The DWmegawad Club plays: Alien Vendetta

[Capellan]

Map15
The first item of good news is that I started in the right place on this map, so I actually got to play it :)

The second item of good news is that I found the secret exit. In fact, I got 100% secrets for the level, which is a pretty rare and exciting thing for me.

The map itself is pretty decent. It’s mostly based around big set-piece battles but it doesn’t waste your time with make-work corridor crawling between them so it avoids the stop-start feeling that often afflicts levels of this type.

My only real complaint about the progression of the level would be the mandatory need to grab a blur sphere out of lava in order to progress. Throwing a switch in there would have been a much better clue to the required player action.

I liked the secret exit area, despite some very sloppy texture alignment in that area. The monochromatic texture-use makes it look like there are blue lights there, which is a clever illusion given the limitations of the vanilla engine.


Map31
Historically speaking, I haven’t much cared for secret levels in megawads, and this is not the map to change the pattern. The structure is very much flick switch, kill monsters, repeat until you find the exit. The lighting levels also aren’t right for maintaining the illusion of coloured lighting. The areas just look bland and boxy instead.

The insta-death teleport was a particular gameplay lowlight.

Didn’t find the secret exit, so it is on to map16.

[Steve D]

Map13 – Suicidal Tendencies by Brad Spencer

"All I wanted was a Pepsi. Just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me!"

Sorry, couldn't resist. I saw those guys back in the day and it was a totally fun show.

With apologies to Cynical, I decided to play continuous after my pistol start resulted in me running out of ammo and duking it out with a Revvie. All I wanted was a Zerk. Just one Zerk, and Brad wouldn't give it to me! ;D So I opened up that well-armed save I made just in case, and away I went. Could I have savescummed my way through on pistol? Sure, but with a higher death count, more time wasted on trial and error, and a lot less fun.

That said, this map opens beautifully with 2 full platoons of Sergeants pouring out of the doors and with Chaingunner snipers at your back. On my first go, I figured I could handle the Sergeants by backing up and shooting. I was wrong, so after that I ducked into the passage to the left – lucky I didn't go to the right! – and prevailed. Then I went right and faced that difficult passageway with the Imps and the room with all those hitscanners. And no armor on pistol start. But I did okay and went through the door that led up to the Hell Knights and Cacos. That was a mistake, which cost me a lot of ammo. After that, I went through the door leading to a zillion Spectres, plus Barons and Revvies. BIG mistake! I had no luck getting Barons and Revvies to infight at the door because I always opened fire and hit one. I suppose that's in part because I'd rather kill monsters myself than go for small infights like these. But I got all the Barons and thought there was nothing left inside but Spectres. I was down to my last shell and bullet when I went in and blasted away my last ammo on the surprise Revvie, who not only refused to die, but beat me to death with straight rights.

Well, that was enough of that nonsense. I'm up to 3 deaths at this point and seeing potential ammo starvation ahead, so let's open up that BFG save. Ah, that's better! Now let's play this map.

If Map12 used a Blunt Force Trauma approach, Map13 dials it up to 11. Some of these encounters were more nuanced than those of Map12, with hitscanners and in one case, an Archie amidst all the Nobles. I spent a lot of time backing up under fire while blasting away at the hordes, and in the Noble/Archie horde at the end of the zombie-packed corridors, I had to plan on getting past those Nobles to BFG-slap the vile. That led to a couple deaths, but in the end, I got lucky and Archie got stuck in the room, so I was able to terminate him after taking down all the meat.

I also got lucky because taking this path allowed me to enter the crate room from behind with a well-stocked BFG. The Cyb had killed everything except 1 Pinky and 1 spider, but I killed Cybie first because he was waiting for me right at the door. It was one of this map's easiest fights. ;D

I wasn't thrilled with the Mastermind Infight Room because it seemed more a speedbump than anything else. I reckon The Monster Infight Simulator will never be my favorite approach to encounter design. I also didn't like the camptastic yellow key room with all those Nobles inside plus the 2 Barons overhead at the start. I just opened the door, spammed rockets into the Hell Knights, and ducked in and out to SSG the Barons. Other players might Rambo the room. I'm not one of those players, so for me, it was a rather static encounter. The room full of Chaingunners further in was a lot more fun.

This was a clean, nice-looking map. I liked the coved Flat14 ceilings with Liteblu4 trim. The downside would be, again, too many Nobles, plus occasional sloggy moments like SSGing all those Pinkies at the bottom of the stairs because I had no Zerk. All in all a fun, bloody map. Extra points for using The Demons From Adrian's Pen as BGM, a personal favorite even though I think it's more suited for a creepy, slow-paced map like Containment Area than a crazy blast-fest like this. ;)

rdwpa said:

Also, there is setup Steve D will probably enjoy. :)

Thanks for the heads-up on the coming Caco storm. I wanted to play it last night but ran out of time. This oughta be fun. ;)

dobu gabu maru said:

certainly one of the best maps of E1 (sorry Cynical and Steve D).

It's all good, Dobu. As much as I loathe and despise this map, I can still see why some would enjoy its atmosphere and exploratory qualities, plus the puzzley nature of those unmarked key bars. It makes you think about how to solve the mysteries. Different strokes and all that. ;)

[Szymanski]

SteveD said:

I find it sobering that the author of Hillside Siege played most of these maps on HNTR.

The further you push into the map the more Anthony is responsible for the monster placement. He (and Andy, not sure to what extent) tuned the difficulty settings to their ability level, which as accomplished speed runners was higher than I was
capable of.

What was the original plan for Siege and Complex?
Siege was initially made for the Doom2 remake project. Complex is a Darkening 2 inspired tech base, with some experiments in sky height variation for fake 3d.
Complex went through a lot of changes and is for me a little under-cooked. Anthony named both maps.

Hillside Siege only had 2 irritating moments for me, one being the fiddly Soulsphere jump, the other being that stalagmite in Sector 74.

Neither of these were supposed to frustrate and I don't recall it being mentioned before AVs re-release or we'd have tweaked it. I make the soul jump 3/4 of the time, sometimes hitching on the wall thanks to Dooms collision detection. If AV is ever re-re-released I'll go back and fix it.
The drop onto the rocket launcher was initially a slow lift/lowering floor which only served to slow the player.

[Capellan]

Szymanski said:

Siege was initially made for the Doom2 remake project.

Do you remember what level name it was intended to represent?

[Szymanski]

Capellan said:

Do you remember what level name it was intended to represent?

Unfortunately all the emails from that time were lost so I'm a bit stuck. Note that I'm very bad at sticking to themes anyway (see my plutonia 2 work for Metabolist).

[rehelekretep]

map12 - fda here

as others have said, pretty forgettable. i did however have fun both playing it and watching the demo for this write-up. the only thing that really stands out is its liberal use of panic-ambushes, where the actual ambush isn't too difficult to survive IF (and its a big if) you keep calm. the one just after the megasphere is the one that got me, i ran into the YK switch staircase area and got cornered.

i did appreciate the easy to find secrets, although i didnt find the berserk, so i was quite low on ammo and gave up on backtracking to look for the RK which others have mentioned.

[Spectre01]

Map 15: Bulls on Parade

This map is a bit short and linear compared to the usual map 15 and the secrets are few and easy to find. It's also a rather easy one compared to the previous E2 offerings. There is some bullshit(heh) in this map, like that stupid item closet that doesn't open from the inside that I had to noclip through. Also, the lava below the Blur Sphere is not damaging but is everywhere else once you leave that sector. Wat. The map still follows the techbase theme, which is frankly getting tired now, with some large outdoor areas for some arena fights. Feels like an E2 TNT level actually. The large elevator looked cool and there was an homage in Bloodstain's map06 to the Cacos attacking from their alcoves during the descent.

[mouldy]

MAP13 - “Suicidal Tendencies” by Brad Spencer

Similar to the previous map in the sense of corridors and rooms packed with disposables, but takes it to a level that makes it kind of amusing. I was a bit stumped at first, not realising how to get the SSG and then discovering that I was fucked without it, but that gave me enough incentive to figure it out. After that it was pretty straightforward as long as there was enough ammo to let me carve through the battalions of monsters. The design is a bit more interesting than the previous map, and the gratuitous bodycount is a bit of silly fun.

MAP14 - “Overwhelming Odds” by Brad Spencer

The gameplay on this map reminds me of hell revealed, especially that red key trap which seems to require some precise foreknowledge. Lots of monsters, more than is strictly necessary perhaps in relation to the threat, although there are plenty of threatening encounters. The blue key trap was quite hectic, and the caco swarm was fun. Not sure what you are meant to do with all those pinkies in the nukage though, and the 2 cybers who appear in the quadrangle later on are a bit pointless. Its all good fun however. There were times where I found ammo and health in short supply, which made things interesting but also makes me wonder if I was meant to get more infighting going, or punch more demons.

[Cynical]

I always figured that the point of the Pinkies in the nukage was that you jump in, punch a hole through them, hit the switch, and revel in the Pinkie/Cybie infighting. Saves you a ton of ammo on dealing with the Pinkies.

[Pirx]

MAP13 - “Suicidal Tendencies” by Brad Spencer

slaughterish map, similar to the early maps of HR. the zombie flood in the beginning should hint at the map's increased difficulty, compared to the previous maps. unfortunatelz, this is often achieved by stuffing boxy rooms full of ineffective ammo eaters, especially those awful pinkies.



MAP14 - “Overwhelming Odds” by Brad Spencer

same looks and gameplay as map13, but more refined and enjoyable. except, again, the damn pinkie herd in the big acid pool. the not-so-secret bfg is essential for some fights, like the one at the blue key where you have to nuke an archvile immediately and then keep spawning demons from surrounding you.



MAP15 - “Bulls on Parade” by Madani el Hariri, Yashar Garibzadeh, Anthony Soto, Anders Johnsen

a map made by several people and it shows. a techbase interior reminiscent of tnt, a plutonia-like segment and a bigger showdown in a large outdoor part. not very striking after maps 13/14.

[baja blast rd.]

map15

This map was consistently annoying. It's a shame because it had some decent action. What soured me very early was the partial invisibility setup. A good general rule is to never force the player to pick up an item to make progress, unless it's traditional McGuffin or a well-telegraphed stand-in (e.g. the variety of fight-triggering armor bonuses in Sunlust). Sometimes mappers do this with soulspheres and megaspheres, which is bad, and often results in that inelegant metagamey tactic of shimmying around the sphere to trigger whatever it is tied to without picking it up. This is 100x worse, though, because, like, why the hell would I EVER want to pick up a partial invisibility on damaging floor there?! I decided to anyway after a minute or so of humping things, because there seemed like nothing else to do, but it could have gone on a lot longer. The fight itself, whatever.

The two open yard fights consistently rely on unmarked teleport destinations, which looks ugly and discourages rocket launcher usage. I'd probably forgive this normally, but the PI-triggered progression rankled me and I was not in such a mood. Especially in the case of the revenants, it is very anti-fun, because 20 revs in a 4000x4000 space are basically harmless, with or without the silly phasing, and the only way to truly enjoy it is to spam rockets. I was very disengaged during this part. The one time the map's nuisance was of the damaging sort was the vile that warps away in the last area. I boarded the teleporter with plasma rifle in hand, started spamming it immediately after warping in, but it still managed to avoid pain stun. Super cool setup.

The secret blue area was quite nice, at least.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP15 Bulls on Parade

Well, it seems like a breather from some major hordes, but the combat can get deceptive. That first lava trap in such a confined space needs to quickly be escaped from, it sucks. The lavawalk isn't too bad though and neither are the perched monsters. Past the yellow door is a very controversial design choice. The thin 64-wide corridor, with several inner closets, plus a POP-UP REVENANT literally up in your face. Definitely the weakest link of the map. At least it expands further when you want it to, then all of a sudden now you don't want it with the revenant courtyard where dodging homing rockets with them phazing frantically around you.

Weak link #2: the lowering lift. It's really boring honestly. The rooms that follow are nothing much either, and apparently, the first release had an additional room to go through with some crusher or something. That was taken out. Main event time: If you are wondering where the name of the map comes from, it's not JUST named after a Rage Against the Machine song, but also all those demons that come running in that final area, where concentration can go haywire. Also, the pink walls can lower if you go near them for some extra enemies. Might as well though since the next place you need to go is also taking a while to descend. Nobles and an archvile guard an intermission teleporter that puts a cyber in the arena. I actually don't like how you return to the room. The switch is right in front, but that cyber could fire without you knowing and that's never good.

With that said though, it's easy to reach the secret exit in this place. Just find the row of stimpacks, the new portal, and the blue key, then marvel.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP15: Bulls on Parade22:31 | 100% Everything

I didn't mean to play this level when I did. I had just finished MAP14, and saved it, and then thought maybe I'd just do a quick careless run through and see if I remembered the map. I did only vaguely, but I kept running around and not dying, so I decided I'd just keep playing. That first bit with the metal and lava is quite hectic (or at least it was the way I was playing it; normally I suppose I'd be a lot more meticulous.) I played through it fast enough that it didn't really register, though. The rest of the map was fine, with a very TNT vibe. The huge outdoor courtyard was fairly boring for all that it was so sparsely populated, relative to its size. I hate slow elevator ambushes, so that was probably my least favorite bit of the map. The end battle was the real highlight. Once that was cleared, I needed to find a way back to the earlier sections to hunt for the secret exit, so I pulled up the automap and noticed a suspicious-looking wall... The big blue secret section was really cool, but man, was 2 supercharges necessary? One of them could have been a blue armor.


MAP31: Killer Colours
22:15 | 98% Kills | 87% Items | 33% Secrets

Holy Hannah. Honestly wasn't too bad except for two parts: the massive revenant battle (which took me forever to get past, and then once I cleared that out with 11% health remaining, I suddenly had to contend with 3 more revvies right in my face again!) and of course the final slaughter which was actually strangely easy, so why did I mention it. The rest of the level was mostly just walking around hitting a bunch of switches and draining my shell supply. The mono-color thing looks really cool in screenshots, but somehow loses something in actuality, oddly. Once again, I beat the level and needed to find a way back to hunt for secrets. I'm not sure that's even possible (hence my non-max percentages) but I did stumble across the secret exit that way.

[Spectre01]

Map 31: Killer Colours

While the theme is somewhat trippy, the gameplay here is no bueno for me. Lots of extremely cramped labyrinths to slowly shotgun Hellknights in and dick all health/armour if you happen to miss the crazy double secret before leaving the blue area. The cramped double Revenant hallway that locks you in is complete bullshit since only the PR is useful there and you're guaranteed to waste most of that Megasphere due to unavoidable damage. The next fight is your generic Cyber infighting simulator, only my Cyber was a chump and left me the full Revenant horde that I had to blow all my BFG ammo on. Naturally, that made taking the teleporter with the 3 Revenants in your face rather annoying with my 30HP and SSG. The secret exit can be reached before the final encounter, but from what I saw, there was no way to actually get back out of there if you happen to drop down for that useless Blur Sphere. I don't care for the last fight either since I'm no fan of getting shot across the room by Archviles while invulnerable. After that it's circlestrafe the Cybers. Meh/10

[baja blast rd.]

map31

I thought it was cute at first, recognizing the source of many maps styled after it. Dragged on for too long, however, with mostly filler content. The showcase encounters aren't so sophisticated and don't really make up for everything else.

map32

The slow route is boring and harmless and the fast route is full of annoying RNG rolls. Would be infinitely better to blitz through without the archvile cages and perched cybers. Not a fan of the symmetry either.

[Spectre01]

Map 32: No Balls No Glory

Now this is a good map. Considered one of the hardest maps in AV, Dark Dome can go suck something unpleasant, here we have a nice and quick Go 2 It style slaughtermap, where you can spam the BFG and RL from the get go to your heart's content. But there are less than 400 monsters! Don't you need 1000+ to be considered slaughter? No Jeff, most of those maps are full of weak trash like Imps and Demons to pad the numbers. This map, like Go 2 It, ignores the junk monsters and focuses entirely on the high-tier variety, as well as uses turrets and environmental verticality to restrict player movement, creating a tight and satisfying experience. Really, the map is quite small, consisting of basically 2 medium-sized encounters. They are well designed though and can be played both cautiously, by killing off cage snipers and keeping to high ground, or rushed through, with the UV-max sitting at under 4 minutes. I took 18 to clear.

This is probably the most fun map I've played in AV up to this point and there is little for me to nitpick. One issue I had was telefragging the 2 Cyber turrets in the first area. Half the time it would spawn me right in front of one and make me eat a rocket to the face. Seems like there is a bit too much space for them to move so you don't always end up teleporting onto one. Might be port related though and this was in GZDoom without any strict comp settings. Edit: Watched the demo and it is RNG based. You know what's great though? Surfing over the rivers of Nobles after letting the Revenants loose by grabbing the keys! Those have the least effective placement though as they can barely attack you from below there and make for easy BFG fodder. Intermission drum music/10!

[Magnusblitz]

MAP13: Suicidal Tendencies
100% kills, 4/4 secrets

Man that's a lot of enemies. And while a lot of them are of the zombie variety, it still feel somewhat monotonous, especially since so many of them are packed into boxes in single-monster-type settings. Here's a room of zombies, here's a room of imps, here's a room of revenants... it really feels unnatural and takes the player out of the moment. I might've liked the start more had I found the blue key quicker, or was given the proper weapons (the level gives you a boatload of rockets, but no RL with them; a plasma gun but no cells, you don't get the missing pieces until later). The level also goes a bit longer than it needs to, as I feel it easily could've ended at the second red door beyond the Spiderminds, but instead there's a whole 'nother section (filled of course with nobles). I actually had more trouble figuring out how to get the red key than the secret blue key. The invuln/AV fight at the end was amusing though.

[Deadwing]

15: A smaller level after two super-crowded ones? And well, more fun too, though it is really linear with disjointed rooms. Battle
setups are more creative in this one, though: There's a
ridiculous trap at the beginning that will probably kill a lot of
folks haha, and then a huuge outdoor area where you need to kill a
couple of Revenants and HK's.

Still, the later setups are more interesting, the one with the
lowering floor will certainly keep you tense, where you will be
wanting to the monsters to die as fast as possible, thankfully it
isn't too hard. The last section was a fun one too, even though there
was a lot monsters. In-fighting is you best friend here and
positioning yourself to satefy is challenge (at least for me).
Unfortunally I've killed everyone before knowing there was a Cyber
that would be spawned later.

The room that leads to the secret maps is very beautiful, but I'm not
feeling going for them :P
7/10

[Paul977]

Map 15 Bulls on Parade:

I didn't like this one. Visually the best part for me is the lift and the its surroundings till the teleport to the last arena, very well designed, rest of the map is average. There is another cool area which is the blue room that leads to the secret map tho this time I went for the normal exit.
Gameplay has some bad parts, like the big room with the teleport revenants that you can't properly aim with the RL and the last arena, where know that the poison is not a pain sector matter: fight utilizing the exit area to move make the last battle far more manageable.
I think this is the weakest map of e2.

[gaspe]

Map15: The starting techbase with lava was actually an interesting setting and I found it a shame that it didn't last long. overall this map looks like a collage of unrelated maps, but every piece feels rather disconnected and my interest wasn't really high after I went past the yellow key door. THe secret exit room looks really cool though.

Map31: Three areas with different colors where each one has diffrent weapons and monsters in them with an increasing difficulty. The lightning was quite good. Like many others I had some problems in the red area where there's the cyberdemon and the 2 closets filled with revenants, and I also remember how much troubles I had to pass it the first time I played it. Not a bad map and it does fairly well its concept though I think that this map is more charming the first time you play it.

Map32: Pretty much a HR map. I was starting to kill some stuff but I got bored quickly. I wasn't really in the mood to attempt this slowly, nor to try to play more aggressively. The crap "visuals" sure don't help.

[Aquanet]

MAP12: Entropy

Hallways can be fun too.

MAP13: Suicidal Tendencies

I liked the blue key detour and the large doorway opening onto the cyber/pinkies. But I missed using it to create an infighting cluster. The high monster counts seem to work against the map because you just end up retreating and corner camping.

MAP14: Overwhelming Odds

The opening room is fun, and overall, the monster hordes are more carefully staged than in MAP13. Still, the pinkies on acid don't quite work. Getting at the cell packs is too difficult to be worth it.

MAP15: Bulls on Parade

Not a bad change of pace, but not a good one, either. The partial invisibility trap is crazy town. Maybe there's a greater significance to huddling half-invisible over pointless lava as you wait for infinitely thin barriers to lower themselves. The elevator with caco-cubbies is caco-delightful and was later emulated in Bloodstain.

[Pirx]

MAP31 - “Killer Colours” by Yashar Garibzadeh, Kristian Käll

you go through 3 sections, blue, green and yellow, and your weapon is kind of assorted (plasma, bfg, rockets). ok, once you get a bfg you mostly stick with it, if you have enough cells. nasty revenant gangbang, without a bfg at least.



MAP32 - “No Guts No Glory” by Anders Johnsen

a tribute to hr map22, very close to the original, plus the damn cybs in the teleport alcoves. requires a good deal of foreknowledge, swearing and firing the bfg a lot as there are plenty of bulk cells available. that was the map that made me remember av as a slaughter wad, although it's only the case of few maps.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP31 Killer Colours

The one thing to say about Killer Colours is that it was downright inspirational. The theme here puts on a total of three predominant color schemes, and makes decent layouts out of them. Sure, all of these stages of the map are linear, and in a normal Doom texturing scheme, they'd actually end up uninteresting, but a full load of blue, green, and red made this something people sure haven't seen before.

There's not much to the blue area. The cacodemons are a direct contrast to the color provided, but then try to find another Doom monster that can fit in. Besides the spectre of course, which is also predominant. These areas are simply switch-go-switch-go, until you reach the green area. Here, the cacos are replaced with hell knights, also a contrast, but there's no truly green monster anyways. The first green section is rather tight, and the little green cave has you heading straight for an eye just to open up the next switch. Otherwise, it's just like the blue area. Next green section has me waiting for a correct teleporter, as the one currently available leads to a voodoo doll. Easy to figure out, as monsters come from that teleporter and pushing them back on it doesn't teleport them. Plus there's arachnotrons, also not a green monster. The final green section has magical teleporting spectres.

That's a rude entrance to the red section if I say so. It's demons this time, instead of spectres, but one directly behind the player is quite rude. Revenants and barons are more dominant here. A bit of symmetry follows the entrance, and a cyberdemon and revenant horde follow in a small courtyard. Hit the switch on the right first, by the way. The portal to the final red section is guarded by a cyber on UV, or an archie on HMP, and the red bars blocking the portal seem to take a long time. I'm certainly not fond of the close-quarter barons in the final area, but the last one is a slaughterfest thankfully fueled by an invulnerability. Kill the cyberdemons formost while you still can!

Oh, and the secret exit isn't hard to reach. It's just behind you after teleporting to the final section.

MAP32 N.G.N.G.

So the outdoor slaughterfest in the super secret slot. I gotta say, there are a ton of real annoyances in this one. The cybers on the bridge are blockades entirely, the mancubus wall in the back sucks, and the baron cages are just that, cages with lots of health. Those cybers are like fighting trapdoors in Final Fantasy IV's Sealed Cave. All of them, however, can be telefragged, but it requires some real trial and error, especially to the ones that see you from the start. The teleporters are generally accessible just like the megaspheres, but they get a free shot if you are off. The two keys aren't much to note, there's a revenant wall guarding both and the switches will lead out to the next area.

Unofficial protip for the next area: do NOT grab the blue key right away. It will release all sorts of pain elementals and revenants all around you. Instead, take out all those damn snipers without touching the blue key platform at all. The two cyberdemons guarding the exit really need to be lured out as well. The megaspheres on the stairs are also guarded, but I don't worry about them as much as the blue key. Yes, this one sure brings the slaughter, first and formost arena-style.

[antares031]

MAP16 - Mutual Destruction
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/100/100

Thank god they didn't send chaigunngers at the beginning. Anyway, It's another straightforward level with a hub in the middle. The first room starts with lots of low-tier monsters, and with tougher monsters room by room. And in the end, you'll encounter six Cyberdemons in a single room... with one invulnerability. Other than that room with Cyberdemons, there's nothing much to say about this level, except it's a shame that there's no way to go back when you start to solve jumping puzzle on the lava. It would be better if teleporters on each ledge, sector 471 and 475, could send players back to the entrance of jumping puzzle, sector 367.

[rehelekretep]

map13 - fda here

died quite a lot on this map - its quite lengthy, and there are a few awkward moments. the cyberdemon reveal (especially if you take the teleporter directly into his warehouse) got me once as he followed me down the hallways!

i did like the archvile reveal - i got stuck behind the HK and barons as they advanced up the very narrow corridor; was pretty tense.

map14 - fda here

holy shit this map! i was about 25 minutes in on my first playthrough and got the all-ghosts bug. its funny how completely your feeling of a map can change depending on that first time playing it, and i was really not enjoying actually playing through it the second time as i felt annoyed at having to do it again.

the pinky flood is pretty cool; i spent a good long while looking at it to work out a strategy. i didnt like the cacodemon flood; by the time you release them youve probably used up all your cell ammo on the pinkies and cybers, so what are you meant to kill them with? i ended up camping the elevator in the revenant/chaingun room - pretty lame.

map15 - fda here

interesting that this was made by a few different mappers; while playing it i had no idea what was going to happen next, and the map itself felt quite disjointed. i enjoyed the slow elevator, and the cyber in the dark corridor was intimidating. i exited without really feeling like i worked the map out, so i cant say this was a particularly enjoyable playthrough.

[Capellan]

Map16
Not a fan of this one, I’m afraid. Some unintuitive progress. The tunnel with the grill over it, for instance (with the added black mark that you can get badly infinitely-talled there). I did like the goatboy battle shortly after that, though. It’s a good use of barons and HKs.

The seven doors of tedium follow, and unlock the next stage of the map’s highly linear progression. Like map15, we see very set-piece based design here, but I felt they were a bit cheaper and cheesier here. Multiple elevated chaingunners over wide open spaces are not much fun, you know?

Also, there seems to be no way to get back to the main part of the level once you reach the exit area (except maybe via some fancy SR tricks?), which always irks me.

[mouldy]

MAP15 - “Bulls on Parade” by Madani el Hariri, Yashar Garibzadeh, Anthony Soto, Anders Johnsen

Surprising number of authors involved for what seems to be a fairly simple kind of a map. I guess it has that string of sausages feel to it that suggests a bunch of different sections by different people all glued together somehow. Its a bit hit and miss with the gameplay, but I like the final room with the weird disappearing walls. The secret exit is quite striking.

MAP31 - “Killer Colours” by Yashar Garibzadeh, Kristian Käll

Quite a memorable visual gimmick, works well. The only real problem I had was after surviving the cyber and revenant army on low health and then having to face 3 more point blank revenants before getting any medkits. I don't know how i found the super secret exit, I just figured I'd got to the end without seeing anything like a hidden door, so I'd better start humping some walls. Turned around and the first wall I humped was the secret exit. Maybe I remembered it from before..

MAP32 - “No Guts No Glory” by Anders Johnsen

A classic kind of slaughter map, in the tradition of a meat puzzle where progress requires endless jumping into certain death to gather clues. There is a lot of luck involved with all the archvile coverage, and telefragging the cybers once they are awake is a bit of a gamble. The second arena can be dealt with a bit more methodically. Memorable as a map that will kill you fast and lots until you work it all out.

[Pirx]

MAP16 - “Mutual Destruction” by Brad Spencer

enjoy, brad's shotgun guys right at the start again. it's possible to shoot them in the starting room, but better to run out and get the ssg in the corridor. it's mostly a techbase to this point, partially hellified. some designs stumped me, the grate one can simply pass through (and it's necessary for completing the map) as well as the unmarked blue doors in the dark revenant room later. it's advisable to get the bfg quickly, because the cyber room is not possible without it (perhaps jus running through, with the plasma gun). here, the map changes to hellish, a ravine with some jumping puzzle, and a marble building. i cursed his useless ammo-eating pinkie herd again, but one can smack them with the bfg as it's the exit already.

[baja blast rd.]

map16

Pleasant relaxing map. I wasn't stymied by the opaque progression in my first playthrough, but I did not really appreciate the pinkies at the bottom of the nukage drop, nor did I like the mancubuses and revenants on the cliffs at the end, when I wasn't aware that I could drop into the teleporters and BFG spam them, with the soulsphere secret allowing me to tank damage freely. With foreknowledge, though, the level plays a lot smoother. The action is very much in the style of map13's amusing slaughters, this time with a comical cyberdemon fight, but with a lower monster count, which pretty much removes any chance of tedium and makes it an enjoyable map to rambo through. Other criticisms that are mostly immaterial with foreknowledge, but affected my first playthrough: The map gives ample BFG ammo for the revenant horde, but it's rockets that are the most satisfying way of disposing of them as they spill out of the corridor, so the balance could have been better there. The invul is another instance of item-based progression I don't approve of. I picked it up quickly because I had read antares's post, but otherwise I'm sure I would have humped around for some time seeking a way forward, intending to save the invul for when the action started.

[Spectre01]

Map 16: Mutual Destruction

Brad was sure busy with the first half of episode 2 here. I think this map's again alright, but episode 2 in general has been kind of "eh..." aside from 13/14/32. This is another techbase/nukage/shotgunner map, with a hellish section towards the end. Not a fan of the hitscanner warp-by at the start. Quite a bit of variety is seen here in the base setting, where it uses most of what the theme has to offer such as a crate storage area, blue high tech lab and the obligatory waste processing. I can't say I'm a fan of that illusory metal grate use here, just like in map 10, and I assume the Demons below can josh infinite height players a bit. What was the main target port back in 2002 anyway? I got back into Doom in '04 and used some GL port that didn't have the height issue so I dunno.

This map does have several memorable sections like the series of HK closets, the blue room Revenant spam and the 6(?) Cybers let loose in the storage area after grabbing the Invul. They don't play particularly great, but I don't mind these kind of gimmicks that have been phased out in modern maps. There's also a bit of platforming towards the end and two sniper ledges full of Mancs and Revenants that would have been less tedious had I known to jump into the lava teleporters and BFG spam them down instead of rocket sniping. The ending fight is a bit jokes with a Demon stampede. I was expecting a bit more to use my 600 cells on.