The Black Widow

One of the earliest community projects to be compiled, Community Chest is a 32-map joint effort from many mappers in 2003. The rules: use only stock textures. The sky is the only limit. (Ok, or Boom's engine limits)   This WAD is a good time capsule to be reminded of what the Doom community was cooking in the time, but for many, including myself, it will not be a good Doom experience. These maps have not aged gracefully for the most part and favor long, sprawling and obtuse switch hunts where the goal is figuring out what exactly the author of the map wants you to do. With a few exceptions, the combat doesn't pop in a satisfying way and when it brings up the heat, it oftens does in an unfair manner.   The number one negative of this WAD is that maps are often way too long and outlast their welcome. It feels as if many mappers wanted to deliver their magnum opus and go for the giant, epic level with many different paths and things to do, but sadly, these levels do not know when to quit and they progressively get more and more aggravating. Use3D (Maps 12, 13), Kaiser (Maps 10, 15, 26) and Sphagne (Maps 21, 23, 27) are likely the prime offenders of this rule, the latter of which also loves to include extreme resource depravation to the mix to make the proceedings even longer than they need to be.    Unfortunately, not even the smaller maps can lift the WAD above mediocrity for a single reason: a lot of the smaller maps fail to leave any kind of impression to the player, as they are a little too by the numbers and forgettable. Most of Bad Bob's output feels interchangeable (Maps 4, 8, 9), I can't remember anything about Alex Parsons' levels apart from them being short (Maps 3, 11) and Gene Bird's maps, while mostly inoffensive, look outright primitive even for 2003 (Maps 7, 32, 19, 28). This would be forgiven if the levels had good action, but the encounter design mostly feel random and scattershot, killing any chance they will stick in your memory for a good reason.   Sometimes, the WAD decides to get a little more quirky and maps decide to do their own thing. This leads to either successful moments or disaster. Ultimate Doomer's map 1 might be the single worst way to start a megawad, leading you on a mostly pistol-only journey where one will be expected to pistol cacodemons and mancubi to death. In Map 20, the purpose of invading a demon base to plant a bomb and escape in 2 minutes is very tantalizing, but Ultimate Doomer's random use of voodoo dolls standing around the base partially ruin what could have been a great level. Metabolist offers the finest slice of action in the whole WAD, filling up a micro-map with no less than a demon army. (Map 14) The proceedings only take about 3 minutes, but the carnage leaves you refreshed. Archvile46 offers the most explosive map opening in the WAD (Map 25), but the infinitely tall monsters make this first fight utterly miserable to get your footing on, all while having minimal weaponry and ammo. Elsewhere, Thomas van der Velden goes for a more charming approach, with a laid back romp through a quaint and nicely decored police station (Map 2) and a cordial Icon of Sin fight with a cute gimmick (Map 30). Magikal (RIP) serves us Map 6, which is more of a "puzzle" map. However, the solution to most of the "puzzles" revolves around pushing everything until something happens, then find out what happened.   Speaking of Magikal, we now have to adress the elephant in the room: Map 29 - Citadel At The Edge of Eternity.   Many maps in CC1 try to be a magnum opus and fail miserably. However, this map is 100% deserving of the moniker; this is a painstakingly crafted level which is gargatuan, breathtaking, and also completely infuriating. No part of Citadel is obvious or easy; you're thrown in a world where most of Doom's rules don't apply. Anything can be a switch leading toward the next step and the encounters are brutal, especially on a pistol start. The citadel and the outer mountains are full of monsters who will constantly hound you no matter where you are outside. Revenants hide inside guard towers spread all over the citadel. Highlights of the map involve: a giant tunnel with stealthy chaingunner hideouts, a daring strafe-run sequence where you must run amok the entire side rempart, the agonizingly slow elevator puzzle room and the impressive, yet buggy 3D bridges that spiral upon themselves. The most impressive combat showcase happens once you use the red key: you're set upon the bottom of a massive fortress rempart filled with countless hitscanners while sideways cages of hell knights and revenants pelt you with projectiles. It's like fighting a major war all on your own and even if you had super weapons (which you won't have on a pistol start) they'd be useless against the fortifications the demons have set. Progress in this map is often glacial, with you having to give your all to gain every inch and it'll often come to a complete halt as you're stuck figuring out what the next step is. Like in Map 6, Magikal has many diabolical "puzzles" that will leave you scratch your head pondering how would anyone find this naturally. It took me almost 4 hours to beat this map on my first try on UV difficulty, with gratuitous saving and reloading. By the time I was done, I was tired, exhausted and filled with a certain form of impotent nerd rage as I was pondering what the hell I just played. I can't help but be amazed at what Magikal accomplished, as this map is definitely a one of a kind that no one has come close to match in terms of overall scope (Eviternity 2's MAP 36 might be the closest sibling this map has). On the other, I didn't enjoy playing most of this map and I can't imagine anyone will enjoy it either.   So in the end, many of CC's maps are unecessarily bloated, some are featureless and in this 32-map pack, I can say I liked about 6 maps in total. Many of these maps have a certain hustle that warrant respect, but respect doesn't always translate to fun gameplay. If you like your maps to be on the exploratory side, you will likely find something to like in this map pack as many maps fill this bill. But the action in this WAD is either turgid or way overclocked for the common Doom player. Approach at your own risk.

Simply put, masterpiece.

This wad is different from any other mapset you'll play. some maps are very good with gimmicks and creativity you won't find in other mapsets.. other mapsets are  the most annoying puzzle hunts in gigantic maps you'll ever see as well. actually the bigger maps were usually easier to finish quickly than smaller ones, the small ones were usually padded to high heaven with stupid progression, keys and annoying as hell build the stairs switch hunts. If you want to play it I highly recommend just using a guide or cheat using doom builder as the dumbest puzzles in this wad are usually switches you don't even know exist (like an x on a random wall on a gigantic castle to continue).   I didn't play this mapset to the end either, the last third of this mapset is very annoying and I only enjoyed like 2 of those maps before quitting on that almightly annoying map26 which goes on and on and when you think you finally found the exit it takes you to a trip in time to what seems like a re-imagination of the most annoying map in Enigma (I don't hate Flynn's maps, actually I like his master levels and a lot of maps in engima).   Sadly I didn't get to experience the legendary reputations of map27 and 30 but I don't think I want to even try.   Note: This isn't the first time I played the first half of this mapset, previously it was in multiplayer and it was still very annoying to play and most players gave up in the last third of this as well.

It may not have that "id essence" the original DTWID has, but it has a level of abstractness that I really like. Kind of like a 1994 wad, but miles more polished. This is not "below amateurish". RIP phobosdeimos1.

What a cute small level, a little relic from 30 years ago! This map is not perfect, i know, but it's a fun small map (except for the asshole-ish secret spider placement) with many new graphics and a silly jazz tune that i heard already but i don't remember the title. There's a Doom 2 version of this map? I remember the greetings graffiti at the end of this map used elsewhere, It was such a nice touch that i did the same thing in one of my early maps (We Are 183 iirc)