Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #079

[ICID]

^{(logo by @4MaTC)}

 

ICID, what the hell is this now?

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures is a small project of exploration, interaction, entertainment and reviews where we meet once every two weeks to select random WADs in search of hidden treasures, lost promises, or our worst nightmares! We use the /idgames archive’s special feature that lets us search for random files. Of course, sometimes the results are resources or unplayable stuff, so we focus on looking for WADs. 

 

So, what do we do here?

1. Play at least one random WAD in a two-week period of time. WADs are selected using the Random File feature on /idgames or from the list below.
2. Post a review of whatever you play.
3. Always provide the name of the WAD, the name of the author, and a link to the file.
4. Play however you want, on any skill level, and with any source port, as long as you play the WAD as intended/in working shape.
5. Be respectful. It's okay to criticize a map, but remember that many mappers read these review threads and behave accordingly. Also, please don't tag mappers into a negative review of their work. 

 

What kind of WADs are we looking for?

Any file on /idgames is fair game, but most of us choose to stick to singleplayer Doom or Heretic WADs that work in our sourceport(s) of choice. If you're worried about finding Terrywads or broken files, I also pull at least five random WADs for the event. Feel free to play them with me if you wish, or look for your own! The point of the event is to encourage you to explore this vast, random world.

 

Recommendations for reviewing:

Spoiler

1. Please take screenshots or video of your adventures.

2. Commenting the source port and difficulty level is not required, but provides helpful context to your review.

3. Try to stick to no more than 1 WAD per day to avoid burnout, but this part’s all up to you, champ!

4. Reviews of all formats are valid. Both longform and shortform are good as long as you write with integrity.

 

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures of this event:

 

1. This Ain't No Slipgate Project!
2. Factory
3. Leap of Faith
4. The Imp Fiesta
5. Days of Xornox: The Ice World

 

Spoiler

The Top 10 (out of 71):

 

1. @Roofi | 8610

2. @LadyMistDragon | 5245

3. @Sena | 2665

4. @Walter confetti | 2635

5. @ICID | 1840

6. @brick | 1795

7. @Endless | 1260

8. @Thelokk | 725

9. @Clippy | 610

10. @smeghammer | 425

 

Join the Doom Master Wadazine community for more events like this! » https://discord.gg/Q2RKn4J

 

And check the Doom wiki for the full list of past adventures.

[Clippy]

79 oh crap thats so many

[ICID]

We'll hit 100 before the end of the year! :)

[LadyMistDragon]

Mentzer7.WAD - For Doom 2 (1995) by David J. Hill (Crispy Doom)

 

 

Quote

A.K.A. Its about Time!

Mentzer 7 (finally) Well, Folks here is the 7th in the Mentzer series. I know it took a while, but its here and it Kicks ASS!! Without a doubt this is the best of the series. Smaller more compact maps has been the battle cry (Mentzer3, 4 and 5 are quite spacious for 2 person deathmatch). This wad Jams in both solo play and deathmatch. This wad has great replay value - so many different possibilities. Have fun - HAHAHA!

Fiction.wad series Mentzer7 will be released along with an update of Mentzer6 in a 2 level wad called Fiction1.wad. Also, Mentzer8 will be release with a revamped Mentzer5 in a wad called Fiction2.wad. The modifications to Mentzer5 and 6, will be to improve the playabililty. I gurantee they will ROCK.

TNT: Evilution At this time our team is negotiating with ID software for the sale of our 32 level wad pack for Doom 2. It looks as if ID will buy our levels and release it in Februray '96. All the levels are excellent - you have to play this!!! Map01 is the BEST Deathmatch level I have ever played - Hands down. The rest of TNT:Evilution is super; simply some of the highest quality solo play and co-op wads you will ever see. Also Look for TNT2, which will be freeware released on the internet. It will be 32 new deathmatch levels created by the best Doom editors around: Team TNT.

 

So much crap that could be unpacked there but I can't be bothered with that right now. Anyway...

 

 

David J. Hill stands out to me as the designer of the notorious Map 08: Donnybrook (hmm, Americans won't know that term most likely) from Icarus: Alien Vanguard. This map here was designed as a deathmatch map initially with monsters getting put down later. It's got quite a lot of inspired detail though and is small enough that it's hard to get bored. Computer banks are cool, or the closet with the megarmor or the cool semi-circle linedef surrounding the Cacodemon...with SHAWN but I mean this is made by an Icarus designer, give 'em a pass! Either way, this is a cool map and much better than most things I've played by TiC mappers of this calibre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ldoom mapping contest (2008) by Various (Crispy Doom)

 

This little Czech-based project seems to have been only uploaded in 2010 and was led by none other than Kama Sutra co-designer Method! Plutonia 2 contributor Pipicz who's probably best known for his megawad Bloodstain, also contributes a map, along with a ton of people that are basically no-names and newcomers. Basically, it's kind of a speedmapping project with Quake II textures, though not with entirely Quake II thematics. The shotgun is replaced and has a more beefy, realistic sound but the sprite replacements are, well, someone's picture of what badassery is. And to be fair, those Pain Elementals and Lost Souls have some rather intimidating designs. But it's probably the sound effects for the most part which impressed me the most. Listening to the Barons and seeing them expire were probably the best aspects of this. Although it should be said the sprites all complement the aesthetic rather well.

 

That being said, it was determined that there wasn't enough time for this after the first couple of maps so let's just talk about what was played!

 

Map 01: Boy, we're sure left wanting for ammo, eh? This particular map follows a certain Kama Sutra convention of withholding powerful weapons until thing get too repetitive and difficult to hold back. Unfortunately, you can forget about a Super Shotgun for this map, which wouldn't be so bad if the fight around the last key was a) a little smaller and b) a little too cramped to promote the ideal amount of infighting. And that stupid Chasm ledge can go jump off a well, you know.

 

Map 02: Ammo is still rather tight, but it's better and secrets will actually help more than a degree. The outdoor canyon at the beginning is pretty cool. Ending wave of Revenants could be more inspired I suppose, but it ain't bad!

 

Map 03: Best map so far! Large outdoor canyon map with base placed every so often, plenty of ammo, (though in certain places like caches). Plenty of enemies to match as well!

 

Overall, 8/10 for what I played!

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 10 Day 22

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] The Night Train by @Enderkevin13 (2015)

 

Quote

 

 

I admit I've never been a fan of train-themed levels in Doom. They were fire during the early 2000's of course, when the doom community was toying with the fresh zdoom features but the concept got old.

 

This kind of concept naturally results into a linear and cramped level which feels a uncomfortable for me. However, "The Night Train" was short and easy. Each wagon contains a different combat scenario and the last one concludes with a cyberdemon to kill but it's ridiculously easy to cheese. You just have to take the plasma gun and kill the cyberdemon from the window whereas its rockets can't reach you.

 

Although this wad alone wasn't enough to get me hooked on the gimmick, it was nevertheless well executed.

 

Grade : C+ (11/20)

 

I stop here for today.

[ICID]

 

This Ain't No Slipgate Project! (2006) by Ivar "jallamann" Remøy

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: GZDoom via Delta Touch}

 

The final work from early Doom adopter jallamann is this short n' sweet little ZDoom WAD. The plain environments rely heavily on the source port's dynamic lighting to look good, but look good they do, and for once the on-screen text telling you you've turned on a computer or whenever actually helps guide you around the map and add a sense of atmosphere to the thing instead of just being jarring and out of place. Combat is solid but unmemorable and it ends with you shotgunning a baron to death in front of a nifty-looking teleporter. Not bad!

 

Factory (1996) by Sam Robison

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: PRBoom+ via Delta Touch, complevel 3}

 

Oh, dear. A 90s eyesore packed with misaligned or missing textures and bizarre aesthetic decisions, with consistently opaque and frustrating progression and utterly trivial combat. The one thing I will give it is ambition - the mirror maze full of crushers or the water tower you have to slowly fill with switches aren't particularly fun, but they're at least memorable, which is better than many 90s WADs can manage.

 

I also admit to being amused this text file description: "Basically, I had a weekend of nothing but free time, narcotics, and doom. This is the result."

 

 

Leap of Faith (1996) by Robert Heaney

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: PRBoom+ via Delta Touch, complevel 3}

 

Another 90s map I would describe as "ugly but ambitious" - the jagged opening where doors are represented by random, often misaligned textures is especially jank. The main attraction here is the titular "leap of faith" - as the text file explains, after grabbing the yellow key and BFG you have a choice between jumping into an inescapable death pit and hoping you hit a teleporter on a pillar, or running back through a large number of hitscanners. It's pretty bold to have a 300-monster map in 1996, and even if you don't turn back at the key you'll face some fairly serious slaughter-lite fights. Those with a high tolerance for ugliness and confusing 90s WAD progression will probably consider this a hidden gem; I had a decent enough time.

[brick]

Brick | 2 wads | 2 maps

 

This Ain't No Slipgate Project (2006) by Ivar "jallamann" Remøy. 1 SP map for Doom II in ZDoom.

My opinion on this is not as positive as ICID's. The wad looks ok (though not as good in my screenshots), but I found the gameplay subpar. Just the shotgun and chaingun against mancubus, revenant, and a baron finale did not make for engaging combat. The only real puzzle was finding the battery, which I got stuck on for a few minutes after I'd already killed everybody because I did not walk through the one marine corpse (out of many) that happens to have one (it's not visible in any way as far as I can tell). The scripting is simple but well done and stays away from cutscenes and the like, which I appreciate, the little messages are good and turning on the gate was actually a good moment. Until I had to shotgun that damn baron.

Spoiler

 

Factory (1996) by Sam Robison. 1 SP map for vanilla Ultimate Doom.

Here on the other hand I'm with ICID, it's not a pretty map but it's full of interesting ideas. As far as I can tell the map is nonlinear and there are multiple ways to progress, I ended up going east and getting the red key first, which meant I skipped the whole middle and southwest parts of the map. The crusher maze was definitely memorable, the water tower is more tedious than anything but I can appreciate the idea, and I liked the cyberdemon finale, that room even manages to look quite good with the fluids mixing and the fight itself is decent (I played it safe and killed him with the plasma rifle instead of rushing and getting the BFG). There were much better wads back then and even earlier, but it's a decent map.

Spoiler

 

[ICID]

 

The Imp Fiesta (1994) by Helioth

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: PRBoom+ via Delta Touch, complevel 3}

 

I grant that objectively, this has a lot of the 90s mapping problems I was complaining about yesterday. Progression is weird, a lot of monsters are stuck in each other, and the whole thing takes place in FULLBRIGHT, with much of the action occurring in a confusing, identical-looking cave system that is no fun to navigate. Also, if you're going for anything close to 100% kills, you're gonna have to shotgun some Barons. But when this is good, it's very good - it has a really cool sense of scale, quite a few interesting visuals, and the final fight gets into full-on slaughter territory with two columns of imps streaming into a room with lots of Barons and pinkies. So I had fun.

 

 

Days of Xornox: The Ice World (1998) by Frank Laing

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: PRBoom+ via Delta Touch, complevel 9}

 

Absolutely top-to-bottom horrible. A set of 5 heavily DeHackEd maps that cranks both your and enemy's health values to numbers so high they can no longer be accurately represented by the status bar and then gives you insane weapons that cover your entire field of view in particles. Most of the terrain has janky ice physics that sometimes bounces you in random directions, sometimes causes you to stop moving entirely, and never ever lets you just fucking walk from any given point A to any given point B. Enemy projectiles also have their damage turned up super high so every projectile impact - which again, you cannot see and therefore cannot dodge - basically makes you rocket jump. I got as far as the awful underwater section in MAP02 before glancing at the text file, seeing that MAP03 took the author himself 42 minutes to complete, and said "fuck this." I am not being hyperbolic when I say that I've played Terry wads that I enjoyed more than this.

[LadyMistDragon]

 

Ldoom (cont)

 

Map 04: Strogg Encampment

 

Ahhhh....Mark Klem midi, compact layout and an all out assault at the beginning that demands one find the weapons at the other end. Unfortunately, this map also has lokk's biggest pet peeve of the starting sector being a secret! This is boom-compatible so I have no idea why that should be the case. Anyways, I could believe that this was Pavel's first map. Sniping chaingunners in raised windows on one path is annoying but on the other hand, rocketing Imps and Hell Knights down a corridor is very fun! Though ammo might just be a touch limited and that last courtyard with the Spider Mastermind could be larger because there are rockets and Revenants on the sides but literally no room to move around! Might be wise to get as many Barons to infight the cyberdemon too, which I mostly did to be fair.

 

 

 

 

Hell's Twisted Inferno (2005) by Andrew "Ninja of Doom" Fernie (GZ Doom)

 

Here we have the first effort of a guy who did a fair few ZDoom mods. This is a map, meant to be the start of a series and clearly taking its visual cues from Quake, though some Hexen-style sound effects were also added. There are quite a few transparent monsters but they're actually not too annoying because of the narrow caverns you tend to meet them in. Like many Zdoom wads of the mid-oughts, it's also quite cutscene heavy, which is about as annoying as you'd expect, but you have to admit, the church scene is hilarious and also justifies the existence of the Realm667 monsters used! Action as a rule is quite constant, and the Imp variety that chucks Heretic golem fireballs is not to be underestimated. The map ends up plunging straight into the crapper when you're forced to fight probably 60 or so Lost Souls with a very limited amount of ammo before being allowed to depart for the next stage. This earned an instant "kill everything" command which isn't really such a big deal because the only real fight after this is with some Imps and Barons across a lava river in a cavern but skipping the Lost Souls would leave you with enough ammo to kill them anyway. But that's only a minor blemish on what's a great map, beyond literally having a structure with the shape of string 7/10

 

 

Edited February 21 by LadyMistDragon

[Roofi]

2 hours ago, ICID said:

and said "fuck this." I am not being hyperbolic when I say that I've played Terry wads that I enjoyed more than this.

 

Yeah I already got this file few years ago and you're not exagerrating.

 

Year 2 Month 10 Day 23

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

indifference.zip by Andy Leaver (2003)

 

Quote

 

 

Qualifying "indifference" as brutal would be way too much but it definitely shows its teeth. No locked-in fights against cyberdemons here but this sprawling tech-base contains loads of low-tiers monsters which have lot of opportunities you to ambush you and attacking from all sides. It's not hard on UV but I spent 15 intense minutes clicking the left button of my mouse in order to get rid of the opponents. Armor isn't abundant contrary to monsters and therefore demons's bites, imps' fireballs and zombies' projectiles sometimes really hurt.

 

Nevertheless, indifference presents first and foremost as a satisfying adrenaline shot that many Doom 2 wads fail to replicate. Maps like "indifference" or Doom E1M6 if I can choose an equivalent from the IWADS are really fun to play because they're heavily populated and eliminating all the smalll enemies from rooms to rooms feel like being the hero of an action movie.

 

"Indifference" also features minimalistic but sharp visuals for a vanilla UD map using only stock assets. The layout is very boxy but it does create a place rich in pathways and featuring fluid navigation. Moreover , it's always pleasing to see properly aligned STARTAN textures. Those are of course a nightmare to use properly when tracing diagonal lines. This map occupies the E1M2 slot and playing this map feels like gives the impression of being in the dark labyrinth of the original map all the time, except that here, the density of monsters and the brightness are much higher. Indifference resembles a bit like a maze as the height variations are very anecdotal but it's fortunaly easy to know where to go.

 

In conclusion, "indifference" is a little forgotten gem on the UD scene. This map features incessant combat and scenery that was quite polished for its time (this isn't 1994 either). There's a remarkable dynamic aspect to this map, which encourages player's and monsters' movements. This map didn't leave me indifferent.

 

Grade : A- (16/20)

 

Got stuck by two barons in Sliver (forgot to take screen)

Edited February 20 by Roofi

[Sena]

Pigeon Speedmapping Session 1 -- Operation Health by various (17 maps, 2017)

 

Uncharacteristically for a speedmap WAD, if there is one unifying element of these maps, it is their consistency. On the whole, it's quite middle of the road, with no levels that really stood out to me any more than the others, as while Walter's MAP03 may have threatened to the ruin the balance by giving full weapons and ammo, most the maps rarely have anything higher in HP count than an arachnotron, which also makes these levels typically quick to run through, even when accounting for the moments that heighten the action and demand your full attention. There's enough variety in visual theming and architecture between the levels to keep things interesting, a good experience from a multi-part speedmapping series I'd never heard of. 7/10.

 

Edited February 21 by Sena

[ICID]

 

The Last Hope (1996) by Kevin "Raptor Man" Crawley

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: dsda-doom, complevel 2}

 

Another slice of 90s jank, featuring that most despicable of all Doom mapping sins: the teleporter puzzle. A very obvious secret in the first room gives you a huge stack of plasma to neutralize all enemies with, but at least you get a decent number of demons to use it on. Will mostly remember this for the goofy sector words.

 

 

UAC Tomb (2008) by deathbecomesme

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: dsda-doom, complevel 2}

 

A WAD so busted and ridiculous it had people on /idgames speculating whether or not it was actually a jokewad. Personally I think it's too weird to not be the product of a genuine madman. HOMs, convoluted corridors, a ridiculous number of soulspheres but almost no ammunition, all wrapped up in Wolfenstein-like catacombs with some surprisingly tough monsters, many of whom are born trapped in each other or the geometry.

 

Most notable to me is the ludicrous 23 secrets. Almost every dead end can be pressed to open a secret passage, some of which act like normal secrets, some of which are mandatory for progression, some of which contain huge numbers of unbeatable boss monsters, and some of which contain literally nothing.

 

Kind of a "so bad it's good" experience; it's borderline unplayable, but I truly had more fun with this than some of the other WADs I've played for this adventure just for the sheer bizarreness of it all.

 

 

deathz0r1 (2001) by deathwarrior

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: GZDoom}

 

Extremely simple circular deathmatch arena you can see in its entirety above, accompanied by a pretty good midi arrangement of "Head Like A Hole." Text file claims to use Skulltag features, but I didn't see any.

 

 

Doom: World Carnage League - Concept Level (2005) by Russell Pearson

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: GZDoom}

 

Nifty ZDoom map that plays a little like a 3D sonic game, as you attempt to race to the level as quickly as possible using boost pads and powerups. Took me a couple runthroughs to realize that you get points by killing monsters rather than making it to the end in the time limit - specifically, you have to shotgun 100 imps along the way. A fun concept with a great MIDI, though it definitely needs some fleshing out with more monster and weapon variety. Sadly this is the last we ever saw of the World Carnage League.

 

Russell's a cool guy who made a lot of other impressive ZDoom-style maps and mods, stuff so good that even I as the resident ZDoom crank gotta give it to him.

 

 

River of Lost Souls (2001) by Stitches and Michael Smith

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence, continuous}

^{Source Port: dsda-doom, complevel 2}

 

Six dark, cramped maps with about 30 monsters apiece that dsda-doom tells me I was able to beat blind in 10 minutes and 5 seconds. They all follow pretty much the same pattern: you open square rooms until you find all three keys, then go back to the first room and use them to exit. I suspect one of the two authors was better than the other because though they're all similarly bland, maps 2, 3, and 4 look pretty good while maps 1, 5, and 6 are a total mishmash of random, often intentionally misaligned or cut off textures. As far as combat goes, it's quite trivial even without the fact that you get a BFG and a huge stack of cells in MAP03 that'll completely nullify continuous play.

 

Oddly, "River of Lost Souls" contains almost no lost souls, although it does contain a lot of SS troops (plus a swastika-shaped room in the final map for extra Wolfenstein flavor.)

[brick]

Brick | 3 wad | 3 maps
Adventure | 5 wads | 5 maps

 

Leap Of Faith (1996) by Robert Heaney. 1 map for vanilla Doom.
"Ugly but ambitious" is as accurate a description as any. I don't mind misalignments and don't notice them unless they're really bad, but the random texture choices (especially for doors) was more difficult to ignore. Where it gets annoying is when lift textures are used as doors, and lifts themselves have whatever innocuous texture so that I wasted some time trying to find the way forward. Coming out of Perdition's Gate just a few days ago, which is even older, it's hard to stomach the monotonous lighting and flat corridors. There are clear attempts at setpieces, the octagonal room is the most obvious but most of it can be ignored by just rushing the teleport. I think I have a higher tolerance for "ugliness and confusing 90s WAD progression" than many, but this is far from what I'd consider a hidden gem. Later when I missed the titular leap of faith and ended up dead (because of the lava, not the bosses) I didn't feel like continuing with the wad, there's clearly ambition and ideas but the execution didn't grab me and I found playing the map tedious.

Spoiler

 

The Imp Fiesta (1994) by Helioth. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom.

Everything points to this being much older than the upload date. The text file has that typical 90s "look at this cool thing I did with DEU!", in this case the tunnel (which does look cool and must have taken forever to make). Elsewhere the aesthetics have the equally typical 90s boldness, where making a huge fireblu wall encircling the entire area was a perfectly acceptable choice. I might be poking fun at the map but I can't deny I found a lot of charm in it, there's a very nice sense of scale to some of the architecture and it's clear Helioth had a clear idea of what he wanted to achieve and the skill to pull it off reasonably well. Sure there's fullbright in most of the map, but there are also some cool-looking bits (yes, including the tunnel). I'm not sure if the titular imp fiesta refers to the opening after lowering the walls, or to later on when on the walkway over toxin and the walls lower on all sides to reveal a bunch of them behind bars, but I think both concepts work well (despite, or maybe enhanced by, the use of fireblu in both cases). It's not one of the wads that'll end up on a best of 1994, but certainly a good example of that era's combination of fun and experimentation.

Spoiler

Days of Xornox The Ice World (1998) by Frank Laing. 5 SP maps for Doom II in Boom.

If anything I think ICID downplayed just how truly, truly awful this is. Looking at deh patch and the wad structure might seem admirable at first, there's so many gameplay changes and so many new sprites. Starting the first map I was greeted with a eyesore, that starting room was literally painful to the eyes with so much white in it. Then the truth of the deh changes hit, all the numbers are pumped to absurd levels so that the player has a ton of health, a flamethrower with a ton of ammo that does a ton of damage, but then enemies also have a ton of health and do a ton of damage, so what is even the point of all this inflation? Boom physics are out in full force with absurd friction that makes moving anywhere a pain, on top of enemy projectiles sending you flying everywhere because of the high damage numbers. I couldn't even finish the first map, I got the blue key but couldn't use it anywhere, couldn't get the red key, and the only path forward was blocked by a snowman, which as far as I can tell is unkillable (if they are, they have so much health that I gave up long before getting there). I don't like abandoning wads and not feeling I'm giving them a chance, but I couldn't bring myself to stick to this.

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

LDoom got put on the backburner for now (a particular recent collection got away from me!) but for now, here's one

 

Fallen Outpost (2004) by @RottingZombie (Crispy Doom)

 

A very early effort at a map but mostly not too bad in any way. Two notes though: there's not lots of health around and there's this nasty habit of throwing enemies at you in tight corridors before finding decent supplies. And I didn't find any weapons besides the chaingun so this is a huge problem. The maze was probably the worst part though. A profoundly tedious experience that's actually much worst than killing two mancubi with a single shotgun toward the end. That being said, the well-placed computer banks are nice and add a decent sense of place. The central room with the tech pillars is hard to figure but is quite nice and trim. Still, it's quite a flat map and structure is kind of basic but it's not noticeably bad or anything. 6.5/10

 

 

[ICID]

 

Zaga for Ultimate Doom (2022) by VL2M STUDIO

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: GZDoom}

 

"Zaga" is an attempt to port the same Deathmatch map to every major FPS, although according to the website it seems that the project was abandoned in 2023 after only getting as far as Ultimate Doom, Doom 2, and Heretic. This is the Ultimate Doom version (despite the text file claiming to be a replacement for Doom II MAP01) and it's...nothing to write home about? It consists of two buildings in desperate need of light variation, a moat, and only the chaingun, shotgun, and plasma for weaponry, which isn't going to be very fun. The Heretic version looks a lot more aesthetically pleasing. A cool idea but not very interesting execution.

 

 

WASTE REFINERY (2003) by Simo Malinen

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: dsda-doom, complevel 2}

 

A map that seems to have been guided with no idea or focus other than "I would like to make a Doom WAD". Visuals are haphazard and busy with textures shotgunned randomly onto various surfaces, and combat isn't much better given that you'll have a tense fight with barons and revs followed by several hallways of impotent spectres. There are 32 secrets in the map, most of which are actually normal, unhidden rooms required for progression (while a hidden blue armor was not tagged as such.) It's also way too long for what it is, taking me well over 20 minutes to beat without dying. Not my cup of tea.

 

 

My World (1995) by Brian Campbell

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: dsda-doom, complevel 3}

 

A short and simple map with a lot of green marble and no real surprises but decent weapon balancing, which is always a little surprising for '95 (e.g. the two barons are guarding a rocket launcher instead of just asking you to slowly shotgun them to death.) Also has a mandatory area tagged as a secret. I like the Mission: Impossible theme music MIDI.

 

 

b_risk (1996) by Tanner McCarron

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: dsda-doom, complevel 3}

 

The description for this reads, in full: "Small game; lots of action. You have." Truer words have never been spoken.

 

The text file also claims that you can play this in either Doom II or Ultimate Doom which is of course not true! It's a Doom 1 WAD. What we've got here is a DM map with two nearly identical rooms separated by a large elevator, absolutely packed with rockets and cells. Dumb, but honestly seems more fun than Zaga.

 

 

Random Speedmap to Celebrate 40oz and Bloodyacid's Birthday (2012) by Obsidian

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: GZDoom}

 

A tyson map with a couple custom textures that you can beat in under 2 minutes. You punch some revs, an arch-vile, and a baron in a small room.

 

 

Prentral Cocessing (2022) by Kinker31

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: dsda-doom, complevel 2}

 

A quick map that borrows both an excellent midi and a cramped, slightly trollish design sensibility from cyriak's Going Down, and perhaps the highest compliment I can bestow is that this is actually worthy to be compared to that great work. There are really only four rooms but each one has a unique look and an interesting challenge for you, with the gimmick being that you keep returning to the starting crate area (presumably the "Prentral Cocessing" room) to have harder and harder fights with big groups of monsters. An absolutely delightful way to end an evening after some rather mediocre levels, would highly recommend.

 

 

[brick]

Brick | 2 wads | 2 maps
Adventure | 7 wads | 7 maps

 

Dont Drink The Water (1998) by Ed Cripps. 1 SP map for Doom II in Boom.
A small and quick playing map with not much personality. There's some nice lighting, a room with transluscent lines to simulate imps behind glass (though they can shoot through, and you can shoot back), and a deep water pool with the Boom blue colormap. Combat is made a bit dangerous because there's not much health and plenty of opportunities to lose it between the chaingunners and so many cacos. Ed would later become famous for beautifully detailed and meticulously designed maps as he pushed ZDoom then later GZDoom to their limits, but he was still a long way away from that here. It's not a bad map, just unremarkable.

Spoiler

 

classic2 (1998) by Jan Van der Veken. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom.
While working on The Darkening, Jan was taking breaks and relaxing by... making more Doom maps of course, but in a more traditional iwad style, and these would eventually be compiled all together into The Classic Episode. This was the second map Jan made, it has more E2/E3 vibes with the wood and skull textures, but it looks very good, even remarkably so considering its age, the lighting especially is top notch. Combat is pretty aggressive, definitely harder than the iwad, space can be tight even as cacos and barons are thrown at you; prepare to face some with nothing but the shotgun early on. I found progression frankly confusing; the RSK is the first I found, then I went through that entire western section thinking it would gain access to the YSK, but it doesn't, it's in fact completely optional. What's needed is to pick up the RL to gain the YSK and then the BSK, which takes barely half the map. I haven't played the first Classic Episode in a long time but I remember liking some of the other maps more.

Spoiler

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 10 Day 24

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] hellbell.wad by Joe Winter (1997)

 

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Three key level, designed for cooperative play as well as single play. You'll enjoy this wad if you like a good shoot-em-up game. personally, I'm kinda tired of downloading games with 4 cyberdemons and no ammo. If you have'nt got anything better to do, let me know how you liked it.

 

A typical dull castle from the 90's containing several themes in it but featuring 50 shades of brown textures above all. Your quest consists to find three keys and those require to explore the castle. Most of the areas are quite empty and boxy so they don't mark your memore but one of the first room includes a detailed arch which is probably the main landmark of the map.

 

Fortunately, the gameplay represents the "strong" point of the map if you like killing a certain number monsters without spending lot of your energy. The author is indeed pretty generous with health , armor and ammo. Reading the description, it's clear that Joe wasn't trying to annoy the player.

 

Overall it's quite a generic map but the author also added a custom music, which is a plus. This map occupies Map 02 for unknown reasons. Did its author plan to make a sort of minisode?

 

Grade : C+ (11/20)

 

[2] Taboo Turf: CTF by Jehar (with ctf-ization by Johnny) (2005)

 

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A reworked version of TabooTurf from the Skulltag LMS pack (stlmsv2.wad), but modified for CTF play. I was going to do the modifications myself, but Johnny went ahead and did them for me, much to my angst.

 

An Ancient City used as an arena for the "Capture the Flag" mode and designed for Skulltag. I already saw it in another wad but I don't remember which one (and I don't care by the way). I like how the slopes are used in order to create convincing ruins and natural environments.

 

[3] Tele Mad 1 by Jason Root (Hellbent/Grotug) (2003)

 

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An outdoor map with 8 teleports all going to a pillar in the center of the map with an unlimited supply of health. This is the only place to get any health in the level. Strategy should be fun to employ in this.

 

A random Deathmatch map I already visited in Year 2 Month 09 Day 11. Here's what I said about it :

 

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This isn't the first Jason Root's DM map using this green noisy texture I explored. I've nothing to say about the gameplay because it's totally ordinary. However constantly running in this map with the original Doom's small resolution feels like watching a snow screen. It's funny for a few seconds but I'm afraid prolonged play on the .EXE leads to serious headaches.

 

I ran the map on prboom+ this time and yep, the higher resolution make the green noisy texture a lot less headache-inducing.

 

[4] Density.wad by Andrew Hutchison (1996)

 

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This is my first and only doom level. It has taken over 4 months to realize, so you can expect it to be worth trying out! Being an art student, aethetics and attention to detail were important. (yes you too can produce refreshingly different levels, with the original DOOM 2 textures!)

 

A old newbie map I was supposed to dislike, according to the comments published on idgames but it oozes lot of creativity to me. The level takes place inside a distorted bunker in which you have to traverse several curvy corridors and navigate among diagonal shapes. I know that it's not unusual to find polygons of all shapes in old doom maps but the ones from Density.wad look a lot less randomly designed than I expected.

 

They serve to create a puzzley progression at first because you have to find lot of quite hidden doors, shoot unobvious textures like a bloodfall or just press a lot of switches that reveal as long you progress. What I mention doesn't seem to be very complimentary but what surprised me in this map reside in the ingenuity in some traps. For instance, near the yellow key, surprise monsters closets open at the same time so that you're quickly circled by a small horde of spectres, or as another exemple, the author forces you to pick an invisibility sphere before releasing a swarm of mid-tiers. Also, he lures you with an invulnerability you can't obtain. This map was an unorthodox experience that newbie mappers tend to provide more than the most experimented ones. There's is a cyberdemon in this map, you can even hear its footsteps just next to you but it seems optional because I managed to beat the map without meeting it. There are a lot of strange mapping decisions like this which that paradoxically pleased me.

 

To be honest , this map isn't eye-pleasing but some areas managed to stick in my head thanks to their oddness. There is a blue room full of glowing blue keys which look silly and classy. Another instance is the strange bridge located in the middle of the sky and surrounded by burning barrels. Nothing impressive technically-speaking but I really like all those small experiments.

 

Density.wad was a interesting beginner map to plunge to for me.

 

Grade : B+ (14,5/20)

 

[5] Santas Workshop by MWBF Produktions (1996)

 

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Deathmatchwad for 2 killers.Of course it is great to be more killers but it is made for 2

 

Already played and explore in Year 2 Month 06 Day 03. Here's my first review :

 

"What is the link between a brown medieval fortress and Satan? Probably the low budget Jingle Bells midi  playing in the background I guess. It's pretty disturbing that the author use the term "killer" instead of "player" in the description, as if all deathmatch maps tell the story of murderers hunting each other down. That's pretty gloomy. This map has some zombies and imps to take down by the way if you're alone."

 

I played on prboom+ this time in order to kill the 39 weak opponents. If it's supposed to be a christmas-themed map, it's one of the most depressing I've ever played. Where is the snow? Where are the presents? Where is santa? Why this shitty jingle bells midi? Maybe I'm asking too many questions.

 

[6] prison10.WAD by Dr fred441 (2005)

 

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An early version of a file I will add on to Extensively if interest is great enough.

 

A crappy 1994 map I already played in Year 2 Month 05 Day 15. Here's my former review :

 

"A short 1994 map uploaded 10 years later and to say about it? it's very low quality unfortunately.

 

Doctor Fred created a room just to trap you with a surprise crusher which is extremly simple to avoid. That one room doesn't even have goodies or something else to make it worth looking. It's just here for the crusher...

 

The rest of the adventure involve several barons to kill with the shotgun. Grabbing the RL located on its pedestral triggers the exit.

 

The two advantages of prison10.wad are its short duration and low difficulty, but otherwise I'll never make another visit to Dr Fred again."

 

I launched prboom+ this time in order to try killing the 26 prisoners but I eventually failed because I forgot that the pedestal holding the rocket launcher was actually the exit. I don't really have any compliments to offer but if governments created their prisons in the same way as Dr fred441, the crime problem would quickly be solved as no one would want to go there.

 

Grade : D (6/20)

 

The next file is Hellevator but I don't have the time to play it. I stop here for today.

[LadyMistDragon]

LDoom (cont)

 

Map 05: Quakeways

 

This doesn't play quite the same as the other maps, preferring instead to largely concentrate the monsters in a series of ambushes activated by switches. This is much harder in the beginning when you enter the first outdoor courtyard and a small family of Cacodemons assaults you when the first switch gets pressed in the tower. It's mostly fairly interesting though, with its tight adherence to the Quake theme in both musical choice and map that feels like a Quake II facility. Not really lots to say otherwise, other than not finishing for some reason.

 

 

 

 

 

 

dungeonX (2000) by Richard J. Sham (Crispy Doom)

 

Richard Sham might be best known as the person who announced to Doomworld that Magikal had died, though I think he also has a reputation as a speedrunner in addition to having made several maps of his own. This is one of them. Visuals are quite plain and ugly and rooms are more so than not quite squarish. But take a look at the name. Within this context, it's not so bad and comes off like a sort of paralell to the maps of that other Richard working at the same time, Wiles, who had at least 2 wads make the top 100 list. 

 

Because combat is fairly hard but more than that, it's consistent. The many large and empty hallways (and grass field toward the end) might be quite boring and leave little to the imagination. But at the same time, it tends to mean that you can't just run to a random corner and hide from Revenants for instance because the circular nature of the pillars keeps players from just running behind them blindly and praying the rockets being sent their way aren't of the homing variety. So while in a way, the design takes some obvious thematic influences of the original maps of '94, it's nowhere near as confusing despite a certain lack of refinement but there's clearly enough baddies that you can tell this was made by a speedrunner.

 

But here's where we get to one of the main downsides of this map, namely the persistent lack of ammo. There will be certain locations with caches, just like dungeons, but there appears to be at least somewhat of a bland grind aspect that becomes more evident with the higher percentage of stronger monsters that are encountered.

 

It would have been nice if more situations were encountered like when reaching one end of a particular hallway after fleeing from some Imps and finding a rocket launcher, a closet of shotgunners, chaingunners, Mancubi and Revenants is opened for your infighting pleasure.

 

In contrast, a more patient circling approach to spark infighting is clearly demanded here. Otherwise, you'll have multiple Hell Knights sneak behind you when you go for the yellow and blue keys. And when it comes to the former, you might want to have to have at least 6-7 spare rockets for the Arch-vile pair here.

 

 

Is it still worth playing? Certainly if you're not terribly concerned with 100 percent kills because there's still plenty of extermination to be done even giving or taking 75 monsters or so. Although at the same time, why not mark the exit Richard?? 6/10

 

 

Edited February 23 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

Ldoom mapping (cont)

 

Map 06: Edge of Chaos

 

 

Jaeden is a name I recognized so I thought maybe this wouldn't be too bad. And indeed, that certainly seems to be the case on first blush. We start in a kind of station with Imps and shotgunners on both sides. Unfortunately, this map starts going downhill almost instantly when we enter the power station in the very next room and basically hit a random console to start a series of switches that open doors on both side of the starting room, both with identical layouts and enemy placements and also containing some nice circular vent fixtures we have to crisscross just like that atrocious map 23 of New Doom Community Project. Eventually, we can leave, then rush across a field with Arachnotrons and Mancubi everywhere. I'll give you one guess as to which group will win. Anyways, the map then proceeds to get even worst when we reach a teleporter that takes us back to the power station. Why? Naturally, it's to throw us in the face of half a dozen Barons and like four Pain Elementals!! But it only gets worst.

 

See, you have to enter the side room without a blue door because you'll discover that an other passageway has magically opened up, with a fucking Baron blocking the way that I suppose should've been killed from the outer hallways, especially since soon as we exit this tiny room, we're sprung upon by TWO Archie thingies that we're somehow expected to have saved our rockets for. Don't count on shooting the Arachnotrons outside either, just grab the blue key and run into what easily ranks among the worst design decisions of the past 10 years and that includes all those crappy ZDoom maps! Basically the blue key door deposits into a maze of square rooms, the vast majority containing single hell knights with the occasional Baron at the end of one segment. And we're somehow supposed to discover the plasma rifle, the yellow key, and the yellow door by sheer brute force!!! At a certain point, I noped out of this because of how stupid it truly was. Send this map to the deepest reaches where it belongs. Blood Jungle will surely play for your fucking sacrifice!!

 

(I am not exaggerating how much I loathed this map by the time I stopped btw. Jaeden had to be suffering from Post Traumatic Hell Revealed Disorder, and that might actually have been tolerable were it not for that well...

 

 

 

 

 

SQUALOR.WAD (1995) by Kurt Dillard (Crispy Doom)

 

Hey, it's an infinitely better map than what I played before! Even though it's kind of messy and perhaps needlessly dark! And I reached the unmarked exit within like 22 seconds or whatever, no joke! But there's about as much detail as there can be in the main room with questionable lighting, to be quite honest. Oh, it's deathmatch only. Points for maps that aren't just ledges ripoffs, but the room with the exit inside of it is just awkward 4/10

 

 

Spoiler

 

Edited February 24 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

Ldoom (final map!)

 

Map 07: Quakoom

 

The name is garbage and there are a thousand pop up monsters but this is easily the best map of the set. It might even be better than Method's Kama Sutra efforts. There's a techbase, clearly in ruins a la that previous storied megawad. Monsters have deliberate placement and best of all, Baron shotgunning actually doesn't feel so excessive! While things get pretty crazy, it feels like it doesn't fall back on Deus Vult-esque slaughter necessarily. There's even a little sequence where a rocket launcher in the main courtyard will appear after having killed a certain enemy near the second key!

 

LDoom mapping contest's final verdict is then 6.5/10! One godawful map, and two rather iffy ones, then 03 being questionably-paced keep the score from going too high.

 

 

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 1 map
Adventure | 8 wads | 8 maps

 

The Secret Path (1996) by John Graham. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom II.
When I was reading the text file I found the self-promotion so cocky that I was ready to tear the wad apart for it. Then just a few minutes into the wad I realized that the difference between arrogant and confident is that with the latter the conviction is completely justified. When John talks about the "brilliant architecture" and "clever affect" [sic] that "has to be see [sic] to be believed!", he's not wrong, the map really is impressive, with grand architecture and a ton of detailing. It's one of the early adventure maps, vanilla of course because this was pre-source code and nothing else was possible, and sometimes I honestly found it hard to believe this was all made within the original limits (savegames are of course impossible under doom2.exe, and the text file is very open about this). The map starts unassumingly enough in the original Hangar, where a suspicious door that wasn't there back in E1M1 takes us on a magical ride through a secret underground complex within huge caverns with jaw-dropping architecture (I tried but it's hard to give a sense of the sheer scale with static screenshots), beautiful lighting with some very cool uses (I love the pitch black room where a select few lights suddenly turn on, with the stairs starkly delineated in the shadows), and an ultimately linear adventure but filled with surprises. So many vanilla trick are in here: deep water (various depths for various effects), invisible floors to simulate a magnetic lift, self-referencing sectors that look like floating objects to climb instead of stairs. Fitting for a longer map there are 300-400 enemies depending on difficulty, but plenty of ammo and health so it's not a big challenge (even UV has plenty of Supercharges and Megaspheres). As I mentioned progression is more linear than it seems, the 3 keys are obtained in strict order despite the apparent hub structure, but it's superbly designed and John uses several tricks to make sure you understand what a switch does. Apart from the traditional windows or overlooks where you can directly see the effect, you'll occasionally encounter rooms with an oddly glowing coloured square on the floor, matching an identical one elsewhere, these are always connected to the same switch or puzzle in some way, understanding this early on will net you a secret BFG. John claims he spent a year working on the wad and I had no trouble believing it, there's so much care put into everything to an extent that was not common back then. Really, the only problem with the map is that it strains against the limits of the engine and the tools, there are visible nodebuilding problems in a couple of spots (disappearing enemies being the most obvious), saving is impossible outside of ports, even warnings in the text file about very long load times when starting the map on contemporary hardware. Still this is one of the best maps to come out of 1996, and unless you're allergic to 90s wads you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. The wad is such a great example of quality early wads and such a time capsule of that era, even the text file has adorable bits where John writes with the typical energy of teenage Doomers, and when he mentions his age (15) asks you to "please don't let that put you off". No worries John, it didn't, and I had a ton of fun going through this wonderful adventure you cooked up for us 28 years ago. Yet another 90s mapper that dropped one unforgettable masterpiece and then seems to have disappeared completely.

Spoiler

 

[ICID]

 

Shades of Azure (2022) by Keagan "Dunn & dunn" Dunn

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Hurt Me Plenty, pistol starts}

^{Source Port: PRBoom+ via Delta Touch, complevel 9}

 

Seems like this kinda flew under the radar (or maybe I just missed it) despite an impressive pedigree including playtesting and original music from all the usual suspects (and several ER/iWA contributors.) In terms of polish and presentation alone this is clearly the best thing I've played all adventure - 12 short maps obviously themed around the color blue. Every room is consistently a feast for the eyes and I found myself wanting to take screenshots of every single room while playing.

 

On the other hand, this motherfucker is hard (obviously not helped by my playing it handheld). I switched to Hurt Me Plenty after MAP03's revenant-stravaganza and was still struggling with a lot of the major setpieces. On top of that, the shortness of each map makes them start to feel a little samey after awhile: you usually start in a room with every key door, collect each key in sequence, then walk out to a major setpiece. They don't all follow this template exactly but even at 12 maps there is the sense of banging your head against the wall after awhile, though there are some notable standouts like a spooky, evocative MAP07.

 

This is basically nitpicking slash me saying "don't play this on your phone like I did" though. It's a very solid set I think any Doomer would be happy with, and again, the visuals alone are more than worth your time.

 

 

The Secret Path (1996) by John Graham

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: Crispy Doom}

 

I know I'm "cheating" slightly by playing this but after brick's rave review I just had to see this for myself. I highly recommend anyone else who feels similarly moved to do the same, because The Secret Path is nothing less than one of the best 90s WADs I've ever played.

 

It looks great, but it's hard to capture how great it looks in a screenshot, because Graham's real skill is an attention to detail and atmosphere that can only be seen in motion. For example: somewhat early on you'll find a hell knight across a long chasm, with a small gray incline that says "there's going to be a bridge here." Later on you hit a switch and figure it must have raised the bridge, so you go back. But thanks to linedef trickery, the bridge doesn't actually rise until you get into the room so you can see it doing so. It's a tiny thing that gives you that extra little rush of accomplishment, and Secret Path is just full of details like that. Even the long slow elevators and winding corridors that may annoy some players are deployed strategically to provide these sections of bleak exploration through the crumbling, barely-functional techbase between the chaotic combat - water drips from walls, doors whir and pop half-open, a whole early section is covered in darkness broken only by a few sparse patches of harsh light, and a real sense of abstract "wrongness" permeates the whole experience in a way modern, more polished maps would struggle to capture.

 

As for combat, wow. Graham isn't afraid to give you the SSG early on but he's also not afraid to hit you with high-tier monsters to make up for it. The ammo balance here on UV is amazing - I always had enough ammo for every combat, but just barely, so you're always fighting with one eye on the number of bullets and shells. Occasionally I would fully run out and have to retreat into a side room where I almost always found a box of something waiting for me, as though Graham knew 28 years ago that I would be there. One particular thing that I haven't seen in many other maps is how effectively Graham deploys hell knights without massing them in large numbers - rather, his go-to is to put them right behind a door or teleport them into a tiny space with you to force you to be quick with the SSG. Never before have I been so afraid of the goat in khaki pants.

 

The Secret Path is an imperfect object to be sure - there's some misaligned textures, opaque progression and general 90s jank, as well as some dogshit sound replacements that definitely speak to a 15-year-old's remedial sense of cool. But if you stick with it, you'll find some truly unique innovations that still stand out nearly 30 years later. This kind of map right here is why, despite the endless ocean of forgettable 90s dross, despite the porn wads, despite whatever the hell Days of Xornox was up to - this is why so many of us have become addicted to the random file feature, and why I'll be proud to run this event until I can no longer physically do so.

Edited February 26 by ICID
typo was bothering me

[brick]

1 hour ago, ICID said:

Seems like this kinda flew under the radar (or maybe I just missed it)

It did catch my attention, I don't remember why. For some reason the first impression gave me Arrival vibes, though the maps don't play like it (maybe it's the palette and those blues, or AD_79's music). I agree that it's underrated, it's a bit difficult for me even on HNTR but it's a lovely wad.

 

Loved reading your Secret Path review, I'm so glad you liked it as much as I did. I always hesitate when I write a rave review for some obscure mid-90s wad that nobody (including me) has heard of, I felt the same last Adventure with Perdition's Gate, and with The Inner Circle last year. I think I have higher-than-average tolerance for some conventions of that era, but it's gratifying to see someone else liking the same things, or noticing something I missed like the linedef wizardry with that raising bridge. Regarding "cheating", I know the point is to randomly roll, but I think it's great when one of us decides to try a wad because of someone else's random roll review. After all that's what we're doing when we play your random rolls, it's only fair you get to play ours too!

 

Brick | 1 wad | 3 maps
Adventure | 9 wads | 11 maps

 

Massmouthmas (2004) by Cyb (mostly). 3 SP maps for Doom II in ZDoom.
When I played the original MassMouth (well, the Do Over update to be specific) I found it to be pretty awful, and wondered just how much better the sequel would have to be to have gotten on the Top 100 (I have played it since then; I'm not sure I agree with the honour, but it's definitely an improvement). Regardless, I can safely say Massmouthmas is incomparably better than the first one. It acts as an expansion pack of sorts (requiring that MassMouth 2 be loaded first) and apparently as an interquel between the 2 main games. Gameplay wise it has almost nothing to do with either game. The 3 maps act as a hub and require a lot of going back and forth, there is very little fighting to be done, most of the gameplay is exploration and puzzle-solving. There are only a couple of enemy types to fight, one taken straight from Hexen, and one boss fight that requires more than just blindly shooting it. The puzzles are not hard and there are plenty of logs left behind to hint at the solutions. The only part I found tedious was gathering the power crystals, MassMouth can only carry two at a time but needs 8, and it makes for unnecessary and boring backtracking, but the wad is otherwise well paced. The whole adventure is still short, I clocked in a little over half an hour, but it's fun and there are some funny touches (such as the snowmen getting angry and attacking) and a certain lightheartedness that was missing from both main games. Considering how bad the original was it was impossible for this wad not to be an improvement, but I was still pleasantly surprised and found it enjoyable, moreso than even the sequel.

Spoiler

 

Edited February 25 by brick

[LadyMistDragon]

The Tunnel Complex (1998) by Matthew Ferreira (Crispy Doom)

 

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Not much more than a typical PWAD. If you can find maze, there are deadly traps within. Beware of the switchs you push. One sec- ret is really hard to find. Another clo- ses after you walk through a door (which closes too- to mask the other). The others are in plain view. The hard to find one has a really cool effect in it. Also, can you find the hidden arena?

 

 

I found literally no secrets here which perhaps shouldn't be surprising for a few different reasons. Too many locations with an open and underdetailed layout, entirely random monster placement, and a layout lacking entirely in coherence or flow of any sort. It's not really the sort of location one wants to explore more other than the large and corpse-filled blood pool near the beginning. And don't even get me started on the numerous fake exits! I'm sure there's an actual blue key around somewhere but you don't even need one to reach the exit! Another thing is that there isn't really enough ammo to kill most things, at least outside of secrets. 3/10, it's quite dull.

 

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Lock and Load v4.C. (2007) by pilotbombadier (GZDoom)

 

A weapon mod for EDGE that doesn't appear to do a whole lot, beyond adding some largely improved weapon models and smoothing out some of vanilla Doom's rough edges. The pistol sound is much better, though those clips are cartoonishly big.

 

 

Schizophrenia (2002) by Inferno_45 (GZ Doom)

 

A rather linear and stringy map with easy combat, good balance between indoor and outdoor areas and not really a whole lot else. The bored-in chasm looks kind of nice but is entirely irrelevant and the red-lit corridor at the beginning is a nice idea but there's not really too much else to say, it flies by so quick and it's easy to exit without checking a nearby storehouse 5/10

 

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 10 Day 25

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] The Pfander Annihilation Level (v1.0) by Tom Boyles (2005)

 

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Fun, challenging level that has some tricks and a couple secrets and surprises. Be wery careful, we're hunting some wascally imps!

 

This map replaces E2M2 and it looks like its author tried to pay a homage to "Containment area" because the atmosphere feels similar, notably with dark areas and  enclosed corridors that will displease the claustrophobic. You also start in front of a poorly aligned crate which serves as a pedestal for a shotgun. However there's is no crate maze or things like that which need lot of crates.

 

This map feels like a uglier and messier version of "Containment area because of the omnipresence of marble for the walls and wood for the ceilings. Those textures have their potential if used right but these appear to be default textures that the author didn't take the time to replace.In any case, we can say that it keeps the ensemble visually coherent.

 

This map is also much shorter than the original E2M2 but it plays similarly than a Ultimate Doom map because it manages to offer a decent dose of exploration with multiple paths and keep the flow of a run-and-gun gameplay.

 

"The Pfander Annihilation Level" didn't succeed at matching the quality of the legendary original E2M2, but it's still good enough for 1994.

 

Grade : B- (12/20)

 

[2] FLORCEIL.WAD by Unknown (2007)

 

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A DooM II level, that shows all floors and ceilings. Nothing else.

 

Just a test map dated from late 1994. The author put a barrel in case you want to blow yourself up after looking to this beauty.

 

[3] M-16a1 by Don Tello (1999)

 

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Replaces chaingun with ultra cool M-16 assault rifle. Fires a little faster.

 

Despite being a little too cartoony, I like how this weapon renders in game and it makes me wish I had a badass m16 instead of the actual chaingun in my arsenal. It sounds more impactful too because it has an increased firerate at first but the the new firing sounds seem to come from some of Half-Life's turrets. I could be wrong, but it sounds like it.

 

[4] The Blizzard Deathmatch for Hexen by Shad Williams Doom2Shad@aol.com IRC: ShAd0wZ (1996)

 

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A cool deathmatch wad for Hexen inspired by a snow storm on January 7, 1995. My friends and I have tried it in deathmatch, and it rules! It is the perfect size for deathmatch and the number of artifacts is perfectly balanced throughout the level. The deathmatch takes place in an icy cave where there just happens to be all kinds of weapons and crap thrown around...

 

Empty icy halls with omnipresent friction effets and some scattered deep pits you must absolutely dodge. And this is designed for Hexen so it goes in the garbage can without a second thought.

 

[5] Quad Wads - Doom / Ultimate Doom version by Ron Williams (2000)

 

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All three of these wads are designed the same; one for Doom 1, one for Doom 2, and one for Heretic. It is a fast paced level that usually results in a lot of frags. The layout of the walls and transporters is identical in all three levels so if you learn one, you've learned them all. After many hours of,... ah,... "testing", we've found that this is one of the best layouts for deathmatch play.

 

Why naming the file "Quad Wads" whereas it's supposed to have only 3? Why the author mentioned several wads whereas there's just one map designed for Ultimate Doom instead? You don't seem to be a trustworthy person at all Ron... Anyway, this is just a standard DM map, using extensively viny textures, containing lot of ammo and teleporters.

 

I stop here for today.

 

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 6 maps
Adventure | 10 wads | 17 maps

 

BuzzSaw: City Under Siege (2019) by Luis M. Arevalo. 6 maps for vanilla Plutonia.
I rolled another Buzzsaw wad by Luis a while back, but that was for Heretic. This needs the Plutonia IWAD, from what I can tell to use some of Plutonia's textures (and since there's no custom music it's nice to have a different order of tracks to go through for a change). Combat and level design do not follow the Plutonia formula, maps are sometimes expansive and enemies meander large distances before reaching you, there's little of Plutonia's tight and deadly fights (not saying there aren't some tricky ones here). The only annoyance with combat is that cells are so rare and both plasma rifles are late and in secrets (there is no BFG), it makes some of the combat a bit too grindy (especially once the Cyberdemons make an appearance). As the title indicates there's a definite city theme going, more successful than Doom II's if you ask me. Even in the more abstract MAP01 buildings actually look like that, more than in Downtown, but other maps do this even better, MAP02 really looks like an interstate. Perhaps too much, there's a lot of running to be done in this map. In fact this might be the wad's downfall: too much running around, too much backtracking, too much of it feels like time-wasting. The maps get worse about this further in, I didn't mind it and enjoyed the first 4, but started to find it irritating in MAP05. MAP06 made me want to pull my hair out, it is full of narrow windy passages that coil on themselves to maximize walking distance, it's full of impassable grates that make the automap virtually useless in navigating these passages, and the progression exacerbates these problems. A switch used at one end of the map does something at the opposite end, but there's no indication what any of them do, so I just had to use one then run around hitting every previously-closed door to see if anything had happened somewhere. I remember having the same problem with the Heretic wad, it's a shame that the progression can get frustrating but at least it's balanced by some good elements in level design.

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Face Palm (2010) by Jon "40oz" Vail (Crispy Doom)

 

40oz was a rather controversial member of Doomworld that regardless was seen as a fairly nice guy in certain ways, but with the creation of this little stinker, it's pretty clear he was upset at a certain class of mappers. Namely, those that shit out sector collections while managing to forget some clear detail or another. Humorously, you can tell this is the shape of that ancient Captain Picard meme. This is capped off by Smash Mouth's "All-Star" (because of course) and fireblu walls. It's lacking an exit though which makes sense as a critique of 'slapped together' baby'sfirstmaps. If nothing else, the sector art is pretty cool but it's hardly more than tiny anyway

 

 

 

 

 

QUAKE AND QUAKE II WEAPON GFX AND SOUNDS (1998) by grosse 

 

Does exactly what it says and imports all weapon graphics and sounds from both Quake and Quake II, each game's sound being comprised in a different wad for each game. The weapons are surprisingly well-replicated in Doom and that's about all that can be said.

 

 

First Blood (2020) by Keagan Dunn (From Doom with Love

 

Keagan Dunn had up to this point made some minor contributions, including two maps in Boaty McBoatwad. This collection of maps here was created over the course of a few months and that's probably the main reason why the initial maps are filled with certain initial lack of flaws such as questionable uses of detailing and some areas that are overly open (the stairwell in Map 03 was one of the more cringeworthy sections.

 

The really interesting thing that you don't see from too many mappers is Keagan detailing some of the development processes, inspirations, and so forth for every single map in a separate text file. There's even a story and curiously enough, Keagan Dunn is actually a published writer, who published a post-apocalyptic book I don't think you can find on Kindle when it was initially released.

 

Map 07 is a a fairly dangerous setup involving Lost Souls, Cyberdemons, and I believe pinkies, Map 08 is just a Barrels 'O Fun ripoff with a funny gimmick that sends you back to the beginning.

 

 

It's only with the Plutonia-esque combat of Map 09: Descendant that this set really starts to show its teeth and from thereon, no map has under 200 enemies on UV. All the maps still use all vanilla visuals but more of these maps are on par with what Keagan would establish in later sets like Bloodbath and Shades of Azure. Map 10 specifically has this little trick that raises flesh walls next to a door and forces you to go around to find another way out that was really cool! Second to last map feels not unlike something he'd do with Map 04 with Bloodbath with a hellish open area and one of the best struggles of the entire wad! I didn't have the time to really play much of this, save what  seemed important to have for review. This is an easy 6.5/10 though, with the crappy first half the only thing keeping this from the 8 range.

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

Edited February 28 by LadyMistDragon

[Lisaancelle]

Jailbait by anonymous (1994), played on DSDA / UV

 

One hell of a title to get started... anyway, a '94 map for Ultimate Doom, by an anonymous mapper, although from the email in the .txt we can assume it's one T.Robbins. I'm not the biggest fan of 90s mapping so I wasn't going in expecting much: still, I was somewhat surprised, as I have played much worse 90s-core throughout the years. 

 

The map is fairly large, mostly GRAY textured, which actually helps in giving it some cohesiveness, and limit the Harlequin factor that sort of pushes me away from a lot of early Doom. As the idgames comments underline, there is some very nice architecture for the time, including a proto-Sunder mouth that somehow manages to still be vanilla. Cool stuff. Combat is also rather refined for the era, as it includes ambushes, and repopulation of areas visited earlier - something you don't see everyday in a '94 map. Not too difficult, but if you go in expecting the 'move forward and keep fire down' gameplay typical of early wads you might be in for a surprise. 

 

 

 

Edited February 28 by Lisaancelle

[ICID]

 

UnAligned: 21 Days, 27 Maps, Zero Texture Alignment (2016) by Scwiba

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence, pistol starts}

^{Source Port: PRBoom+ via Delta Touch, complevel 3}

 

I feel somewhat lied to by the title - while I did spot texture misalignment somewhere in every level, I was hoping for a lillith.pk3-esque visual nightmare. Some of the texture misalignment is even used for artistic effect (as in the right screenshot above) instead of just being 90s jank, which feels like cheating.

Title aside, this is a 3-episode Ultimate Doom megawad of speedmaps that aims to "capture some of the essence of 1990s mapping", of which the unaligned textures are only one part. The map that gets closest to this is the impressive E1M4 (left screenshot), which not only deploys the textures in a way that feels true to the limitations of 90s mapping tools, but actually captures the abstract nature of 90s WADS - weird hurtfloor gameplay, goofy red floor arrows to tell you where to go, opaque progression (without being frustrating), etc. It's one of the most fun maps in the set too, for my money.

 

Elsewhere the maps rely on gimmicks that don't really have anything to do with 90s mapping styles. There's a Tyson map, a 1024 map, three maps with only 100 linedefs, a nifty "Dis" variant in E3M8 that's sorta hard to describe but involves hitting switches to open a BFG, a map where you have to run from a "base" full of health and radsuits to a hurtfloor where all the gameplay takes place and back again. Some of these (those last two in particular) are pretty fun, most are forgettable in that speedmap kinda way, and some - like an all-hurtfloor Chasm riff, a brutally difficult E1M8, or a pure-guessing teleporter puzzle with no monsters - are truly infuriating.

 

I'm impressed by Scwiba's ability to create a whole three episodes in less than a month but wouldn't really recommend the results to anyone else, despite a couple standout maps.