Best sold or once sold expansion wads

[Soldat]

What are your two favorite wads to be sold, or have at some point, been sold commercially? Anything but doom.wad and doom2.wad is fair game. TNT and Plutonia count as two different wads even though they are sold together. All Master Levels count as one wad collectively.

Mine are Plutonia (definite favorite) and Perdition's Gate (probable second favorite).

[Merry Widow]

Perdition's Gate,Hell To Pay,Hacx.

[Rayziik]

Definitely Plutonia and HacX. Plutonia especially, since the difficulty is ramped up so much compared to Doom 2. That made playing on hard quite a challenge, and who doesn't love a challenge?

[Kirby]

The Lost Episodes by Rob Carter and Chris Klie


Followed by Evilution in second, followed closely by the Master Levels and Plutonia. I have fond memories of playing through The Lost Episodes when I was much younger.

[Soldat]

I had always heard HacX felt ridiculously uneven and unfinished. Isn't that why it failed commercially so quickly, not to mention why we have HacX 2.0 in progress? It does count, as it was once commercially sold, but I never, ever played it.

Of all the ones I know of, Plutonia is the only one I'd consider to b be a 'staple' (and this is based entirely on just the original, PL2 and PRCP are still independent releases despite requiring Plutonia, so they aren't factored when judging Plutonia itself). That's why it's my clear favorite. Sure there are others that are nice to have, but none to the point in which I consider them a 'staple megawad'. I picked Perdition's Gate for second since I do think it has the largest quantity of good maps, and lacks the sound/sprite issues of its sister Hell to Pay.

[Soldat]

@Kirby I hate to break the word, but the screenshot, while very cool looking, tells a lie. All but one or two of the maps in The Lost Episodes can be found in some freeware wad. I know fond memories can invoke lots of nostalgia though.

TNT has some good levels, but unless you just aren't a fan of the whole Plutonia style it's far too inconsistent to match up to the latter IMO. I like virtually every level in Plutonia, and I doubt I like any more than half in TNT.

I will however disclose that by reading some old threads, I know there are people who prefer TNT. I wouldn't be honest if I said it doesn't baffle me a bit as to why, but I'm sure there's a reason even if it isn't one I agree about. I find positives in TNT (that are at least in a way unique to it), but I don't think any can bridge the gap between the ratio of good levels in the two.

[GBT3]

HACX. Feeling of BUILD-like game with Doom engine in cyberpunk theme is quite an achievement.

As for addon, Perdition's Gate only mostly due to similar designs and music to Evilution and decent amount of new graphics, not these savage stuff of Hell To Pay.

Final Doom is not mentioned here because is part of Classic Doom trilogy as a whole but I'm fond to TNT more because Plutonia started all that anti-doom ultra-hard megawad disaster that HR tried to accomplish by Plutonia inspired designs.

Spoiler

I do like however hard gameplay and tasteful designs of Plutonia and it's fan made sequels, also have no problems playing both HRs on UV, except the fact beside PL, HR-like aren't Doom, because Doom is something else than ultra hard or dosing more and more to the slaughter type.

[Soldat]

I prefer all wads to be considered on their own merits, not what they inspired (or might have helped inspire).

[Kirby]

Soldat said:

@Kirby I hate to break the word, but the screenshot, while very cool looking, tells a lie. All but one or two of the maps in The Lost Episodes can be found in some freeware wad. I know fond memories can invoke lots of nostalgia though.

This I knew. Ant technically you're right - it was a free disk packaged with the strategy guide that you paid for. Either way, I've always considered it like a paid add-on, even if it's really not

[Capellan]

Kirby said:
The Lost Episodes by Rob Carter and Chris Klie

Wow, that guy really needs to get his BFG serviced; something's gone very wrong with it.

[Kirby]

Capellan said:

Wow, that guy really needs to get his BFG serviced; something's gone very wrong with it.

I used to fawn over that pic with my brother when we were younger. We'd think about how awesome we thought it looked and became determined to find this alternate BFG. Of course we never found it.

[hex11]

They mostly just made commercial DOOM II stuff, there's only a few for the original that I know of:
Laura Beyer's Doom
Lost Episodes of Doom
Chex Quest
Out of those, I like Lost Episodes the most. Although I don't hate it, LBD's quality isn't as good, and Chex Quest is just weird (have to be in the mood for it).

For DOOM II, I'd probably go with either Hacx or Hell to Pay. But yeah, I'm more into the original game, so Lost Episodes is more appealing.

[Demonologist]

Plutonia, HacX, Perdition's Gate. Pretty obvious I think.

[scalliano]

No NRFTL love?

[glenzinho]

I've got plenty of love for NRFTL, boss map aside. =)

[Clonehunter]

I always loved the Lost Episodes.

[Magnusblitz]

Man, that Lost Episodes cover takes me back. Ah, nostalgia. Wish I could still find that disk somewhere... not that I still have a diskette drive to use it.

[Acid]

Does Chex Quest technically count?

If no, NRFTL and Perdition's Gate.