The DWmegawad Club plays: Mars War

prboom+, no saves, uv pistol starts 

map 25 

there's a notable trend happening with regards to good weapons and monsters.  if you get rockets or plasma and a fair amount of ammo, there's going to be nothing to use them against.  the peak of combat in this instance was a perfectly boxed-in vile. 

map 26 

difficulty coming from lack of health/armor once again shines through.  pe cloud was a nice touch.

marswar demos 25-26.7z

MAP26: Maximum Security

97% kills, 3/5 secrets

Another collection of making sector art of old computer, except this time the entire map, pretty much. Combat-wise at this point you pretty much know what you're getting, with the sole exception probably being the fleet of Pain Elementals at the start which can't be handled on a pistol start (at least you can come back later and BFG them). Truth be told, I actually have disliked how the PEs have been used in general in this WAD, as they always seemed to be placed in relatively open outdoor areas where they don't really provide much of a threat, but also can't be easily dispensed with, essentially turning them into an ammo tax. The map feels pretty disjointed, and the long maze secret that led to the BFG was a drag (apparently it's a Maze War homage, but like the MAP31, some homages aren't worth doing). I did like the bit with the gates at the start, revealing the exit just out of reach.

Thinking about it some more, if you ever are crazy enough to pick Demonfear, I'd probably comment through the lens of "what would I do differently now?".

Map26 - HMP, Continuous Play

This was definitely not my favourite. Weird looking sector art with all the computers and a very, very boring maze as well. I had trouble finding the next key after getting the blue keycard first and overally really did not enjoy this map very much.

Maps 26 and 27:

I enjoyed exploring 26 even if I did end up being lost and/or stuck for a bit. I don't think I came across the maze secret, so that is too bad. I remember thinking the areas felt a bit disconnected from one another. It almost felt like a bunch of tiny levels smashed together into one big level.

As for 27, it had some great tight combat. I really enjoyed this one, even though I was stuck in a secret area for so long I had to noclip out. I was enjoying this level so much I was actually a bit disappointed when I ran across the exit signs. In terms of wanting to replay a level, I think this is just about tied with my favorite level of the wad so far, 11, which was another short, simple map.

Ranking: (preferred <---      ---> less preferred)

11, 27, 8, 9, 15, 18, 25, 10, 32, 13, 17, 20, 5, 4, 6, 26, 1, 22, 16, 12, 31, 7, 19, 21, 14, 2, 3, 23, 24

MAP27 - “Marketing”

So like golbeeze said, the combat on this one is pretty interesting (the repetitive pinky berserk combat at the start excepted, imo). The revenant and chaingunner combo can be brutal if you’re unprepared.

The most interesting thing about this level to me was the secret myhouse.wad – even if it was crude by modern standards, it added personality to the level and gave me some nice weapons and ammo (which I thought I was going to use on the cyber, but as it turns out the crusher takes care of that one, so I used it on the arch vile and rev trap instead.

I also managed to 100% max this level, the first one for quite a while I think.

34 minutes ago, golbeeze said:

I really enjoyed this one, even though I was stuck in a secret area for so long I had to noclip out.

21 minutes ago, Horus said:

MAP27 - “Marketing”

 

So like golbeeze said, ...

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

It must be the myhouse.wad that you were stuck in - to the right of the blue skull switch is another wooden wall that opens up and that's your exit from it

 

 

Oooh, so there is a way out. Whoops! I just didn't find it. I actually enjoyed the lines of enemies at the start, because I was using the railgun of Doom Incarnate for maximum hilarity (in my opinion).

+++Demonfear

MAP27: Marketing

This felt like a late 90s map, in that it's clearly vanilla-compatible, but cleanly made and well put-together. It's also surprisingly hard, with only green armour to find and even then it's pretty late in the map. It's a reasonably slow start, particularly if you're not playing continuous and have to rely on the berserk to clear the corridor of demons on the way to the dark room with a fleshy floor. I suffered a "legitimate" death when I opened the one door and had a lot of hitscanners to fight, which kept my attention off of the Revenants coming out of a room behind me that had also opened. I my defence, I'm playing with the sound very low as my girlfriend is asleep in the same room as my computer. I did briefly turn the volume up a little to see what the music was like. Sounds good and a bit atmospheric!

Optional areas seem to be a major feature of this map, with the brown BIGBRIK area being readily accessible, but also having a Cyberdemon in tight confines and a trap on the way back out for those of us who best him. I found the "easy" way, but only after a few deaths. I'm glad for being able to save the game! One thing of particular note, I thought, was the use of a zero-height sector to have a better transition between the BIGBRIK walls and the METAL ceiling where the blinking lights were. A technique I make some use of in my mapping, but would also flag the lines to "appear 1-sided" for. The large MYHOUSE.WAD secret section was the only secret I found, but a well-made one IMO. Sparsely populated and with plenty of supplies, it's a more welcome secret than the Mazewar one in the previous map, I'd say.

All told, I like this map. It's up there with the best of the set, for me.

MAP27: Marketing

There's a strong contrast between the sprawling outdoor areas that make up most of Maximum Security and the confines of this level's interior spaces; it's not claustrophobic, really, you've generally got room to dance whatever steps you please and most of it is brightly lit, but it's a contrast that popped out at me, and that's quite welcome, not just the creation of distinctive contrasting spaces within a level but also from one level to the next even within the shared theme of a corrupted computer corporation.  There are some nasty encounters to be had here, like the player-triggered revenant/chaingunner combo that's been mentioned above; there's nothing unfair about it, and if it gets you, it's easy enough to understand how it managed to get you, but it's enough to keep you on your toes.

The text file notes that the MYHOUSE.WAD section is based on the house in which the author was living at the time most of these levels were made; I find that interesting, because what's apparently the master bedroom (it's the only upstairs room with an en-suite) lacks a bed and has instead been refitted as a computer lab (there's five computers plus one that might be either a computer or a televsion, so I have to judge it more than a simple home office) and that's not the sort of thing that just gets slung in randomly, though before I checke the text file I was wondering if this was indeed based on a particular house or if it was a commentary on the life of someone working for the domineering corporation at the heart of Mars War and how computers were taking over their home life too.

MAP27: Marketing (Kills: 99%, Secrets: 1/2, Deaths: 0)
    Another map inspired by dreams. Haven't seen anything too out of the ordinary, but the combat certainly is more fierce. I was surprised by the appearence of a Cyberdemon (not a frequent visitor in these maps) and emptied a good amount of my ammo into him only to find out there is a crusher switch. Getting to it might be a bit harder than just outright killing him though...

    I liked the MYHOUSE part of the map, one of the better renditions of an apartment I've seen in DooM thus far, outdone probably only the apartments in the Doom Tribute Project (but that is a ZDooM WAD). Seems like author spent a lot of time on it! I liked all the little cupboards and DoomCute computers, and the wardrobes hiding weaponry everywhere, even a High Capacity Assault Plasmarifle (evidently an American household).

    Frankly compared to the MYHOUSE part of the map, the rest seems like filler to me (but again I like these sort of maps), for example the Pinky pens which are easily disposed of with the Berserked fist. If I absolutely had to point out a standout encounter it would probably be the Archvile and Revenant ambush when you backtrack from the Cyberdemon room. Gave me quite the fright!

MAP27: Marketing (Mars War)

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

This one is almost the opposite of the previous level in terms of scale, but equally enjoyable. The 71 monsters than inhabit this place are surprisingly dangerous if you're not careful despite being mostly fodder. The Cyberdemon encounter is completely optional, a bold decision made even bolder by having a easily accessible switch that triggers a crusher to kill it, rendering it completely useless. The pain elementals or the arch-vile that follows gave me more trouble than that giant paperweight.

Still, there's some cool moments like the dark, demon infested area and the myhouse.wad secret (complete with doomcute computers like in MAP17 and crude bathrooms!) The other secret is completely unmarked, which I didn't like. But the highlight to me is the whole dark room section - it starts inoffensive enough with a demon guarding a berserk, which I didn't feel like killing and just started to descend the stairway, alerting more demons behind me.

I rush to the door leading to the dark room, alerting even more demons, a revenant and a few hitscanners - all this while you can barely see a thing! Good thing I found a light amplification visor which helped me get my bearings and find a super shotgun to whittle down the demon horde, then I finished off the survivors with a chaingun I nabbed from a heavy weapon dude. Quite hectic! I think the texturing in this level is on point, which is a welcome surprise and manages to give more juice to a fairly simple layout that would otherwise feel boring, even if the detailing is rather sparse. A really good level all things considered.

Levels in order of preference:

I neglected to mention it earlier, but I think the room full of desktop PCs in the MYHOUSE.WAD secret level was a LAN party. The text file may even say something to this effect.

Map27: Marketing was an overall fun map, much less bizarre and disconnected than the last dream-based map. The pinkie stairs was interesting, but since I decided to make use of my berserk and not open the door, my experience with it was okay at best. Probably should've used my continuous weaponry for that to make it less dull, but whatever. Combat is fun throughout, and I liked that worthless cyberdemon somehow. It was more interesting to grab the resources it was guarding, though.

The secret containing the author's then-current home was a neat secret to find, but I also liked it's entrance. The way it opens the regular doors along with the unopenable ones was neat. Also, there's non-functional doors similar to MAP02 in there, which is neat.

Maps in order of preference:

I will try to catch up

MAP25 (marswar.wad).

This is based on 11bones.wad, a 1994 map. That is quite impressive for 1994. Sure, there's STAR textures everywhere, but the circular area with the blue key is damn fine, and there's one full transformation room! In marswar Nathan did some minor retexturing, forgot about a HOM near the exit... I think it is a shame that this map was gone in marsw301.wad, I know it wasn't original, but I like it more than many others.

MAP25 (marsw301.wad)

I agree that it looks more modern than maybe everything else. Still, the old design tropes raise their heads, I am speaking about the ledge that is before the yellow key, with nonsensical brown rock, very misaligned, too. I liked most the verticality in one big area, the blood floor area transformation and I just walked around with -nomonsters and IDCLIP and there's one very neatly designed inaccessible area?! From the start, the door at the front and the outside the window immediately on the right: this corridor is far, far longer than it would be required for just "being the view".

MAP26

Nice trolling with the exit reveal. This is the best joke of this WAD, hands down. I didn't know about Maze War, now it makes some sense, but as a part of a Doom level that section is just so dull... I liked the computer sector art, there's one vertically placed floppy drive, how cute. Is it 5 1/4 " or 8"? These computers also nicely break the monotony of the ashwall cave... An uneven map, but I like most of it.

MAP27

I am fine with everything except the stupid pinky corridor. At least you don't have to punch them, you can run past them and kill them later with the SSG. The house was neat, the cyberdemon, well, it's there for you sadistic pleasures. The aesthetic is one of the best overall of the WAD.

MAP27: Marketing

glBoom+ 2.5.1.7um, skill 4 and 1 pistol start, no saves

I got to that center room and just wasn't having it today so after a few attempts I dropped it to skill 1. Still almost died several times but managed to ultimately survive.

Also on my first attempt at the bottom of the demon staircase I tried to just hold down Ctrl and up the speed in prboom and as you can see it did not work very well.

I loved the house. And yeah that darkening door is back. Several of them. Which indicates it's an intended thing and not a mistake from MAP02. I guess it's to simulate the door being 'open', but there's nothing out there? 

prboom+, no saves, uv pistol starts

map 27

one of the few maps where the goggles actually helped!

marsw301-27-loveless.7z

Map 28:

Ugh, the blue! I was so turned around in this level that I couldn't progress at some point. I blame the ubiquitous blue walls. The level itself wasn't difficult, but I legit couldn't remember what was what with all the elevators and repetitive wallpapering. I just IDDT'ed to find the key and IDCLIP'ed as necessary to get past the elevators.

Ranking: (preferred <---      ---> less preferred)

11, 27, 8, 9, 15, 18, 25, 10, 32, 13, 17, 20, 5, 4, 6, 26, 1, 22, 16, 12, 31, 7, 19, 21, 28, 14, 2, 3, 23, 24

MAP28 - “Doom User Interface”

And now for a level unlike any of the 27 before it. Pretty much entirely made up of COMPBLUE, this is a lift-heavy labyrinth that is really hard on pistol start, especially if you don’t take the ‘right’ route. I constantly struggled for ammo and health throughout, which started off as a pretty interesting challenge, then gradually deteriorated into give me some fucking supplies already. Only when I cleared almost the whole YK section did I backtrack to find the RL, extra plasma ammo and soulsphere. Oh how I could’ve done with that earlier.

By comparison, the YK door ending section itself was trivial. Phew.

MAP01: Terraforming Station.

Crispy Doom: Keyboard only.

The level begins in some sort of escape pod that has crashed, with a lot of monitors for detail, the beginning is not bad yet.

the fact that there are like what, 4 monsters? You'd think that a station would have more enemies than that. and oh, spoiler alert, there any station. yet alone a terraforming one. The level is really open, I personally don't like very open maps especially with little detail, and the fact that every texture is brown is really hard for me to navigate and the fact that there are very little monsters doesn't make this map a whole lot better. There should be more shooting to be had, more than exploring, or even both. Doom didn't revolutionize the FPS for exploring. That's for sure.

The level ends with you using a pod, that has the other half of the monsters. The pod looks good so that's a plus.

IMO. this map kinda stinks.

2.5/5

MAP28.

Good that this map exists, but I am not likely to replay it soon :) The same goes with Alien Vendetta MAP31...

A brave design choice, the map is striking visually, For me it looks pretty neat. But does it play well? I think it is a bit too long, especially the section with the triangular lifts could have been smaller.

I also found it rather hard. You start with 200/200 and health and armor disappear faster than you could think... I think I made it through after 6 tries, and that last try was when I stumbled upon the SSG, that evens the odds. On the other hand, I never found the rocket launcher.

The room with imps on two "shelves" near the exit is fantastic.

MAP28: Doom User Interface

I really, really like this map. The music is a touch too cheerful and upbeat for "normal" Doom, but works well enough for me. The gimmick of using mostly blue textures meant the place looked very consistent, and, possibly thanks to GZDoom and it's shaders, actually pretty nice! The last few rooms start mismatching ceiling FLATs to upper textures (brown blocks straight on to computers, for example), which is a minor mark against the visuals, as are the doors being upper unpegged and sort of melting away (which wouldn't be so obvious, were it not for the lights).

This is a fantastic map to play on continuous, as things like a surprise Mastermind are situations you can react to and survive, and the heavy SSG and rocket usage I could have meant the map didn't take much more than ten minutes. The area made out of intersecting rectangles was a lot of fun to traverse and battle in, particularly with how the lifts were quite variable in how much help they provided.

I missed one secret, but got all keys and left reasonably-well supplied, happy with my experience. Another couple of maps at this standard and I'll look back on the month favourably, I suspect.

MAP28: Doom User Interface

...also, Driving Under the Influence.

So this is a gimmicky map in which the gimmick is that everything's COMPBLUE and I'm not sure if that either adds to or detracts from the experience, really?  I made it through Nanka Kurashiki's My fav, my eyeballs can take this, sure.  The map's defining areas seem to be the various graphs assembled within the Doom engine in the north-west and then the elevator labyrinth of diagonally offset corridors in the south-east, with everything in between being rather less memorable and distinctive, giving it the overall feel of a level put together out of a couple of solid ideas and a fair bit of filler with a bold blue paint job applied on top to conceal a certain hollowness of concept.  And on the other hand the elevator labyrinth is a neat enough environment that I'm quite happy to forgive the map its gimmicks and its thinness elsewhere.  I was about ready to leave the map on 120/121 kills, thinking I'd missed an imp or a shotgun sergeant or something in the maze and didn't feel like going through its ups and downs again; as it turns out, what I'd actually missed was the Spider Mastermind, since I'd ignored the soul sphere that turned it lose, rationing my resources for later collection in case of chaingunner ambushes or other mishaps.

MAP28: DooM User Interface (Kills: 98%, Secrets: IDK, Deaths: 0)
    This map seems strangely modern with its largely monochromatic theme, reminding me (in aestethic design) of many modern slaughterwads. Not that I've played any, just from what I've seen on Youtube. Strangely enough, the progression was not too cryptic (either that or I lucked out and found the Yellow Key easily) even if the map design was bereft of any significant landmarks.

    The combat was on the annoying side with the many, many instances of monsters waiting for you atop tall lifts, or even worse, lifts being blocked by infinitely tall Cacodemons or Lost Souls. I guess this goes both ways as I've managed to use the infinitely tall rocket splash damage to dispose of a lot of weaker enemies in deep pits. Also, I think this is the first time we've seen the Spider Mastermind in this WAD? I cannot recall if we have seen it before...

MAP28:Doom User Interface is a blue, quirky, and abstract map. It's a little spicy with the combat, and I imagine it'd be really tough on pistol start. I'm impressed by the verticality of the mazey area, and it even managed to confuse me a little bit, even with my good ability to use the automap! Finding the yellow key didn't seem all that tough though...

Visuals are very simple for the majority of the map, with geometry usually only using about 2 different colors, red and blue. I like the simplicity of the looks thanks to this, but a little bit more variety would've also been appreciated.

I really liked the music to the map as well, it's not exactly doomy, but it is pretty energetic and fitting for the map. Fun map all around!

Maps in order of preference:

MAP28: Doom User Interface (Mars War)

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

A level of two halves, this one. The first half was really fun, easily one of the best in the whole wad with lots of cool stuff like the E2M3 style cubes with supplies, interesting secrets, two stacks of imps on top of walls and even a suprise Spiderdemon encounter! On top of that supplies were adequately provided and I liked the subtle touch of having no megaspheres to not break the great blue theme going on (COMPBLUE is one of those textures that I feel you have to really go out of your way to make it look bad), instead replacing them with supercharges and megaarmors.

Unfortunately I came across a yellow locked door, which meant I still had half of the level to explore - let me tell you, it was painful. Health scarcity with only 60 health points available in the whole thing, confusing layout further amplified by its monotextured nature, as well as absolutely nasty enemy placement to top it all off. It has some saving graces, as it contains the level's only backpack and the BFG9000 secret looks cool, but otherwise I didn't enjoy it. The finale after the yellow door did make me forget about the pain I'd just endured, finally breaking the blue theme and providing a very neat and colourful room which looks like a pie chart in the automap :) I ended up enjoying the level since I feel the greatness of the first half offsets the awkward lift maze that makes up the second, but can't help but feel disappointed in thinking how much better this could have been in my opinion.

Levels in order of preference:

MAP28: Doom User Interface

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

I absolutely loved this level. So much that I pushed through on skill 4 despite dying several times. When I got the idea to go through the teleporter in the first room and kite the hell knight and cacodemon into the starting area and have everyone infight like one big happy family, it helped a ton on what ended up being my successful run.

Also features an imp shooting gallery that for some reason reminds me of the former human staircase in Deus Vult II MAP 21.

I don't think I've mentioned this yet but the last few maps I've been using one of the only cheats allowed during demos, IDBEHOLDA, to help with major secrets and prevent me from getting lost too much (IDDT doesn't gray out the parts I haven't seen yet).

I actually found the yellow key several times but not until the end of my run did I have any idea where the yellow door was.

MAP29: Choices (Kills: 99%, Secrets: IDK, Deaths: 0)
    This map was annoying. As per the map title, at the beginning you have the choice of either getting perforated by hordes of chaingunners or

AAAARRRRGHH WHHHYYYYY MY EARS

, having your eardrums blown by some 50 Revenants in close proximity. Also, I have no idea how this map works on pistol start since all of my carried-over ammunition (barring like 100 cells) got deleted. Granted, I did not know to infight the Revenants and the Cyberdemon (and this is where majority of my ammunition got wasted). We have some more oddities, like non nukage/lava flats that damage you (I guess there's that 'No humans allowed' sign to warn you), and the nukage canyon being lined with platform textures, but only the non-platform texture is actually the platform. Also, that 'Red Key door' that is not a door texture.

    I did kind of like the Red Key trap, with the Archvile and the Pain Elemental, I liked the way the base transformed. The final fight against the Spider Mastermind was a bit annoying due to it and myriad Arachnotrons crowding below the window, so finding an opening to jump down was a bit tedious. Exit room's nice though, a bit of foreboding before the final map. I am curious, for those of you that did this map from pistol start, how did it go? I personally spent all of my cell ammo fighting that Revenant horde so when the Cyberdemon appeared I just grabbed the Blue Key and noped out of there. He can stay there for all eternity for all I care.

MAP29 - “Choices”

So at first I thought Pechudin's 'warning' was referring to the previous map, but then I realised they play continuous and that map is probably significantly easier that way.

Now I realise it’s this map Pechudin refers to. Nathan Lineback throws a real nasty map out there.  You get to ‘choose’ between hitscanner hell and a revenant + cyber slaughter encounter (apparently Nathan is a slaughtermapper now lol). I chose the former first, which is ‘okay’ if you play it real conservative and snipe out the chaingunners / get them to infight with the zombiemen and shotgunners.

Harder though is the RK battle. The arch vile + pain elemental + chaingunner battle is a real tough one because you have minimal cover, and if you put 100% focus on the archvile, the chaingunners and PE’s lost souls will rip you apart. Deal with that, and the imp horde + baron is easy.

Mercifully, Nathan grants a megasphere after that, to ready you up for the slaughter encounter. Here it’s clear enough what you need to do – get the revenants and cyber to infight, whilst doing as little shooting yourself as possible. Do it right / get lucky, and whatever’s left should be easy pickings.

The next area is pretty simple, the only thing of note here is that Nathan decides to use a rock texture as the lift, and the lift texture as walls. Cheeky. But pretty obvious to me I’m afraid :P

I hope you saved your plasma for the final battle, because you’ll need it. Try to get the arachnotrons to infight with the SMM, and clear up the rest yourself. Finally, the exit. Phew. This was quite the pistol start challenge!

Well, at least we have had a few maps now where the combat has been the focal point.