The DWmegawad Club plays: Back to Saturn X E2

[Marcaek]

^

Maybe the post-map01 posts should be spoilered.

[glenzinho]

Kiwis, Aussies and East Asians are already living on the 2nd. America and Europe aren't the centre of the world ya know!

[Steve D]

Xaser said:

I figure the most fun way to contribute to the playthrough is to give some semi-official behind-the-scenes developer commentary

Many thanks for this, Xaser. As a confirmed mapping geek, I eat this shit up. ;)

[Suitepee]

http://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/c/5046740 = part 1 of my BTSXE2 livestream for the DWMegawad Club, maps 01-08 covered.

For the sake of preventing spoilers I won't describe the maps in individual detail, but needless to say I noticed three things about BTSXE2 so far:

1- The map design and levels remain as awesome as ever, with some evil traps thrown in from the first couple of maps already, although nothing too frustrating in the early going.
2- The texture design is even more outstanding this time around!
3- They are using a lot more Revenants this time around thus far.

I am sincerely looking forward to see what the rest of BTSXE2 brings.

[Joshy]

Xaser said:

Not that I'm knocking Joshy's efforts

Hay staph knackin me efforts, or or I'LL SHADOWPORT YA FACE!

And really, the first map's Tyson gameplay is fairly trivial IMO, I'm not sure I get Tyson gameplay's apparent lack of appeal.

[Velvetic]

This is my first entry in here, and i'm playing on ITYTD so don't judge me. :(

MAP01 - "Shadow Port" by Joshy/Esselfortium/dew

Great start, love how it catches up were e1 ended. Had a little trouble
here and there but it was almost like any first map, an entryway to
chaos. The design is absolutely flawless like always, i'm sooooo in
love with the "new" textures. And this is only the beginning...

[40oz]

Haven't played yet but sounds like either quadruple negative sarcasm (or something along those lines) or low expectations and a stubborness of not wanting to admit liking it even a little is brewing here. Honestly the words "boring berserk punching" is making me kinda uncomfortable. Unless were talking doom guy pimp ventures tributes where were punching immobile cybies to death, what the hell does that even mean?

[RottKing]

I agree berserk punching is never boring!

[Demon of the Well]

I like having the berserk fist as an early companion, it's a satisfying weapon to use against lots of the bottom half of the monster roster. If anything, it not being around in these first two maps would probably slow the play down a bit, as it'd then take longer to kill the occasional early revenant or hell knight that pops up.

[Steve D]

Map01 – Shadow Port by Joshy/esselfortium/dew – Kills – 98, Items – 79, Secret – 25, Death Count – 4

UV pistol-start, GZDoom, frequent saves, keyboard-only

Ah, so here we are at last! I think this is my first Joshy map. Maybe Speed of Doom will find its way to the DWMC one of these months?

Sorry to be a bit late with the comments, but I was halfway through the map on a gloriously overcast, rainy afternoon here in the muggy Midwest, when I was interrupted by a call, during the course of which the clouds broke and flooded my apartment with Western exposure sunlight, the bane of my Dooming existence. Not good for a map as dark as this, so I had to finish up at night.

Anyway, there's a lot I like about this map, and not much that I dislike. The opening lighthouse is fantastic, and my favorite detail in the whole map follows soon thereafter, the cast light through the windows of the guardshack. This was exquisite work, and is the kind of thing I've seen on many humid nights in the Deep South, such that I heard crickets, wiped the sweat from my brow, and felt the sting of mosquito bites. That might seem like an excessive reaction to a bit of detail, but I think it shows the evocative power of thoughtful touches like this.

The installation as a whole is a very convincing decayed base in the classic BTSX Quake 2 style, with good old-fashioned rectilinear architecture that works for me. The new textures kick unholy ass, and, as you can see, there's still no damned way I'm playing in the intended software mode. I can report that the textures look totally fab in GL. ;)

Gameplay was a bit of a mixed bag. Not everyone enjoys being forced into Tyson play. I didn't mind it too much, but as a keyboarder, it can be a bit of a PITA in certain situations. Knocking out the Pinkies and Imps at the start was no biggie, but when I get into a situation with Chaingunners, Cacos, Lost Souls, Pinkies and Imps, it becomes a major hassle, mainly because, since I use one hand on the keypad for all movement, and the index finger of my left hand just to hit the Fire key, I can't switch weapons rapidly. If I go into a room with my fist out and get blitzed by hitscanners, it's best for me to flee the room and change weapons, rather than deal with it right there. It's a situation I've learned to deal with over the years, but it does cause me to like some situations more than others. And running out of ammo fighting Imps and sniping Chaingunners, and then being set upon by 2 Revvies, is at the very least a bit uncomfortable. Once again, I had to flee the room, something I did a lot of in this map. ;D But later, fresh off a Baron punch-out in one of cannonball's maps, I waded in with glee against that fat Hell Knight and dropped him with 3 left hooks. wOOt!

All that said, I found the combat well-balanced. Not easy, but not especially difficult. Although ammo remained a bit tight throughout, the second half of the map was more generous than the first.

My only real complaint is that I found the progression obtuse because the areas, though very nicely-done, looked samey and I kept getting lost. For example, after I found the exit, I went looking for more secrets, and found the blue key. I knew I had seen the blue door at some point, but after getting the key, I was never able to find it again. ;D I also found myself circuiting through certain areas again and again. However, although I found the map boring at that point, I have to accept part of the blame because I kept playing after I could have walked out. So up to the point where I found the exit, the map was a good solid play, requiring me to figure out ways to work around my flaws as a player.

As for my deaths, I accept a high death count, so only getting killed 4 times in a map whose gameplay style is something I am not well-equipped for means this is practically a cakewalk. Indeed, 2 of my deaths occurred taking the lift down to the SS Visplane Overflow, because I was at low health and immediately jumped by a Revvie, who was backed by a Caco and a Pinky. The other 2 deaths probably came from Chaingunners.

And let's not forget to mention the SS Visplane Overflow herself, seemingly a Navy-surplus LST (Landing Ship, Tank) converted to carrying illicit cargo, and apparently jammed at her moorings because one of the cargo crates is flush with the tunnel's ceiling! ;D I really enjoyed the battles on her decks.

All in all, a very solid Map01, oozing with atmosphere. And nice BGM by Stewboy, who did many of my faves in E1. Now I'll go watch DotW's FDA so I can see how those secrets are accessed.

[Velvetic]

MAP02 - "Underwater Explosions" by Tango

Strange map, it actually felt a little claustrophobic and a little
disorienting for me. This is the first time that i felt that this is going
to be pretty hard and so rewarding in ITYTD, which is rare in my case,
Tango is pretty good at making maps that empowers the enemy, not the
player, and i like that. And the song "94" by stewboy is just freaking awesome!!
This is truly, Barrels o' Fun II.

[Steve D]

Heh, after watching DotW's FDA, I realize I never saw the blue door, only the blue key.

[Woolie Wool]

KevinHEZ said:

MAP02 - "Underwater Explosions" by Tango

Strange map, it actually felt a little claustrophobic and a little
disorienting for me. This is the first time that i felt that this is going
to be pretty hard and so rewarding in ITYTD, which is rare in my case,
Tango is pretty good at making maps that empowers the enemy, not the
player, and i like that. And the song "94" by stewboy is just freaking awesome!!
This is truly, Barrels o' Fun II.

Do you post
in verse or
something?
what is with all the
gratuitous linebreaks?

Generic haiku
It doesn't mean anything
Just here for display

Post a map review
In a series of haiku
Would be amusing

[Velvetic]

Woolie Wool said:

Do you post
in verse or
something?
what is with all the
gratuitous linebreaks?

Generic haiku
It doesn't mean anything
Just here for display

Post a map review
In a series of haiku
Would be amusing

I'm copying and pasting from a text file that i got with the "review" (more like a fanboyview). And yes, a review in haiku would be amusing. xD

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP02: Underwater Explosions
It felt weird having the second map be so much shorter than the first. The monster count seemed a lot smaller that it actually was, thanks to all the barrels I guess. And that was fun. Barrels everywhere. Bad guys go splodey. Great stuff. The archie traps were nasty surprises. And that exit area was super cool.

[Woolie Wool]

KevinHEZ said:

I'm copying and pasting from a text file that i got with the "review" (more like a fanboyview). And yes, a review in haiku would be amusing. xD

Turn off word wrap before copying it, it will get rid of those linebreaks.

[Magnusblitz]

UV, continuous, save scumming, ZDoom

MAP01: Shadow Port
100% kills, 3/4 secrets

Well, the visuals and layout are no disappointment, as to be expected following the first BTSX episode. The layout is actually a bit linear at first, before reaching the interior of the main base and it opening up into a somewhat-confusing set of hallways, elevators and open water areas. The first key I found was the blue one, more on that later. Felt like I kinda stumbled upon the yellow key by mistake following the soulpshere secret. After that, a trip to the yellow door and clearing out the USS Visplane Overflow to grab the red key and clear the exit.

Two of the secrets I found fairly easily (soulsphere and plasma gun) and I would've usually been content, but that blue key was still burning away in my pocket, taunting me. So I set out about scouring the whole level, finding a third (a green armor). But for the life of me I cannot find that goddamn blue door! So I just exit...

Spoiler

Turns out the blue door is the shipping container on the boat filled with berserk packs. Doesn't show up on the minimap as a blue door, even after opening it, so if you pick up the blue key first, you'll have no idea what it's for. It's also not tagged as a secret (to be fair, three hell knights in return for 12 beserk packs after you've already been given one is more of an easter egg than a secret).

In any event, not happy at all with how the blue key was utilized.

Other than that, pretty good. I like berserk pack play, though I realize it's not for everyone. Early on, there's definitely points where players need to conserve ammo, or at least think about scavenging for some to make sure they'll be able to deal with more dangerous enemies like the chaingunners. There was plenty of ammo in the middle of the level down in the water, so I suspect people running out just chose to not make use of the berserk pack or chainsaw early on... personally, I punch/saw every demon, punch most imps, chainsaw cacos, and save my ammo for hitscanners and snipers. Just me though...

The level is a bit long, too, especially for a MAP01, but otherwise a good start. Visuals are very nice, and good use of lighting. Only complaint is that some of the door textures look like walls, just something to get used to I suppose. Oh, and not a fan of using big yellow lights on the side of a normal door (much like how LITEBLU4 sometimes looks like a blue door in regular Doom). Music makes me want to play some Unreal...

Rating (just for Joe): 4/5

[Demon of the Well]

Map 02 -- Underwater Explosions - 101% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA, 0 Deaths.
Ah, corporate cheek. Whatever the UAC is doing on Saturn X, it apparently produces a great deal of unstable industrial waste, which needs to be disposed of in some way. Rather than shoulder the shipping costs of proper offmoon transportation and processing, the company has found a convenient cost-saving solution, much to shareholder approval: dump aaalllllll of that shit into an ancient temple just off the far coast of the lunar sea, a relic of a lost civilization. Whatever this stately structure's purpose and significance once were (the bloody font at the end of the adventure suggests a sacrificial bent), now it's little more than a massive powderkeg ready to go off at the drop of a hat. And they couldn't even spare the funds to post a few "No Smoking" signs around....

....if that all sounds rather silly, that's because it is; this is a rather silly map. It has one defining gimmick that it sticks to without falter, that being the presence of large amounts of explosive barrels packed into almost every stop on the (highly linear) route to the finish. The temple is lousy with Tartarean rejects of all shapes and sizes, but one directly encounters only a few of them, since most will summarily lose their un-lives in one of the many protracted chain-explosions that tend to ensue not long after you show your face in any given area. These explosions are not entirely reliable; for example, during my initial playthrough, both arch-viles and most of the pinkies thronging about the second one survived the series of explosions. All were significantly weakened and rendered very easy pickings, however, which seems like it's the case in 99% of the encounters. The upshot of all this is that this is an extremely easy map, more a matter of spectacle than a great deal of actual player involvement. Probably hilarious to speedrun, though.

Quite easy on the eyes, unsurprisingly. Before this map, I hadn't actually played any of Tango's work since 'Tough Skin River' from E1 (seems like he's always working on something, but other than the recent Mayan mapset a lot of it has a way of not reaching release), but every example of his work I've seen recently has been characterized not only by his signature 'macroblocks' architectural style, but also by a very attractive head for color. The spacious temple here has a soothing earthy quality to it, largely a function of the powder-green and clay-brown color scheme, accented nicely by some dark basalt frescoes and that lovely Saturn X water. While the nature of the action means that a lot of the actual combat space is rather flat, there's a great deal of verticality at work to add visual interest as well, most notably in the exit area.

All in all, it's a cute little map. Not very deep or nuanced, really--it lives and dies entirely by the barrel gimmick--but amusing while it lasts.

Since this is a beta-test of sorts, I've got a few minor aesthetic issues to point out: First, if you turn around and look past the gate directly behind the start point, you can see another sky cutoff. Second, there are some very noisy monster-teleporting closets that are built into the walls of the temple. In my experience, this is one of those design quirks that's kinda like PCorfian switch/key convention, in that some mappers actually do this on purpose to either add a clamorous ambience or to give the player a warning of sorts about what s/he will eventually be facing, while others find it to be immersion-harming; I don't remember this being in any of the E1 maps, anyway, so there's that. Similarly, triggering the thin green lift that is raised by the first inverted cross-switch also triggers some other sector(s) nearby, beyond the playable bounds of the map, but which can be clearly heard. Perhaps vaguely disorienting, perhaps something one could mistakenly interpret as some sort of secret tell. Last but not least, while I guess it's somewhat in line with the map's generally tongue-in-cheek character, the secret here is pretty lame. "Q: Can you SR50? If yes, pass go and collect 8 SHELLS!!!" Maybe it makes more sense in MP play (like the infamous trollsphere from that Hobomaster/Tarnsman map from E1), dunno, but in SP a green armor or an early chaingun or berserk or something would seem more relevant.

[scifista42]

MAP02 - "Underwater Explosions" by Tango

Excellent visuals and structures. Obviously a lot of effort was put to make practically every part impressive in some way - like that there are zig-zag stairs where normal stairs would be sufficient. I guess that it's BTSX's receipt for success, because it really seems to work - I've been impressed by the map overally and thoroughly. I wonder if these textures were supposed to depict a techbase or a temple, I'm under the impression that they were designed to potentially work in both places - so that we have a techtemple. That's actually not that unusual theme in Doom wads. But of course, here it looks very special because the textures are so unique and elaborate, even though their half-rustiness feels strangely Quake-like.

Fun with barrels - even though their usage is so frequent, it worked very well and felt alright to me for this map. Barrels worked against me at times, too. I liked how I could blow up turret chaingunners and archviles, so that no prolonged shootage was needed - really good idea for a "barrels-everywhere" concept map. I died a couple times, but I just screwed up, I believe the difficulty was just moderate, and crafted out greatly. Enjoyable map - as I said, I've found lots of good stuff there, and nothing distinct to spoil it, so that my feelings are positive.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP02 Underwater Explosions

omg wtf?

This was a hilariously fun level with lots of barrels to fit the title and to help kill lots of monsters. Very fun map. I got the secret by strafejumping but am not sure if there's another way. Anyway, this was a fun map because barrels help to save ammo against bigger freaks. even the archies at the blue key were taken down easy because of it. At the exit is where archies caught me by surprise, but even they have barrels for some quick kills.

[kmxexii]

MAP02 UNDERWATER EXPLOSIONS IN THE DARK

now this is a surprise. its kind of like barrels of fun except the action is almost entirely dependent on barrels which are arranged arcade-style as kill-cluster powerups you need to use or youll be slap out of ammo in no time. theyre also kind of a hazard when you move ahead but i didnt have any problems getting exploded by my own incompetence. sure i had to shoot some monsters like that wave of cacos or the bunches of revenants but the barrels do most of your legwork. i guess there was a berserk pack too which i used to pcorf some demons but thats about it.

the fights are pretty cool and very fast owing to the fact that the barrels act quick and if youre too slow the monsters might pass them by and hey you have imps in your face instead of sploded by barrels. precision and timing are paramount and will make the early game breeze by. stuff gets a bit more intense when you ride the blind elevator up since the barrel layout is a bit devious. the archvile using demons as a meat shield is a classic moment of pressure since you are thinking about getting at that rotten fucker while swatting demons wondering just how many shells you have to use because hey you don't get a whole lot of ammo to deal with them. the finale has a neat setup with the two revenants on the ground and the sentinels of death up in the air. i just ducked around that one post near the deadfall for air cover and smoked the revenants but he who hesitates will be lost. the air monsters are easy to off with some sniping once the skeletons are down for the count.

the btsx ruins look gorgeous. the opening is atmospheric, helped along by the soundtrack, and that curved foyer looks hell of sweet plus you get a sneak preview of the exit room, which also looks pretty sharp. theres less crazy architecture once you get walk past (not through) those blue key bars since the layout is nice and open, flowing effortlessly to facilitate the explosive combat, but you get neat touches here and there like the alternating slanted staircase and the vine-overgrown extension to the northeast with its falling water and support beams. the turn toward the dark with those blood sewers is a nice way to shake things up.

rating: three michael bays for gratuitous explosions, a surefire action blockbuster coming this fall

[7hm]

Map 2 Underwater Explosions

I played through this yesterday in my continuous playthrough but decided to replay it from pistol start to see how it differed. The biggest difference was ammo - I finished the first map with quite a bit because of all the punching. On this attempt the first fight against the revenants was a bitch and took me several tries to get through. I think I screwed up by leaving the berserk pack and trying to save it for when I actually needed a larger health boost, when in fact what I needed was another way to deal damage once my ammo ran out.

I like how the bigger monsters are quickly introduced and we don't have to play through multiple maps before seeing the entire bestiary.

Both the archi fight with barrels and the final fight are pretty memorable, probably because both killed me when I first encountered them.

I love the demon with blood coming out of its mouth.

[punnyone]

Map 2 - Underwater Explosions - 100% Kills/Secret. HMP Skill.

We go from a rusty shipyard to what appears to be an ancient island temple of sorts. There are some very nice touches such as the inverted cross switches and the ghoulish heads in the exit room.

My two biggest problems with the level are the secret and the, again, lack of ammo. I feel that for all the skill it takes to straferun up there (and it took me quite a few tries), a backpack would be better suited as a reward as opposed to a mere two shells.

Otherwise, this is a short, sweet, and fun map. It comes across as Barrels 'O Fun, ala BTSX. Lots of entertaining ways to get rid of herds of foes, while at the same time, lots of risks of getting caught in the explosions yourself.

Oddly enough, it wasn't the usual revenants that gave me troubles but the cacodemons that spawned in towards the end. Also, that final room became substantially more difficult due to the spectres getting in the way while I was lobbing firepower up at the arch-viles.

Overall, this is a very fun level, it's not as difficult as Shadow Port, but still poses a challenge. The ammo issue still remains, however.

[Veinen]

Map02: Underground Explosions - FDA

Heh. Pretty fun gimmick map built around blowing up barrels. There's more to this than just that though, the double AV BK fight was very nicely designed I thought for one and the last fight, while cruel, was fine as well. A think fast -situation if there ever was one. Blowing things up in Doom is fun in itself so I enjoyed the map overall. No deaths in the demo and the start is pretty funny in hindsight. Talk about shooting myself in the foot there.

The transition from a rusty shipyard to an ancient temple seems awfully sudden but disregarding that, the map looks really nice. I too noticed and approved of the short zig zag stairs; even though it's just a small thing it shows something of the mapper and his way of doing things. Also agree with Demon of the Well in that the secret is really lame and felt like it's just slapped in as an afterthought so that the map has one. There are a lot of other places you could put a secret in with all those thin ledges you can jump to, like I kind of show in the demo. Gameplay is mostly fast-paced due to barrels doing most of the work early on. The BK fight is the highlight here, I played it very poorly myself and wasted a lot of ammo on the resurrected Pinkies since I didn't initially notice the secind Archie and he got a bit of a headstart. Survived the Revs afterwards just barely and then proceeded to miraculously survive the douchebag Chaingunners that had appearead and were waiting for me at the bottom of the lift. Finale I had no problems with at all. Ammo seemed tight but since I wasted a ton on the BK area, it's probably not THAT tight. Good map, I liked it. The expectation is that the first few maps of a wad are going to be the easiest so why not make them memorable in some way, just like this map does? It's not like barrels 'o fun -maps are an overused gimmick or anything either, at least in my opinion.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP02: Underwater Explosions
100% kills, 0/1 secret

Barrel kills, the map. It's actually a bit of a strange jutxtaposition - the level itself leans towards being some sort of ancient aquatic temple, but then it's filled to the brim with clusters of waste barrels. Waste barrels that the monsters like to stand next to, especially on perches. Mm hmm. Gameplay-wise it's pretty fun - who can say no to blowing shit up with barrels? - but theme-wise it's a bit strange.

The map is pretty small, all things considered. The middle area is pretty big and blocky, but the other areas have some nice strange angles and nice curved walls to add some nice looks (I'm a big fan of the large curved wall revealing the sky in the first area with monsters, it's simple but looks great). Colors are nice and lighting is pretty good, except for maybe the last area being a bit too bright.

4/5

[Surreily]

I am going to try posting one map per day instead of in batches. This is because I want to go into a bit more detail than I did with Stomper's maps.

MAP02: Underwater Explosions 100% kills, 100% secrets
Before I go into detail, I want to thank the author for always providing a way back into the previous area. After I dropped down from the starting area, I thought I wouldn't be getting up there again, but I found a hidden switch which lowers a lift back up there! Similarly, when I entered the ending room, I thought I wouldn't be able to return to the previous areas, but thanks to a convenient platform, I was able to run back into the hall I had dropped from. This allowed me to go back and get the secret I had missed. About that secret: do I have to strafe-run to grab it, or did I miss some other method of entry?

Anyways, I shall now talk about the map. This map makes use of barrels - and lots of them! Most rooms have bunches of barrels sitting around waiting to go boom, so even though there are around 160-170 monsters, the map isn't very long or big. Even the arch-viles die in one or two hits!

The difficulty is a fair bit harder than the first map, but the super shotgun is given to us in this map too which makes things a little easier. I think that the nastiest encounter was the one near the end, but it was also the most memorable. Two arch-viles and two chaingunners appear atop a ledge while two revenants teleport in on the same level as the player. If the player doesn't hug the ledge, they will be incinerated by the arch-viles or gunned down by the chaingunners, but they can't stay still either because of the revenants!

Overall, I enjoyed the quick-paced gameplay on offer here as well as the use of barrels which are rarely used like this. None of the fights dragged on for longer than they needed to. There was enough health and ammo around for me to feel comfortable throughout. In regards to the aesthetics, I like how the diagonal stone flats were used, and I noticed how well the overall architecture was constructed - good job!

[Demonologist]

MAP03 - "Wings of Thorn" by Brad Spencer/Xaser
Finally a good map! Vorpal has never made me doubt his capabilities, and I'm glad he doesn't now as well. Very nice and consistent texture usage to create a medieval feel of sorts, but with unusual touch thanks to brand new texture pack (all for good), and nice hectic - to a lesser degree, but still - gameplay to accompany aesthetic cuteness. Short, fast-paced and highly enjoyable ride overall. Good work, nice to see another map from Vorpal!

[Memfis]

3 - now this is something, a quite stylish\sinister village as you could expect from Brad Spencer. Seems like he is one of the few mappers that really understood how to use these medieval-ish textures and made not "just a modern Doom map using these textures" but something they actually belong to, if you know what I mean. And the gameplay is getting interesting, it just needs a SSG right at the start for more enjoyment maybe but it's fairly easy to reach quickly anyway if you know where to run. Didn't like the arcadey tiny path to the red key though (stylistically out of place).

[Demon of the Well]

Map 03 -- Wings of Thorn - 100% Kills / 50% Secrets - FDA, 0 Deaths.
Map 03 sees us cleaning some demonic squatters out of part of an ancient aqueduct/bathhouse complex. The more delicate architectural style and selection of building materials employed in this structure suggest that this may be a relic of a different race than the one that built the offshore temple from the previous outing, and the defilement to which it has been subject is of a different nature, as well--there are several signs of demonic incursion visible about the complex, ranging from weathered-looking ritual pentagrams inscribed in blood on some walls to the morbid state of the central spring, which has been fouled in some unknowable way such that it now pours forth an endless fount of fresh blood. Whether these corruptions are the product of some long-ago infestation or the work of the building's current denizens (perhaps some degree of both?) is uncertain.

Aesthetically, this feels a lot like an E1 Heretic map to me (although the music track is initially reminiscent of one of the 'action' tracks from Hexen), with lots of stark grey brickwork, channels and pools of water, and wooden/runic trim. There are also a few isolated incidences of neon techlights used as detail textures--the ones visible on the building's exterior projections (e.g. from down in the watery area around the yellow skull's gazebo) manage to look natural enough, but the ones in the interior looked markedly out of place to me, considering the subtly Greco-Roman flavor of the building as a whole. The map's small but complex, and features a fairly high degree of articulation and player interactivity, prosecuted by a few heavily switch-actuated but otherwise freeform progression elements (the gates from the central area to the wings, the dual lifts into/out of the yellow skull's gazebo, the exit gate mechanism, etc.). The map also affords a great deal of non-linearity considering its short length; not only can the semi-titular wings be tackled in any order, but they can also both be accessed from more than one direction, conducive to very smooth, comprehensive tour of the map for those players who are able to intuit the layout.

The combat is largely defined by the map's compact nature, and to a lesser extent by its non-linearity. Weighing in at a very 'classic' 93 monsters on UV, the action tends to favor small teams of mid-tier Doom II enemies that gain most of their ability to threaten/pressure from the relatively limited amounts of space available to fight with them. Despite the limited lateral range that characterizes most of the battles, there's also a thematic undercurrent of crossfire pressure as well. While this is actually at its most tactically effective upon the player's first entry to the important junction area just east of the map's central spine, it's perhaps more colorfully represented by the two skull-key encounters, which both feature the sudden appearance of heavy artillery on the periphery to pour fire onto the player's somewhat tenuous position. As aforementioned, there are a variety of mix-n'-match routes available through the map, and in terms of combat efficiency some of them are definitely more ideal than others (all seem quite doable, though); for example, on my initial playthrough I didn't enter the upper level of the central area until rather late, leaving me without a rocket launcher for the entirety of the eastern wing. All else being equal, though, this is not a demanding map, though not without its charms. The most recent Vorpal map I'd played prior to this one (no offense Xaser, but this does look like it's chiefly his work as far as its skeletal structure is concerned) was bspslime.wad, which frankly I felt pulled too many punches to be truly engaging, and so I was uncertain of what to expect here (since this map is presumably older than that one), but the hearty block of revenants in the exit area was a sight for sore eyes, and hopefully a hint of what's to come in later maps. That being said, in terms of balance I would still say that this map is a little too kind to UV players in terms of affordances; for example, the no-strings-attached soulsphere near the exit gate is simply excessive, frankly, especially considering the presence of another secret one elsewhere (might still be appropriate for lower difficulty settings, though).

Bugs/Issues/Oddities:
* The walls behind one of the monster ledges in the red key area are apparently fake, yet impassable? I noticed a dead spot on the map here while looking for secrets, and found that shots I fired at the walls apparently passed through them, but apparently this is a red herring.
* Also in the red key area, there is a HOM on the back corner of the second red rune pillar from the right as the player faces the key from the zig-zagging catwalk.
* It is quite easy to skip triggering the closet with the rockets and lone hell knight on the upper level of the eastern wing; it only seems to open if you step into the shadow of the overhang near the entrance to the soulsphere secret (which there is no particular reason to do), one of those 'not sure if bug or feature' deals.
* The small demon herd down in the watery area surrounding the yellow key gazebo may represent a good potential application of Joshy-style monster deployment via rising/popping from the ground--while free-roaming, they tend to fluster autoaim vs. the mancubi in that area in a scenario where the player reaches the key from within the building (potentially disastrous if using rockets), and their presence on a water flat could smooth over the aesthetic quirkiness of this style of monster deployment.

[Tarnsman]

Memfis said:

3 - now this is something, a quite stylish\sinister village as you could expect from Brad Spencer. Seems like he is one of the few mappers that really understood how to use these medieval-ish textures and made not "just a modern Doom map using these textures" but something they actually belong to

Pretty much all the architecture and shapes are Xaser's. Brad Spencer did the layout and a few of the traps. The RK trap and the path to it are Brad Spencer though.