The /newstuff Chronicles #475

• Durk's Corridors - Scott Graves
  Heretic - Vanilla - Deathmatch - 33477 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Jjp
  For this review, the wad was played with other people (and not bots) on a Zandronum server.
  
  This wad contains a small, symmetrical Heretic map for deathmatch that occupies the E1M3 slot. As the uploader explains, only the version with monsters is included in the .zip file. Thus, you may want to turn off monsters if you choose to play this. The map itself has minor height variation and consists mainly of similar rooms connected by narrow passages or doors. In some cases, these passages are around 64 units wide. One room also has pod spawners. There are also many teleporters, which can lead to a few telefragging sequences. Most of the map is covered in dungeon textures, although a few rooms deviate from this. Also, the fences in one of the corridors can be passed through.
  
  The predominant weapon is the ethereal crossbow, which is near every deathmatch start. The other weapons are temporarily accessible after hitting switches, although figuring out what they do at first while being shot at can be hard. The map also contains an enchanted armor and a mystic urn that are placed together, which is an overpowered combination that is easily obtainable. Other items, such as the two silver shields, the tome of power, and all the ammo, were placed without much thought. Despite all this, the map is fun for casual play. The small size of the map and the rooms allows for constant close quarters action. Thus, this map is tolerable but unbalanced. Feel free to skip over this wad if you like.
  
  
• Durk's Dungeon - Scott Graves
  Heretic - Vanilla - Deathmatch - 25077 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Jjp
  Reviewed with Zandronum 2.0. This map was played with other people, not bots.
  
  This wad contains a small Heretic map for deathmatch that occupies the E1M1 slot. The whole map is covered in gray dungeon textures. The layout itself would be OK if the center of the map wasn't so difficult to move around in. This made most of the action occur on the outer edges of the map. There are also many teleporters, which lead to a lot of telefrags. Meanwhile, weapons other than the crossbow are only accessible by hitting switches or going up elevators. There are also secrets containing caches of inventory items, which made anyone who found them overpowered. Finally, there are a few HOMs that become visible after pressing certain switches.
  
  I never felt comfortable with the map's layout even after a few matches. Some of the outer hallways are a bit narrow, and the awkward middle section really hurts the map's gameplay. I don't recommend playing deathmatch on this.
  
  
• Durk's Pit - Scott Graves
  Heretic - Vanilla - Deathmatch - 20954 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Jjp
  Reviewed with Zandronum 2.0. This map was played with other people, not bots.
  
  This wad contains a small Heretic map for deathmatch that occupies the E1M1 slot. It has monsters, so turn them off if you don't like them. The map consists of a large pit in the middle with a circular hallway surrounding it. Upon spawning in the hallway with a crossbow and a silver armor, players tend to drop down into the giant pit, so most of the action takes place there. The pit also has narrow cross-shaped platforms with various powerups on them. Pillars that hold weapons can be lowered temporarily by hitting switches. There are also teleporters on the edges of the pit, but it's hard to figure out where each one goes in the heat of battle. The texturing, which is mostly gray and repetitive, also makes navigation difficult sometimes.
  
  The map is playable if you don't mind the lack of depth in its gameplay. If you ignore the hallway on the outer edges of the map, there's basically no height variation since the pit's floor is completely flat. The pillars and cross-shaped platforms do provide some cover at least. Of course, the presence of numerous powerups makes the map unbalanced. Overall, this map might be worth playing a few casual matches on, but nothing more.
  
  
• Mori Christmas! - Zoltan Schmidt "Katamori"
  Doom 2 - PrBoom+ - Solo Play - 1436160 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Zalewa
  This map is lots of fun.
  
  There's something odd about playing a Christmas themed WAD just a week before Easter. One might be bothered by Imp, Revenants and Pinkys wearing Santa hats and Cacodemons being Christmas tree baubles while the winter has just ended and spring is now starting. I wasn't, and if you aren't, then this WAD is quite good.
  
  Visuals are fine. Detailing isn't over-the-top and it fulfills its role of building cozy environments to fight Santa-demons in. The tune that accompanies the map also fits the theme and plays in the background without being annoying. Of course, the WAD is full of custom assets that more-or-less fit the Christmas theme. You'll see modified sprites and winter textures. You'll also see some Heretic textures here.
  
  Gameplay-wise the WAD is correct. The flow is very good. You constantly progress forward, and the fact that the map is almost a straight-forward corridor is well-hidden. It also plays fine in co-op with another player, although there are some narrow corridors. The WAD, unfortunately, fails to run in Zandronum as there are some errors with the map itself, but it runs just fine in the intended source port. Difficulty isn't very challenging. You're provided with all weapons, and you get super shotgun and rocket launcher very quickly. There are some encounters where you need to focus and perform some maneuvering, but overall it's just relaxing gameplay. The end fight is big, but it isn't designed very well, as you can survive it without firing a single shot. The ending has also some fun stuff where the huge display saying "2014" turning into "2015" and then you get cake.
  
  There's one spot in the map where you can get stuck. It's between pillars near the red key and it's very easy to get stuck inside. Apart from that, and the Zandronum technicality, the map seems flawless.
  
  
• Mountain King's Domain - ETTiNGRiNDER
  Heretic - Vanilla - Solo Play - 172982 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Jjp
  Reviewed with ZDoom 2.7.1 on -skill 4 and Chocolate Heretic 2.1.0 on -skill 2.
  
  This wad contains a single map for Heretic that occupies the E1M1 slot. It is designed for vanilla Heretic, and I did not find any compatibility issues during my playthrough on skill 2. It can take between 20-40 minutes to complete, depending on the skill level chosen. There are at least 200 monsters no matter the skill level. Also, the demos included within the wad are a nice touch.
  
  The most memorable part of the map is the grand entrance that the player will see within the first few moments. It is also the most difficult part, as projectiles will be flying everywhere from all directions. The rest of the map is well constructed, with appropriate texturing and thing placement. While the progression itself is linear, there are a fair amount of side areas to visit and secrets to find. There are no unfair moments, although the ammo balance is rather tight on skill 4 if the player does not cause some infighting. I did not find this map difficult after the opening scene, but I did have to be mostly accurate with my shots, and health is not abundant. Fortunately, difficulty settings are implemented well.
  
  Overall, this map looks great and is worth playing at least once.
  
  
• The art of recycling gifts - Walter "Daimon" Confalonieri
  Doom 2 - Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 555646 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Jaws In Space
  The Art of Recycling Gifts by Walter Confalonieri is a collection of six maps for Doom 2 that were made for various different projects, mostly birthdays and speedmaps. All of the maps here are relatively small (the monster count never goes above 90) with a techbase style. For mostly being speedmaps the overall quality is pretty good with a nice bit of detailing and texture usage. A few of the maps have weird progression, though Walter does provide arrows on occasion to prevent you from getting lost. I'd say this wad is worth at least one playthrough; there's a few interesting things going on here, and it won't take much time to get through all six maps.
  
  
• Random - P.L.J. Heinen
  Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 184675 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Memfis
  Here we have a difficult prison escape scenario from 1995. The challenge comes from small space provided, some cruel traps and, most of all, ammo starvation. Prepare to use chainsaw/berserk and instigate monster infighting from time to time, or else you're doomed.
  
  I enjoyed this level; it was entertaining to figure out the route (progression is somewhat nonlinear and wrong choices usually result in severe HP losses), there were quite a few excitingly dangerous fights, and the classic Terminator 2 MIDI emphasized the punishing gameplay nicely.
  
  I can recommend RANDOM.WAD to oldschool enthusiasts that are ready to die a few times and don't hate incoherent texturing often found in 90's WADs. Oh, and the map uses Wolfenstein textures and monsters too.
  
  
• Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 15 - Obsidian Jimmy Scifista42 TheMionicDonut SlashBane AD_79 General Rainbow Bacon Fuzzballfox Skillsaw
  Plutonia - Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 3254554 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Never_Again
  Tested with Prboom-plus -complevel 9 (Boom v2.02 compat) on UV.
  
  15 maps using five themes done in two hours (with four maps going into overtime). Along with the usual speedmap fare, this WAD features a large proportion of concept maps. One of the themes celebrates St. Valentine's day in its own weird way (linedef special 69 - Raise Floor To Next Higher Floor, in case you're wondering).
  
  MAP06 (TheMionicDonut), MAP08 (Obsidian), MAP09 (An_Mutt) and MAP12 (AD_79) represent the cream off the top. Incidentally, all four are small Plutonia-themed bases with fine design and great gameplay.
  
  MAP06 has a neat secret where you have to balance Archie's cooperation vs. the barrel hazard.
  MAP08 encourages Tyson action and gives you a Cyber at close quarters for dessert, along with a clever way to pound it into oblivion from complete safety.
  MAP09 is built on several levels and with its extensive use of height variation somehow manages to feel much bigger than it is.
  MAP12 simply looks and plays like a Plutonia map cut from the IWAD at the last moment.
  
  In the middle you have a core of solid efforts like MAP05 (Jimmy), MAP11 (GRB), MAP13 (NoisyVelvet) and MAP14 (Skillsaw). These maps feature good designs but lack somewhat in other respects. In particular, MAP05 is marred by two essential switches being hard to find; MAP11 feels like a bit of a slog and has you fight two Cybers (thankfully, not at once) in awkward settings; MAP13 suffers from excessive brownness and gameplay-hampering invisible crystal sectors; and MAP14 tacks on a ridiculous slaughter at the end, although it's easy enough to handle once you what's coming.
  
  The rear is brought up by... well, there's no point in going into details here. Suffice it to say that most of the rest are rather unremarkable speedfare: overly simple layouts, indifferent looks, and semi-random monster placement. I found only two maps actively annoying, and these need to be pointed out: MAP03 and MAP07. The former is something of a my-first-WAD from 1994; the outdoor section section actually looks pretty nice, but with the randomly sprinkled monsters and the lava stream that keeps hurting you even after being drained it doesn't change the overall picture. It was actually broken in the original release (thanks to being designed and tested in ZDoom), so if you get stuck there you need to download the fixed version (dated 2015-03-01 - ignore the date on the /idgames database page, it doesn't update automatically). The latter (MAP07) is a little more than a joke-WAD with HOM, no weapons and an unkillable Cyber at the exit.
  
  Two entries stand apart from the rest and merit a separate mention, being the most notable examples of concept maps referred to at the beginning.
  
  MAP04 (scifista42) is a tiny affair (the smallest in the set) with a population of 29. However, you have little more than half the ammo to clean out the level, so you need to weave and dodge while getting the monsters do the dirty work for you. It's surprisingly fun to speedrun; however, it's too small and gimmicky to be considered a serious effort.
  
  MAP10 (4shockblast) is also flat, bare and based entirely around gimmicks; however, the concept and execution are considerably more elaborate. This is an evil map that will kill you scores of times, yet you will keep coming back, thinking "Now I got it, this time I'll get through". The quick-footed, stubborn and agile will get a Cyber to two-shot, a voodoo-doll-meets-Romero's-head exit contraption and a six-second free fall as the prize; the rest will most likely hate it.
  
  TL;DR: despite a couple of lemons, this WAD is a solid piece of ASS. Go grab it with both hands.
  
  
• Discovering the Hell: The 5 Worlds - Deadwing
  Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 38998619 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Jjp
  Reviewed with ZDoom 2.7.1 on UV. All maps were played from a pistol start.
  
  Discovering the Hell: The 5 Worlds is a single-player wad for ZDoom that contains 19 maps. As the text file states, it is unfinished and abandoned, so the author decided to upload what they had instead of leaving the wad on a hard drive to rot. The author seems to be Brazilian, as the credits picture mentions BrDoom. The story text is also in Portuguese.
  
  The maps are divided into episodes with a common theme, each representing one of the "worlds" implied by the wad's title. map01-map05 takes place in a gothic castle, map06-map10 drops the player into a winter environment, map11-map14 centers around forests and the temples within them, and map15-map17 is set in a space station. map18 starts off in a hellish cavern. Finally, map19 is just a box with an unused boss in it and is clearly unfinished. To better convey these themes, there are many new textures from various sources. Each map is small to medium-sized and can be finished in 5-15 minutes from a pistol start. The monster count never exceeds 200. Jumping and crouching are also required.
  
  There is nothing remarkable about the maps' architecture, but I did not find anything that looks ugly. Detailing is kept simple, and texturing is done well. These maps also have ordinary layouts and linear progression. The earlier maps are very straightforward, while the later maps tend to allow a bit more exploration. Many maps do make the player revisit areas, so linearity is not an issue most of the time. Some maps can use more height variation, however. A few maps do have odd design decisions. For instance, at the start of map11, the player needs to turn around and shoot an unmarked wall, which is actually a gun-activated door.
  
  New music made by the author is included. It is in mp3 format, which makes the music responsible for most of the wad's file size. The music is generic, but it isn't bad. I don't think map06's track fits Doom very well, though. The music is reused throughout the wad.
  
  Many monsters from the Realm667 bestiary make their appearance, although their stats have been altered. Some of them, such as the blood demon, are unnecessary bullet sponges, while others, such as the tornado demon, can be very irritating to fight. There are also boss battles, but most of those fights are tedious circle-strafing exercises. The bosses have too much health and are not very creative.
  
  The player also gets to use new powerups. The double damage, damage reduction, and time freeze powerups make their appearance, as well as a sphere that regenerates 5% health per second for a limited time. The regen sphere may seem a bit overpowered, but it is the only source of health in some situations.
  
  There are also three new weapons. The freezer gun is a recolored shrink ray from Duke Nukem 3D that predictably shoots projectiles that freeze monsters, while the biorifle shoots green sludge that lingers for a moment after contact, dealing additional poison damage. Both of these weapons use new ammo types, and they are both very useful. The railgun, however, is useless since the fire rate is too slow, and I'd rather save the cells it uses for the plasma gun. These new weapons take up slots 6-8, and the plasma gun is reassigned to slot 9.
  
  In addition to these new resources, the author made some additional changes to Doom's gameplay. The pistol is now 100% accurate all the time and the player starts with 100 bullets, which makes some pistol starts much easier. The carrying capacity for rockets and cells have been significantly reduced, but rockets do more damage. Health bonuses give 2% health. The monsters' projectiles move faster, and some monsters, such as the revenant and mancubus, have more health. The spectre also moves faster.
  
  While the gameplay is very straightforward most of the time, the changes made to the monsters and the usage of the expanded bestiary makes some sections in the later maps tedious and frustrating. The earlier maps are generally less of a slog, although the first map requires too much pistol usage. Some traps in the later maps are unfair as the player is almost guaranteed to die the first time they encounter them without much of a fighting chance, no matter how obvious the trap is. Due to the changes made to the monsters and the small size of the areas, employing camping tactics and immediately fleeing from traps is the only way to survive some scenarios later on. The excessive amount of health that some monsters have further slows down the gameplay. Meanwhile, while there is enough health to survive a few hits, there is not enough health for those who want to play more aggressively. There are many scripted autosave points, which alleviates much of the frustration, but that does not address the tedium. Another problem is that while enough ammo is generally given, it is easy to run out of ammo during certain boss battles.
  
  Despite these issues, I did have some fun playing this wad as there is no shortage of action to be found, even if the gameplay is rather simple when the player is not dealing with a harsh trap. I also liked the platforming sequences that are present in a few maps, although others might not. The usage of the new resources did not feel tacked on to me. One nice touch is that the certain monsters only appear in specific episodes and do not appear again for a long time, which gave a sense of progression as I played each map. This wad kept my attention until the end.
  
  If you already played every other ZDoom wad and are looking for a new one, this might be worth looking at if you can tolerate some flaws. Don't feel obligated to play it, though.
  
  
• My Little Wad - jameson2_fr
  Doom 2 - GZDoom - Solo Play - 3447996 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Zulk-RS
  A four-level wad that has heavy 3D floor usage, texture misalignments and some questionable design choices. It also has a steep difficulty curve, though the wad itself isn't too hard (for the most part). Each map has some problems which are usually prevalent in that map only. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not.
  
  MAP01 "Welcome": A really small map that tells you what your in for. The map starts with you coming under zombieman and imp fire almost immediately. The 2nd floor (if you can call it that) has architecture that, though looks decent, hinders your game-play. It mostly has zombie men, imps, demons, and a mancubus boss. Ammo is ample here.
  
  MAP02 "Village"; This map mostly consists of outdoor areas. It's a pretty big map and all the houses have doors which open from the inside. The map is full of imps on rooftops and shotgun guys who will sneak up on you to take a chunk of your health away. I got lost countless times and exited the level by pressing a wall. The yellow key was not used during my play through. Health is a little short, but there's more than enough ammo.
  
  MAP03 "Tech Base": With a name like that, you know what to expect. This map has ambushes waiting for you at literally every step. At first it was creative, then it was annoying. It has a dark room near the beginning where imps will attack you from the shadows. Normally, I wouldn't hate this room. But the darkness made a switch which you have to press to progress invisible. I had to "Summon infrared" just to see what I'm supposed to do. Near the end of the level there was an arachnotron ambush which killed me seven times before I decided to type in IDDQD. There is a shortage of health but ammo is enough. But the ammo is scattered throughout the map.
  
  MAP04 "More Techbase": Another techbase which adds more problems to the ones from MAP03. Lot of dark areas, annoying ambushes, and poor navigability. This map also has a few missing actors near the end. I got lost over and over and it took me two hours to finish. In the end I got annoyed and instead of searching for a switch to lower the exit, I ended up rocket jumping and finishing the level.
  
  
• Base of Waste - mallo
  Ultimate Doom - Vanilla - Solo Play - 57876 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Jaws In Space
  This is an E1M1 replacement, and according to the map author it is his very first map. The design of the map is the standard E1 techbase. The layout is competent for a first map, but I think it could have been a bit more nonlinear. You need all three keys to exit, so you are forced to see the entire map. This wouldn't be so bad except that the map is pretty minimally detailed, so it's kinda boring to look at. Gameplay is fine, it gets the job done, but the map is pretty easy, as I was able to beat it in about four minutes. There's not really anything wrong with the map, but I'd still say pass on this one for now. The author states that he may use this map as an episode opener at a later time; check it out then, as I would expect improvements to be made.
  
  
• Kether - Nabernizer
  Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 106632 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Jaws In Space
  This is a pretty old school-feeling map for Doom 2; it could fit right in with the 1995 crowd. Overall the map is fairly minimally detailed, but there is the occasional micro detailing such as the oh-so-common missing floor brick and things like that. The map layout could use some work; the map is pretty much a straight line from point A to point B. The most interesting part of the map was the small canyon section where there was the option of two different directions, but one was a dead end, so yeah, pretty linear. I did see a bug in this canyon section: a texture above some nukage is missing. Gameplay wasn't too bad though, the only issue being a room where you have to kill 3 cyberdemons on pillars; pretty boring running around in a circle shooting rockets for a couple of minutes. Also, the map abruptly ended for me. I think it happened when I killed the Spider Mastermind, which is weird because there was an exit door near the start of the map. Overall the map is just OK; layout problems and a few bugs make me not recommend this wad, but for those who want to try it anyways it's just a quick ten minutes to get through.
  
  
• Blank-TX: Useful placeholders for map development - scifista42
  N/A - N/A - N/A - 218688 bytes
  Reviewed by: Jaws In Space
  This pack is a set of seven wads, each with the same custom texture pack, Doom 1, Doom 2, TNT, Plutonia, Heretic, Hexen and Strife. The purpose of this texture set is to be used as a placeholder set during the editing process so that the map author can work exclusively on map design and then come back to doing the actual texturing at a later time. There are various different textures for each of the various sized stock textures; they are all grey with a small bit of detailing on each. While there are some people who do like to design their map before adding the textures, I don't really see the point of having placeholder textures. It just seems like an extra unnecessary step in the map making process. That's not the real problem though; the real problem is the poor choice of textures that scifista provides, as I don't really see the use of them. Perhaps if there were textures that would help with alignment it might be useful, but this texture pack seems to only exist just to add an extra step to the map making process and nothing else.
  
  
• Path to Hell - Michele Molducci
  Ultimate Doom - Zandronum - Solo Play - 185224 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Jjp
  Reviewed with Zandronum 2.0 on UV.
  
  Path to Hell consists of a single map for the original Doom that occupies the E1M1 slot. Zandronum is required to play the map as intended, since most of the monsters and items are somehow missing when it is played with ZDoom. The map also uses ACS scripts, so it won't work in many other source ports. It took me about 20 minutes to complete the map on UV.
  
  The architecture is basic. The author needs to learn how to use the unpegged flags, as many of the texture misalignments could be fixed by using them. The map itself starts in a techbase and goes through several different themes as the player progresses. There could have been more texture variation in some areas of the map, and the lighting variation is simple too. I also did not like the 64-unit wide corridors and the ugly usage of stair step textures on walls.
  
  There are also some problems with the gameplay. Many of the monsters appear in front of you, and barons are used in non-threatening ways. The hardest part is the beginning since there are many former sergeants and little health early on, but the player eventually gets all the weapons, including the BFG, and too much ammo. Many doors open too slowly, which is annoying since hitscanners behind those doors can shoot you before you can even see them. Also, there is at least one bug involving a non-repeatable door linedef.
  
  I did mostly point out flaws, but the map is not terrible. It has some okay ideas. Feel free to skip this if you want, though.
  
  
• Explorer: Ruins of Baevon - Zulk-RS
  Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 140488 bytes -
  Reviewed by: Jjp
  Reviewed with ZDoom 2.7.1 on -skill 4.
  
  This wad contains a single map for Doom II. Even though the text file says that it works in "any limit-removing sourceport", it is actually a ZDoom map in UDMF format. The author only tested the map in ZDoom-based ports. Thus, it does not work in its intended source port.
  
  The map itself is very easy due to the absurd amount of health and ammo present. There is barely any detail. Most of the map consists of a flat, oversized box with a few structures in it, and there's nothing interesting to look at. There are also bland caves and unnecessarily long hallways. A few ZDoom features make their appearance, such as particle fountains, deep water, and a single ACS script, but these features do not make up for the map's faults. Jumping is also required to progress.
  
  This is not worth playing, and the author should get more feedback next time before releasing another wad.