Lt.Gonflette

I'd retool Ancient Gods 1 and 2 into a full-fledged third NuDoom game (could be called "DOOM Beyond Eternal" as a nod to Hexen), give the Dark Lord and Samur the proper build-up they deserve, implement Erebus as the Lord Regent of Hell and top general of the Dark Lord, tease the Dark Lord and Erebus in Eternal, and fix the plot holes from Eternal. Immora could look like an oversized city reminiscent of John Martin's paintings (which often feature gigantic halls and palaces) and Le Corbusier's projects for major European cities. Have the player strive throughout the whole game to breach Immora, and see Earth and Argentan armies slowly building outposts in Hell in preparation for the final assault. Also, no more "Mysterious Voice" and "Primevals" that are above the Dark Lord or something. It just makes the conflict to save the multiverse in NuDoom sound insignificant. I could turn this into a small-sized fanfiction but you get my point :p

Playing through RC5 with GZDoom. A true testament to the skills of the mappers involved. The wad is hard and unforgiving, but the fights are adrenaline-fueled and the levels gorgeous. Oh and the OST is a bop. Currently on MAP14, and one thing I have to ask: Can't wait to see what the rest of Eviternity II has to offer!

Your wad was featured on the Doom Wads YouTube channel. Nice! So I tried Dark Tooth twice, allowing myself to save the first time, but not the second. He does a lot of damage and wrecks you if you try and fight him head-on, so I decided to use hit-and-run tactics in Phase 1. On my first try he seemed to have been mauled pretty badly by his own creations, because when I engaged him again after running away for a while, he died quickly. On my second try he seemed to have taken less damage from his friends but his health still got whittled away over the course of 5-6 minutes. Phase 2 is tricky, weapons are only available if you can get past him and his henchmen, and you fight him in an enclosed arena. Again, using monster infighting is invaluable – and dare I say, inevitable – for defeating him. On my second, saveless try I decided to not engage him at all and just circlestrafed. While I did get killed three minutes in, he'd lost two thirds of his health by then. My conclusion is that Dark Tooth, especially Phase 2, is an "endurance" boss fight, while Minion is more traditional since it's 1v1. On a side note, I noticed that Shadow, Hammerhead, Spectre and the bosses don't make the "male_scream" sound when they die. Overall, it certainly is a fun mod!

Hi! Haven't played the new release yet, but I will shortly. Yup, sorry about my concise comment. New York was a fine and fun map :) About my playthrough of Holland and Hong Kong in the previous version: while I never actually died, the fact that I saved a lot might have made me more level-headed and less nervous. When you know you'll have to start all over if you die, nerves can easily get to you and cause you to mess up. Fair enough. I guess you technically could draw linedefs that block monsters and not the player, but it would be kinda hard to actually fall in there, so I imagine there's not much point making them breakable. EDIT: Alright, so I replayed through a few levels. I tried Holland without saving, and it sure is harder! Almost made it but I got careless and died to an Arch-vile. The exit on Hong Kong doesn't work (I see on the map that there are teleporter linedefs, but the exit teleporter does nothing). Dark Tooth stage is glitched, I die as soon as I spawn and it just repeats the level. Also, if I toggle God mode on and off, I keep taking damage until I'm dead. I tried it in GZDoom and PrBoom+ and it happened in both ports. Twister is deadly! My strat is to isolate her and unleash the scattergun at point-blank range whenever possible. Lastly, there is a pit of lava in Minion's stage with missing textures (it's behind the northern temple with two rooms). Keep at it chief :)

Played through the rest of the wad. Here's my observations: Nothing of note to say about New York. In Antarctica, you can actually land on a glacier on the southeastern corner of the map (shown in spoilered screenshot). Since there's nothing to do here except reload a save, this glacier begs for a secret area and a teleporter back to the arena :^) Also, if you fall too close to the actual wall that borders the water, the water doesn't damage you, you have to wade closer to the glacier for it to kill you. Here's some missing textures on the teleporter on the isolated glacier: Holland was actually easier than I thought it would be (came close to dying once but I had more trouble on Moscow and Amazonia). This level could use more monsters, as it was a clusterfuck in TM2 after all. (keep in mind I do save a lot, so your mileage may vary) The groups of red barons in Holland shown in the spoilered screenshot could not move until I killed one in each group. Hong Kong looks gorgeous, nice job there man! Gameplay-wise, this map could have more monsters too, there's a loooot of downtime and space to maneuver in, and as the final map, I think it should be tougher. Also, after unlocking the tunnels, I wandered around the map for a few minutes, not knowing what to do, until I realized that the switches in the tunnel didn't require red and yellow keys to operate, but spawned the red and yellow keys in the temple. I know other maps have such switches, but for a reason or another I'd forgotten when I came to this map. Also, I understand blocking the wharves with barriers, but I believe it would be more fun if you could actually break them and fall to your death in the water. If breakable barriers are too hard to code in, maybe put barrels – or something – that are hard to break, but once they blow up it adds some danger to the area? The Pain Elementals that spawn next to these bars in the subway tunnels are stuck in them (sorry I only took a screenshot after killing them). All in all, cool wad! The hardest map here is definitely Moscow, which is not surprising if you know TM2.

You're welcome chief ;) So I played maps 3 thru 5, here is some more observations. Monsters: Firstly, I realized that I didn't read your original post as thoroughly as I thought, because the Freeze Zombie isn't the only monster who freezes: Hammerhead does too, though my original point still stands. I can't say for certain given how frantic fights are in this wad, but I feel like I had less trouble with Hammerhead than the Freeze Zombie. Maybe Hammerhead's freeze range is shorter? Spectre is still annoying (it shows in, you guessed it, Paris) but nowhere nearly as much as in TM2. I'd say here he's annoying in a *good* way if that makes sense, in that he keeps you on your toes without having bullshit homing tracking. I don't like the little skull bats, as they fill the same niche as Sweet Tooth's ice cream cones (flying pest that serve as a distraction), can deal horrendous damage in groups and don't count towards monster kills. Warthog makes me laugh with his stout gait, I think the former Commando sprite fits him well :) It helps that he's my favorite character in TM2. Minion is hard. While my habit of save-scumming makes levels a lot easier, he packs a nasty punch, and the stripped-down version of Amazonia you fight him in barely gives enough ammo on Pistol-start... which might be a good thing, because you don't get to just dogpile him like you would a Cybie in vanilla Doom. All in all, TM inspired monsters are a lot tougher than the rest, which is why using monster infighting is paramount to staying alive. I'd argue some monsters could use an HP nerf though (Grasshopper and the skull bats come to mind). Weapons: Not much to say here, the weapons are fun and do the job, though automatic weapons are better at killing hordes. I particularly love the Straight Shooter and Scattergun. Levels: So the maps are wide open, giving you ample space to maneuver. It took me a moment to understand how to navigate the roofs in Paris; maybe there are OTEX or Auger Zenith textures that indicate movement or teleportation? Oh, and in Los Angeles it's possible to jump behind the grassy area near the exit and leave the arena. I know you're not supposed to jump but that's just a small detail I noticed. Questions about the final boss: Take care man.

Just beat the first two maps on GZDoom, Ultra-Violence, Pistol Start. Congrats for the beta release! I have a few observations. First, Moscow loops after I beat it. This happened on GZDoom and PrBoom+, so I know it's not a GZDoom quirk. On to the gameplay itself: As someone who doesn't have much experience with slaughterwads, it's pretty brutal: enemies can withstand a lot of punishment and I beat map 1 and 2 with just barely enough health and ammo (I don't know if item placement is different on easier difficulties, but I guess my experience is to be expected considering I was on UV). It was pretty frantic and exhilarating fighting all those monsters, dodging all those projectiles and revisiting familiar places from a totally different game. The attention to detail and translation of Twisted Metal maps on the Doom engine was not lost on me. One monster I don't like though, is the Freeze Zombie. I know his behavior can't be helped and you'd have to build the wad with GZDoom in mind to give him an actual freeze projectile, but he can stun you in place from a long range while you're focusing on other monsters, and there's nothing you can do about it. Minion I can understand because he's a boss and you face him 1-on-1 (and you're not supposed to be standing close to him anyway), but the Freeze Zombie, eh :/ Maybe you could make a Twister monster who zips around the map with melee attacks but is super frail or something? Anyway, I'll be diving back to play the rest of the game. I haven't watched your Hong Kong video just so that I could experience it blind, but the screenshots look juicy :)

Hands of Necromancy II: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2706450/Hands_of_Necromancy_II/

Currently on Episode 2 and I've been enjoying my time with this wad. I like the understated audio and the atmospheric, liminal quality to those maps. I haven't found any secret level, so more excuses to replay this later on :-) Just so people know, the wad is compatible with small UI mods that add info to the HUD (I use levelinfo.pk3 and z_pr_mapmarkers_modified.pk3). I've also been playing this with pistolstart.wad without issues, though I set "Keep Inventory Items" to "On" just to be on the safe side with the modules and all.

Not sure if it counts because I only played it for like an hour, but I could not get into Cruelty Squad. Might give it another shot someday, but to me it felt like a more frustrating version of Deus Ex.

Not sure they actually have fun per se, aside from torturing humans or something. Former humans and lost souls probably just stand in place waiting for something to happen, as they don't strike me as sentient. Spider Masterminds and Cyberdemons must be busy actually planning out logistics, while the other demons patrol or wait for orders.

Nostalgia on UV-pistol start. Eh, if I'm careful I should be fine.

Really proud of what you guys have achieved, and I can't wait for the upcoming expansion with all the QoL additions! Keep on scavvin'

Unhinged 2 by Darsycho: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2373200/Unhinged_2/

Liminal Doom scratches the "short WAD itch" very nicely. It gets straight to the point and portrays the feeling of liminality you'd get from going to such places (or by proxy through pictures) really well with those undulating props and hallways, almost-sensical-but-not-quite architecture, and the appropriately selected, atmospheric soundtrack. The monster arenas are just as devious as they are ingenious, and the Arch-viles in particular are used extremely well here, forcing you to dodge your way through packed crowds in small areas, while tanking fireballs, keeping your finger clamped on the trigger and getting behind what little cover there is before being blasted by Arch fire. On a particular note (see spoiler): Oh, and the ending: Great job dudes!