Finished Rush. Reviewing each map.

[WhateverComic07]

So over the course of the last few weeks I've been playing through the wad Rush by Archi. The experience was thoroughly enjoyable, and I rather like playing a level set of 12 levels rather than 32. I mostly have played either single maps or megawads before this, and I think I like this length of mapset best so far.

map01: Stasis Shock: I don't have much to say about this one. I was in and out with 100% kills in a few minutes. This map is definately there to ease in the player for the difficulty to come, which I even figured while I was first playing it considering I was told this wad was closer to late episode 3 of Scythe in difficulty when I started. Solid 7/10 for me, enjoyable but not really memorable.

Saves: 0

Deaths:0

map02: Chemical Imps: I died a lot in this one. I was greedy and this map beat that out of me. the fact that I want from nearly no hit to over a dozen deaths in one map really worried me for my ability to finish the mapset. The main fight with the revenant and mancubi snipers in the four pillars room is the majority of my deaths. Thankfully, there wouldn't be another difficulty spike for a little while, that is until map06. The opening fight of the level was a fun little infight party as I ran through tiny gaps and then ran to grab the hell knights and other imps to make the infighting bigger before leaving it to rush the mancubi while I still had ammo (I kept running out on my early attempts). I rather like the new monster, the Dark Mancubus. The extra fireballs really threw me off on my dodging until a good bit later in the wad. Once you have the rocket and plasma the map changes from it's former ammo deprivation to a heavy weapon slugfest, and I was all for it. Giving this one a 9/10, my only problem was that cleanup was a bit annoying on this one (though admittedly because it was a blind run I had killed everything before knowing about the crushers)

Saves: 1

Deaths: 15+

map03: Frozen Tech: This was the map that made me realize I loved this wad. A rocket launcher and hundreds of revenants to open the map, hell yeah. The fighting hoards of enemies with mostly only weapon 5 never got old for me. I took a few deaths, but once I learned the map it was wonderful. 10/10 for me

Saves:1

Deaths: 4

 

map04: White Fields: This one killed me quite a bit for my stupidity. I kept luring out the hallway full of revenants in the cave before I realized I could just spam rockets down the hallway like in the previous map. Once I realized that the only other deaths I took were to a stray cyber rocket and a mistimed dodge of an archvile's attack. 8/10, cleanup was really annoying on this one and the cave section slows the pace a bit much for me.

Saves: 1

Deaths: 10+

map05: Vile House: Took quite a few deaths while trying to figure out how to deal with the delinquents (pain elementals). Some of them to enemies, most of them to face rockets. Once in the main room the infight party was fun. But by the end of the map I was ssging a spider mastermind and then a cyber and just felt like I either spent my ammo very wrong or there simply was too little. The constant returning to the center room with slightly different fights was pretty fun though. going with an 7/10

Saves: 1

Deaths: 10+

map06: Delusions: Wooh boy. So full disclosure I usually use saves when I play. Not in the middle of fights mind you, but in-between fights yes I do. I was trying to limit myself to one per map. This was the map that caused me to start waiving that restriction. The openness is the first major thing you'll notice. the chaingun fire and revenant missiles for standing in the wrong spots too long are not conducive to the slower play I was used to of rush (ironically enough) at this point. However there is something that overshadows all of the combat of the map for me, and it is one of my cardinal sins in a map. It has a point of no return preventing 100% kills if you don't kill everything up to that point. I always play 100% kills, secrets are cool if they happen, but I don always UVMax, just 100% kills. combine that with the large area that if you start exploring just suddenly turns into 20 damage floor out of nowhere, and it generally having my least favorite combat of the set, I have to give this one a 5/10. I still liked the map, but it is by far the weakest map in the set to me.

Saves: 3

Deaths: 20+

map07: The Chaos Heart: A fun opening rocket-fest that leads into the first real "rush" of the set with trying to kill as many revenants while invulnerable as possible. The secret beserk is basically useless, by the time you get it you probably only have the cyber left. Took me almost 3 minutes to figure out how to leave once evrything was dead. gets a 7/10 for me because the cyber really just drags out the map and doesn't really pose an actual threat.

Saves: 1

Deaths: 10+

map08: Land of the Demons: The final major difficulty spike until the monster that is map12. This is where Rush stops playing around. The opening fight is an incredibly fun game of plasma tag with a platoon of hellknights, revenants, and imps. Once they go down hit the switch and rocket the snipers quickly so you can try to hold back the impending wave. I did in these opening segments a good bit, but they quickly became consistent. With the multi-cyber fight I was very glad I had practiced two-shotting cyberdemons recently. This map gets a 9/10 from me. I love a map that forces weapon 6 usage.

Saves: 2

Deaths: 25+

 

map09: The Lava Heart: probably my favorite map in the set. It's got it all. Massive infight party, rocket spam, plasma gun is relevant. The secret fight was incredibly fun. however for me what made the map was the part where you charge past spawning cybers and hell nobles to rocket a group of revenants and then take cover from trailing projectiles by a wall that lets you take out the mancubi immediately followed by retreating into the aforementioned secret fight. The final fight was a fun usage of the BFG. My only problem would be the cyber cleanup with the four cyberdemons on the pillar in the square hub room leading to the different paths. But even with that I give a 10/10.

Saves: 2

Deaths: 10+

 

map10: Dark Corner: Somehow never lost the opening fights, which were very fun. I streamed this level to some friends in a personal discord and I called the rectangular room with the pillars and stadium seating the "easiest scary looking room I have ever seen." Don't mistake not taking early deaths as not deaths however. The L shaped room with the wall of hellknights and mancubi and a sniping cyber killed me a lot, or rather more specifically the cave with the archviles right after did. The final fight suprisingly only killed me once making my second save, which I made right before hitting the button, absolutely pointless for the map. The final fight was very enjoyable however, the first time the wad really tells you to go and let loose with weapon 7. The hoard of archviles is much easier than it looks, and it looks damn scary so that was a relief. 8/10, didn't much care for the archvile cave section.

Saves: 2

Deaths: 20+

 

map11: Emission of Hate: That start makes me think MSCP with all the stationary monsters waiting for me to make the first move. My strategy was to grab the guns and ammo, then go straight for the BFG, blast my back into the start, then run out the right enterence and watch the cybers murder everything. When they run out of friends, go up to where the red key is and give them some more. Then run and do the side room, making sure to rush down the delinquents because I play on PRBoom+, so no lost soul limit. Kill everything else with rockets, activate the button, kill the delenquents, blast a hole to safety from the new hoard, and then for once, kill the archviles last. I saved twice on my successful attempt (I full restarted this one a few times). Once before hitting the button in the side room, and once after killing everything post-button-hitting in the side room. From there rush down archies with a BFG, kill stragglers with rockets, grab keys, hit buttons, repeat and grab the invuln when necessary. 7/10 a bit to much beef for my tastes

Saves: 2 (7 if you count the runs I let die)

Deaths: 30+ (many stray rockets)

 

map12: The Destination: A true slaughter map. The only one I'd call harder than Fire and Ice (Scythe map30) in the set. I need to replay this behemoth to establish a better route, but I have now beaten it. Actually I beat it about an hour ago as of writing this portion of the review. Three keys, any order you want. Mine was Yellow then Blue then Red. I Saved healing from The path to Yellow for before the temporary point of no return before Blue. Then I got to save all the healing from the final section of Blue for Red, which I kept teleporting out of to resupply. Yellow took a few deaths, but wasn't too bad all in all. Blue whooped my ass even once I knew what I was doing because of the Spider Mastermind getting me to one shot range for the Barons later, whom I would turn my back towards because I was busy dodging Cyber Rockets. Red was hard, but by then I had all the supplies of the map available to me, and was able to do all kinds of infighting shenanigans while escaping by punching holes with the BFG and Rocket Launcher. vary hard, probably one of the hardest if not the hardest maps I've ever beaten, but very fun. I think if I replayed it I would use many less saves, because as it stands I used way too many for my liking. Giving the map a 9/10 because as fun as it is, it is far too long for my tastes. My final in game time was 1:00:16, which is about 150% of the time it took me to beat Fire and Ice

Saves: 10

Deaths: 50+

 

I greatly enjoyed this mapset, and would very much to appreciate to hear anyone elses thoughts and experiences on the map, as well as any other similar wads, considering that I'm fairly certain Rush has dethroned Scythe as my favorite wad.

 

One final little ranking, the maps from worst to best in my eyes are as follows:

 

map06: Delusions

map01: Stasis Shock

map07: The Chaos Heart

map05: Vile House

map11: Emission of Hate

map04: White Fields

map10: Dark Corner

map02: Chemical Imps

map08: Land of the Demons

map03: Frozen Tech

map12: The Destination

map09: The Lava Heart

 

I plan to play Valiant next, partly because it's next on the list of wads for skill progression, and partly because I've already played through episode 1.

 

And to anyone who actually read the full post, thanks for reading my review. I'm trying to post more often and interact with the community and I think I'll do this whenever I play a wad from now on. If anyone wants to see me review wads I've already played however, please let me know.

 

Love this game, love this community, thank you.

[Dreamskull]

Glad to hear it. I will certainly give this one a shot. Its really your favorite wad now?

[WhateverComic07]

11 minutes ago, Dreamskull said:

Glad to hear it. I will certainly give this one a shot. Its really your favorite wad now?

I think so. Might not be as technically impressive as something like my house, or as large/difficult an undertaking as Sunder, but it was just some good slaughter-lite/Slaughter fun.

[Dreamskull]

Thats fairly noteworthy and Ive played a lot myself. You should have lead into the review with that on top. Thats going to get eyes on screen to have a look at it.

Edited June 15, 2023 by Dreamskull

[Captain POLAND]

Map 12 is crazy. But I love it.

 

 

[ImproversGaming]

Hi,

Read the post and really interesting to hear about your experiences of playing Rush. In general I share some of the same sentiments that you have expressed. I loved Rush as well, it is a great WAD and agree that there is something nice and engaging about a diverse set of punchy maps in a 12 Map set. I had so much fun, but probably the most notable point for me was that this was one of WAD where I learned an awful lot and improved my skills so much!

 

I am playing through all of the WAD on the Skill Improvement list too, but next on the list is Ancient Aliens. However, I think it would be absolutely fine to swap Valiant and Ancient Aliens around as I have now played both and they are quite similar in challenge (though Valiant’s last episode is tougher than Ancient Aliens). For others the list is here:

Spoiler

 

 

Some of my supplementary comments on the Rush levels are here if you are interested.

Spoiler

MAP01: Stasis Shock – A fun and relaxed intro to the WAD.

MAP02: Chemical Imps – The start is rough, got through it on my first run and then struggled to repeat the feat afterwards. I didn’t use the crushers as the Mancubi were a pain. Loved the Hectebus introduction.

MAP03: Frozen Tech – this was one of my favourites as I really learned a lot from rocketing hoards of revenants!

MAP04: White Fields –  This was a nice map in an interesting new environment, some really fun fights.

MAP05: Vile House – I loved the teleporting Cyber and Spidermastermind fight (in the last fight they teleported into my room and frightened the life out of me).

MAP06: Delusions – was fun for navigation and secret hunting. I had some strategies that I needed to make it more manageable but it was good fun. It was very 3D mazy, but I enjoyed that.

MAP07: The Chaos Heart - I just loved the theme and emerging to start the map with a cabin in front of me, so beautifully set.

MAP08: Land of the Demons – this was tough but there was no major routing required so you could focus on the combat. The main thing to control was archviles resurrecting all of the monsters. Made me realise that I still need to improve my management of cyberdemons.

MAP09: The Lava Heart – ya loved this one and one of my favourites too! You can telefrag the four cyberdemon so no need to take them out manually! The secret fight was a real challenge.

MAP10: Dark Corner – this was tough but fun and the last fight was pretty epic - nice power-trip!

MAP11: Emission of Hate – Oh wow, I really struggled with this one. It was one of the toughest for me. I think that spaces were tight and the fights were very fluid and my instincts poor. Enjoyed it but glad to get through it!

MAP12: The Destination – This was the big one. Best help for me was to go for the BFG first and some of the tougher arena fights and then sweep around the rest of the map and finish it off. Tough old map but learned a lot about routing and strategies to make it more manageable. My game time was 1hr 22min which was 33% more than for Scythe's Map30: Fire and Ice! However, I would consider Fire and Ice to be a lot harder!

 

Also posted a review here:

 

 

[WhateverComic07]

@ImproversGaming Quality video. I watched it and thought your voice sounded familiar. Lo and behold I actually watched your Rush map06 playthrough because I couldn't figure out where to go for the life of me once I got the red key.

[Dreamskull]

Ive played your recommendation. I very much enjoyed it. I wish there was more I could say about it, but I cant think of anything other than to recommend it alongside you. If anyone asks, yes - you should play this.

Edited June 20, 2023 by Dreamskull

[Dreamskull]

I liked Frozen Tech, White Fields and Lava Heart the most. 

[fruity lerlups]

looked this up because i was wondering how people felt about this wad after getting rekt by map11, and saw your strat and took it on! its cool to see someone else agrees that Map09 - Lava Heart is the best map in this set, it absolutely busted by balls but there isn't a single fight I don't really enjoy except the final one, its really the most enjoyable in the set!