I think i'm starting to love BTSX (E1)

[Cutman 999]

I have a nice love/hate relantionship with this megawad, in one hand no one would say this wad isn't a technical marble and the soundtrack is such a great, varied collection of some of the best midis i've heard for a videogame period. On the other, i personally didn't like the mapping style, since i'm a bitchass saveless pistol starter, maps that drag more than 20 minutes without good combat don't attract me, and from my first playtrough i remember a lot of maps, even early ones, dragging for a long time, usually having bullshit ambushes that made me have to repeat the entire map from scratch. I dropped it in map12 and not returned to it until now, with some achievements on my belt already, have gotten more familiarized with the kind of ambushes it presents.

 

Also, for curiosity i started to play it in chocolate doom, and in this new playthrough i go through from the very beginning, and i'll like to say, i change a lot of opinions on this wad, and actually had a lot of fun with it. 

 

The thing that i appreciate now more is consistency, the original iwads are everything but consistent in quality and level progression, and many pwads from the 90's and early odds also present those kinds of issues, heck, i will even say alien vendetta and the original scythe have this in common. Btsx on the other hand, is so micropolished in visual style and gameplay to the point it maintains a sort of polished feel that is very appreciated by me. I heard some complaints of that polished nature ruining individual mappers styles, but i don't get it, some maps are more cramped and linear, others more opened and exploratory, most focus more in incidental/set combat than others.

 

Even the aesthetics vary a little depending on the color palette of the rooms and lightning, map6 doesn't look at all like map7 for example, even of the theme is techbase, map7 is way more opened, with mineshafts and big open areas, map6 meanwhile is more indoors with more restrained rooms. That and usual layouts make you kind of recognize which map is which, not that different from iwad levels, take into account they have very similar themes and is not that in someone's mind it blends together with themselves.

 

The maps are a lot more easy to follow than i remembered, with many of them knowing how to guide you from arena to arena in a very obviously linear way, with noticeable changes in elevation and cues to guide you trough, even the big maps are way easier to navigate compared to the abomination that is downtown, industrial zone, or mt.erebus.

 

Combat in certain maps is snappy and constantly coming, compensating the long run times with kind of brutal ambushes that are not hard to dismantle, but can catch any unfamiliar scrub out of guard. In maps like 14, this is what carries the map completely, since is ambush followed by ambush, creating a nice flow to the map, in others like map6 it actually makes the map being blown out. Is so-so in my opinion, if it does more than just putting imps and pinkies lazily with some bullshit midtier or hitscanner, i think is fine by me, and outside of the stretch of maps 9-12, i think it goes in a good direction regarding combat.

 

I'd like to say more but i need to stop procrastinating and rest a bit, sorry if there isn't any visual shit accompanying the post but i'm lazy, i'm around map 15 btw, it was so long since replaying something changed my opinion drastically.

[Majin]

thats an awesome autism creature

[Lila Feuer]

Difficulty was an interesting case for me, I remember finding the beginning of MAP08 to be the most tough part of the entire megawad, then again I was playing it on the Xbox. I recall a seriously nasty fight early on in a not so open area that caused me to restart several times. There was that one part late in the wad though where it spawns in a comical amount of imps in an even more cramped space. Spikes like that can really stick out in your memory.

[baja blast rd.]

BTSX is a fantastic mapset for someone who cares about little nuances of craft.

Just in this one scene that I randomly opened up, there's this cool-looking tower that is taller than its surroundings (back view is on right). 

 

 

 

Big fan of these little light insets and the way the brick facade tapers off to that black metal inset below it (left). And the blue light insets in the middle of this texture.

 

 

 

The way you see this distant building you get to later in the back of this scene. (Also neat little light inset, the way it looks like it's 'part' of the brown bar at the bottom and rising up into the beige bars.)

 

 

This whole asymmetrical opening and the way it's framed by the rectangular metal chunks that border the longer bars to either side of it. 

 

 

 

And this is just a mundane scene in the context of BTSX, not one of its standouts. 

 

This is not really 'detailed'-ness of course, this is mostly just skilled texturing and architecture.

 

I find a lot of individualism in the different maps here because at this level of granularity it is far from 'samey' and there's plenty to pick apart. And yet it does still feel like you're in a cohesive world, so you get the best of both worlds. 

 

But take these from map11. That feels like Ed Cripps and I would not expect any other map around these to look similar.

 

 

 

Stylistically, map08 and map12 are way different.

 

 

 

I've noticed that some people don't pay attention to this; they play a map like D2ISO map01 and all they have to say about the aesthetics is "brown lol." But I've found it a wad where it's enjoyable to savor those craft nuances, and if you do that, the maps can feel pretty different. 

 

So, yeah, I don't really agree with the common sameyness criticism, and only notice it if I decide to shut out a bunch of what I notice. 

[Cutman 999]

15 hours ago, Majin said:

thats an awesome autism creature

I'm the embodiment of autism, after all. NO ONE CAN STOP ME! (?

[DaBigNerd]

BTSX is a very well made megawad. Glad you also like it.

[Lila Feuer]

@baja blast rd. I've only said same-y because thematically it is like 98% "techbase" from what I remember and the other 2% was the idea of some other dimension trying to bleed its way through in places but you only get glimpses and I thought you'd get to see it in the last ten or so maps but it never occurred, the ending is really cool however. Architecturally it is extremely strong for vanilla and the texture variety is massive and the whole aesthetic is very reminiscent of Quake II which I do enjoy. I want to go through it again on PC and then its sequel which I got to see about half of in the Unity release before putting it down due to other stuff.