The DWmegawad Club plays: Operation: BIOWAR & Equinox

[Insaneprophet]

Map 08: Biolabs

 

Stock little tech-lab with the only offensive thing being a broken secret. Not alot here to talk about but the quality is still here with decent design and story telling. At this point I wouldnt mind some more depth to the levels but Ive played ahead so I know I dont have to wait long. 😀

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 08: Biolabs

by Chris Harbin

Crispy Doom, UV, pistol start

 

This is a very nice looking map, as evidenced by the flashy opening hallway and the numerous bright blue and green supports that can be found in certain locations probably powering their respective wings of the facility, but not too much above bog standard in the combat department. Before entering the labs proper, we have to fool around a rooftop, get transported to a circular and vertical room of wood....for some reason, then shortly afterwards, deal with two hell knights and grab a Super Shotgun sitting in one of the alcoves. The blue jelly blocking the way to the labs has lowered and we now find ourselves in a collection of rooms: an Imp foreman fooling around with some radioactive crap (why is that diagram show the Imp's head turning silver?), another room with some caged Cacodemons and yet another that probably observes animal behavior with a berserk pack that can only be accessed by pressing a switch sitting in the middle of the pack. At least the ambush coming back from the blue key door is cinematic in contrast with the horrors we've witnessed here so far and a fairly good excuse to use the recently-acquired rocket launcher. We'll have to take a point off for just throwing pinkies at the end. And the actual exit I suspect does not naturally lead to the next map any more than the previous exit did. Oh well, it still strikes a balance between realistic settings and perfectly acceptable abstract hallways so you have to give it that. But this is my least favorite Mark Klem track easily.

 

 

[Blast_Brothers]

MAP08: Biolabs

 

 

The MIDI is inaudible, and the progression is fiddly, but this is the most substantial map yet. The ferocity and complexity of the combat remains firmly in the IWAD tier, feeling (and looking) like one of Sandy's retunings of a Tom Hall base - quite a lot of pizzaz for a single Manc, don't you think? - but I enjoyed stock Doom plenty, and I'm enjoying this too.

 

I would say the SSG shouldn't be a secret, but I actually missed it my first time around, so I guess not.

[DavitW]

MAP04: The Arrival
Doom (Quake?) Guy seemed to have found himself some sort of flying contraption in between levels. I do have to question the safety of it being open cockpit though. The first level that felt closer to being an actual place rather than a bunch of random geometry thrown together. There's some sort of lab here where they seem to be doing exams on shotgunners if the custom textures are anything to go off of. Not too difficult as long as you put a wall between you and the hitscanners whenever necessary.

 

MAP05: Skybase
Might as well call it Pong, because this one has you bouncing back and forth between both sides of the level constantly. Not helped by the fact that most of the elevators in this map felt longer than they needed to be. I'm no Doom architect, though. Maybe there's a good reason they're the way that they are. They give you a rocket launcher and a few bigger monsters like Barons and revenants, but they don't add much to the experience. Not bad, but not something worth going back to anytime soon.

 

MAP06: Last Call
Sense of scale might be a little off for my personal tastes. The hallways in this map are so tight you can barely move left to right in them, and that starts to become a problem when 90% of the map is comprised of hallways. You do get a plasma gun. though, so that's nice. Skipped a fair portion of the level first time through when I dumbassed my way out of a raising bar trap before I was supposed to. Couldn't find the soulsphere secret on my own, either, so thanks to Pseudonaut for showing me the way on that one.

 

bio4-6.zip

[Celestin]

MAP09: Security by pcorf

 

"Organic Gods" is a great track, though I feel it fits an atmospheric map more. This is because Security is a non-stop action, throwing corridors of monsters at the player. I'd prefer the SSG to be available a bit sooner, as teleporting into a small platform with two revenants was rude when you only have a basic shotgun and the clump of mid-tier demons (including a pain elemental) was a chore, but with them dead, you can finally get your hands on a super shotgun. That's not all, there's a secret BFG here, one of two in Security, which make anything left trivial. The map is loaded with secrets, you'll likely bump into a few of them. 

 

Security is another quick map with a constant combat. 
 

[Magnusblitz]

I'd feel remiss not joining in, especially since the maps look relatively on the short and sweet side this month. Gonna just do some quick capsule reviews as I catch up.

 

Biowar

UV, pistol start, mouselook, save/reload as I like.

 

The sound replacements are very much a "as was the style at the time" 90s thing, though it feels a bit cringey now. Stuff like the door/switch replacements are fine, but the Quake sounds stick out too much as, well, Quake, and stuff like the zombies' overly loud breathing and the imp dog noises are really annoying. I am a bit intrigued by the potato-faced protagonist replacement, though I barely see it playing with the modern ZDoom HUD.

 

MAP01: The End

I like the opening room here, some nice details with the ship in the sky, custom textured computer, and custom environmental sound effects (I'm guessing with thing replacements ala Aliens TC). After that it's pretty banal though, just a lot of pistol work with no armor, actually kinda dangerous (not sure if the secrets help, only found the two shotgun rooms at the end).

 

MAP02: Terror Core

This might be one of the smallest 3-key hub levels I've played. This one nicely provides a lot of health supplies in the starting hub, which is good because there's a lot of blind drops/teleports into hitscanner ambushes and its quite easy to get ripped up. It's also very short, which helps make it feel nice and punchy though instead of too punishing.

 

MAP03: Onslaught

This one gives you a green armor and chaingun at the start (and an easily found secret blue armor later), as well as a lot more room to maneuver, so it plays a lot easier than the two preceding maps despite 'larger' monsters like cacos and chaingunners. Still decent enough, there's a nice little teleport ambush near the end.

 

MAP04: The Arrival

Nice little Doomcute ship at the start (including dangerous thruster exhaust!) and a nice custom texture map. Lots of somewhat vague switch-hitting here, but the map is pretty small (cramped, even) so getting lost isn't much of a problem. The cacos coming out of the sludge were actually a bit dangerous since they teleport on top of you.

 

MAP05: Skybase

An actual full-sized map! All three keys, with a lot of backtracking as well, probably too much. Lots of variation in texturing, but in a good 90s way that keeps things fresh and interesting. Like many others, I got locked out by a poorly-designed door on the way back to the blue key and had to IDCLIP my way through.

 

MAP06: Last Call

On the flip side, this one is what I would call "bad 90s" with a lot of ugly texturing and schizo theming. Also lots of vague switches and skinny corridors. I even had trouble grabbing the blue key off the column and wandered around confused for awhile before finally succeeding. I do like all of the moving engine parts, though walkover lines to turn them off (when the player isn't present) should be a lot farther away.

 

MAP07: Apparatus

Big upswing in difficulty here, possibly intended as a 'boss map'? Pain Elementals, a Spider Mastermind, and a decently difficult AV encounter. I ended up just running by a lot of the enemies at the end, didn't feel like sticking around to spend time clearing skulls and Barons.

 

MAP08: Biolabs

This one feels more in line with the rest of the WAD so far. This one feels a bit easy to begin, but this might just be to lull the player into a sense of safety as there's a couple of tough traps, at least on pistol start - the tango with the two hell knights while I still only had the single shotgun was tough. Thematically it's pretty nice with the UAC labs motif.

[E.M.]

MAP09: Security

DSDA-Doom, UV, Pistol Start

 

It wasn't until after I had beaten this map that I learned it was made by Paul Corfiatis. That would explain the ridiculously high number of secrets. It was quite confusing the first time I played it, but after repeat playthroughs, it became one of my favorite maps in the whole wad. The fights are calibrated well and the detailing is nice. The hardest fight was the one where you're teleported into a small room with two revenants armed with nothing but a chaingun and a pump action. My favorite fight is the one near the end where you grab the yellow key and are faced with a bunch of pinkies and an archvile. Then there are the secrets. Some of them are quite easy to find while others are really cryptic. The worst one involves shooting a misaligned texture behind a torch which then opens up a wall. I also keep forgetting that one BFG secret that opens up after you grab the blue key. This map is a blast to play once you figure out what to do.

[RHhe82]

MAP09: Security. Played on UV, pistol start. DSDA v0.27.4. K: 123/123, S: 11/11, I: 30/30. Comp. time 17:21

 

This one definitely feels like a change of pace. Structurally it's a classic keyhunt, quite linear, but the opposition here is more fierce than what we've seen before with surprise archviles and a battle against revenant duo on a narrowish platform. And there are eleven secrets. So far the secrets in this mapset have more often than not been stringed together: like the four secrets in MAP01, basically when you get one of them, you'll find the rest in the same place. Here there are eleven completely separate secrets... which greatly help alleviate some of the encounters. There are BFGs and megaspheres a-plenty.

 

A good map, probably my favourite so far.

[Devalaous]

Map 9, Security, is an oddball in that it is also present in Twilight Zone 2 as Map 10. Something similar happens in Reqiuem, where a map in it was taken from Trooper's Playground, resulting in having to play the map twice if your playing through both.

 

I quite liked this one, and since Twilight Zone 2 has the weird MS paint stuff as a major turn off, this version is probably the nicer one to look at. Just uh, dont mind the baby walls. Secrets were absolutely everywhere, defanging nearly every fight if you know where they are prior. Major points to the BFG secret in the tiniest cubbyhole that sics an archvile on your ass as its victim.

 

Also points for Mark Klem's absolute best midi

Edited June 9 by Devalaous

[Horus]

MAP09 - “Security” by Paul Corfiatis

And now for the second map made by a guest mapper, this time by someone who I imagine is familiar to a lot of people here. Pcorf is one of those rare people who have stuck around on the mapping scene from the early days back in the 90s through to the present day, which is pretty commendable!

I’ve played a fair amount of pcorf’s most recent works, but never any of his 90s / early 00s maps before. The opening sequence of this map exhibits the same level of symmetry seen in map 7, in fact I wondered if we were going to get perfect symmetry for a while, fortunately it didn’t transpire that way.

The other thing that popped out was the amount of secrets, at 11. All of which are basically closets clued at using a variety of methods, be it candles, different colour torches, different textures, automap hints, etc, each of which contain items, that combined, or even in singularity for certain secrets, are very overpowering, especially as Doom’s item roster is ultimately pretty limited so it can be easy to run out of ideas as to what to put in such closets.

Whilst it was reasonably fun trying to track down all the secrets, I’m very much an advocate of quality of secrets over quantity of secrets. A secret that offers something interesting, be it a new area of significance to explore, a unique visual perspective of the map, a preview of later on in the map, a puzzle, a partial nerf of an upcoming fight, extra combat, and many other things I haven’t listed; all of these do more for me than just your standard item closet. Not saying closets don’t have their place of course, but I prefer variety, and ultimately I will take the extra content offered by one secret in Last Call over all 11 of these.

However, as much as I thought the first megasphere secret was overpowered when I got it, I actually made very good use of it instantly afterwards when I was teleported by the one mean trap in the map, a close-quarter fight on a raised platform with two revenants. Without a decent weapon to my name at the time, I did what I sadly have a habit of doing when things get tough and panic, leading to me going from 200/200 to around 15/15!

I don’t have a lot to say about the rest of the map, it was pretty straightforward.

Edited June 9 by Horus

[Pseudonaut]

Map09: Security

There are eleven secrets, and I think that's excessive here, particularly since at least half of them are just slightly different/misaligned textures leading to tiny closets with loot. It's still a fun map, though. One of the Highlights is the red key fight, where you're up close with two revenants and no cover (chaingun is probably best here). Much of what happens after picking up a BFG is also highlight, though I could do without the crate maze. The secret invulnerability is totally superfluous, frankly.

 

 

Edited June 9 by Pseudonaut

[Somniac]

MAP09 - Security

 

 

Oh hey, its Pcorf! I've played a bunch of his maps before and enjoyed them, and he's done some really good midis too. Perhaps not coincidentally, this was probably the first map in Biowar that really hit the mark for me. Of course, there are other variables to take into account (from "have I rolled a shit RNG" to "am I even really in the mood to play Doom right now"), but I mostly had an enjoyable time with this map.

 

I had to endure a little bit of doorcamping, but I've dealt with worse. There was even a bit of this map that reminded me of one of my own maps (the yellow key area, there's a similar bit in Fire on the Mountain MAP03, which I ripped off from Alien Vendetta MAP14 IIRC), which got a chuckle out of me. The chosen midi is one of my favourite Klem tracks, with such a satisfying arrangement IMO. It suited this map very well. There are 11(!) secrets in this map, one of which includes a computer area map so you can get the rest of them if you want. Missed one kill, I think.

[Insaneprophet]

Map 09: Security

 

This is one good level. It doesnt really have some of the environmental storytelling that other maps have but as a security station, I find a standard tech type base is fitting enough. The length of the level finally surpases the 3-5 minute range and with 11 secrets to hunt down play time can take even longer. We also get a bunch of different combat senarios so it is more varied than just fodder placed in front of you even though its got plenty of that too. Im not surprised to find that one of the top maps in the set is created by such a long standing member of the community either and its inclusion here is very welcome as I was becoming a little bored with such small lvls. I havnt played much further than this so Im hoping its a sign of good things to come. 😀

[veevil]

Operation: Biowar
MAP09: Security
(UV, pistol start, K: 100% / S: 90%, DSDA-Doom, complevel 2)

 

This map is fun. A short and punchy techbase level that gives you a thicket of demons and a bunch of guns to cut them down with. Some of the enemy setups are even a bit spicy - the revenants in the teleport ambush room and the surprise skeleton warping in at the blue key switch come to mind. Competent visuals and another classic Mark Klem track in the background and you'll hear no big complaints from me.

 

The secret situation does raise some questions, however. Does a map this size really need eleven? Not to mention, very powerful ones at that - soulspheres, megaspheres, an invuln sphere, many bulk cells, several BFGs. There's no challenge in the map that warrants any of that stuff. One of the secrets even managed to elude me, but I'm fairly sure I didn't need it.

Edited June 9 by veevil

[NiGHTS108]

MAP08: Biolabs

By Chris Harbin

Kills: 90%

Items: 23%

Secrets: 66%

Time: 5:34

 

Here's a map that builds on Chris Harbin's aspirations towards silent storytelling quite significantly, and in quite a significantly different way from how MAP04 did. I like the aesthetic of the main area quite a bit, as far as tech bases are concerned I'm all about silver and little awkward dips in the floor with lights. Now, he still can't really keep a simple and sweet aesthetic to save his life, the map does deviate from this silver and blue look at the start to what I consider less charming affairs, but it's the thought that counts I suppose. This map is less about cute details like MAP04 was and more using subtle cues to build suspense and drama. It's definitely an amateur horror experience, between how dark the opening room is, the jumpscare teleport when you get the red key, and of course how the titular biolabs are foreshadowed not once but twice. Thrice if you count the title of the map implying there's clearly something there. Bonus points for the blood splatter and "caution" sign. This map doesn't quite reach the ending the atmosphere deserves though. The biolabs themselves you'd think would house some kind of Really Hard Fight, and I was nervous for a second seeing the wide open corridor with a pathetic two Zombiemen in it, thinking the doors would swing open when I approached the blue key door, but no. Instead they just reuse a trick from MAP04 and there's a few other meek little rooms too I guess. I was about to claim that the Mancubus behind the blue key door felt hilariously inconsequential, but I think that was the point with the ambush that spawns behind you, though as far as I'm concerned that fight is too little too late unfortunately. The suspense was already kinda killed. Also, not to put anyone on blast necessarily, just I found this take somewhat curious, is the MIDI choice here really "unfitting"? I think there's clearly some horror elements going on here when you look at it closely, I dunno. Man I didn't expect I'd have this much to say about this map that's honestly just okay. I have a very nice keyboard and I like yapping away on it. Biolabs definitely has some great if primitive ideas going on in it, but it holds itself back a little too much to fully realise them. 

 

Grade: B-

Difficulty: D

 

-

 

MAP09: Security

By Paul Corfiatis

Kills: 96%

Items: 50%

Secrets: 9%

Time: 5:24

 

I suppose the thought process behind including the second guest map, Paul Corfiatis' "Security" here involved a desire to sprinkle the wad fairly evenly with the few guest mappers, though this is a map I think could've benefitted from being earlier in the wad. Security doesn't suck, not at all really, but I think this wad is stagnating a little bit with it. After MAP05, 07 and 08, this isn't doing any favours for the pacing. It definitely feels cleaner than the average Chris Harbin map, texture choices on average blend into each other nicely, the map strikes a rather conventional yet simpler structure and flow, and the fights escalate nicely. That's kind of the problem though. I think by now, when Chris Harbin has already shown us at least some of his hand, a map like this doesn't really build on anything the wad has set up. I'd have put this map back in MAP03 or 04, though I suppose the Arch-Vile scared Chris off from doing that. Security is a perfectly tolerable map, but it's too squeaky clean for my tastes, so much so that I stopped even noticing I was listening to one of my top five Mark Klem MIDIs halfway through. I hate to be snippy about a map like this, especially since I'd definitely have been nicer to it if it was earlier which is completely out of Pcorf's control, though I prefer Chris Harbin's at least slightly more weird and experimental affairs.

 

Grade: C-

Difficulty: D+

[DavitW]

MAP07: Apparatus
Not quite Dead Simple, but close-ish. Ugly as a PT Cruiser and gameplay's a bit awkward. Whether it's trying to find the blurry pixels of a spectre in a dungeon, running across an open field to BFG a spider mastermind to death or trying to shoot one of six pain elementals hiding behind their mass of last souls. It's got a style of its own though so I can respect that.

 

MAP08: Biolabs
A very old school map. You know, hallways, rooms to the sides, backtracking to open key doors... Took me a minute to realize there was even a music track playing, but it does add a nice atmosphere. I had to assume the third secret was one of those classic teleport secrets that don't register properly, but I might just be making an ass of myself.

 

MAP09: Security
Think they went a bit overboard with the 11 secrets in a map than can be beaten in 6 minutes? It's not really the number of secrets that's the problem, but the fact they throw the level balance completely out of line. Two megaspheres, two soulspheres, two BFG's... an invulnerability sphere? Honestly, just why? Nothing here calls for so many powerful items to be handed out. The maps already easy enough without them, but throwing them all in just makes it piss easy. Pretty good map otherwise. Good variety in the gameplay and flows well enough. I'm also about 90% sure I saw that grey baby texture on a death metal album cover somewhere.

 

bio7-9.zip

[Horus]

2 hours ago, NiGHTS108 said:

Also, not to put anyone on blast necessarily, just I found this take somewhat curious, is the MIDI choice here really "unfitting"? I think there's clearly some horror elements going on here when you look at it closely, I dunno.

Personally I don’t think an ambient choice of MIDI is unfitting for this map, but I didn’t really hear anything for most of the track, so for me it just felt like it was missing something.

 

And yeah it’s definitely fair to say there are horror elements to the map but that aspect of it didn’t really land for me, perhaps had I played it back in the day it would’ve done.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 09: Security

By Paul Corfiatis

Crispy Doom, UV, pistol start

 

I don't have a whole lot to say beyond that this map, which also appeared in Twilight Zone 2 in a slightly modified form, gets closer to the essence of classic Doom than any map so far, which is to say they may have lacked some aspect of sharp monster placement. Things are somewhat difficult with the amount of ammo and health around but it's almost like Paul was feeling generous because the map is absolutely stuffed to the wall with secrets, several being stupidly easy to find, with the little room containing a bucket load of rockets and a computer map being only slightly harder to locate than the rest (basically shoot a misaligned wall behind a differently-colored torch). Somewhat ashamedly, we'd miss the backpack secret for quite a bit until coming back to the particular wing it was located in and finding it behind a dully colored wall. Forgetting about the BFG sitting in an easily-accessible machine closet, there's a needless Invulnerbility for the final battle, TWO Megaspheres and probably at least the same amount of Soulspheres.

 

To be fair, this definitely all doesn't come right away, and the bit behind the blue key door is at least respectively rude (the Pain Elemental here gave me a mild headache) but the mass of hitscanners behind the blue door was easily done away with the BFG, the clump of monsters in the optional rocket launcher room being handles not too differently. We did rocket an Arch-vile that appeared after we collected the yellow key but that was a consequence of us choosing to pull a different weapon out after being swarmed by Pinkies in what may have seemed like the most dangerous trap in the map at the time. For a re-used Twilight Zone map, this ranks incredibly high so far.

 

The midi is standard late-period Mark Klem but it's about as good as it could possibly be under the circumstances.

 

 

Edited June 10 by LadyMistDragon

[E.M.]

MAP10: Dark Woods

DSDA-Doom, UV, Pistol Start

 

MAP09 was really fun. MAP10 is not. It's big, ugly, and it forces you to face a large portion of it using nothing but a pistol. Here's what you need to do for that part. Run past all the monsters, go down the hole, go left into the large waterfall room, and kill the first shotgunner you see. Hit the switch, get the box of shells past the gate that just opened up, go back to where you dropped down, and take the teleporter. Now you'll be able to kill all the monsters at the start. Things get a bit easier after that, but health and ammo are still scarce. The strongest weapon you get is the SSG, which makes the combat even more of a drag. The previous map had a non-secret rocket launcher. Why can't we have anything like that here?

[General Roasterock]

Yeah I don't really understand the MIDI complaints either. I went back in again to check if it was actually broken or just quiet, and it was definitely the latter, doing just enough to fill in the cracks and settle the atmosphere. Biolabs is the best effort in that regard without question. 

 

Map 09: Security

 

  Every time I see a run on the DSDA channel of Enigma, I feel like I’m in a stupor induced by substances. Masses of gray interrupted by the downright insane custom texturing flash by the screen constantly as Doomguy scrambles around incomprehensible verticality is definitely something that has tainted my view of WADs that import these giant textures that crumble under the foot of the palette. There’s a lot you can tell about cohesion of a map from looking at its resources, and after cutting through eleven secrets, this map definitely did not worry about that very much. If the gameplay wasn’t as fun as it was, I don’t think I’d ever want to look at this one again.

  There are actually some surprisingly tough encounters for what Security gives you. Two Revenants on a relatively small platform without so much as the Super Shotgun to arm you is grindy and painful, but having the secret Berserk requires you to test your knowledge regarding their payback missiles. The undodgeable one in the corridor was a bit of a shock too, easily brushed off with one of the secret BFGs but nearly guaranteed damage otherwise. I did like the Arch-Vile encounter, distracting you with Pinkies only for the Vile to pick up the Shotgunners lining the floor below you. It’s just that most of these fights end up getting nullified by the simple torrential amount of ammo and supplies that come out of the secrets, which aren’t even that hard to find, while the actual weaponry you’re provided is so deep in the annals of the map that it’s basically pointless by the time you get to it, like the Rocket Launcher. Again though, it does play fast enough to not stink up the place, and the BFG makes my day in nearly all instances.

 

Map 10: Dark Woods

 

  WOW what a hunk of shit. Visually discardable, no pulse on Doom fun due likely to hoping everyone would simply play continuous, entirely linear and one note, this is the kind of map that gets lost to one of those huge compilation CDs never to be seen again. I wouldn’t wish Dark Woods on my enemies, and I considered just telling the good people here ahead of time that it’s just that bad. Nothing else to mention, nothing worth remembering.

[Plerb]

I didn't post yesterday because I couldn't think of anything to say about MAP09, even though I liked it.

 

Biowar MAP10 (UV, continuous, saves):

The shadows from the rocks at the start could look cool but the effect is too inconsistent and the texture choices are poor. The vine-infested cave (?) with its tall sector trees looks ok, but overall this map is really nothing special.

[Crusader No Regret]

Biowar map 5

 

   Any blue armor is likely to be whittled away over the course of the map.  With so much back and forth and visiting areas multiple times, there isn't very much in the way of lucrative opportunities to skip enemies either.  I was fortunate to never trigger the permastuck but that would be a frustrating way to lose a recording.  Rocket launcher gets added to the arsenal here but there's barely any ammo for it so far so it's not yet very impactful.  It's worth a bit of extra time to try to have good health and armor levels going into the next map.

 

map 6

 

  Tight passages, low health, hitscanners and various ambushes everywhere: this map is very effective at chipping away at health and armor.  Even with foreknowledge, one is likely to sustain many hits over the course of the map.  If I somehow still have blue armor and its 50% damage reduction, it will be gone before exiting the map.  I skip the big secret area to (hopefully) save some runtime.  Plasma gun is worth picking up.  Not sure I was aware of the soulsphere secret in my IronEagle submission but it will be useful for entering the next map in a healthy state.

[Horus]

MAP10 - “Dark Woods” by Chris Harbin
 

We leave the techbases behind as we enter the aptly named dark woods, using all the textures you’d expect plus a bunch of primitive but nonetheless appreciated sector trees. The scale and uniformity of the map gives a very 90s feel to it (even compared to the preceding maps). 

 

The combat is very 90s to suit, with this being the first map where pistol starting felt unpleasant, thanks to the withholding of any decent weapon. There were too many imps for me to bother pistoling so I skipped to the dark wood below in hope of a shotgun, which I duly got, and a chaingun shortly after, only to be met with meatier enemies that could do with rockets or plasma.

 

One small thing to this map’s credit was that you could always backtrack - once I skipped the initial imps I assumed I’d locked myself out of those kills, but in fact you can teleport back up. However ultimately this was my least favourite map so far which is probably solely due to pistol starting, otherwise it’s probably around average for the set so far. Admittedly it’s always a risk pistol starting any 90s / early 00s set (and sometimes beyond), but every other map so far has played fine in this regard, leading this one to stick out like a sore thumb.

[Pseudonaut]

Map10: Dark Woods
It's surprising to see this map receive such negative reception - I originally wondered if I might be the only one who thinks it's bad. Aesthetically, it's a success, at least in part. There aren't a ton of maps that try to look like woods, and those parts of this map look pretty cool to me. The gameplay is what makes this map so inadequate. It's a whole lot of enemies that might as well be randomly chosen, scattered in a manner that might as well be random, across landscapes that might as well be flat. There just isn't anything to recommend here, combat-wise, and it's made worse by the start, where the placement of bullets without weapons suggests that you're supposed to kill imps and zombies with the pistol (a stubborn route can circumvent this and re-do the start with a shotgun, probably saving a little time in max runs). There is a non-secret SSG near the mid-point of the playthrough, but it's somewhat hidden in the dark forest and easy to miss, which could make things quite tedious later on.

 

 

Edited June 10 by Pseudonaut

[Horus]

Damn how I could have done with that SSG, I didn't see it at all, I even revisited that area a couple of times :(

[Lila Feuer]

Well I'm horribly behind due to being distracted by BS for a week. OK where to start...

Operation: BIOWAR
MAP04: The Arrival (no relation to the 2021 wad Arrival)
Ultra-Violence / Pistol Start / Nugget Doom / Vanilla compatibility
K: 47/47 I: 50/50 S: 3/3 T: 7:27

A little something more to nibble on. I always liked that big map screen at the start, as well as the bio lab area with the specimen readouts, doubling down on Doom's sci-fi aesthetic. You start in a small spacecraft for some reason (it was the 90s) before heading over to a security checkpoint to unlock a couple of small areas, the bio labs being the first stop proper. The Focus style hitscanner ambush sprung on you afterward is in itself an easy secret that houses the much appreciated superior shotgun, so it's highly advised to get it before dealing with the Cacos in the next room with a big cool glowing vat of luminous nukage. The exit area with the teleport pad signed door reminds me of Icarus and its specialized marked exits, so I guess I can see some of the influence now this time around. Good music once again. There's a Berserk if you need it but ammo shouldn't be a problem, unless you insist on using the chaingun for long.

Operation: BIOWAR
MAP05: Skybase (what it says on the tin; I think)
Ultra-Violence / Pistol Start / Nugget Doom / Vanilla compatibility
K: 128/128 I: 33/33 S: 3/3 T: 17:11

Well, it pains me a little to say it but damn, that progression padding is kinda ass (not as bad as WARRIOR but I was reminded of that wad.) You begin in a dark crate maze but don't stay for long before entering the main hub of sorts. Always liked that big blue laser thing in the floor down the hall, which I misremembered as hurting me for some reason. You get the SSG proper very early, as there'll be some resistance to necessitate its application, though despite a much higher monster count than previous levels there aren't really any big mobs so to speak outside of all the imps at one point downstairs in the dark computer station, which is a good use of your rocket launcher; granted you locate the secret, otherwise it's rather overkill for this level. Another great little area is the red reactors, the silhouettes of the imps look striking against that red, as well as the very blue hall with blue lighting that reminds me of Killer Colours from Alien Vendetta even though that came out two years later, which leads to a striking red and green giant teleporter. Lots of color is something I often like to see in Doom levels. So while gameplay isn't exactly the cream of the crop the visuals can be cool at times. Yeah, that snowy area downstairs is strange, but either 1. it's really, REALLY cold down there to keep the powerful machinery from overheating or 2. we have all these new textures where do we use them. Dredge is one of my favorite Mark Klem tracks, but this isn't the best level for it.

Operation: BIOWAR
MAP06: Last Call (now without an easily exploited teleporter puzzle in modern ports!)
Ultra-Violence / Pistol Start / Nugget Doom / Vanilla compatibility
K: 112/112 I: 12/12 S: 3/3 T: 10:03

This is kind of a strange one, it feels like it could've been an outtake from Dystopia 3 or something. Hot start but it's nothing crazy. Things are unfortunately a bit cramped again, but it's not really to your detriment performance-wise as it might be bad if you're claustrophobic. As for the locale you're guts deep in...something. Lots of moving parts, Biowar likes its machinery. You can be flanked early on trying to pull the two switches from the stairway so be careful as it'll be painful with shotgun guys and chaingunners in close quarters. There is a useful secret housing a Soulsphere as well as a rocket launcher, but I can't say I found any use for it in this level, especially when fighting in such narrow passages. There's some wild CBT shit happening to a Baron in a wall texture but idk what exactly, don't remember that from last time I played. There is a cool secret area with a buncha weak monsters and coffins and hanging bodies that seems to only have a few health/armor bonuses, but there's a secret within the secret, and with that nets a plasma gun and 260 cells that I never personally needed but it could be useful to someone I'd imagine from a pistol start, but despite the large amount of ammo most of the level is gonna be dead by that point anyway. Cool exit, though I won't lie, those explosions scared me at least once because the only other thing that could make that sound is either an exploding barrel or the rocket from a Cyberdemon.

Operation: BIOWAR
MAP07: Apparatus (it's not an apparatus, nor asparagus)
Ultra-Violence / Pistol Start / Nugget Doom / Vanilla compatibility
K: 47/47 I: 2/2 S: 3/3 T: 10:01

I'll admit it shouldn't of taken me that long but I was trying to find the secret after the fact, which is a barely visible arrow on the ground near what becomes the Spiderdemon's domain, with what would've been a useful bulk cell, box of rockets and a light amp. The beginning equips you well, before hitscanners descend upon you, thankfully they were kind enough to provide the far more useful blue armor to reduce the damage. I agree with L'il devil in that the roaming sound for the Imp is nonsense. The six pain elementals is a bit much, but so long as you keep moving and shooting around the starting area they eventually flood into you shouldn't get hit too many times. Take cover behind the switch when the two Arch-Viles appear in order to break their line of sight, then nuke 'em with the BFG. Hey, not too rough. A pesky green armor threatened to rob me of my remaining blue, but I simply hugged the wall and used the switch it was guarding at an angle to avoid replacing my good armor with shitty armor as some Revenants are about to show up. All in all, not too many monsters again, but there's some things here that'll get you going, so don't dawdle.

Operation: BIOWAR
MAP08: Biolabs (Oh No! More Labs)
Ultra-Violence / Pistol Start / Nugget Doom / Vanilla compatibility
K: 80/80 I: 26/26 S: 2/3 T: 13:48

Feels like we were just at one of these things, oh well, more demonic biological weapons to lay waste to from a very much evil UAC in this timeline. The psychedelic texture used on those blue bars near the start I'm sure I've seen somewhere before in Requiem. You get a plasma gun right away but ammo isn't really available for it. so I used it to soften up some larger targets like Barons before finishing them off with weaker weapons. You go to a simple yet effective enough looking rooftop which leads you to the red key, but a one-way teleporter plummets you into a small death chamber with Pinky demons to catch you by surprise. Hitscanners will greet you shortly after you attempt to escape, and a nearby secret leads you to an enticing Soulsphere you probably noticed only moments ago. The red key grants access to the biolab, so the title of the map lies as there's just one, with the same looking room seen earlier in MAP04. A brief vent crawl soon after then gives you the blue key. When you aren't being awkwardly paced like in MAP05 the flow of Biowar is actually very fast paced. There's a room with a buncha Pinkies and someone hanging suspended that they must not of cared for, perhaps the remaining viscera on the floor is indicative of previous satiations of human flesh. A Baron guards the exit, I dumped my remaining few cells and rockets into it to get it over with. The exit area is pretty neat again, otherwise I spent a bit more time than I cared to try and find the last secret but to no avail, must not of been that great if I got all the items.

Operation: BIOWAR
MAP09: Security (Antisocial)
Ultra-Violence / Pistol Start / Nugget Doom / Vanilla compatibility
K: 123/123 I: 29/30 S: 9/11 T: 19:31

Another UAC checkpoint? So it initially seems, until you step outside to be greeted by more hellish than usual looking sights this early on in the WAD. Do pay attention to the hall that precedes the 4-way as it bestows a backpack and a couple boxes of bullets. It's a typical run-n-gun with former human grunts for a little bit until you (hopefully) find a secret with a Megasphere inside; a very powerful item all of a sudden, but don't get too excited yet, because you're about to embark on the first dick trap of the WAD: two Revenants on an uncomfortably small platform that is surrounded by lava if you fall, forcing you to warp back up which could cause you to take another hit. They essentially robbed me of my newfound boon, leaving me with 89 health and 64 armor, ouch! Take care to not replace it with the green armor that is nearby. Soon after with the key to the red security clearance area presents a fairly formidable challenge, when you only have a shotgun and a likely dwindling supply of bullets. I had the Hell Knight infight for me and even then I still used a lot of ammo to clear the group. It should also be noted that there are a lot of secrets on this level, and unless you're an avid secret hunter you will miss (or otherwise forget) about the BFG in the room the previous horde of monsters came from. I did find the bulk cell however, but it should probably(?) go without saying there isn't a plasma gun, not one that I could find anyway just shy of two secrets, so if you miss that BFG you will be flushed with cells at the end and nothing to use them with. That said you get a sorely needed SSG out in the open. Another nearby secret actually gives you another Megasphere and while a bit overkill for the remainder of the map it's always a nice thing to have. A Revenant will try to rob you of it but I gunned it down with the chaingun at the ready when it tries to ambush in a tight spot. Despite the oddly colored torch in the blue key room I could not find any secrets in there, strangely enough. There is however a clever secret in the 4-way area that does involve an outlier torch, with a juicy Soul Sphere as a reward for your persistence. There's plenty of enemies to kill in the blue keyed area, even more overpowered secrets like an additional Soul Sphere, two boxes of rockets and a couple bulk cells! A rocket launcher is guarded by Hell Knights and I'd suggest going there first before trying to secure the yellow key, if only just to top yourself off with the Soul Sphere secret, as a flood of Pinky demons and an Arch-Vile make up the final act of the level. As for secrets I found after the fact there's a Berserk earlier on if you need it I guess, but better yet a Soul Sphere and an Invul right next to the yellow key on one of the stairs via an unmarked wall! Oh yeah, and that BFG which coincidentally unlocks the final monster for me to kill, another Arch-Vile I would've fought early if I had remembered the BFG's location. Excellent Mark Klem music once again, and uh, bonus points for random AF creepy HR Giger baby textures???

That's all for today, I'm mostly caught up now.
 

[Li'l devil]

I think I won't continue playing this, because I kinda got bored with it, and even for last 2-4 levels I had to force myself to play it. The wad isn't boring by itself, it's just that I'm interested in playing something else at the moment. The wad isn't really up my valley though.

[veevil]

Operation: Biowar
MAP10: Dark Woods
(UV, pistol start, K: 100% / S: 100%, DSDA-Doom, complevel 2)

 

The first map in the set that goes for large outdoor areas and long sight lines. Have to say, I'm a little bit charmed by the attempt at a forest environment here, even if it looks very little like an actual forest. Exploring the map could be great fun. Could be, if the progression was less linear and the combat didn't absolutely stink.

 

I see I'm not even close to the only one here who feels this way... but man, does the combat in this level drag ass. First you get to pistol imps and zombies to death for a while. Then it's standard shotgun and chaingun time against a variety of mid-tiers, but never in a large group or any sort of threatening (or interesting) formation. Yeah, you can also sign me up for the "missed the SSG" club. I blame that on the map for putting my brain to sleep.

 

A shame how it turned out. An outdoor map with some space could've been just the ticket here, considering how cramped many of the previous maps were.

[Votterbin]

Alright, after a brief hiatus over the weekend I'm just gonna slam MAP06-MAP09 here today and keep my summaries brief. No more tea reviews, as I finished the tea in MAP05. In short, I give Celestial Seasonings' orange zinger tea, 5 tea-infused cults out of 5. Once my MAP10 video's up I'll post that separately.

 

Biowar - MAP06: Last Call

This one was fine. In my video I thought I hit another softlock but there's actually a hidden door in the prison that I only found out about on watching other people's playthroughs after my recording. On my second run I hit the switches and ran past the bars before they could get too high. I also inadvertently skipped a chunk of the map by SR50ing my way to the blue key (in the moment I thought there was truly no other way), but because I didn't outright use cheats I'm comfortable uploading this as my "official" playthrough of the map.

I enjoyed going through what appeared to be a mine, or at least a cavern that miners have put a base in. The early fights are claustrophobic and imps ambushed me a few times. The little machinery in the side rooms were a fun addition.

3/5

 

Biowar - MAP07: Apparatus

This one was plenty of fun, the archvile ambush was interesting but I wish there was a bit of cover I could've taken. But I managed them just fine on round two, so no big deal. The Mastermind was a fun centerpiece to keep the pressure on after getting to that open area, and ends pretty plainly with a pair of Barons.

4/5

 

Biowar - MAP08: Biolabs

Back to techbases, this time it's dark again and that plus the music being so quiet caught me off guard more than the pinky ambush after getting the red key. There's an outdoor area which was a nice change of pace. imo the biggest offenders are the "secrets" behind the Hell Knights, imo little nooks like those shouldn't count cuz I didn't do anything to find them (not that it matters because apparently the 3rd is broken).

Rewatching my footage, I'm surprised by how much of this map I forgot about, despite the variety. All I remembered off the top of my head was that pitchfork-shaped room at the very beginning. I like the ending where you're outside of the labs.

3/5

 

Biowar - MAP09: Security

Surprisingly another forgettable one, which is a shame because this is interesting in terms of progression. It's another 1-gauntlet-per-key map, with the central area pointing you to the next gauntlet. Rewatching my footage though I have nothing to say about it. Kind of a bland map actually.

2/5

[Votterbin]

16 hours ago, Horus said:

Personally I don’t think an ambient choice of MIDI is unfitting for this map, but I didn’t really hear anything for most of the track, so for me it just felt like it was missing something.

 

And yeah it’s definitely fair to say there are horror elements to the map but that aspect of it didn’t really land for me, perhaps had I played it back in the day it would’ve done.

imo the only really "horror" part of MAP08 was when the room with the mancubus got dark and I wasn't expecting it