Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #086

^{(logo by @4MaTC)}

 

ICID, what the hell is this now?

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures is a small project of exploration, interaction, entertainment and reviews where we meet once every two weeks to select random WADs in search of hidden treasures, lost promises, or our worst nightmares! We use the /idgames archive’s special feature that lets us search for random files. Of course, sometimes the results are resources or unplayable stuff, so we focus on looking for WADs. 

 

So, what do we do here?

1. Play at least one random WAD in a two-week period of time. WADs are selected using the Random File feature on /idgames or from the list below.
2. Post a review of whatever you play.
3. Always provide the name of the WAD, the name of the author, and a link to the file.
4. Play however you want, on any skill level, and with any source port, as long as you play the WAD as intended/in working shape.
5. Be respectful. It's okay to criticize a map, but remember that many mappers read these review threads and behave accordingly. Also, please don't tag mappers into a negative review of their work. 

 

What kind of WADs are we looking for?

Any file on /idgames is fair game, but most of us choose to stick to singleplayer Doom or Heretic WADs that work in our sourceport(s) of choice. If you're worried about finding Terrywads or broken files, I also pull at least five random WADs for the event. Feel free to play them with me if you wish, or look for your own! The point of the event is to encourage you to explore this vast, random world.

 

Recommendations for reviewing:

 

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures of this event:

 

1. Fellowzdoomer's 1 Hour Map
2. Minos
3. Shrek vs Doomguy: A Battle of Ogre Proportions
4. Stomping Grounds
5. Community Chest 4

 

 

Join the Doom Master Wadazine community for more events like this! » https://discord.gg/Q2RKn4J

 

And check the Doom wiki for the full list of past adventures.

Year 2 Month 11 Day 28

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] dumb.WAD by William Roeben (Net- Johnny Nugnug) (1995)

 

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It's you and Big Ed, the Cyberdemon. Alone. In one room. Can you do it?

 

One room, one cyberdemon. Will you pass this insurmountable challenge? Killing the cyberdemon is way harder than it looks though because the author didn't give enough bullets and shells to kill him with your guns, so you must either punch him to death (very dangerous) or using the unmarked teleportation line in order to telefrag him (you must be very lucky). Or you can just be like me by leaving the cybie alone, rushing to the small door and exit the level.

 

Maybe a tad better than wow.wad since you can exit the level without cheats but yes, this is dumb.

 

Grade : F (3/20)

 

[2] Mercury Rain (v1.1) by @Jimmy (2016)

 

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A short, slightly puzzle-oriented map made for TerminusEst13's third DUMP project (Doom Upstart Mapping Project).

You're stuck on the weather-worn planet Ratama with only a bunch of hostile aliens for company. Find a way off it and kill everything in your way.

 

Weather is an often neglected aspect of Doom maps due to engine limitations but the exquisite usage of zdoom features of Mercury Rain will show all of its importance !  Jimmy lets you explore a grimy tech-base set in a greenish canyon. The pouring rain and the thunder you can hear in the distance act as pure ASMR, you rarely see in Doom. Moreover, the map name's comes from the name of the music, which is a module track composed by Skaven. The very techno sound typical of module tracks always gives me a strong sense of nostalgia and, for the level in question, fits perfectly with gzdoom's exclusive new features. It's very classy to hear this music with a level featuring supernatural rain and force fields. We're entering the future!

 

As many (or all?) Jimmy maps' , the level of detail remains parsimonious but efficient, and the emphasis is on a fluid flow and interconnected layout, making for pleasant navigation. The choice of textures is consistent with the theme. The rust and "dirt" give the impression that the base has been deteriorated by the constant downpour of mercury.

 

About the gameplay's department, Jimmy has made sure that you have a great time in the first place, and that you can enjoy this rather unique atmosphere. The laidback combats are unlikely to kill you but beware of the poisonous plants that consist of a combination between the barrel from Doom and the poisonous mushroom from Hexen. Shooting on them will blew them up, and releasing a deadly gas near them which can even kill all kind of monsters ! Very fun to use in case you want to save some ammo , even if it's even not needed.

 

In any case, the very conventional gameplay easily appeals to all audiences, making Mercury Rain a great showcase for what's possible on Zdoom. I haven't played all maps from Jimmy's rich repertoire but Mercury Rain easily figures as own of my favourite maps from him. Great Job ! This map is worth spending a quarter of an hour on.

 

Grade : A (17/20)

 

[3] Hell Keep Remake by Paul Corfiatis (2007)

 

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Remake of Hell Keep which is a much more realistic design than the original map. I made this from scratch using complete memory and nothing is modified from the original. The map is designed to look more like a real keep than a rather stupid sand castle, etc. Gameplay is easy to medium in difficulty on UV.

 

Forgot to take screenshots of that one, sorry, but keep in mind this is just the first level of the third episode with more details, notably more detailed lighting and remparts.

 

Paul Corfiatis has done his best to do justice to this opener, but this remake proves that the problem is far from just aesthetics, since the combat is as uninvolving as ever, with a pair of cacodemons to kill with a pistol and 64-pixel-wide corridors leading to the exit.

 

I'm far from hating E3M1, but I find it hard to make a good map out of it without substantially modifying the level.

 

Grade : C (10/20)

 

[4] PANDORA'S BOX by Simon Manton (2011)

 

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This, my second level, was constructed around a few of the ideas I like in some of the original DOOM levels, namely: The roof top walk in E3M3. The ability to shoot to later areas across chasms in E1M7. The idea of teleports and switches to create a route to the exit room in E3M7. It is difficult with many early distractions. It can be completed in many ways, despite the number of switches which have to be set in order.

 

Pandora's box felt like a cursed ultimate Doom. When I say "cursed", I don't mean scary or such but rather a perceptible feeling that something is wrong.This map replaces E1M2 and I had the strange sensation that it was a map from episode 2 and 3, but disguised as a map from episode 1.

 

First of all, the core layout of the map takes the shape of an abstract base and the laidback music from E1M2 prepared me for a sort of "Doom the way id did" tribute, like Fava Beans, for example. Instead of that, the author used the dull-colored textures such as grey concrete, beige rusty startan or BROWNWALL most of the time, resulting to a lot less welcoming apparence. Moreover, the rooms tend to get more oversized and some areas just consist to labryinths built for no reason, reinforcing the feeling that a kind of corruption is setting in along with the enemies, without the atmosphere being as gloomy as in some of the maps in Episode 2. And the icing on the cake resides in the Limbo-like progression where you have to take multiple teleporters in order to reach switches that allow you to build a bridge over a pool of damaging water. Damaging water and abundance of teleporting pads aren't a sign that I'm playing a map from Knee-Deep in the Dead. I can also mention the presence of lost souls, cacodemons and several barons in the hellish rocky outdoors or the serie of slow crushers you have to crush in order to reach on the switch for the bridge. This map looks haunted to me without being too haunted.

 

However, If I put all those elements aside, PANDORA'S BOX was a good map, offering lot of exploration and quite an unexpected dose of challenge as the medikits aren't that prolific until you obtain an armor and a soulsphere later in the map. As I alluded in my previous paragraph, this map contains several hazards such as harmful water , slow crushers or just... darkness. Those generate an uncomfortable feeling of insecurity that prevent the map from being dull. The map can also gets harder if you're blind enough to not the find the blatantly misaligned startan texture hiding several critical weapons and ammo.

 

I like Pandora Box too, because although I don't like the iwad's "Limbo" map, its concept is still effective for creating exploration. Pandora's progression was less confusing as the zones were more different, and this bizarre aspect makes it a little memorable for me. This map could be a kind of connection between episode 1 and 2 (and 3). Too corrupt to be in episode 1, but not haunted and hellish enough to be in 2 and 3.

 

Grade : B (14/20)

 

I stop here for today.

 

The Wells of Woe (2022) by Austinado (From Doom with Love) 

 

Streamer and supreme dorkface Austinado released this set at some point toward the end of 2022 as an attempt at a more vanilla-style mapset than his previous effort Supercharge: Final Scourge. According to the text file, this contains practically all the Austin trademarks but I didn't get that far, dying to a back Arch-vile attack after returning to the main central arena. Speaking of which, there's a great sense of style and playing with geometric floor patterns that was also evident in the Final Scourge, though at least in The First Wells, is on a smaller scale. The opening area feels like something out of a 94 wad perhaps with the weird arrangement of objects and curved shape, along with largely darkened hallway. But sneaky Austin lifts up bars blocking the exit and teleporting away onto the pit of flesh will bring you to the main map, filled with barrels, former humans, and Imps! 

 

After a fashion at least. Pressing some switches opens the central power station where you're then teleported to a small chamber with Arch-viles in several places you can eventually telefrag before pushing more switches, taking more teleporters, and ending up back at the central arena. All this is less routine than it sounds though. The sense of humor is evident and none of the weird gimmicks really drag things down. While I've played more than  enough multi-map wads in the last adventure, this one is well executed 8/10

 

 

After that.....hey, it's been a while since we got some of those...

 

Vision1 (1995) by Jim "Bartman" Wiscarson (DSDA Doom)

 

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Great Deathmatch wad 2-4 player. Your vision is not always what it seems. Always look behind you.

 

 

What Bartman is saying is that there is a transparent hallway surrounding the entirety of the visible player arena, seeming to consist of a series of light tan square towers with odd shapes at the corners. The ammo distribution here is the worst part though. While certainly available, this is not how anyone should place it around and stick tiny bits everywhere.

 

 

 

DEADPOOL (1995) by David "Driller" Davidson (Crispy Doom)

 

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Great Deathmatch for Doom 2 Small arena for deathmatch The BFG is down at the bottom of the pool in the center, hence the name of this wad.

 

 

David Davidson is well known to this idgames adventurer naturally, for his role in the Innocent Crew as well as having been a prolific creation of largely mediocre deathmatch maps, kind of like this. A series of corridors, leading into some overhangs and a pool in each of full square and also a BFG at the bottom. For some reason, he also decided to replace some sound effects, like a less abrasive and oddly worst plasma sound and Corvus' laugh every time you pick up an item, in addtion to a different plasma sound. 

 

 

Edited May 28 by LadyMistDragon

Brick | 4 wads | 5 maps

 

Fellowzdoomer's 1 Hour Map (2014) by Fellowzdoomer. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom II.
This was apparently a submission to Doomworld Mega Project 2013 that Fellowzdoomer then released separately. It's... a map. The shotgun is the only weapon. There's a mancubus. A demon ambush at the blue key that can be easily avoided. A bunch of PEs and an archvile and good luck doing this fight, I just ran past. That's it.

Minos (2017) by Kloki38. 1 SP map for Doom II in Boom.
I believe Kloki is a Czech author, also credited on Czechbox and Czequisite Corpse; there are two more wads mentioned in the text file but I can't find any sign of them. This is a large and complex map with intricate architecture and almost 500 enemies spread across its vast distances. The biggest problem I had with it is that weapon distribution is so incredibly unbalanced. I found the SSG about halfway into it, and while I had a chaingun and plasma rifle ammo for both was so limited I almost never had any. This meant having to go through 200 enemies with the shotgun, and that's way too many mancubi, nobles and archviles to go through. I've seen this design used and defended before, the idea being that you keep pushing ahead trying to find weapons, but making it through half a very large map with nothing but a weak weapon can go too easily from being challenging to just plain boring. It's a shame because the architecture is very cool and it's obvious that a ton of effort has gone into the map.

shrek vs doomguy: a battle of orge proportions (2013) by chesse20. 2 SP maps for Doom II in GZDoom.
The text file doesn't even have the decency to mention port requirements, I had to go digging through the wad lumps to figure out that it definitely needs ZDoom, and is probably made for GZDoom. Initially I was worried ICID had rerolled that horrible Shrek terrywad he made us play a couple of years ago, but I needn't have worried, this is a completely different and unrelated wad. It's not that much better mind you, the architecture is nonexistent, the texturing is awful, there are HOMs and softlocks everywhere, the console dislpays a bunch of errors in the scripting at startup (unknown if they break anything important), the only enemies are some insects that swarm but go down easily, and Shreks that can hurt a lot but (unlike the terrywad, where they were practically invincible) they go down reasonably easily. It doesn't help though because I don't think it's possible to end either of the maps, both have an exit wall with a door texture and that's marked as player-cross to activate, which naturally is impossible because, well, it's a one-sided linedef and there's nothing behind it.

Stomping Grounds (2009) by Morpheus. 1 SP map for limit-removing Doom II.

We thankfully end on a good note! Honestly compared to what we've been through here this one's great. Detailing and lighting are excellent, the layout is small but has a couple of interesting beats, and the map generally flows very well. Most of the opposition on HNTR is small fry, which is good because it's just shotgun and chaingun for the most part (there's an SSG in a secret but I didn't find it until later). The blue key room is a bit of a surprise, the key disappears before us and then a door with half a dozen barons appears, with no rocket or plasma weapons in sight. Maxers might find this annoying but I just herded the barons and ran past them all, into a cool looking little underground passage that goes to the blue key (and then ran past the barons again on the way out). The archvile surprise at the end is a bit mean, considering the lack of heavy weapons, absence of cover, and how much time the AV has to resurrect things before we can get to it, It's a fun little map with great visuals and definitely the highlight of the day.

 

I don't know if I have the stamina for CC4, it's an excellent wad but they're long maps and it would probably take me most of the adventure's 2 weeks to go through it.

Year 2 Month 11 Day 29

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] Deathmatch wads from PG by Pavel Grodek (1998)

 

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Set of five well-balanced deathmatch wads. Some special effects are there to increase playability - special walls, lights, staircases, etc.

 

A set of five almost monotextured deathmatch maps : the first one takes place in a fleshy cavern, the second in another grassy cave, the third inside a square silver arena, the fourth in a sort of rocky crypt and the last one in a blue combat zone with many pillars. I like how simplistic and quirky the maps are and the author added some midis which accentuate the bizarreness. About the gameplay, the maps are pretty small and flat so don't expect advanced mecanisms in this set. The author indeed added long staircases, fake walls and such odd things you commonly find among old wads.

 

I was desperately looking for ammunition to kill the 40 variants of monsters in the Base of Tribute v1.1.9

 

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House of Pain (2001) by John @neubejiita Cartwright (GZ Doom)

 

Even in his beginning days, John Cartwright was clearly interested in making maps for all source ports. This effort that likely followed the god-awful Hellpack that got released later, is considerably smaller and less ambitious than his later outings but already displays some of his characteristic architectural flair, along with extensive and optional outdoor areas. Although a third of the map's monster count seems to be in areas not obviously accessible and such areas don't need to accessed to open the exit. The little barrels near the incinerating structure with Imps are kind of cool and combat mostly serves to keep you driving forward. However, one particular grassy room nearly stopped me in my tracks. 4 Arch-viles that all seemed to be transparent with nothing but a Super Shotgun for them all, with the powerups idiotically being inside the room. Overall, this comes close to the most hideous use of transparent monsters I've ever seen, with them seeming only existing because they have to be. It's really too bad because there's lots of nice areas and we at least get a berserk pack at the beginning but this is simply too much 4/10

 

 

 

Lava.WAD | SnipeR | 1996

 

 

Very small, square arena-like DM map for some quick action against the pals. Despite the rather simplistic and rustic style of the map, it does seem to show a lot of care and attention compared to other contenders from the era, the average ones at least. It suffers a bit from odd item placement, but other than that the map actually functions pretty well for a DM map, it is balanced, symmetrical, looks good, and the level design is pretty open, allowing for constant movement.

THE-ZONE.WAD (1997) by Claude Phllips (Crispy Doom)

 

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I Built this level with the serious DOOMER in mind. Not to say that this is one of those LAMER levels with 1000 Demons in 1 room. You will have to really THINK in order to make it through "THE-ZONE". Great Puzzles and new Techniques used throughout this HUGE level.

Hmm.....wasn't this mass display of ego by authors already out of fashion? It doesn't matter too much. While combat feels a touch scattershot and not really designed in a way that takes into account things like monster blocking lines, it plays decently well, with only a tiny bit or two of overly cryptic progression, specifically, the switch which grants access to the red skull key. Overall design is pretty bland and 90s but things mostly work out well. All a matter of being willing to explore and backtrack a time or two. Hint: you have to find a way outside after heading through some SHAWN vents out of something like Icarus before the exit door opens. For all I know, the red key access might just have been broken. Nevertheless, this is a good 90s map, despite an annoyance or two (the one switch that teleports you away whenever you get close ) is perfectly fine 6/10

 

 

Edited May 29 by LadyMistDragon

Brick | 1 wad | 9 maps
Adventure | 5 wads | 14 maps

 

Knee Deep in Phobos (2009) by Sniper 109. 9 maps for Doom II in ZDoom.
This is another wad where the port requirement is unclear. Is it meant to be Boom-compatible? It would at least need a port that can read MAPINFO for the secret exit to work. The wad template itself is vague but there's another readme file that mentions needing PrBoom or higher but recommends ZDoom, and there are some uses of ZDoom-exlusive cosmetics here and there. Speaking of, the text also mentions it being in the same vein as Knee-Deep in ZDoom, but the wads are markedly different. KDIP for one completely lacks KDIZD's lust for detailing, in fact the early maps look a bit plain, though later ones get better at a more classical style of detailing and look quite good. There is a similar attempt at expanding on the original maps but even this is handled differently, KDIZD kept most of the original layouts and just added a lot of extra areas, but when familiar architecture appears in KDIP it tends to feel more like an homage or an inspiration, with the map otherwise looking and playing differently. The maps are also much smaller than in KDIZD, they take longer to complete than the IWAD originals but not by much. Of the two new weapons, the Rifle does seem to come straight from KDIZD; the machine gun on the other hand becomes useless very quickly, the chaingun is functionally identical but with more power. Since the wad is for Doom II most of the sequel additions show up, the SSG is still the main workhorse (though the Rifle gives it a run for its money when ammo is available) and there are plenty of knights, mancubi, revenants and chainies to dispatch. I think the SS is reskinned and just looks like a rapid-fire zombieman, I like its use as something more threatening than the most basic enemy but not as dangerous as a chainie if unnoticed. I was a bit surprised to run into a few barons earlier in the wad but the ones in the finale are replaced by a much tougher variant with tons more health and something like a slightly toned-down archvile attack. Finally I have to mention the intermission screen, a remake of the original that I loved for looking so familiar yet being obviously a made from scratch render. The wad is not as impressive as KDIZD but at the same time avoids its excesses, YMMV on how much this is a good or bad thing. I really liked it overall, most of the maps are different enough to not to feel like rehashes and most of the additions mesh well with the original map's themes. Thank you @Sniper109 for are enjoyable wad!

 

On 5/27/2024 at 10:16 AM, ICID said:

Thanks for playing, everyone! We've had our first movement in the top 10 for quite some time: brick has finally succeeded in surpassing me as #5! (For now...)

I'm sure it's only temporary, and just like last time you'll reclaim your rightful spot soon!

Skunklime (2015) by "Matt Smith" (GZ Doom)

 

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Doomguy had one job: eliminate all the demons from Earth, which he completed successfully over 20 years ago. Now it's time to go to the convenience store and get some cat food, because his cat is hungry and Doomguy wants a Crunch bar. As Doomguy is walking towards the store, the road crumbles beneath his feet and he falls into the sewer! "I'll bet those damn demons are behind this!!" he screams, tumbling down into the cavity below.

Doomguy will get to the convenience store, even if a small portion of hell stands in his way!

 

 

So how come we don't get more stories, even as ridiculous as this one? Anyone here's a map that's a touch too spread out to be really good but regardless at certain points, demonstrates plenty of Doomcute chops. This can be most strongly witnessed in the warehouses with forklifts and pallets, the gas station, the apparent office complex with a large conference room in the middle and little anterooms scattered round. Toward the end, your weapons get taken away as you find yourself in a large and open hellish void it's pretty easy to avoid things in, like the Cyberdemon that's here.

 

Sometimes though, there will be one area, like the pair of ritual rooms in the same office complex, or the half-darkened warehouse that don't exactly make lots of sense in the progression meaning of things. And the Super Shotgun grind leading to the blue key in a property adjacent to the gas station is something I could've done without. It's a decent map all the same, maybe just for the conference room though 6/10

 

 

Brick | 1 wad | 9 maps
Adventure | 6 wads | 23 maps

 

Southern Cross (Gold Edition) (2004) by Bryant and The Solution. 9 SP/coop maps for Doom II in ZDoom.
I rolled the original Southern Cross earlier this year, this is from a couple of years later, released as a separate file so both versions are preserved on the archives. Just like its predecessor this claims Boom compatibility but that's not quite true, the final map won't work properly in Boom or any port that can't read the old MAPINFO format (once again the Robinson brothers recommend ZDoom). The general map layouts seem similar but everything else is very different. Gone are all the PSX sound replacements. The maps are much better detailed, they look very good now and the lighting in particular is very nice. Gameplay has also changed a lot, I wrote that the original used the Doom II bestiary sporadically, but Gold goes all out very quickly. Unfortunately this is not always a good thing, there are some maps where combat is now unbalanced, when I don't remember it being so bad before. The worst is MAP03 with a swarm of PEs and cacos; a dozen of the former would be annoying enough (especially since Lost Souls are not limited in Boom) but to top it off the ammo starvation is utterly ridiculous (and this was with carryovers; good luck doing this from pistol start). Thankfully the wad gets better afterwards, though there are still some questionable decisions in weapon availability (the first RL doesn't appear until MAP05, and in a secret to boot). Combat setpieces are more interesting, mixing up teleport ambushes with more traditional ones where everything wakes up and comes around he corner at the most inopportune moment, some of these fights are really fun, especially since (aside from the MAP03 hiccup) ammo balancing is well done later on, I had what I needed but never found myself filling up. Rockets remain a precious commodity until the very end, and the BFG only shows up for the final fight. Speaking of, it's still an easy one-on-one against a Cyberdemon, in a map that acts more like an atmospheric finale than anything. I tried to recognize the exact spots where I took screenshots when playing the original but I think I missed several, although I recognized every map they look (and more often than not play) considerably better. The ammo flaw in MAP03 is the most serious, but setting it aside the rest of the wad is an improvement on the original in almost every way, and pretty good in its own right.

 

The Compound (2010) by Ceeb (GZ Doom)

 

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A quick map I decided to do. Originally, it was going to be a vanilla map for the original Doom, then I just UDMF'd it, added some N64 Doom music and yeah. The idea partly stems from me wanting to do a map like The Ultimate Doomer's fun WAD, License To Spell Doom. Besides that, I wanted to make some maps with the PS1 Doom atmosphere.

 

(Really should've been doing an HF3 demo. Anyway....)

 

 

The name's familiar. Although making the map UDMF was a curious choice because to be quite honest, mostly because the dialogue always brings action to a halt before one is able to proceed, an incredibly annoying characteristic of many ZDoom wads of the mid 2000s. Supposedly, this was inspired by License to Doom by Stephen Clark, the Ultimate Doomer, but something tells me that there was plenty of character to stand out amongst the tedium...and this really doesn't. Sure, the shade of light and the skybox are both really nice, but ammo is close to stupidly tight and the fact that 3 of literally each objective is just boring because there's lots of criss-crossing. A double-header ambush with Imps and some nobles on either side regardless, infighting is kind of expected because there's not exactly lots of spare ammo and besides that, the C4 objective made next to no sense. Mainly because I didn't even see the crate with the first C4 had opened on my first trip back there and I couldn't even be bothered to find the 3rd since your boss made it seem like they were adjacent to each other. Whatever, 5.5/10, this was in serious need of genesis quo.

 

 

PS. Sounds from Po'ed? Odd concidence...

 

 

 

Year 2 Month 11 Day 30

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] Lavacity by Marten Mellberg (2000)

 

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Single player level (CoOp possible but not recommended)

 

Just the idea of exploring large ancient cities encircled by dead pits give me strong Turok 1 vibes. Whereas I often dislike using the "jump" button in Doom, the concept hooks my attention. You need indeed zdoom to play this map, otherwise you'll be unable to progress in this map. However, its execution really leaves much to be desired as Lavacity suffers of blatant lack of details and visual glitches. Take a look at the glitchy lava bridge in the fourth screen !!!

 

Despite how scary it looks, Lavacity was undemanding overall.  The few jumps are easy to perform in case you're afraid of the platforming aspect. And as far as combat is concerned, monsters are placed in packs in a rather unstrategic way. Monsters tend to pile up and are easy to exterminate with a rocket launcher. Several dozens of nazis inhabit this place. Don't waste your time wondering why, just play the game.

 

Grade : C- (8/20)

 

[2] Party Base by Walter "Daimon" Confalonieri (2014)

 

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A tiny tech level made for Mr Chris birthday...

 

A gzdoom-compatible hi-tech base I already explored in Month 10 Day 24 (26th june 2022) . Here's my first review :

 

 

"The action takes place in a simple tech-base using Zdoom features. First of all, a message tell you you were invited at a party. You hear a catchy trance music in the whole complex.

 

I like how Walter added the gzdoom features. For instance, I can mention the blue key located under a floor made of glass or the lights surrounding the doors which glow in a way you feel more like in a "party".

 

Concerning the difficulty, it was a piece of cake from the beginning to the end. The author added some new monsters which consist to variations of already existing ones but they don't represent a major threat despite being slightly tougher. For example, cyborg imps fire plasma projectiles and you can even meet imps firing baron's fireballs. 

 

However a specific part was a lot more stressfull than the others : the short section where you have to walk under fast crushers. Nothing hard but I suppose they can easily kill you if you don't have all your HP.

 

After an ordinary adventure in a undistinguished tech base, you can now blow the candles ! Happy Birthday ! That's cute.

 

Grade : B"

 

Don't have much to say. It's a wholesome present for Mr Chris from Walter Confetti. Both mappers have in common a strong love to classic iwad-y doom bases.

 

Grade : B (13/20)

 

I stop here for today.

Thought I'd give this a shot as its been a while, today I landed upon Nukage Dump, an E1M3 remake by Mr. Chris:

 

 

A fine map that really nails that comfy E1 vibe, I enjoyed this quite a lot. Arguably a bit more realistic in design while still embodying that classic E1 style of layout, which is something I have yet to come close to in my own mapping. It wasn't very difficult, instead just a nice, well made classic E1 techbase with some fun barrel placement for a few choice explosive kills. Don't think I've played any other maps by this author before, but based on this one they'd be worth my time for sure.

Wood5Flat5 (2023) by @DoomGappy  (Crispy Doom)

 

I've played the original version of this, but basically, this was a highly effective attempt to make a monotextured map that actually worked out quite well, due to the way textures are arranged, and little details are established to make areas of progression. There's nothing too terribly difficult at first but a steady stream of monsters is thrown our way, perhaps to make up for some of the backtracking which really isn't too bad given the size of the map. One thing to note is the appearance of a skybox in certain rooms now, as well as the addition of a JD Herrera midi. The ending hallway is still probably the coolest area, with a Cyberdemon overseeing things that

s not difficult to dispatch because he's stationary and you're handed a rocket launcher. Shortly after this, some bars are lowered with an Arch-vile, a few chaingunners and pinkies There's really not lots going on here (and mass pinkies are always going to annoy me sorry), but the map's execution is basically close to top-notch as a wood showcase 6.5/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALIENS-TOTAL CONVERSION for Ultimate Doom v1.9 (1996) by Unknown

 

Unfortunately, this version is supposedly broken at the end, thanks to an /idgames review. The official version is best downloaded with the original Aliens TC. Although I don't know if this would really do anything besides convert the Aliens TC assets to Ultimate Doom maps.

 

 

Cold Sweat (1998) by Noddy (Crispy Doom)

 

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Insanely fast and furious DEATHMATCH for DOOM II. A large symmetrical room is the setting, with 4 teleports leading to 4 symmetrical antechambers. It is VERY hard to get a bearing on where you actually are... which is exactly the point. If you want to rest use the antechambers, but make sure you are not followed... Good Luck and watch your back.

 

 

A little ironic because perfect symmetry in any map is so hated these days. Not like the map itself is exactly very good. There's one open outdoor central area with a little barrier of ASHWALL on every side to protect from enemy fire. In the middle are teleporters which lead to some small red brick rooms, each containing 4 teleporters that lead out to respective teleporters in the central area. Mediocre 3.5/10

 

 

1 hour ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Wood5Flat5 (2023) by @DoomGappy  (Crispy Doom)

 

I've played the original version of this, but basically, this was a highly effective attempt to make a monotextured map that actually worked out quite well, due to the way textures are arranged, and little details are established to make areas of progression. There's nothing too terribly difficult at first but a steady stream of monsters is thrown our way, perhaps to make up for some of the backtracking which really isn't too bad given the size of the map. One thing to note is the appearance of a skybox in certain rooms now, as well as the addition of a JD Herrera midi. The ending hallway is still probably the coolest area, with a Cyberdemon overseeing things that

s not difficult to dispatch because he's stationary and you're handed a rocket launcher. Shortly after this, some bars are lowered with an Arch-vile, a few chaingunners and pinkies There's really not lots going on here (and mass pinkies are always going to annoy me sorry), but the map's execution is basically close to top-notch as a wood showcase 6.5/10

Oooh, thanks for the review! 6.5 is very good for a little map like that. I recently replayed it too, as well as made some of my students try it to test if they'd understand that the weird looking textures are switches, and some did! One small thing, below, though: 
 

 

4 hours ago, DoomGappy said:

Oooh, thanks for the review! 6.5 is very good for a little map like that. I recently replayed it too, as well as made some of my students try it to test if they'd understand that the weird looking textures are switches, and some did! One small thing, below, though: 
 

  Hide contents

I myself never beat that cyberdemon by shooting, since I made the teleporter to telefrag him. I don't even know if there's enough ammo for that, but from what you said, there probably is. Thanks for playing again!

 

Ha, I'd forgotten you saying that before. I think it was because I'd shot him before, although I may have switched out at a certain point because of the other enemies nearby.

Brick | 2 wads | 2 maps
Adventure | 8 wads | 25 maps

 

CHORD1 (1997) by Malcolm Sailor. 1 map for vanilla Doom II.
Malcolm had already been mapping for a bit but this was by far his most productive year. He released piecemeal his Nosun series, his collaboration with Black Star Coven bore fruit with The Talosian Incident, and he released several maps in what would become his most famous solo work. Being the first, the elements that would lead later Chord maps to acclaim are in embryonic form here. It only uses stock assets but I found the map rather nice to look at, Malcolm was always good with contrast and he does light and shadow rather well. As always with him though, the meat of the map is in combat, and I'm impressed that he manages to make it tricky using only 38 enemies on HNTR. The start is an invulnerability-powered berserk rampage, I think there's a way to get a chaingun quickly but I went the other way and had to punch a lot of things on a strict timer before getting a weapon. I can't deny it was a lot of fun though. The map then settles into a more traditional keyhunt, but I enjoyed the setpieces and the beautiful lighting. As often with Malcolm's early wads the text file is bursting at the seams with teenage energy and it's funny seeing him hate on (without ever naming him) a certain wad author that ended up at id and that is not universally well liked, though there's also a cute bit where he thanks his dad for testing HMP.

 

Hell Keep Remake (2007) by Paul Corfiatis. 1 map for limit-removing Doom.
I  think I saw Roofi roll this one earlier this week? As you can guess from the title this is a remake of E3M1 occupying the same slot. Like many others @pcorf thinks that Hell Keep is ugly and could be made to look more like an actual keep, so he did just that. The changes are almost entirely cosmetic though, while the architecture obviously looks different progression is an almost identical beat for beat copy of the original. It certainly looks a lot better, coming out of that starting pit and seeing the keep, with moat and all, certainly tops the original squat flat facade. The demon corridor is likewise much better looking with the windows. Lighting is peak Pcorf and looks great. However it still is the same old Hell Keep, by design, and whether you like this map will depend on what you think of the original's gameplay. Personally I think that had this been the version that shipped with the IWAD it would still not be a favourite but its reception would have been much more favourable.

 

Year 2 Month 11 Day 31

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] bloodlust by Jan Mehler (Ratman) (1996)

 

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Quirky Doom 2 map that looks like an underlit underground tech-base at first sight until you get out of the first room and see a large overbright courtyard exclusively populated of scattered imps and dead trees. Whereas the interior of the buildings consist just of shades of dark grey, their facade is brighting red. Their functionnality is unknown and they are losange-shaped for reasons we ignore too.

 

Just to show how odd the level is, the first ennemy you'll encounter is a nazi and the author designed some platforms you have to climb , otherwise falling in the small but deep pits which are perhaps unescapable.

 

Anyway, bloodlust stays a short and eventless level. I like the oddity presented here but it doesn't contribute to the replayability that much.

 

Grade : C (9/20)

 

[2] Death Maze by Spencer Brown (1994)

 

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This was specialy made for deathmatch. No monsters at all, strictly you and your prey.

 

A poorly-designed ancient DM map for Ultimate Doom I already visited in Year 2 Month 11 Day 23 (11th may 2024), so just few weeks before. Here's what I said the first time I "played" this :

 

"A miserable old Deathmatch map for Ultimate Doom exclusively made of distorted dark corridors. The map has no height variation and the automap doesn't help you as the author hid many lines. He also placed a lot of barrels which probably allow you to kill an opponent who would have the mercy to play this map with you."

 

I launched prboom+ this time and challenged my self to obtain the 32 items in this map, because I've no more important purpose in life than playing old garbage wads. I eventually gave up for the soulsphere surrounded with several BFG. The funny thing is that you can see this hidden room via a buggy bleeding wall. Talking about secret room, there is one that contains loads of powerups and ammo, breaking all the balance of course,if the balance remains a subject in this type of crappy map.

 

The next wad is RJSLOTH by TimeOfDeath but I will not bother myself playing it because I completely suck at rocket jumping and I find this niche activity completly unfun.

 

And yep  @brick, I played the pcorf's remake of "Hell Keep" last week.  It's an okay remake from what I played. My review is present in this page, just below my review of Mercury Rain.

Viovorbs: Exercises in Advanced Metafuzzycs (2022} by...... (From Doom with Love)

 

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Voivorbs is a vanilla mapset crafted specially (but not exclusively) for Nightmare enthusiasts - think Heretic's Black Plague meets collectable hunting meets fuzzy dynamics meets arena combat.

Featuring 14 small-to-medium sized maps with: No secrets No damaging floors No armor No bullets No chainsaw No stimpacks No tysonpacks No poke bags Only spheres, rockets, shells and cells. (and 192-brightened sectors)

____Time for another poorly written prelude_____ | | | You play as the beloved doomguy; after saving | | Earth, you begin to wonder about the strange | | chain of events you've been caught upon. | | Questions of a higher purpose begin to gain | | weight and swallow your thoughts as you try | | to evade them and resume your normal life. | | | | Dissatisfied with simple happenstance | | explanations, little by little, you open | | yourself to the transcendent. A lifetime of | | preparations and self-imposed disciplines | | passes by... and one day you find yourself in | | a dream-like state. In a place where the | | familiar and the strange meet, with no way out | | or place to hide. Here, time and | | space collide. | | | | As you step forward to locate yourself, you | | hear the long forgotten screeches of the | | hellspawn getting louder and louder, but also | | a stange chanting coming from nearby. | | You notice familiar looking orbs around this | | place. The strange and conforting chanting | | becomes clearer as you approach the orbs, as | | if they were calling you. | | Somehow you feel your senses sharpen and your | | strength renewed as you touch them. | | Could this be the key for getting out? | | Welcome to Voivorbs. |

 

 

So I remember seeing this on Doomworld and downloading it but I can't seem to remember who it was and for some reason I can't find it anymore (like the user probably got banned). It's in the Newstuff guide in an older issue but I can't be bothered to look it up.

 

Let's just say that this essentially is not too unlike NERF if NERF was made by a no-name mapper and had a higher degree of puzzle-based scenarios. Keep in mind that it's a little hard to screw puzzles up if you know what you're doing, at least post '97 or so. As such, though these maps have a sloppy apperance at times, none of them can really be called bad. And while the dictum about playing on Nightmare should probably be obeyed because of the low ammo count, this is no ribbiks and someone with enough patience can probably work their way around. Although one map has transparent Arch-viles, which is probably fine if one isn't going for 100 percent kills but otherwise will probably lead to serious problems.

 

The decision to set the monster count at zero was certainly a bold one and one I can certainly respect if nothing else 6/10

 

 

Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions #15 (2015) by Various (DSDA Doom)

 

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15 maps made during the fifteenth Abyssal Speedmapping Session (huh) in the space of two hours, with 15 minutes for music and texture selection and 15 minutes for bugfixing. Considering this was Obsidian's last session, the mappers had 5 themes as opposed to 3. Those themes were:

- Plutonia.wad - Library - Self-referencing sectors - Copious amounts of barrels - Action 69(for Valentine's Day <3 )

An_Mutt, AD_79, Jimmy and SlashBane used the Alfonzo treatment and then Jimmy and SlashBane proceeded to take another hour. Jesus Christ on a pogo stick.

 

 

I am literally going to have to put the next one to the side if I get yet another one of these in a three-week period.

 

Also, why does it use Plutonia when hardly any of its visual themes can be spotted at a quick glance in the first 4 maps at least? Who knows! Without further ado...

 

 

Map 01- Less Books Than You Need: An ammo-starved map that feels like it doesn't quite know what it wants to be. I suppose the bit where we're surrounded at the end is kind of nice

 

Map 02 - This one's by Pinchy and like his other mapping efforts, this does not disappoint in the slightest! Smart enemy placement, conservative and highly tasteful use of textures and a good sense of encounter design, it's probably the best thing in the maps played today

 

Map 03 - I can't say I remember this one too well, but there's some creative use of shapes here and some occasional fierceness

 

Map 04 - This one on the other hand is just....not so well optimized. much as I can appreciate a derivative pincer opening trap, the rest is basically forgettable.

 

Map 05 - By Jimmy. Better than his Jenesis maps, excelllent looking with the only real flaw being the lack of ammo being put down. Leaning on infighting is a must. A very lovely showcase of Viridian incidentally. Ironically, this is one of the maps where no Plutonia seems to have been used! Pretty nice flow and escalation of encounters however.

 

Map 06: I dunno how to navigate this barrel maze and tbh, it's pretty bad. I don't mind skipping this. Like are we suppose to get an Imp to set off a chain reaction and somehow be in the exact right side to be pushed into a berserk pack sitting in the middle? 

 

This will be continued.

 

Edited June 5 by LadyMistDragon

Since no one has posted yet, I'll just continue ASS for now

 

Map 07: Oh great, more damn barrels. Well, at least they're clumped in groups and not encompassing the whole playable area. Oh, if you're looking for the blue key, it's inside one of the blood fountains

 

Map 08: Oh boy, it's an Obsidian map and the first time I noticed the brown Plutonian brick that probably appeared in some capacity in many previous maps but which is something that I completely failed to notice for some reason. Anyway, it's still pretty cool despite the lack of scrolling floors. In the immediately visible room at the start, you can blow the barrels up but head down and more barrels appear, along with enemies! The progression manages to be quite odd and thanks to an instant berserk pack, is not terribly difficult to save ammo for. Of course, we also get tons of shells, which seems to be in part for the Cyber for the exit and um, it's balanced a little more fairly than the average Obsidian map

 

Map 09: An_Mutt was responsible for the only map so far that can be called essentially Plutonian in form, though not so much the combat sense. This just isn't as vise-like, and the random Arch-vile pair in one window at the end of one hallway with chaingunner pairs in alcoves feels more clumsily meme-y than not. But the midi choice helps this to rise above practically all of the other maps except maybe Jimmy's.

 

Map 10: 4shockblast's....first map? Basically, the room's packed with barrels but shoot in the right spots to get them out of the way, run past a room with Arch-viles on the side in order to avoid going up, then upon escaping some barrels, punching some Arch-viles in a maze, then coming into a large closing room with a Cyberdemon and the need to fire a BFG once to open some closets on the sides with switches and groups of SS. A voodoo doll is then revealed where it's then required to shoot a rocket at to kill yourself and a Romero head to end the map.

 

Nice improvement!

 

 

Year 2 Month 12 Day 01

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] Hard until reply tested (Hurt) by Louis and Danny Witters, also Linda. (1999)

 

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This is our second product. As said, no real story behind, but yopu need some strategy and discipline to succeed without cheating. Collect all possivle ammo and health. You will need it.

 

I initially thought I've never played this vanilla mapset before but all maps gave me an abnormaly strong feeling of deja-vu, especially the third one that takes place in a sort of ancient city. I already reviewied this wad the first time in Month 12 Day 20 (11th October 2022) :

 

"If you like square rooms, this wad is for you ! This wad contains 5 maps and all of them consist to a lot of squarish room linked together in a totally inconsistent way. Well, it's not uncommon at all among 90's wads.  So, here is my totally unpredictable opinion : I enjoyed playing this wad.

 

Even if maps look total crap compared to modern standards, I like how much rooms you have to explore and some places really show some innocent creativity. Also, the lack of detail and empty areas allow you to quickly navigate without effort. Moreover, the authors gave you lot of ammo, free megaspheres and sometimes several invulnerability spheres just to fight a single cyberdemon. Therefore, most of the wad proves to be unchallenging for the most part. Some surprise crushers might kill you though. However, it's the kind of wad I can enjoy when there is no challenging to not say frustrating situations.

 

I think my favourite map was map 03 which is a kind of city where you enter in lot of buildings from the "streets". I liked this map for its size and the high emphasis for the exploration.

 

Anyway, it's the kind of stuff only shovelware addicts can enjoy , and I did.

 

Grade : B"

 

If I or my computer had remembered that I'd already played this wad, I'd have launched it on a sourceport to try and uv-max the maps, but honestly that's not the main interest. Despite the occasional bitchy traps, I just like this wad  just for the effort made by the co-authors to make a multi-level wad and all those little creative ideas that materialize in excessive placement of things or architectural elements such as the sort of wooden arch in map 05. Event if HURT.WAD (to not confuse with elend's level) will likely damage your eyes, exploring those maps were fun to me !

 

Grade : B (12,5/20)

 

I died young in "Die Young!".

 

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Another WAD (1995) by Chris T. "Tabasco" Richadson (Crispy Doom)

 

Yay, back to deathmatch maps from 95.I'm so exciiiiited.....and this one is for Doom! It's kind of pointless to describe, just a whole lot of disparate rooms of various sizes and shapes that might be all right to DM for a bit but would grow quite tiring over the long-term. This also has monsters and the best I can say there is that while combat is quite cramped, at least Chris isn't packing every square inch with monsters 4/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abyssal #15 (finished)

 

Time to wrap this up!

 

Map 11: Rocky and mountainous with plenty of barrel spammage.

 

Map 12: Fierce enemy placement from AD 79, though perhaps a bit less on the memorable side than some, since it's basically a Caged redesign.

 

Map 13: One of Noisy Velvet's earliest maps (he also had a map appear in Plutinya 1024 around the same time) this has plenty of playful barrel placement, Plutonian textures and self-referencing sectors along with some slightly un expected nastiness and a red key door that was too hard for me to find to bother with. Blowing up a ton of Arch-viles on an invisible platform will always be nice however!

 

Map 14: This is a Skillsaw map and easily the best map here! 400+, good openness and a Western-styled midi easily lift this above all the other ones!

 

Map 15: Some very weird barrel gimmicky, probably only chosen as the closing map because a Romero head gets killed by....Arch-vile fire I think? 

 

6.5/10. ASS 45 are still better overall but Map 14 should be dubbed a certified hood classic.

 

 

Brick | 1 wad | 32 maps
Adventure | 9 wads | 57 maps

 

Unholy Realms (2013) by Brian Knox. 32 maps for Doom II in limit-removing port.
Brian contributed to multiple projects over several years all while working on this, his magnum opus. Despite the requirement for removing static limits the maps are not very large and rarely go on for too long. If I had to guess I'd say Brian ran into the limits because of the detailing, many of the maps look beautiful. They can play very deadly too, Brian isn't shy about throwing nasty ambushes or using instant drop-down floors to throw the player into bad situations. I have to say I was impressed with the way some ambushes are setup so that monster closets will only open up on a repeat visit (usually after getting the key) but not the first time we walk past, I don't even know how this is possible without scripts or even Boom conveyors. Some of the ambush setups get very repetitive but I was still enjoying myself a lot, until MAP11 pissed me off, between the pitch black darkness, the very cramped fighting, that teleporting Cyberdemon finale, and a death exit to top it off. MAP12 is a nightmare of ammo starvation and shotgunning revenants, mancubi and barons in an open space with little cover. MAP14 had some obtuse progression: a switch with the RSK texture doesn't need a red key; elsewhere red bars won't open even with the key, which sent me looking for a switch that doesn't exist, other identical red bars elsewhere will open both sets. Unfortunately this is the point I realized I was no longer enjoying the wad or the direction both combat and progression had taken and my opinion never recovered from this dip. The last straw was a softlock in MAP26 due to incredibly poor design of the YSK trap. I stuck with the wad though because Primeval's music is simply incredible, this is one of the best custom soundtracks I've heard in a PWAD. I really can't stress enough just how good the music is, despite my gameplay misgivings I just wanted to hear all the wonderful tracks. Some were obvious remixes of Bobby (and even one form Kevin!) tracks ("Everybody Told Me About id" is masterful), some more or less subtle homages, most are completely original compositions, and every single one is awesome. Ultimately the music and the often gorgeous visuals made trudging through worth it, and those who like their combat challenge ramped up to the max will enjoy the combat a lot more than I did.

 

This one was short but it took forever to find a decent hit that wasn't some deathmatch trash after this so the next decent one will have to wait.

 

Clear Focus (2011) by @Reisal(Crispy Doom)

 

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A small base level to get your focus cleared. The level kinda follows the DTWID rules so it feels more like an id level but isn't. Any minor alignment errors found were intentional and should not be of any concern.

 

 

Clear what focus? I'm not sure but this does no more or less than what it sets out to be. There are no direct or subtle homages, although perhaps all the tropes are bog standard E1. Interestingly, shotgun ammo's pretty tight but there's a secret at the beginning that makes things much more manageable in that regard. 5/10

 

 

 

 

Didja miss me? :)

 

 

Fellowzdoomer's 1 Hour Map (2014) by Fellowzdoomer

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: Woof!}

 

Extremely unsurprising that this was only made in an hour (technically 90 minutes according to the text file.) You walk down a hallway, grab a blue key, note the pinky who spawns stuck in a wall, run back and exit, unless the RNG of arch-vile movement blocks your path. Your only weapon is the shotgun but you don't even really need that. As I've said in the past: this kind of map is a great way to practice your mapping skills, but there's absolutely no reason to upload it to /idgames.

 

 

Minos (2017) by Kloki38

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: Woof!}

 

A gigantic, 400-monster patience tester with a lot of great ideas that don't really cohere. I like, for example, that the player starts with the base shotgun and the plasma gun - this means that the map can start you off in the usual corridors of zombies and imps but also throw the occasional surprise arch-vile at you that forces you to switch to plasma. Unfortunately ammo is so sparse and the rooms are so big that, like brick, I mostly found myself running past enemies on the gigantic, endless switch hunt that makes up most of the gameplay here.

 

Aesthetically, again, I'd say good ideas with imperfect execution. I love the look of some of the rooms - particularly in the high-tech server area whose entrance is shown in my second screenshot - but most of them are SO big and SO detailed that they actually start to look like nothing notable. Just a mass of sprites.

 

Kloki's done better work elsewhere (I will continue to sing the praises of Czechbox at any opportunity) and even this is certainly nothing to be ashamed of but unfortunately it's more of a slog than a true magnum opus.

 

 

shrek vs doomguy: a battle of ogre proportions (2013) by chesse20

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: GZDoom}

 

When I saw this come up while picking the files for this adventure I let out a loud sigh. From the title alone I knew exactly what it was gonna be and sure enough, it's that: a dumb two-room boss battle against a really half-assedly cropped jpeg of shrek that's basically unkillable. 2013 was, of course, the year of the "Shrek Is Love, Shrek Is Life" meme and given how the Doom community works it was pretty much inevitable that this would exist, and equally inevitable that it would be a complete waste of everyone's time.

 

The one notable thing here is the room full of fly monsters that are weirdly hard to kill and have a really creepy sound effect, it's actually a little freaky when they swarm and chip-damage you to death.

 

 

Stomping Grounds (2009) by Morpheus

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: Woof!}

 

Sorry fellas, I accidentally let a really good map into the pool this time - won't happen again, I assure you.

 

Stomping Grounds is a short but sweet map from the great Morpheus with a kickass midi, an early SSG and a strong emphasis on kicking ass. There's a couple clever setpieces like the blue key trap and the final arch-vile who you are forced to spawn far enough away from you that he can do a lot of respawning, and the rest is just solid meat-and-potatoes mapping that's a little visually and experientially reminiscent of Alien Vendetta, which I mean as high praise.

 

 

Diamond1 (1995) by Steven Mrozinski

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: Woof!}

 

The description of this only says "My first wad but I worked hard and playtested it for hours." You know what, Steven? It was worth it. This is a pretty solid deathmatch map with some cool visuals and interesting hiding areas (I particularly like the giant crate that's actually a door the player can hide inside of.) The teleporter puzzle that unlocks the BFG seems pretty annoying but I get what you were going for.

 

 

The Corruption of Substation Alpha (1995) by Bill J. McClendon

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: Woof!}

 

A surprisingly nasty map for '95 that takes great joy in locking you in small spaces with high-tier monsters - but it is beatable with proper routing. Once you've died enough times to figure out which of the four starting areas gives you an SSG and which of the four gives you a chaingun, you can begin puzzling out the rest of the map to a satisfying conclusion. From what I read in the /idgames reviews non-UV difficulties are implemented and quite a bit easier - there's also supposedly some HOMs but I didn't see 'em. Solid enough.

I've always wanted to join in on these from time to time, I might however have to be strict about what to play when rolling a random wad, probably sticking to single maps or short episodes unless a megawad takes my interest. That rules out a lot of stuff but time is limited and of course there can be exceptions.

 

Since I write reviews primarily for my site, my thoughts will likely be posted up there if I have enough to say about a wad, otherwise those that don't quite fit the criteria these threads will be a perfect place to drop some lighter thoughts on something. I hope this first contribution counts however as it was covered twice during ER/IWA #79 which was what tempted me to download and check it out. Only recently got around to actually playing it though.

 

The Secret Path (1996) by John Graham

^{Crispy Doom / Ultra Violence}

 

 

I have a soft spot for older levels that try to put in their best effort, so although THEPATH is an unpolished experience, the environment does work well at establishing a sense of place. While linear there’s a kinetic flow across three distinct sections that paces itself well from key to key, returning you back to a central hub for ease into the next leg of your journey. Combat was too flat and simple without allowing monsters to perform to particular roles and become fodder to infighting, with a surplus of supplies or strange enemy behaviours making the whole process easier. THEPATH was Graham’s single output for DOOM and is a decent romp with fun showcase of effects and showed potential should they have continued their mapping career.

 

Full review here: https://taw.duke4.net/2024/06/doom2/thepath/

11 minutes ago, quakis said:

I hope this first contribution counts however as it was covered twice during ER/IWA #79 which was what tempted me to download and check it out. Only recently got around to actually playing it though. 

 

As long as you didn't cover it previously, it counts! Welcome to the Adventure :)

 

 

Base Series (1998) by Kurt Kesler

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: Woof!}

 

A true hidden gem and some of the best Doom I've played in a hot second - a tight, 350+ monster techbase with shockingly modern combat. Ammo and health are tight enough to matter but you always have what you need to proceed and there's a lot of really cool setpieces, like a pair of lifts that dispense arachnotrons just offset enough that you have a chance to kill one before the next spawns, but which will easily overwhelm you if left unchecked. The fact that your two primary weapons throughout are the SSG and rocket launcher gives everything a satisfying punch while also creating some tension as you have to stop and hide during reloads. Monsters are placed intelligently (rare to see a 90s map understand hitscanners this well) and there are even opportunities for infighting should you choose to seek them.

 

Aesthetically, screenshots can't really do it justice. Yes there's only vanilla textures here and yes the whole thing's a bit dimly lit, but the atmosphere really carries things as you start in cramped, loud environments full of whirring machinery (lifts hidden behind textured pillars) but you occasionally get glimpses of the more open spaces and peace of quiet outside, motivating you to pushing past increasingly high-tier monsters to get there. Of course, once you do, it's full of even stronger enemies and even deadlier traps. Areas open up in interesting, often surprising ways but progression is still straightforward enough that I never got lost. Said atmosphere is definitely helped by the use of "Death's Bells", the best MIDI in any IWAD.

 

Just a fun-as-fuck experience worth any Doomer's time.

 

 

Morbid Doom! (1996) by Ryan Robinson

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: Woof!}

 

Nice little DM map with some cute architecture (I particularly like the blood river) and simple gameplay: weapons are scattered around the small cube-shaped room, go get them.

 

 

Hell 77 N°02 (2018) by Gillibert "Ramon_Demestre" Raymond

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: Woof!}

 

Solid-enough limit-removing map that's a little opaque and a little too mean at times (like throwing you into a coverless room with an arch-vile) but mostly goes down smooth. Has too little ammo in the beginning and then way too much after you get the BFG in the second half and what feels like infinite cells for it. The aesthetics are a little overdetailed for my personal taste but that's subjective; they were clearly crafted with care and attention. The MIDI doesn't loop correctly.

 

Fear Complex (version 1.0) (2003) by Edward "Orion" Wong

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

^{Source Port: Woof!}

 

Giant E1 tribute with a lot of the usual references: secret chainsaw, dark maze, high ledge over a goo pit etc. Fun at first but wears out its welcome quickly - I don't think Thy Flesh Consumed's limited monster and weapon set really lends itself to a 300+ monster magnum opus, and eventually Orion runs out of ideas except for throwing bigger and bigger numbers of shotgunners into your rockets. It doesn't help that since 2003 we've seen a lot of E1-inspired mapsets and a lot of them are better than this - ironically you could say this throwback is ahead of its time.

Longshore (2023) by @ChaseC7527 (GZ Doom)

 

Quote

ChaseC7527 presents: Longshore.wad, a map that contains: 12 secrets, 165 enemies, takes place from earth, to hell, back to earth, back to hell, and back to earth once more, and contains over 30 minutes of action! This map starts off on a top secret military barge in the middle of the Atlantic. You, a lowly marine tasked to test a new "portal" of sorts. As you step inside you find that it works, you soon come to realize you are in HELL, you must fight your way through the heaps of sinners and make it out alive, can you?

 

Here's a map I played back when it was only on Doomshack and what was really the author's second map available on Doomworld (maybe the other three were also on Doomshack?) We have a map with a strong sense of it's rather surreal place, ultimately, even if a large proportion of the map is made of a certain rather barren texture style, consisting of tan and silver in many places.

 

But at the same time, there's also a strong sense of Doomcute, not to mention sense of place, located throughout the map. The opening barge is simple but effective, the reception desk and various furnishing located herein are also quite realized, along with the alley, rooftops, sewers, and industrial buildings. Later, things turn into an abstract hell setting but difficulty also picks up so it's quite respectable all the same.

 

Combat is really pretty easy for the most part. Although the monster count's boosted by around a third from the original version, which I can only assume was meant to give the latter third a little more teeth, but I think there may have been some challenge to begin with their already. 

 

One thing I should say is that unlike the average Sign of Torment map, where the quality was seriously marred by bloat, the six-key format is made to work since as sort of hinted above, the hell section proves to be shorter and more concise, as well as command a respectable if more abstract grasp on visuals. 

 

The crowning moment comes when we face off against a solitary Cyberdemon, where it's possible to rush in, grab the blue key, then use it to open the nearby door with the BFG. But beware as you set forth on the 'pad': at this point, the room turns into a Prison from TNT homage, creating serious potential for chaos. I'll say no more, though the tanky end boss was oddly an afterthought, despite its double rockets.

 

A couple of other things: there's a point in the sewers where you can rescue an MBF that will then help you on your adventures. Although honestly, the Cyber Annihilator is likely to blow him to bits if nothing else has at this point. There are also a fair amount of mostly interesting and largely cryptic secrets, of which I only located 50 percent. Can you find more.

 

I mostly think this is a great map. Despite the odd softlocks at certain points that don't make lots of sense, the progression proves to be satisfying and the linear structure probably works more to its benefit than not 7/10