The DWmegawad Club plays: Serenity & Eternity & Infinity

[mouldy]

E3M6 - "I’m Here. I’m There. Stairs Are Everywhere"

This is the first map where I feared for my life, i think the mixture of cramped close encounters and limited ammo were the main difficulty factors. I actually did die once, but I'm not counting it as it was from dropping down a hole onto an imp's head and not realising while it chewed me to death, I count that as a design flaw. I'm assuming at the time this was made, monsters had infinite height, which would have been a big problem in a couple of places in this map. The usual arbitrary secrets and wiggly square mazes, this time with stairs. It turns into quite a complex layout once it all unfolds, even a bit of cross-over at one point. But its irredeemably awkward and ugly for the most part, and far too much time was spent pistoling stuff, despite being handed 300 cells (and no plasma rifle). If I'm meant to need those cells in future maps I guess I'm in trouble..

[scifista42]

E3M7 - "Big Time"

(by the way, the OP has a typo in the name of this map)

Spoiler

Actually, this map made me realize again that this whole mapset is just mediocre 1994. The corridors were distinctly wider than in the previous map, so that I thought it's an improvement for a brief moment, but then I've told to myself: What kind of improvement is this? Just a wild bunch of corridors, structured and textured totally randomly, resulting in ugliness and crappy-ness more than surreality or anything. The same with monster placement. There were wall-triggered secrets with mandatory keys behind them. The SMM fight seemed as an unique surprise at first, but actually wasn't so great at all. Ugh, kind of bad. I don't feel that excited about oldschool anymore. But I still feel a need to see what the next ****nity wads/maps have got to offer.

[Memfis]

e3m7 was the very first map made by these guys. So pretty much everything else in the series is better.

[Salt-Man Z]

scifista42 said:

I don't feel that excited about oldschool anymore. But I still feel a need to see what the next ****nity wads/maps have got to offer.

They get steadily better, I assure you. I always played through the trilogy in episode order, so E3 was always a bit of a letdown.


E3M6: I’m Here. I’m There. Stairs Are Everywhere
Hey, Depeche Mode! Anyway, I do like this map. Lots of cramped quarters fighting (which alleviates most monster-blocking line problems) and a distinct shortage of health kept me in the 20s most of the level. This map always leaves a bad taste in mouth, though, because one time when I played it I missed the switch right after the blue door: y'know, the one just to the right inside the door, tucked into a little alcove with a box of shells sitting in front of it? I think it was the last time I played this level that I literally wandered around for at least half an hour trying to figure out what to do. I eventually figured it out, but needless to say, I'll never forget where that switch is again. :)

[scifista42]

Memfis said:

e3m7 was the very first map made by these guys. So pretty much everything else in the series is better.

Okay, good to know. :)

[Memfis]

e3m5 - awesome music, it's a little mindblowing how the Twin Peaks theme can add so much to the atmosphere (and I haven't even watched that show). This level probably reflects the wad's name the most: the feel is just so serene. There is some fantastic lighting work. Have you noticed how in the sewers the brightness can sometimes change depending on the doors closing or opening? The red key "ritual" is pretty interesting and complicated as well. Isn't it admirable how just picking up the valuable key is an adventure in itself, even though there are no monster traps?

e3m6 - awesome music, made me listen to some Depeche Mode. This level can be quite interesting conceptually. If you really think about, its name and the dramatic piano together with overall crampedness and these crazy stairs make the map feel a little like a bad dream of some mentally disturbed person. I don't think this was actually intended but that doesn't stop me from interpreting it how I like. Now, I know these hallways relatively well and have no problems navigating them, but I guess first-timers can find them confusing as hell. An even bigger annoyance is the fact that some jumps can be often blocked by infinitely tall monsters.

[dobu gabu maru]

E3M5: Oh I guess all the health from E3M3 was actually stored here. Map plays fine until that hilarious full bright ashwall tunnel with the W1 triggers that can get you permanently stuck. Two of the rooms had pretty good fights (the N room and the white one with the little archway), but other than that it was pretty par for the course. Surprised how tight ammo is so far though.

Also the Twin Peaks music made me laugh, given that I'm halfway through season two of it right now, so the coincidence was silly.

E3M6: Well goddamn, we’re out of health again and jammed into tight corridors! Felt akin to Graham’s stuff from last month, except I was pretty starved for health at times, which made the corridor crawl really slow and agonizing. It was strangely fun in a brutal, “I’d prefer not to play a map like this again” kind of way, and I’m still fascinated by how bizarrely balanced this mapset is (IT’S NOT A SECRET IF IT IS MANDATORY FOR BEATING THE MAP).

[Capellan]

e3m7
Being the first map they made explains a lot about this map: it's like the others in the set, only worse. Entire staircases of "secrets". Mandatory secrets. Mandatory not-secrets that are visually unmarked. A complete disdain for texture alignment (yes, it was 1994 - there's still no excuse half a demon face ... at least switch that line to a plain marble texture). And of course the usual "once you're in the exit section you can't go back" nonsense.

[Magnusblitz]

E3M6: I’m Here. I’m There. Stairs Are Everywhere
100% kills, 6/6 "secrets"

First map where I died... combination of lazy playing and lack of health/armor, died in the "i" room (why is this one lowercase?) Not much to say... this whole map is just one big set of long, thin corridors. It could be a shrunk-down Wolfenstein map if not for the (pointless) staircases and annoying elevators. On the bright side, the lighting is better (no super-bright indoor areas) and the texturing is boring but restrained instead of being ugly.

[Memfis]

e3m7 - funny sounding music helps to get through this map. It's the first level made by these guys as far as I know, and it really shows: the quality is noticeably lower than in any of their other works. Not entirely sure why they even decided to include it: surely they should have been able to see that it's not as good as the rest. Perhaps they were just too attached to their work to throw it away: a feeling any mapper should be familiar with.

[Zed]

E3M6:

I have to say I liked this one. I don't mind small mazes as long as they have at least some variety (I mean, not just corridors and such). I never felt really lost, but I died two times because I got cornered by imps and sergeants. I didn't feel like ammo is that tight, but I find it strange that I found some cell packs but no plasma gun (and I found all the "secrets"). And at least this time the exit is clearly the exit, and not some random switch or teleporter. Final time 13:50, it took me a couple of minutes at the end to find the yellow door.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

SERENITY.WAD E3M6:

90-degree angles, 90-degree angles everywhere. It's like a weird transitional style between Wolf3D and Doom, where everything is orthogonal but there are at least stairs, windows and thin walls, so it's a notch above the built out of square blocks look. Gameplay is oddly Wolfensteinish as well, with a lot of cautiously peeking around corners and trying to pop the bad guys before they can get a shot off, due to the use of hitscanners and the general tightness of supplies. It's a sort of design that wouldn't be considered "valid" today, but isn't wholly devoid of merit.

Towards the end, there was a part with foot-level windows into a higher area. This is something I like in maps, for no reason I can lay a finger on. Maybe it's because if gives a different sort of viewpoint from the usual, or maybe I just like shooting monsters in their feet.

One of the tougher maps so far, it took me several tries, and kind of put me into "old console game" mode where I tried to memorize a little more of the map each time so I could beat it.

The infinitely tall actors quirk caused some annoyance when it came to dropping into the pits. Half the time an unseen imp would be standing there, blocking me and maybe even scratching, so I would have to go to some other part of the map and then run back so that it would be lured away. For all the block-monsters tomfoolery going on in this map set, you'd think they could have put some blocking lines to keep them out of the bottom of these shafts, too.

The exit, while not marked, was at least obviously an exit structure this time.

The looks get no prizes; they're not as crushingly bland as all the plain grey walls in E3M2 but that's the only positive thing that can be said. However, I will give this one a "mildly liked" since I found the gameplay passable and even superior to some of the previous maps.

K/I/S: 98% / 97% / 83%

[7hm]

Wad: Serenity
Slot: 3 7
Map: Big Time
Author: Holger Nathrath, Bjorn Hermans
Notes:
Holy shit what was this. 1994 like whoa. The texture choices, the misalignments, the architechture, the gameplay decisions, the mandatory secret progression. Now, I'm a guy who loves the Odessa series and am usually pretty ok with finding random textures that are secrets that allow you to progress through the map, but Evans didn't randomly throw shit on walls, when there was a misalignment that was clue, not a lack of technical ability (or technology). This was pretty awful. Another great choice was the lava pit with monsters lining the bottom preventing you from jumping in if you use infinite height. And the incredibly easy gameplay. I was half expecting (hoping for?) some sort of fuck you cyberdemon trap as I reached the exit, but nope, just an incredibly easy spiderdemon fight. And this was on pistol start, I haven't run through it on continuous, and I won't bother.


Memfis: you should totally watch Twin Peaks. Best season and a half of television I've ever seen.

dobu gabu maru: if you've reached the reveal, it's sadly all downhill from here. Don't feel bad about skipping entire scenes from dumb and poorly done sideplots (ie everything, but in particular anything with James).

[Walter confetti]

E3M7: A very large map, according to memfis the first made from the authors of this episode series, so implying this fact i've can wrote: is a ok map, texturing is kind of coherent with some weirdness like computers room in hell (or whatever part of Deimos is collapsed), and for be a first map ever (made with DEU or some other DOS age editor even more cryptic to use like DoomED or some stuff like that) is even nice, but there's some stupid crap like 2 "secret" doors, the lacks of lighting detailing from the other levels ruin a little this map. Also the T room is horrible.

But layout luckily isn't so confuse like e3m6 and the music makes me think that some monsters orchestra plays a cherrish tune just for mocking you. Eh, demons sure have a weird sense of humor.

Gameplay is easy for e3m7 but it's ok with me.

[Demon of the Well]

Serenity E3M6 -- I'm Here. I'm There. Stairs are Everywhere. - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Didn't like this at all. The best things I can say about it are that A) its exit chamber has a quite interesting structure and B) in terms of action it feels a little different than the other maps at first, because from a pistol-start shotgun shells can be very scarce in the early going (although which direction you explore in first probably influences this somewhat), and there's not as much opportunity to safely punch stuff to death as in E3M5, meaning that there's more tension and perhaps a vague semblance of strategy at play early on (e.g. "should I use up most of what I have to make it through this knot of monsters in hopes they're guarding something good/important, or should I try a different direction and hope for a surer shot at gaining momentum?"). It's a bit slow-paced, at least up until the point where the ammo tightness instantaneously dissolves around halfway through, but I was glad for the change of pace, as writ large the combat in this map is as mind-numbingly dull as anything seen in the WAD so far.

Just hallways, hallways, hallways, and uh, one little crate room. I remember a couple of larger areas: a spacious (but essentially empty) wooden basement, and the outdoor yard that has the level's 'I.' Both of these fail to impress,, sadly, particularly the latter, as it is little but a halfhearted rehash of the 'E' room from E3M2. Beyond this, well.....did I mention the hallways? Height variation is another of those things that tends to be included on that list of things that good maps "must" have, but this map proves it's not as simple as simply checking a box: strictly speaking, there's a great deal of height variation in this map, but 95% of the time its impact is almost purely superficial, and adds nothing to the action. As advertised, there are stairs everywhere, but always in the context of narrow hallways, meaning that whether you have an enemy in front of you over a flat stretch or in front of you at the top of a staircase is utterly meaningless--it's still just a narrow corridor with or without the vertical shift, and so there's still only one thing to do....someone made a Wolf3D comparison here, and I think that's very apt, if perhaps a mite unfair to Wolfenstein (at least in that game there were no enemy-blocking lines to keep the guards from creeping up on you). The real tragedy is that the 5% of the time where the height variation IS making a noticeable impact on the play, it's making it worse, not better--some blind drops are likely to be blocked off by infinitely-tall monsters, requiring one to trot through the dull semi-maze a ways in order to kite them away from the hole before sprinting back so you can continue.

Really dire.

Serenity E3M7 -- Big Time - 100% Kills / 96% Secrets
This seems to be popularly regarded as the worst map in the entire trilogy. It's a very weak and amateurish level, to be sure, but I actually found it somewhat more palatable than a couple of the others so far. It's butt-ugly, with very little effort put towards texture alignment or selection (the most egregious section probably being the looooooooooong fleshy hallway with the pristine blue shag carpet), and minimal attention to lighting, although there is one very pronounced (and kind of cool!) light shift towards the end, when the spiderdemon appears. 31 secret sectors, and of the 30 I found, only one or two seemed to be "secrets" in the traditional sense (e.g. hidden optional spaces), while the majority of the rest were found out in the open, with a couple of outliers being somewhat hidden and yet also mandatory to progression. On that point, progression through the map is quite nonsensical, with a lot of untelegraphed backtracking and some arbitrary teleporting around involved. In truth, stuff like 'mandatory secrets' and a less than tidy route through the map don't actually bother me very much (especially not in something as old as this), but it's hard to deny that it does leave one with the impression that very little thought/overall planning was put into the level's creation, which arguably cheapens it in some small way.

Of course, it's still hallways upon hallways upon hallways here ("as it was in the beginning", etc. etc.), although now they are wider, airier, and often much longer hallways than in anything we've seen previously. Occasionally these spill out into a number of spacious, rooms and chambers. A few of these have some defining aspect that marks them as landmarks (ala the room with the lava floor and fat column in the middle), but most are essentially featureless, one or two even being almost wholly empty. The larger playspace means that on UV a commensurately larger number of monsters have been placed down as well; in terms of choreography, there is still absolutely none (and more of those damned monster-blocking lines abound, as well) as in the past maps, but the larger number of bodies does at least contrast a bit with the population-sparseness of earlier maps (particularly near the end of the level), helping to create the impression that the mapset is coming to a climax, something which I do appreciate. The relatively high monster density also somewhat alleviates the drag that all of the backtracking puts on the level's sense of flow; there's still a lot of re-traversing of now-empty corridors (the trip back down the long pink hallway is again an illustrative example), but because you get more concentrated spates of killing between the downtimes they feel less pronounced. Surprisingly, I also get a sense that Nathrath did try to do more with combat scenarios in this one. Sometimes these fail due to inexperience (e.g. all of the monster closets that open to reveal deaf enemies not facing the the player, which could thus be easily skipped if one so desired), but it's the thought that counts, I guess....maybe that spiderdemon reveal in the suddenly darkened room might've amounted to something if the T-room's structure had had more to it.

So, not good, certainly, but I'd take it over a couple of the others. One does wonder how the authors could make the claim in the textfile that they take aesthetics seriously with a straight face with this thing knocking around in the WAD, though....

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

SERENITY.WAD E3M7

Okay, so I said E3M5 of this set was like any old WAD from '94, but maybe I pulled that one out too soon. THIS is Anywad, '94.

The other maps, those I liked and those I didn't, had character, and if asked to state some sort of theme or at least notable features of each one, I probably could, but this one can only be summed up as a random mess, jumping from one idea to another, without any sort of unifying theme or concept. Visuals are likewise random, with texturing that goes beyond Petersenesque or trippy and into the "no damns were given" territory.

I'm hard-pressed to say much else. The gameplay is generic, nothing I can say I had a blast in, but nothing I can brand as blatantly heinous either. Having a Spiderdemon appear was a highlight, but wasn't all that challenging to dispatch with volleys of rockets and plasma from across the wide expanse that it was on the other side of.

On a positive note... actual exit signs? Positioned in sensible relation to the exit switch? If they got this right on the first map they made, why not some of the others? (This map also showed understanding of the concept "lava hurts", unlike M5.)

Verdict? If I was popping in a shovelware disc, picking out any old anonymous wad and taking a look, I'd probably shrug and say "nothing special, ugly, but playable" if this was what I got. But in the context of this map set, I would have expected something more. Even if it was something annoying, just more of SOMETHING to point at and say "this is the level with X". "This is the level with a Spiderdemon and an actual properly marked exit" is the best I've got, I guess.

[scifista42]

E3M8 - "Church of the Poisoned Minds"

Spoiler

Simplistic and generic in structure, rather ugly looking, with odd secret mechanics, all as usual. The start area's lighting is strange, so much light is emited from the torches but none from the windows? The whole area is just slightly cool, not really much for being a large rectangle. There were many high-HP monsters in the map, making fights tedious / skippable, in addition some of them were placed in cages, including a Cyberdemon! The ending fight might have been engaging in 1994, but I see it just as another randomly placed bunch of monsters with a Spiderdemon among them. Once the E1M8's star lowers, the whole arena turns into yet another rectangle. By the way, did I miss anything, or was the "hard way" basically an unavoidable death trap? (Unless someone rushed and grabbed an invulnerability from a secret in the "easy way"?) All in all, the map is "okay" in the same means as the previous maps were (which doesn't mean a lot), but not really a great finale at all. Music was interesting, at least, in the same spirit as always.

[Jaws In Space]

sereniTy: E3M7 - HMP, Pistol Start

It doesn't surprise me at all to find out that this was the first map made for the project, the whole time playing through this one I just thought the whole thing was pretty amateurish. There's a pretty nonsensical progression to the map with lots of backtracking, & just really horrible texturing throughout the map. Then there's things like that really annoying barely marked door to access the blue key. I did get a laugh out of the E4M3 style secret sectors that show up in a few places on stairs. Overall it was a pretty easy map, after getting to 200% health & armor early in the map I never dropped below 120% by the time I reached the exit. This was definitely the worst map for me so far.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

SERENITY.WAD E3M8

Well, after the previous map, this level seems really good, but ultimately it was a bit "meh" in the gameplay department. There were some quirky puzzles and the new texture looks nice.

Weapon balance is kind of weird. I came in with a good supply of guns from previously, and found it more than enough, then died just as the boss did and had to start over. From a pistol start, you only get to have a shotgun (pulled from sargeants) and a BFG, unless there's something in a secret I missed, so the usefulness of some of the ammo provided is limited.

Navigation in the altar room felt a bit off; the narrow space to get behind the altar was a bit "sticky". Good-looking room, though.

There's a branching path; on the first life I took the tough way, but the second time around I decided to just go the wimpy way, half expecting it might turn out to be a "haha, screw you" trap. It just skips you past part of the map, though.

The puzzle with the barrels if you take the tough route was... odd. It's one of those things that I must admit was clever, but don't feel I can really call a GOOD idea. The hall of caged monsters afterwards was also a bit dull; the notion of a "zoo" or "jail" like this seems to have been a popular one back in the day, but I feel like I've seen it done better (though I couldn't say where).

The boss reveal is reminiscent of the end of the original E1M8. The boss itself was not too special, but the addition of a bunch of sargeants scattered around did add a little more menace.

All in all one of the better maps of the set, but maybe not the best.

K/I/S: N/A

Edit:

scifista42 said:

By the way, did I miss anything, or was the "hard way" basically an unavoidable death trap?

Look behind you. Try to do what the clue says.

[scifista42]

ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Edit:

Look behind you. Try to do what the clue says.

I had looked behind me and saw the message, but didn't understand what to do, and died. I thought the message was the author laughing at me that I'm screwed up. Now that I know that I was supposed to shoot the back barrel, I consider it a very clever setup, but too unclear.

[Salt-Man Z]

E3M7: Big Time
I think I can say I don't hate this map...I think. I want to be able to say it, at least. I didn't mind (for the most part) the layout or visuals. And it has its moments of charm. The mandatory secret of the blue key, for example: when I discovered it, I was like, "Ah, clever!" But the totally unmarked secret to get the yellow key? An absolute dick-move, especially since that section of map is so expansive, you can spend an hour humping walls and still overlook it easily. Totally ridiculous. Also not a fan of how you can't (as far as I found) backtrack from the second half of the map (starting at the grey room with the caged cacos) to the first half; nor can you get out of the exit area (something fairly standard in this set, to be sure.) Was anyone actually able to find the yellow key without IDDTing? I sure as crap wasn't.

[mouldy]

E3M7 - "Big Time"

Wow, 31 secrets. I only found 30, I'm assuming the final one was the invul, though there is no telling with this wad, and no finding out thanks to inescapable exit room. Meanwhile some of the non-secret areas seem to rely on wall-humping, all very strange. But I'd say unconventional rather than outright bad. The outright bad is reserved for the texture usage. Seriously, even back in those days how do you look at a door that has one and a half doors on it and not think maybe I should just make that a bit narrower, or use a different texture.. I guess I should be thankful that the wiggly corridors are wider than 64 units now, speaking of which I have to mention the longest damn corridor I have ever seen in a doom map. And since I didn't have the yellow key it turned out to be a dead end.

Anyway, the fighting was a bit more involved, lots of weak stuff to mow down, and rockets enough for all the barons. Finally got a plamsa rifle too, just in time for a surprise mastermind fight. Not very difficult, but fun in a basic kind of way.

[Capellan]

e3m8
Visually a considerable step up, especially when compared to the last level. I like the window texture, and alignment seemed to be better. There were even secrets that worked like secrets are supposed to! True, there was also an obvious room marked as a secret, but completely unconcealed, so some oddities still endured.

Speaking of oddities - the easy/hard choice. Like ETTiNGRiNDER, I suspected the 'easy' option would be a trap, but it's not. It just lets you skip the barrel trap and a host of mostly caged monsters. The barrel trap is one of those ideas that is both clever and dumb. Clever in its use of the Doom engine (and possibly the inspiration for a very cheap trap in MM), but stupid because it's a very, very goofy thing to do and clearly a 'video game moment'. Of course, so is the fact there is an easy route and a hard route.

Given that e3m7 had a spider mastermind, I was expecting something a little different here, but nope - the final fight is just another one, plus a few other bits of riff raff. BFG to the face, all over. Underwhelming.

This is pretty easy on continuous since you should have a plasma and cells abound. Pistol start would be a rather more tiresome affair though, since you're going to have to nickel and dime everything until you get the BFG.

[Magnusblitz]

E3M7: Big Time
100% kills, 30/31 secrets

I can certainly believe this is the first level made... it has all the hallmark of an author's first level, when they're just messing around with random shit and see what sticks. The texturing isn't just ugly, it's completely random - why yes, MARBFACE is a completely appropriate texture for a whole room filled with lava (as well as window dressing), teleport pads ARE for windowsills, and flesh walls goes great with blue UAC carpet! A lot of it is fullbright, then we come across the "oh I discovered lighting effects" hallway. Then there's the "I discovered how to make secret tags" hallway, the "I discovered crushers" hallways, etc. Lots of unmarked 'secrets', many of which are actually required to progress... though, to be fair, a lot of them are also at the end of hallways with no apparent point, so wall-humping isn't completely unreasonable here.

So yeah, ugly, and newbish, but I actually found this one more charming than say, E3M6, which was deadly dull.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

SERENITY.WAD - Overall

Since I played the version from idgames with no music, I went back and replayed the set with the alternate version. I noticed that the level wad had a slightly different size as well, but I'm not sure what the difference is.

While some maps were tricky on a blind playthrough, with foreknowledge of the maps I could plow through continuously without much trouble at all. I also found some of the maps that I initially disliked to be better this time around, I guess after seeing M6 and M7 it kind of puts them in perspective.

I had been worried I was missing out not using the music wad, but now that I've heard it, I think it would have harmed my enjoyment of the set, if anything. The selection of tracks ranged from good but unDoomish to outright annoying; listening to professional game music it's easy to forget just how awful MIDI can be with misuse of the instruments (whistle, dog yap or whatever that one weird vocal is supposed to be, bad use of the metal guitars, etc.) The best track was ironically the M7 one, which at least was good music with a good MIDI rendition even if it wasn't very Doomish, and I found myself grooving along in my chair with it at times. I had to go back and check if this was the one people were saying was the Twin Peaks theme as I'm pretty sure this also comes from some cop/detective type show but I couldn't tell you which. If the selections for Serenity are indicative for the other episodes as well, I think I'll play through with the original Doom music first on them too.

To give a loose ranking on how much I liked the maps:
M4, without question, was my favorite.
M8 and M3 were OK too.
M5, M2, and M1 weren't spectacular.
Torn between M6 and M7 for least favorite. They're the bottom of the barrel for this set, for different reasons.

The lack of a secret level was mildly disappointing, but Hermans & Nathrath seem to have had a poor grasp on the idea of secrets, anyway, so it might not've worked out. I'd also be kind of interested to know who made which map (unless it was a total collab job on all of them). There's not a lot to unify the set but the maps with wood & marble themes seem to hang together more than the rest, as if one guy made those and the others were from the other one.

There were some interesting, experimental sort of things going on in here but as with any experimentation, some things produced good results and others not. Small portions of the maps reach or surpass id quality, but the map set as a whole stays below it.

I'd like to make some sort of comparison with SUDTIC and Crossing Acheron since those are other "top" WADs from the time that I've played, but it's been too long since I played either of those to really say anything too informed. Maybe I'll edit the post later if I find time to replay them for comparison.

[Memfis]

e3m8 - awesome music. This level is appropriately epic for the last slot: the first giant hallway looks very impressive with imposing shadows and interesting windows, there is an atmospheric church and lots of monsters everywhere. Of course you just have to choose the TOUGH way, which presents you with a super funny and clever little puzzle. Now the solution seems so obvious to me, so why couldn't I figure it out when I played the map for the first time? :) Also note another great "get the key" ritual. Excellent.

[Walter confetti]

E3M8: Looks like they left the best for the end, since (personally) i liked a lot this map. Sure is bland and too empty, but it gives you some cool atmosphere and there's also some pretty good looking textures (the stain glass thing is very cool) and texturing and detailing return to full force 1994 delight. Gameplay is like the original e3m8 only with much more ammo and monsters, i read before that in the final Easy/ Hard Hallways the easy hallway it could be some kind of trap, then this hypotheses are gone out since when you check out the hard way you get teleported into a killing barrels ambush... if you survive to that using cheats you're been welcomed from a some jail hallways (Jails in a demonic church? Eh, why not...) with hard-type monsters, get into one of the cell (you can pass on them even if they're signed as blocked...) open a secret door that leads you into the easy hallway and the final battle with your unfriendly neighborhood spider mastermind, blast it with your bfg (on a perfectly looking alcove before the easy / hard hallways marked as secret... eh, whatever) and the episode is over, hooray!

Overall this episode was our typical 1994 maps with some pretty good looking touches likes lighting, new textures and cool music, also every map it was fun to play (with it's up and down moments, like the confusing e3m6)... next stop: Eternity!

(also, this last episode don't have any words in it... oh wait, there's a Y shaped corridor before the final battle with the spider mastermind!)

[7hm]

Wad: Serenity
Slot: 3 8
Map: Church of the Poisened Minds
Author: Holger Nathrath, Bjorn Hermans
Notes:
This was a pretty fun map actually, far and away the best of the episode. I tried it from a pistol start and then from continuous. In pistol start the opening is a bit hectic (if you charge forward as quickly as possible at least), and I died in the chapel, but other than that is was pretty straight forward. I decided to go for the easy ending - with the BFG it was no big deal. Then I did the hard ending on continuous and had to restart. Can you survive the hard ending, either with more health, or with the invuln secret? Whatever, I enjoyed it a lot. It was also pretty good looking - great use of lighting, good texture choices, no glaring misalignments. I liked the windows in particular (though not a huge fan of hiding monsters behind them; I'd imagine a 100% run would be kind of annoying... if not impossible because of the easy / hard pathing).

[Salt-Man Z]

E3M8: Church of the Poisoned Minds
A pretty good map, all things considered. I really like the secret area with the baron and the soulsphere. The stained glass windows with imps behind them are obnoxious: it looks like you should be able to see the imps, but you can't. The barrel trap in the "hard" way isn't hard, you just have to push a barrel out of the way with the plasma gun. Easier said than done, though: the first time I tried it, I managed to do it without taking any damage; then like an idiot, I decided to blow the barrels and accidentally killed myself. After that, I couldn't get out of the puzzle without taking at least 20 damage. Must have tried at least half a dozen times. Anyway, the Mastermind fight is, well, a Mastermind fight. However, I had only like 4 health at this point, so I had to rush her with my BFG before the invul ran out.

SERENITY overall:
A decent collection of oldschool-styled maps. A lot of good stuff mixed with a bit of bad stuff. Being the first episode made, though, it's easily the worst of the trilogy, so things will only improve from here.

[Steve D]

Time to catch-up and wrap-up!

E3M3 – R You Lonesome? – Kills – 97, Items – 95, Secret – 100. End Health – 128, Armor 33. Death Count – Zero. Shells – 98, Bullets – 181

UV continuous, Risen3D, frequent saves, keyboard-only

This wood-themed map is rather unimpressive. Secrets are kinda fun in a weird, 1994ish way, but the combat is really awful and, IMO, so is the music track. The most notable thing about the map is how it loops around to the start. Also, rooms with windows that have Pinkies inside them, clearly influential on 2002:ADO. ;D


E3M4 – All The Marbles – Kills – 97, Items – 100, Secret – 53. Death Count – Zero. Shells – 100, Bullets – 93

This map is much better, IMO. I really enjoyed the jazz MIDI and the marble texture theme. The lighting takes another step up. I'm guessing Dr. Sleep's Crossing Acheron was released before this? Dr. Sleep's technique still works and still looks fantastic.

The “wow” room is behind the red door. Very nice-looking room with a cool ceiling. There's also an attempt at a switch-trap. The other notable thing in this map is the red-key puzzle which was kind of charming. Also, this map is seething with ammo, presumably to stock you up for the tight-ammo maps to come.


E3M5 – Dungeons of the Dark – Kills – 100, Items – 100, Secret – 0. End Health – 100, Armor 180. Death Count – 1. Shells – 76, Bullets – 0

I really enjoyed this map. A large part of my pleasure was the Twin Peaks theme, top track of the episode, IMO. Given its slow, relaxing prettiness, it would actually be perfect for a slaughtermap.

If a map is going to be more or less monotextured, this Grey is a good choice. It's a pleasant and soothing texture, and I didn't mind seeing it almost everywhere.

This one starts nasty and must be a pain on pistol. I lost a good bit of my health playing badly right at the beginning, and was very happy to be playing continuous as I kept unloading lots of ammo while not finding much to replenish my stock.

Capellan said:

For keyboarders, the barons beyond the red door might present some challenge. And back in 1994 there were a lot more of those poor benighted fools (I would know, I was one :) )

Adam trolls us keyboarders! ;D Srsly? Those bastids never laid a glove on me! I took 1 Baron hit in the whole mapset – errr, in this map, in fact. That damned caged Baron! ;) I will say that some of the fights toward the end showed the potential these maps would have if not for the insane monster blocking lines everywhere. It was comical sometimes, like door-camping in the middle of the room.

My death in this map came in my first try at the “N” room. I didnt realize the lava was harmless, so I climbed the Hitscanner Stairway of Death and was summarily swatted down by a Lost Soul. My second time through, I discovered, yes, monster-blocking lines and door-camped the fight in the middle of the room. Is this nonsense going to be in all the episodes?

All in all, a fun map, I thought. I especially enjoyed the thrilling platformer section.