Monster Hunter Ltd (Part II)

Part twoooooooo!

 

First off, positives: very much a fan of the direct lead-on from the previous part ("Look at what those bastards did to my TV!") and the ensuing battle is pleasantly dynamic in its construction, both in terms of monsters and actual architecture. Apparently Monster Hunter was originally concepted as a single map and had to be split later on, but I still enjoy the usage of familiar space regardless and it's easily the high point.

 

Unfortunately it's a high point at the start of the map and the rest of the map never quite reaches the same heights. The cityscape that you see at the end of Part 1 feels under-utilized and I was constantly expecting a grueling battle that never really came for most of the remainder of the map: no enemies on the waterfront, nor the damaged courtyard past the blue key door. There's some good combat around the blue key but it's all very survivable and the handful of enemies on the way to the final area are really not that threatening.

 

As for that final area...resounding "ehhhh". There's a couple of tiers of middling difficulty combat and then a ROCKRED edifice full of enemies that you can methodically take down one by one, either from a distance or by progressing to the top. There's a Revenant ambush, but it quickly falls prey to the design of the area and you can pick them off with little difficulty. Grab the red key, go back up, open the box (door?) and there's the exit: no Doomcute this time, just an ordinary Doom 2 switch.

 

The last feature I'd like to harp on about is...well, there's this weird windstorm tornado thing. You find it before the final area and it moves very slowly towards you, dealing damage if you touch it. I recall there being others like it in an enclosed part of the map and for the life of me I have no idea why it exists: it's too slow to be a credible threat and it isn't used in any particularly compelling way. If it's there simply as decoration that just happens to hurt you...well, that's just a little disappointing.

 

This last bit is just speculation on my part, but I feel like Didy ran out of steam by the end of this project: when you take the project as a whole it becomes obvious exactly how much work went into realizing it and - if indeed this is the case - I can't blame them for running dry on the ol' creative juices just before they put the cherry on top. That being said, I did still have fun with Monster Hunter overall and it's possible that I'd have been kinder to Part II if it was indeed incorporated into its other half as the author intended.

 

Eh, who can say. It's still a good piece of map and I'd be fine recommending it...after Part 1, of course. :P

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Nice design effort with the most ugly textures possible. Didn't like the gameplay 'flow' at all, but it's not terrible. Certainly not 5/5 material for me.

lol at that tornado thing. this is a very good map that evokes killer atmosphere. but I did get lost in it though.

Oh,man! is THIS ever beautiful!

Part 1 was little bit better, but this was one is also great and deserves the Cacoward as well. The layout is not that confusing this time and it could be advantage for most of players. 5/5 - Damned

Gostei joguem

An example of how to get a Doom wad absolutely spot on. Virtually flawless.

Amazing map. Just loved it from start till the end! 5 stars from me!

Amazing map. Just loved it from start till the end! 5 stars from me!

Fantastic, indeed maybe even better than the first part. Some minor complaints: the music is maybe too dramatic for the relatively quiet gameplay (but I liked it anyway), you can get stuck by jumping behind the linedef 5954 (but I guess it's pretty stupid to jump there), the ending is a bit too simple (unless there will be more parts?). Apart from that I loved it, it was great to see something new by Didy.

very good Level

Even better than the first in the series, this is everything a Doom wad should be. Atmospheric, beautiful, coherent but varied design, and well-balanced gameplay that keeps the player on his toes the whole time without using hoards of monsters or luck-based situations. A must-play. Experienced Doomers should be able to exit on UV at their first attempt if they play carefully.

My only (extremely minor, and not even pertinent to this map's quality) critique is that it would make more sense IMO to be updating one wad as more 'parts' are finished rather than doing separate releases. On the other hand, maybe there's a reason to keep them separate. Whatever the case, didy's return has indeed shown his skills haven't diminished in the least!

this is excellent. i did enjoy the first one a wee bit more and felt it had more going for it, but this was still fantastic. looking forward to another outing with the monster hunter

Played with ZDoom @ UV. Good map layout, very well detailed. Excellent use of new textures makes stunning ambiance (2560x1440!). Burning trees :-), tornado monster is fantastic! Gameplay: very good with mostly smart monster placement. Cons: ihmo last fight does not match rest of the map, some empty areas, might benefit from more monsters (too easy @ UV). Overall: 4.5/5 + 0.5 for the tornado = 5/5. Thanks for sharing.

Even better design and gameplay than the first. What more could you want? Just play it now! 5/5. -TRRobin

works for me.i like it fine.

That was a hard town. There were some need to jump to get to places, some holes to cover. Liked the beginning, it's like I gotta fight and stuff. The industrial blue key sector was not too exciting. I got to say that the general industrial fights from the rooftop and stuck areas looks cool. The elevator trap was okay. The end was quite cool b/c all the wall ambushers were making covers necessary. Remember to lay off the lag (custom textures are not necessary)! ~3/5

First-class map, actually liked it even more than first one.

Very nicely detailed and fun to play!

Just finished both Monster Hunter maps and holy **** they were real treat. Great map layouts and design (I often get bored or lost in maps of this size, however these two were joy to explore) great visuals & atmosphere (imo they look VERY Build Engine-y), great gameplay (as I said they don't get boring, even tho number of monster is much smaller than I expected). Only flaws? Well, there are only two of these maps and it will probably take some time until Didy releases another new map.