The DWMiniwad Club plays: a handful of standalone maps and short mapsets I feel like playing (extended to 12/31 because I got sidetracked by other writing obligations)

[LadyMistDragon]

Before I go back to Glaive, let's take a look at the first map of Settlements!

 

Map 01: Alone Once Again.

 

First time I played this, it took around 20 minutes. Now it took under 14!

 

First things first: "spiritual successor" does not mean sequel in any meaningful sense, it just means reuse of some of the same themes and/or tropes. Dashlet's map designs are broadly similar to what was in Liminal Doom and there's certainly a few surreal touches, especially roughly at the end of the map, but just keep in mind the set's title. There's a certain residential aspect to the theming evident throughout the entire map from the texture choices to the use of modest Doomcute. Yet, there are also minor elements present which underscore this space's unreality, as Roasterock points out. Like the random set of green candles on the set of stairs leading up from what appears to be a lobby with the sofas in the center. The ending is what drives this home though. Putting aside the white eyes on either side, when  we disposeg of the two Cyberdemons here, (naturally behind a row of corpses) and taking the teleporter in the darkened space behind them you know is there right after spotting our reflection, we teleport into the main city, pick up a chainsaw for seemingly no particular and emerge into a courtyard where the map ends.

 

If we assume a narrative here, we've woken up, emerged into the beautiful urban park landscape under heavy attack, then end up heading into what is probably the central part of the apartment complex that's here. The nice and mournful midi here's a great accompaniment!

 

 

 

Now, back to Glaive 3!

By @EANB

 

Map 03: Garden of Grief

 

Here, the wad finally starts showing some real teeth! Shooting the shotgunner at the beginning alerts several other enemies, though we should at first head to the right if we really want to get all of the weapons that aren't the BFG. The rocket launcher trap is respectable with how the initial opposition would appear to be chaingunner before Revenants appear from behind the crates in a second or two, and the need to run in to grab more rockets is really pretty nice! We wish we'd spotted the plasma rifle earlier because it would certainly have helped a lot! We did ok though. After shooting one random Arch-vile, we plunge down into the lava-filled courtyard here, only to face a massive ambush of pinkies, some Imps, and hell knights! Holding the ground should work though. Another swarm awaits us when we return to the courtayrd, including an Arch-vile naturally. We then walk around some and then push a hidden switch that lowers the bars to a hidden Supercharge. But we ain't seen nothing yet!

 

Map 04: Legacy Sewer

 

Why exactly is this a 'legacy' sewer? No matter, this "Death's Bells" remake is fantastic and EANB actually starts showing some impressive detailing chops here, most specifically in the outer regions where we can see some trees! So here we have the hottest start so far! Thankfully, barrels make a mild return so we can blow up the nearby trash enemies to bloody chunks. Wish we could do that with the numerous Revenants, though at least there's a chaingun nearby, but not tons of ammo. In the nearest accessible hallway is a pinkie ambush but some barrels that can reduce their operational capacity if we target them and we really didn't! At the yellow key with power lines hanging over head, we're ambushed by an Arch-vile and a large collection of Imps, but they aren't a massive threat thankfully. 

 

After this, there are two more notable ambushes. One comes when we reach a drainage ditch with a Baron at one end, then after stepping some distance forward, the wall to the right will come down suddenly and unleash a whole host of Hell Knights and Imps to our right! One of the former even killed me while attempting to make a stand against the Baron. The best course of action would probably be to start shooting at the Baron right away, keep moving forward, expect some concussive damage then spin around and fire at the Hell Knights until we've cleared out some room for ourselves and backed away enough.

 

The other ambush is inside a building and easily the hardest so far. So when we push the switch that grants access to the red key, the walls some distance in front will come down and a closet with Hell Knights, Imps, another group I can't remember, and a frickin' Arch-vile all are set against us to unleash their fury upon us! But that's not why this is the hardest. See, an Arch-vile along with some other enemies that I think are Imps and Pinkies will teleport into the railing that's above this section. Said Arch-vile is incredibly difficult to evade effectively and consistently for long enough to reduce the threat directly in front of us to a pittance. The only suggestion we can offer here is to rush everything in front, then switch to the shotgun if the first arch-vile gets close but moving out of their way will put in the crosshairs of the second arch-vile and.....this is a massively chaotic situation no matter how you look at it. And there's hardly any room to hide beneath the second Arch-vile, unless we missed something which is certainly possible. PS: A metric ton of Cacodemons appear in the outdoor courtyard but they provide little threat.

 

The thing is, this isn't even the maximum amount of fury that EANB is capable of by any means! Having played Techblast and all of the latter Warglaive maps, I think that's quite a fair thing to say!

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

Night on Doom Mountain

by Matt @cannonball Powell.

 

Matt Powell had been somewhat less active in the difficult map genre the past few years than he had become known for. With this though, he is back. Having not played Return to Hadron 4 or that Plutonian-related set he's working on iirc, I can't say how much he's kept that up though being that he retired from speedrunning in 2020, the ruthlessness might be less consistent in some ways, though you wouldn't know from this map!

 

Anyway, the same sort of tactical and punishing gameplay present in other cannonball maps is still evident here, but this time around has been given a lovely nighttime aesthetic, mainly a turquoise shade of green with gray rock and purple sky, creating quite a mournful atmosphere. 

 

It's not too surprising that the DeHacked enemies reflect this mournful tone. Although the only change to the Black Imps (they've got the health of pinkies and shoot the equivalent of Cacodemon fireballs in most cases they're used) here is to give them turquoise fireballs, I'm not 100 percent certain the similar Cacodemon variation hasn't existed before. The Mancubi variation definitely does (seems Ancient Aliens-esque) and the Nightmare Cacos and Heresiarchs were both taken from 180 Minutes Pour Vivre. Although that was a brighter if arguably just as grim wad at times, they work just as well here. It helps that Wilou and Matt clearly both have an equal appreciation for pressuring the player.

 

The start is quite challenging. The turret Arachnotrons might be a little bit too high here (well, at least if you can't be bothered to find the secret), but the largest problem comes for someone who wants to kill the Revs on the ledge and the spectres down below as we pick the weapons up at the campfire. It's easy enough to get out of here in any case. It's a very lovely opening though, and immediately clues as in as to the large scale here: the massive field and the ledges behind us let us know we'll be here a while.

 

We won't spend too much time on the encounters because it's not terribly important. Matt just likes to pack large groups of enemies in places where evasion is difficult, even though there's often something approaching 'safe ground' at times when the weaker enemies have been disposed of. The graveyard fight here was just as annoying as I remembered from our previous play of this map because of that annoying Arch-vile who somehow ran up the stairs to the right.

 

The real killer was the stairs leading to the purple key though, where we get entirely boxed in by Cacodemons and Revenants in what is the hardest fight in the map, imo. While I could probably name strategies for most of the other challenging fights (the secret Cyberdemon fight that's not even terribly difficult for more reasons that one despite being rather claustrophobic), I'm still not sure how evasion can be guaranteed when rockets are more powerful than plasma and unfortunately, there's hardly any room to maneuver correctly. I think charging up the stairs where the Black Imps are is the best course of action but then, the fury of Cacodemons that erupts here is very, very difficult to counter correctly and move up in time with someone with our speed deficiency.

 

Tough fights still await when we have all three keys, but we get a non-hidden BFG (unlike one that I'm sure exists that's hidden) at some point and we can just skip to the end where we press the last switch and Black Imps, then Revenants are shoved quite roughly down a nearby waterfall in a highly amusing fashion while Heresiarchs and Cyberdemons are teleporter onto the series of falls we entered the area from and Nightmare Cacos fly in from the sides. There was just enough cells to keep the Revenants down to a managable number then we pressed a switch that in addition to killing the Cyberdemons and Heresiarchs, also kills an offscreen Romero head and we know what that means.

 

Conclusion

 

This successfully creates a feel of driving up a mountain, under circumstances in which that might be the last thing you'll want to do. The feeling of triumph at the end when the Romero head is blown to bits is kind of needed when playing a map with a downtuned mood and that probably takes around an hour to finish if one is actually skilled, not us though. The thematic unity of the enemies really helps here too!

 

 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

Back to Glaive 3! Since I watch too many streams, I'm probably going to sound fragmented right now

 

Map 05: Poison Panic.

 

I'm not really sure how to react to that obvious reference to the godawful opening map of the very first Community Chest, but you don't need me to tell you this map is of a considerably higher quality than that. Red sky has started to work its way in and the enemy encounters are a little bit more spread out but just as chaotic in the setpieces! Trying to kill two Arch-viles with very limited shotgun ammo while Mancubi and Revenants fire from the distance was quite tricky though. The hardest fight came just past the waterfall secret with the plasma rifle since there's an Arch-vile and a whole host of Revenants along with easy-to-miss chaingunners in some small windows. Also, this slime damages, though miraculously, I killed the Arch-vile quite easily the first time around since they ran out in front, and even made it to the key before being killed, despite having not picked up the slime suit. That's not really the correct way to do it, but there's still something quite wonderful about the chaos here. Coming back to the central courtyard springs more Arch-viles, Revenants and Arachnotrons (two of them being turrets) then the last one throws a massive mess at us with a Mastermind at us. Tragically, she did not get trapped and tragically, I don't have a video because i forgot to pause and had it open at a somewhat sensitive spot.

 

 

Map 06: Time Scarred

 

This is an overgrown base, kind of Plutonian with the red sky but that's certainly not the only inspiration. Replacement and mostly weak turret enemies make their first appearance here, but they're mostly used well, other than the first collection of chaingunners maybe. Enemy count is less concentrated if anything, but it's also an incredibly claustrophobic map. Like in the plasma rifle courtyard, tons of infighting between the Mancubi and Hell Knights will probably occur, but EANB still thinks to put a sneaky Arachnotron behind a fence on the side that we entered from. It's all good fun, but it does feel like buildup before the last map or two.

 

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Well, it was decided to return to the Settlements (to avoid grouping longer maps together essentially, although this one went on longer than it needed to). But anyways...

 

Map 02

 Apagado Town

 

These sorts of eves I tend to think as being either associated with parking garages or certain medical complexes but that would be probably be reading too much into it. It's quite abstract, despite several places probably representing something. Nothing terribly important, though I like the hitscan guys near the beginning standing around what might as well be a fire, but turns out to be a device revealing most of the area. Prepare to meet Cyberdemons at most of the keys fights but there's really nothing too difficult, save the courtyard where there's Arch-viles on two sides, then Revenant on top with two Hell Knights and a Mancubus on the floor level. And the only place one can kind of hide are some pillars in some lightly radioactive mud. The hidden BFG would help, but that lift that goes up to where the hidden switch can be shot doesn't seem to go up and in either case, it's really hard to see what the switch opens if other things are going on.

 

It's definitely quite accurate to say this map really highlights all the liminal aspects of the set with the odd angular shapes and sort of pictures of what might as well be days gone by. The section I mentioned above could even be argued as a light homage to Ribbkisian sadism, although with a shockingly vanilla or vanilla adjacent look.

 

I also found the ending to be quite humorous with the whole "curtains close" suggestion of the map ending. Although that does put an interesting spin of the role of the last Cyberemond and Revenant murder. Like obviously, they are effectively consisting of regular acting troupes throughout the permanent stage play that is Doom, but this is obviously a wink to us players.

 

Not quite time enough for Map 03, unfortunately. It's fine though. The amount of space here is actually quite fun to navigate through, at least if one if focused.

 

 

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

The Settlements

 

Map 03: Carpet House

 

Almost the easiest map here, except for one mean mini-Cyberdemon fight near the end, Carpet House sets us inside the theater that was hinted at near the end of the last map. Humorously, we're ascending stairs out of darkness near the beginning. The architectural and textural work successfully reinforce that we're in a theater. The basement contains one of the best tricks so far when we hit a switch, the on-the-nose watery corridors refill with blood and we're attacked by those crazy ninja bastards! Quite spooky, though the jazz-fusion adjacent midi kind of shows more an atmosphere of playfulness than anything else. Some tricky combat puzzle traps can still be found, like the one point where the nobles emerge from behind the wall and there's probably not enough heavy weapon ammo for them unless one finds the secret perhaps. Otherwise, it's one of the more realistic maps in some place, though the cave to the left of the window at the beginning, the oddball platform city section and the very weird basement still show a place that's not fully in reality. Speaking of the city, this is where it actually kind of resembles Finely Crafted Fetish Film, with the presence of an urban as opposed to urbane setting and that lovingly bouncy midi out of some Italian giallo scored by Goblin. While there are a few locations it feels Dashlet could've been a touch more ruthless, this was at a point where they were creatively exhausted if I'm remembering right, so that's perfectly fine.

 

Final Thoughts

 

The Settlements successfully continue the experiments in surrealism that were present in Liminal Doom. Visually speaking, there's definitely a nod toward city environments, though the last map suggests a turn toward something more classically-inclined. The junior Cyberdemons are used very well, and even when we end up in situations where we missed weapons (an easy thing to do), the odds were never insurmountable. No, it's not going to hit the same as Liminal Doom, but the first two maps successfully yank us into the experience and the last map does its job as a 'curtain call' especially with that final junior Cyberdemon. Another feather in @dashlet's cap, which lol is probably overflowing now!

 

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Ok, time to wrap up Glaive 3 today, one way or the other!

 

Map 07: Fury of the Mountain

 

It's the second highest monster count of the wad but possibly also the one containing the most pure fun. Other than the outside section at the beginning, this is an energetic and chaotic map that has some of the best visuals in the wad so far! The trap with the last key that springs Lost Souls from side firepits, with Cacos in front, Revenants behind upside rails on the sides and Imps on the floor was wonderfully chaotic. Capped off by a midi I'm pretty sure is Jeremy Doyle's remix of "Into the Beast's Belly" from TNT: Revilution, this is a necessary breathe of air before the finale......

 

Map 08: Fort Fetid

 

Speaking of.....is that a Soldier of Chaos remix? No matter, there's a berserk pack at the beginning but this is not any sort of Tyson map, it's just quite cramped and so it's good to have something of an out. To a point anyway. Because upon reaching one door, we're mysteriously teleported to the other end of a room behind it, containing a Cyberdemon! There's also an Arch-vile lurking to the side. This is probably the first of many fights where there's really only one correct way to get through, basically by heading to the side and spamming in a somewhat calculated manner. Although the last Revenant Arch-vile trap is probably easier to handle.

 

 

Map 09: Susurration

 

In sharp contrast to literally every other map before, this one is taking place in deep darkness, although it's still heavily-vined. The pinkies that rush us rather quickly demand that we run to the other room. Not so long after though, we end up in a cavern with a red key and BFG. The Revenant and Mastermind trap is something to behold but we do get an Invulnerbility Sphere so it isn't too bad. Push a certain revealed switch though, and Pinkies, Revenants and Arch-viles will pour into the previous series of tunnels. Somehow, we actually worked out a correct strategy of sorts, though I don't remember much of it beyond that I was running up one of the sides.

 

 

Map 10: Brick and Bone

 

The finale. Easily the hardest map so far! It pulls out all the stops. Although the lava pit leading to the lava key is nowhere near as hard as we made it, so long as one takes it slowly. Interestingly, a Mastermind/Cyberdemon infight can be triggered when one grabs the yellow key, but don't expect things to be that easy forever! The very last fight decides to spawn a whole murder of Revenants and several Arch-viles in the space leading to the exit. Since we'd been playing around 50 minutes, we found it better to stop then feel compelled to fight smarter.

 

 

Conclusion

 

 

I still sort of liked Warglaive better I think. There's definitely some of EANB's best designs so far. And Map 09 has possibly the most sustained amount of brutality I've ran into that's been in an EANB wad so far! There was that one room in Warglaive that kind of had a Flotsam-style hallway in the visual sense, but it probably wasn't as hard as this! The end fight downright leans on Speed of Doom in a way I'm not sure is interesting but it works to close this out regardless!

 

 

https://youtu.be/HyJxQ_Y6xhQ

[LadyMistDragon]

Jaded

by @lunchlunch

 

A set of maps that....I think was meant to overcome some severe depression, if I understand right. And indeed, the profoundly emotional midi carries us throughout the bulk of the set, a 1400+ monstrosity that's probably a touch unwieldy to navigate when everything has been cleared out.

 

Disillusionment is clearly the name of the game here. Although the visuals clearly are inspired by other difficult wads of the post-Sunlust world, genuine disappointment carries through and the idea that life promises so much only to assault us with something like 100 screaming rocket-armed skeletons kind of says it all. There are tiny bits of sometime joke-y incidental combat but this mainly revolves around setpieces and large teleportation ambushes. Occasionally, this'll turn into combat puzzle territory, like the long hallway that constantly spews Hell Knights from one we have to shoot at while ignoring the Revenants on the sides the best we can, where another ambush sends Revenants and Cacodemons at us while we're on a stairway. This latter one I still don't think I understand the correct strategy, but I do think one will have to back out early on to avoid getting squashed by the Cacos.

 

After this, the concluding map isn't much to speak of, as the music becomes slower and we basically spend our time dodging Cyberdemons before ending in one last glorious trapped room with a Cyberdemon and plenty of cell ammo for him. There's probably a little more to it, but I thought enough time had been spent on it. Besides, I cheated because I didn't feel like moving on the itty-bitty platforms leading to the final section so I didn't deserve it anyway.

 

Jaded is a state of being that also reflect a life philosophy, but it's one built by experience and not really adopted. No one should expect a Doom map to be a perfect encapsulation of art necessarily, regardless of whether it happens one way or the other. But Jaded hits the feels where it counts and moreover, succeeds as an incredible modern slaughter map, combining many of lunchlunch's mapping tendencies (random SS in secrets, explosive Revenant fights, occasional all-out slaughter) into one single package that I could say will remain with me for some time....but honestly, anyone who's lived life enough will vibe with this atmosphere, so there's really no need for memories of this to remain as such. 

 

 

[JDoyle]

On 11/24/2023 at 4:09 PM, LadyMistDragon said:

Capped off by a midi I'm pretty sure is Jeremy Doyle's remix of "Into the Beast's Belly" from TNT: Revilution

Not mine, I think that's JD Herrera's remix from TNT:E midi pack. 

[RjY]

Slosh

 

I played this in March after reading a post that caused a case of contrarian curiosity ("A masterpiece? It can't be that good, can it?"). It turned out to be good enough to hold my interest for a week until I had stubbornly cleared all six maps individually and continuously.

map01

We find ourselves in a slime-filled valley at the foot of a mountain. Clambering up the side of the cliff, the terrain is rather blocky, diagonal, and monotextured, but the height contrast is pleasing. At the top, a narrow bridge leads to the entrance of a base, out of the windows of which, imps throw fire at us. The entrance hides quite a crowd, but there are a couple of well-placed barrels to assist.

Exploring the small base unlocks the way through to the first combat arena of the wad, a ledge around a lake of lava. Here we must fend off multiple zombies and imps, then release a horde of cacodemons, all without falling into the lava, from which there is no escape, with only a shotgun for defence. Perhaps you can do this without taking damage, but I was not able.

Nonetheless with the monsters defeated or dodged we may pass through a short corridor made entirely of wall lights to the other side of the base where we may take a brief moment to look back at the entrance across the canyon. Then the Oppressive Darkness makes its first appearance: a short corridor which, despite being lit by more eye-searing wall lights, is completely black. Perhaps the lights are bright because they are sucking up all the light in the adjacent space? Perhaps it is just glorious nineties Doom sector lighting. Still, the exit is beyond the darkness.

 

map02

The second map finds us facing a door which to enter we must walk the garden path before it, and survive the wad's first plutonia-esque chaingunner trap. Inside is another small base with more chaingunner ambushes, eventually leading to a narrow corridor in which you are trapped with two hellknights and not much room to move. The exit is just beyond.

 

map03

The base continues. This map has a recurring theme of clambering round the outsides of square rooms. First we must raise a bridge while under fire from the far side. A couple of mancubi to grind through with the chaingun. A walk around a half-spiral, overlooked by two revenants in cages, which I cowardly snipe from the entrance because it is safer. A dash around some awkward silver pillars to reach the exit door before it closes.

 

map04

We reach the home of the Oppressive Darkness. With the first room a continuation of the previous map's style, we pass through another corridor of wall lights to a view over a canyon, from over the other side of which, imps throw fire at us from multiple locations. We escape down a supernaturally dark corridor to a slow lift which leads to a seemingly high-tech area, brightly lit and deep blue, surrounding a slime pit. Eventually we reach one of the windows we saw from the canyon, which turns out to have a switch that to no-one's surprise raises a bridge.

Unfortunately, on the way back to the bridge, we discover the darkness found a way in to the area, and must now navigate it, finding the button to open the door out, without falling into the slime pit, and also not getting murdered by invisible chaingunners in the darkness, or sergeants behind the newly-opened walls on the run to escape. (I didn't care for this part.)

The other side of the bridge reveals yet more imps and a lift down into a maze, to which the darkness has already beaten us. Our only mercy is that the passages are not twisty and most of the enemies are imps, so we have a hope to dodge their fire. One place has an eerily-lit baron face: an unusual ally, it serves to silhouette our targets.

Finally we reach the exit, with only the problem of a small horde of monsters guarding it. Fortunately one may retreat to the doorway and clear them from there; if one is lucky the real exit door may be opened by another monster, releasing chaingunners from the back who help with the clearance. (I suffered an intercept overflow here, but have emulation disabled.)

 

map05

We start besides a tower in a pit surrounded by lava, with bridges to side areas. The setup here really reminds me of something else, maybe a simplified version of Requiem map06. Our first stop is an underground chamber whose walls open to reveal a horde of imps, a glimpse of the exit door, and the wad's first (and IIRC only) archvile, which is easily dispatched thanks to the cover provided by the chamber's central pillar, at least as long as the damn thing does not resurrect all the imps.

Beyond is a red door, the key for which can be seen shortly, atop a rocky outcropping on the far side of a lava-filled crevice. Reaching it requires us to explore a narrow maze of tunnels full of imps, chaingunners, and wall lights, although this can be skipped by strafe-jumping the crevice. The red door leads to the two platforms overlooking the tower, the second being the location of a switch to raise a narrow bridge from the top of the tower to wherever it may lead.

Where it leads is a wide, roughly hewn stone tunnel full of cacodemons. Climbing the tower now, or if we had done so before to retrieve the rocket launcher, we may follow the monotextured tunnel as it snakes around, briefly passing a section where the roof has collapsed into the lava below (and another chaingunner ambush, which is also, inexplicably, the level's only secret). The tunnel thus ends with us forced to jump into the caldera, where fortunately someone has built a metal dock so our feet may remain unscorched. But our faces may not, as the dock door opens to reveal another crowd of imps.

 

map06

We reach the heart of the volcano, into which a fortress has been unwisely built, but the views are very nice nonetheless. First the entrance must be opened and a boss defeated, which might be a problem were we not provided with a BFG. (The accompanying horde of imps is more troublesome, especially if one is pistol-starting the map.)

The way into the structure beyond first passes through another wide, low, and characteristically dark tunnel -- but at last some unsung genius has designed a lighting system that can penetrate it. All we have to do is turn it on, one switch at a time. Then we pass an altar guarded by hellknights, more darkness, to finally lead back out to the volcano crater and a winding gantry over it.

Here a multitude of cacodemons appear from the far side of the crater. One can run ahead, open the door at the other end of the walkway and escape to the relative safety beyond, but if one wants 100% kills it is wise to remain on the walkway and rocket the cacodemons, carefully, without falling off. This is because the back door to the imp chamber will permanently close, and a cacodemon can easily float into it and become trapped, with no way to lure it out to shoot it.

The final part of the map has us ducking around a set of giant pillars being chased by first a spiderdemon then a brood of its children. Both are easily dispatched with the BFG from earlier. The exit door is timed, it may take a couple of tries to run to it before it closes. The End.

 

Overall

• glorious mid-nineties stock texturing
• height differences
• sense of progress
• dramatic lighting
• all-encompassing light-swallowing darkness
• plutonia chaingunner traps
• uneven difficulty
• trivial boss fights
• clearing map06 from pistol start is a fun resource puzzle

It is maybe not quite the masterpiece that was suggested, but it is very good, good enough to inspire me to write this voluminous monograph, post a bunch of pictures, and record an Ironman-esque full clearance in 38:46, nine months later. Thank you Maribo.