The DWmegawad Club plays: The Rebirth

I'm back, work has been a pain and I was not in the mood for write-ups, but finally got a weekend break.

Map20: The Gateway
K: 100 | I: 100 |S: 100
Gzdoom | Mods: Rebirth midi pack, Trailblazer 1.5, Corruption cards 5.0
Cards: Mancs take delayed damage, mancs can teleport to players, aracnotrons reflect projectiles

There wasn't many aracnotrons in the map but the one i did see took me out with a stray reflected missile. Otherwise the cards were up to their usual shenanigans. The dunk card caused many of the snipers to hop on down and pursue me on foot. The most notable instance of card dynamics was after grabbing the red key, where a horde of turbo pinkies that could jump swarmed me. It was still manageable but one of the trickier encounters ive seen yet with this set.

The gateway is a nice city-themed sendoff from E2. E1 was mild in terms of map variety, but it felt a lot more cohesive of a trip than E2 did. After the undercity (map14) E2 fell into earthy abstraction that only really came back now. As for this map its very map14 from doom, but not as cryptic or terrible. Lots of fun buildings to explore that keep their complexity minimalized, and lots of windows for goons to snipe at me. The yellow key highrise was a nice touch, leading some fun verticality via jumping between buildings. If anything this map maybe suffers a little from excess, as some mandatory progression points felt unnecessary or buildings were getting same-y. The blue key fortress was a nice looking end-goal, but the cyberdemon fight at the end was rather toothless and disappointing.

One of the better maps of E2. The sights were mostly fun and combat felt adventurous. Also the 7 secrets on display felt a lot more rewarding to try and find. Finale was kinda meh but at least its a memorable sort of map.

Map21: River of Flames
K: 89 | I: 45 |S: 40
Gzdoom | Mods: Rebirth midi pack, Trailblazer 1.5, Corruption cards 5.0
Cards: Demons may transform into hell knights on death, nobles are partially invisible, Cacos can teleport to the player

This map was over right when i felt it got going. I like myself some ashy hell canyons and River of flames gets off on the right foot. Good action and hot floors but the several radsuits are more than enough to cover the short time spent here. The halls were packed with imps but the only nasty fight was for the yellow key, requiring several cacos to be deflated while dancing around a death pit. This map easily could have stood to be lengthened a bit, maybe some more setpiece areas. I did miss 3 secrets but the time to exit was quick, oh well.

Map22: River of Flames
K: 100 | I: 100 |S: 100
Gzdoom | Mods: Rebirth midi pack, Trailblazer 1.5, Corruption cards 5.0
Cards: Pains fly back further when damaged (ew), nobles get explosive projectiles, several monsters get random enhancements

The random enhancements definitely brought the difficulty up, as all sorts of wacky shit started happening, and much more lethal demons. The leaping monsters finally was showing its true power in this much more open map, as the leaps are quite accurate and many demons could traverse the cliffsides with ease to chase me. Fast monsters, teleporting monsters, monsters spawning monsters, monsters using clone-jitsu, monsters that explode, monsters that implode, transparent monsters, all sorts of monsters were now coming out to play. Chaotic, a lot more interesting.

I like this map. Continued the ashen canyon theme and brought it to a sunken castle. This map felt huge and expansive after playing through soo many constrictive corridors and crypts, love it. the environmental progression is good and the fights, while likely easier, were much more enjoyable with the room to move. The secrets were few and more hidden. The mario secret kinda felt like it came from left-field but was a fun little reverence. Very duke-esque, which would feel rather out of palce if it weren't a bit more in-line with the tone of the secret maps.

Good map, definitely more memorable despite its slightly muted or simplistic design, but easier to remember from way back.

Map23: Dark Arena
K: 100 | I: 100 |S: 100
Gzdoom | Mods: Rebirth midi pack, Trailblazer 1.5, Corruption cards 5.0
Cards: Cybers shoot seeking missiles, staring at nobles for too long burn the player, cybers dodge projectiles

Despite the simple map design, this proved to be one of the more interesting cards-based maps. The slow trickle of the arena was combined with the dead souls of demons past flowing through the upper cages like spiteful mist. Probably made the titular arena a lot more entertaining. The seeking cyber was a lot deadlier in the circular arena, but with my boosted health tanking a rocket or two wasn't guaranteed death.

A short map that feels very similar to map18, or whichever was the pit map. A basic arena surrounded by moldy prison cages, it treads close to that well-known "forgetful filler" line but is maybe saved by its brevity and inclusion into E3. Had this been anywhere from 15-18 it would easily have disappeared into the sea of earthy brick that was those maps. Incidentally if you swapped this map with Xenophob i think both maps would feel more at-home with their new episode placements. Not much to say for this map, its an arena. The cards made it fun but alone would be very whatever.

Rankings:

Cards:

MAP24: Hall of Despair. Played on DSDA v0.26.2, UV, PS. 97/107 K, 4/5 S, 18/20 I. Comp. time 14:34

Ouch. It starts pistol start friendly, but by the first hell noble horde ambush you realize this isn't going to fly. At the end, I had two rockets. I guess I could have gotten one more kill from the main hub area, where barons roamed free, maybe there were revenants even. Certainly those two rockets didn't help me when I entered the exit room with very close to two arachnotrons I had no choice but to evade and hope they leave me a path to the exit linedef. Not even secrets helped me. I had one left untagged, but I'm supposing that's only the soul sphere, so that wouldn't have made any difference. So, I exited with a sour taste in mouth.

That's a shame, because the map itself, I mean the layout and all that, is not that bad. Perhaps a bit 90s, but okay.

Curiously enough, in the DSDA-archives there IS a demo of this map UV-MAXed. Apparently it is possible; one must leave behind as much enemies as possible for them infight later. I guess I could at least improve my kill count, but I don't care that much. Watching the demo reveals there is a berserk pack... behind the exit portal, when it's of absolute no use anymore. Knowing that doesn't exactly alleviate pain.

(EDIT later: reloaded my save, went back for the final secret and managed to kill the arachnotrons at the end, after all. 99/107 K, 5/5 S, 20/20 I, Comp. time 16:29).

Post scriptum on the 24th: Still haven't felt like re-attempting this one, and thus it's going to remain un-maxed. But if there is one good thing about this map, it's that I've been anticipating this day just to see other clubbers' remarks on this map :-D

random thoughts: 15, 31, 32

map 15: I found the red key with little trouble but not where to use it.  As I wanted to visit the secret maps, I caved and looked up the solution.  Some spicier monster placement with archviles and the mancubus welcoming party at the bottom of a lift (that I had approached from the other direction and thinned out beforehand)   Nothing that my Ancient Aliens weapon set with enhancements couldn't handle keeping the difficulty relaxed.

map 31: This is a chill (pun not intended), cozy winter map.  One I was able to remember a day after finishing it.  At first I was afraid I missed the secret exit but I learned there's no normal one to be found here.

map 32; Pistol start seems it would make a more interesting experience as picking a route to have enough ammo to handle things becomes more important.  On continuous, it's a simple matter of tackling the most annoying enemies first first (archviles and pian elementals) then I was able to choose a path at my convenience.  Custom graphics indicating which monsters are behind which doors are put to good use here.  I was missing two kills at the end, searched for a while, then gave up and moved on.  Thought maybe they were tied to the one secret I missed but I'm not as obsessed these days over 100% kills.  Only later did I learn it was because of a bug.

   It's a basic setup but there's something else the map has going for it which isn't apparent on a surface play.  Because nearly every monster is present except for Keens and the boss brain, it's a useful map for quickly checking out the sounds in a newly loaded sound replacement WAD.  Probably not worth downloading Rebirth just for this aspect but if one already has it lying around, it's a quick testing ground.

MAP24 - Hall of Despair (100%K/70%I/40%S):

Basic premise, you go up. This one is particularly annoying because of backtracking, and having to go all the way up constantly if you fall of to the center of the map. Not to mention this is one of the worst in terms of ammo balance. It is another map filled with bruisers that will absorb all your ammo. Nothing interesting happens. The end just disgusted me, no ammo, having to pass through two arachnotrons blocking my way to the exit without space to maneuver, and only five rockets. I'm not going to blow my face up, that's for sure. For some reason there is a berserk pack behind the exit. Are you expecting me to use it to kill the arachnotrons with their wonky hitboxes? Yeah, good luck with that I guess, thanks but no. Vader should have thought to place said berserk pack at the beginning in a non-secret area. But those mapping choices makes this one one of the worst, if not the worst map.
 

Order of preference:
 

32 minutes ago, DJVCardMaster said:

Vader should have thought to place said berserk pack at the beginning in a non-secret area. But those mapping choices makes this one one of the worst, if not the worst map.

I agree -- that would have made a world of difference right there. Adept player could rely on berserk to conserve the much needed ammo, and if I took the time to rank the maps, this would land somewhere in the top thirds tier. Alas, no such luck, and as such this remains one map I would hate to replay.

And yet we know for a fact this can be maxed on pistol start. Somewhere there is a fine line between having to just git gud, and the map being a dickish resource famine ordeal. I'm certain I've played and loved maps where you can't afford to be wasteful, but many of the Rebirth maps I'm not being so lenient on. I wonder just where that fine line lies... Perhaps it's just that hardcore maps make it clear you're not gonna have enough armaments and have to rely extensively on infighting or some other trick. Or that many hardcore maps just hand you the berserk pack knowing it's not gonna dip the scales that much, but makes it possible to compensate less efficient ammo usage if you can handle little dancing with some low-tiers and some of the mid-tiers -- at least hell nobles and revenants. In Rebirth, berserk packs often come little too late, or in the case of Hall of Despair, feels like a giant fuck you for pistol starters -- although to be fair, I'm 100% sure this is totally unintentional on Vader's part. I haven't been around in the scene that long, but somehow I suspect Rebirth greatly predates pistol start trend. (I guess?)

Map 24 : Hall of Despair

Map 24 is one of the maps which turns Doom into an actual survival horror-game. I quickly realized during my continuous playthrough I will be struggling with ammo on pistol-start, especially because I don't force myself to finish each map as a hardcore completionest. I miss several secrets and I suppose they host all the resources I needed. Anyway, I perfected my hell nobles dodging skills and some "block monsters" linedefs act as efficient ammo saver.

The shape of the central tall cavern recalls me of the Deku Deku Tree's dungeon from Zelda Ocarina of Time. The omnipresent brown rock and the octagonal shape of the cavern give me the impression of being inside a giant tree. The visuals are gorgeous and so detailed that some minor HOMS appeared on my screen. The mysterious tone of midi highlights the mysticity of the place.

I can't say I enjoyed Hall of Despair's combat scenarios and ammo famine but it features one of the most immersive and beautiful atmospheres in the whole megawad. 

And yep, the berserk pack at the VERY END OF THE MAP is just here to taunt you.

Grade : B  (14/20)

MAP25: The Tower

Starting on the top of the titular structure, MAP25 is a linear trek through a series of rooms that radiate from the center. A secret berserk pack helps conserve ammo, though you'll likely won't have enough for the mancubi that appear after you pick up the blue key. Don't worry, you can deal with them later, which is a massive improvement over Halls of Despair.

The highlight of the map for sure is the ending, which finally gives you a rocket launcher and throws a swarm of cacodemons. While nothing groundbreaking, The Tower is an inoffensive map.

+++ Tarnsman's Projectile Hell
+++ The Box of a Thousand Demons
+++ Sign of Torment

Map 24: Halls of Despair (continuous because I'm not a masochist)

Here is a map that has lots to recommend. Despite this having maybe the fourth-highest monster count so far, it can really pack it in when it wishes us to feel pain. Although it's of course not comparable to the more difficult stuff seen these days, probably a result of the expected continuous gameplay style. Still, BFGing that large group of nobles in the room with the Megaarmor and rad suit behind the right slime fall, along with a close-quarters ambush with some chaingunners on the way to unlock the hallway with the red key and the large Imp swarm that attacks us towards the top of the slime tank, as well as the groups of Barons, Hell Knights and Revenants which attack at certain select points. It also ends up draining our ammo quite rapidly, as it happens, although we still have some rockets and shells left by the time we reach the end, it was deemed necessary to chaingun the two incredibly close-quarters Arachnotrons before doing the badass thing and punching the last frustrating rotten bastard to death after picking up the hidden berserk pack.

In the visual sense though, there are a number of cool touches, the first of the Chasmesque slime bits make themselves known in several uncontigious spots. The best part naturally is the central room with the hub-like ceiling structures covering the sky and something that seems most likely to be a filtration tank. Height here proves among the most impressive displayed in the megawad so far. The Supercharge sits on a lift but there are no special tricks to collect it as it happens. In other rooms, brown might be prevalent, but its all done quite tastefully, with slime working its way in just often enough to give this map that extra character! Not to mention, "Shadows" is an appropriately sad and oppressive midi still containing some all-important rock elements.

Probably not my favorite so far and ammo is definitely quite tight, but an example of perhaps something that could've been really cool on pistol start if, oh, there'd been a BFG and a few more rocket boxes.

+++ Frog, Toad and Frog & Toad

MAP24 & MAP25

No vote from me; I am away from my Doom PC for 11 days next month.  Pick something I don't want to play, please :)

+++Claustrophobia 1024 .

+++ What Lies Beneath & Devious Deviance & Halls of the Goblin King

+++ Doomium

+++ Plutonia Revisited Community Project 2

+++ Morior Invictus

Really wanna play one of those three. Quite recent and seem to be pretty good.

Catchup time.

Map19 “House of Pain”

The usual tropes here. Ammo is tight, combat is small scale, layout is good. The shotgun secret near the beginning goes a long way towards resolving munitions deficiencies but we can get by without it. Ignore the caged enemies at the blue key and quickly snatch the SSG from the pinkies and everything is fine.

The rest of the map is alright, leading us on an atmospheric temple crawl. The smattering of opposition includes a baron that seriously drains ammo and some darkened monster closets I could do without. We get a real ambush behind the yellow key door, six cacodemons that converge on your tiny little platform. If you’re quick it’s no problem but should they hem you in the situation becomes claustrophobic, probably the best encounter of the map.

Another ok level, better than Death Pit at least.

Map20 “The Gateway”

Now here’s a good episode ender. Our return to the city setting marks a return to the characteristics that made The Undertown good, except The Gateway doesn’t have random issues like missing cell weapons holding it back.

This large level is pleasant to look at and fun to run around in. We have all sorts of things to kill, hitscanner snipers, cacos, mancubi, the (ineffectual) sniping imps from Downtown… Our starting shotgun isn’t practical to fight back with but for once the search for heavier weaponry isn’t troublesome because there’s plenty of room to maneuver around the opposition getting drawn out. Even the archvile (which I walked in on immediately playing blind) can be avoided fairly easily, there’s plenty of buildings for cover and multiple routes between sections. The sandbox layout works very well here, and I like how Vader repopulates it like he did in map14 (BFGing the pinky horde was fun).

Adding to this map’s appeal is the lack of ammo famine. This might be the first map of the megawad I felt saturated with resources and the level is better off for it. Not having to skimp for shells does wonders for flow and I’d hate having to constantly scour a level like this for ammo. The secrets are quality of life boosts rather than necessities and the BFG is particularly satisfying to use here. The ending cyberdemon is a fine albeit predictable finish. I think it’s the first cyber that’s actually just been on the ground.

Our latest contender for best map of the set. Vader ends the shaky second episode on a high note.

Map21 “River of Flames”

Probably the most metal levelname we’ve had so far; how pleasant your stay is here hinges greatly on whether you find the secret berserk at the beginning (and the missable RL right behind you). Even with them River of Flames is tough on pistol start. In the vein of many megawads at the time (e.g., Alien Vendetta), map 21 is a gritty sojourn into hell that pressures your health resources and tests your Tyson skills. Complicating things is the widespread damaging floor (the eponymous River of Flames), adding some spice to the Tyson combat.

I’ve never been adept at punching tomatoes so the yellow key trap sent me scrambling for the switch, hoping to find ammo or a new weapon to fight them with. An archvile wasn’t what I wanted to see and I initially thought I was done for. Fortunately, a return to the now less crowded yellow key room netted a secret SSG hidden behind a wall in a monster closet. I like having that critical weapon guarded by the ambush but don’t think it should be a secret, that strikes me as unkind. With the SSG I stabilized and discovered there’s actually plenty of ammo once you have a gun to fire it with, I exited with a lot of shells.

I find River of Flames quite good. We’ve had a strong episode ender and a strong episode starter, helping get The Rebirth back on track.

Side note: There’s a lot of partial invisibilities and they suck. With no hitscanners these shouldn’t be in a Tyson map.

Quote

Here's a fun combo to play:

 

+++ Finely Crafted Fetish Film, Old Still Life, Jumpwad

 

The joy of unconventional progression. Don't worry too much though, as it's not all puzzles. Instead, each wad showcases a different way to make a Doom level compelling by being environmentally focused, but within each wad there's tons of variation. FCFF is a combo of pure action and pure puzzles that converges at one point (eccentricities expected), Old Still Life is fairly conventional in action (on HMP at least) but with a very distinct, compelling take on the idea of "Hell On Earth" (even if it seems not to be set on Earth?) that synthesizes everything from modern community gameplay and Russian Doom Community tropes, and Jumpwad is not even a puzzle in the traditional Doom sense. Should make for a compelling month of the Doom-but-not-quite-Doom, and I will definitely see it through.

Just gonna paste my old vote + pitch.

GZDooM 4.10, PB 3.0, HeXeReTiC HUD PB3 v8.3RC2e, Weapon Neural Upscale, Destroyable Decorations Definitive Edition, Glory Kills v29b, SilentDoomguy, Flashlight, -iwad doom2.wad (ver 1.666), -skill 4 (UV), continuous play, no saves.

MAP16 - “The Musty Ones”

MAP17 - “Xenophob”

MAP18 - “Death Pit”

Map24: Halls of Despair
K: 99 | I: 62 |S: 60
Gzdoom | Mods: Rebirth midi pack, Trailblazer 1.5, Corruption cards 5.0
Cards: Fast Revenants, Aracs cast archvile attack upon death, Nobles fire aracnotron plasma when seeing the player

I am definitely a bigger fan of the E3 maps. The setting and texturing feels a lot more cohesive and what comes to mind when I think of Rebirth. Not to mention the maps start to feature the red sky portal which feels iconic to the set (and I think is what the INTERPIC shows). This is less on this map than the others but by nature of the texturing, design, and setting these maps are already much more interesting to me than most of the WAD (unfortunately)

Halls of Despair is a pretty standard 'Big hole you ascend/descend in a spiral', with of-shoot rooms from the main donut to help diversify the map a bit. I like the open design of the map, and there are some decent traps along the way. However the map is a little too brown for my tastes. some fore hellslime or something else to break up the monotonous texturing of the halls would have been a welcome addition. Also the progression once you need either red key or yellow gets a little confusing and repetitive, requiring me to jump down the hole twice, and re-climb it with new enemies. It wasn't that bad, but was slightly irksome. 

Map25: The Tower
K: 99 | I: 25 |S: 50
Gzdoom | Mods: Rebirth midi pack, Trailblazer 1.5, Corruption cards 5.0
Cards: A gang of mini-bosses will spawn, Cacos can eat corpses to regain health, Cacos will dodge projectiles

While the randomized cards themselves are deadly, unfortunately the mini-bosses decided to spawn in the skybox courtyard where they were literally unable to harm me. I killed them by lobbing grenades down but a disappointing introduction to the card, but that's how it goes with random spawning.

Speaking of iconic for the set. Back when I played Rebirth decades ago, my younger mind remembered a few maps. Map10, map28, and map25. It helps that these were the maps i chose to actually fully playthrough and not skip, but something about 'The Tower' rather grabbed my attention. The balconies overlooking the red sky help set the demonic palace vibe, and i like the slightly more non-linear approach in the map. Visually i like what this map is showing and feels very quintessentially 'Rebirth', muddier hellish details packed into a crimson-lit minimap. That being said coming back now the lifts can be a bit of a headache and the crampedness is starting to return slightly. I still like the map and the caco cloud at the end is fun to deal with, but its faults are more apparent coming back.

Votes for next month:

+++ What Lies Beneath & Devious Deviance & Halls of the Goblin King

+++Claustrophobia 1024

+++Theme-Gawad (I'm fairly certain this is now released but its been quiet for a while so not fully sure)

Rankings:

Cards:

Votes for the next month:

+++ Sign of Torment

+++ Plutonia Revisited Community Project 2

+++ DBP 22 Biotech is Godzilla / DBP 53 Plutonian Sunrise / Sector 666

Explanation:

Sign of Torment - this 2022 WAD promises a lot of Boom features. Who knows, what Boom sorcery is possible? It may be interesting to find out...

Plutonia Revisted 2 - it is a recurring WAD from DWMC suggestions, and seems to be a good Plutonia homage too.

DBP 22 Biotech is Godzilla / DBP 53 Plutonian Sunrise / Sector 666 - Seems like 2023 DW MegaWAD club is dedicated to either community projects, historically important WADs, or both... So why not do the following: check 2 WADs from different eras of DBP community WAD series, and top it off with an earliest Skillsaw WAD on ID-games!

Map22 “Withered Fields”

The solid map streak continues with a cozy hell fortress situated outside a small network of caves. More ammo deprivation at the start, though it’s not too bad provided you find the easily missable shellbox on the ledge with the sniping imps. It’s crucial to have enough for the gratuitous hell knight ambush blocking the ascent back up. All in all the noble heavy fighting around the red key is pretty good, and one of the more properly calibrated combat scenarios we’ve seen.

Next, we go to the other side of the map and enter the fortress proper. The hilarious and very much out of left field Mario secret will end any ammo/health issues should you find it (the BFG is mad overpowered in this map). Even without it we have enough to get by though the pain elementals near the end will be… well, a pain. Save enough shells for the baron pair at the exit and go through the portal to leave. A pretty good level overall.

Side note: The teleporters in this map are wack. Fire the engineer who calibrated them.

Map23 “Dark Arena”

A brisk arena map, nicely positioned as a breather before we hit the heart of the final episode. Ammo is plentiful and a BFG secret left behind by a fellow gladiator neutralizes any semblance of opposition. The stadium itself is nothing special, though it serves as decent stress relief if you let it fill a bit then light everything up with tracers. Cybie is perfect two shot bait and we can leave immediately, no wasting time.

I’ll take it. Map is short and has a good midi.

I'll go with a trio of 2022 wads I found interesting.

+++ Plutonia Revisited Community Project 2

+++ The Box of a Thousand Demons

+++ Doomium

Map 25 : The Tower

After Map 24, The Tower feels like a breather map only if you find the secret berserk pack at the very beginning of this map, behind a bloody cascade. However, you'll notice lot of box of rockets but no rocket launcher until you reach the last bridge leading to the exit. Actually, you can do anything with the berserk in hands so it wasn't as critical than the berserk pack in Map 24.

About the map itself, I like the celestial theme with the omnipresent sky surrounding the fortress. However, the interior of the tower has nothing at least a bit eye-catching to offer, maybe except the bridge I mentioned above. The combats are inoffensive for the most part but don't bring much entertainement too.

Overall, "The Tower" plays like a decent hell-themed breather map. However, its structure and visuals are too basic to stay in memories.

Grade : B- (12/20)

GZDooM 4.10, PB 3.0, HeXeReTiC HUD PB3 v8.3RC2e, Weapon Neural Upscale, Destroyable Decorations Definitive Edition, Glory Kills v29b, SilentDoomguy, Flashlight, -iwad doom2.wad (ver 1.666), -skill 4 (UV), continuous play, no saves.

MAP19 - “House of Pain”

It seems that I've forgotten to take a screenshot of the end-level-picture of this map because there is no content about map19 in my screenshotfolder but finally I've made it through it for sure. Sorry I don't know my results and the autosavegame for replaying this map is also lost but we can carry on with this issue without any problems or running in trouble :-/. I've enjoyed all maps of this megawad so far and I really like the keycard puzzles and the intense use of keycards in the levels of this megwad.

MAP20 - “The Gateway”

MAP21 - “River of Flames”

Map 25 The Tower

UV Pistol Start on DSDA Doom

A review by @DFF piqued my interest for this map. So I decided to check the Tower out...

Really glad that I did. Finally, there is our lord and saviour, the Thing That Decino Shuns, the Chainsaw!

All jokes aside, the saw really befits Rebirth map designs: limited ammo really begs for some unconventional tools to depose of hellspawn.

To make saw fun, The Tower also includes a funny potato monster and a crowd of pinkies. I really like maps, that do the chainsaw justice!

But the chainsaw is just one thing to like on this map. For those poor souls, that play UV -fast, there is a berserk pack hidden behind the bloodfall. And for those, who love explosions, there is a fun "cacos swarm the bridge" rocket launcher encounter right near the end of the map.

The visuals, while very basic, felt memorable nevertheless.

All in all, this was a really fun Scythe-style map with some nice Evilution-style details. And it also provided me with a convenient continous starting point for maps 26-30. Maybe I'll play more maps from Rebirth after all...

I quit this, but I will cast my vote. Some other people already mentioned it, but I will iterate:

+++ Sign of Torment by KainD

This WAD is something different. Lots of very cool Boom features I have never seen anywhere else. The design is unorthodox (sometimes for the worse), and the first couple of maps are somewhat raw, but from the first quarter on the maps get damn good. If you wish to play something different I would urge you to consider.

MAP25 - The Tower (61%K/53%I/50%S):

Oh no, yet another 4-way hub kind of map, nothing interesting here, it feels like a continuation of the last map. I had to forcedly pistol-start this one, as I was left with nothing from the previous map, so I started avoiding killing monsters like cacodemons, and just killed the easily disposable enemies. I avoided everything in my way, and just tried to quickly exit, hence the low percentages in my final standings. I could not care less about this one. It had interesting features though, but not enjoyable because of it having one of the worst ammo balances in the entire megawad, coming after the worst map in terms of that. This is the problem, MAP24 forced me to pistol start this map. I can see this one is not as bad, in fact it is quite better looking, but I could not take it, sadly.
 

Order of preference:

It seems unavoidable that we are going to play not one, but two maps by last month's dunce cap, so I add the definitive vote to +++Plutonia Revisited Community Project 2 for the next month, forget about Claustrophobia.

MAP25: The Tower. Played on DSDA v0.26.2, UV, PS. 78/78 K, 2/2 S, 28/28 I. Comp. time 12:32

Much more forgiving map, although I took high risks and chainsawed the pinkies and spectres near the blue key, and somehow miraculously did not get hurt all that much. That said, I traversed much of the map with low health. Ammo wasn't that plentiful either, but plentiful enough for my needs. Had I found the berserk secret earlier, ammo situation would have been even more relaxed. I do think the rocket launcher was given too late. There were a lot of rocket boxes, that I was almost certain I just had missed the RL somewhere, but apparently not.

Loved, loved the music!
 

MAP23 - “Dark Arena”

Not a lot of substance to this one, however it is fairly simple, gives you a blue armour straight away, more than enough ammo and lastly health. This one plays absolutely fine and because I checked every nook before going through the red door, every monster warped in relatively easily. I allowed the cyber to do most of the dirty work and I was done. The BFG isn't needed at all for this map. Overall, nothing ground-braking but an otherwise fine entry.

MAP24 - “Hall of Despair”

The map starts out okay, an interesting concept with half decent visuals, it is the shame the this moment is the start of a slow moment car crash of a map that amplifies many of the problems with this mapset.

Odd progression (A random door opens that is mandatory when you try to achieve a certain goal, like open another door or reach an area where a key is required), as such you will have to traverse the same areas several times.

Second - some very bad traps, the noble horde you release half way up the stairs in the self contained room is nothing more than an ammo sink.

Third - The ammo stinginess really bites towards the end, when I got the yellow key I had no ammo left, so I left everything.

Lastly - The exit area is awful, point blank spiders and the ammo given before this is rockets.

I am sure than replaying the map may yield a far better experience, but this one seems to punish naive players in a manner not seen so far and unlike map16, I don't think there is any way of avoiding this mess.

PS - I managed to void glide out of the map around where the big noble horde is released. A new way to punish wall-humpers perhaps?

MAP25 - “The Tower”

Well, I ran out of the ammo, despite using the chainsaw, a lot.....

A lot of Barons to SSG, some cacos stuck behind blocking lines, traps that beg for rocket launcher usage but you get that at the end of the map, by the way for all the spectacle of the cacodemon release, you can literally run to the exit, kill the 2 spectres and 1 mancubus and leave without taking a hit from said trap. 

Again, a decent concept, but the map overall was again unfriendly to play and again lacked the resources to beat without having to resort to desperate measures. It was better than Map24 I guess.

+++ Plutonia Revisited Community Project 2

+++ Claustrophobia 1024

+++ Doom 2 In Spain only

Map24 “Hall of Despair”

You know, going into this map a day late and having read the comments, I was expecting a shitshow… yet for a while I wasn’t getting one. For sure the complaints are not exaggerated. Infighting is difficult to implement, there are some spectacularly stupid hell noble piles that were begging for a couple BFG balls, and progression is nonsensical at times (like the red door cubbyhole trigger). We also have some design issues such as mandatory secrets and superfluous teleporter side-rooms. But the biggest ammo drain noble trap can be ignored (monster block linedef) and the megasphere permits some extra attrition. I didn’t think it was that bad.

Until I reached the exit and was killed by two point-blank arachnotrons. My remaining arsenal of 22 bullets and seven rockets was hilariously ineffectual.

Oh, and that berserk pack you’ve been desperately looking for is right here behind the exit.

Oh, and you can’t backtrack, so no leaving things behind to berserk later. Its sole purpose is for continuous players to exit at 100% to enrage you.

This ending section took what was initially just an unpleasant bottom half level and elevated it to my pick for worst map of the set. It is unforgivably spiteful to put those spiders there when it should be damn clear the player might not have the ammo left to kill them. They are non-negotiable (with saves you can probably maneuver around them; I didn’t bother trying) and rockets (which you get just beforehand) are suicide so if that’s all you got then sucks to be you. Now fairly pissed I looked up secrets before slogging through it with penurious ammo usage, managing to get 100% with some considerable infight arm-twisting.

It's unfortunate because there are some real positives (e.g., the strong use of verticality) but the BM at the exit portal killed any enjoyment this map gave me. It’s my least favorite outing so far and the only one I’ve actually gotten aggravated by.

MAP26

Map 25: The Tower (pistol-start)

This map is still horribly unbalanced from pistol start but this only becomes a problem when squeezing by the 2 Barons that are behind the yellow key door but I mostly got past them and I'm a rather bad speedrunner. "Nether (With You)" might possibly be Varis Alpha's best, an emotional yet stangely energetic piece that might even have taken some lessons from Tristan Clark, though without the strings and medievalness. 

Anyways, the hub-like structure is a little boring but despite the Imps visible from the very start, this isn't really all that difficult of a map if one is willing to be patient. Although continuous players will be most satisfied once again, the map's small size and relatively low monster count (a little under 80, I think) make things not as annoying as they'd be otherwise.

The central tower takes some cues from the Living End, but the outer hallways instead promise a breathtaking vista of....something, the skybox here stinks and there's more impressive ones out there but it could be much, much worst. The most annoying bit probably came at the ramparts with the Mancubi with the BFG. We'd use it and one, or maybe 2 would die and/or be seriously affected because the space here is pretty narrow and we just today do not have the time for this ridiculous nonsense. Really, even chainsawing the pinkies before was just convoluted and stupid. At a certain point though, we lift the final bridge, take the lift down and finally find the rocket launcher which will certainly take care of the corner Cacos at the start and the two Barons of Hell behind the blue door. But we're not finished. We get halfway across the bridge with the rocket launcher and the shrieks of a whole lotta Cacos start emitting from our sides. After reaching or nearly reaching the other side, it then becomes an initially frantic battle after BFGing them and then holding the rocket button down just long enough to scatter them and then go easy on the stragglers. Yet, there were still enough rockets that the Mancubi at the end could've practically been four.

This won't be annoying as the last map to most people I think but the weapon placement still felt trollish, it's just a little easier to escape if one chooses, I don't believe we did at any point unless it was "that there one pair o' Lords" but there was zero choice.

One more vote though

+++Doom 2 in Spain Only