What is your opinion on Thy Flesh Consumed?

[BUYXRAYS]

I have heard both praise and ridicule about Thy Flesh Consumed. What is your personal opinion on it?

I personally think it is my 2nd favorite doom episode. But it is impossible to beat Episode 1.

[LadyMistDragon]

It's quite good, and actually the only original Doom episode I might replay sometimes. Sure, I don't really care for the aesthetic but at the same time, it's well-designed in basically every other way.

 

 

[Amaruψ]

It's a mixed bag in my opinion. Certain maps, specifically the ones designed by Romero and Dr. Sleep are quite good. Others like the ones from McGee that're small yet provide a decent kick, then there's the boring ones by Willits. 

 

Maps like E4M7, E4M2 and E4M6 surpass the quality of those in Inferno.

[Lucius Wooding]

It had the best of maps, it had the blurst of maps.

[kevansevans]

Genuinely think people's opinions on its difficulty is over blown. Difficult? Sure, I can see that angle, it's the 4th episode after all. Unfair as people have acted like it is? Nah. I've pistol started those maps and had a grand ol' time just fine. Sever the Wicked is my favorite in the set.

[Mr. Freeze]

I love it. 

[Biodegradable]

It's good fun and while, indeed, its difficulty is a little exaggerated, it's a great way to ease new players into what they could expect from community-made WADs. I'd say it's my second favourite Doom 1 episode after E1.

Edited February 10, 2024 by Biodegradable

[Explorer of Time]

I hate E4M6 with a fiery passion because I once spent half an hour trying to find the way out, only to die to the damaging floor, but otherwise I don't have strong feelings one way or the other.

[JoJo_BadDoom]

A very fun episode, fits in well after playing doom 2

[Kor]

I like it. Its looks good and plays well. It's hard for me to decide whether it or episode 1 is my favorite. It's certainly better than episode 3.

[Uncle 80]

It's a good set! Good looking, well playing maps in my opinion. It deserves its place as Doom's 4th episode, despite not having a unique final boss or a less cheesy ending screen.

[Uni]

I think it's a fantastic episode which introduced the iconic theme of green marble, wood, metal and the orange sky combination. Shawn Green's E4M8 is his best map by miles and E4M3 is not bad either. Romero' maps are definitely the highlights and McGee's maps are rock solid, especially E4M1 which is iconic for having almost no health pickups. 

 

Kind of unpopular opinion but I don't really care for Doctor Sleep's E4M7, it's bland for my taste. E4M5 by Tim Willits(and Theresa) is the weakest by far in the episode, it's a big mess of a map. I strangely like how E4M9 is just a techbase instead of continuing the theme, I always wondered if it was on purpose because it's in the secret map slot.

Edited February 10, 2024 by Uni

[Gifty]

The sequencing is a little weird but overall I think it's a lot stronger than Inferno. I like it a lot!

[yakfak]

that fake wall which conceals a teleporter ambush in E4M1 makes it really hard to assemble patch-bashing texture packs in vanilla cos I always forget which texture it's using and end up making something which crashes the game

 

that's my main opinion of it right now lol

[drygnfyre]

The actual gameplay is fun. The issues I have are the pretty typical ones: the difficulty isn't linear like you'd expect, the first couple maps are much harder than the rest. It also doesn't really make sense from a plot standpoint, since it's supposed to be sort of in between Episode 3 and Doom 2, but it's not clear if it takes place on Earth, Hell, or even Heaven. It almost makes more sense if it just comes after Episode 3 and isn't in the same continuity as Doom 2 at all. (And nowadays I guess Sigil and Sigil 2 come after E4).

 

Main annoyance is it doesn't have any original music. Even Episode 3 had a few original tunes, IIRC. Again, I get it was just thrown in as a bonus for buying the retail version of Doom, but a little more effort would have been nice. Same with it lacking a proper intermission/map screen.

[Betelgeuse]

It's solid, I've never actually finished it tho.

[Astar]

From a visual point of view - very good

 

E4M1, hands down, has a excellent design

[TheMightyWhoosh]

My first encounter with Thy Flesh Consumed was on the PlayStation version back in 199-something, so only played through the non-omitted E4 maps. They stuck out as the highlights though, particularly the E4M1 from a pistol start. 
 

Edited February 11, 2024 by TheMightyWhoosh

[DoomPlayer00]

Episode 4 has some of my favorite maps from Doom 1 (Perfect Hatred & Against Thee Wickedly) but also some mediocre ones and the most forgettable secret level, at least for me. The broken secrets in maps 3 & 7 trigger me as I tend to go for 100% completion on repeat playthroughs of Doom 1.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Visually, I like it.  The new sky is cool and the general theming of the texture choices is good too.  Reuse of both the sky and the texture choices in PWADs might be rather "overdone" now but the widespread copying of the theme was deserved praise.

 

Gameplay wise, the difficulty curve is a mess.  E4M1 is way harder than a start of an episode should be and E4M2 also feels anomalously hard for its slot, given that some of the later levels are easier.  Not sure off the top of my head how I'd swap any of the levels around but I feel like they probably could have been.

 

Story wise, the retcon of the rabbit head at the end of E3 being Doomguy's beloved pet is goofy, but especially nowadays with the modern sequels and all their ubermacho "Doom Slayer" shit that kind of comic relief foil is welcome (and the sense of humor is characteristic classic id, much like the "I and the other Vorticons you haven't slaughtered" bit at the end of Commander Keen 3.  Probably Romero's doing.)

[Gifty]

@ETTiNGRiNDER Bouncing off of some of your thoughts, I would love for the community to hammer out a more natural sequence for the E4 levels, maybe starting with E4M4, and saving the unholy trinity of M1+M2+M6 for later on. If it threw in new unique midis and Skunk's custom intermission map it could be called "Thy Flesh Improved" or something.

 

Edited February 11, 2024 by Gifty

[Downcologo one]

In my opinion the best episode of doom I love its difficulty its levels its sky although it falls a lot in e4m4 and e4m5 then with e4m6 an excellent episode rises in my opinion obviously with its defects like every episode of doom

[Abandoned_Account]

As a kid i was afraid of its difficulty, now ithink its ok Episode, i dont like big spaces but thats just my taste, there is nothing wrong with episode 4 in my opinion, episode 4 of quake though... but its not about quake here hah

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Until Sigil came out it was my least favourite episode. Now it's in 2nd to last place thanks to Sigil 1. As for my feelings about it directly, let's just say there's a REASON DooM II added the super shotgun. :l

[Cutman 999]

It seems I'm the only person in the world that thinks the episode is bad, and has map that are completely bland, or insufferable like perfect hatred or against the wickedly.

[Raspoza]

I will go on a massive rant here, so excuse me.

Thy Flesh Consumed is probably the best Ultimate Doom episode out of the four. Sure, it can not and never will beat the feeling of playing Knee-Deep In The Dead for the first time and falling in love with the seemingly vast 3d world made out of simple drawn 2d shapes, however, if you would take the rose-tinted glasses with me you will notice how overall superior are Thy Flesh Consumed's design choice compared to the original Trilogy, including the so-beloved Romero tech-bases.

 

Let's start with the first impresions: The aesthetics. Thy Flesh Consumed is probably the most unique commercial Doom map-pack in terms of its visuals; a green marble world being held together by metal supports and wood structures, and my God, the skybox; the polluted orange clouds that make you feel like you're in the end of the world - with nothing more than demonic destruction arond you, all of this contributes to one of the most visually pleasing maps you will ever see out of commercial Doom. The level of detail in the geometry, the color schemes, the choice of texture palette, Thy Flesh Consumed seems like it was specifically crafted to be beautiful, and IMO it absolutely SUCCEEDS.

 

Gameplay-wise Thy Flesh Consumed can be a little back breaking at first, the difficulty curve from Inferno absolutely shows - especially on Ultra-Violence, however, being an expansion pack and a sort of final chapter to Ultimate Doom, it is excusable why they would go for such a difficulty step-up, I imagine the designers - going from the expanded enemy roster of Doom II to the limited and kind of bare-bones roster of Doom I - kinda felt the need to spice thing up a little. However, difficulty doesn't really hurt TFC's gameplay as it's possibly the most varied and fun episode of Doom, TFC has incredibly huge amounts of verticality, non-linear design and action-packed fights - The design philosophy similar of that of The Plutonia Experiment of making compact but punchy maps absolutely goes well with the Doom I enemy and weapon roster. Of course, Thy Flesh Consumed is not perfect, as I feel exploration is kind of neglected, however, maybe it's best to have smaller maps that are easy to learn rather than big confusing maps that feel like are crafted specifically to make you rage.

 

Story-wise I'd say TFC leaves it to the player's imagination the most, which isn't necessarily bad, but in the case of this episode makes it feel kind of out-of-place if you as a player was genuinely invested on Doom's story and keeping track of everything that ocurred between Doom I and II. But again, it doesn't really hurt the overall quality of this small action-packed expansion. TFC will always have a place in my heart, it is probably the reason why I love Doom I so much and kind of prefer it over Doom II (without considering Final Doom and user-made maps, of course).

 

[Donowa]

i personally think that tfc has really fucky level order, the earliest maps throw a ton of cruel traps and swaths of beefy enemies at you, and the theming leaves a whole lot to be desired since it's supposed to be on earth, but i think it's better than plutonia in those regards and is a whole lot better than e3

[Mr. Cowboy Zombie]

I dont like it

[june gloom]

I wrote the episode up not too long ago but the short version is I don't really like it. The theme isn't as interesting as Inferno's (or SIGIL's, for that matter) and the levels are too much of a mixed bag for the episode itself to be anything more than a curiosity, something to entice owners of Registered Doom to buy the retail version. The only level I really like in it with no qualifications is probably E4M4. I think I'd like E4M2 more if that first level wasn't so rough, but there's nothing that'll get me to like E4M6.

[pcorf]

The maps look great. But there are only 3 really hard maps E4M1, E4M2 and E4M6 with the 3 less difficult maps in the middle.

 

Maps should be in this order.

 

E4M1, E4M4, E4M5, E4M3, E4M7*, E4M2*, E4M6*, E4M8#, E4M9

 

* Cyberdemon

# Mastermind

 

E4M1 has the best gameplay I think, no health (it was stolen) on UV but not too many enemies. You can hide and snipe the shotgunners to collect ammo from them and build it up to the Baron battle. It is also necessary to use the pistol at times.

E4M7 may look better with the Dr Sleep night sky.

E4M4 would be better with Doom 2 textures (BSTONE, etc).

E4M9 is not very fearful.

E4M6 is the best map in TFC.

Edited February 12, 2024 by pcorf