The DWmegawad Club plays: Whitemare & Sacrament

[SyntherAugustus]

MAP07: The map happens so fast you barely notice it. At least it's not sector'ed terribly.

[Jimothy]

Map07: Ledges of Pain

Huh? It's over already?

Death Count: 0

Well, even I, who cares more about gameplay than looks, can say I wasn't too very impressed by this map. By all means, it doesn't suck, it just felt rushed, and it's not really a lot of fun to play something that's rushed if you ask me.

Some things that I noticed:

1) Sweet Jesus, the water! Same thing as Map03 if I'm correct. Damaging water, yada yada yada.

2) Uhh...done that fast? With a finishing time of 1:28, I almost had to apologize to this map for finishing too soon. (God dammit, I'm gonna get hell for that joke)

3) Where's all the competition? There were literally six monsters. SIX. This map was nowhere near a challenge, I just spanked the Mancubi with the SSG, spanked the Arachnotrons with the RL and the SSG, and then finished the map. That's it.

Start to Maze: 0:00

No mazes, fortunately!

[Steve D]

Map03 – Sacrifice by Archi – DNF. Death Count – Eight

This was going along so nicely until The Great Big Dick Trap. I agree with Dragonsbrethren that a “Fuck You!” to the player on this level is just bad design. We go from hiking in sand dunes to an Everestian spike in difficulty. Really needed a BFG in there. Anyway, when a mapper says “Fuck you!” to me at this volume, I say, “Fuck you!” right back and God Mode through your trap, so I have to count this map as a DNF and will probably pistol-start Map04, since now my continuous run has been broken and it probably ain’t right to go into Map04 at 166% health.

Although I’m playing continuous, I was enjoying this map enough to want to pistol-start it in the near future, since it seemed the difficulty would be just right. It was really quite easy so long as you had ammo at the beginning, and the map is very good-looking, too, with nice rounded corners in the castle and a decent level of detail. Down in the ice caverns, you even had some diorama detail in the Sector 164 corridor, though I object to the Spacew3 panel on that wall because it seems like the entrance to a secret, but it isn’t, and a red herring like this leads to time-wasting and resentment.

The BGM was quite cool, though it had a part that sounded like a Doom door opening that tended to put me on edge. ;D

Bottom line is that Archi is obviously a talented mapper, else he wouldn’t have won a Cacoward for Fuel Devourer (I’ll have to play that soon) or been able to produce a map like this in a speedmapping session. I do also acknowledge that being a keyboarder hindered me on the final trap. Why do I hate The Meat Game so much? Because I’m a keyboarder, and keyboarders are more easily hemmed-in by meat, because while I (we) can certainly strafe and circle-strafe, a lot of my movement tends to be in straight-ahead high speed thrusts – thus my frequent Kamikaze Keyboarder tactics leading to spectacular Death Counts :D -- so delicate movement aimed at getting around, say, a bunch of Revvies and Cacos right in your face, is probably not a keyboarder specialty. God knows how Dobu plays and designs slaughtermaps as a keyboarder, but I’d love to see demos from him sometime. And IIRC, SAV88 of the RDC is also a keyboarder, and a quite amazing player, vastly superior to me.

Now, DoTW said that “sometimes you have to get your ass kicked in the process of working out a level,” but that only counts if the assumption is made that A) one gives a damn, and B) one plans to play a map more than once. If both those assumptions prove out, it makes sense that Archi designed a map where you have to figure out that it’s a bad idea to kill everything from the first teleport trap right away and right in that room, and instead, you should open a switch-activated door, which itself leads to a room with teleporting monsters and an open Revvie closet, kill everything there, and then use a switch to open that rather narrow door and lure all the monsters in, and kill them, so that the 3 Archies unleashed at the end won’t resurrect them and use up all your ammo. Obviously, I am not the player DoTW is, either in terms of skill or strategic ability. DoTW is in the upper tier of Doom players on both counts. So I am not the target audience for Archi’s trap and its strategy, though if he was able to really work out all that strategic thinking in a speedmap session, I have to give massive credit to Archi for his extremely devious Doom mind. ;) Me, I’m just a bread ‘n butter run ‘n gun player/mapper. So to me, it’s obvious at this point that I’ll never play this map again, since all the combat prior to the giant trap was basically average or less, and I’m not going to all the trouble of fucking around with switch-activated doors and luring monsters, because to me the final trap is simply unpleasant and not in any way fun or enjoyable, so I have no motivation, other than Doom Pride, to beat that trap, and in this case, that’s not enough.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP08: Ice Cavern
74% kills, 6/20 secrets

Well, this is certainly different... and the name sells it far short. Yeah, there's another ice cavern, but it's a big one, and there's also a dilapidated castle and an entire village.

Very explore-driven, with some switch hunts that will likely drive people mad. I think it would've worked better as a Hexen map, actually... much more in that vein. Combat isn't really a big issue here, and for most of the start, you can't really fight ... I spent most of the map just running around with the pistol avoiding enemies, took me awhile to find the shotgun, and even then, ammo wasn't plentiful. The chaingun I grabbed off a zombie, and thankfully I found the SSG secret later on before the village area.

I'm sure most will decry the switch hunt in the village area, but it's not too bad IMO. More annoying are all the revenant snipers up high where you can't really get them with the weapons provided. This is actually a theme of the map, I wanted to spend more time looking for secrets (many require difficult jumps to grab the right piece of ledge), but often was harried by barons or revenants or arachnatron snipers that I didn't have the weapons/ammo to really take care of.

Upon reaching the village area, I had a great sense of deja vu... I'm thinking maybe I have played some of these maps before? Ah well. The interior past the yellow door gives a bit of combat before ending in a big giant unmarked exit walking down a corridor. Ugh. Major points lost there.

One last thing I wanted to mention, I liked the detail with the "four seasons" pillars in the caverns... also you can 'use' them and get health bottles. :P

(Also, FWIW, I don't believe this was made in only four hours. Nope, no way sir.)

[kmxexii]

Magnusblitz said:

MAP08: Ice Cavern
74% kills, 6/20 secrets

Well, this is certainly different... and the name sells it far short. Yeah, there's another ice cavern, but it's a big one, and there's also a dilapidated castle and an entire village.

Very explore-driven, with some switch hunts that will likely drive people mad. I think it would've worked better as a Hexen map, actually... much more in that vein. Combat isn't really a big issue here, and for most of the start, you can't really fight ... I spent most of the map just running around with the pistol avoiding enemies, took me awhile to find the shotgun, and even then, ammo wasn't plentiful. The chaingun I grabbed off a zombie, and thankfully I found the SSG secret later on before the village area.

I'm sure most will decry the switch hunt in the village area, but it's not too bad IMO. More annoying are all the revenant snipers up high where you can't really get them with the weapons provided. This is actually a theme of the map, I wanted to spend more time looking for secrets (many require difficult jumps to grab the right piece of ledge), but often was harried by barons or revenants or arachnatron snipers that I didn't have the weapons/ammo to really take care of.

Upon reaching the village area, I had a great sense of deja vu... I'm thinking maybe I have played some of these maps before? Ah well. The interior past the yellow door gives a bit of combat before ending in a big giant unmarked exit walking down a corridor. Ugh. Major points lost there.

One last thing I wanted to mention, I liked the detail with the "four seasons" pillars in the caverns... also you can 'use' them and get health bottles. :P

(Also, FWIW, I don't believe this was made in only four hours. Nope, no way sir.)

I'm sure Memfis knows better but the seasons are part of a one-shot voodoo doll puzzle, I think. It won't fail you if you don't "get" it, and I still don't know why the solution is what it is, but it's pretty cool.

[Marcaek]

Map03: I actually really like this midi, first heard in 40oz's Motornerve iirc. The opening area is cool, really reminds of Doom 64, followed by a MAZE and then some back and forth between an arena and a tunnel segment where a horde threatens to force you into the icy cold water(which will hurt you, a recurring element in Whitemare iirc).

Map04: Nice speedy little techbase, followed by an outdoor section that feels like it could have been in TNT. Some cool slow ice lifts where you'll have some worry if you don't kill the cyber that threatens to paste you.

Map05: For some reason I'm not having much of a problem with the tunnel crawls in this mapset. I think the atmosphere makes it feel appropriate for a change. Notable points are the Archvile den(great atmosphere here) and the slow lift pillar cyber fight(although mileage may vary). You can miss a switch in the vile den and render the map incompletable, points off for that.

Map06: Very straighforward, linear map. You basically run to a temple section and solve a simple switch puzzle, complete a maze and work your way back via teleport to the start. High point for me was the lighted cave for visuals I guess. It's adequate but nothing special.

Map07: Completely forgettable, even by Dead Simple remake standards.

Map08: Fuuuuuuuuuck, this took me over an hour to play. Spent a lot of time running around the large caverns. The ruined castle was visually impressive, town switch puzzle area looks decent as well. There's an involved switchhunt for a secret here, I ended up on a cliff overlooking the town, next to a house I couldn't enter. Didn't have the patience to find out how to solve it. Plenty of backtracking but it feels kind of appropriate here.

[Memfis]

map07 - yes, this is just a Dead Simple type filler, not much else to say about it. The only interesting moment: the mancubuses get damaged by barrels before teleporting and sometimes you might able to kill one with just 2 rockets. Looks quite freaky until you realize what's going on. Oh, and Archi made a new midi specifically for this level, that is always admirable.

map08 - Nil is a quite eccentric person. He was a moderator on the Russian forum for some time, which is well remembered for his attitude towards novice mappers. He would bash their works endlessly, haha. And his cynical writing style was very unique and amusing, these comments sure were fun to read. Nowadays we don't see him often. He pops up once in a while but quickly disappears, I guess he doesn't have much time or interest for Doom anymore.

Now, the map... Of course not all of this was made in 4 hours, a significant reworking happened later but it was pretty large even in its original state. It's a colossal exploration adventure and I personally like it a lot.

kmxexii said:

I still don't know why the solution is what it is

I guess it makes sense only in some parts of the world? In Moscow it certainly does. You have to press the seasons in the chronological order: winter->spring->summer->autumn. And they are represented by stereotypical weather at that time. Winter = snow. Spring = green grass and leaves on the trees appear. Summer = sand, which is assotiated with hot tempteratures. Autumn = rains, dirty ground, etc.

[kmxexii]

Oh, I'm used to thinking spring -> summer -> autumn -> winter, tho I guess winter precedes spring as the incumbent season on the calendar year. Thanks!

[Demon of the Well]

Whitemare Map 08 -- Ice Cavern - 96% Kills / 80% Secrets
Now, this is quite an adventure, in every sense of that term. This seems like something out of a bygone age (e.g. like a Bob Evans map, as kmxexii hazards in his review)....maps like this have always been rare, and in the 'modern' era of mapping are almost unheard of, outside of ZDooM oddball projects like the Phocas Island series or Junko (I would be extremely happy to be corrected on my assessment that this kind of thing is exceedingly rare, if anyone cares to do so!). This is a massive, exploratory affair, where actual combat is for the most part only tertiary to the real challenge, that being learning the lay of the land and figuring out how to progress. Indeed, combat is somewhat denigrated early on by the player's lack of weaponry (it's quite possible to go almost the entire map with nothing but a pistol and shotgun if you don't find a single secret, possibly with a late-appearing chaingun from a commando corpse) and ammo, and later on by the player being incredibly overpowered in comparison to the sparse level of opposition if s/he has explored thoroughly and gathered a lot of armament. During the interim, and regardless of how many destructive implements you're able to scrounge up, it's pretty easy to avoid combat altogether in many places (although a few areas have some troublesome sniping hitscanners you'll probably want to kill), given the vast expanse of the play area. The only really serious piece of direct combat is the entrance to the throne room which precedes the 'normal' exit, with its very cheeky arch-vile placement.

Of course, for maps like this to work, they need to have a lot of distinctly different locales each full of their own mysteries and unique characteristics, and this certainly delivers in that respect, from the dark, winding caves with their many switchbacks and out-of-the-way ledges to the plentiful climbing and tumbling about the ancient ruined garrison to the east to the switch-huntery and somewhat more pronounced monster presence in the fallen town to the west. Aesthetically it certainly has the definitive Whitemare style, lots of chunky sector-based natural terrain, big, orthogonally-compartmentalized buildings, unabashed use of darkness in the tunnels, etc. Parts of the town look a bit Lego-landy, although it's a pretty effective little setup by Doom standards. I particularly like the little bits of implied grim narrative as well, like pretty much the entire population of the town evidently having been led to the square and gruesomely executed. The low-key BGM works pretty well here given the map's playstyle as well, almost makes up for that terrible one from map 06.

While trying to find the route to the exit is an engaging task in itself, the real joy of the map is in trying to fully explore it and uncover as many of its secrets as possible. Many of the most important ones involve a combination of noticing mysterious recesses or openings high up along the fringes of the main play areas, and then figuring out ways to platform over to them; however, there are a number of other methods of concealment as well, just to keep you on your toes--my favorite is probably the sequence of secrets (and one small surprise ambush) in the old crypt in the cave that culminates in acquiring the rocket launcher and possibly a pile of ammo for it. I believe I found pretty much every secret except for the ones involved in the later parts of the 'Four Seasons' altars quest; alas, I didn't get the sequence right there (didn't get it the first time I played Whitemare, either). I actually was able to correctly interpret that the seasons should be touched in order, and even that the order should begin in January (e.g. with 'Winter'), but I misinterpreted which seasons some of the altars were supposed to represent--I thought that the one Memfis describes as 'Fall' was supposed to be 'Spring' (because patches of moisture on brown vegetation made me think of 'the first thaw'), that the one that is apparently 'Spring' was 'Summer' (e.g. lots of vibrant green grass), and that the one that is 'Summer' was 'Fall' (I guess I thought that tan dirt texture was some kind of Doom-abstract representation of a carpet of fallen leaves). Oh, well, no harm done.

There are a couple of technical issues, one of them fairly catastrophic (although not one most players are likely to see), the other might just be me overestimating my own cleverness. The latter thing involves the hidden blue armor in the tower of the eastern ruins--I was able to figure out how to reach it, but no secret sectors triggered at any point of the process, even when I consciously stood on every step and the like. It seems like it'd be counted as secret, I'm wondering if maybe the threshold of the doorway into the tower is supposed to be the secret sector, but it's too thin for the player to trigger, maybe? The former issue is that you can break the map over in the town section if you engage in a bit of parkour-flavored smartassery--the railings on top of some of the buildings are all passthrough, so you can straferun to the roof of the white building from the revenant ledge you teleport to by finding the stable secret, from there to the top of the wall enclosing the little lumber yard, and from there over the outer eastern wall into a big empty sector from which there is no escape (it's the one you see below you when you're following the fenced-in upper path that leads to the secret SSG/the mouth of the secret exit).

Of course, that I even found that design oversight in the first place mainly bespeaks how much I was enjoying just exploring the map, and that's about the best endorsement I can give. I reckon some players will be less than amused by the lack of big guns and heady battles and some of the puzzle elements, but for my part I really like this kind of thing.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP08 Ice Cavern

Ah yes, this map, the longest, most exploratory, most controversial, and unfortunately most grinding in the set. A love/hate relationship with this map for sure. It's fun to romp through, but combat is insanely easy and is either mostly imps or other ledge monsters. Too bad those ledge monsters tend to be former humans, the most annoying of all. This is especially true for the majority of outside areas I went to, particularly the village and the ruins areas. But on the whole, there's not much in terms of difficulty on monsters, sure you got spectres in the dark, but they can be lured outside if you're feeling queasy about darkness. My main gripe is that the level is quite bugged. Several monsters missed their cue to teleport, some barons didn't teleport in when grabbing the RK. And an archvile missed his cue at the chapel area past the village, the one requiring the YK. Speaking of the yellow key, there's a nifty switchhunt that'll put most of you off for sure, just to get that one key. There's 20 rather ingenious secrets, but sadly, I was able to get only 17 of them*. Many of them are quite boring actually, some of them even have me backtracking to places, although as always that berserk secret proved useful. One secret has a teleporter in which behind is a switch with an odd ass symbol in front of it, which opens up bars close to the same symbol elsewhere. Past that, there's supposed to be more secrets and apparently an alternative exit route. I could never find a decent way to open up the DEC07 door*, and fiddling around with it only causes an HOM to appear where it was. I can assume that it must be for coop or something since I can never reach it. And also there's some kills over there too, so I can't get a decent max run here. It definitely is big, but on the whole, not a lot of good. Some of you who haven't quit yet will probably quit here.

*And then, since you guys beat me to MAP08, and revealed the "four seasons" thing, I finally figured it out.

*Flips table in rage*

Start to Crate: 0:03

You can see a fire from the start, approach it and there is both a burning barrel and an opened crate right there. I can't tell if this is some kind of harmony or a murder-suicide thing, either way, we haven't even entered the cavern yet XD.

[Steve D]

What does "grindy" mean? I have an idea, but I'm not sure.

[Steve D]

Map04 – LDFXGESA by Memfis (pistol start) – Kills – 98, Items – 100, Secret – 100. Time – 15:03. End health – 100, Armor – 84. Death Count – 1

I agree with Dragonsbrethren – again, and we’ll have to put stop to that right away ;D – that Memfis is a gifted mapper. I especially liked another of his 4-hour speedmap projects, the amazingly fun ga06. Not so much this one, however. I suppose the most surprising thing to me about every map I’ve played by Memfis is that they seem so much at odds with his skill as a player. If I could play like Memfis, I would never make anything as easy as Kuchitsu. No, if I was that good, anyone who played one of my maps would need intense psychiatric therapy afterwards. Deus Vult, Grime and Swim With The Whales – on UV – would be pleasant breathers after you got your face ripped off trying to beat my map on HNTR! :D

Perhaps I exaggerate . . . at least no one will ever have to worry about something like that.

Anyway, it’s kind of super-cool that Memfis tends to make easyish maps given that he’s capable of beating the toughest ones out there. This one was a bit too easy, IMO. Considering that I pistol-started this after getting my spine removed by Archi’s Incredible Dick Trap, I found this one so player-friendly that the only things which really got my attention were the triple-Chaingunner trap, the “Look out, there’s Archies behind you!” trap, and the Revvies guarding the plasma gun. And none of them killed me. That’s because I save a game before opening any door or proceeding into any area that smells like a trap. So once I heard those Archies spinning up, I opened a save, because all I had was a shotgun in my hand and no time, or room, for the rocket launcher. I had the correct weapon on the second go and killed them at the doorway. Then it was time for the PG Revvies, who had me seriously worried, because the area was not conducive to rocketing, so I was happy to find the PG and blasted them outta there.

I’ll say that I was a little bummed at being given the opportunity to camp all the Arachnotrons from the water inlets, and then having like 50 million columns to hide from one Manc. ;D Or maybe that was intended for dueling the Cyb?

My only death came when I was running from the Cyb and got confused on the moving stairs, then bumped into a Spectre who stopped me just long enough for the Cyb to put a rocket in my back. On the second try, I lured the Cyb all the way to where I first met the Archies to make certain he’d never get another shot at me.

I too was charmed by the Christmas tree. Nice touch, Memfis!

Overall, as others have said, this map is a clean, traditional tech base, just a little too easy.

BTW, Memfis, I've used Google Translate for years to communicate with friends in Primorye. Works great with the Russian language.

[Dragonsbrethren]

MAP05: Umm, I'll have to go back to this. I played it but am having a hard time remembering anything except being annoyed by how dark the caves were...

MAP06: This is a fun one! Well, mostly fun. Chaingunners in darkness are evil, so I died once at the start and once after the floor you have to lower (speaking of which, the switch "puzzle" there just seems like a time waster) where they're up in barred alcoves. Other than that, no deaths. The hedge maze was kind of annoying, but not too bad and it was fun fighting Arch-Viles that felt fair (or unfair, to the Viles, really). In hindsight, none of the encounters were really all that special, though.

One last little complaint: The waterfall stairs at the beginning probably could've been a little wider. I tried going up them on my first life, must've bumped the edge of the wall and thought they were impassible, so I assumed the waterfall was detail.

[Steve D]

Map05 – The Ancient Mysteries by Cybermind (continuous) – Kills – 100, Items – 96, Secret – 33. Time – 21:48. End health – 100, Armor – 100. Death Count – 7

I fuckin’ love this map. With the exception of the weird Archie prison scene, this map is totally awesome. Absolutely my favorite map so far. To start at the start, that opening room is gorgeous with its sense of scope and that killer ceiling detail. The caverns are beautifully detailed – LOVE Dem Bumpy Floors!!!!!! And I have to agree with DoTW – a well-known habit of mine – about the grim marble faces seen behind jagged openings in the walls. Very stylish and atmospheric. This map is also beautifully lit.

Gameplay isn’t bad, either. A bit easy at the start, but Cybermind throws enough cross-connections in there for an occasional crossfire along with enemies – mainly nobles – emerging from dark side branches or from walls lowering behind you. Good stuff, and it definitely felt a bit spooky in there.

My first death came by Arachnotron when I allowed some HKs to funnel me forward and then tried a kamikaze stand-up fight. Two deaths later, I realized it was better to run past the Arachnotron and pump it with rockets, then wait for the HKs to waddle into my buckshot blasts.

The Archie prison thing was . . . tedious. I like to kamikaze, but not into 3 Archies, not with my “skills.” ;D So I took the sane option of plinking them through the bars, which seemed to take half the time I spent in the map as a whole. I also benefitted from saving when I decided to explore prior to hitting the wall switch. Yep, I got stuck, so I opened a save and did the right thing, lowering the columns to reveal the second “leap of faith” in the mapset. I like leaps of faith. You know it’s gonna be bad, but hey, it’s Doom.

After the leap, I gazed upon a very impressive-looking area with a grand staircase, red columns, and above, the excellent floor and ceiling details. Choice!

I started running as soon as I saw the Caco and heard the Revvies behind me. I kept the jets on and ran past the HKs into the Baron trap, survived that despite a fair amount of splash damage, and then died by Chaingunner fire in the Cyb room. Quite the whizzy little section except for the dull grind of the Barons.

I repeated the Revvie/Caco/Chaingunner fight a few times, suffering 2 deaths, before I was satisfied. I did the Baron fight several times, too, never dying, but trying to get my health numbers up before the Cyb fight.

I never found the safe spot for fighting Cybie, and concentrated on the iron rule of Doom’s mixed-monster fights: first, kill the hitscanners! An exception can be made if Archies are present, but those Chaingunner jagoffs were tearing my ass up. Screw the Cyb, I let loose with the PG on those Chaingunners. Took 3 tries before I succeeded, and just my luck, when I finished off the last Chaingunner, I got blindsided by a rocket. ;D

Although I found the setup difficult to deal with, it was clearly a more doable fight for me than Archi’s horror trap, so I kept at it. I fought the Cyb in the open, only having trouble when my fingers started cramping or when I fell into the depression at the northwest side of the room, where the wall was too tall to step over, forcing me to move right while hugging the wall, since I didn’t want to back straight up and eat a rocket.

The whole thing with the moving floors reminded me of Antoni Chan’s long-ago take on that approach in, IIRC, Map20 of Realm of Chaos. This iteration was much more difficult. And somehow, I failed to note that I could just run away once the exit opened. I honestly paid no attention – too busy fighting to bother. ;D

Now I gotta ask Memfis about this issue of people like Cybermind doing “some work” after the speedmapping session. This map has 1,089 sectors. It takes me a month to do 1,200 sectors of Doom architecture. How much of this could Cybermind do in a single session?

Anyway, this map kicks ass, IMO. It will be quite influential on my future cavern work.

[Guest]

I would just like to post here to say that, while I haven't been heavily involved in the DW Megawad club, I love the concept and enjoy reading through the threads. Also, the DW Megawad club has strongly influenced which wads I have played over these months, and since its inception, I have played jenesis, Community Chest 4, Memento Mori and Back to Saturn X, as well as several others on the club list.

Cool work, keep it up guys.

[SyntherAugustus]

MAP08: Very large and exploratory, but not the biggest fan of the lack of ammo, as I normally play to clear the level as I go. Some of the areas looked quite nice though.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP09 Coldblood

Really THIS should have been MAP01. I know it has an archvile and revenants in it, but it's short and simple, and still not difficult. Nothing else really.

Start to Crate: 0:00

Two very distinct textured crates right in front as I start.

[Demon of the Well]

Whitemare Map 09 -- Coldblood - 109% Kills / 100% Secrets
A quick 5-minute affair, this map reminds us that we're playing a compilation based on speedmaps, perhaps easy to forget after the lengthy and rather involved map 08. Not to say that it's a marginal effort, by any means...it's short, tidy, and unpretentious, with one obvious marquee fight that works well enough for what it is.

While the layout and architecture here are rather boxy (both literally and figuratively!), and what height variation there is is quite superficial, neither of these attributes is particularly disastrous in so short/compact a map. While this depicts a warehouse/storage setting rather than a ruins/caverns setting, the overall visual style is nevertheless somewhat similar to that of map 06, I suppose-- mostly rather dark, and reliant more on texture choice and surface details (e.g. the icicles hanging from ceiling vents or the disembodied brain floating in a pool of blood in the office) than actual structure per se in delivering its visuals. I think the brightly-lit room with the blue armor/medikit on top of chunky computer terminals is a bit out of place aesthetically, but for the most part the map works well enough in this regard. There is one clear visual error, though: when you pick up the red security card, the barricade between it and the player start position lowers into the ground, and the side of one of the small crates that was flush against the barricade is untextured, thus creating a HOM.

Combat is (perhaps unsurprisingly) mostly light incidental stuff, although there's a chance for some variety over the map's short expanse--basic gunplay vs. small groups of zombies, some CQC against demons/imps in the small storeroom (the chainsaw is good here if you find it first thing in the zombie/terminal room), a string of revenants in the office, etc. The highlight fight involves the arch-vile that teleports into the building when you pick up the red key--I think he lands in the terminal room, and so has a good opportunity to raise a decent crowd of zombies with maybe an HK or two for good (bad) measure, but since you can choose to attack from two different directions, you have a good opportunity to efficiently put down the uprising (you could also wait for them to come to you, but that's probably generally less advisable). After that there's a little cooldown fight in the boiler room, nothing serious.

Hardly the WAD's flagship, this one, but decent enough. You get what it says on the tin with this one, I guess.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP09: Coldblood
100% kills, 2/2 secrets

Not much to say about this that Demon didn't already say. This definitely feels like something that actually would've been made in a speedmapping session. Short and sweet, but solidly designed and looks good (aside from that one HOM). A few parts feel a bit anticlimatic (the dark warehouse just ending in a teleporter to the armor, and the boiler room feels tacked-on after the AV fight).

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP10 Sweet House

With a name like that you'd expect some candy. Too bad it's over wayyyy too fast. I noticed wires in places, this reminded me of my half-assed work myself.

Start to Crate: 0:00

Some wooden textured crates just to my left.

[Demon of the Well]

Whitemare Map 10 --Sweet House - 100% Kills / No actual secrets
This is really more like one of those little shoebox dioramas one inevitably makes at some point in the early school years than a proper map. It's a house, a tunnel, a dingy maintenance room off of said tunnel, and a back clearing with an improbably powerful generator array, presumably a crude way of powering the exit teleporter in the little house. Everything is exceedingly tiny and cramped (even the outdoor areas, hell, even the vertical scale outside seems strangely squashed), with minute representationalist sector details abound, including DooM furniture in the house (but of course). Once again the music is ill-fitting (a bit of a running theme with Whitemare, it seems), but the track itself is fine, not grating like the one from map 06. Probably too long to be heard in its entirety before the map ends, heh.

You essentially only get a shotgun and a few shells (you can get a chaingun from some dead commandos, but they're the last two to appear in the map), but that's all you need--there are only 16 monsters, and the only one of those that stands even a remote chance of offering any resistance is the pain elemental, although I imagine pretty much all of the Club's members know the game well enough not to let him get any momentum with his soul-spawning. No traps or anything, just a very basic frontal shoot-n-switch.

Maybe some folks find this kind of thing to be 'cute.' I'm not one of them.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP10: Sweet House
100% kills, 1/1 secret

Another one of those "blink and you'll miss it" maps. Definitely feels like more of an experimentation with "realistic detailing" than an actual map. Yawn.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP11 Nord Keep

Aah, a Shadowman level. I'm really getting used to his style after playing his Hellfire saga, so I at least know what to expect. Getting lost in places and fighting hard but manageable fights. This particular Shadowman map resembles a Frozen Time-lite or something. You start out someplace then go to the bigger building, only it took me awhile to figure out what I was supposed to do. He puts a switch next to a hellknight, but all it does is raise a snow pillar with an ammo box on top (which can be lowered manually I should add.) That switch does nothing to raise the bridge though, you have to shoot across the gap! Clever, aren't you. Symmetrical fights and layouts followed. To actually enter the inner courtyard, I had to press two switches to lower the next door, but those revenants on both sides when you go up on the lift can really make someone mad. The inner courtyard puzzle to get the BK can be a bit tedious due to symmetry. The inner part is a very detailed interior, quite the Shadowman forte. One extra double-switch pull later, then it's a cyber fight, and a combined imp/revenant/archvile ambush that came after, which had me uneasy for quite some time. Shadowman really knows how to effectively use these rotten ambushes, not to forget chaingunners in corners. While this is probably one of the weakest Shadowman maps in comparison to his other work, I quite enjoy it, especially since it's an end to all that filler the last few maps had pulled on me.

Start to Crate -:--

Another example that Shadowman is one of my favorite authors, he avoids crates and barrels here.

[SyntherAugustus]

MAP09: Short base map but it ended up playing rather well for what it was.
MAP10: Even shorter map that barely has any height variation to it. I ended up counting the 11 monsters as I killed through them.
MAP11: Oh no! Demons have invaded Skyrim! Anyway it this map is quite fun and takes place in a winter castle with fancy Skyrim like music to guide you through the level.


Up next? Super awesome tech level with rave music!

[Steve D]

Map06 – Frozen Point by NRM (continuous) – Kills – 100, Items – 100, Secret – 100. Time – 18:08. End Health – 63, Armor – 0. Death Count – Zero

The biggest drawback to this map is it’s obnoxious music track. I was actually trapped in the tunnel by the bars because of this music – it was so damned loud I couldn’t hear the fucking lift move behind me. I was prepared to DNF the map because of that, but instead I IDMUSed to “Waiting For Romero To Play,” always a fave of mine. It’s moody and kind of quiet, so I was able to hear the lift dropping and thus to proceed.

I should mention that I forgot to praise Map05’s outstanding take on Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy,” as identified by Magnus. The text file shows that it is “Dance of The Sugarplum Lunatic,” by Mark Klem. No wonder his work is so popular. This is exceptionally well-done. It was so perfectly fitting for the map, and as an aside, allow me to say that I am among those who believe the Russian symphonic composers were The Best Of All Time. I’ll take them any day over those German mathematicians, who were quite good themselves, but the Russian Romantics had that extra soul power that puts them over the top for me.

Anyway, the Sepultura MIDI here is not the groovin’ happs, even though the original song is pretty good. Somehow, the MIDI just went wrong . . .

On to the map itself. I thought it was pretty decent, actually, given the factors Memfis mentioned about why mazes are common in speedmaps. It doesn’t make me like them more, but it’s understandable, I guess. The map is once again pretty good-looking with lots of semi-organic shapes in the rock formations and plenty of cool icicles. The castle area looks good, too, with nice light and shadow at the windows.

In terms of combat, just basic shooting gallery stuff for the most part, especially early. Once you take the lowering floor down into the deep, deep darkness, the all-but-invisible Chaingunner snipers are the biggest danger in the map. They damn near got me when I foolishly walked forward in imbecilic confidence. After that, some Revvie clearance and I was out into an area loaded with Lost Souls who, for some reason, were placed behind impassable lines. I took the opportunity presented me to waste ammo on them rather than risk dangerous encounters, and soon discovered the next danger in the map – Archies in the maze! The one that appeared behind me took quite a bit of health, but I decided to continue rather than open a saved game and fight for better results. After this it was find the key and teleport back to the start – and Gee! -- Computer Map right at the exit. That was funny enough to put a smile on my face.

Not a bad map at all.

[Steve D]

Map07 – Ledges of Pain by Archi (continuous) – Kills – 100, Items – 100, Secret – 100. Time – 2:16. End Health – 72, Armor – 0. Death Count – 3

Archi strikes again! I liked this map. Nice little Dead Simple knock-off with annoying damaging water and a bearable MIDI by Archi himself. The strategy was clear, but still, my tendency to make large movements resulted in 3 deaths as I kept accidentally moving into the open a little too much. Oh well! With better directional control, I wouldn’t have taken a hit, so better players will breeze through this one. The last bit of damaging water was a nice “Fuck you, player!” touch. ;D

[Dragonsbrethren]

Bah, falling behind again. Dammit, you play one map a day, why is this such a hard concept for me to grasp? I'll try to get back to MAP07 and MAP08 at some point soonish. And replay MAP05, too.

Anyway, I agree with the others on MAP09, MAP10 and don't have much to add. The base in MAP09 felt nice and Doomy in places, MAP10 was just kinda there. I loved the bit with all the computers sitting out in the snow under the sky, that totally makes sense!

[Demon of the Well]

Whitemare Map 11 -- Nord Keep - 101% Kills / No secrets
So this was a map created outside the purview of the speedmapping event that spawned the majority of Whitemare, eh? Interesting, in many ways it's less impressive in visuals and particularly in layout than some of the speedmaps, though of course most of those speedmaps were 'touched up' in one way or another before release, I suppose.

Anyway, the Nord Keep is a very cohesive castle/bastion location (though it lacks a proper keep per se, not that that should really concern any of us), set down amongst various snowy crags. It is a very clean-looking map, straightforward and mostly well-lit (which looks natural enough, given it takes place under the more or less clear winter sky), that works mostly through texture selection and mostly unobtrusive/understated details, ala the many blue/red firesticks that make very nice decorations for the crenelations of the fortress walls. Looking at it now on this replay, it occurs to me that this a very Shadowman-ish Shadowman map, with a bunch of his calling cards scattered all over the place. Apart from the obvious matter of the medieval/folkloric theme that he (and also a lot of the other members of the Russian community, in fairness) seems to like working with so much, there's the fondness for depicting rocky hills, the even greater fondness for beam-reinforced rock/earthen tunnels, and perhaps most telling of all, the tiered, columned, cross-shaped hallway intersection that is the site of the map's final battles--he really seems to love this particular type of construct, I can think of several other maps by him that also feature it prominently. The other notable thing about the layout is that it's highly symmetrical (again, a tendency that crops up in a number of other Shadowman maps), interesting in this case because the symmetry works rather well for this map in an aesthetic sense....

.....and yet, predictably, doesn't work so well for it from a gameplay perspective. Most major progression milestones in this map, from breaching the outer wall to acquiring the blue key to releasing the cyberdemon in the inner sanctum, are reached by repeating the same simplistic combat encounters twice over. There are slight wrinkles that add a little flavor to some of these--for instance, actually avoiding damage in the two watchtowers while sandwiched between revenants is fairly tricky--but none of these is enough to really mitigate the very apparent artificiality in overall impression that the degree of thing-placement symmetry we see here engenders. Fortunately, the map ends on a higher note, with a decent cyberdemon battle (easier than usual to take some splash damage if you're not careful, given the many thin pillars in the main hall) topped off by a multi-pronged revenant/vile ambush, effective because the player can't simply flee from it, and trying to camp in one of the side rooms is a dicey proposition. Of course, the really dashing (e.g. stupid, e.g. fun) way to handle this is to juke the cyb initially and trigger the last ambush while he's still stomping about. Also dicey in its own way, of course, but he makes an excellent vile-distraction if you play your cards right.

Hardly perfect, but all in all it's a decent map. Really benefits from its clean (if understated) visuals and Shadowman's presence of mind in saving the best fight(s) for last, like I said.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP12 Kleptomania

Beewen on the other hand is a more annoying mapper. The opening is okay, with just a baron and some hitscanners later. Other stuff: a blue key gimmick, some really harsh fights (the open area with little health and varied monsters, plus some extra ones behind ice sculptures. And boy those revenants are annoying!) and some rather odd platforming. The standout here in this map would be the big ass open area where combined projectiles and hitscan attacks can really do a number, and not much room if you retreat. There's a "reverse teleport trap" gimmick like UR's MAP11 with some barons appearing then teleporting elsewhere, but I find out that they teleport to sectors, and when you cross a certain linedef, you actually crush them. So really it's just a "chase the baron" gimmick but it turns out to be multiple barons getting killed only to have one later. In that area on the east is some close quarters combat with imps and demons, make sure you got the berserk from where the archvile was for maximum fun. I never really did like Beewen's maps, (especially MAP22 of A.L.T.) so I never liked this one either. Interesting OGG vorbis music though.

Oh, and why the hell did I see a TNT sky? Is that for E2?

Start To Crate: 0:11

Better time than most other maps. Press the switches to rise up, go through until the big open ass area, then look left and see some frosted boxes.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP11: Nord Keep
99% kills, no secrets

Ah, Ye Olde Castle Assault map. I'm usually not a fan of these because I don't enjoy lots of far-off imp/revenant/chaingunner snipers, the Doom weapons just aren't meant for it and it's not fun. Thankfully, the outside isn't that bad. Unfortunately, the inside starts to get a bit tedious due to the symmetry - the map is practically a perfect left/right copy with the exception of a couple items and some key doors. Some of the fight designs, such as the revenants at the top of the guard towers, are also a bit tedious to deal with (the best way is to ride to the top, fire an SSG blast, fall down, repeat). The Cyberdemon fight was a pleasant surprise however, as was the false exit ambush afterwards with the Arch-Viles. Those columns in the room become very useful very quick. Looks pretty nice, though not being a speedmap, that should be expected. Trying to decide if that skin floor is just used because it looks like a pink carpet or if it's supposed to be skin. :)