Legacy of Heroes

Cool medieval WAD with some puzzles. Hard, but not slaughter. Some annoying invisible walls.

"We will remember them!"

And now, Legacy of Heroes has endeth, played through GZDoom 4.1.3 on UV difficulty. A real nice little medieval/fantasy themed adventure, so what else is here?

LOH is an 11-map wad designed with pistol starts in mind. It takes influence primarily from Eternal Doom and Heretic, with a fantasy/medieval theme. It comes with new sounds, textures, menu background, status bar, intermission screens, music, and one new enemy, the Maulotaur from Heretic. As suggested by its theme, the action takes place mostly inside and outside of caves, medieval buildings, and even villages.

The difficulty curve is the traditional kind, starting easy and the difficulty gradually increases in steps with each map, the difficulty coming primarily from the good use and placement of the enemies as well as a lack of generosity with resources on a few occassions, meaning that if you mismanage your resources, it can be tough to fight your way through. But there are Berserk packs on various maps which can be very useful if you choose to conserve as much ammo as you can. This is further encouraged by the fact that most of the time, the players find themselves facing low and mid tier monsters, with an increased presence of high tier monsters only in the later half of the wad. No monsters are underused or overused, and the enemy count is fairly low, going no higher than 350 in the more combat intense maps, but it's otherwise below the number the majority of time.

The levels are usually well designed, with good navigation and aesthetically very pleasing, full of atmosphere and magic. They also make use of destructible objects that block the progress in places, which can easily fool an unsuspecting player the first time they see such instances, as they tend to assume they might be missing a switch when the answer is right in front of them. Quite literally. There are, however, some issues with the navigation and puzzles in the last few maps. MAP08 for instance has 2 blue keys (1 keycard, and 1 blue skull) for some reason, although the card seems to be the one required for progress. This is because the way to gain access to the room of the keycard is cryptic, or unintuitive. The player needs to cross a certain line outside a building, which reveals a timed switch inside the room leading outside. Without previous knowledge, this part of the map can prove to be troublesome and frustrating. MAP09 also has a bit of a confusing layout which can lead to players running around the map repeatedly without noticing what changed, but this time around, there are clues and indications at least, unlike the blue keycard room on MAP08. Apart from those maps, there are no other major issues going on. The journey ends on MAP10 where 60 enemies are encountered, with 2 bosses from Heretic: Maulotaurs. A fitting conclusion to an epic wad. MAP11 acts as a short "Thanks for Playing" level with no enemies or items.

The music used in LOH is great in itself, however it doesn't fit all the maps and there are some poor choices in places. Most of the music is fantasy themed, which makes it a fitting choice in general, but there are exceptions such as MAP09 which uses a track from Doom 64. It does not fit the mood of the map and fails to conjure up a strong atmosphere, let alone inspire any sort of horror, tension, or dread. It does not work in a clean, bright, and not-so-hostile-looking or oppressive environment.

Regarding enemies, although all vanilla enemies are kept and used, some of them have new textures which do not work at all. The Imp is now dark brown with yellow eyes, but lacks any kind of organic touch, feeling like a paper enemy.

All in all, LOH managed to be a solid, albeit short fantasy themed wad. It has some dick-ish moments every now and then but these instances are very rare, and some frustrating parts on MAP08 and MAP09, but shines in all the other areas. If you're looking for a fantasy themed wad, this is a very good place to start. In fact, I'm surprised that at the time of writing this it has almost 1000 views but only 65 downloads, it deserves more attention. Yours truly would be definitely interested in a sequel. But until then, pick up your sword and march to the battlefield warrior.

picture this, you've played Eternal Doom multiple times, went through all sorts of nice-looking medieval landscapes, and got rather used to the styles used in the Return resource pack. you feel a feeling that you want to play more in terms of Eternal Doom style levels, well, gaspe has you covered with Legacy of Heroes. it's first few levels aren't too long, for granted, but once you hit MAP05, that's when you know. combat is consistent and workable, as is progression at least until you get past MAP05. you'd especially be hard-pressed for several secrets, specifically the BFG ones in MAP08 (the longest one), and MAP09 (one that is easy to get lost in). heck, MAP07 is also easy to get lost in, hence the title. the dual boss at the end may actually be somewhat disappointing, plus there's some parts of progression which may cause an eyeroll, but for the most part legher.wad does provide a decent experience.

This is my 7th favorite overall Wad of all time (thus far).

If you liked Eternal Doom III (the first 12 Maps of it, anyway - it's the only real part of Eternal worth playing), then you'll love this game. Gothic themed, great music. ("He's over here!" LOL!!)

Although only 11-ish Maps long, it's quality farrrrr outweighs the quantity.

My ONLY complaint is that the game should have ended after Map 09 - The Great Library. There's enough battle once you finally get the Blue Key and reach the Great Library to warrant the ending; there's little need for Map 10 and Map 11 isn't really an actual Map.

Fave Map - Map 08 ("Kythraessos") - See if you can locate that Blue Key Card and solve that 6 pillar switch puzzle! Woohooo!

A definite must play with definite replay value.

Well deserved Cacoward. Loved it!

Solid 5 out of 5 Stars

I enjoyed playing this mapset. The visuals are really well done and give a strong medieval/fantasy vibe. I liked the gameplay for the most part except map 05 because of armor shortage. Map 09 is the pinnacle of the wad and my favourite map: great gameplay, visuals, setting, layout, atmosphere and secrets. Good job
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