007 a license to spell doom - stephen clark

Filename: 007ltsd.zip

File size: 6.14MB

Author: Stephen Clark

Homepage:

Other work: see textfile for details.

This level set is not an explicitly Bond-style one; this is explained in
the text file. Instead, it is set in the Doom-era future; the character
you play, Mr. J.Russell, has been very influenced by Mr. Bond's shenanigans.
I would say that that is post-modern, except that I'm not a media wanker, so I
won't. This WAD is an Ultimate DOOM episode (E4M1 - E4M9) for ZDoom, with a
continuous storyline running through it. The maps all have real size,
and they are long, especially towards the end. They mostly have
logical and realistic constructions (especially the transit system).
They're not too heavy on the detail, but they're believable (especially
the logistics complex) There are plenty of original ideas in them,
and there is believable variety within them.

The author certainly used a lot of ZDoom features, and they're integral
parts of the design as opposed to useless junk. They are very well implemented.
The musique-concrète ambient sounds in the industrialised parts are effective -
as are a number of the outdoor ones, such as howling wind in the mountain level
(E4M1). It's strange that when you walk past a certain range from the sound,
it just stops; it doesn't fade out or anything. That's probably a ZDoom oddity
though. In the foggy map (E4M3), the outdoor area is creepily silent (apart
from the monsters that is), lending it lots of atmosphere on low interest rates,
making the loud and incomprehensible tannoy (helpfully subtitled) sound even more
alarming. The gameplay itself is very intense in parts - on one map you have
to work against a time limit of ten minutes; no mean feat as it's a big map.
I'd recommend scouting the WAD out with no monsters first, just to familiarise
yourself with it. Of course, if you like steep learning-curves, go right in
and be my guest. The way through the maps is mostly explanatory, especially
round the start (with things MARKED! so you know what they do!). The mission
objectives are always clear, and you get some backchat now and then from the
in-game character, making him more convincingly real. The problem is that
on the bigger maps, the layout gets very complex, and it can be a real pain
trying to find whatever it is which helps you do whatever you're supposed to
do. Needless to say, a good memory is of infinite help. The WAD has a
continuous storyline, which you're reminded of at the start of most of the
maps. It is very James Bond. With a more gritty, sinister and isolated
approach, obviously. It's got everything good about Bond (not that much
in my opinion) with a lot of good things about Doom. A good fusion.



There are no huge structural/visual errors that I saw, but there was one small
flaw in the design of E4M6 which turned into a very major problem; you can't get
past the fan in one of the vents near the start, which means you're basically
stuck unless you IDCLIP round it. Oops!

The æsthetics are one of the WAD's strongest aspects, and they work in unison
with the sounds to really bring you into the levels. The opening map looks
a bit rough; the mountains in the map consist of lots of brown rocks all over
the place, and the building interiors are no less bright the outsides. However,
things improve dramatically when you get to E4M2, when you travel through a
freight-transportation network, and go through industrial parts, where there
are bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling on flexes casting authentically dingy
light about the place. (By the way, I have seen a very authentic method of
showing rail transport elsewhere - I can't say where, but it involves skyboxes.)
Actually, the light levels seem a bit odd throughout the WAD - sometimes you
have rooms which are very bright considering that they've got no visible light
sources. There's a lot of fog in some of the maps, suppressing noise and
visibility. The secret level has very peculiar red fog throughout - very
hellish and sinister. Around lots of slime, you get oppressive green fog.
There's good use of textures throughout - you really feel that you are where
the map's name says you are. Some of the alignment is a bit rough and patchy,
but as that's one of my own weak areas, I can hardly penalise the author for it.

Yes, the things are well placed, very good.

verdict