The DWmegawad Club plays: Japanese Community Project

[antares031]

MAP15 - Nandeyanen
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/100/80

Again, the author shows his affection about his favorite food on the automap. This time, we have a ball of tasty takoyaki(I do believe that the sticked out part represents a leg of octopus. Hey, It even has proper textures.), and a slice of moist strawberry cake... and I like them too, yummy! And spoiler alert: those are the secret areas you need to find if you want the secret exit. About the gameplay... this level really does not want me to grab the red key, huh? The progression is highly linear, tracking that damn red key. The difficulty is not that hard overall, but you need to be careful with monster teleportations, especially at hellish part. And you may guess the fact easily that there's always an alternative way to defeat that unexpected rocket-shooting bastard. The detail looks great, although I don't like those intentionally misaligned bloody skull textures. They just look awkward to me. Other than skull textures and a lighting effect in sector 266 which looks unnatural, this level looks cool and enjoyable to play thanks to some unexpected moments. And of course, you need to find not only delicious foods, but also some commander keens hidden around the level. Remember, John Romero is watching you, expecting you to find that secret exit.


MAP31 - Manufacturing Plant
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/100/100

The first few minutes felt not bad. I was enjoying my great communicator simulator after I found the mega-armor from secret area, until I entered the blue key tech-base. To begin with, the size of inside is unnecessary large with few details which looked a little bit boring. It wasn't fun to deal with numerous zombies and imps scattered around the area, but I was lucky to grab chaingun, super shotgun, and even a plasma rifle from some more secret areas. For some reason, the layout of this tech-base reminded me good old WolfenDoom, such as 2nd Encounter, Astrostein; large corridors with lots of rooms to enter. 'Just want to tell you that I like WolfenDoom series, but I'm not a fan of layout of levels of WolfenDoom from early 2000s. After I cleaned the tech-base, this level introduced me a giant outside with some craters around. The imps and mancubi didn't give me a fun experience since, once again, the outside area is unnecessary large with no reason. And it was boring to move around. It could be a lot better if they scaled down some large parts, or at least added some various details. After some more combats, I managed to find a secret area with a yellow keycard. But how am I suppose to grab that thing behind the three obstacles with steel bars? This was where my frustration erupted. Remember the secret areas with chaingun, SSG, and plasma rifle? Notice that once you step forward to grab weapons, the yellow keycard replica behind the weapons will be sealed forever. That's right, you'll never have a chance to grab a key to the secret exit once you claim your rightful reward for finding secrets. What the **** is this nonsense?? So yes. I restarted the level, ignoring those precious weapons for pistol starters until I got the yellow keycard. To be fair, once you grab the yellow keycard first, you can reclaim your rewards with no problem. But how could I know that rule with no foreknowledge? It's not fun or creative at all. But it's just annoying level design, forcing you to restart if you're looking for the secret exit. By far, this is the worst level in this wad.


MAP32 - Blood Fund Gang
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/99/50

After some frustrating experiences from the previous level, I was expecting something fun to play. And thankfully, this wad didn't disappoint me this time. The concept of this level is the bank, occupied by demons. This somehow reminded me the bank section of MAP25 of Eternal Doom. Both levels have an interesting concept, lots of rooms to explore, exquisite environmental details for classic doom standard. The difference is that this one has no tedious jumping puzzle with switches, so don't worry about finding your path or making progress. One thing I missed about detail of this level is the lack of lighting effect; the majority of inside areas are just set to 192 with a few exceptions. And yes, this one is not a serious problem, but it could be better if side textures of the elevator(sector 348) were set to normal, not the lower unpegged one(Line #1499,2517,6785~8). The combat was not bad, except I was not ready for the invasion of zombie army with cacodemons this early. Finally, I'm not against the secret with 5 minutes timelimit since the automap gave me a hint. But the text is too far away from my starting position and it's too small to read unless you turn off the follow mode and zoom it in. In conclusion, it's another rememberable level from this megawad, like the previous levels designed by the same author. Nice work.

[kuchitsu]

15 - FDA. Man, I feel exhausted after this map. It consistently puts pressure on you and isn't particularly generous with ammo, so even during the easier fights you still need to act thoughtfully and aim well. All battles are well done, sometimes you can abuse the "deaf" flag but you could look at that as a part of the tactics. Also there are some fake doors and other surprising stuff: nandeyanen indeed. Overall very atmospheric (btw, seems like all midis in this wad are good and chosen well) and high quality, I just... need to relax a bit after this.

31 - FDA. Strange level. Big open spaces, hordes of hitscanners, having to use chainsaw\pistol to conserve ammo. Also a mix of my two least favorite Doom midis. :P Spider mastermind and cyberdemon made it kinda tense and fun, otherwise not my style at all. I guess it kinda fits in the secret slot though since it's so unlike everything we've seen so far.

32 - FDA. What a level. Apparently it's a copy of a bank from some game called Payday 2 or whatever. It's kinda mindless slaughter with very good piano music and many office details that are fun to look at. Not bad, reminds me of the second episode of Garrulismo but more modern. The red window at the start is a very unusual design decision but surprisingly it works.

http://i.imgur.com/KQVqixM.png - cacodemons can't cross these lines, is that necessary?
http://i.imgur.com/RXZwtc7.png - these items jumped in air after I activated the lift.

[Capellan]

Map15
The obvious thing here is that the ammo situation is very very tight. Extensive use of the berserk - and possible infighting - is obviously intended. This is especially true since there are a few viles around who would make the resources scarcity even worse than it already is. That’s not a style of map I really care for, but since I played continuous I was able to ignore the map’s intent and just dig into the enormous backpack of ammo I’d brought with me from the preceding maps.

And on that basis, I had a pretty fun time. I chucked rockets and BFG blasts around when I needed to, and chaingunned or shotgunned when I didn’t. There were lots of monsters to kill, and some nice looking environments to kill them in. I didn’t like the scrolling SP_FACE walls and I’m not sure about the sector-based soda and ... noodles maybe? Let’s call it noodles ... but on the whole it was good stuff. But like I said, I give that appraisal based on the fact that I didn’t at all play it like it seems to have been intended.

I couldn’t be bothered trying to unravel the process to get to the first secret level. Switch hunts don’t interest me.

[mouldy]

MAP13 - “Bad Morning” by Namsan

Waking up on my enormous bed to find my techbase has become invaded by monsters. I liked this map, simple though it is with the continuous drip feed of monster closets, it takes you on quite an unpredictable journey through various styles of scenery, all very disjointed and loaded with secrets. Given the starting and ending theme it does give it a dream-like feel, and perhaps it all was just a dream. In fact is that myself I see sleeping in my enormous bed at the end? Funny stuff.


MAP14 - “G_T_Factory” by toMass

Quite a traditional style of doom map, set in an unusually shaped tech base. I like all the bits of scenery alluding to functionality, cables connecting terminals and the like. Sparse details but just enough to give a sense of place. I'm guessing continuous play might not be as interesting as pistol start, where you have a proactive fight for your resources. Not a bad little map.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP14: G_T_Factory

This is a compact and relatively sedate affair compared to what's come before, a techbase in the general shape of a square-cornered arc plunked down in the middle of a sea of seething acid. Right from the start you can see outside into the central yard area, a den of demons lorded over by a distant arachnotron perched upon high, but the more obvious path of progression seems to be into the facility proper. I liked the elevated vent connecting the two halves of the base, and the slow unfolding of doors and walls to open up further avenues of carnage as the player accumulates keys, which did end up feeling more like markers of progression than vital tools to getting anywhere. Overall I found this to be a map which was consistently good at evoking a sense of threat rather than one of blind panic.

[NuMetalManiak]

Well, even though I'm on vacation in Orlando, I've got some time to play Doom as I've transferred to my tablet. yay?

MAP14 G_T_Factory

Short level reminscent of Evilution, reminded me of Lunar Mining Project a bit. Oddly enough, one mancubus close to the red exit door didn't wake up or attack me until I shot him, even though he was facing me (thing 126). Not really much else to note.

MAP15 Nandeyanen

I was afraid Nanda Kurashiki was gonna be that one weird mapper in the set, but this map is pretty average in gameplay. Even so, it's got its memorable bits, like the hedge maze that disappears with exposure from the cyber and revenants, and some Keens to shoot. the mapper still employs his signature weirdness, like going under the door instead of through. There's even a weird trip through hell just to keep going. The whole map revolves around getting that dastardly red key, which is the only key I'd ever need, and in the end, if I went for the normal exit, I wouldn't have to even get it.

[Naan]

MAP15 - “Nandeyanen” by Nanka Kurashiki - UVMax after a dozen deaths + saves

I liked this one. More automap shenanigans here but mostly everything appears on the map, except an hellish part. I was afraid to stumb on a MAP10-like ammo management level reading the above comments but this was alright, even if the SSG is unavailable. All the rumbling is about chasing the damn red key here with many creative environments, many door tricks and clever secret hiding, even though the one located in the unmaped section can't be remotely guessed without IDDT'ing. I do like some GRAYTALL Cola with chips!


MAP31 - “Manufacturing Plant” by Masayan - UVMax on first try, using a couple saves

Chainsaw time! This map should be cramped levels haters' paradize, to say the least, as you may feel like an ant in a "manufacturing plant" environment. Thanks to antares031, I cleverly avoided to grab the secret weapons before getting the YK located inside a standard secret, which I would be angry and frustrated about if I find out myself later. Clearly not a good design.

For the most part, gameplay consists in fighting hordes of zombiemen having sometimes the company of a mid tier monster with them you have to take down basically unarmed. That secret where you only have a dozen of shells to take down a Hell Knight then a arch-vile was somewhat tense. Outside section with imps and mancubi was kinda funny to see all those fireballs flying around. And this spidermind placement... Overall an under average map.

Display bug - there's a HOM in the BFG9000 platform.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP13

Another wacky adventure of a map where you wake up from your Cyberdemon sized bed to go out and kill demons. Once again I'm really digging the style of this wad. I like how none of the maps feel the same as the last, and there is a lot of originality with these maps. This one was pretty easy compared to the last few, the ammo was also very tight for the shotgun again. What's with the shotgun hate? Plasma was abundant in this map though, as I used my BFG quite a bit against the big hordes. Fun map once again, this Wad is turning out to be one of my favorites.

[Havoc Crow]

MAP32: Blood Fund Gang

A fun, visually impressive map which reminds me very much of "Going Down", with its clever usage of Doom features to add detail. The author really succeeds in creating a believable-looking building that's easy to navigate, and even the preponderance of grey textures doesn't make the visuals boring.

The beginning is a little dull, as you're mopping up scattered beasties with nothing but a shotgun and chaingun, which is quite a chore. However, you're fairly quickly given some beefier weaponry which makes it easy to make your way through the throngs -- because the highlights of this map are the large, impressive monster waves which will besiege you on each floor, culminating in a grand standoff in the basement. One surprising feature is that, through clever use of "teleport monster" lines, the beasts usually aren't that easily thrown off your tail; if you'll choose to ignore the hitscanner horde that pours into the building and just take the elevator to the 2nd floor right away, you'll quickly find out that they can follow you up there!

Not an easy map -- you can die a few times if you panic or get careless whenever it gets crowded -- but a very fun one. The ending however (after the blue key switch) is rather underwhelming and uninteresting when it comes to the last few fights.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP15: Nandeyanen

I guess the theme at work here is connections that look like other connections? Doors that instead open the wall behind you, or doors that are actually the switches for lifts beneath your feet... this is a map that loves to playfully disorient you, dropping you into the next combat scenario in an unexpected fashion. There's also that constant, cheeky game of keep-away with the red key that the map likes to play, always yanking it just out of reach as demonic hordes spill from the walls... I think that particular gimmick overstays its welcome a little. Overall, though, this is a clever and challenging techbase map with some fun excursions into an adjacent apartment (complete with coke 'n' crisps), a callback to MAP11's food-based shenanigans, even a quick jaunt through a scorching red-rock Hell. I liked it. :)

[mouldy]

MAP15 - “Nandeyanen” by Nanka Kurashiki

This map didn't go well first time I played because I missed the rocket launcher room. Turns out its fairly impossible without it, and I was locked out of backtracking, so after doing god mode just to be sure there was a launcher somewhere I had to restart. So, 2nd attempt this time with rockets. Ammo it still a bit tight in places, but eventually managed to kill everything. Just one keen i couldnt find, so secret level denied. I might have a go at the secret maps later on though. Not a bad map, just that rocket launcher business annoyed me, but maybe that was my fault.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP31 Manufacturing Plant

Wow, a remix of At Doom's Gate, Running from Evil, and a part of Let's Kill at Will (I think).

Oversized level here. Gameplay is just as linear as MAP13 was, so it's pretty consistent considering how many items you're getting at the same time killing loads of imps and zombies. Pretty easy, but the secret happy players like myself will want to take the secrets in a certain order, if they want that secret exit. That's because the yellow key platforms in some secrets close off the yellow key permanently in the one secret it is accessible. Now the mappers are teasing secrets with the keys. Even better, it's going to be a rough one for pistol starters to find the secret exit; they've got to sacrifice the urge to get the weapons (that are on the triggers to close off the yellow key), and more or less make a mad dash until they find the key, THEN they can get the weapons. The secret exit rush against the cacos wasn't much on my setting, so I waited more than I really should have.

by the way, in the normal exit room, you can straferun over the switch which raises the bridge to the exit platform. Doing this is a speedrun shortcut and I'm not sure if it's intentional.

MAP32 Blood Fund Gang

An office map of sorts, reminding me of MAP04 of Hellfire due to its design. But it's not as complex, which is unexpected from the mapper toooooasty. A good majority of the enemies warp in at the entrance to the complex. then a good majority appears later in some elevators (that don't function). I just camp and kill waiting for it to all end.

Man, these secrets are fucking DREADFUL! One of them involves a switch in some elevator you think you'd never use, and the other is the dreaded 5 minute door open close secret! At least he makes it legit by the fact that it's a stash of gold inside, so the reward is humorous. the rest of the level goes pretty smoothly, with some sneaky demolition trap at the blue key switch with pain elementals and barrels.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP14

Another TNT-esque map. Once again the use of TNT music really helped giving the feeling of TNT, but the gameplay was similar as well. Unlike map 10 though this one was considerably easier. Most of the monsters were hitscanners demons and imps so a couple well placed rockets can take them out with relative ease. I didn't find a rad suit in the map so I had to take massive damage running through the nukage. Not too big of a deal though because health was given out nicely in this map. I really liked it. The arachnotrons at the beginning were pretty well placed to put you on edge right off the bat. Good work.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP15

A decently small map that took quite a while to beat. Finding all of the secrets was seriously a blast, usually I hate running around the map trying to find secrets, but here it was executed nicely. The Cyber was kind of a pushover in the hedge maze but I guess that's fair though considering I wasted a large portion of my ammo to take him out, I guess he gets the last laugh, because I found out that a crusher would've killed him anyway =/. The hellish room encounter was my favorite part albeit easy IMO. I am playing continuously though so I could see that room being a little bit tougher on pistol starts. The music was also good. On to the secret maps!

[baja blast rd.]

Quick and dirty map15 playthrough because this map is awesome. Hell fight is a bit sloppy but whatevs.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/xsbw8tbge8dxvet/jpcp15_rdwpa_playthrough.lmp

Secret SSG is OP, should be either calc'd into the map's original balance or have some kind of catch. Secret soulsphere is whatever -- not a huge deal, it just replaces some of the medkits that would have been used otherwise. A bit of awkward geometry here and there. I'm always suspicious when maps have great secrets like this -- I wonder how much the author tested the map with no secrets.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP31: Manufacturing Plant

This one is sprawling, but rather flat, with lots of wide-open rectangular rooms that indeed invoke the feeling of a modern manufacturing plant but are limited in their provision of engaging gameplay. I'm not a fan of the structuring of the super secret level access, since so much of the cause-and-effect of getting to the super secret level (or preventing one's own access to the same) is obfuscated until later in the level. I think, again, this one is technically competent but overall a bit lacking; the oversized battlefields tend to defang most of the opposition and reduce them to shambling waves of largely impotent meat, punctuated by occasional moments of frustration as the lack of cover lets hitscanners play merry havoc with you.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP31

A map obviously made for pistol starts. Pretty cool remix of E1M1 and MAP01 for the music. I did have fun with this map but I just didn't care for the secret punishment gimmick this map has. When I finally found the Yellow key it was all blocked off. It's just not my cup of tea to have something like that in a map. Nonetheless it was quite an open space map with some decent encounters. The Cyber was well used here though, A nice big open space for him to fire rockets as you are trying to deal with everything else. Quite good usage for the Cyber.

[antares031]

MAP16 - Forlorn Defense Line
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/66/50

A small-medium sized level with simple, but interesting layout and combat. Each sections have their personality; tech-base, fortress with gothic textures, and brownish cave. I like the explorable layout with non-linear progress like this. Either you can try to grab the blue key first, or you can try to search the red key. About the combat, it's well-balanced between simple, casual encounter and unexpected, harsh moment. Most of difficult situations are presented by chaingunners, arch-viles... and even spider mastermind, damn. Although you might don't like chaingunner ambushes, the other parts of level were fine to me. In the end, this level was enjoyable to play. One small thing that bothered me was the switch for the door to green armor room (Sector 491). It would be better if that door was opened in conventional way. In this case, the switch section can be replaced to the monster closet that will be activated when you grab the armor and backpack.

[kuchitsu]

16 - demo. When I played an earlier version of this several months ago, I didn't know where the SSG is located so the start seemed quite difficult for me. This time I immediately went for it, but still it took some effort to survive. The 4 revenants + arch-vile is a nice combo, they really keep the street under control for a while. After you deal with them you can relax, as the rest is much easier. While playing you will collect quite a few rockets and plasma cells, so you might expect a grand battle at the end, but actually it's not that scary and as long as you manage to run away you'll be fine. The main area reminds me of Memento Mori Map28 a bit.

[KBlaney]

MAP 15: When is a door not a door? If you said, “When it is ajar,” then you haven't played this map. This is probably the ultimate troll map and I appreciate how masterfully it does this. First, almost every door either opens from some other means than the action button. Often using a door does something completely unexpected. Second, you spend the whole time chasing the red key which leads you on a chase around the whole map and even into hell. (You can get it eventually, but it is unnecessary.) Also, I found my misplaced cyberdemon from the previous map and humorously, the Keens show up here. I found and killed 4, but I didn't unlock the obvious secret at the end so I'm assuming there were more. Oh well, I'll play 31 and 32 from a pistol start once I finish the WAD proper.

MAP 16: I always like these sort of “complex of buildings” sort of maps inspired by the middle part of Doom2. I usually run around like a maniac and activate all of the monsters. Sure it creates some monster infighting but really it is just sort of fun to survive encounter after encounter through Doomguy's 50mph sprinting speed. (I had a note here about not being excited about Doom 2016, but after seeing more and more about it I'm more convinced it will be good. I've removed the note.) Nothing super frustrating about this map, but enough traps to keep you on your toes.

[Capellan]

Map16
Oh hey look, it’s City of the Unavenged but without the unnecessarily arcane and obtuse progression. Okay, there are a few cheap pop up monsters instead, but overall I consider that a worthwhile trade.

Looks-wise the level is solid, though it does suffer from two fairly obvious problems: the doors that are way to big to rise into the building above them, and the absence of any height variation in the outdoor ceiling, and thus the buildings. It should be trivially easy to make the BRICKPL building 16-32 higher than the BROWN1 building, and I think it would make the location feel. Similarly, making a section of the ROCK5 walls a little higher or lower than the rest of the map would help a lot (yay for the ASHWALL and BROWNHUG sections actually doing this). Props also for the cave area, which I thought looked very good.

Gameplay is mostly segmented into bite size chunks due to the structures being separated from each other. I think this is fine, especially since a lot of what you face is small fry, but it is a bit easy to cheese the revs at the blue key by sniping them between the silver bars. It’s also very easy to run away from the revenant trap at the red key and the vile at the exit (though otherwise, the mancs + flyers + chaingunner set piece is one I liked).

The HK (Baron on UV I think) guarding the switch that opens the northern room (revs and cells) is pretty pointless. It’d be better to make the lowering floor also release some teleporting monsters into the map. Some small fry teleporting in at a few spots around the map might work - could surprise the player and the HK/Baron would at least serve a purpose by distracting them from the distant teleport sounds.

[Naan]

@rdwpa: Actually in my pistol start run I reached the exit with only one secret discovered (the backpack next to the vent) and I hunted for the others and the secret exit afterwards. So it is very playable, I found it easier than MAP10 for example.


MAP32 - “Blood Fund Gang” by Toooooasty - UVMax minus the infamous 5 minute secret with 4-5 deaths and some saves

Yay another Tooooasty map! This time, no automap gimmick, only the now usual partial mapping, and a visually stunning bank office with mostly vanilla resources. Be careful not to pass the security doors prematurely or you'll summon a gang of chaingunners ready to rip you while underarmed (died a few times trying to defeat this wave this way), wait to grab the YK to get some weapons to handle them. I wonder how you are supposed to get to the 5min secret on time with such hordes to fight and that many items to grab.

Difficulty is just about right afterwards, on the same level than MAP15. Very good map that could be one of my favorites if not for that 5 minute trigger.

[baja blast rd.]

Not quite sure what I said that is applicable to, but the secrets almost trivialize the map: lots of mistake forgiveness, you don't have to use the 'zerk for anything, etc. Only the cyber part remains potentially lethal. Not a fan of secret balance like that.

[Crusader No Regret]

Map 11: 98% kills, 1/3 secrets

Part of my choice in playing this particular WAD is the unpredictability that results from mappers who don't rigorously follow established mapping conventions. So even in the face of some questionable design choices, this food themed outing brought a smile to my face.

Yeah, instakill traps. The booby trapped BFG is early enough that one won't lose much progress. In the torch maze, I didn't catch onto any hints when playing through and brute forced the solution with saves. A shortcut teleport opens up after passing through once which I missed for a while and was thus passing through the maze every time I came to resupply cells. Can easily see it being frustrating for those who stubbornly play without saves. The one time I intentionally picked N at "Do you like caco?" (after safety saving first), nothing happened. Don't know if I remembered -complevel 9 though.

Arranging armor bonuses like melon seeds I find humorous. Orange section plays like something out of Enigma. Stronger enemies would only makes things more tedious there. Banana or starfruit has the maze as well as a fight where one can easily become eaten by cacos and spectres (though there is a cheap way to tackle that) Honeycomb section reminds me of Enigma again as well as Hell's Honeycomb from Speed of Doom. Apple section has something much like a scaled down version of the last part of Map 27 from Epic 2. It comes complete with demons comprising a rotten core though since they're deaf, it's easier to deal with them one or two at a time if desired.

Topping off the plate is ice cream. There's the schmuck bait switch and one final puzzle that makes more sense after the fact. Taking a wrong turn only leads to a damage sector to move out of much like a gimmick in CC4's Shaman's Device.

With the way progression comes in the form of mini-areas, I wasn't that great at finding secrets. Still, the food themed automap and general whimsical nature led me to enjoy this overall.

Map 12: 100% kills, 1/1 secret

The space station in the void is a looker. I can see the railings and stuff concealing monsters as an intentional design choice too since very little is threatening on its own. High monster count for the size of the space though mostly smaller enemies to be blown up by barrels, mowed down at one's leisure, or goaded into killing each other if desired. There's only one armor pickup and lots of hitscanners so make it last. I'll admit that the armor can easily be hidden by bodies and guns.

Start is dangerous with being in sight of multiple chaingunners that are alerted at first shot so carving out a starting foothold got a little panicky. Things are easier and more flexible later. I went with the "find the safest place and let infights thin out the masses" approach though aggressive is also viable here. Berserk secret appears pointless on a surface level but becomes more important if one is a little too trigger happy. After all, the hellknights in the exit room really only pose a danger to a player that's out of ammo.

I also laughed a bit of how it's more work to do a maxrun with under 100% items than with.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP32

Did I just play a map from Neodoom?! All joke aside, I really loved this map. Robbing the National Bank of Doom was hell of a lot of fun. I had mostly close calls with the huge encounters from chaingunners and shotgunners. Those damn cacos were quite a nuisance. I'm not a fan of the second secret TBH. I hate those five minute doors, there was one in 2002 a Doom Odyssey too eh. Those secrets are just arbitrary to have, It could've been set up a different way. I still had a lot of fun with the map though nonetheless. The map was also very plentiful with ammo in every single room. So much fun now on to the second half of JCP.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP16 Forlorn Defense Line

Nothing really to this level. It's a pretty basic base map, with a cavern section to liven things up a bit more. I enjoy it for what it's worth, nice quickie.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP16: Forlorn Defense Line

To me, this is one of the WAD's more entertaining offerings thus far; the freedom to roam, and to tackle challenges in the order and with the tools that best suit you, are very welcome after the more structured progression and gameplay of some of the preceding maps. The interiors are somewhat generic, but the cave wing and the main outdoor area are both very neat pieces of design work, and the way additional cover pops up to change the battlefield for the final confrontation is a nice touch indeed.

[antares031]

MAP17 - UAC energy plant
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/100/66

Oh, wow. Five hundred monsters in total and lots of hitscanners at the beginning. That's so intimidating. But lucky for me, like the automap hinted, all I need to was blowing away some explosive barrels around the monsters. Each sections of this level are so narrow that It feels like I'm playing claustrophobia series. And the author stuffed hundreds of monsters in this small, very well-detailed techbase. But don't get intimidated by the numbers. The majority of monsters are, like MAP13 with 300 monsters, just imps and zombies. And most of times, they're surrounded by explosive barrels. So yes, the combat is just monster infighting simulator with explosive barrel testing session. Still, there are some ingredients to spice the combat. As you guessed it, just be aware some arch-viles from the other side. One small thing I didn't like was the name of map. To me, it doesn't look like a energy plant at all, but it does look like forlorn space outpost with lots of laser turrets around.

[kuchitsu]

17 - FDA. Meh. Too ridiculous\gimmicky for my taste with the barrels everywhere, and we've already seen these hordes in small areas in previous maps by the author. Faraway chaingunners in the dark outdoor area are incredibly annoying and the rocket launcher here is a real pain to use. This is not how I like my Doom.

Btw, floating item here: http://i.imgur.com/Vb4FOJm.png

[Capellan]

Map17
It didn’t take very long for me to think “Hmm, congested tech base, lots of railings - I wonder if this is by the guy who did map12?” And indeed it is. There’s definitely a very similar feel between the two, up to and including the frequent use of long range chaingunners (boo!) and gibtastic barrel hijinks (yay!).

The big difference from map12, of course, is the monster density. This map doesn’t have a room it doesn’t want to fill chock full of demonic flesh for doomguy to rip and tear. Or to rip and tear each other, since monster infighting is pretty much inevitably going to happen whether the player tries to encourage it or not.

I had a lot of fun with this map. The layout gives you chances to control the battlefield even when there are swarms of demons around ... so even when chaingunners are bot-aiming your health away there are options for taking back the initiative. I also liked the secret in the south-western corner, which grants a berserk but perhaps more importantly gives you a less exposed position from which to attack that courtyard. It’s always nice when a secret does something more than just dump goodies in your lap.

Fun stuff. I’ll definitely be checking out Demon’s FDA of this one.