EPIC 2

Alexander S is an author capable of taking regular Doom gameplay and making it stunning. you can put a number of positive adjectives to describe this mappers mapping style, but what Eternal does is immerse players properly into the settings he provides. it's no wonder that EPIC 2 does excellently as a wad. to give an Egyptian setting, similar to Powerslave and including a few assets from that game, but also giving to the weird puzzle aspect that that game, and basically any Egyptian-themed game, provides. there's even a look into the alienverse by way of the entire second episode.

 

Eternal's style of gameplay will probably turn a few heads. there's not much for slaughter until the later maps, but what you'll notice is the intricate placement of enemies. smaller enemies are always tucked appropriately at the corners, vigil guards ready to pounce. Eternal also values the shock value with teleport ambushes, you're bound to run into some cheap one-time placements of enemies right in front, or in areas you've been to, each and every time. anticipation is a major key factor in survival, and you gotta anticipate it always. when it comes to non-combat, there's definitely a lot of immersion, as I said, there's bound to be some required puzzles in this one, so looking for hidden clues in just about every place is required. this is the kind of thing that made Eternal Doom memorable, and the kind of thing that makes Epic 2 memorable too. there's a few instances of voodoo doll magic in vanilla Doom being used as well here, notable moments include the rising exits in MAP12 and MAP13, which use a barrel to push a voodoo doll to the exit linedef. a few more cases exist where the same barrel is used to push a voodoo doll to telefrag another one, these are used to show areas that are supposed to spell death if you enter them, such as the voids in MAP14 or the red lasers in later maps.

 

level-wise, aside from obvious Egyptian setting games being inspirations as well as a few Aliens-themed places in the second episode, the levels are memorable. although none manage to be in the top 100 most memorable maps, they damn sure come close. Luxor (MAP26), Ammut (MAP27), and Mortuary (MAP29) pay lip service to slaughtermaps, offering bits of exploring in between some nasty combat sections. Ogdoad (MAP28) is a love letter to the classic map Darkdome from Eternal Doom, and Osirion (MAP31) is an ode to the great Misri Halek of Alien Vendetta. The Tower (MAP11) evokes shades of Epic 1's The Citadel, while Mebius (MAP13) gives us a Hunted-style ordeal in a spaceship, fit with health stations. the rest of the maps definitely have shades of cool originality to them, and there's hardly a single dud to find. It's bona fide immersion into something that still is Doom but isn't Doom, yet plays exactly like Doom so it is Doom done differently.

I got nothing to say. I mean, the title speaks for itself.

Great wad, its fun to play it with a lot of people in survival mod, very recommended!

another overated wad map design is maybe great but custom monsters and sounds make the gameplay not that fun 3/5

^Very true, in fact this is one of the only megawads I know of that wasn't specifically designed to support coop but is easily the most fun on survival, better than solo IMO.

All the themes of levels felt samey. This is probably because it's one person making map after map. It doesn't help that there are only two styles (not threee or four like UDoom) of maps. I guess Eternal is the new Slige, judging from the samey blandness of maps and the fact that he's a mapping computer programmed by IBM. Besides, the first epic.wad is hugely better and it has an extremely better tower level. Shame the first didn't have a single alien ship level.

good job! 5/5

Epic 2 is epic. -Dusk

Another excellent piece of work. Not as impressive on any single level as some levels from "Hell Ground" (IMO Hell Ground Map07 in particular has to be in my all time top 5 for Doom maps), but the inclusion of 32 generally high quality levels earns this a 5.

HOLEE SHEET DIS IS AMAZIN LOL I LOOOVE IT

A truly Godlike megaWAD.

This is a good wad for some coop/survival fun. Playing in solo can be a touch more repetitive and perhaps the balance a bit off (tight, though perhaps HMP is better) but the architecture is the usual Eternal standard and I'm glad I went through most of the levels at least once so it gets a four from me. Just don't quite expect a Hell Ground quality experience.