How many actually finish playing Megawads?

Whenever I download a Doom/Doom2 WAD its typically something that can be finished in no more then just 2 perhaps 3 hours tops. Like just a single good map or perhaps a single episode containing like 6-9 maps.

The reason for this is that most of the time I just don't like the idea of playing huge 32 level megawads. There are a number of reasons for this:

1. A lot of the time the author just gets bored with the project before finishing it and thus starts creating filler maps which aren't as good.

2. They take too long to finish.

3. In order for a WAD to remain fun the levels have to remain interesting, and this is bad because most megawads overstay their welcome by being too samey throughout.

Those are just some reasons.

Now of course, there are some exceptions like high-profile megawads such as Plutonia 2 and the Community Chest megawads, but I just get bored with most megawads long before I finish them so I typically don't bother and instead look for WADS that only contain either just a few maps or a single episode at most.

Do you bother finishing most megawads?

Discuss.

The ones I play repeatedly tend to be those super-tough megawads. That's pretty much it.

I finish playing through the megaWADs I start. Maybe I just have a high threshold of pain.

If the megawad doesn't have any form of narrative that makes it necessary/attractive to play the maps in order I don't bother. In those cases I will just play them like a collection of maps that I can play from pistol start.

I try to, although I don't play regularly enough to finish one in less than a month. I was out of the loop, so late to the party with Plutonia 2 -- took a couple of months, but I loved the last third of it. Immensely.

I'm on Plutonia Revisited now, 1/3 through and it's not so enjoyable. Hoping it warms up later on, but right now I am so tired of the same kind of level start where everything around you wakes up and it's a mad dash to somewhere safe to pick them off. And OMG REVENANTS. If this carries on, I may quit and play the original Plutonia through again.

Other megawads? Depends on the quality. I only completed 3 episodes of 2002ADO back in the day, and got halfway through a few others.

Generally speaking, I play them through once. But it will be all the way through and I'll be certain to do and see pretty much all there is to do/see.

If the megawad doesn't have any form of narrative that makes it necessary/attractive to play the maps in order I don't bother. In those cases I will just play them like a collection of maps that I can play from pistol start.

This. I tend to follow the map ordering out of convenience, but I have no qualms skipping maps I don't enjoy.

Nowadays I have about 10 (maybe 15) megawads on my hard drive that I haven't finished yet. I'm playing one of them for some time, when I get bored, I start to play (or continue playing) another one. This way, I first finish the most enjoyable ones and I don't finish at all the worst ones. Like hardcore_gamer, I prefer downloading single maps or wads with just few maps. I play them immediately after I download them, I finish them and rarely come back to them again.

Nowadays it's either Doom which kicks my ass and causes me to ragequit, or I get so bored halfway through the map (when I get lost or it's too easy) and leave.

A megawad needs to have some kind of gimmick and mysterious (unknown) features in order to interest me. Not be the same shit over and over.

I tend to finish most megawads I play as long as they interest me and are not crappy.
I replay ones I'm psyched about (currently the mapset I have as 'most played' is UAC Ultra), such as CChest 4 when it's gonna come out.

But yeah, I do tend to play each map from pistol start. Just an old habit, I guess.

kristus said:

If the megawad doesn't have any form of narrative that makes it necessary/attractive to play the maps in order I don't bother.

The exact opposite here. Narrative, "progression", theme consitency...yawn. I like to wonder what kind of level the next one will be, not knowing "yet another tech base, and all of E1 will be that", "oh I`m soooo looking forward to E3 where ALL maps will be hell maps!". I want something fresh for every level. Also, storytelling in Doom is lame anyway.

So I guess I like megawads that are "a collection of maps". I see no point in playing them in order anyway except for if you want a rising curve of difficulty (which it usually is and I`m fine with that). If I want to play map08, which I enjoyed, I`ll play map08. If I`d like to play a hard level, I`ll play a hard level. If I don`t like a level I`ll not play that level. Who says that just because it`s a megawad, you must play all the maps, from start to finish?

I "can`t even count" the number of times I`ve played map08, map11 and map14 of AV.wad, while I almost never play map03 for instance.

A prime example of boredom was when I played that megawad demo by Z86 (can`t remember the name). Almost yawned myself to death. No offense though, it`s just my (shitty) taste ;)

edit: also as a mapper who`s currently working on a megawad, I have no interest in making many mapswith the same theme. I`d like to make as many different themes/maps as possible. I guess it will be hated for that when it`s out ;)

I always finish what I start, unless the megawad is so horrible that it doesn't merit finishing. I generally try to get all the secrets as well.

While I'm essentially the same way as Vordakk, I do put in a separate save or two on a current megawad if I want to start a runthrough on another megawad.

darkreaver said:

The exact opposite here. Narrative, "progression", theme consitency...yawn. I like to wonder what kind of level the next one will be, not knowing "yet another tech base, and all of E1 will be that", "oh I`m soooo looking forward to E3 where ALL maps will be hell maps!". I want something fresh for every level. Also, storytelling in Doom is lame anyway.

On one hand, I agree with you here. OTOH, I think a strength can be found by having all of E1, E2, etc. be the same overarching theme whilst changing it up every so often. For example, all of Map21-Map30 can be Hell-themed, but you can easily use entirely different visuals each time (gothic, cavern, castle, marble, even wood textures can be utilized properly).

Naturally, as a fan of MM and other such megawads, I don't think it's essential to have episodic unity, but I don't shun the idea either (plus, there's always -warp and IDCLEV if I feel like bouncing around).

Most times, yes. I at least make some attempt to go through every MegaWAD I start. If it becomes a collection of 'Spamfest' maps though, that's the end of my adventure right there. They bore me to fucking tears.

I usually finish megawads, maybe skipping a few maps here and there (HR/Scythe). Filler maps? Anyone remember "Skip Maps" in DVII?

I don't finish most of them but there was one exception - Garrulo(by spaniards I think) which was very interesting from the theme perspective... awesome visuals.

Snakes said:

On one hand, I agree with you here. OTOH, I think a strength can be found by having all of E1, E2, etc. be the same overarching theme whilst changing it up every so often. For example, all of Map21-Map30 can be Hell-themed, but you can easily use entirely different visuals each time (gothic, cavern, castle, marble, even wood textures can be utilized properly).

I can agree on this, but what if I wanted to make a tough as fuck tech base map with 2000 monsters? What would be best; putting it in e1, because the "overarching theme" there is tech, or simply put it in e3 where it "should" belong, even though the theme there is "hell"?
Maybe not put it in the megawad in the first place? Then we are back to those lame "megawad rules" again which makes it boring for me ;P

darkreaver said:

I can agree on this, but what if I wanted to make a tough as fuck tech base map with 2000 monsters? What would be best; putting it in e1, because the "overarching theme" there is tech, or simply put it in e3 where it "should" belong, even though the theme there is "hell"?
Maybe not put it in the megawad in the first place? Then we are back to those lame "megawad rules" again which makes it boring for me ;P

Put it in hell, hell can contain anything. If it's very hard, it belongs there.

I used to play megawads from start to finish by saving my progress and playing them in full. I usually would have a full megawad completed in about 16 hours time, spaced out over the span of a week. I later got into playing maps from a pistol start, with many maps just being too long and difficult to complete without saving, and having to start each map from the beginning would add at least a couple days to my playing time. It was fun for a while but I've recently gone back to saving my progress, (but not as often, maybe twice per map) and I have to say its by far a much more fuller experience. Unfortunately a lot of megawads tend to get easier as you progress after you accumulate weapons and more ammunition than you know what to do with. As a mapper I'm trying to find ways to make maps both playable and fun from a pistol start while not being overly generous with weapons and ammo, so that both methods of playing are catered to.

@40oz - I personally play the megawads all the way through, including the secret levels, though there definitely are times where I just warp ahead to the next secret level if I can't find the secret exit in, say, Map31 or if the secret exit is convoluted or just plain unfair to reach. (That nigh-impossible timed secret exit in Scythe 2 can fuck right off.)

darkreaver said:

I can agree on this, but what if I wanted to make a tough as fuck tech base map with 2000 monsters? What would be best; putting it in e1, because the "overarching theme" there is tech, or simply put it in e3 where it "should" belong, even though the theme there is "hell"?
Maybe not put it in the megawad in the first place? Then we are back to those lame "megawad rules" again which makes it boring for me ;P

I don't have any "megawad rules" myself, I was just stating a preference of mine :)

Oh, and to answer OP's question: yes. 9 times out of 10, I will play every map of a megawad, though there will be times where I don't finish a particular map (I'm looking at you, Community Chest 2).

when i start playing a megawad i usually OCD my way through, carefully torturing every map for longer than necessary. actually making myself play something gets harder lately, though.

In all honesty I never have. I've never even completed the IWADs all the way through save for in co-op. Typically, I barely get into double figures as the maps start getting longer and I much prefer the shorter first episode levels. I don't spend a great deal of time playing Doom and spend most of this making maps or playtesting other maps in progfic.

I plan on changing this once my current projects are finished though.

hardcore_gamer said:
Do you bother finishing most megawads?

Many, yes. I play them per episode. In DOOM II that's 1-11, 12-20 ans 21-30. When I die, I start at the level I died at. This makes them more manageable plus I use limit-raised vanilla, where the sky transition is broken.

Sometimes, if the megawad is very hard or the levels are huge I get sidetracked a lot and it may take me a long period to finish. I have some unfinished ones like that. Since I record demos, I can pretty much tell where I left off by checking my last demo.

For example, I haven't finished Garrulismo (I think) and Evil Tech yet, although I probably will eventually. The latter has huge levels from episode 2, which make things slow.

Completing a megawad used to feel like a chore before I had this episode and demo method, because it felt like a rather meaningless process that left little gameplay impression and at most an "I played it" in a list of achievements or a comment or review somewhere, but now a megawad full of medium or smaller maps is fun to do and I like the game mechanics enough to enjoy most levels that aren't really retarded.

Drab, flawed, samey? Doesn't stop me. Critical bugs do, instead. If a level crashes or has a "portism" and I can't see an easy fix, I delete it along with any demos and add it to a list of crap to avoid in the future. This may imply deleting a buggy level in a megawad, yet playing the rest of the levels, though.

To me playing an unfamiliar megawad is more like "driving through town to chill" or "going swimming for the evening" than something that needs to surprise any novelty or quality control obsessions in me.

I can honestly say that I never finished any megawad, usually I get bored after a few maps. Or I'll just start skipping through the maps to see what else is in that megawad. My interest goes more towards designing maps than playing them.

I don't think I have played a megawad all the way through, actually I might have played marswar from start to finish back in the early days. These days I like to explore the levels in a megawad in no particular order. I only really give any attention to levels I will/want to record demos for.

myk said:

Drab, flawed, samey? Doesn't stop me. Critical bugs do, instead. If a level crashes or has a "portism" and I can't see an easy fix, I delete it along with any demos and add it to a list of crap to avoid in the future. This may imply deleting a buggy level in a megawad, yet playing the rest of the levels, though.

To me playing an unfamiliar megawad is more like "driving through town to chill" or "going swimming for the evening" than something that needs to surprise any novelty or quality control obsessions in me.

Now that's inspirational. I really want to appreciate vanilla levels for their consistency, but I'm always looking for more (from Dehacked modifications to ZDoom gimmicks).

I finish if I like it. If after couple levels it feels tiresome, annoying, etc, I stop and look for something better. Sometimes I might simply start doing something else and think I'll continue it later, but after a while, I forget that I was meant to continue it. Maybe then I try it again after a year or something and probably play it through that time.

I love a good megawad. Of course it helps if the maps are all fun to play, but I like the feeling of continuity and progression you get from fighting through from beginning to end.

That said I never finished scythe because of that bloody time-limit map. And I don't usually bother with the icon of sin if it appears at the end. Running against the clock and timing shots is not the way i play this game.

If a map is arduous enough that I cant bring myself to finish it I dont usually bother with the rest of the collection. Although I'm so glad I made an exception with map 3 of deus vult II..