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Valkhorn

Let's Play Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders

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Avoozl said:

I think they should've at least added a new boss to the 5th episode.

If they had had more time to develop the game, there would have been five episodes in the first release (no SOTSR expansion) and D'Sparil would have been at the end of the fifth episode. Michael Raymond-Judy said about as much in an old interview.

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Gez said:

If they had had more time to develop the game, there would have been five episodes in the first release (no SOTSR expansion) and D'Sparil would have been at the end of the fifth episode. Michael Raymond-Judy said about as much in an old interview.


I remember that interview, it was pretty interesting.

Michael Raymond-Judy said:

In some ways it would have been nice to re-order the maps and move items so you could play the episodes with D'Sparil at the end, but that's not how it worked out.


I think even using D'Sparil again for E5M8 would've been better than what they did, but it is what it is I guess.


Valkhorn: Still watching these, in parts at least. As I said in another thread most of my use for LP's comes in the form of getting a quick overview of a game or mod I haven't played, so I can't say I'm following along with every video. Will be more interested to see the last two Episodes.

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plums said:


Thanks. I'll look into it.

Meanwhile, another update:

Part 023 - E3M9: The Aquifer

This is a small but dense level. There may be less than 100 enemies, but with the smaller rooms they can be annoying if you're not ready for them. Thankfully the strategy of taking care of them one area at a time should always work. I kind of get a little lost looking for the last few secrets but decided to not cut it out since it didn't eat up that much time. Let me know if you guys would rather I cut that out in the future - or if you're interested in watching me backtrack to treasure hunt. I can't remember all the secrets so forgive my bumbling around. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, we get a nice Iron Lich 'car wash' towards the exit. I found that amusing.

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Part 024 - E3M5: The Ophidian Lair

Just how many ophidians are going to be in this level anyhow? Well I didn't do a count, but there are quite a few. There's also a visit from an old, but very strong, friend, which we visit a little prematurely, and like Brave Sir Robin, immediately run away. Thankfully if we're just on the other side of the gate, he won't hurt us as much, but he can still attack. This level design also is very similar to The Labyrinth, if you'll remember. So far no levels have really been as difficult as E3M1, but will that change?

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Part 25 - E3M6: The Halls of Fear

My there are a lot of gargoyles in this level, and plenty of enemies. The name suggests that we should be afraid of this level, or at least the halls therein. However, there are a lot of halls but very little fear. Again, just like some of the previous levels, there is a 'passable' texture with an Ophidian behind it, and that is very annoying. But, a few blasts with the phoenix rod fixes that.

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Part 026 - E3M7: The Chasm

This level is very annoying, and in spots is just as difficult as The Storehouse (E3M1). Why? Because you have large collections of enemies in small spaces and sometimes your exit points will close behind you. Additionally, you have a very strong enemy in a very tight corridor, so you'll need split second reflexes to dodge an attack of his which can kill you even at 100 health. It's nice that they give you a method to get rid of three iron liches without them being thrown at you at the very end, but they get rid of this 'niceness' by introducing a new moving sector type - wind. Use your wings of wrath wisely and don't waste them, otherwise you'll never get to one of the secrets.



Part 027 - E3M8: D'sparil's Keep

Finally, we get to meed D'Sparil. While there are initially only 22 monsters and 3 secrets in this level, don't let that fool you into thinking it's easy. Also, don't let the fact that D'Sparil has a less HP than a Maulotaur fool you either. He has an attack and defensive maneuver that is very annoying. He has a rather neat 'death' animation though, so I suppose that makes it worth it. This isn't the ending though - as we're going to have to deal with two more episodes soon enough.

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Da Werecat said:

If you found E3 difficult and annoying at times, I wonder what you will think about E4M1.


or e5m1 :)

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Da Werecat said:

If you found E3 difficult and annoying at times, I wonder what you will think about E4M1.


I attempted recording E4M1 several times on the 4th difficulty level and although I made it to the end, I never had enough ammo to get rid of all of the monsters.

Further, the difficulty level is hard enough that I have only a few options.

I don't think I'll have a month to practice the game to get good enough to tackle episodes 4 and 5 at the 4th difficulty setting. No matter how well I try to play, I always run out of ammo and I'm unable to finish the very last enemy in E4M1. I don't have the skills enough to complete the final two episodes at that difficulty level.

So, I can either cheat by starting out with as much ammo and weapons as possible (I don't like this idea) or use the 1st or 2nd difficulty setting.

It's no longer enjoyable for me at this difficulty setting, and I'd hate to end the LP right here, but after trying to practice E4M1 for three days straight I simply don't have the ability to finish it at the higher difficulty setting.

Let me know what you guys think.

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E4 in Heretic is a lot like E4 in Ultimate Doom. Difficult at the beginning, much easier once you've collected some weapons and accumulated some ammo. E4M1 is the single most difficult experience I've had with stock Heretic levels. Even E5M1 is easier, as far as I remember.

Maybe you should try to complete a few more levels to see how it goes.

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Da Werecat said:

E4 in Heretic is a lot like E4 in Ultimate Doom. Difficult at the beginning, much easier once you've collected some weapons and accumulated some ammo. E4M1 is the single most difficult experience I've had with stock Heretic levels. Even E5M1 is easier, as far as I remember.

Maybe you should try to complete a few more levels to see how it goes.


I do NOT want to cheat at all to finish the level. That would also throw off the ammo count for the rest of the game.

The thing is, I've done 2 test 'completions', and I always end up with Ophidians near the end of the level, with few arrows left and I still have to deal with the Maulotaur. Plus, the overabundance of the Hellfire Staff doesn't help when the Maulotaur is 50% immune to the staff with the tome of power. So regardless, I never have enough to finish off all of the enemies and all I can do is find the exit.

Another option would be to just 'complete' the map without 100% kills, get as much ammo as I can, and not worry about the kill count.

That's risky though, and it commits me to playing the rest of the episode at a difficulty setting of 4.

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I think skipping the Maulotaur is fine. I get the sense you're not really supposed to kill him anyhow.

Like Da Werecat said, by about E4M3 it gets a lot easier because you'll have a much higher reserve of supplies. That said playing skill 3 isn't so bad either. No sense in torturing yourself, and in fact to a casual player wondering about playing Heretic, it's informative to show how much harder E4 is and what they should expect if they too feel the need to go down a skill level.

(I disagree that E5M1 is easier than E4M1, though it is easier if you're going for 100% kills.)

If you still want to play on skill 4, consider running through the first two levels with god mode or using the 'resurrect' console command if you die, and then see how well you fare on E4M3 with what you have coming into it.

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Don't forget there's a crusher at the start of the map that can take out the gargoyles and the sabreclaws. (The sabreclaws outside can also be taken with infighting with the maulotaur.) I haven't been watching your LP so I don't know how you are with artefacts, but don't forget about the time bombs and the morph ovum.

Personally if save scumming isn't an option I'd just forget about the kill count (and the secret count since the first secret just lets out wizards and sabreclaws IIRC). Dropping the skill for these episodes isn't a bad option either.

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Da Werecat said:

A small tip: gauntlets + tome of power = 1 dead maulotaur.

Yep. While the gloves are powered up, you can take on any enemy in the game (except maybe D'Sparil) and end up victorious with 100% health.

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Thanks for the replies. A few points.

* I tried the gauntlets with the tome of power against a Maulotaur in E2M8 and couldn't remember if it was enough to kill him, or maybe the one behind me got me after he was killed - but the stunt killed me. I'd rather save the Tome for the next level since I can carry it with me.

* In my practice runs, I never had any consistent luck getting the sabreclaws or the gargoyles to go through the crusher, so I'd rather not rely on it that much. It'd be nice but it's hard to predict where they'll go.

* I'd also like to save the morph ovum. In one of my test runs, I got very lucky and got two extra morph ovums from Iron Liches, but I cannot rely on that either.

As it stands, I think I'm going to avoid the Iron Liches and the final Maulotaur as much as possible - scavenge all the ammo I can, and forget the kill count. Even if I get 100% kills, I'll be walking into E4M2 with very little ammo and artifacts and that's not too appealing.

I'll give a little more practice for the next 24 hours or so then make my decision then with the next video.

The way that episode is making me feel I might as well overlay "In Da Godda Da Vida" in the background and go balls to the wall. Who knows.

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Valkhorn said:

* In my practice runs, I never had any consistent luck getting the sabreclaws or the gargoyles to go through the crusher, so I'd rather not rely on it that much. It'd be nice but it's hard to predict where they'll go.

It doesn't seem that hard to me. Here's a demo recorded on ZDoom 2.7.1 getting all of the starting gargoyles without firing a single shot. Works with GZDoom 1.8.4 as well: http://maniacsvault.net/loosefiles/crusher.lmp

I'm just as easily able to get the sabreclaws in the crusher, although it takes a few crushes for them to die.

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Blzut3 said:

It doesn't seem that hard to me. Here's a demo recorded on ZDoom 2.7.1 getting all of the starting gargoyles without firing a single shot. Works with GZDoom 1.8.4 as well: http://maniacsvault.net/loosefiles/crusher.lmp

I'm just as easily able to get the sabreclaws in the crusher, although it takes a few crushes for them to die.


I'll check that out later tonight or in the morning. Thanks.

I'm not an expert in this game, though.

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I had to do some save scrumming, and it took about an hour to record, but I finally made it through E4M1 with 100% kills at difficulty level of 4. The entire level took 33 minutes so I may do some editing.

I think I'll survive in the next level. Maybe. If not, then I'll switch the difficulty offscreen or something.

Phew.

I'll upload the video either tonight or in the morning.

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Part 028 - E4M1: The Catafalque

And now the moment you've all been waiting for. I took a couple days off from LPing just to relax my brain before taking on this monster of a level, and yes, it is a monster of a level. If you thought The Storehouse (E3M1) was bad, just wait. This one is perhaps the worst level in the entire game. There are a ton of very difficult enemies, and you get very little ammo to deal with them. This recording is also over 30 minutes long because I'm not really able to rush through it. However, I tried to make it as interesting as possible, so enjoy. By the way, I am now using a hi-def texture pack and will use it for a few more videos at least. I am starting to like it now so let me know what you think. The visibility seems to be way better.

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Well done. Perseverance is the key to success after all. Couple things:

-Monsters will never get mad at the Maulotaur, so with Sabreclaws the only way to get the Maulotaur to attack them is to position them between the Maulotaur and you.
-While I don't like the high-res textures for playing, I think they add some contrast in most areas which is good for youtube.
-lol at the intro :D

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plums said:

Well done. Perseverance is the key to success after all. Couple things:

-Monsters will never get mad at the Maulotaur, so with Sabreclaws the only way to get the Maulotaur to attack them is to position them between the Maulotaur and you.
-While I don't like the high-res textures for playing, I think they add some contrast in most areas which is good for youtube.
-lol at the intro :D


Thanks. That was a #*(&$ to finish but I made it. The next few levels don't seem to be so bad so far.

I was on the fence about the texture pack. If I played the game without recording it I'd probably stick to the old textures, but the contrast with the new textures is good enough that it makes the videos better - so I might stick with it until the end of episode 5.

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Part 029 - E4M2: The Blockhouse

No, I'm afraid this house isn't round or curved. This house is orthogonal. The level design here reminds me of MAP019 of Doom II - The Citadel. We have a centralized 'blockhouse' surrounded by four teleporters which each grant us access to the central portion. We must take all four teleporters (and yes I get confused on which teleporter to take), and then we'll face even more enemies. There are now two Maulotaurs in this level, but we are able to take them out without a problem in the usual fashion. I highly recommend getting rid of all the monsters in the middle section before getting the yellow key and dealing with the Disciples separately. You needn't waste ammo on the Maulotaurs, and you have great odds of getting at least one additional Tome of Power from killing an enemy. Save the outer rim for last so you can stock up on ammo before the next level.

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Part 030 - E4M3: The Ambulatory

You'd think an ambulatory would have something to do with an ambulance? Not really. An ambulatory is a place for walking around the apse of a monestary or church. So, in this level, we really do have a middle circle which we can walk around the central part of the level. Over time, it eventually opens up to make a complete circle. We also have a fun crusher area, but it's not worth wasting the time to get all of the enemies to walk through it. Some enemies just aren't going to follow you there.

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Nice, E4M3 is one of my favourites, I love the way everything connects and opens up as you progress. Bit frustrating to watch you get lost ;) but I know how it is with these levels.

I was surprised you killed the Liches before getting the secret that opens up to them in the cage, I find it's much easier to kill them from the secret area.

The sound in this video was a little weird, the sfx were synced but it sounded like your narration was early by a few seconds? No big deal I guess.

edit: If you're in to speedruns, make sure to watch this run of E4M3 by eschdoom if you haven't seen it already.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWF7BUVi8aY

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The sound was correct in E4M3, but sometimes it's my 2nd or 3rd runthrough so my commentary can be a bit predictive.

Part 031 - E4M4: The Sepulcher

No we're not in a sepulcher by the sea, nor are we talking about Annabel Lee. This sepulcher is in a rocky place, and there's only one. However, it does give us access to the secret part of the level. I found this level to be extraordinarily easy compared to the hell we've just been through, but maybe the level designers decided to give us a little break? There is only one really difficult spot, but if you can grab the chaos device you'll be fine. Stock up on your ammo as much as you can because who knows what we'll have to deal with in the next level.

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