The DWmegawad Club plays: Revolution!

[scifista42]

MAP03 - "Infestation"

Another step up in quality, all good. Mandatory wading through nukage was annoying to a degree, but not highly, as there was enough health available around. Sniping-focused combat against hitscanners in windows and other various positions was actually engaging well enough, and the general openness was a nice change to the linearity of previous maps. Still not any specially great, but I liked this map.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP03: Infestation
100% kills, 4/5 secrets

Things take a bit of an upswing here as the monster count goes up (still under 100, though, these are bite-sized maps) and the amount of hitscanners can be dangerous if the player isn't careful. Still pretty easy going, though. The texture theme is a little strange (full marble buildings?) but like MAP01, on the whole it works. The map is still painfully blocky but has a decent flow to it.

Replacing the health powerups with little star sprites is a bit dorky. Also, seems like the blood sprite has been changed.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP03: I liked this one quite a bit. I thoroughly enjoy damaging floors because they control player movement & direction really well, adding stress to a situation that would be pretty bland otherwise (like SSGing that one arachnatron before the lift). And I also enjoy maps that prompt you to explore the space you’re in, so these elements worked superbly together. Plus we get the SSG and get to mow through hordes of hitscanners, which is always a jubilant experience.

[gaspe]

MAP04 - Phobopolis

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

This level was quite underwhelming, a bit too much simplistic on both visuals and fights. Though on the second half the exploration you can make in the airducts and the rooftops was cool.

[Naan]

MAP04 - "Phobopolis" - UVMax on first try

Yet another city map, this time larger and actually using the Z axis quite successfully. A bit harder than previous map (hi, late SSG! hi, barons!), secrets are way much more balanced this time around but most of the buildings looked quite strange and dull, espiecally the blue key one. Some jumps were a bit annoying too. Overall a notch behind MAP03.

[antares031]

MAP04 - Phobopolis
ZDoom, Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/100/100

Another town-like level. But this time, you have some highrise buildings that reminded me MAP13:Downtown from Doom 2. There's nothing much to say since the overall layout and gameplay are pretty much similar to the previous level, except the height control(and no more sewage, yay!). Since the level provides computer map powerup later, you won't have much trouble to navigate this small city. The difficulty is pretty much same, or even easier than MAP03, but you need to be careful with the arachnotron which is wating for you to climb up to get the rocket launcher (and "spoiler" near it).

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP04: Phobopolis

Definitely liking the ease of "pick up/put down" with this WAD's bite-size levels. Fun little city map with an increasing sense of the vertical compared to the previous level; it does feel as though MAP02-04 presents a definite progression from suburbs to inner city to downtown. The trap in the yellow-locked eastern building was about the first time this WAD has genuinely made me jump even though in hindsight it was obvious something of that nature was coming, and the clustered barrels are an entertaining hazard for a player who might be just a bit too quick on the trigger.

[joe-ilya]

04 : 2/5
A dissapointing map, I hoped for something better since I played MAP03 but I get what I paid for (0.00$)
The first 2 town areas are dull with dull gameplay, the fun begins when you get to the higher buildings and do some parkour, land on roofs, hop through windows and walk a catwalk on the blue building to jump on a different roof to hop into a vent and fall into a building.
Sadly, the monster placement overall is boring and didn't give me any sense of fun.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP04: Phobopolis
100% kills, 3/3 secrets

It's another town level, and so invites easy invitation to compare to the immediately preceding map. As others have said, this map falls on the loser end of that comparison, as it's both uglier (more brown and a badly-used blue custom texture) and duller. Being able to jump between buildings adds some interest, at least, and the yellow door/baron trap is interestingly designed (even if it's ultimately a soft whimper of a fight).

[gaspe]

MAP05 - R 'n R

Kills: 100% | Items: 100% | Secrets: 75%

Quite strange this level with its theme of a touristic complex on the beach, and with a pool and a basketball court too. Overall I liked this map and I enjoyed playing it, though the only really interesting moment was at the 2 spiderdemons. And regarding the secrets

Spoiler

Looking in the editor there are actually only 3 secrets, while the source port tells me that there are 4. Idk.

[Surreily]

I missed the last few DWMWC threads 'cause reasons. The last one I participated in was Scythe 2, where I actually completed 25 maps but got frustrated with the stupid overpowered plasma rifle guys (cheapest enemy ever). Anyways, I am playing through this on Ultra Violence with Zdoom with the occasional save.

MAP01 (100% kills, 50% secrets)
The first thing I see is a neat scrolling effect done with animated textures and flats. We're only on the first level, and we're already using nice effects! Pretty impressive for a vanilla compatible WAD. The gameplay is the typical way-too-easy kinda stuff you'd expect from an introductory map, so there isn't really much to say.

MAP02 (100% kills, 100% secrets)
Looks like the train stopped in a station, we got off, then the train magically went speeding off again on its own. And of course, I hopped down onto the tracks to see if they would kill me. They did. Anyways, this map employs another neat effect with mid textures to create a rain effect. It doesn't look great, but it's the best rain possible in Vanilla (as far as I know). Again, the map uses low tier enemies only (with the exception of a few cacodemons), but it's getting a tiny bit harder now. I also like the way the vents connect the map together.

MAP03 (100% kills, 60% secrets)
The beginning of this map is very nasty with all the gunners hiding in and around the mass of buildings here. Once the gunners are dead, the difficulty disappears and it's plain sailing from there onwards. The map is nice and open with several buildings to explore, and you don't have to do things in one particular order either. I hope to see more like this! The author has also succeeded in making the map look nice - something I find difficult to do with cities and towns.

[antares031]

MAP05 - R 'n R
ZDoom, Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/100/75

Time for a Rock and Roll...although we don't have any R'nR music to listen. The theme of this level is an ocean resort with swimming pool and shooting range. The circulation is simple since it took me less than 5 minutes to beat the level with 100% kills at my first attempt, although I couldn't find one more secret. And finally, a little spoiler alert: this level introduces boss monsters for a first time, so stay frosty. :P

[Pirx]

eh, still haven't found time to finish sunlust and been away most of last month, having played plutonia 2 already, although not "properly" (saves instead of pistol starts), so i'll have a go at revolution.


MAP01 - "Carnivorous Cargo"

you're on a train and go from the last wagon to the engine, killing a few zombies and imps on the way. funny idea of making a doom map on a train, but what can it be other than very easy and linear.


MAP02 - "Depression"

a bit of brown techbase, a bit of duke-like realism featuring a cinema (with doomguy posters) and ventilation shafts. still very easy. the ssg is found behind a black metal block in a corridor.


MAP03 - "Infestation"

a nice suburb theme with grass, browns and marble. the chaingunners in the buildings were the most dangerous part. picked up the soulsphere in the nukage, took the wrong turn and lost most of my extra health. should have had a suit.


MAP04 - "Phobopolis"

i kept mistaking this for map03, as it's the city theme continued, but on a larger scale. there's fun exploring this but i found the placement of some enemies poor, like the 2 arachnotrons simply blocking the door, like in keränen's requiem maps.


MAP05 - "R 'n R"

doom realism again: a swimming pool and a basketball court (with a blur sphere acting as ball i guess). the blue key is found in the pool after you drain the water. there's a large outdoor area featuring a simple fight (make 2 SMMs infight, take cover and pump the survivor full of plasma) and a few cacos and revs. we leave the map through a sewer.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP05: R 'n R
100% kills, 2/4 secrets

A trip through a beach resort with a beach (complete with towels/sand castle), swimming pool, basketball court, and shooting gallery. Aside from the representationalist detailing, not much to this map. There's a couple spiderdemons here, but the map practically forces and infight and gives the player a plasma gun, so it's still dreadfully easy. I shudder to think what this WAD is like on lower difficulty levels.

I too am interested in the discrepancy in secrets gaspe noted...

[antares031]

Magnusblitz said:

...I too am interested in the discrepancy in secrets gaspe noted...

That's a strange thing. I've just rebuilt the node of that level with nodes viewer plugin of DB2, and now it says three secrets in total.

[joe-ilya]

05 5/5
Most interesting map so far, many gameplay experiments there and there, more realism, more posters to look at and even a shore with a sandcastle and a shovel and those laying mats.
The best part was the rocket launcher trap.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP05: R 'n R

Fun and games in a location that's all about fun and games. With a pair of masterminds dropped on you this early in the WAD, infighting is the obvious and intended solution; I imagine I'm not alone in triggering the rocket launcher ambush while the two spiders were still battling it out. There are a variety of locations through which the player has the opportunity to battle here, though the small scale and tentative, cursory detailing of each is one of the ways in which the WAD is starting to show its age.

[gaspe]

MAP06 - Wasted!

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

Sewer levels aren't exactly my cup of tea, but this one turned out to be quite nice to explore. I like the things of the 4 secrets put in opposite sides of the main tower, though to find how to access them was really easy. The last monster was a really nice surprise. Good level.

[antares031]

MAP06 - Wasted!
ZDoom, Pistol Start, KIS(%): 98/100/100

You wasted yourself by jumping into the sewer entrance from previous level. And you gussed it, this level greets you with poison sewer right after you load the level. You better move faster to get the radiation suit, and once you get one, the level is a piece of cake except you need to get radiation suit properly during the game. Thankfully there are plenty of suits to assist you so you won't have much trouble to beat the level. Layout is small, but pretty much non-linear which is one of my favorites, but it could be better if the author seperated the circulation for yellow key and blue key.

[Capellan]

Usual PrBoom+, no music, HMP, continuous playthrough. Infinitely tall actors are on.

Map01
Well I've heard of railroaded game design, but I don't think it was meant quite this literally.

Very linear map with monsters in front of you. At least it gives you plenty of chance to use the chainsaw.


Map02
Don't think the "rain" texture works very well, and the cinema area is a bit too plain to really work. The final battle was moderately engaging, in the "easy, but at least I have to dodge a bit" vein.

[scifista42]

MAP04 - "Phobopolis"
+
MAP05 - "R 'n R"

Not bad! Interesting semirealism, "classic vibe" (specially MAP04), looks OK (now I think so), exploration is good, gameplay mostly easy but sometimes gets hard due to lack of armor/health, not even too grindy as a lot of oldschool wads tend to be.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP06: Wasted!

And here we are exploring the sewer into which we jumped at the end of the previous level. Not sure about the fact of starting in a damaging sector and the 'timer' through which the player has to sit in that sector as the floor all-too-slowly lowers to the point that it's possible to escape and grab a radiation suit. Ironically for a sewer level the overall design has a rather more 'fresh' feel to it compared to earlier levels, in terms of how the component rooms are assembled and interconnected. The presence of so much damaging slime helps to create a sense of urgency even though there are so many radiation suits scattered about the place that you're never really in danger of running out; your forays into the acid have to be purposeful, but this is a target at which you get a lot of different shots. Really liked this one.

[Veinen]

Map03: Infestation

This was enjoyable. A much more action-packed map than the first two, and here the htiscanner-heavy opposition can do some real damage too. I got my health dopped to the 20s when I decided not to bother shotgunning the wave of Demons early on and instead just ran out into the open unaware of the hitscan crossfire that would greet me there. Turned out that there's a shit ton of health in the map though so taking damage was not the end of the world. I though weapon progression was well done here and even the BFG, which may seem like an overkill on map03, serves its purpose. Good map.

Map04: Phobopolis

Didn't really like this one on the other hand. Combat is weak and uninteresting throughout the map, except for the Baron twins in the YK trap which provide a decent surprise combined with the barrels. City themed maps are alright if done well but this abstract, all over the place "classic" -style of doing it is not to my liking at all. The thing that probably irks me the most is that the map doesn't even try to hide the fact that it's basically a fucking box.

Map05: R 'n R

Better. Visually more appealing than 04, probably because here the different styled areas are spearated from eachother with doors. It does kind of feel like areas and ideas just slapped together though, which isn't really good level design. It does loop around once and the lowering water level on the pool was a nice enough touch. Combat is mild yet again with the highlight being the RL ambush. The Masterminds start infighting immediately and there's really no gameplay involved with them as the survivor will have very little health left. Better than 04 but pretty meh overall.

[antares031]

MAP07 - The Valley of Death
ZDoom, Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/100/100

Surprisingly, this level doesn't feature that "Dead Simple" style arena with fatsoes and baby spiders. Instead, we have the valley of death, just like the title is saying. The poison canal welcomes you from the start, but don't worry. You won't need to stay on the sewage unless you jump into the valley. Overall layout is simple. And difficulty is still pretty much easy... but the exit door says "ALL DEAD HERE". Okay, we'll see what will happen in the next level.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP04: Kinda strange to see traditional “city/town” maps this early in the wad. Anyway, this map is a bit queer (design wise). There’s a handful of traditional/Duke 3D buildings, and then scattered around are these goofy/nonsensical Doom 2 style buildings (the sapphire one with the blue key was giving me The Chasm flashbacks). I liked the openness here but it was missing some of the nice action that was present in MAP03, being a slower affair. A good map, just not stellar.

MAP05: lulz at the cacodemon watching that poor player slowly bleed out. There’s even less to this map than the last one; besides the MM beach battle, it’s kinda just… eh. Not bad, it just isn’t memorable in any capacity.

MAP06: Oooh, a nukage maze! You usually don’t see a lot of these because of how annoying they are, but it’s fun to play one every so often. It’s a bit strange how disproportionally meted out the radsuits are (I need them in the tunnels not on the safe ledges!), but other than that I had a good time… lost track of where the YK was and had to IDDT to spot it.

[gaspe]

MAP07 - The Valley of Death

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

I really liked this level. Not the usual stuff you find on slot 07 using the special tags. This is the linear progression done well, with going through several different places and creating a nice sense of the place with views of upcoming areas. I liked also the recolored rocks. I'm looking forward to see what awaits us in the next levels.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP06: Wasted!
100% kills, 4/4 secrets

Slime map here, but there's quite a few suits and lots of medpacks, so it's not too bad. Still light on opposition, but the slime helps in this regard since it pushes the player to rush a bit and blast through things quickly. Not a fan of the red key room (putting mancubuses and revenants at far-off range) but it's only a few monsters, thankfully. Layout can get a bit confusing but there's an automap pickup to help.

[Capellan]

map03
Not a huge fan of the "jump into nukage and hope for the best" progression here, though at least the level is small enough that you rapidly realise there's not other way forward. Would be better if there was a stronger visual cue that this was the right choice: perhaps some blinking lights at the end or something of that nature.

A number of 'higher tier' monsters make an appearance here, but they're pretty much all easily corner camped.

Looks-wise, it's got mostly pretty flat lighting - just a couple of dark areas - and the outdoor area would have been improved by some height variation in the walls.

Found the BFG and PG secrets, so I am a bit overloaded with weapons now.


map04
I'm not really on the same mental wavelength as the author it seems, as I trolled around this map for a long time before thinking to check the formerly blocked off ventilation shaft. Would it really have been too much to ask that the support2 pillar was doorblu instead?

Liked the parkour aspects of the map. Some fun optional item grabs, there.

Combat was pretty much a non-event.

[joe-ilya]

06 : 2/5
Getting devious up here! A maze with damaging floors almost everywhere, even the start is you standing on nukage and panicfully rush to find a suit or land to step on.
The enemies in the cages are the only threatning monsters here, the rest of the placement felt like filler to me, honestly.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP07: The Valley of Death

Aside from the beach in MAP05 this WAD has mostly been delivering urban environments and locations until now, so it's nice to find a level that instead is dominated by natural rock and even a brief forest walk, though there's an industrial dam and a temple-like ruined area to explore too. The duct connecting the blue key at the end of the forest path to the doors at the farm end of the titular valley is a nice touch, removing the need for backtracking and instead turning the level into a smoothly-flowing loop. I feel the valley itself is a bit of a missed opportunity for some forced long-range combat and a heavier use of flying enemy types.