The DWmegawad Club plays: Going Down

[mouldy]

Map11 - dancing with cyberdemon

http://www.mediafire.com/download/1d567qmsoreeqdc/gd-mouldy-11.lmp
The tactic in this demo is mainly tailored towards dispatching the cyberdemon without all that running around dodging his missiles, though its fairly hit and miss. The thing I like about this map is that while the free invul encourages racing through it, successfully doing so still requires venturing to various different parts for weapons and ammo, so it becomes like a game of chess working out which order is best to do things. And there is very little escape from the cyber. What kind of evil experiments have they been subjecting our poor cyber to, to make him so angry? You'll notice the only free-roaming monsters are the humanoid ones, everything else is caged up and awaiting scientific torture. Not that they seem so thankful when you set them free..

[Magnusblitz]

MAP10: Trip Switch
88% kills, 1/1 secret

Tough map, and the one that I believe got me to stop playing last time when I first tried playing my way through Going Down. The cramped surroundings and limited ammo create tight situations that are nevertheless fair and beatable with some nimble footwork. I ended up trying to cheese the final battle from the blue key furnace room, which allowed me to clear out most of the monsters in the trench easily... but I ran out of shells and rockets, and didn't really feel like dealing with a bunch of mancs/cacos/hitscanners/and the other AV with just bullets, so I just hightailed it to the exit instead of trying to finish everything off.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 10 -- Trip Switch - 121% Kills / 100%
Tough map indeed. I think I somehow successfully FDA'd this one before, but this time I died a couple of times before getting it right (granted, I was trying to play really aggressively), including one instance of blowing myself up on a specter in the trench that I just plain didn't see. It kinda sets the tone for the second (and best, IMO) episode of the game as far as the action goes--not every map in this next block we're heading into is as dangerous as this (though some are, of course), but they all have something in common in that they just keep escalating and escalating the bloodletting up to the point where you think "okay, I reckon this compact-class deathride can't possibly have any open seats left"....and then it escalates it one more time. AND then one more time after that in the really good maps. :D

The trench warfare in this one is a case in point--after weathering (or juking, in my case) the first nasty surprise in the map (that being the gang of skellies that tries to corner you in the platform/switch room), you stumble out onto the ledge overlooking the trench, and you're under enough fire that you tend to naturally make for the safety of the windowed enclosure on the far side. Once you get there, you're bombarded with imps and more revenants that start firing in from where you just were moments before (because I skipped most of the first group of these guys, I had a shit-ton of rev rockets flying into that room, let me tell you). Telefrag the Barons, and you get a simple pincer-trap in the trench that can still be rather nasty if the arch-vile attacks too soon. Survive that, and then shit REALLY gets real--at this point there's so much crap teleporting in to every place you could possibly want to run to that it's hard to describe the actual setup in any detail...suffice to say that the trench quickly becomes jam-packed with hellmeat, and lost somewhere in all of it is another arch-vile who is a fucking resurrection-machine, and somehow you've got to find a way to ferret him out without being smothered by lowly mobs or being nuked by his pissant little brother that eventually appears on the ledge. Your only real means for accomplishing this is the application of some high explosives, but given the crowdedness and the tricky layout, being able to find angles for solid/safe rocket shots is no trivial matter. It's brutal, bloody, frantic, and scrappy--again, excellent stuff.

Reading the other comments, this time I resolved to try to avoid 'camping' as a means of making it through the encounters as much as possible, just to see how viable this would be. I found myself essentially camping at one point--that being while hugging one of the window-braces in the control room while SSGing the horde of teleporting imps in order to avoid being blown to smithereens by the revenants outside--but this brief and probably not strictly necessary, so writ large, I think you can indeed play this map very aggressively and come out victorious, but doing so requires a lot of precision and a surprisingly pronounced degree of resource management (in my other failed run this time, I was killed principally because I misjudged my rocket budget and ran out at a bad time)...so, probably needs more of a very specific 'script' than mouldy intended, given the mapset's general style, but still doable with some sweat. Incidentally, I reckon this is an example of a map that's actually more difficult without infinitely-tall actors--the last cluster of cacos that shows up at some point can really hound you pretty much anywhere you go this way (which actually makes even a camping strategy more complicated, to whit, especially if they start shielding the arch-vile on the ledge), whereas under classic settings they tend to just get stuck back behind a bunch of other monsters and thus show up a bit late to the party.

Anyway, another fun map. There is one thing about it that bugs me, though, that being the height of the Barons' pads, which curtails movement in an awkward way and makes retrieving the items between them risky to the point where sometimes it's not even worth the trouble.

Map 11 -- Vivisection - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
I think 'Cement' (even though it's totally lacquered ceramic, not cement!!!) is a cool texture too, very underrated.

I think this was the second map I died on back when E1 debuted, just got myself stuck in a most disadvantageous position with the cyberdemon chasing me around while parts of the map were functionally off-limits to me (including the part with the rocket launcher), but despite its macabre setting and very tight confines it's easily one of the gentler maps in this block, so long as you're less bumbling than I. This time around, I didn't die, but I very nearly made a hash of things once again--I failed to grab the SSG before the hell knights in the sunken cell forced me away from it, and just plain neglected to pick up the berserk pack from that same room as well, leaving me with limited armament and a lot of meat clogging up a lot of the play space. I was able to salvage the situation by using the V-sphere in the room with the head researcher's pet cacos (all the other monsters are being subjected to all manner of abuse, but these two are enjoying a nice relaxing soak in some sweet, warm manblood), grabbing it, and then tearing ass through the mancubus room (a very different kind of torture in there, putting the poor bashful fatties on scales and publically calling out their weights) with the help of some rocket punching, finally making it to and releasing the cyberdemon, proceeded to handily exterminate most of the other monsters before coming after me. As mouldy says, you can do all kinds of different stuff with the help of that V-sphere, and determining the most truly efficient/ideal route through this map is pretty tricky--very neat that something so small and with such drastically constricted movement space (even by the standards of the mapset up to this point) can be so nuanced, and thus, replayable.

Of special note here is the cyberdemon, he is remarkably well-implemented, representing this map's big middle-finger escalation that I talked about earlier. Read: "I have to fight a cyberdemon in HERE?! But....it's so claustrophobic!" I love it, I love to see folks finding ways to make the boss monsters intimidating again. In this guy's case, most of the map's various corridors and passages are just big enough for him to move through smoothly (the only places he can't really go are the rocket cage, the V-sphere room, and of course the elevator), and by the time he appears the layout has opened up to such a degree that it's really hard to shake him for more than a few moments at a time, really reminds you how fast the cyberdemon is, and you definitely don't want to let him corner you. Some might decry the scenario here as 'unfair', but as far as I'm concerned, 'fairness' as popularly defined (or at least as popularly appealed to when someone is complaining about something) is the enemy of adrenaline--this cyberdemon works well because he makes the situation genuinely uncomfortable. I might go so far as to say he's the best single cyb in this mapset, buuuuuttt...well, I suspect there's at least one guy I haven't met yet, and perhaps I'll change my mind soon enough. Nevertheless, an excellent introduction for this enemy type, here.

Very minor visual bug: In the room with the cyberdemon canister, in the puddle of blood leaking from said canister, the small pile of giblets closest to the eastern wall (it's next to a sergeant corpse and somebody's dropped brain) is close enough to the lip of the elevated platform with the canister on it that it will clip through and appear to emerge from it if the player looks at it from some angles (such as from the side of the platform nearest the small lift to the yellow key).

[tourniquet]

12: "Dead End"

End of the line, and the elevator get's blown apart, another very cool gimmick.
Whilst visualy not as impressive as some of the previous maps, this one features some very cool mechanisms to randomize the order of certain ambushes.
Basicly again some sort of an arena fight but the above mentioned randomizer brings a larger unpredictability into play which makes this map kinda unique in the set.

lousy

[mouldy]

tourniquet said:

12: "Dead End"

lousy

heh, risky strategy hiding up in the plasma rifle room with infinitely tall monsters

Map12 - random sewer chaos

http://www.mediafire.com/download/yn1bjykslhg5o8c/gd-mouldy-12.lmp
This map kicks my arse for some reason. Its not so much the randomness as how easy it is to just summon all the monsters at once, which I often do in the hope that they will all destroy each other. But I never live long enough for that to happen. I'm sure there is a killer strategy lurking somewhere in that map.

Anyway, yeah. The initial monster population and the chaingun/ssg traps are chosen by an archvile outside the map. This will probably annoy speedrunners, but they can thank me for not filling the sewer with damaging nukage like I originally planned. In fact, the only reason I used green nukage at all was because of the lack of mudfalls texture. I since added a mudfalls, but I like how the green gunge adds a bit of colour to an otherwise brown map.

[durian]

Map 10 - Trip Switch

Phew! This was both fun and incredibly frustrating, although the latter was more due to my own stupidity. It's very much a puzzle map, for me at least, since survival requires a very particular approach to each of the main encounters. I used the keyboard for this one, which was probably a mistake, and I had to deploy some highly cowardly tactics in order to survive the final trap: hit switch, grab megasphere, zip back to the stairs down to the sludge and SSG incoming hellspawn for 30 seconds so, while all the barons guarding the BK leave their posts and make their way over, then zip up the stairs, past the incoming group and the barons, down to the sludge, grab key, then move as quickly as possible to the exit room, and rocket as much as possible from in there, then - once that's done - head back and clear out the hoards in the sludge from a safe vantage point.

I spotted two egregious misalignments...

Spoiler

Heh. You can probably guess where the second one is :)

[The_MártonJános]

MAP12: Dead End
This seems to be easy. Here we got all we need, a red key, and some stuff as well to continue our way do-
What's up with these loud explosions?
Never mind, the point is that I got all the stu- WHAT TE FUCK?!
Oh, crap. The elevator is now unable to be used, is busted up all over inside and out. Let's see what we can do here. You kidding me? That crack through the wall? Come on...

So here we arrive at the place where the majority of actions take place. Somehow it reminds me of MAP06 by the means of how the map functions. You activate switch two sides, one deadly ambush is released. You pick up stuff, a less lethal encounter comes around. You suddenly make the exit available - tons of monsters flood the arena. Only in a bigger and less obstacled place we do fight in this time, which is a pro against forementioned map.

It seems like we're in some sort of refinery or underground sewage dispenser. As soon as we enter in the main area, the stinky and unhealthy air is filled with noises of inwarping monsters, this soon. Some Imps just barely can wait to rip your head off, but sooner or later, all of them will fall off the ledge, making sewage flow mildly through the holes blown into their chests by SSG pellets.

Other than that, both sides make you take a cranny nook, just for some other ambushes to be revealed either at the perimeter or in the middle. Mind the one with the intense hitscanner span, since the outside 3 or 4 layers of Zombiemen are deceiving like hell - from the very core, an angry couple of Chaingunners will shoot at you. Never ever dare to enter the top Plasma Rifle alcove during an intense fight, those two Arch-Viles will make your life even harder.

Once the final showdown begins, you will pray for every single peaceful seconds to have a breathe before you parallel-shoot all kinds of Hellspawn around, dodging projectiles from various degrees, take all imaginable nooks and crannies, make all existing ballet moves to slaughter the unbearable species in one piece. Even with the area this big - larger than the one in MAP04 - your task won't be easy to execute, but either if you're a pussy or just making UV-Fast demo, you're allowed to jump head-first into the dark hole once all pillars are lowered.

Design is diverse, here it couldn't impress me that much, even though there are still some highlights with the tiny vats claiming POISON, particularly the small first room with the FLAT4-CEMENT corner containing the Radsuit. As for playablity, I could take advantage of each and every health pickup placed around, mainly because I became too frustrated by being cornered in the extended left cranny and the sometimes monotonous, yet freakishly twisty fight style that it required to survive, so I tried to escape, some Cacos just held me up - fuck yourselves, bitches - and my health suddenly lowered to about tenth it was before. So a hard time it gave me, but I still managed to finish first-play.

Some unconventional exiting for this time, huh? As I guess, the broken elevator can't be for much help this time, so enjoy free fall until you arrive at... next time will tell you.

A minor issue raised my attention...

Spoiler

Somehow the start reminds me of Hadephobia MAP02's, which was actually my contribution to the Progfic CP. I guess this wasn't intentional, just noticed.

[cannonball]

MAP11 - "Vivisection"
Cool map, plenty of violence, the map appears at first glance to be a horror show of cramped-ness, but actually most f the encounters can be solved easily. Just one death and a lot of fun toying with the cyber :)

MAP12 - "Dead End"
Just one death here, caused by a teleporting imp which blocked my path. This was fun enough with a nice little reveal at the end to turn the map into a arena fight.

[Veinen]

Casually maxed 12 & 13: https://www.mediafire.com/?cyg9d70gzsot6p6

Map12: Dead End

This map is awesome. You can play really aggressive and reckless for maximum fun times if you don't mind dropping a few doomguy corpses along the way. There's quite a lot of health to offset the losses suffered though so once the few key parts are done, it's not that tough of a map. The optional Archies are the most difficult and the most annoying thing in the map actually. I royally screwed myself fighting with them by picking up the same branch to hide where I had just annihilated half the map in. Suffice to say the resulting resurrection spree almost got me as I barely had the ammo to finish off the map.

Map13: Deep Trouble

This was pretty much the opposite regarding possibilities to play aggressive. The map's basically a two-parter, first a lengthy tube and then the finale is the flat bottom on the barrel. The first part showcases how to make fighting in a "corridor" decently interesting although the corridoric nature obviously limits the authors choices quite a lot. The combat style remains the same chaotic trademark mouldy as it has been thus far though so it's definitely not boring. But like I mentioned it's a little tough to play ultra-aggressive here due to the hitscanner heavy start and later on the stairwell starts to fill up with so much meat that dodging gets impossible out in the open. The finale is pretty basic stuff. My strategy there was to circle around for a while and lure the Nobles out from to the open and then pick the advantageous spot and rocket away. A sneaky Imp mixed things up way more than he should have in the demo but it didn't cost me my life in the end. And there's the familiar magic elevator again, I almost missed the thing already.

Oh yeah, about that map10 door thing: Hmm, must've just skipped the linedef then. I'm quite prone to that since I automatically straferun everywhere.

[The_MártonJános]

MAP13: Deep Trouble
So, here is where we arrive. Did I mention that I love the music? :D

This map drags your ass even downer as you circle downwards along this... erm, garbage disposal sink? It is funny to mention that despite I jumped along an acidfall-textured well from the previous map, the walls and the bottom are now dry like the Sahara. Never mind, as long as the map looks beautiful.

Indeed it does. Not only it pleases eyes within representation, but also plays well. A concept in execution often sacrifices either visuals for gameplay (mention-worthy stuff is the most of Memento Mori, except a few maps from the latest ones), or vice versa (here I go with a couple of my submissions for Hadephobia). This isn't either case, mouldy seemingly knows how to use aura mediocritas, even if we're talking about a map that requires you to stick to the fucking perimeter for one real good time. This includes powering you up sometimes, which is far as generous as before, staying at the two free Soulspheres per map average rate.

Step a few down, feel the caring - ambushed. Or to be more precise, misled. Because you got a very meaty opponent in some alcove above your head, you know your job. Not this fucking time - as you start to take him down, you get your back a sneaky hitscan attack, and then dozens more. This map likes to punish you by sending monsters attacking you from both restricted directions you can flee in - watch your step, and more importantly, watch all the choices you can take before you enter some alcove because less choice you get crossfired - Geez! This HK isn't oughtta be the- ARRGH. *dies*

As you proceed forward and take a few encounters by success comes a twist you wouldn't consider - oh, yes, you would, because you're playing a mouldy map, he never lets you down (Sure he does, anyway - pun intended!) -, so as you flip a switch, suddenly the stairway changes directions, and now you're going down instead of going up if you're taking that direction a while earlier. Bonus, it goes with all the stairway filled with dangerous foes, and a """""friendly""""" Archie doing its ritual tribal dance in a pre-lit fireplace. I guess he's just an apprentice learning how to use flames properly. Get away, anyways, he'll never fail if he wants to attack you.

Either way he'll be set free as soon as you take about half the way down into the bloody pit of the impaled corpses. It is just intimidating how Hell takes over, turning sewage into blood, rubbish into floating flesh, and decorating the whole sightparade with some disgusting murder evidence. Collecting all the stuff on the fleshy islands makes the Hellspawn of the Depths even angrier, so they'll let their full potential and enraged army against you, and this time no mercy is given for each and every step you take badly. It cost me about 5 attempts to actually know how to take over these douches: make your path to the half-ruined gratey hallway somehow free, then rocket at all costs towards the entrance, packed with rapid strafing, dodging, avoiding, evading and siderunning from any projectiles you're thrown/spit at. Your only task is now to figure out where to proceed.

Oh yeah, hello mister MARBFAC3! May I?... Oh, you're lowering, that's nice... WHAT? The elevator shaft? What's going on there with all the machinery and stuff around? Is that a worker? Oh, poor man, he was turned into an Imp, so I have no other choice than killing him. The curse seemingly caught this worker mid-time, because the shaft looks somehow semi-repaired. Never mind, if it works, there's no problem, I'll just insert this blue card, and-

WHOA, this is taking me down even more rapidly than before!

[Magnusblitz]

MAP11: Vivisection
100% kills, 1/1 secret

If last map was an escalation, this one certainly was as well, as I died repeatedly over and over again. The first part of the map is simply exploring and gathering weapons, which is harder than it looks because weapons and ammo are often guarded behind enemies - getting the RL requires running past a bunch of cacos and mancs, the chaingun is guarded by a caco ambush, and the SSG is guarded by a strange hell knight/imp setup. I went towards the berserk/SSG side first, so I was low on ammo throughout as I didn't investigate the cage area until too late. The second main part is the cyberdemon fight, and one I found the most enjoyable. As others have said, the hallways are juuuuust large enough for him to move freely and really follow the player, leading to some interesting games of cat-and-mouse (and the amount of other enemies unleashed during this is perfect ... not too many to frustrate, but enough to provide a threat the player can't ignore). The last part is the one that really screwed me, the literal skeletons in the closet of the yellow key. I was out of everything but rocket ammo, and I had wasted the invulnerability on punching the Cyberdemon, when I really shoulda saved it for the revenants. Eventually managed to savescum my way through though.

I really like the looks of this level... the pale green/white tile of CEMENT7 works well for a dingy sort of experimentation room, and the use of the blood and flesh textures really works to set the scene. Sometimes I wonder if this whole WAD was just mouldy challenging himself to come up with creative ways to use the stock textures. But it really stands out and looks nice.

[Katamori]

MAP12 & MAP13.

[cannonball]

MAP13 - "Deep Trouble"
Another chaotic one, much more gruelling than the previous few. Those hordes are deadly and boy did I find that out the hard way. The final ambush only took 2 attempts though as the space provided was enough to dance between the projectiles. Another good map in my view, I just dig the very in your face gameplay in this wad.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP12: Dead End
97% kills, 0/0 secrets

Cool little design piece here with the elevator exploding, doesn't even rely on any silent teleport trickery. So, sadly we must leave our well-loved little elevator and continue down into the depths. Sewage areas is something Doom does well, and this level, as many others, looks nice. It certainly follows a familiar script - run around, hit switches, each one unlocking progressively larger and more dangerous ambushes in a central arena, but the layout here is possibly one of the best ones, with plenty of room to maneuver despite feeling cramped. Also liked how the areas continued to open up and create new windows, removing some of the safe areas to hide in. I ended up leaving the AVs guarding the plasma rifle alone, just wasn't worth it after I had already cleaned out the rest of the map.

[durian]

Map 11 - Vivisection

Hilariously cramped and violent map, but - thanks to the invulnerability - it's quite straightforward to get in and out without too much trouble. Once I had the layout down, my strategy was to rush straight for the RL and hit the switch to unlock the cyber, then head straight to the invulnerability, then rocket through back to cyber and take the lift up to the YK, then rocket through the revs and around to the exit. In and out in 40 seconds. I'll probably replay later and stay longer to kill a few more things, though I think I'll still release the cyber straight away - makes the map wonderfully chaotic.

EDIT

Just redid it with a view to killing everything - releasing the cyber asap, and triggering as much as possible early on, certainly makes this a more straightforward affair than one might suppose at first glance. The YK rev trap provides the hairiest moment, but pretty fun as they seem to come from everywhere, so varied and constant movement is essential.

[mouldy]

durian said:

I spotted two egregious misalignments...

[/spoiler]

Doh! Cheers.

Map13 - the spiral staircase corridor battle

http://www.mediafire.com/download/zmxdtvh8dwl32tz/gd-mouldy-13.lmp
Fuck this map, it won't let me play it any other way than methodically dealing with each trap as it comes, when its so easy to run all the way to the plasma rifle straight away as well (you can hit the SSG switch before it becomes revealed. I haven't figured out if this is any use though, unless you want to skip a bunch of monsters on the way to the exit). So anyway, this was an excercise in building interesting gameplay around a very restrictive concept. The mechanics behind the transforming staircase was something of a bastard to get right, what with all the other opening side tunnels and lowering bars etc. But yeah, it doesn't like me recording demos for it for some reason, and makes every bullet hit me at maximum force if I try anything off-script. As for the scenario, its a disposal pit for all the corpses left over from the scientific experiments upstairs.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP13: Deep Trouble
100% kills, 2/2 secrets

Yeah, the first part of this map isn't all that fun, since it's basically just a long descent down a curved hallway (with a couple cacos which can hit you from the middle). There's a lot of dead-end hallways jutting off, but between those and the general long hallway, it's easy to get trapped and so it's best to just take each battle as it comes, slowly but surely. Once the switch halfway down is hit (and lowers the staircase the other direction... which is actually too subtle for me, I somehow didn't realize the change until I turned around and realized I went 'up' for the blue armor) some more pathways open up, which makes things a bit more interesting. The real attraction here is the arena battle at the bottom, which can get quite hectic (the pinkie demons are surprisingly dangerous, especially when you're trying to use rockets) and requires some fleet footing and careful threat assessment. After cleaning that up, we return to Mr. Elevator, thankfully brought down to us by an imp who is clearly late for his 3 o' clock meeting.

EDIT: Or he's the mechanic fixing the elevator, which makes a bit more sense, I suppose.

[durian]

Map 12 - Dead End

A nice change of pace - from cramped monster-clustered hallways, to open monster-clustered arenas. I really enjoyed this one - several different ways of approaching it, and plenty of scope for improvisation. It was reminiscent of playing a DM map crammed full of monsters - no bad thing. After being done over by the AV that was released into the arena with the final trap, I elected to tackle the group of AVs last, so those elevators wouldn't be in play later when the last AV arrived. I noticed a couple of times that the first wave to spawn would be the mancs + sergeants, which otherwise seemed to be reserved for the final trap; perhaps an element of chance is intended here, or something went wrong(?)

[The_MártonJános]

MAP14: Secrets and lies
I remember playing this level first time. Back then, I just gave it up, since I simply couldn't get myself over how a revealed secret turns out to be a madatory pathway (Quite like Wolfenstein 3D's E4L5, heh?), along with the cruel fact I was damn exhausted at the meantime.

Enough of nostalgic proverbs, nah. For a second beforehead playthrough, I've gotten to know all the nasty trick and sneak attacks this map holds for us. Because not only you reveal your way rather by evidence clues than by switches - the only switch I recall is the exit one -, but sometimes they just throw you in middle of an intense mayhem, some of which affects certain areas even three or four times minus the monsters you can drag along with yourself fleeing into that certain place. A very interesting concept not to get a fighting realm tedious in seconds, held for expecially 1024 maps.

There are encounters - a few - that can be taken over within a split second, leaving no evidence of living being, but near the end, there is a massive swarm of mostly hitscanners and Imps, teleporting into four distinct hollow columns which open as they warp - keep your eye on the invasion, and NEVER EVER let this part of the fight come accross any other foes from the depths. Or if so, at least make them monsters infight, but even this case don't become an immobile eyewitness eating popcorn in a corner, as you never know which column opens up next with the new frontier.

Speaking of hitscanner and frontier, here we get again a Spider Mastermind battle, most of which can be all taken with rocketing and ducking behind some well-given cover, before you jump out again boosting rocketammo into that friggen mechabrain. This ease doesn't feature any of the Archvile ambushes you encounter throughout the map, of which there are more than a few. Expect some close-counter hitscan attacks as well, and your back gotten by inwarping Pinkies at a certain point. All the sweat and blood emitted will eventually become awarded by a more than satisfactory replenishment.

A fairly funny twist that the first and last evidence-tagged exploitations are marked sector effect 9. There are no "real" secrets throughout the entire map, which means all the stuff intended to be given you will be given "free", as far as you 1) get known of the map all over 2) don't die in any of the sneak attacks. Non-cheater players are in fact completely disabled not to make secret count 100% at the end tally. :D

Enjoyed it a lot as I'm keen on revealing secrets (and believe to lies, not forgetting to mention). Here I go with Mister Busted Shaft again, approaching the choice whether to take some secret exit pathways or just continue my playthrough conventional (???).

[scifista42]

MAP10 - "Trip Switch". I gave up UV after being overwhelmed and killed by a revenant horde (I hate those). So I've loaded the map again on HNTR. It was very easy then, yet enjoyable. Mouldy has done the difficulty settings well. I consequently tried HMP too, and it turned out to be my preferred way how to enjoy the map. Dangerous encounters, but still possible to find relatively safe spots after luring monsters out of there, and then just spam rockets. I died near the end, though (damn archvile), and didn't feel like retrying.

Pretty good compact layout, once I understood how it works when fully revealed. I liked the "dark" theme which didn't involve much of actual darkness. And of course, the challenges were cleverly crafted out.

[kmxexii]

review is up, spoilers abound. had a lot of fun with this one.

[scifista42]

MAP11 - "Vivisection". I had to play it on HNTR all the way, otherwise the map was too frustrating to me, with my poor skill and limited patience. I'm okay with those messy-yet-cool visuals and unorthodox kind of gameplay, that's what this map is great for. Barrels, crushers, windows between areas, corridors made so that monsters can freely roam around, including a Cyberdemon; but also the structure was somewhat cramped while overally not that much... I felt that the whole map played against me and wanted to confuse me. It just caused too many deaths to me to feel comfortable in there. But I liked it. It was well detailed and layout well interconnected, and many of the battles (those that didn't kill me) were satisfying. Nice episode-ender.

[tourniquet]

13: "Deep Trouble"

The "Going Downward Spiral".
I really like this one, it's very linear and beside of a few cacos all enemies aproach basicly out of 2 directions but it offers the same amount of chaos as the previous maps only on a smaller playground.
The height shifting of the walkways when your half way down is awesome.
The final battle at the ground is a lot easier to handle than the long journey downward.

14: "Secret and lies"

This map has some kind of grave robber vibe, at least for me.
Lot's of hidden rooms, unmarked secrets and trap mechanisms.
I must admit that i didn't like the map much on my first playthrough, by the time mouldy had released E2.
This time i felt the complete opposite and really enjoyed the exploration of this acient, burried vault.
The 2 possible routes that influence the role of certain traps are also a pretty cool.

13 -- 14

[cannonball]

MAP14 - "Secrets and Lies"
Certainly an interesting gimmick, thouhg after the first 2 "secret" triggers then this map just becomes an ordinary map with slightly quirky trigger sequences. The traps again are plentiful and well worked out. I died a few times, ammo and health were pretty much spot on for me.

[mouldy]

kmxexii said:

review is up, spoilers abound. had a lot of fun with this one.

Thanks for the review, very thorough!

Now for Map14 - secrets and bastard traps

http://www.mediafire.com/download/yjbqeez22j0r8pq/gd-mouldy-14-b.lmp
This is a simple speed demo rather than a max, as my max attempt turned out to be around 15 minutes which won't be all that interesting to watch. This one ended up around 3 minutes, which I'm sure could be bettered. The concept of this map was to have the whole journey unfold through discovering secrets. This is potentially controversial of course, so I tried to make them fairly obvious. Turns out the one people had the most problem finding was the very first one, so I added a couple of hints.

The setting is some kind of archaeological excavation at the roots of the UAC building, which has uncovered the ruins of an ancient civilisation, still populated by monsters it seems. This theme is kind of continued in the next few maps, in fact the original idea was to leave the modern silver elevator at this point and tie the next few maps together with an alternative prehistoric version, but by this time the familiar lift had become something of a recurring character.

[The_MártonJános]

MAP15: Gladiator
Best. Sector. Toilet. Ever. And I really love the mechanism which opens the image of Der Führer.

Fairly hard map with quite alot of challenging situations aboard. Like, of course, a regular day of a gladiator's. Here, instead of lions, I was greeted by some Pinkydemons from the dark cages. Debatable which kind of the beast is the bigger threat against me Marine, but the point is that I got through this part relatively easy, and now I'm waiting eagerly for my reward. Counsellor Cyberdemon says, here they are, atop these columns just in front of me myself. Bring 'em down.

Oh, how generous, free wea- You oversized douche, you didn't tell me about further ambushes. Well, you're in for a real gladiator carnage, you get it. It is true that frequent saves and reloads were included in this bloody circus, but eventually, I managed to pick all four treats up. Here we go, an unknown button, maybe it tells me how Counsellor Cyberdemon appreciated the show I made.

WHAT?! A thumb down?! You sure don't make my work easier than the average bear, I want to tell, Harbinger. Funny you can't make that thumb down double, because that is what means certain dea- I was kidding, don't shout that loudly, you stupid spectators! Never mind. The whole audience got angry with me, the only survivor of the slaughter, who should be considered a hero, yet Counsellor Cyberdemon descends from the throne to handle him by his own.

Luckily, almost all the garbage intent to be thrown at me, mostly rotten radioactive bright tomatoes and heat-seeker Molotov cocktails, made him so angry that he turned against the townsfolk instead, so I could escape gibbing a tad of Imps in the process, grabbing an Invulnerablity sphere from the hallway of oblivion, turned back and finished this heartless tyrant with no blood stuck on my hands. Now I had to deal with the rest of the audience, most of which was still yelling curses and throwing various hazards at me. I evaded most and within minutes, the whole area could suggest that the showdown wasn't utterly a box-office hit.

I cleared almost all pickups within the whole area, all of them came as handy and desired. Now littered with corpses of various species, it looks rather like a wasteland. Don't ever care, climb the spectators' box instead, just to be in for a non-conventional style of playthrough in the next narrative.

Spoiler

I even love to climb stairs in real life. It belongs to my daily routine to keep myself fit. Viva la 11-floor university hostel, living atop!

A more important alert: I guess I'm gonna do a 31-32 review tomorrow, and a 16-17 review the day after. Should that be considered "fair" according to the DWmegawad rules?

[scifista42]

MAP12 - "Dead End".

BUG ON HNTR - Lost Soul stuck in a Cacodemon. In the north-western side section, they're stuck in the middle one of those 3 poison columns.

These days, I don't feel like being punished to death. So, after failing this map on HMP, I've finished it on HNTR. I've enjoyed having lots of resources to deal with moderately threatening enemies, it wasn't that easy either, but definitely not hard.

Nice map, once again it's compact and elegantly shaped, while the central area is pretty spacious. It reminds me of MAP06 of this megawad. Monster placement is very well done, I'd say, forcing me to run around and dodge projectiles a lot, hopelessly trying to find a safe spot -> good challenge.

[scifista42]

MAP13 - "Deep Trouble". I gave it a go on HNTR right away, but to my surprise, it was easy. I've died, but that's because I hadn't been cautious enough and got cornered. So, I've consequently tried HMP and beat the map!

It was pretty great for a curved staircase + a circular-arena-thing. Thankfully there weren't any free-roaming viles. I really liked how the map managed ammo for different weapons (all 4 ammo types) so that I needed to switch them, the pacing was well balanced. Final fight wasn't too difficult, but I had to run around and dodge A LOT, so once again - very good job!

[tourniquet]

15: "Gladiator"

Well this one is just my cup of tea.
Nice to give the player the choice in which order he wants to clean the map.
I decided to release everything at once including the audience and with the secret V-Sphere this wasn't actually that difficult.
Surprisingly I've completely overlooked the bathroom in all my previous playthroughs, another very cool gimmick.

31: "Stair Crazy"

Lots of stairs and lots of bad guys.
All those déjà vu's and sights of previous maps, fantastic.
The imp on the toilet is so hilarious.
Gameplay-wise straight in your face as usual.
The 2 top level viles are a very nasty move.

32: "Roof Rage"

Back to the beginning just 250% more difficult.
Think the most anoying thing were all the zombiemen, blocking many passages and ways to escape the wrath of the SM and those other rooftop snipers.
So i decided to get rid of them before i cleaned the rest of the map.
A time consumpting and boring strategy but i was glad that it worked.

15--31--32

[scifista42]

I'm currently trying to play MAP14 - "Secrets and Lies" on UV. I've noticed that in mouldy's maps, if the player (me) goes panic and rushes to places where there should be cover, he's punished even more than if he just fought (that's some good material for this thread, by the way). I like it, as it discourages "coward" playstyle, or at least forces to be more efficient at creating "coward" strategies, heh. Plus, with that knowledge (which I've gained the hard way), I can use it to my advantage while playing. Anyway, I like Going Down really a lot.