What is the Most Sophisticated Vanilla Wad Out There?

I've been going back to playing Choco Doom after using ZDoom for a few months just so that I don't forget the feel of the 'original' game. It got me thinking about how far the Vanilla stuff got pushed from technical oint of view. So, I was wondering, what would you consider to be the most sophisticated Vanilla wad around?

Suspended in Dusk

I think I'll go ahead and give Suspended in Dusk a try. No matter what you guys say! :P

Suspended in Dusk (SID.WAD), for great map design that doesn't feel vanilla-constrained and lots of small but impressive well-used effects. If you enjoy it, you might also like the shores of hell replacement "Back to Basics" (B2B.WAD) by the same author, Espi.

Batman Doom, for DeHackEd editing work and lots of clever tricks to create a different experience altogether: custom textures to create new themes and locations, monsters that pick up objects and throw them, trains that drop you off in different locations, faux-3D effects, 'timed' maps with gas leaks, and so on. Admittedly I've never managed to play through the entire thing legitimately, but even just skimming through it to see all the cool stuff might be entertaining for all the stuff they managed to do in vanilla.

^ We're still looking forward to Knee Deep in Knee Deep in ZDoom.

printz said:

^ We're still looking forward to Knee Deep in Knee Deep in ZDoom.

Speaking of that, how close is it to being done, anyway?

I'll have to give Batman a blast. I've never tried it and I know I really should...

I've played B2B in the past but only in ZDoom. It's a great episode. Espi really was gifted. :(

SID is just stunning! I'll be surprised if anyone can suggest anything better than that! Technically impressive and still retains great gameplay. It's not often that happens... :)

Dark Covenant (darkcvnt.wad) has a couple impressive maps (no tricks, just great architecture and use of vanilla functionality).

Ditto for these two maps: abigjob.wad, moon2000.wad

Subversion (sub-ep.wad) is also good if you like high amounts of detail.

Sodaholic said:

Speaking of that, how close is it to being done, anyway?

As of this point, unless it gets some new contributors (preferably people who can remain active with it for a while) to work on maps, it's unlikely to ever see a release. As I can't possibly finish it on my own and I haven't heard hide nor hair of most of the people who were helping out, I've mostly been concentrating on other projects for some time now.

I remember beta testing for it way back when. Is it possible that you would allow me to work on it? I have plenty of free time and would be interested in helping out. I promise that I would remain active on it for a decent amount of time.

I'm surprised no one mentioned Eternal Doom. No DeHackEd trickery, but lots of HUGE, detailed maps.

It really is impressive what can be squeezed out of the vanilla game. It's actually quite exciting going and playing these as if I had a state of the art PC in the 90's! Great sound and no FPS drops but with all the class of the original game... who needs mouse look and OpenGL!?

I've also been trying out Doom Core Vanilla by Valkriforce. Having a great Sunday morning taking on the hordes of Hell. :)

I'll have to mention The Talosian Incident, because while it isn't that technically impressive (though it is one of the first wads to use smooth lightning sectors), and the gameplay picks up rather slow, it has by far the best atmosphere and music I have ever seen in a vanilla wad.

Isn't Harmony all Vanilla trickery?

I'm fairly certain it requires at least a limit removing port. But that is a very good question -- since a good amount of it is vanilla editing tricks + DEHACKED, how easy would it be to port to another engine?

The Darkening and the Darkening Episode 2 are pretty amazing, though they don't use a lot of hacky trips from what I can see the amount of detail and the quality of the architecture is way above average for vanilla.

Doomhuntress said:

I'll have to mention The Talosian Incident, because while it isn't that technically impressive (though it is one of the first wads to use smooth lightning sectors), and the gameplay picks up rather slow, it has by far the best atmosphere and music I have ever seen in a vanilla wad.

Cygnus IV was also amazing in that regard.