Recommendation for a Hellbound lover

I just finished the truly epic Hellbound megawad and am having a VERY hard time finding another megawad(more than 9 level wad) that is in the same vein. Can you guys please post some recommendations? Note that the thing I LOVED about Hellbound was the sense of adventure and environment. Each level felt like i was actually going somewhere and it wasn't simply a test of skill.

Zen Dynamics (only 7 maps)
NeoDoom
Deus Vult II

alt.wad

I think Armadosia fits your description/requirements. Disclaimer though, I have not actually played Hellbound yet.

I'm about two thirds of the way through Hellbound and it certainly does REALLY well at establishing a sense of place, while giving some heavy handed gameplay to grind through as you move along. Some maps do it better than others, but on the whole its kinda top tier with that sort of thing. I'd say alt.wad comes close to that kind of "realistic settings" motif but hellbound just does it better.

I'm kinda at a loss at thinking of a wad that competes with it in that specific part you like about it.

edit: this is a bit smaller scale but maybe you'd like Hellfire 2?

Pedro VC said:

Zen Dynamics (only 7 maps)
NeoDoom
Deus Vult II

Any idea if there is a version of NeoDoom without all the mod'd monsters and weapons?

To me, Speed of Doom and Resurgence feel the most similar to Hellbound out of the major megawads, though they both start focusing on high monster counts and hard gameplay significantly earlier in the level progression than Hellbound does.

Also, it has a pretty different aesthetic, but have you tried Kama Sutra? It has a similar focus on sense of place and progressing from one realistic area to another. Again, it's generally harder than Hellbound.

A.L.T., which someone already mentioned, is my favorite megawad and has a fantastic sense of exploration in some places, but since it's a semi-community project, it doesn't have the same sense of cohesive progression as Hellbound. Of course, that's also part of its charm.

ETA: Jenesis and Whispers of Satan might also be up your alley, if you can get past the fairly generic early levels.

Skrell said:

Any idea if there is a version of NeoDoom without all the mod'd monsters and weapons?

Probably not, considering the massive amount of new weapons and monsters.

Doom 2 Reloaded and Hellbound have always seemed similar to me for some reason.

haha that makes sense since the megawad i played, and enjoyed greatly, before hellbound was Doom 2 Reloaded!! Another GREAT mapset although i have to say Hellbound was better IMO. These 2 megawads are SO great that i'm afraid i've been spoiled at this point!!

Not Jabba said:

To me, Speed of Doom and Resurgence feel the most similar to Hellbound out of the major megawads, though they both start focusing on high monster counts and hard gameplay significantly earlier in the level progression than Hellbound does.

Also, it has a pretty different aesthetic, but have you tried Kama Sutra? It has a similar focus on sense of place and progressing from one realistic area to another. Again, it's generally harder than Hellbound.

A.L.T., which someone already mentioned, is my favorite megawad and has a fantastic sense of exploration in some places, but since it's a semi-community project, it doesn't have the same sense of cohesive progression as Hellbound. Of course, that's also part of its charm.

ETA: Jenesis and Whispers of Satan might also be up your alley, if you can get past the fairly generic early levels.

Yea you read my mind!! I lost interest in Jenesis almost immediately because the first levels were SO cookie cutter and uninteresting.....if you're saying they get better i'll go back and try again?

Skrell said:

Yea you read my mind!! I lost interest in Jenesis almost immediately because the first levels were SO cookie cutter and uninteresting.....if you're saying they get better i'll go back and try again?

It definitely gets better. Levels 9-11 were sort of the turning point for me where I realized Jimmy was on to something interesting, but level 12 (which is a giant highway) is the first one where it feels like the wad is telling a story. There are some pretty unique scenarios throughout episode 2 (try CLEVing to map 15 and have a look around), and levels 20-29 introduce the new monster, which adds some nice flavor. Maps 20 and 29 are a couple of epic base/gateway-themed levels that I think tie the whole story together really nicely.

So here's my problem with armadosia.... there are WAY too may enemies hidden behind "fold down" structures...so you constantly have to question every wall and can never consider and area "cleared" . Does anyone else agree? Would this change anyone's recommendation?

Skrell said:

So here's my problem with armadosia.... there are WAY too may enemies hidden behind "fold down" structures...so you constantly have to question every wall and can never consider and area "cleared" . Does anyone else agree? Would this change anyone's recommendation?

Not to mention all the times you have to run over an item or attempt to "use" a keyed door you know you can't enter yet in order to drop down a wall and progress. I mean, Armadosia has a *lot* of clear gameplay flaws (though the recent update dealt with many of them), and anyone who likes/recommends it has already accepted those flaws. Like A.L.T. and Eviltech, a lot of the fun of playing Armadosia comes from how weird it feels, and that weirdness combined with the huge scope of the levels is what makes it feel like some kind of grand adventure.

I'm surprise "vanliant" isn't mentioned, it's truly epic, also "epic 2" is adventure like.

Valiant to me is pure slaughterfest...i prefer exploration mixed with epic battles paced our carefully.... To be fair I only played the first 4 or 5 valiant maps but quickly got tired of the constant running and gunning.

What about Whitemare 1\2?

Skrell said:

Valiant to me is pure slaughterfest...

Someones gotta get this word out of the general average doomer's vocabulary. Valiant is like Plutonia 1000 years in the future and after a can of redbull. With monster counts usually below 200 per map, Its hardly a slaughter.

City of Doom. 11 maps, beware, some are quite big.

There's also DST-T (overall dubious quality) and Prodoomer (contains even more new weapons and monsters than NeoDoom), maybe you like those.

Btw everyone..so far i'm loving Whispers of Satan!!

great!