Upon opening up the readme for HAR, the first thing that caught my eye was the map description. I don't know why, but that was the first thing I saw. The fact that the author built this map solely for the purpose of converting it over to Quake was certainly new to me, but I pressed on. Further down the text file I spotted the build time, which clocked in only at a measly four hours. At this point I groaned to myself, "oh man, this thing is gonna be a dog..." Thankfully, this map was anything but, and proved to be surprisingly fun to play. If you're wondering how this could be, all I can say to you is the following famous quote from Wheel of Time author Robert Jordan; "read and find out"!File name: har.wad Author: Steve "Stphrz" Robinson Map Size: Small Map Summary: My brother was fooling around with a Doom to Quake level conversion program a little while ago....most of the levels he tried to convert...didn't work at all...so he asked me to design a small, simple deathmatch level. This is what I came up with. (Excerpted from har.txt)
A clean view of the main courtyard.
Like the author hints at in the readme, the level is remarkably simple in design. It's got nothing in the way of beautiful architecture, fancy lighting, or even texturing. The scheme is predominantly Doombase-brown, with some wood thrown in for good measure. There is a design that hangs atop the main arena, but other than that no other flourishes decorate the map at all. It does happen to be a mostly outdoor map however, which means the lighting isn't really noticeable. The beam design does cast a shadow, so at least the map isn't totally devoid of shading. Texture alignment is pretty much on the dot, and only veteran Doom mappers and hardcore players will notice the few that are slightly misaligned in some spots.
Thanks to Zdoom's jumping, getting the soulsphere is too easy.
As for HAR's layout, it takes very much after the world famous Doom 2 map 7 in terms of design influence. There is an inner arena and an outer passageway, which will seem familiar right away to most Doom 2 deathmatchers. The twist is however that a set of four teleporters dominate the center arena, and is surrounded by four sets of stairs on each of its four sides. Players who get a running start can jump off the stairs and hit the teleporters, which will bring them to a small corridor with a soulsphere inside. In turn, this corridor is exposed to the outer passageway, giving opponents a chance to splatter anyone trying to make a run for the gold. Players grabbing the soulsphere then must not only brave the stretch to the power up itself, but teleporting out leaves them exposed right smack in the middle of the arena! This is sufficient deterrence to keep people from controlling the soulsphere too long, and helps play stay balanced. Unfortunately, Zdoom's jumping once again manages to ruin this delicate form of control. Of course, the most obvious way is to use a Zdoom assisted jump to hit the teleporters easily, but it's even easier to just jump through the window access from the outer passageway! This makes it sickeningly easy to abuse the soulsphere, and as such players should at least turn off jumping in this map or play it on a non-jump enabled port.
The power weapons are tucked away in the center arena.
If there's something that at least makes up for this potential abuse of the soul sphere, it would be the wise weapon placement. Single shotguns are scattered in the outer passageway, making it great for picking off opponents from a safe distance. Players looking to take a risk however can brave the arena outside, and duck into a corner to grab the almighty rocket launcher and double-barreled shotgun. There's plenty of obstacles outside to provide cover though, so it's not as difficult as it sounds. Indeed, even getting close enough to your opponent is a challenge in this map, as there are ways to weave and double back just to confuse the hell out of him. In that sense two players is a bit of a slow game in HAR, but 4 players becomes an almost non-stop frag fest. Amazingly, the BFG and plasma are nowhere to be found. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Fundamentally, nothing is wrong with the map. The only things that could have been improved were to limit the number of armor present in this HAR to just one, as the current state of affairs makes getting kills in head to head play somewhat protracted and dull. Those of you who have gotten used to today's souped-up dm levels might want to pass, since there isn't anything new or particularly ground breaking for you to feast your eyes on. If you do decide to pass though, I can truly say that you will be missing out on an honest to goodness dm map that promises some fun play. While it might not be memorable in the grand scope of things, HAR does a good job of bringing Doomers back to the good old days when the FPS world was still flat. =)
Review by Razorback
The Doom DM Resource Recommends:Get HAR from ftp.cdrom.com's wad archive.2-4 Players If you are using a jump-enabled port, turn jumping off Play over Doomserv Use with Boom/MBF/SMMU