Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #1 [A WAD diving, exploration & review adventure for everyone!]

Sunday slaughter...

everyone else in the family is playing Minecraft, so WTF, lets play another Doom level.

The randomizer gave me this:

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/versehop

which is a big-ass megawad with a few familiar names as authors...

As it's a megawad, I only played the first map. It's set in a mall or, as us Brits would say, a shopping centre. I have to say up front, I'd not choose this style of mapset to play.

First impressions - eye-watering visuals and really bad music. But that I think is the point, that is what shopping centres are like. From a technical PoV, clearly a lot of work has gone into it (3D floors, translucency, custom things etc.) and it does indeed feel like you are running around a hell-infested mall. The progression is solid and the gameplay is relatively easy - it is MAP01 after all. I played UV with no saves (though did not get all secrets).  I definitely got a DN3D feel from it, particularly from the mirrors in the toilets.  

Here's some screenshots:

Not really my thing, but excellent nonetheless.

Another day, another random choice of mine:

kboom series (Kurt Kessler, 1998, Boom - played on Boom 2.0.2 at DosBox)

A small canyon / hellish map from the famous kboom series,this is the 6th from the series. The Boom special stuff usage are pretty well executed, gameplay is a little bit tought especially when you enter the first building, a SSG near that point will be better. Layout is simple but cool and efficent with it's loopy design. New textures are cool, too. Also, if there's any new music in it it will be better.

Fun map overall. Nothing else to say about it.

Day 5 | the abandoned base | 2000 | John Cartwright | Played on LZDoom + UV

comp_01.wad is a single-map WAD designed by John Cartwright in about 2000. For a map of yesteryear, though of course not as old as others, The Abandoned Base has some decent qualities that make it stand out from the pile of junk we tend to find randomly in the archives. With a simple but sophisticated design that establishes its bases well, the author manages to create a map with a good flow and a pretty decent and entertaining gameplay at times. While the map is not a marvel in any way, I can appreciate the effort that went into making this modest attempt at entertainment.The layout is particularly commendable, because during the early years of WAD-making history, one of the biggest problems was the authors' ability to create maps that felt cohesive and natural, failing to create something organic where getting lost is almost always part of the gameplay.

On the other hand, Abandoned Base is nothing more and nothing less than a decent map that satisfactorily fulfills the features presented, giving a healthy 5 to 10 minutes of gameplay in a somewhat square map, visually lackluster and with simple gameplay. A relaxing experience, to be honest.

BONUS | Waterworks - my newest map [GZDoom] | 2021 | @iUsuallyDie | Played on LZDoom + UV

A simple little map with a decent design that makes use of vanilla textures and a layout that reminds me quite a bit of the WADs of yesteryear. While the level doesn't stand out for much and features a simple gameplay system, it lives up to idealized expectations and manages to satisfy on its own merits as a short but fun map.

And that concludes this week's Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures! The first edition and a success as far as I can see. I hope you all had fun and good exploration sessions in this vast world that offers us so much. Of course, this is not the end, and tomorrow Monday the new edition will be released and we will see what else we can find on /idgames archive. ;)

Day 2

DEIMOS - replacement missions for DOOM, Episode I (Knee-Deep in the Dead) Missions 1 and 2 - 2005(?)

E1M1:

Kind of ugly but otherwise pretty fun and has good and varied pacing despite being short.

E1M2:

I've never had my hopes for a map broken as hard as with this map.

CHAPEL OF ROMERO - 2003

The only hidden gem i've found so far, but if you do play it, keep in mind that this is a huge map and it's not as pretty as it is fun.

I might not check out as many today because i stumbled into too many that were just pure unremarkable low effort garbage and that last map was really long, but i still had fun :)

EDIT: Oops, i think i took a bit too long to write this, i hope it's still fine that i posted this D:

I play Crispy Doom and Prboom

Last Mission https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/j-l/lastmisn

Fun simple level idea. A dark cavernous cave filled with imps and you have a shotgun. Atmospheric, just pity that Running From Evil is blaring instead of some ambient.

Northern Powerhouse https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/npowh

Another single level, with a unique colour palette that's primarily pink. There is this towering impressive landscape, with industrial and natural elements, that reminds me of Sunder. I think it's some sort of a battle puzzle. You're facing high tier enemies right from the bat and apart of fending them off you need to figure out how where to place your steps to keep climbing forward. I'm interested in giving this more effort.

Heartless https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/g-i/heartles

E2M4. Vanilla assets but tastefully used with those tall blue corridors. If you overlook the rocket launcher or spend the rockets till the pinkie onslaught in the intensely growling computer room later on you'll be doomed. Kind of a challenge with the scarcity of ammo.

Forgotten Nirvana https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/g-i/gong

MAP21 but starts as a lacklustre slaughtermap. You lure hell knights into regeneration room, go down the stairs aaaand resurrection boys join the fray. I noped out

On 3/18/2021 at 9:41 AM, Endless said:

Day 3 | Peppermint Cookie | 2020 |Timothy Brown aka @mArt1And00m3r11339 | Played on LZDoom + ITYTD

Holy fuck a slaughtermap, and this one is absolutely nuts.

 

By the end of the map there is an insane (and ridiculous) totality of 9000+ enemies on a large square map designed perfectly to become the largest massacre arena I've ever played. Many probably know that I'm not a fan of slaughterwads and their gameplay, but I can appreciate the (violent) charisma they convey. What we have here is a map with huge ambitions but not so great executions. On the one hand, my biggest problem with this map is the simple fact that my potato PC can't run it properly for the first 5 minutes. There are too many enemies, too much combat and an insane amount of Pain Elementals spitting out Losts Souls per second. Seriously. For every 10 demons I managed to kill with the BFG, another 10 Lost Souls would take their place. The kill counter kept growing and the action wouldn't let you rest for a single second.

 

This is a 2020 map, finally something modern in /idgames Random File feature; on the other hand it's just not my style, but I won't let prejudice completely ruin my rating of this. On the one hand, it's a simple map, simple in terms of its red and white design. It's supposed to be a sort of Christmas present for doomers who love to bust their heads against 9000+ demons at the same time. On the other hand, the type of combat we find here is nothing more and nothing less than pure BFG spam. It's not complicated, but it's damn difficult and victory will depend more on our patience and how well we know how to do circle-strafing. If you love unlimited violence on a gigantic map where everything, absolutely everything, is filled with enemies as grotesque as they are varied, then you'll have more than enough to keep you entertained for a good, good while. Success is not guaranteed, but pain is. The MIDI is a good match for the ridiculous style and constant frenzy of this massacre, as well as the simplicity of the color scheme that creates a perfect backdrop for painting it red. Blood red.

 

Unfortunately I wasn't able to complete the map properly because 1) I don't enjoy slaughter most of the time. Sorry. 2) My FPS went to 5 FPS at its worst and about 20 FPS for most of the game, which killed any fun I could had. I wasn't even capable of taking a decent picture because I needed to downscale my resolution to 0.50 to play it. Not the mappers fault, but my shitty PC fault.

 

Maybe some masochists out there enjoy this absolute monster. Fucking hard, but completeable.

Thanks for the feedback. I can't wait to see someone try my Lemon Blueberry Cake Carnage map. Good luck surviving that map because it is excruciatingly long (has over 15K 9/11'ers from the start and takes an average player 9 - 10 in-game hours to complete). You will need a good computer to run it because it has 55K linedefs.

The randomizer mostly picks single maps, if not deathmatch or some zdoom stuff. I waited until I drew a megawad.

Estranged https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/estrangd

My impression after diving into, but not finishing a few levels is thus: it does a really good job blending Doom 1's themes with Doom 2's attention to detail. So it genuinely has the feel of the original games, giving the impression of playing Doom 1 and Doom 2 at the same time. The important thing is that it doesn't seem tedious or boring. The lowest point is probably the soundtrack which mostly consists of The Ultimate Doom tracks. I quickly came to the conclusion that I appreciate this wad and want to play more of it.

13 hours ago, <<Rewind said:

Forgotten Nirvana https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/g-i/gong

MAP21 but starts as a lacklustre slaughtermap. You lure hell knights into regeneration room, go down the stairs aaaand resurrection boys join the fray. I noped out

Thanks for trying it, i re-played this some months ago and... Yeah it's not the best work i made, there's also a broken switch after the red skull(?) door iirc. But yes, this map is hard... but I think it's beatable without cheats

Hmm... Got this:

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/themes/terrywads/chemdept

terrywads...

Next:

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/deathmatch/skulltag/ut_ancr

Nope...

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/deathmatch/s-u/threat

OK! A 1996 map by Kevin Waugh - says he was 12 at the time. The readme implies it is designed for deathmatch. Let's see:

Yep, it's deathmatch only. Nice design, though a few visual glitches with sky:

Next...

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/deathmatch/Ports/j-l/jebus1

Argh! A 1 v 1 deathmatch level.

Next...

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/0-9/6fiffy2

"Hell's Revenge"

All right! A Fiffy map. I remember him from back in the day and had fun on some of the Fiffy maps.

1999.

Let's see about this one:

GZDoom 4.4, UV

 - Custom spash screen: Check

 - Custom music: check

 - Custom sounds: check (nice beefy weapons sounds)

 - Custom textures: check

 - Shootable textures: check (breakable windows)

This is not one I have played before, though s I noted I have played Fiffy maps before and really enjoyed them.

Playability: This is excellent old school stuff, with very good progression and nice monster usage.

Design: very nicely done and never confusing. It flows well, and no noticeable alignment or HOM issues 

Custom stuff: Some nice sound replacements for weapons, a nice shootable breaking window effect, wading water in a couple of places

Oh, and a review by our own @Doomkid

It's quite long - getting on for an hour and I still haven't found the blue key - well, I found it with IDDT, but I can't get to it. Having said that, so far it is excellent. I'll come back to this later on, but so far no deaths on UV.

Part 1, screenshots: