Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
NightmareZer0

Review any wads you have played recently.

Recommended Posts

Or any wads on your mind that you want to say anything about.

 

Winter's Fury: I absolutely loved the Ice theme to the monsters/levels/etc. But I felt the weapons were god awful. This would be in my top 3 wads if it wasn't for the weapons.

 

 

Share this post


Link to post

I tried Knee Deep in ZDoom again recently. It's an impressive use of ZDoom's features, but so many switch hunts!

 

If you've played enough of a wad to give it a proper review, make sure you write one up in the proper Downloads section for prosperity. The more people who contribute to that the better!

Share this post


Link to post
On 10/6/2017 at 11:57 AM, Bauul said:

I tried Knee Deep in ZDoom again recently. It's an impressive use of ZDoom's features, but so many switch hunts!

2 cents worth of KDiZD review

On 10/6/2017 at 11:57 AM, Bauul said:

If you've played enough of a wad to give it a proper review, make sure you write one up in the proper Downloads section for prosperity. The more people who contribute to that the better!

2 cents worth of reviews

$1,000,000 worth of reviews

Share this post


Link to post

I just finished Speed of Doom on UV a few hours ago. It starts off really good and well paced but the last few maps go full on slaughter-fest. I don't mind slaughtermaps, in fact I like them quite a bit, but they can be tedious sometimes. It was a good challenge. What's odd is I found the bonus MAP33 to be harder than any other map in the WAD. No idea how to get the BFG on it and it seems really unbalanced from pistol start.

Share this post


Link to post

Zdaemon city. Its a huge open world map. Theirs imp fight betting, banks, stores to rob, missions, ect. The map is amazingly crafted and everything custom looks really nice. Everything is well implemented and as you are playing the WAD you appreciate how much work went into it. Try it out.

Share this post


Link to post
On 10/8/2017 at 5:46 AM, Nevander said:

No idea how to get the BFG on it and it seems really unbalanced from pistol start.

AVJ from one of the caged viles in the start through the window.

Share this post


Link to post
2 hours ago, loveless said:

AVJ from one of the caged viles in the start through the window.

Yep. I figured something like that since there were two right there in the inaccessible room. I checked the wiki later and saw it. I might have another go at it on UV and try doing that. Getting the BFG will probably make that elevator battle a shit load easier. I ended up having to play like a little bitch and kill the Cyber quickly, then wait on the Soulsphere platform until the lift reached the bottom, then jump down and fight everything from the exit room.

Share this post


Link to post

The elevator battle is the sort that is quite a bit easier with the plasma rifle instead of the BFG. I did a 'survival-oriented' casual playthrough here. That fight starts at ~7:00 or so. PR allows easy suppression of everything warping in at the two destinations, particularly those hitscanners. Only used BFG for the last groups, which can be done PR + SSG as well focusing on the arachnotrons and PEs and just enough cacos to clear space.

 

 

Edited by rdwpa

Share this post


Link to post
5 hours ago, Nevander said:

I ended up having to play like a little bitch and kill the Cyber quickly, then wait on the Soulsphere platform until the lift reached the bottom, then jump down and fight everything from the exit room.

It'll easy enough to 2-shot the cyber then wait for enough to come in for the BFG to be useful.  The biggest problem in the elevator at that point is moving around without accidentally stepping on cells.  That was pretty tough for me with plasma only and surprisingly easy with bfg.

Share this post


Link to post

Easily the hardest but also most fun stuff that got released recently. Adrenaline pumping BFG frenzy, or super tight challenge fights. It's all there. Beware when picking "Zzul violence", because Zzul doesn't fuck around.

Share this post


Link to post

I play Titan II for zdoom compatible ports. I don't know how to properly review that wad without including cursing words. It's full of questionable mapping choices like custom enemies which only act like bullet sponges or player blocking decorations, which  limit movements in most vulnerable moments or quite cringy music changes in every level in every "boss" encounter. Main things like architecture and textures look good, main music in maps also good(before changes), but those points lowers wad quality for me. 

Edited by Myst.Haruko : It seems for one point I'm wrong, but still some stuff is annoying as heck

Share this post


Link to post

Bloodlust by phml

 

Played on HMP. Sprawling and somewhat nonlinear adventure map filled with engaging and varied combat. Lots of great traps in this map. UV seems intended for Doom gods/sadists.

Share this post


Link to post
35 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Bloodlust by phml

 

Played on HMP. Sprawling and somewhat nonlinear adventure map filled with engaging and varied combat. Lots of great traps in this map. UV seems intended for Doom gods/sadists.

Hmmm. I remember played this map years ago. It's an extremely hard map even in UV.

Share this post


Link to post

I finished Memento Mori recently and it left quite a good impression on me (this review won't be very specific, because it's been some time since I finished Memento Mori). Generally speaking, this WAD is full of exploration, which is good and bad at the same time. Good, because I like exploration and it feels great to find where you need to go, when it is not so straight-forward. It is also a bit bad, because some of the maps are like: "Here are 15 switches spread in the game world. You have to find them and discover what they activate."

That can be a bit tedious, because the switches are not labeled in any super obvious way, for the player to know what they do. One good example of labeling the switches was Romero's new map, I think, which had numbers on the floor, made from sectors with varied brightness (not E1M8, the other one).

 

Then the combat was awesome.

The difficulty started raising after MAP 15/16, whatever, when the maps are starting to become very open, with F_SKY everywhere (love those later maps).

Those later maps are the kind of map that needs sniping and careful shooting at the beginning, so that you can progress further without getting shot at by everything (I tried to Rambo my way through them, but it usually was a stupid idea). One encounter at a time was the best strategy and the maps had quite often ambushes to make things interesting (I will never forget when one of the map authors put a Cybie in a tight staircase, when I was least expecting it - that was a really bastard design choice).

Finally, MAP30 is great!!! nuff said...

 

Overall, this WAD turned out to be very fun and I love how it is structured. It never got too boring for me to stop playing. Know that I usually get tired after the 20th MAP in most WADs. That is saying something about it.

Share this post


Link to post

Dump 2.....still on it (because of uploading videos)

A nice community compilation project with mix quality that contains easy maps, hard maps, not-so-detailed maps and overdetailed maps (and some annoying bugs too). With 68 maps, you'll have fun assured but be careful of playing modded, especially with randomizers.....you have been warned...

Share this post


Link to post
On 10/11/2017 at 6:38 AM, rdwpa said:

The elevator battle is the sort that is quite a bit easier with the plasma rifle instead of the BFG.

Not for me it wasn't. Sure I could spam it and suppress everything but eventually little hits from everything going on will kill me. Stray Mancubus fireball here, hitscan shot there, Revenant rocket here, and then I am dead. That's why I ended up just hiding on the Soulsphere part until it got to the bottom and I could land inside the exit room for cover.

Share this post


Link to post

I've just played The Beginning Of The End (Part 2) (End2.wad), from 1998. Previously played Part 1 which was pretty straightforward and enjoyable, but this was a good deal tougher, with some fiendishly contrived confrontations and a couple of Cyberdemons in almost all the maps. This necessitated saving within the levels on occasion, and planning one's campaign with military precision. This is fine if one is in the mood for it, but sometimes I just wanted to cut loose and blast away, which wasn't always possible here. 

 

What really let it down for me was the ludicrously over-the-top and gimmicky ('voodoo dolls') final level, featuring 5 Spider Masterminds and 3 Cyberdemons in a cramped chamber, which had very little in common with the rest of the wad, and was not Doom as I know it. Why do so many designers of FPS games take leave of their senses like this when creating a final level, rather than keeping to the spirit and essence of the game?

Share this post


Link to post

Eh, you known, but newstuff exist for this same reason... I playing and reviewing maps from that list, actually.

 

The only other maps i've played in these times is TNT evilution, including the MAP31 yellow key bug fix uploaded some year ago. It's a mixed bag of a wad, with some ups and downs during the play, just like any community projects reviews around there. The "bad" thing is that people had to pay for this. Anyway I like it, against the bad reputation this project have...

 

Also, playing / testing HUMP. Reached E2M8, very fun maps so far!

Share this post


Link to post

I just played and got through at least 60% of the Einherjar mod for doom.

 

I liked the style of the game, the story is fairly interesting, taking a modern norse approach to Doom, and the level design is unique and interesting

 

I'm not a big fan of the voice acting in the mod though, way too cheesy and takes immersion out fairly quickly.

Share this post


Link to post

Well i beat Biowar like 1 hour ago.It was a nice wad but i didn't enjoy the combat that much and 2 of the 18 maps dragged a bit...

Share this post


Link to post

Coffee Break Episode 1 was worth the short amount of time it took to clear. I did UV pistol-starts using PrBoom+. Maps 6, 7, and part of 2 didn't do much for me, but the WAD's really fun in a bunch of ways. Trappy openings, a smidgen of non-linearity to give you an alternate path or choice of which pick-up to get first, and great use of the Doom II bestiary brings it all together. I definitely prefer maps like Toxic, Archives, and Fort which bring more variety in encounters and visuals; the "fireplace" twist in Fort impressed me more than the rest of the map, but that's because Fort's very solid and unassuming until you reach the courtyard. (Boom tricks abound here, like the archvile mud room in that same map.) Weapon/thing placement's also very good, and that matters since these maps go for a brisk average pacing to make up for low focus on detail and more involved progression. Getting the SSG quick's a given, yet it's nice that I occasionally found a RL or chaingun in advance.

Not much else to say, really. Great work on this, MTrop!



After several botched attempts to get into Back to Saturn X Episode 1, I finally cleared it a few days ago after restarting in late September. The maps are fairly long to begin with, and I've had an easier time on UV pistol-starts (using ZDoom) after beating Plutonia and Scythe. Much was said about this megawad a while ago (the Megawad Club basically stress-tested an early release candidate, and it shows in their commentary), so I'll focus about MAP31: Optical Hopscotch since I haven't seen mention of it recently.

This secret map contrasts well with MAP15: Tricyclic Looper before it: there's a lot more apparent risk from the nukage moat surrounding the central structure, players can't rely on rad suits and ammo/health pick-ups within the starting area for long, and the lifts guide right into somewhat congested traps. Platforming in this map's quite fun—just keep on top of your resources in case you fall. Fights on the cliffs, atop industrial platforms, and later within the main building keep things interesting. Skillsaw shies away from sniper overload while exerting pressure with revenants in close proximity, plus a good mix of sergeants and hell knights interspersed to keep me running. Simply exploring the map perimeter's an adventure, and I was able to snake in and out of different routes after a bit of reconnaissance. Essel's MIDI for the map ("Bitmap") gives a motivating anthemic feel to this closed-off toxic world with all its crags, stalagmite peaks, and odd secrets (like that megasphere lift room which took many tries to platform!).

It's fun to compare Optical Hopscotch with MAP19: Bingo Hall Pool of Blood later on. Tarnsman did MAP19 first as a regular Doom II speedmap exercise, and Essel edited that into the exciting but hellish difficulty spike you encounter in the /idgames release. I'm not sure how long MAP31 incubated, but it seems themed more in line with Skillsaw's own MAP32: The Hard Way or, from way earlier in the project's lifecycle, MAP10: A Proud and Booming Industry which he also mapped. MAP31 and MAP19 joined the main BTSXE1 set later on, but still suit the pack by serving new and unique functions for the map progression. Just as MAP19 shocks players out of their comfort zone after MAP18's relatively mundane situations, MAP31 provides the verticality de-emphasized in MAP15 while preparing for either an easy slaughtermap or capping the second cluster before the next hub. Nukage and telefrag railroading late in MAP31 also call to mind parts of MAP17: Navigating Flood Regions, which continues the sense of spatial progression across this region of Saturn X.

Speaking of Bingo Hall Pool of Blood, that's as ferocious a break in pace for the WAD as I hoped for, and thankfully not too hard to stop me in my tracks for too long. Running for the SSG, then to the safety hub for the plasma and warp (or, in my case, not even noticing that unlocked door and instead blasting archviles in close proximity) makes for quite a start. And then I had some ammo famine later on which forced an uncomfortable meeting with a mancubus and a pack of cacos on the way down to a cliff. It's maps like this which benefit the exploration-centric parts of BTSXE1 through contrast. Challenge level's good for a modern set like this, but I get why some players tired of front-facing incidental defense vs. aggressive traps or mute roamers to make things more precarious. Bingo Hall still plays into the conventions of the WAD while establishing a maximum brutality, and MAP20: U.S. Mustard Company afterward returns to incidental fights but with more guile than before.

What stands out about BTSXE1, in a great way, is solid, consistent sense of place even as the maps tend to blend together by virtue of techbase tropes. I'll have to revisit this pack at some point since it's just so well-edited and apt for different play styles (like solonet or mod play). Of course, it's still damn gorgeous, enough that I'll try PrBoom+ or Chocolate Doom next time for starker colors.

Edited by PasokonDeacon

Share this post


Link to post

Played the Serenity/Eternity/Infinity 'trilogy' over a six day period on UV difficulty. I actually found the first of these to be the most enjoyable, for all its failings. Infinity seemed to me a very half-hearted effort by its creators, who couldn't be bothered to put a single Cyberdemon or Spider Mastermind in any of the eight levels.

Share this post


Link to post

Played Deus Vult 2 and Feckyoo recently.  For DV2, it was kind of a trip seeing so many textures from it in more recent wads, standouts being some textures from 20X7 map 1 and 2.  Visually impressive but midis were lackluster except for map 29(DV1) and rather dated gameplay made it hard to enjoy at times.  

  

Feckyoo, good lord.  gggmork definitely had an eye for experimental gameplay and leaving visuals to the side.  Enjoyable but very difficult and patience testing.  I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone, ever.

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×