The DWmegawad Club plays: Operation: BIOWAR & Equinox

MAP16: The Killing Fields

 

I'll be honest with you, this one nearly put me to sleep. The Killing Fields is just too big for the amount of monsters placed. Like, you teleport into a gigantic field that wouldn't look out of place in a slaughter wad, but only has a handful of imps and zombies. There's an awful amount of backtracking, since you'll be hitting switches and trying to figure out what the hell they did. If you add an anemic combat (single mid-tier monsters, small groups of weak ones and generally lack of any difficulty), you have an overly long and boring slog where nothing happens. This is the lowest point of Biowar by far.

Oopsies I missed A Lot Of Maps          I'll do some of the maps now and more of the maps later, short reviews this time

 

MAP11: Frozen Terror

Kills: 98%

Items: 59%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 4:18

 

Continuing with Chris Harbin's for-the-time rather out-there themes, here's a snow map! It's impressive how this map actually doesn't look too terrible while only really using 2 different textures, though I guess the main snow texture used doesn't look rough enough to bother me. The combat still isn't particularly great, though that's a rather common remark. I can feel Chris Harbin's clean plain-spoken style kinda slipping a little bit here. Back in MAP05 I praised that I only needed to ride a particularly long elevator once because a teleporter appears when you have to go back up, but here you have to ride a long elevator again at least twice. C'mon. Fair map otherwise. Nice MIDI btw, works surprisingly well.

 

Grade: C+

Difficulty: D

 

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MAP12: Military Center

Kills: 100%

Items: 79%

Secrets: 50%

Time: 3:57

 

My personal favourite map so far in the wad, Military Center is a much needed shot of adrenaline. Despite still not being the hardest map in the world, it has a simple, clean structure and a general Scythe E1 appeal to it. This map feels like a bit of a self imposed challenge for Chris Harbin, to make several little challenge rooms in rather small areas just to see how it would go. I think it went pretty well. Chris Harbin is easily at his best when he doesn't overthink his maps too hard. If he's making a fun challenge map or a quiet tech base, the common quality the best of these iterations share is being simple and brisk, and we can find a fair amount of that here. Best map so far.

 

Grade: B

Difficulty: C-

 

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MAP13: UAC Prison

By John Bishop

Kills: 92%

Items: 55%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 11:03

 

Peculiar choice for a final guest map I suppose. John Bishop's UAC Prison is unquestionably the beefiest map so far. I mean, not that it's huge, but it's got about triple this wad's average run time and monster count. I think it's close to being pretty fun, but kinda similar to MAP11 in a few regards, I don't exactly think it flows as well as it could to be honest. I suppose I appreciate the ingenuity of reusing a single arena four or five times, though more often than not these reused fights end up feeling a little clunky. The prison area near the end is kinda neat, even if there's Several long elevators to get there and you need to randomly shoot a wall at the end of a corridor to open it. The "hell" area is kinda neat too, almost qualifying as "a big fight" as far as I'm concerned. Also, seriously. What is up with John Bishop and shotgunners. MAP06 was like this too, both maps had exactly one invisibility sphere, so clearly he knew sometimes opening a door to two shotgunners who hit you about 5 or 6 times in total instantly for 40 damage and you scream because you physically did not have time to react isn’t very fun. This map has literally 185 shotgunners. Okay maybe not literally, it has about 180 shotgunners in it. That’s almost half this map’s total monster count. Did they just never tell John Bishop that Doom II has a lot more monsters? They pepper every major fight in some form or another and there’s always at least one in this map’s quieter more hallway-ish moments. Also, while we’re on this topic, shotgunners are worse than chaingunners. Chaingunners at least have the decency to give you a window, a small window, but still an existing window to react and hide before they do even one hit of shotgunner damage. Whatever, this argument is broader than the map itself. I’m not petty enough about this to reduce the map grade over it, but man if I was single-segmenting this I sure would be. Who cares, kinda fun map all in all. 

(I wrote all that yesterday when I beat the map I didn't intend for it to be well over half the review LOL)

 

Grade: B-

Difficulty: C+

MAP16: The Killing Fields

DSDA-Doom, UV, Pistol Start

 

The start was pretty fun. I loved that ambush that teleports you to the red key and opens up two doors full of monsters. Unfortunately, things go downhill after you go through the teleporter, as the wad once again falls into its bad habit of making things overly complicated. It's hard to figure out where you need to go the first time around. The yellow key is on top of a lift that is quite a distance away from its switch, so you need to run fast in order to catch it. Ammo is tight once again. I almost ran out when I got to the spinning skull maze. Said maze is a slog to get through. You can find a BFG in there, so it isn't completely bad. Unfortunately, you won't be able to use it for anything fun because things get way too easy after that. In the plasma gun room, you can blow up a bunch of imps with barrels. There's a lonely Baron in a pit. His sole purpose is to waste the time of UV Maxers. Same with that caco in that secret room that isn't marked as a secret. The hardest monsters you face after that are two arachnotrons. Not even a spidermom? Come on. Once they're taken care of, you're teleported to a switch that raises a bridge that leads to the exit. The most outrageous part is that thanks to a developer oversight, you can press the switch from below and beat the level in less than a minute.

MAP31: Juggelo Funhouse
An Insane Clown Posse themed Doom map... this didn't have to happen, you know. Safe to say it doesn't get much more 90's than this. I wouldn't say it feels like somebody's first map, but maybe more like a juvenile mappers third or fourth attempt from back in the day. Most everything's pretty basic to the architecture, texturing, monster placement and so on. The spider mastermind fight is pretty engaging in the sense that you can't just run up and BFG it point blank in the face. To be completely honest with you here, I may not be down with the clown, but there's no denying the fact 'Homies' is a kick ass song.

 

MAP16: The Killing Fields
Theming is a little inconsistent in these last few maps. Is it supposed to be hell, techbase, some natural setting? Who knows? Certainly nothing wrong with blending the two together, but this feels a bit too disjointed for that. Got a little bit lost in the demo. This wad's a big fan of two part secrets. Activate a hidden switch and open the actual secret up in another part of the map. There's an unmarked secret here too with a monster and item inside if you're going for 100% completion. A fair challenge and I believe our lengthiest endeavor so far.

 

 

bio31.zip

bio16.zip

Biowar map 13

 

  This is the map I consider the climax of the set's difficulty and the one I consider the biggest obstacle to an ironman survival.  While it's not totally toothless later on, those who are/were hoping for something more intense down the road are liable to come out disappointed.

 

What about map 12?  Eh, maybe I'll come back to it later.  Right now, this is the one I'm inclined to gab about.

 

  Shotgunners, shotgunners, everywhere.  It feels like half the opposition is shotgunners and glancing at the thing count in the DoomWiki, turns out to be close to the truth.  Gonna be taking incidental damage all over the place due to their placement, which includes numerous teleport ambushes.  There is a decent supply of health around but it's going to be a grinder.  Things can get even nastier depending on pathing (taking the downwards lift from the start without the red key  is likely to get one overrun, especially on pistol start) but even with advance knowledge of the safest route, it's still a gauntlet to survive to the end.  Even on a "safe" path, sometimes the shotgunners are faster on the trigger in spite of my efforts and foreknowledge.  My goal is to minimize the hits from other sources in order to remain healthy enough to go the distance.  Ammo is not going to be a problem with all those shotgun drops.  I do pull out the BFG for a few congested spots but it's not ideal for preventing incidental hitscan damage so attrition remains a factor.

  The prison segment is the big endurance test.  Sealed off from the rest of the map until obtaining the key, lots of hitscanners, and limited health supplies.  It is not very forgiving of mistakes.  A stray revenant missile or two and/or getting unlucky with a chaingunner and it becomes more likely one will be ground down.  Preserving a megaarmor to be able to come in at or near 200 armor and half damage gives a bit more leeway but it's still easy to lose by attrition.

 

Now I do have a successful survival recorded, which I'll post after I've typed up a textfile with some added creator commentary.  So this hurdle has been cleared.  But for the moment, the text wall here is coming from the perspective of my failed IronEagle attempt.

Operation: Biowar
MAP16: The Killing Fields
(UV, pistol start, K: 100% / S: 100%, DSDA-Doom, complevel 2)

 

The Killing Fields feels like a collection of disparate ideas, an experimental outing that's more "interesting" than "good". The opening area is straight-up amateurish, but that feels almost intentional with the fake-out exit and all. After that we get a real potpourri of scenes: a watery overgrown cave, a neat-looking maze playing with brightness levels, barrel explosion dominoes with a crowd of imps as collateral damage, et cetera. Many of the areas are unfortunately very rectangular, which makes them a bit less memorable than they could've been. Many of them also feel oversized for the amount of enemies in them, which brings MAP10 to mind.

 

The combat returns to being limp but inoffensive. We once again get a king's ransom in guns and ammo but not enought demons to use that stuff on. The BFG is completely superfluous from a difficulty standpoint, but at least you can pull it out later in the map to delete a few groups that would be tedious to kill individually. The number of arch-viles is back to a big flat zero, which makes the flame boy enjoyer in me sad.

 

I can't really explain why it hit my funny bone so hard, but I found the random-ass revenant on the floating octagon in the northern part of the map hilarious. He's just there, off to the side, almost completely ineffectual but angry as hell. What a guy.

MAP16: Killing Fields. Played on UV, pistol start. DSDA v0.27.4. K: 177/177, S: 2/2, I: 48/51. Comp. time 21:44

 

I don't know if I was in sour mood or what, but this one was just tedious. It played like a mediocre TNT: Evilution map for me - far too long, with little charm. The most exciting piece here was the very beginning, when you get the red key. The rest was a bore, and the dunce cap goes to the IOS Cube wall maze, ugh.

Map 31 : Juggelo Funhouse

 

 

A funhouse seems to be the most suited place for a secret level as it's colorful and favourable to odd ideas that you can't really incorporate in regular maps. This map contains lot of pictures of scary clowns such as you can find among black metal bands. The face drawn in the western room occupied by the spider mastermind will not heal your phobia of clowns but it's well drawn and original !

 

Not much else to add, this is a fine secret level. Gimmicky but fair. Also it's time to celebrate the first Cyberdemon of this wad !

 

Grade : B (13/20)

 

 

 

Map 16 : The Killing Fields

 

 

Contrary to what the title might indicates, this map focuses a lot more on adventure and mystery than combats (Joshy made a slaughter map with the same name in 50 shades of Graytall). I would even add that this map appears to be really underpopulated compared to its size, if I don't count the small Barrel's o fun like part. The low monster density, combined with the overgrown aesthetics and the ambiant darkness makes this corrupted base more desolated.

 

The combats feel very laid-back for a map of that slot but I don't mind, as it gives me the impression that most of the demonic forces have been eliminated and that I've only got a short way to go to reach the final boss.

 

"The Killing Fields" is clearly not my favourite map in the wad but it has a mysterious/relaxing aspect that I appreciate. A stroll in the darkness.

 

Grade : B (13/20)

 

 

 

MAP14: Absolution

100% kills, 1/3 secret

 

Guess we're in hell now, though some places feel more like the Shores of Hell in-between stage. Combined with the fact I didn't find any SSG, the map actually felt (apart from the chaingunners) very Doom 1. It also meant that combat early on was somewhat difficult - not a lot of resources, and I took a dumb hit from the church baron, so was running on fumes for most of the map until getting the RL. Things really soured when I got locked in because I went through the yellow door without lowering the red key column first. Really makes you appreciate the playtesting modern WADs go through!

 

 

MAP15: Heat

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

This was a lot of more my jam, just the right length and nice punchy pace. Also the Heretic lava texture has always been my favorite lava look (though it does look weird as lavafalls). Thankfully I spotted the SSG in the lava. The first vile room (with the vile coming out of the red pit in the middle) reminded me of the one in MAP28 The Spirit World, though checking it the textures are all wrong. The regular walk-over exit line was far too close to the secret exit switch for my liking, accidentally walked over it by mistake at first.

Map16: The Killing Fields
Big, empty, overcomplicated, and generally boring. I kinda liked the first trap, where you're teleported into a cage with many enemies on your flanks. It turns out that you can just leave through the door immediately, making it a very weak trap, but in a funny way. There's a long line of exploding barrels and imp victims, a cheap spectacle, but it manages to be a highlight in a map like this.

 

Edited June 16 by Pseudonaut

Map 16: The Killing Fields

 

I really liked this map. I felt that the visuals and progression succeeded in pulling of the sense of being in a real place even if that place is foriegn and alien to anything in a more human world. The combat was once again right in this wads wheel house where we are not exactly challanged, just kept busy with fighting to occupy our time while we explore the different environments. We are getting on to the end and Im still intrrested in seeing what comes next. 😀

Hello guys!

I am glad to see that the DWmegawad Club is still going on and playing ;-). I still haven't found out what the game for the last month was there was no post about that. I played some SIGIL II if anybody wants to know. Btw I do not participate this month because I really dislike Equinox. This game is totally annoying and boring imho. Hopefully you guys have more fun playing this game!

regards

@KickAss There was no thread last month as nothing got enough votes for a thread to be made

3 hours ago, Horus said:

@KickAss There was no thread last month as nothing got enough votes for a thread to be made

Anyway thank you for sharing this information.

Map 15: Heat

 

  Maybe it’s just the super lava chewing through my radsuit without a care, but this map got pretty hard. The first big exposure to the running lava is a really intense visual, with the lighting contrast being as it is. I could imagine something similar being in a Benjogami production and feeling right at home, with the gameplay being equally puzzling, putting the Super Shotgun in the lava such that you need the closest Radiation Suit to grab it without putting yourself at a horrible disadvantage. On the other hand, I’ve already forgotten most of the combat, outside of the tight negotiation with the Baron before the jump to the Arch-Vile room. My memory is clouded in rocks and run and gun corridor Imps and Chaingunners, now a comfortable norm in the maps here. 

 

Map 31: Juggelo Funhouse

 

  Oh what the hell ever dude.

  I have absolutely no weight as to what is going on with the Insane Clown Posse, nor have I ever heard them referenced in anything outside of a joke, so all I got out of this map was yet another wheelhouse with pretty middling encounters. A lone Chaingunner teleports into my back, a Spider Mastermind hogs up two bulk cells and fifteen seconds, four fucking Barons of Hell asked to be taken out back to the Hell Revealed barn and put down, and the WAD’s first Cyberdemon is dropped into a more forgiving and open arena than Tower of Babel. All of this is asking for revisits as the map progresses such that the BFG at the exit can be made use of against all these larger foes to avoid the other boring solutions. At least it’s digestible, being incredibly quick for a late game map, so it’s over before the jpegs become eyesores. This is definitely a product of its time. 

 

Map 16: The Killing Fields

 

  Exhausting, extremely long, and pretty damn boring outside of the few points that strained my eyes. I consider myself very lucky to not have picked the wrong path so many times in this map, as it is pretty difficult to tell which way is correct when all you have to go on are doors that turn out to be locked when you approach them. Most of the imagination has left, now leaving so much empty space the lap back around through similar to Skybase. The tangle of vines that ultimately leads to Pinkies, the maze of Skull Cubes that leads you into individual Imps and Chaingunners, the singular Cacodemon stuck in the basement on the route to the exit, all of this is violent stop and start, only manageable with a Super Shotgun ammo supply that’s unreliable at best. It doesn’t help that the switch that raises the bridge to the way out can be pressed from below its rock plinth, ending the longest map in the WAD in about half a minute. The ideas are too scatterbrained for the map to be as large as it is, having just enough jungle and red to call it a mesh of hell, as well as a bunch of other rooms that are honestly too simplistic to really pin any meaning to. This wasn’t fun.

MAP14: Absolution

Kills: 91%

Items: 50%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 9:11

 

Eh... not wild about Chris Harbin's first real attempt at a hell map. Absolution, even for this wad's standards, is rather mundane, possessing the general flow and layout of a Doom I E3 map. It is the second hardest map so far tbh, only a little behind MAP13 as far as I'm concerned, but this map's difficulty only really results from it being a tiny bit stingy sometimes. I guess the red key fight was okay, but that's about it. The rest of the map is just meandering from room to room, not really doing much. It seems like Chris Harbin's fall-off after MAP11 is sadly gaining momentum. By the way, whoever posted an edit to this map's Doomwiki page before I did talking about the softlock, I'm sorry. I absolutely could not read it. I only figured out what was going on when I played the map for myself and fell for it.

 

Grade: C

Difficulty: C+

 

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MAP15: Heat

Kills: 100%

Items: 68%

Secrets: 50%

Time: 6:54

 

Sadly Heat is a map I didn't particularly care for either. I guess I like this map's theme a little more than MAP14 (show me ONE instance of ROCKRED looking bad) but it doesn't manage to be more interesting. As I've said before, previously I've praised Chris Harbin for how straightforward and direct his mapping style is, though I think some of that has gotten lost in especially the last handful of maps. Heat, again, just feels a tiny bit clumsier to me versus this wad's earlier maps. Not a whole lot more to say really. Just not a very brisk layout, relatively uninteresting combat, and none of the interesting atmosphere/semi-Doomcute from before. Let's just hope this'll improve soon I suppose. (Psst, I've played MAP16. No it won't.)

 

Grade: C-

Difficulty: C

 

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MAP31: Juggelo Funhouse

Kills: 100%

Items: 95%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 3:34

 

Hmm... Amateurish? Strange? Sure, maybe, but in a weird sense I kinda love Juggelo Funhouse. I don't 100% get the reference, exposing myself as someone who's probably not cool enough for this map, but this map is still kinda sick. Quite simply three little challenge rooms smothered with textures of Insane Clown Posse, which is a reference I only got because at least one person here mentioned that name. Those challenge rooms actually aren't bad either, they get better as they go on and I actually quite dig the last one. It might tell you literally everything about my taste in maps these days that I think Juggelo Funhouse is the best map in Operation Biowar, but I don't care <3

 

Grade: B+

Difficulty: D+

 

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MAP16: The Killing Fields

Kills: 87%

Items: 54%

Secrets: 50%
Time: 12:25

 

Oh for god's sake. I really didn't care for The Killing Fields tbh, it feels like the most directionless map so far to me. You start in this small little grey brick area, then go through an obviously fake exit into... TNT MAP21, then through a teleporter into the main section of the level. A weird overgrown tech base thing. Maybe I'm just feeling somewhat jaded about this megawad at this point and ready to move on to Equinox, though this level definitely feels out of steam. I can't keep saying it from MAP14 and 15, but the brisk quality is effectively completely gone now. It just feels big for the sake of being big, like "oh it's the end of the wad, looks like we need a Big Map". It's the pinnacle of this wad frustratingly holding itself back in the name of conventions. Sure, have a maze filled with that rotating Icon Of Sin cube texture. Who even cares anymore. At least MAP17 seems to be hub based, Chris Harbin's good at that, and MAP18 seems very short. By the way I did spend several minutes trying to SR50 over the gap leading to the exit. It didn't work, though I'm still convinced it's possible.

 

Grade: D+

Difficulty: D+

MAP16: The Killing Fields

 

I think someone already did all the killing for us.

 

One could describe Biowar as "atmosphere at the expense of combat". But in most of these maps I feel like the atmosphere would be better if the combat was better. Does that make sense? It's like this map is supposed to be ominous, hostile, and a little surreal, but instead it feels abandoned and unfinished.

 

 

Anyway, I liked this room. That's all I got.

MAP16 - “The Killing Fields” by Chris Harbin

 

This map has many of the hallmarks of a 90s map: long corridors and mazes, obtuse progression that had me going back and forth many times (especially towards the end after the blue key door with a switch that took me ages to work out what it did), inconsequential combat (save for quite a neat trap at the start), meme fights (namely the barrel chain reaction, which admittedly raised a smile), monotextural rooms, and so on.

 

Not a sound basis for great map design, and yet…I really enjoyed it. I think I must have been in one of those moods were just about any competent map would satisfy me (and despite all of the above, it is competent). I played quite a bit faster than I normally would, which I think also increased my enjoyment somewhat.

Map15: Heat

Lovely little series of hellish caverns with a few switches of obscure function, a secret exit, and generally low threat vibe. It makes up in visual coherence and theme what it does somewhat lack in combat.

Map31: Juggelo Funhouse

Never know where the Juggalos will pop up next, seems suitable considering the time period of the WAD.
Still, feels like a breath of fresh air in a sense, fights aren't dangerous but they keep you moving and it's generous on pickups for once. Perhaps deliberately so, you can clown on the cyberdemon at the end quite easily as there's more than enough room to dodge rockets even if you want to grab the BFG first.
 

Map16: The Killing Fields

This map has it's ups (mostly in the middle) and downs (beginning an end). The entrance room is a plain grey box, the exit an empty wasteland, but betwixt them lies a dark maze of caverns crawling with foliage (relatively speaking) and begging to be spelunked. As usual, there's a sense of obscurity to the progression, which along with a few other commonalities, seems a hallmark of the set overall. 

 

It kinda feels like Chris Harbin is trying to make the fights more threatening, but even the red key fight is likely to leave you with few wounds, and it's generous enough that one never feels short on health or ammo or even armour really. 

Map 16: The Killing Fields

by Chris Harbin

Crispy Doom, pistol-start, UV

 

A decent enough collection of map sketches with some unforgivably anemic combat and the name feels pulled out of the air somehow. Sure there's a massive field around an island with the exit but the issue is the incredibly spread-out low tiers. The map continues, into arguably some of the best vine-filled caverns this wad has featured so far, along with dungeon pits and basically the shiniest tech base that one could imagine. The use of scattered light in one area leading to the last bit of progression is pretty nice though. Forgetting a certain courtyard overseen by four chaingunners, there isn't much that's genuinely threatening. Although the last trap does open closets of Lost Souls on either side while failing to crush a nearby Baron for some reason. But at least the secret hallway was pretty funny. Everything dies bu a Mancubus at the very end and there isn't really too much reward but it's there and it also feels good to find. Just don't miss the switch off the blue key door courtyard that unlocks it. The maze has a horrible texture though and just has a BFG 9000 placed at one ever so carelessly. As environments go, these are all pretty nice but the action per square footage doesn't quite measure up.

 

https://youtu.be/XwEE1ASraB0

MAP31: Juggelo [sic] Funhouse

100% kills, 1/1 secret

 

This one is decent enough, with some quick fights and both boss monsters, though neither is too threatening. The Spider Mastermind fight could've been somewhat interesting by forcing the player to run in and out of cover with the RL for ammo and avoid being too close, but the map gives the player so many shells early they can just hide behind one block and play peekabo with the SSG. The Cyberdemon is also in a big open room and provides no threat to the modern player. I'm not sure if the juggalos are supposed to be honored or hated, though I suspect the latter (i.e., much like the player comes across a nazi castle and has to clear it out like the Wolfenstein map).

 

MAP16: The Killing Fields

97% kills, 1/2 secrets

 

Somewhat striking wasteland area near the start (and ends up being the exit), which I suppose is intended as the titular fields. In-between is a bit cave/base exploration that feels a bit random, with a couple of interesting bits (I like the skull maze and the use of darkness to place all the monsters as black silhouettes) but a lot of boring ones, as many portions of the map are just far too oversized for the monsters within. Also a bit of unclear progression and "what did this switch do, exactly?"

MAP17: Sacrilege

 

After leaving a starting room, the map proper opens in three-way teleport hub, taking you to three distinct places, and a cyberdemon that is best ignored for now. The blue key area is a somewhat forgettable base, though the part where you reveal two archviles in a tiny room while cacodemons appear if you try to escape did made me focus. I think the red key part is more interesting, most of the fights here take place on a walkway above green sludge, enemy density is much larger and there's an archvile-lead monster closet. The rush of imps that spawn when you press the blue switch was also an interesting encounter. I strongly recommend finding the BFG near the red key, it takes care of the cyberdemon quickly and helps a lot with the finale.

 

You're back at the start, except the walls have lowered to unveil a fiery ravine with a mastermind on the opposite side. Crossing it requires jumping through a series of randomly-moving pillars, I'm not a fan of this, it's annoying and slows the map down. Some exploration for the yellow key later and the map is over. I think it's an improvement over the previous level, as it doesn't feel as empty and has some moments. Out of all maps Harbin made this is among the best ones, though it's still far from the type of levels I like.

 

MAP18: Die Heuschrecke

 

Die Heuschrecke (German for "Grasshopper", I have no idea what's the story behind this name) hands you all the guns and a mountain of ammo in the starting room. This is followed by a handful of rooms and corridors to clear - the most notable aspect are revenants and archviles that stand suspended in the void. It reminds me of MAP30 from TNT a bit, but luckily, doesn't drag as much.

 

The second part of the map is the Icon of Sin, arguably one of the easiest I've seen in a while. Press a series of switches while avoiding monsters, jump into the maw of the final boss and fire at the exposed core - no lift to worry about. Easy IoS maps are the best IoS maps.

 

Conclusions

 

I enjoyed Operation: Biowar when I was new to custom Doom maps. However, with more experience and exposure I can confidently say it's not the best megawad, even considering the releases of its era. Don't get me wrong, it's not a terrible set and besides MAP02 and MAP16 it lacks obvious failures, but it's very mediocre. The backtracking-heavy, dungeon-crawling gameplay is something I've grown to dislike, especially since the low-impact combat and overscaled size lack any excitement. The fact the maps I've enjoyed the most were made by guest authors isn't lost on me.

 

Regarding the visuals, Biowar is very inconsistent. The maps switch from chunky doomcute and detailed lighting to monotonous textures and basic geometry. It's not bad when it works, as some maps have creative ideas behind them, but I don't think they are fully realised. The new sound effects are an interesting choice, as I couldn't get used to them and they succeeded in making me uneasy, unsure of what am I facing, this is definitely a strong point. Regarding the music, the wad borrows Mark Klem's tracks from earlier works and it's a good selection.

 

It feels like I just happened to play Biowar at a right point in time. It's a rather easy wad (despite the info file calling it "medium to hard" - I don't think it's earned considering Plutonia and Hell Revealed were available for a couple of years by then; the only remotely difficult level was MAP13's hitscanner hell), a solid starting point for a rookie player, but I don't think it stood the test of time and I doubt I'll be returning here.

MAP17 - “Sacrilege” by Chris Harbin

 

And so now we come to the penultimate map, which is where my last playthrough came to an end, so this map is half-blind (although my memory is actually quite spotty for a lot of maps since I last played it 4 years ago).

 

It’s a more ambitious map than its predecessor, with more thought put into its combat and structure, with significantly more straightforward progression too. We start on a central hub with a cyber for company, one we don’t really start with the resources to kill. Instead, one has to go to both the offshoots to gradually stock up your armoury with some moderately challenging fights in the interim, following which the cyber is trivial to deal with, especially if you find the secret BFG.

 

The other major boss monster, the spider mastermind, then makes an appearance, and as usual you have to play the peekaboo and game and fire shots whilst spending as little time in her firing line as possible. Again this is made somewhat easier and less painful if you have the BFG. Some simple platforming brings to a conclusion of a map that overall played decently well but doesn't exactly stand out.

 

MAP18 - “Die Heuschrecke” by Chris Harbin

 

Low monster count with all the weapons provided to you straight away can only mean one thing – Icon of Sin map. I might give 90s mappers a tiniest bit more of a free pass than modern day mappers for using the IoS, but the concept still sucks either way.

 

The lead-up to the IoS arena is boring filler, especially the peekaboo sections of the archviles and revenants on pillars. The actual IoS fight itself is actually mercifully painless, consisting of just a simple switch sequence to unlock the lift through the IoS’s mouth and a final archvile duo before a clean shot to victory.

 

So I’ve seen far worse IoS maps, and for once an IoS map isn’t my least favourite map of a megawad that it’s included in, but it’s still very unremarkable.

Final Thoughts

 

As more of more of the older mapsets get played and the sheer amount of new content that gets released gets more and more awe-inspiring, so this club pivots more and more towards new mapsets, as you can see by the club’s history over the past few years. But this club still has many pre-2010s mapset left to play, and I have to say I do enjoy going back to simpler, easier old mapsets from time to time.

 

With a couple of exceptions, this mapset presented practically zero challenge and combat decidedly played a second fiddle to atmosphere and environmental storytelling, enhanced by the custom textures and ambient sound replacements. It was for the most part relaxing and not at all stressful to play through, a nice mapset to unwind to. Whilst there’s very little that makes Biowar stand out, I still definitely enjoyed my time playing it, and during a time where I was (before starting this mapset) starting to wonder if I was getting a bit bored of playing Doom again too.

 

The maps also very much trend on the short side, which in some cases can lead to not a whole lot to talk about, although I usually managed to find enough! I’m also not complaining about that anyway to be honest – things have been pretty busy for me so far this month and if the mapset was chunky I probably would have dropped out already.

 

Finally, a general comment, with so much new content out there, I very very rarely replay mapsets, but it’s really worth taking the time out to do so and see how it fares on repeat playthrough.

Edited June 17 by Horus

 

Took a break yesterday as I was absorbed in the Kingdom Hears steam release, and didnt feel like stopping just to play one level of Doom before relaunching the game

 

The final stretch was enjoyable!

 

Map 16: I had Julien-K's Killing Fields in my head as I played this. A neat level that fully fills its Map 28-slot equivalent, this had a lot of opposition and tricky nonsense, like a maze of that spawncube texture. I never once felt actually threatened though, and the outside 'field' needed more enemies in it. The standout moment was when a lone baron across a chasm got into a fight with an imp, and the imp managed to dodge its attacks for *ten minutes* while hurting the baron many many times. Alas, this legendary hero imp who joined forces with me fell eventually. He will be remembered for his valor. Amusingly, that baron *still* had enough HP to take 5 SSG shots.

 

Map 17: The penultimate level, this one felt like a TNT finale alright. Start off immediately in a cyberdemon duel, where you can flee into one of two offshoot areas on the hunt for keys, as theres a red key switch in the central cyberdemon arena. One of the areas starts you off with an archvile attacking youso you have to move quickly, right into a horde of cacos and chaingunners, plus a Pain Elemental. You have to go back and forth between the two offshoot areas to get both keys. Once you do get both and can go to the red key area, theres a well-placed Spider Mastermind across a canyon with no means to get up in her face with the BFG for a one-shot, but she still goes down easily enough with plasma rifle, once all the surrounding monsters are dealt with. Still better placement than pretty much any id placement. The timed jumps to get to her platform to exit is a pain.

 

Map 18: A great IoS fight. As is customary with TNT-style wads, theres some light normal level gameplay at the start, such as an area with floating revenants to snipe you, while chaingunners distract you. Also the opening? A real man uses that berserk to kill everything up till at *least* the two barons on the awkward stairs. The actual IoS fight itself is great, no bullshit lifts and wrestling with autoaim, RNG, and rogue cacos and lost souls, just a mad dash to pull all the switches before getting overwhelmed, then leaping inside the creature's mouth to blow it up from within. Two archviles will try to stop you inside, and killing the internals always kills you in the process, so thats the end of Angry Potatoman.

 

As a whole, Biowar was kind of neat, and doesnt overstay its welcome with a drawnout 32 maps, like 32 Hours in Pain, a similar era TNT megawad (Harbin, Pcorf and Kristian would be somewhat tied together later on, amusingly). The megawad club was the chance I needed to push myself to actually finish it, as painful as the one map a day restriction is.

For the next wad Equinox, my patch gives it widescreen graphics, a fixed Map 4 midi, and some impromptu fitting level names partially taken from the Dean of Doom episode. I'll probably play it in two-map bursts most days, as it tends to be broken up with smaller psuedo-hubs like BTSX, but the hubs actually have content. Map 2, 5, 8 and 11 are the hub maps, so plan around them

MAP17: Sacrilege
It's the penultimate map. First part of the map involves getting past a Cyberdemon and his red key pillar, second part involves fighting a spider mastermind and her cronies. Of course there's plenty of other errands to run in between the two boss fights. Progression is a bit non-linear and exploration based here in the fact that you can find yourselves at a dead end and need to backtrack through the level before getting what you need. Combat is varied and just challenging enough you'll have to pay attention if you want to make it to the end. Unfortunately, the two bosses are placed in areas that make them feel more like a chore instead of a challenge.

 

MAP18: Die Heuschrecke
Like any good Icon of Sin map, it starts out by handing you the entire arsenal of weapons and a nearly full stockpile of ammo for them on a silver platter. Before we can get to the Icon itself, there's a more conventional level to get through first. Considering this is the final map, is Chris Harbin finally going to step up the challenge? No, not really. At least it's one of those 'floating in the void' type maps. Anybody who knows me knows I'm a big fan of those.

 

The Icon of Sin fight isn't your conventional platforming meets timing meets luck affair. Instead you'll have to run in a criss cross pattern across a medium sized area to access the final switch that cracks open the jaw of this accursed wall texture and grants access inside. God forgive me for saying this, but I feel like this part could have done with a few more monster cube spawners so the area would actually start to fill up by the time you're reaching the final switch. As it stands, it felt like I didn't have to contend with much more than a Cacodemon floating around aimlessly and a zombieman taking occasional potshots at me. Once you're in the literal belly of the beast, it's time for Operation: Biowar Guy to bravely sacrifice himself for the greater good. I feel like most of us would take an exceedingly easy Icon of Sin map over an excessively frustrating one any day of the week, so I was completely fine with this.

 

Even back in the day, Operation: Biowar may not have been the biggest, most grandiose wad with near impossible difficulty and the fanciest mapping tricks, but not every wad needs to serve said purpose and that's just fine. Obviously can't say this happened for sure, but I feel like a lack of playtesting led to a few easy softlocks and several moments of obtuse progression or slightly off balance here and there amongst the mostly competent design. Then again, it probably wasn't as easy finding competent play testers back in 99 than it is in current year. Considering your typical Doomer could probably get through this thing in one or two sessions these days, then I don't see much harm in playing it for yourself.

 

bio17-18.zip

Something that hasn't been present in the later maps of Biowar are the atmospheric sounds (from crushing enemies in remote sectors).  I think the last time they're heard is all the way back in map 6.  With this feature absent, I feel it does contribute to the later maps feeling generic as this was something that helped make Biowar memorable even over 20 years later.  Hell, replacing a Keen death sound with something creepy, then crushing it offscreen and having its death trigger opening a nearby door is a missed opportunity for creating atmosphere and unsettling an unsuspecting player.

 

Back to individual map commentary

 

map 12

 

  Really don't have much to say about this one in the context of a survival run.  Blast through and save the megaarmor secret and all the health bonuses to go into 13 as healthy as possible.

 

map 14

 

  This map has a showstopping bug that will end a recording because outside playtesting was still a luxury in 1998.  It's vital to lower the red key before crossing past the yellow door.  More interesting than 12 in an ironman context.  My planned route skips the rocket launcher and all the monsters milling around it as well as most of the barons.  No cell ammo other than the 3 backpacks but nothing here is intense enough that I feel called to pull out the plasma weapons.  Not even the red key brawl which is fairly simple to skip fighting.

Let's get this wad done and over with.

 

MAP17: Sacrilege

DSDA-Doom, UV, Pistol Start

 

Here's another fun map. It consists of a starting area that is later revealed to be the end area (spoilers), a large hub, and two teleport areas. I recommend going through the blue area first as it will allow you to get properly geared up. The red area will be a pain without it. Some of the detailing reminds me of Alien Vendetta, which I like. The progression is pretty straightforward compared to previous levels. It doesn't have many of the needless complexities that plagued this wad. Best of all is the combat. You start off by SSG-ing stuff, but then things get even more exciting when you start rocketing groups of imps. Find the secret BFG for even more fun. The spider mastermind at the end was a pain to deal with, though. The moving platforms made it too dangerous to get close, so I had no choice but to rocket her down. Sacrilege is definitely one of the wad's high points.

 

MAP18: Die Heuschrecke (Die, Huge Shrek!)

DSDA-Doom, UV, Pistol Start

 

Here's an Icon of Sin map that just wants to get things done and over with. It gives you all the weapons right at the start, you go to a few small rooms, press some switches, reach the Icon, press more switches, enter the icon, shoot some rockets into a hole, and then you win. It reminds me of MAP30 from TNT, but shorter and more fun. Combat wise, it's one of the easiest final levels I've ever played. You can just blast everything with the BFG, but I berserk punched some of the monsters to make things more interesting. The whole thing makes for great speedrunning fun.

 

In conclusion, Operation: BIOWAR was kind of a mixed bag. Some parts of it were really fun, but it was plagued by a strange compulsion to make things as overly complicated as possible. I understand that they tried to make an elaborate adventure with some puzzle elements, but they did so in bizarre ways. Many of the design choices on display here would never be tolerated by current year Doom map standards. Despite its many faults, I still managed to enjoy it. Up next is Equinox by B.P.R.D., and I'm going to tell you upfront that I am not looking forward to it at all.

MAP17: Sacrilege. Played on UV, pistol start. DSDA v0.27.4. K: 137/137, S: 2/2, I: 46/46. Comp. time 16:01

 

I feel this one continues in the same vein as the last map, Killing Fields, but is somewhat more fun -- although I didn't appreciate the platforming near the end as I didn't appreciate the SMM sitting somewhere you can't one- or two-shot her with BFG. Speaking of which, being able to two-shot cybers probably wasn't a thing in 1999, and it's a wonderful way to conserve ammo in these older wads (as, I think, is berserks, which modern player can easily use against hell nobles and revenants -- or was that a thing already in 1999? I know I didn't learn to appreciate berserk in that manner until early 2020s).

 

Anyway, decent map that suffers a bit from TNTitis, namely for being too long for its own sake.

 

*

 

MAP18: Die Houseschrecke (sic?). Played on UV, pistol start. DSDA v0.27.4. K: 34/34, S: 1/1, I: 3/3. Comp. time 5:22

 

Eeech, the starting room makes me smell Icon of Sin, and what do you know, it is an IoS map... But, to my surprise, a rather pleasant one. Nothing to write home about, but a decent end to a mapset. I guess the one decent use of IoS is to make it some sort of area you have to survive long enough, but *NOT* do any stupid platforming (with enemies knocking you off) and precision-shooting the brain (having enemies cause constant face-rockets). Maybe this one was even a little bit too easy, but I'm not going to complain.

 

* * *

Thoughts on BIOWAR: Honestly, while Operation: BIOWAR won't land in my Desert Island wad folder nor give any reason to tweak my TOP Wads point allocation, and while the overall quality wasn't quite exactly A-tier, I liked it considerably more than I initially expected. BIOWAR presents 19 inoffensive, but mostly nice maps that are just a proper amount of difficult for someone who has only done original IWADs (not TFC or Plutonia, though).

28 minutes ago, E.M. said:

Up next is Equinox by B.P.R.D., and I'm going to tell you upfront that I am not looking forward to it at all.

 

Without spoiling too much, my reviews on upcoming days on Equinox will be that of first-timer's. How innocent I was. It took me June 1st til June 3rd to complete Biowar and write all my capsule reviews thus far. Equinox with less maps (some of them very short) took me from June 3rd till June 11th.