The DWmegawad Club plays: Hell Revealed

[scifista42]

MAP04 - "The Garden Terminal" by Yonatan Donner & Haggay Niv

While many of the texturing/gameplay/design choices per individual areas were still quite basic or generic, this map as a whole finally managed to have its own unique-ness, which I appreciated. Featuring outdoor-esque areas under an actual sky probably helped this. However, I wasn't pleased by trying to get the presumably secret BFG before eventually giving up and finding out it was unreachable and the exit room itself was flagged as a cheap secret for vanilla completionist purposes. I know that vanilla and old ports didn't have a secret counter on the automap, but the BFG implies being a secret and that's why this sucks.

[Naan]

MAP02 - "Gateway Lab" by Yonatan Donner & Haggay Niv - UVMax on first try

A standard techbase with a somewhat unnatural progression as you have to backtrack to the first main room to find a switch to reach the exit.


MAP03 - "The Dumpster" by Yonatan Donner - UVMax on first try

A rather simple and generic level with rooms, corridors, switches, teleporters, lifts, corridors, monsters and stuff. I liked it more than the previous one. Although it was easy and the unmarked secret sucks.


MAP04 - "The Garden Terminal" by Yonatan Donner & Haggay Niv - UVMax on second try

Fresh air! Well, I liked more the first outside section with the 4 quarter garden than the techbase and its surroundings that felt rather blend, even compared to the earlier maps. I guess telefragging a baron was fun. Nice BFG9000 trolling, too.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP04: The Garden Terminal
100% kills, 1/1 "secret"

Run down a long curved hallway, then clear some riff-raff outta some boxes. Go through a teleporter and clear another another couple of boxes. No real secrets. The end. This review has about as much effort put into writing it as this map had into making it.

[ReFracture]

Level 5 'Core Infection'
Vanilla, KIS 100/100/100, 11:47

Apparently you can get stuck if you get the plasma rifle while the lift is rising. It only goes back down if you walk back onto the lift which can only be done if you rode the lift all the way up.

This level is stupid, cramped, and broken.

[Ashstrodamus]

ReFracture said:

Level 5 'Core Infection'
Vanilla, KIS 100/100/100, 11:47

Apparently you can get stuck if you get the plasma rifle while the lift is rising. It only goes back down if you walk back onto the lift which can only be done if you rode the lift all the way up.

This level is stupid, cramped, and broken.

If I'm not mistaken, I think you can run all the way back to an earlier switch and it will lower the lift again.

[Dylan Jarvis]

I'm going to review 3 maps here:

MAP03 The Dumpster:

This one is very basic. Almost feels as if this might of been one of their first maps made, and they used it to fill a slot. It's mostly just Corridors and squares. Not really much else to say.

MAP04 Garden Terminal:

The Architecture in this map is pretty nice despite the simple layout. I hate the tease BFG. The first time I played this I drove my self mad, trying to figure out how to get it, just to find out you can't. The final room is also tagged as a secret for some reason, weird.

MAP05 Core Infection:

Much like MAP03 this one feels really basic, almost JOW.WAD status. There are some bullshit moments too, like a lift that lowers and there's a bunch of zombies and an arachnotron in your face. This map is probably my least favorite in the wad.

[Dylan Jarvis]

T-Rex said:

Doom, Doom 2, and even TNT had a difficulty curve where it starts off easy and gets harder as you progress.

You Might think I'm crazy but I thought TNT was harder and had better quality maps than Plutonia >.<

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP05: Buncha horseshit on pistol start. Tight walkways, nobles clogging everything up, random progression, no SSG, lifts and block monster lines everywhere. This would legit be a WOOO map nowadays.

[scifista42]

MAP05 - "Core Infection" by Yonatan Donner

Another cramped map, but with more of what I call "substance" in comparison to MAP03. I mean, despite featuring less unique ideas (not that MAP03 was particularly ideaful either), gameplay was more solid, combat oriented and even strategy oriented to a degree. Even though the actual paths formed a "tree" instead of an interconnected complex (so it wasn't really what I'd call "nonlinear"), at least there were additional windows between areas, allowing me to choose which monsters to fight now through the window and which ones to fight only later when I need it.

When I approached the automatically raising platform near the end, I jumped off it in the middle of movement and I believed I broke the map that way, until I reexplored the VERY entire map and the VERY last place I reexplored turned out to contain the switch that lowers the platform again - relatively distant place, too. Not ideal design, but whatever.

This map was similarly enjoyable to me as MAP04 was - that is, better than the first three maps, but still with lots of room for improvement.

[baja blast rd.]

dobu gabu maru said:

MAP05: Buncha horseshit on pistol start. Tight walkways, nobles clogging everything up, random progression, no SSG, lifts and block monster lines everywhere. This would legit be a WOOO map nowadays.

<3

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP05 Core Infection

look at that, just ONE curved area, the stairway at the beginning, everything else is orthogonal and cramped in this map and it's awful. At least the combat is stepping up now.

[Budoka]

MAP05: Core Infection by Yonatan Donner

It's like wandering inside a giant supercomputer, which is an idea I really like. This is the point where the level design starts to really shape up in my opinion, and with that, the difficulty goes up a notch, although there are no really tough encounters yet. Doing this from a pistol start is indeed about finding a viable order in which to tackle the various rooms, but so was Ultimate Doom, and it's all really satisfying for me. We'll be seeing more of this later (MAP12...). I love how organic the secrets feel to the concept of the map, although everything having to do with the Plasma Gun is far from intuitive. Then again, you really don't need it.

[antares031]

MAP06 - The Round Crossroads
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/100/100

Great, this level has learned a lesson from the previous one; giving you a SSG at the very beginning. This level also gives you a plenty of ammo and weapons, compare to the previous tight one. So you may have no trouble to beat this level with pistol start. A room with crusher was a little bit annoying, though.

[T-Rex]

Tactical Stiffy said:

You Might think I'm crazy but I thought TNT was harder and had better quality maps than Plutonia >.<

To be honest, I do like TNT's approach at making more realistic maps when compared to Plutonia. While I don't find TNT to be harder, it was schizophrenic with its difficulty curve. Human BBQ (Map02) is somewhat of a wake-up call level, there's the bullshit large-rooms-with-no-cover in Metal (Map08), and of course, the infamous Mount Pain (Map27). It's merciless, and despite having more lighter monsters than heavyweights, it somehow manages to be a lot harder than the most difficult maps of Plutonia, or Hell Revealed, for that matter.

[7hm]

Catching up here.

Map 2

Boxy and kind of plain. I like the use of height and minor doom platforming in the second room.

Map 3

Looks like boxy and kind of plain is the theme here. I like both crate rooms.

Map 4

We get to go outside! The opening shot feels iconic. I'm not sure if it was copying something else that I'm forgetting about, but it feels like I've seen this shot many, many times. The rest of the level is whatever. The initial arena is pretty toothless and the building afterwards is just filler. I didn't get the BFG.

Map 5

Tight corridor base crawl. I found that the ammo was a lot tighter at the start in this one - maybe because of my route being too meandering, but I actually completely ran out at one point and had to depend on some infighting to find more ammo. I liked the setup but my two biggest complaints with the map were the excess of meat in tight spaces where all they did was act as ammo sinks, and the backtracking around the plasma gun room. Otherwise it was fun and hey we saw an AV. (Also I took no damage after getting the megasphere and burned the Berserk and the soulsphere. There was a lot of HP clumped in this map.)

Ashstrodamus said:

If I'm not mistaken, I think you can run all the way back to an earlier switch and it will lower the lift again.

yeah I'm pretty sure this is the intended mechanic.

[driftyloon]

MAP05 – Core Infection

Secrets: 1/1 Kills: 95/95

A little bit more action but at the same time the monster placement is kind a dickish. That plasma gun is a pain to collect. It’s nice that there are windows into other bits of the level. But it is still kind of irritating that there a few windows, that if they were a step lower, they would be passthroughable (not a real word but eh). Also secret was not very secret :).

[Magnusblitz]

MAP05: Core Infection
100% kills, 1/1 secret

Another almost entirely square map, lots of 64-wide corridors, needing to shooting through barons and mancubuses with the single shotgun in 64-wide corridors, silly block monster lines, shooting monsters through windows like monkeys in a barrel... yeah, this map is pretty dire. My favorite part was the exit sign at the end that showed the author has no clue how that texture is supposed to work.

[VGA]

The club hasn't played Hellbound and you're playing stuff from 97? Heh.

I watched some vids ... map quality seems low, I'm spoiled :/

[Noiser]

Guys, can I give my two cents here? Just a humble opinion:

I think you are being really unfair judging visuals. Remember: this is a wad from 1997 meant to be played on 320x200. Keep that in mind.

[gaspe]

Noiser said:

Guys, can I give my two cents here? Just a humble opinion:

I think you are being really unfair judging visuals. Remember: this is a wad from 1997 meant to be played on 320x200. Keep that in mind.

Heh, Eternal and Strain are both from the same year and they are superior visually. Even Memento Mori II (1996) is better.

[Cynical]

HR's later levels look a lot better than its early ones, though. It stays "abstract" for the most part, but it's quite an attractive abstract starting at about map 13.

[mouldy]

MAP05 - "Core Infection" by Yonatan Donner

This map is very memorable for the unfortunate fact that it is so annoying to navigate. The corridors are so cramped and the layout is confusing as hell considering how basic it looks. There are steep steps which only seem to be there to make it difficult to see whatever is at the other end of them, but the cherry on top is the stupid backtracking you have to do if you either want the plasma rifle, or happen to step off the rising platform that leads to the exit. Also its not exactly obvious that platform is even there to be lowered, I seem to remember being very stuck the first time I played it.

[gaspe]

MAP06 - The Round Crossroads

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

Finally a good level. The layout has a central hub from where we can reach the various areas, which are mostly closed hallways but the gameplay was fun and it starts to get more engaging. The crusher was a really nice touch, it's timed well to put you pressure when you have to go through the room.

[joe-ilya]

6

Now the base is getting mixed with outdoors, a step up in mapping experience I guess.
Map is more about interactiveness this time, I liked how the central building button reveals all the routes, more non-linearity, more height play.
The crusher obstacle reminds me of the classic mega-man games and it was nice for the pinky fight behind the crusher door, not much about the lift though.
The claustrophobic layouts continue with this level, this isn't 1024? Isn't it? :P

4/5

[T-Rex]

Noiser said:

Guys, can I give my two cents here? Just a humble opinion:

I think you are being really unfair judging visuals. Remember: this is a wad from 1997 meant to be played on 320x200. Keep that in mind.

Spot on. The first few map of HR may seem basic and not so impressive in the visual department, but at least they're not ugly. I mean, I've seen worse maps that were from the same timestamp as HR.

mouldy said:

This map is very memorable for the unfortunate fact that it is so annoying to navigate.

Map05 may have a confusing layout, but it's not as annoying as Plutonia's Map11 in which random doors open as you reach random linedefs which you have to trigger to navigate the maze full of arch-viles. That's a pretty awful concept for an otherwise classic megawad.

[dobu gabu maru]

Nah, Hell Revealed is pretty visually bland outside of very few maps. As gaspe noted, many other contemporary wads eclipse it in style, even Plutonia (I'd say especially Plutonia). There are worse maps, but that doesn't detract from the tepid art direction HR has going for it. The only point I'd commend Donner on is paying attention light sources, which is probably the only visual quality HR gets right. Perhaps if you're more keen towards general theming the texturing will do enough for you, but for me there's a lot lacking when it comes to the "graphics".

MAP06: Like a breath of fresh air after the last map. Unfortunately it still has many of the same pitfalls—tight spaces and baron overuse—but it’s not as restrictive as the last map. Some of the progression is dumb and I hate how “hidden” some things are like the PG and berserk pack, but it’s not as rage-inducing as MAP05.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP06 Round Crossroads:

Alright this one is much better than the last. Quite a bit of action here at the beginning. I'm not a fan of the constant Baron usage in multiple places here and that crusher is annoying especially if you want to get on that lift next to it. Most of the encounters are fun and the rooms are bland. I still like this map though.

[Budoka]

MAP06: The Round Crossroads

A non-linear layout befitting the title, but the progression itself is somewhat more linear with whole sections locked behind doors which you must overcome enemy groups, traps or light puzzles in order to get the keys of. It's all Metroid-like in a sense which I appreciate, but once you've figured it all out there's little replay value to be had, even if encounters as a whole are very slowly getting trickier. Nothing remarkable visually that I can think of, but nothing terrible either.

I will note that Hell Revealed is actually nine months older than Eternal, seven months older than Strain, and even five months older than Requiem. Memento Mori II meanwhile is something of a unique gem, it's better designed than its contemporaries in just about every way, and in my opinion is definitely the only pre-97 Megawad that sends the official Doom II home crying in terms of quality (well, maybe besides Final Doom, but both of its halves have their own... issues).

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP06 The Round Crossroads

Not much of a crossroads with this layout but it's a nicer offering overall. Again, rather small, some places quite cramped. There's really not a whole lot of charm that this level has to offer. That crusher sucks too.

[mouldy]

MAP06 - "The Round Crossroads" by Yonatan Donner

Another one that won't be winning any beauty contests. This one at least has some exploration value, and remembering all the secrets helped a lot with ammo. The author sure likes barons, they can be quite menacing in these cramped surroundings too, but I didn't have many problems getting through this one..