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Magnusblitz

The DWmegawad Club plays: Eviternity

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6 hours ago, tmorrow said:

 

I'm very impressed Eris that you were able to prevail without the bfg secret. Well done! This secret is valuable not so much for the bfg pickup but for a trap you are able to avoid.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Avoid cybie until you reach the room with a megaarmor trap. Drop into the room and quickly look for a concealed switch on the north side of the room beyond the west side rail. Action it to lower a teleporter in middle of the room which allows you to telefrag cybie but even better, gets you the hell out of that room full of spawning enemies. After that you can reopen the megaarmor room and take care of business from comparative safety.

 

 

It's not too bad to be honest but then again I haven't seen this fight on UV, mainly the problem stems from the fact that using cells to kill the cyber safely restricts your reserves once you reach this trap where the plasma gun is sorely needed, it's a good trade off I feel. You only have a short window to use the rocket launcher before in the trap before it overflows with zombies, but it's just enough time to get rid of one AV. From there I managed to clear enough of the fight with the plasma gun that I could get rid of the remainder with just the SSG.

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MAP31 "Imperator" - Paul DeBruyne (102%K /100% I /66% S):

The mastermind behind Ancient Aliens makes his guest appearance on the first secret map, with some kind of a hellish city? Well, I can only relate half of this map to that, the other half looks like a canyon that actually resembles to some of those AA maps from the same author, so you kinda get that feeling all over the place. I love how it starts, but I kinda have mixed feelings about the rest of the map. I definitely hate short spaced TP encounters, like the one near the BFG room and the one with the Revenants at the YK grab. So I died most of the times there.
It's a really good map overall though, but some of the things lower the score for me a little bit. Nothing more to say about this one.

Death counter: 143

Maps in order of preference:

MAP15 (Perfect)
MAP13 (Great)
MAP06
MAP04
MAP14
MAP07 
MAP10
MAP31
MAP03
MAP01
MAP02
MAP08 (Ok)
MAP09
MAP05
MAP11
MAP12 (Bad)

It seems the author wanted you to mandatorily go to map32 to follow the "secret chapter" of Eviternity.
 

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31 - Imperator

As expected, Skillsaw did not disappoint. The way this level was made reminds me a lot of Valiant, which is high praise. Some parts of the map were a bit annoying, though, namely the narrow staircases above the lava, even more so when infinite-height cacos enter the picture. This level was very rocket-focused, it seemed, with a lot of areas lending themselves to blasting small groups of low-tier monsters into giblets or putting groups of mid-tier monsters near each other for easy killing. The Cyberdemon room was good fun, but I never figured out how to get the BFG that was on the cyber’s pedestal. The small room next to that where loads of former humans and a few arch-viles teleport in would have been a lot easier if I did get it. Skillsaw said recently that he’s hoping to make more maps this year, after a little while of not making too much, so really looking forward to more from him.

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4 hours ago, Dragonfly said:

 

Actually, I made that decision. :P

 

I was unclear as who was refering to the author, but I was refering to you :)

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@Dragonfly, I hope circumstances bring you to a better place emotionally soon, and don't let the Club be something that drains from you time and energy that's better spent looking after yourself and getting yourself to that better place.  We'll still be here, enjoying Eviternity, appreciating the work that you and your co-creators have put into providing the community with a creative, inspired, and wonderful piece of entertainment; so, thank you, and may the bad times pass soon.

 

MAP31: Imperator

 

"Hey, you got Ancient Aliens in my Eviternity!"

 

This is a distinctively different offering to any of the maps with which the WAD has so far challenged its players, befitting its secret-level-by-a-guest-mapper status; from the early Medieval period, to the far future, to the creeping of an ice age upon a forgotten and buried era of history, we now travel to a desert realm of unsettling alien architecture and liquid gold.  Fundamentally it's a hubspoke layout, dressed up as only @skillsaw knows how; colour-coded doors radiate from the multiple levels of stairs, balconies, and landings that fold themselves around the central molten metal reservoir and the towers that rise like spikes from its heart, and tucked away in a corner of that central space is the luridly purple portal that is your clear goal.  The challenge comes not from finding it but from reaching it, and there's no small army of monsters deployed in your path to make that challenge a ferocious one.

 

When it comes to personal taste, I found the first spoke of the hub, the first chapter of the map's story once the player clears the prologue that is their initial romp through the central cistern, to be the most lavish and engaging; it's an environment that's natural enough to be convincing, alien enough to be engaging, and crammed full enough of encounters that vary in composition, scale, and arrangement to never be dull.  Once the red key is in hand and the player is free to proceed to the blue and yellow wings of the map, things feel like they bog down a little into arena-centric gameplay that's a bit too structured to really push my Doom buttons.  Another death exit awaits, one that as far as I can tell is the level's only exit; so I guess the secret levels are themselves an alternate route or bridge from the frigid wonderland of the third chapter to whatever environment awaits in the fourth?  Though with death exits compelling pistol starts to both MAP31 and MAP32, it's not a bridge without its share of bumps...

 

...Oh fuck me, there's like a thousand monsters and change on the next map?

 

I'll probably see you all come the weekend, assuming I survive.

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MAP 31: IMPERATOR

I'm gonna rip the quote from the 23rd Cacowards to preface

 

"the sun is hot, water is wet, grass is green, Skillsaw makes damn fine maps. " -TerminusEst13

 

Need I say more?

 

Actually yes I do, because this map easily has my personal favorite style so far. It's no shock that a Skillsaw map has some color experimentation worked into it, but the harsh scorching reds and clear yellows are a combination of colors that, while common in a lot of hell settings throughout the community, are never brought out in architecture like they are here. The assistance from the Eviternity palette creates an ancient alien environment that rivals those from the similarly named masterpiece. 

Yes, Skillsaw layouts are good, we've heard it hundreds of times already. One thing I don't here enough though is how well he can make roundabouts out of pits of acid, and other normally undesirable areas. The cliff area is a wonderful example of that, as my usual thoughts of "Goddamnit now I gotta walk all the way back" whenever I dropped off had turned into "Goddamnit now I gotta- ooh a cell pack". Skillsaw's exploration isn't just about branching paths, it's about the true idea behind exploring: going outside of your usual comfort zone in order to test what the unknown might hold, and in this case, spheres and armor are definitely worth it.

I also just want to put this out there, but the current top run as of this post for this map UV-Max is 13:35, which this video shows me beating. It's just too bad that GZ doesn't have any easy demo function and/or isn't considered for speedruns in the slightest.

I was only unsatisfied with two things while playing this. The first is that I have no clue how to do the mass zombie spawn area without slipping through to the secret BFG. This goes back to my complaint about Annihilator usage, which I really hope people are starting to notice. I wouldn't say it's something wrong with the map, but I have no good way of going about completing it regularly, and I wasn't about to have another Brisk situation.

The second is that there is no normal exit. Completing this map just takes you to the super secret map.

 

Many of you may already see why this is a problem.

 

The rest of you soon will. 

Edited by General Roasterock

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chapter: unknown, map32: Anagnorisis, by ukiro
uvmax, 100% k/i/s obtained

I did not attempt a uvmax on this epic map since the ending is a little nastier than I can reliably pull off every time and I didn't want to spend over two hours on a uvmax attempt and then fail due to a mistake at the very end. I had a total blast playing this map blind using saves and achieving 100% k/i/s in 3-4 hours with my marine only succumbing 5 times to the maps perils. Even with my suboptimal route involving lots of backtracking I was quite satisfied with my marines showing.

 

---update---

After 4 attempts, one per day, each taking around 3 hours, I managed to obtain a uvmax with 100% k/i/s. I really enjoyed playing this map. In every attempt I varied the path. Major fun from start to finish.

---end update---

A masterpiece has been created by @ukiro. What a gargantuan effort it must have taken to come up with a map of this size, scale and quality. There's so much to appreciate on this map, the artistic design and map layout, ingenious connections of diverse areas, buildings and landscape and the beautiful and picturesque views. And let's not forget the ambushes, traps and fights along the way! Unforgettable!

Like all huge maps, initially the breadth and scale of the task of beating the map is overwhelming. So many paths to cover and this map is highly non linear. Fortunately ukiro has taken pity on our marines plight and has made the allmap an easy pickup in plain sight when you enter the first cave from the start (if you don't enter any building or drop off into the lava). A great way to visualize the map layout that took away all the confusion for me is to imagine the map to be a gigantic clock hanging on a chain. The center of the clock is the hexagonal arrayed building. Around the center is a complicated path or clock face through buildings, caves and cliffs. Finally the chain is the linear path leading from the bridge leading east to west to where you use the 3 keys and then snakes to the north and into the final arena. You only need to keep track of which parts of the clock face you have done. You can compartmentalize and concentrate only on your immediate surroundings but always knowing where you are in relation to the overall map. You can also take comfort in the fact that you can get back to any place on the map from any other without any long painful lava runs with the exception of dropping into the final arena from which you cannot escape.

If you are pistol starting, depending on where you go first you might find that ammo is quite scarce initially but becomes much more plentiful to the point of being overgenerous later on. There are many paths through the clock face, just pick whichever you fancy and can keep track of. Initially you can choose to go into the pink building, or speelunk through the caves or drop into the lava and climb up a rocky path of health bonuses to get to the central hexagonal arrayed building early (there is lots of ammo around the central building so it's a good place to start). Early on you will need to ignore many of the enemies taking pot shots at you from a distance, you'll have to take out those rotters later!

Besides staying alive and finishing the map, your overarching goal is the great hunt to seek out the blue, yellow and red keycards to earn the right to head to the far north for the final showdown. As far as I can tell, you can actually tackle these in any order you like. The blue key is in the series of buildings to the south, the yellow key is in the west set of buildings and the red key is located in the buildings to the east. The fights for each of the keys are quite unique and fun although they can be quite nasty until you know what to expect and have developed the right strategy after which most doom veterans will have little trouble handling the traps.

If you are gunning for a uvmax then you will need to spend a lot of time and effort thoroughly clearing out all areas surrounding the central hexagonal rooms building, finding 12 of the 13 secrets and picking up as many items as possible before opening the way to the far north. You need to cross the bridge after the 2 connecting ledges have been raised out of the lava. Use your 3 keycards to reveal a switch that removes the green bars blocking egress to the north.

The linear path to the far north is quite fun, combining platforming and puzzle elements as well as taking out enemies trying snipe you along the way. Once you reach the end of the rocks, you have to hit the switches to open the way to a mighty showdown and final battle in the arena beyond the green pillars. If you are going for a uvmax then before crossing any of the pillars you will want to ensure there are only 201 enemies remaining and that all 13 secrets have been found. If you want 100% k/i/s you also need to ensure there are only 4 items missing. As @TheOrganGrinder points out in a later post, there is a courtesy lift that comes available to get back out of the arena after completing all the enemy waves in case you need to backtrack. Good luck with the final battle, there are 4 waves: mancubi, hellknights, revenants and then 2 cybies and a couple annihilators with some lost souls thrown in for good measure.


The 13 secrets contain 2 invulnerablity spheres, 4 megaspheres, 2 soulspheres and a megaarmor as well as some miscellaneous health, armor and ammo. I was unable to take advantage of the invulnerability spheres because by the time I found them, all the nearby enemies were dead. Hopefully I can make good use of them in my next play through!

 

---

 

Two days are being allowed for map32 so I'll have to wait until 16th before posting for map16.

Edited by tmorrow : updated that I uvmaxed the map

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MAP31: Imperator by Skillsaw
---------------------------------

Pure, classic Skillsaw: A very well-designed, action-packed slugfest (heh) with lots of eye candy and fun exploration. I don't know what else to say about this this map that hasn't been said about twenty other Skillsaw maps to be honest though. I will say that goign with just any theme that the regualr episodes don't use and leaving it at that for the secret map feels like bit of a cop-out.

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2 minutes ago, Catpho said:

@tmorrow So what is your great revelation after playing Map32?

 

I doubt that I've said anything about Eviternity that hasn't already been discovered before me and uttered far more eloquently. Here's one very little known secret about finishing map32: "There are 15 more great Eviternity maps to play"! More profound than than revelational I suppose :-)

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32 - Anagnorisis

Wow, this was… I don’t know. It was one of the best looking maps so far, but it was also overly long and kind of a slog. It’s one of those levels that feels great at first but just goes on and on until you feel like you really need a change of scenery. The fights were pretty good, but I was kind of let down that there wasn’t a giant arena clusterfuck battle at the end. When I initially say the 1000+ monster count, that’s what I was expecting, but it turned out a few hundred of these monsters were just the imps up on the cliffside that I didn’t really feel like killing. Anyone trying to max this level is in for a huge undertaking. Navigating through the map was pretty difficult at times, especially when I had to cross the narrow cliff faces to get from one building to another. Some fights were good, some were infuriating. I also came across 5 or 6 plasma rifles before I got a rocket launcher. Ah well, now it’s over, and now it’s time to get back to some more “normal” maps.

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So, one of the nice things about the way this WAD is set up is that it's easy enough for even a continuous player to pretend "Oh, I didn't find the secret levels," and start afresh at MAP16 with only the pistol in hand; whether you actually got there from MAP15 or are starting anew on MAP16, it makes no difference.

 

I've promised myself that I will be playing MAP32 to the end but that's not going to happen today, and MAP16 will be happening tomorrow.

 

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18 minutes ago, TheOrganGrinder said:

I've promised myself that I will be playing MAP32 to the end

 

If it becomes a chore then it's quite OK to skip it. And I say this as the author! Doom is meant to be fun and entertaining. Sure, a challenge is part of that, and a sense of accomplishment of having beaten something hard can justify some frustration and gnashing of teeth, but to anyone who feels 32 is overwhelming in its scope: Don't let pleasure turn into a burden. Run around for a bit maybe, or play on godmode just to do some sightseeing if you fancy that, it's all ok. It's a single level that's longer than any of the 3 five level chapters up until this point so I understand if it feels a bit much.

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Don't think you can get away with spoilering your wonderful dissertation of map32. We doomers are experts and finding secrets. Like you I wanted to provide some blow by blow details in my review, especially the encounters for the 3 keycards in the buildings but after my marathon play through I'd forgotten quite a bit and was exhausted as well. You were smart to document as you went, I wish I'd thought of that.

Your path through the map differed from mine in a few ways. What a surprise on such a nonlinear map! I'd cleared out the central hexagonal building first. It's a little more difficult than doing it later with shots coming in through the windows from the imps on the cliff you can't see. I cleared out the pink suite of buildings after that. I also cleared out the caves and other buildings in a different order.

Two questions. First, have you submitted your dissertation for a PhD in Doom?

More importantly, do those who read your dissertation in its entirety and in one sitting (coffee in hand for support) get a prize, maybe a cookie like one of these?
 

cookies.png

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chapter: Brutality, map16: Neutralize, by Dragonfly
uvmax, 100% k/i/s obtained

So we start a new chapter Brutality with Industrial/Brutalism themes. Our first map, colored in pleasing grays and teal, is full of acidic slime that has been luckily neutralized and is non damaging. After the horrors of the last 2 secret maps, the difficulty has thankfully been dialed back a notch.

You need to find 3 switches to lower the 3 key cards in the middle of the base. Clearing out the corridors and hitting the switch to lower the red keycard is easy enough. A bit more difficult is to clear out the south east area with the archvile and friends guarding a switch to lower the red keycard. Probably the most difficult area is in the south west, a circular room with the rocket launcher on a stand in the middle. Hitting a switch spawns enemies around the outside and a very testy annihilator chases you around the center. In a nearby corridor is a the switch to lower the yellow keycard.

After all 3 keycards have been lowered, 2 archviles spawn near them. The pesky pair want to resurrect every corpse in sight and undo our marines hard earned kills. Outrageous! Polishing off the pair and scooping the 3 keys then allows you to action 3 switches to open the exit door.

The 3 secrets on the map fill our marines heart with glee as he picks up a soulsphere, megaarmor and an allmap.

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11 hours ago, tmorrow said:

Two questions. First, have you submitted your dissertation for a PhD in Doom?

 

Forgot to cite my references >_<

The cookies are buried next to the foot of a tree in Elysium. Best of luck!

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MAP32: Anagnorisis y Ukiro
--------------------------------

 

Completion time: From three hours the first time around to two and a half for this attempt. There is just so much to discuss regarding this map that I'm not sure where to begin or how to organize any of it. This map is so lengthy, complex and difficult it could easily be its own PWAD. In fact, I'm almost positive this is a considerably longer journey than Eternal's"Frozen Time". Let's see what the author of OTEX can do with his own ressource then, shall we.

 

Definition of "Anagnorisis": " in a literary work, the startling discovery that produces a change from ignorance to knowledge" (Britannica.com)
Perhaps, then, is this a reference to how this map starts off in a very confined, claustrophobic place, only to slowly, step by step, reveal its massive scope and sense of grandeur. Or else it could be some kind of new understanding the player acquires either while playing the map or after finally completing it. Then again, as much as I may find this map impressive in all the right ways, I really don't know what that could be.

 

Addendum: Well, I guess the mastermind cleared this up. The title references every single instance of the player figuring out the solution to one of this map's many puzzles. Which is pretty clever, i'll say that much.

 

Anyway, this map is roughly divided into three acts: the hunt for the three keys, the quest in the Green Fortress to reach the Mausoleum on which to use them, and then the final cliff run and arena. Besides all of that, there are also a few completely optional side areas, and that's not even counting the actual secrets. At any rate, there are many, many viable routes trhough this level, to such a point that one is likely to get frequently confused and hesitate more than once between something like four or five options for where to go next. However, I believe that this time around I've settled on the one that works best for me, which is as follows:

 

Super Shotgun in Purple(Blue Key) Fortress ---> Automap & Chaingun ---> Plasma Gun in Purple Fortress---> Rocket Launcher in Purple Fortress ---> Blue Key ---> Yellow Key ---> Clear the Mountain Labyrinth ---> Orange Corridor ---> BFG9000 --- > Red Fortress ---> Green Fortress beyond the blue door (Raise both sides of the Green Bridge) ---> Final stretch beyond the green laser barrier.

 

Mind you, this also involves plenty of backtracking and runarounds with the purpose of re-supplying.

 

Originally, I drafted freaking essay notes about every step of how I clear this map, but that's hardly interesting. then I thought I'd just list all my favourite fights and/or segment, but that's most of them anyway, maybe even all of them. I used to think the black cliffside was too sadistic, but as it turns out, when tackled with proper ressources going in, it's literally nothing. Well, not exactly, there's still a lot of action. One drawback to this whole level perhaps: Although this map has incredibly intricate progression all around, there are moments when backtracking gets a bit awkward and excessive.

 

I also really like the aesthetic sense of this map, which should be no surprise considering the author created everything he made use of in that regard, but to be entirely honest, I can't think of the words I'd like to use to qualify it.

 

Lastly:

 

"Around this time I started to have a more firm idea of what I wanted the level to feel like for the player:

 

    A sense of place; I can appreciate abstract stuff or more utilitarian design, but I wanted this to be a memorable location that feels like somewhere you’ve actually been to (for this reason, an early map name candidate was “immersion”)
    Non-linear with no obvious primary path, similar to what I achieved with the middle parts of map12 from Darkening E2
    Encourage and reward exploration; An adventure map
    Forgiving with regards to taking damage; Rather add more health than remove monsters
    Elicit a steady stream of “aha!” and “where am I supposed to… ooooh I see” "

 

    ...I think it's fair to say all of these objectives were met.

Edited by Budoka

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16 - Neutralize

Now we’re in Episode 4, the “Industrial/Brutalism” episode. This first map looks pretty, I like the color scheme. It doesn’t seem too repetitive of the tech episode, which was my initial worry. Some nice fights here, although nothing too big or memorable, probably because this is the first map in the episode. Simple three-key exit from a nonlinear area. Nothing too flashy, yet.

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MAP32 "Anagnorisis" - Ola Björling (99%K /96% I /38% S):

Longest map yet, and a lot to talk about this one. This was made by the guy who created the OTEX texture pack, used throughout all Eveternity.
From start to end, this looks like a rejected Eviternity E2 map. It does not look like anything from MAP31, so styles here are totally different, and looks like Ukiro  took total liberty to do whatever he could on this massive map. It consists of a massive tech-fortress inside a canyon or a volcano of some sort.
What I did not like about this is the progression, since most of the time I was wondering around mindlessly hitting switches and doing progress, I don't actually know if this is a key hunt, or a key to key progress map, or a sandbox one, since there are so many routes to take, and so much to do here... But I think, since there is a Key totem, the map is a key hunt. But well, this is the problem with big maps, and that's why I don't fancy them that much. Still, this map is marvelous, and it could be a standalone wad by itself without any problems (It could have been a perfect tech demo for OTEX made by its author).
There is a lot of run-jump platforming, specially on the cave systems, which I don't like that much, but they work well. I loved the part where you had to mow down imps and captains with your rocket launcher near the end, on that "ash" canyon.
The ending is a little bit of a letdown for me, since I don't like slaughter arenas that much, and the space to maneuver here was pretty tight, making me save-spam a lot, before realizing you can exit when you have some space to get into the teleporter. This ending, however, it's not going to lower the map's score.
I can't say I loved it, but I going to rate it as a perfect map since it deserves it, I think its a magnum opus from the author, at the level of Misri Halek and some other similar maps. I can take some notes on detailing for my maps in the future, from this one, a perfect map to look from the mapper's perspective.

Death counter: 231

Maps in order of preference:

MAP15 (Perfect)
MAP32
MAP13 (Great)
MAP06
MAP04
MAP14
MAP07 
MAP10
MAP31
MAP03
MAP01
MAP02
MAP08 (Ok)
MAP09
MAP05
MAP11
MAP12 (Bad)

Truly a master piece. But I still try to figure out how they managed to make all 32 maps on a 8-month time span.

*Disclaimer* I think my English broke by playing this level and trying to write a review, sorry if you encounter some weird sentences, my head hurts, and we are yet half-way through this mapset...

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3 hours ago, Eris Falling said:

The cookies are buried next to the foot of a tree in Elysium. Best of luck!

 

I had to use IDDT, IDDQD and IDCLIP cheats and gzDoombuilder but I finally located the spot. By the time I got there, all that remained was a trail of crumbs and cyberdemon footprints. So sad!

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51 minutes ago, DJVCardMaster said:

*Disclaimer* I think my English broke by playing this level and trying to write a review, sorry if you encounter some weird sentences, my head hurts, and we are yet half-way through this mapset...

It's good that you tried :)

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MAP16: Neutralize
----------------------------

 

So, apparently the WAD description labels the style of this Chapter as "Industrial/Brutalism". But execution-wise, it just feels like a different style of techbase from Chapter II. I think a bigger effort should have been made to make it look more alien or otherwordly. Even so, it certainly looks extemely cool for what it is.

 

As for the level itself, it's yet another choose-your-own-path three keys hunt. However, there's something odd and interesting about it. The architecture of the place is very structured, with corridors, sectioned-off rooms and isolated segments. The opposition the player has to face also packs a real punch. And yet, perhaps owing to the high degree of spatial interconnection, it turns out that although the player's progression through the level can be just as structured and organized as the playing space itself, well, it doesn't have to be. You can pretty much just rush around everywhere, and keep constantly flailing about, and clear the map that way.

 

A very good map overall. Following directly from the latter half of Chapter III and the secret levels, it could have felt rather inconsequential, but Dragonfly succeeded in making sure to give it enough substance so that this wouldn't be the case.

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MAP32: Anagnorisis

 

So, let's crunch the numbers first.  My final running time for this level came out at 2:10:27, although that doesn't include dying and reloading many times, so let's call my final playing time for this map closer to three hours, spread over three days.  I ended up with 1123/1126 kills (those arch-viles and pain elementals were kept pretty busy), 5/13 secrets, and goodness knows how many items left behind, and while I appreciate that there's an elevator that lets you backtrack from the final arena once your task is done, a combination of creeping fatigue and deep and abiding respect for the map author's talents eventually nudged me in the direction of not doing that.  If this map is @ukiro's monument to Doom just as much as the OTEX resource WAD is, then let my score stand as acknowledgement to that monument and also as an indicator that I want to return one day and finish then what I have left incomplete now.

 

Right from the start, this is an intimidating map; it's got a prodigious monster count, an impressive footprint, and it stands in the MAP32 slot, with all the dignified company and give-me-the-best-you've-got attitude that implies.  Its visual complexity in both the first-person view and the automap makes it difficult for me to puzzle out just how much freedom to roam the player initially has (there's an art to convincing the player that they have lots of choices, when really there's only one way forward); certainly I didn't feel locked into any particular path, though I do suspect there are certain points-of-no-return that require forward progress before previously explored vantages can be returned to once again.  For me, such a moment came early on, when I hurled myself into the central magma reservoir having sighted the piles of ammunition around the seven-hexes "orange building" in the middle of the map's southern wing; my route then took me first to the red key, then the yellow, then finally the blue.  I've no idea if that's the intended route, or an intended route, or if I unwittingly picked an approach that made things far harder for me than was necessary, and certainly by the time I'd clawed my way back around to the vicinity of the entry portal and the tiered balconies of the blue subsection of the map, the opposition was starting to feel pretty token compared to some of what I'd already fought through, bringing with it a sense that I was tackling things "out of order" and had made a misstep at some earlier stage.

 

There is, I think, a particular uncertainty at work in the layout and progression here, with the geometrically-designed, exquisitely sculpted, and colour-coded facilities opening themselves up willingly to a methodical approach, while the interstitial cavern areas play out in a more whimsical way.  There was a recurring motif, as I was playing through the level, of me patting myself on the back for spotting and exploiting a narrow stairway, marginally scalable rock face, or partially hidden path, only for things to subsequently play out in a way that left me feeling as though I'd not discovered some great secret, shortcut, or backdoor, but had merely stumbled upon the intended path of progression, which ought to have been more obvious than I'd found it.

 

In a map this big, with such a significant amount of time invested, moments or encounters that would be high points in a smaller, shorter, and less ambitious map become less memorable and significant, not due to any weakness but because there are so many compelling experiences competing for attention at the forefront of my brain.  The red building and its unfolding labyrinthine layers will definitely be sticking with me for a while, although I think that layered complexity became somewhat overwhelming for me, and toward the end of that part of my journey I wasn't so much setting goals or piecing together a mental picture of the puzzle-box facility and its workings, so much as stumbling blindly forward in search of the next switch and then backtracking just as clumsily until I encountered something that had changed.  Hi-contrast sensory overload, maybe?  The tiered lost soul arena of the purple/pink building was a treat for an entirely different set of reasons, with the map's tougher monsters heading out for a lunch break and leaving their diminutive juniors in charge of inflicting agony on me in their stead; it was an absolute delight to scramble around, alternating between launching rockets into dense clouds of lost souls and popping stragglers and flankers with the shotgun, gradually winnowing the swarm down to nothing.  I'm less proud of the fact that I completely missed the switch to open the north-western middle-tier door connecting that arena to the blue section of the map until I'd blundered past it at least a dozen times and taken the long way 'round from the middle to the top at least twice.

 

Props to the map author, certainly, for managing to clearly differentiate the different buildings and subsections of the map in more ways than just changing the designated contrast colour of each; the shifts between texture and lighting schemes from one area to the next are often quite subtle, but they're definitely present, giving each part of the sprawling facility a very distinct feel quite aside from its colour-coding, whether that's the green building's alternation of scrubbed concrete and chemical-filmed piping and machinery, of the dark gunmental of the "vault" providing the highest possible contrast to the narrow, piercing lines of yellow, or the blocky and crude-cut tiers of the pink/purple building that conjure to mind some combination of an Indian step well and an inverted Mayan pyramid.  Even if the individual sections can at times be deliberately and deliciously confounding in their navigation, there's never a point at which the player's overall location within the facility is unclear.

 

I'm absolutely glad that I took the time to find the secret exit from the masterful MAP15 and found my way to both MAP31 and this treasure.

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