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| CHORDG is
a recent effort by Malcom Sailor who is clearly one of the most gifted
level designers out there. Many of us in the DooM community are already
familiar with his work so I won't describe style attributes in great detail
here. The setting for CHORDG is some sort of pseudo underground dungeon
that merges a marble/metal motif with dirt and weeds in such a fashion
that you can almost smell the dank, moldy ancient air that permeates this
hellish nightmare. The lighting and texture detail is unbelievable.
This attention to detail coupled with a natural eye for what works and
fits, leads to an experience that is completely immersive. Do not
play this wad alone, at night with the lights off. It is legitimately
terrifying. I'm not sure
how long it takes Malcom to build this things, but they have the look of a considerable amount effort. CHORDG is a small to medium sized wad. The level layout is utterly non-linear and permits a good tour of Malcom's talent before solving (BLUE/YELLOW keys). CHORDG suffers however, from one shortcoming.
It contains too many monsters without synchronized health/ammo. Typically
synchronization is not critical if the monster count is moderate or the
level layout lends itself towards dispersing health/ammo. CHORDG
is connected in more or less tight quarters with an over abundance of the
major monster types. This is a problem even on the lower skill settings.
IDDQD is the DooM cheat for GOD mode. Faced four Super Hell Knights,
three
Cacoderms, a platoon of Revenants, two incessant Pain Elements and two
simultaneous Archvilles in constricted fighting conditions, us amateurs
must use the cheat in order to complete the level. This is unfortunate
because at that point you're not playing DooM anymore unless you are playing
with fear. I'd recommend any of Malcom's levels and you MUST
download his CHORDG (as well as the others in the CHORDG series found at
ricobnet). Just keep the skill setting below 3 and be prepared to
enjoy a master plying his craft. You simply cannot find better work
anywhere in the world. It is impossible to review this wad
below a 9.
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Overall: 9/10
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