The DWmegawad Club plays: Hadephobia

EPISODE II - Hell Exhumed

Right, time for chapter 2. The story left me cruising on a ship heading to whatever destination the demons were busy shipping their mysterious cargo to.... or importing it from??

MAP07 - Deadly Exploitation by Cell

Looks like i've landed on an island with a secretive facility well guarded with monsters. High fence to keep people out, as if the monsters weren't enough to discourage people - must be something valuable they are protecting here, think I will have a look around... More crates inside, looks like they are producing something here, or maybe digging it out of the ground. 3 keys and a lot of killing later and it seems my hunch was correct, an entrance to a mine. What manner of evil are these fiends digging up from the depths of the earth? Or maybe its diamonds, better check and make sure.

Not so atmospheric with the lighting here again, but makes up for it with the fighting, and wehay a plasma rifle! Still no rocket launcher yet though. I had my first death on this map, there was a ledge i thought i could jump to but instead i fell into a mosh pit of monsters.

MAP08 - SunSub-Station by Vaporizer

Down we delve into the mines. Some green goo here, a byproduct of some industrial process perhaps? Whatever is going on down here, those monsters really don't like me picking up their keys. Lots of ambushes and a touch of nukage surfing in the darkness brings me to an underground train to somewhere.. not much more to say about this one, nothing offensive though. A bit of blind faith running on damaging floors but I can live with that.

MAP09 - Terminus by purist

Still no sign of those diamonds. I've reached an underground train station, looks like i'm traveling on foot from here though. The difficulty over the last 2 maps seems to have eased up a bit maybe, or maybe I'm just getting used to dodging revenant missiles, but the opposition here is mostly smaller monsters and plenty of cover to be found - apart from that surprise mancubus by the crushers, very naughty. The revs behind the blue bars that teleport way back in the lift, i'm not sure how that is meant to play out because they just hung around back there until i came to finish them off. Are they meant to come and trap you? Or just surprise you later at some point? Quite a long bit of uneventful backtracking to get to those blue bars as well, maybe a monster trap along the way would spice things up.. Anyway, i've reached a flickering cavern that ends in a massive door, and now i'm not so sure there are any diamonds down here after all.

MAP10 - Excavation Site by A.Gamma

Wow, this map pushed up the production values a touch, and the violence. And no, there are no diamonds here, though we are deep enough underground now that lava is peeking through cracks in the floor. But this is no mine, or perhaps it once was, but now seems to play host to some form of demonic temple carved out of the living rock. Or was it unearthed by hapless miners from its eons of slumber embedded in the underworld? Are those some hapless miners dangling from the ceiling? In the midst of all this is a graveyard - was this place built by human hands? I dont imagine monsters burying their dead.. perhaps some ancient cult retreated to these depths to worship their foul gods, and unwittingly let loose some evil into this world.

Anyway enough of that, this map is gorgeous and nasty in equal measures. Monsters are springing up out of the ground at the drop of a hat, and sniping you from dark corners, or surrounding you in walls of angry monster meat. I died almost instantly from a combination of surprise chaingunners and invisiblee spectres - I have made a vow to never have spectres in any of my dimly lit maps, its just too annoying fighting stuff you cant see. The setting and design is a lot more ambitious than in previous maps, and the fighting more intense. I really enjoyed playing this one. Somehow I managed to find all the secrets as well, largely thanks to getting lost and poking around previously explored rooms. Epic stuff, really like the music too. Now excuse me but I see a glowing red hole I must jump down...

MAP11 - Descent into Underworld by walter confalonieri

So here we are in the firey depths. Strangely empty of monsters, guess they were all upstairs in the previous map. What there is here though is a lot of running and one very tedious fight with a spider mastermind. Tedious because it is either shooting your arse off or teleporting randomly about - you can only shoot it when it is standing still and it only stands still when it is filling you with lead. Add to that not much cover, no health afterwards and not much else to do, and you have a bit of a let down. I guess this is meant to be a boss fight map so doesnt require a lot else, but the amount of redundant space makes it feel rather empty, and the fight itself is a case of jumping next to the mastermind and pumping it full of plasma, and hope it doesnt shoot back. Also I kept falling off ledges and doing the same boring run back to a teleport pad. All in all, not my favourite map of this wad. Graphically it did a good job of depicting the firey underworld, I'll give it that.

So chapter 2 ends, and it seems my suspicions were mostly correct, apart from the diamonds. Already we are stepping into hell, and only half way through the adventure.. what horrors await...


oh yeah, I found a HOM in map 10 in one of the lifts, maybe someone mentioned it already. I have a lot of reading to catch up with.

Capellan said:

If that bot-aiming ass is around, I kill it dead before I worry about extraneous keys and switches. I'd expect that to be the most common response, myself.

I second that.

^ yeah, seeing as the player has to cross the cover-less chasm to pick up the yellow key, I doubt they'd be opting to do so under mastermind fire (except for crazy ol' Memfis)

12 - PASSOVER
...Through the vortex you are ported into a brown bricked outpost. As you take your first step forwards the choir of Hell that had polluted your mind abruptly cease thier ghoulish whispers. You turn around to see the portal has vanished. You conclude the Spidermastermind must have died and taken it's portal and hive-mind back to Hell with it. The outpost appears to have been purpose built as a reception to Demons porting out of the Mastermind's cavern. It seems the Mastermind wanted to concentrate her army in this area. You work your way outside and through the outer gate to find out what the Mastermind was attacking...

MAP12: Narratively I’m a bit confused as to what I’m doing here, or where “here” even is… Am I in hell yet? What is this outpost with a blood red sky? Why send some demons to the asylum island and others here? Guess I’ll have to wait for some answers but for now I feel like I’m just wandering about.

This is a map mostly consisting of bulky enemies in very tepid formations. The start was the hardest for me coming off of my close battle with the mastermind, but as soon as I put down the first wave of revs past the green armor I barely got scratched. Most of the baddies come at you from only one angle and even the traps in the map are easy to foresee. The blue key switch battle outside could’ve been interesting if not for the fact that I triggered the revs early by peeping out the window and could just stand in the doorway once I lowered the lift, blasting them one by one to bits (a doorway which is blocked by a berserk pack… it probably made SteveD berserk). I liked the layout and visual style of the level, feeling like it did a lot with what little it had, but I walk away disappointed that it wasn’t more challenging for me. Perhaps having 300 cell is still too much for these mid maps.

Map 11 - omfg spiderbrain

I second the comments from some earlier players about the imps, lost souls, and cacodemons...maybe it was a holiday in the Spider Mastermind lair, so they were just working with a skeleton crew?

I liked the teleporting boss, but a lot of times it cycled through its teleportation so quickly that my projectiles didn't get a chance to reach it, even if it was on the adjacent platform. And with the ample cover from the column I would have liked it to have teleported to, say, 3 different locations, instead of having to wait for it to cycle through to the one nearest me while I just sat there. Would have also appreciated some post-boss health pickups.

I really liked the entrance to the level, I thought the little narrow staircase went a long way in building tension after the expansive previous level. Atmosphere overall was cool, although the lights were flashing a bit too much in the boss room to my liking.

And my absolute, hands-down favorite part of the level was the tiny, single "EXIT" sign recessed into the wall of the hellish cavern. I just thought that was a great, humorous touch.

Also, I no-clipped around the level after beating the boss, and in the huge dual lava flow area visible through a hole in the wall to the left in the imp cavern, there was a dude impaled on a stake sprite. The only way to see him is to noclip over there. Poor guy.

Map12
SteveD is gonna rant about this one. And I can't say I blame him.

Ignoring the issue of switches and power-ups, we've got a fairly pedestrian brick level here. It all looks okay, but the gameplay is a bit flat and uninspired. The closest I came to fun was refusing to fight the last two revenants in the northern section. Flick switch, hide behind switch, so long suckers, I'm outta here!

Most pointless encounter award goes to the AV in the area behind the green armor.

MAP12 - Passover by Olympus
Heh one death, sticking on a teleporting hellknight.
Right this map is simple, too simple. The map lookls nicely and well presented, trouble is the gameplay, it's just monotonous, everything is in front of you and usually presents little challenge to the play. Apart from the revenant area, it was just ssg everything in your path. Turns out that is the pistol starting strategy anyway.
Oh chaingunners appear out of the floor as well if we want to be really nit-picky :P

Map 12 - Come At Me, Bros

Capellan said:

Map12

Most pointless encounter award goes to the AV in the area behind the green armor.

I have to admit, it was a little cathartic to shred the immobilized bastard. How you like me now?

Not much to add that others haven't already said. Just kind of meh gameplay-wise, monsters attacking from one direction. Nice consistent visual design. Plus it was quick. Better a quick blah map than an incredibly drawn-out one. More of a filler map than a bad map.

Map 12 -- Passover - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
If I'm understanding the story correctly, we're now back on Earth, in an old and decrepit mortar outpost, perhaps one of a few small buildings to be found above ground from the same group as those we saw in the Excavation Site, earlier. The dour bloody sunset suggests we've been down underground a while, and of course the demons will have been up to no good topside in the meantime. Looks and mood--from a consistent texture scheme (although lighting is a bit flat) and the combination of the red sky with the TNT music track also heard earlier in the WAD, respectively--are the main things this map has going for it. In gameplay terms, it's quite small and quite easy, and feels like another 'interlude' map in the same vein as map 08. Unfortunately, where map 08 concentrated most of its 40-some monsters into a couple of fights to make the action seem at least relevant, here a similar number of foes are spread out pretty evenly throughout. There are a couple of closets and a teleportation attack or two, but they're all tiny and mostly harmless....most of the monsters that are around appear in front of you, just requiring you to use the SSG like a toilet plunger to clean out the generally narrow works of the map. I can't really pick out one encounter that stands out from anything else around it here, and that, really, is the map's main problem. It's competently built and all, but the action's quite sedate and very bland.

Map12 – Passover – by Olympus – Kills – 100, Items – 100, Secret – 100. Time 12:57. End Health 100, Armor 200. Death Count – Zero

Capellan made a great prediction about my reaction to this map, at least in one respect.

But first, this is a very nice-looking map. Brick and metal with Marbface, very well executed. The opening room reminded me of one of my own maps – Map06, Realm of Chaos, to be precise. I thought the early fights were nice enough. Great shocker with the Revenants, too. I did object to the Archie on the column in the blood pool. Given all the cover you had, the Archie posed no threat whatsoever, so what’s the point?

I liked it when Chaingunners rose from the floor after you killed the Mancubus behind the red door, because they weren’t on Insta-Lifts for once. Of course, by this time we’ve already encountered a box of shells in front of a door, perhaps justified for pistol-starters, but since this megawad is geared to continuous play, it seems odd. But without question, the greatest crime against proper game design is the Berserk in front of a switch. Once I saw that, I stopped, shook my head in amazement, and laughed. This really is tantamount to putting a Soulsphere there when the player is at 199 health. Even stranger, the switch drops you to an outside area with Revvies and an Arachnotron. Not the kind of things I wanna duke it out with.

Like I always say, I’ve made all these mistakes myself. I decided to look at all my Realm of Chaos maps, and 5 out of 7 had at least one instance of either a Stimpack, Medikit or Green Armor in front of a switch, or something else objectionable, like a Berserk in a 64-wide hallway, or a necessary secret door. This is worth noting because one thing I always wonder is why no one mentions these things during playtesting, when it seems that one player after another points these things out after the megawad is finished. I don’t know what the playtesting process was for Hadephobia, but on Realm of Chaos, everyone did some amount of playtesting, while Rob Berkowitz and I tested the entire megawad on every skill setting, on both continuous play and pistol-start. That’s a minimum of 6 complete playthroughs, and yet, I still made those mistakes.

How can I explain this? Well, my only defense is, it was 1996 and we were all noob designers. I probably thought the Medikits were a good gameplay combo with switches because I was chewed-up from combat and I could get a twofer with a health upgrade and a switch push. But that was me, not all other players. We have to remember that other players might be a lot better than we are – a safe bet in my case! – and while we need to put in the necessary power-ups, the correct thing to do is to not waste resources by forcing the player to grab them when they don’t need them.

There’s not a lot more to this map. It’s small, has some decent but not deadly fights, a cool red sky texture and a nice music track. It was sort of relaxing, and I liked it. It’s a good example of small-scale Doom design. I also finished the first time in about 10 minutes but went back to find the secret I missed. And it was Blue Armor. Sweet! But I had to hump every wall to find it. ;D

MAP12 - PASSOVER

Nice-looking map with the old school Doom2 design, lots of brick and metal. Gameplay-wise it's very easy, but I like it as a nice little breather map after MAP10 and 11. I was a bit worried at first when I first heard the Revenants/AV together but finding the AV on his own made it cake. Only died once (got caught on a chaingunner or a torch in the "chaingunners rise out of the floor" room). Yeah, its kinda of a nothing map, but it looks nice and I think its placement in the WAD is perfect and makes me like it more than I otherwise might.

Also, I freely admit I'm not really reading the story anymore, as it didn't add anything I couldn't get from playing the levels - the progression was easy to understand. This is the first time it wasn't clear (okay, I'm out of the Mastermind's hellish area, now where am I? Earth? Hell outskirts?) and the story doesn't really make that clearer (some outpost near where the Mastermind was concentrating her army for some reason). Meh.

Capellan said:

If that bot-aiming ass is around, I kill it dead before I worry about extraneous keys and switches. I'd expect that to be the most common response, myself.

The incentive was to allow access to more cells but if you've found plenty in previous maps you might as well camp.

The story Memfis mentioned was more to account for the fact that there's no bosskill special so it would still make sense if you never killed it.


Map12 – Passover – by Olympus

By this point I feel like the story didn't really become a consideration. I like the map but it is just a typical brown brick gothic stronghold Olympus level and other than the fading portal at the start and a nice otherworldy open exit view it doesn't really pertain to the project goals. By the 12 week point in the project I had tried to switch the story building method to a group discussion because we already had enough to start with and most of the contributors had signed up by then. At this juncture my suggestion was that the teleport would lead to a UAC lab that had been experimenting on the mastermind before it's escape. I thought this would be a good opportunity to explain the UAC's role in the catastrophe during the episode.

It wasn't to be, instead this map represents an exit point from the excavation site that the demons can use to over-run the UAC installation. Thematic and story considerations aside I do quite like this map. It's neat looking and easy going, it doesn't push the boat out or take risks but this makes it a good counterpoint to MAP11. Unavoidable items don't overly bother me, especially on a map that does not require a great deal of resource management.

purist said:

Unavoidable items don't overly bother me, especially on a map that does not require a great deal of resource management.

We all have our styles and pet peeves, and a different set of things that do and do not bother us. Myself, I always think about resource management because I'm a walking keyboarder. Thus, when someone puts a Berserk in front of a switch when I enter a room at 95% health, that's nothing more to me than 95 wasted health points, because I'm not going to box with Revvies.

This is not to say that mappers should keep me personally in mind when making their designs. It's not about me. It's not about anyone in particular. It's about doing things in a way that gives players options. Why force a player to pick up a Berserk when you can just put it down below -- where the fight takes place -- and they can grab it if they want to and if they need it?

As a player entering this map cold, how do I know resource management is going to be easy? How do I know that the next step I take won't activate a trap that surrounds me with 10 Revvies? I don't know. So these are things going through my mind when I see a Berserk in front of a switch.

If only BaronofStuff was here to back me up. ;D He'd provide the pictures, too. I hope he isn't sick or anything.

Yeah, this map was easy, so the Berserk wasn't a big deal in the end. And I wasted 10 shells by grabbing the first visible box of shells, then later I accidentally stepped over another box while dodging the Archie. But to reach that Archie, I had to trigger a trap. The trap must be triggered, or the player cannot proceed in the level. Is this not a questionable gameplay decision? Suppose I had 95% Armor? How long will I wander around in the level asking myself, "What do I do now, Ma?" In this level, not very long, because it's small, but in a big, complicated level, I might get really frustrated.

This is all meant as constructive criticism. Stuff to think about.

13 - METAL TERRITORY
...So this is what's been happening up on the surface while you've been underground. You wasn't sure what to make of brick building the portal transported you to but, after you fight through a rocky valley, ahead of you is unmistakably a UAC structure. At least it used to be. Now it's another outpost of the undead. You have no choice but to start investigating this gothic structure - which doesn't seem to be an easy task to do.

As soon as you set foot in the valley, the demons surround you from every direction. You make a terrible bloodbathing massacre amongst them, but finishing, you ecounter the fall-out of a similar massacre. The lifeless bodies of a dozen or so demons are strewn before the fortress, whilst the door itself is decorated by a Cyberdemon skull. The gruesome scene does nothing to ease you. You can't help wondering what has caused this carnage. Suddenly, a demotic metal structure takes your attention with rhythmic snoring inside - the worst thing ever considered: A Cyberdemon, luckily sleeping. It has been caged here by it's own kind, a the prisoner of this demonic civil war.

Inside the fort the walls are lined by the minerals that caught your attention on the freight ship and mine. Some UAC artifacts have survived the Demonic subversion and you are surprised to find a working console. Records left by the UAC show they were experimenting on using the mineral to block a psychic link they had discovered between Hell and hadephobics, with the fort being designed as a safehouse. You consider the visions you suffered and realise you were being exploited by the UAC. In the end though it was the UAC who were exploited by the demons as it was the mining of this material that led to their demise. You zoom out on the console map to find you are on another island not far from the two you've already been on. Zooming back in again you locate other key UAC buildings that you expect the Hell Spawn would be keen to invade.

Without much hope you try communication lines but again they fail due to a lack of power. The whole base network is powered by an emergency generator in a power station built into one of the islands caves. If you can kick start the other generators perhaps you can get a message to the world beyond these infected islands. While you're searching for further information, the Cyber suddenly wakes up and ecounters you. You have no chance but to fight him and then search for that power station immediately...

MAP13: Really solid effort by Cell. There were a multitude of little things I enjoyed about this map, from simple traps to just enemy placement: the starting PE to provide pressure, small holes filled with corpses in the rock walls, additional enemies during cyber fight, exquisite detailing inside the structure, the door texture used as a cyberdemon skull etc. I don’t think it was a vicious map but I lost a lot of health just playing poorly and not expecting some things, like the chaingunner to open fire as soon as you pick up the first berserk. Really fun level.

Music makes sense once you read the flavor text. Also like the use of the console map story wise, as I thought it was an odd gift to just hand the player.

MAP13 - METAL TERRITORY

Fun map, and has a lot of the old Doom flavor I appreciate with the monster placement. There's a few teleporting enemies, but each spot is limited to only 2-3 at a time (if anything, they almost feel a bit light... but I hate the whole teleporting enemy mechanic so that's fine by me). I agree with dobugabumaru, the Pain Elemental at the start worked well (lots of ceiling for it to manuever and get around the player who has to worry about terrain and other monsters) and the good enemy placement continued throughout the map. Despite the enemies it did feel a bit easy in places, probably due to the well-stocked secrets, which are relatively easy to find due to the comp map - I was already at 200/200 when I found the second soulsphere. My only other complaint is that there's no way to return after going past the blue key bars, which is lame. Well, and the whole blue key area feels a bit like an afterthought after the Cyber fight, but that's ok.

Reading the story, we finally seem to be getting some stuff that can't be garnered just from playing through the level. Also, I completely missed the Cyberdemon until after he was running around - is he ever visible in the cage?

Also, title doesn't seem to really fit the map (not a lot of metal around).

Map13
This is a much better cyberdemon fight than e2m8 of 2002:ADO. Or indeed, than any of the cyberdemon fights in 2002:ADO. You encounter old goatface in an area with enough space to move, but not so much that he's entirely harmless.

It was a well-designed level all round, actually. The flow was mostly good, and the pace of the action varied nicely. Too many levels have only two speeds (stopped and balls to the wall). A level with several different gears is a good thing. I liked the manc/rev fights on the wings of the level, in particular.

Looks were fine. Detail wasn't overdone, but was used to good effect when it was there, such as the alcoves with bodies hanging in them and so forth.

Map13 – Metal Territory – by Cell – Kills – 100, Items – 73, Secrets – 80. Time 39:55. End Health 200, Armor 200. Death Count – 3

What a sweet map this is! This one has it all. It’s really cool-looking, has totally fun fights, devious secrets and plenty of traps. The opening battles were a blast. The Pain Elemental fight was an unusual and unnerving way to start a map. I was lucky to not suffer too much of the “Auto-Aim Blues,” and scored good solid hits on the PE even with all the other monsters near it. Once I dusted all of those off, taking a lot of Lost Soul damage in the process, I thought it was over, and then a Hell Knight showed up. He was easily dusted, but I admired the design ethic in throwing so much meat at us right off the bat.

After this, I dropped into the main arena, in the process missing a really cool secret that I found later, and managed to get some infighting started between the Arachnotrons and Mancubi. But the Mancubi kept on coming. Every time I turned around, I woke up another one. How cool! Worth noting were all the sniping Imps in high places. They made the battle against the Arachnotrons and Mancubi much harder, and all the damage I took came from Imps. I was happier than shit when I finally had a chance to kill them all during a breather in the main combat.

This map drags your ass down into caverns and up into the castle walls. You’ll face numerous Revvies and Chaingunners and I, for one, took a lot of damage, because the R & C pairing always seems to own my ass in Doom 2. But Barons and Hell Knights are not neglected, and there’s a fair few Imps as well. Sergeants are somewhat rare, but well-used, and there’s an Archie who doesn’t present a ton of trouble, but he sent me flying just the same.

The environments are varied, presenting big arenas for circle-strafing the monsters that seem especially designed to piss-off circle strafers – the Mancubus, Arachnotron, Revvie and Chaingunner -- Doom 2’s area-control monsters. But you’ll also fight in cramped quarters which are sometimes very tough to maneuver in. And you’ll face HKs, Barons, Revvies and the Archie in these places.

All 3 of my deaths came against the Cyberdemon. I’m embarrassed by that, since there was so much room for circle-strafing. My problem was that I hadn’t found enough Cells, and I only had 140 or so going into the fight. Once I ran out, I tried rockets, but eventually settled on playing ring-around-the-rosie with Cybie by backtracking around the Cyb’s cage and potshotting it with the SSG until dead.

There’s not much else to say, but left out of my summary so far is that a lot of the battles were real white-knuckle affairs and I came very close to death several times. The map has ample health, so you can get back into shape rapidly, but if Cell had been even a tiny bit meaner with some of his traps, I probably would have died 6 times.

There is one instance of an unavoidable Medikit in front of a switch after you kill the Arch-Vile. Just sayin’. ;D

So this is basically a big, fun map that follows beautifully from the previous one. Probably the most fun map to play so far. I also ended with massive health and armor, and because I didn’t find the extra cells before fighting the Cyb, I leave well-armed, too. End-map ammo is 354 Bullets, 69 Shells, 17 Rockets and 323 Cells. Thank you, Cell!

Map 13 -- Metal Territory - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
The action here picks up almost literally where it left off in the previous map--take a step or two, and the first thing that sees you is a pain elemental. This is a map that probably plays pretty similarly overall whether you're doing pistol-starts or are playing continuously, since the start area is littered with weapons, and there's a lot of premium ammo and many powerups available later on, especially in the five secrets, which are all rather powerful. Despite all of the toys sitting on the ground at the start, the first one I picked up just so happened to be the chainsaw, and so I fought everything in that first assault except the hell knight with it--stupid, but fun, and quite feasible on account of all of the big rocks to use for cover. Truth be told, this was probably the only part of the map I played well....my playing was, to put it euphemistically, "less than impressive" for most of the rest it. Aim was off, kept getting hit by every other fireball to come my way, couldn't seem to start an infight to save my life.....and yet I still made it out in one piece on the first try. It's not so much that there's no danger in the map--there are a few occasions where powerful monsters can appear near you in a tight space, anyway--it's just that you're tripping over resources a lot of the time, which makes damage you take less relevant, and gives you the option of spamming plasma through a lot of the later encounters (or ALL of the encounters, during continuous play). As such, I must say I think this map is a bit too generous with health, ammo, and powerups. Granted, a lot of the powerups and some of the cells are secret, but four of the five secrets are pretty easy, and you're given the computer area map along the normal route just in case (maybe it represents the "console" from the story...?). Suffice to say, I don't think a level this far into the set should've let me out alive while I was playing so badly, but that aside, it does feel more eventful than the last map, and the dank underground section where the yellow skull is found should get the blood moving, at least....although the cyber itself is potentially rendered harmless by the availability of invulnerability artifacts. The final secret will only really benefit players on a continuous run, perhaps making up a little bit for the lack of a refresher after the spider battle in map 11.

Aesthetically, it's more solid stuff from Cell. I really like his combination of sectors and corpses to form the massacre scenes outside of the building (particularly the use of the water/blue liquid flat to represent cacodemon ichor), as well as the corpse-holes in the rock walls. The indoor area is pretty classy-looking, using a lot of wood textures and banners and the like along with some demonic iconography and effective use of shadows to paint a picture of a corporate admin office (it's far too baroque to be a lab or a barracks) that has become a haven for things from the Pit. The lighting outdoors is maybe a little flat by contrast, and perhaps a few too many very different rock/earthen textures make up the valley where the building sits, making the outdoor vista seem slightly visually noisy and perhaps a bit unlikely, but these are frankly pretty minor nitpicks in what is generally a pretty good-looking level.

While I do think it spoils players a bit too much with goodies, this nevertheless is another solid entry for Cell in his Hadephobia stint.

Map13 – Metal Territory – by Cell

We had to wedge a lot of story into this map and so it feels a bit shoe horned to me. If Passover was more story oriented then this story could have been split over two maps. The massacre is a side-story that doesn't go anywhere. Originally Cell's explanation was that the Hadephobic psychic link was driving the Hellspawn crazy, but since it's more the case that Hadephobia suffers are tapped into the hive mind it didn't really make sense. Fortunately demons are chaotic, evil and they infight so no explanation for the civil war is really needed.

The map itself is very good and probably Cell's best in my opinion. It still has some of his traits that are unappealing to me (tight spaces, overpowered secrets, noisy visuals, awkwardly placed décor) but in this instance there is a balance that allows you to appreciate the more pleasing aspects of his style (intricate, thoughtful details, attention to plot, focused atmosphere and some fearsome battles).

The ammo tilt is partly my fault. I kept pestering Cell to add more and more as I didn't want to alienate pistol starters who did not find secrets. Originally one of the secrets was a BFG, which I pulled but I probably should have gone further with the secrets as they really neuter the challenge. To explain the player can make the assumption that these goodies were guarded by a much bigger resistance until they started eating each other :-)

Another thing I would have liked to have changed was to make the Cyberdemon (first one in the megawad so far if you're counting!) visible behind a crystal sector until it's released but I could not do it without causing visual errors from when you are high up on the building roof.

That said this level has some very good moments (my favourites are the start area and the underground section) and it gently ushers in the bigger, tougher maps in the middle of Hadephobia.

MAP13 - Metal Territory by Cell
I overwrote my save.... yay!!! Pistol start time.
Fun map with lots of good battles from start to finish with plenty of variety. Only found 3 secrets but ended up with over 400 plasma at the end. Still this map could be very fun to max :)
Music suits this map well too which adds to the environment. Good stuff.

Map14
Hey, it's the 14th here :)

Ironically, the level after 'metal territory' is a metal base. It gets a big thumbs up for having a very non-linear progression. You need to find three keys, but the order you get them in is up to you. In my playthrough, I got blue last, but I fired it up in -nomonsters and went to collect the blue key first; absolutely OK.

As far as the details of the gameplay go, they're pretty good on the whole. I liked the two AV fights: they worked nicely. The teleporting revs at the blue key were kind of pointless, though. I just plasmaed them consecutively.

I don't remember any other stand-out fights, really, for either good or ill. They were all solid, with a good mix of enemies. Attacks often came from multiple directions, to keep you on your toes.

Visuals were fine. A few lapses in texture alignment, but nothing too terrible. There weren't any truly ambitious vistas or especially "wow" moments, but everything that was there did its job.

Looking at the map in DB2, a lot of voodoo doll tricks were being used, including for the exit, where multiple sections of the floor collapse in sequence. This worked better in theory than in actual practice, I think. The process doesn't look that impressive when you actually watch it. It also likely traps you with no option but to exit, and you might have items you wanted to go back for.

The exit is unsigned, again. If you've read the story text, you can deduce that you've reached it when the floor collapses and you see the dark tunnel leading out, but otherwise you might just think it was a trap of some kind. Plus, as noted above, you're likely to be sealed off from backtracking by it.

One way exit sections have popped up a few times in this wad (it was one of the few things I disliked in map13). It would be better if these were not present.

14 - POWER UP
...You have found a base. Maybe the generator is there? You walked and wandered around and then you found a corrupt door and some secret tunnel. Blood still looks fresh, hell must have entered here a few minutes ago. You entered it and killed every ugly face in your way. You found the generator, but it is turned off. There are 4 unconnected wires, they should be connected and then the generator will turn on.

After you activated it, it started to make loud noises and shake. Because of the stress of the machine, the floor under you corrupted and melted down in the nuclear. But you noticed some tunnel underground...

MAP14: Pretty cool map. No fights really stuck out in my mind other than the red key AV who is in such a sneaky position that you have to sacrifice cover or him resurrecting dudes. The fun part definitely was finding the switches to the wires, although not reading the text beforehand can make the level seem confusing (once the player sees the generator past the blue key door hopefully they’ll understand). Also thought circular red key room was a neat idea too. Out of thoughts for tonight.

Also, keep in mind that since we don't have an official schedule for MAP31 and MAP32, they should be played sometime within the next few days

Map 14 -- Power up - 102% Kills / 100% Secrets
As in the previous map, once again I didn't seem to have my shit together here, although this time it wasn't a case of sloppy fundamentals, but rather that I somehow managed to tackle the map in the least optimal order possible--I didn't get the SSG until after I'd done the whole eastern half of the station without it (well, not counting the tiny area behind the red door), and I didn't get the rocket launcher until 60 seconds before I left the map. I'm not really faulting the author, though....a lot of these things could have happened in a different order; I just happened to make all the wrong decisions. The first half of the map was definitely the best part: after a conspicuously monster-free intro to set the stage, the first major area is packed full of hellspawn; given that the western area had hell knights and cacos pouring out of it, and I was not yet sure what the ammo situation was going to be, I opted to head east, which wasn't packing much other than a bunch of zombies. I remember things went pretty well for a time, until I came back to the main junction after finishing up, to find that an arch-vile had joined the stuff I'd left alive previously--and me still only packing the shotgun. I was able to finish him off by using the old tried and true door-shield method, but this did unfortunately result in the creation of a couple of ghost imps that I had no way to harm until the very end. None of the other combat engagements were as interesting as this one--mainly just cleaning up small groups of monsters around the switches for the wires. Aesthetically it looked okay--again, I liked the corpses and damaged door and other details early in the map--but I think it wasn't really on the same level in this regard as a lot of what the WAD has offered thus far, with a tendency towards boxy, standalone rooms and generally flat lighting. I also think the scrolling techwall textures look pretty weird, because they don't tile well. The generator at the end is pretty neat, though, I think. Well...it wasn't a chore to play, or anything, and it did have intelligent (though light) monster placement, but this one didn't really get me excited, either. In fact, I'm kind of glad I played it with a suboptimal route, because doing so resulted in the most engaging piece of combat in the map.

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Gentlemen, good eve'. Earlier on in the day, Tarnsman and myself elected to kickstart our streamthrough of Hadephobia for the end-of-month Where's All the Data? TTV podcast, offering up our unfettered and supremely elitist criticisms of the maps contained therein. We have the first two parts of the series (2/4) ready for viewing, with the third and fourth arriving in the dueness of course, when all the other club members manage their way through!

map01 - 09
http://www.twitch.tv/st_alfonzo/c/2153565

map10 - 31
http://www.twitch.tv/st_alfonzo/c/2153583

Apologies if the quality is choppy or the audio uneven -- those are some recent quirks that I'm trying to figure out. Otherwise, all should be good.

Bonus internet comestibles to anyone who can successfully guess the maps in which I will die, and how many times I will fail. :(

Map 13

I enjoyed this map a lot, probably the map I feel was the most memorable alongside Map 10. To be fair, Cyberdemon appearances go a long way in that regard.

The pillar near the castle, with the iron bars around the demon face, looked very cool and striking to me. Visually, I appreciate striking uses of vanilla textures.

Thought the key room that had all the gates was a great multi-stage trap -- with a secret area thrown in to boot. I actually laughed when I triggered the teleporting monsters, panicked, ran out through the gates (discretion is the better part of valor), noticed the switch on the wall , and found myself teleported right back into the room with the Baron I had just run away from. Touche, Map 13, touche.

One small nit-pick I have is that the Baron on the upper floor of the castle, across from the rocket launcher, seemed like it would have been more effective popping out of the monster closet with the Revenant after triggering the trap. He was just hanging out there, in an easy position to slaughter...I almost felt bad. Almost. Given his positioning and low threat, he might as well have been an imp. Peek, shoot, peek, shoot. I can't say I enjoy being eviscerated by Barons, but I feel like they should at least have the sporting chance to get in melee attacks.

Cyberdemon fight had enough space to maneuver, but enough irregularity of terrain (walls, pillars, the lava pool) to keep it interesting. And I liked having enough plasma ammo available to actually use the plasma rifle...I'm kind of an ammmo hoarder.

st.alfonzo said:

Gentlemen, good eve'. Earlier on in the day, Tarnsman and myself elected to kickstart our streamthrough of Hadephobia for the end-of-month Where's All the Data? TTV podcast, offering up our unfettered and supremely elitist criticisms of the maps contained therein. We have the first two parts of the series (2/4) ready for viewing, with the third and fourth arriving in the dueness of course, when all the other club members manage their way through!

map01 - 09
http://www.twitch.tv/st_alfonzo/c/2153565

map10 - 31
http://www.twitch.tv/st_alfonzo/c/2153583

Apologies if the quality is choppy or the audio uneven -- those are some recent quirks that I'm trying to figure out. Otherwise, all should be good.

Bonus internet comestibles to anyone who can successfully guess the maps in which I will die, and how many times I will fail. :(

There's no sound in the second vid. First one was good though.


MAP14 - Power Up by C30N9

As Vaporizer correctly said, this was his mapslot originally but he gave it up as he was still stuck on MAP06. It actually remained vacant until at least after MAP15 was done so there was a hole in the project until C30N9 picked it up. The only remnants of Vaporizer's version is the exterior, which was more Cell's work in the first place come to think of it.

This level is one of Hadephobia's best examples of applying story objectives literally in the map; in this instance being the activation of the generator. The exit transition is great too.

As for the rest of the level, it's a solid effort. It's visually pleasing and the optional order of progression gives it a sense of non-linearity and there's some fun fighting to be had too. The only thing that bothers me is that I often lose track of which switches I've not hit but that's my own fault.

I will note that I made a small contribution to this map as there was original no secrets so I add the solitary secret area.

Map14 – Power Up – by C30N9 – Kills – 100, Items – 94, Secrets – 100. Time 43:29. End Health 99, Armor 194. Death Count – 1

I thought this was kind of a strange map. I loved the outside architecture at the opening with all the rock ziggurats. I enjoyed the big, yet surprisingly easy, corridor fight where monsters kept coming, too. And then . . . it just seemed kinda dull after that. Fights were overwhelmingly of the shooting gallery type. There were a couple of nasty traps, like the Revvies at the blue key. I would have died there since I had the SSG in my hands, but I opened a saved game and used the PG instead. I did die at the first Archie, because I went into that with a chaingun. Had I opened a saved game and used the PG, as I did after I got killed, I’d have had a zero death count.

I wasn’t moved by the nonlinear design. Mostly, I was just confused, trying to remember where this thing or that thing was. The spaces were often very crampy, and the very steep stairs made shooting Imps on the way down annoying. It was basically one long, rather cool-looking corridor with sub-basements off to the sides and, I dunno, I didn’t find it very exciting. I was also surprised to discover I found all the secrets, since all I remembered finding was the Blue Armor, which was pure luck. OTOH, this map did remove my Soulsphere bonus from the previous map, but still, I felt like I spent way too much time in this one.

End-map ammo; 52 Bullets, 96 Shells, 23 Rockets, 52 Cells.

purist said:

There's no sound in the second vid. First one was good though.

Yikes! It seems to work on my end. If any others are having sound problems with it I'll go ahead and reupload it, no worries.

Some of Hadephobia's maps are proving to be quite unique in working with the fiction, and I find it sets the megawad apart from many others by including sequence breaking or unusual/unexpected encounters. map05 and 11 spring to mind. For all the criticisms that Tarns and I fling at it such as with the visuals, cramped style and curiously consistent cluttering of detail, it's certainly an adventurous romp even at its worst and is at the very least engaging. The story itself isn't much chop, truth be told (Tarnsman would argue that it simply can't be, because Doom says so), but it does occasionally have an interesting impact on progression and gameplay, which is what matters most anyway.

More later!

purist said:

There's no sound in the second vid. First one was good though.

I initially had this issue with the first video, but a refresh sorted it. Second video worked fine for me. I blame Shockwave (which is what TwitchTV seems to use).

Both videos worked fine on my end, and it was a blast to watch them. For one thing, I always enjoy watching a player who's actually good and can breeze through a map rather than stagger through it the way I do. Tarnsman was fucking hilarious, and I agreed with a lot of his comments, except, of course, his completely, totally fucking wrong view of unavoidable items. :D I also disagree with his view about the lighting in purist's maps, which I think is pretty awesome. But part of that might be because I use Risen3D and not GZDoom, as st.alfonzo did here, because it seems to me that GZDoom is, by nature, too dark if you don't do a gamma correction, while Risen3D seems to have a default gamma more in line with the original game. I also play Doom only at night in a dark room, so a lighting level like 112 is moody to me, rather than too dark.

I enjoyed st.alfonzo's reading of the end-episode texts. He sounded like Jeremy Clarkson introducing The Stig. Overall, you guys make a great team and you did an entertaining job. It was also nice to get a peek at upcoming levels.

One last thing, watching all the maps played at once revealed the very switchy nature of the mapset as a whole. I was really feeling it in Map14. I think the mappers are leaning way too much on switch-hunts.