The DWmegawad Club plays: Disjunction & Scythe X & Counterattack

[Magnusblitz]

On 8/25/2018 at 9:18 PM, Mechadon said:

I've been lurking this thread a bit, hope you guys enjoy Counterattack :).  If I had better timing I could have had a bugfixed version out for you guys, but its probably not a big deal.  If you come across a secret lift in MAP03 that doesn't want to lower again after a few presses, that's a bug (just noclip past it).  Also the entertext leading to MAP32 is borked - it plays at the normal exit of MAP31.  So yea, just ignore that please :P

 

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The hint is the glowing lights.  Find the switch that glows at the same rate as the light at the end of the corridor (the same light that lowers to reveal the second switch).  That's the switch you want to press.  You can brute-force it too though, all the other switches do is spawn some enemies as punishment.

 

You don't need all keys to exit the map actually.  That's a conscious design decision throughout most of the project; I wanted there to be an array of paths and options leading to the exits of each map (to increase the replayability factor).  You can skip the blue key and go for the yellow key and complete the map that way too.

 

Ah, clever hint for the secret, never occurred to me (though maybe because I wasn't sure what was behind the one to match). And sounds like I was way off in thinking it was linear. :P

 

MAP03: Aegritudo

100% kills, 4/6 secrets

 

I'm probably pre-disposed to like this map as the combo flesh/tech/marble theme is one of my favorite Doom themes. Found this one a bit difficult to get my bearings in though, lots of spots where I'm not sure why something opened (like the RL spot) but just kept going. I did get really stuck at one point though... had the red key and blue key but had no idea how to get either of the yellows (and was very curious as to why I had a key to open a blue door to nothing). Eventually I found a playthrough on Youtube (who ironically had the same issue) and found that little innocuous corridor that leads to the northern section where the SSG and yellow keycard are. Once I did that the rest was easy enough to take on. Fun map, and I really liked the blue key area... great job of throwing in lots of different threats (demons on the ground floor as barriers, arachnatrons sniping from ground level outside, imps/mancs sniping from above, cacos/PEs filling the sky) without getting crazy with the number of monsters.

[Roofi]

+++ Heroes' Tales

[Scotty]

MAP02 - "Phlogiston"

 

Probably my favourite level from a pure mapping standpoint. There is some neat recycling and morphing of areas, notably the landing pad/crate area to the west, which you visit early on, then pass "underneath" to the skull key area, and upon leaving there you are suddenly back up in this area from much earlier on, but things have opened up and it just feels like a completely new thing rather than revisiting a previous area. I love the sheer flair on display with some of the mechanics of this map, case in point being the rising staircase at the eastern end of the map. Most would just take the easy route of the single stair raise action rather than a mass of conveyor trickery - but the effect is worth it and has a cool fringe benefit of creating a clever timer for the trap encountered. Fucking awesome stuff and that is just one example of many instances of the map unravelling in interesting ways.

 

I have spent significant time staring at this map in the editor trying to understand how i might even begin to construct a map as geometrically and architecturally complex as this, but i still have no idea where to even start, heh.

[Catpho]

MAP11 - "Judecca"

The epic finisher. Disjunction's final locale is a towering megastructure, with magnificent size and scope. There's a good bit of stark contrast with the dark metal and the clear white snow, highlighting it's imposing scale. An incredible vista through and through, and really enjoyable to just look at it's breathtaking size while traversing. That said, maybe the colors of the level were a bit too... monochrome, when considering the amount of rich and vivid environments we have been put through to this point. Still, this level's visual presentation is a memory that will last for years to come.

The last map's combat wasn't as complicated as the previous hellholes. It's a relatively simple set-piece gallery, packed with moderately difficult fights. The real problem when fighting here is the open space: there's nothing that will stop a monster's projectile or hitscan from hitting you miles away. Another deadly factor are the blind spots for the player, as sudden huge hits of damage are not uncommon for first playthroughs, though there are enough supplies for you to tank them. Also, maneuverability is an issue with the advantageous positions the enemies get while you have to sometimes walk through narrow walks. When you reach the ominous tower of evilness itself, give yourself a breath of relief because if you have handled the previous levels and segments, nothing here should pose much difficulty (do remember that it's still cramped with a billion things shooting at you).

Ending with a bang, or in this set's case, a really grand map :)

One screenie (should be enough really):

[Pirx]

Spoiler

 

 

Ok let's have a winner.

 

+++ Heroes' Tales

 

I haven't played it yet. Although Memfis has been nominating it for the last few months. I know the other candidates. 

 

BTW,  it would be cool to have a Doom status bar in Russian for this one.

Edited August 29, 2018 by Pirx

[Catpho]

Gotta say @Mechadon, your mapping in "Counterattack" is like night and day compared to "Vela Pax". Layouts here are much smoother and attractive, and shows a lot of the level's beautiful features, while "Vela Pax"'s maps suffer from sardine cans of detail, sometimes a bit boxy and restrictive. Now, "Vela Pax" is already a extraordinary effort on it's own, but it goes to show that you have now reached even higher highs! 

[dobu gabu maru]

^ That's the nightmare of working on something for so long, is that your first contributions to the project tend to look/play outdated in comparison, which requires you to go back in and edit what you've already done, or—god forbid—just make a new map. It's an awful cycle to get stuck in, especially when the maps are so large that by necessity it takes like 3-5 months to complete.

[valkiriforce]

I had the exact same problem with Doom Core, and kept creating better maps to replace the older ones. The thing is though, when you guys make maps that don't stand up to your own judgement, it's nothing like what my maps were like; your guys' maps look amazing even if they could be better, whereas my lesser maps from Doom Core looked like something out of a '94 wad.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP04: Maeror

100% kills, 2/4 secrets

 

I believe the progression here is that the first three keys are available in any order, and after you collect one/some you can then start on getting the skull keys, but don't want to make any assumptions. I did have to play this one in three separate settings (first getting the blue and yellow keycards, then the rest of the keys, then the last fights behind the start door) so my memory is a bit hazy on the earlier parts. I did like that each weapon gets a chance to get some use (though I did use the PG a lot early on, and should've grabbed the RL earlier than I did). As usual there's some cool transformations including a really impressive floor-above-floor fakery at the end. The theme feels sorta close to the D2 'city hell' (with maybe more of Inferno's red brick and flesh thrown in) which isn't one of my favorites, but still another amazing map.

[Mechadon]

16 hours ago, Catpho said:

Gotta say @Mechadon, your mapping in "Counterattack" is like night and day compared to "Vela Pax". Layouts here are much smoother and attractive, and shows a lot of the level's beautiful features, while "Vela Pax"'s maps suffer from sardine cans of detail, sometimes a bit boxy and restrictive. Now, "Vela Pax" is already a extraordinary effort on it's own, but it goes to show that you have now reached even higher highs! 

Thanks!  I'm pretty much of the same opinion.  It's why I spent close to a year going back to the 3 finished maps in Vela Pax and essentially overhauling them.  Especially MAP02, I made huge changes and additions to that map.  Even with all of that extra work, I wouldn't say I'm content with them.  But they are 'done' now because there's no way I could truly make them up to my current standards without essentially rebuilding the entire maps.  Dobu is totally right, really long projects can start to feel cursed after a while because you feel the need to tweak and update as your knowledge and styles change.

[Firedust]

@Mechadon, will you ever release Vela Pax? I know you're focusing on Supplice at the moment, but still. I really enjoyed Counterattack and you're easily one of my most favorite mappers on here. By the way, sorry for derailing the thread. I think it would be cool if the dwmegawad club played Exomoon and Avactor. Both brilliant releases and that would certainly help the mappers fix the remaining bugs if more people played the mapsets :)

I know that I never participated, just voicing my opinion :)

[FrancisT218]

Whatever chance it has of winning, save some last second momentum, I'll change (part of) my vote to +++Exomoon & Avactor

[rehelekretep]

map05 fda

wow! this really reminds me of some of exomoon (or as it came out later, exomoon reminds me of this). chiefly the flying spiderdemon and the plasma turrets

the mood in this map is crazy oppressive. its so dark, the midi is so gloomy and desolate. on software i was straining my eyes trying to see through the gloom, and it wasnt much better in glboom mode! the 2 arenas can be handled as slowly (read cowardly) as you want, which is a nice bit of 'emergent' difficulty which you dont see often enough sometimes - at least this explicitly. it doesnt really mesh with the atmosphere of the map though. this map looks and feels like something that wants to end you instantly, but if you switch the switches one-by-one, its just a big baby. so i like the idea of the slower-easier, faster-harder, but i dont think the gameplay fits the rest of the map.

[Demon of the Well]

Hello all, long time no see. Glad to see you've all been enjoying the three sets featured this month, feels like the first time Disjunction is really seeing a lot of people actually play the thing, certainly deserved. Also must echo some of the bittersweet reception of Scythe X as well, not only because it's unfinished (and probably eternally so, let's not kid ourselves) but because in some ways one doesn't have to look so hard to see at least part of *why* it might be unfinished--stretched a bit thin in places, like the well was starting to run just a bit dry by that point, no? However, the real reason I'm here is Counterattack, which was not only one of the best mapsets of last year but also an immediate personal favorite of the past several years, and one I felt compelled to play again given the excuse, and also to say a "few" words about.

 

Map 01 -- Aggilus

Opening in suitably grand spectacle with a view of a huge warp-gate in the depths of some nameless UAC bunker (dimensional gates and the machinery that powers them being a recurring motif in the set's very traditional Doom-story), this is not your typical m01, and in some ways is not what we might've previously called a typical Mechadon map. Prior to Counterattack, I think it's fair to say that the great majority of Mechadon's public releases (mostly solo maps appearing as parts of community or team projects) were all broadly similar in style--similar scale, similar layout and progression tropes, similar pacing and very similar combat; always couched in his singular architectural sensibility, of course, but very much a matter of 'variations on a theme.' I don't mean this to sound untowardly backhanded, mind, as it was a formula consistently executed well, and one I'd probably have been content to continue to play new iterations of indefinitely; I bring it up because it highlights a big part of what makes Counterattack so damned good, showcasing as it does an author's ability to expand his signature style to include more variety, additional layers and nuances without compromising on any of that style's core strengths or character.

 

The action proper kicks off with a bang, or rather with several of them, complimented by the interminable pitter-patter of gobbets of flesh and viscera raining down over the rocky landscape. The memorable rockets-n'-barrels start here is a prime example of the mapset's strides in adding depth and freshness to the otherwise familiar, and sets a tone that persists for the majority of the set: your enemies are legion, but you're quite formidable to say the least, and have countless options at your disposal for beating them back. While the RL being the primary weapon for the game's very first spate of combat is unusual in itself, it's notable that the action here is not heavily choreographed or remotely setpiece-y in nature, instead being more framed as free exploration/free play in a topographically complex area, very much in keeping with what we might think of as more traditional early-game fare. So, while the set opens with a lot of flashy, bloody over-the-top action, it also establishes early that these incredibly rich/complex maps are primarily meant to be explored and navigated at your leisure, presenting not only countless routes to take through them but countless ways of battling the creatures infesting them as well.

 

The Aggilus complex itself, evidently primarily a shipping/receiving/logistics station, is outwardly not the most imposing structure one could imagine, more squat and loosely sprawling than towering and imposing, but its concrete and steel walls hide one of the most complex and intricately woven layouts in a set full of them. Parallel corridors and throughways wind and bend at many minor gradations of height, and countless windows, grates, terraces and guard booths ensure that almost no matter where you are in the complex, no matter how you got there or where you've been before, there's always the opportunity for some kind of view into (and potential exchange with) some other sector, offering opportunities to snipe or be sniped or to develop a plan of action in advance. Changing from one 'track' to another in these often narrow/winding confines can initially seem a bit of a to-do, especially in the early going when you don't know your way around, but don't get stuck thinking too conventionally--often you can switch on the fly by hopping through windows or with a leap from one overlook to another.

 

Progression in this level is designed so that there is no 'wrong way', and no matter your itinerary you can make meaningful progress and theoretically eliminate the need to wander through previously cleared areas almost entirely, though I think it's fair to say that the layout is complex to a point that most players (including myself on my earlier playthroughs) will not realistically be able to tell the necessary from the unnecessary or indeed even glean that they have the degree of choice in itinerary that they actually do in the first place. Fortunately, all of the content is suitably entertaining, ranging from intense, almost comically bloody close-range gunbattles with hordes of zombies in the interiors to looser, splashier action ala the opener vs. waves of encroaching foes in the floodplains surrounding the base, with an optional sidequest to an alternate dimension (foreshadowing the final areas of the game) to net you the SSG and some other goodies (which may end up being largely irrelevant if you don't hit upon this progression thread early enough, granted) for the particularly keen explorer.

 

So, while the optionality aspect of the design is ironically probably more opaque/less clearly communicated here than in later levels, I think most players will able to forgive this based on what a good time ripping and tearing through the base and its scads of defender mooks is, by whatever route and whatever means they happen to do this.

 

Map 02 -- Phlogiston

This was the entry to the Vinesauce contest which spawned the larger project, which I don't think I was actively aware of until this most recent playthrough (when I finally found a certain secret). For the most part it blends in naturally enough with the rest of the maps, but the contrasts with m01 are immediately apparent: where m01 was squat and sprawling and intricate, here the architecture is much more vertically-oriented and imposing, with towering silos looming over the core campus, long, cold oversized halls, and badly-lit meandering stairways and bulky pneumatic lifts connecting the different levels, enough to send any OSHA inspector into nervous fits. While "Aggilus" sported a relatively clean corporate/tech look, save for the tan masonry and some piping/trim "Phlogiston" conspicuously uses textures from OG Doom almost exclusively, giving it a dour, unfeeling military-industrial look to suit its grimier/slimier theme.  While the ineffable "bigness" and striking aspect of the architecture naturally conceal the fact, the complex itself is actually smaller and simpler (though not necessarily more compact) than that of m01, though in some respect this is because there are no extended grounds to explore this time (and indeed, it would appear certain pains have been taken to avoid ever raising the question of just what lies beyond the walls of the complex), and its 600+ monsters come in spurts and surges vs. the more constant stream of fodder offered in the previous map.

 

Like m01 before it, a goodly chunk of the content here is optional, though which chunk precisely that happens to be depends on the player. The overall route is far less potentially divergent--the red keycard always comes first, and then you need either the blue keycard or the yellow keycard (or both) to open the way to the red skull, which in turn seals off the exit. The paths to the blue and yellow keycards actually cover a lot of the same terrain and skipping one is basically a matter of skipping whatever ambush is tied to it (the YK one being the nastier of the two IMO), though, so again it's likely many players will get both before returning to the keycard hub seen earlier on. Doing so has an added benefit in that possessing all three cards nets you a BFG 9000 to be used in the strange crusher-fight for the RSK; on the one hand I think it's praiseworthy that the designs in these levels unfailingly offer extra layers, perks, or other content for the true explorer/completionist, but on the other the BFG here is probably overkill, trivializing the RSK fight while needing relatively little investment to acquire. This is one of the set's most persistent issues (perk equipment allowing you to easily steamroll major fights), but in most of the following cases it's justified or requires a lot more investment or planning (or luck), whereas here it chiefly serves to take a lot of the thrilling bite out of what is otherwise a creative setpiece fight, wherein the challenges of making a tense fight in spacious architecture are met by weaponizing the architecture itself.

 

This relatively streamlined/simplified main progression is an interesting contrast to the hidden stuff, especially as regards the level's overall balance. Played straight, there's more of a flavor of 'survival' gameplay here than in other levels--enemies are fewer and spread out a bit more (outside of the characteristic bloody closet-traps and the like), but your own weapon progression is vastly more conventional than in m01 (shotgun and chaingun dominate, with heavier weapons appearing mostly in the last third or so), and nowhere else in the mapset is healing and armor in shorter supply, emphasizing tactical sniping and defensive/retreat tactics to a greater degree. The many secrets, however, are quite cleverly hidden--diabolically-placed impact-switches are one recurring concept--and several of them chain together into potentially massive gains in power for the player, particularly early on, underscoring the set's emphasis on exploration in a more traditional way (note also the presence of not one but *two* secret BFGs, which I think further casts the 3-key bonus as excessive).

 

Map 31 -- Desiderium

This map has no set place in the running order despite being a perfectly natural inclusion to all appearances (a sacrifice to the traditional/hardcoded secret level placement in Doom II, presumably), and so I'm somewhat arbitrarily placing it here. I would venture that it would fit best as the second map (after Aggilus) in thematic terms, and as the third map (after Aggilus and then Phlogiston) in terms of gameplay progression, and so here it is.

 

A very "Doom II" toxin-processing base in aspect (though its convoluted core of access routes is again very KDiTD, I suppose), in some ways this is the most 'by the book' Mekmap in the set, combining the intricate, nuanced interior constructions of m01 with the grander exterior architecture of m02 and a slow/steady ramping combat progression that opens with skirmishing against squads of zombies and packs of imps and gradually tilts towards much heavier onslaughts in the lategoing, culminating in a comparatively small/brief yet nevertheless frantic --slaughter-- fight (gasp) at the final five-point gate. Progression in the interior segments is a complex web of if/then route choices, and while this area is relatively small in spatial terms I don't think I've ever had two playthroughs be quite alike here. Differences range from small (i.e. which door clear out a given room from) to the more pronounced, as in the case this time where I ended up finding my way into the guts of the facility ductwork and cargo conveyance system, using it to ambush a pair of viles and a bunch of other minions from their blindside long before I would've been able to enter that room normally.

 

The later/exterior segments eventually converge and neck down into a series of linear brawls, hordes of demons charging you through a series of breach-points as you climb up the outer skirts of the complex towards the gate chamber just offsite, itself the host of a structural/combat motif that will gain more prominence in later levels. While this is perhaps the most linear/on-rails sequence in the game (and a fairly long one, as if we interpret it as beginning in the poison canal it occupies about half of the map), it's convincingly delivered by virtue of the palpably greater intensity of the battles and so is a welcome change of progression in that regard.

 

However, it's worth noting that a certain sequence of exploration allows you to skip the whole thing--finding the red keycard misplaced somewhere in the ductwork allows access to the disused storage warehouse west of the facility, where the secret exit can be found amidst a not altogether normal Narnia of crates. I'm not entirely clear on just how much of the main progression this allows you to pass over, or how much the hunt for the red card is its own distinct thing largely separate from main progression, but at very least it renders the entire poison canal and everything connected to it (including the normal exit) completely optional. So, while "Desiderium" shares the same design goals of many of its setmates of rewarding exploration and bolstering replayability, in no other map in the set is this commitment more dramatically in evidence, an odd quirk driven by its otherwise janky/suspect placement in slot 31, away from everything else.

 

Map 32 -- Microland

I don't have any really serious comments about this one, but for all of its silly delivery it's easily one of the hardest and most calculated or 'choreographed' challenges in the game, and shows promise for future Mek projects which may at some point call on him to be more wholesale dastardly in encounter design (I salivate at the prospect!)   :)

 

 

[rehelekretep]

i really find 32 to be utterly obnoxious, with the almost silent ufo being disguised by the incessant slamming noise of the plasma-turrets. the vomit wall tile texture set doesnt help the visual side of things either

[Demon of the Well]

5 hours ago, rehelekretep said:

i really find 32 to be utterly obnoxious, with the almost silent ufo being disguised by the incessant slamming noise of the plasma-turrets. the vomit wall tile texture set doesnt help the visual side of things either

That's kind of what I mean, though--imagine how good it could be (especially as a contrast piece for the more 'usual' Mek style) if it were something actually taken seriously!

 

Map 03 -- Aegritudo

Things take a decided turn for the macabre here, as the Counterattackguy finds himself in a warped analogue to the processing/shipping facility, something like a huge plant for channeling or.....refining?.....hundreds of thousands of gallons of festering blood, a twisted industrial nightmare equal parts Satanic dieselpunk and opulent Byzantine palace. It is in the second half of the game that the set's stylistic commitment to stock assets really shines, as it's in these later hellscapes that Mechadon has assembled some really striking/original texture schemes, showing that his signature architecture works equally well with more complicated color/material schemes as with the more safe/standard tu-tone military/techbase look of the earlier levels. This one most readily reminded me of "Dreaming Garden" from Sunder (another set largely defined by strong texture schemes married to imposing architecture, incidentally), but its bloodstained industrial trappings and heavy contrast between the gloomy, fetid inner chambers and pale-litten marbled outer yards readily afford it a feel of its own.

 

Of the main maps, this one sports the smallest monstercount at 'only' 460 or so, and while it's similar in size and expanse to "Phlogiston" or the facility proper in "Aggilus", it's more focused than either of them, leaning less on an endless array of exploration/route possibilities and more on a few complex core chambers or areas which will be traversed several different times (often at different height levels), perhaps best exemplified by the central 'smelting' chamber where the yellow skull key is kept. This is an area that you can initially see (and shoot) into from an upper floor while exploring early on, one that you actually enter for the first via a transformative booby-trap that it's very difficult to see coming, and one used for at least three different discrete fights at different times, culminating in the surprise appearance of an overseer cyberdemon ala Romero's classic E4M6, which by this point the room strikingly resembles (and not by accident, I'd wager).

 

To compliment this comparatively tighter focus, the thing balance is a mite quirky, starting you out with berserk fist and.....a plasma rifle, which you won't actually see much ammo for for some time but which basically acts as an early 'get out of jail free' card for a tight spot. Other basic armaments and ammo are delivered largely via zombie kills rather than from placed pickups (though there is evidently an early chaingun tucked away in an alcove which I've somehow managed to miss every time playing the map), and moreso than in previous levels it behooves you to spread out your weapon usage to avoid running critically low on any particular ammo resource.

 

As with m02, secrets are both very tricky and very powerful, and once again can have a huge impact on your options as you get stuck in to the meat of the level, ala the secret BFG. Again, it's debatable as to whether these finds swing the balance of power too much in your favor in later encounters (by which I mean to suggest there's room for said encounters to be bloodier/meaner rather than that the player should be kept with limited arsenal), though this is mitigated somewhat by the aforementioned early dearth of cell ammo, and because the "OP" potential is strictly confined to avid secret-hunters in this case I think this doesn't dampen proceedings in the way that some of the bonus stuff from m02 arguably does.

 

Also of note here is the blue key casement, which transforms first into the "blue key yard" and then again into the "blue key park" before opening entirely for one last hurrah. Apart from how clever this unfolding of the area is (at first you'll be a few feet away from the key without even realizing it), it's also the first example of a large/protracted battle designed to play out in phases (and which the daring/perceptive can optionally hasten into a much larger, single encounter), an element which will be of some significant prominence in the next two maps.

 

Map 04 -- Maeror

Now THIS is quite the undertaking, the largest map by far in a set of large maps. Depicting something like a massive palatial tomb or funerary complex, its wide avenues, looming arches, shadowy arcades, and seemingly endless concatenation of basements and crypts and sub-basements present a tour at once arrestingly stately and decidedly morbid in aspect. Brief glimpses of a barren, lifeless landscape of endless fire and brimstone beyond the walls can be had on rare occasions, but there is no escape, only the possibility of a deeper descent. Scored by a BGM track that most players will recognize from the legendary "Misri Halek" (Alien Vendetta m20),  and despite teeming with ghoulish creatures, the overall mood of the place is one of isolation and a certain loneliness, steeped in a gauze of countless eternities. As you can probably tell, I'm absolutely smitten with the theme here--while I enjoy a smoldering hellscape or a glowering gothic cathredral-volcano-castle as much as the next Doomer, I'm more fascinated by less traditional but no less grim depictions of Doom-Hell, particularly those with a bit of poignancy to them, and this map certainly delivers that in spades.

 

The gravity of the map's imposing size may not immediately dawn on you unless you happen to try the flesh-switch in front of you at mapstart: it's a six-key switch, meaning that very little of the map's considerable expanse is optional, in contrast to the earlier levels. While it's still possible to skip or miss a few of the connecting areas between major locations, for the most part you'll be taking the full tour. The tradeoff is that "Maeror" is more truly non-linear than any of the other maps, and allows you almost entirely free reign of where to go and when from the very outset, the only caveat being that each of the three skull keys can only be acquired after you've obtained the keycard of the same color (so, BK gates the sadistic BSK vile-torture box, RK gates the exhilarating RSK 'dragonfly' chamber, etc.).

 

Even with this restriction, then, there are many many different ways in which the map can be played; the incidental fights outside of the key setpieces tend to vary widely in their own right depending on which avenue of approach you use when you happen to come upon them, and weapon progression can vary widely as well, which can make a significant impact on both the incidental action and the setpiece fights. On some level, the bigger marquee fights later on in progression do potentially suffer from the same issue as some of their brethren earlier in the set (i.e. they are wont to be less intense than the player's arsenal could potentially warrant), but in the majority of cases this is heavily predicated on your order of play, and there will always be some fights you must do without the BFG to use as a crutch, which IMO is a much more 'complete' handling of the challenge of balancing item distribution with player choice than any of the earlier maps quite managed.

 

And there are no shortage of nicely staged fights here. Most of the keys feature their own dedicated setpiece or arena, many of which are heavily transformative and organically integrated with the initial state of the architecture/layout in some really clever ways. Without fail, the fights tied to the keys are all quite bloody, and several cross decisively over into what could fairly be called 'slaughter' territory, though use of this term invites certain qualification in this case. To be clear, many of these fights use proper slaughter mechanics or principles--decisive area denial, pressure to juggle multiple fronts of encroachment simultaneously, shaping and execution of heavily patterned movement, etc.--and bodycounts sufficient to make them function, but they are generally very approachable in overall effect, by dint of using tons of softbodies rather than more advanced creatures to comprise much of the bulk of the hordes, and by generally supplying a veritable surplus of healing and ammo, asking only that the player keep moving and fighting (as opposed to turtling or camping or hiding) to stay comfortably in the thick of things.

 

The result, pretty much wholesale, is a selection of big bloody fights that are assuredly great from a spectacle standpoint and worthy of a penultimate epic such as this, though in certain cases I feel that the overall placement is too restrained, irrespective of the non-linear balance, most notably the yellow skull fight, which reads as markedly underpopulated for the space provided even if you rush it to release all stages at once, and kind of wanting even then. I'm inclined to interpret this less as a desire not to make things too challenging for accessibility's sake and more as a way of hedging bets to eliminate possible 'grind' at more extreme iterations of the level's non-linear possibilities, but whatever the case it's hard to entirely escape the impression that things are underpitched.

 

Fortunately, in most of the similar cases, ala the final gloom-shrouded death-vault, rushing the fight is a more effective redress (for those who may not know, "rushing" generally means triggering as many available stages of a multi-stage battle to occur simultaneously as possible, which is theoretically both more efficient and exciting provided you can survive the furor), and on the whole the action remains a suitably visceral companion to one of the most entrancing locales seen in a Doom map lo these past few years.

 

Map 05 -- Dolor

If "spectacle" was a watchword for the later battles in "Maeror", here in the finale it's the name of the game from beginning to end, where what was foreshadowed comes to pass and where Hell mounts its final frenzied offensive. "Dolor" is at root a sequence of three major fights, each bigger than the last, taking place in some truly spectacular terrain representing some of the most striking use of stock textures I've seen in 20+ years of Dooming. The non-linear/optionality aspects of previous levels are here discarded in favor of a more curated crescendo of action setpieces (though there's a lot of freedom of approach within two of the three); fine by me, as I always say you generally want the finale of a significant journey to have some kind of wow-factor differentiating it from all that came before, and the grandiose brawling here serves that end well.

 

Or, if I'm honest, it can. Rehelekretep is absolutely correct in observing that all three of these battles are neatly segmented (generally by switches) into several distinct phases, and if these phases are methodically fought one at a time one after the other they generally represent several orders of magnitude of decrease in intensity (and also fun) than they do if the savvy/thrill-seeking player tries to get more of a ruckus stirred up.....or would if the player were afforded less of a security blanket of control over the situation to begin with, which IMO would have been more ideal in this case.

 

The issue is similar in all three arenas, but most pronounced in the second and third--the great majority of the resources (to say nothing of the available movement space) are available from the outset in both cases, and generally vastly outpace the pressure/encroachment potential of any single wave or phase. While it's possible that a weak player might somehow manage to exhaust/squander enough slack in this early freedom as to make the later waves truly oppressive (cowardly wasting the V-sphere in the third arena far too early or the like), for most players I think this is likely to be a little TOO consistently manageable and thus tiptoe dangerously close to the edge of repetitiousness (the various waves tend to be more or less symmetrical in nature, though there are some surprise developments to mix things up at certain points as well), and in hindsight I might've suggested something like halving the switchpresses/wavecounts in each particular instance to facilitate more consistently roiling combat-cauldrons.

 

All of that being said, fortunately it's pretty simple to rush the encounters (simple enough that I'm sure this was a fully intended part of the design compromise) to full completion in each case (you can even get some cinematic 'seal the Flux Gate' kills in the second arena if you're fast/aggressive enough), and played this way they are a pack of delightful slaughter-riots, still pretty accessible given the piles of resources but not to be taken lightly for their potential to overwhelm you through sheer force of numbers, either--played this way, I can confidently say that here at least the hordes will surely be worthy of your arsenal. Not content to settle for scale of spectacle alone, as a topper Mechadon has included a new custom creature to lead the final wave of defense, a pair of disquietingly fast and agile levitating brain-demons, boasting scads of HP and some withering rapid-fire Afrit-style attacks. Even played at a full rush, it's telling that these things are formidable enough to usually be among the last few breathing beings in the final arena, and so make a suitable climactic foe in that regard.

 

The level, and the mapset, ends with your explosive decommissioning of the demonic power conduit channeling the power of the pulsar (the massive, otherworldly superstructure of the final arena), shunting you first into what seems certain doom and then into.......Vela Pax? Dare I to dream....? Yes, yes I do, but it's a dream for some other night. In the meantime, Counterattack's finale leaves a lasting impression with its gorgeous battlefields, armies of hellspawn, and picture of the heroism of yet another lone, indomitable warrior, a suitable conclusion to a quintessentially Doom-y adventure.

 

[Magnusblitz]

holy shit it's dotw

[galileo31dos01]

Pardon my interruption but, weren't there more than two arachnorb queens in the finale? I could swear I saw one dying in infighting while another two were charging towards me. It's not that important though, just curious. 

 

Also, nice to read DOTW back in the club. (:

[rehelekretep]

really happy to see you back @Demon of the Well !

[rehelekretep]

map06 fda (for completions sake)

map30 (same)

map31 fda

map32 fda (DNF)

 

all maps fda in one zip