Four nice new wads this week, including a brand new 9-level Doom 2 episode. Yeah, I'm late again before you say it. Stop waiting until late Saturday afternoon to upload your maps or I will send an army of elite lizard warriors to flay the skin from your bones.
- Fountain of Pain by frwl -
- Fountain of Pain is the author's first map... and uh, heh, well, it's a first map! This one's a DM map replacing Doom 2 Map01. The fragging here takes place in two main areas connected by teleports: one terribly textured marble/stone/vine courtyard (with a gigantic 'fountain' in the middle), and a small series of tech base rooms. Unfortunately though, there's more than enough silly gameplay quirks and balance issues to keep me from wanting it on a ZDaemon server. First off, the courtyard is almost stupidly spacious for a dm arena. An easy-to-reach plasmagun makes the tech base area a haven for fagot campars. Just grabbing a single-shotgun requires a 10-second hike up an extremely narrow spiral staircase. If you dare attempt to grab a rocket launcher, you may accidentally find yourself falling into a teleport leading to a tiny cage near the fountain, in which case you can do nothing but sling rockets around like an idiot and hope you get a frag before your opponent(s) notice you're helpless (which is harder than it should be due to the large amount or ROCKET EATING WALLS). Though, if I've sparked your interest somehow, it couldn't hurt to spend 10 minutes in it with Skulltag or OPNdoom.
- The Highlands by Alex Parsons - - Feels like I've been here before, feels so familiaaar, feels like I'm slippin... *ahem* ok I'll stop. Despite the feeling of deja-vu caused by the fact that the map looks almost exactly like his previous work 'Outlands', I found Alex Parsons' newest offering a blast to play. The minute you spawn in this SP_ROCK1 fortress you'll be assaulted by a pack of Revenants, and it'll take some MaD sTrAfErUnNiNg SkIlLz to find safe haven. From that point on you'll have to fight your way past tunnels packed with imps, cliffs and ledges guarded by sniping chaingunners, a pesky cacodemon squad from beyond, and enough revenants to make you start hearing their screeching battle cries in your sleep. The monster count on UV is frightening considering the size of the map, but with some speedrunning experience and the aid of a megasphere or two, you'll make it out alive. Oh, and someone record a 100% kills demo for extra love and kisses from Liam. Advanced Doom port recommended.
- Flow Form by Jason "Hellbent" Root - - A gem of a Doom 2 DM map, Flow Form offers perfectly balanced deathmatch play (for one-on-one or ffa games) and a unique, nonlinear map design. It kinda looks like a stone ruin or something, but that DOESN'T REALLY MATTER because there's NO stupid dead-end hallways, NO plasma spam, NO powerup hoarding, and NO retarded nukage pools. The Doom2.exe instant lift trick rocks here too, even though it's implementation is simple. Also, the botplay rules. Hellbent knows his game so download this now, and then download all his other maps and play them instead of Dwango 5 plz, thnx.
- One Bloody Night by Erik Alm - - I hope you like your quickload button. I'm finishing this joyous week off with a 9 map Doom 2 episode, Map01 - Map09. There's some particularly cool maps in this one, including one of the best town/city maps I've seen in a while, a sweet Map29 knockoff, and a particularly cool Icon of Sin arena. Although the maps generally look great, the wad is so challenging you may have trouble surviving to take in all of the scenery. The last few maps will leave even experienced doomers in a pile on the concrete under their apartment window. Though, if it's too hard for you on UV I highly recommend you swallow your pride and step down a difficulty level or two, it's worth it. Insaaaane props to Erik for doom2.exe compatibility and for resisting the temptation to teleport in Hell's entire revenant population every time you snag a soulsphere or a key. Music replacements ranging from 'swank' to 'repetitve' to 'irritating' included. Can't wait to see some demos for this one. Absolutely recommended.
Recommended Comments
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.