The DWmegawad Club plays: Plutonia Revisited Community Project

[Magnusblitz]

MAP14: Undertaker

81% kills, 1/3 secrets

 

Short but bloody map here. It's got a relatively straight-forward nature, once past the initial ambush it's pretty much shooting gallery mixed with a couple arena fights, the latter I mostly skipped as it didn't look like much fun without a cyberdemon to infight with. The final ambush also begs to be skipped. I enjoyed it overall though, I think having a large amount of rockets and cells makes all the difference.

[Spectre01]

MAP15 - “Helix” by Xaser

 

Joke's on you @galileo31dos01 , my time is longer!

 

So this map is massive in comparison to the rest so far, especially if you're trying to find all the secrets or playing safely without saves like I was. While not overly difficult, there are a few mean traps that can catch you with your pants down. My favourite is the group of Viles that force you to run up the main tower, as you teleport in there with the SSG as your best weapon. There are also a few dickish crushers which I'm not a fan of. There's a lot more to write about this map, but my ass hurts from sitting down for nearly 2 hours. :P

+Cool, complex layout

+Interesting visuals and detailing.

-Got 'em! crushers.

 

 

[Xaser]

Whew. Gotta catch up a bit on my bite-sized commentary. I'm going to whimsy up the map names this time because I'm a schlunk.

 

 

MAP08: The Death Rules #1

Always been fond of this one -- it does some really cool stuff with the invisibridge segment and the Hella Knight arena. I really like Scotty's earlier comment on how 10 and 14 really capture the "Plutonia-like minus homages" feel, but I'd argue 08 belongs on this list too. Why? I 'unno. Feels it.

 

MAP09: Not-Realm

Hmm, this map ain't bad, but it's a bit indistinct aside from the opening segment. Ironically, I remember being weirded out by the atmospheric opening when I first played the map, but nowadays I enjoy it. Unfortunately, when I try and imagine the rest of the map, I just think of Realm instead. It kinda falls into the "too close to the inspiration material for its own good" rift, IMO.

 

MAP10: Baths for the Bath God

Fun as hell. Short n' sweet. 'Nuff said.

 

MAP11: Hunted: The Sequel: The Award-Winning Spin-off

I say "Spin-off" because it's definitely its own concept gameplay-wise, though the architecture has Plut2-MAP11's signature all over it. Quite good, and I have to point out this scene in particular -- that low sky window in the background has been a massive source of inspiration for my own maps, for whatever reason.

 

MAP12: Velocity Kitten Go

Budget Speed. Not bad, but like MAP09, it's a bit too close to its source material and is missing that [insert French phrase here] to make it stand out. I may be biased by default though, because I uber-love Speed. The map, not the drug.

 

MAP13: SLAWWTER! Zone

Speaking of love, this map really scratches the itch. The walkway setup around the main area is really cool, and it's my favorite offering from PCorf overall. It may not use the word "slaughter" in the traditional sense, but it's dripping with character-ooze. I'm also making a mental note to never use that phrase again. D:

 

MAP14: Undertater

A brutal series of delicious setpieces. I always look forward to this one when playing through the wad, for whatever reason, and those opening Revs stick out in the Xaserbrain quite heartily. Phobus make more maps d00d :P

 

 

I'll write up a big post-mortem for my own map soonish, I suppose, but the short "spoiler" version is that t's way too big and disjointed in terms of progression in retrospect. It's also a pretty old map -- it hails from 2011, and at the time, the only real SP maps under my belt were Sector (ZPack E3M0) and the infamously divisive Lost Episode, so there was quite a lot of "i don't really know what I'm doing yet" going on. :P

 

[gaspe]

MAP15: Well Xaser is a name you can trust and he ceratainly doesn't disappoint here. This is the biggest and most complex map so far, and so much that most of the previous maps pale in comparison. From the start you can recognize the original Neurosphere, but the map does mostly its own things with other homages scattered here and there and also revamped to give them a more fresh look. Most memorable moments are when you reach the yellow key tower and you have to escape from few archviles since (at least on pistol start) you don't have the good weapons yet, and the red key trap with the room that changes in a cool way. I noticed that the crushers have all that particular ceiling, still they got me everytime. There could have been more rockets to make the gameplay a bit faster, especially to deal with all those snipers. My biggest complain is about the texturing, at first it's fine but after a while everything looks dull which is a shame becuase the map is full of nice stuff in the architecture but I kept too see brown, brown and more brown, and the blood. It could work for a small/medium but in a such long level it doesn't work. The trasformation to reach the secret exit was cool.

[Spectre01]

MAP31 - “Cyberdemon Vertigo” by Whoo

Yeah, not really a big fan of this one compared to the other 2 Cyber-themed 31s. It's cramped and the progression is rather nonsensical. And what the hell is the point of that rising bridge that ends up blocking half the map?! There's some rather obscure shit you have to do to get all the kills and leave via the secret exit. I did like practicing close-quarter BFG 2-shots on the Cybers, but other than that this wasn't my jam.

[TheOrganGrinder]

Sooo, missed an opportunity to play yesterday due to other commitments, guess I'll be playing catch-up for the next few days, especially with the secret levels falling right here and now.

 

MAP14: Undertaker

 

So a few minutes into this I wanted to make a comment along the lines of it having a very rough start, throwing screaming revenants at you from all directions without any safe ground to withdraw to, but really, the whole map's a bit like that, isn't it?  You get little breathers between each encounter, and I think I defanged the cacodemon/pain elemental encounter in the divided yard area some by waking 'em up with shots from the doorway against the imps on the far side, then letting them bump into each other in the preceding hallway.  Coming as it does in the middle of a generally quite claustrophobic map, the big arena caught me by surprise the first time; the fact that it repopulated during the retrieval of the yellow key wasn't so much of a surprise, but it did leave me wondering how much of a glorious mess that might have been if I'd left at least some of the first batch of monsters alive for the return trip.  Overall this is a map that's about its fights rather than layout, exploration, or architecture, but that's not a bad thing.

[baja blast rd.]

map31

 

Got busy, but couldn't resist playing map31 after reading 'close-quarters 2-shots' *drools*. I just don't understand the logic though behind all that garbage up high, particularly those barons. Like, 'hey let's put one of the least threatening monsters in one of the most obnoxious spots. 

Did a casual max. Sloppy ending *blushes*. Has the current record beat (3:39). :)

 

 

Edited October 15, 2017 by rdwpa

[gaspe]

MAP31: It's a cool remake of Cyberden I must say, even though it isn't memorable as the original, and of Plutonia 2 MAP31 even though I liked this map more. Combat features lots of cramped action, especially against cyberdemons, and knowing how to 2-shot them with the BFG helps a lot here. The most compelling thing of the map is how it keeps to transform. I liked also the visuals, it's a nice and fitting break for the secret map, stylistically it's quite the antithesis of the rigid Plutonia style with its more crazy texturing. The raising wall near the end was weird but for what I understood you can use it to access a non-official secret.

 

MAP32: Nothing too special here. Go 2 it was cool, Go 4 it was cool (maybe even cooler), this one was allright I guess but the map does have its merits. There are many fun battles in the southern half, especially in the courtyard. My interest kinda started to fade in the mastermind room and from the E1M1 room and the last area with all those cyberdemons and barons, after a while I just sneaked to the exit. The look was really cool, the prevalence of mossy and muddy textures gave me the impression to return to a familiar place after lots of time.

[galileo31dos01]

And once again, I forgot to comment on midis, map 15's music is really good and I'm listening to it right now.

 

----------------------

 

MAP31: Cyberdemon Vertigo

Death Count: 2 

 

 

Whoo here gave us a remake of Cyberden, in the style of what PRCP's been showing so far. In this case, wood and greenish moss textures combined, they make a nice combination in my opinion. Not a big map and it's actually more compact than the iwads same slots but yet there's a lot of free space to navigate, for the first 3/4 of the map. More non-damaging blood pools here and there, and inescapable pits apparently.

 

Gameplay is, like in Cyberden, focused on presenting one or two cyberdemons and company at a time. Only the first one is particularly dangerous because of one reason I found, inappropriate: you get the BFG, SSG, and RL early, then you have two shotgunners in the first room, in the case you have to move to avoid rockets you'll crash into some shotguns that will force the change of weapon to the new one. It happened to me and I thought I run out of cells (which wasn't the case), so that distracted me for a little and I fell into the pit which is apparently inescapable, there went my second death (the first one with the archies before). The rest of the cyberdemons weren't a problem to be honest, after the third one it started to feel repetitive (just like in Cyberden and Cybernation). There were other problems in the map. For instance, without foreknowledge you can screw the way to reach the secret exit. I did it (f*** my memory). Another problem is the placement of many barons as snipers, they are not that dangerous and they can evade your rockets easily. One more issue, there's an obligatory megasphere to trigger some traps and the path to proceed, I was full on health/armor by that time and still had to grab it. The rest was fine I guess, some sneaky archviles to BFG are always fun, and appreciate no archies behind fake walls.

 

Secrets, well the secret exit is the only official one. There's also a "secret" room, it gifts you with plenty of ammo and spheres, but reaching it is a matter of only one chance. I think it's a neat easter egg though, but anyone playing blind their first time will surely never get to it. For anyone playing saveless and blind, here are the correct ways:

Spoiler

Secret exit: when you're releasing the monsters in the room with stairs, you'll see a wall with lights on your right in one of the cabins. Ignore it and keep going up the stairs. A sudden wall will block a switch, now return to the wall with lights, open it and flip the switch. The other switched will be unblocked, use it to open a new room with a megasphere. The teleport pad will take you to where the secret exit is. You can return later if you want to kill everything.

 

Secret easter egg: when you teleport back from the room with stairs, you'll see a fake switch were a cyberdemon was (or is). Step inside the switch's cabin and immediately straferun on to the ledge that is raising. A teleport pad is where the barons were (or are). Spend a save before if you want, it's not an official secret anyway.

Or check the wiki... 

 

Ammo is more than enough, so that's good. There is no need to two-shot anything, but I did it with a couple señores anyway. This doesn't mean you can spam cells like crazy because there's still a limit of cells, not counting the secret easter egg... Nice iwad midi too.

 

Overall, it's acceptable. Umm that's it. 

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP15: Enigma Helix

 

Well, this is quite the leviathan of a level, isn't it?  It's huge, it's intricate, it's tough, with a bunch of hidden switches and teleporters and passages disguising the route to the secret exit.  I kind of wish I'd stopped to take notes as I went along, as the level opened up from it's "Maybe this is some kind of compact Plutonia meets The Inmost Dens sort of theme," to the first teleporter from that initial castle to the mountainous and monster-infested helical tower that's a part of what gives the level its name and wakes the player up to the fact that something altogether more grandiose is being orchestrated here.  As it is, without those notes to form a play-by-play of high and low points I'm left mostly with overall impressions, a pleasing sense of the level's epic scope and scale and its verticality, the variety of environments it presents without deviating from its strong theme, the battles that maintain a genuine sense of escalation as the follow one after another, culminating in the glorious free-for-all that erupts when the blue switch turns the north-eastern node from a T-shape into a cross.  This is the good stuff in so many ways.

[galileo31dos01]

MAP32: Have @ It

Death Count: 4 or 5

 

 

Huh... William Huber was in charge of the (in)famous Go 2 It remix. It certainly captures the essence of the iwad map, I could see the typical rip-offs and homages from other maps like Entryway and Hangar. Same textures used in Go 4 It, and I liked those green/brown bars in the caves. 

 

There are more monsters than in its cousins, but most of them will kill each other. This makes the map tremendously easier than it probably should be. Even in Go 2 It there wasn't so many infighting opportunities. The outside arena is mostly for show, as it repopulates everytime you grab a key or flip a switch and eventually restart the same massacre. It wasn't until the archviles came in that I spent ammo for any intruder. In fact, archviles were busy resurrecting and targeting other enemies that killing them was easy peasy. After the red key, the cave with the spiderdemon and company was all cleanup. I was near death at a point in the crossfire between the spider and archviles, but it was still easy to survive. My actual worry about the map was the last part, I wasn't quite sure how to approach since I didn't remember how merciful was that part with cells. There went like 5 deaths, all being corralled by the barons, and an incidental rocket. Yeah it's was a bad idea to refuge in the cave. The sniper archviles were another worry, most of the cybers died in the carnage, and then a wave of pain elementals. So, the hardest part of the map is, from my experience, deciding what to do first when you step on the fake exit pad. Because after I cleaned up everything, a final wave of enemies was released but it wasn't too problematic. I think this map is easier than Go 4 It, it doesn't end into an IoS fight at least. 

 

Secrets, the two of them give you cells and health, both are useful if you're not careful. The midi is catchy, it does fit in this map.

 

There's a lot of ammo to spend, if you're willing to use only the BFG, I suppose without some infighting it wouldn't be enough. I used every weapon, even the chainsaw against pain elementals, it just felt like that kind of map I can use whatever the hell I want, however the hell I want, recklessly and carelessly.

 

Overall, nice map, if a bit easy until the last part. Sometimes I start this map on god mode and join the infighting without moving a finger, I don't know why but I like to see the carnage around me. My rate is fruit salad.  

[Obsidian]

I was out all day on Saturday and haven't had a chance to catch up (screw you and your magnificent map Xaser), so I might lag behind for a bit. ANYWAY:

 

MAP14 - Undertaker:

 

This. This I like. This is Plutonia.

 

Layout wise the map serves its purpose, with more of an emphasis on gameplay while still remaining functional. A lot of it seems to revolve around traps, from the Rev ambush at the start to the surprise teleport halfway and many others. I don't mind it too much: theoretically every trap is one you can bypass on your first go without foreknowledge or too much frustration. The beginning trap in particular is one that I admire for its simplicity: it's basically a sound-activated monster closet affair, which I don't think I've seen before. I'm kind of miffed I didn't think of it first, actually. :P The aforementioned teleporter trap is pretty good too, although on my first run through it I teleported back into it and got instantly splattered by the Cyberdemon that I'd let live: harumph. The rest are a bit more general, but still provide adequate challenge without getting annoying. T'was a lovely little romp.

[Salt-Man Z]

All right, this is where I get to join in! I started this back in March, I think it was, and got through MAP31 before taking a break, mostly on account of being afraid of diving into MAP32. I'm doing this GZDoom/HMP/continuous/saves/keyboard-only.

MAP32: Have @ It
47:33 | 100% Everything

I put this one off for so many months, and in the end it wasn't nearly as difficult as I was expecting. (Certainly not as hard as PL2's Go 4 It.) The one exception was the unexpected lock-in finale with the swarm of barons and PEs. I blew all my cells in an attempt to retreat back down to the entrance, then made the mistake (read: DON'T DO THIS) of saving once I realized I had been locked in by the blue bars; there was just too much meat to force my way back up, so after a dozen or two attempts, I bit the proverbial bullet and IDDQD/RL'd my way back up to the exit arena. That was still super hard, what with like a dozen cybers roaming around, but it was at least manageable.

MAP16: Gambit
19:12 | 100% Kills | 97% Items | 100% Secrets

 

Not a lot to write about here, just some fairly laid-back fun. I enjoyed the spelunking. Missed an item somewhere. (Some little bonus, maybe? Or was there a hidden powerup that wasn't marked as secret?)

 

Edited October 16, 2017 by Salt-Man Z

[Spie812]

map15 'Helix'

Glboom-Plus - UV Pistol Start - Saves

Xaser pretty much throws everything in the mapset so far out the window and delivers a massive map filled to the brim with enemies. The map is action packed from the very beginning, where you are swarmed by shotgunners and imps, to the very end, where you flip a switch and the room is rapidly filled with dozens of enemies. Pretty much every part of the level could be considered noteworthy, so I'm just gonna mention the arch vile chase up the tower, which was probably the most memorable part overall. Quite the fun map, although I think the size kills the plutonia vibe a bit.

 

map31 'Cyberdemon Vertigo'

I had a real problem with this one. I actually managed to get trapped in the western room. Somehow, the entrance to the room closed and looking at the editor, the only way to open it is with a S1 switch which I had already pulled. This basically forced me to cheat every time I teleported back in to that room, which happens multiple times throughout the level. Talk about one way to ruin a playthrough. Apart from that, the level worked fine but was nothing really special.

 

map32 'Have @ it"

Alright, the map I was looking forward to! I really like chaotic slaughter like this, even though I'm pretty bad at it. Many, many deaths were had before I completed this. The map takes the idea of Go 2 It, which is to be expected, and pumps it with tons more enemies than its predecessor (I haven't played Go 4 It so I can't compare to that.) Probably the biggest threat are the arch viles. They are usually released in groups large enough that you have no chance of killing them without getting blasted, so it's usually best to just let the infighting crowd deal with them if you can make it to a safe place. The final crowd is a complete clusterfuck and I loved every bit of it.

Fun.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP15: Enigma Helix

100% kills, 2/8* secrets

 

At almost 500 monsters this is a big one, lots of dangerous ones too, no big room of 100 zombiemen or imps to pad the stats. I admit things sort of gave me a bit of a sour taste in my mouth from the get-go, with the unnecessary pop-up ambush in the very first room (why not just have monsters standing there at the start?) and some frustration in figuring out where to go. While it's still a good map with a clear amount of care and effort, I do agree with Xaser's own self-evaluation that it's a bit disjointed, as I think there's certainly more switch-flipping and fiddly bits than necessary. My favorite part is probably the titular Helix, with the AVs pushing the player to run ahead - I also liked it because I was saying "there better be a fucking rocket launcher this way" and lo and behold there was. Jumping out of the tower is a treat too. I do feel like the middle combat in the map is a bit sloggy, as there's a lot of mid-tier meat to clear out with the SSG, but it could just be me. I really liked the final fight by the blue door that lead to the end, great way to have the layout open up and throw a lot of varied monsters at the player from different angles.

 

I admittedly had a lot of trouble with the secrets, only finding 2 on my own (a soulsphere and the invulnerabilty sphere), not being able to find the secret exit. I mean, I could see it, and I figured where the doorway was, but not how to reach it - hitting the unmarked wall to walk over the candle would never have occurred to me. The way the staircase reverses to reach the teleporter is pretty cool though.

 

So yeah, it's not perfect, but still an impressive map. Aesthetically I agree with gaspe, though I tend to hate the dark brown/red color scheme in general, regardless of map length. Also, the MIDI has a very annoying chip at the very end of it that becomes quite noticeable as the map takes so long to complete, so you'll hear it plenty.

[gaspe]

MAP16: This one was rather annoying in the first parts. The highlight of the level is the trap at the yellow key, after that there's nothing remarkable here.

[Phobus]

I do love a vanity search... Couldn't believe that the DWMC was going through this megaWAD after all of this time though!

 

Glad to see my map has gone down pretty well, even if my name has clearly faded into obscurity. As a bit of a post-mortem for you, the map you've played is actually a complete rebuild of the initial design I had. Simply put, when I first made the map I had no real understanding of the vanilla Doom limits. I'd built a limit-removing map which hit a lot of the same points, but had way too many lines, plus some VPOs. The major change, aside from an extreme reduction in visual fidelity, was my decision to remove the central arena from the main body of the map and make it a teleport trap. Originally, you'd have a lift in place of each teleport pad and the area with the key at the end would've been a bit different... Partially because you'd have entered at the right-hand side rather than the left. Getting halfway across triggered a trap with the key and one without, as I remember it, so you'd still get the two waves, but you'd have been in the middle of it when they triggered, rather than just being dumped in a big room full of monsters. I probably had a lot of trouble balancing the start of the map, but that trap was very much my kernel, as I loved the idea that any firing would open up the room into a clusterfuck. The suicide exit shortcut was a case of emergent design, as I don't think I intended it, but when a tester (probably Belial) told me about it, I was sure to leave it in (probably with some urging, given how Plutonia has a few shortcuts too) and may have even tried to help facilitate it.

 

I feel like, with this map and Plutonia 1024 (or Plutinya, if you will) MAP23, I actually get in the zone with Plutonia quite easily. It's got a distinct design philosophy and the maps are easy enough to make. Cant believe this was 6-7 years ago already! I must have made this around about the same time as my second CC4 entry (MAP07)... Which may explain why they're basically the same map idea, come to think of it. I was basically in everything back then... Good times.

[Paul977]

Map 15, Enigma Helix

 

Not gonna replay this since I've completed the map recently (two times now) and thats enough for me. Visually is one of the most impressive map of the set; the massive spiral staircase and the drops down (and also the views from the top of the stairs..) to the other sections of the map are awesome, aswell as the great final area. I also found great how the theme of Neurosphere is expanded, in general, through the level.

Gameplay-wise I don't like the fights at the beginning, particularly the "mini quest" to get the ssg inside the cramped metal area. Ssg should have been available from the beginning in a long map like this (50 mins saveless, my last playthrough). I also didn't like the too much well hidden secrets of this map, in particular the BFG which is very usefull in the last fight. I like the spiral fight with the escape from the three arch-viles.

Overall: visually impressive and one of my favorite from this point of view but a too long level for my tastes and for being in a Plutonia inspired megawad

Edited October 16, 2017 by Paul977

[Xaser]

Since we're about on MAP16 now, I'd highly recommend for folks playing continuous to do a second playthrough of MAP16 from pistol start. It changes the gameplay + progression significantly, and it's one of the best experiences the wad has to offer.

[Salt-Man Z]

10 hours ago, Spie812 said:

map31 'Cyberdemon Vertigo'

I had a real problem with this one. I actually managed to get trapped in the western room. Somehow, the entrance to the room closed and looking at the editor, the only way to open it is with a S1 switch which I had already pulled. This basically forced me to cheat every time I teleported back in to that room, which happens multiple times throughout the level. Talk about one way to ruin a playthrough. Apart from that, the level worked fine but was nothing really special.

Same here. I had to check the wiki entry to verify that it was indeed a bug and not me being dumb. Kind soured the entire experience, unfortunately.

[valkiriforce]

@Phobus It's good to see you're still around - of the few maps I've actually played of yours I'd say I often found your maps memorable and non-formulaic. I really enjoyed Portal Facility from the more recent TNT: Revilution, and always found your Plutonia Revisited map to be a good candidate for a more modern Plutonia experience.

 

It is pretty amazing how much time flies by - strange to think after feeling late coming into this whole mapping scene that even after 6-7 years I feel like somehow we've made it into a part of history. Still wish I'd have gone over my MAP22 submission differently, but I was honored to be in the same project with you and waverider, Xaser, Joshy, Tatsurd-cacocaco and many others. It was also the first time I ever got an original music composition from John Weekley for one of my levels, so that was also pretty exciting.

 

Another little piece of history I remember was having an idea for a MAP32 at the time of development to combine some of Plutonia's early levels together for a slaughtermap; it was basically the introduction to Congo with the hallway connecting with the beginning of Well of Souls, where the water lowers into a cave area. The problem at the time was the map was too copypasty of IWAD material (early WAD making days, lol) so it wouldn't have worked unless I created them from scratch and gave it a new twist. I'm relieved that duty went to someone else though ultimately since I was still somewhat new to understanding source ports and map-making.

[galileo31dos01]

I think the bug in map 31 has also happened to me months ago. Oh whatever, today is no wifi day so I'm on my cellphone, I apologize for any horrible spelling mistakes, I don't have autocorrect.

 

MAP16: Gambit

Death Count: 0

 

 

Second contribution by Matt Tropiano, another cool map. As simple as it looks like, this map is one of my favourites so far in terms of aesthetics. Caves, bridges and water blend together so well here.

 

It's easy as a whole, but not a breather map. What pistol starters have here is low ammo and a lack of armor for the first half. There are many hitscanners, revenants, imps and demons to deal with. It starts slow, I tried to be careful, punching and gunning whatever was in front of me. Progression is a mix of non-linearity and straightforward. I found myself wandering around looking for armor, and after grabbing one, the rest of the map was considerably smoother. For example, there's a revswarm (previous or after the blue armor depending on what you do) which triggers a bit earlier than it should. You can rapidly go for the plasma rifle, but if not, camping  from where you came in is another option (what I instinctly did). I don't know which one is better, mine slows down the pace a lot... Anyway, aside from this, I don't find anything else to point out, the rest of the encounters aren't so threatening, the revswarm with a spiderdemon guarding the exit could probably be the "hardest" part, but at that point the player will be overpowered to solve everyrthing easily.

 

Secrets, the blue armor is important to speed things up a bit. It's location has two sectors tagged as secrets. The third one is a soulsphere specially for the last rooms, necessary or not depending on your skills.

 

Ammo is short at the beginning, so the berserk is important. The BFG at the end isn't particularly necessary, well I suppose speedrunners would appreciate it more, I just used it because it was there waiting for me. 

 

Overall, fun map, yes one of my favourites. 

[Magnusblitz]

MAP31: Cyberdemon Vertigo

93% kills, 1/1 secret

 

A homage to "Cyberden" of sorts, unfortunately having multiple cyberdemons in a map isn't too out of the ordinary at this point in time so the map seems somewhat unremarkable by today's standards. The bugs (I also got the door in the west that wouldn't open) are unfortunately rather glaring, and I also didn't have enough ammo to kill the last couple cyberdemons, far from the experience galileo had. Maybe I'm just much more wasteful with my cells...?

 

MAP32: Go @ It

91% kills, 1/2 secrets

 

Didn't run out of ammo on this one! Pretty fun for the most part, lots of opportunities for infighting and some good gotcha moments with AVs. Though I felt like I had to clear out that red key room a few too many times, and I admittedly sorta lost interest when I got to the final section and found it full of so many cyberdemons. Ran my way past them, which took a few attempts admittedly. Like Salt-Man Z I also made the mistake of retreating from the baron/PE combo and got locked in by the blue bars, luckily I still had enough ammo to clear out enough meat to claw back in.

[Xaser]

1 hour ago, Magnusblitz said:

MAP32: Go @ It

Hey now, I spent way too long way back arguing that the map ought to be named "Have @ It" for folks to mess it up!

 

[ :P ]

[baja blast rd.]

MAP32: Progress Towards (Literally Or Otherwise) The General Location Of The Object Or Other Entity Which Has Been Left Unspecified

 

 

[Magnusblitz]

Oops, that's what I get for not checking...

 

MAP16: Gambit

100% kills, 3/3 secrets

 

Fun map here. Things start small scale, with lots of hitscanners, imps, pinkies and revs, but only a shotgun and chaingun to combat them with. As you start to acquire more weaponry, bigger baddies show up. Despite the relatively small footprint there's a lot of enemies, over 200 on UV, so plenty of blood without feeling like a slog. Some fun ambushes here, mainly with hordes of unexpected revenants, such as the yellow key ambush and the yellow switch ambush (great use of the chaingunners there). Though Galileo makes another good point that the one on the yellow key probably triggers a bit too early - player should have the chance to go for the plasma gun, it feels oddly unprotected given the corpses leading to it. Things are a bit simplistic aesthetically, but it still looks nice.

[Spie812]

map16 'Gambit'

Glboom-Plus - UV Pistol Start - Saves (but I didn't use any)

 

Here we have a nice map. In the starting room, I found that you can alert one of the revenants by walking up to the ledge next to them. You can then use it (and the rev on the other side if it dies) to take out usually most of the chaingunners. Then you can lower the platform, grab the berserk, and punch to your heart's content. However, everything is not all punchy in Gambit land because there are quite a few shotgunners and chaingunners to shoot you in the face and ruin your punching experience. The level also denies you the super shotgun until after the blue key so those enemies which aren't very fun to punch to death become just a bit more irritating. There is also a lack of armor in the beginning so making a mistake hurts. During the revenant swarm I just ended up staying where I was and spamming rockets into the doorway. I didn't even know about the plasma rifle area until after I killed them all. Once you grab the yellow key, you're pretty much done with the level.

 

I may or may not have also died at the spiderdemon once.

[gaspe]

MAP17: It's a nice remake of The Crypt, the level is more expanded than the original and the secrets were fun to find here. It's a bit more of an easygoing affair compared to many of the previous maps, and the final cyberdemon is something that it's easily skippable. I really liked the staged fights at the red key, probably one of my favourites moments in the set so far.

[Spectre01]

MAP32 - “Have @ It” by William Huber

Ugh... this took me way more attempts to no-save than it really should have. Not playing actual slaughter for a while has made me unable to consistently handle large amounts of Cyberdemons, like in the final stage of this map. It's been a long-ass time since I've played Go 2 It or Go 4 It so I won't be making many (or any) comparisons here.

 

So, this is the obligatory map32 slaughtermap with 755 starting enemies. You start with a Megasphere and get all your weapons nearly right away, with enough ammo scattered around to aggressively spam rockets and BFG. That's cool. Plutonia's map32 had an over-abundance of resources so starving the player with health and ammo wouldn't be fun here either.

 

What I don't like is the sheer amount of cheese, monster block lines, and unnecessary Vile spam here. If there's ever been a strong case for why slaughtermaps have setpiece fights and lock-ins, this is it. The hordes unleashed tend to be segregated to a specific part of the map, and door/hallway/window camping with rockets or BFG trivializes most encounters. To make matters worse, Viles warp in repeatedly in the same locations after completing objective and, if you want to get all the kills like me, make you door/hallway/window camp the same fight several times. The red-key building is the worst offender here, which repeatedly respawns its garrison of Revenants multiple times after you've grabbed the key from there. You're better off ignoring it until after flipping the yellow switch and then pumping 70 rockets in there from relative safety. The first PE wave is also harmless as they don't do anything other than waste your time.

 

There are a few functional fights in the starting area which force some aggression from the player, such as the monsters triggered by grabbing the RK and the Rev+Vile pincer attack after flipping the switch in the Mastermind room. The two Cyber duels are also pretty cool as the room you fight them in are small and require precise movement to avoid splash damage.

 

The final area, which actually has a lock-in, is significantly more intense than the first 3/4ths of the map. It requires some good weaving around the hordes of Barons and Cybers while avoiding rockets. If you try to camp the cave leading up to it, you're likely to get overwhelmed by the Baron/PE horde or multiple Cybers that will make their way in there. The 5, or something, by the exit door can be easily cheesed through the fence though.

 

TL;DR

+Cool final area.

-Grindy and exploitable main/starting area.

[Obsidian]

MAP15 - Enigma Helix:

 

This. This. Thiiiiiiiiiis.

 

First off: I did have to use saves to get through this one. Generally when I'm playing megawads I only use saves at the very beginning of each map and power through each one as it comes, but that wasn't working at all for this behemoth. So saves. I tried not to be too scummy with them, if it's any consolation.

 

So yeah, holy heck this map. Definitely the largest and most populous map of the set so far and I don't see that changing (with one exception...). There's a lot to take in: the tasteful detailing, the sheer scale, the crazy setpieces and - oh, I don't know - the fact that it's STILL VANILLA COMPATIBLE! Holy shoot. Xaser, please donate your brain to me: forget science, they'll just put it in a fridge and then accidentally eat slices of it on a ham and egg sandwich. The most obvious comparison is to Neurosphere, but I'd argue that this goes above and beyond when it comes to carving out a niche for itself.

 

I do have a few nitpicks however, starting with the secrets. For the most part they're decently hidden and can be found with enough sleuthing, but I can say for certain that I never would've found the secret exit without looking at the solution in this thread. Maybe like an arrow made of a different light level or something? The subsequent reveal was gore-gous though. The computer area map was strangely not all that helpful either, at least to me: it showed the lowered walkways to get to the megasphere, sure, but beyond that I had to follow my nose to actually raise them without the map's help.

 

The other complaint is that...well, it's not really a Plutonia-esque map. It's a Xasermap. It's certainly stunning and fun to play, but it really does feel like the Plutonia theme was only used as a coat of brown paint rather than an integration into the map itself. I dunno, more skull switches? More emphasis on Revenants and Chaingunners? Definitely a smaller map, Plutonia maps aren't known for sticking around all that long.

 

Like I said, nitpicks: I'm not gonna poo-poo this map for not being absolutely perfect unless I'm planning a one-way spelunking expedition up my own ass at a later date. It's damn fun, damn impressive and I enjoyed myself a lot despite breaking my no-saves rule. Let's see what MAP31 has for us...