The DWmegawad Club plays: Serenity & Eternity & Infinity

[Demon of the Well]

^^Can't believe I didn't recognize that the music track from E2M3 was a version of the Das Boot theme. Learn something every day....

Eternity E2M4 -- Clear & Unpleasant Danger - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
I'm struggling to find much to say about the majority of this map, since when you get right down to it, it's pretty much the same story as the last one--corridors, boxes, basic fights robbed of what little life they might've had by more painfully inappropriate usage of monster-blocking lines. It also doesn't look as pleasant (hard to beat GSTONE-based texture schemes for basic eye-appeal, I guess) and is less architecturally developed, although once again it does have a decent music track, at least.

As far as distinguishing characteristics go, I get the vague impression that Nathrath really wanted to be a dick in this level, as evidenced by the "mandatory" nukage-walk and especially the false exit ambush, which is the most aggressive ploy we've seen in the mapset since the checkpoint crossfire trap in E2M2. The ambush here doesn't seem to me anywhere near as dangerous as the one in the aforementioned map (in fact, if you jog a few steps away, the monsters once again get stuck behind a blocking line ;) ) although by the standards of the average Doom player in 1994, perhaps it was terrifying and formidable indeed. The level's true exit can only be reached via a series of secrets, as well (and these are credibly 'secret', too, not the arbitrary taggings that have defined several of these levels prior), a final jab in the player's direction. Interestingly, several of these design choices are the sort of thing liable to be actively seen as taboo by modern sensibilities; the whole "map author as the game session's fickle DM" angle doesn't often go down so well these days, for good or ill. For my part, none of the dick moves Nathrath pulled here strike me as being 'bullshit design' or anything like that--I'm glad to see him show some teeth with that fake exit, the "mandatory" attrition of the nukage-walk is not actually mandatory if you've been paying any attention to Eternity's (and Serenity's) general style of logic up to this point (and can be reasonably endured/survived even if not), and the hidden exit is signposted by a relatively subtle but very real hint....all above the board, as far as I'm concerned.

....Just a shame that the map's basic moment-to-moment action is as unrelentingly poor/dull as its predecessor's. The number of line-blocked/caged lost souls flitting around this place....

Eternity E2M5 -- Through the Eye of the Needle - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Hmm, well, again, a large portion of this level is very bland and indistinguishable from the past couple in play terms (read: more hallways, more boxes, more secrets-that-aren't), but I found it more likable than those. Simplistic architecture aside, this is easily the most aesthetically pleasing thing we've seen in the episode since the church from E2M1. Apart from the anomalous red conference room, it's a very relaxing scheme of blue, brown, and grey/silver, would almost look like some kind of new age executive spa (complete with Walter's porn dungeon) if, y'know, it looked like anything in particular. The 'Eye of the Tiger' midi fit surprisingly well, too, although I can't give full credit for it since Nathrath forgot to put a berserk pack in the map....(come to think of it, have there been any berserk packs at all yet?)

As I said, the moment-to-moment action once again tends to be bland, although at least the monster-blockery seems less pronounced here (or maybe I just didn't see the thresholds as often because the rooms are generally fairly big in this one), and there's just a hint of bite to the pistol-start, ala E2M2, due to the early scarcity of shells, and the late appearance of armor. I reckon it's mostly the pleasant looks/mood that carries the map, but a couple of the ever-present concept pieces are winners as well: the little puzzle for actually gaining entrance to the red room (which presumably gives the map its name) is clever in that 90s way, and the large room with the zigzagging silver balance-beam over some electrified water represents what is easily the most complex piece of combat we've seen since starting the trilogy back on December 1st. All this time Nathrath has been building these little item/architecture-based doodads into each map (e.g. Memfis' key-get 'rituals'), it's good to see him try to make the action a crucial part of the concept, rather than leaving the two largely segregated.

One of the better maps in the episode, despite the usual foibles.

[Salt-Man Z]

E2M4: Clear & Unpleasant Danger
100% everything. Started low on health again, so it was dicey goings for a while there (the mandatory nukage didn't help matters.) I freaked out a bit when I it seemed like the "exit" room was once more inescapable, and I still had like 50 baddies to find, but no, it turned it out be a nice double-fakeout. A nice romp of a map. The monster-blocking lines are just silly at this point, I have to wonder if they're just a bizarre side-effect of the editor being used? (Or perhaps the manner in which they were using it?)

E2M5: Through The Eye Of The Needle
100% again. And again, a really enjoyable map. I loved the red key puzzle: approach door, it opens; get closer, it closes. The solution was clever. Some nice ambushes in this one, too. That outdoor is another portion that sticks in my head as "defining" the Trilogy. (Oddly, the striking blue of the rest of the map is not.)

[Memfis]

Anyone recognized the e2m4 song? It's like the coolest midi ever.

[mouldy]

E2M4 - "Clear & Unpleasant Danger"

Great cheesy music. A quirky but managable map, really could have used a chaingun on pistol start but thankfully a plasma rifle appears, and even a bfg which I didn't find a use for. Its a fairly straight adventure but with a few twists and turns. Spotted the false exit a mile away, and found all the secrets. Some interesting facets to the design, though its still not up to iwad level of complexity, but interesting to see the author getting more creative.

E2M5 - "Through The Eye Of The Needle"

Yeah, I'm glad this music decided to stop playing. The map feels like a bit of a throwback to the first serenity with its skinny wiggly corridors and boxy rooms, but it is visually interesting in places, and even killed me in the catwalk ambush. The stairs that stop half way seems odd even by this wad's standards.

[dobu gabu maru]

E2M5: I’m always a fan of COMPBLUE + water color schemes, so the map worked mostly for me. Thank goodness I died early on though as I was completely out of ammo, and on my second run I just played up to the red key as pacifist as I could. Glad to see the PG getting more of a use here too, as it makes chowing through the meaty enemies a more enjoyable experience. Only encounter I really enjoyed was that ambush on the snake-like path with all the grates, but you can easily flee from it :/

[Capellan]

Eternity 6
I’m running out of ways to say “looks fair, gameplay meh”. The flaws of the level design remain the same: not enough monsters, not interestingly placed. Cannon fodder slowly emerges in front of you, and is gunned down without any great risk. Occasional lucky sergeants are pretty much the only damage you’re likely to suffer.

Lowlight of the level is definitely the SLADWALL room of 1000 switches. That was some tedium, there.

The end of the level seemed rather abrupt, too, and was unsigned once more. Secrets are nonsensical as usual. Still, those are small complaints compared to switchathon 1994.

[Magnusblitz]

E2M6: The Underground
97% kills, 5/5 secrets

Yawn. Wouldn't surprise me if this was one of the earlier maps of this set, since we see a return of problems like monster closets being tagged as secrets (maybe the author confused it with the 'hidden' linedef tag?) and an unmarked exit. Overall, the level is very ho-hum, being very flat, blocky and linear.

[scifista42]

E2M6 - "The Underground"

This map got me killed several times, because I've unluckily lost health and then ran into hitscanners. Anyway, this map wasn't too bad, but also not too good. Structure was okay. Visuals weren't the greatest, but also okay. Gameplay (and usage of secrets) was rather mediocre as always, Capellan described it well a few posts above. There was some bug in the blue key room, I've bumped into an invisible obstacle on the way to the left monster closet. The midi was interesting, in the same spirit as usual (which I call "relaxing action music"), and I liked it.

[Walter confetti]

E2M6: This level is bad, so bad. It's so bad that the music for it is "Bad"... a Big Band version of "Bad". Is pretty cool.

I don't get why the latest response on this map are so negative, since i'm probably weird, but i liked this map. layout is finally return to be nonlinear and not overly rectangular rooms from the previous maps, level is sets into a sewers place like the second section of e2m4, there's lots of pretty lighting detail for the age it was made and i liked this hallway section, i also liked the doom e2m5 like switches trick, gameplay is nice i get drained my energy more from nukage than hitscanners or other monsters...

The only bad point is that nukage pit after the blue key doors, with that too narrow lift too near on the nukage, since when you rise the bridge after pushing switches it couldn't do like some hidden bridge that rise from the nukage, nooo, you have to jump in the nukage already with a low energy, push the switch that activate a lift that leads you to the other side of the room, meanwhille you still get hurt from toxic stuff damage! I've reached the 3% of health before doing the IDDQD cheat... so this room is bullshit. Also the "secret" final teleport to the next section is flipped to the other side. Eh.

I don't get the little bug in the blue skull room, is that an impassible line? A leaked wall section? Mysteries, mysteries everywhere.

[Capellan]

walter confalonieri said:
I don't get the little bug in the blue skull room, is that an impassible line? A leaked wall section? Mysteries, mysteries everywhere.

Node builder error I would guess? There are no lines there according to DB2.

[scifista42]

E2M7 - "Escape While You Can"

Things I liked in this map:
-The staircase of lifts.
-The curved staircase nearby. (except misalignments)
-The SHAWN 2-level maze. (it had just the right size)
-Health/Ammo balance - tight yet okay.

Gameplay was okay, reasonably lowly challenging. The 4-directional building with raising lifts was interesting, but even more it was weird. Otherwise this was a standard mediocre 1994 map like Serenity/Eternity showed before.

[Capellan]

Eternity 7
I liked the opening of the map, with the lone lost soul that triggers all the other monsters when you shoot at it, but after the opening is cleared out we see the unwelcome return of 64-wide corridors, culminating in the tiresome ‘maze’ room.

At least grabbing the yellow key takes you to a fun little fight with monsters right in your face. More of this in ‘Infinity’ please. There’s also an OK effort at a trap in the room with the switch to raise the stairs, a little later. The big circular grey room also comes close to being interesting to fight in. Half a dozen cacos starting up on the ledge would have spiced it up nicely, though. It also suffers from the fact that once you clear it, there’s a lot of tedious item grabbing to do. More monsters popping out then would be nice. The method of leaving the room is also rather unintuitive, especially back in 94 when teleporter lines weren’t called out on the automap.

Aside: Looking in DB2, I think you can skip that circular room if you know the level. The walkover trigger you need to activate is right near the entrance, so you should be able to open the door, dash in and then run back out and head for the exit, skipping the whole battle.

There’s not much to the level once you clear the circular room, but gameplay-wise - boring maze section aside - this is an above average effort for the wad. Looks-wise, the opposite is true: lots of large, mostly monotextured rooms and orthagonal architecture makes for an uninteresting visual experience.

[Salt-Man Z]

E2M6: The Underground
First off, that MIDI is just amazing. The map's good, too. I tried no-saving it, but was already weak from last map, and got cut down twice, first in the room past the open-air hallway (I just ran straight through, I big mistake) and the second time in the hallway itself when, whilst meticulously cleaning out each side, the last two shotgunners snuck around behind me and took me out. I don't think I died again, though. The slime pool with the raised walkway was obnoxious (though the puzzle itself was fine): I jumped down in to get a medkit, and then lost all of that and more while waiting for the lift to come down and go back up. Ugh. Fun map otherwise, though.

E2M7: Escape While You Can
Ah, another one of those maps whose architecture I remember distinctly, but I can't necessarily remember which WAD it comes from. I'm not sure what the point of that curving stairway is coming off the "T" room: it would be most useful for coming back up, but the door only opens going down. Anyway, I really dig this map. Lots of good ambushes (partially spoiled by monster-blocking lines, but still) although I think the end room could have been spiced up a bit.

[scifista42]

E2M8 - "Serenity Forever"

Spoiler

The beginning looked good and was quite challenging too (from a pistol start), which impressed me. I've eventually had to rush my way through the monsters for the key and then escape. Similarly I decided to skip monsters in the next closet when I've ran out of ammo, they couldn't chase me anyhow. Then there was the SERENITY hallway, that one looked ugly, but it was an interesting climax at least. And in the end, I've faced the Cyberdemon, but with a shotgun only and not enough shells. I haven't found any other weapons. Therefore I cheated to kill him. The boss room looked entirely ugly, too, it was just a box with an "Y" in the middle and with oddly clashing colours. Not a good finale at all.

Overall: Eternity was a bit better than Serenity, but well, the maps were still mostly ugly-looking and sometimes weirdly playable, with occasional ideas on the way that were hit or miss, nothing wordly great in there. Still, since I've already started (and want to keep going with the club), I'll check out Infinity too.

[Demon of the Well]

Eternity E2M6 -- The Underground - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
I found the music in this one to be actively obnoxious (that its base volume seems a lot higher than most of the other tracks doesn't help). Also ran into the same anomalous crystal sector in the blue skull's cage that Scifista42 mentioned, almost got me killed, in fact--took a nasty hit from the Baron in there as a result. I noticed that monsters will attempt to attack you as normal (e.g. the Baron will still throw his spells at you), but the sector will block their attacks. Weird, I imagine it's probably an olde-tymey nodebuilding issue or something.

Anyway, more of the same here, except perhaps a bit streamlined--as opposed to lots of small/narrow hallways and corridors, there are fewer/larger ones comprising the bulk of the layout. Some have commented that the level seems older than the others in the episode, presumably a result of the very minimalistic visuals--I don't think the presentation is really much out of step with the rest of the WAD in terms of polish/concourse, actually, it's just that the bareness of the rooms and corridors is emphasized by their larger size. The concepts here generally don't feel particularly inspired; it seems like the poison pit with the bridges that eventually rise out of it is supposed to be the marquee piece (and it was certainly the most complex to set up), but the opposition in there isn't deployed in a such a way to make the bridge setup relevant--they all appear before you start the trip, leaving only the lonely specter in the ooze to nip at your ankles while you head for the last switch. The red key box is a similar non-event, hardly even worth mentioning. I felt the best part by far to be the blue skull section--the long silver throughway leading to its chamber is fairly cool-looking (as a bonus, the monsters in the side yards can actually move freely through the area, unhindered by blocking lines), and the two-closet setup in the cage itself represents a fairly serious battle by 90s standards, although I imagine it's less notable if you're playing continuously and thus already have a plasma gun or the like once you're in there. Incidentally, taking that heavy hit from the Baron did show me that health items are actually really scarce in this map, making it potentially one of the more dangerous levels in the episode.

Eternity E2M7 -- Escape While You Can - 98% Kills / No secrets
Hey, it's that Blade Runner theme, the one I always initially mistake for the clocktower theme from Castlevania SotN. I like it, but once again, it doesn't loop properly....imagine my surprise when it started up again after a few minutes of silence, the earlier maps with these defective tracks weren't long enough for that to happen. Between this and the legitimately interesting opening shot, the level certainly makes a strong first impression, although this is diminished somewhat a few seconds in when the distant lost soul inevitably charges you and has an infinitely-tall collision with one of the monsters on the lower level of the T-chamber.

Shades of 'Big Time' from Serenity here, in that the level is more sprawling than anything that came before it, and also more violent--Nathrath uses quite a lot of monster-closets here, often opening them up as the player retraverses a previously cleared area. Sometimes these reinforcements are hamstrung by yet more monster-blocking lines that prevent them from actually leaving their enclosures to attack, but where this is not the case, one gets significantly more of a sense of bloody combat, which helps immensely in the level's gambit to maintain interest over its duration--it's not actually really any more difficult or more complex than what has come before, but some intangible psychological quirk of having to fire my weapon a lot more often makes it feel a lot more like Doom is "supposed to", to me. In contrast to 'Big Time', ammo is also significantly more scarce here--from the pistol-start I never fully ran out, but I came close, again helping the action feel just a little bit more relevant (didn't help that I totally missed the rocket launcher until my second pass through the T-chamber), of course. On the downside, the concept-rooms again seem to be somewhat uninspired in contrast to earlier maps/maps from Serenity (or perhaps my attention span is just beginning to falter at this point). There's another maze that plays just like all of the other mazes as soon as you shoot the 2-3 zombies initially walking around on top of its walls (so, probably within 15 seconds of entering the area for most players), and another four-armed powerup dispenser that somehow reminded me of the 'vending machine' from Serenity's E3M4--a lot of work for stuff you don't even need at that point. Taking the rocket case teleports you away to a sudden ambush (I wish the set would do that more often, incidentally), but you can freely return to the area to get the other stuff....might've been more interesting if it was a one-time scenario where you had to choose your prize, but alas.

Again, one of the episode's more likable maps, despite some issues.

[dobu gabu maru]

E2M6: Don’t really have comments here. Not a bad map, but definitely the least memorable thus far.

E2M7: The post YK trap was really good, smartly utilizing a baron to your side and a hallway dense with baddies that you have to chew through. At times it was a bit too cluttered, as certain battles were just you standing at the end of one hallway and blasting fools on the other end, but it played pretty well overall. Needed more shells however, as I had to resort to pelting all the enemies at the end with the pistol.

[Suitepee]

http://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/c/5683105 = my playthrough of Infinity. (continuous)

2 out of 5 from me. After Eternity I was expecting this one to better still in progressive terms, but alas it seems the wad authors went back to the gentle stroll style of Serenity instead of upping the ante from Eternity.

Nothing particularly wrong with this wad; looked nice, played nice (and easy). But was expecting a bit more this time around.

And the ending was once again bad, but more so than the other two wads.

My vote for January 2015 is Resurgence.

[Walter confetti]

E2M7: Not a bad map, like scifista i liked the spiral staircase near the lift stairs, also the lifts building was pretty cool. Oh, and the bridge near the entrance is cool.

Also, more maze a little door maze in the already mentioned bridge room for my pleasure, but over this annoying part the rest of the map is decent, gameplay is kinda of easy (well, not that much since i died few times due to my low Hp caused from the early map...

Layout is ok, a little linear in some parts, but it flows well.

Overall, not bad. Also exit was easy to find and pretty unexpected.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

ETERNITY.WAD E2M2:

Uuugh. Got hung up on this one for quite a while... let's see, item placement is really out of whack in this one, you have to be very stingy with ammo in the first part, then when you reach the door maze you're suddenly given way more shells than you need. Just moving one or two of those shell boxes to earlier in the map would have made things a lot smoother.

Speaking of the door maze, pretty stupid area.

The bridge trap was pretty much a "we hate the player" moment, what with pretty much unavoidable hitscan attacks from the balcony, and compounded with the discovery that after it, there's a mandatory run over a damaging floor to open the exit area. "Congratulations, you survived our diabolical trap, but it looks like you didn't make it through with enough health, so die anyway, just because!" Health is pretty sparse in the level, too.

Suffice to say, I did not like this level. It was closer to an id-type level in layout, but given a choice to replay this or Serenity E3M6 for fun, I'd take E3M6 because at least that one played fair. Even ditching the damage blood around the exit would've been a big improvement.

ETERNITY.WAD E2M3:

Well, after the previous level this felt like a pretty big improvement.

Interesting texture theme, combining the star-green textures with green marble, wood and metal. Could have used a little more of the wood in places to make it a bit less thoroughly green all over , though.

Progression was kind of puzzley/cryptic in places, with some doors marked only by faces/gargoyles. The way you move through the level is kind of interesting, though, with the yellow key being the first one you see but the last one you get as you go on a big trek around to activate the mechanism that gets you to it.

Not bad.

ETERNITY.WAD E2M4:

This one is beginning to show some pretty good architecture compared to some of the earlier efforts; curvy stairways, bridges with railings, etc.

Yet more having to run along damaging floors, though. Rrrgh. At least it didn't get me killed, this time.

The exit trap fooled me, though I managed to survive it. I had a feeling it seemed like an awful short level, but decided what the heck... That and I usually kind of feel like that's a trick no one does after Halls of the Damned did it, yet this one managed to feel not overly like a rehash of that.

There were some interesting mechanisms, like the one that's a door on one side and a switch on the other.

I didn't manage to get the BFG that it teases with outside the window, but I didn't really try either.

Pretty OK, but devolves to a bunch of "find the next hidden door in the hidden passage" at the end.

[7hm]

Slot: 2 5
Map: Through the Eye of the Needle
Author: Holger Nathrath, Bjorn Hermans
Notes:
Still nothing really in the way of standout combat encounters, but this one had a couple decent little puzzles: the red key door and the staircase that cut off halfway through. The map was tough enough - a number of ambushes and a lot of fighting in tight spaces. I liked the look of the level too.

Slot: 2 6
Map: The Underground
Author: Holger Nathrath, Bjorn Hermans
Notes:
I have almost nothing to say about this one. I played it this afternoon and barely remember it. A competent map.

Slot: 2 7
Map: Escape While You Can
Author: Holger Nathrath, Bjorn Hermans
Notes:
The T stairs were nice, and I liked the spoke lift thing right before the end, but the rest of the level was just more of the same hallway / room monster killing.

It's good that the levels are short, because the gameplay is boring.

[Magnusblitz]

E2M7: Escape While You Can
99% kills, 0/0 secrets

There's some interesting rooms here, such as the large moving T lift, or the maze, or the ambush right after the yellow key, but everything in-between is a bunch of small, monotextured hallways that aren't that interesting. And some of the other concept rooms, like the four-armed lift area with the powerups, is just a waste of time with no real actual gameplay impact. As far as I can tell, the yellow key isn't actually used for anything except indicating a giant PLEASE GO HERE for the teleporter that opens up the rest of the level.

[Capellan]

Eternity 8
There’s a flicker of excitement when you activate the first switch on the map. I imagine on pistol start it’s pretty hairy, actually. Of course, given that there are no weapons on the level other than the shotguns dropped by sergeants, pistol starters have bigger problems to worry about.

On continuous though, the flicker of excitement gets snuffed out fast: you can easily camp the blue door hallway and mow the hellspawn down as they bunch up around the entrance. A couple of demons being released directly into the hallway would have helped stop that.

There’s also an actual trap on the N in ‘serenity’, though ironically if you don’t step on the letter it won’t activate. Final battle is completely meh, since you can easily circle strafe the big guy. Adding some other meat to the fight would have prevented that.

Not sure what the point of the yellow key door is. I guess it lets you see old cybie before you walk off the platform and get stuck in there with him?

Looks are basic. It’s almost all stone1 with a handful of embellishments. I did like the gray ‘teeth’ doors though. They were simple but effective.

Eternity is technically stronger than Serenity, but it makes a lot of the same gameplay mistakes. Will Infinity deliver something more memorable? I have my doubts.

[dobu gabu maru]

E2M8: Aha, another brutal pistol starter here. That dense clusterfuck of a start feels like something I would’ve designed, although I probably would’ve handed the player an SSG. Given the high amount of monsters and low ammo, you’re better off zipping through it, so you can imagine my surprise when I dropped down into the final arena just to see a cyber stuck in a “Y” and 8 shells in my shotgun. We glared at each other for a bit, both of us baffled, until I decided to noclip around for some weapons. TURNS OUT YOU KINDA NEED THE PG FROM A PRIOR MAP. So that’s the end of E2 for me—definitely better than E3 overall.

[Magnusblitz]

E2M8: Serenity Forever
100% kills, 0/0 secrets

This map gains some points for a battle that's actually decently challenging, though unfortunately the cyberdemon battle itself is ridiculously easy, at least in ZDoom... the cyberdemon can't move, nor can it shoot over the "Y" when raised, but the player can shoot it... no challenge there. Not sure what the point of the yellow key/door is, either. Some of the rooms have some interesting angles, but the whole map is just textured in boring old STONE2, which really makes things pretty forgettable and drab aside from the letters spelling out SERENITY. That and it might well be impossible from pistol start, given the lack of weapons and ammo in the map (though I suppose it may be possible to punch the Cyberdemon to death by abusing the "Y" lift, if the player has nothing better to do with their life).

Overall Thoughts:

Well, it's certainly ages better than Serenity, which felt like a collection of someone's first WADs cobbled together. Truth be told, I don't see why anyone would remember Serenity fondly, 1994 or not, but with Eternity I can see why people would've liked it in 1994. Most of the maps are solid, though boring... not a lot of poor design choices so much as the absent of good ones.

I'd say E2M2 and E2M3 are the best maps of the set (despite their poor finishes), worst is probably...eh, E2M6?

[Salt-Man Z]

E2M8: Serenity Forever
I find myself using the words "fun little romp" a lot, but it could hardly be more accurate with this map. As the climax of the episode, it's pretty poor: the cyber battle in particular is laughably easy on continuous, nigh-impossible on pistol-start. On its own merits, though, it's a nice little piece of run-'n-gun action. I especially liked the initial ambush, the room letters, and the toothed doors that Capellan made note of.

ETERNITY overall:
It may just be the nostalgia talking, but I think I still more or less liked this set of maps. I never noticed all the monster-blocking lines before (probably didn't even know it was a thing at the time) but they're plain as day to me now; just eliminating those would make this a much stronger episode. Still, it's a lot more memorable (and nicer to look at) than SERENITY. Looking forward to seeing how INFINITY holds up...

[Walter confetti]

E2M8: A boss map like the Serenity map, only with more puzzles and less recognizable map section, still plays linear and "temple" looking layout, it's a ok map.

Overall, another nice classic episode, now more pertinent with the episode theme, more details and eye-candy here than the earlier episode, some up and down with the maps look, next one is the final chapter, Infinity!

[mouldy]

E2M6 - "The Underground"

This one also felt like a step back to the old unimaginative style of the previous wad, lots of square rooms and straight corridors. It also had some annoying gameplay whereby I had to creep around on low health for most of it, thanks to shotgunners and no armour. Seemed like not much health either, and ammo actually ran out at a point where it was nearly game over. I was trapped on that walkway around the nukage pit by a baron of hell, and had no bullets left. Somehow I managed to get around him only to find I had to squeeze back past him again after hitting a switch. Not a nice map for pistol starting I guess. Oh yeah and the music was utterly hateful.

E2M7 - "Escape While You Can"

This was a weird one, I had no idea where I was going most of the time, with all the teleporting randomly and circling back with new paths opening I never found myself hitting a dead end, so just kept going and eventually there was an exit. I'm sure I must have missed a load of stuff, but as the map title says, escape while you can. Lots of quirky stuff along the way, including a hedge maze, which I was glad to get out of. On to the final map..

E2M8 - "Serenity Forever"

Right, this wasn't designed for pistol start so that was a complete waste of time. I did manage to somehow survive the whole thing up to the cyberdemon, but with only a shotgun and 18 shells there wasn't much hope of finishing him off. Think if I take on the final episode I will just play continuously, its an interesting challenge doing these on pistol start but if they are going to be impossible then stuff that.

Final thoughts on this set of maps... well they are better than the first lot at least. The visuals are certainly a step up, the gameplay is still finding its way though, I think I will play the last episode anyway, just to see if things do improve.

[Demon of the Well]

Eternity E2M8 -- Serenity Forever - 100% Kills / No secrets
The episode finisher really isn't as relatively strong as the one from Serenity, surprisingly....there's nothing here that's nearly as striking as the shadowy grand hall from the Church of Poisoned Minds (even the trademark ____ity stained glass seems like it was deployed as an afterthought in this case), and so the sense of atmosphere is less pronounced. Not to say that the level lacks for some memorable presentation aspects, mind you....the S E R E N I T Y chain of rooms is hard to forget, certainly. This kind of silly self-reference isn't really to my personal taste, though....again, I can see how some might find it cute/fun/charming, but it doesn't really work for me. Odd choice to go with stock music for this one, too, incidentally.

That being said, the level's not without interesting aspects, though the main one, that being the infamously inhospitable pistol-start, is presumably more of a happy accident (well, "happy" if you're the right kind of weirdo, anyway) than a result of a conscious design choice. As others have said, the only available weapon is the shotgun, and that's only once you lift one from a devil-sergeant's cold, dead hands. The single largest body of monsters in the episode is sprung on you at the outset; a pistol, 50 bullets, and a shotgun and a handful of shells available from the sergeants in the encounter is not really adequate firepower for subduing said encounter in a straight-up fight, but if you simply flee from it not having the shotgun/shells will make progression further in that much more inconvenient, and may even constitute a 'dead game' if you run into the cyberdemon at the end with insufficient ammo (him being fixed in place probably makes him slightly more difficult to punch to death, if you're that kind of lunatic). Ironically, though, yet again it ends up being a monster-blocking line that really changes the course of the game....there's one at the entrance of the hallway out of the first area, so you can stand behind it and thumb your nose/spank your shanks at the monsters while they slaughter each other in (very justifiable) disgust and frustration--often, the Baron can take the rest of the room by his lonesome, leaving you to finish him off with a few pistol rounds before collecting all of the ammo off the dead zombies, which should give you strong enough a start to make it to the end with enough ammo to kill the cyberdemon, as long as you continue to use infights where convenient.

The other wrinkle here is the yellow key secret, but it's only really relevant on a continuous playthrough as well. What this key does is activate the east wall on the patio at the entrance to the cyberdemon's room, meaning that you can stand on the patio and fire at the cyberdemon with impunity--his position behind the 'Y' in relation to yours means that he will never be able to hit you, even if you stand stock-still. By contrast, if you don't have or don't use the key, stepping off the patio activates the 'Y' and causes it to regularly raise/lower, meaning that cybie can occasionally get a clean shot at you, although he remains glued in place and is thus still highly ineffective as a threat, beyond that represented by the possibility of being unable to actually finish him due to insufficient ammo. As a boss fight it's really even more pissweak than the one from Serenity, if you think about it, but the whole deal with the secret is a novel idea, I guess. Waaaaaay too metagamey for my taste, mind you, but interesting nonetheless.


Eternity's kinship with Serenity (and Infinity) is starkly obvious, but I would agree that it's a slightly more palatable experience overall. It has all of the same strengths and all of the same weaknesses; the strengths are delivered in a slightly more consistent manner--e.g. no obvious build-quality outlier like 'Big Time' here--although the conceptual bits may actually be less memorable than those in Serenity. Action, well....just like in Serenity, it's still mostly nonexistent, and occasionally insulting--the monster-blocking lines are really a serious problem here. The lack of balancing for pistol-start, which some may reasonably see as a fault, is actually something I kind of appreciate, personally--it certainly adds a little bit of extra depth to a couple of levels, keeping the episode from being as monotone in the combat department. Still not the kind I'd have ever revisited outside of a setting like this, but the authors' improvement over time is nevertheless evident, something which presumably/hopefully continues in Infinity.

[Capellan]

Infinity 1
Well, the authors still appear to be confused as to the purpose of ‘secret’ tags on sectors. And they still love compulsory nukage runs. That fact, along with the prevalence of hit scanners and absence of health, makes the first half of this level tougher than pretty much anything in the other two wads (for continuous players anyway; it’s clear the later maps in those episodes give no thought to pistol starters).

Compulsory nukage and wonky secrets aside, this level gives me some reasons to be hopeful about the episode. The integration of the ‘letters’ gimmick is much more smooth and unobtrusive than before, for one thing. The architecture has stepped up a bit too. There are still too many corridors, but the big chamber in the north-eastern part of the level is nice and open and has a decent multi-stage battle in it. I wish they’d made the ‘caged’ monsters in the middle rise up at the same time as the eastern section opened up, though. That would have made a nice crossfire.

Lighting is good in this, too. I especially liked the early room with the four pillars around the ‘skylight’. That was nice. Sometimes the lighting has no ‘in game’ reason for existing (such as the cages in the north east which are more bright than the room they attach to, but have no lighting source to justify this), but that’s a relatively minor issue. It’s clear they didn’t actually understand how light levels work - they use 5-point light gradients for instance - but that’s to be expected given the era.

Gameplay is … uneven, but better. There’s more use of monster closets, which can become a tiresome motif if overdone, but at least there are a couple of ambushes that come at you from multiple directions, and a few closets that open in ‘already explored’ areas that you have to later return to. The latter makes for a lot less wandering through empty halls, which I appreciate.

There are still issues, of course: pinkies in places they can’t reach you, random block monster lines, an exit that isn’t marked until after you go through the one-way teleport to get to it. Progression is sometimes not well defined, either. You need to go up the stairs in the north eastern room to open the area you need to continue, for instance, but the only motivation to go up there are the bullets from a couple of troopers. Well, also a not-aligned texture, but that’s not really a good clue. I’d have moved the medkit from the middle of the room to the top of one of the flights of stairs to encourage the player to go up there.

Overall, though? One of their best efforts so far.

[Magnusblitz]

Infinity E1M1: Switch Bored?
99% kills, 10/12 secrets

As Capellan says, this level can actually be pretty tough - no armor, low amount of health (I think there were 4-5 medkits across the whole level), lots of hitscanners and forced nukage damage means your health will be slowly but surely whittled away. This level is actually a perfect example of why I despise forced nukage damage... I was playing a bit sloppily early on, got to the key hub at around 22% health, and then had to run through slime to proceed. Fun. I think that's where my missing kill was, didn't have time to sit and chat with the imp, boots were burning...

Anyways, it continues the same slow climb in quality that Eternity had over Infinity... it looks a bit nicer, and plays a bit nicer (the area behind the yellow key shows some nice vertical differences, even if it's a bit undertuned due to the monsters used). Still, annoying things like pinkies blocked off with block monster lines, one-way unmarked exit, incorrect secret tag usage... some things just stay the same, I suppose.