Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #065

[ICID]

^{(logo by @4MaTC)}

 

ICID, what the hell is this now?

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures is a small project of exploration, interaction, entertainment and reviews where we meet once every two weeks to select random WADs in search of hidden treasures, lost promises, or our worst nightmares! We use the /idgames archive’s special feature that lets us search for random files. Of course, sometimes the results are resources or unplayable stuff, so we focus on looking for WADs.

 

So, what do we do here?

1. Play at least one random WAD in a two-week period of time. WADs are selected using the Random File feature on /idgames or from the list below.
2. Post a review of whatever you play.
3. Always provide the name of the WAD, the name of the author, and a link to the file.
4. Play however you want, on any skill level, and with any source port, as long as you play the WAD as intended/in working shape.
5. Be respectful. It's okay to criticize a map, but remember that many mappers read these review threads and behave accordingly. Also, please don't tag mappers into a negative review of their work.

 

What kind of WADs are we looking for?

Any file on /idgames is fair game, but most of us choose to stick to singleplayer Doom or Heretic WADs that work in our sourceport(s) of choice. If you're worried about finding Terrywads or broken files, I also pull at least five random WADs for the event. Feel free to play them with me if you wish, or look for your own! The point of the event is to encourage you to explore this vast, random world. 

 

Recommendations for reviewing:

Spoiler

1. Please take screenshots or video of your adventures.

2. Commenting the source port and difficulty level is not required, but provides helpful context to your review.

3. Try to stick to no more than 1 WAD per day to avoid burnout, but this part’s all up to you, champ!

4. Reviews of all formats are valid. Both longform and shortform are good as long as you write with integrity.

 

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures of this event:

1. classic2.wad
2. THE ETERNAL WICKED
3. Fear is the Price of Sin
4. Military Research Complex
5. Mayan Reynolds

 

Spoiler

The Top 10 (Out of 67):

 

1. @Roofi | 7175

2. @LadyMistDragon | 3740

3. @Sena | 2535

4. @Walter confetti | 2375

5. @ICID | 1450

6. @brick | 1205

7. @Endless | 1175
8. @Thelokk | 725
9. @Clippy | 570
10. @smeghammer | 425

Join the Doom Master Wadazine community for more events like this! » https://discord.gg/Q2RKn4J

 

And check the Doom wiki for the full list of past adventures.

[LadyMistDragon]

The Helios Project: Stage Beta (aka Helios 2) (1999) by Michael "prower" Reid (From Doom with Love)

 

 

Michael Reid (not Michael Reed) was, for those who don't know, the creator of the Hell Revealed II map "Antistatic" which is either one of the best or the worst in the set, depending on who you ask. These maps, however, play like an attempt to copy Yonatan Donner gameplay whilst scaling things back so that action is more comparable to Chord or some other wad contemporary of the time, but ultimately something that devolves into mandatory door camping and single-shotgunning far more enemies than anyone really has the right to. At least, if one doesn't find the secret super shotgun in Map 01.

 

And speaking of that, these maps are quite well-made, within their given sewer theme, and actually convey a strong sense of place with their usage of vanilla textures. There are computer consoles, of course, but they're in rooms that actually make sense. Then there's the large storage tank in the center with the disastrously narrow walkway that'll make us wish we never whined about the Chasm, a conveyor belt that might have just been ripped from a certain Duke Nukem map (I honestly am not sure how common they actually are outside of sewage treatment facilities perhaps) a large room of blue water in the second map, and an interesting narrative choice of having the map end when we pick up a blue key, finding much of the base in rubble and having to take a different path. Unfortunately, getting confronted by a few Cacodemons and an Arch-vile at the end was obviously cheap and unfair. No matter though, because the third map's thematic relevance is questionable and is the easiest and lamest. 

 

These are maps I wish I could've liked more but door-camping is garbage, ambushes are thoroughly cheap and thusly expected, and it sort of lacks the occasional little bits of entertainment of Hell Revealed. 4/10

 

 

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 1 map

 

Fear is the Price of Sin (2006) by ReX Claussen. 1 SP Doom II map for limit-removing port. Played with GZDoom.

ICID rolled two Rex Claussen maps back to back, a funny coincidence. This one is a base map from Rex's middle period, a couple of years after the Cacoward-winning Phobos revisited. You start in a room with 4 doors and the inaccessible exit right there. One door leads to the yellow key (the only one on the map), the others all require said key, completing each yellow-locked section gets you one step closer to accessing the exit. The map looks beautiful and has great lighting in parts, but it has one rather long section that's very dark, a strange departure from the visual wow factor seen elsewhere. As is typical for Rex the map's focus is more on exploration with combat playing a support role, but some of the fights can get spicy if you're careless. The map frequently uses teleporting enemies, and sometimes uses them while simultaneously opening monster closets behind you. the combination can be dangerous in some of the dark areas where you may not see them coming. Puzzles are light be very well done, I thought the map communicated the 3-part solution to unlocking the exit extremely well, it felt almost like a Hexen puzzle without the "one third of the puzzle has been solved" messages. And without having to wonder just where the hell you're supposed to go next, the map is very good at directing you where you need to go. I don't think it's Rex's best but it's a very solid and enjoyable entry.

Spoiler

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 06 Day 15

 

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

 

[1] Semi-Mini DeathMatch Level by Scott Smith (1995)

 

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A small DM map you can either play on Doom II or Ultimate Doom. That one takes place in a rather dark and mysterious room full of crates and the blue ceiling makes me feel I'm in underwater. Despite being designed for DM, I love the atmosphere of this map and the moody music contributes to be lonely. I didn't find the roaming arch-vile though. (I play on UV)

 

NB: A small detail I like are the small arrows glowing on the floors indicating the lifts and teleporters.

 

[2] Hotel Hell by Simon Mathew (1996)

 

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Spacious, well appointed rooms, friendly, highly trained staff, situated at the heart of everyone's favorite hereafter.

 

Well that's a large and complex old level. I took 47 minutes to beat it and it appears it was more difficult than I expected.

 

Hotel Hell doesn't take place only in a hotel but rather among several buildings which share the common points to be tall, intricate and of course, guarded by a certain number of ennemies and specifically shotgunners. The exit is located in a sort of circle-shaped shuttle and you have to find several keys scattered in the buildings in order to reach it.

 

First of all, there's no coincidence that you'll find an automap at a certain point of the map because you must be curious if you hope to be a bit comfortable. Indeed, except the shotgun and the chaingun , all the powerful weapons such as the plasma gun and the BFG9000 are hidden behind closets. Several megaspheres can be found as well. For my part, I felt a bit frustrated because I found ton of box of rockets whereas I didn't manage to obtain the RL. I fortunately didn't need it to complete the level.

 

Another reason why this level is oddly rough is all the roaming monsters located outdoors. The swarm of pinkies, the cacodemons and the several pain elementals force you to rush in order to gather enough ammo to eliminate them later. If you're patient like me, you can exploit infighting since the pain elemental usually harm themselves with the lost souls they just spit. For the monsters located indoors, I recommand you to keep enough ammo for the Mastermind.

 

Once you've got the upper hand on the monsters , you now have to deal with the puzzly progression involving lot of elevators and computers to activate (I like the doomcute by the way.) I have to say the automap helps quite a lot because interconnections mean lot of confusion in this kind of level. However, Simon was fair enough to not implement dead traps. In a certain part of the map, there's is a broken elevator materialized by a blinking sector. If you jump in it, you'll just discover path.

 

It took me a while to appreciate this level for the reasons given above, but in the end I like Hotel Hell for its ambition, adventure and pseudo-realism. The wad's name and theme remind me of the Duke Nukem game.

 

Grade : B+ (15/20)

 

I don't know if the flying boss from The Overlord's Palace was the Terry Trap, but anyway, I died in a Terry wad.

 

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[Walter confetti]

2 hours ago, Roofi said:

[1] Semi-Mini DeathMatch Level by Scott Smith (1995)

Played the mini deathmatch version of this level aeons ago, It was a funny experience, despite being extremely short. It reminded me of a claustrophobic version of contaiment area.

[LadyMistDragon]

Hell's play garden (1997) by Tobias Anderson (Crispy Doom)

 

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A little PWAD I made to teach my friends to make their own wads 'cos they can't figure it out their selves!

 

Honestly, I'm not sure if Duke Nukem 3D was noticeably more taxing than Doom on 97 PCs because at least that game had a level editor that could be worked with easier. In any case the map does its job, but has nothing to offer beyond that. Tight ammo control and dependence on infighting at least part of the time mark this series of wooden square rooms. Which is probably why one should be a little less eager with the Lost Souls with this sort of setup. Either way, 3/10, there's almost nothing to say. I was killed by chaingunners near the last key though and there seemed little reason to continue.

 

 

[brick]

I finally remembered why I knew of Shock'em Down from the previous adventure - it was one of Chris Hansen's picks for Great Doom Releases 2001. I must've downloaded it and backlogged it all the way back then... worth the wait though, thanks Chris!

 

Brick | 1 wad | 7 maps

Adventure | 2 wads | 8 maps

 

Mayan Reynolds (2022) by AD_79, Bobby, DCG Retrowave, Egg Boy, Skronkidonk, T.WILL, ZeMystic. 7 SP maps for vanilla Doom II. Played with GZDoom on HNTR.
The title is a pun on Ryan Reynolds that took me an embarrassingly long time to get, despite seeing his face on the titlepic. This is a neat collection of (mostly) small and quick playing maps where you plunder old ruins in the best Lara Croft or Indy Jones tradition (the interpic even references that famous Raiders scene... with Ryan's face as Indy of course). The custom palette and textures are very cozy, the half-submerged stone ruins covered with vines look very nice, the water in particular looks lovely with the new palette. Combat has a nice ramp up, starting very easy and slowly becoming deadlier. MAP03 reminded me why I hate revenants, the damn things teleport in everywhere and I kept eating homing rockets to the face. I found fights after this point a bit too Plutonia for my taste, with revenants and chaingunners often being favourites (though this does mean MAP04 Guerilla is aptly named). MAP05 has a very cool setup with the archvile niches and the central platform, there's only one on HNTR but UV must be a pretty fun dance to avoid getting roasted (or face-rocketing yourself). MAP07 has the yellow key fight, which I thought was complete bullshit for HNTR (a dozen revenants, two archviles hidden behind them, very little space to dodge, barely any cover). MAP08 is a sprawling epic that stops short of being a show-stealing magnum opus while still providing an adequately long and challenging finale. Despite the high monster count I found it reasonably manageable, with the exception of the red key fight (I missed the secret invulnerability) and the finale, which is almost a micro-slaughter but whose difficulty I thought was due to so many archviles hiding in the back. Visually the map is gorgeous, and as an AD_79 audiophile I was delighted by the music track, which I don't think I heard before and which is beautifully melancholy. In fact the music throughout really fits with the architecture and colours and it all creates a great atmosphere. Despite some tough bumps with combat I had a great time playing this.

Spoiler

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by brick

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 06 Day 16

 

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

 

[1] August05.wad by Kenneth Jacobsen (TheAugustMan) (1996)

 

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A level for Deathmatch only. This one's very tight so if you play it with more than 2 players your ass is history...! :) It's for DEATHMATCH 1 because of the level's size.

Note: * skill 1/2/3 All weapons available except the BFG * * skill 4/5 all weapons available INCLUDING the BFG! *

Hope it rocks on your network/modem; that's what it's made for!...

 

The fifth opus of "August" series which borrows a similar theme to Doom 2's map 05 "The Waste Tunnels. The layout is a bit grid-shaped and the texturing appears to be messier with blatant texture misalignments. As the author indicated, there's not a lot of place to move but playing it with more than 2 players doesn't seem impossible to me since the level has lot of interconnections.

 

[2] Deathmatch Incarnate 7 by Stephen "fUnKyMoNk" Noonan @funkymonk (2000)

 

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A deathmatch level.

 

A rusty metallic DM level I already explored during Year 2 Month 01 Day 19. Here's what I wrote about it :

 

"An early limit-removing deathmatch map which uses a new detailed texture packs made of rusty/gothic assets. After playing so many wads using stock resources, a new texture pack brings a lot of fresh air , but I'm not very convinced by their usage in this map. It looks a tad too monotextured for my taste and the combination with the grass or water surrounding the island doesn't please me too much."

 

I bad-mouthed a bit about this level. Yes, it looks a bit too monotextured for my taste but the architecture looks elaborated for a level made in 2000. By the way, the experience didn't change at all on prboom+ because it's a pure DM level.

 

[3] ds-bench.zip by Joe (1995)

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This program is used to benchmark DOOM servers.

 

I'm too lazy to run this executable on DOSBOX but you just have to understand that it's totally outdated.

 

[4] The Living Barrels by PHOENIX (1998)

 

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Every enemy is a living barrel. There are four types: slime-filled, blood-filled, tar-filled, and crap-filled. They all act the same though. When the barrel knows you're there, it will go after you. As soon as it's next to you, it will blow up on its own. In levels with a lot of enemies, you will find yourself running for your life. NEVER run out of ammo, or you're doomed!

 

The description explains it all ! The doomguy now lives in a world populated by evil barrels trying to blow him up in thousand pieces. It's funny but creepy at the same time. Imagine a horror map where the doomguy is trapped in a tech base and many barrels are looking for him while he has no ammo. I’d hate to be in his shoes.

 

I played the 11 first maps of the megawad "Mars War" and managed to survive. Actually, all enemies can be "killed" with few bullets and you can trigger chain explosions ! Your chaingun is your weapon of choice against barrels but both shotguns and the pistol work totally fine of course. The projectile weapons are a bit unpractical for tight spaces.

 

From what I played, this mod makes the game easier but punish reckless players. However, I'm sure this mod may causes serious jumpscares in open and/or dark and/or cramped maps where barrels have the possibility to be sneaky because they're silent.

 

In any case , it's a very fun old dehacked you should try.

 

[5] Toxic line by Vincenzo VTM (2016)

 

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Toxic Line takes place in a vanilla-compatible moody tech-base connected to sewers. The visual design is epurated but Vincenzo effectively used the textures and the light contrasts in order to provide a suspenseful atmosphere. I'm fond of the depressing cloudy grey sky and the quiet midi from Doom 2 always fit like a glove for this type of level.

 

The difficulty of the level remains moderate. You have to deal with low ammo for the third part of the map, approximately but a steady approach suffices to take the advantage on monsters. Some elaborated traps, specifically when you obtain the keys, encourage you to keep on your toes. 

 

It's hard to talk a lot about this map because it fills the "Good ol' classic map" category but Toxic Line is a good map on all aspects, and damn I love that sky. It makes me want a full episode of maps like this, at least.

 

Grade : A- (16/20)

 

[6] LevelNumb by Andrew (2018)

 

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First attempt at a Doom level. Basic and limited for the moment.

 

I will agree with the author : it's not really a Doom map but rather an attempt. Anyway, it has monsters, items and an exit so it's still a level, technically speaking. You're thrown into a labyrinth of startan which consists of square rooms linked by straight corridors. 

 

Honestly, it's not bad from a pure gameplay perspective. You can explore the map the way you want and the enemies are roaming so those which can navigate through the crampy corridors can sometimes surprise you. Many items randomly litter the map and the invulnerability helps a lot getting rid of the few bosses, especially the cyber stucked in his room.

 

I can't say this attempt was bad because I manage to enjoy it but it's way too empty to give it a good grade. Except if you're called gggmork, I recommand you to use other textures than the default beige Startan. Gameplay matters a lot but visuals mustn't be neglected too !

Grade : D+ (7/20)

 

I stop here for today.

[LadyMistDragon]

Beyond the Canyon (1999) by Robert Berkowitz (Crispy Doom)

 

A surprisingly strong and solid map, although it does have plenty of little amaturish details, the misaligned textures and questionable monster placement at times. Not to mention, the beginning square is like a simple Cacodemon/Lost Soul ambush which then transits to narrow hallways with a little blue switch that opens a pointless Cacodemon ambush from the last outside area I traveled through. A somewhat cryptic button opens a nearby and seemingly useless wall before triggering something really cool! Basically the hallway's interior opens up and reveals a vast canyon, mostly populated by unthreatening enemies, though a few chaingunners can be spotted on top of a nearby outcrop. At a certain point, we have to drop down before reaching a slime pool with some Mancubi that's basically useless, drop down and punch/shoot an Arch-vile before pressing a switch that I'm fairly certain allows us to access a suprisingly cute sort of rope bridge, a definite visual highlight of the map.

 

Soon after this, an outcrop with a Hell Knight will soon reveal a Pain Elemental, hopefully while some chaingunners fail to hit you here because there will be trouble otherwise. Once you reach the other end, you can head down the opposite side of the canyon which nets some supplies but to progress, you have to jump in the canyon wall at the other end. This desultory passageway then leads to an extremely generic castle square, with lots of Imps and a Revenant each in some of interior towers. The corner towers have to be entered though. In addition to being a position to kill the Imps on top easier, there are also a couple of basement storerooms with the two remaining keys and varying groups of enemies. Arachnotrons will probably be firing from the moat outside. With all three keys, we can enter the central fortress, but not without dealing with one more ambush of a Revenant pair on a couple of pillars and an Arch-vile hiding in the corner. Which of course means the battle on the interior ramparts will consist of.....several Imps. One who hasn't been punching lots of enemies may have some ammo issues here but I made out of here alright. But its also the end of the map.

 

7/10 I guess. This designer actually did maps for Realms of Chaos then?? This was a little disappointing but has some serious moments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 06 Day 17

 

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

 

[1] deathi.zip by Unknown Author (1995)

 

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Heretic Deathmatch! E1M1 by Unknown Author!

 

A lazy DM map made with a bunch of slippy bathroom-themed corridors. You can also take the teleporters located in the octogonal rooms. I don't really want to know who made this to be frank.

 

[2] Destruction! The aftermath of God's Disapproval! by Unknown (2006)

 

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[Note by the uploader: I found this on several old CD's with doom-level-collections. None of them had a textfile with the name of the author. But on the *1001 Nights of Doom* -CD, there is a FILES.BBS -file, that has the following description line:]

DESTRUCT.ZIP 79710 10-23-94 Destruction! The aftermath of God's Disapproval! E1M1

[That's all, what i know about it.]

 

Two 1994 maps which use custom midis.

 

The first one is a sort of evil obstacle course accompanied by a midi rendition of the main theme from the movie "Halloween". You have to survive from several deadly traps, cacodemons and barons. Beware ! Nonetheless, you'll also find some armors and soulspheres which transform this terrific adventure into a joke. Fast crusher near the yellow key? No care , I have 200 hp and 200 armor !

 

The second map is pure garbage but uses the music "Phantom of the Opera" which brings an odd ambiance I appreciate.  The last map provides no challenge except the small platforming section just before the exit.

 

So, I recommand you to download this wad only for the first map and  if you're a fetichist of 1994 wads. It has some crazy ideas to trap the player and I like the menacing tone generated by the (crappy) midi.

 

Grade : C (10/20)

 

[3] Tower of Pazuzu by @FraGMarE (Ian McPherson) (2003)

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An infernal deathmatch centered around a gigantic marble tower overhung by an unearthly orange sky reminding of the fourth episode from Ultimate Doom. The detailed architecture and the subtle new textures combined with the stocked ones give a lot of Alien Vendetta vibes to me. The author used the frantic midi from Scythe 1's map 26 in order to accompany bloody battles against your opponents.

Overall, it's an elegant hell map which I regret it only serves multiplayer purpose.

 

[4] JAGL2(Just Another Generic Level 2) by @ShamanZT (2017)

 

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My first complete map for Doom 2. Its fully compatible with original Doom 2 so you can play it in any port.

 

A vanilla compatible  underground tech-base I already explored during Year 2 Month 05 Day 08. My first impression was positive . Here's what I said :

 

"Yep, the author didn't lie. Despite being released at least 20 years after the game release, this map is bare of any custom resource. It's a bit complicated to import textures but adding a new music is within everyone's reach. Or maybe , the author loved D_Runnin.

 

JAGL2 is a dark subterrean tech base which I disliked quite a bit at the beginning. The author placed lot of hitscanners but few health and the nukage inflicts -20 damage, even in shallow pools. My health fell under 20 hp so many times that I really expected to die in this map. The lack of armor doesn't help. There is a green one but you have to trigger several traps in order to reach it.

 

However, the map gets a lot more straightforward if you manage like me to find some of the secrets : the hidden plasma gun and the soulsphere specifically. All the paths leading to the blue key are indeed generic but the red key's large room was really memorable for several reasons. The architecture is way more elaborated with a circular-shaped room, curvy staircases, or detailed shadows. In order to unlock the red key, you've to release several small hordes of mid-tiers monsters but the particularity here is the fact you can open the closets in the order you want. The best strategy, according to me consists to release the duo of arch-viles first. Despite being the zone containing most of the mid-tiers monsters, it was the most relaxed part of the map for me.

 

Overall, JAGL2 is tough at the beginning but lenient at the end which provides a certain relief. The yellow's key trap with lot of imps attacking from both sides was by far the hardest part of the map. In terms of visuals, the level feels generic as the author described but I found it well detailed and the red key's large circular room is pretty unique. I wonder how JAGL1 looks like."

 

I decided to play on Prboom+ instead of Dosbox in order to uv-max the level but I couldn't because I missed the plasma gun secret and some monsters while I was unable to go back after entering in the red key's circular room.

 

JAGL2 was more enjoyable to replay than to discover, especially because I could predict the nasty traps involving dozen of imps. Seriously, out of the 170 monsters, I'd say about 50 are imps assigned to this trap.

 

Since, this map doesn't have custom soundtrack, I replaced D_RUNNIN by an ambiant soundtrack from another game , and it helped appreciating the gloomy atmosphere of this map even more.

 

Grade : B (14/20)

 

[5] Festung des Geheimnisses / Loathe by Walter "daimon" Confalonieri @Walter confetti (2019)

 

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Is just "Grosse" from Doom 2 in the style of "Fortress of Mistery" from Doom, inspired by Switcheroom project.

 

Walter Confalonieri, a regular participant of the Er/iwa, decided to revisit two controversial secrets maps from the commercial Doom few years ago and incidentally challenging my poor knowledge in german language.

 

Festung des Geheimnisses translated as "Fortress of Mystery" , is a spicier edition of Map 32 "Grosse". As the original E2M9 from Doom, you start in a cross-shaped room but you're now surrounded by 4 cyberdemons this time ! I had fun eliminating them because ammo is limited and scattered enough to be risky to obtain. The rest is more anecdotal but the arch-viles duo cause me a small jumpscare because I thought the level was finished after the boss fight lol. I like this remake better than the original.

 

Loathe, which seems to corresponds more of a synonym of "Grosse" felt a bit inferior than the original Fortress of Mystery to me. Whereas I appreciate the more slaughterish aspect due to higher number of cacodemons and barons, making them infight seems more diffcult and time-wasting than just killing the separated groups of monsters with all the available rockets.

 

Overall, I liked those revisits of doom levels, a nice balance between something fresh and familiarity.

 

PS : You're lucky because I belong to the small group of doomers which like the original E2M9, considered as one of the crappiest commercial doom levels ever made !

 

Grade : B-  (12/20)

 

Got killed by lot of shotgunners stucked in prison cells from 3WAYS.WAD

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

Vile Flesh (demo version) (2003) by Gwyn Williams.

 

I would have certainly have skipped this if it was the full version. Safe to say though that these are some very well-done vanilla maps, showing superior craftsmanship to Memento Mori, but at the same time making several stabs at a sense of place that are more or less successful. Although it's been compared to Eternal Doom by some people, it has possibly even less in common with that wad than Good Morning Phobos has with TNT, stupid fake walls aside. The first has a cool structure but is horribly overlayed with STARTAN, whilst the rest mix typical tan stuff with hellish-adjacent textures. Combat is harder than Doom II, though it's a little tough to say by how much. Stronger monsters are deployed early though. Overall 6/10. No video though, and I didn't take any screenshots because there wasn't really anything worth pointing out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Walter confetti]

14 hours ago, Roofi said:

Walter Confalonieri, a regular participant of the Er/iwa, decided to revisit two controversial secrets maps from the commercial Doom few years ago and incidentally challenging my poor knowledge in german language.

 

Festung des Geheimnisses translated as "Fortress of Mystery" , is a spicier edition of Map 32 "Grosse". As the original E2M9 from Doom, you start in a cross-shaped room but you're now surrounded by 4 cyberdemons this time ! I had fun eliminating them because ammo is limited and scattered enough to be risky to obtain. The rest is more anecdotal but the arch-viles duo cause me a small jumpscare because I thought the level was finished after the boss fight lol. I like this remake better than the original.

 

Loathe, which seems to corresponds more of a synonym of "Grosse" felt a bit inferior than the original Fortress of Mystery to me. Whereas I appreciate the more slaughterish aspect due to higher number of cacodemons and barons, making them infight seems more diffcult and time-wasting than just killing the separated groups of monsters with all the available rockets.

 

Overall, I liked those revisits of doom levels, a nice balance between something fresh and familiarity.

 

PS : You're lucky because I belong to the small group of doomers which like the original E2M9, considered as one of the crappiest commercial doom levels ever made !

 

Grade : B-  (12/20)

 

Thanks for the review! Glad you liked It, it's from 2019 i didn't had any news about It! Personally, Is the first time i see somebody beating the 4 cybers in MAP32!

Not even i am that good with german, for the title i just used Google translate!

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 06 Day 18

 

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

 

[1] Tekloniton by @Wraith (2015)

 

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Non linear level with lots of fight. Expect a HUGE slaughter at the end of the map. Difficulty is hard, but not impossible.

 

A large-scale city map populated by a bit more than 900 monsters. As the author indicated, the map gives you a lot of freedom for discovering it by yourself but you still have to collect the keys in order to progress and unlock the ammo reserves. 

 

Of course, obtaining the keys will release a certain number of enemies which get mighter as long you approach the end of the level. However, I didn't find the level as hard as the author stated. Actually, except at the yellow key's arena, the map is very lenient contrary to many slaughtermaps released before and after 2015 because there are countless ways to cheese the fights due to the immensity of the places and ammo isn't a problem at all. 

 

I would also say that, despite being presented as a difficult slaughtermap, "Teklonition" is rather slow-paced. The sectors releasing enemies are slow overall, and generally allow you to escape before the monsters can corner you. For instance, you"ll obtain the red key in a huge marble hall and there's a spider-mastermind supposed to ambush you. Nevertheless, the sector revealing the monster takes so long to lower that it's very easy to leave and kill the monsters from a secure location.

 

This is both a compliment and a reproach but most of the combats are not optimized at all. I like it because I enjoy killing lots of monsters for the spectacle rather than the challenge itself. On the other hand, monsters don't really manage to get to grips with these wide-open spaces, and battles take longer than they need to, as scattered groups that can't kill each other have to be finished off by hand. The last battle involves several hundred of enemies and it turns into a huge salad where infights are all over the place. The combat is entertaining because the mancubus create such a big mess with their projectiles but become dull once the hell nobles take the advantages because of their high health points.

 

I think the architecture is what that caught my attention the most. The city theme and usage of stock textures recall of the megawad "Hellbound". I like how the arches highlight the size of the map, especially in the red key's temple which is my most beloved area.

 

Overall, Tekloniton is a level I recommand you to play just to admire the sense of scale and ambition of its author. about the slaughter aspect, it should be fine if you're not totally allergic to it.

 

Grade : B+  (15/20)

 

[2] Mindprison Project DEMO by @JMAAGames (2021)

 

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The UAC, after the demonic invasion, has had various of his remaining marines mentally scarred by the invasion, in such a way that UAC employees have to recover the marines' sanity in case another invasion happens. You are one of the mentally tortured marines, who are subject to the Mindprison Project, project code 4989, which sets you into a mind reality where you have to fight your own demons and the trauma caused by the demonic invasion, aside of getting rid of the demonic influence that has invaded your mind.

MINDPRISON PROJECT is a megawad project designed singlehandedly by JMAA in the likenesses of Plutonia and other extremely difficult DOOM 2 megawads and expansions. This is a demo version to see if people will probably enjoy it and probably get past it. Future full on 32-map megawad is coming next for free, there's also plans for an MP3 and MIDI soundtrack as well. Stay tuned!

 

Three maps presented as a Demo for an upcoming megawad. The maps contain no custom resources for the moment but show a certain dose of excentricity which sometimes lead to tough situations.

 

The first map poses no difficulty but its crampiness force the player to adopt a steady approach. The author should create bigger areas here and here in order to make the environnments more memorable.

 

The second one takes place in haunted sewers and it's the one I disliked among the threes. As the previous level, you've not a lot available place to move and the 64 pixels wide corridors quickly get irritating. The level becomes more aggravating as you enter in the darkest parts including infinite revenants turrets you can't destroy. At the end, you've to cross a strange jungle area with a perched cyberdemon you can fortunately skip with ease. I think JMAA should rework this level.

 

The last map takes the name of the project for a good reason because I suppose it's one which the author brought the most efforts. It resembles vaguely to a sort of prison populated by a higher number of monsters than the previous levels. The rough beginning force you to be courageous enough to run under the demons' projectiles and chaingunners bullets. However, I spent a good time cleaning this map thanks to all the available ammo and the rewarding easy-to-find secrets which notably hide a SSG, a megasphere and a RL later in the map.

 

At the end, I admit the two first maps didn't convince really much but the last one sparks my curiosity and my only hope is to see this megawad finished. 

 

Grade : C+  (11/20)

 

[3] Tenchi Muyo Doom by Curtis "Metrocide" smith @Metrocide (2000)

 

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This is a doom addon of an Anime cartoon.

 

An anime jokewad with 5 maps, including 3 without monsters. I believe the screenshots I took are enough telling. Metrocide  showed his skills at importing various stuff he liked but he also demonstrated his lack of knowledge in terms of level design in counterpart.

 

 The first map, which is the only really playable map isn't horrible though. It just resembles to a random mediocre map released in the middle of the 90's. The only remarkable stuff resides in the sector-made spaceship at the end of that map but I'm 95% sure it comes from another old wad.  The others levels transport you on a island , in a spaceship and even in a stolen part of Doom 2's map 10 (why) but  the lack of attention to details makes it hard to tell a story.

 

So, no suspense, it doesn't worth to be played but maybe the silly custom resources will draw a smile on your face for few minutes at least as they did to me.

 

Grade : D+   (7/20)

 

[4] COOL.wad by Your name here (1995)

 

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Various sound effects for Doom 1 and 2. Including
a few from Radio Free Vestabule (Those I recorded myself).

 

A sound wad replacing few sounds of the game with lines from sketches and movies. Cool? No. Useless? YES. YES. AND YES.

 

I stop here for today.

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Stalker2 (1994) by Chuck Jordan (Crispy Doom)

A deathmatch map that actually has monsters, although its just shotgunners and Imps, so there's really nothing to say there. The map itself is one of those typical square-shaped things, white-adjacent tech in the center with wood and marble hallways on the sides and some neat detailing scattered throughout. Chuck was too hard on himself, but there's not much else to say, other than the exit-activating mechanism is kind of curious since its in a parallel room.

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

ZCyberSweeper 2 (2009) by Isle (GZ Doom)

 

A re-creation of that infamous CyberSweeper minigame from Eternal Doom only much larger and more dreary ironically enough due to the sort of waterfront industrial theme. I'm sure it's fine but I didn't feel like playing long enough to unleash a Cyberdemon

 

 

Spoiler

 

After getting a map played before, it was determined to give the button one last try

 

 

XMas DM 1999 Light (1999) by SirRobin (Jani Saksa) (Crispy Doom)

 

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Second part of my XMasDM series, has a big round hall-like cave and a small outside area. There is also one piece that you can see but not go into that should remain you about DooM's E1M1 but it's done all with snow and water instead of normal textures.

That's really all there is to it. The custom sky and lodge are nice features but it's a little too large and open to be a consistently smooth and active sort of deathmatch. On the plus side, it's not like opponents will remain out of sight for long.

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

[DrRock]

Trapped by Peter Kasting, aka Dr. 0, (Vanilla, 1996) - Doom II

played in Zandronum 3.1 against 3 bots

Spoiler

A very simple deathmatch arena that starts the players out from one of four little spawn corridors. It's just a big square room with a walking-on-air effect that was all the rage back in the day. In one corner of the arena, players can either turn on or off the lights. There are additional weapons to the Plasma Gun you start out with by the central pillar, which also has a lava-filled hole in the middle that one can fall down into and very, very slowly die in. The bots couldn't make it out of the their spawns for my testing of the map, but this doesn't look like it would be much to write home about even with actual opponents to shoot at.

 

Since I have so little to say about this, I'll take the chance to point out that there is a single player map that too, is almost-mono-textured with the same texture as used in this map. Not too teribbly exciting but I kinda like it and I don't think I'll ever get a better opportunity to mention it ever again. Play that instead.

 

 

What lies beneath titan-426 by Dutch Devill or DD for short (ZDoom, 2005) - Doom II

played in ZDoom 2.8.1 on Ultra-Violence

Spoiler

This is a really fine looking map that lacks considerably in challenge. Although packed tight with almost 600 monsters on UV, What lies beneath titan-426 won't challenge seasoned players all too much. The various packs of monsters the player encounters tend to do just as good a job of decimating themselves as the player does, with how tightly they usually are packed together. Hitscanners feature heavily and tend to be your main concern throughout. You'll also never run out of ammo, but towards the end have to be careful not to take too many stray hits. The big monster rush at the end does provide some much-needed action, but also defangs itself considerably with the inclusion of the Invulnerability.

 

Where Dutch Devil's map really shines is in it's great usage of gothic and tech textures. None of these clash with one another at all and the lighting brings it all together nicely. For some reason, the sounds are replaced with the ones from PSX Doom. Personally, I don't think this was necessary as the regular IWAD sounds would have suited the atmosphere of this level just as well. Strangely, what will come out of monster closets and teleporters for the bigger battles is indicated beforehand by depictions of the respective monsters. Perhaps a homage to the very early style of custom Doom content, when people occasionally used the graphics in such weird ways?

 

An easy stroll through appealing environments. Go take a look if you haven't yet.

 

Yet Another Doom2 Wad... by Jonathan Dolan (Vanilla, 1996) - Doom II

played in ZDoom 2.8.1 on Ultra-Violence

Spoiler

Circular deathmatch arena with four spawn locations, some teleporters and linedef triggered lifts that reveal weapons and a Supercharge. More ammo can be found a the bottom of the arena and the middle platform can be lowered. In singleplayer there are a measly three Arachnotrons overseen by a single Mancubus. Looks alright, if a little too big for actual deathmatching. Shrinking this playground down by a fourth would probably make it much more playable for it's intended use.

Edited August 13, 2023 by DrRock
wrong date in one of the entries

[Sena]

• 3 WADs | 3 maps

 

WEDDING.WAD (1994)

Palatable. A small number of corridors with several monster closets, and a church area which features around 8-10 enemies, chaotic by pre-Doom 2 standards. Easy to navigate and easy to beat, this one is sufficient if you have a minute to spare, but no more than three. 6/10.

Hey Hey Hangar-Entryway! (2014)

This level merges E1M1 and MAP01 together, which is at least a neat idea and one I've seen implemented in other megawads before, but on its own, it just feels like a notably wide techbase, and one that has few other notable qualities on account of how quickly it ends. 5/10.

Overrun (2005)

Pretty good. It has one or two rooms with a couple interesting textures or holes in the ceiling, but it is for the most part a Doom level that feels like it was designed by following a textbook, with architecture and verticality that all feels familiar, but that familiarity is also a remark on its competence. For a map of its size, one maze would have been enough, but they went for two which is something I could have done without, although the good part of the rest of the level is it's a breeze to just run through. 7/10.

[LadyMistDragon]

An Aquarius199 Adventure (2014) by Mmmm Brother! 

 

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Upon a weapons outpost in a remote region, you encounter Aqua himself. What comes after is anyone's guess.

The text file says no advanced engine needed but it doesn't even load in GZ Doom. Basically one of those Skulltag-only shitpost wads. Thankfully, Aqaurius is much less active so we don't get anything like this anymore. The only question is, what kind of Doom wad would Hulk Hogan make, brother?

 

 

 

 

 

bltroyal.wad (1996) by Brad Shuber (Crispy Doom)

 

I think I've just about had it with LEDGES rip-offs. The hallways on the sides are nice. Don't play this on single-player, although it has monsters, there's basically nothing else to say. There are switches hidden in the dark which I guess would be fine if one actually knows the map but meh, 5/10.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Doom Press Release 2.0 (2006) by John Cartwright (Crispy Doom)

 

Sometime speedrunner and obscure level designer John Cartwright did this little conversion of the maps featured in the original press release of Doom. I guess the die-hard Doom-heads would know that stuff already. It's pretty interesting to see that the switch opening the outdoor Supercharge courtyard in E1M2 is just a blank wall in the original and has just another armor instead of a backpack and how a certain room with slime is a narrow corridor. Or how E2M2's floors are covered with wood instead of gravel. Or how E3M5 has no sky. It's quite safe to say that all the changes these maps received in the final version were for the better though. Imagine if the paths to the red key in E1M2 were lifts. Wouldn't that be a little clunky? 

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Sena]

• 1 WAD | 1 map

 

splinty (2021)

If there is one thing to say about this map, it is definitely red. Looking at it now, the random lava squares in the sky are quite garish, but they are not a point I noticed during gameplay, the author notes that the level contains "almost no detailing", but I think that works to its credit. This level is short, claustrophobic and aggressive, and its prevalence of cacodemons and lost souls means that several of them will manage to float over the many blocks, too many to account for, and make your life miserable. The maze-like design and rocket launcher ammo seem to indicate that the mapper likes making things awkward and uncomfortable, which is something they have certainly managed, and the short length of the level makes it far less frustrating, nor does it become confusing as mazes often are. After this main area, there is a much larger room with a cyberdemon fight that can be negated via infighting with minimal effort, which goes to show the significance of having sufficient space to move and dodge, and why this level succeeds in depriving the player of that advantage. 7/10.

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 06 Day 19

 

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

 

[1] DEPTHS OF DOOM by Richard Torquato (2005)

 

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You have landed on the surface of the planet below. Intelligence has told you that below the surface, there are two more levels. On the surface, mostly there are rogue creatures, and the quest is to find the passage to the hell-hole below.

Once on the second level, it becomes clear that it is an area used mainly for storage, use and disposal of toxic waste. Apparently, these dudes are not environmentally-correct.

At the third level, you realize that have sunk to the depths of hell. It's damned hot down here, and you'd better find a way out...pronto!

 

An old 1994 map uploaded 10 years which replaces E3M2 of Ultimate Doom.

 

This map takes place in a canyon and your mission notably consists to visit an abstract grey underground tech base. This map tends to have pronunced height variations when you plunge below the surface. The grey rooms dwarf our small marine and you'll take a long elevator near the end of the map. The visuals are bare of course but those giant areas give me the feeling to explore something fascinating. The light variations between the bright surface and the underlit hidden base must be noted as well.

 

DEPHTS OF DOOM is very shotgun-centric for the most part. The author gives you a shotgun at the start of the map accompanied with a bunch of shells boxes. You'll obtain a chaingun but that one is guarded by an unexpected and out-of-place cyberdemon. That one is located at the surface and doesn't pose problem to be killed. Indeed, its placement seems like a mistake from Richard. The canyon has some tight passages that low-tiers enemies can take whereas beefier ones can't, resulting into an obvious opportunity to cheese the fight. Contrarywise, the last cyberdemon you meet in the underground base has its own arena made of raising pillars. The author gives you a RL and tons of rockets to defeat him, like in Doom's E2M8 but the  diminished combat zone makes the splash from the rockets more dangerous.

 

Despite the several cybies populating this map, "DEPHTS OF DOOM" remains straightforward thanks to all the shotgun shells and the power-ups. The rather realistic theme helps making this map more distinct than many 1994 maps I played. The small traps scattered in the map translates a sort of advanced level design for the time and I like how the last fight against the 4 barons and the cyb acts like a "great final".

 

At the end, I think Dephts of Doom is a nice old-school adventure for Ultimate Doom.

 

Grade : B (13/20)

 

[2] Secret2.wad (the fixed version) by "Axe" (soon to be DUD if I mess this one up!) (1996)

 

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A small DeathMatch only level with secrets,Hence the name "Secret.wad" Fast,Furious,Frequent fragging is the go in this one.If you like all the above,then this wad's for u.

 

A standard DM which puts a certain accent on secrets. Actually tons of DM maps put secrets but the BFG's one located next to 4 aligned invulnerability spheres has something special to me. This file contains some custom resources : a devil red sky and custom sounds taken from other games/medias.

 

[3] drwho0.zip by Simon Jansen (1994)

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Here is a Dr Who sound collection taken mainly from the 30th Anniversary special. The only two sounds not from Dr Who are the pistol, taken from Captain Scarlet, and the Crikey sound which is taken from The Comic Strips Five go Mad in Dorset.

 

A must-download if you're a total Dr Who fanboy otherwise skip it. Actually, the sounds fit with the game pretty well since Dr Who is a sci-fi themed series. Expect to hear "Cranky !" a lot.

 

I just ended in a corridors full of crushers in Temple:The Deep (for DOOM II)

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

Kill Gamarra (2007) by Giulio Galassi (GZ Doom)

 

I've seen people play this map before. And why is this the 3rd bloody Gamarra map I've played? What kind of obscure forum drama is this all about? Anyway, it's all well-detailed despite the lack of height variation but bullets take off 20 damage per hit, invulnerbility is probably expected, and the final battle starts tossing able-ist slurs at you. Really, Invulnerbility might be required here. Progression is stupid at certain point, and the elevators are just stupid speed trolls. Like one can miss the final path to gamarra because it's not actually at the top of the lift. The script describing the 'unguarded' key was very funny, especially with the speed these guys all run at.

 

Note: I recorded a video but the ending caused me not to upload.

 

 

Spoiler

 

Edited August 15, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[Sena]

• 1 WAD | 1 map

 

Plinch 3: Final Infest (2001)

 

Another short and claustrophobic map. Unlike the previous one I found, which is aggressive enough that just surviving is an endeavour on its own, this is a lot closer to a standard techbase, and while narrower than most, it still gives the player plenty of breathing room, only incidentally putting them up against enemies, and always doing so with plenty of ammo. Overall a bit standard, it has one or two challenging segments that demand strong micrododging skills, but is also short enough that mistakes don't have many long-term consequences. Good level all around, it may not have any striking idiosyncrasies, but it plays well enough. 7/10.

[LadyMistDragon]

100 Line Christmas Community Project (2022) by Various (From Doom with Love)

 

 A spontaneous Christmas community project created recently, mostly containing names that I recognize? It seemed clear this would be a quality collection so I chose to adopt the "die or intentionally stop" rule. And I didn't last too long! Like, just take a look at an Arch-vile facing away from you in a completely open area at the start, with pinkies to impede your way out and Revenants in the side tunnels. It's not surprising I wouldn't survive in that case. Oh well.

 

Video here

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 06 Day 20

 

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

 

[1] Land of the Damned by Paul Fleschute  (2022)

 

 

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A collection of three levels that were intended to be part of a Heretic megawad. Never finished, not going to finish either (these are the only three levels done for it). Levels were done in 2000. These levels are being released "as is", and I fixed only bugs that broke them.

 

The three maps replace E1M1 , E2M1 and E2M2 and seem to be inspired by the concepts of the original maps. For instance, E1M1 takes place on a dock. My memories are more trouble about the second episode but I'm sure the original one contains volcanic-themed levels too. 

 

I'm far from being a Heretic fanboy but Land of the Damned offers more detailed , consistent visuals and a tad more ferocious combats. In the first map, the limited ammo encourages you to use the gauntlets, which sometimes doesn't suffice to tame the golems with ease. The two other levels put more emphasis on the usage of the tome of power in order to defeat horde of ennemies in tight spaces and dangerosity of the environnements materialized by the presence of lavas and fragile platforms which collapse when you step on them.

 

At the end, if "Land of the Damned" was fully released, I suppose it would have offered an equivalent experience to the original iwad, albeit more difficult and more "modern" in general. For my part, it's the kind of wad which makes me appreciate Heretic. Nice job.

 

Grade : B (14/20)

 

I got run over by SaNiC the H3dG3D0G in DoomCraft (Minecraft Doom)

 

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[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 40 maps

Adventure | 3 wads | 48 maps

 

Doom 2 Unleashed: Pcorf community project (2011) by @pcorf et al. 40 SP maps for Doom II in Boom. Played with GZDoom on HNTR.

I rolled this one long ago but hesitated to tackle it due its sheer length. When I rolled it again I thought what the hell, let's do it. Aside from the usual exceptions (skies and that waterfall patch everyone loves) the wad uses exclusively stock assets, which was in fact the one condition for map submission. In a bit of contradiction, the text file says limit-removing while the wiki page says it requires Boom, but I can definitely confirm the Wiki is correct here, I recognized Boom-specific linedef actions in many maps. There seems to have been some disagreements over the music selection but I'm not sure of the details and don't really want to go over the drama; I ended up using the optional music wad, which has lots of Pcorf compositions with the occasional track from other notable community members, it's all great stuff.

As expected the maps are the usual CP mixed bag, but I found many remarkably good despite not always recognizing the authors. There's a great deal of variability in styles and designs of course, and in such a long megawad this is a strength and keeps things fresh. I'll only mention some memorable maps, but there were many others. MAP06 Shipwreck looks great with stock textures (those distortions work so well to simulate the damage after crashlanding) and makes judicious use of raise/lower floors to give the impression of upper and lower levels, and exploring the ship to find (well, more like create) the way out is a great deal of fun. MAP08 Demonic Caprice is a variation on Doom E2's "techbase gone to hell" with a very unique aesthetic and a great gimmick, where each teleport ambush places monsters in different areas of the map depending on how you go through it, to create different combat setups on different playthroughs. I did not like MAP11 Subsation, it's too big for its own good, has way, way too much backtracking, and has too many cheap ambushes with a large number of enemies (almost 300 on HNTR), but even there I appreciated some clever bits like the secret Supercharge column.

The secret levels were an unfortunate exception to my enjoyment of the main wad. MAP31 Night of Fail has some nice visuals (and some truly great care in some of the detailing; that pipe you can follow all through the castle is a really neat touch) and is a pretty good attempt at the nazi/hell mix that the IWAD secret text hinted at, but unfortunately it is brought down by some unpleasant design decisions (sorry Walter). There is way, way too much backtracking over large empty spaces, and then there's the double combo of that switch hidden behind a column that opens the bars, followed by having to step into a nondescript dead end, that you have absolutely no reason to step into, that opens a nondescript wall at the opposite end of the map. Even in a secret map this just feel like a cheap way to waste the player's time, especially when backtracking is already such a chore. MAP32 Morgue Theft is pure slaughter (~1500 enemies) with no difficulty balancing, which I maybe could forgive in the super-secret slot, except the author openly admits he barely tested the map, didn't bother completing it himself and just used idclip to check the exit.

Fortunately the wad redeemed itself immediately with MAP16 The Spooked, a superb adventure by Pablo Dictter @pbldcttr just before he went on a decade-long hiatus. It starts with a more-or-less techbase look before alternating jaw-dropping hellish caverns and ancient marble ruins overrun by vines, there's a fantastic sense of exploration as new passages open up. Following this, the latter half of the episode starts to slowly veer towards slaughter. MAP17 A Vile Piece summons archviles every other step, I didn't love it but I appreciate that most of the vile fights are actually fair and sometimes quite clever. MAP19 Rift Quandry has a clever gimmick (immediately hinted by the automap) where all 3 keys are not required but lead to optional areas, usually with very useful goodies... except the red key, which instead seems to be an optional challenge (and the toughest fight in the map). MAP20 goes all-out in slaughter encounters, with no difficulty balancing; definitely not my favourite.

The last episode initially resets things to much smaller and easier maps. MAP21 Ant Hill is an homage to one of Pcorf's older maps and goes by quickly. MAP22 Sacrificial Castle is nicely detailed with small clever secrets and has a nice adventure/exploration feel to it. MAP23 is an homage to TEETH, of Master Levels fame, with a similar concept of the central elevator and the passages on different levels that you explore one at a time to open the next, but I found the homage more difficult and frankly more annoying. It just tries to pack too much in, including an Entryway homage, a secret only accessible by archvile jump, and a bunch of secrets with duplicates of all the weapons full of SS and Wolfenstein textures, it's almost a sensory overload by this point. MAP25 is an homage (the last episode has a lot of them!) to The Spirit World, it takes the unique aesthetics of TSW and builds something truly beautiful, aside from a couple of dickish traps I loved it (and Pcorf's music for it is incredibly good). MAP29 was almost great, but eventually the setup with the archvile throne room followed by cyberdemon in main courtyard is too repetitive, though I liked each of the individual segments of the map a lot and the finale is entertainingly hectic. MAP30 ends the main set with an IOS (of course) but the preceding mini-adventures for each key are a lot of fun (except for that cyberdemon guarding the teleporters and locked doors, he was the source of many expletives). The IOS itself is a nice and easy change, the button only raises the platform by 24, so you need to figure out how many times to push it to get perfect alignment with the brain opening, there's another button to reset it... or you could time your rockets I guess, though you don't need to if you get the height just right, and it's nice not to have to do that.

The bonus episode opens with a series of maps from names that I recognize and like. They're mostly small and quick-playing maps, with only SSG and chaingun and light opposition. The RL doesn't appear until MAP38 (in a secret), there's only one plasma rifle (in a secret in MAP40), and no BFG at all. Speaking of MAP38, this is where maps start getting a bit longer. MAP39 by our @Walter confetti had some of my favourite visuals, it's a bit too symmetrical at first but then unfolds into a very nice adventure map with some great visual storytelling. The size and length of MAP40 dwarf the others, with a much higher monster count (and an absolutely trollish archvile that resurrected dozens of enemies before I realized this wasn't a teleport ambush), a couple of mini-slaughter encounters, and a mad finale where you get a Spider boss to infight with a bunch of mancubi and arachnotrons, it's a great map and a good cap to the bonus episode and the wad overall. Unfortunately something happened in post-production and broke MAP38 (I ended up getting the map out of the oldest beta version, where it was still fully functional, to see how it should play). Pcorf didn't care much for the bonus maps and so this was never fixed in the official release, and I don't think the planned update/expansion of the bonus episode by the mappers ever saw the light of day. It's a shame beacuse they're a really fun set of maps, I don't think them being in the bonus episode is any indication of lower quality.

This is a very good wad overall, a bit in the tradition of the first 2 Community Chests, a compilation of maps with no unifying theme or set gameplay rules. There's something here for everyone and whether you like what a map does or not the quality is consistent throughout.

 

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Base_16 (1995) by Henley Bailey (wierd name eh? - 15yrs old) Crispy Doom

 

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You were beamed down from your mother ship to kick but. Do it and get out alive!

 

An incredibly basic E1M1 map, despite the occasional attempts at scale. Combat is serviceable, but borders on overly repetitive at points. The security station toward the end is inexcusable in its emptiness and the random brown down lift form adds nothing. On the other hand, at least the large slime pool is a good experiment despite its wholly pointlessness. It's quite amusing how picking up the blue key in the one tower causes a platform...which takes us to the blue key door. And the trap next to the room with the chaingun was actually kind of nice, if easy to evade. The barons toward the end are a grind though, and the fact its possible to exit by hitting a section of wall near one of the stairwells is a shovelware-level blunder. But it's not really bad as such 5/10

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 06 Day 21

 

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

 

[1] SOULED OUT -- for DOOM2 by Kyle Black Dave Black (daveb@srv.net) (1995)

 

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Just a fun level with a bit of a twist that we've not seen done before.

 

This abstract STARTAN base acts as a laboratory of weird experiments and has no sense of logic. Expect exploring odd-shaped rooms, opening unmarked doors and tasting the overall randomness of this map. The map features a certain number of enemies I had fun eliminating but eventually finishes with an unnecessary switch-hunt. I think the most arbitrary and memorable idea of this map resides in the voodoo doll partially blocking the exit. 

 

Souled out lacks of lot of qualities but I didn't dislike the ride. The ambient darkness and twisted shapes bring a rather gloomy atmosphere to the level, which I manage to enjoy knowing that I'm playing without the music when D_RUNNIN acts as soundtrack.

 

Grade : C-  (8/20)

 

[2] Weirdy by Gary Webb (2012)

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A compact abstract level I played during Month 8 Day 27. Here's what I said :

 

"I really doubt that this level was released in 2012. It looks like the typical 1990's map with its abstract theme, its unnecessarily complex and unintuitive progression and also its layout with many strange non-orthogonal angles.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the level as a whole. I had enough ammo to kill everyone. Also, there is a rather silly room near the end involving a mastermind, a cyberdemon and stuck enemies. The author generously provided 3 spheres of invulnerability to clear this room without difficulty. Pretty silly but fun.

 

I can't really recommend to play this map, but it's still playable despite the total abstraction. Not bad.

Grade : C"

 

So, I played on prboom+ instead of Dosbox in order to kill the 50-60 enemies and find the 4 useless secrets. Actually, the PG's secret would be useful for the silly room I mentioned in my past review but the way to find it is too obtuse. Indeed, you have to shoot a random wall in order to open the little nook hiding the PG. The other secrets seem to be placed by accident since they're not hidden at all and they can be found only after killing 95% of the enemies.

 

Weirdy is a mediocre level I still don't recommand downloading it but it's quick and easy.

 

Grade : C (8,5/20)

 

I got pulverized by an overpowered helicopter from the monster mods For Jihad Monsters.

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

Tech Gone Bad (2016) by John @Romero (Crispy Doom)

 

You may have heard that John Romero made a total of TWO E1-inspired maps before jumping in fully with Sigil some time before it was released. Tech Gone Bad is the later* one I believe....and oh buddy!

 

Starting in a room with a couple of enemies and some scattered barrels, these prove placed purposefully to trip up careless players, as a raised wall with a sergeant or two will open up behind you whilst enemies will start mass teleporting in front. Here, I'd shoot the sergeants behind me, than ran up the stairs and sort of threw the dice. Mostly because some of the cracks here are damaging! It's also easy to miss the chaingun because the natural direction is up the Nuclear Plant-esque stairs. 

 

At some point, we've got to drop into the slime, opening the way to a couple of different secret areas and also the blue key! This key opens a door in the Nuclear Plant hallway. You'd better go outside first though since there are two imps here that will murder idiots like I was whenever I ran into infinite height as a kid. Anyways, these platforms in the slime lead to a station of sorts, with a few stacked crates and a switch that raises more platforms to the yellow key. Then we return to the yellow key door, outside to the left of the first accessible entrance. After some hallways (one being a Toxin Refinery homage) we eventually land at  an area that looks suspiciously similar to the secret area with the Invulnerbility we'd seen earlier. In anu case, spend a few rockets here! The swarms get nasty when the red key's found! Speaking of which, we have to go past the yellow door to get to the red, guarded by red cracks and a large grouping of foes. I really like how these latter two doors are framed though, little complementary supports which makes these locations quite intriguing.

 

The final section takes place in a largely darkened techwall maze with lots of opportunity for punching. The room at the end with the rocket launcher, guess what, reveals a two-sided teleport trap! I beat it at that point when enough things were dead, and eventually ended up in the imposing Baron room. Only 2 here this time, so I could've spent more rockets. If anything's more dangerous, it's just the darkness potentially concealing scattered Imps. Anyways, a wall lowers when the Barons are dead, leading down a red-rock path to the murderous demonic teleporter.

 

Honestly, I'd tempered my expectations down somewhat. But let's make this clear, other than there seeming to be a higher emphasis on numbers than normal that doesn't necessarily benefit things, this is otherwise an excellent return to form. There's even a window you can open to spot a hidden weapon at one point! 8/10

 

*Wrong

 

 

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

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