The DWmegawad Club plays: Operation: BIOWAR & Equinox

MAP02 - “Terror Core” by Chris Harbin

This one is three micro-encounters in rather bland locations. You warp into a cramped area, fight a small group of enemies, and leave with the key. Pretty lame after the solid introduction in map01, but it's short and inoffensive. I do like the secret where you have to run off the teleporter to get over the barrier.

Equinox MAP01

Port - PrBoomX

Difficulty - Hurt Me Plenty

Continous

I'm not going to be playing BioWar because the The End was pretty boring, so here we go

I liked this level, the start where you enter the big building was pretty cool, and I liked the new pistol graphics and sound effects.

I think the level itself way overused the gory things, (why are there that many hanging corpses in the halls?) It has really fun gameplay though and I liked exploring the map.

Biowar -- MAP01: The End (Hurt Me Plenty)

(please excuse the eye tracking blob, I just think it's fun to show where I'm looking so mistakes are more easily identifiable. Also please excuse the poor gameplay, this is the first time I've picked up classic Doom in a hot minute)

Honestly a fun intro level, I liked the way you come out of the destroyed wall into the courtyard. There's a lot of pistol-ing though and you basically only get the shotgun through a secret, so the pinky is annoying. I got one of the secrets by complete accident, not entirely sure how. The courtyard is pretty basic but it helps you adjust to the new sounds and textures effectively.

Edit: I also made a new kind of tea for playing this. You won't see the final verdict for a while but I'll add tea scores to my level reviews (as of recording) until the recording where I ran out.

Map: 4/5, basic but fun

Tea: 2/5, there was a hint of orange to begin with but mostly tasted like sweetener.

Biowar MAP02 (UV, continuous, saves):

It's alright, it has some nice custom textures, and it's pretty short and easy. I feel like the hub room should've been rotated 45 degrees to tell more easily which teleporter goes to which room.

Operation: Biowar
MAP02: Terror Core
(UV, pistol start, K: 100% / S: 100%, DSDA-Doom, complevel 2)

Not much terror to be found here, despite the name, as we're in for another two minute breeze. Pick a teleporter, get a key, repeat thrice, and that's a wrap. The only real threat here is the chaingunner duo appearing in an open room, who might ventilate you if you get unlucky with RNG.

From a visual design standpoint the map is less impressive than the first due to taking place entirely in cramped interiors, but at least you don't have to spend a lot of time there. Hopefully the following maps get a little bit more ambitious.

Operation: BIOWAR
MAP02: Terror Core (terrified to the core!)
Ultra-Violence / Pistol Start / Nugget Doom / Vanilla compatibility
K: 36/36 I: 35/35 S: 1/1 T: 4:35

Some quick violent romps through four rooms accessible by teleporters at the start in any order, well barring that one leads to the exit which requires all three keys. It's nothing crazy but the tune is nice. Absolutely adore the new nukage flat that is unique to this wad and wish to see it used elsewhere. The secret used to elude me back in the day but if you've had some experience with "double-binded" teleporters as I call them you will find it, offering a chainsaw I didn't need and more shells than is realistically required to clear the few foes on offer. I like that shadow cast by the tech pillar as well as the hanging vegetation. Other than that not much else to really say, it's inoffensive but relatively unremarkable.

Biowar - map 02 "Terror Core"

A mediocre "Tricks and Traps" wanna be. You start in a hub containing several teleportation pads and those transport you in clearly distinct sections. You have to collect three keys in order to unlock the exit. The problem here is that all sections don't have much to offer and, despite being a sort of exploration map, Terror Core can still be completed under 3 minutes. However, you're likely to spend a little more time by taking the wrong teleporters as it's difficult to recognize the different teleporters, except for the one leading the exit, which is in gray.

Finally, I'd like to add my voice to the others: the title of the map doesn't seem to mean anything.

Grade : C (9/20)

MAP02: Terror Core

By Chris Harbin

Kills: 100%

Items: 97%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 2:25

Another pretty basic map, though I imagine that's going to apply to the whole wad so I won't keep saying it. The little visual flourishes in this map impressed me more than MAP01's bomber plane. I dig the minor quality of life addition of teleporters turning red when you step into them (I don't even know how they did that! Probably dummy sectors.) and the cool moment where the yellow key appears only when you backtrack through that area (I do know how they did that.) I was gonna say the map in general looks pretty cool and has some good verticality, but really it's only the central hub area. The three little challenge rooms all look and play rather basic. This map is probably even easier than MAP01, by proxy of immediately getting a shotgun.

Grade: C+

Difficulty: E

5 hours ago, octosquidfunni said:

Equinox MAP01

 

Port - PrBoomX

Difficulty - Hurt Me Plenty

Continous

 

I'm not going to be playing BioWar because the The End was pretty boring, so here we go

FYI, we're playing Equinox from 18th forward.

Map02: Terror Core
The shotgun provided from the start immediately produces more excitement than the previous level. The opposition mostly consists of imps and zombies, with the claustrophobia of each situation providing some pressure. It's felt most strongly in the exit room, with barely any space as pinkies corner you, but the shotgun eliminates them quickly enough that the challenge is still mild. Depending on the RNG you get, the dual chaingunner ambush might be the most lethal part of the map. There's also a trick to get the secret by straferunning off the starting platform while it lowers (SR50 isn't needed), but it's much easier to run off the teleport pads later. I really appreciate the sort of brainless fun that Terror Core supplies, even if it isn't the most creative or complicated map. 

MAP02 - Terror Core

Not much to say other than that I found it pretty cramped and underwhelming, but in contrast, it was largely breezy and inoffensive. Just not very memorable. MAP01 was better. Getting the shotgun straight off the bat helps, and those Chaingunners might have spiced it up if they'd actually done much of anything, but I think if they had I would have taken it as a cheap death given the lack of appropriate space. I hope things pick up with MAP03 onwards. The MIDI was another good one though, with goofy fretless bass and a nice propulsive rhythm.

MAP02: Terror Core. Played on UV, pistol start. DSDA v0.27.4. K: 36/36, S: 1/1, I: 35/35. Comp. time 2:30

A case of three keys hidden in three distinct areas you enter by teleports. I liked the mood of the "terror core" area, but the key areas themselves are basic at best. I played the map twice, too, but didn't bother taking double stats, but only the second playthrough part. If you know how to access the secret, and happen to first enter the area with ambush chaingunners and kill at least one of them such that you can obtain the chaingun, the rest of map gets very easy. It's not hard the other way around (my first playthrough had me face the chaingunners last, even after the exit area guards, and looking for the secret after everything else was done).
 

MAP01: The End

The TITLEPIC calls to mind a film from the same year, but The Matrix this is not. This opener may have cinematic ambitions, but it's called Doomcute, not Doomserious. That's not a mark against it, though - it's creative and doesn't overstay its welcome. Neat little map.

MAP02: Terror Core

You know, I'm never quite sure what this blue texture is supposed to be. It looks kind of like cube glass, but that doesn't make a ton of sense in this context. Anyway, if you can survive the first teleport you take, the rest of them shouldn't put up too much of a fight. I think Underhalls is both longer and more difficult than this.

I like short maps, and I'm starting to get attached to our Rob Liefeld-looking protagonist. I'm interested to see what the rest of the set is like.

MAP02 - “Terror Core” by Chris Harbin

Played With Nugget Doom, Smooth Doom 21, UV, Pistol start

This map provides you a shotgun from the start which I think is a plus compared to the previous map where you had to play the majority of it with the pistol. The design of this map is very much like a shorter and much more easier Tricks and Traps where you are given 4 teleporters which all brings you to different rooms with 3 of them having different colored keys and one having the exit. Looks wise, I think this level is much more bland when compared to the visuals of the previous level. All the areas were also just one or two rooms big without any particularly standout design in them. The length of these maps combined with the difficulty are not doing it for me personally since I want more of an okay-ish length adventure in easier maps. Speaking of easy, most of the map is just filled with 2 enemy types, imps and shotgunners, which are easy enough to deal with. But for some reason, the red key room very much feels out of place when compared to the difficulty of the rest of the level. At the start it is absolutely filled with imps and 2 shotgunners, normal enough to deal with, but (and this doesn't happen with any other key) picking up the red key spawns 2 chaingunners behind you which are easy to deal with if you know about them but can be lethal if you, like me, weren't paying much attention in the first run. 

To be honest, this map feels a bit more cheap compared to the previous map. Not cheap as in the fights were badly designed, most of them were ok (maybe apart from the surprise chaingunners) but it just feels like much less care was put into this map and the mapper just spun together a quick map to just fill up an empty slot with it. Overall, it's mediocre and definitely worse than what the first map made me expect. Also, the run time for each map can be longer.

GRADE: D+

(Note: I did die to the surprise chaingunners but I was also playing like pretty horribly on the first run)

Map 02: Terror Core

by Chris Harbin

Crispy Doom, pistol-start, UV

Lol, Chris ripping titles from Doom 64 now? It was the 90s I guess. So anyway, we're presented with a series of 4 teleporters inside some vague experimental lab. The first one taken provides the stiffest challenge,  set inside a concrete bunker throwing several hitscanners and Imps together in a tight space but a single shotgun should still be enough to make work of them. The chaingunner pair that appears on either side of the teleporter when the red key is acquired hardly measures up in comparison

To get the other two keys, it's necessary to enter a series of vined-filled subterranean passages that are actually nicely atmospheric. One of these even has a symbol on the floor that should be familiar with a little creek nearby.

Sorry I didn't seem too interested in the surrounding central room drainage btw - I should've probably realize there was a secret there but I actually don't care too much.

Map 02 - Terror core

UVmax pistol start

Four small fights related to a central area by teleporters, that's pretty much it.

Though, the lightning was quite nice and the high-tempo midi, while not the best among midis,  set up a speedy mood and a desire to replay this little candy to go as fast as possible (at least for "beginners" like me).

The central area design is, at first sight, OK but finding the secret enhance its quality.

Among others areas, my favorites were : the blue key one for design and the red key one for combat.

Two "negative" things :

- it's a bit early but the quick and prononced change of atmosphere with map 01 disturb me a bit.

- I don't like the new doomguy face (reminded me some french over-testosteroned heroic fantasy comics I read in the nineties that I, nowadays, deny).

PS : for some reasons I'll expose, I already played the full mapset UVmax single segment between yesterday and today, though I'll be careful on my writings, only evoking maps with a slot less or equal to the date. Why i did this :

- because I wanted to play the full thing then replay the daily map on date to have a bit more hindsight.

- I already played Equinox one year ago with cheats, I want to finish it UV with saves now and I know that one day/one map, for this set, will be a rhythm  very hard to follow for me.

It's my first time here and I already don't really play by the rules... sorry for that, if there is any problem, I'll make sure next month will be legit.

The positive side of this infrigement of the rules  is that now I diiscovered at least two reasons to couple Biowar and Equinox, in this order.

@apichatpong It’s not against the rules of the club to play ahead, many people do that - and I do this myself from time to time, especially if I foresee a period ahead where I’ll be busy. We simply should ensure not to post about the maps in this thread ahead of time.

Map 02: Terror Core

Very simple little map with not much to talk about except I appreciated that the spooky forboding vibe was kept going with the dark lighting and unknown teleport destinations. I agree that with such short simple maps the inclination to play more than one a day is next to impossible to avoid, but that is where wads of my own choosing come in, currently finishing up Return To Hadron. 😀

3 hours ago, apichatpong said:

It's my first time here and I already don't really play by the rules... sorry for that, if there is any problem, I'll make sure next month will be legit.

To echo @Horus, whenever I participate in club, I almost always play ahead. For instance, I’ve already played first 15 maps of BIOWAR. But I always write commentary as I play, and post it only on the set date, so there’s little risk of inadvertently violating the rules.

7 minutes ago, RHhe82 said:

To echo @Horus, whenever I participate in club, I almost always play ahead. For instance, I’ve already played first 15 maps of BIOWAR. But I always write commentary as I play, and post it only on the set date, so there’s little risk of inadvertently violating the rules.

I'm doing this too for Biowar, and I actually completed a wad for the MWC for the first time doing it this way.

Biowar -- MAP02: Terror Core
 

Map review:
You start to see one of the mappers' favorite level genres take root here: several keys hidden behind gauntlets. The fights are pretty easy, to the point I started wondering if I should've turned the difficulty up. Some of the level geometry was cool and I enjoyed the introduction with a lift bringing you down into a room with flashing lights. More new textures that are interesting, like the new nukage graphic.
Despite the aesthetics and new graphics I found Terror Core to be somewhat forgettable, I had to rewatch my recording a couple times to take notes. I feel that's going to become a theme going forward.

Tea review:
The orange flavor came through a little more after having cooled down for a minute, and it's a very nice orange flavor. Mom says my grandma really liked this one, and I see why. I neglected to mention it has a nice dark red coloring to boot. 
(I did come to love the orange tea by the time I finished it, though.)

Map: 3/5 - strong introduction, but falls down after that. More new textures that look really nice, though, like the nukage
Tea: 3/5 - very good taste now

MAP03 - “Onslaught” by Chris Harbin

A return back to surface-level brings us to another cute little map, mostly consisting of outdoor areas, with neat little touches such as the square sector lights and spinning spawner-cube texture which I found endearing :P Plus an instantly recognisable Mark Klem midi as the cherry on top.

If you play with ‘show secrets only after entering’ disabled as I do, the secrets are basically given away to you and can be found just by looking at the automap. Which I appreciate definitely gives an advantage in certain situations, but I generally enjoy playing this way as it incentivises me more to try and find how to get the secret when I actually see it.

Overall, I found this map fun and relaxing, and I approached it in a laid-back way, almost to my cost as I was a bit careless with the chaingunners :P

MAP03: Onslaught

DSDA-Doom, UV, Pistol Start

This was a fun level. It consists of several large outdoor areas full of monsters. The dim lighting and nature scenery give the combat a moody atmosphere. If you're doing a UV Speed, you can just run past them all. It can be a bit tedious to kill Hell Knights and Cacos using only the shotgun and the chaingun, but that's nothing a little infighting won't fix. I also like the teleport trap at the end. Very nice.

MAP03 - “Onslaught” by Chris Harbin

This one is surprisingly dark for an outdoor map, and I had to turn up the gamma slightly for playability reasons. The combat is very straightforward. You shoot stuff in front of you and progress to the next area. These larger and more open maps tend to have some turret monsters placed along cliffs, but everything here is fought at ground level, which makes it less interesting. The final trap could've been something, but the way it triggers just encourages holding fire on the Chaingun from the hallway. Using the water flat as a waterfall also looks unnatural.

Biowar MAP03 (UV, continuous, saves):

Another okay map that I don't really have any thoughts on. I like the sector lights outside the opening building.

Map 3 was still short, but kind of fun, being largely outdoors. I think I had a small bit of trouble with one of the fights, and one of the secrets was a bitch to find. Im really not any good at commentary :D

Map03: Onslaught
A charming mini-adventure that reminds me of Alien Vendetta, particularly Beast Island, though this wad came out two years earlier. The spacious layout feels like a relief after the previous map. Gameplay is satisfying enough, if run-of-the-mill. Not much to complain about.

Map 03: Onslaught

I liked this map, its straight forward and simple but feels like an idyllic little doom locale. We fight our way through a picturesque canyon to get to the next structure that needs cleanout and the little things like waterfalls and the accompanying splashing sound effects affect a wholesome feel about the whole place. 😀

Operation: BIOWAR
MAP03: Onslaught (on the path to slaughter, as it were)
Ultra-Violence / Pistol Start / Nugget Doom / Vanilla compatibility
K: 63/63 I: 13/13 S: 2/2 T: 6:44

A dark map, both tonally and literally. The music is especially fitting here, as it feels like your mission is urgent and you are on the move to your next objective as night falls, the darkness threatening to impede your progress. The resistance however is still quite light, with the biggest player around being a lonely Hell Knight with a Cacodemon buddy and a sprinkling of significantly less powerful friends to assist in guarding the red key. All in all there is a short trip through the natural surroundings before stopping at the admittedly imposing looking building, but it houses only a single room with the final battle before leaving which in itself isn't anything grandiose. That said it's an enjoyable enough trip that could throw the less cautious player off guard if they're too hasty.

Level 2: Terror Core

Basically just a room with 4 teleporters, 3 of which take you to a small area with a key, and the last takes you to the door which you unlock with these keys. Very small and simple, but mean! Upon teleporting to one of the areas you get immediately destroyed by several shotgunners and imps because there's no cover, so just git lucky! Nothing much else to say, aside from that the center room also serves as a health refill hub, which is neat.

Level 3: Onslaught

Upon seeing the name, I had a 'Nam flashback to Plutonia's Onslaught, but this one is much easier. This level has Doom 3 level of lighting, it's almost like it was designed to be played with GZDoom's dynamic lights on, but that didn't exist yet. 60% of the time I had to shoot in the general direction of the enemies, because I couldn't see anything. The music is one of my favorites from Mark Klem, although I think it'd fit a hell-themed level much more. This level is slightly more elaborate than the previous two, but still short and not difficult. All levels have been rather easy so far mostly due to their short length.

I do like the overall level of detail and mood of the levels. Pretty cool. Also, imps make dog noises, which is dumb. Demons, however, make fiend (from Quake) noises, which kinda makes them sound almost the same, lol.