LadyMistDragon

Derringer - Sweet Evil

House of Pain (2001) by John @neubejiita Cartwright (GZ Doom) Even in his beginning days, John Cartwright was clearly interested in making maps for all source ports. This effort that likely followed the god-awful Hellpack that got released later, is considerably smaller and less ambitious than his later outings but already displays some of his characteristic architectural flair, along with extensive and optional outdoor areas. Although a third of the map's monster count seems to be in areas not obviously accessible and such areas don't need to accessed to open the exit. The little barrels near the incinerating structure with Imps are kind of cool and combat mostly serves to keep you driving forward. However, one particular grassy room nearly stopped me in my tracks. 4 Arch-viles that all seemed to be transparent with nothing but a Super Shotgun for them all, with the powerups idiotically being inside the room. Overall, this comes close to the most hideous use of transparent monsters I've ever seen, with them seeming only existing because they have to be. It's really too bad because there's lots of nice areas and we at least get a berserk pack at the beginning but this is simply too much 4/10

Their early albums were kind of crap but this is actually good. Kataklysm - Suicide River

For a smaller map, this packs in a few good ideas! It was pretty amusing to realize the dark room was just Entryway.

Eagerly awaiting Revenge of the Speeddemons btw!

Danny Brown - What Up Doe

The Wells of Woe (2022) by Austinado (From Doom with Love) Streamer and supreme dorkface Austinado released this set at some point toward the end of 2022 as an attempt at a more vanilla-style mapset than his previous effort Supercharge: Final Scourge. According to the text file, this contains practically all the Austin trademarks but I didn't get that far, dying to a back Arch-vile attack after returning to the main central arena. Speaking of which, there's a great sense of style and playing with geometric floor patterns that was also evident in the Final Scourge, though at least in The First Wells, is on a smaller scale. The opening area feels like something out of a 94 wad perhaps with the weird arrangement of objects and curved shape, along with largely darkened hallway. But sneaky Austin lifts up bars blocking the exit and teleporting away onto the pit of flesh will bring you to the main map, filled with barrels, former humans, and Imps! After a fashion at least. Pressing some switches opens the central power station where you're then teleported to a small chamber with Arch-viles in several places you can eventually telefrag before pushing more switches, taking more teleporters, and ending up back at the central arena. All this is less routine than it sounds though. The sense of humor is evident and none of the weird gimmicks really drag things down. While I've played more than enough multi-map wads in the last adventure, this one is well executed 8/10 After that.....hey, it's been a while since we got some of those... Vision1 (1995) by Jim "Bartman" Wiscarson (DSDA Doom) What Bartman is saying is that there is a transparent hallway surrounding the entirety of the visible player arena, seeming to consist of a series of light tan square towers with odd shapes at the corners. The ammo distribution here is the worst part though. While certainly available, this is not how anyone should place it around and stick tiny bits everywhere. DEADPOOL (1995) by David "Driller" Davidson (Crispy Doom) David Davidson is well known to this idgames adventurer naturally, for his role in the Innocent Crew as well as having been a prolific creation of largely mediocre deathmatch maps, kind of like this. A series of corridors, leading into some overhangs and a pool in each of full square and also a BFG at the bottom. For some reason, he also decided to replace some sound effects, like a less abrasive and oddly worst plasma sound and Corvus' laugh every time you pick up an item, in addtion to a different plasma sound.

Supertramp - Know Who You Are

I don't think anyone's told you but it's fine to put every update for your megawad in the same thread. In fact, it's viewed as better generally.

You like injecting a basic twist or two, don't you? Just when I was starting to look at enemies teleporting behind as a cliche, you stopped doing it. Maybe it could be done more effectively next time! That said, it's always nice to see people obviously having a good group on the basics of map making branching out to make some casual SLADE replacements. I dare anyone to claim Descent into Cerberon is bad. :)

There was this one called Doom 2 Changed that while often quite funny, had its moments (I'm thinking of this one map called "Mr. Sex" as an example)

Pretty good! Texture alignment in the opening hallways at least is near-perfect, and you have a strong concept of a real place despite the exclusive use of vanilla textures. Although the combat itself isn't really without its problems. In the titular region of the map, the teleportation that occurs when the blue key is picked up felt a touch awkward. While not playing aggressively will probably help here, there's something about running into a chaungunner flesh wall that is just so frickin aggravating. Not as much as the transparent former humans at the beginning of the ossuary which will send people flying into the wrong sort of conniptions. While the Spectre ambush at the berserk pack seems excessive, I do like how that comes after dispatching a single zombieman. Finally, the exit ambush is just too weird because the Revenants teleporting behind here are just so easy to evade. And the water hates you for some reason. I'd also suggest placing down some more rockets because this is also an awkward location to prevent infighting. Another thing, the sergeants at the first window aren't all facing it, which I doubt you intended. Still, it's far better than many first maps that are released here. Looking forward to more releases from you.

Repulsion (1966) There's an incredibly beautiful woman that can't stand the thought of relationships with men, or perhaps men in general. Feel kind of arty and a bit ironic too given the director <_>

Kataklysm - To Reign Again

Ramatam - Downrange Party

Not too bad although the last slime hallway was empty and devoid of basically anything. Up to this point, scale seemed pretty restrained and progression/combat flow was fine.

Nah, they were like a lot of metal bands in their early days in how they generally avoided stretching things out too much. But AJFA, one of their best regarded entries even...has a fair few songs that all go one too long. And the less said about Death Magnetic, the better ("All Nightmare Long" was certainly an appropriate title :P). I know there's some connection to the classically-inspired background of Cliff Burton, but plenty of other metal acts in their later period like Ozzy Osbourne and Alice on Chains made songs probably around twice the length of their effectiveness. The former especially is a shame because Ozzmosis is otherwise the last actually good Ozzy album, before the subsequent career became mired in boring outsider songwriting garbage that was so lacking with Bob Daisley's absence, it hurts.

The ones that are in Arch-vile Arrival and Steve88's map for Mysterious Mayan Mayhem.... Yeah...I can't be surprised.

forget it, it was the wrong map

OHM 2 (final) Note: I cleared all of these maps, believe it or not, except 1 Map 21: Ninth Burn rides again! Simple sort of square opening up like a kachina gun setup but respetively nasty. Mansion gives way to rock in quite a predictable fashion Map 22: Boring marble map. Some attempts at nasty traps but they're so-so. Map 23: So I may have complained about Death Bear's last map. But a color scheme with something out of thirteen, chaingunners you've really got to pay attention to and one last surprise nasty vile at the end all make a map much more fiercesome Map 24: Another Axuris techbase, though perhaps with some more teeth. Not like putting a Rev next to a staircase in an open outdoor area is quite the way to do it but... Map 25: Well, "No Room for Error" is kind of a lie, but there isn't lots of room to move around and monster placement is pretty vicious but it's not like there's lock-in fights necessarily. The kind of map all 25s should be perhaps Map 26: I'm actually not sure I finished this one because as the title indicates, it's a little unclear where the exit is. Well, I think you open the exit sign but anyways, one can potentially loop-de-loupe around and with a central courtyard and red-brick building, probably has at least more character than EagerBeaver's other effort. Despite its moments though, it was a little irritating to navigate around Map 27: Proves even shorter than the other Axuris map. Moving on..... Map 28: Yumheart brings us another inspired effort! Naturally, evading enemies will reward one with more traps and enemies are arranged in such a way that one can't let their guard down for a second! At least we have the BFG for the essentially easy finale. Tiny story: I somehow evaded the two Arch-viles that spawn when collecting the red key without being aware of them Map 29: Another death Bear map but he may have had a vaguer idea if what to do because the action all basically takes place in the same series of bookshelves, increasing in intensity and placing an Arch-vile on top of the exit just because he can. Although the exit's large enough it probably doesn't matter! It's probably not as speedrunner-friendly as the last map though Map 30: Caves and stuff that are quite narrow. It's also not terribly difficult Map 31: Kind of on the short and brutal end of things Map 32: Lunchlunch brings us this small gothic-themed map that still packs in plenty of brutality and chaos! Cyberdemon is something to keep in mind all the time whilst playing. Traps unleash more monsters. Probably only second to Yumheart's map but I sound like a broken record at this point So in conclusion, it doesn't really have the same amateurish charm as Tenth Gear and things like that but also contains a higher degree of professionalism with really hardly any bad maps, whatever you may think of Axuris' efforts and some other stuff.. In the end 6.5/10 The Last Bastion (1995) by Jim McColm (Crispy Doom) A rarity these days is someone uploading ancient maps. What's even more rare is seeing a top-shelf map from that time showing up. That is indeed the case with the Last Bastion, a map that makes no real visual innovations, being entirely based in the tan and base tropes generally used by maps of the time with little sign of deviation. However, there are some truly forward uses of combat that can be witnessed here. Quite apart from the pointless and annoying mass teleporting at the beginning that I suppose might be a concession/jump to those who take it slow and don't charge into every room, the red key room is honestly quite brilliant. Sure, there may largely be zombiemen in the middle but chaingunners and Imps, and even an Arch-vile can be found in the side rooms and stairwells. What's more, some of these guys can teleport downwards, although it probably shouldn't happen too often, but regardless, this is just extra incentive to keep moving. Please rocket the chaingunners when possible and you'll thank me later. The red key wing seems to be a tech area at first but then gives way to another dirt temple, oddly mazy and packed with some rather annoying pinkies, along with an Invulnerbility, which is a sign something big's coming. Basically, we'll pick up the yellow key at an alcove at one end, then the walls here will all lower and reveal 3 each of Cyberdemons and Spider Masterminds1 In truth, this isn't that intimidating because they'll all infight nicely and there are pillars to hide behind, but it's obvious why the green sphere's here. It would have gone better if less Masterminds had died the second go-around. Wasn't sure how to exit this room either. Oh, and there's also a Cyberdemon in the exit room. This is an ignored classic. Secrets and other layout bits kind of feel like Jens Nielsen but that's not really what the design centers around. Despite the odd and inconsistent use of enemies in symmetrical areas, it's still pretty nasty all the same. Out of words 8/10

Kataklysm - As The Glorious Weep