What are your top 5 PWADs?

Yeah yeah, I'm sure this has been done many times before. Rather than listing a bunch of stuff you like, I'm interested in which PWADs people would pick when limited to 5 of their absolute favourites. No overhyped, nostalgia-fueled 90's worship please.

Anyways, my top 5 picks are:

1. Valiant: Excellent gameplay mod + mapset in one.
2. Sunlust: The best "hardcore" wad that doesn't require speedrunning to enjoy.
3. Hellbound: Huge, immersive adventure-style maps with insane detailing and realism achieved with stock textures.
4. Epic 2: Another great adventure set with very satisfying secrets and puzzle-based gameplay.
5. Plutonia 2: I like Plutonia, this is more Plutonia. Best looking custom IoS boss too.

There are maybe 6 or 7 megawads that I've rated 5 so they tend to be kind of a big deal.

rileymartin said:

I'm interested in which PWADs people would pick when limited to 5 of their absolute favourites.

oh okay well

rileymartin said:

No overhyped, nostalgia-fueled 90's worship please.

lol

rileymartin said:

There are maybe 6 or 7 megawads that I've rated 5 so they tend to be kind of a big deal.

mmmmmmmm yessssssssss

1. Scythe 2
2. Acient Aliens
3. Scythe
4. Sunlust
5. Scythe X

(big Scythe fan here)

For sp/coop:

Scythe
Hellrun (for Doom2)
Memento Mori
Doomcity
Fava Beans

I also love Bermuda.wad, Area51.wad and Equinox, they're the runners up.


For deathmatch/duel:

Dwango5 & 6 (one ain't complete without the other)
UDM 3
Greenwar
FULoser
OblivX

Honorable mentions to exec.wad, the brit#.wad series, the Dweller series and Don't Be a Bitch DM.

For my top 5 sp/coop wads.

1, fragport
2, scythe 2
3, alien vendetta
4, hell revealed 2
5, Kamasutra

For my top 5 deathmatch wads.
Dwango 5
Nimrod project doom
Crucified dreams
Omgmaps
Dynamite

Even though nimrodpd and dynamite are zandronum only dm wads to be honest

rileymartin said:

There are maybe 6 or 7 megawads that I've rated 5 so they tend to be kind of a big deal.

Impressive!

Anyway if I really have to I pick these wads:

Memento Mori 2
Eternal Doom
Bloody Steel
Plutonia 2
Alien Vendetta

In no specific order:

DooM the Way iD Did
Golden Souls
Dawn of the Dead (DoDead.wad)
Strange Aeons
Nerves of Steel

Bit of a strange mix, two very vanilla doom 1 wads, two total conversions and another that completely changes dooms gameplay. They are all great for very different reasons.

Ghoul's Forest 4
UAC Military Nightmare
Infested Base
1x1box.wad
homcity.wad
blahblahblah.

JK, I haven't played too many super-elite megawads (and even the ones that I've played suck hard IMHO), so
castleof.wad (the only way Quake feels good -- converted to Doom)
uac_dead.wad
bcrwcd.wad (i hope I got the name right, quite recent AND decent wad)
chex2.wad (despite everybody telling that it sucks, I found it WAY better than cq1)
vrack.wad

Ha, too much overhyped 90's nostalgia here. Hell, I wasn't even born back then!

In no particular order:

BTSX E2 (vanilla mapping at its finest)

Going Down (Boom maps gone awesome)

Echelon (bite sized maps, immersive story)

Swift Death (bite sized maps, crazy difficulty)

Brutal Doom (why not, it's crazyness is fun in its own way)

Scythe (First one)
Mano Laikas
DTWID
Erkatainne
Jenesis

1. Alien Vendetta
2. Requiem
3. Hell Revealed
4. Memento Mori 1 and 2
5. Eternal Doom

Back To Saturn X Episode One - When ever I just want to casually play Doom I tend to pick this. It's fun, it looks great, and it's a technical master piece of pushing Doom2 to it's limits.

Going Down - In terms of narrative through level design, nothing else I've played comes close. It has the same sublime grotesque humour as the author's animations. Doom furniture often doesn't work for me, but here it wouldn't work without it.

Back To Basics - It has it's own distinct style and little of the technical trickery of Suspended In Dusk. Some authors create Doom maps, Espi created places. Convinced me that I wanted to make Doom maps.

Scythe - It's not always pretty, but it plays so damn well. That constant hit of achievement every time you finish a level makes it an addictive ride.

No Rest For The Living - Oozes quality, as perhaps it should. It has it's own distinct style, great direction and solid design.

Sorted alphabetically because I don't feel like thinking too hard about comparing them with each other:

Back to Saturn X E1
Going Down
Mano Laikas
Pirate Doom
Valiant

Hmm a tough one for me but here are probably my 5 favourite PWads

Scythe 2
Kama Sutra
Valiant
Pirate Doom
Going down

I tend to like wads which whilst have great gameplay have their own unique charm and innovation of the time, it is fair to say that all 5 in my opinion have.

Disturbia
Elysion
Grime
Speed of Doom
darkwave32

1.Going Down
2.Back To Saturn X E1
3.Doom 2 The Way ID Did
4.Community Chest 2
5.Community Chest 4

I'm pretty new to most PWADs and I haven't gotten to completely go through a lot of them yet, but the ones I've really liked so far are Scythe, Alien Vendetta, and Memento Mori.

I recommend you try BTSX, Going Down, Urania, Bloodstain, Zone 300, Arch-Vile Jump, Swift Death and whatever else I forgot soon. Those are really superb.

1.Alien Vendetta
2.A.L.T
3.Memento Mori(1and2)
4.BTSX
5.2002 A Doom Odyssey

I wish I could mention more,but you said 5 pwads.so I wrote 5 my favorite megawads

5. Stronghold : On the Edge of Chaos
4. Back to Saturn X E1
3. Hell Void
2. Threshold of Pain
1. Ultimate Torment and Torture

^ well, technically, you wrote 7 pwads. (both MMs and BTSXs)
edit: i meant replying to Mysterious Haruko's post. Goddamn ninjas.

My favorites are:
Sunlust(best slaughterwad I ever played, beautiful architecture)
Zone 300(small maps, huge fun)
Requiem(a timeless classic)
Back to Saturn X: EP1(pushes Doom to it's limits, every level is polished)
Doom The Way ID Did: The Lost Episodes(good ol' classic dooming,in 54 maps)

Memento Mori II
Darkening 2
Caverns of Darkness
ChordG
Equinox

Alien Vendetta
Resurgence
Lunatic
Plutonia 2
TVR!

1. Deus Vult 2
2. Alien Vendetta
3. Sunlust
4. Back to Saturn X EP.1
5. Going Down

Bonus:
Swift Death
Swim with the Wales
Valiant

NeoDoom, KDIZD, Hellbound, Deus Vult 2, LOS

18-in-1v2.pk3 ok just got 18 wads in 1, I win i think.

No pk3's? Can convert to .wad easy.

Other 4 slots uhh
skirmish4f - like 120 old dm maps
plutonia
doom2
doom1

OK there we go

Current standings (didn't play most recent stuff and not considering iwads otherwise Plutonia is on the first spot):

Plutonia 2
Claustrophobia 1024 2
Hell Revealed 2
Memento Mori
Plutonia Revisited

Honorable mention:

Cabal series

Voros said:

I recommend you try BTSX, Going Down, Urania, Bloodstain, Zone 300, Arch-Vile Jump, Swift Death and whatever else I forgot soon. Those are really superb.

WADs like Swift Death are out of the question cause I'm just really bad at Doom and I have very little patience. I also don't really care for stuff like BTSX with the major graphics conversions which are off-putting for me. I prefer the more vanilla styled WADs.

I can now add Requiem to my earlier list of AV, MM, and Scythe, just gotta find one more.

^ I suggest Reverie.