UnknDoomer's corner of ultra silence - Short WAD Reviews / Longplays / Hints

[UnknDoomer]

5, 6. Sunken Dungeon, Casa De Lava (2024).

Two maps for Heretic, occupying slots E1M6 and E1M7. Apart from the fact of a rare release of single maps of this kind, one can note an interesting combination of structure and style in the spirit of the "old school" with serious attention to detail, which, both in particular and in such a combination separately, is not often encountered nowadays. Some explanation for this phenomenon is the date of the author's, @pbldcttr, registration on doomworld - ?.04.01, more than 23 years ago.

 

 

 

Settings and features:

 

* GzDoom 4.12.2, difficulty 4/5.

* Complete completion will take ~ 20 minutes.

[UnknDoomer]

193. Afternoon (2024).

Overall, a relatively standard, modern wad of 15 (1 secret) levels, presented by @Ludi, logically divided into two segments. The first is short and moderately simple maps. The second is tough skirmishes in small and large spaces. M13 stands out in the latter case, with the number of opponents approaching 4000. Otherwise, there is nothing special to say about this work, except for the fact that the maps have a rather peculiar name.

 

 

Settings and features:

 

* GzDoom 4.12.2, UV difficulty.

* A full walkthrough will take ~ 1,5 hours.

 

Secret level.

 

M14 -> M15. You need to find a hidden switch on the epilogue map.

Edited September 27 by UnknDoomer

[UnknDoomer]

194. Condemned (2024).

A wad for Heretic consisting of 8 levels (1 secret), presented by @TheHambourgeois. There is a short story, one new, ultimate weapon, two types of custom monsters. The Wad works in conjunction with the Wayfarer's Tome modification and, judging by the prefix in the name, "ZDoom Heretic Episode", uses some of the features embedded in GzDoom.

 

Secret level.

 

M4 -> M8. The exit is behind the waterfall and opens, apparently, after reaching the main one.

 

 

Settings and features:

 

* GzDoom 4.12.2, difficulty UV.

* M8 has shadow monsters that cannot be killed completely.

* Complete completion will take ~ 1,5 hours.

[UnknDoomer]

195. Lines progress (2024).

A wad of 32 levels (2 secret), presented by @purple_ruberoid, built around the idea that each subsequent map is bigger than the previous one. The difficulty varies significantly as you progress. In particular, M29 and M30, which is generally not typical for Doom maps, are inferior in degree to a number of their predecessors. Numerous traps with the participation of archviles, cyberdemons and masterminds are included. By the way. Apparently, the combination of black and purple is an imperishable trend of recent years.

 

Settings and features:

 

* GzDoom 4.12.2, UV difficulty.

* Complete completion will take ~ 7 hours.

 

Secret levels.

 

M15 -> M31. In short, you will need to find a yellow skull.

M31 -> M32. Likewise.

[UnknDoomer]

42. Silent Outpost (2024).

A single map focused on working with PsyDoom in combination with The Ultimate Doom, PSX. Presented by @Diema. Despite its general simplicity and the fact that the number of monsters is generally small, it has two distinctive features. The first is a severe shortage of ammo. The second is a rather confusing architecture.

 

 

Settings and features:

 

* PsyDoom 1.1.1, difficulty UV.

* Complete completion will take ~ 20 minutes.

[UnknDoomer]

196. Tower of Devils (2024).

Wad for Heretic from 9 levels (1 secret), presented by @Questar_Valdamar, built on the principle of Hexen - there is a central hub and several sublevels, an abundance of switches, an emphasis on puzzles, non-trivial architecture. In addition, it is required, which is quite rare, active use of both the ability to jump and squat separately, and often in combination of the first and second. A number of local monsters, three types, came straight from Hexen.

 

 

Settings and features:

 

* GzDoom 4.12.2, difficulty 4/5.

* The custom boss in the final wada can be dealt with in a matter of seconds if you use invulnerability and then, due to the "six", push him out of the arena - he will instantly die. You can easily get rid of the lizards by turning them into chickens, fortunately, the supply of eggs by this time is more than sufficient.

* A full passage will take ~ 3 hours.

 

Secret level.

 

E2M6 -> E2M9. It is located behind a large door in the northeast of the map. I did not figure out how to open it. The level itself is unremarkable - just a square arena with 176 opponents.

[UnknDoomer]

43. Fortress of Whispers (2024).

A sequel to "Silent Outpost", built on the same principle. The only significant difference is that there is a secret exit, to get to which you will need to get the red key.

 

 

Settings and features:

 

* PsyDoom 1.1.1, difficulty UV.

* Full playthrough will take ~ 30 minutes.

[UnknDoomer]

197. Constriction: 1024 (2024).

A wad of 32 levels (2 secret), presented by @DJVCardMaster, the main feature of which, judging by the name, was the limit on the size of a single map with a grid of 1024x1024 or less. Despite the compactness of the levels, some of them are passed too quickly, partly due to the fairly high complexity. There are custom, but generally not unique textures that could be seen in many other works. Stylistically the wad is divided into two segments - conditional technogenic bases and gothic fortresses, among which something else is occasionally found, such as, for example, M19 in the style of Ancient Egypt. The narrative element seems to be borrowed from the famous BTSX dilogy, which was once analyzed earlier.

 

 

Settings and features:

* GzDoom 4.13.1b, UV difficulty.

* Complete completion will take ~ 5 hours.

 

Secret levels:

 

M15 -> M31. There is a niche to the left of the main exit. To get the key you will need to fight cyberdemon, two archviles and a series of other enemies.

M31 -> M32. The exit is on the lower deck of the submarine. It will open, apparently, after finding the secret with blue armor, for which you need to find a teleport to it.

 

Pros:

 

+ M15 - "The Transformer".

+ M31 - "We're All Killin in a Yellow Submarine".

+ M19 - "Mastaba".

+ M23 - "An Unsuspicious Village".

+ M26 - "Iron Sepulchre".

 

Contras:

 

- M30 - "Lament Constriction". Excessive complexity. Enemies regularly appear from four sides, in a small square. You need to run onto the platform, press the switch, run onto the platform again, wait for a short pole to rise, wait for Romero's head to appear in one of the four points and fire a shot. This sequence needs to be repeated several times and it's quite difficult to remember the timing and spawn point. I got through it by saving after each successful run and occasionally checking the timing in combination with "god", after which I did the next run in a proper way.

Edited October 31 by UnknDoomer

[UnknDoomer]

198. Hispanic Community Project (2023 / 2024).

Wad, presented by @DevilMyEyes, jointly created by map builders from several countries (judging by the number of flags - 9; Spain, Mexico and others), united by a common language - Spanish. Consists of 43 (3 secret) levels, varying quite noticeably in scale, style and theme. If you try to describe the collective work in one term, it will be like this - magical realism, as opposed to standard design and brutalism, abstractionism and constructivism characteristic of my local region. The corresponding musical motifs are included.

The authors mention that they were inspired by the previously reviewed Doom 2 In Spain Only (2021). and Japanese Community Project, originally from Japan. I am not familiar with the second, but it has several components in common with the first - a pronounced, albeit to a lesser extent, shortage of ammo in places, vast, sometimes huge, locations combined with more compact ones, strongly floating difficulty.

Separately, it is perhaps worth noting that you should not count on a quick walk here - traditionally for such works the journey will be protracted. So, the passage of only one voluminous, technogenic, space and intricate base in the person of M25 can take an hour, as well as the same compact, but complex M21, due to the emphasis on specific "combat puzzles", can take half an hour.
 

 

Settings and features:

 

* GzDoom 4.13.1b, UV difficulty.

* At the start of a new level, in addition to the traditional display of the map name and the nickname of its creator, the flag of the country with which a specific author is associated is displayed.

* M19 can be left immediately at the start, however there is no particular reason to stay here - the huge map is a patchwork quilt, several large, half-empty segments, in places filled with enemies and diluted with non-obvious puzzles. To get to the majority of the map you need to solve the combination encoded behind the numbers 0111101. What this binary code could mean... I can only guess. The translation into the decimal system does not give any hints that some word or combination was encoded in Spanish could not be found.

* On M21, apparently, there may be problems with the passage - a couple of walls in the right places may not move. Potentially a conflict of scripts with GzDoom. The authors did not test the wad with it, although in general there were no very problematic segments during the passage.

* A full passage will take ~ 13 hours.

 

Secret levels:

 

M12 -> M41. You need to get the red skull, the path to which is blocked by a wall. Further actions are quite obvious, but I could not figure out how to access it. It seems there is no teleport, no switches nearby either. I used noclip.

M41 -> M42. Behind the door where you need a blue key, you can turn left and find a teleport.

M42 -> M43. To the left of the starting platform there is a switch that opens the passage to the teleport, although it is not clear how to climb back. Rocket jump cannot be used here, climbing over the heads of opponents, most likely, will not work, in addition to the fact that you will need to pick up invulnerability, there were no archviles around. I used noclip.

 

Pros:

 

+ M13 - "Calle 13".

+ M25 - "En Algun Lugar Del Cielo".

+ M32 - "My father is a borracho".

+ M33 - "Masa Critica".

+ Original final boss.

Edited October 31 by UnknDoomer

[UnknDoomer]

199. By Candlelight (2022 / 2024).

A small wad of 9 compact levels (1 secret) for Heretic, created by comrade @Death Bear during one of the summer storms and subsequently initially released to the public during the NANOWADMO 2022 event. The polished version reached the idgames catalog at the end of last July. The difficulty level can be assessed as moderately high.

 

 

Settings and features:

 

* GzDoom 4.13.1b, difficulty 4/5.

* Complete completion will take ~ 1,5 hours.

 

Secret level:

 

M6 -> M9. You can find a blue key behind the waterfall, then use it in the hidden section in the north.

[UnknDoomer]

200. Hermeticism (2023 / 2024).

A 9-level (1 secret) wad for Heretic, presented by @MannerKing, the author's first work for this game. There are a small number of custom textures, boss battles, two malotaurs and D'Sparil respectively, take place in closed arenas.

 

 

Settings and features:

 

* GzDoom 4.13.1b, difficulty 4/5.

* Complete completion will take ~ 1,5 hours.

 

Secret level:

 

M6 -> M9. You need to get the blue key, for which a regular running jump should be enough.

[UnknDoomer]

201. Hocusdoom (2014 / 2022).

Total conversion of 40 levels (4 secret), moving the famous platformer Hocus Pocus (1994) into a three-dimensional dimension. Presented by @Fletcher`. This work can probably be called one of the most accurate and competently executed projects of this kind, maximally identically transferring the atmosphere of the original to new realities, be it opponents, enemies, textures, sounds or plot. On the other hand, the arcade elements inherent in the original, the search for secrets and, in particular, the dynamic gameplay, in many ways make this game related to Wolfenstein 3D (in particular, seven types of treasures that give different amounts of points) and Doom (certain types of monsters have partly similar habits), due to which it can be stated that combining one with the other was perhaps somewhat easier than if we were talking about some other case.

 

Despite the fact that the main character uses mainly only one type of weapon throughout the not very fast passage (one episode can take up to 3-4 hours), this aspect, as in the original, is supplemented by bonuses that can, for example, allow you to carry out an area attack, or conduct prolonged fire, similar to how the plasma gun works in Doom. In total, there are eight temporary upgrades for the main weapon, one auxiliary one, first appearing in the third episode, acting, like bombs, as a kind of expendable reserves. The HP reserve is 10 units by default, which correlates with the complexity - the overwhelming majority of opponents in three-dimensional edges do not pose any particular danger, but attacking in a crowd, and sometimes appearing in unexpected places, they can quite deal with the hero - 1 enemy hit here is equal to 1 HP. The mechanics of jumping to a great height, like breakable bricks, also found their application.

 

The narrative is logically divided into four episodes, each of which is stylistically different from the previous one and within each of which the design of the location can also vary significantly. To move on to the next level, you need to collect all the gray spheres (crystals) hidden in certain places. To get to the secret level, you need to find a green crystal, then pick up the last sphere. At the end of each episode, several bosses await. One of the varieties of such, animated trees, which can be attributed to the most annoying, will subsequently be leveled to the level of an ordinary enemy, which brings certain parallels with Blake Stone: Planet Strike! (1994). During the passage, you can meet wizards who give advice of varying degrees of usefulness, similar to the informants from Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold (1993), with the difference that they do not directly share useful resources here. It is worth mentioning the secret levels separately, each of which is essentially a separate total conversion, albeit covering only graphic elements. So one of them, M40, is made in the spirit of Jazz Jackrabbit (1994).

 

 

Settings and features:

 

* GzDoom 4.13.1b, difficulty 3/4.

* Complete completion will take ~ 14 hours.

 

Secret levels.

 

M4 -> M10. At a guess you can go through a stained glass window, which, apparently, may not work as intended in the latest, current build of GzDoom, or it is just a minor bug. Teleports that could lead to this segment were not found. A similar situation with potions, but perhaps I did not examine the location carefully enough.

M12 -> M20. In the east of the map you can find a passage in the area of a lava waterfall, use it, go west.

M28 -> M30. During the extraction of the silver key, while destroying destructible blocks, you can pick up a teleportation potion.

M34 -> M40. In the east of the map in a small tunnel there is a stained glass window that you can walk through.

Edited November 9 by UnknDoomer

[UnknDoomer]

7. Forbidden Entrance (2024).

A small map for Heretic, occupying the E1M1 slot. It was originally supposed to be part of a somewhat larger project, but in the end @Quin decided to limit himself to one work.

 

Settings and features:

* GzDoom 4.13.1b, difficulty 4/5.
* Complete completion will take ~ 5 minutes.

[UnknDoomer]

202. Box Doom (2024).

Wad, presentedy by @DoomGappy, which is mainly a single map, divided into 80 main sections of 512x512 size, 4 hidden sections / transitions and 4 puzzles, placed in the same frames, created by different authors and subsequently, like a kind of patchwork quilt, collected together. In addition there are also 2 (not counting the introduction and epilogue) secret maps, access to which can be obtained in the event of finding three multi-colored skulls and subsequent use in the hub with puzzles.

 

In essence, this work acts in the same field as the once reviewed Confinement 256 (2017), with the only difference that the division into levels is practically absent here and the scale, although still seriously limited, gives a little more space for various design experiments. As usual there is a little bit of everything here - half-empty rooms with a couple of revenants, conditionally warehouses, cleverly constructed mechanisms, elevators moving upwards, unexpectedly appearing archviles, backtracking in search of additional switches and shifted platforms.

 

 

Settings and features:

 

* GzDoom 4.12.2, UV difficulty. 4.12.2 is the latest version of GzDoom with which this wad is compatible.

* The secret section with pink lava is not compatible with GzDoom.

* A full walkthrough will take ~ 3,5 hours.

 

Secret levels.

 

M2 -> M32. Finding skulls here is not particularly difficult, it is enough to check possible hidden segments as you go.

M31 -> M32. The usual exit leads to the transition to M32. M32, apparently, cannot be completed - the map is an endless, small corridor / labyrinth.

[DoomGappy]

3 hours ago, UnknDoomer said:

202. Box Doom (2024).

 

Thanks a lot for the review! What was your general opinion of it? Even though it's mostly single maps, we tried to provide people with a coherent experience, with the corridors and such. I'm curious to know what you have to say about it. 

[UnknDoomer]

@DoomGappy, answer will be short this time - fine. Since mentioned "Confinement 256" I've played / reviewed several wads, that stick around different limitations, based on that also been made https://habr.com/ru/articles/819065/ (RU) back in the day, so this basically one of the directions I'm like to look on time to time.

[UnknDoomer]

203. Lunar Revelations (2024).

Wad for Doom 64 of 12 levels (2 secret), presented by @Jetx_121, the action of which mainly takes place on the Moon. The plot in its own way copies the narrative once presented in Doom 3, the events also mainly take place in the corridors of a technogenic base, the textures available by default been used. Of the notable features can note the presence of three types of monsters that were absent both in the original and in most previously released wads - machine gunners, revenants, four-armed archviles, as well as a unique type of monster specifically for the reality of Doom 64 - two-headed dogs, who never led in the original release. In addition there will be ghostly varieties of the entire existing roster, distinguished by increased aggressiveness and a large supply of HP.

 

 

Settings and features:

 

* EX+ 4.0.0.3, IOD difficulty.

* In the finale of M9 a bug is possible (typical in this particular case for the EX+ port) during which, after the destruction of a wave of monsters, an earthquake will not occur and, as a result, all barriers will remain closed and the hero will not be able to access the switches. The issue is resolved by creating a backup save. As long as at least one whole monster remains in the flowing wave, of which there are four, you can reload the save, get rid of the monster, the script will most likely work as required on the second try. A similar problem can occur on M10.

* To change the level, if necessary, you can use the command "idclev10", where the number is the map number. You need to enter it directly in the game, not in the console.

* A full walkthrough will take ~ 8 hours.

 

Secret levels.

 

M1 -> M32. You need to blow up all the available barrels. After that, a passage to the secret exit will appear.

M6 -> M69. To access the secret exit, located near the start, you need to get the green key (yellow skull). To do this you will need to find a room in the area of one of the warehouse segments, all the doors to which do not open by default, but you can shoot the switch through the window - the doors will open, along the way a group of monsters will appear on the location. After this you need to get to the opened door and fight the cyberdemon, who will be accompanied by two-headed dogs. The latter appear endlessly until the hero goes up the stairs. After pressing the next switch on the level 3 sections with 3 switches will open - to access the key you need to press all 3. After the key is picked up 4 sections will open on the map - 3 lead to runes, which, however, it seems, cannot be picked up here, 1 to the secret exit.

[DoomGappy]

On 11/10/2024 at 3:16 AM, UnknDoomer said:

@DoomGappy, answer will be short this time - fine. Since mentioned "Confinement 256" I've played / reviewed several wads, that stick around different limitations, based on that also been made https://habr.com/ru/articles/819065/ (RU) back in the day, so this basically one of the directions I'm like to look on time to time.

Forgot to reply to this, but thanks a lot, that's an interesting article!

[erzboesewicht]

It's a bit late but thank you to play the Hispanic Community Project! I made the "pacifist" MAP33, and it's interesting how people tackle this map, above all on UV ;) Your video is in fact the first single-player video or demo I saw of this map. I see you didn't play it 100% pacifist as you saved yourself into an almost unwinnable position, but you can't really do much "harm" with the non-berserk fist, the 50 pistol bullets and the single chaingun you can get in the secret with the chaingunner (and there's a zombieman too somewhere) so it's totally okay :)