The DWmegawad Club plays: 99 Ways to Die & Troopers' Playground & Talosian Incident

[Roofi]

Map 08 : Focus

 

 

Author(s) : John Bye + Ola Björling

Difficulty : Easy

Death(s) : 0

FDA : yes

 

DEMO

 

The difficulty rises in this level which oblige you to FOCUS more than before. This is also the first level made by two people.

 

I have to say that I had no problem to kill the vile in the chaingunner's room because you can actually kill him without raising the sector. You have just to press the two switchs in the good order. However , the hidden chaingunners may damage you seriously due to the fact that armor is scarce as in TTP. The rest was easy because symmetry means predictable fights. You obtain the SSG very early but the plasma gun and the Rl were pointlessly placed near the very end of the level.

 

Contrary to the previous level , that one was quite creepy because of the music. It reminded me of Epic2 for some reasons which is a good thing because its one of my favourite megawads thanks to its atmosphere. The whole tends to be very homogeneously brownish. I'm not a fan of that color when massively used even if I love HR2 maps. However , light gradients are neat and give to the map , a strong atmosphere.

 

 

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP08: Focus

 

The barely-there subliminal drone of this level's music is on the unsettling side, and in a WAD that has already been heavy on the melancholy and the gloom, I'd point to this as a map that's well-equipped to get under the player's skin.  Some of that is the atmosphere, with its shadows and its fondness for soft brown hues, its low ceilings and its tight confines, but while those are generally positives, there's some capricious cruelty on display here - chaingunners behind opaque midtextures, I'm looking at you - that seemed to want to get under my skin in a more negative way.  There's a difference between "I didn't see this coming," and "I couldn't see this coming," that I'm not so fond of.  Thankfully the map is a fairly tight one and is over before it has a chance to throw too many such outrages in the player's path.

[Capellan]

MAP09

A bland complex of mostly brown, mostly square rooms, with little to guide the player as to how to progress, other than the presence of (unmarked) key doors. Lots of remote switches that presumably open the way to rooms with power-ups and weapons in them, but I frankly didn't explore very much: having stumbled across the yellow key more or less randomly, I then used the automap to bee-line the yellow door. That led to the blue key and an almost pointless mancubi crossfire, and from there it was just a case of grabbing the last key and exiting. I probably saw only half the map and from the looks of it in DB2, I didn't miss much.

 

The action's more or less as drab as the visuals, at least on continuous. Lots of "open door, kill monsters as they slowly advance toward you". The chaingun gets a good workout, as it's very handy for sniping down the hitscanner-heavy opposition.

 

 

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP09 The Palace

 

Back to the Bye with this map, oh my, 10 secrets to find. No likey. Heck, this map is considerably easy and brown. A similar thing to MAP05 with the big room with two chaingunners in the windows, and many of the secrets were in those windows, but required switches, conveniently inside the nearby rooms at the blue key area. The keys were really easy to access too. I'd imagine those secrets are quite necessary on harder settings on pistol start.

[tmorrow]

map09: The Palace, by John Bye
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

We have another brown themed map with a layout involving several corridors and a whopping 10 secrets. None of the fights are particularly challenging and as long as you keep your eye peeled for switches and backtrack after triggering them, you'll find almost all of the secrets. I feel that the east side layout would have been better off it was shrunk in size, it is rather larger than it needs to be given the enemies placed there.
 

[DavitW]

MAP08 - Focus

This is a pretty small and and simple map. It wasn't too hard either except for the chaingunners hiding behind the Face textures you can't see through at the end, Fuck you too buddy. other than that the fights and design were pretty basic including the Archvile which doesn't have much opportunity too put up a good fight. The map didn't look too bad at least, there was some nice lighting on display here but to me this was overall a pretty forgettable map, probably something you'll barely remember by the time the wad's over.

 

MAP09 - The Palace

Well, once again there's not much in the way of design, architecture  or challenging gameplay here. The whole thing felt very similar to Maps 05 and 06 earlier on, You could call this The Fort Part III and still have a more fitting name than The Palace. The Gameplay has you mostly going through a whole bunch of cardboard boxes and cardboard hallways, blasting chaingunners and shotgun guys who'll provide little actual threat given the absurd amounts of health on this map. Apparently John Bye didn't know how to put down the key marker textures considering none of the doors here are labelled so you just have to smash your face against the door to see what key you need, That's just bad and lazy design in my opinion.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

MAP09: The Fort III: Doorpocalypse Strikes Back!

Oh, wait, that's not what it's called.

GZDoom 2.4.0, UV, continuous, saves, Doom Ambient Pack

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

As previously mentioned, you could call this The Fort III and it wouldn't require any kind of change. John Bye loves his doors. There aren't as many as in The Fort 1/2, but they're still used prolifically here. Pretty much every room here is square. The screenshots really say everything I would about that.

 

Yes, there are ten secrets, but frankly, I stumbled across nine of them by complete accident just screwing around in a few of the rooms. The layout was easy enough to get, though that may be because I go to the left by default when in a maze, and so I ran across the yellow and blue skulls very quickly. The colors here are dominated by brown, though the blue skull room does break the pattern by going green.

 

Combat is easy, despite liberal use of hitscanners, due to extremely plentiful health, so all that's left is the atmosphere.

 

Yes, you read that correctly. I mentioned the Doom Ambient Pack. Its track for this map happened to make it sound much scarier than it actually was, though I wouldn't know how the one for Talos would sound, since I'm not loading the music wad with the graphics and levels wads.

 

The next level is by Malcolm Sailor. Maybe it will do this mappack justice.

But I'm not hoping too hard.

[gaspe]

MAP09: It's very similar to MAP05/06 but now the concept has lost his novelty and the previous maps were somehow better. The lighting remains a strong element even if it's less impressive than what we saw at The Fort I & II. In these bland places litte details like the YSK room, the room with the pool before the exit, the PR room stick out nicely. Also I liked that in the twin secret rooms with the RL you are also rewarded with the only windows of the austere place. I think that for a palace going for these kind of big halls wasn't really a bad idea, but it wasn't executed in an interesting way.

 

9 hours ago, NuMetalManiak said:

I'd imagine those secrets are quite necessary on harder settings on pistol start.

 

Not really, you can find the RL in the secret that is good for have more fun but the opposition consists mostly of low tier enemies with few tougher foes which can all be skipped easily, the only "dangerous" enemy is the baron at the RK.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP09: The Palace

 

As noted above this is a map that comes from the same place, conceptually and thematically, as the split-level experience that is The Fort spanning MAP05 and MAP06, though at least this one lacks the dreaded Roman numerals to tease you with the fact that getting to the exit doesn't necessarily bring the slog to an end.  I'm not normally a fan of highly symmetrical layouts but I think this is one of those instances where it actually works, bringing a sense of order to the proceedings and allowing the player to get their head around the map as something to be segmented and dissected, rather than the more random sprawl of the earlier dungeon crawl maps which provided only minimal guidance to the player.  Combat is fairly lightweight with hitscanners making up the lion's share of the opposition.  Normally I like having lots of secrets to hunt for, but here I found quite a few of the secret tags to be questionable; there are obvious switches and obvious doors and the two are often in close enough proximity that it didn't feel like there was anything particularly secret about the subsequently accessible room or tower.

[Capellan]

MAP10

Malcolm Sailor serves up an OK-looking but very rectangular level with near-somnambulistic gameplay. The spectre trap on the red key, for instance: you can completely ignore it by hopping off the platform and exiting the area, safe in the knowledge the spectres cannot follow. And then there's the host of monsters "guarding" the blue key. By which I mean "helplessly watching as I scooped it up and merrily ran off to the exit".

 

One visual aspect of the map that I didn't much care for was the use of the silver support texture on long stretches of wall. I think both support textures looking pretty bad on walls longer than about 80 units.

 

[gaspe]

MAP10: After visiting mostly stony places here we change to a level that is more pure tech in what seems to be a storage facility. Also it looks like we are still underground. It's nicely detailed and there's a better sense of place. The gameplay goes for a different direction of what we had so far with more focus on tougher monsters this time but the things still stay easy, actually it's like MAP07 in this regard. Again, cool lighting, cool music.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP10 Hardware

 

Pretty modest for a Malcolm Sailor map. Got an SSG at the start, easy picking monsters overall, and mostly straightforward stuff. The lava outside the blue key area has a few enemies but there's not a whole lot of excitement.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

MAP10

GZDoom 2.4.0, UV, continuous, saves, DAP

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

The pain elemental's worst nightmare: the dreaded chainsaw.

 

Finally a solid map, we start off in an apparently man-made structure and have to go key hunting. Malcolm Sailor's distinctive style gets to shine, finally, as we see a simple aesthetic appropriate to the period, mixed with some easy encounters that makes for a pleasurable romp after a slew of boring levels.

 

A few traps here and there exist to thwart you as you progress, but they shouldn't be anything you can't handle. Scattered groups of mid-tier enemies make up the bulk of the threat, and even a couple pain elementals ultimately join the fray, but they are quickly swept aside for you to continue your quest.

 

The ending appears to me to be an escape pod or equivalent, but, as always, it's hard to tell with these things. Overall, the overdone techbase is arguably a welcome change after the many brick structures we've faced so far, and the gameplay continues to unimpress, but it's still nice to have a good breather.

 

The next map is also made by Malcolm Sailor, so I'm interested to see what lies in store for us there.

[tmorrow]

map10: Hardware, by Malcolm Sailor
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

This map has an interesting layout. You start in a storage room with some hellknights taking pot shots at you from either side of the room through some large door sized windows. Your first trap is the fight after collecting the red key at what looks like a railway terminal. The monster composition is tuned to the weapons you pick up on the map, first the super shotgun and then the chain gun and finally the berserk fist. You need to work your way through to the west side of the map to a fenced off lava pit. I was a bit disappointed that the exit area contained no enemies, an opportunity lost with so many pillars to hide monsters behind but I enjoyed the map overall.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP10: Hardware

 

For all that it's basically a linear arrangement of rectilinear rooms and corridors, this one has a more engaging layout and environment than some of the preceding maps, as the player passes through different "flavours" of technological environment on their quest to collect the red and blue keys from opposite ends of the map.  The gameplay itself feels like it's in very low gear, with small numbers of monsters generally placed in ways that limit their effectiveness - there's the spectre ambush @Capellan mentioned, where the player can either jump to safety or stand in place pumping super shotgun blasts into the emerging trickle of translucent demonflesh until it dries up, and following that there are just so many fights where the monsters are basically there to be engaged or ignored at the player's leisure.  In any other WAD I'd credit this one as being a breather and a mood-builder, but given the focus on atmosphere above danger in many of the levels so far, I'm starting to wonder if there is indeed anything that the map is mood-building toward.  That said, taken as an attempt to do Doom-as-horror-story, Doom-as-Silent-Hill, it's an effective enough endeavour.

[Capellan]

MAP11

Sailor delivers what may be the best map of the set so far, despite it being rather linear, and having some odd details. The paired doors where only one works in each direction are a bit of a head-scratcher, for instance. And there's certainly still too many encounters where you can safely corner camp the enemy.

 

But it's definitely a step up from the last few levels. There's some striking lighting work that actually plays into the combat for once, and more use of the vertical axis than we've seen to date. There's also the supercharger/yellow key fight, which is straight up fun if you aren't pre-warned of it. If you are, of course, then you can bolt out of the room and corner camp it like you can all the other fights, but it'll be a lot less enjoyable that way.

 

 

 

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP11 Software

 

This is not a very well done map. More cramped than the last, with monsters of the mostly modest kind around. Nothing really to it though. The one thing I don't like are those doors. I get it, stay to the right and all that if you want to access the areas you want to access. But it's pretty awkward.

[gaspe]

MAP11: So we had Hardware with that storage facility, I guess? And Now we have Software with this rather unusual computer station? But yes it's the best level so far, well detailed and there's still a good lighting. For once the combats are actually engaging, the encounters are simple actually but they are thought out in a better way compared to what the wad offered, at least until now. There are also few oddities like the double one-way doors in the hub, and the red bars that you must open them one by one.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP09: The Palace

100% kills, 10/10 secrets

 

I definitely concur that this could easily just be The Fort III, just browner and a bit more compact, thankfully. A bit less on the spaghetti corridors and pointless rooms makes it play better than The Fort maps IMO. The red key room was a big downer for me though, it's far too large and fighting the chaingunners (at both ends!) is a pain. It is rather fun to run down those long staircases in the west at warp speed though.

 

MAP10: Hardware

100% kills, 0/1 secret

 

Suddenly thrust straight into star/techbase land, away from the more stone/wood alien structures. Maybe the aliens have their techbases too, I dunno. I like the interesting layout of the rooms at the start, but past that there's nothing very interesting and the combat is absolutely piddly (really poor usage of demons/spectres as usual).

 

MAP11: Software

100% kills, 1/2 secrets

 

Again I'll follow the consensus here and say this is easily the best map of the WAD so far. The scale is small and finally feels appropriate for Doom, and the level is much more kinetic, with lots of reveals as it unfolds (the 'door' sliding down to reveal the revenant near the green armor caught me by surprise good) that keep things moving. It's still nothing hard but at least it's fun to blast through as opposed to feeling like clean-up work.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

MAP11

GZDoom 2.4.0, UV, continuous, saves, DAP

 

Something a little different today. A video of my plathrough.

Spoiler

 

 

Lots of orthogonality here, but the new techbase setting is still welcome, especially compared to the previous settings of dark and brick and brown and doors. Malcolm Sailor brings us a map that feels more like Doom than the rest of the maps we've played so far. Combat takes center stage here, and if your luck is as bad as mine is today, you'll be in for a new line of work.

 

A simple key hunt, really, you'll gather the keys, red card, blue card, then yellow card, in order to enter a seemingly normal hallway only to suddenly exit the map. We should be accustomed to this by now, but it still surprises me every time.

 

As can be seen in the video, the SSG got a workout here, with the rocket launcher and plasma rifle coming out every so often to handle difficult situations. This wasn't my first attempt at it, I had been killed by the vile at the yellow card, a change of pace for this otherwise incredibly easy wad.

[Salt-Man Z]

I didn't feel bad about falling behind this (in fact, I kinda planned on it) as these maps are more fun to blitz through by the handful.

 

MAP06: The Fort - II

17:44 | 100% Secrets

I'm guessing that ear-piercing screeching is supposed to be some sort of self-destruct warning (on account of just blowing the whatsit at the end of last level)? Whatever the reason, it is positively annoying. So is all the backtracking that needs to be done. And I don't just mean backtracking through the stuff from MAP05, but every time you pick up a key it's a healthy hike back to the door. On the plus, I like those ascending staircases with the lighting gradients. Also should note all the chaingunners here were pretty deadly; I got an early soulsphere that got whittled away in virtually no time, and had to keep trekking back to beginning to pick up medikits.

 

MAP07: The Church

14:16 | 100% Everything

I like the look of this one, with the windows looking out into the mud. The level itself is pretty darn by-the-numbers, though. And the way the final room opens up is neat, but the battle (via doorway) is quite dull.

 

MAP08: Focus

5:40 | 100% Everything

Maybe the shortest map in the WAD? I just played it less than an hour ago and I can barely remember it. Thanks to the above posts, I remember potshotting the vile and those stupid midtex chaingunners (most of them were killed by sergeants; I took the remainder out with a couple rockets.) I guess it's just not particularly memorable.

 

MAP09: The Palace

15:33 | 100% Everything

Ah, yes, I like the "Fort III" comments, since that's basically what this is. I have to admit the lighting really pops in a number of places; I especially love the secrets with visible sky. One quirk I noted for the first time here is that Bye really likes to have you find switches that do things before you actually find the things they do. Like someone above, most of the secrets were ones I simply stumbled upon. A couple of them were nested, which I always enjoy.

 

MAP10: Hardware

11:34 | 100% Everything

This one was just okay. The opening room reminded me of something from TNT. And there was actually some decent combat here, and by "decent" I mean a bunch of stuff flying around all at once, especially on the western end of the map.

 

MAP11: Software

9:29 | 100% Everything

Best map of the WAD, so far. The lighting is fantastic again (the entire WAD in general is pretty good in this area) and the combat really ramps up. I especially liked the look of that reactor in the center. Just a blast to play.

[tmorrow]

map11: Software, by Malcolm Sailor
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

Software is another excellent map from Malcolm Sailor. Once again we are treated to a layout and monster placement that leads to more interesting fights. This time you get to make your way through a computer network guarded by mid tier enemies. With more revenants joining the party, good dodging become more important than before. I liked the final fight for the yellow key. The key is guarded by a cheeky archvile and his easily resurrected buddies and can be quite awkward to clear. The rocket launcher secret is hard to get good use out due to its placement though so I found careful bursts of plasma came through for the win in the end.
 

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP11: Software

 

This one is a pretty solid offering; others have already described it as the best map of the WAD so far, and I think beyond that it delivers the most classically Doom-like gameplay and layout of any level yet explored.  It's a fairly conventional hubspoke layout with a techbase theme, a nugget of technology embedded deep in the planet's crust after all the player's recent spelunking through buried ruins, with vague but menacing hints of a darker purpose scattered throughout.  The level is rather generous with its weapons, with a plasma rifle and secret rocker launcher both made available, though the latter is curiously tucked away in a secret cubby beyond the yellow key and it's entirely possible, even probable, that the player will have splattered the whole of the map's monster population before having a chance to pick it up.  I'll confess that I wasn't a fan of the constant buzzing drone that dominates the level's audio track, although this may well be a case of modern sound hardware producing different output than the WAD's creators anticipated.

[Capellan]

MAP12

I'm disappointed that this is Patrick Martin's only map in the WAD. Although there are still rather too many doors, and some unnecessarily arcane progression, this level is a definite step up on the action front from anything else we've seen in the set. Monsters actually move around the map, turning up at unexpected moments from multiple angles, and just generally making things much more freeform and engaging. I had a great time in the central "energy core" room, with multiple cacos floating through the centre and a constant stream of hitscanners wandering in from all four doors. More like this, please.

 

 

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP12 Vulcan

 

For a mapper I'm not familiar with Patrick Martin has designed a pretty decent layout. It's not designed particularly well, but it works pretty good, has the base stuff done well and in a fashion to go to many different locations. Not really a fan of the first room or the flashing corridor though. And the way to the red key is unorthodox. Yes, shooting does alert the main horde of enemies that teleport to the map after getting the red key or hitting the switches behind the red door. But having to actually shoot the door open just to get the key? Uh, okay then. Not really bad though, and certainly much better than MAP03 for a mapper who went a one-time map for this set.

[gaspe]

MAP12: The pistol start here is rather hard, I wasn't expecting all those cacodemons to rise from the depths of what seems to a core, and they force you to go into the storage with imps hidden in the darkness and sergeants ready to shoot behind some side rooms. Worth a mention is also the surprise at the soulsphere. I noticed that they like to give you the strong weapons at end of the level when you don't need them anymore. Oh, and there's also a "supplies-room" in the base.

The texturing is oddly similar to the previous tech levels by Malcom Sailor, lots of grey of silver and metal and green tech walls, and notice the lack of brown that contrasts with the previous levels set in stone and wood structures. I wonder if they actually setup some themes to follow and planned a broader narrative in the whole mapset.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP12: Vulcan

 

Another descending lift that takes you deeper into the bowels of this mysterious subterranean installation, where the action is heating up and certainly becoming more conventionally Doom-like; that's just an observation, not intended as either criticism or praise.  The "core" area of the map, parallel corridors flanking a shadowy pit from which a host of cacodemons rise and into which a horde of zombies are free to pour, is definitely an atmospheric landmark; the southern area of the map, Containment Area-meetsThe Focus, I'm less keen on, especially in its latter role as the staging area for a massive ambush late in the map's running time (though maybe that's just an impression that comes from the misstep of turning off the lights and trying to fight an arch-vile, a Baron of Hell, and a gaggle of their minions in utter darkness).  Overall this is a solid map and I feel like we're finally moving toward and getting into whatever final act or endgame the WAD as a whole has been steadily and atmospherically building its way toward.

[tmorrow]

map12: Vulcan, by Patrick Martin
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

A delightful map with a ramp up in difficulty. Whoever is running this facility is really not on your side and has sent a bunch of thugs after you. The central core is heavily guarded by a bunch of cacodemons while lower tiered mobs are stalking the corridors and offices. The large warehouse area where the exit is has been stuffed with imps.

The pistol starter will probably want to make their way to the warehouse to find some armor and the super shotgun before trying to swipe the blue key. There is a nasty trap involving a pair of revenants that can ruin your day. The red key is booby trapped as well but not quite as dangerous.

The final trap is a doozy. As you head for the last switch in the storeroom, the lights go out while the heavies teleport into play, an archvile and 3 barons with a support staff of imps. Great stuff!

[Capellan]

MAP13

It's essentially just one single arena fight.  On any setting except UV, it's just against a few 'trons and revenants, and you get an Invuln for it. Yawn.

 

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP13 Get The Hell Out

 

This is an interlude map, and not a particularly good one. The one cyberdemon is on multiplayer, and what you do fight in the big area doesn't really offer any punches. Revenants and arachnotrons aren't tough for this map, and neither are the small fries that follow. There's an interesting insta-death trap if you get curious towards those dead bodies, but on lower settings an invulnerability is in the arena and you can avoid dying and can even return after your done. That area is supposed to have a multiplayer only BFG too, and a BFG is present on the lowest settings although I somehow forgot to pick it up. Bland, bland interlude map.