Popular/highly rated WAD's you're not a fan of?

[CasualScrub]

Basically what it says, what WAD's that are considered with acclaim or are very popular are you personally not a fan of?

 

Note:  I'm specifically referring to level WAD's, not things like gameplay mods.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

Ancient Aliens.

Great wad. Not for me.

Also, Antares' Struggle.

[seed]

Suspended in Dusk, Hell Revealed 2, and Stardate 20x7 are some wads hold in high regard that I could not enjoy, either for the most part or at all.

 

I've noticed many people love them, but:

 

- SiD: I found the navigation and the gameplay mediocre (boring enemy placement and usage which cause the fights to feel very controlled and without any sense of danger, in addition to easily losing yourself in the levels). On top of that, the SSG's firing sounds sound like two pieces of metal hitting each other, painful to hear. It certainly looks pretty and the amount of time and effort that was put into it is obvious, but unfortunately I could not find anything else that was great (or just good). Many people disagreed with me, my SiD "review" (one of the very few if not the only review that I would not call as such frankly) got downvoted into oblivion.

 

- HR2: The first half is laughably bad. It's full of encounters with mandatory damage and traps that most of the time would just kill you almost instantly. Lost Souls on a Berserk in front of a switch inside a 2x2 room with 3 Hell Knights is one such example, or Barons blocking the exit in very tight rooms. Moreover, these levels also have an old and very boxy look and feel to them, therefore, they are not even aesthetically pleasing. Only the second half is any good, which also features a few remade levels from the original that are on par if not better than the originals, from my POV anyway. To me, it looks like the authors did not understand the vision behind the first HR, otherwise I can't understand how the first half could turn out so, so awful. It does not live up to the name and in fact, it's unworthy of being called "Hell Revealed", it's a disgrace. The new music is amazing though, one of the few great things in the entire megawad.

 

- Stardate 20x7: Rather confusing puzzles and a bit of an obtuse progression in the first half which comes with lots of resource starvation in addition to very cruel yet ingenious enemy encounters. I could only find the second half enjoyable, otherwise, it's just "Stardate in name and purple only", as @Catpho put it so nicely (and accurately) once. Many people disagreed with me here as well, this review was downvoted into oblivion just like the one I wrote for SiD, and by even more this time around.

 

By the way, in case someone feels like quoting/replying to this post, if your intention is to "correct" my opinion then don't even bother, I won't change my views on them and will just ignore it. No, I don't want to be or sound like an asshole, a know-it-all, or anything similar but if you're unable to respect other people's opinion then it's your problem, understand that people think and see things differently, and don't enjoy them in the same way (or at all, for that matter).

Edited July 28, 2018 by Agent6

[Snikle]

Is there anyone else who prefers Stardate 20x6 over 20x7? I still enjoyed the latter, but the levels felt too short, and I enjoyed having the purple as an accent color instead of the main color.

[seed]

Just now, Snikle said:

Is there anyone else who prefers Stardate 20x6 over 20x7? I still enjoyed the latter, but the levels felt too short, and I enjoyed having the purple as an accent color instead of the main color.

 

See my thoughts on 20x7 in short above.

[Nine Inch Heels]

Quite a lot of stuff that people like for reasons I do not understand personally. Scythe and scythe II certainly belong into this category, for example.

[MFG38]

The only ones I can really think of are both "episodes" of Hell Revealed. Just not a fan of the gameplay in those.

[NuMetalManiak]

Eternal Doom. I can max the whole thing in five hours.

Stardate 20X7. Or actually just MAP02 of it to be honest.

Valiant, Beyond Reality, and any other wad I can think of with custom content that is more annoying than fun. Ancient Aliens and Struggle are fairly balanced overall and are exceptions to this.

[Gaia74]

Kdizd :"v

[Poncho]

For me, it'd be Speed of Doom. Hear me out, I enjoy challenge as much as the next person, but most of Joshy's maps are just more frustrating than genuinely difficult (whether you have to punch out 5 AVs, like in Map21, or just cross your fingers if you want to live [Maps 23, 27, 32 come to mind]). Luckily, most of Darkwave's maps are pretty good, but they aren't enough to make the whole package worthy of loads of praise (for me, at least).

[mrthejoshmon]

Scythe:

Quote

This megawad doesn't have perfect 
texture alignment, insane detail and fantasticly hard gameplay.
Instead it focuses on small fun maps to blast through without much
thought about defense. The difficulty rises steadily as you go through
the maps and the last few should challenge even the best.

You God damn liar, should've expected it from the contradiction at the end though.

[Bauul]

I feel really bad saying this, but Counterattack.  Mechadon is an absolutely fantastic mapper, but his particular brand of "always feel like you're on the edge of being lost" just doesn't gel with me.  I like my maps to have a real sense of place you can wrap your head around,  and while you could eventually get your head around the layouts in Counterattack, it feels like they're designed to try to prevent that.  Like they're deliberately designed to test your memory.

Although I think if I'm being really honest, I don't like them because they make me feel stupid. :'(

[Deadwing]

Alien Vendetta: After having to kill a Hell Knight blocking your way for the 3847 time, it becomes a really boring mapset which doesn't much bar shooting gallery setpieces. Map 20 especially is one of the maps with worst gameplay I've played.

 

Hell Revealed: Boxy layouts (rooms connected by corridors) and very grindy gameplay.

 

KDIZD: Boring new monsters that doesn't add much to the experience and lots of convoluted layouts with 6-key hunt and over-detailed environments.

[The_SloVinator]

Going Down - Love the details, music but the difficulty was ridiculous, especially map 21 & 22.

Wasn't satisfied when beating it.

[Misty]

Nicolas Monti wads don't click with me sadly. Even more when I checked out his megawad made around 2016 and its secret maps. Map32 contains random ladies photos which I'm not fan of. Also I feel urge to fix all these misalignments and placements in his maps. And I saw better maps which capture better 90's mapping spirit. 

[Cruduxy Pegg]

1 hour ago, Deadwing said:

 Map 20 especially is one of the maps with worst gameplay I've played.

Oh man I can write essays about how much I loathe that map. From the start. to the lava area and the stupid fight against the cyber. Don't even mention the mountain ledge. Even the map name bugs the fuck out of me since it reads like a google translation ffs.

[[McD] James]

Aside from its impressive texture-work, I think Hellbound kinda sucks. The levels are way too dark, the monster placement is thoughtless, switches often affect the levels in ways that aren't logical, there are way too many things that are easy to miss, and ultimately the levels are a convoluted mess of ideas that sprawl out of control without any rhyme or reason. 

 

I gave it 3 stars when I reviewed it, but I think 2 would have been more appropriate. 

[Bottomsup]

Sunlust. Not like I dislike it, it's still fun to play through, but my expectations might have been much higher and didn't include getting surrounded so frequently.

[gaspe]

Ancient Aliens. I couldn't bring myself to keep playing after 10-11 maps.

[Danlex]

Epic 2, I'm not a fan of egyptian themed maps.

[Uni]

11 minutes ago, gaspe said:

Ancient Aliens. I couldn't bring myself to keep playing after 10-11 maps.

Likewise. After playing through the first couple of maps, I just lost my interest and never came back to it.

[galileo31dos01]

Alien Vendetta, it was and is still proclaimed a classic must-play, and that's ok, just didn't feel it myself, particularly towards the ending, if Misri Halek was torture for others, Strench of Evil was mine, and everytime I play a map that starts in a similar context it makes me cringe. 

 

Others I've seen rated mostly 5/5 that I didn't fancy that much are The Brohterhood of Ruin, 2002 A Doom Odyssey, and Bloodstain.

[CasualScrub]

I'm with you guys on Alien Vendetta. I really don't get what's so appealing about this WAD. To me it's just frustration, and it's not particularly visually appealing in my eyes.

[Percival232]

To be fair Alien Vendetta is pretty important when it comes to Doom wads but yea I personally dont enjoy it all that much

[Test Tickle]

Scythe 1 & 2, Hell Revealed 1 & 2, and Alien Vendetta.

[Doomkid]

In the realm of deathmatch, Cybercrime 3. It's very unique I must admit, but the layouts are pretty boring when you strip away the cool visuals and music. Too many wide open squares for my liking.

 

In SP/Coop, probably Erkatanne (can't remember the exact spelling).

[SOSU]

Back to Saturn X (Sorry :( )

[Dragonsbrethren]

53 minutes ago, SOSU said:

Back to Saturn X (Sorry :( )

I remember being thoroughly unimpressed when it originally came out and for the life of me, I don't know what I disliked about it. When I went back to it, whenever the megawad club did it, I fell in love.

[bioshockfan90]

Hell Revealed/Alien Vendetta, Epic 2's first episode is pretty solid but then you get to E2 and if you're not accustomed to an Eternal layout, you're not gonna be able to make it through.

10 hours ago, Deadwing said:

KDIZD: Boring new monsters that doesn't add much to the experience and lots of convoluted layouts with 6-key hunt and over-detailed environments.

 

err...... don't think that's highly regarded around here lol

[seed]

2 hours ago, bioshockfan90 said:

Epic 2's first episode is pretty solid but then you get to E2 and if you're not accustomed to an Eternal layout, you're not gonna be able to make it through.

 

Partially agreed, but I dunno, I think the layout is fine most of the time, although there are a few levels with a somewhat cryptic progression such as Shore Dream, and MAP29 or 28, don't remember exactly which level it was, involve a lot of backtracking which can easily lead to confusion.