Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #079

[LadyMistDragon]

Overrun (2014) by Revan114 (GZ Doom)

 

The perfect map to try out one of LossForWords recent mod releases...or not quite. That doesn't matter too much though. We're in a techbase that for some reason has a third of the monsters dead but that's not really important. What's important is it's actually fairly well made, despite the blue key door's placement being rather out of the way of the main room. The flesh corridors and rooms that wind around the edge are about as nasty as one might expect with the ambushes proving quite respectable indeed, within reason of course, because difficulty won't break the bank by any means. The ending, where you'll likely hear infighting from the next building over comes quite out of nowhere. However, it plays well regardless of what I want to think 6/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

Infantry: A tribute to Nuts (2007) by Michael Laasko (Crispy Doom)

 

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The American Heritage Dictionary defines "infantry" as "The branch of an army made up of units trained to fight on foot." I bet the people who wrote that never saw Hell's infantry...

Inspired by Nuts, which is arguably one of the greatest jokewads ever made, Infantry pits you against row after row of monsters fully prepared to die in order to keep you from reaching their leader.

 

 

Under Miscellaneous text file we're told that since Michael is new, we shouldn't just badmouth his wad. But I'm here to say the wad isn't the problem, it's the fact that it's a tribute to Nuts, which is in addition to the easiest thing in the world to create, is just something we could do with less of. Whoa look, it's so many monsters. SO MANY MONSTERS!!!! Anyway, this makes zero efforts at pushing the engine which is good since Nuts brought most computers to a crawl for many years after it was released. And despite the lack of health, it's clearly just a 'circle-strafe to win' affair with limited ammo around the outside. As suggested, there's a Romero head in a room at the end. I guess it doesn't play too bad so 3/10

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

When the Sleeper Wakes (2002) by Alistair Montgomery (Crispy Doom)

 

A deathmatch wad made in 2002....that actually seems to have those cute 90s-esque sound replacements and TITLEPIC/intermission replacements! I don't know anything about Doom Heaven (it was before my time and also sounds a little bit like a rather notorious Discord server allegedly about Doom) but hearing the door knocking sound whence hitting a wall, along with the rather spac-y teleport sound, help round out what's a fairly average and partially outdoor deathmatch map. Although it also plays in single-player, and while the monster placement doesn't feel very calculated, there's at least a feeling that someone tried to make them fun 5/10

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Dying Camel's Demons #1 (2018) by Various (From Doom with Love)

 

Dying Camel seems to have been a Twitch streamer that's no longer active and this was the first of....3 collections that were created by his community? Anyway, the first few maps were created by people you've probably never heard of, whereas Antares and Pinchy (who organized the project) get the later maps, along with speedrunner AltimaMantoid. I didn't get that far, in part because there seemed no clear way to acquire the randomly-placed blue key in Map 03. Too bad though, since the two previous maps were quite short but the third has a rather large and rocky outdoor area with a midi that sounds straight out of Quake II!

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Crazy.wad (1995) by Fred Lainier (Crispy Doom)

 

Funny story about son. So we got this techbase map for the most part but with tons of design decisions that are disorienting and illogical. Although to be fair, there is no required progression behind unmarked walls. But there is something of a funhouse feel since the very first hallway will dump you down a shaft when you get next to a window with a Supercharge. There's a random House of Pain pit homage you'll only need to see once, which sucks if you don't find the plasma rifle beforehand since there's a Cyberdemon here. As a rule, most rooms in this map are quite cramped and it's extremely easy to miss out on an early shotgun if you don't hit the window near the starting Supercharge the right way, resulting in the need to pistol at least two pinkies before finding another shotgun. Not to mention the presence of spectres in the darkened slime shafts, though there's barrels. Though at least we can handily and brokenly BFG a Mastermind at the end. I guess you can 100 the map but ammo's tight enough that you have to think where to use it to some extent 5.5/10

 

 

 

 

 

The next hit was a DM map so bad and so nuts-y I refuse to post the link here. idk why I downloaded it, exclamation points and all caps without explanation is always a bad sign

 

Fort Plasma (2001) by Jerry Neighbors (Crispy Doom)

 

Well, this map may be a little too open overall to constitute 'good' DM but you have to admit it's a pretty nice and placeworthy design. Towers in the corners, a fence surrounding a central courtyard and....more? I'm not sure but it looks like it should be iconic anyway. Although it's a perfect symmetrical square so maybe that would turn off some people.

 

 

Spoiler

 

Edited February 29 by LadyMistDragon

[RottingZombie]

On 2/21/2024 at 8:16 PM, LadyMistDragon said:

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

  6.5/10

 

I'll take it!

 

Thanks for playing. I agree with all of your feedback, and was cringing at the lack of health, and the sewer maze, as I watched the play-through.

[Lisaancelle]

@LadyMistDragon DyingCamel is still sporadically active under the 'PaleBlueCamel' nick, though I don't think he streams Doom any longer.  

 

Oh my Gwad! by Joe-Ilya (2015), played on UV through DSDA

 

I've been lurking for a while at the fringes of the Doom community, and I seem to understand Joe-Ilya has sort of a controversial reputation as a mapper. Personally, the only thing of theirs I ever played beside this map is Kuchitsu 2, which I found fun enough. Same goes for this map, a fairly tough but not overbearing Doom 2 level that does work a bit in the same blocky architecture often employed by Memfis, who is namedropped in the file's description. Apparently the level was also inspired by Kama Sutra, but I don't really see how. 

This said, I had a lot of fun playing the map: lots of detail in spite of the map's overall simple layout and design; a bit of health scarcity, which I don't mind a bit and forced me into a cover-shooter like gamestyle which I enjoy; and an ever-resurrecting chaingunner, one of my favorite tricks. Bonus points for the pixelated TITLEPIC taking us back to the good ol' days of Doomworld. 

EDIT: forgot to mention that, while the map technically has a new weapon, dual pistols, they seem to be bugged - you lose the second pistol the instant you either run out of bullets, or switch weapon. Might actually be intended as a sort of ROTT style thing, not sure. 

 

 

Edited March 1 by Lisaancelle

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 7 maps
Adventure | 11 wads | 24 maps

 

Infection (2022) by Exl. 7 SP maps for Doom II in MBF21.
This is a really fun little set by @exl who has been mapping for a while and created a Windows version of DeHackEd and updated it for so long. The mapset uses MBF21 but there are small enhancements for GZDoom specifically. I think one of my favourite touches was the use of MBF21 for environmental sounds, there's something thrilling about playing a Doom wad (as opposed to Heretic/Hexen) and hearing the hum of machinery, or being guided towards a waterfall because you can hear it from some way off. The lighting is absolutely remarkable, and if you're wondering, no, those cones of lights are not GZDoom dynamic lights (or Doom Legacy coronas for that matter!), they're "just" DeHackEd actors with carefully crafted sprites. It's always fun seeing the experimentations people try with the engine, MBF21 has definitely blown the ceiling off. Exl claims the wad is very short but it took me significantly longer than the "one hour on UV" advertised, and I was playing on HNTR. I'm not complaining though, the level design is interesting and definitely gives the feel of diving deeper into the installation to uncover its secrets. There are frequent excursions outdoors, and both the open areas and the indoors are lovingly detailed. Combat is nicely balanced for HNTR, it's pretty easy but it doesn't seem like any of the big enemies are missing from their setpieces, there's just fewer of everything. I was a bit surprised with the SSG, it makes a very late appearance (even the BFG is available before), but there's an almost complete lack of grindy fights, by the time high health enemies show up you've got rocket launcher and plasma rifle to deal with them. I know most Doomers don't care for story but I really liked the way it's done here, the progression from map to map creates a simple one, but then there's a wonderful little mind screw that starts happening at one point and that made me genuinely question what was going on with my game, it's a neat little storytelling twist and leads into a very satisfying finale both narratively and in gameplay. What a great little wad, traditional in some ways where it does everything right, but also experimental in others where it pulls off new tricks (or new variations on old tricks) and it shines there just as much.

Spoiler

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 10 Day 26

 

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

 

[1] Hell's Crosshairs by Kris Daley (1995)

 

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I spent a silly good time cleaning this abstract and oversized tech base but the pleasure was ruined by the absurdly hidden exit. The exit challenges your hidden door finding skills as you have to unlock a serie of buttons. Even after playing several hundred of all wads, I admit I used Doombuilder because fuck it, I don't feel humping every wall whereas I already killed almost all the enemies.

 

About the map itself, it's objectively bad. The screenshots say it all. However, I liked the strange ideas the author put here such as the immense courtyards with a star shaped sector at its centre, the cyberdemon imprisoned between range of barrels or more generally, the layout goes off in all directions, so that the adventure ends up a bit like a sandbox. The author was also extremly lenient with resources. You can find several megaspheres, ton of ammo... Blasting enemies without effort represents a simple way to enjoy Doom.

 

I honestly wonder why so many mappers from the 90's loved hiding exits or mandatory passages that much. It doesn't even look like puzzles, it's just hidden for the sake of being hidden.

 

Grade : D+ (7/20)

 

I got teleported in a strange damaging room from ALLEYS.WAD (v1.1)

 

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[brick]

Brick | 2 wads | 2 maps
Adventure | 13 wads | 26 maps

 

Sapidus (1994) by Eddie Nguyen. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom.
This reminded me a lot of Alberto Barsella's Wasteland, the wads share many similarities: made in 1994, individual wads released and meant to eventually become a full E2 replacement, only 4 maps were made, nothing else by the author is known to exist, there's an attempt at a more detailed story than usual. This is the 4th and last map in the Uca series, and Eddie recommends playing them all on continuous, so I did to also get a bit more context for this wad. It improves in some ways on the earlier ones, which had serious problems with ammo and progression (unmarked obligatory unofficial secrets were everywhere), but it's not without problems. The concept is pretty cool, there are four generators we need to deactivate, and there are some nice linedef tricks to make it seem as if a generator has been destroyed after a switch is pressed. This opens up the way to an orbital cannon that we then power down (each switch pressed turns off some of the lights - it's in the little suggestive things). Enemy count is high but combat is not too hard and ammo is plentiful. Progression as I mentioned is more focused and purposeful than the previous maps, but there are some problems with the design. The most serious, though it's a deliberate choice by Eddie, is that each generator can only be accessed once - get out before pressing the switch and it's a softlock. What makes this more annoying is that 3/4 generators require keys, each generator is at a corner of the map along the main path around it, and closing one off means having to go through hoops to navigate, if you don't plan an optimal order there will be a lot of annoying backtracking. And while I understand Eddie's choice to make each generator a one-try affair, and he gives plenty of warning in the text file, I'm not convinced that creating intentional softlocks is ever a good idea. It doesn't help that the corridors of the base are very samey and there is little to distinguish them from each other, especially when backtracking becomes more complex with a few generators closed off. I don't know if it's unfair, but it's also hard to shake off the comparisons to Wasteland, the wads are contemporary (the firsts of each series are dated days apart!) and Wasteland is much more refined. Still Eddie was definitely improving with each map, and it would've been nice to see him continue to do so for the full episode replacement.

Spoiler

 

The Unaided Eye (2000) by Christian N. Hansen aka Dykanden. 1 SP map for vanilla Evilution.
Now here's an IWAD we don't usually roll (I think this is my first one even). It's one of Christian's earliest, following a quartet for Doom II, a trio for Plutonia, and I guess he then wanted to try his hand at Evilution. It looks good, he uses the TNT textures well to create the mines with nice doomcute (rails, drills and various machinery). Lighting is pretty as usual for him. I will admit though that the map rubbed me the wrong way, I made it some way in then died to some chaingunners that I couldn't even see (it turned out they were behind an opaque midtexture at a higher level; I am not a fan), and since I hadn't saved I got sent back to the beginning. The map is small though, despite what the text file claims. I didn't dislike it but it's not very memorable, and there were annoyances like those chaingunners, and later knights that kept teleporting literally on top of me. Chris would make much better maps for the next two decades, but this one's still alright.

Spoiler

 

[Lisaancelle]

Summit of Oblivion by Eric Aamodt and Dave Crampton (1994) played on UV through DSDA.

 

Not much to report today, sadly. A whole UD episode's worth of all that I dislike about 90s wads: zero height variation, monotextured rooms, switches that are not switches and doors that are not doors, mindless enemy placement and no progression to speak of - most maps are just a string of rooms connected by corridors, and the map is just a walk from point A to point B. The one thing I can't complain about is obtuse secrets, because there aren't any. Seems a bit of a sloppy work even by 90s standards. 

 

Edited March 2 by Lisaancelle

[LadyMistDragon]

Galley (2001) by Richard Clark (Crispy Doom)

 

I would've probably skipped this one from the short description but I must play maps by guys named 'Clark' that haven't won awards but anyways, it's exactly what it says! Flags on one end, masts on the other, with a playing field quite small indeed, it seems like it could be a decent enough 1v1 map...but it is like maybe 300 wide at the most. 4/10

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

DuduCRazy's Guns (and Music) (2004) by Luis "DuduCrazy" Eduardo (GZ Doom)

 

A weapon mod that basically just compiles models from other games like Blood and Duke Nukem 3D. The Super Shotgun model is quite ugly. Apparently, some resources also come from a game called Immoral Conduct. It might possible reduce the chance of RNG. It also adds music for 23 maps, although I don't know if that just replaces music in maps that don't select their own 5/10

 

 

Geo 1 (2004) by Melissa "Agent Spork" McGee (GZ Doom)

 

Unlike many other Agent Spork wads, this one doesn't necessarily seem to require ZDoom, but it has quite a few custom monsters in the second map so maybe it does. Anyway, there's two maps here, one a typical sort of Agent Spork-style square roomed and controlled ammo affair but with neat and efficient use of wooden/gothic textures. Second one is similar....but is considerably more complex in size and scope than pretty much any other Agent Spork map of the time. Structurally, it's not too dissimilar but there's considerably more variation in room size and shape. 

 

Unfortunately, combat gets quite grindy and the Super Shotgun is only given to us once mid-tiers in larger numbers start getting thrown at us but it's not like they were infrequent before. Balphagors (that Baron variety that's deatsaw's current and probably eternal avatar) along with these guys resembling Ophidians that shoot plasma-like shots from their rods, and Nightmare Cacodemons who shoot this nasty wind-like attack. Ammo remains tight throughout, but infighting should take care of most issues. Although it must be said the chaingunner ambush not far from the start of Death Domain is horribly cheap since they can just circle around the narrow pillars and probably kill us half a dozen time. There could've been an extra teleporter or two as well, since the only one here will take you back to the starting location after getting the last key.

 

The usage of custom monsters wasn't too bad for the most part but it's not too surprising that got scaled back in future Agent Spork releases since there are a few here that are more tanky than they need to be. If anything, boosting the numbers of vanilla or recolored vanilla monsters tends to be far more popular. 6/10

 

 

 

[Lisaancelle]

Funny enough, DyingCamel was online streaming Doom just yesterday. Lol. 

 

Metro13 by Michael Reed (1996), UV on DSDA. 

 

Another middling pick, though slightly more upscale than my very, very poor previous one. Here we have an explicit tribute to Downtown, and that's already sort of enough to make me wary - enjoying in any shape or form D2's city maps is a clear sign of cognitive decline. Still, the level itself is not terrible, and in some ways better than the original, which it mimics in both layout and progression: you move from building to building, including a gloriously tacky GRAYTALL skyscraper, hunting for keys and breaking into cubicle-sized room, SWAT style. Plenty of misalignments but the combat is serviceable, and slightly more dangerous than most of D2's. Special features: an infuriating invisible teleports library maze, and a condo entirely made of TEKGREN. Probably not too shabby... for 1996, that is. 

 

Edited March 3 by Lisaancelle

[LadyMistDragon]

Robotic Nightmares (2002) by Kim Vidal (Crispy Doom)

 

I recorded a video of this but it's really not worth it. There's just 4 versions of the exact same ugly level, outcroppings of a Nazi fortress arranged in a semicircular fashion in increasing difficulty that I suppose is supposed to be reflected in the difficulty. Feels sort of like a section of Level 4: The Ruins in Turok: Dinosaur Hunter more than anything.  Although in truth, it's probably harder to dodge Revenants than cyberdemons from a long distance. The Pain Elementals were a nice idea however. I suppose it's not terrible but I don't like these kinds of maps generally 4/10

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

railgun (2007) by hnsolo77 

 

A recreation of the Quake II railgun that's ok....I guess. Although I couldn't view and while it supposedly has a function similar to the BFG, doesn't appear to actually replace it and there's no suggestion of what slot it goes in. Maes was sure a jerk though.

[Lisaancelle]

Aeternum by @skillsaw (2007), UV on DSDA.

 

The goold ol' days where AV's difficulty was considered 'intentionally high'...

A set of three maps for Doom 2, obviously inspired by AV's early brick levels, save a later foray into Hell territory. I do appreciate most of Skillsaw's output, Heartland in particular, but here we are at the - almost - very beginning of their career (or so the wiki tells me) and, while we are certainly a step above beginner level in design and monster placement, there are a few pain points. 

Specifically, the mapset as a whole suffers of what I will call 'new mapper dickishness': aka, the clear intention to make combat as difficult as possible in order to make an impression. It's normal, it's a part of growing as a mapper (I mean, who remembers that one five minute map you beat on UV with your eyes closed?), so I won't fault Skillsaw too much for it. Sure, here 'difficulty' mostly translates into 'hitscan hell and the armor is five rooms down' or 'window dressing just outside of autoaim range', neither of which I'm a huge fan of. Still, I will admit the mapset looks pretty good, layouts are simple but effective, and the music is well selected (though I have to say the chosen modules sound a bit too .ogg-y for my somewhat traditional taste). Good stuff overall, but it's not Ancient Aliens - yet. 

 

 

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Confinement 512 (2011) by Bloody Acid (GZ Doom)

 

Text file says limit-removing, but the truth is that there are HOMs and other little textural errors, not to mention the fact none of the little traps work in Crispy Doom. Just another set that exists to exists. The 1024 trend had already petered out after the release of Claustrophobia 1024 and while there were occasional attempts to make similar compilations (the somewhat meme-ish Plutinya from 2015 as an example), it was mostly as an exercise and larger playing areas like 2014's Going Down were far more common. So basically, I'm just not sure why someone would attempt a set with an even smaller overall size, and eliminates anything outside the playing area as a result. Some of the teleport traps are horribly cheap and while Maps 05 and 06 have some really cool situations, they are also quite cheap because the former tests Revenants dodging skills in a small cave and the other just hands us a small square room with caged pinkies in the middle, a berserk pack, some armor, and a whole lot of Imps. Combat on the other maps is more mediocre than anything else and while I guess the traps add something, the only real positive is the large amount of ammo for the number of monsters, so you don't have to depend on infighting. Although since you can't dodge, that might be somewhat advisable 5/10

 

 

 

[ICID]

Sorry the new thread's a bit late today fellas, but here it is:

 

[FistMarine]

Hi. Sorry for taking forever but while I had the first wad done and reviewed since last month, it took a while until I decided to do the second wad as well and then post.

 

On the last month topic, I participated and reviewed two wads (Revolver.wad and FETAL2.WAD). I didn't rate them but from now on, I will try to give them a rating. Therefore, I rate both those wads a 3/5, as they were both okay. As for this month (or rather, the 79th edition, will join 80th edition soon), here is a short review for each:

Spoiler

 

This Ain't No Slipgate Project! - ZDoom 2.8.1 - Ultra-Violence - 100% everything with saves - Default Compatibility - Mouselook, Jumping and Crouching are enabled.

 

Kills: 100%
Items: 100%
Secrets: 100%
Time: 12:32
Deaths: 0

 

Short map from 2006, made for ZDoom. It only has 56 monsters initially (plus a Baron appearing at end), no items and secrets to find, though you still score 100% each thanks to ZDoom fixing the vanilla behavior (BOOM ports only fixed Secrets but ZDoom ports also fixed Kills and Items).

 

You will mostly fight against zombies and imps, with the occasional pinkies and a few mid-tier monsters (one caco, one mancubus, one revenant and one baron). I strongly recommend to get the Green Armor as soon as it appears, as there isn't much health in this level but thankfully the fights aren't difficult at all. I only got hit once by a low damage hitscan attack and that's pretty much it, since I played carefully.

 

You have to get blue and yellow keys, as well as a battery to open the portal. Once you finish the map and see the results, you get a story text message and then it cuts to DOOM 2 Cast Call screen. Overall, this map was good, as I like the idea behind it, though it was quite short. It can be fun at times and it's worth playing once, if only just to see how ZDoom maps used to be back in the day.

Spoiler

 

Factory - Ultimate Doom v1.9 - Ultra-Violence - 100% everything with saves - Keyboard Only - Played using DOSBox 0.74-3

 

Kills: 100%
Items: 100%
Secrets: 0% (no secrets)
Time: 11:23
Deaths: 0 initially, about 10 on my replay while trying to get 100% kills, see below how I did it

 

An amateurish wad from March 1996. Replaces E1M1 and has a couple neat things going on like raising the water as mentioned in earlier reviews but there are also a lot of problems with this map listed below.

 

Unmarked secrets, 20 dmg lava (which sometimes hurts you even with radiation suit, which is bullshit), "unreachable" monsters, inescapable pits, ugly design, points of no return, HOMs and finally, a few softlocks as well (I got softlocked once while raising the water, fell through the floor or whatever happened). Most of these are major problems and some could have been easily fixed if the author put more effort.

 

Map is not very long and can take about 10 minutes to complete. If you take your time to explore, you can find unmarked secrets like the Radiation Suit near beginning (be also sure to get the hidden Chaingun in lava at start, as well as RL and more rockets) and before the final teleporter, you can find another unofficial secret that contains Blue Armor, invisibility and invulnerability, which will be great help against the Cyberdemon.

 

First time I finished the map I got to end with 100% items but only 86% kills, plus I had better health and I had completely missed the Chaingun. I remembered those imps at bottom of lava and those cacos attacking in the dark tunnel (after raising water part) but the problem is they are almost impossible to kill, so first time I had no idea there would be points of no return, I thought to myself maybe I can get them back later but sadly that wasn't the case, so I ended up starting a new game and trying to figure out how to get them.

 

To get those two imps at lava (which can also infinitely tall you while crossing the catwalk, which is bullshit), you have to perfectly time so BOTH get raised while shooting that switch in Red Key room to raise catwalk. No, you can't just drop down or else you die in the lava, as there is no way back up.

 

I obviously saved on a separate slot and after 10-15 tries, eventually I got both imps on the raised catwalk, as usually only one or no imps get stuck on that catwalk. Of course, if you are playing in a port with mouselook, you don't need to complicate yourself and just kill them from above but since I did in original DOS executable, I had to do the hard way.

 

To get those THREE cacos at the dark tunnel, you have to simply wait for them to fly and kill them while dodging their shots in this cramped corridor. I did a bit of IDBEHOLDL and IDSPISPOPD to check if they died (BTW I didn't save with cheats enabled, I just quit game and start again to reset cheats) but once I killed one, I saved and once I dealt with all three, I continued to the next room.

 

Overall, despite some fun parts (the blue key room with the crushers and the Cyber fight at end), I didn't like this map, as I feel it has many poor design choices that dragged down the quality of this map. Skip this map.

 

 

Spoiler

 

I will see when I will play Leap of Faith and The Imp Fiesta, maybe another time. For now, I rate ja_tansp.wad a 3.5/5 and FACTORY.WAD a generous 2/5.

 

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Edited March 8 by FistMarine