Your Top 20 Wads of the past 4 Years

Didn't get around to playing much, but 20 WADs that I enjoyed (of the several dozen I did get around to playing), I might be able to point those out... As for ranking those in a top 20 - that's kind of a tall order, because I happen to like WADs for very different reasons not related to difficulty or genre also... Might take me some time to put in some order that makes sense to me overall, even if only roughly...

Having said that, I'm looking forward to what people are going to bring up, although one thing I can already predict is that eviternity is going to be the one thing that's gonna get mentioned the most, hence, I'm rather interested in what else is going to be mentioned...

On 3/26/2022 at 5:12 PM, Jimmy said:

My list is as follows - higher ranked sets are those that:

 

(a) display incredible technical fortitude;

(b) have had the greatest replay value for me personally;

(c) are the most visually striking;

(d) remain the most significant/talked about within the community.

 

[snip]

excellent list, thanks

Me as I was reading the title of the thread: "No way I've played 20 wads released in the past 4 years".

Quick check on my wads folder shows that I've played 37 of them. I need to get a life lol.

There's an argument to be made over whether it counts as having "come out" in the last four years, but I'm going to take the opportunity to shout out Sunder MAP15: Babylon's Chimera and the 7 brothers-in-arms it has been joined by since its release. When it hit 14 maps in 2010, Insane_Gazebo left the community while his masterwork spent most of its languid near-decade gradually building a lofty title as the most influential slaughter wad of all time (hell, the 2015 Cacowards start off their write-up on the equally-legendary Sunlust by comparing it to Sunder), one of the presiding forefathers of architectural finesse and atmospheric dread, and the most heartbreaking unfulfilled promise this side of Scythe X. And then, one day, someone noticed Insane_Gazebo offhandedly mentioned Sunder on his Twitch channel. And then Insane_Gazebo posted this image to the tune of what is now a staggering 153 likes (very nearly as many as Dario Casali's first post here last year, for reference), and one of the great Doom pipe dreams came true out of nowhere. I can only wish I'd gotten into this game a tiny bit sooner to see it all happen live.

The raw cool factor of a legendary mapper coming back to finish the magnum opus he started ten years ago is already plenty worthy of being etched into the annals of Doom history. But he didn't just continue Sunder - he continued its legend, and evolved both to dizzying new heights. The first 14 maps of Sunder have a striking sense of place - each one is a great and terrible nightmare, as intimidating in its raw spectacle as it is in difficulty, bathed in an ambient level of raw and evil power such that you feel unsafe and insignificant even when you're the only thing left with a pulse. They were influential for a reason.

And yet somehow Insane_Gazebo still leapt straight over the sky-high expectations ahead of him, doubling down on his characteristic macro-architecture with gorgeous new textures, masterful color coordination, an even greater sense of scale, and an even finer touch of ornate detailing, and the combat is bloodier, grander, and more creative than ever before. Incredibly, every new map since then has looked even better than the last, and every one of them boldly and unmistakably belongs in the wad. Not only that, but I_G shows no signs of stopping, and with only 10 maps left to develop, Sunder's legend will only continue to surpass. We're already seeing its influence crop up in newer slaughter sets like Abandon, the Micro-Slaughter CP, and Haste (yes, even the Haste maps I_G didn't make). It's my hope that when this monumental treasure of a mapset is finally complete, it will get the Caco (and Mordeth) awards that it so unequivocally deserves.

Long live Sunder!

I should start with the disclaimer that I haven't fully finished all of the wads below. I have a hard time putting my reasons for liking wads into words, but I'll try my best.

20: Sigil - Maybe it's the nostalgia for the classic games speaking, but I had a lot of fun with Sigil. Interesting, sometimes claustrophobic level design, and an incredible sound track make it memorable to me.

19: Enigma of Sector Sigma - I think this one was sort of slept on. It's a neat little wad with great visuals and some unique level design.

18: Cydonia - I was never actually a huge fan of plutonia, but maybe I should revisit it, as I've been enjoying a lot of wads that were inspired by it. Cydonia might have been higher on this list, but it started to feel a bit like a chore to me in the latter half.

17: Bourgeois Megawad - The short, punchy maps of this one were a fun challenge for me. It's one of the few wads I play completely save-free.

16: Boaty Mcboatwad - The quality of this one is a bit uneven, but "beelzeboat" and "beacon of the endless piss void" are some of my favourite maps in general.

15: Literalism - An interesting premise for a community project that produced some very unique levels.

14: Haste - It's just a tad above my skill level, which is probably what's holding it back from being in the top 10. There's some incredibly cool level design here, but the gameplay often frustrates me.

13: Doom 2 in Spain Only - It may be presented as a bootleg of doom 2, but it surpasses it in every way while capturing its spirit.

12: Rowdy Rudy 2 - It somehow manages to feel very classic doom, but so new at the same time. The maps are high-energy and fun.

11: Exomoon - This wad, and the one in the number 10 spot have great atmosphere, between the expertly crafted visuals and great music. I haven't finished it or Ozonia yet, so they could potentially end up higher on this list.

10: Ozonia - Has all of the good traits of Exomoon, but with more tight, polished combat.

9: Preacher - Maybe the fact that you play as a crazed cultist won me over more than it should have, but I had a ton of fun with this.

8: Eviternity - I haven't finished it yet, but this wad feels like such a monumental project, matched by few others. It has the potential to be higher on the list by the time I finish it, because what I've played so far was pretty great.

7: 1000 Lines Community Project 3 - I'm blown away by how intricate many of these maps feel despite the 1000 line limit. Aside from being impressive, it's also just really fun, and feels more polished than most wads.

6: Heartland - Playing Heartland almost felt more like playing a build engine game than a doom wad. The first map is still one of my favourites I've ever played. Doom must have really rotted my brain for me to be so impressed by destructible glass in a video game in 2021.

5: Ray Mohawk 2 - This has all of the energy and creativity of Rowdy Rudy 2, but cranked up to 11. The overpowered weapons and huge hordes of enemies make for a downright exhilarating experience.

4: Paradise - The weapon replacements are great, and the music reminds me of my childhood days of playing sega genesis. This might have influenced my opinion more than the design of the levels themselves, but I loved this wad from beginning to end.

3: Avactor - Avactor feels like its own adventure game. The ancient, inhospitable, overgrown temples remind me of the best traits of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Few other wads I've played have done such a good job of feeling like an actual place to be explored.

2: Arrival - It feels like a near perfect interpretation of classic doom gameplay. I can't even really explain why I like it so much, just like as a kid, I couldn't explain what it was about doom 2 that had me playing it over and over again.

1: Lost Civilization - It's far from perfect, but the best maps of Lost Civilization are so good that I can't place any other wad above it. I don't know if any other game in general, let alone another wad, has been so fun for me to explore. I usually prefer shorter maps, as long maps tend to become exhausting by the end, but Jaska has crafted such incredible settings that I always only wanted more.

On 3/29/2022 at 9:47 AM, Andromeda said:

Me as I was reading the title of the thread: "No way I've played 20 wads released in the past 4 years".

 

Quick check on my wads folder shows that I've played 37 of them. I need to get a life lol

That just makes you a Doom champion. Epic, I’m jealous!

Well here you have another large dump for your reading pleasure. This list is ordered the same way as my folders are listed according to "creation date", but the time of writing each was as random as my wording (like I wrote 13 and 14 just yesterday). I've been writing this on and off for about two weeks and I'm glad it's done lol. The focus was on mentioning wads that are probably less popular or people don't bring up very often, while being personal highlights of course -- means that Avactor, Arrival, RL2, Heartland and several others would appear if the list could be longer anyways. I also left out single maps for my own comfort, sorry about it.

1. Dimension of the Boomed, needless to say a standout of the year and a precious gem, intelligently crafted maps that were a pleasure to puzzle out, one of my all-time favourite void-themed environments, and I happen to love Quake SFX for the secrets. It was apparently the first legit 2018 wad that I put my hands on (tangerine's original thread was released the year before iirc).
2. Fruit Salad, because I want to shoutout Grain of Salt for introducing pink fireballs and crystal bonuses, both stuff I didn't know I so much needed to see in doom back then. Of course fun dynamics as well, still owe myself a formal replay.
3. Struggle, this one often circulates in my head, a certain love/hate relationship with it - I really really like the core mechanics and weapons, but I don't like that the drill is more harmful to me than the chainsaw; totally in love with the vibrant colours, but the blues are an eyesore; the amplified aggressiveness to stock monsters grew on me, except for the revenants. As a whole, it's rounded towards good vibes, a definitive highlight.
4. REKKR, it's just beautiful, colorful, dreamlike and an absolute joy to spend time on. My standout features include the axe, the evil potion, that you gotta catch a dead enemy's soul before it's vanished, the sorrow and tree graphically, the final boss, rescuing puppies for an overdose of cuteness. I do need to give it another whirl, given that's it's still getting sporadic updates, because there's not much I can remember about the maps themselves, other than when there were puzzles.
5. 1000 Lines Community Project, have replayed a couple times and very likely will go back to it someday. One personal particular feature is that there's some of the most solid SG-CG only combat I've seen in a while, a rarity at the time though not "too rare" these days. 
6. Oops All Techbase, I'm usually ambivalent with concepts that may be tongue-in-cheek, like in this case, though as maps flew by I was quite involved in it, and by the end, I could still take another techbase or two. If you overlook that it's fundamentally all techbases - 32 maps of one single abstract ol' theme -, it's a broadly varied set, and if you don't obviate that, it still is nonetheless, because mappers got playful and sealed their styles so as most every map feels whether slightly or vastly different from the rest, which is why the core theme didn't wear out for me.
7. Doom: Damnation, as a passionate for doom 1 wads that aim further than the KDTID formula, this one ticked many boxes. Some personal favorite tropes done very well here - think NEIS' expertise in convoluted secrets, use of dim lighting along periods of silence and exploration. Its soundtrack is also pretty much in tune with the desolate, gloomy atmosphere that prevails in a large chunk of the wad, like the original E2M4 track does in E4M6.
8. Stimulants, it's a source of inspiration mapping-wise. The arrangement of  tan/green/brown texturing and french blue sky opened my eyes to new possibilities (not that the motif didn't exist before, it's in this wad that I noticed how easily attractive and simplistic it can be). Additionally, Breezeep is good at conveying lowly weapons with quick to-the-point combat.
9. Intergalactic Xenology 2, this continued the sense of scale and place of the first iteration, with a little more ambitious in other aspects - air boosters were cool, and then you become a microscopic bug because you're still a subject of experiments, that shit blew my mind. On top of that, the rainbow bridge on the void was sick (that in particular made me a happy gay). The fights did take a turn into more energetic, concept-driven brawls -questionable spiderdemons aside-, like when those intubated experiments earlier on would spook me each time, and let's not forget the comeback of two of my fav aliens. A great minisode.
10. Atomic, gotta put this one because what does Cannonball deliver that isn't great, honestly speaking. It's pretty much in his usual flair, clever and violent, orthogonality done deliciously. When it comes to stock metal-rock combos, I look at his maps for inspiration. In Atomic, there're more attractive combos to take notes of. I have yet to look at the newer maps, I'm sure I'll be cursing a bit in the heat of the action, though overcoming that couple last maps in the first RC came with a good feeling of satisfaction.
11. Demonic Destruction!, the overall vicious, multi-dynamic, classic-driven gameplay stood out to me because it's the sort that blends ol' days with new-age in a self-stylish way, experimental at times, definitely successful, and well, pretty much a flavor I can enjoy a lot. The thicc giant switch takes the cake as far as details. The author is one to keep an eye on.
12. Enigma of Sector Sigma, putting this one because it's a source of great screenshots, heh. I did really enjoy the vibrant texturing, it's a special choice to use all three secondary colors as primary, the mapper is known for searching innovative or unusual mixtures since Bifrost -- gotta add, afrits slay in orange.  
13. Hellevator, it's a great concept the one starting on an elevator. Me as a Going Down enthusiast (who has never replayed it once, shame on me) I had to give it a try. It was an interesting experience, coming up with something decent and functional in only three days, as slow as I am. I would be listening to a Britney remix on loop to keep me awake heh. The entire pack is full of creativity, cuteness, and evilness of course - testing my reactions step by step. The ding is genius, can't not mention that. 
14. Skulltiverse, the spiritual sequel, really enjoyed seeing much more ambition in here, a lot of colourful with custom textures and centered around the most precious skull, yes of the three blue is superior, period. That map 15 is a favorite.
15. Lunar Laceration, the mapper's formal introduction to their point of view in terms of frenetic, nearly sadistic gameplay. Those indomitable hordes, the surprise bombers and plasma snipers, that ruthless secret map, my doomguy lost liters of blood, though in exchange of lots of fun and a little frustration too. Being one of the MBF21 newcomers last year, and one to put some of the advanced features to effective use, it's worth a thorough look imo. Moon themed is also gorgeous.
16. Old Still Life, a thorough masterpiece of an adventure like nothing else, or probably is comparable here and there to some influential authors, but I don't frequent this type of kinetics in doom every day, if once in a year, assuming on the right mood. Loved everything in it, including those long periods of oscillation from one place to another, looking for the next piece of the puzzle, which let immersion grow -- map 08 was my favorite in that regards. One particular feature that I fancy a lot (every once in a while) is when you can interact with sector details/objects in imaginative ways, and the wad has plenty of that, so the more entertained I was. Certainly not everyone's cup of tea. I'm glad to be open-minded enough to enjoy this to its fullest.
17. The Long Trek Back Home, a step up in quality and wildness from the mapper's older megawad. I like twisted, corrupted environments in doom, it's a theme that hardly ever not pleases me. I also learned about the sector type 11 trick when you're at 1 hp. A shame that the final map fell flat in everything except the core concept, though pretty much every other map was a delight to figure out. 
18. Vigor, since Squonker 3 surged out of nowhere the team uncovered gem after gem. As with Moonlit and Mayan, I really dig the themes they come up with. With Vigor, I realized I don't get tired of red velvet skies dominating in multi-maps sets (see my 20th pick). Hard to go wrong with scythe-esque punchy voracious gameplay, as a whole it made me keep going and wanting more action in the same timespan, and felt appropriate when it came to an end -- I often arrive fatigued to final maps and miss the meaning in them, in Vigor I wanted to replay the last map and try a sc2m26 route, which I happily pulled out. As a side note, the appearance of Mr.X didn't signify an obstacle to my amusement, all the contrary, the sack of whack got my respect.
19. Uprising, very red again and very much my thing. The custom roster wasn't easy to adjust to, they're quick at acting up and keeping distance isn't enough. Still definitely considering this a potential top-10 favorite megawad of all time. Cheesewheel is a mapper to keep track of, they have an understanding of doom's strengths and weaknesses and I want to see more from them.
20. Hell Unearthed, which I'm glad the author titled after people's claims. This is one that I will be checking back someday for sure - the flavor in aesthetics is impeccable, very smart usage of enemies in strong leading and complementary roles too. One particular that stood out the most for me is the open area in map 04, where constant streams of plasma, pain elemental urgency, and homing rockets that you probably overlooked once, made for a thrilling three minutes of strategizing and moving on what's already a slightly restricted area -- not exactly a difficult part, but very well executed nonetheless, which is what counts to me. Now if only the set had custom music...

On 4/14/2022 at 9:45 PM, galileo31dos01 said:

Oops All Techbase, I'm usually ambivalent with concepts that may be tongue-in-cheek, like in this case, though as maps flew by I was quite involved in it, and by the end, I could still take another techbase or two. If you overlook that it's fundamentally all techbases - 32 maps of one single abstract ol' theme -, it's a broadly varied set, and if you don't obviate that, it still is nonetheless, because mappers got playful and sealed their styles so as most every map feels whether slightly or vastly different from the rest, which is why the core theme didn't wear out for me.

Thanks @Egg Boy for this image :)

Here is my "best of" favorites for the last four complete Cacoward cycles, and/or the ones that have stuck with me the most in retrospect. This is almost a ready-made list because I spent so much time comparing wads for almost all of that timespan -- it's not something I have to think about much or where I'll have "missed" anything. It includes only one thing from this year, but there's a lot of stuff I haven't played yet. It's also not ranked (and there are only 18). 

Doom WADS:

Avactor

Maskim Xul

Exomoon

Lost Civilization

Hell-Forged

Abandon

Bastion of Chaos

Three Is a Crowd

Tarnsman's Projectile Hell

Infraworld: Coma Moonlight

Heartland

Ventose (this isn't a standalone map, but I played it as one)

Don't Turn Your Back on the City

Heretic WADS:

Sold Soul

Full Games:

Adventures of Square (E2 release)

Rekkr

Hedon

Ashes 2063/Afterglow


I don't think it's going to surprise anyone who knows me or is familiar with my writing that these are generally the biggest and deepest of individual maps or episodes or big-mapsets-with-big-maps. They're the ones that create entire worlds, fully develop a unique philosophy of play, explore some aspect of the Doom engine or its ports beyond what anything else has done before, have tons of new ideas, or show an exceptional attention to detail (or many/all of the above). The part about "creating entire worlds" is the most important to me, and it is true of all of the wads listed above -- I think it is the only way to completely capture my heart. These are releases that I keep thinking about for months and years after I play them, and that is usually not because I found them exciting in the moment, but because they are so deep and distinctive that they feel like real places that my mind can come back to and live in. 

Out of those listed, Exomoon is the only one that got a Silver award on my watch, which I have thought about before and can't really explain. I agreed with it at the time (though I would have said it was the best Silver that year), but it has grown on me over time more than any other Doom wad. I guess it shows something I have found to be true in general -- there are WADs that feel perfect right away, because the things they offer are obvious, and WADs that become perfect over time, because you have to think about them more, and you never really know for sure whether those two things will overlap.

I'm relaxing the ordering requirement because, in attempting this, I'm realizing that is way harder than actually choosing stuff.

Quote

pro-tip: if you find ordering 1 to 20 difficult, try separating the 20 into a few unordered tiers, don't do it)

Mine is ordered, but very loosely and without a lot of thought. 

Top "20" 

Lost Civilization
Ozonia
Tarnsman's Projectile Hell
Abandon
Fractured Worlds
Heartland
The Wayfarer
Doom 2 in Spain Only
Eviternity 
Arrival
Adventures of Square: Episode 2 
I.H.N.I. episode 1
Faithless Trilogy

Finely Crafted Fetish Film
Don't Turn Your Back On The City

Preacher

Sold Soul 

Cydonia 
Down the Drain 
Mutabor
Long Trek Back Home
Antaresian Reliquary

I have currently played little from 2022. I might be recency-biased by a few spots on Ozonia. Can't tell yet because I still have to replay it lol, but it's very good.

I think I tend to be high on wads that do very well at one or more of the following: 

- one or more of... (a) very mechanically fun in straightforward ways or very good at "emergent" gameplay (this is where good Easy Wads usually fall for me); (b) loaded with encounters that are fun and rewarding to study/practice/repeat (where good Hard Wads usually fall); (c) great at creating and managing the emotional/visceral sensations of gameplay -- like expertly controlling your feeling of fear, excitement, and relief for example (either);

- one or more of.... (a) very clever and has a lot of depth and layers to pick apart (for example in worldbuilding or gameplay design or anything like that); (b) has really engaging "authorial" command of the experience (gameplay or aesthetics or both), often showcased by author personality/character -- think Dobu/Mouldy/Tarns/etc.;

- one or more of... (a) very good craftmanship/design in some way (like gameplay design or architecture) to the extent that I am compelled to study it and obsess over it; (b) a very emotionally compelling aesthetic experience, where "aesthetics" isn't just pretty looks but everything: worldbuilding, immersion, the "story" of the experience, background music choices, etc.;  

- very good and creative concepts and ideas, both in the big picture stuff and the smaller details of implementation (this is kind of like 2a);

- makes me love it irrationally, which is rare without a single element of the above, but can happen.

I think quality hyperconsistency can be a bit overrated: the presence of an all-time favorite map or two, or such a stretch of maps, can easily offset some more middling ones. So in theory "up-and-down community projects" are kind of my thing and I wish I could have included one but an average of five wads a year is tight. Mapwich 2 + Ar Luminae (cheating and calling it one thing) is neat. Also 1000 Lines 3 and Rowdy Rudy 2, which are also more on the "consistent community project" side. 

Standalone maps are fine to me, but they are another type of thing that gets outnumbered with so few wads because the one thing better than 30 minutes of very good is 3 hours of very good. I still had two though. 

Interestingly, I don't actually think of technical excellence as that meaningful when purely a means to an end. It happens, but rarely. But technical excellence used well usually results in one of those other qualities I love anyway: craftmanship I might feel compelled to pick apart, or a great overall experience through "events" and stuff. 

Heretic is kind of weird here. I don't in any way think that there has to be three spots taken up by it, but I'm in a bind because I'd say Wayfarer, Sold Soul, and Faithless Trilogy are around as good as one another. So I Cheated and added a couple of bonus wads.  

I didn't think too hard about this so that I can preserve the right to theoretically claim up to 40 wads are in my Top 20 over this time frame. Adding on to Not Jabba's Cacoward comment, when I was at the more "I'm not going to actually tiebreak this properly unless I spend hours on this" portions, I defaulted to adding in some HMs and runners-up. That's mostly because the idea that the Cacoward, runners-up, and HM groups are significantly different from one another is something I've felt since 2020 is really silly.