelinkhof's been contributing to various community projects for almost 20 years and is an extremely solid mapper - looking at his pedigree, it's no surprise that this map turned out as good as it did, even in his early days. Grade: 7/10 Edited May 23, 2023 by ICID 7 Quote Share this post Link to post
Endless Posted May 23, 2023 3 minutes ago, ICID said: Paradox 2 (2006) by Morbid DooMer Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: Crispy Doom This looks like right up my alley. Love the combination of marble with brown, reminds me of Alien Vendetta. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
Al-Faris M Posted May 24, 2023 This idea sounds interesting, started with DBASE:DBASE.WAD (2003) by Bruno Vergilio. Played with DSDA-Doom, Ultra-Violence difficulty.Spoiler warning: The screenshots in the spoiler below show secret areas. Spoiler The map starts off easy with the rocket launcher early, then a bunch of mid-tier monsters come in to create a bit of a challenge. There is a secret that is hinted by the map's layout, and a Wolf3D-esque secret which is kinda uncreative when compared to the former secret. The main area is a bunch of cyberdemons that try to feed you rockets. There's also a fake wall (not a secret area) which leads to a rad suit with a couple of BFG cells. The mapslot is E2M8 which makes the map end when you kill the cyberdemons. DOOMPOOL.WAD (2007) by unknown author. Played with DSDA-Doom, Ultra-Violence difficulty. Spoiler A somewhat lazy version of Doom II's Gotcha!. There are 100+ soul spheres and invulnerability spheres, which makes the map way easier to beat. The process gets less boring if you let the cybies and brain spiders infight. Getting 100% items was quite fun! 4 Quote Share this post Link to post
Walter confetti Posted May 24, 2023 (edited) What's going on with that green stripes in the DBASE screenshots? morewepns.zip by Mike Chun, Cory Dodt - Gameplay modification, 1994, SP Two very old dehacked files (LOOP and that are broken in modern ports (Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2 and Crispy Doom 5.10.1) including a (from the text file descriptions) very fast punch and a weird weapon that shoots random projectiles, including rockets? That's what I've understood for the latter... Too bad because it looked like something interesting to play. COOLMP v1.00a by John Ripley - LMP editor, every id tech 1 game?, 1994, played with DosBox 0.74-3 Spoiler A neat DOS editor command line that edits (by cutting and pasting together) and shows info on LMP files, is a really neat small editor! Worth a check! Edited May 25, 2023 by Walter confetti Added COOLMP screenshots that get lost wednesday 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
Al-Faris M Posted May 24, 2023 (edited) 25 minutes ago, Walter confetti said: What's going on with that green stripes in the DBASE screenshots? When I played the map I didn't find them, it's probably a rare(?) glitch coming either from the source port or my computer. I used DSDA-Doom's Exclusive Fullscreen feature so I think that might be the reason behind it. Edited May 24, 2023 by Al-Faris M 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
ICID Posted May 25, 2023 Halogen (2004) by Dennis "Exl" Meuwissen Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence (not that it matters) Source Port: Crispy Doom I'm not familiar with the work of two-time Cacoward winner and WhackEd creator Exl, but I'm sure he's done better than this - a square Deathmatch map with not much going on. I'm sure it would be perfectly adequate for a few rounds of DM but some of the detail seems to have been applied at random - there's a lot going on but it doesn't all make sense. Check out that random silver pillar on the right side of the left door in screenshot 1, for example. Grade: 5/10 Chronicle of Doomguy (2022) by Sophie Kirschner Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence, pistol starts Source Port: dsda-doom, complevel 9 What a pleasure it is to pull two mapsets from the great (often baffling, always interesting) Sophie Kirschner in the same adventure. This recent outing consists of three open maps that make heavy use of zimmer textures, all primarily built around the chaingun and rocket launcher (although MAP03 does give you the WAD's first and, unless I missed something, only SSG.) MAP01 is the best in my opinion - a loose vertical adventure based around infiltrating several bunkers for ammo. MAP02 is a bit too big and easy to get lost in, while MAP03 makes downright diabolical use of hurtfloors that I didn't always appreciate. Not Kirschner's best work, especially aesthetically, but the sense of experimentation that makes her work so special is still there and ever-appreciated. Grade: 6/10 MOJO NIXON!! (1997) by Jaydee Play Settings Source Port: GZDoom When the description of a sound pack says "This wad may contain colorful phrases and things that may offend you", you know for a fact you're going to end up hearing the F slur for gay people, and in that respect Mojo Nixon does not disappoint. In all other respects, quite disappointing! Grade: 1/10 Pentagon (1996) by Larry Rhodes Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: Crispy Doom Another one for all you green marble and orange sky enjoyers, except not really. As the name suggests this map mostly consists of a big pentagon, with a couple of ugly monotextured rooms off to its side. As 90s tropes go this is notable for containing the super shotgun and an absurd number of hitscanners, which despite their dopey placement stand a good chance of murdering you on Ultra-Violence through sheer density alone. Not the worst map I've played from this era but not like, good. Grade: 4/10 Waste Processing (2019) by Carlos Lastra Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: GZDoom A pleasant if immediately forgettable vanilla-type map that makes the interesting decision to combine Knee Deep in the Dead aesthetics with Doom II monsters, particularly chaingunners and revenant snipers. I say "vanilla-type" because it's one of these that could hypothetically work in vanilla but was built for GZDoom, likely because it's the only source port the mapper uses. It's not a bad map by any stretch and there's some good attention to detail in some of the rooms, but I've played too many techbases and this one just doesn't leave an impression, sorry to say. Grade: 5/10 5 Quote Share this post Link to post
Roofi Posted May 25, 2023 On 5/23/2023 at 8:18 PM, ICID said: Hey, good ol' SILBLANK! This was an official selection some of us played in September 2021: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2382159 City Assault (2013) by Sergeant_Mark_IV Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: GZDoom A small, Doomcute-packed city map courtesy of a famously uncontroversial member of the Doom community. Progression is quite frustrating, especially since it involves a lot of jump-based platforming. Worse, unless I missed something, the only weapons you get for most of the level are the combat shotgun and chaingun, which is really annoying with how many barons and hell knights the WAD forces you to kill in tight corridors. So I can't quite recommend this one - but I really look the look and layout of it. It's got a ton of personality and attention to detail, helped greatly by Scuba Steve's Action Doom textures. Maybe I'm just a sucker for city maps. Grade: 5/10 I remember of that gzdoom map. I enjoyed it for its openness and managed to kill the roaming the cyberdemon with my combat shotgun. However, I died it after taking a wrong teleporter leading to the indoors of a burning building (what a bullshit trap). Year 2 Month 05 Day 11 I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped. [1] Alien 2 - The Revenge by Ismaele (Alberto Sposito) @Ismaele (2002) Spoiler Quote 2.txt file. But, if you want enjoy yourself, I suggest that you DO A lot less colorful alien-themed map than what we see nowadays. I would say Alien 2 feels a lot more ancient than Ancient Aliens. This is just a classic tech-base with metal and silver textures covering the flats and the walls. The combats involve mostly low-tier enemies which only wait to be killed. However, don't let your guard down because the author placed some really bitchy crushers. A fast one crushed me once, I had fortunately enough health to survive. I don't understand how I managed to obtain the first backpack in its little nook without getting slowly crushed though. Playing lots of old wads has probably helped me develop a survival instinct like a primitive living in the jungle. The last part of the map ends with a lame duel against a cyberdemon. "Shoot until it dies" as they said, and don't forget to circlestrafe ! The author became way too generous with ammo just to defeat one cyberdemon but it doesn't bother me. So all in all, Aliens 2 was a fairly relaxing, if very ordinary, little card. However, the surprise crushers put a damper on things. I like crushers to force the player to be more cautious but it must not transform into lazy bitch moves. Grade : C+ (10,5/20) And I got defeated by a pistol zombie in ArmageDoom Spoiler 4 Quote Share this post Link to post
Walter confetti Posted May 25, 2023 (edited) 3 wads I've played wednesday but get lost in the posting for some bizarre reason. Rewriting it now. natas.zip by @Nikku4211 - Player skin modification, Zdoom compatible ports, 2021, played with Zandronum 3.1 Spoiler A cartoony player skin modification that is based upon a Undertale OC made by nikku with a wild backstory of a foxy creature that is the prime mininister of some planet, i don't know how much this thing can be a good or bad one. It's a ok mod. Nowhere by Andrew Gate (aka Xenos) - Vanilla Doom, 1994 but uploaded in 2000, DM, E3M1 to E3M9, played with Zandronum 3.1 and bots Spoiler A genuinely really good and stunningly "modern" episode replacement for DM with very fluid layouts and fenetic action, with the unexpected usage of having almost all the guns at the start of every maps, making this a proto "last man standing" gameplay with the BFG as a "bonus" gun, the best maps are E3M4 and E3M9 and the one liked me the least was E3M7, but overall the mapset feels very fun to play and modern despite it's original release date, a charming forbidden gem from the depths of archives. TIC2a by Jason @Hellbent Root - Vanilla Doom 2, 2002 (unknown original release for TIC2), DM, MAP01, played with Zandronum 3.1 and bots Spoiler A small, frenetic DM arena based (or directly ripped off?) by "The Crusher" outdoor area, the only changes from TIC2 (a unreleased anonymous map on idgames, but it's uploaded on some Dwango compilations, i remember this one from Zdaemon sessions) are some small steps that helps you escaping from the pits that are originally inescapable. Some monsters are added in SP session as well for not letting you die by boredom in single player campaign. The EXITDOOR texturing trickery is delightful and the new sky texture is simply beautiful. Another great find. Edited May 25, 2023 by Walter confetti 4 Quote Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted May 26, 2023 My, it's been a while hasn't it? Well, turns out the description of the upcoming wad lied about the size.....in any case, here we go! Total KARNAGE!(V1.1) (1996) by Andrew Caudwell (Crispy Doom) The description says the map has a 'general' theme which is basically true - (strangely enough, not that stupidly hard SNES game) it's a sort of tech theme with a few different sewer sections - but it's the details that make this rather squarish map, along with healthy degrees of hitscanners for the size of the map, shine. Although there could probably be more health, and the Arch-vile placements are always laughably obvious - but no matter! It's very serviceable and maintains a good sense of combat flow all the way through. The enemies at the start almost seem obligatory as a way to propel us forward. And was there a rocket launcher around I completely failed to see? No, the only real problem was getting to the end, seeing a chasm and was unable to raise a bridge to the teleport. Also, the fake exit had rather clumsy and unfair enemy placement. 6/10 though Video below! 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
Roofi Posted May 27, 2023 On 5/26/2023 at 1:00 AM, Walter confetti said: ls very fun to play and modern despite it's original release date, a charming forbidden gem from the depths of archives. TIC2a by Jason @Hellbent Root - Vanilla Doom 2, 2002 (unknown original release for TIC2), DM, MAP01, played with Zandronum 3.1 and bots Hide contents A small, frenetic DM arena based (or directly ripped off?) by "The Crusher" outdoor area, the only changes from TIC2 (a unreleased anonymous map on idgames, but it's uploaded on some Dwango compilations, i remember this one from Zdaemon sessions) are some small steps that helps you escaping from the pits that are originally inescapable. Some monsters are added in SP session as well for not letting you die by boredom in single player campaign. The EXITDOOR texturing trickery is delightful and the new sky texture is simply beautiful. Another great find. I remember about this DM map. I like this specific section from Doom 2 map 06's, the grass makes this area cozier and out-of-place compared to the rest. I liked the blue cloudy sky too. Year 2 Month 05 Day 12 I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped. [1] Endless FRAGS by Timmy (The J-U-D-G-E) (1995) Quote Quote VERY small deathmatch level! I've built it after playing in minideth.wad by Scott A.Smith In 4 player DM - frag every 15 seconds! (or faster) Made for old deathmatch. A tiny and symetrical arena I already explored during Month 3 Day 11. Here's what I said about this map : Quote A small DM map for Endless. Very small indeed , it's basically a square room with a shallow ditch at the middle. However , I really enjoy the aesthetics here and espeically how the green and brown textures fit. The way torch textures are used also adds some singularity to the wad. I played on DOSBOX instead of Crispy Doom and nothing changed. Got unexpectedly crushed in the middle of the darkness in Motor Rail: EFTPB (motrbath.wad, motrbath.deh) Quote 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
ICID Posted May 27, 2023 Baron's Cheateau (2016) by Carlos Lastra Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: GZDoom The first-ever release from prolific mapper Carlos Lastra is a spooky trek through a mansion that makes excellent use of "Waiting For Romero To Play" and the Doom II library textures, building a creepy, slow-paced atmosphere that really worked for me. Every fight is a trap, and usually a pretty good one, although the final showdown with the titular master of the chateau is a bit of a letdown - it really is just a lone baron, and you pick up 10 rockets right before it. Still unbelievably good for a first map. Grade: 7/10 5 Quote Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted May 27, 2023 The Eternity Engine Version: 3.31.10 (2005) by James "Quasar" Haley and Stephen "SoM" McGranahan So I've mostly sworn off reviewing random utility files and map editors because boosting the number at this point is not that important. I took too many days off though, so though I might as well do this. It's just interesting to me that source ports were actually uploaded to /idgames at one point before port developers realize SourceForge and sites like that that have basically gone by the wayside were much more visible repositories. It's also interesting that this engine had a low profile at this point. Pseudo-3D stuff like Risen and Doomsday were probably more popular than Eternity at this point. Even now, people don't see the purpose for portals or whatever. Too bad. A Bizarre Hour (2022) by @dashlet and @lhytntel (From Doom With Love) Here's a map that'll probably show up in the Newstuff guide for the Wadazine at some point! Truth be told, I would've probably skipped it since it doesn't have difficulty settings, but after getting bin after bin of 90s trash, I couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. So here we go! Basically, there are a series of surreal, abstract locations, set in the middle of some void, with a couple of highways of all things linking each area. Combat seems like an easier version of something from an rd map, at least until monster get arranged in an unfair matter that recalls Italian Doom. Not so much the first arena with the Arch-viles in the middle - just don't waste time rocketing the Revenants on the sides initially, you can clean them up later - because a large horde of monsters, along with a few Cyberdemons will teleport in. The maze with the Arch-viles at the end of that there jumping puzzle (enough said) was kind of nice though. What wasn't, however, was the Cyberdemon in the weird greenhouse with the slime walls and curious abstract symbols. Basically zero room to move around, but there was little choice. 2-shotting him in a close space like this was idiotic. I don't actually feel like recounting much right now. Safe to say the last fight throws too many Revenants and Arch-viles at us with too little ammo. At least enough room should be blasted that the teleport revealed at the other end can be taken. But this really is classic modern Doom, mostly. There's only 2 fights that seem taken from a school of dfficulty is for the birds. Lots of effort was put into the locations in any case. 8/10 4 Quote Share this post Link to post
ICID Posted May 28, 2023 (edited) Spone (2007) by Jason Sloan AKA Face.uk Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: GZDoom A map designed for the Doom Legacy source port, showing off its room-over-room 3D features. I won't lie, the floating platforms do look pretty sick, but mandatory platforming is never fun, and beyond the Legacy-specific features there isn't much here - chaingun a few hitscanners, run past everything else, and you can complete it in a couple minutes. I've never used Legacy but this runs just fine on GZDoom. Credit where credit is do: as much as I rag on this source port, it really is great that it can run (almost) anything with ease. Grade: 5/10 PRBOOM v2.02 (1998) by Florian "Proff" Schulze An attempt to port the Boom source code to WIN32. Can't imagine it taking off - this "PRBOOM" thing is surely a dead-end source port that no one will be playing after 1998. Jokes aside, the most obvious differences between this and the PRBoom I started playing in the 2020s are: Resolution is locked to the original postage-stamp size, hence the tiny screenshots Defaults to the original controls, not WASD (although you can set it up for the latter) Screenshots are taken in the long-defunct .PCX image format Look at that colorful status bar! Happy Birthday Pavera (2011) by 40oz Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: dsda-doom, complevel 9 A birthday gift from Jon "40oz" Vail to Walker "Pavera" Wright. Both of these guys are legends in their own right, but this map isn't much to write home about - a brown, mean-spirited little hitscanner hell that didn't leave much of an impression. According to the /idgames reviews it also contains a softlock, though I didn't run into it myself. Grade: 4/10 Shotfun (2009) by Michael "Optimus" Kargas Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: Crispy Doom This map from frequent, still-active mapper Optimus has some really good ideas - the "empire state building" tower and cityscape in the opening room, the concept of building a map around an unusual combination of weapons (mostly just the combat shotgun, with a late-period chaingun appearance), etc. There's the bones of something great here. And then there's the fatal flaw: this is probably the darkest map I've ever played. The two screenshots above are the BRIGHTEST I took. Gameplay consists of guessing where enemies are, and when most of those enemies are large armies of shotgunners that can burst you down quickly, it becomes infuriating almost immediately. Just not fun to play, which is generally something you want to aim for when making an add-on for a video...wait for it...game. Grade: 3/10 UAC Research Vessel #1024 (2005) by Will "Kid Airbag" Hackney Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: Crispy Doom Exactly what the title suggests - a spaceship originally designed for a 1024x1024 project. The level of Doomcute detail is impressive (with TWO, count 'em, TWO sector toilets) but the decision to split the map over two decks makes it even more cramped than your average 1024 map, which means combat consists of fighting one monster at a time. This is mostly boring until that single monster is a cyberdemon, and then it's exhausting. Grade: 4/10 Edited May 28, 2023 by ICID 4 Quote Share this post Link to post
Sena Posted May 28, 2023 1 WAD | 4 maps Escape from Romania (2022) I'm not really sure what they were going for, but this certainly isn't a Romanian Grezzo. MAP01 features some custom textures (Romanians have low-quality houses, I guess), but is on the whole not remarkable since it's over in a minute - kill a few imps, run for the exit when the cyberdemon shows up, and that's it. MAP02 shortens that formula even further, by just making it a very long run to the exit, and running in a straight line in a narrow corridor with no enemies is about as fun as it sounds. MAP03 is titled "Hungarian Border", which is about as close as this WAD gets to any semblance of humour or political commentary, and it also happens the map is entirely broken, which may sound like a possible comment on the effectiveness of their border control, although I'm not really sure where the cyberdemons who only phase into existence when you try and cross the invisible walls fit into that metaphor exactly. MAP04 is just a wall with switches and zero enemies. As far as WADs in the genre of "I made it bad on purpose trolololol" go, this one has two custom textures and a little bit of scripting, so it is higher effort than plenty of others I've seen, but it doesn't really do anything with its central conceit - it is a self-purported joke WAD, but when the intermission screen is the only time anything resembling a joke is present, then it's not a very good one. 2/10. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted May 28, 2023 av20 from memory (2010) by TimeOfDeath (From Doom with Love) TimeOfDeath once again flexes his memory muscles by presenting /idgames with yet another map recreation from memory. This consists of two separate files. The first recreates only the outside area of the pyramid but fills it up with nearly 6,000 enemies because I guess that's what he does with most or all of his re-creations. There's enough room but I don't really play through memory recreations as a rule and prefer to spend time with original works. The second map is a re-creation of the "rest", though that's not very much and he seemed to have trouble remembering which rooms in that first hallway were darkened. At a certain point, it seems there were just locations not coming to mind at all because he stopped at a certain point. Not really lots more to say. I guess it wouldn't be too bad if I wanted to dodge AVs though. Spoiler 3 Quote Share this post Link to post
ICID Posted May 28, 2023 Foursite (2016) by Ben "Bauul" Mansell Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: Crispy Doom Something I've mentioned before: I love big maps. Give me your magnum opuses, your maps that take an hour or longer to beat, your maps that make you feel exhausted by the end of them. And yet I had somehow never heard of this map, despite it getting some mainstream gaming coverage due to its almost absurd length and detail, and the mapper being the venerable name behind the Micro Slaughter Community Project. Anyway, Foursite rules. Every room and object, even a simple switch, is filled with so much exquisite detail that the 300-hour build time actually seems like a lowball estimate. There are a ridiculous number of great setpieces, like the blood-soaked cafeteria staffed by pinky chefs or the massive tower of lost souls or the FIREBLU mancubus wall. The whole thing is expertly paced in terms of weapon and monster progression, a slow burn that never feels boring. Not all the fights are perfect - there's a spectre sewer that's more frustrating than fun and a few hallways that could have been much better aligned on the blockmap - but the overall effect is greater than the sum of its parts. It's one of the best WADs I've ever played for the ER/iWA and all the more delightful for being a complete surprise to me. My only complaint is that this map ate all my Doom time today, so that's the end of the post! Grade: 9/10 5 Quote Share this post Link to post
Walter confetti Posted May 29, 2023 DEATHEB for DOOM ][ by Sebastien Bacquet - Vanilla Doom 2, 1995, DM, MAP01, played with Zandronum 3.1 and bots Spoiler A not bad map that starts in a circular courtyard with a SSG in the middle and many places surrounding them. All the map make a good use of verticality IMO and there's quite some variety in it, including a non-toxic falls of green sludge liquid, a kinda boring room filled of perpetual moving lifts, another natural looking arenas and plays good. It used 4 different level editors to be done! Despite saying it doesn't contain any new music, a classic midi rendintion of U-96 "Das Boot" is present and boy if this isn't 90s Doom wads condensed in a song. That and Jean-Michelle Jarre. And Mark Klem. Overall, a ok map. I already heard of this name but i'm not sure why. Found another map that I've played long ago but i don't remember it, shopball. From the description and the small review i wrote, doesn't have to be bad. Real DM by Noel Cornell - Vanilla Doom 2, 1996, DM, MAP01, played with Zandronum 3.1 and bots Spoiler A pretty bizarre and large DM map that gave me the impression i was playing myhouse.pk3 "90s deathmatch edition", visually looks good for a 1996 map, even includes some neat trickery like torches lowers from hidden alcoves, teleporting stairs that creates a fake "room-over-room" effect giving more tridimensionality to the level and slowly lights up some corridor and a big revealing arena by hitting a switch, but for the gameplay side it lacks a little, due to being too harsh in SP (look at the first shot, that is your starting point cheek-to-cheek with a cyberdemon!) and a little large for being good for DM, or i'm just too tired for playing this map in DM too. Goodnight. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
Roofi Posted May 29, 2023 On 5/28/2023 at 4:54 AM, ICID said: Spone (2007) by Jason Sloan AKA Face.uk Play Settings Difficulty: Ultra-Violence Source Port: GZDoom A map designed for the Doom Legacy source port, showing off its room-over-room 3D features. I won't lie, the floating platforms do look pretty sick, but mandatory platforming is never fun, and beyond the Legacy-specific features there isn't much here - chaingun a few hitscanners, run past everything else, and you can complete it in a couple minutes. I've never used Legacy but this runs just fine on GZDoom. Credit where credit is do: as much as I rag on this source port, it really is great that it can run (almost) anything with ease. Grade: 5/10 Oh yeah , I remember of that weird level. 3D floors is maybe my favourite feature from modern ports and I like how it's used extensively here. Year 2 Month 05 Day 13 I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped. [1] Immortalizer: Dimension of the Doomed v0.2 BETA 2 by Andrew Walbert (1996) And... I forgot to take screenshots. But seriously I didn't need to. Quote I wish to start off by saying that this is the first BETA edition of a work in progress. The Character Selection and Skill Selection Menu are finished, but all skills are equal. I hope to have all of the skills in place for the next BETA. Immortalizer : Dimension of the Doomed, to not mess with "Dimension of the Boomed, is one of those weird and old ambitious projects which failed miserably because of the limited expertise of their author. Once you downloaded this file, the zip decourages you to play this wad. It has a ton of wads : one for the SFX, one for the music, one for the graphics... and a dehacked as well. The author created a bat file in order to install the files but the numerous files tell how disorganized this wad is. I wanted to launch the wad with Crispy Doom because of the overabundance of files but some mapping errors forced me to use Gzdoom So, it seems that immortalizer was supposed to be a whole ultimate Doom megawad. All the soundtrack had been replaced but the LEV file contains 3 levels, and there were so great that I was pleased that there were only 3. More levels would have aggravated the ordeal. Indeed, the visuals don't event match with the 1996 standards. All the three maps are ugly, abstract and even buggy, specifically for the first map (E2M1). I visited a lot of non-sense bizarre maps but it's rare I see so much mapping errors per square foot, which make the levels even more repulsive than they actually are. For instance , in the first map (E2M1), you can climb stairs but the ceiling prevent you from going down. The same level can be completed by killing less than 20% of the monsters. The second map (E2M2) will make you dislike the crate maze trope since it's just a crampy maze mostly made of 64 pixels wide corridors. The last map (E3M3) has some missing textures and the door leading And the door leading to the exit is the wrong colour. The red colour is displayed but you need the yellow key. There are a ton of examples like this which only show how poorly conceived this wad is. About the dehacked, that one is very clumsy but also pretty fun. Your shotgun had been enhanced. It has an increased firepower and firerate now but the animation looks broken. The shotgun guys were replaced by shotgun marines which are a bit mightier. That's all. I don't even know if I runned this file correctly but it doesn't matter. Immortalizer was a disastrous experience and I'm happy the final version never got released. The "new" shotgun adds a bit of fun at least. Grade : D- (4/20) [2] Steel Cage Match by Robert Fleming (2005) Quote Quote Steel Cage fight! Designed primarily for DEATHMATCH in mind. New status bar designed by me, and new death sound. For single or coop, watch as the crowd follows you around the ring. Don't get to close, they'll rip your head off. The author says it's also designed for Singleplayer but there's few content to comment here. This is a minimalistic representation of wrestling. The pinkies seem to represent the angry crowd and the baron your opponent. However, as a true wrestler, you can exit the caged area and eliminate all the pinkies with the BFG located at the back of the huge room. I like slaughtering armies of pinkies with the BFG but I have no other argument to convince you to download this wad. The custom Statbar hurts my eyes as well. I like the idea to recreate the electronic scoreboard but it's a bit difficult to read. Grade : D (5/20) (From a singleplayer perspective) [3] Sleight of Hand by Rick Clark (1999) Quote Quote This DM map is not what it appears. :) Just because you can see into the next room does not necessarily mean you can get there from here. The fire is the portal to where you want to be. And yes, you can get to all rooms. You just have to find the way. An early Zdoom compatible DM map released in the late 90's. That one consists to a bunch of copy-pasted rooms linked by hellish translucent portals which are designed to confuse you. They act as silent teleporters and send you everywhere in the map. Floating particles also emanate from the pedestals holding the items. Cool visuals but it's a totally ordinary DM map. [4] speng by @Jjp (2011) Quote Quote This is the best level ever; j/k it sucks. It's a terrible speedmap so don't play it. I'll make up for this one day :p A sort of low-effort jokemap in which the visuals make any child drawing looks like Rembrandt's painting in comparison. However, if I ignore the rubbish texturing and architecture, speng turns to be an enjoyable map combat-wise with specifically group of mid-tiers to defeat thanks to the powerful weaponry and generously given ammo packages. There are also several spheres and armors which encourage you to adopt an aggressive approach. Overall, speng is nothing more than a rudimentary speedmap but it's a welcomed dopamine shot. Things used to be better in the world of jokewads when Terry hadn't yet shown up. The brief metal music is annoying though. Grade : C (9/20) [5] St.Mary's School by SWiT (1997) Quote Quote this level is a replica of my old grade school before its renovation in 1996/1997 A school map I already visited during Day 21. Here's what I said : Quote A deathmatch map that takes place in a school. Actually, in 1997, this concept had not yet become unpopular. Moreover, the author makes us understand that we are in a school thanks to the wonderful textures made with paint or the basketball court. In fact, we are literally in a school shooting but we will say that they are only monsters and nothing else! The architecture is "realistic" with mainly square rooms but the map contains a good amount of doomcute with notably the modelled basketball hoops. The music is particularly lively. I played on Dosbox instead of Crispy Doom this time and I have to say, this is a memorable map on several aspects : - the toony custom textures and especially the poker face smiley you can see on some walls. - The basketball court - the collapsing car park releasing an arch-vile and granting access to a secret BFG. By the way, the other parts of the map really needed a renovation indeed ! [6] The Marbelous Three by Jan Engelhardt (2004) Quote Quote This map begun with a blood-marbled room as a possible candidate entry to CC2, but soon evolved into a textural experiment involving two facing worlds, tech vs marble. I tried to find a good tex combination, since most tech(*) textures do not fit well with marble. I hope I can satisfy this. The "Three" in the map title refers to the early textural map design where a lot of structural objects came in groups of three due to the limited texture set. I mean, there are three faces (LION, GARG, SATYR), three daemons (MARBFAC*), three key(color)s... and that's pretty limited. Community Chest 2's map 19 but as a stand-alone release. The funny thing is the fact it was released 1-2 months before CC2 was uploaded on idgames. For a map occupying the 19th slot, "The Marbelous Three" proves to be really harmless. Most of the encounters involving low-tiers enemies and the SSG has a devastating firepower in tight spaces. This rather short map relaxed me even if I don't understand the role of the voodoo doll at the beginning. I accidentally hurt myself several times because either some monster's projectiles touched it or I shoot it because he's in the hub room where you have to cross it several times. Despite being a tad too crampy, this map is gracefully detailed and use some of the boom features such as the transparent glasses. My favourite part is when you trigger the mechanism which unlocks the red skull key. I didn't really take attention to the gimmick of this map but I would describe this level as a beautiful mixture between marble and metal. Grade : B (13/20) Tried to survive in Water World's sewers without ammo and weapons. Spoiler 3 Quote Share this post Link to post
ICID Posted May 29, 2023 Thanks for the adventure, everyone - here's a new thread! 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.