Long Road, No Turns. a 21K monster map. [released]

[mArt1And00m3r11339]

@Benjogami I finally beat your level. It took me nearly 9 hours to beat it.

0longroad_rc2_01.zip

[Benjogami]

On 4/18/2019 at 2:54 AM, mArt1And00m3r11339 said:

@Benjogami I finally beat your level. It took me nearly 9 hours to beat it.

0longroad_rc2_01.zip

Wow, nice! I've been really busy, but I'll definitely watch when I have a chance. 

[Grain of Salt]

It's actually 12+ hours if you watch the deleted scenes etc

 

Spoiler

This was a lord of the rings joke

 

[mArt1And00m3r11339]

13 hours ago, Grain of Salt said:

It's actually 12+ hours if you watch the deleted scenes etc

 

  Hide contents

This was a lord of the rings joke

 

I wonder what happens in the Lord of the Rings scene.

[Benjogami]

This is now finished and on idgames. Thanks everyone for your feedback!

 

Download: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/j-l/longroad

 

Changes in the final release: turned cybers around to prevent pacifist cheese, fixed false contrast issue in MAP02/MAP16. (thanks Krull!)

[Gorxen]

Well this was.... something else... wow, 16 hours to beat it, but that's cause I'm one of those methodical, slow and careful kinda doom players. Loved it and hated it at the same time, which means it was awesome. 5 star to this one, thanks benjo :D

[Red Recluse]

13 killer streets some are more creatively precious.

[Shepardus]

I played through Long Road, No Turns more than once, AMA:

 

First playthrough was the combined map on ITYTD, second playthrough was the split version on HNTR. In both runs I played through each section in a single segment and saved after each.

 

It's quite the relaxing map on ITYTD, good way to turn off your brain and unwind. Less so on HNTR, because there's a greater risk of getting nuked by certain enemy types. The ITYTD damage reduction goes a long way (even if the double ammo doesn't), not only because there's effectively twice as much health on the map but also because it lets you play with less of a safety buffer and get more out of each megasphere. The only part I had any trouble with on ITYTD was the cyberdemons section. On HNTR, the revenants section gave me the most trouble (though I threw a lot of attempts at that when I was too tired to have any business playing Doom), followed by imps (or rather, lost souls, and my own rocket launcher), then cyberdemons.

 

I love how this map flies in the face of the "grind is bad" mindset. It makes no pretense about not being an hours-long grindfest, and is all the better for it. It's a war of attrition where the primary resource is the megasphere count, unlike many other WADs where megaspheres are effectively a reset. That and the looming threat of arch-viles resurrecting each other into an unstoppable deathball gives this a sort of tug of war dynamic uncommon in Doom.

 

I also appreciate the texturing and lighting choices; it's nothing mindblowing, but they showcase the versatility of the stock textures in conveying a variety of moods even geometry more reminiscent of Rise of the Triad than your average Doom map.

 

Anyway, great map, I enjoyed playing it! I might give this a try on HMP and/or UV at some point, but I still make too many careless mistakes for some sections. It was already several months between these two playthroughs so the next one probably won't be for a while.