Temple of the Lizardmen 3

Can you give us the link?

I played a bit of this last night, had a good time although I had some issues with the dialogue scenes at the beginning of the first episode. The game wouldn't continue after the dialogue finished unless I skipped them by pressing the use button. I also had a lot of difficulty making it through the dark areas until I figured out that I should actually use the flares (which are totally awesome. I kind of wish you had not included the flashlight at all and instead built all the maps around flares only, because they make for much more compelling gameplay IMO).

Despite the map design being mostly cramped and hallwayish, I've always felt the adventure feel of these wads is their best aspect and it continues feel that way in TOTLM3 so far. New enemies and weapons and gameplay mechanics are introduced at a smart pace and it's really fun to see what new surprises are on each map.

(Katamori, here's a link... http://www.gamers.org/pub/games/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/lmtmple3.zip)

Tried it out for a bit. The gameplay and level structure are a tad primitive even for me, but it's atmospheric as fuck. Died for the first time in the map where spiders first appear (the water stalkers took my health way down in a dark area where I couldn't even really see where they emerge, and then even after some extremely careful playing some dude throwing fireballs managed to hit me). Liking it so far, definitely enjoyed the manual, although it's a pity those shadow things from the end of the enemies list are said to be easy, I always loved in the old games when you'd read in a manual about some extremely dangerous and creepy enemy and spend the whole game dreading finally facing it. The same with powerful-ass guns and waiting to find them.

The PDA things I can't quite work out, there's now two pda items in my inventory and one usually lets me read the latest message and the other the previous message, but how would I hypothetically browse all the messages I ever got? Also there was a tile in one pool (with a message about a dude "noticing something in the water") which looked absolutely like a pressure plate, but you had to actually press use on it, and specifically on it's side (not just on it's top). I think that should be a pressure plate.

Gonna play more when I feel like it, but I'll probably try and beat this whole thing in my spare time.

I have made it to level 14 so far (the area that you first see the black fog elementals with the red eyes, that hop at you and keep you moving), and I must say this is a masterpiece, imo. This has to be a shoe-in for a cacoward doesn't it? I know (so far) the levels have been a tad linear, but to me this is a good thing and increases the enjoyability for me. A lot of doomers are all about the non-linear levels, but I always feel like the level is too tedious if it is too non-linear and kind of, too hard to systematically navigate, I suppose. But that's just me on that one, guess I enjoy that sort of systematic approach. No doubt about it, though, the aesthetics, gameplay, story, and innovation (and I stress innovation, because all of those ideas for those creatures and those puzzles are really well done) are all top-notch! And none of this says anything about all of the things I haven't seen yet!

This was definitely a monumental undertaking and very well worth the wait! Best TOTLM yet (and that's saying a lot)!

As far as I'm concerned, they just don't get much (if any) better than this. Freaking awesome job!

P.S. those black fog monsters w/ the red eyes, is there a way to kill those or is that the point, to keep you moving?

VylePhinder said:

P.S. those black fog monsters w/ the red eyes, is there a way to kill those or is that the point, to keep you moving?

Like all other monsters in the game, just shoot them with your guns until they die. :p

LOL, I could have sworn it was going right through them **

Blue Shadow said:

Like all other monsters in the game, just shoot them with your guns until they die. :p

Wait... when you say "all" other monsters in the game... what about the "smoke monster" I fought a few stages back. Seemed like the only way to get past him was to run... am I mistaken?

You can kill it if you want to. It's hard, but it can be killed.

Blue Shadow said:

You can kill it if you want to. It's hard, but it can be killed.

Thanks for that!

On another note, I just finished it, and I could go on and on about all the little (and big) things that I feel make this wad so great, but I suppose I can spare you the diatribe this time and just say:

I waited, eagerly, for this to come out ever since the first day I knew it was to be released and it far exceeded my expectations, which were kind of grand to begin with :)

I just love it when I find a tier 1 wad like this. I had a ton of fun and will gladly replay soon!

VylePhinder said:

Thanks for that!

On another note, I just finished it, and I could go on and on about all the little (and big) things that I feel make this wad so great, but I suppose I can spare you the diatribe this time and just say:

I waited, eagerly, for this to come out ever since the first day I knew it was to be released and it far exceeded my expectations, which were kind of grand to begin with :)

I just love it when I find a tier 1 wad like this. I had a ton of fun and will gladly replay soon!

You've got that right! :)

Well I know it's a slight bump but I was looking around and found some cool YouTube footage of this wad (with commentary!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q82yu-XJjK8

intermisson screens dont move on in the newest verison of zdoom and it just plain doesnt work in zandronum

chesse20 said:

intermisson screens dont move on in the newest verison of zdoom and it just plain doesnt work in zandronum

In the LMTMPLE3.txt file it clearly says to use GZDoom 1.6.0 or higher, Zandronum is only 1.0.

Interesting. I liked both of the previous ones, I should get around to checking this one out soon.

LodiB88 said:

Well I know it's a slight bump but I was looking around and found some cool YouTube footage of this wad (with commentary!):

What do you mean by "it's a slight bump"? Just curious. I can't figure that one out :S

Now this one tries hard to be diversed and utilises as many features as possible (e.g. PDAs, flashlights, voice acting, weather effects etc.), but it's very bland and uninspired design-wise. Looks more like weapon mod/custom monsters demonstration with 'quantity-over-quality'-driven levels. Also features some ridiculous puzzles which I couldn't even count as puzzles, it's just pressing cascade of switches in a single room.
I've beaten it anyway, some fun to be had for sure, but that's one-time experience. TOTLM2 had much more sense to it imo.
...Duh, okay, torture chambers rock, you got me here. Quite atmospheric.