The DWmegawad Club plays: STRAIN

[Demon of the Well]

True enough, but I suppose what he meant by 'avoiding mistakes' is more on the order of 'make it to more modern sensibilities', especially as far as QC and fine-tuning are concerned; after hearing your anecdotes about how, shall we say, 'relaxed' the actual dev process for Requiem was (for example), one wonders if the same might also have been true of STRAIN. It certainly does have some qualities that are difficult to interpret whether they are the result of a very focused, active design decision, or simply matters of circumstance that sort of worked themselves out in posterity. The markedly skewed pistol-starts in some of the maps are a pretty good example of this, I think--it's pretty clear that the 'core' STRAIN experience targets continuous play rather than pistol-starts (the very measured introduction of new content over the first two thirds of the game speaks volumes on this point), but are the maps all consciously balanced for pistol-start as well? In some of the maps, particularly those by Adelusion, it's quite difficult to tell, I'd say. Generations of players have shown that all the maps are quite doable played this way, of course, but 'doable' is not the same thing as 'designed for', and considering the time period some of the acrobatics and metagamey stuff you need to do to get started from scratch in some of these maps seem like they are as liable to be the product of the surmise that 95% of the audience is not going to seriously play that way (e.g. from pistol-starts on all maps in a game that lets you save your progress freely/infinitely) as they are of a very detailed pistol-start balancing process.

Speaking for myself, I think a lot of STRAIN's shortcomings (as I see them) are matters of execution rather than matters of concept, and so it's for that reason I say I'd like to see some other mapping collective take a crack at the same aesthetic/theme. Of course, what I didn't really say before is that we pretty much already have that, in the form of in-dev stuff like Stomper/Zerocrusher or the Mutiny community project; all they need is some tweaks/modifications to enemies and weapons and they pretty much will be STRAIN for a new generation, whether by conscious design or not.

....And the old poor psychic blaster's not useless, I tell you! It really is the best way to dispatch hell nobles (esp. Barons and the new Lords), provided you can get a handle on its functional quirks--I suspect a lot of the trouble people have with it is that it's harder to score a clean hit with it than with other weapons, since its projectile is relatively slow, meaning you have to either lead moving targets a little or, preferably, aim straight up the middle of 'zigzag alley' like you would with the rocket launcher. The projectile being partially invisible's not difficult to get used to, I think; perhaps more of an issue is that traditionally-minded ammo misers will almost never use it (which is their accounting mistake, ironically), and that pistol-start players will almost never have the opportunity to use it (outside of map 26, anyway), meaning it's kind of hard to get the practice with the weapon that'd let one get to know it well, and of course it's tough to really like a weapon you don't really know.

[Salt-Man Z]

I'd say take the mods as-is, give the doppelganger a proper death animation, and (if you really want to go crazy) increase the NFG ammo slightly. But mostly I'd just love a megawad's worth of polished maps using the STRAIN resources.

[Capellan]

Charlie was much more active a 'project manager' than Chris Thornton. I'm pretty sure that STRAIN's heavy focus on continuous play is intentional (at least to the extent that testing focused on it) with 'fist starting' being considered something that only 'Doom Gods' would much care about.

IMO if your 'top' weapon is useful against only one type of enemy then it's useless for its intended purpose of being the top weapon :-P

I'd be keen to see a 'ReSTRAIN' (and all I *really* care about for gameplay is that it fixes the two bugs I mentioned). I'd likely even make a map or two for it if it happened. I'm just dubious it will :)


edit: 'useless for its intended purpose', not 'useful' for it

[AD_79]

I could see a ReSTRAIN happening eventually. At the moment there are a lot of projects, so now would be a bad time for yet another, heh.

[dobu gabu maru]

Count me in on the ReSTRAIN team if that ever becomes a thing, I really wanted to mess around with the new enemies and space textures.

[Salt-Man Z]

Back from vacation! Catching up before I load up Icarus:

MAP26: Main Laboratory II
17:53 | 97% Kills | 100% Items | 50% Secrets

Eh, not a fan. I got the blue key first, then the yellow key, and so I apparently could have just opened the yellow key door, run over to the blue door, and gotten to the exit quickly. Progression seemed oddly constructed, is what I'm saying, I guess. Also not a fan of the mandatory nukage dive at the YK; I was down to 6% health at that point, and only luck kept me alive, though it took a couple tries.

MAP27: Dispensary Beta
31:36 | 99% Kills | 94% Items | 66% Secrets

Now this is more like it. A fun, sprawling level, packed with stuff. Also one of the few latter levels that gave me that "oh! this map!" moment of recognition (peeking into the imp-filled room past the blue doors.) Just might be the highlight of the WAD, so far. Still missed a bunch of secrets, though, even though I got the computer map and didn't see anything I missed... Oh, yeah, and I finally got a glimpse of the BFG Trooper; nasty dudes if you don't catch them right away.

[Pirx]

Demon of the Well said:

True enough, but I suppose what he meant by 'avoiding mistakes' is more on the order of 'make it to more modern sensibilities', especially as far as QC and fine-tuning are concerned;

[snip]

The markedly skewed pistol-starts in some of the maps are a pretty good example of this, I think--it's pretty clear that the 'core' STRAIN experience targets continuous play rather than pistol-starts (the very measured introduction of new content over the first two thirds of the game speaks volumes on this point), but are the maps all consciously balanced for pistol-start as well? In some of the maps, particularly those by Adelusion, it's quite difficult to tell, I'd say. Generations of players have shown that all the maps are quite doable played this way, of course, but 'doable' is not the same thing as 'designed for', and considering the time period some of the acrobatics and metagamey stuff you need to do to get started from scratch in some of these maps seem like they are as liable to be the product of the surmise that 95% of the audience is not going to seriously play that way (e.g. from pistol-starts on all maps in a game that lets you save your progress freely/infinitely) as they are of a very detailed pistol-start balancing process.

thanks for understanding precisely what i meant. i wasn't quite in the mood for writing lengthy explanations after just finishing the megawad in time to write a short review. sure i didn't have much time for playing due to real life and whatever, but nevertheless i had some, um, strain to keep up with the club due to:

- the skewed pistol starts: i insisted on pistol starts because that's what helps one progress as a player, but then it's demotivating to run around with few shells left. doable is one thing (i watched some of heretic's demos to get a better idea), but fun to play can be something different.

- some maps which i played only for the sake of playing them with the club, e.g. 17, 19, or didn't even finish: 6, 21, and 31 with the secret exit

these issues are easily corrected in a "project restrain" because pistol starts are much more common now than back when strain was obviously balanced for continuous play, and mapping quality has also improved drastically.

furthermore i can agree with everything capellan listed:

Capellan said:

Personally, my changes would be:

Replace the NFG graphics and bump its base ammo max up
Replace the psychic blaster with something actually useful
Small upgrade to the chaingun fire rate
Drop the red demon's HP to the point where two normal shotgun shots will take it out at point blank, and upgrade its speed and attack rate as compensation
Replace the baron with a new monster
Replace the IoS with a new monster
New graphics for the polydrone and the doppleganger (or replace them entirely)

Demon of the Well said:

Speaking for myself, I think a lot of STRAIN's shortcomings (as I see them) are matters of execution rather than matters of concept, and so it's for that reason I say I'd like to see some other mapping collective take a crack at the same aesthetic/theme. Of course, what I didn't really say before is that we pretty much already have that, in the form of in-dev stuff like Stomper/Zerocrusher or the Mutiny community project; all they need is some tweaks/modifications to enemies and weapons and they pretty much will be STRAIN for a new generation, whether by conscious design or not.

yep. the poor plasma gun and bfg replacements are examples for this flawed execution of an interesting concept. i think everyone can agree that the original sprites look better than a pew-pew blaster and an aircraft cockpit apparently drawn in ms paint.

there are several good looking weapon replacements available (eriguns, russian overkill etc). for the plasma gun i suggest phml's slaughtermod that halves its firing rate but doubles its damage per cell.


- 3 variants of goats is a bit much. the baron's 1000 hp are enough for the demonlord. he could throw bfg balls, what about that? now that's what a baron wants to be when he grows up. better than the joke with zombies that carry a bfg concealed.

- the demon: he's mostly a threat by just getting in the way, and here he eats often 4 shells instead of 2, which is annoying and slows down the game. the quick-bite pinkies from valiant were the best upgrade ever, made me treat pinkies like an actual enemy. add the roaring, faster firing valiant chaingun, great fun to use.

- doppelgangers: yes, their death frame is bad, but i found their "clown face" look equally annoying. they can have a ranged attack, that could be an electric arc out of a metallic skull flying on blue fire, to stay with the sci-fi theme. iirc realm667 has something like that already.

- the fast imps fit his setting well. just their "prepare to attack" phase is a bit long, they're like frozen

- holobot: neat idea, but they sound like out of the star wars prequels, and their slow rockets are more of an area denial than an actual attack. i think anyone who played FEAR remembers those flying bots that came crashing through the windows. now these are enemies that have to be taken seriously. the holobots could decloak only when firing, attack with very fast missiles, and when you hear one drone, it's better to have really quick reactions. it's a glass cannon, but a cannon nevertheless.

- polydrone: eriance made a better version for demon eclipse.


apart from that, textures with an old look (hexen, quake, gothic) can be deliberately combined with strain's shiny steel walls, red rails and warning stripes, suggesting that a research facility had been built on ruins. it's one of strain's trademarks. but please without 100 corridors, monotextured, evenly lit corridors, and, god forbid, ribbed corridors ;)

[purist]

If there's plans to make a STRAIN reboot but without any of the new STRAIN weapons or half the monsters remaining the same you might as well just make a brand new Cyberpunk themed PC and leave the STRAIN name out of it.

[Capellan]

Well I don't think there are any serious plans to do so right now, just kibitzing. There's the issue of a lack of permissions in the text file in any case: it says to email them for permission to use the levels (and I imagine the email is defunct) but is silent on any other resources.

One thing you could do is a maps-only pwad that you load after strain.wad (and with strain.deh). Anything else I am not so sure about.

[Sui Generis]

Some interesting thoughts about a modern tribute to Strain here. I'm quite happy that it gives me cover to post catch-up reviews without too much of a thread bump.

MAP25 - "Main Laboratory” by Arthur Chang
This level is significantly longer after Adel's maps 22 & 24. I appreciated the large scale central column room earlier in the level, with the ledges surrounding it which the player works round. I always appreciate the interconnection and seeing where you've come from/where you're going for progression. I would've liked it a bit better if it wasn't necessary to backtrack all the way back round though. The middle part of the map however takes place in very simple and dull caves. Yes, the caves aren't orthogonal, and the low light levels do help disguise their monotexturing, but nonetheless I do think they more than outstay their welcome. The pair of larger cavern fights half way through is, however, pretty cool. The final section with the shooting galleries of super imps on either side is kind of more meh, although that's just after the substantial double releases of Lords, knights and barons, which are fun to psychically blast. The warped doors there were really strange though, and the random sky floor pentagon is very incongruous.

I found all secrets, and have to echo Capellan on the last optional corridor. This map is reasonably good overall and has some good points, but would benefit from a few cuts and tweaks here and there.

MAP26 - "Main Laboratory II” by Holger Nathrath, Charlie Patterson, and Eric Roberts
Quite brief level constructed out of narrow corridors and trappy set pieces. I'm not too impressed by the gameplay on offer here. The two Hell Lords in the static crossfire is an exercise in corridor ducking. There's a super highly-obviously-well-telegraphed crossfire reveal on the bridge, which amounts to the same thing. There's a couple more brief switch pressing episodes and a tedious dim section with stealth bots. I suppose the authors deserve credit for the ministers here which were able to catch me by surprise and whose cyb rockets retain their potency. Finally, beyond the blue door we have a cutesy secret signposted by potions, and then a gotcha close-quarters bullshit lift into a pack of hell knights which demands either quick reactions, or else foreknowledge (Unless it's just me being sucky.). Then the level just ends abruptly.

Overall this level (and it's multi-author status) seems like filler, possibly thrown together slightly arbitrarily at the last moment. I found all 3 secrets after some looking, though the automap helps significantly. Hopefully the remaining Strain levels will be better.

MAP27 - "Dispensary Beta” by Andy Badorek
This is a pretty damn good map - much better than the previous one, although the monster population made it feel like it ought to have been in an earlier map slot. The opening area with the cylinder was a memorable landmark although I think the start being endangered by the holobots on fist start would have been more interesting had I not been playing continuously. There's variety of room sizes and heights and situations, and I appreciate the windows allowing for more enemies to fire through. The room with the super-imps on pillars stuck in my mind as creating a hail of fire, as did the red key room with the Hell Lord. I'd perhaps criticise the section with the series of lowering pillars with monsters on as being a touch unexciting, but that part is brief and really I thought the idea was unusual and quirky enough to be interesting.

Overall this is a pretty good map in the set, certainly amongst the highlights in my mind. The flow was pretty good, the gameplay was quite casual and straightforward for the slot but still fun. The secrets are nice and straightforward to find. It's just a casual easy-going map.

MAP28 - “Unknown” by Bjorn Hermans
Well this was totally different. A psychedelic level, fully in the experimental vein of Hermans' and Nathrath's previous work. The early cavern with the sky floors is what initially sets this apart. The runways with endlessly teleporting super-imps add to the crazed feel, as does the repeated triangular grilles on the opposite side of the cavern which looked as though they were warping when moving past. It's actually a pretty sensible application of the more zany Strain textures.

The combat is simplistic for such a late slot, with so many low-level enemies, but the fairly open nature of the room, the volume several super imps can provide and the zany environment increases the potential for attrition. The intervening area with the minister is probably more dangerous though, in my opinion even more so if approaching from the secret corridor. The later dark area is quite cool, but not that interesting. The corridor of secret sectors is very reminiscent of Serenity/Eternity/Infinity although I missed a secret somewhere.

MAP29 - "Self-Destruct” by Ron Allen
The penultimate map of STRAIN is to me, not particularly remarkable actually. Except perhaps that the monster population is largely low-level. It featured some larger areas, which as I recall Strain has had less of, but these ones are kind of bland for the most part though. The structure and pace of this level is quite 'channeled' and regimented, in contrast with Map 11, and it's pace is steady vis a vis Map 14. As a continuous player I didn't care for the level closing off routes behind me when for example I left the red armour to return to, although I guess it does reopen again.

The other thing I'd perhaps note is that a fairly sizeable portion of the level is secret and I got to the exit well before doing it. (I actually had to reload a save) It was nice to take a quick recap of the different areas of the level, although it was broadly just room cleaning stragglers for it's own sake and for completeness. At least it's more interesting than map 25's optional long corridor of eh.

MAP30 - "Boss” by Jon Landis and Rich Johnston
So that's it. The IoS is slightly modified by dint of it being on a moving platform rather than you, which is a subtle change. It also makes the usual gimmick of defeating the icon simpler. The map itself is one big symmetrical techbase. My problem with repeated symmetry in levels is that the different areas lose visual distinctiveness and get repetitive so I start to feel like I'm wandering aimlessly. After a bit of wandering, pressing some switches which I don't know what they did and trying to psychically blast hell lords (with mixed results) I concentrated on the icon, and the ending text rolls. (Thinking back on it now, I guess I have Landis to thank for the big octagon with narrow corridors round it)

EDIT: see below

Overall thoughts on Strain
It's a very mixed bag, it shows it's age as a mid 90s set in a way which Requiem I feel does far less. The new monsters and changes are, as many have said a bit hit and miss, but their greatest strength for me probably is simply that they are different. For me the Hell lord and super imps are probably the best additions. But Strain seems to succumb to the same problem as that other mid-90s TC (I know Strain is only a PC), All hell is breaking loose, in that the maps can be weaker as a result. DotW (and previously myself) have alluded to Strain arguably being different rather than weaker, and suggest that the Doom community's taste has evolved since the 90s (and undoubtedly it has). The question of what (or indeed if?) can define a style of mapping as objectively better than another is a whole topic of conversation in it's own right. I can only express my opinion and that would have to be (as a fan of older maps) that many of the maps have aged less well than some of their contemporaries, in my opinion.

I can agree that the wad seemed to become a blur too and lacked distinctiveness. This is partly down to it's unremitting techbase theme, but also because Strain, in spite of it's apparent tighter development philosophy doesn't take sufficient advantage of Doom 2's episodic structure. Excepting map 07, the end of episode maps aren't distinctive enough in theme or gameplay to make it seem like anything has changed. I can respect that gameplay may not be too difficult overall on these episode enders (at least once tooled up), given the wad's weakened high level monsters, but still there isn't much more of a bump. Map 20 was particularly uninspiring.

What I would perhaps have liked to see more of in Strain would've been more maps like Map 07 to help reinforce it's sense of story and throw in a little bit more verisimilitude on occasions. I don't mean Doom toilets, but rather if the wad has more focus on story telling than being a collection of standard doom maps, then please try to tell more of a story!

Anyway, as for the maps themselves I'll categorise them as follows:

Good:
04 - Industrial Zone, 07 - En route, 11 - Command Control, 13 - Ruins, 22 - Specimen Storage, 24 - Sub-Laboratory, 27 - Dispensary Beta,

Above average:
01 - barracks, 03 - Downtown, 14 - Engineering, 15 - Subsidiary Power, 16 - Living Quarters, 18 - Relay Station, 23 - Dispensary Alpha, 25 - Main Laboratory, 28 - Unknown,

Meh
02 - outskirts, 05 - Depot, 06 - Launch Control, 09 - Cargo Bay, 10 - Entryway, 12 - Power Station, 31 - Secret, 32 - Super-Secret, 17 - Promenade, 19 - Waste Processing, 20 - Reactor, 29 - Self-Destruct,

Disliked
08 - Hangar, 21 - Maintenance, 26 - Main Laboratory II, 30 - Boss

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP28: Unknown
29:26 | 99% Kills | 93% Items | 92% Secrets

And now for something completely different! Another super switch-hunty level. Progression is weird, and the map's bizarre visuals make things even more obtuse. I managed to find my way without too much trouble, though, so I won't complain.

MAP29: Self-Destruct
27:33 | 100% Kills | 95% Items | 100% Secrets

Really liked this one. Another nice sprawling techbase with fairly incidental combat play. Like others, I found the exit long before the big secret area. But I liked this one quite a bit, definitely in the Top 5 for the WAD.

MAP30: Boss
5:55 | 45% Kills | 31% Items | 100$ Secrets

The only boss levels I hate more than IoS levels are IoS levels where you have to figure out a puzzle before the map fills up with too many baddies to fight, and IoS levels where you have to face the IoS while everybody shoots you in the back. This was of the latter variety, and was super obnoxious. The beginning was actually pretty interesting, but once I found Romero it was Dullsville. And what was with the head bobbing up and down? Autoaim refused to track vertically until the head was up and out of sight every time. Guh.

STRAIN OVERALL

It's certainly lost something over the years, but I still enjoyed it on the whole. As someone said, the whole thing just kind of blurs together without any one map or maps really standing out: what you're left with is just a general impression of "That was STRAIN." So even though a lot of the maps were pretty subpar, I still feel the whole experience was fairly cohesive and, taken as a whole, enjoyable. I'd definitely love to see a ReSTRAIN project that uses the STRAIN resources but adds more modernized mapping sensibilities.

[dobu gabu maru]

Hey guys, I finished it! Yay!… Guys?…

MAP15: Wasn’t a fan of this one. I think there’s a great sense of location with this map, but all the back & forth combined with a confusing progression and erratic damaging nukage made it a bit of a chore. I think there’s something to be said about how befuddling the map was for me in that I only found the secret exit :/

MAP31: Was digging the visuals in this map until I got lost once again (Landis sure loves his tunnel mazes). Couldn’t find my way to the secret exit to MAP332, but I took a gander at it and I’m not sure I’m missing all that much, as it seems to be a long slog. Shame this map wasn’t better—a tyson-based map with the new STRAIN punching speed seems absolutely divine.

MAP16: This one was alright. I liked the red key courtyard battle and that new albino noble. The new plasma gun sure seems… short on ammo though. Fired all six of my bullets at a minicyber, which did basically nothing, so I’m already doubting its usefulness.

MAP17: Well damn, it kinda felt like this map didn’t know when it wanted to end. I was glad that I didn’t have to spend time being lost and was just funneled along from battle to battle (the first couple were real bullet bloodbaths), though I think my largest gripe is that it takes way too long for the RL to make an appearance—I had 50 rockets when I finally picked it up! Cool final battle.

MAP18: Boy howdy was the progression on this map very asinine. A lot of backtracking combined with no clear direction on where to go (wound up picking up all the secrets just trying to get to the blue key!) led to some frustrating moments, though I did like the aesthetic design and feel of this map (it was thematically better than the ‘big ol corridor ‘o traps’ in the last map). Also that flying skull hitscanner is awesome—not only does it look kinda nifty but its corpse damages you! That’s an undoubtedly fantastic side-effect that I definitely want to steal for my own project one day. Shame its first appearance was a little anticlimactic… would’ve worked better being at the end of the map with that big pinkie pit.

MAP19: Due to some previous comments I peered at, I’ve been playing continuous from MAP18 onwards, and I’m glad I did—the balance is all over the fucking place here. Low ammo, low health, a lack of direction, boring open gameplay… got nothing positive here to say.

MAP20: Definitely felt like a quarter of a full map, but that AV + skulldrones fight has been the highlight fight for me in a long while, so the map gets no bad marks.

MAP21: Ah, and now we (I?) enter the Czerwonka block. It’s nice to get a different change of pace in this map, forcing the player to work on some obscure puzzles in order to proceed forward. Some of them were a little too nonsensical (mainly anything involving teleporters), but I did like how you obtain the red key. Skipped the maze at the end as I don’t have time for that (presumably) trial and error nonsense.

MAP22: I just realize how strange it is that there aren’t a lot of D1 Stay Open doors in these wads—seems DR was all anyone thought to use, which can really slow the pace of the gameplay down. Anyway, this is another good level—the blue key room in particular was a lot of fun, especially with the AV and super noble harassing me. Cool transparent spine-skin texture too. I do agree with others that the new noble has a tad too much health, but it’s at least pretty fun to fight him since he can be so devastating. Gotta test out the new Psychic Blaster on the next map!

MAP23: Huh, that Psychic Blaster is… something else. It covers up a third of the screen, has invisible bullets, and does… a decent amount of damage sometimes? I like how rapid-fire it is and conservative it is on the rocket ammo (does it use that because of the splash damage?) It’s certainly gotten a lot more use than that new goddamn ammo muncher plasma gun, which I’m still trying to figure out what it excels at (killing one enemy very quickly at the cost of 1/3rd your ammunition I guess?). Anyway, the map was fantastic. It still had a lot of the usual STRAIN “puzzle” design (ie WHERE DO I GO?) but the map kept feeding me enemies in tight areas, letting me experiment with the new weapons and throwing a ton of the new enemies my way. It was pretty challenging too, which is always a plus in my book; my favorite STRAIN level so far, and definitely a pace that I wish the rest of the megawad kept up with.

MAP24: So I thought the Psychic Blaster was a little overpowered at first (two shots down a super noble?!) but in the lost soul room, I had to restrain myself from just pressing 7 and blowing myself up—the potential to blow yourself up is a balanced trade-off I suppose. This map is another good one, having a lot of tense action and some actual normal progression. Struggled with the last fight and died on the homerun slide into the exit, so looks like MAP25 will be a pistol start for me.

MAP25: Bit of a dud, this one. Lots of narrow corridor fighting and super noble use which is a pain to grind down while always keeping an eye on your ammo. The cave maze section could’ve been interesting but it dragged on a mite too long and really did nothing for me.

MAP26: The action in this short skirmish was better than all of MAP25 honestly. The minicyber room in particular had a cool setup, and the focus on the Psychic Blaster was a creative and welcome change. Solid map.

MAP27: A pretty cool map. The super noble was crushing me at nearly every turn so his encounters weren’t that entertaining/fun, but it had a good design and layout so I can’t fault this map too much.

MAP28: Hey neat, a non-techbase map! I really don’t care for techbases all that much so you can surmise that after 27 space-base maps I’m quite pleased to enter the surreal abstract of silver space. The visuals were really strange yet I quite liked its eccentricity... the gameplay and progression on the other hand can go straight to hell. It was annoying, obtuse, and utterly confusing at parts (too many SR switches!!!); I tried so hard to like it for being off-kilter but it was pretty obnoxious overall. A shame.

MAP29: A pretty decent penultimate map. There was still a bunch of annoying obfuscated progression, but that’s pretty par for the course regarding STRAIN. Not a big fan of hitscanners in a big room, but at least the super noble didn’t dominate the battlefield this time.

MAP30: Aaaand a pretty decent closer. It’s a short IoS map that follows the typical trend of “knowing what to do = winning”, and it was fun to puzzle out just exactly where Romero was. Surprised the megawad ends on a somewhat-typical IoS fight given how "unique" its been, but its alright for what it is.

Overall I’m in the same boat as with the majority of other people: STRAIN was interesting but detrimentally flawed. It’s cool to get new monsters & weapons and figure out how to best approach them, but the imbalanced pistol starts, mazey layouts, haphazard level flow, and similar texture theme throughout just… didn’t work in STRAIN’s favor. I don’t have much to say other than that; it’s not likely I’ll be revisiting it unfortunately. I would still love to try and work with the base components in ReSTRAIN to see if I could make something engaging out of it, as I’m sure many others would. Perhaps we could tweak some stuff too, as I do take umbrage with #6's ammo use, the super noble's health amount, and how dumb the Lost Souls look.

Favorites: MAP04, MAP23

Least favorites: Too many to count.

I'm going to forego playing Icarus in favor of continuing where I left off in Valiant (MAP15!), as I'm in the mood to get back to something more my style.

[Suitepee]

AD_79 said:

I could see a ReSTRAIN happening eventually. At the moment there are a lot of projects, so now would be a bad time for yet another, heh.

There's certainly enough mappers around that would suit that kind of project well for it to work. I wouldn't mind seeing a ReSTRAIN with new custom enemies....