NuclearPotato

Always been meaning to take a shot at designing a Doom map, and now that I brought my computer back from the dead, I'd say this is the perfect time to do so. Throwing my hat into the ring.

Fell asleep last night trying to catch up. About to play Blood Yard, but here are my thoughts on 05 and 06 before I forget. MAP 05: Old One's Tomb Between Irkallia and this one, I now have a burning hatred of Cacodemons. As far as layout goes, it feels like a rejected part of Irkallia transplanted onto a different, better map. Trudging through tight corridors and walkways are getting very old by now, as is the author's habit of placing Hell Knights on said walkways. It's not all bad, though. The opening of the map is made up of wide, maneuverable, and well lit hallways that are a big aesthetic change from the darkness of the previous map (and the warmed over leftovers herein), and the final room is really good, with Barons and Mancubi raining hell down from above. MAP 06: Quadragoth This map is probably my favorite map of the pack thus far. No darkened rooms, no tight corridors, and not a bullshit Hell Knight closet in said tight quarters to be seen. Instead, we've got nice wide open spaces, filled with enemies just waiting to tear each other apart. I could easily see myself playing through this map again.

Fell a bit behind, but I've been playing through the backlog. Full review of MAP 05 and 06 (possibly MAP 07 if my session stretches to tomorrow) coming soon. MAP04: Irkallia Turns out I didn't have to reload my MAP 03 save (good), because the opening area is very generous with the health on HMP. Oddly enough, the blind corners and surprise monster closets are the least of your worries on this map. No, the main obstacle here is the wide open spaces filled to the brim with Cacodemons, who tear away a shocking amount of health if they hit you. The map is also pretty sparse with ammo, except for rockets, oddly enough, so more often then not, I'd be marching down corridors with a full complement of rockets, but only 4 shotgun shells beside it. At more than one point, I had to relive the MAP 01 opening encounter when I'd fall into the pit of Pinkies with precious little ammo to expend (except for rockets, which aren't much good when there's a hoard of pinkies, specters, and Lost Souls in your face.

MAP 03: Octagony Something tells me even Dread Cthulhu himself would disapprove of the central elevator hub. At least I had time to finish my dinner waiting for the elevators to open up. Outside of that, not much to say here. Decent firefights in tight corridors, with much more plentiful ammo to go around compared to MAP 02 (Which helps dealing with the monotony of the elevators; just imagine having to traverse the elevator system just to find a measly ammo pickup for your shotgun). The music seems to fall somewhere in between MAP 01's cacophony and MAP 02's relatively pleasant score. Ended up exiting the level with 25% health, due to nearly blowing myself up with the rocket launcher in the final Baron/Hell Knight fight. I might end up going back to an earlier save to stock up on health if the next map is too difficult.

Alright, let's do this. Playing on GZDoom for Mac on HMP, continuous play. MAP 01 - The Dock Today I learned just how effective chainsaws are on pinkies (greenies here) the hard way. The level itself has a pretty nice design, brought down a bit by the overwhelming use of green (how green got associated with Lovecraft, I'll never know). The music gives me a toothache. Didn't bother trying to find secrets on a level this large, and judging by other people's reactions in this thread, this may have been a wise decision on my part. Came out of the level with 100 health/armor, which was good, considering what was to come. MAP 02 - Aberratia Now, in general I hate levels that are primarily made up of monster closets. This it the exception that proves the rule. I think it might have to do, oddly enough, with the relative scarcity of ammo, and the plentiful amounts of health scattered around the level. Kept things tense, while giving me plenty of opportunities to backtrack for health if need be. I feel like the level itself could have been about 5 minutes shorter, as the tight corners and repeated monster closets drove me batty by the end. I ended up rushing past the final Baron encounter instead of trying to take them on (though I might have tried had I found the Plasma Gun secret). Ended up finding about 2 secrets before things were said and done.