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Bloodshedder

The /newstuff Chronicles #424

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  • Moonstone - Alexander "Eternal" S.
    Doom 2 - Limit Removing - Solo Play - 1027909 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Ofisil
    Moonstone is a challenging and entertaining level for Doom 2. Action takes place in a 64 x 64 grid designed medieval-like castle, which is simple but looks good, and that in my opinion is the way most Doom wads should look: good-looking without TOO much detail. Ammunition and health scarcity is very well implemented here. Especially health items reside only in well-hidden secret areas, and honestly, part of the fun here is finding the seven secrets, which all require good observation skills.

    Action won't disappoint most Doomers, apart from those who want levels with 500+ baddies. The level has a lot of cleverly placed hitscanners, simple but good enemy-teleporting triggers, and a couple of archviles that will give you hell, but not in an unfair way like in many Wads I've seen. At first the game is quite challenging, but after finding some weapons it gets a lot easier. Furthermore, the level is far from linear and narrowly-designed, which is a great thing because you can explore the way you want, along with being able to escape from some tough battles. Highly recommended despite its small size.

  • Putrefier - Ed C.
    Doom 2 - GZDoom - Solo Play - 21074692 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Ofisil
    Putrefier is a wonderfully-designed single level WAD. It is a very Quake 2-inspired tech base, with many rusty metal surfaces, lots of cement, and lots of yellow lights. The atmosphere is wonderful and at times builds great tension, and to that helps the wonderful music theme, a slow, ambient tune with a lot of low chanting. Sometimes it gets a bit too dark, but nothing the average Doomer can't handle. Gameplay-wise, it's not something new and innovative, but it's good. Action takes place in a relatively small level where, instead of finding keys and opening up new areas, you go from switch to switch activating enemy teleporting ambushes with each switch pressed. This is one of the few flaws of the game though... the battles are great, challenging and all, but the switch hunt is very boring, since each time you press a switch it usually opens up a door SOMEWHERE in the map, forcing you to wonder around to find what you've just opened up. Fortunately the level isn't large or complex. Another small flaw is the final two big battles of the game. The cyberdemon doesn't feel threatening at all, and the custom boss in the end is more annoying than fun. Overall: a challenging and nicely designed level with balanced ammo/weapons and health scarcity which is a tad flawed. Try it out!

  • Egregor1 - Egregor (Eregore)
    Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 2314657 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: durian
    This a small map - housed within an area no larger than 2048x2048 - medieval themed, with man-made structures blending into caves and caverns. The layout is solid, and some key sections of the map connect together very nicely - at a couple of points, I found myself re-emerging into previously seen or visited areas, and having those "Oh, here I am!" moments, which Doom is good at, and this lends the map a decent sense of place. It is not entirely linear - the player has a certain degree of choice as to which way they progress through main structures (although some routes are better than others in terms of maintaining a healthy ammo balance), but all three keys must be collected, and in a specific order. The action mostly involves a steady stream of low to mid-tier monsters, and this was enough to keep me on my toes without being excessively demanding, though it would have been more enjoyable with a super-shotgun on hand. But, as I've indicated, depending on the route that the player takes through the main structures, they may be under-prepared, ammo-wise, for some of the hairier moments. There are some very well hidden secrets (at least, I couldn't find them – but, frustratingly, I could see them!). The detail is nice - solid architecture, no micro-detailing, fine use of textures (some misalignments here and there). There is, in my view, an slight overuse of switches that do little except grant the player access to more switches, but at least this was in a reasonably confined space, so it was always clear what each switch had done. That niggle aside, I enjoyed beating and replaying this map, and would recommend downloading. The author states that this is their first published map, which is encouraging!

  • Global Death Ruins of Humanity - Unholypimpin/Alwaysdoomed
    Doom 2 - ZDoom - Solo Play - 29613897 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: DataSnake
    The first thing I noticed when I started this up was that the authors had used MAPINFO to create a new episode. That's, in my opinion, a very good sign. The next thing, which was less good, was that the skill levels had changed. Now there are only four of them: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Badass. I'm not sure why this change was needed, but it's not exactly a deal breaker. The next thing that differentiates this from a more traditional wad is that most levels have two different exits, leading to different maps. The readme points out that it's impossible to go through all of the levels on one playthrough. Personally, I think this is an interesting approach, but believe me when I say the map design would be splendid even without all the bells and whistles. The soundtrack is nicely atmospheric, there are new monsters courtesy of DECORATE, also well-done, and the map design itself is pretty damn good. Aesthetically, it looks a bit better than vanilla Doom, but not as crazy-detailed as, say, gothic99 or KDIZD. Several of the levels even remind me of specific classics; there's one that looks so much like E3M2 that I was surprised the automap didn't form the shape of a giant hand, and there's another that has definite shades of Map01. None of them are blatant copies, and all that I've seen are absolutely awesome. Seriously, the screenshots don't even begin to do the architecture here justice.

    That's not to say it's a perfect set, of course. There's a bit of inconsistency over whether or not standing in blood pools will hurt you, and one new enemy looks exactly like the arachnotron but packs a hitscan weapon, which led to a frustratingly cheap death the first time I encountered a pack of the bastards. Also, it's definitely tougher than regular Doom 2. It's not as punishing as Hell Revealed or Alien Vendetta, but if you're the kind of person who, like me, still struggles occasionally in doom2.wad on UV, you may want to try it on easy, at least the first time. Other than those minor complaints, it's damn near perfect. The music is scary, the new monsters are tough but not unbeatable, and there are even a couple of new weapons, all of which are fun to use without being too overpowered. All in all, a must have, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the authors went on to win a Cacoward or two down the line.

  • Khorus - Shadowman
    Doom 2 - PrBoom+ - Solo Play - 7577498 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Ofisil
    Khorus is a 9-level Wad for Doom 2 where action takes place in outdoor areas like caves and forests, and indoor areas like ancient Egyptian temples, with a slight demonic twist of course. And all these while listening to some wonderful Russian folk songs... well to say the truth, Russian folk songs sound good only when you are at a beer festival with busty barmaids, who bend over and show you their luscious and deep cleavage as they serve big-ass glasses of Pilsner, and suddenly one glass shakes a bit more and beer splashes on the young lass' curvaceous bod... err, but I digress. Where was I? Ah, yes... the music here is totally out of place, especially since, apart from a humorous outro, the rest of the game is pretty serious.

    Levels in Khorus are quite challenging. Not hard, but not a walk in the park either. Ammo, while not scarce, is never abundant, and enemies are cleverly placed, forcing you to play it smart. Only flaw here: a lot of badly placed hitscanners, but not something too annoying. Levels get a bit boring though, since they are more about hitting switches and finding keys than shooting baddies. Then again, this might please the more puzzle-oriented Doomers. Levels are mazes... simple ones, but mazes nonetheless, so don't expect to finish them by running around and not paying attention to your surroundings. However, they get more boring with each level passed. Level 2 shows great potential since it is a nicely designed maze, full of little surprises and "hidden" sections, but the following levels lack innovation since they are far simpler both in terms of gameplay and looks. All in all: not recommended for action buffs, others may like it more than me, but it could surely be a lot better.

  • After the Holocaust - Sergeant_Mark_IV
    Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 7235164 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Ofisil
    Action here takes place in a bleak post-apocalyptic urban area that feels as if something really bad has happened just a few minutes/hours ago. Buildings half destroyed and on fire, wrecks and garbage all over the place, holes in the ground, and of course a lot of corpses in this L.A.-like place. Needless to say that the author has done a great work here, and to that contributes the music tune, a nice dark ambient theme that builds tension.

    Now, in terms of gameplay: You can explore quite a bit since this is an outdoor level, although there isn't much to explore. Ammo and health is quite balanced, although I would prefer less ammo to add a bit of a survival feel to the game. The wad has the default Doom baddies, something that will disappoint some people, but as the author commented in the archives, this was done to enable players to use their preferred mods, which the way I see it was a nice move. What the Wad lacks is replay value. It's a typical key-based level. Find key, open door, find next key and so on. After finding a new key some new enemies will appear in the city, but they won't exactly rock your world.

    It's a good Wad worth playing that could be much better with a bit more carefully thought enemy placement, scarcer ammo, and overall level structure.

  • Sprike2 - John Bishop
    Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 560571 bytes - (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Obsidian
    YES, I BEAT IT! SUCK ON THAT YOU...

    Ahem. Sprike 2 is a map by John Bishop and the sequel to Sprike, an earlier map by the same author. I played the first Sprike out of necessity, and the two words that came to mind were "Shotgunner fetish". Seriously, the map was crawling with 'em! But what about this map? Does this map buck the trend and break free of the plague of Former Sergeants that adorned its predecessor?

    Nope, I counted 93 Former Sergeants on Ultra-Violence. Ouchies. There's definitely more variety in enemy placement than Sprike 1, but the surplus of Former Sergeants unbalances the overall gameplay a bit. That aside, the majority of the monster placement is decently thought out, as is ammo placement. I had a bit of trouble getting going initially (i.e., I kept dying), but eventually the map slotted together nicely for me. One thing that stood out for me was the explorative aspect: there's a decent bit of map that isn't mandatory to beat, but provides a nice little challenge if you're interested. Unfortunately, there are a few hiccups in the gameplay that almost derail the experience:

    1. Stealth monsters. *Cue collective groan* Fortunately there's only 9 of them and they're only Imps, but it still disrupts the experience: in the trade it's known as a dick move. A tip for the mapmaker: if you're going to use stealth monsters, make it nice and obvious. Don't use them too often, and make sure the player knows there's one around.

    2. Silent teleporting monsters. This was a new one for me, so it took a while to figure out. I dunno about the community opinions on this, but in my opinion it goes under the same category as stealth monsters. I'd recommend good old-fashioned noisy teleporters for future releases, and save silent teleporters for room-over-room illusions.

    To sum up, Sprike 2 is a good map marred by slightly dodgy monster selection: it's good, but not mind-blowingly so. It's a bit of a shame, but I'm pretty optimistic about what this author will do next. Fingers crossed that John Bishop's next map will knock my socks off. :)

  • Fortress of Mystery - hex11
    Ultimate Doom - Vanilla - Solo Play - 24374 bytes - (img)
    Reviewed by: Alwaysdoomed
    A short and simple map with three monster types, which are cyberdemons, barons of hell, and cacodemons. You start out in a damaging lava ocean, and you pretty much cannot start the map without losing 10 health or more. I don't know if this was a glitch or intended, but it is annoying nonetheless. The difficulty of this map can range from very hard to super easy. If you wanted, you could avoid fighting any monsters, and might get lucky and get the cyberdemons to fight the barons and even the cacodemons.

    The author seems to have a lot of misaligned textures, like skull switches that are halfway into the ground. The switches are also misleading, as they don't do anything anyways, despite looking like they do.

    The major flaw with the map is that you aren't forced to fight the monsters, as it's pretty easy to avoid them. The other major flaw is that it takes many attempts at climbing to the top of the map and jumping onto lower platforms to collect all the weapons, ammo and keys. Actually, the three keys aren't even used once. I think they're just there to make the player run over to the key, which I guess triggers an event to allow you to complete the map.

    Overall, the map is still pretty noobish and uninteresting. I'm not trying to discourage the author from mapping; in fact, I hope the author continues to refine his mapping skills. Not everyone starts out as a pro mapper, so I'm glad the author is at least trying.

  • Crude 2: A polittycally semi-corect magical adventure! - Walter "Daimon" Confalonieri
    Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 394734 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: DataSnake
    With a name like "Crude 2", I was expecting something along the lines of Captain Swearword's Big Fucking Adventure, or at least something ineptly playing at offensiveness like UAC Military Nightmare, but that wasn't what I got. What did I get? In a word, boring. It's just two levels, neither particularly good nor bad enough to be really funny either. There's one new monster type, a balding man in a suit with no attack who yells "leave the demons alone" and "stop that at once" while wandering around aimlessly, and I'm pretty sure it was meant as a hilarious caricature of someone the author didn't like, but without context it's just...strange. I'll admit the idea of a creature that follows you around but doesn't attack could make for some interesting gameplay challenges, but they're just too idiotically implemented for me to care.

    The first level features scripting in the form of such insightful text popups as "this game sucks already" and "DAFUQ?". It starts out with you picking up a shotgun and being attacked by a handful of former sergeants, a crowd of suit guys and, inexplicably, one Wolfenstein SS guy. After that, you can go outside, where you're up against a revenant on a small stage, a few imps, and even more suit guys. Farther along, there are even more imps and suit guys and an archvile, all clustered around a graveyard.

    The second level contains a BFG9000, more energy cells than you could possibly need, and a whole bunch of invulnerability spheres. It also contains numerous archviles, cyberdemons and even a spider mastermind, but invulnerability and practically unlimited BFG ammo don't leave much of a challenge. After defeating all the monsters, you finish the level by shooting a Romero head hidden behind a picture of Jesus for some reason. That's all there is to say about the maps, so let's take a moment to talk about the text file. It describes Crude 2 as the author's answer to the question "How the infamous grezzo 2 will appears without the stolen stuff and the blasphemous stuff that makes cries hard the poor zdoom forums kids?" You may be a little nervous that the author's grasp of mapping is as bad as his grasp of English, but I can assure you that's not the case. Let me put it this way: the first level features a 3D bridge and some 3D scripting, and it's listed as being tested with vanilla doom2.exe in DOSBox, so we're clearly dealing with the next Picasso here. He says it took "9 hour and half" to put this together, but I find that hard to believe unless he spent the first eight hours masturbating to Daikatana walkthroughs with one hand and chugging bleach with the other. He also feels the need to explain who the denizens of a photo that appears as a billboard in level 1 are, including one guy who "plays 'games of shit', like Skyrim LOL". And frankly, if I didn't already know Skyrim was awesome, the fact that the author of this masterpiece thinks it's shit would be all the proof I needed.

  • JHCOOL.wad - Unknown
    Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 107612 bytes
    Reviewed by: Alwaysdoomed
    The only nice thing I can really say about this wad is the fact that some maps are slightly amusing.

    The texturing is pretty horrid in this wad, and is something you would probably see in a joke wad. The author makes horrible mistakes like unmarked exits that use the same texture as the wall its on. Seriously, these maps can't be beaten without the map cheat because this guy makes doors that look just like normal walls.

    Overall, I'd say this wad is a complete waste of time and space. I suggest not playing this wad at all. If this wad isn't a jokewad, then I must apologize to the author, but I will say this: please don't upload your noob maps to /idgames.

  • jstuff10.WAD - Kurt Schulenburg
    Ultimate Doom - Vanilla - Solo Play - 27480 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Csonicgo
    This is called jstuff10. That's it. No real name here. Not really a map, either. OK, that's a bit mean.

    What I can say is that it's old. Really old. As one of Kurt Schulenburg's first PWADs (it shows!), this map was made in DoomEd, one of the Doom map editors I got in my D!Zone shovelware CD at the dollar store. I know he had to have had a wonderful time trying to get anything out of that atrocious map editor, so I'll give him some credit. He did switch over to DEU, I guess.

    Anyway, back to this map. I'm immediately greeted by hitscanners. This seems to be a trend happening to me lately. After taking care of them (by finding a shotgun BEHIND me, siiiigh) I notice a very blatant, noobish hurtfloor just there for... looks, I guess? It's annoying because you can't avoid it if you don't know the map, and it saps your already low health from the instant holes you got upon starting the map. I'll just save you the trouble and tell you there's a way around the blood. It's a secret lift.

    Speaking of secret lifts, secrets seem to be mandatory in this map. It's pretty much an unforgivable sin to make a secret area required to be found, and this map has one... in a nukage pit. Be prepared to wallhump while dying slowly. There's no sense in doing that crap, I don't care how old the map is. Did you ever see any id map force you to wall hump post-1993? I sure don't. If they did, it was clearly marked. And to break trends even more, there's also a door that you must shoot to open. I forgot that was even a thing. Has anyone used that in a map lately?

    There are a lot of funny things I've noticed while playing this. Mostly the lift design. Most lifts in this map are given "padding" so that they don't touch other lines. I suspect the mapper was trying to make a normal lift, but couldn't figure out how. Another feature this map has is the sudden disuse of orthogonal lines. I assume Kurt was trying not to get into a 90-degree AngleFest. You have to see it to understand. It's not quite organic, but not too structured, either. Very... Nirvana-ish.

    After you manage to get the blue key, you might get lost. Don't worry! The blue key door is hidden behind a lift at the start. I would have never noticed that if I didn't check the Automap. To quote exp(x): If I gotta check the Automap to find something that should be obvious, that map blows dong. And the lame Baron fight in a cramped room near the exit isn't making up for anything, especially if I can trap him inside the doortracks.

    In this map, the difficulty is in map design (or lack thereof) and not in monsters. That's such a shame, because this map could have been something. It's really tall, really spooky, and for once, Lost Souls are annoying little jerkstores. But the rest of this map is blah. Try it anyway, if you want to know what old maps played like. Learn from Kurt's mistakes.

  • Underground Compound - Sergeant_Mark_IV
    Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 6608089 bytes - (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Obsidian
    I say, another map by Sergeant_Mark_IV! Better known as the creator of Brutal Doom, 'ol Sarge has also created a slew of maps that occasionally find their way to the /newstuff Review Center. I reviewed one of his maps a little while ago, and I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of workmanship that went into it, made even more amazing by the fact that it was a speedmap. Underground Compound is another speedmap by Mr Mark_IV, so I think I'm in for a treat.

    I'm going to start with decoration: it seems impossible that a speedmap could be so well decorated, but it looks like the author's pulled out all the stops. Sparking wires hanging from the ceiling, debris littering the floor: who knew destruction could look so good? There's even cute little fire extinguishers in the walls! Definitely a B+ for decoration, although you don't want to go too overboard with DECORATE props: sometimes less is more.

    Gameplay is pretty solid with decent monster and ammo placement, although the overall experience wasn't overly memorable; I generally enjoy an extra little touch of sadism, and I didn't really find it here. This might be more personal preferences than anything else, but I'd recommend ramping up the difficulty a little for future maps so they stand out a little more. Having said that, the map was still enjoyable to play and presented some decent little challenges. The secrets weren't overly easy to find, which was annoying; I won't spoil the surprise, but I had to open the map in Doom Builder to figure out how to find the secrets. A note for Sarge: try make the secrets a little more obvious.

    One more thing: I played this in GZDoom and had no problems, but ZDoom throws up a barrage of glitches. Think large obvious HOM patches. For future reference, I'd recommend thorough testing in as many source ports as possible.

    Everything taken into consideration, Underground Compound is a well made map that looks good and plays good, but I'm fairly confident that Sergeant_Mark_IV can do better. I'd personally love to see a Hell map next, I reckon it'd be brilliant. Keep on trucking Sarge. :-)

    And for the record, I did beat this map: I'd killed all the enemies, I was looking for secrets, and I didn't know the fire extinguishers exploded when you shot them! Honest!

  • Neighborhood From Hell - Sergeant_Mark_IV
    Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 5434723 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: EvilNed01
    As a kid, playing Doom and Doom 2 until my fingers bled, Suburbs was always one of my favorite maps. Me and my friends used to put it on the toughest difficulty, snatch the key and watch as dozens of monsters teleported in - and use the map's two arch-viles to create an endless wave of monsters coming toward us. Good times.

    I was pleasantly surprised with this remake of the map. I have always maintained that realistic architecture had no place in Doom, but after playing this map I can see how it can be pulled off, and pulled off well. This map is a very, very loose remake of the original Suburbs, but aims for a more realistic approach. You awaken to find your entire neighborhood run over by demons, and it's time to split.

    There's not a lot of monsters around; the wad is almost completely non-linear except for a few keys and I had a fun time exploring the houses. The ammo is sparse, the monsters few, and that together with the vastness of the map evokes an eerie feeling of apocalypse. There's litter and debris lying around, and you can really feel how a storm of hell swept through here. The music is great, and the textfile says it's from Aubrey Hodges, so I'm guessing it's from either PSX Doom or Doom 64.

    Make sure you play it on GzDoom. I started playing it on regular ZDoom (I don't know why) and there were bugs a plenty. But once I switched, it looked great. If I had to dish out any criticism, it's that the wad ends very abruptly and without warning, and there's a slight ammo problem. Once or twice I had to resort to the chainsaw or the fist. But I made it through, so it's not a major gripe. Also, some of the furniture is a bit out of proportion. The bar seems as if it was built for bigger people than the rest of the map. (See Screenshot 3)

  • Unhinged - Jack101
    Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 39821512 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Ofisil
    Unhinged is a single level Wad for Doom 2 / ZDoom. Now, although I'm an old school Doomer who wants more than enough action to quench his thirst, I gave a try to this slow-paced and quite strange wad. It is scary in a weird way, looks great, but as I've said, not for those seeking gun-blazing action.

    You begin the Wad at night, in a ruined city and in front of your wrecked car. You stopped there, not to admire the setting but because a mysterious figure wandered in your path and made you crash. You'll spend about 10-15 minutes searching around this dark place, collecting ammo, health and a couple of weapons in order to survive the coming ordeals. After some time all hell breaks loose (as expected), and you must escape this strange dimension that you have entered. Unhinged, especially at the beginning, is quite spooky. It's dark, with very few enemies to shoot at (initially), and with some... weird enemies up ahead who might scare you at first, but later make you laugh your ass off... yes, you've read that correctly... laugh. To the overall spookiness contributes the WONDERFUL music of the Wad which fits like a glove to its dark wackiness.

    However, as I've said in the intro, Unhinged is a very slow paced game, something that I can handle. What I cannot is dull gameplay, and this wad is, in my opinion, more style than substance. You'll see some weird locales, hear strange sounds and music, but in terms of gameplay: no smart enemy placement, no exciting secrets, no innovation in level design. Even in my first playthrough, there were times when I was bored to death from searching around for that damn switch/key in order to move on and search for the next switch/key. Enemies are all custom, but offer no real excitement... good ol' Doom enemies are far better.

    So in the end, this atmospheric Wad fails when it comes to gameplay, even for those who DO like slow-paced levels. Worth trying out, but not replaying.

  • Descent into the Depths of Chaos #3 - The Chaos Brothers David Montgomery & Jim Milner
    Ultimate Doom - Vanilla - Solo Play - 57869 bytes
    Reviewed by: DataSnake
    Some of the best Doom levels require more than a quick trigger finger to survive. They require thinking and puzzle solving. Anyone who's ever played through Sandy Petersen's levels knows what I mean. That seems to be what the "Chaos Brothers" were going for here. Unfortunately, they forgot that there's a difference between puzzle solving and guessing, and created a monstrosity that makes Roberta Williams's worst adventure game seem like a paragon of rational thought. There's no other way to convey just how badly designed this level is, so here's a quick walkthrough:

    This map starts you off in a small gray room. Get used to it, because it's just one of 64 such rooms. And for some reason known only to them, the bros thought it would be a good idea to disable the automap in this area, so you're left having to either break flow by constantly pausing so you can draw your own map on paper or do what I did and just use IDDT. This is also the ONLY way to figure out how to leave this maze of shitty little passages, all alike. There are a grand total of 32 wall segments that don't have doors in them (the ones along the outer edge of the grid), and of those three are actually hidden doors. One hides a chaingun and a blue armor, which makes sense; a hard-to-find door hiding a cache of goodies is a long-time Doom tradition. Another, however, is considerably less defensible, as it leads to the only way out. So if you're the kind of well-intentioned moron who must play through without cheating, be prepared for a lot of running along walls pressing your use key. Exiting the maze takes you into a big square passage, which can only be exited by means of another completely unmarked hidden door. That takes you to an area where, thankfully, the automap actually works, but you may notice there's no clear exit. That's because the switch to access it is behind another hidden door. But this one requires a red key. Guess where the red key is. If you guessed "behind YET ANOTHER hidden door back in the opening maze", congratulations! You have now figured out how the makers of this level think, or to be more precise, how they do not. Anyhoo, opening this door reveals a switch. Pressing the switch opens up the passage to the exit, but as you head to the door you're suddenly teleported into another grid (6 by 6 this time) of identical square non-automapped rooms with no damn clue how to get out. Only now there are hallways full of nukage between each room that take off 10% of your health a pop, so trial and error is out of the question. After cheating your way out of that (I have zero shame admitting that, since there's NO OTHER WAY TO DO IT), I was teleported back into the hall leading to the exit. As I approached the door, a wall lowered for an actually pretty decent ambush, but as I backpedaled away from a demon I triggered the fucking teleporter again and returned to Grid-and-Nukage land. And it's at that point that I stopped playing, burned my copy of this WAD onto a CD, and smashed the CD with a hammer.

    Since I don't want to be too negative, let me just say that it's certainly no wow.wad; textures are aligned properly, there is enough health and ammo to get you through it, and if you already know where the doors are hidden it actually has some semblance of flow. It's clear that the author put in a lot of effort on this atrocity; unfortunately the same could be said about most serial killers.

Let me guess; one of those reviewers doesn't know how to properly appreciate a WAD that you liked this week. Want to do something about it? Instead of complaining in the comment thread like you always do, perhaps you can make a difference and write some better reviews than those idiots up there. The /newstuff Review Center is the place to do so. Put that Doomworld Forums account to constructive use, because you need one to submit reviews.

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Yes, nothing really exceptional to ruin the mood. Maybe I'll finally get around to playing through Putrefier.

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Csonicgo said:

Did you ever see any id map force you to wall hump post-1993? I sure don't. If they did, it was clearly marked.

Doom 2 MAP28?

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Ofsil's reviews seem to have a lot of sentences which are contradictory (as in, "the map is good, although it sucks" sort of sentences) but I got a good feel for almost every mapset in the reviews and the sort of quality I'd expect.

I say "almost" because Global Death gets a pretty positive review here, but then has screenshots that suggest a clusterfuck in some rather unexciting looking areas.

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Phobus said:

Ofsil's reviews seem to have a lot of sentences which are contradictory (as in, "the map is good, although it sucks" sort of sentences)


Are you talking about the "After the Holocaust" review or in general?

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It's a general characteristic of your reviews, I think. It seems to me that you're trying to present an opinion (presumably your own) and then either objectively qualify it, or present the likely alternative view - the "x, although y" phrasing is more prominent in that particular review though.

It's not so much a complaint as it is an observation. Something to think about, perhaps :)

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On this pic, the message shouldn't be about destroying imps, it should be "Deal with it". Look at that chaingunotron on the right, with its bitching shades.

Crude 2: A polittycally semi-corect magical adventure!

The spelling is semi-correct too!

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Phobus said:

It's a general characteristic of your reviews, I think. It seems to me that you're trying to present an opinion (presumably your own) and then either objectively qualify it, or present the likely alternative view - the "x, although y" phrasing is more prominent in that particular review though.

It's not so much a complaint as it is an observation. Something to think about, perhaps :)


Point taken and appreciated. However, let me explain (if I can...)

"You can explore quite a bit since this is an outdoor level, although there isn't much to explore" = The level is non-linear but there are no areas of special interest worth the try

"Ammo and health is quite balanced, although I would prefer less ammo to add a bit of a survival feel to the game" = Ammo\Health is balanced but MY OWN DAMN HEAD WOULD BE HAPPIER if THIS and THAT

"It's a good Wad worth playing that could be much better with a bit more carefully thought enemy placement, scarcer ammo, and overall level structure" = Good, not great

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Ofisil said in Putrefier review:
forcing you to wonder around to find what you've just opened up.


I wonder when Doomers (or people in general) will learn that when you wander around, it's not wonder around, even if you wonder where you are supposed to go, you're still wandering. It would truly be wonderful if people would learn the difference.

Just a pet peeve of mine.

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kristus said:

I wonder when Doomers (or people in general) will learn that when you wander around, it's not wonder around, even if you wonder where you are supposed to go, you're still wandering. It would truly be wonderful if people would learn the difference.

Just a pet peeve of mine.


Oopsy... sorry. Typical mistake of mine. Then again "i don't speak england very best" :)

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It was weird... I was wondering if there was going to be a big surprise or reveal that these reviews were in fact for the Cacowards... but as I kept going, I saw the levels begin to slide in quality and knew it wasn't the case.

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