The DWmegawad Club plays: Coffee Break & Fava Beans & Double Impact

What is the DWmegawad Club?
This is a place where we settle down, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice) and take a month to play through a megawad on our own, together! Any keen observations, criticisms, or frustrated ranting about it goes here in the discussion. As long as you want to say something about what you've played, feel free to speak your mind.

Can I join?
Sure. The only rule is that you have to play at least some of the levels in our monthly megawad to contribute, but you're generally encouraged to finish the whole thing, even if you've played it before.

What levels am I allowed to post about?
We play a level a day, and the schedule is down below.

Do I have to post an entry every day?
Nope, not at all. This is only for our more enthusiastic members. As long as you play through it with us you’re part of the club.

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The wad we are playing through is Double Impact

>>>DOWNLOAD COFFEE BREAK<<<
>>>DOWNLOAD FAVA BEANS<<<
>>>DOWNLOAD DOUBLE IMPACT<<<

First is Coffee Break: Episode 1, a Doom 2 11-map replacement solely by Matt Tropiano. It started as a full megawad replacement but he opted to publish it as is, releasing this episode full of short but action-packed fun. Next, Fava Beans is a Doom 1 E1 replacement from 1995, by primarily Sean Birkel (one map is by Ben Gates). It has a reputation for being an easy journey that captures a lot of the elements that made Knee Deep in the Dead great. Juxtaposed to it is our final wad, Double Impact, a Doom 1 E1 collaboration by Ralphis and Rottking. It’s conception was formed around the idea of trading the map back and forth after a small amount had been worked on it by each author. It’s a tough, monster heavy odyssey that should provide a suitable bang! to the end of May.

Schedule:
May 1st-11th: Coffee Break
May 12th-20th19th: Fava Beans
May 21st-28th20th-27th: Double Impact

COFFEE BREAK

Quote

MAP01 - Storage
MAP02 - Reservoir
MAP03 - Outpost
MAP04 - Toxic
MAP05 - Control
MAP06 - Checkpoint
MAP07 - Deadly
MAP08 - Archives
MAP09 - Channel
MAP10 - Fort
MAP11 - Stalker

FAVA BEANS

Quote

E1M1 - Gaspra Armory
E1M2 - Hangar 18
E1M3 - Impalement Station
E1M9 - Creeping Death
E1M4 - Triton Lunar Base
E1M5 - Charon’s Lab by Ben Gates
E1M6 - Shadows of Darkness
E1M7 - Titan’s Anomaly
E1M8 - Orion Outpost

DOUBLE IMPACT

Quote

E1M1 - Maintenance Area
E1M2 - Central Computing
E1M3 - Research Complex
E1M9 - Operations
E1M4 - Hydroponic Facility
E1M5 - Engineering Station
E1M6 - Command Center
E1M7 - Waster Treatment
E1M8 - Launch Bay

BONUS CONTENT
Kmxexii reviews: Coffee Break | Fava Beans | Double Impact
Larzuk's playthrough of Coffee Break on YouTube
Suitepee's playthrough of Coffee Break | Fava Beans | Double Impact
Doom Speed Demos: Coffee Break | Fava Beans | Double Impact
Matt Tropiano's notes on Coffee Break
Where's All the Data?'s playthrough on twitch:
Fava Beans
Double Impact: 1 2 3
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OLD THREADS
BF_THUD!
Community Chest 4
Jenesis
MAYhem 2012
Memento Mori
Interception
2002: A Doom Odyssey
Hadephobia
Coffee Break & Fava Beans & Double Impact
HYMN
Stardate 20X6 & Monochrome Mapping Project
Realm of Chaos
Back to Saturn X E1 & Favillesco E1
Kama Sutra
Unholy Realms & Zone 300
Vile Flesh
Ultimate Doom
Whitemare & Sacrament
Scythe
Epic 2
Whitemare 2

I may take some time and have some fun this time around. I will probably be busy so I may only take part in Coffee Break when I get a little extra time. I also have a play through of it here. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD972C67C951EBD74

You might want to change the schedule months from March to May.

HMP. Continous. Liberal F5/F9. No music.

MAP01 - Storage
Well, this is certainly a map01 that doesn't mess about : right from the start you're caught in a crossfire of imps, troops, sergeants and demons. The combination makes a cautious approach challenging, but of course racing out to grab a shotgun also carries its own risks.

The level shows this clever combination of threats in later sections, too. The green armor trap, while obvious, uses demons to thwart a simple grab and run. A hell knight provides harrassing fire to keep you on your toes in a large chamber. The western room situates a chaingunner in a dominating position, encouraging a frantic dash across the southern end of the room, and probably dropping you in more danger. Good stuff.

Looks-wise, everything is fine. Solid techbase stuff. Good use of varying heights, ledges and overlooks to make combats feel dynamic.

Map01 – Kills – 100, Items – 100, Secret – 100. Time 14:08. End Health 100, Armor 103. Death Count – 4

Playing UV, continuous, with save-spamming, and at a walking pace unless compelled otherwise, as usual.

Coffee Break gets off to a roaring start. I don’t believe in easy first levels, since after all, the best time to slap the player around with lower-level enemies is in Map01, before they have stuff like rocket launchers and plasma guns and you need to call in an air strike to take them out. I’m happy to say that Matt appears to agree with me. What you get here is mostly Doom 1-style entertainment, with well-placed hitscanners able to snipe you from more than one direction at a time. This is really my favorite type of Doom play, going up against lots of hitscanners and Imps with just a single-barrel shotgun and getting into white-knuckle melees. Right off the bat, I got whacked 4 times in a row trying to force my way past the first door and up to the Hell Knight. After this, I decided to change my strategy by going up the staircase along the side to get the armor, which triggered a 3-Imp trap that I survived, but I was reduced to 26% health.

If I have any criticism about the gameplay, it’s that the map is front-loaded. The hardest fight is at the start, in the opening courtyard and the first room. After that, you get the chaingun and the map becomes much easier, 4 Revvies notwithstanding. I believe that some well-placed Chaingunners would have been deadlier.

In terms of looks, the map is very sharp, a mostly Brown1 and Brown96 techbase with good use of computer panels, outdoor rock textures, and in architecture, nice use of variable heights for interesting combat situations. I was also happy to see that Matt adhered to Romero’s Rules regarding floor textures, and that he did not place any items in unavoidable locations. This is clearly the work of an experienced mapper who knows how to produce an enjoyable run ‘n gun blastfest.

I personally had never heard of Matt or Coffee Break until Capellan suggested this mapset. If the rest of the maps maintain the high standard of the first, I’ll be a very happy Doomer.

Map01:

Right in the face you're thrown with lots of hitscanners and demons. Detail and layout flow is convincing enough. I can tell a nice wad full of action from the first map.

Since I'm doing an ongoing Let's Play with Coffee Break, I might as well chip in to this thread for my first entry to this club! I'm currently only up to map 7, but I will be striving to finish Coffee Break soon as I want to play two upcoming community projects, so I will try to update as often as possible.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqbI6-fu868mFAGaxUzmN6DM3kcRRCqwI = my ongoing Coffee Break playlist.

Map 1: Storage (100% Kills/Items/Secrets, played on UV)

http://youtu.be/H_Ynz1cxIBA = my playthrough of Storage.

The opening is alright here, and not too difficult to clear. (compared to later level openings...) I already like the clever placement of enemies hiding behind boxes and whatnot. The outside 'cliffs' remind me a bit of the Giant's Causeway.
Nice trap with the armor, having the Pinkies block your retreat whilst throwing 3 imps at you from the front. We'll be seeing more of this style of trap later on.
Decently placed secret switch for the Mega Armor, although somewhat easy to spot if you're looking for stuff like hidden switches on the sides of things. Still this is the first level so I wasn't expecting secrets to be too concealed away at this point.

The reveal of the two Revenants is nicely done outside, and the lone Pinky that accompanies them makes for a nice rocket "meat shield" of sorts!
The blue keycard trap is also nicely done, teleporting in a Pinky to block the obvious door escape whilst two more Revenants appear up top with another Pinky. This trap didn't prove too hard to beat however, as I seemingly had time to kill the teleporting Pinky before picking off the Revenants safely from the other side of the door.

Second secret via collecting the berserk pack atop the crates is cool, of which I'll be seeing a bit more of this style of 'secret' as the wad progresses also.

I love the level clear music! I will look forward to hearing that uplifting victory tone each time I clear a level in Coffee Break.

Overall a decent opening level, with a nice mixture of enemy types and some decently timed traps.

Coffee Break is good fun. Fava Beans is pretty boring but it basically nails E1. Double Impact is brutal but phenomenal. I hope Ralphis and RoTTKing tag team E2, E3, or Doom II, because their maps r teh best.

Hiya guys, new to the club. Hope to play some stuff here and there, as May is going to be a bit busy for me. Before days I won't be here on, I'll play numerous maps in a row and post my reviews in here.

Playing on UV, pistol-start default, GZDoom.

Map01 : Storage | 4:53 | 100% kills, 93% items, 50% secrets | 0 deaths

Ah, Coffee Break. A wad I've been looking for an excuse to play again. I don't even like coffee, but this is a whole different thing. Definitely one of my favorite wads out there, and it starts with a bang.
A nice, brown techbase-y map, which kicks off with our good ol' favorite TNT Map01 tune. The map has a couple of surprising fights which might've caught me off guard if I hadn't played this before.

One thing I love about this wad is the monster placement and the well hidden secrets. I missed one, no idea what it is. Probably a berserk, but I didn't need it as I didn't go under 80 HP even once, I think.
I like to take my time trying to UV-max maps, or at least exploring all the secrets, which is why it took me a little long to clear it.

All in all, this is a nice opening map for a neat episode.
- Moti

Just stopping by to say that Coffee Break is an awesome megawad, and i'm waiting for the second episode. Wink-wink, nudge-nudge, Matt.

Maybe join later for Double Impact.

Here we go with Coffee break
MAP01 - Storage
Well designed brown techbase, monster placement is very good for chipping the most health out of the player without being unfair. I really like how after reaching a certain point in the level you can active a set of stair or a door which leads you back to an earlier section of the map making backtracking less of a chore if you do this.
Very good starter level with lots of action.

Coffee Break sounded like something that would appeal to me so I'm glad it's in this month's roster. One thing that is not to my pallete is WADs packaged as self deprecating or non-serious (unless they are outright jokewads) but I won't dwell on this as it's a superficial concern. I'll play through this continuously on HMP and if the maps stay short and don't frustrate I'll avoid mid level saves and pistol restart if I die.

Joining me this time is special guest Doom Club member Dylan! He will be playing pistol start but in skill 1 - unless I decide to give him a save slot.

MAP01 - Storage

Purist: Not much chance of dying here. Storage adds a little spice to the traditional MAP01 mixing pot but it's gentle enough to feel more like a hint of things to come than being difficult in it's own right. Even though there is not a lot of challenge or replayability in this map (I got straight 100% on my casual first play) the effortlessly tasteful aesthetic, elegant layout and intelligent use traps leaves you feeling as though you are in capable hands. An author from the Erik Alm school of design I would guess and I wholeheartedly approve of this.

Dylan: it was a little bit hard because I am only 7 and nearly 8 but it's fun and in the exit needed a blue key which was downstairs. Now I'm up to level 3.

Purist: Dylan you cheat, no skipping ahead in the DWMWC!

While I've usually not taken part in the DWMegawad club and had no plans to join this one, a lot of the megawads we're doing here are ones that I've meant to get around playing at some point so why not join in anyway? One level a day seems like an easy enough schedule. I've played Double Impact before, I wrote the Newstuff review for it and while the review had nice things to say I seem to remember finding it "not for me" at the time so this is a good excuse to revisit it and see if my thoughts are still the same.

I'll be playing as I usually do when I give something a casual play-through, on Hey Not Too Rough (yes, some really do play on this difficulty! I'm not actually very good at Doom) from pistol starts and no saving. I can never be bothered to save and just IDCLEV to where I was at each time I start the game. If a wad ends up being too hard under these restrictions I usually just give up.

MAP01: Storage
Very nice opening level. I like the re-visiting of the starting room and the interconnectivity of it all. It's short and linear but the looping around to previously visited areas disguises the fact.

Visually it does that wonderful thing where the detailing looks more complex than it is. I like the muddy "flowerbed" the trees in the outdoor area sit in. I like the way the ceiling wraps around the blue armour pillar. This level uses interesting room and ceiling shapes with smart border texture placement to do more with less. Very inspirational.

Ammo balance was excellent but that may have been because the level gets most of its ammo from monster drops. Many wads take the approach of flooding lower difficulty settings with obnoxious amounts of ammo but this level had an appropriate amount.

If this keeps up throughout the remaining levels I'll be very happy indeed.

Melon said:

A lot of the megawads we're doing here are ones that I've meant to get around playing at some point so why not join in anyway?

A big reason the club was put together (besides bickering about design decisions amongst ourselves) was to actually push people to play more wads and encourage stragglers to finish what they start. Plus when writing down your thoughts to a specific map, it helps you encapsulate what you enjoyed/disliked about it instead of just going "meh" and forgetting the existence of the map long after its completed (although both aspects are unavoidable sometimes).

MAP01: (Pistol starting this whole episode) A good starter map. I think Tropiano puts a perfect amount of detail into his level—not too much as to distract the eye, but enough there to always amuse and delight the player with its quirks. Plenty of lights, height elevation, looparounds… I think this is going to be a fun playthrough. Gameplay wise, it’s a bit tougher than a traditional opener, throwing chaingunners and those bony bastards at you already, but it wasn’t anything the player can’t handle. Good composition and good placement.

MAP01
Uhm, I managed to die quite a few times here. Good use of hitscanners. The map looks pretty neat (even if it's basic), however I strongly dislike so many crates for no reason. My favourite detail were these lights with TEKGREN borders:

The map reminded me of nb_wst01 by Nick Baker.

I already know all three wads well and even made some speedruns on CB and DI. So this time I'm playing on UV with fast monsters, pistol start, no saves.

01 - demo. This was pretty easy, I just had to take out the hitscanners carefully since they can drain your HP very quickly on -fast. Two pinkies almost cornered me, got a bit scared there. Health item placement was very generous, I wasn't that cautious and took quite a lot of damage but there was always enough stuff to recover.
I will not talk a lot about the visuals of this wad because they are just so... professionally generic? I mean, all maps look clean, polished, etc but I don't see any interesting/original ideas, everything is just so familiar and unimaginative, almost like if it was made by a very sophisticated level generator. Not my cup of... coffee.

Interesting you say that. I have to admit (can't remember what I put in my newstuff review) but I do agree that the presentation of the maps is very clean, sort of in a sterile or fake manner, manufactured is probably the best way to put it. I guess on the other hand it offer less of a distraction which makes you focus on the gameplay overall.
I think there are a few exceptions to this is the wad though.

Yeah, "manufactured" is the word I was looking for I guess. :) I can name some more mappers with a similar problem, Dutch Devil for example. Erik Alm is kind of like that too I think, but he is just so good that it isn't a big problem for me and also his design themes are more interesting, especially in Scythe 2, that wad is just magical.

Anyway, it is 0:50 here so...
02 - demo. Ah, spectres in dark tunnels, the worst enemies of a fastmonsters player. This is getting more interesting (I had some worrying low HP situations), although -fast forces me to play a bit more cautiously than I would like to. Sometimes camping is the only solution in this mode... I liked the use of red lamps from the Gothic Texture Pack, that was the only beautiful thing in this monotonous techbase. :) "Deaf" flag made some encounters a bit silly, I could take out the monsters one-by-one...


btw these links could be added to the first post:
http://doomedsda.us/wad1948.html
http://doomedsda.us/wad2.html
http://doomedsda.us/wad1647.html

Ah, i want to play the coffee break mapset for so long!

Anyway hello to all, i'm Walter, and this is my first time here on the megawad club!

So let's start with my impression on the maps (Played the first 2 maps on HMP and begun the third, saved at that point):

MAP01: Fast small map in the usual way of early maps, with the difficulty of hitscanners here and there, lots of open space and clean and fast layout, i liked the "System Control" Music from TNT.

MAP02: Same as above, the only change here is a much more Metal base (like map03 of original Doom 2) more than the tech base of the first map, the stairs after the door on your left in the "harbor" section (yeah that one with the red keycard door after the start, i call in that way since it reminded me the harbors of Heretic's E1M1...) are helpful against the monsters projectiles... However, detail is cool, layout is fast and easy to understand where to go, hitscanners are at they're own home here like the first map, anyaway so far i liked it and i don't found anything that dislikes me....

COFFEE BREAK

Sure, I'd love one.

Once again, going through things on UV, GZDoom/software w/bugfixes but otherwise strict compatibility. Oh wait, it's asking me how I like my coffee. Well I actually do prefer tea, although when it does come to coffee I like it somewhere in the middle, but for the sake of difficulty I-... you know what, fuck it. It's UV, okay?


MAP01:
You open the door, and... well I advise anyone who doesn't seem to be blessed with favour and fortune to just plink away with that sad old pop-gun you've got; it's adequate for this task, but you'd still have to play it reasonably smart to avoid being mauled by the gang of zombies. You could go for the Shotgun, but you're really going to be at the mercy of the fickle and what seems to be an increasingly biased (in my experience) RNG. I know it's a stupid thing to say, but I have just had the absolute fucking worst outcomes lately thanks to this cunt. The RNG bastardry was further made painfully apparent for myself when I get caught out by the first of what turns out to be many Shotgun Guys behind crates. 40% damage. Thanks, you fucker. The first instance of having one of these baldy bastards is actually quite a nice and simple trap of sorts, but then it seems to be the same thing behind every crate in the immediate area that follows, which just gets dull and routine; it wasn't so much checking for a possible attacker, it was a case of knowing that he was there and spraying his innards over the wall before he could even growl at me.

All in all, it's a pretty simple map to get through (durrr), but like most WADs these days it's not exactly forgiving when it comes to making mistakes through impatience, as hitscanners are the absolute worst when it comes to taking damage and the RNG. I'm not complaining about this aspect (no, really, I quite like it here); I just thought it'd be worth mentioning that reckless intent will possibly be met with a less-than-favourable pot-luck outcome. It does however pain me to see Revenants being used this much, this early -- I really hope things don't descend into a crappy Revenant-heavy spamfest. That sort of thing's older than god.

The Demons used here just serve to annoy more than anything; they don't really make anything more difficult or enjoyable, they just get in the way and repeatedly fall apart under crossfire. Yes, even the first one couldn't make its mind up and just stood in the doorway spazzing around while a Shotgun Guy and I tried exchanging shots. I'd drop most of 'em out, personally. But not all!


Oh, right, because that's not at all suspicious.

Secrets were simple to find, which is good, although the Mega-Armour switch was hidden well enough to have me humping walls like a dumbass while muttering "oh no, not more of this ADO shit". What a pleasant surprise to discover that I was just being stupid and not checking the big computer block enough.



MAP02:
20 seconds in and nearly 20% of the enemy population is already dead!

I noticed that for the first few rooms, enemies attacked in blocks of eight; then a Revenant arrived on his own and put a stop to any more subconscious mathematical nonsense. Anyway, where was I?


Like I'm going to fall for one of these again... wait, where is everyone?

In a welcome surprise, picking up the keys doesn't immediately give you the finger and teleport some stuff around you; I expected it to -- good god I expected it to -- but instead the map deviously opens chambers in areas you're only too casual about going back to.

BAM, SURPRISE MONSTERS.

Are these actually opened because you grab a key though? Don't know, I haven't actually checked. Either way it's a nice change from the tired and predictable keytrap. The RL however was one of those 'saw it coming' deals, so once again the Demon rush seemed to be a bit of a waste.

Much like the first map, nothing unmanageable here (and I should bloody well hope not, being so early), but anyone who's caught not paying attention is going to receive a smack in the mouth from one of the many Revenants, which I'm still a bit "eeeehhh" over the increasingly common appearance of. Secrets were easy to notice, and now that I have a backpack I'm happier than a pig in shit. Probably because pigs don't actually like rolling in shit, but that's irrelevant. I still have a backpack.

Whee new WAD! ZDoom (software renderer), mouselook, saving/reloading, Ultra Violence (even though I do prefer tea to coffee...)

MAP01 - STORAGE

Ah, very strong start map. It has a lot of the techbase look, but uses a few extra textures (such as the green on the lights or the metal support as edges) that keep things looking fresh enough and not just a KDITD homage. Detail is the perfect amount IMO, simple enough to not become busy or unwieldy, but still enough to make the map look nice. My only real quibble is the brown outlines around the blue carpet areas, it looks okay on the steps but could probably use a height change near the carpet. I'm surprised it got past SteveD's Romero Rules Radar (though maybe he thinks it garners a pass in this case).

Gameplay-wise, it's pretty decent action for a MAP01, though I agree the hardest part is at the start, since the demon forces you to run for the shotgun, and running for the shotgun opens you up to the wonders of hitscanners and the RNG. There's plenty of health later on though, as well as some easy-to-find secrets. Ammo's a little short, though that's partially my own fault for forgetting I had beserk and not punching pinkie demons.

MAP02 - RESERVOIR

Into the metal textures here. Also, while there's a bit of water here, I wouldn't call it enough to be a reservoir, just as MAP01 had a few boxes but not enough to really be Storage. But I digress...

Still nice looking, though I think the looks and gameplay are a bit more blase than last map. There's a couple rooms where monsters come from multiple angles but largely monsters are in front of the player (the last two rooms especially stick out in this regard). Like BaronOfStuff, I did like that the traps were "open a closet in a room three doors away" instead of in the immediate room. I agree that I'm a little worried about this many revenants so early as they tend to be one of the more overused enemies.

MAP02: Here we go! Maybe it’s because I’ve always liked the metal + water theme, but this map really gelled with me. There were a couple instances, like the water pit with the HK in it, the blue key area, and the RL battle that just had so many enemies in just the right places that I couldn’t help but shake my head with envy. I died several times here too, so I’d say the difficulty really hits the spot so far. Good good good!

I enjoy the former 2 wads a ton, so I'll try and actually do a whole wad for a change. I recall being frustrated with Double Impact, but I also played it at a time where I was very anti-E1 pwads... still kind of am, to be honest. Way too many of them.

Map01:

Great example of how to start an episode. Right off the bat, we get an impression of what this wad is all about : steady-paced gameplay mixed with good, clean visuals and sensible layouts. It's a really strong combination and due to his years of experience, Mtrop really knows how to play into his strengths and minimize any sense of frustration that can found in a lot of modern wads. Perhaps a lack of a highlight is the map's biggest weakness, but I was too busy moving from fight to fight to drink anything in too much. The second outdoor trek is a nice, much-needed touch displaying Matt's trademark cliff style.

Map02:

I remember finding this to be a step back in quality the first time I played through, and the second time is much the same. Visually, it's decent enough, but it's all too rectangular to be really eye-catching. It feels like an earlier Mtrop design, what with the deliberate application of METAL2 and all. That's not a bad thing, though. Gameplay kind of drags its feet for the first half of the map, and only really picks up once you grab the red keycard. I mark this one as a middle-of-the-road affair that, if it were standalone, I'd instantly forget.

I first played through Coffee Break just a couple of months ago, so much of it is still fresh in my mind. It's a quick play on a first time, and should go by in a flash this go-round, I guess I'll see how it fares in the 'replayability' department.

Again, I'll be using Eternity with my usual settings, pistol-starting on the "Dark and Strong" skill level.

Map 01 -- Storage - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
An enjoyable starting map, set in a very anonymous-looking modular-plan outbuilding. This one introduces you to the general pace you'll be keeping for the duration of the WAD within a matter of seconds, with a brisk pistol fight that you can tackle in a few different ways--your initial 50 rounds should be sufficient to pick off most assailants on ground level (including the demon), and you can use the overhang outside of the starting room to shield yourself from the sergeant and the imps across the way. Alternately, feeling pressured by the charging demon, you can dash for the shotgun, which is riskier, but should suit the impatient. For my part, I opened the first latch and held still for a few seconds, which quickly resulted in Pinkie getting winged by the zombies, who he promptly proceeded to eat. Demons charging in to take a bite while hitscanners fire from distant/elevated positions is something that happens a lot in this map for how small it is, and it does go some way towards discouraging you from staying static, hanging around and picking things off from doorways (though, this being just map 01, the are behind you is usually clear if you feel a need to retreat). This is something that Tropiano usually does well: he is able to make even straightforward situations more interesting via skillful monster use. Another example is the blue-carpet room near the exit, where chaingunners fire from the upper floor as sergeants use their relatively good speed to storm in from the outdoor area, with additional (though usually inaccurate) fire coming through the window from the zombies in the hills outside. Lots of fast and tight shotgun work here; it plays more like a good DooM map than a DooM II map, despite the presence of some commandos and a couple of revenants. It's not nearly as engaging aesthetically, although the lighting in the actual storage area is classy, and the incongruous presence of that artsy-fartsy congeries of techlight poles on the ceiling in the blue-floored room stands out in my memory (not necessarily in a good way). If you liked the map you'll probably like the set (though the ride gets a bit rougher farther in), so enjoy.

Map 02 -- Reservoir - 100 % Kills / 100% Secrets
This is a more outwardly aesthetically pleasing map than its predecessor, certainly. I am generally quite fond of maps that feature a 'non-harmful liquids' theme, and I agree with Dobu that DooM II's heavy dark metal textures go well with the deep blue of the water (Razen's "Iron Jungle" from Interception, for example). In actual fact, there's not really a whole lot of water here, but there's enough to make the point. Lighting is more varied/interesting, and contrast in particular is also more pronounced here, as in the waterway with specters that leads to the blue key area, or on the pillared walkway overlooking the red key; the latter is particularly pronounced if you pull out the chaingun and start charging back and forth on it while holding down the trigger when the trap there springs. The actual play definitely isn't as interesting as map 01's, though--apart from the aforementioned trap, monsters tend to either just mill around ineffectually while they wait for you (in this case, I think the height variation actually hurts the action a little bit in a couple of places), or they hide alongside doorways or around corners in feeble attemts to bushwhack you. There's a (non-secret) rocket launcher here, but, at least without the benefit of hindsight, it's hard to put it to use for doing anything other than grinding through the cacoflesh choking the little exiting chambers; I reckon an SSG probably would've been better in the same spot. The secrets are pretty banal, too, and neither is particularly useful in the context of the map. I wouldn't say it's a 'dull' outing, exactly, but it certainly lacks some flair, at least in comparison to map 01/other maps in Coffee Break.

MAP02 - Resevoir

Dylan: It's fun and awesome and hard. I like playing it. It was so cool. There was a rocket launcher.

Purist: Sounds grand Dylan - have your own saveslot. More difficult than level one. This time the challenge increases as the map progresses due to the lack of health and armour. This makes each encounter incremently less forgiving, which I am fond off. I'm also pleased we have no SSG yet.

The mood is a bit darker and atmospheric than MAP01 but it still has a generic feel and arguably not quite as intersting a layout - although I liked how new areas opened up as you backtracked.

I was actively searching for secrets this time because they were so easy to find in Storage, but found none. Maybe I was unobservent as usual but an easy one with maybe just a stimpack or two would have felt encouraging for my efforts.

I wasn't so keen with the music this time, something more gloomy would have better suited the level in my opinion. Nice level though, should be an enjoyable romp on the evidence so far.

Dylan: I'll play level 3 again on Saturday

Suppose I should mention at this point that I play each level from a pistol start, as the author intended according to the .txt file for Coffee Break.

Map 2: Reservoir (100% Kills/Items/Secrets, played on UV)

http://youtu.be/DAtk-iZXJNQ = my playthrough of Reservoir.

An interesting opening trap; as you lower the elevators for the armor/shotgun, you also lower an area with 3 monsters behind the switch. Wasn't expecting that right off the bat, but not too hard to clear despite the fact you'll probably take a shotgun to the face.

A watery pool of sorts shows an easy Hell Knight kill, with a lone Revenant above. Nice watery area here.
A sneaky Revenant is then hidden around the corner where the chaingun is located. Could have been awkward to deal with due to the small space, but I manage to dispatch it comfortably with the shotgun.
I like the lights in the run up to the switch down in the pool; helps to spot the Spectres lerking around.
Two more Hell Knights and a couple of Chaingunners/shotgun guys await up the elevator that switch activated. The blue keycard didn't trigger an immediate trap as I was expecting, and a somewhat easy to spot secret wall is right next to it revealing some rockets. Guess I'll be seeing a rocket launcher in this level then.

Going back to the blue keycard switch triggers two more Revenants to appear, but the chaingun makes small work of them and one provided a good meat shield for the other's rocket while I was flinching it to death.
After figuring out I need to head back towards the red keycard area, I'm greeted with two more Revenants from the side. Due to lots of backpedal space they die comfortably also.

Acquiring the rocket launcher triggers a Pinky trap (from the somewhat obvious 'this will lower later on and reveal monsters' rectangle) reminiscent of an American Football game, although luckily I manage to run straight past Hell's pigskins before they cut me off from escaping the two Revenants that appear near the rocket launcher pool area.
The pinkies take several Revenant rockets for their trouble and the Revenants die shortly afterwards too.
I was impressed by this trap at the time, as I liked the attempted Pinky blockade.

Lesson of the map: Revenants liked to be paired up for traps.

A couple of chaingunners lerk in the darkness around the red keycard, and again no immediate trap is triggered from acquiring it.
Going through the first red door reveals an easily dealt with group of 4 monsters that have appeared from a lowered wall area, and you guessed it; another Revenant was among them. Not really an impressive reveal.

Three cacodemons remain to block my path to the exit, which gives me a good excuse to use the rocket launcher. In hindsight I kind of think the cacodemons should have been used earlier in the level, with some of the plentiful Revenants being placed here, but whatever I'll accept the monster variety and close out.
But not before finding the second secret on one of the walls near the red keycard, revealing a backpack that serves little use by this point.

Overall Reservoir was a nice little step up in difficulty, but still a comfortable ride of a level for me. The traps continue to be interesting for the most part, and nice variety in the monsters even considering the Revenant plentifulness (9 total from 81 monsters, making Revenants consist exactly of 1/9th of the enemies here....I just really hate Revenants I guess). I wonder what level 3 will be like....

Reminder: HNTR pistol start

MAP02: Reservoir

I didn't like this map as much as the last one but it was still a solid level. At first I was a bit concerned because I ended the level with the feeling that it was a bit empty on HNTR but Memfis's demo shows that the on UV the level is still made up of small piecemeal fights. Probably could have been a bit meatier, no harm in spamming lower levels with pistol zombies to give us low-level players something to do. Good to see the continuation of ammo rebalance on lower difficulties, nice to confirm that this wad will keep it up.

RL felt worthless on HNTR at least. I found a secret cache full of rockets but never actually found a use for the RL until the final single caco, so I had a load left at the end. The two pinkies released in the red key area probably could have been an HK or something to use the RL on given that area was pretty empty anyway. The pinkies were no threat given there was hardly any other threats to focus on.

No in-depth comments on the visual aspect this time, this level was blocky and samey but the texture theme worked well enough.

All round the level felt easier and emptier than MAP01 and uglier too.

MAP02 - Reservoir
I like the METAL textures, and they work well with water, but I found this not very exciting, design-wise. Much too square.

Seeing all the comments about revenants has made me curious just how different the HMP and UV monster counts are ... turns out there are 9 in UV, compared to the single, lone example on HMP. Quite the difference! UV is - proportionately speaking - slightly more generous with ammo, though.

I found both secrets in this, but not until after killing everything. Both are marked, though I admit to finding the second by wall-humping. :)

Gameplay ... is OK. Not as interesting or well-designed as I found map01 to be, but still brisk and enjoyable on the whole.

Map02 – Kills – 100, Items – 100, Secret – 100. Time 20:19. Death Count – 10

This map started a bit easy but escalated once I grabbed the blue key and really escalated at the red key trap, which is murder on walking keyboarders. After several deaths there – by far the majority I suffered on this map – I switched to Always Run and succeeded on my third “fast” try. Worth noting is that one of my deaths was from my own rocket, shooting a Revvie from too close.

In some ways, I liked this level less than Map01 because I thought the Metal theme was overworked and it was kind of blah looking. Everything was done very sharp and nice, especially the ceiling work in the Sector95 room, but here again I would have preferred a more striking sky than Doom2 E1 – maybe Ultimate Doom E4, always a fave of mine, and very nice to use with Metal and Marble textures especially. The most impressive architecture was at the red key trap, which looked cool and also did a great job of giving the monsters good shots at me.

MagnusBlitz noted that I failed to mention the Romero’s Rule floor texture violation in Map01 – the Sector 115 border strip. Magnus is absolutely right. It’s clear that Matt did this to match the stairs that would rise later from Sector 257. Missing this was a huge blunder on my part, so thanks for catching it, Magnus. In both cases, the brown should not have been there. The rising stair floors should have stayed Flat14, and sector 115 either shouldn’t exist, or it should be raised.

Matt makes a similar error in Map02, this time with Floor5_1 bordering Flat14 in Sector 119 and 180. In the former, this was done to make a rising FWater1 floor change texture to Floor5_1. In this way, it would match the floor in Sector 125 & 126 and in Sector 208, where the switch is. I only recently figured out that rising floors do not change texture to the floors bordering them, but to the floor the switch is on. As a result, one area of my released Disraeli wad looks kinda stupid. Matt fares no better here, and it would have been better if he lowered the two Floor5_1 sectors by 8.

I liked the lighting in this map, especially in the watery tunnel where he used what I believe is a Boom trick making low light shine on the floor but not the ceiling.

Most of the fights were average, except for the red key trap. The Revvies encountered before this were fairly easy to handle, but the trap, for me at least, raised this map above the average category.

MAP02 - Reservoir
Hmm, yeah I agree this is a weaker map.
It's obvious to see that the map is designed around the textures here, resorting to square or rectangular rooms and structures to accommodate the bordered texturing of the metal2 texture.
The gameplay isn't as solid either with less threat and the same ambushes used multiple times (2 revenants ftw)
The only threatening area was the red key area which was pretty good.
In the end this map would score 6/10, just above meh. Also the cacodemon in the exit room felt very pointless.

MAP02:

An easier map than the first one. There are lots of rectangular rooms and structures, but it's actually great since METAL2 textures are used. My favorite part is after taking the rocket launcher where lots of action appears.