The DWmegawad Club plays: Plutonia 2

[Magnusblitz]

MAP07: Enemy Caught
100% kills, 1/1 secret

Certainly a homage to MAP07: Caughtyard from the original Plutonia, with the same "fight mancubi in a courtyard, revenants on walls, arachnatrons outside" setup. There's also a teleporting AV, though the one here is a lot less dangerous than the original. There's a lot more meat to this one, and a lot more circle-strafing. In fact, that's pretty much the whole map... circle-strafing large packs of meat. Looks decently nice but pretty boring on the whole.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP07: Enemy Caught
Yep, Caughtyard redux. Not a big fan of the original, "meh" on this one as well. The exit looks pretty cool, though.

MAP08: Harmany
A short map, kinda cute. Fun enough. Not much else to say.

MAP09: Wormhole Zone
Awww yiss. This level was amazing. Frantic start, a couple of directions to go. It was like a two minute running battle before I could grab a foothold and take a breather. The end of the map is oddly underpopulated, but that's really the only possible complaint. Juts a fantastic map.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP09: Wormhole Zone

The map name sets up the expectation of a great deal of teleporting here, but actually there isn't... on the player side at least. Instead this seems to be a staging area of sorts for the demonic horde, who come pouring in at several points over the level, not necessarily to swarm and surround you but to make their presence felt along balconies and walkways, down in pools and courtyards beneath the triggering vantage point, or in chambers adjacent to your current location, giving a sense not so much of endless setpiece ambushes but instead of an invading, outflanking army that's as much about controlling space as hunting you down.

All of this takes place in another lovely brickbase map, nestled in a landscape that's more whimsical and fantastical than many we've seen, a watery canyon whose walls may be cliffs or ramparts but are in either case riddled with cubbyholes or nests of some sort, vast vacant eyes gazing down with a stony indifference upon your progress or lack thereof. The base itself is a delight, split across multiple levels with a non-linear layout that lets you mostly pick fights and gear up in the order of your choosing, though ultimately there will be certain steps you have to tackle in a particular order, the red and yellow keys unlocking the path to the blue and from thence to [strike]freedom[/strike] one last revenant onslaught before the exit.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP09 Wormhole Zone

oh yeah baby, we're talking now. This right here is a great action-start sort of map, with enough enemies to be challenging without being overly bearing on the player. the general nonlinearity makes for some interesting routes, and luckily, I knew of the quickest. of course, on the road for the yellow and red keys, it's likely the players will kill the monsters before progressing for them. Sometimes, the action happens so fast, you wouldn't even remember the action even happened as you blow through this one, but that's what makes this a replayable beauty in my opinion. this is a map I highly remember when I play Plutonia 2.

[vdgg]

MAP09. Made using the same formula as MAP05, which I described as "close to perfect". So this is MAP05 with a groovy track, heavier monsters, less space for the player, and even more fun. So I may only echo enthusiastic comments...

[Archvile Hunter]

MAP09 - 'Wormhole Zone' by Gusta [https://youtu.be/JUpyhleNBRw]

Kills: 100% | Items: 100% | Secrets: 100% | Time: 10:16 | Attempts: 1

The sequel to MAP05. The difficulty is starting to ramp up, and I came really close to dying (2% health). The non-linearity here is great, a harsh contrast to the last map. I wish I would have found a Megasphere and Megaarmor earlier, but hey. There are some nasty ambushes as well, and the exit is guarded by a wall of Revenants. Not too bad with a BFG and 600 cells though. The map also looks good and has a great midi to accompany it. Favourite map so far, I might go back and try this from pistol start.

[Memfis]

10 - Hmm, kind of interesting. I feel like Thomas van der Velden's maps are often more about look and feel than they are about gameplay, but this one actually has some exciting fights (I almost died near the blue key). The ship trick is ingenious of course, and so are the exit teleporters on walls in the last room. I'm not so sure about the Doom 2 Map10 homages, these can be controversial sometimes. Overall this doesn't feel much like Plutonia but that's not necessarily bad, as it means more variety.

[gaspe]

MAP10 - Cosmodrome

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

A rather anomalous map for a Plutonia themed project (but it isn't the only one). It feels something more on the vibe of TNT, but it's a really interesting map. Combats are more forgiving than the usual with the blue key area as the more threatening. I'm fine with the refuelling base homages, though the blue key area does the thing in a more interesting way. The ship is very cool.

[SoundofDoomDoors]

MAP09's another good map by gusta. Jumping down to the yellow key only took me a minute or two to figure out, otherwise I can't find any fault with it. The chaingunners at the blue key are a little easy to escape, but there's plenty of other guys to slow you down besides that. They can also shoot at you from over the waterfall, but that's nothing a rocket or two can't fix. It just takes more than that to deal with the wall of skeletons at the end. I approve of his enemy selection. You just can't go wrong with skeletons.

100% Kills
100% Secrets
0 Deaths (10 Total on UV)

[Magnusblitz]

MAP08: Harmany
100% kills, 2/2 secrets

Pretty pedestrian map, basically walk into room, clear it, grab key or hit switch, deal with teleport ambushers, walk into next room, repeat. Gameplay is pretty one-note with the SSG being the only real weapon available (there's chainguns you can filch off chaingunner corpses and a hidden rocket launcher, but not much ammo for either) and lots of mid-range monsters - hell knights, revenants, mancubi. The height differences in some areas help make things a bit more interesting but overall it's pretty ho-hum. Thankfully short, at least.

(Any guesses on why the name is mispelled? I don't see an obvious pun)

[Demon of the Well]

"Harm many", perhaps?

[Tango]

iirc it was going to be named Harmony initially but Grazza (I think? could have been myk) suggested Harmany for the pun, yeah

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP10: Cosmodrome

There's a shift away from atmospheric but relatively anonymous brickbases towards more directly representational architecture here, with the cargo spaceship, the underground pumping/treatment station that houses the blue key, and other areas that are more about being specifically and individually identifiable rather than offering themselves up as one smoothly-incorporated part of the larger whole. It works as a change of pace here, deviating from the expectations established thus far.

In terms of layout and progression it's relatively linear, though the use of teleporters to reset the 'angle' from which the player approaches the main complex is kind of neat; you can see it from the little southern bunker where you start, but can't access it, then you can enter it via a secondary passage beneath the ship which dead-ends, and only after that can you take a roundabout approach that finally delivers you to the main gate, with your previous incursions having given you a sense of the scale and feel of the complex before you breach it.

Combat offers a few hectic moments but is generally on the fun side, and in particular I found the various arch-viles deployed throughout the map more time-consuming than genuinely able to threaten me. In general I'd say this map is less coherent than most of the previous ones, with uneven combat that doesn't know quite what its goals are, and a look and layout that's more about stitching individual pieces together than building outwards from a core idea. But those individual pieces are often very cool, like the expansion of the distinctive Plutonia 'floor teleporter' into a cubic cage-like structure of emitters like Doom's take on an Event Horizon device.

[scifista42]

MAP05 - “Flooded Chapel”

Once again great looks, nice layout and intense gameplay, slightly tougher than in previous maps, but still not downright punishing. Fun for me, and I'm overally impressed.

[vdgg]

MAP10. Hm, once I beat it, I don't want to play again, so it's not a good sign. But the level looks great, and sector tag 1 is kind of an amazing trick to me. Only once the ship goes fully up, a TEKLITE wall lowers, it really looks like Boom or scripted stuff, not vanilla Doom!

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP10 Cosmodrome

Thomas Van Der Velden's offering here has to be one of the more memorable ones. especially with that airplane flying away, a very neat vanilla special effect. and this is a memorable Jimmy song too. scourging my way through the UAAF building also held a special place in memory. Well there's also the Refueling Base homages too. I hated those rising/lowering platforms though.

[AnonimVio]

MAP07: Enemy Caught

Dead Simple clone. Next!

MAP08: Harmany

A little breath after intense MAP07. This map, as well as MAP04, is way different from other maps, offering simple and basic design with slow gameplay. Solonet is spicing it up a bit, adding 2 cyberdemons. An OK map.

MAP09: Wormhole Zone

I thought Wormhole was in Evilution, no Plutonia? There is another map with name resembling TNT, and it's Hecknology. Anyway this map is what Plutonia 2 is best in - big, open map with lots of paths and ways to go, accompanied with a badass midi. One of the best PL2 maps.

[Archvile Hunter]

MAP10 - 'Cosmodrome' by Thomas Van Der Velden [https://youtu.be/wLLJhf2xSOc]

Kills: 100% | Items: 11% | Secrets: 20% | Time: 8:36 | Attempts: 1

This is another map I remember quite well, though I had forgotten about the obvious Doom II MAP10 homages. The most memorable scene here is of course the space ship, it's really cool that it was done within vanilla limitations. Unfortunately, the rest of the map is pretty forgettable for the most part. The bridge in the undeground area with the raising and lowering sections is really strange, I don't understand that design decision. I don't think Thomas Van Der Velden is a bad mapper, he's done some amazing stuff, but we'll get to that later. This just seems to be one of his weaker displays. Now, the next map is gonna be fun...

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP10: Cosmodrome
Mostly forgettable with a couple of highly memorable set-pieces, namely, the oft-mentioned spaceship and the moated keep. The homage area did give me a chuckle.

[gaspe]

MAP11 - Arch-Violence

Kills: 88% | Items: 82% | Secrets: 100%

The archviles maze of Haunted is really well revisited here. Combat is pretty much like the original map, killing archiviles with the SSG. I have fond memories of this map for the first I played it, but imo this kind of maps lose their charm in later replays. The maze is really good, we will have multiple paths everytime (before picking the first 2 keys) and the navigation is really pleasant as there are many distinct landmarks you can reach as you venture into the labyrinth, and even the hallways have some little different details. The area with the upside-down rooms is really cool. Here we have also the death exit for the end of the episode.

[Naan]

Very neat idea is this megawad playthrough club. I always wondered which WAD to play without doing too much wandering around all maps and never finish them. Plutonia 2 is one of those WADs I played at the time they are released but never attempted to complete it fully. I wasn't a big fan of the original Plutonia but I think I can remember some of the gimmicks and easter eggs spreaded around PL2. I'm a bit late in the party, I'll try my best to catch up with the current progress!

I'm going to do pistol starts without quicksaves, using some version of GZDoom I haven't updated until 2011. Guess I won't have to update it this time. I'll start on UV for early maps then certainly drop the difficulty during progress. So here we go!

MAP01 - ”Comeback” by Adolf Vojta - UVMax on first attempt

Well, seems I'm not that rusted in my Dooming skills, not that it means something, though. Nothing really special to say about this map outside of the Berserk Pack trap secret-marked sector already mentionned.


MAP02 - “Jungle Spirits” by Adolf Vojta - UVMax on thirdish attempt

Now I remember those chaotic starts from most Plutonia maps. After a few tries though the map played smoothly for me without major difficulties, key traps were very manageable.


MAP03 - “Skull Island” by Adolf Vojta and Pavel Tvrzník - Died on last section with ten monsters left on UV after many tries

Mostly similar with MAP02 gameplaywise as well as architecture wise with a noticeable notch up in difficulty. It took me a dozen tries before figuring out how to handle the beginning chaos. Then the map played almost flawlessly (the secret was somewhat obvious) until I ran out of ammo in the last section. I made a lot of backtracking for leftover stimpacks and mercilessly died from chaingunners in the second set of switches to exit the level. I eventually decided I've seen most of the level and carry on. Those door close triggers were somewhat irritating, and didn't worked that well, I could still shoot once before it closes.

[Naan]

MAP04 - “Filth” by Fredrik Johansson - UVMax minus the secret on second attempt

Now for a change in pace with a different mapper's work. It was much easier than the previous map and I failed my first attempt only because I forgot I could Tyson my way in some part to save ammo. The two letdowns for me were the RPG that is given too late in the level to make use of, and the secret soulsphere that I was unable to find without IDDTing.


MAP05 - “Flooded Chapel” by Adolf Vojta - UVMax on the thirdish attempt

Yet another chaos start level from Adolf Vojta, this time more forgiving than MAP03 later on with plenty of ammo and stimpacks available. I guess I didn't get the blue "G" easter egg near the SSG "secret". Oh, and that teleporting Arch Vile was a bit obnoxious not because it teleported but because the rock was low enough that I thought I was in cover and it turned out I wasn't. Also, at many places it seemed that the enemies were blocked in a square for no particular reason, that made the map easier to me unless it was some GZDoom glitch.


And now for a Naxxramas style 4-wing level in MAP06...

-- Forgot to mention I play with freelook mouse with no crosshair.
-- Oh and now that I remember Kama Sutra, the "G" for Gusta and his overall mapping style appears familiar to me all of a sudden!...

[Memfis]

11 - This is too tedious for me. Sorry, but I quit after killing about 20 monsters. IMO the concept for the original "Hunted" is outdated and one-time only. Yes, in 1996 a maze full of arch-viles was both novel and scary. Not anymore! PRCP did this sooo much better btw.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP11: Arch-Violence

I'm torn on this, because I get that it's Plutonia's MAP11: Hunted 'The Next Generation' and in many ways it's conceptually constrained by doing so, but on the other hand? "It has to be this way" doesn't make an un-fun thing fun.

And there are definitely nuggets of fun buried in this - the "Escher print" maze sequence en route to the yellow key is a thing of ingenious beauty, to name one - but the fundamentally repetitive nature of the gameplay isn't helped by the scale and maze-like nature of the map. Denied a host of lesser hellspawn to tend to, the arch-viles here are employed in a purely offensive role, turning every fight into an exercise in corner-camping and line-of-sight-breaking. Cut the size and population of the map in half and you've got a much more palatable serving of arch-violence that focuses more on the fun and clever parts of the map and less on filleresque crawling through yet another blood canal.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP11 Arch-Violence

so what was I saying about memorable levels? of course this one homages Hunted, in a very grandiose scale. too bad the arch-hunting is gonna drag on for a really long time in this map. the mazey layout really wears on, with the green, the walkways, and all sorts of things. All for two keys, the blue key harder than the red. And then for the yellow key, a run around, including a pipe lift.

oh wow fake exit platform, and a battle where you need extreme luck to avoid getting sprung. I cannot fathom how that can ever be fun. Well you can escape it with one jump back to the fake platform. and then there's that Type 11 exit.

fuck arch-viles.

[scifista42]

MAP06 - “Collider Complex”

I well remembered this map from the first time I've played it some years ago. Back then, I considered it dragging up to some frustration, but I was willing to endure it. Nowadays, this is less of my issue with the map. Instead I'm annoyed by its gameplay-related symmetry, unreachable armor bonuses behind teleporters, and camping-focused monster encounters. I exited the map as soon as I could, leaving a bothersome monster horde behind me (as I already ran out of rockets). It's not really a bad map, but its flaws are clear and could have been done better.

[Archvile Hunter]

MAP11 - 'Arch-Violence' by Gusta and Thomas Van Der Velden [https://youtu.be/ya5xIzhyGJg]

Kills: 77% | Items: 81% | Secrets: 50% | Time: 17:33 | Attempts: 1

I remember being very impressed and absolutely loving this level the first time I played it, but the novelty wears off pretty quickly. Speed of Doom MAP11 has a similar theme, but it is pulled of much better, due to not being restricted to Arch-Viles. The maze is also really confusing to navigate (guess I should have used the automap more...). At least it looks pretty, and the ominous music sets the tone perfectly. The twisted upside-down/right/whatever temple is really cool. I immediately recognized the area at the end, but I think I broke it. Ran out of there leaving who knows how many Archies alive. Starting the next map with 9% health is not cool though...

[vdgg]

MAP11. Let's start with the original Plutonia level, "Hunted". I played it first at HNTR, which meant 12 arch-viles instead of 18. I wasn't really good at Doom, so don't be surprised if I tell you I spent virtually 3-5 days until I beat it. The level was very impressive. It is a maze, but these tripwire opening doors and a secret switch which reveals subtle hints were so clever. And it was like a different game: when I proceded to MAP12, "Speed", I was in a shock for a few minutes seeing imps, hell knights and various weapons :)

Of course, I was always interested in seeing the map recreated. Death-Destiny's take (Dark Plutonia, never released) was to create a circular maze. Now, Gusta + T.V.'s version...

Again, I spent lots of time playing it and enjoying it. The maze has now vertical dimension, so your standard strategies (keep turning right) may not always work. This time, 2 days ago, I played on HNTR again, remembering the final area a bit unfair on UV. I found BFG really quickly, the ammo was tight (berserk was saved for later), I spent 20+ minutes searching for one of the keys (red or blue, don't remember). I think the map is fantastic. It is inspired by a Justin Fisher map and, indirectly, by some piece of art someone will mention for sure. So architecture 5/5, I enjoyed being lost, a great map.

[Naan]

MAP06 - “Collider Complex” by Sam Woodman and Vincent Catalaá - UVMax minus the Cyberdemon on fourth attempt

Whew, that was a rather long level compared to the first five. Nothing really worthy of note outside of not-so-obvious secrets and what seems to be the first meeting of a Cyberdemon I managed to skip unintentionnally because he managed to lock himself into the secret area near the blue door. This is the first level I noticed I have to raise up gamma correction because most areas seemed way too dark. Lots of optional rooms alongside the normal path to keys was welcomed, though.

[Memfis]

12 - It's a remix of several abandoned old Plutonia 2 maps. In my eyes it's not really great, however there is something unique about it that I find enthralling... Maybe it's the music that reminds me of Vinyl Goddess From Mars combined with very contrast lighting in some areas. Strange, highly atmospheric introduction to the second episode. I don't know any levels similar to this one, it's hard to describe.