LadyMistDragon

joker1.zip (1994) by Montanuy (Oliver?) It adds an Akira flying platform to...something, your avatar or does it replace a gun? Either way, this was probably incredibly clunky to use. Planet x 1.0 (1996) by Rick Troppman (DSDA Doom) Oddly enough, Oliver Montanuy gets mentioned in the credits. But anyways, here's a map seemingly more suited in DM but can be played just as well in single-player. Although the layout oddities are a little hard to get behind, combat is actually not half-bad at all if a little on the easy side, even though putting Disciples in closets is just....a choice. Even the Maulotaur in the last room isn't too bad with a Tome of Power that you've hopefully located. Speaking of, the little fancy symbols on the floor are actually quite well done. Only the last room really stands out though and I'm still not sure what the green key was supposed to open or if the blue key room was accessed by something else.

Smog - It's Rough

The short answer is yes

So I'm like, this total sucker for these pseudo-natural environments and that one secret shotgun may have taunted me a little bit so I spent more time than I needed and got only 50 percent of secrets. Pretty good as an easier map though! Also sector trees :)

Naturally it would be The Twilight because i know how to throw barbs if I choose

episilone.wad or episilone eridani wad (1995) by Doug Ryerson (Crispy Doom) The story makes literally zero sense but the TITLEPIC is at least funny to look at. I do find myself wondering why Doug would make a map for Doom when Doom II had been out for five months but this doesn't feel like a map where challenge was a central goal since there are few monsters from E2. Not to mention I think he just liked the E1 texturing a lot All bollocks aside, this actually is among Doug Ryerson's best maps, in part because of the admittedly easy but still rather startling ambushes at a few points throughout the map. This, despite the many technical problems, including a particularly egregious set of misalignments at one stairway, the silly direction one is facing when they start. Well, that might be it for technical problems, but the layout is pretty weird and hard to describe. While a linear map when all is said and done, there's a lot of crisscrossing through a series of rather cramped and indistinct passageways through. These passageways connect such locales as a sort of monitoring station where a particularly well-timed ambush will lower a lift that you can also lower if you're standing next to a switch over it, as well as some admittedly non-descript sewer tunnels that are ironically easy to navigate when compared to the rest of the map. But the lighting would have to be one of the best parts of this map. Doug really seemed to be playing with lighting levels here, with a lot of areas being incredibly dark, yet still containing more lit sections placed strategically throughout. While things quickly start to get weird if you match the layout too much to a real-world location, the atmosphere's still there. Although perhaps Doug could've been less generous with the supplies. I think that if you're bad at finding secrets, you might have a hard time without the plasma rifle in one or two spots but the fact remains that there's a fair bit more ammo than they needs to be. Regardless, there's really little to complain about here. It may not be particularly good-looking but is still worth looking into 7.5/10

Truly - Tragic Telepathic (Soul Slasher)

Map 18: Die Heuschrecke by Chris Harbin Crispy Doom, UV, Pistol start I should probably know what fake German pharase that is but there's really not much to say. It's harder than something like Community Chest and maybe Requiem's IOSs too, but not by much. A bunch of mandatory switch pushing, working our way around some tan hellish diamond, heading outside then seemingly heading down a bland exit hallway before being greeted by the distorted electronic voice of....some big bad. We then push more switches, which lower that block seen in the center, where we can then press a switch which opens the mouth, which we're basically intended to plunge into the intestines of where we can then rocket a thingy in an unclear spot and bring an end to the big bad Final Thoughts Operation: Biowar is well-deserving of its status as a classic megawad. Not as flashy as Strain, not as stimulating as Memento Mori 2, and containing a certain lack of combat polish that's hard to really fall in love with, it nevertheless provides a good grounding in the gameplay of 90s wads and what's more, displays enough creative usage of vanilla textures, with a few custom ones thrown in for fun every now and then that it doesn't feel quite so monotonous as something like the Rebirth which might be more refined in the combat sense but never quite knew how to go all out. Not like Chris Harbin did either, but he still made a decent effort to do so at certain times. Every so often, a Map 11 or 18 would come along that represented a stab at difficulty along with occasional impressive visual elements that showed plenty of potential. Even then, it's hard to argue that they necessarily coalesced into anything consistent, which might be why the John Bishop UAC Prison ends up ranking so highly in personal favorite Biowar maps (I'm still not doing a list though, I'm over that rn). I wouldn't really say it's worth more than a replay or two but arguably is a much smoother play than either of the two Memento Moris or STRAIN. Just be prepared to accept that combat simply is not quite so active as more modern map sets.

afrits Arachnorbs Kamikazes Rowdy Rudy rocket guys Cyber Annihilators.

Arch-viles. Basically everything about them, apart from their appearance maybe is calculated to bring fear and due to their moving patterns will always be fun to fight/avoid/and any option between those two. Least favorite - Lost Souls. They definitely have their place but are annoying, nuff said. Although Spectres are a close second but that's more due to their common misuse and abuse.

L7 - Scatter the Rats

This is sooooo nice! It's not the first expanded E1M1 by any means, nor really the largest either but the commitment to the theme has to be admired. I have no idea why there's another section behind where we would normally have entered the base but it does kind of add to the otherworldly quality of this place. And as Zesiir said, the boss moments were incredibly well-crafted in their arenas and the overall level of danger which existed. I'd feel sorry for someone attempting to demo this because of the cyber though. Sorry, this cuts-off near the end. I hit the wrong key sometimes.

Map 17: Sacrilege by Chris Harbin Crispy Doom, UV, pistol-start We are in pure metaphor territory now with a start probably feared greatly in 1999; a Cyberdemon facing away from us in the center of a stark wooden fort. Well turns out that the rest of the map doesn't quite match up but at the same time, the action's far more consistent than the last map and if the ambushes are largely easy, they are still respectable. Like the Caco cloud that floats into a cave from a ledge with a rocket launcher probably intended for them. The hardest section comes at the very end though, with a large open crimson-rocked area with a lava lake in the center and pillars that go up and down like something out of Level 7 of Turok once switches on the sides activate them. But this section also contains a Mastermind across the lake from us with a collection of Lost Souls in front, a Mancubus and Revenant occupying ledges on either side and Imps directly in front. Taking into account that ammo and particularly health are at a premium here when compared to other maps and it's easy to see how this one might turn out moderately difficult. Although there's oddly no Arch-vile at the ending. Map is kind of flash in the pan atm, but there was something else I wanted to look into atm. I can say that Chris made possibly the best he could of limited resources to make a number of impressive places, despite the many less ambitious corridors that can be found as well.

WAKE UP, TNT MEGAWAD JUST DROPPPED!

Smog - Strawberry Rash

I liked 35 better. Although I still didn't have the time for it, it was pretty cute and anyway more my speed than health starvation and fairly chaingun centered action of this.

Autechre - Eggshell

Pretty good, although I feel good vaguely echoing the complaint of Zahir about the maps being a little too easy - it seemed particularly evident here, other than the circumstances where Cybers can't be avoided.

I had the audio turned down for other reasons and never bothered turning it up again. I doubt that will change Because I thought this might be a jokewad at first and didn't really take the time to look through the OP carefully. Of course, I realized it probably wasn't when I started but I wasn't exactly going to check again at that point :P Oh, I definitely had rockets.

Hellhold (1996) by Jason Morris and George Fiffy (Crispy Doom) I hadn't rolled a George Fiffy map up to this point, and even here, only one here is his work. Instead, much of the attention is taken up by the maps of Jason Morris, a possible protege who seems to have no other /idgames submissions. Perhaps the mapping thing just didn't work out because King Re0l did occasionally help people out. But in any case, these first two maps are pretty bad. Too many lengthy corridors stuffed with too many monsters and while the combat is competent at the beginning, despite the supreme ugliness, a really tall lift (another King Re0l trademark) along with a stupid joke death room unlocked by a nearby blue key and the general sense that space was merely being filled, it's not really the most engaging map out there. Occasionally, certain rooms (the Wolfenstein dining room in E2M1 or the toilet in E2M2 will shine as areas where more effort was put into the detailing. But in general, Jason seems determined to emulate the style of Re0l with the vast amounts of monsters generally plopped down. One particular closet in particular in E2M1 was incompetently implemented enough that it opens before you reach it and will likely close a few second later unless you double back. Unfortunately, there's no way out of either of these closets before plunging in. I can just see George throwing up his hands after attempting to get Jason to implement the right linedef action and finding it just broke something else. I made zero effort to finish E2M2 because Jason doubled down on everything but the tall-ass lifts, making it a complete chore to play. Hardly less of a chore is E2M3 because as well all know shotgunningBaronsisthemostfunyoucouldpossiblyhaveinDoom and despite containing enough ammo and health it's a little hard not to survive, the refusal to provide any stronger weapons turns the whole thing into a massive, massive slog that eases up too much when the opening courtyard gets cleared out. While the map itself is an actually good representation of a hotel King R***0l must have thought it ought to be kept to the same difficulty as his other maps since every single room is stuffed to the gills with monsters. The cafe and hotel desk were kind of nice but placing the yellow key behind a random wall is BS and the trigger that opens the exit is at the very least, unclear. Now I'm told there's maps where George did a good job but those also controlled the ammo a little bit more and perhaps didn't need to stuff every square inch with monsters, although you might see things that list him as an early purveyor of slaughter. For parts of E2M1 and a just below passable mediocrity of Hell Hotel, this then gets a 3.5/10

Map 16: The Killing Fields by Chris Harbin Crispy Doom, pistol-start, UV A decent enough collection of map sketches with some unforgivably anemic combat and the name feels pulled out of the air somehow. Sure there's a massive field around an island with the exit but the issue is the incredibly spread-out low tiers. The map continues, into arguably some of the best vine-filled caverns this wad has featured so far, along with dungeon pits and basically the shiniest tech base that one could imagine. The use of scattered light in one area leading to the last bit of progression is pretty nice though. Forgetting a certain courtyard overseen by four chaingunners, there isn't much that's genuinely threatening. Although the last trap does open closets of Lost Souls on either side while failing to crush a nearby Baron for some reason. But at least the secret hallway was pretty funny. Everything dies bu a Mancubus at the very end and there isn't really too much reward but it's there and it also feels good to find. Just don't miss the switch off the blue key door courtyard that unlocks it. The maze has a horrible texture though and just has a BFG 9000 placed at one ever so carelessly. As environments go, these are all pretty nice but the action per square footage doesn't quite measure up. https://youtu.be/XwEE1ASraB0

Swallow - Head in a Cave

I'm not sure why DBP or DBP-derived themes in this case I think work so well for you but they do! I think the never-ending trickle of enemies after the red key is collected gets tiresome since it takes too long for them all to enter the room. In that time, it's easy to enter the red key door and miss like half a dozen enemies.