Personal Wad Journal - Odd and Sods

[LadyMistDragon]

I mostly just wanted to do this because of the limited attention of N64 wads. I don't think it would be worth my time to write too much about anything else.

 

The first major "collective wad" produced for Doom 64 that would be succeeded in 2022 by Ethereal Breakdown, Community Chest 64 is, to a large degree, inspired by the same design ethos as Community Chest and similar series. But will the smaller size and general lack of recognizable names mean a more consistent quality? Let's find out!

 

 

Played on Watch Me Die! with pistol starts

 

Map 01: Outpost Alpha

by hardcore_gamer

 

If Doomwiki is right, a user that was around the forums for more than a decade when this was being developed was responsible for this. Which is why the simplistic layout took me by some surprise. The beginning's fine though, a shotgun sitting in the middle of a path whose collection prompts the fading in of an Imp. It is pretty nice how some outdoor areas were mixed in but this feels like something that was probably speedmapped, though Community Chest 64 wasn't a speedmapping project necessarily. It's not really all that difficult though and can be completed in a fairly brief period of time. Throwing in two groups of Demons to punch for basically no reason are just 'there' fights, and the room with three pillars and Cacodemons just seems lame. It's certainly easy to navigate though and as an introduction it feels maybe just a touch longer than it needs to be at most,

 

PS: To be honest, the pinkie fight at the berserk pack actually worked but maybe not the other one so much

 

Map 02: Beneath the Clay

by Kore

 

Oh wow. If you thought Human BBQ was annoying and long for a second map, buckle up buttercup because this'll take around 20-25 minutes on first try if you can find your way around! It's probably not quite the 800-pound gorilla of this mapset, but the way the layout's both interconnected and wraps around itself is sort of interesting and certainly promotes finding of secrets but it also proves necessary to concentrate because otherwise, the chance is far too high of bumbling into some massive horde and getting one's clocks cleaned. With saves, things are certainly manageable if one can find the hidden BFG. That's actually not too difficult when keeping in mind that shootable switches do exist in Doom 64. The organization of enemies is quite concentrated in certain areas which basically necessitates that one never approaches challenges unequipped. To be perfectly honest, it's a little bit unfair to have a map like this so early on. Too bad really, because the actual concept is actually really good! It starts off like a techbase, but eventually, we'll find ourselves in caves and later, a very cool purpl-ish void type area with pillars that if you guess is the exit....you win absolutely nothing! No, but the journey into a dimly-lit and hellish area when finding the key which opens the way here is quite tense, to say nothing of the massive, though largely trash-tier fight that awaits those who are here for the first time. There's also a rather climatic encounter involving Arachnotrons and Cacodemons as well as some shotgunners, Hell Knights and Imps in another outdoor area with damaging liquid of some sort which is encountered when the yellow key is picked up if I remember right. Perhaps not so surprising in a map as complex as this, a demon key can also be picked up here! This isn't a terrible map and is actually excellent in some spots, but the odd combat flow and the crappy order placement make this rather tough to swallow.

 

Map 03: Evil Industry

by hardcore_gamer

 

This is pure techbase, unlike the last one. Interestingly, the first room or two seems like it wants to evoke E1 Doom but quickly, this transforms into something more like Doom 64! The SS encounter is honestly kind of creepy with the way red lights slowly come on before an admittedly only moderate opposition starts to teleport in. The encounters where each key is collected also prove quite satisfying. The way the map keeps the action going actually isn't half-bad either and one would almost expect something kind of fierce at the end and that's not the case here. For a map 03 though, that's probably fine.

 

Map 04: Red Strands

by Kore

 

I assume this was an earlier map of Kore's, because despite sharing some very similar characteristics with Beneath the Clay, it's much easier to find one's way around with the only real issue being the oddball weapon placement, which doesn't exactly make too much sense in what's fundamentally more linear than Map 02 was. As such, the outdoor trap manages to feel really annoying, not to mention something I guess we're expected to hold off until the nearby bars lower after 30 seconds. This seem suspiciously like continuous was intended here but there's plenty of ammo here, not to mention 1 or 2 berserk pack so it's actually not that much of a challenge and we still ended up completing this with 100 percent of the kills but I'm still not sure we ever found a rocket launcher. There were far fewer secrets in this map than in 02 as well. Overall, probably falls toward the current bottom half of maps.

Edited November 25, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 05: Dark Forest

by Cody "Koko Ricky" Richeson

 

Here's a map that would easily rank among the best ones, were not for the fact that in the newest version of Doom 64 EX+ being developed primarily by Gibbon, this map and the next one have some bugs that don't merely break the map if you don't do things in a particular order, but indeed, make the maps unfinishable!

 

Let's just start out describing this one. It seems we should be able to collect the keys in any order and really, we can. But there's an obvious disconnect between functions in a couple of spots. The yellow key area seems completely fine - just enter the titular forest, fight off some rather nasty swarms, then press a switch to collect the key. Then the way that one column lights up that's in the torch field is a really nice touch.

 

The other two paths though....first off, the red key path is in the middle of a lava pool that can be quite challenging to handle if one doesn't know what they're doing. Running to the next room to collect the Super Shotgun and pick up a secret shouldn't be too difficult though. Neither is getting the plasma rifle up some pillars. But then, to open the door in the central base here, we have to plunge down into the lava on one side, hit a few switches then find ourselves at a lift....that doesn't lower in the lava, but for some reason, will lower when approaching it from the top. And having checked a video, I know for a fact this is the intended way to do it.

 

The blue key area, on the other hand, is chock-full of hanging corpses, grinding machinery, and other such detailing, though some rooms seem a little useless. But here, there's a Lost Soul you can see through some bars blocking the way to a switch and being entirely stationary and shooting him just freezes the corpse and does nothing else.

 

After some no-clipping, there seems to be some smaller-scale stuff inside the central building, maybe only 1 key is required and the yellow key is needed for a critical switch, basically lowering some bars so that we can leap to the exit portal, to the back of the fortress which to be honest, has a larger courtyard than necessary.

 

 

Map 06: Dark Halls

by Koko Ricky

 

Again? I tried hitting things in a different order, all at once, and it made no difference. The lifts which can be activated when the switch next to the flowy red bars lead to switches that don't seem to work correctly, with the same going for the blue hallway, and as near as I can tell, the gargoyle fade-out thing breaks something else as well. Unfortunately, there's no obvious YouTube video of this, so that couldn't really be verified. In a way, it's probably not as good because having "nightmare enemies" adds health which drags things down and Doom 64's combat already is a bit on the questionable end of things. But the gargoyle water hall, like the homing rocket that strikes when we grab a chaingun near the opening was a cool idea. If these bugs continues, I probably won't bother with the next map and go on to 08, especially since it seems several items in 07 and a few monsters somehow weren't tagged for any difficulty.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 06: The Hell Base

by Koko Ricky

 

Now here's a map we were able to see the larger portion of at least. We did stop when we reached the exit bars after having gathered all three keys, seemingly because there was a switch elsewhere that lowered the bars. Could've been missing something, but that exit portal was really cool sort of like this yellow scrolling thing over a void!

 

Kind of like the opening area. Deep green colors everything in what seems to be another fortress, though this time in front of narrow walkways over slime. Enter, and suddenly, we're in a techbase! This opening room contains 4 tanks of some sort. At some point not long from here, these tanks are opened to reveal 4 Hell Knights. Really quite disturbing! Further in comes an area there may or may not be a softlock in. Doesn't matter too much, just run around the edge, push a switch to lower the bars and it should be really easy to navigate through here! Ok, not really, and I doubt I acquired the blue key the right way, but really, it seemed like the most efficient way. 

 

A funny moment came when I ran into a Cyberdemon, backed up in to a nearby teleporter and he followed me, but got stuck in the process. Leading to something that never happened - punching time! This is something I basically never do because it's too blatant a dice-rolling game, but it was obviously ok here! Othewise, could've used a nearby hidden invulnerbility, though three barons will teleport apparently when it's picked up but ignoring them for the moment would probably be the best course of action.

 

Pretty solid map though, with the sort of easy-to-find but oh-so-satisfying secrets that would be a feature of Koko Ricky's E1 remake maps for Doom 2! Didn't find the hidden BFG here but that's ok. It's a map to get lost in in either case.

 

I was hoping to have Map 08 down too, but it's made by Kore but let's just say it probably has more in common with 02 than 04 scalewise so it'll have to wait unless I wanted to spend around three hours on just 2 maps.

 

[taufan99]

D64 mapsets really need more love, and you're doing CC64 some justice with this coverage. Keep it up!

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 08: Introger

by Kore

 

Here's a map that despite being smaller than 02, manages to be even more confusing. After having spent almost another damn hour here, I still can't really describe the structure. It somehow manages to achieve the impossible of wrapping around itself and even leaving someone like me thinking "so how did I get here?" Heck, the last door to the BFG opened practically at random! On the plus side, there seem to be less monster masses than there were in 02. It's ultimately a fairly linear map despite the ridiculous pretzel layout but it's hard to complain about any of the visual choices, or really not samey.

 

I did have to wonder if the map was designed for pistol start because of the multiple Imps and Lost Souls on the way to the shotgun. Thankfully, finding the SS shouldn't take too long and the chaingun even less, though it was quite opposite for me personally. It does seem a touch unintended though. 

 

Sadly, the explosive combat is even better. For instance, go down the red hallway from whence a hidden megasphere can be found in a cave, then eventually, come upon a rectangular throne room or pool room with a Cyberdemon at the end and several enemies in front and the goal is to basically plasma the shit out of everything, though perhaps not entirely unrestrained but the Cyber died in three seconds on like my second try so maybe be vigorous against the initial Arachnotrons.

 

There's also that building in the courtyard you teleport into where some nastiness is fought off. At some point, we ran into the blue key after having gone all the way to that stupid chasm with the invisible barrier that actually goes nowhere but looks pretty nice. Apparently, 4 Hell Knights die and teh stairs here raise. We can then head to the door with all three keys. But not directly to the door. Apparently, we have to go to some pressure plate but I'm really not sure because I take my wins where I can. Grab the BFG here and prepare to deal with a vicious noble mass without prejudice (unlike me)!

 

Not long after this is a showdown with a Cacocloud, then another Cyberdemon that wasn't too much trouble before we hop, skip, and jump straight to the exit! Interesting in being more tech than Map 02, on the whole, despite some outliers. Koko Rickys maps might be better if they weren't broken, but that's because combat has a better fit there.

 

 

Map 09: Rivets and Bolts

by @RileyXY1

 

I think there's maybe 1 room that earns that name - but anyway, here's kind of a standard techbase and outdoor combo that next to three, has probably the least design issues so far. Doom64EX still breaks at the timed switch puzzle that lowers to the yellow key (thank god I found Steppskie's video who actually took far more time than me in figuring things out) but combat flows nicely and kind of goes all out for the ending. Though exiting the central slime pit with the yellow key is actually quite annoying. The secret BFG feels a bit like a mistake because it would seem like literally everything would be dead by the time that side was reached. Pain Elemental near the BK switch did get me once though. One of the better maps here!

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 10: The Dungeons

by @Antnee

 

Simple and efficient sort of map, kind of throws in lots of heavies for such a small size. Progress is not something that should take a long time. However, there is a whole other area in the northeast, upon the exploring of which will net some cool secrets if you want! The fight for the red key is very good. Taking out the Hell Knights in the center is one thing but getting teleported into the center whilst fighting off some Cacodemons, then having the walls raise and being confronted by a Pain Elemental and 2 pinkies from behind is quite another! One of the most fun maps in the megawad thus far and it doesn't even take that long! Some rather nasty close-quarters combat on Watch Me Die though, probably less balanced than the next map.

 

Map 11: Castle Hell

by @riderr3

 

I felt anxious when I first saw riderr's name, but in actuality, this particular map doesn't take too long. Although I think the yellow key platform is broken but I'm too lazy to verify. No matter, it's quite a cool map! No combat really stands out, but it's a fairly hot start and the combo of well-trimmed temples, an extensive outdoor area, and several underground pools of lava work out far better than you might expect. The Arachnotrons in the southwest that harass us near the switch that I think lowers the yellow key were kind of troublesome but weren't actually too bad! It's definitely one of the less offensive maps regarding time at least (although perhaps Riley's map is the best of that so far!

Edited October 12, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[riderr3]

10 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Map 11: Castle Hell

 

by @riderr3

 

I felt anxious when I first saw riderr's name, but in actuality, this particular map doesn't take too long. Although I think the yellow key platform is broken but I'm too lazy to verify. No matter, it's quite a cool map! No combat really stands out, but it's a fairly hot start and the combo of well-trimmed temples, an extensive outdoor area, and several underground pools of lava work out far better than you might expect. The Arachnotrons in the southwest that harass us near the switch that I think lowers the yellow key were kind of troublesome but weren't actually too bad! It's definitely one of the less offensive maps regarding time at least (although perhaps Riley's map is the best of that so far!

 

Initially I named this map "Hazel keep". The wrong name added in finished wad by those who compiled the wad. The article on Doomwiki should also add original name.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 12: Corrupted Entry

by sluggard @snapshot

 

The author of possibly Ray Mohawk 2's most hated map offers up this neat little pressure cooker which is much better than it has any right to be. The creepy atmospheric beginning is probably something I could've done without admittedly, but soon, this transforms into a fairly short level, still containing some neat ambushes and some surprisingly strong secrets! Don't grab the Invulnerbility right away: you're going to need it for the yellow key fight that throws THREE Pain Elementals your way. Health is also quite spare, but thankfully, the same can't be said for the ammo and it's easy enough (ok, I lied) to blast through the gauntlet at the pyramid for instance without much worry of running out. Yes, the crusher line was a little strange and so are the little caves but it doesn't feel like any design decisions really detract. But it's hard to say its a favorite as such

 

Map 13: Deep Abyss

by @thexgiddoomerx

 

A map that you couldn't be blamed for believing the layout was likely stolen chapter and verse from In the Void, but everything is black and the detailing is now entirely composed of wood and corpses. It's quite an intimidating sight, and also appropriate to the absolute first Doom 64 slaughter wad I've ever played! Yeah, not every fight is slaughter and what's there lacks sophstication but we're well-supplied with ammo and the swarms can be intimidating at times, such as when Pain Elementals are thrown into the mix. Starting to see a pattern here? Toward the end, you'd think you were in Hell Revealed with how many Barons are tossed your way, but a late BFG makes them perfectly manageable. Some time (or a lot) was wasted looking for the exit but this was still the best map in Doom 64 so far! There's a Dead Simple ripoff room there somewhere I'm not really remembering

 

Map 14: Mausoleum Halls

by thexgiddoomerx

 

Hey guess what....it's yet another Dead Simple clone that takes more than twice as long as the original! All snarkiness aside though, it's a pretty fun map, one it's possible to just rocket our way through when we find that weapon. Thankfully, it doesn't seem like we have kill the nobles manning the outer towers to finish the map. Why it inexpliably felt easier than the original Dead Simple I have no idea. 

 

 

Map 15: Fortress of Hate

by @DMPhobos

 

 

Well, I missed the secret switch at the beginning, but who cares, found the secret Supercharge I guess. Here we see DMPhobos usual clean and efficient use of textures, along with some healthy amounts of space. The RK trap was for some reason, nasty enough to kill me a few times, even though it was an Arachnotron on the ground and Pain Elemental in the corner. One thing I found amusing is that if one keeps pressing on the yellow key platform where it goes to after the initial location, it'll raise forever until the program crashes or whatever. Not the most memorable in the end.

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Well, this is going to be quick. First was kind of an 800-pound gorilla but the next two were...you'lll see

 

Map 16: Death Gate

by @riderr3

 

 

Foreword. There's apparently another map called "Death Gate" in Ethereal Breakdown made by the giddoomerx

Woooow.....want a map that slides somewhere between early Alien Vendetta and Hell Revealed in its combat! Well, here you go! Playing this pistol-start might be kind of dumb because the room with the Super shotgun has around half a dozen Hell Knights and when you pick it up, half a dozen more will appear! Putting all rage aside, the chaingun is found basically at one end of a river behind a whole host of other enemies. 

 

It's not too far from here that the grindiness becomes absolutely inexcusable because there's neither a rocket launcher nor the plasma rifle anywhere in this first section. Granted, there's a sort of smoothness to the design and visuals that belies riderr's previous work in Urania, but otherwise it's basically get shotgun and chaingun than basically doorcamping for the most part. Or maybe some chaingunning in certain cases. Blue key shed is opened by going to a hallway ending in a dungeon door, and opening it because it sure makes sense! The ambush here is pretty nice and tough. Kill everything nearby though.

 

So finally, we return to the blue bars near the beginning where a Baron has appeared, take him out and find....the blue bars will not open up! This is kind of a decent late game map but probably much better to have carry over weapons

 

 

Map 17: Trench Fortress

by @thexgiddoomerx

 

Oh wow, I'm sure giddon hadn't been mapping for long, but seriously, another Dead Simple clone (just on a larger scale and with less come-down walls)?? This was insulting

 

Map 18: Atmosfear

by thedoctor989

 

Hey, it's the first Doom 64 map I played! From it's lack of detail and general openness, it's sort of like something made by someone just a few months after Doom 64's release.....assuming the cartridge had a custom level editor. Combat is easy, detail might as well not exist, and it can be completed in roughly five minutes. The level placement seems a little spur-of-the-moment at least, to put it one way. Who knows, maybe 19 will be pretty good though! Least I found the secret this time!

Edited October 14, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 19: Ancient Dimensions

by @Bob9001

 

Finally! After some rather insubstantial efforts, we're greeted with the clean visual and wide-open spaces of something that's probably excellent. While these seem to be custom textures, the fact remains that this stands out from the previous maps. The main thing to note is the weapon placement. The rocket launcher is quite easy to miss but in retrospect, is not to hard to find if you're looking for secrets. (it's near where you'll likely approach the blue key courtyard.

 

The map itself doesn't pack enemies quite as tightly per square meter as something like Kore's or Riderr's efforts, but some areas might as well be among the hardest. Namely, the place with a long wooden bridge and Arachnotrons/Mancubi firing everywhere near a lava lake. It's a fairly standard key hunt otherwise, but that's trivializing something that seems fairly easy at first but slowly starts to pack in the monsters more. Although the final massive temple room is not hard to avoid things in, it's clearly a place where one should probably try to kill everything. One hitscan ambush and switch later, we're heade 4

 

 

Map 20: Arena

by xgibbon

The time has come....but it's not really as dramatic as all that. There's three seperate area we have to enter though. The first one with the yellow key borrows the Tower of Babel concept chapter and verse but when the Cyberdemon's killed, the arena opens to reveal a pentagram-shaped Dis-esque arena of...insanity? It doesn't matter, really. Just grab the yellow key, and struggle to find the exit hallway, because this arena is truly too massive for its own good.

 

The next arena....well, both the Marshes and the boss of Level 3 came to mind for this oval shaped, drab, and grey room. Seems like we're rocketing a massive collection of nobles with no strategy whatsoever, but once we pick up the blue key, some areas open up and we've got to fight off a Cyberdemon and some Arachnotrons/Mancubi. Or you could just take the exit that opened up.

fetr

 

The hallway leading to the last key that draws inspiration from the "Hard" hallway of Quake would presumably be the hardest, but in actuality, it's considerably less frustrating than the previous two, but make sure you're well-equipped here. Kill the cyberdemon, open the portal out after getting the last key and end this cursed wad!

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

Community Chest 64 was actually quite solid for being the first true Doom 64 community project. It felt like the participants made the best of the oftentimes e ten more positively about it. As it is, while the larger maps tend to be dragged down by some kind of bloat or another, they're certainly far from bad in any sense! It won't please people who dislike longer maps though. I sort of wish gid didn't reuse the same concept once, but this was overall fairly good with the mediocrity not as bad as one might think

 

Favorite Maps

 

 

Map 09: Rivets and Bolts

Map 02: Beneath the Clay

Map 13: The Deep Abyss

Map 11: Hazel Keep

Map 05: Dark Forest

Map 03: Evil Industry

 

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

Big Woodchip

by James "Phobus" Cresswell

 

This was part of the DW miniwad club at a point when it was still semi-regular but without time pressure, I've only got around to it just now! Basically, it's a medium-sized wooden map kind of like something from Doom 2: The Way Id Did but with its own special flair and some nasty surprises that get tossed in toward the end. Grabbing the shotgun isn't easy and takes a fair amount of maneuvering, thought afterwards, it's fairly standard vanilla Doom, albeit there's more encouragement to use the rocket launcher instead of the shotgun due to the amount of boxes laying around. I probably missed a hidden Super shotgun, but no matter!

 

That teleport trap with the Hell Knights, Shotgunners, and Imps that concludes with Revenants in the middle stockade was kind of nice though. Just past that, we'd nearly survive a claustrophobic encounter with a couple of Revenants and a Pain Elemental, although we had to work our way back around after falling. Naturally, the Cyberdemon here on the stairs killed us once but there's plenty of room to maneuver around. Near the end is a Mastermind that probably requires more than we have store-wise but the startling one-two punch of Arch-viles here was quite a shock.

 

Overall, finely-tuned combat and also really good progression!

 

 

Realm (diagonal)

by @4MaTC

 

One of many maps that basically are in my backlog, Realm (diagonal) is a sharp departure from 4MatC's debut map ( I won't name it because its long and clunky), a rather amateurish and rather unbalanced slaughter setup with one of the most unfair Icon of Sin battles committed to memory. Not to say there aren't any slaughter sections but this leans a little more toward the setpiece end of things. It's also a map with a number of ways to progress. Which in our case, meant we ended up in the yellow key/rocket launcher courtyard before we probably were meant to. It's also the best part of the map and the only place where we truly felt we were well-supplied. Because otherwise, large groups of Revenants were thrown at us with only Super Shotgun and Chaingun (and perhaps a berserk pack if we jump in some non-damaging liquids. We did miss 4 secrets but it seems safe to assume that there likely weren't enough rockets to make up the difference.

 

The lava and Mastermind combo was partially unfair as a result. Mostly because there wasn't enough plasma to go around. The one around the red key is among the deadliest since several pinkies and Imps will have to be fought off and it definitely doesn't end there. It's also damaging floor though it only saps 5 per second.

 

But once we have all six keys (trust me, people, you're probably stretching your map out in most cases) it's a journey through a few more tough areas before fighting off a Cyberdemon  in the center of a great warehouse slaughter (ok, that's a hyperbolic description, there are crates and things to hide behind). Finally this ends with one hallway with another Cyberdemon at the end.  Mostly pretty good but most of the encounters did not exactly seem very tuned and the monster spam just felt random in spots. Not to mention there was one odd progression point not unlike the map 4MaTC did for WMC 01

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

I wasn't feeling it earlier (exhaustion) but I'd rather not have a post with too many maps so...

 

The next three 'essential' Doom II megawads I haven't played, according to a sort of mental list are Japanese Community Project, TNT: Revolution and Struggle: The Anteresian Legacy.

 

Since I've already been going ridiculously out of order already, JCP's up first. I've actually wanted to play this for a long time but I put it off after making the decision to be selective in what I play that has appeared on Mt. Pain's show. Enough time has passed that it seems ok now. Let's get started!

 

Map 01: First Assault

by Tetsuya @tatsurd-cacocaco Ito

 

A solid and easy tech base opening map. Less claustrophobic than System Control from TNT but seems a touch less hesitant to throw mid-tiers out of the gate like a hell knight and surprise, a Cacodemon at the end 😆

 

 

Map 02: Rural Mini-Base

by Tetsuya Ito

 

A solid step up with monster placements you'd expect from a speedrunner (like tatsurd is) and quite a climatic courtyard battle consisting of a Pain Elemental, Cacodemon, and chain gunners that's actually pretty tricky

 

Map 03: The Sign of Armageddon

by Masayan and Demon Skull

 

Breaking from the tech base format, Map 03 utilizes a series of caves and canyons broadly centered around an open pool of water. There's also a fair amount of distant enemies, though it's not terribly difficult to evade them. Getting the rocket box secret by leaping from the nearby gargoyle wall door was terribly tricky. Speaking of, the Arch-viles are packed in after acquiring the blue key, although it wasn't like combat was bad to begin with. Nice map to explore! And beat custom midi too!

 

Map 04: Thaumasia

by burabojunior (Manibou)

 

My impression of Manibou is someone who tries for more combat-focused efforts a la tatsurd, but perhaps with more of an eye for striking visual detail.That's certainly the case here, with these lovely green textures showing up quite a bit. The mechanism for unlocking the super shotgun is one of those oddly obvious bits not seen in many modern wads. The climatic moment comes of course when a switch is pressed that unlocks the exit, a whole host of enemies starts teleporting in and the best move to make is to blast everything to bits with your newly-acquired rocket launcher. There aren't lots of rockets around though so don't keep firing when things have thinned out. But this wasn't the best one I'd played today

 

 

Map 05: Woodexial

by Tooooasty

 

I'm pretty sure that Tooooasty must have some kind of obsession with Western games since his secret map recreates a Payday level and that name sounds like something from Mortal Kombat.

 

But anyway, Tooooasty has a certain wild creativity thats kind of hard to find outside of Japan. Truth be told, I think Mt. pain may have exaggerated the unconventional nature of this map somewhat. But despite wood being everywhere, there are some really cool sights. And Tooooasty has a fixation with barrels that recalls the average Use3D map. It was a little tough to get bearings at first but I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy every single second of it. Of course, much of that comes from Datacore85's rocking midi. 

 

If theres one weakness, it's how the last key door will softlock when the subsequent ambush isn't even challenging to handle. Still, we can continue and finish the level so it isn't so bad but we do miss out on at least one or two secrets that guess what, are revealed when collecting a computer map from a secret that we can only enter after passing through the last key door. Still, fighting off Imps in the dark while some weird fireblu movie is playing in the background is something. My fav!

 

 

Map 06: Riminishi Valley

by Manibou (burabojunior)

 

It's rather ironic that the mapper that was arguably able to manifest modern Doom combat trends than any of the other participants is also able to create maps with what can only be described as a distinctly Japanese reverence for nature(as I believe Manibou's set Water Spirits will attest to). This is underscored by the lonely music choice that's part of why I didn't enjoy it as much as 04 (sorry, that name seems like something from a hat)

 

The other part is that we weren't able to find the secret rocket launcher which causes quite a fair degree of grindiness and results in situations such as shotgunning two Arch-viles at a distance in a beautiful blue cavern which puts what already was a pretty map to shame. Even with the rocket launcher, it should be noted that there was nothing quite as good as map 04's end, though combat is probably more engaging overall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[Celestin]

JPCP isn't perfect, especially since the mapping quality varies a lot. However, I can't deny its creativity and not falling into the magnum opus trap, something many community projects suffer from. If you play this one blind, it will surprise you a lot. It's one of my favourite megawads to relax to. 

[LadyMistDragon]

I was doing multiplayer gaming earlier so I might have a little less time and energy.

 

Map 07: Confused Arena

by @tatsurd-cacocaco
 

A Dead Simple clone, right? Well, good news, I'm quite piss-poor at these but moreover, it's not like we're just duking it out with Arachnotrons and Mancubi! The large temple yard definitely has a certain character to it, more so than Tetsuya's other maps, but having to go around 12 Mancubi or however much is quite brutal indeed. When they're all dead, chaingunners and Revenants will teleport in and present quite a nasty challenge before we press some switches, which reveal some Arachnotrons in outer yards. Once they're dead, the bridge to the exit raises. It was quite good, but I guess why Dead Simple

 

 

 

Map 08: 54 Pit

by toooasty

 

Hey....so it's probably a little bit more traditional than Tooasty's other maps but it has a setting drawing inspiration from TNT and besides, cracked and ruined machinery is everywhere here!

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Combat is...fine for the most part although there were some places where the ambushes were quite frankly weak. Fun fact: the editor seems to show in addition to a number of broken English phrases, some characters that might be from some anime or another but we didn't examine it too carefully. We actually found the rocket launcher this time!

 

 

Map 09: The Three World

by Tyousen121

 

Hah, great pun! Not so great is the decision to reference Tricks 'n Traps, as if this is really that similar (it isn't) but this is another solid map. A few bits are more claustrophobic than they needed to be but progression is nice, the different zones have some rather distinct character and things really start picking up towards the end. After engaging in multiple groups of Revenants and , a hallway then leads to an obvious Tricks 'n Traps reference with several Barons facing a Cyberdemon. Once we exit this room, the exit's not so far away, guarded bu an Arch-vile at a console monitoring some equipment. I suppose it was disappointing in some ways, but I did find most of the unmarked secrets, save for the blue armor toward the end.

 

 

Spoiler

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 10: The Odd Encampment

by Yullie

 

In case the opening riffage of "Into the Beast's Belly" didn't clue you in, this is the work of a TNT appreciator. So naturally, distant enemies and annoying situations abound. Combat is pretty good when it isn't annoying. The bit with the Revenants is probably among the hardest situations with the megawad though and the puzzle to exit the red key room is really stupid, like seriously boneheaded levels of stupidity. These things will raise back up almost instantly! Anyway, the final bit with the Revenants and Arachnotrons was kind of nasty but things should be ok.

 

Map 11: My fav

by Nanka Kurashiki

 

The creator of some incredibly lovely Doom art makes a map for the first time! The song comes from techwars.wad but certainly fits the vibe of a vaguely cheerful sort of anime. It's a personal creation but also quite endearing in a number of ways. The combination of darkness with bright textures is quite lovely anyways and the Doomguy figure facing the eye figures is kind of symbolic of his journey when you think about it, though the piano sitting to the right sort of shows what's going on. Best of all is the "Do You Like Caco?" switch. Hope no one gives the incorrect answer. If the puzzle at the end's a little strange, we're meant to traverse the platforms in the order we entered the corresponding chambers essentially.

 

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 12: Magnetic force apparatus

by Manibou (burabojunior)

 

Short and furious pressure cooker of a space station map Coincident speedran on at least one occasion and it's not hard to see why! Rushing is a seriously bad idea and the yellow key area will cause a furious assault to be unleashed upon our little outpost, and there's not really tons of ammo to counter everyone either! Distant enemies are also something that need to be kept in mind too, especially the odd chaingunner. Definitely going to be among the most popular in this set.

 

Map 13: Bad Morning

by Namsan

 

One of the many children of Containment Center, this map has lots to explore and is paired with the exquisite Carrington Villa track from Perfect Dark, which helps to minimize the effects of the odd combat flow. Traps are quite adequate and the way the map transitions from base to more hell-adjacent environs is really quite nice.

 

Spoiler

I do wish I had actually passed through the slime fall near the beginning and gotten the hidden berserk earlier (but the next one isn't much farther on, granted). It's somewhat hard to guess at the purpose of the shrine-like open room with the computer map because it doesn't trigger any traps. The outdoor hell area proves quite nasty with nobles bearing down on our position with Imps and Demons and Mancubi firing from the distance with little ammo to spare.

 

Spoiler

The red key at the other end here will then spawn another massive trap of Revenants it proved necessary to have our backup of cells for! Kind of nasty, this. Then finally, we can press a switch, which raises a bed rest we can then head back to and have a good night! Nice streak we got now!

 

 

 

 

 

Map 14: G_T_ Factory

by toMass

 

The opening rhythm of "HuntShootKill" wouldn't be a forerunner necessarily, but there is a hidden slime tunnel that recalls that of Habitat. And that's kind of this map, tbh. Though thanks to Doom Builder and a healthy dose of custom textures, it really doesn't look too bad, but the slime lake is probably a good deal larger than it needs to be. And throwing in masses of nobles and pinkies into that one central room where the only recourse is to SS the shit out of them was annoying. Cool ambush of chaingunners and Hell Knights toward the end though.

 

Map 15: Nandeyanen

by Nanka Kurashiki

 

Harder and larger than Nanka's last effort but having no less a sense of playfulness, we run into a Baron in a crafting office, a red key that decides to ride a platform right out of your reach, and some silly monster placements that seem calculated to cause you to wonder what she might be thinking.

 

Spoiler

 

The pentagram arena in the cave is about as deadly as you might expect but there's no Cyberdemon here to torment us, thankfully. The first Arch-vile did get us once but it might be guessed this isn't the end by any means.

 

Spoiler

 

Then we have to deal with an Arch-vile upon returning from this area and not long after, collect the red key in an almost incidental manner. But this is Map 15, so we know what that means. Basically, we shoot several different Keens and have to be mildly observant of our surroundings but it's not difficult to find if we know what we're looking for. Can the Cyberdemon be telefragged? I'm not sure, we got 100 percent of the secrets so that's almost immaterial. Head to the exit room, spot a Romero head placed here, then shoot one more Keen head and enter the secret exit just around the structure here! Honestly, this is a better map than 12 imo if you'll believe that :P)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 31: Manufacturing Plant

by Masayan

 

Masayan deviates somewhat from his oeuvre so far (or his earlier wad Elegy for that matter) to make this large and open plant map also containing a healthy amount of outdoor rocky landscapes! There are some cool details. For instance, the furnace that hides a Supercharge

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

One bit I really liked was the Revenant manning the console where the blue key is, almost like some kind of office worker or administrator.

Spoiler

 

 

Things pick up nicely toward the end, and the fight at the normal exit is genuely challenging!

 

The secret exit was quite tricky to find since one of the mechanisms that activates it isn't exactly in our field of vision. The bars also took too long to lower Amusingly enough, the story text here is the only remotely coherent and understandable one in this entire megawad. Of course, you don't know why we're headed there.....

 

Map 32: Blood Fund Game

by Toooasty

 

Anyone who played a lot of Payday 2 in the day will recognize this setting and reinforces my suspicion Toooasty harbors a secret love for Western games. Anyways, this bank is lovingly recreated and also packs a stiff challenge, kind of like the average Thomas Moeller map from the 90s but with much less space and with enough Cacodemons that we'll be scrambling for weapons for a while. The largest challenge comes along the time we open the vault and SWAT decides to barge in and ruin our plans once and for all. I probably died a good few times here, but someone knowing when and how the monsters teleport in could get through without dying. After this, enter the vault, grab the gold, and escape through the basement, but not without having to handle an extra dose of cheapness, courtesy of 3 Arachnotrons and an Arch-vile! Probably not best for people who have patience issues.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Map 16: Forlorn Defense Line

by @tatsurd-cacocaco

 

Here's a map I want to like more - there's some clear Scythe influence in the very deliberate monster placement - but suffers from having so many stand-out maps surrounding it. It's a fairly average techbase - albeit with some more advanced use of architecture than Tatsurd has displayed so far - and usage of red lights and yet one more natural cavern to create an aesthetic more Japanese than probably 31 was, but other than bits of ruthlessness and rocket launcher placement that foreknowledge would probably be preferred for, it's hard to call anything standout in particular. Well, other than spawning two Arch-viles for some ungodly reason, and that ridiculous endfight (basically a Mastermind with no cover along with an Arch-vile and at least Arachnotron. There was barely enough rockets and cells for this situation. That said, it's far from bad. I just might have been a little annoyed at the one revenant mob across from the Arch-vile plasma rifle station.

 

 

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Ok, it's been a long time coming. Unfortunately, I was not in a good mood the last time I played through this, so it was decided to focus a little more on the Miniwad Club writings rather than force out two to three basic sentences that give hardly more than basic information. Not like that's such an easy thing to do for some of more mediocre maps but never mind that!

 

Map 23: Thermal Disposal Place

by Guna

 

Oh hey, it's a fairly standard modernist techbase that isn't too difficult, at least off the bat. The central layout is probably a little on the overly symmetrical side of things but outside of that, the outer areas are more interesting if kind of basic. Anyways, this somewhat lesser known midi from Rise of the Triad is just so cool! And the action is decent enough and isn't just created by monster-stuffing either! The blue key path is probably a fair bit harder than the red key path. To say nothing of Arch-viles we don't have too many rockets for, when we open a critical gate here, in addition to an encounter with a murder of Revenants, there's also a Lost Soul emerging from every cubby in the nearby furnace! If we don't have much ammo, this actually proves quite tricky indeed! The hidden BFG is nice, though perhaps it's a little excessive for the ending, because most enemies are scattered here, other than the Mastermind in the exit of course! Infighting opportunities seem quite obvious, but other strategies are nice too! Another map keeping this from falling into mediocrity.

 

 

Map 24: Probably. Maybe. Certainly.

by Tyousen121

 

On the other hand....I can't say I feel as harsh toward this map as most other people would but this feels like something that was probably made before The Three World. This map has a fragmented nature and while that can sometimes work to a map's benefit, that's not necessarily the case here. The first main fight is not far from the beginning and basically involves lots of tedious Super shotgunning that is probably not as luck-based as it feels like, but then again, Revenants and chaingunners are among the enemies teleporting in here so make of that what you will. The crate maze was actually quite fun to explore, although I did wish I'd realized the crate with the switch on it lowered sooner. This also ends up going to hell like Tyousen's previous map but the outdoor crimson canyon here is almost kind of nice in a way. Strangely evocative and almost E4-like though there's no white marble here, thank god.

 

Map 25: Cakaravartin's Miscalculation

by Nanka Kurashiki

 

Other than one cheeky Arch-vile placement, this is probably Nanka's most traditional map so far, but no less impressive on the visual end of things. It kind of resembles that one Deus Vult II map that was inspired by Eternal Doom, but with some unique visual touches like that massive powered mound of....skulls in the end, I believe? This is supposed to be inspired by Buddhist themes, but that doesn't really explain the name, which feels either butchered or made-up. In any case, this is quite dangerous, though perhaps things will be easier if we collect the rocket launcher first. Otherwise, we'll have to take it slow when grabbing the plasma rifle because in addition to our likely limited ammo, we'll have to contend with two Revenants and fucking Chaingunners teleporting behind us. From here, it's an interesting and stimulating, though somewhat confusing exploration-type setup. Just remember to press the switches on both sides of the lift near the plasma rifle. Although the teleporters are entirely needless and it would just make more sense to make this easier to navigate. So anyway, we should be able to access a teleporter at a certain point that takes us to a room initially containing pinkies and a Cyberdemon but when we pick up the red key, Barons and Revenants appear in closets at the other end! Inside the central arena meanwhile, we meet teleporting turret Arch-viles and several other enemies and for some reason, only one operable way to the central core

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 26: Embodiment of Maliciousness

by Yullie

 

A map that feels not unlike Bad Morning but lacks that map's charm when all is said and done. Not to say it's significantly weaker. It even has some genuinely nice areas, such as the gimmicky series of sectors inside the lift which spawns members of that notorious Plutonian trio, or the nearby cross-shaped room which repopulates quite nicely when we return to access the red key. Or you get sections like this....

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

that are just so well-done and the above slaughterhouse room is just the best example. There's also an office room or two, and even someone's snack in at least one case.

 

But quite aside from the fact that it's easy to miss the red key if we take a wrong turn, and even finding out what the switch behind red bars does was something I was not prepared to run around and figure out and keep in mind this is the only map of JCP I played today. It's not terribly long but first-time players, actually most casual repeat ones as well, are going to be stuck for a while because the logic of the layout is quite limited.

 

The ending feels like someone sprinkled excessive horseradish on what was a mediocre pork dish to begin with, teleporting us away from a seeming symmetrical ending into a graveyard/cathedral combo where we're confronted by Arch-viles, Revenants, and Barons. If we'd taken better care of our health, this would certainly have gone better but seeing as we'd spent long enough on this map, we ran out after killing the Arch-viles, up some stairs and got confronted by a last fuck you Cyberdemon at the exit.

 

This and other little things (that bright red canyon that was extremely 90s, the stereotypical flesh cavern, stupid Arch-vile behind a very unclear fake wall) really combined to drag my overall impressions down by a fair bit) It's not like the Mastermind fight was terrible, but the hell knights unleashed when we used the blue key were just draggy and annoying, and the ending sort of felt improvised to explore another idea Yullie had. Guess the midi was fine but the issue is the action simply doesn't match up to the epicness the midi suggests.

Edited November 19, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 27: A resplendent emerald green

by Manibou (burabojunior)

 

Daaaaang, this is one beautiful map!

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

This seems heavily Sunlust-inspired in the visual sense, but in the gameplay sense....is among the easier of Manibou's maps! Although the platforming kind of stinks, it's more that my god-awful digestion was screwing my reflexes up. And that's such lovely music too! Although that wad is a little on the obscure side but in either case, there are lots of slime fields and thankfully, far more rad suits than we can shake a stick at! 

 

There is another text we're told when we glance at the automap near the Cyberdemon here though: all Keens in the map must die. It's actually not a totally inappropriate reference because Keen does have a certain sci-fi shininess to it, although it doesn't really justify their usage as a mechanic. And there is a certain contrast with the melancholic midi.

 

I think Burabo was just trying something different, but this sort of sends it into the category of mandatory secret-finding, although there's really only one tagged secret but that's merely a minor detail. At least the end fight ends up working out quite well!

 

 

Map 28: HeLLport

by Masa

 

Masa apparently made a number of maps before, although unlike Tooasty, no one seems to have located any of them. Very strange because this actually is quite well-done and does a really great job at selling the concept! Lighthouses, boats, docks and similar maritime-esque landmarks can all be slotted, then there's this suggestive bit at the beginning.

 

Spoiler

 

 

The windows look like something from latter UV or maybe Deus Vult 2 but that's actually red sky. And you wonder where the name "Hellport" came from? The concept is not wholly dissimilar from Map 23 of Hellbound in presenting a location that exists in the human world that just happens to be demonic.

 

It also happens to be the hardest map in the wad, and while it's hard to compare the combat style to much of anything because the design of the combat stands by itself, Masa is still very deliberate with his monster placements. It's not necessarily like Scythe, let alone Ribbiks, but prepare to have a tough time with these fights if they're not approached the right way. 

 

And indeed, the opening fight which we have to fight off two Arch-viles and lots of hitscanners in a large room might be the hardest from one perspective. From this point on, fights increase in difficulty but not so much in intensity. The mix of incidental and teleportative combat is really nice and definitely competes with the visuals for being one of the strongest aspects of the wad. Although the red key fight proves to be a gigantic slaughter that puts basically everything else in the map with shame.

 

I wish someone knew if Masa shared their wads somewhere else, because you can tell from the polished feel of the design that they'd been honing their craft for a while. Might this be the best map? Ehhh......it's one thing for a map to wear its grand-scale as well as this one does, but it's not really as striking as Nanka or Toooasty's or Manibou's maps which is far from a bad thing.

Edited November 24, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 29:  Hazmat Hazama

by Tooooasty

 

On the other hand........Tooooasty turns out this map 29 that may not be the largest in terms of square footage but is easily the most disorienting and confusing of the entire map. Fake exits abound literally everywhere, only serving to send you into a new round of pain, despite being taunted everywhere with rockets, that won't come until toward the end of the map. There's a definite art to this though, and the use of Zan-zan-sawa-veia's midi here really goes well with a penultimate map. The most annoying part was probably leaping on top of some narrow cubicles in order to progress further. Things also get much more linear from here on out, culminating in an arena with two Cyberdemons, several turret enemies and some other assorted trash. At the end, a Mastermind will appear, thusly capping off one of the strangest and painful maps in this entire megawad. Good job Toooasty......you swung for the fences and flew over them in seconds!

 

 

Map 30: Every Beginning Has an End

by burabojunior

 

It's an Icon of Sin map, so we probably shouldn't be expecting too much. Despite the use of pressure enemies to the side and behind us, this really isn't too bad! There's a Cyberdemon on the Icon of Sin platform and no BFG so it'll take some time to get rid of him. Once you have, pray there aren't many flyers, ride the platform up and pump some rockets into the bastard's skull

 

Final Thoughts

 

Japanese Community Project lived up entirely to its reputation! An eclectic, creative and almost always interesting set, this provides a number of different gameplay styles while very much unlike some other maps I've played, maintained a consistent visual vibrancy that was very much appreciated! Manibou was the easy winner of the set in terms of overall quality and grasp on what makes Doom fun! Tatsurd's maps weren't half-bad either, but kind of seemed geared toward speedrunners like himself, whereas Nanka and Toooasty made a serious splash with all of their entries. Other interesting maps were Sign of Armageddon, Manufacturing Plant, Bad Morning, Embodiment of Maliciousness and naturally, HeLLport. Really though, most of the authors with multiple maps and specifically had distinct stamps, whether it was TNT-type stuff with the latter and playing with some of the weirder concepts of Doom II with the former). Even someone like Nanka who isn't known for deep challenges turned up the heat with their last map.

 

All in all, probably going to make a personal top list! It's just interesting to see a collection that doesn't play by all the conventions.

[elborbahquarama]

you can find an unfinished map submitted by masa for this wad somewhere in the last pages of the dwmegawad club thread runned back when it was released if you are interested

[LadyMistDragon]

Dark Tide

by Chris Lutz

 

Here is the second of three maps I had yet to play from the original April 2021 Miniwad Club. Simply put, it's a map that Chris Lutz made using the Return resource pack that was used to create Eternal Doom that didn't get released until a few years after Eternal Doom III. 

 

But this is a Chris Lutz map so you know it just isn't going to be left there! One could probably spot a certain similarity in the structure to the maps of Chris Couleur but...this isn't really a retread. Because Chris does his very best to add in all sorts of neat little details, like the throne room with the Cyberdemon, the massive open ballroom with the BFG just sitting near the windows, a bloody altar and a structure that I somehow doubt is representative of actual medieval castles. Still, have to like the entrance that looks suspiciously out of some JRPG and most gloriously, a massive boatyard with an actual boat! Strangely enough, there are few secrets in the map which maybe isn't too surprising.

 

Chris' maps tend to have quite a bite to them, and while this isn't the hardest of them, it's still a good degree or two harder than Corrupted Cistern from 2022 (which still ended in a climatic but easy slaughter fight). For one, we learned to be very careful when entering any open room because there was almost guaranteed to be chaingunners hanging in some tower or some broken stained glass windows, ready to fill us full of lead! The red key fight was probably the hardest, due to the amount of nobles thrown at us in a relatively tight space. In general, Chris might throw them a little too thick in the ambushes or the throne room with the Cyber mentioned above, but this isn't that much of a problem, even if there's limited amounts of stores for the heavy weapons. The only place that was kind of annoying was fighting the BK ambush off in the boatyard, but that was most likely because I didn't have the BFG by that point. The closing ambush with two Masterminds, a Cyber in the center of a fountain and Cacodemons swooping in from beyond the walls while (of course) chaingunners fire on proves appropriately climatic. Though the actual exit was somewhat tricky to find and more obscure than it needed to be, the last 'fuck you' Arch-vile in the flames was mildly chuckle-worthy.

 

 

If it had just been another Doom Eternal map, it would have been perfectly satisfying. However, the advances in Doom mapping over the past twenty years are quite evident indeed in certain rooms having careful detailing or the random dead ends feeling kind of satisfying to explore. Honestly, this was deserving of its runner-up award. And I'm very glad to have played it.

 

 

Ossuary

by -Milo-

 

Here, we have a map submitted to RAMP 2021 that ended up getting released by itself. And am I glad it was because adventure maps are few and far between! It's really a rather linear map but exploring the giant tomb here is kind of cool and the midi I believe came from Back to Saturn X too is really quite cool! Some fairly distinct locations have been created with the CC4 texture pack, despite almost the entire map taking place indoors. Secrets aren't terribly hard to find for the most part, usually by exploring and finding some small button or hitting a random bookcase. The sewers leading to the blue key were kind of awkward, until we realized a switch raising another platform was in the mausoleum.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Eventually, we go into what seems to be the main castle, though architecture is pretty spare with the only notable landmark being some towers. We enter a chapel, blow up some trash enemies, an Arch-vile and then some Revenants and another Arch-vile before entering a boring-ass maze to open....something. It doesn't matter too much though, we go up a level in the tower and go down some passageways into an incredibly dangerous courtyard with several Mancubi and a Pain Elemental. Most tauntingly, the shrine with the BFG is in the middle of all this! 3 switches have to be pressed which will lower it. 

 

Spoiler

 

 

After fumbling around for probably 7 minutes, we found that the lift here indeed, lowered, with an easy-to-find secret containing an Invulnerbility....then music changes, we drop down a hole right on top of the yellow key and all hell breaks loose! 

 

A Cyberdemon appears initially that we miraculously were able to two-shot in probably the second or third try, but he's really just a forerunner. See, a massive horde teleports into this area, mostly at the other end but also all-over. It's probably less monsters than what one might find in Corrupted Cistern's coda or at the end of the average Doom Revolver map but due to the limited space, it might well be harder.

 

The ending proves quite cinematic as the yellow key takes us to a tower that lifts us up...not to a climatic fight but sweet, delicious, freedom, capped off by an utterly beautiful custom skybox. A great ending to a good map!

 

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

It's been a while since I've done anything in this, but this was a wad without a whole lot of information available so I thought I'd give this a shot!

 

5th Project of Doom

by Kevin73 & Sam "Metabolist" Woodman

 

Here's a wad that has been sitting in my hard drive(s) since early 2021 when I downloaded it after reading a thread that happened to mention it for some reason that I've completely forgotten so it's hard to comment on how well it fulfilled its goals.

 

What I can say is that this wad released in 2001 and is the first episode of what seems to have been a planned megawad for Ultimate Doom but thanks to Sam's involvement with leading lots of other Doom projects, there doesn't seem to have lots of other work done on it. But there's still promise here regardless with some medieval-inspired aesthetics clearly inspired by Heretic and Hexen, though it should be noted that this wad seems determined to establish a character of its own.

 

Dehacked changes are pretty light when compared to other wads like this of the time. The pistol and plasma rifle both have their fire sounds muffled into  less abrasive versions, though it doesn't really help the latter sound more beefy. There's a couple of sprite replacments, the Hexen Dark Bishop and those...ghost enemies I've occasionally seen in other Doom wads for Lost Souls. The Imps and Demons have also received recolorings that supposedly complement the theme, but seeing how the latter's puke-green, they may not have entirely succeeded here. The Invinvibility cheat turning Doomguy into a green-eyed demon was pretty funny though.

 

We'll touch on the visual aspects a little more below when they're more relevant. It's enough to say that since this is for Doom 1 and this is the first episode than things won't be too difficult. And while that remains true for the entire run, ammo is fairly tight in each individual level, leading to a number of cases where we'll be grinding through hordes with mainly a shotgun. But in a continuous playthrough, we could avoid most of that.

 

Anyways, on to the maps!

 

E1M1: Sweet Home?

 

Here, we are in a standard house, with surprising amounts of effort put into the Doomcute. Maybe the stove burners aren't perfect, but this was pre Doom Builder after all. Anyway, we can tell quickly from the orange sky and music that something is seriously off here. And we're not just talking about the overeager secret tagging either! We're surrounded by Imps when we exit, along with a Bishop or two and the exit is just inside the wall, marked by some Imps filtering out of there. Not the best start.

 

 

Spoiler

 

E2M2: Gateway Limbo.

 

Well, this is utterly horrendous! Most of the map takes place in this supposedly frightful-appearing green area, like something out of the last map of the Alien v Predator wad from 1995 or maybe Aliens TC. But navigating this is a pain, though not hard to make one's way around in. Random pillars here are transparent and there's also either subtle and/or nonexistant clues that tell you which ones are important. We just basically have to travel into each of them and get teleported to different realms. Though the bit with the BFG and Bishops surrounding us was pretty nice, although it's probably going to go over much smoother if you've picked up a Invulnerbility earlier!

 

E1M3: Familiar Ground

 

At first glance, it seems to be Hanger retextured, with some slight editing done. This map has more of a bite though, and more importantly, has corridors winding around the perimeter that add a little bit more, both in terms of danger and traps. The numerous fake Hanger exits got annoying because any fool not using an ancient port can tell it's not over! It is cool to see some escalating encounters afterwards, like a particularly nasty shotgunner ambush and a Cyberdemon we've got to rocket down that thanks to the narrow space he inhabits, isn't too hard to take out. Bishops in tight corridors ensure we won't get out of this one too easily! It feels like the first map Sam Woodman might have done some minor editing on

 

E1M9: Arcade

 

As if we didn't have enough tributes to Wolfenstein E3M8. It doesn't exactly help matters that the ghosts aren't invincible either and progress is just, like, not worth bothering with.

 

E1M4: Evil Maker

 

I can't say I really understand the name, but it's still the best map so far, no matter how you want to slice it. Sam Woodman's quietly efficient midi is only part of the story. There's also a courtyard with a supply truck on one hand, a crate woodhouse because we can't get enough of them, and some terribly annoying progression. Specifically, when you open the passageway that leads to the exit, the way around is frankly counter-intuitive and one I ended up missing for quite some time. The ghosts being unleashed in massive numbers in spots don't make lives easier either. I just assume all sections where they ambush you have Metabolist's hand in them

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

E1M5: Gateway Limbo

 

Now things are really getting nasty! There's still some sign of a base but we are effectively in hell at this point with all the rocks around and that bloodfall near the beginning! A massive corridor with ghosts should make us thankful for the rocket launcher at the beginning, that stupid bit with the Imps and shotgunners surrounding us was annoying, then finally, the crusher with the Masterminds, Cyberdemon, and Dark Bishops that gets triggered as we near the entrance of the room is actually a really nice setup, but it could certainly be going faster! The map concludes with....sigh...more ghosts to rocket after plunging into the lava-filled abyss next to something that appears to be a Heretic lava fountain!

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

 

E1M6: Fissures

 

Not too bad, other than the blue bar lowering tomfooolery that made me spend a third of the total run time searching for the correct trigger. It's a nice fortress where that exists though, at least after we finish traveling through the linear cavern. But there's something draggy about this one that can't be pinned down.

 

 

Spoiler

 

E1M7: Rights of Passage

 

Quite possibly one of the laziest excuses for a level design in a major project ever. Literally, we just walk through square rooms, then blast Imps, then later, Bishops and Cacodemons. Of COURSE I'd pick up the blue key after exploring every other corner of this map. Time to move on.....

 

E1M8: Bowels of Hell

 

A small and dangerous lava cavern we start out in, in the middle of a layout that twists around itself...not quite brillantly which might be why the key doors only become accessible after picking up the corresponding keys. Still, the segment where we travel through a cavern overhang with Imps on the sides was at least kind of nice. But the map design definitely get a little self-indulgent here. Mastermind and Cyberdemon will confront us at the end, before we're able to travel through another lava cave then get a lift down to take us the hell out of here!

 

 

Conclusion

 

It was a good idea to make a Doom 1 set of juiced up difficulty that's a sequel to all the IWADS (that includes both TNT AND Plutonia, yes :P) But Kevin (who seems to have been the main creative force behind this) was clearly stuck in an earlier age's mire in some spots, for better or for worst. Anyway, it's hard to know how exactly this would have gone if it had been finished. More Doom is always a good thing, but there are some maps here that are hardly better than horrible. Verdict: check it out but have some patience and play at your own risk.