Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #082

[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

Roofi1. 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. Lost Base
2. Titan
3. TRECIAS
4. E1M1 Multiverse
5. Living Flesh

 

Spoiler

The Top 10 (out of 73):

 

1. @Roofi | 8840

2. @LadyMistDragon | 5680

3. @Sena | 2680

4. @Walter confetti | 2670

5. @ICID | 2025

6. @brick | 1935

7. @Endless | 1260

8. @Thelokk | 725

9. @Clippy | 630

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.

[LadyMistDragon]

Impulse (Deathmatch wad + REALLY Mean Monsters if needed!) Filename: levels/doom2/deathmatch/g-i/impulse.zip) 1996 by Paul R. Stevens (Crispy Doom

 

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First Major Project, Designed and Constructed on IMPULSE. (It sort of grew - I had to fight it back at times!) WARNING - If you choose to have monsters, They're a pretty nasty bunch, you'll have to be hard to survive.

Once you wake them up, all hell breaks loose!

There's a Large Metal Door in the upper outside area (Transporters and Exit behind it) that will stay tightly shut until you pass through the underground 32 crusher room!

You need to open this Metal Door to access the second set of Transporters for quick emergency escapes.

You'll then be able to move anywhere on the map Real fast.

If you have trouble finding the 32 crusher room:

Hint: If you have trouble finding the 32 crusher room. Look for the odd coloured small crate in the Underground Wooden building. (Something will move!)

 

 

 

It should be noted that this is a deathmatch map by design, with no effort to provide an exit. But this actually has incredibly aggressive monsters, placed in such a way as to really frustrate players and probably make them turn monsters off as a result. Detailing is quite nice though. For much of the run, it's in a series of wooden houses, exception being the areas of dungeon brick and a crimson canyon with a Supercharge in the middle. I don't pretend how to get the plasma rifle in the center of a series of crushers and I don't really care either. What's important is to read the text file as to play it correctly (but probably not with monsters) Flow seems ok but don't expect lots of unrestricted movement here. Knowing the map is half the battle here 5/10

 

 

Edited April 1 by LadyMistDragon

[brick]

Brick | 2 wads | 2 maps

 

Lost Base (2005) by Ravage (ravagefox, rf). 1 SP map for vanilla Doom.

I kept expecting the map to be older than the date indicates, but it seems like Ravage just wanted to make something in a very classic style. It's a tribute to E1, which made me expect some blatant homages, but Ravage is actually very good at staying away from them, the map size and flow and texturing evoke the episode but the architecture is all original. It's also rather well done, there's good use of elevation and progression is clear and clean. Combat is what it is, it' vanilla E1 so there's only so much a mapper can do. I know this is sounds like faint praise but I don't mean any of it in a bad way, the map sets itself modest goals but achieves them well. Sometimes that's all I can ask from an random roll, and honestly it's fun to play and well done, and as an E1 fan it does capture the aesthetic and gameplay really well.

Spoiler

 

Trecias (1998) by Donatas Tamonis. 1 map for vanilla Doom II.

This starts in a tiny dark room and the way out is a slim corner hidden wall, not very promising. Not long in I started running into annoying situations where hitscanners were shooting from behind midtextures, and infinitely tall demons were making it hard to move. There are a lot of switches, which I don't mind in and of itself, but I sometimes found myself in a situation where I thought I knew what I had triggered, only to find out it wasn't what I thought and I in fact had no idea what I was doing. There are some neat touches though, the map looks good in parts (those curvy stairs near the beginning are pretty cool). Once outside in the city-like area the map becomes completely different, there are lots of enemies and everything is much more open, it's almost a completely different map. It's a bit flat, with some simple but effective architecture (I like those opening at the top wall of the coliseum) but the gameplay is more fun here. It's an uneven map, but it has some good ideas here and there.

Spoiler

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 11 Day 09

 

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

 

[1] UAC - Mutation Complex.V1 by Lee Stokoe - (2006)

 

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This WAD started out as a way of loosing boredom, and I've never attempted to create a Skulltag Single Player map, so I wanted to see what I could do do.. And well, this came out...

Basicly, what this map is about is the original Doom monsters have been taken to a "Mutation Complex" to be tested on, and the Skulltag monster's act as the "Mutated" monsters, I know it's rather random, but it was a way to loose boredom.

Anyway I hope you enjoy it. >:) It took a while to finish.

 

"Mutation Complex" is a skulltag-compatible time machine that transports you into the core of the 00's era. This factory contains a wider arsenal and bestiary than most of the modern megawads but the overall layout remains religiously square and corridor-heavy. To be more exact, "Mutation Complex" uses the custom resources from Skulltag such as the super machine gun, the grenade launcher and even the power-ups which increase the fun during big fights.

 

The challenge of the map is notably increased by the omnipresence of mightier variants of stock ennemies. For instance, you'll meet cacodemons of different colors and each of them has their own resistance and attack speed. My favourite of the bunch  will be the Super Shotgunner, which can be stressful to kill in closed quarters areas. The corridor-y level design also doesn't let you many opportunities to skip the monsters so that you have to methodically spend your ammo. However, you'll probably notice that most of the key fights involving plenty of teleporting monsters can be ignored thanks to the doors. The monsters can't open them. I appreciate how you can cowardly escape the battles so that you can experiment your custom arsenal in a relative safety.  The final battle is perhaps my favorite, as I let a horde of enemies pile up behind a door, cyber included, and cleaned it all up with BFG10K. To tell the truth, the custom weapons helped me to enjoy the simplistic design of this map.

 

"Mutation Complex"  uses mainly rusty metal textures made by Likka Kerannen, which marry well with the orthogonal layout. The map might also have seemed emptier without these, which give the impression that the map is more detailed than it actually is. At last, the addition of the music "Excalibur" from ROTT gives me the impression to play a modernized version of a Hell Revealed map, combined with the fact that this map hosts quite a lot of midtiers and a rigid progression.

 

In any case, although this map failed to give me a sense of nostalgia, I paradoxically found it amusing thanks to its simplistic design, which emphasizes the use of "new" weapons against "new" enemies. This map was pleasantly cheesy.

 

Grade : B- (12/20)

 

[2] Flay the Obscene - Part two by @Chris Hansen (2013)

 

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/story One level - sequel to my Flay the Obscene.

It is a map 14 level, so that you could actually load my flayobsc.wad and this one up in Doom2 and play them as a whole.

Continue in this cold and hostile world in your mission to hold back the invasion of the aliens. Singlehanded you must fight your way through this brick and rock style world. How hard can it be??

However you were told that these aliens showed no sign of intteligence and UAC headquarters believed that it was an easy job for you to hold back these "neanderthal beings". Your first mission proved that! They believed that they had no techological knowledge. However now you start to suspect that they may have some technological know-how afterall. Small tech devices are now appearing in this alien world and things seem less random and messy this time. Are you getting closer to a truth well hidden by the UAC? Or are you simply starting to get paranoia? Suddenly you don´t feel so confident in your victory afterall. Maybe there was a meaning as to why your first infiltration were so succesfull? As you hide in their bloody sewers, you are getting other thoughts. Your self-esteem are dropping rapidly as you look at the shotgun in front of you. Now you have another mission to fullfill!

Well, I must admit, that I somewhere late in the process of this level, made some mistakes regarding this level. These have resulted in multiple changes and corrections in the making of the leveldesign which made some things differ a lot from my first ideas about it. It forced me to make some changes which resulted in a totally different outcome of the level structure and gameplay. So therefore, the level will never in my eyes reach the same quality as Flay the Obscene. Had these "things" never occured in the first place in the making of the level, and were I not forced to have corrected them negatively, well, then I guess the finished product would have been somewhat execellent. Because of all this, I have considdered making a special version of this level for zDoom, so that things might just go my way! It is, however, not settled yet!

 

"Flay the Obscene - Part two" is vanilla Doom 2 map initially made in 2000 that shares some vague ressemblances with "The Inmost Dens" from Doom 2. You are in a sort of small Venice where the buildings look as if they date back several centuries, and in which there are canals. Chris Hansen is known for making "classic" Doom maps involving an exclusive usage of stock resources but he didn't forget to spice up the challenge here. Health and ammo are tight enough to ensure that the only berserk accessible near the beginning is the most important medkit and weapon on the map. Chris placed it so that you can't miss it.

 

The first thing that will likely scare you are the numerous arch-viles' roar you're going to hear. Why so much arch-viles? For a nasty final fight? Worse than that ! They are used to create the infinite turret gimmick so that some areas are constantly kept by chainies ready to perforate you. Gimmicks like this can be extremly irritating depending how the author dosed them but Chris stayed moderate because  each chaingunner keeps a limited space and you have enough walls to take covers. Actually those turrets act as formidable stress factors when you're battling against other enemies. This type of "trap" seemed obscene to me, to keep with the theme of the map, but I can confirm that nothing is unfair and if your death can only result from skill issue.

 

However, taking chainies aside, Flay the Obscene remains tight and force you to navigate among cramped areas. I strongly recommand to turn off the "Always run" settings as some monsters pop-up from the grounds. Those can be very bitchy. Good ammo management is so crucial than I didn't have ammo left in order to key the last barons protecting the exit. They can be skipped easily by the way.

 

As controversial as the gameplay may seem, it's impossible not to appreciate the effort put into the visuals. "Flay the Obscene" is way more rich details than the average map from the IWAD and, if I want to compare with "The inmost Dens", the theme seems much more convincing, giving me more of a feeling of wandering around an old town. I also have always a soft spot for floating cages or keys, which always give a magic feel.

 

I never enjoyed the original Inmost Dens but "Flay the Obscene" shows that I can really appreciate the reinterpretations of it.

 

Grade : B (14/20)

 

I died in the first map from Abyssal Speedmapping Session 28 (XXVIII), melting in the lava.

 

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[Chris Hansen]

Thank you for the kind words about FTO2, Roofi. You are way too kind. That map is from a time when I was dead set on killing the player and took all the nasty stuff I'd seen from other more skilled authors and cranked it to 11 without fully understanding all the mechanics of good gameplay. But I still love that map and have very fond memories making it... in DoomCAD! So much water under the bridge... sigh.

[LadyMistDragon]

Swamplands (2014) by @riderr3 (Crispy Doom)

 

Here is yet one more early map from riderr, this one for Doom 1 but containing the general expansiveness and unclear pathfinding that are his trademarks. This is a good concept though. A series of buildings set in what seems to be the titular setting, there are a couple of places where things get weird. Like where I stumbled into a demonic warehouse at the beginning. And that's very much the nature of the map. Cyberdemons and Barons can be seen  from practically the beginning, but it'll take a fair amount of work to find heavier weapons and even more to find enough secrets to overload yourself (I got 16 percent). It might initially seem like that you'll only need the blue key but point in fact, the yellow key is needed to open the exit so just in case you avoided getting the BFG to get a faster time. At least those are respectable swarms toward the end. You'll want to turn around for the Spectre horde here though. Speaking of, this chapel here is very, very well done in its detailing, in contrast to the rather monolithic texturing and simplistic architecture in the rest of the map. 7/10

 

 

 

 

Edited April 5 by LadyMistDragon

[brick]

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

 

Titan (2004) by Jesper Krag Rasmussen (Ixnatifual). 9 maps for Doom II in ZDoom.

There's a string of 1-star reviews complaining about later versions of ZDoom breaking some scripts. While I understand the frustration it's such an odd thing to warrant a bad score considering a) short of a time machine mappers have no way of predicting how future port features will break their wad, if anything this is something to complain to the port maintainers about; b) Ixnatifual updated the wad to fix the issues, so the complaints are moot anyway, and c) there are softlocks in MAP07 and at least one is clearly intentional, if anything that would be a better reason for a negative review (more on this in a bit).

At first it seems like one of those wads that use ZDoom features but have a very classic level design, I normally enjoy this restrained use of port features. No stealth monsters (thank you!), no cutscenes, some short underwater adventures (usually for secret hunting). There are mirrors here and there and I admit I jumped in surprise and reflexively shot my own reflection several times. There's a new zombieman with a chainsaw, which is a great addition despite not being too dangerous. The maps are laid out chronologically, starting with the mapper's very first efforts and moving onward; in his wad review Kmxexii says he wishes mappers would go back and revise the early maps before release, and while I partially agree, I admit I like wads that preserve the early efforts as is, it's fun to play along and watch mappers grow and hone their craft. This is certainly on display here, MAP01's crate maze is one of the weakest (fun idea with the lights going out though), but each map gets more interesting, the detailing gets better, and the barebone scripts quickly grow to power the more complex sector machinery. There's some nice variety in locales, the bases are more orthogonal while the outdoor maps have more jagged landscape, I enjoyed the contrast.

I was really having fun with the wad and with the ever-improving mapping until I hit that intentional softlock on MAP07, which soured me a bit. Then there's MAP08, which has that fullbright room that's really just an arena with spawns slowly trickling in as we run back and forth dispatching them, it's drawn out and a little boring. I admit nothing prepared me for MAP09 though. That mesoamerican pyramid is by far the most impressive looking architecture in the wad. There's a little excursion to hell and the Spider fight has all the trappings of a final boss, including the music change. And then we get the BFG; I thought the map had ended? No, it's just beginning. What follows is what's meant to be a grand all-out fight against the thousand (literally it turns out) legions of hell, but it doesn't work for several reasons. Spawning around 1500 imps (sadly this is not hyperbole) seems like it'll be a big fight, except they spawn one at a time at the corners of a very large open map over more than 20 minutes, and running back and forth berserk punching them one at a time is boring. And that punch will see a lot of use because, other than rockets (unknown number) there is no other ammo around. I hope you weren't foolish enough to use that BFG, because all this grinding leads to a hectebus wave, and I don't recommend trying to punch them.

I could see what Ixnatifual was going for with this last map (and it certainly got a lot of praise in some comments) but I don't think it works, it goes on for way too long and is just too repetitive. Those last maps make it hard to recommend the wad, which is a shame because the earlier ones were very enjoyable. I realize the irony of what I'm about to say considering I was praising variety, but I do wish the wad had stuck to the more classic design.

 

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Mag-Rail (2005) by killingblair (GZ Doom)

 

Basically, a weapon sprite that replaces the plasma rifle with a railgun with sfx obviously ripped from Quake. Nice and sleek volume though.

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Press Conference (2003) by Christian Denholm (GZ Doom)

 

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The Story: The government captured you. You are on a prison ship going to a base on Mars when Demons take it over.

 

 

Not mentioned and it doesn't use the features but this can only be played on ZDoom ports. Not like it matters too much: every design choice is horribly illogical and seems chosen to prolong the map, namely the constant switch pushing. It's so artificial when there's zero justification for it and while it often works, it doesn't make sense anywhere. And the manner that you escape from the cell is to....find the hidden key. There is nothing of interest or joy here and the map should have ended after the yellow key door, not like it took much over 3 and a half minutes but still. 1/10

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

RESIDENT.WAD (1998) by "Nails"

 

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A doom deathmatch level over the summer and i have just gotten around to uploading it. Its based on the resident evil mansion, and i believe to be a pretty close replica of it. Its a little big for 2 players but more than that is a real blast.

 

 

Actually, it's not a half-bad replica by any means and I recognized at least a few rooms/hallways from this historic entry that was probably at least one of a few games that helped to usher out Doom from relevance. I failed to find the Jill Sandwich elevator, but this is a large and quite complex map one is not likely to get too many frags in.

 

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

 

Castle of Combat for Heretic (1996) by Martin E. Ferris (DSDA Doom)

 

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This is level 5 of a ? level adventure originally designed as an AD&D game. You might recognize this layout as the city of Yvel from Lands of Lore. There are lots of surprises, running room and monsters to run from. Look for the other levels coming soon.

 

 

Bless that pillar of the community (no, really, we need more Heretic advocates) ETTingrinder for uploading this......map that supposedly has the layout of a LoL city.....but I've actually played that game and there's literally nothing here that really resembles it that much. Other than the (not) caged Maulotaur maybe. It's just a generic maze that's more notable for its style than anything else. Health and ammo are non-existent, until one finds the mass stores which might work in deathmatch or an AD&D game but not in fucking Heretic unfortunately. Although things might be moderately fun and tense for a while, but it's hard to recommend something with such blatantly horrible pathfinding and repetitive trash as this 3/10

 

 

Edited April 5 by LadyMistDragon

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 12 maps
Adventure | 4 wads | 23 maps

 

E1M1 Multiverse (2020) by Various mappers. 12 SP maps for Doom II in ZDoom.
I exepcted something similar to the Maps From Memory Contest, in which a bunch of authors remade E1M1 from scratch based on what they could remember. This is similar, but the concept is different and in some ways more interesting. It's again a whole wad's worth of E1M1, but this time each slot takes a different gimmick and merges it with the E1M1 layout to create something that stays very familiar, I'm sure you can easily see the references in most of the screenshots. The gimmicks themselves are pretty varied: several merge the seminal Hangar with elements of another IWAD map, some impose a specific limitation (size, texture selection, theme), and a few borrow the theme from a completely unrelated game and try to rebuild the map around it, to good success I think. MAP01 goes for the alpha texturing but changes the map layout significantly to also fit with the kind of map you'd expect from there. MAP02 marges with Entryway and the music is a very humorous mishmash. MAP03 is the Dwarf Town equivalent and everything is squished together. MAP04 borrows from Herian and merges with another E1M1, namely Heretic's. MAP05 is pretty much the same map but given the Hell treatment. MAP06 instead turns it into a Wolfenstein 3D map. MAP07 is incredibly creative, bringing its own custom assets to turn the map into a Resident Evil theme where the original Hangar architecture is still so surprisingly recognizable. MAP08, one of my favourites, goesfor a Minecraft theme instead. MAP09 does a wonderful connection spanning 25 years and brings the Sigil gimmicks into Hangar (I only wish the mapper got an evil eye in there), it feels like Romero going full circle. MAP10 will be instantly familiar, if not by the green and brown aesthetic then by the revenant swarms and the chaingunners mowing you down through those mine-like passages. MAP11 is an expansive city and it took me a while to see the Hangar, but once I started noticing I realized every one of the original rooms and gimmicks is here, in one form or the other. MAP12 I'm not sure about, I feel there's a joke there that I missed (the Quake main theme is so good, either way). Some of the concepts may seem silly, but they're skillfully executed, and there's a huge amount of charm in every map, the gimmicks invite a good-natured approach and it seems everyone played along. It's really fun watching some authors try to turn the architecture into something different, and no matter how much they do it remains so recognizable. I count it as one of the pleasant surprises of that random button and had a ton of fun with it.

Spoiler

 

Edited April 5 by brick

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 11 Day 10

 

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

 

[1] FASTMAP by VibrantGull9 (2019)

 

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I called this map like that because i made it in less then 2 hours,but i think is great if you want a simple,short but fun map.

 

Speedmapping is often a nice exercise for your own growth in the mapping scenery but I've nothing to comment here. It's just a square arena with 4 identical pillars in order to take cover from other opponents (It's a DM map).

 

[2] Infinite Revenants by Revenant100 aka Marphy Black @Revenant100 (2018)

 

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In the beginning, the player created MAP01.

And the player said, "Let there be Revenants."

And there were Revenants.

Lots of Revenants.

And the player saw that it was good.

 

Fun idea but my computer doesn't like it, I wonder why...

 

I died in the first room of Mother's Day Insanity 2022. It's a Timothy Brown map, nuff said.

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

Stronghold (2010) by Wraith (DSDA Doom)

 

Wraith gives us this map with a more simplistic and derivative designj and shorter, but in some ways, hardly less impressive than his later efforts. Ammo is quite limited, powerups even more so, and health basically non-existent so the strategy here should be to lean heavily on infighting and not to use powerups unless one absolutely has to. Just don't miss the dragon's claw in front of the green key door unless you like the idea of having an even-rougher time. Speaking of which, I really did not like the unclear progression behind the green door. That's a process we'll just say could've been greatly simplified since there's lots of back-and-forth in a hallway. If you run into a trio of Iron Lichs, DON'T use the Tome of Power. You'll be glad you didn't. This map should take around 15 minutes if one knows what they're doing, and unlike the many later maps of Wraith, is quite linear. But putting aside the cruddy amount of health, this is a great map by someone that had been doing it for a bit at this point. The architecture, beyond a few near framing locations is just average Heretic stuff. 7/10

 

 

 

Edited April 6 by LadyMistDragon

[brick]

Brick | 2 wads | 21 maps
Adventure | 6 wads | 34 maps

 

Living Flesh (2022) by Sandy. 12 SP maps for limit-removing Doom II.
The text file mentions only testing with GZDoom so buyer beware. This may actually annoy some people, as it's one of those wads that technically should run on pretty much anything (most maps are so simple there's no reason they wouldn't run on doom2.exe), but that was only tested on GZDoom. It's very clearly a beginner's wad, the early maps especially are flat and not terribly interesting, I'm not sure if MAP04 is bugged but even after looking in an editor I can't see a way to get the blue key. It takes a few maps before we're handed the SSG, but spongy enemies appear much earlier and slowly going through them with nothing but the shotgun is, as always, not hugely exciting, especially because they don't attack in any threatening or original setups. Most maps are extremely short, some as fast as 2 minutes and rarely over 5. I will admit that, even if I didn't find the wad very engaging, at least most of the flaws were not so bad as to piss me off, I found the maps uninteresting but not actually bad. Apparently this was initially released as Overrun and updated with 4 additional maps and it shows, those later maps are a big increase in quality in combat, design and visuals. MAP11 was not bad at all, the architecture is simple but the secrets are well done and that big fight at the end is an entertaining one.

Spoiler

 

Deimos: Slight Return (2011) by ReX Claussen. 9 maps for vanilla Doom.
This is part of a trilogy that Rex made, taking the basic layouts of each of the Doom episodes (in this case, E2 as you can guess) and making layout changes here and there, adding enemies, and increasing detailing. Technically everything should work on doom.exe but there are some GL lumps and Rex mentions extensive testing with GZDoom so I opted for hardware rendering. I guess it's part of a long Doom tradition of remixing the IWAD maps, it's similar to what Wonderful Doom would later do, the maps are very recognizable and many of the features are still here, but there are small changes everywhere. What was a teleport is now a lift, familiar areas are connected differently, it's a fun way to feel like replaying the old maps but still being surprised here and there. Despite enjoying the map flow remixes I was saddened to see many of the more open-ended levels are now much more linear, many of the side connections that allowed navigating E2M3 in so many ways are now gone. Optional keys and areas are no longer optional, the yellow key in E2M2 is now required. E2M9 is just strange now, the whole concept is thrown out the window so you fight against the barons and cacos separately, which seems to completely miss the point. The one that wins most from the changes is E2M8, the arena looks better and is now the stage for a multi-wave fight that is much livelier, with multiple Cyberdemons, and for extra mayhem it's possible to trigger all the waves at once for a very entertaining mess. The increased detailing in all the maps is very noticeable, even though it stays within vanilla, I thought they all look prettier now and am impressed all this was done while still running on the original exe.

Spoiler

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 11 Day 11

 

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

 

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MDM6: Shut Down

 

A Deathmatch map taking place in a brown castle, set in a brown canyon under a brown cloudy sky. That's a lot of brown ! I feel like exploring the 8th map from 10x10. It's zdoom-compatible too, mostly because the author added an energizing module track but you can also swim in a small muddy pond located outside.

 

About the hypothetical playability of the map, you can navigate easily in this map because the rooms are spacious and not too busy in details.

 

I fell in one of the giants toilets from Gigantic Bathroom and the water corroded me. Gross.

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

Underground Fantasia (1996) by Regis Le Boit (Crispy Doom)

 

Here comes this quite curious little effort, with entirely unrefined combat but regardless serves as a good emulation of a variety of settings. The main one is a subway station but sewers and caves also show up in a not wholly illogical manner. I know that one tunnel is marble, but it's probably less demonic corruption and more just part of being a standard person-wide sewer passage. 

 

But the main station is genuinely quite impressive, especially the turnstile station and the rooms with the advertising on the walls, mostly women, but in one case, a title screen that shouts out Oliver Monetenay, that impressive utility creator from days of yore.

 

The combat  on the other hand is very touch-and-go, with zero sense of discipline or triggered traps. Ammo is ridiculously plentiful and it's kind of hard to die unless you face-rcoket yourself in these narrow tunnels. Secrets are also on the stupidly obvious end of things in a way that doesn't really suit the maps.

 

Btw, the water in the tunnels hates you (a Roofi peev), although there's enough rad suits that it really shouldn't matter. I'm guessing Regis had some idea of simulating the experience of being underwater but didn't have the skill to create pseudo-underwater effects so instead, did this.

 

All that being said, it's authentically 90s and commits no real major sins that affect the gameplay 6/10

 

Spoiler

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[Walter confetti]

Lost Base by Ravage (ravagefox, rf) - Vanilla Doom, SP, 1 map, 2005, played with DSDA-Doom 0.27.4

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A pretty cool knee-deep style map with some added hellgrowth like vines and some other diversions like a teleport and some line effect usage. The layout is pretty reminiscent of original e1 maps, especially E1M6 with it's original spin with some interconnection between the level, despite this the map is pretty linear and can be finished in a blast! But have it's challenging moments as well. Fun and fast paced map!

 

M Y S T I C 6 by Andy Mickie aka mystic - Legacy, DM\SP, 1 map, 2001, played with GZDoom 4.11.3

Spoiler

Another short fast-paced map sets in a space... structure with Egyptian symbolism for some mysterious reasons that takes advantage of no gravity / deep water effects as well as of 3D floors creating a 3-stories arena that is surprisingly well balanced for SP as well! But despite this, the only anonymous vote is a 0 star by some guy, why? A pretty good map worth a play!

 

Talking about mysterious source ports forgotten by time, what is this Doombot thing based upon DOS Legacy (no, not even Windows Legacy; the DOS porting one! Talking about ancient stuff!) ?

No, because i found randomly a file for such port that must be a ancestor of those dumb bots i play against on my DM plays called boo made by this Razorback guy back in 2001, i can't play this obviously but it really make me wonder that this thing was so popular back in the days that did even have its own folder category on idgames!

Spoiler

But i can always try download it, if the linked URL still works!

 

potshot.wad by Steve DuBe' - Vanilla Doom 2, DM, 1 map, 1996, played with Zandronum 3.1 and bots

Spoiler

A surprisingly fun map with a pretty well-crafted layout reminiscent of Dwango\Greenwar maps that didn't gave me any hope of something decent just looking at the text file and the title... what kind of title is potshot? This make me think of stoned people for some reason, like a pot shot... Welll, however the title doesn't have too much to do with the title, since there's not too much randomness in shooting or some major critics to do to this author.... Overall, a pretty fun map!

[LadyMistDragon]

The UAC's Return (2014) by Thomas Trovelak (GZ Doom)

 

Could be there's more. It's a pretty nice room in any case with some well-organized ceiling trim and just enough wear and tear to give this place extra character. It's also impossible to leave the one room. Clearly, it wasn't playtested to any degree.

 

 

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HyperSpeed (2023) by @ONETAPPYBOI (Crispy Doom)

 

 

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Welcome to HyperSpeed - A brand new megawad for doom 2, where each level is a remake of the corresponding vanilla level, except with a simple new twist - the exit door permanently closes after 30 seconds. If you didn't reach it in time - tough luck, try again.

Due to the harsh time limit, all the levels are extremely compact with a large focus on speedrunning, demanding good movement if you want to beat the wad on higher difficulties (no shame in lowering it, though), and occasionally requiring executing proper speedrun strats like grabs or SR50.



The megawad includes the full 32 maps, and also 3 extra ones - MAP33 is the one used for the title screen, MAP34 is an earlier version of MAP21 that was scrapped due to low quality, and MAP35 - an earlier version of MAP24 with a radically different ending. This wad also includes a number of QoL features, designed to make speedrunning easier, such as:

A palette overhaul, designed to make it easier to see when taking damage, invulnerable, picking up an item or protected by a rad suit; A new plasma rifle sound that is much quieter - important because you'll be using the thing a lot.

 

 

There are probably a fair few maps that are a little bit too unforgiving but I didn't get that far because unless you can consistently SR50 and also bump, there's no completing this wad. It's well-done for what it was however, and the outdoor area in Entryway is actually quite nice. I'd probably give it a 6/10. It's at least nice how the different layouts are able to be simplified.

 

 

 

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 5 maps
Adventure | 7 wads | 39 maps

 

DooM Resurrection Episode I (2001) by Tommie (Fatal) Quick. 5 SP/coop maps for Doom II in ZDoom.
This was supposed to be the first part of a wad that unfortunately never saw more releases. @fatal was a Team TNT alumnus, though you wouldn't know this if you haven't played their Deathmatch wads. This follows in the footsteps of script-heavy ZDoom wads, but I think it's a better mapset than most contemporaries, for several reasons. For all the scripting there are almost no cutscenes, the scripts most often give the maps an objectives-based approach and sometimes create entertaining progression milestones, such as going past a sealed door by overloading ventilation fans so that the shafts become accessible. There are fun bits like going down a lift, and watching a friendly plane carry an airstrike that flattens the Cyberdemon that would otherwise greet us on arrival. This wad has also got to have the best use of stealth monsters I have ever seen; Tommie understood overuse is what kills their effectiveness and so he places them sparingly and deliberately. The result is that running into one is genuinely surprising and unexpected, and their use as an obstacle in a situation where we're trying to frantically run past comes across as clever instead of heavy-handed. The complete lack of music, the emphasis on exploration and the low monster count makes the maps lean heavily into atmospheric, and I think this is where (G)ZDoom can often shine, especially when mappers show restraint with cutscenes. I said there were almost none, because there are a couple of times where the wad switches to another camera to show us stuff, but these are so brief and there is no dialogue, it complements the non-verbal (or more accurately low-verbal) storytelling that the wad uses. One of my favourites is  watching a Cyberdemon and a bunch of imps and demons teleport out of the genetics lab, and then some time into the last map we press a switch and they all teleport in. It makes for a fun finale too, the Cyberdemon is an inaccessible turret and we have to make our way through everything else while evading his rockets, followed by a face-off with two Spiders that rewards agility rather than shooting. About the only negative is with those insta-kill mines, they're a bit of a shock the first time in MAP03, but more obnoxious than anything on repeat use in MAP04. That's my only complaint though, it's a really fun wad, one of the best of the "classic ZDoom" ones of that era, and it's so short (I clocked just under one hour) that it's easy to recommend.

Spoiler

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 11 Day 12

 

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

 

[1] Shape Of Things To Come by Alastair Montgomery (2002)

 

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HiTech DM Wad

 

A zdoom-compatible DM map featuring some cool 3D effects but an asphyxiating layout involving lot of 64 pixels-wide corridors, yikes. There are some monsters populating this map if you play alone and the SSG are impossible to miss. I fully agree with Doomkid's comment on idgames, the usage of 3D effects is neat but this map plays without doubt awfully on multiplayer mode.

 

[2] Arena123: DeathMatch Wad by Joey Cato (1995)

 

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small arena with walls that can be dropped via a lift switch. Weapons: all, BFG hardest to get.

This arena is perhaps one of the most minimalistic representations of a city you can imagine in Doom. Giant sectors act as "building" and you can either lower them or take teleporters in order to reach the roofs and obtain all the shiny goodies. The visuals are rudimentary because of this simplicity, but it makes for a very dynamic layout with pronounced variations in height.

 

[3] mjs-01 by Mark St. Hilaire (2011)

 

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THE GAME MAP

At this point, I'm only making one fairly tough skill level, and single player games. Feel free to make any changes to the map that you wish, add more player starts, etc., but if you make changes and pass the revised map around, PLEASE include the above editor information in the ZIP file.

Using a map editor, DEEP is the only one worth considering, to change an existing map is about as easy as it gets, a real no-brainer. Be aware, though, that it does take considerable time to learn the tricks and techniques involved in making a level from scratch. I haven't been blessed with an artistic eye, so my levels will never be as good as some others, but using DEEP, I know they will be technically correct, no HOM or other problems of that type that I've seen. DEEP does all kinds of checking to ensure .WAD integrity, so why not give it a try - level creation is actually quite a bit of fun!

 

"mjs-01" resembles to a more distorted version of a wolfenstein map : it's square, flat and the SS soldiers are the most common enemies for an unknown reason. Each room has a different so I have absolute no idea where am I but the objective remains the same : explore X rooms, shoot stuff and press the exit switch.

 

This level is undemanding as medkits, shellboxes, boxes of bullets and even invulnerability spheres are all over the place. Cleaning the giant dark room located just before the exit turned out to be a fun mess because there're so much nazis that not all enemies could be displayed on screen, on DOSBOX. Some strange mapping decisions can be noticed like the BFG placed just before the exit so that it's totally useless or the blue key locked with several barons in a cage and which you don't even need it to complete the map.

 

Honestly, I don't ask myself why because it's objectively a poorly conceived map. I had fun anyway, but it's still rubbish.

 

Grade : C- (8/20)

 

I was desperately trying to find ammo and my way in Starport v1.7

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

extrme21.zip (1997) by unknown (Crispy Doom)

 

No info came with this. None. Anyways, this appears to be a mod that makes you Priss from the Bubblegum Crisis anime. I'd be damned if it could be loaded in Crispy Doom though. See, one will see the orange plasma replacement shots but not a whole lot else. Too bad, because the graphical conversion of Priss is excellent. The problem probably lies in the coding instead.

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Sorry to do this but I expect the next hit to take quite a while. Although I could see if it has difficulty settings.....

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 11 Day 13

 

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

 

[1] cbpandemonium by Matt "cannonball" Powell @cannonball (2012)

 

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This vanilla ultimate doom map figures as one the earliest works from cannonball's productive carreer. As a faithful tribute to Doom's E3M3, you"ll get a dungeon crawler kind of progression in which you have to find three kinds in the order you want to unlock the exit. The visuals remain strictly "Doomy" with notably an exclusive usage of stock textures. Even though this map represents cannonball's early days, and I wasn't expecting a map that wasn't as polished as his more recent creations anyway, it's apparent that he deliberately rejected modernity to embrace tradition.

 

However, the addition one of the midis from Heretic is a kind of novelty for me because I'm almost 100% sure I never played an ultimate doom map using a soundtrack for that game before. This is a good idea in that case because Heretic's soundtrack tend to fit well alongside maps with a sandboxy progression.

 

This map offers a good balance between combat and exploration in 10 minutes. I didn't have time to get bored, but it remains above all a rather modest tribute to Doom. It could perhaps replace the E3M3 map, as it improves on it in every respect, but it's still not very memorable.

 

Grade : B- (12/20)

 

I fell in a giant pool of water from UW_PART1.WAD v1.1 "Doom II - The Unholy War: Part I Colorado Spaceport" without imagining it could be damaging...

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

Grime (2008) by Death-Destiny (From Doom with Love)

 

Death-Destiny is a mapper that needs little introduction, although I'll just say right now I don't subscribe to the conspiracy theory that Darkwave0000 is also Death-Destuny (there's more evidence that Tyrion was a bastard son of the Targaryen's for god's sake).

 

But anyway, this is a hell-themed map, containing some quite blatant hostility in the frequent use of red textures, despite the occasional lovely slime fall that can be glimpsed. Fights are per DD's usual, highly calibrated, although ammo is a bit more available than in something like Disturbia for instance. If one picks the rocket launcher route when given the option, there's obviously more offensive power, but at the same time, rockets are also quite few so it'll be advised to save them for another time, and let's just say there's a chance of one of the many Arch-viles darting around to cause trouble if you only have an Super Shotgun. Incidentally, shotgun ammo is plentiful but not abundant so just try to pick and choose where that's used.

 

There are also a fair few boss monsters as well. In the case of the red key, it might be a good idea to have the Cyberdemon infight the first Mastermind of the map after taking care of a closet with Revenants and Imps that seems like a bit of misstep to be quite honest, but it's really no matter. Although the second Mastermind is probably going to die through infighting.

 

It was quite a nasty trick to use the first two keys and have that ambush in any case which also reveals the yellow key nearby. We'll be able to pick the plasma rifle around this time too, with a rather useless Cyberdemon.

 

From here we get some of the hardest situations in the map. The chaingunners die easily enough to plasma but in this narrow cave, 4 Barons and a Cyber will pop up at one end and I have no consistent strategy to win this, beyond the obvious usual herding.

 

Then after killing some Arch-viles and hopping down some platforms, we get the final confrontation! The chaingunners, Barons and Mancubi should probably not be engaged with directly and only if they are a higher threat to us at any point, but in any case, hit a switch where we can collect a BFG and open a closet with several more monsters including 2 Cyberdemons and thankfully, there's no need to two-shot them! if one is lucky, there'll be enough cells for the expected mass of Arch-viles at the end but that's the end of the map so we're good!

 

Grime is a map I had some familiarity with but actually found a two rooms that are like those I've seen in modern difficult wads (180 MPV and Judgment if you want me to say the specific wads). No Chance and Disturbia are quite a bit harder for a number of reasons but Death-Destiny can still bring on the pain spectacularly! 8/10

 

 

Edited April 9 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

Mars Adventure (2022) by Pezl

 

Simple E2 replacement for Ultimate Doom, consisting of smaller maps with some decent usage of detail and not too bad but also not terribly substantial. It at least can be said to be terribly boring. Good luck remembering any of it afterwards however.

 

THEDARK.WAD (1996) by Jason Still, aka The Forever Man (DSDA Doom)

 

I've seen the name Jason Still in connection with one of the earliest works of an old-school mapper whose name I can't recall. Anyway, before anyone accuses this map of ripping anachronistically of a section of Level 4 of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, thick pillar rooms are quite generic, of typical dungeon brick. There are also some side hallways but this has powerups essentially scattered willy-nilly. Probably not worth the time.

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Theme Shock (1995) by Bill Lachance

 

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Your mercenary company has been hired by 'the company' to put down a rebellion on a Scientific Colony (specializing in genetic research). After fighting off meager resistance on the surface, you find your way down to the central bunker, location of the plantary shield generator. Turning off this piece of equipment will allow the company's orbital forces to bomb the outpost back into the stone age. According to the schematic, the generator lies in the hub of the level. The controls to get into the hub are in the computer room (SW corner). Unfortunately, intelligence indicates that the computer room is almost certainly locked down behind three blast doors. The controls to open these are scattered across the installation (author's note: if you pull a switch and don't see an immediate effect, you've probably opened one of these doors).

Of course this plot is one of those 'Alien vs Predator' scenarios. However, you'll be confronting much more than that nefarious duo here. Terminators, crazed militia, and various other denizens of action movies abound in this level. Play it and see for yourself.

 

 

As much as I appreciate Bill explaining the concept, the map itself is an unqualified stinker. None of the Spider Masterminds can move or attack based on how they're stuffed against walls. Ammo outside of secrets is horrible thin. And the mechanic which allows the collection of both keys isn't anywhere near intuitive. 2/10, for its concise size and easy navigation mainly because I can't think of a single positive characteristic of the map. Flesh walls in the center be damned.

 

 

Edited April 11 by LadyMistDragon

[brick]

Brick | 3 wads | 4 maps
Adventure | 10 wads | 43 maps

 

Hangar 2001 - Ultimate E1M1 Remix (2001) by J.C. Bengtson (SailorScout). 1 map for Doom II in ZDoom.
This is a straight up remake of E1M1, @SailorScout claims to have recreated the layout from scratch, if that's really the case I'm impressed because it is very faithful when it wants to be. I say this because he clearly wanted to make changes, the texturing is completely different (quite good though), and there are some added secrets. I admit it's satisfying to grab that green armour and keep flying through the window to land in the now-accessible outdoor area. There's not much to say though, despite the small differences here and there the map is still very much the Hangar we all know and love, unlike SailorScout's earlier Containment Area this remix doesn't have enough added to get its own personality. As an E1M1 fan though I will not complain about yet another remake, no matter how similar.

Spoiler

The Anomaly: Part II (2001) by Varun Abhirama Krishna. 1 SP map for vanilla Ultimate Doom.

Varun playtested many of older brother Karthik's maps but also released his own, though he was not as prolific. This was his first when he was barely a teenager, and has some honestly strange design decisions. Switches are inside small alcoves positioned much higher than I've ever seen, there's no difficulty in pushing them but they look strange. Secrets are completely hidden and usually without any hint, short of humping every wall (and keeping an ear for a door or lift activating nearby) there's no real puzzle-solving to find them (the nod to Karthik in one was cute though). Combat is a bit weird too, there are cacos almost immediately, a dearth of ammo at first, a baron that I had to shotgun and then run away from because I really didn't feel like resorting to the chainsaw... and speaking of, that chainsaw room trap was mean! The map is on E4M6 and I wondered about the choice of slot, until a teleport took me face to face with a Cyberdemon, with no way out until he is defeated. I do appreciate Varun's attempts at avoiding right angles, almost everything is curved and it makes corridors look better. It's not the best map ever but it's a good first effort. I'd like to play more of his later maps at some point, and especially the wad that the brothers worked on together.

Spoiler

Toxin Refinery (1999) by Paul Corfiatis. 2 maps for vanilla Doom.
I initially thought had rolled another remake, of course I thought it would be an homage to E1M3 since it occupies this slot and, well, that title. Then I start the map and it looks nothing like an IWAD map, I thought I was wrong and it was a completely original design. Less than a minute later it turns out it is an homage after all, but to E1M6 instead. The walkway over toxin with the little room with barrels on the other side is unmistakable, but there's also a variation on the E1M6 maze. To be fair to @pcorf he made the maze much more interesting, there's a lot of his own architecture all over, and the map in general is quite good. It's very E1 but despite the limited selection combat is fun, the way passages are connected means demons often sneak up from behind while you're busy dealing with imps and the ambushes are well set up. The best part was hunting for secrets, they're well hinted and often rewarding. Towards the end I did come across the homage to the E1M3 starting room, which here has us raising the middle walkway to reach the normal exit instead. Of course this means the secret exit is somewhere else, and figuring it out takes us to a secret map that has nothing to do with the original E1M9 or anything from the IWAD. It's a bit of a joke map (the very Scottish bagpipes turning into Mario music make it even more obvious) in the style of the Death Tormention 2 bonus maps, with a small army of barons to defeat in tight quarters with nothing but rockets. Ammo is plentiful and there are a couple dozen Supercharge so it's not particularly difficult, though I admit mowing down a few dozen of them is very satisfying. Despite being from Pcorf's early days when he was still a teenager I really enjoyed the wad, both maps have a lot of charm (each in its own way) and pull off their gimmicks satisfyingly.

Spoiler

 

[Walter confetti]

9 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

 

Theme Shock (1995) by Bill Lachance

Yeah, for playing this in a much more correct way, you need to play alongside with this combo wad here. I know this because i found the same maps long ago here on Er/iwa

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 11 Day 14

 

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

 

[1] A Deathmatch WAD Series designed specifically for four player deathmatch play. (DOOM II) by Christian Antkow (1995)

 

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"Lock the target Bait the line Spread the net and FRAG the man!" (To paraphrase Front 242's "HeadHunter")

 

This is a pack of 6 maps designed for multiplayer. The first map is a remaster of LEDGES.WAD and the other consist of symmetrical combat zones. The visuals look rather sharp as there is an emphasis on tall architecture and interconnectiviness. I also like how the white light textures are used. However, it's nothing more than an average set of DM maps that nobody play anymore.

 

[2] N-SANE1 Disorientation taken for granted... by N. Scot Norman (1995)

 

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I guess the author wanted to create a sort of weird trip to hell like the way the map "Nirvana" did in Doom 2 but the problem here is that Sandy Petersen's work resemble to a masterpiece compared to this. N-sane1 is outrageously distorted and ugly between the empty marble rooms, the endless stairs in the most hellish section or the extremly tight corridors which actually prevent monsters from reaching you.

 

I played too much 90's wads to be annoyed by the non-sense progression but I was craving for more ammo. I managed to skip the most difficult parts of the map by grabbing the blue key located behind an invisible wall and some hanged commander keens (why?). 

 

I tend to enjoy randomness in old wads but Scot had no notion of common sense.

 

Grade : D- (4/20)

 

I fell in a small blood pool which which seemed to be not deep enough to be lethal in Gore1.wad

 

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[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 11 Day 15

 

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

 

[1] Deadly Cargo by Tommie Quick (1998)

 

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A level designed 100% especially for 2 - 4 player deathmatch. 2 player is intense, 3 player.... hurts and 4 player it a TOTAL frag fest. Have fun!

 

A small deathmatch arena centered around a cool-looking but fake 3D bridge. Why fake? Because you'll go through the mid-tex if you don't exactly run on the pillars sustaining the "bridge". The author spotted some 3D bridges in other wads but didn't know how to create them properly. The palliative is quite original, I must admit.

 

Beside this old wizardry, this is a standard metal tech-base in which you can find the nook from Plutonia map 01 containing blue armor and a backpack. Is it a hommage or plagiarism? Probably both but who cares?

 

[2] RACE.WAD by Franco Ielapi (1995)

 

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This level was designed to be used as a Deathmatch level for Doom2. All weapons are available, except for the BFG9000. There are no monsters roaming around and there is no exit. The level consists of two concentric circular catwalks, with a tower at the very center. There is dangerous lava between the catwalks and the tower. The catwalks and tower are connected by moving bridges. The plasma gun can be found inside the tower, but once inside, the tower becomes a deathtrap, for the floors begin to move making it difficult to get out in a hurry. All players start on the outer catwalk, and it is a race to the tower.

 

A small and simplistic circular arena which proves to be as boring to look at than at navigating in it. For a wad called "RACE.WAD", the elevators linking between the different platforms are painfully slow. However, the lava only deals 5% damage, you can walk a certain time on it at least.

 

[3] MENACE.WAD by Jeffry_EnEmY. (1995)

 

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a Fast pace 2-4 player Deathmatch..Map isnt oversied and if youre a Danzig series fan it is very similar in design and is a Must D/L!

 

A small DM map in the theme of the first tech bases from DOOM 2. Should be suited for fast action but for my part, I recommand to download this wad for the new sound for the plasma gun. It now sounds like you're firing maces in Heretic. The new sound is much less irritating to the ear and very satisfying.

 

[4] GoatDoom by Unknown (2001) [WARNING : NSFW !!!!!!]

 

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Have you ever been to http://goatse.cx? If not, this WAD probably isn't for you. If you have, this WAD probably isn't for you. Otherwise, check out Map30 for a, er, surprise

 

A stupid nsfw replacement of the IOS I've already reviewed on Month 12 Day 15 (28 September 2022). Here's what I said :

 

"Heh ! It's 2001 and Kama Sutra wasn't released yet ! Anyway, here is the anal edition of KS map 30. Enjoy."

 

Nuff said but the original KS map was way more creative at least...

 

I jumped in a lava pit containing several radsuits. It was unescapable. From THE COFFIN

 

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[Walter confetti]

Doom II.... Patch wad by Rocker... Long Beach Dwango - Vanilla Doom 2, DM/SP, 1995, 1 map, played with Zandronum 3.1 and bots

Spoiler

A pretty mysterious deathmatch wad with no info in idgames but more stuff into that is actually pretty decent and fun to play, despite the weird MIDGRATE texture usage sets in a futuristic palace that take advantage of black\blue\dark brown color scheme for everything in the map, interesting gimmick. The layout is kinda modern in feeling and have a LOT of places to maneuver against the small zombies hordes in SP and some other dude online on DM. The offspring midi choice is pretty cool.

 

Ralf01 by Ralf Naegele - Vanilla Doom, SP, 1 level, 1994, played with DSDA-Doom 0.27.3

Spoiler

 

A typical 1994 style map that was the first map by this guy, there's more maps but looks like to be vanished like tears in the rain or something, however for such a type of fodder shovelware CD map isn't that bad! Some design are cool, like the outdoor area in fifth shot, it's fast paced and somewhat fun to play, but that long dark secret hallway mandatory to progress in the map it's a bullshit, as well as the secret wall at the start can go die in a hole. Overall, it's a fun shlock.

 

1-Hour Speedmapping 2018 by various people - Boom compatible, Doom 2, SP, 33 levels, 2018, played with DSDA-Doom 0.27.3

Spoiler

 

A megawad born of spontaneous speed mapping exercise within the 1 hour limit by many big names in the community such as @Jimmy @Nirvana , breezeup, benjogami and many others, with many maps that is incredible that are done in just one hour. Some levels are pretty harsh in difficultylike burning fistula (sorry but i hate that map!) and the secret maps but all the maps are fun to play and pretty inspiring to see what can i do in one hour of mapping! No map-to-map review of the megawad, sorry again (NOT!)

[LadyMistDragon]

The Facility (2018) by John @neubejiita Cartwright (From Doom with Love)

 

A standard, if moderately-large facility map, though this is no Supply Station-esque 800-pound gorilla by any means. It's probably a considerably better map though! Even though this is larger and emptier than the best (debatably) of John's recent work, the combat totally works, despite the randomness of the monster placement in the opening hallways. It does almost feel like a facility at certain points. Despite a few large ambushes, (not to mention a fair few sudden Arch-viles) it's just kind of a nice action-filled map. Although glance at the monster count and perhaps you'll find it a little odd that less than half of the monsters are dead after reaching what turns out to be the second fake exit. I really can't see how one would get through the following ambush without plenty of cells from an ammo store a million miles away but basically there are Imp masses and Pain Elemental pairs on either side of a courtyard with a Mastermind in the middle and the ammo that refills is in a position that except if you're at full health can not be acquired. And I dunno if the Mastermind's death was like a trigger but I heard the roar of a Cyberdemon almost instantly, along with the arrival of a small Imp army, and many, many more Arch-viles than any sane person would place at once. Though these latter will probably the Cyberdemon and his friends, they have to be kept in mind. And I really have no idea why there are all those guys outside at the right side. I thought for a bit they teleported into the gazebo in the middle, but no, that's entirely another group of enemies that you'll probably end up getting reduced to rockets at a certain point with the sheer masses. Map kind of goes flat at this point, with some avoidable enemies sitting just to the left of the exit.

 

But despite the utter text file butchery (this replaces 07, not 01) there's actually one more map called Unholy Chapel I believe. This one's a little more in-your-face, with enough Barons when we get outside that we see we probably missed a hidden BFG somewhere. Enter the chapel the blue key unlocks and a stupid army of Revenants and Barons starts teleporting into the grounds to the left. I'm not sure this map has an exit. Probably it's marked.

 

This seriously has to be among John's best wads in the first map at the very least. The second seems to require some secret-hunting if doing a pistol-start. Which will take the rating down a point or two, sorry. It's still a solid 7/10 however.

 

 

Edited April 12 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

Some Old Level (2001) by Nuno Correia (Crispy Doom)

 

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This is one of those unreleased levels, dating back to 1996 (I was twelve by then).

I happened to find it in a backup floppy. When I tried it the level seemed fairly good, and as such I'm releasing it for public consumption.

 

 

Well, yeah! It's really a pretty simple map and there are at least 3-4 different rooms that are derivative of similar areas in the IWADs. But it's well-made all the same and of shocking quality for a 12-year old mapper. Detailing is quite light but things play pretty well and 1/4 of the enemy count is in a secret with an entirely unnecessary chaingun. The backtracking is a little eh, but there's really little else to complain about here, it's just a touch more difficult than Hangar, for the most part. 5.5./10

 

 

 

 

 

Four Square (1997) by Timer (Crispy Doom)

 

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This is one of most played WADS around. This was made for BFG lovers and haters. Just play it and see what I mean. *** PLAY AS MAP01 ***

 

 

Exactly what it looks like and how it's described complete with tan walls, a particular set of sound effects that has appeared in some other dm wads and a version of "Smells like Teen Spirit", even though this map was made in 1997. It's definitely a solid play for 1 by 1 but could maybe have some more character to it. 5/10

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

pole.wad (1996) by Tanner McCarron (Crispy Doom)

 

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Fairly small game. No monsters. Climb a moving pyramid. Long shots.

 

 

Doesn't sound too bad....however, it's not really terribly fun to play in practice. While entirely indoors, the map manages to be very often and the gimmick doesn't really serve a huge purpose. Much as I like the COMPEBLU walls, the same can't be said of the pyramid of the Player 1 start, which has alternating of something hell red and fireblu steps. The sharp angles are nice I guess 4/10

 

Spoiler

 

After getting these two maps that I've played before, tried once more and....

 

 

KNOB'S Carnage, for DOOM][ Only!, Part 3 (1994) by Jeff (Crispy Doom)

 

How I do resent the existence of Wolfenstein textures in Doom. It's like, here's these entirely different stylistics only showing up in 2 secret maps and suddenly, people think it's acceptable to do these sort of things, basically with no irony whatsoever. Despite that Jeff got a fair bit of advice, teleportation alignment is laughable, the outside courtyard is beyond useless (on UV anyway) a couple of doors are unmarked and you can basically forget about alignment. And naturally SS are literally frickin everywhere. Also, what the hell is up with the Invulnerbility? That is one seriously cooked teleport ambush and perhaps we should be thankful no Cyberdemon appeared. At least there's no SS here. All large TNT-type ambushes aside, this is entirely disposable. 5/10

 

 

Edited April 13 by LadyMistDragon

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 11 Day 16

 

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

 

[1] PUNK.ZIP by Richard Smol (1994)

 

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PUNK.ZIP is a zipped PWAD-file, containing an entirely new map for level E1M1, made with DEU 5.0 ... I meant it especially for deathmatch-play; there's no exit, so you have to play till you drop! Especially -respawn is fun! Do you have the SPUNK to play this?

 

"PUNK.ZIP" or rather "SPUNK" is a deathmatch map inhabited by lot of sergeants , just not-so-peacefully wandering in.

 

This map can be divided in two parts :

 

- The Deathmatch zone which is the central area, made of large rooms, corridors and a courtyard with a BFG throning on its pedestal.

- The Slaughter arena , which is a peripheral area accessible via a teleporter. Even more sergeants wait for you and I had so much fun bursting them to pieces with the BFG. This zone contains lot of cells and soulspheres. I enjoyed this primitive form of slaughterfest !

 

[2] THEEND.WAD by Kevin Haley (1994)

 

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A blast-fest ending level for Episode 3. Designed esp. for multi-player games with lots of monster action.

 

An interpretation of how Doom would have ended if E3M8 was designed by an outsider. As E3M8, you start in a small room but contrary to the original map, you must kill 2 Masterminds instead of two.

 

You have to traverse four different sections which each is populated by a number of enemies :

 

- The first one is inhabitated by small hordes of spectres

- The second one contains two cyberdemons

- The third area has lot of barons

- The final section contains lot of cyberdemons and the yellow key which allows you to reach one of the Mastermind.

 

So, "THEEND.WAD" has the quality to be more substantial than any boss map from the original game but monsters can either be cheesed or skipped because they can't reach the middle of the map due to "block monsters" linedefs and clever use of the few invulnerability spheres can neutralize any monster. Actually, there is definitely not enough ammo to get rid of all the cybies so don't try wasting your cells on them.

 

The IWAD map is so poor that THEEND.WAD remains an improvement. Nevertheless, it's still a miserable boss map, particularly annoying at times.

 

Grade : D+ (7/20)

 

[3] G50.WAD by Unknown (2005)

 

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A location with subway. Great design!

 

A quite impressive Doom 2 map created in 1994 attempting to realistic subway station.

 

You start in a grand hall and I love how the light textures are used to make windows. Moreover, it's pretty rare to see such megastructures in very old wads. Once you cleaned the first area of its guards, you have to explore the subway's tunnels in order to recover several keys. Contrary to the spawn area, the representation of the tunnels is designed in the most epurated away, probably due to technical limitations. There are even not rails but for a reason I don't know, many tunnels transform to giant crushers once you cross them.

 

Unfortunately despite the large size of the places, this map is short, easily completable under 10 minutes. The arachnotrons and the Spider Mastermind roaming among the tunnels don't pose much threat so don't expect more than mundane combats.

 

But in the end, this map remains a small gem among the wads designed in 1994, thanks to its rather successful attempt to create a realistic location, without falling into the classic "My house" or "My School" style.

 

Grade : B- (12/20)

 

[4] Hardcore Battlezone by Brent & Kent Spillner (Mostly Brent) (1995)

 

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Large, fast-paced pure deathmatch level

 

"Hardcore Battlezone" is indeed a large DM level, way oversized for duel and I even believe it is for 4 players mode. There are three distinct parts : the circular battlezone which ressembles to a mixture between the popular DM map "LEDGES.WAD" and "O' of destruction" from Doom 2 , the immense but dark warehouse at the eastern part and the long straight marble corridor at the south. In my opinion, I really love the circular arena as it contains curvy stairways, thin paths and height variations all over the place. The progression is weird but exciting. However, the warehouse and the marble hallway seem very superfluous to me.

 

[5] Toxic Computing by @Carlos_Lastra (2018)

 

Sorry no screenshot... Crispy Doom refused to save them for weird reasons.

 

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This is a map I made to try an old school style of detailing. It means that the geometry creates the "beauty".

I modified nothing in the MAPINFO (map name, music, nojump, etc...). Simplicity.

 

Actually screenshots aren't really necessary for this kind of wads because "Toxic Computing" acts as a faithful hommage to Ultimate Doom. Since it's limit-removing, just imagine the first episode of the iwad with a bit more details and I'm 95% sure that this map runs under the vanilla limits but I didn't try.

 

"Toxic Computing" replaces E1M3 slot and vaguely follows the same concept with notably several nukage pits and a raising stair leading to the exit. No secret exit though as it's a stand-alone release.

 

I don't have a lot to say about this level but it felt shorter than the original E1M3 because as the enemy groups show little resistance, despite their rather high density. However, the red key features a creative trap involving a horde of pinkies and a handsome of lost souls. This combination of monsters is interesting because pinkies can't cross slime ditches like lost souls, so it's hard to camp out in this fight. That's why you get the chaingun just beforehand, so you can quickly make your way through. It's my favourite moment of the map by far. Talking about E2's monsters, you'll meet a small flock of cacos just before the exit. Unless you play on NM, they'll more consume your time than your health.

 

A good classic tribute overall, but I find it less fluid than the original E1M3 map.

 

Grade : B- (12/20)

 

The cyber from Ebola.wad is almost impossible to avoid...

 

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