What are you playing now?

Currenltly playing Plutonia Revisited, well, almost finished, missing maps 15, 31, 32. Fun experience so far. I'll post some thought once finished (actually there would be a lot to talk about) :)

Phobosdeimos1 Anomaly from E1M1 to E1M3...

Just finished a WAD called 'Doom the Dark Project'. Good concept. Decent environments. Blah level design. I got stuck in a bathtub and had to idcilp my way out of it.

Finished Plutonia Revisited played it right after Plutonia 2. Like said before PRCP is a very good and enjoyable megawad.
Between the two, however, I prefer Plutonia 2 which is for me superior due to the fact I disliked only 3 maps (map 08, map 15 and map 32 - the IoS at the end turn a good map into a luckfest imo).
On PRCP there were more maps that I have enjoyed less compared to PL2, especially the remakes, with some exceptions like "Have @ it" which is, by far, better then "Go 4 it". Speaking of remakes, Cyberdemon vertigo was terrible (not comparable, for me, with Cyberden and Cybernation): when I have to use IDCLIP 2 times for finishing a map something went wrong in playtesting..
Speaking instead of beautiful maps there are many in Plutonia revisited, these are my favorite: map 01 (this a true remake, very well designed), 04 , 09 (superb map), 11 (outstanding), 13, 15 (the most difficult of the set, beautiful designed, should have been on late e3 imo), 16, 17 (easier then the original but well designed), 18 (although the final fight is absurd), 20, 22, 25, 27, 28 (damn fucking good map), 32.

Ah, now playing ENDPOINT some AV, some NH and Beesong

Finished Sunlust, started Swift Death and got through the first 7 maps tonight.

In the early goings of DTWID: Lost Episodes Episode 3. Man, these levels are awesome. Between DTWID, NEIS, and DTWID:LE, there's just so much great stuff.

I can't help but wonder (and I'm sure this has been answered elsewhere) but did D2TWID ever have any "lost levels"?

Something completely different, hope you guys dont mind me posting this here. But since I havent touched any Doom for about 15 years...

Nostalgic Retrogaming -> http://gravityforce20.com/
(and could use some more speedrunners for serious competition^^)

Dank Midi's & Linedefs and some Swift Death on the side.

@Salt-Man Z: There are lost D2TWID maps but not as many as in the first installment and they were heavy on first episode rejections if I remember right. Last I heard Xaser had been given the responsibility to put out D2TWID:LE but even way back then it was not a priority so who knows now.

I had 4.5 maps in that list so if D2TWID:LE is ever abandoned I'd hope the authors of the maps will be told so they can Co side reprising them.

Alien vendetta and some very old wads.

Recently finished BTSX E2. It was pretty good ,although the final map was underwhelming from a gameplay perspective compared to the E1 finale.

I'm almost through castheng.wad (though I have to go back and finish the levels that I didn't manage to get through on the first couple tries). From here: http://www.mediafire.com/?8v819qqh785509x

The text file describes the levels but doesn't have actual info about the wad, so here's the general blurb:

Title                : Castle Heng
Filename             : castheng.wad
Author               : James XIII
Release Date         : 1994-1998?

Description          : A 30-map megawad that mixes puzzle-based gameplay and (many)
                       cyberdemon encounters with abstract level design and an overarching 
                       science fiction and fantasy narrative that has you exploring castles, spaceports,
                       and prisons en route to a final confrontation against the Heng.

I am in love with this wad. It's not pretty by any stretch, but it's everything I love about 90s maps, mixing abstract design with a clear sense of narrative (you're working your way through a castle, then you go to space, then it seems like you die, and that's about where I'm at right now at map 25). It's got exploration and puzzles and the later maps in particular become very switch and line action heavy, but the maps themselves are all small so you never really get lost or bogged down by the puzzles. Some of the combat is piss easy, but you better know how to handle cyberdemons, because there are an absolute ton of them, and in all kinds of different situations: sometimes you've got the BFG, other times you've got to SSG them, and yet other times (many times) you've just got to run the hell away or dodge them while waiting for a door to very slowly drop to the floor. It's got a map that makes great use of a spawner, and another one that features zero enemies, just some light puzzles.

If any of this appeals and you haven't played it, I highly recommend it. Other maps that this kind of reminds me of: the early Odessa maps, low-fi Flynn or Evans work in general, and Cyberdreams (not as heavy on the puzzles, but definitely a lot of running around avoiding the things). Just be aware that the maps look pretty bland.

Finished DTWID:LE Ep4 last night. Wow, that was fantastic. E4M6: The Mourning Halls was freaking epic.

Also of course playing through THT for the Club play. Good stuff. Undecided whether I should start in on LE Ep5, or NEIS Ep4 (yay!) next.

Scythe, one the megawad with the worst difficult curve I've played so far

finished swtw a few nights ago, now i'm playing sunder. currently on map06.

iwads for ideas and stuff and crossing archeron 2 recently finished it
it was pretty good a classic
 

Edited January 6, 2021 by CountArchvile

Finished scythe on uv pistol start with no saves with the first twenty maps completed in less than two hours, then, a sudden spike in difficulty in e3 with 5 maps in a row without armor and some of them with tyson/low ammo gameplay like the difficult map 22. Then there is a cool and fun slaughter map which I had played years ago, Fear.
Map 27 was good and tricky but way less difficult then map 22 for me and overall well designed. I skipped map 28 on UV. Map 29 is a very cool city map, liked.
And finally Fire and Ice which has been more difficult to complete then all the others maps puts together; design was cool particulrarly the red key part although I preferred more the previous map from this point of view.

Finished Eviltech. On the whole it was full of cool stuff to check in the architecture, layout and progression but I didn't like so much how it plays. E1 is fine, basically it's an episode of Doom 1 level. I really wanted to like E2 but the gameplay was rather repetitive, huge monster counts which they are ok but on pistol starts you find the good weapons (SSG,RL,PR) very late in the maps. E3 gets better with some smaller maps to break and the pistol starts were less tedious. Even with its annoyances I'm very glad I played this.

Paul977 said:

And finally Fire and Ice which has been more difficult to complete then all the others maps puts together

Fire and Ice with no saves? Impressive. I've done the other maps UV-Pistol Start without saving since they were short but didn't have the patience for 29 and 30. I agree that 30 is a major step-up in difficulty (and length) from anything else in the wad.

rileymartin said:

Fire and Ice with no saves? Impressive. I've done the other maps UV-Pistol Start without saving since they were short but didn't have the patience for 29 and 30. I agree that 30 is a major step-up in difficulty (and length) from anything else in the wad.

Yes but after an iddqd run and watching some videos on youtube. It's a kind of map that need mandatory foreknowledge to be completed without saves and the route I used, going for the yellow key first releasing all the monsters in the ice courtyard then immediately go for the red key, put you in a somehow sort of ""safe"" position when you return to clean that big courtyard.

Finished playing through Obituary, 100% through all the maps. I'm glad that it's a wad that doesn't require you to do anything to make it runnable on vanilla without modifying the batch files unlike The Trooper's Playground, other than just loading it up through either the normal batch or the other which changes the weapons. Looks pretty amazing, I've always enjoyed the architecture and gameplay style of Denis and Thomas Moeller (The Innocent Crew), having played Memento Mori 1 and 2 for so long. Now that I've updated my Doom 2 from v1.666 to v1.9 (requiring two patches, one to go from v1.666 to v1.7 and then v1.7 to v1.9), I finally can play STRAIN on vanilla.

Done with Echelon, on to Gaspe's Legacy of Heroes, which has architecture that looks like ... architecture! It's uncanny. Up to MAP04, and so far this is nice with medium-intensity combat and lots of cool stuff to look at. The fantasy theme plays well across the sorta-adventure-map format, and heck yeah those Eternal Doom textures are put to good use; I always liked them more than Eternal Doom itself.

(idcleving reveals some mega cool stuff in store)

Replaying Hell Ground again from Pistol Start since I stopped at map04 and never finished it last time. Also playing some ALT and lovin' the sound replacements.

Finished Unholy Realms, overall a good megawad even if, at times, the gameplay is a bit repetitive for my tastes. I would have preferred some other atmospherics maps like Premortem and Death (both excellent) to break a bit the pace. Liked both the guest maps.

Now playing Disturbia and it is simply an incredible map: distressing atmosphere, long, difficult with some insane and unexpected encounters. The room when you press the switch with the write "the land is disturbed" and the consequent fight let me in amazement, doesn't seem to play a level of doom.
Played first on skill 2 then skill 3 both with saves and it is more difficult then nochance on those skill levels, if you forget a trap you are fucked in this map.
The only thing that I liked a little less is the absence of the sg/ssg even if it is something desired by the author. Probably I'll play a modified version for myself with the ssg just for fun.

Been playing some Brutal Doom 64 as well as Hellbound for the DWMC. Liking the changes made in the former and having more fun than I did playing EX.

Playing Reverie now, I like how maps are ''joined'', the end if previous map being the start of the next map.

Right now I am playing Scythe 2 on UV without saves. It is great so far (Egypt levels). After that I am going to play some serious Toilet of the Gods on UV (played it on both HNTR and HMP) with no saves.

Finished TotG a few days ago, now I'm on map07 of New Gothic Movement 2 beta.

The cave fight with cybers/cacos/arachnotrons/archviles is killing me.

Spent the weekend playing Castle of Evil (CASTEVIL) and Polygon. Think I'll play something shorter now.

Just started playing Alien Vendetta, pretty good so far