The DWmegawad Club plays: Requiem

[vdgg]

MAP23 This map kind of... doesn't match well Requiem, because of ridiculously high total moster HP compared to the other maps. Just like Milo's MM MAP23... But I like it. The hardest map with continuous play, some bullshit moments. Nobody mentioned barrels in the first courtyard. If you don't destroy them, you'll be destroyed right after the yellow key.
MAP24 On continous, it is very, very easy. During my 3rd episode run I didn't get hit even once, and it was a speedrun! For pistol starters, it may be the hardest map of the WAD.
Visually attractive, though I dislike these small rooms with tile textures inside, which again feel out of place. I found gameplay great, because I never get tired of punching revenants. Three barons on a platform are completely illogical to me - they are one of the reasons this map hasn't been done Tyson style.
Overall, my favourite map of Requiem, Adelusion clearly ignores *mapping tenets*, so I understand some players hate it. But why not watch some demos instead of using words such as 'unplayable'?
Suitepee liked it (continuous) which was a shock to me. Didn't he notice how many reventants were there?
MAP25 Third excellent map in a row. Nice use of chaingunners and an arch-vile. Has VPOs, so wasn't tested properly :-P

[Memfis]

I encourage you guys to look in the editor or watch a demo to find out where the ammunition is. Just do it and you'll be able to enjoy the level normally. No need to throw it out of the window just because of one oddity. Come on, it was 1997. At least try to understand the map a little.

[Capellan]

I don't know what level you played but there's no way there are VPOs in map 25.

[vdgg]

Capellan said:

I don't know what level you played but there's no way there are VPOs in map 25.

A short nomonster demo I just recorded now which crashes vanilla (not sure if you have it anywhere installed), the message is "no more visplanes". http://www.speedyshare.com/5wAMc/25VPO.LMPEdit. Oops, it actually cannot be seen. The .lmp isn't saved when this occurs. It happens in the big courtyard when looking diagonally inwards.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/wojtunio/25vpo_zps6jiiq7ap.jpg

[Magnusblitz]

Capellan said:

I get the feeling Adel wasn't much interested in standard Doom gameplay by this point - certainly his STRAIN levels don't feature much of it. I think this level is pretty much continuing that theme. It's a puzzle with a specific solution, not a freeform environment to explore.

Memfis said:

I encourage you guys to look in the editor or watch a demo to find out where the ammunition is. Just do it and you'll be able to enjoy the level normally. No need to throw it out of the window just because of one oddity. Come on, it was 1997. At least try to understand the map a little.

"It was 1997" is not an excuse for poor gameplay design. Technology-related constraints, sure, but this has nothing to do with that - it's just bad design. It wouldn't've been appropriate in the IWAD, either.

And yes, I do think it's just straight-up bad design. Capellan's feeling regarding Adel's aims is probably right, but that doesn't excuse it. For one thing, its hard to justify something as a puzzle when it's not even clear there is a puzzle in the first place - there's no hint that the ammo trove exists, instead, it seems much more likely that the player is just supposed to run away or chainsaw/non-berserk punch everything to death, neither of which is viable (I suppose you could non-berserk punch everything to death if you don't mind spending an hour playing this map). The best way to do this is give some indication of what the player is searching for - for example, showing the ammo, but through a window, so the player has to find another way (think the soulsphere in E1M3). This is the same idea behind having colored key card doors - when the player finds a blue door, he knows there's a blue key somewhere to be found.

Secondly, it's not much of a puzzle - it's literally one switch. And there's no breathing room for the player to slow down and try to explore the level and wallhump everything. This makes it very much a bimodal solution - either you know where it is or you don't - there's no real 'solving' involved. It's the sort of thing that I think is 100% great for a normal secret, but requiring a secret to advance is a HUGE no-no. Yeah, you could also just play continuous, but this WAD was apparently designed with pistol starts in mind, and all the other levels are beatable (quite easily) from a pistol start, so why change it up now?

[Capellan]

I do not mean to excuse Adel. I'm not a fan of his work because of stuff like this.

@vdgg ... level was extensively playtested in vanilla without incident. Very odd.

[Memfis]

Not trying to "defend" that design decision. But maybe people can just learn about that switch from a walkthrough\demo and then play the map normally and comment on the whole of it instead of concentrating on one negative moment. It's not that big of a deal, especially since the rest of the map is pretty nice.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 24 -- Procrustes Chambers - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Mandatory secrets, ladies and gentlemen, mandatory secrets.

This strange map has a split personality, with which one you meet determined almost entirely by your mode of play (I assume difficulty setting must make some impact too, but I wouldn't know)--come in with an arsenal carried over from previous maps, and it's something like a Halloween haunted house put on by the local Y--lots of gloom and cobwebs and dungeon props everywhere, but nothing genuinely frightening since you can barge through to the exit with no real resistance any time you feel like. Play it from a pistol-start, however, and somehow what seemed quaint before is suddenly all too real, a sadistic horror flick come to life, with you starring as the ditzy blonde with big hair who inevitably manages to trip and sprain her ankle while running over perfectly flat ground in flight from today's remorseless serial murdering maniac, all dead-eyed grin and wielding today's vaguely phallic gore-encrusted implement of death.

From a pistol-start, the level cannot be played like a normal Doom level; instead, it's a big puzzle that plays out more like an old point-and-click adventure game (in this case probably "House of Wax" or one of those other funky Horrorsoft titles)--you have to determine not only what things need to be done, but also a workable order in which to do them. The only real way to do this, given the essential rigidity (and hostility) of the scenario, is via trial and error and all of the stark failures thus entailed, to be frank, and even then success will probably only come to players who are either very lucky or very observant, as the cornerstone of any kind of workable strategy is founded on noticing a subtle visual cue which opens access to a desperately need (though still rather modest) cache of weapons and ammo; ironically, this, the only truly mandatory secret in the map, is the only one not actually tagged as secret....I can only imagine this is the case precisely because locating it is so fundamental to making progress, although I myself also tend to make heavy use of berserk pack secret in order to ease the rest of the trip--I don't need to worry about ammo as much because I'm comfortable punching out skeletons and skulls later on when the ammo has dried up. The others you can take or leave, basically they'll just cut you some slack as far as survivability goes if you make mistakes (and one of them is easily missed due to a sloppy tagging oversight).

How palatable one is likely to find all this will vary wildly from player to player, of course. The first time I ever played I remember I was initially baffled, but not wanting to let the map beat me, I persevered, eventually stumbled on that all-important ammo cache, and made steady headway from there (though there are still many trials and tribulations remaining at that point, and it is still very easy to run out of ammo if you are not very careful about its use). By the end, I had developed a sort of Stockholm syndrome and come to appreciate the map, something that it was perhaps easier to do in this case in comparison to older pure puzzle maps I had played (old Cameron Newham levels like 'Daemon2' and the like, mostly) precisely because Adelusion put a lot of effort into realizing the setting, a hoary old torture-castle that may or may not be involved in the creation of revenants, its chief inhabitants. It's very much the kind of thing that will challenge you to re-examine your skillset and what sort of player you are, and of course some players will inevitably not be onboard with this, especially if they are not taken with the particular setting/aesthetic. I can't claim to be entirely innocent of this myself--you've all seen me writhe with revulsion whenever I come across a Scypek2 map!--but as far this goes the whole "Doom as (survival) horror" angle is one that I do find refreshing to partake of every now and again. Those arch-viles at the end, charging down the corridor to resurrect all of those bonemen while you're desperately low on ammo...man, I love that.

The really ironic thing, though, is that if you DO play it with carryovers--as I imagine more players than not would've done back when it was first released--then it has a lot of the same problems as many of Requiem's other levels, i. e. all it really offers is some aesthetic finery with very mediocre gameplay. In a sense, then, for its split personality and sense of aesthetic, we can perhaps say that moreso than any other map in the WAD, Procrustes Chambers is both everything that's right and everything that's wrong with Requiem, simultaneously.

[dobu gabu maru]

Memfis said:

But maybe people can just learn about that switch from a walkthrough\demo and then play the map normally and comment on the whole of it instead of concentrating on one negative moment.

I don't think people would find Eternal Doom nearly as frustrating if they had the exact location of all of the switches required to complete the more confounding maps, but that's missing the point. Going in blind, especially in a megawad that has been thus far very kind on pistol starters, is needlessly aggravating for this particular map and I refuse to abate my criticisms just because it can be solved by looking it up. Mandatory secrets are one of the things I hate most in Doom, and Czerwonka doesn't get a free pass just because his level looks and plays nice otherwise.

[Capellan]

I'm with dobu ... mandatory secrets are bad design. Not marking them as secret doesn't excuse that.

[Demon of the Well]

That it deviates starkly from the rest of the mapset (which it does to some degree, although ammo concerns from pistol-start are found in some other maps as well, including others by Adelusion) is something of a double-edged sword, as I see it. You can interpret it as being inappropriate because it is unheralded/unexpected enough that it thus presents a problem you may have assumed you wouldn't have to deal with, but it can also be seen as a refreshing shot in the arm for the same reason, something that pulls the rug out from under you and gets the juices flowing again in a mapset that has largely been too straightforward/unremarkable or in some cases too half-assed on the combat front to elicit many strong reactions. I like to have the tables turned on me when I play, and I've seen enough to know that if something seems frankly impossible (or unreasonable) at first blush then it's often meet to take a step back and come at the problem from a different angle.

On that point, the concept of mandatory secrets as being fundamentally wrong/inappropriate is also not one I personally adhere to, simply because by the time I first played Requiem I had already accepted that sometimes these are going to be a factor (they are of course much more common in old maps, where the taboo either did not exist or was less widespread). Seeing keycards hidden behind unmarked walls in long featureless corridors isn't exactly a pleasant experience, on the contrary--but upon swallowing the pill that I was going to have to look for nonconventional means to succeed in this map (e.g. "maybe there's a hidden weapon somewhere"), I found the loose stone without having to resort to random wall-humping--the visual cue is very real, if subtle--which for me was a rewarding experience, in that I had figured out (after quite a bit of failure, mind you, I've never claimed to be the sharpest tool in the shed) the trick via some inductive reasoning, which is a lot more satisfying and felt far less arbitrary than having to just blindly wall-hump, let me tell you.

All of that aside, I'll grant you there's a reasonable threshold on these things, and it can be hard to tell when your time is simply being wasted from an instance where there is more than meets the eye at play--broken or simply unbalanced maps are a real thing, after all (again, especially in older days)--but when playing a serious project such as this I find it's generally best to extend the designers the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes you get burned doing that, true, but the times when that 'eureka!' moment happens are often worth that price, I find.

[Magnusblitz]

Memfis said:

Not trying to "defend" that design decision. But maybe people can just learn about that switch from a walkthrough\demo and then play the map normally and comment on the whole of it instead of concentrating on one negative moment. It's not that big of a deal, especially since the rest of the map is pretty nice.

Honestly, it's halfway because I had already spent a ton of time trying to beat the map and was so frustrated that upon finding out that yes, indeed, there is a required secret, I stopped out of spite. I've got a million other Doom levels to play and a million other games, why reward this one?

Anyways, I did go back and play it with knowledge of the ammo depot, and finished it normally. It's pretty meh. Some of the aesthetics are nice (such as the guillotine or the moving chains on the doorjambs) but other parts aren't. I dunno what the heck is up with the green pathway to the red key, looks like an unfinished rough draft - and the baron placement there is also mystifying. I guess some of the stuff like the skin tarps are cool, I dunno, it has a bit of a 'local haunted house' vibe as Demon said. Finding the berserk pack basically solves the ammo problem 100% since the revenants are usually encountered one at a time after it, the only really difficult fight is the yellow key ambush (and maybe the Arch-Viles if you don't have rockets or they refuse to come out of their cubbyhole past the Adel doodad).

All in all it feels like a thoroughly mediocre map, even aside from the glaring design flaw. That said flaw was made 100% on purpose (as opposed to being a bug) is even worse.

[Pirx]

map 22:

town of the dead II with more and stronger enemies. same architectural gimmicks: map 13 had the 3d bridges, this one has the "turbine" with its 3d blades and imps standing on them for some reason. there are elements from the previous iikka maps, like the railings and map08 elevator. plus an abundance of arachnotrons to give the map its name, however these have rarely a field of fire in the cramped spaces, see for example the hallway leading to the exit teleporter.l uckily the map has a redeeming quality, a bfg to plow through these gobs of meat blocking the player's way.

this is where i got fed up by the excessively tight corridors and staircases allowing no alternative route. really, iikka made beautiful maps, but used his monsters like corks in bottles. at least, one can see his gameplay as a test of controlling tight spaces so that you don't get cornered. i remembered how this map seemed hard from pistol start because you have arachs in your back and revenants in your face. when the novelty of the architecture wears off, there's not much left, unfortunately. the worst offender was the music imo, it would have been ok for a short, slaughterish map, but this long, linear way with sirens in your ears? had to turn it off.


map 23:

as i was talking about how maps stood the test of time or didn't, there is one that still leaves a good impression: hatred. it brings freedom of play, lots of strong enemies and powerful weapons to fight them. the first, dark courtyard looks unsurprisingly "plutonic". the second one with light-colored stone is blocky and underdetailed for today, but plays well. i have to get rid of my habit of abusing infighting, as i tend to lose more health in the process than i'd lose killing the rabble myself. my only gripe is how out of place the ss look. i could understand if demonic magic conjured ghosts from the past in their authentic uniforms, or, even better, they were replaced with a new enemy made for this wad, but the cartoony blue figures stick out like a sore thumb.


map 24:

judging by the comments on the previous maps, it seems that most requiem maps fall into two categories: those who look well and those who play well. procrustes chambers is a polished gothic map, and whether it plays well or not from pistol start... hm that depends on your preference for maps with a strict economy of ammo. it requires skill (and luck) in handling those pesky revenants, tricking them into punching and knocking them out. i lose my patience quickly, so i watched sav88's demo from sda to see how it's best done. the berserk is essential. there's still luck involved as they can trap you, launch a guided missile at close range or refuse to infight. but for those who like this gameplay with minimalist equipment it's an entertaining map.

i liked the guillotine and the crucified marine. the low drumming in the beginning reminds of a quake track. but that switch at the yellow key really could have been made easier to see.

[dobu gabu maru]

Demon of the Well said:

Seeing keycards hidden behind unmarked walls in long featureless corridors isn't exactly a pleasant experience, on the contrary--but upon swallowing the pill that I was going to have to look for nonconventional means to succeed in this map [...]

I think that's something that's very fitting for your playstyle—you like to explore spaces and poke at every nook and cranny like a bemused historian—but I represent the near-bottom tier of player that doesn't get any secrets that his eye fails to catch and will clip around if he gets stuck. I can chalk up some things to my own impatience, but on maps where secrets don't give you an edge but fundamentally change the gameplay, I think that's a very rude disservice to players like me. You mention later about giving the designers the benefit of the doubt given the pedigree of the megawad, but thus far I've had to fight a mancubii at the top of an elevator with just the SG, enemies have pelted me from behind fake walls, and I've been teleported into exploding barrels—if anything, my experience makes me wary of more repugnant bullshit. Thankfully all the other maps were completable without having to spend time sniffing out secrets, but here, with revenant missiles hot on my tail, I wasn't going to give it the benefit of the doubt. I don't discredit you for liking the map but it's clear as long as the author provides an "interesting" experience, you'll find something in it that you like no matter how "bullshitty" it comes across to the lay man.

[Demon of the Well]

That it was the 24th map in a set of 32--a set that has had a lot of gameplay issues, and a lot of stylistic clash--is a point well taken, and I suppose that's one of the main issues with Requiem: it's very patchwork, and full of identity crisis, at times seeming like it would rather be something other than Doom. I feel this the most in the Iikka maps (although the last one actually has less po-faced Quake-envy and is a more traditionally Doomlike session, albeit a somewhat dull/sloggy one), but it shows up elsewhere as well. If I seem unusually interested in Procrustes Chambers (which is certainly a map that's not very traditionally Doomlike), it's probably because I know what's coming and consider its oddities to be a welcome diversion (along with map 23 and perhaps 25) in what I feel to be an unusually weak third episode for a project of this type. It's really the same reason that some players will welcome the short and snappy Demonfear infusions, I reckon--it's a break from drudgery. Of course, I already knew the solutions to the challenges here and so breezed through, but my initial experience of bafflement and feeling like I was slamming into a brick wall was not terribly dissimilar to the one many of you have had--the main difference being that I wasn't "on the clock" so to speak when I played, and so could take my sweet time to ponder through it. ;)

I still maintain that requiring secrets for progression is in no way categorically wrong simply because it's not something commonly expected (that everything has to be 'fair' is not a dogma I subscribe to either), though there are of course better and worse ways to do it, and ways that are more and less....let's say...courteous? This map's not particularly courteous, and while I'd consider the discourtesy a small price to pay in this case, I don't really hold it against someone on a blind run if they're not enamored with its "interesting" character hot on the heels of meeting many other "interesting" characters.

You are mistaken about my having an unfaltering taste for the novel and histrionically unorthodox, though--it may be more accurate to say that I have a fascination for unusual degrees and forms of unrepentant bastardry, rather than the unusual as a generality. The Club has just been fortunate not to go through many "interesting" maps that are interesting in a way that drives me batshit....yet. Although, there've been a few....'Dismay', I'm looking at you!

[TheOrganGrinder]

...Huh. Guess it shows that I'm nowhere near the top of my game that it didn't even occur to me to use a BFG on the Icon of Sin; I'm so used to thinking of the grinning goat-demon face as an illuminated banner declaring "SHOOT ROCKETS HERE PLZ."

vdgg, you're absolutely right about there being just the one Baron in solo play; I'd looked at the difficulty settings in the editor, thinking "maybe there's one Baron in easier difficulties, two in harder" but hadn't thought to consider the solo play vs. multiplayer settings.

Moving on...

MAP24: Procrustes Chambers

Playing continuously, this seemed... mostly unremarkable? I mean, I can just imagine how much of a pain this would have been from a pistol start as other people have pointed out; I was getting a little sense of that watching what supplies I'd stockpiled before the end of the previous rapidly dwindling over the course of this one. Otherwise, thought, it's a solid castle map with a very strong commitment to atmosphere and aesthetics let down by patches that seem unfinished or otherwise not up to the design standards of the rest of the map, and a sense that the mapper was (perhaps deliberately?) not playing to Doom's typical strengths in terms of gameplay. Maybe the previous level got my back up enough that the frustrations others have pointed out were outweighed by my sense of relief at being done with the ending of Hatred.

MAP25: Chaos Zone

Fun! I loved the swarms of low-tier enemies teleporting in, this really played to the strengths of Doom's naturally staggered teleport ambushes and created a sense of stemming a tide or trying to block multiple breaches, a constant and ultimately futile battle to mow down the demonic legions faster than they can enter the battlefield. Were the levels any longer I think the repeated use of this theme would degenerate to a gimmick and get tedious, but as it is, in a map of this size it doesn't overstay its welcome at all. The theme is consistent and the somewhat minimalist architecture has a pleasantly solid and chunky feet to it. Overall i very much liked it. :)

MAP26: Excoriation

More of the same in terms of a level that does a lot with a little, in terms of space and detail. Atmosphere is very much Thy Flesh Consumed in microcosm, which the presence of a handful of Doom 2 enemies doesn't detract from. The very open nature of the map lets everything turn quickly into a furball of violence if the player moves around carelessly or ducks into unknown territory to break line of sight with a chaingunner or arch-vile - it plays out as a single encounter that the player can escalate at their own pace.

...Is it just me, or are the descriptions for Chaos Zone and Excoriation swapped around in the text file? Each description seems to fit the other map much better.

[Capellan]

The maps are the wrong way around. I may have mentioned this once or twice :)

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP21: Den of the Skull
I had forgotten how extensive this map was! Still disliked it, though. Part of that dislike is unfair, as it comes from bad memories and the glitchiness that (presumably) comes from using a GL port. (I've half a mind to do a -nomonsters run in PRBoom+ just to see how things should look.) The biggest visual glitch was, of course, the sky battle: depending on where I stood, sometimes the ground would appear (in a couple places) and all of the switches and monsters would disappear. Made that area a total pain in the butt. But that's not really the mapper's fault (outside of designing such a bizarre encounter in the first place.) At least I didn't trigger the "stuck forever" bug this time around. The other reason I dislike it, though, is the gameplay. Barons in your face in a very confined area! Again and again and again (repeated three times in single area, even!) Fun! Not. And those chaingunners hidden inside an opaque doortrak were absolute BS.

MAP22: Arachnophobia
I actually really liked this one. Far less cramped than MAP13. And no GL bugs, which was cool. Not a lot else to say about it, though.

MAP23: Hatred
I have weird memories about this map. When it first loaded up I didn't recognize it. Then once I got moving I recalled it. Then I got to the double-Cybie encounter and realized I had been erroneously remembering that section as being from a Vanguard map. And then the final "city" section opened up, which I had forgotten was part of this map. Anyway. This one was fun, with a few annoying progression stalls, most confounding being the hidden switch to release the Cyber duo: I remembered there was a secret switch (I was even pretty sure I knew where it was), but I still had to wander around 5 or 10 minutes to find out how to access it. I will say that ghost Nazis were a surprise: I think when I played this map before it was actually in the ZDoomGL port, which must not have had the ghost monster bug enabled. The ghosts killed me a lot (I had already entered the level with low health), but it was satisfying when I was finally able to blast 'em to (spectral) bits. The second half of the level was pretty fun, but why anyone would think to use anything other than rockets on that IOS is beyond me.

MAP24: Procrustes Chamber
So I (obviously) played on continuous, but due to the large battles in the previous map, I started this one low on ammo, so of course I ran out about halfway through. Except for rockets, I still had plenty of those, but they weren't entirely helpful in the close quarters sections (also, I forgot I had them for a while.) I'll confess to chainsawing a few revenants: never a great decision, but sometimes the only option here. I won't hold it against the author, though. (And until I read others' reactions here, I figured it was just me being wasteful!)

[dobu gabu maru]

Demon of the Well said:

You are mistaken about my having an unfaltering taste for the novel and histrionically unorthodox, though--it may be more accurate to say that I have a fascination for unusual degrees and forms of unrepentant bastardry, rather than the unusual as a generality.

Ah, I see, my mistake. I think because I've seen you lambaste maps that come across as dull in both visuals and gameplay that I assumed so, completely forgetting that you've railed against Scypek and joe's maps in the past (and both of them are pretty unorthodox mappers). We'll have to agree to disagree on the mandatory secrets thing, much like our opinions on specters in the dark.

MAP25: God damn, did everyone just go insane after Casali’s map? What starts off as a decent romp just becomes ludicrous down in the courtyard, with hitscanners and the AV pelting you from afar as you struggle to scrounge enough ammo just to survive. At least you can understand what you're supposed to do in Windsor's map —with fortunate RNG I made it out with 8% health, but I still feel like these maps could chill out a bit.

MAP26: This one is a lot of fun. It’s about as hard as the others, but the short challenge comes from “how do I kill the PE & AV?”, with multiple routes to spice up your options so the constant deaths aren’t nearly as grating. Plus the lack of chaingunner packs allows the player to be more versatile, and nothing feels quite as good as when you finally take that golden pretty boy down. Fantastic map.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP25 Chaos Zone

and here's another short and fun map. the monster ambushes were pretty cool. no arch-vile on HNTR by the way.

MAP26 Excoriation

another short fun map. again, no archie on HNTR as there is a baron where he was. the hell knights on HNTR have a bit more health than the revenants though, not sure which is better suited for which difficulty.

[scifista42]

Map25 - “Chaos Zone” by Adam Windsor

Tiny, fun, good looking, but rather average-alike. Maybe too many teleporting monsters, but there was nothing terribly wrong with them. 3.5/5.

Map26 - “Excoriation” by Adam Windsor

Even more tiny, similarly fun, similarly good looking. 3.5/5 again.

[Capellan]

What are we playing next month? I want to nominate Concerned + Draft Excluder. With 32 non-secret maps we could do 2 maps on the 1st and a map a day thereafter.


MAP25
This level came about when 1996 Adam though to himself "Self, lots of hitscanners in your face will really wreck you". The obvious question then was how to ensure that lots of hitscanners were in the player's face. "Lots and lots of teleporters" was the answer, and what was supposed to be map28 of Demonfear was born.

That map was titled "Excoriation" (Chris got the names & descriptions of maps 25 and 26 reversed when he compiled the WAD), and I was pretty darn proud of it, once I was done. It looked good (by 1996 standards anyway), and it played exactly how I'd wanted: in your face and nasty. I was particularly happy that it had not only the by-then expected 'hot opening' of a Demonfear map, but also a memorable and challenging final encounter. Earlier maps in the series had been (quite fairly) criticized for having all the action front-loaded with just a few dribbles of bad guys to deal with after that, and I was determined that the same would not be said of this map.

And then my motivation for Doom level-making waned, and Demonfear remained two maps short of completion right up to the day when Chris sent his "Gimme me levels or else!" email. And this map found a new home.

I know it's small, and I know it doesn't have the cool engine tricks of an Iikka level or the meticulous visual detailing of Adelusion's, but I'm proud of the map nonetheless. I'll put its gameplay up against the other maps in the set without any qualms. I think it's a meaty little mouthful on that front. And given that Erik Alm did an homage to it in Scythe (albeit under its incorrect "Chaos Zone" title), I guess I am not entirely alone in feeling that way :)

(vdgg is right though - if you cram yourself right into one corner you can visplane it. Oh for chocorenderlimits in 1997)


MAP26
Now this is a map that can fairly be called "small", both in terms of area and in terms of the monster count. On the latter front it makes even map24 look beefy.

This is another Demonfear map co-opted to Requiem's service, of course. The core concept for it was to have a fortress overlooking lava, and a way for players to enter the fortress my parkouring up from the lava and in through a window, if they chose. Hence the poles in the lake. I also added the wooden 'steps' up to the archvile area to maintain that theme of alternate paths. Deathmatch support was probably a factor in that.

Looking at it now, I think that it probably needed a second wave of monsters when you grab the red key, though you'd need to do something to ensure the player couldn't just rabbit for the exit then. Either change the layout a bit or use some 30 second bars, probably.

I've already covered how these maps came to be in Requiem, and how this map has the incorrect name, so I don't have anything more to say about it :)

[Magnusblitz]

MAP25: Chaos Zone
100% kills, 1/2 secrets

Cute little map, and the blocky architecture combined with the use of lifts in the middle of hallways gives me a 100 Lines vibe, though the map obviously isn't close to that (some nice detailing with the light coming through the metal bars, for example). It's refreshing to just kick back and unload on scads of weaklings coming out the teleport traps. And the final battle is a good one - it's nothing too threatening in this day and age, but it can be challenging for players who aren't that good at threat assessment/prioritizing (as in - yes, get that Arch-Vile and then the chaingunners, ignore the riff-raff).

The real important question, though: why make all the marble walls Arch-Vile faces and put the Arch-Vile behind the baron face, instead of vice-versa? :)

MAP26: Excorciation
100% kills, 1/1 secret

Now this map shows the proper way to handle a low-ammo/health battle - MAP24 could take a pointer. I really adore this opening battle - it feels almost like a tactical game setpiece with the Arch-Vile from afar, the Pain Elemental which sneaks out over the lava, and the surprisingly dangerous hitscanner minions. It requires some cagey movements and a nice little 'dance' that took me a few tries but never felt frustrating since I knew I just had to handle the monsters better. I ended up popping the sergeant with my pistol, ducking inside for the chainsaw, chainsawing the Pain Elemental, looping around the lava for the SSG, then doing the SSG wall dance with the AV. Unfortunately, after this the map pretty much ends - there's a few more token enemies to take out, but they're easily dealt with the SSG/RL, and then the level ends after four rooms. The red key/door isn't even really necessary. As Capellan says, could've used another wave of monsters teleporting in after grabbing the key. But still, a good little setpiece.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP25: Chaos Zone
So it turns out a lot of these later maps I remember, it's just I don't remember them as being from Requiem. This one I had in my head as being from (or at least being part of another map from) NDCP. Anyway, woo, I love this one. I started out very weak and low on ammo from last map. The teleporter attack was fairly easy to handle, simply by hiding in a corner and camping a portal destination. All of the hitscanners gave me some ammo back, which was good. The thing about this map, though: every time you think you can let your guard down, BANG! another wave teleports in. Great stuff.

MAP26: Excoriation
I like this one, too, but it feels like only half a level. I wasn't going to take the lava route right away, but there was a shotgunner down there, and then when I went to pick up his shells, the PE around the corner saw me, and thus was my path decided. I actually really like that you can just go around the door like. Another fun (semi-) level.

So what it sounds like is, if I enjoyed these two levels a bunch, I really need to check out Demonfear, correct?

[Capellan]

Maybe. I think those two are better than the average for a Demonfear map. But Demonfear got me a spot in MM2 so it must have some merit. :-)

[Capellan]

MAP27
As map22 is map13's bigger, tougher but dumber brother, so map27 is bigger still. On the other hand, at least for continuous players, he's something of a gentle giant. There's really nothing here to trouble you if you don't play sloppily, and even if you do get a little loose there's a not ungenerous amount of health available (I left a soulsphere untouched and still exited at 175/175 or so).

If we continue the conception that use of engine tricks = brains, then this is also the dumbest of these three maps. I didn't notice any of Iikka's trademark 3d bridges, nor any fancy schamncy doors or anything like that. Just lots of normal triggers and sectors combining into a sprawling but basically linear level where you follow Iikka's trail of breadcrumbs back and forth across the map. I got stuck at one point after the cyber, but this was just a result of not paying proper attention rather than the progression being obtuse or arcane.

Things I like about this map include the brigher, more colourful texture usage and the more spacious architecture. The second in particular is a big boon, making for more free-flowing action on the whole. Not that Iikka's completely eschews his penchant for close quarters combat of course. Nor his baffling insistence on putting monsters right at the top or bottom of lifts, though in most cases on this map they're easy enough to cajole into riding lift into your line of fire rather than the other way around.

This is a big, bright, almost cheery version of an Iikka map, with a number of encounters that structure the environment in the player's favour: many times I was able to easily hide behind pillars or doorframes to take out completely helpless arachnotrons or mancubi. It makes for a low key, even slightly pedestrian outing for Iikka's final Requiem map, but I found it a pretty enjoyable diversion on the whole.

[vdgg]

MAP26 This was a disappointment, as it is way too short, but objectively speaking, the map has excellent monster & item placement.
MAP27 Boooring... With this formula, the map could be twice as long or (preferably) two times shorter. I recommend you to watch UV Speed demos, there is a strange shortcut which doesn't require any speedrunning tricks. It's just there. Was it intentional? You can skip 2/3 of the map.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP27 Cursed Kingdom

after two really short levels we have what I consider the longest level in the megawad. Iikka avoids any tricks and decides to give one hell of a city-style map that, unfortunately, was about as monotonous as MAP06 was in terms of switchhunts. it's even worse considering how many lifts you have to take just to get around everywhere, eating up a lot of time. the combat is pretty good though, and we see appearances from just about every monster in the game at several points or another. since I was playing on HNTR, the cyberdemon fight was practically harmless as there is another provided invulnerability right where he's at. I tried not to be monotonous when writing the walkthrough for this map, but that proved impossible. this certainly was quite a map, but too many lifts and switches to press really turn down the score quite a lot.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP27: Cursed Kingdom
98% kills, 1/3 secrets

Iikka's last map, and probably the longest (and most boring) one in the whole level set. It's another city map, but Iikka disperses with the thin railings and bridges and instead goes for a blocky style that, while indeed a bit larger, still is fairly cramped. The progression is still extremely linear and never progresses beyond 1) enter room 2) hit switch or ride lift, 3) go to next room. It's pretty yawn-inducing, and like his other maps, thing placement is just as boring. It wouldn't surprise me if the author basically gave up when it came to thing placement, as each room tends to only contain one type of monster, and they're all scattered about with relatively equal frequency... "this is the cacodemon room, this room can have some revenants, I'll put some arachnatrons in this one, now for some imps..." I think every enemy in the game gets used. It also gets worse near the end, as there's a bad amount of baron spam and not much in the way of ammo variety provided. There's one decent AV fight and there's a (worse) repeat of the "give the player the BFG then instapop a bunch of enemies on him" ambush from the last map, but these only standout because of the yawn-inducing nature of the rest of the map. The bland lighting (pretty much full bright for all of the outdoor areas, dimmer inside) and bad custom textures (what is up with that weird green brick/brown combo?) doesn't help things either.

There is one engine trick by way of using midtextures to create a window-above-window building... which is cool, I guess. But it's a really boring map, much longer than it needed to be.

[Capellan]

It's interesting seeing the modern day reaction to the maps of the man who in 1998 was voted "the best level author" :)