The DWmegawad Club plays: 10x10, Heartland, Sigil II

[Ravendesk]

7 minutes ago, RHhe82 said:

What is a Zzul method? I think the name refers to a speedrunner...or a challenge mapper?

Both. Map 07 style (both visual and gameplay) is heavily inspired by some of Zzul's works, in particular The Event Horizon and Zzul Bases. There are also many small details that reference Zzul works like the shape of platforms in platforming sections, for example. A homage of sorts, but lunchlunch's own style is of course very prominent in this map as well.

[Celestin]

MAP07: The Zzul Method

 

Named after the guy who made Dimensions, The Zzul Method is a grand, imposing map set in the black void with a surprising amount of verticality and platforms. It's the kind of visual style that Sunder popularised and many challenging maps adopted since. The texture set (mostly metal and slime) helps making this place cold and uncaring for your struggles.

 

The very first fight is a considerable roadblock and an example of using the least amount of monsters to screw the player over. It's only four chaingunners, three cacodemons, two revenants and one archvile, but damn, it was tough. In the end, I just thing the RNG was on my side (or again I accidentally stumbled upon the solution) when cacodemons tanked the enemy fire and I focused on the archvile. Then, after some platforming over the void, you enter a large, slime-filled building where the rest of the map takes place.

 

Most of the fights here are small-scale traps that lock the player in a cramped room, while monsters fill the space. The toughest one is the red key encounter. You are given a BFG to defend against a two-wave teleport ambush of revenants, while a cyberdemon oversees the room from a balcony. The goal is to make them infight, thin down the skeleton's numbers and finally eliminate the cyberdemon. With the red key, you can exit to MAP08, leaving 90% of enemies alive, or search for the secret stage.

 

First of all, you need the red skull key. If you look at the arena with the first fight of the map, you might notice a switch on a ledge below. It teleports you to a small series of platforms that hold the skull at the end. You can use it inside a hidden room in the main building, which leads into a massive cavern with a ton of monsters waiting behind a slimefall that surrounds this place. It's 500 of them, give or take, twice as much as the route to the regular exit. The archviles were the worst, but because they are all placed right in front of the switch that unleashes all the enemies, the simplest strategy ended up being the most effective: rush B(FG). I don't recommend it if you want to beat the map saveless, it's a risky move but I killed all the viles at the beginning of the fight. With them dead, I just ran around until most of the monsters offed themselves and I finished off the revenant horde that remained, returning to the outside world with the yellow skull.

 

The blue skull fight was surprisingly easy, it's a pit with two cyberdemons, tons of hell knights on the ledge and revenants that appear at some point. It's just provoking infighting and avoiding projectiles until it's time for a clean-up. The final battle, though, is much more involved. This is yet another slaugher fight, this time set on a cramped platform with cyberdemon turrets and a number of archviles packed on the exit. I think this one is a bit easier than the yellow key arena, after a bit of BFG shots I managed to make a loop around the place until most enemies were dead, pump the rockets into the vile crowd and eliminate the cyberdemon. Finally I could exit.

 

The Zzul Method is a tough map, especially if you want to go for the secret exit and struggle with slaughter combat. I think it's just beyond my comfort zone (I saved mid-fight during the final fight), but it felt so satisfying to look at the corpses left behind. Easily one of the wad's highlights.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP07 - The Zzul Method (99%K/99%I/88%S):

This is THE MAP from 10x10 project, a BIG map that looks awesome, and plays like one of those Ribbiks 30 minute adventures you may find in one of his wads (It's actually based on Killer5's maps, also known as Mr. Zzul, based on the name of the map, which makes similar levels like this one). This is standard Slaughtermap at this point. Monolithic, outerworldlish sites in the middle of the void, the usual nukefall textures that are always good in this type of landscapes, and a really nice choice of ten textures/flats made by LunchLunch to tackle the mapping challenge. Amazing work of art here.

Right from the start, platforming, and an already painful area to fight in. You will spot some cyberdemons from far away, but don't be scared, yet. Those will not attack you. Pay some attention, as here you will find the secret red skull key that you will need to play the secret, death route this map has. First let's tackle the main map. In fact, if you want to get to the regular exit, you may actually feel it's shorter than you would expect, that's because the main areas are short enough for you to breathe. After some platforming following the first fight, you will be teleported into the main, central area: a big building with a nice, tech-base complex at the middle, pretty reminiscent to TNT: Evilution's second episode. At this area you will spot two spots, an exit with two revenants, and a big pit full of hell knights. Leave it for the end. I really like its layout. Hit some switches, do some fights, and open the central area where an asleep cyberdemon will be awaiting, guarding the red key that will give you access to the regular exit. After hitting some switches, you will be granted access to said fight. Hey, here is a BFG for your troubles, hope you can use it correctly. Painful fight, but not that much, considering how much of a pain previous fights in the mapset were. The cyberdemon will be spamming you while you try to dodge revenants and hell knight firewalls from higher ground.

There is a random switch in the main building where there is a secret red skull door, here is where you'll need the red skullkey you grabbed at the start, after some platforming. And let me tell you, the secret area is PURE PAIN.

So you where asking where all of those +1000 monsters were? Here they are, as you'll get teleported into a secret, cave area, full of nukage (that luckly does not damage you) full of the hardest enemies you can fight. This is by far the hardest fight in the entire mapset, and hopefully it won't be topped (I'd prefer not to spoil myself watching Decino's gameplay). This is just the begining of your journey to the secret exit. After this fight, you will be heading to the nukage arena with the hell knights I had mentioned previously, at the main building, at one corner. This fight is not that hard, but it is some kind of bullet hell endurance, where you will need to make two cyberdemons infight with the rest of the hell knights and wait. Also, there are some revenants touching your balls, but you can quickly mow them down with BFG blasts. After some seconds, bars will lower, revealing the exit to you, with a blue skull key. You can entirely skip the fight after it.

 

Finally, you can access the secret exit, kill those two revenants and go to the secret map, isn't it? No, another painful fight. Remember those asleep cybers at the start? Here those are, awaking from their nap, with another big horde of enemies in a tight place, where maneuvering will be quite painful. Gliding on the borders of the platform you are fighting to make every single monster infight, was a pain, but I did not find any other strategies for it.

Really fun map, after some pain, you will be granted access to the secret exit, yes, in MAP07, thanks to UMAPINFO, like in Eviternity II.

 

Totally worth the play, but it loses some sense if you don't do the secret fights, as 3/4 of the map consists of them, what a highlight, and a really memorable atmosphere. I'm not that fond with this kind of slaughtermaps, but one from time to time does not hurt anybody. Beatiful overall.
 
Order of Preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP07

MAP06

MAP03
MAP01
MAP04
MAP05
MAP02

 

 

[Klear]

I'm gonna go ahead and just do the bonus level today.

 

MAP31 - "The Anna Dream"

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saves

 

What the fuck. The level starts out pretty cryptic, but the progression actually makes perfect sense if you have brain damage. And I do have that now. Loved the jump at the end. 10/10

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Edited February 7 by Klear

[Hebonky]

Port DSDADoom 0.27.4

 

Difficulty: UV

 

100% kills

100% items

100% secrets

 

10x10

 

Map05- No More Zoomer Girls!

 

Uh huh....

I really enjoy the zen of this map, and it's understated power provided by the midi which is weird for a song from a game about an Island of Dr Monroe situation!

This map has some of my favorite fights in the megawad at this point. The cyberdemon pacifist room is fun, the intro room is fun... all the fights are frantic and incredibly intense... or they would be if the midi wasn't so calming.

 

Video:

Spoiler

 

 

[Hebonky]

Port DSDADoom 0.27.4

 

Difficulty: UV

 

100% kills

100% items

100% secrets

 

10x10

 

Map06- Sad Bastard

 

Well that was true before I played this! This map rules... except for the mancubi fight that one is frustrating and slow, but the combat plays looser a goose and will maul you just as quickly. See this map as a tutorial on two-shotting cybers. The finale is pure, liquid fun injected straight into my veins and like an addict, I OD and run head first into cyber rockets.

 

Good map!

 

Video Here:

Spoiler

 

 

[Zirtonic]

MAP05: No More Zoomer Girls

 

The map title pulled the rug out from under me here because I was expecting something a lot more light-hearted. You have to fight like a rabid dog to survive the blue key encounter and then completely switch gears to (near) pacifism for the red key "Infighting 101" party. That one I had trouble with because I'm a kuncklehead and was punching the air to wake everything instead of bumping the hell nobles like you're supposed to. I was unamused to find the BFG after beating the final fight but at least I know it can be done plasma only.

 

MAP06: Sad Bastard

 

Not sure why the title because this map was a riot! First off, I love the floors in the opening room. Making patterned "carpet" with flats will always impress me. I also loved the presentation of the mancubus room with the fireblu infinity mirror thing going on by the switch. 

 

This is a pretty free form map. I imagine most of us are doing the first room piece-meal but after that you can kind of just hit switches until you think it's getting to be too much. Stephy made a good point about the final fight testing your memory of the level's layout. It has a pop quiz feel to it that put a grin on my face.

 

--------------------------

 

Quick aside about MAP03's blue key fight: The structure in the blue key fight allowing you to see the hell knight's feet is a really clever way to keep the difficulty lower. You can keep a mental tab on their pathfinding such that the fight would still be doable even with your view completely blocked, but lunchlunch knows it's an early map and gives you some extra breathing room. Or maybe he just thought it looked cool. Who knows!

[brick]

MAP07: The Zzul Method
Playtime's over, I thought less than a minute into the map. It opens with some mildly tricky platforming, and even the smaller-scale fights early on require care to avoid homing fireballs causing too much damage. But it's the visuals that really wowed me, this time the texture selection is more varied than before, the end result is a stunning citadel floating over a sea of toxin, shrouded from most sides by a deep void. The citadel itself is not very big but exploring it is a lot of fun, the sections connect very well and the progression is very logical while fully taking advantage of every inch of space. For once the switches needed to get out of lock-in arenas did not bother me, they are very visible and did not feel like time-wasting at all. The main path is not very difficult and despite the large size getting to the normal exit did not take long, but I had seen the other exit sign and knew I needed the skull keys to get it. I ended up having to look up the RSK, I had missed it completely despite knowing where I needed to use it, but once I got it I managed to figure out how to reach the secret exit on my own. That's not to say I did so fairly, as the path to the secret exit turns the map into slaughter and completely different gameplay from the normal one. The YSK was manageable (though I had to reload a couple of times to get rid of the cyberdemon before he splattered me), but the BSK was insanity, especially with the archviles running loose, and I eventually resorted to god mode. The final fight was almost easy by comparison. I can't complain though, I loved the normal path through the map, and I think it's a brilliant idea to create such different styles for both exits while keeping the more challenging one for the secret. And I cannot stress how beautiful everything looks.

 

MAP31: The Anna Dream
I'm not entirely sure what the map references, of the three inspirations cited I only know The Sky May Be, and this didn't seem to play like it at all. I guess it's maybe because of the texturing choices, they seem completely random or picked to create the maximum amount of visual chaos, I admit there's a certain charm to the mishmash. The gameplay is actually not bad, there are some clever experiments scattered throughout, I particularly enjoyed the three-pronged Sigil-like evil eyes for an early secret, or the silent teleporter maze to the north, the latter in particular could've easily become obnoxious but it is restrained enough to stay on the clever and fun side of the line. The end of the map is a bit strange, there are a few dozen SS to mow through on a curved staircase (easy but repetitive) and then waiting for an E1M8-style floor to drain all the health away. Not very friendly for continuous players, considering the state it puts us in when starting the next map.

[RHhe82]

MAP31: The Anna Dream. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 102/102 K, 8/8 S, 72/74 I. Comp. time 19:01

 

In the text file we are warned that if we didn't like Auger;Zenith's MAP12, we wouldn't like MAP31 of 10x10. I didn't like Auger;Zenith's MAP12. I must admit that I'm not a big fan of this particular school of mapping that at worst is a tedious parody of "my first map in the 90s"; and at best it's Benjogami-style maps that sometimes work for me, but even then they still won't make me want for more.

 

The good news is that The Anna Dream lands on the positive side on the absurdist Doom map scale; it doesn't employ frustrating or plain stupid gameplay elements for the most part -- although the silent teleporters in the door texture maze came close, as did the yellow door that for a moment felt like you couldn't go past it even after opening it.

 

So, I liked it considerably better than Auger;Zenith's corresponding map. Still, not my cup of tea - this sort of maps usually feel like it's made for shits and giggles to play on friends' streams. Sorry. The music's good though; I'm sure I recognize the song, but can't quite name it.

[ReaperAA]

Map07: The Zzul Method

The name of the map references MrZzul (or Killer5 nowadays). Killer5 is a speedrunner and a challenge mapper whose works include the likes of Event Horizon, Zzul Bases and of course... Dimensions.

 

Given the name, you should expect this to be a toughie. This is the first of the big boy maps of 10x10 and boasts well over 1000+ enemies. Though what might be surprising is that most of the high monster/slaughtery fights are actually optional and you don't need to be deal with them to get to the exit.

 

That said, if you want to get to the secret exit (yes, there is one here), you need to beat all 3 of those fights and each of those are quite lethal, though I think the final secret fight (the one on the north east) can be partially cheezed. Start the fight and get some infighting going, then jump down to the damaging floor and stand at the edge of the teleport so that damaging floor doesn't hurt (although cacodemons might eventually get to you).

 

The main "mandatory" fights are more about restricting movement and doing more with less monsters. The very start fight has us doing some precarious platforming to reach the mini-arena suspended above the vast damaging floor area and consisting of a vile, a couple revenants, some cacos and chaingunners. Once you deal with that and access to the "citadel", you have to deal with a mixure of incidental combat and will have to deal with some locked in fights as well. 3 locked in fights to be precise in order to get access to the red key arena, where you have to fight teleporting enemies like revenants while a cyberdemon is taking shots at you.

 

Once you beat that fight, you are free to exit the map. But do you not want to do the secret fights and get to the secret exit? I am sure you do :)

 

 

 

 

Before going to the the secret map, let read the intermission screen:

 

"Hope you enjoyed Map12 of Auger;Zenith"

 

Ooohhh O.o

 

Map31: The Anna Dream

Well, that intermission screen wasn't bluffing. Tons of chainsaws at the start, stuck mancubus and 2 cybderdemons, most of the opposition being SS guys, nonsensical texturing, you name it. Everything so "wrong" and yet it all works. It's weird, but makes more sense that A;Z's Map12. I can see the part where we have to cross the yellow key bars a bit of a progression issue for some players, but other than that, I never felt lost or even felt that I was doing something pointless (unlike the part in A;Z's Map12 where we open doors after doors). Although to the A;Z map's defense, I liked the idea that doomguy consumed those pills in the bathroom and the rest of the map was basically hallucinations of sorts.

 

Edited February 8 by ReaperAA

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP31 - The Anna Dream (99%K/97%I/100%S):

Your price for getting through the secret exit at MAP07 is just a collection of the worst mapping sins ever accomplished by humanity. Door textures for walls, misaligned textures, the usage of Wolfenstein soldiers as enemies, Sigil eye overusage, awfully placed mid-textures, radsuits for a level with little to no damaging floors, Two cyberdemons giving you the back in a tight space, convex sectors or rooms with sharp angles, different heights to sectors at random, silent teleporters, the impossibility of 100%ing items, etcetera. You can see what's this map all about. a Mock 2: The Speed of Stupid kind of deal. Not a fun one. Still, its layout somewhat works at times, I suspect that, with good texturing and monster placement, this one could have been average/ok tier.

The only value it has is novelty. If that's what you would call novelty, as it's inspired on THAT Auger Zenith map, so nothing new is on the table.
 
EDIT: the first sector is tagged as secret, was this made in Slige?

Order of Preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP07

MAP06

MAP03
MAP01
MAP04
MAP05
MAP02
MAP31

 

 

Edited February 8 by DJVCardMaster

[Celestin]

MAP31: The Anna Dream

 

Can I criticise a joke map for not finding the joke funny?

 

The intermission text mentions MAP12 from Auger;Zenith (which I hope the Club will play one day, but that's another story), but I'm not seeing the resemblence. Altered States was able to create a really unnerving atmosphere, keeping you on edge because its simplistic visuals felt so wrong for some reason. By comparison, The Anna Dream is an overdetailed mess that just violates your senses. It was made as ugly as possible, with sharp edges, misaligned textures and Lady Gaga's song as a midi. The gameplay is made up of killing Nazis and navigating random obstacles. The room with teleporting lines or a grid of lifts were frustrating and I get this was all made on purpose, parodying various bad maps, but I just don't find the end result entertaining. Still, it's a secret map after all and a break of sort (it's the easiest level of the wad by a huge margin), so I think I'll turn a blind eye on this one.

[Insaneprophet]

Map 31: the anna dream

 

I dont have a ton to say about this one. Its obvious why its the secret level. If meant to show doom mapping as an art form it succeeds equally to any other abstract style such as dadaism, cubism or surrealism and is just as valid as any painting, sculpture or photography created by the likes of Picasso, Warhol or Dali. If meant to invoke a fevered dream I'd say stop playing so much doom and get to a hospital, you probably have a tempature well over 100 and need an IV drip. If meant to feel like a bad acid trip than its kind of nailed it. 😝

[Klear]

MAP08 - "Cocoa Puffs Breath"

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saves

 

After some fairly brutal maps and... whatever the bonus map was... it's nice to get back to something simpler, somewhat reminiscent of the early maps in the wad. I did struggle a bit in the early phases, though I don't think it's because it was very difficult. I just wasn't quite awake when I played, I think. The visuals are lovely, as always, this time themed around dirt and brown. All in all this was a nice break, offering just enough challenge while not being too hard.

 

Wait. Why is the next room so gigantic I can't see the other end and my FPS noticeably dropped? Why is there BFG ammo and medikits everywhere? Oh... Oh no.

 

Well, I was once again this close to giving up. The poor framerate didn't help (I should have lowered my draw distance which would have fixed it - I have it set very far because this is the first map since I upgraded to Quest 3 that gave the headset trouble, but since I was expecting to give up any moment, I thought it wasn't worth it), but the main issue is that I'm not a slaughter guy. Saving frequently can get you through a lot of stuff, but not when you can't find any semblance of safety anywhere. I tried various things, but to be honest my strategy never evolved beyond "run in various directions and pray to various gods". Eventually I risked a save hiding behind a giant panted cyberdemon ass, and slowly clawed my way into some semblance of maybe living through it. But it was really tough.

 

I see now I spent half the playtime in the final arena (though to be fair a good chunk of that was searching for the switch to start the mayhem in the first place).

 

Well, two maps to go. I've come too far to give up now, I guess. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Celestin]

MAP08: Cocoa Puffs Breath

 

There's a lot of brown here, with the main theme being brick, stone and various natural textures. Cocoa Puffs Breath starts with a series of fights that range from forgettable to solid (the latter being an U-shaped staircase that throws a lot of hell knights at you, while arachnotrons and mancubi attack from the high ground; once again, infighting is the key to securing enough space to move around and fire rockets at crowds). I could do without the cyberdemon, he's rather awkward to take out, but that's the sole part of the map I consider to be bad.

 

Then you reach a massive cave, with cells laying all around and only a handful of monsters patrolling the place. If you check the kill count regularly like I do, you should notice only 170 out of 1600 enemies are dead. What follows is the biggest fight in 10x10 yet, a gigantic massacre where you hold down the fire button and annihilate crowds of monsters with a BFG while avoiding projectiles of all sorts. What an awesome spectacle. After a minute or two, crowds of imps, flocks of cacodemons, revenant hordes and several cyberdemons were dead and I began eliminating the stragglers. I don't think it's an unreasonable fight, after a couple of attempts I completed it without a mid-fight save, more experienced players will find it manageable. To me, someone who doesn't usually play slaughter maps, it was an exciting setpiece and probably my single favourite scene of 10x10 so far. 

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP08 - Cocoa Puffs Breath (100%K/97%I/100%S):

Well, let me tell you in advance, I don't fancy that type of gameplay that much, talking about the last arena.

It's a brown map, but still, an amazing texture work by LunchLunch considering he decided to make a map with a set of textures of only one color, and particularly an ugly one. The map gives you that "Old megawad" look at times, with all those corridors, rocky/brown landscapes, and because of some of the areas. Gameplay so far is the usual "10x10" gameplay up until the last fight, in fact, it was quite an easier map than previous ones. I have to say I was enjoying it, the fight against the hell knights at the U-shaped staircase (That I did first try!) was quite fun.

The last battle was just the type of gameplay that I consider stupid: plain BFG slaughter. As I'm more of a "regular gameplay" enjoyer, I usually get overwhelmed in these kind of situations. Luckly, after several tries, and a lot of save-spamming, I found a way to tackle this area. It was a bit rage-inducing for me, but quite satisfactory after you beat it, to be honest. I should not say that "hopefully this is the hardest fight in the megawad", as LunchLunch will be surprising me in a bad way, and we are still not at the end of it, as there are two more maps left.

This map was not for me, for sure, but it wasn't bad, I appreciate the looks of the final arena though.

Order of Preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP07

MAP06

MAP03
MAP01
MAP08
MAP04
MAP05
MAP02
MAP31

 

 

[ReaperAA]

MAP08: Cocoa Puffs Breath

Looks like someone had quite a breakfast when naming this map lol. As the name might suggest, the map's textures are very brown to a point where Quake would blush. All of the textures/flats have shades of brown. Still, despite the monotone theme, the aesthetics are quite pleasing. The grandiose and combat is scaled back from the last map for the most part. The encounters feel more similar to the likes of Map03 or Map04. The fight with the cyberdemon, revenants, cacos and hell knights can be easily dealt with by immediately killing the closet revenants and then hide in their and lure cyberdemon rockets to hit the cacos and hell knights.

 

The U-shape hell knight fight is pretty nasty, which is why I recommend to conserve as much plasma ammo from earlier as possible since it can come handy if you get surrounded. Another fight with hell knights involve 2 archviles in a center small room and some imps in a window. This fight can be dealt easily by immdiately killing the imps and the archviles with RL before starting dealing with HKs. Somewhat tricky fights, but nothing out of the ordinary.

 

However, all of this said, if you have the stats on, you will notice that you have only killed 170-ish out of 1600+ enemies. Where are all of those enemies. In the big final room of course. Probably the single biggest (in terms of size and number of enemies) fight in the wad up to this point. You do get BFG, plenty of cells, rockets and also some megaspheres. Still, the number of enemies here can easily overwhelm you. While I don't have a concrete strategy for this fight, it isn't all too bad and I managed to beat the final fight without saves after like 2 or 3 attempts. Overall a much easier map than the last one and one that I can probably could've beat saveless, even if I am probably not gonna bother with that now.

[RHhe82]

MAP08: Cocoa Puffs Breath. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 1619/1619 K, 2/2 S, 102/113 I. Comp. time 28:38

 

Back in brown. The first part of the map is a breather after some of the previous maps. I released all the hordes for maximum infight, although I'm not convinced that was the right strategy. On the other hand, I was mostly dying to the chaingunners released somewhere.

 

The entrance encounter to red skull key; the fight in the staircase with hell knights and arachnotrons was far harder for me. I feel I wasted the megasphere there. My strategy was desperately trying to thin the other hell knight crowd while at the same trying to position myself so that they would infight manc and arachnotrons. Then I'd to shotgun the switches in the hurt floor alcoves and eventually escape the arena while the monsters are still fighting.

 

The chambers with imps, hell knights and archviles was easier, although amazingly I'd just get hit with high damage rolls over and over again.

 

And then there is the cavern. I've gone back to displaying tallies on HUD all the time, but even without them it'd been clear that numbers-wise we have just begun. The ensuing chaos is immensely enjoyable. The architecture reminded me of Darkwave (which is a good thing), and I only wish there hadn't been initial long distance snipers pre-populated there - but that's a minor concern.

 

Me likey.

[stephyesterday]

i'm a tad behind, been busy with other things and just wasn't feelin doom atm. but here's two more maps

 

MAP07: The Zzul Method - Maxed (105% kills, 99% items, 100% secrets)

This was... a lot. This map is an enormous amount. Both in terms of effort and bodily strain, it's just so much.

 

The very first fight is a great example of what can be done with smart monster usage and placement. It has a whopping 11 guys and is a complete pain in the ass. I don't wanna talk about how many times I fell off while fighting. Speaking of falling off, platforming! I think platforming is cool. The secret red skull area is a little silly, though. Increase that screen size, baby.

 

The main area is incredibly striking; my zzul knowledge starts and ends at dimensions (from a spectator's pov. lmao.) but I caught whiffs of maps 01 and 03 throughout. Something about the usage of ambush monsters and all the individual rooms full of tripping linedefs makes the interior seem much larger than it actually is. I kept thinking 'I swear I was just here' and a hell knight and some zombiemen are just waiting for me. Anyway, the real meat of this map are the secret fights.

 

The one that I assume is dimensions map01 actually gave me the most trouble. Getting everyone to infight and hoping and praying that the archviles won't zap you took many MANY deaths. I don't know how on earth those archviles kept harassing me, don't they have an infight tolerance of like one??? There is no goddamn way with all the shit flying everywhere constantly that they aren't getting hit at LEAST once, bro. grow up

 

Next the cyber/hell knight/boner bonanza. I recommend bringing one of the BFGs with you before engaging, else it gets very hairy. For me the hell knights almost always end up killing the cybers after booking it, or at least one of them, so it's not tooo bad. Just hope the cybers don't splash you. Last fight at the secret exit is just ridiculous. I loved it. With each death I adjusted my prioritization just a tad; there's a lot of moving parts, and a lot of different things can go horribly wrong or horribly right, depending on what dies from infighting first. All around a crazy experience of a map.

 

MAP31: The Anna Dream - uh (99% kills, 97% items, 87% secrets)

Quote

I love stupid maps so much man. I enjoy shit like Her Prospering Little BSP Tree from Goodwad, so this was a treat for me. The care put into this to look as fucking miserable as possible absolutely rules. shouts out to the mancubus stuck in the wall, someone free him :(

 

There's an actual map under all this dogshit, too. It's not hard by any means, by far the easiest map in the set, but the part where you're shuffling through sectors to press the crusher switch that you KNOW is there only for a nazi to pop out, forcing you to wake up the cybers that are right behind you, is a lot of fun. The insane silent teleport maze was frustrating at first but then it got funny. I'm pretty sure getting all items is impossible unless there's a void glide in all this nonsense or something.

 

Honestly, this is the perfect reward for diving through all the secrets of The Zzul Method: something silly. Didn't max it, I both felt that it was fitting and also realized I should probably just cut my losses when I shot a sigil eye only for it to make a noise somewhere in the map that I have yet to find. peak doom, i think

[Zirtonic]

MAP07: The Zzul Method

 

I appreciate lunchlunch making this map because I doubt I ever put in the work to become proficient at Killer5 wads. I'm a sucker for imposing-structures-in-void chic and well thought out combat scenarios. That said, I do think the "secret" fights maybe jumped the shark a bit. I like optional fights but putting 85% of the monsters behind a very obscure red skull key makes them less "secret" and more "missing." I suffered more deaths during the cave fight but found the entrenched emerald encounter a lot more frustrating. I seemed to catch a rocket more often than not and the geometry of the room made running into hell knight projectiles inevitable. 

 

I'm decent at DooM but I still think a lot of this map's machinations are lost on me. Someone with more skill probably respects the fight compositions more than I do.

 

MAP31: The Anna Dream

 

Idk who Anna is but I think she needs to sprinkle Seroquel on every meal for the rest of her life.

 

This map is a shining example of why video games sometimes need to be played to be appreciated. I knew what to expect going in from YouTube videos and whatnot and thought I was going to hate the obnoxious texturing and shameless gimmickry. That all changed when I saw the computer area map. I don't think I've ever wanted a secret more than that one. The audacity to even put a CAM in a map with texture vomit like this made me audibly guffaw. I can't say I love the map as a whole, and I'll definitely skip it on any future replays, but I enjoyed the novelty.

[brick]

MAP08: Cocoa Puffs Breath
Not much I can say about this one. It starts out pretty reasonable, though there are some cramped fights here and there, but the meat of the map is the huge cavern with the big all-out BFG slaughterfest. I gave it a fair share of tries but even with the compromises made for HNTR (no archviles) I could just not survive the hundred revenants, even the invulnerability sphere wouldn't last long enough to give me a chance. The cavern itself looks gorgeous though.

 

MAP09: Abuse Me, Darling
Another slaughtermap that I unfortunately did not last very long in, the open arenas with hordes of revenants are beyond my skill and/or patience. Visually it's striking, it's a mixture of some of the wood/metal textures with lava and red rock and a red sky, red is really the predominant colour but the others are used very effectively for contrast. It reminded me a bit of Sandy's E3 hell, except the very limited selection gives the vistas a much more consistent aesthetic, it really looks beautiful.

[RHhe82]

MAP09: Abuse me, darling. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 1136/1136 K, 3/3 S, 62/63 I. Comp. time 41:45

 

The map title sounds something from a Ribbiks wad. Anyway, another big boy map that I really liked. *Most of* the fights were just in my reach to manage without midfight saves, although I think I might have lucked my way through a couple of them, like the cacocloud fight.

 

One fight I'm still not sure how on earth would you survive. I'm talking about the "Ear Rape" fight. The way I did it was just shoot rockets into the crowd, back down slowly and then dodge the fleet of missiles for quite some while in the big arena, long enough until I can enter the corridor where the ear rapists emerged, enter the teleporter to the final platform area, and then cheese the rest of the fight by returning to the corridor thru the teleporter, shoot rockets, back off into the teleporter, wait, rinse and repeat. It's a bit boring and far from elegant, but no way I could have done it otherwise*.

 

Great map! Looks great, plays great.

 

 

*) Afterwards I watched Decino playthrough: Of course I could have just circle-strafed around the arena - however, I had a lot less cells at the start, so I think it took longer for me to the get the tailing revenants out. Ah well. Tomorrow, in my final capsule review on 10x10, I'll be saying that this mapset is a sort I'd love to replay, and this fight is a prime example: it's an isolated combat encounter, it's difficult for me, but not so far above me that it'd be frustrating or overwhelming - but something, I could see myself survive elegantly.

[Celestin]

MAP09: Abuse Me, Darling

 

Welcome to hell. Red rocks, lava, skin and wood is a rather predictable template for an infernal map, but once again, LunchLunch does a fantastic job with geometric patterns and mesmerising tapestries. This and the light cycles add a lot to a map that even by itself feels monumental.

 

The grand scale and tons of monsters at once should be something to be expected at this point, Abuse Me, Darling is indeed a series of slaughter fight, but aside from the very last one, I managed to cleared most of them with 3 tries max. MAP09 uses a number of arenas that gets swarmed with enemies of various kinds, but with careful movement can turn into massive infighting, allowing you to attack priority targets. The blue key fight is one such example, with two cyberdemons and hell knights on the ground, while two bleachers of revenants fire a barrage of missiles. My first attempt went surprisingly well - I eliminated the bulk of hell knights, the cybers died of infighting and I was clearing up the revenants when I face-rocketed myself when running up the stairs. After reloading a save, I completed this one without issues. A three-way fight against imps, pinkies and a flock of cacodemons and pain elemental was also challenging, since you are given a lot of rockets and not enough cells. It was a tense fight with all the lost souls zipping around. The final fight is definitely the hardest, it's a small and rather cramped platform with balconies and columns choke-full of revenants, hell nobles, yet another cyberdemon and an archvile that is hardly an issue, since I just rush him with a BFG (thanks for secret cells, BTW). Unlike the rest of the fights, this one can't be circle-strafed to death, even after the cyberdemon was dead, the lack of space made firing rockets towards the revenants a risky task.

 

There are some sections here that I like for their shock value. Like opening a door and seeing a gang of archviles running down the stairs. But what takes the cake is the blue door, labelled as "ear rape" and a ludicrous horde of revenants behind. What I don't like is the presence of platforming. I know it's a staple of challenge wads nowadays and I freely admit I'm not the best when it comes to moving from small one column to another, but those parts slowed the pacing to the crawl and forced numerous reloads. Nevertheless, Abuse Me, Darling is a map that left me awe-struck with its visuals and tough, but entertaining combat.

[Klear]

MAP09 - "Abuse Me, Darling"

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saves

 

Oh dear lord this was long. I'll keep this brief and just go through some of the highlights.

 

- The very first room was absolutely stunning and I stayed there for a while admiring it since I knew things are gonna go crazy soon.

- The platforming was utterly miserable for me.

- I got completely stuck after the second big fight. I think I managed to get through it on my first attempt which was kinda surprising, but I missed the door hiding the vile staircase and instead saw a way open allowing you to backtrack past the two cybies I ran past, so I spent a ton of time looking for progression in every wrong place, but more importantly I wasted way too many cells to get rid of the cyberdemons. So far lunchlunch has been pretty good in resupplying you with health and ammo before every major encounter so I wasn't too worried, but I only had two BFG shots left for the vile staircase and I just couldn't make it work. During my attempts I had a feeling the BFG might be a bit inconsistent - something that's always in my mind when using it in VR, since it used to actually work wrong in QuestZDoom in the past due to the devloper's misunderstanding of how illogical the weapon is. That has been fixed thanks to my prompt, but I'm still paranoid about it.

 

Anyway, I eventually reached the conclusion that there's no way I can pull this off with the ammo I'm carrying and decided to IDFA rather than starting the level over. I did find the secret megasphere, so the cheat basically didn't do much beyond topping off my cells. After that I spent some time trying to figure out the BFG, something I should return to in a custom-made map. Being blasted by a dozen viles is not the perfect testing environment. I actually killed all the viles during this experimentation and just went ahead with the map.

 

- Managed to get past the ear rape in a few tries, only to find out there's the biggest platforming section yet and all the revs have a clear shot at me while I'm attempting this. Damn. Time for some very awkward cleanup. No idea what's going on with the teleporter back to the arena, as it sometimes shot me high in the air instead.

 

- The final fight looked tough, so I soon realised the best way to go was to run away and wait for things to cool off a bit. But... there was that platforming section in the way and there was no way in hell I was gonna repeat that. But I found the ledge leading to the last secret and that does teleport you back to the finale, so that was obviously the way to go. I spent so much time trying to pull this off. Turns out dropping down to the ledge is no easy task with an analog stick, but it's way harder while there's enemies pounding on you from most sides. I tried and fell and tried and fell and at that point I got interrupted, so I took a brief pause and then went back at it. I removed about 5 minutes of failed attempts while splicing the two videos because it's really just be falling in lava and blowing myself up over and over again.

 

- When I finally got it right, turns out, remaining on the ledge is still very challenging. See, I have no legs in VR. My position is the point exactly under my head. Which means when I physically leaned to the side to get a better angle at the enemies above me, I tended to fall down into the lava. Argh!

 

Well then. This isn't brief. This isn't brief at all. Whatever.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[ReaperAA]

MAP09: Abuse Me, Darling

Now this is a map that almost seems (at least to my eyes) like it came straight out of old Sunder. The scale, texturing and combat feels at home in that wad. Now I say this as someone who has not personally played Sunder, but has watched videos of many of Sunder's map.

 

Map has plenty of fights, mostly revolving around intelligent herding of enemies to not get flanked and target prioritization, while making good usage of cells and rockets. Usually, none of the fights are individually too hard, but make a mistake and things can go downhill pretty quickly. The fight arenas are usually separated by some fodder fights or even some platforming.

 

I think the best fight of the map is the fight before the "Ear Rape" fight. The fight starts with 2 cyberdemons at front (who will start roaming), revenants at the sides on top of platforms and hell knights teleporting from back. I focused on BFG'ing the revenants to while moving in circular pattern, while cyberdemons infight with HKs.

 

The "Ear Rape" label itself also gave me a chuckle. You know what to expect. The fight itself isn't so bad and a good figure-8 pattern dodging works to hold the rev rockets until they all come out of the room and you can then circlestrafe them.

 

The final fight is where I got really lucky I think. Despite having a cyberdemon, HKs and platform revenants, I managed to not only beat it on first try, but also barely took much damage. Overall, quite a fun map.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP09 - Abuse Me, Darling (99%K/95%I/33%S):

Yet another hell/wood map, with more rocky textures. The amount of details with sectors just to make cool looking floors is amazing here, but still, you won't need a lot of wall texturing to make something look great with hellish landscapes. Still an amazing work.

Well, this map abused me, but not in a kinky way as the title suggests, this is clearly something straight from Sunder as someone said.  Luckly, its layout is straight-forward. I would call this map simple if it wasn't for every single battle and encounter you will face here. At this point, every single battle has most of Doom II's beastiary in big packs, and even though most arenas are fairly open, there is little room to breathe, making you constantly face enemies and avoid the bullet-hell that will be generated by them. For example, the fight at the blue skull key. Damn, this was a tough one, specially because of the stands with revenants at the corners of said arena, constantly throwing crap at you. By far the worst for me was doing a bad save before opening the "ear-rape" door, as I had no armor and about 60% health before trying to deal with that big chunk of revenants. The last fight before the end was the one that I was scared the most of, as it was in a really tight place, but for some reason, this was the fight that I had the least amount of trouble, and luckly, as I played for long enough to split my play-time through this map in two days. 

The worst, by far, were the two platforming parts, and as I spoiled me watching Decino, I will suffer a lot with it tomorrow. 

Order of Preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP07

MAP06

MAP03
MAP01
MAP09
MAP08
MAP04
MAP05
MAP02
MAP31

 

 

[Klear]

1 minute ago, DJVCardMaster said:

The worst, by far, were the two platforming parts, and as I spoiled me watching Decino, I will suffer a lot with it tomorrow. 

 

Uh oh.

[Hebonky]

Port DSDADoom 0.27.4

 

Difficulty: UV

 

100% kills

100% items

100% secrets

 

10x10

 

Map07- The Zzul Method

 

There are two ways to approach this map, as either a person familiar with Zzul's work, or one who is not! For this review I have played all the maps that are referenced here.

 

The first area reminds me of the secret exit of map05 of Zzul bases, where there were inescapable pits throughout the arena, the same textures are also used here, that being blue carpet and the doom 2 city level glass. Now the main area's exterior is a reference to The Event Horizon, with it's slime, metal, void, and cyberdemons that float in towers in the distance, it even uses the grey brick texture!

 

The interior of the main structure is Zzul Bases map03 through and through, many computers and doom 2 city level textures here, There is another area that references the secret level exit in Zzul Bases, but with the invisible maze instead! There is a platforming secret in the darkness which reminds me of the intermission areas in The Event Horizon.

The First secret fight in the green slime references the final secret fight in The Event Horizon, and the Final Secret fight References map 32, Sanctum, of the same WAD.

 

The fights are all wonderfully punishing.

 

Video:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Map32- The Anna Dream

 

WTF is this?

 

This map is made up of the leftover scum at the bottom of this wad, it's where leftover textures go to die.

Amid the.... Fortress? Is the base of operations of the SS who have been hiding in the secrets! Two cyberdemons that get turned into hamburger, and a mancubi who got stuck :(.

I really have nothing to say!

 

Video:

Spoiler

 

 

[Insaneprophet]

Map 08: cocoa puffs breath

 

I have to say it again, I really really like this map! And I couldnt be more surprised than anyone! I dont really love slaughter or even super little challenges but I do love big maps and I guess I like big maps that have some of everything. I know I like adventures and that I do want my adventures to be dangerous. Well what could be more dangerous than spelunking down into a massive cave system that has been over run with hell spawn, fighting your way though from the mouth of the cave to assault the defences and eradicate the infestation at its source in the heart of a massive cavern spewing forth untold, unheard of and never before seen hoards of monstrousities in waves beyond comprehesion. None of the fights here proved to be extremely hard, they all killed me a bunch of times, but finding a strategy was pretty easy and what I ended up with was a series of seriously enjoyable encounters of varying sizes, shapes and intensities that I couldnt be happier to attempt again and again until I could get them to go my way. Escallating, in its finale, to an enormity that I would find overbereing in every map but finding a perfect home here as the set's first explosion of size and scale in both it's combat and setting.

Edited February 12 by Insaneprophet

[Celestin]

MAP10: lunchlunchlunchlunch

 

I won't try to guess what lunchlunchlunchlunch is supposed to be - it feels like cold, concrete abstraction, accented by slime and stuck somewhere deep in the void. Just by looking at the map you can tell it's going to be the ultimate challenge of 10x10. The midi by msx2plus helps building this uneasy aura.

 

MAP10 features some of the hardest encounters of 10x10, with the first one being a secret computer area map early on. You are teleported into the middle of a bridge, with two mobs of pinkies on both ends and cyberdemon snipers on the sides. The provided rocket launcher can clear the demons, while you dance around, avoiding enemy missiles. But it's nothing compared to what comes later. The blue skull key is protected by a hundred or so hell knights that pour out of a monster closet into a rather small room. Few things in Doom made me feel this powerless, it's like a tidal wave that keeps coming, while you are constantly on the defense, retreating further and further. If you're not killing them fast enough, the hell knights will clog the room completely making it impossible to move around. In the end, I emptied by BFG the moment they appeared and stayed in the centre as long as I had rockets. This thinned them out enought to make the place traversable. The blue key arena has to be the toughest fight in the wad, it gradually releases archviles and while there are enough supplies, this one fight proved to be way above my capabilities of completing it without mid-fight saves. It's very easy to get overwhelmed here.

 

There's also this one fight on top of the pillars, where you need to deal with cacodemons and revenants, but I think you can get back if you fall (I just reloaded everytime I fell and learnt later that there was a teleporter). The final fight is a ball-buster, it's another tiny room that quickly gets filled with mid-tier demons and prefers to give you rockets, rather than cells. Once again, focusing the BFG on the closest enemies seemed to work the best. Once they are dead, there's one more platforming section to do and The 10x10 Project is completed.

 

No doubt the difficulty soured my experiences somewhat. I've said earlier that 10x10 feels a bit above my comfort zone, meaning it's hard, but not punishingly so, motivating me to try harder rather than feeling discouraging. This is why lunchlunchlunchlunch, despite its compelling presentation and some of the more creative setpieces, wasn't as fun to play as maps before.

 

MAP11: No Exit, It's Over

 

An archvile-filled square with no exit, preventing you from reaching the regular maps.

 

Conclusions

 

The 10x10 Project was a wad I was looking forward to play and I wasn't disappointed. I know there are several other mapsets that work with a limited set of textures, but the only one I've played was 50 Shades of Graytall, where creating a working map was a challenge. With "essential" textures and a bigger selection for each map, LunchLunch had more room to work with. As a result, maps in 10x10 look great, with the limited set enforcing a certain aesthetic. All the levels are richly detailed, with floor patterns being the clear winner here.

 

10x10 was clearly inspired by challenge wads, with visuals that invoke works of Insane_Gazebo and Killer5. This extends to the gameplay, starting with MAP04, you should expect monster-dense fights that at some point reach slaughter territory. I do think 10x10 is more accessible than its inspirations though. Personally I consider myself a below-average Doom player and the bulk of the fights were within my capabilities to complete without mid-fight saves, with the archvile arena from MAP10 being the sole exception. I felt empowered after beating 10x10, it is tough, but not unreasonably so. 

 

In the end, I had a lot of fun here, with fantastic visuals and hard, but fair gameplay. I'm glad I finally had a reason to play this one, I strongly recommend The 10x10 Project, especially if you look for a challenging, but somewhat condensed map set.

 

Top 3 maps (hard to choose from, as I like all of them, aside from the secret stage):

 

MAP09: Abuse Me, Darling
MAP07: The Zzul Method
MAP04: Hey! This is Library