The DWMegawadClub Plays: Dawn of the Dead & Earth & Classic Episode

Omg doomworld stop dying I'm trying to post my shit >:o

E1M9: Hunted Town

A blast of a secret map. Everyone has already talked about the parallels to "Fear", which has always been one of the least memorable maps to me, despite being distinctive among the rest of E4. I'll add "Military Base" because it's obviously tan-brown textured too and they both have a central area (in this case the room after the second door) that ramifies into many paths. Though the map itself is pure frantic action plus moments of silent backtrack like we've seen so far. I really liked its devilish start: with some speed you can easily rush for the almighty chaingun (plus another weapon) and then clear your way using whatever you feel like. I felt that was the best way since I got less injured by attrition. There's also the blue armor that I didn't think of earlier, though not that necessary. When you know when things are, it's much easier than it looks like. My favourite part was, well everything, but aesthetically the outside section, looking at the picture Salt-Man posted I think I appreciated it more being slightly populated than, say the cubes containing monsters, although I wouldn't have opposed to that. Also the marble room behind the BK reminded me to "Against Thee Wickedly" where you faced a baron. The toxic pit is another example of a secret area not being flagged as such. It took me a while to spot the tiny step to the catwalk. Could be a misstep in design or just intended to be optional, though in any case it's interesting to have certain hidden areas that don't count in a max. 

48 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Everyone has already talked about the parallels to "Fear", which has always been one of the least memorable maps to me, despite being distinctive among the rest of E4. I'll add "Military Base"

I also made parallels to Military Base :)  But then I've never played Fear.

E1M3: Space Port

97% kills, 2/2 secrets

Pretty positive on this one, the first half especially is quite fun and really does a good job of following the precepts of what makes Doom 1 work, with a nice layout with lots of windows and looping design. Not a fan of the blind teleport onto the red key though (took me a second to realize I even picked it up), and admittedly I fell prey to the insta-death teleporter, so had to replay after that one, heh. The second half is a bit less interesting as it becomes more maze-y and has less windows, but I did like the cage trap on the blue key. Took me a lot of exploring to find the secret exit (didn't I already hit this switch?) but the id logo room was cute.

E1M9: Hunted Down

97% kills, 2/3 secrets

I'm not a fan of the E4M9 aesthetic here, but I liked the map otherwise. Pistol start definitely gets the blood pumping on this one as you'll need to make heavy use of that berserk pack early on. Seems like it'll be quick one at first until that blue key gets snatched away, then quite the trip to go find it. Interesting little bits here and there, I died on the double baron trap early on because I let myself get caged in, much better to fight them from the sides instead. The end's a bit weird with the cacos and blue armor in a secret you won't have any reason to know about until the end so it's really only useful for continuous players.

I've just realized that e1m5 is a filler map. Are we going to let e1m5 eat up a day or move straight on to e1m6, thereby starting the other 2 wads a day earlier than in Magnusblitz' schedule?

1 hour ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Everyone has already talked about the parallels to "Fear", which has always been one of the least memorable maps to me, despite being distinctive among the rest of E4. I'll add "Military Base"

37 minutes ago, Capellan said:

I also made parallels to Military Base :)  But then I've never played Fear.

I noted a similarity to Military Base myself, particularly in the map's interior structure and generally how it plays.

The Fear similarities come along by being a brown base in a liquid populated by shotgunners, I would say.

57 minutes ago, tmorrow said:

I've just realized that e1m5 is a filler map. Are we going to let e1m5 eat up a day or move straight on to e1m6, thereby starting the other 2 wads a day earlier than in Magnusblitz' schedule?

I'd suggest to post about E1M6 and continue from there, and leave 28th for those who need to catch up with the rest. 

E1M5 Outpost 666 (100% K/I/S):

Pretty short map, but you know what? The are technically no cacodemons at the end, so this is the best map so far!.

Don't worry if there is no map in this one, you are going to see the final Outpost 666 for later this month, when we check Classic Episode, so stay tuned.
 

Maps in order of preference at this moment:

E1M4

E1M2

E1M9

E1M3

E1M1

E1M5

Death counter: 20

Well, this day it's just going to be a coffee break (or a Tea break, or drink of your choice).

Personally, I have an exhaustive review of e1m5 in the works :)

43 minutes ago, Capellan said:

Personally, I have an exhaustive review of e1m5 in the works :)

Take your time, we all know this is a hard one to review :)

2 hours ago, DJVCardMaster said:

Take your time, we all know this is a hard one to review :)

Wait until you see my speed run for e1m5, it'll knock your socks off!

E1M4: Atmospheric Processor

DoomWiki notes that Dawn of the Dead is the first PWAD released by the map author; I find myself wondering, also, if its maps were created in the order in which they're played, and represent the designer's growing skill and developing, improving style?  There's certainly a feeling here that certain weaknesses of E1M3 have been identified, considered, and resolved in this map; it's as delicious a layer-cake as Space Port, but the backtracking has been reduced and the major outdoor area feels more smoothly integrated into the structure of the level as a whole.  I find myself liking the tendency for these maps to contain both official (tagged) and unofficial secrets; there's a joy of discovery that stands on its own without being coupled to running up a score, and it also feels like a two-tier system in which there are secret areas to be discovered and really secret areas waiting to be found even beyond those.  I'm a big fan of the way the south-western quadrant of the map plays out in general; the outdoor area and tower to the north of it are seen very early in the level's progression, drawing the player's attention in that direction and encouraging them to spend time on the layers of secret barriers preventing access to something they know is there but haven't yet been able to reach.

DODEAD e1m5

Ridiculously hard and unfair! How dare the author expect me to walk more than 128 units to flick the exit switch! :)

So yeah, placeholder map consisting of last map's exit room. Not much to discuss here. I am amused by the presence of 4 DM starts in the room, though. I know it's mostly just to stop crashes, but the thought of four guys pistol whipping each other while ignoring the exit switch amuses me.

e1m5: Outpost 666

A filler map that Jan Van der Veken never finished.

e1m6: Fortress of Hate

An impenetrable fortress that your marine has to, er, penetrate. Ammo can be quite scarce, especially if you spend too much of it sniping the baddies through the windows. Fortunately a berserk pack is provided for smacking good times as you biff your way through the narrow passages around the fort. There are a confusing and bewildering array of switches and windows that can be opened along the way, so to maintain your sanity it pays to use the brute force approach and simply punch and action everything in sight. This approach ensures a smooth progression and works surprisingly well.
 

E1M5: Outpost 666

Short map is short.

E1M4: Atmospheric Processor

100% kills, 3/3 secrets

Had a lot of fun with this one, I agree with @TheOrganGrinder that it helps that this one doesn't have nearly as much backtracking as E1M3. Having a lot of areas be optional is fun too, especially the big outdoor area you'll see and have to think about how to access (I tried humping the obvious wall early on, then came back and shot it after clearing out the rest of the map). Didn't even might the quick forays into the nukeage. Not sure why the teleporter at the end was necessary though.

Ok, played the Dawn of the Dead episode continuously from E1M1 to E1M6 (didn't find the secret exit) on doom.exe using dosbox, died 1 time and then cheated sometimes on E1M3, E1M4 and E1M6, shame on me booooh!

The episode structure is really great looking, loved the layout even if in some parts i didn't understand well what switch activates what, lots of homages crafted in a clever way, pretty good eye candies here and there, difficulty is pretty harsh in some of the later maps and i find myself without any ammo like in E1M3, overall a beautiful Doom E1\E2 mashup episode that i quite enjoyed!

Maybe the bad parts is that rooms and monster choices tends to be pretty... savage, especially in E1M3 and E1M4, with tight rooms filled with demons and even a trap that release spectres and a baron too in E1M4!

Sorry for pretty short reviews of each maps, but i don't have really nothing much to say about these of what i wrote above:

E1M1: Great opener, reminded me of original and dtwid E1M1. I liked it.

E1M2: This too at the start reminded me of original E1M2, with dark gloomy lights and brown structures, then to changes into a E1M7 lookalike map with a spruce of E2M2 after the red key door room and E1M3. Also i enjoyed to see that deep water (or better say deep nukage?) effect, even if it was used only once. Also i din't find the way to reach the COMPBLUE secret room...

E1M3: Another good map with pretty amazing details even if it feels too complicated to navigate, also i din't get where is the lift this switch activates:

Also still ahve that huge feel of some sort of ante-literam Doom the Way ID Did feel, really enjoy this approach!

E1M4: another good level, really fun too, it's a big homage to E1M7 mixed with E1M6 and a spruce of E2M7 in the plasma gun room, really enjoyed it!

E1M5: Ah, ok. I see this is a filler map that wasn't fully completed, i see. At first, i tough that it was a level that starts on exit like Doom 2 MAP18, but seems it was made in this way. Ok then.

E1M6: Keep talking about Doom 2 homages, this map looks like a Doom version of MAP19, where a STONE2 fortress surrounded by nukage waits to be raided by CheeaterMan here (sorry about the bad pun), it also reminded me of a old 1994 wad named THEKEEP2 with a similar layout and concept... at first, i tough it was a remake of that wad...

5 minutes ago, Walter confetti said:

E1M3: Another good map with pretty amazing details even if it feels too complicated to navigate, also i din't get where is the lift this switch activates:

It temporarily drops a computer panel, allowing you access to the supercharge secret nearby.

E1M4: Atmospheric Processor

Bob the marine returns to another fun hybrid tech-industrial base. This one is filled of toxic apple juice but a couple or three radsuits are more than enough to explore in depth. I liked that the author hid a switch in the main area to raise a bridge so you don't have to go Jesus all the time, sometimes the tics can be annoying. There's also this obvious secret wing which leads to tons of blue beauties including a pool outdoors (damaging water, apparently), always loved this ol' "optional outdoors area" design concept in whatever style the map is inspired in, though particularly in tech bases, I get to see the sky more often. Also, a tip to acquire the RL: Jan used the same gimmick in a previous map. It won't take too long to see it once you think of it (:

E1M6 Fortress of Hate (100%K/I/S):
 

Interesting sandboxy setup in here, you have to infiltrate into a fortress, to manage to open the exit that is right behind your start point. As any sandbox map, you can tackle this one in different ways (Although you are a little bit restricted to hitting switches and grabbing keys to actually progress). This is how you actually make a big non-linear playground in vanilla Doom. Well, I have to say it's actually amazing how this works on vanilla without crashing. The map felt like it had some problems with ammo balance in contrast to the rest of the maps so far, making this pretty difficult to make from pistol start, and having to make monsters infight constantly to save ammo.
The chaingun secret is I think pretty late on the level considering you could be placed on the situation of a pistol start. There is also a Crate lift there, and I saw people ranting Ty Halderman about that crate lift in TNT MAP19 but not here (Not a problem to me, it seems like standard Doom whatsoever).
This map does progress well without doing too many quirky things to make it longer. 
The central arena is where you may get out of ammo soon, luckly, right at the entrance, there is a baron fight for a berserk pack in the right side, so you can punch through spectres and demons if you take the berserk route first.
It's hard, but not as hard as the secret level, luckly I didn't feel angry of dying few times on this one.
This map represents how Doom 2 MAP19 should have been, it's the same essence, but ten times better in my opinion. So Sandy, take notes for the next timeline.
 

Maps in order of preference at this moment:

E1M6

E1M4

E1M2

E1M9

E1M3

E1M1

E1M5

Death counter: 22 (Died twice here)

Luckly for this Episode, it gets better overall with the time, let's see if it has the end it deserves in the final two maps.

E1M4: Atmospheric Processor

19:59 | 100% Everything

Yeah, this one was a blast. I actually lost a bit of health early on, due to the combo of tons o' hitscanners and mandatory nukage progression. Of course, I later discovered that nukage traversal was not mandatory as long as one could locate the hidden switch to raise a safe walkway; nifty trick, that. Pretty straightforward map, perhaps a bit too straightforward: more than couple of times I took a jog back out to the starting, thinking there must be something else I could there. But nope. Fun level.

E1M5: Outpost 666

0:00 | 100% Everything

Exhausting. No writeup here, I don't care to revisit this dumpster fire.

E1M6: Fortress of Hate

22:07 | 100% Kills | 100% Items | 66% Secrets

Feels almost like a Heretic map. I almost never stopped moving and shooting things and hitting every switch-looking thing I saw, and had very little idea what actually did what. The exit in particular I didn't remember being telegraphed previously, I just stumbled on it at the end. ("Oh, I can get back out? Did I ever try the door behind me at the start? Wait, that's the exit?") I actually took this one a little more cautiously than I let on; after disposing of the welcoming committee on the bridge, I did a quick circuit around the castle, sniping everything I could see. I'm sure that made things a bit more easy inside. And I missed a secret somewhere. My first of the WAD, perhaps? Don't even know what it was. Weird. Fun level, rather memorable, too, though there's not a ton to say about it.

4 hours ago, Salt-Man Z said:

Feels almost like a Heretic map.

I forgot to point this, it actually feels like a Heretic map for some reason, maybe the castle layout like Heretic E1M5 

E1M5: Placeholder for a map that was finished few years later and went into the Classic Episode.

E1M6: The good old fortress surrounded by a moat. I think that this kind of level had a similar fate of the myhouse/school wads, those were rather popular in the early era of mapping and got abandoned gradually. Or to say it better the castle/fortress themed level evolved from the formula of Citadel and maps like this one that are so close to the original idea are a relic of the past. This is a lot similar to Citadel with few different things and it offers a more digestible take on the concept for the average player. This map is very straightforward and it's missing the exploratory and the puzzle solving aspect of unraveling a convoluted layout. All the action is also confined within the fortress wall and in the mandatory tour around the moat you don't have monsters placed on the ground. The double terrace at west is a nice structure to pair with the various towers and windows and give some variety to the walls. Inside the fortress after the outer ring of walls filled with stairs, rooms and corridors in the inner courtyard there's another level of fortifications with another small fortress. Gameplay is tough, nothing exceptional but the ammo is low at a pistol start, you really need the secret plasmagun at the beginning and the chaingun comes late. Inside the RK fortress going the pick the secret backpack will release some monsters into the area, including 2 barons but you can ignore them since they can't get out from there. Being able to interact with the windows was nice, and I liked the various computer panels used to detail the rooms.

E1M6

Eternity Engine 4.00.00, UV, pistol start, saveless

This map reminds me much of The Citadel, and I very much like it, but it feels a little too bare for my tastes.

Much of the action takes place within the walls, with some in the courtyard.

Progression is easy enough, find the red card, then the blue card, then the yellow to find the exit at the start.

Not my preferred map, but it's nice enough.

DODEAD e1m6

While it's not actually anything like a Sandy map, this feels a lot more like an e2 offering than an e1 one. It's probably the STONE everywhere. Rightly or not, that's a defining Deimos texture to me. I think this is a case where the missing e1m5 would have been helpful: it could have begun the process of transitioning the aesthetic in a more gradual way, instead of the abrupt change we now experience.

So the point here is to venture inside a castle to recover a couple of keys ... so you can exit the area from the room that was behind you (but was not accessible) at the start. It's an odd sort of progression, and I think would have been smart to make the entrance to that room look different after it became accessible.

Also, in co-op it looks like the map will break pretty often, due to those support2 bars that drop down once you enter the castle. There's no way to open them from the outside, and no other way I can see to enter the castle, so the first person inside will likely lock all their buddies out. The only way to avoid it is to have someone stand under them while they are triggered. As a W1 door, it will fail to close and leave a gap. Ironically, this will then make the map much quicker to finish, since you don't need to do the western section or the blue key wing at all.

e1m7: Death Awaits

I've only just discovered that according to the story, our marine is on one of Jupiter's moons, Europa. I was wondering why things seemed a bit strange. How the hell our marine can survive under the gravitational pull of what is regarded as a failed star I'll never know but let's just go with the flow here.

Our marine faces a brisk start as the action ramps up over earlier maps in this new foreboding brown fortress and my favorite map in the set. If you are pistol starting then you will be totally unprepared for the greeting party with several heavies (2 barons and some invisible friends). Welcome! It seems that they want to rip out your beating heart and show it to you before you die. After concluding negotiations with the first party, the map settles down to a more relaxing affair, punctuated with trickier set pieces to get your adrenaline up again.

The important business of sniffing out secrets as you explore the castle is quite rewarding and you'll score a chainsaw, plasma rifle, rocket launcher and a soulsphere for your troubles. The best secret though is a non official area where you can pick up a blue armor just prior to a surprise meeting with biggest bad in the fortress. The non official area is a bit tricky to find.

The set pieces are probably the most dangerous since bad rng can see you hemmed in on all sides by barons and spectres. In most cases berserk fist is the way to lay down the smack on those pesky varmints. Sad to relate, the cybie trap before the yellow key is just plain mean (i.e. it totally ruined my first uvmax attempt). Fortunately the trap is easily avoided with the benefit of hindsight.

E1M7 (pistol start, iddqd all the way): First "original level" without any recognizable homages (maybe it feels a little bit like E4M7?), it's a large brown tech station surrounded by a large sea and connected by canals, pretty enjoyable... but it's pretty hard, and saying this after this episode made of a hard maps is a pretty big deal. For instance, this is the first thing you see after the very start:

Nice, fucking wonderful. Two barons on HMP and no guns expect a shotgun and a chaingun the door after this room. Luckilly it didn't follow the slaughtermap route of filling every inch of hard monsters, but the one it was used made their job pretty damn well. Also i skipped the cyberdemon near the end. Waiting for next day great finale!

E1M6: Fortress of Hate

97% kills, 2/3 secrets

Aptly named... well, okay, I didn't hate it, but definitely the weakest of the maps so far (not counting E1M5 obviously) for my tastes. Doesn't play very well from a pistol start, as you'll be stuck with shotgun/berserk for two-thirds of the map and a chaingun for the last third, and the map largely amounts to room clearing with tiny hallways in-between which makes the low arsenal level drag a bit. Progression is a bit weird with lots of non-obvious switch-hittery.

E1M5: Outpost 666

I'm hungry.

E1M6: Fortress of Hate

It's nice to have a "Fortress" map from time to time since they aren't common these days. Almost every old/classic mapset has one, along with other staple themes like sewers, cities and castles, and I approve this cliche. A couple things though that seemed questionable: at least two switches did something out of my knowledge, the red one behind a candle, and a lion-faced later, which probably granted access to the sergeants and ammo behind the structure, I don't know. The belated chaingun didn't represent a big problem for me because I typically go careful with sparse ammo and intimate whenever possible (meaning fist/chainsaw ftw), but this is an acquired methodology, a basic weapon appearing that late feels unnecessary nonetheless. Even so, the grind was enjoyable, the layout is simple enough to navigate, cool occasional details, particularly those windows you can interact with, and the secret portal to the blue armor goes to my list of ideas for when I get into mapping, since this set has been inspirational hehe.

E1M6: Fortress of Hate

@Salt-Man Z mentions a sense that this feels like a Heretic map, @Aquila Chrysaetos sees similarities to The Citadel and while that could mean Doom II's MAP19 or Heretic's E1M5 I would agree in either case, there are shades of both maps here, with a texture theme that follows the former but a more "orderly" arrangement of spaces that reminds me more strongly of the latter.  There's a sharp divide in gameplay between the free-flowing combat of the nested courtyard areas and the more constrained encounters that take place within the confines of the citadel walls; the latter will almost inevitably involve a lot of bottling the enemies up at door and in corridors because there's really nowhere else for them (or you) to go.  It's a nice theme that's beautifully executed in a minimalist sort of way, but I feel as though much of the map's gameplay takes a back seat to the execution of that aesthetic concept.  I think the high point for me was the initial breaching of the keep and its inner courtyard, with the cacodemon functioning as an obstacle to be ducked around while picking off the imps raining fire from the walkways above; the second encounter that takes place in the same space, with a Baron of Hell and a cadre of demons teleporting in while the player is secure on the upper level, felt like a bit of a misfire.

E1M7: For certain things the style it's similar to E1M6, using almost exclusively a limited set of textures and putting more care into the architectural detail. In this rather large brown complex where we are far away from the more varied and tech-oriented design of the first 4 levels. Maybe the map it's even too rigid in following its all brown theme (except for a grey metal passagge that sticks out nicely) but the author did a really good work with the lighting, colored torches and in what is the true jewel of this map: the architecture. You can really notice it after the red door from the bridge area and ahead where you can take a good look at the shape of the complex that feel almost city-esque with various windows, and the archways over the water canals. Gameplay still as that shortage of ammo and especialy health that was a common theme in the episode, though it isn't something too great to overcome and the secrets (with an early rocket launcher and plasma gun) will help. Before the YK there's a panic moment with a cyberdemon that will come into the small room, only to be teleported in front of the quake style gate (made with grey ASHWALL like in Darkening).