Hellcore

uneven is pretty much the word that perfectly describes the 32-map megawad known as Hellcore. it's far from the Hellcore 2.0 that most people are familiar with. that one has all the good detailed maps of this one plus a few new levels and all of them are very realistically designed and properly play well too. but if you were to look at this one, it's got quite the weird history that explains the overall unevenness. between many well-designed levels are those that fit right in the 90s aspect of things. the gameplay of many maps is also quite uneven, as you can probably see right from the first level (which was one of the stayovers for 2.0, with new areas added there). there's a part with barons of hell that come out, and by then you have only small weapons unless you get the secrets, such as the rocket launcher one. other maps will likely throw teleport ambushes around (although the closets are often poorly constructed leaving loads of stragglers) or arch-viles in very inconvenient locations. plus some level designs and layouts are just awful to look and play with. the worst offender is probably MAP17, a huge cargo area plus lots of bridges, backtracking, and arch-viles and not a moment of it is fun. MAP18 follows it and it's a surprise by Vorpal but it blows up and throws a full slaughtermap at players, where no one could really expect that. MAP28 is probably the most broken map overall, and I'll document this phenomena on the wiki when I get the chance.

 

basically this is a rather curious megawad. nowhere is it amazing apart from the maps that end up in Hellcore 2.0, and the rest seem just plain at the very best.

Even unfinished it's a very good megawad. MAP 11, 12, 15, 18 and 26 are my favorites. But a few are really bad: MAP 10 and MAP 25 are very confusing and heavy puzzle oriented. MAP 22 is broken because the majority of monster didn't teleport. And finally MAP 28 is also broken because the teleport needed to proceed doesn't work. Overall, worth a download and play.
 

Map15 from Chris Hansen and at least one Brad Spencer map are definitely good (and not in the 2.0). Is that worth 23mb, more your decision than mine.

Well, when you swim through all the crap, you can deffinitely extract out a good deal of cool levels, I wish they finnished it as I thought HC 2 was quite dissapointing (esp. gameplay). Unfortunately, this one is a mess, you'll see every design style, from 1995 to 2004, so it pretty much looks like a time-shifting frankenstein stiched together, a shame. It also crashed on prboom, gzdoom, doomsday, legacy, I couldn't find a port which would play all the levels. 3 stars for effort.

NINE YEARS!? So that's how this megawad won the Mordeth Award. I had been waiting for this but the crap maps that are in this wad (though I agree with the reviewers who said that this megawad has some great-ass maps in the such as my favorite: Map 29) but still, there should be a re-release without the crap maps and at least make it a ZDoom edition. A good megawad that won the Mordeth Award, it could've been better IMHO -dljosef

WHY? WHY NOT FINNISH THIS? It could've been a classic MW alongside requiem, eternall doom, alien vendetta and all others, if it were finnished, yes I know about HC 2.0, but that was to much of architecture, to little fun, this one however, would've been..., it could've been..., duh nevermind 3/5 so so sorry...

Abandoned on halfway stuff. Except of few "amazing" visuals nothing good here. Don't worth playing because of bugs and boring (or unbalanced) gameplay. Overrated.

Uneven megawad, but there are some real gems in there. 4/5. //Erik Alm

My opinion to anyone trying to make megawads....First start with 6 or 7 targeted maps and add the effort into it. Then if more ideas come to mind, make more. Otherwise things will go wrong. Like for instance, team members lose interest because the project took too long to make and\or some maps get half assed.

Kind of a messy collection, but you can't miss Chris's Map15.....

pretty good. but meh. you should have added the zdoom bonus level (that dark prison)in 2.0. it's a sick level. 5/5 for it's classical legend.

Some very godly maps. But the authors should fix bugs and finish many maps before releasing such megawad. If you can wait 10+ years building it you can spare 10 hours fixing it. If this wad got a final release have very nice chances of being the wad of the year. The paragraph "I just want to get this damn thing off my comp" sucks robert. Anyway 4/5

good, but i t is a problem in map 5, you needs lines to execute this wads 4/5

This wad does have a lot of outdated levels, some good stuff thrown in with it though. I'm glad they made the second one to replace this, although this one's gameplay is still pretty fun, most of the time atleast. 5/5 - for legendariness

Hey you all buddies never reading the text files: "A lot of unfinished maps, but it should be fully playable... Ugly or not." Thousands of Thanks to this crew for such a work, done for free, just for the pleasure to share... 5 stars. -Jive (Feb. 17, 2005)

Some very meh maps, some good, some great, some revies in HC20. A mixed bag, but play at least 15 and 18. 5/5 for those maps and some other good ones, it clearly states it's unfinished so I can forgive as it is better than most unfinished stuff out there. But play HC20 for the maps in here that are revised there.

Even if the WAD is remotely ridiculous, you can NEVER give it 0 stars. The author(s) have done their best! Seriously, even though some of the levels are SERIOUSLY outdated, it doesn't mean this collection wouldn't be enjoyable! Hellcore has been "in production" for about as long as I can remember and hats off for the guys who made us busy for a couple of weeks. That's right. Anyone completing this under two weeks, reply here. YOU WON'T. Great job, guys! The wait was worth it!

I love Hellcore, but at the same time I wished it could be finished in all its glory. First the bad: some maps not up to standards. The good: many maps are jaw-droppingly excellent. The ugly: Map05 crashes. 4 stars for the unforgettable levels. -Huy

I'm sure even the old '94 maps were good for their time... But there's mainly a handful of amazing levels, all of which I see were redone and are in the 2.0 version, I'd probably just download that one instead. Still a nice job by the team though.

OMFG!!! I just finished this WAD yesterday and it's fucking funny! 9 YEARS!!! I have experienced the most atmospheric, nicely shadowed and detailed WADs ever in my doom life (idclev32 is OMG, scared me more than Doom 3, esp when I was wearing the headphones, with closed lights, music stopped for a while and.. Arghh!!! Shit out of my nose and stuff!!!!!!!) among with the crappiest ever! It's really funny to enjoy the really scary and well detailed level 29 and then experience 30!!! LOL!!!!!!!

Wish they finished this, a bugless version.

OMG FINISH MAP32, It's the scariest level I've ever seen!!!

3 stars. Too many bugs, and too many clunkers for it to get an overall rating of 4 stars. Includes some excellent maps though.

What a shame!This could truly be one of the best megawads out there,if only someone would finish it.By that I mean fully playable on at least one source port(I got various crashes on various ports).And if someone would care to retexture a few levels,replace the unacceptable map30 and finish the map32(prettiest map,but has no monsters or exit!?!).There's so little work left,yet the errors ruin it.I know it's easy for me to say but really i have to repeat:what a shame.A 4 the effort,but it should be a 5/5.

It's quite depressing how most of the authors just rant about how their maps suck.