The DWmegawad Club plays: The Darkening, The Darkening 2, & Crusades

[Memfis]

02 - best map in the wad from what I remember. Very clever layout that keeps confusing and surprising you, excellent atmospheric lighting, and the music used belongs to my Doom 1 favorites along with e1m5, e2m4, and e2m7. One thing I'm not sure about is the Crusades sign in the middle. Sure, it was cute to see once, but now it begins to sort of break the fourth wall. The name belongs to the logo and usually shouldn't appear in the levels...

[TheOrganGrinder]

E4M2: Night-Watch

 

Okay, the first level of the WAD wasn't anything special, a bite-sized introduction to the episode and to the author's mapping style that serves both purposes without delivering much that's extra, but this?  This is really good, a lovely, labyrinthine castle/base map that really does make the best use of the three available keys - the fact that there are several doors that are locked from one side, unlocked on the other, and in one case blue on one side, yellow on the other, serves to both restrict and direct the player's movements, blocking off certain areas but also giving the player to escape and try again if they happened to miss any given key before teleporting into a locked room.  It's delightfully disorienting, turning the map into a puzzle to be slowly taken apart and examined one piece at a time.  I had a couple of daft moments, most especially killing the Baron of Hell that spent its time doddering around at the top of a staircase (could be a block monsters linedef, could just be that the stairs were too steep for him to descend) but for some reason deciding that, because it couldn't get down, I couldn't get up, thus missing out on the rocket launcher until much later in the map, leaving me with the shotgun and chaingun to take down a couple of subsequent barons.  I can imagine the fight for the blue key in the central courtyard proving tactically interesting with the rocket launcher in hand, with the Baron of Hell tempting the player to break out the rockets and lay waste, but the swarm of lost souls making that a risky proposition.

 

In terms of layout the map does a really good job of expanding upon its symmetrical central core and using different locked doors to disguise that symmetry at first.  I spent probably more time than I should have looking for secrets as I went along; in the end, both secret areas are right by the exit, perhaps as an artefact of the map's origins as a stand-alone level; certainly the exit to the secret level wouldn't have been present in that earlier iteration.

 

E4M9: Running Scared

 

This one is also fairly labyrinthine, with an increased emphasis on teleporters and an even more exaggerated consolidation of the locked doors toward the centre of the map, forming a hub of sorts through which all progression must occur.  The rest of the map functions as a series of elaborate and interconnected loops; it's a fairly classic layout on a basic level, but here it's been iterated, developed, and expanded delightfully into a challenging maze that makes excellent use of the available bestiary.  I find myself liking the presentation of teleporters here, which differs from the usual Doom visual language in which red pads most often represent teleporters and white/silver pads their exit points; here, it tends to be the case that, no matter the colour, a pad in the middle of the floor is a teleporter, while a pad encased in a wall-mounted nook or cubby is an exit point or receiving cubicle.  The designer also has a habit of placing a locked door immediately behind or adjacent to the player's start point, starting the player off on a key hunt at once provided they take a moment to look around and aren't immediately caught up in frantic combat.  There's a lot to like here in this deviously and deliberately twisted subversion of some typical player expectations.

[Pirx]

@ crusades: any suggestion of a pure, small weapon sounds wad? because hearing that wet fart shotgun sound over and over isn't that great...

 

whatever, i took brutal doom's sound wad, at least the shotgun booms like a tank cannon...

Edited December 25, 2017 by Pirx

[gaspe]

M2: This is totally different from the previous map, which makes sense since E4M1 is one of the added maps to make this a whole episode. My only little complaint is that the brown and gray combo started to get dull after a while though visually the level is well backed with its good lighting. The level is excellent: a very cool hunt for the three keys, and I must say that I was surprised at how good the gameplay was. Usually I find Doom 1 wads gameplay less interesting.

[Pirx]

MAP11 - “Powerplant” by Ben Davies

 

those were indeed my gripes with this map pack, and especially with this map, as unmarked locked doors that even look like walls are easy to miss. add doors that are opened by shooting them when push to open was the norm until now, that's irritating. the quake2-ish rust textures look great, but details can be hard to make out, for example here. this map is darker and more claustrophobic in the beginning than those  before. some doors like this one have a certain doom3 flavor (surprising for a map from 1999, i know  :p). later there are open areas and some really nice views. a good old siege cow fight as finale, with the other participants being rather cannon fodder on their platform. 

 

 

MAP12 - “Toxicity” by Ola Björling

 

wicked map. it's very complex, cleverly intertwined and looping back, which is why i dreaded it in the beginning, and ended up liking it when i got a grasp on its layout. all too often i ended up about where i had left, just on a different height level. there are plenty of raduits, but you'll use them up if you run around as cluelessly as i did. i admit though that locked maps could have been a bit more obvious. at least i found out who on the team had been so fond of crate parkour all the time. the berserk pack was a welcome item because this map again had its share of barons / knights and i enjoy getting them to infight or beat them up instead of lazily sidestepping with the ssg. which had the lion's share here anyway as ola provided plenty shell boxes. the finale in the rocky outdoor area went smoother than i expected: cyber down in 2 shots, spider shot to pieces by its spiderlings, all turned into an artillery duel with the spiderlings where i took damage from... 1 imp ball. heh. was darkening II planned as a 32 map megawad? because descending into that hole had such an episode ending feeling to me. 

 

if it should have been a megawad, too bad it didn't become one. because that darkening 2 art is nothing short of iconic with its perforated metal walls, muted colors, and the "Y" logo everywhere. a great resource to work with. overall a large step forward from the all too brown and corridor-heavy first darkening. the music is also amazing in some maps. its shortcomings were some tame enemy placement, especially the hellboy squad, which results in repetitive ssg-ing with little unexpected encounters, like teleport ambushes etc. any chance that someone picks up the darkening 2 resources for some maps?

[galileo31dos01]

(new vote on page 9)

Edited December 28, 2017 by galileo31dos01

[ukiro]

17 minutes ago, Pirx said:

any chance that someone picks up the darkening 2 resources for some maps?

If someone is serious about wanting to do this, ping me because I have a new 920+ texture set that is much, much better and can work for some of the same themes. Here's an example I did the other day, inspired by this thread, and a shot of a texture testing map inspired by map18 (which is a DM level).

 

Quote

was darkening II planned as a 32 map megawad?

It was always meant to be 11-12 maps, ideally getting to 32 in total by addition of a third episode (which never happened).

[Pirx]

i guess the club will be rather quiet for this period  ;)

 

E4M1 - “The Awakening”

 

as i said before, i liked richard wiles' maps for their visuals. these are dark and foreboding, with classic satanic imagery agaist the orange e4 sky, and a quake-ish droning in the background. the combat is not really my cup of tea: in the beginning i had to save ammo for the imps and make my way around the ammo sponges, that is barons and lost souls. when i came back from the lower part of the map i had about 45 shells, and the pleasure to grind down one of the 2 barons with the shotty because he cornered me at the (blue?) door. that's one thing you don't see much in newer wads: when you have  a shotty vs baron, you're supposed to get a better gun. there's no alternative here.

 

 

E4M2 - “Night-Watch”

 

indeed a puzzle of a map. i spent minutes searching for the red key because i didn't approach a wall where a switch would raise, had i just got nearer to it. the combat so far was rather uneventful shotgunning inside hallways, with the surprise of a few cacos where it's important to take out the small guys first as they get in the way (the room with the tortured marines for example). few rockets meant few timed shots at the teleport where all those pesky souls would appear, and lots of circling it. then again searching empty hallways until some sergeant shot at me from the dark. thanks for the hint bro. oh and another door with health at the exit, was i supposed to feed him shells too?
 

 

ok, i see this one leads to the secret exit, so back to searching for the sake of completion... or just idclev49.

Edited December 26, 2017 by Pirx

[Capellan]

E4M3

I'll give the author this, he knows how to use lost souls effectively. By which I mean "really infuriatingly". They're always popping up to suck your attack away from the shotgunner or baron you actually wanted to target, or mobbing you from the sides or rear while you're trying to clear out imps and cacos.

 

We're back to Thy Flesh marble and wood here. In fact, I'd say of the maps so far, it's the level most like iD's original E4 offerings in terms of looks.

 

I found this less pointlessly convoluted than the last map in terms of advancement, and it didn't hurt that it was smaller overall, but progression remains rather less intuitive, and rather more gated, than I would like. It would be good to see a map where there was genuinely more options for exploring, with more optional annexes and multiple routes to get places. Right now, I feel like I am a rat in a maze, being given the occasional piece of cheese (in the form of a key) when I solve some puzzle that's been set for me.

 

 

[Jan]

On 12/24/2017 at 5:39 AM, ukiro said:

• The 3-way collaboration map, 09, was pretty much cobbled together from scraps because nobody had the inspiration to finish their maps.

You know I only ever played that map once, right after we released E2. I couldn't bear to look at it afterwards because it feels so weird and disjointed to me with all these different parts of my levels frankensteined together. It had to be done though, because I was completely burned out on DE2 editing during those final months, and there's no way I could have dragged any of those maps to the finish on my own.

 

Incidentally, that burn out is also why I started the classic series. Going back to the basic roots of Doom made level editing fun again for me.

 

Looking back on both Darkening projects as a whole though, I am still quite proud of what we achieved and the impact it made when we unleashed it on an unsuspecting Doom community. Of course, with +20 years of hindsight, I see the flaws too and a lot of the criticisms that have been brought forward in this thread are valid. But then as @ukiro said, you have to take the zeitgeist into consideration. Most of this was made at a time when vanilla Doom was the gold standard, megawads with a completely new textureset were unheard of, Doom ports didn't even exist yet, let alone big projects making use of said ports, and most of us were using computers that were probably less powerful than your first smartphone. For instance, I made most of it on a Pentium 100Mhz using a 14" CRT screen.

[RjY]

E4M2 184/184 0 0/0 2/2 20:41+30

 

This map gradually reveals itself to be a cohesive whole, circling around a centre where the blue key is found, which opens up the map and reveals how all the parts you've already visited fit together. Two flashpoints, firstly the vertical teleporter after getting the yellow key which drops you into an ambush, and the second which drops you on the plasma gun surrounded by cacodemons. The former I remembered, but the latter I forgot about until I was dropped in it, I wasn't mentally prepared for an ambush (I was instead wondering vaguely where the secrets were when I entered the teleporter). I vaguely remembered how to open the secret exit, and there are plenty of clues for the observant, but (a) the baron in the nukage tunnel was a complete surprise (b) I ran around a lot looking for the second secret when I should just have stepped onto the teleporter pad that isn't actually a teleporter. But I thought that was the actual secret exit and didn't want to trigger it, so I went all around the bloody level looking for something else that didn't exist. I ended up turning on iddt at 20:17 the very end to discover what I should have done, and exited the map at 20:40.

 

--

 

E4M9 170/170 0 26/26 0/0 13:42+14

 

Ouch. The start of this map is extremely nasty with no defense and only a pistol. I needed 6+ attempts to reach the rocket launcher - I eventually remembered there were a couple of "tricks" (like removing sergeants one at a time as they teleport, or dodging the baron opposite the soulsphere cage to put off ammo exhaustion). But the map is extremely top-heavy and from there on you do not seem to need any special tactics. That's not to say it becomes trivial, but caution prevails. Oh and don't forget to collect the blue key from the other end of the slime tunnel before your radsuit runs out. This is at least vaguely hinted, as you are shown the blue key when you access the yellow door.

[gaspe]

M9: I started to notice from here how this mapset is stingy with health and ammo. There's also some mandatory walking over nukage and I initially skipped the detour from where you can get the access to the first soulsphere which gave me many problems. You can potentially screw the BK pick up since you have only 1 rad-suit and the path through the tunnels to get the key is rather long. My favourite part is the whole eastern section with its courtyards and the areas that lead to the exit which become accessible later. Finding myself in front of a horde of imps, after taking a teleport, guarding the plasmagun was very cool I must say.

 

M3: A castle setting done with the original E4 style. It was rather brutal, good use of lost souls and even of the barons. Usually I don't like mandatory punching/chainsaw-ing pinkies but this time I enjoyed the set-up you face when you drop into that "well" after you obtained the YK. I liked the overall progression.

[Spectre01]

Gonna try to finish up The Darkening 2 at least...

 

MAP04 - “Vindication” by Anthony Soto

• Solid map, with the exception of several Barons used simply as ammo/time sponges.
• There is a secret RL, but almost no rockets to shoot.
• The green armour was also in a secret, which is something I'm very much against.
• Midi is cool.

[NuMetalManiak]

E4M9 Running Scared

 

The first few structures this level provides reminds me a lot of SlayeR's MAP09, the designs are pretty similar there (hey, this is why I've been voting SlayeR every time, because Wiles does fantastic when it comes to layouts). And combat is better than the last map, as is progression. Really should've made it clear where the radsuit is before I got the blue key though. Having just one just in front of a blue door I just passed, because I know I'm doing some walking for the key is a tease I do not want to accept. But on the plus side, combat goes into overdrive after teleporting to a new area, tons of imps and other enemies ripe for smashing. Having to go back and inch on a ledge to the red key is pretty cool. This whole part is truly linear, but the combat is right for what I'm doing here.

 

E4M3 Berzerker

 

A lot more cramped than the levels before it making it a much harder experience overall. It's those teleporting enemies, they're coordinated to maximum delivery of pain. Makes me remember, he's the guy who made MAP05 of Darken2, after all. A megaarmor secret helps to alleviate whatever makes this stressful. A few design choices here remind me of other levels. That exit area looks like it came from the first Darkening.

[rehelekretep]

i went on holiday so i am VERY behind.

here are some more FDAs for The Darkening

map08

map09

map10

map11

[rehelekretep]

some demos for darken2.

apologies for any terrible play - first time ive played doom in a few weeks

map01

map02

map03

map04

map05

map06

map07

map08

[TheOrganGrinder]

E4M3: Berzerker

 

This one, I wasn't so much a fan of, with its smaller scale leaving me feeling both claustrophobic and ultimately unsatisfied.  It's not a big map, but it crams a lot of enemies into its limited real estate, many of them imps and list souls that teleport in to complicate encounters and compel the player to either adopt an aggressive approach or be overwhelmed.  That said, for such a small map it's rather twisty, and not always in a good way; I can understand closing the blue-switched bars after the player passes beneath them to prevent escape from a subsequent enouncter, but the fact that there's no way to open them up after that encounter is concluded and the player has worked their way back around to the other side of the bars feels like obstruction for its own sake, and I don't know that there's anything gained from making the switch that opens the bars one-use only rather than repeatable.

[RjY]

E4M3 108/108 0 47/47 1/1 14:27+13

 

Instantly recalled the blue key on its pedestal, because back in 1999 the source port I was using had a bug that would hard-lock the entire machine when you picked it up, but only sometimes. It also follows the aforementioned characteristic pattern of door lock up on a ledge with key below it. The rest of the map is a cramped affair full of ambushes, with lots of demon-punching and baron-punching, if you have the knack, which I didn't back then. I have all monsters down at 12 minutes then spend an embarrassingly long time looking for the secret, whose location I completely forgot. I found a plasma gun that wasn't the secret, and eventually resorted to debug codes.

[Capellan]

E4M4

Apart from a couple of too obviously close horizons on the sky sectors, this is a nice looking map.  Plays like crap, though.  Lots of big meat and next to no ammo for any weapon other than the single shotty means you either have to grind grind grind, or ignore lots of barons and a couple of cacos.  Presumably the latter (probably with a side of infighting) is the intention, but IMO Doom is about shooting monsters with guns, not a game about ignoring monsters while you look for keys.

 

[bioshockfan90]

+++ Back to Saturn X Episode 3

[PasokonDeacon]

I'll jump in for Crusades: PrBoom+, UV pistol starts, hori KB/M, and periodic saving (depends on the map). I've played through the whole WAD already, but will dive back into the maps to analyze things if I need to.

E4M1: The Awakening

 

This opening's all-new and prophesies the core themes of later maps both taken from Wiles's SPOOKY set and made just for Crusades. I really like the looping layout which lends familiarity to each area/set-piece as you move from one stage of the gauntlet to another. Shotgunning barons is another recurring idea which I'm much less enthused with, but it works fine here since the player can divide firepower against the baron before and after getting the red key. Wiles really loves his monster teleports, especially for imp ambushes as seen later in SlayeR. While this map pack tends to get overly linear (E4M5's an exception) and an occasional grind (unlike DICKIE09 which avoids this towards the end with less gates), the opening's brisk and gorgeous to waltz through. I'll always enjoy how the author puts exits or key shifts in map progression right behind the player start, used here to give a blunt intro to the WAD.

E4M2: Night-Watch

 

An ominous yet ineffectual crucifix and courtyard gives the first impression of entering a corrupted haven, before stumbling upon sci-fi innards. Which came first?

It doesn't really matter after you've gunned through chunked garrisons of sergeants, pinkies, and cacos. E4M2 really succeeds in morphing Thy Flesh Consumed into a more calculated trip without feeling too claustrophobic or moment-to-moment. For example, seeing the secret area behind the armor pool hints at both a necessary waste area for the base and something the map wants to share with players rather than occlude; earlier on you can't see past the elevated nukage key. Multi-key doors, strongly indicated ways to backtrack from encounters, and combat variety suiting both shotgun and RL fleshes it all out. Center courtyard fight excels with pinning you against the perimeter with lost souls and spectres while cacos and the baron conduct from afar. The constant theme of working inward helps the gothic E4 aesthetics, too, though I wish the lighting could be more severe like in E4M1. And the secret exit's neat to encounter after entering the exit courtyard with its greater detail and tempting vertical contrasts.

E4M9: Running Scared

 

The shift from funneled mix-texture corridors (and nukage!) to earthy walled battlegrounds feels well earned. It's nice to worry less about resource famine and more about how best to manage the courtyard horde and teleport traps. Earlier scrounging and dashing in the tunnel section at least doesn't have any similarity with the rest of the WAD, so the challenge functions well. I can't say I didn't expect a hazardous secret map after how Wiles foreshadows its elements in E4M2. He's great as ever with platforming sections as seen towards the end. Overall this one seems about middle-tier in quality vs. its neighbors, and I definitely like how it's as much of a style shift as SlayeR MAP09.

E4M3: Berzerker

 

Dang, that mega-armor secret pays off. I don't have much to say about this one since y'all summarized it rather well. Me and Berserk punching in PrBoom+ don't mix, but I try my best when forced to, and this map's whole theme is firepower austerity. Honestly, this is my least favorite map of the bunch, with cramped and uninteresting fights against lost souls and barons. The pond encounter's fun, just not much of everything else. Wiles learned to loosen up after making something this repetitive and prone to precautionary saves just so I don't have to turtle my way back to where I died.

E4M4: Haunted House

I'm not a huge fan of this one because it denies plasma or rocket ammo I'd prefer to use when fighting barons blocking my way. Trying to do a relatively pacifistic run by skipping past most barons and cacos seems fine and enjoyable, but would lead to a lot more saving also. Verticality plays its biggest role yet, with spectres punishing you below and snipers killing from above. The map features many more projectile lobbers than hitscanners, but also less teleports, meaning that fights come down to quick reflexes against sergeants and shaping squads of other foes around tight spaces. Lighting's become even more severe here than in previous maps, indulging the demonized gothic style to its vanilla-Doom limits. So far this map goes to extremes the others have only dabbled in; E4M4's as close to a puzzle map as the first half of Crusades can offer. Map's decent and a memorable midway point for sure. The caco courtyard's a standout moment, partly for its awesome vista and partly because I accidentally jumped outside a lower window, landing in the courtyard which I had to noclip out of. Now there's a surprise.

Don't know what I want to vote for yet, lol.

Edited December 27, 2017 by PasokonDeacon

[Magnusblitz]

All right, let's see if I can actually finish wall the WADs this month... onto the Crusades! DEUS VULT!! (wait, that's another Doom WAD...)

 

E4M1: The Awakening

100% kills, no map secrets

 

First things first, this WAD has some of the worst sound replacements I've ever heard. The pistol sounds like a low bitrate wet fart, and the shotgun doesn't sound much better. It's a real disappointment since the looks are top notch, I really like the textures used here and the lighting is quite good. Gameplay-wise it's got the usual problem of first map insubstantiality, with the only thing sticking out being cramming three keys into a 40 monster map and two barons which exist only as ammo taxes.

 

E4M2: Night-Watch

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

This one goes back to the stock textures, it's still nice looking... I agree with @Capellan that I dig that it has its own aesthetic instead of ripping off one of the IWAD ones. This continues the good use of lighting as well, love that shadow on the cross at the start. Combat is a little sloggy for my tastes, a few too many ammo tax barons and cacos, as the former aren't really used in threatening locales and the rooms are too constrained for the latter to really fly around and do much. The lost souls can sneak up on you and get in the way though. Lots of hallways and squares, not enough interesting rooms from a combat perspective.

[NuMetalManiak]

E4M4 Haunted House

 

Shortest level since the first, and again with great lighting. I don't like it still, not BECAUSE it has teleport ambushes as other maps do, but the fact you can totally still shoot the enemies from behind their cubbies. It does offer a haunted incentive when you hear them and they warp around you, but then again, if you played this one before, you'd expect them and find where they are and shoot them. And that lava walk for the yellow key is lame. Not to mention the barons. I like that it is short with a much lower monster count though.

[TheOrganGrinder]

E4M4: Haunted House

 

I will confess, I'm not a fan of this one.  It's atmospheric, yes, with gorgeous, detailed lighting and a richly realised environment; but it feels slow, full of short hallways and cramped rooms and twisted passages, thick with teleport-driven ambushes and awkwardly elevated snipers that encourage a crawling pace punctuated by constant glances over one's shoulder.  The compact layout and lavish detail don't always make for an environment that monsters can easily move or shoot around (the blue key node in particular is cluttered enough to virtually defang the spectre ambush that occurs when the player snags the key) and the close quarters feel like they'd render the rocket launcher all but useless even if the map wasn't quite so miserly with rocket ammunition.  Overall I'm left with a sense that the map is determined to stick to its concept and its theme even at the expense of playability and fun.

[gaspe]

M4: The mood and the visuals are the strongest points of the map. The gameplay isn't that bad and I didn't mind that most of the places are in fact quite cramped but the scarcity of ammo and good weapons (on pistol start) was really heavy this time, with only few rockets to deal with various barons that in some places are mandatory to kill. You have to be very careful to not to waste a single shot.

[dobu gabu maru]

Reverie is at three votes, everything else is at one vote.

[TheOrganGrinder]

Oh, thanks for the reminder, it's voting time isn't it?

 

+++ 99 Ways to Die, The Trooper's Playground, The Talosian Incident

[Pirx]

1 hour ago, TheOrganGrinder said:

Oh, thanks for the reminder, it's voting time isn't it?

 

+++ 99 Ways to Die, The Trooper's Playground, The Talosian Incident

 

ok, so to tie up with reverie  ;)

 

+++ 99 Ways to Die, The Trooper's Playground, The Talosian Incident

 

 

[Magnusblitz]

E4M9: Running Scared

100% kills, no map secrets

 

I rather like the first area here, as it's fun to scramble to create infighting between the baron and the shotgun guys tumbling out the teleporters. The second baron is literally a meatwall and there's some pretty severe ammo shortage early on (I had to punch a couple imps before the rocket launcher), but after that things even out and the rest of the gameplay/monster placement is pretty standard... a couple imp swarms but nothing else really noteworthy. I do like the old-school layout, lots of windows and such showing the interconnection of the level.

 

[Magnusblitz]

I don't know what these are but they sound cool

 

+++ 99 Ways to Die, The Trooper's Playground, The Talosian Incident