The DWmegawad Club plays: Judgment

GZDoom/UV/Blind/Saves

Map 32: Walk With Me In Hell 2021

100% kills and secrets

Time: 43:43

Deaths: Dozens and dozens

This is easily one of the hardest maps I've ever beaten. Yes I dies countless times and save-scummed my way through, but I did not resort to IDDQD at any point. But boy I wanted to. This map is a wide open area with pretty much every enemy you've encountered so far, with the exception of the new boss monsters. Pistol-starters need to rush either north or south to find all the weapons, though the lowly shotgun is in a corner to the north-west, and the SSG is in the starting area. Both areas with the guns have switches to hit that allow access to a key. Problem is, they unleash gigantic hordes. The path to the west has you fight 2 cybs and some small bushels of enemies before teleporting to an fortress on the outskirts for the blue key. Getting that key also unleashes a horde. My playthrough started in the north and went counter-clockwise. I died probably about 6-7 times in the fight to the north, and stopped counting in the blue key fortress. Your best bet for that fight is to escape as soon as the bars blocking the teleporter drop just to catch a breather. There's a megasphere up here by the switch that lowers the blue key, but if you didn't need it before the fight, this balcony is now swarming with enough revs to fill Andorra up there, so it's gonna take some carving to get to it. Finally, when I hit the southern part I got the final key during this wave, and it unleashed the absolutely soul crushing final wave, with enemies teleporting in EVERYWHERE. I don't normally play slaughtermaps, so I died many, MANY times. My dodging is not the best, as I would accidentally run into walls and/or enemies when trying to BFG everything. There were several times where I would face rocket cause a forgotten one would charge into me from out of sight. The pain elementals and archies are the worst part about this, since they just keep adding enemies to the horde. Try to take them out ASAP. There's a ton of rockets and cells throughout the map, but I was ridiculously low on health multiple times as I ran out of medkits toward the end. I had also already used the secret soul sphere by this point as well. The north end has an invul that I used as soon as I saw it, but now I'd wait until the final wave to use it. Also, you could try to leave the map once all 3 keys are grabbed, but each key door has a slow-lowering wall right behind it, so you have to do some waiting. 

Overall, this is a very, VERY tough level, but with some determination, you can beat it! Just keep moving. Also, the map looks pretty nice and imposing. I'm hoping the next map is a nice breather after this one!

MAP15: Dawn Of The Machine

Kills: 90%

Items: 60%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 5:57

Ah yes. Much better. Dawn Of The Machine is a significant improvement over last episode's closer. For only 70 enemies, it gets off to a neat and energetic start, a tight fun run over a lake of poison with Revenant and Archon competitors. After some Hell Knight, Heresy and Arch-Vile ambushes followed by a cramped BFG room, it's time for the final fight. The new Demolisher holds a much more dynamic arena than the previous, as well as an army of Arachnos. They are surprisingly easy to infight though, so turn Papa Spider against his kids. Thankfully, the secret exit isn't nearly as hidden. Take a sharp left at the end and endure a dangerous bonus encounter with Cyberdemons and respawning barrels, and you're free to leave.

Grade: A-

Difficulty: C+

MAP31: The Shaman's Device Grove

Kills: 100%

Items: 77%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 6:46

In such a spicy and direct megawad like Judgment, I appreciate a map like The Shaman's Grove being here to put things in perspective. It's a pretty mellow < 100 monsters and it doesn't waste your time. There's not a whole lot to say here, I love the crazy visual stylings with these radiant pink vines and water set underneath a flaming sky. It's unconventional, but combined with the MIDI I find it really sweet and serene. To leave the grove, you'll have to fight the owner of the land, a pale, mysterious Arch-Viles who can summon anything in a snap. He was telefragged in this footage, and was also telefragged off-camera when I redid this fight because everyone talked about it, twice even! Hmmmm... Either way, if your Shaman isn't suicidal, he's not super threatening. At least in my opinion. Hammer him with plasma and you won't even need many rockets. If you want cookie points (and MAP32) head back to the start, press a switch revealing a bonus brawl and a red key, and you're free to go.

Grade: A

Difficulty: C-

MAP32: Walk With Me In Hell '21

Kills: 89%

Items: 64%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 19:22

Alright, here's the BIG one, Walk With Me In Hell is a remodelled classical Slaughterfest map from this mysterious "Rayzik" character balanced to include the Rayziik's famous monsters we all know. As someone who hasn't played the original, I must say, it's pretty damn seamless. Rayziik let's you go in any direction you want, and although you get all the weapons immediately, I wouldn't suggest the yellow key route first. There's a number of nice moments here, I really dig the fights directly at the blue and red keys most. For the former, I really like these mosh pit kinda fights, I suggest letting Cyberdemons do your busy work here, then press hard on the BFG when things get deadly, and the Revenants will be fine, don't worry. The red key fight is fun just for BFG-ing Fallen, they are surprisingly fun to, given they so rarely appear in large clusters. But anyway, I kinda go back and forth on the last fight to be honest, I enjoy the madness and mayhem of activating all the switches at the same time, but the amount of Heresies relative to the ammo count is, uh, let's say not ideal. Overall this isn't my number 1 favourite map ever or anything, it is kinda exhausting near the end, but I really like this one. Similar to MAP31, it's a nice change of pace. A real secret map Christmas miracle.

Grade: A

Difficulty: X-

MAP31: The Shaman's Grove

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/1 secrets

If there's anything the two secret maps we've played so far have done it's offer up a very nice change of visuals. Absolutely adore this map's theme, full of hanging cherry blossom-like vines and the ground covered in a liquid of a matching pink colour. The bright pink colours are contrasted nicely with blackened cliffs, definitely a feast for the eyes this one. The midi matches the level's peaceful visuals as well. I thought it sounded familiar and indeed we heard it only a few weeks ago in Haste MAP31! Albeit, this is a different rendition of it from what appeared in that map.

The first while of this map is a hunt for weapons, which you'll want to fully partake in before heading down to the pit at the end. Some nasty monster turrets around here as well as a cyberdemon, who I SSG to death at the end from inside the pit. After you're all done, grab the plasma and hit the switch to unleash the Shaman, an Icon of Sin on legs in the form of a silver-coloured archvile. Along with being a monster spawner, he also turns partially invisible on occasion, fires projectiles, and sort of has a melee attack mixed with an archvile blast. Don't try to use the area with the switch as a foothold, as he'll simply rush you down and blow you sky high. Instead, plasma him for a while and run out of that area once he gets close. He's actually not too tricky as long as you keep your distance. After this, the last stretches of the level are pretty easy. Even the fight when you grab the red key for the super secret exit is pretty tame.

Visuals in this one are probably my favourite of the wad so far, and gameplay was overall pretty fun. I enjoyed the design of the starting area. Wanted to get MAP32 done today as well, but I kind of landed my saves run in a nasty spot, so going to go through it again tomorrow!

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

Map 16: Harlequin Vale

101% kills, 100% items and 100% secrets 

Time: 3:40

Harequin Vale is the introduction to Judgment's fourth episode, which boasts a theme similar to map 31's. Even if I slightly prefer map 31's aesthetics and atmosphere, this map still looks great and is scored very well by Jimmy. Combat-wise, the map starts hot with some hitscanners, revs and pinkies, along wth some more heavies when you grab the minigun, but later slows down when you go to grab the red key. However, The penultimate fight, a teleport ambush with lots of pinkies, zombies, revs and 2 arch-viles and the final group of 4 archies pick up the intensity. Despite that, playing continuously kind of ruins the combat as you have some shotguns and even a BFG that you don't get while playing from a pistol-start, which makes the fights cheesable. Harlequin Vale is still a really solid map and a good introduction to Judgment's fourth episode.

Rankings:

MAP16 - Harlequin Vale:
This map's probably more impressive if you skipped Map31 on your playthrough, since the aesthetic is incredibly similar between the two and that leaves this map feeling without a unique identity. There's not much to the gameplay, the most entertaining fight was the chaingun fight, since the map hadn't given out much ammo at this point and the lack of cover and attack from both sides was fun to deal with. One thing that has been bugging me is that the red key (the skull key specifically) blends in really well with the status bar to the point where I've forgotten I've picked it up a few times, which seems like an odd oversight.

The ambush after hitting the red key switch is pretty simple, if you've kept the arachnotrons alive you can just hide behind the large amount of cover until the two archviles come to the front of the pack, to be easily dispatched and then plasmaing the rest is easy. The finale pits you against four more archviles, but since you've got a massive structure in the middle of the room acting as perfect cover, this fight is more of an ammo tax than entertaining ambush. This map is fine I guess, but pretty dull compared to most of Judgement.

RANKINGS:

Map 17: The Slayer's Tomb

(so after attempting to record a demo for another wad, I found I'd typed "Warp 21 instead. Well, here's the correct one above. Though I may not bother with 21 again, since that map, save for a section or two, was not that great)

So anyway, this map kicks ass! Another AD_79 midi, another epic scale setting, starting outside a cave and quickly entering a crimson temple with Gothic textures, and red-cracked floors added to give some ambience, this one starts out quite intensely, with large mobs of hell knights and imps you won't have to go too far to find the weapons to dispatch. I missed the bloodfall secret first time, but I ended up wandering into it because as it turns out, you'll have a hard time if you don't notice something critical. See, there is a large central outdoor area with Archons firing at you from the far end and Revenants in the surrounding towers with a shrine or gazaebo or whatever that has a total of 4 teleporters. One of them leads to a pillar with an Invulnerbility sphere in the center of the pool near where all the 3 key switches are, though you should save it for later. The other three all leads to the keys their colour corresponds to. I actually entered the Yk teleporter without realizing the existence of the blue and red teleporters. Yellow key has the cool Sigil cracks, although I'm now starting to wonder If I agree with Rayzik's aim of prioritizing Arch-viles. The next two are much better than this. The blue key is set in a sort of lil' temple facing outside where you're confronted by two Pain Elementals I just BFG'd (why not, heh), whereas the yellow key....turns downright apocalyptic. For a little bit, I though this was one of those times thingies, but I discovered a switch in one alcove. This and a switch in the opposite one will raise stairs that allow you to exit this area. I guess you're probably supposed to circle-strafe this, because getting the Archons to infight with everything else.....doesn't work very well. But I was in a rush. The fight behind the bars in the halls leading to the exit were basically a blur, since Invulnerbility mentioned above. At this point, I just needed to end this.

One of the best maps so far though

lmd_judg17.zip

I don't have a clue how the cookie system works for DW posts, I thought I could draft some writeups on here and it would save, but that has proven time and time again to be not true, so I'll need to make my thoughts a bit shorter to catch up. Sorry about that.

Map 12: Chemistry

  Done well to separate it from the rest of the techbase crowd. The platforming was cool, and the BFG thematically fits here. I didn't think the chainsaw was a secret until I made it to the very end of the map, but otherwise I feel like those were done well. Combat was energetic, and it's the first map that actually took me out at the start a couple times. I really like this one to the point of feeling compelled for a demo at a later point.

Map 13: Combustion

  Not big on this map visually, I feel like it would've worked a lot better in orange than yellow, considering that's the color of the really cool flame effects. Software rendering made the secret walls nigh impossible to see, but I got over it. It didn't feel as hard as a lot of the other maps, but I still nearly died to the Archon fight before the exit. Plasma Zombies still feel asleep, and it takes forever for them to actually target and shoot me, especially from high perches. 

Map 14: Metallosis

  It's hard to get me to like maps that mostly play themselves, but this one is great. It was fun trying to keep the Cyberdemon alive for as long as possible, but he cornered me right before the Dark Imp wave so I had to put him down. I'm still detoxing from TNT's overuse of the same metal texture that is present in the past couple maps, but the visuals are still solid. There's a lot of great action here. 

Map 15: Dawn of the Machine

  Short and merciful for a Map 15, which I am appreciative for. Most of the map didn't feel too hard up until the secret fight with the two Cyberdemons. I'm not too sure how to do it efficiently, the barrels continuing to teleport in makes it to where I can't keep them away from me forever, and the Cyberdemons only feel like they can be fought up close to avoid explosions. The damaging floor feels like overkill, but I could definitely see camping potential without it. This is another map that feels incredible similar to the one before it, but it's less in a content sense than in the past cases.

Map 31: The Shaman's Grove

  I've never seen anything with this range of color in Doom in my life. This is a really cool area, akin to Neon Grove in the natural lay of the land. The scramble for guns was really good, but I found myself with only the Plasma Rifle the first time I ran into the Shaman. It's a simple execution for a boss enemy, but it works well, and there's a lot of pressure with how many monsters end up showing up if he stays alive for too long. I liked how the secret exit was less of a mind bender, but more of an optional challenge presented for those who want to Max the map. I didn't have as much of an emotional reaction as Neon Grove, but I feel similarly with how it works.

Map 32: Walk With Me in Hell

  I don't trust myself with trying to diagnose anything slaughter on a single runthrough, because I had basically no ammo and no health the entire time. Every fight is 500 monsters worth of whatever comes out of the teleport closets that amounts to 30 minutes of running in a circle scrounging for cells and rockets. There are SO many Chaingunners that have the easiest time plinking you down in the middle of a massive fight, and I had no idea I would get Cyberdemon cohorts if I went north instead of south first. A ton of success in these kinds of levels rely on prerequisite knowledge of what is going to comprise the fights, prerequisite knowledge I unfortunately can't have on a first playthrough. Walk With Me in Hell was not a fun first time, but I have confidence in it being one in the future.

Power Rankings:

6 minutes ago, General Roasterock said:

I don't have a clue how the cookie system works for DW posts, I thought I could draft some writeups on here and it would save, but that has proven time and time again to be not true, so I'll need to make my thoughts a bit shorter to catch up. Sorry about that.

Idk but when I do drafts for the club (or for any big post), I've tended to send a DM to myself, which is possible, although you will have to reformat the post. (Pros: it just works. Cons: sliding in own DMs.)

MAP16 - “Harlequin Vale”

I am another one who finds it a bit of a headscratcher to see the same thematic as Map31 here. I wonder whether @Rayziik might shed some light on this. I almost wonder whether Map31 was also destined to fit into this episode somehow (Or actually does as an optional map).

Otherwise, this map is absolutely fine, again I really like the visuals, the hue of the pink works really well. The combat is solid too, the red key switch offers a spicy encounter that requires a little skill to coerce the archviles out from the pack, it is nice to see some well designed encounters using only limited numbers of monsters. The ending looks scary but the central structure is designed as such to help you out. 

Of the episode beginners, this one is probably the best so far. 

GZDoom/UV/Blind/Saves

Map 16: Harlequin Vale

100% kills and secrets

Time: 5:11

Back to the main set of maps, we return to the vistas of map 31. Kinda surprising we've got that cherry blossom theme returning in the normal maps, but thankfully, I like that visual design. This is a pretty simple ep starter, especially coming from the secret maps with their weapons. Pistol-starters will have only the minigun, plasma, and berserk to work with here. Most of the enemies are mid-tiers, outside of hitscan in the opening. Grabbing the minigun in the caves to the right send a rev, pain elemental, and 2 hell knights at you. Going through the door directly in front of the start has you punching 4 revs (or in my case, SSGing them). Then, going through the fireblu, you'll plasma 4 nightshades, plus an archon once you grab the red key. The red key fight sends 2 archies in with the normal riff-raff, so focus on them first. Seems tough, but there's enough cover here, plus bullets and cells, to make it through. Head down into the cavern to fight 4 archies. Continuous BFG works wonders, but you may be able to alert each archie individually if you peak around the corner and take 'em out with the plasma. Pretty breezy opener, with some nice scenery and some enjoyable encounters. 

MAP 17 – The Slayer’s Tomb

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

A few minutes into The Slayer’s Tomb I was persuaded that this was not just the next Judgment level, but one aimed at leaving a strong impression. I disliked some parts of it, for example the kick-starter with a lot of Hell Knights an no real weapons for pistol starters (a no-issue on continuous play), though I fully recognised the skill and attention put in both the encounter design and in the visual depiction of an ominous, hellish burial site.

The Demon stampede at the entrance, topped by a swarm of Cacodemons, was staged well and was an exciting introduction to the set piece vocation of the map, though I must complain about the faraway shooters that did not add anything except cheap, nonsensical damage. The natural passageway wrapped around the circular room with the plasma gun, trapped as customary, and finally reached the tomb proper, a grey marble crypt with demonic effigies, pentagrams, and glowing red inserts that reinforced its devilish appearance.

The Slayer’s Tomb contained two consecutive crossroad hubs: the vestibule, connected to the exit area and to a large optional chamber with Revenants and a Cyberdemon, and the huge blood pit to the north, patrolled by Pinkies and some snipers. The second hub was a grandiose infernal landscape, with accurate detailing and architecture on show. The central structure hosted four colour-coded gates, leading to the four cardinal directions and to the matching keys. The brown one sent me directly to the Invulnerability sphere, but it was a rather strange decision. I think the destination should have been swapped with the secret in the exit area, sending me to telefrag the Cyberdemon instead and making the power-up a hidden item.  

Firstly, I chose the BSK to the east. The set piece included a large flock of Fallen along with Pain Elementals, that appeared in front of and behind Doomguy. A rather dangerous situation, which I handled nicely with plasma rifle and SSG. Next stop was the western portion, granting the YSK after a short but bloody battle against a mass of Imps and an Arch-Vile, trying to overwhelm the player in a charming infernal vault, with cracks on the floor and excellent lighting. Before searching for the next key, a shortcut encouraged me to return to the Cyberdemon chamber and open the generic locked door. The path led to a series of threatening ambushes, eating up a lot of ammo and startling me more than the regular ones. Finding only a SSG at the end, along with several Azazels that were scattered around the level, was baffling to say the least. I missed the Megasphere secret behind the sacrificial altar.

The last key set piece was in the northern hall, a demonic chapel attended by Hell Nobles. The BFG was available to thin out the enemy ranks, consisting of 3 dozen Hell Knights and Lords of Heresy, supported by Imps and Revenants inside the column cages and by four Archons of Hell in the apse. Even though I almost survived it at the first try, the encounter was difficult due to the restricted space and the limited dodging options. I failed 4 more times before creating enough room to move and finish off the survivors. The last ambush before the exit was trivial because I conserved the Invulnerability for it. The sarcophagus with the black voodoo doll silhouette and the red symbol was a neat touch, and I was not surprised these were references to Doom Eternal and to the Slayer’s lore. The visuals were eye-catching, and the action ranged from ok to great, though some weird choices prevented this map from being a wholly enjoyable experience, even less for pistol starters. One of the (missed) best maps in Judgment.

MAP16: Harlequin Vale

Kills: 100%

Items: 100%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 4:22

Hm... I see... Harlequin Vale is another episode opener more similar to 01 than 07 or 12. There's not a ton to say here. I think the visual rehash of MAP31 is fine, I love those radiant pinks, but it's hard to really find interesting after 31. There's less interesting fights too. With a little over 50 monsters and a berserk not so far away, it appears to be a Tyson-esque map initially, but doesn't really fold out that way. After grabbing the plasma rifle and the red key, head back to the red key switch to start a duke-out with Arch-Viles, Revenants and Pinkies, thankfully accompanied by over 300 cells. After that simply hop into the pit, fry 4 more Arch-Viles and you're good to go. Overall I still like Harlequin Vale a fair bit as an episode starter, but it's one of those maps where the existence of another drags it down. 

Grade: B+
Difficulty: D-

MAP32: Walk With Me In Hell (2021)

UV, pistol start, saves

100% kills, 0/1 secrets

A grand black fortress, covered in vines and with some nice architecture. This one is a reimagining of the 21st map of Slaughterfest 2012, also made by Rayziik. I've been intermittently playing through that wad for quite a while, but hadn't reached this map yet, so I had no idea what to expect. Well that 2021 in the name isn't just a year, as it's also the number of monsters in this map, a big increase over the 1347 in the original. Adding that many monsters into a later map from a Slaughterfest wad instills some fear right off the bat, and it's warranted. This map utterly demolished me, I think I spent about 3-4 hours on it total.

I start with the red key fight, which isn't so bad. Cleaning up the mancubi and cacodemons before going for the key can be a bit time-consuming though. Grabbing the key will unleash the hordes, a ton of fallen, a couple of cyberdemons, and others. You get an invuln here though, and it can be used to mow down the fallen, and the rest comes relatively easy. One thing to keep in mind throughout this map though, you do not have access to as much ammo for the big guns (cells, rockets) as you might think. So where you feel safe, try to at least be a bit sparing. I had to kill a copious amount of hell nobles with the SSG at the end because I was not so careful.

The next slaughters are pretty simple I found, so I'll move on to the blue key area. After cleaning up the sniping monsters and the archviles from this area, you have probably my favourite fight of the map. Imps, hell knights, archons, and two cyberdemons teleport into the small pit. On the ledges above, a ton of revenants. The plan is pretty simple, clear out all the revenants and use that ledge as a safe-ish spot, the cyberdemons tend to fall relatively quickly against all the other enemies which you can clean up afterward. The execution is simple, for some reason I find this one really fun to pull off though.

Finally, I'll move onto the yellow key fights, which are where most of the challenge lies. The initial ones where you are hitting the switches aren't so bad, apart from the wave with a ton of zombies and some archviles. You have to play a lot more cautiously there, whereas all the other waves you just have to make sure you don't get hemmed. However, after you grab the yellow key, all hell breaks loose. Now, I warned about ammo earlier, so I should now mention this map's health balance, which is also not the kind of surplus you might often get in these maps. It's quite tight, and you actually have to try and avoid taking too much damage in the map up to this point, otherwise this final stretch is extremely painful. In my run, I used up all the major heals (except for one soulsphere, which I assume was a secret), and had to full-blown savescum my way through this. You can cheese some of it, if you go back to the blue key fight area and simply wait for a long time the flying enemies (mostly pain elementals) will group together by there and you can blast them. However, that's only a small part of the battle, and there are still hundreds more monsters to take care of. Like I mentioned earlier, I had to SSG a lot of hell nobles at the end too due to running out of the other ammos, something like 50 of them. I don't know why I put myself through that, maybe just didn't want to have spent so long on a level and not have gotten all the kills, heh. 

Admittedly, I think this map is a bit above my paygrade. Likely the most difficult map I've played with the club apart from maybe MSCP MAP14. Still, I love me a good overblown slaughter, and this one does the job.

17 hours ago, cannonball said:

MAP16 - “Harlequin Vale”

 

I wonder whether @Rayziik might shed some light on this. I almost wonder whether Map31 was also destined to fit into this episode somehow (Or actually does as an optional map).

I've been summoned.

So, actually, Harlequin Vale was made long before The Shaman's Grove; 2017 compared to right before the initial release in 2021. The main reason I used the same theme is honestly just because I liked the colors and the contrast with the marble hues it has. The Shaman itself was a last minute thing too, a realization of a concept I imagined years ago but couldn't execute due to dehacked limitations that MBF21 removes. Even down to the color palette of the monster itself as silver and pink.

The story text when entering 34 makes mention of the pink liquid explicitly, perhaps shedding a bit of light on it's significance. (Which also means 34 bears a resemblance as well to the same theme)

So, after my mistake on monday, playing map 16 before it was supposed to be played, sorry), I'm back for map 17 on the 18th.

MAP 17 – The Slayer's Tomb :

We are greeted by a lot of HKs, the path forward is blocked but on the sides of the structure we arrived at there are two buttons to open the way for a berserker, a RL and many many rockets. A wave of pinkies and cacos says hi, so rocket them to death while picking up the blue armor and then into the tomb we go to kill the pesky revs. A couple of zombies show up, two more revs, a weird altar like room with an unreachable plasma, a healthy cave inside the bloodfall, a switch lowers the plasma and releases a pair of skells,  and onward. Big temple-like structure. A cyber to the left, smaller room to the right and a open space to the front. I'm going there first, it seems less evil. Ok, two mancs, two neon-barons and pinkies. No sweat. After a bit of exploration there are 4 teleports. One yellow, one red, one blue and one white. Or I can go back. I'll go with the white 'port. Wrong choice. It get's me straight ahead of the cybercow, I get face rocketed into a invun, waste way too much time to get out of the pit and then die to another rocket.

 Next try.. Yellow. Better, a caged rev a few imps, and steps into a red marble room, where I get distracted after pressing the switch and the AV kills me. Second try goes much better. Rockets for the fire dude, minigun for the imps, room cleared. For now. Second switch is way more forgiving, just a baron and some imps, steps up another caged rev and a manc lead to the YSK. Yellow door, small corridor and... Oh, the cyber room. Circle strafe for the win! Cow dead, revs dead, HK dead. Grab the megasphere and open another secret with another megasphere. It will be useful soon. I take the other door, steps up, a central room with revs, switch releases cacos, both adult and baby, up, switch, a bridge of pillars, another switch. It lowers the SSG, grabbing it releases a skinnymanc, all in all, not a very interesting room. Back to the 'ports. Red now. Grab the BFG, waste it all and eventually die to a combination of rocket to the wall and HK plasma balls.

 Next try, from the SSG room. Ok, second time goes much better. I was able to find a path and kill the HKs in batches. Refuel on rockets, switches, stairs, blue sphere and back down. Blue now. It brings me to the pinkies I was seeing from down bellow, after that, some caged zombies, steps up, a switch and the BSK teasing me. Save, switch, three revs, grab key, two cacos and a slew of winged skeletons.  Kill 'em all and back to the white 'port we go.

Invun, all three switchs, some revs, some HKs a PE and.. That's all. I'm one secret and three enemies down (also, there's a megasphere waiting for me) so, back I go. Ok, last remaining secret was a cyber leg on a teleport I could have used to telefrag the beast, and the last three enemies were waiting for me to grab the megasphere. That done, 

100% K/I/S, 3 deaths, 23:40 minutes

More tomorrow! 

Map 18: Forgotten Abbey

"The Raven's Nest" sound like yet one more AD_79 track, but it's actually by Jimmy. That intro is ubiqtitous though, like something from Rage against the machine and Pantera songs equally.

Anyways, kind of like the previous map, a darkened gothic look but this time entirely indoors. Another central area, this one with an Arch-vile somewhat tricky to avoid because of the pillars hiding you from their view are quite narrow. This map also massively steps up the use of Wraiths, that you should probably shotgun to handle (you get a berserk pack somewhat early if you explore correctly, but I didn't feel like risking it then). Progression is quite interesting in that you can go pretty much everywhere after picking up the red key, to a point, so you can end up with the blue key much sooner than I did. Although it's probably the hardest fight, so you might want to save it for last. Arahnotrons fire at you from towers in the one outdoor area when suddenly, you are attacked from behind by Imps and SO many Fallen. They are denser here than at any point so far. The highlight. The final battle's all right, though I was blown to pieces by a Cyberdemon for the second time in two days. After rewinding to excuse my sloppy BFG usage, I was able to spare some rockets for the Imps teleporting into the side rooms, than basically charged through, killing some Imps and running to the exit, although you've got to get behind the exit teleporter quickly for obvious reasons.

I didn't like this as much as the previous map, but I always appreciate a map that doesn't spawn enemies every frickin' time you pick up a key.

lmd_judg18.zip

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

Map 17: The Slayer's Tomb

100% kills, 96% items and 100% secrets 

Time: 18:36

As I heard the the beat of AD_79's midi and saw the view of the hellish forteress built in the cliffs and the group of hell knights at the beginning, I knew I was gonna like this one. Like I said, this map starts with a group of hell knights that you need to avoid while pressing switches to unlock a rocket launcher and a ton of rockets, which is of course very useful to blow them into pieces. This encounter is followed by a big wave of pinkies and cacos attacking you when you try to enter forbidden territory, which is again an awesome fight. Sadly, while the rest of the map is still very good, it never tops the first 2 fights. After that, you need to get the 3 keys which are all well defended. The blue key is guarded by pain elementals and fallens, and even if I think that this encouter goes on for a bit too long, it is really fun and probably the first time that the fallens were actually dangerous in the entire wad. On the other side, The red key is guarded by all 3 types of hell nobles, imps and revenants, which you can decimate with a BFG and rocket launcher and the yellow key is guarded by an archie, a lot of imps, along with some wraiths and heavies. Grabbing the yellow key also opens some new parts of the forteress, including a fght with a cyber and some revs, and some encounters that I believe are optional. The final fight is a joke with the invuln, but the area it takes place in has a secret switch which you can use to telefrag the previously-mentioned cyber, which is cool, even if I found it after killing everything. Overall, this map is really fun, pretty and perfectly scored, it's an other awesome entry for Judgment.

Footnote: I like the references to the new Doom games, especially the map title and the presence of the slayer's symbol next to a tomb that has a dead marine on it.

Rankings:

MAP17 - “The Slayer’s Tomb”

The start is really on the nose, it took a few attempts to get through the initial wave of hellknights. The wraiths here can ruin your day easy. The following fight is also really cool with a mixture of demons and cacodemons which present different levels of threat. The areas after this aren't quite as good, but there are plenty of solid fights within this map. The red key uses old and new monsters nicely, the silent imp teleport room is quite spooky. 

I don't know whether it was just me, but I found ammo conservation a real struggle here and as such left without all of the kills. I will say that the final fight after hitting the three key switches is a little bit of a let down. That being said this is probably the best non-secret map so far.

Map 16: Harlequin Vale

  Yeah, I love this palette, and I hope that more maps take after it. Episode openers are an art, and this map being both brief and challenging makes it a grand success. The use of space particularly is impressive, especially for a palette that demands a lot of space to make use of the visual strengths. Nothing feels wasted, and in turn you should be wasting nothing. So, I did a lot to make sure all the Plasma I used was worthwhile, and in turn I had enough to just get through the whole level. Even if I didn’t, the chaingun in the lower cave is a nice touch for more frivolous players. 

  All the movement feels good, I really liked the transition through the fireblu to get to another dimensions of the marble keep, and that trick room over room worked well with the cave system that was already set up. The Arch-Viles in the Red Switch fight were pretty threatening, more threatening than the horde down below even because I got really lucky with how they grouped together. It’s short, but extremely effective.

Map 17: The Slayer’s Tomb

  With a name as cheesy as that, I could only expect that this map would either be a bombastic piece of legend, or overly self indulgent. There were a couple points where I found modern Doom markings on the ground, and I even got to see Le Ebic Doomslayer at the end of the map. Every Nu-Doom reference could only elicit one audible groan a piece, but the rest of the map visually was well orchestrated, even if I felt it was more akin to something in Episode 1.

  I do love how many layers there are to scenarios taken at different approaches. I could’ve stayed and boringly shot the Hell Knights with the Rocket Launcher at the beginning, but continuing forward to face the Pinky rush simply teleported them into the horde as well. It’s a really efficient idea, but that’s about all I liked out of the monsters in this one. This is by far the most I’ve struggled with Azazel, outside of maybe Map 32, because these are either somehow so much more accurate, or placed down the middle of constricting corridors where I imagine is his best suited spot. The uptick in difficulty in general lands hard and without warning, and I found myself having to rewind a great distance each death to properly feel set up in terms of supplies. That secret Arch-Vile fight was a heap of fun, but everything else bordered on attrition.

Power Rankings:

Rayziik's Circular Column of the Day:

MAP17 - The Slayer's Tomb:
A theme shift back to hell castles, though instead of a classic-style marble fortress, the theme is more gothic. I think this map looks great, and the references to the new doom games are done well (even if I did groan a little when seeing them at first) - the coffin next to the exit portal lets you shoot the voodoo doll become a zombie for Map18, which is always entertaining. This was by far the hardest non-secret map so far for me, the Azazels are absolutely brutal up close and when placed as turrets in wide open areas, which they are here.

The start is good, after dodging some hell knights, the bars lower to the rocket launcher and a load of rockets. There's then a massive pinky demon wave along with a few cacodemons and some revenants sniping you from behind the horde. This fight was entertaining, rocketing loads of pinkies isn't the most difficult thing ever but I can't say it's not satisfying. After a short cave section, we arrive at the main section of the map which has a crossroads in it - there's a room with a cyberdemon and revenants, a small room with an invulnerability and switches and a large courtyard with four teleporters in.

Three of the four teleporters lead to arenas which let you grab the three keys. I decided to get the red key first since it gives you a BFG and the wave of barons, hell knights and Archons shooting from above is pretty hard to deal with. It took me a couple of tries but eventually I got it. The blue key fight releases a massive group of Fallen and two pain elementals that teleport all around the place - as I said for Map32, dealing with Fallen in large numbers is fun, especially when you have a BFG. The yellow key uses pretend red lighting, that I've seen before in Absolutely Killed, this fight spawns in a bunch of imps using silent teleports which was a bit odd. The finale is a bit lame considering you get an invulnerability before it, but I don't think this spoils the map. Pretty fun map overall.

RANKINGS:

GZDoom/UV/Blind/Saves

Map 17: The Slayer's Tomb

100% kills and secrets

Time: 26:22

Deaths: 4

I'm sad we're out of the pretty scenery of the last map, and back to hellish fortresses. This is one of the harder starts to a map, as you have to deal with a lot of hell knights, plus some shotgunners and wraiths, with only the shotgun if you're pistol-starting. Hitting the switches the hitscan are guarding get you the rocket launcher and a berserk, but you'll want those for the fight you're about to do one you drop down. A tsunami of pinkies and cacos will descend on you, and can overwhelm (death 1). Thankfully, it's not as bad as it seems, and getting past it allows you to take a breather. You've got a courtyard in front of you, and 2 side passages. The one to the right takes you to the exit, the one to the left a cyb. You can telefrag the cyb if you find the secret in the passage to the right (I didn't). Going into the courtyard, you'll see a series of 4 teleporters. The ones with key colors take you to areas with said key. The 4th takes you to an invul in the exit passage. The yellow key fight has a pillared archie with a dark imp swarm. It's tough to take cover while imps maim you. Leaving this area takes you back to the cyb, and idk if I could access it before, but the door across is now accessible. You can get some rockets and the SSG, but pain elementals will teleport away, and 4 azazels teleport to different spots in the area. Make sure to look behind the soul sphere altar to find a switch any key will activate. It opens a room with a megasphere. Grab it, and 3 archies show up. If you can kill them before the bars lower, they won't teleport back into the cyb room. The red key fight sends hell nobles after you, archons on the ledge above the key, and pillared imps/revs that silently teleport in to replace deaths. All my other deaths were here since I kept getting cornered. At least you get the BFG here, so that's good. The blue key sends the biggest fallen infestation in the WAD so far. You may want to run back to the courtyard to get some running room. Heading back to the exit, 2 of the switches lower some ammo and teleport enemies in, and the last one just contributes to opening the bars. The pain elementals from the SSG room also show back up. I ran back to the invul for this cause of the revs. Pretty fun level with some solid set-piece fights. Kinda wish for some more incidental combat. 

MAP17: The Slayer's Tomb

Kills: 82%

Items: 85%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 12:51

The Slayer's Tomb is a lot of things. One of those is definitely "disorganised". Unlike the previous combat-heavy shows like Chemistry or Metallosis, this one is considerably more unpredictable. Several fights I like here. I think the opening with the Hell Knights and later Pinkies is good fun, the fight with Imps and an Arch-Vile with cool lighting is a turn-on, and my favourite fight is probably the climactic yellow key fight. I'd suggest saving your free invuln for this part, as those Archons are NOT kind, even with a BFG. There are some rooms I don't really care for admittedly, like the Fallen blue key battle doesn't do a lot for me, but there's a lot of variety here. In any other map, I'd probably criticise colourful portals teleporting to key fights, but here the map is already mad enough, I can't imagine another effective way. Overall The Slayer's Tomb stands out from the crowd in the way of being more beefy, but also having a lot more flow and heat to the combat. Bon Appétit. 

Grade: A-

Difficulty: B

MAP 18 – Forgotten Abbey

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

The huge and positively ominous starting hall was used only for a small Hell Knight ambush, a warm-up for which I was happy to have my carry-over SSG, instead of being restricted to the slower single barrel to save rockets for later. Forgotten Abbey was the only 2013 level to receive a slot in the second half of Judgment, and the linear progression that made heavy use of multiple locked doors, betrayed a more rudimentary design if compared to the rest of Beholding Ancient Fears.

This should not detract to the map’s quality, as I still think it offered finely tuned combat, allowing to catch your breath between two exacting maps, and it looked dark and foreboding in its indoor spaces. The round hall with the Arch-Vile was the crossroads hub, even though this time no deviation from the intended course of action was permitted. The chapel to the north granted the SSG and then forced the player to find the RSK first, regardless of the glimpses on yellow and blue keys. The BSK room contained one of the least visible Mancubi that I have ever killed, as well as a switch necessary to acquire the BFG later.

I liked the tense Wraith & Arch-Vile combo, then the phasing Hell Knights in the upper gallery made me jump on my seat. The bewildering effect risked going into a loop unless the monsters were shot at the right time. Finding the RSK invited me to open the closest red door and enter a rather short section leading to the YSK, firstly through a room with hitscanners that died under rifle shots, then to the outside on a U-ledge overlooking a lava courtyard.

I returned to the hub and checked the western room, registering it contained the exit and that I was still missing the BSK. It was retrieved in the eastern section, which contained an optional Soul Sphere ambush and a rather elaborate outdoor scenery, with Arachnotrons shooting from various angles while some Imps, Fallen, and Hell Knights appeared to confront me directly. Eliminating the spiders was tricky, because the shootable impaled humans diverted my attacks. Talk about human shields… I liked how they have been used in that section.

The tour of Forgotten Abbey ended with a classic showdown with a heterogeneous group of hellspawn, teleporting around while the Cyberdemon leader remained stationary on his marble cube. He did not deserve the time and the ammo spent on him, but since I located only half of the secrets, I wanted to max out the kills. This was a serviceable map, holding a few surprises possibly added with recent reworking, and it carried on the episode in a charming way.

MAP16: Harlequin Vale

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 0/0 secrets

Looks like our gorgeous MAP31 theme wasn't just a one-off. The cherry-blossoms and pink liquid are back again, and are monster count goes from quadruple digits last map to double digits here. Only 56 monsters to kill this time. The midi for this one is a nice one, a Jimmy Paddock track that I haven't heard before. Sounds great.

We see a bit of a return to limited ammo here. The monster count may be small, but you'll still be pushing up against empty ammo for much of it. Meticulous ammo usage and some infighting will make things much easier for you as the level goes on. Still, it's not so bad. The main fight involves 2 archviles coming in with lots of other hordes, but you have a lot of cover from the archviles' line of sight here, so pretty much just run away from the masses and wait for openings on the archies. The final fight can be pretty rude if you aren't ready, 4 archviles close things off and you may not have many cells to deal with them. There are energy cells around the area, so make note of the ones that aren't in their line of sight and grab them right away so you aren't scrambling mid-combat. Still, it's fine to berserk punch the last remaining archie, just for the hell of it.

Relatively relaxed episode opener, it's good.

ok, time for

MAP 18 - Forgotten Abbey :

Big church like room with lava down bellow and magma windows. On a star, a few supplies that trigger a small number of imps. Up ahead, a rev snipes and a few zobies patrol, two doors to the sides and a passage up ahead that I follow, falling into a room. A candle hides a mini-gun and ammo for it, a SSG on a pillar and a switch that I switch. It brings the SSG down and opens a door, that I enter. A blue armor, a switch, some barred paths and the BSK on the other side. The switch lowers the bars and then the room I enter lowers to reveal an AV that I dispatch easily, press another switch and stairs. One side goes back, the other leads to a lift where a single HK guards the RSK. Grab it, jump down and press the red switch, now I'm back at the sniper rev room with the red key to open one of the two doors. I pick one and find myself in a dark corridor that leads outside. Spider and imps pop up to attack me, and I end up face-rocketing against a wall...

 Back to the RSK pick up, this time I use the red door in the SSG room, a pair of revs guard the way to a dark room with lighted pillars. Oh, it isn't dark, it's deep! Chaingunners show up, one for pillar and also a path. I follow it to another outside area, a switch opens up a room with a huge star, a baron in the middle of it, and a switch. Kill all, switch, a lift, probably to the YSK? Yup. This time it's a pair of specters. Down, red switch and now I try the other door. Teleporting melees, a megasphere I don't pick up yet, a blue door I have no key for, the exit and a yellow door. It has a single manc and a switch. I press it but I'm guessing I'll need the BSK as well to open the exit, so other red door, again. This time I take the side corridor for a blue sphere and a fight with two revs, then outside. Slowly I take care of one spider at a time, trigger the imps, kill them and then enter a dark lift that housed a manc that can only be seen by his shots. Kill him and grab the BSK, go back outside to grab rockets, then back inside. I figure how to lower the green armor secret, grab it and then go to the exit. Another manc behind the blue door, switch and the final horde. Which includes a cow, of course. Now, I'm 2 secrets down.. Ah, found a switch close to where the blue key was, that seems to have opened up something up there and so.. Ah, the BFG! And now.. Oh, another jump into the damaging floor for a medikit and turning on 2 crushers? Useless. 

But that makes everything so, 

100% K/I/S, 1 death, 22:42 minutes.

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

Map 18: Forgotten Abbey

100% kills, 92% items and 25% secrets 

Time: 11:22

First of all, this map looks great, I love the lighting, texture usage, and the theme works especially well with Jimmy's midi. However, the combat did not convince me for the most part. Outside of a few encounters near the end, it feels like most of the monsters come all by themselves, which makes the map easier and more redundant than it could be. I also don't understand the point in using silent teleporters to make the 2 hell knights come closer to you when going for the yellow key, it's not a surprise and makes this encounter more annoying as they can also teleport to the opposite side of the room. However, the blue key route is pretty fun, especially when lots of imps, hell knights and fallens teleport while you need to dodge arachnotron projectiles from far away. The map also ends on a strong note with a cyberdemon infight party, even if it can be a bit annoying to kill the cyber (maybe you can telefrag him, but if you can, I didn't find it). I am not as wild about this map as I am about most of this wad, but it's still fine.

Rankings:

Map 19: Mourning Palace

Very nice Tristan midi. Also, like this beginning quite a bit. Outside, domed entrance, and on the far right, a helper dog that will probably be cut off from you early on, due to the minimal AI. There was one point they got stuck in a sort of mezzanine at the beginning for a bit. The rooms off the hall to the right of the entrance are kind of nice, with some cool details. I didn't really like the turret Revenants, as they seem to assume you'll end up passing them with better ammo, but everything else was decent-ish. There's lots of incidental combat, with the Brutes being used quite effectively. There's one hallway with plasma troopers (not far from the hidden BFG where I actually punched a couple of wraiths, though they're quick enough it's probably not advisable to punch too many of them if there are more than 2 of them at a time. Unlike other maps, stuff's fairly linear. A sort of deadly gauntlet at another large circular area where there is an Imp mob along with a few Revenants, bolstered by Fallen in towers. Honestly, this isn't one of their better uses, though they keep you from focusing entirely on enemies above. Just above you, you fight a large mob of Hell Knights, hopefully with a hidden BFG that probably had too many steps involved to access it (you press/shoot 4 separate switches). The hidden Invulnerbility was much easier to find though. And good thing too. Taking out the Arch-vile that appears in the YK trap in entirely open ground without a rocket launcher would be rolling the dice otherwise.

Now, after getting two keys, you open some bars at the second doors, pick up a BFG and immediately run back than run forward once the two Archons here are out. Then find a way into the center room, a pentagram-shaped platform over hot coals. While you don't really lose too much health per second, surviving the massive Imp mob, then the Hell Knights, then the modified Mastermind is not guarantee, especially as I was slow to notice there were switches on the side that lower the bars to the exit. I think that the Mastemind should have been targeted first, but at any rate, I ended up running to hit the last switch I missed at 5 percent health and dying. At this point, I was not happy to try to navigate through the rock again, so I exited.

It's very hard to judge maps with incidental fights and then huge things like most of the key fights. I guess the end wasn't quite Arceon Map 04 levels of BS (there were two Cyberdemons there with seriously limited health) but god....but there were many cool touches and the flaws were fairly minor. Thumbs ip

lmd_judg19.zip

MAP18 - Forgotten Abbey:
It's fine. The aesthetics here seem very underdone for this wad's standards - 90% of the map is covered in black bricks and marble, which look fine if quite dull. The rooms with the final ambushes within strobe rather obnoxiously and look pretty ugly, so I'm not really sure what the intention was here. The weaponry and difficulty are a step back from Map17, to the point where it feels like this map should have been Map17. The hell knight ambush in front of the yellow key is memorable, but very silly (I kind of like it, but it reminds me of Hell Revealed Map20 :P). I don't have much to say about the rest of the fights, because they were perfectly well designed but have a similar issue to a lot of the early maps in that they're a bit of a slog due to the high average-HP of the enemies here and lack of powerful ammo. The best part is probably the path to the blue key, the outside area with the arachnotron crossfire was well done, and the imp ambush kept me on my toes here. Seems a bit weird, considering that the previous few maps' combat doesn't suffer from this but I guess this is due to it being one of the oldest maps in the set, made at a similar time to Episode 1.

RANKINGS:

MAP18 - “Forgotten Abbey”

On the whole this one was fine I guess. The lighting is probably the biggest draw here given the rather heavy usage of dark grey. The combat was generally solid, if a little undercooked compared to the last couple of maps. The final fight is fundamentally flawed though given you can bail into either of the rooms locked with the yellow or blue keys, thus rendering the fight a virtual non event. 

Overall, this was a generally inoffensive map that goes out on a bit of a whimper. I did however enjoy most of the fights to get each of the keys though.

GZDoom/UV/Blind/Saves

Map 18: Forgotten Abbey

100% kills and secrets

Time: 17:41

This map is pretty dark in points. There's a lot of areas where you're in small hallways, and the slight lighting and dark textures make it hard to see. I'm actually surprised I saw the hidden switch to lower the green armor in the beginning. Lots more incidental combat here, which even if it's dark, I did enjoy. There were a couple of close calls in my playthrough. I'm surprised I didn't die from the surprise archie in the room that lowers, considering I only had around 50% health. I guess the megaarmor I just picked up saved me. The outside area just before the blue key was a surprise fight. I did not expect the dark imp, hell knight, and fallen ambush there. There's one secret that I found that I'm not entirely sure what it did. It's the one in the damaging floor outside. I spotted it from the red key hall, so I made sure to hit it when I got to that area. I think the switch started some crushing pillars in the room that opens up above it, killing a couple enemies for you. The final fight looks intimidating, especially since I had the rocket launcher out and the first thing I see are a cyb and wraiths, but you can just duck into one of the key doors and bottleneck enemies there with the RL. I SSGd the cyb to save cells. You do get the BFG in a secret by the blue key, but the cyb's elevated position makes it hard to 2-shot, and there's not a lot of cells. Overall, a pretty fun map. Nice to see a less set-piece focused map, though I wish it was a little brighter.