The DWmegawad Club plays: 50 Shades of Graytall & Erkattäññe

[gaspe]

Lingyan203 said:

I don't know if it's possible to reach the backpack secret. Is it actually possible to reach it without using the noclip cheat?

Yes, allthough I missed it too in my playthrough:

Spoiler

from the platform where there's the red key face the window on the slime canal and jump to reach the wall between the window and the ledge with the backpack, there's a really tiny stair there

[Magnusblitz]

Going ahead to Erkattanne now.

MAP01: First Matters
100% kills, 0/5 secrets

Hadn't realized this was a Monti episode until downloading it for the Club, but I probably would've been able to tell just from playing the first level. The interwoven flowing abstract layout is definitely here in spades, and the best part of the map. The texturing scheme does a good job of aping Entryway, almost too closely as while the layout helps make it not feel like a clone, certain aspects of the texture scheme do. And boy, is the texture usage here ugly. Can't remember the last time I've seen so many non-aligned textures in a map made this century. Gameplay is pretty blah, the pistol is a shit weapon and I don't enjoy using it. Secrets are pretty damn obscure, too; I checked in the map editor and while some clever (like the gun switch near the end) others feel a bit less so (the green armor tripwire feels a bit too far away to hear unless you're already aware of it).

MAP02: The Scorpion
100% kills, 5/6 secrets

Yup, it's a big scorpion. Layout here is still weaving but a bit more difficult to figure out this time around. Texture scheme here does a better job of avoiding aping one map and instead feels like a hodgepodge of all the Doom 2 starbase maps. Ledge-climbing in the red key area was annoying. At least I did better on the secrets this time around, knowing to look for tripwires and hidden gun switches does the trick I suppose. Music sounds almost like a goddamned Christmas carol.

[Salt-Man Z]

Magnusblitz said:

Can't remember the last time I've seen so many non-aligned textures in a map made this century.

The text file pretty much states that he did zero texture alignment outside doors and switches.

Magnusblitz said:

Secrets are pretty damn obscure, too; I checked in the map editor and while some clever (like the gun switch near the end) others feel a bit less so (the green armor tripwire feels a bit too far away to hear unless you're already aware of it).

Yeah, his tripwire secrets can be pretty obtuse. I'm almost positive that every secret I missed in the entire Favillesco series was tripwire-based. (Also I hate tripwire secrets, so there's that.)

[scifista42]

Erkattäññe

(Zandronum, UV, back to continuous play)

MAP01 - "First Matters"

Colorful techbase style, wild shapes of architecture, nonlinear layout with many windows between areas, easy but not trivial difficulty, varied and clever secrets, relaxing music, ALL AWESOME! This wad is starting out really good, up to my preference. Texture misalignments forgiven.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP02: A really cool map. The health famine is what struck me the most about this map, as it meant that every encounter I was running into could potentially be the end of me. Like with MAP01 I totally dig the looping layout and had a lot of fun trying to stay alive in this one—the red key trap was a bit much for 14% health, but I managed to survive somehow (I liked the super awkward platforming in that room too). As long as this clever layout and health paucity keeps up, Erkatanne will be a real gem for me.

[scifista42]

MAP02 - "The Scorpion"

An excellent follow-up to the previous map. Same kind of qualities, but extended, amplified and varied up. Very pleasant to play through and explore. I only found 5 secrets and cheated to locate the last one, it turned out to be a BlurSphere behind the Chaingun pickup. Again, misalignments forgiven.

[Naan]

MAP18 - “Killer Color Blindness” by Argentum - Completed on UV with one secret left

100% seems not feasible here despite the fact it's nothing gimmicky in this map besides the fact it is placed *after* the end map for some reason. There is a lot of traps and fights where you are not supposed to kill everyone but flee as fast as possible after the teleporter is accessible or after you got the red key before the invul sphere goes off. If I would've found how to trigger the very early BFG secret, I guess 100% monsters could've been within the realm of possibility?

The map was just average to me, on par with MAP13, and like scifista42 I found the fights and traps were not unfair as there is room to hide and breathe in every situation, quicksaving is still the way to go as preknowledge of the map is prevalent here to tackle them the best way. The hardest fights to execute was the Spider Mastermind and the manc/spider/demon arena ( without the BFG of course!

The map itself was very, like very gray everywhere, but I liked how the key doors were indicated as well as the FIREBLU sea, and the slight color theme used in each of the three "hubs". This map could've fitted among MAP06 to 13 to keep the small into bigger into gimmick general progression the mapset used to sort out the maps.

Overall 50shades was a potpourri of what is Doom mapping is about in the 2015 era, ranging from vanilla map remakes a la DTWID to different schools of slaughters, with some Eternal Doom epicness and experiments along the way, all of them embracing the texture restriction in their own ways. Personal favorites were, by order : MAP10, MAP05, MAP08 and MAP06. While I found all other maps were enjoyable for what they meant to be, MAP16 UV difficulty was the most frustrating in a bad way.

Ok, now enough of GREYTALL, FIREBLU, DOORTRAK and purple starry skies, on to Erkattäññe (yay copy/paste!).

[Surreily]

Alright, I have finished 50 Shades of Graytall, but I have decided not to review the last few levels. Overall, I did not like the latter half of the WAD, as there were some extremely unfair situations that were more frustrating than fun to me. If I were to review them, I would just be moaning, so I am sorry.

That being said, MAP15 was my favorite of the remaining maps. I'll be streaming the other WAD at some point - if you're interested, keep an eye on the Doom Streams thread.

[gaspe]

MAP03 - The Islet

Kills: 100% | Items: 85% | Secrets: 50%

Layout has the same quality of the other maps, and there were sone nice secrets too. I liked those detail of computer panels and monitors. Health given is quite low, and it is nicely combined with the hitscanners and all the windows present everywhere. Even though there's a catwalk in the sewer, imo just 5% damage on the slime would have been enough, 10% was too much.

[Naan]

Okay, GZDoom, pistol starts, freelook, UV and the usual stuff.

MAP01 - "First Matters" - UVMax on first try

Wow, I was not expecting a mapset that much oldschool to come out last year, even if I did read the textfile before start playing. Squares and grids begone, and hello triangles and other wild geometrical figures!

Gameplaywise, well it's about what to expect from any MAP01, though finding cleverly hidden secrets is the real challenge here despite the rather simple level design, I had to lower the music volume to like 10% to hear the trigger for the green armor secret. Props to the far switch near the end, though I assume it is barely noticeable on 320*200 vanilla resolution.

So I guess I'll have fun finding secrets for this time around rather than quicksaving my way to finish stuff.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP03: The Islet
29:14 | 100% Kills | 96% Items | 83% Secrets

Ugh, those secrets. Half an hour I played this level; most of that time was secret-hunting, and I still had to give up on the last one. (The northeastern one—I assume it was a megasphere?) The berserk secret was a literal pain, due to the damaging floors; and my reward is...a berserk pack. Wut. Otherwise, this was another fine level, although I kept finding myself back up on the inner/upper level without realizing how I got there. After 20 minutes of poking in every corner, though, I had gotten to know the layout pretty well. :rolleyes: The music made me smile. :)

[Magnusblitz]

MAP03: The Islet
100% kills, 2/6 secrets

Another 'donut' level with the main area being a central loop with a large room in the middle and some scattered around the outside to explore. And boy, this one might be the ugliest yet... not just the alignments, but flat-out using textures like doors and key bars in spots that they don't fit. Health is also very sparse, so between the sludge and the bevy of windows and hitscanners shooting through them, lots of time is spent at low health. I like how the areas keep filling back up with monsters (some quite far away from the action) but that's about it.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP03 The Islet

ahahahah the music again, I just love these selections. as for the map, a little less fun this time, due to that damaging floor that surrounds the perimeter and only a paper thin ledge that I can inch along to avoid it. The main problem here is you have the urge to keep hugging the wall to avoid the seep damage, then you get snagged on the wall and really just lose all motion. With no radiation suits around and few entrances/exits it just gets on my nerves. And let's not forget the rather sporadic bonus item placement, and those incredibly tough secrets, one of which really nailed my head in as it was a kinectically-calculated jump onto a random crate to open something on the outside. Not a map I'll like here in this set.

[scifista42]

MAP03 - "The Islet"

Again an excellent experience in the same ways as the previous maps have provided, with even more complex layout, trickier secrets, and increased number of chaingunners + damaging floors adding a threat. Found all secrets legitimately - true, I had played Erkattäññe before, but I pretty much forgot the secret and had to spend considerable time of wandering around and thinking in order to rediscover them.

[Suitepee]

http://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/v/36814355 = my playthrough of Erkattanne covering all 11 maps. (UV, continuous)

3 out of 5 in conclusion; it surprised me how good some of Monti's encounters were in this wad.

I came into this wad expecting to play something like Maximum Doom in terms of poor quality, but came out apprecative of Nicolas Monti's mapping talents. His unorthodox vanilla texturing style grew on me, and his monster encounters were at times creative and interesting....although he did overuse the 'teleporting linedef behind the player' gimmick one time too many.

The music was also....intriguing, very 90's inspired midi choices. The ending lacked a climactic punch, but at least it wasn't an IoS!

That being said, NOVA 2 still deserved a Cacoward over this, but now at least I can see why this was nominated; for all those people who like competently-made 90's wads.

Also, I vote for Hell Revealed for next month.

[gaspe]

MAP04 - Urinals

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

This map reminded me of Strain MAP12, the same concept of "Underhalls" but with a round central hub tunnel from where we can go to the various areas of the map. Some more tougher monsters start to appear, but are still the hitscanners to give the biggest threats. I liked all the outdoor areas, they build a sense of the place somehow despite beign an abstract map. Cool map.

[Magnusblitz]

Decided to go back and do writeups on the last two maps of 50 Shades.

MAP17: THE END

Like some others, I'm a fan of the non-populated level, especially as episode breaks or enders, as long as they're fun to look at and/or run around. And this qualifies! It's a pretty cool rendition of a club, and does a good job of really feeling like a 3D space (I really love the one room with the crystal floor that you can see a lower level's window through). And the secret exit is pretty cheeky (and I admit I wouldn't have found without someone mentioning it).

MAP18: Killer Color Blindness
99% kills, 3/5 secrets

Given that this was the 'secret' map and dobu's scathing review, I expected to hate this level... but I actually liked it quite a bit, at least until the end. The first few encounters were decent battles, and weren't tough (I think I only died maybe like... once?) since there were some ways to easily abuse them, usually involving retreating back to a hallway or higher ground or whatever, such as the 'secret' hallway right at the start.

I do agree that some of the enemies fill like filler, especially the AVs... I like how they're used in the starting area, bringing back the corpses from earlier battles, but some of the later ones were just bland or annoying (like the two at the top of the long lift). And then... we reach the end of the map, which I'm still not quite sure how to beat. I died over and over on the demon/manc room, before finally deciding to just grab the invuln, ignore the cyberdemons/red key, and use it for the demons/mancs. Of course, this left me without anything to kill the cyberdemons with... and I ran out of ammo killing the two revealed in the starting area. Not really sure how we're supposed to have enough ammo to kill all the cybers, honestly. Ironically, you don't need to grab the red key anyways... Still, decent map since I enjoyed all the stuff before.

[baja blast rd.]

Map02: "The Scorpion"

If you haven't noticed, Monti likes hitscanners, and he is fond of introducing them in distant closets, an OG Doom device that has fallen out of favor in modern times. And because they are full of hitscanners, they will often get in some chip damage after catching you by surprise. "Hey, where the hell did you guys come from? Ouch ouch, my unarmored skin!" Hitscanners are one of the primary tools a mapper has to create danger in open layouts with a low monster count, but they reveal how truly weak the other low-tier monsters can be in the same setting. The imps and pinkies that appear incidentally are shooting ducks, liable to do less damage on average than even the measly former human troopers formidable pistol-popping BOSSES. So why are they there? Variety, of course, but also to be used as roving meatshields, for the more aggressive player who doesn't want to camp corners all day.

Map03: "The Islet"

Hey, hugging a tiny strip while moving against a haphazardly scribbled wall feels bad man and is the antithesis of fun! The rest of the map was business as usual, peppering low-tier monsters with the weenie guns in a smartly constructed layout -- but figuring as that strip only truly plays a significant role in like one trap, an early radsuit or something would have been sweet. Although seeing the way the mapset is developing, there probably was a radsuit stashed away in one of the dummy sectors "secrets".

[scifista42]

There is no Radsuit in MAP03 at all.

[Naan]

MAP02 - "The Scorpion" - UVMax on second try

Yeah, hitscanners got me during a first careless run with the health scarcity. So I guess the map is looking like a Scorpion on automap, hence the name? Outside of that, it's fairly similar to the first map with the marquee weird angles and layout, but now with keys to hunt and traps to deal with.

I got all secrets almost without backtracking, except for the green armor. Finding the automap helped greatly to find the 3 remaining ones, but the megasphere one was just atrocious. On a brighter note, the blur sphere secret has been very helpful in a hitscan world, but also to trigger traps without awakening their monsters such as the blue key one. Clever usage of an underestimated powerup. Rocket launcher was pretty useless, must be a plant for continuous players I suppose.

[Salt-Man Z]

For those of you enjoying Monti's map layouts, but not the texturing: check out his Favillesco episodes. They feature the same looping, organic style (though slightly less extreme) and encounter design, but the texturing is much more polished, and the music selection is (generally) a little less out-there.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP04 Urinals

the music again lol. A hub level in a map with a rather strange name, but when I saw it, it hurt me hard. the actual toiletries here ended up with me on the wrong side of a cheating chaingunner ambush. those bastards. Other than the evil hitscanner placement, there's nothing too special here.

[baja blast rd.]

Map04: "Urinals"

Best map so far, because it's less "LOL hitscanners" all day every day, and when they do occur, they are in setups where they aim to kill instead of inflict annoying cheapshot chip damage. Music is great too. And hey, I found two secrets! That's the most I've found yet. I didn't try to go back and find the ones I missed, though; I wasn't planning on being here all day!

Here's a 2DA. I played the map once before (without deaths too) but I forgot a lot about it, hence me getting lost for like five minutes. I'm easily a below-average player when it comes to navigation and secret-hunting.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/72c34oba73s6dfd/erka04_rdwpa_2DA.lmp

[gaspe]

MAP05 - Camara Obscura

Kills: 100% | Items: 66% | Secrets: 57%

We start to have more difficult encounters here. The start was quite tricky because you have low ammo and you are pushed to explore the various paths which lead to meet other enemies.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP04: Urinals
100% kills, 6/6 secrets

Another donut-hub level, though this one has more large outside spaces for the outer rooms. Wasn't a fan of being teleported blindly into the middle of four shotgunners, though I did like the cheeky exit room ambush. Not much else to say... still ugly, still abstract.

[Demon of the Well]

Egads, behind again! Whodathunk? But let's not just take it lying down...

Map 17 -- The End
Not too terribly much to say here, like a number of other Club players I have no qualms with action-free prologue/interlude/epilogue-type maps, provided they give me something pleasant or interesting to look at and stroll around in, which this impromptu 'art exhibition' certainly does, vaguely horrid (and vaguely familiar) BGM aside. I actually quite appreciated the graphic reminders of earlier maps in the set, it's a cute little way of summing up something as conceptual (and as eccentric) as this was. The inclusion of an exit to a hidden 'bonus' map as another layer of content is also much appreciated, of course, something that more than justifies a map of this type, and something I've appreciated since the Batcave secrets in Batman Doom, all those years ago.

Map 18 -- Killer Color Blindness - 103% Kills / 80% Secrets
The mysterious 'Argentum' closes things out with this meaty and decidedly old-fashioned affair, which between its squarish, heavy-handed architecture and equally heavy-handed approach to monster placement plays like nothing so much as a lost entry from HR2 or something of that general ilk. The name is of course a nod to Alien Vendetta, though I was unable to spot much of significance as far as references/homages in the actual fights or area designs go (though in fairness it has been a number of years now since I've last played the map here referenced, and so perhaps I simply failed to recognize them where applicable).

The approach to the 50 shades texture restriction is sensibly workmanlike, if a mite unadorned; blocky, orthogonal chambers and corridors of various scales are the order of the day, all painted broadstroke in the gritty cement portion of GRAYTALL, with doortrack and the red striping used more or less interchangeably (sometimes to the point of thematic inconsistency) as 'frame' decorations to mark the meeting of two given planes. As has been the case in so many of these maps, a lot of the heavy lifting in providing visual vibrancy falls to FIREBLU, which here pulls triple duty as a practical visual element (marking teleporters/gates and the like), a general-purpose decorative texture (used in wall insets and the like for color), and as a conversation-piece aesthetic gimmick via the midtex-based 'pool' of the stuff in the large southerly area, which is certainly and ingenuous and fairly striking visual effect, albeit one that probably fares uncommonly poorly at high graphical resolutions, where the edges more readily show. The other notable aspect of the general decor relative to many of the set's other maps is the noticeably limited role that the skybox plays, featuring most prominently in the deceptively complicated 'skydome' effect over the main hub (which, ironically, is very easy to totally miss given the height of the chamber coupled with the fact that it tends to be buzzing with shit trying to kill you), and also the baffling floor-holes in the same area, which mainly serve to look tacky and create some bumpy-floor syndrome. Music is a perfectly acceptable selection from Rise of the Triad, again suggesting some of the map's stylistic inspirations.

I suppose I should preface my comments on gameplay by stating that the BFG secret (which is available fairly early) is the one that I didn't find; I reckon anyone who has played the map has a general sense of just what ramifications this can have. Gameplay in the map is a fairly slow-moving but rather violent affair, with the player constantly carving through considerable opposition, featuring a very heavy slant towards mid/upper-tier monsters, to clear out each successive area in turn. Much of the combat plays out as 'entry' fights, where you methodically work your way into an initially well-staffed area through sheer brute force, although the author has paid some mind towards mixing things up with some sly angle-of-attack trolling (e.g. arch-viles inside of man-sized murder-holes behind torches around bends and near lifts later on in the level), as well as periodic kitchen-sink warp-in traps that flood relatively small areas with borderline obscene quantities of hellbeef, ala the traps that open and close the level's progression. The somewhat simplistic layout belies the map's relatively concentrated reuse of space; reaching the end of one 'leg' generally ports you back somewhere near the beginning (often inside of the deceptively complicated multilevel 'duct' network near the first area), and inevitably tasks you with cleaning out the main hub anew, facing opposition ranging from basic mobs to vile medico-dispatches (which can play hell with your rocket stores in no time flat) all the way up to cyberdemon tag-teams.

The skew towards constant pre-placed heavy-hitters in enclosed areas makes for relatively slow going, but the action is not without some old-fashioned monster-spamming merit; the problem is that certain issues tend to dominate one's perceptions of the precedings, and the map can end up feeling like it drags on as a result. In pure fight-design terms, the only thing I saw that I'd say categorically fails was the placement of a vile duo at the top of a blind lift near the end, which requires you to 1) lower the lift 2) ride it 3) take one shot 4) jump back down before you get nuked, and 5) repeat until eventual victory. Which fucking sucks. Telling though, that this fight is only is bad as it is if you lack a BFG, and this is the real issue in the late game, one of questionable balance. Without the secret BFG, you'll find that areas take longer and longer to clear as you progress through the level (more or less in direct correlation to cyberdemons making more and more frequent appearances); at first, this is mainly a consideration of time and a sort of slow-balling strategic approach (all areas are quite 'fair' and clearable even without the big gun), but near the end your ammo deficit as a result of not having the BFG to make the most efficient usage of cells will become more and more severe, to the point where you likely hit a brick wall in dealing with the huge quantity of meat that is unleashed in the last 3 minutes of the game or so.

Using myself as an example, when I started the RK ambush I grabbed the V-sphere, immediately "noped" out of the 4-cyber warp-in (no earthly way to clear that in time with just a plasma gun and some rockets) and went gallivanting off into the last portal, which in a way was not a bad move because it allowed me to rocket-punch through the claustrophobic warp-trap, which is probably the single best way to handle that encounter. Problem is, you can't pick up the RK unless you stick around in its room, and there is no realistic way to initially know the key is actually in there, since it begins high up out of sight, and takes time to lower to the floor--time you don't have to be hanging around (unless you have the BFG!) in any way, shape, or form. What this left me with was a scenario where I had limited ammo (the supply really starts being outpaced by the influx of enemy HP in the last 20% of the level or so) and 4 cyberdemons camping the one entrance to a small room with the key in it which I had to return to at the end. I was left with little recourse but to spend every last bit of ammo I possessed in a patently unsatisfying camp-duel fight, ultimately killing two of them, and allowing me to make a cheeky dash/grab of the key from under the snouts of the remaining two....which still left me having to camp-fist the trio of viles jammed single-file into the short exit tunnel. Not fun, not in the least.

It is a largely palatable level where a few fundamental miscalculations in balance come to a head in the late going (or perhaps sooner if one finds even fewer secrets than I did) to totally kill the pace/flow and leave an ultimately sour taste in one's mouth. IMO, the map badly needed either an unhidden BFG or more ammo in the later areas (perhaps even both) to allow it to function as intended, but given its conspicuous presence in a 'bonus' slot I have to imagine it was probably orphaned or abandoned at some point and perhaps not tested as thoroughly as the others.

**********

Despite ending on a bit of a down note, overall I quite enjoyed 50 Shades of Graytall; it gave me more or less exactly what I was after, that being new maps by some of my favorite WADsters as well as a chance to make the acquaintance of a handful comparatively unfamiliar to me. As I said earlier, the actual project gimmick was its least interesting aspect to me, but nevertheless I feel that most of the authors did quite a credible job of creating aesthetically engaging (or at least visually palatable!) environments out of a toolset decidedly inhospitable to that end. I reckon an expressly novelty-seeking player could criticize the mapset for not containing as much truly off-the-wall shit as one might initially surmise from its outlandish gimmick--e.g. texture gimmick aside, Xaser still made a textbook Xasermap, Joshy simply made a textbook Joshymap, Mechadon simply made a textbook Mechmap, etc.--but I also reckon that outlook sort of misses the forest for the trees, as the real point of the project was avowedly never about the damned wallpaper, but about the fundamentals of gameplay and flow superceding and surmounting a hyperminimalist visual approach (that so many of the authors did colorful things with the limited texture set is more icing on the cake than anything).

My personal favorites from the set were:
Map 06 -- Count Trakula's Castle
Map 07 -- Address Unknown
Map 08 -- At the Mountains of Madness
Map 10 -- Big Dwayne's Orbital Concrete & Propane Emporium

[Naan]

MAP03 - "The Islet" - UVMax minus one secret on first try

The more I listen to them, the more the level musics sounds like some sort of european "chanson", or maybe that's just me. Anyway, I view this map like a slighty worse version of the previous, with same low tier of enemies, less obvious navigation throughout the "islet", annoying damaging sectors and a even more atrocious megasphere secret I failed to find by myself without reading other reviews.

[baja blast rd.]

Map05: "Camara Obscura"

Hey, it's dark. Camara Obscura is easily the least hideous map so far, primarily because you can hardly see anything in most of the indoor playspace. Hitscanners are still the primary threat, but revenant clusters make their debut, and in classic fashion, spectres lurk the darkness, trying to chomp your ass while you chip away at zombies.

Secrets. At this point idgaf. I glanced at this level in GZDB and have to admit that the invul secret made me lol; seems like overkill, any way you slice it. Another secret chainsaw. I don't like using chainsaws, not only because they interrupt my fist pump gesture but also because being glued to monsters feels unnatural, so I generally disapprove of chainsaw-only secrets. Stick a stimpack in there too. ;)

But fun map. The more substantive encounters (read: encounters that don't involve sniping at hitscanners all the way across the room with no cover), the better. Behind the chickenscratch shapes, there is a strong layout: lots of height variation and windows. I like the no-strings-attached plasma rifle, too, and Monti's generosity with it; SSG+RL-primary maps are nice, but SSG+PR is a welcome change of pace. All hail the SSG, the big bad boomstick. This is the first Erkattäññe map that is new to me, so an FDA.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/nqsi35sbgc93s3z/erka05_rdwpa_FDA.lmp

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP05 Camara Obscura

My god Monti sure knows how to hide secrets. some of these require the odd-angled teeny ledge and others involve the odd-angled "shoot the switch". And then there's the dreaded "jump into the opening without hitting the ledge or ceiling" secret which is never good at all. Other than that, this is a rather leisurely nonlinear-lite map. One problem with this map is that I usually kill most of the monsters before really doing anything, so I wander around with little to satisfy the kills part of the map. Maybe I should change my playstyle.

also don't ever put revenants directly behind a player warping in to an unknown location, he has like a split-second to react upon materializing and that is very bad, almost as much as an enemy directly materializing right next to a player.

[Magnusblitz]

Demon of the Well said:

Problem is, you can't pick up the RK unless you stick around in its room, and there is no realistic way to initially know the key is actually in there, since it begins high up out of sight, and takes time to lower to the floor--time you don't have to be hanging around (unless you have the BFG!) in any way, shape, or form. What this left me with was a scenario where I had limited ammo (the supply really starts being outpaced by the influx of enemy HP in the last 20% of the level or so) and 4 cyberdemons camping the one entrance to a small room with the key in it which I had to return to at the end. I was left with little recourse but to spend every last bit of ammo I possessed in a patently unsatisfying camp-duel fight, ultimately killing two of them, and allowing me to make a cheeky dash/grab of the key from under the snouts of the remaining two....which still left me having to camp-fist the trio of viles jammed single-file into the short exit tunnel. Not fun, not in the least.

While I had the same exact experience as you (not having enough ammo to take out the cyberdemons with just the plasma gun, because no BFG) it's worth noting that you don't actually need the red key to proceed - the same trigger that lowers the red key column also opens up the next area back in the main hub; there's no actual red key or switch. Which is unexpected, certainly, and another point of obtuse design, and probably unintentional, but interesting nonetheless.