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ICID

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #017

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(logo by @4MaTC)

 

ICID, what the hell is this now?

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures is a small project of exploration, interaction, entertainment and reviews where we meet once every 2 weeks to select random WADs in search of hidden treasures, lost promises, or our worst nightmares! We use the /idgames archive’s special feature that lets us search for random files. Of course, sometimes they are resources or unplayable stuff, so we focus on looking for WADs.

 

The event is named after its originator, fearless leader and WAD reviewer par excellence Endless, but I am helping to run things for the time being.

 

So, what do we do here?

  1. Play at least 5 random WADs in a two-week period of time. WADs are selected using the Random File feature on /idgames or from the list below.
  2. Post a review of each WAD. There’s no required pacing (you can do all 5 on the first day if you want), but most of us post a review once every 1-2 days.
  3. Please take screenshots or video of your adventures.
  4. Play however you want, on any skill level, and with any source port, as long as you play the WAD as intended/in working shape.
  5. Review with integrity - be respectful. Good rule of thumb: making fun of a map is okay, making fun of the mapper is not.

 

What kind of WADs are we looking for?

Mostly singleplayer Doom or Heretic WADs that work in your sourceport(s) of choice. You can skip DM WADs if you don’t have anyone to play with. I also pull at least 7 random WADs for the event and add them here. Feel free to play them with me if you wish, or look for your own! The point of the event is to encourage you to explore this vast, random world. 

 

Tips/recommendations for commenting/reviewing:

Spoiler
  1. Always provide the name of the WAD, the name of the author, and a link to the file. Very important.
  2. Commenting the source port and skill-level is not required, but provides helpful context to your review.
  3. Try to stick to no more than 1 WAD per day to avoid burnout, but this part’s all up to you, champ!
  4. As mentioned above, screenshots or videos are awesome.
  5. Reviews of all formats are valid. Both longform and shortform are good as long as you write with integrity. 

 

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures of this event:

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  1. Catalyst
  2. Hexa

  3. Secretdoom: The Green Machine

  4. NETBEAST

  5. WOOO

  6. Skylab

  7. HAZCHEM

  8. Doomworld Mega Project 2018 (OH GOD NOT AGAIN)

 

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Spoiler

The Top 10 (out of 27)

 

  1. @Roofi | 2019
  2. @Sena | 864
  3. @Walter confetti | 410
  4. @ICID | 350
  5. @Endless | 320
  6. @LUISDooM | 235
  7. @smeghammer | 192
  8. @Maribo | 145
  9. @LadyMistDragon | 140
  10. @Biodegradable | 105

 

Join the Doom Master Wadazine community for more events like this! » https://discord.gg/Q2RKn4J

 

» Previous adventures:

 

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As usual, I'll kick things off with our first review!

 

Catalyst (2013) by Jacob H. Orloff

 

Play Settings

Source port: k8vavoom

Difficulty: Ultra-Violence

 

I’ve never been as much of a Doom 1 guy. Obviously I would say that this is because Doom II is strictly better – with a much stronger bestiary and far more inventive level design – but it probably has as much to do with the fact that I played Doom II first and fell in love with it years before ever playing The Ultimate Doom. (It’s okay if you want to pretend that we’re not all on Doomworld almost purely for nostalgia reasons, but that doesn’t make it true.)

 

Anyway, Doom 1 content tends to slide off of me. I haven’t even been able to get into the great works in the space, like No End In Sight, which I’ve started twice without getting through the first episode. At megaWAD length, I just miss the mechanical additions of Doom II too much, I guess.

 

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But Catalyst, despite coming from an author of relatively little note, is as good an argument for the value of Doom 1 as any I’ve ever seen. Thrilling, tricky, and really knowledgeable about how to use the limited bestiary to its fullest – I like how, for example, the first big fight after the shotgun uses a cacodemon to trap you in the room. Turns out even the basic suite of baddies can still pack a punch! Plus it’s a damn fine looking techbase as well.

 

Maybe it’s just because it’s a single level rather than an endless adventure, but I really enjoyed my time with Catalyst, probably one of the stronger “hidden gems” we’ve run into so far. Or maybe it’s just because last ER/iWA’s selections were so utterly dire, and I’m grading on a curve. Either way, it’s a big recommend from me.

 

Grade: 8/10

TL;DR: A 20th-anniversary celebration of Doom 1 which, in many ways, surpasses its source material.

 

JQU2fRW.pngyj2S2XQ.png

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What a great concept for an event! Had to finally register on here to participate.

 

Catalyst looks quite fun and polished. I'll start with a map tomorrow, maybe stream it.

I wish all other adventurers some good /idgames RNG ;)

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Oil Plant  - Nambona 890 - 2/04/15 (Plays in Zandronum/Skulltag or ZDoom-derived ports)

 

Well, I had to come across a Terrywad sometime. This one shows a certain self-awareness, judging by the scripts which play when you trigger the Terry trap, a photo of Cory from the Disney channel show Cory in the House, along with the theme from that. There's over 200 enemies, but I have no idea where the rest are. Also, maybe you can use actual texturing if this doesn't need OTEX idk. There are obvious references to Aquarius199, which is kind of nice in a way, but really, that guy should just ignore Terrywads, but we can't tell him what to do.

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Spoiler

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You have a lot of maps this week, with 2 complete megawads of 32 maps (WOOO and DMP 2018), an entire episode of 12 maps with SecretDoom! Not sure about the other wads... Oh yes, this week you have another dose of confetti with a map in both Wooo (MAP19)and DMP (cl9 MAP02). Wooo is.... Pretty lysergic. Can't wait to see what you think about MAP32 of that thing lol

Edited by Walter confetti

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Month 5 Day 11

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop.

 

File 1) MHS Doom II by @liverwurst (2011)

 

Spoiler

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Quote

After saving Phobos, destroying Hell,
and killing nearly every living creature in the world, you
return to your home town in Muscatine, Iowa to grab a few
brewskies with your buddies, and possibly nail up on a few
just-legal drugs.  As you head for the bar, you happen to
pass by the high school and notice some suspicious
activities occuring.  Armed with some brass knuckles and
your trusty 45, packed with only 50 shots, you enter the
building.  After realizing that you haven't drained your
lizard in about four months, you head directly to the
bathroom.
     You begin the level inside the guys bathroom in a
urinating position.  You quickly notice that a former human
happens to be doing the same thing to your left.  Quickly,
you grab your pistol and gun down the enemy.  Thus begins
your quest to save Muscatine High.

 

Well, it's officially a 2011 level but I can tell you it's typically a school-themed level from the 1994-1996 era. Indeed, don't play this wad if you don't like boxy layouts with an endless number of featureless rooms filled with randomly placed monsters.  I think any person with common sense would not like this level but I did. I enjoyed exploring the school thanks to the few new pseudo-realistic door and wall textures which oozes a creepy atmosphere (despite the D_runnin music I systematically mute). I felt like playing a kind of survival-horror game like silent hill because of the many large and ominous rooms.

 

Some places felt particularly more elaborated than the others. The huge library located at the center of the level or the amphitheater somewhere else were one of the most memorable places of the level. Also, I think the map could easily be a chore to navigate due to its size. If you don't find the secret automap. However , the level became so much to discover as soon as I obtained it.

 

Finally, The map has the benefit to have a minimal sense of progression with three keys to find in a determined order. 

 

Yeah it's objectively a crappy old school-themed map compared to modern standards but it's far from being the worst I played in this domain.

 

 

 

I got shot by multiple nazis hidden in a dark room in the wolftenstein-themed wad Wolfenstein 3D 1st Encounter

 

Spoiler

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Wohoo! Trashcan time!

 

First wad of this round: R.J.G. Stark Base!!! Version 1.0 ( totally not suspicious link https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/p-r/rjgstark )

 

As usual, I played on UV with dsda-doom.

 

This level is odd and mean. You start off with being lighty shot by zombiemen that scream GET OVA HERE everytime you wake them up. That is not only for the zombiemen, but for the undead in general. Which is funny, but gets extremely boring after 15 minutes. Then you get ambushed by a daysworth of bullshit, by that I mean Imps, Shotgunnners and conveniently placed Pinkies all of that with you only having a pistol and dying with a puny chainsaw, yes, only a  chainsaw and not a berserk of sorts. Then you get thrown into a big room full of big boys and without health or anything that could help you fighting big baddies. All of this just in the first about three minutes into this level! Then you spend ten minutes d_runnin around trying to find the way you should be going, just to find out you need to press two switches in the starting room to progress, which isn't great leveldesign c'mon man. And the midi in the back is forgettable, as well as it being very odd to listen to. I can't describe it but it does not fit into the theme of this level, a techbase frankenlevel with different, inconsistent themes. However it's mostly tech so there is nothing to worry about, it does however use the strangest texturing I have ever seen. Just take a look at the screenshots and you'll understand.

 

After trying your best to not get lost or die trying finding the way in those two rooms, you'll encounter the worst use of slow moving lifts. You start by getting on a Floor lower to lowest floor-lift and then have to get on a slow as funk lift you probably have seen in E2M3 in vanilla Doom or in SoM did it. To be honest I Idclipped those because I was havin' none of that, seriously, why would you do that? And the best trap is there is a pinky waiting for your arrival on top of the floor, meaning you'll either have to know what's coming or wait 300.000 Hours until this stupid lift get back up there again. Oh, and talking about traps in this level, completely redundant. You get ambushed and punished for exploring and get a stinky middlefinger when you try to use foresight, as this map maker uses cheap tricks like chaingunners with you having no ammo and crushers when you grab goodies. This map has 18 secrets but I could not find one of them. He sure hid them well.

 

The rest of this level is a stroll through the park when you find the Big Friendly Gun with the Plasmo riffle and when to roughly expect cheap chaingunner corners with a hint of Archie. Unless you managed to get your health so low that even a faraway barrel can kill you the last fight, just like every other fight is an absolute pushover. Do you really think three Cyberdemons are going to scare me when I can fight them in an big and open area with three megaspheres littering the ground? Two-shot those guys (or at least try like me) and you're good to go. You end the level by firing rockets into a marble block full of barons in hopes of hitting the Icon that also is on a lift.

 

Further miscellaneous observations I couldn't verwurst into text:

 

All demons make human grunts when damaged  (?)

 

The map maker made adverts for his website in this map and seems to be a huge fan of Mortal Combat.

 

You know this is a wad from the 90' when you have animated textures, in fact, this was made in '96!

 

What is the goal of this wad? It tries to be a cheap Plutonia knock-off, but is just wad filled with cheap tricks and pushover enemies when you get to a certain point. You get a friggn BFG for free and enough ammo for days. What a shame.

 

I give this wad a 3 out of 5 3 out of 5 ratings.  Confusing and odd, probably not worth your time.

 

Have some small screenshots :)

 

doom29.png.834a721eea3d789afdf9bf526ed508a1.pngdoom27.png.d04b8080709b91be2cdfeff242277f89.pngdoom22.png.a1ed2c7e7f321bced6595a5f21e578e8.pngdoom20.png.b944040a0ded22e404b2842b6c5e2d4a.pngdoom19.png.1b7305bf31b93264bb9d2e7284097b8a.pngdoom17.png.72423a1fb814ca849cd4279c73467c7c.pngdoom06.png.0d79d1405a02100c063793e0d34b5a71.pngdoom05.png.a45484a658101051545ea6a3b98a2d8c.pngdoom03.png.12bf7940006ab35c371ade01e6e5dfce.png

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Day 1: Catalyst https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/a-c/catalyst

 

As something made for Doom's 25th anniversary, it's certainly evocative of its style, in part due to the obvious fact it uses Doom 1 enemies/textures. I've suggested here and there that the original game's maps leave something to desired, which now's probably as good a time as any to elaborate on, most the maps are basic in their design, and profoundly easy, while E1M1 holds a special place in my heart, if I played a megaWAD whose map 1 took me 10 seconds to beat, I would not consider that a good first impression. Point is, I would argue that Catalyst evokes Doom's spirit, its aesthetic, its design philosophy, call it what you want, it keeps the original feeling while updating it to be more in line what we've come to expect in the 30 years since then. Not without flaw, it is quite claustrophobic in its design, mostly consisting of narrow hallways, which I suppose must be Doom 3 influencing its construction, and I only got about 12 rockets throughout the whole thing, which, in the absence of an SSG, makes dealing with the number of barons which is greater than 3 quite tedious, not to mention there's a very large number of cacodemons, so in the absence of the SSG you're also likely going to be having to eliminate them in an equally slow manner. Maybe it's not fair for me to criticise a Doom 1 map for not including a weapon that isn't in the game, but this is historical analysis, with the power of hindsight I can assuredly say that a shotgun that almost assuredly takes 2 shots to kill imps isn't that good to begin with. In essence, it's a classic map, a bit narrow, I certainly wouldn't characterise it as cataclysmic, but as an homage to the original game, it does an adequate job. 6/10.

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How the devil have you drawn two of the like nine megaworld projects and none from any speedmapping series, of which there need to be at least a hundred on idgames by now?

Also, WOOO.  oh heavens you guys are hosed.

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I know this level @thiccyosh , I played it during Month 3 Day 13

 

Pure weirdness from the 90's with extremly odd texturing and no consistent theme. However I appreciated the architecture and the quite nasty traps.

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8 hours ago, TMD said:

How the devil have you drawn two of the like nine megaworld projects and none from any speedmapping series, of which there need to be at least a hundred on idgames by now?

 

Who knows? Ask the evil algorithm of random search of idgames (or better, who made it)

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11 hours ago, TMD said:

How the devil have you drawn two of the like nine megaworld projects and none from any speedmapping series, of which there need to be at least a hundred on idgames by now?

 

Pretty sure @Sena
has pulled a few speedmapping projects if you want to go back through their reviews. But yeah, as far as why they haven't showed up in the main list, what Walter said. The random file feature is weird. See also: its tendency to prefer maps from the 90s over all other eras.

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7 hours ago, Roofi said:

Pure weirdness from the 90's with extremly odd texturing and no consistent theme.

Glad we have the same opinion on this wad.

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13 minutes ago, ICID said:

The random file feature is weird. See also: its tendency to prefer maps from the 90s over all other eras.

That's probably because most wads on /idgames are from the 90s:

twpjdAP.png

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Month 5 Day 12

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop.

 

 

Metal Vault by Ioan Chera (2015)

 

Spoiler

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Quote

You've been sent to investigate and clear a mysterious hellish vault that got raised on Phobos. Your task is to clear the area of demonic resistance and proceed forward to the logical end. Beware that not everything you need will be in plain sight!

 

A very unconventional to not say weird ultimate Doom map which had been not extremly difficult to beat even if miraculously survived to a surprise slow crusher after pressing a random switch.

 

I found this level pretty cool after completing it , but I was frustrated at the beginning because you have to press or shoot some mandatory unusual switchs and you can get permanently stuck if you waste all your bullets before shooting the switch which raise the bridge allowing you to cross the lava  pit. Also, you start the level with just enough ammo to get rid of the few ennemies , so be careful.

 

Also, there was a very odd part where you can meet a prisoned voodoo doll for no reason. There is no particular trap or puzzle related to it. Besides that, I like the creativity about the progression and the attempt to create something else than the classic "door - lift - corridor". The last part of the map was a lot more intuitive with still some switchs to press.

 

I can't say a lot about this level. Aesthetically-wise , I hardly believe it's a 2015 map. It definitely looks a lot more like a forgotten level from the 90's era but it was not bad anyway. I liked the fortress theme.

 

File 2) Reborn Epidemic by Derek Braun (AKA @Dittohead / aliceschain) (2004)

 

Spoiler

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Quote

This is my very first DOOM map. The theme is set in the traditional tech / starbase theme which leads from a warehouse staging facility to a waste management center, and finally a command depot. I tried to use my brain when building this map, and hopefully it paid off. This map can be difficult if you play through it without thinking. I suggest using a modern port such as ZDoomGL for maximum performance. The secret areas will pay off. Also, Nothing is in plain view - you will have to look for items. And most importantly, have fun with it!

 

An officially gzdoom-compatible first baby map housing exactly 100 monsters and 6 secrets which actually plays like a classic vanilla map. I suppose it's due to misconceptions about the ports. Anyway, it's a very decent level with an easy gameplay and appreciable aesthetics with just enough details in order to not look bland , despite the numerous misalignments. I saw a lot of efforts to create efficient light gradients , especially near the blue key.

 

Also, the tech base offers varied passages like a maze full of nukage , a rocky landscape or just more classic rooms with computers. The level doesn't have really nasty trap but I saw many first maps with just randomly scattered monsters so I appreciated the attempt to create some monsters closets and teleportation rooms.

 

As many beginner's maps , this level contains many little mistakes , like the DOORTRAK without the "lower unpegged" or the computer map which make a lot of traps totally predictable but I didn't find any critical bug.

 

A classic but honorable first work.

 

File 3) Broom by Luiz Eduardo (a.k.a DuduCrazy) (2005)

 

Spoiler

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Quote

i was in my bedroom, i got nothing to do, when suddenly, i had a crazy idea. i picked up my mother's broom, and my sister's digital camera, and then i started to take some pictures of me holding the broom. i edited it, and i implemented it on Heretic. and the result is a broom that replaces the staff. it's time to clean this mess up!

 

The perfect mod to become a concierge magician! One of the silliest mod I've seen for Heretic...

 

File 4) Project A.E.S.W (Another E1 Style Wad) by Mike "@prower" Reid (2003)

 

Spoiler

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Quote

For whatever reason I recently got the inspiration to make another Doom map after about 24 months of not touching an editor. This one actually turned out really well, at least I think so. The title of this wad is kind of misleading, it's really not entirely E1-styled, but there's definitely some influences, especially as far as texturing goes.

 

Prower is mapper I know thanks to the popular megawad "Hell Revealed 2". I already played this wad years before I started my adventures in the er/iwa so it was not a discovery for me.

 

I can feel the E1 inspirations at some parts like the outdoors areas mainly because of the pathways crossing the slime which remind me a lot of Doom's E1M6. However , most of the map made me think a lot of HR2 due to the very similar texturing : massive use of brown metal textures , brown bricks , gray concete... Also , you can obtain a SSG and meet several Doom 2 monsters. I think this map could be titled "What if the HR2 team had made a map similar to Ultimate Doom?" It's just my opinion but I found the texturing so similar. However , contrary to a typical HR2 map, the layout proves to be a lot more organic like a Ultimate Doom map.

 

About the difficulty , the level is a lot less meaty and cramped than a regular HR2 map too. Some specific traps, however, may easily kill you if you don't react within a second. I especially talk about the last trap where you "fall" in a pit guarded by arachnotrons and revenants. 

 

Cool small map.

 

File 5) Ultramodern Combat 3 by @Deumreaper (2006)

 

Spoiler

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Quote

3rd in the UMC series. Floating Domain requires players to be agile if they want to traverse smoothly across the map. Includes umc2.wad *UMC Revisions* Removed floating pointers for items; added backpacks, plasma gun and energy cells; & a harmless Pain Elemental. :)

 

A set of 3 DM maps for zdaemon which use extensively some effects like slopes, fog or even animated sky. I just have nothing to say about this. I quickly explored each level. My favourite was maybe the last map , which takes place in the sky above the roof of a kind of giant spaceship.

 

File 6) Temple Of Reflection by Kyle Guthrie [Skunk] (2006)

 

Spoiler

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Quote

Enter an ancient temple in the middle of the desert, hell bent on destroying the demonic force that now resides inside.

 

A quite unordinary but sadly extremly rudimentary gzdoom level. First of all, the green marble temple looks extremely out of place with the blue sky and the sand... Also, the temple horribly lacks of texture variations but this wad could have been a LOT better without the dull underground maze which represents at least 70% of the adventure. It reminds me just a random 1994 map but with a upbeat music this time and a weird sunny atmosphere.

 

However , I enjoyed the non-linearity created with the 3 keys you can get in the order of your choice and despite the labyrinth, the other places look rather neat.

 

 

 

 

 

Lacking of health bonus and rushing too much led to being shot to death by a shotgunner in the map STEALTH.WAD

 

Spoiler

2dELylp.png

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23 hours ago, TMD said:

How the devil have you drawn two of the like nine megaworld projects and none from any speedmapping series, of which there need to be at least a hundred on idgames by now?

Also, WOOO.  oh heavens you guys are hosed.

A hundred sounds right, matter of fact I found at least two of them while searching last week, I just didn't end up playing them because to date I have found all speedmap sessions to be all identical, in that they all have terrible gameplay and balancing, so I avoid them because they don't really leave me room to say anything interesting, same reason I try and avoid my_house.wad

 

Anyway, time to get on with it, this is Day 2: Hexa https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/g-i/hexa

 

This is a standard Smash TV type affair, or in other words a more geometrically basic Dead Simple, you get a gun, you get a bunch of enemies who slowly teleport into a room, and I'm sure you can figure out the rest. With that said, it's got one major feature that separates it from Dead Simple, which is how closed in it is, not to mention its jagged edges, so if you ever wanted to emulate the awkwardness of playing Doom with an Atari 2600 controller, but didn't want to deal with the hassle of actually setting one up, this does an adequate job of that, which I guess is a negative thing. I never cared much for claustrophobic maps, much less when I played one just yesterday, so this really isn't one that has particularly noteworthy gameplay, mostly just stick to a corner and hope that your DPS is big enough to kill everyone before you run out of space to hide, which I did, after which I had to stop playing, because I wasn't able to figure out how to leave. I found a fake wall which didn't do anything, but beyond that, did the old ordeal of mash space bar on everything, shoot everything, nothing happened, so I had to quit. Might not be much substance to this one, but I'm sure I'll make up for the that with the 50+ maps in the rest of this ER/IWA. 4/10.

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Hexa (1999) by Harry Daalmeijer

 

Play Settings

Source port: prboom+, complevel 2

Difficulty: Ultra-Violence

 

Hexa announces itself by handing you the chaingun and SSG, placing you in a circular room, and throwing a horde of monsters at you via teleport pad. Perfect. Subtle artistry is all well and good, but Doom is first and foremost a game where you kill demons, and I respect any WAD that understands that well enough to just give you demons and the means to kill them, sod the rest.

 

The rest of the map has a little more in its toolbox after that, but not much (which is fine by me.) Hexa’s definitely at its worst when it’s trying to be a winding labyrinth and at its best when it’s just letting you mulch badguys, but at least even the odd moments of confusing progression are offset by some really lovely (by 1999 standards), large-scale (by 1999 standards) environments.

 

You can tell this is a map made by a relative amateur, in places. I found a couple of hidden goodies that are obviously supposed to be secrets, but aren’t tagged as such, while a path to a blue key door necessary to progression IS tagged as a secret, which is odd. But Daalmeijer clearly had a better grasp of the basics of Doom II than many of his contemporaries, if only by virtue of understanding that the super shotgun is fun and good and you should let players use it.

 

Grade: 7/10

TL;DR: I know mappers who use subtlety, and they’re all cowards.

 

 

3dAb54T.pngZm3pmUi.png

 

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Home is Where the Heart Bursts (IROQUOIS.WAD) - Aaron Veenstra - (1995)

 

A series of completely unlike and largely outdoor rooms, this is one of the maps where no thought was given to ammo and instead was given to placing down cool-looking monsters. Seriously, there's a Mastermind in one room facing away from you that you'll never be able to kill. I tried to imagine this as a sort of Iroquois lodge, but nothing can hide the fact how thrown together this map feels. The library room does suggest something more intellectual unintentionally, but the combat is crap, and there aren't many obstacles, nor detailing to give this map much character.

Spoiler

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Edited by LadyMistDragon

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Day 3: Secretdoom: The Green Machine https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/g-i/grnmchn

 

Decent WAD, uses a couple custom enemies, including but not limited to the suicide bombers, tiny cacodemons whose health relative to their size is even more questionable than in lost souls, a pinky who's red and also spits stuff, and the mancubus seemed to have gotten preferential treatment, having gotten at least 4 different variants, including one who's got some titanium armour or some shit. Normally I have no issue with custom enemies, there was also a spectre-ised imp at one point, but I don't think I've ever seen a custom enemy who I've found to be overpowered or antithetical to Doom's gameplay or anything of the sort. Even if they do not come up much, I had one major criticism in the form of new pinkies, you have one, who's got some armour on and a health buff accordingly, and you've got another, wearing the exact same suit of armour, but also with a chaingun on around the mouth. This becomes a problem in the form of basic visual clarity, one of Doom's strengths, the enemies are so recognisable that you can spot them immediately and process the information immediately, and most the custom ones fall under the same, I'm never going to mistake a regular mancubus for the one who's got a jetpack on. However, these two enemies look near identical, matter of fact first time I saw the chaingun pinky, I wasn't even sure why I was taking damage, and it being situated at a low angle certainly didn't help in that regard. But, for the most part, new enemies are a neat addition, blasting one suicide bomber and seeing a whole group of them fall down with one shotgun blast really puts the sympathetic in sympathetic detonation. Also there's a powerup that makes you go faster that I saw precisely once, and a new one that actually was used a fair bit, the Doomsphere, which gives you a damage increase, don't let the screen going red make you think it's a berserk like I did, although such a compromise in visibility means it's arguably as much of a powerup as it is a powerdown, berserk's red filter is one thing, getting the Doomsphere is like playing the game through the Virtual Boy.

 

The level design is very hit and miss, some levels were great, others were the definition of convoluted and cramped and confusing and all those other words I use on a regular basis to describe unpleasant maps that all happen to start with C for some reason. As a plutonia WAD, it's got some areas that are just nothing but that disgusting sewage water, walls and ceilings covered in the stuff like the slime from Ghostbusters 2, but brown. As an overall experience, it's well thought out and flows decently, and most the levels are straightforward and fun to play, but it's 10 levels long, and at least 2 or 3 of them had some major issues to the extent that I would not go through them again if I had a choice. Most the levels are about the same length, except map 9, which is 2-3x as long, and to be honest overstays its welcome, and is followed by the closing map, which is not only confusing to navigate, but absolutely gutless in its encounters, I can see the value in trying to create a map that slowly lowers the intensity as a closer, but I'd rather have just gotten a credits map. And, I can say one thing definitely good about the WAD, no strings attached, best music I've heard in a long ass time, thought it might have been the NES Mega Man games at first, but nah, it's just Jimmy, because of course it's Jimmy. All in all, it is a good WAD, it's rough around the edges, and it has some sections that I really disliked, but the good outweighs the bad, so it's worth a shot, even if just for the music. 7/10.

 

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Edited by Sena

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(Little premise:The review of these wads was made during these last 3 days and wrote down a text file on my laptop, i didn't played all them today lol)

HAZCHEM by Ashicide - Zdoom in doom format, 2016, played with prboom+ 2.6.1um

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A first effort very short map by Ashicide, the author gives a lot of detail about this map in the text file, but i don't think this is a shitty first map effort, i've seen worse actually. Is just a pretty standard myfirst.wad with a lot of zdoom-ism like walls for floors, some sparse little detailing and doomcute like the shrinky crates that blocks the second yellow key, i like that! I've also liked the weird catwalk with the omnious dark pit where the blue key / imps the cage room are. The midi is also cool, nothing too epic or too shitty, just cool. It was a nice and short effort, i don't know if this author made something else but there's some raw elements for a good start!

 

Doomworld Mega Project 2018 by TimeOfDeath and the mystery gang - Vanilla or Limit-Removing (DMP2018CL2) or Boom (DMP2018CL9), 2018, played with Crispy Doom 5.10.1

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This is a megawad i wanted to play from quite some time and even put in recommendetion in various occasions during the Megawad Club monthly session and now i have the occasion to talk about this and... oh boy the first maps in the vanilla megawad i see why it wasn't picked up. Not that i found anything horrible until now, just a very hot start and in case of MAP01, literally. 
Also, in this session the restrictions are: no new stuff allowed expect for music (and this restriction make piss off a lot of users and some user even started it's own version of the Mega Project, changing the name with Omega), record a demo of beating own's map and the map send must be final, without any other edit in the future. Now, i'll make a map-by-map review like i've did for ReeKrank:

 

MAP01: Warm Embrance by Benjogami

A arena sets in the middle of the lava with a puzzly at the start and only pain in the main arena, a moderate slaughtermap that throws lots of monsters and guns to you by taking guns or in other ways. Ah yes, there's 4 cyberdemons in this map. What a great way to start your journey! Very though way to start, the midi was kinda silent that i even wondered if there's any...

 

MAP02: Messy Bedroom by Roofi

Visually charming but horribly mean and punishing. I see that the big inspirations from Roofi are all here (TimeOfDeath and Death-Destiny especially), this is a nightmarish redrock cave with a brown building secured by two key locked switches, this is a very hard (and kinda annoying, for my non-slaughtermap enthusiast perspective, but maybe to some other people this will be a masterpiece) slaughtermap focused on chaotic gameplay, with lots of cyberdemons and even more Pain Elemental and Arch-Viles (ESPECIALLY near the half of the map, i had to TNTEM for skipping that part). The author also commented on his (her? it?) map that it was inspired by his/her bedroom, especially on thing placement. This make me raise a stupid question: what kind of prices have the real estate market in France that people have to live in hell circle caves for don't rent a home? *ba-dum-tss* Very hard slaughtermap, too much for my tastes. The Nightwish midi is a nice touch.

 

MAP03: Broundry 2 (?) by James "Phobus" Cressel

Finally, a map that have only 2 digits on monster placement! And doesn't even look that hard, if it wasn't for that omnious river of fire crossing the base... But then comes another wonder that aren't slaughtermaps: Resource starvation... and a MAZE! Argh, i hate mazes! Luckily, the maze isn't ven that hard to navigate but after MAP02 i felt a little irritated from everything i don't like... The gameplay otherwise, is based upon resource starvation with having only a shotgun and few shells for the majority of the map, leading to fight 2 / 3 cacos with just a pea shooter, like we are back in Doom E3M1 start or something. But in the near middle of the map we have already some more juicy guns and items, making it more easy to be beaten. map itself is pretty neat, reminds me of Underhalls but surrounded by lava. Also, i'm not sure this is intentional, but these 3 starting maps have all in common that they're all indoors. That's pretty cool, like you have come out from this final fight from hell and return back to this secret UAC station and see that the invasion is still here...

 

MAP04: SPASE BASE by Garbage

A small techbase inspired by Hangar where the design choice looks like a modern version of abstract 1994 style maps with its quirks and clichès, interesting thing since i like that style of mapping. Gameplay is pistol-centric and pretty easy from the other maps. Cool breather map.

 

MAP05: Transdimensional by Solmyr

A big indoor map sets in a techbase/hell temple and return to techbase, pretty basic and classy style of 90s maps, with some small detailing and simple doomcute trought the techbase section, with a pretty edgy layout design choice in the blue key room, monster placement is pretty sparse but kinda lethal with the many revenants at the start of hell temple corridors. Overall, the map isn't insane like the first 2 maps, luckily. This map also remembers me of Final Doom maps in terms of theme choices.

 

MAP06: Absolution by Michael Jan "valkiriforce" Krizik

A really cool and fun map that was originally made for the Akeldama project, it takes big inspiration from Knee-Deep in the Dead and Evilution from what i've felt. I really dig the dark city surrounding the techbase. Despite the big number of monsters used, the level itself is populated by small damage monster hordes (zombies, shotgunners, imps) with some small usage of revenants, hell knights and two arch-viles in tactical situation where the small damage monsters are ressurected, making the combat engaging. Also, thinking that this map was made in only 3 days with such a care for detail and atmosphere makes me want to cry.

 

MAP07: Horse by Jaxxxon R

A map that fells like a parody of Knee-Deep design stereotypes (horseshoes shaped rooms and STARTAN everywhere), it also shares with Garbage map a (involuntary?) 1994 style map design choices, sets in a abstract indoor (again!) place with crazy item placement like in MAP02, but less hard luckily. Also i didn't find half of the 304 monsters in the map, are they bugged or something? Midi is kinda crazy like the map.

 

MAP08: Defence by Chaingunner\Chaine

Another short and sweet map heavily inspired by MAP03 and MAP04 and generally to American McGee design tropes that feels a mashup between these two maps. Luckily the monster placement wasn't hard like the mapper who takes inspiration. Fells very TWID-esque in style. Charming map, i liked it!

 

MAP09: Pillbox by cannonball

A semi-linear affair sets in a dark creepy techbase with unfortunately, nothing that stands up with originality. Gameplay is centered about resource starvation and using shotgun and chaingun only as weapons of choice with the bonus of a berserk pack near the end. I didn't find any secret.

 

MAP10: Pathway of Rejection by Philnemba

A amalgation of 3 speedmaps made in 30 minutes in one map, have a style that make me remember of Wormhole thematically, with a tribute to underhalls in the middle, the gameplay shares the resource starvation gimmick of the previous map but with more monsters at the start and at the end, making it more challenging. The middle section is less populated, making fell it almost empty. I don't know why, but the midi used doesn't work on Crispy Doom.

 

MAP11: Brutana by Pcorf

At first by reading the description of this map telling me that i'm going a encounter a very hard map, i've expected something more hardcore than the roofi map, with 1000 enemies and grindy slaughtermap battles, but luckily isn't like this. It's a hard map, sure. A thing that from what i recall during the making, Paul stated that he used ALL the monsters in the Doom 2 rooster, including nazis and hanged keens. The last two aren't here, but for the rest they are all here, and put in a very good and clever use! The style of the map is just classy Pcorf, a techbase that leads to a brown old brick underground with it's heavily rectangular style, light works and the omnipresent tributes to Dr Sleep design choices. The midi is incredible, very reminiscent of 90s midi music used in Doom maps, stuff like the works of Mark Klem and similar, with some influences taken by Carpenter music as well? Overall, a really great map, one of the best so far! Also, these last 3 maps shares all an arch-vile near the exit, coincidence?

Edited by Walter confetti : Grammar fix

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Anyone's Frag by Daniel Thomas Chard (2012) Played in Eternity.

 

Described as being a gimmick deathmatch map designed to take the skill out of deathmatching, this manages to be the most poorly-designed excuse for deathmatching I've ever happened to come across in all FPS games. I don't exactly expect Goldeneye levels of detailing and thought (Complex and Temple come to mind specifically), but there should be at least some effort to make this interesting. All that's here is a square room with a damaging slime floor  are 4 columns with groupings of barrels between them and BFG at opposite ends. Don't waste any time with this.

 

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Edited by LadyMistDragon

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Day 4: NETBEAST.WAD https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/m-o/netbeast

 

At least this one's easier to talk about, don't have to explain the new monsters or anything. Bland, all one flat texture, and put together by someone who must've had Parkinson's, given how vague his understanding of doors and buttons works - "you don't need the whole door texture, just put in a door-looking square and that's enough". I ride two excessively long elevators, find a secret with nothing in it, and then accidentally complete a pacifist run of the map, and probably my first ever true pacifist run, not sure how speedrunners can live with calling themselves pacifists when their actions result in the deaths of hundreds. Anyway, not the first level I've accidentally beaten in sub-30 seconds, but while most of the time I can see it as a simple oversight (even if a major one), and still explore the level anyway, I know for an absolute fact there is nothing in this map worth exploring. 1/10.

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Tyros by Georg Walther (1998)

 

A fairly basic replacement for E1M1-M4. Texturing somehow manages to be both boring and incoherent in a way that's incredibly detractive. Gameplay is still solid and nothing offensively bad. E3 manages to be an improvement over the rest of the maps. Despite the presence of void floor textures and invisible walls, there's a certain consistent theming to it, even as you stare out at the vast Phobos peaks. M4 ultimately proves a few steps back, featuring unfun navigation and completely unbelievable and lazy environment with a large area with that grey texture with the blue running through the middle. Still, Georg actually does best when he sticks to a singular texture theme, as certain rooms of deep red and deep blue underscore.

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Edited by LadyMistDragon

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WAD#01 - Aquafina

 

Title                     : Aquafina
Filename             : Aquafina.wad
Release date       : 08/09/05
Author                 : Jacob H. Orloff
Email Address     : slathedoomer@gmail.com

Maps                    : (1) - MAP01
Enemies               : (1) - 50
Secrets                : (1) - 3

Tries Needed       : 2
Playtime              : 20 min

Link                     : https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/aquafina    

 

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Maps:

MAP01

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Playthrough:
The player spawns in a small room, being given a shotgun immediately. The switch facing the player lowers the diagonal wall to reveal armor and some ammo. The door on the other end finally opened the spawn room and faces us with a chaingunner. This level starts with green armor, shotgun and chaingun, which felt like the next room was about to get hard, not so much however.

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This room acts as the main room connecting the next areas. The two diagonally stacked sectors act as crushers, which allow access to the red key when activated. The outer rim of the room acts as a lift, occupied by Imps. I had to use autoaim here to hit a switch up above, allowing me to access the lift. This seems to be an oversight, see below.

 

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Up on the rim, one of the doors opens, revealing a room with a switch and a few enmieis. The switch opens a small door and starts spawning Pinkie demons, forcing the player into a small janitor closet, in which an imp waits. This was a fun fight, if a little cramped. The switch inside this closet opens the door opposite in the main hub.Inside this room the player has two more paths to take. The right door leads to a strikingly blue room with a few undefined textures. After killing grunts, the switch underneath a crusher allows to ride a lift behind the fence with imps. A switch here opens the door opposite in the last room. Here you first fight against two imps and two revenants, hidden inside pillars. The switch here lowers a wall in the hallway, leading to a square room. Here multiple switches keep opening up walls filled with hellknights and one baron of hell.

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Finally the last switch reveals a switch on the hip-high wall in the red room. This switch finally starts moving the crushers, allowing the player to grab the red key. Here I had to "idclip" to get back up on the rim.This key allows to access the red door behind the same hip-high wall as the previous switch. This room is finally filled with two imps and an archvile. Not a hard, but cramped little fight. The switch inside this room ends the level.

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Technical problems:

  • Had to "idclip" up the rim of the main hub, because without aiming vertically the required switch is only shootable with enemies near it.
  • Missing textures inside the blue room
  • Once the player knows the red key switch location, this can be activated while still inside the floor, skipping two areas.

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Thoughs & Rating:
This certainly wasn't a bad map, just a little small, bland and short. The begining area looked quite nice, but the rest of the map is quite basic, yet functional... for the most part. Having to use cheats on the first lift of your level kind of sets the tone sadly. But the next view encounters were nicely paced, the pinky/imp encounter described was very frantic and fun. The rest of the level was simple but good enough. The revenant reveal was nerveracking as it should be and the hell knight fight was a bit long winded but did its job. After grabbing the red key, the same problem as before occured, with there being no way out of the pit, unless mouselook is enabled. Finally the archvile behind the last door killed me once, which made me discover the problem with hiding switches in raising floor sectors yet again, see above.

 

All in all, an amateur level that had a simple theme/premise (crusher + key) and stuck to it. It wasn't well thought out, kinda small and certainly janky at points, but it was a nice short level that doesn't overstay it's welcome either.

 

3/5 

 

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Secretdoom: The Green Machine (2014) by Andrea “Cyberdemon531” Rovenski

 

Play Settings

Source port: Gzdoom

Difficulty: Ultra-Violence

 

Oh, how I wish I had time to play this properly. Due to the time constraints of the ER/iWA, I was only able to play through the first few levels of The Green Machine (and will be leaving off a rating accordingly) but I absolutely adored everything that I played.

 

The Green Machine is one of those Gzdoom WADs that feels, at times, like an alternate universe Doom engine game from the 90s, the Perdition’s Gate contemporary that never was. The usual suspects, many of whom have minor aesthetic changes, are here complemented by a host of Realm667 baddies (including those suicide bombers Skillsaw likes too much and those adorable baby cacodemons you always feel a little bad about killing) while new and altered textures breathe new life into Plutonia’s staid browns and greens. I don’t know what it is about the crispy new doors that spark such joy deep in my lizard brain, but they do!

 

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But what really makes Green Machine great isn’t its aesthetic maximalism – we’ve all seen the kind of WAD that crams in way too many monsters and ideas for its own good – but rather the gameplay restraint that binds that maximalism to the contours of classic Doom. Put another way: the opening level only has 45 monsters in a handful of square rooms, but the cleverness with which the path criss-crosses over these small spaces and sets monsters up to take potshots at you makes each moment thrilling. Just when you think the level must be about over, here come two chaingunners who can absolutely ruin your run if you’re not paying attention to them.

 

Even if you didn’t know Rovenski beforehand, you could tell that she was a speedrunner just from playing this – the ethos of aggressive optimization and the simple joy of MOVING VERY QUICKLY run throughout Green Machine, giving it a unique feel for such an otherwise goofy project (and I use that word in the most positive possible way). In short: Green Machine is its own thing, and I know I’ll be taking the time to play the entire mapset once this ER/iWA is over.

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On 10/8/2021 at 1:16 AM, Walter confetti said:

MAP11: Brutana by Pcorf

 

At first by reading the description of this map telling me that i'm going a encounter a very hard map, i've expected something more hardcore than the roofi map, with 1000 enemies and grindy slaughtermap battles, but luckily isn't like this. It's a hard map, sure. A thing that from what i recall during the making, Paul stated that he used ALL the monsters in the Doom 2 rooster, including nazis and hanged keens. (1) The last two aren't here, but for the rest they are all here, and put in a very good and clever use! The style of the map is just classy Pcorf, a techbase that leads to a brown old brick underground with it's heavily rectangular style, light works and the omnipresent tributes to Dr Sleep design choices. (2) The midi composed from the author itself is incredible, very reminiscent of 90s midi music used in Doom maps, stuff like the works of Mark Klem and similar, with some influences taken by Carpenter music as well? (3) Overall, a really great map, one of the best so far! Also, these last 3 maps shares all an arch-vile near the exit, coincidence?

 

1. Nazis and Keens don't really count as standard monsters. I don't think I mentioned them in the description.

2. The midi was composed by @Jimmy. I think he is more incredible than me as a midi composer.

3. We know who makes the best maps hehe! ... Despite it been very linear too with little interconnection I am still glad in how this map turned out and was fun whipping up this map using the stock textures from Doom 2.

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Enigma Town | By Ricardo Gonzales | 1996 | Played on Doom Retro | Ultra-Violence

 

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An interesting map with a plethora of unique and fun new additions for the 90s. Created by a Venezuelan author (I think the first Venezuelan author I've come across) this is a classic 90s map that presents all the glory of the era in a sweet tint but also brings with it a good handful of downsides of that time that makes it a little less appeasing. It's a large map that starts in an enclosed layout with an elevator dynamic, where we slowly make our way out of the main structure and end up in a city of considerable proportions. Spacious and with great variety, the layout is entertaining and offers different encounters, varying in difficulty and making use of the almost complete rooster of enemies. Enemies now all have new sounds, and a large addition of Mortal Kombat sounds added. The Baron of Hell has been replaced with a new skin of a mech from some game I don't know. The map is fun during combat moments and the new additions, like textures and sounds, give it a special touch, but, unfortunately, the layout is terrible. I spent more than 30 minutes lost, to the point that I said ''fuck it'' and ended up using noclip to win. The map also has a lot of detrimental texture decisions and little consistency in the design. A shame because the new additions make it have some value, but the gameplay is laggy due to the incomprehensible progression system.

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1 hour ago, Walter confetti said:

I thought it was yours!

 

Parhelion by Jimmy, one of my favorite Jimmy songs, so damn catchy. I probably would have put it into Zone 400 if I was not a composer.

 

 

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