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Resurgence (final version)

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Resurgence is a 32 maps megawad project, an upgrade from the unfinished Surge project. The maps are similar to Speed of Doom, ranging from Scythe/Plutonia-like maps to Speed of Doom to Resurgence-unique. The difficulty is considerably less in places but there are several challenging maps to plow through with the occasional slaughtermaps. (For those who don't like slaughter, avoid Map11,25,27,28,30) Sizes vary greatly (for the sake of variety), ranging from quick paced maps lasting 5 minutes to a long grind that could last even an hour. The project took about a year to complete. Surge was originally a month, and Resurgence took 7 months of non-stop work, 5 months hiatus and then a month of intensive sessions. The Surge maps that has not been heavily modified are Map05,13,14. Although not everyone will like all maps, hopefully this megawad offers several things that can be appreciated and also offers fun and challenges (I am looking at you demo-recording speed- runners...).


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PsychEyeball

· Edited by PsychEyeball

  

Resurgence is a spiritual sequel to Speed of Doom, this time led by Josh Sealy almost exclusively: Darkwave0000 will only appear to take the MAP32 slot this time around. Most of the maps in this project are remade versions of an unfinished WAD named Surge, whose mission statement was hot level starts forcing the player to go deep into the level to get the supplies they need to start fighting back the opposition. While Resurgence features plently of that, it also isn't afraid to pursue new ventures and go off-script every once in a while. I'll admit it right here: I was not the biggest fan of Josh Sealy's work in Speed of Doom as I found a lot of his work to be shaped by abject cruelty and a desire to annoy the player as much as possible. However, this WAD sees Josh take a huge leap forward in mapping maturity.

 

Like Speed of Doom, Resurgence is split into episodes and is more or less a continuation of the events in Speed of Doom; you actually start out the action in Hell. You eventually get teleported to an infested moonbase then ride a time spiral vortex thingy to be whisked several hundreds of years in the future. This also means you will be forced to do a few levels with pistol starts, as some levels will kill you in order to escape. As for the looks of the chapter, Josh clearly have picked up a few tricks ever since Speed of Doom: the levels all look gorgeous, with the moonbase levels being the most meticulously crafted. The hell levels also look very good and take inspiration from Scythe 2's hell aesthetics. My least favorite chapter looks-wise would be the future techbase (with the exception of MAP 26 "The Library" which is beyond stunning), but I'll overlook it mainly because it looks a lot like a souped up Plutonia Experiment, whose looks I never enjoyed in the first place.

 

If you disliked the popup monsters from Speed of Doom, you will still have to contend with those in Resurgence, but with far less frequency. However, there's gonna be a few parts here and there where Resurgence will want you dead and there won't be much you can do about it the first time around. Pop up cyberdemons and archviles at point blank range is not a gesture I appreciate. Chaingunners, arachnotrons and mancubi might be the most represented monsters in the WAD, so make sure your dodging and hiding game is up to par. Also, something which will be tested throughout the whole WAD will be your straferunning skills; Josh is fond to make gaps look impassable or impractical to get through and we're talking about jumps that need to be done to finish levels, not only to get secrets!

 

Difficulty-wise, this is a little easier than Speed of Doom but don't come into Resurgence thinking this will be a cakewalk. Even the "puny" Hell episode still has some hot scenarios that will be difficult to tackle; other episodes won't turn the heat much higher but as you advance through the WAD, so do the frequency of slaughter maps. MAP 11 "Twi-Lite Massacre" is the first taste of absolute carnage one gets, but Josh is surprisingly accomodating to the player here. Supplies are over abundant and problematic monsters (Pain Elementals and Arch-viles) are kept to a minimum. It's non-stop feel good carnage in this homage to Darkwave's Twilight Massacre (get it? Josh's map is Twi-lite because it's easier and leaner!). Other highlights of the Hell chapters are MAP 4 "A Fistful of Imps", MAP 7 "Gauntlet", MAP 9 "Scorching Savannah" and MAP 10 "The Courtyard", which features pretty floor pattern to keep your feet safe from the lava.

 

The techbase episode is the most consistent of all 3 episodes difficulty-wise, with the harder levels hidden away in the secret map slots. MAP 12 "Homecoming" has the patented Surge formula with one of the WAD's most explosive beginnings, but the action afterwards is no slouch either. MAP 14 "Hyper-Spelunking" is one big encounter in a cavernous tech facility with a cyberdemon monitoring your progress throughout the whole map. MAP 18 "Excavation Project" mostly eschews the usual template and gives way for the largest and biggest level of the WAD. Josh has a tendency for his maps to feel claustrophobic to the player so it's nice to see him explore new territory. Speaking of exploration, Josh uses the MAP31 slot to attempt to emulate Xaser in the totally bonkers "Festering Wicked Helix Sectors". whose time travel and shapeshifting shenanigans make it instantly memorable. MAP32 has Darkwave0000 try to imitate Josh's Poison Ivy II; the mid-sized overstuffed jungle nightmare becomes a giant slaughter behemoth sprawling with over 2000 monsters and is very reminiscent of his work in the 3 Heures D'Agonie series. I still like this more than Poison Ivy II.

 

The future techbase episode starts with a bang: MAP 21 "Ravages of Time" is a redux of MAP 20 "Waves of Darkness", but set in a troubled future where the base got overgrown with vegetation. Scythe 2's influence comes full circle as Resurgence decides to appropriate itself its custom monsters: the plasma marine and the Afrit. Both monsters thankfully got a nerf: the plasma marine is much, more slower and the Afrit lost about half its HP pool. Combat in this map is much more meandering and meditative, which makes it stand out from the rest. But MAP 22 is there to remind that you're playing Resurgence: "Mount Katoomba" is a gorgeous mountain level with nice sceneries and deadly combat. MAP 24 "Nuclear Winter" takes you back to Speed of Doom's first 5 maps, except Hell froze over. But from here on out, Resurgence plays the slaughter card, so continue no further if the word "slaughter" annoys you. MAP 25 "Technoprison II" has you stage a prison break, except the inmates still hate you more than their captors and results in the densest, craziest fight yet. MAP 27 "Where The Poison Ivies Grow Wild" scales up the Poison Ivy formula to a much bigger battlefield, but expect the journey to be as plodding and glacial as you desperately try to carve some safe space for yourself. MAP 30 "Eternal Redemption" starts out as the most claustrophic map yet, as you attempt to escape a small pyramid only for the fight to spill outside in a giant hurtful lava lake where supplies are not abundant. Depending on how you proceed, you may legit make this level unwinnable so plan carefully.

 

I held back for a while with this WAD because I was left with somewhat a bad taste with Speed of Doom. Maps like Resurrection, Poison Ivy II, Hais Temple and The Ruins of Kalnik gave me a negative opinion of Josh as a mapper. He's not always perfect with Resurgence; I disliked the platforming segment of MAP 3 "The Cavern of Lost Souls" which takes center stage over everything else, a few maps like MAP 5, 16 and 17 don't really stand out in any way, MAP 19 "Quadrilateral Rampage" takes an attempt at a freeform sandbox map but fails in its execution by being too unclear in its intended progression and MAP 29, "The Quiet Before The Storm" is neither a wind-down map or a good action map; it overstays its welcome and goes on for way longer than it should. But otherwise, this map set greatly exceeded my expectations and turned me into a Josh believer. This is a big improvement from Josh's contributions to Speed of Doom and here, he has proven he has the skills, muse and capabilities to make a compelling, must-play megawad. Four and a half stars, rounded down this time, due to issues that keep nagging me.

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seed

· Edited by seed

  

"Nuclear winter."

 

And thus Resurgence endeth, played through GlBoom+ 2.5.1.5 on UV difficulty. A varied and challenging wad for sure from the authors of Speed of Doom, but how does it compare to it, and is it just Speed of Doom worship or is there much more going on? Is there any point in comparing the two? Well let's find out, shall we.

 

Resurgence is a 32-level megawad designed with pistol starts in mind, by the authors of Speed of Doom, focused on fast paced and intense action with skillful enemy usage/placement. It comes with a new background menu, fonts, status bar, intermission screens, music, and enemies, namely Scythe 2's Afrit/Red Baron and Plasma Marine.

 

Resurgence explores various themes, therefore the action does not take place in a single location, or only one theme/motif is present on all levels. It takes place on locations very reminiscent of Plutonia in terms of gameplay and aesthetics, techbases, some of which look fairly futuristic and modern, while others resemble vanilla Doom, Hell, and various places on Earth, even massive libraries. Some maps are set during different seasons, such as winter. Even remakes of Speed of Doom levels are present, MAP24 being one (originally MAP01 in SoD, which is now set during winter).

 

The difficulty curve is interesting. This is because it's not exactly the traditional kind, but it isn't always consistent between levels. It starts easier, but it is not necessary for the following map to be more difficult, often a difficult map seems to be followed by one that is noticeably easier to finish than the previous. It also follows Scythe's pattern with suicide exits at the end of an episode, which also signifies a visible ramp up in difficulty that is noticed immediately in the maps that follow the suicide level. Since comparisons between Resurgence and Speed of Doom are more-or-less inevitable, one key difference between the two lies here. Unlike SoD, Resurgence does not force the player on quite a few occasions to do the maps in one, very specific way, namely punching everything in sight because the ammo is so tight there's no point in struggling to kill enemies with fire weapons, apart from those that actually need to be taken care of. Resurgence has plenty of resources in the levels so the player doesn't feel forced into a particular gameplay style that doesn't work for them. Should they choose not to punch everything in sight on the maps that feature Berserk packs, they can do just that, and vice versa. Another difference is the fact that Resurgence does not rely excessively on monster pop-ins. SoD put some of them to good use, as demonstrated in the open area with the SMMs on MAP01, but those are usually notorious for being cheap ways to kill the player, and rightfully so. When they can't be anticipated because nothing in the area indicates a potential ambush, they claim the lives of unsuspecting victims almost instantly, an encounter should test a player's abilities, and these traps fail to do so, requiring other things instead in order to be avoided or triumphed over, prior knowledge of the maps being the key factor. Otherwise, the gameplay is very varied, with slaughter maps, others that are tight and unforgiving to mistakes and resource mismanagement and similar to vanilla aesthetically, while others not too dissimilar to what is usually seen in wads like Valiant, with environmental traps, crushers, platforming, pretty much everything one can think of, Resurgence has most of them. Some maps are short and straight to the point, while others are long and complex, with plenty of puzzles. Others might seem generous and tame at first glance, only to have a big twist later on. The enemy count goes no higher than close to 1000 on certain slaughter maps, and is usually oscillating between 100-500.

 

Resurgence also features 2 new enemies first introduced in Scythe 2, the previously mentioned Afrit and Plasma Marine. This time, however, the Afrit has less health, and the Plasma Marine is much, much slower than the original which was lightning fast, but also has increased health, therefore they can no longer be killed with one well-placed SSG blast to the face.

 

The music is great and ranges between more peaceful tracks and more action oriented ones, originating from various sources and made by different authors.

 

The final map is a bit of a mixed bag. This is because the beginning area, on a map which features a forced pistol start from a suicide exit, is very tight with low and mid-tier monsters and no powerful weapons to be picked up until the exit of the pyramid is reached, and the outside, final portion is noticeably less difficult where the player can just rely on enemy infighting to get rid of the most dangerous enemies, the big group of Afrits located where the red and blue switches are. There isn't much point in having a MAP30 that is noticeably less difficult than a previous map (MAP29 alone has some very ugly parts for instance), or doesn't try to do anything new. It is also boring visually. A bit of a lackluster finale, but, it also doesn't take much time to finish and it doesn't have overly complicated puzzles or anything of sorts. It features almost 800 enemies, less than a previous level.

 

All things considered, Resurgence ends up as a challenging but high quality megawad. It has lots of variety for just one megawad, both in themes and gameplay, and plenty of fun, with the exception of a few very punishing sections here and there. It could be seen as a spiritual successor to Speed of Doom because some maps do play very similarly, but without its flaws/drawbacks. It is so fundamentally different that it is very much its own thing and is easily able to stand on its own feet. A perfect candidate for players looking for a challenge, and it also features difficulty settings so it can be enjoyed by a wide range of players with different skill levels. My favorite maps are going to be the ones seen in the first half, the slaughter levels, and the library one, and don't dislike or hate any of them. Lo and behold, Speed of Doom has been revived and reinvented, and is better than ever, so pick your guns and move fast, but thoughtfully.

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galileo31dos01

· Edited by galileo31dos01

  

Done with these settings:

 

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 9.

- Hurt Me Plenty.

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

 

After SoD and some other Joshy's random maps here and there, I thought "is this going to be overwhelming too?". The answer is, no. As a matter of fact, the brutal style is there, but the way each map develops their encounters, it's more forgiving than I expected. Of course, the mapset is hard, each map starts with monsters looking at you, where a first sound wakes up the horror. There's a variety of traps and encounters that I happened to like them all. Exceptions might be some fastpop big bads right in your face, or some random teleporting enemies to drain your health in a matter of milliseconds. Like every modern hard wad, archviles and revenants play a big role in very nasty ways. Cybers and Queen spiders were used well too, in general as the typical big thing to worry about in tight situations. I died more against spiders than their higher-HP counterpart, despite them being more frequent. All the other enemies are used in very demanding ways too. Then the two custom enemies, one is the afrit, a flying baron with a deadly attack, problematic in closed spaces, and the plasma marine, another bastard way more tolerable than the ones in Scythe 2, actually, somewhat lovely.

 

Visuals are great, some custom textures here and there, but mostly Plutonia textures painted in beautiful palettes (red is omg). Snow-like levels look so good, and I like how the mapset starts in a hellish environment. Very good secrets, some at the first levels could have been done better, like a visible path after a fake wall, just so you can see what's inside before. Mixed feelings with all the obligatory strafejumping through distant platforms, map 11 start pissed me off a little bit. 

 

My favourite maps are umm, I don't know, I really liked them all in the same level. Map 24 sticks in my mind as it does a great homage to the first three Joshy's SoD maps, with connections that, from my perspective, resemble maps 02 and 04 from Darkwave. Other maps also homage AV and Plutonia pwads of course (also other wads I haven't played yet, according to kmxexii). Map 25 is just amazing. Most slaughter maps are really stressful due to length, map 28 was the most exhausting of all. 

 

So, an excellent wad to practice and improve your reflexes. It's not overwhelming, neither a walk in the park, all enjoyable in my opinion. I'll give this a solid 9/10

 

EDIT: Goddamn I forgot to point out map 19 midi is awesome and the most memorable. Nice music!

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Spectre01

  
Good visuals and nice difficulty curve. Maps vary in quality and a lot of them are red hell and techbase with nukage. Some maps go overboard with the snipers, like 26, and can be quite frustrating. Map 31 is probably the best. 4/5

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Guest

  
What a Crying baby was that anonymous who give 0 stars... what the heck is elitist gameplay? oh! i know! its a shitty excuse.... Anyways this wad is perfect to everyone who wants a hard time, its start in hell which is something kinda fresh since hell is always last. I think the maps aren't as attractive as the Speed of Doom ones but they still look great, Recommended!

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Guest

  
Terrible... slaughter stuff, just make some normal mapset, please. Elitist gameplay all over the place.

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Guest

  
This is simply inspired map making. All the elements are just so balanced and "right". The design and architecture are consistently top-tier with a challenging level of difficulty throughout. It's rarely frustrating because the monsters and ammo placements have a balanced ratio. That's what makes this such a well rounded wad. A MUST PLAY! 5 stars. -TRRobin.

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Guest

  
And here's another legendary megawad everyone has to play through!! MAP22 is a legendary masterpiece for itself. I replayed it several times, only to hear that great midi -track in this awesome map. Also, I will always remember MAP31 and 32! Great stuff! 5/5 -unidenti7ied

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Ex Inferis

  
Great mapset! Have been replaying most of the classics lately, and this pretty much beats them all. Word of warning, though: not for wusses lol!!!

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purist

  
A megawad that's aim is not to let you rest. This means full on action from the start to end where standing still means your death. This is not as exhausting as it may seem as levels are typically kept short and tight. The more slaughtery maps are not so much for me but this is still a go to megawad for run and gunners.

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Flesh420

  
Nice work.

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Guest

  
This is such an awesome wad

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Guest

  
Joshy is the Erik Alm of the 10's. Brilliant stuff.

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Zalewa

  
A damn fine map set up until the last few maps where it gets clusterfucky and tedious. All other maps are fully recommended.

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Guest

  
Truly a blast to play on. Now all we Need is a Darkwave0000 centric megawad with Joshy as a guest mapper and my life would be complete.

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Lingyan203

  
Hard as hell, but amazingly well designed and worth a playthrough! Go download it asap! :)

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Guest

  
too hard

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Guest

  
Pretty good effort but ammunition can be a real problem in latter maps(especially in map 18). It's not as difficult as tarakannik but i always prefer a much relaxed story mode-esque gameplay in megawads. This one is way too hard than it's supposed to be.

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Guest

  
Pretty much another good example of why Joshy is one of my favourite mappers.

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Guest

  
A great wad that turned into a stupid like slaughterfest, still 5 stars.

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scifista42

  
Well designed and polished, great looking maps with entertaining gameplay. Shamely, it gets way too slaughterish and difficult for me in some maps later on. Anyway, 5/5.

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Guest

  
I love how the monsters are distributed, they are very challenging, making piercing attacks very hard to execute. But hell the zombies are used in a very anti-fun way here. It's ok to leave a spectre or lost soul creeping you, to attack you while you are distracted fighting other monsters, but zombies dropping out of nowhere or hidden behind textures is not. The player has to be aware of their presence for a very simple reason: there are no way to dodge their hitscan attacks. 3/5

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Guest

  
Brutal, unforgiving masterpiece. Absolute must-play (unless you're scarred;))

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Guest

  
Masterpiece in every aspect. Almost no flaws.

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paymentplan

  
Stunningly beautiful architecture and blisteringly fast and challenging gameplay throughout. Joshy's ability never falters once. I have no doubt I'll be returning to this masterpiece frequently.

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  • File Reviews

    • By AJT · Posted
      thanks
    • By Li'l devil · Posted
      This wad has the exact same design philosophy as Slaughter Until Death, and thus it's almost as uninteresting to play. The only major difference between TEU and SUD is that TEU has a lot more enemy spam (rooms choke full of enemies of one type). I think TEU also has a bit more interesting looking rooms, but still not much to look at.
    • By Li'l devil · Posted
      Mostly boring. There are very few interesting rooms and fight scenarios, everything else is just unremarkable. But this wad was released just 3 months after the first mapping tools appeared and at the time this was one of the very best. It's a historical artifact that should be studied, but shouldn't be played!
    • By MeriMemesX · Posted
      This was a suffering due to the number of enemies   The level design is not bad, however there are TOO MANY enemies.
    • By MeriMemesX · Posted
      This came out in 1996? Wow, it's decent even today, I like the mapping most of all.   Of course, there are areas that are not secret and are very easy to skip accidentally.
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