The /newstuff Chronicles #367

[kristus]

Skills 5 of heretic got the potential to be easier than Skill4 since it allows a lot of spamming and doesn't have any hitscanners.

[magicsofa]

kristus said:

Skills 5 of heretic got the potential to be easier than Skill4 since it allows a lot of spamming and doesn't have any hitscanners.

Indeed, and since the monsters keep firing aggressively they don't crowd up on you as much. Of course, the sabreclaws are brutal.

I'll have to try out Marbled Blood - I'm not an expert slaughter player so we'll see

Does anyone think I was unqualified to review Junko? That shit was crazy. I was waiting to see if people would comment saying they loved it and I'm an asshole for hating it but...not yet

[negke]

magicsofa: I didn't find any specific information on how to replace a file, but I guess it should work by just uploading the new version along with a .msg for the admin.

Marble Blood: Difficulty seemed okay for me on HMP in the first half of the episode which I played the regular way. Godmoded through from then on, because visually I didn't find the maps to be much appealing overall. Often the architecture felt extremely random and the texturing inconsistent. Some of the marble areas are good, though, plus the green-red theme has something to it.

Junko: Only played the first two maps so far (which took incredibly long already). This is definitely a unique release, if not a bit excentric even. For a Doom game, anyway. A sort of crossbreed between RPG and realism shooter. At least that's what the slow, explorational and almost stealthy gameplay (because of the apparent lack of health and ammo) reminded me of. It's easy to get lost. I didn't find most of the secrets - and consequently ran out of ammo, especially in the beginning of the second map. Would have wished for a chainsaw at least. A few hints and more shortcut teleporters (particularly for the jump actions in the second map where falling means having to walk a super-long way back up).
I agree it's kind of odd to have this kind of gameplay in a game like Doom, but why not. At any rate, it's definitely not a mod for everyone. Will have to play a bit more.

[RazTK]

Unloved must be one of the most amazing WADs I've ever played. Check it out people.

[Agent-H]

The letters for Blood Fire Death (BFD) reminded of me something funny from rule34.paheal where we made a different acronym with the same letters. It's a lot like what BFG stands for but is a little different.

EDIT: lol I'm the 34th poster.

[Naan]

Unloved deserves some love from the community.

It's one of the few wads that succeeds to mesh together a very moody atmosphere and layout, advanced sourceport features used in a smart way topped by challenging gameplay.

[Craigs]

Unloved was great, but I can't say I cared for a few of the later firefights. Don't get me wrong, I loved Hell Revealed and I enjoy a good challenge, but for me, there's a fine line between challenging and just flat out frustrating and there were a couple of fights that not only crossed that line but just kept running until it hit a brick wall, the worst of which was the Heresiarch battle.

The Heresiarch alone is a pretty tough boss, and his attacks did a shit load of damage, even on the easiest difficult. The archviles just make it flat out bullshit and extremely frustrating, especially since 4 of them are on little towers that give them a 360 degree view of the room. On top of that, there's a 5th one running around resurrecting the huge mob of enemies you had just killed before.

So not only do you have to dodge the Heresiarch's attacks, one of which practically floods the room with blue projectiles, but you also have to keep moving from beneath one pillar to another in order to avoid getting hit by the archviles. And on top of that, there's another archvile running around tossing you around like a ragdoll and undoing all your hardwork. That's not just hard. That's just flat out bullshit.

I ended up cheating through that part, having to put in give health 300 about 4 times before I could beat it, but I still played through to the end. The themes and design of the levels really fascinated me, especially the one for the halls below where you'd teleport to an alternative version of your house where a previously locked door in your home has opened up to a tunnel that leads to a nightmarish world deep below, and these details were enough to keep me playing until the end.

I can't say I understood the ending though. Possible sequel?

[Solarn]

Craigs said:

I can't say I understood the ending though. Possible sequel?

The way I saw it was the protagonist was crazy and just massacred his entire family and he was taken away to an insane asylum.

[Craigs]

Solarn said:

The way I saw it was the protagonist was crazy and just massacred his entire family and he was taken away to an insane asylum.

In that case he should be in a research facility since they're breeding like flies.
Doesn't exactly make sense either. #1 that doesn't really look like an asylum cell and #2 you still have all your weapons.

[Solarn]

Craigs said:

In that case he should be in a research facility since they're breeding like flies.
Doesn't exactly make sense either. #1 that doesn't really look like an asylum cell and #2 you still have all your weapons.

It totally does look like a 19th/early 20th century asylum cell. Either that, or a prison cell. There's not much difference.

I assumed most of the demons and secret passages were in his head and he just shot his family members a lot of times.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Marble Blood

I didn't find it that hard tbh, at least not compared to the stuff I've been playing recently (although putting an archie behind a teleport fails hard). The architecture was more of a talking point for me...lame 1994-style layouts and detail in places, yet higher-detailed outdoor bits and even weird atmospheric green/red areas in others. Quite unique really.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Unloved

For some reason I didn't find it particularly scary (probably cos there's very little that can scare me in a wad :p) but the atmosphere was impressive nonetheless (particularly the outside city, imagine a playable area there). Plenty of new monsters to keep things interesting too, as well as showing just how OP the Doom weapons are compared to Heretic/Hexen.

[Naan]

I liked Junko, but It's clearly on the opposite of the Hell Revealed style end of the spectrum.

The ammo is only a problem in the first level really, you have to use ammo scarcely, then as soon as you reach the second level (Planet), immediately look for the Berserk Pack that will save you lots of ammo.

It seems there are couple different endings also, the regular and the secret. It seems there are many secrets out there but I couldn't reach for some reason, especially in the "Hel" level. I'm really stuck on where I could reach those secrets and, I imagine, the secret ending tied to them. Any help ?

Then once you've finished that first arc, you got throwed on a level with lots of exits to other levels (mostly DM ones, as well as a huge dual hub level which could somehow remind KDiZD as it's really big and nonlinear and contains lots of switch hunts with labels associated and some sort of a level plan displayed here and there).

--

On Unloved, I successfully passed the Heresiarch fight, but got mercilessly crushed later on in the part you have 3 differents switches which have traps and I was like at 70-80 life and next to no stimpacks after I'm done with the first traps.

[Creaphis]

I'm very glad that I started browsing this forum again now instead of later. If I had waited too long, I might never have bothered to catch up on /newstuffs, and thus I wouldn't learn that Unloved exists. That would be terrible!

I like it.

How I interpret the plot is that all the events in this wad take place solely in the protagonist's mind. He doesn't go marauding around murdering his family or anything like that.

I can't say that I was scared, or even creeped out, but I've played far too many games at this point so I never expect them to stir up deeper emotions in my raddled brain anymore. I just appreciate the attention to atmosphere, the music, and the gameplay of course. The slaughter fights lack the tight choreography that you'll find in, say, Kama Sutra, but it's still rock-solid fun.

Naan said:

On Unloved, I successfully passed the Heresiarch fight, but got mercilessly crushed later on in the part you have 3 differents switches which have traps and I was like at 70-80 life and next to no stimpacks after I'm done with the first traps.

I beat the Heresiarch by hiding in the side rooms and taking potshots from doorways like a little bitch. I had already found the secret BFG at that point, which made things easier.

Those three trapped switches murdered me a few times too, but if you save a BFG shot for each then they're entirely doable.

Also, regarding UAC Ultra: the sequence in MAP11 where you have to keep climbing into new radiation suits is my favourite part of the entire wad. It's really not more difficult than the rest of the episode, as the mapper was very generous with ammo and rad suits, but it feels just that much more intense, because you know that you have to keep moving forward, for once. A bit of pressure helps the player get into the experience, because it makes sense that there should be a bit of pressure. Isn't it odd that Hell is usually content let Doomguy just dawdle around, humping walls, for as long as he pleases?