The DWmegawad Club plays: Back to Saturn X E1 & Favillesco E1

Favillesco E1M8 - "Io Anomaly"

Gameplay and structure of this map finally differs from the rest. But step by step...

This map starts quite hard if you play pistol start. You continuously face a lot of monsters, including hitscanners, and aren't provided with any health. I died because of rushing. On my second attempt I rushed too, but had a better luck. It's a good part.

Then you're provided with stimpacks and locked in a large dark room full of spectres. You must not underestimate them. I like this part too.

Then you're provided with full ammo and thrown into a huge yard with barons. Without a rocket launcher. Ammo is balanced well there, you'll need to use both shotgun and chaingun, since there's a lot of barons. It's however easy fight, because there's too much space to dodge projectiles. May get a little tedious. Fortunately you see how the count of barons is slowly but surely decreasing as you keep firing.

This map is about an atmosphere. Like original E1M8. The music (default E1M8) helps it. A little shame that the map uses E1M8 homages, here it was quite unnecessary (pentagram, exit teleporter and then impossible dark room). Anyway a good and fitting way to end this particular episode.

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Here are my demos for all Favillesco levels if anyone's interested: http://www.filedropper.com/favielamedemos
Be warned: They're not FDAs (I knew the levels before), not even speed or max demos. They're nothing more than just demos of my playthrough. Some (rather all) of them may be tedious to watch, specially once I start looking for secrets. I recorded them in PrBoom-plus -complevel 2. Why did I even record them I don't know. On levels 3, 6 and 8 I die and start over.

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To rate Favillesco as a whole, it's good if you want to relive original Knee Deep in the Dead, just with different and differently connected rooms and structures, and peppered with some exploration and maybe a little confusement, as you'll need to use automap more. If you're looking for innovation and surprises, then no. There's already too much E1 replacements (or episode replacements and IWAD imitations in general) that it's really getting old - but I'm saying that Favillesco, from all of them, is of an above-average quality, definitely. At least in my opinion. It gives the same gameplay just in more extensive scale, but we shouldn't forget it's a fun gameplay, and if we didn't like such-type gameplay at least at some point of our life - we wouldn't be here at Doomworld now and care about this topic. Probably. Well, stop the oration, I'll speak just for myself and say I enjoyed playing through Favillesco and would recommend it as one of the best E1 experiences loyal to the original.

Oh god, I've got to play catchup with this thing. Still on E1M6 of Favillesco.

I'm giving the next month a rest for sure, bit fatigued with it.

EDIT

E1M6 - Atmospheric Processor

An initially very open layout (with optional crawl over nukage; works as a shortcut though) which narrows after the blue key is collected, and becomes more and more linear as the level goes on.

What can I say? Sneaky usage of spectres abound in poor light, and that's about the threat factor summed up. Again, very generous in terms of ammo and health bonuses.

Good-looking map, too. I liked it a bit.

E1M7 - Hardware

Well it sure is Computer Station mkII around here. I remember being super-confused at the layout of this one first time around, but I resolved not to use the automap here; and found that 'wall-hugging' and working clockwise (as one would an oldschool dungeon-crawler RPG) helped me out here.

A good solid level, although the final bit with the nukage was a bit fiddly; any radsuits I found were very far from this area, and seemed pointless.

E1M8 - Io Anomaly

The opening shooting gallery of this stage is so tough to do quickly, and enforces a very cautious approach. Not sure if I entirely dig that. What I do like is the series of 'jump moments' from the appearing-and-teleporting Barons throughout. Although expecting them from last time, one of them still made me leap out of my skin a bit. Nice.

The mid section with the darkness and the spectres (a favoured trick in this wad, it would seem), the actual fight with the barons is a bit of an anticlimax. I don't mind slightly-easy final encounters if they at least feel pretty epic, but this one wasn't.

Exit with type 11 sector, and done.

I think to sum up Favillesco E1, I would just echo the words of scifista42's closing paragraph there. It's good, although a lot of it is tried-tested-and-now-expected, but there's nothing wholly wrong with that.

As a study of Romero's mapping, it works quite well even if the supposed "nonlinear" aspects of E1 are very wildly exaggerated here. I would love to see Nicholas Monti make an E2 and E3 and see what he makes of them; as long as the Tom Hall flatness is kept to a minimum.

Been a good month, guys. Probably see you in the club-after-next (unless we're doing Plutonia 2).

E1M8 Io Anomaly

Okay ending. And throughout the level, barons end up right in front of my freaking face and teleport away. Sometimes if I'm really close to them they attack. First room was a crock of shit if you ask me, just go slowly clearing out the zombieman, imp, sargeant, and demon/spectre closet, then repeat. There was even a secret hallway with a soulsphere, but it's too fucking long for its own good. Two switches later, new area, with "Phobos Anomaly" reference with those melee monsters charging. Plenty of giveaway rockets as well as others from previous levels make this a part a generic breeze. Then we are outside of the infamous star shape, where the barons come out to play. Rather easy, and I managed to snap a three-baron infight going on :)



Ending was obvious, and somehow I used rockets and killed all the monsters before the Type 11 damage told me I was done. Final Time 5 minutes or something.

EDIT: Final Thoughts

Perhaps I was quite harsh with this. Indeed, it's another Knee Deep in the Dead replacement that fits its tee quite nicely. Enemies were quite spread well but the layout in a lot of maps can be confusing. Trying to do no-hit runs for the levels was quite a challenge since these levels fall into the medium/large category. Still don't know how to properly reach E1M9. But I guess after all of this, it oughta be fun to play again.

E1M7 - Hardware

My earlier prediction was right that this would be the largest and most confusing level in the episode. I had quite a hard time finding secrets, and only got 8 out of the 10. Difficult was still nothing too hard, certainly tougher than the last level.

I was really irritated though by the last room with the toxic floor and no radsuits in sight. For having to traverse that much ground, it's impossible to not take damage.

Otherwise, I liked the cavernous feel of the right side of the level with all of the bridges. Nice E1M1 tribute too in the starting area.

E1M8 - Io Anomaly

A nice level, with a bit of an anti-climatic end. Having those barons teleport in my face several times provided a good scare, (mainly for the first pair). The endless doors with enemies was easy enough with a chaingun for the nearby ones and rockets for the far back ones. The secret area I found by chance while searching every cubicle like an OCD maniac.

Second area was the toughest in the level, no doubt due to the low lighting and uncertainty of whether launching rockets will hit an enemy that's right in my face, and blast radius.

The final area was very easy to dodge the barons in, and I don't recall losing any health. When the star opened, I was expecting more and felt a bit let down by a simple corpse strewn hallway and no extra baron surprises. And then there's the usual death exit, as expected.


OVERALL FEELINGS -

This wad, despite some of the issues I had with it, such as too much darkness, too few radsuits when needed most, and an anti-climactic end fight, was fun to play through.

Clearly the author has his own style shine through more than Romero's, who's style is more prominent in areas that pay homage to his original creations.

Out of the two played wads, I unquestionably enjoyed BTSX more, and will continue to play it while anxiously anticipating E2. However, Favillesco was still enjoyable and provided something totally different.

map19
This map definitely gives lie to the claim that every e1 map looks and feels too similar. It may use a similar texture set, but it's very different in layout and playstyle from most of the other maps. Most of the level is outdoors, with only limited use of interiors, and there's a strong sense of openness to the level. Monsters can come from lots of different directions. Fun stuff.

Minor quibbles ...

Some monsters are tough to target without mouselook, just due to the height variation. It never got truly obnoxious, as there were often multiple angles to see an enemy, or you could get up there eventually, but it did happen a bit.

The SSG building, centered on sector 242 -- it's possible to chaingun flying monsters so that they drift through the 2S lines at the corners. I suggest block monster flags on these, if it hasn't already been done (e.g. line 1451).

The ending felt mildly anticlimactic. Maybe crossing line 146 ought to introduce some new monsters around sector 291, to prevent a casual stroll to the exit. But maybe a casual stroll is what you wanted :)

E1M7 -- Hardware - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
I guess that 'Computer Station' must be N. M.'s favorite Knee Deep map, huh? Also guess I can't really hold that against him too much, since it's my favorite from that episode as well, but he sure has made quite the point of paying it tribute over the course of Favillesco. In truth, I didn't really even notice the nod to the Hangar at the start until Pizzabob pointed it out, probably because I was too busy noticing how strongly the opening fight itself resembles that of the original E1M7.

Actually, the issue of homage-heaviness really isn't terribly pronounced here--the most obvious references apart from the starting fight tend to be aimed at pretty minor areas from the original--it's just that the overall theme is quite similar, with an abundance of dimly-lit server clusters and a lot of toxic waste. In some senses this is actually a positive thing, with the much heavier use of darkness and light actions (blinking, flickering, etc.) helping this map to capture an authentic Phobos atmosphere in a way that several of the earlier maps did not. The overall progression and secret scheme are similar to the original as well, I suppose....for example, the nukage pits are pretty obviously the key to the lion's share of the secrets, and so accessing these secrets chiefly hinges on finding ways to get into the pits in the first place.

Unfortunately, apart from the surprisingly violent opening fight, combat has a lot of the same failings that the majority of the rest of the episode has had--a lot of unimaginative placement amounting to a lot of trivial corridor-shooting. Some E1M7 monster placement hallmarks have a token presence, such as monster closets that open in a previous area when a key is taken, but the implementation of these is very halfhearted, spoiling the effect. Of course, to a person still playing Doom in this day and age, there's probably not much practical difference in the overall challenge levels of this map and the original E1M7, but I think there's a crucial distinction in that the monster placement in the original map was intended to be tricky and leave you unsure of when you would be attacked, whereas the placement in this map feels forcibly restrained in order to better fit the overall 'low' difficulty of the original episode.

E1M8 -- Io Anomaly - ??% Kills / 100% Secrets
Now, this I liked. In broad form, it is again a tribute to the general script of the original E1M8, but Monti has introduced a bunch of his own ideas into the proceedings at every stage, helping this to feel quite a bit fresher than many of the more direct homages riddling the previous maps.

There is no time wasted in making an impression on the player with this one, as things open with a brief glimpse of two imposing goat-legged apparitions that roar balefully before dematerializing. This sort of phenomena repeats several more times before the big showdown, giving the last fight some nice buildup and helping to establish that sense of the supernatural or unexpected that is so important in final maps.

Early fights are more substantial here than in the original E1M8. The nature of the opening setup becomes very obvious once the player has taken a few steps; depending on one's temperament, this can either be a very tedious exercise in room-clearing, or a violent (though not particularly dangerous) early spate of bloodletting to start things off, if one is bold enough to dash past the whole corridor of gates. Going with my gut, this is what I did, and things worked out fine, as shotgun and chaingun are found at the end of each run--these, coupled with infighting, are more than enough to dispose of the many monsters that burst from the many holding rooms along the way. The real highlight fight of the map is the specter trap in the foreboding darkened computer terminal, though....some folks think that specters + low visibility = not playing fair/bullshit, but I think it's absolutely the best way to use them, and without either a rocket launcher or chainsaw, they can be surprisingly intimidating in their sheer numbers--they ultimately chased me up the stairs to the master switch (triggering more of the Baron-apparitions along the way!), a point from which I finally had to bite the bullet and try to clear a quick path back down one side so I could get them all coming at me from one direction again. Good stuff, that.

The actual Baron fight, well.....it's slow and easy, and I suppose it's pretty anticlimactic, although I appreciate Monti's attempt to make some kind of credible 'boss' encounter out of the fight by way of denying pistol-starters a rocket launcher, forcing them to make good use of the outdoor barrels and most of the ammo for both the shotgun and chaingun to prevail. There's really too much space (and it's too bright all of a sudden) for this to work really well, but I do appreciate the attempt, as I said...better than just treating the Barons like helpless lambs to the slaughter, anyway.

Anybody else think that the big red thing in the middle of the star should've been the portal to Deimos (uh, I mean, to Callisto, or wherever E2 takes place), instead of the marble slab farther back?

map20
Another good map. It's a bit redundant to say that, by now, probably. This one is much more tricks and traps based, which is definitely a change of pace from the previous map's freneticism. I enjoyed both, though I liked map19 more overall.

Secrets seemed a bit easier to pick in this map than in most; I got to 50%, which is pretty high for me.


map21
I liked the use of liquid areas in this level. I thought they looked pretty good. Even the nukage, which is not a texture I've generally been fond of. I also liked the many areas where you could see into other parts of the level, then later explore them.

BtsX map 21: did not finish, 4 deaths

The first thing I think of about this map is being low on health nearly the entire time. Rarely do I exceed 80% on the attempt where I progressed the farthest. One time, I do reach 97% and it's taken down below 30% within the next two minutes. (The monster placement upon snagging the secret plasma gun is diabolical evil.) Also, the start: 16 shells and a shotgun with 2 alerted revenants, 2 demons, 2 imps, and a trooper on ground level with some more imps on higher elevation. This is on HMP, haven't checked UV. I don't mind goading monsters into infighting though I can easily picture impatient players running out of ammo. Found 3 secrets as well as a suspicious area in the slime that I chose not to check out during a recording due to low health and not a radsuit within reach. I also recalled a larger number of high HP monsters before reaching SSG.

I missed the SSG for a long time in my FDA. Died to archvile and revenant combo near the end. Aesthetic reminds me of some of Eternal Doom's early maps.

Map 22: did not finish, 2 deaths
One death really early, then stopped after the second based on "I don't want to go through that again." Devious traps to be had with some sneakily placed chaingunners for variety. "Nice try" was my reaction to some teleporting Mancubus appearances (though they are well placed, just didn't get in any sneak attacks). Found only one secret.

FDA highlight: Slipped around an ambush Mancubus and used it as a meat shield. Left, right, left while waiting for the hitscanners behind it to inflict some friendly fire.

E1M7 - “Hardware”
I think I made a terrible mistake at the start and chose to go down the route which had no ammo present, ironically this led to a very hectic start which was enjoyable. Then it kind of petered out.
The secrets again were the highlight for me, the corridors were all connected to central nukage areas which gave a more interconnecting feel, but again the layout is big and so opened ended you can get lost from time to time.
My one real death came due to a pinkie sneaking up from behind and I blew myself up.
E1M8 later today.

E1M6: Atmospheric Processor -- 100% kills, 5/9 secrets

I don't recall anything interesting happening in this map. I was secret-hunting most of the time and combat was just a side quest of a sorts in this map. Too bad I didn't even find half of the secrets... The YK area had something resembling a "fight" but that's about it. I suppose you can get lost inside this corridor-maze but thankfully I chose the right path almost every time so my progression was swift in that regard.

E1M7: Hardware -- 100% kills, 8/10 secrets

Wow, the start actually shows some teeth. Too bad the challenge ends before it even really gets started and the rest of the map regresses combat-wise to the same level as every other map in this wad. The map is unsurprisingly corridorey but some of them are walkway style so it feels much more open. Secrets were cool as always, though I'm rather pissed i couldn't find a way to that soulsphere which stares down the player mockingly beside the walkway. Also backpack secret that near the end = super helpful. But eh, this level was alright. Probably my second favorite after E1M9.

E1M8: Io Anomaly -- 91% kills, 1/1 secrets

Well I finally died in this map so automatic bonus points for that. Twice even, first time it was the near-invisible Spectre stampede that surrounded me and the second time it was a sniper Sarge that got me because I had refused to grab the soulsphere without 100% health before unleashing the second set of closet monsters. But I liked it, I thought the map was very good all around until the finale. The finale was sadly a mindnumbingly boring one and the lack of RL for the pistol starters does not make the battle any more difficult when the setting is designed like this. It just makes it tedious as hell.

Final thoughts: Despite not sounding very enthusiastic about these maps in my reviews, I did enjoy playing this and breezed through it eagerly in one evening. Problem is, I don't really see myself enjoying it the second time around since it was the exploratory nature of these maps that kept me interested for the most of the time. It does look and feel like Phobos circa 1993 so I guess the author has succeeded quite well in that regard. The combat, however, is pretty lackluster for the most part but I can understand that this wad isn't exactly designed to appeal a player with my tastes. Glad I played though, provided some different perspective for sure.

E1M8 - “Io Anomaly”
Note - did not finish map
The start was rather punishing, the way it's designed does not work well for playing the map fast. But it is interesting.
The spectre fight was nice, work yourself into a winning position and fire away.
The baron fight was simply dreadful and I quit, seriously why wasn't any consideration taken for pistol starters here, you have to kill the barons which could take forever. :(
I'm sorry but no, I couldn't be bothered to finish this.

Overall
There were some good bits in here and yes there is a lot of romero-esque stuff here, but the layouts are bigger and the space is filled more with corridors and slow and easy gameplay. I am really disappointed because I glanced through this when it was released and it looked really authentic and nice, but in the end this wad is easier and bigger than KDITD and that does not help the wad one bit.
Favourite maps probably E1M9 and E1M7

map22
Yep, it's a solid tech base level. The blue door section is a bit of a waste - you could put the red key where the blue key is, drop the whole blue door section, and lose nothing from the map - but it makes up for it once you're through the red door. Everything after that was a joy, especially the imp swarm trap. Fun! Only question I would have is whether it would be worth putting block monster tags on the cyber's platform so he can't be pushed off?


map23
I think the hub concept finally came into its own here, when it allowed the level to actually expand beyond what we'd seen before.

Capellan said:

Only question I would have is whether it would be worth putting block monster tags on the cyber's platform so he can't be pushed off?

uhhh... maybe? it's a vanilla megawad though, so if you played it right, you wouldn't be able to do it anyways.

dew said:

uhhh... maybe? it's a vanilla megawad though, so if you played it right, you wouldn't be able to do it anyways.

With vanilla, wouldn't not having them cause him to get hung up on the edges and become helpless? That seems just as bad.

Plus, I suspect very few people are playing this in true vanilla compat. In fact, given that I play with infinitely tall actors on, I'm probably closer to vanilla than most :)

Capellan said:

With vanilla, wouldn't not having them cause him to get hung up on the edges and become helpless? That seems just as bad.

i'm not sure if i'm answering what you're asking, but live monsters can't go over edges in vanilla, so you wouldn't be able to freeze him over the edge or knock him down.

Plus, I suspect very few people are playing this in true vanilla compat. In fact, given that I play with infinitely tall actors on, I'm probably closer to vanilla than most :)

i understand, but choosing to implement a non-vanilla fix in this particular scenario would be so random... you have to understand you missed a huge number of situations where this same thing could've happened, but it just didn't, because of luck. i'm actually interested if you could provide me with examples of wads that do treat this matter, because i can't think of any.

The Cyber walks along the raised bridges and chases after the player if you don't/can't kill him at his turret position; block monster lines would sacrifice that. Also what Dew said.

Overall assessment of Favillesco E1:

Well, as I said about the mapset's E1M1, it's far from the worst KDiTD tribute I've played, but also far from the best. Like many mapsets in this genre, it has an entertaining exploratory aspect, where the true reward often lies in unraveling the many secrets and interconnections of the layouts. However, also like many mapsets in this genre, it suffers from extremely trivial and repetitive combat, further hampered by the fact that the majority of its more substantial battles (and there are a handful) are clear tributes or bits of IWAD E1 fanservice. Some might take the tack that easy, simplistic combat of this type is necessary in order to authentically emulate the feel of Phobos, but I would argue that this is a good example of missing the forest for the trees....sure, Knee Deep in the Dead is fairly easy even by the standards of its own time, but by the standards of said time it also has more than a few dick moves, and was made in such a way that its action came in pulses, establishing a sort of quiet-time/killing-time dynamic. It also is rife with situations where monsters from distant parts of the levels can theoretically wander in your direction, perhaps getting in a surprise hit and gradually chipping away at the player.

The point is that while KDiTD is quite easy, it at least encourages you to take it somewhat seriously. Favillesco (and any number of other 'Classic-style' E1 replacements) does not encourage you to take it seriously, at least where its combat is concerned...it's a long corridor safari, with occasional IWAD callback setpiece. Yes, you end up as quite the unstoppable killing machine, just like you do in KDiTD, but here it's not as satisfying because it feels like you're just blasting targets that have been lined up and chained down. This WAD captures the 'easy' aspect of KDiTD, sure enough, but beyond that it's pretty much a case of 'sounds the notes, loses the music.'

Monti does occasionally break from the E1 play-by-play textbook to show us some of his own unusual ideas, and this is generally where the WAD is at its best. I reckon it's generally true that the best KDiTD replacements are those that treat the original episode as more of a general, overarching thematic template to work with rather than as a step-by-step/paint-by-numbers instructional treatise that must be closely followed in order to ensure maximum authenticity. To give an example of a WAD that the DWMC has played, one need look no further than RottKing & Ralphis' 'Double Impact'--aesthetically/thematically it is undeniably Phobosian, and is broadly similar in that its maps are non-linear, secret-laden, and staffed chiefly by smallfry, but it differs from the original in so many important ways (e.g. the sheer volume that some of the aforesaid smallfry sometimes appear in, the vastness of some of its layouts, etc.) that it is easily able to establish its own unique identity and to stand on its own merits, rather than simply hinging its whole identity and sense of worth on being a paean to a classic. Favillesco shows that potential in some ways--Monti's own apparent style (esp. where architecture is concerned) remains distinct from Romero's style, despite his avowed attempt at a close emulation of it--but often loses itself in a sea of IWAD homages and very neutered combat scenarios.

So, it does have some merits, although I think it hesitates and underachieves far too often in far too many areas of consideration. Hey, it's still a lot more entertaining than Fava Beans, at least! Given the somewhat more freeform nature of The Shores of Hell and Inferno (read: Sandyism), I would like to see what Monti can do with those themes....perhaps he can break out and do his own thing a little more.

Edit: I felt that E1M6 and E1M8 were the best maps the episode had to offer.

dew said:

i'm actually interested if you could provide me with examples of wads that do treat this matter, because i can't think of any.

That are specifically "vanilla", or just in general? Because cchest4 does it. I'm sure many other boom-intended wads do it too. It's not something that's necessarily obvious in play though, because the effects are fairly invisible.

There is actually at least one platform with impassable 2S lines in btsx_e1, but it has midbars on it just justify the impassability, so you can argue it doesn't count :)

Ultimately though, it's just a suggestion. If you guys don't mind that people using ports can knock the cyber off the platform, that's cool. It's not like you can stop them using mouselook or setting non-infinitely tall actors, after all, and those are far more egregious breaches of vanilla gameplay.


map24
Liked this up to getting the red key. The waves of monsters in the arena felt a bit uninspired, and I didn't much care for it: felt like busy work. Once through the blue door, I did like the way the ending "opened up". I ignored most of the monsters and just ran for the switches and then the exit. An okay map, but not the strongest of endings, I thought.

I think my favorite E1 authentic pwad is still possibly CH Retro. There are honorable mentions though, like DTWID and NMD. But CH always seems to get it right (as an author).

Final Thoughts On Favilesco

I tried to finish this in one final continuous blast, and failed, because in E1M7 I had finally found all three keys and had no idea where to go next. I was in a big dark nukage room with a maze of bridges and I was bored silly. So I was outta there.

I’ll have to disagree with the esteemed DoTW, since I think Fava Beans is way more fun than Favilesco. Because the Fava maps are short and the layouts more straightforward, it is much easier to have a relaxing blast through them and admire the scenery, which, IMO, easily beats the scenery in Favilesco. Fava also has that wild height variation for added visual interest. I suppose it can be argued that Favilesco has more stout combat here and there, but that wouldn’t sway me in this case.

It would be wrong to say I didn’t enjoy Favilesco at all. I rather liked both E1M5 and E1M6. I think both would have benefitted from a pistol start. E1M6 had an impressive blinky computer maze with the big Techwall4 angled walls, reminiscent, of course, of the red key trap in Central Processing. This was one of my favorite rooms in the whole mapset, even though it was very dark – 112, in fact.

Darkness was a big problem for me in Favilesco. E1M7 was maybe the biggest disaster in this regard. The vast majority of the map is at 128, which makes it hard to see if you’re playing in GZDoom. I really should have played the end in Risen3D. But this level of darkness, plus the areas at 96 and 80, shows where Monti took things a step too far by comparison to Romero, who lit similar areas at 144. That makes a big difference in how the wall textures and sprites look. Monti also went wild with blinking lights in this map, to the point where I found it very irritating.

Irritating would be my primary feeling about this mapset. Not fun, just irritating, with its mazes of corridors and sneaky little side hallways again and again and again. A potential problem with one-author mapsets is that if the authors have any annoying quirks, you’ll see them over and over. So it was in this case. Monti went to the same well far too often. How many corridor mazes can you have in a mapset? How many unpleasant Blursphere secrets? How many blinky computer mazes? Alas, at least on the evidence provided here, Monti seems to be a maze-oriented mapper, which tends to be a buzzkill for me. So, disagreeing once again with DoTW, I’d say that it’s precisely where Monti was most himself that the maps fell flat for yours truly. This leads me to agree with a different point raised by DoTW, which is that these maps really aren’t much like KDITD. They are way too big, with far too obtuse progression in nearly every map, typically with a lot of backtracking. I groaned in E1M6 when I got a blue key next to the yellow door. Spare me the backtracking that will inevitably come.

All that said, I really did like E1M9, and E1M4, E1M5 and E1M6 had their moments, too.

E1M6-E1M8:

Woops! Sorry, we missed the train! Here's Where's All the Data?'s belated streamthrough of Favillesco. Split into two parts, because Australia.

Part 1 = http://www.twitch.tv/st_alfonzo/c/2859140
Part 2 = http://www.twitch.tv/st_alfonzo/c/2859171

Just finished Favillesco stuff. I liked it overall, good E1 experience. But there's one thing that needs to be said.

Thou shalt not rely on teleporter traps (that much) with vanilla Doom's broken save system. Yes, E1M8. At least make the closets connected to the battle area in some way, so the player could invoke the enemies with an attack sound.

Probably not the best place for this kind of feedback, but whatever.

Well, I got almost half way through BTSX and although I didn't have enough time to keep up with the club but I enjoyed a lot of what I played and I'll come back to it again some time. Maybe when it has got a proper release.

I did complete all of Favillesco E1, since the maps were easy and quick to get through. It was a nice KDITD recreation with a lot of good secrets, exploration and a classic feel. I hope he keeps all this for the next episode but loses some of the homages and imposes more of his own ideas on the work.

I hope I get to play some Kama Sutra but I'll need to employ a low difficulty to get anywhere near finishing it judging by it's reputation.

Wrapping up BtsX impressions

Map 23: Wanted to give a quick shout out to how the map tells its story without outside exposition. Builds up for what's to come.

Map 24: did not finish, 8 deaths
Only made to SSG 3 out of the 8 attempts. Sometimes, I just became drawn to imp fireballs like some kind of magnet and lowly troopers had sniper rifle accuracy. The intensity is definitely in place with heavy resistance early on. The mass of teleporting imps is choreographed well. The second time I made it that far, they didn't have the element of surprise. Right as it thinned out where I stood guard, I advanced to knock some more off, and returned to a few stragglers teleporting in at point blank. Great work. Eventually triggered the lone secret.
Visually, the catwalk stood out to me. I was expecting combat there and how it was implemented works well. Cacodemons coming from the horizon would be interesting thematically but not really suited towards gameplay. The red key cavern is another visual centerpiece and the item placement gives an ominous feel.
Demo derps: Taking on two Mancubi in the open when there is cover nearby. Also, there's getting cornered by cacodemons in the 8th death.