The DWmegawad Club plays: Slaughter Until Death & The Evil Unleashed & Obituary

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP09: Nuclear Research Base
21:02 | 100% Kills | 88% Items | 100% Secrets

 

This one's pretty fun, for the most part. It kind of peters out, though, with the blue key reveal being all "That's it?" and then you just march around to the blue door and you're done. A high usage of vertically-out-of-range baddies that will just safely snipe away at you unless you use freelook. (And that arachnotron in the nuke pit: what even was the point?) Still, I like it. Missed an item, though; I assume it was like a dumb little armor bonus or something.

 

MAP10: The Stand
23:39 | 99% Kills | 100% Items | 100% Secrets

 

Yeah, it's a hub map, but it's mostly fun. Once again, the final key does nothing more than open the exit door. The first two spokes here are pretty fun. I especially liked the northern bit, except for one thing: why have all those revenants/sergeants spawn atop the yellow key like that if you're just gonna lock them in? I just spammed SSG through the bars, no fuss. Also, that BFG replacement is, uh. Something. Lotsa large cell packs laying around, as well as a metric crapload of zerk packs and supercharges. Geez. I marked 'em all down and picked them up later after clearing everything out. Unnecessary. The western blue key area I remember giving me fits the first time I played. Indeed, this time I took it carefully and had cleared out the northern half before getting pinned by a spectre horde and accidentally switching to my pistols instead of my chainsaw. Ded. After that I didn't move as carefully and was killed a couple more times. (Free-roaming revvie rockets. Pinned between a spider and a horde of lost souls. Etc.) There's a weird bit where you can work a raising/lowering elevator to get to the blue key door, which is hilarious because I'd already gotten there by straferunning from the window the green armor teleporter sends you too. Weird. Missed one monster somewhere. Your guess is as good as mine, even IDDT didn't show anything.

[gaspe]

MAP13: Not sure with this was called Pandemonium II tbh, except for the hellish theme of the map. From the start it was pretty interesting but after the blue key the things change for the bad and get boring. The little quest for the yellow was nice though. Worth of a mention is the tower with the cyberdemon, very impressive work, it would look cool even in a modern wad.

[T-Rex]

Hey, everyone, I'm back again to play more Obituary. So this looks like we're at the final stretch, so to speak.

 

Map12: Biochemical Factory (Thomas Moeller)

101% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 13:08

 

This is pretty much the last techbase map in the megawad as everything else onward is all hellish, bricks, and stone-themed. Like with every other techbase map, it's crampy with mostly boxy architecture. You have to be careful, though, because there's a lot of really lethal ambushes, even at the start as you have to start chaingun blazing at all the sniper zombies which includes a couple of bazooka men. Then there's the blue key where after you grab it, the walls open revealing a bunch of enemies, some of which teleport to block your only escape route. You'll doing some switch pressing to open up areas to progress further. Fortunately, you can use some of the barrels to help weaken or kill the enemies that come close to them. Sometimes, you can get the bazooka men to commit harakiri while inadventently damaging or killing other enemies among, which is hilarious by itself. In the area where you hit the switch to gain access to the red key room, I like to use the BFG before opening the door so that I can kill all the baddies inside without alerting anyone via sound tunnel as reaching for the switch lowers a teleporter they can use to teleport in any of the vats in the room, so that way I can sneak up on them and waste them with the BFG. There are more ambushes like when you try going for the red key and a wall closes in front of you while others open revealing more enemies. Then there's the fake exit trick, where hitting the switch lowers a lift and you're surrounded by cacodemons and shotgunners. Have the BFG ready before stepping on the teleporter as you can potentially die due being surrounded by pinkies and some bazooka men, probably the toughest secret to get because of that. The ending has you hitting more switches to find another way to reach the exit, and then one more ambush to take care of while you wait for the closed bar to open so you can hit the real exit switch. A fairly tough map.

 

Map13: Pandemonium II (Thomas Moeller)

100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 09:58

 

Although this map bares little to no resemblance to the original Pandemonium, E3M3 of Ultimate Doom, it's a pretty decent hellish map, but goodness is it such a tough cookie. The start has you immediately trying to kill the bazooka man and revenant, but there's a couple of chaingunners ready to strike and some super imps and shotgunners for good measure. BFG the demons in the fire pit before you dive in as that also clears an exploding barrel. Bit of good action while getting the blue key, and then when you gain accent past the blue skull bar, you'll have to face some pinkies that teleport into the red chamber past the green marble room with all the imps, where you'll be doing a bit of exploring to find the yellow key. When you can finally enter the yellow door, the tower opens up, and you'll engage in a rather tricky fight with the cyberdemon to get the red key. Thank goodness there's a soul sphere, but I wish it would have been a megasphere so I could have both max health and armor. Ah, whatever. The ending has you going up a lift, clearing off a platform full of barons, then waste the last chaingunners and super imps. This map isn't too bad, but some parts are quite hectic, especially the cyberdemon fight.

 

Gonna save it up to here now. I'll see you all again when we take on the last maps of Obituary. Take care and have fun.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP13 Pandemonium II

 

Whatever this had with the first Pandemonium I don't know, but this map has some racing switches and a few other things in it. Combat actually is a lot more interesting which prevails with the theme. And yes, a courtyard full of pinkies! Some of which teleport to the room to the south, so the action migrates over there if you let it. The cyber is in an iconic-looking arena, but also the BFG replacement, which I first tried out doesn't even have a projectile, so it's a weird one. Fun level anyways, yah.

[Demtor]

MAP13 - “Pandemonium II” by Thomas Möller

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/saves

 

I think the sky background really does this map and it’s design a bit of a disservice as right from the start I get a hell vibe and the rest of the map holds that feeling true. It’s funny that they spent so much time on new weapons but kept the same destroyed cityscape as the backdrop. I guess it is ‘95 and maybe that just wasn’t done yet, (wonder who did that first) but as much as I do love the new pistols, I’d trade ‘em in for a better overall look and feel. A good sky can really add or detract to a map’s aesthetic and presence.

 

Some of the damage floor spots were annoying but at least the falling floor one looked cool. Speaking of looking cool, not sure what that woodbox centerpiece is supposed to be but it stands out in a room of nothing. This room however looks VERY cool.

 

My favorite part of this map, besides hoping over the gap to steal a key out from underneath a deaf cyberdemon, was getting a zerk pack and just going off. I must have kicked at least 20 demons before I just kept kicking everyone and everything everywhere. It worked surprisingly well! I think it has to do with the higher attack rate maybe. Or at least it seems like it.

 

I only found one secret but it was probably the only one that mattered. Too bad it was at the end of the map. Yeeaaahh! I got something for that walking cow now! Suck it down! Now, who wants a cybersteak? How do you like your meat? Well done or bloody? Muwahaha!

[Capellan]

OBTIC MAP13

Easily the most hellish map we're seen yet from TiC, with plenty of marble and SPHOT, plus what looks like demi1_6 and rock3 both recoloured in red.

 

As others have noted, any similarity to the original Pandemonium seems pretty slight.  But maybe the name's just a reference to the rather chaotic action that can break out once you're on the path to the yellow key.  Easily the highlight section of the map.

 

Visually this is a nice level.  The cyberdemon chamber looks great, even if the fight itself isn't that exciting - I shotgunned the poor sap to death - and the chamber with the yellow door also looks very nice.  

 

I would have preferred the exit section to have more clear signposting as to which wall to hump to get a lift to descend - multiple sw1lion and s1garg walls, most of which aren't actually switches, was a tad disappointing.  I'd have replaced the sw1gargs and the northern sw1lion with plain metal, myself.

 

[Pirx]

MAP11 - “Incubator of Chaos” by Thomas Möller

 

another doom2 base map, pretty generic, i mean it's telling that i had trouble remembering its details as i stopped 2 maps later to write my impressions. plenty of sergeants, loads of shells to use up close, which means door camping and corridor cleaning. there's still too much corridor-based architecture for my taste. i liked the jump through the window though and wished the map had more moments like that with a more open, free-flowing structure.

 

 

MAP12 - “Biochemical Factory” by Thomas Möller

 

a techbase with many blue walls, more detailed than earlier maps - i noticed the railings too. a somewhat hectic start, a few good ambushes where walls open releasing a mix of enemies, and then those dorky rocket troopers who keep blowing themselves up. these were the better parts of the game, mostly involving zombies, imps and barrels.

the worse part had the damn bridges that lower when you step on them, it's a sure way to slow down the game (same as the platform crap they did earlier). then the open door, shoot, move on wolf3 type play in the southeastern corner, and, to top it off, not realizing when you're beating a dead horse with the fake exits.

 

 

MAP13 - “Pandemonium II” by Thomas Möller

 

a refreshing change from the series of narrow corridor bases. this map more open and hellish, has some good looking parts like the fire-red pillar behind iron bars and the cyb's tower in demtor's pic.  but: too many pinkies. they're not mixed with some other monsters to block the player, they come at him in droves without any support. that's overdoing it like with the fake exits before.

[Capellan]

OBTIC MAP14

My heart sank at the opening, but this map is actually pleasingly light on 64-wide action, with most areas allowing more movement.  It is a bit on square side, though, both in terms of many of the areas and the map as a whole.  I suspect that Thomas may have used grid paper to plan out a lot of his levels: their shape certainly feels like that's the case.

 

I liked the blood fountain in the vines area, with the slowish trickle of teleporting monsters.  It's a shame that wasn't introduced earlier, in an area of the map you'd have to revisit, as I think it could have been a neat repopulation mechanism.

 

TiC's baffling love affair with up/down moving platforms continues, with a couple of instances in this map, and yet another of those tedious checkerboard rooms we've seen several times before.  At least it's entirely optional this time.

 

Not a fan of the crate room either.  Partly because it just ends up being a rather bland brown area visually, but moreso because of the use of crates as non-secret lifts.  I've never cared for that: especially in a room where every stack of crates looks the same.

 

The jump to get to the blue door is a pretty neat bit of Doom parkour, though.  I'll give the map that.

[Magnusblitz]

After taking a quick look at it, I'm gonna go ahead and vote

 

+++ Moonblood

 

Always a fan of Scythe inspired bite-size levels.

[gaspe]

MAP14: Not a very good start with chainsaw-ing pinkies in 64-wide corridors, at least we can move on quickly from that and the map gets better. The green marble area is quite dangerous at first, but nothing too hard to deal. Then follows the western section with some cool bits of progression to get the blue key, my favourite part of the map. I really liked the crate room, and there's even a secret room made entirely of crates which looked strange in a good way. The area past the yellow key door was nice, shame that the teleport ambush isn't designed very well and it's easy to rush to the exit.

[Paul977]

You convinced me to play Obituary at some point

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP14 Halls of the Requiem

 

This map? Not so much fun. Kind of boring apart from the teleporter combat at the beginning and a few other places. It becomes yet another cramped key/switch hunt afterwards, and I don't really feel up to snuff with the rest. Nine secrets is rather bothersome, even though all of them are easily obtained. The whole southwest room and the exit area are the most interesting places combat-wise, the southwest having some interesting monster setups and enemies emerging, while the marble area close to the exit has two teleporters and some monsters coming in. Too bad that is one horribly constructed teleporter closet that will take minutes to clear out entirely. That crate room has explosive crates too, but you can fire on them without repercussions (lol), of course the barrels do not qualify for that immunity.

[Demtor]

MAP14 - “Halls of the Requiem” by Thomas Möller

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/saves

 

Puzzling start with all of the teleports and demons. I think you can end up going one of two ways and I believe I went the correct way luckily. Though later there are even more teleport pads that don’t seem to move progression along anywhere. Just gives more pinkies the something to do as they use them as well.

 

Nifty little green fountain that seems really out of place but I loved it. It’s a completely unnecessary detail that adds a little extra something to an otherwise unremarkable corner.

 

Some of the visuals room to room are very drastic in scenery changes. The red area was fun as the center piece opens up with cacs and demons to play with.

 

Not so sneaky ninjas show up and make a sad attempt to snipe at you from above. Another inescapable crusher out of nowhere made me shake my fist at the screen. Things can get dicey with point blank CG’ers from above too. Grrrr! Also, we get another fake exit but this one was rather tame compared to Map 12. I missed this secret room. Oh well. I seem to be missing a lot of the secrets lately. >_< Not the best map but not the worst. 

[Magnusblitz]

MAP14: Halls of the Requiem

88% kills, 4/9 secrets

 

The beginning makes for an interesting pistol start - I ended going to the 'below' section first and getting the chainsaw, then needing to carefully make my way forward until I could finagle a shotgun off a sergeant. But that's the best point of the level, as the rest is rather meh. I'll echo Capellan's point about not liking some of the design choices here like the moving floors and the crates being lifts, they didn't get me stuck for too long but they're annoying or unintuitive. And the monster closets are terribly designed, I know a lot of my missed kills are due to them not emptying completely. The 'false exit' is also pretty lamely tame this time.

[Capellan]

OBTIC MAP15

I wasn't much of a fan of the opening of this map, and of course the tiresome 64-wide maze gets a big thumbs down, but otherwise I liked most of map15.

 

Starting with the opening, I did quite like the way you start under pressure, but the square box room is pretty darn ugly, and the blue key keepaway is quite silly, not least because you can easily parkour to it anyway and thus skip the entire mancubus cage sequence.  Which is probably for the best because that way you don't have to deal with hitscanners you can't see because of the angle they're at and the midtextures used.

 

Once you're through that, things step up a bit, with more room to move and monsters you can at least see.  I liked the red key well, and the lava-filled fortress area to the south of that is plenty of fun.  Even if I did get bitten by the "-10/-20 damage sometimes ignores rad suits" bug not once but twice.

 

I like the glimpse of the exit, though I wish it wasn't quite such an "okay flick a switch and then wander back to find what opened" moment.  Thankfully the wandering you have to do isn't too long.

 

Alas then we have the stupid maze section which more or less brings things to a grindy halt before the map's second "fortress" section.  The swarm of monsters that teleports in here is pretty fun, even if it is relatively easy to use the corner to blast them down.  The area looks pretty nice too, though I think I would have picked something other than brown bigbrik for the outer wall.

 

Once you clear the fortress you can teleport to the switch that will open the exit area.  Assuming you don't find the secret exit that also becomes accessible at this time, you then teleport back to the big fortress and have to run back to the main exit.  A wave of monsters will greet you when you do this, but aside from those that actually teleport into the area where you 'port back to, they can all safely be ignored.  The teleporting for is actually pretty badly set up - a common issue in early wads where the logic behind efficient monster teleporting had not yet been worked out.

 

A mix of good and bad here but I think overall the good generally outweighs the bad.

[SleepyVelvet]

These rocket zombies in Obtic are destroying me.  I'm on Map12: I get towards the end of the map but it teleports me into a cramped room of pinkies and rocketmen; I squirm around and luckily dodge a few while killing a couple pinkies, but I get body-blocked by another pinky while trying to maneuver away and then get blown up by a rocketman.

 

I had some trouble on one of the previous maps too, the winding-vertical-walkways one.  There was always this one rocketman that sniped me from a distance.  These guys are much more sneaky than, let's say a cyberdemon that broadcast their presence to you more easily.

 

I appreciate the "oh shit" moments from these guys, even when I smash my keyboard because of them.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP15: Castle of Damnation

99% kills, 1/3 secrets

 

This was a mix of good and bad. The first area is pretty annoying (especially the first time you run to cover in the corner only to drop down an unseen lift and get plastered by hitscanners) and like Capellan noted I completely skipped the mancubus area at first since I just ran over the rising wall to grab the blue key. There's some more "pinkies in a long 64-wide hallway" the author loves sooo much, and some overly-spacious areas after that. I really did like the lava area though, the monsters here kept me moving and I was tense since there was no obvious right way to go - building? walls? Unfortunately after that is a dumb maze, and the castle area itself is let down by yet another tricklefest of a monster teleporter. Took me a little while to find the secret exit, and when I did I then hit it unknowingly since there's no exit sign, heh. At least the yellow door area has the tendency to make the monsters clump up in such a way as to make for fun targets for the flamethrower.

 

MAP31: Divine Inferno

100% kills, 0/1 secret

 

Pretty underwhelming. A few arenas, the first of which reminded me a bit of Sacred Grove from Hexen from the automap. This one has walls though, so it turns into a boring circle-strafe fest (slowed down by yet another slow-ass teleporter, plus lots of the monsters being useless filler like demons and lost souls). After that there's a couple of wings with hitscanners with an AV, and some bigger turret monsters. Edge-hump to kill the AVs then wipe out everything else easily, not much to it. Guess it fits in the secret map in terms of not being worth a full-fledged spot, I suppose.

[gaspe]

MAP15: The start doesn't give a good impression, an ugly and square area filled with hitscanners, kinda rough on pistol start. The blue key can be picked from there without so much effort, so you can skip the area with the caged monsters. The red key area was pretty boring, flat ground and too many pinkies, the well was nice though. The map improves a lot in the area with the castle and the lava lake. I also think that this part was heavily inspired by "Industrial Zone", the wooden building and mostly the green bricks battlements. Next there's a 64-wide maze, ugh, that luckily is short and not very complex so you can quickly move on to the last fortress . Which was pretty nice I must say, shame that the teleports for the last big wave of monsters don't work very well.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP15 Castle of Damnation

 

There certainly are a lot of no lines errors on the GZDoom console right now. Probably isn't gonna affect gameplay much though. Anyways, this looks to be a big map according to the full automap, but then again, a much less monster count than the ones before it is gonna make it not as bad.

 

It seems that grabbing keys is the easy part of the map, as I get the blue key right away once I leave the starting building. And that's not all, the other keys are just as easy to grab too. The red key is in an easy-to-reach well (it's made just for you Demon of the Well), and the yellow key is in a rather iconic lavabridge area, which beckons that radsuit in the corner. The castle setting is quite good. The whole southern section of the map? Not so much. You first have this dumb maze to deal with, and due to the bad way TiC constructs teleport closets, it takes a good four or five minutes to get every monster into the whole castle at the bottom. This being MAP15, there's a secret exit to deal with too, but it was actually not that hard to find considering its proximity to the final area I reach.

 

MAP31 Divine Inferno

 

This looks like some kind of Master Level. Seems nasty with the barons and teleporting enemies at the start, but I had adequate cover. Two areas to the left and right were more gruesome, made worse by my own mistake of opening them both at the same time. I meandered to the left first, after getting the chaingunners to my position to kill them, I swoop the open field of its mancubi. Going to the right, there's a nice pile of zombie corpses, apparently a rocket zombie took most of them out. Found some imps and revenants in this side. That's pretty much it for the level, now is the matter of getting to the exit. Not that bad to figure out, but pressing all four sides of the pillar on both ends to raise the platform all the way seems unintuitive to me.

Edited July 30, 2017 by NuMetalManiak
MAP31

[T-Rex]

Final day of July on my end, so I'm gonna finish the rest of Obituary.

 

Map14: Halls of the Requiem (Thomas Moeller)

100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 18:15

 

Yet another pretty tricky map, though if you take extreme caution, you won't experience that much difficulty. It's another hellish map complete with stone and marble sections. First thing you want to do as soon as you start is kill all the demons before stepping off the teleporter so they won't attack you as they teleport in. Then pick either the top right or bottom right teleporter and snipe off some baddies, particularly bazooka men so they won't critically wound you while you're occupied gunning down other enemies. Of course, you'll have to take the bottom right teleporter first to reach the blue key, and that will require raising a bridge to reach the other side of the upper path. Next, when you take to top right teleporter and climb up the platform where those shotgunners were, windows to the outdoor area open revealing revenants and more bazooka men, so take them out first before making the jump. The middle section is very odd as there's crates, but there's more enemy prioritising to be done in order to survive. Enter the red marble room to collect the red key, which triggers the middle wall to lower revealing pinkies and cacodemons. Then, enter the door to the grey stone room where there's spectres, mancubi, and chaingunners. You'll then have to enter the red key door where you'll have a jaunt with those speedy troopers, including shotgunners and chaingunners. Hit more switches in the southernmost section, but watch out for the crushing ceiling. Before you can get the yellow key, have the BFG ready to wipe out the ambush of chaingunners, super imps, and revenants. The yellow key has a neat fountain where all kinds of enemies teleport in, however, you need to do some running to the other side and back a couple of times to have everyone teleport in, and the ending has you hitting the fake exit switch only for more pinkies to appear. This level is fairly long due to the traps and that god-awful teleporter setup, but otherwise, it's not a bad map.

 

Map15: Castle of Damnation (Thomas Moeller)

101% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 19:45

 

Oh my goodness, words cannot express how much I'm so relieved to get past this map. It's good for the most part, but it's very hard, especially at the ending. The start has you immediately attacking the gunners that will open fire, and you'll get hit from all angles. Then you need to ride up and try to reach the blue key through alternate means as the obvious will be blocked. After you get the blue key, you'll have to jump into a well you'll reach soon to grab the red key, and the walls lower revealing arachnotrons. Then you need to race through lava to reach a radiation suit so you can reach the island with the switch that raises the bridge, but you got snipers firing at you, including revenants and a bazooka man. You need to find a switch via a rocky cavern to the east where the main exit is so that you can open the way to the 64-wide marble maze that is filled with demons, but don't forget the yellow key. Here comes the brutal part, a shitload of monsters pour around the yard and circular ramparts, which includes those dreaded bazookamen. The safest approach is to camp out and let the ones teleporting to the yard come to you, because trying to gun them all while they're teleporting is suicide, especially when there's lost souls and cacodemons to impede your movement. The inner yard and tower gets flooded with more baddies, among of which includes an arch-vile. Thankfully, it's smooth-sailing once you survive that part, and the way to the secret exit isn't that difficult to find. Phew! This was a pretty long and difficult map, but thank goodness the last two maps are short.

 

Map31: Divine Inferno (Thomas Moeller)

102% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 04:47

 

A rather brutal bonus level where you'll be slaughtering hordes of monsters in circular arenas. First arena has you fighting barons, and then legions of hellspawn come flooding the place. Clear everyone out first, and you'll teleport to the arena where the mob came from. Now you have two dangerous arenas, each holding an arch-vile. Infighting will be your best bet to survival. Short, intense, and a lot of fun, it fits as a secret level.

 

Map16: Conclusion (Denis Moeller)

88% kills, 60% items, 100% secrets

Time: 01:24

 

So here we come to the finale of Obituary. The start has you fighting some pinkies and spectres while bazooka men fire their rockets at you. Eliminate them first, then hit the switch to activate the stairs to get to where the bazooka men where, then lower the wall to the inside, where you have another variation of the Icon of Sin. Grab the invulnerability and the partial invisibility so the enemies won't hurt you and miss their shots, and waste Romero's head in any side of the metal column.

 

Now that Obituary is done, I can give my thoughts on the TiC trilogy and consider my favourite and least favourite maps. The Moeller brothers have come a long way since their debut with Slaughter Until Death. Although most of their early maps were crude, they served as embryos for the maps they would make in Obituary and Memento Mori. Both brothers, much like the Casali brothers, had their own distinctive style. Denis Moeller did not make any huge impressions in SUDTIC and TEUTIC, but it is not until Obituary where he finally found his voice as it became apparent that his calling cards were brown-themed textures combined with metal and the occasional green marble textures, though he returned to techbase for Map08. It seems that American McGee must have been a huge influence for Denis. Thomas, he sticked with a very consistent theme all the way, his preferences resting in techbase and hell-themed maps. What both brothers shared, though, is their penchant from pitting you against hordes of demons and zombies. SUDTIC and TEUTIC were great episodes. Some frustrating parts here and there, but for the most part, they are a lot of fun. Obituary is where they improved greatly in architecture and gameplay, and the new monsters that replaced existing ones were fairly neat, though they can be very cheap, particularly the bazooka men. The new weapons when played with the patch are pretty nifty too, and I enjoyed the trilogy as a whole. My only complaints are how some of the monster teleporters were set up in that they all wander around and take forever to spawn in. If they had fixed that up in a way that all come by being confined to a singular hallway, then the maps with these traps wouldn't be so time consuming.

 

Most Favourite Maps

Slaughter Until Death - E2M3, E2M4, E2M5

The Evil Unleashed - E3M2, E3M3, E3M5, E3M7

Obituary - 01, 02, 04, 06, 08, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 31

 

Least Favourite Maps

Slaughter Until Death - E2M7

The Evil Unleashed - E3M8

Obituary - 07

 

For my final scores, I give Slaughter Until Death a 6/10, The Evil Unleashed gets a 7/10, while Obituary gets an 8/10. All of them are highly recommended, especially if you enjoyed Memento Mori 1 and 2, and even Requiem. It's very interesting and fun to see how the Moellers' style evolved since 1994.

 

Well, that wraps it all up for me. I had fun playing the TiC trilogy with everyone else at the DWMC. Might follow this up with The Trooper's Playground. May you enjoy the next megawad you'll take on. Good night and peace out.

Edited July 30, 2017 by T-Rex

[gaspe]

MAP31: Lets start with a boring wave of monsters, then clear twice the same room(s) but with different monsters. Pistol start is even more awful. There's a rocket launcher in the pit before the exit, which is also inescapable, and the other goodies of the map are in a secret nearby the exit. I guess the map is just a bonus to let the player to stack of health and some ammo before the finale, but anyway this was dire.

[vdgg]

After 3 maps I was on holiday with no computer to play. After I came back I wasn't attracted to play anything, so it is not Obituary's fault. Today I replayed MAP03 for some UV Max demo improvement, as well as MAP09.

 

MAP09

The reason I replayed it were mostly negative reviews I saw here, and I remembered this map as great. My opinion hasn't changed. It looks gorgeous, kind of a tech-lab mini city, with great vistas up and down. I considered MAP06-MAP09-MAP11 as a kind of trilogy, with similar theme. MAP09 is the most consistent one, and the best looking one. It plays much better if you know the secrets, I have to admit. There's also one soulsphere in a "secret" closet which doesn't count for 100% secrets.

 

MAP08

Just a heads up, the pistol start can be arguably much easier than it looks: a megaarmor can be grabbed through the wall right at the start.

 

I'm so behind I will rather not play the remaining maps. I remember these very well, so I will post a conclusion note tomorrow. But before,

FLAMETHROWER

Not sure about the max distance, but how powerful it is? With Prboom+ -trace_givendamage option I figured it is exactly 3 times more powerful than plasma rifle. The base damage is 15*d8 (a single hit inflicts damage from range 15-120, a plasma rifle shot only 5-40).

SONIC BLASTER

Again, not a thorough analysis. The weapon is rare and its use is limited. If I remember, it is present only on MAP09, MAP11, MAP13, MAP14, MAP16. The base damage is double of the BFG base damage (200*d8).

[rehelekretep]

SUDTIC FDA PACK

TEUTIC FDA PACK

OBTIC FDA PACK

so i played all these maps but just didnt find them interesting enough to keep up posting comments.

these are all no-saves so sorry if that bothers you. luckily there arent many deaths (except on one map that just kicked my ass).

these were all recorded with obtic.wad and obtic.deh from the DSDA fixed zip: http://doomedsda.us/lmps/708/obtic11.zip

enjoy.

Edited August 25, 2017 by rehelekretep
adding teutic and sudtic packs

[Demtor]

MAP15 - “Castle of Damnation” by Thomas Möller

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/saves

 

I’d say this is one of the more ambitious maps in this set. Two castle forts, meticulously designed (for ‘95) who both provide a lot of fun serving as big set pieces to fight around and over.

 

One castle has a moodily lit maze before finding the hidden entrance while the previous castle required a key at the bottom of a well.

 

The start is a bit hairy with four open windows and hard hitting hitscans roaming around. You can get cut down quickly if you aren’t quick and accurate. Then there’s more pain waiting after the bloody hallway hub.

 

I made more of an effort to find secrets once I saw that my favorite weapon was sitting behind bars. Glad I did as it, once again, made this map pretty easy. BURN!! Without finding the secrets, there is already a lot of health everywhere so once you do find a few secrets, it becomes almost laughable. Same for the ammo but even still the fight at the YK fort can cut you down quick with rocket soldiers and imps readily mixed in with a lot of other mobs. But whatever, All praise the flame thrower!

 

The exit sequence is very cool looking. Having to warp behind the bars and open them up from the opposite side is a nice moment.

[Demtor]

MAP16 - “Conclusion” by Denis Möller

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/saves

 

The end is nigh and… this is it? Awwww. that was a let down to say the least. An IoS map in ‘95? The dirt worst. What’s there to say? There’s not a whole lot to this. At least the intro was exciting for about 10 seconds.

 

 

 

MAP31 - “Divine Inferno”

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/saves

 

I liked the idea of the large circular area with a central encounter involving monsters pouring in and you just have to deal with it. That kind of thing probably wasn’t done too often back then.

 

After that though the map kind of jumped off a cliff for me. Just two large separate sections with lots of enemies guarding their own switch columns requiring special order of activation in order to get the exit floor to raise. Meh. Felt like this was rushed and not much attention or detail was given beyond the basic premise.

 

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

Playing TiC’s Doom 1 episodes provided a neat visual exploration into older map design and their evolutionary process. It was fun to play some good ‘94 stuff for a change as there’s a lot of garbage wads from then. It’s really remarkable how something so dated still has moments that shined. It’s easy to see why they were the example of good design then.

 

For ‘95 and Doom 2 they brought in a lot of crazy ideas that perhaps took the focus away from the maps themselves maybe. In any case, I’m glad that when they did Memento Mori they decided to scale back and keep the enemies and weapons basic Doom 2 and just focus on the gameplay and level design. I was a bit let down with Obituary but I’m sure something like that was a necessary practice before MM could be as good as it was. Though MM1 had a few missteps for sure, MM2 showed off their incredible ability to learn from the past and continue to keep things moving in the right direction.

 

I have not played Requiem yet but I see you guys did a few years back. I am looking forward to going through it now and reading what everyone thought about it. That will complete my TiC checklist. Cool! Not sure what happened to these guys but they definitely inspired me with their work with Doom 2. MM 1 & 2 were the first custom wads I ever played. I have fond memories of getting it to work on my crappy family PC at an age where I had no business downloading and running custom made material from the internet ^_^

[Capellan]

OBTIC MAP16

For a moment I thought we were going to get something new, but nah it's bosshooterama.

 

 

OBTIC Overall

I might not have liked every map, but I'm glad we played Obituary.  It gave me a fresh appreciation for Denis's work.  Based on their megawad contributions I rated Thomas more highly but I think the other Moller brought the best game here.  I also found some value from seeing how their monster changes worked.  The super imp I give a thumbs up.  I think it's much less goofy than the STRAIN version and it fills a "fragile but dangerous fireballer" slot in Doom's bestiary.

 

The rocket trooper's kind of goofy but in a free fan work I quite liked him.  I think if he were a professionally produced bad guy I'd be a bit more down on him due to his potential for cheap abuse and kamikaze tactics.

 

The sci fi ninja guy wasn't really used enough to make an impression, but anything is better than an SS trooper, really.

 

[Pirx]

MAP14 - “Halls of the Requiem” by Thomas Möller

 

starts with a strange tele setup where pinkies can remain stuck on those columns with teleporters on top. visually a wild mix of themes. brown stone, green marble, blood, and warehouse with custom painted crates. one of these crates functions as a lift, it suddenly lowers with a pneumatic sound - something completely silly. then there's the blood fountain behind the yellow (iirc) door  which takes forever to spit out a bunch of enemies. on the other hand you can't just ignore them because there are some chaingunners and rocketmen among them. took me a rather long time to clear it, compared to the size of the map, because of all those convoluted cramped places.

 

 

MAP15 - “Castle of Damnation” by Thomas Möller

 

unpleasant pistol start with all those zombies around. ok, now i realized what others wrote about parkour to the blue key - i jumped right over the wall as it started moving, onto the key, and wondered what that wall was good for. lol. the manc cage part is static, stand and shoot. then the lava-filled moat in the way to the castle is a nice sight, with battlements indeed reminiscent of d2m15. unfortunately there's this damn maze again before we get to the castle's gate. sure mazes are some of the easiest architecture bit, but why were they so common? they're ugly and boring, yet there's barely one map in this wad without a maze. i trolled the castle troops with some door kung fu (open / close it repeatedly) and they killed each other, got resurrected, killed each other again, that game.

 

 

 

MAP16 - “Conclusion” by Denis Möller

 

IoS map, and without any twist. i refuse to play those properly, that is without mouse aim.

 

the actual fun came when d2m17 loaded after this. some imps or zombies behind the windows to the left & right of the starting hallway got replaced by rocket dudes, who promptly blew themselves up and everyone around them.

 

 

 

so, obituary's last maps. while they're better looking than the earlier maps, and indeed, one can nicely see the progress the brothers made, from their blocky beginnings in sudtic, up to their contributions to the memento moris and requiem.  

 

i'm not a fan of moving columns, crushers, inescapable pits, or 20 dmg lava, but it wasn't nearly as much as i thought, or remembered wrongly.

 

it was mostly the gameplay i didn't find thrilling in many places. perhaps i'm just overly put off by some things that were more common back then, especially those awful 64-wide mazes with pinkies in droves right in front of me.

[Crusader No Regret]

Still doing writeups from last month, popping in to vote

 

+++ Biowar and Hellcore 2.0

 

19 maps + 12 maps  Except one is a cutscene and one has no exit so really 29 total

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP16 Conclusion

 

Ending it with the simple IOS fight. Seems like we get a warm-up at the start, but the IOS fight is one of those where the brain is in the center of the arena with several pillars with powerups with properly timed rocket shots being the winner. There's better and there's worse.

 

Odd, MAP17 is the exact same as MAP01 and MAP18 is the same as MAP11.

 

Anyways, I enjoyed Slaughter Until Death for the most part, The Evil Unleashed is my favorite of the wads due to the combat, and my first time playing Obituary wasn't that bad as the custom monsters were used well.

[Pirx]

BTW,  I think that moonblood won at this point already so my vote doesn't change the result.  Anyway,  i vote for it because I played the first 4 or 5 maps and I like it. But more importantly I'll be away after August 20 so I'd like to finish it in advance to be able to comment on that topic. Which might be more difficult to do with ESP.

 

+++ Moonblood