The DWmegawad Club plays: Requiem

03 - very good one. I'm a big fan of the "enter a castle\base\whatever through a hidden passage" type maps so I appreciate the initial snowy area. Even though it looks a bit bare, it really helps to set up the story. Then we get to the sewers which look very cool thanks to the new textures that feel almost 3D at times, and the gameplay is pretty interesting because of the damaging floors. Some medieval-ish areas appear as well, all very interesting with some neat visual effects and tricks. A definitive Requiem level.

Suitepee said:

Escape from Chaos is the first map I've found awkward in Requiem. Part of it reminded me of 'Rylayeh' by Psyren for some reason.

the awkward progression of MAP16 made it my favorite map in Requiem and I can't wait to review it again. :D.

MAP03: Poison Processing

This is where the wad really starts to get going, being much more difficult and detailed than the first two. True to the name, there’s plenty of damaging floors in the first half, which can be pretty damning if you’re not careful. The tight quarters and shotgunners around every corner only add to the difficulty. The second half slows it down by making you go through several cacodemons without much strong weaponry, with the exit coming in an open arena where you have the choice of rushing to the exit switch, or going through demons to get a berserk pack. The latter option resulted in me dying in a pretty stupid way when I got swarmed by pinkies.

MAP02: Sacrificium
100% everything. Found the only secret after I had cleaned out everything else; backtracked, and there it was glaring right at me. My daughter said, "Why is that a secret?" and I said because it hadn't been there before. Then I went to try and find it again, and no dice. Wonder what the trigger was? Not really a fan of this map, though. The progression just feels really awkward. The deaf/blind demon cultists are just weird, though the scene looks cool.

MAP03: Poison Processing
100% everything. Here's a fun level. I remember having trouble playing this previously on HMP, but UV this time around didn't even make me break a sweat. (Though admittedly I died once strolling around in the water outside to see if there was anything around the corner. There wasn't, but I had saved before I dove in, so...) The sewer section itself is the obvious highlight; those new textures make everything look like it's got beveled edges, which is a very cool effect. But the final third of the map (the brick tunnels) look good, but seem oddly underpopulated. Oh, and the swinging doors are cool, but I was moving so fast I missed them on my initial playthrough; I had to reload and clip through to see them in action.

Map03

Much better. A more interesting, if rather plain, outdoor area followed up by a well built tech/brick/wood base, even for today's standards. The gameplay manages to keep up with the visuals, too. There's still no real "oh shit" moments or even a threatening fight, but the flow and constant action with well placed monsters keep it interesting.

Good fun.

Map03 – Poison Processing by Iikka Keränen – Kills – 89, Items – 50, Secret – 0. End Health – 100, Armor 45. Death Count – Zero

I remember back in the day feeling envious of Mr. Keränen, because he went pro. I never played any of his Doom maps, to the best of my knowledge, other than this one. I recognized the sewer section instantly, even though I haven't seen it since '97. We'll soon see if any of his other maps trigger similar memories. One thing I do recall is a Quake map he made which featured a big room with very delicate pillars sprouting into a flower of arches on top. Beautiful stuff. That map was famous/infamous because, in order to run it without your machine blowing chunks, it really needed a Pentium 2 @400Mhz in a time when a P-233 was all you could get. I played that map on both my P-166 PC and my PPC 604 @132Mhz PowerMac, each with identical 3dfx Voodoo cards – remember those? – and both machines blew chunks. Natch, to our younger readers, such Pre-Cambrian machines must seem little more than legends whispered about in the nearest nursing home, but back in the time of the mighty Eryops, we were very proud of them. ;D

I decided to check for Keränen's Wiki page, and upon reading that he started out programming freeware games on the Amiga, all envy vanished and, in a flush of undying Amiga loyalty, I placed Mr. Keränen on the list of Cool-Guy Amigans Who Went On To Fame And Fortune, as so many did.

As for the map, I had a horrible run through it before breakfast, dying 5 times because, in the dark spaces and with blinding outdoor light laughing at my useless white miniblinds, I simply fired almost randomly at dimly-perceived enemies in the gloom. It didn't help that I was trying to Rambo a crampy map loaded with dickishly-placed hitscanners around every bend, punctuated by 128-unit leaps of faith into rooms that placed you in immediate crossfires. I thought I had no choice in this, given that I had a busy day ahead, but after all commitments were fulfilled, I decided to try a run in a nice, dark room at night, and forewarned about, among other things, the pointlessness of killing the Pinkies and Imp snipers in the beginning, I tore through this map with ridiculous ease and exited with at least 36 Shells and 132 Bullets. Yay.

I still can't call it a really good map in the sense that it's a nice, challenging, fun play. When you can actually see where the monsters are, it's quite easy to beat this thing. It's also a map that encourages camping and corner-abuse, not notably fun ways for most of us to play. It gets off to a nice start in a wintry ice valley reminiscent of, and perhaps influential to, Whitemare, with the player immediately under fire from an almost in-your-face Sergeant, with 2 more behind him. A little juke to the left is usually enough to get those 2 infighting, then kill the first one and finish-off the survivor. Accomplished on the second play without taking a hit.

Having already learned that the water was freezing cold and highly damaging – again reminiscent of Whitemare – I sallied forth, drawing out all the Pinkies and then running past them to the next area. Although it was tempting to try and dodge all the monsters and run for the waterfall, the presence of Sergeants made that a bit risky, so I followed The Iron Rule of Doom – First, Kill All The Hitscanners, whenever practical, that is. And so I did, and the Caco, too, for shits 'n giggles. Then I dropped down to be placed immediately under fire from zombieboys and proceeded to kick the map's ass. Admittedly, not in itself a notable accomplishment.

Somehow, on the second try, I never took any damage from the nukage, whereas I'd been mercilessly crumbled by it the first time.

The sewer section is the visual highlight of the map. You know somebody did something right when a player remembers a space from all the way back in '97. It's really elegant architecture with a quite realistic feeling, and the textures look fantastic. The simple cast light and shadow is very effective, and the varied nukage and blood areas really set the place off, though the boundaries between blood and nukage are too straight. More naturalistic curves would have been better.

The gameplay here in Jean Valjean's creepy hideaway consists of close-quarters rumbles against Pinkies, Spectres, Imps and hitscanners, mostly Sergeants, who are well-placed to perforate you if you're not careful. There are several nifty uses of animated textures on slim rods as well. The only potentially nasty part is if you decide to Rambo the room into which you teleport after you kill all the teleporting Imps, which I did by simply camping at an oblique angle to the spawn-point while holding down the single-shotty's fire key. My first time through, I did my usual thing of running straight into the room, where I got filleted by hitscanners. On my second play, simple side-stepping in the entrance and oblique shotty blasts to clear the hitscanners made the room an absolute cakewalk.

From this point, there is really no gameplay left at all. The map devolves into a series of boring brown halls with boring beige fights. Chainsaw Pinkies! Enjoy time/ammo-sink plinking at Cacos with your single-shotty! What could possibly be more invigorating?

The next big reveal is the sliding doors, a display Keränen somewhat nerfs by having enemies in the vicinity, so that your attention is divided between the doors and another useless Caco or 2. I wish I'd been there to advise him against such self-defeating silliness. Now, it's at least conceivable that Mr. Keränen was aware of the 1996 Amiga game Gloom, which has what might be called an “enhanced Wolfenstein engine,” meaning that its floors were flat, there were no stairs, but ceiling height varied. It also had some neat effects like animated fans in wall textures. Further, it was a British game, so it had cheeky onscreen warnings like, “Watch out for aggro skinheads!” When you saw that, it wasn't long before burly, bare-chested Nazi bootboys came after you like a gang of hungry cannibals, but they were fairly toothless ghouls, and when you shot them, Gloom had wonderfully bloody gibs, maybe the best I've seen in any sprite-based game. If you had a good clot of enemies in front of you, you could create a hurricane of flying body parts – heads, bloody ribcages, arms, hands, all went flying into the air as the dying monsters bleated, and the skinhead parts had especially good hang-time. But all this blather leads up to a nifty feature in Gloom – spinning sectors, perhaps of the “animated brush” variety, such as The Wheel of Death in Map04. It was pretty damned cool. A complete Amiga Longplay of Gloom is available on YouTube for anyone interested.

Anyway, I checked out how Keränen accomplished his trick. Damned clever of him, I must say.

The final battle is an ode to shockingly odd item placement, as you have to ride up a lift to find a Zerk to punch all the Pinkies that have been riding down said lift. My first time through, I found it after killing everything except the final 2 Spectres in the exit. Gee, thanks! ;D My second go saw me dodge the Pinkies to grab the Zerk so I didn't have to keep chainsawing the bastards.

BTW, about those Spectres in the exit; there's 3 different Spectres in there, 2 on Hard, 1 on Medium, and 1 on Easy, but the Spectres on Medium and Easy are different Things, so there really only needed to be 2 different Spectres in there. Just another weird feature of the map. ;D

I also have no idea what or where the secret was.

In the end, I feel this map isn't good so much as it's interesting for its architecture and its visual tricks. Gameplay is on the low side of mediocre, IMO, being a bunch of crampy fights followed by a bunch of pointless shootage against Cacos and assorted riff-raff who offer no challenge whatever. Further, the map positively encourages you to not go for a UV-Max, and even though I wanted to at the end and had oodles of ammo, there was no way to get back to the start and clean house, a glaring error. But it does have atmosphere and an outstanding BGM. All in all, not too bad.

MAP03

Don't understand why ppl rate this map highly. Only the swinging door was memorable, the rest was a linear romp through simple ice canyons and sewers, then an underdetailed interior area.

I mainly didn't like the damaging water, the drops through tiny holes and the nonchallenging demon fights, they can't flank you in those cramped spaces so they politely queue for their chainsaw massage treatment.

3.5/5 for the swinging door

The cool dark metal textures in map03 were also Iikka's work. Thought I would mention it in case any of you hadn't looked in DB2 and seen that they all have texture names starting with IK :)

Well, I'm a bit late, but I've decided to join in. I'll be doing pistol starts for each level and using Beautiful Doom (because it's fun).

MAP01: The Gateway

Not very difficult, but a pretty fun first map. I like the detailing and the texturing makes it look a bit like Quake. The skybox is pretty cool too. The spawning zombiemen were kinda tedious to kill (I went for 100%).

MAP02: Sacrificium

It looks pretty nice, but it's really easy. The most difficult monster you'll encounter is a Pain Elemental, and there's only one. It's pretty strange that the demons at the stonehenge don't attack you until you attack them. Not a very exciting level to play.

MAP03: Poison Processing

At least the monster count is much bigger, and the map looks rather nice, but I didn't enjoy it. The low area of maneuverability in the tech area due to slime is really annoying, and the rest of the level just isn't remarkable enough for me to forgive that. There's also a bit of bad visual communication with the water outside that takes your health when you walk on it, later you have to walk on water that looks the exact same but doesn't hurt you.

Suitepee said:

http://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/c/6026465 = part 2 of my playthrough, covering both secret maps and maps 16-25. (UV, continuous)

Hey Suitepee. What source port are you using? Map31 fouled up in several places for you so we'd better warn anyone else who is on the same engine :)

Map03 - “Poison Processing” by Iikka Keränen
This map is larger and more populated than the previous couple of maps, but in the end it didn't offer much teeth, the hitscanners, imps and lost souls being the main threats. Demons and spectres in particular were used poorly and simply were obstacles to chainsaw out of the way.
It looks nice most of the time this map, it just didn't play that well in my opinion.

MAP03: Poison Processing - Iikka Keränen
| Kills: 168/173 | Items: 1/2 | Secrets: 1/1 | Time: 08:06 | Deaths: 0 |

And lo, mere hours after I complain about damaging effects being applied to water, here's a case of it being used. Inclined to let it slide since you have no reason to actually walk on it, though I do think setting the damage to 20 is overkill. Yeah it's freezing cold water but making it just doesn't sit right with me. If anything it serves as one of those annoying "RETURN TO THE COMBAT AREA!!" things that you get in modern games, but like I say, you have virtually no reason to go onto the water anyway, what with the low monster population in the area, so it's a rather minor nitpick.

Echoing the sentiments of others, I found the gameplay of this map to be rather lackluster. While I'm thankful for an actual map to play, instead of a couple of rooms and an exit switch, nothing here really stood out as interesting. Monsters were generally found quite sparsely, and the few occasions of encountering maybe 10+ monsters at once, it was a case of just stand in the corridor and hold the fire button down. A bit like the results of when I made maps :P

Swinging door was pretty cool, I can imagine something like that in the Doom engine must have been pretty damn impressive back in 1997, and now I think of it, this was pretty much the only interesting part of the map, which is a shame when you consider that it demonstrates that Keränen wasn't some incompetent fool with a map editor.

5/10

SteveD said:

The final battle is an ode to shockingly odd item placement, as you have to ride up a lift to find a Zerk to punch all the Pinkies that have been riding down said lift. My first time through, I found it after killing everything except the final 2 Spectres in the exit. Gee, thanks! ;D My second go saw me dodge the Pinkies to grab the Zerk so I didn't have to keep chainsawing the bastards.

I chainsawed all those pinkies from the other side of the bars, so when I got to the exit they were already all dead, and the zerk filled me up for next level (continuous play!) :D

Capellan said:

Hey Suitepee. What source port are you using? Map31 fouled up in several places for you so we'd better warn anyone else who is on the same engine :)

Using the latest version of GZDoom from around January time, with the OpenGL renderer on. I eventually switched out to using the software renderer mode after a while.

Thanks Suitepee.

MAP04
I experienced a glitch with this map which led to the warning in the OP about avoiding 'use works through special lines'. It isn't Matthias Worch's fault, though. He put a switch behind a walkover line, and in the vanilla engine, you would have had to cross the latter to activate the switch. I had 'use works through special lines' turned on, though, because there's a map in CC2 that requires it. Gave me a nasty surprise to fall into an illuso-pit. Good thing I save frequently. And an even better thing that I didn't run into the same issue in the first hallway of the map! :-)

This is a nice-looking map with what is basically a hub/spoke design, though the hub is pretty small. Good use of the dark metal textures again – they're something of a Requiem motif – as well as wood and brick. I liked the two secrets, design-wise: one an obvious switch that you need to think to shoot to activate, and one that is marked by being the only unmarked wall.

Gameplay ... there are some good set pieces. Several fun fights with Hell Knights, in particular. However, I found it a bit too fond of illuso-pit instalift shenanigans. I don't like monsters popping out of solid floors from an immersion perspective, or from a gameplay one (particularly since, if something goes awry, it can be game-breaking: see paragraph one). Worch uses them a lot in this level. I must grudgingly admit that in vanilla Doom, they do have the advantage that they don't get 'reset' by a save and reload, which makes them more reliable than teleporting monsters. That was probably a factor in Worch using them so much.

Other than that, I'd say the only real problem with the level is that once you're through the blue door, it's just a corridor to the end with the monsters mostly right in front of you. Not very exciting. I also had an issue with exit room itself. I'm not sure what the point of the PEs behind 'block monster' lines was. Suck up some ammo maybe?

MAP04 Fireworks

I am not too familiar with Worch's other works outside of Requiem, so I can't say much on style. The map is pretty good, introducing hell knights and the SSG. I don't like the thirty second door at the end though.

this map is a prime place to commit zdoomisms (or basically what Capellan said), even right at the beginning. I could hit the left switch before the right and never encounter the hell knight. :D

04 - I've always thought of this one as a little masterpiece. The gothic\hellish music + design combo is simply perfect and the action is very satisfying, especially after you acquire the SSG. Amazing and highly unique level, that's all I have to say.

Map04 - “Fireworks” by Matthias Worch

Yay, this is the map that relies on use-blocking walkover linedefs and partially also infinitely tall actors (in illusio pits). Nothing wrong with it, it was a legit standard back then. Both things can be emulated in advanced ports - I didn't do it, though, but eventually got everything working right anyway (except that I couldn't access the backpack secret, whatever the intended way was). In fact, I've played the map before, so that I knew the places where to pay attention.

Not a bad experience, except for the messed up ending with PEs and a closed door, while running back was apparently possible. Both the map's layout and fights were okay. Visuals were good, actually giving a sense of place, and rationally using materials relatively well. It wasn't a difficult map, but not entirely easy either, some challenging moments were present. Semilinear progression, flowed alright. I liked the map. But would I die for this? No. Rating 3.5/5.

Guess I'll try and keep up with everyone closer to the IDL.

MAP03: Poison Processing
100% kills, 1/1 secret

Another odd one, at least thematically. It's got three very discrete theme sections - the icy caverns, the metallic processing plant, and a brown brick section reminiscent of Alien Vendetta MAP01 (I think it's the slime inclusion that does it for me). There's not a whole lot done to tie them together - I mean, sure, going from outside the cold to inside the factory is a common trope, but it's still a somewhat jarring change as done here.

Gameplay remains pretty lackluster - there's some rooms, and some enemies clustered in those rooms, go shoot them. Interesting that the freezing cold water is more damaging than the slime later on, though I suppose this is because the ice can be (mostly) avoided while the slime needs to be tracked through somewhat. The double doors are cool, I suppose, especially in 1997, but there's really nothing else memorable about that section. Maybe if he saved it for a cyberdemon encounter or something... or would that have overshadowed it? I dunno, but it feels a bit artifically inserted into the map, considering the rest of it is about slime processing (and I actually do like the lasers and the processing machinery).

MAP04: Fireworks
100% kills, 0/2 secrets

Not a bad romp, I suppose... there's a few spots that require walking over lava that are a bit annoying, and it took me far too long to figure out that one switch lowered the yellow key (I blame the placement of the columns/walls, they kinda hide the key). There's a couple of 'traps' with doors shut behind that don't really do much for me (one with a hellknight, another with the PEs that didn't shoot a single lost soul before I blew 'em up) but the Cacos coming out of the lava were cool.

http://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/c/6033600 = part 3 of my playthrough, covering the final 5 maps from 26-30. (UV, continuous)

And so Requiem ends with a decent shout, albeit a thankfully easy IoS fight. 4 out of 5 from me in total; a few less awkward maps and a few less dull Baron encounters and I would have rated Requiem higher.

Map 26 was surprisingly tricky with its opening encounter for a 21 monster map.
Map 27 was the dullest map of Requiem. No change in scenery for the most part, and very basic one-at-a-time encounters frequented throughout a sandstone city. Bleh.
Map 28 was alright.
Map 29 was a pretty good map, and was a nice way of doing a lengthier encounter.
Map 30 was an easy IoS.

In 1997 I'm sure this would have blown minds, and if this was to have been considered "the final good map for Doom" before Quake, it would have made for a fine swansong! Thankfully Quake didn't take over!

I vote for 50 Shades of Greytall for next month's DWMegawad Club, pending it releases on time to its March 1st deadline.

(P.S. Kind of awesome that Adam Windsor still makes maps after so long! Nice to see that SteveD isn't the only mapper I know that has been around since the 90's and still active today)

MAP04: Fireworks

A bit of a tricky map that combines limited space with sudden traps and monsters popping up in each direction. The hell knights next to the super shotgun especially required some dexterity. The SSG itself is very welcome, and comes in at about the right time, as the stronger demons start to appear more.

Suitepee said:
Map 26 was surprisingly tricky with its opening encounter for a 21 monster map.

(P.S. Kind of awesome that Adam Windsor still makes maps after so long! Nice to see that SteveD isn't the only mapper I know that has been around since the 90's and still active today)

"Surprisingly tricky for its size" was kinda my thing, at the time. That was what Demonfear was all about after all. 100lines too, to an extent, though that's much more recent.

As far as old men of Doom go, Travers Dunne (The Darkening) is also still around.

Capellan said:

Possibly just for DM flow. Otherwise to make it easier to backtrack for any goodies you'd skipped.

I guess that makes sense. Regarding MAP03 still, there's another Berserk available much earlier than the one near the exit. Surely I can't be the only player who found it ?

Either way.

MAP04: Fireworks by Mattias Worch

A neat level with a lot of startling yet fair traps. The Super Shotgun comes exactly at the right moment. I liked the "outside" secret, it almost looks like you can't make it there.

My standout encounter would be first group of Cacos raising out of the lava when you look around the map. I guess the fight with those three Hell Knights was a little frantic as well. The bridge trap on the other hand is predictable, and the final room one is dodged too easily by backing up on the bridge.

Budoka said:

Regarding MAP03 still, there's another Berserk available much earlier than the one near the exit. Surely I can't be the only player who found it ?

That was actually the map's secret, though you only get secret credit if you lower the lift behind it, which is also strange. I generally don't explore nukage tunnels, so I am among those who did not find it. I was also distracted by those Sergeants trying to kill me. ;D Therefore, I stand by my assertion that putting the only free Zerk in the map above the Pinky fight arena is really oddball placement.

Salt-Man Z said:

I chainsawed all those pinkies from the other side of the bars, so when I got to the exit they were already all dead, and the zerk filled me up for next level (continuous play!) :D

Now that takes patience! ;) But yes, it's a nice bennie for the next map.

SteveD said:

Now that takes patience! ;)

I did it too :)

MAP04
The best one so far imo, some good fights and switch hunts, I'm not sure what happened at the end, enemies didn't cross those portals, I just shot in there and killed something.

At one point I was at 6% health, damn chaingunners inside walls !!

MAP04: Fireworks
A decent map with some hectic fights. In my previous play, using GZDoom, I ran afoul of the use-blocking-line issue and fell into an invisible HK pit. (I had the same problem in MAP05, but I don't think it was related to use-blocking-lines.) Set my flags properly this time and had no issue. Well, that's not entirely true. While hunting for the final secret in the SSG room, the bars suddenly lowered and I was trapped inside! I clicked and chainsawed every wall in sight, but not dice. I eventually just noclipped out, and of course then I couldn't find a way back in. But I assume the final secret I missed was behind that misaligned wooden wall? Anyway, good use of textures again. And yes, that SSG was a godsend. I missed it on my first attempt and was quickly cornered and torn apart by 3 HKs, but on my second go I made sure to get behind them, and lo and behold the weapon I needed was available. Were those PEs at the end supposed to come through those ripply walls? They never did for me; I only knew they were there from the sound. I just fired through the walls until I heard them explode.

MAP04: Fireworks

First things first, seriously with the chaingunners? Second things second, seriously with the Hellknight spawned directly in your face? Otherwise, not a bad level. It's got some fun combat (I especially enjoyed the yellow key warp area) and a nice environment. I remember enjoying the author's episode "The Troopers' Playground" a bit more, though, and he also went on to make a well received Quake episode ("Beyond Belief").

Requiem relies on a lot of vanilla engine exploits (which is why you should play it with as close to vanilla settings as possible), and it occurs to me that perhaps PEs could spawn lost souls across monster block lines in vanilla? I don't recall for sure but it would definitely explain the final room in map04 as you'd have souls seemingly emerging from the red insets on the walls.

MAP05
Bill McClendon was the one who brought me in on Requiem. Also STRAIN, though my contribution to that project was a lot smaller (I wasn't a big fan of the latter project's monster and weapon changes, and actively disliked the puzzle-oriented gameplay of many levels). Bill also playtested every level in Demonfear except 26-30, and later went on to run a successful Quake level review site. What this means is that Bill and I were e-buddies, so I'm likely to a little biased in his favour as we head into this level.

Fortunately, I don't think that any bias is needed to say that this is a pretty neat level. Like map04, it's a hub/spoke with not much of a hub. However, it has five spokes, only two of which are blocked off, which means you have some options available at the start, rather than only a single path.

The map also does a good job of building up the action and intensity, I think. You face mostly low level stuff early: E1 enemies mainly. But the map gives you a chance to see the 'endgame' area quite early on, which is not just a good teaser but also lets you know you will be facing a crossfire when you do get there.

There are quite a few different visual styles in the level but Bill does a good job of keeping them to separate areas, creating distinctive 'zones'. My favorite is the blue door wing: not only does it have lots of pressure from different angles when you're on the upper level, but then you've got the fun blood cavern zone, and the caco and demon ambush when you try to leave. Much fun.

I also like the secrets, especially the yellow key ones – that's a nice idea for a two-stage secret. Plus one of them gives you what I think is the first rocket launcher of the WAD. I do think Bill's probably a little generous in giving away so many mega-armors in them. But thay may partly be because I would have liked a bit more shotgun ammo at times, instead :). I did like how ammo waxed and waned, though – sometimes it would be plentiful, letting you re-stock, but then you'd hit a wave of enemies which wore it down again.

This is a strong level with some nice-looking locations and a good variety of fights. I'm not a fan of the 'illusory walls' in some places, and the ROCK1 section leading to the blue key feels a little uninspired, but other than that, I like it a lot.