The DWmegawad Club plays: Urania

[NecrumWarrior]

Okay so demo recording is not going to happen for me this month, because in Crispy Doom you can't load while recording and I'm absolutely going to need saves for this one. This is kinda frustrating for me because I am trying to play away from my main computer and it feels very awkward while I'm playing these already hard maps. So either I will get some reviews up tonight or I'll be a couple days behind, we'll see.

[Spectre01]

MAP03 - “Subcataract”

 

A mostly natural stone and water themed map that's a visual throwback to Plutonia's Well of Souls. There's also a rather relaxing midi to go along with it compared to the pumping heavy metal which makes up the bulk of the soundtrack. It's a circular map with 4 branching areas which can be accessed in any order from the starting room's teleporters. Most importantly, don't forget to step back at the start for a VERY powerful secret for Pistol Start porpoises. The central "mountain" is full of Chaingunner ledges and they aren't afraid to use various teleporters to follow you around an chip away at your health. I hit up the blue key area first, which wasn't the best idea but I was low on ammo and getting sniped by Chaingunners. Although there is a bonus of going here first in the form of the Chainsaw, which is useful for conserving ammo on Pinkies and Spectres. I also like those animated walls which change colour from green to brown, which I believe were in the original Plutonia. The green marble theme also makes an appearance in the yellow key room with a somewhat laid-back 4xHell Knight ambush. Overall this map's probably easier than the last since there's more room to maneuver, assuming you mind and remove the hitscanners quickly. Plenty of health and armour are also provided, more than you need really if you find the secrets. Of note, there's a bonus Plasma Rifle accessible with the secret red key, which is very nice for continuous play but is not mandatory within the scope of this map. By the way, in my demo for this map, some of the monsters didn't teleport in, so it would be cool if anyone using Boom+ could verify that. I know everything warps in fine in G/QZDoom. Also, this is the last of the short and chill maps for a while and map04 is where the "real" maps of this wad start.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP03: Subcataract

40:31 | 100% Everything

 

I really liked this one. I'm sure some of that is the (relatively) laid-back gameplay, but the rest is totally that music track, which I loved. (Totally sounds like it should be in a Nicolas Monti WAD.) The opening room with the quaddirectional teleporters made me think this would be a hub map, but no, all four teleporters take you to the main area, just different spots around the circle. So which 'porter you take could change how things play out for you (I always take the near-left first and then work clockwise) or you could do like I did and work your way around the ring clearing everything out before tackling whatever spoke you then end up at. My only real complaint about the level would be that the exit isn't signposted at all, it's just...suddenly there. I came across it after 31 minutes, but knew I still had to find the red key somehow. I should also say that either the blue key's existence wasn't well-marked, or I was just oblivious, because I only stumbled across it by accident while wandering around looking for what to do next. Otherwise, a really fun map.

[gaspe]

MAP03: Rather repetitive but I quite liked this map. The hunt for the secret plasmagun was nice.

[CapnClever]

^{Chocolate Doom / Ultra Violence / Pistol Start / No Saves}

MAP03: Subcataract puts up a big front but, upon further examination, is surprisingly simple to tackle. The main area acts as a hub, and once it's cleared (difficult though that may be) the progression at large can be taken without worry. (Keep an eye on those teleporters though!) The branching paths have some notable interconnectivity: each is its own challenge, approachable in any order, and although not all are necessary to finish the level I would recommend doing so to keep the supplies flowing. Combat plays similarly to the previous map, and an intelligent use of resources is necessary to avoid problems later on. Finishing the level is the biggest puzzle of them all, with the exit tucked away in an already-visited path, and it may take some time to get an idea of how the progression actually works.

 

Other than the hub chaingunners teleporting around mercilessly, I thought this map had good encounter placement, though Pain Elementals are a nasty thing to scatter around when you're already worried about running out of ammo. Still pretty cramped in the space department, but I figure I may as well get used to it and stop complaining. For anyone thinking to pistol start this map, I'll save you some trouble by noting that you can get yourself a head start without pressing a single switch.

 

I've been told the next map is where things pick up, so you might see a change in my settings. I'll give it my best shot regardless!

[quakis]

MAP03: Subcataract
^{(Chocolate Doom | Ultra Violence | Pistol Start)}

When I think of Plutonia, Revenants and Chaingunners often come to mind and Urania's third entry swiftly makes wide use of the latter in large swarms and perhaps the nastiest bite the level throws at players early on. They are found lurking around near every niche, perched on ledges, warping from corner to corner relentlessly hunting you down. Taking time to seek them out before moving forward will do one's health pool a favour and become an increasingly common foe here. Besides from a few other incidental fights (BSK Revenants) MAP03 feels quite laid back in comparison to its previous offerings, perhaps the only relief we'll receive going forward. Time will tell. I too thought the beginning area would function as a hub, choosing the top-right teleport relative to the switch first and working my way through each branch counter-clockwise. Starting off had me fumbling around before finally warming up, so I was thankful for waltzing into the earliest treasure trove of gear right off the bat. Wasn't too keen on the ending position myself, though I had taken note of that door because it stood out like a sore thumb screaming secret at my face so I would have eventually come across it had I not, once again, stumbled into it trying to avoid Caco fire.

 

Came across a possible bug in the Plasmagun room; after lowering the side rooms, activating a lift and permanently lowering that platform, its possible to reactivate the former trigger again (from the remaining untriggered linedefs) this time taking the lift's new lower height value, creating some inescapable pits complete with HOM walls. (Reference Tags 39 & 40). Worth a mention I think.

Edited May 3, 2017 by quakis

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP03: Subcataract

 

This map's industrial opening area quickly gives way to a more naturalistic cavern/chasm theme, thick with ledges and teleporters and spotted here and there with more built-up nodes.  The layout consists of a flooded, torus-shaped hub, around which spokes and loops are arranged in a sandbox fashion; progression is low-key and secondary to the joy of simple exploration.  I'm not so much a fan of the combat gameplay here, though; the claustrophobia feels like it's been ramped up, and enemies are frequently position to fire from awkward angles, from atop perches and/or behind semi-transparent midtextures, or through narrow slits, in a way that feels engineered to bleed health from the player in a cheap fashion that's best countered through foreknowledge or a crawlingly slow pace of advancement.  On the other hand, the ample health and green armour scattered throughout the level lends itself to an "easy come, easy go" style of resource management; it's not a level that readily allows the player to feel comfortable and secure, but nor is the player left feeling that slivers of health shaved away by stray rounds from distant chaingunners or a grazing near-miss from a cubby-lurking sergeant won't be coming back.

[riderr3]

Has to warn that the design of MAP04 may seem obscure and sprawling because it was made about a year earlier than MAP03. Smaller maps is last ones.

[Demtor]

16 hours ago, Salt-Man Z said:

A shame, as your screencap-laden posts are a great resource when I'm looking back at these Club plays. (No worries if you want to sit this one out, of course.) Try knocking it back to HMP, maybe, or playing continuous? I haven't found it to be too bad (yet.)

Hey thanks! Happy to contribute. Have no fear; I have struggled but found a way to play and enjoy so I won't be skipping this. Keeping a regular pace may be hard for me this summer but we'll see.

[Demtor]

Nice colors! I should recognize that opening melody but I fail. It's a lovely bagpipe tune for certain. Very surprising for a Doom wad, but it works.

 

I think it's safe to say I was not properly prepared for this. I should have replayed some Plutonia to remember how hard as nails the experience really is as it's been a long time and I barely remember it. After giving it's map 1 another whirl, Urania fits the mold.

 

So, after a lot of failed attempts to get in to this and wondering if I'd take a summer month off, I finally settled on playing as I grew up knowing Doom; with saves on continuous play. This stuff is hard and while I don't want to save scum every small encounter, it would be nice to soldier on and not worry too much about dying. It happens. I like using beautiful Doom here as it's slightly higher rate of fire shotgun seems to help with some of the crazy monster placement. I am 5 maps in and it feels really good.

 

 

 

 

MAP01 - “Bolt Hole”

gzDoom - UV – continuous/saves

 

This is one hell of an opener with no hand holding and no pulled punches. Perfect fitting music too. I loved the way you run out from the center and have no guidance what so ever. Just pick a direction and hope to survive. Once you die, try a different direction. Rinse repeat until you found a path that works. If you can accept that kind of thing, it's actually a pretty fun time and you'll get better and better each time. It's not so much a trial and error experience as it doesn't cheat to kill you outright but it is brutal. You'll slowly drip health and eventually trip up on your own feet during your learning process. For this wad, it seems to be a proper introduction.

 

I LOVE the intermission art. Looks like something out of Berserk. I wonder if it’s original or if it came from somewhere. That music sounds Pantera-esque but I can’t be sure. In any case, nicely done.

[Deadwing]

MAP03: That was a quite cool level. It had some more consistent theme, with that very plutonian outdoor (stone and vines) area which I love a lot. Action is very chaotic when you access it, but once you reach the peripherical areas, careful playing is your best friend, or you might trigger more enemies than you want (for example, that cave section where an Archville ambushes you). Chaingunners are also very abundant but at this point this is already expected.

 

At last, progression starts becoming more obscure too, though I didn't think it was too bad. Still, some people might struggle to find the exit area. Very fun, though my mind was quite exhausted in the end haha

 

8.75/10

 

Next level is where we get the real deal haha

Edited May 3, 2017 by Deadwing

[Demtor]

 

MAP02 - “Marshmarrow”

gzDoom - UV – continuous/saves

 

Again, who did this music? I couldn't find any credits anywhere. It's awesome! If it weren't for the good track I would've hated all the backtracking to figure out how to get that YK with the lifts that finally started working. The clues are subtle and could have been done better.

 

The crazy start gets you running with the Rev up top as you begin crawling around through caves trying to figure out where to go and whether or not to stay up or down below where hitscanners tear you to pieces. Exchanging fire from above seemed the better option with more favorable angles and cover from those chainguns across the way.

 

I liked that the environment switches from straight caves to a crumbling techbasey sewer basement and finally a TNT:Evilution Map 2 homage. It’s a confusing layout but it isn’t that big so it’s not too bad.

 

The BK room was kind of nuts with the hitscan over kill which required a little more door camping than I’d like to see in Doom. I hope that kind of thing doesn’t continue but I have a feeling this wad is going to have a lot of that. I will say though, it was hell of a greeting for a player who just dashes through the tight walkway hoping for safety beyond that door. That was a lot of HK's to deal with straight up while chaingunners hide behind vines in their nooks. So happy the SSG came in early this wad. My kingdom for a backpack though.

 

Glad I saved rockets for that final exit stuff with multiple ambushes before the real end fight. Wow. This is map 2, right? An AV led full frontal attack with revs!? Hahaha, awesome.

 

[galileo31dos01]

3 hours ago, quakis said:

Came across a possible bug in the Plasmagun room; after lowering the side rooms, activating a lift and permanently lowering that platform, its possible to reactivate the former trigger again (from the remaining untriggered linedefs) this time taking the lift's new lower height value, creating some inescapable pits complete with HOM walls. (Reference Tags 39 & 40). Worth a mention I think.

I've just tried it with Crispy Doom and it didn't happen to me, perhaps it's a Chocolate Doom issue? who knows...

 

2 hours ago, riderr3 said:

Has to warn that the design of MAP04 may seem obscure and sprawling because it was made about a year earlier than MAP03.

That's the least of things that players will worry about ;)

[quakis]

51 minutes ago, Demtor said:

Again, who did this music? I couldn't find any credits anywhere. It's awesome!

The fist post in the original thread has a handy list of its midi sources behind a spoiler, just in case you missed it; you were also correct about the Pantera intermission track too.

 

46 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

I've just tried it with Crispy Doom and it didn't happen to me, perhaps it's a Chocolate Doom issue? who knows...

Tested it myself in Crispy Doom and still happens, though it's awfully specific and unlikely many people are going to come across it, but thought it might have been an interest tidbit to make note of. I've detailed out the process more clearly below.

 

Spoiler

Following the screencap below;

A: Trigger this line, wait for walls to lower.

B: Press this switch, quickly get on elevator

C: Press this switch, get back to the plasmagun room (around D) before the lift platform fully lowers

D: Cross either these lines AFTER platform around C stops lowering and the effect should take place.

 

Edited May 3, 2017 by quakis

[galileo31dos01]

53 minutes ago, quakis said:

The fist post in the original thread has a handy list of its midi sources behind a spoiler, just in case you missed it; you were also correct about the Pantera intermission track too.

 

Tested it myself in Crispy Doom and still happens, though it's awfully specific and unlikely many people are going to come across it, but thought it might have been an interest tidbit to make note of. I've detailed out the process more clearly below.

 

  Hide contents

Following the screencap below;

A: Trigger this line, wait for walls to lower.

B: Press this switch, quickly get on elevator

C: Press this switch, get back to the plasmagun room (around D) before the lift platform fully lowers

D: Cross either these lines AFTER platform around C stops lowering and the effect should take place.

 

Oh yes it happened now, well at least it's not a major bug.

[NecrumWarrior]

First Impressions

Wow, that title screen is ugly. But I guess Plutonia is no looker either. Funny thing is, this title screen more closely resembles TNT: Evilution. If this Megawad sees an update in the future, you might consider altering the image to work better in the corrected aspect ratio, as it looks very crunched in and oval when loaded up with Doom's proper ratio in mind. Music is awesome though.

 

Continuous, Hurt Me Plenty, Crispy Doom

 

MAP01: Bolt Hole

Kills: 100%

Items: 70%

Secrets: 33%

10:54

 

Haha, bumhole jokes! I don't know what a Bolt Hole is, but I don't particularly care. Abstract names are pretty common in all Doom games except the first one, and Final Doom was particularly guilty of this so it makes sense that these levels would have odd names. This first level is actually a lot smaller than I was anticipating based on all the other reviews of it I read. I likely could have finished it way quicker if I hadn't been into the idea of exploring the place. With more enemies being released as you went along, though, I can see this taking a long time for the UV-Maxers. I also spent some time scavenging for ammo since I am doing it continuous this month. I like this map a lot, it's pretty dang fun. I like it when enemies show up while I'm retracing areas of a map I've been to before. Makes it feel more alive. Tracking down the last few enemies for a 100% kill count isn't as fun but I don't mind so much.

 

Crispy Doom is pretty awesome! Crispiness features I am using include uncapped framerate and colorized HUD and Blood. The latter in particular is really nice since some of the demons are portrayed without red blood, although it is a bit strange since I'm so used to the red blood.

[Salt-Man Z]

36 minutes ago, NecrumWarrior said:

you might consider altering the image to work better in the corrected aspect ratio, as it looks very crunched in and oval when loaded up with Doom's proper ratio in mind.

If you look at Demtor's screenshot above, you can see it's not squashed; it's fine. The problem is that the planetoid is shown half in shadow, but stars have erroneously been placed over the dark side of the sphere.

 

36 minutes ago, NecrumWarrior said:

I don't know what a Bolt Hole is, but I don't particularly care. Abstract names are pretty common in all Doom games except the first one, and Final Doom was particularly guilty of this so it makes sense that these levels would have odd names.

A bolt-hole is a hiding place, literally a hole you would bolt to. Not sure what feature of MAP01 this would refer to, but it's definitely a fitting title for a Plutonia-style level.

 

Edited May 3, 2017 by Salt-Man Z

[Demtor]

 

MAP03 - “Subcataract”

gzDoom - UV – continuous/saves

 

Interesting cave map. The start really throws you off thinking it was going to be a tech based affair. Appreciated the starting secret directly behind me. Especially since I started at considerably less then 100%. I liked all the waterfalls (some of them secret pass throughs) and the vines really helped add a little character to everything much like the brownish hanging roots of the last map did. Always kind of fun running throw watery floors too.

 

Monster placement was challenging but nothing too crazy. Some of the pinned in pincer ambushes with revs were actually fun. I liked running circles around the 4 HK’s while a single shotgun guy heckles from above in the corner. The whole switch set up to it and the key was sufficiently evil looking.

 

The use of teleport pads to bring in more monsters behind you was kind of cool at times. Fighting all of the chaingunners coming in and above the main watery loop was quite a tricky piece of work. It was fun going through all of the portals and clearing the ledges section by section though. Practically instant death if you just ran around in circles at the start, lol.

 

Weird that the exit was hidden behind one of those portals at the end in flashing complete darkness. Finding the secret RK and PG was a lot of fun and stood out as a memorable encounter and achievement. I actually managed to get all of the secrets which I think was all thanks to the soothingly wistful power ballad music. It put my mind in a good place to just flow around and look at things closely. It’s a great song that hits you in a sensitive way and gives you cool vibe where I could almost raise a lit lighter to it while passing a spliff around. Yeah, man. Right on.

[Demon of the Well]

9 hours ago, Demtor said:

I LOVE the intermission art. Looks like something out of Berserk. I wonder if it’s original or if it came from somewhere. That music sounds Pantera-esque but I can’t be sure. In any case, nicely done.

This is a zoom-in on a Dan Seagrave piece, most famously used on the cover of Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness, though it's also been 'borrowed' a number of times since then.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP04: Guerilla

1:13:23 | 100% Kills | 100% Items | 83% Secrets

 

Holy crap. That was pretty epic. The first couple of seconds might have been the most brutal, though; luckily there's a switch to close off the shutters, which is a handy thing (only cost me a couple deaths to figure that out.) Just a massive, sprawling level; even 35 minutes I was still finding large sections of map I just hadn't gotten over to yet. Progression was, again, largely obscure, with more than a couple "What does that switch do?" moments, where I'd wind up parked in front of said switch looking at the automap to watch for any changes. But my biggest issue with this level was how few ways there were back up to the starting island; there were only two: on the southern and eastern edges, and man if you were in the north or west and wanted to get back aboveground you had a bit of a hike ahead of you. I'm not going to complain to loudly, though, that was a lot of fun.

[souio]

Gave up 3 maps in on last month's because of exams, but ready full on to take on this... oh crap.

 

Map 01: Bolt-Hole

Pistol Starts + UV + Mild Cerebral Palsy Reflexes + 2 beer in me + keyboard only + trying to do it one go + notoriously brutal wad of 2016 = dying 20+ times at beginning of stage 1 (well, i guess pistol starts won't count there lol). Saves definitely. May try no saves when I am not buzzed.

I'm gonna document my playthrough as a walkthrough on how i complete every part - detailing the tricks I use to overcome my horrible reflexes.. which it seems like there's gonna be a lot of creativity used lol.

 

Immediate when it starts, I run into the west alcove. In this hallway, I take out the two zombiemen while the crew near the berserk pack approach me, so I shoot the canister to take out a few. I then run back to the alcove and pick out some zombiemen and imps until I feel safe enough to run around and clear out the first room. You gotta create your own safe spaces in this level i noticed lol. afterwards I took out the chaingunners and some shotgunners and stole one. that brought my health down so I used that opportunity to grab the berserk pack, punch out the pinkies and go upstairs and grab another shotgun and nice armor (I think in hindsight I'll grab armor first lol). I avoid the SSG for now since the trap got me a couple of times. I take out the chaingunner ambush to the left, and also the shotgunners in the little room.

 

With almost 50 shells (dang!), I go back to the first room and check out east hallway. When the hidden doors open, I play peek-a-boo with the shotgun strafing left and right till they're all gone. After making sure the hall's cleared (learned that when a pinky bit me by surprise), I grab the goodies. Seeing that I have over 100 bullets, I decide chaingun the revenants through the big door. I go through and take out the shotgunners in the trenches with my shotgun, and I decided to go back in the door before only to realize it's a different place oops. So I camp out and take out the imps.

I go back through the hallway with the many little crevices and go up the lift only to realize that takes me to said "different room", so i take out chaingunner and imps on the ledges. After clearing out the east side, I head back to the west and risk the SSG. Again, I play strafing peek-a-boo on the small platform with the two doors, switching from left/right door and blasting till I pretty much have everything killed.

 

I went to the small room with the button.. and got my ass kicked by the 2 cacodemons and random chaingunners spawning in my safe spaces. Damn... So I restart, reclaim my SSG (doing worse than before), and see the small room with revenants and imps. Equip my SSG and peek through the window and take them out.

 

Red Key battle.. hoo boy. Pretty scarce on ammo. Dude loves to scatter enemies around the level. Even with saves, I must have died over 50 times lol. Gonna feel pretty accomplished playing through the rest of this.. especially since this is considered the easiest stage. I grab the key, run to where i see the two revenants spawn. Blast them with SSG. Blast the imps as well. The chaingunners that sneak out from behind help me save some ammo. That's pretty good. I then slowly make my way through the rest of the place, trying to take out as many enemies as efficiently as possible. Chaingun has become my best friend.. Chaingunners are why I prefer Doom 1 so much; enemies that can bring you from 100-25 health in 3 seconds even with 200 armor.. ugh! I snipe them out, then use my SSG on hell knights and chaingun to finish them off.. I exit the stage with 168 kills (for level 1! WOW), 15% health, 118 bullets and 8 shells.. too many deaths to count... took almost 2 hours.....

 

Off to stage 2!

 

[NecrumWarrior]

10 hours ago, Salt-Man Z said:

If you look at Demtor's screenshot above, you can see it's not squashed; it's fine. The problem is that the planetoid is shown half in shadow, but stars have erroneously been placed over the dark side of the sphere.

Well if you look at said screenshot you will see where the stars get as close as possible to the planet. Their placement would indicate an oval. The image looks circular when you load it without correction.

Edited May 4, 2017 by NecrumWarrior

[NecrumWarrior]

MAP02: Marshmarrow

Kills: 100%

Items: 84%

Secrets: 33%

17:00

 

I played about half of this map before work and half after work, so the parts about this map I remember most are the later sequences. What I do recall from the majority of the map is that this feels very strongly of direct homages to Plutonia. There's a lot of architecture that is similar to the source material. This might be the most Plutonia map we experience and honestly it's probably best to get it out of the way early to make room for Mr riderr3's personal style. Now, I had a very negative experience with this map, but that is not to say it is bad. From a technical standpoint there is some really cool encounters and well designed areas. But I really hated the Skeleton Crew (my new name for the Lost Soul x Revenant combo) in the final area. It held me up reaching the exit for so long after I grabbed the Blue Key. It wasn't even the final wave, I had bolted away from it as soon as I hit the button to help me reach my destination. It was incredibly frustrating but I somehow managed to pull it off. I did have fun prior to this encounter so I'm counting this map as a win. I loved the style and most of the encounters were engaging.

[Spectre01]

MAP04 - “Guerilla”

Well, this was my best time on this map yet. 41 minutes, UV-Pistol Start and no deaths! I did drop a few saves but never loaded. :P

I won't bullshit you though, this is a huge map with tight ammo balance early on and constant pressure from enemies, more so than the maps before. Thankfully, you're given a Blue Armour at the start and there are 2 more around the map. So overall, defensive pickups are quite generous and allow for recovery from most near-death situations. The map does demand a high level of consistency from the player as well as good exploration skills. Big fan of the theme here, taking inspiration from Plutonia's Bunker(?), with it's combination of subterranian slime rivers and well-guarded military outposts. The 2 upper fortified installations are the most difficult sections of the map and require gearing up in the tunnels below to reasonably approach. Mandatory locations to hit up at the start are the warehouse with the backpack, the drop-down to the SSG and the cool-looking Plasma Gun room. Enemies are also free to wander through the map, use lifts and can show up in unexpected places either through distant teleport traps or being ones you simply ignore for the time being. Cool level and nice green and blue slime.

[CapnClever]

^{Chocolate Doom / Ultra Violence / Pistol Start / No Saves}

MAP04: Guerilla is as the name implies: avoiding direct combat as much as possible. The beginning is a rather abrupt ambush, and it takes some time before you're safe to roam. Once again, the name of the game is gathering resources before working towards actual progression, though thankfully it's easy to pick up just about everything necessary once the layout becomes understood (and makes repeat plays simple to manage). This level is also a rare case of light amplification benefiting the gameplay, as it's quite difficult to learn the tunnels in low light. Each key-collect comes with its own horde, but much of these can be handled from afar without much trouble, even if it cuts into your ammo. It's a pretty neat ending, even if the lowered inner ring produces a lopsided fight (literally: all the enemies stick to one side).

 

Still managed to go in blind and pull out a victory! The resulting time was 80-90 minutes (after an hour Chocolate Doom just says "TIME SUCKS") and it was tense all the way through. Had to deal with a ghost chaingunner at one point, talk about terrifying.

[gaspe]

MAP04: Lost interest after a while but finished it anyway. It reminds a bit of Plutonia's Bunker and again there some nice ideas picked their own here but on the whole the impression is of a big mess. And the monotonous gameplay of the wad is already tiring.

Edited May 4, 2017 by gaspe

[Deadwing]

MAP04: This is a beast which I took around 60 minutes to finish it. At the end, my mind was so consumed that I had to take some time off haha Think about a huge map which you need to be really aware of the surroudings to deal with ambushes (chaingunners lol) and reach progress in this huge non-linear level. Snipers are everywhere, so do roamers, and ammo will be tight for a good amount of time, so you won't relax for a good while. Like Salt-Man Z said, I was uncovering big areas even after 30-min mark, which each of them have some quite complex setpieces and obscure progression to reach the goal. Getting a key doesn't mean you'll be able to reach easily next area, and you will be required to take some time to discover what some switches do (I'm pretty sure some people will be lost at that one which lowers a teleport where a hell knight snipers you)

 

I'm not a big fan of big levels, though most of these were linear levels. I had lots of fun with this one, though.

 

9/10

[Salt-Man Z]

9 hours ago, NecrumWarrior said:

Well if you look at said screenshot you will see where the stars get as close as possible to the planet. Their placement would indicate an oval. The image looks circular when you load it without correction.

Fair enough. I'll maintain that those stars are still poorly placed.

[galileo31dos01]

8 hours ago, Spectre01 said:

well-guarded military outposts

Which are the chaingunners and which the shotgunners?

[souio]

Am I allowed to skip levels for the club? Like say I have a 10 day break and am trailing behind a few levels, will I have to write write-ups for every level from, say, may 5-14 before I could do 15? Or could I write level summaries sporadically so long as it doesn't go over the date/level limit?