Hyena

Hello again, everyone. This week's reviews are brought to you by one freshly twenty-three year old man some of you know as Hyena. Yes, it was my birthday on sunday, and as a present to myself I submitted these reviews a few days late. Since I'm already late, I probably won't take up too much time writing this opening. Probably. So, how's everyone? That's great. What's in the news today? Oh yeah. NASA is planning a trip to the sun for early 2006. The mission is described as being too dangerous for human beings and so instead they'll be sending super-intelligent pidgeons. Obligatory topical joke relating to subject matter. Okay, fine. Here it is. SELFISH4 - Paul Corfiatis 66 KB - doom2.exe - Single player - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) Part four in the Selfish series, this was released a few weeks ago and no one seemed to notice. I wouldn't have either if I didn't get a heads up from Grazza. This sort of follows the rest of the series in the style of "Hell Revealed, but not so revealed that it's ridiculously impossible.". This one is described as being smaller but more difficult than the rest of the series. Hmm. Maybe I'm thinking of the tantrum wad series. My memory isn't so good in my quasi-old age. Anyway, there's definitely some nice detail and some fun gameplay (although I died at the first archvile every single time). The wad is very challenging, although this mostly comes from the lack of health and armour as the monsters themselves aren't particularly numerous or difficult. The only flaw I'd say is the ammo balance. It's tight as garrote wire, so you need to conserve every shot. This wouldn't be so bad if the archviles didn't go around resurrecting enemies. One time I ended up having to punch a couple of cacodemons. Aside from that, it's great. It's a garbage bag filled with hallowe'en candy if you have some skill. I highly recommend it to doom gurus. 8 Bits Deathmatch - G0dCells 638 KB - zdoom/doom2 - Deathmatch - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) Yet another man who deserves to be the father of my child . . . if that were somehow physiologically possible. Science may one day know. Take your average zdoom DM wad, but make all the textures solid colours (some of which flash between red and blue). Add a few sprite replacements to make items look like NES graphics and then all you need is some killer MODs full of 8-bit music samples. I would deathmatch any of you on one of these 7 maps any day, even days in which I'm exhausted, have major responsibilities, and have been playing doom for a week and am tired of deathmatch. (Not to mention I suck at it). You'd think that because the textures are all utterly simple that you'd have a really bland looking level, right? Well, maybe at first. But as the levels progress they become more nicely sectored. The last few levels are very, very cool. Over all, I think my favourite feature is a script on each map that randomly picks one of the twenty pieces of inserted music when the level begins. You could play any one of these maps over and over without getting the same one. Well, besides the music and the graphics, there isn't much to it. The levels are fairly straightforward, and at times the eye candy can be an eyesore with the flashing colours. So you'll probably think of me as weird for saying this, but this is my favourite deathmatch wad in a very long time. Vacuity - Lee Wallis 423 KB - OPENGL Legacy 1.41/doom2 - Single Player - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) This one's very interesting. Above all else, it's an excuse to bust out your old Legacy engine. I actually had to download the latest version as this wad requires Legacy 1.41 and like an idiot I've been sitting here with my measly 1.40. That aside, I have mixed feelings on this project. First, Vacuity is quite atmospheric. It takes place in a tech base where you fight a bunch of marines, each armed with strange weaponry. The accompanying text file mentions nothing about a story, and after some thought about this I found I kind of like it that way. The author may have simply forgotten to write it, or maybe he decided to let the wad tell its own story. While there's no voice-acting or text, I think it does go a ways in telling a story simply by using the setting, sounds, and sprites. Second, in my opinion, some of the resources are a little eyebrow-raising. For instance, I found it a little strange that some of the marines sound like monsters in hexen. Others, such as the metallic clank when your bullets pierce the marines' armour, just make it all the more fun. Especially with the chaingun. As for the sprites, I found that a lot of them are hybrids of sprites from different games. I recognized Doom, Strife, and Wolfenstein sprites among others . . . bah, who am I kidding? I only recognized those three. If you look at these sprites individually in a wad editor they appear to be extremely sloppy, but they seem to work nicely in-game. The animation of it works well even if it was a half-assed cut and paste job. My only really major complaint is the one extremely dark room. Getting pummeled by monsters when you can't see them is high on my list of annoying. You can try the "Might Makes Light" approach (had to sneak a doom comic reference in there somewhere) by randomly firing and hoping the muzzle flash lights the room enough for you to see around, but this hardly accomplishes anything more than wasting precious ammo. Eventually I got tired of dying and IDDQD'd, only to find that a dehacked trick causes that to kill me. I'll get back to you when I actually finish the wad. DANGER - OFFBOARD - Thomas Lutrov 75 KB - doom2.exe - Single Player - (img) (img) (img) This one seems to have a n00bish style to it, but it definitely isn't a "first map". There's some fairly nice detail and really precarious ammo balance that suggest some considerable experience in mapping. This one's a challenge. Every single monster encounter requires extreme care to ensure you don't run out of shots. The key to this one is monster in-fighting. This can be extremely tricky. In the first room, you're directly between a baron and a chaingunner. A thick pillar in the middle makes it difficult for you to direct the chaingun fire to the baron. Out of the many times I played this map, only once did I manage to defeat both without getting hit. After a few tries it becomes less of a problem to get through the first two rooms, and fighting a revenant at point blank with little space to move and only a few shells is a challenge but very possible. It only gets really difficult when you enter a dark corridor with sneak-attacks by an archvile and two more revenants. Unlike Selfish4, however, the archvile seems to be out of reach of the monsters you previously killed so you don't have to worry about wasting what little ammo you have left. As action goes, it's very very nicely done. As for looks, there are a few texture misalignments and bugs. Most noticably is a strage HOM effect at the exit. Otherwise it's nice. Big jagged holes in the walls and ceilings give the feel of a destroyed base, and strangely shaped pillars give the feel of . . . some sort of . . . strangely shaped pillar. A great map if you don't mind something a tad cramped. (I know I don't) Pyr0M4N1AC!!! - Xaser 363 KB - zdoom/doom2 - SP/DM - (img) (img) Umm, what the hell? This seems to be a weapon and monster replacement wad, but the replacements range everywhere from cool/useful to weird/weird. The pistol is replaced with a badly-anged one that fires 5 shots at once. Angled weapon sprites are nice when they look like they're pointing at the centre. This one doesn't, really. The chainsaw is replaced with a shotgun. The plasma rifle is now apparently a sniper rifle that fires tiny yellow pellets at an incredibly fast rate. Weirdest of all is the super-shotgun replacement; it looks like the normal sprite with the two barrels replaced with one gigantic one. When you fire, it spits out three or four bullets in a quick burst, followed by a railgun blast, at which point it goes into its reload animation. Uh . . . what? Really the only new weapon I liked was the chaingun. And that one really is quite awesome. It looks nice (even if the flash is solid white, whatever, I'm not that picky), sounds great, and most importantly it just feels right. The way it continues to spin after you let go of the trigger is very cool. As for the monsters, ugh. Yeah, let's replace zombiemen with incredibly tiny chaingunners that run really fast. Better yet, let's make the sergeants explode on death. Because shotguns are effective in close-quarters the logical place most authors would put sergeants would be somewhere where you'd be forced to fight them close-up, which now would be suicide for the player. A quick glaze over a few other features; The revenant's fireball spawns a ton of lost souls and explodes into a giant mess of fire sprites that hurt you. If any of the lost souls actually hit you, it's pretty much guaranteed death. (Which promotes Pain Elemental from Most Annoying EnemyTM to Enemy That Causes You To Randomly Throw Things At PeopleTM) The cyberdemon is the same except he fires a SUPER FIREBALL GATLING GUN!!! YAY! 3Y3 W4NT 2 PL4Y T3H L3VL D4DDY! LOST SOULSPHERE!!!!!!11oneone - Xaser 818 KB - zdoom/doom2 - Single Player - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) If you didn't already guess, a Lost Soulsphere is a soulsphere that flies around and hits you. Yes. This wad is a 10-level war you wage against the items in doom. Okay, I know how most of you feel about joke wads, but this one's actually pretty good. Just remember the first rule of joke wads is that if a particular map pisses you off just warp to the next one. All the weapons are replaced with some that are weird and/or funny. The super shotgun is rather amusing, but the best one is definitely the smarties. All of the maps are interesting, even the ones that aren't particularly funny, and to some extent they're playable (just don't try for 100% kills). The lake one I found annoying, as the objective is simply to kill all the invuln spheres and there's a lot of them. Moron Mountain, however, is quite fun in a NUTS.wad sort of way. Definitely worth a play if you have a sense of humour and a little patience. Unfortunately there's no DM support though, which is a crime to me, as I think the weapons in this one are better than the ones in pyromaniac. AGONISM #7 to #10 - Guy Shelton 12 KB, 14 KB, 16 KB, 21 KB respectively - doom2.exe - Deathmatch - (img) (img) (img) (img) Arrrghhg! If you're going to release this many DM maps at once can't you put them all in the same wad? To save time I decided to review all of these wads as if they were one wad because they're pretty much just one big series. Despite a few texture alignment problems, these are well-designed quick-frag maps. One consistant theme through the series is that each map has a load of barrels. Not really a bad thing, since they add a bit of a random element and they're gone after a minute or so anyway. Great maps if you like 'em small and deadly. But if you plan to play these maps together in succession your command line will be ridiculously huge.#7 #8 #9 #10 ShadowRealm - Michael T. Cole(ShadowRunner) 266 KB - legacy/doom2 - Deathmatch - (img) (img) (img) (img) This is a massive deathmatch arena for Legacy. Plenty of eye-candy and interesting architecture design. But wait, you can play it too. It's great for a 4 to 8 player deathmatch, but 2 players alone will get very bored very fast. One element that makes it not so great is how linear it is. There's one end of the map and there's the other end . . . I think this particular map would work better if those two ends met in some sort of full circle. But whatever. It's a good legacy wad. So don't pass that rare opportunity up. Mythical Dugneon - PumpkinSmasher 148 KB - Limit removing port/doom2 - Deathmatch - (img) (img) (img) First of all, I have to poke fun at how the author misspelled his own title in the text file (see above). Usually when there's something minor I can make fun of, I'm usually happy and go on to play a nice wad, but this in fact is a pretty bad one. It's a deathmatch wad that has what you'd almost call detail, but in fact it's just the same sectors and linedefs copied and pasted about 20 times. It's one big symmetrical "dugneon" full of completely identical rooms where you wander around and can't tell your way around unless you keep checking the automap. Don't get it. Just pretend it isn't there. If it sees you, start moving faster and avoid eye contact. Low Guard - Matt Cibulas (A.k.a RottKing) 78 KB - Zdoom or Skulltag/doom2 - It's a skin! - This is a skin of the Low Guard from Rise of the Triad. There's a text file for this in the /skins/ directory of the archive, but there's no zip. Clicking the link on doomworld's idgames archive gives a broken link. Aside from that, this is one of my all-time favourite skins and I highly recommend it. Not Another E3 Wad - Samuel "Kaiser" Villarreal 133 KB - doom.exe - Single Player/Co-op - (img) (img) (img) Whew! This one's action-packed. Not Another E3 Wad (or kaiser 7) was so engrossing that I forgot to take screenshots. So I went back and took screenshots. And even then I was so engrossed that I forgot to take many screenshots. So enjoy my little handful of screenshots. But really, this wad is what doom should only be, cyberdemons not withstanding. (Okay, actually I found the cyberdemon at the end repugnantly annoying because it's close-quarters and you have to fight him with a rocket launcher, but whatever. It's all good) Download this now. Seriously. Right now. I'm waiting. Have you downloaded it yet? Why not? What's wrong with you? Download it. Bitch.

And now you're back From Outer Sp... Now that I think of it, that joke is far too dated to be used . . . ever. Sorry. Anyway, it's me again; the sometimes funny but always laughing Hyena. That's right. I'm pulling a Linguica. Last reviews I did were back when the first Sonic Doom release was . . . released. And now, the last week of January brings us such epic wads as "Sands of Death" and "Ohgr's Doom". Yes, the long anticipation is over. Cyb says: Whoops, I forgot to post this last night. But it's all Hyena's fault, I swear!! That'll learn him to send it to me early. WASTELAND: SANDS OF DEATH (version 0.5) (position E2L3) - Alberto BARSELLA 99 KB - doom.exe - Single-player/Coop - An old wad that never made it to newstuff was generously submitted by SargeBaldy. Point of interest number 1: The text file says "This level is the sequel of `Mountain of Fire' and MUST be played after that level, otherwise you will never have enough ammo to complete `Sands of Death'." My thoughts on point of interest number 1: You seem to have mistaken me for someone who likes to search through the archives to download a lot of unnecessary files. Just put the maps into one wad! I'm pretty sure back when this map was made they had utilities that could do this for you. Point of interest number 2: There is a huge ammo cache right at the beginning of this level. My thoughts on point of interest number 2: You definitely have enough ammo to beat the map. Saying you need to get the other wad must be nothing more than a plug. Thanks a lot, Alberto. And try to spell your name without caps lock. Point of interest number 3: Most of the outdoor sectors of this map will hurt you like nukage. My thoughts on point of interest number 3: I had to play this wad three times before I figured out that I'm not getting shot by a distant spider mastermind, but that I'm getting hurt by walking on dirt. I thought, maybe the idea is to get off of the dirt and stand on paved (or marble) floor. I did so, and I was fine. Then I went around to the other side of the marble floor and I started getting hurt again. Finally, I figured out that the bright sectors hurt you, and you have to stay in the shade in order to avoid getting hurt. While this can make the map interesting and add a nice original challenge, I really wish it was made more clear how this works. After discovering this, I checked the text file to see if there was any mention of this effect, and I found one halfway through the backstory: "He directed his feet towards the building but, as soon as he reached the sunny area, he felt the impossible heat of the sun bite his armor and flesh." This story is at least three pages long. Do you want to read that much, or do you just want to play the wad? After you get past these little gripes, the level runs fairly smoothly. The switch-hunting is a major pain in the anii, though. It got to the point that I had to open this map in my editor at least 10 times to find out where that switch is that I just couldn't find. Also, I find this map could have been tested more thoroughly. At one point, there's a floor that raises to a door requiring a yellow skull key. If you don't have the key, you have to jump off the raised floor which will never lower again. You need to idclip (or idspispopd, rather) when you actually find said key. I'm just glad I don't do Grazza's "Wad of the Week", because this would be it. And it definitely doesn't deserve to win. Mostly what this wad accomplished was making me tired of Doom's intermission music. Batman DOOM for DOOM2 - ACE Team Software 5650 KB - Boom or Zdoom/doom2 - Single-Player - Sargebaldy uploaded this one as well. I don't know about you, but I was always fairly sure Batman Doom was in the archives somewhere. Maybe they weren't. Anyway, I won't waste my breath (or typing, as it were) reviewing this as everyone knows what it is, and I won't bother with screenshots because it's hosted here on Doomworld and there are plenty of shots to be found there. I'll just say that if you're one of the new (or out of the loop) doomers that have never played this, you really should. P.S. If you're wondering why I would pick Sands of Death over Batman Doom, I would have disqualified the latter because it was released long ago. But it's all a moot point because I don't *do* Wad of the Week. Can we move on, please, if that's okay with you? Jerk. Ohgr's Doom (2004) - Charles Laird "cyanide-x" 1010 KB - Recommended for Zdoom or Legacy/doom2 - Deathmatch - Where should I begin? Well, it doesn't matter how good you make it, people are just going to make fun of it if you put an Icon of Sin in a deathmatch level. Aside from that, the one map is tiny. Yet, the wad has a gigantic filesize (due to a pile of texture replacements, half of which are not used at all), really obvious unclosed sectors, and some backward teleport lines. On the filesize issue, if you take a quick scroll upwards, Batman Doom has a zipped size of 5650 KB, which is roughly five times the size. This is with 32 times the number of maps (which are all much bigger), and complete sprite replacements for over 90% of Doom 2's resources. So, what's the big resource hog in this one? Ignoring all the bad stuff, this is about as average as a DM level goes. Some fairly good detail, straightforward gameplay, symmetrical design (/me hears Deathz0r groan). So if you feel like downloading a huge file to play your average everyday DM level and having to deal with a million tiny little monsters filling your little arena (-nomonsters doesn't help you out, either), go ahead and pick this one up. And if you see me chuckling as you do so, I'm laughing at something unrelated. In addition to these, one CGDoom v1.9 was released. It's a doom engine based on Linuxdoom and its source is here. And that's Newstuff Chronicles #166. As always you can find transcripts of these reviews at www.doomworld.com. Remember, stay out of direct sunlight, don't wake up the boss shooters, and always search the batcave for extra powerups.

I could just be mature and admit that it's my fault these are late, but instead I'm going to blame Sonic Doom and the KS series because they really took me a long time. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these reviews everyone, cause they're going to be my last. For now, anyway. Due to some time conflicts, I've decided that I'm going to need to give up on reviewing every third week. You may see me do a few here and there in the future, but I won't be one of the regulars. Anyone surprised by this? When I announced this in the newstuff forums, the only comments I got were "You're late again" I guess that's bad news for me because it either means my coming or going is not really a concern, or it means that nobody really reads what I have to say :P. It's been really really fun, people. Thanks to everyone who has read and enjoyed my reviews in the past. And thanks to those who shared their difference of opinions with tact and maturity. And most of all, thanks for releasing all of the really crappy wads on Deathz0r's weeks instead of mine :p. UAC Teleportatation Labs - Samuel Horwitz (insertwackynamehere#) 69k - doom2.exe - SP/CO-OP - Well, this seems to be the author's first release (besides Barbershop Doom, which wasn't a level) so I'll try not to boil him in a vat of emu grease for any more than twenty minutes. Some parts are somewhat impressive for a first-try. I liked the arrangement of cubicles in the first major room, and some of the wires across the ceiling of one of the rooms is a nice effect. But on the other hand, there is a rather large number of simple errors. Doom 101 for me was how to make doors. The first door you'll notice in this wad is way too wide and the walls are not unpegged, for instance. A few graphical glitches are also lying around, most likely from bad nodes or unclosed sectors. But what really gets me is some little tricks that seem to make no sense at all. In the first room, for instance, is a teleport that takes you to another spot in the exact same room. And once you've landed, the floor on the teleport raises to the ceiling to prevent you from using it again. I don't know about any of you, but I'm baffled as to what the point is. Another part that took me a little while is a bloodfalls texture that's walk-through, leading to a big blood river. There's a narrow corridor just to the right of where you enter, but it took me a few retries to notice it as I was standing in a damaging sector with monsters shooting at me, with the view obscured by a masked 2-sided wall with hot tea being spilled on my lap by a baron of hell who held me in a choke hold while feeding me slowly into a wood chipper. Ammo is plentiful here, and most of the monsters are zombiemen so it's not that hard, particularly if you go back and forth for the health lying around at the beginning. Most of you won't have much trouble. Teleportation Labs is not the greatest of wads. But I will say this much; The gateway looks pretty damn cool. Timelessness - Andy Leaver 113k - Ultimate Doom - SP - Timelessness is a very fun, and quite addictive doom wad. The first time I played I became so emersed that I forgot to take screenshots. Loads of action, a nice not-too-linear walkthrough, a few tricks and traps, and piles and piles of small monsters to feed to your shotgun. The detail is extremely average, I found. Nothing ugly, nothing breathtaking. Or maybe it's just that I was so into the game that I didn't stop to notice the background. Personally, I think the fact that the architecture doesn't draw much attention shows how well it fits the theme of the level. Don't expect many puzzles or whatnot. Not many brain cells are required. It's just a mindless shoot 'em up. But a very good one. 4way - Guy 177k - Doom2.exe - SP - This is the part where I make fun of the text file. First, the author puts his name as "Guy" and second, under Misc. Author info, he puts: helluvafinefellow Well, this almost seems like a mockery map to me. Not quite, but almost. My first indication is that he puts in the text file, and I quote; ...I tried to make sure there were no "dead-ends" or anything secret that would prevent you from getting through the level if you don't find them... but in the very first room, you have to run up to random walls to try to open them to be able to get out. The first room! It starts out okay, with maybe a little too much emphasis on barrels. But there's one room where it's very easy to get trapped in a corner, with many chaingunners firing at you in the distance. If you don't think that's impossible enough, it wasn't too long before I ended up stuck in one area where the only way out was a teleport, which promply took me to a small room with a spider mastermind and clearly not enough health or weaponry to be able to beat it, nor enough room to possibly get away from it. I don't know about you, but for me that's the point where I say, "I'm not playing any more of this." ks1.zip - Cory Banket 146k - Doom2/Port Recommended - SP - Challenging, nicely detailed, and fun. Not much else you need to know, is there? Well, it's not quite that simple. It focuses heavily on tricks and traps, which often adds a little fun to wads if done right. For the most part, the traps are used very well. In some parts, however, I did get annoyed with some switch searching. Most of the time though I think I was just annoyed at how obvious they should have been and I just didn't find them. There were some bad ones, though. At one point after searching several rooms several times, I found a switch. When I hit it, it activated a crusher on a low ceiling directly above me that was impossible to escape even if I had known that it was a crusher and the element of surprise wasn't there. And to make things worse, there are a few secrets that are necessary to beat the level. I personally do not like having to use the automap a lot while playing, just so I can figure out where I'm going. I'd say this would have been one of the best ones this week if not for those few annoying features. ks2.zip - Cory Banket 158k - Doom2/Port Recommended - SP - Well, this level does have some relatively good detail, but the theme and walkthrough are just too weird to be taken seriously. It's a nazi mansion, populated by SS officers. I mean, those levels are always weird, but what kind of nazi mansion has a big weird piano device that lowers weird rectangular crushers from the ceiling? There's also a humongous courtyard with arachnotrons roaming around and a cyberdemon in a big cage. There's not much action in this one. I got bored of it pretty quickly. ks3.zip - Cory Banket 193k - Doom2/Port Recommended - SP - This one has some nice atmosphere, but once again there are too many secrets and traps and puzzles. I get very tired very quick of wads where it's completely necessary to find secrets in order to progress. This is one of those. There aren't too many of them, so it's not all bad. I'd say this level fluctuates between frustrating and fun. I'd recommend it for those with a little bit of patience and with a little more time on their hands than I have. (It makes me sad to admit that I no longer have that luxury :/) ks4.zip - Cory Banket 129k - Doom2/Port Recommended - SP - Definitely the best in the KS series; It has the best features of all the other three, and seldom neglects any. It has some great atmosphere. It has tons of good puzzles, using some very nice techniques like having windows next to some switches that show what the switch does in the next room. The action stays pretty consistent, there's a good ammo balance, it's challenging, and it has some really good architecture. The texture use and lighting are pretty good too. It's also full of cool effects. Things like a tiny door that opens to a switch once you step into an elevator, and some of the best rising stair effects I've seen. Before ks4 I would have said this author needs a lot of work. Now I say you should all offer up your firstborn. Or maybe a sandwich. Tower of Pazuzu - FraGMarE (Ian McPherson) 128k - Doom2 - DM - Like many other DM wads, this one has some great architecture and some nice lighting effects. (There's also a quite nice music replacement.) But there's not much to it gameplay-wise. It's very small; a one on one fight would seem a little cramped. While the plasma gun is reachable in doom and boom (and probably other ports I didn't test) in zdoom, it sinks through the ground. That makes it a bit of a problem for playing on zdaemon. Also, I find the BFG-9000 is way too easy to get. A lift in the centre of the map lowers to a teleport that takes you right to the gun, on top of the main arena. While playing an 4-player deathmatch where everyone has the BFG in a small room might be fun for mockery, I think it doesn't really work in a serious level. R.A.V.E. - Andy "FearKeeper" Leaver 53k - Doom2.exe - SP - A very short but very fun level. The music's nice too. Not too heavily on the detail, but just the right amount of boomstick. It is rather easy, though. Well, at least there's some good old fashioned gratuitous bloodletting. Enjoy. Super Sonic DooM - Playable Demo - Stephen Clark (The Ultimate DooMer!) 2368k - Zdoom/Doom2 - SP - I have mixed feelings on this one. I love Doom and I love Sonic the Hedgehog, but it's very difficult to bridge the gap between the two. While this is a fairly decent answer to that problem, I found myself a little disappointed that the gameplay seemed to emphasize more Doom than Sonic. You still use pistols and shotguns, you still use keys to open doors, and there's not much opportunity to just keep running. On top of this, I found most of the levels hard to follow along. Maybe it's because I was trying so hard to get the Sonic feel that I was just running around and not carefully looking for hidden switches and keys, but then isn't that the point? Some parts are great. I do like the spring boards, for instance. They really do add some fun, especially when monsters walk into them (See shot #2). But some of the monsters I found to be too hard for a theme like this. I think enemies should be quick to finish off. One shotgun blast or quick chaingun burst should be enough to get rid of nearly all of them, so as not to slow down the pace of the levels. The green imps and demons sort of do the opposite, and the pain elementals really get in the way. And by the end of the level, most of the monsters will be following you around until you're swamped. If the enemies could be confined to their own areas with monster-blocking lines, I think it would definitely help. Out of the four levels in this wad, I'd say by far the best is map03; "Sunset Forest, Act I". You can follow along a path, grabbing health potions on the way, running past and taking down monsters that try to stop you. It's a very fun level until you have to stop and look for the keys, at which point it gets very tedious as you keep wandering along the same path looking for keys while being pummeled by fireballs. I found the yellow key with a little bit of trouble, and I'm still looking for the orange one. Well, for the most part, map03 really did make me feel like I was in a Sonic level. The other three didn't however. Particularly not map04, where a swamp prevents you from moving fast at all. This demo is a potential gem. It's good, but not as amazing as I know it can be. When the full version is finished, I think if the third map is kept in mind (before the key hunt) it should do all right. I just wish the levelset in general was more fast-paced. "No Hope For Life" was also released, but I think you know what that one is. Well, that's it for me. I'll see you all again once I can get mock 2 finished. Those who I'm expecting work from can now officially ph33r. So long and thanks for all the fish.

Yes, it's finally up so you can stop complaining, Linguica. I think if you take a quick peek downward you can see what took me the hell so long. A very interesting newstuff week. Why is it interesting? Well, to begin with . . . there were 17 zips uploaded. Yes. Once again, after many slow weeks, a heavy wad dump lands in the lap of everyone's favourite (or maybe least favourite) hyena. What else makes it interesting . . . hmm. Well, three of these zips contain a levelset wad. And one zip contains multiple single-level wads (and one levelset). On that note, thank you Deathz0r for sharing your old beginner wads with me. Since so far my opening news post has been nothing but a big complaining rant, you probably have lost interest by now so I can pretty much say poo is my bicycle of flea spaghetti in my left pocket of tuna pumpkin salad and thank you for the inspiring cheese-flavoured dish detergent which I logically place under my armpit whilst I hum the theme to Knight Rider while bathing in chalk. The skulltag bots don't seem to work for me, which made one of the wads hard to test, and because I was just a little rushed hopefully you can forgive me for a couple of very short reviews. (Besides, for some of them, the screenshots say it all) Oh, and one special message to Mike louis Anderson (smartboy13@yahoo.com); learn how to name a cat. PS from Cyb - Apparently Hyena was going blind near the end, the gamma on some of these shots is really high, heh. Dawn: A Prelude - ReX Claussen 1,278k - Zdoom/Doom2 - SP - The continuation of "Darkest Hour", the very cool Star Wars TC. At first, Dawn didn't seem to strike the same chord with me. Perhaps what bothered me is map09 and how it's an almost exact recreation of the first level of dark forces. Yes, Dark Forces is probably where 90% of the TC's resources came from, but I would personally want to downplay that part as much as possible and give it more of an original twist. It is kind of cool to come back to the old levels again and replay them, but only when there's a major noticable difference. I could list examples of games where you come back to an old level to find it in smoking ruin, but I think I've dwelled on this one level enough. In one level you avoid all-out combat and pose as a civilian to sabotage a space station's communications equipment. I rather like the concept, although I had a difficult time finding my way around a big station. As usual, the author creates a very aesthetic setting that ranges from small words like "nice" to a complete loss of actual words in exchange for punctuation, "!!!!" It is fairly fun too, although it wasn't nearly as addictive as many other wads I've played. Capture the Flag 1 - Dean "deathz0r" Joseph 512k - Skulltag/Doom2 - DM(CTF) - I can't say I've played that many "capture-the-flag" style doom wads. Deathz0r apparently saw a need and filled it. As far as I can see, it's a relatively open and small map, and not the most detailed thing in the world, but not ugly. To get into one of the two bases, you'll need to hit a few switches, which seems to be the major challenge. If you're not playing one-on-one, you can have a teammate open the door for you when you return with the flag, which is an idea I somewhat like. It does seem to promote camping though, as the inner switch is right by the flag. It's hard to say whether this is worth downloading because I mauled the crap out of skulltag trying to figure out how to get the bots to work, and it didn't do much. I'm probably going to get two pages full of messages now telling me I'm a moron for not figuring out something so simple. Take it easy, I lost my arm in the war . . . They took my squeezing arm! ALPHA: One Nerd And His Doom - Hyena (Me) 2,810k - Zdoom/Doom2 - SP/DM - Do you remember G-onahd? Probably not. Well, for some reason I made a prequel. I know you'll all hate it and won't play it. Man, reviewing is easy. If you do play it, however, be sure to try it out in deathmatch as well as single-player. System Vices - Bob Reganess 1,000k - Doom2.exe - SP - Sigh. I'm an idiot. I download the thing and it comes with all these stupid deusf instructions and I go through agony just to get the thing running. Turns out the instructions are only for those who want to use doom2.exe. Those with ports can just run the damn thing without all that annoyance. I wish I read that part more closely the first time. Once I got past that, however, I found a very impressive wad, especially considering I was expecting some lame doom2 wad from 1997 *cough*deathz0r*cough*. The detail fluctuates from below average to above average, and the gameplay is definitely on the fun side, but what really did it for me was the atmosphere. Bob Reganess has created a very surreal sci-fi/fantasy setting. Strange forcefields, odd creatures, and the structure of the levels sometimes changes as you explore them. There are some nice room-over-room effects too, not common in vanilla doom. I did find a few of the puzzles confusing and a little frustrating, but with a little bit of time, trial, and error, they're not all that difficult. I wish I wasn't in a rush to get to the other wads because this is a very cool levelset I could easily waste a few hours on. DARK FATE - Karthik Abhiram 142k - Doom2.exe - SP/DM - The best way I think to describe this level is "Hell Revealed for DooMortals" (DooMortals being a phrase I just invented--or that I think I just invented--for people who are not Adam Hegyi.) Beginners and Intermediate Doomers should be quite challenged by this one. And it's a lot of fun, too. It's packed with small to medium monsters, although I think it gives the player too much ammo and powerups. There is one Spider Mastermind to contend with, and several arch-viles, otherwise it's mostly cacos, hell knights, and sergeants hiding in tiny alcoves that ambush you just as you stop to take a breath. As a side note, I think the music really sets the mood. FIRST SPAWN - Johnathan "Monochrome" Wilson 88k - Doom2/????.exe - SP - It begins. This is one of many previously unreleased (and maybe unreleasable) "myfirstwadevarkthnxbye" maps. I'm not entirely sure why everyone feels now is the time to show off how bad they were back before boom was invented, but here they are, nonetheless. This one started off looking okay. The architecture is a little ugly, but it's not giant rectangular rooms, and there's no HOM. And mostly it was a decent playability. Then I found the cyberdemon. Oh, and there was a spider mastermind. I think that's the point when I decided I'd had enough. Oh, and a note to the author: Think about what you put in the text file. I mean, first it says "This is all you need: doom2 -file first.wad" and since it's an old wad I assumed it was doom compatible. But then I ran it in prboom and I got a segmentation violation . . . maybe the BSP wasn't properly built or something. Further down in the text file it says Requires: : ZDoom Beta" I have a headache. :( Arch-vile: the last fight - Mike louis Anderson 2k - Doom2.exe - SP - Best Level Ever. Doom monsters: the last fight - Mike louis Anderson 4k - Doom2.exe - SP - Okay, this one's exactly the same, but with a bigger selection of monsters. The first one made me laugh, this one didn't. SargeBaldy Speedmapping Compilation #7 - Various Authors 71k - Doom2.exe - SP - Another speedmapping session, which SargeBaldy set up later than usual to accomodate a few Australian participants who never showed up. So, as a result, there are only three people who took part. Only two of them took it seriously. And only one of them made a very good one. The theme is "create a UAC factory for armour and weaponry that has been taken control of by hellspawn" Map01 is a pretty decent creation under those lines with some nice detail, and a fairly fun walkthrough. Map02 is a cramped, dark area filled with monsters. Map03 is three rooms. In the second room you fight an archvile. Then you enter a bathroom where you grab a BFG and jump through a hole in the ground to exit. SYMOHOME.WAD - Symo Storr (C) 1995 53k - Doom2.exe - SP - When I first started up the wad, the first words that left my mouth--out loud, mind you--were "What in the tar-head?". I don't know what that's supposed to mean, I've never said it before. It just came out. It's a really weird wad. You know how newbie authors always do their house? This guy/woman/sadistic android has added a bunch of pukey-coloured textures, made a house out of them, and filled all the rooms with very odd monsters and traps. Oh, look, it's Commander Keen's hanged corpse in a dark nursery, yay. The level's definitely a head-scratcher. If you're feeling a little too normal, try this level and twist your brain around a little bit. I.S.M. - Incredible Shrinking Marine... - Symo Storr (C) 1996 115k - Doom2.exe - SP - A waste of time. Full of annoying puzzles that require you to be both intelligent and insane in order to conceivably pass by. The first puzzle is in the first room where there's a tiny alcove that's very low, and somehow you're supposed to understand that you need to shoot through it because there's a small square dent in the ground you need to stand in to be low enough to shoot through it. After fighting about three hundred and forty eight zombies (slight exaggeration) you walk into the next room (which has a door shaped like a wooden panel) that has a very infuriating puzzle. There are four switches in the room that raise four platforms off the ground by 16. You need to arrange them to become stairs for you to climb to the next area. That means you need to hit switch #1 exactly once, switch #2 exactly twice, and so on, to arrange it properly. If you hit any of them too many times, it's impossible to get to the next room and there's no way to reset the platforms except to restart the game. And by the way, the level is map02 (because it's too hard for map01 . . . whatever the hell that means) so you can't just start a new game. You need to start a new game, then use idclev to get back to map02. If this isn't annoying enough, the switches are arranged so that switch #1 is closest to you, then switch #4, then 2, then 3. Great, so not only do you have to hit each switch the correct number of times, you also have to remember which is which (They're not labelled in case you're wondering) For some reason, I was masochistic enough to try this until I got it right, then got killed by a room full of chaingunners. Then I restarted and did the puzzle again, and used IDDQD just to see if the rest of the level was this bad. I ran out of ammo in a room full of demons and lost souls (and one revenant) and had to beat them all with my fists, and hit a switch that doesn't seem to do anything but that I have to figure out in 4 seconds before whatever it did undoes itself. One of the worst I've played in a long time. There has been worse, but not much. SYMOSHR.WAD V ][.0 - Symo (C) 1996 75k - Doom2.exe - SP - This level would almost be fun if not for the 2-sided lines disguised as walls that had enemies hiding behind it. As usual, Symo likes to create annoying puzzles. One switch was hidden inside a 64x64 sector, two sides being 1-sided walls, one side being blocked by a pillar, and one side being masked as a normal wall. I myself had the patience to open it up in the editor to figure out where that damned switch was. Most players I think would not. Other than that, the textures are weird, the monsters are somewhat easy except when they pin you against walls. And the ammo balance actually is pretty good. If you find the secret area (which you need a yellow key to find) there's a very bizarre room with a sky floor and small land bridges, complimented with hanging keens and a spider mastermind. Okay . . . yeah . . . I'd stay away from this one. SYMOPLAN.WAD - Symo (C) 1996 96k - Doom2.exe - SP - I went into this level expecting to hate it like Symo's other wads, but I found myself somewhat enjoying it. Well, it's hard to say really whether it's "good" or "bad". It sort of teeters. It's very non-linear, and ammo is very tight. Finding the best way to get from place to place can mean the difference between barely enough ammo and not enough. It takes a lot of trial and error to figure out the best walkthrough for this map, and that can mean great to some people and terrible to others. Unfortunately, there also are some infuriating areas that are somewhat difficult to figure out, ie switches that effect the other part of the map that require you to run all over the place trying to see what's different. As for the actual look of it, it's very odd. The textures are extremely brightly coloured, and some of the switches are just so strange I don't even want to describe them. OFF / ON It's such a toss-up to me whether to call this a good or bad wad that I don't even want to. I think I'm leaning more towards bad, but at the same time I do find that switch amusing, and I have been ripping Symo's levels to shreds so I think I should have something nice to say about one of them. *shrug* The Transformer - Christoph Oelckers (Graf Zahl) 46k - Doom2.exe - SP - May Not Run With... : This level should work with any source port. The level crashed in doom2.exe, boom.exe, prboom.exe, and zdoom.exe before I could even begin. This would have been my entire review, but I somehow managed to get it to work in skulltag. Graf, if you're there, I have one hyphenated word in all caps for you; PLAY-TESTING! The error messages say something about texture moronity, involving a texture called STEP1A, so now that I've done that work for you, you can go and fix it. The Transformer, if you can get it to run, is a challenging and fun level. Early in the level, the ammo balance is extremely thin, so that means you should fire at only the monsters that directly get in your way, or enemies who leave behind ammo that you have immediate access to. Once you find the "sergeant room" however, things should be fine in the ammo department. It's a short level, but good for average-skilled doomers who like a level that's difficult but not impossible. There's some nice texture use and lighting effects used here. But don't take the time to enjoy them or you'll be very dead very fast. SYMOWOLF.WAD - Symo Storr (C) 1995-6 104k - Doom2.exe - SP - I'm sorry, but Symo's stupid puzzles are too much. I couldn't figure out how to get out of the first room, and I'm not even going to bother playing the rest of the level. deathz0r Episode 1: The Old Menace - Dean "deathz0r" Joseph 164k - Doom2.exe - SP - A collection of deathz0r's old levels, which are all conveniently separated into different wads, some of which don't have an accompanying text file. Interested to see what 1997 had to offer? Me neither. DIABLO - A giant ugly mishapen room with monsters, an uncomfortable amount of barrels, and a lot of rockets. There's no point. SURVIVAL THE NAME OF THE GAME - A big round outdoors area with at least one of every monster with enough ammo to kill them all 10 times over. In case it's too hard, there's also 2385923845 soulspheres, megaspheres, and invuln spheres. SURVIVAL THE NAME OF THE GAME 2: THE RETURN OF THE ALIENS - See above. Change outdoors to indoors. All other conditions apply. SURVIVAL THE NAME OF THE GAME & DIABLO - Okay, now this is pathetic. Map01 is exactly like survival2 . . . item, monster placement, and everything. The only difference is that the ceiling is impossibly high and the outer walls are a sky texture. Map02 is completely 100% the same as Diablo. I fail to see the point in this wad. I think Deathz0r is getting revenge on me for the time I submitted a crappy wad to newstuff under a fake name. THE WADPACK The text file says: This is only 8 modified Doom II levels (THE FIRST SIX ,LEVEL EIGHT AND LEVEL 31) and one created level (LEVEL NINE) which are harder, stranger, funnier, easier, less monsters with better weapons or more monsters with easy weapons etc. What the ant-herpes is that supposed to mean?? Well, I played through them. Most of them are supposed to be modified doom2 levels, but as far as I can see they're exactly the same. I saw no difference whatsoever. I warped to map09 and it was another survival wad with some hideous graphical errors. It doesn't deserve a screenshot. dean.wad - No text file. You have to go to map06, and I had to open my editor to be able to tell. It's a big room full of corpses with ugly ugly graphics errors, and a spider mastermind in the corner. No weapons. There's no way this wad was supposed to be serious. I don't have the slightest idea what Deathz0r was thinking. suprdoom.wad - Oh, please. sprdoom2.wad - I'm going to kill you, deathz0r. Power Plant Deathmatch - Bob Larkin (a.k.a. Sematary) (a.k.a. Brad_tilf) 468k - Doom2/Port Required - DM - I would like to ask the author a question, if I may, regarding the text file. You're 41 years old, you're married, you have 3 children and 4 stepchildren. How do you have too much time on your hands?? Anyway, Power Plant Deathmatch is a small, simple DM wad. It's a little easy to get lost in, as it's one room seperated into six identical parts, which means hunting down the weapon you want will be a little difficult. It is sort of fun, though. And although repetitive the detail is good. Since it seems to be the only real deathmatch wad this week, I guess those DM players looking for a new wad will being going with this one. *GASP* That took way longer than it should have. That's newstuff, everyone. Hope it was worth the wait. *Hyena collapses