The DWmegawad Club plays: Scythe 2

[joe-ilya]

MAP03
Snatching a key through the bars from a zombie would be a better idea, but oh well, all the keys are used.

Best map so far, it still suffers from too much health like the previous ones, but that's fine as it's a bunch of starters to prepare you for the difficulty of the later maps.

This map is wider than the others and has cool traps that would work if it wasn't for the health overflow, I also spotted all the other secrets that I didn't see before and that was 3 years ago, long time. The enemy placement will still always make you move and strafe even if there's too much health.

MAP04
A funer and more non-linear map, I swear maps get better the more you progress, untill you reach the mayan episode.

This map is extreme compared to the previous maps, I liked all the technics used, the candles that towards the oven, and how the oven teleports you to the other oven with the red card which should be a skull to fit the organic and gothic theme more. The search for the shotgun is neat, there are two easy symmetric secrets in the SSG encounter for some reason, any idea why? Is that a left over?

Yet again, this map was smart too, and this time the health was spot-on.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP04: Cursed Cellars
100% kills, 4/4 secrets

Thought this map might finally throw a challenge at me with a pressure start, but its just the clump of (slow) enemies in front of you and it's quite easy to run and get the shotgun or SSG down below. Enemies still tend to be placed in front of the player in tight spaces where there's little threat. I liked the AV teleports - the first one in the dark area (where he lights up nicely) and the second in the imp pile, though the second got a bit neutered because of it. The plasma gun really makes the rest of the combat in this map a joke, though.

[mouldy]

Map04 - “Cursed Cellars”

This one seems a lot trickier than I remembered, I suspect its the pistol start. I went downstairs first to get some ammo and SSG, but by the time I'd killed everything down there I had no shells left anyway. then I had to run past an archvile and a wave of cacos just to find something to shoot them with. Ended up facing off with a spider down a narrow corridor. Exciting stuff. The exit room archvile was left alive, I didn't fancy taking him on with only chaingun left.

[Beed28]

MAP03: Castle Gardens II - ITYTD difficulty
The only thing that really stood out for me in this map was the unusual beginning where you had to open a hidden door (thankfully its location was fairly obvious) and the large courtyard. Oh, and we pick up a Rocket Launcher. Neat!

MAP04: Cursed Cellars - ITYTD difficulty
Again, more of the same, save for a Revenant ambushing us in the dark after we claim the Blue Key. We meet the first Arch-Vile here after nabbing the Red Key, who isn't too difficult to deal with. But then we encounter a second Arch-Vile behind the Red Door, guarding the exit portal. The only pillar to hide from him is surrounded by damaging lava, coupled with the fact he might revive the Mancubus that was here. But thankfully, you can just run past him before he has the chance to do any major damage.

MAP05: Halls of Anguish - ITYTD difficulty
Last map of the episode. There's a hefty bonus of a secret in the first room that gives you a Chaingun, Berserk, and a Soulsphere if you find it. Otherwise, just more Imps, Shotgun Guys, Former Zombiemen, a Revenant, and three Mancubi.

The forced death exit doesn't seem to work properly if you go through with full 200% health, 200% armour, and you're playing on ITYTD, where damage taken is halved; telefragging a voodoo doll would've done the trick.

[cannonball]

Map05 - “Halls of Anguish”
After my favourite map of the set so far in map04, this one is definitely my least favourite. In fact I would go on to say that this was a pretty dull experience with a rather easy boss fight. Not much else to say here really.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP05: Halls of Anguish

This one definitely feels more 'orchestrated' than the previous four, with little in the way of branching paths or exploration. Instead, the player is led through an escalating series of arean-style battles, opening with a swarm of imps and zombies (more than half the level's population by monster count, though not by health) progressing to an arch-vile and its cheer section, and finally wrapping things up with a cyberdemon guarding the blue key that opens the path to the exit. As such I find it almost inherently less interesting than the previous few levels, with a diminished 'sense of place' despite the consistent aesthetics.

On the subject of deadly exits... when it's done like this, to provide episode breaks in the manner of classic Doom that aren't otherwise readily replicated in the continuous progression of Doom 2, I don't object to it at all. It's an integral part of the WAD's setup and flow and allows the author to get more mileage out of the bottom end of the bestiary, though it's not an approach I'd want to see adopted in every WAD I played.

[joe-ilya]

MAP05
Only the start was exciting, after that it was just call of duty gameplay where you pick up kills behind the corners. The other thing that spiced this up was the pain elemental, not the cyberdemon, the pain elemental. It made you rush to its big mouth and dodge fireballs while at it and then the map turns into a slug again, good thing you can skip the final fight, I think a spidermastermind would be way more threatning.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP03: Surprised at some of the resistance here compared to the last map, but that’s due to the healthy amount of revs used at the end. Visually stagnant but still decent.

MAP04: I liked this one—it was short, sweet, and AV-centered. Funny that it’s called “Cursed Cellars” but that’s the first place you want to go. The return there with the crypt’s protector was a nice touch, though a weak battle if you have plenty of cell primed.

MAP05: This was a pretty good closer. The use of the single AV here is brilliant, sticking him at the end of a curved passageway so if you dive in to get the SSG you'll either have to keep him back there or retreat into the main hallway. The first time I played I didn't notice the SSG alcove so I wound up having to suppress him with the regular old shotgun, which got pretty hectic when he made his way into the main room. Unfortunately, the cyber battle wasn't only mind-numbingly straightforward but was also easy to escape from, so the map botches a chance at a really cool finale.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP05 Halls of Anguish

episode ender, it's pretty bleak, and very easy. on ITYTD there's three mancubi where the cyberdemon is, and I didn't even die at the death exit. but I'll still play on pistol start since I was already doing that.

Beed28 said:

The forced death exit doesn't seem to work properly if you go through with full 200% health, 200% armour, and you're playing on ITYTD, where damage taken is halved; telefragging a voodoo doll would've done the trick.

ITYTD players will have a hard time dealing with a certain death exit later in the wad. in preparedness I'll bump the difficulty up for that level when it comes. ;)

[Inkie]

MAP05

Standard boss battle. Kinda too easy really. The Cyber can't chase you out into the halls, and you can just ignore him, grab the key, and leave.

Anyway, we commit suicide so we can vacation in Egypt.

[scifista42]

Map03 - “Castle Gardens II”

The theme is stylish and well polished, I find it nice and inspirative, but it doesn't make me thrilled (I prefer other themes, tech-y over gothic). Very fun gameplay, short and simple but varied enough (but a little too straightforward for most of the part, even though the ever-present windows/openings hide it). Good secrets, generous while not too hard to find.

Map04 - “Cursed Cellars”

Cool layout, even though simple and partly symmetrical, it impressed me more than the previous map's one and I liked navigating around there. Also great music. Gameplay was OK and enjoyable, thanks to reasonable amounts and usage of high-HP monsters, but without making the encounters frustrating. 3 of the 4 secret tagged sectors seemed redundant, that's like the only flaw.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP05: Halls of Anguish
100% kills, 2/2 secrets

Some decent battles here - quite a few imps to make a pistol start hectic (if you don't fancy running up to all the shotgunners) and the curved hallway with the AV at one end and the Pain Elemental guarding the SSG takes some quick thinking. Unfortunately, the Cyberdemon battle is pretty tame by today's standards - plenty of room to move around and heck, you can just run from it if you want.

Overall, episode 1 was pretty underwhelming, nothing really bad but nothing great either. Might partially be that the Gothic textures used here feel a bit blah. Then again, Scythe 1 starts off pretty innocuously as well, so there's time yet.

[mouldy]

Map05 - “Halls of Anguish”

Funny I used to have this track on cassette tape about 20 years ago. Nasty pistol start, scrabbling for ammo amongst a ton of imps. However, I wasn't about to run out of there knowing an archvile was around the corner, who is also a pain to deal with. The cyber on the other hand is relatively safe to SSG through the doorway, if a little bit of a grind. Amazingly I finally found the secret soulsphere after all these years. Thus ends the brown episode, can't say its one of the reasons I ever come back to this wad but the maps are inoffensive and fast to play.

[Pirx]

4 - cursed cellars

same brown gothic castle as before, but with a bit of color variantion, a light green marble floor and those red crosses from gothictx caught my attention. you start in plain view of some enemies, but getting weapons didn't seem difficult. the map is non-linear and going to snag the ssg from a bunch of imps seem the easiest solution. there's one AV jump to get the BFG - was surprisingly reliable. 2 viles which are quickly fried.

i played rocking my feet to that music, and it stuck in my ears some time ;)


5 - halls of anguish

the final map of the gothic episode. at last i found the soulsphere, which let me approach the archvile fight more confidently. i found that guy difficult to handle due to his random reaction: you don't know when he'll attack immediately, staying in his spot at the end of the curved hallway, or run down that curve so you retreat to the starting room, or start resurrecting whatever you just shot... combined with a pain elemental and his pesky souls. once these 2 are gone, the cyber in the big hall is a footnote.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP06: Temple Entryway

And so we move from the castle theme to the Egyptian theme. A berserk pack is provided early on for demon-punching goodness, but otherwise it's a fairly gentle warm-up of a level, with the layout built around an east-west passageway. Plenty of weapons and goodies available for those who want to look. The architecture is heavy on square blocks but I actually found that very suitable considering the theme; it doesn't detract from things at all. A lot of the action so far has been 'bite-size' and I do wonder if the WAD is going to feature some larger levels later on, or if its episodic nature will contribute to a focus on these short sweet challenges.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP06 Temple Entryway

woohoo, another entryway. nothing to this, I just punched things and won pretty easily. I did forget one secret though, so I looked it up. Instead of using an editor, I decided to check out the Doom Wikia page on this map, since Doomwiki's Scythe II pages don't have a guide for secrets yet (at least for now anyway), and oh my god that Wikia grammar is atrocious.

and that is why we use Doomwiki.org folks.

[joe-ilya]

MAP06
Easy map with original mechanics, going for the distant shotgun while having a berserk fist is something never done before. Trying to kill all the enemies is obnoxious, this is clearly made for speeding through.

[Surreily]

Finally, an excuse to play Scythe II! Here I go again, attempting 100% kills (and secrets if I can be bothered) on Ultra Violence, save scumming my way through. Also, I suck at reviewing things, readers beware. I should also highlight that, much like last month, I will be playing far in advance to ensure that I will finish this (but only discussing them when the time comes).

Episode 1
If I have one word to sum up this episode, it is "easy". Not once did I die during this first episode, which is surprising, as I was expecting revenant swarms to show up a few maps into Scythe II, but apparently all the crazy slaughter stuff is reserved for the latter half of this WAD.

The first map, "Castle Entryway", certainly does look like some kind of castle. A fake 3D bridge effect is used in the central area. There is little challenge here - I had no trouble breezing through, claiming the keys, and reaching the exit, but I am not going to complain, for it is the first level!

Next, "Rooftop Warzone" ups the challenge just a little. The name is a little misleading - I was hoping to be leaping across rooftops, but only one section of the map seems to take place on a rooftop. There are a few small traps here, nothing too difficult though. Overall, it was a fun little map.

"Castle Gardens II" continues the castle theme, and here, much of the gameplay takes place outdoors in a central courtyard. I don't know why, but this map was probably my least favorite of the castle maps. There just isn't anything really unique about it - it's just another castle map.

Thankfully, "Cursed Cellars" threw an interesting and vertical layout at me. I really like those curved staircases (something which I enjoy putting in my own maps). The map was, once again, quick and easy.

This episode closes with "Halls of Anguish", a cyberdemon boss map. Nothing too difficult here, although I did come close to death thanks to my inability to dodge rockets. This map is nicely detailed, and has another of those awesome curved staircases. My only real complaint is that the map is just two rooms that look like they were copy+pasted, but despite this, they are used well for gameplay purposes. Upon entering the exit portal, the player is killed, and at this point I realize that this is going to be another Valiant-style WAD with themed episodes and forced pistol starts. Not that there's anything wrong with that, though!

Overall, a decent introduction to Scythe II. I do think that the difficulty could have been ramped up more steeply with these first few levels, and maybe some larger maps (especially for "Cursed Cellars"), but other than that, I had lots of fun here and am looking forward to seeing what awaits in the next episode!

[Inkie]

MAP06

I didn't see the berzerk pack until after I grabbed the shotgun. Just ran around pistoling imps and occasionally normal punching pinks. Only later I actually use the pack to beat off some skeletons.

The egypt look isn't too bad. Certainly better than TNT's, I forget how Epic's looked.

[mouldy]

Map06 - “Temple Entryway”

Wow, I finally worked out how to get the secret SSG. This map starts off with a lot of punching, which used to give me trouble back when I wouldn't dream of fist-fighting a hellknight, but now it seems very lenient. Has a very nice atmosphere this map, and even though its very short it feels complete, maybe because of the wrap-around layout. Does a good job of feeling like an egyptian tomb, architecturally.

[SyntherAugustus]

Level 06


....SCYTHE 2: THE TYSONING

:)

[Magnusblitz]

MAP06: Temple Entryway
100% kills, 3/3 secrets

Another really short map, but the Egyptian tomb setting is much nicer than the overly brown gothic mishmash of last episode, and I'm always a sucker for berserk fist gameplay. Didn't even notice the red door at first, interesting how quickly I'm programmed to grab the key without thinking about a partner door. The revenant trio at the end killed me a few times, embarassingly, damned spooky scary skeletons.

[cannonball]

Map06 - “Temple Entryway”
Not much to this one, the first half is very much tyson styled whilst the second half eases you into the lighter weaponry, not much else to be said. It's not difficult at all, even the revenants at the end to be honest. All in all a decent map.

[scifista42]

Map05 - “Halls of Anguish”

Really short and simple gameplay-wise, but it worked well enough for an episode finale map. The Cyberdemon fight was unfortunately both highly campable and skippable (actually the whole map was). I didn't find the secret until I cheated, even though I was looking specifically for differently colored torches, I somehow missed the one that was. This episode was short and sweet and I liked it, it just didn't make me particularly thrilled/surprised in any aspect. But I was constantly thinking: "It's good.", which speaks for itself.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP07: Temple of Isis

Well, as far as MAP07 tributes go this is a pretty solid one. The player begins in a guarded 'waiting room' with the exit visible across a chasm, but most of the action takes place in a large outside arena. What's interesting is the way that the player has a chance to take stock of the arena and acquire some supplies before the mancubi are dropped in and the fight begins in earnest, rather than the classic Dead Simple flow of dropping the player into the middle of a relentless bombardment right from the start. The layout is still 'bite-size' and I'm wondering if that's going to be a thing going forward; when the levels are this compact there's a certain urge to play more than one of them at once.

[Veinen]

Map04: Cursed Cellars

Quite enjoyable, competing for the best map in Episode 1 along with map02. Grab the SSG asap and lay waste is the name of the game here. Difficulty is bumped ever so slightly as there's a little more to kill and a little less space to work with but it's still an easy map. The trio of Archies are mostly harmless too, especially if you go exploring a bit and collect the PG. Ammo seemed well balanced to me here, and in previous maps as well actually, so that you're mostly comfortable but looking for secrets helps a lot. SPeaking of secrets, I thought the two identical secrets in the SSG area were a bit lazy; they are extremely easy to "find" and the HKs are a chore to dispatch even with the SSG. I thought the ending was a bit abrupt too and I would've liked to see a little more after the RK door than just two small boxes with one enemy in each. Count me as another fan of the curvy staircases and someone who tends to overuse them in my sorry attempts at mapping.

Map05: Halls of Anguish

Starts off nicely enough with some decent SG action against a whole bunch of small time baddies and possibly more as the Cacos from the hallway beyond can be invited to join as well as the lone Rev from the secret. The Arch-vile and PE combo is a nice enough challenge and forces the player to think for a bit. The grand finale, the Cyberdemon, is rather lackluster unfortunately. Neither the area or the Lost Souls are enough to make the dull 1 on 1 interesting so leaving him be was very tempting.

[scifista42]

Map06 - “Temple Entryway”

The theme has changed, the principle not really. Stylish little level, combines multiple common mapping tropes (teleporting, berserk fisting, climbing staircase, leaping off ledges, reasonable enemy cast, torches) simplistically, but manages to be fun to play and nice to look at. Relatively skippable fights, but no big problem. I had to give up finding how to access the 3rd secret, although I saw a teleporter line on the automap and a high up placed alcove.

[joe-ilya]

MAP07
Did you notice the name of this map? Is that a shoutout to ISIS? Did Erik Alm quit mapping because he joined ISIS? One can know.

This map is boring, it's the same as MAP07 of doom2 only it has a secret and a sort of a "preperation" it, it's like dead simple but with a drum roll instead of a drop down in the middle of the fight. And once you grab the rocket launcher you can launch through the gap to the exit. Meaning this map is beatable in under 20 seconds.

[SyntherAugustus]

joe-ilya said:

MAP07
Did you notice the name of this map? Is that a shoutout to ISIS? Did Erik Alm quit mapping because he joined ISIS? One can know.

*slaps you silly with such a bad joke*

[scifista42]

Map07 - “Temple of Isis”

Doom 2 MAP07 tribute with appealing visual setting and simple "uninspired" gameplay, but inoffensive.