Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #067

[Endless]

10 minutes ago, Roofi said:

their alignment is so crude that a purely modern mapper would fall into a coma

Haha my greatest bane.

 

Thanks a lot for playing my map mate. Never crossed my mind I would see Technical Issues here reviewed again. I still consider it my beast, and def the one that I've enjoyed working on the most. Maybe I'll make a sequel someday :D

 

Thanks for the review and kind words!

[LadyMistDragon]

Into the Pit (1994) by Mikael Wilberg (Crispy Doom)

 

AWFUL. I could only access two large rooms but there does seem to be a fair few more, but not any better balanced in their enemy count tbh. Hordes to face down with nothing but a shotgun. Highly constricted spaces that just swarm you with enemies. Curious uses of verticality and scaling. High pillars with Barons of Hell and hardly any room to move. Avoid at all costs. Maybe this should've actually been tested instead of just being made. 1/10 because it's not wholly bad-looking.

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 09

 

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

 

[1] Goomba by Ruba (2005)

 

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A Doom new level map for E1M1

 

A level which is as tiny and ordinary than the Goomba in Mario I already played during Month 2 Day 23. Here's what I said :

 

"

Goomba unfortunately has nothing to do with Mario's aggressive mushroom.

It is a small tech-base replacing E1M1 with almost completely grey environments. The bestiary is almost exclusively zombies with the exception of an imp in front of the exit.

I liked the minimalist aspect of this map. "

 

I replaying this map on Dosbox instead of Crispy Doom but the experience didn't change at. I can say this level functions well but it's so short.

 

Grade : C  (10/20)

 

I stop here for today.

[LadyMistDragon]

57th Street East (1994) by Robert La Rosa Jr. (Crispy Doom)

 

Forget the ranch house exterior and obvious parking garage. This is like every other 90s Myhouse wad you've played. In other words quite brief and with some rather curious architectural deviations from anything resembling an actual house. The teleportation is quite confusing and disorienting and the yellow key proves incredibly superfluous, to such an extent that it's actually very easy to reach the exit without even seeing it. Although I would've found the key but I missed an easy jump. Backyard feels pointless somehow. It's fine though 5/10

 

 

 

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 20 maps

Adventure | 6 wads | 29 maps

 

Mercuria (2021) by Walter "daimon" Confalonieri. 20 SP maps for Doom II in Boom.
I think I rolled another @Walter confetti map not long ago, unless it has been long and time flew by. This one is a collection of small speedmaps with a 300-line limit, Dehacked changes and quite a few customs assets from various places. The port requirement in the text file is a bit suspicious, it says it may not run in vanilla or limit-removing, but then claims to be tested in Crispy; I can confirm that you need a Boom port to run it properly, there are quite a few Boom-specific actions in there. The Dehacked work is extensive and quite impressive, and coupled with a lot of sprite replacements, many of the enemies are completely changed. The imps now throw much deadlier fireballs, zombiemen fire a single plasma shot, with a demonic version that fires in more continuous stream (but dies much faster than the old arachnotron), mancubi can fly (!). Revenants are faster and have more health, and Lost Souls are now green and explode with the force of a barrel, these 2 are much more dangerous (or obnoxious, depending on how you look at it). For the most part I found the changes made the gameplay refreshingly original. Despite the speedmapping and line limit the maps are fun, some play fast and deadly, some look very nice, and there's good thematic variety from one to the next. Most maps are pretty short (most took between 3 and 5 minutes, with some as short as under 2). I think I liked the first half or so more; MAP13 is the only way that truly irritated me, with a bad case of dead end backtracking that is too easily missable, a trollish softlock right there in the last room, followed by a mandatory archvile jump when there are 4 of them trying to roast you. The obligatory secret exit on MAP15 was pretty clever, there is a succession of switches that are not very obvious but still possible to find by careful searching and it was satisfying unlocking that. The secret levels break the line limit rule by being even more limiting (100 lines only). Getting the super-secret exit requires a death exit (very telegraphed and even hinted at in the story text) and takes us to a blatant homage to that secret Duke 3D map where everything spins round and round, and sure enough it does so here as well; word of warning, Spinning Around with a Cyberdemon is not fun (and a totally missed opportunity to score this to Kylie Minogue). The last map is an IOS, serviceable but not a terribly original, it's just a race to get to and press the switch that crushes Romero's Head before getting overwhelmed. MAP17 is then a The End map, a nice looking one too. I got suspicious since the text advertises 20 maps and warped to MAP18, which is a bonus map but I am sure I've seen it before somewhere (the beginning where you have to pick between weapons was super familiar). Overall it's a fun compilation of very short maps, I didn't like all of them but they're never long enough to annoy, and there are quite a few creative ideas and setups in there.

Spoiler

 

[Walter confetti]

Thanks for the good review, glad you liked It!

[Endless]

FUNHOUSE.WAD | Robert Payne | 1996

 

Contrary to the title of the WAD, this is not a very fun house. An extremely basic and dull level with pretty much nothing worthy to mention about. The only two positive things about this is that it is super easy and at least not broken. Pretty much a Wolf3D level in Doom engine.

 

Ambush2 | MrBlonde | 1996

 

A nicely looking DM level from 1996 with some extra touches that add up to a rather enjoyable experience, at least when it comes to visuals. The map layout itself is circuit-like and flows well, for the most part. It has some interesting touches and paths to take, and while the BFG9000 area is a bit tricky to get into, the map seems pretty damn good, but could have had better item placement.

DOY2.WAD | Doyoon Kim | 1996

 

Another DM map. This one has a few SS soldiers and HKs going around in singleplayer mode. The layout of the map is far too small for group fights, but could work in duel mode, although, the actual placement and the general geometry of the level is rather, eh, obtuse. Nothing particularly bad, but at least understands the most basic layout design philosophy.

LOOE's First Level | Looe | 1994

 

A very generic level from 1994 that at least follows a basic concept and doesn't try to do anything particularly crazy that breaks the experience. Very simple in almost all aspects, but unlike the first WAD I played, this one has better texture work, design, geometry, and is not a flat Wolf3D recreation. Not bad, but then again, not much competition to begin with.

[DrRock]

Zandor2 by David Brachman, (Vanilla, 1998) - Doom II

played in ZDoom 2.8.1 on Ultra-Violence

Spoiler

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This wad is one of an undetermined number of levels. After ETERNAL and all of the wonderful new textures, I wanted to build a level using the original DOOM2 textures.

I have yet to touch Eternal Doom but it has a known reputation for obscure and out of the box level progressions, so i sorta knew what would await me here. And indeed, your biggest hurdle in clearing Zandor2 will be figuring out it's hidden nooks and crannies. Toughening out the beginning is the most difficult part of this map, I found. Once you find your first set of switches required for progression, finding your remaining path is much easier. Combat takes somewhat of a backset, pretty much only coming into play for traps during your progression. Despite using only stock doom assets, David Brachman manages to create some pretty interesting little locations within this playground, which I don't wanna spoil here. I also find his way of re-using the loop you run through in the beginning with this sort-of fake room-over-room solution to give it an upper floor interesting. Despite my general dislike for obscure progressions, I enjoyed running through the level and dismantling it's various passages.

 

Also a little hint for those stumped on how to progress:

Spoiler

In the room with the caged Baron, Revenants and teleporting Shotgunners, there's a slim switch on the right side from where you came in initially. Super easy to overlook. This opens up a way to the upper floor and gives you access to the rest of the map from that point onward. Als don't be stupid like me and forget all about it when you have to get back up again. I've ran at least five laps around the ground floor before remembering what to do.

Extraction by Michael "Bloodskull" Cole, (Boom*, 2007) - Doom II

played in ZDoom 2.8.1 on Ultra-Violence

Spoiler

Bloodskull brings forth a short and well detailed techbase. Basically the sort of thing you'd find in the early goings in some megawad. Actually, this map was repurposed at some point to fill a slot in a community megawad called DOOM: A Megawad in Two Weeks. Apparently with some slight tweaks applied to it here and there. There really isn't much to talk about, just some rock-solid techbase action that takes a few minutes to be done with. The lone secret in the map is a bit weird, featuring some saucy, yet SFW imagery. Not really the sort of thing I'd have expected to find in such a map.

 

*According to the author. Doesn't work whatsoever in Boom according to the Newstuff Chronicles review at the time as well as a few idgames reviews. Also once again, the idgames comments seem awfully combative for such a non-offensive map. People back then had some bad temper, it seems.

[LadyMistDragon]

Melodeath (2023) by @Kain D. (GZ Doom)

with Russian Overkill

 

A wad I kind of heard of but made no effort to check out, partly because Kain's last major effort either won or was mentioned by the Cacowards and also, slaughter is something that's a little difficult to immediately grasp. Still, I haven't heard anything of it since the idgames release so it made sense to give it a little quick run through. 

 

Some basics. This wad is Boom-compatible. In several maps, Kain's impressive sense of visual detailing shines through even in the most abstract of spaces. There appears to be a custom enemy that resembles the cultists. There is this curious flower object located throughout the maps giving them some more character. Finally, there are a few maps where extensive use of jump-pads is utilized. 

 

Finally, a few words on each map.

 

Map 01: The opening square is reminiscent both of the first fight in Demonic Hordes as well as something from the last area of Map 01 Combat Shock 2. Running eventually triggers a seriously cooked ambush of zombiemen. I think there was something after this but it's also around the point where I died. No, that's not true. There was a massive grotto field with an even larger fight!

 

Map 02: Indoor techbase kind of thing. Memorize the lifts here. It'll be easier to move around in

 

Map 03: That huge blood field has such cool scale! Not to mention the blood reaching out like sun rays from the center here!

 

Map 04: A....puzzle map with no monsters

 

Map 05: MASSIVE open square with what's probably the highest monster count in the wad!

 

Map 06: A sort of more naturalistic take on everything seen so far, navigation was not something I wanted to figure out at the moment.

 

Map 07: No Icon of Sin, just techbase and field next to some water.

 

I think this would get between a 7.5-8/10 if I were to guess. It's too well-done to mark too low, but maybe fights are dumber in some part than others. But the latter half really starts to wear Deus Vult 2 influences on its sleeve!

 

 

Spoiler

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Edited September 16, 2023 by LadyMistDragon
stupid typos

[Pechudin]

So how does this work - just pick some random wads and post one per 2 weeks?

[Endless]

2 hours ago, Pechudin said:

So how does this work - just pick some random wads and post one per 2 weeks?

Go to /idgames archive, press ''Random File'' and play whatever you get. There's no limit, no end in sight, no rest for the living, only the living end.

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 9 maps

Adventure | 7 wads | 38 maps

 

NJ Shores of Hell (1994) by Nigel "Enjay" Rowand. 9 SP maps for vanilla Doom.
@Enjay has been making maps for Doom for as long as Doom has existed. NJ Doom is one of the first megawads made and very possibly the first made by a single author, and Enjay has remade and re-released it several times over the years. But before he even compiled all of it in a megawad he made and released the first 2 episodes individually, and this is (obviously) the E2 replacement. I haven't played the full NJ Doom in a long time but I remember E1 maps being maybe more memorable, but the layouts in E2 (especially later on) are more complex and progression is more interesting. Enjay was working with the tools of the time so of course there are texture misalignments, but there's also a flair for texture choices that was not common. You're strolling through a typical techbase, but step into a teleporter and you're suddenly in these strange marble ruins after a yellow key, pick it up and you're back in the base. There are often such low-key almost cinematic moments, conscious attempts at moving away from blocky architecture in parts (I like the twisty and spiral stairs), and some nice stabs at pseudo-realistic locales (the lake in E2M2 is particularly cute). Speaking of tools of the time, the only serious issue is that the first nodebuilders were buggy and in some of the maps this will very visibly manifest as enemies disappearing depending on where you're standing relative to each other, but it's not game-breaking. Less serious but slightly annoying is the overuse of slow elevators, a couple of times they come in an array and the wait is not very exciting. The wad is old enough that I decided to break my HNTR habit, but even on HMP I found the wad pretty easy; most modern players will breeze through UV. It's still a solid wad, it's note quite The Way id Did because Enjay has his own unique style but it balances exploration and light puzzles with incidental combat similarly to the iwad. I like that, and so really enjoyed playing through it

Spoiler

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[Kain D.]

11 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

A wad I kind of heard of but made no effort to check out, partly because Kain's last major effort either won or was mentioned by the Cacowards and also, slaughter is something that's a little difficult to immediately grasp. Still, I haven't heard anything of it since the idgames release so it made sense to give it a little quick run through

Technically, this wad can be nominated for this year Cacowards. Although, I find it doubtful.

 

11 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Some basics. This wad is Boom-compatible. In several maps, Kain's impressive sense of visual detailing shines through even in the most abstract of spaces. There appears to be a custom enemy that resembles the cultists. There is this curious flower object located throughout the maps giving them some more character. Finally, there are a few maps where extensive use of jump-pads is utilized. 

 

11 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

I think this would get between a 7.5-8/10 if I were to guess. It's too well-done to mark too low, but maybe fights are dumber in some part than others. But the latter half really starts to wear Deus Vult 2 influences on its sleeve!

The goals for this project are explained in the topic with the wad:

 

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/129041-melodeath-7-map-boom-miniwad-final/

 

I've never played the wads you mentioned. Long story short this is a slaughter wad, created by someone, who doesn't like slaughter maps.

 

I can clearly see, that the mod you're playing is incompatible, because the items at the second screenshot should be in the mid-air.

 

Thanks for the review anyway.

Edited September 16, 2023 by Kain D.

[Clippy]

Damn #67 - was trying to keep my own series on par but I'm only on episode 63 lol

 

 

No this isn't a scam, it's a special occasion so I'm making it a Youtube Premiere to air in 8 hours - I rarely get to make videos with @Snaxalotl @Sandwitch @LVENdead @thelamp @Dubbag & @Doomkid these days and they were all here for my torment.

 

If you are around when it airs feel free to visit - there will be a live chat. I hope to be there if I still have power cause hurricane lee is slammin

 

In meantime here is screenies:

 

Spoiler

 

 

We're talkin DOOM IIII

 

THE FOURTH ONE!!

 

by @nub_hat & @ding dang who I cant find here

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/doomiiii

 

These are quick crude and rude speedmaps made in SIX days by 2 ppl - so 6 days to make 15 maps each. I have to tell you I feel much better about my solo project Apocaclips which I made in 3 days lol

 

I'm not good at reviews lets be honest I just share my thoughts along the way - but there is really not much to see here - just spammingly fast maps with a few broken things - its good for a very cheap laugh and there are some moments that stand out but they are few and far betwen - mostly just rip and tear as fast as possible in some boring rooms - but some attempts of creativity appear here and there

 

Alone I wouldn't recommend but get a bunch of silly friends together like this and you can have a good time haha

 

Have a good 1 everyone :)

 

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 9 maps
Adventure | 8 wads | 47 maps

 

Deimos Anomaly (2022) by Codename_Delta. 9 SP maps for vanilla Doom.
Despite not requiring a port the wad uses UMAPINFO so I decided to get out of my comfort zone and play it with DSDA-Doom, which I haven't used in a while, and my first time using the latest v0.26.2. This turned out not to be a great idea because some things didn't seem to work the way I was used to anymore, among other things I don't know where my screenshots ended up. It's a shame because the palette makes everything look much more ominous than usual and I would've liked to show that; the sounds from Playstation Doom and music from a variety of sources (including a couple of tracks by Codename_Delta) complement it well to create a cool atmosphere. The episode starts with deceptively small and very easy maps, and by the midpoint starts taking a turn for tiny slaughters. They're not terribly interesting at first, just a matter of backtracking while keeping LMB pressed with the best weapon selected; when that's the shotgun and there's a dozen cacos it doesn't make for very exciting gameplay. Then on the last map the combat takes a turn for insanity with armies of barons and cacos, multiple spiders and cybers, and inescapable death pits to fall in; it makes for more interesting gameplay I'm sure, but it's also not really my thing.  There are some nice touches throughout the wad though. The secret level ends back in the room where it was accessed in E1M3, and from there goes into a copy of that map's normal exit in a nice bit of continuity. UMAPINFO adds several story texts, and E1M7 is an almost entirely story-oriented breather. I couldn't shake off a feeling of slight amateurishness to the maps, but I enjoyed some of the original ideas.

Edited September 16, 2023 by brick

[LadyMistDragon]

Pax (1999) by Ty Halderman (Crispy Doom)

 

Even while Daedalus was in development, it seems like Ty Haldeman was messing around in the editor for other reasons. Whether this was a project in development for a year or two or just something he came up with in an afternoon isn't information that's recorded. Although this does have a page in the wiki like almost all his other maps.

 

But anyways, the space-y midi here actually appears to have been written by a personal friend of Ty's and the pink sky is a leftover from the TNT project reclamation. It's a fairly basic techbase, albeit with Icarus-esque detailing like clear and distinct computer servers, a warehouse server, tanks of slime and an, ahhhm, 'slime habitat' that contains a rad suit seemingly for the purposes of climbing around in it. Actually, the other passageways can probably be accessed here, but there were no obvious pathways.

 

Combat is honestly better than the average Haldeman map. It's no Wormholes but what really is? The ambushes are explosive without being overwhelming, and the monster closets really have only a moderate tone of dickishness to them, although their proximity to their triggers could cause some difficulty. And that arch-vile placement is seriously bad. If anything's a problem, it's the large hitscanning quantity

 

Things start to become more difficult toward the end, although perhaps the hidden rocket launcher would've helped (yes, there's one of those). Oddly enough, backtracking will bring us to a teleporter to the initially inaccessible exit. The computer map is probably useless though.

 

8/10, definitely worth playing.

 

 

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 1 map
Adventure | 9 wads | 48 maps

Atomic Tomb (2000) by Brad "Vorpal" Spencer. 1 SP map for Doom in Boom.
I did not expect to be posting again so soon! This is the epitome of a map that does not reach for the stars, but does everything to perfection within its modest aims. It's a small techbase map, which I always thought works better in Doom because of the texture selection (as Brad says, you never can have enough computer screens). @Vorpal definitely does a great job with what he has, the detailing is vanilla+ (he warns about VPO) but is very tasteful, pleasant and very clean. The architecture is not very elaborate but again does a lot with small things: small variations in height here and there, small deviations from right angles to give more rounded edges, small lighting variations... almost all the aesthetic seems to work on a more subconscious level, drawing you in without drawing attention to itself. This being Doom the biggest threat is the shotgun guys (of which there are plenty), at least in the incidental combat. Vorpal gets creative with some of the setpieces, including one of the best spectre ambushes I've seen (they chewed me up real good too), and a teleport ambush that's very visually evocative with the teleport pad being the centerpiece of the large hall. That's pretty much the whole map though, I went through the whole thing in 6 minutes (took me much longer to write about it!), there are no secrets to hunt, it's small and plays very fast. That's more a pro than anything though, it lets me say you should play this map even if you'll find it too easy (most of the pros will blaze through), since it'll hardly take any of your time, and there's a lot to like packed in this small space.

Spoiler

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 10

 

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

 

[1] Bloodworks by Bob Larkin (a.k.a. Sematary) (a.k.a. @Brad_tilf) (2003)

 

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This wad uses many "tricks" not specific to any port to create a tremendous 3d atmosphere including but not restricted to over/under bridge effect, room over room, and more. It is compatible and will only work with Zdoom and Legacy as far as I can tell. It will NOT work with GL ports or Vanilaa Doom2. The textures use were mostly taken from a texture wad released by Nick Baker originally slated for Episode 5 of the Nightmare Project but which apparently never got off the ground. The original file has been altered dramatically with a bunch of new custom textures created by myself and Shitbag.

 

Bloodworks is a cocktail of creative zdoom-compatible concepts but which end up being terribly executed. This level is rather short , with a bit less than 100 monsters to kill.

 

Let's start about the positive aspects. There is a real effort from its author to go against the limits from the original game. He got obsessed with 3D bridges and the level begins with two overlapping bridges. The map features some ambiant sounds in order to immerse you in a sort of factory using the blood as energy. By the way, I love the odd bloody mid-tex which also enhances the 3D look of the map. In general, I really appreciate this willingness to think outside the box.

 

However, let's be brutally honest : it plays like crap. Overall, the layout is too narrow, which makes getting around rather complicated and I didn't have fun killing several barons in dark areas. This level also includes a nasty surprise crusher if you press one of the switches too.

 

The 3Dness of this map is rather remarkable but the visuals remain bland despite the addition of custom textures. Nevertheless, it has to be said that the Doom community has improved dramatically of late. This map may be impressive for one released in the early 2000s, but it has aged terribly.

 

I don't hate this map thanks to the sheer creativity of its author but the gameplay has been neglected too much.

 

Grade : C-  (8/20)

 

[2] The Ocean Base by Paul D. Disney (2003)

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Under water on an alien world...lots of ZDoom tricks

 

Another Gzdoom map released in 2003 which mostly serve as a showcase of the port's fancy features. That one is even shorter with only 35 monsters but that's just as well, because like the previous wad, the gameplay represents the major flaw.

 

Paul Disney built an impressive layout containing curvy corridors and circular rooms and the theme  is unusual for that game. Something different ! Moreover, I like how the green color is used between the transparent glasses, the machinery and and the ocean of nukage we're in.

 

The author had interesting ingredients to lay a masterpiece but the under water base is so crampy that it would have been less suffocating to be outside, underwater. Most of the indoors combats annoyed me because of this and worse even, the projectiles of the monsters located outside can traverse the windows... The level wasn't too difficult, thanks to the blue armor and plasma gun but those elements show how clumsy the level design is.

 

I think the author simply shouldn't have placed monsters.

 

Grade : C  (9/20)

 

Customized zombies killed me in the darkness, in Rowdy Rudy II: POWERTRIP! 20 Vanilla Maps

 

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[brick]

Brick | 2 wads | 12 map
Adventure | 11 wads | 60 maps

 

Genesis of Descent (2007) by Hobomaster22. 3 SP maps for Doom in ZDoom.
I equate @hobomaster22 with my favourite Doom Launcher, but he's also a very eclectic mapper who's made wads for Deathmatch, Plutonia, or as is the case here a couple of ZDoom maps that fully utilize the port's advanced features. Thankfully the scripts, while numerous, are almost never used to take away control from the player. I think I counted a total of 3 cinematics (including the intro and outro), none longer than like 5 seconds, and totaling just as many lines to read. The focus is clearly on gameplay, not on telling a complex story, the scripts help build more interactivity and environmental storytelling. Barrels next to a suspiciously weak-looking wall can be used to blow it up and open a passage. Ambushes don't just open closets, they dim the lights and let out a Baron that you knew would come after you sooner or later. At one point you step through a door and find yourself in a hellish variation, as if the room was picked up as is and thrown into the fiery abyss. The map's presentation also leans heavily into the survival/horror aspect that this invites: music is entirely replaced by an ambient track (quiet but effective), lighting is stellar (be sure to play with with the blinds closed, I couldn't see much when playing in daylight), and although there are very few custom assets the space station looks beautiful. Speaking of survival/horror that aspect definitely comes up item starvation; while health is not so bad, the same can't be said for ammo, I frequently found myself down to single-digit everything, and that's with trying use infighting and the environment (fans, barrels) to my advantage. The most serious problem with the wad is a game-breaking oversight in E1M2 that is the bane of a HNTR player: a wad that was designed with it in mind but clearly never tested. I'm going to be a bit harsh because it's such a blatant gaffe that would've immediately been picked up with even a cheat-enabled HNTR speedrun, the ambush when returning with the yellow keycard simply cannot be completed and the door will never reopen. I spent almost an hour trying to find what I'd missed, then looking int the editor, then out of desperation getting an ACS decompiler only to find it was a bug after all. The whole thing soured me on the wad a bit, but it's perhaps a testament to its quality that it didn't take long after before I was enjoying myself once again. As far as ZDoom wads go this is one of the best I've played.

Spoiler

 

Knee Deep in the UnDead (2010) by Matthew "Foodles" Edwards. 9 SP maps for vanilla Doom.
One of the nicest things about ER/IWA is rolling a wad by an author I've never heard of, bracing myself for the unknown, and being pleasantly surprised by a set of maps that I really enjoy! The dice have favored the Doom iwad recently, this continue the trend. As the title implies it's yet another replacement for E1, with obvious influences at times but often done with interesting variations. There are many direct homages to iconic Romero rooms (you can recognize some in the screenshots), sometimes they're very obvious (that Command Control looking open area is indeed E1M4) but sometimes with an interesting twist: there's a dark computer/blue maze of course, and it even has a secret with a backpack... but it's in E1M5, the design of the maze is very different, it eschews the zombiemen for spectres (an ideal enemy with this lighting), and the moody Suspense track is such a good fit. The wad seems to thrive on this "the same but different" vibe, like a variation on Wonderful Doom with a touch of Switcheroom (I played with the 3DO soundtrack, it fit perfectly with this theme). There's also a nice buildup, the first map is tiny but later ones get larger (though not much more than iwad size). They stick to their E1 roots in terms of weapons and enemies (though the berserk does make a few appearances). My appreciation for the maps grew when I realized this is the first wad @Foodles released, for a beginner's effort they're excellent and avoid most amateur mistakes. I really liked the lighting, there's some very nice sector light and shadow play (I ended up spamming that PrintScreen button as a result...), E1M7 in particular combines this with some very nice vanilla architecture. It's not a difficult wad but it's very well done, it looks beautiful, and I really enjoyed revisiting my favourite episode with a fresh coat of paint.

Spoiler

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by brick

[LadyMistDragon]

MELEE08 (1996) by Jeremy Statz (Crispy Doom)

 

I feel like I should probably automatically draw an x through any dm  map made by a member of the Innocent Crew at this point....anyways, this tiny little 1v1 map has a pair of semi-circular greenish tech hallways with monitors hanging from the ceiling surrounding an linear outdoor path lined by tan brick. The end where the exit's at has some stairs leading out to the BFG 5/10, it plays just fine.

 

 

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Toad Doom (1997) by Unknown

 

Hey, that's a cool title screen. "Toad's back.....with a vengeance!" It's so cheesily 90s and better yet, the episode titles (it might only work in Doom 1) and skill settings have received some humorous retitlings. However, it doesn't appear to work properly in anything not like Chocolate Doom or Doom 95. It appears mainly to be a graphics replacement but it wouldn't be too surprising to find out some sfx were also in the package since it's around 4 MB if I'm remembering right. Anyways, enemies basically just flicker in and out of existence. In the case of the Cacodemon, it seems they were replaced with the Reavers from Hexen. There might be some Goombas in their somewhere but you've got another thing coming if I'm going to be looking up how to load multiple files in DOSBOX just to see some graphical wad properly in action.

 

 

Improv - Mark making it up as it goes along (1999)

 

A rather stringy map with a fair amount of rooms where it's clear effort was shown regardless. And also, it's cool to gaze out at a garden anytime. Nothing here really makes sense though and it mostly lives up (or sinks) to its name. Too bad the Toad Doom mod made things needlessly difficult with how everything flickers in and out. Not like it would matter too much though. Placing Barons on those red pillars in the long hallway near the beginning seemed very pointless. It's like their only purpose in the map is decoration, seriously! 4/10

 

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[ICID]

 

go to hell version 2 (1998) by Michael Krause

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: dsda-doom, complevel 9}

 

An early Boom map that didn't do much for me. I know objectively it's noticeably better than a lot of what we play for these adventure but the randomly-applied Quake sound replacements (why do imps have human-sounding screams when they get shot?) and dull brown atmosphere just wore me down fast despite some pretty decent combat for 1998. (That's basically me saying: you get the SSG early and you get to do a lot with it.)

 

Grade: 5/10

 

 

Military Station (1999) by John Cartwright

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: dsda-doom, complevel 9}

 

This map one-ups our previous contender by putting the beloved SSG in the very first room. Too bad TTS (time-to-ssg) isn't the only measure of a Doom WAD's quality. The rooms here are beautiful but they're also very flat, with windows that force you to take constant sniper fire. The no-cover arch-vile fight, in particular, can go fuck itself. Fortunately you can run past it straight to the last room if you're lucky, ending the map in only about 5 minutes and limiting the amount of time you have to spend listening to D_RUNNIN.

 

Grade: 3/10

 

 

TekeN (2022) by Peccatum Mihzamiz

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: dsda-doom, complevel 9}

 

Mihzamiz says they "tried to make a map that might be convincingly seen as a map made by John Romero", which in practice just means that it has all the SIGIL stuff. The eyeball switch, the jaggedy architecture, the chasm crawl, a fight in a prison bar maze, etc. It certainly doesn't play like a Romero work, partially because it's too derivative and partially because it's way too short. But as homages go it's a nice one, and certainly the most fun I've had so far today.

 

Grade: 6/10

 

 

Underground Passage (2000) by Pritech "Ice" Mistry

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Thou art a smite-meister}

^{Source Port: GZDoom}

 

I've played some pretty difficult, puzzle-y Heretic WADs for the ER/iWA. This isn't one of those. It's just a good old fashioned slaughter-fest. It's not afraid to throw high-tier monsters at you early on but if you know your way around Heretic's items and make smart use of infighting and broccoli barrels (er, "gasbags") you'll have a good time. Aesthetics are uninspiring but about on par with the original Heretic for the most part. I had a good time.

 

Grade: 6/10

 

 

BETA: One Nerd And His Doom (2004) by Tom "Hyena" White

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: GZDoom}

 

Apparently the second in a trilogy of jokeWADs by Hyena, best known for making over a fourth of the maps in the legendary Mock 2: The Speed of Stupid. Or maybe he's best known for writing the "No, John, YOU are the demons" fanfiction under a pseudonym. Either way, you get a sense of what this guy was all about.

 

This particular adventure is all about finding Linguica and was co-authored by such luminaries as Nanmi, Tom_D, Silverwyvern and even Espi. It's got as many of the new-indecipherable Doomworld inside jokes as you'd expect but is still somewhat playable as a WAD, for once, although the behavior of every weapon and enemy has been changed. Mancubi now spawn lost souls on death, pistols now fire several hundred rounds a minute, etc.

 

My only criteria for jokewads is: did it make me laugh? And sadly One Nerd And His Doom did not. I was amused by the new weapons, like the "fist" shown above or a chaingun that seems to be unchanged but fires a BFG shot whenever you try to switch to another weapon, but most of the humor relies on the word "butt" and I found the overall experience too janky and frustrating to be amusing. For example: you're supposed to escape the first room by stacking mini-zombiemen as shown in the screenshot above, but good luck getting it to work right. Better to just give up and IDCLIP imo. I didn't even make it to the end because of a softlock that occurs when you try to switch to the BFG (in fairness, the readme warns you about this; but in fairness, I don't care.)

 

I had trouble deciding between all the stupid screenshots I captured so enjoy a couple more below.

 

Grade: 2/10

 

Edited September 18, 2023 by ICID

[ICID]

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

 

[Reisal]

On 9/10/2023 at 4:12 AM, Roofi said:

A tribute to "The Tower of Babel", one of the most oppressive level from Ultimate Doom but also one of the easiest and that's why Armaetus decided to spice up the concept. The Cyberdemon is indeed accompanied with lost souls, roaming pinkies, monsters perched on pillars and some barons in cages. 

 

Is it really more difficult? Not at all, unless if you play on NM I suppose but I always play on UV for the Er/iwa. The additional monsters just make the combat a bit longer but at the end the cyberdemon remains lonely and this is a bit heartbreaking.  Dodging consists to perform more circle strafes.

 

Whereas, the remix from Plutonia map 32's sounds a bit too hectic for this map, it's still a nice old-school tribute which is simple to enjoy.

If you didn't think that was hard enough, I think the raw challenge of Maps of Chaos's "Overkill Edition" would be up your alley. E2M8 is not what you think it is for that one if you play that :) Doom is done (didn't bother with E4) but I ended up stopping at MAP27 due to lack of motivation so the remaining maps are from the "Hardcore" version.

I'd still recommend try playing through the original Doom maps in that first.

Edited September 19, 2023 by Armaetus