Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #061

[Doomlover77]

@Endless Vex1.wad was made by Vex Z. Morgan. @Doomlover77  

Edited June 23, 2023 by Doomlover77

[Endless]

1 minute ago, Doomlover77 said:

@Endless Vex1.wad was made by Vex D. Morgan. @Doomlover77  

Where do you even find that info???

 

[Doomlover77]

@Endless  I have it on a USB stick and the details on my Game mods database on my iPhone. @Doomlover77  

[Sena]

• 2 WADs | 1 map

GoatDoom (2001)

This one replaces the Icon of Sin texture with Goatse, and if you know, you know. And if you don't know, then I'll just say that under no circumstances have I ever wanted to bear witness to someone's gaping asshole, and I've also never desired to have it appear in Doom or any other game, but it was part of a contemporary zeitgeist, or something. It's a part of history, but so is the debated situation involving one of Hitler's testicles, and when it comes down to it, my historical interests generally do not involve genitalia. But GoatDoom exists, whether we like it or not, and it's not going away.

Spoiler

 

Brian 50 Super Secret Level (2005)

 

This one's kind of a slog, but it does get progressively better. Its main gimmick is having a total of 50 secrets, of which I found 0, firstly because I'm not very good at it to begin with, but also because it's a level that doesn't really reward exploration so much, it's not a level that encourages movement and is fun to move through. It starts off in an extremely narrow area, with jagged edges on each wall that seem to act as speed bumps, and though it does open up slightly, it is always certainly claustrophobic and narrow, and for the most part I found it was a more productive use of my time to just run past most the level than try to kill the 50+ imps occupying the outer walls on multiple levels. Its end battle is a lot better, being in a somewhat large area with enemies constantly teleporting, encouraging smart target prioritisation from the player, and although it is far from the best use of that particular scenario I've seen, it is by all means competently done. In summary, its opening half is lackluster, and though its ending is better, I wouldn't suggest it makes it worth the price of admission, as there is just too much filler to get through prior to that point. 4/10.

 

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 3 maps

Adventure| 2 wads | 20 maps

 

Dark Castle (2000) by Virgil the Doom Poet. 3 SP maps for Doom II in Boom.

The text file might be a bit misleading, it mentions needing Boom but also says it "supposedly works with any source port" that is limit-removing. I didn't check an editor but I'm reasonably certain I saw some generalized actions in there and that you absolutely need Boom compatibility.

The maps look pretty nice and the thematic progression is well done, there's definitely a feeling of progressing past the outer walls, into the main castle building, then climbing the central building until finding the portal to Hell. I found the gameplay variable in quality, some fights are too cramped to be much fun, and progression often involves running back and forth in what feels just like padding. MAP01 outside the castle is the worst about this, as each switch sends you to the diagonally opposite point of the map, though the feeling of getting deeper inside the citadel is well done. MAP02 has a cool central room over lava that you cross over 3D bridges several times as you make your way up. The low point was a series of archviles in a narrow corridor but other setpieces and the progression were more interesting. MAP03 is the quickest, it starts in the room with the portal, then sends you through the portal into a Hell arena where 2 keys are required to reach the exit (I guess you stopped the invasion then took the portal back?). There's nothing truly remarkable but it's a fun minisode overall.

Spoiler

 

Sorry I haven't been very active this Adventure, whether reading or writing.

[Andromeda]

12 hours ago, Sena said:

GoatDoom

I'm surprised this is not on x-rated!

[LadyMistDragon]

Grace Under Pressure for Doom II (1996) by Joel "Mr. Scary" Ansier (Crispy Doom)

 

 

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20 year old Doomer.  Sad to see it die.  Metalhead.

Here's a map whose author clearly attempted to learn from the best....apart from the circumstances where he faceplants for no apparent reason. Starting out, we're in a symmmetrical square room, not really inspiring lots of confidence, but things quickly start to pick up and we're in a solid run'n'gun map, largely lacking in pretensions and bullshit....at least until we get to the slimefall room, then we have to backtrack for no reason to a nonsensical location which contains a BFG and a switch which lowers some little bits which allow us to enter said slimefall room! The welcoming committee at the bottom was appreciated, as well as the overall sort of treatment rooms around the sides. Probably not as realistic as the one hallway with the three hell knights, but no matter! In any case, the goal when we return from the yellow key  seems to be to get the Arch-viles to fight the Spider Masterminds, but upon seeing a mob of SS for literally no reason, that was it! Opening YK door led to a megasrmor and soulsphere, along with a teleporter taking us to a pit of two Cyberdemons and barrels on all the sides that probably damages them or whatever but who cares. Joel blew it with the SS, though the real killer was the backtracking. 6/10

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Video here!

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Place of Freedom (2019) by @Datacore85 (From Doom with Love)

 

Most of the Datacore maps I've played have been of a small, restrained size but this one tends more toward the medium end of things. It's not really that impressive visually, though I do like how some of the nature-like textures are used. Combat-wise, there isn't too much to speak of that's unique. Although it does allow one to escape easily if they don't intend to UV Max, it also leads to confusion for those who want to. It's easy enough to escape an ambush for a more advantageous position and find that you've escaped entirely! Well, maybe that's not so much the case behind the YK Door, but the little bit in the pit with the Arachnotron analogs was incredibly painful, since the window to block shots from the other side is narrow to the point of ineffectiveness and it's too easy to be almost out of ammo at this point if one has spent time killing annoying pillar Revenants when all rockets have already been expended. That's just another way of saying you're going to feel quite frustrated most likely if you don't have extensive foreknowledge of this map, rockets best not used on the encounter outside for one. On the plus side, the Arch-vile placement is quite intelligent, almost to the point of wondering why throwing in extra Cacodemons was necessary. 6.5/10, the large pinkie ambush was also a stupid ammo drain.

 

 

[ICID]

I've been on vacation for most of this ER/iWA, but now I'm back and ready to work my weekend shift in the /idgames mines.

 

 

BRAIN2 (1999) by Gregory W. Percy

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: Crispy Doom}

 

A quick little Icon of Sin map where you run around collecting keys that open the way to Romero's head. Pretty damn good for being made by a 10-year-old in 1999 - and wisely placed in the MAP27 slot to take advantage of "Waiting For Romero To Play", the best Doom 2 track. My only real gripe is the use of SS Nazis, who not only feel out of place but would be much more interesting/challenging if they were either shotgunners or chaingunners.

 

Grade: 6/10

 

 

Lavacity (2000) by Marten Mellberg

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: GZDoom}

 

So where the hell's the lava? Somewhere way below you, I guess, where you can't see it. Instead you'll spend this whole map looking at vast, empty expanses of green marble. The Zdoom jumping is far more likely to kill you than any of the monsters here, especially once you're loaded up with rockets. Other reviews have already noted the smooch that ends the level, the only memorable or interesting part of the whole map.

 

Grade: 2/10

 

 

Alkylation (2014) by Lorenzo "UltimateLorenzo" Davia

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence, continuous}

^{Source Port: GZDoom}

 

Did not finish and therefore will not grade, but what I played probably gets about a 6. Alkylation's obvious strengths are its aesthetics and narrative - Lorenzo deploys a huge number of custom textures and monsters to great effect, always feeling of a piece with the setting around it and never like the overwhelming muddle of so many lesser GZDoom maps. Better yet, each map comes with an original track from the great Primeval, which always ups the atmosphere. Every inch of Alkylation was clearly made with love and care and that counts for something - from the second you boot this thing up you know you're in far more capable hands than the vast majority of PWADs.

 

And yet, once the novelty of each episode wore off I found myself getting bored pretty quickly. The biggest problem here is that as far as I can tell, almost every monster has gotten a big health boost or has some other way of blocking damage, like the new Hell Knight's shield. The hitscanners that make up most of episode 1 have been made especially brutal, with a combination of health AND damage boosts that'll have you cowering in fear of every chaingunner even more than usual. Combine these health pools with the SSG replacement, a slow-reloading plasma shotgun, and it just feels like every part of the game has been made slower...which is the exact opposite of what most of us want from Doom. Level design also involves a lot of backtracking and somewhat obscure key- and switch-hunting, further slowing the action.

 

It starts to feel a bit dull, enough so that I didn't care to finish - which is the unfortunate truth of Doom. Music, aesthetics, and atmosphere can carry you quite far, but at the end of the day it all comes down to the combat, and that in my opinion is where Alkylation falls short.

 

 

Chaingunner's Wad Pack (2015) by ChaingunnerX

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence, pistol starts}

^{Source Port: Crispy Doom}

 

I almost skipped this one because I wasn't sure I wanted to attempt two multi-map wads in one day, and I'm so glad I didn't. Firstly because it's pretty short - it only took me an hour to play all the maps start to finish (though admittedly I didn't take any time to look for secrets or get all the kills.) And secondly because "Chaingunner" is the same "ChaingunnerX" who - among many other notable contributions to a large number of projects - helped create A.L.T., one of the all-time great WADs.

 

This set is a compilation of maps from Chainie's extensive career, and while such compilations usually vary wildly in quality, here I found a pretty consistent level of polish. The first 9 maps or so are vanilla techbases with visuals that mostly wouldn't look out of place in the original IWADs; sometimes the aesthetics are a bit amateurish and the MIDIs don't loop quite right, but they're a pretty good example of what I was talking about in my last review, which is that that stuff doesn't really matter if you get the combat right. These short maps do that - on UV pistol starts they're pretty tight combat puzzles that will require some smart infighting and intelligent avoidance of hitscanners, calling to mind a sort of Zone 300 Lite.

 

Then you get into a set of wooden, Thy Flesh Consumed-inspired maps, and here  I found my favorite map of the set - MAP14. The chill, laid-back MIDI and wide-open gameplay really opens up what you've come to expect from these cramped maps so far and feels like a contained, atmospheric journey that is going to stick with me for awhile. I also loved MAP18, a remake of the Doom II map from the same slot. I always thought Courtyard had some great ideas and atmosphere despite being an overall crappy map, so it's nice to see it polished up with the gameplay it always deserved. From here the maps just get bigger and tougher, sacrificing tight progression for more impressive setpieces (except for the final MAP20 which feels like it belongs more with the first episode, and two secret maps that match MAP14's chill vibes with some pistol-heavy zombieman slaying).

 

By the time I got to MAP21's groovy, monster-less farewell I felt that Chaingunner had cemented himself in my mind as one of the great underappreciated mappers. Nothing here "wows" you the way that, say, an insane Ribbiks landscape or Skillsaw setpiece will, but when it comes to the pure mechanics of running and shooting Chaingunner has a knack for keeping things fresh and fun that few other mappers of his age could manage at this time. The picture this paints of his career is of a confident, playful mapper who can consistently wring true thrills out of small monster counts, and how lucky we are that that career has progressed to the present day. To me, this is the kinda shit playing Doom is all about.

 

Grade: 8/10

[LadyMistDragon]

UAC Experiment (2000) by Jason @Hellbent Root (GZDoom)

 

A large, sprawling map for E1 that contains several little references to various KDitD maps, along with rather serious ammo starvation if one is not good at spotting secrets, the berserk near the beginning being a case in point. This was probably the sort of thing that was received slightly more warmly at the time despite some rather crappy /idgames reviews, but at any rate, we've had 23 years to get sick to death of the well-trod E1 themes. The characteristic of abstract and open corridors this map possesses don't exactly do lots to maintain lots of interest in the map. Although it does have 25 secrets and it's fairly open-ended so at least one can explore, although it feels like the much-maligned Grey Dwarf from Ancient Aliens would probably provide a better time than this. Andy Leaver released a few E1-themed maps during and after this time that were probably of lower-quality on the whole but at the same time, they were also much better balanced than this and actually had some minimal distinctive character of its own. This, on the other hand, might combine landmarks from Toxin Refinery and Computer Station in one room but outside of certain areas contains a little bit too much back-and-forth for my personal liking. 6/10 though, but Jason would come up with much more concise and thoughtful designs for Doom: The Way Id Did which was his original idea after all.

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 05 Day 21

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] CROSST.WAD by Terry Henning (1994)

 

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Crosst.wad is a new Doom level to replace E3M5. It was designed mostly to be a single player level in the style of House of Pain, but it does support deathmatch and co-op play. It has three difficulty levels: skill level 2 and 1 are the same, skill 3 is fairly tough, and skill 4 should have you hurtin' and scraping for health and ammo. :)

 

A large Ultimate Doom map containing several themes and a lot of exploration. You start in a E1-themed crossroads but most of the level involves hellish places such as rocky caverns , marbled templed or creepy bright red structures. I took 40 minutes to beat this map but I think you need 10-15 to complete it  if you know how to obtain each key. CROSST is a 1994 wad and I think I took at least 20 minutes figuring out the path to take in order to obtain the blue key. You also have voluntarly fall in a hole resembling a dead pit in order to raise a bridge. The biggest issue of this map are all those inintuitive way to progress, without counting the hidden doors, which are a trademark among 1994 maps of course.

 

However, CROSST.WAD catched my interests thanks to all those spacious rooms and great visuals for a wad of that date. Terry crafted different shapes and the texturing matches the IWAD standards whereas some large areas tend to look a bit empty. Anyway, it's far superior than the usual 1994 maps I play. The cyberdemon at the end of the map was ridiculously easy to beat but the staggering is rather impressive.

 

Grade : B (13/20)

 

[2] LSMULTI1.WAD (wow, what a name!!) by --==°±² SÀîŸ ²±°==-- (Lachlan Stewart) (1995)

 

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Well...hells bells. There aint a story in this one at all. I made it some time a go but it proved quite good for multi-player (2-P)....Since it was so old I had to rewrite this as I never had this pretty little template back then! Anyway, hope you like it... I know it is a bit plain but it was a quick knock together and only the second or third I ever made!! Check for some of my new ones...

 

A E1-themed DM map I already visited during Year 2 Month 05 Day 01, on DOSBOX. Here's what I said :

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--==°±² SÀîŸ ²±°==--, wow what a name ! I can't even read this ! Thanks for adding your real name in brackets. About the map itself, it's just a small DM arena designed for Ultimate Doom, in which the theme mostly borrows of the first episode with some hellish textures here and here. There is no item in singleplayer so I suppose the author ticked "Multiplayer only" for all of them (Honestly, I'm too lazy to launch doombuilder to check it).

I "played" on CrispyDoom and the experience didn't change at all. I checked the map on the builder by the way and yes, all the items are ticked "Multiplayer Only". About the author's nickname, it must be read as "Slef" according to RjY.

 

A small gang of revenants prevented me from escaping in H2H CZECH ARENA 2 (H2HCZAR2.WAD) DOOM II version

 

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[DrRock]

Doom Commando by icecreamsoldier (Vanilla, 2008) - Doom II

played in ZDoom 2.8.1 on Ultra-Violence

Spoiler

I rolled my eyes when I saw the author giving out descriptions of each of the maps. That's usually a red flag for me, indicating either misplaced efforts into (over-)detailing or port-specific features(*cough* ZDoom *cough*) hastily tacked onto very subpar maps. Doom Commando instead graces us with humble but fun maps that go for a more scenic approach than those in the original Doom II IWAD. The author, icecreamsoldier, appears to have a good grasp on how to create distinctive but still flowing-together setpieces for this(apparently sole of this) work here. The themes are generally very varied and created mostly in greys, greens and browns. Neither of the maps is very long, nor are they too taxing to make your way through. Continuing players will have the trusty plasma gun to fall back on, whilst the rocket launcher becomes less relevant after the initial map. There are no musical replacements but I found that the original IWAD tunes matched up with these environments well enough. If I had to describe the entirety of this seven map adventure in one word, it'd be cozy. This is the type of really good, non-overachieving sort of Doom action that feels like slipping into a nice blanket on a cold day with a bowl of soup. Who could say no to that?

 

This was already reviewed in two previous ER/iWA threads. The very first and the 39th editions.

 

 

Lost Base by Ravage (Vanilla, 2005) - Doom

played in ZDoom 2.8.1 on Ultra-Violence

Spoiler

A single map with a loose E1 feel. The usage of the vine textures give this a bit of a different flair than the usual content based on this episode. It's nice that the author decided to hand you your killing tools pretty much right away, and the action remains quick-paced and doesn't let up all too much throughout. Health pickups are perhaps a little scarce but this keeps this map from being the usual E1 cakewalk we all are used to.

 

 

September Under the Sea by various (PrBoom, 2021) - Doom II

played in ZDoom 2.8.1 on Ultra-Violence

Spoiler

These threads are a good opportunity to play some stuff one always wants to try but somehow forgets about or puts off doing so. I have looked at a good few of BluePineapple72's speedmap project threads but never took the time to play a single one of them yet. And as luck would have it I rolled the very first one of the series. What better way to start? Despite being a fan of speedmapping as a concept, tradition and product of this community, I'm not entirely over the moon with this. Mostly because some of these maps are butt ass ugly to look at. The lack of general patching up of the visuals likely owed to a strict time limit on this speedmapping session but some of the base texture choices in here are fairly questionable. Also, maps 1 and 4 are not all that interesting to play and map 3 may or may not be pretty damn unfair. Each map starts you out fresh, so no carryovers. That would probably a bit too much. As for the individual maps:

 

Map 01:

Extremely simplistic map that is over in the blink of an eye.

 

Map 02:

Starts out in a sort of U-shape and opens up gradually by triggering linedefs. Players can choose between taking things slow and taking out monsters in clumps at a time or open up the arena and let infighting chaos reign free. Fun stuff.

 

Map 03:

Steve88 makes the most out of a bunch of square sectors and delivers one mean bastard of a map. Basically, it's one big fight that takes place in a square ring with three teleporting chambers that spawn in monsters and a middle room for passing through and to grab goodies in. Over time steel pillars are lowered that let you grab weaponry and much needed health/armor ups. It's an enjoyable fight sequence but the moment the Archies and Cybies show up, it feels like it's down to luck for the player to not immediately get ground up by their attacks.

 

Map 04:

Little map where you do your usual key gathering and switch pressing. Small, manageable amounts of monsters populate the map each time you do. Really not much to say here.

 

Map 05:

Another ring shaped arena for the finale. Once again with Cyberdemons and Archviles as the main threats. This is much kinder and quicker than that other map. Could make for a good locked-in key ambush in a bigger map, I think. But works just fine as it's own little thing.

 

So, not the best speedmapping output but perhaps the start to a great series.

[ICID]

 

No Remorse (2019) by Thomas "Scorpius" Baden

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: Crispy Doom}

 

Forgettable Dead Simple riff where you run around a big octagon doing Dead Simple things. You play it on Plutonia's MAP07, which only serves to highlight how much better the Casali brothers were at finding something new and exciting in this tired format than poor Scorpius, who loads you up with so much health and ammo that your reaction to the monstrous hordes can only be a bored shrug.

 

Grade: 4/10

 

 

Outpost 2048 (2016) by Subucnameth

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: GZDoom}

 

Basic low-monster-count techbase notable for having one of those horrible GZDoom swimming sections. I know John Carmack said that swimming was one of the three things he wanted modders to add to Doom when he released the source code but I think by now we all understand that Carmack Just Be Saying Shit and you shouldn't actually listen to him. Water levels are the worst part of every game, why would Doom be any different?

 

Anyway I appreciate that Subucnameth throws in a couple of arch-vile encounters to keep things somewhat lively and I enjoy his use of flesh textures in certain area, but you've seen a million levels like this before, many of them executed better.

 

Grade: 3/10

 

DarkSoul Levels Map1 (2004) by Kacob "DarkSoul" Kastner

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: Crispy Doom}

 

Cramped little techbase made of mostly single-file corridors with a nice attention to lighting detail. A little more memorable than the last two maps here reviewed but you can also pretty much just hold down the SSG to win. "DarkSoul" is the author's screen name, not a reference to the FromSoft title that would come out eight years later.

 

Grade: 4/10

[LadyMistDragon]

The Book Depository (2021) by @Drfluffystuff (Eternity)

 

This map was apparently a Doomworld Maximum Project 2021 submission, something I only found after scouring the Doomworld forums around the time I first played it because it didn't seem to come up in the text file. Either way, that's too bad because this is pretty darn good! It kind of feels like something one might find in the more commonly-known RAMP project. The theme can broadly be described as a library so don't try looking for Lee Harvey Oswald because you won't find him. Although perhaps this is the reality that JFK has to live through every earth day while he isn't roasting his white aristo ass down in them ol stygian depths. Either way, this map also has lots of purple flags and some other purple textures which made me think of an Arsinkk map I'd played around the same time which happened to be purple-themed. 

 

At the same time, this is a more decidedly linear map that starts out quite easy at first before bringing on the spiciness more and more frequently, often backed by some seriously dastardly Arch-vile placement. The final battle takes place in a sort of black void and proves to be large enough and climatic enough that everything we did so far in the map was worth it! Easy 8/10

 

Spoiler

 

[ICID]

Thanks for playing, everyone! Here's the new thread: