Mind blowing wads

[Skemech]

What was the most "You mean to tell me this was made in the doom engine?" wad you've ever seen/played? For me it's either MyHouse.wad or doom infinite

[Plerb]

Doom 1, in E3M8 you blow up a giant robotic mind!

 

 

 

 

And also Knee Deep in Knee Deep in ZDoom is pretty cool.

[fai1025]

Total Chaos

[Noiser]

You mean Doom engine, or GZDoom engine? Because these are very different. I would agree with Total Chaos though, I think for GZDoom (Zandronum?) it was one of the most impressive mods I ever saw.

[LoatharMDPhD]

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=29915

 

[Alper002]

I remember being really impressed by Three Is A Crowd when it came out. It makes use of a fair bunch of obscure vanilla tricks that make some maps feel quite impressive. Definitely helps to know what mapping in the vanilla format is like for that full effect, though. The wad also tells a coherent story throughout, which's doubly cool for vanilla I think.

 

Should probably look into playing through it again sometime, I remember enjoying it a whole lot.

[BeachThunder]

I'm about halfway through Requiem...that does some real mind-blowing things for 1997.

[RDETalus]

Dimension of the Boomed because it had ambient / environmental sound effects, super detailed light & shadow casting, and underwater effects with the Boom format.

[ducon]

imposs.wad

cheogsh.wad

Edited April 1 by ducon

[ReaperAA]

For vanilla Doom2.exe, I think KDIDIZD. So many mapping tricks and voodoo scripting done to implement stuff that vanilla exe was just not made for. Another impressive stuff that comes to my mind is Map32 of 1000 Lines 2 CP. A very cool puzzle map that revolves around silently progressing the map to avoid archviles teleporting in.

 

For limit removed stuff, some of the DBPs are definitely worth mentioning. DBP37: AUGER;Zenith is great for it's cyberpunk theme and interactivity, but I will make a special mention for DBP59: Zeppelin Armada for implementing dialogue system.

 

For Boom/MBF stuff, I would like to mention some maps of Eviternity 2, notably Map33 for being Temple Run esque racing map where you need to avoid deadly obstacles while the exploding wall chases you. Or Map14 for implementing puzzles such as a picture puzzle or guiding barrel on converyor belts.

 

For GZDoom, I think Selaco seems to be a solid candidate for being one of the most impressive stuff done on that source port.

[ASD]

ademo0.wad

[reefer]

atmospheric extinction easily

[Jimmy]

Void

RTC-3057 Hub 1

Putrefier

dead.air

Lullaby

Hell-Forged Episode 1

Corrupted Cistern

Godless Night

Insanity Edged

 

Sorry, GZDoom/UDMF bias here. :V

Edited April 1 by Jimmy

[Deadwing]

Pirate Doom II, which should be released soon lol

Lot of small moments that I went "how the fuck..." + MBF compability mode

[rouge_means_red]

REKKR is quite impressive imo

[CacoKnight]

 Bastion of Chaos, Hurt, Elementalism, Insanity Edged, Winter's Fury..

[Zaratul]

Abscission wad. Holy shit, that wad has so unfriendly, evil and ominous atmosphere.

[PKr]

I have a very old folder with Doom wads. Whenever I play new wads I put a prefix to wad's name, like "this wad is $#!T" or "amazing" or "nothing special"... You get the idea. The earliest wad that has a simple prefix "WOW" belongs to All Hell is Breaking Loose from 1996. So I guess that was the first wad that blew my mind.

[bioshockfan90]

Unironically Twogers. It's the best example of a joke-wad done right by using MBF21 to its absolute limit to create some hilariously mean or interesting scenarios with the engine. 

[shatt3r]

Bastion of Chaos

Technicolor Antichrist Box

Elementalism

MyHouse (I played this blind and my mind was fully blown)

 

In Eviternity 2 MAP14 there is puzzle involving switches and barrels that I thought was fairly mind blowing.

 

 

[ChaingunChaCha]

+1 for Elementalism. Wonderful aesthetics and a great concept. It blew me away.

[BMWAG65321]

"Planisphere 2 is a single-level WAD for strongly limit-removing source ports, released in 2012 by Perro Seco, and updated in 2018. It is a replica of New York City. It was a runner-up at the 19th Annual Cacowards." - Doomwiki

[pcorf]

Lost Civilization

MAP31 and MAP32 of Sunder

 

[june gloom]

Whatever this is.

[Pierrot]

Seconding Dimension of the Boomed, and adding Hell Ground and Hellscape.

And of course the BTSX series.

 

And for GZDoom, The Alfonzone.

[Bobby :D]

Here's two WADs that blow me away that are NOT UDMF/ZDoom

Reconstruction/Decomposition

It's a WAD that strikes such an immaculate balance between an amazing depiction of a spacecraft and an actual playable level with some memorable beats and rooms that create a pacing so tight everything stays fresh in my head even after a dozen playthroughs of a relatively short map. Every detail entices me to ponder about the way of life in this facility, it's so startlingly realized that if you upscaled everything you could almost mistake it for concept art. It's not wasted either, there's an emotional and narrative curve to the progression between the lit and still "active" areas to the cramped and dimly lit abandoned ones, and further on into REDACTED.

It might not be the gargantuan structural monstrosities you see in alot of GZDoom wads or technical implementations of absurd concepts in super conceptual wads, but it strikes such a subtle, professional sense of narrative and environmental storytelling that I never ever see in any other WAD, let alone one that's now 10 years old.

Comatose:
 

A survival horror map that floors me in two ways. In terms of technical specs, this map is an insane CPU hog. The map is massive and littered with details of many magnitudes of scale, like individual cigarette buds, stocked but vacant storefronts or police stations, or an inaccessible detailed village that takes up a third of this tens of thousands units wide level. The way that this map organizes it's structures like a real city but still makes it fun to explore and navigate is an absolute wonder to me.

As for it's concept, the map is the real deal when it comes to its subject matter. You navigate a ruined town besieged by industry, the occult, and other fringe factions, yet all that remains of anybody or any presence are merely specters of the past ;). Compared to RC/DC, there's absolutely no sense of direction and the map is designed for you to wander about it's dilapidated municipal and industrial districts, and it balances these more elaborately choreographed interior/exterior areas with the always-changing looming presence of what things have appeared in areas you cleared before. From my perspective, the WAD is a metaphor for the fallout of the Soviet era and how the specters of it and other things of the past will continue to haunt us if we are powerless to change anything.

I'll be sure to share more WADs when I can!

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Lost Civilization

Lullaby

Void

[Maribo]

An incomplete list of things that altered my perspective on Doom in some way:

Jumpwad - Platformer nostalgia trip. Saturday night skating (jumping) around Jump city. Doom can be so much more than it was ever intended to be.

Cyberdreams - So far ahead of its time, still one of the most inspired gimmick puzzle experiences you can get out of a Doom WAD.

Intergalactic Xenology Trilogy - Initially a straightforward Ancient Aliens tribute that begins to grow its own wings in the second episode, and then truly takes flight in its third. For enthusiasts of shrink rays.

Ashen Garden - A dead world left to consume itself. Kiln of the first flame, perhaps.

My Soul Trapped in a WIN98 PC - Do you feel an affinity with your computer? Have you ever tried to envision a physical space version of a file directory? Me too.

 

[Pancrasio]

37 minutes ago, Maribo said:

Cyberdreams - So far ahead of its time, still one of the most inspired gimmick puzzle experiences you can get out of a Doom WAD.

Another Cyberdreams enjoyer!!!

[GreenAnime]

2 hours ago, june gloom said:

Whatever this is.

gzdoom is now a game engine!!?¿?