my 300-word reviews (most recent: Way 2 Many Dead Guys by Urthar)

[baja blast rd.]

I have written 3000+ words about some individual maps before. I believe it would be very doable for people to write a whole book about most mapsets (and some standalone maps) without straining for substance. But that can be exhausting and I want an outlet for writing about levels that doesn't end up scope-creeping into a burden. So every review I post in this thread will be 300 words long tops. If I backtrack on that you can call me out on that. No ratings, not my style. :P 

 

TBA: Table of Contents 

[baja blast rd.]

Mutabor by tourniquet

one vanilla-compatible map for Doom 2

 

 

 

Levels where "everything looks the same" aren't everyone's cup of tea, but Mutabor uses this design style for a rare, peculiar effect. Deep into one playthrough, I started getting genuine deja vu in the particular oblong, green-and-beige pipe-fitted area I was in  -- I've been exactly here before, right? It looked so familiar. But I knew I was more than halfway across the map from UV's spawn point (which differs from HMP's and from the "Onslaught" mode's spawn points). I had to check the automap to be sure. The disorientation was unsettling and it felt like this slime city at the edge of reality was unending, in a way that Miasma alludes to but Mutabor now seemed to more deeply embody. It's made all the more strange by how the numerous "backtracking fights" -- duplicitous encounters that get you in your return through an area -- feel impossible to keep track of. Those setups, which play into the idea that the layout is some intelligent structure that can disassemble and remake itself on a whim, are the defining gameplay trope of Mutabor (the root word being "mutation"). 

 

There's nothing unprecedentedly dark and grimy about the look of this wad -- the most common color wavelength is a bright green, and some of the city textures are outright cheery. zzzv's background music is quirky but not dark either. The combat -- which is a mix of light incidental scuffling, modern-Plutonia minimalist "smart monster placement" fights, some occasional higher-bodycount arena battles, and some gimmick fights that are scattered about -- is not even especially difficult; if you can handle the middle of Speed of Doom, you'll be fine here. Despite all that, it manages to be very unnerving in a unique way. You can sure feel stranded in the infinite labyrinth. Everything fits within vanilla's blockmap limit, somehow. 

[Li'l devil]

Let's take this idea further and write reviews in haikus or something

[baja blast rd.]

Sunlust by dannebubinga and Ribbiks

32 Boom-format maps for Doom 2

 

   

 

  

 

The big thing to understand about Sunlust is that it's half dannebubinga. He's the soul of the megawad's defining combat style: his preoccupations (bloody mixed-horde moshpit fights; open-plan sandbox slaughter; PE gangs; timed setups where the incoming second wave forces you to do the first one quickly; and endurance fights built around a fun repeated tactic) establish much of why it's so consistently enjoyable, and he proves Ribbiks's peer at building an atmosphere.

 

What makes Sunlust special among hardcore wads is not raw difficulty (many releases, some involving these very authors, outdo it there comfortably). It's the pacing, and even more, the range. The seemingly patchwork structure would give the wrong impression of the authors' control of the experience. Few wads escalate from near-traditional intensity to borderline insanity like Sunlust does, while also treating the easier parts as so important: the breather maps, and the early game's wonderfully flowing "Plutonia meets microslaughter" phase. Sunlust has a strong handle on the 'semiotics of danger'. If you want wow factor, it's easy to drop an enormous horde, but this duo does that sparingly, despite the late game dipping into macroslaughter. They rely on striking encounter presentation and on clever concepts. When excess happens, it registers as a "holy shit" moment, like map20's cacoswarm or map24's imp exit-party or map28's [redacted], rather than being the desensitizing norm.

 

There's plenty of levity -- breather maps and easter eggs and silly intermission messages -- but at the end, Sunlust marches into a crushing abyss. The lategame void has few pwad rivals in oppressive feel and in charismatic viciousness, which peaks in the iconic "Go Fuck Yourself," such iconic moments being Ribbiks's biggest contributions. Thanks to the build-up, when you finally reach "God Machine," it feels like something you've been waiting for, or fearing, your whole life.

[Grain of Salt]

Quote

Sunlust by dannebubinga and Ribbiks

 

This one definitely rings a bell

[baja blast rd.]

Japanese Community Project by various authors

32 limit-removing maps for Doom 2

 

   

 

  

 

The character of JPCP is very personality-driven, which has become increasingly common in post-2020 group projects (Solar Struggle, Pina Colada). In 2016 JPCP felt even fresher, infused with a playful energy that is not the comedy of a jokewad, but rather an unfettered conception about what a Doom map can try to be.

 

burabojunior has seven maps, which I hadn't registered until now, because his maps skew briefer -- and the burabojunior of the explosive, hyperkinetic, fodder-stuffed space bases and energy plants is markedly different than the one of the (comparatively) calmer gothic temples and fortresses. The beloved visual artist Nanka Kurashiki has four contributions that each emphasize very different attributes: ambience/storytelling in "Remind"; amusing scripted, on-rails gags in "Nandeyanen"; imposing atmosphere and architecture in "Cakravartin's miscalculation"; puzzles and conceptual gimmickry in the iconic "my fav," a literal fruit salad which spawned "Do You Like Caco?" Toooooasty, who also contributes four maps, is a wizard when it comes to map concept and theme: one level turns the automap into a comic book; one stages a hilarious bank robbery; and his standout "hazmat hazama" tosses tatters of distinct themes into a brain-screwing reality blender. 

 

Around those authors, it's like the Community Chest series all in one -- a highlight being Masa's "HeLLport," whose design style, grand scope, and mournful mood would fit right into Alien Vendetta. JPCP's contributors seemed to never think of Doom as an ultraviolent video game (burabojunior's hyperbloody maps are consistently "silly"). Instead they find their calling in worldbuilding, mood, and quirky ideas. JPCP regularly evokes certain classics, so it's less the outsider art of creators who had no roots, and more a montage of familiar styles being piped through a unique, atypical prism. To me it's the best Community Chest-like megawad, with Nova II coming a close second. 

[baja blast rd.]

Way 2 Many Dead Guys (Beta 1) by Urthar

5 Boom-format maps for Doom 2

 

   

 

  

 

Urthar is best known for his efforts in the style of Quake, but the unfinished W2MDG remains my favorite work of his. It was formative in my love of Shapes in Doom. Every map is built around its own shape motif, like looping semi-circles and triangles with beveled corners. The nonorthogonal architecture is designed to accommodate Doom's standard texture lengths, and this sometimes required multiple attempts* at areas to get right.

 

Outside of that, the overall craftmanship is strong. Urthar gets how the stock textures work together, finding far-flung combinations and unusual recontextualizations that jell. The best are creative composites, like BROWN96 and BROWNGRN being combined to form a grimy dirt-caked wall. The texturing and detail, combined with the shaping, gives the set a sleek, futuristic sci-fi character. It evokes a modernized early Doom 2 starbase not so much through greatly increased detail as through amped-up stylization. 

 

Maps two to four, despite not being large, have an expansive character and wondrous mystery to them -- with secrets and dark side areas that lurk behind windows and gratings. The level design is consistently smart in how objectives are broadcasted, and in the subtle ways you can transform the environment. The creepy atmosphere hits the strongest in the dark sewers and empty back alleys -- or when odd shapes recur close-by at different scales like fractals, which creates the vibe that maybe the world was twisted into these forms. Fans of easier wads will appreciate how Urthar prefers using lots of Doom 1 popcorn enemies, and how Doom 2 enemies like revenants are treated with reverence, as if a group of three can be a mini-boss encounter. 

 

The abrupt hell finale is the clearest sign of unfinishedness, but even in this form W2MDG is very worth a play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*source of dev pics 

 

^{(what do you mean that "W2MDG" is cheating to lower word count I'd never do such a thing)}

[Daytime Waitress]

1 hour ago, baja blast rd. said:

The texturing and detail, combined with the shaping, gives the set a sleek, futuristic sci-fi character. It evokes a modernized early Doom 2 starbase not so much through greatly increased detail as through amped-up stylization. 

 

This is a really good point: it's not just using more, it's using what's already there with a whole heap of panache.

 

1 hour ago, baja blast rd. said:

Fans of easier wads will appreciate how Urthar prefers using lots of Doom 1 popcorn enemies, and how Doom 2 enemies like revenants are treated with reverence, as if a group of three can be a mini-boss encounter. 

 

Being one of those fans, I'm consistently impressed with how this set keeps pressure on you not just through numbers or higher-tier enemies, but angles: it's constantly tasking you to blow a hole through a squad and move between relative safe points, but there's always a window or a slit in a wall where some shotgun puke can get a bead on you from your "cover".

 

I probably never would have seen this mapset without this review, and if I had, the "beta" tag likely would've put me off.

Community service, this, rd!

[baja blast rd.]

<3 

 

Angles is a very good way to put it!

 

As visually appealing as the designs are, the layouts are clearly thoughtful in how they allow enemies to behave. There are setups where like an enemy closet will be released in another room as part of a trap, and the monsters will fluidly path over into the room you are, rather than pooling up somewhere or being caught in geometry. Hints at designs being remade for that reason too. 

 

It's one of those reminders that very well thought-out gameplay is not just about setpieces and difficulty (and I say that as someone who has no problems playing wads like Abandon and the Stardates), and that easier-leaning gameplay can still be very well thought-out instead of being purely about satisfaction or player empowerment.

 

I'm going to try to do more of these reviews. It's one of my favorite formats. The first three (Mutabor, Sunlust, and JPCP) were wads I had really wanted to write something about for a while, but my plan is to pick slightly more obscure wads from this point on.