The DWmegawad Club plays: Plutonia Revisited Community Project 2

[finnks13]

41 minutes ago, Χyzzy said:

Believe it or not, that fight consisted of a crapton of revenants, barons blocking the exit, and TWO cyberdemons to distract in early versions of the map, with a couple annoying tree decorations in the earliest revisions to boot! Needless to say, Joshy and some others in the team that gave feedback deemed it a tad too much.

 

I gave this version a go out of interest and I think I prefer the finale as it is in the older versions, it's really bloody fun - then again I am a sucker for massive hordes of revenants :P

 

It's funny to see that this wasn't originally intended to be a Plutonia-esque map, since I think it's one of the best encapsulations of the style in the set, but it makes sense that your favouring of short, fast-paced & tough maps is pretty compatible with it!

 

^{oh, and i know that there are a bunch of teleporters in Plutonia that are bright, i just like them more when they're dark (but fine i'll give them a bonus point since you asked so nicely :P)}

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 28: Crimson Realm - waverider

100% kills and secrets

Time: 26:03

Deaths from the first room alone: 11

Additional deaths after: 6

 

And the award for "Meanest First Room in the WAD" goes to Crimson Realm! How is anyone supposed to do this from pistol-start? There's way too many chaingunners, arachnotrons, cacos, and mancubi here. Plus, the mancs are kinda blocking the paths to both the rocket launcher and the plasma, so I guess you'll have to shell and bullet your way out. Even with my rockets and cells from previous maps this was an incredibly tough start. The chaingunners lit me up so many times as I tried to deal with the other things that took longer to kill. I eventually wised up to that and started on the chaingunners first, but then I'd get smashed by manc fireballs. And there's a lot more chaingunners up there than you would think too. Once you manage to escape this room, no matter which way you go, you'll have a cyb waiting for you. The one in the rocket launcher courtyard did get me twice, but there's a lot more room out here to make moving around easier. It should be noted that all my deaths outside of the opening room came from encounters with a boss monster (at least that I can remember - I remember 5 of these deaths and can't place the 6th). That doesn't mean the rest of the map's incidental combat is anything to sneeze at. In fact, it's the contrary. Waverider (who is a former TeamTNT member and PRCP1 contributor) really likes a mean archvile or 7. The crimson cavern to the south has like 1/3 of the map's archies just chillin' on some ledges. He's also got 2 cybs in close quarters around the map. 1 just to the east of the start by the plasma rifle and blue key, and one directly behind the red door. There's no BFG in the map, so I'm lucky to have one to 2-shot them (tho the former one killed me twice). A lot of the rooms look pretty imposing with their enemy composition, but as you as you take it slow, you can methodically get through them with minimal issues. There's a lot of rockets and cells in this map, so keep those weapons singing. This is probably the best map in the WAD so far to encourage using weapons 5 and 6 often, as I found myself using them for most of this map and barely taking out the SSG or chaingun. There were a few ambushes that I thought were going to go a lot harder than they actually did, like the one once you raise the blue bars, and the one when you grab the red key. Yes archies show up, but their backup is thin. After the intensity of the opening fight, I expected a lot more from those! I guess I get that with the final giant fight on the way to the yellow key. You're in a giant cavern of blood and guts that only initially has lost souls and shotgunners. However once you cross a certain linedef, tons of stuff teleport in, including a spidermomma and a cyb watchman. Look out for the tan intestines on the west side of the arena to find a secret soul sphere that saved me on my 2nd attempt. Revs also teleport in the closer you get to the cyb. Once this fight is done, the map is essentially over. You've got a few barons and a small smattering of non-threats before finally reaching the end. Whew! Overall, this map has an incredibly hostile start, and the rest of it looks tough, but with a slow pace it's not too bad. Still the meanest map in the WAD so far. Looks pretty good, and the MIDI gives the map a somber and nervous feel to it. I'm not sure if it has the same type of enemy placement and composition as Plutonia did, but it definitely got the difficulty part right. Honestly, a pretty fun map once you get your footing! (though this may just be cause I'm playing continuous. Pistol-starters may be tearing their hair out at this one)

Edited July 28, 2023 by TJG1289

[Celestin]

MAP29: Gehenna by Yumheart

 

After my experiences with Yumheart's other contribution to PRCP 2 and the general trend of placing the toughest maps at 29th slot, I clenched my teeth and prepared for an impact. Gehenna continues this wad's tradition of placing the biggest obstacle in the beginning of the map - this time, you are teleported into a cramped platform over a lake of lava. Hitscanners are the worst, you have no armour and the only gun you have is the starting chaingun, not the best weapon to quickly kill snipers. Oh, and don't forget about other monsters here. I dashed for the super shotgun and did a couple of laps around the place, killing hitscanners and praying for a fruitful infight. It worked (after a couple of restarts) and I could pick up the yellow key, which releases more crap, including a pair of pain elementals, cacodemons and mancubi. I again managed to make enemies kill each other, while eliminating whatever seemed the most threatening. 

 

After this is over, you'll need bigger guns for the rest of the map. A rocket launcher is nearby, but beware of a chaingunner ambush. To get a plasma rifle, you have to make a loop around the outer perimeter of the structure, eliminating pop-up groups of revenants and chaingunners. The gun itself is of course booby-trapped, releasing a ring of chaingunners and the first archvile of the map (he got me the first time, but it wasn't that bad when I knew what was coming). One aspect where I have to give Yumheart credit for is a rather restrained use of archviles. Unlike some other maps here, which tend to spam them at nearly every opportunity, there are only four viles in Gehenna, the remaining 3 appear in the red key pit. It's another fight with high monster density and little place to hide, but if you are prepared, it isn't as bad as the start.

 

Both keys open a teleporter that telefrags a cyberdemon (he appears at some point, but isn't very dangerous), hands you a BFG and drops you into a lava around the map, now patrolled by large groups of pain elementals and cacodemons, arachnotrons and a trio of cyberdemons. This fight is rather generous with health, ammo and radsuits, so don't hold back. After the anxiety of earlier parts (that Hell Revealed 2 track helps a lot), it feel great to stretch your legs and just unload on everything in your path.

 

Gehenna is a good map with interesting design and really cool locale, though I prefer Calamity Valley's spectacle. Also, this is my personal opinion, but I think Rules of Nature with its oppressiveness and hostility would fit the penultimate slot better.

 

BTW: nice snails on the automap.

[Book Lord]

MAP 29 – Gehenna by @Yumheart

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

 

After being mistreated and bored to death by the long maps of the third episode, Yumheart came to the rescue with a tough but somehow refreshing map. Gehenna is used in the New Testament as a synonym for hell, but the origin of the name is peculiar. It was the name of a river valley in Jerusalem’s outskirts, where the inhabitants used to dispose of the urban waste by burning it in great fires. Doomguy might follow the same fate of the damned if he does not watch his step, because the whole level is surrounded by a lake of lava with only a few teleport pads to get out.

Spoiler

The delayed hot start was comparable in intensity to MAP19, but this time there was no place to hide or escape to. The only option was to kill the Chaingunners before they filled me with lead, and then concentrate on the mid-tiers that were so reluctant to infight. The YSK was there for the taking, but you ought to find better weapons before stirring a hornet’s nest of Pain Elementals, Cacodemons, and Mancubi. The rocket launcher was on top of the stairs, guarded by a Chaingunner ambush like almost everything in this level. After circumnavigating the imposing structure, decorated with magic runes and dominated by a huge, inverted pyramid, I found a switch that raised a bridge to the plasma rifle in the starting area. Nothing is for free in Gehenna, so be careful.

 

Armed to the teeth, I triggered the YSK ambush and disposed of the assailants. I noticed that the RSK lay just below the pyramid in a central courtyard, but I took my time and found a secret backpack on the ramparts. The Soul Sphere and the surreal cityscape were destined to remain secret, because the trigger was so hidden that only an editor could show me its location. The one-way path around the structure was a bit aggravating since it forced me to travel through previously cleared areas, attacked by a Cyberdemon. The battle at the centre of the map was the best in store, starting with a single Arch-Vile accompanied by Demons, Imps, and Hell Nobles, and ended with two surprise healers that joined the fray when I was relishing my victory.

Spoiler

The keys were used on the corresponding switches and activated the final battle, beginning with a void red-carpet walk granting a BFG, followed by the Cyberdemon telefrag and a Radiation Suit. Doomguy and a legion of demons were suddenly thrown “into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. The lake of lava surrounding the playing zone was quite large to comfortably run and hurl BFG balls to great effect, but you need to manage your shielding suits to survive. The green haze impaired my view to the point I could not see rockets, and the sheer number of Pain Elementals generated a grainy cloud of flaming skulls that scattered in all directions. The fight was more annoying than difficult, and I died a couple of times because I did not see a rocket coming at me from miles away. At some point, the entrance became accessible, and I noticed there was only a single stimpack left in the whole map! Gehenna was the best-balanced level in the third episode, showing how to pose a challenge without lasting 30+ minutes and wearing the player out. I wish more authors had chosen this approach for PRCP 2.

[finnks13]

MAP28 - Crimson Realm by waverider:

23:51/17 Deaths
:(

 

OK it's a bit shorter than the last one, but this probably took me much longer because it's so bloody difficult. I don't want this to be a repeat of yesterdays ramblings, but I feel much the same about both of these maps - especially in that they have both seemingly lost sight of the fact that a map should probably be fun in their pursuit to be as difficult as possible. The opening moment here is the single hardest part of the wad, I really don't have any strategy in mind here - going to the outside area seemed to be the most effective, but you've still got to deal with a cyberdemon, a bunch of arachnotrons and turret archviles from three separate angles. It does give you a rocket launcher to give you a fighting chance, and while this was pretty frustrating, I didn't mind it too much. I think if one of the two groups of turret archviles that were in the outside area were replaced by revenants then this would have made the fight much more palatable, especially from a pistol start where it's ridiculously mean.

 

This map looks nothing like Plutonia, the most egregious thing is that it uses a bunch of FIREBLU in the red hell cave section at the south of the map. I'm a big proponent for the use of FIREBLU, and will defend using it in a manner similar to Mt. Erebus all day, but it's quite possibly the least "Plutonia" texture I can think of - why the hell was it put back into the resource wad? Other than that, the map looks pretty good, but the hellish atmosphere really clashes with the MIDI that is just far too chill for the map. I can only assume that any maps that didn't have a MIDI picked out for them were just assigned the Plutonia MIDI pack track of the corresponding mapslot, cause I have no idea why this was picked otherwise. While I must admit to being a little bit sick of the majority of the Plutonia MIDI pack at this point (should stress that I think it's an excellent collection of music that perfectly fits Plutonia in a way few MIDI packs since have managed to replicate, I just think it's rather overused), there are plenty of more punchy, fast-paced or dread-soaked songs to pick from than "Dead Plumber's Song".

 

The map's progression is pretty bad, there's two paths to the blue key, the one that you decide to not go down first being a completely pointless side-track that you'll likely spend more ammo dealing with than you'll gain from ammo caches lying around. As well as this, the red key door is really stupid - even if we ignore the classic "fuck it, I'm putting a cyberdemon here that's going to do absolutely nothing except waste your time & ammo" trick that I have complained about since my first month talking about wads with the club. There's two red doors in this map, and you have to go through one of them to unlock the bars behind the second, and this really confused me when I first saw it because I assumed that I'd missed an important switch somewhere previously, not realising it was behind a second red door! I think not marking the door, and having the bars just unlock the door itself would have been much less confusing - or y'know this is boom format, why not have a red keycard locked door and a red skull locked door?

 

I didn't care for the "Gotcha!" ambush in front of the yellow key, which seems to be a test of whether you have at least 85% health going into it more than anything else because there is no cover and two barons between you and the archvile, and the grand finale it leads to is just miserable. Like the opening fight, pretty much every angle is covered by archviles, but unlike the opening fight, you also have to deal with pain elementals and a spiderdemon that locks out half of the arena, with your only recourse being to try to get past a horde of arachnotrons to snipe the archvile at the back of the spawn area. It's a miserable fight and I hated it. Since it seems like I've done nothing but complain, I should mention that I liked most of the incidental combat, and in the run-up to getting the blue key after the hot start, found myself getting lost in it to the point where I was forgetting to save often & losing progress, which is a good thing (unless you're me when I reload to a save from 5+ minutes ago and feel upset that I now have to redo a bunch of stuff :P)

 

Overall, Crimson Realm is just too much at this point. Probably not a bad map if viewed on it's own, but in the context of the wad I am begging for mercy at this point and being thoroughly ignored.

 

BUT WHAT DO THE TELEPORTERS LOOK LIKE??????

Spoiler

MAP28 - 10/10. I think these marathon maps are doing this on purpose.

 

 

[Gardevoir]

For anyone curious, yes I am PotatoBoih. Just didn't wanna keep having a generic pokemon name for a nick so I switched to that one a long while ago on most social networks! Thank you all for reviews, the map was designed to be absolutely BS and seeing so many people frustrated with it fills me with joy... but yeah maybe I've overdone it just a lil' bit with the difficulty... <3

Edited July 29, 2023 by Gardevoir

[Catpho]

Woah, I thought it was the work of some talented newbie. My selfish desire is to tell you to keep overdoing it, but I'll look forward to your next release regardless of what comes.

[plums]

@Gardevoir don't know if you read my comment on the previous page, but your map was hard enough to convince me to step down to HMP, where I was able to easily enjoy it and the following maps without pulling my hair out, unlike these other suckers who seemed determine to get through the whole wad on UV despite how unpleasant an experience it was, so I approve ;D

 

PS I found the non-secret secret pokemon, did anyone else? I should have looked for a DW user named Gardevoir :)

Edited July 29, 2023 by plums

[waverider]

Well that was a rough read about my Map28, heh. 

 

Seriously, what's wrong with a bit of constructive feedback even if someone truly dislikes or hates a map? There's honestly no reason for these really nasty reviews, a little kindness goes a long way. The net is already filled with negative or hateful comments about people or their work anyways.

 

No one can ever learn from any mistakes they made if they don't get any constructive feedback!

[Gardevoir]

When I was playing PRCP2 on my own I could feel very drained by some of the longer levels in the set so I absolutely understand that some people might be too frustrated by the later levels because of fatigue. I did plan for that map to have the map29 slot for an obvious reason originally but it got pushed down to 27. I feel bad for anyone who had a bad time with it because imho it's probably one of the best works of mine thus far (and probably the most challenging map I've made).

 

Don't really have time for doom mapping much these days as I still haven't made much progress on my own project since the last time I bumped the thread... ah well. We'll see what future has to come. I read all the reviews and thanks to everyone! I should really try joining more community projects in the future. xp

Also, that pokemon in the secret is a Frillish, a very underrated design that I really like.

[Catpho]

@waverider Hi there. I'm sorry you feel bummed out by what you read here. I think many of us can sympathize with being frustrated with people trashing something you spent so much time on. Still, ranting is allowed in this thread as long as it is grounded in observations and doesn't devolve into personal insults, and, personally speaking, I think there are a decent amount of specific ideas thrown around in this thread already. They may be coated in harsh language, which I think is just a result of not wanting to spend too much time on a map that one is not passionate about, but for the most part there are specific critiques. I think it would be better for you to ask for clarification for specific criticism that you don't feel like the reviewer explained well (mine included, no doubt). Edit: Although whether you'll get responses from anyone other than me is not guaranteed. It's a hobby for everyone here, after all

Edited July 29, 2023 by Catpho

[plums]

@Gardevoir you caught me, I don't know my pokeymans very well. I still knew what it was, at least?

 

@waverider like with Gardevoir's map I enjoyed yours on HMP, pistol start. I imagine part of people's negativity comes from everyone having their ass cheeks so sore by this point; it probably would've got at least a *bit* of a better reception if it were on MAP22 or something like that.

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 29:  Gehenna - Yumheart

100% kills and secrets

Time: 17:44

Deaths: 3

 

The penultimate map of this doesn't try to replicate Odyssey of Noises (outside of a secret area), but instead takes us to a small island in a lava sea. I expected this to be a lot harder than Yumheart's last map considering its placement in the WAD, but this is like the second easiest map in the episode (for continuous at least). The encounters are highly dangerous, but nothing weapons 5-7 can't handle. There's a lot of pillars with chaingunners sprinkled around, so try to get rid of those ASAP since they do the most consistent damage. The opening fight has them, along with revs, cacos, and mancs. A chaingunner corpse covered the yellow key for me, so it was very surprising that I could still barely see it. I know I said this map was relatively easy, but it still had me at low health pretty much until the final fight. The fact I was able to survive this fight on the first encounter was amazing, as I did some of the best manc and rev projectile dodging I have ever done in my life! It felt goooood getting that one done. The fights on the general outskirts were a nail-biter too, as the sniping cyb and arachnotrons don't help while you're trying to deal with the chaingunners, pinkies, hell knights, and revs on the floor with you. Another almost death here, as I got down to single digits, but I managed it! The plasma rifle fight almost got me as well with that chaingunner/archie combo. However, only 1 fight in this map caused my deaths, and that was the red key fight. Almost had it on the first attempt too. I thought I was in the clear when a single archie teleported in and I BFGd it, but then 2 more came in at the end and double roasted me. Twice. The 3rd time I died to a baron somehow. I didn't see any projectile as it was in front of me. Huh. Once the 2 keys are collected you can hit their switches and telefrag the cyb, grab the BFG and a rad suit, and deal with the final fight in the lava. This fight is more annoying than tough because of the pain elementals. They surround the whole map and flood it with lost souls. Easily the most dangerous part of it is getting blocked while trying to avoid the cacos, 3 cybs and the spiders in the lava with you. I almost ran out of cells BFGing them out of the sky! Thankfully, there are cells, rockets, rad suits, and 2 megaspheres in the lava with you, making this fight much more forgiving than anything on land. I killed everything with a sphere to spare, so I'm taking that in to the finale! Overall, while this map is a tough one on paper (and in practice for those who throw away their weapons at the start of each map), it's not really that bad. I felt map 27 overall was more difficult, but having a shorter map like this towards the end of the WAD is nice. Map looks really good and has a sinister MIDI too. 

[baja blast rd.]

For PRCP2 map28's start, one thing that works really well is using the chaingunners up top to help with distracting all the enemies, and collapsing the mid-tier enemies to the center of the room.

 

 

Not sure there's a "target prioritization" way of thinking that works here, which is why I keep saying I think target prioritization quickly becomes a harmful concept once you've been playing for more than a few weeks. :P 

[Tiramisu]

@waverider Just for the record, my minimum effort "bla-bla" review was supposed to be basically an edgy jab at PRCP2's overabundance of long maps, I probably should've made that more clear! I think most people here are just venting their frustration at PRCP2 as a whole at this point, this wad borders on false advertising with the "Plutonia" part of its name and I think it really does a disservice to many of its longer maps in the process (especially here where we have to play one per day, on average).

 

EDIT: Now that I think of it though, it's still no good reason to pile on a map like that! Angry reviews are a risk inherent in challenging wads like this for an already challenging game like this, but still at the very least some effort should be put into mitigating the vent to prevent unnecessary unpleasant experiences for the mapmakers caught in the crossfire. I for one should certainly wait a bit after a map I found frustrating before writing a review, to let the emotions cool down first (or maybe designate a separate section just for venting, to get it out of the way in a controlled fashion)!

Edited July 29, 2023 by sq. Tiramisu
wording

[LadyMistDragon]

I gave 29 a go for a bit but decided it wasn't quite what I wanted right now. A little note on the midi: it's creepy but pay little attention to it, it's reptitiveness is not so effective, imo. And since I really won't have time tomorrow.....

 

Map 30: Shattered Nightmares

by @Death Bear (of Death)

 

This map received quite a frosty reception when it got a public release. Bit of a shame, really. Because despite it being an Icon of Sin map, it at least tried to throw in a workable twist! Or could be just that its clear Death Bear worked really hard on this! Like, I know those little rock islands were probably all copypasted but just look at the scale of some of these rooms! While the first room seems to be a callback to the original Map 30 from Plutonia, the rest is just much more expansive than that! Well, other than the room with some fairly claustrophobic combat we get all our weapons in. From here, a switch opens 4 different holes where we can drop down into the massive cavern referenced above. Enemies will start teleporting in but it really shouldn't be challenging with all the room we have. After picking up some keys, handling a Cyber and an Arch-vile, then another Arch-vile, we teleport to a lift in a narrow pit, slowly raising us up to another large cavern with the Icon of Sin! There's more than enough ammo for our purposes, although I couldn't tell you where all the cells come from. What I can say is that certain critical lifts don't seem to be up right away and we might have to run around a fair bit, targeting certain enemies with the BFG before we can get up them. At the top, we face down an Arch-vileon each side guarding a switch which basically raise a pair of bridges to a tower in the middle. This tower subsequently lowers, revealing a Cyberdemon that probably shouldn't be too much trouble. The real trouble probably comes from being surrounded and killed by enemies with homing capability like Arachnotrons and....grrrrr.....Lost Souls. Things might go smoother if you know what you're doing, but honestly, much of the issues here are monster composition. If there's one issue here, it might be how quickly the lift in the middle goes up. Although to be honest, do you really want to be cornered on a lift when you're suppose to be shooting rockets? Especially when you don't know where the Romero head is? Because it's not at the location of a monster spitter. At least there's plenty of room to shoot at it if there aren't any Lost Souls in the way (thank you JC Dorne for that utterly needless bit of misery in 3HA2).

 

It's hard to say this is the kind of map that I'd want to play as such but I don't think it got enough credit for trying to expand the 'ol formula a little.

 

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

I'll be brief. There's not a single weak map in the bunch. Maybe one or two are a little light and fluffy and had navigation issues but I liked every map I played. Probably because the idea of "Plutonia" by itself is actually quite dull and I personally don't mind something that is willing to take gameplay inspiration from other Doom wads. I haven't thought much beyond that though. Let's just put down some of the favorites

 

Map 20: Calamity Valley

Map 07: Agarthan Anomaly

Map 18: Enclave

Map 11: Plutonium Rust

Map 13: Never Safe, Always Sorry

Map 26: Golgotha

Map 16: Ifrit's Lair

Map 04: Murder Well

Map 12: Close Encounters

Edited July 29, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[HiMyNameIsChair]

@Gardevoir Well you definitely succeeded in your mission of making a really hard map, I'll tell you that! Genuinely the most a map has kicked my ass in a long time!

 

Also for what it's worth, your map looks Fantastic ~!  I wish i had put aside my grievances more to highlight that, because it really is gorgeous! I love the floating island near the start, the coffins sunk into pools of blood in the western section are brilliant (BTW the sector art crosses you drew look phenomenal, they look incredibly clean, well done~!),  and the natural landscapes you drew for the grotto look amazing (love the lighting in the SSG secret BTW). OFC i gotta point out the corrupted tree! I mean this when I say this: it genuinely looks like something Cyriak Harris or Death Destiny would have drawn, it left me speechless! The makeshift mouth with the teeth, the blood oozing from the ceiling when you drop down, and the atmospheric lighting... it is aesthetically, a high point of not just your map, but the entire set, and considering Eternal has a map in the set... that is a huge accomplishment.

 

As much as my first playthrough was an absolute bear, I will look out for your name in the future, because even with my grievances, I was incredibly impressed. Well done!

 

@waverider for what it's worth I had a pretty alright time with your map~! it reminded me of something in the same vein as AV's Dark Dome, so I felt like I was right at home! That and I felt very rewarded for committing to non-engagement when it came to the start, so i actually liked that a lot~! The final fight ended up being a fun engagement as well, as intimidating as it might look at first! 

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP29 - Gehenna - Yumheart (100%K/96%I/33%S):

Thankfully not an Odyssey of Noises homage. Yumheart does indeed like Ribbiks' maps, so much that he straight up takes his style, judging by both this map, and his previous entry at the 20th slot of PRCP. Great MAP29, I thought this was going to be not only as hard as the last two maps, but also as long, luckly, none of this happens. Beautiful arena inside the eye of a volcano (Or something like that), that makes you feel small. Again, a really harsh start, but doable if you manage to kill the hitscanners first and then proceed doing some laps around the main area of the arena, forcing most of the enemies to infight. You are slowly getting awarded with guns, and after you remove most pressure from the main area, map gets simpler and easier. This is not implying that it gets easy, because it is still difficult, but after several maps of punishing difficulty, the fight for the red key becomes quite trivial and leaves no sweat to the player. Yes, I had to replay it several times, but I expected an encounter that would finally make me lose my hair to its entirety. Once you get the two keys, one of which is really easy to grab (the yellow one), as it is inside some "incidental combat" setpiece, you have granted access to the last setpiece, making you telefrag a cyberdemon for a BFG, and giving you a radsuit, as the real fight starts right in the lava itself. For some reason, the first time I played I did not trigger this fight, and it left me stuck wandering around for minutes without understanding what is actually happening. Luckly, I did not get softlocked, and after some state loading, I could manage to get it working. The last fight was not much harder than the red key fight, as there weren't any archviles, and the ammount of BFG ammo and arachnotrons Yumheart placed, makes for an easy way to deal with the cyberdemon-trio. The worst here may be the pain elementals filling the entirety of the complex with those pesky skull heads, so much so they ended up getting ignored by me, as there is plenty of room to move. 
Loved the aesthetics here so far, with some Plutonia-esque things that are at this point just minor decorations, and those platform with runes all over the place, great landscape made yet again by Yumheart.
Enjoyable map overall, and surprisingly a breather, this far, because MAP27 and 28 gave us bigger standards in terms of difficulty and length, also Yumheart made MAP20, which is far more difficult and longer. This is more like it, and a really welcome last map before the end. One of my favourites. 

(UV - Playthrough/PRBoom+)

Order of Preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP17
MAP29
MAP18

MAP11
MAP23

MAP07

MAP05
MAP27
MAP24
MAP26
MAP22
MAP20
MAP32
MAP15
MAP21
MAP31
MAP19
MAP08

MAP01
MAP09
MAP12
MAP02
MAP03
MAP14
MAP16
MAP13
MAP25
MAP04
MAP28

 

At this point I'm confident enough that Yumheart can be paired around Ribbiks, Nirvana and similars for one of those episodic humongous Dooming experiences they upload from time to time. 
Of course more of those maps make me feel that, I will never in my life be enough prepared to vote for that Fetish-Film/Jumpwad combo that Catpho is always suggesting for the club, maybe in ten years in the future, when my hair is fully lost.

Edited July 29, 2023 by DJVCardMaster

[HiMyNameIsChair]

MAP29: Gehenna by @Yumheart

 

(Played on DSDA, UV Pistolstart. 104% Kills / 66% Secrets. Completion Time: 16:34)

 

OK... now this... is right up my alley~!

 

Yumheart absolutely knocked my socks off with their fantastic MAP20 that combined luscious visuals with Speed of Doom-esc jolts of adrenaline. So naturally, I was absolutely giddy with anticipation to see more from them~! needless to say... they did not disappoint~!  Gehenna is dynamite~! 

 

So right off the bat, i applaud Yumheart for their economy of space! Gehenna is bite-sized, carefully calibrated, and delightfully vicious~! The visuals on display here are befitting of the coveted penultimate slot, with a daunting central structure connected to an outlying ring of towers, all situated around a lake of lava. Yumheart makes an inspired choice of Midi here as well, a Sam Woodman classic from Hell Revealed 2 that ratchets up the dread~! 

 

I think what i like most about this map, is while you might not realize it at first, Yumheart give's you a surprising amount of autonomy in how you tackle their map, and nothing demonstrates that better than the opening fight, and the Yellow Key.

 

You're immediately spotted by an arachnotron, which means there's no time to sit idle, and you'll have to start contending with the hitscanners to make space for yourself and ensure your survival, as you're beset by mancubi, pinkies and boney bois. Thankfully Yumhear hands you a chaingun and lots of ammo in the starting void. Now, unassuming first-timers might catch a glimpse of the yellow key below and might think to grab it... and be bushwacked by a wickedly deadly trap of mancubi, and meatballs that will clog up the incredibly hot starting area. The yellow key's use here is absolutely brilliant, because here's the catch: you do not need to grab the key and activate the fight right away. Yumheart leave it up to you, when, and more importantly, *on what terms you decide to engage in that fight*.

 

First-timers might be too distracted from the mayhem of the opener to realize that Yumheart gives you a *LOT* of tools nearby to even the odds, including an SSG around the corner, and even a rocket launcher up the steps! Careful footwork around the red switch can even net you that tasty mega armor on the pillar!

 

once the starting area quiets down and you get some bigger guns you *can* engage with the yellow key fight right away, but if the idea still makes you squeamish, there's a switch later on that raises a bridge to the nearby island, and the plasma rifle~! ofc it's not free, but the ensuing fight is well worth the price of admission, as you'll be juggling chaingunners, pinkies, and an archvile while keeping out of his line of sight~! It's a welcome dose of adrenaline and you have the perfect weapon for the job~!

 

At this point, you're well armed and will make the yellow key fight more manageable, and clearing that will net you tons of supplies~! 

 

setting down the path around the island is just as engaging, as traversing the walkways will bring its own trials, including pop-up brigades, and a pincer engagement that will test your footwork, while a mancubi, and later, a cyberdemon supports them from a nearby platform~! I really love fights like this that are small in scope but are very carefully choreographed via their layout and monster placement. Observant players who notice that the chaingunner ambush on the west side of the map is missing a member can potentially net themselves a very useful backpack.

 

Much like the yellow key fight, You are under no constraints as to when you choose to engage with the red key fight, as you can jump down here at any point, even looping all the way around, and grabbing the plasma before starting the fight. Yumheart unleashes hell nobles, and pickies marshaled by an archvile, and a detail here i love is that Yumheart bides their time before unleashing an extra pair of archvile. I got caught off guard here in my play-through, figuring the initial ambush *was* the entire fight, only to realize there were now *three* angry martians running amock! it's a devious trap thats executed very well here~! 

 

I sadly didn't find this on my first playthrough, but a tiny switch in the Red Key arena takes you to a secret area with a soulsphere that i assume is a nod to Plutonia's MAP29: Odyssey of Noises, which is a really cool setpiece!

 

With both keys in hand, you can hit the switches back at the start, telefrag a cyber if he's already out of his pen, get a BFG and a radsuit, and start the final showdown~! It's a rumble down in the boiling soup against a few Cybers, Tomatos, Devilish meatballs, some pinkies and baby spiders. Yumheart is incredibly merciful here, and gifts you I believe a total of 7 radsuits, lots of plasma and rockets, and 2 Megaspheres! So it's time to cut loose and season the scalding soup du jour with some extra demon meat, and wrap up the map! if the final fight looks too intimidating, then have no fear, as Yumheart has you covered there as well. I'm not sure when it happens, but at some point, the exit will open so you're under no obligation to stick around longer than you need to, which is a nice gesture!

 

All-in-all, Gehenna is an absolute grand slam of a map, and Yumheart's final contribution to PRCP2 is a surefire crowd pleaser~! In a third episode full of longer maps, I greatly appreciate that the MAP29 is short and punchy! While I'm not sure which of their maps i ultimately prefer as i'd rank them very close, Gehenna's economic layout and dedication to flexible progression, and player agency make for a greatly enjoyable experience and puts it up near the top of the card for me~! for me, MAP 20 & MAP29 cement Yumheart as a phenomenally talented mapper, and a name i will be delighted to see more from in the future~!

 

Grade: A+

 

Order of Preference

 

Spoiler

MAP11

MAP29

MAP17

MAP20

MAP06

MAP32

MAP26

MAP10

MAP05

MAP15

MAP01

MAP08

MAP12

MAP03

MAP24

MAP25

MAP19

MAP31

MAP07

MAP28

MAP14

MAP13

MAP21

MAP18

MAP02

MAP23

MAP16

MAP04

MAP09

MAP27

MAP22

 

Yumheart nabs the 2nd A+ i've given out in the set, with the only other given out to Eternal. I generally have no significant nitpicks or issues with this map, other than the last fight could have been more tightly choreographed, but really, it works perfectly as a chaotic all-out brawl~! well done Yumheart!

Edited July 29, 2023 by HiMyNameIsChair

[Tiramisu]

It just occurred to me that since I played one map at a time, I forgot to read the intermission text screens! So I went back now and did that, and I must say it's interesting how they actually reference the just-completed or upcoming maps - especially the one before MAP07, it actually explains what's the deal with that spaceship at the end. The one where Doomguy jumps down a lava pit because his grandma once told him a story or something was a bit weird, but whatever! :p

 

UV/saves, pistol start

 

MAP29 - Gehenna

 

Okay, this map settles it, Yumheart really is a genius

 

And what a map they've treated us to this time! The incredibly cohesive setting of an inverted pyramid-topped temple in the middle of a lake of lava instantly captures the player's full attention, and confines the map inside a clearly defined frame that naturally limits its runtime to a reasonable level. Exploring the temple feels like a mini-adventure on its own, despite not taking all that much time - especially when you finish your lap around it, discovering a way back to the starting area. I also have to say I really liked the limited use of city textures, such as the wooden fences and house windows - it was most likely meant as a homage to Plutonia's MAP29, but for me it gave the whole thing an even more unique, mysterious feel!

 

The combat design is also top-notch here, really making the most out of the limited space it's set in. Some of the moments might feel a bit too reliant on Chaingunners, and there is one trap that will pretty much kill you if you don't pre-fire a rocket at where the monsters will appear, but I think that can be brushed away with MAP29 privilege, especially with the overall quality the fights present.

 

The red key fight, a brawl at the foot of the pyramid against a teleporting horde of monsters, was initially deemed by me as absolutely bullshit - and indeed, the Archviles make it pretty much impossible if you don't have the plasma gun at hand. However, once I completed the main portion of the map and got the weaponry I needed, that fight instantly became my favorite in the whole map, and one of my favorites in the wad - I love how it forces you to constantly focus-fire the next monster without stopping, so you can clear out as much as space as you possibly can in preparation for the incoming Archviles!

 

In contrast, the finale was more annoying than it was hard - the idea was pretty nice, but in the end it amounted mostly to running around hunting down Pain Elementals with a BFG, confused as to what to do to access the exit (I think it lowered on its own in the end). Still, I must say I appreciate the fact that the final fight wasn't made unnecessarily difficult! As I already said once - it should be the flashiest, not the hardest.

 

Great map, great way to finish off the wad! (IoS maps don't count lol)

 

Plutonia memories, MAP29 (Odyssey of Noises) - I remember having to basically memorize the layout of the streets, because one of them was the one where you could get sniped by the Cyberdemon. I called it "Cyberdemon Alley", and every now and then went "oh wait, can't go there that's Cyberdemon Alley!!!".

 

Order of Preference

 

Spoiler

 

MAP22

MAP32

MAP03

MAP17

MAP15

MAP29

 

MAP26
MAP13

MAP20

MAP12

MAP05

MAP07

 

MAP10

MAP25

MAP23

MAP27

MAP02

MAP06

 

MAP14
MAP11

MAP16

MAP24

MAP21

MAP18

 

MAP08

MAP04

MAP09

MAP01

MAP19

MAP28

 

Edited July 30, 2023 by sq. Tiramisu

[Veeda Vidlak]

Map28 “Crimson Realm” @waverider

 

So the start, this sort of thing is a staple of harder modern combat designs. Enemies facing away, an oppressive nest of chaingunners, bulkier bodies confounding mobility, and area denial archviles. It can be approached a couple ways.

 

1.     Don’t fire and provoke the chaingunners into killing each other by hugging the central platform. Once only one or two are left kill them and hold in the starting area.

2.     Shoot a chaingunner then hug around the middle platform until the western door is unimpeded. Run outside and grab the heavier weapons, stay away from the viles (and watch the cyber) and start killing everything in the doorway. Once able run back inside and clear the room, this method is faster and more dangerous.

 

Once you can stand still without dying the majority of what remains is moderate difficulty incremental combat. We have a green marble hell temple section, a red brick/flesh/blood area, and a red cavern of viles, specters, and cacos (reminds me of scythe 2). All areas are interconnected (with some handy teleporters to reduce travel time) and all roads lead to the blue key. After a couple of vile and friends key traps we can go through the red door (and unbar the blocks behind it) where we get a pair of very challenging arenas to finish with.

 

Our first arena, entered by a surprise pit drop on approach to the yellow key, pits us between revs on one side and mancubi + vile on the other in a frightfully cramped setting (nobles guard the door out, located behind the mancubi). I tried a couple things and found the most success with rocketing the three revs forthwith so I can fight with my back clear, the edge of the room is just enough to take cover from a vile attack. Our second arena is the showstopper, a massive blood cavern in which we get assailed by around 70 enemies, spiders, mancs, PEs, a vile, lost souls, and with some viles and a cyber as area denial. The safest place is the little U-shaped cave to the northwest, you can kill the vile immediately and there’s a handy secret soulsphere cubbyhole to hide in. Watch for rockets and grind the opposition down to win, there’s nothing but a few stragglers after this.

 

I’m having a lot of fun but… I like this type of combat. I’m of the opinion Crimson Realm is suffering from both preference clash and megawad fatigue (I think Book Lord is about two magnum opuses away from becoming the joker). It fits the map28 slot very well, with meanness and difficulty commensurate with its placement in a Plutonia wad. Count me among its fans, though like many other third episode entries it could be a little shorter.

 

prcp2map28.zip

Time: 21:38   Kills: 318/318    Secrets: 2/2

 

Edit: For a specific criticism, the entire southwestern cavern can be removed. The enemies are nonthreatening so it adds nothing but runtime to the map (the switch lowering the slabs blocking the yellow key route can be placed in the vile cave to still use that area).

Edited July 29, 2023 by Veeda Vidlak

[Celestin]

MAP30: Shattered Nightmare by Death Bear

 

Yes, Death Bear, now I can totally see why this map didn't receive a warm reception.

 

I like the start, actually. A fight in a red cavern with a cracked floor isn't hard, it gives you a momentum to go forward. Then you walk past the yellow door and everything falls apart. The progression seems easy and reasonable: ride a pair of lifts and shoot two switches, which activate another lift, this one in the centre of the arena, allowing you to blow the Romero's head to pieces. Here's a list of reasons why this part is a mess.

 

• 6 monster spawners make the place hard to traverse even if you actively cull the enemy number with a BFG;
• all lifts activate on a delayed timer, so you can't just run straight towards them - you need to waste time and let more monsters spawn until they are usable;
• most cube targets are by the lifts, making them the most crowded spots of the map;
• both switches are guarded by archviles, who will happily throw you of the pillar, unless you take them out earlier (they are awkward to hit) or spam BFG once on their level;
• the central lift is also on a timer, it reveals a cyberdemon; if he starts infighting, you can quickly kill him or at least push him down, otherwise - you'll likely die;
• finally, as one last middle finger towards the player, good luck firing rockets at something when you're swarmed by cacodemons and lost soul.

Everything here feels like it was made as aggravating as possible. Yes, there's plenty of ammo and recovery items, but it's still hard for all the wrong reasons. I save-scummed the final part and I feel zero shame. 

 

I know Icon of Sin-style maps are hard to make right, but PRCP 2 deserved a better ending.

 

Conclusions

 

I was initially somewhat confused about the identity of Plutonia Revisited Community Project 2. I came in expecting something like Cydonia (a wad I had played only a few weeks earlier) - a faithful recreation of Casali's gameplay style. That's not what I got. The best way I can describe PRCP 2 is that it's a second league of the work-in-progress Plutonia 3, where rejected maps are relegated to and new submissions came in without affecting the primary project - that is, unless they are really good, then they can get promoted to the main wad. Yes, the end result might often not feel Plutonia-enough, but that was kinda a point - to experiment. While there is a fair share of maps that stay close to the ethos of the original, I feel like PRCP 2 is at its strongest when mappers take ideas from Plutonia and combine them with their signature style. Early on I criticised Against the Spirit and Agarthan Anomaly for deviating from Plutonia's template and I want to take a moment to rectify that. The addition of incidental combat between bigger fights in Against the Spirit greatly improved the map's flow, which is something I missed in later levels. Agarthan Anomaly, on the other hand, is a great adventure map, which would probably made it to my TOP 5, if it wasn't for Plutonium Rust.

 

There's one thing that can't be ignored, though. PRCP 2 falls into the same pitfall as many other community megawads: having a number of really talented mappers, each trying to outdo others by making bigger, more impressive and harder map. This is why the final third was my least favourite part of the wad - a combination of size and difficulty made the final stretch really taxing. I've touched on this elsewhere, but to me, a megawad is more than a collection of 32 maps - it's a complete experience that needs a proper structure, a certain flow to work well. 

 

Despite this, I enjoyed my time with Plutonia Revisited Community Project 2. I was intrigued to see what the project members came up with and how they reinterpreted Plutonia through their own eyes. The end result is a varied project full of great maps, though a handful of them would work better as standalone releases. Difficulty was fine for the first two chapters (secret maps aside, but they follow their own rules), it started to get hard around MAP20 and while I was contemplating dropping down to HMP at MAP27, I clenched my teeth and stubbornly pushed through. Challenge seekers should be satisfied, more casual players should probably consider a lower difficulty setting. Finally, it put Plutonia 2 and the original PRCP on my ever-expanding lists of wads I have to play (fellow Club members, how do the difficulty of these two relate to PRCP 2? Thanks in advance).

 

My Top 5 maps of Plutonia Revisited Community Project 2:

 

MAP32: Orestruck by cannonball
MAP11: Plutonium Rust by Eternal
MAP17: The Wolf Hour by sincity2100
MAP20: Calamity Valley by Yumheart
MAP27: Rules of Nature by Gardevoir (as Potatoboih)

 

My least favourite map:

MAP30: Shattered Nightmare by Death Bear

 

Thank you for your input, it was fun as always. See you next month.

[finnks13]

MAP29 - Gehenna by Yumheart:

14:00/6 Deaths
Huzzah! A break from the torturous trek that is the last half of PRCP2!

 

This map looks incredibly cool, the superstructure that dominates the entire map is absolutely jaw-dropping in it's scale and I imagine would have been a complete pain in the arse to make it work at all, let alone play so well too. I really like the sigils on the floor, I assume they're to do with various hellish alchemical things that maybe give you hints as to what the buttons they're in front of do, but I could be totally wrong on that. There are more massive slime-trails in this map than most megawads I've played, but I imagine this is in large part due to the complex structure even if Yumheart's other map in PRCP2 also suffered from similar visual bugs. The map is very open, so getting around is very easy, though the openness arguably is more for the projectiles' benefit than yours! While the myriad of chaingunner snipers are utter bastards, my main troubles in this map came from mancubi and arachnotrons who get a very favourable showing here, especially in the delayed hot-start that can turn from bad to very bad when you pick up the red key that's lying around in the courtyard.

 

Once again, I feel Yumheart is channelling Ribbiks here, and it reminded me a lot of Stardate 20x7 Map03 in particular even if I'm not sure I could justify that take and explain why :P The gameplay is split between tough incidental fights that rely on wearing you down with turret monsters, and structured ambushes that require you to react and think very quickly or die. I think the ambushes worked much better here on the whole than in Map20 (with one exception), and the skirmish for the yellow key around the central pillar of the megastructure was particularly excellent, with enemies slowly teleporting in to gradually overwhelm you and three archviles to give you a right kick up the arse when you smugly thought you were done. I assume the soulsphere secret accessed from here, which finds you on the top of a large building surrounded by more, is a tip of the hat to Odyssey of Noises, and it's a shame that more isn't done with this area because it's very visually striking.

 

The only part of the map that I think falters slightly is the finale, in which you're just given far too much space & ammo for it to feel either difficult or climactic. If the radsuit you get from teleporting into it was the only one in the map and you were therefore on a very strict timer, I can see this working much better in it's current state, but a moat that large is begging for a massive horde of revenants to go along with those cyberdemons and pain elementals! I'm surprised that this is in the Map29 slot, since it felt a fair bit easier than a lot of the episode but I feel like this was picked as a "calm before the storm" style penultimate level, rather than as a final challenge and I can respect that decision and am very thankful for it after the swift arsekicking the rest of the episode's given me. Not a bad idea to end the wad off with such a memorable and cool set-piece as that megastructure too.

 

Overall, Gehenna is just what the doctor ordered. Your maps are bloody great Yumheart, but for the love of god please try a different nodebuilder :P

 

But what do the teleporters look like????

Spoiler

MAP29 - 9/10. These are technically perfect, but I'm deducting a point cause there's slime trails on the exit teleporter which is honestly impressive lol

 

 

 

[Catpho]

@DJVCardMaster lol, there's no need for such trepidation. FCFF, while clearly a product of embracing the furthest corners of Doom, is wrought by an author who has considerably mellowed out since his Sunlust days, and thus does try, even in his clear one-for-him mapset, to accommodate the player as much as possible in the various difficulty settings. Jumpwad, on the other hand, is something I might have sold short: it's one of the friendliest Doom experiences out there. It's almost like it was built with that childish glee of looking at a room and wondering just how big it could be.

MAP29 - “Gehenna” by Yumheart - "More impressive than oppressive", to half-quote dew's write-up for sd20x7, which I think is a fine reason to select something for the penultimate slot. The setting of Gehenna is truly dramatic, but unlike something equally striking such as "Wrong Turn", it is also immediate: a monolithic structure dominating the center, all action of the map never having a chance to leave its gaze, which give the map a greater sense of urgency and tension, compared to the ambling, slow-boil blood safari of MattFright's map, or the decadent sprawl of Potatoboih's map. When it's so close to the end, you really want to tie up loose ends.

The fighting follows a similar ethos. They are frequently very scary looking given the ominous framing of the visuals and the near-total exposure, but, as noted by many here, can be soften very quickly, most striking of them the bfg bonanza of the finale, which could be described by a less-charitable person as a clean-up fest, but you'd want all of them to be bloody and quick. It's not like they don't have an edge, but more like that edge comes with the gleam of a much bigger blade. Awesome map.
 

MAP30 - “Shattered Nightmare” by Death Bear - I've warmed up to IoS maps over the years. I still don't think they are necessarily ideal finales, but taken on their own there's a clear charm of trying your best to hold on as hellspawn tear the world apart, and the best IoS maps can conjure some impressive apocalypse. In the narrow category of Plutonia IWAD IoS fights, it's still hard to top PL2's sheer spectacle of the goat head rising from the abyss, but I otherwise think "Shattered Nightmare" is a great example of its form. The titular shattered look generated from the dozens of rock sectors is exactly what these kinds of maps need — there's nothing more final than seeing the very earth you stand on nothing more than cosmic dust.

The fight in it is fun too. Of course, it is most fun when you trying to figure what the hell you need to do, and with all the visual noise, the map is very good at that. The actual mechanism is simple enough, but I really enjoyed the tension when all the meat started building up and the map doing everything in its power to make this fact relevant. Basicallly, everything @Celestin listed as bad, but it's actually what makes the map good :) 

Wrap-up coming soon.

Edited July 30, 2023 by Catpho

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 30:  Shattered Nightmare - Death Bear

90% kills and 100% secrets

Time: 7:15

Deaths: 7

 

Surprised it took until now for Death Bear to show up. He comes in to give us our grand finale, an IoS map with a little more meat on the bones. Before we get to the IoS part, we have a couple of fights. First off, the normal start-of-IoS-map weapon stash is actually not free, as a good amount of monsters will teleport in to this smallish room. Survive to lower into a really cool red cave with lots of cracked platforms suspended in a void. Falling in-between them doesn't do any damage I think, so no worries there. The worries is the cave filled with demons. Quickly grab the red and blue keys to unleash the cyb for prime infighting (and BFG). One more small rev encounter to grab the yellow key, then it's off to the finale! This IoS set-up isn't too different. You have to ride up 2 platforms to shoot eye switches which will allow access to a third platform that raises you to Romero Head level to rocket it to oblivion. There's a cyb in the center, and about 30 other monsters when you show up, but this is an IoS, so this cave will be filled. And I mean FILLED. Death Bear said this map wasn't received that well on release, and I think it may have to do with the 6 monster spawners spread around. And maybe the fact that the lifts to the eye switches are delayed, so you'll have to run around for a minute before you can do anything, so the arena is going to be filled whether you like it or not. Archies guard them, but just BFG spam them. The BFG projectiles hit the switches too, so if you miss the archie, you can hit that at least. There's a lot of cells (and rockets), so you afford some missed shots. BFG spam is honestly the best strategy to this fight, due to the sheer amount of demons that will spawn in. It's a little overwhelming, but honestly, I really liked this fight! It provided an intensity I haven't seen in a IoS map in quite a while. Trying to take out the archies and cyb quickly so you can end this map ASAP before drowning in lost souls is incredibly thrilling. The first time I was able to get onto the final platform I was able to shoot the Romero Head with no flying enemies surrounding me somehow. I did die as soon as I killed the head tho (didn't count that in the death count). Overall, this was a fun one for me, but I can see the 6 monster spawners being an issue for some people. I personally liked the challenge.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

It's weird. I enjoyed most of the maps in this set, and only really disliked maybe 2? But the overall feeling I'm getting from the WAD is that it's just fine. I'm struggling to remember some of the maps despite doing write-ups of them, mostly toward the beginning of the month. So I guess that just means there weren't any maps really in this that I feel are must-play standout maps. But like I said, there's only a couple of maps I didn't really care for. Most of the maps are enjoyable and have some cool encounters and general visual design. I think the ones I liked the most were maps 2, 11, 32, 20, 27, and 29. Do the maps feel like Plutonia? Not really, but that doesn't matter. All that matters is that map be good. And most maps be good. I'd recommend this to people to play through at least once just to experience it. It's pretty good, but I can see why these maps didn't make Plutonia 3. Now we just have to wait and see if Plutoina 3 is actually good. I mean, I preferred the original PRCP over Plutonia 2, so maybe the inverse will happen with these sequels! 

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP30 - Shattered Nightmare - Death Bear DNF:

I've got the theory that Icon of Sin maps do not get playtested, this may be the case, but first let's talk about it from the first moments, everything is going normal, just like your regular MAP30, in fact, with visuals quite reminiscent to those in the original MAP30 of Plutonia. Then, it goes down the hill. First of all, the rift area looks great, but plays BAD. The pilars are not attached to each other, making the terrain totally bumpy and full of unescapable pits all over the place, giving me The Rebirth MAP28 memories of that annoying cracks on the floor... You will have to be careful with the always-run feature (Something you will need to use) and never stop going full speed to avoid falling into said pits. The first fight here is quite hard, but already beatable considering previous PRCP maps and their difficulty. Then, when you get all the keys, and you are granted access to the final area, the map just dies. Getting inside the Icon of Sin with 6 monster spawners is just stupid. I already know what the outcome of this is, so I did not bother finishing it. It is really hard to try stepping up the raising platform that is timed. The obvious here is just circle-strafe around the arena, by previously falling into the pit to get a radsuit if you want. Making it a little bit easier so you don't eat free damage because of the damaging blood. Using the first platform will make you kill an arch-vile to hit a gun-triggered switch, that grants access to the central lift. Then, you can point-blank shoot the exposed romero head to finish this one. Quite anti-climatic. Also, none of the lifts looked like lifts, so I roamed around for minutes trying to find some switch without even trying to hump them to see if they actually lower.
Overall, people try to make Icon of Sin maps more interesting the wrong way, adding more switch hunting, or annoying premises, and not actually going for a better approach, specially with Boom features. Death Bear did his best though, not to make PRCP2 finish in a stale note, as the first areas of this map are totally playable, but the last arena is just not worthy enough. Nobody is to blame here, it is the Icon of Sin map, you know how that works. I think I've expected something like Plutonia 2's IOS, you know, a new texture for the infamous wall...

(UV - Playthrough/PRBoom+)

Order of Preference:

 

Spoiler

 

MAP17
MAP29
MAP18

MAP11
MAP23

MAP07

MAP05
MAP27
MAP24
MAP26
MAP22
MAP20
MAP32
MAP15
MAP21
MAP31
MAP19
MAP08

MAP01
MAP09
MAP12
MAP02
MAP03
MAP14
MAP16
MAP13
MAP25
MAP04
MAP28
MAP30

 

 

[Book Lord]

MAP 30 – Shattered Nightmare by @Death Bear

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

 

Once again, Death Bear proved to be the jack-of-all-trades of community projects and the good guy who is always ready to give a hand. Taking over his shoulders the Icon of Sin of a long megaWAD like PRCP 2 is a proof of his goodwill and dedication, but also of his desire to always put himself to the test. Did he accomplish the impossible mission? Not quite, judging from the feedback he received from the community, and after playing the map I must agree. Shattered Nightmare is among his “least well-received maps for a community project”, and for a good reason since it was a chaotic endgame battle. Moreover, there were no cosmetic efforts to hide Romero’s Head: no Gatekeeper, no ZZFACE replacement, just a sequence of annoying timed lifts with Arch-Viles and dozens of enemies spawned per tic.

Spoiler

Before entering the controversial Icon chamber, Doomguy must endure some preparatory battles. These setups had nothing to do with Plutonia or its sequels but were 100% Death Bear’s style. They started with a turbo-quick monster teleport in a small room filled with everything the player needed, and continued in a huge cavern where the author wanted the player to share his love for combat in open spaces. Killing the deployed monsters and collecting both RSK and BSK was easy, and the Cyberdemon appearing next to the door was a formality. The same could be said for Arch-Viles and Revenants in the blood-filled hallway leading to the YSK and its door.

Spoiler

The Icon of Sin battle was another story. Nobody may stand a chance against the infinite hordes that appear in the large square cavern, unless he knows precisely how the Voodoo doll sequences work and what he is supposed to do. Doomguy must wait for some lifts to appear, kill the elevated Arch-Viles to the west and to the east, shoot the eye switches behind them, and wait for the central lift with a Cyberdemon to lower. The same lift must be taken to reach the height of the exposed Romero’s Head and shoot rockets at it. Easier said than done, with six monster spawners dropping new enemies like rain. I used mid-fight saves and for the last dash I even used IDDQD, because there were too many Pain Elementals. I liked the weird looks of these caverns, but I could not stop myself from thinking that the ceiling seemed covered with enormous beef steaks, a nightmare you may have when you eat too much red meat. You did your best Death Bear, but this variation on the traditional Doom endgame unfortunately featured some of the typical problems, along with brand new ones.

[cannonball]

MAP28 - “Crimson Realm” by waverider
 

I spent a long proportion of this map wondering where some of the hate for this came from. The start was oppressive, but it was clear how you needed to manipulate the monsters to get out of it. Now aside from the position of the blue key that was quite easy to miss in regards to the drop, the period up to the red key door was fine, it felt rather Alien Vendetta inspired and not Plutonia but that is fine. However….

The yellow key was awful, first you get plunged into a fight that from my perspective is pure luck as to whether you survive it. It is the combination of monsters, mostly a arch vile behind a wall of meat that has projectiles that can clip through the edges to the point where there is no cover and I managed to die countless times until the point where I somehow lucked out and the arch vile rushed out ahead and I could actually kill it quickly. Then there was the following fight… this fight would be okay, except for the fact that recovery items seemed to have been placed for generic incidental combat, not the biggest fight in the map. In the end just surviving long enough to push up the stairs behind the revenant squad was the objective and I left with a lot of monsters still running around.

I can’t help feeling that I missed something, you get all the weapons (minus the BFG) at the start and I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting to get it, but it never came. Likewise the best health you got for free were berserk packs and even then the rest of the health was thin on the ground. Given the style of map, I really would have appreciated methods of allowing for more free flowing gameplay (give me a soul sphere once in a while, give me the BFG to make combat less grindy). In the end the map ended up a frustrating experience and one that takes a lot pf good from the wads of old, but then decides to make it worse, which is a shame because there was a lot to like before it got too much.

[cannonball]

MAP29 - “Gehenna” by Yumheart

 

Chaingunners, chaingunners everywhere, they create a bit of dilemma because without them the map would feel a little too soft but at times there sheer number and placement does feel a little too unfair (plasma gun especially). The yellow and red key traps were surprisingly easy, but on the other hands they were good fun.

The final fight again doesn’t go for the throat but offers a solid BFG blowout in the surrounding lava.

Overall the chaingunners spam prevents me from putting this on the top pile, but this is a very solid effort and the shorter run time is very appreciated. I do wonder whether this should have been in the Map28 slot to break up the two previous long maps (probably would have had rules of nature in map29).

 

MAP30 - “Shattered Nightmare” by Death Bear

I have seen a lot worse efforts for the map30 slot. Now the final room has issues, the progression isn’t overly logical and the Romero head on a stick with no window dressing felt a bit cheap but the finale is functional and allows the player to take their time with plenty of health/ammo. The rooms preceding this look ominous and offer a reason level of defence. 
In the end I got through this pretty quickly without my rage meter rising too much. A solid effort and I wouldn’t change too much aside from improving the visual identity of the ICON and subsequently trying to make progression more clear (Well aside from tossing the IOS motif altogether).

[DJVCardMaster]

Plutonia Revisited Community Project 2 - Josh "Joshy" Sealy et al.:

The sequel to a beloved community project, that do often fall behind in comparison to Plutonia 2, leaves you with a sour aftertaste, while there are some really fine maps you can find here, the problem is clear. PRCP2 suffers from the same problem as many community projects: everyone is trying to show off their mapping skills, and everyone tries to make a colossal map reminiscent to Misri Halek or The Mucus Flow. This, added to the fact that, the project was born as a substitute for the WIP project Plutonia 3, with the premise that, really good maps will make their way into the latter project, while some maps from Plutonia 3, felt into PRCP2. This things end up making most of the maps, specially in the later half of the megawad, lenghty and behemoth-size in comparison to a regular Plutonia map, just for the sake of it, making the overall experience exhausting, and not so replayable. Added to that, the difficulty here is stronger than a regular Plutonia map, reaching Sunlust levels at times, this makes the mapset even more exhausting. Plutonia Revisited 2 does not know at times what to accomplish: 

Being a set of short and punchy maps like the original Plutonia? Most maps of the later half are considerably longer than Tombstone or Sewers. 
Being a set of maps that have some Plutonia gameplay? Most of the maps are slaughtery and do not respect the "Chaingunner/Revenant" formula of encounters found in the original Plutonia.
Feeling more Plutonia 2 than Plutonia 1, hence the sequel status? The first maps give you that impression, then it fades away to be its own thing.
Being a set of maps that resemble Plutonia landscapes? Half of the mapset looks nothing like Plutonia 1 or 2, because of texture usage.
Having Plutonia difficulty levels? My friend, this is mid/late-Sunlust difficulty, if you came here thinking you could have an easy time because you have beaten Plutonia 2 on UV, you are in for a bad time.

In the end, PRCP2 feels like a community project that tries to aim for a "Plutonia-esque" thing, but half the time it nails the spot, half the time it fails. The texture set alone does not mean your map will feel Plutonia, in addition, there are several new textures that make maps lose their impression a bit more, if you want to go for the aforementioned feeling.
This is, though, not implying that the megawad is bad, in fact, it is quite fine to play once, as there are some maps you should not miss, but yes, PRCP2 does not accomplish what it's trying to, and most maps will drag you tired and angered for mostly bad reasons. The fact that most of the long maps are stacked towards the end makes the third episode something you won't like, for the most part, some of those really good, but, the overall experience will make you feel in a mood that is going to consider every map is bad just because you don't want to play through another 40-minute adventure and getting pummeled.

Best maps:
MAP17 - Maybe what I was waiting for, not a long map, punchy, and always trying to be enjoyable, it may not look the better, but is short, is punchy, and is humble, clearly not trying to show off, in this case, being humble gets the trophy. I call it a Messi map because of that (Just because of modesty, not because it is so good it deserves a cacoward alone).
MAP29 - Not so Plutonia, rather Ribbiks-like, but it both looks and plays great, it's also short, does not drag you insane, while it is difficult, it does not beat you to the ground, it is also a great showing of what a MAP29 should be.
MAP18 - Similar feelings to MAP29, really good-looking, fun to play, and somewhat iconic. The only downside may be its length, everything else is just fine, although it may not feel "Plutonia".

Least favourites:
MAP04 - Nothing interesting happens here, layout was good but not well used, and the use of new textures here is not the best, not bad, but stale.
MAP28 - After the previous set of maps, you will reach this point angered and without the feeling of playing another one of this, MAP28 ends your missery by throwing you the lowest punches at you at the start, then making you do a walk of shame through a really intricate complex for a key-hunt, and throws at you low punches again, right at the end. I think the time it pulls you through the layout itself is what ends you burned down. It suffers from its placement after many long and annoying maps.
MAP30 - Not the finish we waited for, Icon of Sin maps are always forgettable, but one could have a glimpse of hope considering someone could imitate things found in the Plutonia 2's IOS map. You know, a new ZZZFACE, at least.

Score: 64/100 (OK)

The overall product misses points because of the lenghty maps at the end, or just missing the point of being Plutonia-like. And maps alone are not so memorable to be replayed by themselves. I really hope for Plutonia 3 maps not to drag this long, and for them to feel more Plutonia, maybe in a Plutonia 2 way, or be its own thing, as it would be a let-down, luckly, as Tatsurdcacocaco mentioned in one of his videos, replying to an user, maps are not going to be Behemoth sized, mostly short experiences, so I hope those claims are true.

In the other hand, I'm really happy to participate in this community project, with not one, but two maps, as it is always a pleasure to contribute to big things, even though maps could end up being misserable, as with my Solar Struggle entry, or enjoyable walks, like MAP06 or MAP10, specially because it is a good feeling to be talking about own maps from time to time, in a good or bad way.
Waiting for PRCP3? Not really, but Plutonia mapping is right in my sight, so who knows.