The DWmegawad Club plays: Operation: BIOWAR & Equinox

[Plerb]

Equinox MAP04 (HMP, continuous, saves):

 

I only just now downloaded Devalaous's quality of life patch for this WAD, which I set to autoload.

I remembered being stuck on this map on my first playthrough a year ago, but luckily this isn't my first playthrough anymore! This map is perhaps the most cinematic-feeling one yet, filled to the brim with memorable scenes, enhanced by its intense music (which works better when it actually loops properly!).

 

Despite being fairly mundane, the concrete hallway with revenants and chaingunners has always stuck out in my mind. If my mind was an aesthetic, it would be this area. Much better than the rather lame vent maze in the previous map. My very WIP 90's-themed TC has a tribute to this part in one of the very WIP maps.

 

Unfortunately, just after this part you're ambushed by an difficult-to-impossible to avoid cyberdemon, a situation not helped by your mandatory blursphere. I doubt this part was properly tested. It's not worth the trial and error required for RNGesus to let you past him, so I just idclipped through it. Thank fuck I'm not a UV-maxer. After getting through a tiny hole, the map is back on track, where you're back into my beloved concrete vent maze. Unfortunately, by the end of it when the walls lower to a bunch of enemies, when I need it the most, I'm fresh out of ammo. Due to my familiarity with this map I was able to get through it ok, but still, it wouldn't've killed BPRD if he put more ammo here.

 

The exit room is a fitting end to such a creative adventure of a map. Towers of Barons in vats, which seemingly stretch into infinity. You get to blow it all up with what's perhaps the most creative use of the boss brain in any WAD ever, especially considering the original WAD doesn't have any DeHackEd at all!

 

Overall, with several memorable areas and only a couple parts which drag it down somewhat, this is one of my favorite maps in the WAD. I can understand why it would be a slog on a first playthrough, but I love Equinox's other strengths enough that once I got used to the quirks, I can't bring myself to do anything other than love it.

 

Also, I started compiling a resource pack containing almost every BPRD-made graphical asset, assuming it's okay to disregard some old text files...

Edited June 21 by Plerb

[RHhe82]

MAP04. Played on UV, continuous. DSDA v0.27.4. K: 370/370, S: 3/4, I: 109/110. Comp. time 28:37

 

Kill count rises, and most of it consists of fodder, which I'd love to mow down... if not for slight ammo starvation looming very near in the horizon despite continuous play. Another flaw: I found out only after passing point of no return that you can't backtrack for long, and that you can permanently lock yourself out of a secret that would have somewhat alleviated resource issue. I'm still not sure what the five switches in one room did.

 

Other than that, I suppose MAP04 is a fine map. Linear, very silvery, and the end sequence is cool (for a moment there I thought my laptop was dying). I suppose that helped me dip the scales on positive after all. The cyberdemon fight with forced blur sphere is nothing to reminisce (surprisingly enough I never got splattered climbing up from the elevator into the arena), but I really like BPRD's sector work, the hole in the arena looks very good.

 

I guess the thing is I'm just not that keen on some of B.P.R.D's design philosophies. Ample ammo, backtrackability and having no softlock situations are not exactly basic human rights -- but I hold those values in high regard.

 

AFTERWARDS (day after first playthrough): I decided to replay the level, and I even tried to do a pistol start, since my continuous had already been overwritten on MAP06. The beginning was a little harder, but knowing a bit of the ambushes, I managed to complete the map with considerable ammo surplus, and suddenly I was feeling somewhat more chipper about the map. Also, I found out that DSDA-Doom does not record level completion time unless you pistol start (but it does record K/I/S). That's actually very fine and preferable to me, I just didn't realize until now.

 

MAP04. Played on UV, pistol start. DSDA v0.27.4. K: 370/370, S: 4/4, I: 110/110. Comp. time 28:02

Edited June 21 by RHhe82

[veevil]

Equinox
MAP04: Begun the Clone War Has

(UV, pistol start, K: 100% / S: 100%, Woof!, complevel 2)

 

And then we enter the Genome Labs proper. The fourth map is a natural extension of the previous map, but with a catch: the ammo shortage is not immediately obvious. But don't you worry, it's still there all right.

 

The map can be neatly divided into two parts and you'll know you've entered the second part when you can't go back no more. The first part is a big open firefight with dozens and dozens of zombies gunning for your head and can turn out very differently depending on the way you approach it. It can be a tedious doorfight if you hang back or an exciting run-and-gun if you don't - crucially, you have enough medical supplies to make the second approach viable. You'll have no ammo issues here, as there are simply so many shotgunners around that you'll stay topped up on shells the whole time. Don't miss the SSG sitting smack dab in the middle of the ensuing corpse-pile and the backpack in one of the side rooms, you'll need 'em.

 

The second part is a different beast entirely. The first section's plentiful piles of shotguns are gone, and so are its open and well-lit spaces. Now it's about dealing with hordes of chaingunners, revenants, mancubi, and other assorted fiends in dark tunnels. Not only that, but genetic test subject 293895 is waiting to say hello with a rocket to the face in a harrowing, unavoidable point-blank encounter. This is no doubt where many players call bullshit, as you're semi-forced to eat a blur sphere before you go in, so your survival has more than a little to do with RNG. However, you can mitigate the issue if you know how. Speaking of which...

 

Remember what I said before about prior knowledge? This map is where that really comes into play. You need to know (or be properly paranoid) about the ammo situation in the latter part, as you can't return to restock after you take the elevator down from the observation deck, and your guns will run dry down there if you're not careful. The secret megasphere is vital for surviving the cyberdemon encounter, so you need to know where to find it and ration it for that purpose. Oh, right: you also need to know that the megasphere secret will be permanently closed off if you press the wrong switch. Rude!

 

I can't not mention the ending sequence. Emerging from the stifling corridors of the map's latter half into the final room and seeing the cavernous space filled with clone-pods is such a nice reveal. The self-destruct sequence, simulated by crushing modified Romero heads, ends up being fairly convincing too. Doomguy disapproves of GM cows!

 

Spoiler

 

This map is no doubt divisive, in more ways than one, but I find myself still firmly in the positive camp. B.P.R.D's visual design chops continue to show and the combat design idiosyncrasies aren't enough to ruin the experience for me. Although... yeah, everybody and their uncle knows the problem with the map's midi, it's a bit broken, innit. I also think that the bombastic score doesn't really fit the second, less energetic part of the map.

Edited June 21 by veevil

[DavitW]

MAP03: Genome Entrance
There's good variety for such a small map. We have what appear to be vents, a cavern, fancy high tech labs. Ammo can get a bit tight halfway through but there should be enough by the end to kill everything that matters. The dark maze filled with pinkie demons is just not good. It's the kind of thing you're hoping the typical mapper would realize is a horrible idea halfway through making it and completely start over. Oh well, It's a lot like eating a shit sandwich. Just gotta take it one bite at a time and keep reminding yourself there's going to be an end to it eventually.

 

MAP04: Genome Labs
In just one map, we go to over twice the number of enemies and massive rooms filled with hitscanners. They also start throwing Arachnotrons, revenants, and even a Cyberdemon at us. And there's not enough ammo to deal with all of them, even if you land every shot perfectly and conserve as much as possible. The Cyberdemon comes after a lift that I would put in the realm of patently bad design. But you know what? As soon as I dropped my 100% goals I started having a lot more fun with this. Most of it looks pretty damn good too. That huge basement facility with all the Hell Knight jar things was probably one of the coolest areas you could find back in 2001. Whoever designed this Equinox facility must have known they were doing some spooky shit. Why else would you place self-destruct switches all over the place?

 

equinox03-04.zip

[Pseudonaut]

Map04:
Holy Jesus, the ammo situation here is fucked. That was how I reacted after my first continuous playthrough, where I exited the map with 0 bullets, 0 shells, and several monsters still alive. The vast majority of ammo on this level comes from dead bodies in the first third, and after that, there is a point of no return (two of them, actually), so you'd better grab as much as you can before taking the plunge. As it turns out, none of my pistol-start playthroughs felt as tough as that oblivious first try, as good strategies solved a lot of problems.

 

The level opens with a huge imp-and-zombie slaughter, with a few arachnotrons thrown in to make it challenging, while 'Mars, the Bringer of War' ensures that all of it is epic. Knowing what would happen later, I was constantly looking for opportunities to chainsaw things (the chainsaw is hidden in the dark, but can technically be grabbed very early), often doing it even when I knew I'd probably lose a little health. Trading health for ammo conservation makes a lot of sense in this map. Near the chainsaw, five switches open up new areas, except for one that permanently blocks a very important secret with a megasphere and rocket launcher; this is enemy territory, why should you expect it to be designed for your convenience? :^)

 

By some miracle, after riding that elevator four times, the cyberdemon never killed me. It's still obvious what will happen if you get the wrong RNG: you'll get blocked and killed by a rocket and there's nothing you can do about it. It's bullshit, it's unfair, whatever. The cyb seems to consistently hover around the exit of the elevator, and even if you aren't blocked, he could fire into your little box while you're slowly being raised, still not high enough to leave. To make matters worse, BPRD tries to force an invis sphere on you, though it can actually be "avoided" by backing off the elevator and letting it run out. Yet, the most important tactic for the cyberdemon is to avoid waking him up altogether (or at least until you've entered his arena proper) by staying far away from the railing upstairs, prior to the first point of no return. I wanted to collect all the items for some reason, so I just dealt with an awake cyb.

 

Most of what happens after the cyberdemon encounter seems a little dull on paper, but I think of it as a test of the player's resource conservation, possibly even a cruel punishment for poor decisions. The three mancubi blocking a required door may be nearly insurmountable, or completely trivial, depending on your ammo situation--I've experienced it both ways. Likewise, the walls lowering to surround you with pinkies and imps can induce panic, or maybe not. If all else fails, the chainsaw never runs out of ammo.

 

I might just be crazy, but I'm pretty sure this map is fantastic.

 

 

[General Roasterock]

Map 04

  At what point does a plan become visible in the layout of a Doom map? It’s not feasible to really quantify the interconnection, reuse, or primary purpose of rooms as they continue to appear in the development process, but there is a certain critical point where you can tell that the creation of some are interconnected. This also goes in the other direction, as most maps that forego forethought and have each next step drawn sequentially are laid bare. Normally this is common in newer work as a definitive style is still being honed, but here we are, at a time capsule filled with a train of thought.

  Much like a siren steering a vessel towards the rocks, this map opens with what looks like a jackpot for ammo in the form of a zombie mosh pit. There’s about a hundred of them that will kill over with minimal interjection from the player simply due to their inaccurate nature, leaving behind a field of weapons to carry off with you. It is entirely a trick. After leaving the balcony of the Cyber pen, there is not a single point of non-secret ammo placed on the ground except for twenty-eight Shells in the final fight, and one Bullet Box in a secret by the Mancubi. The entire map after the Cyberdemon is a gray hallway filled with Chaingunners, a drip feed of ammo just enough to replace what you used. It is downright mind numbing, only briefly interrupted by a lifeless garage bay here and there. A grandiose space adventure sending me through what feels and looks like an abandoned nuclear bunker should be a premise to run with, but it’s repetitive and simultaneously nerve wracking as the ammo checkpoints come to pass.

  Comprehending exactly what went into the creation of the Cyberdemon fight is impossible. The Cyber will already be awake by the time you make it to the entrance, which is an extended ride on a very slow lift. The problem here is, due to how long it takes to rise up to the platform and the line of sight available for the duration of the floor moving, that Cyber can lob a rocket into the elevator shaft, killing you instantly. This is clearly terrible, even BPRD thought it was terrible because he attempted to remediate it, and he remediated it, not with a restructuring of the fight, not by holding the Cyberdemon back, not by creating a teleport pad, but by putting down a Partial Invisibility. What kind of brainworm thought this was a good idea? The Blursphere does nothing, the Cyberdemon can still wander over and shoot with a roll of the dice no matter how bad its aim is. It’s placed right in front of the lift controls as to be the unavoidable solution to the potential worst death a player can experience, and all it does is make the following Cyber fight worse. There was a simple problem to solve and the map design failed to do so.

  So many very minor things pile up on the already towering mountain of nonsense. The music is malformed such that it only plays for around a minute before being silenced for another four. The Megasphere is locked in a secret that can be permanently sealed off from hitting a switch in a group of five where you would have no idea what controlled what on the first time through. The explosion sound is cut off before any of the sustain can play out. Even getting a Plasma Rifle feels reduced because it is immediately tasked to the Cyberdemon in the lab. That first impression of ducking the mass of undead raining hellfire on you between sprays of Arachnotron plasma dwindles down into inadequate acupuncture, and the few rooms that do serve as fights are torn apart with ammo conservation. 

  This level is a trainwreck of thought, digging out individual cubbies to hide supplies that are useful for maybe a couple seconds save the backpack, and lining up so much stop and start gameplay over the course of a potential fifteen to twenty minutes that it could make a man throw up. Blowing up the tubes at the end is the singular saving grace that keeps this map from deserving discarding from the annals of time. 

[Insaneprophet]

Ive been a bit busy lately, too busy to get write ups out, but not too busy to continue to play the levels each morning or read everyone elses reviews during cigarette breaks at work.

 

I missed my reviews for the last two maps of Biowar and Im not gunna bother now, I'll just give an overall, final thoughts type dealio. I for the most part enjoyed Biowar. Its no where near a favorite, nor is it even up there with the middlest of the road stuff, but it isnt the worst levels ever or even a genre of gameplay/map design that I am turned off by. The strongest thing it had going for it was its atmosphere, environments and visual story telling. That being said, it really did sell itself short by not doubling down on all of those things by taking the time to delve further into any of them.

 

I could imagine a remake of this, that uses all of the original maps but adds on to them, doubling or even tripleing the size of them, while retaining the concept and texturework throughout the additions, creating engaging arena combat in some and vast exploration areas in others, raising the overall difficulty of everything, becoming enhanced enough to be popular with modern audiances. Its core is that good.

 

Outside of that there were at least four, if not five or six maps that I absolutely would kill to get expounded upon by Roofi. Just think how great playing something like his contribution to Tangerine Nightmare, but set in the forest of map 10, the ice caves of map 11 or map 15s heart of the volcano would be. 

 

Thats all I got. 😀

 

[apichatpong]

It's absolutly anecdotal and it's more a trick for me to keep a link here, for my first try on this club but, due to real life stuff, I'm not able to give my daily reviews... but I had finished the two wads since June 7th, I plan to give a full review at the end of the month because these two different wads were a pleasure to play (I also plan to compare equinox continuous and equinox pistol start with "just before the exit"'s screenshots with stats... it's eloquent !

Still reading your nice reviews though !

[brick]

MAP04 "The Genome Labs"
This is the first real challenge, a much more expansive map with many highlights. I'm always impressed with the doors-swing-open trick in Doom, and here it opens into absolute madness. There are a ton of hitscanners and imps, with some very strategically positioned arachnotrons, and it was not safe no matter where I ran. Establishing a foothold is tricky, and scoring this crazy beginning to Holst's Mars is very fitting. Even after things settle down there are some more surprises. Going into one of the dark labs, only to have the walls slide open and reveal shadows of test subjects makes for some fun visual storytelling. The main hallways are expansive and impressive, with the bright light contrasting well with the darker areas. The cyberdemon is announced quite a bit before getting to his arena, though BPRD does The middle finger of these fights and gives us a blursphere, which makes avoiding the rockets harder rather than easier. The plasma rifle softens him enough to finish him off with the SSG, but you could also just run past him (this might be luck-dependant, it worked for me but it seems others had more trouble). I got to a point eventually where I was down to the chainsaw but it's not so long as to be obnoxious, ammo is well balanced to be a problem but not a showstopper. The finale with the self-destruct button blowing up the army of inactive clones is such a satisfying cinematic cap. It's a great map... at least on continuous HNTR.

 

MAP05 "Equinox Transport Hub II"
We return for another very shot trip through the hub, but with a few small changes. There are visible signs of damage compared to the much cleaner MAP02, the small underground passage in particular holds a nice protective bonus. Ammo continues to be extremely scarce, the chainsaw saw much use. Not much else to say for such a tiny map. I like the reuse of the MAP02 music theme.

[Horus]

map05

 

Back to the hub, but the first signs of decay are setting in. A crack has opened up to the left just past the entrance, leading to a blue armor. The enemies are also tougher, with chaingunners and hell knights added to the mix. The former actually killed me on my first attempt, thanks to being a bit careless. Once cleared, the teleport this time leads you to the Storage Facility.

[Plerb]

Equinox MAP05 (HMP, continuous, saves):

 

It's the second hub map. I don't have anything new to add here.

[E.M.]

MAP05

DSDA-Doom, UV, Pistol Start

 

This is just like the first hub level, except harder. And by harder, I mean it's now full of chaingunners. There are also a few pinkies and imps and even a hellknight. You can make them all infight. Not much else to say.