The DWmegawad Club plays: Hell Revealed

[joe-ilya]

11

Now I gotta use saves, that doesn't mean the quality is going to get lower.

Another wierd interconnected map, the textures are all over the place, looks like a first map effort of a modern mapper, even plays like one of those. The point in this map is to grab your weaponary as quick as you can and clear your way out as quick as possible. It's also a lengthy map, AVs and boss monsters are begining to show up more than ever. And with this map we're done with the first episode.

MAP : 2/5
Episode : 2/5 Not a good episode.

[dobu gabu maru]

purist said:

I've not posted map by map comments as I've found if sometimes hinders me getting through the month [...]

Yeah writing the entries can sap a lot of time from the day. If you stick through to the end, please do a write-up of your general opinion on the set—I'm interested to know how the non-slaughter people find it.

MAP11: Buncha poop. Takes all of the problems in MAP09 and just makes them longer. If I didn’t know about the latter maps I’d quit here. Who thought all those pinkies in that room was a good idea? Who thought it was clever to place those platforms so far apart? Who thought it was smart to make the RL a secret? Who wants to fight a bunch of barons in cages? Goddamn 1/5 pile of noxious bullshit with so many things wrong it’s about to burst my aneurysm.

I feel like I’m having some sort of cognitive crisis in realizing that I don’t enjoy early slaughtermaps. It’s rare for me to drop mapsets, but I just couldn’t make it through Kama Sutra and I think if I was playing HR blind right now, I would’ve done the same here. I mean it’s fine to have your personal tastes differ from the masses, but the problem for me is that I was convinced I liked slaughter of all kinds—hell, I got into mapping because I wanted to make +1000 monster slaughtermaps. It’s like having a startling revelation that you’re irreligious or queer, except in my case it’s that I’m a anti-protoslaughter bigot. I mean shit, I had started writing about how joe-ilya’s maps are way more fun than what Donner could ever create, before realizing what I was doing ;_;

[Magnusblitz]

Hell Revealed: it'll make you question everything you ever knew!

[Cynical]

...am I the only person who really likes the "caged Baron maze" at the end of map 11?

It's cramped (which makes dodging fireballs tricky), you're probably low on ammo, and mistakes hurt. It's tense and fun.

I don't like much of the rest of the map (that room with the four giant towers and the Cyberdemon on the floor for infinity-tallness trolling and plinking from tower to tower can go to hell, as can the stupid strafejump-lift bit), but I dig the maze.

[mouldy]

MAP11 - "Underground Base" by Yonatan Donner

This is where hell revealed starts for me. Its also where it stopped the first time I played it, there is some mandatory strafe jumping that I didn't know how to do at the time. It has all the hallmarks of the HR attitude, where you are expected to know the map in advance and plan out an optimum strategy for survival, often involving running through rooms without killing anything in order to have enough resources for the next bit. Eventually I was saving after nearly every encounter thanks to low health and some unforgiving gameplay, particularly where cyberdemons are involved. There are a number of scenarios that give you a choice between fast and dangerous or slow and tedious, so I can imagine it turning into a bit of a grind for some players. Quite the difficulty spike after the last map.

[driftyloon]

Getting a bit behind...

MAP09 – Knockout

Secrets: 3/3 Kills: 334/334

Nice concept but poorly executed. A level where you go on the rampage with the berserk sounds great but after playing this level I can understand it’s infamy. As Joe said it is extremely tedious just getting invulnerability then punching everything. Strangely enough when I looked at the HMP version, they give you a plasma rifle and tons of ammo which really kind of defeats the point of the level XD.

[VGA]

joe-ilya said:

11

Now I gotta use saves, that doesn't mean the quality is going to get lower.

Another wierd interconnected map, the textures are all over the place, looks like a first map effort of a modern mapper, even plays like one of those. The point in this map is to grab your weaponary as quick as you can and clear your way out as quick as possible. It's also a lengthy map, AVs and boss monsters are begining to show up more than ever. And with this map we're done with the first episode.

MAP : 2/5
Episode : 2/5 Not a good episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct2NRs-sruY

Joe you got destroyed there!

Anyway, why do you play as if speedrunning? Is that your normal playstyle?

[gaspe]

MAP12 - Great Halls of Fire

Kills: 90% | Items: 100% | Secrets: 100%

Visually the previous level was better. I died 2 times while attempting to get the rocket launcher at the start, but going into the maze first seems to be the best option. Fuck me I killed all the barons at the SSG because I thought that there could be a secret inside one alcove, or at least somethimg more worth than some shells. Clearing the room with the lava wasn't very difficult and the north section wasn't a big deal.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP11 Underground Base:

The first time I played this map, I hated it. This is the third time and I actually enjoy more then I used too. I don't know what it is but the challenge is great. The first map to have Cyberdemons and they throw 3 at you. Pretty crazy stuff the first time playing. There are a few annoying moments however. Forced strafe running can be really annoying IMHO. The Demons in the BFG room also piss me off I try to get them killed by the HKs and Cyber because they are a serious waste of ammo. Fun map, we are starting to heat up.

[T-Rex]

Continuing on where I left off with HR.

Map07: Arachnophobia (Haggay Niv)
100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets
Time: 04:49

This map uses the Dead Simple gimmick, except that Arachnotrons are the only enemies here, and you must gun them all in order to progress. This can be tedious in UV since you're only provided with the SSG, but at least you have access to a plasma gun and rocket in the lower difficulties. Much like Slough of Despair, E3M2, from Ultimate Doom, the map is a particular shape, namely a giant spider, hence the theme suggested by the title of the map. The central fight can be a bit troublesome since you have arachnotrons firing at you from every which way, but if you stay calm and take them out with the weaponry provided, you should be fine, and once the arachnotrons in the spider legs remain, everything else is hunky dory. I think it's decent, though it could have been executed a little bit better, like have one secret as the exit area instead of the two fangs sticking out, and if the mother Spider Mastermind was placed at the exit instead of the middle of the map, then that would have been an obligatory fight. Not a bad map, but could have been much been much better with the concept, that's all I have to say.

Map08: The Jail (Haggay Niv)
100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets
Time: 05:25

A mostly indoors and gloomy map, which, as the name implies, attempts to replicate the feeling of a prison. This map has somewhat of a shortage of ammo, probably intended for the next map that follows. The map itself is pretty cool. With a number of caged enemies, it really sticks to the theme unlike Prison, TNT Map07, and there's more appropriate texturing in this map. You also have a crusher in which you'll find the chainsaw. Monster placement are mostly small enemies with a few barons, hell knights, pain elementals, and an arachnotron and mancubus, so this is a pretty easy map. I also like the map's use of "Mist Ache" from Rise of the Triad, really sets the mysterious and dark tone of the map quite well.

Map09: Knockout (Yonatan Donner)
100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets
Time: 09:00

Now here's a tough level. You have to learn to use the berserk pack for most of the map as there's so many enemies but little armaments to balance things out. The main highlight of this map is the outdoor yard in which you grab the red key and a total of 128 imps teleport from all sides. I find this reminiscent of many of Plutonia's teleport ambushes. Of course, they don't use that many monsters to teleport out, but still, the influence is strong with this part of the map. I strong advise against waiting for all the imps to teleport out as not only will it take awhile, but it is also suicidal as you need to stock up on ammo, so grab the red key while with the invulnerability provided, pound some of the enemies if needed, and hurry up north to the hallway up ahead where you'll eventually need to the grab the yellow key. Once you're done, you'll find all the imps clumped together, which is the good time to blow them away with the rocket launcher, of course from the hallway so that the door will protect you from imp fireballs. The map may have some mix and match textures, which coincidentally reminds me of Rise of the Triad's use of having different theme textures in sections of some of the maps, but the map was at least well-made. Fairly slaughterish, especially with the teleporting imps, but nothing compared to what we'll see in some the later maps.

Map10: Chambers of War (Haggay Niv)
100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets
Time: 07:32

Here, Haggay brings us a mansion map that is very squarish, to say the least. A mixture of light and heavyweight enemies, though the heavyweights are starting to become a bit more abundant. Still, a pretty easy and straightforward map. Kinda reminds me of Monster Condo from Doom 2, since it also has a library section which you'll need to go in to find a switch in order to open the back area of the mansion, where there's a hedge maze containing the blue key. Don't expect to get away with it easily though, for once you get the blue key a monster closet holding cacodemons open up. Lastly, you have the ending with has some imps and an archvile standing behind columns, so keep a sharp eye on them. This isn't terrible, despite being mainly 90 degree angular walls. Pretty enjoyable, and the last easy map to relax with, for the next map is when we're finally getting into the really difficult maps. By the way, "Havana Smooth," the track used for this map is another good one from Rise of the Triad.

Map11: Underground Base (Yonatan Donner)
103% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets
Time: 16:47

Okay, this is where Hell Revealed finally takes off its gloves. This catacomb map is not only massive, but it's very difficult as well. It throws everything at you, ala Plutonia. You have archviles lurking around almost every part of the map, three cyberdemons, and two spider masterminds among all the gamut of enemies you'll find. Thankfully, with the cyberdemons, they're in places where you can use the terrain as cover from their rockets. Like, with the first one in the room with the wooden towers, I found the best way to take care of him is use the right towers as cover and when he's on sight, fire away with the plasma rifle. His rockets won't be able to reach you as they'll just collide with the walls. Still, this map can be pretty tough on pistol start, and it can be really hard if you don't know what you're doing. The main highlight of the map is the big large chamber which is an epic fight with legions of hellspawn. Demons patrolling the grounds, the barons, hell knights, and revenants at the upper "ring," and of course, the third cyberdemon. Luckily, that chamber is where you'll finally get the BFG9000, though I won't recommend using it straight off. I like to provoke infighting in that area so that the cyberdemon can take out most if not all the barons, knights, and revenants. He should be close to death after taking out as many so when it seems as if he's finished a monster by that point, BFG him. Definitely one point in the map where strategy is the key to success and survival. The spider masterminds require taking out as quickly as possible, and then there's the ending with the maze full of caged barons and knights and the switch which once pressed, you have to act fast so you can reach the exit in time. Difficult map, but it is a lot of fun, and the RotT music track "Chant" that goes with it, just awesome.

Here's also a bit of trivia about the map: INCOMING HELL REVEALED NERDISM! Underground Base is one of Yonatan's very first maps for HR, and it shows with its aesthetics and layout. Still, it is a well-made map and looks beautifully made, at least to me. Of course, the later maps are designed a lot better.

Well, the first episode may have started with a few bland maps, but they at least have something good about them, even, I dare to say, Arachnophobia. The second episode is where the design and architecture start to improve, I can assure you of that. You just got to keep things in perspective, forget all the hyperboles about HR and persevere. Until next time, peace out.

[NaZa]

Demos from MAP01 to MAP07:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/tj6m39lp8zb2c6u/MAP01-07_DL234.zip

So, here I am playing Hell Revealed! Ah, the nostalgia! It was the first PWAD I have ever played so it's really hard to not be biased...

MAP01: Into the Gate by Yonatan Donner and Haggay Niv

Memories, sweet memories! This is one of the best MAP01s I have ever played, along with The Gateway (Requiem) and White and Blue (DWMP2015). It's a sweet looking MAP01, packed with action. Waiting for all the monsters to teleport in can be really tedious, but overall it's a nice opener. The teleporter is pretty neat, but the secret is really, REALLY easy to find.



MAP02: Gateway Lab by Yonatan Donner

I never liked this map. Probably because IT'S A HITSCAN PARADISE! There are also numerous bugs, such as being able to flip the hidden switch (shown in the demo) and going to the blue door with NO BLUE KEY! The level looks awkward, tall walls with zero detail except some computer stations here and there. At least we get the SSG on this level. I like HR, but this level is NOT HR material.



MAP03: The Dumpster by Yonatan Donner

This map is completely luck-based. Will the shotgunners kill you when you go down? Will that chaingunner let you go in the tunnel? Will the zombies kill you while you are grabbing the rocket launcher? Luckily you can skip 3 enemies by strafejumping to the bridge while it's raising (shown in the demo). That backpack secret is an automap secret, which is ironic since you get the map there. Overall, didn't enjoy it, but it had some good parts.



MAP04: The Garden Terminal by Yonatan Donner and Haggay Niv

This is the level where you see differences between Donner's mapping and Niv's mapping the best. Donner focuses on design, fast gameplay and challenge while Niv has boxy design, but a hitscan paradise is often welcome! This map is one of the more unique maps in the set since it introduces new enemies as well as it has a great secret. The map's nice, I enjoyed the garden part.



MAP05: Core Infection by Yonatan Donner

As much as I love the challenge of this map, GOD is it a pain. The only curved part is the stairway, and it's pretty boxy too. There are moments of unnecessary challenge, such as the Mancubi area where they can't fit. There's some shortage of ammo throughout the level, especially while fighting Pain in the ____ Elementals. Also, here you can experience the bug where Lost Souls get trapped in walls. But hey, it's a great map to boost your skills!

MAP06: The Round Crossroads by Yonatan Donner

I don't mind the hub design, but is that Triad of the Barons a pain! Also, it has some wacko secrets and a Baron (!), the monster you'll probably miss if you don't see the monster count! I like the feel of this map, especially those sky windows, but this map is let down by very tedious and uninteresting gameplay.

MAP07: Arachnophobia by Haggay Niv

Our first entirely Haggay Niv map of the set. Three words: It's a pain. I don't mind the spider design; the map was nicely designed. It's not challenging either if you know how to play Doom. But is it tedious? You bet! In every leg there's 3 Arachnotrons, and there's no less than 22 sniping you from the body + the head! Also, there is a Spider Mastermind who missed the party and came in the last second. Too bad, nobody would kill him. Also the secrets are retarded.

As much as I love the set, I do not like the first maps. If you want to see the demo, go ahead. Make my day!

[driftyloon]

MAP10 – Chambers Of War

Secrets: 1/1 Kills: 111/111

An interesting design but definitely had one to many doors. Hedge maze was quirky but did not add anything for me. Once again I find myself having to plough through waves of barons, HKs and mancubi. Next map’s a slaughterfest by the looks of it. Yay….maybe?

[T-Rex]

driftyloon said:

Next map’s a slaughterfest by the looks of it. Yay….maybe?

Map11's a doozy, but not quite a slaughterfest, though the large area with the demons, revenants, barons, hell knights, and cyberdemon could be seen as one. Still a long way from reaching the actual slaughterfests, but we'll get to them as we progress.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP12 Great Halls of Fire

Very peculiar level with different things, like ortho-maze with really terrible switch texture (where the arch-vile is, it's not really a switch texture), and the "attempt at arcade-y" SSG room. At least I think it tries to be arcade-y. Don't argue about that. It was a novel idea back then but I can freely leave the room, do business elsewhere, come back and fight all the barons at once. nicer that way. The lava room is okay, at the most. Don't like the spiderdemon battle though, and the cyber one is pretty easy in comparison.

[scifista42]

MAP11 - "Underground Base" by Yonatan Donner

Pretty much all dense slaughters here were bothersome and unsatisfying to me. But at least some of the fights (mainly those with Chaingunners / Revenants / Archviles...) were somewhat entertaining, although on a basic level (mostly). Level design was better that the previous map's one, but no better than what I call average anyway. The caged Hell Knights / Barons near the exit could have been an exciting setup if there were more Hell Knights / Barons and if the player got thrown and locked in there rather than being able to snipe them from the entrance. And I'd make the same complaint / suggestion about quite a few other encounters in this map as well. I considered quitting while playing the map, but I eventually got through in one go and will continue, even though I'm not liking Hell Revealed very much now.

[T-Rex]

scifista42 said:

I considered quitting while playing the map, but I eventually got through in one go and will continue, even though I'm not liking Hell Revealed very much now.

Don't give up and don't lose your taste in HR. Maybe what you're not liking is the level design. While I think the levels are okay, I kinda agree that many of the early ones could have been better. I mean the squarish rooms, hallways and such seemed more like something that is more fitting for Wolfenstein, not Doom. To be honest, I actually like the dungeonesque style of mapping in Doom, just gives it an arcadish feel to it. As for the gameplay, it's more like large-scale Plutonic fights, but one slaughtermap doesn't mean all maps will be like that. At least by Map13 we'll get to see more beautiful designs.

[Budoka]

MAP11 : Underground Base

This finale to E1 reveals the true face of Hell Revealed… well, not really, but it’s getting pretty close. Three Cyberdemons, two Spiderdemons, a good dozen Archviles, and plenty of other meat to chew through, all in this giant underground complex here for you to explore. This one is very mean for a pistol start, and still pretty mean in regular gameplay mode, really. But let’s be honest, it ‘s also really good. Yeah, and that straferunning challenge… this WAD was the first time I ever encountered anything of the sort, and it certainly felt pretty novel at the time.

MAP12 : Great Halls of Fire

We remain underground for this start to E2, but it’s actually something of a breather. I mean, compared to the two maps surrounding it, it’s certainly rather easy. Doing this one from a pistol start involves figuring out which order to tackle the various isolated challenges in, which is pretty neat. The choice of BGM here is certainly a strong reminder that the atmosphere expressed in HR is not that of your regular Doom. I do have one criticism here : I wish the Super Shotgun room locked you in with a 30 second timer.

[scifista42]

MAP12 - "Great Halls of Fire" by Yonatan Donner

Another strongly RoTT-esque design (only partly redeemable by a bit of texture/height variations) and more boring than non-boring gameplay. The SSG encounter was particularly obviously pointless, but pretty much all other encounters too.

[antares031]

MAP13 - Last Look at Eden
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/92/100

Well, I didn't know that this level was pretty tough with pistol start. Anyway, the first part is easy, if you use monster infighting. The first tricky part is the stairway room. You have two options; fall back and deal with revenants and arch-vile which is not I recommend, or just jump down, grab the secret blue armor(this is very important, mark my words), and mow down the chaingunners asap. The next opened area is not a big deal, just be careful with arch-viles. You can get the soulsphere in one of rooms, but do not get that until you reach the second tricky part; the room where you get trapped, surrounded by monsters including that goddamn annoying chaingunners. It's too bad that you can obtain a plasma rifle(in secret area) after you clean that trap.

[dobu gabu maru]

scifista42 said:

MAP11 - "Underground Base" by Yonatan Donner
I considered quitting while playing the map, but I eventually got through in one go and will continue, even though I'm not liking Hell Revealed very much now.

I'd say if you don't find the gameplay "interesting" by MAP15, it's not going to be an enjoyable ride. I feel that the best Hell Revealed maps are in E3, but it'd probably be better just to warp to those that pique your interest rather than suffering through each map.

MAP12: This one is… mostly whatever. Some stuff is dumb, like the cyberdemon upstairs and the 1-on-1 baron duels (while cool in theory, it's the most menial task ever), but at least you can avoid each of those boring fights by running away. It’s kinda weird how you’re allowed to explore the map in any order you want, but going down into the YK area or Mastermind battle without the BFG is pretty much suicide. Thankfully Last Look at Eden is next, which I have high hopes for—a lot of us have a "true Hell Revealed starts here"-opinion on different maps, and for me MAP13 is when the set finally comes together.

[joe-ilya]

12

Not using savestates for this map as it's too short.

Another wierd looking map, mostly made out of symmetric areas, mazes and boxes and different wall paper esque textures on each area and lots of running away.
The boss areas look out of place and aren't threatning at all. I hope to get some fresh air soon in this mappack. This isn't a promising episode opener.

1/5

[Cynical]

dobu gabu maru said:

and for me MAP13 is when the set finally comes together.

That's the most common opinion I've seen over the years, but I honestly have never seen what other people do in that one. The start is either "watch everything infight for 20 years, then methodically handle the second room" or "luck-based pacifist trolling to slip past the first two rooms without waking up the Cacodemons or the teleporting Chaingunners that guard the SSG", the next area is "run counterclockwise for 20 years", and the only other notable fight in the map is the cage fight, which is just "lol, I hope you didn't try to speed up the tedium of the central courtyard with those rockets".

[baja blast rd.]

It seems like the DWMC will run out of good modern megawads at some point. (I'm of the opinion that megawads really only started getting good in the early 2000s.) There's still stuff like SoD (Cynical will object to me including this one), the upcoming BTSX e3, some 1024 stuff (niche though), some Community Chests (mixed bags), PRCP, and so on, but the list isn't long at all. And frankly, old megawads are more often bad, held aloft by only nostalgia.

[Paul977]

MAP12 - Great Halls of Fire

More simple then map 11 with one "problematic" area: the fight vs the Spidermastermind which almost killed me.. The rest of the level: giants empty room made with different themes, also another "eat your ammo" room with the barons of hell. I didn't like this level so much and worse I finished it with bad stats and few ammo: this was a fatal error considering the TROUBLE I had on the next map...

[Magnusblitz]

MAP12: Great Halls of Fire
100% kills, 3/3 secrets

Back to boring flatness and "enter room, kill monsters, repeat" design, though I did end up running from most of the stuff early on in my quest to find an SSG. I can see the one-at-a-time baron dispensary being interesting back in 1997 (not sure how many WADs were using the ultra-high moving floors with staggered releases back then) but nowadays its just boring. The yellow key room was far more painful than it had any right to be (mainly due to lack of space to dodge revenant rockets in without falling into the lava). Bland boss fights. Had to IDDT to find the last enemy, apparently there's a Pain Elemental that can shoot stuck in the fireplace.

[Suitepee]

http://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/v/44213187 = part 1 of my playthrough, covering maps 01-15. (UV, continuous)

The first 12 maps were just a mostly easy preview it seems. After that comes the real HR-experience; Baron/HK spam, Archvile spam and basic texturing/detailing design. Or so it seems thus far.

I'd hate to be pistol starting some of these maps, that's for sure. It seems like there's some good mapping potential in this wad so far; but it might be buried underneath a pile of slogfest encounters and occasional dullness. (and the odd questionable monster placement)

I've been warned about map 23/24 and 26 being difficult, so I'm expecting more testing times ahead. I just hope the good encounters/maps crop up regularly enough....

[gaspe]

MAP13 - Last Look at Eden

Kills: 79% | Items: 69% | Secrets: 33%

The start is difficult, of course if you have only the SG against all those tough monsters. After 3 deaths and finally killed everything I found an AV and some revs when I opened the door and died. Usually I like to kill everything and find all the secrets but in this mapset it seems it isn't worth anymore. I Changed tactic and avoided all the monsters that I could and just rushed forward. At the SSG most of the chaingunner took care of themselves and the big hub area is plenty of space to move around. I only cleared the room after the yellow key door, to have a safe place and from there the cyberdemon and the mastermind cleared most of the area. I only had some problems at the blue key trap but after that reaching the exit was a simple task.

[mouldy]

MAP12 - "Great Halls of Fire" by Yonatan Donner

Fairly easy after the previous map, lots of large square spaces to run rings around enemies and opportunities to leave fights behind. It does help to give the map a fast pace, which it needs with the amount of grinding there is in places, notably the slow trickle of barons that you are meant to chip away at with SSG I guess. Maybe you could leave them all and come back later with some rockets, I'm not even sure if you need to do that fight. There was one moment where I thought i was in trouble, an archvile behind some more barons (so many barons in this wad), luckily I was able to lure them all out of the room and run past them. I do like how some of these maps encourage you to think on your toes and not necessarily stand there gunning everything down, but this map was largely standing there and gunning things down.

[Pirx]

MAP10 - "Chambers of War" by Haggay Niv

a house themed map, large and boxy, with lots of rooms with doors containing knights, revenants, and those pesky barons - i don't like them because they eat ammo like popcorn and are mostly a threat when they somehow block the way. @ t-rex saying it remind of monster condo: that was my impression too because of the library textures and the general orthogonal appearance. tougher than the maps until here, but not really a threat, it's mostly fighting a few of them at a time in those corridors, at least if you're playing leisurely. the house was ok imo, but not the hedge maze outside, with some spectres in it which - what are they supposed to do, stand in the way? i try to play "civilized" normally, that is not jump or crouch when the map was not made for, but that maze was so useless i just jumped over it impatiently and reached an unmarked exit.



MAP11 - "Underground Base" by Yonatan Donner

this is where hell revealed actually begins, or starts being the first slaughter megawad. there are not that many monsters actually, before you reach the big room with the bfg, but there's lots of barons (did i say i don't like them?) to block your way, and if you don't know the map, you'll spend your last shells on those archviles on top of the 4 wooden towers. and here's why i started liking the map here, despite some weaknesses: i barely got away in the towers hall, having only a shotgun, but made my way to the secret rocket launcher, and from here it went surprinsingly smooth. but anyway it's a map that plays much better when you know where your stuff is, because getting blockaded and running out of ammo is pretty annoying. it has questionable moments like barons in cages and a horde of pinkies who can't follow you, and overall a disjointed aspect, not surprising if it was one of yonatan's first maps.



MAP12 - "Great Halls of Fire" by Yonatan Donner

one can expect hellish halls of fire and brimstone, but it's mostly flat and plain textured, with every room having its theme. there's a wooden, square maze with former humans, a brick hall with a cyber, a marble room with barons (again) and an archvile, who can keep them as his shield if you don't snatch the bfg right under his nose. this weapon is essential to kill the barons quickly, or the mastermind in a trap where you drop right in front of him - either you have the bfg or you're dead. again a map with a sprawling "beginner's architecture" look.

[wallabra]

@Pirx Who likes barons? (other than me) They are normally a nuisance of tough scumbags (The two E1M8 barons combined takes like 24 Shotgun shots to kill, or more if the shotgun power isn't half the SSG power) but they still are good for smaller bosses when alone.