The DWmegawad Club plays: Requiem

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.

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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>>>DOWNLOAD REQUIEM<<<

(Alternatively, I’ve compiled the music, map names, and deathmatch fixes into a single wad: DOWNLOAD HERE)

Requiem is a 1997 Doom 2 megawad that contains notable authors from the Momento Mori series and STRAIN. It features short, classic Doom action—what more could you ask for? (Quick warning from Capellan: "If you play with 'Use Passes Thru All Special Lines' turned on (either because your port does it automatically or because you have it set that way), bad things may happen”)

Author and maplist:

Quote

Map01 - “The Gateway” by Orin Flaharty
Map02 - “Sacrificium” by Anthony Czerwonka and Florian Helmberger
Map03 - “Poison Processing” by Iikka Keränen
Map04 - “Fireworks” by Matthias Worch
Map05 - “The Canyon” by Bill McClendon
Map06 - “nataS ot etubirT” by Thomas Möller
Map07 - “Hell’s Gift” by Jens Nielsen and Matthias Worch
Map08 - “The Reactor” by Iikka Keränen
Map09 - “Deep Down Below” by Matthias Worch
Map10 - “The Black Gate” by Orin Flaharty
Map11 - “Rats in the Walls” by Adam Windsor
Map12 - “Militant Reprisal” by Ian Quick
Map13 - “Town of the Dead” by Iikka Keränen
Map14 - “The Portal” by Eric Sambach
Map15 - “Last Resort” by Matthias Worch

Map31 - “Doorway to Quake” by Iikka Keränen
Map32 - “Bitter Herb” by Adam Windsor

Map16 - “Escape from Chaos” by Iikka Keränen
Map17 - “Dens of Iniquity” by Michael Rapp
Map18 - “Base of Thorn” by Eric Sambach
Map19 - “Skinny Puppy” by Anthony Czerwonka
Map20 - “The Forsaken Hall” by Adam Windsor
Map21 - “Den of the Skull” by Anthony Galica
Map22 - “Arachnophobia” by Iikka Keränen
Map23 - “Hatred” by Dario Casali
Map24 - “Procrustes Chambers” by Anthony Czerwonka
Map25 - “Chaos Zone” by Adam Windsor
Map26 - “Excoriation” by Adam Windsor
Map27 - “Cursed Kingdom” by Iikka Keränen
Map28 - “Fetals’ Remains” by Anthony Czerwonka
Map29 - “Downer” by Adam Williamson
Map30 - “Nevermore” by Adam Windsor

BONUS CONTENT
Doom Wikia
Requiem lmps
DSDA archives
kmxexii’s review
Suitepee's playthrough: 1 2 3
Lingyan203'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
Sunder & Countdown to Extinction
Doom 2 the Way id Did
MAYhem2048
Stomper
Back to Saturn X E2
Going Down
Rylayeh & Crimson Canyon & Azagthoth
Serenity & Eternity & Infinity
Resurgence

Yay 1997 maps.

MAP01: The Gateway
100% kills, 2/2 secrets

An inoffensive enough opener, just a linear hallway stomp to the exit. Nothing too exciting gameplay-wise - there's a couple of really easy monster closet ambushes, the rest is just monsters plopped down in a big group in a room. The monsters teleporting in at the start is just a bit boring (sometimes takes them awhile to file in). Seems a mite over-detailed, too, which is a weird complaint for 1997 but a lot of it is simply detail for detail's sake... all the ceiling arches outside, or the floor patterns. I mean, it's preferable to boxes (if the map layout was just 1994-style hallways it'd be a really fucking boring map) but there's also nothing that makes me say "wow this looks really cool" instead it just says "man this seems really busy."

32in24-14 next.

I don't like Requiem that much, I consider it messy, inconsistent and sometimes just weird or uncomfortable to play. I'm going to play it with the Club anyway. Zandronum, UV, and probably continuous playthrough, because I don't want to feel too frustrated, but maybe I'll change it if the maps will prove to be overly easy.

Map01 - “The Gateway” by Orin Flaharty

Entryway homages + quantity over quality all-over-the-place details, usually rusty. Thanks to them, the map doesn't look bland, but in my view it doesn't look any beautiful at all, either. Very simple linear progression and gameplay. Cramped and flat. Secrets were okay. Even though the map is only supposed to serve as a starter, it's nothing much for itself. 2/5

Well I'll try. Requiem was the very first "custom" megawad I ever played but I think I haven't played it since so I probably don't remember much. Glboom, UV and pistol starts.

Map01: The Gateway

Not that great, I agree. Over-detailed for sure and I can't say I'm a fan of this kind of armor- and health bonus placement... Too much going on visually, especially on the floors; ceilings being detailed like this I don't really mind. The handful of teleporting zombiemen in the second room is plain dumb and serve no purpose at all. Nothing wrong with the two mild ambushes but then the two more open rooms have some very unimaginative combat even for map01 standards.

I'm a Requiem fanboy, it was the first user-made megawad I've ever played. Love all maps.

01 - Excellent opener. Good creative details in every area, the most memorable ones being the numerous corpses outside. That new gray brick texture is very cool too. When I first saw the door trap with shotgunners I thought it was so clever, it was something completely new for me. If you have nothing better to do, you can play my reimagining of this level.

hey, cool to see this up and running. I'll be doing walkthroughs on the wiki while this is going on. I'll also be playing on HNTR for once (I've played it quite a lot on the higher skill levels). I just submitted one for the first map.

MAP01 The Gateway

Orin Flaherty's maps are not as memorable as the others in the set, but they still are good romps. easy and fun map.

dobu gabu maru said:

If you play with 'Use Passes Thru All Special Lines' turned on (either because your port does it automatically or because you have it set that way), bad things may happen

Repeating the above in case people didn't thoroughly read the OP :)

PrBoom+. HMP, continuous, frequent saving, no music.


Preamble
When Requiem was in development, Doom appeared to be sliding into oblivion thanks to the rise of Quake and true 3D. The name itself gives away that this project was conceptualised as 'the last great megawad for Doom'. I am pleased by how wrong that concept was. It was wrong even at the time, really – STRAIN was also under development then, but for the community to still be going nearly 20 years later? None of us expected that. Still, that sense that the 'age of Doom' was over was definitely a thing as we worked on Requiem. It was both the inspiration for the project to happen, and the single biggest barrier to it ever being completed.


MAP01
Man, I remember hating those support3 pillars when I was keyboarding this.

Orin Flaharty was known for doing 'Circle of Death'/'Living End' style maps, so this is a bit of an unusual outing for him. It's a serviceable enough opening level. Verrrrry linear – even moreso than the actual map01 of Doom2, which at least had a couple of optional non-secret areas to it. It's obviously intended to evoke memories of the IWAD opener, given the texture choices used, though there is a whole lot more of the gore-type decorations in this map.

Gameplay is low-key, on the whole. The teleporting troopers at the start and a couple of clearly-telegraphed monster closets are really the only cases where it's not just 'enemies directly in front of you'. The chainsaw seems to be included entirely as a 'gotcha!' since it's never a better option than the pistol for any encounter in the level, and there's way more ammo than you need.

I guess I will play this for the Club this month. It'll be nice to not play something as difficult as Resurgence anyway!

Played through the first 2 1/2 levels of this. All I have to say is that I still think it's a bad idea to start a level with enemies firing at you before you have a chance to take in your surroundings. (Looking at you, Poison Processing).

I'm liking it, it caters to my level of ability very well so far.

Somewhat hit and miss aesthetically, but probably worked fine back in 1997.

dobu gabu maru said:

What levels am I allowed to post about?[/b]
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.

What are we doing about the fact that there are only 28 days in the month? :)

^how about "Capellan's maps after map11 can be played on the same day as the previous" because damn are they tiny :P

Playing pistol starts on UV

MAP01: Simple and straightforward map, also quite out of character for Flaharty as Capellan mentioned. There's a lot of obstructive detailing in the form of iron pillars and steps on the floor. That zombie ambush may have been ok if it was later in the level and the teleport was in view of external areas or something, but it's just a silly thing as it is.

Most opposition can be run past here, except for that one shotgunner ambush, which is hardly threatening even if you haven't played the map. Despite its simplicity I love dim scene at the exit with the moon overhead, it really creates a kind of gloomy and vagely sinister atmosphere which I personally felt through most of Reqiuem E1.

A very plain map but it gets the job done I suppose. Nowhere near as irritating or mediocre as quite a few parts of Requiem end up being later on.

Map01 – The Gateway by Orin Flaharty – Kills – 100, Items – 100, Secret – 100. End Health – 60, Armor 74. Death Count – Zero

GZDoom, UV, pistol starts, savescumming like a mofo, keyboard only.

A nice little opener to Rambo like a crazy person. Plenty of hitscanners in the meager monster count, so I got perforated, as you can see by my End Health and Armor numbers.

This one has a nice, driving MIDI, perfect for the size of the map. I wasn't as bothered by the fiddly detail as others, except for “Yay, bumpy floors!” ;D

I agree with Veinen, the teleporting zombieboys were flat-out tedious.

I was certain that Linedef 319 or 464 hid a secret, thanks to the horizontal misalignment caused by L319 being 72 units instead of 64. That added a couple minutes to my playtime, but at least I found the other 2. The shellbox is only useful for continuers.

What I saw of the sky texture was a nice dark grey ruined by a mountain range that looked like pixelly dog-poo.

A detail I liked was the outdoor dioramas.

I gotta mention the silliness of a chainsaw that opens a zombie/Imp trap. The trap doesn't open fast enough to catch you with the wrong weapon in hand, so it's a nerf.

Not much else to say except to note, as others have, the very rectilinear room-hall-room layout. Decent-looking and very average, but still somewhat fun.

With Adam's advice about “Use” going through special lines, I opened-up my never-visited GZDoom Compatibility Settings and found “All special lines can block (Use)” which I set to “Yes” since that seemed to be the idea, to block “Use.” I hope I did right.

I also notice that no fewer than 6 maps by Adam are in this set. Even if I fall away this month, I'll make certain to play Adam's maps on the proper days, just in case there's anything I can flip him shit about. ;D

Marcaek said:

^how about "Capellan's maps after map11 can be played on the same day as the previous" because damn are they tiny :P

So more or less what I suggested in the Resurgence thread, then? :-P

Marcaek said:

how about "Capellan's maps after map11 can be played on the same day as the previous" because damn are they tiny :P

Sure, sounds good.

Capellan said:

Preamble

Thanks for the history—its crazy to think you guys saw Doom on its last leg, but I suppose staring Quake in the face it seemed like a natural progression. In all honesty, I would've probably expected the community to fold too, not last another 18 years.

MAP01: I played Requiem way back when I first got into trying megawads, sometime after Memento Mori (for the record, I believe my first experiences went: TV1998/Dimensions of Time [can't remember which one was first] -> Memento Mori -> Requiem -> Hell Revealed, back in mid 200s). However I barely remember anything from it, so it feels like a fresh new experience to me. The visuals were the most striking, while the gameplay was really weak, even for a MAP01 (the SG felt unnecessary). It's strange to think just how much had changed & refined from over a year since MM was released. So far as long as the maps are short and punchy, this'll be a pleasant experience.

Many of the maps in Requiem are on the small side, to say the least, although there are a couple of big fellows loping around in there as well.

Anyway, Requiem. I've played this a fair few times, although it has been many years since the last time. Looking at the maplist, I think I remember most of what we're up against pretty well, but it's almost inevitable (especially in these older mapsets) that one thing or another I've never really noticed before will pop out and surprise me, so we'll see. Anyway, Requiem is most often spoken of in the same breath as the Memento Mori series (and perhaps some episode-length sets by various MM/Requiem authors), a full suite project pooling the talents of many established Doomers (and perhaps a handful of relative unknowns) of the day, much in the same spirit of something such as BTSX or the like today. Adam can no doubt give a lot more information about the team's goals, modus operandi, and general headspace during the making of the WAD, but as someone who was watched the PWAD scene from outside for quite some time, I can tell you that Requiem is one of those WADs whose overall popularity seems to be in a constant state of flux, in accordance with the preferences and philosophies most prevalent in the community at a given time--in other words, it's a rather idiosyncratic WAD, idiosyncratic beyond that which elides from the 'old-fashioned' creative values and stylistic references which characterize MM, for instance. While I'll doubtless end up rambling on for pages and pages about this at some point (I'm sure you're all waiting with bated breath), the general gist of my opinion is that Requiem has not aged as well as either of the Memento Moris (themselves not entirely evergreen) or some other WADs of similar vintage, and while I don't know the details myself (again, we fortunately have Adam for that), it does seem to exhibit some signs of a somewhat uneven or troubled development process. All that being said, it still has some really cool maps in it, and fun to be had, so let's get to it. Without further ado....

Map 01 -- The Gateway - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Everyone else has already said most of what there is to say better/more concisely than I could: this is a very off-type effort for Orin Flaharty, containing essentially none of his typical worshipful reverence towards Romeroan 'precipice' maps--no platforming, no height variation, no quirky progression, just a straight shot from point A to point B through a short series of squat, compact box-rooms. Even by the standards of the day, gameplay is cursory to the point of ineffectuality; the most memorable things are the weird elevated zombie beam-in point that marks the WAD's very first combat engagement (if I were the cynical type I might say that this isn't such a good omen ;) ), and the equally odd chainsaw-snare which other posters have mentioned. It's very true that there's absolutely no good reason to use this chainsaw, but just for shits and grins I used nothing but until the final room full of zombiemen, where the temptation to score shotgun multi-kills is too great to be resisted, at least by meatheads like me.

It's very evident that the vast majority of the effort involved in designing this level went into its appearance. The character of that appearance--lots of rusty metal bars, beams, and borders bolted over top of an otherwise innocuous greentech base--seems to belie a certain, shall we say, 'insecurity' about the depictive capabilities of the Doom engine, and uses a certain other game as a very obvious point of aesthetic reference. As I've no doubt said before, I actually tend not to mind floor-bumpiness very much unless it's very severe, and so the irregular 'plated' aspect of the floor doesn't bother me here--not like there's anything to fear in this map, anyway. The generally cramped, stuffy aspect of the box-rooms with random crap in their centers is more of an issue (most pronounced in that same zombie teleport room), although I think this is really more of a psychological demerit than a practical concern. The single biggest nitpick I have about the visuals is something many players are not likely to see: out in the last little yard before the exit, if you for some reason turn around to look back towards the base you just came from, you'll see a failure of perspective where the view to the base interior is cut off by the sky, while the structure appears much taller when you're actually inside of it. Ironically, despite the sweat put into carving out a hi-res playspace, I think the level puts its best face forwards with the little scenes outside of the base's windows: scores and scores of mutilated corpses hanging from the iron trellises sprouting from the base, festering under the moon-grey sky like an incarnadine mockery of ancient Babylon's hanging gardens. Certainly an ominous portent of things to come...and the right kind of ominous, in this case. ;)

Forgot to mention this in my first post, but if one looks upwards (in a port that supports mouselook) in the room with the teleporting zombies, one can see a couple of metal squares floating in the sky ceiling. It's a small point, and one I'm not surprised never got caught in pre-mouselook days (I don't think there's an angle you can see them at without looking up) but I found it interesting nonetheless.

I'll bite.

Eternity Engine, UV, pistol start with no saves.

Map01

The zombie spawning is rather dull, but I quite like the chainsaw room. Some great use of Support3 and I'll take any excuse for a good chainsaw fight.

The very square, cramped and overall unengaging design make it not the greatest of start maps for me.

Wait... Capellan is Adam Windsor?? Huh, I had no idea.

Demon of the Well said:
Adam can no doubt give a lot more information about the team's goals, modus operandi, and general headspace

You'll probably be quite fed up with my reminiscing by the end of it :)

Demon of the Well said:
I'll doubtless end up rambling on for pages and pages about this at some point (I'm sure you're all waiting with bated breath)[/B]

Can't speak for anyone else, but I am looking forward to it. You often have interesting observations in your DWMC posts.

Map01 - “The Gateway” by Orin Flaharty
Not much to say here, a lot of detail in places, the gameplay is very simply along with the progression. Like others have said this is not in the style of his other work (MM comes to mind).
A passable map, though it isn't that interesting.

So then, time to tackle the legendary Requiem. As stated in the Resurgence thread, all I know of this is made of fuzzy memories I have from playing the first few levels.

I'm going to play by my usual rules: PrBoom+, strict vanilla Doom settings, Ultra-Violence mode, no cheats, and as few saves as I can get away with. I'm playing with carryovers, but might attempt to pistol start any level I get killed on.

Onwards!

MAP01: The Gateway by Orin Flaharty

First thing I have to say, it's nice to see Mr. Romero rip-offs having a go at something completely different and pulling it off successfully, even if it is on a very small scale.

Immediately upon opening the only door out of a simple but good-looking starting room (as is the map in general), we are greeted with our first distinctive gameplay set-piece in the form of that zombieman teleporter. This is a very good sign.

The rest of the level flows quite well, though it keeps things simple and easy as most MAP01s do. The chainsaw trap was okay, the belated shotgun trap deadlier and thus better. I found the armor secret (acceptably well-hidden without being too cryptic), but not the other one.

Overall, a satisfying introduction.

@Capellan: not only STRAIN, but Eternal Doom as well it seems, though I know that one is divisive. And yes, DotW, your ramblings are great, though I couldn't bother myself to read the ones you write for maps I haven't played.

Indecisive on which skill level I should go for, so I think I'll just pick UV and hope for the best. As with Resurgence, playing with pistol starts and no saves, though exceptions may be made to the latter if necessary. Sadly I lost the GJ ERIS wad in the previous laptop's double death, so I guess I'll need to re-write that at some point.
Requiem is a day younger than me, so perhaps I'll love it, or maybe it'll be instead filled with death pits, platforming and other such stuff that annoys me :D

MAP01: The Gateway - Orin Flaharty
| Kills: 32/34 | Items: 33/36 | Secrets: 0/2 | Time: 01:29 | Deaths: 0 |

First off, nice sky, not that we really get to see it much here.
In terms of the level's length and its difficulty, this is very suitable enough for an opening map, but nothing here really stands out as particularly memorable. I'd disagree that the chainsaw is unnecessary, as I actually tore through some of the monsters here much quicker than if I'd used the pistol, and I think more fun is to be had if you play that way, since the pistol becomes a pretty boring weapon to use when there's anything more than like two zombies in front of you.
The structure in the second room seems to serve only to fill up space, since the zombies that teleport onto it pose virtually no threat.
I dunno, it's not bad, but I just felt this was missing something, though I'm not sure what I was expecting from a MAP01 in a 17-year-old WAD. Perhaps I'm too used to modern mapsets.

5/10

I forgot to mention this before, but Requiem's MAP01 has this jarring visual bug when played in Zandronum. It threw me off when I've first played the wad.



EDIT: Also, I've already mentioned messy detail before, but now that I take a 2nd look at those switches and computer screens on soil walls, I'm underwhelmed.

GZDB finds quite a few overlapping linedefs and 2-sided lines without a back side, I guess some stuff might look weird if your port rebuilds the nodes or something.
I guess you'll encounter even more problems in visual trick heavy levels like MAP13, etc.

Oh, hey, cool. Along with ALIEN VENDETTA, REQUIEM was one of the first megawads I ever played when I got back into Doom in the early 2000s. I used the Doomsday Engine at the time, and both AV and REQUIEM would crash after a dozen levels or so. It wasn't until I discovered GZDoom (when I really got into Doom again) that I was able to play all the way through both. So both AV and REQIUEM are the classic megawads to me. REQUIEM is obviously a lot rougher, and it was a little quirky in GZDoom ("Den of the Skull" seemed to have major issues, if I recall) but there's still a lot of memorable stuff. (For example, I just skimmed through KMX's review, and MAP27 jumped out as one of those "Oh, that's where that map's from!" levels.)

Anyway, count me in this month. I'll be attempting UV for the first time. As always: GZDoom/continuous/keyboard-only/savespamming.

MAP01: The Gateway
100% everything in 4 minutes. Nothing particularly remarkable. I agree that the teleporter ambush was obnoxiously slow: I camped outside the door and killed each trooper as they appeared. (Shoot shoot, teleport, shoot shoot, teleport, shoot shoot, teleport...) I did appreciate the chainsaw, though, as it chewed through the imp swarm faster than my pistol would have.

I played the first map through with Doom 95 with a custom doom2.wad in which I have merged the sprite fixing project, perkristian's sfx replacements and Sigvatr's palette replacement, screenie:


But since it's a megawad and I'm afraid of running into problems later on, I'll just use Zdoom. The first map reminds me of STRAIN with its cramped detailed spaces and cool music, anyway it's just a quick little opener, I'd like the exit courtyard to be more memorable though.

VGA said:

I played the first map through with Doom 95 with a custom doom2.wad in which I have [...] Sigvatr's palette replacement, screenie:
http://imgur.com/ua4HYTd

As if Doom's own brown colour didn't look drab enough, this one surely does. :S

MAP01: The Gateway

A very brief and linear opener. It’s similar to a lot of 90’s opening levels, mowing through imps and zombies for a couple of minutes, just starting to get into the swing of things. Although the gameplay is basic, the textures are pretty nice, giving off a rusted and ancient look that fits the detailing and cramped, dungeon-like architecture.