Phml
Forum Staple
Posts: 2539
Registered: 06-09 |
FDA. Maps01-15, some deaths.
That was great. Great, great, great. I didn't expect much, and I'm glad to be completely wrong. Much better HR2 than HR2. It captured that original HR feel perfectly, with clever use of tough monsters without going insane on the monster count, and neat traps. The homagey parts and levels don't feel overly so because there's enough twists and tweaks to keep it fresh. Everything feels intuitive. This wad doesn't take itself seriously and at the same time never falls into self-deprecating parody. I have nothing but praise for your level design, it's everything I liked in HR, and while it wouldn't quite fit lumped in along the original levels, it's because it clearly has its own distinctive style that is just as good.
I didn't enjoy the custom palette, which gives a dull tone to everything. The red/black baron looked cartoonish... Which isn't necessarily a bad thing for this wad, and everytime I got hit by the second projectile because I fell into usual hk/baron strafe habits it made me appreciate how different such a simple change can make. I'm not big on the cacodemon sprite either, but at least it stays distinctive. What I really disliked is the puff marks. On rocket trails it makes it much harder to see what's going on when you're using the RL. On revenants/pain elementals it removes much of the visual feedback showing you've got a hit. The small lost soul with super HP felt very, very silly. I like monster size to roughly correspond to monster HP in Doom, it just feels right to me. Some music tunes were much louder than others, that was annoying.
All these cons are nitpicks and won't stop me from finishing the wad later on, and likely replaying it. Anyone who liked HR ought to do themselves a favor and check this out, in my opinion. Great job!
Edit: forgot to mention, in Map15 the final switch was very hard to activate in basic Boom compatibility. This is because you've got another switch line 4 pixels away, linedef 345, which "eats" the use key presses. This particular action isn't necessary as the affected pillar should already be down from another linedef by the time you could activate this one, so I'd suggest you remove it.
In Map02 I found it tedious to hobble from ground level to sector 2, 3, 4 or 5, perhaps these sectors' linedefs could be impassable save for sector 2? It would prevent this annoyance and hint at the BFG secret.
Last edited by Phml on 03-09-12 at 16:24
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03-09-12 10:28 
