12 Maps I Loved This Year

[Maribo]

Felt like posting some blurbs about some individual maps that I really liked this year from various different projects. For sanity's sake, "this year" is pre-Cacowards cutoff (November 15) and I'm not including maps from anything that I wrote about in my write-ups for the Cacowards (all of them would have at least one map here, but I would rather give some attention to other things that I liked and not re-tread them so soon after), but I am including some maps from things that other people wrote about. The order presented here does not matter, I wrote about them roughly in order of how I thought about them, and then shuffled a few around to try and balance the blurb lengths a bit better.

 

Scabies by Xyzzy (Map09 of SATURNIA)

Spoiler

SATURNIA as a whole is extremist Plutonia, as if it was shoved into a juicer and extracted down to its bare essentials and then reconstructed with the knowledge of modern player skill in mind. Scabies is the crown jewel of what this design looks like, and I would really love to walk through the caverns underneath this temple in reality. Don't be afraid of ghosts.

 

ARLINGTON by Bank

Spoiler

I never really knew that I wanted a 3rd person fixed-camera game where you just Chill in the GZDoom engine before now, thank you for opening my third eye Bank. Please tell me I can buy that rug somewhere.

 

Blacksite by DFF (Map04 of What Lies Beneath)

Spoiler

DFF's execution of the "restore power to the powered down base" concept is phenomenal in part thanks to their masterful lighting work (the difference in the cavern section with the power on and off is a powerful contrast), but also thanks to their worldbuilding. Digging down with a giant sector drill to reach the red key has stayed in my head and it's something that I remember every time I see sector machinery.

 

The Valley of Calm Trees by Smiling Imp

Spoiler

A love (of nature) supreme.

 

Late Arrival by Agent JR (Map01 of DEFY THE OMPHALOS)

Spoiler

I could also have picked Map02 of this set, but I'm going with Map01 because I was looking for screenshots to use and seeing this fucked up sky made me really want an excuse to show it again. Click this button to instantly get fucked by shaders.

 

Tower of the Night Seer by RonnieJamesDiner* (Map07 of Godless Night)

Spoiler

I mostly just wanted an excuse to post the beautiful purple sky. Castlevania aesthetics go too well in Doom, thanks for making me realize that.

* - originally said Tango by accident, thanks Catpho

 

 

Garden of Plagues by Sneezy McGlassFace

Spoiler

  

Modern descendant of cave slime and slaughter, believer in Fucked Colormaps.

 

 

The Coconut Cream Flow by Peccatum Mihzamiz (Map10 of Pina Colada)

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/VhOTVWQ.mp4 just click it

There's no shortage of maps that I could pick from this WAD that I loved, but this one has been stuck in my head for a while. Void crater rock drifting away forever, perhaps it will eventually be torn asunder by the awe-inspiring cosmic feature in muumi's sky. Inseparable from the Psyrus midi for me.

 

Slime Girls by rd (Map13 of Afternoon)

Spoiler

Melancholic lullaby of a Darkwave tribute, the pit portion is a majestic clusterfuck that we could all take notes from (thank you slime girls).

 

Engorge by Bobby (Map10 of Tetanus)

Spoiler

Another WAD where there's a plethora of individual maps to love, but I remember this one really sticking with me from when I was playtesting. It has this sense of final urgency to it and I think that's largely due to the midi. Thank you for making such a good closer, Bobby.

 

 

Far Out Crops by esselfortium and A Visit to the Creep Doctor by Xaser (Map03 and Map04 of Back to Saturn X E3's preview build)

Spoiler

 

 

 

1) Yes, I am cheating and putting these together for no reason.
2) Yes, you caught me, I mostly wanted to write about these two maps but I also felt like writing about some others so I included them.

 

If I could, I would live forever in the dubious safety of Far Out Crops. I think that there is something enchantingly beautiful about this forest and trying to flesh that phrase out escapes me in such frustrating ways. I look at those reds and grey-whites and blacks in the below portion of the map and I just get lost in them.

 

A Visit to the Creep Doctor. A Trip to the Wretch Surgeon. A Stay with the Freak Practitioner. When I'm at my most pessimistic about life, the phrase "it only gets worse" often pops up in my head. A Visit to the Creep Doctor is "it only gets worse" embodied within a Doom map. It is to be consumed by everything around you and lose your grip. If you've ever been in a really bad stretch of events in relatively quick succession that just Fucks Your Shit Up, it's kind of like this, except in real life your house doesn't actually turn into an eldritch flesh fuck horror, it only feels like it does because you can't even escape to the safe comfort of your own home. Not just one of my favorite maps of the year, but one of my favorite maps ever.

 

 

You should tell me (and everyone else) about your favorite maps from this year, whether they won an award or not. I'd like to read about what you like, whether you do it in five words or five hundred. :)

[Catpho]

32 minutes ago, Maribo said:

Tower of the Night Seer

It's by RonnieJamesDiner. Rest of the credits are found in the OP.

Cool write-ups. Lists are good, espeacially when there are rationales behind them.

[Ludi]

The fact that rd made my favorite slaughter map ever in only 3 hours is fucking insane. I am biased obviously but holy shit it's so good.

[Bobby :D]

1 hour ago, Maribo said:

Thank you for making such a good closer, Bobby. 

Thanks so much for the kind words.

Also, thanks @Korp for the perfect midi.

I'll write about my favorite WADs of the year in another writeup thread, I can contribute a map writeup after I'm done :D

Edited December 12, 2023 by Bobby "J

[Maribo]

6 hours ago, Catpho said:

It's by RonnieJamesDiner. Rest of the credits are found in the OP.

Fixed, thank you for healing my bad memory.

 

5 hours ago, Bobby "J said:

I'll write about my favorite WADs of the year in another writeup thread, I can contribute a map writeup after I'm done :D

Eagerly awaiting Crackowards 2023!

[esselfortium]

Thank you for the BTSX writeup!

[TheShep]

This is pretty good. Not sure if I have Afternoon, but if I don't, I will :)

[baja blast rd.]

<3

 

Also shout-out to @Korp for my MIDI too! 

[suzerduzer]

I missed out completely on Afternoon, I'll have to check it out at some point. It's insane to me how many MIDIs Korp has created in the past year or so lol. I don't want to write an entire post about it so I suppose I'll say it here that I was quite happy to see El Viaje de Diciembre take one of the runner-up awards this year. The atmosphere it creates really captured me, it feels very lived in, but also like it died long before you ever arrived. Its really inspired me and influenced the current project I'm working on.

Edited December 13, 2023 by suzerduzer

[Peccatum Mihzamiz]

Thank you! *happy cry emoji*

[LadyMistDragon]

In no particular order

 

"Always Got Her Head in the Clouds" from I CAN'T GIVE YOU ANY THING. Part of this might be just the use of "Corridors of Time" but this map is a vibe like little else and what's more, it plays in a manner that's closer to being traditionally challenging, whereas I arguably relate more to the shades of mood in other maps, but they don't play quite as well, imo

 

"Chicocos S.A" I think Ciudad Empresarial might be considered a little bit better, but the combat here is just refined to a knife point, and barring one kind of odd storehouse room at the exit door, this easily wins out in my mind!

 

"Jaded" Well, map 02 most specifically, but this is a map one can get lost in for quite a while. The secret fights are a nice supplement, combat is all around solid without feeling unfair, the vibe is depressing but divine, and overall, I can really find little of fault here

 

"Garden of Plagues" The monster-less beginning might be the best part but the menace promised by the music never really recedes, even in safe areas, and while I can't say I enjoyed this to the same degree as Jaded, it still has its moments, and that last fight kind of just blew my socks off!

 

The Safariventure Map from DBK03. Probably I'm just a sucker for maps where you ride a boat, but regardless, it's pretty cool how we eventually circle back out from the temple here.

 

"Temple of the Blood God" from Mysterious Mayan Madness. Mostly the way we end up leaping off the back of the pyramid for the very last key under a hail of fire.

 

"Into the Underworld" from the same wad is an Indiana-Jones-esque madcap adventure through a series of old-school temple traps I can't really complain about!

 

"Love" . For a guy who's reportedly lukewarm on the holiday, the various sound and sprite replacements sure feel inspired. It plays quite well too!

 

"Desecration of Memory" I'll write more about this later, but basically it's a map with a serious creepy vibe, a puzzle or two and a stirring surprise awaiting those who reach the last 40 percent of the map or so. The ending is just flat-out epic!

 

"Trouble Over the Rainbow" - Might be the best thing released as a single unit on GZ Doom this year that plays like you expect Doom to play, albeit with scripting. If you dislike it, than you're most likely a monster who can't appreciate beauty, just saying

 

"Witch's Flake Candy" - You really don't have to be familiar with the show this map's based on at all to appreciate the thought and care that went into creating this highly colorful neighborhood. It's just so funny to break into apartments and disturb demons with their eyes glued to the ol boob tube.

 

Dee Legit's Chasm remake - I think this was supposed to take the structure of the original Chasm but this mysterious and profoundly beautiful crystal cavern is nothing like the original map! The kind of moodiness that to me is just entirely inrrestible/

 

"The Cognition Engine" - Great concept, great atmosphere and highly solid concept.

 

"UAC Bioweapons Lab" - The first map more specfically, this is a great rendition of a military base and containing custom enemies that are actually quite well utilized. Also a good map to get lost in, tons of little busy detail can be found here but never in such a way that playability gets impeded.

Edited December 14, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[Master Medi]

There are plenty of maps I've played this year that I really liked but I only felt like talking about one in particular

 

GARY.WAD (single map e1m1) by Gary Kwaak

 

The map starts you off in a room with 4 weapons (BFG, Plasma Rifle, Rocket Launcher and Shotgun), you continue thru the level until you teleport into a room full of hitscan just to reduce your health a bit, the next teleport you take is where the fun starts, the first thing you see after the teleport is 2 barons that can't move because shotgunners were placed too close to them and they block their AI which means they cannot attack you, your goal with your very limited ammo is to kill only what's necessary to progress, using the stuck AI to kill the enemies that block your path you finally reach a teleport that puts you in a room with ammo and what seems to be a lift but unfortunately the lift doesn't lower so you're stuck there and that's where the map ends without being possible to finish (also there's no reachable exit lines :P)

 

Anyways, I just really liked the idea of stuck monsters that can't attack (only if you're in melee range), low ammo and killing what's necessary to progress

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aekJJ6u5ztA (Playthrough of GARY.WAD until the lift)

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by Master Medi
didn't see that there is an actual exit line, just that it's impossible to get to

[Kinetic]

I haven't played much stuff this year besides whatever you see in my runography from this year, which is mostly non2023 stuff, but some maps did stand out to me from this year:

 

1x1 other mentions:

 

suis french name fireblu map by dashie and brendan:

 

I already professed my love of Fly, and while all the 1x1 maps were excellent, these also stood out to me. Dashie's fireblu architecture and light sequences were so damn good in that map, to me it honestly was about as dazzling as Gateway to Shangri-la (although the helix light sequences in that map are virtually unmatched). The curved light sequences and lines were especially pretty to me. My favorite room in the map is the newest and best iteration on the rev staircase premise I've seen: the room is gorgeous, the architecture and playable geometry is very unique for both rev staircase fights and fights in general, and brendan absolutely nailed the gameplay for that fight. The revs just wash in from the top of the stairs like a slow but insurmountable tide, and there really is no comfortable way to BFG them nor can you spam them down due to limited cells, so you have to let the sniper cybers do the heavy lifting in that fight. The best analogy I can give to the feeling of that fight is being a boat in rocky waters in a small storm, it feels a bit uncomfortable and uneasy but it's steadily thrilling. Brilliant fight and the map as a whole was visually dazzling.

 

womb etched into time by xulgonoth:

 

I think I already wrote about this map? it doesn't really matter. The map was definitely an experience to play in the middle of the night on stream, just trying to logic/bruteforce my way through the puzzles. The map is very disturbing and impossibly huge at the start before you've explored all the areas and figured out the other world teleport gimmick, but even after that initial creepy and huge feelings go away, the prevailing sense of place is still there. What an absolutely unique and fresh take on the "inside a fleshy organism" setting for a map. With the SPFACE texture choice and the 1 of 1 idea to scroll the textures the way they scroll, along with the sense of scale, no other map within this setting's category feels like it, you just actually feel like you're in an enormous organism and the organism feels way more real than any other time you've been in a fleshy organism in this game.

 

ether rain by akolai:

the puzzles were super fun to figure out, even though the board puzzle wing had me going crazy on stream, which is fine because i'm just kind of dumb. It was still a lot of fun. What impressed me the most about the map was the end sequence, the way the light orb things just close away is super super cool, and I'm sure it wasn't the easiest effect to create so that was really awesome to see, I was very impressed with it visually.

 

redrock map by nef:

 

i know the title but too lazy to spell it out. The lush lighting with rockred is too good, and I think the balancing of megaspheres in this map is probably the best I've ever seen, I simply played the map and it was perfectly balanced on UV. I liked the circle fight and the black rectangles at the end before the final fight. Very fun map and I'm biased towards breakcore so yea I enjoyed the map a lot.

 

////////////////////////

 

D5da3 maps:

 

I barely played much else this year that also came out this year, but I did enjoy some D5DA3 maps.

 

Map38 (?) Meme Machine by phoenyx:

 

One of my favorites from the set, such a mad scramble at the start to get away from the viles. Actually somewhat reminded me of Where's My Water, the levels where acid from the top of the level puts you on a timer so you gotta get the water in the shower before the acid ruins stuff.

 

Map34 chicken barn farm music map by lonely:

 

Probably the most unique map in the set from a combat perspective, it is just absolute pandemonium at the start and you'll probably die a bunch before you can luck your way out of it. What sets it apart from another map where you get a similar result (terrarienn's map16) is that that map is a meme (in a good way) and has much more simple dynamics but map34 there's more going on and there's more the player can do to try and get a foothold while the map still pushes back on that very hard. 

 

Map04:

 

just a lot of fun and cool riff on the poog31 gimmick dubz established. Very fun for max and pacifist.

 

Map97:

 

something about the music and tower defense/plants vs. zombies vibe was really cozy and fun about this map.

[Phoenyx]

23 minutes ago, Kinetic said:

Map38 (?) Meme Machine by phoenyx:

 

One of my favorites from the set, such a mad scramble at the start to get away from the viles. Actually somewhat reminded me of Where's My Water, the levels where acid from the top of the level puts you on a timer so you gotta get the water in the shower before the acid ruins stuff.

Glad you enjoyed it, definitely my favourite too of the five maps I made. Has my favourite MIDI of the ones I made too. I didn't know how well the idea would go down but it seems to have been received pretty well. <3

[Master Medi]

After realizing that the idea was to write about what didn't make it to the cacowards and looking like a fool LIKE A FOOL

 

I'll get another pick that matches more with the thread

 

Exoterrestrial Map05 (Stellar Tides) by NoReason

 

It's hard to pick a map from a NoReason set because I think all of the maps have their own cool fights and they look super polished, but I'm gonna go with Map05 because the last fight has an amazing arena and a lot of monsters so you can't just beat it with luck, you have to understand how to move around monsters, plan what resources you grab and what resources you save for later. It's hard but rewarding once you feel like you can circle strafe safely without getting blocked by flying monsters the battle is mostly over (unless you're me and you do great the first attempt, die to a dumb moment and you have to retry the fight for like 30 time)

https://imgur.com/a/cQnT357