Confinement 512

Playability notes: The mapset appears to have been tested only in ZDoom, so use that (or ZDoom-derived). Pistol starts are recommended.

 

Confinement 512 has a number of fun encounters and difficult matchups, but lacks the refinement to do so over its entire length. Veterans will immediately note some missing textures and odd handling of monsters under the floor, laying bare the inexperience of the mapper during this creation, though it doesn't significantly impact the gameplay. Aside from one or two major stumbling blocks, however, I consider this a good first attempt and it shows considerable thought put into the set's progression.

 

Much like the binary-powered iterations before it, the limitation of this mapset is to only allow the player to move within a 512x512 square, a mere quarter the size of more typical 1024 projects. This tends towards very small arenas  in which fights can take place, but with the right mindset it can be to the mapper's advantage. For example, a map can focus the player into one or two well-designed encounters instead of drawing itself out with numerous mediocre ones. Such appears to be the philosophy behind these maps.

 

The first four of seven maps are quite amusing, with the player bombarded at every turn. Even barons manage to become semi-interesting at such close range! Maneuvering against various enemies is a challenge unto itself, and yet there's still plenty of action through the progression of a map. Skipping a bit, the sixth map is very rough in its start, but with a few attempts you learn how to play along and it ends up an exhilarating choice of combat.

 

The biggest issues here are the fifth and seventh maps, for very different reasons. MAP05 is simply too constrained: there's basically one streamlined approach and it ultimately depends on luck. (I'd like to think it was me simply not learning the level well enough, but it's a really awkward map regardless.) MAP07, on the other hand, tries Dead Simple and, while the first half is actually a decent fight, the teleporting of Arachnotrons is completely trivialized (keep in mind this is ZDoom, and berserk fist is quite manageable against large opponents).

 

It's a small set, and its amateur placements are refreshing under the self-imposed conditions. My recommendation: try to get through it all, but feel free to skip MAP05 if its challenge isn't to your liking.

i was enjoying it up until map05. 0 stars for map05

I can appreciate any WAD where I get skullfucked on the first map on ITYTD.

Didn't think it was bad considering the concept!

Meh.

After 3 steps I felt into some hole and I stuck in there. That was the end of playing this maps for me.

Nah, they're just merely OK, I think 512x512 maps have not enough fun for me...idea not shitty but these maps just not avoidably shitty. Too easy get killed when the way too cramp due so many monsters spawned. Stuck at Map06 because the block sector didn't lower to make the exit switch appears for some reasons, maybe I press both switches too fast? Map05 just sucks ass. 2/5 -playerlin

@first reviewer Bug off, will you? It's been established and dealt with that the review was terribly written (64 lemons), and there is no real reason for you to bring it here to just to whine about it. Because of those few lines, you'll now haunt my every move from now on? Sheesh. Also, every map is completable on UV with 1 life, just like all the 'slaughtermaps' I sucked at. -Acid

don't run under prboom plus because of missing textures should be in the zdoom only part

Funny that the author complains about slaughtermaps, than essentially makes a wad that consists mostly of slaughtermaps. In map 06 for example, you are in a small crevice against a large horde of imps with nothing to defend yourself but a berserk pack. In map 7, you start surrounded by four mancubi, and since they take up so much space there is no cover to get behind.

I just found this annoying to play an uninventive in design. To add insult to injury, it uses flats as textures, textures as flats and non-vanilla line types and sectors, so the "any limit removing" note in the text file about the required engine is wrong.

I like the concept of this, and simillar mapsets of x by x . It's a challenge, i'd give it 5 but this was way too hard and difficulty should of been less

Interesting concept, as I like to see x by x maps. However, the difficulty is questionable, especially in map 5 (the one where you're in a hellish cave), and you're assaulted by a ton of Revenants, a few Knights, a Baron, three Arch-Viles, a Pain Elemental...it's over-the-top. With some polishing, this could turn out to be decent.

It's OK - another take on an established idea, but not the greatest ever. 512 is perhaps too limited already to really put much into these maps; for the most part, they just feel cramped. Whereas the 1024 maps didn't make it obvious that they were of limited size, these very much remind you of the fact at every second. 2.5/5 - ZZ

I really enjoyed this wad, definitely worth playing although no real replay value. Worth a download.