The DWmegawad Club plays: Hell Revealed

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP22 Resistance is Futile

Whereas Siege had all that shit at the start, here there's enough supplies everywhere that it's like having infinite ammo, but then again, all the monsters here. I was actually quite surprised to see only 101 monsters for ITYTD/HNTR, but either way, you've got barons in pits, cybers on bridges, it's clear why this map was so inspirational for many other similar maps like AV MAP32, or hell, hr2final MAP27, it's actual sequel. it's actually a three key map in whatever order the player wishes; the yellow key is easy enough apart from the arch-viles, but the blue key requires the most work, bringing down walls with even more slaughter. The one with pain elementals was the most annoying for me there. Red key in the top middle is of moderate difficulty for me. So yes, MAP22 is a fun level in many ways, I still enjoy it.

[baja blast rd.]

I decided to record a FDA for map21. That was the random map I picked without reading any recent comments in this thread. No deaths, but ~46 mins. Not posting that crap, lol.

[Demon of the Well]

^ I'd watch it. I know what you mean, though, there are some horrid miscreations I've recorded that I'd rather pretend never happened.

[baja blast rd.]

Here's a much shorter FDA for map19 (1 death).

http://www.mediafire.com/download/jg49xx0bf3gudb0/hr19_rdwpa_FDA.lmp

This is one of the sillier things I've ever recorded.

Why? Well, first because I didn't realize I had anything more than a single shotgun until I switched to the fist (unexpectedly a chainsaw) to punch the air as I usually do when I want to goad infighting, and then pressed "3" again, discovering that I had the super shotgun. At that point, I still didn't suspect anything was amiss. It took me quite a bit later to figure out I had the RL and everything else too. I ended up using little of the higher-tier weapons (the BFG not at all).

I play with a pretty minimal hud and, not having that much Doom experience, I can't remember ever getting all the weapons at once without being able to see the pile or whatever -- so I didn't have any reason to suspect I had them. And I'd normally be heading to sleep right now (little things betray that too, like missed shotgun blasts against imps early on -- I find my single shotgun aim is the first thing to deteriorate heavily during sleepiness), so I'm not exactly sharp of mind atm. LOL.

Anyway, it seems like it'd be a pretty easy level played conventionally.

[dobu gabu maru]

Demon of the Well said:

^ I'd watch it.

Your love for "Siege" is worrisome.

[T-Rex]

I don't think Siege is a horrible map. Might not be one of the best in HR, but the idea of starting in a safe place and going out to the danger zone is a neat concept, it kinda reminds me of those RPGs in which going outside the towns (safe areas) will have you facing monsters in the wilderness.

[Budoka]

MAP22 : Resistance is Futile

This map and the next two are KVLT. Idiotic remarks aside, the title says it all in this case : try to run, try to hide, and you’ll be crispy fried! The whole thing is like some giant manhunt in a town district, and you’re the target. Pretty neat if you ask me. The stress factor brought about by the fact there’s almost nowhere safe is nice (though enemies seem to have some trouble with the bridge in the middle), that big boss monsters shootout is nice, the Cyberdemon chases are nice… it’s all quite nice.

[Suitepee]

dobu gabu maru said:

Aww shame I missed the final playthrough, and double shame you (basically) skipped the best map in the set! I notice that sometimes you get yourself into a "stress loop", where you think a challenge is harder than it actually is, whereas just taking it calmly and creating back-up saves can get you through almost any obstacle. MAP24 has some of the best challenges in the set, and there's more than enough ammo, megaspheres & radsuits to make sure you survive.

Perhaps I'll consider replaying map 24, but I still think HR is garbage.

[Paul977]

MAP22 Resistance is Futile

A slaughter map in a restricted environment composed of gray/brown buildings. Was quite fun to play since there is enough ammo and megespheres. Finished at the third attempt although with no armor since I skipped the 4 Cyberdemons in the red key where I also left a megasphere.
Hardest part was the arachnotrons/pain elementals/arch-viles sector.

[joe-ilya]

22

Frantic map, run through alleys, get into buildings, get keys push switches to open new areas to get keys, entire weaponary at the start and great boss monster placement for stressful strategy, it's all in good hands especially with the spread out megaspheres and floorful of ammo.

4/5 for symmetricity.

[antares031]

MAP23 - Ascending to the Stars
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 99/85/66

Unfortunately, this level has some of the least favorite monster placements to me. The first one is a bridge where arch-viles are threatening you under the bridge. Killing those "invisible" arch-viles was just tedious. It wouldn't be a trouble if I had a vertical mouse look, though. An arena with a spider mastermind and some mancubi was not a big deal, and provoking monster infighting at the red key room was not that bad. It somehow reminded me a MAP08 of Doom 2 in a good way. The real problem was a trap with full of chaingunners. That's basically a "Fuck you and just die" trap. Fortunately, I saved a soulsphere from the previous room, so I could pass that one. Finally, the last room with full of arch-viles was just tedious and pointless. To make it even worse, the author placed a teleporter in front of the entrance of that room, and that was extremely annoying. I could give it a one star, followed by MAP14, if the level didn't provide a plenty of supplies.

[Lingyan203]

Suitepee said:

Perhaps I'll consider replaying map 24, but I still think HR is garbage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N1JtWLd8uA

If you ever do replay map 24, and are still stuck. Watch my video of map24 and see if my gameplay can help you. The playthrough's continuous on UV, with 100% kills/secrets.

[mouldy]

MAP22 - "Resistance is Futile" by Yonatan Donner

This is a memorable map, and a fun one. Finally we are given all the tools and allowed to let rip. Having beat my head against this map in the past I remembered my tactic of cutting through the hordes and jumping on the teleporter to telefrag the cyber on the bridge (with a bit of luck). Beyond that I wasn't sure, but running up the stairs to the masterminds seemed like a good idea. After dealing with those and the subsequent cybers it was a case of clearing everything out and see what happens next. Turns out there are 4 more mini battles, by the last one I was weary of cybers and left them roaming while I ran to the exit. I'm pretty sure I've played homages to this map, it definitely feels more like fun and less of a grind than anything else so far.

[Suitepee]

Lingyan203 said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N1JtWLd8uA

If you ever do replay map 24, and are still stuck. Watch my video of map24 and see if my gameplay can help you. The playthrough's continuous on UV, with 100% kills/secrets.

Thanks for the video, but I managed to beat map 24 without speedrunning it this evening: http://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/v/49197255

I didn't enjoy the map anymore than I did blazing through it with the rocket jump, and I still think Hell Revealed is awful.

Can't think of any particular wad to nominate for next month.

[gaspe]

MAP23 - Ascending to the Stars

Kills: 65% | Items: 85% | Secrets: 66%

One of the toughest levels so far (if not the most). Killing 100 imps with the SG was just nope.avi and I skipped them all. I had some problem at the plasmagun room, as I wanted to pick some cell packs I always got trapped by the hell knights; but I was able to grab at one. In the courtyard with the mancubi it's easy to make them kill the mastermind, and kill them after was a boring task. The chaingunner trap for the blue key is bullshit. I hadn't armor and 80%, it was just impossible I guess. I opened the map in the editor to see if I missed something, and yes there's a secret blue armor; in the previous room where all the monsters that I have left behind grouped together in front of the elevator. After getting the armor I could finally pick the key and enter the Blue Sector. Idk how much time I spent in the last room to kill all the arch-viles, it was just so fucking tedious.
We got a tech-base aesthetics here, and this is the best looking level so far. It's quite colorful.
Again it's a mixed bag overall, some moments were cool and others not at all.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP22: Resistance is Futile
84% kills, 1/1 "secret"

After boring grindy linear assaults it's nice to finally have a map with an open layout that allows the player to run around. It's still very cramped in spots - especially if you just try to run from a lot of it and let the map fill up with cyberdemons - but still fun. Rockets everywhere!

[PsychoGoatee]

I look forward to the "fav maps" and "least fav maps" lists at the end of this topic, those are always interesting to see.

I'm not big into slaughter style so I still haven't gotten around to playing this, but a list like that when I skip around comes in handy.

[T-Rex]

Continuing on from the start of the final episode of Hell Revealed. The most difficult maps are certainly here, so here we go.

Map21: Siege (Haggay Niv)
100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets
Time: 07:38

This is yet another linear map with quite an interesting premise. You start inside what resembles a house complete with health, powerups, weapons and ammo, and there's presumably no bad guys, that is, until you open the door out in the yard. It reminds me a lot of those RPGs in which the towns are safe and exploring out into the wilderness will have you encountering monsters. You get a group of barons with some revenants behind cages, then an arch-vile comes in once he's alerted, and you get another passage with more caged revenants and some mancubi. You have to find the blue key, which is hidden in a compartment in the room with a zombieman and an exploding barrel, which when you fire alerts the cacodemons, revenants, and arch-viles to pour in. The final area has you going across a bridge filled with cyberdemons and some demons lurk in the water while mancubi fire at you from the watchtowers. There's switches that the segment of the bridge you stand on, but they don't really come in any use. Best trick is to have the cyberdemons infight the enemies so you can easily BFG them from behind. The exit room has the switch guarded by some imps that were pretty much killed by the spider mastermind. The delivery of the concept may have been primitive, but I'll still let it pass. Since I'm playing HR on the Plutonia IWAD, it uses the intermission text screen track of Doom 2, which I think is very fitting for the setup of the map.

Map22: Resistance is Futile (Yonatan Donner)
106% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets
Time: 10:53

It cannot be a coincidence that this map is heavily influenced by Plutonia's Go 2 It and Memento Mori's Showdown, or basically any of the Casalis' famed slaughtermaps. You have all your weapons and ammo and as soon as you step out, the insanity begins. It's filled with basically all of the toughest enemies, including revenants, barons, demons, arachnotrons, pain elementals, mancubi, arch-viles, cyberdemons and even a couple of spider masterminds. None of the lesser enemies like imps and zombies are present, except for chaingunners. Since arch-viles will resurrect enemies and pain elementals continuously spawn lost souls, expect to get over 100% kills in this map. Getting the keys also open up areas with more monsters, so basically everything is booby trapped, and infighting is definitely needed in order to beat this map. Megaspheres are plentiful, but there's only so many that you'll have to use them when it is necessary. One of the toughest maps by far, in fact this is even tougher than Hard Attack, but it rivals Mostly Harmful in terms of difficulty. The geometry and symmetry really screams for all the word of Milo Casali, no surprise since Showdown and Go 2 It are both by him. Beautifully designed map, and it's a lot of fun.

Map23: Ascending to the Stars (Yonatan Donner)
102% kills, 87% items, 100% secrets
Time: 16:00

We are now inside a space station and it's swarming with a lot of nasty monsters. This kinda reminds me a bit of the space station levels from Icarus: Alien Vanguard, except that there's a lot of texture variation rather than the overusage of silver. The start area is a large tech hallway filled with imps and as you make it to the end, several arachnotrons teleport into the segments (be sure to go back and take care of them before you get to the next area). With the bridge area, I allow the hell knights to come for me so that I can make it through without them blocking me, let alone being seen by the arch-viles below who will zap me if I linger over the bridge, but then you have the revenants teleporting in. After clearing the enemies in the next area, you go down the lift into the large area with the pool, a spider mastermind and mancubi in the upper platforms. Funny how the space station has the marble faces, but then there's been some of that in techbases before. Tough spots include the section to the west with all the barons, arachnotrons, chaingunners and a cyberdemon which once it's killed, another one takes its place, and you have to get the red key there while taking the right teleporter to obtain the blue key. The blue area is a nice little section in the map, and once you get the yellow key and activate the switch guarded by arch-viles, you can backtrack to find the hidden door that will teleport you to where the inaccessible area with the spider mastermind and grab the megasphere that's been lowered. After taking the left teleporter and clearing the arch-viles (don't forget to grab the rockets, enter the yellow door and you have the ending area where you must take care of chaingunners and hell knights, then deal with the barons and cyberdemons that guard the teleporter which will take you to the switch that self-destructs the core. I enjoy this map. It's one of the hardest, though not insanely difficult. There's a lot of instances of Milo Casali-isms in the map. As anyone can tell, this has to be one of Yonatan's later maps as it's where he's introducing better architecture, which we'll see more of in HR. That's Ascending to the Stars. Very fun, very challenging, one of the top 10 maps in HR.

This should do for now, because, I think we all know what's coming up next. I can't believe we're all going to be tackling this upcoming map. So, until then, I'll see you again when we take on Post Mortem.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 22 -- Resistance is Futile - 101% Kills / No actual secrets
One of the seminal HR maps, evident both by its number of sequels (literal and conceptual) in later WADs and in the variety of demos with different approaches recorded for it. The setting is a couple of large bunker-type buildings separated by a narrow bridge and a moat of slime just deep enough to pose a navigational obstacle, with a quartet of further fortifications concealed behind what initially appear to be high bounding walls. The exit is locked up behind the classic tricolor door-trio, laying the grounds for one of the earliest 'slaughter sandbox' maps, with two of the keys located in the two main bunkers and the last obtained at the end of the campaign to clear out the four smaller sideyard strongholds. 300+ monsters populate these grounds, with revenants, mancubi, and demons being the most numerous, but the action is perhaps most defined by its placement of small groups of arch-viles on perches and in pillboxes for selective area denial (mostly around the starting point, which would otherwise tend to be the safest/easiest place to work from), and its feature billing of cyberdemons, which tend to appear in groups of 3-4, designed to force you to retreat and fight off the back foot. To even the odds you receive a load of heavy weaponry from the outset, with considerable quantities of hi-test ammo strewn around the battlefield, generously enough for you to stay on constant offense if you know what you're doing, but thoughtfully enough that you will have to pay some mind to your route and supplies such that you don't run dry halfway through an important maneuver.

With the heavy slant towards big numbers of big monsters and big guns (rockets and plasma totally dominate the balance from pistol-start, with all the shells sequestered in one place and guarded by a cyberdemon, and bullets only appearing incidentally from the dropped weapons of the last platoon of chaingunners trying to protect the exit), the elements are there for a relentless blastathon, surely. But the beauty of the 'true' HR style (which this is, at long last) is that there are a ton of different ways you can play it. When you know the map and have it routed out, you can indeed go all offense all the time and finish in a matter of minutes, but if you'd rather take things at a more deliberate pace, this works just as well. I recall the first time I ever played this what I did at the start was hole up right at the start point and use the plasma rifle to gun down the pinkies and revenants on the southern half of the field as they swarmed over my position, which ultimately allowed me to easily occupy the ground floor of the southern bunker, from where it was easy to promote the bridge cyberdemon to clean out a lot of the opposition on the north side. The biggest problems in the whole outing were the monsters 'upstairs' in the two main bunkers, but once I'd worn them out I found I could effectively deal with the heavy surges of monsters out of each of the four side-yards by retreating to the opposite side of the moat in turns and shelling them from afar before returning to clean up their building-bound compatriots. Not the most glamorous strategy (and it IS strategy, especially if you're not accustomed to this kind of thing, as I was not at the time), but it works well, and is satisfying for that reason.

Of course, the relative open-endedness of the map's flow, in concert with its smart balance and simple but practical geometry mean that there are all kinds of midpoints between a conservative artillery-siege and an all-out BFG blitz, and it's easy to switch between them on the fly. My gambit on THIS playthrough, knowing the map as I do, was to try to weaponize the group of three cyberdemons in the first of the sideyard buildings, which proved a little clunky to get going (the upstairs cyb by the switch that lowers that first wall is the spoiler, the amount of time it takes to kill him even from charging upstairs and quickly two-shotting him right at the outset gives the southern battalion time to swarm around and get in your way when you try to leave unless things pan out just so) but was hilariously effective for the remainder of the level. I've played the map many times before, and I had fun playing it again tonight, in a way that I've never quite played it before. That says it all, doesn't it? To reiterate, this is the beauty of the lateform HR style--it's something like a game of RISK, only with much more adrenaline and demented violence.

[Budoka]

MAP23 : Ascending to the Stars

Here’s a bit of a thorn in my side, being the only Hell Revealed map which I’ve never finished from a pistol start.

I’m split on this one. I’m all for the idea of exploring a gigantic space station in the middle of nowhere, but it seems like Donner went out of his way to be as maliciously cruel to the player as his own imagination would let him get away with, at every possible opportunity. Sometimes it works well, other times it’s got very silly results (the exit sequence…).

This map could also have used some custom space music. I know Megasonic023 added just that in his playthrough, but I’m not going to add in my own file and act like it’s the same as if the wadmaker himself had thought of it, that’s too easy.

By the way, I persist in the notion that Iika Keränen ripped off the ending to this for his « Reactor ».

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP23 Ascending to the Stars

Map opens with a plasma gun shootout against loads of imps, and the next room is a rough hallway that after getting the BFG, the revenants pince ya. also there's arachnotrons in the hall to the back. it seems something is remarkable about the teleporter closets, as it seems that one arachnotron doesn't teleport for some reason. I remember there being a patch that some guy made to try and fix that, but it was poorly received. what the heck, my memory's hazy AF right now. back to the BFG room, it seems this room inspired one room of AV MAP14, almost down to the wire.

Moving on, the spiderdemon room is quite memorable, but that's cuz I see these textures which seem a bit different. the red key room to the west has a rather odd wall of barons, that aren't as hard to dodge on paper, and more likely to be infighting victims if I just circle around the room to get the key first. several cybers teleport into the impassable laser triangle one after the other, and they're a bit more challenging for me. and then there's the "Blue Sector", where the walls are blue and toxic for whatever reason. getting out of there was a bit tough, mostly because demons crowd the top of the lift and there's a cyber there too.

the reactor room, let's not get started with this shit please. ground monsters are enough, but those on the ledges are worse. imps on ITYTD/HNTR, hell knights on HMP, and fucking arch-viles on UV/NM. not to mention the only escape method involves returning through the teleporter even if you don't want to. on UV those archies kill the run for me. this level is not as appreciative as others, like the ones before it and after it, but I at least have some fun until the end.

[Paul977]

Budoka said:

By the way, I persist in the notion that Iika Keränen ripped off the ending to this for his « Reactor ».

Iirc there is and ending similar to this on Dystopia 3 map 11 (press a switch and explosion follow) from Iikka (not 100% sure thought).

MAP23 Ascending to the Stars

Very hard map, took me some time to finish (and many attempts). Really looks like a space station. Hardest part was Spidermastermind/mancubus area where I usually lost
all armor. Red key room infighting was fun like the blue radiation zone.
Yellow key room was boring to clear but not hard; I skipped the fight with the Cyberdemon at the end.
Despite the difficult this is one of my favourite map of the wad.

[Uncle 80]

HR has not aged too well, some of it was never good, but MAP22 was a fun revisit. Got 115/88/100 and 26:24. Left 3 or 4 megaspheres and about 800 cells behind, lol. This one and MAP13 remain my favourites in the set.

[antares031]

MAP24 - Post Mortem
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/94/100

Okay, Hell Revealed. You win. I suck at Doom, are you happy now?

Sorry, I was just kidding. This level is not a difficult one compare to other hardcore levels nowadays. But among the 32 levels in this wad, this level is definitely a tough one. And this was my first try to beat this level on UV-Pistol start, so I need to spend some lives to figure out how to obtain BFG in this level. Anyway, this level has many catwalks with few covers, so it's a little bit tricky to hide monster's projectiles from above. And because of that, the cozy place to avoid projectiles to me was a pit of blood. Thankfully, this level has a mercy to provide lots of radiation suits. Of course, not to mention that this level also provides lots of items to make you stay determined. And that made me to beat this level on UV-PS, although it took me lots of time than I expected; 32 minutes and 36 seconds. About monster placements, I don't have any complains about revenants, cyberdemons, and even arch-viles(Yeah, I didn't have any problems with arch-viles in this level.). But what I cannot stand in this level are $hit ton of pain elementals and respawning mancubi. Seriously, how many mancubi are there at those twin pillars? I'd thought I got enough of them, then some fireballs struck me from behind. Anyway, this level was a little bit tough than other levels, and It had a few annoying monster placements. But in the end, It was fun to play, and this level definitely deserves a term "challenging" in a positive way.

[joe-ilya]

23

Oh boy, you're greeted with several imp boxes, you meat each box by going behind a computer, and you do that several times untill you see a door, behind the door there's a symmetric layout with meaty enemies on both sides, in the end there's an arch-vile and all you have is a pump shotgun, behind the AV there's a lift with a rocket launcher, you go down the lift only to find another symmetric layout with lots meaty mancubuses on both fences and a mastermind behind non-harming lasers in the middle of the arena, once you beat the mastermind and kill all the mancubuses you have to kill some more barons and some AVs, you kill them in a long process, go to the left fence, get the red key around that overflowed pit of monsters, get into the right teleporter, grab blue key, backtrack to the mastermind area again but turn a different direction into the blue locked door that will take you into a short damaging blue realm, get yellow key get into teleporter while the cyber's on it, backtrack all over again but head into the overflowed pit and get into the other teleporter, that will take you into an annoying section of dozens of AVs, after killing enough AVs on the left side by repetitivly opening and locking the door in the correct times, get by the inner door, avoid the cyber and teleport onto the left AV platform and push the romero crusher to exit the level.

1/5 Spammy and annoying, it's not the funnest map to pistol start to say the least.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP23: Hey cool, a pistol start where only having the shotgun makes sense. Here the grindy-ness is fun because you can’t forge ahead lest you rile the rest of the imps (which I was surprised to see demos do), and you have to manage your shotgun pellets as efficiently as possible since ammo is scarce. Neato!!! The following bridge sprint is kinda dumb but it makes up for it with a pretty cool fight afterwards, where you’re dodging bulkier enemies while trying to get shots off on the AV and his commando bodyguards. Then the rest of the map just kinda shits the bed with encounters: the mastermind one starts off tense but clearing out the mancs is repetitive, the western room is a nonthreatening circle strafe-fest (seriously, I got hit once by some rocket splash intended for a baron), the “blue sector” is mostly dull (though I do like it dropping you straight into barons), and that final room…

That final room can go straight to hell. Why in god's name would you put a teleporter right before a DR door? Why? It just made clearing it out take like eight minutes. Teleporting there, opening the door, firing off two rockets, and then teleport away—rinse and repeat. And of course the final cyberdemon would be behind block monster lines, so you don't even get to have any fun after the teleporter tribulation.

Good lord.

(Also I forgot about that one elevator that drops you into a circle of chaingunners—I mean, really?!!)

[MegaSphere]

Maps feel more outdated than the vanilla ones thanks to how half assed they are.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP23: Ascending to the Stars
98% kills, 3/3 secrets

I agree with the Icarus comparisons, given the space station setting and some other bits like the "Blue Sector" sign. The exit is even behind the red door. :) I like the beginning here, while it may seem grindy I think the distinction is that imps die in one shot, so with every shot the player still feels a twinge of accomplishment, as opposed to grinding through, say, barons, where it takes 5 SSG blasts or rockets before you'll even kill one monster. The next couple areas have a good bit of keeping the player danger but still allowing him to control the battlefield and use his speed to toy with the enemies. The manc/spider room was tough, though I felt it was more just because I suck at dodging manc missiles than being unfair. The western section and blue sector are admittedly a bit lame, but I did enjoy setting everything in the west to infight while I moved on (didn't take the time to finish off the cyberdemon reinforcements though). Unfortunately, the last room is by far the worst, and kinda puts a sour damper on the whole thing. Not much you can do besides open the door, fire off a couple rockets, then back out through the teleporter and repeat.

[baja blast rd.]

Abyssal Speedmapping Session 25 and Vanguard.

[Cynical]

Selecting an ASS wad is silly.

If you want Vanguard, how about grouping it with Hell Ground and Bloody Steel?