Jump to content

  • News

    Tristan

    Doomworld Multiplayer Digest #36

    By Tristan, in News,

    ZDaemon Thursday Night Survival #268 - Slaughterfest 2011 (Part II Revisited) Date: 29 September 2016 Euro session: 19:00 BST / 14:00 EDT at [L@P], Germany

    Zandronum Friday Night Fragfest #342 - Anthology Skullbag & SFM-DM Date: 30 September 2016 Euro session: 18:00 UTC at Funcrusher, Germany US Session: 20:00 EDT at [B]TSPG-Painkiller[/B], New York Details for the Oceanic session can be found here.

    ZDaemon Sessions #474 - Doom II 22nd Anniversary Date: 1 October 2016 Euro session: 19:30 BST / 14:30 EDT at [SDA], Germany US session: 01:00 BST / 20:00 EDT at [DUI], New Jersey Head on over to the multiplayer forum for discussion about clans, multiplayer WADs, match scheduling and other fun events! Happy fragging!
    Jon

    WadC v2.1 Released

    By Jon, in News,

    Version 2.1 of WadC has been released. WadC is a functional programming language for generating Doom maps. Version 2.1 brings support for Doom 1, Heretic, Hexen and Strife as well as several new example maps, a load of bug fixes, some new libraries for managing Boom features and lots of improvements to the GUI. You can read more and grab the latest version from the WadC homepage. To complement version 2.1, there is now a work-in-progress WadC tutorial and gallery of examples. Version 2.1 of WadC is dedicated to the memory of Professor Seymour Papert (1928-2016), co-inventor of the LOGO programming language.
    Doomkid

    Doomworld Multiplayer Digest #35

    By Doomkid, in News,

    ZDaemon Thursday Night Survival #267 - Sparta 2
    Date: 22nd September 2016
    Euro session: 19:00 BST/14:00 EDT at [SDA], Germany (usually lasts over 6 hours)

    Zandronum Friday Night Fragfest #341: Mega5 ClassicLMS & ZandroCTF
    European FNF: September 23rd, 2016, 18:00 UTC
    American FNF: September 23rd, 2016, 20:00 EDT
    Oceanic players: There is a new Aussie Friday Night Fragfest run by Doomjoshuaboy ZDaemon Sessions hasn't been announced yet for this week, but keep your eye on the Multiplayer forum for updates and information. Happy fragging!
    Bloodshedder

    The /newstuff Chronicles #513

    By Bloodshedder, in News,

    Innocence X - Donnel "Jazzmaster9" Enriquez
    Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom - 48.33 MB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Innocence X is a wad with 10 maps (7 regular + 3 secret) largely inspired by Doom 64 and PlayStation Doom. In a nutshell, this is Doom 64 shoehorned into Doom 2. Textures and sprites are all stock, except the skies, while sounds and music are taken from Doom 64. It also features the colored lightning and fog in the style of Doom 64/PSDoom, though it doesn't fit very well with the Doom 2 textures. While I liked some things about the layouts, the overall look is extremely simple with basic and mostly blocky architecture. It start to get better at MAP04, even the combat. They are quite easy, almost boring many times, but MAP05/06 were surprisingly good in that regard considering how the rest was. Some puzzles and the progression have a good vibe of Doom 64, though this wad to me kinda fails on the creepy feel that it wants to achieve.

    People who are really into Doom 64/PS will probably enjoy this a lot more than I did, but other than that I don't really have strong reasons to recommend this.

    Lights out! - Carlos Lastra
    Ultimate Doom - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 120.98 KB -
    Reviewed by: fr0gm4st3R
    Lights Out! is a single-level WAD designed and released by Carlos Lastra on July 08, 2016. In order to access the level, utilize the console in-game and type in "changemap E1M3". Lastra heavily relies on the use of lighting effects to display to the player that, obviously, the lights are out. Hallways and sudden turns are common throughout the map, and offer a great close-quarters combat experience. Enemies are set at a moderate capacity, which keeps the player from becoming overwhelmed by too much chaos. In total, there is 55 enemies on the map. The enemies include the basics, such as imps, zombiemen, sergeants, and cacodemons. According to my playthrough, I completed Lights Out! in roughly nine minutes, and fortunately had an enjoyable time with it nonetheless. I would highly recommend players to check it out if they want a more laid-back Doom experience instead of something longer or larger.

    Ancient Aliens - Paul "skillsaw" DeBruyne
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 35.85 MB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    You know how every megawad has that one crazy secret level with the bright colors and the fancy architecture? What if somebody made an entire megawad of nothing but crazy secret levels, and every single one of them was a thing of incredible beauty? The Doom community had the answer sprung on it back in May, its collective jaw dropping at the wall of screenshots that accompanied the first release candidate for Ancient Aliens. The megawad quickly garnered publicity throughout the community and beyond, including a shoutout article on PCGamer.

    It's easy to see why. Nobody has ever made anything remotely like this for Doom, or possibly for any other game either. AA has a lot of substance to back up the hype, and it basically gets every aspect of modding right, but it's the visual themes that have really drawn attention to it. The palette takes center stage, with full ranges of bright magenta, purple, teal, and modified blues and golds, and you'll see those colors pretty much everywhere you turn as you play through the megawad. Episode 1 is psychedelic desert ruins, episode 2 is mostly a series of neon alien landscapes, and episode 3 combines the two. It really doesn't end there, either. Map 32 is a hellish alien graveyard. Map 16 takes you across four distinct worlds, one of which is frozen and another scorched. Map 25 is a nightmarish rainbow of spinning monster containment tubes. Map 31 is a space station that somehow makes gray look beautiful, partly out of sheer contrast with the colors in every other level. And Kassman's level...well, I'll get to Kassman's level later. Even within the primary themes, there's a lot of variety, and pretty much every level is distinctive and memorable -- although a few of the early episode 1 levels do feel a little samey.

    The levels are backed up with a soundtrack composed entirely by stewboy, and most of the tracks are new compositions written for the megawad. Stewboy delivers his typical combination of soothing, ethereal melodies and steady but relaxed beats, along with a few more driving pieces where appropriate, and the instrumentation often features a blend of space agey and tribal sounds that's very fitting for the atmosphere of Ancient Aliens. The vast majority of the music is excellent; a few tracks were too bizarre or goofy for my taste, but even the weird ones fit the tone of the megawad.

    The team also put together two new monsters, both of which are used liberally throughout the megawad (starting in E2) and fit into unique niches. The Plasma Trooper is extremely fast and is hard to see while it's moving due to a "stealth" effect that causes most of the monster to become invisible. It's based on a similar enemy used in Obituary and Epic 2, but instead of being a hitscanner, it fires short bursts of plasma shots. The second new monster, the Alien Guardian, is a slow-moving flier that fires two or three homing missiles at a time. Its death explosion deals splash damage, which makes it more dangerous but can also be used to the player's advantage. Neither enemy has much health, and one interesting thing about both of them is that they keep players from being able to default to the SSG as the weapon of choice for most combat. The chaingun is by far the preferred weapon against the Trooper due to the monster's high speed and very low health, while the Guardian goes down easily with just about every gun *except* the SSG, since it's usually too far away to bring down with a single spread.

    Ancient Aliens is mostly skillsaw's megawad, of course, and his highly recognizable mapping style is stamped across three-quarters of the levels. The gameplay is fast-paced and keeps you moving constantly, often drawing you onward faster than you really intended to go. Mid-to-high-tier monsters become increasingly central to the combat as the megawad progresses, and the difficulty gets quite high toward the end. Mancubuses, Arachnotrons, and Revenants remain skillsaw's go-to monsters, and Hell nobles are relatively uncommon, which I think is likely to make many players happy. As usual, he also mixes things up with an assortment of cool tricks and gimmicks, such as the sinkhole pit in map 06 that keeps descending lower and lower, or the obligatory episode-intro Tyson level (map 19), or what I can only describe as a Mancubus telefragging motif in map 07. His levels are all loads of fun to play, though I felt like I got bogged down in the difficulty a little more often than in Valiant, possibly because Ancient Aliens ditches the augmented monsters in favor of larger numbers of enemies, and you don't get the amped-up bullet weapons.

    Skillsaw chose to round out the megawad with contributions from seven guest mappers, and their distinct styles add some great variety to the levels. Stewboy's "Grey Dwarf" (map 31) is huge and extremely nonlinear, with a great arena fight on the bridge of the ship and clever secrets all over the place. AD_79's "Code" (map 20) is compact and arena-oriented and is probably the most similar to skillsaw's levels, although you can see AD's mapping style in the architecture if nothing else. Essel's map, "Acerola-Orion" (map 22), lets you play more cautiously, but it mostly has you fighting along ledges around the large central pit (don't worry, they're wide), and enemies have a lot of room to come at you, which makes for an enjoyable challenge. Pinchy's "Trinary Temple" (map 23) is an epic adventure map with a linear, implied-story-driven layout and a lot of big, sweeping vistas; it looks and plays very differently from everything else in the wad and stands out like a Bierstadt painting in a Monet gallery, but there's a lot of cool stuff going on in it. Egyptian Metaphysics" by Tarnsman (map 26) has relatively few enemies but very dangerous enemy placement and a high density of hitscanners. Joshy has two levels in the set; "The Nectar Flow" (map 09) is awesome, with mobs of fodder enemies and a really nice flowing layout, but "Floating Arena" (map 28) is the one level in the megawad that crosses the line into pure slaughterfest territory, and it drove me crazy.

    And then there's lupinx-Kassman's "Culture Shock" (map 24). True to form, Kassman made a contribution to a megawad full of visually stunning levels with incredible atmosphere and still managed to stand out from everything else around him. "Culture Shock" is set in a sort of heavenly alien cloud city painted in whites and pale blues, teeming with realism and surreal touches like bell towers, thrones, and snaking teleport systems -- not to mention the illusion of two levels of architecture, one stacked on top of the other. It's ungodly how beautiful this level is. I really want to see more done with this theme. The gameplay is pretty low-key compared to the other late-game levels, too, so you get to spend a lot of time gawking.

    AA is also accompanied by a comedic story about drugs and conspiracy theories that either ties the whole thing together and fits perfectly with the strangeness of the levels or undermines its credibility as a serious megawad -- take your pick. Sometimes it was hilarious, and sometimes I found it pretty grating. I also wish there were more interesting secrets in skillsaw's levels -- most of them just had a couple of hidden item closets and that was it, but I think the whole idea of secret hunting would have worked well for this megawad. Maybe skillsaw was trying to keep things perfectly balanced, but the extreme difficulty is easily the biggest complaint players have raised, so it probably wouldn't have hurt. Even so, quite a few people regard Ancient Aliens as the wad of the year, and as someone who places a huge amount of importance on aesthetics, I'd say it's one of the best ever made.

    Ancient Aliens Textures - Paul "skillsaw" DeBruyne
    Doom 2 - N/A - N/A - 12.51 MB
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    This wad contains all of the resources used in Ancient Aliens (except for the music), and there's a ton of awesome stuff in here. Despite the name, it's not just a texture wad. The zip includes a monster resource wad with the two new monsters, the reskins of the Arachnotron and Mancubus, and all of the megawad's new decorations. It also comes with the custom font used in the wad, a .png of the palette that you can modify at will, a GIMP file that lets you play around with the arch textures, and a separate text file with detailed instructions on how to convert Doom's stock textures, sprites, and flats to work in the AA palette.

    The textures are the primary resource, though, and there are a huge number of them -- something like 5,000 total after you subtract the text and HUD graphics. These textures will obviously allow you to create new levels based on the types of desert ruins, gleaming space bases, and alien planetscapes found in Ancient Aliens, but there's a ton of more general stuff in here as well, including a fair number of textures that I'm certain weren't used in the final megawad. If you're not a fan of the rather extreme colorful visuals of AA, there's still plenty of stone and techbase stuff that you can use as a base while accenting it all with some of the more colorful textures (see map 31 of AA, for instance). There's the hellish graveyard textures from map 32, the snowy textures from map 16, and the large array of cloud city stuff from map 24. The texture wad includes 24 skies and three new liquids (magenta, purple, and teal) with waterfalls, as well as basic water, lava, sludge, and black water textures that work in the AA palette. There are "monster alert" stone panels for the Revenant and Cacodemon, similar to the ones that have always existed for the Baron and Arch-Vile. There are portals, forcefields, laser barriers, and monster containment tube textures for like half of the Doom bestiary in any color you could want. In fact, one of the best things about this resource set is that most of the textures seem to be available in about 8 different colors, so you can use whichever one(s) work best for your level.

    I'm not sure if aa-tex.wad is going to topple cc4-tex as the reigning king of resource wads, but it's definitely a gold mine, provided that you're willing to commit to using the AA palette for your wad.

    Japanese Community Project - Various
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Limit Removing - 12.69 MB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    For most English speaking Doomers, the Japanese Community Project was on the edge of their radar while it was in development, assuming they knew about it at all. When it hit the first public beta back in April, however, it made a big splash. This community megawad features a full 32 levels made using the CC4 texture set, as well as original art by Nanka Kurashiki, who was already famous in the broader Doom community for her fan art. Other than Nanka and the project head, Tatsurd-Cacocaco, I had never heard of any of these mappers before, so the huge amount of talent on display came as a welcome surprise.

    I won't go into detail about every map, but here are some of the major highlights:

    "Riminshi Valley" by burabojunior (map 06): A rocky jungle/ruins level with great lighting. Everything is tied together by a set of vividly blue waterfalls and the player's enduring hatred toward chaingunners. This level has a really cool secret that leads to a hidden area.

    "54-pit" by Toooooasty (map 08): A battered base with some cool tech and various fun details, like the forklift in the big central pit, the mirror into another dimension in the bathroom, and the set of Revenants holding tubes foreshadowed by the automap, which contains an illustrated story to introduce the level. Full of surprises and interesting secrets.

    "My Fav" by Nanka Kurashiki (map 11): Nanka's first level in the set is themed around different colors of fruit, and if you think that doesn't sound awesome, you're wrong. This is quite possibly the only puzzle level I've ever played where I never once felt bogged down by the puzzles. This map is pure eye candy, but also surprisingly fun, and don't worry -- you get your dessert at the end.

    "Bad Morning" by Namsan (map 13): This one is a real odyssey. You wake up in a bed in the eerie starting room, where you're greeted by multiple banks of the static-filled monitors that will continue to appear throughout the level and serve as its main motif. The first part of the level is a fun key hunt through a big, nonlinear base, and then you're thrown into a hellish city made of bone and blood for the finale.

    "Space Port Panik" by doom68k (map 18): This level is full of huge, relatively undetailed spaces, but the lighting and sheer sense of place elevate it to become one of the most atmospheric levels in the set. I enjoyed the large battles, especially in the interior portion, mainly due to the large number of cover options that made up for what could have been annoying monster setups.

    "Remind" by Nanka Kurashiki (map 19): Another one with a great sense of adventure and atmosphere oozing out of every pore. This map takes you through watery canyons, bases, and Hell, but each of those three settings comes in two forms. There's the "normal" areas, which are in full color, but there are also really eerie areas that are colored only in grayscale and one other color, usually red. The lighting is ridiculously good, and I really liked the final arena.

    "A Resplendant Emerald Green" by burabojunior (map 27): This map, which is probably the most beautiful in the set, looks like it could have come out of Stardate 20X6 or Swim With the Whales, except that it's bright green instead of purple or blue. Although it begins with a couple of very difficult jumps that almost had me quitting in disgust, it becomes extremely fun after that. An exploration/puzzle level set across several large island areas, it requires you to find 13 hidden Commander Keens (a candle indicates that one is nearby, as the automap will tell you), and it's a ton of fun to hunt around for them while blasting through somewhat light opposition and staring at the scenery.

    "Hellport" by Masa (map 28): The largest level in the megawad, and another one that's really stunning to look at. True to its name, it's set over a massive docks/harbor area bordering an ocean of lava. The difficult and almost constant combat takes place in and around the imposing fortress that overlooks the ocean, on the docks themselves, and even on board a couple of the ships. The style is highly reminiscent of Hellbound, but the setting is something I've never seen before.

    "Hazmat Hazama" by Toooooasty (map 29): This deranged and brilliant map takes place in a red hellish void area that has become some kind of interdimensional magnet, sucking in pieces of places from all over space and time. These shards butt up against each other but don't connect in a logical way, leading to a big nonlinear sprawl in which you leap from a techbase into a jungle fortress or fall out of an office building into a medieval stone tomb. It could easily have been a total mess, but it somehow manages to be both good looking and flawlessly designed.

    ...and I could just keep going. Every level by burabojunior, Toooooasty, or Nanka is fantastic, and between the three of them, they created just over half of the maps in the megawad. Interspersed between all of these more epic, individually memorable levels are a bunch of humble but still very enjoyable offerings by project leader Tatsurd-Cacocaco and a small cadre of less experienced mappers, who seem to have learned a lot from working with the masters on the team. In addition to making maps, Tatsurd ran quality control on all of the beginners' levels to make sure they met consistent baseline standards, and as a result, nearly all of them feel like they're worthy additions to the megawad. In other words, Tatsurd had the monumental task of making sure that nothing felt like filler, and did an excellent job.

    The common thread throughout the megawad, and the thing that makes it stand out most to me, is that the maps are almost always more than they seem at first glance. Whether it's dramatic theme shifts or new areas that depart from the level's main theme but somehow feel completely at home (as in maps 08 and 26); huge, beautiful secret areas (as in maps 06 and 22); or utter and deliberate misdirection as to what the level's main goal even is (as in map 15), there are always surprises at every turn. Map 13 ends with an "it was all a dream" scene; map 32 starts out looking like a normal building but turns out to be a bank, complete with hidden vaults full of gold. Hell, even the automaps frequently contain easter eggs -- most notably the detailed comic book page that appears over the starting area of map 08.

    No community megawad is ever perfect, and obviously JPCP isn't perfect either. My biggest gripe is that the soundtrack is... just okay. Map 08's music is a Rockit! track that I've encountered before; it sounds great in a media player, but terrible in-game, at least for me. None of the rest of the music is really bad, but it's often not up to a quality that's fitting for the levels. It's basically a hodgepodge, with a few of the standard go-to tracks from Evilution, Heretic, and other games, as well as some tracks that felt kind of random. This is all par for the course when it comes to community projects where everyone selects their own songs, and I can't really hold it against them. However, it's worth pointing out that some recent community projects have benefited immensely from having the project manager oversee the direction of the music (which seems like it was the case with Nova 2) or even get contributors to put together a custom soundtrack (like Realm of Parthoris). JPCP does have custom title, intermission, and story music composed by Masayan, which is a nice touch.

    The one level I thought was really too weak for inclusion is "The Three World" by Tyousen121 (map 09), which is boxy and sort of dull, looks like it's intended as a "Tricks 'n Traps" tribute but doesn't feel anything like that level, and has a large, glaring HOM on one of the lifts. On the other hand, that same author's second contribution, "Probably Maybe Certainly" (map 24), shows a ton of improvement -- it's a dimension-hopping level with lots of little challenge areas and puzzles, and it's weird but also a lot of fun.

    So there you have it. I tried really hard to find some flaws, and I found a couple. But the tl;dr is that you have to play this wad. Between the many great contributions of its three star mappers and the hard work of its project leader to maintain high quality and round out the set, JPCP stands with CC4, A.L.T., and Nova 2 as one of the best community projects to date.

    No Way Out - Alex Q
    Doom 2 - Single Player - GZDoom - 198.75 KB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    No Way Out is a single map for GZDoom. It's rather good visually, and the lighting added a nice touch to the map. It's advised to be a pretty level when actually it's quite easy, and the gameplay mostly focuses on "gimmick stuff". It's also very difficult to take this level seriously when suddenly there are SS Nazis, with the unnecessary and too many screen messages, BLACK METAL MIDI!!!! and those ridiculous texture resizes. To get the yellow key we have to do a few uninspired wave-based fights. At one point there's also a maze of mirrors; it would be quite interesting if it wasn't for the crappy stealth monsters.

    It's a first map and it isn't that bad actually. Even if the visual presentation is enough, the substance of the map (what actually counts) is lacking.

    Low Key - Fveitsi
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 1.76 MB -
    Reviewed by: Memfis
    One map made with broad strokes. Mostly consists of large-scale rooms filled with rectangular structures. Ever heard of Michael Krause? Anyway, the monster placement is relatively basic and there is pretty much always an option of quickly retreating and stocking up on medikits, so you shouldn't have any problems surviving here (oops 3rd screenshot). If you're in a mood for a 20 minute walk in the park full of plasma and rockets, you can have some fun with this wad as long as you can tolerate a HOM or two. There is also a custom electronic song that gives the whole thing a slightly mysterious feel.

    Doom2 Map14 Homage. AKA: A map submitted for Master Levels that was REJECTED! =] - Tom "ParadoX" Mustaine
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 55.68 KB -
    Reviewed by: Jaws In Space
    This map is one of Tom Mustaine's oldest levels; it was originally submitted for inclusion into The Master Levels for Doom 2. The story goes that Shawn Green played the map for a minute and then got American McGee to play it. Upon seeing the map, McGee said "go make some of your own geometry! We aren't putting this in the Master Levels." Mustaine left the id offices and then began work on Paradox.

    The map is very obviously an homage to Doom 2 map 14 architecturally, but the texturing is very in line with Mustaine's early work: BROWNGRN for exterior building walls, various METAL textures used for the interiors, and SLIME14 and SLIME15 for floors and ceilings. The map is divided into five different areas, corridors are pretty tight, and there are lots of hit-scanners strewn about. I played the map on HMP and had to deal with the fact that Mustaine only tagged the blue key for easy and hard difficulties, but the map is still beatable without it. Overall this is a pretty mediocre map; obvious homage aside, I don't think that ID would have put this map into the Master Levels, just because it really isn't that fun to play. Check this one out if only for its historical value.

    The /newstuff Chronicles is a usually-weekly roundup of new items uploaded to the /idgames archive, and it is written entirely by community members like you. If you wish to contribute, the /newstuff Review Center is the place to do so. Register on the Doomworld Forums first if you don't already have an account, because you need one to submit reviews. Special thanks goes to the nearly 300 users who have submitted reviews over the past several years.
    Doomkid

    Doomworld Multiplayer Digest #34

    By Doomkid, in News,

    ZDaemon Thursday Night Survival #266 - Slaughterfest 2011 (Part I Revisited)
    Date: 15th September 2016
    Euro session: 19:00 BST/14:00 EDT at Multiserver, United Kingdom (still going!)

    Odamex Nitro - UDM3
    Date: 16/09/2016, 19:00 (Eastern Time)
    Location: [Doomshack.org] Server cluster, located in California

    Zandronum Friday Night Fragfest #340: Epic CTF & UDMX
    European FNF: September 16th, 2016, 18:00 UTC
    American FNF: September 16th, 2016, 20:00 EDT ZDaemon Sessions hasn't been announced yet for this week, but keep your eye on the Multiplayer forum for updates and information. In other MP news, AlexMax is currently in the process of updating Duel40. Check out the Zandronum thread or the Doomworld thread to see what's happening and to chime in. Happy fragging!
    Linguica

    Doom 2016 Graphics Study

    By Linguica, in News,

    If you remember the old code reviews for the Doom engine and the Doom 3 engine, this will be right up your alley: programmer Adrian Courrèges has written up a wonderfully comprehensive Doom 2016 Graphics Study that goes step by step through the rendering process with lots of helpful pictures. Spoiler: there's a lot of buffers.
    Bloodshedder

    The /newstuff Chronicles #512

    By Bloodshedder, in News,


    Cabro's legacy - Various
    Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 16.5 MB -
    Reviewed by: Csonicgo
    Disclaimer: I know none of the mappers in this compilation, so there's no way I could be going into this with bias. So, remember that before you slam the reply button. Thanks!

    Cabro's Legacy is a compilation of 15 years of Spanish Doom maps, a "commemorative megawad". That's 2000 to 2015. Fifteen years of Doom maps! Whee! Not only will this be fun to play, but fun to analyze, as we go from Y2K to last year. Within those fifteen years lies a lot of weird mapping fads and trends, some good, some just terribly embarrassing... and we all know what I'm talking about. Yep, those maps. Mmhm. The ones you liked but can't believe you did in the present day. Don't worry, I was exactly the same.

    Cabro's mapping tournaments, if I'm going by the text file only, was a contest in La Página de Cabro. From what I see, the contest had these rules: Limit-removing maps with custom music and sky. That's it. Participants had to use only stock textures. All maps must be playable in their own right, which means all maps shall be pistol started in this compilation.

    Thanks to ZDoom, this mapset has a portal map! Lots of games like to do this portal/painting thing these days, eh? Anyway, the mighty ZDoom ensures that you start each level with only the pistol, and when you complete a level, you're sent back to the portal map. Fair enough. The navigation of the portal map is a little disorienting - it took me way longer than it should to find the second portal room!

    I'm going to warn you now: This journey is going to be long, tedious, and near the end, you'll be begging for mercy. Sorry, you started reading this review, not me! You think I'd read a review this long? Fat chance!

    So anyway, here are the trends I could make out. Let's see if they match the Doom community as a whole!

    I (2000). The first contest. Only one map is playable, and it suffers from Wolfenstein Syndrome. There are some details here and there, but this is otherwise a very clean map. The other maps weren't included.

    II (2001). Still hallways, but rounded corners in places. Mappers are starting to branch out a bit, use some open areas, but still, hallways. Was this the year that everyone decided to copy The Darkening? Details all in the walls that serve no purpose, and crates, because CRATES.

    III (2002). Not as boxy, but the sense of scale has increased dramatically. Feeling small? Some rooms are ridiculously huge, beyond Run Buddy proportions, into Equinox territory. Still, nothing that'll knock your frame rate down a peg. This is 2002 after all.

    IV (2003): I think 2003 started like this: "Hey, y'all know this newfangled thing called 'detail'? I think we should take a look into it. Naw, you just spam the hell out of 1S lines because a clean room just ain't cool enough." I blame Caverns of Darkness, personally. Also, why did detail start to mean "smaller" ? Thankfully one map decided to pull this stunt; the others still did last year's "huge" trope, which is refreshing for a change. I'm starting to see midtex abuse, though - I know what's coming and I don't like it. Gameplay is about to take a back seat, isn't it?

    V (2005): OOOH MAIII GAAWWD DDDDEEEETTTTAAAAIIILLL! HNGGGH! *various ape noises*

    Yes, this is the year everyone went full potato with linedefs. Do I blame PA:R? All I know is that this is when my computer started to sweat, and my framerate started to dip. And nowhere to move, because not only are we detailing everything, we're playing with the proportions of a model train set. Spam those midtextures, ya bastards! Do a line of cocaine off a UAC crate!

    These maps aren't flowing well, and are artificially difficult with copypasta syndrome creeping in. There is no way to dodge attacks in cramped quarters, especially hitscanners!

    VI (2006): I will not rest until every map unit has something different in it. I will fractal the fuck out of this map, because detail, in the holy name of detail. Inject the midtextures, borders, and flat detailing directly into my bloodstream please.

    Pseudo-slopes! Tanking framerates! Gradient lighting! I got stuck in DETAIL SECTORS. What the Chri-OH GOD THE MONSTER COUNT WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THESE HORDES? Forty imps in a room that otherwise serves no purpose other than to connect two hallways that are also filled with imps...because why the hell not? Who needs gameplay? My map looks c00l d00d!

    Surely there's a good map somewhere? These have not aged well at all. And I know why, because the entire Doom community was infected with this. Gameplay is locked in the trunk, and we're cruising down Detail Boulevard. No brakes!

    VII(2007): ?
    *Throws down controller*
    Ya know what? I'm not even going to play these. I've had enough of the unfair difficulty. It's total bullshit that there are no skill levels, either. I can't see much of anything in one of the maps anyway, so hooray, mapper, I'm not playing that garbage! Another map is just very basic techbase, but still copypasta heavy. And then there's this slaughtermap - nope!

    What the hell is going on here? We started off with some decent maps, but as I step through the years, it's like, what drugs were we on? I cannot be the only one that sees how lazy these maps are. Yeah, visually impressive, I guess, but I'm not enjoying any of these - this is the No Fun Zone. And the slaughtermap is just so flat, so bland, so boring.

    VIII (2008): First map, and of course, a horde of revenants just punched my face in. I can see this being fun with an overpowered weapons mod, but as it stands it's just a boring KABLOOM-click-clock-clack SSG spamfest after the arch-vile scare. Yes, it's beatable, but I could only beat this one after savescumming the ever-loving crap out of it. Avoid, avoid.

    Okay, next ma--nooooooo we're back in detail land! PLEASE STOP! Oh, and even better, you can exit this map in two seconds, because the exit switch is right at the start of the map! This map looks really, really bad. The lighting in the complex is way too bright. I can't see anything in one room due to midtexture grate spam, everything is grey. That is an accomplishment, being so terrible. Oh, and hitscanners everywhere, because that's always good, innit?

    The last map is everything wrong with the uber-detail fad. This is total shit. Some sort of "city" map: the outside is so dark, nothing is really visible, and the buildings are so packed with little details that it looks downright comical. I'm not bashing these maps because I have any personal beefs with anyone, I'm being totally honest here - this map, and every one of these detail fad maps for that matter, are absolutely terrible. They look gaudy, the gameplay is either boring easy or frustratingly hard, and oh, of course I had to get stuck somewhere, it never fails with these maps! I got stuck in the hell section, on some "detail" rocks, and had to noclip out.

    IX (2010): ? BOO!!!!111
    Yaaaay, we're now using the jumpscare technique! Nothing like going through a cave only to trigger something that causes two hell knights to pop up out of the floor instantly! Well, until you've overused it. And my poor framerate in the cave map! It looks pretty, though, and it's tough! It's not copypasta hordes either! I really like the cave/forest map. But that jumpscare abuse got old. I bound MDK to a key because I just can't be arsed fighting insta-monsters one after the other like that. Especially in this map where there isn't a lot of ammo.

    As for the rest, looks like we're hitting that era of "Try something simple for a change". Still, this was also the era of slaughtermaps - and expect an ass kicking. Some copypasta here and there, but at least it's something besides the super-cramped nonsense. This is not bad! Of course I could be totally wrong, and these suck, but in comparison to the previous few sets, this is really different, and I'll take that. Now let's pick these apart - some don't have difficulty settings. In fact, I've been meaning to bring that up - some of these maps so far have no difficulty settings whatsoever - ITYTD can be almost as hard as UV - and the only saving grace is that ammo is doubled and damage to the player is reduced. I guess in a community that only plays UV these days anyway, the other skill levels aren't even used. Boo! I use different levels all the time! It depends on how much I'm willing to use my brain at the time.

    X (2011): What. The. Fuck.

    We have entered the "what is this I don't even" zone. First map is a circle.. thing? It's kinda hard. Weird, but it wasn't the boxy junk from a few entries back. Second map is some kind of story-based map. The detail in this map is over the top, but at least all the detail looks like it's something in real life - computers, beds, tables, TVs, that kind of thing. Lost souls coming out of nowhere scared the piss out of me.

    And then there's this absurd hell map that is actually pretty cool. Got my ass thoroughly kicked, but someone is trying something different and that's more than I can say for previous entries. I can't hate these. Play 'em. There's one of these maps that feels like it belongs in the next category, so I'm going to hold my tongue on that one until a few lines down...

    XI (2012): MY MAP'S BIGGER THAN YOURS! Switch hunts. Everywhere. Ugh. NO. It's taking dozens of seconds sometimes to load these maps. What on this earth is taking that long to load?

    These are rapidly becoming unfun by how much time it takes to complete them. I'm not here to read 1,000 page novels, this is friggin' Doom! Why make an entire episode in one map? Is something fun not good enough anymore? Honestly at this point I'm not even really playing these. I don't have a month to play this, I don't have a week to play this. This is absurd. Make your own decisions on this one, but as for me, they've turned Doom into a chore, and when you do that, you FAIL. This doesn't bode well for the rest, does it?

    XII (2013): MORE *excessive swearing cut* NOVELS!

    Yes, your map is pretty. Yes, it took three minutes to load. Do I know if it plays well? Hell if I know, because my framerate dipped to 486 levels just trying to play the goddamned thing. This mapping contest has become the equivalent of Roman gods quarreling, each one of them trying to outdo the other in some ridiculous, hilarious fashion. It's becoming comical now. Whatever happened to making a map? It doesn't have to be a LITERAL MAP! There was one entry that didn't tank the FPS, and that was really mazey, so I'm not sure if I liked that one either. My head is beginning to hurt. NEXT!

    XIII (2014): Okie dokie, we're going absurdist now? Not sure what happened here! Still, maps far too damn long to enjoy casually, or even seriously, what the heck! At least level designs are cleaner, here. We're still switch hunting and maze-navigating though! Is anyone still playtesting these? Is anyone still reading this? Banana? Banana! I'm really sleep deprived, now. Starting to see things, and I'm not sure if it's me or the maps. And of course one of them is the size of Alaska, because that's the only language some of these contestants speak now. Are we almost done yet?

    XIV (2015)...Heh.

    So this is it? A city map that's somewhat playable, and a techbase map that doesn't suck? Cool, cool, what's the last map?

    A Sl.. sl..slaughtermap...

    *faints*

    So, to recap: we went from simple, fun maps, to detail-fests, to supergiant maps that take minutes to load and days to beat. What did we learn from all this? That the community has a lot of talent, and some of that talent might be going a little too far and trying a little too hard (read: way too hard) to prove itself. I have no idea why the contest entries went from short, fun romps to Greek epics, but I can't imagine being the judge, having to sit through dozens of entries, each trying to be megabiglargehuge, because the entrants are desperately trying to impress the judges. it's just not impressive if every single map entry tries to do this garbage. The larger the map, the less likely the gameplay is going to be tuned to anything sensible, unless there are teams of mappers looking at this stuff, and I doubt that was the case. There's no way to test this all the way through, multiple times, by yourself.

    My hands hurt, my eyes hurt, my ears are shot from blasting Ween all day and night playing this map over the Labor Day weekend. I don't even know if I played all these fairly; I may have cheated a bit to speed things up, but at this point it would take a team of reviewers to tackle this one and give each map a thorough assessment. I have given each an honest try (with the resurrect command bound to a key) and the majority of these maps are just too friggin' big.

    In conclusion, Cabro's Legacy is a set of forty-two maps trying to justify their existence, with many of them slipping and falling flat on their faces. Where did this go wrong? A better question is, "When did it ever go right?" Answer: Rarely.

    Maps taking minutes to load didn't help, either. Play if you dare.

    Strife 1.0 demo - Rogue Entertainment (upload by Mike Swanson)
    Strife - N/A - Strife Support - 4.7 MB -
    Reviewed by: walter confalonieri
    A demo version of the 1996 game "Strife" made by Rogue Entertainment and uploaded for historical purpose to the archives by Mike Swanson. Thank you very much for giving us this pearl, dude!

    Anyway, for the ones that don't know what this Strife thing is, let me explain briefly here:

    Strife was one of those "Doom clone" era FPSes, like Heretic or any other games that used the idTech 1 engine, but this one has a strong difference between all its competitors of the time: it's centered on mission-objectives gameplay based on the choices you make with the various NPCs during the game, just like Deus Ex. Recently it returned back from the darkness that it was imprisoned to, with the help of some volunteer modders and programmers, with a reborn version called Strife: Veteran Edition that came out about a year ago.

    It also has some awesome voice acting from the various NPCs, plus mission / gun / key pop-up menus, and some other stuff seen in other games, like a hub map system, and an inventory like in Heretic/Hexen.

    Set in a Steampunk post-holocaust world that takes mankind into a new middle age era, a comet strikes the Earth one day, bringing with it a mysterious pestilential virus that mutates humans. The ones that aren't killed by it turn insane and create a new sect called The Order, who claim to talk to the new God from the comet, and they kidnap the last male survivors to turn into cybernetic soldiers, and the women and children are killed. But the last hope is one group of rebel partisans that goes against the mysterious Order, called the Strife, and in you, a mysterious nameless mercenary that is going to be executed by some soldiers from the Order.

    After you get rid of them, you meet a slimy guy that gives a gun and a mission: find the chalice and bring it back to him, but after you meet a guy in a cell, you realize that you have been framed, and then our great quest for freedom begins!

    Or at least you come to meet the brain behind the Strife after you defeat an entire Order army and two mechas that are the barons of hell counterparts of this game, and all of this without any cheats cause cheats doesn't work on shareware versions... yeah, how charming to do this without any cheats and in a place that gives next to no cover!

    I had to get around this by playing it on a source port (GZDoom played it perfectly) and using an invulnerability cheat during that part of the game to pass to the next section.

    The main changes between the much more known version 1.1 are mostly on the aesthetics of the game, like the lack of text in the main NPCs dialogue boxes (expect for the answers section below that works fine), the guard in the tavern attacks you when he sees the player (what a asshole!), and the cell door in the sanctuary (MAP01) isn't locked by a key, but the version 1.1 did. But the map layouts and the main mechanics of the game are all there.

    Download this game for a great experience and for jumping into a forgotten FPS gem!

    Bootmans factory - Mauzki
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 78.64 KB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Bootmans factory is, thankfully, a quite short single map. The gameplay doesn't go beyond spamming monsters in rooms, and after you pass the door with the exit sign nearby you can easily skip every fight. Visuals aren't better with their blandness. A forgettable and poor level, not recommended at all.

    Volcano Pass - Nabernizer
    Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 802.32 KB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Volcano Pass is a wad with two maps, but the second level is the first one but only with different thing placement, so it's more like there's one level actually. It's set in a volcanic area, so everything you'll see here is basically rocks and lava. Gameplay can be described as "total chaos": the main area is big and open and all the monsters will start to chase you; there are even few monster spawners. The level encourages you to skip everything and find the keys quickly rather than kill all the monsters. It's an average map. I've seen worse, but I don't think this was very good either.

    Earth Installations - Mario Augusto Puga Valera
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 248.73 KB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    Earth Installations is a pair of basic but enjoyable medium-sized levels, both of which primarily have a techbase setting with a couple of little detours into city and Hell themes. The author states that they're both improved versions of previous releases, and they're definitely clean and nicely (if modestly) detailed, with a pretty good flow in terms of both the layout and gameplay. Ammo and health are well balanced -- slightly on the plentiful side but not spammed, which is how I like them. Basically, everything is nice and solid, though I do have a couple of complaints. First, the author repeatedly used monster-blocking linedefs that made many of the Pinkies a complete non-threat, allowing me to slaughter them in complete safety while standing about five feet away. Map 02 also used large hordes of a single monster type in several cases, and I felt like some of them were a little overdone -- not difficult, but slightly more of a slog than I would have liked.

    For the most part, these levels are pretty easy, with the difficulty steadily increasing until things start getting fairly tough in the latter half of map 02 with the appearance of the larger monster swarms. Weapons and enemies are both introduced slowly and steadily, with Hell Knights being the toughest enemies until the very end of the second level. This wad really feels like it could be the first two levels of a megawad, starting things off nice and simple to set the tone before (hopefully) moving on to more exciting ideas in later levels. If Valera is planning to go the megawad route, or just to continue mapping in general, I would strongly encourage him to do so, as he's off to a great start. Earth Installations doesn't offer anything you haven't seen before, though, so whether you'd consider it interesting enough to warrant a playthrough is up to you.

    asshole - Death Egg
    Doom 2 - Single Player - PrBoom+ - 14.37 KB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    A map made in one hour while the author was high doesn't sound very inviting, but despite these premises, this map is kinda fair actually. The look is rough and basic, but the combat was surprisingly good and had some nice ideas. I don't think it's a particularly remarkable level, but it will take only a couple of minutes to beat it.

    7 Sins - Kristian "Sajbear" Nilsen
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 549.75 KB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    7 Sins is a quite long single map. Despite being advised to be Limit Removing compatible, there's a linedef with an incorrect tag that will break the map, so you'll need at least ZDoom to play this. As the title says, this level is inspired by the seven deadly sins, and if it wasn't for the title, you wouldn't even notice it. At least the author didn't delight us with horrible stuff like that level in DTS-T, but it's difficult (if even impossible) to find some kind of meaning to the various areas. This is basically another "my first map". It really looks like a mess, and the textures seem like they were chosen randomly. Gameplay is uninspired and very basic, and layout is almost completely flat. This level definitely drags for too long. I can summarize the experience as boring; avoid.

    The /newstuff Chronicles is a usually-weekly roundup of new items uploaded to the /idgames archive, and it is written entirely by community members like you. If you wish to contribute, the /newstuff Review Center is the place to do so. Register on the Doomworld Forums first if you don't already have an account, because you need one to submit reviews. Special thanks goes to the nearly 300 users who have submitted reviews over the past several years.
    Doomkid

    Doomworld Multiplayer Digest #33

    By Doomkid, in News,

    ZDaemon Thursday Night Survival #265 - 3 Heures d'agonie (Revisité)
    Date: 8th September 2016
    Euro session: 19:00 BST/14:00 EDT at [SDA], Germany (usually lasts over 6 hours)

    Zandronum Friday Night Fragfest #339: Skulltag & Reckoning Hourp
    European FNF: September 8th, 2016, 18:00 UTC
    American FNF: September 8th, 20:00 EDT

    ZDS #471 - Crazy Deathmatch for Crazy People
    Date: Saturday 10th September 2016
    Euro: 19:30 BST / 14:30 EDT
    USA: 01:00 BST / 20:00 EDT Odamex Nitro will also be running this week with TLSDM, however a few more details are to be ironed out. Keep your eye on the Multiplayer forum for updates and information. Happy fragging!
    Bloodshedder

    The /newstuff Chronicles #511

    By Bloodshedder, in News,


    Doom the Way id Did - The Lost Episodes - Various
    Ultimate Doom - Single Player - Vanilla - 3.66 MB -
    Reviewed by: Csonicgo
    Doom the Way id Did - The Lost Episodes, or, the levels that didn't make the cut in the original DTWID megawad. So, this is a second helping of that DuhTWID-dy goodness. Hope you chiseled out some time - this is more of a gigawad. 54 levels! How do you review 54 levels? Let's get started!

    Yes, I took my time on this one. Maybe three months, most of that being lazy. So here's my summary - what is good, is good. What is bad, can be IDKFA'd and beaten, and that's fun anyway, right? I should warn you though - the last episode in this pack is nothing but a collection of rejected boss levels. Some are downright terrible, some can never be pistol started, and honestly, who thought some of these boss levels were any good? I would have never submitted some of these. What, did they think they could get away with a Fortress of Mystery level that somehow plays worse? When out of ideas, submitting boss levels is an attempt, I guess. You get a shiny sticker.

    I admit, I'm being a little harsh. I can go into a thought experiment on why all of these were rejected. Some of the maps seem to be tributes to existing maps in Doom, not their own creations using "id" design motifs. So you'll see elements from the Unholy Cathedral, Deimos Anomaly, Hangar, and Phobos Anomaly. Is that a bad thing? Well, no, but it's not an original idea - it's just déjà vu for the player. I felt it numerous times in this, but not so much when playing DTWID. "Hey, remember the map that had this?" pulls me out of the experience a bit. It's cool when intentional, but doing it too many times feels lazy. Your mileage may vary, though.

    The good stuff - the gameplay exists, there are a lot of maps, adding up to hours of fun here.

    So, any constructive criticism, you ask? Well, yes, actually. Some maps have too few memorable areas. I'm talking about landmarks, anything that sticks out as "cool" that I would remember instantly when writing this thing, or to backtrack when playing. But then again, maybe that's because it's hard to remember everything when it's 54 freaking levels.

    And! I've learned that the Doom community really loves techbases. The art of techbase construction is down to a science. But the hell levels, not so much. The best Hellish levels I remember were originally techbase levels in Doom, with a demonic coat of paint. But there are too many here. I didn't see any of the abstract levels like the hand level that we all love. (And we all love that one, right? Right?) And holy shit, some of these maps are too big. I don't remember a single id level in the original Doom that took almost an hour to beat. Jeez! Too much complexity! Not that I didn't like the level, and Spawning Vats was a "big" level, but big levels shouldn't mean that they take forever to beat. The original E2M2 is a great example of that.

    This is why this review is so difficult - these are the rejects, as in what was left. That this plays so well - it should be praised, not picked apart by a chump like me. Perhaps there were too many hellbase submissions, and the compilers had to roll with it. Don't expect absolute perfection, and things will be fine! They could have made the choice to throw them all out, and that would have been a damn shame.

    I'm gonna wrap this up with a warning: Don't just "drag and drop" the ZIP onto ZDoom or anything. You'll accidentally load the "original" levels along with the intended experience, which replaces fixed-up levels with broken originals. In fact, I had a scathing review set up before I realized what I did, and had to scrap it. Whoops!

    The DOOM Tribute Project - Alando1 (Alan)
    Doom 2 - Single Player - GZDoom - 47.02 MB -
    Reviewed by: vtm
    Alando1 really shows his skills with this megawad. The DOOM Tribute Project is a megawad that tells the story of Doom and Doom II with ZDoom effects and a new lot of details on the maps. It separates the maps into seven episodes: the first three episodes are the same episodes from Doom, and the rest are from Doom II.

    Episode 1 starts with a cutscene that explains the background of the game, how the marine was sent to the UAC, and how the invasion started. The author made sure that certain sites of each map have a common visual structure to remind us of the classic levels, each level adapted to look more like scientific installations and military bases of course. Each episode is truth of this; the ending of episode one has a battle with two barons, and in Shores of Hell we find the classic facility with tons of boxes (a new adapted version of Deimos Lab) and the classic fight with the cyberdemon.

    Episode 3 has a downside: Slough of Despair doesn't look like a hand or something similar; I was exited to see what the author would do with that level. Almost all levels are redone, and some of them come two in one, meaning that for example, E1M1 and E1M2 are contained in the same level. Each level is beautifully crafted, the author dedicating time to each one.

    Episode 4 to 7 are a tribute to Hell on Earth; episode 4 is the return of the marine to earth; here we will find a marine called Marcus who tells us basically all we have to do to save earth.

    It includes new weapons and new monsters; the new monsters are the usual recolors of the originals; new types of zombies, imps, and hell knights are the most visible and abundant. New in our arsenal we have a second pistol for dual use, a railgun, and an automatic rifle. New music and sounds too; we have some of the classics from Doom and Doom II and some new tracks. The new sound for the shotgun in my opinion does not fit well; the original would have been better.

    In relation to gameplay, well, it's not hard but it's not easy. The difficulty level is really balanced; health is somewhat abundant, but ammo is short in some levels. Secrets aren't hard to find as some of them are the classic ones that any veteran playing Doom will know.

    In conclusion, we have a really fun mod that remasters the classic story, so go and play it, you won't regret it.

    OOWSFMLD - Chaingunner
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 269.22 KB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    OOWSFMLD (whatever that's supposed to mean) is a nice, short Hell level that has a strong E3 vibe but plays in Doom 2. It's pretty easy, and there's nothing super remarkable about it, but it's well put together with a solid layout, a few modest custom textures, and good, realistic lighting -- which in this case means that most of the level is dark enough to keep you on edge, but it has brighter, high-contrast spots created by the lava rivers and other light sources, often used to create a spooky atmosphere around the keys and other set pieces. Pretty much all combat is with the shotgun and chaingun (the SSG is present but tends to feel like it's just a waste of ammo due to the enemies used) against Sergeants, Imps, Lost Souls, and Demons, with a single Pain Elemental that serves as the focal point of the level's most fun and challenging fight. Definitely recommended if you want something quick and simple.

    Eternal Mansion - Michael Jan Krizik (valkiriforce)
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 112.22 KB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Metal Mansion is MAP31 of Reverie, a vanilla megawad made by Valkiriforce in 2011. This map is a version of that level retextured with Eternal Doom textures. This version changes only the looks; the gameplay remains unchanged. Near the start you can take the regular exit, which lets you skip all the level, though if you want to reach the secret exit you will have to find the three keys. The progression is heavily reliant on secrets and puzzles. The overall style reminds of the works of authors like Jim Flynn and Bob Evans, which makes this map very fitting for the Eternal Doom visual look. If you played this level in Reverie you already know what to expect from this; if you don't have much patience or you don't like levels with obscure progression, you won't probably enjoy this so much.

    Birthing Pools - Samantha McNallen aka Miss Bubbles
    Ultimate Doom - Single Player - Vanilla - 85.88 KB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    Birthing Pools is a remake of the level "Spawning Vats" from Doom 1. It's not a grand, detailed reimagining like you'd find in Lutz's episodes, or one that's designed to maximize port features like KDiZD. It's more of an alternative idea of how the level might have been made back in 1993, and the overall appearance is even a bit simpler than "Spawning Vats" (which was one of the more detailed levels in Doom 1). But that doesn't mean Birthing Pools isn't fun.

    This remake is a bit tougher than the original, but it's still pretty easy, even if you don't find the secret rocket launcher and plasma rifle (which are the only ones available in the level). The ammo feels tight at the beginning, but it's not like it isn't there -- it's just that you have to run around and be strategic about your combat engagements for a couple of minutes while you gather what you need, which is kind of fun and presents a challenge that wouldn't otherwise exist in a standard Doom 1 level. Many of the iconic areas from "Spawning Vats" are present (the blue light halls, the Baron area with the slime, etc.), but it never feels too derivative, and outside of these major areas, the layout is pretty much all new, which kept the level interesting. The use of the titular birthing pools was particularly nice and actually managed to catch me by surprise. For the most part, you can ignore the fact that it's based on another level if you want to -- it's just a nice classic Doom 1 map in its own right.

    a Morte [15 maps - 3 Hubs] - HexenMapper
    Hexen - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 41.19 MB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Hexen wads are quite rare to see, and my interest in playing this went quite high after seeing some information about it. A Morte for sure is a unique thing. The story starts in Berlin, 1945; a cult of Nosferati with magic portals wanting to flee came to an ancient mausoleum where the journey of our hero starts. It seems to be quite a normal Hexen wad; you have the usual items and weapons for the class you choose. The first custom enemy you will encounter is the spider, and seriously, fuck them. They are the most annoying enemy. Things don't get better later on as the spiders are used many times, and there are also giant spiders as bosses. It's time also for a visit to the bombarded Berlin, and in a bar of some kind full of Nazis and naked maids. The tanks are just ridiculous, as much as the crocodiles in the sewer level. And this is only the beginning; the second hub will have mostly Blood cultists, and there's also a village of cowboys. You can also meet a few Calebs sniping around, and it's hilarious how in the same area you can hear them talking like if they are standing next to you even if they are actually really far away. The third hub is set in a... post-apocalyptic eastern Europe, I guess. Suddenly there are NPCs, with dialogue and quests. The most notable thing is that in one level there are flying lamps as enemies.

    That was a brief summary of the journey of the wad. Talking about the quality of the levels, I don't have good things to say. The overall look is quite rough, full of misalignments and even missing textures sometimes. Some textures used don't look really good; for example, the buildings in Berlin. Overall this is really a mess of resources mashed together, even with the custom enemies and props.

    The wad plays rather badly. I don't actually think that the class you choose makes a big difference here. What is wrong here are the layouts mostly: room after room, corridor after corridor, too many empty spaces. The places aren't really interesting to explore, and the fights are so dull (and fuck those spiders) that most of the time I wanted to continue only to see what weird stuff was ahead.

    I must say that it was entertaining, and probably not for the intended reason. It's almost "so bad it's good". I hope that the author doesn't take this badly; most of the ideas were interesting, and if the big picture was defined more clearly and the execution was way better, this could have been something really cool. I guess that it's more like a failed experiment, or a testing project made to play with the ZDoom features for the first time. Personally I would like to see more stuff like in the future. It's definitely a unique wad, though I can't really recommend it.

    StarCove - A Tribute To Ty Halderman - Michael Jan Krizik (valkiriforce)
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 138.88 KB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    Starcove is a single-level wad that serves as a tribute/memorial to Ty Halderman, and unlike Threnody (which is primarily inspired by Evilution and Eternal Doom), it uses Icarus as a base. It requires that wad to play and replaces map 27, Halderman's own "Starhenge." Let me just get this out of the way to begin with: I never really enjoyed Icarus very much, and I haven't played it in many years. As a result, there's not a whole lot I can say about this level as a tribute.

    What I can say is that it makes great use of the Icarus texture set. These graphics are pretty uncommon to begin with, and they give Starcove a unique feel. Valkiriforce managed to use the somewhat cartoony textures and decorations to add a lot of freshness and variety to the mostly stock-textured level without overusing them and making the map feel cheesy. The map takes place in a rocky, sometimes watery canyon with occasional glimpses of futuristic tech, from the inaccessible exit teleporter visible at the start to the gleaming final room. Its dark and moody atmosphere fits well with Icarus's E3 sky, a starry night with looming mountain silhouettes barely visible on the horizon. Like most of Krizik's levels -- and like Icarus, arguably -- it isn't very detailed but still looks great due to careful lighting and design.

    The gameplay is pretty tough, with all of the guns in play but plenty of higher-tier monsters to balance the player's firepower. A few of the fight setups felt like they were just mobs of random monsters crammed into hallways and rooms, ready to spill out messily as soon as I opened a door or rounded a corner -- but if nothing else, they provide some nice opportunities for infighting. Most of the combat is quite well crafted, and some battles have a real artistry to them, like the opening dance with the rocket launcher against several layers of tough monsters, or the fights in the watery outdoor canyon section. I found the large, steep staircases toward the beginning of the level to be frustrating, as it was difficult to see what I was aiming at without using mouselook -- but maybe that's part of an homage?

    Overall, Starcove is a fun level and a worthy tribute to Ty.

    computer terminal tutorial - Paul Hildebrandt
    Doom 2 - N/A - ZDoom Compatible - 7.34 KB
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    The textfile refers to this as a tutorial, but technically speaking, it's a demo level (i.e., it doesn't provide a textual walkthrough). The wad contains a single map that illustrates a few different ZDoom-specific concepts:

    1) Spinning grinder objects.
    2) Viewable security cameras.
    3) A pair of computer terminals that let you control both of the above. This is the main purpose of the demo.

    It looks like the author is assuming that you already know most of what you're doing as a mapper and are just going to open up this map to view the scripts and understand how to use them -- which is fair, because if you don't know your way around Doom Builder, you have no business setting up scripted computer terminals. Still, I feel like it might have been nice to have a bit more textual explanation of what's going on here. In addition, there's a big glitch where if you walk into the grinders, you disappear into some kind of tan void and are lost forever, and I'm not sure if this is a problem with the grinders or if the author should have just put an impassable linedef to stop the player.

    Anyway, the wad serves its purpose -- a reasonably sensible mapper ought to be able to grasp the basics of the script and adapt it to their own needs.

    Another Awful Map - ButterflyGirl
    Doom 2 - Single Player - GZDoom - 5.15 KB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    Reviewers on /idgames have treated this (and the author's other wads) as though it caused them physical injury, which is making a much bigger deal out of it than it really is. One of them complained about monsters stuck in the walls, which I did not see at all, and said that the exit doesn't work in vanilla or something, but since the level has stealth monsters and is intended for GZDoom, I'm not really sure what point they were trying to make.

    Random Internet rage aside, Another Awful Map isn't a good level -- it's basically your standard beginner map that we've all seen a hundred times. It's a few rooms and hallways laid out in a square with random monsters (including Nazis and Keens, naturally) and textures thrown around without any sense of design. I would advise that you don't play it, but also don't be an ass about it. My advice to the author is to not upload every single low-quality mapping study to the archive, but instead take some time to get all the basics down before trying to create a level that's intended for other people to play.

    Bunker - Emil "NaturalTvventy" Brundage
    Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 594.81 KB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    Bunker is a small, rather dark base level that relies mainly on custom monsters to distinguish itself from the crowd of other small base maps. It's got semi-auto rifle zombies (which drop a weapon that you can use as an alternative to the pistol), a couple of Imp varieties, a few chainsaw zombies, and some beefed up chaingunners in one of the secrets. The enemies don't add much to the gameplay, as they're barely different from normal Imps and zombies; they're just there for the novelty, but since they're all very easy to kill, they don't detract from the level either. Some players will hate the abundance of hitscan enemies, but I've never really understood this as a criticism; Wolfenstein 3D has almost nothing but hitscan enemies, and it's still a fun game. However, the lack of ammo in this level is a serious problem -- there's hardly any of it aside from enemy drops.

    The level looks decent overall, although the layout is a bit strange, with almost half of the space either secret or skippable. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but in this case you're mostly hunting secrets to find the ammo you're lacking, which isn't what secrets are supposed to be about.

    Really, it wouldn't be a bad level aside from the ammo thing -- if you're willing to do a bit of cheating or add some bullet boxes in Doom Builder, it may be worth it for the fun and novelty of ripping through a bunch of custom fodder enemies.

    Selfhate 2 Levels more - ButterflyGirl
    Doom 2 - Single Player - GZDoom - 22.69 KB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    Selfhate is the third of ButterflyGirl's initial wave of releases, and it seems to be a step backward from the previous one. Like Awful.wad, it doesn't have any structure or gameplay, but it's also full of visual glitches. The first level is a room with a bunch of pillars (all of which have HOM errors around them) and a mob of zombies, Imps, and Demons. The second level is a narrow hall with nine Cacodemons and a plasma rifle. Skip it.

    The /newstuff Chronicles is a usually-weekly roundup of new items uploaded to the /idgames archive, and it is written entirely by community members like you. If you wish to contribute, the /newstuff Review Center is the place to do so. Register on the Doomworld Forums first if you don't already have an account, because you need one to submit reviews. Special thanks goes to the nearly 300 users who have submitted reviews over the past several years.
    Doomkid

    Doomworld Multiplayer Digest #32

    By Doomkid, in News,

    ZDaemon Thursday Night Survival #264 - Urania (Part III)
    Date: 1st September 2016
    Euro session: 19:00 BST/14:00 EDT at SDA, Germany (usually lasts over 6 hours)

    Zandronum Friday Night Fragfest #338: 32in24-10 Instagib & Internal Conflict + maps
    European FNF: September 2nd, 2016, 18:00 UTC
    American FNF: September 2nd, 2016, 20:00 EDT

    ZDS #470 - Legendary-35a CTF
    Date: Saturday 3rd September 2016
    Euro: 19:30 BST / 14:30 EDT
    USA: 01:00 BST / 20:00 EDT Check out the Multiplayer forum for discussion about clans, multiplayer WADs, match scheduling and other fun events. Happy fragging!
×
×
  • Create New...