The DWmegawad Club plays: Memento Mori 2

[gaspe]

MAP18: The presence of some outdoors part was nice, it make this level to standout more. It's a very well detailed techbase. Ammo balance is less generous and you have to more careflu with your play, the lack of the RL was a shame. The mandatory telefrags seem like a pointless silly moment, though later you can release and AV that can cause some trouble there. The best thing of the map is how much you can interact with machineries and computers: crushing some barrels inside a big nukage vat, later you will activate some drills on the northern area, you have to use the nukage flow to pick the BK, and later you have to raise the nukage level to be able to get into the YK area. One secret lets you also wipe out of the closets of the last area ambush. There's an imp placed in the void, I can understand if you can take some unintended shortcuts but I wonder how something like this could slip out into the final release.

[Summer Deep]

MAP19:  A fairly 'segmented', tightly structured type of map, with an okay opening section giving way to a pretty intense
series of encounters in restricted spaces beyond the yellow door, then a finale where the player teleports into four set-
piece type scenarios. I liked the visit to the tunnel environment, where one could be methodical and take one's time,
whereas the lift escapade was altogether more frantic, though not as murderously tough as it seemed on a first
playthrough: a bit disappointed that the lift couldn't be made to go back up afterwards, as I'd like to have raided those
openings in the walls. The caged area wasn't too hard, as the AV could easily be sniped and couldn't revive the bigger
monsters like the Baron and Revenants. The fights around the chapel weren't too bad either, another AV with limited
potential for damage, but some pop-up chaingunners who could be lethal.

 

102% kills, 1/5 secrets

 

 

MAP20:  This map gets a bit of a slating in the Onemandoom review section, but that seems to be written from a pistol starter's angle, and to my mind it's not a bad experience in continuous play. It does appear a bit dated in one or two areas, even by 1996 standards, and perhaps buggy - there seemed to be an invisible, phantom chaingunner firing at me in the teleporter room, and a Cyberdemon could be heard at the end of the level, but did anyone ever get to meet him? That strange piano music felt rather out of place as well.

 

I thought the fights were pretty decent, especially in the blue key area and the computer room, and the opening area is quite straightforward if you make a quick exit from it, then use the monster blocking lines to manage the situation from a safe distance. The Cyberdemon encounter was fairly routine, with plenty of cover and space to move in, and a good bit easier than the chaingunner teleporting ambush which really was quite sustained and vicious. It was odd that so many radsuits were provided, yet there didn't seem to be anything worth finding in the nukage, unless I missed something - you didn't even need one of them to get the BFG.

 

After finishing the map, I engaged one or two cheat modes, including idclip, in a bid to solve the mystery of the second Cyberdemon. This was what I found, I'm still none the wiser:

 

 

 

 90% kills, 2/4 secrets

 

Edited November 19, 2018 by Summer Deep

[gaspe]

MAP19: A long underground adventure set in two parts. The overall theme is weird, sort of a twisted techbase with fire torches and there are some marble area (there's even a chapel). We start off at a lift hub with our first quest to get the YK and the RK in sequence. The baron that teleport to the lift afer you get the RK was annoying. The second part of the map is reached at an altar with four teleports, where to unlock the way to the exit you have to go through 4 different section. There's an elevator fight, the lift goes down slowly while revealing some closets, you can find a plasmarifle there but you have to give up to pick the computer map. My favourite of the 4 areas is the subway (I guess?) tunnel. Combat takes place in closed quarters here, and luckily most of the secrets are in the first parts of the map so you can get some cool equipment not too late.

 

1 hour ago, Summer Deep said:

to solve the mystery of the second Cyberdemon

That cyberdemon gets crushed there, but the crusher is activated when you step into the alcove where there's the exit door.

[Capellan]

MAP20

Not much impressed with the layout here, which is mostly a bunch of very boxy rooms connected with stringy long corridors. There are a few clever lighting tricks though – that pulse of light as you enter the various dark alcoves in the big room with the exit door is quite nice, for instance.

 

Gameplay's as drab as the texturing, on the whole, and the texturing is honestly fairly drab. The occasional efforts at detail actually serve more to draw attention to the largely mono-textured walls than the hide them. The monsters are similarly not especially engagingly placed, and there are a couple of traps that you pretty much have to deliberately wait around for to actually be threatened – including the one on the exit door. Sorry, barons, but I have no time for you.

 

Not a fan of the hitscanners inside the illusionary iron tube-thing. Bah to that, says I.

 

 

[galileo31dos01]

Oh can I just not be so behind for once D:

 

MAP16: The Nephilim

 

Hmm, it was fun, kinda like getting back to hitscan abundance and counting your health pickups to keep Doomguy naked but away from a killer max damage shot. Not much to say, I liked the icon of sin texture behind the gap, the SSG in a spot that can hurt the player, like in hmm E2M4 I think with the marble texture. Also liked that room with transformative architecture, cool trick. Prolly one of the best looking maps so far, I just liked the way textures are separated between areas. And, I don't know what else to say...

 

Uh, video:

 

 

@gaspe Do you mean you have to step in front of the exit? I cannot figure out how to activate that crusher again.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP17: No One

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

This one sorta reminded me of E1M4 and other Tom Hall maps, as there's definitely a couple E1M4 spots (the yellow key 4-door hut, the far north computer area) and general Hall-y-ness though not as interconnected as his maps usually are. Nothing too serious though there were a couple decent flanks, and I liked the revenant teleporting behind you on the blue key fight. I wish the secret to the east had been a bit more straightforward as I was able to tag the secret (that raised the step) but didn't figure out how to actually open the computer panel until coming back at the very end of the map. Also not sure what lowered the blue armor. I did like the secret jump, even if the reward was minimal. I'm not even sure where I picked up the red key?

 

[ella guro]

i've resigned myself to doing maps in chunks like this now

 

MAP11 - “Sewer Shutdown” by Eric Sargent

started pretty slow, to be honest. i also had health issues from the previous map, so the first part of this was very touch-and-go for me because of the amount of hitscanners and little health. in seeming other contrast to other people on here, i didn't particularly like the linearity at the first half of the map or find it particularly memorable in any way at all. but once i got to the brown tunnels at the end, the map seemed to have more of an identity. i like the warping around the perimeter of the center exit area for the key maze... it gave that part of the map a sense of identity. i also like how you have to get a suit to go to the center of the brown cave. it's like something you have to infiltrate... it has a locational sense of identity, in spite of maybe some lack of detail and only incidental encounters. it may be more boring combat, but i'll take that over a bunch of linear room-to-room encounters any day. overall, still pretty mixed about this one though.

 

MAP12 - “The Waterway” by Orin Flaharty

it may be derivative of Romero, but it's a very good kind of derivative at least! having something with this architectural level of refinement and detail was really nice after several rougher-looking maps. it's definitely something that feels like a lot more was put into refining it. there was one or two points where you're trapped on a catwalk and scrambling between enemies from multiple sides or fall into a toxic pit that are exciting, if only brief. the architecture was obviously very Living End or E4M6 or whatever else you want to compare it to. my only problem is this is way too short. it didn't stick around long enough to really make a lasting impression to me compared to some of the other maps you end up spending way more time playing through. it's a shame.

 

MAP13 - “Devils Paradise” by Rhys Hughes

probably the blandest of all maps to start out with... so brown, so empty, so boxy. the map is okay but starts off pretty unmemorable at first in the area before you warp outside and the first key area. things ramp up very unexpectedly in the yellow key area, with some very intense areas with little cover and three separate ambushes, which was honestly quite surprising given how boring and incidental combat had been in this map up to that point. it feels almost unbalanced? i wouldn't go so far as to say the yellow key area doesn't fit in with the rest of the map, but the nastiness ramping up so much in that one specific area was pretty darn surprising. i'm not sure if that's surprising in a good or bad way, though. i like the idea of the final spectre hallways and how they give you views into the end - if only because they're something different - but in execution they're just pretty annoying. and more chaingunners at the end to instantaneously dodge once you step out of a teleporter as well, which isn't so great when you've been eaten to shit by a bunch of spectres in dark hallways. this map is not within some merits, but definitely one of the blandest so far.

 

MAP14 - “A Question of Time” by Matthias Worch, Thomas Möller

this was a blast in comparison to the previous map! i felt like i was dodging, ducking and weaving around and one unexpected little trap after another was happening. the tricksy, narrow encounter layout is very 90's, but the good kind of 90's encounters. this is why i like playing on continuous - i can still blast through a map like this while still enjoying all the little traps and feeling proud of myself when i manage to evade dangerous situations for the first time. maybe i was on edge because of the bizarre spike in difficulty in the previous map, but this one felt much more consistent throughout with its encounters as well. nothing was too dickish in spite of the ramped up difficulty, and it sets your expectations for what kind of map you're playing pretty well. it may not be winning any aesthetic awards at all because of the bland brownness of most of it, but compared to the previous one it felt much more subdued and areas like the little Hell section of the map were really welcomed (especially because this whole set kind of abruptly abandoned the Hell setting for a much more boring sewer theme before exploring it much). this is almost as good as Worch's Map 03 in my opinion.

 

MAP15 - “The Devil’s Coterie” by Adam Windsor

what a bizarre but entertaining map! the encounters were super strange, especially right at the beginning, and especially heavy on hitscanners. the progression isn't super unusual and maybe can get a little hub-spokey in places, but the detail feels much more idiosyncratic and labored over in ways that previous maps don't. i love the large dark basement area you come down to on a caged lift - the dramatic lighting really helps give it a distinctive mood that is missing from a lot of other maps in the set. or the cacodemon portal, with the cargo area right next to it where you can run between boxes to pick up more goodies. there are lots of nice secrets and areas you return to to explore. there are so many weird touches too - like those two little crushers obstructing your path in the archvile key area. and the ending intensity felt appropriate, given that it only ramps up like that at the very end and finding the secret level was at stake there. t'was definitely my favorite of this bunch of maps, and my favorite Adam Windsor map that i've played. it's also up there with MAP09, MAP04, and MAP05 for my favorite of this first half of the wad. maybe the overall layout isn't that out of the ordinary, but all the idiosyncratic details and personal touches elevate this one a lot.

 

MAP31 - “DejaVu” by Orin Flaharty

Flaharty expands on himself much more in this map, but unfortunately it's in a setting that's been done ad naseum. this is an Episode 1 map and doesn't distinguish itself in any way from other E1 maps. it's an effective imitation and maybe it might have seemed more impressive at the time (although even then i think stuff like Fava Beans had more memorable E1-style maps, even if they were easier), but it did not stand out in any real way to me in the way that Flaharty's MAP12 did. play Doom The Way Id Did or No End In Sight E1 instead of this, IMO.

 

MAP32 - “Dances with Demons” by David Kuykendall

not much to say about this at all. a pretty standard arena/Dead Simple clone map. it's whatever.

Edited November 20, 2018 by ella guro

[gaspe]

MAP20: I liked some of the stuff this map does. The gameplay is the weakest point, the pistol start is rather nasty with many hitscanners and few archnotrons, the only interesting thing that happens is the "invasion" of teleporting monster despite that you can finally get the BFG and there's even a cyberdemon battle. The layout isn't that great either, the map is divided in 2 wings but I can say that at least you don't have to make through both of them. It's also easy to skip a lot of encounters. I appreciated the mysterious mood of the level, the music is right, the strange rock with those lighting tricks. It does the "teleporting experiments went wrong" well, I liked the YK area and the optional part you can explore with the teleports, you can find the secret SSG of the map there. It rather uneven visually, there are some nice detail and some good lighting but there are also many big monotextured places. It's the kind of map I would like to see remade and improved.

 

7 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Do you mean you have to step in front of the exit? I cannot figure out how to activate that crusher again.

 

Yes you need to step in front of the exit door, but the cyberdemon isn't in the crusher sector from the start, it can teleport there after you open the blue door. But the ma is over at that point so you'll almost likely to exit the level without waiting for that cyberdemon to die.

[riderr3]

MAP18
At the start, you have to move immideatly or will be fried by imps from the cliffs.
The "puzzle" with the chain of mid-tier monsters where you need to telefrag can be innovative at those days, but it cost me a life, because I've stucked in lift and close encounter with baron.
The map contains some gimmicks like crushing barrels and cacos coming from reservoirs, I've also used stuff like this in my maps.
The tech "generator" room looks good, I've noticed I turned on something when I heard those noises from generators.
You'll have to revisit radsuit room before stepping onto radioactive slime.
I've backtracked from final room to get the soulsphere from secret. Also the bars from final room can be annoying because I'll have to wait to them open after I've returned here.

MAP19
Didn't expect this map would be so long.
Probably the most dangerous enemy here is the spectre because they preventing to use RL and blocking in unexpected places. Also in pits.
I like how the destroyed tunnels looking.
The battle at the slow lowering lift is pretty intense. Better use plasmagun here.
Looking at the automap, there one more unexplored area, but I've exited the map (I grabbed the computer area map before)

MAP20
Here are some interesting vanilla doom tricks with lighting and "jumping trampoline". I've made many vanilla maps, but still didn't used tricks like this. Every time I learn something new.
Shotgunner hidden behind the midtexture can be dangerous and may confuse you.
The battle with cyberdemon not so hard, but I think it would be easier, if I have some armor.

Edited November 20, 2018 by riderr3

[Capellan]

MAP21

The Romero influence is clear in this one, with the opening sections in particular strongly evoking the platform hopping, catwalk clambering antics of the IWAD map 11 or 29. Andy Badorek doesn't quite have Orin Flaharty's commitment to the form, though, so later parts of the map are a bit more corridor-and-room focused.

 

This is a sprawling affair which nicely wraps back on itself a couple of times and mixes plenty of higher tier monsters with higher tier weapons. It's occasionally a bit stop-start, in that you face a series of contained encounters and set pieces, with few monsters just roaming the map (difficult in these platform-heavy affairs unless you use flyers), but with a few exceptions, such as the room of deaf revenants, these are generally quite diverse and engaging set pieces, so I'm not inclined to complain too much. I especially liked the yellow key fight, though after that the exit sequence felt like it had rather run out of steam.

 

 

[Magnusblitz]

MAP18: Regulate

97% kills, 2/6 secrets

 

Another Worch map, meaning no armor and regular shotgun/chaingun play for too long. Thankfully there's an SSG halfway through and a berserk later on, though the berserk comes after all the rooms full of demons/spectres where it would be most useful. Ammo is pretty drip-fed which means you'll probably be stuck using one weapon at a time. But the biggest flaw to me is that this map has a BAD case of room-door-room-door syndrome, especially since a lot of those rooms are just boxes and not all that interesting. There's a couple of cute bits here and there like the moving blue key and such but ultimately these are like putting racing stripes on a Ford Pinto.

 

[galileo31dos01]

@gaspe Thank you, going to check that because I don't want to run the map for a fifth time and not get that cyberdemon squashed again, like that would be fatal. 

 

MAP17: No One

 

Getting straight into the ups:

 

- Secrets, the green armor behind the computer panel helped a lot to tank early hits(can).

- Whole surrounding sections at the second half (RK), possibility to provoke infighting between revs/nobles. There really aren't many opportunities to watch duels in this wad.

- Optional area behind yellow door, while it doesn't add anything from pistol start, there're a couple boxes of rockets iirc for continuous. 

- First courtyard, just a nice place. 

- The midi

 

Still haven't enjoyed the map very much, which can be noticed when I missed the jump to one secret. There's also a blur armor I couldn't get. Meh, next.

 

 

MAP18: Regulate

 

Now this one was dope, once inside the building, because sniping imps on ledges is zzz inducing. I really liked the telefrag chain, back then I thought the only way was to use the (continuous) BFG and hated that trap, but then I teleported onto their dead bodies and OOOHH GOT IT. A thing to notice is ammo strictness, empathized by some almost empty secrets. Berserk and infighting worked that out in occasions, while barring the archvile in time too, which still resurrected stuff. Curious thing, the nukage section is quite similar structurally to one in map 07. This used to trick me into confusing both maps, even though they were made by two different people. And once again, an imp out of the map that cannot be killed from pistol start, because the rocket launcher is on the deathmatch portion. The last gasbags ambush was a nice climax. Fun map overall.

 

Also, how does the noisy machinery trick work at the whole blue section? 

 

 

[Magnusblitz]

MAP19: The Shaft

95% kills, 2/5 secrets

 

SSG within the first 10 monsters? Fucking finally. But you'll need it since this level is stuffed to brim with mid-tier monsters, creating quite the amount of demonflesh to cut through. I admit I was a bit worn out by the end. Encounters tend to have a large variety of monsters, which can create some interesting fights but also sometimes feels like the author didn't have a good sense of what he wanted to do and so just filled areas with monsters somewhat ad hoc. It's a long one too, as the titular shaft doesn't even come until near the end as one of the four setpieces. There's a couple of somewhat mean monster placements (like a manc at the top of a small lift, or teleporting the player into a rev/hell knight gangbang) but overall a decently fun if maybe a mite overly-long map.

 

[vdgg]

4 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

 

MAP18: Regulate

 

Also, how does the noisy machinery trick work at the whole blue section? 

 

 

Action 141 "W1 Crusher start with Slow Damage (silent)" applied to a sector with the height of 8. There's nothing special if the height is 16 or 24, as my demostration file shows, so Matthias just noticed this oddity and - most importantly - made a believable use for it.

regul.zip

[vdgg]

MAP19

This level caused some controversy regarding difficulty. In the first demo pack most of the hard maps were completed by George Bell, this one by Peo Sjoblom, not too speedy, in 46 minutes! The second demo pack (by Michael Grube with some help from Andy Badorek) contained demos for all maps but this one; Then Peo's ambitions were hurt, the third demo pack had major time improvements, and he finished this map again, under 17 minutes! Some rant from Peo:

I also got a bit irritated by Migru´s txt in where he put down the first collection and delivered both a wimpy and incomplete collection himself and had the nerve to call it the "THE REAL SKILL 4 DEMO COLLECTION", here is another quote: "But then I saw this very bad, slow and boring collection MM2UVDMO " Those words can describe his own collection .

 

So yeah, it is indeed a pretty hard map to finish with no saves. I personally love it. Just looked at the DoomWiki, bugs section, it contains none, and for a map of this size this says something... It doesn't look that fantastic, has some TEKGREN misalignments, but the mine section is interesting (the tracks) and also the 4 teleporter intersection has a very intriguing red sign on the floor.

 

The monster placement is nasty, vile, but I can't call it dickish. All the fights are doable. About the baron teleporting to the first lift, it will not teleport if you stay silent by the red key. There's not much plasma ammo, I used it now in the chapel section against PEs and cacodemons, it may be the only way to kill them in a speedy manner, though I haven't watched the Max demos in ages.

 

Rating 5/5

[gaspe]

MAP21: Another map that strongly ties to the Doom 2 Romero's style, starting with a Circle of Death aesthetics (and the BK area) though the map take mostly a different approch from the "precarious" ledge combat (like MAP12 does). It's a level that keeps to expanding with some, at times tough, opposition that will stop you at every step you make. There's a prominent use of flying monsters, and especially pain elementals. The final part with the mandatory killing of the AV and a baron (on UV) feels more like something made just to stretch the map, but I must say that it has a nice scenic effect and there's a swarm of cacodemons that awaits at the end. Stillnot many rockets on pistol start but the map is rather generous with the cells. There's a good architecture that is probably the highlight of the map visually since the areas are mainly monothematic rooms with a different main texture, and metal that links all together. The YK area was cool. One secret is a big optional area with a couple of cyberdemons on a pillar and few imps, looking in the editor it's the separate deathmatch arena but it's linkd to the main map.

Aside a couple of exceptions until the end of the wad there's a series of long maps ahead, you'd better run if you want to catch up.

[riderr3]

MAP21
Another quality map, as another openers like MAP12 and MAP01.
You can see here some of circles of deaths and many other round layouts.
This map is more concentrated on gameplay - progression is no confusing and have very good monster placement.
It looks and plays more like plutonia map in some cases.

I've finished map with 45% HP, it's seems there is no way back.

[Summer Deep]

MAP21:  This is a very solid level, the action well paced and balanced throughout, and the highlights being the testing but
enjoyable encounters after the player enters the courtyard with the rising floor. I died twice, once near the start while
foolishly trying to chainsaw the Lost Souls who were guarding the green armour (thumbs up for at least providing that
early on), then after falling into the slime pit surrounding the yellow key and finding three Pain Elementals in there.

 

I'd agree with Capellan that the final section is lacklustre. There's a very contrived, telegraphed arrangement to set up
infighting between the Baron and the Archvile, in which the Baron always seems to lose and never retaliates for some
reason. And that Cacoswarm is a very crass example of a device that is not in itself inherently subtle.

 

96% kills, 3/6 secrets

 

MAP22:  Quite a lot to like about this one, an early example being the opportunity to get the Revenants attacking the
Barons on the walkway beyond the red door. Then a really spectacular brouhaha can be generated if the player is quick to
lower the wall separating the Arachnotrons from the Barons and HKs, then lets them set about each other. There's also a
meaty slice of action to be enjoyed, albeit on a lesser scale, after the blue key is obtained.
 
It was fun for about a minute watching the Cyberdemon being crushed, though it's a bit of a gimmick and depends a lot on
whether the player has already visited the nukage area and activated the trap before the Cyber teleports there, otherwise
the situation is a whole lot trickier, and more interesting perhaps. Not so sure also about the huge glut of pinkies who
teleport to the tunnel area past the blue door - it's a bit of a grind dealing with them, and one hopes that excesses of
this sort will not become a regular feature of the wad as it enters its later stages.

 

It's also worth noting that the secret area with the BFG and 200 plasma cells is apparently only available once, so if you
have 600 cells when you visit it, then you won't be able to return later in order to top up your ammo.

 

98% kills, 3/12 secrets

 

[Capellan]

MAP22

A sprawling mostly techbase with a hot start and an amusingly duplicated secret. Bong bong bongbongbong!

 

The architecture is a bit wild for this to have a particularly strong sense of place, but its has some nice visual touches here and there and is surprisingly easy to navigate given the large number of blue and grey rooms dotted round the place. I would have preferred fewer mystery switches but at least it wasn't generally hard to track down a way forward, even if half the time I wasn't sure what I'd actually done.

 

[vdgg]

MAP20

If you name your map "The Experiment" you can get away with almost anything... but please, this SSG secret... marble?? In a nukage-base level? Oh well.

 

This leads to a problem, the secrets. Without them, you have shotgun, chaingun and the BFG... Maybe you're not helpless, but you're not well equipped. 

 

Many, many weird things in this level. If you noclip from the start area, you'll notice many passages are blocked and some teleporters are accessible. So I guess the map works as a deathmatch level also. I wonder if linedef 445 can be skipped, if yes, then the UV Speed record can be improved by a big margin.

 

Also, there's this cool lighting trick riderr3 mentioned, and also part of the big room with arachnotrons has brightness ZERO. There's a chaingunner and a medikit behind a fake wall (the medikit can neutralize the damage inflicted by the chaingunner). There's an imp in the red key room that tends to disappear. There's a cyberdemon you'll never see.

 

With all these quirks, I still give this map a 3, as not everything in it is ugly and also I like how violent it is. Two waves of teleporting chaingunners (9 each I think) is something brutal. This level is only easier than MAP15/19 because it is much shorter.

 

Rating 3/5

[Magnusblitz]

MAP20: The Experiment

95% kills, 1/4 secrets

 

I liked the start of this map as the MIDI, map title and first few areas combine to give it a good atmosphere and sense of place, but the rest of the map quickly takes a nosedive. Big square rooms connected by skinny hallways, with monsters very annoying or pointlessly placed (what's the point of that 4 noble/pain elemental cage?) We're back to only having popguns for the most part (at least until you get the BFG at the end for the cybers) which really slows things down, and I often ended up leaving monsters behind to go elsewhere. There's some interesting tricks engine-wise but in practice most of them are annoying like the fake water (since there's nowhere to easily leave except an invisible step), the weird "trampoline", etc. I do really like that lighting trick with the 'pulse' whenever the player steps in though, that's something I think could be a really cool effect somewhere.

 

[galileo31dos01]

MAP19: The Shaft

 

This map has the recipe for a fun experience, casually. Recording it was a little painful and nerve-wracking at times, though. It's more of the cramped combat we've seen so far, combined with running naked until a nice blue armor is provided, in a secret. And there are a couple of ridiculous placements like the mancubus that barely fits in that tiny room. But I felt like the map became actually interesting after the first hub, that is, the quadruple teleporters. I wrote down my preferred sequence on a handkerchief, because that's I had in hand at that moment, and also drew the elevator part to really not miss anything. Unfortunately, in spite of practicing that part a lot, I couldn't get the computer map in time: you have to anticipate the alcoves and shoot rockets to the spectres, which have to die quickly by splash radius, then rush to the PR and back to the computer map, it's super tight and not a requirement to the max, but I like scoring 100% items so, whatever. The marble area was another cool section with solid monster usage, but my highlight was the ruined subterranean section, one of the most memorable parts in the whole megawad imo, both aesthetically and atmospherically.

 

Anyways, I apparently missed a mandatory monster somewhere, so if anyone wonders why I retreated at the end, it's because of that. And I heard that motherf...

 

 

Edited November 22, 2018 by galileo31dos01

[vdgg]

MAP21

Now, this mapper. He never uses gradient lighting, yet his maps look fine. Here we have a nice metal/brick/zimmer combination of textures, all toned, nothing garish, just "nice".

 

I'm somehow not convinced by the gameplay. It certainly is more fun running to the exit as quickly as possible than killing 100%, which takes a bit too long. There's a pretty weird shortcut, the blue key is immediately accessible by pressing linedef 28, that is, only one side of a normal SUPPORT3 pillar near the key. Maybe it was used for playtesting and never deleted afterwards.

 

Joining the club of those who like the yellow key setup. Nicely done.

 

I still like the map less than Andy's STRAIN entry, and even his MM entry (more memorable). For those of you who like his style, check out ZAP28 and ZAP18.

Rating 4/5

[gaspe]

MAP22: The beginning can be tricky to manage on pistol start, it's a hot start for this wad standards. Near the start you can also find a secret BFG plus 2 cell packs but they are availabe only one time so you'd better to take those once you used a good ammount of cells, or if you found the secret backpack nearby. Taking those is important because the ammo balance seems generous but it can go down quickly since when you start to reach the inner areas of the base there are many tough monsters, in particular lots of barons are used in the level. In the courtyard with the pools of different liquids there's a semi-concealed room with a cyberdemon that also contains the blue armor of the level, then you can obtain some armor only in another place. I didn't remember that you can kill the cyberdemon with the crushers. Also near that courtyard there's also the access to the upper area with the exit; it isn't mandatory to go there until you have the YK but you can find some useful ammo there and there is also located a non-official secret with a megasphere, which is the other item to use to get armor. Behind the blue door there's a big flock of pinkies that never seems to end, and later it will also be released an archvile that can cause some trouble. Visually is a very good looking level and I like the variety of the design, though the main theme is of tan bricks that make the biggest portion of the base. I like the wood parts at the start and the various blue computer rooms, and those have some nice pseudo "3D" effects. My favorite thing of the map is the view of the nukage sea and how with a duct the green slime goes into various machines and it ends in the sewer tunnel.

[riderr3]

MAP22
That's a long map with long way to yellow door. Many backtracking.
The start is probably rough for pistol starters and lacking medikits.
Tried to reach that silver teleporter pedestal, but it's seems to be impossible if you jumping from the lift.
Interesting usage of sectors which served both as doors and lifts, depend from which sides it's accessed.
I've lured cyberdemon out, but didn't encountered him later. Nice view to nukage lake with red mountains.
 

[Capellan]

MAP23

Not a big fan of the four-way teleporter – would prefer 4 separate ones - though at least it has strong visual cues as to what it is.

 

This is a map with a whole lot of trap-based gameplay, where you walk across a line and drop in the middle of many monsters, or a floor insta-raises to surround you with monsters, or walls drop and monsters comne in. And sure, that's all part of Doom (well, not the insta-raises, I never like those when they're in your face because it feels so cheap), but it does get a bit same same after a while here.

 

Fortunately, there's generally enough space that you can dodge around stuff – probably pretty easily by modern standards – and leave large clumps of monsters in your dust. I didn't engage anything in the blue key room, the cyber room or the exit room, for instance, and several other times killed only enough to make it to the door out of there.

 

Health felt very tight early on, especially given all the hitscanners, but got more generous as the map progressed.

 

Visually this was competent but not especially interesting, and a bit blocky on the whole.

 

[rehelekretep]

map22 fda

glboom+, uv, pistol start

ok map. lots of backtracking along corridors which isnt the most fun

given the bfg early (via a secret) but not much ammo. same with the rocket launcher. ssg or nothing!

i picked up a berserk but then completey forgot i had it so ammo was a lot tighter than it shouldve been :x

[Spectre01]

MAP31 - “DejaVu” by Orin Flaharty

A very subtle e1m7 homage with a bunch of easy secrets that show up on the automap. Did a pistol start here for whatever reason. I spent the majority of the map punching dudes with the Berserk because it's overall quite easy as long as you pick off the Sergeants first. Works well as a secret map. 

[Spectre01]

MAP32 - “Dances with Demons” by David Kuykendall

An even more subtle Dead Simple homage where, for some reason, half the monsters are Pinkies. Ok. The only real surprise are the 2 Cyberdemons at the end. Just hose them down with plasma or SSG.

[Spectre01]

MAP16 - “The Nephilim” by Denis Möller

Big fan of the midi as well as the transforming room shown above. Cool map in general with liberal use of Mancubi and frequent changes in elevation for a real 3D experience.