Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
dobu gabu maru

The DWmegawad Club plays: Unholy Realms & Zone 300 (simultaneously!)

Recommended Posts

Zone 300: Map 13 - UV, pistol start

Here was just another okay map. It starts of easy enough with you up against a few zombie men & Imps followed by a fairly easy fight against some mancubi. Then you hit the switch by the yellow key door & then all hell breaks loose, still this was a somewhat easy fight though it did bring me down to about 11% health. Much to my disappointment I then had to run on to some damaging floor to grab a radsuit. I was then blessed with the sight of the yellow key on top of a square step pyramid, but pcorf ran out of lines somewhere & had to make the top step a triangle. Every thing just beyond the yellow key door was pretty hard due to my low health, & I also started to run out of ammo at this point, I had to punch the pain elemental to death. Then I found both secrets which made finishing this level quite easy.

Share this post


Link to post

Map12 "Underearth"



This map... was a bit tricky to get a proper track for, hehe. Basically influenced from AV Map01, I gave it a darker tone and played around with some Diminished chords, tritones, and tense chord progressions. Simple, but catchy tune I think.

Map13 "Congo"


A jungle themed electro track playing around with a few mallet instruments. The melody for the mallets in the stanzas actually sorta reminds me of some of my older work from even before writing Doom music. Somewhat inspired by various EBM / Industrial bands I listen to. An average track in my opinion, gets the job done. Not much else to say, really.

Share this post


Link to post

Holy hell, I'm way far behind! Let's see if I can't get caught up here in a few days.

Unholy Realms - MAP07:



Unholy Realms - MAP08:

Share this post


Link to post

UR Map 13 -- Temple of Leviathan - 101% Kills / 100% Secrets
A different theme entirely here, a crumbling, vine-grown edifice of several different types of stone built in a shallow cataract. The gameplay here is a bit more structured than that of map 12, although it too involves a bit of a mad dash at the start, if for no other reason than to wrestle a shotgun from a former human sergeant's decaying grasp. Apparently this is supposed to be a bit of a breather map, although I don't reckon it's much different in difficulty than maps 12 or 14 unless you can't figure out how to get the combat shotgun early on (pretty clever secret, incidentally).

The play here sustains a nice steady pace, brisk, but not too demanding, again largely a result of facing mostly projectile-slingers and usually having a lot of room to move around in. I reckon that the initial crowd of monsters is the largest threat, with a somewhat larger ratio of hitscanners and a couple of unpredictable pain elementals who sometimes stay put and sometimes wander out to greet you. Most of the later monster reveals--fatso twins, arch-vile, arachs + gasbags, final revenant squad, etc.--are pretty easily handled, given the large number of rockets and the free soulsphere which can easily tide you over for most of the map. Hell, maybe the soulsphere's even a bit much for UV, dunno. The red key torture-post trap is a bit deceptive in that you'll probably take less damage if you just allow yourself to be pounded by one of the posts in getting out of there quickly than if you carefully try to avoid all the posts and end up eating a bunch of enemy projectiles in the process.

I like the visual theme as a generality (always a sucker for watery ruins) and am mostly satisfied with the visuals, particularly the shadow-casting on the platforms in the main pool. There are a few nitpicks in this regard, though: there are a number of texture misalignments in the brickwork along/around the bending northern corridor (the one that's involved in accessing the SSG secret), particularly where the outer wall bends, where surfaces meet at perpendicular angles, and where the raising/lowering bridge appears. There are also some anomalous squares of light on the floor and ceiling of the red key walkway--maybe the ones on the floor are supposed to telegraph the crushing posts, maybe not, but I doubt the ones on the ceiling over the railposts are intentional. Finally, I really don't like the use of the neon green striplights--seems to not fit with the theme at all, even by the whimsical standards of Doom--but of course that's just a case of personal preference. Similarly, I found the MIDI a bit obnoxious in its insistent repetitiveness this time. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

Z300 Map 13 -- Dark Crypt - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
This one was okay. I liked the look of the level/the overall visual theme, and wasn't bothered by the MIDI. There's some more tawdry Wolfenstein 3D corridor-crawling here, but it's A) a very short segment and B) really just a device to set up the twin blood-pool ambush, and so it's forgiven. Liked the partitioned basement section as well, a pretty rote encounter that can be more fun if you play it rashly. On the downside, there's another pointless meat-door you have to open in order to exit. The mapset is persistent, if nothing else.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP14 Drifting Complex

Drifting Complex is more of a brutal harlot than anything. Another nice start, but I'm starting to get tired of it now. And then I try to find a safe foothold from where to shoot safely but I can't! Thankfully, I decided to do some cleansing on the outside portion of the level, by grabbing a radsuit and shooting at some of the monsters on the edges of the map. It seems to help with some matters. After grabbing keys and/or pressing their switches, I had to deal with archviles; they're actually annoying this time. So much, that a resurrected shotgun guy actually killed the last one for me. The other annoyance were the demons, in the slime in the center who just were running around there blocking my path, I had to shoot from a perch with the SSG and it took awhile. A brutal level, definitely. Final Time 5:51.

Oh, and Blood, Brain, Massacre. Nuff said.

MAP14 The Circle

*Regular Run*

One big circle with monsters and a staircase to a key. I decided to lure them all in on me rushing for the YK and then retreating to pick em off. Worked real well. After the RK, nothing much either. Final Time 2:07.

*Reality Run*

Took the slower approach in the circle, had to watch out for the stray imp that often would fire a fireball at me in this one. All the while taking out the other monsters. The pain elemental and his caco friends proved fruitful as well. But it still wasn't too much a hassle a level. Final Time 3:02.

Share this post


Link to post

Apologies in advanced for tomorrow's schedule gents, didn't really think about how long six maps would take. Feel free to spread the secret maps throughout the week or at the end of our journey rather than getting bogged down in them, falling behind, and quitting.

UR Map14 - "Drifting Complex": This is one of my favorites from E2 since it’s both asymmetrical and forces you to conduct battles both above and below. If you take your time, get the SSG secret, and clear out the nukage horde the map becomes pretty easy, with only the archviles left to really shake things up (most of my fights with them were admittedly lucky). What I like about this is how many different ways you can go about it, and the layout assures that no two players will have the same experience. Got a couple of nitpicks however:

This ammo box here is very obtrusive. It may be helpful for runners but it really gets in the way and is honestly unneeded as there’s enough shells scattered about the map. I'm not sure how much it'd be missed if it was gone. I think the red key should be on a pedestal of some sort since I wandered around a bit lost, unable to see it next to the bodies of imps. The blue key skulls should also be impassible as it’s kinda goofy to stand on them (unless it makes running along that wall awkward). It might be a good idea to make the revenants after hitting the yellow key switch warp in faster since the player can safely leave before they become a threat.

Other than those, this map is definitely a treat.

Z300 Map14 - "The Circle": An exhilarating hectic-as-hell map. The titular circle provides quite a scramble for munitions as a cavalcade of bloodthirsty bastards chase after you. Exquisite use of pinkies as roadblocks and false targets too. The ending was somewhat timid but the first few minutes definitely make up for it.

Share this post


Link to post

UR Map14 - "Drifting Complex"
Tricky base with plenty of building hopping whilst surrounded by nukage. Plenty of good battles but it just felt a little awkward to play and as such I left the map with quite a few monsters remaining in the nukage. The layout is very open ended so there is good replayability, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Also I failed to get 100% secrets due to the plasma gun secret not tagging despite landing perfectly on it for some reason :/

Zone 300 Map14 - "The Circle"
Short and sweet map which turned out to be easier to play than I expected, hence the rather kamikaze start I make in my UV Max demo. This was pretty fun. Still don't get the fucktonne of monsters behind the exit door gag, just seems pointless.

Share this post


Link to post

Z300 MAP12

Brickened map , and no health , just a couple of stipack and the enemies are strong and the ammunition can disappear really quick.

MAP13

This map plays familiar as the previous map , not enough of health and another chance to lose all the ammo in the middle of the game.

MAP14

This map has almost no health and all the enemies are in that dirt courtyard and the rest is just "meh" lets put 2 revenants and a baron behind a pillar and some demons behind the door.

Share this post


Link to post

Map14 "Blood, Brain, Massacre"



Basically just a MIDI mix of Moonspell's "Finisterra" with some alterations. It was more of a subconscious influence as I haven't heard the song in a long time, and knew I was "stealing" something the moment I started playing it hehe. I enjoy throwing in some nods and covers of my influences, though, so I went along with it.

Share this post


Link to post

dobu gabu maru said:
This ammo box here is very obtrusive.


Totally agree, more than once I found myself inching around that ammo box since I had like 46/50 and that kind of ammo wasting would be just blasphemy. I even changed my route a bit just to waste more ammo in the nukage before going up there, heh.

Unholy Realms Map14: Drifting Complex

This was a pretty tough cookie to crack and it took me a while to figure out an effective way of tackling this complex. Thank god the SSG secret is such an easy one since it's an absolute must for pistol starters. The combat here is rather brutal to begin with but it eases up significantly once you've managed to thin the opposition a bit. I definitely like the Archie placement here as the first one you encounter is a nice turret one and while the rest aren't really that threatening by themselves, they do usually manage to resurrect a few enemies to pad your killcount. Brings another level of strategizing for speedrunners too since if you kill the majority of the Cacos in the first room, you may have a second Caco-wave to kill later on.

Like the non-linearity here as well and the fact that there are so many possible routes to consider ranging from total kamikaze to safe and smooth. I think I took a pretty safe route this time cleaning up the below parts first before properly entering the complex. Usually I try to think of the fastest possible routes but with this map I have no idea if this is any good. About the demo, it's not a legit max since I accidentally leave behind an Imp that somehow was resurrected in the nukage but it's close enough and looks so much better than the other one I recorded so it's good enough for me. Pretty solid map overall, though not quite as good as the previous two. I expect to fall behind a bit since the two secret levels are gonna take some time too but we'll see. Got a pretty good-looking demo on map15 just now though so I'm already on map31 at least.

Share this post


Link to post

Playing catch up with Zone 300...

Map 09

I left a lot of stuff alive on this map, I don't know why. When I see a lot of space and the monsters are big and slow I tend to just run around them. Of course in this map some of them can come back to haunt you. I died once, despite running through it all like a maniac on low health – I was fine until after the forced berserk pick-up (annoying) and then a couple of unlucky hits and not much health left made things a bit dicey. Then the stupid exit of meat killed me when a hellknight teleported behind my back. A cheap trick indeed, and I couldn't be arsed to go through it again so I'm calling that as good as finished.

Map 10

I nearly skipped this one. I got to the point where you have to hop over the tops of the crates and after falling off a few times I realised that life is just too short for this kind of pain. But I had one more go and made it across and thankfully that was the end of the map anyway. I didn't stick around to finish off the archie either.

Map 11

This was an interesting one, despite the mario brothers maze of red brick at the start (my least favourite texture). Its a map of 2 extremes, from confined corridors to wide open space. The arachnotrons really make that area deadly till you get rid of them. The mastermind at the end is maybe, well.. its a mastermind, what more can I say. It might have been more interesting to fight while all that other stuff was still alive, I dunno.

Map 12

This was fun, I died a few times at the start thanks to chaingunners, in the end I berzerk punched one and grabbed his weapon and that seemed to do the trick. I spent a lot of the time dancing around the courtyard thanks to my habit of leaving monsters behind, in this case the cacos were making things more interesting in there (the arachnotrons couldn't actually shoot me out the windows so they felt a bit wasted). I was expecting all those panels on the walls behind the arachs to spill monsters out after getting the red key, but all that remained was a wall of meat exit. Not sure why the baron was there since there wasn't really an encounter to run away from at that point.

Map 13

This one was a pain in the arse when it came to the yellow key trap. When the walls come down you have a hitscan lottery that usually managed to whittle me down to 50% health before getting to cover, then you have a forced run over damaging floor which meant I was seldom on more than 40% when I got to the next bit, which has rev and co to deal with on low ammo as well. Took me quite a few goes to get through that. And then we have the same old wall of meat exit which is now literally boring me to death as I find I don't have the patience to play properly at that point, so I take a deja-vu missile from behind and call it quits for that map. Didn't enjoy this one.

Map 14

I quite enjoyed the central battle even though it killed me a few times, I was trying to run past everything to grab the yellow key which unleashed all kinds of shit. Unfortunately the only tactic that got me through it in the end was a methodical extinction of the monsters. Beyond that I can't remember much that happened, apart from the obligatory exit corridor blocked with monsters and one teleports behind you trick.

Share this post


Link to post

Zone 300: Map 14 - UV, pistol start

This map wasn't bad, it's defiantly more enjoyable than the last few maps. The action starts right off the bat, as soon as I got the chaingun I woke up several revenants so I made a dash for the stairs. I made several runs around the stars taking out enemies on each pass until they were all dead. The yellow key building was very easy & of course we had our monsters behind the exit door. I think I may have liked this map more than the last few because I didn't run out of ammo while playing this one.

Share this post


Link to post

Gotta catch up again...

UR MAP12: The Other Side

Nice design for the episode starter, very Plutonia-ish, and a nice ditty little music track too. The start is frantic, needing to grab weapons off zombies. I was initially quite frustrated since I couldn't even find the RL at first (the mancubi were blocking it and I wasn't exactly gonna run up into their faces without something more than a regular shotgun). Despite the small size of the level, it feels like a switch-hunt, with a lot of "ok, what does this switch do?" Not good. Once I finally found the RL, it got better, though there are still some pretty extreme ammo constraints (I think I finished the level with 50 bullets, 9 rockets and 0 shells). Really needs a chainsaw or berserk pack, I think, especially since the AV and PEs in the blue key trap and fill the level up before the player even realizes they're there. 3/5

Share this post


Link to post

UR Map 14 -- Drifting Complex - 143% Kills / 100% Secrets
I really liked this one, good work Snakes. This was the first map of Unholy Realms to kill me (other than the scripted death at the end of map 11, of course), and it killed me HARD on the first couple of attempts, the first time just because I made a series of stupid mistakes running around in the toxin at the start, and the second when an arch-vile in a different building surprised me by teleporting directly into my building and almost immediately casting his immolation spell, while I was quite some distance from any good cover. The shockwave from the spell hurled my corpse out of a window into the midst of the school of demons in the central area. I laughed.

Aesthetically, I have no real complaints. Apart from the obvious 'drifting in a sea of poison' concept, the thematic impression of this level is very Thy Flesh Consumed. Of course, that episode's general theme is a brooding gothic patois of marble masonry, wood, and iron all under the iconic blazing sunset/sunrise sky, and 'Drifting Complex' is very much in the same vein except for that it substitutes Plutonia masonry (and a few extra brick flats I assume are from CC4) for the marble. It looks quite natural, if I do say so. Arguably, the map evinces some of the same tendency of previous maps to cram in an unnecessarily large amount of materials/colors into its construction--there really are quite a lot of different brick textures at work here, many of them used only in one spot--but this is something I only noticed while clipping around looking at stuff before doing this writeup. During actual play, the frantic pace of the action and the dour/subdued lighting combined to more than overshadow any of these slight aesthetic niggles.

As far as gameplay goes, there are a lot of things I really like about this level, as aforesaid. The one that stands out most in my mind is that it has some very good implementation of arch-viles; the first one is placed to be a persistent threat, but not one so pressing that killing him immediately necessarily trumps all other concerns. The later fellows that warp in are even better--their appearances are perfectly timed and placed such that not only do they have an opportunity to make an unexpected direct attack, but also so that they are highly likely to do a shit-ton of rezzing on their fallen compatriots, as the 143% kill ratio on my first completion indicates. Just as Veinen observed, I ended up killing the caco horde twice over on account of one of these guys, and the monster mash in the building behind the red skull bars something like thrice over. I love it! My favorite type of arch-vile usage is just this sort, which casts their resurrection ability as their prime asset. That monster-teleporting lines have been placed to allow some of the foes to leap between a couple of the major buildings makes the viles even more unpredictable, given their high footspeed and the line-of-sight nature of their attacks.

General unpredictability/variability is the level's other prime asset. My successful third attempt saw me cleaning out the arachnatrons on the outer perimeter and gathering both secrets while under the protection of the first radsuit, and then proceeding through the buildings in a more or less linear fashion, finishing up in the drink in the central area, but I saw a bunch of other distinctly different routes that could've been taken as well--a different time/place to fight the cacos, an alternate hopscotch route over towards the red skullkey, etc. It occurs to me that infinitely-tall pinkies in the center on classic comp settings are probably highly restrictive on a lot of the freeform opportunities I saw while playing, but as far as I'm concerned that's just a reminder why I don't use infinite-tallness when I'm just playing for fun.

Fine level, possibly my favorite in the WAD thus far, up there with 'Death' and 'Metallic Bloodline.'

******

Z300 Map 14 -- The Circle - 100% Kills / No secrets
Like the previous map, I felt this was also a bit above par in comparison to a lot of the other Z300 maps. Most of it's pretty ugly as far as textures/lighting go, but it's an authentic-feeling sort of grimy, seedy Doom II-E2 ugly, and so really not so bad. The sheer amount of opposition coming from the titular area might pressure you back into the tunnel and ultimately corner you if you can't punch a hole through them and slip past to get more ammo, so the main battle at least feels like it has a relevant structure to it. Of course, dashing like a madman around 'the circle' from the outset is the most fun way to go. Wrapping up, yet again we're served another helping of CorfCo brand ExitMeat (TM), but at least the selection here is for dainty health-conscious types, just some pinkie-croquettes instead of a big hearty, greasy slab of prime noble.

Share this post


Link to post

I went ahead and replayed UR map 14, since it was changed in beta 2 partially based on my comments, and I hadn't gotten around to retrying it yet (Bad beta tester! Bad!)

Anyways, HOLY SHIT, what an improvement! Those monster-only teleporters fix so much. For those who didn't play version 1, in the original, the monsters weren't able to teleport around, meaning that once you got the Rocket Launcher, the entire rest of the map was a tedious affair of "shoot across the gap, nothing can hurt you as long as you don't run into the buildings that enemies are spawning in"; having that Vile that appears when you get near the blue key teleport into that room actually forced me back down into the slime, which in turn ended up nearly killing me (I hadn't dealt with the Pinkies). Likewise, there was some really careful "take cover behind the narrow pillar" with some of the Viles, while there were hitscanners firing at me- a tense situation indeed! The addition of the single-barrel shotgun into the first room fixes the awkward auto-weapon switch that previously occurred upon killing the first sergeant, and makes the SSG secret somewhat less mandatory.

In short, this went from being probably my least favorite map in Episode 2 to being one of the best in the episode (still not quite as good as 17). Good work!

Share this post


Link to post

Zone 300 MAP13: Dark Crypt

Nice opening room. I was worried it was going to devolve back into room-hallway-room-hallway, but there was a good fight by the yellow key and the room design was varied enough to make it interesting. There is an extreme lack of health and ammo in the level so I was definitely glad I found both secrets. Nearly ran out of ammo (down to 4 shells) on the yellow key when I found the chainsaw... after I had killed all the demons, of course. Sigh. MIDI was a bit annoying at first but once it gets into the main melody it's pretty sweet, and fits the theme (feels like it would go great in Hexen). Oh, and the end room is yet another long narrow corridor with nothing but meat (hell knights) in it. Sigh. Really, these maps would be better off by just making a small room with a switch. 3/5

Zone 300 MAP14: The Circle

Most of the enemies are, unsurprisingly, concentrated in the titular circle area. It's not really an arena map since the player approaches it from a chokepoint hallway, and the monsters can't move much due to the columns and doodads sprinkled about (which combined with the height, really limits infighting possibilities). Still, it's a decent setup. After clearing the circle there's nothing really of note. The meat corridor has demons this time, but at least one teleports. I was kinda disappointed when the bookshelves didn't reveal a trap. Plasma's sprinkled around, but there's no plasma gun or BFG to use 'em. Also, no secrets. 3/5

Zone 300 MAP15: Trouble Town

Definitely ups the ante here with a sizeable amount of enemies scattered around in what I feel is a mini-sized version of Downtown. Okay, maybe not nearly as vertical, but it has a bit of that vibe with the buildings. Getting that SSG on pistol start is certainly hairy. The goodies are hidden in the back alleways, but are usually one-way, so the monsters will follow you. On one hand you get a nice chokepoint, on the other hand you may be low on ammo, so it's a bit of a double-edged sword which I think works well. I was worried I might not have enough plasma ammo for the Cyber but luckily that wasn't the case. Almost ran out of ammo on the meat corridor, especially since the one AV wanted to just keep resurrecting one of the barons. Liked the secret exit, though. I think this map does a real good job of showing what 300 linedefs can do and it's my favorite so far. 5/5

Share this post


Link to post

MAP15 Ravine Of The Hatred

I'm on the verge of quitting this megawad, as it's just not giving me enough time to figure out how to properly find my safe haven. I'd really enjoy it if I could just have a spot where I can rest. It mixes up my strategy too much. There's cacos floating about, sniper imps, annoying teleporting monsters, and revenants who take too many rockets to simply kill. At least the cyberdemon was at the most interesting, I was able to attack him from a distance to avoid his rockets without too much delay. And we also finally have a BFG. The music reminded me of "Dredge" (MAP21 of MM2). I went for the secret exit this time, unbeknownst is what I find next! Final Time 7:15.

MAP15 Trubble Town

*Regular Run*

A small suburb of sorts with imps and other monsters. Nonlinear method of getting keys, but pretty easy nonetheless. Got the cyber to teleport in and kill those imps who were shooting at me from afar. That secret exit was quite cryptic, not gonna spoil it :p. Final Time 3:29.

*Reality Run*

Mostly SSG and chaingun action until the cyberdemon encounter, which required cells to take down. The exit room is pretty annoying, two barons and an archie. One baron teleports to the other side, while the other one can't get out of the exit room trapping in the archvile. I killed the first one with rockets before BFG'ing the other two in the exit room. Then I restocked. Final Time 4:43.

Share this post


Link to post

UR Map15 - "Ravine of the Hated"
I found this map easier to get a foothold but overall a harder map than the previous one with some viscious traps. Another fun ride this one. Given I watched Veinen's uv max video prior to this, it made the secret hunting a little easier. One thing I will say is it's probably quite easy to become very scarce on ammo if things don't go your way.

Zone 300 Map15 "Trouble town"
Great map this one is, lots of fun, finding the secret bfg is just an excuse to blow most of the monsters away in real spectacular fashion. Made quite an effort to get a good time here and 1:51 is pretty good max time I think. The Cyber kill was pretty sweet given the tight quarters I got myself in and also the imps trying to pelt me :)

Share this post


Link to post

And now for the secret levels.

MAP31 Destructive Infinity

So I changed the difficulty down to HNTR for this one. Fat lot of good that did, as I find out I can't dodge wortha shit. And why the hell do three teleporters lead to the exact same secret? I mean, I got surprised at the beginning, as I went off that starting platform from the south end and teleported wondering where the heck I was. Lotta monsters (I blame valkiriforce for the hitscanners :p), At least "Cloak and Dagger" is awesome. Final Time 5:05.

MAP31 Creepy

Hunted, but with a few added demons and spectres, that don't really seem like much, unless an archie resurrects one over and over. Maze is kinda bland actually, needs more archies, even on HMP. Or perhaps it coulda been tighter on corridor length. I did a reality run on this difficulty here since it was pretty simple. The switches at the beginning open not only the doors to the normal exit, but also Keen closets, killing the four keens opens up the switch to reveal the secret exit. Only 7/8 secrets possible, as the switch sectors are marked as secrets, well, at least in the version I played, the idgames version probably fixed this already. Final Time 2:14.

MAP32 A Charming Khorus

*Regular Run*

Charming indeed, this one brought my spark back. It was fun to run through without monsters teleporting behind me and everywhere else in between. The big cyber was easily disposed of once all his minions turned against him, though I probably should've killed the pinkies earlier so they didn't block me. Pretty good layout allows for open areas that aren't too annoying, and then the enemies get grouped nicely to be splashed with rocket launcher. How excellent. Final Time 4:30.

*Reality Run*

Enemies being bunched up together allowed for perfect rocket kills. My biggest problem might have been where the rocket launcher was, I was trying to hit many monsters at once with the BFG but then I forget about projectiles alot. Gotta get lucky with running past cybie and his minions, many of them were surrounded cybie but there were some stragglers. All in all, it was very much manageable, with enough rockets and cells for the fun factor to be at its finest. Final Time 6:24.

MAP32 Condemnation

*Regular Run*

Doom II TWID outtake. Pretty darn fun through and through, although when it comes down to the most notable thing, I don't know which one to choose. The big lava area to the west was really cool, as was the "Chasm" like area close to the end. Very nice secret map, I enjoyed it quite a lot despite it having more than 300 lines. Final Time 6:11.

*Reality Run*

Proves not to be too annoying other than running around on damaging floors in some cases. The right side might have been the hardest part, with the group of hitscanners there, I tried BFG and it works fine. The teleport ambush after the BK wasn't too bad as I retreated to the PG secret. I guess the only other trouble spot was after the YK, where there's all these flying monsters in closets, and the pain elemental can be a foolish one. Took pretty long (if that is what's considered long), but it's easily achieveable. Final Time 7:26.

Share this post


Link to post

Map15 "Death & Decay"



Hard industrial rock track slightly influenced by a song by KMFDM, but just barely. The map was intense, gotta have a music track that's equally as intense. Not much else to say, really. Seeing it compared to a song from MM2 is interesting, I've never actually played that WAD.

Share this post


Link to post

Unholy Realms catch up...

Map 11

A sequence of controlled encounters in a spooky dark place, very much a methodical do-this-do-that kind of thing and some of the traps had a bit of a kill you first time learning curve, but the gloomy locations and sense of mystery keeps you going. Interesting choice given at the start, i bet a lot of people chose plasma gun and ended up wishing they had SSG at the end, I certainly did. One of the traps (with pinkies and mancubus in the cross shaped tunnel) killed me the first time and then second try I managed to get out without activating them somehow.. Death exit made me jump.

Map 12

Great chaotic start, fighting for cover and weaponry with cacos providing a constant threat. Knowing now where the rocket launch is should make things more interesting playing this a second time, there was a temptation to laboriously clear the place out with only peashooters. Switches galore, I wasn't taking much notice of what they were doing, I just assumed you had to press them all. Ammo was fairly tight, I had to leave some monsters behind as I was literally out of everything when the archvile arrived and started making more monsters. Its perhaps a shame that the walking enemies only had one doorway to move between the 2 areas, but there weren't many of them anyway.

Map 13

Nice looking map, I like all the overgrown vines hanging down. Like the last map this has a frantic start with shit flying at you from all directions. After clearing all the initial monsters out it feels a little bit empty, the subsequent ambushes are kind of tame by comparison, although the low ammo makes things a little tricky (plus if like me you can't get the SSG). I felt like it was all over a bit too soon and by the end the action didn't quite match up to the frantic beginning, but by then I had more weaponry I guess.

Share this post


Link to post

Zone 300 MAP31: Creepy

Yup, this is basically a "Hunted" clone, through and through. At the start I decided to try and see if I could let the AVs just come to me, not a good idea on the limited ammo from a pistol start. And the rooms are open enough that it's not the best idea. Still, maybe having some AVs stuck patrolling the outside would've been a good idea... also took me awhile to find the secret exit just because for some reason I thought their cubbies were opened by avoiding the red lights on the floor, not the switches. Heh, dumb me. Not sure why the secret exit had to be in another cubby instead of the corridor that opens after the Keen dolls die. 3/5

Zone 300 MAP32: Condemnation

Apparently this was an abandoned D2TWID map. I guess I can see some of the influences, though some of the design cues seem a bit advanced for 1994. Decent map, though I was down to nothing but a chainsaw at points.

Share this post


Link to post

Unholy Realms Map15: Ravine of The Hated

Another really good map. It's stylistically closer to map13 than 12/14 but I'd say it's even more laidback in a sense. I think a major factor in this was that there are not many chances to play ultra-aggressively which leads to a more composed playstyle in my case. It's definitely good to have maps like these once in a while to have a break of sorts from the aggressive gameplay. It's also kind of predictable in a way since you don't really need to improvise at any point as all the events usually unfold the same way they did in your previous playthrough. It's hard to explain but recording for this maps just felt very different than for, say, map14.

The combat is rather straightforward and much less hectic but still very enjoyable. There are a few tough spots for sure, but once you learn to deal with them it's actually pretty easy overall. The start was again the most difficult part in the map for me, and especially maneuvering around the Revs to get the RL. The next tough spot is probably the BK arena which looks way more imposing than it even is. Dashing into the arena head first may seem like a crazy move but it pays off big time and getting the Cyber involved with the Mancs is very easy. I even got a bit unlucky there in the vid since the Cyber found the stairs instantly and I had to dance around in the pit for a while. On the other hand, the Cyber finished off all the Mancs and both Barons so I got a lucky break there. Finished with two BFG shots to spare even since the Cyber was surprisingly banged up when I got to him. At first I thought the secret exit was AV-jump accessible only which would have lead to some, uh... interesting attempts but thankfully there was a lift to get there in the end.



Map31 was short and sweet so the write-up + vid will be coming shortly. Haven't even checked out map32 yet other than the TNS session a few weeks back.

Share this post


Link to post

UR MAP13: Temple of Leviathan

Another frantic start, as I try to find a SSG... run around... nope, not here... just as I resign myself to killing everything with the normal shotgun and my low rocket count, I find it! But it's on a ledge I can't reach. Aarrgh. Never did find the secret, much to my chagrin...

(After looking at it in DB2, apparently I had the right idea, I just didn't try hard enough to actually reach the secret area. Not sure if that makes me feel better or worse).

None of the ambushes seemed design to be really tough, but the lack of ammo/SSG made the revenant trap at the end a doozy for me. I came in with almost no ammo, and left with almost no ammo. Also, just a lot of getting chipped down by the massive amount of fireballs being hurled around in the crossfire by all the hell knights and mancubi.

Aesthetic is nice, I'm also a sucker for watery ruins (and I always love the hanging vine textures, my favorite custom Doom texture add by far). I agree that the green lights and metal door/switches seem a bit out of place since the rest is apparently all stone/vine/water. And the MIDI is a bit on the annoying side, being a bit repetitive, but mostly because it's too loud. 3/5

Share this post


Link to post

Z300 Map 15 -- Trouble Town - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
I suppose you'd call this a sandbox map, although in this case the 300 line restriction requires that it be small enough that most of the exploratory 'progress when/how you feel like it' aspect is not really possible. It does remain technically 'non-linear', I suppose, in that I'm pretty sure all of the keys can be gotten in any order. Combat is rather pitched at the outset, but the initial furor will tend to infight itself to death if you can survive for the first couple of minutes. There's another cyberdemon here, somewhat ineffectual in placement, although at least there's the option of running over to his side of the bridge to deal with him. And deal with him you must, since the clot of meat in the exit chamber is behind a monster-blocking line and can't be drawn out, effectively preventing you from skipping him. Comically, even if you intend to take the secret exit, Paul has made eating your daily serving of ExitMeat (TM) mandatory, since you have to progress all the way into the exit chamber in order to trip a trigger that eventually allows access to the secret. His unswerving commitment to this ill-advised design decision is really quite impressive at this point in the megaWAD.

Z300 Map 31 -- Creepy - 100+% Kills / 100% Secrets
Didn't replay this one for the writeup. Didn't need to, it's quite simple and easy to recall. This is essentially 'Hunted' from Plutonia with different wallpaper and a few specters in place of some of the viles, although the lack of triggered doors makes monster movement more predictable in most cases. The wrinkle that it does introduce is that in order to get enough shells to kill all of the specters and arch-viles roaming about, you'll have to forge ahead into the maze, which is a welcome tweak as far as I'm concerned. The secret exit procedure essentially requires you to wander around the maze a lot--the locations of the Keen-blocks are hinted at by the computer area map, but the second task of following the trail of candles is something left to the player to intuit for him/herself.

Z300 Map 32 -- Condemnation - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Hmm, quite like the BGM here, and the general texture scheme in the main area, though some of the side areas are pretty garish. And hey, there's an inverted cross motif on a wall in one of the lava tunnels! Good to see PCorf moving away from his past insistence on only using good, wholesome symbology in his Hell maps. If this was a Doom the Way id Did submission, I can see why it didn't make the cut.....wholly divorced from the issue of whether it's any fun to play or not, it really doesn't much resemble anything made by any of the id mappers in any real way. It's simply a standard PCorf map, steeped in his own distinct style.

And for that reason, this map is perhaps the best platform for talking about my general lack of enthusiasm for this WAD. What separates this map from the other 31 is of course that it was not made under any line restriction.....and yet, apart from a little bit of window-dressing on the aesthetic front (e.g. the sort of crude arch near the start point), it essentially looks and plays just like all of the others (heavily conceptual maps like 'Creepy' notwithstanding, of course)....only larger. It seems that the 300 line restriction has not really been sufficient to prompt Corfiatis to change up his particular style, in either an aesthetic or a gameplay sense; it has simply caused him to make smaller maps, many of which fizzle without really going anywhere because he runs out of lines.

Ironically, because of his apparent unwillingness to alter his basic style in any real way while still operating under a line restriction, Z300 has the same problem that I feel a lot of other PCorf mapsets do, that being a marked impression of quantity over quality, where a few good ideas are scattered about in a field of so-so playtime. In a sense, Z300 sort of seems to occupy a barren no man's land stuck between the novelty of a highly restricted/conceptual/gimmicky mapset and the fullness of the work that PCorf is capable of producing, and the results are underwhelming at best, with the mapset becoming more and more repetitive as it wears on. It's my opinion that PCorf's best work to date has tended to be his most highly polished/developed contributions to community mapsets, ala 'While the Doctor Sleeps' from CC3 and 'Volcana II' from CC4; of course, nothing on that magnitude is possible with a 300 line restriction, and yet 300 lines is apparently far too lax a number to push Paul to really innovate within his own style....hell, some of the vignettes in Z300 are directly recycled from previous PCorf maps on an almost 1-to-1 basis.

'Condemnation' is actually one of the better levels in the set because it's able to develop a bit more and most of it looks fairly nice, but if you look at it alongside the other maps in the set it's pretty clear that the line restriction hasn't really come into play in a very meaningful way as regards how the maps were built other than enforcing a generally concise maplength and a general cleanliness/simplicity in aesthetic, the latter being a preference that Paul's mapping usually tends to naturally evince anyway. In this way, it's really kind of the posterchild for the mapset, despite being the only one not to actually use the mapset's defining gimmick....and that fact is really the crux of the matter, isn't it?

Share this post


Link to post

UR Map15 - "Ravine of the Hated": After one of my favorite maps comes one of my least favorite. Nothing stands out as overly terrible because the offenders are small—drab color scheme, mostly long distance fighting, and awkward angles of attack. The AV after the first key is a prime example of an enemy that’s there to cause hiccups but not really threaten you per se. I don't have a lot to say after this... I'm glad it's challenging but there are definitely a lot of other maps I owe more praise to.

--------

Z300 Map15 - "Trouble Town": A quaint little map that feels less like Industrial Zone and more like a small slaughtermap. The outset is definitely the roughest with little to no room to move around and monsters converging on your position, although there’s a host of ways to start the infighting. The cyber fight was actually surprisingly dangerous as he had a wealth of ammo on his island, and the enemies in the exit were practical as it forced you to fight the titanic devil. Nice kinda dreary midi.

Z300 Map31 - "Creepy": Great secret map concept! My only gripe is that if you get all the AVs following you it can be pretty simple to wipe them out as you wait behind a corner; it would’ve been better to slowly trickle them in. Otherwise props to Corfiatis for a short but wonderful map. Also had a good sp00ky midi.

Z300 Map32 - "Condemnation": A somewhat mediocre map in my opinion. It’s very direct and a lot of the fights/traps can be ran from so it leaves you little reason to stay longer than you need to. Didn’t really get a Doom 2 feel from this. Superb midi though—has a really nice push when the percussion kicks in.

Share this post


Link to post

Zone 300: Map 15 - UV, pistol start

Okay I really liked this map, it's my favorite of the set so far. The action starts off right away as soon as you go up the lift. My strategy was to run & grab the super shotgun, then run down the alley with the berserk. It was pretty easy to pick off monsters from here, & I had plenty of ammo, after most monsters were dead in that area I ran to the plasma gun & rocket launcher. The rest of the map was quite simple. I decided to take the Cyberdemon out with the SSG because there was more than enough ammo & I wanted to save my BFG for the monsters that would be behind the exit door.

Zome 300: Map 31 - UV, Continuous

This is a map like Haunted from Plutonia. I hated this map, I tried many times to beat this from pistol start, but I am simply not good enough at Doom to do so.

Zone 300: Map 32 - UV, Continuous

The second secret map from Zone 300 is just a regular map :D I think it's funny that this is just a normal sized map with nothing special done to it, but I didn't really feel like playing through a full sized map. So I didn't pistol start this map either just to make it go by faster.

Zone 300: Map 16 - UV, Pistol Start

Alright lets get back to business. Right off the bat I have to say that this map just felt unfinished to me. I was really surprised that the switch behind the Arch-vile that teleports away was the exit switch. I hit the switch as soon as he teleported away expecting another area to open up, but then that was it level over. Other than that this was a pretty decent map, a little over abundant with ammo maybe.

Share this post


Link to post

UR Map 15 -- Ravine of the Hated - 102% Kills / 100% Secrets
While definitely not as aesthetically attractive as many of the other recent UR maps, this one does at least do a pretty good job of keeping you on your toes....some of the time. While there generally aren't a particularly large number of monsters active at any given time, their placement in combination with some inconvenient terrain often either deprives the player of safe spots, or alternately provides safe spots that the player is able to accomplish almost nothing constructive from as far as mounting actual offense goes. Pistol-starters face a situation where gaining any weapon stronger than the shotgun is a bit of a to-do in one way or another, as well, and hell, even the shotgun might become inconvenient to reach if you don't act quickly enough.

That being said, there's a bit of an odd lull between crossing from one side of the red skull bars to the other (whether you do it through the standard route or through the secret alternative)...things get pretty quiet until you press further, and you're able to pick off most of the enemies in that area from the relative safety of either threshold if you're thus inclined (in fact, you can do this again later when the area is refilled with foes). This kind of thing contrasts with setups like the rather effective cyberdemon, who can even catch you napping and annihilate you from halfway across the map if you get cheeky and decide to just juke him at first.

While it's a pretty small map, the path of progression to either exit is a bit convoluted/switch/trigger-heavy, like in map 12; I eventually found the secret exit, but I'm really not completely sure of just what I did to clear all of the barricades blocking it off out of the way....I just sort of checked on it periodically until I found it open. Overall, while I didn't actively dislike this map or anything, it definitely didn't engage me like several of the other recent maps have done, with the exception of the cyberdemon fight.

UR Map 31 -- Destructive Infinity - 101% Kills / 80% Secrets
A pretty cool-looking level with a hectic start, some nameless brick bastion of torture, death, and infamy. I'm not at all familiar with Deathevokation's mapping, but since the Valkiriforce-isms seem fairly subtle and subdued, I'll assume that a lot of this is representative of the former's style.

As I said, it is quite a nice-looking level, replete with a lot of attractive shadows and lighting choices. While it is rather compact in size and many of its hallways and chambers have a lot of side details like archposts and fire brazers and whatnot, it generally avoids feeling untowardly cramped or cluttered, and has a couple of outdoor areas (still fairly modest in scale) to give the layout a bit of space contrast. The starting area, with its layer of iron pillars around the elevated Plutonia-gate setup, is a bit of an exception to this, but I reckon the lack of elbow room is what makes the opening fight work. BGM is again a bit overbearing, though (and again seems like it contains a reference to another song, this time a classic IWAD tune).

As implied, the first few seconds are probably the most dangerous part of the map, with the marine underarmed and kinds of monsters closing in from all sides. Survive that, though, and it's not too tough to make it through this one. Ammo felt very tight for a little bit early on, but I never actually ran out....just didn't feel comfortable. As it turns out, if I'd taken a different path, I'd have been pretty well-covered. Whatever the case, eventually momentum tends to shift markedly in the player's favor, particularly if s/he finds some of the secrets. There is at least one pretty nasty trap near the exit, but by the time it's reached you're liable to be able to tank through it if all else fails. Opening the secret exit isn't too terribly obscure or involved here, just requires a little bit of a sharp eye. Actually realizing that it's located within inches of the regular exit is the trickiest part.

The hell is with that imp on the BFG pillar? Some rite of passage?

UR Map 32 -- A Charming Khorus - 101% Kills / No secrets
Yes, it's certainly a Khorus map. He has a very distinctive way of building natural terrain, both in terms of shape/scale and the texture combos he favors. Also, his propensity for using an extremely direct/incidental style of monster placement is evident in spades here as well--other than the cyberdemon & co. that end up being revealed near the starting area, I think pretty much every monster present is active/attacking as soon as the player enters their area.

The two most notable aspects of the gameplay here are that the map tends to drive you forward at all times (and it is very linear, with only one really optional area) into group after group of hellspawn that gradually grow in size and strength, and that it really emphasizes the plasma rifle as a primary weapon. Most other types of ammo are fairly rare, particularly rockets, and so you'll often find yourself trying to decide how to best spend the cells you have in order to keep up forward momentum. I liked this, it added interest to a map that's really not very difficult otherwise, despite its fairly large monster groups. If anything that free megasphere in the Darkwave0000-esque slimefall cave is probably just simply too generous in the context of the map's overall balance, although in actual fact I ended up actually needing it because the final spider mastermind persistently refused to go into pain-stun for me (granted, I probably should have been standing farther away than I was, but never mind)...but I reckon that someone with more luck (and intelligence!) than me probably wouldn't have that problem. I dunno, maybe put a trap in that cave, or something?

Share this post


Link to post

MAP16 Dockside

Aargh, siege at the beginning, complete openness with hitscanners, mancubi, and cacodemons. This is one of those times I despise openness. To get through this one, I had to press switches near the building, getting keys in the progress. Most of the monsters were either inside the building or outside, but nothing too spectacular. There are two secrets, and I assume that the invulnerability on the rock must be taken by archvile jump. But I didn't encounter an archvile; hell I've I didn't even trigger a large amount of teleporting monsters, mainly since I cleared off everything. Would be greater if all of them were active instead of dormant in their holds, maybe join their sectors together with, perhaps the outside area?

Oh and that music track is the best in the wad, hands down. Final Time 4:44.

MAP16 Bruiser Fortress

*Regular Run*

...is a super short level. But those revenants on the towers are difficult to hit as they just keep running back n' forth wasting my damn rockets. Also the archvile at the end kinda shot himself in the foot by appearing next to the dead imps across the moat, making him an easy target. The cacos, and the pain elemental, were all easily handled too. Final Time 2:02

*Reality Run*

A laughable monster count of 17, with only two tower revenants and no archie. Only one baron too. I still like the level somewhat though, despite its uninteresting-ness. Final Time 1:53.

Share this post


Link to post

Yep, UR map16 is pretty broken. Sucks hard since it has all the makings of a nice map but right now all the fun stuff stays out of boundaries.

Unholy Realms Map31: Destructive Infinity

This was pretty damn short and very easy. After coming up with the starting strategy I used, I think I died once or twice in total. It's alright fun though and a decent amount of blood will be spilled when all is said and done. I thought the ammo balance was near perfect here but I probably left a few boxes behind. BFG gets a handful of shots too but you better make the most out of them if you aim for a good time. I kinda screwed up in my demo as I accidentally fired some plasma which meant one less BFG shot at the final room but it didn't slow me down considerably in the end. The map looks very nice too. The detailing is quite lively but it never feels cramped or unnatural.

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×