Most Overrated and Most Underrated Megawads of all time

[sincity2100]

What do you think is the most Overrated and Most Underrated Megawad of all time

Most Overrated: Memento Mori , I don't think that the game was overall bad,but people talk about how this is the greatest megawad of all time and it doesn't deliver the strong preformance that other megawads do, I think that Memento Mori 2 was better and it fixed some of the mistakes of the previous game
Most Underrated : Perdition's gate

what do you think

[Obsidian]

I feel like Revolution! by Thomas van der Velden is kinda underrated: while it did get a mention in 10 years of Doom, I still feel like it deserves a lot more praise for some of the excellently clever mechanics and solid gameplay. And by one person to boot!

[fabian]

I absolutely agree on Memento Mori being overrated, I never really liked it. Quite the contrary, I believe Icarus was the best Megawad of that time and thus feel it underrated. But is was released when Team TNT were already "the bad guys"...

[Graf Zahl]

Overrated:

Both Memento Moris were never among my favorites. While they had lots of good maps it was brought down by too many bad maps in there.

I also could never warm up to Hell Revealed. If you factor out the insane gameplay there's not much left and for me visuals are an important part of playing a game.

Underrated:

Of the old classics I'd say Strain. It's one of the least mentioned megawads. All the time it's either Memento Mori, Alien Vendetta and Hell revealed - but the overall quality of Strain is quite a bit higher than any of these and their sequels.
Too bad for the broken distribution that cannot be updated due to the stupid rules of the archive.

[Vorknkx]

Overrated: Hell Revealed. Yeah, it's very challenging, it's very fun, it's insane... but remove the monsters and the maps look pretty bland. They just can't arouse my interest.

Underrated: Icarus. It is quite weird at times but it has an awesome atmosphere and feel (just like Evilution) and I enjoy it greatly. Good soundtrack too. And some pretty impressive work with the "scrolling space" effects that add to the feeling of being aboard a spaceship.


P.S. I did enjoy the two Memento Moris very much and played them a lot when I was at high school. Lots of good memories here, so I cannot possibly say anything bad about them.

Yet, my most favorite megawad of all time is Requiem :)

[Archi]

I think Hellcore is underrated.

[MFG38]

Definitely agree about Hell Revealed being overrated, pretty much for the aforementioned reasons. And I don't really like the gameplay in it either.

Can't think of any specific megawad I find underrated, though.

[gaspe]

I agree on Hell Revealed, though it's very fun and it's worth checking it for all the influence it had on other wads. I think Memento Mori 2 is far better than Memento Mori.

For the underrated ones I would have said Strain too. The maps are fantastic and the new monsters and weapons are well balanced. It's a shame for its really dated installation method, I think it deters many to play it.

[purist]

Having watched Tarns play through DTS-T it is the megawad I can least understand apearing in people's fave lists.

I would make Plutonia the most underrated just because it has a lot of vocal haters. I haven't played any megawads that have been 'forgotten' unjustly, I don't think.

[scifista42]

I find DTWID overrated, as it's basically not much different from a lot of other D1-style episode replacements that followed the same concept with less hype about it. The "average quality" might be slightly better, but in practice, both worse and better maps exist than those in DTWID. The mapset is OK, and D2TWID is also good, just not as "cult" as it's sometimes being treated.

I also think Kama Sutra is overrated. I wasn't impressed when I've played it for the first time, neither by the aesthetical style nor gameplay.

Doom 2 Reloaded and Reverie are underrated. I've played both of them years later than Kama Sutra, so don't accuse me for flattering them from nostalgia.

[Gez]

Hard to get mods will tend to be underrated because they're hard to get. That includes Strain, but also Perdition's Gate and Hell to Pay.

[joe-ilya]

PRCP is underrated, this is how plutonia 2 should've been.

[Graf Zahl]

scifista42 said:

Reverie [is] underrated.

Hm...
It got a Cacoward, didn't it?

That said, I found it one of the most throroughly underwhelming experiences in recent years. A mod that so slavishly stuck to conventions that it became excrutiating to sit through.

[Breezeep]

INB4 Valiant

[Memfis]

Graf Zahl said:

Too bad for the broken distribution that cannot be updated due to the stupid rules of the archive.

Maybe they can be changed now that we have new maintainers who are more in touch with the community? Or would that be too disrespectful to Ty?

[mdmenzel]

Is it me, or are most megawads from the early era (say before 2003), basically accepted as good regardless of merit?

[ClumsyDoomer]

Obsidian said:

I feel like Revolution! by Thomas van der Velden is kinda underrated: while it did get a mention in 10 years of Doom, I still feel like it deserves a lot more praise for some of the excellently clever mechanics and solid gameplay. And by one person to boot!

Indeed, TVR is awesome.
As for overrated - I have no idea. Here I can only list megawads I don't like, but that would be stupid.

[joe-ilya]

TVR is neither underrated or overrated, it's on a fine line between those terms.

[Cupboard]

The Great Bicycle Mystery 2 is an overrated megawad for singleplayer.

[Phobus]

I think this community overrates megaWADs in general. I mean, you ask people what a good WAD is and they'll come out with Memento Mori, its sequel, Requiem, Alien Vendetta, Hell Revealed, Scythe and its sequel, sometimes HR2 and occasionally Kama Sutra. However, having played all of these I can safely say none of them are the shining beacons of perfection I'd been led to expect. A lot of the maps are actually quite average and the benefit comes from having a large, varied collection to work through, knowing you'll come up against some kind of bad one or the inevitable "Post Mortem" style map. Of those the one I personally think that gets far too many mentions is Alien Vendetta - particularly as its a show stopper for people who have beaten the original Doom and Doom II - maybe Evilution and Plutonia as well - and then go and see what is on offer in the community.

Although my actual candidates for most overrated megaWAD are Valiant and Going Down, as I didn't like either of them enough to get more than a third of the way through and don't intend to go back.


Underrated is difficult, as the ones that I suspect qualify (Strain, Perdition's Gate and Hell to Pay) aren't ones I've been able to get and play and therefore have no idea if they're actually even worth paying for. You don't hear many people talking about megaWADs they don't like and I don't think I've really stumbled across any fantastic megaWADs that nobody talks about... NJDoom in its various incarnations is probably the closest I can think of - particularly the ZDoom version as it is the very rare breed of a full enhanced Doom 2 megaWAD.

[Graf Zahl]

Memfis said:

Maybe they can be changed now that we have new maintainers who are more in touch with the community? Or would that be too disrespectful to Ty?

What's needed here is a good dose of pragmatism, not 'respect' for the wrong reasons.
It's a fact that some old high-profile mods like Cleimos 2, Obituary and Strain pose an insurmountable barrier to less technologically knowledgeable users and that's doing nobody a favor, including their makers.

To be clear, I have the utmost respect for mappers who don't want to see their stuff altered - but the purpose of a distribution file is to let the contained stuff get accessed. If it can't provide that anymore it should be repackaged (without altering the original content, of course.)

[mouldy]

sincity2100 said:

What do you think is the most Overrated and Most Underrated Megawad of all time

D2ino

[Memfis]

I was just thinking that maybe it would look bad if new maintainers immediately started doing various changes to the archive's rules, almost as if they were taking advantage of Ty's condition. Like, "hooray, that old fart is gone, we can do what we want now". Maybe I'm exaggerating.

[fabian]

Very well spoken, Phobus. I have also been turned down by pretty much every Megawad I tried (with Icarus and Persition's Gate being notable exceptions) about half way through. Not that the IWADs were flawless in that regard, but at least they were not that praised in advance and thus expectations weren't that high (and I found e.g. TNT: Evilution a lot more enjoyable than many other offerings, though it also had its *very* week maps).

Phobus said:

Underrated is difficult, as the ones that I suspect qualify (Strain, Perdition's Gate and Hell to Pay) aren't ones I've been able to get and play and therefore have no idea if they're actually even worth paying for.

Actually, you never had to pay for Strain and Perdition's Gate has been made available for free download on the author's web page.

mouldy said:

D2ino

Overrated or underrated?

[Gothic]

Alien Vendetta and TWiD series in general. As for underrated, Mars War is pretty fun but people don't talk too much about it.

[Springy]

I have to be honest, I never really found Icarus to be that enjoyable. I would say that I agree to an extent with MM and HR as they would be nothing without their game play set up.

As for underrated there's a shit load but my top picks would be TVR, Can't Run From Evil, STRAIN (as someone mentioned this earlier and I agree 100%) and Didy's maps. I am also glad that D2R was mentioned as that had some seriously good maps.

Just realised that said megawads so some of these don't really qualify but they are underrated.

[Memfis]

Expectations are always bad things that just mess with your perception. That's why I use AdBlock to hide the star ratings on \idgames and typically download wads without looking at the screenshots or reading comments/reviews. I just go and find out everything by myself.

[Springy]

^ I tend to have a cheeky peak a lot of the time myself it's amazing what you can find after some dedicated searching.

I was meant to add that I also find DM megawads (well, in general not just megawads, actually) to be very underrated. Now I haven't been with the scene for some time so it may have changed slightly, but there was a time where it was extremely rare to find an OS DM server. I also find that instalments of 32in24 get swept under the rug and forgotten about (apart from the occasional little play at an event). It's a shame really as people are missing out on some very good maps.

[vdgg]

doom2.wad is the most overrated

[esselfortium]

vdgg said:

doom2.wad is the most overrated

I'd say it's one of the most underrated, with doom.wad being one of the most overrated. ;)