[FINAL] EVITERNITY II - FINAL VERSION OUT NOW

18 hours ago, Raith138 said:

It would look very pixelated though so I think DSDA or GZ are your best options

Woof now supports high resolutions. That is why im asking. :)

21 minutes ago, Zaratul said:

 

Woof now supports high resolutions. That is why im asking. :)

If you set the resolution slider to "Native" you should get the best results. Maybe turn smooth pixel scaling on as well, though in a wad like Evi2 this will definitely affect your frame rate if your machine is old.

Nugget is a straight up fork of Woof! and has supported higher resolution for years now, even the configs are interchangeable with some adjustments and now both support native resolution with hardware renderer. I don't get it, why people stick to one port without trying other things? Curiosity anyone?

ALSO, isn't the whole point of playing Doom to enjoy a pixelated game? :)

57 minutes ago, CacoKnight said:

ALSO, isn't the whole point of playing Doom to enjoy a pixelated game? :)

Depends. I can't for the life of me play in 320x240 or something like that. Running high res doesn't necessarily mean that the game is less pixelated, it just makes those pixels much more crisp and allows detail in the distance, which is pretty important to me.

I use Nugget and the differences were only noticeable from 3X to 2X scaling in my case, and with the introduction of native res support I no longer have to worry about approximations or anything like that. 

Anyway I feel like I'm hijacking a thread that should be about Evi2 so I'll stop here.

32K PIXELS!! But yeah, agree on the hijacking thing, over and out.

6 hours ago, CacoKnight said:

ALSO, isn't the whole point of playing Doom to enjoy a pixelated game? :)

Art assets != internal resolution.

Can't download it, DL page just shows that cute snowy pic, no control elements at all. Ain't there any dl mirrors? Would be pity, because Eviternity 1 was the best Doom mod I've ever played.

The website still shows fine for me so I'm not sure what's going wrong at your end, here's a direct link to one of the mirrors, does this work?

Thanks alot, but it was just false alarm - I wasn't aware my mouse's got a wheel on it ^~^ Sometimes you just have to do an awkward post to stumble across the closest solution by yourself... Nevertheless, thanks for the zip!

All right then, seeing someone wrote a huge and brilliant review, I'm too going to say my piece - especially as my opinion often differs ("but that's part of the fun")

Saw the article on Google the day Eviternity II came out, so I knew what I was playing that night! That website is so lush and beautifully presented.

So, a level by level review then. I probably won't do it all in one go. Really, this is more a recounting of my experiences than an actual objective review but hopefully there will be some funny stories. I will state the map and music authors each time even though we know who they are, because it's worth giving them the extra credit.

CHAPTER 1: WITHERED

MAP 1 - ELYSIUM (map and music by Eris F... Er I mean Tristan Clark)

MAP 2: VESTIGE (Bauul & Dragonfly, Music: Tristan)

MAP 3: SONDER (Map and Music by Dragonfly)

MAP 4: ENGULFED (Velvetic & Dragonfly, Music: Dragonfly)

MAP 5: DEPARTURE (Velvetic & DFly again, Music: Jimmy)

MAP 31: REDSHIFT - NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH VALIANT MAP 29 (AfterGlow, Music: Jimmy)

Well, I'll leave it there for now. If you like it I'll reel off the rest, I've still got plenty to say.

On 2/28/2024 at 3:35 PM, Arsinikk said:

Finally got around to playing through Eviternity II.

 

The megawad is very large, so I feel that it's worth me doing a map-by-map review of what I thought. I played RC5 in DSDA Doom.

 

Please note, I can be very blunt with my criticisms. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a friend or not, I will say what it is that I think without filter. Please do not take my criticisms personal, as I bear no ill will towards any mapper or their craft. I simply wish to express my overall thoughts, hopefully in order to make Eviternity II better.

 

You can watch my Eviternity II streams on Twitch (Let me know if you want me to make permanent video archives of the vids):

https://www.twitch.tv/arsinikkdm

 

Overall Thoughts (SPOILERS):

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Overall it's an impressive project. The megawad’s quality is top notch and the size and scale of the maps are immense. This is both an amazing thing and also potentially a fault.

 

I quite enjoyed the first Eviternity. It’s pretty high quality and has impressive looking maps. It had a certain amount of polish to it that other WADs didn’t have, which made it unique. Eviternity II, on the other hand, pushes all these aspects to eleven. Every map in Eviternity II is larger in scope with higher detail, sprawling maps, and even more maps. This is amazing quality-wise, but I do think it has its drawbacks.

 

Pretty much every map in Eviternity II is around 40 minutes at the low end, especially on a blind playthrough. This is compared to the average length of maps being shorter in the original maps in Eviternity. There is almost this sense of magnum opus syndrome with alot of the maps, where every map needs to be a big showcase of something. Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does result in the megawad requiring a larger commitment to play compared to the original.

 

I didn’t find Eviternity II that difficult, the fights and maps are well put together and dare I say “beautiful” that it is a very solid package. One bonus is that it was a rarity that I ever felt lost or confused when making my way to the exit.

 

I don’t know if I’d call this a bad thing, but I do wonder if releasing such a high quality megawad would deter people from making their own projects, due to Eviternity II possibly creating too high of a standard to meet. It’s tricky because Eviternity II is very impressive in everything it does, and it should rightly be praised for that. But quality-wise, it does present a new perception of what a high quality megawad is for the community, and I suspect it will be a while til another megawad releases with the same amount of quality.

 

General Episode / Map Order Thoughts (SPOILERS):

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Episode I: Withered

This was a good opener for the megawad. I like that it’s almost a continuation of the final episode of Eviternity, while also adding an element of decay. Gives both a familiarity and a uniqueness to it.

 

Episode II: Sanctuary

While I will say this episode started out as a little bit of a sour note, all the maps are pretty good here. I’d say the downside of this egypt/mayan theme is that I’ve seen it in many other wads like Epic 2, Deus Vult II, Hexen II. So the theme feels less fresh and original to me.

 

Episode III: Petrified

This is actually my favourite episode of Eviternity II. It has alot of my favourite maps, and the aesthetic feels unique. It’s interesting because I remember the first Eviternity had a sort of Brutalist episode, but this one feels more interesting. For architecture, it goes for the grayscale, while it’s compensated with a very colourful depiction of nature. It creates a fascinating dichotomy.

 

Episode IV: Bastion

I have mixed feelings about this episode. I feel like we’ve already explored a bit of this theme with the original Eviternity, and while I do enjoy castles and the like, it’s like the original theme but with detail and scale turned up to eleven.

 

Episode V: Hyperborean

So my favourite episode of the original Eviternity was probably the snow episode, since we don’t get alot of snow themed Doom maps. I guess the twist with this episode is that it combines techbase with snow. Unfortunately I’m not a big fan of the techbase aesthetic in general, so I don’t think I was that crazy about this episode’s theme.

 

Episode VI: Celestial

So I’ll admit the maps in this episode are done well and look really nice. Unfortunately I’ve seen this kind of aesthetic before in many other wads - black offset by neon colours. For this fact alone, I found the aesthetic of this episode nothing really new. I will say specifically just for this episode, that I thought the map order felt really off. MAP26 is a killer map and seems to be the showstealer. The next maps almost feel like a step down from MAP26. I don’t really feel any kind of escalation of this episode with how the map order is. I don’t know how to fix it, but this episode feels the most off to me. Not to mention that I think having MAP36 right after MAP29 is a huge pace killer. It really feels like MAP36 would make more sense being accessed from MAP26 or MAP27 instead.

 

Map-by-Map Review (SPOILERS):

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Episode I: Withered:

 

MAP01: Elysium

Great intro map. I like that it’s essentially a retooled version of Eviternity’s MAP29. It’s cool to see a decayed version of the previous MAP29, and it’s a nice reminder of the previous megawad. The scripting in the map is really impressive as well. I love the teleporting torch paths. I did notice that sometimes you can get caught on the corners of the torch “ride”, but it seemed kinda minor so it’s fine. Also nice touch with using barrels to damage the Astral Caco ;). If I had a minor criticism, it is that it isn’t exactly clear where the player should go. Especially when they reach the X building. There are multiple paths the player can go down, but there isn’t really a point to do so. I do wonder if it would be better to block these areas to make it more clear to the player where they should go.

 

MAP02: Vestige

Interesting enough, I actually really like this map. It’s very simple (compared to many of the maps to come), but I think it does its job well. I love the black decayed textures (in place of liquid?). The rain, while cool, is kinda underwhelming. It’d be cooler to me to see more rain throughout the wad, like heavy rain at one point. I wonder if the reason for not doing that was for performance reasons?

 

MAP03: Sonder

Another pretty solid map. This map introduces the shootable heart mechanic, which is kinda weird since it only shows up here and MAP37. I’ll go into that more in depth later on. Overall the heart mechanic is done well in teaching the player with how they work. My favourite part of the map is the centre blood pit that morphs for the fight. Very cool level transformation.

 

I really like how y’all did secret exits in this wad. They are a different colour (purple) than the normal exits (gold), and they are often easy to see during the level. This is great for player readability as the player is never confused on what maps have the secret exits (and since it could be any map due to MBF21/UMAPINFO, this is very useful). The main challenge for the secret exits is not finding them, but often figuring out how to get to them.

 

Regarding this specific map I didn’t have that many problems finding the secret exit switches, but I did get stuck forgetting to hit a secret exit step switch in a secret I already tagged, but forgot to actually hit the switch when I found it.

 

MAP04: Engulfed
I actually don’t have much to say about this map. It was very solid. I think it took me a while to find all the secrets, but once I found them all, I didn’t think any were unfair or anything. Good map.

 

MAP05: Departure

Again, not much to comment on for this map. Very solid map. It’s supposed to be the intro of the new Astral Arachnotron, I think? The only secret I wasn’t a fan of is the shoot switch in the green fire. I thought it a bit too difficult to see from the vantage point that you are meant to shoot it from. I actually tried to shoot the green fire there, but failed to see the tiny switch on the side of it.

 

 

 

Episode II: Sanctuary:

MAP06: Rite

This is my least favourite map of the set. It frustrates me to say this since I love the idea and atmosphere of the map. At first when I played this map, I was enjoying it quite a bit. It’s a bit dark and almost spooky. It gave me a bit of Eternal / Epic 2 vibes. But I think the biggest flaw of this map is the level layout. It works really well when you are first dredging through it, but it becomes really confusing and annoying if you try to do any exploring in areas you’ve already visited. I sincerely think that this map would really benefit from 1 or 2 shortcuts opening up after you grab a key or move forward the progression. On top of this, I wasn’t a huge fan of the secrets in this map. I don’t know if I was just dumb, but this is honestly the only map I had trouble finding the secrets. To be fair, they are secrets, so they should be hidden, but I didn’t really find any joy by finding them. My least favourite secret involved a tiny gold square switch on a pillar. I think part of the reason this annoyed me so much is that I didn’t know what a switch looked like since I hadn’t seen switches like that before because of the new episode theme. I think that would’ve worked better if I were more accustomed to how the switches of the episode looked like.

 

MAP07: Sovereign

This map really surprised me. Since I tend to not enjoy very open maps, I was concerned that this map would be confusing to navigate. Thankfully, this map is actually quite fun to explore and navigate. It might actually be my favourite map of the episode to be honest. Good map, and a nice compliment to the dark and claustrophobic nature of the last map.

 

MAP08: Oblation

Another map that gave me some fun Eternal vibes with some really fun combat. Has a few fights that really use the new Arachnotron to its full potential. I got a kick out of being able to hit a secret switch with an SSG shot. I really like how the map starts and ends in about the same place, very satisfying and interesting. We’ll see that again in a future Bri map. This is the first map where I noticed the teleport particle spawner can get crushed into gibs, although I’ll go more into that in the “bugs” section.

 

MAP09: Quetzalcoatl

Probably the most forgettable map of episode 2, but not a bad map at all. Still just as fun to play. I think it was this map that I mentioned how I liked how the teleport particles were used… lol until a certain secret broke that rule :P. It seemed to this point that particles were only used to denote a teleporter entry and not a destination point. I thought that was a very clever way to distinguish the two from a gameplay perspective. There is a secret in the south west part of the map where you can see the particles, but it’s actually a teleport destination. I can sorta give this a pass though, because it helps convey to the player that there’s a teleporter there and the player can get there. I had a bit of trouble trying to get to the BFG and the secret exit in this map… Although now it seems pretty obvious in hindsight, and I guess I was just blind to it lol.

 

MAP10: Incinerate

I have mixed feelings about this map. The overall map is a good map. It’s also one of the rare actual short maps of the megawad.

 

I have two points of contention.

1) It seems like this map is supposed to showcase the new Astral Mancubus, but I feel that having a cyberdemon in the middle of the map kinda takes the spotlight away from showcasing the new enemy and its new attacks. I have mixed feelings about this because the setup works pretty well. But I don’t really feel like I could get a good understanding of how the new enemy works from this map.

2) My second minor complaint is the secret BFG shoot switch. Because of how the map is and how it uses flashing sectors, it’s very difficult to see the switch you’re supposed to shoot. It may as well be invisible. I will say that when I figured out it was a BFG and that it would make the rest of the map alot of easier, I felt more conflicted. While it is hard to notice, especially on a blind playthrough, it is a BFG and would trivialise the previous fight some. So I'm not sure what to think there.

 

 

 

Episode III: Petrified:

 

MAP11: Titan

This map is fucking awesome lol. The main thing that sold me on this map is the beginning fight. It’s so brutal, but also extremely fun. I was actually kinda surprised by how much I liked the nature and brutalism aesthetic combo. It’s not really a style I’ve seen in Doom maps and I think it’s executed quite well here. There’s an extremely evil soulsphere secret hiding between two bushes. I honestly have no idea how you’re supposed to find that blind. I think this is the map where I finally could see how the new Mancubus worked.

 

MAP12: Collapse

This might be my favourite map of the set. I love how the environment shifts around the player here. On top of that it even includes my favourite Cyberdemon telefrags to boot. The general size and scale of this map reminded me of the first Eviternity, and I loved it. Regarding secrets, perhaps I was blind, but I did not notice the shoot switch for the soulsphere. Perhaps since I didn’t consider the “backdrop” a place where there was something I could interact with. Midi really reminded me of “Rotted Roots”, my favourite midi from the original Eviternity.

 

MAP13: Colossicus

Aesthetically speaking, this map is fantastic. The main giant corridor with beams overhead, it’s truly jaw dropping. Gameplay-wise I’m not such a big fan of this map. Perhaps it’s the having to do each side of the building leading to having to reach the left and right second-story parts of the building that just made me feel like I had to do the same thing twice. I almost think this would be a better map if you did the top second-story progression at the same time, right after the other, so it didn’t feel like I was retreading old ground.

 

MAP14: Equanimity

Damn this episode is a banger. I also really enjoyed this map. I will say that I do LOVE puzzles, so perhaps that is one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much. Most puzzles were a breeze for me, which actually surprised my Twitch chat, with how fast I beat stuff like the slide puzzle. Pretty fun map. Only secret I thought was a little unfair was a certain soulsphere that is hidden in a center planter. The reason I wasn’t crazy about this secret is that there’s no way to know something would be in there since it is never in sight.

 

MAP15: Rubicon

I like tough slaughter type maps, so naturally I did enjoy a map by Scotty :P. I spent a bit looking for the secrets, but once I found them, I thought they were fair enough. Didn’t have many problems with this one. This map introduces the Veilimp, I think? Still not sure how I feel about them. I think it’s funny that their “teleporting” isn’t really teleporting, as they can’t move down or up elevations. It’s more like turning invisible. Fun map.

 

 

 

Episode IV: Bastion:

 

MAP16: Barbican

This is a bizarre map. I don’t know how I feel about it. I find the map itself to be a bit strange, but the midi is probably the strangest in the whole wad (not bad, but out-of-place; odd). I don’t wanna be too harsh, but this is probably the most forgettable map in the set… I would say if it was not for a certain area that looks very similar to MAP01 from the original Eviternity. It’s worth mentioning that it’s the first map of an episode that includes a secret exit, which is pretty cool.

 

MAP17: Perdita

I love this map… like alot. Extremely fun to play. Fights are pretty punishing and kept me on my toes. The crazy sector-ed houses made me chuckle. Secrets were fun to find. I also really enjoyed the “other dimension” section at the end… And the fact you could return back to the original area (aka not get locked out secret exploration). Great map from Liberation.

 

MAP18: Malaise

The best way I’d describe this map is that it feels like a quake map to me. That’s not a negative… Because I enjoyed this map quite a bit. A certain crazy secret with a red eye scared me that the secrets would be super cryptic, but actually it wasn’t that bad :P. It cracked me up that everyone is fascinated with the midtex bridge with the torches underneath, since it’s not too tricky to do (you could totally do that in Boom). I will say it looks pretty damn cool tho :). Fun map throughout.

 

MAP19: Spellbound

The best way to describe this map is… comfy? It’s like a village and it looks good. Combat is good, but not too crazy. Highlight for me was a certain soulsphere teleport trap that’s fucking hilarious. Also another megasphere / Annihilator placement that’s just amazing. Don’t have much more to say to be honest.

 

MAP20: Dominion

Not sure what to think about this map to be honest. I really like the castle aesthetic, it really gives me some Eternal Doom vibes. I think I’d say that this map has the strange quality of being more difficult to navigate than I think it should. Not really sure why that is. I found myself getting a little lost and unable to get around very well. It’s one of those maps where having the automap doesn’t actually seem to help much, as you need to take a specific path to get to a point in the map. On stream, many people complained about the cyberdemon in this map, but to be honest, it died rather quickly for me… Though that’s perhaps because I had trouble navigating the map, that by the time I went to kill the Cyber, he was already pretty weak :P. The midi of this map goes hard.

 

 

 

Episode V: Hyperborean:

 

MAP21: Numb

Another snow episode just like in the original Eviternity. It’s gonna take alot to top my favourite Eviternity map “Cryonology”. Honestly the coolest thing about this map is the dehacked snow and the reflective metal effect. When I was playing I immediately could tell it was using a translucent effect to do that… However, using a sky behind it does have a very cool effect. To be honest, that may be my favourite new “feature” in Eviternity II. It’s crazy how simple and easy it is to do that effect as well :). Regarding the map, it’s a well put together snow map. Not really crazy about the duality of the map, but I think it’s done better here than it was in MAP13. The end of this map being a certain cave from the next map is actually really nice looking.

 

MAP22: Inclement

This is an interesting map, as it kinda starts with a panic with you flailing to get a foot hood. It’s not too long before you regain your composure though. I was really surprised to see the “use any key” switch, which is not something you see used that often. Regarding the secret exit, it was pretty straight forward. What I will say is that I thought it was really strange that you can reach the area with the secret exit door before the room has opened. It felt really strange finding that area first and then finding there was nothing there. It was only after finding all the switches that the door was opened.

 

MAP23: Thaw

Not too crazy about this map, although I don’t really enjoy techbase maps, so… It’s not a bad map and I do like the concept of turning on a “heater” and melting certain ice textures. I think the melting of certain ice textures was a mechanic that was taught well and I especially liked that there were dedicated ice textures to make it crystal clear (pun intended?). Some of the Archvile traps in this map were particularly nasty which was fun.

 

MAP24: Termeraire

So… That boat tho. So jokes aside I do enjoy this map quite a bit. Although I’m generally a fan of Antares031's maps in general. This map actually has some of the most punishing fights in the whole megawad. I love it. I was able to find all the map secrets (even the bonus path to go around the boat that ends in a stupid stupid health bonus). Only secret that I wasn’t fond of was a specific rocket launcher secret behind some boxes with a white arrow in it. I wasn’t crazy about that secret, because on the other side where you can see that room, you can’t see there’s anything in there, so there was really no reason for me to search for a path into that room. If I had a minor critique of the map it’s the snow caves are very reminiscent of Antares’s map from the first Eviternity (MAP14: Frimaire). Then again, it’s the same mapper so -shrug-. This will probably be the main map I’ll remember from Eviternity II from the final boat sequence alone. Also I thank Antares for allowing me to backtrack at the end.

 

MAP25: Boreas

So I feel I should like this map since I tend to enjoy boss maps. I can’t really fault the mapper here though because the Necromenance is a bit of a hard boss to learn how to deal with. I think this was probably the best way to introduce such an enemy. It is pretty funny fighting the first phase and not understanding what the ghosts do. It’s only in the second phase that you start to get how dangerous this enemy actually is.

 

 

 

Episode VI: Celestial:

 

MAP26: Myriad

This is my favourite Episode VI map. It’s got such a unique concept with having a bunch of “trails” to complete. I also really like how there’s a secret in every trial and the fact you can re-enter the trails after completing them. It’d be much harsher to expect players to find each secret in each trail during the action, and then not be able to return afterward, so I appreciate that quite a bit. Also this is the first map where you can get the Perforator that’s not a secret map, which is awesome to pistol-start players. Each of the trials is distinct enough from each other that they're fun to go through.

 

MAP27: Empyreal

It’s a bit of a shame that if the previous map was the highlight, that the only place to go is down. Not saying that this or any of the future maps are bad. No, they are all quality. I really enjoyed the intro fight of this map. I will say it is this episode where the difficulty actually starts to rear its ugly head. From this map forward you can expect a Necromancer in basically every map, for better or worse. The final fight of this map is pretty brutal if you don’t find the secret BFG. If I had any comment on aesthetics here, it’d be that I think it’s strange that the green crystal wall texture has an animation, but the green crystal flat isn’t animated.

 

MAP28: Afterimage

Another pretty solid map. Overall solid fights. This is the first map of the set where I actually almost ran out of ammo at the end to deal with the Necromancer. Luckily I was able to find 1 or 2 cell packs, but I actually got a bit worried at the end there. There are quite a bit of Astral Cacodemons and Nightmare Astral Cacodemons in this map.

 

MAP29: Maelstrom

I found this map a bit disappointing for a penultimate map. Map does look pretty snazzy. This is the only map where I’d actually complain it’s slightly too dark. Dark enough to have me complain about not being able to see enemies or where I’m going. Overall it is a fun map, and I don’t really have much to say about secrets or anything. I do like that you have the secret exit visible near the very start.

 

MAP30: Cosmology

Funny how looking at the towers I immediately could tell Antares was involved. Pretty simple arena map, but awesome final boss. I give my thoughts on the final boss in the “new monsters” section below, but I did like this map. Not much more to say.

 

 

Secret Maps / Credits:

 

MAP31: Redshift

This might actually be one of my favourite maps in the set… Partly because it has my favourite midi of the set, but also because of the introduction of The Perforator. I was a bit unsure of how I felt about the new weapon at first, but when I learned that it could one shot a baron, I was sold. This map heavily reminded me of some of the old Eviternity Automation Episode (MAP06-MAP10). Just a very fun map and fun new weapon to accompany it.

 

MAP32: Charge

This is my favourite secret map of the set. I don’t know if I would say it’s my favourite map of the set though. It’s got alot of cool and fantastic things going for it, but it’s also a very long map. The electric death floor is an extremely fun gimmick and it’s explained and used very well here. I don’t really have strong feelings for or against the Gold Astral Cacodemon, but it’s fun. It’s not the mappers fault, but it’s pretty easy to sometimes miss the “cutscenes” with him. Though with some horror games, it’s the same thing, so what can you do? I think my favourite part of the map was the secret progression to a dark facility. The way the giant door lowers with such scale and macro-architecture is so cool.

 

My only complaint about this map is a certain secret. Usually I wouldn’t complain about secrets, but there is this one secret that includes a way to backtrack to an early part of the level. The fact that this is locked behind a secret (and a cryptic one too), is just not very cool. None of the other secrets in this map or really the main megawad ever really impeded me from backtracking, so looking for secrets without this shortcut was extremely annoying to deal with. The specific secret I’m referencing involves you interacting with a wood box (not for the first secret which is the box itself), and it randomly opens a shortcut door temporarily.

 

MAP33: Catalyst

So I have alot to say about this map. I think many people do, some who really like it, and some who really don’t. I’ll start by saying I respect the making of this map and I think the map is done well for what it set out to do. What I’ll also say is that I don’t like this map, and I’ll never play it again. At first playing through the map, while it’s not the kind of map I enjoy, I thought it was pretty good. However, I do think that especially at the end sequence, it’s not very accessible for casual players. This ironically was the hardest map of the set for me. I will say that I do think I have slower reflexes than most, partly due to having ADHD. I actually don’t really understand how you’re supposed to do the final section. It seems like you’re required to walk through the yellow parts of the lines in some of the final parts. I did think that the red/yellow lines did seem inconsistent on where exactly they would kill you or not. Long story short, I respect the effort and craft of this map, but I don’t personally enjoy or really like it at all. I have mixed feelings on whether I think it was a good idea to include this in the project. I can see why players who enjoy these kinds of maps would be thrilled, but I do think the skill ceiling for this map is probably the highest in the entire wad. 

 

MAP34: Freya

Map looks really good, but to be honest I’m not really the person that cares that much about how a map looks. I care more about how a map plays and the combat. The combat is relatively solid. The main thing that I’ll probably remember about this map is the giant Veil Imp ambush at the end. It’s awesome. This is another map by Bri that ends where it begins, which is pretty cool I will say.

 

MAP35: Parallel

This is an awesome map. I love it. This kinda has a very similar idea to TNT: Revolution MAP32 “Duality”, but just done so much better. The fact that you immediately learn the gimmick of the Viscera like-pink floor changing to the other dimension so easily is testament to good design. If I had a minor nitpick it’d be that the secret to grab the megasphere is in a completely different area which is a little iffy in my opinion. Overall great map, great execution.

 

MAP36: Kenosis

So I had this map hyped up for me. This is a very strange map, and I’m still not exactly how I feel about it. It is competently made and the map scripting is excellent. I just found the first part of the map gathering weapons to just not be fun. Maybe it’s the particular order I did the buildings in, but there are just so many fights that are… very annoying. Bytefyre said there was a certain story with the music, but I really do think the music kinda harms this map. It’s not a bad track, but I definitely think for a map this long, it’d benefit the map to have a music change at some point. Particularly when you enter the upside cross area. Weirdly enough when I entered the middle area, I started enjoying the map alot more. The best part of the map is obviously the final fight / sequence. I just honestly don’t feel like the reveal justifies having to go through all of the map before it. To be quite honest, I think I would’ve liked this map much better if it wasn’t right after MAP29. It’s a major pace killer.

 

MAP37: Credits

Pretty cool put together credits map to show off all the maps with music changes to accompany them. So I figured out there’s a secret Baby Astral Cacodemon ambush fight in this map, but I haven’t figured out why the combination is what it is. If someone could tell me why the combination is what it is, I’d appreciate that :).

 

 

New Weapon / New Monsters / Misc Dehacked thoughts (SPOILERS):

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New Weapon:

 

The Perforator:

Extremely fun weapon to use. The fact it can one-shot barons is just amazing. I think if I had any complaint about this weapon, it’d be that while pistol starting Eviternity II, you don’t really get to use it very often. I understand the reasoning of locking the weapon only in the secret maps, but it just ends up in it not getting that much use in the wad. I will say this does get a bit better in the final episode as you finally get the weapon in the main maps.

 

 

 

New Monsters:

 

Former Corporal:
I think these were nerfed a bit from the ones in the original Eviternity. I think they shoot less now, and their projectiles may do less damage? Anyway I like that they aren’t hitscan. Not such a bit fan of the sfx, since I recognise them from Doom 64.

 

Nightmare Demon:

I actually used to not be so fond of these guys besides just another slightly faster pinky… But then when you try to shoot rockets during a fight, their faster speed makes all the sense, as I die from a face rocket. Nuff said.

 

Annihilator:

Slightly nerfed from their original counterpart, I love the fact they aren’t hitscan anymore. They are much less annoying in this regard now. I will say that the occasional rocket one shot does still kinda get a tiny bit annoying.

 

Astral Cacodemon:

These are scariest SOBs in the wad (or at least until I met the Nightmare variant). Just like in the original Eviternity, they can most of the time one-shot you in melee range. Their movement is still erratic, although they have a slightly different purple projectile. I’m still not exactly sure if it does more or less damage than the main projectiles.

 

Astral Arachnotron:

I wasn’t crazy about these guys to begin with. At first they just seemed like Arachnotrons that move faster with a fancy projectile fire spray. Although they are a bit more interesting in monster hordes since their spray covers a wide range. By themselves they don’t really add much to the combat puzzle, but with others their spray can whittle you down.

 

Astral Mancubus:

Just like the Astral Arachnotron, I wasn’t crazy about these guys either. Basically a tankier Mancubus with three fire modes. Conceptually and execution-wise they are interesting, but regarding actual combat I wasn’t quite sold on their inclusion. My favourite part about these guys is the signposting (colour) showing their attacks before actually attacking. I will say that it did take me a full playthrough to understand their attacks, and I do find them a bit more interesting. Yellow means a spray of projectiles straight ahead. Like a shotgun, but wider spread and very damaging. Purple means projectiles that when they hit something, they will change their direction towards the player at that point of hitting a surface. It’s like a less accurate revenant missile, but still can catch you off guard. I’ll come back to this when I talk about the Nightmare Astral Cacodemon. Green, ironically, is the most simple attack, but it took me a full playthrough to understand it. Basically it shoots projectiles to the right and left of the player, meaning the best way to avoid this is to stay right in front while the attack happens. I’m surprised about how much this messes with muscle memory of dealing with Mancubi. I ended up liking these guys quite a bit now.

 

Veil Imp:

Speaking of signposting and not doing that, I present the Veil Imp. So I actually kinda like these guys. I like that they are lower tier enemies. The “teleport” mechanic is really funny if you know how dehacked works, and you realise that they aren’t actually teleporting. It’s all an illusion for turning invisible. What is interesting is that with MBF21 they could have actually had them actually teleport past ledges and such, but chose not to. I’m guessing it may have been for balancing reasons and keeping them contained in specific areas? The only thing I don’t like about these guys is that there doesn’t seem to be a way to tell which attack they are going to do.

 

Nightmare Astral Cacodemon:

Never would I think there would be something scarier than an Astral Cacodemon… Well here we are. It’s faster (maybe?), tankier, and its projectiles are a bitch. Particularly the purple projectiles that change direction towards the player. These guys truly are a pain to deal with.

 

Necromenance:

Wasn’t sure what to think of this enemy. I can’t complain that effort wasn’t taken to explain how he works, since there’s MAP25. I still think it took me a bit to figure out a good strat. Essentially he’s kind of like a tanky archvile without the hitscan fire attack. What’s interesting is that he shoots out spirits to resurrect monsters en masse. Occasionally he does also shoot a normal projectile at the player. It’s the spirits though that are what make it tricky to deal with. Specifically cuz the spirits are fast and die from rockets. This makes rocketing these guys an awful idea (face rockets galore). I’ve found the best strat is to use the Plasma to both hit him and kill any spirits it shoots out at the same time. I will say I think this is the most unique enemy in the wad to fight combat-wise. They are truly scary to deal with without any plasmagun or bfg.

 

Eviternatus (Final Boss):

Well I will say I like this final boss much more than the final boss of Eviternity. It does truly feel like a final boss, with a big arena and phases, which is pretty cool. Would still be nice to have some kind of health bar, but I guess I can take what I can get. It’s funny how Doomers get surprised about stuff like the environment shifting, since that could already have been done via MBF, and isn’t really that new at all.

 

 

 

Misc Dehacked thoughts:
 

No more health/amour bonus item counts:
I actually really like this change, and kinda surprised this hasn’t been done sooner. I assume this was done to compensate for the Former Corporal dropping armour bonuses. Let’s be real, no one enjoys searching for bonuses. I think having the other items is much more reasonable, since they actually make a difference. I will say that in a bit of the maps, it does seem like bonuses were placed in the traditional way.. It makes me wonder if the bonus count change was made late into development.

 

Teleport Particles:
This is very reminiscent of teleports in Heretic, but I really like the use here. It makes it very clear when something’s a teleport or not. I think I’d like it more if it was only used for entry teleports and not destination teleports, but the wad is for the most part consistent about that. One thing to note is that the particle spawners can be crushed when the floor and ceiling become 0.

 

Weather Effects:
I do like having actual rain and snow. With all the extra frames that DEHEXTRA gives, it really does make it easy to have free frames to do stuff like that. I do sorta wish that the rain was more plentiful, but perhaps that was done due to performance reasons? One minor downside with the snow is that if it’s in the opening shot of the map (example being MAP21), you can see that it doesn’t start falling until once the map starts. It can slightly ruin the immersion of it always have been snowing. It’s minor, but it’s a thought.

 

 

Bugs:

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Teleport Particle Spawners becoming crushed gibs

I mentioned this above, but I’ll put it here too. Teleport particle spawners can be crushed when the floor and ceiling become 0. This is most easy to see in MAP08 as a pillar with particles will raise to the ceiling and then lower and be replaced with gibs. I used to think this was because the thing had a death state, but it’s actually because things in Doom are hardcoded (even in MBF21) to become crushed gibs if they have a moving frame.

 

I may have come across something else in my playthrough, but I can’t really remember. It was mostly a bug free experience.

 

Bravo. Bravo, Bravo! Thanks for this, enjoyed reading it. I'm also doing my own. 

EDIT: OMG what just happened??? I just sat on my keyboard by mistake while I was typing this and now I've made a huge mess and sent it all! Can anyone help pls???

I also got the map credits wrong and was going to check on the wiki and correct them. Now everyone can see how wrong I got it.

Right I'm going to finish this post here. The others have to go in the bin. EDIT: THIS IS THE FINAL FINISHED POST, THE OTHERS NEED TO BE BINNED.

And now, presenting tonight's episode, Chapter 2  - Sanctuary (won't be much of that here)

Awww Sheeeeeet! I forgot to put spoiler tags on last time. I'm not used to this. Hopefully I can maybe just about get away with spoiling episode 1 for some poor newbies who haven't played it, yet are for some reason here on page 30 of this thread? Right, I'll do it now before I forget.

(Also, CHAPTER 1 Favourite level - including the secret level - Elysium actually. Least favourite, hmmm don't know, probably Sonder cos I had such a crap time haha)

MAP 6 - RITE (Map: An_Mutt! Yes An_Mutt & Music: Dragonfly)

MAP 7: SOVEREIGN (DMPhobos, Music: Tristan, not Dragonfly the wiki says - I swear blind it was dragonfly?)

MAP 8: OBLATION (Bri, Music: Tristan)

MAP 9: QUETZALCOATL (Map: Dragonfly, Music: Tristan)

MAP 10: INCINERATE (Map: Dragonfly, Music: Tristan)

Yeah I'm going to leave it there for now after all that. I'm very sorry about this mods, THIS IS THE FINISHED POST.

EDIT: Oh ffs I forgot to do Charge and my favourite and least favourite map.

*sighs* Right, MAP 32: CHARGE (Tristan & Guardsoul, Music by Tristan)

Favourite Map: Map10 - Incinerate

Least Favourite: Map 08 - Oblation

See you next time. *storms off*

MODS PLEASE DELETE. THANKS

OK... that was legitimately pretty amazing.

@RICHIE B Can't Imagine they'll delete any of that. I don't agree with much of what you said, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong there.

Playing through RC5 with GZDoom. A true testament to the skills of the mappers involved. The wad is hard and unforgiving, but the fights are adrenaline-fueled and the levels gorgeous. Oh and the OST is a bop.

Currently on MAP14, and one thing I have to ask:

Can't wait to see what the rest of Eviternity II has to offer!

I finished my run through the other day and was blown away. The secret levels Parallel, Charge and Kenosis were standout levels. 

The overall production quality is excellent, with some amazing tracks. The custom enemies are also generally very interesting and quite well used. 

11 hours ago, Budoka said:

OK... that was legitimately pretty amazing.

 

@RICHIE B Can't Imagine they'll delete any of that. I don't agree with much of what you said, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong there.

No, I mean the second post. I sat on my keyboard by mistake and sent a load of unfinished copies but only one extra showed up. Part 3 coming up. Interesting to know what you didn't agree with but I can imagine. Lets see what I have to say about the rest. :)

Okey-Dokey, this is part THREE of me Eviternity II Review. It's late so prob just one episode again this time.

CHAPTER 3 - PETRIFIED

MAP 11: TITAN (Guardsoul, Music: Tristan)

MAP 12 - COLLAPSE (Dragonfly, Music: Jimmy)

MAP 13 - COLOSSICUS (DFly, Music: Jimmy P)

MAP 14 - EQUANIMITY (Aurelius, Music: Tristan)

MAP 15: RUBICON (Scotty, Music: Tristan)

MAP 33: CATALYST (Bauul, Music: Jimmy)

Favourite Map: Map 14 - Equanimity

Least Favourite: Map 12 - Collapse

Tune in next time. Same Echidna time. Same Echidna channel.

EPISODE 4 - BASTION

MAP 16 - BARBICAN (Map & Music: FlyDragon)

MAP 34 - FREYA (Bri , Music: DFly & Tristan)

MAP 17 - PERDITA (Liberation, Music: Tristan)

MAP 18 - MALAISE (Oh Bauul made this? Music: Tristan)

MAP 19 - SPELLBOUND (Map & Music: Dragonfly)

MAP 20 - DOMINION (Bri & Dragonfly, Music: Jimmmmmy and omg I nearly forgot about AD_79, very sorry)

FAVOURITE MAP: Map 19 - Spellbound

LEAST FAVOURITE: Map 17 - Perdita

18 hours ago, RICHIE B said:

Liked the secret area with the word Freya, but who or what is Freya? Who knows but this is beautiful.

Maybe a reference to goddess Freya?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freyja

Hmmm yeah that is interesting...

And now for Episode 5 - HYPERBOREAN

MAP 21: NUMB (Everything by Dragonfly)

MAP 22: INCLEMENT (Bauul & DFly, Music: Jimmy)

MAP 35: PARALLEL (Dragonfly, Music: Jimmy)

MAP 23: THAW (Oh DMPhobos did this? Music: Tristan)

MAP 24: TEMERAIRE (Antares031, Music: Tristan)

MAP 25: BOREAS (Dragonfly, Music: Tristan)

FAVOURITE MAP: MAP 24 - Temeraire

LEAST FAVOURITE: Map 21: Numb

On 12/10/2023 at 11:56 AM, MBison said:

Gonna take my time with this one. Real comfy.  

Welp, I wasn't lying. Took me 4 months of casual play to get through the wad on UV (I play doom, literally, in my spare time)

What a masterpiece. I loved every second of it. Bravo!

Perhaps it's been noted already, or even an intended behavior, but there's a way to get the secret BFG in MAP24 that doesn't seem to match the way people did it in the DWMC thread. I tried poking around in the crates in the red skull fight, evidently not well enough to find the BFG passage. After finishing the cybers, I save-scummed some strafe jumps through the gaps in the ship's railing and after 2-3 tries was able to slip through to the pier and walk to the BFG from there. I thought that was the way it was done until I read the DWMC reviews, since there was a different secret that also needed strafe running to reach (the teleporter to the outdoor soulsphere)

12 hours ago, Snikle said:

...some strafe jumps through the gaps in the ship's railing...

It's actually an intended short-cut to reach the level's super secret spot (the one with 100 health bonuses and more). Grabbing a BFG from the another secret area is a bonus reward, if you couldn't find the secret teleporter around the yellow skull key before.

Quite fun! It took me at around 11 hours to beat Eviternity II, and I say without doubt that this is the best Doom WAD I've played in a very long time.
Most favorite map is Titan, same for its song.

On 4/10/2024 at 9:41 PM, MBison said:

Welp, I wasn't lying. Took me 4 months of casual play to get through the wad on UV (I play doom, literally, in my spare time)

 

What a masterpiece. I loved every second of it. Bravo!

Me too, just finished it today. Kenosis was kicking my ass so I took a break from it for a while then life got in the way... but finally finished. Great set, even better than the first one.  I'm old and slow and only intermediate skill at best, so some parts were really tough, but I think there's something for everyone in there. 

8 hours ago, Nate42 said:

Spoiler

that cyber, manc, crusher fight in kenosis was a real slog for me

 

On 4/15/2024 at 5:32 AM, ukiro said:

 

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Just circle strafe clockwise =)

I mean you're not wrong,  but knowing what to do and being able to pull it off without getting squished are two different things. 😀 Anyway fully admit that I suck. 

I'll be back soon to finish what I started, and will have something to say about that darn Kenosis room haha.