The DWmegawad Club plays: Speed of Doom

[DAZZER]

MAP18: Silent Hour
Time - 16:38

 

Amazing Start ! Its just beautiful how you circle around the start area to not get hit by anything and take out enemy by enemy :) This is again a Level why I love this Megawad already ! Fast, unlinear, enough munition and Health and cool challenging Areas. I loved the Fights where you were caged in and had to Fight against 2 Cyberdemons or a ton of Revenants. Also I love the amount of Arch-Viles this Map has. I love killing Groups of Arch-viles ! ^^ The Setting reminds me more and more of Plutonia and thats a very good thing :) The Area with the Spider Mastermind and the Cyber was awesome too ! But I couldn't get them to infight so I ended up killing both of them with the BFG... very very good Map ! probably the best so far :)

 

 

[baja blast rd.]

MAP18: Silent Hour

 

Yeah, this is good stuff. It seems like most of the potential danger is in stumbling into the wrong sidepath -- things might get tricky if you piss off NecrumWarrior's best friends early on. So knowing there was a BFG to find from Spectre01's comment made this play quite gently. You can safely pacifist the start, too, which helps even more. The central area is designed smartly: lots of overlapping turrets, nothing too oppressive but enough to keep you paying attention. You can also play around with choreography in fun ways. Early on, you can set the cybers loose, grab the red key and get the cybers infighting with the revenant horde, and then leave, and stray revenants will spill out as you do other things. I replayed the start without rushing for the BFG too, and it was fun fighting the archviles using the 24-wide pillars as cover.

 

This map pays less attention to the out-of-bounds areas than most of darkwave's maps, but it doesn't ignore them entirely. I liked these tiny detours with assorted goodies and decorations. (The pain elemental that floats in through the window was lurking near the pile of gibs in the first shot, lol. Dinner, maybe?) That sort of thing always puts me in the mind of an RPG. Even though Doom's item selection is very limited, it feels like you are stumbling upon a set of cool trinkets in a mini-sidequest. Subtly, I also like how the blood caves are teased with that very first unreachable area, one that you might wonder how to get into, so when you ride the elevator outside to a similar-looking area moments later, it feels like the escape you've wanted all along . . . until your party is spoiled by a PE and vile!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

19 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

I'm dead

*archvile #8 resurrects galileo31dos01*

 

Edited April 18, 2017 by rdwpa

[paymentplan]

MAP17 - The Shrine

 

Definitely a solid map from Joshy here. Just solid fights, good progression, and a very memorable setpiece of a bunch of chaingunners in a weird lava auditorium. I definitely felt the title of the WAD coming in here. Very fast paced and focused on keeping the player moving forward. I think Joshy really nails the weapon progression here. I guess just experience playing and mapping is the only way to hone a skill such as that.

 

The aforementioned chaingunner part and the archvile fight in the room with the hell knights and baron were probably my standout fights. The AV usage in this map is overall really nice. I like AVs when they're fun and not just a 'fuck you' to the player.

 

I actually managed to find the secret, here. Love those hidden switch secrets. 

 

Kills - 101%

Items - ??%

Secrets - 100%

[galileo31dos01]

MAP18: Time: 1:34:18 (an hour of action, and half an hour hunting 2 remaining secrets)

This map left me with mostly positive feelings. It's a great tough map, there is plenty to do here. I died 3 times, all of them due to the difficulty of the level. I'm just going to mention the highlight moments. The archvile and PE that killed me because the potato was in the middle of the way, yeah thanks but no thanks... One of my favourite infightings, Spider Mastermind vs. Cyberdemon! Poor girl, she died, she was sooo close to off the cyber, it actually took me like 10 plasma shots to finnish him later. Both sides on the way to grab the red key were very dangerous yet very fun, although the horde of revenants killed me the first time. My third death was when the whole barons tried to corner me and the still non-telefragged cyberdemon murdered me with one rocket. Gosh I was so desperate to find that teleporter, that I used the automap to see any suspicious green line marking a teleporter. There was one in the pit, but that leaded me to claustrophobic rooms in order to kill many mid-tier enemies, at least I survived to finally telefrag that giant fucker and grab a soulsphere and releASE ANOTHER CYBERDEMON WTF! that was just a waste of time and ammo! And how lucky that he didn't immediately shoot rockets to my back, otherwise I would be cursing through my review... 

Another nice moment was the archvile ambush to be killed while being temporary immune, but I feel this is getting repetitive...

Now about the layout, as usual, great, neat, etc, with Plutonia textures and vibes. Also, amazing midi. Legally found 3/5 secrets, the other two took me over 30 minutes to find. I gave up to them and used the wiki page as a guide, but I also didn't understand it. It mentioned a blue border that no matter how much I looked for it, I couldn't find anything blue. Turned to IDDT, but this was totally helpless. Then came here to see other posts but nobody talked about it. My last resource was a youtube video, and I couldn't believe how obvious it was. How frustrating, I'm very observant and always take my time to find all the secrets in legal ways. But oh well, sometimes my observations skills fail me. Anyway... overall a great map.

 

The worst thing is that I forgot to grab the blue armor to start freshly the next map. My current armor is 1% so wish me luck please.

[Nine Inch Heels]

11 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

The worst thing is that I forgot to grab the blue armor to start freshly the next map. My current armor is 1% so wish me luck please.

Well, on the bright side, you have more weapons than you have arms (Pun intended). ;-)

[baja blast rd.]

Spoiler

 

[paymentplan]

MAP18 - Silent Hour

 

This map is a good map to look to when trying to pace out a large, tough map. There's plenty to do, right from the start. The action has noticeable lulls and very noticeable climaxes, all winding up with the player in a similar situation to the end of MAP10. There are numerous fights with the two boss monsters, all fun and challenging. 

 

All too often a map with this kind of difficulty and length can feel like a trudge. Authors never let off the gas pedal from the word go. That can be fine if the map doesn't go on too long. Some of Joshy's maps in this very set have been like that. Brutal, but over soon enough so as to not leave a bad taste in the player's mouth. Darkwave0000 has opted for a different style, which has been on display from as MAP04. 

 

Darkwave0000 can tend to sprawl overmuch, but that's not the case with Silent Hour. The red and yellow skull key areas are both very different in both progression and fight style/intensity. This kind of diversity in gameplay keeps things from getting monotonous. Darkwave0000 also nails the Plutonia aesthetic, one which for me never gets old. 

 

I didn't find them all, but there are some fun secrets. The backpack secret is almost required but is thankfully pretty easy to find. 

 

Kills - 86%

Items - 82%

Secrets - 40%

[Spectre01]

MAP19 - “Impure Serenity” by Joshy

 

Another small Plutonia-style Joshy map with a dickish start and no bloody armour until the second half of the map. This results into some rather binary gameplay where you either die in two hits to the myriad of high health + high damage snipers, and a Vile, or manage to avoid the damage. Not a fan of this kind of "prickly" gameplay. Once you grab the Green Armour another is pointlessly close-by, which would've been much better moved near the start. There are no secrets but there's a taunting Megasphere at the start which I guess requires an AV-jump that I was not in the mood to attempt. The finale drops a Cyber in the middle of the spawn gazebo, which ends up more tedious to take down rather than dangerous. You just kind of run circles firing plasma bursts into the openings and avoid the splash damage. I have to say I much prefer Darkwave's maps here and my favourite Joshy output so far is amusingly map32. 

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP19 Impure Serenity

 

What a perfectly acceptable title. Meant to be a breather map in a Scythe-2 garden-like setting, and it works out just fine with a lovely Final Fantasy XII midi I'm sure we've heard elsewhere. It sure has its moments, quite a lot of exposure from enemies, actually. But I didn't have too much trouble, just as long as I kill Dead Simple monsters and hitscanners first. Many of the teleport ambushes are pretty predictable, and the cyberdemon fight at the end isn't too bad, neither are the switch presses. I say this worked well for a breather map, even without secrets.

 

So I take it that that megasphere requires an arch-vile jump? I seem to note a ton of these.

[Suitepee]

I'm going to have to pass on doing Speed of Doom for this month's DWMC I'm afraid.

 

I'm intending on taking a Doom wad break after I finish my playthrough of Doomworld Mega Project 2016 (and the Ironman), and so my time with SoD will have to wait a bit longer. I still intend to try and play Speed of Doom at some point this year though, it being one of the two remaining wads (the other being the Community Chest series) I want to play in 2017.

 

That being said, I'm going to vote for Hellcore in next month's DWMC, since it's apparently somewhat similar to Hellbound which I thoroughly enjoyed.

 

+++ Hellcore

Edited April 19, 2017 by Suitepee

[gaspe]

MAP19: The theme is very similar to the previous level, and I wonder if the two authors decided to make some maps in pairs using certain themes: MAP07/MAP08 (the latter seems like it could be suitable to be a Dead Simple clone), MAP15/MAP16 (not sure about this one but there's this couple of techbase maps when the themes already changed in the wad), and lastly MAP18/MAP19.

In this map is quite tricky to make your way into the first areas for the exposure of various snipers and other monster, but the map gets more relaxed once you get past the yellow key door. I'm not very convinced about the last cyberdemon, it was a rather dull mandatory fight, but otherwise the map is really good and pleasant with its midi.

 

To get the megasphere:

Spoiler

in the SSG room use the little crate to jump on the window and from there you can jump into the well with the orb.

 

[Demtor]

 

MAP19 - “Impure Serenity” by Joshy

gzDoom - UV – pistol start

 

From the author’s notes: “In a megawad, there has to be some breathers right? Well, here's one! Combined with vines, water and simple textures, a layout that guarantees pleasure (paraphrased from Gusta :P) and a calming melody, there's no better breather map than this one! :P”

 

I just got finished gushing over the use of different kinds of music tracks and here Joshy treats us with FFXII material. Fantastic! Back to back pleasingly low key musical honey candy. Served underneath a mellow orange sky. Soothing soft tunes like this make me want to somehow crawl inside of the music and die peacefully. Very fitting for a Doom map, heh.

 

A short one meant as a breather. Perfectly done with the use of water and smaller mildly stressful areas. The colors really worked well together. Brown/Green/Blue/Orange with a touch of red thanks to the cacs. Good stuff. The little detailing outside of the players view is kind of cool too.

 

Fun start with the Imps and shotgun guys. In my opinion, there are not enough shotty zombies in this wad. Couple of AV scares but nothing mean about them. Was fun being able to grab a SSG and jump out the window, heh.

 

The caves with the BK looked great. Glad there was an extra aerial fight to be had in that space. Crawling along the walls to get out was a neat choice.

 

The back half looks as good as the first half in it’s own way. Was happy to get the RL finally towards the end. Soft ambushes on the way out with HK’s instead of barons. I don’t think a breather map needed to be that easy but whatevs. Even the super easy Cyberdemon jump scare which ends up being even easier if you know where to stand and shoot after clearing out the pitiful amount of CGers and lost souls.

 

Breath taken. Now lets get it on already!

[Spectre01]

@Suitepee John, you're voting 5-6 days early and need to have 3 plus signs (+++) before your nomination to count. :P

[rehelekretep]

he just edited it and put only 2 :D

[baja blast rd.]

1 hour ago, Spectre01 said:

+++) before your nomination to count. :P

Never heard of this mapset. 

[DAZZER]

MAP19: Impure Serenity
Time - 11:05

 

This Map reminds me of the Earth Bound Episode in Scythe 2 :) which is awesome cause its my fav. Episode. Maybe it even took some Inspiration from there. What can I say ? Again a beautiful Map with a green Vine setting which is one of my personal favourites. For some reason this Map had nearly no Pain Elementals and Arch-Viles. Maybe after the End of Map 18 he thought there should be a little break from Arch-Viles ^^ It was a little bit easier and way shorter then previous Maps. The End where the Cyber is in the middle and Chaingunners and Lost Souls around it wasn't that hard. I got the the cyber down in 2 BFG shots at my first try. But it was more luck then skill I guess :) good Level and I'm excited for Map20 !

[baja blast rd.]

MAP19: Impure Serenity

 

The music is cool, but sometimes I couldn't hear it over the group of arachnotrons blaring their own stuff down in the water (now is not the time for industrial rock!). We can't fight them early on, so it felt like they were trolling me. Pretty inventive use of arachnotrons for area denial, I have to admit.

 

Another thing I noticed is that basically every visual theme in this map appears to have some analog in Scythe 1 or 2. 

 

A shot that captures most of SoD19's looks:

 

 

The gray heliport cluster from Scythe 1 and Scythe 2 episode 5's lush vineyard block are the most obvious inspirations, but the rocks are also very much like the ones in the Egypt maps, and that wood-metal combination can be spotted occasionally in the last episode. The middle portion of Scythe 2 even used the Doom I episode 4 sky. I think it's nicely done; everything fits together well, mostly. 

 

The gameplay is mostly forgettable, but archviles are used nicely (if somewhat sparingly ;)). I can't say I liked the chaingunners in the start area, with the tiny bars that block clean shots on them, and the ones up top that can snipe through windows before you know they are there. Or the cinematic door with health at the end either. The rest was a mix of inoffensive and fun/leisurely. Pretty map. 

 

Edited April 19, 2017 by rdwpa

[NecrumWarrior]

IGNORE ME!

Edited April 19, 2017 by NecrumWarrior

[baja blast rd.]

25 minutes ago, NecrumWarrior said:

IGNORE ME!

No.

[NecrumWarrior]

32 minutes ago, rdwpa said:

No.

Yeah that was me making a stupid post that was stupid and of course there's no way to delete posts so yeah, just ignore it.

 

MAP18: Silent Hour

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o9gtau87pjtkrr8/SoD_M18_Necrum_GZ24.lmp?dl=0

Kills: 81%

Items: 42%

Secrets: Do you need to ask at this point? 0%

Time: 19:09

 

Well, after the Chaingunner that forces you to start combat right away at the beginning of the map, I thought I would hate this map. Turns out, this map is actually pretty cool. I mean, once you just accept that there's going to be ambushes galore, you really stop caring. So some of my performance early on is kinda poor because of this lack of caring, but eventually I found my pace and started making progress pretty well with few deaths along the way. It's really hard to find safe places in this map. There are very few so you really have to carve out your safety as you go. But even then there's stuff like the Cyber turret, which doesn't bother me really I mean we are 18 maps in now, this is pretty much to be expected. The level itself reeks of Plutonia. It feels like a lost level or something. It even has Chaingunner ambushes and a huge wave of Revenants (mind you there is much more liberal use of them here). I think this is the first map I can recall being given the BFG as a non secret, which I certainly appreciated at the end when we literally get a room filled with 10 Arch-Viles (I think, I didn't exactly have time to count them), thanks for putting that on me @rdwpa. I didn't pass out though so yay? I actually got the Spider Mastermind to kill the Cyberdemon that it drops in with, so that was cool. Usually Cyber wins.

[Nine Inch Heels]

10 minutes ago, NecrumWarrior said:

I think this is the first map I can recall being given the BFG as a non secret, which I certainly appreciated at the end when we literally get a room filled with 10 Arch-Viles (I think, I didn't exactly have time to count them). I didn't pass out though so yay?

Hence forth, thou shalt be known as "ArchVileWarrior".

 

For some reason this running-gag doesn't get old for me. Sorry about that. ;-)

[NecrumWarrior]

12 minutes ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

Hence forth, thou shalt be known as "ArchVileWarrior".

 

For some reason this running-gag doesn't get old for me. Sorry about that. ;-)

I find it hilarious myself so no worries :P

 

Really sucks that I'm going to lose that BFG though. Stupid pistol starts...

[galileo31dos01]

MAP19: Time: 34:35

Well, it was good for the most part. The beginning was a little rough, and having two chaingunners that could possibly snipe me had me a little anxious as I couldn't really see them from the inside of the little alcove. However I should really not bitch about if I'm already carrying a decent amount of weaponry, but at that moment I still was regretful of forgetting that blue armor from the previous level. Ok, proceeding to the next area, some imps and hell knights, nothing to worry about. I tried to off the distant revenants first so they wouldn't bother me. My first death was in the YK area, for some reason I just couldn't go up the water stairs, that caused me real troubles with the homing rockets, and the chaingunners ended up sniping me to death. Moooving on... the following encounters were sort of easy. I liked the RK area and the way to grab it as well as the green armor (which I didn't need). What left me a sour taste was the last fight. Lost souls and chaingunners in the same room are an unpleasant combination, worst if there is also cyberdemon. I died twice, one because of a lost soul and another because of a chaingunner. Now that I think about it, there actually was cover from the cyber in order to kill the others more properly: corners. Yeah I didn't figure at that time. Anyway, once everyone was killed, a little switch work and proceeded to grab that beautiful megasphere. Whenever possible, I always leave the energy spheres to the end so I can start freshly the next map. This megasphere was in a very tempting spot but so tedious to reach. I don't understand why it wasn't targeted as a secret, it's actually not so obvious to figure how to grab it other than archie-jumping to the hole. Found 0/0 secrets, a map with no secrets is like pizza with no mozzarella, I can enjoy it but there's still something missing. The megasphere made it up for it anyways.

So about the layout, more Plutonia textures which always going to love. Still amused with the music picked for every level, and I know there's Heretic music for map20 yay!

Good map, yeah. 

 

[DAZZER]

MAP20: The Path to Hell
Time - 19:57

 

This is how the fuck you end an Episode ! ^^ with a brutal Slaughter Map ! 800+ Enemies wait to be slaid by you ! First of all I really love Maps or Mappacks which doesn't work aggressively against you. Sure you want to give your Players a Challenge but You need to be fair and Place enough Munition, Armor and Health (Basic Mapping). And this Map made it completly right ! This Map says "Well fuck it this is the Last Map in the Episode and you will lose your health and Munition anyway so please take all I have for you !" There were 2 Fights I really REALLY Loved in this one. The first was the Blue Key Grab in the Red Hell stone Area with the Goldfalls. It was challenging and there was enough Room to move and circle around the Enemies. The Second one was of course the Last one with the hundreds of Barons and 5 Cybers I believe ? I also think that was the first Time I picked a Megasphere up in this Megawad ^^ There were more then Enough Plasma Packs. It wasn't really that hard as it looked when I arrived there but I had Fun Spamming the BFG again :D The most challenging Fight I would say is the first big one in the center cause there are all types of Demons surrounding you :) The Red Key Spot was just an Tower of Arch-Viles which were all burnt down by my BFG... The Area which you had to go through to reach the switch for the yellow Key wasn't pretty entertaining for me :/... But the End of this Map is just brilliant with the coffin ^^ really clever... R.I.P

Edited April 20, 2017 by DAZZER

[paymentplan]

MAP19 - Impure Serenity

 

Interesting start that's pretty reminiscent of the previous map in the set, MAP18. Joshy and Darkwave0000 seem like they're trying to top each other with these Plutonia-style maps. Maybe unintentional, but in any case, I gotta give the edge to MAP18. There's good variety here, but a lot of the fights are pretty straightforward SSG slugfests. Visuals are standard Plutonia-fare, a style that I have yet to tire of. 

 

Like Silent Hour, Impure Serenity starts the player off in a pickle. It's tough to get a foothold with revenants sniping from other parts of the map yet to be available to the player. Joshy is skimpy with the ammo, too, making accurate SSG shots a must. True to Joshy's M.O., there's less to explore here than the sprawl of MAP18. While not necessarily a bad thing, it doesn't lend the map to much replay and closer inspection. The fights will generally unfold the same way from attempt to attempt. 

 

No marked secrets, but there is an archvile jump for a megasphere that I neglected to get. Oh well. After moseying around to the different areas and picking up the keys, the player is treated to an uninteresting and seemingly unavoidable battle with a cyberdemon. There's plenty of plasma to take it down as well as all the chaingunners that teleport in. A sour end to a largely fine and inoffensive map.

 

Kills - 100%

Items - 97%

Secrets - 100%

[galileo31dos01]

7 minutes ago, paymentplan said:

but there is an archvile jump for a megasphere that I neglected to get

It can also be reached in another not harmful way, through the nearest window.

[NecrumWarrior]

MAP19: Impure Serenity

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iltbw2dhfkefqs3/SoD_M19_Necrum_GZ24.lmp?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dcejimslsy8hvex/SoD_M19_Necrum_GZ24_p2.lmp?dl=0

Kills: 100%

Items: 97%

Secrets: 100% (Was surprised until I read above that there are no marked secrets)

Time: 19:33

 

Okay, so first off, this map had the funnest hot start I think I've played so far. Dealing solely with littles using the Chaingun is great. Even though it took me a few tries, it never felt like I was being forced into a really shitty situation right off the bat. It is an uphill struggle from here. Literally, in fact. Once you climb the stairs you start to see the scope of the map. It's nothing particularly large, just like the rest of this map set, but there are tons of enemies well out of reach that make it feel daunting. I was able to devise a strategy fairly quickly however and it was not until after I picked up the Yellow Key that I began to hate this level. There is a distinct lack of ammo. Maybe lack is the wrong word. It's all placed in a weird order. I had enough ammo to kill everything but it required me to move in dangerous ways to get a lot of it just so I could keep up with the horde. I had to run past an Arch-Vile, a Revenant, and a Hell Knight just to get some fucking Shotgun Shells to kill aforementioned Arch-Vile! I later discovered a Rocket Launcher that did make that part easier, but it still required some very risky maneuvering to recover it. The Cyberdemon at the end is frustrating but not for the boss itself, rather the group of Chaingunners and Souls that make the encounter very stressful. It was bullshit. I essentially had to stand there and try to kill them as they spawned in just so I could fight the damned thing.

 

So, why is my demo in two parts you ask? Well you see, my TV sometimes blinks out, and when it does so the audio on my computer stops detecting it til I reinitialize it. I was able to get the music I was listening to playing again (Emperor of Sand by Mastodon) but the game audio wouldn't come back unless I closed out of GZDoom and reloaded it.  I discovered in this process that the audio feedback of demons getting hurt is very important to the experience, and the game become really annoying without that pleasing response.

 

tl;dr Fuck this map.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP20 The Path To Hell

 

I remember a long time ago I saw a demo for this very map, and the one time the player took damage in the ENTIRE map was to do an arch-vile jump to the other side of the yellow/blue key platform gap. It's one of those TAS demos if I recall. I need to remember who made it.

 

So in comes Darkwave with another big level with a Heretic track to accompany it. Downright nasty in many aspects, although this time the beginning sure ain't the toughest part here. Though, it helps to get rid of a few arch-viles around, due to the space, there's not a whole lot to hide from them. As I said, a yellow and blue key are necessary. Went for yellow first, interesting in how both keys involve a fake out and Doomguy has to go through the area well behind the keys. And for the yellow one, another nukage-filled zone, packed with DEAD SIMPLE MONSTERS AGAIN! Those two monsters are tending to become the most annoying enemies Doom 2 ever offered, and yet while others complain about arch-viles and revenants, they often forget the projectile spam these two monsters always do. And in this corridor, they are extremely trigger happy. I had to run back and forth several times through projectile hell while sniping at each of them.

 

The blue key is considerably easier to deal with though, mostly in that it's much smaller yet at the same time, there's more space to deal with. Two switch-presses later, I'm on the other side, where the BFG is and where that one TAS'er took damage exactly once, lol. One tower later with arch-viles, which actually isn't as tough, although deceiving, and we finally open the path to hell. Gee, there's a lot of nobles along with cyberdemons here, which can take quite a while. Enough for Tricks and Traps style infighting, though. I like how this death exit also makes sense in some context, yet I'm still annoyed by the fact the intermission text says SURVIVED, again.

[Grain of Salt]

13 minutes ago, NuMetalManiak said:

I remember a long time ago I saw a demo for this very map, and the one time the player took damage in the ENTIRE map was to do an arch-vile jump to the other side of the yellow/blue key platform gap. It's one of those TAS demos if I recall. I need to remember who made it.

I think that was Okuplok, and not a TAS.

[Spectre01]

29 minutes ago, Grain of Salt said:

I think that was Okuplok, and not a TAS.

Well the TAS portion is still debatable. :P