The DWmegawad Club plays: Judgment

MAP13 - “Combustion”

A contender for the brownest level I have ever seen.....

Definitely a map where first impressions are not at all good. However perseverance is rewarded here with some quite neat fights. The red key and follow-up brawls in the start area are quite frenetic. The archvile usage is pretty decent too. However the layout does result in some quite bland combat at times too, the lower perimeter is essentially force-feeding lead to imps and hell knights for a minute or so, this section really needed something to make the area come alive.

Overall a map of mixed fortunes for me. A monotonous and rather bland experience at times, but sprinkled with some really neat set piece encounters. 

MAP 14 – Metallosis

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

Mutant Techgnawlogy started with the scientific subject (Chemistry), then continued with a well-known reaction (Combustion), and ended the main journey with the disease caused by metallic atoms when they pollute organic tissues. The connection between these topics seemed preposterous, considering that Metallosis is mainly associated with prosthesis, but it might work as a name for a consistently METAL-textured Doom map.

The huge size of the crossroads hub, coinciding with the start, spoke for itself: this was one of the biggest levels so far in the megaWAD. The sparse population did not result in less threat, since hitscanners and Mancubi are always a nuisance in wide-open space. The overwhelming brown hue of the walls was somehow tempered by green nukage, grey metal floors, the sultry sky, and recurring ornaments like the hanging pipes and the evil eyes. The hub was surrounded by a ring of hazardous floor littered with islets, which was going to see some closet action later. The scattered bonuses were a chore to pick up.

Two directions could be taken from the hub. To the east lay an arena offering crucial resources for pistol starters, at the price of an early Cyberdemon paired with zombies and Revenants. I played this encounter just before leaving the map and it was probably a good idea, considering the sheer number of Pinkies that got released in the hub when I returned. The other route went to the north, where SSG and plasma rifle were less guarded than the rocket launcher. I advanced further to the east, entering a larger outside area with Mancubi and the YK. A long detour to a separate part of Metallosis was necessary to obtain the key, firstly pitting Doomguy against monsters that surrounded him in an open area with walkways over nukage, then against a group of elevated Archons of Hell in a small chamber. After pressing all the switches, I returned to the YK area, finding that the key had lowered and that a vicious closet ambush was in store. The Fallen were excruciating, accompanied by hitscanners, Mancubi, and an Azazel turret. Trying to escape put me at the mercy of Wraiths, emerging from a closet and catching me off-guard. This was the hardest fight of the level, the only one that killed me twice before finding a winning strategy.

The key granted access to the southern segment, another large open area with distant hitscanners. Approaching the BK on the terrace alerted a herd of Pinkies; they appeared in the hub and were followed by six Archons of Hell. Even though the enormous space made my victory trivial, the deployed forces were impressive and fun to mow down. At that point, I had exhausted most of my ammo reserves, but I replenished rockets in the Cyberdemon arena I skipped before. The BK allowed to leave through the exit to the west, the smallest and less intriguing part of Metallosis. If I should consider only the relentless action and the scale of the fights, this would be one of the best maps in Judgment. However, from the technical standpoint it was a little less polished, which was understandable from the oldest map in the third episode. The new monsters played a major role when present, standing as a proof of Rayziik’s commitment to improve and expand his older creations. This was not a flawless map, but it provided solid entertainment and exciting moments.

18 hours ago, Book Lord said:

I think it would be easier to post about MAP32 on any day after the 15th, instead of losing sync between map numbers and days, or to postpone it on the 31st, but let's stick to dobu's post to avoid misunderstandings.

Yyyyyeaaah I don't disagree—lots of confusion this month. Think next time I'll probably just stick to the MAP15/31/32 and people can just post about 31/32 whenever. This is kind of the reason why we don't do more than 32 maps a month :P

GZDoom/UV/Blind/Saves

Map 13: Combustion

100% kills and secrets (had to IDDT admittedly) 

Time: 16:53

Despite this taking a little longer than most of the more recent maps, this one is actually a quite modest one. It didn't really feel like there was any challenge here for me, and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's cause I had the BFG from continuous? Cause that sure helped. It's not like this map was skimping on tougher monsters. There's several azazels and archons here which have some heavy-hitting attacks, and the red key room fight can get overwhelming. Though you should have more than enough cells to stem the tide of imps and pinkies, though going for the rocket launcher sends 2 azazels your way. I think the main reason this map feels modest is cause of its visual design. It is quite brown, but it works with the molten gold that's all throughout the level, so it looks decent. Not a lot of detailed texturing though. Repopulating the initial area with more baddies is a nice touch, and sending multiple archons as part of a wave gives this map its most intense fight, especially since some areas of retreat are now blocked off. I'll say the hardest part of this map is the secrets. They're pretty subtle when it comes to their clues. So subtle, I had to IDDT to find them, though the first one I found was the automap, and even that only shows one other secret. The helper dog in the 2nd secret had no use by the time I got to it. Oh well. Fine enough level with the set pieces, but surprisingly easy.

5 hours ago, dobu gabu maru said:

 

Yyyyyeaaah I don't disagree—lots of confusion this month. Think next time I'll probably just stick to the MAP15/31/32 and people can just post about 31/32 whenever. This is kind of the reason why we don't do more than 32 maps a month :P

Rayziik informed us about the length of MAP32, but he did not say that MAP16 was one of the shortest of the set (comparable with MAP01). A suitable fix would be posting about 32/16 together on the 16th. 

Normally, it would be a problem to change things on the fly, but there's only 7/8 of us still playing Judgment this month, so it might be feasible to inform everybody with a PM. 

(Played continuously on UV with DSDA-Doom, saves are allowed)

Map 14: Metallosis

101% kills, 87% items and 50% secrets 

Time: 14:25

Scored by an awesome AD_79 midi, Metallosis is a poisoned techbase organized around a central hub. While I dig this aesthetic a bit less than the ones from the last 2 maps, this level still looks good. Combat-wise, I also prefered the last 2 maps over this one. I really like some encounters such as the cyberdemon fight in the (optional?) arena with the megasphere and rocket launcher or the blue key section, but some parts feel weaker and underpopulated. For example, when you teleport to that arena with lots of ammo and some backpacks in the yellow key path, you expect a big and memorable encounter, but you only face some cacos, arachnos, hell knights and hitscanners.  Outside of the part when you grab the key and a big group of enemies is revealed, I am not really convinced by the yellow key path overall, which is a shame as it is the longest one and the rest of the map is really fun. Despite my few criticisms with Metallosis, it's a solid map, but the weakest in episode 3 so far.

Rankings:

MAP14 - Metallosis:
Another fun Episode 3 map, Metallosis is covered in dark metal textures and with the green slime providing some colour and contrast, this map looks great. The only part of the visuals I don't particularly like is the METAL2 with the green slime at the bottom which looks really out of place due to how it's drawn - I'm not particularly sure why it annoyed me but it did. The map starts you off with a scramble to grab any sort of weaponry, and they're all guarded by ambushes. The plasma gun trap can be dismantled by not killing the arachnotrons and allowing them to start a brawl with the revenants but this comes with the downside of being unlikely to actually get the plasma gun before all the revenants are dead. The rocket launcher trap is the only part of the map that killed me, and is the largest fight in the map, it's pretty fun though I was surprised to find that you're not locked into the fight at all.

The yellow key section is a bit weird, you teleport into a large room, a bridge lowers and you're given 300 cells - which makes the incredibly weedy ambush that follows very out of place. Trying to actually grab the yellow key is pretty entertaining, the Fallen are fun to fight in this large arena especially since you're given loads of powerful ammo. I didn't like fighting the Wraiths in large areas like this, they're very annoying to take out while they're teleporting all over the place and basically no threat. The fight for the blue key would probably be pretty cool had I not blown all my rockets and cells on the baron sandwich that came before it, which left me blowing all 90 shotgun shells I had on the large horde of pinkies and Archons, which was a bit boring. At close range, the Archon's attack pattern is very similar to the barons - projectiles that go straight towards you (and sometimes bounce) - and this makes them pretty dull to fight in a wide open area with just the SSG (either that or they took pity on me by doing the easy attack patterns :P). This didn't ruin the map, and overall I'd say that this map is pretty good.

RANKINGS:

Map 14: Metallosis

(k, let's just bang this one out. I'm too lazy to attempt remembering every situation)

So this is quite a spread out map, kind of a hub and spoke structure but not actually shaped by one. Quite metallic, certainly, but with vines hanging off many ceilings and a slime river running ariund the middle. The former humans and hell knights don't seem like too much at first, but you don't get lots of ammo, and the Cyberdemon teleporting in is a nasty surprise. Groups of Mancubi, Arachnotrons, a chaingunner or two, who cares? You pick up a plasma rifle at a certain point, but don't do what I did and immediately try to kill the Cyberdemon. You'll see why later. But watch the Revenants - infighting is entertaining, but it'll be tough to pick up the plasma rifle at this stager if you jusr wait it out.

The yellow key ambush is easily the highlight -run up to the ledge once it's been lowered and prepare to face down several brutes, Baby Cacos, and most importantly, the Fallen. They killed me a few times here. It's best to attempt staying well out of range if you can, since these guys are absolutely deadly up close, as my two deaths here demonstrated.

The final ambush after the blue key proved to overwhelming for my meager ammo supply, so I exited.

Things were a touch excessive in spots. It was fine, mostly. Better than 13 overall.

lmd_judg14.zip

That image is shortly before one of my deaths, lol.  He was hiding right behind a lava curtain and decided to block that sweet, sweet health with his huge dehacked bulk.  Don't worry, I got revenge.

General thoughts/ Vid description:

Played in GZDoom blind on UV with pistol starts, compatibility MBF (strict). Map 13 Combustion has a cool hell forge style theme that trips me up with all sorts of lava showers blocking my vision. We learn a little bit of lore about the hellknight penchant for having nice long, hot lava baths. They are definitely the kings of the shower room because the poor imps are cowering in the corners. Map 14 Metallosis has a neat open-concept, 4 pronged design which proves deadly unless you can cut down on the crossfire entering through the main arena. I must travel through each corner to build up my resources so I can take on the final... Baron ambush? It's not much of a finale, but don't worry we have next episode for that, trust me!

MAP14 - “Metallosis”

This was a pretty neat map, there is a lot more room to move around, which made the fights a lot more fun to work with. There are few throwaway battles in this one. The setting whilst monotonous again, was less jarring than the bronze setting of the previous map. The extra beastiary work really well in some of the settings provided, including the wraiths that are sometimes triggered to sneak up on the player.

The map is let down by the events after opening the yellow bars. The baron fight is a pushover and the following ambush is given away to the player by the placement of the holding closet (Essentially you are alerted to it before reaching the blue key and can diffuse it quite safely.

Still I found this to be one of the better main entries in the set so far. 

MAP12: Chemistry

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 2/3 secrets

Our third episode, titled "Mutant Techgnawlogy" (horrible pun, love it), brings us to a techy facility in a setting of nukage and cliffs. It's not the predominantly indoors kind of techbase, giving you lots of outdoor catwalks over the nukage, with monster turrets situated on platforms throughout. The Psyrus midi is quintessentially techbase, and comes from MAP28 of 1000 Lines 3, which I played with the club previously. Great track.

Unlike the episode openers of the first two episodes, this one doesn't keep things so simple. Whether it be the tricky monster turrets or the map's busier encounters, this can be a pretty tough map. Even just that first encounter after venturing indoors killed me a couple times, the nightshades and the gunners can be pretty tricky to avoid damage from here. The yellow key fight isn't too bad if you start rocketing right from the getgo, although it can be a bit hectic if you hesitate. After fighting the first ambush up the lift from the switch-activated yellow key door, be sure to turn off and get the BFG before you trigger the cyberdemon, I didn't notice the path to the BFG my first run up to here and had to leave the cybie alive while trying to do other stuff. Adds an interesting dimension to things, but not a struggle you need to go through. The red key fight can be a little crazy, best plan here is to force your way past the imp teleporters and out of the room, then SSG the imps and whatnot from the area behind them. 

Very fun introduction to the episode, excited to see what's next.

MAP13: Combustion

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 2/3 secrets 

A very brown facility with damaging golden liquid flowing through the walls and on the ground, and nice fire flourishes here and there. I tend not to be big on these overly brown techbase levels, but I also do think levels that use these golden liquid textures look cool, so it gets a pass. Another 1000 Lines track pops up here, an AD_79 midi from 1000 Lines 2. I haven't actually played that one yet, but it's a nice heavy midi.

I found this one mostly a bit easier than the previous one, save for one part. It starts with an SSG-fest in some gridlike corridors, before you get some plasma and drop down below. I save it for later though as the stuff down here is pretty non-threatening and you have a lot of shells for the beginning stretch. The blue key ambush could be dangerous with all the zombies raining cells on you, but just get out of there ASAP and try not to get melted by the Azazel (circle-strafing around them works well). The archviles that spawn into the beginning area can be a bit annoying as there's much to revive, I start using plasma here. The red key fight poses a fun and spacious little slaughterfest, but the toughest part of the level in my opinion comes after with the 3 archons and other enemies in the beginning area. The damage output and large size of the archons makes this fight a lot more dangerous than it looks.

Good one overall.

GZDoom/UV/Blind/Saves

Map 14: Metallosis

100% kills and secrets

Time: 21:18

Deaths: 4

This map is one of the more basic maps in terms of general map design. It's mostly set-piece fights. There's a few random monsters sprinkled around, but most of the time you'll be dealing with large arenas with large swarths of baddies. Most of these aren't too bad, especially with continuous BFG, but there is one fight early with hitscan, revs, cacos, and a cyb that got me once. The rocket launcher is here, but we know that's not very effective on a cyb. I don't know if you can get the plasma before this. That weapon is in a room before the yellow key with some revs and arachnotrons, nothing too crazy. Lowering the yellow key has you teleport into another arena that looks scarier than it is. The biggest threat initially are some hell knights, and there's enough cells to deal with everything. It's after taking out the archon and heading back when dark imps, wraiths, and an archie crash the party, and that's the main concern. Back at the yellow key, some rooms open with baby cacos, hitscan, fallen, and an azazel. Unlike one of the posters above me, I had the hardest time with the area behind the yellow bars. Yes, the baron fight ain't nothing, but the following pinky and archon swarm got me 3 times. I think I got hit with infinite height on a pinky when trying to escape, which should not happen in GZDoom, but it did screw me over. The archons are surprisingly agile, and their attacks are still hard to read, so that got me a couple more times. Thankfully there is a soul sphere here to help restore some health. Overall though, the map is pretty fun. Looks ok, almost TNT-like imo. 

MAP 15 – Dawn of the Machine

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

The “reversed” cage that threw Doomguy in the middle of Revenants and Arachnotrons, gave me strong Plutonia vibes, even though the hot start of Caged was rougher. Dawn of the Machine maintained the green nukage and brown metal theme of MAP14, including the conveyor belts with barrels, this time destined to play a significant role. Plasma was the only option for pistol starters and the primary assault weapon for continuous players too, considering the prevalence of shells and cells over other ammo types. Pressing the switches raised the yellow bars blocking southbound progression, but it also released more monsters in the area.

The cell weapon was suddenly upgraded to the BFG in the southern vault, since the wall of winged bovines, moving slowly towards the player, required the strongest power. The BK was retrieved in the green reactor core and picking it up released Archons of Hell on the way to the blue door. Behind it, I found a larger room with plenty of moving elements, acid pools, and Arachnotrons. It was a real spiders’ nest, whose dwellers just waited for me to press the green light switch to appear in large numbers, including a Spider Demolisher. The small enemies gave me more trouble than the big one, against whom I even dared a BFG sortie. Once the Spiderdemon hit the ground, a 666 tag removed the bars in front of the purple switch.

The final room contained the exit to MAP16, a yellow door, and a teleporter leading to a puzzling chamber with numerous barrels, either stationary or sliding fast on conveyor belts. The YK, a Megasphere, and a cell pack winked from the other side of the room, raising the worst suspects. Two Cyberdemons appeared to block the escape path and began shooting rockets down the hall full of barrels. I got out of that predicament at the third attempt, but I cannot be sure if there was any strategy involved. I came as closer as I could to hit them with the BFG, then I tried to dodge rockets normally and sustained only splash damage. The YK unlocked the door with the secret exit. Dawn of the Machine was an adequate challenge to wrap up the third episode, and it boasted fine Boom tricks in multiple places. I am asking myself how the next encounter with the Spider Demolisher could distinguish itself from the first two.

MAP 31 – The Shaman’s Grove

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Pistol start, blind run w/saves

The wretched natural landscape differentiated The Shaman’s Grove from the tech-bases of the third episode, setting the radical departure one would expect from a secret level. Pink waters flowed between pale rocks and fell from washed-out cliffs, bordered with overgrown vines. Even though the place was described as “a much less active corner” in the intermission screen, it did not take long to receive attacks from all sides, before finding a real weapon since the dimensional warp stripped Doomguy of all his equipment.

The Cyberdemon came as a rude awakening; it made clear that it was not a moldy dreamscape, but another well-concealed trap to claim Doomguy’s head. Once again, I was running around trying to hide, harassed by hitscanners, sturdy monsters on turrets, a super-irritating Pain Elemental, and his majesty the stomping minotaur that followed me everywhere. Oh dear, that’s the prize for finding secret levels these days.

There was an empty cave just at the end of the marble path, a secluded place where the Cyberdemon could not enter, so I found shelter in its recesses, where I discovered a plasma rifle and a switch. Unfortunately, that happened to be The Shaman’s Grove as well, and pressing the trigger summoned the master of this forsaken place. The Shaman looked like a silver Arch-Vile, going well with the pastel tint of the level, but with a ton of health, the power to become invisible, and crazy attack patterns. I did not completely understand his behaviour during the encounter, but he shot strong projectiles, accompanied by an hitscan blast like the regular Vile, but in melee. The greatest danger was being telefragged by one of the spawn cubes he tossed around. I killed him at the third attempt, but I just sprayed plasma and used cover, without letting him come too close.

The death of the Shaman made the YSK and the normal exit accessible on the marble terrace, marked with a red cross. The super-secret exit was behind the red door, but I could not tolerate the Cyberdemon around anymore, so I killed it with shells. I explored the northern cliffs, featuring sticky tar pits and offering both a Soul Sphere and the rocket launcher. I remembered the yellow switch behind the start, and it obviously lowered the RSK pillar, releasing all the remaining monsters in various points of the level. I did not enjoy this last wave, as it was very heterogeneous with one of the two Arch-Viles resurrecting a lot of corpses. While I liked the unique mini boss fight and the way it was staged, within the frame of an eerie location, I cannot fully enjoy a secret level that exercises an undue punishment, without giving anything as a compensation. My opinion was mixed on this one.

(Played continuously on UV with DSDA-Doom, saves are allowed)

Map 15: Dawn of the Machine

100% kills, items and secrets 

Time: 6:28

Keeping on with the previous map's theme and midi composer, Dawn of the Machine is way shorter and more action-packed. It starts off with some revenants and an archon, who are followed by spectres, nightshades and hell knights in the first area. Afterwards, you can BFG some barons and later reach the feature fight of the map, and also my favorite: A spider mastermind and dozens of our children teleporting in waves, all in a square-shaped area. Afterwards, you can either take the normal exit or get the yellow key to open the secret exit. However, grabbing it reveals 2 cyberdemons in an area with tons of barrels and some conveyor belts making them very dangerous as the cybers and your BFG can explode them, but the conveyor belts brings them closer to you, and since the barrels are replaced, you are never safe. I really like this map, it's just short fast-paced action that doesn't disappoint.

Map 31: Shaman's Device

115% kills, 81% items and 100% secrets 

Time: 7:04

Something about this map just draws me in so much, the pink liquid, caverns, cliffs, marble structure and Ecco midi just create a surreal atmosphere that I absolutely love. Combat-wise, this map has a pretty low enemy count than the previous one, but that doesn't mean it messes around as the sniping revs, mancubi, hell knights and the roaming cyberdemon will keep you on your toes. It also contains some nice fights like the teleport ambush after pressing the optional yellow key switch that allows access to the red key. However, I need to adress the elephant in the room, like the title implies, this map introduces the shaman and so far, I absolutely hate him. He is a grey skinned arch-vile that moves very fast, has a ton of health, and shoots very fast projectiles and mosnter spawning cubes, which is of course very fun if they spawn pain elementals, arch-viles or just telefrag you. He also has a melee attack that deals splash damage and can become partially invisible from time to time. Despite the fact that he can't revive dead enemies, he is one of the most annoying custom monsters I have ever seen in any custom wad. Outside of this monster introduction, this map is really pretty and exciting.

Rankings:

MAP13: Combustion

Kills: 96%

Items: 86%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 10:06

Combustion is neat. There's more inconsistent visual styling, and this one really works for me. Love the very radiant golds. Similar to Chemistry, Combustion is more setpiece-driven overall, but it does a nice job merging this with layouts similar to episode 1. Lots of fights I like here. The start is comfortably hot and starts the map on a good tone, threading through corridors to avoid projectiles, there is a good layout here too, the way the halls intersect encourage a lot of running around. Then the plasma rifle fight later on is a pretty good spotlight for weapon 6, it's not awfully hard, but it's pretty fun. My favourite fight, definitely, is the yellow key one. Kinda just a huge ensemble of demons that are immediately prone to infighting, and the Plasma Marines add an interesting spin to the fight. Combustion is a very active map. I dig it.

Grade: A-

Difficulty: B

MAP14: Metallosis

Kills: 96%

Items: 68%

Secrets: 50%

Time: 11:28

Metallosis is probably one of the more distinct maps we've had so far. This one is much more relaxed and easy going, at least in most of the architecture. Despite 260 enemies and a Cyberdemon fight at the start, this one never feels super difficult or intense to me. Despite that, I do actually really like a lot of the combat here, such as that previously mentioned Cyberdemon fight that adds a healthy amount of Revenants and hitscanners old and new. Also the area with Mancubi and Fallen is pretty energetic, and then there's actually a pretty surprisingly difficult ending. A whole lot of Archons will show up which will close in quickly, so stay frosty. Besides seemingly difficult elements, I like this map a lot as a refresher.

Grade: A

Difficulty: B-

MAP15 - Dawn of The Machine:
The boss map for episode three fills a middle-ground between the grand chaos of Map06 and the small scale intensity of Map11, though it definitely feels more similar to the latter. Aesthetically, this map feels very similar to Map14 and since I liked the aesthetics of that map, I liked them here too (apart from that METAL2 with the green slime at the bottom :P). I also really like how common conveyors are in this map, they make the fights they're included in stand out a bit more as well as adding to the feel that this place is a factory.

The opening series of fights is entertaining, and the archvile released after hitting the two switches at the side of the room definitely adds a lot of tension to them if you trigger it immediately like I did (I managed to survive though!) The ambush for the red key is a fairly simple claustrophobic encounter with a load of barons to overwhelm you, and while I have bemoaned them for the rest of Judgement, the baron's double projectile attack adds a lot to a fight that would be pretty standard for a small scale combat-puzzle-y map.

The finale against the spiderdemon was better than the previous one in Map11, the arachnotrons are very threatening here and finding out that the spiderdemon can fire a BFG was a terrifying surprise. It does go down pretty quickly with the BFG, but that's fine - most things do. The secret exit requires completing an optional encounter involving two cyberdemons and some respawning barrels on conveyors. I think this fight is really creative, though I couldn't find a way through it without just rushing the cybers and hoping that I didn't get blown up. I think this is the best episode finale so far, and I think Episode 3 as a whole has been my favourite overall.

...Interesting that both the regular and secret exit share the same text screen. I guess that makes sense since they have a very similar theme.

MAP31 - The Shaman's Grove:
The first of a few maps with this rocky-cherry blossom natural theme, The Shaman's Grove didn't seem like much on the surface but contained a few really cool moments within. The start has you weaponless against a lot of foes and a free roaming cyberdemon who can splatter you if you're not paying attention. It's not too difficult to get the cyberdemon to infight with the heavies here, but he's still going to be a threat for most of the map since you really don't have enough ammo to kill him for a while.

Jumping down into a dark cave, we get the plasma gun and meet the Shaman himself. This is a really cool enemy, and it's attacks are very interesting, along with a more damaging imp-projectile, it spawns monsters in, and has a close range melee attack similar to the archvile's normal attack. I died once fighting him when I tried to bottleneck him in the little corridor, and I got telefragged by one of the monsters he spawned (I assume, I was at 150/150 so I'm not sure what else it could have been) but fighting the Shaman out in the open makes it much less of a pain. After that you're basically done, and hitting the ""secret"" yellow key switch at the start spawns in some more Judgement exclusive custom monsters, but nothing too difficult. I was expecting a second Shaman to spawn in here, but I suppose that might have been a bit too mean. This leads us to the secret Map32, which... I'll get to tomorrow.

RANKINGS:

Map 15: Dawn of the Machine

Talk about kick-ass AD_79 midis! This one has the feeling of an episode culmination!

Although perhaps that doesn't mean much when it seems like this was almost literally copied chapter and verse from Metallosis, with maybe a few shrinkings/reshapings in similar spots. There's even a moat running around the main field! You're attacked initially by Hell Knights, Arachnotrons, and maybe an Archon or two in addition to some Revenants. You get the plasma rifle almost immediately so the main challenge mainly comes from trying to find a place to hide for a second or two. Especially as an Arch-vile appears once you've pressed the two immediately accessible switches. Avoiding them led to an initial death from some nearby Hell Knights.

Another room opened up, a cramped-location with a BFG and a pack of Lords of Heresy that I, once again, lacked the ammo to deal with properly, the little cell boxes be damned. Carving a hole through their ranks led to an Arch-vile at the far end, and a switch that lowrered the platform they were which'll take you back to the ledge which led you here in the first place. There were also some enemies I'd left behind initially that were right there, that proved somewhat tough to handle with, though at least I had enough ammo for them at this point

I spent an embarrasingly-long time wandering around before finding the place that had opened up: a metal courtyard with some curious green structures and also conveyor belts of slime barrels that strongly suggested experiments were being conducted here. After more stupid wandering, I found a switch. This unleashed a modified Spider Mastermind and her brood. Rocketed many of the Arachnotrons in part because of the lack of cells, but I eventually realized it was probably more efficient to take out the big momma spider with the BFG, especially because of Arachnotron crossfire. It was a massive risk, but one I felt like was lacking in alternatives.

And since you've picked up the blue key at this point, it would seem like a simple matter to exit....kind of. You'll see a door requiring the YSK that you haven't picked up yet. Thankfully, another key will grant you access to a darkened room with a series of conveyor belts and barrels, sound familiar? Grab the YSK, be ready for the two Cyberdemons that teleport in and then nope right out of there (sorry, two-shotting is VERY tricky and I dunno abut justifying the time investment) Behind the yellow door is the secret exit.

So how does this compare to the rest of the episode? I like how the stakes are raised, but it's not really more difficult or anything else than the last couple of maps and again with the Heresy spamming Rayziik! Well, on to the secret map!

Map 31: The Shaman's Grove

This is....very different. Here we are in a dying world with vines hanging down literally everywhere from a sort of marble complex but for some odd reason, a very curious pink liquid everywhere. It's quite the contrast, but it's very dangerous and you have to get a move on almost immediately, as the chaingunnner taking postshots at me helps to demonstrate. The Cyberdemon appearing early can only heighten the tension. At a certain point, you'll find yourself in a cave, with some scattered supplies and the titular enemy! This nasty customer is a white Arch-vile reskin that spits monsters and also posesses a nasty melee attacks you can get struck down with if you're too close. Oh, and they take about a million hits to kill. I was very annoyed here, ngl. And I'm not even certain it's entirely necessary to come here. Maybe to lower the yellow key. Not sure, though you can exit once you've found it. But wait, isn't there another secret exit? Why yes! Head back to the entrance, you should see a lift with faces on the right. Here, you'll find a rocket launcher, not to mention a switch...somewhere. I don't remember, though you can leap down to the Supercharge you saw here earlier.

Anyways, lower the red key, and you'll be confronted by an apocalyptic sight: Revenants, Archons, Nightshades, with Baby Cacos and those Former Marine guys that replace the SS. And the Cyberdemon was still alive too. Or was this a new Cyberdemon? It's hard to say. Finally, head into the red0brick teleportee room of the real exit.

Really like the appearance and layout. It's quite a bit different from most of Rayzik's other stuff, though there are still circular sectors everywhere. On the whole, it's not really my favorite kind of map, but um, still better than metal and vine crap?

(I may drop to a lower difficulty for 32 because I really don't want to spend 25+ minutes on it like Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welllcome Back

lmd_judg15.zip

lmd_judg31.zip

This was a really fun episode, some absolutely crazy stuff popping off here.  (I don't think this thumbnail needs spoilers because well, if you're here you either played it or don't care.  But I can spoiler tag it if it's an issue.)

General thoughts/ info from YT description:

Played in GZDoom blind on Ultraviolence with pistol starts, compatibility MBF (strict). This is a very fun episode as we have another boss fight, a crazy path to a secret exit, and then a trip to a beautiful secret map with a terrifying new enemy. Map 15 Dawn of the Machine continues where map 14 Metallosis left off with its visuals and design, except now we're in a barrel factory. This comes into play, heavily. For one we have to face the dreaded Spider Demolisher again, only with many of her young teleporting in around her! Thankfully we have our reskinned BFG to take her down, and then I have some fun punching a bickering spider out. Afterward I discovered an absolutely terrifying path to the secret exit through a cyber demon barrel conveyor ambush! It costs me a few deaths but I'm able to just barely make it through by rushing them with the BFG. I would be very scared doing this without saving first. Then we have the secret map, a cherry blossom park from hell that makes you run for your life into the clutches of an archvile of sin. How do I defeat this hideous creature? I may have dropped a hint somewhere.

More thoughts:

That archvile is supposed to be able to telefrag itself, right?  This is MBF strict on gzdoom (I'm pretty sure I remembered to change it...) so not sure if there's an issue there, but I also don't see how it could avoid telefragging itself.  Except maybe if it's programmed to not spawn something if the cube lands next to it.  Otherwise it would get stuck inside something.  Anyway, seems like a viable way to take it out quickly, and my second battle was a bit anticlimactic because of it, though still highly amusing as I was not TRYING to do that.  I will look in the thread to see if anyone else experienced this.

MAP15 - “Dawn of the Machine”

This map is very to the point. A rather simplistic set of tighter combat set pieces compared to the similarly designed Map14. The main events during this one are fine, including the demolisher that is far less of a chore to dispatch here as you can take her down with the BFG.

The secret exit isn't so much a secret but an optional route given that you need to beat the yellow key trap to access it. This was very nasty, the best strategy was to tuck up in one of the corners and use the BFG tracers to nail the cybers by peek-a-boo shooting. Any other method appears to result in hilarious deaths. 

Overall, not the best map in the tech series, but not the bum note of episode 2.

MAP31 - “The Shaman’s Grove” " - AKA the map that can emit two extremely opposite reactions.

This map is a real step up in the quality of the design and visuals as a whole, I guess it isn't a surprise given this was one of the last maps to be made. However the map has one completely glaring problem and that arises from stumbling into the side area with the plasma gun. I'm afraid this was IDDQD or a DNF for this map because honestly this fight is beyond the pale. Whilst cheating it took the entirety of the cells you get to kill him and his death appears to trigger the teleporter to lower and allow escape from this section, add to that the high chance of being telefragged and honestly this fight isn't worth it. 

The secret exit is straightforward to access. The yellow key opens the exit in the central area, however if one remembers correctly, there is more than one yellow key switch. 

Overall - Probably the best looking map so far, but man this new monster is a horror unto itself. I guess it serves me right for stumbling into this one. At the moment I must admit I have this one down as the low point of the wad, though I really want to someone to correct me regarding the shaman fight because I must have been doing something wrong because the encounter seemed to be essentially impossible to beat. It's a shame because the combat for the rest of the map is much more focused and engaging than a lot of the maps so far.

GZDoom/UV/Blind/Saves

Map 15: Dawn of the Machine

100% kills and secrets

Time: 9:18

Deaths: 1

This is another map that feels like a continuation of its previous map. It honestly looks like it could have been added in at the end of the other one and I wouldn't have noticed. This map is much smaller than that one, but it's high-intensity. You have to immediately deal with revs and an archon, grabbing the plasma and hitting 2 switches. Hitting those switches opens alcoves with hell knights, spectres, and nightshades, plus one of the switches also sends an archie after you. The switches allow access to the baron/BFG corridor, where you just unload all your cells into them. There's a lot of barons here, and you'll regain cells in a bit, so don't worry about wasting ammo. The red key fight is a pretty interesting set-piece. Hitting the first switch starts teleporting in arachnotrons and a demolisher. Some walls start raising and retracting, so you can have some cover from the BFG blasts. Every so often, more arachnotrons spawn in, and eventually the platform the demolisher and red key are on lower, so then you get a wandering boss monster. As an added environmental hazard, in addition to the toxic waste, barrels on conveyor belts also speed through the center. Surprisingly, I SSGd the mini spiders since I wanted to save cells for the big momma, and I wanted to see if I could 1-shot it like a normal mastermind. Nope. Took 3 shots point-blank, and I got hit in the face with a rocket. No death tho. Getting the red key and going through the door, we are presented with a unique opportunity, You can head forward to the teleporter marked exit, or head to the left to another teleporter that leads to an optional area. This area houses the yellow key and a crap-ton of barrels. Most are on conveyor belts, though some are on stationary platforms. They also happen to respawn. This doesn't look good. Crossing the room to grab the key and goodies spawn 2 cybs all the way back at the beginning of this room. This is one of the most unique fights I've seen in a map in a long while. I died my first time on this, since I was trying to BFG them while trying not to get caught in barrel explosions. My 2nd attempt had me on the outer ledge of the first belt so I could be out of the way of barrels, and just holding down the fire button. Surprisingly, I killed both cybs on this attempt. It was a rush, that's for sure! The yellow key unlocks the secret exit, which is a death exit (I think the normal one is too). Pretty fun boss map, with an awesome optional encounter. I'll do map 31 after dinner.

GZDoom/UV/Blind/Saves

Map 31: The Shaman's Grove

100% kills and secrets

Time: 10:22

Deaths: 1

Crashes: 1

This map is very pretty! It takes the marble aesthetic we've seen a dozen times and adds some pink hues to it. It almost looks like map's environment is covered in cherry blossoms. Makes for some nice scenery in this hectic map. As soon as you fire, you alert a cyb that will be wandering around for most of the map. He can help you deal with some of the mid-tiers sprinkled around as you scrounge for weapons. Taking the lift up gets you the rocket launcher and sets you up for a jump to the secret soul sphere and rockets. The cavern area nets you the plasma rifle and introduces you the titular shaman. He looks like a gray archie, but he isn't as dangerous. He fires a projectile and has a melee attack that is basically an instantaneous archie blast. The biggest problem is every time he does the projectile, he also fires a spawn cube. The other posts in this thread make it seem like this guy is a huge annoying deal with a ton of health, and in reality, he's not. I mean, I didn't die in this fight; I died from a cyb rocket taking the lift up to the rocket launcher. Yes, spawning enemies is super annoying, especially if you get unlucky with a pain elemental or an archie, and he does have more health than most enemies. But if you just send him a concentrated barrage of rockets, he'll go down quickly. Add in the fact that he doesn't have a line of sight attack, and this means you can just constantly send him explosive packages with little to no breaks. He only spawned like 4 enemies before I took him out. If he shows up again in the WAD, I imagine it will be in a little more hectic of a situation. Idk, I didn't think he was annoying at all. There's a few switches around the map you have to hit to lower the yellow key. This will open up the normal exit, but remember the yellow switch at the beginning? Hit that to spawn in even more enemies, including an archie, and lower the red key. Take out the baddies, grab the newly spawned ammo, and grab the key. This spawns even more enemies down in the frozen river. An archie shows up back on the teleporter pad, and 2 archons stand in your way to the exits. Use the red key to open the bars to map 32. Overall, this was a very fun map that looked very pretty! The new enemy is actually quite cool, and the general combat is quite fun. 

Oh, and another crash, this time when shooting a rev in the yellow switch wave. Weird.

Edit: I went back in, IDDQD'd and IDKFA'd to see how many rockets it takes to take the shaman out. 15. Though the first time I tried doing this it shot a spawn cube and telefraged itself. lol. Also, it can juggle you in the air with its melee attack, so that's actually a little more dangerous than I thought. Though I still stand by it not being that tough to take out as long as you focus all fire on it. You'll have more than enough rockets to take it out. In fact, there's 15 in this cavern alone, plus your newly acquired plasma. 

MAP 32 – Walk With Me in Hell

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

Rayziik chose slaughter gameplay as the main attraction for MAP32 of Judgment. Some mappers did that before, but in his case, it was more a return to his editing standards than a departure. The uniqueness of Walk With Me in Hell did not lay in the size or pressure of its encounters, nor could it be attributed to its fear-inducing, gargantuan dimensions. The gimmick was the adaptation of the author’s MAP21 of Slaughterfest 2012, becoming a 2021 re-edition taking advantage of the expanded enemy roster of Judgment. Whether it improved the experience or irremediably marred it, is up for debate.

I have not played the first incarnation of this hellish fortress rising up out from the searing surface of Hell, but I checked the major changes in Doomwiki. The monster count was increased considerably, reaching the symbolic quota of 2021 on UV, and a new BSK arena was added, making the quest for that single key a longer affair if compared to the other two. I have never killed so many monsters on a single map before, and I am a bit tired with MAP32 relying on that kind of entertainment. Before declining the challenge, I gave Rayziik the benefit of the doubt and spent around 40 minutes walking with him in Hell.

The first 100 monsters were killed while leaving the central building, guarded by a Cacoswarm and several Chaingunners, and during the exploration of the level. The big arenas were easy to tell apart from connecting sectors, so I avoided stirring a pandemonium before gaining a complete arsenal. At that point, I was free to approach the map as I wished. The monument in the north hid an unholy altar with the RSK, while the southern arena displayed the YSK in a cage. I firstly focused on that place, as it contained many weapons. All actions in the area were followed by moderate monster deployments. Collecting a weapon raised a line of snipers along the perimeter, easy to dispatch if no other ambush had been activated beforehand. The four skull switches must be pressed to collect the YSK, and each one summoned different monster combinations, some of them nice and fun, others tragically obnoxious. I despised being targeted by so many hitscanners at once, more so with Arch-Viles on the hunt.

The BSK was not visible, so I decided to locate it before picking up any key. I began a rather long trip in the western branch, finding myself trapped in a smaller courtyard with a manageable ambush, ending with a Cyberdemon duo. The path twisted and turned on top of towers populated by Revenants and Hell Knights, then a gate sent me to an isolated building. The welcome team was not a big deal, but once the BSK was taken, I found myself in real trouble. The bottom was invaded by hundreds of Imps and Hell Knights, while a legion of Revenants appeared on the enclosing terrace. It took me a lot of attempts before succeeding, as those nasty skeletons always had the last word with their homing rockets.

Each key pickup spawned monsters in the crossroads hub, in numbers that could not be handled easily. Once I saw how many of them were roaming the area and were converging on me, with my weapons unable to stop their advance, I gave up my ambitions to max out the super-secret level. I checked what happened when picking up the other keys and I tried to make a run for the locked portals to the east. The yellow gate opened immediately, but both the blue and the red disguised a cruelly slow lowering barrier. It was impossible to collect all keys and make a run, because the thousand chasing monsters would take my head before even seeing the exit teleporter. So, I devised a plan: run for the YSK, escape the arena, move to the exit bridge, open both yellow and blue doors, head for the RSK, grab it and run like hell for the exit. I did it at second attempt, leaving the hellspawn to their blood feud for supremacy.

After rightfully trivialising the enormous horde that was raging through the fortress, I thought about the set pieces in Walk With Me in Hell. Except for the BSK path, which I thoroughly enjoyed with its crescendo of craziness, culminating in the tremendous assault inside the detached edifice, I profoundly disliked the other ambushes. The extreme variety of monsters did not allow for a strategic approach, it was just an overwhelming chaotic mass, rewarding swift movement more than aggressiveness and shooting proficiency. The zombies were extremely annoying, always landing unavoidable blows with their hitscan attacks. The same could be said for the invisible Spectres, an irritating presence that caused accidental self-rocketing. The rest of Judgment bestiary was just there, trapped by crossfire and unable to express its true potential, except for the mobile Fallen. There was plenty of uninteresting, time-wasting combat, partially alleviated by bountiful resources; in no way I would have prolonged my stay in this fortress, just to massacre one thousand demons dispersed throughout it. My lust for slaughter had sunken to the historical low, and the boredom of non-optimised, protracted fighting invariably reared its ugly head. Visually there was nothing to complain about, and many fantastic vistas were given in return for the effort. I am glad this level told more of the past than of the present work by Rayziik, and it was a fitting cameo for the super-secret slot. Not something I would be playing again, though.

MAP14: Metallosis

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 4/4 secrets

A very brown map is followed by a very grey one. This one is a very spacious grey tech facility with the odd nukage area. The colour scheme may be simple but the level looks nice enough, the architecture is pretty cool and I like all the hanging cables everywhere. The midi, again by AD_79, is a good one and matches the map's energy well.

The wide open areas in this one are a change in pace from much of what we've been seeing, and it's interesting that this map is mostly linear but almost doesn't even feel that way because of how much room to run around there is. There is an optional rocket launcher + megasphere you'll likely want to go off and get near the beginning, but doing so will unleash a cyberdemon. You can use him for some infighting then go get the SSG + plasma to take him down later on. This is probably the easiest map of the episode so far, the room to move helps you out quite a lot and there aren't really any fights I found particularly challenging, but I really enjoyed the pace this one had. 

Difficultywise felt a bit like a breather, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

MAP15: Dawn of the Machine

UV, pistol start, saves

100% kills, 1/1 secrets

Sort of a continuation of the previous map from the visual department, this takes the grey techbase formula, shrinks things down a bit, and gives us a bit of a boss-map. After some opening battles in the first room, mostly dependent on plasma, you get a BFG and a horde of barons. Don't bother killing them all, just punch through them, take out the archie, and leave with the blue key. You can come back later to clean up the barons. Go through the blue door, kill some arachnotrons, and arm yourself for your second skirmish with a spider demolisher. She starts off on her own platform, but after some time the platform will lower and she'll be free to roam around, making her a much bigger threat than last time. You can get her infighting with the arachnotrons and sneak some point-blank BFG shots on her while she's distracted, but make sure you don't get caught by the tracers of her own BFG. To go through the secret exit, simply turn away from the regular exit and another teleporter is there, plain as day. The fight for the yellow key to access the secret exit is pretty crazy though. Two cyberdemons in a room full of respawning barrels and conveyor belts. I couldn't find anything remotely consistent to take this one down so I just used saves, and went with just plain rushing them down with the BFG. I thought rushing past them and through the teleporter and waiting for them to follow in after was a clever idea, but they tend to get stuck teleporting themselves back over and over. You can take this opportunity to do a well-timed telefrag, but it's very risky as it's easy to mistime it or get blasted by the other cybie. I did have one run where I telefragged both though, that was funny.

(Played continuously on UV with DSDA-Doom, saves are allowed)

Map 32: Walk With Me in Hell 2021

104% kills, 88% items and 0% secrets 

Time: 34:55

I guess no megawad is complete without the map 32 slaughtermap! Originally map 21 of slaughterfest 2012, WWMIH 2021 is a revamped version of one of the earliest Rayziik maps that got released to the public. The level got a makeover on the visual side, which makes it prettier than the SF version, but I still wouldn't consider it the prettiest in the wad so far. Now, the combat is nothing to write home about outside of the 3 fights for the keys. I started with the yellow key path, which probably houses my favorite fight in the entire megawad so far. You need to press 4 switches to reveal the key, but every press teleports monsters (press all 4 at once for maximum fun!), and then grabbing the key opens the way out, but also reveals even more enemies. In total, you get over 1000 monsters, including cacos, imps, pain elementals, arch-viles and all types of hell nobles, zombies, pinkies. It's very exciting, but also gloriously hyperbolic. I later got the red key, which has probably my least favorite fight of the 3. It has tons of fallens, pain elementals, revs, arachnos, zombies, 2 cybers and probably more. It's still a very fun encounter. The last key I got is the blue one, in which the feature fight locks you in an arena with 2 cybers, imps, hell knights and a ton of revs, and after exiting, you will have to fight arachnos, cacos, hell nobles, pinkies and more that teleported in the central area. These encounters are even more fun thanks to the music, a midified song from the band Lamb of God. Now I am not gonna lie, this map can get really tedious when you need to clear the stragglers, especially if they get stuck somewhere, and the slaughter gameplay will probably turn off many people from it, which will probably make it the most divisive level in the entire month. Despite my love for this map, I probably wouldn't take an entire megawad of maps like this, especially in a single month, and I don't think Judgment should change it's gameplay style in the "normal" maps. But overall, this map is my favorite one so far, it's exciting, fun and very different from the rest of the wad.

Rankings:

MAP32 - Walk With Me in Hell 2021:
Judgement, as is tradition for a megawad, has a large slaughtermap on it's MAP32 slot and this is a trend I generally like - they're normally a massive switch-up in gameplay and I like a good slaughtermap. Unfortunately, I left Walk With Me in Hell 2021 (WWMIH2021 from now on :P) with very mixed feelings on what I had just played. This is a remake of Slaughterfest 2012's MAP21, and while I have played SF2012, I didn't play this map - I played Slaughterfest 3 before Slaughterfest 2012, and I had a bad time with Rayziik's Map13 in that wad so seeing a very similarly themed map in SF2012 made me just skip it. Funnily enough, the blue key arena in WWMIH2021 is directly lifted (or at least incredibly similar) from the blue key arena in Rayziik's SF3 map13 - though I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more here than in that map.

This map works well in the big key fights, they're grand, entertaining and challenging. The red key's Fallen swarm is fun, they're probably my favourite of the custom monsters and I honestly think the swarm could have been even larger. I liked the blue key fight quite a lot, which was a pleasant surprise, the best strategy here seemed to be to take out all of the revenants on the upper deck and let everything else infight with the cyberdemons. The yellow key fight lets you choose which wave to activate when, but I decided to hit all the switches at once since I figured it'd be the most entertaining and it certainly was! I didn't have a particular strategy here and mostly just tried to circle-strafe and pray for generous damage rolls, but I had a good time getting through the fight nonetheless.

Outside of these areas, I found the map to be an incredibly unenjoyable slog. After every single key ambush, a big group of stuff spawns in the centre of the map and this never really feels like a finale to any of the fights, it just feels like padding to get the map's length to be longer. The most fun slaughter encounters to me are ones that you finish the cleanup for the fight at around the same time as the fight itself (the finale of Haste Map14 being the best example I can think of, off the top of my head) but these are all cleanup, which I just don't like. This stands in distinct contrast to the key fights themselves that I think follow this principle fairly well.

There's so many pain elementals in this map and the increased aggressiveness of them became infuriating at points, especially since a lot of the map is made with player & ground monster blocking lines, so lost souls can just phase straight through walls and hit you. The large amount of hitscanners also became very annoying very quickly as dying to a random chaingunner that spawned in after you've left a fight, since everything seems to have spawned in (as I did twice) sucks. That being said, I don't think I would say that the usage of these monsters is bad, just annoying. The spectres, however, seem really poorly thought through and should have been replaced with pinkies as they're pretty much impossible to see on the black marble floor texture, against the black sky in the software renderer - I understand that spectres are meant to be difficult to see but the map seems intentionally designed in a way that makes them almost invisible, and I really don't like when challenge comes from a lack of visual clarity.

It's a shame, I would have really liked this map if it was just the key encounters and none of the parts around them, because they are really fun, but the rest of the map just ruins them.

RANKINGS:

(Took a look at WALK WITH ME IN HELL! and it just appears to be one of those large-scale slaughters, a la a very easy NewGothicMovement map or something. I spent much of yesterday on Demented Trials so I wasn't exactly eager to spend more time with similar gameplay. Not to mention there's an ASS I'd rather spend some time with. So I'm out)

Map 16: Harlequin Garden

The same theme as Map 31, only somewhat more laid-back grotto appearance at the beginning and the latter part of the map taking place in....sigh...marble. Underequipped at the beginning and facing down former Marines, demons and Arachnotrons, the opposition is indeed fearsome, though there's maybe 56 enemies in the whole map. Duck into a cavern and find a chaingun that'll leave you in better shape. Further exploration will lead you to a plasma rifle and berserk pack which are both as valuable as you might expect. Actually, there's one marble room where you're set upon by 2 Nightshades on either side of you, so this is quite invaluble. Grabbing the red key and exiting will lead you to a large conflagoration of foes including former captains, Revenants and TWO Arch-viles. You might want to leave an Arachnotron or two alive if you don't want to end up punching any Arch-viles. I suppose my latter punching of Revenants in the hall before the red key should be applauded then. The red key switch opens up a cavern, with a trio of Arch-viles and basically no ammo in sight. You've got a decent amount of room to dodge them, but it's still three Arch-viles with strikingly minimal resources. Although it was quite amusing to see one of them get stuck on one of the cute pink platforms raised when pressing the red skull switch in here. It kind of feels like. "Bye, have a nice...time."

lmd_judg16.zip

I ended up not having time to play on friday, so there are even more maps for today! 

MAP 13 - Combustion : 

An SSG and a backpack on sight, plus armor. A few imps can be seen down there, as well. I run for the armor + backpack combo, a bit of imp minigun clean up, minigun on the mancs, minigun on the revs, switch one, switch two, kill the winged skinny mancs, grab the plasma gun and jump down, rain plasma on the imps and HKs, get bored, rain rockets too, reach the blue armor with the SSG, health bonus track, lift, rocket the AV, back down, other lift. Switch, blue key, kill the plasma dudes, with plasma, for greater poetic justice, back to the start and the blue switch. Revs from both sides, big room. I jump down and after some rockets to clear the air I go back to the plasma to finish things. fully recharged of rockets and plasma, I save and press the red switch. Key comes down, I pick it up, no trap. Red door, teleport back up. A pair of switches, I press one and then a couple neon-barons show up with some zombie fodder. Kill all, grab a soulsphere, go press the switches again and cross the pink wall, go down to grab the minigun I had missed before, and off to the exit. However. I'm two enemies and 3 secrets short so... Time for exploration. Found the automap! Oh look, a berserk inside a yellow lava fall! I think I can jump there? Yup I can. But it's cells, not a beerserk. Now, map shows another unvisited room close by.. It's a doggy! This time I can finally bring a life dog to the end!

100% K/I/S, 0 deaths, 22:11 minutes.

MAP 14 - Metallosis : 

Hot start there, with the mancs providing fire and the HK punches. Cool looking place, with all the almost organic looking metal. I haven't yet advacned because more and more enemies keep popping up.. After a while it calms down and I pick one corner with an obvious secret, then back to the main room and a somewhat random pick of side. Spiders on pillars pop-up, I pop them with rockets, go grab the SSG, switch, lift, plasma, kill a few imps and a couple revs, another switch and now there's a manc to the side. A few mancs to the side. I arm the RL an approach them, and die because a zombie jumps in front of me! 

 Second try, from the start. This time I switch to rockets and start running towards one of the mancs, clear him, clear the zombies and the HK and then the second manc. After that, I remove the spiders from behind the bars, enter the megasphere "room" to trigger the pinkies, engage on a little SSG hunting fest, go for the secret, save and then go for the spiders again. Spiders, rev, open up the mancs. This time I go BFG in hand, plasma for the PE and SSG for the clean up. After that, lift, kill the HK, switch, teleport. Despite the amount of cells and rockets I minigun the spiders, cacos and shotgunners before going for the switches, one, two, door, neon-baron, switch, lift, plasma and rockets for the AV, and then.. Back to the teleport? Ah, it opened up the YK, with some flying revs, zombies and the cutest enemy of them all, the baby-caco! I love the sound they make as they die. Now, save, suit, jump down. Blue armor, switch, lift, run around the sludge pit to grab ammo and kill some teleporting annoying melee dudes, and.. Megasphere room now. Clean the zombies, press switch. I use the BFG on the cow and then switch to rockets for cleanup duty. Grab the secret auto-map and backpack, and now.. Yellow bars? Nah, let's check the blue switch area first. Oh spiders! And cacos! And a secret! Now yes, yellow. Four winged barons and then some pinkies, a neon-baron at least, yeah, no, two. Rockets, rockets, kill all, grab health, save, switch. Up, blue key, blue sphere on the fall down, go back to the exit, kill the cacos and minigun the PE to death from behind the bars, blue switch, and I could leave but I'm one secret short.. Oh look a blue sphere! And that's that! 

100% K/I/S, 1 death, 22:07 minutes.

And now, food.

MAP 15 -  Dawn of the Machine : 

Oh wow, that's a chaotic start! After killing the revs and the neon-baron, it's time for a switch. Minigun first, shotgun second, with a healthy dose of rockets in between. Save, go down, and a free blue armor and free BFG. Not a good sign. Switch, BFG on the winged barons, minigun on the AV and then grab the blue key and teleport back up. Now, blue door.. Kill the spider and then.. One of the sides. I pick the one with weapons. Press switch, kill the tiny spiders, BFG for the motherspider. Rocket for the remaining spiders, and then switch. Red door, exit but! First. Teleport, 1 secret 1 enemy to go. Ok, that was expected, a cyber. Evil layout to fight him with all the barrels! But I survived! Yellow door, secret exit, done!

100/86/100% K/I/S, 0 deaths, 10:46 minutes

MAP 31 - The Shaman's Grove : 

Oh, pistol starting are we? Oh damn, run! Grab the SSG, pick a lift, kill all tomatoes, switch, SSG the manc, grab the RL, jump down and wait for the manc to kill the HK before killing him, jump down again, fall on top of a pinkie but survive, grab the blue armor, keep moving, kill a winged baron and a HK, oh good, a back pack, go the other way because here a cyber is roaming, down into a cave with much needed ammo, up some steps to pick up a plasma gun, save, switch, and then get telefragged by a white AV?! Second time I killed him and he only had a chance to summon a winged baron and a manc. All dead, teleport back up and the YSK is up for grabs. And the exit is there, but... There's another exit, a red key guarded one. Back to the start, this time armed with a plasma, kill the cyber, kill the revs, switch, plasma the AV and his friends, RSK is down, grab it, kill the flying revs, neon-barons and etc and then go grab the megasphere. There, all done. Now.. Red or Yellow exit? Red.

100% K/I/S, 1 death, 10:48 minutes

MAP 32 - Walk With Me in Hell : 

Nice intermission text, getting me psyched to destroy more hellspawn! And a whooping 1213 of them on this map.. Plus one single secret, hum.. Oh well, I'll take this challenge after a cigarette or two.

 Ok, shoot a switch, a ton of imps and 4 paths to choose from. It would appear they all lead to the same room, from the map, so I pick one at random. Outside I load up on rockets and find the one zombie shooting at me, two., oh, three. Pick the backpack, fall into the blood, die, restart.

 This next time I go the lazy route and just start blasting rockets to the imps, then go and pick up the RL, the BFG and the red key. Grab the invincibility to kill the cyber and the AV and the rest of them, back to rockets and clearing spiders, revs and what not. then I pick another side at random : some spiders on ledges and two mancs on cages, then.. Save, pillar of skull switches. start with the plasma gun and move to the RL after clearing the playfield. Save, switches, oh really, two cybers? It was needed, was it? Kill them, lift, switch, rockets for the HKs and pinkies, all the way up, teleport. Sniper spiders, sniper revs, rockets for everyone! Then up the steps, revs, blue armor, blue sphere, save, switch. Grab the key and I go for a BFG fest on the top floor leaving the cyber to take care of as many  small fry as he can, but eventually the HKs take care of him and I am forced to go down and BFG the lot of them. I then switch to rockets for the final ones, grab the megasphere and 'port back. After saving. Oh I see, there's a party down there. I don't like to miss out so I go there with some fireworks, join the party for a while and then go back up for the megasphere I had left behind. Then back to the party! 

 Ok, everyone dead, save, and now.. The blood pools. Kill the revs, kill the demon-manc-thing, platforms lower, save, platforms rise. Switches. And time for some BFG carnage! Kill all, grab the key and... Die. One too many rev balls to the face. Again, from before the switches. Did a better job this time, wasted less blue spheres to have a couple for the second stage. Save, grab key. And die again. Next try I run out of the arena but end up dying to a rev ball. Again. Still it felt like a better strategy so that's what I'll do this time too. Why are there so many revs?! 2 more deaths to them. Finally, on my 5th attempt I managed to grab a foothold, but I'm still not finished, but the fight appears to have been reduced to me and the nobles. Ok, less than 20 monsters left.. So yellow wall it is. Followed by blue, followed by red. Save before the final wall and... Oh, it's the exit! But I'm missing a few monsters and the one secret.. Ok, found the non-secret blue-sphere and the teleporting buggers that come with it, 2 enemies to go and 1 secret. I know it's the blue sphere on a pedestal, so let's go there and see what can be done. Oh, final 2 monsters were 2 more of those annoying little things so now it's only the final secret to go. There was a switch down bellow... Jumps down, press switch and ah ha! 'ported. And now, pick up some cells and some shells and done!

100% K/I/S, 6 deaths, 42:13 minutes!

Ok, one more map to go! 

MAP 16 - Harlequin Vale : 

Oh, it's map 31 aesthetics again! I get shot at as soon as I arrive, switch to the minigun, kill every one of the revs and zombies, enter a door, grab a berserk, kill both revs, head out again, up some steps, two spiders. Back, into a cavern, kill the manc and then the HKs, grab the blue armor, go back up, into the house, fireblu wall, pick up the plasma a couple of flying farts show up and eat plasma, grab the red key and.. Nothing happens. Go to the red switch, kill the final wave and.. two enemies to go. Oh, two AVs that can't ressurect anything, they dead I go for the exit, and that's all for today.

100% K/I/S, 0 deaths, 5 minutes 5 seconds.

A really short map after such a long one. Kinda felt like a palate cleanser.

MAP32 - “Walk With Me in Hell”

Well this is one I just need to walk away from. Fair to say that I must have exceeded the maximum excesses of chaos theory here and as a result seemed to be in an unwinnable position. 

I will say that including masses of hitscanners in a map like this is probably not a good idea. I mean most of my deaths involved having my health whittled away by them. At the end of the day the map feels like massive excess without the focus of other reason combat puzzle styled wads. I think this one would be fun with a solid strategy and knowledge of where everything is, however for someone stumbling into this, well you are going to begging for mercy from the devil himself here. At this point this ended up beyond anything I have played recently and I don't have the time to persevere with this one. 

Map31 again

This time I made sure to pick up the rocket launcher this time. Not that it helped much overall. The fight with the shaman was still quite horrific to play. I must wonder whether others just got lucky, the shaman is too quick and too bulky in terms of health in my opinion and has a habit of doing some ridiculous things such as summoning multiple monsters in a row (Instead of one you get several without the monster resetting its state settings for some reason). That said I beat the fight this time, but I have to admit that I felt little reward for doing this. Now at the very least I feel I can give a genuine overall opinion of this map now. This is a really solid map that is soured by this one fight, which is a shame because it could have been one of the highlights. Still I guess you can say that it makes the map secret worthy I guess.

Today, the 17th of May, we should be writing about...

MAP 16 – Harlequin Vale

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

Even though the hot start was annoying, since I was still bleeding at 25% health after the escape from MAP32, Harlequin Vale acted as a merciful break from the pressure of secret maps. However, seeing the same visual pattern of The Shaman’s Grove was disappointing: I thought the bleached landscape was exclusive to the alien location of MAP31, and not something I would have experienced anyway.

The level finished before it started, even though I was quite careful most of the time, because of my low health. I attained myself to the provided weapons, and I noticed there was not much ammo. The Berserk pack in the temple at the other side of the pond would see a lot of use if pistol starting, but I still think the opposition would require at least an SSG, which was lacking in single player. I only killed Pinkies and some Nightshades with the punches, and I would not dare approach the Archon of Hell without the plasma rifle.

The red switch teleport was a decent mess, throwing Arch-Viles, Revenants and hitscanners at the player; I contained their assault with cells, but I would have run out without the carry-over ammo from MAP32. The illusion of the last cavern being under the outdoor area was nice, though easy to spoil by retracing your steps while on the staircase (you see the landscape changing). Beyond the translucent waterfall, a marble monument hosted the unreachable exit. Four Arch-Viles guarded the progression switch, that raised round jets of pink liquid to create a path. Fighting them was not a big issue, unless you let them surprise you with no equipped plasma gun. I welcomed the relief that Harlequin Vale offered, but it was shameful to share the same theme of a secret level. I was not impressed by the execution of the fake room under room effect with silent teleporter, and the map wasted a fantastic name for only a short intermission.