The Talosian Incident - A Requiem For Doom

Some cool mystery maps, beautiful lighting, and you know something's up. What wins is the music.

This wad didn't age well. It's too simple, too easy (easier than vanilla) and pretty boring by today's standards. However, some of the latter levels are quite fun and the boss level is interesting.
Mod compatibility: Fully compatible with Brutal Doom or Project Brutality.

I really loved this mapset.

There are just smooth details, just little neat hints about what is going on.

And the music really take things up to eleven.

 

The maps are not really complex, but they quitly fulfill the role for what they were designed. And it would be really cool if this was a full mapset. Maybe not, but two more maps to use the message screen after map20 would round up the experience quite a lot.

The maps range from totally atmospheric maps, to sprawling with challenging but moderated encounters. Some are challenging, some are not soo much, but all in all, its a great mapset with awesome music and being a good farewell song to the mapping scene by this authors.

 

Thanks Black Star Coven, you really know how to set the mood and to create a really claustrophobic and mysterious atmosphere.

The Talosian Incident is a megawad from the tail end of the classic era of Doom mapping. Unfortunately, it hasn't aged well at all. Although parts of the levels can still be quite moody and memorable, on the whole the maps feel lackluster, with amateurish layouts and haphazard monster placement (the two "Fort" maps are particularly bad in this regard) and sometimes overtly cryptic progression. The authors experiment by replacing typical rockin' music with creepy, moody ambient (or at least as close as you can get to it in MIDI), although the results are uneven: the map06 "music" is simply a horrific noise which is impossible to "listen" to for more than a few seconds, and the map11 music is mostly an earsplitting screech.

I'll admit to being indecisive with how to rank this experience, despite going in expecting to take it slow with the first map opening up with no action and just letting myself get pulled into the atmosphere. The music is pretty cool and sets the mood in places - I particularly liked destroying what seemed to be some kind of device which led to the next map blaring an alarm as I scrambled around the place. It's got some nice moments that carry the action a little better but loses momentum with the frequency in maps that contain lots of halls, doors and enemies packed in a rather square-looking interior. Being a lover of old-school vanilla wads, I did have trouble committing myself by the time I reached the third map. The good points weren't enough to outweigh the negatives for me, but there's always a chance someone can appreciate what they were trying to accomplish for the time it was released.

As much fun as a shit you cant seem to flush despite giving it proper effort. Terrible.

Too dark, unfair and boring

It's actually quite boring to play at times, but this is one of the most immersive and atmospheric wads you can play. The music is melancholy and loaded with nostalgia, it's almost a painful experience. The empty maps were a nice idea but, frankly, dull. 3* for the atmosphere and the music, 1* for old time's sake.

Bah. I got bored. Not enuf action.

So so boring. Uninspired level design and baffling item placement. Don't waste your time.

3/5 and only because of the music, the levels are uninspired, themes overused (brown, brownm tan and brown), the gameplay combat-wise is not bad, but door and switch hunting kills it in a few places. --ellmo

This is a great old wad. The difficulty is perfect, increasing from map to map and challenging at times but never frustrating. And it's also looking quite good, with interesting layouts. I liked that in the last map you return to the mothership where you started in map 01, which gave this wad a nice finish. From the look and feel, it's very typical for its time. Download recommended! 4.5/5 -Milian

it's a bad ass level it's dark, evil, and just plain kick ass. i do think it's a very legendary level of the doom series and it has one of my favorite songs.

cool '97 megawad

great wad, excellent atmosphere. --sargebaldy

Nice in the beginning, but I honestly got bored a bit after a while.

Rated as a 1997 wad: presumably 4 or even 4.5/5. But despite its ambiance, for 2014 standards it has too many flaws, worst of it is the copy&paste factor - after having played 10 maps it felt like never having left map03 or so. But it was made in 1997, so 4/5.

I was disappointed in this in '97 and it hasn't improved with time. Malcolm Sailor's levels are good, but the rest are boring at best and infuriating at worst. I have to admit, the atmosphere is kinda cool, maybe it's the music...

Very good wad. Wish some one would update it.

Bery atmospheric, sometimes too small or repetitious in textures or too symmetrical, but this is well worth a play. 4/5

5/5 because i was bored...-mohaa555,ma y 20,2007

A classic, despite some letdowns. 5/5

3/3its okay-mohaa555

I give this a 1/5 due to the fact that the levels worked flawlessly with no glitches and it shows that the designers knew how to operate a level editor. Otherwise, I think my boredom was killing me almost as much as all those damn Plane Elementals and lost souls!

Plane Elementals?