Top 5 Essential WADs

So this is just another recommendation thread of "list your favourite wads". My list is of wads that are very influential and important since this was what the thread title suggested to me, even though some of these would be in my favourite wads list.

Dawn of the Dead

Requiem

Alien Vendetta

Deus Vult

Scythe 2

Doom

Ultimate Doom

Doom II

Evilution

Plutonia

20 minutes ago, ketmar said:

Doom

Ultimate Doom

Doom II

Evilution

Plutonia

Mods, please edit thread title to say "Essential PWADs" lol.

1 hour ago, gaspe said:

So this is just another recommendation thread of "list your favourite wads". My list is of wads that are very influential and important since this was what the thread title suggested to me, even though some of these would be in my favourite wads list.

 

Dawn of the Dead

Requiem

Alien Vendetta

Deus Vult

Scythe 2

Thread was started very much with the idea of "what are the most important wads" or "what wads would you recommend as essential to new players"

ok, a serious answer this time:

Alien Vendetta

Memento Mori

(those two are to know what people are talking about)

No End in Sight

(to see almost perfect "i want more of the same classics" style)

BTSX

(to see something different, yet still classic ;-)

Going Down

(just because i like it; and it shows some different gameplay)

As a ZDoom guy and also a player since the mid-90s, I'd consider Alien Vendetta an essential gateway to the modern era, ZDCMP#1 and #2 as the definitive ZDoom maps (also a good introduction to the major authors for the port), Enjay's Runaway Train for a taste of classic ZDoom and Community Chest 4 as a strong community project with an initial easing-in, plus the stand-out MAP20-21 combo.

I feel like there must be a classic megawad competing to be in here, but as it's my top 5...

On 7/3/2019 at 5:35 PM, valkiriforce said:

Memento Mori

Memento Mori II

Alien Vendetta

Eternal Doom

Plutonia 2

Finally some love for Eternal. :)

No End in Sight

Back to Saturn X

Eviternity

Fruit Salad

lilith.pk3

That's broad yet contemporary.

Some must play wads:

- Eviternity

- Ancient Aliens (play on a easier difficulty)

- BTSX episodes

- Epic 2

- No End in Sight

- No Rest for the Living (NRFTL)

- "The Way id Did" wads (DTWiD, D2TWiD)

33 minutes ago, theDia said:

Finally some love for Eternal

i wanted to mention Eternal, but ran out of slots. ;-)

33 minutes ago, theDia said:

Finally some love for Eternal. :)

ohhhh damn is that westerteicher?

On 7/3/2019 at 4:38 AM, OrbitalSpaceGarbage said:

Just wondering what people's "must play" WADs are. There's so many out there and I know when I first started it was hard to know what to play. I looked at various best of lists etc and played through a whole bunch in the last 12 months or so (yes I'm a noob, sorry for being late to the party! I first completed Doom and Doom 2 as a kid back in the late 90s so I have some credentials I guess!). Anyway, here's my top 5 list, what's yours:

 

Eviternity

Ancient Aliens

Community Chest 2

Sunder

Dimension of the Boomed

 

 

Epic

Epic 2

Pirate Doom

Cheogsh

Avactor

Back to Saturn X (BTSX)

No Rest for the Living (which can only be purchased as part of the Doom 3: BFG Edition on GOG and Steam)

Requiem

Memento Mori

Memento Mori 2

The Adventures of Square

Rise of the Wool Ball

Ultimate Torment and Torture

Community Chest 4

Any wads made by Dragonfly, like Evernity, Order of the Ordonata (spelling)

4 hours ago, ketmar said:

i wanted to mention Eternal, but ran out of slots. ;-)

No Problem - here it´s about the "best Wads" and not about the most influencal. Eternal never had the flow I and the other early members had planned for the whole thing and after the third giant castle even I lost my interest in playing through the whole damn thing. :)

 

Quote

@Vorpal
ohhhh damn is that westerteicher?

Who else would keep the eternal flame burning?. :) I´m also back into mapping - just look for my recent thread about the "Golden City".

Alien Vendetta

Scythe II

Speed of Doom

Resurgence

Eviternity

..."Variety" ? What ? I know, I know. Choosing only five is frankly impossible. I recommend the ones I listed, as well as anything by Skillsaw(mostly the stuff from 2011 onwards), Eternal(Frozen Time, Hell Ground, Epic 2...) and Ribbiks(save him for last, just... trust me).

I really would rather keep going, but I've cheated the rules enough already.

Eternal

Alien Vendetta

BTSX ep2

No End in Sight

Eviternity

I just take Nuts, Nuts2 and Nuts3, and put them one after the other in a loop in a 32-level megawad.

I'm not getting how people are recommending Eternal Doom.  The puzzles in that megawad are nearly impossible, especially the final level Excalibur.

1 hour ago, Master O said:

I'm not getting how people are recommending Eternal Doom.  The puzzles in that megawad are nearly impossible, especially the final level Excalibur.

It's a matter of taste. I for one, consider Eternal Doom the crème de la crème of the Doom community output to this day, a must play!

1 hour ago, Master O said:

I'm not getting how people are recommending Eternal Doom.  The puzzles in that megawad are nearly impossible, especially the final level Excalibur.

There's a reason it was called 'Eternal'. TeamTNT said as much. :)

2 hours ago, Master O said:

I'm not getting how people are recommending Eternal Doom.  The puzzles in that megawad are nearly impossible, especially the final level Excalibur.

while Eternal may not be the best pwad gameplay-wise, it is surely very influental. we already have alot of "my favorite wads" lists, so i see this topic as "most influental wads" one. Eternal was competing with Going Down in my list, but... the flesh is weak, and i put Going Down. i didn't beaten neither Eternal nor GD, so i think it is at least somewhat fair. ;-)

Scythe 1+2
Alien Vendetta
Ultimate Simplicity
Congestion 1024
Community Chest 2

In no particular order :)

UAC Military Nightmare

Doomguy's Warzone Platinum

The Sky May Be

Vanguard / Valiant

Beyond Reality 

Would put eviternity in the list too, but i'm outta place!

On 7/5/2019 at 6:00 PM, Andromeda said:

It's a matter of taste. I for one, consider Eternal Doom the crème de la crème of the Doom community output to this day, a must play!

@Andromeda Do you want to marry me? :)

Visually and from what we developed in the trick- and idea-departement for sure you're right, but in terms of playability - hmmmh, I don't know. I never made it through Excalibur and after the fourth oversized Coleur-Castle even I got bored (hence my own smaller entries). 

All in all Eternal never really got the "flow" we were strifing for in the beginning of the project (when we really planned to let all levels visually connect to each other - residue of this is still to see in the first 20 maps). 

I'm sure there were better projects in the last 20+ years - at least from the playability angle, but I also have to admit that I still play the one or other Eternal level (mostly those from Paul and Jim) from time to time and I use the old ressources now while constructing my new wad (but in a slightly different way).

So, sure we left a dent in the Doom-Map-Community and we surely were ahead of the time back then, but one has to admit the flaws also: endless backtracking, hidden switches (you won't find those in ANY of my levels), illogical puzzles and - the worst offender - the tendency to go bigger than needed.

But I can assure you - you will have fun when I release my new project - which I call by myself Eternal Doom 4.5. :)

 

Eviternity

Valiant

Going Down

BTSXE1

Sunlust (play HMP...)

Top for UD: Lunar Catastrophe

Yeah I only thought about megawads...too much to consider otherwise...and no TCs

Eviternity

Scythe 2

Sunlust

Going Down

Endgame

DTWiD 1 and 2

Memento Mori 1 and 2

Requiem

Hellbound

Deus Vult 2

Alien Vendetta

Eternal Doom 3

Classic Episode

Crusades

Icarus Alien Vanguard

Plutonia 2 and revisited

THT Threnody

Scythe

On 7/4/2019 at 7:18 PM, ketmar said:

Doom

Ultimate Doom

Doom II

Evilution

Plutonia

Personally, I tought the same as yours just reading the title of this thread! But I think that a TOP 5 of official iwads could be great!

Anyway:

9 hours ago, theDia said:

I'm sure there were better projects in the last 20+ years - at least from the playability angle, but I also have to admit that I still play the one or other Eternal level (mostly those from Paul and Jim) from time to time and I use the old ressources now while constructing my new wad (but in a slightly different way).

I should have probably mentioned that I haven't played many modern wads - I think Scythe is the most recent one I've played, so I guess there's some gems I've missed :P

9 hours ago, theDia said:

But I can assure you - you will have fun when I release my new project - which I call by myself Eternal Doom 4.5. :)

Looking forward to that! :)

It's hard to pick my top five, but my two favorites are:

No Rest for the Living and Deathless.

NRFTL is a really great and simple Doom 2 wad that's short but to the point and Deathless is an amazing and impressive Ultimate Doom wad made in only 9 days! Deathless is the most consistent fun I've had playing a Doom wad. It is a bit more easy going compared to other doom wads, but it's a lot of fun and very creative considering how short it too the creator to make the 4 episode wad.

Hard to pick favorites. I can name 12, but here are 5 I like the most.

Nuts.wad

bloodsea.wad

Pirate DOOM

Hellbound

Vanguard

Ultimate Doom:

Classic Episode - Vanilla
2002: A Doom Odyssey - Vanilla
No Sleep for the Dead - Vanilla

Griefless - Limit removing
Sigil - Limit removing

Doom II:
Brotherhood of Ruin - Boom
Scythe - Vanilla
Epic 2 - Vanilla
Alien Vendetta - Vanilla
Khorus' Speedy Shit - Vanilla