The /newstuff Chronicles #429

• 32in24-12: IRON MAPPER - The 32in24 Team!
  Doom 2 - Boom Compatible - CTF - 7867735 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Remiel
  No introduction to the illustrious Yeoman Engineers and Designers of Software's famous series is necessary, but I do need to pad my wordcount so I can pretend I know what I'm doing. 32in24-12 is the latest and greatest of these 32-level (give or take) multiplayer compilations, famously built to high standards in only 24 hours (give or take) by a team containing some of the most talented and attractive individuals around, this time for Capture the Flag.
  
  I probably don't need to type this either, but YEDS have outdone themselves again. With our favourite mechanical overlord dew standing right behind you, who would risk otherwise? The layouts are carefully designed to ensure no errant sidedef will get in the way of a player's straferunning, and even if someone should concentrate their rotation around the work of the premier members of the team, that still means a lot of damn maps. Some of them are just pretty, too, like MAP08, which personally crushed Odamex compatibility under a beautiful sidedef-covered boot before being contained.
  
  A must-have for any CTFer. The only strike against it I can think of is that more people should play it... and the music of MAP17, I suppose. It could be that I'm just jealous of Doom II's success, but it could also be that after years of custom levels, the sound of D_RUNNIN sends me into apoplexy.
  
  
• Castle Doom - Chris Weathers
  Doom 2 - Risen3D, GZDoom, prBoom+ - Solo Play - 37243651 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Kirby
  This is a collection of 32 levels for Doom II creatd by Chris Weathers. Description says that this is a single-player megawad that "pits the players against the forces of Castle Doom". Hence, we just need to decipher what "Castle Doom" refers to. Any new monsters? Interesting levels? Unseen textures never used before?!
  
  Actually, not at all. What "Castle Doom" essentially boils down to is hi-res oversized textures, boring levels, and the same cast of demons that aren't even set up to make decent gameplay. There are only a couple of decent points to this wad; the rest of it is rather uninteresting.
  
  First thing to note is that this wad is a hefty 50 megabytes when unzipped and says it requires GZDoom or PrBoom+. Upon playing the first level both questions are answered - it's chock full of hi-res Heretic textures used for the castle that serves as the setting for the majority of this wad. Sadly none of them are used interestingly. They serve to be nothing more than bloated space and the sole reason behind needing an advanced source port.
  
  In summing up the rest of the wad - uninteresting architecture, boring gameplay, and bad design choices. I played through this on Ultra-Violence but still found myself practically packed with ammo after every level - I mean literally ammo is EVERYWHERE. The monsters are occasionally grouped up/set up to teleport in as a large group, but nothing hard to handle at all. The rest of them are too spread out to make a difference in difficulty. The level design is basic, with some attempts to go in an interesting direction but never far at all. Half of the maps had spaces where it was too dark to see shit (not to mention the entirety of map 16).
  
  There isn't too much to redeem this wad. I'd recommend against downloading it purely for the size alone; there's nothing in here whatsoever that would entice you to download 30-some-odd megs of this zipped compilation.
  
  
• Pagan (...The Altered DOOMCaster) - Richard Smith Long
  Doom/Doom 2 - GZDoom - Solo Play - 14991901 bytes -
  Reviewed by: CorSair
  Pagan is a gameplay-enhancing mod that gives new types tools of destruction, a few neat gimmicks, and new sounds and visuals.
  
  Visually, Pagan offers some cool explosions (like revenants and their rockets), effects (weapon particles and smoke) and new death animations. You can expect hatchet cleaving your enemies, mancubuses getting torn up, or pain elementals and lost souls to explode. It also gives a slight boost to coloring, more in light purple. It can make look things bit funny, but it is a nice change of color. The weapon sounds, from you and the enemies, ain't that bad at all. The chaingunner has neat minigun sound effects.
  
  In the monster department, there are no new additional monsters, just the same ones, but a few of them have some tweaks to their attack, like former humans have a two-round burst attack.
  
  As for the armory, there are no new armors or powerups. Except the orbs, which are the spotlight of the mod. But that is told in a separate section of the review.
  
  Let's focus on our weapons. We have only five weapons, but they are more than enough. Every one of them has secondary fire. We got a new melee weapon, a hatchet. Quick tap for a weak attack, hold for about a second for a more powerful slash. Secondary does dash and chop. The hatchet feels very clumsy to use; it requires the right timing to hit and not get hit by a melee enemy.
  
  Then we have our starting weapon(s), the revolver duo Anna and Nina. They are not the same, even if they have the same sprites. The left one is powerful and inaccurate, the right one weak and accurate. The best thing is, this uses "Synthetic Fire System," meaning that each gun can be used and reloaded separately. You can fire the left revolver empty and reload while other keeps the pace up and fills air full of lead.
  
  Then the Leviathan. Think of this as a tri-barreled shotgun, which fires bouncing shrapnel. You can either fire one barrel per click, or just fire all the barrels. Currently, it feels rather mixed. It is really great when shrapnel can handle enemies behind corners or in tight rooms due to bouncing, but it feels weak, and reload takes a bit too much time. It's a mixed bag of opinions for me.
  
  Then our rapid-fire weapon, Reznator, a rotary nailgun. Primary fires heated pins and secondary shoots flail that rips through enemies. Fairly devastating, and can kill hell knights easily. Only problem is that it needs time to spin up. Even the secondary needs to spin up. Makes it rather hard to use.
  
  Lastly, we got Aries, a dual RPG. Secondary selects the fire mode, which is either a single rocket in a straight line, and the second mode fires both tubes, travels straight for moment, then splits and becomes seeking rockets. Very powerful due to Aries firing quite rapidly.
  
  And now the cherry on top of cake, orbs. These pop out from time to time, either taken from Barons and Arch-viles or some item replacement. Orbs are items that morph players into different classes. Each class is different to each other in time limit, damage reduction, health, speed and type of power they use. Whatever is the case, it can always save you from situation to situation. But there's a common thing they share: you are NOT invulnerable, and if you had a megasphere before activating, be prepared to lose your armor and excess health.
  
  First is the Lord of Brute Strength. If you can't guess what aspect this is, then imagine berserk on steroids, and more. This transforms the player into a juggernaut. Primary attack is punching, which is quite fast. Weaker enemies gets gibbed and stronger enemies will fall, without breaking a sweat, and fast. The secondary mode is a hammer that has quite long reach, but it is very slow, and doesn't do a huge amount of damage, making it rather redundant to give any proper use. Other than that, the player is bit faster, gets over 300 HP boost, and huge damage reduction. The downside of this morph is that the player lacks ranged attacks, and there's one neat gimmick that can be fatal: the player grows in height, about size of a Baron. That means you might not fit through the door, or worse, you'll get stuck. Careful where you use this... (You can still revert by pressing reload if a mistake happens.)
  
  Second is the Goddess of Fatal Retribution. Doesn't change player much, but it gives player a really awesome weapon. It gives a crucifix staff that shoots projectiles, and anyone who gets caught by it starts to expand erratically, and explodes into cloud of blood and gibs. To make things even more awesome, it explodes, and there's a high chance that it spreads to others, starting the same reaction. You can cause one huge chain reaction where weaker enemies start to explode, and even stronger enemies, like barons and arch-viles, get caught on it. Simply said: it is awesome. The downside of this is the very limited time, and you carry a max of three of the orbs, and when I said you're not invulnerable, the Goddess is actually invulnerable, but when you fire the weapon, you're vulnerable. It feels quite random, but you shouldn't push your luck. And to top her weakness, Goddess has 80 HP and almost no damage reduction while vulnerable.
  
  Third and final is the Master of Arcane Deception. It is small, has 100 HP, the longest time limit, damage reduction (like Lord), and to top that, he can evade most projectiles, like the revenant's homing rockets. Explosions and hitscans can still hit him. Master's power relies on three different spells: levitation causes one enemy to jump up and starting to spin like no tomorrow, with a small amount of damage, and it can be used repeatedly. Even Cyberdemons are not unaffected. It can be quite hilarious. Second, and probably the funniest, is Retaliation. This causes one enemy to become the target for rest of the hellish gang. Almost everyone gets affected, not just different enemy types. You can throw this into a group of mancubuses and make them attack each other (it's a bit useless, since they can't kill each other). People who love to see infighting are going to like this. The third spell is Captivation. It causes spikes to grow up from floor and capture enemies. That's it. Most useless spell, and probably dangerous to the player, if they get stuck in their own jail. Or block your route out of trouble. More of a support/gimmick class.
  
  In summary: quite a fun mod. Aside for a few flaws, morphing is a really cool gimmick and the weapons are not bad at all, even if some are bit cumbersome to use. If you have nothing against gameplay mods, give it a spin. Note for those who are curious about the maps: I played this with Plutonia.
  
  
• Sunrise Way Final Remake! - Omegalore
  Doom 2 - Skulltag / Zandronum - Solo Play - 12237199 bytes -
  Reviewed by: walter confalonieri
  Oh yeah, finally somebody heard my prayers and I've played an ACTUAL jokewad, after a horrible dictatorship of Terry-style troll maps! And how appears this little miracle of the day? Well, a little bit dark in the interior sections of this city map (with a bizarre skybox with cyberdemon roaming outside a McDonald's). I mean, so fething dark that you can barely see the rooms of the level.
  
  Detail and main architecture of the level remind me of that kind of "realistic" Doom levels back in the early years of Doom mapping, with some nice 3D bridges here and there. If I could be more precise, this level reminds some early Duke3D user maps with Doom and other games' monsters, and personally I kind of like it, except the way too dark "house" rooms (in contrast with over-bright outdoors).
  
  Talking about gameplay, it's maybe too chaotic in some parts, and the new monsters from Skulltag and Tormentor667 bestiary are pretty challenging. Expect some monsters you can't reach for some reason (the cyberdemon in the skybox and a spider cyberdemon mash up monster you can see through the window in the computer map room). Oh, and the giant bees from Shadow Warrior are annoying as shit... but the rest is a nice jokewad; if you like this kind of map, you should give this a shot.
  
  
• Botero's Mansion - Paul Corfiatis (pcorf)
  Doom 2 - Limit Removing - Solo Play - 168592 bytes -
  Reviewed by: fullmetalvaran33
  With "Botero's Mansion," we have ourselves a medium-sized map featuring tan brick textures, some blood pools, plenty of claustrophobic areas, limited ammo, and some crazy tricks and traps. I could not believe how much fun I had playing this map! It's a little beast of a map, for sure, but I think it offers just the right balance of madness and entertainment so you find yourself challenged but thrilled all at once.
  
  The map is a revamped version of an old 1996 map that pcorf made, and it begins in a long, tan brick hall with a Hell Knight at one end and Imps, Sergeants, Zombiemen, and a Pinky tucked away into corners. There is a chaingun here on the ledge just above where the Hell Knight will be, although, it comes at small price. The map features a notable blood pit area in which you have to travel across a very narrow bridge to the other side where Imps are. To your left is a Pain Elemental, to the right are two Cacodemons and a Mancubus, and in the blood pit itself are Spectres. Luckily, the blood pit isn't toxic.
  
  In this situation and in many others in the map, you may want to rely on in- fighting to help conserve ammo. There are four secrets, but I didn't find them all, and I can say that what you are given is quite limited for the majority of the map. You have to pick and choose your targets carefully, and you need to get monsters to off each other so you can conserve ammo. You'll also find a berserk pack in this map, which should prove to be fairly handy in tough spots.
  
  The final area is a large, circular, grassy-floored courtyard with green marble pillars, blood pools, a group of Arachnotrons, and a Cyberdemon. It's very easy to circle-strafe here, and you'll probably be obligated to let the Cyberdemon clear the way for you as you don't have enough ammo for him and the Arachnotrons. However, in the library behind this courtyard, you'll not only get the red skull key, but the rocket launcher with a good amount of rockets and health. This is the point where ammo becomes quite sufficient (thankfully).
  
  I still wouldn't waste time on the Cyberdemon at this point, though, if I were you. The path out of the courtyard may prove to be a tricky one indeed, and the Cyberdemon may be able to provide some more assistance before you're through with him. I definitely got my butt handed to me here, as I had 20% health. I had enough ammo, but I wasn't able to take any risks. If I did, I, like... died, pretty much. But, somehow—and without cheats—I managed to survive this ultra- tricky bit and made it to the end of the map quite comfortably.
  
  The map does conveniently reveal hidden paths as you go along so that your back- tracking quests aren't too tedious, which is a very nice thing for pcorf to do. But that doesn't mean there aren't new surprises along the way. Definitely be careful of smaller, narrower spaces because this map doesn't go easy on you. However, it's more fun than it is frustrating, I assure you.
  
  Definitely give "Botero's Mansion" a try. It's crazy, it's brutal, and it's kind of cramped, but it's definitely one of the most fun WADs I've played lately.
  
  
• airbase (unfinished) - mrthejoshmon
  Ultimate Doom - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 15635 bytes -
  Reviewed by: BloodyAcid
  Self-proclaimed work in progress consisting of two levels. In the first one, you walk by some friendly AI marines, pick up some gear and exit through the teleporter. In the next one, you follow some ugly linear cramped techbase and kill some low-tier monsters. Done.
  
  
• Revengicide - Nautic
  Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 5130823 bytes -
  Reviewed by: fullmetalvaran33
  So, here we have two very short, very small, very plain, and very square maps from Nautie, who is—I assume—a novice mapper. There isn't a whole lot to be said about "Revengicide's" maps, although, I can say that, even though the text file says this WAD is for "Final Doom", you can open it in Doom II just fine—and when you load it with Evilution or Plutonia, you get the Doom II menu screen and its music anyway.
  
  Map 1 has 14 enemies and one secret, which turns out to be the super shotgun and some armor (if I remember correctly, it was green armor). Enemies consist only of Zombiemen and Sergeants, and the map is basically comprised of a three halls and one room (the starting room). Two of the three halls are pretty much brown, flat, narrow, and empty, save for the red key and rocket launcher in one of them. The other is strangely dark and cluttered with large crates.
  
  Map 2 features more square areas and one dark lower-level hall. One room I liked was the upper-level room made of wood with corpses littered around a Pinky Demon. Nothing spectacular but it was still kind of cool. This map has two secrets: a plasma rifle and a supercharge. This map has a couple Pinkies, some Imps, some Sergeants, and one random, lonely Revenant. You seriously don't need the plasma rifle or rocket launcher to handle any of the enemies in this map, as you should find yourself with plenty of shotgun ammo (and if you got the super shotgun in map 1, more power to you). The map itself is too small and cramped to even use the rocket launcher, and the supercharge is way more than you'll probably need.
  
  Overall, I can't say I have much of an opinion on this bizarre mini-WAD. The author doesn't provide enough in this sampling to let us know what he's actually capable of. The maps seem to be more or less just tests, nothing that's logically playable. I would suggest giving this title a pass unless you are desperately, unbelievably curious.
  
  
• Incarnate - Jeff 'Netherstorm' Wormald
  Doom 2 - Skulltag / Zandronum - Solo Play - 158827 bytes -
  Reviewed by: CorSair
  Incarnate is a single, short level wad.
  
  Texturing is sloppy due to misalignments, and there's quite a few of them, but there are still some good ideas, if a bit weak. Architecture looks quite okay, and it doesn't obstruct you, not counting those lamps near the end. Not bad. And the level design itself is linear. Go here, flip this switch to open that door, and all that stuff.
  
  Now, some nitpicky things. The first one, when you get the shotgun. Or should I say, IF you get it. Because sometimes you don't get the shotgun, and you can't progress at all. Big minus for that.
  
  And second, a very strange thing. When you get into the fight with a cyberdemon, on both sides of the door the walls are not solid. What does this mean? You can just pass through them and go outside the map. But this way, you will get those spheres. Really weird. And not really ideal.
  
  Now for actual gameplay. It is decent enough, but there are some frustrating and some badly placed enemies.
  
  The Spider Mastermind fight is about collecting all the rockets littered around, while avoiding its autoshotgun. Idea: not that bad; execution: awful. You have only four tiny pillars, and the Mastermind's platform is really low, it cannot hit you, but it can keep shooting, and God be merciful if you don't hug the platform and get to the side where it stops aiming and shooting at you, or just run for it and take some damage. But at least you can kill it. And luckily, there are some enemies to offer some infighting while you collect rockets, but they're low-tier enemies, shotgunners and imps plus a random demon, so hopefully you got fast feet.
  
  Bugged enemy placement is about when you're entering final teleport. Two chaingunners are stuck to wall, and only the right one can get out, once the imp moves away. Not good in my papers, to say the least.
  
  And the final confrontation with Cyberdemon. It is simply an arena consisting of trees and rockets. Also, that stuff was lame.
  
  Summary: one word: unfinished. Just by looking at the texturing, you could say the author didn't really check it through, not even with visual mode. Let's hope the author makes his next projects better. This has some promise, but lacks interest and execution.
  
  
• Algae.wad - Terry Durham
  Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 346407 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Eris Falling
  Algae is a 9 map replacement for Doom II, made in 1996. Despite being made by a person with the name Terry, this is not a Terry WAD. However, this WAD is by no means good.
  
  So, let's see what we have here:
  
  MAP01: A bunch of bland, cramped tunnels. Fantastic! All the walls in said tunnels are textured exactly the same throughout. I came across a room with two pillars. Took me a fair few minutes to work out I had to use one of the differently textured walls to show a switch, which opened the other walls, which also had switches that did various stuff. And the worst bit? You actually needed to work this out to progress through the level!
  
  MAP02: Ammo was tight on UV, and one of the rooms heavily resembled Tricks and Traps from Doom II. Again, there were more boring, cramped tunnels, with the same brick texture used throughout. Oh and boy, the outdoor area towards the end was magic. Mono-textured, bland, excessively large, and a random trench running through it.
  
  MAP03: In this map I found yet another bland open area, with... floating rock columns!? I also saw some unimaginatively placed spectres, which, given the mammoth size of the area, seemed quite futile.
  
  Not that it matters though. Just turn left when you start, walk forward a small bit, press space and you're finished, about one second after starting the level.
  
  MAP04: The storage area design in this map could actually make it close to Cacoward material. Relative to the other maps that is. But erm... good luck trying to kill all the monsters in the storage area with just a pistol with 60 ammo.
  
  MAP05: For some reason or other, some pictures of the Fürher can be found in this map. Not entirely sure what to say about this one, so let's move on, with great hurry so we can get away from this monstrosity!
  
  MAP06: First of all, nice obvious start door. Was very useful. Secondly, thanks for putting a bunch of crushing ceilings on a platform, with a Mastermind trying to snipe me, and leaving no weapons for me to deal with it! While this idea was (partly) justified by placing a megasphere on a pillar in the middle of this area, it was quite annoying to try to work around.
  
  MAP07: A square room map. Fight the arachnotrons, kill the Mancubuses. Leave.
  
  By the time I got to MAP08, I had run out of patience. It was just more of the same. I'm sure that in 1996 these kind of maps were fairly standard, but times change.
  
  Skip over this one.
  
  
• Labyrunth - Troy Mann
  Ultimate Doom - Vanilla - Solo Play - 50145 bytes
  Reviewed by: Csonicgo
  "Authors MAY NOT use this level as a base to build additional levels. It is not completed yet. When it is then you can."
  
  Getting my barf bag ready.
  
  Alright, Troy Mann, let's get this over with.
  
  Firing up with this PWAD, I noticed there was a demo. It was pretty hilarious as it was done entirely on the old style controls. I forgot how crappy the default controls were. Did people actually play Doom that way?
  
  Also I noticed a Spiderdemon sound as the game started. That can't be good news. And turns out, I;m right. The start area has a Spiderdemon right behind you. If you don't move fast enough, instant death. WOO! Great jorb, Troy!
  
  Basically this map is a series of doors, poorly marked doors, unmarked teleports, with one leading to an E1M8-style deathroom.
  
  Okie-dokie.
  
  It's probably 15 minutes of work. Why the author thought that this was worth releasing, I don't know. But don't play it.
  
  
• ARENA_II.WAD - Philipp Nieder
  Ultimate Doom - Vanilla - Solo Play - 18742 bytes -
  Reviewed by: BloodyAcid
  A symmetrical room from the 90s filled with too much ammo, a BFG9000, about 400 mid-tiered monsters and a lack of an exit. It's like NUTS.wad, but smaller in scale and made earlier.
  
  
• The Genocide Center - Shannon O'Neill
  Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 29679 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Obsidian
  First off, I'm not kidding when I say this is a 1994 map made in 2013: the author lists DoomBuilder as one of the editors used. From what I've been able to figure out this is someone uploading an intentionally crappy 1994-esque map for a laugh. The odd thing though? It is actually kind of funny. It's heartening to know that in this day and age we can still produce earnest unadulterated crap. The map itself is pure distilled 1994: large open rooms, tiling textures, haphazard placement - you get the idea. There's also a secret outdoor area which is probably the nicest looking part of the map, although the author made the priceless E4M3 stairs mistake at some point during mapping. All in all it definitely feels like 1994, so I guess the author succeeded. You can probably give the map a miss though, all things considered.
  
  
• Hadephobia - Team Progfic (Various)
  Doom 2 - PrBoom+ - Solo Play - 7318848 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Csonicgo
  NOTE: The first thing you need to do before you play this wad is to print out the included Story.txt and read it before you start each level. Really.
  
  Those who had survived close encounters with Spider Masterminds had particularly acute symptoms of hysteria. After alerting your Commanding Officer to your horrifying premonitions of a new attack from Hell you are referred to the UAC who diagnose you with the new condition: Hadephobia.
  
  I've never reviewed a megawad of this caliber before. I don't feel worthy of doing a review, but since I already had clicked "claim", I thought I'd give it a shot. No jokes, no funny biz. Real review.
  
  If you remember Cygnus IV by John Bye, and enjoyed it, even though it really shows its age now, you'll really enjoy this wad. I know a few joke about my love for that megawad, but it really is a great example of story-driven gameplay in realistic settings. Hadephobia feels like a spiritual successor in a sense. You play as the Doomguy after he's lost his mind, or so you think, anyway...
  
  The music is quite good, but there are some groaners. Mostly, Agony Rhapsody needs to die. Yes, it was a great atmospheric song, but it's so overplayed. The less we use Team TNT songs, the better.
  
  Now to hit a few highlights:
  
  Map03 really stands out as a good sewer map. If you read the story before playing this map, you will know why you shouldn't stick around near the exit. Hit those switches and get the hell out of there.
  
  By Map05, it was comically clear that the Doomguy was losing his mind. That, or Hell was taking over. The funny part is how the story read: Doomguy is all action. He doesn't care if Hell has taken over. He'll kick Hell out of the ship and sail it wherever he wants!
  
  The fun part about these early maps? They're short. This isn't a bad thing! There are lots of good battles here, and a veteran Doomer shouldn't find the start of this map set an overbearing slog. But there are a lot of jump-scares that I didn't expect. While those stink in new games, in Doom, not so much, unless they're overused. I think only a few maps used them, so kudos to the mappers on not abusing "insta-lifts".
  
  I played this with Eternity Engine, and be warned that a lot of Boom-y mechanisms in the megawad can trigger a lot of lift sounds. MAP06 uses a lot of barrels being crushed to make a loud explosion, while MAP07 is full of sector tricks. I had headphones on at the time, and the sounds from those triggers were way too loud. Perhaps setting these actions further away from the map may help with those loud sounds.
  
  Another great detail to point out: Use of Boom mapping features. While Doom has always had light levels, this megawad uses the whole gamut, from bright fluorescent lighting, to rooms with very few lights, revealing a spectre or two as they pass through the light beams in their effort to gnaw you. Some rooms seem to be lit by a hellish source, meaning that everything inside, including you, are dark silhouettes, yet the demonic faces on the walls are perfectly visible. Liberal use of transparent 2S textures really give some places a gooey, creepy vibe.
  
  Map10 has a working elevator (!!!) with two levers to move it, as well as a door that activates only if the player steps into a marked area with the key in hand.
  
  Getting on further into the map set, I see some classic Doom 2 cityscapes and some TNT- inspired designs, some better than others. There are some maps, though, that are just ugly in places. The gameplay isn't too bad even if the fullbright maps in the middle of the megawad make me want to pull my eyes out. I know it was a community project, but the map set started to run out of steam around MAP13 or so. The Spider Mastermind Boss was one of the most boring things I've had to play. The Spiderdemon teleports around so much you can't even hit her, and vice versa. It took 10 minutes of plonking to take her down.
  
  If you get to MAP30, be prepared for a IWAD-sized challenge: It's not terribly difficult, but you'll have a blast swirling around the fray as they try their best to hit you. The secrets really make the final map easy, so if you want a challenge, don't grab those powerups. With a BFG and ample supply of cells, it's easy without the invulnsphere anyway.
  
  Now for the real problems, mostly in the cases where doors are not labeled well. I spent 15 minutes or so trying to find a red key door in one map, and a yellow key door in another. The reason I couldn't find them? The areas which they were located were too dark! It didn't even look like a door, just a dark wall. This gets extremely frustrating when you try to remember where the hell you're supposed to go, and it doesn't help if you can't even see the doors you're to open the first time through. And if you want a real challenge to this wad, it's best you pistol-start each one. I already had quite an arsenal by MAP05, and if you're stingy on your ammo, you'll never run out. I only ran out of shells once during play, and since powerups were abundant in some maps, I never got below 25% health the whole way through. Once you get the Plasma Gun, it's smooth sailing.
  
  All in all I enjoyed this megawad, but, hoo, there are some stinkers when it comes to map design. The maps aren't very hard either, which may put off some that like to BFG-slap cyberdemons all day. I do like the story, though, but I wouldn't have made this a megawad. 15 maps would have been just fine. Really.
  
  
• 2 Music Videos - Doomguy 2000
  Doom/Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 60400922 bytes
  Reviewed by: Csonicgo
  This is the very first "music video map" that I am aware of. It uses Zdoom's scripting capabilities to freeze the player in place in front of a large wall, which runs through a series of images. In layman's terms, a very crude music video demonstration. The two music videos are Pearl Jam's "Black" and A-Ha's "Take On Me". The first one, "Black", is a fan-made video, I assume by Doomguy 2000 himself or someone else. The second video, "Take on Me", is the official music video split up into choppy frames.
  
  This WAD is a whopping 60+ MB in size, mostly due to the amount of images. "Black" is spread across 1,118 frames, while "Take On Me" takes on 852 frames. The music to go along with these images are random midis found on the Internet, I assume. Since it's a midi, pressing the menu key will break the sync of the music with the animation.
  
  There is zero gameplay here. They're music videos. While I give some marks for effort, I'd rather watch these videos on YouTube. And given that it's a Doomguy 2000 map that does exactly what the text file reads, I'm a little torn. Shouldn't I have been Rickrolled?