The DWmegawad Club plays: STRAIN

[Capellan]

I'm just gonna leave this quote here:

Linguica said:

The most important thing I can say is that it was well balanced. Very well balanced. Stupidly well balanced. How many megawads had a whole team dedicated to playtesting? As opposed to most WADs where the flow of monsters and ammo is approximate, the STRAIN team planned everything down to the smallest detail: the first appearance of each monster, each weapon. The result is the gameplay is tighter than a drum

:)

[Demon of the Well]

Ho boy, SO far behind. This is going to take some doing.

Map 09 -- Cargo Bay - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
This is indeed a different incarnation of a map from the moderately infamous (less so these days, though, it seems) Dystopia 3, well-spotted to those of you who pointed this out. I myself don't really care for seeing maps 'multitasked' like this outside of whimsical old collection WADs or the like--something about it seems unseemly, somehow--but it's not really a big deal at the end of the day, I suppose, not like this is one I've seen all over the place. Were it not for replaying STRAIN now I probably never would have seen the map again, to whit (read: I don't think particularly highly of Dystopia 3), and since I'm so far behind now I was tempted to brush this off with a blurb about the map being recycled and leave it at that, but since I'm here I might as well get off my lazy ass and take a closer look.

By Adelusion's standards the map is somewhat....nondescript. You can of course see some of his latent fascination with representational depiction in some of the 'cargo bay' trappings (the large loading dock area to the west being quite believable by late 90s idtech1 standards), and if one wants to stretch the analysis there is of course the more 'realistic' door/lift operation mechanic, where one actuates a particular part of the environment not by simply touching it but rather by operating an instrument panel found in a more or less logical place nearby (incidentally, for those of you who got lost for a time as a result of this design decision, I recall the exact same thing happened to me back when I first played this all those years ago--took me a while to figure out how to get back up to the blue door, since I repeatedly failed to spot the panel on the beam which activates the large lift in the machine room). Beyond this loose realistic design slant, thematically/aesthetically the level doesn't really have a lot going for it, lacking the conceptual whimsy of many of the author's other works (e.g. 'Skinny Puppy' or 'Fetal's Remains' from Requiem), and again suffering from a rather homely, disheveled-looking texture scheme, done no favors by generally bland lighting. Unless used very carefully, a lot of the STRAIN assets seem to have an uncanny propensity for creating scenes that are somehow simultaneously murky and yet garish in aspect, and that's all over the place here, particularly as regards the brightly-colored walls of the assorted monster-pits and (again) those places where the custom assets clash with the stock stuff. In fairness, some of this aesthetic directionlessness can probably be chalked up to the fact that this version of the map is essentially a 'conversion', and some of the textures appearing here seem to be just plain difficult to work with (e.g. the walls of the main cargo hold--never mind the self-styled aesthete's misgivings about vertical tiling, this stuff doesn't even look good tiling horizontally!), but I do think it's fair to say that this author was capable of better.

I suppose I could say the same thing for the gameplay, although that's liable to be very much an 'eye of the beholder' sort of deal I suppose, and I did note that many players stated they preferred this map to map 08 before it, not a sentiment I share. Adelusion was somewhat known for unconventional/conceptual gameplay, and most of his maps that I personally most favor draw most of their flavor from his penchant for such experimentation (i.e. 'Proscrustes Chambers', to again make the Requiem reference). There is very little of that on offer here, though, gameplay through this map is a very straightforward shoot/loot that checks a number of the right boxes (e.g. important spaces being used for more than one fight, monster-trickle being used to loosely kite you through some parts of the backtrack-heavy progression, etc.) without ever really asserting itself as particularly noteworthy--I don't believe any of the fights really panned out in a particularly dramatic way for me on this playthrough, not even the red key bit others have mentioned, most of the guys intended to be involved in that one ended up losing patience and wandering over to me in the west bay (and thus being fought largely through a door/corridor) because I was lollygagging around in there looking at stuff instead of progressing through the map. Ammo balance/distribution is notably very conventional (i.e. fairly generous) here, a stark departure from several of the author's other maps, which has the dual effect of making the combat easier to swallow and also easier to gloss over in memory....weird that in an Adelusion map of all things one hardly notices the zero-ammo STRAIN 'pistol-start.' One wonders if the balance was set to be more conventional during internal playtesting or the like, I can't recall offhand if it was like this in Dystopia 3 or not.

Map 10 -- Entryway - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
....and almost as if to make up for the strangely low-key/no frills Adelmap just prior, we have this rather suspiciously-named little number, which overflows with whimsical little ideas and was thus easy for me to recall despite not having played STRAIN in many years. Pretty much all of the quirky features I attributed to 'usual' Adelusion maps just moments ago--a conceptual layout/progression, a tight or nonconventional ammo balance, etc.--have a home here, and while parts of it are somewhat ungainly as a result (particularly the whole 'security bars' deal in the main yard, which drives progression but also makes navigation feel oddly choppy, particularly if you're just exploring), I would say that on the whole it's a much more interesting map.

The first segment is, if we want to be boorishly direct, nothing but a long winding corridor filled with mildly sentient and moderately ambulatory lunchmeat, and yet I would say it has a certain charm to it--again, it's filled mostly with trash monsters that are entertaining to quickly mow down in droves, and despite its simple construction style it makes intelligent use of subtle height variation and the '3D' aspect of the 2.5D engine, not unlike Jon Landis' map 06 before it, and furthermore I would put it to you that it already looks better than most of the previous map, by dint of a much more tasteful combination of textures/colors (less so in the main area, unfortunately, again a product of custom/stock asset-clash, but even here it's less glaring than in many other places in the WAD). I also dig the way STRAINguy starts a scant few steps away from the exit; he will find himself neatly deposited right back here when all is said and done, but for now that final switch is teasingly just out of reach, which of course is the first hint of what seems to be the level's overall unifying concept, that being the notion of things you want to have and places you want to go being a bitch to actually access (in a generally entertaining way, mind you).

Patterson's playful game of keepaway with the rocket launcher is probably the bit that will stick with most players--I like the way he uses a breadcrumb trail of single rocket shells to tease you into thinking that you're going to get it FOR REAL this time, and I love that he's doing this with what is STRAIN's first (non-secret?) RL--but of course it applies to the whole progression as well, from the weird 'imprisonment' teleport snare depositing you into the northern room to finally using the red key to surpass the last lockout. This sense of whimsical concept is the map's main draw; combat is generally serviceable period-piece stuff after the rather bloody intro in the long hallway, looks to have been sensibly designed to be readily smoothed over by the application of some well-placed rockets. On that point, while I don't think the map's thing balance really aims to be particularly austere, if you get off-course it can quickly get rather lean indeed: I must admit I sort of forgot to take the rocket launcher at the first actual opportunity, and so ended up running pretty much completely out of ammo right at the start of the dirt labyrinth housing the red key (the northern room will really drain you without the benefit of splash damage, and by contrast the limited rocket ammo is not very efficient for killing the trash monsters that periodically repopulate the main yard), which ironically enough let the Baron presence in there come a lot closer to realizing what seemed to be its intended thematic design (i.e. 'minotaur + maze') than it otherwise would have, since I had to tolerate it for a few minutes while running to and fro hitting switches before getting more ammo.

[vdgg]

MAP13. Everyone seems to like it except Capellan, so I don't need to defend it. I loved playing this map. I have a Max demo for it recorded over 3 years ago.

First thing: the flow, the pacing, or whatever you're going to call it. It's great. Chaos at the start, every restart is different. You need that rocket launcher. A bit more relaxed to the yellow key. Then you may notice a sweet spot, if you aim well, one rocket kills them all :) Just normal SSG action until the red key area.

This features the mini cyber, a very stupid enemy. This was the moment when I felt Strain was dangerously leaning towards jokewad territory. Anyway, unlike the others, I think this is the mini-cyber best placement in the WAD :) There are many ways to defeat it, but which is the most efficient speedrun-wise? 300 HP, but immune to rocket splash damage: 1. you may fire two rockets and just pray you'll get lucky this time. 2. what I did: fire an SSG, let him fire and hit the ground, damaging fast imps, fast imps should be weakening him while the player finishes the monsters on ledges, then teleport and one SSG shot should finish the mini-cyber. Rockets saved, time saved. I don't think I managed to telefrag often, if ever.

There is also this oldschool 4 times "hit switch, release monsters" section which I liked. You want to use rockets on all of them, but you don't have enough, so which ones to SSG? Cacodemon: rockets (2 if lucky, 3 if unlucky). Arch-vile: rockets (4 or sometimes 3). Holobot: this one has 200 HP, so either a lucky rocket hit or a guaranteed kill SSG shot. Chaingunners: SSG. Baron + lost souls: just rockets, 7-8 should be enough.

Final note: if you're not speedrunning, there's an unmarked secret with a red armor.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 11 -- Command Control - 104% Kills / 100% Secrets
Hmm, pretty satisfying map, I reckon this is much closer to what I generally want out of a 'traditional' techbase/earthbase map than what map 09 offered, no surprise really as Bill McClendon always did seem to have a certain knack for this type of setting. Cool music aside, I reckon it's also quite a bit cleaner-looking (and thus easier on the eyes) than many of the earlier maps, which once again I will largely attribute to texture selection--Bill seems to have mostly stuck with the stock textures and those STRAIN textures which most closely resemble (or are outright modifications of) the stock textures, using STRAIN's panoply of grungy industrial metalwork, machinery, and loose wiring/stuff mainly for accent purposes rather than as bulky structural stuff. Subtle lighting effects and contrasts are significantly more pronounced than in several of the other recent maps as well, helping to make this very nearly as believable a location as map 09 before it despite its more generally abstract/stylized depiction of its setting (the narrative continuity effect into map 12 helps with this as well. Oh, and the big crate warehouse, can't go wrong with those for some plug/play 'realism'). While the layout itself revolves around a straightforward hubspoke design, there's a certain elegance to its construction and pacing, with each access-restricted 'spoke' having a markedly different flavor in its style, aesthetic, and the nature of its gameplay.

My favorite of the spoke areas, oddly enough, is actually the first big machine room, which contains fairly little in the way of proper combat but lots of amusing/optional parkour play to compensate--accessing the yellow security card is one thing, but this wing of the installation also houses 4 of the level's 5 secrets, and three of these are accessed by jumping, climbing, and scampering around on top of various bits of machinery and server stacks. I quite like this sort of thing, and telling to see it here in this late 90s WAD, seems like this particular trope is only beginning to reassert itself in modern maps rather recently.

The most savvy of these, though, is probably the expansive yellow key wing (e.g. Command Control's 'back room'), which presents a smooth blend of tried/true setting/gameplay tropes for a pleasantly 'classic' Doom patois, something that is at once redolent of Doom II (overall look/feel, asset selection, etc.), Phobos (intricate network of corridors and prime spaces, lots of windows and loose progression foreshadowing, optional sidetrack areas, etc.), and even Deimos (big 'ol crateroom adventure, of course!). I remember being somewhat befuddled by the blue key quest in the warehouse way back when I first played this, largely because I just happened to find the switch in the warehouse itself, which lowers the pole the keycard is perched on to the floor, before finding any of the switches tied to invisible 'forcefields' further protecting it from my grubby mitts. Not too difficult to work this out, though--if you've flipped at least one of the forcefield switches a little visual cue will appear around the keycard to clue you in on the general nature of progression at work, classy touch from an experienced WADster. Combat in this area is pretty basic but works well enough, with lots of opportunities to use windows and circumnavigation in combination with your own discretion to take out the undead patrols and other miscreants roaming the halls in the manner of your choosing. The stealth-cloaked hoverdrone makes its debut here, reasonable enough in aspect since they can sometimes blend into the cement background of the warehouse proper fairly effectively, and being able to fly over some of the crate stacks to approach from some odd angles also helps as well. What I most remember this segment for, though, is the introduction of the arch-vile back in the main lobby at its conclusion (which is essentially the map's conclusion as well, nothing between you and the exit but a few imp scrubs at that point)--his use here as a vulture is quite tasteful (or 'correct', if you prefer), but unfortunately the encounter is hamstrung by a lousy blocking line a few paces from the yellow door which not only keeps all of the monsters contained but also makes it almost impossible for them NOT to infight....IMO this intro would've been much cooler if Bill had simply let these malcontents start trickling into the yellow key area as soon as the player takes the key.

That last misstep with the arch-vile aside, this is a likable introduction to the game's second episode.

Map 12 -- Power Station - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Hmm, this one, not so much. I seem to recall that I'd already heard somewhere prior to this thread that this was actually once the second half of map 11 (which is sort of implied anyway by the way map 11's exit segues into map 12's intro, I suppose), which would've made it a rather O'Brien-esque longplay sort of affair. I'm not sure if I would say the split was ultimately beneficial or not....on the one hand, the great majority of the actual gameplay content in this map would've seemed like an oddly prolonged flat note to end map 11 on, but on the other hand a lot of that gameplay flatness seems to actually elide from the maps being split and the thing balance in map 12 not being retooled very well (or at all?) in respect to that split.

The heart of the matter is that, from a fist-start, the combat in this map is pretty much entirely slowballed corridor-crawly stuff, featuring a lot of single combat against basic monsters in the early going before transitioning to slightly larger groups of fodder in the midgame, and then to exasperatingly ineffective clots of Baron-meat near the conclusion. Depending on the lift you take at the start your starting weapon is either going to be the SSG or the chainsaw (the latter in my case, in fact I used it almost exclusively up until the last third or so), and while there's generally a comfortably steady trickle of supplies to keep you going, you'll soon notice that you're amassing a stock of rockets but never seem to find a launcher to use them with--at first it seems playful, then it seems irritating as Barons start to assert themselves, and then finally it seems outright broken by the end of the map, and indeed, I suspect that 'broken' is exactly what it is. Knowing that this map was originally a part of map 11, we can reasonably assume that its base thing balance was made under the assumption that the player would have the weapons from that earlier part of the level to use here; while someone obviously did a cursory modification of the level to make it pistol-startable (hence the SSG and chainsaw early on), it seems like they just plain forgot to make sure the RL was somewhere in there too....STRAIN's vintage is late enough that I doubt many of its team would take the tack that purposefully withholding the RL (while cheekily leaving piles of ammo for it lying around) would add 'challenge' or 'fun' to the proceedings, and so this is something I interpret as an honest oversight, but I guess we might never know. Whatever the case, the lack of any real variety or challenge in the combat plus the Baron-heavy late game and the unfortunate absence of a rocket launcher (despite a good stock of rocket ammo) makes for something that just starts feeling like a drag long before it actually ends. About the best thing I can say for it is that at least it doesn't screw up the arch-vile reprise encounter in the lobby with another blocking line like map 11 before it did.

With a different thing balance, I think this could do fairly well as an atmosphere-focused 'breather' session (indeed, by all appearances this is precisely what Bill was going for with it), but as it stands it seems like the surgery which excised it from map 11's bosom was not done very delicately, and so it winds up in the unenviable position of seeming like it would've been excess baggage if left attached to that map, yet unable to stand strong on its own.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP13: Ruins

This is a fun little jaunt through a more medieval environment to break up the techbase-after-techbase theme we've enjoyed so far; its curving corridors make me wonder if perhaps the similarly curved walls in the lower levels of MAP12 aren't meant to hint at the subversion of technology by the influence or proximity of Hell as we've seen so many times in Doom before. The conclusion of the map, stepping through a bloodfall from a grimy underground green stone ruin into the cleanest and most chromed of techbase interiors, is disorienting in a playful kind of way, like we've had a brief hint at or window into something that's not going to be fully developed for a while yet.

In terms of gameplay there isn't much about this map that really sticks with me; the debut of the new monster is a particularly low-key encounter, and the overall flow feels more like a side trip or secret level than an integral part of the expected progression. There's nothing outright offensive or terrible on display here, just... not a lot to really hold my attention. On to the next map tomorrow, then.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP10: A real cheeky map. It bores you with some linear gameplay for a while, and then from the first RL fake-out onwards, it’s a nonstop troll train. I thought it was pretty creative, especially how often the RL was denied, though by the end it had lost its luster. Pretty inventive level though; if anything, STRAIN at least has some pretty cool ideas.

MAP11: I liked this one. It had a nifty, oldschool exploration vibe to it, with some decent SG action throughout that didn’t bother me—I actually think those Eyebots are a lot more dangerous when you only have the shotgun to take them down with, giving them enough time to fire a rocket you might forget about. The nonlinearity of the post YK-door was a good addition and I generally approved of most of the hitscanner placement. Overall I think it was a solid map.

Also, that “opium-starved poets” line is pretty good.

MAP12: How the hell did that green armor morph into a box of shells?! Anyway, I like the pistol start here—when I first realized there was no ammo for pistol at the beginning, I thought we’d see more devious openers like this one (it was fun puzzling out how to take down the chaingunner). I mostly dug this map thanks to its ammo starvation. I never found the RL and missed the chainsaw for a good bit, so it was a pretty tense subterranean crawl with me dodging every baron that appeared. I think there’s too many barons in the map (the blue key door was clogged with them), but otherwise it was devious, moody, and fun.

MAP13: A quick bloody level with lots of action at the start, and then it kinda dies down a bit later. Shame the keys were all along the same path, as it would’ve been better to have some nonlinearity between the three of them, but it’s not detrimental to the map. Strange introduction for that minicyber though… could barely even tell what was firing on me from above.

[SoundofDoomDoors]

MAP 13 is one of my favorite levels of the wad. Just what the doctor ordered after the last 2 levels. The author's out to kill you here at the start, as others have said, and his main weapon is STRAIN's fast imps. This level is by far the best use of them in the wad to this point. I died twice in the opening, but I was having so much fun with the level that I kept the demo rolling. The arena that introduced the minister of pain was another standout of me. Too bad I missed what KME mentioned in his review as a telefrag chance. I took him out the boring way with rockets.

NOTE: I'm only reading KME's remarks on levels I've beaten. I don't want spoilers!

This demo is an FDA, my first to include deaths. Normally I don't like to include them, but I died so early and was having so much fun that I decided to leave it. 4shockblast left his deaths in his map06 FDA too, if I recall correctly. With all that in mind, I think it's fine. I just wouldn't do it if I died late, like when I got killed in the exit room of map08 on my first try.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/h47j86jnuorv8a7/strain_map13_FDA.lmp

[4shockblast]

SoundofDoomDoors said:

This demo is an FDA, my first to include deaths. Normally I don't like to include them, but I died so early and was having so much fun that I decided to leave it. 4shockblast left his deaths in his map06 FDA too, if I recall correctly. With all that in mind, I think it's fine. I just wouldn't do it if I died late, like when I got killed in the exit room of map08 on my first try.

Generally, I think it's customary to leave deaths in FDAs, I do it for every FDA.

Map 12: Kills: 93%, Items: 97%, Secrets: 100%, final time: 16:29 (0 deaths)

Continuation of map 11 (or its second half as I read from Capellan's post on 11), and it was pretty interesting to be able to go back to the same area I started in map 11. Unfortunately, the rest of the level is neither interesting nor fun, so this was probably my least favorite level so far (I disliked it more than map 9). The dark hallways are really boring to look at, the entire level is just a more expansive and annoying version of the switch hunt in map 11, and the gameplay is just awful. In every room I went to I was thinking I'd find the rocket launcher, but all I found was more and more barons. The baron spam was the worst part, although most other monsters were also haphazardly placed and rarely in an interesting or challenging encounter. In fact, I can't think of any fight in this map that I enjoyed; the closest a fight came to being interesting was the invisible rev-bot fight, and even that was marred because I was low on shells (which happened often) and lacked a rocket launcher. The midi made the entire experience even more dull too. All in all, a terrible level.

Map 13: Kills: 100%, Items: 100%, Secrets: 50%, final time: 7:21 (0 deaths)

At least after a painfully tedious and annoying level I get an action-packed experience with interesting setpiece fights and no switch hunt bullshit. Also, I get the rocket launcher right from the start! :D I don't even use it as much as I should because the last level conditioned me to just SSG through everything, but it was still fun to play this level. Gameplay was on the easy side (aside from the start where I got close to death), but still pretty fun, and the level looks good too, red key area looked particularly cool. Props for actually using the new imp variant well too, in groups of snipers where projectile spam becomes a challenge. Also mini-cybers :D, best enemy so far (I remember them possibly from some stream of this as well, though). The single mini-cyber in this level wasn't much of a threat, but I envision that they will be used in much more interesting encounters later on.

FDAs here.

[vdgg]

If you die and start a new demo, this new demo can't be called First Demo Attempt anymore...

[Magnusblitz]

MAP13: Ruins
100% kills, 2/2 secrets

Nice shot in the arm with this map, as the start can get pretty bloody if you try to rambo it (being given the SSG is actually a drawback here, I think, as the monsters/room design would serve the regular shotgun much better). The yellow key ambush is also pretty dangerous, after wiping out on it the first time (better run from those hitscanners!) I decided to save it for last instead. The rest of the map is a bit easier, with the introduction of the mini-Cyberdemon and a close-quarter AV being the only real notable instances.

There are a couple of weird design points... the first secret is a backpack, despite there being an almost in-plain-sight backpack just a few rooms earlier. Also, these stairs are hideously ugly. The mini-Cyberdemon's introduction is pretty poorly done, IMO, since he's sitting up high on a pillar... his weird noises make more of an impression. Overall the theme is alright, but feels a bit jarring in the middle of a bunch of techbase maps... I suppose one could surmise that the bases are all just located near a bunch of ruins, but still feels a bit out of place. Still, nice to have some quick-and-bloody for once.

[Capellan]

Map14
One thing I like about STRAIN is how Not Brown it is. Even when a level is comprised mostly of mostly boxy structures, as this one is, you still get big green pipes rising up to the heavens, and bright red guardrails on staircases. I like that.

I'm not very impressed by the level's gameplay though. It is a very boxy, corridor-focused kind of thing after all, with lots of 64-wide passages between obstructions. These tend to reward corner camping and would I imagine be quite frustrating in multiplayer (though the map widely separates the co-op starts so maybe it wouldn't be as much of an issue for that as for DM). Secrets are also a bit wonky; the level only has three, and two are in the same small room. Strange pacing, that.

The map is also rather easy on continuous play. There are a lot of enemies in terms of raw numbers, but they're not very dangerous in their placement. Most traps are pretty obvious and many have their triggers in very unthreatening places. The eastern corridor is particularly anaemic in this regard, as you are well out of danger before the 'trap' is sprung. Presumably the intent is to push you into the next room, but the enemies there aren't dangerous enough to make that a problem. In fact, about the most dangerous thing in this map is the blur sphere.

[mouldy]

MAP13 - “Ruins” by David Rotramel

Abrupt change of scenery, quite a hectic pistol start too. Fun stuff. Bit of a plutonia vibe with the curvy corridors. Oh man, the micro-cyber made me laugh, I hope to see a lot more of those. Yeah I enjoyed this one, and those fast imps continue to cause me much amusement, I think all imps should be that speedy.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP14: Engineering

of course, Ruins is a good map but continuity-wise, it felt like it was pushed into a space with two maps with more or less tech themes. Like this one, with its opening enclaves pitted against hitscanners and imps in a tight office-like space. Many parts were also tight. that blue key trap was really odd, there's no way to open the bars, you need to squeeze through an opening which somehow feels like it was a design flaw. there is some computer terminal pressing, like in the northwestern part of the map, but at least the sidedefs here have clues on which ones to use. I think the worst part of this map was that flickering light corridor, which eventually becomes stairs after triggering a linedef in the previous room that is locked until I first enter a good portion of the corridor! pretty lame, and definitely hated the backtracking. Like Ruins, this one needs all three keys to exit, but it's not really as nonlinear as I expected it to be.

[gaspe]

MAP14 - Engineering

Kills: 100% | Items: 100% | Secrets: 100%

Not as good as some of the previous maps, but it has its nice moments. The traps aren't that effective, and there is too much corridor action and cramped space. The hiscanners at the start are kinda threatening as it result to be difficult to hit them with all those wall in the way. The Yellow key fight is the most interesting, and the blue key trap has a nice effect. I like the room with the nukage on its sides, and the one with the "pipes" and the fence on the route to the red key. An ok map, I guess.

[Sui Generis]

MAP14 - “Engineering” by David Graves, Anthony Czerwonka, Rich Johnston, and Arthur Chang
Claustrophobi, highly linear and prescriptive but fun techbase. This map managed to deliver some more open spaces as well as tighter ones, and include some height variation so it had some basic stuff hit. The claustrophobic style isn't my first choice, but it's ok every so often and this map didn't overdo it. I also appreciate that the progression was generally very obvious. Monster encounters are often just directly ahead, although there are some releases behind or below which benefit the map.

I only found one of the three secrets here, and would be interested to go back and try and hunt the others, so we will see. I'd say this is a reasonably successful mid-90s map and the kind of thing I expected to see in Strain.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP14: Engineering
26:49 | 100% everything

So this was a switch-hunty thing, eh? I won't complain, though, as I found all the switches. But the whole time I progressed I felt like I was sneaking around through secret areas, but no, that was the intended path. Some nasty key ambushes. The blue trap cheesed me off with its berserk-hidden-in-the-shadows: I had my SSG primed to fight the HK, and suddenly I'm switching to fists?! Panic mode! The red key with its two ministers was the biggest challenge (died twice, I think?) until I found I could duck behind the pillars and double-SSG each of them. The RL secret was the last one I found after I had cleaned everything else out, and I needed automap assistance for that one. Another fun level.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP14: Engineering

Fun little corridor-crawler (I seem to be saying that a lot lately) though I can't really disagree with any of Capellan's observations about its shortcomings, either. Maybe I was just in the mood for something relatively straightforward this morning. I feel the map sometimes can't decide how obvious it wants to be about certain things; there are non-secret switches, even necessary-for-progression switches, that I actually found less readily apparent than the mechanisms for accessing secrets.

I'd point to the secret in the COMPBLUE hub of the map as a good example of how to do small-scale puzzles; you can see the objective you're working towards, you've always got an audible or visible clue of what the switches you're monkeying with actually do, and you're never in a position where you're just mashing switches and hoping for the best.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP14: Terrible map. Completely linear, confusing progression, overly cramped areas, and boring gameplay interspliced with dumb encounters (like a big room full of hitscanners). Even that final battle was inane, forcing you to bait out the AV and just SSG it from the hall. I had almost no fun moments the whole map; how the hell did four different authors produce this refuse? Dumb dumb dumb.

[4shockblast]

Map 14: Kills: 101%, Items: 88%, Secrets: 100%, final time: 10:05 (1 death) (total time around 25 minutes)

For a map that essentially consisted mostly of corridors, monster closets, and switch-hunting, this was pretty fun. The corridors in this map were generally nicely spaced out by more open areas or had a "second level" to them like the central room, so they never got annoying to navigate. The monster closet traps definitely varied in effectiveness; some caused some interesting challenge like the one in the room before the blue key. Having a bunch of hitscanners come out and roam in between the computer platforms made for an interesting fight as they could suddenly appear from the back or side to ambush me. The yellow key room trap was also kind of cool since after triggering it suddenly the player is surrounded by monsters. Most of the traps didn't give me too much trouble, though, the only one that killed me was the red key trap at the cybers, which is probably the first time in Strain I died quite late into the FDA (I picked up the invis there expecting more hitscanners but was trolled :D). Thankfully, knowing the level made it much faster to get to that point, and I found some extra stuff that I missed previously (an RL secret and the red armor), so I wasn't too annoying in the end. The switch hunting could probably get a bit confusing since some of the switches are on computers and aren't obvious, but from wallhumping instincts I was never confused at any point in the level. Overall, not an amazing level, but pretty fun for a playthrough nonetheless.

FDA here.

[Capellan]

Map15
Good grief, I found the secret exit (of course, you do two different opportunities to find it).

It's actually possible to hit the secret exit pretty darn early in the map's progression: as soon as you grab the blue key you have everything you need. You can skip a big chunk of the "semi-nukage" maze behind the yellow door and everything behind the blue and red doors, if you don't care about 100%ing it. Though apparently you can hit the normal exit in 4 seconds, with some switch trick abuse, so even exiting 2/3 of the way through is actually more than you need to do if you just want to get to map16.

The map's gimmick of course is the "explosions" (remotely detonated barrels) that carve holes in the walls through which you progress. It's quite effectively done for singleplayer purposes, though I imagine it doesn't work so well in multi-player: the holes are made with standard "lower floor to lowest floor" tags which move quite slowly. Should have used insta-lifts, author person.

Much of this level looks pretty good: metal is a solid choice for a base theme and it is enlivened well with computer and nukage highlights, while the earthen tunnels caused by the "explosions" vary things up a bit.

The level's not without blemishes though. The corridor leading south from the start room (down the stairs) is kind of annoying for instance, what with having three consecutive doors right after each other. This is particularly irksome since I suspect it is only like that to delay the player's return to the start room after the first "explosion". Wouldn't be necessary with insta-lifts.

The "semi-nukage" maze is also an issue. Not because only about half the sectors are damaging – I suspect that's a deliberate gameplay gimmick whereby an obervant player (or one who knows the limitations of the vanilla engine) will recognise that the flickering sectors are not painful. For my money the problems here are the boring texturing – brownhug is a fine texture in small doses, but this is a giant economy sized vat of it – and the misguided attempt to suggest slopes by skipping upper and lower textures.

Of course, the biggest problem is that it's a maze. Boooring. At least it's not 64-wide I guess.


Map31
Given my low opinion of maps 05 and 06, I perhaps should not be surprised that John Landis's third contribution to STRAIN is also a misfire.

I won't complain about the fact that it's a Tyson map. While that's not something I much care for, it's not a terrible idea when one of your weapon tweaks is to make the punch better.

I will however complain about everything else: first off it's a pretty boring level visually, being something like 98% support3 or one of two brick textures, and lacking much in the way of interesting structures. We do get more of those 'wonderful' ribbed corridors, though. Ugh.

The map has also got some obtuse progression even for the non-secret exit. The secret exit, though ... ugh. I bitched about it earlier in response to Suitepee, so I'll just summarise here: it is face-punchingly stupid and I prefer my face unpunched.

Very glad we will see no more of Landis until map30.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP14: Engineering
96% kills, 3/3 secrets

Pretty corridor-iffic, but there's a lot going on with switches and monster closets and the like, so I suppose one's enjoyment will depend on how easily they're able to figure out the progression. There were a couple tricky parts (or parts where I felt I was finding something secret, only for it to be the main path) but nothing that really gave me pause. The only thing I really didn't like was the opening encounter, as the walls are just high enough that it becomes quite difficult for the player to shoot over them, but the monsters have no trouble shooting back. Combine that with lack of ammo and it can be a pretty punishing start. After that, it's not too bad, with enough surprises to keep things interesting but not really unfair apart from the constant attrition due to lack of health/armor on the level. I will admit that I cheesed the red key ambush since ZDoom's handling of the invisibility sphere meant I could grab the key and find a good position without setting off the Mini-Cybers (and boy do their sprites look terrible up close). I'm not going to say this map is any great shakes, but it kept me entertained more often than not.

[mouldy]

MAP14 - “Engineering” by David Graves, Anthony Czerwonka, Rich Johnston, and Arthur Chang

I really like the visual style of this one, and the general gameplay is ok, but I just wish the scenery wasn't so cramped. That first room in particular is needlessly constrictive and bloody awkward to navigate. I heavily abused the infinite height switches to do the lift puzzle in there by the way. In fact I managed to enjoy this one despite the elbow chaffing surroundings, I guess its possible the fights might not even play as well with a few extra feet of breathing space. But I just hate having walls in my face and bumping around on scenery like a drunk pinball.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP15: Subsidiary Power

now this level name is a bit cooler. the map has a very awkward pace if you ask me, you go through areas, and then be hearing barrel explosions, where new areas appear, most notably in the hub at the start. that whole nukage corridor behind the yellow door is fucking dreadful. the one place where you can find an ample radiation suit BEFORE stepping in it is in a not-so-obvious-and-not-secret compartment in the hub, which I easily miss since I always think it is a part of the design. in the nukage maze itself there AREN'T any radsuits except in one corridor (plus a secret that appears right after getting that one has yet another one!?). and of course, with the non-damaging AND damaging nukage together, just no. One more thing, the floors and ceilings have HOMs, and if you ask me, it seems they are used so the nukage seems...sloped. Interesting effect, but it's awkward still. You can get the secret exit real early too. Overall, not too happy with this one, some weird progressing, and the fucked up nukage maze really ruins it.

[gaspe]

MAP15 - Subsidiary Power

Kills: 100% | Items: 100% | Secrets: 100%

This is a good one. I don't get the exact purpose of those 3 doors in a row. The explosions and the passages that get revealed by them is a nice gimmick. For the normal exit you need only the Blue Key. The encounters are nothing special but still pretty fun, best moment was the yellow key fight. The weakest section is the nukage sewer, which looks extremely dull. At least it isn't very long and all the barrels provide some more fun. Not sure about those hom to give the impression of a non-flat liquid.
At the normal exit makes his first apparition the tougher monster in the wad: the Demon Lord. Is a grey baron which shoots 5 balls of the baron's attack. It's kinda easy to use it to cause some infight (it replaces the mancubus), but it's very hard to dodge its attack if you don't have a cover near. I always liked its noises.


MAP31 - Secret

Kills: 100% | Items: 100% | Secrets: 100%

Combat is ok, lots of tysoning. Can't say really nice words about the rest. Visually is very bland, it's just 3 textures of bricks and metal without anything more interesting other that corridors. These are very like the ones on MAP06, but at least here the floor is free. reaching to normal exit is a bit obscure, but not as much as the secret one.

Spoiler

You have to walk on 4 linedefs, on a specific order. And they are in far and different locations of the map.

Actually having a more difficult puzzle for the secret exit is a cool thing. But here the order seems just random.
I mean, there's noting in the map that hints where to go and in what order. I don't think all those symbols actually help. Never liked this map.


MAP32 - Super-Secret

Kills: 98% | Items: 98% | Secrets: 100%

Allright. Something more straight-forward with bigger hordes of monsters. The map isn't anything special, just boxy rooms. The damaging floor at the center and the tight space around make the things more interesting. We have many powerups here to handle for the fights. Really fun, something not to take very seriously.

[Sui Generis]

MAP15 - "Subsidiary Power” by Chainsaw
Well this was quite fun. Structurally, it's a kind of hub type level. There was a good general stream of baddies with area re-use. Although there are tight areas this is nonetheless more open than the previous map. I felt the simulated 'blown-out' walls revealed in the starting area were surprisingly cool. The sewer section was rather more meh though - going through it once is not too bad I guess as there are trivial demons that kept me occupied with the shotgun and the odd use of intermittently damaging slime (in dark areas only? I've never come across this as a concept before) did actually make it a bit more interesting for me. That section was a weaker point though.

I would criticise that the secret exit was quite easy to find, so much so that I wondered if I'd just found the normal exit. Using it leaves a substantial portion of the map uncleared, including the reveal of the latest new monster. Ah yes, the 'Lord of Hell' is a pretty surprisingly dangerous enemy, and an excellent addition to the menagerie. Perhaps the Strain team ought to have replaced the baron instead of the mancubus though? (I'm not familiar with DehackEd frames and such to know if the manc firing style can only be adopted by editing the manc thing.

Good map overall. I found all secrets and hope the secret level from Mr Landis is better than his Map 06.

MAP31 - "Secret” by Jon Landis
It's Jon Landis' secret map, and lo and behold it's a Map 06 redux! All the uniformly lit and textured corridors with ribs are back, there are plenty of pressure pads that the player must walk over to reveal new areas, and a truckload of symmetry. Yet nonetheless I actually don't mind this level. I'm a bit surprised and unsure as to why, given my luke-warm reaction to Map 06. Perhaps it's the slot, as secret levels are traditionally unorthodox. I think with this map, the symmetry makes the map easier to navigate and more explicitly frames the map as a puzzle map. Gameplay wise the map is filled with low-level enemies (a single minister of hate towards the end in an awkward drop down position caused me some pain though). The simpler level and smaller overall map size reduced the wander time between encounters and made the map feel that bit quicker.

I eventually found the secret exit - not quite sure what motivated Capellan's displeasure re this in his Map 06 comments though? Opening it just seems to be more of the same thing you had to do to progress in the level anyway. Oh yeah I didn't comment on the NFG which I picked up here. It looks pretty flat, but I guess it's different. The more powerful projectiles but reduced ammo capacity are a change. I guess I haven't had a proper chance to exploit it here.

Overall not an amazing level but not too bad. I think I would probably appreciate a more conventional and open level from Landis.

[purist]

12

What a dull end to a map this would have been if it weren't split from MAP11. Lots of caverns and piecemeal monsters to traipse through whilst hoping not to miss one of several switches that presumably lower the red key. This level just sort of goes on and on when it just needs to stop. It's what it's like to be trapped in a Doom level, just ploughing on and hoping the exit is behind that next door.

[SoundofDoomDoors]

MAP14's okay. Using autoaim/disabling freelook circumvents the issues with the walls at the start. You'll hit the zombies square in the head like I did in my FDA. That doesn't help with the ammo, which is tough but eases up later, but I thought I'd offer. The corridors were a little tiring (the flickering lights in one part annoyed me then I had to go BACK through it), the ambushes weren't that threatening, but compared to the more offensively bad levels of the wad, this was pretty good.

Also worth mentioning is the sheer amount of health and ammo in the latter 3/4ths of the level. I always had more than I needed, and even fired a rocket at a pack of imps at one point because of how secure I felt. A lot of the ambushes could have benefited from attacking the player from more than one angle. The room with the megasphere looked like the sides were going to open up to complement the guys attacking from the hallway, but it never did. That was a missed opportunity. I just camped it with impunity.

One more thing: I was trolled by the invisibility too. When the ministers showed up after I got it, I freaked out and hid behind the nearest pillar. It could have gone worse, but I love the idea behind it.

I forgot to record my FDA. Yesterday I was playing Plutonia in GZDoom. When I changed back to GLBoom for recording and reset the command line arguments in ZDL, I forgot the dash beside record.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP31: Secret

Hmm, I should have known that the author of MAP06 made this one. another confusing level where getting out isn't gonna be a cinch. the berserk at the beginning is perfect for the blood demon trap up ahead, but combat wise, it's not such a combat-oriented map. It's secret nature complements the secrets it has, and the author manages to hide the secret exit here well, too well in fact. the regular exit in the room with the exit signs can be accidentally or deliberately triggered too. the NFG, as it is called, is pretty big for a plasma gun, and doesn't hold as much ammo as I'd like it to, but it's pretty powerful against most opponents. one other drawback is its cooldown period. trying to get the soul sphere, as well as the secret exit, requires walking over certain linedefs IN A CERTAIN ORDER, which would be very difficult to memorize. solving this puzzle puts quite a lot of enemies, including two mini-cybies, but they aren't as troublesome as the puzzle I had to solve to get to the exit, which even involves going back to other switches that have been pressed!

by the way, I've always wanted to ask this question since this map and so many others seem to do it, but what's the deal with multiple berserk packs? In this one for example, there's one at the start, but another one is in a secret. is there any reason for having more than one?

another thing, I just found out here that the super imps and regular imps CAN IN FACT infight. hilarious.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP15: Subsidiary Power
98% kills, 4/4 secrets

Eh, not a fan. It's got a few areas that scream "amateurish" to me... there's quite a few mono-textured areas (which also tend to be corridorific and low-ceiling to boot), and the progression is somewhat confusing (finding the normal exit is actually harder than the secret one, I'd argue). Lots of unclear switch-hittery too. I do like the "exploded wall" mixtextures though, interesting idea.

The forced-damage sewer section is a good example of "good idea, poor execution" IMO, as I think the general design of the forced damage and barrels make the player feel a nice frantic pace, but the health comes a bit later than I'd like, and it's not clear there will be a suit to reach - it's the sort of thing that probably needs health for the player right before the start (to ensure they can beat it if they come into the area wounded) and also some way for the player to preview the area first to see kinda how it's setup. And what's up with all the missing step textures in the slime area?

Combat's alright, there's a decent amount of mid-tier monsters mixed in with plenty of smaller zombies and imps, and plenty of armament for the player so it moves quickly. If the player clears out the whole level, they'll meet the Lord of Hell for the first time, a new noble with a quicker and spread fire, though I noticed there always seems to be a hole in the fan for a player to sidestep to the left into.

MAP31: Secret
100% kills, 10/10 secrets

I surprisingly didn't hate this. I was prepared to rip the texture usage (as others have said, the whole map is pretty much green brick floor, brown brick wall, and SUPPORT3 wall notches) but I think it actually works for a map like this that is predicated on being a puzzle map with plenty of secret walls to push and explore (all partially visible on the minimap, thankfully). I was also glad for the chance to really let rip with the berserk pack here, since the new fists have unfortunately been underused in the WAD so far. Making the Tyson map the secret map is also a good move since there's definitely quite a few people who hate them.

I did have difficulty with figuring out the order to run through the areas... having the four symbols set up the way they do isn't a good way to really communicate the idea. I just kept circling through the map and somehow eventually did it the right way. This map also introduces the new suped-up plasma gun... the sprite's a bit clashy, but oh well.

[vdgg]

MAP14. I find this very, very cute. Awesome looking areas everywhere. Also, not so awesome MODWALL section with steep stairs. Anyway, my favourites:
- blue key bars that "close"... uhm, not close tight enough
- triangular lift with a floor lamp

MAP15. Plenty of things going on here, but somehow I'm not a fan of this map. I know there is a tendency in these forums to bash every nukage without a radiation suit, but this nukage sucks visually, as Capellan said. Explosion, cool trick. Nice coloured door indicators (with candles). Funny secret exit ("this switch was not supposed to be here..."). Demonlord introduced in a bit Wolfensteiny way.

Demonlord. The toughest Strain monster is good, by itself. What I dislike is
- now we have THREE baron-like creatures with different colors. Barons of hell should be nonexistent.
- Demonlords do infight with barons and HKs, this does not make any sense at all! (Will be just funny to watch on MAP27 for instance)