The DWmegawad Club plays: Plutonia Revisited Community Project

[Cipher]

46 minutes ago, rdwpa said:

 

Revs can be killed off to the side where they won't get rezzed. Other viles don't seem to be able to path into the room effectively if you stay at the back at first -- even getting a third vile (the one outside left unkilled) doesn't seem to pose much of an objective threat this way. 

Ah, maybe I was trying to get a shot in by the front pillars too often. Should've tried hanging back. Was trying to avoid chaingunner rezzes as the closet Vile approached.

Edited October 12, 2017 by Cipher

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP12: Velocity

 

After the sprawling, labyrinthine grandeur of the preceding map, the relatively brevity and straightforward nature of this one is refreshing, though it's not without its challenges as the player parkours their way through a spiralling succession of interconnected arenas.  Two Spider Masterminds, a Cyberdemon, and a coven of arch-viles make up the most prominent threats, although one of the map's memorable encounters for me is defined instead by the pain elementals that are more than capable of doubling the map's monster count with their spawn if left to infight with the cacodemons and Cyberdemon in the same room.  I'll admit to not being impressed by the occasionally cheap manner in which the level deploys its chaingunners, particularly right at the exit where they pop out from four directions ready to shred any player that hesitates in either diving through the teleporter or hurling themselves off the edge into the blood below.  On the other hand, the teleporter fake-out with the revenants, in the room adjacent to the Cyberdemon's perch, is a delightfully cheeky trick.

[gaspe]

MAP12: This is from the same author of Plutonia 2 MAP15, both maps are similar and and borrow a lot from the original "speed", but for what I recall I think that Kira did a better job here. Rather cool and exciting.

[Archi]

MAP12. Time: 12:10. Kills: 100%. Secrets: 100%.

I've re-recorded my demo from that point. Worst secret ever.

 

prcp_arch_12.zip

[Demtor]

On 10/1/2017 at 11:24 PM, Salt-Man Z said:

(And where's @Demtor with his copious screenshots to jog my memory? :) )

 

 

Hah, sorry. I decided to take the month off to play some other stuff and take a break to enjoy some fall weather before it gets miserable out. Besides, I'm not the biggest Plutonia fan so this seemed like a good time to kick back.

[galileo31dos01]

MAP12: Velocity

UV, pistol start, saves

Death Count: technically 1, and theoretically 2

 

 

Kira does a tribute/homage to Speed in this map, looking quite simple with a straightforward way to reach the exit. Again, non-damaging blood, this isn't for ever and I feel grateful for that (?). Contrary to Speed, the map doesn't play with much height variety, it's all basically in the same level with taller platforms and a few pits you're not going to spend too much time, because it's fucking dangerous.

 

The map is, like Speed, a complete hitscan violent trajectory. From the start, I was double shot by shotgunners before I could even say hi. It felt really good to be able to run on blood without aching, but the presence of chaingunners that could shoot me from spots my autoaim could not reach, or I couldn't see, made my first run end pretty early. The first secret seemed mandatory to palliate the unavoidable pain, but it still wasn't enough without an armor, which I think I grabbed after teleporting to where the caged hitscanners were. SMM, a ledge of chaingunners, and shotgunners from several points, made me score my first death. You get the rocket launcher, plasma rifle and a secret BFG to tackle all of this madness. There are also two cyberdemons to telefrag, I mention this because on my first time (continuous, months ago) I killed the only one on HMP with my guns instead. A legion of flying meat to say wait! we gotta flood the pool first. This is the funny part because the first cyber pushed those sneaky lost souls like through the walls. After that room, more obnoxious chaingunners, this is the part I feel more disgusted, the secret BFG a la Speed is the probably one of the worst secrets ever, there is no way (that I'm aware) to kill both archviles without being attacked at least once, because there's no cover and they can simply stop and target you from opposite points. It's important to save cells for that part... Anyway, the last part is another one I'm not particularly a fan of, it's easy to skip it but also you have a final chaingunners trap, and leaving that part is the worst choice because you have to return from where you came and wait for the SMM and archviles die somehow, simply because you can't be in the line of sight of them for too long. I remember from my continuous run, I initially skipped that part and let everyone kill each other, which took way too long. At the end I scored another death, but the map at least was over.

 

Secrets, like I said, the soulsphere is a powerful one, and the BFG secret is a terrible one if you're willing to max or 100% everything. Also I will point out that the second soulsphere didn't last shit for me, as the psycho archviles gladly absorbed my health in a matter of seconds. The midi on the other side is that speedy nice one from the iwads, I like it.

 

Ammo is ok, I had no problems so there's nothing to say about.

 

Overall, mixed feelings, but I didn't rage or feel mad, so this is partially approved. Rate: 6278/10000

[Endless]

Plutonia Revisited Community Project
MAP12: Velocity
HMP Difficulty, using GZDoom and Brutal Doom.
10/12/2017

 

Oh oh, boy. This is interesting! Just by reading the title of the map I had the suspicion that on this map I would have to move a lot, run to the target and dodge enemies. And yes, that has to be done practically, but I preferred to go more quietly and clear the zones of enemies, it was difficult to have to deal with so many at such a distant distance. Problems with bosses? Pfff, tell them face to face now, they become a bit of a problem. The difficulty is increasing, no doubt, this time it made me a little difficult to keep my health above 50, but luckily there was enough ammunition to tactically control the necessary enemies, which are placed in a very great way.

 

The architecture of the map is great (not so much as the previous one) and it feels quite complete and fast, it can be completed running and dodging completely, I love this map because of the simplicity it has and at the same time, the complexity that can be returned if we do not have enough practice or patience, PRCP is not a megawad for beginners, I can say that, but it is not a crazy map either, so far so I hope, we are already going for the number 12, little by little we will reach the end and we will see in total, we will have to face at some time more than 500 enemies? Well I do not know, but with the advance that I have, I am excited to know the magnificent end of this incredible project.

 

PS: Look at this madness.

 

Idk, but I finally have a secret.

 

 

[SGS Man]

MAP12 – “Velocity” by Kira

 

 

This map is a clear homage to “Speed”, from the aesthetics and gameplay to the map title and MIDI. Unlike a few previous maps, this map flaunts its inheritance and puts it to good use simultaneously.

 

The opening is a hitscan fest. The Sergeants and Chaingunners can tear through your health if you aren’t fast enough, while the Imps and Cacodemons move about trying to block your every move. You can rush to towards the Spider Mastermind, or take a small detour for the Rocket Launcher and Megaarmor. There are several hitscanners here but they can potentially be bypassed with the help of the Partial Invisibility Powerup. Interestingly enough, the Spider Mastermind gets herself into infighting consistently. That usually leads to her demise (or close to it). You then pick up several rockets and a Plasma Rifle before the next section.

 

This area of the map is a fantastic upgrade to the corresponding section of “Speed”. It has two Cyberdemons unleashing salvos of rockets, some Revenants blocking your path, and plenty of flying monsters to use for infighting. It has the usual telefrag to eliminate the Cyberdemons. Although the Revenant ambush here was quite crafty.

 

The next area demands frequent cover usage as you have to deal with Chaingunners and Arch-viles. If you have enough health, an Arch-vile jump across the gap is certainly possible. After this, you proceed to that final section of the map, where you deal with a host of monsters that teleport in, although you can skip this section quite easily.

 

This map is short and sweet. It takes “Speed’s” template and shakes a few things up to good effect. As a homage, it’s satisfactory because it doesn’t tamper with the "Speed's" gameplay too much, although I feel it played it too safe. As a map, it doesn’t fall flat on its face like some previous maps, although it doesn’t stand out compared to the others. Regarding the secrets, the Soulsphere is fairly useful while the BFG-9000 is almost useless if you used the Plasma Rifle for anything. Pretty fun map as a whole though.

Edited October 13, 2017 by SGS Man

[Spectre01]

MAP13 - “Slaughter Zone*” by Paul Corfiatis

*Not actually a slaughter map.

Pcorf Creations™ is back again for map13, which also features a bit too many Pinkies to punch like in his previous map02. This is a small, simple map with a nice looping layout and 3 tiers of height variation. The damaging blood may throw some players off as it was safe the map before; but such is the case with community projects. Diving into said VD-infected mess is still a good call at the start, as you get a vital armour and Berserk. There are more active enemies at the start than you have SSG ammo for, so you can't really spawn camp or Chaingun-snipe (that comes later) much.

 

The 3 secrets here are quite powerful for Pistol Starting porpoises; especially the last one with a free Blue Armour and Plasma Rifle. Gameplay is a mix of punching Pinkies, taking out snipers, punching Pinkies, closet traps, punching Pinkies and punching Pinkies. I screwed up once here and ate some closet-Rev fists. There is a decently large warp-in as you head up the stairs, although the enemies above can't actually walk down. The finale features 2 Viles that are guaranteed to revive a bunch of stuff. You want to save some rockets and plasma for this or it can be a pain in the ass, unless you just book it for the exit. Good map overall, and it's got that woop woop woop midi from e3m1.

Edited October 13, 2017 by Spectre01

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP13: Slaughter Zone

 

This level presents a rather compact playing field with a fast pace and fairly high intensity of gameplay; moments of high tension and pressure follow rapidly one after another, with the breathers during which the player can return to previously explored sections of the level for health and ammunition proving equally brief.  Not that those previously explored sections will clear; there's a section around the midpoint of the map where the elevated walkways that form the middle tier of the map are heavily repopulated with a new wave of mostly low-tier enemies chomping for your flesh.  Short and sweet, too; it was over before it could outstay its welcome.  The presence of plasma cells around the blue key acts as a nicely oblique hint that there's a secret plasma gun somewhere prior to that point, and what a haul that particular secret yields!

[Obsidian]

MAP13 - Slaughter Zone:

 

Erm....to be honest I don't have all that much to say about this map. It certainly exists, I can say that much, but there wasn't anything in particular that made me sit up and take notice. It's decently challenging at least and doesn't commit too many cardinal sins, although the 2 Revs at the start gave me a fair bit o' jip and the damaging blood made me raise an eyebrow. I dunno, it felt kinda like filler to me to pop in between the big numbers. Next!

[gaspe]

MAP13: I really liked the combo of green mossy bricks, grey rocks and blood in the outside area. There are few little surprises as closets or teleporting monsters but nothing too intense, as well in the initial "mess". Feels like a light version of a challenging map

.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP12: Velocity

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

Another homage that was lost on me as I didn't remember "Speed", but went back and played it after playing Velocity, and I think overall I prefer this iteration more. Easier to figure out where to go, a bit more room to move, and I like the cyberdemon setup more (especially being able to telefrag them). The teleporting AVs by the BFG are indeed terrible though, I think I died around 10 times on that before I finally got lucky and one of them decided to walk around long enough for me to stunlock the other with the plasma gun and not die. I think the cubbies needed to be a bit larger to allow the player a better chance of hiding. Aside from that though, pretty fun, does a good job of using Speed's E4-style aesthetic and IWADish abstract design.

[galileo31dos01]

MAP13: Slaughter Zone

UV, pistol start, saves

Death Count: 0

 

 

Second map by Pcorf, another short one before the longs ones come in. Partially similar to Genesis, in terms of structure, several open corridors and bloody pools, this time damaging, but you're not supposed to wander on the blood, aside from killing a few spectres. It's quite simple aesthetically, nothing outstanding but still nice.

 

From what I remember, the map was rather easy compared to the two previous ones, and the next one. It helps that the encounters are more incidental and in front of the player, and a few teleport ambushes, mainly low-tiers and flying meatballs, so it is indeed easy(ish). Also, like others said, plentiful of pinkies, they behaved dumbly enough to be punched easily. Apparently it's a Pcorf's thing. It's also notable the low presence of chaingunners, only a few after the red door. For hitscanners, the majority are zombiemen and shotgunners, their best use is in the "trap" leading to the blue key... I don't think I had any problems throughout the map, it's more of a breather level, even the archviles at the end are easily dispatched with the RL which btw saving some rockets for that part was a good idea. 

 

Secrets, all of them provide some powerful goodies. The best one is the plasma rifle + megarmor + items. Previous that is the soulsphere one, its teleport pad is pointed by an arrow, practically impossible to miss. 

 

Ammo is always there, both the berserk and chainsaw provide some fun one on one against the dumbies, and a couple revs because why not. All good.

 

Overall, yeah not much to say, I liked the map anyway, it does seem filler given the next map can be a torture. Pleasant map in short terms.

Edited October 13, 2017 by galileo31dos01

[rehelekretep]

map11 fda

ah! this is a spike in difficulty;

+ i actually liked that the scenarios werent that dangerous per se, but the effect of the stalking AVs is to put you on edge and make you panic

+ beautiful MIDI and set-up, creates an ominous and threatening atmosphere

+ seems to be perfectly balanced with ammo & health/armour, which is some feat considering the potential for AVs to blindside and otherwise create havoc with resurrections

- too dark on prboom. even with gamma adjusted to 4, some areas are squint-inducing. you can have a dark, scary map with some contrast. this was just too dingy for me to enjoy fully

- disgusting mastermind placements; would much prefer cyberdemons here.

 

[galileo31dos01]

33 minutes ago, rehelekretep said:

would much prefer cyberdemons here.

Why?

[rehelekretep]

1 minute ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Why?

theyre generally more fun and more threatening. spiderdemons tend to stomp about and you hide behind something and pop in and out until theyre dead - not as much fun for me.

[galileo31dos01]

A cyber in the place of the first spider would still be easy as it's a complete open space, and with the second one you don't get the chance to go on a one on one until the imps are gone, even after them, the space is a little tight to not play hide and seek. That's why I was asking, but I get your point anyway.

[rehelekretep]

fair enough; i just think spiders are hard to use well. i actually can only think of 3 'good' (imo) uses for them:

1. as open-space supressors - keeping you from an area/forcing you to navigate in a different direction

2. infight generator/helper - get them to distract a horde of otherwise dangerous enemies, and dont forget their massive bulk can block projectiles so you can have a nice little rest behind mama arachnid :)

3. cyberdemon duel - i just love watching them duke it out :D

Edited October 13, 2017 by rehelekretep

[Spie812]

map13 'Slaughter Zone'

Like some other people, I don't really have much to say about this one. It had a berserk pack early on so I could practice my punching skills a bit. The level gets reasonably tense when you suck at punching and you spend most of the time with low health.

 

map14 'Undertaker'

Yeah this is pretty okay. The opening battle is a fast cramped battle that sets the mood for the level from that point forward. The main feature of this level that in order to cross a small gap, you must take a teleporter that leads to a large arena packed with enemies. However, you can just run straight through, making the whole arena rather pointless. You can still fight in that arena if you really want to but why? Even with that, the weakest part of the level is the section across the gap where you get the yellow key. I feel like that area was packed with traps you had to know in advance (although maybe I just need to pay more attention.)

 

Overall, this map was playable, and you can have some fun in it if you want to fight the horde, but personally I'm the sort of person who would rather just run through.

 

 

[Magnusblitz]

MAP13: Slaughter Zone

92% kills, 2/3 secrets

 

Certainly fills a bit like a break map between larger ones, but that's a good thing in my book. It is a bit non-descript though. The most interesting part for me is the three-tier designed, which isn't really used to it's fullest potential - most of the time you'll be on the middle tier, as the top one only has the keys and the blood only has some powerups, no real reason to go into it otherwise. My favorite fight probably would've been the pincer teleport ambush on the west side staircase leading to the blue key, but the map de-fangs itself by having a block monster line at the top of the staircase, making it trivial to take out the monsters behind from safety before moving onto the guys up top. The monsters thrown on the walkway below feel rather pointless (why pinkies where they can't reach the player?).

 

Unfortunately the end of the map proved unbeatable as I didn't find that last secret with the plasma gun, so I literally ran out of ammo (except for the 100 unusable cells) and still had an AV, three cacos and some zombies to kill. Yeah, that ain't happening with only melee weapons! At least not with this layout. So, just ran to the exit. Really could've used more rocket ammo IMO.

 

 

 

[Spectre01]

MAP14 - “Undertaker” by Phobus

This map doesn't hold back at the start and gives out your standard arsenal right away. Which is nice; since you're immediately the victim of an 8 Revenant gangbang in a rather small area. Most of the fights, in fact, take place in cramped room and hallways. The exception being the slaughter-lite series of encounters as you transition between teleporters. There is quite a bit of shit packed in there on the teleport back, and leaving the Cyberdemon alive from the first phase seems like a good idea. One thing I wasn't too keen on were the Revenant snipers on the walls. They're mildly annoying to remove as your rockets frequently whiz past them and into the void. Fun stuff overall, though the visuals are extremely basic.

[Forli]

MAP10 - Bloodbath

I died because I thought I couldn't fall on that inescapable pit next to the blue key, that was annoying.

Most of the fights consists on having the player surrounded by varied groups of enemies in small spaces, very fun and fast paced for the most part, the last fight with the revenants camping the exit is a bit lame tought.

Also, was that a remix of the bloodfalls midi?

 

MAP 11 - Will you be my NME?

I'm actually glad this map is not all archviles, there's only so much you can do with that concept.

Certainly the most interesting and difficult fights so far, I also liked how chaotic the layout appears to be while being difficult to get lost on it. Some annoying stuff where the "guess were the archvile will show up from, if you're wrong you die" moments as well as some distant chaingunners that you have to move past in the open.

I didn't like the ending with a useless spider on top of the stairs and then a bunch of imps, might have been better to just have the exit unguarded.

 

MAP 12 - Velocity

This is a remake of my least favourite map in plutonia, however this one actually manages to have fast paced gameplay as the name implies and is a lot less annoying with the chaingunners so I liked it.

It also features an invisibility that's actually beneficial, which is always nice.

[Archi]

MAP13.

Pretty nice map overall.

 

MAP14.

Can't say much about this one, except that I hate slow lost soul teleporters.

 

MAP15.

Cleanup: the map. Pretty much every single fight in this map feels like a cleanup after a better fight. Some questionable baron placement here and there, annoying hitscanners everywhere, a lot of harmless pinkies/spectres and crushers. Didn't like it at all.

prcp_arch_13.zip

prcp_arch_14.zip

[rehelekretep]

map12 fda

+ interesting puzzling progression with teleporters, lifts, rising platforms etc

+ 1 fun mastermind placement (killed all the revs for me :D)

- progression can 'lock' you out of where you need to go, specifically the cavern section just before the exit, if you run through there like i did you can get stuck in the canyon entrance with things blocking you in. i managed to extricate myself with some careful and lucky play but that wouldve been very frustrating if i hadnt had the extra cells

- 1 annoying mastermind placement - what does she add to that penultimate fight? cell-sink

- oh yeah, just remembered that bfg/AV secret... OK? lol.

Edited October 14, 2017 by rehelekretep

[gaspe]

MAP14: Not sure how to feel about this map. I liked the initial fight with the revs and the pinkies but the map goes downhill after that. Most of the enemies are featured in a separated area which I cleaned it the first time, when I went back there I just skipped the fight altogether. The very bare visuals didn't help. It isn't something really offensive though, it's just filler.

Edited October 14, 2017 by gaspe

[galileo31dos01]

Not that anyone cares but I'm going to be commenting about map 15 today to have the secret maps for tomorrow. 

 

MAP14: Undertaker

UV, pistol start, saves

Death Count: or 5 or 0

 

 

Phobus, I don't know him, he seems to have created a bunch of single maps according to the text file. He did a nice job here, the map is rather original, meaning it doesn't look like anything in the iwad (also said in the text file). The brick texture is all present, since I like this texture I've never felt the map to be bland, but it also isn't heavily detailed, which is fine too. Also, there's mud as a change of fluids. 

 

The map has one of the most hectic starts in the wad. Not particularly hard, but you can easily loose your live while being cornered by revs. I died 5 times and (non-raged) quit because there was a lot of lag (sure galileo, it was lag not you...)... Anyway, what I did was: rush for the RL and clear the pinkies, then rush into one of the cabins where the revs were located an blow a few of them, change cabin and continue (taking a little bit of splash damage is okay since there's a berserk near the start), switch to the SSG to save rockets for the archviles, and continue to kill them. It's the only tricky part of the map because the rest is easier. The map also gets quite generous from then on, a soulsphere is in the way and a huge amount of ammunition is provided in the isolated arena. There's also a megasphere after the arachnotron/hell knight trap. To spice things a little bit, an archvile + revenants (again) appear after returning to the other side. Meanwhile in the isolated arena stuff killing each other, some flying meat and nobles made it through, it's just so easy to leave that part that lacks some sort of challenge in my opinion. The exit part is lightly protected by an archvile and chaingunners, just to slow down your run if you want everything dead. 

 

Secrets, the computer map is always a neat item, it's useful to find the other pair of secrets. I suppose the blur sphere is for the ledges of chaingunners, but they are on the other side of the bridge, so not useful at all. And finally an energy cell pack which is also an add-on. The music is really cool, it kinda sounds like a 90's Doom midi, the same time it reminds to BTSX for some reason.

 

Ammo like I said is abundant, nothing special to point out. 

 

Overall, it has some replay value, I liked it more this time than months ago. 

Edited October 14, 2017 by galileo31dos01

[Scotty]

Catching up before i write a massive essay about Map15...

 

9 – Ruined Kingdom

 

More homages abound here, with the overall theme taken from Realm and numerous areas taken from it too, along with that Mancubus fight reminiscent of a fight in Baron’s Lair. This map was basically a load of set pieces strung together with hallways and in that respect is a case of two extremes. The set pieces are fantastic fun, but the hallway combat smacked of shoving monsters in areas just for the sake of it and i feel that the map would have been better if that aspect wasn’t present. The red key fight was brilliant and i felt that it set out to punish players who try to camp out in doorways, something i appreciate greatly.

 

10 – Bloodbath

 

This map isn’t perfect, i feel as though it has that problem of kinda unnecessary spammy feeling monsters combat in places that don’t really add much to the map, but at the same time i feel that this is one of those maps that is actually what made this mapset neat in my view. It feels like a Plutonia map and ticks all the right boxes with a compact layout, punchy weapon options and traps, but does so without blatantly reinventing areas from original Plutonia maps (as far as i can see anyway!).

 

11 - Will You Be My NME?

 

While the environment is cool and impressive for the vanilla constraint i didn’t really find this one that fun to play save for the final areas of the map. I felt it lacked the claustrophobia and paranoia that the other two Hunted maps incited. Judging by some other comments, i was glad to be playing this wad continuously as i didn’t have to deal with low ammo i.e. punching out loads of lone monsters. I guess this might also have simultaneously affect my experience with the environment, but then i don’t really find punching out lone monsters, even Viles, too oppressive personally.

 

The original Hunted is still yet to be topped in my view, in terms of what people seem to set out to achieve with these kinds of maps. In Hunted you go out into the maze and all you have is the SSG, nothing else, there’s no health to be found anywhere until the end, you can hear the Viles swarming around you, and the odd door mechanics merely add to the confusion and atmosphere. Incredible.

 

12 – Velocity

 

Ok it’s a Speed knockoff but i do love that blood/wood combo, and this was a pretty fun play for me as i felt i could be moderately aggressive with the map. Not much to say outside of that.

 

13 – Slaughter Zone

 

I liked the concept of having the central area around which everything was based, that is a pretty common thing to find in Plutonia, but this map suffered the same annoyances as map02 in the Pinky spam and being expected to punch or chainsaw them all. Outside of that it was mostly SSG grinding with precious few rockets to be found.

 

14 – Undertaker

 

Yay more Pinkies... oh wait they have some bony friends to help them out! A lot of them in fact. The start of this one was tricky cause it is easy to get cornered and socked in the face. This map immediately went into my good books when i saw a rocket launcher with plenty of ammo to accompany it! Wasn’t such a big fan of the first outdoor area cause i felt it encouraged door camping. The area you teleport off to was pretty fun, especially on the second pass if you didn’t bother to kill everything the first time through... thankfully my continuous play BFG saved me from having to grind down some of the nobles. Like map 10 i felt this one captured the spirit of Casali gameplay but served it in a new way. Cool stuff.

[SGS Man]

Seems I’m a little late to the proceedings…

 

MAP13 – “Slaughter Zone” by Paul Corfiatis

 

 

This map is quick bout much like the previous map. It gives you a Super Shotgun at the start and follows it up with some fairly intense action. You are surrounded by Sergeants, Imps, Demon, Cacodemons, Revenants and Arachnotrons as you try to find your way through the map. The blood here is damaging in contrast with some previous maps, although there are plenty of Radiation shielding suits.

 

You make your way to the Rocket Launcher and face a Baron of Hell and a Mancubus ambush. This is followed by another ambush by Revenants. You now pick the red-key up and unleash a swarm of Cacodemons and Pain Elementals. After cleaning the mess up, you proceed to the red door.

 

This section is fairly mild at the start, employing a few monster closets, but picks up when several monsters teleport in. This section, just before the blue-key, employs a better teleportation trap than the Hell Knight trap in MAP10. You are surrounded and not given an easy way out. However, the cramped area does result in a fair bit of infighting, weakening the trap slightly. You rush to get the blue-key and deal with another swarm of teleporting enemies.

 

The next section is quite fun, with the Baron of Hell, Demons and Revenant ambush. However, if you cleared most of the enemies before this, it is far too easy to rush to the exit, even with the two Arch-viles resurrecting everything that used to move. Regardless, this is a short and enjoyable closure to the map.

 

The map has some fun architecture and is intense throughout. It feels like MAP05 and MAP10 in terms of filler but isn’t dragged down as much because of its intensity. Also, Demon-punching makes a return here, although not as extreme as MAP02. The secrets here are fairly useful, especially the Plasma Rifle and Megaarmor, which pretty much trivializes the rest of the map. As a whole, the map is short and fun.

 

 

 

MAP14 – “Undertaker” by Phobus

 

 

This map is quite the rush after the fairly mellow prior maps! The opening is rather tricky as it’s really easy to get caught and get punched or chowed down to death. The map throws almost every weapon at you and expects you to survive a barrage of Revenants and Demons. There’s a Rocket Launcher available to speed things up, but the cramped opening area modifies the challenge a bit.

 

There are some Arch-viles and Chaingunners here that facilitate constant movement. Also, there are some clever monster closets with Spectres and Revenants here. The next area requires some careful movement to handle the Revenants, Arachnotrons, Cacodemons and Pain Elementals. It opens up to an interesting teleporter setup. There is a bridge to the other side of this area but two teleporters across it. You take the first teleporter to a giant chamber packed with monsters and rush to the other side to get to another teleporter that takes you to the other side of the bridge. The only problem I have with this setup is that it’s far too easy to run past everything! Since the chamber has a low monster-to-area ratio, it isn’t lethal enough to prevent rushing.

 

Anyway, you get to the other side and can enter two doors. Both use ambushes in cramped areas giving some interesting moments. The Megasphere here is rather excessive though. You return to the to the chamber, where all hell must have broken loose, and it is still not lethal enough. You open the yellow door to a few monsters that are easy to dispatch given your supplies by this point. You can now proceed to the exit, which has a rather poor Chaingunner and Arch-vile ambush setup. I actually entered the exit just before the Arch-vile showed up.

 

A noticeable problem this map suffers from is the ease of rushing past everything combined with the lack of incentive to not do so. Without this issue, it could have been a pretty strong map. The secrets are pretty useful. I found the Computer Area Map to be quite enjoyable to see. Not many maps use that. All in all, the map starts off strong but is dragged down by the general non-lethality of the following encounters. Now onto MAP15…

[galileo31dos01]

I suppose there'll be no issues if I comment on map 15, right?

 

MAP15: Enigma Helix

UV, pistol start, saves

Death Count: 2

Time: 1 hour, 36 minutes or so

 

 

The first contribution of Xaser we have here is a long non-huge map. Mostly inspired by Neurosphere, in the text file it says there're bits of other maps, I think Speed is one (bloody, chaingunners from afair, action mostly on wooden rooms), and, I don't know what else... It's not as large as it looks like, this one plays with pieces of varied height, specially the yellow key tower, non-damaging blood again, lots of circle stairs, long jumps and tight corridors. Previous the red key tower, the scenery is quite similar to map 25 of the wad, which is also made by the same author. 

 

The map is clearly meant to be played in really slow motion. There are so many setpieces to talk about. For instance, I'm going to say I enjoyed most of the encounters, but completely despised by the abundance of snipers. Most of them can snipe from distant points, but you don't have a chance to kill them yet. Yes, chaingunners and revenants, and shotgunners too. There are also archviles used as snipers, if you don't notice where they are, this can happen. My favourite part would be the red skull trap, it's tight and demands quick usage of cells. The other encounters have their ups and downs. The metal maze is nice but some pesky hidden chaingunners can ruin your mood. The yellow key tower is, well it's demanding for sure, but I'm not sure it convinced me. I had some issues with infinite height and rocket shortage, for three archviles, having to bullet/shell spam them and their resurrected meatshields wasn't so fun. There went my first death because of stupid annoying imps that can block your way while you're caught on fire... I liked having to long-jump from tall parts to advance. Crushers are also present in the map, the one in the YK tower is the worst because you can't grab everything in once without loosing health, or armor since there's the soulsphere. Yeah the rest of the encounters are all more cleanups than something outstanding. The blue door ambushes at least include some archviles but I ended up cheesing the room due to all the hitscanners that were also present, roaming and sniping. I think the most interesting thing of the map is the secret hunt, the way to get to the secret exit is a little obscure but you can find it earlier and avoid the blue door ambush, if I'm not wrong. Some unconventional baron placements too, the ones next to the red bars are simply ammo sponges. 

 

Secrets, some very powerful ones, the most valuable one could be the BFG, because it's so tempting when you see it. The computer map is indeed a helper. The soulsphere and megasphere are too. For the secret exit, if someone wants to know the path, you have to: 

Spoiler

Step on a blood pool that is inside of a little cage in the room that is after the long jump from the red bars section, where there are revs and archies in a balcony. That cage is opened from here, you can see the hanging corpse. You'll hear a door opening, see where the mancubus is. You have to use the teleport that is in the middle of the circle stairs that are outside. Once you teleport, head into the ledge, run and open the wooden wall, head to the right and you'll teleport at the top of the YK tower. From there, see were you opened the red door, you'll find at the end a pair of pillars to step on. Well, jump duh! Open the door at the end, get inside, and you'll see the rest. 

 

Ammo is mostly shells and bullets, I would have liked more rockets to use against all the mid-tiers used as snipers. Cells are also abundant, the BFG can be obtained a little late, but at least non of the encounters demand the use of it. 

 

Overall, I didn't want to extend myself too much, the map is alright, there's nothing offensive with it being very long, it's just that it exceeds on snipers and bullet/shell usage for my taste. Uh, Xaser seems to like this sort of maps, his NEIS e4m6 was another one long and full of secrets. Oh what the hell, acceptable map.