T-Rex
Junior Member
Posts: 192
Registered: 06-11 |
I just played Nostromo's Run and Soldier of Fortune. Both are large, sprawling maps, but in different ways.
Nostromo's Run, well, everyone knows about it, Rich Johnston's finest piece of work, with many places to explore, and his excellent architecture which are seen again in Strain. One of the best wads of 1995.
Soldier of Fortune by Lisa Moore, is a different case. It's a sprawling map from the clever and fiendish puzzles which you'll have to solve in order to progress further. A lot of these puzzles involve hitting a switch which opens a door or raise a platform, and having to make a run for it before it closes/raises up again. This is also apparent in the large circular room which has a huge nukage pit containing moving platforms holding Hell Knights and Baron of Hell. To get the blue key, and escape, you had to wait until the central platform is getting close to the bottom, then hit the switch that lowers the nukage falls, but you have to touch the lowered central platform in order to lower the upper nukage falls, in which one side has the blue key, and a switch which reveals another switch which activates the only escape route, which is also the entrance to the circular area. Another tricky puzzle, is exiting the room which holds the yellow key, you must gain access to the upper area at the end of the room by hitting certain walls that lower other walls, and one will reveal a flight of stairs to reach the high platform. You have to enter the area which contains a hint to escape, but you must also hurry back to the door you entered, otherwise, if you wait 30 seconds before then, the door will close and you'll have to start over again. Finally, there's figuring out the switch combinations, hinted in the library at the starting area, where hitting the right combination will reveal entry to a secret (BFG). Soldier of Fortune is also tough because it's pretty tight on ammo, and you must be sure to conserve enough so that you'll have enough to take out the enemies. Pretty big and tough level, and while the puzzles are tricky, they're thankfully not as obtuse as the puzzles offered by Jim Flynn, Bob Evans, and Paul Schmitz, whose maps and puzzles are clear influence on this map. The map overall, is pretty entertaining, with its excellent architecture, clever puzzles, nasty traps, messages which hint on how to solve the puzzles, and midi soundtrack by Rich "Weeds" Nagel. Lisa Moore is a really talented mapper, and one of the best female Doom mappers of all time. If there's anyone who does reviews of Doom wads/megawads, this is one to talk about since it's really good.
Last edited by T-Rex on 06-10-12 at 15:03
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05-20-12 03:50 
