Phobus
Forum Staple
Posts: 2138
Registered: 10-06 |
Thanks for setting this up dobugabumaru, particularly with the all-in-one package too. I'll be playing in ZDoom, continuously on UV like before.
I figure I might as well catch up to the limit today (as it's a weekend) and that will leave me some slack for later in the month. As such:
MAP01: The Teleporter: It's small, has lively music and opens up with a memorable view of a pentagram (IIRC, the author wrote somewhere that he spent ages working out the co-ordinates for it with a calculator) made of blood, with a load of sergeants to kill. Ticks all the boxes for a good MAP01 and then kicks our arse with negligable health and surprisingly dense monster placement, almost entirely hitscanners. The 3 demons at the end are pointless, as they couldn't even get past eachother to leave the room and attack me, but I like that the imp teleporter can be shut off before the imps are all through by a quick-thinking player (I opted to kill 'em all).
All told, pretty nice for a '96 map, but surprisingly hard!
MAP02: The Bridge: Comprised almost entirely of new textures, this map is probably the sort of visual people think of when they cast their minds back to their first play of MM. It's pretty orthogonal, with a bit of detailing here and there that you'd expect to see in places today. Weirdly, the textures seemed auto-aligned (as in, used like a continuous wall paper with no cut-offs, but not the alignment one would do manually these days) in the bit past the blue key door... That wasn't around in '96, was it? Lots of traps, but as the map seems to largely be Demons it's not threatening. There's a few inescapable nukage pits, but you'd have to be a tool to jump in them, as you're highly unlikely to get knocked in by accident. I liked the way the secret is more than just a little closet, particularly as the loop around doesn't displace you too far from where you wanted to be.
This map is alright, but far from exciting.
MAP03: Interlock: Seems to crib heavily from the MAP01s of Doom 2 and Evilution, this is another dense map (all 3 keys in such a small area) with a low monster count, but plenty of hitscanners. Also features a lot of moving parts! This map isn't too threatening, but I did come in with a shotgun, chaingun, soulsphere and over 100 blue armour, so that doesn't surprise me. I really quite like this one, although the fact that it has 2 secret sectors both in the same secret area is a minor detractor, particularly as you can step over the first one without hitting it and then surprise yourself by getting it on the way back in (then again, that is ZDoom making a show of it, so probably not so bad in the original .exe)
MAP04: The Stand: This one's a bit weird. You start off with loads of medikits, but then eat shit from the hitscanners and imps opposite you, unless you push out into the corridor, whereby other hitscanners will own you instead. There's a co-op only puzzle in the middle courtyard and plenty of other clever constructs, set-ups and motions. Thing is, it's kind of unintuitive. Some of the secrets really need you to find the automap secret if you don't already know they're there and some things which you think must be secrets are actually just optional areas, hidden away. A secret is mandatory in your path to the red key, which you need to get the yellow key. Ending the map is similarly convoluted, with a switch hidden in a monster closet that you can defang earlier in the map only becoming accessible when the map is done.
Making mention of the monster density is becoming surprisingly frequent, so I'll gloss over that and raise a complaint with game play in this map instead (other than how 90s the progression is): Hell Nobles. The damn things are almost invariably speed bumps in this map, with the notable exception of the two Barons at the end, who are a credible threat if you're not suitably prepared.
I kind of like the creativity and variety in this map and kind of think it's also symbolic of the lessons we've learnt in the intervening 16 years or so. This map also took longer for me to get 100% kills and secrets in before leaving than the previous 3 put together, so it does feel kind of slow for it.
MAP05: Hell's Kitchen: I saved for the first time in my playthrough at the start of this map, as the 'O' of Destruction vibe gives me a sense that I may, at last, be at risk of dying. Sure enough, I did get killed once or twice going into a secret before lucking my way through with a handy telefragging.
I really like this map. Lots of different paths, good secrets, optional areas, tight design and a good theme done well. Couple of imps are essentially useless (I think one of them may even be stuck) but otherwise it's a well-done map that I'm glad I've played again. Getting 100% kills and secrets felt like an accomplishment this time around, even if it took a while.
Pretty nice start so far, let's hope it continues in a positive vein!
@Memfis: I think "health" is what MAP01 is missing that other megaWAD openers have ;)
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01-05-13 09:56 
