The New Oldstuff Chronicles #10

Well, it certainly has been a long time since the last TNOC, but I said I would continue it and so I did. I actually have more reviews than this ready, but I think this is long enough already ;)

ttp103 Matthias Worch 90 %

Wow! This wad is exellent, no doubt one of my favourite wads of oll time. The architecture is quite simple but because of the exellent use of textures, height differences and light effects it looks very nice. The gameplay is the best part of this wad. In every nine levels of this wad monsters have been used creatively and in an interesting way, just a couple chaingunner traps were a bit annoying. There isn't any armor in these levels (at least I didn't find any), but it isn't a flaw in these levels, because there is plenty of health (maybe even too much at some parts, since I haven't played Doom for ages and I didn't die that many times) and it makes also the smaller monsters dangerous. This wad was released in 1996, so it would be fair to give the wad some extra points. If you haven't played this wad, play it NOW.


tt2000 SDS 9 %

Just another ugly level with lots of teleports and traps. I just barely made it through the level, and that is NOT because it was hard...


tsc2 Nathan Iyer 39 %

Well, this isn't as bad as the previous level, but I didn't quite enjoy playing this either. The only fairly well done aspect of this level was the challenge in it - and the new imp was kind of cool. The final trap was ridiculously hard but luckily I made it through. If you like hard levels and don't mind if the level looks ugly, you might want to give it a try.


trydent Bjorn Hermans 37 %

Another of those levels there's no much to say about. It's small, too easy and average looking. Better than most of the small wads though.


try_me Hypersoft inc. 20 %

Hypersoft inc? Oh well, to the review. One part of the level is too tight and squarish, one has too big halls and one is filled with annoying catwalking. Somehow I was still interested in seeing what would come next so I guess this could be a playable level if the difficulty was harder.


try ? 10 %

Seems like the author of this wad tried to make the most annoying maze levels there is. And he nearly succeeded too. The only good thing is that it wasn't one of those wads in which you can't be killed because they are so easy. By the way, I don't think there is exit on the second level, at least I didn't find it, so if you want to play this wad (though I don't think there is anyone who would like to play it in the whole world, well except for me of course :) skip to the third level.


trpdwlls Gul Dahre'el 27 %

This one is a lot like try_me but has more maze-like areas. It had some original ideas though and it wasn't as easy so it wasn't that bad and some parts were actually quite interesting.


trollfl Hutt Software ?

This is meant to be a multiplayer level so I wont review it, but I don't think it's worth playing in multiplayer any more than in single player.


tripline Brian J. Wilcox 16 %

Boring, too easy and contains lots of walk-over-a-linedef-to-open-the-way puzzles. Stupid.


triex Doug Ryerson 66 %

A good level, but has it's flaws: At the first half of the level there is so little ammo that you have to punch some monsters and at the other half there is too much, and the second half is too filled with monsters. The level is worth but it's nothing spelcial. The story was nice.


trident Steven Lorek 52 %

Two levels, both quite challenging. These levels are another of those that are average in every aspect, so it's really hard to say anything good or bad about them, and in addition, I forgot what they was like as soon as I completed them.


tricky Knut Andreas Ruud 54 %

Another average quality level. It's worth a try if you like straightforward levels with a little challenge.


tricks Michael Eastwood 31 %

Looks like we have the crappy sound replacement wad of this review set. Seems like the author has tried to make an original level. Sad to say but there arent many original ideas, if any, and the playability of this level is weak in every other way too.


trial2 Hypersoft inc. 40 %

Another level from this Hypersoft inc. This time a lot better by not being so easy. I only hope it would be easier to find the way. A lot of times you have to search the whole level after pressing a button to find out what has happened. Also, there shouldn't be so many hanged corpses, they make the level look like a big garbage can.


trial Joe Winter 56 %

This level features one of the common mistakes: it has pulse rifle. I liked this level when I played it, but at the end of the level I noticed I had the pulse rifle and enormous amounts of ammo for it. I don't remember when I got it but there's certainly no need for it in any point of the level.


trev1-8 ? 17 %

Eight different kind of newbie levels. The amount of doors with normal wall textures is huge and you even have to walk through some textures. At least it's not one of those wads with megaspheres in every corner, but it still sucks.


trench2 ? 7 %

Weird, easy and short level, and that's just about everything I can say about it. I really hate to review a level with one sentence.


trench Doug Merrill 28 %

Two sewer themed levels. I usually don't like sewer levels and didn't like these either. These levels were too easy, but at least there weren't pulse rifle in them. Some normal texture doors too.


tredsoft Brandon Bannerman 10 %

A cyberdemon fight with some "landmines" placed here and there at the fight area. The landmines are created by a simple trick: you are being teleported on the duplicate of the player. I just wonder why he couldn't use a barrel as well.


trecias Donatas Tamonis 84 %

A great level. I remember I've played this level before, and two times, but it was still interesting enough to be played again. It's not visually stunning or anything, but it looks nice enough and the gameplay is well planned, though it gets a bit easy at the end. Some very good use of teleporters in this level. If you play with ports, be careful not to take the blue and red keys by cheating like I accidentally did.


traps ? 57 %

A level with very simple level design, but on the other hand there is enough challenge, although you can just run past some of the monsters, which isn't very good thing. The mazy part sucked.


trapland Panayiotis Kittens 4 %

A very ugly newbie level with huge halls and looong hallways. I gave it some points only because I know there are worse levels than this.


trans Dr Bombay 43 %

I liked the high amount of action in this level, but at at the end the level just gets too easy. Some areas of the map look quite good and some look just awful, and the nazis just ruin the mood, they are not doom monsters!


tranquil Brett Myors 5 %

This one is really weird. You start the level in a shuttle surrounded by sea with one island. I walked around the level for a while but couldn't find anything useful. I did trigger the to rooms of monsters to open, but I have no idea how, and then I had to kill all the monsters with the pistol, and there were at least two pain elementals too. Not very fun... I finally found the blue key, because I guessed it would be hidden somewhere at the ocean. The shuttle you start the game in looks just amazingly cool, but then I found out it isn't even made by the author of this level, so it's kind of hard to give any points to this level, but I guess it was kind of interesting and original.


train Johnny Magnum 37 %

A train level with a sound replacement that goes to The Top Five Of Most Annoying Sound Replacements. The level itself isn't that bad and you can see the author has really tried to make the level detailed and nice looking. Too bad he is not talented enough, but at least it's a good try. The gameplay is too easy.


tqmap1 Tommie Quick 80 %

The of this level is a member of Team TNT. It shows as the level has good quality and some cool tricks has been used (for example there's an invisible bridge). Only the way you open the next door isn't always logical and that caused me some trouble. Some nice traps in the level, absolutely worth playing.


tqmap02 Tommie Quick 72 %

Another map from Tommie, this time one of his early levels. Most of what I said about the first map can be said about this too, this one is a little more squarish and easier too. The level ends kind of stupidly, because the building isn't entirely filled with rooms, only half of it or so. It's also kind of stupid that you won't have enough ammo if you don't find certain secrets, but at least you get a map when you enter the building.


townhous Dino M. 36 %

As the name says it's another house level. Only this time there is more than one house and no second floor in any of them, which is a good thing. The exit is in the house you start in and you need no keys to open the door, so you don't have to kill anyone, and the author says you can now kill his neighbours. So maybe this is supposed to be some kind of postal doom: you can spend the day home or go and kill some innocent people. I always thougt Doom was about saving innocent people, not killing them. Although all of his neighbors don't seem to be human, or then they just have imps and revenants as pets. Well, enough ethics. This level is more detailed than most house levels and looks nearly as good as it can with original Doom textures used, but it isn't any harder than all the other house levels, and the author calls it challenging! I don't think so.


towerang Marc J.S. 78 %

When I saw the size of the zip (15k) I expected a small, ugly and, well, bad level. Instead of that I got a fun, nice looking level (although the textures should be aligned) with lots of action. It may be a bit easy, but otherwise it's just great. If the level would only be longer the points would go up too. To make it short, this is most propably the best level with size this small I've ever played.


tower2 Martin C. 32 %

Another small map, this time the authors first, and has a ridicilous read me file by the way. I guess this could be an ok map if you'd remove the pulse rifle and added some more monsters in it, now it's just too easy. Same colored textures are overused and, needless to say, it's underdetailed, but I liked the level structure. Good try for the first level as most of the usual newbie mistakes have not been made.


torment Shams Young 60 %

This wad is actually one of the first wads I've played. I remember it being almost hard to me those days, now it was quite easy, because of all the health lying around. There are some fairly challenging parts though. There are six levels in the wad, most of them using a LOT of grey textures, it may look kind of boring but at least it makes an original feel to these levels, so that you remember them even after many years. I liked some of the new music.


torches2 Aaron Veenstra 23 %

This is supposed to be a castle level, but it doesn't look much like a castle, there should be no teleporters in castles and rooms that can only be reached by teleporting for one. The level is too flat too and therefore looks really ugly. There wasn't too much ammo, but it was still just too easy.


tomb Thomas Drugg 77 %

The level is supposed to be like an egyptian tomb. It's quite well done and it does tomb feel in it with all the traps in it. At one part of the level I ran out of ammo, so if you play the level, be careful not to waste any ammo. When you get the berserk pack, use your fists and invoke monster fights when possible. I had to punch some hell knights and a baron of hell but I think that can be avoided, though the way I did it wasn't too hard either.


tokzix Rick Schaber 18 %

A very small, boring, easy and ugly sewer level. Not much point in playing this one, it just stinks like a sewer.


tod Christopher Emirzian 58 %

Three levels in this wad, first one is tech themed, second one is a hell level and the final is a dead simple wannabee. The second one is propably the best and the third one worst as you can just run past all the monster to the exit. All the levels are too easy, but they look ok.


tnlsofun Joseph J. Pecoraro 21 %

Ugh, I spent 25 minutes playing this wad, most of the time just running around trying to figure out what that last switch I pressed had done. The level is almost flat web of tunnels with one elevator and two larger halls, one being an outside area with John Romeros head. Not as easy as many crappy levels but crappy in every other way.


tlw_7 Jeromy John Visser 61 %

The lost wad series. This is the last one, and not very good either, so if this is one of the best assuming the author's skills have developed as he has made levels, the others may not be very good either. Well, well see about that. The level is quite easy, although there isn't much ammo to waste. I don't know how that platform with the switch should be reached so I had to jump there.


tlw_6 Jeromy John Visser 68 %

Well, this level was actually better than the previous level, not very much though. Most of the difficulty comes from the lack of ammo, just like in tlw_7. I don't really like that type of difficulty much, but in this level it was ok because there were multiple routes to choose from and to try to find ammo from. The level was a bit bigger too.


tlw_5 Jeromy John Visser 40 %

Wow, the music of this level is really nervebreaking! The level itself is a lot like the previous two with the lack of ammo and fighting in really tight places. I just ran past most of the monters at the end of the level because I got bored of trying to kill them.


tlw_4 Jeromy John Visser 47 %

Again, much like the other wads in tlw series. There is more ammo this time, so it's a bit easier than the others and there isn't as much tight areas.


tlw_3 Jeromy John Visser 45 %

There is plenty of ammo in this one but not much health. There isn't many fight where you can get hurt though so it's pretty easy.


tlw_2 Jeromy John Visser 34 %

This one is very easy as it has two soul spheres and you wouldn't need any. It looks ok though and would make a decent level if the gameplay would be balanced.


tlw_1 Jeromy John Visser 30 %

The sixth part of the series is upgraded and modified version of this map, so there's not really point in playing this map after playing the much better tlw_6. This map is small, it's the ugliest of tlw maps and it's easy as well.


tlhope Kevin Crawley 78 %

A good map, looks nice with a lot of light effects used. The is a bit easy and the level structure isn't very good, as there are just too many teleports, one leading to a room full of monsters that can kill you in a matter of seconds which isn't fair at all.


time2die Joseph J. Pecoraro 35 %

The author says in the readme that this level is huge. Well, it is huge, but only because it has huge rooms. He has somehow managed to get the level look quite good though with some cool looking shades and good choise of texturing. I think this level could be quite interesting if it would be one of those hr-type level swarming with monsters. Now there is just too few of them. Also, the elevator part is completely idiotic: it is not visible in map and if you choose the wrong hole you have to wait for the elevator go up and come down again which takes a lot of time.


time2di2 Andre' Mosley (yeah right) 1 %

Heh, this is propably a joke wad, just take a look at the readme and you'll understand, as even that sucks. Actually even the zip sucks as it contains all levels separately and wad with all the levels. I completed each level with first try, though I propably had a LOT of luck in map01. The second and third map are one of those wads with tens of megaspheres, invisibilities and bfg ammo. Not the worst levels I've played though it's a good try.


tikal Graham J. Tikal 31 %

A tower type level with two nearly identical towers in it. Not the worst try on the theme, but too easy because of pulse rifle and the low number of monsters and high amount of health.


thunder2 Aadu Hurt aka Dominus Morbus 25 %

This level is too easy and small and it needs a lot more monsters in most of the areas. This is one of those levels that are just simply boring and its author has not used any creativity while doing the map. And the sad part is that the he/she clearly has talent to make better levels.


thunder Peter Mathiasson 20 %

Pretty easy, very boring looking and squarish level. The author has even managed to make the door textures look weird.


thissuxx NFSfreak 0,5 %

32 level megawad that tries to be the worst ever made. It's from year 1996 so at that time it propably was. Most of the levels are just masterpieces of pointlesness as you can just run past a hall and press a switch to exit the level. There are no teleport mazes, and not any other kind of mazes either. There are no levels with lightness set to 0, there are no levels in which you must walk through walls and there aren't even walls with no textures etc. so I don't think the authors have found out how to make truly the worst levels there can be. The music is really bad though, but not as bad as some of the midis that my dad has made.


thirty3 Douglas Ryerson 62 %

33rd level of the author. It looks nice and isn't too easy either. The problem is that the fight areas are too small for my taste. There should be a little more ammo too as you'll have to leave some monsters alive to be sure you'll have enough ammo to finish the level.


thingies Mike Bowers 24 %

Too easy level with no new ideas in the map desing, traps or anything else.


thezoo Jim Tanner 26 %

An ugly zoo-like level with boring texturing, low detail and overuse of darkness. It's not very hard but at least the ammo placement is good, although there is too much pulse rifle ammo.


the-zone Claude Phillips 37 %

This level has potential to be quite a good level. Unfortunately there is far too much health and ammo. At least two thirds of the ammo should be removed and there should not be pulse rifle in the level. Texturing would need some work to it too as it seems that some parts of the walls have different textures than othere parts in the same room. The level has a nice structure and there are some good traps in it, though the maze part should be removed or at least changed so that you can see the area in the automap. Also I managed to get the blue door stuck so that it couldn't be opened anymore and I had to use idclip. If all the mistakes would be fixed this could be easily be a 70% level.


the-wad Frank Lofaro 0,2 %

Hmm, this could be another joke wad, but it propably isn't. It's just terribly sad try to make a wad. There are nearly no monsters at all and you must walk throung several walls in every four levels. The one that enjoys playing these levels is a very sick person.


thetower D. Rhodd 27 %

Somehow interesting mazy tower level. It's generally too easy but there are a couple of more challenging parts at the level. It was also too hard to find one of the keys.


thermite Zeek Bower 63 %

A quite challenging level as there is not much either ammo or health to be wasted. I even had to punch some of the archvile's energy when I ran out of ammo. The Keen doll should be removed as it is not a Doom monster and it wasn't even in a secret. I really liked the music replacement.


theplant Chris Zepnick 79 %

Nice level that has some mistakes in the design. There's at least two points in which it is too hard to find the way, other was one that was very hard to notice, and the other was a door in the wall and the texture didn't differ from the wall texture in any way. At one point of the level there's monsters firing through wall, it wasn't done as annoyingly as usually, but it still looks stupid. It was also maybe a bit too easy, but the architecture was interesting and quite good looking too.


thepits Squonkamatic for the People!! 32 %

What kind of an author name is that? Oh well, the level is supposed to be some quake2 dm map, but I haven't played quake2 in dm so I have no idea how much it looks the same. Too many teleporters in this map so that you never know where you end up by going through them. There is also too much health, making it too easy. And water that hurts, hmmph.


thepath John Graham 84 %

This map certainly is cool, and the author was only 15 years old when this was released and this is his first map! Being released in 1996 this map is really advanced as it has many tricks such as deep water, invisible floor and stairs etc. You can however see that the author isn't very experienced in mapmaking at some points of the map. I wouldn't agree with all the texture choises being the best possible for an example, there's also some crappy sound replacements. The map is a little easy but not annoyingly easy. The size of this map is huge so you could easily get lost but John has managed to make the map so that you never get lost at least for a very long time. Just seeing all the cool graphical ideas and tricks is worth playing this map, so play it.


themaze2 Jason Michelsen 57 %

Well, this is the best maze map I've ever played. The map has all kinds of maze areas, and yes, even a teleport maze. There are some great ideas though and this must be the first maze map where imagination has been used. Unfortunately some areas are still quite annoying, especially the catwalk area. The map isn't even too hard, so you may want to play it if you don't hate mazes as much as I do.


thelord Jeff Corr 34 %

Six levels, all of them have ridiculous amounts of ammo, especially shotgun ammo as there is a shotgun ammo box in nearly every corner. Strangely enough there isn't all that much health. Well, at least there's quite a lot of action in these levels so I think they were almost playable.


thelair Keith Hickman 86 %

I really liked this level, it's not very higly detailed and it doesn't have much or any special features. The key to the success of this level is gameplay, it's amazingly well designed. Monsters and ammo are placed in an interesting way and it's most of all fun to play. There is a little too much health though, but it didn't bother me that much. Very enjoyable level.


thekult Ravenwing 35 %

This map is supposed to be a nice looking level because the author got bored of all the crappy looking levels. It does look quite nice although grey textures have really been overused. It could be a good level if there would be more monsters, now there's just a few imps and posessed making the level very easy and boring. There should be propably ten times as many monsters as there is now.

Thanks; the previous instalments have been very useful and reliable, and I'm sure this one is no different.

I thought you were a bit harsh on Trydent (one of the few of these maps that I have played). I thought it was quite a nicely done map, and if you want a challenge, then it plays very interestingly on Nightmare (or NM100S). I remember liking thirty3 (don't remember whether I had ammo problems - I probably wasn't concentrating on killing everything), and ThisSUXX certainly did set the standards back then.

Yay, new oldstuff. =)

Damn I go away for a day and one of my favorite items appear.

Nice to see you back safely. Thanks for the new Chronicle, I just love these.

Grazza said:

I thought you were a bit harsh on Trydent (one of the few of these maps that I have played). I thought it was quite a nicely done map, and if you want a challenge, then it plays very interestingly on Nightmare (or NM100S).

It's true that some of these levels can be much better for the purposes of demo recording, different difficulties etc. But I think those kind of features aren't very easy to find by playing the level through once with savegames. So you propably are right that some of the levels that I have reviewed to be bad or below average can actually be much better. The main reason I gave trydent low points was propably because it looked boring and it was pretty flat. I don't remember how good the gameplay was anymore though.

It's the same thing with maps that have a lot of health and ammo at secret areas. If you don't know the secrets the map can be frustratingly hard, but if you spend time looking for them and know where they are the gameplay of the map can be exellent.

Do you like review the maps that didnt get put on the chronicles in the top 10 to be shown for a week?

ShadowRunner said:

Do you like review the maps that didnt get put on the chronicles in the top 10 to be shown for a week?

You already know that's not what happens.

Hey I know you.

Hey somebody check the listings in the newspaper where they show dead people, I've been wondering where black void is.

DooMer 4ever said:

trecias Donatas Tamonis 84 %

A great level. I remember I've played this level before, and two times, but it was still interesting enough to be played again. It's not visually stunning or anything, but it looks nice enough and the gameplay is well planned, though it gets a bit easy at the end. Some very good use of teleporters in this level. If you play with ports, be careful not to take the blue and red keys by cheating like I accidentally did.

Hey cool, it's the best ranking this level has got in a review. That's my only (half) decent level. I'd give it between 60-70% but glad you liked it.