Woody World Episode 5 released! [GZDoom 4 levels]

[Woody101]

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/v-z/woodyworlde5

 

Woody's 5th Episode is here! A 4 level episode (levels 25-28). A varied set of maps, puzzles and challenges! Ride to the Bottom in "Descent into the Round"! Explore the City's recreation complex and Hockey Rinks in "The Civic Centre"! Can you complete all the loops and get to the top of the Mountain in  "Loops"? and plan an evening to complete the enormous "Fortress"! Each level is pistol start. Generally HMP difficulty. Basic gameplay maps (not slaughter, etc.). 

 

Love feedback or videos, share with your friends and/or write a review (reply to this post)!

 

I'd also like to know which was your favorite map out of the collection (answer the Poll on this post please). 

Info: 

Doom2 (GZDoom UDMF)
Single Player
Jumping and Crouching disabled
Free look not required/discouraged
No difficulty levels (about HMP)
Mapslot: 25-28
Resources: see txt file for required additions
IWAD: Doom II
 
Thanks to the many Beta testers! Emily W, Johnr60, firewarden1000, LadyMistDragon, Aeddes666
Oxyde, Yousuf Anik, RataUnderground, Matt Eldrydge, insanoflex312 and Bri0che!

 

Woody

[Bri0che]

It was a fun experience to playtest this :)

MAP25 and 28 were definitely my favorites.

Gratz for the release !

 

 

[Aeddes666]

Parabéns!

[Yousuf Anik]

The levels are becoming better and better, just like the previous ones! Keep up the good work, as always.

[realjohnmadden]

Neat mapset, pretty fun but it has.. questionable, design. (I'm playing this without any previous-episode context..)

 

MAP25 - Overstays its welcome for far too long, being pretty boring (get gun, shoot demon, get new gun, shoot demon, etc etc). The platforming bit is interesting, but overall it's just a mediocre beginning map.

 

MAP26 - City maps are awesome. I love Duke 3D's city levels, and this is also good, but it's far, FAR too large for my liking. I liked the set-pieces (the hockey courts, library, washing machine store, etc) but the texturing has a lot of alignment issues, making it hard to tell what's a secret and what's just bad texturing. It takes a while to get anywhere, especially in the open fields, because of how much empty space there is. I suppose you do get some good bang for your buck here since it took me 40 minutes to beat this map, and the set-pieces are fun. Door textures are random, and sometimes I didn't know what was a door and what wasn't. I also had to shotgun an Archie.

 

MAP27 - I like the idea of a mountain level. I tried it in my own Doom 1 set, and I'm pretty sure both Thy Flesh Consumed and SIGIL have levels where you climb mountains as part of them. I'd probably make the stairs more noticeable, perhaps by putting an Imp on them or something. Still pretty big and basic, though. The "houses" with enemies in them are also really basic and easy. Why not decorate them, turn them into labs or office spaces or just.. anything? You could do a cave to keep the mountain theme, or even just sprinkle in decorative things and add in more enemies.

 

MAP28 - Storming the fortress. Good map, but the "ACCESS DENIED" monitors really do not look or feel like switches. Why not instead use a regular computer switch, and then have the monitor change when you push the switch? This isn't about this map in specific, but a general problem with the set: the "FORCE-FIELD DEACTIVATION SWITCH" and "WINDY SECTOR" messages feel like band-aid fixes. Why not use a decoration or mid-texture to show the wind, or just make the player notice it themselves? Why not do Quake-style cut-scenes to show force-fields being turned off? Hell, you could even use a looping ambient sound for force-fields, adding one to both the force-field and the switch to turn off said force-field. Flick the switch and the sound stops, to signify the force-field is gone. Ladders also always poke holes in water for whatever reason - forgetting to tag them maybe? I'm not familiar with UDMF, I'm a Boomer.

 

Overall, not bad at all. It's got some weird design and a lot of bad texture alignment, but otherwise it's fun to play through and about the same length as a regular Doom episode despite being only 4 maps long.

[FireWarden1000]

I have completed Woody's World Episode 5 WoodyWorldEP5f.wad with GZDoom with Brutal Doom Community Expansion brutalv21.14.2.pk3 DOOM mod, suspenseful DOOM2 maps, 81/100.

 

While Woody's World Episode 5 starts out at a slow pace before increasing in suspense, your view of the WAD will change completely as you approach the end of the WAD, because each level in the WAD will consist of completely different gameplay.

 

Taking the direct approach to complete a level in Woody's World Episode 5 will transform the WAD into a survival game, but when you understand how to complete the challenges in each level, you will have plenty of resources to spare in each map, because the WAD will be challenging if you are not prepared to complete the challenges in each level.

MAP25 - Descent into the Round    70/100

Well designed enemy ambushes placed throughout the level featuring interesting Boss Fights, a platforming section full of enemy ambushes, but areas of the level feel very barebones with few memorable moments in the level, because of the minimal detailing in the map. This is the reason why MAP25 is the worst map in the WAD.

 

While MAP25 will feature Boss Fights throughout the level, but once you understand how to beat the bosses, the Boss Fights will not require the player to move around very much. This is fine in terms of gameplay, but overall the gameplay difficulty of MAP25 is on the lower end once you know where to find all of the items, and know the best path through the level.

MAP26 - The Civic Center    72/100

MAP26 will feature excellent enemy ambushes in the level with excellent details to be found in the map with a well designed Boss Fight, but the map is overall very empty, and uninteresting to explore, because there is not enough content to explore in the level with a presentation that is reminiscent to Super Nintendo graphics.

 

The Super Nintendo graphics are not the problem, the empty space is very present throughout MAP26, but the gameplay improves substantially once the player enters the Recreation Center, which is where you will find the Level Exit. Each area of the Recreation Center in MAP26 has different challenges to complete to gain access to the Keys, and my favorite part of the map is the Swimming Pool with the explosive barrels.

MAP27 - Loops    90/100

Very original DOOM2 map where the player travels through the level in a circular pattern, and includes various challenges for the player to complete which will involve finding all of the switches to proceed to the next area of the map, complete platforming challenges, and survive very challenging enemy ambushes taking place in various level themes.

 

The various themes of MAP27 is the best part of the map, because every area of MAP27 contains a different theme, with different challenges associated with each area, which increases the gameplay value tremendously. My only main complaint about MAP27 is the amount of empty space in the level, but past the empty space you will find a very challenging DOOM2 level to complete.

 

Taking the direct approach in MAP27 to complete a room is not recommended, because the level is filled with dangerous enemy ambushes, and searching for the Secret Areas in the level is recommended to increase your chances of survival, which is the reason why MAP27 will be the most difficult level in the WAD.

MAP28 - Fortress    93/100

Outstanding DOOM2 level with various different themes to experience throughout the level, featuring challenging gameplay which will involve the player fighting through well designed enemy ambushes, solving well implemented puzzles, and expect to see a maze like level design which will take the player from one side of the map to the next side of the map. MAP28 is the best map in the WAD.

 

MAP28 is best described as a roller coaster experience, because not only is the level very large in scale, there will be no dull moments in the level, and the level will be full of enemies. MAP28 contains excellent enemy variety without overwhelming the player, because the difficulty of the level is challenging, and the player is provided a sufficient amount of resources.

 

MAP28 will contain the most gameplay variety in the WAD, because each area in the map had different objectives to complete. The overall idea is to destroy all of the enemies, but the question is how to destroy the enemies? There are several different approaches to destroying the enemies in the map if you have a strategy to approach the area. Moving into a room guns blazing will not be enough for MAP28.

 

Understanding how to navigate through MAP28 will be a challenge, because every area in the level is connected to the Central Hub of the Fortress, which will be the starting point of an area, and the end of an area. Finding all of the switches to progress to the next area was the best part of MAP28, because understanding the purpose of each switch in the level is a complete mystery until you progress to the next area.

CONCLUSION

Testing Woody's World Episode 5 was a complete challenge for myself, and I am surprised to see there were 11 map testers for the WAD. If you need suggestions on how to improve DOOM levels or if you get writer's block, feel free to reach out to me, and I will be able to provide support.

[UnknDoomer]

 

[Doom Wads]

Great episode, especially map28. A very interesting map with an excellent design. Keep going, maps get better with each episode!

[MeriMemesX]

ok, at the request of the author of this WAD I decided to leave all my responsibilities aside and start playing this WAD with which something happened to me that I didn't know about until I was in the third level... I DIDN'T KNOW THAT I HAD TO DOWNLOAD THINGS SEPARATELY, like this As you can understand, the first half was with beautiful white and light blue texture blocks :D

 

Ignoring that did not make my experience worse, except in the third level which was where I realized, I'm sorry Woody, I regret not having read the instructions inside the RAR, I'm kind of stupid

 

Descent into the Round: the truth is I liked the first part of the map, it is a simple concept and I love it because of its simplicity but the second part already bothered me a little, I am not a person who saves ammunition at all, so When I got to this part I had very little ammunition and I saw it as meaningless to face everyone, so I ran and ran to the final boss, therefore I had enemies breathing down my neck while I fought the monster, honestly it is quite fun to take what I did (as long as you are good at dodging) 4/5

 

The Civic Centre: I think this was my absolute favorite, I mean, it is very well designed, I loved the challenging battles on the Hockey fields and all the locker rooms 5/5

 

Loops: yes well, it has some pretty good parts, however this was where I realized that it didn't have textures because I couldn't see some doors, so I was trapped in this level for 2 hours, of course this got me down, but outside That's why I really liked the Cyberdemon room and the room with the pillars with demons 4/5

 

Fortress: By this point in the Wad I was mentally tired, so I'm sorry if this is affected in my criticism, it was 5 hours of this WAD and the 3rd level made me mentally tired for not being able to see the corresponding textures The map is good, it has good puzzles (and ingenious I dare say) it has good mapping, I would say that if I hadn't been tired by this point this would be my favorite map but... things turned out the way they turned out 4/5

 

I'm really sorry, I'll try not to repeat the mistake I made here, I'm relatively new to this world of Doom WADS, so I didn't know there were WADS that required downloading more things than just the WADS themselves, this was a nice experience!

 

In conclusion, the WAD is a surprising evolution of Woody, now if you'll excuse me, I have to continue playing his other WADS

[KevvyLava]

I really liked the concept behind the Loops level, but I think there was too much space in it.  But the idea of the interlocking areas could be refined.  Fortress is clearly the most well-designed in my opinion, and I think that it's quite an improvement from start to finish.  The hockey rink idea in Civic Center was excellent.  My only gripe with that is the areas are waaaaaay too big.  Took forever to run around and figure out where I was supposed to go.  Descent has some good concepts that could be fleshed out into a more cohesive level.

 

Overall, I think a strength you have as a map builder is your use of 3D floors.  You do it tastefully where it still feels like Doom.  As a critique, sometimes the textures are unusual choices, but it is a mix between sort of a more cartoony "Duke 3D" style (which I like in some applications) and other times more "Wolf 3D" which I don't love in Doom.  But it could ust be that it's new textures that I'm not used to.  Monster balance was mostly fair.

 

Overall fun stuff.

[TMMMS]

given how each woody episode covers a different set of doom ii map slots, wouldnt it be simpler to just merge all of them into one full 32-map megawad, preferabbly after overhauling the earlier episodes? right now the whole thing feels a bit too much of a mess and i dont particularly like having to play each episode separately especially when some maps require custom textures that for some reason are all located in separate files that need to be launched alongside the maps

[costadevale]

Played through both episode 1 and this episode (i know it's a big skip, but I wanted to review this as soon as possible!). It's alright, but as many have said, the levels are too massive for their own good. Ignoring that, they're good fun, especially the second map. I got a soft spot for realistic maps :)

Edited October 10 by costadevale

[apichatpong]

So, after trying the first four maps of woody episode 1 I jumped directly to episode 5 and it's great improvment !

 

As others have mentionned, some of your maps are too big, and you still have a tendency to under-populate some big (or middle size) rooms, the canonic example being the huge central room in Loops which, every time you're back there, propose only a pair of enemies in the center... so this part end looking a bit like a training map).

 

There is a nice improvement regarding texture variation even if :

- there still are some areas or decorum that are too monotonous (especially for the outside area of map 26)

- there most of the time are no "transition" neither between ground and walls nor walls and ceiling... and it sometime feel brutal.

 

Lightning are also a bit brutal sometimes.

 

It sometimes seems you only map on 64x64.

 

Some midi choices are questionnable (especially the beegees and abba, as much as I love BeeGees !)(it's just that, since the maps are long, at some point they became annoying)

 

All of this lead me to, at some point, think the wad had a fumet of GZdoom/Otex shovelware, but even if I know the the word shovelware is supposed to be negative, it's not entirely true for me, I use to like that kinda naive stuff.

 

All that said :

 

The first map was already a huge effort compared to your first maps, it was a fun map to play with some much more interesting encounters.

 

The second map... man... I'm quite sure most of the players will stop in front of this HUGE parking area with (mostly) no real challenging fights and isolated monsters... but the ones who are going at least to the blue key and enter the stadium will be rewarded because the big building is very nicely designed ! Great work on the bathrooms, swimming pool, hockey fields etc, very expressive (even if not that detailed)(on that last point, it's funny I played this map just one day after the Nostalgia mall's map by AshtralFiend, your map is the "naive" version of the hyper-detailed's one by AF, this lead to very different feelings but don't get me wrong, I do like the two kinds and once again you did great !).

Fights were good (despite a repetitive side on some parts (the locker rooms traps...)(even if one is much more populated than the others)).

Over all it's a really good map !

 

I have mixed feelings upon Loops. Once again I think it's too big, once again some parts are repetitive, but there is also some cool ideas there, of fights or designs... at that point I was a bit tired so I decided to take a small peak at the last map and stop. (I might have to replay Loops)

But after some cigarette break, I decided to come back to it and it turned out to be a good thing !

 

Fortress is some kind of magnum opus ('til now) !

Even if sometimes textures are misaligned (I don't know if it's officially misalignement but, for instance, in the central exit room, the hexagonal textures are not "aligned" with the ground), this map is really a great adventure.

I forgot to say about the other maps that they may sometimes feel a bit linear despite their adventurous side, this one could also be considered "linear" or "a bit simple" (one area for each key...) but you managed to get three very different areas, all with due atmosphere, your best overall designs (I think)(with the civic centre), the most challenging fights, good texturing...

This map is a great one, of the kind you want to play 100% kills and secrets, of the kind you want to explore, with some varied gameplay etc.

 

Overall, it's an impressive improvement compared to episode 1, despite the above remarks (but it also just could be your personal style !), all the maps were fun to play even if playing the four in a row can take quite some time, and my favorite levels were : Fortress (by far) and Civic center, even if I may give another chance to Loops.

 

Edited August 2 by apichatpong

[Michael Jensen]

Just finished episode 5, this has been a really fun set of maps. My favourites were Life in the Fast Lane (18), Spiral (19), Prison Escape (23), Loops (27) and Fortress (28). The first two episodes are a bit rough but the maps get better and better with each episode, in pretty much all aspects. I enjoyed the focus on puzzles and gimmicks. The maps were very unique but it meshed well with more traditional doom gameplay stuff, at least in the later episodes. Only complaint I have, even with episode 5 is the scale of some of the maps. Aside from spending a lot of additional time just moving around, it can make progression seem more complicated than it is, especially in more open maps, remove challenge from figths and take away from the visuals a bit. One really minor nitpick I have, the maps use a lot of custom tetures which is neat, but not all of them mesh together very well, being in different styles, hand-drawn, photo sourced, etc. Looking forward to episode 6!