Jump to content
  • The Old Stuff Chronicles


    Guest

    Along with the faint scent of fresh coffee, so to with the rising sun does Saturday morning bring with it another edition of this weekly feature article. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Oldstuff Chronicles.

    Of all the various levels and experiences that I have exposed you to in the weeks prior to today, today's feature was a very difficult choice for me to arrive at and is unusual in two aspects. Bear with me...

    First, today's feature numbers among the very first external levels for DOOM(2) that I ever had the pleasure to play. Stop for a moment and ponder that -- me, now the seasoned creator of several successful levels and battle-hardened veteran of far more DOOM levels than I can possibly recall, taking his very first steps into the great unknowns of the plethora of maps available.

    This first point leads to my second -- today's feature is the only level of the several previously examined that I have been less than confident about sharing with the DOOM community. Why? Because I suspect that a number of you will strongly dislike the level that I am about to present you with, and I am hesitant to expose a map as distinct and powerfully nostalgic as Voidship II to such harsh criticism.

    The author of Voidship II, Kevin McGrail, was inspired to create a ship in the heavens run by the forces of Hell when he first caught sight of the starry sky of a previous Oldstuff feature, Doomsday of the UAC, back in 1994. The end result of McGrail's now-revered muse, creativity, and several refinements over the years resulted in the final product -- a map worthy of being featured here on Doomworld.

    Voidship II is a keenly textured, well-populated, puzzle-driven piece of art. McGrail forces the player to use his or her brains as much, if not more, than the arsenal presented to combat the environment and enemies presented throughout the level, often giving the player with a destination but no obvious path to reach it. I begrudgingly selected Voidship II for today's article for fear that some of you will despise it, but I hope that you prove me wrong on that and embrace Voidship II with an open mind and experience it for everything that it is -- creative, encompassing, and interesting. It is time well spent. Do take care, and enjoy!

    Note: those of you without DOOM2 should be aware that a version of this level exists for DOOM.


    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments

    Personally I enjoy the Doom version much better; maybe it's just in my head, but the classic Doom "feel" just isn't there in the Doom2 version.

    I still remember playing this map for the first time, what a rush.

    Link to comment

    Quite right. In fact I've always been of the opinon that the ssg pretty much reduces the threat level of demons and spectres below that of troopers...

    Link to comment
    Guest Frag me

    Posted

    Yeah.Ssg makes it easy.Usually,when I make a map,you encounter about 10 hell knights before you get anything better than a shotgun.I made one once,it was gonna be kinda like,you trying to get to a shelter or somthing and you had to excape from a city,get into a shelter,then find that its full of demons as well....but I didn't like it too much.I'm not the best map maker @_@

    Link to comment
    Guest Frag me

    Posted

    I don't hate it,its a GREAT map!I just think that the ssg makes it too easy

    Link to comment
    Guest billyjoejimbob

    Posted

    Is there a demo anywhere I can download showing how to play through this map? This map is very un-intuitive on what you're supposed to do next.

    Link to comment

    It may not be that you are a bad mapper, it's just that putting the player up against 12 hell-knights with a pistol is very unprofessional, poor, stupid.

    Sorry, it's just that the concept pisses me off. ;]

    Link to comment
    Guest Kinoshkana

    Posted

    It's not that hard. Just look around the current room - if everything looks the same, backtrack to the previous room, etc.

    This is one of those maps which you either love or hate.

    Link to comment
    Guest BlackTerror

    Posted

    Frag Me said that you'd fight ten Hell Knights not before you got the shotgun, but before you got a better weapon than the shotgun. I think that's a little much, but possible.

    FM, would you consider the chaingun a better weapon than the shotgun?

    Link to comment
    Guest billyjoejimbob

    Posted

    I guess you can put me in the group of people that hate this map then. Because I've made it to the blue key door, but the blue key is nowhere to be found. I also got trapped in the little maze on the way to the blue key door as well and couldn't seem to find my way out, is this map supposed to be used with standard doom2.exe or something like Zdoom that allows you to jump?

    Link to comment

    "This is one of those maps which you either love or hate."

    Unless of course you are me. There are areas of this map that are very clever, thought provoking and use the limitations of the doom engine to its advantage. I like the way the start area slowly opens up and evolves, giving you a few well paced fights without you even really going anywhere. It features a few original "tricks and traps" that force you to think, or just start fighting when you didn't expect to. There is good use of textures and the map looks good.

    However, ultimately, for some reason I'm fairly indifferent to this map.

    I have played better, but I have also certainly played a lot worse.

    Link to comment

    Yes, I got to the blue door with out he key as well. And since I just ran out of shells I just got pissed off and quit. I havn't lit up in 24 hours and I don't want to make the situation worse.
    I think the shotgun is better against the larger deamons because there is more power in 50 shells than in 200 rounds. But the chaingun is great for sniping via the tap fire button trick.

    Link to comment

    Of course a chaingun would be better than a shotgun. But I must say a plasmagun or BFG would be about 300 times better than that. ;-)

    Link to comment


    Join the conversation

    You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

    Guest
    Add a comment...

    ×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

      Only 75 emoji are allowed.

    ×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

    ×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

    ×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...