Estranged

Not bad. I played it on UV continuous, and in that format it should produce a very decent challenge for averagely good players. Supposed to be a good example of the 'incidental' style of combat, but there is no shortage of popup ambushes to get you groaning with dismay! Some pretty gruelling levels in the later stages, none more so than MAP30, where the Icon of Sin section took me well over 30 attempts to overcome, and is comparable to the one in Hell Revealed.

Four stars is possibly a touch on the generous side, 3.5 probably nearer the mark.

[edit: just noticed this, will replace with an actual well written review at some point :^)]

Played with UV Difficulty Setting

The Good:

-   Maps come in all degree of sizes ranging from very short to extremely long.

-   Plenty of Health and Armor. Ammo too, for the most part.

-   Good difficulty curve as game progresses.

-   PLENTY of combat (if that's your 'thing').

-   No bugs encountered.

The Bad:

-   Most Maps are either a) Too linear AND / OR 

                                   b) Arena style with somewhat "Slaughterfest" style.

-   Most Maps carry very little-to-no secrets - which is understandable, given the “linear” nature of this WAD. And if you CAN successfully locate the secrets, you’ll find nothing special to reward your effort.

-   BOTH Secret Maps (31 & 32) are absolutely horrible. One has ~20 monsters (and the music will want you to bash your skull with a hammer), while the other has ~900+. One is completely linear, while the other is the total opposite. I’ll leave it to you to find out which is which.

-   Nothing new for music, except for the Secret Level. (And I had no hammer.)

-   Nothing new in architecture. Nothing bland, yet nothing awe-inspiring.

-   VERY little puzzles.

-   Hordes of monsters lunging after you, while you stand there with no BFG and very little Ammo for your Plasma. Rockets only, or run-like-you-stole-it, folks. Should you choose the rockets, beware of the appearing-from-nowhere-and-in-your-face-immediately Specters and Lost Souls. Every Rocket Launcher's nightmare. A great example of this was MAP 20 (The Rift[?]).

-   Monsters appear from nowhere. A lot. And their placements are horrible.

-   Pretty much a Slaughterfest after Map 21.

In Short:

This WAD will definitely keep you on your toes. MAP 15 (The Floating Fortress) is, IMO, the best Map in the game. I spent approximately an hour on this Map looking for the secrets, etc. If ESTRANGED was made of Maps similar to this, I would have given it 5 stars - easily.

If you like Slaughterfests, with minimal puzzles, then download this WAD because this WAD is for you. There is no balance of anything here. Point A to Point B. Same old, same old.

I really tried to like this WAD – and I did (somewhat) up until MAP 16. After that, ESTRANGED goes completely downhill.

Yes, it's true that I am not a fan of "Slaughterfest" style WADS. But I've played many of these styled WADS and enjoyed them. The fact is, there's just too many other reasons in the BAD column for my low rating for this one.  

2 out of 5 Stars

Having come back from a year and a half break away from Doom, this was a great wad to get into the swing of things again. Solid construction which fits the gameplay and some pretty creative situations. A solid sense of world building which doesn't stick to IWAD progression. There is some backtracking for key doors that feels like padding rather than exploration, but it's a good wad with a comfortable challenge.