Doom wads that are actually fun to play.

[Redxone]

I have been bored with doom for a while now and i need something that makes me want to play it and have fun with the game.

I don't share an interest in difficult wads or boring wads that have slow gameplay,
where you have to hunt for switches to progress.

I want wads where when your done fighting enemies you're exiting the level and while you're fighting enemies your having fun and not being overwhelmed to a point where it's a chore to finish the level.

This is coming from someone with very very specific and picky gameplay choices, i don't enjoy the original wolf3d nor did i enjoy wads such as Ancient Aliens (Seriously who makes an enemy that rapidly fires revenant rockets??!?!?!)

Now, i realized this is 2017 and when people are disagreed with they take it as an attack. Please note, im not attacking anyone and if you disagree with my tastes, you do you more power to you.

Any suggestions are appreciated, thanks!


P.S This is intended as a peaceful post, im not hating on mappers or wads, i am just stating my "strange" tastes in doom wads.

[Grazza]

Maybe if you post some wads that you have enjoyed, this would help people to make recommendations.

But for now I'll suggest:
TVR
Real World
Nitelife
Dark 7 (requires Zdoom, if that's not a deal-breaker for you)

PS: this thread would have been more appropriate in the WADs and Mods forum.

[Redxone]

Grazza said:

Maybe if you post some wads that you have enjoyed, this would help people to make recommendations.

But for now I'll suggest:
TVR
Real World
Nitelife
Dark 7 (requires Zdoom, if that's not a deal-breaker for you)

PS: this thread would have been more appropriate in the WADs and Mods forum.

Thanks for the suggestions!
I actually played Dark7 and enjoyed it although, i didn't like how dark it was art style wise, but other than dark7 i have played Castle's Redemption of the Slain which i enjoyed alot.

[baja blast rd.]

Redxone said:

This is coming from someone with very very specific and picky gameplay choices, i don't enjoy the original wolf3d nor did i enjoy wads such as Ancient Aliens (Seriously who makes an enemy that rapidly fires revenant rockets??!?!?!)

The mid-tier projectile monsters are all pretty easy. It's nice to have ones like the AD heads, the Cybruiser (from Valiant), or the Afrit, that can be scary again. It would be cool if a mapset had monsters like these. :)

[Doomkid]

SinSeven.wad is a thingy I put together 2 years ago that's pretty tame for modern standards. Difficulty settings are fully implemented too.

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/s-u/sinseven

Normally I'd suggest a full list of wads, but I think most of them might be a little too fierce based on what you're asking for. Maybe try Fava Beans and Coffee Break as well, they're both quite fair in terms of difficulty.

[Spectre01]

Try Zone 300 for "short, quick and simple" maps that are fun to blast through. Alternatively, try Italo-Doom for short, quick and simple maps that are fun to blast through while dying repeatedly.

[The_SloVinator]

For me, it has always been Doom 2 Reloaded. It's a wad with smooth flow gameplay with few interesting things you don't see in every DooM wad.

It's not tough at all.

[TMD]

Doom-iiii
DTS-T
Anything from maximum doom.
Cchest1

But only if you stream it for everyone to see you having fun.

[Jayextee]

At least you didn't mislabel AA as 'slaughter'. ;)

Recommendations:
The Ultimate Needs More Detail
Doom The Way id Did
Zone 300, to echo the above suggestion.

Again, without an example list of what you do enjoy it's pretty hard to call.

[Voros]

There's an enemy in AA that fires a continuous stream of Revenant fireballs? How should I know, I didn't even know how to get past map01 :/

Double Impact is a nice mapset. It's actually fun to play.
Zone 300 is a must play.
BTSX E1, but maybe not. The detailing is amazing though.

[Archvile Hunter]

Valiant is one of my favorite mapsets. I didn't enjoy Ancient Aliens either, but I highly suggest you give Valiant a try, even though it is also by Skillsaw. It isn't overly difficult either, though you can turn the difficulty down to HMP or HNTR if you're less experienced. It spices up the vanilla doom formula by introducing a bunch of new enemy types, so if you're feeling burned out on Doom, I suggest you give this one a go.

Going Down is also very, very good, but it is very challenging on UV. If you decide to try this one out, I recommend playing on HNTR, or HMP if you're feeling brave the first time through. The maps are very short and often consist of just one small arena to play around in before you exit.

The first 20 maps of Scythe are also short and sweet, and not too difficult.

[joe-ilya]

When will people start looking at the cacowards instead of making threads like this on DW? It's like cacowards have no purpose other than to give trophies.

[Jayextee]

joe-ilya said:

When will people start looking at the cacowards instead of making threads like this on DW? It's like cacowards have no purpose other than to give trophies.

I haven't won a single cacoward ever, so they're useless I actually did this, recently. Been setting up a new computer, which means DOOM, which also means filling a folder full of megaWADs I've been meaning to check out, plus a few more recommendations on top. From where else, but the cacowards? :)

[an_mutt]

rf1024

[Cynical]

Demonfear.

[Chezza]

Are you open to playing gameplay modifying wads? Brutal Doom for example.

[Reisal]

No Sleep For the Dead is a great mapset to play through.

[Spectre01]

joe-ilya said:

When will people start looking at the cacowards instead of making threads like this on DW?

Because the Cacowards aren't a comprehensive list of the best wads and plenty of good stuff doesn't make it on there.

joe-ilya said:

It's like cacowards have no purpose other than to give trophies.

Exactly!

[TMD]

Actual answers.

Mapgame
Demons of Problematique 2
32in24-14
Cchest4

[Rayziik]

It's a trap; there are no fun wads to play!

[Breezeep]

[Valken]

ArchvileHunter said:

Going Down is also very, very good, but it is very challenging on UV. If you decide to try this one out, I recommend playing on HNTR, or HMP if you're feeling brave the first time through. The maps are very short and often consist of just one small arena to play around in before you exit.

+1 vote for Going Down. Even more amazing with Project Brutality, Brutal Doom or Brutal Guncaster on UV.

I wish there was a sequel to this or similar set of wads.

[Soundblock]

Glad to see Zone 300 getting some love, based on what OP's looking for. I have similar gameplay tastes these days and enjoyed the heck out of Zone 300 not too long ago...

If "a snack-sized megawad" sounds like something you'd enjoy, you might also want to check out my Echelon offering.

[Aquanet]

Reverie
Really good vanilla, classic style megawad with reasonable difficulty.

UAC Ultra
Another standard-bearer for medium difficulty, although it ramps up near the end. The overall art direction is stellar.

Project Notebook
Micro-style replacement for e3. Original thread.

Killing Adventure
Madcap megawad with a fair amount of copypasta but is fun while it lasts.

Back to Thunder Road
A more recent release that flew slightly under the radar.

While they can get hairy, the works of Cannonball have set a high water mark for fun.

[Kotzugi]

I made a similar post some time ago - I was looking for medium difficulty WADs that are also good looking and are well designed. Check it out, I updated the first post with all the suggestions in the thread. Mind that it was in October 2015.

Anyways this made me think that there should be a table somewhere where WADs are rated according to their difficulty levels. This is subjective of course but perhaps the community could have a vote in the thread for that specific WAD. For example, out of 10 I would give the following mega WADs the following difficulty ratings:

- nuts.wad 9.5 (I haven't actually played it much so this is completely subjective)
- Sunder 9
- Deus Vult 2 8
- Going Down 8
- Jenesis, The Rebirth, Doom Reloaded, Coffeebreak 6 or 7
etc.

So if such a table existed it would be easy to pick one that you think suits whatever you are looking for (not necessarily your level, but maybe you just want something easier for a change).

Note of course that some mapsets may have significantly varying maps in terms of difficulty, the last two maps of Coffee Break are in my opinion quite a bit harder than the rest.

[riderr3]

I found doomcity.wad still fun and interesting even in 2017.
http://www.wad-archive.com/wad/Doom-City
https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/d-f/doomcity

[rehelekretep]

Kotzugi said:

Anyways this made me think that there should be a table somewhere where WADs are rated according to their difficulty levels. This is subjective of course but perhaps the community could have a vote in the thread for that specific WAD.

there is actually a thread by CrazyDoomguy who has attempted to summarise wads by difficulty (he used a 0-3 scale i believe?). its on the forums somewhere.

[floatRand]

rehelekretep said:

there is actually a thread by CrazyDoomguy who has attempted to summarise wads by difficulty (he used a 0-3 scale i believe?). its on the forums somewhere.

Yup. "List of hardest wads", or so.
Then there's this:

linguica said:

Spoiler

[CrazyDoomguy]

On 3.3.2017 at 0:19 AM, rehelekretep said:

there is actually a thread by CrazyDoomguy who has attempted to summarise wads by difficulty (he used a 0-3 scale i believe?). its on the forums somewhere.

Here ;)
 

 

[DoomKnight1984]

Doom Tribute is a fun wad as well since it combines the stories of Doom and Doom II in one package, there's one level there wherein you'll be fighting in a train.

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/doomtrib