I am going to beat every WAD Dean of Doom has ever reviewed (SEASON 2 ALMOST COMPLETE)

[Logamuffin]

OK, I'm a massive MtPain27/Dean of Doom fan. In fact, I don't think I'd even really be a part of this community without him. His videos have inspired and comforted me a lot, and shaped my perceptions of Doom. Which is why I'm embarking on a journey to follow in his footsteps.

That's right, I'm attempting to beat every WAD he's ever reviewed. I forget when exactly I started this but I think it's been like 4 months or so where I have been going down the list. So why only post it now. Well, I didn't know if I would give up before getting anywhere with this. But today I hit a very important milestone: With my completion of Hell Revealed, I've officially beaten every single WAD the Dean reviewed during Season 1! It's definitely a strange collection of wads, but along with some wads I had already completed beforehand, I have completed 39 out of the 118 wads that he has reviewed during the series (that's including Sawed Off and Halloween Episode Wads). With that number, I feel like I'm finally committed enough to post about it.

 

Now, I should note that I'm not going by Dean of Doom rules when playing these. I'm not playing on UV, since HMP is much more my speed and I think it's more fair for first time playthroughs. And I'm probably not going to be completing everything twice. I'm dedicated but I'm not that dedicated. And I'm using GZDoom with freelook on (I know, sue me). But the challenge isn't as important so much as my own personal journey, and I want to share it with y'all.

 

How am I keeping track of these wads, none of you may have asked? Well, I have a spreadsheet that lists every individual wad Dean of Doom has ever reviewed with my completion status of each (I even have sections for each Sawed Off Wad). I also keep track of my own opinions and comments on some of them, though not all. For those curious, you can view the spreadsheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F-q711KO7k57I6Fd6DSg2-CbgBugZB2GOPRc2enokls/edit#gid=0

 

So what am I going to do now that I've completed all of Season 1. Well, Season 2 of course! So in this thread, I'm going to update y'all on my progress and what I'm thinking along my journey.

Edited May 18 by Logamuffin

[Li'l devil]

Good luck with No Chance, Holy Hell, Okuplok and similar stuff.

[Logamuffin]

53 minutes ago, Li'l devil said:

Good luck with No Chance, Holy Hell, Okuplok and similar stuff.

I’m hoping to save those for last :^)

[Helton342]

Good luck with Community Chest 1's Map 29

[RHhe82]

2 hours ago, Helton342 said:

Good luck with Community Chest 1's Map 29

Nah, it’s not that bad. A chore, to be sure, but not as bad as its reputation would have believe.

[endoomer]

18 minutes ago, RHhe82 said:

Nah, it’s not that bad. A chore, to be sure, but not as bad as its reputation would have believe.

 

It is that bad design- and gameplaywise. Whether he'll do this saveless or not, it'll be a huge pain in the arse.

 

 

[RHhe82]

24 minutes ago, endoomer said:

 

It is that bad design- and gameplaywise. Whether he'll do this saveless or not, it'll be a huge pain in the arse.

 

 

Granted, saveless will be a pain. And now that I try to remember, I think I may have played CC1 on ITYTD, because otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered with other slogs in the set, either. Wouldn’t want to replay it.

 

On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to scare Logamuffin away, either :P I respect MtPain/Dean of Doom immensely, but I find myself disagreeing on some occasions with him, and often times I find myself scared away because impressions I gather from his reviews. (For instance, I recently finished BTSX e2; I was on a hiatus for so long after suffering mid-wad fatigue, because I was afraid the latter half would be too much for me because he didn’t have a good experience with it).

[Cutman 999]

> Mfw dude's gonna play CC1 map29, Okuplok, nochance, deus volt, swim with the whales and more

 

[Logamuffin]

1 hour ago, Cutman 999 said:

> Mfw dude's gonna play CC1 map29, Okuplok, nochance, deus volt, swim with the whales and more

 

I already beat Swim With The Whales..

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Pure Hellspawn]

 

9 hours ago, Li'l devil said:

Good luck with No Chance, Holy Hell, Okuplok and similar stuff.

 

Did Dean review Cosmogenesis by any chance? 

Edited March 31 by Pure Hellspawn

[No-Man Baugh]

1 hour ago, Logamuffin said:

I already beat Swim With The Whales..

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

OK then, now I'm just worried about you playing the rest of Community Chest and giving up out of sheer boredom before making it to the Mucus Flow

[Gothic]

Good luck with Lunar Eclipse

[Logamuffin]

1 hour ago, No-Man Baugh said:

OK then, now I'm just worried about you playing the rest of Community Chest and giving up out of sheer boredom before making it to the Mucus Flow

I already beat CC2 also..

[CacoKnight]

11 hours ago, Li'l devil said:

Good luck with Okuplok.

Don't listen to him, Okuplok is a 15 mins wad on Nightmare. Have fun!

[Lila Feuer]

CC1 MAP29 is the only time I've ever skipped a map in any megawad after trying in vain for 30 minutes and hating it, then myself.

[maxmanium]

Ok

[cannonball]

For all the talk of x-rated difficulty maps, no one has mentioned that there is another wad that requires beating where some maps are quite literally impossible.

Mock 2….

[Logamuffin]

3 minutes ago, cannonball said:

For all the talk of x-rated difficulty maps, no one has mentioned that there is another wad that requires beating where some maps are quite literally impossible.

Mock 2….

I mean for Mock 2, the Dean cheated so why can't I? :P

 

I did also already play through Mock 2, it was... an experience.. an electric duck experience, one might say.

[Logamuffin]

Update: I know I said I would start playing through Season 2 and I am doing that (Speed of Doom is kicking my ass currently) but I also beat 50 Shades of Graytall (S3E9). 50 Shades is kind of a weird one because I've played through it plenty of times but I've never beat it. I always would tap out somewhere around Map10-14. But, I stuck it out this time and gave it the full look.

 

As for comments on the WAD, there's a reason when I did my vote for the community poll for top WADs, 50 Shades was among my top 10. The first 9 or so maps alone qualify it for being one of my favs, they're seriously the greatest streak of awesome maps I've seen from a community project. And visually, the maps look abstract and awesome as hell. So finally playing it through all the way was just a bonus for me...

 

Ok, so other thing I want to say: I may be switching ports, too. GZDoom's modding capability is good, but DSDA-Doom just looks and feels SO much better. I don't think I'll ever be able to fully give up GZDoom mods, but for playing classic-style megawads (which is most of what I'm gonna be doing with this anyways) I'm probably gonna switch to DSDA. I don't know. We'll see.

[DoomPlayer00]

Plot twist:

 

Dean reviewed Junkfood just to pull an april fools on @Logamuffin

[Logamuffin]

Update 2: Speed of Doom has been done! It was fun overall, though a few of the maps were painful, especially towards the end. During the last few maps I put on some disco music to serve as the backdrop for gratuitous demon murder. So, yeah I had a good time. Another one wad I completed during the time since my last update was the first in the 3 Heures d'agonie series.  It was pretty average and not very memorable, but that's to be expected with speedmaps I guess. Plus, the Dean did say that 3HA1 was the worst in the series so I'm looking forward to the next 2.

 

Speaking of, what's next on the list? Well, for obvious reasons I've decided to save Hell Revealed 2 and The Master Levels for a later date. And I'm broke which means I can't buy Doom 3 to get access to No Rest for the Living. Which means next on my list is Plutonia 2, Scythe 2 and Heartland! I'm already halfway through Scythe 2 and Plut 2, so I should be able to keep going at a steady pace. I've also updated my spreadsheet (which you should look at) to reflect my current completions.

[Devalaous]

On 4/1/2024 at 10:06 AM, Lila Feuer said:

CC1 MAP29 is the only time I've ever skipped a map in any megawad after trying in vain for 30 minutes and hating it, then myself.

 

Only 30 minutes? My dude, it took me *8 hours*, aka pretty much a whole day of play to finish that monster 100% on UV, and I had to cheat at the very end because theres a bit you cannot complete without wallrunning glitches, which I consider the map's only black mark.

 

A shame he never got to see the community's response to his final work. What a thing to leave behind as your legacy in this community.

[zokum]

MtPain27 has overall good reviews. He has a bit low knowledge about vanilla limits and techniques. Treating vis plane blockers as pointless annoying obstacles / bad design. It is harder to make something look good yet stay within vanilla limits. I feel this is a bit under-communicated at times.

 

He also views it strictly from a single player view. Some maps have quite well implemented coop play and features, and that is a factor he doesn't mention much. Many maps break catastrophically in coop. You have to discard some designs when mapping with coop in mind. Adding stuff like respawn teleporters in the start, avoiding long runs to pick up weapons when respawning etc are all important for coop enjoyment. Keyed doors that close can be a major pain in coop when someone dies.

 

Some mappers are notorious in creating situations where if you die in a specific area, you cannot complete the map when respawning. Typically areas you go into, a door closes behind you and you have to find a switch to get out. A good coop map will add a teleport or use a drop to let players enter multiple times. You also need to take into account that in coop, players can do two actions at the same time at wildly different locations. This can easily break features like "find 4 switches that raise a floor 24 units each".  If two click at the same time, it will break. Care must be taken to avoid creating such scenarios.

[Logamuffin]

18 minutes ago, zokum said:

 

He also views it strictly from a single player view.

 

I find this limitation much less important than my least favorite thing about his reviews which is reviewing maps only with UV Max pistol starts in mind. While this is THE way to play from a speedrunner’s/doomgod’s POV, it’s a very narrow gameplay style and leaves out players of lower skill level. I wish he would take more care to consider lower difficulties and other gameplay styles when reviewing, but it’s also his opinions and his way to play so I guess I can’t complain too much.

 

But still, many maps he complains that are tedious or annoying with this gameplay style are completely fine on HMP when I tried them. Example: Poison Ivy 2 from Speed of Doom didn’t feel anywhere near as bad as he made it out to be on HMP. 

Edited April 10 by Logamuffin

[zokum]

1 hour ago, Logamuffin said:

 

I find this limitation much less important than my least favorite thing about his reviews which is reviewing maps only with UV Max pistol starts in mind. While this is THE way to play from a speedrunner’s/doomgod’s POV, it’s a very narrow gameplay style and leaves out players of lower skill level. I wish he would take more care to consider lower difficulties and other gameplay styles when reviewing, but it’s also his opinions and his way to play so I guess I can’t complain too much.

 

But still, many maps he complains that are tedious or annoying with this gameplay style are completely fine on HMP when I tried them. Example: Poison Ivy 2 from Speed of Doom didn’t feel anywhere near as bad as he made it out to be on HMP. 

What you mention is indeed a variation on the theme. A somewhat narrow playing style. Maps that cater for different ways to play it do not get much cred for that. That is one of the things AV did well. It was designed with all 3 skill levels in mind AND coop. I remember there being a fair bit of discussions about this. When we played Doom, we tended to either play coop or dm, and not swap much between them. So if we did play coop, we'd play a lot of coop. It's something we talked about and for many of us in that area, the coop/dm/LAN play was a very important part of the game.

[Andromeda]

On 4/10/2024 at 1:22 PM, Logamuffin said:

But still, many maps he complains that are tedious or annoying with this gameplay style are completely fine on HMP when I tried them. Example: Poison Ivy 2 from Speed of Doom didn’t feel anywhere near as bad as he made it out to be on HMP. 

Neither on UV for that matter.

[Logamuffin]

Update 3: Ok, a couple wads have been beaten since I last posted. For one I marathoned the rest of the 3 Heures D'Agonie series, and boy, that was a lot. Then there's Scythe 2 and Heartland, both of which I also beat. I also am halfway through Plutonia 2 and I have some comments on that. So, from now on I'm gonna spoiler my comments on each wad just to keep a bit more tidy.

 

3 Heures D'Agonie 2:

Spoiler

A lot of the maps blur together because of how short they are, so I'm not gonna have much to say. But most of the maps here were very fast, fun and bingable. Map28 though, that's another story. Maybe it's just me, but I do not like Darkwave's brand of cruel difficulty. Ironically, "3 hours of agony" describes my time with each of his 3 slaughter marathons he submitted to each 3HA wad. Some other highlights were Oxyde and some of WH-Wilou's maps (Brexin especially). I would call this one my favorite out of the 3 in the series.

My grade: B

 

3 Heures D'Agonie 3:

Spoiler

This felt like a step down from 3HA2, at least for me. And I think the reason for that was the maps felt a lot harder and longer overall. A lot of the fun of the first 2 was that the maps were short, quick and not too difficult. But the last 10 maps of 3HA3 made me feel like I was fighting for my fucking life constantly. Also, the Archvile use was insane, there was basically an Archvile in every fight for some maps. Why do the French love Archviles so much? Is it because the name sounds French? There were a couple very cool maps like Map15 and Map18 though, and it was still decent overall so I don't want to complain too much.

My grade: C+

Scythe 2:

Spoiler

Loved it. I'm surprised I hadn't played this before with how consistent and amazing it is. The 6 episode structure was great, it kept things fresh for me and I wonder if this is the wad that popularized it. And while I could do without the custom monsters, they did without a doubt add a lot of new challenge and variety. I was kind of scared going into the last 8 maps seeing how the Dean hyped them up, but it really was not as hard as I was expecting. Maybe it's just cause I was bracing myself for it... I don't know. Great stuff!

My grade: A

 

Heartland:

Spoiler

It's great. The custom weapon and monster roster is the greatest I've ever played with, even beating out Struggle: Antaresian Legacy in terms of fun factor for me. The room over room was use brilliantly, the maps were beautiful and the combat was great. I have a couple of gripes though:

1. The Eternity engine is not a very good port, quality of life wise. I had trouble getting it to behave the way I wanted it to, and I never got used to it.

2. I wish it was longer. I know that sounds dumb, but I felt there was a lot of moments that could've had more buildup like the introduction of the cluster bomb launcher or the hell levels.
Oh well. It's still great, but I think its length holds it back from being true A+ material for me.

My grade: A

 

Plutonia 2 (haven't finished it yet but I want to complain about Arch-Violence):
 

Spoiler

I enjoyed what I have played so far and I don't really have any comments on any particular map except for... Map11: Archviolence. I really didn't like this map, but moreover, I feel like it misses the point of what makes Hunted so good. In Hunted, an Archvile would pop up suddenly while you're trying to navigate the maze and scare the shit out of you. This makes you paranoid because the Archviles could be anywhere. But in Archviolence, the Archviles are just everywhere. Around basically every fucking corner. Part of why Hunted is so good is its' simplicity. Making a version of Hunted that is just a bigger maze with a bunch more Archviles is like making a version of "The Sound of Silence" that is really loud and dramatic... Oh, wait.

 

I was going to play Plutonia 2 before Scythe 2, but Archviolence made me put it down. It really was not fun.

 

 

 

Next on the docket: The rest of Plutonia 2, Nova 1 and 2 and Icarus: Alien Vanguard. I'll see y'all when I get those done!

[Jacek Bourne]

6 minutes ago, Logamuffin said:

The 6 episode structure was great, it kept things fresh for me and I wonder if this is the wad that popularized it.

 

You're right. Scythe 2 did popularize that structure.

[RHhe82]

Regarding Plutonia 2, for me Archviolence was the low point of that wad. I can think of only one map later on that misses the mark for me, and even that one is nowhere near as tedious as Archviolence.

[Logamuffin]

 

My journey has landed upon 3 avatars of pain... Wish me luck gents...

 

Updates soon :P

Edited April 28 by Logamuffin