The DWmegawad Club plays: Nostalgia

[brick]

MAP20 - “Hell Awaits”
This is one of the quickest playing maps in a while. The ambushes are easy with foreknowledge, the blue key would be the trickiest if you just rush afterwards, but taking the time to dispatch the baddies two at a time makes it almost trivial. The detailing reminded me a bit of some of the earlier maps, especially with the cubicles, but it's a lot more crude here, defintiely missing the cute touches of MAP13's.

 

MAP21 - “South of Heaven”
The forced pistol creates a dire ammo situation early on. The plasma rifle secret is practically required, even with it, and all the rockets, missing even a couple of shots meant I was down to shotgunning some of the barons. The map really punishes doing things out of order, for example not going for the exit as soon as possible (even though it is inaccessible) means not having the SSG for the back to back fights in the main arena, and both were a pain even with it. I'm definitely going to question the text file's claim about difficulty, I don't know how this compares to Plutonia but it is much, much harder than Doom II.

[Novaseer]

MAP22 "Absolute Hatred" (100% K/I/S, 5:06)

 

A pretty obvious homage to E4M2: Perfect Hatred, and every bit as evil. 59 enemies on UV? Could've fooled me.

 

That opening is vicious. I managed to score a whole three deaths (it feels like a lot more when playing saveless) trying to carve myself some space before I found the megasphere secret. Everywhere you could go to grab supplies, you're going to get swarmed by cacos. If you drop down, your radsuit is a ticking time bomb. If you stay up top, you still have Revenants to contend with.

 

It cools off pretty drastically once the opening area is clear, though - the lowering wall trap before the red key is the last bit of spice the map has to throw at you, and from there on out it's rather smooth sailing as enemies come at you one at a time in a tunnel nowhere near as cramped as it thinks it is.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP22 - Absolute Hatred - (100%K/50%I/0%S):
 

A clear Perfect Hatred clone, luckly, not as hard, but it may feel a bit cramped. Feels like we are back to that minisode between MAP08 and MAP11 because of the aesthetic. Not as hellish as the previous map in terms of how it looks.

It's gameplay is spicy and consists mostly of trap-cages full of enemies. You will have to go deep into the lava pit to get your SSG if you are pistol-starting. I liked it, pretty straight-forward. Nothing mindblowing.

Order of Preference:

Spoiler

MAP16

MAP14
MAP31
MAP18
MAP09

MAP06
MAP07
MAP22
MAP17
MAP15
MAP21
MAP11
MAP20

MAP05

MAP04
MAP19
MAP08
MAP32
MAP12
MAP03
MAP02
MAP01
MAP13
MAP10

 

 

[Celestin]

MAP22: Absolute Hatred

 

The title together with the opening shot are a clear reference to E4M2, but the start is much more hectic thanks to cacodemons behind you. It can be made easier if you are willing to jump into lava (at least the stairs leading to the start don't hurt you this time). You can find a BFG and a super shotgun here, two helpful tools in clearing the place. It takes two minutes to finish this part, but it's a great rush of adrenaline.

 

Past the blue door is myolden's staple lowering walls trap, I've found a secret radsuit so I could just jump into a lava pool and fire from below. The map ends with a corridor where you fight mid-tier monsters one by one. Save a BFG blast or two for the ending and the map is done. I wish it managed to keep the pacing of the opening fight, but it's still a good level.

[Cutman 999]

MAP22 - “Absolute Hatred” (Pistol started, saveless, 100% K/I/S)

 

Actually, absolute hatred is my mood for today...

 

Obviously a reimagining on what I consider one of the worst iwad maps, absolute hatred gives some better execution on many of the concepts the original had. For one hand, the objective is completely intuitive from the start of the map, the lava floor is not arranged annoyingly, even in the stairs way back to the beginning aren't damaging anymore, and many resources can be found there, Rad suit shortage is not nearly a thing, even the game has one in a secret, and there isn't trash like that baron/pinky cavern.

 

The combat feels a bit undertuned, there's a bfg but isn't really necessary like at all, that imp/rev lowering wall ambush can be easily shortcutted by a well-placed rocket and just ssg-ing everything else, and despite many fights being in close spaces like the original, nothing is really overwhelming since you have the equipment to just piss over all of that.

 

Some missed potential here and there, just better than the original since anything could be better than dogshit.

 

7/10

[cannonball]

MAP22 - “Absolute Hatred”

 

A nasty start where foreknowledge is required to deconstruct the monster-filled jungle gym you are in. It is a shame that the map tapers off dramatically after grabbing the red key. Essentially the final stretch is a drip feed of monsters that offer significantly less threat than the start did.

Overall another solid map but one that lets the player off the hook once they have gained control of the start/central area.

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 22: ABSOLUTE HATRED

 

Quite apart from the fact that we hate this fucking world and the demonic apes that.......it's not actually that hard! The beginning is obviously one big reference but the map itself is overall more forgiving with the ammo and health scattered everywhere. Though the BFG is right in front of the start to the left but this is a small enough map, it might be nice to have it for the Cacos in the middle. The worst trap would be the square room with the hidden rad suit. Should we have saved the BFG for this? I think so because the only way to properly evade the trap here is taking a dip in the acid and the Revenants move in such a way that hitting them might prove a challenge. Too bad this map peters out in the second part, despite a random Pain Elemental and 2 Barons guarding the exit. Oh well, there's less moving walls, which can only be a good thing.

 

 

[Raith138]

I will be unable to play for the next couple of days.

[Celestin]

MAP23: Blood Red

 

I think this is the first map in Nostalgia where I encountered ammo issues, but that's because I missed a plasma rifle. The start is a cramped run through rocky maze, which makes an effective use of flying enemies to limit your movement. Ammo felt tight here, especially when a pain elemental appeared and I had to be careful now wasting shells. I've found a BFG here, but since I only had a single shot, I wanted to save in for something more threatening.

 

Finding a way forward took me a while, as I didn't realise I had to jump down into a hole (I thought that was a start and a bridge was raised at some point). At this point of the wad you know what to expect when entering an underlit and empty mineshaft - lowering walls and a trap. I ran into a corner and killed everyone from there. This is followed by my favourite fight of the map: the blue key arena. Pinkies on the ground, snipers, even an archvile I unloaded my BFG on, it's a fun dance where you try to avoid projectiles while returning fire.

 

With the key, the map loops back to the start where a cyberdemon appeared, together with several cacodemons. I was out of ammo before he died, but then it turned out I completely overlooked a plasma rifle, giving me enough cells to finish him off with a BFG. Blood Red felt harder than usual, but I guess foreknowledge would help here a lot. Still, a solid map.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP22: Absolute Hatred

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

Ah, back to the obvious IWAD homages. The start seems like it'll be a doozy, but taking a leap of faith into the lava below solves all the problems, as there's radsuits and guns down there, as well as getting you out of the line of fire. After that things are really tame, the only difficulty comes from having to dodge some revenant missiles in close quarters. The area behind the red door looks cool but the gameplay is pretty boring.

Edited March 23 by Magnusblitz

[Novaseer]

MAP23 "Blood Red" (100% K/I, 66% S, 9:23, saves)

 

Forgive me for not doing this one saveless, I didn't particularly want to go through another 8 minutes of gruelling ammo starvation only to get splattered by a cybie and do it all over again.

 

The only ammo I had when I finished the map was 5 rockets, and that's with me finding the secret BFG as early as possible. Admittedly, I could've added 80 cells to that if I was any good at Cyberdemon two-shots (you'd think UV-maxxing Eviternity II MAP26 would've given me some practice) but still.

 

As for health? I left on 5% and no armour, and that was after finding a secret soulsphere.

 

Of course, I absolutely get the thoughtful design that comes into challenges like these, I just... don't find them fun.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP23 - Blood Red - (100%K/90%I/33%S):
 

It is starting to look a bit like Sigil II, isn't it? Specially because of the cyberdemon awaking the first time you shoot a bullet. This level may be simple, but there is a bit of platforming going on at the start. Difficulty comes from how little place you have to maneuver and interact with enemies shooting you from higher ground. The only open area you have is the one previous to the blue key. The first arena is the one where you will need to fight this cyberdemon, and what a pain to do it, as you will have narrow ledges to dodge rockets, while trying to take down a small caco-swarm at the same time. Luckly I've found the secret BFG.

One small nitpick, PLEASE MYOLDEN, I NEED A BERSERK PACK.

Order of Preference:
 

Spoiler

MAP16

MAP14
MAP31
MAP18
MAP09

MAP06
MAP07
MAP22
MAP17
MAP23
MAP15
MAP21
MAP11
MAP20

MAP05

MAP04
MAP19
MAP08
MAP32
MAP12
MAP03
MAP02
MAP01
MAP13
MAP10

 

[Cutman 999]

MAP23 - “Blood Red” (Pistol started, 6 attempts saveless, 100% Kills, 100% Items, 66% Secrets)

 

Nothing like getting instakilled by revenant missiles to start the day.

 

Remember what I said myolden about not implementing his version of that terrible cavern from perfect hatred? Well, the opener is actually an attempt of recreating that, no space and like floaters blocking your path, combined with hitscanners and pinkies chipping you out. Then the map goes to 2 ambushes that aren't too hard unless you play like someone with brainrot, like me. The dark cave with like a pain elemental and hell knights you can even stand still on the entrance and just shotgun everything that comes. For the second fight, don't forget the bfg almost at the start, and nuke an archvile, or that ambush will probably go out of your hands with all the things blocking your path in the main arena, Without the vile, it is still kind of entertaining cleaning up what's left, specially since there's revs having a clear snipe view of you, is not like you can just stand still and call it a day.

 

The final ambush got me killed again from the cacos blocking my path, if you aren't miss fortuned like I was, you just need to wait until cyb clears the caco wave and then try to kill him with the plasma, you are not going to tell me you feel comfortable 2 tapping him with such limited space.

 

Overall, I don't like how myolden uses limited space in this one, the opening specially feels rng heavy, 1 of the 2 ambushes makes up for this, but the rest of the map feels either arbitrarily difficult or piss easy.

 

5/10

[Magnusblitz]

MAP23: Blood Red

100% kills, 2/3 secrets

 

Seems this one was frustrating for most but I actually sorta liked it, probably because the initial combat setup is different from what we've seen so far - player starts in a trench with enemies all along the sides, takes some work to get armed up and find some safety. I do think the flying monsters create a huge potential for problems, especially if you're playing with infinitely-tall monsters, so make sure you get out of the trench quick. Same thing with the AV in the blue key area - he's kinda the lynchpin of difficulty, take him out quick and you'll be fine but he'll wreck your shit if not handled. Cybie at the end wasn't too hard thanks to the cacos happy to distract him and open him to an easy 2-shot to the back.

 

I gotta admit I was kinda shocked there was no dropping-wall ambush in the hallway after the blue door...

Edited March 23 by Magnusblitz

[cannonball]

MAP23 - “Blood Red”

 

This was pretty neat on the whole, the start can cause problems, especially as a pair of cacodemons have the advantage of being free to roam around and ruin your day. Unlike the last map, this one manages to keep the pace on the whole from start to finish, I will say that the blue key ambush was essentially pointless, as were the mancubi behind the blue door. The return leg to the exit includes a tricky cyber that you would prefer to be distracted, he is dangerous and has good sight lines and direct engagement is risky given the cramped nature of the open area. 

I think I liked this more than the previous hell themed maps, purely because it seemed to be a little more on point combat wise.

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 23: Blood Red

 

Pretty unforgiving. Maybe just a little cheap too. There wasn't a huge reason to not make the SS more in front of us, and the way forward when it's discovered a key's required for the exit is sitting a little but off to the side. That said, this is quite a nice one, from the moment we escape the opening blood chasm, chaingunning some Imps, heading to the fortress to drop down, finally acquiring more health, fighting off quite a menacing close quarters ambush with nobles and a Pain Elemental, emerge into another blood crater with a massive host of Imps and other obnoxious enemies that aren't chaingunners, BFG an Arch-vile despite him managing to strike us, then collecting the key and choosing rockets over BFG to deal with the Caco trio that emerges from a wall, unintentionally fortunate as it happens because a Cyberdemon has appeared back in the main area, along with at least half a dozen Cacodemons. Some infighting and shots later, we open the exit and leave immediately. Pretty good map but a little too cramped.

 

 

 

[Celestin]

MAP24: Flesh and the Power it Holds

 

True to the name, the map is a disgusting mass of flesh and blood, an effective aesthetic that helps breaking up the monotony of rocky hell.

 

After tearing your way out of the monster blockade, Flesh and the Power it Holds turns into a series of three major fights, separated by killing mid-tiers with an SSG. The yellow key encounter surrounds you with revenants and reveals an archvile in an elevated alcove, the blue key is placed in a large arena with more revenants, a cyberdemon and another archvile. I found the exit to be the hardest, it's an interesting twist on the monster closet behind a lowering wall - here, you are in a bloody pool that drains, revealing a monster closet. A pair of viles behind revenants can be a tricky target to nail with rockets or separate to shower them with plasma.

 

I like this one, the fights here feel exciting and give you a proper challenge in a concise dose.

[Novaseer]

MAP24 "Flesh and the Power It Holds" (100% K/I/S, 7:20)

 

My first life lasted six seconds.

 

After I got the hint and stopped playing needlessly aggressive, though, I still clocked one fairly embarrassing death thanks to running face-first into a cybie rocket.

 

The fights here are well-structured, the visuals are different to the rest of the episode thus far, and at no point did I want to rip my own hair out. It's a shame, though, that the secret counts are starting to die down, the exploration aspect of classic Doom levels seems to have gone walkabouts sometime near the end of last episode.

 

Good map, not much else to say.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP24 - Flesh and the Power it Holds - (100%K/I/S):
 

I'm just playing bad or am I having a lot of problems with blockmaps?

A fleshy-hell map, three arenas, each one bigger than the previous one, the length of this level is added a bit because of the fights being meaty, with a lot of heavy monsters. I feel Myolden is really good at placing archviles, as I'm having so much trouble with them playing this mapset. Nice map, nothing much more to say apart from its nice fleshy views. Feels a bit odd that the map does not end at the cyberdemon battle or in a strong ambush, but it's fine by me.

Order of Preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP16

MAP14
MAP31
MAP18
MAP09

MAP06
MAP07
MAP24
MAP22
MAP17
MAP23
MAP15
MAP21
MAP11
MAP20

MAP05

MAP04
MAP19
MAP08
MAP32
MAP12
MAP03
MAP02
MAP01
MAP13
MAP10

 

 

[Magnusblitz]

MAP24: Flesh and the Power It Holds

100% kills, 1/1 secret

 

Flesh is always an under-used hell theme so happy to see it used here to decent effect. Basically just a series of arena fights; although I know the maps are small I agree with @Novaseer that it seems the last few maps have lost the sense of exploration. Each of the maps is fine in this regard but stringing too many after the other is unfortunate.

 

As for the map itself, lots of monster variety creates a lot of chances for monster infighting, though with no BFG I did have to actually fight the cyber myself for a bit (first time this WAD?) and the dual-AV/rev ambush at the end is a good example of the old classic.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 24: Flesh and the Power it Holds 

 

That is such a pulse-pounding and suspenseful midi. And from the jump, we're going to run into trouble. Pinkies and Imps surrounds us in this tiny flesh room and the only solution is pure aggression! Just make sure to move a little bit to pick the ammo up, lest we run out. Least we can get the Revenants and Mancubi to infight....probably, but we shouldn't miss the chaingunner pair in one corner either. Hint: it's easier if we attack the latter from above. Anyway, the room with the blue key contains a trap with shotgunners mostly, but also some Revenants and an Arch-vile. I guess one might call it predictable at this point, but Arch-viles are my favorite enemy and you'll never change my mind! Less welcome are the walking doors on the ledge leading to the yellow key door outside. Because shotgunning barons is the most fun you can have in Doom! NOT. Anyways, a switch in the opened closet here will open up another room with a hidden plasma rifle and the only secret in the map.

 

The next room doesn't seem like too huge of a threat, Hell Knights and Mancubi, along with chaingunners, then plenty of ammo to rocket them with. But the switch on the other hand, in addition to teleporting several other enemies inside, will also spawn a Cyberdemon that also killed us instantly! Dispatching him shouldn't be too much trouble, although we did run out of cells despite allowing most of the other enemies to infight him. For some reason, we then have to leave this room and fight more Barons to push a switch that lowers the blue key, but we have enough rockets so it's fine!

 

Blue key door then springs some vengeful Arachnotrons on us, along with Cacodemons, though at this point we've got cells so there's more options. But right after this comes the most dangerous trap of the map! A murder of Revenants, backed by a pair of Arch-viles combine to create a profoundly deadly menace! I think there's some chance of infighting but in a small space like this section, that's leaving things to chance! And if it seems like we've ran out of rockets, there's no reason to worry because there's plenty of rockets in the back...unless perhaps if you used too many.

 

No matter the forgettable chaff at the end (well, more Arachnotrons), it's a killer map, definitely a contender for a top 5 map. Now let's vote!

 

 

 

+++Abcission

+++ Autophagy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cannonball]

MAP24 - “Flesh and the Power It Holds”

 

The map is split into three individual sengments, all three contain some quite spicy encounters. The first area is solved best by getting behind the mancubi as these are excellent meat shields against the small monsters. The second section is the most substantial mosh pit that is best dealt with by hitting the switches and getting everything to pour into the centre. The final area was the nastiest, despite being essentially a monster closet of revenants and a pair of archviles, the position of the archviles means that you can't simply pump rockets into them and deal with the rest and this turns into a dangerous dance of avoiding line of sight with the archviles and the revenant missiles that will quickly swarm the area.

Overall this was a fun and punchy map, no real complaints.

[Cutman 999]

MAP24 - “Flesh and the Power It Holds” (Pistol started, 3 attempts saveless, 100% K/I/S)

 

Now we enter the heavy weights in difficulty, and this map doesn't do a bad job at all scaling its difficulty.

 

Like in plutonia, if you aren't careful, you probably are going to die a plenty. From frame one you are surrounded by low and mid tiers, despite you having the high ground, is kind of difficult to clean the area without any damage, since you risk the mancubus or the chaingunners below to just nuke your hp. And after that, be careful there's an archvile that spawns once you lower the wall ambush, probably with the secret plasma gun It could not end up that bad, but certainly he'll make things more stressing if you left him alive.

 

Then, the large arena that houses the blue key has possibly the best fight in nostalgia so far, with a bunch of spectacle and infighting sights, playing like baby's first crowd control fight but still demanding good positioning and quick thinking to clean it up efficiently. 

 

After that, you just need to not get nuked by a revenant closet accompanied by 2 angry viles and just nuke everything else. Quite good and blood pumping fun that organically raises the difficulty to something a bit more complex while having lots of substance that even people accustomed to this kind of combat can enjoy.

 

9/10

[Celestin]

MAP25: DDevil

 

This one has an interesting set-up. You start the map by clearing the circular corridor of imps and mid-tier monsters. Well, nothing special, but that's just setting the stage for the rest of the map. There are two keys you need, the blue and red one. To lower each one, you need to release four archviles into the ring, who will start reviving the dead. The red key adds and exit-guarding cyberdemon, but also makes archvile-hunting easier with a BFG. I can't deny running around and trying to pin-point viles before they undo your early work is an exciting prospect.

 

+++ Auger;Zenith, Knee-Deep in Knee-Deep in ZDoom 
+++ Good Morning Phobos 
+++ Doom 2 in Name Only - this one has a very mixed opinions, so it would probably be an interesting wad to discuss.

[Novaseer]

MAP25 "DDevil" (100% K/I/S, 8:53)

 

Lots of archviles.

 

They're not that threatening - there's lots of cover and you're given all the ammo you could ever want, but they're pretty much all the map has.

 

Like before, one secret and an almost entirely linear route kills any possible exploration, and killing the cybie at the end is more a drag than it is an actual threat.

 

I had a ghost monster, though. That was interesting. Good thing I had a fully loaded RL.

 

(can I +++ Doom 2 In City Only or is that bad form?)

Edited March 25 by Novaseer

[Horus]

+++ Doom 2 In City Only

[Insaneprophet]

+++ doom 2 in city only

[Cutman 999]

MAP25 - “DDevil” (Pistol started, 3 attempts saveless, 100% Kills, 50% Items, 0% Secrets)

 

The start is actually kind of boring, symmetrical arena where you just incidental kill mid tiers to get better weapons. After the viles show up in the blue key, things start to heat up significantly, 4 of them go to the arena you previously cleaned up, so now you have to stop them before they resurrect every single monster there, rocket focusing on viles will never be unfun!

 

The red key ambush is a bit misleading, you think the big horde is what's going to crush you at first glance, but in reality, another archvile quartet was teleported to the start of the map, so clearly you have to nuke them with the bfg in order this time. Just kill a token cyber and that's the map.

 

Decent action overall, some complaints I have is that doom's AI makes so some monsters can get stuck in an inoffensive area like the blue key room, the beginning is boring and there's more intensity that could have been brought to this map, but is not bad at all.

 

6/10

 

(Not voting this month since I'm going to be absent for like 4 months)

Edited March 25 by Cutman 999

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP25 - Ddevil - (100%K/50%I/0%S):
 

I think this one is one of my favourites, sweet arena-shaped level. I expected everything to happen inside the ring, but you have an extra area behind the blue skull door, I feel there was a missed opportunity to make an interesting fight here, as you can easily skip enemies after you grab the red key, and you should, as you should kill those archviles as fast as you can. I think that were the part that lacked the most of the map, but the rest of it, and the main room being circular, was something I really liked.

Order of Preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP25
MAP16

MAP14
MAP31
MAP18
MAP09

MAP06
MAP07
MAP24
MAP22
MAP17
MAP23
MAP15
MAP21
MAP11
MAP20

MAP05

MAP04
MAP19
MAP08
MAP32
MAP12
MAP03
MAP02
MAP01
MAP13
MAP10

 

 

[cannonball]

MAP25 - “DDevil”

 

In the end a persons opinion of this map will depend on how big you think the payoff is after you handled the rather nonchalant start. In my opinion the map wasn't too bad but it felt a little too easy to dismantle. You get plenty of rockets and plasma and every weapon is handed to you eventually. Oddly it was the start where I made a few mistakes that killed me, the two archvile quartets were no issue at all.

Overall, not bad but the map felt like a little bit of a throwaway that really needed a little more zing, another aspect could have been to be a little more inventive with the layout, the ring-like structure isn't best suited to this kind of design, it needed a little more inter-connectivity to allow the monsters to catch the player off guard.