The DWmegawad Club plays: Unholy Realms & Zone 300 (simultaneously!)

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?
Whatever day of the month it is, is the upper limit for the map you can post on. So if it's the 6th, you may discuss up to MAP06. Since we're playing both megawads in the same period, this rule applies for both.

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 megawads we are playing through are both Unholy Realms & Zone 300

>>>DOWNLOAD UNHOLY REALMS HERE<<<

>>>DOWNLOAD ZONE 300 HERE<<<

We're trying something new this time around and playing through both megawads concurrently, a map a day from each. This way anyone wanting to opt out of UR or Z300 can do so and play the other one without having to wait potentially half a month or jam two maps a day into their schedule.

Anyway, this month previews the beta of Brain Brian "Snakes" Knox's Unholy Realms, a mostly one-man limit removing megawad started back in 2010 as a single episode. It draws heavy inspiration from Erik Alm's Scythe series in both the brevity of levels and aggressive difficulty curve as the journey unfolds, although Knox undoubtedly approaches this with his own style. Since it is in beta still, anyone visual errors, glitches, port issues or map breaks should be noted if you happen to catch them.

Our other megawad this month comes at us from Paul Corfiatis and is Zone 300, a vanilla compatable set with the twist that each map has no more than 300 linedefs (barring MAP32, which was originally intended for Doom 2 the Way Id Did), completed in the span of two months (August 2nd - September 23rd). The maps are compact but offer a lot of variety and fun, classic Doom action.

Maplist for Unholy Realms:

Quote

Map01 - "Water Treatment"
Map02 - "Storage"
Map03 - "Nukage Processing Zone"
Map04 - "UAC Courtyard"
Map05 - "Slime Depository"
Map06 - "Sewage Entrypoint"
Map07 - "Passage Underground"
Map08 - "Research Complex Beta"
Map09 - "Metallic Bloodline"
Map10 - "Premortem"
Map11 - "Death"
Map12 - "The Other Side"
Map13 - "Temple of Leviathan"
Map14 - "Drifting Complex"
Map15 - "Ravine of the Hated"

Map31 - "Destructive Infinity" by valkriforce and deathevokation
Map32 - "A Charming Khorus" by Khorus

Map16 - "Dockside"
Map17 - "Missing Gamma Sector"
Map18 - "Of Brick and Crimson"
Map19 - "Borough of Blood"
Map20 - "Rite of Passage"
Map21 - "Ashen Layer (Purgatory)"
Map22 - "Halls of Fallen Undesired (Lust)"
Map23 - "Cliffs of the Consumed (Gluttony)"
Map24 - "The Keeper's Castle (Greed)"
Map25 - "The Bitter Fortress (Anger)"
Map26 - "Village of the Unblessed (Heresy)"
Map27 - "Serpentine (Violence)" by skillsaw
Map28 - "The False Man's Keep (Fraud)"
Map29 - "Snakeskin Treachery (Wrath)" by Joshy
Map30 - "Dis"

Maplist for Zone 300

Quote

Map01 - "The Spaceport"
Map02 - "Control Facility"
Map03 - "The Alleyway"
Map04 - "Canyon Hub"
Map05 - "Skybase 300"
Map06 - "Whispering Corridor"
Map07 - "Heavyweight"
Map08 - "Waste Disposal Plant"
Map09 - "Nuclear Power Station"
Map10 - "Cargo Bay"
Map11 - "Simbattle"
Map12 - "Villa of Pain"
Map13 - "Dark Crypt"
Map14 - "The Circle"
Map15 - "Trouble Town"

Map31 - "Creepy"
Map32 - "Condemnation"

Map16 - "Bruiser Fortress"
Map17 - "Constriction"
Map18 - "Zombie Hideout"
Map19 - "The Invasion"
Map20 - "Death Row"
Map21 - "Blood Lust"
Map22 - "Firestorm Tomb"
Map23 - "Dungeon of Inferno"
Map24 - "Cavern of the Evil Spirit"
Map25 - "Hellucination"
Map26 - "Valley of Brimstone"
Map27 - "Dissect"
Map28 - "Unholy Demise"
Map29 - "Den of Torture"
Map30 - "Eternal Core"

BONUS CONTENT
Where's All the Data?'s playthrough of Zone 300: 1 2 3
Matt543Dog's playthrough
----------
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 only just finished playing Zone 300, I'm up for it again. Don't know about doing two wads though.

Should be good, both wads contain maps which are relatively short so shouldn't be any issues. I am currently doing a demopack for Zone300 so will post either the lump file or youtube video of each level for each respective day. Bonus material yay :P

Jayextee said:

I only just finished playing Zone 300, I'm up for it again. Don't know about doing two wads though.

I too was hesitant about putting both together, since one is usually enough for the month, but since I've already played through Unholy Realms I can attest that most of the maps are "short". That, and we've had a handful of maps from other wads before that go on for over 45 minutes so I don't think this will be too detrimental.

If I'm interpreting correctly, if you don't want to play both, you can also choose just one and write exclusively about it.

Any and all feedback is good for Snakes, just to remind.

Ah, fantastic. I shall keep my eyes peeled for any and all comments. I may comment on Zone300 along the way. I played most of it already so a lot would be quick re-visits.

Looking forward for the ripping and tearing.

I think I'm going to try my hand at some text-based commentaries for Zone 300, as it's one of my favorite WADs. I'm gonna play with Russian Overkill (e.g., it's going to be on UV difficulty), so that way I'll be able to do as I like when it comes to gameplay, yet still look at monster/item placement. I can't wait!

I fell way too far behind last month on Kama Sutra and the length/difficulty of the maps made it impossible to catch up. I tried out a few levels of both Zone 300 and Unholy Realms and liked what I saw, so looking forward to giving these puppies a spin.

This will be a stretch. I struggle to keep up every month as it is and although I got to level 29 in Kama Sutra it was only due to playing half a dozen levels at a time and writing only very brief notes here from what little I could remember

So I seriously doubt I will manage both even though I want to play both. Since Zone 300 is actually finished I will play that one and either fit some Unholy Realms in if I get time or play it another time after release.

I'm certainly looking forward to Unholy Realms. I've only played two (that I recall) maps by Snakes in the past, those being 'Midnight Tek Frenzy' hidden in CC4 and 'Malebolge' from the PCCP, but I enjoyed them both, particularly the latter.

I must confess I've already played about half of Zone 300 (not like it takes a terribly long time), and am so far not particularly enthused. They naturally seem like very clipped/basic maps, albeit very identifiably in PCorf's style, of course. Thus far I've not encountered much gameplay-wise that's actively offensive, but very little that feels like anything more than simply going through the motions, either (on the plus side, I do like a lot of the music, however). Not sure if I'll write about this one or not, perhaps irregularly, we'll see.

Ok... I'm playing both map sets on UV using my PistolStartEnforcer.wad (I've discovered it's my new favourite way to play) in ZDoom, with mouselook and always run on.

Unholy Realms MAP01: Water Treatment
Great starter map. Looks good; has nice, moody lighting; enjoyable music; minimal challenge, but with enough opposition to potentially kill you if you play badly (I assume). I particularly like the presentation so far, with the new font, textures, TITLEPIC and so on and so forth. I knew exactly where the secret was, but couldn't work out how to open it, which I don't mind, given that I clearly didn't need it! A positive first impression.


Zone 300 MAP01: The Spaceport
Feels very E1, with the monster usage and design aesthetic. Very orthogonal, but given the 300 line limit, that's fine with me. Quite upbeat compared to UR, what with the music, faster gameplay and brighter atmosphere. This seems like a promising start to the concept megaWAD and, to be honest, the 300 lines limit isn't readily apparent yet, as it could easily just be a speed map.


All of that in 15 minutes before work :P

EDIT: dobugabumaru, I see you've made a typo in the map listing for Zone 300: Map24 - "Cavern of the Evi; Spirit"

Unholy Realms
Map01 - "Water Treatment"
Simple enough start, looks cool, can't really say much about the gameplay as it's very simple as many first maps are. I guess it's a little too long for what Snakes has tried to go for here, either it's hopelessly easy but very short or make it longer and give it a little bit of an extra kick in difficulty. But it's not much of a complaint. Found the only secret which consisted of a few armour bonuses.

Zone 300
Map01 - "The Spaceport"
Gameplay wise I actually prefer this one with a bit more weaponry and action. Looks wise it's simple and clean, not much more to say here.
Here is a uv max of the map in 57 seconds

I'm just going to assume "Brain" is a typo of "Brian"

I'm playing in Eternity with some mouselook use and infinitely-tall actors negated, unless I take a notion to do a demo or two at some point, in which case I'll of course use PrBooM+ and the requisite complevel. As usual, the game is set to Ultra-Violence, and I'll be pistol-starting every map, aiming for maxkills and actively trying for as many secrets as I can. I don't reckon I'll have much need for any savegames, but we'll see.

UR Map 01 -- Water Treatment - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Well, I can see the Requiem map 01 influence, although it's much more apparent in the quiet start room and perhaps in the next room than anywhere else. It's an aesthetically low-key but pleasant level, using some tried-and-true Doom II texture combos--green metal siding, cement floors, blue carpeting, some dirt, and of course some water in a couple of monitoring points. Verisimilitude is fairly high, with piping, outflow points, and other structural paraphernalia intended to ensure that the map does reasonably resemble some kind of 'water treatment facility', albeit in the typically (and charmingly) abstract Doomy fashion. The most pronounced aspect of this is something I imagine some will not approve of: various switches are not represented as faceplates, but rather as workstations that one must 'use'; this ain't my first rodeo, and the design choice seemed intuitive enough to me, so I've got no beef with this, indeed, quite the contrary. I also approve of the somewhat subdued/neutral light level (whereas many map 01 replacements seem to prefer to keep things pretty bright early on), and the sector lighting around the bends in some of the main corridors. The one thing that does stand out to me as being a mite unsightly concerns the green CC4 circuitry on the walls near the exit door--viewed head-on it looks fine and dandy, but it seemed quite unnatural to me that it transitions right back to the green riveted metal on the perpendicular walls bracing the exit door.

The most notable thing about the gameplay, I reckon, is that the pistol gets some significant facetime. Even a little bit of this drives some folks bugshit, I know, but for my part I rather like it--you pistol a few things directly, you have an opportunity for a couple of efficient barrel-kills, you berserk-punch some imps (I also punched the barrel in the corridor directly into the closeted group of imps, always satisfying), and then you get a shotgun. Even though you only use the pistol for a couple of minutes, it somehow feels more well-rounded and complete than having a shotgun within 15 seconds of starting the adventure. The secret helmet-cubby's a bit odd in that you can open it well before you've even entered the room it's in....seems a bit shoehorned in, to be honest. No harm no foul, though, I guess.

Hardly the flashiest map 01 I've played, but quite an adequate kickstart nonetheless.

******

Z300 Map 01 -- The Spaceport - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
As Phobus says, this is decidedly KDiTD-meets-Entryway in aesthetic, though of course PCorf's characteristically shoebox-y architecture is distinctly his own and doesn't much resemble any of the id designers' work. Gameplay is pretty workmanlike map 01 fare--pistol a couple of zombies, get a shotgun, and spend the next couple of minutes shooting entry-level fodder with it. I was distantly surprised by the number of bodies in the final closet-trap, but in no way threatened, which isn't much of a problem for map 01, of course. The map's best aspect was probably the chaingun secret, simple and easy but constructed in such a way that one still feels like one has pulled off a clever trick in acquiring it.

It's fine, I guess. The '300 lines' restriction doesn't really assert itself here--this looks and feels quite a lot like countless other of Paul's maps made under no such restrictions, although I suppose it's more aesthetically in line with some of his older work, rather than his somewhat visually richer recent work (the new map in the current version of 2002:ADO, his maps in CC3 and CC4, some of his work in Whispers of Satan, etc.).

Both Zone300 and Unholy Realms is going to be too much for me this month so I'll be skipping Zone300. It's a solid wad but I've already played through it and time will not be on my side this month so Unholy Realms is the top priority. I'll be playing with glboom+, UV, pistol starts as usual.

Unholy Realms Map01: Water Treatment

Neat starter. Good visually and the gameplay is surprisingly exciting for map01. There's even a few traps present, none which are too lethal but traps nevertheless. I also appreciate the speedrun trick possibility in crossing the gap without having to raise the bridge. No FDA since I had played this beforehand but here's something else instead: a quick UV-Max in 0:55 and a pacifist in 0:13 for the laughs.

UR - MAP01 - UV-max - no deaths ~

Cool little map with a simple idea , traps and stuff.
Lots of detail , this megawad reminds me of CChest 2 instead of scythe , good map moving on to ZONE300

Z300 - MAP01 - UV-max - no deaths ~

Pretty detailed for a 300 lined map , not bad and another simple idea just like the MAP01 of UR.
The barrels and the toxic give it a feel of ultimate doom.

urbeta.wad MAP01 Water Treatment

A pretty, short, dark map with no heavy resistance. Well-crafted stuff; my only worry was that I played it on HNTR and then again on UV and there were only trivial differences between the difficulty settings, and honestly an exit room with a single imp inside it isn't much more challenging than one with nothing in it whatsoever. Still, the map becomes fun once you get the berserk pack on any skill level!

Zone 300
Map01: The Spaceport
100% Kills, 100% Items, 100% Secrets

This map is a pretty well-designed starting map, and to me, it feels like a very angle-filled lovechild of Doom 1's E1M1 and Doom 2's Map01. I definitely did not see Paul approach 300 linedefs at any point in this map, so I'm a little excited for later maps to see what he can pull off with the 300 linedef limit.

The item placement in the map was well-executed, and there was plenty of ammo; not enough to make you feel like you had an unholy advantage, but not enough to make you sweat and check your ammo count to make sure you hadn't run out.

Monster placement was well-done, too. With two traps waiting to be sprung (Shotgun room, next-to-last room), there's not really a shortage of a tense moment in this map.

All in all, it's a good prelude to what I feel like could be one of my potentially favorite WADs.

Well, I lied about not participating this month, guess I'll be here after all. Looks like they're all short enough to hit through.

Same deal as before, Regular Run, but this time on HMP. Then, Reality Run on HNTR WHEN POSSIBLE. Unholy Realms map first, then Zone 300.

MAP01 Water Treatment

*Regular Run*

For a second, I actually thought I was playing Requiem, cuz the starts are real similar. Nothing too special about this MAP01, other than an imp ambush when the berserk is taken. Final Time 1:11.

*Reality Run*

Only one shotgun guy on HNTR, not like it makes much difference, I decided to not use fists on the imps in the zerk ambush and instead shotgun them. Okay go. Final Time 1:49.

MAP01 The Spaceport

*Regular Run*

That's some funky ass music there. Also nice WOS vibe. Not much health though, I nearly died at the trap with the shotgun cuz I'm stupid. Also took some tries with the chaingun secret. But I managed through this shortie. Final Time 1:42.

*Reality Run*

Handled carefully but with somehow much better time? Okay. Probably since I got the chaingun secret better. Final Time 1:34.

yakfak said:

honestly an exit room with a single imp inside it isn't much more challenging than one with nothing in it whatsoever.

It can make quite a difference if you are playing pacifist style. Bear in mind that one of the aims of this wad is to be demo-friendly across a range of categories, and this first map is an excellent example of this.

2 wads for the price of none, you are spoiling us. I'm going to try and keep up with both. Also will try and record FDAs for both for the amusement of the authors.

As usual I will be playing UV pistol starts and saving when shit gets too hard.

UR Map01 - "Water Treatment"
FDA
Well they weren't kidding when they said these maps were short, nice starting map. I liked how the shotgun was denied at first and you end up having to berserk instead. Mysterious computer switches were doing something, not sure what. Good stuff. Oh that text font though, i found it very hard to read. There's a point in the demo where i pause for a mooment, thats when i looked down to check my health and did a double take at the HUD.

300 Map01 - "The Spaceport"
FDA
Yeah if these wads have maps this short then will be no problem keeping up with both, its taken me longer to upload the demos and type these comments than it has playing the maps. Another nice starter map, very old school feel to it. Not sure I like the ethos of limiting the design to an arbitrary degree, but its true what they say about limitations and creativity so I'll see how it goes.

I might have to take back my complaint about UR Map01 being a little long, it appears I might have been playing with a zimmer frame :P

Glad to see quite a few people participating. So my background regarding Unholy Realms is that I was one of Snakes' beta testers for the Hurt Me Plenty difficulty. I really enjoyed what I played but I was broken on MAP11, since I was attempting to play without saves for the first time ever regarding Doom. It's a great series of maps, and this is one of the few megawads I'm playing for a second time. I'll be doing pistol starts on UV for both wads, and I'll be trying not to save on Zone 300 (I've learned my lesson with UR).

UR Map01 - "Water Treatment": A quaint starter with some minor changes from my initial experience—most notable is the lack of the pop-up sergeants down in the water. I've always enjoyed Knox's respect for space and shape, allowing his levels to be busy but not cluttered. This is a good taste of his design, although entirely toothless and somewhat meager.

Z300 Map01 - "The Spaceport": Perhaps the most charming thing about Corfiatis' maps for me are his custom music tracks, as I feel like listening to a new track really gives it a unique feel. This map... well, there's not much to it. Quick, fun, minor action here and there. Nothing to complain or bite into.

Unholy Realms
MAP01: Water Treatment

Small little MAP01, as most are, with easy enemies but the lack of ammo makes it hard going. The first time I played this map, I somehow completely missed the door to the berserk pack and had to use the regular fist in some places due to the lack of ammo. Still, with nothing larger than an imp, it's not too much of a pain. I found the secret switch right away but it took me forever to find the actual secret it opened.

I like the detailing here, it's enough to look good but still feels like Doom (not too much realism, but just enough). The "really fast rising/lowering sector" is used here to create noise, but thankfully it's FAR less annoying than the one in Kama Sutra.

I'm not a fan of insta-pop-up enemies, so seeing them on MAP01 is a disappointment and has me worried for the rest of the map. The imps on either side of the elevator are insta-pop even though they don't need to be, which worries me even more. Ah well, time shall tell.

I also thought the green circuitry near the exit door needed some piping to break it up from the green TEKWALL, very minor and wasn't gonna mention it but Demon of the Well did too so I figured I'd add my two cents in on that. Also, I see that Snakes didn't fix the hazard barrier near the red key that I reported in his original thread for the WAD (there are two "hazard bar" textures in CC4, one of the edges uses a different texture from the other ones).

So, a few minor complaints, but still a good start so far. 3/5



Zone 300
MAP01: The Spaceport

I will say starting off that 300 lines seems to be a much better limitation than 100. 100 was certainly interesting (and impressive to see what levels people could make) but the extra 200 lines really shows. There's a lot of 'extra' lines used here for stuff like changing textures, adding metal bars as transitions, staircases instead of lifts, etc. Still, the 300 limit means the detail needs to be kept down... it feels like an IWAD, in many ways. I also really dig the custom music.

This map serves as a decent introduction - a lot of the same design cues will be popping up later (especially the "wall sudddenly opens reveals a bunch of enemies!" trap). I like the barrel/sergeant 'trap' right behind the first main big door. 3/5

Magnusblitz said:

Unholy Realms
MAP01: Water Treatment
Also, I see that Snakes didn't fix the hazard barrier near the red key that I reported in his original thread for the WAD (there are two "hazard bar" textures in CC4, one of the edges uses a different texture from the other ones).

Crap dude, my bad. Kinda forgot about that one in the sea of bugs that dew and marineController reported. Just took care of it.

Zone 300 - UV, pistol start

I thought that this was just an okay map. Gameplay was decent enough for a starting map, but being such a small map I felt the 3 monster closets were a bit repetitive.

The look of the map was a little bland, but was to be expected with the limited number of lines. Though I did find a few lines to be wasted, such as the switch that lowers the lift(2) & the second exit sign(4). Those 6 lines could have been used to add detail to other areas of the map.

Luckily I have already played through the first 6 maps, so I know there are some better maps to come.

Magnusblitz said:

I will say starting off that 300 lines seems to be a much better limitation than 100. 100 was certainly interesting (and impressive to see what levels people could make) but the extra 200 lines really shows.

I really wanted Capellan to create another one of those projects, preferably 200-500 lines since 100 could barely squeak out a decent map (though I have yet to peruse a lot of them admittedly). That and you don't have to make as many triangle shaped rooms with a more flexible number.

Map02 - "Storage": RIP this midi in Zdoom :( I switched from FMOD to the windows synth one, but it felt like the sound chip was from a Mega Drive due to the really tinny drums.

I was surprised with how much I remembered from this map, immediately dreading the insta-lower trap hallway when I peered down it. This is a touch longer than MAP01 and more interesting, given that there's somewhat of a puzzle for the blue key and quite a few nasty shotgunner ambushes behind you, which I'm sure others will feel are immensely cheap (I kinda like them). My most frantic moment was when I failed to recognize that a chaingunner had been released when I approached the blue door, and had my health dwindle down to 2% with the sergeant still shambling about. Definitely a better warmup than the intro.

Only thing I'd suggest is some health in the exit room perhaps, since starting the next map at 12% if I was playing continuous would be pretty risky.

Z300 Map02 - "Control Facility": You know you've played too much Doom when you can immediately recognize that the STARTAN wall to the left of the yellowkey door is misaligned :P Anyway, while UR had a lot of close ambushes with a few pesky foes, Corfiatis' sophomore map features much wider, open spaces with a startling ammo deficiency. This too I enjoyed more than the first map because I felt like I had to be more wary of where everything was, especially after a sergeant blew up a barrel directly behind me. Blue armor was a little much but otherwise it was an alright outing.

UR Map 02 -- Storage - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
It's a brighter, somewhat faster-paced affair here in this clean and shiny facility of metal plate and cement, which somehow made me think more of a shipping station than a storage facility (probably something to do with the crate-bays), but no matter. It does look quite clean, but I didn't like the window-slits stuffed with crates on the northern side of the corridor with red-barred windows, and the mirrored effect on the southern side of the corridor with the X-shaped beams in its skylights--apparently the UAC ran out of budget there and had to stuff that wall with some broken-down cardboard boxes or something.

It seems that the player can take one of two routes at the start (upstairs or downstairs), but I'm not sure how much of an actual difference this would make in the encounters, as it is a map with a very obvious focus on one particular weapon (more on that momentarily). I opted to go downstairs first, and found the progression to be quite smooth, indeed, almost preternaturally so, since I used the red keycard within seconds of acquiring it, and then had the blue keycard seconds later, and then used that card a few seconds later still. The layout does interconnect and double back on itself nicely, lending the quest for the red keycard an illusion of a bit more substance, since it is essentially just a corridor-shoot.

Or a corridor-chop, rather. The chainsaw is freely given near the start point, and from a pistol-start it is essentially the primary weapon for most of the map (assuming the berserk secret isn't found, anyway); eventually one can acquire a shotgun and a solid stock of shotshells from deceased former human sergeants, and there's a chaingun placed in one of the storage-bay ambushes, but ammo availability is quite low early on, and the preponderant combination of imps, demons/specters, and corridors represents a prime opportunity for a bit of amateur meat-processing. Truth be told, other than a few seconds of chaingunning right after I first picked it up, I essentially used the chainsaw for the duration of the map, even against zombies and in some other situations where it was probably less than ideal....just for fun! Chainsaw-centric maps are a fairly rare thing, and it was an unexpected (but pleasant) surprise to see one here.

I enjoyed the chainsawery thoroughly, even the extremely simplistic BGM seemed to go well with it. Only other thing I can think to comment on is that the four shotshells on the tiny demon-lift really don't seem like they need to be counted as 'secret', although it occurs to me that there might be an actual shotgun or something there on lower difficulties, I suppose.


******

Z300 Map 02 -- Control Facility - 100% Kills / 0% Secrets
More of the Doom E1 meets Doom II E1 mashup here, although I suppose that departs a bit when one makes it to the 'canal' outside. Of all of the Zone 300 maps I've played thus far (which is most of them, at this point), this is actually one of the longest.....bit odd for a map 02, but hardly a problem per se. The action here is more of the same from map 01, a linear weakling-safari with a few traps that, while obvious, again manage to contain more bodies (even if they're only zombies and imps) than one might expect from Paul's past work. The best part was the descending chamber full of bad guys early in the canal, where some of them teleport down to the end while the rest approach you directly to sort of sandwich you in between--not that it's even remotely threatening, given how much space is available in the canal. No idea where the secret is, so it's good to see that Paul still hides some of them very well.

The 300 line restriction is a little more apparent here, with a lot of terrain looking artificially/pragmatically orthogonal, and the relatively large scale of many hallways seeming like a convenience of layout rather than a purposeful aesthetic or gameplay choice. Might just be the sourceport/compat settings I'm using, but the lowering platform full of monsters in the tech/computer room left its blood puddle decals floating in midair, something I've seen happen at a few other places in Z300 as well.

I'm pretty deep into Unholy Realms already (up to map 24 right now) and don't feel like starting over to be able to comment, so I'll probably only post about minor aspects of the earlier maps that I found interesting. I will say that, with a few exceptions (maps 6, 9, and 12), it doesn't really hit stride until over half-way in, although once it does, it's pretty fun.

But, I figured I might as well give Zone 300 a play in order to join in.

My general playstyle is pistol-starts, no saves, UV difficulty, in PRBoom +, in whatever the target complevel is (for both of these, it's complevel 2). If I can't clear a map like that, I'll turn down the difficulty before resorting to using saves.

Map 01 and 02: I'll just combine them because I don't really have much to say here. They were Doom levels. Nothing really notable happened in either one; the overall formula seemed to be "walk forward a bit/hit a switch, a wall drops, a few weaklings are revealed, kill them, repeat process forever". I guess I found the red key "trap" in Map 02 kinda funny. You grab the key, the walls slowly lower, building up tension... only to reveal a few imps and former humans that are easily dispatched with the SSG. Anticlimax ahoy!

Well, I guess the music in map 02 was notable. Holy crap, that was annoying.

UR Map02 - "Storage"
This was pretty good, some nasty traps in here along with a pretty open-planned layout. I was frustrated by being shot to pieces by shotgunners result in my death, overall it's still pretty easy once you know where the traps are. Secrets were very easy to spot.

Zone 300 Map02 - Control Facility
Another easy map with plenty to shoot. There is quite a bit of texture variation from area to area which reminded me of PCorf's earlier stuff. Still a fun romp.