The /newstuff Chronicles #397

• cold sensations - Wraith
  Heretic - Vanilla - Solo Play - 3154634 bytes -
  Reviewed by: walter confalonieri
  This is a large map from Wraith for Heretic. Unluckily this wad doesn't gave me any sort of emotion from playing it; in fewer words, it isn't garbage, but neither is it the Sistine Chapel of Heretic modding. It's just standing in the middle, with a few things that drop this level near the abyss of crap, like the unbalanced ammo/monsters. Seriously, in the village I found myself fighting against ghost golems with my bare hands... err, wooden stick. Luckily, I found some ammo for the weak gun... and I left a maulotaur alive.
  
  Level flow isn't bad, but some copy/paste rectangular rooms forming cramped mazes weren't a good choice, especially when they contain the switch that reveals the next step for the map. Also, the ghost golems maze part in the village was confusing.
  
  Level detail is way too bare but enjoyable; there's some stuff like texture usage on lifts (mostly TRSTONx and sand blocks as city walls and lift for enter in that section, take a look to the 3rd screen shot) and switch alignment.
  
  Anyway, pass on it, you lose nothing.
  
  
• Creature of Despair - Hardcore_Gamer
  Doom 2 - Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 61865 bytes -
  Reviewed by: ultimatecarl
  Oh boy, another ugly slaughter map. The map's look is boring, flat (I think there are maybe 10 sectors in the whole map with a different elevation) and repetitive, but gameplay-wise it's not half bad. It's definitely easy for a slaughter map (I was even playing on UV), but that gives it a sort of "stress release" quality. The latter parts mix enemy types a bit, but it's mostly the same "closet of imps, closet of chaingunners, etc." type. Shotgun shells are handed out like an NRA bake sale so that's never a problem, though health is less liberally scattered. The last bit before the end is oddly anticlimactic, with the last "closet" only containing about 12 enemies with nothing stronger than a Baron.
  
  If you're having a bad day and are kind of drunk then by all means, load this up on Hurt Me Plenty and go to town. The uninebriated should give it a miss.
  
  
• mjs-02 - Mark St. Hilaire
  Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 28408 bytes -
  Reviewed by: BloodyAcid
  Having never used DeepSea, I cannot compare the quality of this map compared to the difficulty of the editor.
  
  One map that is pretty bland with WTF crushers in some places. You can walk through all but one of the fences, so that was pretty stupid. Virtually no difficulty AT ALL despite the text file.
  
  tl;dr: 1990s map that is better off left on the archive.
  
  
• mjsd2-03 - Mark St. Hilaire
  Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 26237 bytes -
  Reviewed by: BloodyAcid
  Another level by Mark St. Hilaire. Suffers from the same problems as the other one (walk-through fences again), with a few exceptional WTF spots.
  
  1) If you fall into the zombiemen pits at the beginning without hitting the switch, you're dead.
  
  2) There's a WTF Spider mastermind in the second room. Difficulty for the wrong reasons.
  
  3) Library bookshelves are actually sectors with "impassable" set and a texture. Projectiles go straight through.
  
  4) More blandness compared to the other map.
  
  tl;dr: More 1990s map, except worse off than his last map.
  
  
• Sticky Blood - Memfis
  Doom 2 - Limit Removing - Solo Play - 70168 bytes -
  Reviewed by: BloodyAcid
  A single short and sweet slaughter type map for Doom 2 that packs a hard punch right from the get-go. Level runs smoothly, and is of a harder difficulty. Looks nice with a simple layout. Worth a download.
  
  A UV-Max demo is included with the download.
  
  
• Snowballs' Chance .... (DooM I) - ReX Claussen
  Ultimate Doom - Limit Removing - Solo Play - 331688 bytes -
  Reviewed by: ultimatecarl
  Plays like an actually pretty good 1994 map. The readme says it needs limit-removing source ports, but I'm not really sure why.
  
  There's a lot of your standard mapping mishaps here: misaligned textures, locked doors with no color indication, over-reliance on the same gimmick (in this case, teleporting tons of the same monster into the main "outdoor" area every time you complete any objective), etc. There's a ton of health, and while ammo isn't handed out as plentifully, liberal application of your berserked fist eliminates the issue, making the map fairly easy even on UV.
  
  That said, the architecture, vanilla as it is, isn't horrible (although the map could stand to be a bit smaller; running between the four corners of it is a tad tedious). Monster placement is reasonable and the traps are surprisingly devious. Not a bad little map, but not quite good enough unless you're really raring for some vanilla Doom I action right now and can't be assed to find something else.
  
  
• Helltrip - Hellbent (aka Grotug)
  Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 303122 bytes -
  Reviewed by: ultimatecarl
  Ugly, flat, and boring. You start out stuck in the floor (with easily visible HoM) but you can escape with a lift hidden in the floor that you can repeatedly raise (although I don't think you're supposed to). After a completely lifeless corridor-hunt (I wouldn't even call it a switch-hunt. You're not flipping switches, just running over linedefs at the ends of corridors. Also it wouldn't be right to call it a maze, either, because there's no chance of getting lost or confused, just long treks from one hole in the wall to another hole in the wall) you're rewarded with an incredibly cramped map with sub-par action. I can almost see what the author was going for: creepy anticipation, tense moments of nowhere to dodge or hide, but unfortunately it misses all the marks. Pass.
  
  
• Clear Focus - Mr. Chris
  Ultimate Doom - Vanilla - Solo Play - 15880 bytes -
  Reviewed by: BloodyAcid
  A short E1M1 replacement map that keeps to the original level's style. Since texture misalignments were intentional, this map is very well done. However, this map is too easy, too, too easy. It's worth downloading for a(n extremely) short amount of fun.
  
  
• Outpost - Radromity
  Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 29548 bytes -
  Reviewed by: BloodyAcid
  A short and simple marble/wood map with no real difficulty. Detailing was okay, but only an extremely small amount of floor/ceiling textures. There was a door that had pegging troubles with a marble texture instead of something like DOORTRAK.
  
  There were also a zombies stuck together for "ammo" purposes I guess. Worth about 2 minutes of (sorta-ish) fun.
  
  
• Lunatic - Paul DeBruyne (skillsaw)
  Doom 2 - Limit Removing - Solo Play - 4058779 bytes -
  Reviewed by: fullmetalvaran33
  "Lunatic" is a 5-map WAD that lives up to its name is two ways. Firstly, it's a WAD that takes place on...the moon. You have to battle your way through the giant ball of demons that crashed head-on into the moon. Its orbit has thus slowed, and you have to escape before it crashes to earth (escape to what, I'm not sure). The moonscape is desolate, gray, and rugged, but you'll find some small tech structures and some expertly designed rockets along the way. Plus, you can see the earth above in the sky, and it's a surreal visual treat for sure.
  
  The other reason I assumed it's called "Lunatic" is because of the gameplay: it's quite a brutal adventure as you gun down horde after horde of demons, resulting in a massive battle with a few Cyberdemons and monsters that seem to endlessly teleport into the circular launch facility. Plus, the music is a midi of Europe's "The Final Countdown," and guess what the fifth map is called?
  
  Smart.
  
  As with any of skillsaw's maps, play this one. It's a bloody, action-packed ride from start to finish.
  
  
• Hanging Gardens - Paul DeBruyne (skillsaw)
  Doom 2 - GZDoom - Solo Play - 2433399 bytes -
  Reviewed by: fullmetalvaran33
  "Hanging Gardens" is yet another release from skillsaw, and, once again, it's an amazing spectacle. Set in a large, open-air garden facility in the desert, the player must battle through a slaughter-y mess of demons from the very start to the very end. Luckily, none of the plant life get in the way, as they occupy the outer edges of where you walk, and you are provided with a good amount of supercharges and a few megaspheres, as well as sufficient ammo. It's still a difficult ride, but it's enjoyable, beautiful madness.
  
  If I was to fault this WAD, I would have to say that it leaves you wanting more. Turns out, this was going to be part of a multi-level WAD, but that project was canceled, so skillsaw released the "Hanging Gardens" map instead. It's unfortunate there won't be more to this, but, maybe it's also a good thing that you want more rather than leaving the map feeling like you never want to see anything like it again.
  
  Definitely play this if you haven't already. It's loads of fun to play and pretty to look at. What's not to like?
  
  
• The Lost Temple - Joey
  Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 24824979 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Processingcontrol
  Some more worthless crap from Joey/Terry.
  
  You know the drill: you start off in some good looking area, use a door, and things start going apeshit.
  
  
• Hell Revealed 1943 - Goseph Joebbels
  Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 2533189 bytes -
  Reviewed by: BloodyAcid
  Shitty Hitler-fetish impossible (in 1 life) slaughter level that can actually be completed.
  
  You'd be stupid to download this.
  
  No, really.
  
  
• Sewer Duty - Eric Gillespie (epg)
  Ultimate Doom - Vanilla - Solo Play - 56955 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Processingcontrol
  Sewer Duty is a fun classic style level for Ultimate Doom. The map was solely made with DEU (despite the fact that it was made fairly recently) and is the author's first level. For a first level, it's very good. Even though it doesn't look that good (by today's standards), the map has great gameplay and a nice layout. It isn't a difficult level (I was able to beat it UV on my first try), but because of the low amount of health and ammo you'll have to be careful. It isn't that long either, and it'll probably take you 10-20 minutes to beat. The theme is mostly techbase, except for a sewer section at beginning (hence the WAD's name). Mostly weak enemies are used; I don't remember seeing and non-E1 monsters and there's only one baron.
  
  There are some things I didn't like, though. Like I said, the level doesn't look that good by today's standards. There's a good deal of texture misalignments and some areas were too bright. However I guess it doesn't look too bad for something made with DEU, and there were a few rooms that looked pretty good. I generally like it when maps are loaded with secrets, and I was happy to find that this map has good dozen of 'em. I was able to find ten, but most (maybe all) of the ones I found were just the repetitive different or misaligned texture type. Another thing that bothered me was that there were some ledges which look like you can walk off of but can't.
  
  Despite some of its flaws, Sewer duty remains a pretty fun map, and I'd suggest it to anyone who wants to play a nice relaxing Doom level for a good fifteen or so minutes.
  
  
• Doom 2 1.7a to 1.7 binary patch - Mike Swanson
  Doom 2 - Vanilla - N/A - 40688 bytes
  Reviewed by: Processingcontrol
  This zip contains two patches which downgrade Doom2.WAD and Doom2.EXE from versions 1.7a to 1.7. I don't see why anybody would ever use this, especially because it's already been done. Not much to say about this one...