The DWmegawad Club plays: Ancient Aliens

[Spectre01]

Map 14

Interesting design with how much the map geometry shifts around and opens up as you progress. Like a more complex version of Sinkhole Showdown earlier. Encounters start out claustrophobic and then more arena-like as you open up more room to maneuver. The monster selection and placement is quite savage, with Mancubi and Arachnotrons crossfiring you from multiple angles while you deal with the Viles. That wave of like 20 Drones in the main area sent me panic running to the blue key area, and they ended up dying along with the other monsters due to some lucky infighting.

The Mastermind + Imp Horde encounter was interesting as your brain compels you to maximize infighting while not getting walled in by the Imps. I managed to hold them off with the SSG and then stunlock the Spider with the Plasma Rifle. The following horde of Plasma Troopers also gave me quite the fright and nearly roasted me as I chose to camp the switch area.

I ended up missing one Cacodemon which was who knows where, but that's what the "kill Cacodemon" command is for! Another great, relaxing midi by Stewboy too.

[rehelekretep]

MAP13 - "Polychromatic Terrace" by skillsaw FDA here

this map is fun, although a little too easy to slow down and fight very methodically. luckily the YK drop-fight with archvile/plasmagunners and the RK room fight are both hi-octane encounters. enjoyed this map but it isnt the best in the WAD.

+ beautiful visuals
+ another fabulous MIDI
+ loved the RK room fight

- a little bit easy to snipe/plod through (id imagine especially on a continuous playthrough)

[mouldy]

MAP14 - "Blazing Boulevard" by skillsaw

Working my way through the monster vending machine. These maps are starting to make me re-think the whole push-switch-receive-monsters thing. I've used it a lot myself, it does reach a point though where you don't feel like you are pushing through the map, rather the map is pulling you along in bite-size chunks. I think I would prefer it if the spaces and fights were less segregated somehow. Dunno. The music in this one was particularly cheesy which maybe didn't help.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP13: Polychromatic Terrace
97% kills, 2/3 secrets

After the warmups, things start getting interesting. This one feels a lot larger than it really is, as it's really just one main large area with a few side areas to explore for keys, but the construction of the central space (large open sky, lots of enemies from different sides) make it feel larger than it is. The key fights are actually pretty small-scale (especially the ones behind the yellow door) but the main fight in the central area after grabbing the yellow key is really the main attraction.

This was the first map that made me agree with jerrysheppy regarding the plasma troopers, as there were a couple spots here where you basically had to have the right weapon out to deal with them (the arch-vile/plasma trooper/pinkie drop-down took me quite a few tries). I also got blasted by the face-cubes a few times because they don't make any noise (or just a very faint hissing?) while floating around.

I also liked the plasma gun fight; and the imp bridge at the end sticks out (though I ended up cheesing it with the plasma gun rather than fight it the 'right way' with the rocket launcher). Fun map overall, if for no other reason than being able to run around a large area and use the rocket launcher with abandon.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP14: Blazing Boulevard
100% kills, 0/1 secret

Another map that revolves around a large central area, though this one is a bit different in that it re-uses the central area, often opening up new areas or shifting architecture to make the fights a bit different. Lots of 'calm before the storm' setup here too, as the level often feels quiet and empty before unleashing all the hellspawn... which can be a good or a bad thing, as I think mouldy makes a good point that it feels a bit at times like a vending machine with 'push switch, fight monsters, repeat'. Compare again to MAP13, which did a better job of having pre-existing monsters to be cleared out or fights in-between the setpieces.

The map does eventually pass beyond the main first area with some continuation into the light bridge area, though the map could've ended after the blue door fight and still been satisfying. Speaking of which, I always appreciate moments like that (with the AVs with their backs turned) that reward the player for not immediately thinking trigger-first and looking around to think through a plan. The spider/imp fight fell a bit flat for me, though, as it was pretty easy to just chunk through with the almighty plasma gun.

[rehelekretep]

MAP14 - "Blazing Boulevard" by skillsaw FDA here

wow! the first map where the AD_79's are really scary! this map definitely gets better as it progresses, with a cool return of the sinkhole mechanic - but twisted to actually change the main arena each time.

+ cool modifying main arena mechnanic
+ brutal use of the new enemy types
+ the two teleporting archviles were a real 'oh shit' x2 moment, as i first saw them, then realised they were off to resurrect!
+ cool neon-glass floor giving you a view of an encounter yet-to-come

- slighty dull opening to the map
- i think the glass-floor/ceiling trick should be used to bait & switch. maybe that happens later on in the WAD?

[baja blast rd.]

map12

The map geometry here reminds me quite a bit of map03 from BTSX E1.




Hey, it's a pretzel!

Valiant was noticeably adherent to very simple shapes made of 90- and 45-degree angles. AA has been a quite sizable departure from that style, with a whole lot more skew and irregular angling. Much of the previous such design in the mapset has come in the form of multitextured rectangular support columns erected in space or in the void, sometimes in 90-degree configurations wrt the x and y axes, sometimes rotated, with slabs of another material or a mid-tex barrier connecting them in some way. In map12, these support patterns are more tightly entangled with the walls themselves, giving the design a more organic DTWID feel.

One trend that seems to be emerging in this new episode block is the abundance of barrels. You'll occasionally notice a mid-sized cluster just hanging around, and it'll become quite evident that you shouldn't detonate them immediately or waste them on a straggling smallfry or two -- they might be really useful when the closets fly open! In fact, map12 has quite a novel approach to setting difficulty levels. A large chunk of the heavy-hitters are still there even on HNTR. What there are a lot more of, however, are barrels! 89 on HNTR compared to 31 on HMP and UV! Happy detonations.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP13: Hoooo boy, I was starving for some ammo on this map. Whereas Steve D enjoys being slaughtered on a map, I enjoy being borderline stressed out, forced to try my damnedest to find munitions and survive battles. By that standard alone, it’s a really strong map, and is doubly so since so much of its real estate is open space. But holy shit are those invisible plasma troopers a paaaaain in the aaaaaass—in the first AV battle they are 100% the priority there instead of the golden god, which took me a few tries to learn (also good work on the second AV encounter, that fight is 100% dobu approved). An all around solid outing.

[SoundofDoomDoors]

MAP14: Blazing Boulevard
100% Kills 100% Secrets

Ah another map where I get the secret after it's relevant. Oh well. I had a good time with this one. Getting lucky with the archviles helps. They ate rockets before doing any harm. All of them. So does triggering the plasma guy wave before killing the spider demon. I ended up frying everyone because the aliens made me freak out and I had enough plasma to do it. The supply excess is probably due to playing so well last level. I came in with 170/200 health in addition to my ammo. There's also a lot of soulspheres and blue armors lying around in the level itself. I even had a spare armor at the end to take into the next level. I'm going to need it. MAP14 didn't kill me once. MAP15 is a lite slaughter map. I don't think I'll get off as easy tomorrow. Overall, this map feels like a lull before the storm.

[baja blast rd.]

map13

Good map. First off, the imp encounter is extremely silly. It's kind of like Valiant map15's former human trooper + suicide bomber spam fight. LOL. I noticed that skillsaw occasionally likes to end his maps with this sort of comical steam-release fight. This one is a bit too silly and one-dimensional for me, however. :) A larger playspace w/ some number of one species of higher-threat monster coming in from another angle would be cool. Maybe the AD heads.

Those AD heads make another strong showing elsewhere, though. Perhaps the highlight is the way they deviously hover into the tame-looking YK encounter a few seconds after it commences. These things are also quite effective used <3 incidentally <3, because of their low HP and their tendency to show up in spooky places you don't expect or harass you while you're occupied elsewhere. AV use is also quite strong, favorite being the minimalistic HK+AV duo, and OF COURSE the walls are murals the monsters that'll show up. That's definitely something this mapset would do. The first AV encounter is sort of like the one late in map08, where all you have to do is fire rockets at a non-AV monster (plasma troopers here) and the encounter is pretty much over in a couple of seconds -- it's more fun when you don't know that ;).

The encounters are some of meanest so far on paper, but you don't have to grab the blue armor at first, and you can save the no-strings-attached megasphere for later too, so the balance is very forgiving of mistakes. I also like how the RK and BK aren't bugged . . . key traps fit the gamey feel of mapsets like these, but sometimes it's better to put the trap some distance from the key, which is then handed out as a reward. Variety! PR bait-and-switch is cool too; you expect it to be bugged, almost everything is, so the onus of surprise falls on HOW it's bugged.

[SoundofDoomDoors]

MAP15: Wormhole Junction
98% Kills 50% Secrets (Secret Exit)

I couldn't wait. I had to try this level out for myself. It's not as hard as I remember it looking on a stream. Keeping the boss monsters alive helps take most of the challenge out of the main area. That leaves the branches. The YK one gave me a lot of trouble, especially the archvile part. Then the last battle after you get all the keys was pretty difficult too. It came down to dropping three archviles before I got fried. It took a few attempts. Then I found out I'd already unlocked the secret exit in the RK area. I think I fell through the portal at the end when I was running away from an optional battle, so I didn't get 100% kills. Toughest map of the wad so far for me. I'm still having fun, though.

["JL" was too short]

I'm a day (almost two) behind so I did two at once.

MAP13 - Probably my favorite Ep2 map so far, both design and gameplay wise. Design-wise, well, what can I say? Between the demonic marble, funky purple stone (with lava!), weird quasi-runic circuits, and actual alien runes, this is one careful pruning of silver and STARTAN away from being a nicely weird techno-hell map. I approve. Heh, funny to think that a few maps ago I was complaining about the tech getting in my ruined temples, now I'm happy for a bit of nice arcane masonry in my tech. Gameplay is good, with some good fights; the AV ambush in particular stood out, and the imp barrage near the exit. The plasma aliens were less annoying here than they've been so far. Is it because I had better weaponry? Better environments to maneuver in? Probably some of both.

MAP14 Competent if sometimes uninspiring visuals-- this map seemed to be mostly playing it safe with the common "symmetrical courtyard that gradually opens up into more areas" theme, though the southern and (especially) the northern areas freshened it up a bit. Gameplay-wise, honorable mention goes to the two archviles scenario that made my pulse race a bit and required some steady fighting to take everything back out, and the chaingunner trap in the north that had me shitting my pants until I realized there was a blur sphere there for me-- ha, nice way to make me jump and move quickly without actually landing the cheap shot, so to speak. Spider mastermind fight was an anticlimax even as SM fights go; it died in two BFG shots that had been primarily meant to take out the Imp swarm. Sad!

[Spectre01]

jerrysheppy said:

Spider mastermind fight was an anticlimax even as SM fights go; it died in two BFG shots that had been primarily meant to take out the Imp swarm. Sad!

Is there even a BFG on UV up to that point? I don't think I encountered one so far in E2. Maybe it's there on one of the other difficulties. It would certainly make the encounter trivial but it packs a bit more bite if all you have is rockets and a Plasma Rifle.

Map 15

Happy to see the secret exit fixed and the map being 100%-able! Alright, this is a slaughtermap, and the first legit slaughtermap in the WAD. The beginning is by far the hardest part as the map is flooded with monsters as soon as you attack the switch to open the gate. My strategy involved running around like I had a bad lunch at Taco Hell and trying not to get stuck on any crap on the ground. Good thing I'm not running with tall actors because the starry sky is full of Cacodemons, Pain Elementals, Lost Souls and Drones. It's best to let the bosses kill the bulk of their own army and focus on high priority targets like PE's. Thankfully this map is generous with ammo and health so as long as you don't die you should be able to progress to the next section. The BFG is accessible quite late but is very useful for the Arch Vile wave towards the end. So is the invulnerability, but I found that secret after clearing everything but the exit Vile and Co, which happened to run out before I got there. I remember getting my balls busted quite a bit in RC1 but this time I managed to clear it in one go, only to die at the very end to a Plasma Trooper before he got melted by my BFG.

The secret exit can be easy to miss. To get there you have to

Spoiler

shoot an extra switch on the right side of the red area where you shoot 2 other switches to get out. This opens up a teleporter right above near the lift.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP15: Wormhole Junction

This is the point at which I find myself wishing for an honest-to-God maze of some sort, though it may be that I'm simply in the wrong WAD (or within the wrong mapper's oeuvre) for that kind of action. Another big outdoorsy brawler confronts the player, though this one is even less shy about throwing large numbers of tough monsters at you right from the start; initial play, once you trigger the shootable switch and release the hordes, consists of battling your way through a great and bloody tide of varied demonflesh and carving yourself out a safe space before you're overwhelmed by the sheer pressure and volume of fire against you. Once that's done it's mostly a matter of tackling the fortified enemy positions as they're presented to you, the really nasty points being the rocket-drone ambush en route to the secret exit, and the meaty wave of reinforcements that pour into the map once you pass the three-key door; both have an invulnerability sphere available if you know wher to look and haven't consumed it earlier. Widely available soul spheres and megaspheres make the action relatively forgiving on mistakes; if you can overcome a particular encounter, even by the skin of your teeth, there's probably enough resources available to get you back in fighting form before the next battle is presented to you. There haven't been any maps in this WAD so far that I find individually unsatisfactory, but lack of variety is hurting my overall enjoyment of the project as a whole.

[Tristan]

MAP14: Blazing Boulevard
Time: 08:21 (01:43:29) | Deaths: 1 (11)

Agreed, quite an easy map that feels like a quiet before the storm, which is probably right given that the upcoming Wormhole Junction has over 300 monsters on HNTR.

Unprepared players get a bit of a sharp wake-up call with four plasmagunners on them as soon as they step off of the spawn pad. I nearly died in the first fight to the two ADs, but come to think of it, I don't think I saw any more ADs than just those two in the entire map. Strange.
The encounters here are composed of opposition that should be pretty dangerous on paper, but here we find that most of the areas that we fight in, are quite roomy, giving us plenty of space to move around in. Most of said areas are in fact the same one that we start the map in, but it undergoes pretty massive transformations to change it virtually beyond recognition. Influenced by Xaser's Sector maybe?

Rockets are in quite short supply early on, so there's less opportunities to freely fling them at every monster that appears on the screen, and even when it was available, it wasn't always the best choice here, such as when dealing with a couple of cacos who were at a lower level, and floating along a sky floor.
BFG came in handy for the two archviles amongst the revenant horde. Maybe overkill, but I already died once to one of these AVs because I couldn't get to cover in time and it refused to go into its pain state, despite having been hit by plasma for the duration of its attack animation. Hate it when that happens :(

I liked how the blursphere was given out just before you appear infront of a bunch of chaingunners. It's timed just so that you might not realise you have it, and then there's a panic because there's a load of chaingunners shooting at you, neat effect.
Beyond that, my favourite fight is probably the last one. Mastermind easily dealt with by the BFG, though I don't seem to be able to reliably pull off the one-shot trick anymore, but I always enjoy trying it. After that it's a simple clean-up of imps with the rocket launcher, followed by some plasma gunners coming from behind, who I didn't hesistate to offer a taste of their own medicine.

Neon bridges featuring prominantly here, where they offer an interesting dual-function, since they start off as just decoration, then due to the transforming nature of this map, they end up serving as a bridge to the next area. In one case, the reverse happens, and you can see the monsters that are about to attack you once you lower the bridge, which is a pretty neat twist on the usual "press switch, fight monster closet" encounters.

The music, Moonwalk, is also fantastic, probably a favourite. Good thing as well, since the piano plays a very catchy melody here, and has got stuck in my head on a number of occasions.

8/10

So, the word "slaughtermap" is being thrown around for the next map...let's see how this goes.

[Tristan]

MAP15: Wormhole Junction
Time: 19:35 (02:03:04) | Deaths: 2 (13)

Slaughtermap seems accurate. It's a pretty rough ride, but not as bad as I was fearing. Health is seemingly given out pretty generously on HNTR, there's two megaspheres, a few soulspheres, and even two godspheres, but apart from one of the godspheres and maybe a soulsphere I seemed to need all of it, probably because this is another map that undergoes a couple of transformations (including neon stairs this time!) so there's multiple fights in the same area. First death was in the first fight, and was down to me just missing the godsphere while running about trying to evade everything. Second death was in the fight following the triple-locked door, and involved facerocketing a plasmadick, then being finished off by the mastermind.

This is probalby a fair bit easier for continuous players, since the BFG is very helpful here. Rockets still dominate for the slightly smaller fights, and there are cases where the SSG and chaingun are able to flourish as well. ADs were very dangerous here, and there was an ambush where four of them appeared right next to me, which was pretty scary. Plasmagunners aren't proving to be as much of a threat, surprisingly, though in the case of this map, I think that's a good thing, the combat here was pressuring enough already.

Layout is a tad confusing this time, though I'm not entirely sure why. It may be partly down to the central structure actually being composed of at least two areas, which aren't accessible from each other, and also the neon stairs leading to more than one area, though when you raise the stairs to allow you to get to the second area, you don't realise that's what's happened. And then there was a point when I was finished with the map where I randomly teleported onto the stairs, so I haven't a clue what I missed and how, really.
I spent quite a lot of time looking for the secret exit, but in the end gave up and just looked in rileymartin's spoiler (thanks for that). I'm glad I did because I don't think I would ever have spotted that one, incredibly obscure.

The secret exit comes with its own fight which was arse-clechingly close to taking my death toll up to three. The mancubi are quite pressuring, and the spiral nature of the area makes it prety difficult to avoid the AD rockets, and there's rather a lot of those because in this fight, they appear in a pretty large swarm, although there's still significantly less than 79 of them..
Also kind of cool how the secret exit isn't in the traditional exit style we've seen throughout the WAD so far, but instead it's one of the wormholes that you can also find dotted around the central area, for obvious reasons.

A cool looking map again, but as much as I like these neon effects, and as much as I like cyan, I feel like we've pretty much seen everything that can be done with this style of techbase, and it would be nice to see a stylistic shift. Fortunately, since we're doing the secret maps next, we're getting one, though I can't remember what's in store for the rest of the episode.

7/10

[KBlaney]

Map 14: This is one of those fun unfolding levels that just has more and more walls come down opening up a larger and larger space. You see the mini-slaughterings coming and you know there is no way around them, only through. This has a good Mastermind fight part way though where you basically use imps as cover against it. The imps must have done a good deal of damage because I managed to kill it in a single BFG (I thought they took 3 usually). The daring and suicidal among you might want to coax the Mastermind out then sneak behind it and flip the switch so that the invizombies can get in on the fray also.

Map 15: Now this is the kind of psychotic slaughterfest that I came to associate Skillsaw's maps with after playing Cyberwar in Valiant. Don't misunderstand, this is not Cyberwar. It is significantly smaller and more tame, but still all the fun of getting tons of monsters to fight each other. The archvile at the end is a great use of an archvile since he gets a lot of free rein to raise the previously slaughtered minions and running and hiding while monsters fight will really just turn them all against you. Now, either Skillsaw went soft with this WAD or I'm getting better at Doom because there were still a ton of pickups left over at the end of this map for me. I was really expecting another wave after the last few invizombies. Didn't bother to get them all because the Mastermind was still alive thanks to the archvile and I was maxed on health/armor from a megasphere.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP31 Wormhole Junction

Can I order a skillsaw map that does not contain mancubi and chaingunners in the worst spots please?

Well this certainly can be fun. It is also incredibly fucking frustrating at parts too. The 300 or so enemies go by real fast when you factor in infighting and killing when possible. I just take the clearest route when possible, and actually leave off enemies, something I don't often do. But man, do these son of a bitching fuckers in mancubi and chaingunners leave me in mega-stitches. And the mancubi just keep appearing in the main area too! The rest of the enemies crowd around in many places, such as the zombiemen crowd near the yellow key, harder than it looks, and quite a few of those floating things. Too bad them being volatile can be used to my advantage to kill all of them swiftly, plus a few other enemies with them. The secret exit can now be accessed for 100% completion, thankfully, and features a rather tense but not too hard shootout between those drones again.

[mouldy]

MAP15 - "Wormhole Junction" by skillsaw

Now this is the good shit! I had such a blast playing this map, just running around seeing how much chaos I could generate and survive. Bloody excellent fun. The secret exit had me stumped for ages, but thankfully I found it after scouring every inch of the map. Think this was probably my favourite of the set so far.

MAP31 - "Grey Dwarf" by stewboy

Wow, this one turned into quite an adventure. I wasn't so sure about it at first, some of the designed looked a bit shonky, like weird angles and steps that you bang your head on the ceiling when you go down them. But as it unfolded into the complex nightmare of secret panels and intersecting tunnels that it is, it all began to make sense. Made a nice change to have an exploratory map, although I am glad I instinctively started pressing computer panels from the start.

MAP32 - "Ossuarium Exoterre" by skillsaw

Yeah, this was a good one. Nice change of visual flavour. I like the music too, sounds like a remix of something I heard before. The biggest pain for me was the yellow key trap, with the catwalk of hellknights pinning you down. Its the kind of set-up that is so orchestrated that it pulls me out of the game a bit. But then this is a secret map so what the hell. Also I have to try and remember that this wad is not to be taken too seriously.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP14: Funny how a midi can change the mood of a map so much. This feels like the spiritual successor to MAP06 with its unfolding arena theme that continues to get more and more frantic (with a nasty AV teleport to boot), but since the stage is painted in cool colors with an even cooler midi to accompany it, I kinda felt like it was "just another day in the life of Doomguy". Again, no qualms or misgivings with the gameplay either—was just fun seeing what enemies skillsaw would throw at me in what combinations. Ammo was quite plentiful on this map compared to the last, but I like the chill style of this one. Neat.

MAP15: Ooooh, another nasty pistol start. Once you get a good loop going in the main area it's not too hard of a map, though you'll frequently have to hunt down stray pain elementals. That final fight though, jesus that was rough. I've never really been a fan of warping in archviles into big arenas, and since there's also an SMM and invisible plasma troopers, this fight is just a nightmare to survive. I kept trying to force my way through it but kept failing, so I decided to play it safe and head to the middle and slowly pick away the flying foes (as they often ate my BFG shots). The unfortunate consequence of doing this is I basically ran out of ammo, which meant I only had 5 precise BFG shots to take out the AVs with (1 of which was guarded by mancs, the other by the SMM). A terrible experience that kinda spoiled my experience of the map, unfortunately... looked neat at least.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP31 Grey Dwarf

Look at that. 13 secrets. And the map is very interconnected in a way that turns me around just about everywhere I go. Yep, the first map I got horribly lost in. It's a fucking nightmare for completionists.

Getting around is actually hard enough for this map. I have to remember what's a door and where exactly to go. But with not only actual switches, but computer terminals to press, plus the fact there's a secret exit, and I'm basically trying to find things the long way. A lot of combat is focused on the new enemies, especially those invisible soldiers. The blue key ambush is the only normal thing that stands out here. I actually reached the secret exit first here.

MAP32 Ossuarium Exoterre

There's the other track from Interception, renamed for some reason.

Well, this LOOKS like it could be a fun map. it's got hallmark skillsaw traits and everything. I however find the ambushes really annoying. I always find it annoying when I'm back in familiar territory and THEN the ambush occurs. Couple that with one super annoying mancubus, and a rather annoying secret, yeah, I don't really enjoy this map. At least it's on key with key ambushes.

[Tristan]

MAP31: Grey Dwarf - stewboy
Time: 14:00 (02:17:04) | Deaths: 0 (13)

Well that was weird.
Second guest map now, and I can't say I'm really familiar with stewboy as a mapper. The only map I know well is CC4 MAP04, which incidentally was also a very grey map. It's not among the best maps of CC4, but not among the worst either. I think a similar assessment could be made of this map, although the quality of maps so far has been pretty consistent, so if that keeps up, this potentially could fall amongst the weaker maps of the wad, even though there's nothing inherently bad about it.

Amusing opening shot, because it's primarily purple with no apparent grey in sight. But this is just a trick of the darkness that is characteristic of this map. It's certainly very grey, not so sure about the dwarf part though, this map is surprisingly large for what is quite a low monster count. Potentially confusing to navigate, though I've come across much bigger offenders.
This map certainly gives us the stylistic shift that I was hoping for by the end of MAP15, which may seem obvious, but let's not forget Joshy's MAP09 wasn't far removed from the other E1 maps, whereas this really is unlike anything else in the WAD. I'm getting some flashbacks to a couple of Epic 2 maps here, though I can't actually remember why. Is it the general gloomy feel of this map that's maybe quite reminiscent of Epic 2's own alien ship levels? Not sure.
To break up the monotony of all the grey, the many different areas of the level are distinguished by a dominant floor colour that sometimes extends to the walls, a bit like a less extreme version of stewboy's 32in24-14 map. It works about as well as could be expected I suppose, this still isn't nearly as basically any map before it (except 12, perhaps), but there's just enough differences in colour and the detailing is just enough to stop it from being completely dull to look at. Probably the nicest part of the map to look at is the expansive section where you get the blue key.

Plasmagunners are undoubtedly the dominant monsters here, and though they can sometimes be quite threatening, the monster density across this map is so low there's very little in the way of challenge from these guys, or even the ADs, of which a few show up later on. There was one moment near the end of the map where I screwed up with an AD missile, and it left me with just 5 health, but it was easy to recover from.
13 secrets, so when you combine this with the sparse monster placement it's obvious that this is a map geared towards a more exploratory approach, which is nice to see amongst a set of maps that are all about fast-paced demon killing from start to finish. I only found two of these secrets, and they were ultimately accessed in very similar ways, (press panel to open something nearby) so it leaves me wondering how creative the rest of those secrets really were. I didn't find the secret exit, but since we kind of have to play MAP32, I used the changemap command to get there without losing the continuous aspect of my playthrough.

A bit of an oddball of a map, as one might expect from a secret map, and it will likely be remembered, if only solely because of just how different it is from the rest of the pack, but as I said in the opening paragraph; unless there's a string of bad maps in the second half of this WAD, this is probably going to end up ranking pretty low overall, even though there's nothing I particularly dislike about it, which will only say more about the rest of the WAD rather than the map itself.

6/10

[SoundofDoomDoors]

MAP31: Grey Dwarf (Stewboy)

100% Kills 92% Secrets (Secret Exit!)

Wow. The pace change is pretty dramatic. Coming down from a light slaughter, we have a map that's at least 2/3rds exploration. It's almost like the monsters are a part of the scenery. Outside of the regular exit and the blue key, they never posed a threat. I don't like the way the AD skulls were used near the exit, though. I took a very gotcha-feeling death to a closet full of them because of how they detonate. I'd replace them with revenants to make that part less frustrating. The room's got plenty of cover from rockets. Finding the secret exit took me about an hour. The final time I clocked was 1:05. I'm okay with that. It's interesting that even the shootable switch to get the yellow key, long as it took me to notice, is visible on the automap. The secret I left behind was the BFG. Hooray for carryovers! I still have one from MAP15.

P.S I must confess, I thought about iddting at the hour mark to find the YK. I managed without it though.



MAP32: Ossuarrium Exterre

100% Kills 0% Secrets

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. Stepping away from it really makes me understand why I love skillsaw's mapping style so much. It's all in the pacing. He knows how to place monsters to push the player into even more monsters, so even in the absence of the super-interconnected layout of the last map, I stay entertained. I don't think I was supposed to kill that arachnotron on the ledge without getting his secret, let alone the other one. That's freelook for you. I like seeing a different sky here too. Maybe it'll come back later in the wad.

[Pirx]

MAP10 - "Gift of Denial" by skillsaw

a large, airy castle, with sandy brick and neon light, with gameplay segmented into several setpieces, which work very well:
- the starting fight, where it's best to grab the RL and the armor, let them infight and blast them away
- the one with the 2 elevated spiders at the switch, i can see how this gives troubles if autoaim is on
- the part with the crushers and archviles
- the fight with the hell knight invasion, i preferred to stand my ground with the rl since that stupid archvile didn't leave me run around
- the big one with 3 cybs, 2-shoot them while they're busy because ammo is limited, and follow-up revenant horde
- the archvile ufo that posed the least threat, i went inside without cells but they managed only one hit on me.
so you board the ufo in the end and leave earth in search for aliens.


MAP11 - "On the Origin of Spacies" by skillsaw

conventional map01 gameplay of the new episode, unlike the wolf warp. we're on the ufo base, a colorful spectacle in AA's custom palette. oh, it's on the moon, and they built a ziggurat there. kill some imps and the like. the new enemies are introduced. i didn't find the plasma trooper hard to see, perhaps because i use higher resolution than many players. headphones also help as the dudes give off some electrical noise. they're frail but pack a punch. same for the rocket drone, these folow the same glass cannon philosophy as the enemies from valiant. i approve of this. it's simple to get away from the drone ambush, i was surprised that i could run away before the bars rise.


MAP12 - "Magenta Heat" by skillsaw

magenta lava, what a crazy world. mostly light enemies, lots of imps and chaingunners, mixed freely with plasma troopers and drones. they use to take cover behind barrels here too, so there's lot of blowing up here. the berserk pack in the end is for the vile in front of the exit, pick it up as you'll look bad with only a shotgun.


MAP13 - "Polychromatic Terrace" by skillsaw

great colorful map, which unfolds as you move through it, revealing more enemies at every step. a space station where troopers and drones appear in several places. there's enough space, mostly, to run around and stir infight, and the player is kept loaded with a few soulspheres and megaspheres, so the map can be played like a rampage through the enemy ranks. plenty of rockets are provided. especially in the end, with the imps massacre, however they got my health down to about 50/50 from the fresh megasphere before.

[baja blast rd.]

map14

Heh, I have to disagree with you, Jerry. :) I didn't see the expanding arena usage as safe or typical at all. It transforms quite smoothly and cleverly as it evolves, new sub-arenas looking less like closets stitched on to the original area, as they often do in this sort of map, and more like natural extensions to a very cohesive mega-arena.

This map is mostly about fights. Not so much <3 incidental combat <3. Yeah it does feel kind of contrived. I did get the feeling that most of the encounters were really dependent for their threat on the archviles. Monster density is moderate excluding imps, and there are very few turreted monsters, meaning that most of everything can be avoided easily once the archviles are dealt with. But okay, that's not a bad thing every once in a while. The fights were fun.

The spider fight is funny, largely because spiderdemons moving around like that in tight-ish spaces is hilarious. Based on its positioning, I expected it to be a turret, but then it could move, and it was like holy crap lol :o. Reminds me of the comical spider reveal in map21 of Valiant.



Hey, let's fight a spider in THIS thing! Bosses in small spaces are inherently funny. I remember a certain Going Down map with a cyberdemon in a 2000x2000-ish map made largely of tiny rooms.

["JL" was too short]

MAP14 was a well-executed example of the type, for sure, but I still see it as a bit of a limitation. Not to say it's illegitimate or should never be used, and whether or not one prefers it is definitely a matter of taste on which reasonable gentlepersons can disagree. :) I just realized as soon as I saw how it was going that it wasn't likely to inspire me much as a map, and I was right, though again the southern and northern areas did do their best to compensate.

It's funny that you mention cyberdemons, because one of the things that occurred to me was how much more interesting a cyberdemon could have been there. With the cyberdemon, the same things that make the spiderdemon relatively safe (lots of closely packed geometry to hide behind and around) suddenly become actually potentially dangerous to the player.

MAP15 - Don't think this is what I was expecting when I saw everyone referring to it as a slaughtermap, though to be fair I am playing on skill 2 and the monster density might be much higher on the UV level being enjoyed by the non-tourists. What I got reminded me a lot of Plutonia, by which I mean there are hard enemies used in high-octane fights, but the ethos isn't one of wall-to-wall monsters or massive swarms, usually. If anything did remind me of a slaughtermap it was the opening, and it wasn't in terms of monster density but rather because it was still potentially lethal enough that I had to plan out my strategy around using the two invulnerability powerups. After the initial population was cleared out, I never really got surrounded by monsters to the same frenetic degree and was able to use the level terrain to deal with subsequent challenges in a more 'normal' way. The motif is well done if still spacestation-y. I saved just before the normal exit teleporter because I still want to try and find the secret exit.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 13 -- Polychromatic Terrace - 102% Kills / 100% Secrets
Moving away from intro-style maps into something a little more substantial here, not unlike the transition which began with "Last Refuge of the Anasazi" in E1. This is still a fairly short/small map, but the use of a wide open space at the center where a variety of different combats take place in concert with more discrete/designed ambushes in the peripheral areas make for something a bit more 'filling.' As is usually the case when Skillsaw elects to work with this general template (that is, main/central hub + discrete side-areas where you have some say in the order of your itinerary), this is a three-key map, although here progression has been mixed up a bit, largely through the quirky placement and implementation of the optional red key.

The outset of the map presents the player with the opportunity to become accustomed with the main space (essentially a big polyhedral yard with elevated sniping points along its edge and a -mostly- harmless pit in its center), as spurred on by the classic device of having you run around under fire like a headless chicken for a bit while gathering equipment from little coves and other inset structures such that you might eventually start to turn the tide. Once that's done, the only real route open leads up to the yellow key on the western terrace, gated by a short series of straightforward (though no less effective for it) close-quarters ambushes, the most pronounced being the initial deadfall where the juxtaposition of an arch-vile with a whole squad of stealth troopers shakes up conventional target prioritization protocol a bit (incidentally, it was here that it struck me that the SSG is probably the worst mainstay weapon to use against the stealth guys, another interesting facet to their usage). The odd thing to this sequence is that at some point something you do here apparently makes the red key accessible as well as the yellow, but it's easy to miss and is arguably more hidden than some of the flagged secrets--it's found in an initially sealed lava-cave off in an out of the way corner of the hub (essentially a glorified monster closet), and because the drop back down from the YK terrace repopulates the central space with more baddies (again, right on cue) the monsters which emerge from this area blend in with the general throng and thus don't advertise their point of origin as a new explorable space very clearly. Completionists will be well-served in tracking it down, nonetheless, as it grants access to the plasma rifle's chamber.

There is a certain mindset that might fairly take umbrage at the way this area plays into the balance of the whole--the PR is not particularly useful after this point in progression (the RL is better for Dobu's pet arch-vile along the BK path, not to mention the sticky sweaty clammy imp-orgy at the level's conclusion), and the ambush which protects it is arguably the most lethal setup in the whole outing--but I am generally of the mind that the fights and the journey are the real reward in decent secret/optional areas, and so I don't really object. On that point, while the close-quarters 360 degree monster-dumps and scenarios such as the aforementioned imp-slaughter more or less require that Doomguy soak some collateral damage in handling them, the item balance accommodates this via the author's characteristic generosity, with no-strings-attached megaspheres to carry you through most of the action, to say nothing of the welter of soulspheres residing in the secret areas, most of which are easy to see/access.

Slight quirk to the RK thing aside, this is a very 'textbook' map by this author. It speaks to both the virtues of the formula and his practiced craft in working with it, I think, that it's as fun as it is, despite offering little that's genuinely surprising. Reckon I'd take a half-dozen maps like this over a like number of concept-based experiments ala the spirit-animal maps from E1 on most days, but that's just me.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 14 -- Blazing Boulevard - 103% Kills / 100% Secrets
The music selection here is somewhat emblematic of the experience I'm having with some of Stewboy's newer tracks here in Ancient Aliens--very laid-back/chilled-out early stage and string usage that I quite like (goes well with the custom sky here), but as the track builds and emphasizes the keys more pointedly with each of their three (?) appearances, the attendant shift in mood towards something more rapturously warm and fuzzy loses me. Just a personal taste thing, that, of course, but I reckon the presence of these pronounced mood shifts within the span of what are mostly still rather concise compositions is the main point of interest/departure when comparing them with his older/more traditionally driving stuff, and an interesting contrast with the generally straightforward arcade projectile-fest maps they accompany. My personal allergy to feel-good tunes notwithstanding, I'm hoping for a similarly developing exercise in sad bastardry further on down the line.

But enough of my rambling about that. The map! This is an unfolding arena-type affair where the main space gradually expands and develops to house an increasingly larger procession of loose multi-directional fights, with a setpiece each at the south and north ends (or about the halfway point and endpoint of overall level progression, respectively), seemingly more for visceral emphasis than anything. Most of the action in the main arena-spine is predicated on threat recognition, with arch-viles taking pride of place in the monster composition, preventing you from relying too heavily on basic dodging/circling and infighting tactics within the open/roomy central space by virtue of handily locking down said space with their line-of-sight spell attack (presumably the fight idea from which the map takes its name, incidentally). As per usual, you have plenty of heavy ordinance at your disposal to deal with these guys, but overall item balance does seem a mite stricter than in previous maps in the episode (i.e. there's a lot of medikits scattered around, but not as much in the way of spheres), and players who have grown accustomed to being able to tank through Skillsaw's bigger fights prior to this point may find the later reveals here to be a bit of a rude awakening, as trying to simply damage-race the viles is unlikely to end well in this context. The aforementioned setpieces at the south/north ends seem like they're more for spectacle than substance, as aforesaid, as the fights themselves are pretty simple. I liked the one at the south end better, personally, more for how cooooool the arena looks with the monsters in stasis below the energy-field at the start than anything. The spidermom + imps fight I could take or leave, though I did like hurling rockets into the heavily-telegraphed platoons of stealth troopers at its tail end.

As an aside, the layout here looks quite striking on the automap, like some otherworldly alien parasite splayed out on a dissection table.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP31: After playing so much of skillsaw's work you can sometimes forget how ergonomic his designers are, always making sure that the pace of combat is tight and the player always knows where to go. Stewboy changes things up by providing a large setpieceless combat for the player to run laps in, this facility significantly less colorful and chaotic than Ancient Aliens has been thus far. Despite the lower monster count it can be a really tense journey through these gloomy halls as the plasma troopers can make short work of you (and the floating skull gems' death booms finally get a chance to harm the player). Some good work all around—I like that the whole yellow key and plasma paths were optional.

MAP32: A rough little map that was bumped to MAP32 either because it wasn't ambitious enough or doesn't fit the theme of E3. Not a lot to say here—the HKs at the yellow key bridge were brilliant (more-so that the arachs could fire over their shoulders)—and walking away from it I dunno how much I'll end up remembering. That midi is still one of my favorites.

[baja blast rd.]

map15

Hey you guys had me expecting a much rougher start -- it's almost peaceful. :) The hardest part imo was the dual-vile warp-in at the YK with the 'trons and the plasma marines. I have to practice that one if I want to record a demo, because it killed me a couple of times. I think it really helps if you can get through the start without grabbing any of the megaspheres, to be amply stocked for later encounters, particularly the vile outro.

Yeah, it's yet another map with fights -- I think this aesthetic is better suited to mixed play like in map11 and map12. It's kind of bland tbh, once you get used to the palette. We've seen the light bridges already, as well as all of the detail implements. This sort of design -- very polished but very abstract, forgoing much representation -- is a hallmark of the modern style, but lately I've been tiring of it. I want to see couches and boats and pizza and stuff, you know?! What map11 and map12 and map13 have going for them is geometric irregularity (and in the case of map11, the moon): lots of individual areas connected variously in a way that allows you to at least try to trace out some narrative if you want to. The last two maps otoh are largely made of arenas connected to arenas, so they feel a lot more bland in comparison. Also the light bridges always seem tacky to me when the player is physically blocked from passing under the totally empty space beneath them.

But the fights are interesting, at least. This sort of map reminds me quite a bit of Valiant's map31, "Cyberwar 7734", in that the open nature is sort of a showcase for how the new monsters can function in big clusters alongside each other and the original Doom bestiary. In "Wormhole Junction", the AD heads are scary as usual but they aren't so dangerous, really. The vertical distance between their spawn points and the player neuters some of their effect -- small clusters of revenant missiles aren't so dangerous when their path naturally carries them to the ground -- and their delayed attack and low HP allows you to get rid of them quickly. It's really the plasma aliens that are the biggest threats other than the viles. They can fill up a lot of apparent empty space. Lanes that seem free to run through become nasty traps. They also serve somewhat effectively in an infight subversion role, compelling you to shoot at mixed groups of monsters and aggro the beefier monsters at you instead of at their own ranks.

Not so much a fan of this latest stretch of elevator music. I really much prefer the sweet exotic stuff of earlier maps, especially map02's, or whatever the one with the sexy sexy pitch bends was.