Doom Wad Station Review Thread 2014

[Brad_tilf]

I still have Doom and Doom 2 on a dos machine in another room and I'm fairly certain that the original game does not offer strafing as an option. I'll have to check it out to be certain, of course. Who knows - memory is a flaky thing sometimes

[Foxpup]

When you're having trouble remembering the controls, you can always turn to the help screen for, um, help:



You can also configure separate strafe left and strafe right keys in the standard WASD layout (which was common in the DM community by '96, and probably goes back even earlier).

[Brad_tilf]

mea culpa. You are quite correct. I had to go into my dos machine to take a look at the setup.

Regardless, I played the map without strafe enabled so the review is based upon that experience

[Brad_tilf]

Foxpup said:

Oops.


I'm pretty sure we did take strafing (SR40, at least) for granted back then. Don't tell me I've been doing it wrong this whole time?

Thanks for the catch on the date. fixing it now

[Memfis]

Foxpup said:

I'm pretty sure we did take strafing (SR40, at least) for granted back then.

Wait, I thought SR40 is run forward + strafe (straferunning), not just strafe? Or is that terminology incorrect?

[Brad_tilf]

So for those of you who have played it - what did you think of it? I personally love playing the better of the older maps. Generally, the text file will be a good clue to it's quality. Not always, but usually.

[Rastrelly]

I have to try this out! This looks too sweetly oldschooley ^^

[Foxpup]

Memfis said:

Wait, I thought SR40 is run forward + strafe (straferunning), not just strafe?

Yes, but how often did you strafe without running forwards (or backwards), even in '94? In any case, the speed boost from straferunning has been known about since forever (I wouldn't be surprised if Wolf3D speedrunners were doing it before Doom), though SR50 wasn't discovered until, um... actually, when was SR50 discovered?

[Steve D]

I enjoyed it. The combat was more than I expected with 151 monsters, including lots of Cacos and a couple Barons. This would have been a tough map if not for all the health cramming the place. In one section, I grabbed a "secret" Soulsphere and Blue Armor, only to have another Soulsphere revealed almost immediately past the blue door, which I then had to step around. ;)

I enjoyed the first half more than the second, in no small measure owing to the fuckery with secret paths to get the yellow key -- ironically the same thing I did in the oft-mentioned (by me) Map09 of Realm of Chaos, in 1996. That's the kind of dumbass shit we did back in the day to make maps "hard." I know that several people actually stopped playing RoC -- continuers, obviously -- because they couldn't get out of Map09. Yay, Steve! :D

I almost got past the yellow door the easy way when a Spectre opened it from the other side and attacked me, but I was too far down the hallway to get back in time after kiling that jagoff, so I ultimately opened the map in DB2 to figure it out.

Anyway, I thought the first half was better-looking and more fun, with really good lighting and overall solid play. There was a Floor Rule violation in nukage turning into a regular floor with no height difference, again typical of the time, and a mistake sometimes still made today by noob mappers. The second half began to seem a little unfocused and Tom Hallish, sort of a "let's have more map with a bunch of switch-hunts" than anything really enjoyable, a not-uncommon path even for experienced mappers, actually.

A poster on idgames said that Eric C. Reuter "went pro" and worked on Shadow Warrior and Unreal. I did some Googling and found this; http://www.fusioncreativedesign.com/resume.htm

There is definitely a pro level designer named Eric C. Reuter, but I'm guessing it's a different guy, because that Eric C. Reuter was already a pro in '93. One way or another, the Eric C. Reuter who did Runaway had some skills and was a good mapper, who did several more maps in '94, mostly DM, before moving on.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I encountered at least 3 instances of Sleepy Monster Syndrome, most likely because of flawed node building. Ah, the good old days! ;)

[Brad_tilf]

SteveD said:

I enjoyed it. The combat was more than I expected with 151 monsters, including lots of Cacos and a couple Barons. This would have been a tough map if not for all the health cramming the place. In one section, I grabbed a "secret" Soulsphere and Blue Armor, only to have another Soulsphere revealed almost immediately past the blue door, which I then had to step around. ;)

I enjoyed the first half more than the second, in no small measure owing to the fuckery with secret paths to get the yellow key -- ironically the same thing I did in the oft-mentioned (by me) Map09 of Realm of Chaos, in 1996. That's the kind of dumbass shit we did back in the day to make maps "hard." I know that several people actually stopped playing RoC -- continuers, obviously -- because they couldn't get out of Map09. Yay, Steve! :D

I almost got past the yellow door the easy way when a Spectre opened it from the other side and attacked me, but I was too far down the hallway to get back in time after kiling that jagoff, so I ultimately opened the map in DB2 to figure it out.

Anyway, I thought the first half was better-looking and more fun, with really good lighting and overall solid play. There was a Floor Rule violation in nukage turning into a regular floor with no height difference, again typical of the time, and a mistake sometimes still made today by noob mappers. The second half began to seem a little unfocused and Tom Hallish, sort of a "let's have more map with a bunch of switch-hunts" than anything really enjoyable, a not-uncommon path even for experienced mappers, actually.

A poster on idgames said that Eric C. Reuter "went pro" and worked on Shadow Warrior and Unreal. I did some Googling and found this; http://www.fusioncreativedesign.com/resume.htm

There is definitely a pro level designer named Eric C. Reuter, but I'm guessing it's a different guy, because that Eric C. Reuter was already a pro in '93. One way or another, the Eric C. Reuter who did Runaway had some skills and was a good mapper, who did several more maps in '94, mostly DM, before moving on.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I encountered at least 3 instances of Sleepy Monster Syndrome, most likely because of flawed node building. Ah, the good old days! ;)

I'd say that is a more than fair review of the map.
I could always use another reviewer. Interested? ???? Hmmmm? lo

Really - I always have room for a top notch reviewer with experience and writing skills. :-)

[Steve D]

Brad_tilf said:

I could always use another reviewer. Interested? ???? Hmmmm? lo

Really - I always have room for a top notch reviewer with experience and writing skills. :-)

That's a very tempting offer to a windbag like me. ;D I will take this under serious consideration.

Of course, I also plan to contribute an entire mapset for your consideration, hopefully this week. ;D

BTW, did Zorah do that Double Impact review yet?

[Brad_tilf]

SteveD said:

That's a very tempting offer to a windbag like me. ;D I will take this under serious consideration.

Of course, I also plan to contribute an entire mapset for your consideration, hopefully this week. ;D

BTW, did Zorah do that Double Impact review yet?

I believe so, but there have been so many this year. Was this one where you specifically asked for him because I know he did one or two that he was specifically requested on

[Brad_tilf]

So, once again, we have a review with two different points of view as to difficulty (especially) and other aspects of the map. This is (from the reviews) a total conversion for a single map for Doom 2 based on the classic spinechilling slasher. Based on what I read, it looks pretty damn good. :-)

http://www.doomwadstation.net/2014/Friday/
Enjoy!

[Brad_tilf]

By the way - if anyone would like to do a playthrough, post it on youtube and have me embed it in this review, or any other review, for that matter - just pm me with the url of the video and I'll happily add it. :-)

[Larzuk]

I did a playthrough of the first version of this wad when it first came out. This was before the added blood and difficulty settings. Not sure if you will have a use for this one but here you go. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02SwRee2Has

[Megamur]

Now someone just needs to make a "Jason vs. Rick from Splatterhouse" mod.

[Brad_tilf]

Larzuk said:

I did a playthrough of the first version of this wad when it first came out. This was before the added blood and difficulty settings. Not sure if you will have a use for this one but here you go. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02SwRee2Has

I'd be willing to do it, but a newer playthrough would be better - I'm sure it would look closer to the finished product - but I'll check this one out

[Larzuk]

Megamur said:

Now someone just needs to make a "Jason vs. Rick from Splatterhouse" mod.

I have always hoped to see a Splatterhouse TC for Doom. Sadly I don't think that will ever happen.

Brad_tilf said:

I'd be willing to do it, but a newer playthrough would be better - I'm sure it would look closer to the finished product - but I'll check this one out

That's fine. If I knew there was an updated version coming out at the time, I probably would have waited.

Also, I sent you a PM.

[Exzodium]

Splatterhouse would be sick.

[Larzuk]

Just a heads up, I've recorded a new video for the version of the wad on your site. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RahnMDYqsp4

[Brad_tilf]

Larzuk said:

Just a heads up, I've recorded a new video for the version of the wad on your site. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RahnMDYqsp4

Very cool. Putting it up now.

[Brad_tilf]

While maybe not the hardest damn wad out there, this one does put up a fight, though not necessarily in enjoyable ways. On most maps in this wad, you are immediately pitted against an angry horde and have to act quick to annihilate them and force some breathing room into the situation

Once again, I think it's all up to interpretation but hey, give it a shot and see what you think.

http://www.doomwadstation.net/2014/1024/

[Magnusblitz]

Five skip maps?? WTF Joe... just throw in some symbols or Greek letters or something. I WANT MY FULL JOE ILYA MEGAWAD

[Suitepee]

Magnusblitz said:

Five skip maps?? WTF Joe... just throw in some symbols or Greek letters or something. I WANT MY FULL JOE ILYA MEGAWAD

While he does make clever use of one of the skip maps for a secret, I kind of thought that joe could have just SKIPPED the use of skip maps and just gone for a 26-map megawad.

I'm sure we'll get our full 32-map megawad someday from joe....

[Brad_tilf]

I'm kind of digging the nostalgia I'm discovering as I dig out these old maps and give them a playthrough and review that is 20 years in the making. I'm especially happy to finally get some recognition to the pioneers of the Doom mapping community who didn't have review sites back in the day to submit their work to. Neal - wherever you are - thankyou and well done

Check out the review and get the download here:
http://www.doomwadstation.net/doom_reviews/2014/1994/subway/

I also have a video playthrough coming for the review page, but youtube is still working on it. :-)

[Brad_tilf]

The playthrough finally finished uploading and processing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6jnjYM6O8A&feature=youtu.be

[Brad_tilf]

So, Zorah was busy this weekend and played a couple of different maps so that we could get them reviewed on on the site for you. The first is based on the Aliens movies and is called (appropriately enough) Xenomorph - http://www.doomwadstation.net/2014/xenomorph/

The second one - a new release on the archives called Blood Axe Fortress, can be found here:
http://www.doomwadstation.net/2014/bloodaxe/
Blood Axe Fortress is in "Beta" so don't be shocked that the review states that there is something to be desired there. Hopefully the author takes the comments to heart and makes some improvements.

:-)

[Tuxlar]

Holy cow, Xenomorph was intense! Seems like there isn't enough ammo, unless you spend all of it on the queen itself (in UV, at least).

Map seems to be (visually) broken as shit in regular zdoom, by the way.

[Brad_tilf]

Tuxlar said:

Holy cow, Xenomorph was intense! Seems like there isn't enough ammo, unless you spend all of it on the queen itself (in UV, at least).

Map seems to be (visually) broken as shit in regular zdoom, by the way.

Ya, I didn't notice that. Zdoom is usually my port of choice.

[Kontra Kommando]

I made the map in UDMF, but I use gzdoom myself. From now on, I will just suggest using my maps for gzdoom and zdoom, since I can confirm it.

BTW, I'm glad you guys liked the map!

@Tuxlar,

I find a good strategy is to eliminate the warriors and drones by getting them in a group, and taking them out with grenades. After that, focus the rest on the Queen.