The DWmegawad Club plays: Echelon & Mutiny

[Spectre01]

Map 03: Crossbug

A bit of a "where the hell are my weapons and armour?" situation at the start here but nothing too harsh. I really like the industrial feel here with gritty, rusted metal textures and various support beams curving in peculiar ways. The map, despite its small size is mildly annoying to navigate due to all the one-way drops and silly looking knee high barriers that you can just barely not step over. Also, after grabbing the SSG and teleporting to the little Manc/HK setpiece, whoever made this part a solid wall is a giant ass. There were enemies running around there I wanted to shoot rockets at while an infighting simulator was happening, not chunk my HP in half with my own rocket. The 3 Viles behind the blue barricade were also easily sniped through a gap with a lamp. Not a fan of the "can't see the damn goats" final fight at all. Shooting rockets at the darkness is annoying and not much else. Oh well, GZDoom > Options > Dynamic Lights > ON.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP02: Shipyard

There's a marked shift away from MAP01's moderately-paced tunnel crawl toward more open and intense action here, with the level consisting of a single battlefield dominated by the central control building surrounded by concentric rings of platforms, water, and walkways, with ships and buildings forming the backdrop and giving a sense of being a staging area from which at least some of the monstrous reinforcements are arriving. The rhythm is one of escalating action, with each key recovered and each switch pressed throwing more monsters into the mix. Some of these feel less sporting than others (the chaingunners that pop up around the red key feel especially harsh) but there's enough health strewn around that recovery from all but the toughest traps or most egregious of blunders is always a possibility. Still, I think the pacing and layout of MAP01 was more to my own personal tastes.

MAP03: Crossbug

The atmosphere here is delightful, setting the player on a winding path through the skeleton of some otherwise anonymous industrial space, its purpose lost to time, ruin, and demonic infestation. The architecture combines long lines of sight and frequent views of distant parts of the level and the sky with relatively cramped quarters and confined movement, making extensive use of short barriers and height changes in place of walls. Overall the feeling it invokes is one of disorientation and danger. The gameplay itself left me feeling a little cold; the short barriers and odd angles at which lines, spaces, or components meet left me with the occasional sense that I wasn't sure if the move I was about to make was part of the intended path of progression, and the close quarters lent the map a stop-start pacing that seemed at odds with the more open visuals, leaving me feeling like a bird in a cage by the window, able to see the sky but unable to spread my wings and fly.

[Black-Hand]

Map 01: Surface
The best midi of the whole for me, I really appreciate that fact that you have the choice of many paths to finish the level.
The berserk pack at the start of the map has greetly change my way to apprehend the map this map is now my mumber one level of all the wad I have ever played.

Map 02: Shipyard
I was pretty impressed by the first level by this one nailed it, I did enjoyed the trigger the infight between the revenant, the imps and the archnotron a lot but for some reason not matter how I tried there is always two monsters that I can't find.

[Demtor]

MAP02 - “Shipyard” by Pinchy, Tarnsman
gzDoom - UV – pistol start




Whew, a map like this will remind me I've spent a little too long playing Hellbound and Echelon stuff. Time to step up your game, son! I must have restarted this a half dozen times at least trying to decide what the best strategy would be. Once you step outside, no matter which way you turned, your almost guaranteed to take some damage. You can clear out an area but soon enough it would just be filled up again with new guys. I settled on moving from key to key, switch to switch as fast as possible while taking out enemies on the fly.

The problem with that strategy was guys like this mother fucker hanging out on the ship were just going to have to chill there the whole time pretty much. I couldn't justify the waste of ammo on him and the time I would spend in the open taking shots from others while I tried killing him. Grrrrr. Annoying to say the least.

Another problem with my rushed approach was everything was trapped!! God damn it. Some where more fair than others. The worst being the pinkies and revs that trapped me with them in a tight closet. Ugh, gtfo. Save loaded that shit like 10 times before I managed to squeeze out of the room. Piss off.

Always fun to deal with a Caco swarm but with no ammo and a mancubi blocking the exit... no thanks. I blasted him and left them behind. It was a great test of sorts, but I don't see myself ever playing that map again. Ugh, no thanks.


MAP03 - “Crossbug" by MrGlide, Ribbiks
gzDoom - UV – pistol start


Weird map with a weird starting visual.


Coming from the last two maps I felt no similarities here with this one. Which is fine. I just didn't expect it. All of the abstract architecture and oddities like a switch to open a door to nowhere. Huh?? Along with the change the pace the style of map was very different too. Almost like a puzzle map trying to figure out where to go and what to do next but there were a few encounters that felt very much like a Ribbiks style I'm pretty familiar with having gone through Sunlust earlier this year.

Which is probably why I recognized the nice visual touches in the final room. Very cool looking red on black stuff, especially liked the slowly rising stairs when all is said and done. Those PE's in the dark were tricky with a pack of nobles wading in from the opposite side, whew. That was rough. Tempted to turn the brightness up but I managed with the extra challenge.

No idea where the blue key was. Didn't find a single secret. (This map or the last.) I looked really hard too... *shrug* Good change of pace, lots of interesting stuff... but I'm moving on.

[Salt-Man Z]

Oof, just realized I should have gotten farther ahead in the early weeks of this month; it's going to be hard keeping up with in-law Christmas stuff this week (I was gone all weekend, for a start) and actual Christmas stuff this coming weekend. Here are a couple of more of my done-ahead-of-time writeups:


MAP02: Shipyard
13:20 | (forgot to record, stats were terrible and I missed the secret)

Are you kidding me even with this map. I am already regretting my decision to play this on UV. The starting green armor all but vanished right off the bat, and then I was three good shotgun blasts (if I was lucky!) away from death for the rest of the level. Ridiculous ambushes everywhere. Tried the berserk/revenant encounter like five times before deciding that just running away was the only way to beat it. Follow that with a teleport ambush/pinkie pincer, followed immediately by insta-pop chaingunner death. Good grief. The exit switch warps in like a million monsters, and well, shoot I guess I shoulda gone for those rocket crates first but now the building's flooded with baddies and I ran away outside so so much for that plan. Futilely tried to max kills anyway, but completely ran out of ammo and there was still a building packed full of cacos and pinkies and an elevator full of sergeants and a couple mancs left outside and uh huh, yeah right. The first time I tried exiting, I was killed crossing the proverbial finish line; I wasn't planning on pistol-starting, but if my options are to start the next map with 10% health, 5 guns and basically no ammo, or 100% health and 50 bullets, I guess I'll take the latter. Holy crap. But hey, everything looks lovely (as usual.) But teleporting across the water? That was a weird way to handle that...


MAP03: Crossbug
10:49 | 68% Kills | 81% Items | 0% Secrets

Decided since, hey, I'm pistol-starting this one anyway, it'd probs be best for my health if I dialed it back to HMP. Good thing, too, 'cause I barely made it out of this one alive. It seems like ammo scarcity + nasty ambushes is the name of the game, here. There's some health lying around, but I always felt like I was running low. I did find a soulsphere, but one of the traps (don't remember which) nailed me but good, and I went from 160% down to 50ish right quick. The exit area caught me by surprise! I had seen blue key doors earlier and was expecting a blue key down there, but instead found myself stuck in the exit room in a crowd I wanted no part of, so I boogied out of there as fast as I could and managed to escape with a whopping 4% health. Loved the look of this level, too; the seaside-city-in-flames background is awesome, and the crusty orange textures looked great. Wish I'd have gotten to explore the map more, though, as there were a number of interesting layouts. A lot of one-way, no-retreat paths, though, which I can't say was a fan of.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP03: Goddamn, first Tarns and now Ribbiks? The start of this map is pretty relentless as you’re only given a berserk in order to subdue a sizeable number of foes encroaching on your position, and running anywhere will lead to more monsters and more death. Once you gather your armaments the map lets off considerably, as all that berserk punching is bound to save you some shells and rockets. Traversing the area was kinda bizarre—perhaps I’m not used to Ribbiks’ style with these garish textures, or maybe MrGlide’s touches are throwing me off balance or something, but it took me a while to get through the map due to geography alone. The final fight was really, really neat—the PEs are pretty spooky in the darkness, and it’s not too often one uses a noble fleet as their main threat. A nifty map, though I wish it was just a touch more accommodating for being in the third mapslot.

[Killer5]

Map 04:
Demo: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1698151

First off.. the midi used in this map is ridic. One of my new favorite midis by far.

The rest of the map is pretty good. I felt like the ending got kind of weird with all of the monsters that kept constantly appearing just prior to the exit stairs (I really wished I had a bfg just.. because..).

A lot of the combat in the map felt good. Nothing was tedious and I was able to fly through most of the map no problem. There is that huge battle to get to the bk after initially entering what I think of as the second half of the map through the little alley way. But I felt the monster placement was annoying enough to make it interesting the entire time. Maps with a bunch of random damage potential from fireballs thrown from blind spots are always a lot of fun because I have to think about the map layout, monster locations, and my position simultaneously.

I really liked how the rk pillar area on the map was reused multiple times though. Using an ssg versus imps and hitscan is pretty much nirvana for me.

I didn't really click with the raising/lowering platform puzzle required to get the bk. Just kind of wished I could have jumped there immediately or just hit a switch to get the platforms at the right height.

Good map. Enjoyed playing it.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP04: Finally, the joe-ilya/AD crossover I’ve been waiting for (with 40oz in there somewhere?)! It’s too bad that I really, really don’t like this map. I’ve always been a major advocate that the best joe maps are short joe maps, and even with AD/40oz on board, my opinion hasn’t changed. What they seem to have brought to the table is considerably less health and more dickery in this map, as it’s primed to kill you at every turn, whether it be the innumerable hitscanners, close-range hellknights, or constant AV fights with less-than-optimal cover. This map is so goddamn loaded with enemies that it practically gave me indigestion, every turn brimming with more foes to whittle my health down to single digits—seriously, look how stupidly packed the courtyard at the bottom of the map is!

While there were certain sections of this map that were neat—I kinda wish more was done with the lowering green/red pillar-bridges, those were cool—the famine of first-aid meant I had to play the map in a really boring way, and it just dragged on and on like that. Had there been more rocket ammo perhaps I could’ve been a bit bolder, but as it stands I honestly feel like there either needs to be twice as much health of half as many enemies for me to ever want to replay this one. Next.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP04: Warzone

I love the music here. It reminds me of nothing so much as an uptempo version of Jimmy's own The Cry from BTSX E1M20 - indeed, to me there's something BTSX-esque about the level in general, with the player crawling through shapely industrial spaces, albeit with an urban slant rather than the pure techbase feel of BTSX E1. For a relatively modest slice of real estate this map features quite the demonic headcount; it's a crowded patch of war-torn urban landscape, although the majority of that headcount consists of small fry, and there are plentiful opportunities to fill a corridor with scything buckshot and watch the bodies hit the floor by the fistful.

Overall it's an interesting layout that twist and turns back on itself, frequently bringing the player to a familiar space from an unfamiliar angle or a new vantage point, but I found it difficult to maintain much of a pace here. Traps are frequent and vicious, and I found that the dense population encouraged stop-start action rather than plunging in recklessly. It's a rewarding experience and a gorgeous bit of mapping but not the most fun I've had with a level even within this set.

[Demtor]

MAP04 - “Warzone” by joe-ilya, AD_79, 40oz
gzDoom - UV – pistol start


Got pretty familiar with this hub...

And the hits just keep on coming with this map... my God. I wish there was a way to highlight how much player blood is spilled on a map so you can look back and see where you had a real hard time. My blood, would be everywhere. There are snipers everywhere.

Lost Souls! Sooooo many lost souls! I had no idea that a minor nuisance could be used as a viable threat in almost every encounter but this map achieved just that. I scrounged and used every bit of health there was and it wasn't even close to enough. Seriously. When a map has a secret area (tiny switch at the starting door) that is full of health potions that add up to about one med kit's worth, and you're ecstatic about it.... that says quite a lot. Being so low on health all the time made one errant Lost Soul bite, a very real problem. Not to mention they soak up precious ammo. Blah.

This was a grueling grind that didn't seem to allow for many mistakes because you'd more than likely never recover from them. I would be willing to replay on a lesser difficulty... but I didn't enjoy much of the locations and views enough to really bother. Just lots of aggravating areas and encounters, one after the next. Very glad I'm pistol starting. As Salt-Man Z described earlier... spitting blood across the finish with empty chambers and low health, helps a player welcome a fresh start on the next map.

[rehelekretep]

fde here
i'll echo most of what others have said for this one; the lost soul/hitscanner placement is mostly obnoxious and rewards either knowing exactly what youre doing/where youre going, or playing very slowly and cautiously. there are a few lost soul encounters that are more interesting, but mostly just irritating speed-bumps. the map picks up after the RK pick-up, with the tightrope walking along the outside of the building perfectly designed; not too many hitscanners, just enough space to move to dodge but not enough to feel comfortable, the AV to scare the shit out of you. the last fight is just mindless spam unfortunately as the monsters cant spill down the steps. is there a BFG somewhere? not my favourite.

[Demtor]

It's funny because even watching a good replay of Warzone is a butt clenchingly nerve racking experience.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP04: Warzone
42:52 | 100% Kills | 57% Items | 85% Secrets

First off: I abolustely love this song. So good. As for the level itself, it might be hard to properly judge given I started at 14% health with no armor. I probably can't really say the map is stingy with health, it's just that when you need 3+ medikits just to get back to normal, health is always gonna feel tight—which it did. (Edit: Well, I guess everyone else thought it was stingy, too, so...) Yeah, there were a few soulspheres and a berserk, but the first supercharge was immediately negated by the vile trap, and the other stuff I didn't discover until I had cleared out the level. (At least it let me leave at 200% this time, yay.) On the other hand, I think there was only a single green armor about halfway through, which made things tough. Still, I really enjoyed this one; a lot of constant incidental combat, which I enjoy. A couple tricksy ambushes, but mostly just mowing down hordes and trying to find some cover. Easily my favorite of the set thus far.

[Spectre01]

Map 04: Warzone

Joe-Ilya map? idclev 05

I'm just playin', this map legit and the best so far. Looking at the high starting monster count, I was left wondering whether I was getting some slaughter-lite or a long map. Turns out it was the latter and it took me a good 47 minutes to clear. The level takes place in a gritty urban setting and as always, I'm a huge fan of well done city maps. The map's actually not that large, compared to say, Hellbound's urban maps, but there is high monster density and degree of verticality to the layout. The combat style is slightly reminiscent of the one in Urania, although dialed down a notch or two. There is a very liberal usage of hitscanners, snipers and ambushing enemies deviously placed throughout the map. It's for the most part incidental without much in the way of "Archviles behind you bruh!" type of dickery. I didn't find this map difficult since playing super cautiously and precisely Chaingun tapping away at enemies is my jam! I did royally screw up at the Archvile on the bridge which left me with no armour and low health for a large portion of the map. Consumables are indeed quite stingy here which makes large groups of hitscanners very punishing. Really liked this puzzle towards the end too, which reminded me a bit of the pillar manipulation section in Shadow Warrior's map04. Cool stuff. Great midi too. Look, I'm a sensitive guy and that piano melody is as sensitive as it gets. ;)

[rehelekretep]

fda here
video features: ludicrously lucky escapes, phantom rockets, parkour and more!

wow; what a contrast to 04, this was a blast to play. it actually reminded me of Hellbound, in a sense of a well-realised, sprawling city map. although i must say i think this out-does Hellbound's city maps in every way. there's a good mix of incidental and set-piece combat. obvious blocking lines are absent, especially in the watery underpass. lost souls are absent (thank the Lord), and the midi is great.

top class!

[Demtor]

MAP05 - “Slums” by dt_
gzDoom - UV – pistol start


The look of the underpass is amazing and really stands out.

Favorite music so far, and favorite map for that matter. Very challenging but fair. Loved exploring all of the buildings and back alleys until it opens up some.

A lot of the structures are very well done and really make you feel like you're truly exploring some overrun and abandoned city area. Everything just looks so well crafted and detailed. Hah, loved the "not poison" signs near the little bridge and sewers area.

Lots of very interesting encounters mixed in throughout this map. The pace of everything was really nice. Explore, ambush, explore, trapped encounter, explore, big battle, explore, etc. etc.

It felt VERY good to get a plasma rifle AND a backpack. Hell yeah!

The tight locked in fight over the BK with the AV, Revs and pinkies in almost pitch black was a hair raiser for sure.

The mob below the underpass that gets unleashed with the rocket launcher switch took me a few tries as the Revs up top from behind really surprised me. Not the mention the pinkies let out from the sewer pipes below will squeeze you in if you attempt to run around down below thinking there will be space to move. Good use of aerial guys too. Thankfully the area is so well designed you can managed to scramble up and around well enough to stay alive.

The box area with the Cyberdemon and adjoining mob complete with AV had me REALLY scrambling in a panic but it was a lot of fun getting things cut down bit by bit until you can finally breath a sigh of relief again. Then the 3 AVs afterwards were hilarious. Glad I didn't waste too much ammo so I could take them down fast. Think it's time for that megasphere now.

Chaingunning snipers, all the time. Man, I'm getting really good at cutting them down ASAP thanks to Mutiny's forced practice at it. A very liberal use of Chaingun guys is quite a shakeup from what I'm used to.

Not a single secret to be found. My % overall so far with this WAD is abysmal. I saw a soulsphere at the start so I know where one would be but I had no clue on how to get it. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Usually I can manage one or two secrets but... damn. Either I'm overlooking obvious things or there is some new trick being implemented that I haven't caught on to yet. Reminds me a bit like how BTSX had it's own kind of secret style.

[Tristan]

haha, I don't think I've ever seen that much praise for a MIDI before (talking about 04) - and yet it would appear Jimmy made it in about an hour, if that. Quite amusing and rather incredible :)

[rehelekretep]

haha Demtor im beginning to think we have very similar tastes! thanks for the screenshots, great stuff :D

[dt_]

It's a year to the day that I started making map05. Some kind of 'mapiversary' going on

[rehelekretep]

what were your inspirations making it? its a great map!

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP05: Slums

Thematically this is a logical progression from the preceding map, urban and industrial spaces giving way to inner-city decay with housing, machinery, and sewerage all crammed together with an eye to maximising the use of real estate rather than comfort. I find that the organic layout here holds more appeal than MAP04's more sculpted setting; there's a strong sense here of things just being piled atop one another and pressing together until there's barely enough room to breathe. The combat is more fun too, a similar alternation of incidental combat with big set-piece battles, but the latter feel more intense, more cleverly designed, and better able to really pressure the player here. The highlight for me is probably the big battle under the highway overpass, which starts with the player in a dominant vantage point over the main assault group but forces movement with its release of cacodemons and revenants from different angles; there are a multitude of different strategies that the player can adopt here, and it's a fight that rewards creativity and cunning as well as skilled execution.

[dt_]

rehelekretep said:

what were your inspirations making it? its a great map!

I'm keen on the urban style, and this texture set inspired me to run with it. I used to play a game called 'kingpin' a few years back and wanted to try and go for a setting similar to that. With regards to the layout, I took inspiration from "cs_backalley"- you might see a resemblance to it in the first open area if you remember the original counter strike

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP05: dt_ makes a fantastic first impression with his solo entry to the set, being our most adventurous map yet (and tad more laid back from the other three murder-fests). His claustrophobic and looping style of gameplay is definitely more my cup of tea, and for the most part the map plays pretty well. The darkened cityscape has a lot more variety than the previous map and I appreciate the little shortcut doors, even if they’re not really essential. My favorite part I think is this lil’ secret, as it’s one of those infinitesimal vignettes that offers a mere frame from a story about this marine that couldn’t escape these sewers… tragic. Gameplay-wise, I absolutely loved the cyberdemon battle, as it’s a rare instances where a lot of enemies come together and compliment an encounter fully, from the nasty cyb, the pinkies defending the revs from rockets, the AV in the back to throw the party into disarray, to the PEs that are high priority targets when you have no clear shots to the AV.

I kinda wish the map ended on that encounter, as I had no way to fight the triple AV deluxe encounter after that (I only had 4 rockets and 12 shells!) Having to survive that and all the future encounters (since the AVs can hop in the tele down below to hound you further through the level) was not fun at all, especially since I had cleaned the level of all ammo prior and couldn’t even reach the exit due to the chaingunners (only have 1 shell at this point). IMO I think the map was perfect up to that point and this ending was straight-up overkill, and to make matters worse apparently the secrets I missed only offered health, which I wasn’t really in any need of. Shame that, as it’s a fabulous map otherwise.

[Aquanet]

Echelon catchup.

MAP23: The Stone Web

This is dynamite. If anything's wrong, too much of the combat is tucked to the sides, meaning there isn't enough reason to go running across the spiderweb platforms.

MAP24: Fumes of Alchemy

And this is a weirdly conventional level. I had mentally filed it away as part of another wad and had a moment of mistaken deja vu when replaying it. I can't say I'd want more of Echelon to be like this, but it's fun while it lasts.

MAP25: Bastille

The pit and hourglass-shaped depressions that make up the lower half of the map are nice. And it's great there is health and real rewards at the bottom of the pit, below the mancs and stuff.

MAP26: Inner Palace

Another anti-vista map. Just a building. It seems bigger and more complex than it really is, and there are a couple+ ways to go about infiltrating it.

MAP27: Fire and Brimstone

8 second speed run.

MAP28: The High Places of Baal

Echelon gets unpredictable near the rear. Spirit of Eternal. The reach-the-teleport puzzles are clever, and the central building, while maybe not the most conducive to fun combat, is exciting to run up and down.

MAP29: The Elder

Should probably be the ending. A nice piece of work, although I have met my small quota for tolerating floors that suddenly disappear. 28 and 29 seem to be cut from the same green cloth.

MAP30: A Chance in Hell

One of the easier encounters I've had with three cybers, which for me is a good thing.

Final Thoughts

Echelon is bright and clever and fun-oriented in the midst of taking mostly a simple-but-not-necessarily-speedmapped approach to levels. It takes the patchwork reality of wad making and doesn't try to hide it. The keys as storage devices or the light visor as a dog are good examples, as are the pretty simple but weirdly compelling custom textures. The pacing of ideas drew me in, and the willingness to toy with a style for a level or two and discard it.

[Spectre01]

Map 05: Slums

Nicely detailed and quite claustrophobic city map with plenty of crates and other sector objects littering the map and both providing cover and inhibiting movement. The blue key ambush with the Revs and Vile is the part that got me due to the narrow pillars and SSG as my best weapon. The visual style does a good job with the whole dystopian urban decay theme that the wad's all about, with a more realistic style than the previous map. Demtor already posted the money shot with the bridge and not-poison canal below. The big fight with the Cyber was fun, due to the high enemy variety used as backup and in a way that they don't die to infighting. I mostly ran around the crates, taking out priority targets while the Cyber handled the ground crew. He can't shoot over the control panel which starts the encounter while you can easily light him up with plasma. The triple-Vile reveal was unexpected but I had plenty of rockets to pump from behind cover. Neat elevator sequence too with various dudes on smaller lifts showing up. The Soulsphere secret triggered by the line right before the exit was at a weird spot since a lot of people will end up hitting the exit line and the fact that the wad seems to be more Pistol-Start oriented than something like Echelon. Mutiny continuous to be an enjoyable and consistent set.

[rehelekretep]

fde here

after running about the industrial city, we enter the factory/treatment plant
a nice continuation of the previous map. not a fan of the forced damage floor start, but it picks up from there. never liked 'vertical' secrets in Doom (at least without freelook on) but thankfully it doesnt drop you into trouble at all. highlight is the multi-tiered fight in the aforementioned treatment plant.

[Demtor]

rehelekretep said:

haha Demtor im beginning to think we have very similar tastes! thanks for the screenshots, great stuff :D

Hah, so I noticed. Right on. Glad everyone seems to enjoy the screens. I try to deliver the best a map can offer within reason. Some have too much and some have too little but I think every map deserves at least one thematic capture.

Thank you for your videos. Provides much easier viewing than FDA replays.

[Varis Alpha]

i'm pretty sure the MIDI of map05 is a remix of some other song... does anyone know what it is?

[Demtor]

MAP06 - “Faceless Corporation” by Angry Saint, Corsair, dt_
gzDoom - UV – pistol start



I had a Half-Life flashback with all the floating boxes in waste water and being in complete darkness to start things out. The frantic jumps to get some armor and the shotgun right away was a really well done environment challenge. If you screwed up the first try, you'll have enemies breathing down your neck pretty hard on your next attempt.

That's kind of where I started off rough due to some sloppy play with Rev rockets but was able to scrap together health bit by bit thankfully which helped make this a pretty fun map. Challenging stuff but I was never so frustrated I didn't want to go on or didn't know where to go. I knew what I had to do, just needed to do it better. Which will always get a thumbs up from me.

Enjoyed crawling through a bit of urban stuff in the back alley. The view from the roof was kind of cool with the YK and little small apartment infested with shotgun guys. Loved the auto revealing door to unveil some nastyness once you stepped inside.

I noticed something very subtle as well. The very tall street lights that cast a light on the ground beneath them were used a few times and helped add a bit of atmosphere to everything. A small thing like that must have taken some time to do.

I probably took too many screenshots here but once you get inside the base, there are so many great looking areas. Lots of tech areas with bits n' pieces everywhere. There's even a neat industrial looking bridge. Couple of optional back areas looked unique and helped connect everything together later on. Good design choice there. Shortcuts that aren't just a teleport and require actual thought. The toxic hub area which provided a lot of tough battles that repopulated a few times to keep things interesting looks great from above and below.

Getting the BK was quite a struggle and provided a trip down a very painful area complete with surprise AV at the end. What a beautifully designed area too. Even had some moving green tech wall layers. Usually you see that kind of thing reserved for hell maps. The horde of mancubi and chaingunners was trying. Kept getting tapped for huge chunks of health no matter what I did.

That whole section with the cylinder vats that have varying elevating heights and steps around them to reach the top was great and was happy to have such memorable battles there. Accidentally corralled all of the Revs below and got a nice safe view from above. Jumping below with rockets flying was fun.

The final area before the Mastermind was spectacular. I get a kick out triggering a massive set piece like that. Especially when you start right at the center of everything waiting for the walls to slowly lower. Get ready... get set... GO! Had a blast killing everyone.

I think you can tell I really enjoyed this map. Gotta say though the music was really disappointing. It has a very specific end and does not loop well at all. Good funky beat. Could do a lot worse. It just didn't seem to work on repeat. Especially when it's so short.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP06: Faceless Corporation

The third strong, exploration-centric map in a row; the WAD has really hit its stride here. Rather than the urban complexity of the preceding couple of maps, this one is largely focused on the gradual peeling-back of a single structure, a convoluted chemical plant of increasingly grandiose, cathedralesque interior battlefields. My favourite chunk of the level architecturally is probably the triple chemical vat hub from which the player is dispatched to find the blue and yellow keys; it's not the focus of a lot of combat (pretty much every other part of the map is more intense in that respect) but it's a really nicely designed and constructed space. Overall the map communicates a very believable sense of having been built around the dimensions and demands of the machinery it contains, with human access winding around and through those ominous industrial substructures.

Combat gameplay consists mostly of intense but (at least on Hurt Me Plenty) fairly brief ambushes that provide a nice sense of rhythm, though I think in places the layout encourages or enables a bit too much caution on the player's part; maybe on Ultraviolence some of those possibilities might be denied to the player through more devious monster placement, but on the other hand, the fact that you generally have the option of playing it safe for most of the map's running time makes the ambush along the last leg of the map, just before the spider mastermind comes out to play, all the more exciting because it's a fight that you can't fall back from. There's definitely a sense that the map author was thinking of the 'big picture' of rhythm and balance of encounters as the player moves through the level.