cannonball

Thought I would give this a go; E1M1 - Like pretty much everyone else, the palette alterations add to the shores of hell/Doom 64 element of horror in a good way. The combat is spicier than your normal UDoom openers (Especially for an E1 replacement), mostly serviceable with a mix of narrow corridors and a few more open location. This was fine. E1M2 - This felt easier than the first map, most mosts you can line up with ease and dispose of. Not much else to complain about because you get the rocket launcher and enough rockets to deal with the barons with ease. E1M3 - Okay this was a good one, the platforming towards the end was surprisingly audacious and was a great way of using the same area for a second time. The fight that follows is quite nice to blow through to. Again the atmosphere is top notch here.

MAP20 - "A Wilted Clover's Lullaby" by eater29 Holy moly, okay this map really goes over the line in regards to this project. This magnum opus feels like it has a lot of the chemistry seem in the likes of Miasma and other huge exploratory murderfests. I think this one goes a little too over the top in terms of length and difficulty, I wouldn't have too much issue if this was a solo map, but here this could prove to be a major showstopper for many. As for the map itself, oddly the big fights (Yellow skull, the automap fight and the final fight) felt easier to beat than many of the smaller scale fights, mostly because ammo/health and movement were more forgiving. As such a lot of the preamble fights felt a little repetitive and often frustrating, that said you do get major payoffs with the big fights that allow you to blow off major steam with the BFG. I won't go much further, I don't think a map like this suits a community project such as this, however as a singular piece this is well worthy of being placed on the pedestal that includes Miasma, Entropy etc. It is a top notch map but I must confess to feeling exhausted after finishing this.

MAP19 - "Silent Submergence" by JacaCaca A very quiet map with some very violent episodes, most notably the red key fight. I ended up in the yellow key segment and struggled to the point where killing the viles was enough and returned later for the hell knights. The red key I visited next and this fight is the standout fight, a mass of mid-tiers couples with imps that you can circle the arena until the mancubi move onto dry land, then it is a case of using the mancubi as meat shields and blasting everything away with rockets/plasma. The blue key is the most low key affair, though the door that flies away is a neat little trick. After that there is the exit trick where a mass of revenants will descend on you. This map has some thrills, however it also feels a little clunky and doesn't quite manage to draw you in enough to cell the more horror elements. Not a bad effort though and the run time is fairly short once you know what to do.

MAP18 - "Reservoir of Muck" by PRO-RC This one is a very different beast compared to the last level. To be honest slavering the entire map in essentially one texture is not really a winner, but it looks okay on the most part. The combat is pretty open ended and actually quite easy, it is worth noting that you can get two of the keys without firing the shot and only the red requires effort. I managed to find the rocket launcher and plasma gun and in all honesty that is all you require (I found the SSG very late and never needed it). The map is fun and a good decompression after the previous map. The secret exit requires essentially beating the map (Or at least obtaining all of the keys and finding the not very secret switch near the megasphere secret. MAP34 - "Bricked Up" by BluePineapple72 I really wanted to like this map, but unfortunately there are design elements that don't really work. Now for the most part the first two thirds of the map are fine, okay the gameplay is at times straight out of the Hell revealed or even Jens Nielsen brand (The cyber in one of the houses for instance), but it is serviceable and I was able to get monsters to infight here and there. The issues begin essentially when you enter the jail, first of all the cells tend to hinder monster movement to the point where the fight here is very simple, then comes the big splurge after grabbing the red key, well you can just camp here and the cybers will do most of the work, given the compatability in play here this should be avoidable (Or at the very least the cacos should be able to pose a reasonable threat because cheesing the big fight feels like a no brainer. Oddly the map starts very stingy on just about everything, yet after the half way point you are given a glut of just about everything, in the end the map feels uneven and the city design seems to hinder a rather combat-focused map to its detriment, that said I will rate this above the other secret maps so far, it offers something different and does offer a fair amount of bite whilst not being parody level unfair. However the map is flawed in its current state.

MAP17 - "Colossal Wreck" by Weird Sandwich I wanted to like this one, because it has a lot of things to like, the open-worldness and the fact you can go for either the yellow or blue key to access the red key that is required to finish the map. However the gameplay was sluggish, grindy and at times not very fun at all. The start has you working with the shotgun/chaingun until you get a better weapon, unfortunately these are well guarded. The blue key is easier to get, but a longer, grindier sequence to get whilst the yellow key is a simple fight that looks cool and can be cheesed by using the corner cover. The red key is pretty awful and yes the secret BFG looks almost mandatory to give incentive to kill everything in here, simply put I didn't want to kill four cybers in an awkward arena or take out one by one from the sides. I have to be tempted to say that the BFG should be presented in this room and as such the secret is a reward to make the earlier sections easier. Now after a couple of attempts I did escape, but seriously this area isn't fun despite a lot of cool transformations. In the end this one ended up a disappointment, if only for the fact that this clearly had the potential to be a real highlight, but at the moment at least the combat lets this one down a little.

MAP16 - "Ex Nihilo" by myolden Another Myolden map to start and it is another good one. The grungy bricks work well against the underground locale and there is another offsets to spice the visuals up. The combat is pretty much on point too, tougher than Map11 but nothing overwhelming, though I will say that you need to save cells in the final fight because running out before hitting that switch is going to leave you pretty screwed. Not much else to say, this was another good one.

MAP15 - "Sunlit Promenade" by taviow This one is nasty, however many complaints that could have with this would be entirely hypocritical (HF2 Map15 is arguably even worse that this). The big sour point is the optional backpack segment, tough luck if those archviles decide to all count low numbers in their chase states because you will be barbecued with no hope of being saved, I know that the premise is still essentially the cybers can one shot you at any time, but for an optional area that contains the hardest fight, I might suggest a little more slack. The rest wasn't so bad, the blue key section effectively guarantees that you will probably tank a hit from the archvile, but that is what the soulsphere is for, it isn't too bad. The yellow key when it is unveiled is probably the best fight overall, the tight space and deployment of enemies is solid, the red key isn't too bad where you have to survive the two wings exposed to rocket fire, the revenant/caco one being the nastiest (The double archvile isn't difficult, again garner enough recovery items and you can safely tank an archvile blast. The final fight is good fun, just draw the cybers into the centre and careful movement/BFG placement to kill these swiftly. Now aside from the backpack area, the final cleanup felt rather slow, yes I could have spent the remaining cells on the guard tower spiders but it still felt like wasted time. I can't help feeling that there could be a more elegant solution that could be deployed once the exit is available, at ground level the spiders are hardly a threat. This map does enough to feel like an episode closer but will probably rub some the wrong way, there is also a "Missed a spot" moment in regards to the sky transfers, it is right by the exit.

MAP14 - "Takamet Baphomet" by senpaigru This map has its moments, it is a little too big in terms of space and a lot of the early parts are a little dry with the shotgun/chaingun only combat. That said the SSG chamber offers quite a bit of nuance, especially when the third section lowers to reveal two archviles that you need to juggle with the SSG. The rocket launcher optional fight is pretty good to blow off steam too. It is a newbie effort and the strokes are a little broad and lastly the secrets are incredibly obvious. But there is quite a bit to like and when the combat steps up, it does deliver some thrills.

Okay here is a pitch and it is an extension of a couple of projects done in the past. Now a lot of great megawad were made by two authors (Plutonia, Hell Revealed, Kama Sutra, Speed of Doom, Sunlust and possibly more). So how about a project where people put their name forward and are randomly paired together and can then make a short episode of maps. This is an extension on the single map premise where both work on the same map, here the maps are made by one or the other and are combined into a short episode of maps.

MAP13 - "City of the Dying Sun" by Death Bear This would be getting an easy A+.... But I got softlocked in the red key area. Turns out I was trying to be too clever but in a way this was an obvious symptom of a map where the author is begging you to explore and find little knooks to clamber across. So I love the fact that you can chose to either storm through the front or sneak in through the back using the perimeter channels and natural terrain. As such you get a much lighter start and pick up supplies. The secret exit is also on this alternative path and discovering it is all you need to do because collecting all three keys raises the trench to this path. Despite the huge size, this actually felt quite easy to explore, there are lots of exciting fights, I am not even sure that I handled the yellow key correctly, but I made a big nope to the plasma gun and squeezed through the cacodemons using the rocket launcher. This works quite well, especially if the other rocket wielding monstrosity plays ball and takes shots at them too. The blue key is such good fun, and probably the easiest fight I have seen that uses that many archviles. The red key fight, or in particular the fight at the red key is probably the weak spot, not only that but I sequence broke the section as you can jump from the platform with the key switches and meander across the rocks to the fight, which of course skips the previous fights on the red key path, and crucially the one that opens the entrance/exit to the red key area. The fight itself is hindered by the design, you get closed in by the key and the monsters are allowed to infight significantly before you can even get in a shot. I was a little bummed out after nocliping to the rocket launcher fight on this path and subsequently had low armour that made the preceding fights a bit more deadly than they could have been. The secret exit path was surprisingly chilled out, though I guess a leisurely stroll to the exit felt appropriate, you had after all earned it by beating the rest of the map. Overall I will say something right here, this surpasses pretty much every map of this style, including the obvious inspirations that we know and love, it is a joy to explore and has some cracking fights to boot. The perfect marriage of the mysterious and all guns blazing action. A fantastic map, just resolve the soft lock issue, please. Just to add an extra note/digression - @Celestin thoughts are ones that I definite agree with. It might seem very contradictory to give overwhelming praise to one massive map that is non linear and has lots to explore, but then dunk on another. When you make a big magnum opus type of map, you absolutely have to nail the setting, grabs the player from the onset and holds their attention for the entire length of the journey. Anyone can make a large map, but it takes a hard earned skill to be able to translate that into something that will remain etched in your mind for a long long time, that is what was achieved not only here, but also in the techno-scape of Map08 and the alien spaceport setting of Map10. MAP33 - "Wanted in 12 Systems" by Death Bear This felt a little under-powered, the setting is clean and quite interesting, however the combat is mostly corridors with mostly low tier monsters and a few mid-tiers. The outlier here is the end fight because there are three archviles here, though you can leave at the moment where the last two arrive. This was a better map than the other two secret maps, but the bar is pretty low here. It's okay and I guess you can use it to decompress after the magnum opus map you traversed to reach this.

MAP12 - "Princes of Wadi" by Sikreci A slower paced map on the whole and the first I believe in the whole set that do not even have the rocket launcher and plasma gun in open play (The rocket launcher is in a secret). As such the SSG is your workhorse here, luckily on the whole the opposition will not be too grindy, that said the blue key trap will absolutely zing you, especially if you go for the SSG before triggering this because an archvile (From the three in the SSG room) will teleport into one of the closets and make this trap significantly harder, I believe similar happens with the yellow key room too. This creates a rather interesting little map, plenty of optional key switches to find for extra routing idea and supplies. It adds a layer of mysteriousness to the locale that I actually quite like. Overall, a slow burner but a fitting one for the episode, the combat is obviously not the highlight but actually this wouldn't have been pitched too badly if it wasn't for other maps offering significantly harder maps than you would expect in E1 and E2. Overall this is a solid map.

MAP11 - "Sons of Belial" by myolden The opening map to the ancient city episode is a short and moderately difficult map, full of little ambushes and a three key hunt that allows the player to run around swiftly. All of the weapons are covered by traps, so obviously getting armed is probably going to be one of the hardest parts of this map. The end fight is a little bit awkward because you probably want the cyber to be alive to distract other high priority enemies here (notably the archvile). This is a good map, a welcome short map after the large and stunning Future city closer. Also it appears that virtually every fight in this map comes with a side of meatballs.... Or meat shields in a few of them.

So great to see this fully in release candidate. I will say right away that the overall artwork is stunning and creates a wonderful immersive atmosphere and was so prevalent in the first Pirate Doom. I haven't been able to fully get into the maps outside of briefing going through them with IDCLEV, but there are a couple of maps that I might have some issues with (Lets just say the numbers in particular may match the name of an American convenience store chain :P), as the maps are short I might be able to give more extensive feedback in the coming days. PS, this automap made me smile;

MAP10 - "Upon the Brink of Trancendence" by muumi You could say "It's a Muumi map" and that would be sufficient to tell you exactly what is going to occur here... Never have such contrasting colours looked so good together, a generally blue thematic is interrupted with red and gold in way very few have handled before, it is truly a sight to behold, the vast expanse of cold brick and tech, this is by far the most striking and most beautiful map encountered so far. The combat is solid, most of the traps are more cinematic than hard, but will keep the player engaged from start to finish. The yellow key will take the longest to find, but once the first key is obtained, the the rest of the progression flows very well. The moment when you can reach the exit area is a real moment when you know that you are going into the central portion of the map and that things are going to go down big time. The final fight isn't hard and arguably the BFG makes it an easy victory if you can get to the archviles before they cause a nuisance. The map is arguably over-stocked, I found zero secrets but left with almost full ammo for everything and 200% health/armour. That said this is a special moment in the wad and for me the first big highlight of the set, but as the first line says, it isn't a surprise given the author.

Next level of Atomic is under way, in a way it is the one I was kind of dreading because it is essentially a large(ish) Hell city map. It is going to be a lot more structured than my D2ICO maps though as you descend downwards through the city.

MAP09 - "A City Now" by realjohnmadden I am really not sure of how to feel about this one, the map is often empty and devoid of anything interesting at times. Sometimes very bare but sometimes you have random doomcute, random scrolling conveyors, random crushers, half of the monsters you will only find in a specific secret where their only purpose is to be crushed for your own amusement, the visual theme is futuristic tech except for when it isn't (The one random cavern area), there is only one fight of note and that is the red key, the rest are extremely easy or make no real sense (The three key switch unleashes a mob of flyers into a huge area that are a real pain to deal with, as such I decided to duck into one of the buildings and hoped they clumped together when I returned). In short this is clearly the work of someone who is early on their mapping journey and giving advice on improving this map could take a while so I happy to accept that this is a bit of an oddball, a curiosity that isn't overly offensive to the eyes or offers anything too annoying to the player, the red key fight is kind of fun, though I had to lean on the berserk a bit to conserve ammo through here (Not an issue with a lot of zombiemen/imps/pinkies that line themselves up nicely.

Macro slaughter in the old west? Great Scott! Somebody get that hype train to 88mph post haste and for god sake make sure the flux capacitor on that infinite BFG is working properly... Seriously though, you guys are absolutely "Nuts" to make so many maps in such a short timespan and the rest of us will be for playing, and we will and we will feel dirty but will love every moment. Congrats to all of you on this release. Map18 - I always dislike the moment when I am in a restaurant and there is something wrong with the food because this is essentially what I imagine would happen if I were to say something to the waiter. Alas I am British, I will say nout and will moan incessantly to my wife on the way home and wait for the moment that I am beaten to death with a frying pan.

MAP08 - "Crypto Crash" by LVENdead Full of colour and hands you the plasma gun straight away, this map pushes you through it at quite a rate of knots, despite the higher monster count, the map isn't too difficult with the exception of the final room, well the yellow key teleport ambush has a double archvile that can zap you if you cannot find cover but I had found the secret rocket launcher at this point. The final room is where most of my deaths came, and is also the only part I have a complaint for, the pain elementals or specifically the lost souls that come from them kept snagging me and resulted in me eating rockets from the cyber, this fight is already quite messy and the fact that those lost souls can can everywhere is a real pain on what is a generally fun and frenetic final fight. Overall this one manages to still feel city-like, despite the more colourful tech base appearance and on the whole plays really well. I found two of the secrets required to get the secret exit easily and the one I missed was right near the start, and blue key door. This was probably one of the highlights so far. MAP32 - Obama Hamburger 2" by Ludi, myolden This map really has an order of operations to it, clearly the weapon of choice is the rocket launcher, but of course the weapon is covered by a troll-tier trap, so go and find the BFG, yes for a large proportion of the map my weapon choices were a pistol, or the BFG :) The Mastermind placement is evil, if you do what I did and hit the switch to allow access to the red key, then you will have dozens of revenants rushing around the streets causing untold mayhem, fair to say that the majority of this map was not pleasant, however once you have the rocket launcher (One BFG shot should be enough to make this area safe), then strangely enough the map eases off, the red key is just the revenants, the yellow church sequence is fine once the sniping revenants is cleared and the blue key office is a complete non-event to the point where it feels like it was from another map (The room is essentially harmless). The ending, well there isn't much to say is there. This map clearly wants to be fail-worthy, but perseverance and a little bit of foreknowledge can greatly relieve the stress levels, and despite reaching rage inducing levels of frustration at time, this was more fun to play than the first secret map, it has a strange personality and becomes much more accessible once you know where the chess pieces are. Overall no classic, but no dud either.

MAP07 - "Darkweb" by cannonball *Authors notes* Well this was the second of the two maps I made and my main priority was essentially "Map07 - should be quite short and have enough zing to the combat", on one hand I was clearly in isolation on the whole early maps should be fairly short mindset, on the other hand for those playing multiple maps on the bounces then a map that takes 10 minutes to finish is going to be a welcome reprieve, it also allows for the set pieces to be a little sharper because again the map is shorter and thus deaths will be less annoying to take. So the major reason I wanted to take part in this project was to make maps in a theme that I often ignore like the plague, well except for Switcheroom 2 but there the layouts were already in place so that doesn't count. Honestly in hindsight I don't think I really did my own confidence in making city maps any favours and in this one in particular I struggled to get the map out on time. The only thing which works in my favour is that other aspects of mapping I am much better at, in particular crafting out decent combat and this essentially is what I leaned on heavily here. The plasma gun at the start was very deliberate, again I wanted the map to play swiftly and the SSG essentially was the "Look optional area" line I needed.... Blue key - I don't know why I decided on a lights-out style fight, they aren't the type of fight I tend to do, but actually I think this turned out okay, not only that but just playing now I completely screwed up the fight and triggered the fight by accident and as such had no cells, but managed to distract and essentially kill the archvile by utilising the spiders. I guess this fight has a bit of flexibility in it. Red Key - Not much to say about this one, archviles are always fun, again there is enough slack to play this however you like, but you do need to put everything down to get the key. End fight - It took a couple of attempts to place the Mastermind in a position I was happy with, the exit room was on the same level as the fight initially but placing the Mastermind out of punching/snagging reach was definitely the right call, the mastermind was initially on the ground level where the arachnotrons now teleport in, then in the exit building but neither worked. There is plenty of ammo and a megasphere but I actually found this to be the most difficulty fight, so I guess this in now pitched correctly. As for the name - Well I wanted a sort of city-backstreet kind of locale, so a mix of tech and more grungy textures was the plan, there was also the intent to use spiders in a more numerous amount compared to normal to fit with the name but no 667 tag shenanigans this time. In the end I like how the map plays but I can definitely see the where the complaints come from, luckily I do have a couple of weeks to add stuff to this (Decorations and more city-esque details) and perhaps a couple more optional areas.

MAP06 - "Somewhere in time" by LateNightPerson The combat in this one is a little on the sloppy side, as such you easily get yourself killed in the various archvile and chaingunner teleport ambushes the street, especially if you get caught out in the open. On the flip side the final fight is entirely cheesable thanks to the lifts you can ride down once the ambush is triggered and you can then use the BFG obtained from a side area (Yellow key required). The visuals despite the textscreen are quite similar to the first five maps with brick dominating, however this map is an anomaly for this set, indeed things will change from here on out. It's not a bad map, but you can easily end up having a bad time if you get unlucky and unfortunately many of the fights don't hit the spot.

MAP05 - "The Nuclear Power Plant" by Novaseer This one was more exhausting than epic in my opinion. This is a huge map, on par with Map03 in that regard, but the general increasing in difficulty or in particular how some monsters are liberally deployed make this a rather frustrating map to beat, in particular chaingunners and revenants. In the outdoor section there are a lot of very high sniping positions that need to be cleared out because most of the time these are very threatening monsters. I must confess that I didn't really enjoy any of the wings, though I am thankful for stumbling upon the plasma gun section first because that weapon is a lifesaver at times. However said area contains 2 Masterminds that you need to slowly kill, a load of barons that are pointless and a cyberdemon that again is more of a chore to kill. The yellow key area is probably the section that is the most fun to play, purely because it is the one area that is pretty quick to clear and the fights are messy with plenty of in-fight potential. The blue key however is a complete slog, there are a lot of fights that are cramped or offer enemy positions that require slow and methodical dismantling, then there is the trench fight that again equals rocket dump with no threat. The red key contains several waves of chaingunners that you have to hide in one of the side rooms for, again making the process slow, the key fight itself is cheeseable and could potentially be skipped completely if you get the red key in mid-air on that drop. The final fight is probably the easiest in the map, you get the BFG and a couple of megaspheres along with plenty of cover. I am surprised to not see any archviles or boss monsters here, ironically they could have made the fight more interesting and a cyber could have aided with the long clean up process. So there was a cyber but all he did was wander into the nearby nukage pit and got scratched to death without making a dent in the Hell Knight horde, well I put that down to bad luck. This map is definitely ambitious and I feel bad for saying that I didn't enjoy this. However the map feels over-scaled and commits many of the city map sins from yesteryear, whilst there are plenty of resources to beat this map comfortably, this has a higher difficulty threshold that prevents many of its grievances from being forgivable (Map03 might have been huge but it can be quite briskly taken apart for example). It is too easy to end up grinding through several parts of this map and that ultimately drags the experience down significantly.

MAP04 - "CBM City" by CBM Like Map03, this felt a little all over the place in terms of visuals, some areas have tonnes of doomcute whilst others would look bare by Doom 2 standards, I would add that while I understand the need to keep the skybox quite low (Streetlamps effectively), it does make the upper level feel quite flat. There is a tonne of ammo and the only weapon you need to look for is the plasma gun. You won't need the ammo though because most of the monsters will slaughter each other, especially when the cyber gets involved, the only risk is from the archviles that you need to isolate and remove before they become a handful. The plus side on this map is that it is over quickly, and there is fun to be had. Though it is hard to ignore some of the flaws in this one and in some ways this one commits the same ones as the previous map did. Personally I prefer a good canvas as a base to put doomcute on than concentrate on minute details and leave the rest as a rather bland affair, especially as you and running around faster that Usain Bolt.

MAP31 - "Traces to Nowhere" by Captain Murphy In short, this is a definite homage to Suburbs, which is one of the best city episode maps from Doom 2, the trouble is for this map is that the map this is homaging is better than this map. The six key hunt is a little bit of a pain and essentially means that the vast majority of the map is mandatory, the map gives you plenty of ammo but not a lot of health. In the end I baited the cyber to infight the mastermind after she got stuck behind the switch that was opened by the red keycard because killing her herself was something I didn't want to do, ironically in my attempt here both monsters somehow killed each other at the same time. In the end I felt like quite a bit of the fun had been sucked out of the original. The archviles that get released offer a bit of tension but the big blowouts that are the thing you remember from Sandy's map are just lacking here and adding boss monsters don't really add much to the event. This wasn't a bad map but if you are refering one of the original maps, you really need to make sure that the final product is up to the same fun factor, if not higher and unfortunately that isn't achieved here.

MAP03 - "Waffle Town" by Amiga Angel, taviow Hmm, I'm not sure about this one, there are a lot of themes stuffed into a large area of space, most of the monsters are imps but there are some fun fights embedded in here and you will get enough rockets to obliterate most of the fodder. In the end it feels too big for its own good and as such the big fights only account for a small amount of playtime whilst wandering sparse areas and cramped tenements that reside near the start. I found the secret exit, though I am unsure whether this was by accident or not. In the end this didn't drag as badly as I thought it might, but I personally found it to be a neutral experience and lacked a cohesive vision that could have carried the theme far better (Lots of doomcute but also large empty and somewhat bland areas). I will play the secret map tomorrow I think.

Well I thought I would give this a try; Map01 Fair to say that expectations should be set from the get-go here, there are a surprisingly high number of archviles in play here. But you also get the rocket launcher and plasma gun as you proceed. Shells/bullets are a little tight, but that is more an excuse to uncork the heavier weapons. There was a monster blocking line in the watery trench towards the end of the map that felt a bit odd as it didn't seem to serve an obvious purpose and of course made some of the monsters look a little silly. Otherwise a really good opening map. Map02 Ooo secret BFG on map02... oh wait... oh... I see where this could be needed.... In fairness I think those who play this blind may hit a death or two before thinking that they should explore everything apart from the intended progression, after that the map because a really fun experience where you should have plenty of heavy artillery to beat back the opposition that includes the first cyber at the end of the map. This was really fun to play. Worth noting that the final fights plays much better if you play aggressively, just jumping and and stir up the hornets nest, that is after all my Cybie's purpose here right? :) Map03 I can understand some of the salty feelings towards this one. The start is fine, I guess, though I do question the use of revenants on the cliff side and the mancubi teleporting in when you pick up the berserk. I would have put the revenants in the water and replaced the pair on the hillside with a single mancubus (Less issue with rockets missing when you do get the rocket launcher and the revenants are good boxing practice). The issue I have comes beyond this, many of the fights feel a little clunky and there are two occaisions where infinite height can cause issues, both involve fodder that probably doesn't even need to be there. So there are two big fights, the one at the end and the secret fight and both as I described above feel very clunky and often require too much on lady luck to beat. The end fight tunrs into a bit of a mess, especially as cover is taken away, I can see what you need to do, you need to hold the high ground and then face the monsters at ground level, but things seem to go wrong far too easily, I can't help but feel like this fights needs a rethink. There is also the secret fight, the big issue here that it is poorly choreographed, these types of fight can be done well but here you end up in a position where things tend to teleport randomly (I would mark the spawn locations if possible) and of course the rewards is placed out of reach on a time and the rest of the health and ammo is one unlucky teleporting monster away from being unobtainable, like LVENdead, I had to return to this fight after beating the rest of the map and finding the soulsphere to beat this. God help you if you stumble upon this with low health. This map is perfectly salvageable with some tweaks here and there, but in its current state and I can understand some of the anger towards this, there is difficult and there are situations where player control kind of goes out of the window and in this one I can see that line being crossed a couple of times. Map04 This one was good fun, I guess the only point of contention is potentially the final fight, which can feel very claustrophobic and caused most of my deaths. Oddly this one felt like it could have been placed in the map02 slot without too much hassle given the larger amount of fodder in this one compared to the heavy hitters seen in map02 and 03. Probably my favourite map so far. Map05 A little too mean spirited, like a triple distilled plutonia map. The map eases up a little after the start (Emphasis on little), the trap beyond the red bars that opens up the way to the yellow is is also nasty and best dealt with by fleeing and hiding in the tunnel that allows access the the ledge the arachnotron sits on. This is another map that decides to forgo the SSG and unlike Map03 where its inclusion would have mattered squat, I must confess that the SSG would've have been useful given that the rocket launcher doesn't have ample ammo and quite often the odds are not in your favour to use it. The map is sufficiently tough, but probably a little too obnoxious for my liking. Map06 Torn on this one, at time the maps wants to let loose and you can play aggressively and at times the gameplay slows seemingly to a crawl. The start is nuts but once you get your bearings it isn't too bad (I was worried about using the mastermind as a meat shield whilst I chipped away at the imp crowd but this worked well. The outdoor fight felt surprisingly under-equipped for such a large fight, you get the plasma gun but it felt that I had very little resources to deal with everything and the best bet was to head straight for the blue key and let the mosh pit sort itself out. The area behind the blue door was the worst part of the map, the preamble before the fight fight is slow and grindy and not fun at all (The fact that the prominent ammo given is shells say it all), the end fight is pretty on the nose and isn't subtle in the slightest, you need to save sufficient cells for the archvile round at the end and be good with your aim. This one has some great moments and then some moments that are not so good. Sometimes there are some fights where leaving the archviles out may have been a better idea (The outdoor area and perhaps the initial part of the final fight), they create more gameplay problems than anything else with little reward. Map07 Well it is a slaughter map, it too me a while to spot the BFG and from there you can carve out a path through the mayhem. Once the madness has died down the map kind of loses all of its energy. The red key fight is pretty tame and unfortunately you will probably run out of resources for the archviles that are revealed in the watery trench, but that is fine because you can skip everything entirely by not using the red door in that location and retrace your steps to essentially bypass the ambush. In the end I think his set deserved a better ending, it is all out chaos for the first couple of minutes and then gives up the fight. In short this needs some refinement. Overall - this mapset felt a little all over the place, some maps feel very attrition heavy, others let you cut loose and some manage both in the same map. The difficulty also see-saws a bit where Map03 is significantly harder than the surrounding maps, though Map06 is probably the hardest map in the set. There is fun to be had with Daylight district, but on the other hand there are some quite jarring moments that can sour the experience, the best maps were 01, 02 and 04. Of all the maps, Map03 probably needs some addressing, I thin map06 could be tweaked here and there to make the experience smoother and the final map probably needs a look into because skipping the final fight entirely was probably not the author's intention (This move was helped by have little ammo after the red key fight).