The DWmegawad Club plays: Newgothic Movement 2 & Deus Vult II

 

What is the DWmegawad Club?
This is a place where we settle down, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice) and take a month to play through a megawad on our own, together! Any keen observations, criticisms, or frustrated ranting about it goes here in the discussion. As long as you want to say something about what you've played, feel free to speak your mind.

 

Can I join?
Sure. The only rule is that you have to play at least some of the levels in our monthly megawad to contribute, but you're generally encouraged to finish the whole thing, even if you've played it before.

 

What levels am I allowed to post about?
Whatever day of the month it is, is the upper limit for the map you can post on. So if it’s the 6th, you may discuss up to MAP06. We’re going to start Deus Vult II on the 18th.

 

Do I have to post an entry every day?
Nope, not at all. This is only for our more enthusiastic members. As long as you play through it with us you’re part of the club.

 

When do we vote on the next month’s megawad?
Voting begins on the 25th of the current month. Remember to add one “+++” before your vote to make it easier to count. For example:

 

+++ Ultimate Doom

----------
>>>DOWNLOAD NEWGOTHIC MOVEMENT 2 HERE<<<

 

>>>DOWNLOAD DEUS VULT 2 HERE<<<

 

Strap yourself in marine, we’re jumping into Newgothic Movement 2 and Deus Vult II! The former is a sequel to a dark slaughter episode made by Armouredblood & Archi, and the latter is a… sequel to a dark slaughter episode made by Huy Pham. Steel yourself to mow down massive hordes of hell’s army and hey, who knows, maybe we’ll stumble upon Deus Vult 1 in the process.

 

Maplist for Newgothic Movement 2:

MAP01

MAP02

MAP03

MAP04

MAP05

MAP06

MAP07

MAP08

MAP09

MAP10

MAP11

MAP12

MAP13

MAP14

MAP15

MAP31

MAP16

^{(this isn’t an error, the maps don’t have names)}

 

Maplist for Deus Vult II:

MAP01 - Entryway Pass

MAP02 - Mutagen

MAP03 - Crouching Demon, Hidden Archvile

MAP12 - Minas Morgul

MAP13 - Eagle’s Nest

MAP19 - Stargate

MAP20 - Desert Temple

MAP21 - The Unholy Cathedral

MAP22 - You Shall Not Pass!

MAP23 - Hell’s Vendetta

MAP29 - Saint Peter’s Gate

 

MAP31 - The Manliest Fight EVER

MAP32 - Sauron’s Gauntlets!

 

BONUS CONTENT
Doomwiki: Deus Vul II

DSDA: Newgothic Movement 2 | Deus Vult II

koren’s commentary/UV-Max on DVII MAP23

Lingyan203's playthrough of Deus Vult I & II

Deus Vult

Newgothic Movement 1
----------
OLD THREADS
2012

• BF_THUD!
• Community Chest 4
• Jenesis
• MAYhem 2012

2013

• Memento Mori
• Interception
• 2002: A Doom Odyssey
• Hadephobia
• Coffee Break & Fava Beans & Double Impact
• HYMN
• Stardate 20X6 & Monochrome Mapping Project
• Realm of Chaos
• Back to Saturn X E1 & Favillesco E1
• Kama Sutra
• Unholy Realms & Zone 300
• Vile Flesh
• Ultimate Doom

2014

• Whitemare & Sacrament
• Scythe
• Epic 2
• Whitemare 2
• Sunder & Countdown to Extinction
• Doom 2 the Way id Did
• MAYhem2048
• Stomper
• Back to Saturn X E2
• Going Down
• Rylayeh & Crimson Canyon & Azagthoth
• Serenity & Eternity & Infinity

2015

• Resurgence
• Requiem
• ConC.E.R.N.ed & Draft Excluder
• Doom 2 Reloaded
• Valiant
• Scythe 2
• NOVA II
• STRAIN
• Icarus: Alien Vanguard
• Sunlust
• Plutonia 2
• Revolution!

2016

• 50 Shades of Graytall & Erkattäññe
• Hell Revealed
• Vanguard, Hell Ground, Bloody Steel
• Eternal Doom
• Japanese Community Project
• Ancient Aliens
• Bloodstain
• Estranged
• Alien Vendetta
• THT: Threnody & No Rest for the Living
• Hellbound
• Echelon & Mutiny

2017

• TNT: Evilution
• TNT: Revilution
• No End in Sight
• Speed of Doom
• Urania

Edited May 9, 2023 by dobu gabu maru

Oh yeah... here we go!

OMG it's happening

MAP01 Where are the map names

 

Let's start out with rockets, making this quite a conquest if they come close. Thankfully 368 is a small number, for now. Wide halls, but going into the next room is a total fuck you for its arch-vile, mancubi, and chaingunner placement. Too much reliance on the rocket launcher when there's nowhere to run too. Actually, a lot of the ambushes are set up the same way, got some initial combat on at least two sides, let's add up more enemies through teleporting means to make it so much more annoying! The fun part in this wad might just be the one involving mancubi and the cyberdemon which calls for infighting (plus a spiderdemon). Actually, I stopped caring at this point.

 

And afterwards, I just figured out how to get the BFG. Don't leave the first room in a rush or you permanently miss it. You gotta have the hidden blue key to get the damn thing, plus shoot another wall off to the side.

OH SWEET JESUS THESE MAPSETS OH GOD HAVE MERCY.

 

Good luck.

Welp, this its gonna hurt for me!

Sytche hope u trained me well.

Thanks everyone who voted for NG2 this month. I'm really glad people find it worth playing in DWMC.

As for difficulty of the NG2... There are no skill settings in there. But don't worry, if you have trouble you can try ITYTD, it'd be definitely easier to play and yet challenging.

I also wish good luck to everyone who is going to play these levels. I'm recommending to play with saves and have patience for some battles. Hope you enjoy it.

43 minutes ago, Archi said:

I also wish good luck to everyone who is going to play these levels. I'm recommending to play with saves and have patience for some battles. Hope you enjoy it.

Hey, question!—what work did you do for NG2?

4 minutes ago, dobu gabu maru said:

Hey, question!—what work did you do for NG2?

Let's leave it a secret until 18th June and let other people suggest it. :)

Gonna confirm the obvious here but we're starting with NG2 and then playing Meme Vult II right?

3 hours ago, NuMetalManiak said:

MAP01 Where are the map names

And afterwards, I just figured out how to get the BFG. Don't leave the first room in a rush or you permanently miss it. You gotta have the hidden blue key to get the damn thing, plus shoot another wall off to the side.

give me a clue (in a spoiler) i just IDDT'd to look for a BK and still cant see anything >.<

im going to be playing most of this with saves; June is a busy month for my job so i cant afford to spend 1-2 hours trying to one-shot slaughter maps (not that id actually be able to; im expecting some hard stuff!)

 

map01 fda

didnt really enjoy this. first off, the midi is really dull and repetitive, which doesnt put me in a good mood. second, a lot of the mid-portion of the map is 'funnel enemies down hallways and wait for them to run into rockets'. you can of course rush through the map trying to 'make' some more fun, but i always dislike maps that make me feel obligated to spice things up - im lazy!

the secret bfg might help but from its location it seems it may only become available when the 'hallway rocket spam' section is over anyway.

edit: also, clearing out the chaingunners is irritating busywork, and their presence puts one off running at the cyber to have a bit of close quarter ssg dancing - crappy.

Edited June 1, 2017 by rehelekretep

So, normally I'm not a huge slaughter guy, but hey, there's so many lying around (especially in Skillsaw maps, which I love) and since this won (I'm just gonna keep beating that UAC Ultra drum until it gets picked, fyi. Better that than my other, probably terrible idea to vote for ZPack) I might as well give it a try, right?  Pistol starting this, since the maps only seem to give you just enough resources to actually get through, and not much more.

 

New Gothic Movement 2: MAP01

330/350 kills, 0/1 secrets

 

OUCH.

 

The map actually starts out tame, rocket dueling Mancubi and Revenants in quick order (the shotgun guys are pretty easily bated into the Mancubi's fire arc, and didn't pose too much of a threat).  That gives way to the first real arena battle, where you have to dispatch 3 (and later a 4th) archviles under withering HK and mancubi fire.  Hope you didn't try to pick up the backpack mid-fight!  The map calms down for a little bit after that; the barons and revs that spawn in after you open the door back up are pretty easily bated outside into the arena, where infighting takes care of the rest, at which point you can clear out the two new wings, so long as you keep an eye out for a rear ambush.  Those teleporting rear ambushes were a pretty common trick in this map, actually, keeping the player from trying to camp things out in the entry room and such.

 

It's when you hit the T-bone intersection in this map that things really start to heat up again.  This part requires careful movement to clear out the chaingun snipers on the side (one of which holds the secret of the map, a BFG that would've really come in handy during the last fight had I found it); careful movement that will almost certainly be interrupted by the incoming cyberdemon and mancubi spawning in on all sides once you reach the middle of the intersection.  Once you manage to clear all that out, you can open the door down the center hallway and discover the final battle, set up quite similarly to Gotcha! with the Mastermind and another Cyberdemon on opposing ends, only with a lot more Mancubi and Cacos, and much less cover.  You can actually telefrag the Cyberdemon at this point, by jumping off into the lava and taking the teleporter back up, but I wouldn't recommend that particular strategy, considering the size of the Manc/Caco hoards in the two wings.  It was at this point, incidentally, while running around in circles like a total fool, that I discovered I had let a really large imp swarm loose at some point; blowing them away with the Super Shotty was quite stress-relieving compared to the nightmare that the T-Bone had become, let me tell you.  In the end, both boss monsters ended up getting blown away by infighting; I was actually on the other side of the map with 5% health or so when the Mastermind went down to Manc fighting, and I ended up making a mad dash back into what turned out to be the exit room.

 

I just want to point out, so that this post isn't entirely about gameplay, that the map looks beautiful.  Lots of color variation throughout the various arenas, albeit in very muted tones, and very nice detailing all over without being too excessive (or worse, being able to get caught on it trying to dodge the various hoards).  Placement of ammo feels natural, rather than it sort of being vomited across every square inch of the map, something that's probably helped by the fact that the map only give you juuuust enough ammo and health to get by, and no more.  Like I said, when I finally got to the exit, I only had about 5% health, and was critically low on rockets. (Probably could've MAX'D the kills though, I had plenty of shotgun ammo left).  All and all, for as hard as this was, I had a lot of fun playing through everything, and didn't feel particularly frustrated trying to get through the map.

 

Promising start so far, but seeing that the next map starts you under fire, we'll see how long I can keep up.

let's see how many make it through :p

 

 

 

So, how cowards play Slaugthermaps? They run!

Playing on GBloom! HMP. 

So first the rocketlauncher with the 3 mancubi and shotgunners. Pretty easy, then the 40 monster fest that is the reverants and barons with the 3 archie to kill first. After that, when the doors opens. Run! Evading all the monster and the archie on the door, then go to the left to see squares of demons incoming! But some soulsphere and door keep me alive.  Running trougth reverands, barons of hells and that one archie that make me jump some square of reverant. Going to the hallway with spiders and a Cyberdemon, i grab that blue armour and make a mano to mano with the cyberdemon, only to go to his rigth and oper the door, with a bad luck of getting killed by the spidermastermind in the end.

So many restarts. I got in my way. But know i know reading this that there its a BFG, maybe i will try again xD

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgS1ZoidySwN2Q-4QHy0ak6-p_ZiF13wW

 

Here's my playthrough of Deus Vult 1 and Deus Vult 2! I don't plan on playing the Newgothic Movement series anytime soon, but if I do, I'll send the video playthrough here :)

@jamondemarnatural 13% kills? This is a UV-Max club man! ;) Also HMP is not implemented so it's either UV or ITYTD as mentioned before.

 

Anyways, I'm not doing "the usual" setup for this and playing NG2 with GLBoom+ because I know some of the maps take a performance dump in GZDoom.

 

Map01

 

We've got an entry-level slaughtermap here which mostly uses the brown/grey/red brick colour-scheme seen in the picture. There's a secret BFG in one of the Chaingunner cages which I never ended up using. Gameplay mostly consists of encounters involving medium-sized groups of Revenants combined with Cacos or Mancs and the lone backup Vile here and there. Infighting opportunities are plenty and lock-ins are used sporadically giving you the opportunity to retreat. Ammo seemed fine to me but health and armour is more limited so taking stupid damage is not recommended. I wasn't a fan of picking off those Chaingunners on the bridge and then doing the same with the Mancs which spawn in right below them. Midi was great though.

MAP01: MAP01

 

Not much to say beyond what others have said. Not one of my favorite maps in the set by any stretch. The combat feels tacked-on at times, with monsters warping in to provide rear pressure at chokepoints or hallways where the 'natural' combat is unidirectional, but not quite working. There are some strategic wrinkles -- like, how to do the backpack area with minimal damage -- but the health balance is generous enough that it doesn't feel necessary. Visually this is solid. Its predecessor, NG1, wasn't by any means an eyesore -- in fact often it was quite stunning, especially with wide-open vistas -- but conventionally textured areas could be a lot blander, and NG2 is generally more refined in terms of surface-level polish. But I come to these sets primarily for gameplay, though, so I don't think the frills on display in map01 are enough.

 

I did a casual NM pacifist run. Hardly spent any time on this. ;) The end is amusing because the mastermind blocks the exit until it dies, since it starts firing about immediately on NM, whereas on UV you can juke around it. (And in real life you'd be able to walk around the legs or underneath the chassis!) I'll do some casual maxes for most of the maps. 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2017 by rdwpa

NG2 map01:

 

If Doom2 was a slaughter-wad, this would be a fitting first map... Oh, wait... It is a fitting first map. So what's going on with it? Mostly straight forward rocket pumping against mid-tiers and viles, a secret BFG available about halfway through the map to make the beefy parts a breeze.

 

Points of interest would be the relatively high density of viles in the room that holds the backpack and the SSG, the overall pacifist/NM or UVspeed friendlyness of this map, as well as the chaingunner cabinets around the "T-bridge", which are a bit weird to clean, because it doesn't feel in line with the pacing this map has otherwise. If I were to demo this, I'd probably be more inclined to optimize this for speed rather than max, because of the previously mentioned cabinets.

 

Visually, a nice 3-tone style that conveys a good sense of location.

 

A nice appetizer.

haha wow. DV2 must be my all time favourite i think, might have to join in for that

I'm horrid at the game and after a good 15 or so attempts last night to get a foothold on MAP01 of NG2 I ended up getting all the way to to the T-Junction and then got surprised by the Mastermind. But, DV2 is actually a WAD I find alot more interesting and a bit more manageable, so I'll hop in when that starts. Not dissing NG2 or anything, I just don't wanna savescum my way through. 

 

                            No idea what this wad is all about. Never played the first one. Never even heard of it! Let’s go!

 

 

 

Map 01

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/saves

 

Hahahahaha, this was great. I loved it. Slaughter style stuff with GREAT looking textures and architecture. Just look at this beautiful thing! Gorgeous.

 

It’s hard to notice when you meet a wall of revs or start running your ass off everywhere dodging rockets and flames left and right, but I encourage you all to take two seconds to appreciate all the well crafted stuff on display here. The open sky lighting, colored pillars, curved brick halls, multi-colored steps. There is some really lovely looking symmetry as well. Even small things like the connecting steps up to walkway over the lava with really interesting windows and detailing. It’s all extremely pleasing to the eye and felt great moving through massive groups with slightly tighter hallway sections. Don’t forget about that exit. Awesome.

 

I didn’t see the SSG hiding behind the first locked in area, found it on accident when I circled back for some health, but boy did it come in handy for all of those imps, lol. I think they were supposed to pressure me from behind to move further into danger but I made really quick work of the revs in front with my RL so I was able to take my time lining up my shots. Coming off of beautiful Doom I didn't realize how much I missed the standard Doom 2 shotguns. I wish BDoom didn't change them. They feel perfect the way they are meant to be.

 

LOTS of RL use in this one. I think I could have beaten the whole map with it. There was so much ammo! I liked that there was the optional PG though and apparently a BFG, though I couldn’t figure out the secret. Not sure what that switch does and I shot a bunch of holes in the wall but all of the bricks just looked the same to me. * head scratch*

 

While not quite as bad as @jamondemarnatural I too sprinted for the exit once I saw an opening. It feels like this map was built for survival and anything else is just bonus. I was able to pain stun the SMM just enough to squeeze behind and use him for cover from the cyberdick. Hah! I wanted to see him die and grab that megasphere before I left. It just felt better leaving on that note.

 

Love the intermission art too with the Gothic saint and artful arches. Very fitting. First map only and I am already super impressed.

Edited June 1, 2017 by Demtor

God dammit! I'm between these wads and Ancient Aliens, and from some videos and your reviews the decision is starting to bother me, ugh... I guess I'll fall into temptation and give these guys a try, I mean they look beautiful and nasty at the same time. For sure I won't be doing "survival", it's 100% everything or nothing. 

So you can try me @Spectre01 

Opened Gzdoom and try again the first level, this time with a objetive to kill more demons. With a diferent strategy oaf clean on sectors and abuse the friendly fire of demons.

 

Killed like 300 of the 380 monsters. And then..

 

So i change my strategy to run to the spidermastermind and his soulsphere again and live to escape..but many death after.

 

Yeah, i will say i make it.

So Map 2!
This is on GBloom, UV. Made a pistol start.

Like the corridor move bitch im rocket launching here, and change to shit i need to escape to a safe zone.

Very fun escape to search that door where its megahealth and the bfg9000. And try to open the door guarded by thoses spiders. the demons infighting the cyberdemon helped me and go to the unfun part of the level. The teleport puzzle. It will be more fun with some invulneravirity spheres to try to make ur way on the rigths paths.

Also, i get stucked here.


 

Not cheating, only got the soulspehere close to that with a radiation suit xD. And after many trails and errors, to where to go. Got it to the laser room. To kill the 2 cyberdemons and run after killing reverants and archeviles with the BFG9000.

 

PD: I need to learn to hide my pics like @Demtor

 

Ok, just played map01 of new gothic 2. I didn't play the original so I'm not sure what to expect from these maps, other than slaughter of some kind. The main things I look for in slaughter maps are interesting visual design, thoughtful monster encounters and death dealt and avoided on a generous scale.

 

I'm not entirely sure how much I enjoyed this opening map. There was some very cheeky monster placement at times, and at other times I was shooting a lot of meat through doorways. Got a bit grindy here and there too. Any space that didn't lock you in was generally too dangerous to hang around in, so there was a lot of running away and shooting around corners. The best moment was shooting stuff through a doorway and then suddenly finding a load of imps attacking me from the rear. The visuals are nice enough. But yeah, gameplay wasn't totally rocking my boat. I'll keep going though, see how I get on.

The .txt file says it can be run with GlBoom+, but what would happen if I run it under PrBoom+?

3 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

The .txt file says it can be run with GlBoom+, but what would happen if I run it under PrBoom+?

basically the same exe but GLBoom looks better

Ok, ok ok ok, ok.

 

So this is how slaughter really feels from the beginning... ok, ok, oook. I'm using PrBoom+, UV, continuous, saves, 100% everything, etc. 

 

MAP01

Time: 47:48, don't judge me

Death Count: 4

Secrets legally found: 1/1

 

I had a little foreknowledge of this and the next map so nothing really surprised me. Still, I started with the wrong complevel, I forgot it was for Boom so that explained why no switch was working or no doors instantly closed, dumb me lol. Anyway, this was kinda fun, the textures, the details, very appealing. Cool midi, wasn't it featured in Speed of Doom too? because I felt like I've heard it before. Monster placement was fine, lots of infightings everywhere, my deaths were mostly in the first outside area where the blue key is. Ammo is ok too, being the RL the star of the map. Health was tight and for a few moments I was starving, but managed to leave the last megasphere for the next map. So, yeah, that's it.

1) draw pretty hallways --> oh yeah, this is supposed to be a slaughtermap!

 

--

I know I complained about this in the other thread, but I do understand the distinction made by NIH between grindy maps and slaughtermaps like these. So, even though I'm not generally a fan of slaughter, I'll at least give it a shot, at least to start.

 

MAP01 (no map names is lazy, I don't care what Memfis says)

60% kills, 0/1 secret

 

Got about two-thirds through this map and decided to just high-tail it past the cyber and spider mastermind. I did enjoy the opening battles, good enemy placement, especially the Arch-Viles in the first outside room - one on a ledge to snipe/area-control, the other two protected by minions and can either be dangerous by sniping from afar, or rushing the player (and likely nearby pile of revenant corpses) which creates a lot of dynamism in that room. Later rooms tended more towards the "unveil a new group of monsters ahead, teleport in monster behind" that felt a bit more rote. Stuff like this always feels like it takes a few deaths to "learn the map" (especially knowing what escape routes exist, and which doors will lock you in) which doesn't tickle my fancy. But a good opening appetizer for this sorta thing. Aesthetically it gets the job done, tasteful combo of red/beige/black in a fairly non-descript hellish temple with a nice final room.