Memento Mori (updated version!)

I really like Memento Mori for its distinct vibe. A lot of its maps feel either slightly desolate and empty (especially after you kill the monsters), or pretty cozy. Most wads don't capture the same feel, including wads from roughly the same era. My favorite maps in terms of feel are Hell's Kitchen, Not That Simple, Inmost Dens II, Stoned, City of the Unavenged.

Of course, Memento Mori has maps that are passable or are outright bad, but I see the bad maps as just road bumps in the adventure. And as you replay the wad and get more familiar with each map, you begin to appreciate even the bad maps more.

One of the most distinct things about MM is its music, because, uniquely, Mark Klem wrote not only dynamic action tracks for it, but also some ambient tracks. They make the maps they appear on feel quite eerie. The use of ambient music is one of the things that distinguishes MM from any of its follow-ups, in a good way, IMO.

Note about the difficulty: on HNTR the difficulty is very inconsistent because some maps have very bad skill level balancing (on them HNTR plays basically like UV). Maps like Showdown can suddenly proceed to destroy you if you've been playing too casually. On UV the wad is more consistent difficulty-wise, but playing MM on UV doesn't feel fun for me, especially from pistol starts. Too many bullet sponge enemies and the difficulty can get too overwhelming sometimes. Oh, and Kinetics on UV is just insane. This might actually be the map you will quit MM on if you're playing on UV only.

The great thing about this wad is you can tell if the map will be fun or annoying a minute into the map. I don't recommend playing all the maps and just skipping if one of them is starting to get boring; there are a lot of maps with very stupid map flow. no trying to guess what opened this time after using the 5th switch in a row is not a puzzle. especially when the only thing you do between many of those switches is trying to find the next one.

Favorite maps map20 (although your mileage will vary depending on you find the cyber early or not) and map28 (small but very vicious map for its time).

Wad has some questionable maps though (such as map25). If you want to do a long play I recommend fully skipping map25 and any map where you spend +5 mins lost trying to find the next switch. or just keep the wiki open whenever you get stuck but at that point I'd rather just skip than try to do some of those maps.

Difficulty: Heavily depends on the map. But I don't  think anything but map12 is that hard. (And even that map is easy once you plan a route instead of stumbling into more corridors with no room to dodge).

A nostalgic trip into 1995 goodness. Feels weirdly liminal at times.

In recent years, general opinon of MM seemed to move towars negative, moreso than any other classic 90's megawad. It's nice to see it recieve some positive attention and even though I'm not exactly a reviewer, I figured I'd join in. Aside from couple rough maps, it remains a great experience today. Generally good and varied vanilla visuals with beautiful highlights like Maps 05, 13, 14 and 21, certainly helped by some great, really cool custom textures, which fit in with the classic ones incredibly well, much better than any other 90's custom stuff (aside from Eternal Doom, but that's a completely different aesthetic). The maps are quite varied without the whole thing becoming incosistent/all over the place and the variety really helps blaze through the whole thing. In comparison, while I prefer MM2 in terms of individual levels, it has a ton of long or similar maps back to back, which can get tiring and take much longer to geth through. Another aspect of MM I really like is some really, unique and fun design choices, or even whole map designs that you don't see much these days for some reason. The Innocent Crew's maps especially are very creative in fun and refreshing ways. Incredibly underrated mappers. Literally everyone knows this already, but Mark Klem's music is amazing. 

This could've been one of the first 32 level megawads that I played after completing the base games. I've played many more since then, and I can honestly say, for a megawad dating back to 1996, it still holds up brilliantly against a lot of modern wads. 

Also @DoomGuy999, about that criticism about maps being coop exclusive...

"Most levels were made for co-op play, all levels are playable alone as well."

Not exactly sure what you were expecting after having an explicit statement right there.

A neat older megaWAD that was made predominately for co-op play:

From the readme:

"Most levels were made for co-op play, all levels are playable alone as well."

It clearly states this, but some people seem confused by this fact, somehow.

Plays just fine in SP, and is how I've played it the three times I've gone through it now.

Yes, it shows its age a bit in 2024, but what WAD from this era doesn't? Features a great soundtrack, too.

Easy 4/5, even in the current climate.

Very glitchy levels and the music is a mixed bag. Some of the soundtrack is good, others are bad. When the levels aren't glitchy, they're just ok. Might have been cool in the 90s but has been beat by so many others. Some levels have inescapable pits. Also, too many levels are focused on CO-OP play, which would be fine if every level was like that and this was clearly labeled "MEANT FOR COOPERATIVE PLAYTHROUGHS" 

One of the all-time greats, as well as one of my favorite wads. Sure, the aesthetics are a bit antiquated in places, but it's still fast and action packed. The gameplay holds up well even when compared to modern wads. It also features awesome music. My favorite maps are MAP03, MAP14, MAP15, MAP23, and MAP24.

memento mori is one of the first great megawads ever released, and while it certainly shows its age 25 years later, it's still worth playing. after a small argument with someone about what qualifies as meeting modern standards with a mention of memento mori being the spark that lit the flame, i decided to give this a replay for the hell of it. i had last played memento mori all the way back in 2016, so my memory of most of the maps had more or less gone down the shitter. other than map09, which i still come back and play every now and then, this honestly felt like playing through the megawad for the first time.

now, being from 1995, this megawad shows it age. unmarked doors, odd progression, abstract design, and questionable texturing are all here - of course, that never stops me from playing maps from around this time period. HOWEVER, even if you tend to go for the more modern wads, memento mori is still absolutely worth playing today. despite the 90s-isms, it's still fun to play through; there's very few maps that i would genuinely consider to be bad in it. while a good chunk of the wad is admittedly somewhat average, there's definitely more than a few stand-out maps that shine through even today.

being made for co-op players, it very obviously plays better in co-op. however, that doesn't mean singleplayer is off the table; i find it to still be great playing alone. it's also a community project, meaning there's a variety of styles, so you'll never get sick of seeing the same style over and over again. likewise, there's maps of all types, ranging from more exploratory maps such as map21 to intense combat-driven maps like map09; i'd imagine there's something for everyone in here. hell, there's even proto-slaughter in the form of the casali maps.

if i could, i'd give this wad three and a half stars; it's not an 8/10 in my mind, but i feel like it deserves better than a 6. i suppose i'll just round up to four stars :)

Love the music, one of the best mid-nineties experiences, I played it several times. It rocks!
Just check out the authors, epic.

This is classic for a reason. Being collection, level differs, but it actually I think less than in original D2. Level design is very clean and enjoyable through, difficulty quite balanced as well, I must say MM aged like the finest whisky, can't wait to get to number 2; this was one of the best I've played so far.

Yes, it's 1995, yes, it's quite old, and yes, very late compared to recent work or any work from 2010 onwards. But this is where the real flavor of being able to enjoy this megawad lies. Despite being quite old (older than me) Memento Mori fulfills the simple premise of being fun and simple. It is not a great innovative work nor a technical marvel, but it is an important pillar to be able to analyze with a better retrospective how far the authors have come to give us such spectacular maps. You may have already played it for this point, especially if you're one of the veteran OGs, but if you haven't, or if you're new to the community and want to go down a path where you can appreciate the past and present, Memento Mori is a good stone to cross.

The maps are so 90s that it makes you want to turn on a walkman and put on your Nike Air and play it properly. Sure, that's an exaggeration, but not too far from the truth. These are pure vanilla maps, almost raw. They offer excellent quality for the standard that was 1995, but they may look a bit dull by 2020. That doesn't mean they are bad maps, for the simple reason that a bad map means a boring map and Memento Mori is not boring. There are small and easy maps as well as big and scary maps and a few maps with a few tricks up their sleeves. An odyssey through many designs that were so innovative in their early days that we now take them for granted. If you haven't tried it, do it, nothing like improving your perspective on Doom mapping and feeling a little old in the process.

no disrespect for all the effort,but i just hated this wad. after map 10 or so it just became a switch hunt. after few maps of getting lost,i just said f*ck this and deleted it. i dont care for switch hunts or slaughter,THAT IS NOT DOOM

First I'm going to go through the original version before I've played this one. I want first to make sure it REALLY is updated. 

What was the problem of the original version? 

• Map 11 - 100% kills impossible
• Map 15 - 100% secrets impossible
• Map 17 - 100% secrets impossible 
• Map 18 - 100% kills impossible 
• Map 20 - 100% kills impossible 
• Map 27 - 100% secrets impossible 
• Map 29 - 100% kills impossible 
• Map 31 - 100% kills and secrets impossible and secret exit inaccessible (initially until you see a trick that isn't that easy to execute). 

All this is one of the reasons the wad was criticized a lot. This comes alongside some not well designed maps like 16 and especially 25. Some maps were very strictly designed for co-op play and thus resulted in problems.

For that, even if I play this wad only for map 14 The Aquaduct, Map 28 City Of The Unavenged, map 23 Showdown, map 21 Twilight Lab, map 26 Between Scattered Corpses and Map 15 Carmacoma - my 6 favourite in it anyways - I still play it as a whole. The maps are perfect for inexperienced players and some of the more skilled and experienced can always find ways to amuse themselves. The wad has really aged badly, but is a real go-to after finishing Final Doom. Not to mention this was the first wad not published by iD Software I ever played.  

4/5 is fair, because of the fact there were too many bad maps in it. And a cyberdemon is a must on every map 32. (Personal opinion.) But there are enough maps that rise it to 4/5, including 3 of my top 10 favourite levels excluding iD Doom - 14, 28 and 23. 

I liked this megawad, but this one surely plays better in co-op as it is designed with that gameplay in mind.
Also, i made a dehacked patch for it so i can read how the story goes while playing this excellent megawad

This is the most Doom 2 megawad that i played so far. The maps are similary abstract like Doom 2, but this are far better. They are interesting to look and play, but some become a little too long making the experience to drag a little.

Its interesting to note that this was release before The Plutonia Experiment, but there are some maps that shows it quirks and i'm not talking about the maps made by Milo And Dario Casali, there are a lot of maps that are designed around the challenge the different monsters in the map will offer. And that shows that the community was heading that way before the great Casalis made their beloved megawad.
H2H-Xmas and Memento Mori are megawads (the firsts even) in the style of Plutonia, this is centered around offering an interesting ad challenging experience to the player.
This makes TNT: Evilution, the third contender to the be one of the first megawads, the only one that is centered in a more atmospheric and chilling experience with good sparkles of good gameplay.
Of the three megawad, Memento Mori is the one that plays better, but TNT: Evilution looks more interesting, while H2H-Xmas offers a great challenge.
Aside from that, this megawad gives me the chance to make a custom dehacked patch with new story and also a custom status bar that maybe i will release someday.

I played this game years ago with all the hype surrounding it being a 5 stars Classic, and I played it, and I gotta say, I didn't like this game, There's a lot of Good Maps as well as a lot of Bad ones, and the fact it's Coop Oriented didn't help the experience, That goes to Map11, here is my criticism.

1- Map 12 Kinetic was really a terrible map, one of the worst ones where the map purposefully forces you to hit your enemies in a Clusterphobic areas with the Rocket Launcher, causing you to sometimes hurt yourself and possibly dying, also the fact that you can't see below while Shooting making this map even more annoying.

2- Map 16 Stoned, I don't know what to say about this, there are some random secret placements that are not in fact secret, and a secret area that's not a secret in the beginning of the map, also I felt the gameplay was a mess on it's own, the Exit area was Dumb that you'll waste a lot of Plasma and Rockets on Caged Barons, wasn't fun

3- Map 20 was really really Boring, it also contains a Cryptic way to grab the BFG, the switches were kinda cool, but the platform with the BFG in it felt like a punch in the face because you have to exploit a bug to grab it, so I had to cheat to grab it.

4- Map 25 Cesspool, Yeah , this map was Hot Garbage!! no need to explain further.. just play it on Pistol Start and you'll see why.

5- Map 28 City of the Unavenged, this map never ends and keeps going on forever and ever, and the fact this map is so confusing with it's tedious swich hunts doesn't help, it kept dragging on forever, it took me an hour to finish this tedious map.

Also there are maps that I didn't like in this game, maps like (8,10,11,half of 18,27) the problems either they're Generic or drags down too long.

As for the Maps I enjoyed here's the list (3,5,9,14,15,31,32,21,23,24,29) and the final map, to MM's credit, the final map is better than all of the IWAD's final maps, and that's what MM did better than the IWADs, at least that's what I think.

My final rating is 5.5/10 it's certainly not as good as what people say, maybe Co-op would make the game better, but I'm judging the game as a Single Player and that's what every game should be based on, and I'm not harping on the team who made this WAD or people who think that the game is Perfect, I think that the game is far from Perfect, I'd rather play TNT and Plutonia instead.

Totally playable and good looking even today. Be wary that there are time-based switch puzzles here that must be solved in order to progress. MAP28 is also a nightmarish switch hunt in an open, Doom 2 Downtown-like area.

This is the first wad I had finished after the IWADS. I played it through GZDoom's Software render, on UV.

How was my experience? Well, in short, Memento Mori is great, but having already saved my thoughts on it in a Notepad file a while ago I'll just paste it and modify where I need to, so this is going to be relatively quick:

- Great, complex levels with good enemy placement and occasionally challenging.
- There's a few traps in a couple of maps which feel like they were designed to troll the player. For instance there's a trap with 3 Mancubi in MAP09, and right before that you pick up a mega armor, so much for the power up... That map in particular also has a challenging ending where a large wave of Pinkies corner you, and a berserk is available to refill your health after the orgy. Another painful trap I'm not sure what to think about.
- Some of the maps have bugs (at least some of them were a little buggy for me in GZDoom) but nothing game-breaking or major. On a few occasions some specific lifts and switches which open areas behind themselves don't play their animations and just instantly disappear instead, and in the case of some elevators, instantly transport you. A little annoying and weird but...
- There's some rather questionable design choices, if not mistakes actually. There's 2 blue keys in one map, the second one serving no purpose (or none that I could find anyway), paper thin switches which are invisible from behind, and a yet another similar scenario with the keys in MAP25, Cesspool.
- Some of the levels are extremely long and just really drag on. MAP09, High-Tech Grave is one such level. Good gameplay to be found here, yes indeed, but it's simply far too long for its own good. It took me 30 minutes or more to complete the map, and it was a pretty exhausting experience.

- There's some new textures here and there, but nothing mind-blowing or impressive about them.

- The final battle can be very short if you move fast, the map gives you lots of resources, and the level itself is just beautifully crafted. Straight to the point, no tedious obstacles, and no bullshit.

- The maps themselves are fairly memorable overall. If I'd have to pick a favorite I'd choose MAP28, City of the Unavenged, despite being a bit confusing at times due to all the switches you have to locate in order to lower the platforms the keys are placed on.

I kept from playing this for a long time because it's "designed for coop play," and can now safely say that was the worst possible excuse for not playing this. I'd go so far as to say that (except for Map25) there are no outright bad maps in this entire set. It's not quite as polished as its successor, but in my opinion it's far better than other early megawads like H2H-Xmas and (dare I say it) TNT Evilution.

clearly when it comes to classic megawads Memento Mori gets mentioned. this is certainly a classic megawad on account that it clearly is imperfect in lots of senses. the overall feel is fairly Doom, only with stranger levels, those that are geared more for coop gameplay. but they did tweak it for singleplayer. nevertheless, there are loads of problems still, some HOMs can be seen in some maps (and the deep water effect in MAP25, lol) and many level secrets and items are unobtainable in singleplayer. the levels somehow do strike as memorable in a number of ways, the middle stretch between MAP10 to MAP12 definitely rings a bell, MAP10 being a middling mansion which is easy, MAP11 being strictly coop-based and screwed up heavily for singleplayer, and MAP12 being green marble with some stair tricks but without a lot of detail. along with crappy levels like those, there are some hiccups in progression, some of which can make levels impossible to complete, these include not collecting that backpack in MAP09 or that chaingun at the beginning of MAP14.

to offset these we have some very cool maps such as MAP07, which definitely proves its title by being quite the puzzler, with a decent maze section and incredibly tough secrets to find. MAP18 and MAP28 are tough city-style levels with arch-viles in conspicuous corners and tough monster placements, with a few switchhunts that can be confusing, but are far more memorable and enjoyable than other switchhunts I've seen. finally there's MAP23, an early example of a true slaughtermap that still holds up.

it's an obvious example of a mixed bag community project, and still can be considered replayable due to middling fun factors that ebb and flow. be warned of hitscanner placement in general, as they are gonna be the nastiest encounters in most maps. these maps are certainly not as polished as the ones in the sequel, and you're gonna have a better time playing the maps from that pack than this.