The DWmegawad Club plays: Mars War

I played it a long, long time ago, and I replayed it this year... Enjoyed, most of the maps are not too long, I may replay again and write something. Just to note, there is also marswar.wad, an old version.

• most of the maps seem unchanged, but some node rebuilding or whatever causes that the demos for marswar only play back with marswar and those with marsw301 only with marsw301. Exception: MAP01 (identical). Some maps have only marswar demos... You may download the old version to watch them
• MAP15, MAP20, MAP25 are replaced, entirely new. Apparently because the old ones were not original, based on other maps... New maps are better. But IMO MAP15 and MAP25 are definitely not the worst, so you may take a look
• MAP11 has some drastic change, only for Ultra-Violence pistol start. Old version is less grindy, you will see why
• MAP26: in marsw301 NL marked some areas as additional secrets. However, he did it wrong, so 100% secrets (2/2) is possible in marswar.wad, but in marsw301.wad only 80% (4/5) is maximum

That is all that I am aware of.

Mars War

UV pistol starting on GZDoom. I am naturally a bit cautious of pistol starting 90s WADs so interested to see how much of a good idea this ends up being, maybe I switch back to continuous…

Also, I'm playing this on a laptop with Microsoft Windows installed :P

MAP01 - “Terraforming Station”

Oh boy. What have I let myself in for by starting this one up. This is amateur hour right here. Some interesting design choices such as ammo for weapons you don’t have (including one in a very unhidden secret), 256-unit high sectors with textures that don’t stack cleanly, texture misalignments, a huge barren landscape of brown, a sector with sky 128 units lower than the surrounding sectors. A quirky one alright, let’s see if the rest of the wad is like this.

So anyway, the map itself. You start in a quaint little base that is by the far most detailed part of the map, with a multitude of tech base textures. There are four pods that in multiplayer act as the different player starts. You get a berserk straight away and that’s all you really need. Seven measly monsters in between you and the exit, which is placed in some crude looking vehicle.

To give this map some credit, the detailing in the indoors part of this map is decent, and there is a nice little exploration side quest for the second secret, even if what it gives you doesn’t really do anything at this stage.

MAP01 - Terraforming Station

This is a very small map with a goal of setting up the atmosphere and story, rather than the gameplay. There are a whopping 7 monsters on UV (I rarely play UV, doing it here because ‘90s difficulty), but lots of ammo and alcoves. This is a very exploratory map, and I hope the rest of the WAD remains this way. Unlike a newer exploratory WAD like Avactor or Lost Civilization (Although I love them), the simpler maps could make exploration much less complicated while still rewarding. This map excels at that, and I hope the later maps do too. Except with more than 7 monsters. All the extra ammo for guns we never even get here is prompting me to play continuous. I haven’t played continuous on anything in a long time, so let’s see how it goes. I don’t want to let all these cells go to waste.

Visuals were very interesting. Outside was brown town, but inside the little base at the start was a lot of fun 90s doomcute details. And then the truck at the end. Ooh hoo. The exit switch being so small was a bit odd, and the mechanism for exiting the starting base took a few seconds too long for me to figure out. Certainly shows promise though, and promise is my greatest hope after some of the stuff in HR2.

Also the "Previous Threads" in the OP is missing HR2. Surely you wouldn't want our wade through that WAD to go forgotten?

MAP01: Terraforming Station

Eternity, UV, continuous (for now, 90s wads tend to be easier this way)

Cool name, shit opener.

^{(The following text is written in the SP's perspective.)}

---

"Ah, damn, 8:00 a.m already, I'm late!"

You wake up in your bunker (the floor is dirt, so this can't be an abandoned spaceship) only to find your friends zombified outside and are ready to gun you down. Back to action - at least you won't have to do pushups for 100 more times. Enraged, you quickly run into each of their room only to find a surprisingly high amount of plasma cells. Apparently the medic of your team is also gone, but he has generously left a lot of health for you to collect in his room. And some rockets - maybe he has seen this coming?

After you finish getting your bearings, you rush outside and start beating the hell out of your fallen comrades. May they rest in pieces.

You investigate around your bunker and think to yourself "What idiot put these glasses on the roof?" and start wandering outside for a bit.

You eventually stumbled upon a cavern - this must be the power supply station of the base.  You grab the backpack and ride the lift up to check the electricity. You remember a weirdo in your team keep stealing ammunition and always told everyone that they are in "a secret place". Apparently, this must be that secret place - you find even more plasma and rockets. 

You get outside to the ugly-as-fuck mountainous area again. You spot something else near your bunker - the bi-weekly supply ship. Suddenly, that familiar squeaking pops up. Turns out, 2 horny brown things in the passengers' seat - they must be the cause of this zombification. 

Having killed the pilot, you glance at the computer screen.

The red, spammy MS United Organizations is repeatedly all over it; and a bloody "Mars" is written at the center - this must be the pilot's last words. 

There's nothing left here anyway; and thankfully, the ship is still fully functional, so you press the Departing button and start your journey to defeat the cause.

---

..2.5/5. 

24 minutes ago, Horus said:

Oh boy. What have I let myself in for by starting this one up.

Started playing this yesterday in anticipation of its selection, and that about sums it up for me, too. It does get significantly better, but I think I'm gonna wait a few days before giving my rundown of any maps. Those first few techbases are really, really bad.

Playthrough of Mars War, v3.01:

I got this loaded up and ready... and then ended up replaying the first map of Mars Missions instead. (I knew I had started a Mars-something WAD once upon a time...)

Map 01 : Terraforming Station

I really like the first Mars War map. The level is very open and restful with a little rhythmic and calm music. The number of enemies is very low, which reinforces the "atmospheric" side.

The small bases allow  to give a small unwritten scenario to the wad. There are a lot of weird choices of textures and misaligned textures but it's far from being a problem in my opinion.

Having finished the wad several times, I've always had the feeling of playing both Ultimate Doom and Doom 2. One of the strong points of Mars War in my opinion is the ability to explore a lot of optional areas in the maps.

Mars War is one of those early megaWADs that somehow flies under the radar whilst often being brought up in lists. I've never played it before, but it' been around so long that it feels like an omission on my part, hence taking part this month. I'm playing in GZDoom (mouselook, no autoaim, jumping or crouching) continuous on UV. If the maps get hard, I'll probably start saving midway through, but for now I'll just save at the start of each map to pick up my play through again the next day.

MAP01: Terraforming Station

I love how detailed the station is that you start in, even if the texture work is a bit sloppy. The airlock exit to the building is very nice and the supplies being limited to man-made structures is a clever touch. There's plenty of open space outside and a nice optional area to explore, as you could literally just run straight from the station to the ship (preferably with the berserk), blow through the sparse opposition and be done in a minute or so. I spent a few minutes exploring and am glad that I did, as I feel like I'm nicely setup for continuous play now, having found both secrets. Nice opener! It sets a mood.

MAP 01 - Terraforming Station

Well, this was an interesting first level! The base that you start in is nicely detailed (looks like some sort of mini spaceship/escape pod). Getting to the outside did confuse me at first since I didn't realise the door that goes to the outside had a switch on the reverse side. ._.

Once outside, I got to see a rather nicely designed rocky exteriour and I notice some sort of shuttle or space vehicle that I enter to finish the map.

Overall a really small but nice opening level. :)

kills - 100%

items - 87%

secrets - 0%

Saves = 1

Deaths = 0

I made a DEHACKED patch for Mars War, it includes map names and new text screens taken from the wad's .txt file : https://www.doomshack.org/uploads/MARSWAR.deh

MAP01

I find it ironic how despite hating Microsoft, the megawad starts off in front of a window.

This is such a cute and tiny little map, the station has a couple of little cubicles with some nice little details.

I expected to have to hump walls per 90's map design, but was positively surprised that the secrets didn't require that shit, and instead was done for exploratory areas, rather than some misaligned texture somewhere.

That buried secret little tech base felt good to find.

The relatively monsterless ambiance added a lot to the map.

5/5

My playthrough :

Incase anybody wants to hear the original module track the midi was converted from : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi6nRRv3My0

Playing on Crispy Doom, no freelook/jumping, HNTR difficulty because I'm not a total wimp, and continuous.

MAP01: Terraforming Station

Instant Berserk pack. Odd design choice, but ok. Otherwise a fun, if empty, level. Honestly, I quite like the lack of monsters, as I'm not very good at moving and shooting, and it allows me to not die. 7.5/10

Marswar v3.01

MAP01
UV, saveless, pistol starts, complevel 9 (will be changed for later levels)

Not much to this map. It's large and devoid of anything, really.
The most important bits to this map could be easily squeezed into a much smaller area and nothing would be lost for me.

While I don't much like this map for being nearly entirely built around +forward inputs and little else, there isn't very much else that's offensive, it's just a "shoot a few monsters and move on" type.

Of particular note is the availability of cells and rockets in this map for the weapons which never appear in it. Useless to the pistol starting player, but very nice for the continuous one.

Not sure if I'm going to replay Mars War with the club. The first part is quite memorable, I guess it's one of the first wads with a strong story telling? Later on it becomes more a mixed bag and the maps tend to become more all over the place but there are still some cool ideas here and there. There are some big maps that are impressive, like MAP10 and MAP15.

4 minutes ago, Aquila Chrysaetos said:

complevel 9

 

It is vanilla so complevel 2 is fine unless you like Boom compat for some reason.

My first time joining here because for some odd reason the name of this megawad appealed to me quite a bit.

Map01 - HMP, Pistol Start

Well off to a good start, I would say. A very short introduction map with some surprisingly well made Doom-cute interiors. I am playing this in GzDoom with "Vanilla Essence" and it actually looked quite great. Outdoors seemed a bit barren, though. Now, the outstanding thing about this map is, that it took me an embarrasingly long time to actually figure out how to use the airlock. I was running around looking for something that must have opened nearby. Very weird. At least I killed all monsters and found 1 secret.

Nathan Lineback, that name rings a bell... Peeking through his website I found out he made Spear of Bullshit, a surprisingly good Wolfenstein 3D add-on that I vaguely remember playing sometime in the last decade. Obviously Doom mapping is a lot different, so I'm curious to see what he came up with in Mars War.

MAP01: Terraforming Station (Mars War)

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, HNTR-PS, no saves, 100% everything

Eh, a pretty dull opener. Wiki states that it was designed as a deathmatch level which makes sense - there's some similarities with TNT MAP23 that was probably created with the same goal and I don't like that one much either. Lots of ammo that you won't get to use, not that you would need it to dispatch the five zombiemen and the single imp that sparsely populate the surroundings. Figuring out how to reach the outside area took longer than I want to admit. At least it's short, has a berserk to kill the enemies faster and Mars War can only improve from this point onward I guess.

Levels in order of preference:

I've had my eyes on MARSWAR for a while since I saw ELMLE streaming speedruns of it last year, but now I have an excuse to actually play it!

I'm going to be playing with PrBoom+ on Ultra-Violence continuously(subject to change if I find this wad hard). I'm not intentionally going for maxes, but I will most likely explore a bit and find some secrets before exiting each map.

Map01:Terraforming Station is a very open opening map. Perhaps too open. It's rather basic and easy, but exploring around will at least let you reach some slightly more interesting places and goodies. The amount of goodies obtained feel a bit excessive though, what with being able to end the map with 300 cells and a backpack. Doesn't help that the ammo given doesn't even have the corresponding weapons present. At least I'm playing continuously, so the ammo will be useful later on when said weapons actually appear.

uv, pistol starts, cl -1 (so i can save if necessary), glboom+

map01 fda

this is so cute :3 the only problem is i think there could be more monsters and retain the same atmosphere. good start.

MAP01: Terraforming Station

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

Not much to say about this one, it's a very short (7 enemies) opener that exists more to set the mood than anything. Which is fine by me, I always like using some slower, atmospheric-based maps to help draw the player into the theme. In that regard, my complaint is that maybe it doesn't do enough to create it's own theme... maybe it's because of the terraforming, but terraformed Mars looks an awful lot like terraformed Phobos (with an Earthen sky). A custom sky or something other than BROWN144 slathered everywhere would've helped a ton.

That said though, it's fine. The detailing is actually pretty good, hitting that sweet spot between too abstract and hyperrealist. The main drawback is lowered ceiling usage for the opening building means that once you're outside you can get some odd sky clipping looking at it (one reason I find it tough to design free-standing structures in outside areas in Doom). Texture alignment is poor in some places, too. Could've used a few monsters or something to spruce up the eastern part of the map, I think. I'll probably play continuous for now just so I can make use of the goodies on this map.

Map01

I really liked this map a lot! Cool exploration, not a lot of action, but that's okay with me. I really like when maps have huge open sections with no fighting. Don't know why. I've always liked exploration, and this extends to real life. I'm a huge fan of hiking and such. So I don't mind huge open areas that some would describe as empty. There's also some amateur moments in here, chiefly of which is the lowered sky on the base which cuts off the mountains in the background. I really don't care though.

I've always disliked how nowadays mapping is leaning more towards the "utilitarian" side of things, where every area serves a purpose towards the overall goal or layout. This is kind of a shame for me, because I've always liked these optional areas like the river and the far-off secret. I just think it's an art that's been lost over the years.

Ranking:

MAP01: Terraforming Station (UV/continuous/saves)

5:11 | 100% Everything

A cute little map. Apparently you're stationed at a terraforming station when a shuttle crashes. You go check it out and (I guess?) take the ship back to its point of origin. Always fun when a map can tell a little story. (I never read text files.) By far the standout here is the little river valley that you can explore granting a secret stash of ammo for continuous players. (Yay!) I do wish there had been more to do here, it always feels like a missed opportunity when a wide-open sandbox-style natural landscape doesn't include a bunch of secret areas. Ah well. On the plus side, I really wanted to leap right in to MAP02 once this ended, which is good outcome for a MAP01.

7 hours ago, joe-ilya said:

I made a DEHACKED patch for Mars War, it includes map names and new text screens taken from the wad's .txt file:

https://www.doomshack.org/uploads/MARSWAR.deh

So it's different than the map names and text screens already in marsw301.wad?

Back on skill 4 y'all. At least I presume this won't be as difficult as HR2, but whatever I can drop it later.

MAP01: Terraforming Station

glBoom+ 2.5.1.7um , skill 4 pistol start, no saves

Count me among the fans of this map, also among those who took a while getting out of the first building lol. I'd assumed that switch was just a 2nd switch to lower the door its attached to. Weird setup there.

I was scared to jump down in the canyon on demo, but after reading joe-ilya's comment I went back and explored everything. I love out-of-the-way alcoves like that.

edit: also must mention when I went back I hit IDDQD before quitting as I always do and was reminded of the adorable Tux status bar face. Aww.

I play UV pistol starts...

MAP01. Everything has already been said. The sky cut off. Ugly brown textures outside. A nod to continuous players with some goodies, but Nathan will prove soon that his pistol starts are great. The map doesn't make sense as a stand alone map, but as an introduction is OK. This base theme will be with us often. It is like Icarus cousin, but with stock textures. I like the style.

The only new thing I noticed now is that the computer panel in the longest corridor had "lights off" effect once you come close.

2 hours ago, Salt-Man Z said:

So it's different than the map names and text screens already in marsw301.wad?

No, Mars War has no dehacked, meaning it has no proper naming in the automap and no custom text screens.

The patch I provided, provides just that for cosmetic changes and a more complete feel. I know other DWmegawad Club threads provided such deh files for wads that lacked them.

MAP02

This is pretty much an extension of MAP01, same silver door-filled layout, except with somewhat nasty (in a good way) placement of chaingunners, and an overall more Doom run-and-gun experience, with how there's more enemies and some glasshouses for vegetation, a lot more looping non-linearity to go around too.

I find it funny how the secrets are all bunched up in one room, I thought they were all spread out, but when I found them, it felt funny.

I found it disappointing how the outdoors didn't offer any kind of reward for exploration and was just empty, unlike MAP01, which offered some extra architecture and a secret, so this was a misleading waste of time, but not too much to down any score IMO.

I still like MAP01 better because it's a more unique approach with its monsterless ambiance. No hard feelings to MAP02, I still love it.

5/5

I will have a map preference list in my next review, but for right now I feel it's clear where the maps stand.

My playthrough :

MAP02 - “Theta Base”

Okay, so this map isn’t quite so in your face with the amateurisms, but they’re still there nonetheless. It’s fast becoming clear that you need to put these to the back of your mind to progress far in this megawad (whereas newer mappers don’t seem to get the same luxury, but there you go).

Really this map picks up where the last one left off, this may be a bigger map but it’s very much the same sort of theme. It has more monsters, at 62, but combat really isn’t this mapset’s thing so far, the monsters just kind of exist. This map is more about exploring the nooks and crannies of the base and all of its different rooms. One thing which was interesting was that one of the broken doors bulged outwards, like there was some kind of accident / malfunction at the base (or someone really took out their frustration on that door :P). It actually looked convincing.

The secret (okay, there’s three, but it’s basically one) is given away by the automap, and isn’t quite the excursion of the previous map.

Potentially an Icarus-style theme developing here, with the same vehicle as the last map containing the exit.

PrBoom+ HMP continuous, no music, frequent saves.  Playing until I get bored, which may not take long based on the first two maps.

MAP01

Dire.  Flat, drab, too many doors, nothing to do, badly implementaed F_SKY that frequently cuts off things in the background.  Also, places you can get perma-stuck if you decide to explore.

MAP02

Bad.  Lots more monsters to shoot, but just as flat and drab.  Very linear and slow.  Open door (which is often a lift, presumably because the building is too low for the doors to raise), shoot monsters.  Repeat over and over again.  You're hysterically overgunned by the end of it, too, with the chaingun, RL and plasma all on hand to sweep up the last few imps.

I'm still finishing HR2.  At the moment, I'm on MAP28.  MAP26 took immense amounts of willpower to finish without throwing up, so I'll just do the other levels on my own.  For this wad, I'll do UV continuous in GZDoom, probably without saves.  We'll see how long these "long" levels are.  An hour long map means saves, obviously, but those were uncommon in the 90s, right?  RIGHT?  Eviternity MAP32 scarred me for life as much as I loved it.

MAP01.

Hmmm. Tastes like TNT without the hitscanner hell. The author does a good job conveying a sense of place, even though other aspects leave much to be desired. The texture work goes from being all over the place in the interiors to being sickeningly monochrome outdoors. I enjoyed the exploration though. It's enough to keep me playing. Why do the doors use the lift sound?  That just bugs me.

100% Kills

100% Secrets

0 Deaths

MAP02.

Plasma and rockets without a shotgun?  Over 400 plasma with nothing beyond imps and chaingunners that are as much a threat to themselves as to me?  90s map design, people!  It sure is a breath of fresh air after playing HR2 to see this level of experimentation.  The map's a little flat, but there are some small elevation changes in the YK area.  Better than MAP01!

92% Kills

0% Secrets

0 Deaths