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Wugo Heaving

Consenus on NRFTL?

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Just been getting back into Doom over the past year, playing Doom 1 & 2, Plutonia, Evilution, and in the process of getting the hang of Doom Builder as a new hobby to work toward a decent, enjoyable and challenging WAD in the future.

With that in mind, what's the consensus on No Rest For The Living? I just played through it again and forgot how well rounded it is, and while it's short it's got a certain something to the level design that I find doesn't get boring.

So how do you guys feel it stacks up to the longer WADS like Plutonia? What do you like and not like about it, And how do you think it would have faired in the caco award nominations if it had just been recently made and you'd never played it before?

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I think what made me think it was way older was that it doesn't have any custom textures or features and it feels like a natural extension of Doom, like a fourth chapter with Doom 2's enemies.

I've only had a quick look at most recent Doom games and assumed everyone would be playing uber-customised Brutal Doom WADS or something!

Reassuring to know that classic designs and simple but challenging gameplay are still in favour with dedicated Doom gamers.

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I think it's a really good level set but I played on Xbox 360 with a controller and found the level "Vivisection" unusually harsh on UV!

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I like it, although it certainly ends with a pathetic whimper. Ramps up the difficulty compared to Hell on Earth without resorting to Chaingunner/Revenant spam or grindy/boring slaughterfests. Vivisection in particular can be a surprisingly vicious encounter when Pistol-Starting.

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I enjoyed it. It might be a trick of the mind but it felt more like commercial levels than PWADs, in the sense of being professionally polished and designed. I only have it on the PS3 otherwise I would play it again.

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purist said:

I enjoyed it. It might be a trick of the mind but it felt more like commercial levels than PWADs.

Aside from them actually being commercial levels (hohoho), it's no trick of the mind at all; being designed away from and without any sort of community input/feedback in all stages of development gave NRFTL an individual and unique flavour which avoided so many PWAD tropes such as the aforementioned preference for Revenants and Chaingunners around every corner and in every space they'd fit.

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It's more or less Thy Flesh Consumed for Doom II. I only played it once illegitimately on PC and the skies weren't working but I had a good time.

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haven't played all of it, but it's pretty good for what it's worth, yeah. nothing fantastically ground-breaking in terms of design, but the fact it's a quality, commercially released add-on way after the actual game was made, it's quite impressive.

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I think it gets maybe just a little more unquestioning credit than it deserves--the dazzling star-power of being a bona fide professional expansion to this ancient game, perhaps--but all told it's a worthy effort and certainly worth playing.

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I never played it because I thought it was just a shitty addon to incentivise you to buy BFG edition like the extra lost mission expansion which was also a teenager's weekend map pack. I'll probably check it out now I know I don't have to redownload BFG edition just to get at it and that it won a Cacoward.

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SavageCorona said:

I never played it because I thought it was just a shitty addon to incentivise you to buy BFG edition like the extra lost mission expansion which was also a teenager's weekend map pack. I'll probably check it out now I know I don't have to redownload BFG edition just to get at it and that it won a Cacoward.

It was actually out well before BFG was even announced as an XBLA exclusive (at the time).

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Cyanosis said:

It's more or less Thy Flesh Consumed for Doom II.


That's a great way of putting it actually.

I agree with the statements about the last level, but I do like the atmosphere of it. That foreboding empty chamber then the descent into the dark section teeming with imps and a Cyberdemon. There's genuine tension there I think, but despite the challenge, yeah, it's kind of a little underwhelming. Feels like a penultimate level, or the first half of something bigger perhaps.

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I really liked it. I hope Id will make another expansion for Doom 2, maybe even with a couple of new weapons, enemies. Could work as a promotion for Doom 4. Please Id?

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Is it just me or was the second half of NRFTL filled with way too much red? I enjoyed the gameplay but holy fuck everything was just so... RED. The walls, the barons, the cacodemons, even the sky I think. Like damn. Reminded me of the overuse of brown in Plutonia. Still fun to play though.

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I remember here being so much brown at one point, but I haven't touched it in quite a while though.

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RUSH said:

Is it just me or was the second half of NRFTL filled with way too much red? I enjoyed the gameplay but holy fuck everything was just so... RED. The walls, the barons, the cacodemons, even the sky I think. Like damn. Reminded me of the overuse of brown in Plutonia. Still fun to play though.

100% accurate review of NRFTL.

GhostlyDeath said:

Does the XBox 360 BFG Doom 3 Edition have NRFTL?

It does indeed :)

DooM_RO said:

I really liked it. I hope Id will make another expansion for Doom 2, maybe even with a couple of new weapons, enemies. Could work as a promotion for Doom 4. Please Id?

Unlike the Doom3 re-release, Doom4 seems to be aiming to please the nostalgia-seekers on it's own, without needing to pack in/rely on the oldies for the oldschool crowd. I assume that will be their reason for not including them, at least ;)

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RUSH said:

Is it just me or was the second half of NRFTL filled with way too much red? I enjoyed the gameplay but holy fuck everything was just so... RED. The walls, the barons, the cacodemons, even the sky I think. Like damn. Reminded me of the overuse of brown in Plutonia. Still fun to play though.


Somebody used a screenshot from it to argue the brown and bloom of modern FPS only that the shot of Doom had nothing but brown and red, including the monsters.

Doom 1 had a lot of blue, sometimes with red. I liked that combination.

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Let's be honest, though. Lots of muted colors has been a thing in the FPS genre pretty much since Doom. Remember how everyone complained about how brown Quake was? More colorful games like Unreal are the exception to the rule.

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Honestly it makes sense games would have certain portions that are colorful, and certain parts a bit more drab, to set the mood. Taking a single screenshot from any game and using it for a comparison is just cherry picking, whoever did that is a little bit silly.

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