Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
dobu gabu maru

The DWmegawad Club plays: Memento Mori 2

Recommended Posts

MAP04

So I survived with 6% health after the chaingunner and shotgunner sans armour dickery in that teleporter room with the lava pit. Pick up the 2 stimpacks, then what happens? A teleport into said lava death pit. Go fuck yourself. 

 

MAP05

Starting a fresh. And will be starting a fresh next level because frankly, obtuse progression that requires mandatory trips into damage sectors to figure out and getting surrounded by 3-4 hell knights in a tiny room with only a chaingun and shotgun firmly belong in the Dick Move hall of fame. 

 

MAP06
Right off the bat we have chaingunners facing us. Surprisingly I didn't lose too much health as some infighting helped out. From then on, the level becomes a boring back and forth maze and switch hunt, with monster closets everywhere. Some of these closets caught me by surprise at first, but after 50 times, the surprise wears off.  Visually, pretty bland aswell. The door at the Baron room was weird, I pedaled out and it just snapped shut, then later mysteriously opened. My reward for surviving awake up into the green brick room is the surrounding walls lowering revealing revenants, a PE, cacodemons and chaingunners, where I met my merry end - but that was more thanks to the shotgunner/chaingunner cluster fuck in the big wooden area with the complete bloody absence of health. Great, now I have to endure all that boring maze and switch hunt shit again. Nah fuck that, I'm too aggravated right now, will have to come back to it later. 

 

Map 6 restart - I found an SSG and Soulsphere secret this time near the start. Those two imp alcoves were an odd choice to mark as secrets, right next to each other and piss easy to jump into for the grand reward of 4 shells each. The final couple rooms were not well orchestrated, it's very easy to simply skip the baron trio and their accomplices. 

 

MAP07

I thought this one was pretty decent. I liked the visuals and texture usage, those sewers are delightfully dark, dank and grimy. That door though, WTF?! lol. There is quite a bit of backtracking, but the map gets repopulated, and the fights are quite dynamic. There's a good mix of monsters, particularly pinkies mixed with hell knights, which a potentially dangerous combo. Along the way there is also some nooks and crannies along with secrets to find to keep things from getting boring. Liked the secrets, I've always found the "secret in a secret" trope satisfying. One niggle is the inconsistent use of nukage, being non-damaging in the sewers but damaging at the blursphere. Perhaps the brown water texture would've worked better for the sewers?

 

 

Edited by Hells Kitchen

Share this post


Link to post

MAP07: Frustration

 

What a deep name, there is nothing to feel frustrated about this map aside from the door. Seriously what is the trick behind it? If I'm not mistaken, a map in TNT uses one of these odd silent doors, but my memories might be failing me right now. And if it's not the door, perhaps how progression is crafted around multiple switches and a back and forth relationship with the start point in the middle, though that never was a big deal for me personally. This quickly turned into my favourite map back in '17 simply because of the theme, sewers are such a trustworthy ambient to combat plagues of imps, pinkies and mancubi too, and I think it's still in my top 5 of the wad. Aesthetically the dark green alienish texture matches perfectly with the slime and monsters mentioned before, which is a more fitting application than in the previous map. It's a shy entrance to the glorious techbases, with some industrial factories and stuff like that, not the kind of KDITD techbases though. Well, the "Hell" theme was nice while it lasted, and thankfully we will still see more of the red colour throughout the maps, just in the sky primarily. About the gameplay, what I liked the most was the variety in species, usually mixed compositions like HK and pinkies teleporting to attack from the back, the PE and fodders, revs/commandos refilling space (good to keep the backtrack not boring), and various mancubi, none of which seemed to be used for the tag, right?. There's maybe too much armor for such a forgiving map in general, I got the other one just for the max but this sort of generosity would have been nicer if there were rockets or plasma instead, to use something else. Also, safe nukage is always weird. Nice level, great midi.

 

BTW, apologies if the music sounds not very pleasant, I'm not sure if converting via viddump supports anything else than opl2, which is my default. Crispy's opl3 is 100 times better, I swear.

 

 

Share this post


Link to post

Well, I didn't find what I was looking for in the last post... Time for the next map, then, anyway.


MAP06

Last year I played AdamW's insrtion.wad map (MAP09) and wrote quite a leghty text critizing it. There was a bit about a door going up to the sky, and more. The text for those interested:

Spoiler

| I think this map sucks. Let's describe it almost room by room.     |
|                                                                    |
| This starting area is good. It is an extended hub of sorts,        |
| in disguise as it is connected to another room/corridor by a smal  |
| portion of wall opened by an obscure switch. There is an           |
| inaccessible red key and a red key door, blue key door and yellow  |
| key door are all nearby. Plenty of windows and good opportunities  |
| for hitscanners to shoot you or get killed by you.                 |
|                                                                    |
| Once you figure out what the obscure switch do (it doesn't open    |
| the trap, it opens a passage in the caco/lost soul room), you can  |
| find a room with a mancubus and two barons on pillars (there are   |
| NINE barons in this medium level and their placement is sometimes  |
| very lame; some of them are UV only and replace hell knights       |
| present on lower skills). This room is buggy. In the ironman       |
| contest DotW got trapped there. The switch on top of a square      |
| structure opens another door leading further on, but it is a one   |
| time only switch. The door can be opened from the other side by    |
| monsters. Then it closes permanently. Or does it? There is another |
| one time switch which doesn't look like a switch, you need to      |
| "press" on the back of the structure (0:53 of the demo). Looks     |
| like an oversight or a bad "fix" of the previous error. Let's move |
| on...                                                              |
|                                                                    |
| Another room is pretty cool, two barons are OK (tricky and not     |
| totally lame), there are decorations which makes dodging fireballs |
| more difficult. The way a cetral wall raises and baron pillars     |
| lower is nice. Not sure what the "POISON" signs do, there is a     |
| "carpet of BLOOD" which is not a pain sector.                      |
|                                                                    |
| A teleporter which leads outside is revealed. Here we have a       |
| stupid lowering switch which can be pressed from below before      |
| being revealed (1:39 of the demo). But this is not the worst thing |
| here, the worst is the blue door which at the moment cannot be     |
| opened yet. We'll come back here.                                  |
|                                                                    |
| Then we have the yellow key and we can get into a maze of lowering |
| walls. Lost souls inhabit this area (they are tricky and I prefer  |
| to escape and to shoot them from a safe spot). The blue key is     |
| guarded by... mancubusarch-vile. Two monsters stuck together on UV.|
| What I learned is if you shoot them, the arch-vile dies first      |
| always and the mancubus gets freedom of movement. I think this     |
| wasn't tested at all rather than got through as a "fun" design.    |
|                                                                    |
| The blue door opening up to the sky is sooo amateurish, it looks   |
| even worse from the opposite side. After the door a baron guards   |
| a switch and the player may build up steps leading to his pillar...|
| or just press the switch without all this stuff which I don't do   |
| in the demo as it hardly saves any time, but is another mapper     |
| ommission.                                                         |
|                                                                    |
| Get red key, telefrag a baron if you're lucky and get to the final |
| area.                                                              |
|                                                                    |
| The idea is cool, the exit being slowly revealed by layers of      |
| walls lowering. Alas, we have other bunch of stuck monsters        |
| (a chaingunner and two sergeants) and not really a bug, but        |
| a thing that irks me a bit. You cannot escape this area and get    |
| more ammo. You'd better have max ammo when entering this area      |
| as otherwise you'd have to punch four mancubi in a claustrophobic  |
| room (I ran out of ammo there a few times). Exit! 80% secrets      |
| is maximum.                                                        |
|____________________________________________________________________|

AdamW replied:

 

(I didn't reply to this later, but I found it interesting, thus the quote).

 

So yeah, that's about the Sky Doors. I always bring the first map of TTP.wad as an example what to do: put a lift instead of a door and you don't have to worry about silly tiny roofs.

 

Now this map has got a fair share of critisism.

 

  • "bad" pistol start
  • awful gameplay (This map´s gameplay is just awful! (I hate to have to kill mancubi and revenants with minor weapons far away)" (Peo Sjoblom))
  • SSG (the primary weapon) in a secret
  • ugly
  • HOM at the lift
  • 2 stuck sergeants on UV

While I agree with all of these, I don't find this map really bad. It plays better as UV Speed than Max and I have to give credit for no critical bugs such as inescapable situations (MAP04) or broken progression (MAP03,04,05, though only the last one is awful). You have to run through the whole level as intended. This, and also a nice balcony preview of the penultimate area save this map for me and I give it a bit of a generous rating...

 

Redundant switches strike back. In the dark maze there are three switches lowering some bars leading to the red key. Only one of them is needed to be pressed though, as the gap is enough for the player to squeeze in.

 

Rating 3/5

 

Recommended demo

Nightmare demo by Xit Vono (link)

Spoiler

 Overshadowed by his TNT MAP09 demo released in the same month... because IWAD. This run is maybe even harder due to amount of hitscanners and backtracking. I don't know what is the survival rate in the starting area, but once it's cleared it is a typical Xit Vono lengthy run. Little damage taken, slowly progressing, killing monsters at the front and rear. Collecting blue armor. A big chunk of health disappears after a few mandatory teleports. At the end he got hit by baron plasma and played with 5% health for a good while. Extreme luck at the exit, with the chaingunner dealing only 3hp damage.

 

 

Share this post


Link to post

MAP08: Glorious hom on one of the grey stone turrets. The story of the map is that this was a water treatment plant that the demons converted to produce poisonous slime. The overall structure look good, and the hanging pipes on the various rooms are all connected to a central machine, that you must shut down to unlock the exit. There were lots of imps in this level, the red key trap was quite nice and the teleport trap at the exit would have been another thrilling moment but it's very easy to press the exit switch and skip it.

The hell levels are over now, for the next few maps there's a sort of sewers mini-episode (already started on MAP07).

Share this post


Link to post

MAP08
Not much say about this short map except a few things.
Those rocky area will better look in outdoors with sky. Obvious missing texture on a prominent place. How this map is tested?
Ambush after yellow door is pretty intense.
I exited map unexpectedly and not knew that is the exit switch.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP09

Mark Klem is best known for his musical contributions to Dooming, and this map isn't likely to change that. It does have some good visuals – mostly around the light patterns from the grills in the ceiling – but it's also got more than its fair share of bland tunnels of blandness. Scale is definitely an issue: lots of too-big rooms without much textural variety makes things much less visually interesting than they could have been. There's also those cut-off windows in the opening cityscape, which look a bit rubbish, and would have been easy enough to fix.

 

Gameplay there's not a lot to be very excited about either. Progression involves a lot of trekking back and forth across the map, and is often not all that well sign-posted. And much of the combat when you get there isn't all that engaging.

 

A bit of a slog, this.

 

Share this post


Link to post

map08 fda

uv, pistol starts, glboom+

decided to play some doom as i have a free hour or two this evening.

+ pipe and pump room are some nice sector detailing/story-telling through map design

+ barrels at start are a fun little risk/reward as if you leave them for later they can blow you up

- the gameplay is generally uninspiring. mostly shotgunning imps and chaingunning zombies with a few chaingunners and pinkies thrown in. the mid-tiers are not used in any particularly fun way. a baron turns up but you would generally have killed everything so you cant even get a fun infight going on.

- the last ambush comes arrives in drips, and theres no rocket launcher (secret?) to make it fun either.

Share this post


Link to post
6 minutes ago, rehelekretep said:

- the last ambush comes arrives in drips, and theres no rocket launcher (secret?) to make it fun either.

That was an issue with the first MM. The RL/Plasma Rifle rarely made an appearance, and whatever ammo you scavenged for them wasn't much even playing continuously. One of the reasons I'm not playing from pistol start this month.

Share this post


Link to post

MM2MAP05.png.c2a0a8d9f91b3d2a4b6c2469689bd102.png

I quite like the use of light and shadow as elements of gameplay, and this map includes a fair ammount of it. I also admire the creativity of the map in general terms, which features quite a few mechanisms that you don't run across so much these days, and keeps things interesting. There's some quite strong Doom II vibes going on here, and while the map is happy to dump you into jeopardy on several occassions, it all feels like it's done with a degree of flair and fairness. On the whole, it's a fun ride.

 

MM2MAP06.png.e5dc6a5bf2773edeec1485ba39b38627.png

A damaging opening followed by a degree of resource scarity makes this map tougher than you might otherwise expect. I definitely felt wanting for a rocket launcher at times, but opposition generally remained light enough that it wasn't too much of a chore to deal with. The Baron usage is interesting in that it possibly feels as if we are being invited to dodge or evade them, rather than use precious ammo to cut them down. On the whole the map feels roughly hewn and lacking finese, but it manages to throw off expectations and deliver a few nasty surprises.

 

MM2MAP07.png.eda69f4456beaa160da1c0fd98e76fbb.png

I love this malfunctioning door, I could play with it for hours, which is just as well since we'll be traversing back and forth across this map quite a lot. Thankfully, there's always something new each time, and some neat secrets to find. The rocket launcher finally makes an apperance, but ammo for it is quite limited so I elected to upgrade my shotgun instead when I found a backpack. On the whole this is an elegantly crafted level, which makes me curious to see what other things David Kuykendall might have worked on.

Edited by Urthar

Share this post


Link to post

MAP08: Stigmata

100% kills, 1/2 secrets

 

I'm a bit of two minds on this one. On one hand it's a fairly straightforward romp, almost too straightforward, with a pretty generic setting and ho-hum combat that is pretty much just piling up small-to-medium monsters in front of the player, and giving them a shotgun and saying "have at it." It also starts out with that brown-on-brown look that drives me up the wall. On the other hand, I also agree with @Summer Deep that there's a place for maps like this that are straightforward and uncomplicated, and this one is well-placed after MAP07's opposing design. And while the aesthetic is somewhat generic, it actually does have a decent layout, with multiple approaches to different areas, and lots of windows (something I've been slowly but surely realizing are a great aspect of a lot of maps, even going back to KDITD). It's a shame the final ambush is poorly timed to erupt after the player has reached the exit switch, might've left me with a stronger impression.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP08: Stigmata

 

This one sticks in my mind for the big tap near the start, the predominant brown visuals and pointless imps/revenant on ledges. I also remembered the sound of arachnotrons stomping in the bases while I was wandering outside. The rest isn't all that memorable, a couple instant traps and cacos+zombies ambushes and that's it. The secret RL is a treasure for the following maps, because it's of no serious utility on pistol start, aside from blowing the dudes behind the exit lift. If anything curious about my perspective of the level, it felt like a rejected MM1 map rather than a new one for MM2. Maybe because of some of the textures that were reused for this project, but that's not to say it's out of place. Actually, on a theme side it's pretty well built, coherent with the author's little background story. So I liked the map overall.

 

aaaaand I missed an item again, dammit. 

 

 

Share this post


Link to post

didn't get to play much these days, and i'm still busy with the last maps of 404.wad, while hopping now into a wad i haven't seen for a very long time, so my perception of aesthetics and gameplay might have changed a lot in the meantime.

 


MAP01 - “Outpost” by Denis Möller

 

i liked that iconic opening shot with the ceiling remininiscent of the red round windows in quake's e4m3 or m4, forgot which one its was with the fiends in the beginning. overall pleasant hellish style with the red rock and skulls, a refreshing change from the usual progression back then. gameplay, well, a lot of imps and pinkies. and those zombies in the opening tripping over each other. i barely did anything than standing behind a pillar and shoot the last guy standing. thumbs up for the music, mm2 has some nice tracks.

 

 

 

MAP02 - “The Feeding Pit” by David Davidson

 

also very nice visuals for its age, with that stone and blood. shooting imps and zombies again. the shotgunners at the stairs are so random, sometimes they only walk in place, another time they shoot right away. i only left the 4  pinkies in the open room alone as i couldn't bother with wasting the shells that might be needed later. 

 

 

 

MAP03 - “… And Hell Beneath” by Matthias Worch

 

worch, another name i remember from requiem. his style is easy to recognize here, an underground complex made mostly of brown brick and earth. some telegraphed ambushes in the chapel and the crypt, but nevertheless fun. the only dangerous part were the hiding chaingunners. ssg could have come earlier.

 

 

 

MAP04 - “Ratamahatta” by Florian Helmberger

 

the music doesn't sound like sepultura, the spooky part works well, but the tooting in the end is annoying. i noticed the nice, smooth progression as others have said, plays like an adventure. a bit too much red rock, making those damn chaingunners hiding everywhere difficult to see. lots of hitscanners in your face, and armor only in hidden places, so i made it through with only the bonus armors. was hurting badly from the chaingunners at the teleporter ledges when i found the soulsphere at green marine's grave. i also landed in that place with imps, shouldn't have jumped. good ending, however, when i found that i always returned to the same room where my actions elsewhere were building the bridge to the exit.

 

 

 

MAP05 - “Rites of Passage” by Paul Noble

 

one of those weirder maps from the time when mappers seemed to experiment with various concepts, resulting in a mix of complicated, mostly dark secret areas, leading to open areas, leading to... almost mandatory secrets, i could say. well, the areas i was looking for - the corridor starting from the thick red door that acts as an elevator, as the tunnel in the lava at the exit platform - aren't secret, but you have to look for them. some floating textures as panels or switches. i think such maps haven't aged well, the many convoluted dark corridors were not fun, but at least it had the more open parts that made up for ít.

 

Share this post


Link to post

MAP08 - “Stigmata” by Denis Möller

Were you hoping for some more Hellish maps? No? Well you're in luck, because the industrial nukage bases are starting early!

This map is not bad though, despite having the Rocket Launcher in a secret and still barely any ammo. I'm playing continuously and still have barely any rockets. Monster density is higher than usual for this wad and there are plenty of large groups of dudes and Imps to SSG down. The final wave teleporting in is pretty cool, despite largely coming from one direction and being able to simply hold your ground. Quirky exit with that switch up the lift. 

Share this post


Link to post
On 11/8/2018 at 6:05 AM, galileo31dos01 said:

MAP07: Frustration

 

What a deep name, there is nothing to feel frustrated about this map aside from the door. Seriously what is the trick behind it?

 

This wasn't the first time the door that opens at various heights was used. I know about Cleimos II MAP14, and that one was outright bad. I don't know the odds, but let's say in Frustration the player can walk under the open door about 1/3 of the time? There in Cleimos it was like 1/6.

 

The trick involves merging a sector with another which is adjacent to a sector with a crusher. So the door opens up as much as is allowed depending on the crusher vertical position.

 

Also cool to hear it's your top 5. I think better maps are in episodes 2 and 3, but this one is the best IMO out of maps 01-10.

 

MAP07

Newbie mapper alert! One of these guys I know nothing about, they created something for MM2 and nothing before, nothing afterwards. But hey, this map is great. Much of the action takes place in 192 unit wide corridors, and the one with FLOOR3_3 / FLAT4 floor and diamond shaped ceiling lights looks great! The design is clean for me, quite detailed for '96 and the aforementioned misalignments don't hurt my eyes that much. Also 192 unit width (or wider, in the sewers) means you can out-manouver the pinkies. Thanks for the SSG not too early, otherwise UV pistol start would have been trivial. I really have nothing to complain about this map, and bonus points for not being a Dead Simple clone.

 

The first map of the "sewer series" and the first MM2 level that uses keycards, not skulls.

 

Rating 5/5

Share this post


Link to post

MAP09: I agree with Capellan that Mark Klem is best known for his musical contributions rather than for his maps, though here and on MM-MAP32 he showed that he was also a rather inventive mapper. This map has its problems: texturing is wonky at times, big and mono-textured places, combat isn't always engaging. These flaws will also be on Base Exposure. Despite those things the various locations are quite distinct, with even un underground chapel at the exit and some cute details like the manhole covers you can see on the ceiling. Perhaps the most interesting thing of the map are the secrets, where one lets you also have a better view of the city at the start, and that strange teleport near the RSK.

Share this post


Link to post

MM2MAP08.png.580ce0b15e278704cc0ae9a223cf404b.png

There's some narrow little corridors here and there, and some awkward obstructions, but this feels surprisngly like a modern map with a focus on combat and a lot of interconnected areas that over look into each other. Resources seem fairly generous, (with the exception of rockets,) which is just as well since there's a lot incoming fire  and damaging liquids to deal with. It's a fun map, I like it.

Share this post


Link to post

Map 09: Sabbath Sewers.

 

Playing this now, after 22 years feels like entering the time machine. And honestly, playing this on such modern technology feels ambivalent. It's good to relive the (kind of) same experience I had 22 years ago. It's bad because I know it will never be the same fresh as back then, on  the cathode-ray tube screen, the old mechanic keyboard, mouse with the ball inside, shitty headphones.

 

Some of the magic has also faded away. The long boring tunnels at that time seemed like exciting invitation to adventure with never before seen textures and structures of a brand new world. This map really blew my mind as it was so different from every doom 1 or 2 map I have played so far. It was VERY different, and super exciting and fresh. 

 

This underground sewer-system leading to action-parts reminded me of Wizardry 7, Crusaders of the dark savant, which I loved. It was almost like being able to sink into that world in first person, probably another reason why I am so biased towards loving this specific level of MM2.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP09:  Managed to avoid any deaths again here, though it took 79 minutes in total with a save at around the hour mark. Also failed to find 10 of the 11 secrets, which may be some sort of record. Would almost certainly have died in the Barons and demons ambush but for the invulnerability sphere, as health was down to 22% with 0% armour by then.

 

This level did drag in places, and had its frustrations: the blue armour remained tantalizingly unavailable in a cage by the red door, and a megasphere was just about visible in an inaccessible (except presumably via a secret) area. Couldn't see much point to the watery area with the Lost Souls and Pain Elemental either, unless another secret was involved here. On the credit side it was satisfying to snipe the sergeants and chaingunners in that very striking, slightly sunken red room, avoiding the temptation to wade straight in there, which would probably have had dire consequences. The encounter with the Revenants and Cacos on the edge of the lava pit was a good challenge too, and it was a tense business trying to deal with the Mancubuses and collect all the rockets before the radsuit was timed out. Interesting briefly to see that urban landscape at the start, wonder if it will feature more prominently in future maps.

 

96% kills, 1/11 secrets

 


MAP10:  This took 17 minutes, no deaths, no saves - there have definitely been one or two easier (some might say blander) maps of late, such as this one and MAP08. Played with 0% armour throughout, not sure if there was any available, but this  seems to have been a feature of some of the maps so far. For the second level in a row, a key 'disappeared' for a while: it's an interesting gimmick, but not a stunt that should be pulled with any regularity, IMHO. There was still one monster unaccounted for at the end, maybe in the vicinity of the final room, but I couldn't be bothered to look for it.....

 

99% kills, 1/5 secrets

 

Share this post


Link to post

MAP10

For me, Matthias Worch's second MM2 map (in play order, at least) doesn't gel quite as well as his first. It's solid enough Doom action on the whole, but it feels slightly more primitive in its design, lighting and décor.

 

The trick to make the blue key appear to flow down the nukage pipes is quite nice, though – it's a bit of a three card monte con job since the blue key is in both places all along, but it creates the illusion relatively effectively.

 

 

Share this post


Link to post

map09 fda

uv, pistol starts, glboom+

+ some really cool lighting and 90s ideas in this map e.g. random ascending ceiling? why not?

+ progression was odd but generally intuitive

- awful pop-up traps, got spanked by a rev and an hk that were just chilling out invisibly

- rev behind fake wall = instant death to invisible rocket. funny in hindsight, but not fun.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP08

I really like this mapper, the sewage pipes are so cool, because diagonal, they feel so real. But the level echoes first MM (MAP13,31...) somehow, so galileo31dos01 has his point. The level looks nice, rocks vs sewage, nature vs civilization, nothing spectacular, though. One thing I discovered just now is it has skull keys. I didn't know. The door markers are more like keycards should be used, but whatever. Now onto the rating.

 

Rating 3/5

It's better than MAP06 but worse than MAP01, so 3/5 or 4/5? Well Dennis, take your 3/5 now because of this HOM which is so visible and also because of the teleporting monsters ambush. The teleporting monster roster is a very peculiar combo of cacodemons and pistol guys, but this is not the point. The point is, it takes ages for them to enter the scene.

As Eugene Kapustin put it:

The exit scene of this map contains the most annoying teleport among wide-known megawads. Well, may be except imps' teleporting in Pathos. I have 18 exits faster than Peo's time with 99% kills including 4:57 and 4:59.

 

Also a note about the demos posted in this thread: funny how all of you jump into green armor, which is fine, but don't realize there is another way to get it.

Share this post


Link to post
14 minutes ago, rehelekretep said:

+ some really cool lighting and 90s ideas in this map e.g. random ascending ceiling? why not?

 

If you mean in the big 'round' chamber with the cacos at the bottom, it's presumably to make it easier for the FTMs to chase you, since if the ceiling stayed low they would never path up the stairs.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP08

Yep there is quite a bit of brown, but that is broken up with a more techbase theme as the map progresses. Visually I didn't find it to be too bland and there is a nice bit of interconnecting layout. The start was somewhat annoying, mandatory damaging floor, with more mandatory damage if you fall into the slime after the first lift. After that though, honestly I didn't find the gameplay boring, even though a lot of the meat is imps on ledges, some of those chaingunners that inhabit the map are dangerous. The biggest fight came after the yellow key, I didn't make it up the lift owing to the hitscanner clusterfuck, fuck that, by the time that lift rises I would be long a bloody pile of swiss cheese. Some infighting helped out, and I guess jumping back down to the barrels is purely optional, although there was only a few imps and a caco down there, so wouldn't be avoiding anything major. The rocket launcher secret was way too obvious for a secret. 

 

MAP09

First thing that greets us - ugly texture misalignments. Visually I found this rather bland with incoherent use of textures in some parts. There is just way too much of they grey brick texture which IMO looks too cartoony. I did like the first sewer, where the darker environment made this texture fit better. Overall though, this map is far too big, making the running back and forth tedious and also highlights the blandness. Combat is mostly infront of you, with a hefty portion of it being pinkies in the oversize tunnels. And yeah, instapop monsters can fuck off, those 2 hell knights took a swing the instant they appeared, losing half me health. The revenants at the red door seemed to wait a couple seconds before attacking interestingly enough. Standout moments were the yellow key pit and the baron/pinkies in that small room which very nearly did me in. I did not get the point of the other baron/pinkie ambush with the invuln, that invuln makes it nothing but useless filler. The former was more dangerous with the much more restricted space.  The balcony with the PE is completely pointless, and well that cul-de-sac in the tunnels was completely pointless too. There is just too much long distance back and forth here. What a tease that fucken blue armour was, absolutely no clue how to get it, but atleast I figured out the megasphere near the yellow key pit. While the architecture is boring in this map, the little teleporter alcove with the torches looked really good. Found 6/11 secrets.

 

MAP10

This could be right at home in a Doom E1 set with its techbase/nukage theme and architecture. In terms of texturing and visuals, I didn't find this bland, I felt it all worked here coherently. The highlight was definitely the cacodemon ambush not long into the map, thank god for the SSG here. Gameplay otherwise is generally basic doom 2 action, which is not a bad thing, especially after the oversize slog that was the previous map. I found those tunnels with the nukage emptying into the big reservoir pretty cool. 4/5 secrets. 

 

 

Share this post


Link to post

MAP09

Is this really such a bad looking map? The texturing serves the purpose and I remember in Suitepee's playthrough someone called this map "amazing for 1996". It was in the cave-like area near the blue key, with quite heavy detailed ceiling supports in a bell shape. I agree with the buildings seen at the start, though, it seems like the cut windows were actually intentional but they don't look good at all.

 

Visuals aside, it is a long adventure with plenty of monsters and rocket ammo. It is better balanced for HMP than for UV, I'd say, and the difference is enormous. Not only you have less rockets on UV, but the monster HP is 54970 (UV) vs 34570 (HMP) with a ratio of 1,6:1. The average for the WAD is 1,31:1, and previous maps had rather low values except MAP04. So this map has a very different experience on UV, unlike many other maps.

 

Lots of pop up monsters (meh), but there's also the first invulnerability in MM2, and it is a well-placed one.

 

It is very, very old school with plenty of weirdness, let's point out some

  • The church has a soulsphere and the exit room has two more soulspheres (one intended for multiplayer, but you can obtain both)
  • There'a a non secret megasphere near the rocket launcher secret. Getting it requires ultra precise movement like in MAP28 of Scythe. I cannot find anything this hard in maps of this era. Even getting 100% kills on MAP23 of Strain is easier, and that was mapper's ommission, here it looks like getting the mega was achieveable for Mark Klem, so... wow. It just took me like 50 tries now to get it, and BTW in the recommended demo SAV88 gets it easily with a comfortable margin
  • There was a text removed from the Wiki which was correct and replaced by something incorrect which I don't understand. This is what was removed: There are 3 rocket launchers in the level. On of them is easily accessible (in the waterfall area), however it cannot be picked up until the red skull key is acquired. The second one is in the secret #1. To obtain the third one: pick up the second rocket launcher, go to the room with vines on the walls and a maze-like ceiling, activate the switch behind the elevator and approach the red skull key behind the columns. As you turn around and go into the curved stairway, you will notice a window overlooking the room with vines will have shut. Now go back to that room to discover the third rocket launcher lying on the floor. I know it was meant for deathmatch, but you can get it in SP.
  • There's a suicide exit possibility via the berserk secret.

 

Rating 4/5

 

Recommended demo

NM 100% secrets by SAV88 (link) Let's not talk about how the idea of this run was born... Well, it's pretty amazing to see it done. The routing is clever, avoiding teleporting after the YK, but still it's very hard with 70 -fast pinkies, respawning...

Edited by vdgg

Share this post


Link to post

MAP10: A straightforward and very fun level. The most engaging part was around the YK with the various traps on the way. The final room is a letdown in comparison to the rest. There's a cool trick at the BK that you use the pipes to move it on a distant tub to pick it. The level was relatively simple but well detailed, shame for the lighting that seems a bit lacking. It's interesting that MAP07-08 and this one uses similar pipes to detail and all these level were made by different authors.

Share this post


Link to post
14 hours ago, Capellan said:

 

If you mean in the big 'round' chamber with the cacos at the bottom, it's presumably to make it easier for the FTMs to chase you, since if the ceiling stayed low they would never path up the stairs.

oh that makes some sense, but why not just make the ceiling in the same place at the start, rather than have it move upwards at a later point?

Share this post


Link to post

 @rehelekretep I also liked this raising ceiling. And, you were very close to the soulsphere secret. I think you need to enter the teleporter five times and you entered four times :)

 

MAP10

Visuals: maybe the best MM2 map? The most modern looking? That's how I've always viewed it. I love the texturing, with two exceptions: a soulless STARG corridor leading to the blue key, and also at the baron chamber, the ceiling over the teleporter pad is bricks. A mistake, for sure.

Lighting: I think it's on par with the best Denis' maps.

eC1eLG3.png

HHzUQPs.png

 

There's an UV Max demo by Matthias himself; the text says:

This level was done in about 2 1/2 days just before mm2 should be released, because the original author didn't reply...IMHO the map it's not brilliant
but ok, especially for the short time. Unfortunatly I realized too late that some parts (i.e. the caco-trap or the 2 pain elementals) can be quiet annoying without any chaingun ;)

 

So he made the exit leading to start of MAP11 knowing the map in advance. Also, this very late chaingun (he would have put it closer to the start had he more time to think it, as he said when he was replaying his maps two years ago), no SSG means this is nasty. On UV it's "only" tight ammo, but on UV -fast it's lethal and Nightmare! still hasn't been done.

 

There are 2 barons of hell on all the difficulties. It is possible, though tricky, to kill them without weapons. The first one can be telefragged, and the second one (guarding the blue armor) crushed. 

 

More exploits: the yellow key is on a 64 unit pillar. Very elegant, but of course, you walk slowly towards the key and grab it without triggering the trap. Pretty obvious nowadays. Also, "we finally get to see how a thirty second door's supposed to be used" (Andy Olivera). I don't think so. Maybe on UV it's fine, though you still need to wait for the bars to reopen if you shoot well the cacos (there are four). If a monster is lured into the bars, they will reopen immediately, so another trapped can be thwarted...

 

Rating 4/5

Share this post


Link to post

MAP09
I like this kind of openers. Pick up ammo and jump down to your destiny.
The sewers is one of my favorite setting. And this map recreates the location qualitatively.

Visually, there are many underground paths with branches and holes in the ceiling, as if you are close to the surface. Some walls are overgrown with thickets. Also on this map are many different liquids presents, some are dangerous, the others are not.
The presence of a multitude of pinkies motivates to use a chainsaw. The sphere of invulnerability seems to be hinting at a big trap.

My only complaint here again, the lack of armor, and because of this you need to proceed with more caution. Thankfully I've got a megasphere, but the blue armor near the doorway remained untouched. Judging by the automap, there is a teleport that can deliver there.

MAP10
In the beginning, behind the player you can see the same constructions as in previous map, this means that we are not far away.

This map is really short, I've completed it for 10 minutes.
The ambush with teleporting cacos in comp room: intuitively, I thought that are somewhere is shootable switch to open the bars, though, it's a timed door which are opening after a while by itself.
I did not take risks to examine the acid reservoir without a radsuit, and teleported to quickly finish the map.
 

Edited by riderr3

Share this post


Link to post

map10 fda

uv, pistol starts, glboom+

+ blue key moving with the sludge is very cool

+ secrets were the right level of challenge for me i.e. easy :p

- utterly dull sg/cg of mid-tiers in not very threatening encounters. the only highlight was the rev ambush (i quite enjoy sg vs revs) and the sludge pit PE/spectre massacre at the end which almost killed me. everything else was very boring. not my cup of tea.

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

×