The DWmegawad Club plays: Alien Vendetta

[rehelekretep]

+++ THT & No Rest please :)

[Spectre01]

Map 30: Point Dreadful

Aptly named as this is the worst map in AV. It's an Icon of Sin map, but it's also a very bad IoS map, even considering how low the bar has been set previously. This has to be the worst IoS map I've played as it doesn't try to do anything interesting before getting to the actual goat wall. The custom groans from the Keens dying was nice and creepy though. Otherwise, this map has no monsters to fight aside from what's spawned by the Icon, making it less ambitious than both TNT's and Plutonia's map30 and completely outdone by Memento Mori's Viper by the legendary Signore Casali back in '96.

Point Dreadful stands as a very similar, but significantly more annoying, clone of Doom 2's original IoS fight. I hit the switch and did the fight in one elevator ride because I'm *good at Doom but there's some forced straferunning bullshit with the timing for the smaller platform lifts. If some monster just so happens to bump into you, you'll probably miss the lift going up and have to do that crap again. And you have to do this 3 times to get back to the top and lower the main lift. UglyStru's video does a good job at showing the frustration.

*Pro Tips: Enable full mouse look. Ride elevator. Place your crosshairs over the IoS brain and tap fire on your Rocket Launcher 3 times. 60% of the time it works every time.

Final Thoughts

Apparently I rated AV a 4/5 after my first playthrough and my opinion has soured during the DWMC session. Overall, it's a good wad that's certainly a step up from most of the 90's crap that people keep hailing as must plays like TNT stuff, Requiem and Hell Revealed. Despite being, supposedly, heavily inspired by HR, I did not notice any of its awful gameplay in AV. The wad plays surprisingly well from Pistol Start, avoiding any forced routing, foreknowledge or speedrunning-type play to enjoy. I can also appreciate the attention to detail that went into the visual aspect as well as the ambitious scale of some of the maps.

As it stands now, I'd give AV a 3/5 but I definitely prefer wads like Scythe 2, Epic 2 and Bloodstain over it, all of which used AV for inspiration.

Favourite/Standout maps: 11, 32, 20, 25, 26, 29
Point Dreadful maps: 01, 07, 17, 21, 30

Well, since we aren't getting Urania or Hellbound going, I'll +++BrutalWad.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP20: Misri Halek
100% kills, 1/1 secret

Ah, the old classic. The starting vista and perfect music are still top notch in my book, and the interior of the tomb looks great as well. I'll be honest here... as much as I complain about linearity, I actually don't mind it as long as the map feels like an adventure, with a strong sense of theme/place and keeping things varied (and the gameplay doesn't get too sloggy). And the first half of this map delivers that in spades. Things unfortunately start losing their way midway through, starting with the grey mountain climbing, as the area becomes repetitive both visually and gameplay-wise, consisting of nothing more than just plasma gun spam down a narrow corridor. And then it tops it off with a baron slog and switch hunt at the top. The last third sees a lot of switch hunts, which are... okay. There were a couple spots that threw me off but thankfully nothing that kept me wandering too long, I still managed to complete the map in 40 minutes. I still feel like the puzzles would've been better at the start of the map rather than after a long drudgery-filled assault. Still, that first half is amazing and still holds up today.

[gaspe]

Map30: The introduction with that groan before you step into the teleporter was cool, and I really like the music. For the rest it's pretty much a remake of the original IoS map.

It was really nice to revisit AV on the while after a lot of time. From my previous playthrough I couldn't notice how big is the influence this wad had on the ones who came after. It seems that the overall tone of the mapset is to go for more linear maps, and in particular most remarkable are the very long adventures (MAP10, MAP11, MAP20, MAP23, MAP27) and the maps that are more in the slaughter-side (MAP18, MAP25, MAP26). It takes a lot of inspiration from Plutonia and HR, and for the latter I think that AV picked up what HR did but refined it in a more better way imo.
It's a very important wad historically and it's worth to play at least once for that reason alone, and the maps stand up really well today though the wad have its high and low moments. In one word AV is legendary.

[T-Rex]

Here we are, the final map of Alien Vendetta. Let's get this over with.

Map30: Point Dreadful (Anders Johnsen)
100% kills, 25% items, 100% secrets
Time: 00:39

Damn! After attempting this map several times without resorting to using the noclip cheat, somehow I got lucky and blown up Romero's head with only 2 rockets, one from repeatedly firing at the face as the invisible elevator raised me up, and then when I carefully dropped down forward and timed my rocket launcher (falling into the lava pit below is death as there's no way to get back up). Otherwise, no offense to Andy Johnsen, but this is a really terrible idea for an Icon of Sin map. It's because of the bottommost elevator. The switch that lowers it is very far away, and right after you hit it, you have to immediately straferun at a very specific angle in order to reach the elevator just in time, and may heaven help you if enemies come blocking your path. This is my least favourite map and the worst one in AV because of this. It's pretty anticlimactic too, considering there's no monsters at all, excluding the ones that the final boss spawns in. At least the starting area looks neat with the architecture even if it's just a small portion. The demonic moans replace the death sound of the Commander Keens, and the final boss itself was given a new voice, which are the last good things to say about the map. Anyway, we're done with Point Dreadful, and we're done with Alien Vendetta.

Now that it's over, it's time for me to give my final thoughts, my rating for this megawad, and which maps are my personal favourites.

Alien Vendetta still is my all-time favourite and #1 in my top 10 megawads. It has somewhat of a fair difficulty curve which starts off easy in the first half before becoming brutally difficult in the latter half, especially in the third episode. Many of its HR tributes/knockoffs are actually more enjoyable, despite some of them having higher body counts than its predecessor. This is pretty much due to the fact that AV is more pistol-start friendly than HR and plays more like a classic Doom 2 megawad than implementing a Dragon's Lair Meets Doom kind of gameplay.

Even so, AV has its share of hiccups. Some of the levels are too linear, playing on vanilla will force you to go through unsavable maps in one sitting, some of which are slaughtermaps, and there's of course the final map, which is the worst idea for an Icon of Sin map to be ever conceived.

The good points with AV, though, is that it has outstanding level design. It's very oldschool, but modern at the same time. The late Kim Malde is a master at creating such beautiful, atmospheric maps as seen in the likes of Misri Halek and Blood Sacrifice. The influence of Iikka Keranen is very strong in Malde's maps. Andy Johnsen had an oldschool approach as many of his maps captured the feel of The Ultimate Doom quite well, including some hints of Doom 2, TNT, and Plutonia, with a touch of Heretic and Hexen for good measure. Vorpal followed an even more oldschool approach and combined it with Plutonia/HR-style gameplay as in the case of his episode 2 offerings. Martin Hunsager's only two entries are like night and day, from the short and compact Quake-like Sunset to the large, expansive, Episode 4 themed Nemesis. Lee Szymanski and Anthony Soto's duology were among the very best AV has to offer as they were both well-designed techbase levels. Madani's maps were frivolous and fun affairs, which also meant Bulls on Parade. Gemini and Kristus had made possibly the most unique and intriguing concept map for this project. Vince Catalaa of Plutonia 2 fame made a pretty huge, intense map that could have easily been an Eternal Doom map. Pablo Dictter, while not a terrible mapper, his map was the odd one out. With that said and done, AV was assembled by some of the most talented mappers at the time and they knew well what they were doing. The selection of custom textures was excellent, some being ripped from The Ultimate Doom, TNT, Plutonia, Heretic, Hexen, and even Eternal Doom. The music selection was also top-notch with the best from Doom, Heretic, Rise of the Triad, and Duke Nukem 3D.

It will be hard for me to name the best maps as the majority of them were outstanding in design, so I would say that ones that stand out the most were any of the maps by Andy Johnsen (except Map30 which I dislike), Kim Malde, Martin Hunsager, Lee Szymanski, Anthony Soto and Madani El Hariri, with Maps 25 and 31.

With the final score of Alien Vendetta, I give it a 9.5/10. Most of the levels are top notch quality, the replay value is very high, and the megawad overall is really addicting and an enjoyable experience. It was also influential to mappers like Erik Alm and Joshy with Scythe 2 and Speed of Doom respectively. The one thing I wished, though, is if Andy Johnsen would release his Valley of Echoes map as a standalone so that anyone who has the second version can check out the original Map25 without having to get the old version. He is one of my all-time favourite mappers, up there with The Innocent Crew and the like, so it would be nice to see more of him. Anyone who has an interest in classic Doom and intense action owe it to themselves to play Alien Vendetta. Epic and legendary, it's a must play for all.

So, that's it. It was great participating in the DWMC to play through Alien Vendetta. It sure was a lot of fun sharing my thoughts on the maps and reading what everyone else thought of them as well. It was quite a nostalgic trip for me, looking back at when I first played it in 2004, so I have enjoyed every bit of Alien Vendetta, well, almost. I might play through it again for old time's sake. Good luck to everyone who will be taking on the next megawad of the month. If it's one I have, I might join in. See you all again.

[Steve D]

^^Great write-ups, T. Rex. Hope to see you around again.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP30 Point Dreadful

I can't wallrun there so I never really could finish this at all.

So overall, AV is a load of fun apart from a select few maps. I love this one primarily due to its excellent lighting and difficult but manageable combat. A replayable megawad despite its flaws and MAP30, and my first dose of a real slaughtermapset in a Doom wads (I played this before HR, et al.).

Liked: MAP13, MAP14, MAP18, MAP21, MAP25
Disliked: MAP07, MAP09, MAP28, obviously MAP30

[Paul977]

Map 30 Point Dreadful:

Top aesthetics in this level: I wonder if WoS hell chapter didn't take insipiration from here. The first hall is one of the best hellish themed room saw in this wad imo and the big lava canyon, scene of the final battle, is also impressive on par
with the map 29 outdoors but on bigger scale.
The final battle is not easy. The race to the first elevator must not be interrupted otherwise it fails and if you fall into the lava you're dead (a teleporter there would'nt hurt frankly); however it is not an overboard IoS battle like eg. PRCP30 (one of the most overboard IoS fight I've played), PL230 or difficult like HR30.
I used a save after placing two rockets mainly because I suck at aiming the IoS, in fact the only levels where I use saves are difficult IoS fights though with some more practice I could beat this one without saves I guess.

About the megawad I enjoyed replay the levels on pistol start most of the first time when I've played in continuous. What impresses more of AV is the graphics department and the colossal architecture of some levels considering also the year it was released.
Levels that stand out are those of Kim André Malde (unbeatable for the aesthetics and atmosphere) and Anders Johnsen (gameplay and aesthetics). Also I must say that I find myself in agreement with Anders Johnsen for what concern his points of view on the magawads he reviewed in his site and doom in general.

And now my top 5:

1) Whispering Shadows
2) Stench of Evil (almost at par with the first)
3) Valley of Echoes
4) Lake Poison
5) Misri Halek

Regards!

[BlondieMcFilthy]

Powered through the last three maps.

Map 28 - Whispers of Satan

I consider this one a much stronger map than 27 was. They do share broad similarities between each other, but this is thankfully a more compact map that still has just enough meat to it to not feel insubstantial. Johnsen throws in some curveballs for combat here by virtue of the more-closed in nature of the map and some nasty traps - it ends up playing like a really violent Plutonia map. It helps that the red-and-blood heavy texture scheme is heavily reminiscent of Plutonia Map 12, though it still has some of AV's own quirks to it. Monster placement is admittedly a touch heavy on intermediate monsters and unfortunately it can be a touch sloggy.

Map 29 - Fire Walk With Me

With the exception of the notorious Revenant cavern hallway, this one is actually a touch more mild than most of AV's third episode. It feels more reminiscent of the episode's earlier maps, when it was getting incrasingly violent but it still had a heavier emphasis on adventure and atmosphere. And on that front, the map delivers from the opening shot of it - gazing out into an increasingly narrow walkway into the abyss - to Johnsen's flair for juxtaposing heavy reds with Episode 4-styled marble architecture. Fantastic use of lighting. Combat is once again is basically a series of ugly, close-up slugfests with lower and intermediate monsters, with the odd appearance of heavys for effect. What makes it work is that it's a very well paced map in both playflow and in combat; it's rare that it feels like one is getting bogged down too much. The "mouth" passage is also commendable.

Great map.

Map 30 - Point Dreadful

It's a standard IoS map with the exception that you have to do SR50 straferunning to get on the lifts, which is annoying as hell. Mind you, it's a beautiful looking map as you'd expect - but at the end of the day, it plays out too similarly to the original Doom 2 map 30. Anders Johnsen has expressed some regret that it was a setup too similar to the original map, which is pretty much all that needs to be said about it.

Final thoughts: AV's reputation is more than well deserved. No, it isn't entirely perfect the whole way through - maps 7, 17 and arguably 27 are fairly weak - but as a mapset made by quite a few different people, it comes together exceptionally well while most of the authors are allowed to display their own approach to mapmaking. (compare Johnsen's approach to Vorpal's or Malde's, for instance, and they're quite different) It is linear, but the strength of the set is the consistently strong pacing the levels have and the sense of creative flair gone into establishing atmosphere and tone throughout it. Most importantly, it's fun to play, whether it's a quick map or a longer, more adventurous entry, a contrast to many PWADs full of small, insubstantial maps.

Top five, in no particular order:

Map 11 - Nemesis
Map 13 - Suicidal Tendancies
Map 20 - Misri Halek
Map 25 - Demonic Hordes
Map 26 - Dark Dome

[darkreaver]

Map29 is cool, map30 sucks. There! Finished.

Top maps in random order:

map18
map14
map25
map20

aaaaand

map04, actually. Close ups are 11, 15 and 19

[Magnusblitz]

MAP21: One Flew Over the Caco's Nest
100% kills, 2/2 secrets

And just after having a linear map that made me say how I can be okay with them, comes a linear map that left me rather unfulfilled. There's actually a lot of detail here... almost too much, in a way, with too many complex textures clashing and every little cubbyhole having something different in it, and doodads a-plenty. It's very much in that E3M3 style of Hell, but there's a reason that map was named Pandemonium. I really like Demtor's comment calling this an art gallery, because that's what the layout feels like - room/hallway/room/hallway, which is part of the reason the linearity really sticks out, unfortunately. There's no crescendo, it's just "what couple of enemies will be in this next square room" and then into the next hallway.

MAP22: Rubicon
93% kills, 2/4 secrets

Another largely linear map, but one that seems a lot better than the previous by dint of having novel things like "height variation" and "fights that are actually threatening." A decent journey I suppose, following the typical progression of enemies and armaments (one of the first secrets is a single shell box, another is a single medpack... by the end you'll be fighting cyberdemons and double-AVs). Inoffensive.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP30: Alien Vendetta’s take on the Icon of Sin is actually a pretty decent, in my opinion—mind you, something other than a standard IoS lift battle would have been preferable but like with Dead Simple remakes, you gotta appreciate what’s there when it’s an earnest attempt. Perhaps what won me over is the eerie and quiet opening, where you start on the pentagram, move through the fleshy courtyard, trigger some keens groaning, and then hop through the warp to encounter your old friend. It’s short, sweet, and effective, perfectly capturing the dread I love most about hell maps.

Would that I could say the same about the final encounter, but it’s just kinda… there. Due to the limited ammo you’re stuck at making the trip 5-6 times before becoming overwhelmed which can feel a mite stressful, but like with the original final battle it’s not too hard once you have the timing down. The strafe running stuff is a nice twist that adds tension to the climb, but that’s about all the freshness the map offers. Oh, I suppose that invisible lift is neat too. Certainly not a bad map, but it’s a bit less inventive than some other MAP30s we’ve played (like Memento Mori)

Overall, I cannot accurately express how wonderful it feels to play an old classic and have it hold up to the test of time. I felt a little sad after finish Memento Mori and Hell Revealed, wondering if there were any seminal megawads that would gain strength under a critical lens instead of crumpling, but as Demon of the Well foretold, Alien Vendetta definitely has plenty of modern design sensibilities that allow us to look back on it fondly. True, a huge reason for this is that there was plenty of time for the Doom community to grow and learn from prior experiences, but it doesn’t detract from the plain truth that Alien Vendetta is a watershed megawad, one that marries styles of the old and new together to form a fun and exciting adventure that almost anyone can appreciate.

Favorites: MAP20, MAP11, MAP29 (shout-out to MAP24 for being mechanically the best map in the set)
Least favorites: MAP08 & MAP27 (I felt these were the most obvious stinkers of the wad IMO)

[Demon of the Well]

I have every intention of finishing this, though I'll be a rather slow doing it, again. Shit, it still kind of bothers me I never finished those last three maps of Icarus, and that I missed PL2. (I feel like I've said this before....)

Anyway, onwards....

Map 23 -- Blood Sacrifice - 101% Kills / 100% Secrets
Interesting permutation of the "always check behind you at mapstart" thing, here--the exit's back there (very nicely visually teased, too, I think), but even though the map's layout loops you neat and tidy right back where you began once all is said and done, it's easy to be quite befuddled by where you're supposed to go to actually punch the timeclock unless you happened to check back there earlier, since there are no items or monsters (at any point during progression) to actively lead you to the right place.

Depicting a full-on high medieval/gothic castle setting only hinted at in earlier maps such as "Castle Gardens", structurally "Blood Sacrifice" is probably the most complex of Kim Malde's constructions in AV, as epitomized by the elaborately spiraling path over 3D bridges and grates that climbs over, around, and eventually back down and into the desolate heart of the central courtyard. Interestingly, it's also probably the most linear of all his maps in the set: you can wander off-course right at the start into the southeastern portion of the castle, but it is blatantly obvious you're not 'supposed' to be there that early on (at least on pistol-start, anyway), and outside of this early diversion the route is heavily prescribed by a series of portcullises, barred doors and locked gates that leave very little room for idle wandering, whereas in Kim's earlier maps you generally had a lot more license for kicking around in dead ends off of the various structural forks before getting on with progression proper. The ironic thing here is that, were it not for the micromanaged nature of the progression, this could just as easily be the most open and non-linear of his layouts, as can be seen by the intricate level of interconnectivity between chambers and levels around areas like the aforementioned central courtyard that, as it stands, only truly becomes apparent just as you're getting ready to leave them once and for all.

While the architectural richness and level of general concourse are miles above what was seen in "Castle Gardens", I daresay this is also probably the most thematically understated of Kim's maps, with a persistently stark air of spartan drear pervading the cold gray stone corridors and battlements, with Eternal Doom being an obvious point of stylistic reference that I reckon's a mite too obvious to be merely coincidental. Lacking the cool color palette and abstract architecture of "Toxic Touch", thematic diversions of "Misri Halek" or even the fanciful 90s-isms of "Castle Gardens", this is a level that adheres rigidly to its locational concept. The first part of the castle with the sandstone masonry and poison founts, occasionally criticized for seeming tacked-on or thematically out of step with the meat of the map, has always struck me as something that was simply retextured in order to prevent the level from being "too grey", incidentally. Overall, the presentation is certainly effective at conveying an atmosphere, and the carefully conducted proceedings allow it to hang together more effectively than the shorter and more scattershot map 09, but it is perhaps just a little too controlled and a little too spartan to fully suit me, and so for that reason I've always preferred maps 10 and 20 to this one.

There's not a whole lot to be said about the action, incidentally, that hasn't already been said about the author's earlier maps. The level's pacing and pitch, featuring mostly incidental skirmishing with the odd prickly arch-vile placement or two, situates it comfortably in the more laid-back pre-endgame portion of the third episode. There's even more of an emphasis on mid/upper tier foes here than in map 20, but these are mostly encountered in dribs and drabs and in very direct placements (barring a point-blank closet or two), and so the proceedings are fairly simple. The biggest potential twist is that the level can be surprisingly, even bitterly austere in the ammo deptartment if you don't find the (only) plasma rifle in a secret fairly early on (the secret BFG near the end of the run is just an idle luxury item in comparison), since rockets are in short supply and the balance of shells will be heavily taxed by nobles and the like farther in, likely necessitating leaving at least some of the level's three cyberdemons alive (not that they're really able to ever give chase, mind). This particular design aspect, where the balance of the level swings markedly based on whether or not a particular secret is located, is rather unusual both in Kim's maps and in AV as a whole, and given the cold grey castle setting has always read to me like it might be some kind of reference to "Proscrustes Chambers" from Requiem, a level which many of you will no doubt remember for its rather, shall we say, "idiosyncratic" handling of thing balance and secrets.

Not my favorite of Kim's maps, but a decent sendoff nonetheless. R.I.P. Mr. Malde, your legacy will surely live on.

[Demon of the Well]

Cynical said:

Out of curiosity, what macguffins are you referring to, other than Revelation of Doom? Millenium and Mordeth ep 2 were both officially cancelled, I thought?

Sorry, I just now saw this. RoD is indeed really really high on my personal list of darksomely gleaming unreleased megaWAD Preciouses, but I also had in mind stuff like Necromantic Thirst, BTSX E3, that big beautiful bitch Rayzik occasionally trots out to show the public, things of that nature.

Mordeth E2 is still demonstrably in active development, incidentally, and has long been aiming to take advantage of the ever-growing features list of the Eternity engine. As for Millenium, well.....I don't reckon anyone in the general public (myself included) sincerely believes that one is ever going to actually happen at this point, but I don't think it was ever formally canceled or the like. I remember a 'recent' screenshot of it posted a couple of years ago or so, so who knows? Stranger things have happened, I guess.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP23: Blood Sacrifice
95% kills, 3/5 secrets

This is the odd map that I remembered halfway through but not the start. I'm not a big fan of this level, as the grey castle section feels oddly spartan, both in terms of decoration and ammo - I often found myself relying on the fist to get by, always wondering where my next stash of shells would be, which wasn't fun. Oh, there's plenty of cell ammo, but it's useless unless you find the plasma gun or BFG, which are both in secrets. Thankfully I did manage to figure out where the BFG was, since I was at 15 shells to try and tackle the barons/mancs trap and the spider mastermind afterwards. Kinda interesting how the level returns you back to the start for the exit, though... and I really do love the lighting on the bars. And it even changes when the bars open! A cool trick that unfortunately I bet a lot of people miss since they don't turn around at the start (or remember it).

MAP24: Clandestine Complex
92% kills, 2/5 secrets

This was a fun map. I playing pretty shitty but kept pushing forward (which kept putting me in more dire situations), which is the sign of a good map in that I want to keep playing instead of trying over again and completing it maximally. There's some creative progression, only thing that gave me trouble was figuring out I could use a crate to get back to the red doors, mainly because I had switched the lights off in that room and couldn't turn them back on. Good monster usage throughout as well, some good challenges with a small (~150) monster limit, my kinda Doom.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 24 -- Clandestine Complex - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
I have to confess that I've never really been able to fully warm up to this map, though to use Dobu's words it is certainly 'mechanically' more than sound. It simply feels like it does not belong here, or at very least that it belonged much earlier in the mapset (I daresay it might've fit more naturally in E3 at slot 21 as the last manmade installation, though, and would've thus replaced a grossly inferior map), depicting part of an industrial nukage refining operation nestled amongst rolling green hills. Aesthetically it's well in line with "Hillside Siege", though probably a touch more representational in thrust (dig the inoperative smokestacks on either side of the building veneer, and the beacon antennae high over the flooded central yard), perhaps easier here since there are no pretenses at accommodating the block-style monster placement from that earlier map. Not just for show, the chunky sector geometry defining the outdoor terrain is here again used to implement some light climbing/parkour play into the mix for both mandatory and optional/secret content, a theme which also shows up briefly in a simple progression puzzle in the crate storeroom indoors. As aforesaid, in strictly thematic terms the whole presentation doesn't really look like it sensibly belongs in slot 23 surrounded by lava lakes and blood-drenched chapels and castles made out of liverwurst, but this is really a minor concern, as Doom has never particularly needed a rigidly rational narrative in order to hang together. More significant, I don't think the actual play content feels like it quite belongs either, though my impression is of course colored by the fact that I first experienced the old version of "Valley of Echoes" in it instead--to later waves of WADmakers, "Clandestine Complex" seems to have been accepted easily enough, as can be seen by homages to it in parts of Kama Sutra and the like.

While it uses a similar monster composition as map 06 by the same authors earlier in the set, the placement style is much more conventional in nature here, sort of a Plutonia-lite smattering of sensible snipery and mid-tier beasties in key positions supplemented by pockets and packs of fodder monsters to add substance to the combat in the in-between areas. The nods at Hell Revealed's placement style have largely been done away with altogether, with the single largest group of monsters being the heterogeneous warp-squad that appears at the mouth of the easterly nukage tunnel just as Vendettaguy flips the switch to lower the sluice initially sealing off the red keycard's chamber--basically a Pickett's Platoon purpose-placed to be devastated by rocket fire through the windows, with the player entrenched in the control room in relative safety. The proceedings are not entirely without teeth, as the balance of both ammo (without secrets) and healing (with OR without secrets) is deceptively tightly judged, and the polyglot monster mash certainly fields enough sneaky hitscanners and heavy-hitters that undue overconfidence or significant mistakes in combat can haunt you for several minutes of gametime after they happen. The nature of the layout means that a lot of the fighting can be conducted in conservative sniper-style fashion if that's your preference--lots of ledges and windows and the like--but it also plays briskly enough once you have a sense of the layout, the slightly stingy rocket economy in particular making for potentially very snappy fights once mastered. Something of a running trend for Alien Vendetta, the spider mastermind here has not been implemented very well as a combatant, though if you're not concerned with maxkills it makes sense (tactically and maybe even cinematically) to just bait her over to the blue switch and then double back to leave her behind after throwing it.

I reckon that if you try to look at the matter "objectively" this map is quite soundly designed, and from a longform pacing perspective it makes sense why it has found a home in the current version of AV. I do believe, though, that it's just as reasonable/defensible to hold that it seems like an odd stopgap or filler-type map (albeit a very solid one) at the point in the roster it occupies, partially because it's a stark thematic outlier and partially because it's very arguably the easiest map in the second half of the game, but probably moreso through direct comparison in that it's a lighter version of a general style we saw as early as map 06 by the same authors, almost as though the two would've made more sense switched up. Given that the displaced VoE has been reimagined and given new life in the emergent AV Black Label project, I have to wonder what a modified and maybe partially Hell-ified "nightmare" version of this same general layout might be like, perhaps with a few more traumatizing encounter designs than it currently fields for extra spice....

[T-Rex]

SteveD said:

^^Great write-ups, T. Rex. Hope to see you around again.

No probs, SteveD. Maybe if the DWMC tackles Hell Revealed 2 or Memento Mori 2, I might join in.

[Deadwing]

Best levels (best to worst): 24, 05, 23, 19.
Worst (best to worst): 13, 26, 14, 27, 20.

I've never played Alien Vendetta until now, though I knew people talked a lot about it. I think for current standards most levels feels dated, especially due to gameplay and things placement, while visually there's still lots of cool and beautiful stuff. It has its historical value, but I think there's more interesting options if someone wants to try some "epic" megawads nowdays

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP24: Clandestine Complex
21:52 | 100% Everything

Played this a few days ago, but forgot to do the write-up. This is a great techbase level. I really only remembered two things from my first play: the winding hillside staircase at the start, and the main nuke pool hub (with the three pipes emptying into it.) A lot of fun to be had here, with lots of stuff to explore. I managed to beat the level without activating the blue key switch: instead I "jumped" from the soulsphere secret overlooking the exit area.


MAP25: Demonic Hordes
1:43:06 | 99% Kills | 68% Items | 70% Secrets

Whew! I actually started this one on the heels of MAP24, but only played through the first 2/3 of it (judging by monster count, which got me up to the final hub area.) It was so much work that I took a break for a few days before continuing. The texturing here is soooo Heretic, which is cool. But the gameplay...yowza. The thing that's stuck with my all these years from my first play is just running and ducking for cover inside the back room of the southeastern chapel; I basically just ran for my life the entire game. This time, even on a higher difficulty, most of it honestly wasn't too bad. The chapel area in particular was relatively easy. Amazing to see how far I've come as a player. I did miss one monster: an arachnotron that somehow got trapped in the void outside the chapel area. Weird. Fortunately there were enough supplies laying around (lots!) that I was able to fill back up to 100% everything before exiting.

[rehelekretep]

real life intervened last week so not much time for doom, and definitely not time for WRITING about doom :)

map21 - fda
when i saw all the comments about this being boring and linear etc i feared the worst but i quite enjoyed it. its nicely detailed and textured, the midi is decent, and the enemy encounters are small, well designed, and cramped, which i have quite a fondness for. it also makes a nice change from some of the meatier encounters in E2 and to come in E3

map22 - fda
another nice little cleanser map here, some interesting design, slightly garish textures. great midi (forever Sunder associated in my head). enjoyed it.

map23 - fda
didnt like this at all - if you dont pick up the plasmagun, or AV-jump for the BFG (you can actually exit the map after that!) then youre screwed once you get to the cyber-courtyard. mandatory secrets suck. the castle is also too big and sparse.

map24 - fda
enjoyed the hectic free-running start here, not really matched by the rest of the map. another fabulous MIDI though. i think that is what im taking away from AV - the music is pretty amazing.

map25 - fda here, pretty long but quite entertaining - i dont know how i made it through this tbh!

holy mackerel - this is a beast of a map. the violence is quite front-loaded, and you can speed through the section after picking up the RK (much to my relief!). i love this MIDI so that helps my enjoyment, but this map is very sprawling with some good ideas, some bad ideas, some good looking sections (teleporter tunnel! amazing) and some bad. very mixed map with a lot of meat-clearance. luckily there arent any unfair traps to make you have to re-do the map over and over again. pretty fun!

[Demon of the Well]

Haven't thrown in the towel on this yet. These things take time!

Map 25 -- Demonic Hordes - 113% Kills / 70% Secrets
Time was, this was probably the most famous map in Alien Vendetta (yes, even more than "Misri Halek"), though I suppose whether or not it's ever been one of its most popular is a very different question. The initial bodycount of 1300+ demons was certainly a source of much renown in its day, and given the greater mapset's iconic status, it has been and doubtlessly will continue to be a map where many newer players will face such numbers of foes for the first time, fitting enough in that it can be very manageable for 'average' players provided they're willing to settle in for a long haul (completing the map with any kind of efficiency requires detailed foreknowledge, natch). Huge monstercount and general infamy aside, in historical terms, I'm not quite prepared to try to characterize this map as being a watershed, though it is very interesting in that it's a rare fusion of what I habitually call the 'zone of influence' approach to slaughter play most famously exemplified by Hell Revealed with a more representational style of environment, something hinted at but never really fleshed out in HR itself.

The map's overall playability is up and down. While there's a consistent commitment throughout to throwing a ton of monsters at the player, the way in which this is done varies from stage to stage, sometimes stuffing scads and scads of foes into small sealed rooms such that they spring out like grotesque party-gags as soon as you pop the top, sometimes positioning them as stationary blocks of artillery in traditional ZoI fashion, and occasionally using them as free-roaming waves or swarms (including a cacoswarm or two!) moving through larger open fields. This latter type of placement could perhaps be viewed as a precursor to more modern slaughter mechanics ala crowdshaping and such (and the heterogeneous nature of most larger waves, naturally inviting chaotic infighting, is certainly a departure from the ZoI style as well), although during casual/conventional play the great majority of the instances in which "Demonic Hordes" uses monsters in this way likely play out as 'siege' scenarios where the player holds out in a more or less fixed location while wearing the hordes down through superior positioning and the inevitable toll of internecine conflict, and so overall it's still very oldschool in thrust.

My favorite parts of the map generally fall in its first half, beginning with the rocket-pounding drive through the imaginative 'interdimensional tunnel' after the first portal and including the repeated conflicts around the squat stone abbey acting as a junction point between later areas. Cleaning out the abbey for the first time is not terribly exciting (though there are some tricks to help speed it up if you're on a return play) but doesn't take too long, and well worth the effort besides, as it will serve as a base of operations for most of your later excursions. Large waves of enemies of all shapes and sizes periodically appear around and occasionally upon the site as one travels to and fro the surrounding areas, the point of holdout combining with the highly mixed monster composition, different ways of gaming the waves or of playing them off against each other, some crafty tricks for the attentive (i.e. there's more than one way to get the BFG, and more ways of leaving the abbey than through its obvious front door) and tactical choices about when/how to use the small but potent supply of goodies the abbey affords a lot of room for variety in what is generally very simple action. The theme of being besieged in a set location is also inverted nicely when you eventually wander off to the yellow skull's chapel and find yourself in the more familiar/traditional position of needing to root out deeply entrenched enemies. While strongly themed, this is visually one of the less delicate/finely worked maps of AV's E3 stretch, but it does evoke a certain sense of epic cinema in these areas--imps appearing en mass on the bluffs at a pivotal moment, a battalion of siegecows thundering out of the gates to the north, arch-viles invading the abbey to undo some of your fine work while your attentions are elsewhere, and so on.

Despite my fondness for that good stuff, though, I don't hesitate to say that the map is simply too long (and I am of course a resident fan/apologist for long maps!) and turns into rather a chore not long after beginning the somewhat convoluted trial for the red skull in the northern courtyard. A sort of hubspoke with each door theoretically housing a conceptual mini-challenge, in practice the action in this area generally involves chewing through huge meaty chunks of demonic HP as they file through a series of doorways or other chokepoints towards you, broken now and again by aggravating scenes where you yourself must carefully pick away at encamped enemies which you enjoy little or no practical access to, most egregiously in the little chaingunner fountain glade (which is optional, in fairness) or the eye-rolling final lava-ravine beyond the red gate, which I guarantee pretty much everyone except someone recording a max demo will simply ignore (and which said demo recorders will rightfully resent). There's also a scene where a cyberdemon unwittingly kills an entire room full of arch-viles all by himself which almost seems like it's supposed to be a bit of a comedic pitstop, but the little jolt of levity doesn't do much to enliven the doldrums. All of this additional yet questionable content does help to underscore the map's impression as an epic undertaking for the player, I suppose, but at best is the sort of thing one is mostly glad to never have to do again after it's done. Methinks just sticking with the floodfill fight in the main courtyard would've been more than sufficient as a finale for the map.

Flawed and occasionally hamhanded though it may be, though, there are still parts of this map I enjoy, for the sheer spectacle if nothing else. It's certainly one to 'tell the grandkids about', and in its proper historical context is of course quite a singular undertaking which has done more than its share to elevate Alien Vendetta itself to the iconic status it presently enjoys.

[rehelekretep]

hey DoTW glad youre still plugging away at this (ive hit a wall at 26, which is just claustrophobic and no fun trying to complete without saving) but just wondering why youre not recording demos of this playthrough? just dont have the time? i thoroughly enjoyed your Sunlust ones and watched them all :D

[Demon of the Well]

Map 26 -- Dark Dome - 103% Kills / 100% Secrets
Ah, hello again love.

This is my favorite map in Alien Vendetta, believe it or not. Clearly a descendant of the legendary "Post Mortem" from Hell Revealed, the scenario presents a massive subterranean cavern flooded with groundwater (this being Hell and all, I like to imagine the liquid is comprised entirely of tears), with an ancient network of walkways, nooks, and chambers hewn directly from stone passing through and above it. The goal is to collect the three lost keys to open the back door into the titular Dark Dome and thus breach the heart of the enemy citadel. The Dome itself, to whit, is presumably the palatial marble structure beyond the long stairway behind the red door, perhaps more specifically the chamber with the final megasphere, which, interestingly enough, is an entirely optional encounter, moreso because it's unlikely players will truly need the sphere at that point (though of course any Vendettaguy who has come this far won't want to let the bastards off the hook so easily at that point). Some semblance of a vestigial narrative, perhaps?

Visually, what's presented here is, outside of some slight architectural window-dressing (tesselated arches on some openings, the marble stuff upstairs, etc.), comprised mainly of crude cyclopean megatecture pragmatically scaled to accommodate its 900+ entrenched demons, in true HR style. Indeed, even without obviously being a take on the "Post Mortem" concept, nowhere else in Alien Vendetta is the HR bloodline more obvious, save perhaps map 32. While very stark in style, though, I've always found the presentation to be enjoyable, the gloomy expanses and tall carved structures occasionally dotted with baroque wood scrolling, marble friezes, and ethereal portals and such being quite evocative--the trio of triple switchback stairways leading up to some waterfalls is a particular favorite. Notice also the nifty illusion of 3D space involving the Dome itself--without consulting the overhead map, the final megasphere room is craftily positioned in such a way that it seems to sit directly over top of the hollow marble casement embedded directly in the rock (that is, the structure that the cheeky vile right behind you at mapstart is lodged in the face of), giving the impression of a towering shaft that pierces below the surface while also rising above it at ground level, something like a silo or observatory.

I'm really trying to finish this playthrough off at this point, so suffice to say that however much I end up writing about this level, I could've written much, much more. A lot of my thoughts about the virtues of the "zone of influence" style y'all have seen me ramble on about so many times in the past arise from ruminations while playing this particular map (I will occasionally play it as a solo level just for fun or as a sort of zen thing), and I'd say it's an exemplar of the style. In comparison to "Post Mortem", I'd say that "Dark Dome" is on the whole a less frantic, more leisurely experience--the absence of damage-floor on the lower level making all the difference in this case--but what it lacks in unbridled savagery it more than makes up for in its delightful flexibility and replayability. Coming from humble beginnings--you have the run of the low ground, and the demons decisively control the high ground--there as many ways of conquering the map as there are Doom players, with the different discrete zones comprising the playspace (the central cross, the falls/stairs area to the south, most of the lower terraces around the periphery, etc.) all being open from mapstart. The player begins with a complete arsenal, and a wealth of ammo and other resources sits in piles in the lower level, more than enough to stock up between aggressive raids but spread out enough to encourage you to move around and check out other zones if you've been biting down hard on a not entirely efficient siege of one of them. While the term "exploration" doesn't apply quite naturally to maps in this style (IMO), gains made in a given zone will uncover new vantages, new resource stockpiles, and occasionally new darksomely gleaming MacGuffins in the form of V-spheres or other powerups, which can and should be used to throw caution to the wind and conduct mass-bombings of areas of highest enemy concentration (particularly the highly intractable central crossway).

The lack of damage-floor, wealth of usable positions and strategems, and heavy stock of resources allow the map to be played in a very slow, methodical, risk-minimizing fashion if this is your inclination, but with the aid of a little foreknowledge it can also be blitzed very aggressively. Par for the course for a purebred ZoI slaughter, the actual pace of direct engagement is usually very much up to the player (and will inevitably involve at least some cleaning of entrenched/static artillery, if you're violently allergic to that in any form), but somewhat more structured one-off encounters around the map periphery ensure that it's not possible to finish without taking at least a few risks, particularly where close-range BFG slugfests with cyberdemons (<--note plural!) are concerned. You can usually flee, and if you really know the map it's even possible to draw some of the peripheral foes out into the main area for extra chaos (particularly true with the massive infighting bonanza in the blue skull's cataract), but standing your ground is often the best way to go from a practical standpoint in these instances, and so there's at least some sense of a slap on the wrist for pussing out at every single encounter just because you're usually allowed to. :D On the flipside, my single biggest disappointment with the map has been and remains to this day simply that it doesn't use flyers nearly enough--there is a great potential for them to be a formidable harrying force from the outset (and this is something that helped "Post Mortem" itself become so famous), but the relatively modest complement of cacodemons only exerts a moderate influence on the first few minutes of action before dissolving, often largely incidentally.

It's great stuff, folks. I've played it more than any other map in the set, and I inevitably enjoy myself every time I play it. Makes me a little sad to think that this particular type of map is very nearly an extinct style these days.

[Demon of the Well]

rehelekretep said:

hey DoTW glad youre still plugging away at this (ive hit a wall at 26, which is just claustrophobic and no fun trying to complete without saving) but just wondering why youre not recording demos of this playthrough? just dont have the time? i thoroughly enjoyed your Sunlust ones and watched them all :D

Ah, well, I'm very pleased you enjoyed them, but those were FDAs of what was at the time (and still sort of is, I guess) a very new WAD. Alien Vendetta, by contrast, is one of the most iconic megaWADs in the history of the community, and has been rightfully showered with a wealth of quality (and occasionally not-so-quality) demos as collected in institutions ala DSDA, more than dwarfing anything I could ever produce. That aside, there's certainly a time consideration involved--unlike many of the Club's newer players, I've played AV enough that I don't really have any excuses for struggling painfully with most of its maps, but, just as an example, on this current casual/leisure playthrough I managed to 'splode into a shower of hamburger while acting like a total asshat against the final cyberdemon in "Stench of Evil", and if I had to start that Tour de France of a thing all over from the beginning in order to produce a recording suffice to say I'd probably still be somewhere in this playthrough come next October. :D

Speaking of....

Map 27 -- Stench of Evil - 100% Kills / 92% Secrets
A mostly straightforward linear jaunt from point A to B through the haunted outskirts of the demonic heartland, the rub with this map is that it feels like there's a few hundred miles between said two points. A Johnsen/Jansen production, "Stench of Evil" is fairly easy to identify as some of the set's oldest material, not only via its highly piecemeal construction as a linked chain of thematically/conceptually unrelated areas but through some of its mechanical workings, including more than a few instances of hamhanded monster placement and some extremely vague (or 'oldschool', depending on how one feels like spinning it) progression in its northern reaches. There is something of a unifying theme in that much of the level is framed as sort of in media res homage to various parts of "Thy Flesh Consumed" to lend some structure to what is otherwise a grab-bag of largely unrelated ideas. The coolest thing about this is that a number of the homages are not the more obvious ones or may have more than one layer--sure, we have straightforward stuff like the Nine Inch Nails/E4M1 thing early on or the E4M4 dirt-shrine with the blue key, but it's easy to overlook that an area like the mysterious blue ice-cave is a sort of imaginative parallel to the chainsaw caves from E4M2, for example, or that the fairly obvious allusion to Dr. Sleep's E4M7 found up north has what appears to be a nod to one of his Dante's Inferno levels ("Vesperas") sneakily tucked into it with a wink and a nod. There's also a goodly share of original stuff to fill out the runtime, most of it found at the beginning and at the end. Most of this stuff does not seem to be remembered as much (and I can see why, TBH), though I'm positive I've seen the wooden 'tower defense' bit with the many HKs reprised in more than one later WAD, though hell if I can come up with where specifically any of these instances were at the moment.

At its best, "Stench of Evil" is a surrealistic, dreamlike journey flitting from one fantastical setting to another, the sort of memorable adventure map that could only be credibly produced in an Infernal context. At its worst, it's a tiresome hoof session that screams out for an editorial trimming. Here, I think the mappers fell into something of an ages-old trap for lategame levels in PWADs, that being failing to prioritize making a map a pleasurable experience over the perceived pressure to adhere to a very rational difficulty curve. "Stench of Evil" is more than a little heavy on the demonflesh, with a bodycount well in excess of 800 on UV. This is of course partially a function of the map's great length, but to some degree it also appears that largely superfluous monsters (many of them higher on the HP spectrum) have been placed 'for emphasis' in many areas, considerably slowing the pace of progress while contributing little in the way of dynamism to conflicts. Many folks have pointed to the legion of Barons outside of the first red castle facade, but I reckon it's a more telling issue when it shows up in designs that could've been cooler than they are if not for laboring under the hamhanded placements. The weird phase-trap redstone network beyond the queasily snaking bridge is a good early example: so, I get that some of those pinkies are there for a good reason, that being to demonstrate to the attentive player that monsters can perform nasty flanking maneuvers in that area, knowledge that it's good to have when suddenly it's revenants instead of pigs you have to contend with. But why so many porkers to start with? What does this add but runtime? The lurid red room at the other end of progression is a similar example--all you can really do is stand there and let stuff thin out via infighting before progressing, maybe pounding away a bit yourself if you've got the ammo to spare. This is not 'tactical', it's simply asinine.

More fundamentally a problem, though, is that some areas don't really justify their existence in the first instance, thing placement aside. The dinky little marble bastion east of the ice caves is a prime example--it's a mandatory stop that houses a few imps to mow down, some totally pointless specters in a moat, and a hapless babyfaced brain to undramatically slather in plasma juice. Kindergarten stuff, that comes in the middle of what is already a downbeat segment of the map (though I personally think the ice caves themselves are a worthy inclusion from an aesthetic/atmosphere standpoint). The 'cacodemon shutters' corridor earlier on is also a particularly egregious example, representing a grotesque visual faux pas (the darkness can't fully disguise the hideous seam/tiling issues in here) in addition to being absolutely pointless from a gameplay perspective (if not actively obstructionist from a maxrun perspective!). The highly linear, segmented nature of progression tends to frame these weaker areas in neon lights, so to speak, and thus they're a little harder to mentally 'get over' than they might otherwise be, especially in the context of a map that never seems to end. After breaching the second castle, some aspect of non-linearity suddenly appears, with multiple paths to try from the main courtyard (all of them mandatory, note); this is theoretically a welcome change, though here it's arguable whether drawing the map out even longer was a wise choice, complicated by the somewhat vague switch-driven mechanical progression that dominates here, which is at very least a cinematic issue even if we excuse the game aspect through an appeal to an earlier, more innocent era of PWADing.

"Stench of Evil" has some neat ideas to it, and divorced from its gameplay issues it's a good example of the moody atmospheric quality for which Alien Vendetta has been so praised, even making an interesting stab at IWAD homagery, a design slant I personally am normally rather unfond of. Unfortunately, it suffers heavily by dint of very evidently being a dumping ground for assorted fragments and early works which the authors seemingly couldn't bear to part with, coming off as a disjointed slog with a rather uneven quality of construction/presentation throughout as a result. With much more leisurely monster placement it would probably be a lot more consistently engaging, though having a lot of its superfluous content cut would probably have served it even better.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 28 -- Whispering Shadows - 104% Kills / 100% Secrets
A bit leaner and perhaps just slightly meaner than "Stench of Evil", the obvious point of stylistic comparison for "Whispering Shadows" is clearly "Speed" from Plutonia, though here the similarity is more a matter of general thematic kinship rather than one of active homagery. In addition to conglomerations of chunky wooden towers and scaffolding rising out of generalized sumps of blood and/or lava spilling into desolate floodlands in the outlying areas, the spine of the level is a low-lying building packed full of festering flesh sheathed in crimson masonry and inlaid with chalky stucco, with mutilated corpses and other displays of death dotted about in peculiar votive shrines. In an interesting callback to an idea seen earlier in "Dark Dome", here again the name of the level seems to be taken from an optional/hidden encounter at the end of the map, with a soulsphere in a shadow-soaked pocket-dimension reminiscent of the temple's foyer (which the player is looking at as the map first loads), with disembodied fell voices echoing and clamoring in the space around the artifact, and undead horrors exploding out of the aether to attack should it be disturbed. This could mean absolutely nothing, of course. Or it could mean anything, which is the cool thing about narrative in Doom.

Generally speaking, this is not that much different from "Stench of Evil" prior--mostly linear, a series of one-off vignettes, largely incidental entrenched monster placement, etc.--but I reckon it's a more effective and coherent presentation on the whole, with a simple form of old-fashioned non-linearity emerging through what turns out to be a classic three-key hunt, with an overall linearity disguised somewhat by a loop in the route and some additional action to cover the small portion of the journey that is a true backtrack. In terms of aesthetic/theme, it also hangs together much more neatly than what was seen in m27, which perhaps lessens its surreal quality but ultimately helps the sense of place. Some of the faults of said prior level remain--some discrete areas don't seem particularly inspired (the yellow key's little valley, for instance) and again there's somewhat of an issue in maintaining steam over the duration, with the stuff after the blue door first seen early on seemingly somewhat tacked-on/disconnected from the rest (save for the cool little callback mentioned above); fortunately, the overall level of concourse/presentation is a lot more consistent through all of this save for a minor hiccup or two (i.e. there's a failure of perspective out of the north window near the plasma rifle), and so even the superfluous/extraneous material doesn't seem disruptive in the way parts of m27 did. Also, + 100 bonus points for hurling gobbets of meat out of the walls at one point for no readily identifiable reason, always makes me smile.

Relative to other mid/late E3 maps, the action here seems a little more consistently laid-back and not constantly preoccupied with making breaching new areas inconvenient in the name of 'challenge' (again, something which would have benefited map 27), though a few potentially nasty (though usually easily-spotted) traps are present to keep you from getting too complacent. The emphasis seems to be a bit more focused on pacing and arc of weapon progression--this is a heavily buckshot-oriented map for much of the runtime, with most of the noticeably limited rocket supply slated for particular uses that may or may not be obvious to the casual player. The BFG and plasma rifle are both found along the main route, and though the supply of cells is far from plentiful, there's enough to subsidize a pretty decisive gain in player momentum provided the BFG is used with decent technique and in sensible locations (i.e. against the brood of cacos in the blood-river gulch to the north). Perhaps the most notable placement feature are the first two cyberdemons, who appear in rather small/spiteful positions early in the proceedings and thus must be juked (leaving at least one of them as a remaining issue for later on) or fought point-blank with the SSG, a proposition that was most assuredly much sassier and more remarkable in its own day than what some of you may be accustomed to in the here and now. A goodly supply of secrets are present, as well, and on this playthrough I was struck that they're generally fun to get, many of them sat in more or less plain sight and involving bits of parkour or other little athletic tricks in order to reach.

Solid lategame map. Shows its age (as a lot of these levels unavoidably do), but the downtic in pacing (that isn't a sharp trough) is well-timed in the context of the greater set.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 29 -- Fire Walk with Me - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Alien Vendetta's penultimate level may come as a bit of a surprise in that it's tighter and more focused than almost anything else seen in E3, and so stands in contrast to all of Johnsen's levels preceding it in that regard, coming off as one of the set's newest and most polished levels at time of release. While it fields over 300 monsters, over a third of these are dead within the first five minutes, and while later segments are hardnosed enough to slow down more cautious players they can also be tackled in a very aggressive manner, making for an outing that wraps up more quickly than anything seen recently in the mapset. That being the case, one might reasonably wonder if perhaps a 'pacer' level was placed in the wrong spot (for my part, I'm a firm believer that it's absolutely crucial to avoid anticlimax in the last few mapslots), but here Johnsen has a delivered something that's memorable throughout, and it's no surprise that this is one of the most frequently referenced of all of AV's levels.

Thematically, this is a fairly traditional fire & brimstone patois with lots of lava and 'natural' scenery formed primarily of volcanic ash dotted with stunted trees, with a marble (mostly) temple squatting over the confluence. While the outdoor sections are fairly par for the course for the set's generally traditional Hell theme and the carved marble temple interiors are something we've already seen several times prior in maps 26, 27, and 28 (maybe it's all supposed to be one massive temple complex that spans miles of terrain?), the delivery here is particularly inspired and shows a lot of personality through some of its colorful details. The evocative opening shot sets the scene, and from the outset the environment feels more believably fleshed out than anything scene in prior Hell maps, with a more or less linear path through a layout with lots of 2.5D sleight of hand along a path that loops on itself a number of times over the duration via drops and climbs into new areas and back into old ones from different access points. What really appeals to me here, though, is that there's a certain capricious weirdness present in some of the aesthetic ideas that lends the level a touch of eldritch atmosphere, always a big plus in the endgame. The writhing imps acting as damned souls hanging from hillside gallows silhouetted against the glowering sky are the tip of the iceberg; the familiar temple setting now includes strange glyphs or sigils for a less vaguely occult feel, and the red key is found in what can only be described as the gizzard of some unknowable serpentine thing, the maw of which replaces what should be a threshold in one of the temple's wings. Many of these ideas have proven striking enough to be referenced a number of times in later PWADs, the most largescale of these probably being the original Deus Vult, which more or less reprises/reimagines the totality of "Fire Walk with Me" for its own final segment. More recently, and just as a point of example, the serpent's maw construction has appeared screenshotted from somewhere in the depths of Mechadon's forthcoming Vela Pax.

Encounters here generally seem to be more minutely designed than in the past several maps, beginning with a short berserk-punching segment and with a bona fide setpiece (<3!heartone) or two appearing as highlights, by far the most notable of these being the infamous 'revenant curve' met when Vendettaguy first follows the river of lava underground. A true drop-in, sealed-area encounter, where many previous fights have invited proper BFG usage and crowdshaping skills as an ideal solution, this one more actively demands them, and plugs the exit and all workable camping spots with potent spoiler enemies for a genuinely choreographed fight which was revelatory in its time (and, incidentally, this is another idea from FWwM which has reappeared in many places since--I myself most recently re-encountered it in map 26 of Jimmy Paddock's Jenesis during the first Ironman League event). Later action is generally not up to the same frenetic pace, but rather than just clearing out rooms of monsters a lot of the fights continue to feel like they're based on definite ideas or concepts, ala the accelerating and potentially intimidating leak of arch-viles out of the serpent's mouth, or the first soulsphere secret which has a surprise closeted cyberdemon you wouldn't meet otherwise en tow. Perhaps excepting the silly 'chaingunner mound' near the gallows, which can be wiped out in a couple of BFG shots if you've saved some ammo, the low point from a pacing perspective is probably the entrenchment around the YK, which if I've got my terminology right is a rather pungent example of what rdwpa calls "prickly" placement, requiring you to pick and chip away from a markedly uncomfortable/inferior position for a time before you can make a real play on claiming the area. Generally, though, it's rather brisk and bloody stuff (if again primarily frontal/direct in framing), and a good sendoff for the WAD proper before the traditional map 30 ritual of explosive ablution.

Map 30 -- Point Dreadful - 1,033% Kills / No actual secrets
Somewhat half-assed mapname aside, I reckon this is a solid map 30 replacement featuring naught but a very traditional IoS fight--ride the firing point, time the rocket shot, repeat 1-2 more times, you know the drill. The major wrinkle here, and one that has historically caused players all manner of headache/heartache (definitely wasn't just you guys that participated in this DWMC playthrough), is that reaching the topmost level in order to re-actuate the firing point after each attempt involves using skullswitch-operated lifts that must be dashed for within a very tight time window if you're to catch them, which is most pronounced on the bottom level. A solid SR50 will catch them every time (unless some milling hell-oaf obstructs your path, that is), while a more standard SR40 will require more consciously tuned aim and positioning. I've practiced this one enough times that it doesn't slow me down too much anymore (although you can tell from my inflated killscore that I missed that first lift at least a few times ;) ), but in honesty it used to piss me off back in the WAD's early days too, so I won't browbeat you too much on the matter.

I eventually made my peace with the level primarily because it handles the presentation/aesthetic side of the proceedings fairly well--something I generally consider more crucial in map 30 than in most any other slot. Set in an ominous shrine at the very top of a burning mountain blanketed in impaled corpses in the way that one of our own terrestrial mountains might be covered in trees, the deadpan midi and strange thunderous murmuring that greets you when you set foot inside the shrine (note that the Icon's usual catchphrase is also mixed at a lower pitch as well) set the scene for the game-closing ritual in a rather striking take on a traditionally Doom-y depiction of graphic evil. The sense of setting is by far the level's greatest asset; as aforesaid, in play terms it's a very rote IoS setup with a minor conceptual twist that most will find irritating, and given the paucity of ammo after the shrine's foyer and the complications arising from having enemies milling around on the lowest level while you're trying to zip over to the first lift, it's not very suitable for the 'survival' challenge I like to self-impose in maps of this type--moreso than in the average IoS map, you need to finish it quick lest you risk not finishing at all, which I suppose is interesting in that it accomplishes this through the way it stages its terrain rather than through the vastly more common tack of using a greatly accelerated spawnrate....but, I think I've prattled on for more than long enough at this point, and so I'm going to cut it off here.

******************

In these playthroughs of older WADs, it's never too difficult to see that time tends to be unkind, which is a shame in a sense, but also speaks to the remarkable artistic vitality of the game's community, a vitality which is ironically enough fueled by successive generations of landmark WADs like this one. Alien Vendetta is not the immaculate meisterwerk it is sometimes popularly lionized as--in many places, you can see the relative inexperience of its authors at work (and in that light, also their growth between maps, and indeed through the fact that they saw fit to release a later improved/polished version)--but I stand by my assessment that it's a stylistic watershed in a way that the legendary WADs which preceded it generally can't quite match, in terms of its drive to create a truly cohesive, polished product if in no other way. The primordial beginnings of what we now understand as modernity (particularly in diegetic sensibility), you might say....? Anyway....so long, AV, thanks for all the memories, both the ones made in 2002 and the ones your scions continue to make, sometimes without even fully realizing it, now in 2016.

Top 5 maps of the set, in no particular order (other than Dark Dome being tops, I guess!):

Map 11 -- Nemesis
Map 13 -- Suicidal Tendencies
Map 29 -- Fire Walk with Me
Map 20 -- Misri Halek
Map 26 -- Dark Dome

[Cynical]

Interesting thoughts on map 25. I had always thought of it as being sort of "Nuts.wad, but with the outright audacity replaced with practical playability"; a mostly rote exercise of watching Cyberdemons kill Barons and Revs for you while you fired rockets through doorways into boxes. Playing it again after reading your post with an eye towards blitzing it/making it as smooth as possible by timing the V-sphere pickups (and using some pacifist trolling in the early going to speed things along), and I see what you mean about it being a kind of "transitional" challengemap between old and new styles; a lot of the "run around the hordes, and then leverage key moments" play is quite reminiscent of the slaughter-styles of Darkwave0000, neo-Joshy, and Skillsaw.

It's still nowhere near my favorite map in the wad (or even in my top 6, which would go Dark Dome/Lake Poison/Hillside Siege/Stench of Evil/Overwhelming Odds/No Guts No Glory [I'm not certain which of those last three I'd drop to cull it to a top 5]), and there's still no way I can justify the last third or so of the map (the bit behind the yellow bars) or the utterly pointless Pain Elemental well between the first two major yards, but I've definitely gained a new appreciation for it from this trip.

RE: Map 26 flyers, there actually are quite a few, but the thing is that they're generally revealed very near to the player to get BFGd/rocketed immediately. If something goes south, and the player needs to retreat for resources mid-fight, they actually create some pretty good harassment action once they spread out a bit (and, I swear, there's always two or three stragglers from the initial group of Cacos that manage to be in-the-way at the worst possible moments); frequently, though, they just get instantly vaporized before they can create RNG-fueled ambushes. I suppose it's just another example of DD's commitment to variability with each play. As for why there are so few maps made in this style nowadays... it's hard! I tried to mimic the Post Mortem/Dark Dome, and failed utterly miserably (my attempt ended up feeling more like a diet Hard Target to me before I abandoned it).

(Even though I love DD, I still love PM more. DD's individual combat scenarios are frequently fiercer, but it loses too much visceral thrill with the safe floor.)

[dobu gabu maru]

Congrats Demon, another megawad down, a near-innumerable amount to go.

Cynical said:

(Even though I love DD, I still love PM more. DD's individual combat scenarios are frequently fiercer, but it loses too much visceral thrill with the safe floor.)

Yup, ditto. Losing the damaging floor made me feel like I could play the map at my own pace, which unfortunately made for some pretty dull combat since I didn't want to risk triggering more foes most of the time. DD definitely has its merits, but PM made the bigger impact on me.

[T-Rex]

dobu gabu maru said:

Yup, ditto. Losing the damaging floor made me feel like I could play the map at my own pace, which unfortunately made for some pretty dull combat since I didn't want to risk triggering more foes most of the time. DD definitely has its merits, but PM made the bigger impact on me.

Agreed. I may consider Alien Vendetta to be more superior to Hell Revealed, but Post Mortem was much better in the sense you have to keep moving or else you'll die, while in Darkdome, it's very easy to camp out and take your time (for the most part) with handling the resistance. Still, it's a really well done map in its own right, like with almost any other map in the megawad. If only Map30 didn't require straferunning to the elevators, it could have gotten a perfect 10 on my vote, as I consider AV to be a rite of passage for Doomers.

[rehelekretep]

eugh

map26 - fda here

i always find it amazing how opinions can differ so much when playing the same map. i really disliked this level from start to finish. my main complaints were:

1)
dull/monotonous texturing and architecure. while i can appreciate the claustrophobic/intimidating atmosphere, it can be quite oppressive and confusing moving around the space. even though it is actually quite a small map, i found only after about 10 attempts, nearing the end of my fda, that i actually got an idea of the space, and was more able to navigate around it freely. i frequently found myself just sprinting about more in hope than expectation of finding where the hell i was meant to end up next

2)
this ties in with the other major issue: progression. how am i meant to know flipping a switch in the baron cubby is going to lower the waterfall room gate? how am i meant to know going back through the teleporter from the YK will take me to the correct place? im sure i once went through that same teleporter and it left me back with the revenants in the spiderdemon room. eugh. in my fda you can see me sit there paused for a while as i was checking tatsurdcacocaco's UV-max on youtube to work out what the hell i was meant to do next after picking up the YK

it also doesnt help that im numpty who took 10 deaths or so to realise the map gives you all the weapons when you start :x

very glad to finally exit the map. (⌐■_■)