Cleimos

If you're looking for a pleasantly vintage experience and a good example of some of the earliest Doom community work, Cleimos is a good wad to check out. 

 

One of the most interesting wads from 1994, Cleimos was made by Rand and Steven Phares, a father-son duo who would later go on to create 3 fantastic maps for Icarus: Alien Vanguard. Rand was also a programmer who created number of tools for doom, some of which are packaged with Cleimos, and contributed to the Boom source port.

 

Cleimos is a full E2 replacement for Ultimate Doom, and includes 9 levels, new textures and new graphics.

It has probably the longest story for a wad I've ever seen, which is definitely worth reading before you play, because the greatest strength of Cleimos is its commitment to the narrative.

 

You start in a sort of hub level, and all the levels naturally transition into each other. The levels feature semi-realistic locations and use custom textures to put it into context of the story. There aren't many new textures but they are pretty good quality and serve their purpose very well.  

 

The most interesting aspect of the wad is that while it still suffers from many 1994 design tropes, such as long empty hallways, big mazes, mandatory secrets and inescapable pits, they contrast with unique architecture, fun experimental set pieces and creative use of environmental hazards. Thankfully, the less enjoyable tropes often don't go too far. The mandatory secrets may be annoying but are never really obtuse and the long hallways simply connect to far more interesting areas.

 

Visually, the maps are mostly on par with E2 of Doom. Some of the areas, and the entirety E2M8 are far more detailed, while others, especially in E2M5, much less. Overall, it looks pretty good for 1994, with few exceptions like E2M5, which is just ugly.

 

Gameplay is also on par with original Doom, except for much more emphasis on traps and environmental hazards. Monster encounters aren't very challenging but there are some traps which may catch you off guard. Pistol starting provides better challenge and you aren't likely to run out of ammo, though in some of the later levels, you'll have to be careful since the weapons aren't given to you at the start, so you'll have to maneuver around some opposition before being able to kill them.  

 

My fist playthrough on UV with pistol starts took around 1.5 hour, and it was mostly enjoyable experience. If you prefer modern, Ancient Aliens-tier wads, you probably won't enjoy this, but if you like classic 90's wads on par with original Doom, Cleimos should be a lot of fun.  

Nice 1994 wad

Really good Episode for Ultimate Doom.

 

The maps are puzzle-ish and maze-ish and cramped, also sometimes tight on ammo.

But the layouts are really fun and entertaining. Maybe adjusting sector light could have been better, but anyway, this is a good mapset with neat details and a good story, too.

I played this episode along this dehacked patch, that comes really handy to know what is happening at the end.

 

I hope Cleimos 2, the conclusion to this story, follows the same entertaining approach like this one.

Thanks Rand & Steven Phares for this complete episode for U.Doom

For an old WAD - I dunno, it's worse than Doom 1, but it's not outright terrible even nowadays. There's lots of "Sierra adventure game" stuff going on with switches that you don't know what they do or with sectors vital for progression being marked as secrets. Visuals are valid and combat is mostly non-tedious.

I don't understand the good ratings. There are far better packs made in '94. These authors did everything you should NOT do when creating levels. There are at least a hundred instant death traps and inescapable pits that kill you with no warning. Secret areas are MANDATORY in order to complete some levels. 75% of this consists of annoying mazes. Architecture is mostly bad. Game play is unbalanced. I barely got through this thing without quitting. Awful pack. 1/5.

A legendary WAD, and I think it should be credited for introducing the "hub" gameplay concept in DOOM, even though it was implemented within the limits of the original doom exe. I never finished it properly, I think I will do so right now though. 4/5 -Maes

I'm more sceptical. This is technically very good for the period, and it's nice to see one of these old, ambitious episode replacements. But the gameplay is variable. L1 is solid, with a range of different styles. L2 is a tedious, copy-and-paste level. L3 and L4 are terrible, with lots of silly puzzles. L4 has a nice "reactor core". L5 and L6 are dull. L7 and the secret level are fantastic, with large-scale fights. L8 is a visual feast, with nice shading and some attractive polyobjects.

Legendary. Proof that '94 wadmakers only had DOOM in mind when designing levels, not Quake/HL/whatever modern shit, so what was good was really GOOD, well planned, just as the originals. WHY HASN'T THIS WAD BEEN PLACED IN THE '10 BEST LEVELS OF 1994' DW LIST??

A true classic. Design is astoundingly good for the time period, and is capable of standing up against other WADs for years to come. Suffers a bit from "realistic location syndrome", and experiments with gameplay features uncommon to maps even now. Play this. 4/5 -jj

An absolute classic! This was one of the first big wads i'd ever played, and boy it was a blast back then. Nowadays it probably holds up questionably but don't think you can deny that the maps a fun to play. Although, you might want to just play Cleimos 2 instead. 5/5