The DWmegawad Club plays: Doom 2 Reloaded

[dobu gabu maru]

What is the DWmegawad Club?
This is a place where we settle down, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice) and take a month to play through a megawad on our own, together! Any keen observations, criticisms, or frustrated ranting about it goes here in the discussion. As long as you want to say something about what you've played, feel free to speak your mind.

Can I join?
Sure. The only rule is that you have to play at least some of the levels in our monthly megawad to contribute, but you're generally encouraged to finish the whole thing, even if you've played it before.

What levels am I allowed to post about?
Whatever day of the month it is, is the upper limit for the map you can post on. So if it's the 6th, you may discuss up to MAP06.

Do I have to post an entry every day?
Nope, not at all. This is only for our more enthusiastic members. As long as you play through it with us you’re part of the club.

----------

>>>DOWNLOAD DOOM 2 RELOADED<<<

Doom 2 Reloaded is a one-man vanilla-compatable megawad created by Andy Stewart, released in 2009. It features small to medium sized maps that should provide some good Doomin’ action. So (re)load up!

Maplist for Doom 2 Reloaded:

Quote

Map01 - “Infestation”
Map02 - “Return to UAC”
Map03 - “Phobos Overdrive”
Map04 - “Alpha Base”
Map05 - “Lockdown”
Map06 - “Comms Station”
Map07 - “Witch Space”
Map08 - “Waste Processing”
Map09 - “Phobos Subversion”
Map10 - “Adminisration”
Map11 - “Phobos Lab”
Map12 - “Return to Earth”
Map13 - “Slime Falls”
Map14 - “Underground”
Map15 - “South Central”

Map31 - “Entryway Reloaded”
Map32 - “The Super Secret Level”

Map16 - “Research Facility”
Map17 - “Downtown”
Map18 - “Warehouse Siege”
Map19 - “Void Complex”
Map20 - “Revelations”
Map21 - “Limbo”
Map22 - “River Styx”
Map23 - “Elysian Plains"
Map24 - “Necromanteion”
Map25 - “Hell’s Gate”
Map26 - “Acheron”
Map27 - “Phlegethon”
Map28 - “The Underworld”
Map29 - “Cocytus”
Map30 - “The Final Conflict”

BONUS CONTENT
Suitepee's playthrough: 1 2a 2b 3
Lingyan203's playthrough
----------
OLD THREADS
BF_THUD!
Community Chest 4
Jenesis
MAYhem 2012
Memento Mori
Interception
2002: A Doom Odyssey
Hadephobia
Coffee Break & Fava Beans & Double Impact
HYMN
Stardate 20X6 & Monochrome Mapping Project
Realm of Chaos
Back to Saturn X E1 & Favillesco E1
Kama Sutra
Unholy Realms & Zone 300
Vile Flesh
Ultimate Doom
Whitemare & Sacrament
Scythe
Epic 2
Whitemare 2
Sunder & Countdown to Extinction
Doom 2 the Way id Did
MAYhem2048
Stomper
Back to Saturn X E2
Going Down
Rylayeh & Crimson Canyon & Azagthoth
Serenity & Eternity & Infinity
Resurgence
Requiem
ConC.E.R.N.ed & Draft Excluder

Edited May 9, 2023 by dobu gabu maru

[AD_79]

Let the seriousness of this serious thread commence

[Suitepee]

I will join in with the Club this month once I finish my playthrough of Brutal Doom. I know absolutely nothing about Doom 2 Reloaded so I hope it's good!

[Memfis]

01 - this has to be one of the weakest megawad openers ever. You spawn facing a plain door - I can't possibly think of a less exciting starting view. Then you go through a series of basic rooms with some of the ugliest iwad textures used extensively (CEMENT, PIPE, SHAWN), afterwards you reach a boring area with these bigass lifts... I respect Doom 2 reloaded but this introduction is very weak.

btw: D2RMUS

[Surreily]

A new month, a new WAD to play through. And it's a Doom II wad this time, so I'll surely be swarmed by revenants before I know it. Yay!

As always, I will be playing continuously with the occasional quicksave on ultra violence with no vertical mouselook. I will attempt to go for 100% secrets and kills.

MAP01: Infestation - 100% kills, 100% secrets
I played through this one twice because I accidentally started on the wrong difficulty due to me not knowing how to properly use Jimmy's Jukebox.

For a first map, it's rather large and features several areas. The detail level is low, and the starting room is just horrible - I have to agree with Memfis on this one. If I were to make this map, I would probably not use the CEMENT textures as much as they are used here. I'm also not too sure about the waterfalls - they're just the standard water flats which don't really flow downwards as they should.

Introducing the first revenant before the player has upgraded from their pistol makes for an interesting little challenge - the player must run past the revenant and claim the shotgun before the revenant can be killed. Most of the enemies are gunners, and there are a couple of higher tier enemies like hell knights and cacodemons too. Nothing too difficult, but I'm sure it'll already be beyond my skill by the time I reach MAP05 :)

I only found two of the secrets on my way to the end, so I had to backtrack and find the remaining three. A couple of them were hidden in creative ways, but the items hidden within trivialized the map in terms of difficulty - especially the mega-armor and soulsphere secret! I must applaud the author for taking time to properly hide the secrets on the automap - something I rarely see done properly.

Overall, a decent introduction map with some fun gameplay. Height variation is used well throughout the map - particularly well in the first area with the revenant and gunners far above. The only flaw is the rather ugly texture scheme which doesn't leave a good first impression. But whatever, I am sure the next map will be prettier, and I am definitely looking forward to playing some more tomorrow!

[NuMetalManiak]

there's a second D2RMUS? I didn't know that, I always would DL this from DSDA for that D2RMUS. anyways, GZDoom, playing with perkristian's sound effects as well as D2RMUS.wad (the OLDMUS from Memfis's link). this time, I'll join the pistol starters but I will do so on the ITYTD difficulty. I've played D2RELOAD a lot on the higher difficulties, and since I suck with pistol starting I chose to go easy. this shouldn't be of any trouble.

MAP01 Infestation

A lot of people always consider it important for the megawad to make a good first impression with its MAP01. now I don't care much about that but I'm not a fan of this MAP01. The spacing here is pretty broad, and there are quite a few hitscanners while my only distant weapon of choice is a measly pistol. the shotgun in this map at the halfway point is only useful for running up and hitting some of the closer foes as it should do. and speaking of the halfway point, it's some sort of water canal structure thingy that has a few imps on the corners, which have some annoyance being the usual sniper monster. I didn't like taking the lifts to get around this part of the map. the vat room with the blue key was also not good for me, in that I'm trying to rush to the ground floor as the railings made it awkward for avoiding the zombiemen. at least I know that other maps in the set are better than this.

[Capellan]

HMP, continuous, frequent saves. PrBoom+. No music. No vertical mouselook. Infinitely tall actors are ON. I focus on finishing levels - not concerned about 100% secrets or kills.

map01
Yuck.  Plain, boxy locations with lots of hard to see hitscanners thanks to the dramatic height variations.  Too many blind and leaps and 64-wide corridors required.  Also: that is one ugly exit.

map02
Corridors, the Corridorining.  Now with extra backtracking!
It does at least look a little better than map01, though the railings without anchor points at the end are kind of naff.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP01: Infestation
100% kills, 1/5 secrets

Yeah, this is pretty bad. I don't care much about the opening room, mind (half the KTITD levels start with a door). But the rest of the map certainly doesn't get any better - huge, boxy rooms where height variation doesn't really provide much gameplay fun, unless getting sniped by impossible-to-see hitscanners is "fun." And the texture selection is pretty ugly, too. I was playing with the music WAD Memfis linked, which might've been a mistake since the music for this level made it even more boring than it otherwise could've been.

[Salt-Man Z]

Sure, why not? GZDoom/HMP/continuous/keyboard-only/frequent saves.

MAP01: Infestation
Got all the kills, but man the secrets just evaded me, though I did manage to find the SSG and the medkit off the blue key platform. Not a bad map, really. A game of attrition here, as the imps and hitscanners whittle away at you, while stimpacks show up occasionally. It's not a very pretty map--as has been pointed out, both the entry and exit rooms are beyond questionable--but I forgive all for that vista overlooking the main aqueduct.

[SyntherAugustus]

Level 01

Going to attempt to start a YT journal. Beware of lots of um, mods.

As the others said, the visuals and monster placement was a bit underwhelming. And golly, that was 7 minutes of D_RUNNIN. I'll try the D2RMUS thing to see if it's any better. I did like the whole Aquaduct theme, though.

[Havoc Crow]

I've never even heard of this mapset or mapper, but if it has "small to medium sized" levels, it seems right up my alley. Also, no ratings yet on idgames, so it's obviously a underappreciated gem which will turn out to retroactively deserve a Cacoward. So let's get Reloading!

(I'm playing continuously, on Hurt Me Plenty, trying to clear every level without saves if possible. ZDoom, infinitely tall actors, no vertical look.)

MAP01: Infestation

Oh swell, D_RUNNIN. I'm not sure if I'll be able to put up with the Doom II soundtrack for long.

My first impressions aren't too good. The level is quite ugly and dull, being covered mostly in CEMENT textures, which won't win any beauty contests. One slightly impressive moment is seeing the large vista stretching in front of you when stepping out of the first water tunnel, but then you realize that gameplay in that part consists mostly of riding tiny lifts up and down into identical small areas, which is boring - by the end I used IDCLIP to quickly move from one niche to the next without having to take the annoying elevators.

In terms of general gameplay, though, this map works quite well. Ammo and health are distributed very carefully, and the separate areas have a lot of vertical differences and make for quite interesting combat scenarios. Ultimately though it leaves a bad impression, because it's the visuals mostly which stay in your memory, and this map doesn't offer a lot in the way of appealing scenery.

These water wall textures are... weird. Other mapsets recolor the slimefall textures to blue, but here the texture is just the water flat, which doesn't look like a waterfall at all.

MAP02: Return to UAC

I like the flashing numbers, they add to the atmosphere. In terms of design and visuals this level is more appealing than MAP01, but the gameplay suffers. A lot of the combat scenarios take place in narrow corridors where enemies just come at you from far away and you can easily blast them from the distance. Ammo and health is being handed out way too generously, especially if you find the secrets, which are obvious, easy to spot (especially with the automap helping), and always contain a lot of gear. Having to backtrack to the beginning after finding the blue key was a bit annoying.

The end had me highly confused, as there seemed to be no exit anywhere and the yellow key I found just returned me to the starting room. It took using the IDDT cheat to see where the exit was, hidden in plain sight in a pretty dumb spot. The hanging EXIT sign is very hard to see, and how in the world was I supposed to figure out that approaching a metal pillar would somehow get me out of the level? There's no explanation for it whatsoever; maybe it was actually a pneumatic mail tube that the Doomguy uses to mail himself to another part of the base.

[Capellan]

JudgeDeadd said:

no ratings yet on idgames

I see 190 of them?

[Memfis]

JudgeDeadd said:

Also, no ratings yet on idgames

Hmm? I see 190 votes.

[TheOrganGrinder]

Hurt Me Plenty, continuous play, with lots of quicksaving, and I'm more likely to aim for 100% kills on secrets on the maps I most like.

MAP01: Infestation

Dark Forces, anyone? At least, that's the overall impression I got from this level; it felt, to me, more like Anoat City or Ramsees Hed than a traditional Doom level. The spaciousness and various elevated platforms make the most of the various hitscanner monsters. Otherwise, it's kind of underwhelming as an opening map, with a highly linear progression along a canal/sewer - some kind of water treatment plant, maybe?

I only found one of the five secrets, but it's what I assume to be the big one, hiding a soul sphere, blue armour, and a chaingunner ripped from the hands of the level's sole heavy weapons dude.

MAP02: Return to UAC

From MAP01's spacious environment that weaves between indoor and outdoor areas, we come to a much more claustrophobic little techbase. Texturing is more varied here but nothing jumped out at me as especially memorable... which is fine, it's only MAP02 and I fully expect the WAD to still be playing its cards very close to its chest at this point.

...I'm starting to think I've missed a super shotgun somewhere obvious, because with an arachnotron, a mancubus, and a few hell knights and revenants popping up already, the shotgun/chaingun combo feels a little anemic. I'll be paying more attention going forward, certainly.

[Havoc Crow]

Memfis said:

Hmm? I see 190 votes.

Indeed! Huh, that is odd! I swear I couldn't see any ratings or reviews the first time I looked.

TheOrganGrinder said:

some kind of water treatment plant, maybe?

Well, going by the textfile, that's a yes :)

[vdgg]

Will read your reviews with curiosity. In the one-man megawad territory, I prefer Vile Flesh > Doom II Reloaded, and as most of the people hated VF, I expect you will have no mercy to d2reload.

[Surreily]

MAP02: Return to UAC - 100% kills, 75% secrets
This map improves on the somewhat bland visuals of the previous one. A greater variety of textures makes each area far more unique than the previous map. So, this map mainly consists of twisting hallways with a couple of rooms thrown in too. It's a shame that many of the hallways here look like they were copy+pasted, but it's not too bad. My favorite area in terms of aesthetics was the yellow key room with its narrow ledges and darkness.

Unfortunately, there is a one-time secret in this map which I missed out on. I'm assuming the rocket launcher was in there because I picked up a bunch of rockets in this map.

This time, more higher-tier enemies were thrown at me, including a couple of arch-viles, but they were not anything I couldn't handle. Once again, the majority of the enemies were gunners, but the chaingun and super shotgun made short work of them. The only reason I came close to death was due to my own stupidity - it's not a good idea to run into a bunch of mancubus fireballs :(

So, to conclude, this map is a fair improvement over the first one, and the gameplay was a little more challenging too. I'm hoping it'll continue to improve as we go along!

[scifista42]

Doom 2 Reloaded is my very favourite megawad from the category of "amateurish" wads, those without seemingly top-perfectized style and polish coming from the mapper's experience / skill. Actually, the megawad greatly impresses me even outside this category. I find it wonderful. The reason why I like it is not really nostalgia, I think - in fact, I've only played most of the maps since half a year ago, my previous experience with the wad was really brief (coop through MAP01-02 with a strange gameplay mod a few years ago, maybe playing one or two random other maps since then).

There are multiple reasons why I like this wad. Primarily techbase theme is one of them - techbases are my favourite kind of maps. Semi-realistic design and depiction of the environments and details is another major factor - and I really appreciate how inventive the mapper was in this regard. Edited stock textures and caution stripes are used reasonably and they always catch my interest. The wad mixes oldschool and modern mapping elements, which is another thing I like. Aesthetical beauty and gameplay balance is OK; it has its imperfections, but these imperfections are actually sympathetic to me. I can see that the mapper was a human, and maybe I semi-consciously find it satisfactory to think like: "I might be able to map like that myself, which would be cool."

All in all, this megawad fascinates me and I'm going to praise it, I think. Like when the Megawad Club played Serenity/Eternity/Infinity and Memfis kept praising the maps a lot and I mostly just rolled eyes, maybe this time it will be me. Although I don't know. I didn't play the maps for quite a time, I actually didn't even play all of them, and rarely any map I've played more than once. I'll try to present my thoughts about them as I see them in this current playthrough, definitely. I'm looking forward to playing the megawad in this month.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP02 Return to UAC

I remember this map being rather tough on UV with the monster placement and all, but on ITYTD, it's a piece of cake. generic techbase map that has its share of fun where its fun. one thing to note is that one secret near the west side that closes off when you enter the room. I managed to rush in there to get the rocket launcher.

[mouldy]

Cool, not familiar with this wad at all. The usual pistol start UV type stuff..

Map01 - “Infestation”

This map gave me a lot more trouble than it needed to, thanks to taking a point blank barrel to the face at the top of a lift, and then finding out that there is bugger all health. Interesting to see revs this early. The visuals lean a bit heavily on that dirty white concrete, funky striped railings though. Found a peculiar secret, and SSG with nothing left to use it on.

Map02 - “Return to UAC”

This wad certainly isn't shy about introducing all the monsters, I think we've seen all of them now apart from the bosses. Not quite as generous with the weapons though. I think I saw a plasma cell and rockets, so maybe they are tucked away somewhere. But for me its just shotgun/chaingun, not so bad though. Bit claustrophobic this map, some of these rooms and corridors could use some more elbow room. Nice layout and visuals, the room with the rev crossfire gave me the most trouble, only cos its such a chore killing them all with shotgun that I lose patience and spaz about.

[Memfis]

Magnusblitz said:

I don't care much about the opening room, mind (half the KTITD levels start with a door).

There is an important distinction to be made. Yes, many E1 levels start with a basic room. But not the first one. E1M1 begins with an amazing atmospheric view that instantly draws you into the episode. In my opinion this is a very cool device and usually I expect something similar from megawad openers.

Of course, I'm not totally dogmatic about this stuff. Icarus begins with an even more basic view - just a plain switch - but when you press it and realize that you were inside a crate, then open the door and see that cargo ship... That's just really damn cool. I think every Map01 needs a "woah" moment somewhere in it.

[cannonball]

Map01 - “Infestation”
Too long and sloggy, and visuals don't start up to any exploratory value either. The start is very irritating, but once the first area has passed, the rest of the map is simple enough in difficulty terms. Found 2 of the secrets, the supercharge one and the SSG.
There have been worse map01s (CChest 1 for example), but still this gives off the wrong impression.

Map02 - “Return to UAC”
A little better at times, still pretty mixed, some good ideas mixed with some poor corridor sections. Found 3 of the secrets here.
I know some of the later maps are pretty cool, so at the moment I'm guessing Andy is still learning his trade.

[Memfis]

02 - much better already. Arch-viles on Map02 = good. Not a big fan of "traditional" techbases but Andy has a certain sense or realism and style that makes them a lot more attractive. Great use of the yellow lamp texture, I might borrow that for my levels. I like how soulsphere and megaarmor taunt you. On the other hand, the exit is kind of unsatisfying to activate as it's just an invisible line in a weird place.

[scifista42]

Map01 - “Infestation”

Good opener. It shows that the author had an artistic vision, and he proceeded to follow it, instead of following conventions of fancy mapping styles. And since he was talented, the result turned out to be good. The author knew about traits of good level design from player's perspective, and he did his best to incorporate them, while staying loyal to his concept / vision.

The level has goal-directed progression, involving fun stuff like leaping from ledges and climbing cooling towers. The level has distinct landmarks that look like they serve a purpose, which makes them interesting. The environment (dam complex with a few storage and office rooms along the way) is convincing as a part of a world of its own. There are custom textures that managed to catch my interest, notably the sloped caution railings and flat LITE textures, among stock textures like the unconventionally extensively used cement, which matches the map's atmosphere more than well. The level has just enough monsters to shoot for the sake of fun. The level provides challenge, which starts off reasonably mildly, but is present - for example, I like the start area that forces you to deal with multiple monsters in multiple strategic positions. Balance is more on the generous side, but not overly so, which makes me happy. The level allows backtracking through the entire map, which I appreciate a lot. The level has secrets that are fun to search for - I've found 3 of the 5, and cheated to find out the location of the other ones, but I didn't enter these (just opened their doors to look what's in there).

Not a pinnacle of mapping, but more that enough to get me interested in the wad. I like the map.

[driftyloon]

Yay Doom 2 Reloaded!

This is one of the first pwads I ever played :)

Map01 - “Infestation” secrets: 100% kills:100%
I will just put it out there that I do not like this map much. It is a very slow map for map 1. I spend a lot of my time waiting to go up and down on the elevators. It was not the greatest of starts. :(

Map02 - “Return to UAC” secrets: 100% kills:100%
A much more interesting map with lots of tight corridors to blast enemies away. Wasn't a fan of the one time secret, got in the place just as it closed(got my rl :3).

TheOrganGrinder said:

...I'm starting to think I've missed a super shotgun somewhere obvious, because with an arachnotron, a mancubus, and a few hell knights and revenants popping up already, the shotgun/chaingun combo feels a little anemic. I'll be paying more attention going forward, certainly.

There was a SSG in map01 as a secret and one in map03 in the open.

Thanks to Memfis for DR2MUS, I like the doom 2 music but not in the same order and after the 50th time. Normally I put on some slayer to play doom :o

edit: I was looking at everyones comments on the sound replacements. I am playing with beautiful doom so I did not realise the music wad that memfis linked had sound changes. I was kinda freaked out the first time I died. Yeah the rocket launcher really does sound like a springy doorstop.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP02: Return to UAC
100% kills, 4/4 secrets

Guess I'll go with pistol starts, at least for now. I will say that I don't like most of the sound replacements - the pistol sounds a bit weak/muffled (though it sounds great as the chaingun noise), the RL sound is laughable (it sounds like someone flicked a springy doorstopper), and the player death sound is just annoying. Oh well.

Anyways, this is much better than last map. Aesthetically, it's swerved in the other direction... whereas last map was mainly "big open spaces with big ugly textures" this is more of the "detail for detail's sake" approach, with a wall texture change every few units, light strips and door frames and blinking lights ahoy. Definitely a bit busy, but still preferable to the CEMENT leviathan of the first map.

Gameplay is decent here, I like the use of the Arch-Viles, and had fun clearing out the berserk pack room. I can definitely see why people call it "amateur" given how it has very much of a "I just made the level up as I went along" feel and layout to it, especially in the corridor-driven segments. People might complain about the one-time secret, but to me it feels fair, since it's right in front of the player and they can easily suss it out. The ending is a bit limp, though, as the AV doesn't really have much room to maneuver, and the exit is right there behind an invisible line.

[Capellan]

map03
I have three main memories of this map:
The SW1 texture that is not a switch (fuuuuuuu--)
The rocket launcher secret with a billion rockets
The massive swarm of monsters at the end that I completely ignored and just boogied off to the exit.
Otherwise, more mediocre tech-basing. Some areas are starting to look quite nicely put together, but others are just boring swathes of silver, and the layouts continue to be inelegant.

[scifista42]

Magnusblitz said:

I will say that I don't like most of the sound replacements - the pistol sounds a bit weak/muffled (though it sounds great as the chaingun noise), the RL sound is laughable (it sounds like someone flicked a springy doorstopper), and the player death sound is just annoying. Oh well.

I agree. I tried putting the new sounds and music and status bar into the wad. But I disliked the sounds, and I disliked the numbers on the status bar + how the status bar was modern-looking in contrast to old-fashioned usage of stock textures in the maps, so I deleted them. Then I've found out that even the music doesn't match the wad's stock-vanilla-esque nature as I know it, and so I deleted the music too. I'm playing the wad without the D2RMUS contents now. Thanks anyway for linking it, Memfis, I wasn't aware that it existed and I was glad to check it out at least.

[SyntherAugustus]

I'll be uploading videos for maps 2 and 3 tomorrow morning. In the meantime, this seems to be relevant with the amount of handrails in this levelset so far.

MAP02

The rocket launcher secret that pretty much trolls you after the revenant distracts you was rather um, silly. If you miss the rocket launcher, you're forced to clob though a bunch of mancubi and an annoying archvile fight with just a shotgun.

It is entirely possible to ditch the arachnotron in the berserk room for it to be consumed by infighting.

That exit was um, something.

MAP03

What the hell was with the shoot switch dressed as a hand switch?
It seems I missed a rocket launcher secret. And apparently I could have ditched the last large mob. Oh well.

And boy, it was rather confusing with the one switch behind the left rad suit doing nothing and the right one actually gets you somewhere. Talk about communicating with the player eh?

Edit: Videos for 2 and 3

[driftyloon]

@memfis Is it possible to give me a track list for D2RMUS?

Did someone make these tracks or are they midis from other games a la community chest 4 soundtrack?