I Drink Lava

While Odessa 1 through 13 have been curiosities for many years due to their former lost media status, Odessa 14 is the only one that's really worth playing nowadays. Owing to the Eternal Doom experience, Bob Evans made significant leaps in quality when it came to architecture, lighting, texture usage, and encounters. Level progression, unfortunately, is convoluted as ever. One thing I really hate about this map is the fact that there are two helpful walkways that can keep you out of the "slime maze", but the switches to raise them are hidden behind unmarked doors. I also couldn't figure out how to get the Plasma Rifle, though you don't really need it with all the shells laying around.

The 9th Odessa map takes another step up in quality with some interesting setpieces, notably the bridge with Imps and Hell Knights on both sides while Pinkies close in. The progression isn't too cryptic for Bob Evans' standards, although the map is still far from being straightforward. Would it really have been so much trouble to just use lift and door textures on lifts and doors? Of the formerly lost Odessa maps in the archives, I think only this and Odessa 3 are really worth your time. 3.5/5

The 8th Odessa map starts out pretty interesting, with a series of dickish, Plutonia-esque traps. There's a rather interesting one involving a staircase that's actually a series of lifts that serve to waste your time, only to open up a closet full of Pinkies who gradually close the gap between you and the damaging floor. There is one annoying Bob Evans trick where a door opens behind a fake wall; guess he intended for you to listen closely? There's also an entire optional blue key wing that's found with a double linedef secret, but honestly it's not worth the hassle. It takes just as long to complete as the main level and your only rewards are a BFG9000 and Soulsphere that ultimately go unused since everything's already dead.

The 7th Odessa map is another fairly standard 1995 map bogged down by Bob Evans' signature style of frustrating unmarked doors and tedious backtracking. The very start of the map requires you to tiptoe over the lift linedef in order to open a switch that lowers the gate. Was that really necessary? Making this map even more frustrating is the fact that you only need the blue key to reach the exit. The entire rest of the map is a wild goose chase for a BFG9000. The path that leads to it starts with a secret rock alcove that looks solid, but actually houses Lost Souls and a switch. The best part? The BFG9000 ultimately goes unused, as everything is dead by that point. I'm starting to think Bob Evans was the Doom community's first troll.

The sixth Odessa map starts off almost feeling like a standard 1996 WAD give or take a few unmarked mandatory secrets. The map falls apart at the end, where you need to find both a secret Yellow keycard and a secret Red keycard to open the exit that's just arbitrarily placed in a random hallway you were already in. The Yellow keycard isn't too hard to find, but the Red keycard is up on a high ledge in a blood-red room you can easily miss. It's triggered by walking up to a red torch in the damaging blood pool. I mean, I guess it's telegraphed; the other 3 torches are green & I knew what to do immediately. The five minutes of noclipping to backtrack to that area didn't help, and the ending is underwhelming as usual with just a bunch of Imps and two Chaingunners. At least the Soulsphere secret is cool?

The fifth Odessa map is a step up in architecture, lighting, and combat encounters. Unfortunately, it's a huge step back in logical level progression. This map will drive most of its players to quit in frustration, or at the very least to noclip. Most of the switches are behind unmarked secrets, to the point where the actual secrets are easier to find. I don't usually like spoiling maps, but since this map wasted about an hour of my life: the alcove with the lowering crate actually has an unmarked door on the right that leads to the yellow skull key. You will need to find the red keycard first to get the blue skull key; the earlier red key door in the elevator hub is just a red herring.

The fourth Odessa map is a somewhat cramped and ugly E2 tribute with the usual dim lighting and confusing progression. Many of the mandatory secrets are marked with texture offsets, but it still begs the question of why they should be secret in the first place? Battles are mostly small scale, with the final challenge before the exit being a single Baron. There is a somewhat interesting E2M2 tribute in one wing of the map, but you can softlock yourself from reaching it by stepping into the wrong corner of that room with the furnace thing.

The third Odessa map takes a step up in quality from the previous two. The room layouts are more complex with better use of vertical space. There's an interesting escape room involving switches on crushers, which I honestly don't think I've seen done before in a Doom map. I wish Doomworld would let me rate this 3.5/5, but I'll have to give it 3/5 since it's not good enough to be great even for 1995 standards.

The second Odessa map is a little bit better, in that it at least telegraphs most of its mandatory secret switches. The layout is derivative of Heretic E1M1, though, so it loses points for originality.

The first Odessa map from 1995 is a bad sign of things to come: ugly architecture, boring fights, and tedious switch hunts involving tons of backtracking. A map that would normally take about 3 minutes to complete is stretched out to over 20 minutes.

The final dickie map is a bit of a letdown, starting with a really basic (though nicely-lit) three-door hub and ending with a large, mostly empty reactor setpiece. The exit is a boss brain that's not telegraphed at all and I only knew to shoot because I gave up and noclipped. I have no idea why this was included in 2003's "Top 100 WADs" list when dickie04, dickie05, dickie08, and dickie09 were so much better than this.

The ninth dickie map is a pretty standard romp through some fairly challenging fights. Some standout moments include a massive monster closet (made easy with a nearby Invulnerability) and a part where you get locked in a cage with many Cacodemons teleporting outside. The architecture and lighting are well-done for 1998, though some spots seem a bit basic.

The eighth dickie map is a complex key and switch hunt reminiscent of Jim Flynn's works, but on a much smaller scale. Some of the puzzles are a bit obtuse, with the solutions usually being a random wall that lowers behind you. One particularly nasty one involves a yellow key trap that insta-gibs you without warning unless you take a leap of faith onto a random ledge opened by the same switch that temporarily opens a teleporter in a wall behind where the escape teleporter in that slime pit take you. Aside from those issues, the map has excellent lighting and detail for the time and a few tricky encounters too.

The seventh dickie map is an interesting E4-styled challenge. Not a lot of standout moments or architecture aside from some bloodfalls near the beginning, but it's still a solid 15-minute romp. Progression towards the end becomes a little confusing, though, with the exit inside a rather mundane-looking tunnel full of enemies after escaping the Cyberdemon room.

The sixth map in the dickie series takes a step back in quality with a basic hell temple that feels straight out of 1995. There's a few tricky battles on narrow walkways reminiscent of Doom 64's Hectic, as well as a very tedious teleporter trap with Imps in a tiny alcove. The ending Archvile trap is as infuriating as it is predictable.

Another great map in the dickie series. A tense opening involving chaingun snipers at every turn leads to an interesting classic-style key and switch hunt through some tricky fights. It's the kind of map where it pays to memorize locations that will be opened up by keys later. Richard Wiles conveys a keen sense for interconnectivity through careful usage of ledges and windows, particularly with the switch that lowers the blue key. The final arena (if you could call it that) is a bit underwhelming though and the last room seems like an awful trick to play on anyone shooting for UV-Max. It also has the same problem as dickie02, where getting the plasma rifle requires wasting your time with backtracking.

The first great map in the dickie series. It's a sprawling maze with enemies all around and clever sector connectivity reminiscent of John Romero's works. Some of the switch and teleporter progression towards the end feel like they could've been streamlined, but dickie04 is overall a fun 15 minutes of your time.

The third dickie map takes a step up in quality with a pretty typical four door hub layout featuring nice traps and interconnectivity. The final arena feels vaguely Plutonia-esque, but it's made easy with a secret BFG9000 that's not difficult to find.

The second map in the dickie series is a pretty standard 90s map, starting with a dark, E4-esque maze before continuing on to some basic fights. Nothing really stands out as exceptional, though I will say that it's annoying you have to leap for the SSG and then backtrack all the way to the teleporter for the blue key card. Was that really necessary?