Best of the Scythe Series

[Demon_Collector]

Erik Alms is clearly a legend when it comes to making memorable WADS, but I cannot decide what is the best of the Scythe Series. What are your opinions and why

[45th Parrallel]

IMO Scythe 2 looks the best, also wasn't there going to be a third scythe megawad?

[Snakes]

Scythe. Easy to get into, great variety of challenges and layouts, excellent level design with fun UV-Speed tricks attached. Best gameplay ever, IMO.

Scythe 2 looked mouth-watering, but it lacks a degree of replayability for a lot of the maps, IMO. Some of the maps play the same most every time you run through them.

Scythe X had a promising start, but the theme could be redundant. Doubt it'll ever be finished.

[Joshy]

Snakes said:

Scythe. Easy to get into, great variety of challenges and layouts, excellent level design with fun UV-Speed tricks attached. Best gameplay ever, IMO.

Scythe 2 looked mouth-watering, but it lacks a degree of replayability for a lot of the maps, IMO. Some of the maps play the same most every time you run through them.

Scythe X had a promising start, but the theme could be redundant. Doubt it'll ever be finished.

I think Snakes pretty much nailed it distinguishing the differences between the scythes. Personally, I thought Scythe was fantastic particularly because it emphasised gameplay and layout flow more than the aesthetics portion of the level. But, while doing so, he manages to map very cleanly, constructing quite decent architectures and texturing. Clean design/texturing and layout pretty much equates to detail IMO.

Scythe 2 was particularly very strong because of the strong themes inherent in the maps, and manages to show off his map-making skills with a wide range of themes, ranging from Egyptian, Gothic, Techy to Basey, Viney/Temple-ly to Hellish. The designs are quite elaborate too, and probably overshadows the gameplay. If there was a scythe that blended Scythe 1 and 2, it'd be a perfect mix IMO.

I didn't really play through Scythe X properly so I don't really have an opinion.

[DoomQuaker]

I loved Scythe2 a lot!! Especially later maps: huge fights with tons of enemies!! F*****g Afrits are really dangerous, in a map I've tricked an Afrit to fight against a Cyberdemon to eliminate him, because I had very few rockets and almost no cells.

[Phml]

Scythe 2 for me.

I find Scythe is just as linear if not more on replays - the presence of intended speedrunning tricks is actually a negative for me, as many of them are made so efficient and easy to use you don't want to play any other way. Beyond strict speedrunning, this wad series heavily encourages rushing forward, many levels are made drastically easier by moving fast (disproportionately with the amount of effort required to do so).

The shorter map duration is what makes or breaks that kind of design to me. In a 2 minutes map, if there is one "right" way to play the map, I'll probably play it that way with muscle memory alone. In a 20 minutes map, there is no way I'm going to remember a particular route, much less not mess up at least once; which is going to create change naturally.

It's true Scythe 2 is more railroading than Scythe 1 overall, but I find it all too easy to settle on an "optimal" route in most Scythe 1 levels anyway, and whereas Scythe 2 often forces me to react and adapt when plans don't work out due to local mistakes from fight to fight, Scythe 1 can almost be played on autopilot for the first 20, 25 levels or so.

Of course, this isn't to say either wad is anything less than fantastic.

[purist]

I'd go with the first Scythe. It's a distillation of my personal prefences - boiled down to the essentials. Scythe II is also great as well as being a technically more impressive undertaking, but it loses it's purity amongst it's bells and whistles.

The later slaughter maps in Scythe are not completely too my taste but the variation of styles is just another string to it's bow in my eyes.

[ella guro]

maybe i'm the only person here who isn't a big fan of Scythe 2? i played about halfway through it awhile ago, and it didn't do all that much for me. aside from a few parts, anyway. i wasn't really a fan of the new graphics, and the design didn't stand out to me as being all that remarkable (other than in a few parts). my preference for non-slaughter maps might have something to do with this, though.

on the other hand, i dug first one a lot. so my vote goes to that one. i only played a little bit of Scythe X but what i did really did nothing for me, and i didn't like the new graphics.

[SFoZ911]

I have to go with Scythe 2 because of the level design, detail, gameplay. His Egypt maps were just great.

[darkreaver]

Both 1 and 2 are equal to me I guess. With a knife to my throat I`d pick 1.
Did not like X at all actually.

[mouldy]

I have a soft spot for scythe 2 cos it was the first custom megawad I played and it blew me away.

I can never forgive the first scythe though for the map where you have to run to the end without getting crushed by an invisible ceiling.

Scythe x isn't actually complete so I cant really pass judgement on that, although I wasn't a fan of the new monsters. (that said the plasma rifle bastards in scythe 2 arent my favourite either)

[qoncept]

I liked them all. Scythe 2 was the most fun (map30 was epic) but I also absolutely hate the evil marine and afrit. They're too tough.

[dew]

i'm a huge scythe nerd, i like all of them. the first one wins it for me, because it's THE speedrunner's wad of choice and the resulting runs get quite close to perfection. on the other hand scythe 2 is much more approachable by the common doomer who enjoys good looks too, plus erik explored the slaughter/spam gameplay more. scythe x is missing too much of the intended product to be truly comparable with the prequels.

[Z86]

I can't really decide which one is the best.
- Scythe1 has some really fast gameplay and nice easy level designs (even though they are not very detailed by today's standards they are still good to look at)
- Scythe2 has amazing looks and equally good gameplay. I love it quite a bit and it inspired me a whole lot.
- From what I've seen from Scythe X it was good, and played it multiple times, but I wish it could be finished.

Actually the Scythe series always have a soft spot in my heart, as they greatly inspired me to do my own megawad.

[Talvi]

If Scythe X is finished it might be the best of the three ones. The first Scythe X maps are so much better than the 10 first maps of the two first Scythes.

Other than that, Scythe 2 episodes 3 and 5 are better than 99% of megawads I've played.

Scythe 1 is fun overall but there are only 2 awesome maps (19 and 29), and is too simple even if the overall experience is so good.

[Deeforce]

Scythe 2 has the best appearance!