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Magnusblitz

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

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MAP02: The Tomb

18:12 | 98% Kills | 68% Items | 40% Secrets

Interesting to read how other people's experience here differed from mine. 

48 minutes ago, Capellan said:

it's a long search for keys, with the yellow one being at the end of a long unlit maze of secret tunnels that aren't even marked on the automap. I am no fan of mandatory secrets.

None of the secrets here were truly mandatory, outside humping the wall for the exit (which I thought was pretty lame: if you're going to put a big tacky glowing arrow on the ground, you might as well just make the blue door visible.) Once inside the pyramid, the six switches around the pillar open six passages, three of which lead to the three keys. I found the keys first, and then found the secret passageways to the key rooms later, which made them feel kind of pointless. I saw @Aquila Chrysaetos's complaint about the map closing off at the end, which I didn't remember happening to me, so I loaded up my save from just before stepping on the exit teleporter, and what do you know? everything but the blue key area was blocked off. So I wonder if you visit the various rooms in a certain sequence, that they get closed off but still remain accessible via the secret tunnels? That's an interesting design if true, but I'm glad I didn't experience it! As far as how my trip went: once inside the pyramid, I hit the pointless northern section first, then the eastern nukage room, which is when all the baddies decided to spawn in, so pretty much all the action took place there. The nuke room itself ended up being pointless (aside from a couple of secrets) but remains the most memorable bit, simply because all the fighting happened there. The red key in its big empty maze room was guarded by a single imp and baron. The yellow key room also had a baron, a couple lost souls, and maybe a handful of zombies. And the long trek to and from the blue key was entirely uneventful. In sum, I like the layout here, and the exploration factor, but so much of the level being empty after the first initial battle is really disappointing.

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29 minutes ago, Salt-Man Z said:

Once inside the pyramid, the six switches around the pillar open six passages, three of which lead to the three keys. 

 

Looking at the map in GZDB, that appears to be how it should work, but for some reason, the route to the YK room never opened for me.  Would have made life a lot easier if it had!

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MAP02: The Tomb

98% kills, 2/10 secrets

 

Pretty dire, and the first warning comes from the giant arrow splayed across the ground pointing to an otherwise unmarked wall that has all your starting weaponry and the eventual exit. After wallhumping my way inside the pyramid comes a bunch of uninspired 90s blocky hallways. More random teleportation, and like the rest of you it ended up being very front loaded. A couple of bigger enemies were guarding the yellow key (though the room is so big they were no threat) but after that the only enemies I killed for the rest of the map were a cacodemon who got stuck in the pyramid teleporter and a couple of sergeants who teleported late into a wing I already cleared out... not a single enemy in the blue key wing. Apparently I'm still missing a ton of secret passageways but I'm not really feeling the desire to wallhump my way around for them since the opposition is so uninspired.

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map02: The Tomb

Oh boy, a pyramid to explore! Don't miss following the brightly lit arrow on the ground before climbing the pyramid and entering the hub area or else you will be ill equipped for the enemies inside. The hub area has 6 switches that open 6 paths through the pyramid, two holding the red and yellow keys. At this point you get a lot of random teleporting of monsters (from the final room with a blue key).

There are another 10 secrets in a hidden corridor system to find. But there is an evil twist this time. Make sure you complete all exploration before heading into the blue key area because for reasons that escape me, Ritenour added a line trigger to close off all the areas to prevent any further searching. I think he has it in for us completionists!

I found that the large lift in the northern area off the hub is quite flaky in zdoom, gzdoom and prboom+. There are actually 2 adjoining sectors making up the lift and if the one closest to the hub gets lowered then the second doesn't rise to the top anymore. You have to be careful on where you press action.

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MAP02: The Tomb

 

The Egyptian trappings of this level are cool, if pretty basic, but unfortunately they're just a pretty coat of paint on a level that I was thinking of from its midpoint onward as Bargain Basement Tricks and Traps.  I think the random and lively technique of populating the map via teleporters doesn't do much either to enhance the atmosphere of the ancient tomb you're raiding, or to make best use of the more "staged" terrain found within; the mixture of monsters that mill freely into the central hub of the map feels rather cosmopolitan when the setup and scenery have instead prepared you for revenants wrenching themselves from their dusty graves to hunt you down or carefully-arranged configurations of tomb guardians.  So far I'm left with a sense of a WAD that I can appreciate for trying to do something different without necessarily appreciating the different thing that it's doing or trying to do.

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MAP02 The Tomb (100% K/ 75% I/ 50% S):

first look at this map is a really nice isolated pyramid, which surprises me because doesn't make vanilla explode on visplanes. you have to enter it, although the sequence to enter it is obnoxious (There were instant lowering platforms at 1998, the author should have used those instead).
When you enter it you get into some kind of hub with lots of different passageways to explore, the good aspect of this map is exploration. The bad things still shine from the first level.
Although the level is still dull on gameplay, I enjoyed this one ten times more than the first map. So luckly there is an improvment. You can kill enemies although you can pass by the bigger ones. Monster randomizer is there aswell.
In terms of aesthetic, the map is awful, it looks like a random 1995 wad. It actually looks like those awful forgettable Dwango5 maps, specially for that big gray room with random texture choices.
I felt like presing random switches with no idea what they actually do sometimes. 
Again, dark passageways that force me to use my CG as a torch, I really hope it's the last time they appear, I don't even want to see (or not see since it's all dark) them again.
I died once, but is not bad to pistol start this, since you can get the secret (that is mandatory to exit the map) with all those goodies. I also started savespamming but it wasn't necessary.
This map is still lackluster on action, and it's no excuse to say the mapset focuses on exploration, since that aspect is not fun either.

Death Counter : 7

Maps in order of preference at this moment:

MAP02 (Mediocre)
MAP01

I still have some hope for this one.

Edited by DJVCardMaster

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MAP02: The music gives a big change of mood from the calm and happy tune of MAP01 but if fits since we are going to visit a tomb here. From the start the map gives a different impression from the previous level where the brown and green that create a more familiar natural landscape is replaced with grey ashwall and a pyramid that stand out in the bleak area. An arrow on the floor points at the location of the exit locked by the BK and apparently there nothing else to do. After inspecting the pyramid near the top the suspicious different red floor hints that there's something and from there you can reveal a teleport that takes you inside the tomb. At the hub room you have 6 different paths to choose, 2 lead to the YK and RK that both are required to open the way to the BK. Again we have big empty areas linked with linked with small corridors. I'm not sure what to say about the gameplay, for that times there was a good effort to make all those triggers for that randomized monster placement and it makes for another distinctive feature of the wad. The focus on the exploration is cool, in new areas you can also discover passages to that system of tunnels that runs around the major areas, allowing you to find secrets or visit areas that aren't required to progress. I wish that the visuals could grab more your attention, I liked somehow the YK area and the marble rooms with the red flat before the BK, but everything is a bit too simple and bare.

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EARTH MAP03

The author's proclivity for slathering 'not shown on automap' over large chunks of these maps is definitely not one of my favourite things about the WAD (neither is their fondness for dark ashwall tunnels everywhere). The navigational difficulty it presents is the vast majority of the challenge of this level. The monsters that randomly distribute aren't really very threatening on the whole, though as with all these maps you could find youself in some pretty impractical situations if the luck of the draw is against you.

 

Ultimately, what you need to do here is find any two of the three keys dotted about the level. I got the blue and the yellow, the latter of which was marked as a secret, though I am not sure why. The blue seemed more like a secret, since it required a leap of faith (or a leap of savegame, in my case) and then the humping of random walls to get back. Ironically, looking at the map in GZDB, it seems like the red ought to be the easiest key to find.

 

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MAP03

ZDoom 2.9 pre-2175, HNTR, pistol start, continous

really do not like this map.

A combination of impossible to navigate caves with no automap and randomized monster placement, this map does not help this wad's case at all.

The best way to solve it is the same as with any maze: pick a wall and follow it to the end.

I'm just glad it was over in a timely fashion.

I found the red and yellow skulls (I held the left wall the whole time, even after jumping out of a tunnel, not paying much attention) and was able to leave the map within about 3 minutes.

Recommend skipping.

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MAP02: Basic map sets into a pyramid (a pyramid? In what i think it's Europe?), get into the pyramid, find the keys, solves the puzzles and get to exit. Pretty easy.

I enjoyed also the teleport monsters trick this time (after jump on that light pillars, like in Doom 2 MAP01 for reaching the RL secret) and parts of the level that appears after you push switches, pretty neat trick even i can't find the lower all the walls and did some no clipping for reaching the said rooms. I've expected in the blue skull key room a epic battle of sorts, like fighting a cyberdemon or something similar... it's ok, not good like MAP01 but it's ok.

 

MAP03: Ok, now i'm geographically confused about the location where this wad is taking places, first time it looked like Northern Europe, but then we've got a Pyramid and now we reached... LOTR mines of Moria? What? Also this level have the most sadistic way to piss off people: not 1000 archviles, not 100000 reverants but the worst enemy of all, not shown on automap mazes progression! In almost dark environment! AAARRRGGGHH!!! Overall with some luck (and IDDT-ing like i did for reaching the yellow skull, set as secret for some weird reason) you can reach the most important rooms and juicy health that will help you during the play and finding pretty charming places in the caves, like broken floor pits filled with lava, giving you an ominous fell of a great dangers around, didn't find the dwarfs king room but i found a inescapable pit at the blue skull position (i didn't had the time to hump every wall like Capellan did, sorry) and did some noclip for pass that part, a hilarious monster meeting in a dead end area due to a "bad" (i guees it was a mistake, maybe, maybe not?) teleport spawn spot location and the fact that the mines of Moria was the icon of sin all this time (or it is supposed to be balrog... outside the mines? Oh, it is supposed to be the part when he comes out after falling in the abyss battling with Gandalf and somehow reach the summit of the mountain where the mines are, ok now i see), in the same section where the exit is located. having mixed feelings of lkie and hate this map, it was ok again. Next.

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17 minutes ago, Walter confetti said:

MAP03: Ok, now i'm geographically confused about the location where this wad is taking places

"Earth", of course. :P

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MAP03 Mines of Moria (0% K/ 30% I/ 25% S):

Fun fact, I discovered that if you manage to bypass the first soldier without killing him, the map is going to be TOTALLY EMPTY. Since you don't make sound, the monster traps don't activate, and the challenge is completely negated. There is not a single monster placed in the actual map layout apart for that single zombieman.
This map is totally worthless, awful gameplay, samey at best, boring exploration, and the worst part of all, forcing the player to escape the BK section by humping random walls.
Again, the gimmick of 0 brightness-caves with linedefs not shown on the map, from this point I'll just IDDT myself everytime I see this crap of a gimmick in any further Earth maps. This time, it takes the whole map.
This map doesn't even have  custom music, to represent how careless Roger Ritenour was while building this map. This map overall makes TNT MAP25 feel fun. In fact, this map looks like a rejected TNT E3 submission from mid-1995.
Died 6 times trying to beat this level normally, before realizing the no monsters trick. 
The worst if you want to play this level how it's inteded, is just how the caverns fill with random anoying monsters in tight spaces, specially Pain Elementals, Revenants or Arch-viles.
By the way I didn't feel like save spamming since the author gifts you almost the whole arsenal at the start just like in the last map.

Death Counter : 13

Maps in order of preference at this moment:

MAP02 (Mediocre)
MAP01
MAP03 (Awful)

Ok, I'm losing all my hope for this one at this point.

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MAP03: Mines of Moria

 

Three maps in and I think this is the first point at which the design quirks of the WAD and the population-by-mass-teleport gimmick has really worked for me.  Maybe it's the late hour that made the sense of creeping along a barely-lit passage, shotgun in one hand while the fingertips of the other trailed against the cool, damp stone so vivid, or maybe it's the way that, at some point, the phrase "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike," popped unbidden into my head.  Regardless, something about this map really clicked for me, despite its obstinate refusal to offer up more than the untidiest little fragments of a map; normally I'm a big fan of "show me where the locked door is, then send me hunting for the key," but this is a level that doesn't use colour-coded doors as section dividers and progress markers, so much as it uses the keys as puzzle pieces, and so the sense of progression comes from collecting those keys even before you know just where they're to be used, where the "frame" into which those puzzle pieces are slotted is hidden.  I do like the fact that any two of the three keys will suffice to get you to the exit.

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MAP02: The Tomb

 

How many of us had it hard to figure out the way inside the pyramid?. It seems DJVCardMaster didn't fancy the sequence and so did I, you hit the red thingy until a couple lifts lower but it's not that simple to get inside. The randomized appearances actually make a bit more sense in this map due to the multiple ways in which you can handle progression. I remember that I went first to an empty brown room, found a toxic pool, entered a secret completely black tunnel, ended up in another spacious room with several tall platforms, and the rest is blurry but I may have traversed that same tunnel more than twice. Speaking of this, I'll give it a pass because there're candles to guide the player, but this combo of extreme darkness and hidden automap lines just feels already tacky in a secret to me, imagine in mandatory progression, I'm not even going there, yet... Another sort of struggle I had at the end: with the blue key in hand, I could simply exit, but still missed a few secrets in the pyramid, so I went back and guess what, every single wing was closed! (minus the BK road). Did not care to idclip through to locate the missing secrets, they were all in the black tunnel, screw that!. Overall, acceptable map with not much happening. Favourite RNG moment: telefragged a mancubus outside the pyramid :P

 

MAP03: The Mines of Moria

 

I don't know who or what was "Moria" in real life but here in Argentina we have an actress-diva called Moria Casan who's mainly famous for her spicy phrases and sharp tongue. Ironically, the coincidence is only in the name, she is a very smart, admirable woman, whereas this map is everything but clever and likeable IMHO. The obvious reasons: it's a sprawling ultra dark maze in a cave, every nook looks the same, there's no help from the automap, in basic words you can't keep track of where you go or where you've been. I usually embrace low lighting in Doom to enhance the atmosphere, or non-standard ways to make progression less straightforward, but this case just didn't work for me. I got lost for an eternity in an ASHWALL nightmare and my health was chipped away several times from not being able to see the monster in front of me, and if I recall correctly ammo ceased to exist at a middle point, thanks to the abundance of high-HP enemies, barons in particular. To sum up, gameplay was not my taste. On a positive side, the inner area where you see the crevice looked pretty decent, to say the least. Once again I did not care about completionism and left as soon as possible.  

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map03: Mines of Moria

The mines of moria minus the dwarves and balrog. The map could have been worse but it is hard enough navigating the dark caves. Taking out the enemies that teleport in and then switching to the automap to help with navigation is never a good thing but I found it to be necessary for progress. The map does not tell all, there are drop off points along some of the narrow tunnels and you can't always return the way you came. At least there are candles to mark the way.

The pain elementals and the 2 archviles are the worst pests you will meet unless you are unlucky enough to have a baron teleport behind you in the dark while you are examining the map. The most unsettling aspect for me was the realisation over halfway through that I hadn't made enough use of the chainsaw and that I was going to run out of ammo. The lack ammo in the second half had me finishing an archvile with chainsaw as well as having to saw through a mancubus, revenant and baron that had camped separate areas.

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MAP03: Mines of Moria

16:18 | 93% Kills | 70% Items | 87% Secrets

I think I didn't mind this one as much as everyone else. It helps to play it in the basement with all the lights off, perhaps. Navigation was tricky, but I managed to find my way around far more easily than I anticipated. I came across the three keys easily enough. There were a couple of neat visuals, in particular whenever you'd come out into one of the (thankfully, non-damaging) lava areas. The actually-damaging "furnace" areas (the red key, and a secret area) looked really cool. The "theater" near the end was kinda funny, especially from the outside, with the IoS plastered across the shutters. The randomized combat was more interesting here, as the baddies would fill up the tunnels more unpredictably. At one point, I got up onto the castle ramparts, opened the door, and all the monsters had gotten bottlenecked in there, fighting with each other; two revenants tracked me down, and killed me. Load up muh save from a minute or so earlier, take a different turn, find the soulsphere, and head back up ready to confront the mob, and... they weren't there. I never saw those revenants again. I didn't feel like tracking them down, or the other 2-3 monsters I missed, because, well. And I only missed a single secret, which was good enough for me. (I did find it humorous how many of the secrets were like, "Hey, you made it to the end of one of the blind tunnels, congratulations, have a secret!") Not a bad level; I'll commend Ritenour on its length, because any longer would have been wearying, but this I don't think quite overstayed its welcome.

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1 hour ago, galileo31dos01 said:

MAP03: The Mines of Moria

 

I don't know who or what was "Moria" in real life but here in Argentina we have an actress-diva called Moria Casan who's mainly famous for her spicy phrases and sharp tongue. Ironically, the coincidence is only in the name, she is a very smart, admirable woman, whereas this map is everything but clever and likeable IMHO. The obvious reasons: it's a sprawling ultra dark maze in a cave, every nook looks the same, there's no help from the automap, in basic words you can't keep track of where you go or where you've been. I usually embrace low lighting in Doom to enhance the atmosphere, or non-standard ways to make progression less straightforward, but this case just didn't work for me. I got lost for an eternity in an ASHWALL nightmare and my health was chipped away several times from not being able to see the monster in front of me, and if I recall correctly ammo ceased to exist at a middle point, thanks to the abundance of high-HP enemies, barons in particular. To sum up, gameplay was not my taste. On a positive side, the inner area where you see the crevice looked pretty decent, to say the least. Once again I did not care about completionism and left as soon as possible. 

(taco posting) Moria Casán, pensé lo mismo, hubieras avisado que eras de acá jajaja 

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MAP03: Well, at least you need only 2 of the 3 keys to take exit (the locked bars are made in 3 different combinations) and the level isn't big. The mine is a maze of dark tunnels completely hidden on the automap. I wouldn't even mind so much to play something like that is set to piss off the player once in a while but this level has nothing endearing visually. The randomized gameplay isn't so bad, supplies are placed on dead ends and monsters can come from unexpected places while you wander around without knowing where you are. I skipped monsters as much as possible after I found the 3 keys.

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Continuing on with finishing Dawn of the Dead. Let's go.

 

E1M4: Atmospheric Processing

100% kills, 98% items, 100% secrets

Time: 14:18

 

This is yet another fine techbase map by Jan. Tons of enemies to plow through, and this is where you finally get the plasma rifle. While it's a pretty lengthy map, there's thankfully not as much backtracking as that in E1M3. I like the nifty little homages to Tom Hall in a few spots, such as the room with the plasma rifle which echoes E2M7's computer rooms and that baron chamber with the inverted cross. There seems to be a bit of E2M4's style as well in that secret with the baron and chainsaw after finding the switch through the nukage canal. Watch out for sneaky ambushes as you grab the important keys or certain items in secrets, and when you check out the optional outdoor area, don't drink the radioactive water, keep your eyes on anything unusual on the wall and think fast to get the rocket launcher. I saved the mega armour and soul sphere for when I'm close to finishing the map as it's inevitable you'll take damage from the hordes and ambushes littered throughout the level. The map was quite a ball.

 

E1M5: Outpost 666

0% kills, 0% items, 0% secrets

Time: 00:01

 

Nothing but a placeholder map that remained unfinished until The Classic Episode which we'll get to later on. Next.

 

E1M6: Fortress of Hate

100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 15:54

 

Anyone who enjoyed Doom 2's The Citadel would feel themselves at home with this map. It's a castle map in that style, but much more crisper and cleaner in design, and also not loaded too many monsters. Even so, opposition is somewhat tricky and you'll be keeping your eyes peeled so that you won't be sniped off by anyone. Don't forget to dive down into the slime moat and grab the radiation suit so you can obtain a secret down below. Once you enter the castle, you are locked in until you find the keys and solve some rather mind-bending puzzles. It could be assumed that it's an establishment of the ancient relics as mentioned in the story. You'll be doing a lot of running around as you scour the place for switches. Once you gain access to the central courtyard, you'll need to watch out for a nasty ambush after you grab the red key, which involves a bunch of monsters spawning in consisting of some pinkies, spectres and even the bruiser brothers. As you explore the ramparts, you'll eventually come across as neat little Quake-style slipgate, and I like how you can be able to open and close the windows of the castle. Despite it being a stony castle map, which is a far cry from the techbase theme that make up most of the episode, it manage to house in some computer panels. Overall, this is a good map, but it can be quite tough and the progression tends to be counter-intuitive.

 

E1M7: Death Awaits

100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 19:45

 

Hoo boy, this is by far the toughest map in the entire episode. Immediately as soon as you plummet down from the start, you are greeted by two barons and some spectres, so you'll be pressed to go ahead quickly, but onward are some shotgunners. This map does not pull any punches whatsoever, it will be trying to kill you with all those ambush traps and the sheer number of barons that can rival that of some of Episode 4's maps. Speaking of Episode 4, I couldn't help but notice that the level design is very reminiscent of Dr. Sleep. You'll be in desperate need of secrets to get yourself better equipped and in good shape as a lot of these fights are merciless, and if you don't know about the traps in hindsight, you could be trapped inside as all the enemies pour in and lose so much health in process with the possibility of dying. Guess that's why it's called Death Awaits. Luckily, you have some moments to breathe before you are thrown into more traps. Be sure to search for irregular bars the further you go as that will lead to a non-official secret where you'll pick up a mega armour, a computer map and some health if you need any, but the mega armour is absolutely necessary to track down as soon you'll come face to face with a cyberdemon, which promptly awakes once you shoot the baron marble face. Get the hell out of that room as fast as you can once you shoot it, cause stay while you wait for the bars to open, it will appear and blow you up. Make sure to stock up on cells if you have the BFG as it will help in the climactic fight. Luckily, there's a berserk pack for if you're in dire situation, and I would recommend picking that up first then fins the soul sphere secret to get 200% health. So glad to be done with this map, it took me a while due to being very wary of my surroundings and having to ration up enough rockets and cells, which is easier said than done as there are a lot of barons along with other nuisances.

 

E1M8: At the Heart of it All

 

Here we are at the finale, and it feels more like a souped up version of Phobos Anomaly, with the swarm of spectres at the start in place of the pinkies, including a cacodemon in the mix. Getting the soul sphere will require you to quickly step on the flashing sector further up ahead and race back before the block raises up. This has some rather neat homages to E1M8, E2M1 and even E3M3 with the imps hiding in the indentions that looked like the start of that map. After obtaining the blue key, you'll be able to get the lift up to the ledge where all those zombies were, and then you reveal a teleporter leading to the big fight against the bruiser brothers, flanked by some spectres and shotgunners. Fortunately, with the BFG handy, this should be an easy showdown. Once everyone is dead, you'll be able to leave and you teleport into another void getting murdered by cyberdemons to end the wad.

 

Okay, so now my final thoughts on this episode. Dawn of the Dead is a classic, and it truly feels like an id-style Doom episode, while mixing in all the elements of Episodes 1 and 2, including 3 and 4. Jan van der Veken has made an episode that starts off easy to being more difficult in the latter half. The execution was well done, and some of the traps were pretty fiendish, especially monster teleport ambushes. We get a good assortment of themes, from techbases to castles, both in flavour of stone, metal or marble. We also see the variety of styles Jan has cleverly emulated, from John Romero, to Tom Hall, to Sandy Petersen, and to even Tim Willits and Dr. Sleep. It's definitely worth playing and I highly recommend it for classic id-style Doom gameplay. The best maps in the set include E1M2, E1M4, E1M7 and E1M9. Who knows if we'll play another Jan van der Veken somewhere down the track, like No Sleep for the Dead, perhaps?

 

Anyway, that will be it for me. I'll come back to play Earth. See you guys next time!

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15 hours ago, Salt-Man Z said:

"Earth", of course. :P

Lol yeah.

But is this even our earth?

https://giphy.com/gifs/kKdgdeuO2M08M

Also I take a look at the text file and the name of this place is some sort of nickname for this place, like you call the mall near you "The Death Star"... Pretty Weird, I think...

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EARTH MAP04

The illusion of the walk over and under bridge here is a simple one effected by duplicating the area, but it works quite well as long as one doesn't zoom the automap out too far. It's the only design trick of this otherwise rather drab offering, though. It's all plain ashwall canyons and unadorned tunnels, really. Even last map, with its occasional use of stark lighting and bright reds in the darkness was more visually interesting.

 

Gameplay is incidental, as usual, while you search for the keys you need to leave. As is common with these maps, the architecture is more of a barrier than the monsters, with the slim ashwall steps you need to find generally quite hard to spot.

 

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MAP03: Mines of Moria

100% kills, 8/8 secrets

 

Reading the other reviews I was wondering if I had used the word "dire" too soon in describing last map, but for this I actually... sorta liked it? It helped that I probably had a good "oh shit" moment early on - the first enemies (well, aside from one lone zombieman at the start) I encountered were a pain elemental and mancubus in a tight corridor, so I while I hung back in a V-shaped corridor and let them sort out their differences, an Arch-Vile and friends teleported right behind me. I was thinking I was gonna get pincered by the manc and the AV, and right as I was deciding to bumrush the manc the AV teleported away. So good scare there from the RNG teleporters.

 

I agree with the comments that thankfully the map isn't large, so it doesn't overstay it's welcome. The lack of an automap can be somewhat annoying, but there are enough landmarks that show up that you can figure out your way around decently easily, and the thin opposition makes it easier to spend time searching. I actually completely cleared the map, which I didn't for either of the first two, so there's that. There are a lot of things that objectively I could point to as bad design like the mandatory secrets and so forth, but overall I actually enjoyed playing this one.

 

MAP04: The Chasm

77% kills, 1/2 secrets

 

Okay, back to maps I don't care for. This one is pretty straightforward, albeit with a lot of backtracking - clear out the first area for the blue key, cross the big bridge (which has four barons on it for some reason, such fun), run around the titular chasm for another key, return to the start to grab the last key, then return back for the exit. Didn't spend much time shooting stuff since fighting enemies in huge open areas isn't my jam (especially since I didn't find the secret RL). I was a bit surprised that the bridge was made by duplicating the area rather than insta-pop 3D trickery.

 

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MAP04 (pistol start, HMP, played with la tailor girl mos for spicing the things up... and not in the way you think ^_-): Oh, this was one of the map that was in my mind from the first time i've played this mapset, mostly for the music (Self Control midi is so 90s!) and for the 3d bridge (at first, i remember it was like in scythe 2, but then is this bridge thing made duplicating the 2 sectors under an over the bridge,clever simple trick, that can be crushed when you don't kill all the monsters at sector below the bridge, like i did), as the people wrote above pretty straightforward but not that ugly as other people see, at me at least it liked, expect for the same problem that was in MAP01, a bad balacament of monsters / health at the sector the below the bridge when all the monsters teleport in the arena... Overall, it was a nice walk. Next.

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19 hours ago, DJVCardMaster said:

(taco posting) Moria Casán, pensé lo mismo, hubieras avisado que eras de acá jajaja 

 

Well, now you know (:

 

MAP04: The Chasm

 

A suitable change from the nightmarish cave system to a bland-looking canyon, where at least things (read: monsters and pickups) are far more visible. The biggest point is the bridge, just like Capellan explained above, I know little to nothing about mapping trickery so whatever sounds quite interesting to me (like the double switch thingy in DOTD's E1M3 that Gaspe gently explained a week before). There's a fun straightforward first fight and most of the teleporting monsters in the canyon can be easily manipulated to kill each other, so they are somewhat toothless. I found the YK by pure chance as the steps are barely visible, and I see from other comments it becomes accessible once you backtrack from the canyon, presumably the slightly hidden switch releases it. So much backtracking though... 

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MAP04 The Chasm (92% K/ 85% I/ 50% S):

Well, died a few times trying to trigger the no monsters effect just like in the previous map, but this one has monsters in the actual layout, so a point in favour for this one.
Tried making enemies infight at the first area. Map consists of 2 or 3 big arenas with some enemies in there. With another little dark cavern at the middle. Luckly, this one didn't make me IDDT, and I could find the RL. I really love the bridge effect at this one, and overall the level felt better than the rest, although nothing too mind blowing, except for the already mentioned bridge.
The things I didn't like were the hidden ashwall steps, and grabbing the keys at the start, it just weird progression here.
Still amused how those big areas don't trigger VPO's.

Death Counter : 17

Maps in order of preference at this moment:

MAP04 (Ok)
MAP02 (Mediocre)
MAP01
MAP03 (Awful)

Well, this feels like a rollercoaster in terms of overall quality.

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MAP04: The Chasm

 

The gameplay shifts from the preceding map's tight tunnels to a series of large, open-air arena battles here, although the whole everything-gets-randomly-teleported-in schtick means that the enemy are often not optimally deployed to make the most of the situation; it seems as though every map has featured demons or spectres getting stuck in places where they can do no harm, or mixed mobs of enemies that need only the slightest prodding to infight.  I'm not a fan of the way the yellow key is placed here; you've got no indication that there's anything there during your first time in that part of the map, especially once you've cleared out the monsters, collected the blue key, and called it done, and I spent altogether too much time poking about the various tiers of the chasm itself before ultimately deciding to backtrack to the start area because really there was nothing else for me to do.

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MAP04

ZDoom 2.9 pre-2175, HNTR, pistol start, saveless

This one's visuals are the stand out for sure, definitely over the progression and gameplay.

The name of the game is searching for tiny ledges to climb, which can be annoying, since they're the same grey ashwall as the surrounding walls, even when you know what you're looking for.

Not my favorite, but certainly one of the better maps.

The primary feature of the map, the canyon itself, is interesting in how it's executed, and the ZDoom version of the wad does it a little more immersively, if that's your thing.

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map04: The Chasm

A short map in a very big place. After shaking hands with the archvile and company at the beginning, you make your way through a short cave and cross a bridge spanning a huge ravine before being whisked unceremoniously into that very ravine (kind of) for the maps main fight. With so much room to move there is little danger but it can be awkward polishing off some of the enemies that teleport to spots way across the ravine and up high. Careful at where you drop into the ravine since falling over on the far west side lands you in a pain sector you can't get out of. Also note that it is easy to overlook the thin, narrow ledges that allow you to get back up to the plateau after lowering the return teleporter. Return to the start of the map to find some new enemies have arrived to guard the newly unlocked yellow key needed to exit the map. Of course if you are in a hurry, you can use @Grazza's sneaky trick to swipe the yellow key early and avoid the return trip later. Return trips are for chumps!
 

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MAP04: The archvile at the start was nice, a more hectic moment for a change. Basically you have to follow a linear road and do back and forth in the same areas few times, at least I found the BK before enterting the tunnel so I could spare one trip. The YK is also at the starting area, you can't see it at first but it can be picked with a trick if you already know the map. I can't say I am impressed that much by the big canyon, it looks good enough for vanilla. With a simple trick the author makes a 3D effect for the bridge so you can pass under it. I didn't bother to fight the monsters at the RK area.

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