Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
dobu gabu maru

The DWmegawad Club plays: Kama Sutra

Recommended Posts

Three for the price of one:

Map22: Fire Play

Yeah this was a rather meh map. The monster-blocking lines really ruin the excitement as you can just backtrack to a safe position and rocket the opposition down from there. Or you can just watch them slaughter eachother if the monster make the mistake of coming in different species. The start is good though and I don't really have a problem with SSGing the Cybers since there's no completely safe way to do it. Visuals in this map are alright too. Completing the map took me over 20mins but I didn't die even once which was pretty surprising, all things considered.

Map23: A Little Big Massacre

Now this, on the other hand, was simply amazing. Frantic start? Check. Open and non-linear layout? Check. Super fun and fast-paced combat? Check. Like others have said, the use of monster-blocking lines is very sensible: a decent amount of enemies can frely roam the premises and will instantly start their slow crawl towards the player but not enough to make this map a ridiculously hard game of survival. In fact I only died some at the start since I couldn't find the RL, after that it was smooth sailing. The challenge was still there though, which makes this map so enjoyable. YK fight was an another memorable one, I mean how couldn't it be with that kind of setup. I sort of did what DoTW described in that I escaped the area immediately as the Revs were revealed. But since I have an obsession for 100% kills, I went back and took out everything after the Cybers had settled the situation a bit. The last Cyber was definitely unexpected but in the end he stood no chance against the bloodthirsty doomguy. One of the best maps in this wad for sure.

Map24: The Gift From GOTT

Oh man, this was quite the map. I'll start off by saying that while I did enjoy the map in some sick and twisted way, I definitely cannot imagine completing this without the secret weapons. I even resorted to using saves here, maybe not because it's too tough to handle but more because the turret Archie cluster can and will fuck you up if you fail to get into the secret alcoves FAST and then the start is a bit too tedious to go over again and again. This map was very difficult though, no question about it. So many Cybers and so little space. The one in the medieval castle part of the map is particularly tricky since there is very little ways to avoid taking blast damage. The Archie clusters in the marble section were rather amusing though as they are as non-threatening as they come but only serve as a means of revenge for the annoyances with the BK platforms cluster. The ending sequence would be neat if it actually ended in exit, which for some reason never happened despite trying numerous times. Also one Cyber never showed up which prevented me from getting maxkills, don't know if I did something wrong or if it was purely accidental.

Share this post


Link to post

Map23 - “A Little Big Massacre” by Adolf Vojta

This was fun, so many enemies crammed into this map they could hardly move. Funnily enough one of the best things about it was that they can move, and you get a constant trickle of monsters filtering towards you from all over the map which makes a nice change. You also have a lot of monsters rooted to the spot by blocking lines as usual. Its kind of ridiculous in a map this open, I still can't work out what the designer had in mind with all these static enemies. Maybe to just slow the player, or stop the map emptying out, but there are better ways to deal with that surely.

Still its all good fun when you have plenty of big guns and ammo to nuke them all.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP24 The Gift From GOTT

*Regular Run*

Lovely docks and pier. More enemies around the edges of the level, but they are all easy to dispatch. Using rockets against enemies through the window in the beginning is quite fun. The big hub area with the ROCK textures was kind of a pain, but the BFG helps (no archviles were on the blue key platform on HNTR) in taking down the enemies, then the rocket launcher on the caged freaks. Left side was well done except for cacodemons way down in the water, who took awhile to reach me. I had to lure the cyber who was in the hub area away from the door so I could get out as well. The train/marble thing in the east was pretty fun. Good level I'd say, but the ending...well fuck the ending. Final Time 5:00.

*Not-so-Reality Run*

I say that due to the stupid end part.

The start wasn't too bad, but as I said, that hub area was a real problem, I decided to take down the imps, sarges, and even mancubi while the bars are still in place, as it eases out things. Most of the time I didn't have too much trouble on the west side, nor the east side (it's very helpful that the baron of hell can open doors so I can shoot him :D). The cyber, again, had to get him to someplace where he won't be blockage, and avoid his blasts. Thanks to the exit, I have bad hopes for the next few levels myself. I dub thee map unforgiven. Final Time 7:45.

Share this post


Link to post

Map 24 - The Gift From GOTT - 99% Kills, 33% Secrets - HMP Skill.

A departure from pure hellish style, this level seems to fuse a Gothic castle, with a semi-modern dock, and a rather interestingly textured underground train system. Only the last of those elements I felt didn't really look as visually appealing. Still, this was apparently among the author's early levels so that can be forgiven.

Most of the battles range from fun sniping fests (the outdoor dock area) to frustrating tight battles (the center castle room). I also found the arch-vile trap to be a bitch to survive. Health was a bit scarce and although I found a few secrets, I couldn't for the life of me locate the rest. Nasty but rather creative ending too.

Share this post


Link to post

Map24 - “The Gift From GOTT” by Jakub Razak
This map is brutal and again takes a long time to grind through, though it's not as bad as map22. The cybers are actually well placed but god help you if you don't find the secrets.

Share this post


Link to post

Map 25 -- Cow Face - 109% Kills / No actual secrets
This is one of my favorite Kama Sutra maps, supposedly based primarily on one of my favorite Hell Revealed maps, although truthfully I only see a very vague resemblance--I quite like this map, but not because it's similar in style to HR 25 (or HR 32, really, beyond the texture scheme). It's modest in construction, but I quite like the looks of it...it's a good example of a map pleasing to the eye owing more to texture/color combinations than to architecture and structure themselves. This sort of 'nocturnal floating garden' theme, with tons of open sky and a lot of masonry with marble and wood detailing on a dirt/grass/water base, is what I would consider to be Kama Sutra's signature look, but don't think the WAD's general propensity for DooM furniture has been forgotten--there are some DooM-thrones here, as well, just to cover that base. And no, for my part, I don't see the alleged cow face on the automap, myself.

It's quite a small map, and progress through it is sped further by the fact that it's symmetrical, and that a significant part of the content is optional--both the red and yellow skull-keys have functionally identical battles attached to them, but only one of the two is necessary to finish, an unusual characteristic for a Kama Sutra map. Though small, it's positively action-packed from first second to last, with the player starting a foot away from twin cybers (and no, they're not facing the other direction)--upon instinctively recoiling in horror, you'll find yourself teleported to a watery alcove on the other end of the map, from which the action really begins.

In a sense, this is another one of those maps where surviving the first 60 seconds is a puzzle in itself--the small spaces are positively lousy with hellspawn, and camping in the first alcove, which many will probably be intimidated into trying by the imposing presence of chaingunner battalions and pillar-perched arch-viles outside of the main battleground, is soundly (and cruelly) precluded by some slightly-tardy viles that phase in at back of the cave. So, the player has to charge madly forward, trying desperately to find a foothold and some larger weaponry. There's a very clear solution to this in the form of a certain powerful artifact nearby, but it's not immediately obvious and may be counterintuitive to some (there is also an unofficial super-secret involving a marbleface 'vending machine' to help out, but again, this is likely to be missed on the first few attempts). However one goes about it, once a foothold is established, the generous supply of heavy ammo and powerups rapidly shifts the balance of power away from the demons towards the marine, and the proceedings rapidly shift into the sort of massacre that feels very empowering, with the player annihilating horde after horde with relative ease and with little pause for rest. It's not just a question of 'stand in one place and hold down the trigger', though (although there is a bit of that)--there are some impossible-to-resist juicy infighting opportunities, constant repopulation of all parts of the small battleground with fresh foes, etc. There's even a BFG lovingly ensconced in a mystical marble shrine at the end, just in time for cathartic liquefaction of the cyber-twins that had you pissing yourself minutes earlier.

Good stuff, and the next map is even better.

Share this post


Link to post

Map25: Cow Face

Yessir, this was and is a great map. The start is rather brutal if aggressiveness doesn't come naturally for you and I, for one, am glad that even the continuous players here can feel the pain as it was meant to be felt, after last maps death-exit stripped everyone of their weapons. It can be cheesed a bit though, as I discovered that the Archies spawn only after you fire so you can wait around the alcove a bit and provoke the Chaingunners and Mancs to take each other out. At first I tried this method but after x attempts of "safe" starts I grew tired and just rushed straight for the plasma and into the leftmost throneroom and the megasphere within. I did not know about the invulnsphere until later on and I kind of wasted it so had I known about it, I probably would have used it at the start. But even without godmoding it, my strategy worked very well and I died only once with this style.

The fun doesn't end there though as even when you gain the necessary foothold, the massacring continues at a steady pace. The map features one of those things that I heavily associate with Kama Sutra: the use of identical mini-slaughterings that happen in both sides of the map, just like the identical key fights in Time Is Tickin' Out and the symmetrical nature of the upcoming map Kill Bill. The two Cybers are actually your friends in this map as they are very effective in exterminating the pests that are released upon pressing the key switches if you just let them do their jobs. The reward for their friendliness was a swift death though because that's just how the Doomguy rolls. Sadly I wasn't able to max this map since two of the Archies fell into the void below and even abusing infinitely tall blast damage couldn't help me this time. I did get my moneys worth of kills and then some as the void-Archies constantly resurrected those Chaingunners/Mancs at the sides for me to kill.

So yeah, all I can say is great. Probably top5 in KS for me too.

Share this post


Link to post

Map24 - “The Gift From GOTT” by Jakub Razak

I can't say I enjoyed this map, it was quite a challenge to survive it and does feel like an achievement to get through, but much of my time was spent playing peekaboo and waiting for the mastermind to clear out the first room, and then dancing around cybers that I didn't have the tools or space to deal with. The secrets are pretty much mandatory and health seems to be a bit sparse considering the amount of cyberdemons popping up. It is not a map to allow mistakes, so there was a great deal of save spamming and crawling trial-and-error progress on low health. And I don't know what is meant to happen with the ending but it didn't work for me - I'm assuming the last voodoo doll is meant to be blown across an exit line...

Share this post


Link to post

MAP25 Cow Face

*Regular Run*

Instead of two cybers greeting me, I had four barons, but two of them were stuck on the level geometry (wasn't tested eh?). Teleported to a rather rough beginning where I had to use SSG, plasma, and RL to fend off enemies, those chaingunners were the worst. The invulnerability helps out with some cleaning as I plunge forth to get the yellow and red keys, which leads to the BFG and two more barons (instead of archies). It's quite cramped, and I can see its inspiration (Dead Progressive), not to mention the map image, but it's not fun since I lost my weapons in the death exit of MAP24. Final Time 3:48.

*"Fake" Reality Run*

It's fake because I used IDFA to get all my weapons and ammo back :P. Probably isn't possible from pistol start. The beginning of course, was made insanely difficult. I had to SSG imps until they stop, keeping an eye on those chaingunners, then sniped at those chaingunners next. But I didn't want to leave the water, as an archvile shows up behind where I teleported, and I wanted to keep attention quickly. Then I faced symmetry in its form of enemy cleansing. Grabbing megaspheres reveal up to four chaingunners, and getting the keys give me hell nobles and revenants. Going back makes me face more revenants and also cacodemons. I decided to save the invulnerability till I was completely through so I can BFG the last two barons. Final Time 6:11.

Share this post


Link to post

Map25 - “Cow Face” by Adolf Vojta
This map was a pain to break through at the start with imps everywhere on the ground and very little space to avoid other stuff hitting you, and to that scenery which appeared to only exist for you to get caught on and be killed. Once the rocket launcher was obtained the map eases up a little. But in the end unless the map is played as intended you are more than likely to get bogged down at points like I did. Still fun to play but I felt frustrated at times as I had to hunker down somewhere to slowly take down hordes of revenants and cacodemons.
Being able to get BFG early on and not at the end is the key here.

Share this post


Link to post

Map15 - “Miss Sporty” by Adolf Vojta
Map16 - “Leeds Castle” by Adolf Vojta
Map17 - “Cyber Machine” by Adolf Vojta
Map18 - “The Train Is Approaching” by Adolf Vojta
Map19 - “Natural” by Adolf Vojta
Map20 - “Traps” by Adolf Vojta
I played MAP15 around week ago then, after wondering for a while whether I have got to far behind, I played MAP16 - MAP20 in two stints today.

I have been playing through Kama Sutra mainly in sets of around 5 maps at a time and this cluster has by far taken me the longest to get through - mainly because of MAP18, which I thought incredibly boring as it took me about 45 minutes to complete and more than half this time being lost.

MAP15 was very Kama Sutra. The cute details were endearing and the shoot out at the end was a lot of fun but a lot of the action is restricted by the tight layout.

I like the set-piece approach in MAP17 but I had to make regular saves to get through and have now abandoned my early plans to avoid saving mid-map.

MAP19 was probably the best of these levels, aesthetically it has a really good look and I remember some pretty good fights.

MAP20 was OK but the almost instant death barrel traps and inconsistent damaging nukage were not to my taste.

If I get another good stint at Doom before the end of the month I will look forward to trying some maps from the last episode.

Share this post


Link to post

Map 25 - Cow Face - 100% Kills - HMP Skill.

Ok, this level takes the cake as being the most difficult. The start acts as a way to taunt the player, although even the "safe room" that you teleport too will eventually be populated by two arch-viles if you stay too long. The safest parts of the level are those three thrones which shield you from the monsters on the other side and give you a better advantage over the monsters in front of you. So in other words it's a literal game of thrones.

Due to the compact nature of the level and the massive amount of monsters that gradually get introduced as you pick up the keys, there is little room to catch your breath and saving that invulnerability for the cyberdemons is a must, especially if you are going for 100% kills. Even trying to encourage monster infighting is a challenge due to other nearby monsters surprising you with attacks. Either way, this is a tough challenge, but damn does it feel like an accomplishment when you beat it!

Share this post


Link to post

Map25 is crazy, havent beat it yet, might have to skip this one

Share this post


Link to post

Re: map 25, try going for the invuln sphere on the central throne first (will have to SSG a commando or two out of your way as you charge), and then haul ass to one of the rocket launchers. The map's small enough that you can clean out almost all of one of the two sides while invulnerable if you're efficient, and the odds tip in your favor pretty quickly once you actually have a place you can stand without being under fire from every angle.

Map 26 -- Kill Bill - 113% Kills / No actual secrets (I think?)
This is likely my favorite map in the megaWAD, although it does have some significant competition from maps 27 and 29. Gusta writes in the KS textfile that this map is essentially a continuation of various ideas presented in 'Cow Face', and the similarity comes through loud and clear--this map is essentially everything that that one was, only turned up to 11.

So, naturally, the aesthetic theme here is an extension of that seen in the previous map, this time depicting a fairly large garden-shrine of brick and marble built around a badly sullied reflecting pool of some sort, the whole floating in a drifting pocket of astral sea. No thrones this time, but there are a number of other whimsical details, like penant-posts, the dreamily bobbing marble cubes hovering around the building, or more of the characteristically-KS wanton 3D bridges. Like 'Cow Face', it is almost perfectly symmetrical, which further emphasizes its clean and serene visual impression. Quite like the choice of Rise of the Triad music for this one, as well.

The action resembles that of 'Cow Face' in more ways than one, as well, beginning with the frantic start, which sees the player scrambling madly for a big gun in the midst of hordes of imps, demons, and other unpleasant creatures--there are over 600 enemies in the map on UV, yes, but somewhere around 100 of those are involved in the first couple of minutes of combat. There's no invulnerability sphere to help carve out a 'home base' this time, but due to its larger size and more sectional nature, the layout tends to afford safe zones more readily as the player makes incremental progress. In some ways this is also due to a resurgence in the presence of monster-blocking lines, which unfortunately do adulterate the action in a few places....but there's nothing even beginning to approach the sterility of action in map 22, fortunately. In fact, as in map 24, some of the monster-blocking lines do help to structure the action more than they hamper it, for example, in keeping the two cyberdemon tagteams guarding the red switches close to their charges. Don't think that escaping the pressure will be too easy, though, as various measures have been taken against this, such as by surrounding the player with teleporting monsters while s/he is still inside of their movement-zone, or by deploying various gunner nests and a cyber-turret cage that replenish their occupants as you make kills.

As aforesaid, the map is highly symmetrical, and as in map 25 at least some sizable battles are optional, although this might require a more circuitous route and more of a conscious cold-shoulder policy towards groups of monsters on the player's part, since both sides of the map do still have to be visited in order to remove the two sets of red bars blocking access to the final exit. Some will probably be glad for this, as some of the battles are just as symmetrical as the layout they take place within; fortunately, though, there are various unique fights (generally found in the map's inner reaches) to maintain a sense of variety and pace, including but not limited to the aforementioned opening struggle or the pit-fight behind the large, central blue door. It does tend to end just a bit anticlimactically (since the central spiderdemon almost aways end up the victim of infighting with the various cybers at that end of the map), but it's quite a fulfilling excursion nonetheless.

Entertaining battles in a very inviting setting. What more needs to be said?

Share this post


Link to post

Map25 - “Cow Face” by Adolf Vojta

Fun bit of symmetrical slaughter, bit of a survival puzzle at the start as there appears to be no safe spot. I found the best tactic was to encourage the chaingunners to kill as much as possible before firing a shot myself, then carve my way into one of the imp tunnels with ssg. Knowing the plasma rifle and invincibility were up for grabs might have changed things though. Nice and simple map with some gratuitous slaying, although I didnt get the bfg until everything was already dead (apart from the out-of-reach archviles I knocked off their platforms).

Share this post


Link to post

MAP24 - UV - max - scratch start - savestate use ~

This map is mostly symetrical and boring , it's really boring to do the same thing twice in a row , it sure has some unsymetcial stuff , but these are just short challanges so not much to say exept for the 2 cybers in that stone courtyard.

MAP25 - UV - 1% kill no secrets - scratch start - savestate use - no exit
This map is too small and gets me in all sides so I rqed here.

MAP26 - UV - max - scratch start - savestate use ~
This is another symetcial map , what's up with that? Did they ran out of ideas in this wad?
Anyways this is a better map then the previous one and for no appearent reason this one is somewhy at the intermission screen like what? This is their best work? No! A map like MAP27 should be in there , this is crazy.
The gameplay is same as MAP24 just more slaughter and more rape.
Backtracking traps and stuff , nothing much.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP26 Kill Bill

No matter how many times I play this one, I end up using all the health. Really. Symmetrical layout similar to MAP25 but larger. There are rising and falling blocks in the distance which are a different aesthetic. The beginning is extremely nasty with enemies like demons already close to you. Add to it the chaingunner towers and it is real cumbersome. Be prepared for a cyberdemon once you grab the blue key. A lot of packs of monsters in places afterwards, like after the blue key doors, one fight has teleporting monsters and walls lowering on the sides, this fight can be skipped for later thankfully. Two megaspheres platforms close to where the red switches are trigger some cacos, and enemies will teleport to the opposite end. Red door ambush was quite well done though. Some backtracking was involved, as I ended up going to the red door where the archvile was on the teleporter, but the bars weren't open, so I had to go back to the red switches that I forgot to hit earlier to lower them. Painful level really, I took a lot of hurt. Final Time 7:28.

Share this post


Link to post

Map26: Kill Bill

More greatness. Extremely similar to Cow Face, only a bit bigger and thus naturally comes with more enemies. I'd say the difficulty would be about on par with the previous map too if not for the tricky Cybers placed on your way. Most of them are rather difficult to deal with and they produced all but one or two of my deaths in this map. The combat overall is again semi-slaughtery and the visuals and layout follow the same patterns as in map25.

The start is another hectic one as you are immediately surrounded by Pinkies and Imps. It's a bit easier than in 25 in my opinion though since the plasma gun is close by and if you just don't get caught up when punching through the horde on your way there, you'll most likely survive the opening battle. After that it's a tactical slaughterfest for a while, nothing too hard since you get the BFG early on and ammo is plentiful but some sort of strategy should still be thought of since the areas are packed with hellspawn and they're all out for blood. As for the Cybers, I gotta give props to the author for the red switch setups since that is some extremely tricky Cyber-placement. Especially the first two you decide to tackle since the duo in the opposito side of the map can hit you as well in addition to the small dodging space you have in the bridge. Same goes for the starting area Cybers, little room to begin with but the uneven floor makes movement extra-awkward.

So yeah, great map and if you enjoyed Cow Face, you'll probably enjoy Kill Bill. I played through the next map already so I can prepare myself for the deathfest that is map28 but I'll get to that later.

Share this post


Link to post

Map26 - “Kill Bill” by Adolf Vojta
Larger and bloodier version of the previous map, I liked this one more due to being more consistent in difficulty throughout and not having such an evil start. If you rush for the plasma rifle straight off the bat you shouldn't have too many problems at the start. You will be pinned down amny times before finally claiming the blue key but after this you slowly start to take more and more sections of the mp and as of this your quest slowly becomes easier. There are many ambushes but your BFG should handle this task with relative ease. Possibly the worst part are the cybers near the red switches, I took a cautious approach on one side as you can get nailed by the cybers on the other side.
Overall a crazy-ass map but that is to be expected by this point.

Share this post


Link to post

Map 26 - Kill Bill - 100% Kills (not including tons of archville resurrected monsters) - HMP Skill.

I take back what I said about the previous map, THIS is a truly hard one. I came damn near close to giving up, especially in the beginning. However, upon playing through it more, I found this map is actually a bit more open and fair than the previous one, and though they both are symmetrical slaughter maps, I found this one stood out even more.

Ammo-wise, this is a rocket and cell affair with very few bullets and shells. Due to the amount of archviles and all the monsters they resurrected, there was a double challenge in not only getting rid of the viles but also watching out for the monsters they resurrected. The two cybers in the south side weren't too hard to deal with although one at the beginning and the one near the end were a pain. Overall, an even greater challenge than the previous level. I know though that the remaining levels must be even harder.

Share this post


Link to post

The Gift From Gott - K:99% S:33%

This level was just brutal. The level was pretty and served as a nice change of pace from the past few red stone marvels. A marble and wood moathouse(?) I guess you could call it with a kill zone in the main courtyard. The subway rails were out of place with the decrepit stone temple and cave leading to it, it almost begs the question why? but seeing as how this is Kama Sutra, this is the norm.

Arch-Viles and Cyberdemons populate this level in hefty amounts. So much so that after pretty much every new room you traverse into lets loose a Cyberdemon elsewhere in the level. This level is basically a linear switch hunt up until you get the blue key.

The Cyberdemon in the Mancubus tower is especially dangerous if you accidentally wake up a few of the Cacodemons, which I did.

The ending was another strange one, reminiscent of Execution. In that it involved another gimmick with barrels, this time propelling a voodoo you into the exit. There was a hidden Cyberdemon that didn't want to come out to play and the other one standing in the final room didn't get telefragged like the Mastermind did. Is that by design or was the Cyberdemon supposed to die too?

The secrets were well hidden, I found the first one in the water and by chance found the bookcase teleporter by pure accident. The other 4, remain a mystery. And of all Metallica's tracks that are so often thrown into Doom levels, why Unforgiven?



Cow Face - K:100% S:100%

Well I got killed by the Cyberdemons right off the bat, I realized I had to back up IMMEDIATELY to get this level under way.

This map kind of reminded of 'Natural' for some reason though not as detailed in the architecture. This map continues the same texture use as the previous level, plenty of marble, mossy stone, and wood. The appearance of three large thrones was pretty cool and I liked the idea of completing one side of the map and moving to the other. If the level was bigger, back tracking would be a bigger issue but it's fine as is.

The battles are tight and space is at a premium although I did find that once you clear out the back end of the two side throne rooms that the front is a particularly nasty monster block line and so the groups of Revenants that show up are pretty easy to deal with.

However the one true thing made this level difficult was the two Arch-Viles that teleport into the inaccessible side walkways. They killed me many times but not because of carelessness or I wasn't quick enough, oh no. It was because those damn Cacodemon corpses are too damn big. BOTH SIDES the fell in the way of obscuring my vision. Other than the beginning after you teleport and take care of the imps, the rest of the map goes by pretty swimmingly.



Kill Bill - K:100% S:100%

Yep I died several times at the beginning, simply because even when I cleared away the immediate threats, there was always some damn Chaingunner taking away my health from somewhere. Lo and behold, there are several Chaingun guy "nests" where they keep teleporting in to replace their friend you just killed. I hate these, I really do. I meted out some IDDQD justice and reverted back.

This level continues the theme from the previous two maps making good use of earth tones, green and gray buildings with some wood furnishing, although this one has the cool MARBFACE cubes 'floating' up and down to give the impression that you are on some kind of floating fortress. This map, like the last one is very symmetrical and features more of the 'hit a switch now cross over to the other side of the level and hit another' paradigm. Killing Cyberdemons got to be quite tedious and they are positioned in ways that make it hard for them to infight with something else (other than of course the Spider Mastermind).

I pretty much spammed the BFG this map. There's tons of ammo for it, and if you run low, you can use the rocket launcher for great effect as there's tons of rockets laying around too.

I'm still trying to figure out what the hell the point of keeping all those demons barred away was...

Share this post


Link to post

I'm still trying to figure out what the hell the point of keeping all those demons barred away was...

I think the idea is that they 'distract' autoaim and keep you from plinking the spider to death from certain vantages. As to why that might seem particularly important (esp. considering the spider is almost always killed by one of the cybers long before you can reach it anyway), your guess is as good as mine...

Map 27 -- Stairway to Heaven - 100% Kills / No actual secrets
This is another of Kama Sutra's most well-known maps, perhaps its most well-known outside of its map 30 replacement (although one might argue that to be more true of the madness that is map 28). For good reason, too, as it's quite memorable, all other considerations aside. Rather than being one single large location or a group of buildings directly connected in some way or the like, it is essentially a completely linear/sequential series of separate and self-contained combat vignettes connected only by a broadly similar aesthetic and in the sense that each introduces a new weapon and is slightly more violent (though not necessarily more difficult) than the last. The textfile's intimation that it's sort of like a round of minigolf is pretty accurate, really.

As one might expect from the general concept, the setting is quite abstract, and more or less in line with the general theme of this third episode, a series of vaguely shrine-like buildings floating in endless starry space. The architecture of the playable space is generally very simple, often little more than a few plain straight corridors or a mid-sized area of more or less flat ground; the vast majority of the eyecandy is background stuff outside of the playspace. Most of it is pleasant enough (but then, I always have liked the 'void' theme), evincing a vaguely 'cosmic psychedelia' theme, ranging from a sector windmill to dual-colored streams of liquid pouring from some inconceivable point in the heavens to a Baphomet cameo to some sort of brick infernal bhodisattva statue overlooking the plasma rifle battle. It occurs to me that I haven't complained about the lighting in KS nearly as much as I have regarding most of the previous WADs we've played, even though its lighting is often quite flat--I guess it just works fine in KS' freewheeling style, especially when so much of the WAD is set under open sky. Oh, and yes, it uses the MIDI that I'm sure you all assumed it does. Fits the scenery fairly well, if I do say so.

Those exhausted from the gameplay in recent maps should be pleased with what's on offer here. While there are a couple of tricky spots (particularly the rocket launcher tier) and a dirty trick or two, in general I'd say that this map represents the 'breather' for the back half of this last episode. As aforesaid, the general idea is that each successive vignette introduces a new weapon (incidentally, I would encourage continuous players to try pistol-starting this one, since you'll have all weapons and a ton of ammo by the time you exit, and it just plain doesn't feel right if you have a full arsenal from the start), starting with the berserk pack and moving up to the BFG; each battle is tailored to be comfortably handled using primarily the weapon it introduces, although the chaingun and rocket launcher battles are a little nastier than the others. It's really quite video game-y in how explicitly it's framed (especially since you generally only use each weapon once), which is not an approach I generally prefer, but somehow the relaxed space-mind-trip theme and the fact that this catch-as-catch-can approach is par for the course for KS makes me not mind at all.

As aforesaid, the rocket launcher battle is probably the map's apex of difficulty, and also my favorite fight. After some minor preamble the RL becomes available, but taking it triggers the appearance of a couple of bleacher-loads of chaingunners, a teleporting stream of revenants with a cyberdemon behind them, and more stationary revenants at your back in the distance. There's a freely-available blur sphere that is essential to surviving the chaingunners, but of course, its effect also makes the cyberdemon far more dangerous--interesting tactical tradeoff, I think. With a little thought you can outwit the setup, though--take the sphere, stand around and let it run through most of its duration, and then use its last few seconds to trigger/kill the chaingunners, such that it wears out before the meat of the cyberdemon duel.

I quite enjoy this map, although I think this really has as much to do with the general mood/setting/concept as with the actual gameplay.

Share this post


Link to post
Demon of the Well said:

I think the idea is that they 'distract' autoaim and keep you from plinking the spider to death from certain vantages. As to why that might seem particularly important (esp. considering the spider is almost always killed by one of the cybers long before you can reach it anyway), your guess is as good as mine...


You're probably right. I kept thinking that the point was for a stray bullet or five to hit the group causing them to try and nip at the Spider's heels, but the Spider would be more concerned with the more threatening monsters surrounding it (or Doomguy) and you would eventually get to see the demons bite it to death. Either way we'll chalk it up as another one of those Kame Sutra-isms.

When I played, the Cyberdemons took care of him before the demons ever could so I base my theory on absolutely nothing.

Share this post


Link to post

map 18: HMP, 101% kills, 50% secrets, 10+ deaths

Actually gave this an honest go though it took a while to find a path. I recall liking this on skill 2 way back when but skill 3 is so much harder. This was semi-blind as I forgot nearly every about the map except for the open nature of it. Kept dying early until I took a leap of faith on a one way path. Very interconnected layout held my attention and while I did have some close calls (a one way path where the only exit was a lift with monsters at the top I couldn't pick off from below, plasma panic at the yellow key, and a surprise ambush of revenants) I finally succeeded in cleaning out the entire monster population without saves or cheats. The sole cyber on this difficulty went down surprisingly easy. By chance, I found an elevated position where I could safely attack and it cooperated by staying on the other side of that wall instead of moving to a point where it could have a line of fire.

Map 20:
Who else died in the first room the first time playing the map/

Also, I've yet to figure out how to obtain the yellow key. Evil trap.

Share this post


Link to post

Map26 - “Kill Bill” by Adolf Vojta

This was an entertaining map, real bastard start. In fact it is a bastard from start to finish really. There's enough health that you can't complain though, and plenty of ammo even though I started to run out near the end. Lots of save spamming to get through, mostly in relation to cybers which I never have the patience to deal with properly so end up charging in with bfg and hoping they die quickly. The symmetry feels a little bit cheap perhaps, it does give you advance warning of what to expect when you are clearing out the other side of the map though which can be helpful.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP27 - UV - ???%kills 100%secrets - scratch start - savestate use ~

Finally a good map with lots of ideas in the space. Good thing its not repetitive as the previous 3 maps.
It's a pistol zombies scene in the first area then the berserk on those bridges and then just hit & run no matter what trap is activated , this map is really good to speedrun.
So , yeah. Hit & run , that's most of the map , the rest are just big groups of enemies that you have to kill with an SSG or RL.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP27 Stairway To Heaven

There are a lot of good things to say about this level I really don't know where to start. It has progressive gameplay, a MIDI that totally fits the title, and a style that makes it seem like I'm playing first-person mini golf. I like the 3d bridges in one area, the windmill, the castleyards and the monster thing where the plasmagun is, with two cyberdemons (revenants in my case) in its arms. Oh and grab the invisibility before the rocket launcher and you'll have a chance at avoiding a lot of chaingunners (some of them are zombiemen on HNTR). But risk a cyberdemon coming at you from behind. In my case, it was an archvile and lotsa imps though, so that wasn't hard. And that last one, it's best to run forward, smash the spider with the BFG and look back in anger if you want. Lotsa fun. But no reality, I didn't bother particularly because of the small square yard with zombies and imps in it being the main cause. Final Time 5:10.

There are some glitches around, here's two, in the same area.





And also six chaingunners were missed somehow.

Share this post


Link to post

Map27: Stairway To Heaven

Time for the minigolf map done Doomstyle. Divided into ten (I think?) battles, each very different from one another, separated by teleports in and out. In the first "track" you only have the pistol, second one gives you a berserk pack, third a shotgun and it goes like that until you finally get the BFG in the tenth arena. Visually it's extremely Kama Sutra, you encounter windmills and weirdo giant monster-statues and such on your journey through this map.

Because of the design, the combat is very varied and pretty fun too for the most part. The pistol area deserves no comments as it's over in five seconds. Berserk is short too and not very difficult, although punching down a HK and a Baron in a small area is a bit tricky. Like the start for the shotgun area as it requires moving but after that it kind of reduces to a slugfest through a horde of Imps and a few middleweights. For added excitement, I used my berserk punching abilites to kill a few HKs but there's plenty of ammo so punching is no necessary at all. The two chaingun areas are pretty cool, the first has a tricky start and the second is just all around hectic chaingun action.

The SSG part is a bit disappointing though. There's the KS patented huge monster mash that disappears almost completely after a while on the left and a huge Imp-pen on the right. Neither side offers much resistance against and there is literally no other choice but to thin the herd (or let the herd thin itself) from distance at first. RL fight is definitely the best and the toughest one in the map. I only remembered the Chaingunner stands popping up at some point so I almost got overrun by the Rev-horde that teleported behind me. No blursphere pickup either but instead I dropped down the stairs and improvised my way from there. Didn't exactly work like a charm but I survived to die another day. The Chaingunners here have a tendency to drop down into the void but they can be picked off easily enough if they don't wander into wrong places. It's easy to miss some of them though.

The plasma rifle part is another disappointing one, which is a shame really because exciting plasma rifle battles are some of the best things Doom has to offer. This battle is just too easy and the Cybers are only annoying to kill. BFG arena sees a return to form and with so much health around you can rush around all you want. The MIDI version of Stairway To Heaven sounds good and gives an atmospheric twist to the slaughtering so props for that. Solid map overall, bit of a breather like DoTW said but perhaps a breather is for the best before map28.

Map28: Hard Target

And here we are, the infamous Hard Target. Kind of a mixture of Post Mortem and Dark Dome from HR and AV respectively, this map is extremely long and difficult with deadly use of monsters up high and down below. But wait, there's more! Basically the whole ground level consists of damaging floor for added annoyance so raduits are highly recommended. There's a hefty amount of them at the storage tower where you start but they'll probably run out if you try to casually max this. I happily used save-spamming in this map and died a lot too which was not surprising in the least. I even had to restart once because of saving in a spot where it was near-impossible to advance without the BFG.

The BFG is really the key in this map, you absolutely must get it immediately to survive. It's kind of hidden so first timers will be rather fucked and probably means a high number of deaths to start with. Also players with infinite tallness turned on experience this map in a whole different way because of the hundreds of Cacos and PEs that appear at certain points. I had all the necessary switches pressed in around 25mins at which point most of the flying monsters were also dead but as always, I went for maxkills which was a long ass operation and took almost half an hour to accomplish. It's not really that hard anymore at that point since the enemies are caged and nothing is going to sneak up on you but the damaging floor and the sheer amount of monsters meant I still played it pretty carefully.

It's still the 27th and I don't want spoil this so I wont go into my strategies further. Just play it and feel the pain for yourself (and perhaps even a sense of accomplishment upon completion). I really like it but I'm fairly certain some in this thread will hate this but like I said, I recomend at least trying this seriously. Map29 is very different and an absolute blast though so no need to worry!

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×