The DWmegawad Club plays: Eviternity II

GZDoom/UV/Contiuous/Saves

Write-ups from memory

MAP16:  Barbican - Dragonfly

Idk why, but ep 4 is the one that I remembered the least before I started seeing playthroughs of it on YouTube. Kinda weird since there's some good maps and cool moments in it, but I just struggled to remember almost everything about it (except the secret map). I couldn't even remember the episode's theme at first, which is basically Eviternity 1's ep 1 but in autumn and with more realistic-ish locations. 

The ep starts with a standard Dragonfly special, a pretty non-linear map where you get the 3 keys in any order and then you can exit. The start here is surprisingly tough. You'll wake things up all across the map very easily here given the multiple paths to go, and considering you'll want some guns, this will be inevitable. Thankfully, there's multiples of each gun around (I think I saw 3 SSGs for example), so you can kinda stick to one path to try to lessen the amount of demons that are aware of your presence. The yellow key is right around the corner from the start, but that room has veilimps, and will also eventually have astral spiders, so that will be tough without some bigger guns (you do get the SSG with the key at least). The blue key spawns a ton of enemies in the water, but that's just rocket feed. The red key spawns a cyb back up in the main corridor. Find the hidden plasma by the rocket/megapshere/imp fight to make that cyb less annoying to take out. That fight I just mentioned is one of a few tough encounters that aren't caused from getting a key. There's a big zombie/rev wave at the northeast, and getting the SSG by the switch that opens the path to the secret exit unleashes chaingunners, both caco types, and an archie. Oh yeah, it's only the first map of the ep and the secret exit is already here! That path features a demon family/annihilator fight for a megasphere, and a few astral cacos once you use the 3 keys to really open the path to the secret exit. Overall, this is a tough opening map, but still quite fun. The medieval look and thematic MIDI works well for the map's atmosphere and sets up the episode nicely.

MAP34: Freya - Bri

If you were to ask me what I thought the most beautiful map in Doom history was 1 month and 7 days ago, I would have responded with Culture Shock from Ancient Aliens. This just might beat it. Holy cow is this map GORGEOUS. Easily my favorite map in the WAD in terms of visuals alone. The natural scenery and its colors just wowed me right from the start. If Bri wants to make his next stand-alone ep release with this theme, I would be ecstatic. I also understand it would take a long time given the amount of detailing this one map alone has, but still. There's just so many spots in this map where you can stop and just take in the sights. From the opening cavern, to the courtyard with the fountain, to the vista that you can't get to but is just as big as the playable area of the map itself. It's all jaw dropping. Now, a pretty map is good and all, but it still needs to be fun. Thankfully it is. While this secret map doesn't really have a gimmick like the others did, there's still some tough encounters to go through. Depending on which way you go for the blue key, you may not have the rocket launcher as you take on the astral cacos and veil imps that appear. Getting said rocket launcher from the other direction isn't easy given the revs and astral manc in the area in addition to all the other chaff. And lowering the wall to reveal the fountain area also reveals a ton of monsters that want to kill you. The ambushes are intense and monster variety is great. The 2 power weapons are secret. The BFG is behind a waterfall in the fountain area. The perforator is in a secret within a secret. When you find the mega armor secret, you'll find a switch that needs the yellow key. When I originally played this, the yellow key wasn't exactly hidden, but it was extremely easy to miss. The only reason I found it was because I accidentally walked off a ledge and landed on top of it. It was originally up on a ledge overlooking the hub area, near where you would need to drop down to find that soul sphere secret. In newer RCs though, the yellow key was moved down to that little water tunnel area you need to go through if you fall trying to platform. Heck, the SSG is down here too, so you'll probably drop down just to get that. The switch that lowers the bars that allow you to get back up also lower the key. I don't really think I like this change, as it's now extremely easy to find the key, making the secret within a secret seem unnecessary. At least with its original location it made finding the key worth it, as now you'll just have the key by the time you find the secret. Only real gripe with the map tho. The map ends similarly to Bri's MAP08; back at the start and hitting a switch to reveal the exit. This time, you get a flood of veilimps backed by 2 archies. Perforate the crap out of them, and we're done. Overall, an absolutely beautiful map that is also quite spicy! A top 5 map in the WAD for me.

6 hours ago, TJG1289 said:

to the vista that you can't get to but is just as big as the playable area of the map itself.

I originally had ideas to make this map much larger and more open and that vista is the remnants of that idea (originally planned to make that section a huge valley). I even thought at one point about having this huge map that would just be totally non-linear, explorative and atmospheric with very few monsters. All this would aid in its dreamlike quality. But I wasn't certain it would be received very well. Maybe next time.

I'm still playing along and reading through just not as studiously. Sorry for short reports but as I said... no time. I really loved 13 and 14 back to back. 13 is a bit ammo stingy so I had to panic exit with some heavy hitters still alive, definitely a map to replay to do a bit better but I loved it. I think it really means a lot for Evi II, this consistency of structure styles and the architectural throughline of making you feel so small when inside, but really cozy and at peace in the colours of the outside. Honestly I don't think there's a lot of pro AA/AAA games that handle this feeling of scale as good as this. Some more commentary in the save strings in the footage. I tried not to do this in the earlier footage and just save it for blah blah in the text but seeing how my enterprise is bust it doesn't matter anymore, as much as I can put in there I did. 

14 is actually one of the best doom experiences I've had in the last few years and actually, doing 13 and 14 back to back was super cool. Dragonfly has the confidence to do really solid maps that also act as a layup for the next mapper, not oneupping the crew by doing what *they* do better than them, he keeps to his strengths. This is so important for the vibe of the mapset so far. Cohesion and confidence needs kindness as well, not just skills.

Aurelius always kills but much like Celestin above when I got in the map I was a bit apprehensive because it's huge (reminds me of another apex map, the opener of Godless Night) and soon I found out there's puzzles. But the 100% kills was organic! And I did all the puzzle solving without feeling any pressure. Lots of saving but not a lot of deaths actually. So I had this magical experience of just walking in all these different slick fights that are so well calibrated (both in 13 and 14 we start seeing reups with two archviles behind a lot of low tier shit, it led to really good encounters on both maps) and then zen calm puzzle solving time. It shouldn't go without saying that stuff like this is so impressive also in the mbf/boom riggery that it takes to build them but even as a person that let's pretend doesn't have any insider knowledge on doom mapping I think I still would have come out so pleased with the seamlessness and flow of such an ambitious and huge map. Aurelius's calling card seem to be this: no end of ambition, no end of real estate, no end of complex rigged machines... but it flows and funnels you with visual guidelines. You find your way through. In some ways this is apex level design for this old game of ours. I am very glad I spent quite a bit of time in this map. 

Terribly sorry to skip commentary on some maps, I love you all you are all doing an amazing job on this set. 

MAP17 - “Perdita” by Liberation

Deaths: 7

This map has significantly more bite than the previous two. That bite comes mostly at the beginning and end, with the part in between being pretty laid back. When you start, the door opens, and a chaingunner comes for you. Moving forward and shooting immediately sets off a hell of a battle in the opening room and hallway. I died twice here trying to figure out what to do. I found going up some stairs to another room gave me the breathing room I needed. It's so hard because you don't realize how many veil-imps are going to show up until you're in serious trouble. Once you get some breathing room eliminating everything isn't that difficult.

What follows is a very beautiful adventure admist some sort of village. I really like this episodes' theme! You can see little houses all around the play area. It's very nice. There's a lot of places where monsters can surprise you, but it isn't too difficult. Until you make it to the end anyway. You eventually lower some bars that initially block your access to a courtyard. The yellow key is here, but your access is blocked by some annoying barrels. In other games, you might be able to just break them, but this is Doom and they are indestructible. You have to flip a switch which releases a ton of blood to power some infernal teleporter in the center of the courtyard. Your only option is to go through, and you're taken to the same place in the shadow realm (or whatever, that's what I'm going to call it.) The blood has been replaced by lava, and you're immediately mobbed by a ton of astralcacos. I died here four times. It's pretty brutal. The astralcacos love to dodge around and box you in, especially once they get to infighting and you can't predict their movements. It's extremely chaotic. Once you're done you can collect the yellow key in the now burned out house, and go back to our normal plane. But now there's more astralcacos and other things here! So you have another tough fight. Another death for me.

This ending sequence is really great, though tough. It's one of the more memorable moments of the wad for me. It really reminds me of Wormhole from TNT, just better done. And way harder. Overall this was a very memorable and enjoyable map.

The music sounds like something you would hear while in town in an RPG. It's a good song though.

MAP17: Perdita by Liberation

I really need to catch up with the last couple of years of mapping, since the only level by Liberation I've played was his submission to THT: Threnody, which was rather forgettable. Perdita is anything but.

The start is already tough, opening the map with a chaingunner in front of you with a deadly combination of revenants, imp mobs and teleporting veilimps following soon. Good news is, if you survive this part, you can catch a breath for a while, with mostly incidental encounters leading to the red key (a secret SSG helped a lot, I recommend everyone trying to track it down). Once you try to use it to leave the place, a mass of imps starts to warp in, while you are holding them off until the exit opens. There's generally a lot of rockets in this map, so don't be stingy with them.

The map again chills down, until you reach a square with a teleporter in the middle. This turns into a three-stage arena, first with revenants, cacodemons, astral arachnotrons and a ton of zombies that guard a switch. Flipping it turns the water into blood and unlock a teleporter. It sent me to a desolate version of this place, with flowing lava and destroyed buildings under a smoke-filled sky. The monsters here are more numerous and more deadly, so spray plasma, run around and hope for the best. When everything was dead, I was stumped. I picked up the yellow key and nothing happened. I began to think if the map broke, because I couldn't do anything. Then I heard a cyberdemon's roar and the teleporter was accessible again. The final stage returned me back to the original version of the map, where I could coax a cyberdemon to fight astral versions of arachnotrons and cacodemons. He took a beating and I finished him off quickly.

I like this one a lot, it's well paced, mixing bigger fight with downtime to let you recover and the dimension-hopping final fight was a great setpiece to end a level.

MAP17: Perdita. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 348/348 K, 4/4 S, 4/4 I. Comp. time 32:40

I was feeling this one considerably better than MAP16. I'm not sure why. Somehow the combat is more fun and the set pieces have more appeal. Maybe I was in a better mood while playing, I don't know. Anyway, I digged this one, a solid map. The highlight here for me is the final area where, after witnessing a cool "water turns to blood"-effect you enter what I interpret was a time warp, where the area is filled with nasties, and the walls blocking the final key have crumbled.

[The shortness of this review does not reflect the amount I liked the map - I think I just did the stupid thing and not write it right after playing, as I usually do, and later it was hard to recall exactly my thoughts]

Map17 “Perdita” Philip Brown (Liberation)

Another hot start, and this one feels calibrated. A chaingunner and revs force us to get moving, propelling us into a frantic arena against imps, revs, prowlers, and a mancubus with terrible equipment. Awesome. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but I find the prowler imp an excellent custom enemy, their unconventional behavior makes them good tools for creating chaos. This opening serves as an example though the gameplay eases after the starting room is clear… for now.

Visually we’re back to the castle theme and as expected it looks great. The torches that look like they’re wagging their tails are back, which is delightful. Throughout the level, Liberation also enhances the immersion with some floor wizardry, altering the environment like in Community Chest 2’s map29. This culminates in an ending that looks like an homage to Wormhole, which I’ll get to shortly.

So we trudge along, working our way around the castle and eliminating token resistance. Hitting the red key switch elicits a meatier response, an imp pincer with backup. We’re not actually locked in though so if you move quickly, you can blast a hole through the mess and fight from relative safety. The next section takes us on a scenic trip up north where we eventually enter a medium size courtyard with a cylindrical shrine in the middle. Hmmm, the yellow key we need is here, but I can’t reach it… maybe this switch will help. I hit it and watch the blood… slowly… ooze out of the passage, flow down, and turn the water a deep crimson. That’s dope, and I can't help but notice we’ve got all this ammo lying around with no meaningful enemies to use it on.

Take the teleporter and get moving because Liberation brings the hammer down, unleashing an unholy mix of astral arachnos, pain elementals, revenants, and astralcacos (and some chaff that gets wiped out by infighting in seconds). Our arena is a hellish version of the serene courtyard we entered from, with lava as a hazard and the yellow key now easily obtained. Use plasma and focus on the PE’s and anything with low hp first, the key to this fight is to ensure nothing stops you from circling the area. Getting stuck means instant death courtesy of the dps powerhouses and revenant deathball no doubt chasing you.

don’t get comfy we’re not done.

Upon teleporting back, we are waylaid by barons, astral arachnos, a cyberdemon, and 10(!) astralcacos. While challenging, this terrifying assortment of foes isn’t as brutal an encounter as it seems, and can be approached similar to the previous one.

I like this map, a good setup with memorable payoff. I'm noticing an increased frequency of astralized enemy usage so I'm hoping my computer can handle what's no doubt coming.

MAP17 - Perdita - Philip "Liberation" Brown (100%K/I/S):

This was the hardest yet, and difficulty really starts becoming like the Eviternity I's difficulty I remember. At this point in the megawad (Maps 15 onwards), I did struggle a lot back in the day with it, but I'm not sure if the first one was harder, or I'm getting better at playing Doom. The start was a bit rough for me, as I did not have any health, but I had to save scum to it, because I wanted to enjoy my perforator a bit more, thus, the map became easier for me. I suspect though, it is really hard, as guns are not gifted to you, for starters, the SSG is hidden in a secret pilar that will be lowered and acquired by hitting a switch and running to it.

The map divides itself in two main areas, or three, depending how you view it. The fortress at start, filled with metal instead of the usual wood that goes by hand with the cobblestone, and various fights like the one with the evil astral arachnotron and the monster teleporters next to the pillars. I did not fancy this area that much, as it looked a bit stale, also the green cobblestone makes me feel like I'm in a sewer. This area ends in a massacre of imps and cacos. Not sure how could I manage this without my guns previously acquired in MAP34, as imps stack really quickly and you will need to wait before bars fully opens to let you escape.

The next area feels more like a transition to the final area, a beautiful walk through the outside of the complex, with orange trees and a lot of snipers. This transition area lets you grab the blue key so you access the real second area of the level, an arena with some medieval houses that make me remember those old days playing Heretic, specially because of the textures used for those little cabins where revs are shooting you from. After a fight, you will see a beatifully scripted sequence where blood will flow to the center of the arena, revealing you the teleport to another dimension, a dimension where, the same arena is burned to the ground, and everything feels hellish. Use your guns and fight the cyberdemon and friends. Again, my perforator and my BFG did the hard job easily. There are no secret BFGs, so again, I feel like this would have been 10 times harder without it. After returning with the yellow key with the main dimension, there are still some astrals to fight, so knock them out and exit.

It started a bit stale, again, but it finished really well, there is some really good "story-telling" with this map, and I really liked it and its setup.

Order of preference:
 

MAP16 - “Barbican” by Dragonfly (Pistol start, used saves, 99% kills/71% items/50% secrets)

One of the maps of all time, again dragonfly tries being friendly with its nonlinearity, placing different weapons all over the map to mixup your future playtroughs. Probably I could complete this saveless if I didn't receive a fucking 90 damage rev missile going to that backyard with the red key, since this map is very merciful with you, it even gives you a megasphere and a rocket launcher for free in exchange to a remixed encounter to that weird imp trap in doom 2's the factory.

Despite the map being good as always, I didn't like that much the aesthetics since it's extremely similar to eviternity 1, and I don't think the autumn theme tried to justify that similarity compared to last episode. Also, the music for this map feels extremely out of place, like a weird medival lullaby that doesn't really fit the atmosphere of the map, maybe if the map had a more staggering architecture i would be more fitting.

8/10

MAP34 - “Freya” by Bri (Pistol start, 4 attempts saveless, 100%/K/I/S)

Possibly my favorite map of the whole megawad up to this point, the first map that truly expands on the presentation of the veilimp in map15 and makes extremely good usage of all the eviternity 2 monster roster. The astral mancubi usage can make the map feel kind of grindy, because of how sturdy they're and how you need to take them slow or you just die by their shotgun attack, but other than that I think yes, enemy place and their brutality is a big possitive in this map.

The blue switch ambush is absolutely what i wanted to see of the archvile/vielimp combo, those 2 just make you do a lot of quick decision making, between trying to maintain cover from the viles and quickly kill the purple guys to not get ass kicked, altough i think using pinkies here was a bit unecessary, since it kind of overlaps with the vielimp in their function. That is if you didn't find the perforator earlier, that straightup destroys my favorite fight in the map.

Only problem I have with this map: The fucking exit. Unless you find the bfg in that random fake wall, that fight is fucking impossible, since is in a big space with no cover, and the plasma alone doesn't cut the huge amount of veilimps thrown at once. With the bfg becomes a fucking joke, so for those 2 instances of fucking up difficulty with secrets has a bit of less points from me, but still with that, i fucking love this map, is definitively my type of map.

Also, my second favorite midi is in this map, captures the atmosphere and the feel very well. Idk if this was intended to be a sort of breakcore midi, but it sounds really good and it's unusual to listen in doom, coming from a collab between great tristan clark and dragonfly I didn't expect less.

8/10

MAP17 - “Perdita” by Liberation

I must confess that I didn't find this map that hard, okay the start is pretty hot, but you can gain a foothold by taking a right and go up the stairs, finishing the monsters up here gives you a decent amount of cover. From here you can chip away at the rest (Or provoke infighting) and proceed onwards in your journey. The ambushes for the red key aren't overly taxing and at this point you will have the rocket launcher, I found the astral enemies to be rather helpful at times given they can deal a large amount of damage to other enemies. From here you get a nice imp blowout, where one of my only deaths occurred purely because of chip damage from the shotgunners. Beyond there are some nice skirimishes and the final fight is pretty fun, the hellified version being the hardest to get to grips with initially, but the health and ammo is perhaps handed out a little too liberally as I left the map with a lot of cells and rockets left over. I don't know whether I just utilised infighting effectively or just got lucky but none of the fights were too punishing and good movement would always see you through over a more stringent strategy.

Overall a solid map from an author of whom I enjoyed very much in 1KLines 3, the fights were always engaging, albeit not that punishing and the environments were as usual a feast for the eyes and there is a nice sense of progression here.

GZDoom/UV/Contiuous/Saves

Write-ups from memory

MAP17:  Perdita - Liberation

Liberation is the leader of the 1K Lines series, and is how I mostly know them. I have played all those WADs at least. I have also played his maps from THT Threnody and Mapwich 2. Like many maps I played years ago, I don't remember any of them. I kinda remember 1K Lines map 3 at least.

Unfortunately enough, this is the first map that I honestly don't remember much about, with the exception of the ending. This is not the map's fault and doesn't mean it's a bad map, it's just this entire episode has escaped my brain for the most part. So let me pull up a playthrough here so I can remember...

OH YEAH, I remember now! Even when playing continuous this opening rocked me. It's pretty hot, especially with the surprisingly quick appearance of some teleporting revs. I was kinda surprised that the SSG was a secret, as it seemed like it was easy to find, but tough to time. This map looks really good. It's a castle/fortress surrounded by gorgeous autumnal trees and cottages. I have a feeling this is more than 1K lines, lol. The outside courtyard ambush is a cool environment, since you can see those trees and cotages overlooking the area. Like MAP32, stuff like that makes the map feel like a smaller part of a bigger world, and I really like that. There's a definite spice to encounters in this map, with mid-tiers and Eviternity monsters showing up quite a bit. Revs seem to pop up quite a bit too. Grabbing the red key isn't too bad, just a few small encounters, but using it to lower the bars toward the beginning spawns a big wave of imps and assorted others that is just prime rocket material. This opens up an outdoor area that definitely wants to kill you, but at least it looks nice. This leads to an outdoor courtyard, but it's blocked off at the moment. Entering the structure nearby will lead you to the blue key and a demon family fight with a baron chaser. Nothing too bad, but the baron that spawns by you can be an issue if you don't rocket some pinkies quickly. With the blue key, we can open up the courtyard and access the part of the map I actually remembered and didn't need to watch this playthrough for. The courtyard is big and has revs, cacos, astral cacos, and astral spiders. It's tough, and you can see the yellow key in a building, but it's blocked by barrels so you can't grab it. The plasma rifle is here at least! A room filled with zombies open up with a switch inside. Hit it to cause a bloodfall into the center pagoda, opening it up. Going through it invokes everyone's favorite TNT map, Wormhole. You get sent to a hellish version of the courtyard filled with lava and a ton of enemies. Easily the toughest fight in the map, but it's a really cool fight at least. Makes getting the yellow key easy at least. Coming back to the current version also spawns enemies, mostly of the astral kind, but a cyb shows up too. Nasty, but the plasma makes it work. All that's left is to hit the yellow switch and to exit. Overall, this is a spicy one. It has some tough fights, but it's still pretty manageable. Map looks great, and it's Wormhole-like final fight is a nice surprise and is really memorable. It's MIDI fits the medieval theme extremely well too! I should probably replay this ep soon, but I do remember the next map a lot more. 

14 minutes ago, Dragonfly said:

 

After all, we did put hours of our time into making the lower difficulties, so you're still getting the "intended" experience whatever difficulty you choose to play.

I played pretty much the entire thing (missed MAP31) through on HMP (then replayed MAP32 on UV after I was done just to explore those secrets I heard about), can confirm it felt great.

Fights weren't pushovers, but weren't impossible either, with the only times I really struggled being MAP33 and the cybie/SMM part of MAP15, but the latter only because I forgot to grab the BFG before going into that area before I reloaded to an earlier save.

1 hour ago, Dragonfly said:

 

I'd consider lowering your difficulty if that is "fucking impossible" to you. 😅
 

Oh, just because of one specific fight that is debatably fucking insane without like wasting time secret hunting, means I have to play in a lower difficulty just because i can?

The player ultimately decides what they want to play, is not even like this megawad is advertised to be intentionally designed for lower difficulties like things like sunlust is, so idk what makes it hard just taking criticism with a grain of salt instead of just saying passive aggressive takes at your playerbase for no reason.

1 hour ago, Cutman 999 said:

Oh, just because of one specific fight that is debatably fucking insane without like wasting time secret hunting, means I have to play in a lower difficulty just because i can? 

 

The player ultimately decides what they want to play, is not even like this megawad is advertised to be intentionally designed for lower difficulties like things like sunlust is, so idk what makes it hard just taking criticism with a grain of salt instead of just saying passive aggressive takes at your playerbase for no reason.

I loaded my save right before that fight (I still had it) and it took me 4 attempts with the rocket launcher and plasma rifle. Mostly the PR because I was nearly out of rockets. Not an easy fight by any means, but I don't think it's that insane. Although I did go in with an effective health of 204, but I didn't leave many medikits lying around either. I had a ton of cells too, so ammo wasn't an issue.

You really don't want to wake up that second arch-vile, so try not to go past the plasma rifle that lowers. Use the rockets to kill a bunch of them near the wall so the arch-vile that does wake up has something to do instead of zapping you. Then it's just a matter of dodging, which is easier said than done.

Honestly, the crusher fight in MAP15 was harder for me.

MAP17: Perdita by Liberation

I mostly know Liberation as the project lead of the three 1000 Line CPs and haven't played any of his maps outside of those projects. So it is nice to play a map from him that isn't restricted by the linedef count. And sure enough, this map is much bigger and more detailed than is 1000 Line series works.

In contrast to Map16, this map is a much more linear map. Similar to map16 though, the start of the map is tough with plenty of veil-imps, revenants and other demons. But once you deal with those, the map gets much more relaxed. Though unlike Map16, there are still some tricky fights here and there. I would definitely recommend to thoroughly check out the starting area for secrets, as you can find a backpack and an early SSG. The first half of the map has more indoor combat and concludes with a fight against tons of imps, shotgunners and some cacodemons + revenants once you press the red key switch to open the big door to the outside area.

Once outside, you will have to contend with enemies sniping at you from cliffs/hills until you come across the courtyard of a "town area?". Here is where you will have some real battle. Explore the area and you will come across a yellow key blocked off by barrels. So how do you get it? By moving away the barrels? Nope, we do so by dimension hopping of course :p

One of the switches in the courtyard area will turn the water into blood and move towards the center structure, opening up a teleport. Go inside and you will enter a hellish version of the same area where you get a megasphere and have to deal with tons of astral cacos, astral arachnotrons, revenants, a couple pain elementals etc. You should have the plasma gun and tons of ammo for it by now so use it liberally. Once you are done though, get the yellow key and return to the previous dimension. But you aren't done yet, because tons of enemies are on the other side as well, such as more astral cacos, mancubus, hell knights/barons and a cyberdemon. Finish them off to get to the exit.

It's a solid map that get slow in the middle but definitely picks up towards the end. The dimension hopping may be a foreshadowing of what is to come in a certain other map in this wad.

Ultra violence 100% kills/secrets, Pistol start, Using saves
Played on DSDA Doom v0.27.5 -complevel 21

Map 16: Barbican - 17:02

Episode 4 starts off with a comparatively easy map. A nice wind-down from the difficulty of the last three levels. The medieval wood and stone indoors and fall outdoors in this level and the rest of the episode really grab me aesthetically. An episode in Ev2 looks amazing.. in other news water is wet ;). Anyway, the combat won't push you too hard but I do really like the rocket/megasphere fight where imps converge on you from four sides. It's a neat space management fight that I enjoy. The cyberdemon that spawns after the red key is a bit rude though, especially with a dwindling supply of shells and rockets. Barbeque Barbican lays the prowler imps on thick too, and they can really zing you if you aren't careful. They seem like they do more damage than in my first playthrough of this wad, so I'm not sure if they were buffed from RC1 to RC5 or that's just my imagination. I also like that this map is non-linear; you can collect the three keys in any order you like. The secret exit in this map isn't too hidden and is well worth finding, both for the supplies within and the secret map. 
Difficulty: 5/15

Map 34: Freya - 14:39

Ok, I'm starting to sound like a broken record here, but this map is truly beautiful. One of the best looking doom maps I've played in a while. For me it's tied with Map 32 so far for best looking map. Freya is probably the most "conventional" secret map in Ev2 other than that though. It isn't too difficult nor is it gimmicky or something super different. The action is consistently fun and frantic throughout though; my second playthrough had me down to sub-10% health three times. Be sure to track down the perforator, it's really helpful for astral cacos/arch-viles and there's a cool little visual within that I won't spoil. The BFG is also hidden away in a secret but I almost prefer going without it, as it completely trivializes the otherwise fairly chaotic final fight. Once again, watch out for prowler imps. They are well placed and can kill the unaware easily. 
Difficulty: 5/15

MAP18: Malaise. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 462/462 K, 3/5 S, 4/6 I. Comp. time 48:47

Another great one, that at times felt a bit overwhelming. In hindsight, it's not that long, I suppose, but it still took quite some time -- and I didn't even find all the secrets. One I know where it is located (the soul sphere near the corporal/imp ambush, right next to mega armor), but one I don't even have a clue. Hopefully it's not a BFG, because that would have made the final fight - the one that gave me trouble aside from the aforementioned corporal ambush - so much easier. Those damn astral arachnotrons!

An hour later: I don't how the berserk pack area in the opening area had opened, or was it always open, but even by the power of IDDT I didn't think to look there.

As for the Soul Sphere... The red switch, or eye, of whatever twinkle, is very subtle. I saw thru automap that there was a crevice right next to the blue armor, and still I was almost convinced there was nothing there. But I guess I should have figured it; the way to the secrets usually don't lie very far away.

MAP18 - Malaise - Bauul (98%K/50%I/60%S):

What a highlight map, that's a really nice looking castle, for sure, every detail here is top notch, gameplay is flawless and overall feels just nice to play. Regular Late-game Eviternity gameplay starts coming up with this one, with a real spice in difficulty, Eviternity starts switching from casual Doom gameplay+ to a bit of slaughter. High packs of hard to dodge enemies, long, overdetailed corridors with really nice architechture, and specially a lovely setting, from start to finish. A really sweet build up, starting from the autumn-coated woods, getting inside the main fortress, and finishing by enterning the citadel. What a choir of a map visually, and fun to replay too.

There are many things to describe about it, but I think I'll leave it short.

One thing I have to ask, no freaking idea how Bauul made that fake 3d bridge that raises everything with all that high amount of mid-textures, not sure how you are still able to pass under the bridge, not sure how the nodebuilder does not crap itself by building the scene. So many questions that are better left unanswered.

Difficulty? Well, I think I could not finish this one aswell without my "continuously" carried guns from MAP34, so thanks for your help, Bri. I don't have the balls to be a full pistol-starter. Excellent map, almost in pair with MAP14.

Order of preference:
 

MAP18: Malaise by Bauul

Malaise kicks off with an imposing view of a castle, where you will be spending the rest of the map. Regicide (Eviternity's MAP04) comes to mind and I doubt it wasn't intentional. 

The map itself is a long trek through the castle, spent mostly dealing with threats along the way. I was surprised to learn I spent half an hour here, the constant stream of enemies to kill and moving from place to place does make the time pass quickly. Aside from incidental combat there are two major setpieces. One has elevated corporals, while imps, pinkies and hell knights teleport en masse on the ground floor. It's another cramped rocket fight, where if you don't start firing ASAP, it's easy to get overwhelmed. The other one is the ending by the yellow key - a horde of imps, pinkies and corporals with some astral arachnotrons added to infight. Beating this lets you grab the key, raise a bridge to the exit and leave.

I have to mention the secrets here. I greatly enjoy the way Eviternity II hides them, if you notice something odd, there's a way to access it nearby. That being said, the supercharge secret is borderline bullshit. If you look around, there is a strange tile with a face on it. I thought it was a switch, but no. Instead, you need to stand next to it, turn around and notice a single red pixel on the opposite wall, which is a shootable switch. I mean, I've managed to find it myself, so I might be exaggerating somewhat, but I still see it as an overly convoluted puzzle.

Map18 “Malaise” by Bauul

Bauul gives us our “storming the castle” level of the episode, starting with a cave and taking us through a foreboding fortress. It's quite the adventure, and a map I suspect will end up in the "underrated" category because its combat isn't as demanding as many other levels.

The keyword for today is “atmosphere” because Bauul gives us Jupiter sized quantities of it. Malaise is richly detailed, competing for number one in the wad in that regard right now, featuring superb lighting, thing placement, and height variation. You don’t even have to go inside to see it, just walk around the perimeter of the castle. I struggle a bit to describe why I find this map so strong and it basically comes down to doing all the little things right. To give an example, the soulsphere secret near the megaarmor is among the best I’ve seen in any levelset, very well hidden yet giving the player all the clues needed to find it.

Gameplay is procedural, letting the level design and aesthetics take center stage. That said, two encounters stand out, the pellet gunnercorporal arena and the finale. For the first one we have several rows of corporals firing down on us while imps, pinkies, and a couple HKs muck up the ground. If you act quickly with the RL you can drastically reduce the amount of incoming fire before the pinkies show up, making the overall encounter go smoothly. The final fight mobs us with imps, corporals, and pinkies that are all plasma fodder up until four astral arachnos show up. They’re the biggest threats in the level and it’s actually helpful to have a good chunk of chaff left to absorb some of the plasma streams while you deal with them.

Malaise is an impressive piece of doom mapmaking and a good “anchor” level as far as gameplay goes. Bauul is one of the best and it shows in this mid-megawad stronghold.

GZDoom/UV/Contiuous/Saves

Write-ups from memory

MAP18:  Malaise - Bauul

I am going to try to do with write-up without resorting to pulling up a playthrough, since I think I remember this one a bit more than the last map. This map is basically Eviternity 1's MAP04 but bigger and more natural looking. This is one of the more homey maps in the set. Even though some of this map goes through dungeons with damaging liquid, this map still feels warm and lived in. This map and the next are the best examples of that in possibly the entire WAD. The forest environment helps with this. I like the one part toward the west of the map where you're on an upper ledge of the castle that overlooks the outdoor environment. It makes running from astral cacos and veilimps at least pleasurable. This map is kinda linear in progression, but there's some exploration you can do. This and the previous maps are a nice change of pace from some of the more non-linear maps. The encounters are mostly incidental, with a few ambushes thrown in for good measure. The incidental combat here probably has the most bite out of all the other maps so far, as stronger enemies are a little more common. The incidental combat just before grabbing the plasama rifle is a good example, as you run in to 1 arachnotron, mancubus, rev, and archie (I think that was the lineup) right in a row. It's kinda nasty. There is one ambush right after the most hidden soulsphere in the entire WAD that was pretty fun, with the corporals shooting down at you while imps and mid tiers teleport in on your level. So I didn't find how to lower that soulsphere in my playthrough. I could see in the automap that there was a small corridor nearby that I knew had a shootable switch at the end, but I could not figure out how to actually find it. Turns out in newer RCs, there's now a hint on a nearby wall where if you stand next to it on its ledge and turn around, you can see red eyes in the wall skull texture that you can shoot and lower it. I think this is the hardest secret to find in the entire WAD, but I'm not really mad about it. Secrets are secret for a reason, lol. I think that was the only one I couldn't find. This episode has some good looking courtyards, and the one where the final fight takes place is one of my favs. That final fight is a fun one, with lots of room to run around as everything infights. I think this was mostly imps with some hitscan, corporals, and astral spiders? It was kinda tough, but fun. That's pretty much the whole map for me, kinda hard but fun. It's quite a looker, as expected of Bauul and this WAD, and it's just a joy to explore. Super fun mid-ep romp. 

MAP18 - “Malaise” by Bauul

A proper castle map that looks the part and offers a solid adventure. Combat takes a back seat, which isn't a bad thing. Despite a fairly lengthy run time, I was never tired or bored, the gameplay moves nicely and the map is fairly easy to navigate with all of the switches showing exactly what they do to progress. There are a couple of bigger fights, nothing too hard, the fodder mosh pit with the corporals and the yellow key fight, both are very fun to dismantle.

This map is a bit of a slow burner, but reaps the rewards of atmosphere and exploration. The best map so far in this episode.

MAP18 - “Malaise” by Bauul

Deaths: 1

This map reminds me a bit of "The Citadel" from Doom 2, just much better. It has a moat and everything. There is an insane amount of detail in this map. Just a few moments here, looking around at the exterior of a huge keep, made my jaw drop. It's just a run-down old castle, but damn does it look great. Some of the map features use an insane number of lines and sectors to pull off. That crazy grate above the slime blew my mind.

It ends up being a pretty relaxing map, since it's not as difficult as some of the previous maps. Only the final battle really puts real pressure on the player, and my second attempt on that (my only death) I won without taking too much damage. The first time I hesitated and then made a couple bad initial decisions which made winning impossible.

I found all but one secret on my own. The final soulsphere after you use the blue and red key eluded me. Once I used UDB to point me in that direction, I ended up figuring out the trigger on my own pretty easily. Had I actually seen the soulsphere I would have figured it out easily, but that's how it goes. I didn't need the health at all, so at that point I probably wasn't paying enough attention. The secret megasphere is very well hidden. There's barely any hints, but there was enough for me to investigate further. The other secret soulsphere was kind of insane. There's a section that looked like a switch near it, and I kept trying to figure out how to activate it. I only accidentally saw the gleam in a skull's eye across the room. It was purely accident that I saw it at all. I wonder if it's even visible on lower resolutions. Even knowing it was there I could only barely see it. It's funny that I found this soulsphere, but not the other one.

The visual and secret design are the highlights of this map. It very nearly feels like a real place, that normally would only be possible in a much more advanced engine. This is going to be one of the most memorable maps of the wad for me just on those factors. The combat is good and fun, but lacks the bite I would expect this late in the wad. That's not terrible or anything though. The music is good too, and fits the map pretty well.

MAP18: Malaise by Bauul

This map kind of feels like Map04 of original Eviternity because of the castle that we storm. Except this map is much bigger, badder and more visually impressive. It's a cozy adventure map with pretty chill combat for the most part, except for that fight that has lots of corporals and the final fight in the central courtyard that involves tons of low tier fodder coupled with astral arachnotrons.

Has some really cleverly hidden secrets. Most notably the rocket ammo stash and especially the megasphere which requires a bit of platforming to get them.

MAP19: Spellbound by Dragonfly

Firstly, the midi. I love it. The midi's name is a reference to Runescape and I assume the music is named as such because it is similar to music played in Runescape? I have never played it.

As for the map itself, its a really cool map with nice medieval village theme full of houses and . Fairly non linear medium sized map with. A couple of mildly spicy archvile placements here and there (especially that 2 archvile fight before the yellow key and then another 2 archvile fight with tons of zombiemen), but otherwise not too difficult combat. You should have decent amount of rockets and plasma gun for such situations.

Special shoutout to that megasphere secret. @Vytaan wasn't the only one who fell for it :,). Real Wile E. Coyote level stuff lol

MAP19: Spellbound by Dragonfly

A breather map for sure, but not without thrills. Spellbound (which pretty accurately describes how I felt playing MAP19) lets you explore a village and surrounding valley in search of the keys. The layout allows for a certain degree of freedom regarding the route you take, most of the time you'll be dealing with small groups or enemies hidden behind corners. The exceptions are the keys.

The blue one drops you into a tiny room with an archvile, two nightmare demons and a chaingunner (just for the hell of it, I guess). This one took me by surprise, but somehow I managed to survive this without taking a hit - spam plasma and it should be over in no time. The yellow key also unexpectadly triggered a big fight: an archvile in front of you, another behind your back and revenants around you. There's also a trapped soulsphere, which teleports you into another cubby with monsters (which should be beaten the same way as the previous one).

Yellow key lets you open the way to the last key, but I've noticed a megasphere peeking behind a door. The switch that opens it is in the very next room, I pressed it, went inside smugly and nearly died to a hidden annihilator. That was not nice. The map concludes with a red key fight, a mass of imps that is just a rocket fodder. Overall, a solid gameplay with great visuals.

Map19 “Spellbound” by Dragonfly

What a cute little village, maybe I’ll find Belle in one of these houses. Oh, and speaking of Runescape from earlier...

Soundtrack: “92 is half of 99” by Dragonfly

Looks like Dragonfly is a man of culture as well.

Anyway, Spellbound is another medium sized map, set in a quiescent oldtown village (overrun by demons). Much like map34, killing monsters here felt charming. OG Eviternity’s map15 gave me this feeling as well, something about fighting the forces of hell in serene environments with pretty music. The visuals are yet another homerun and fit in with the “Bastion” theme in a medieval sense. Castle towns were common back then and we’re clearly making our way through one after the events of Malaise.

I must confess I found the gameplay a little undercooked. I liked the skirmish before the blue key, but the yellow key ambush was disappointing (two revs and a vile that got stuck). I also think the soulsphere trap nearby would have been more effective if the teleport linedef wasn’t visible on the automap. The double vile ambush on the way to the red key did catch me with my pants down (the megasphere secret beforehand should probably have tipped me off) but even that is only a blind run concern. If you keep running you can grab the red key and kill everything from safety… or just leave, the exit is right there upon jumping down.

I will give Dragonfly the “cheekiest moment of the megawad” award for said megasphere secret though. The audacity made me laugh.

Combat intensity is a matter of preference though, and Spellbound is an excellent map by any impartial metric. It’s picturesque, relaxing, and has good flow for its runtime.

MAP19 - Spellbound - Dragonfly (100%K/I/S):

Beautiful citadel, one would expect this to be a bigger map, surprisingly is not another behemot, nor a long map like the previous one. It is also, quite linear, even though it expects you to find both the red and blue key, it has a similar thing going on in terms of progression just like Malaise. You will need the yellow key first, then you can go for both keys in a random order to proceed.

Fun map to play, it has a lot of low detail lore, a lot of stuff that just screams PSX nostalgia, like those doors that cant be opened and are just a texture attached to the walls to add some detail to it. It also makes me feel like playing through Heretic again, because of the nice usage of "citadel" textures. Lovely story-telling so far for this episode, with a well balanced map, full of spice. Again, I can't quite rate its difficulty, because I'm just cheating at this point by playing continuously, but considering how stacked I was the entire playthrough, I suspect this one is more of a breather.

Order of preference:
 

MAP17 - “Perdita” by Liberation (Pistol start, [technically] saveless, 100% Kills, 75% Items, 50% Secrets)

This is actually a much better showcase of what the episode is trying to be from an aesthetic standpoint, with those medieval towns all over the place, those ancient castles abandoned, now being consumed by nature again, surrounded in water as a way of showcasing the land recovering its natural state.

As the map itself, pretty polished and good, many spaces are very opened where big groups of monsters try to surround you. It almost reminds me of darkwave, obviously a lot more contained in its ambushes and toned down, but still remarkable. But also akin to that mapper, the secrets are extremely good and intuitive to find if you know how to search, like the early ssg or the soulsphere, for the first one you just need to do a mini timing challenge where you need to recognize a hole in the wall and quickly got it before the pillar raises again, the other lends you navigate a small dark cavern to find a switch that lowers the bars to the secret. Like darkwave did in his moment, utilizes visual and environmental elements of its map to telegraph possible secrets, and requires a bit of thinking outside the box to find, which is again, pretty good.

The map ends finding a small town that has a gate to get into the exit, in the town there's a teleporter that sends you into a corrupted version of the town, a very good surprise and adrenaline rush considering there's a lot of dangerous endeavors trying to kill you, including damaging floor, revs and astral varieties of the caco and arachno, but that in the end you can easily manage with some infighting, plasma usage and classic circle strafing. The exit is almost the same, but with a cyber, just circle strafe and let everything kill itself, lmao.

The 20-minute journey towards the castle to this town feels like a satisfying adventure to go through, the visuals and combat truly combine into reinforcing that uneasy but calming sense, and as someone who doesn't like adventure maps like at all, this is possibly one of my new favorites of all time, and in the case of the whole megawad, top 4 or 5. Really good stuff.

9/10

MAP18 - “Malaise” by Bauul (Pistol start, used saves, 99% Kills, 50% Items, 40% Secrets)

Aaaaaaaand we came back to eviternity episode one like aesthetics. on top of all of, the opening area looks a lot like eviternity map04.

Outside of that and not negating the fact that this map still looks really gorgeous, the map is a linear key hunt like it is expected, fighting throughout many mayor and minor encounters like expected. That imp/former corporal room is really good and I like how tricky it can be if you don't make a good job clearing space, since also other close quarters threats like pinkies and hell knights also spawn at some point. The exit fight is also about this monster combo and can definitely get on you if you don't find that bizarre american mcgee torch secret to get 100 extra points of health, specially because the astral arachnos eventually clean up the whole arena, and they will annihilate you.

Other than that I don't have much other things to say, map like the others plays good and has almost the same positive qualities of the rest of what is in here.

8/10

P.D Playing this in woof 12.0.2.0, those sinking textures are normal?

MAP19 - “Spellbound” by Dragonfly (Pistol start, used saves, 100% Kills, 50% Items, 33% Secrets)

Another dragonfly map with the same qualities I mentioned previously, this time is a lot more linear compared to what else from him was before, making the weapon duplicates a bit unnecessary, but still allow for some decent amount of customization.

He managed to use the medieval town really nicely, making this feel like a city level but obviously with that different aesthetic, the doomcute beds feels a bit bizarre in a mapset that wasn't reliant at that to this point, but adds a bit of charm to it.

I don't have much to say about this one since is good as usual, just that the soulsphere trap was really trollish, which makes sense seeing that it was extremely obvious there was a trap somewhere, even more for the fact it gives you an invisibility that can make that annihilator instakill you even more easily, also that imp horde ambush was my favorite fight of the map for how you need to quickly carve out space. That's it.

8/10