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Map 09: A bit like map04: you have to hurry to find your way before you run out of rad suits, and this time there aren't many of those. This time the switch hunt is more confusing though and you have to search around the map to see what has happened. Dying isn't too bad though as the map is short enough so you aren't too annoyed having to kill everything again. Mixed feelings about this one but at least I didn't hate it.

Map 10: Another ok map. Health is fairly well balanced and this time there is actually a trap that releases monsters as you approach a key, which might be the first time in the wad. Normal looking walls that you can walk through are very rarely a good idea though and it isn't that here either.

MAP09: Didn't like this. Big acid pit, and I didn't see the additional rad suits until the yellow key/end... so I was just running through a maze, soaking up medikits and supercharges. Died a couple times, decided to use saves.

MAP10: Had a lot of fun with this. Lots of enemies, frantic fun, no switch hunting. Was missing stronger enemies though.

Map09 - Time - 6:08 no deaths (97/0)
This map is too much, constant damage from the slime is tedious, there is enough health and there is some degree of challenge. But it's not my cup of tea. And I got lost a couple of times due to the layout.
Map10 (final time - 3:49) - 3 deaths (100/100)
Regretted consecutive play here as I started on low health. Luckily I have a plasma gun so no worries. This map looks wierd, but also it's a good level. Interesting design and unpredictable level progression. Some neat little traps, though the fake wall trap is a little crappy. Overall a nice level.

MAP09
I've been ambivalent to levels in this set in the past, I'm sure I will be again. And this is one of those. When this map works out, it's kinda great. A liberal smattering of soulspheres will get you through the nukage more than the radsuits will; and as long as you know your way around, there's no problem there. And there's the kicker -- you gotta know your way. I died three times in this map just feeling it out, and aced it the fourth like a boss. Felt good doing so, but did I really need all those deaths just to be able to know where I was going? 5/10 - I have strong feelings in both directions here.

MAP10
Holy fuck, another challenge. I must admit to swearing at the chaingunners in this, but it's cool. Mostly that fake TEKWALL. No. Bad designer. Other than that, it was a nice runaround, and didn't look too plain either. A neat little map. 7/10

The guy loves those little box-switches, doesn't he?

On to map 9 and 10, be interesting to see what other people made of these, after the previous efforts I didn't think they were too bad.

Map 9 was a bit trial and error. Carpeting the whole map in a floor that slowly kills you might seem like a way of injecting some urgency and drama into proceedings but in reality it just punishes the player for not knowing exactly where they are going. I guess i was lucky to find the radiation suit hidden at the start (hidden behind a fence that gave no indication you would be able to walk straight through it). Then it was a case of blindly running around acidic corridors waiting for my feet to start burning. There were 2 more rad suits I could find, although going back for one of them I found the door wouldn't open to let me at it. Still, after the previous maps this at least felt a bit more like playing an actual game of doom.

Map 10 was the most enjoyable map so far for me, lots of monsters to kill and while the map is still pretty small it feels more open - less of the switch hunting around tiny corridors. A couple of face-palm moments: entering a room with walls you can walk through and invisible monsters on the other side shooting at you, and finding a computer map hidden in the only secret area after finishing the rest of the map. But otherwise this map was a ray of sunshine in a mostly-pissing-with-rain wad.

Map 09: I liked the frantic pace, running around without a radiation suit and trying to pick up each and every piece of available health just for the sake of survival. Not a bad map.

Map 10: This was another fun little map. Harder than I expected, but as someone said a few posts higher, that fake TEKWALL was a punch in the face. I must admit I'm growing to like the authors style.

Map09: This one is really cool. Actually it's my favorite so far. Another gimmick map, but this time the gimmick is actually cool. I was able to beat it on my first try, but there were many moments where I thought I was going die. Each one of those moments ended with me finding a soul sphere or something right in the nick of time.

Map10: Another good one. Finally a "normal" map. Very different from the other maps in wad; no switch hunts, no mazes, no death traps, etc. Really the only sign that it's a Kile map is the floating switch cube. That whole tech part in the south was great. I love those wire textures.

Map 09 - I ran around this one dying a bunch looking for a key, when I already had the red one. Whoops. It's OK. I'm reminded of an era of computer games long past, where the player had to write down where things are, and sometimes the game could reach a point where it was unbeatable. This is kiiiiiiinda like that. It certainly can be a bit unforgiving. Couldn't find any secrets.

Map 10 - It's ok. The author is good at little gimmicks, like the small doors that you bump your head on, and the fake wall. Combat is quite tame still. I'm hoping things will eventually pick up, but since it hasn't yet I'm thinking gimmicks will be all we get out of this set. And levels are still about the same size. I feel like each one was busted out in an afternoon.

Just a quick post to say I'm playing but I'm way behind. Today has been the first day I've been able to play and despite the level's being small, the switch-hunt has made it a bitch to catch up - who's idea was it to do 2 in day!

Anyway, I'm up to MAP07 so far. Hopefully, I'll get another 6 maps done tomorrow so I'm finally caught up. I won't go into the MAP01-06 too much as I've been reading everyones posts so far and they're pretty much on the money. I respect the author is trying new things and putting new twists to the original gameplay but he must have realised that while some things work (like the clever two-chance BK route at the start of MAP01), others like the MAP03 / MAP05 final switchunts are just a chore. I actually got a headache that I'm blaming directly on MAP05 & MAP06! Oh well, at least he had the courtesy of keeping them short and otherwise untaxing.

I've deliberately avoided reading comments on MAP07 - MAP10 so I can see them as fresh. Onwards to tomorrow...

I didn't get that much sleep so my head is kind of fuzzy, but I started this thing so I'm going to finish it!


MAP09:
Strange map. It took me a while to find the blue key, I totally missed the passage taking you directly to it for some reason.

Honestly though this is probably the best map in the wad thus far ... the damaging floor is kind of annoying, but the health pickups are placed in close enough proximity that it never really gets annoying. There's no extremely annoying switch puzzles ... maybe I've just lowered my expectations enough to finally start enjoying these maps, but I thought this map was pretty good.

Overall, definitely the best map so far. The damaging floors kind of remind me of Ultimate Doom in a lot of ways.


MAP10:
Okay I take back what I said about the previous map being the best, this is the best so far ... I liked it a lot. I can definitely see the author improving; It's almost like he made this wad over the years and we are seeing his art improve.

I liked the low ceiling in the outdoor areas, it made the area feel really open and you don't see that done that often. The enemy placement was nice, the traps were great, there was a bit of switch hunting but it wasn't tedious ... I liked it.

Overall, a huge improvement. If the maps continue to improve at this pace I can see why this has been recommended so much.

I am quite surprised so many people like MAP09, when I found it absolutely dreadful.

DAY 6

MAP11

The Circle of Death really lives up to it's name! You have to be quick at the start to avoid the chaingunners... A lot of pickups here, there is even a room with 3 soulspheres in it. OMG, the red skull area has descended into slaughter territory, with a freakin' HORDE of Revenants guarding the skull. The author has provided a novel way of getting the key in relative safety. Switch hunt almost non-existent here, and it's about time as this is the best map to date. Liked the main arena, fun.

52/85/0 6:18 -> Wasn't about to go back and pick off all of the revs...
Great stuff!

MAP12

is a factory, surprise surprise... I wonder when we get to Map 21 if we're going to have to deal with Kurt Cobain's shotgun wielding headless corpse? ;) I didn't like this one too much, although there are plenty of worse levels in this mapset so I'm not complaining too much, but this level just has no flavour. I found the red & blue key but missed the yellow for ages as I had the lite-amp goggles on (which are completely useless here BTW) using GZDoom, so I couldn't see any key colours for a long time... don't know how I missed it though, there are only 10 of them in the level! Didn't like that door in the switch/maze room that leads to exit area. Did like the rising room effect first seen in Map 6... I believe we may see this effect coming soon to wads near you, as this really is a winner. Yay for the motherload of Imps in the exit corridor.

100/100/0 11:04
Not too good, not too bad; it's just there

Map 11

Perhaps my favorite map so far. Author following the original map names mentioned earlier is really obvious at this point at the latest. The revenant trap is so much of an overkill that it made me smile. That's so many revenants you rarely see at the same time outside of slaugher maps. I even killed all of them without having to go back to the map area to search for ammo. I ended up with 10 surplus bullets and nothing else left. While the fight is somewhat tedious and not much of challenge, I didn't mind it.

Map 12

It's ok. I like how the maze sections of the map have original visual ideas this time.

MAP11: I enjoyed it. Not a lot of cover, which leads to a big health drain at the start, but a surplus of supercharges help. And I love the red key trap/solution. Very inventive. I thought I was going to have to fight the revs off at first, until I started using my brain.

MAP12: Didn't mind it. Mazey and symmetrical, but enough baddies to shoot.

Map 11 - Time 6:10, 1 death (100/0)
Good level with a few nice gimmicks, the map is well designed. I didn't really get how to handle the revenants the first time and was left in an uncompromising position (horde of revenants and infinitely hight blocking etc. Couldn't access the secret.
Map 12 - Time 8:07, no deaths (100/100)
Not bad, there are a few annoying moments. The multi tier areas with imps below and you on top is annoying if you want to kill all the monsters, though not complete awfulness compared to other things.
Last few maps have been pretty good

Dare I say it, these were two rather pleasant maps.

MAP11
Oh yeah, I get it. A literal circle of destruction. By now I'm used to the kinda drill this seems to be -- kill everything and then run around getting keys and switching switches. IN SILENCE. I did seem to be 'stuck' at one point near the three (yes, THREE) soulspheres, but when I tried to rocket-death myself, a door opened. Ah well, 83% health left, carry on. And so, key-chasing in silence, I thought. Until the room with the vat of Revenants, which was great. It really was. Not a bad map at all, though rather sparse in the main area. 7/10

MAP12
When greeted with a bunch of 32x32 indents in the ground at the start of this one, my first thought was to start 'switching' the sides of them; but I resisted, lest I exit the map in half a second. So let's do it properly, I thought. It initially looks like it's going to be one of 'those' maps, a clusterfuck of switch-chasing because there are a load of closed doors and they won't open. Except one. Anyway, this was actually quite pleasantly non-linear and a nice trek to the eventual switch that causes the starting sector to lower. Those 32x32 indents? 'Exit' sign blocks - trolled by Klie, can you believe it? Anyways, some nice sections in this map (I loved the mini-mazes with the barred textures -- THIS is the way to do Doom labyrinths -- there's enough visible to work out a path without Automap. Same for the TEKGRN 'lowered ceiling maze', come to think of it), even if the dozen or so yellow keycards were not really needed. For good measure I grabbed all of them. ALL OF THEM. 8/10 - ALL THE YELLOW KEYS!

This is definitely getting better. I like.

Hooray, I've caught you all up!

MAP07

Bad, wierd map. I stepped on every teleport pad and found the secret this way with the dodgy fake exit. Having explored for about six minutes I dropped into one of the pits and by amazing fortune landed in the one with the exit switch. Terrible map, but at least it didn't waste too much of my time.

MAP08

I was shocked at the spike in difficulty here. I found the invulnerability sphere first time around so knew how to kill those AV's. The room they're in could have had a clue as to how to get back out. I assumed you had to pick the right door and dodge past the cyb so I never found the cache of goodies others have mentioned.

MAP09

At first I was loving this map. The damaging floor added intensity but the health kept you going. Sadly, I had to cheat to complete the map as I never lived long enough to find the blue key. I partly blame the level's confusing layout (a sin when a nukage trek is mandatory) and partly blame my own poor orientation. Was there no CAM on this map? This megawad has a high ratio of them but I could have done with one here!

MAP10

My favourite map so far. It was nothing special but there was nothing overly offensive. Lots of switches to hit but placed in a more intuitive way than previously. Inoffensive is a good way to describe this level.

MAP11

Another decent one but I had to cheat again to NOCLIP out of the room with the three Soulspheres so it loses points there. I beat the rev trap on the first attempt, which felt good. I even managed to kill them all by cheesing all my ammo at them through the little gap in the support wall that blocks them.

MAP12

This map reminded me of MAP06. I'd hoped Klie had got over his maze phase but more narrow mazes abound here. I think my favourite part of the map was playing imp checkers in the big square room, you really had to keep checking your angles to avoid damage. A bit of a disappointing level after having played a couple of decent ones but it's not as fatally flawed as some of the early ones.

I peeked at MAP13 and the start is promising. Tomorrow will not feel like a chore :-)

Map 11 was entertaining, after all these low-action puzzley maps it was kind of surreal stumbling into a room with a million revenants. Although I couldn't find enough ammo to kill them all. Couldn't find the secret either, not that i looked very hard for it. It was nice to have a big open area at the start, but with all the chaingunners around the edge you couldn't really make any use of the space.

map 12 was also intriguing, some bizarre architecture and items to pick up, including 2 infra red goggles (in a map with no dark areas) and a whole room full of yellow keys. This one had a few annoying mazes but nothing too headache inducing, although that room with the walls that didn't go all the way down to the floor did my head in a bit.. Also I'm glad I didn't spunk all my ammo before the corridor of imps, there wasn't much of it around.

The wad is definitely become less painful now.

purist said:

MAP11

Another decent one but I had to cheat again to NOCLIP out of the room with the three Soulspheres so it loses points there.

I got stuck there too, but there's actually a door with SUPPORT3 texture that you shoot to get out... wasn't obvious in the general gameplay scheme and I almost no clipped too!

Map11: Another fun one. The opening room was fun, and the revenant trap was a nice surprise after trudging through 10 monster-light maps. I know you're supposed to trap them between the doors, but I just killed them in the room they were all in. The only big problem was that area where you needed to shoot a support texture to escape.

Map12: This one wasn't as fun as the previous few maps, but it was still decent. The mazes were actually cool this time, and that imp-filled hallway was fun. Still, the architecture was pretty repetitive and boring, and the gameplay was dull save for that imp part.

map11: This one was pretty challenging from pistol start, mostly because of all the long-distance hitscanners. The revenant trap is one of the neater ideas I've seen, seems like a cool concept that could be made better by making it more obvious what the switches do ahead of time.

map12: here we go, another classic bf_thud map, mazes, mazes, mazes! not bad. got a bit tight on ammo trying to kill everything (again from pistol start).

Overall it seems like the maps are getting better on average as the wad progresses

Day 6!


MAP11:
That was fun and tense. It took me a while to find the correct door to enter at the beginning, but after that it was smooth sailing.

I liked the Revenant trap. The author gives you these really powerful weapons, so you think "maybe I can defeat all of these with what I have?" but after a certain point you inevitably run away, activating the crusher. It was a fun way to psychologically add tension to the situation without making you feel powerless. I liked it a lot.

The end was kind of annoying because you had to run back and forth, and the pit with the 3 soulspheres took me way longer than it should have due to the unorthodox lift, but it was a decent map overall.


MAP12:
Interesting map. I like how the author is experimenting with making the mazes more interesting ... the one where you can see underneath the walls was cool, along with the grating mazes. I liked them because they didn't feel tedious, mostly because you could see where everything was, it was just a matter of finding the optimal path and not running around randomly.

The weird effect from previous in the wad, with an entire room opening like a door is here again. It's still just as strange as before.

Overall I don't know what to think about this map, it wasn't annoying, and the mazes weren't tedious at all, but I know a lot of people hate mazes so I'm still questioning why he decided to include them. Probably because this is an early wad.

So yeah, neat little map. Didn't have any issues, although I thought the hall full of imps was really stupid.

DAY 7

Time for my daily stream of consciousness...

MAP13

Cool, a '95 city map... I was looking forward to this one! Great firefight, let's see if the enjoyment holds up after cleaning up the monsters. That 4-way lift switch is pretty annoying when you want to hit the back one. I got the BFG9000! Oh, Yes... not that I'll need it! Had the blue skull and didn't even realise it... the megaspehere stairs are a great concept and a bitch to execute.

100/100/100 7:25
Good '95 city level in the Doom style. Biggest complaint is lack of opposition after initial firefight, but that is now par for this course.

MAP14

* A side note: while some this author's areas are very similar or symmetrical even, monster & thing placement is not... makes a big difference.

Ok, inmost den style textured level, shafts drop you down into maze-y, well, inmost dens. Wow, there's an Archie in here! The mazes aren't so bad and just time consuming, but what I didn't like were the sudden random teleports, also leaving you unable to collect some items. We also have our old friend, the useless invulnerability sphere.

100/82/0 8:03
This level is just there.

I'll agree with Ribbiks, the maps are getting better. I wonder what I'll find in the Industrial Zone... oh well, tomorrow!

I was liking the maps up until map04 when the doors were lifts to nowhere and an annoying slime area. I think I'll pick this up again at map11. Maybe tonight....

Sorry for not following the rules, but I just finished the wad. I played with saves and kept my weapons + used iddt a few times. I played this some time last year but stopped on map06 for some reason. My comments: cool wad

TimeOfDeath said:

I played this some time last year but stopped on map06 for some reason

Heh, I would've stopped on Map 06 too! Damn mazes....

Nice job on getting caught up Purist! It'll definitely be more fun going through 2 maps per day now.

MAP13: So far this is one of Klie's best levels IMO. It's a nice change of pace to battle in the open, and the "trick" to getting the first key was interesting. Kind of wish I could fight more enemies as the level went on, instead of killing them all before exploring, but it's been a consistent theme so far.

MAP14: The maze & symmetry themes are starting to wear thin faster than any of the switch hunts are, especially since this level was very non-threatening. It was fine, I'm just done with mazes I guess.

Map 13:

Liked it. It's even boxier than the Doom2 original but it's fun to play. I also found all the keys without any trouble at all so no long switch hunt with 0 monsters this time.

Map 14:

Another excessively mazy and symmetric map. Definitely a step back in quality after several better maps.

Map 13 - 5:54, 1 Death (100/100)
Interesting level, not bad design, a few little gimmicks to figure out. Got nailed by a chaingunner in the first attempt so had to restart. Overall not bad.
Map 14 - 7:46, no deaths (100/100)
Another mazey level, not too keen on this, spent some time discovering the secrets which are nicely hidden, one secret involves grabbing a soulsphere then being teleported to a megasphere (wtf!!!)

MAP13
I liked this one. I almost got my ass kicked early on due to the rather gung-ho way I dived in, before retreating to a diminishing amount of cover to pick of distant hitscanners with the chaingun. Then it's the usual "monsters are dead, walk around the map wondering what to do" - and when I found what to do it all fell into place nicely; probably a little too nicely, but hey. I really did like the red key puzzle, it was clever. Other than that, a surprisingly fun map I'd say. 7/10

MAP14
What can I say about this one? Straightforward. That's what it was. I like that it's essentially a non-linear map, but every part was basically the same; doors into labyrinth into keys into teleporters back into the main area. Repeat ad completum, I guess. Although the running around shooting things was kinda enjoyable, I'd say this was pretty average. Alright, add one more onto an average score because that Archvile encounter is my kinda trap. 6/10

I'll have to play the next two maps quite late tomorrow. I'll be busy.