The DWmegawad Club plays: Witness of Time & Monument & Unwelcome

[Deadwing]

7: Another cramped techbase, although this time it felt a lot more linear than the previous map, giving a bigger sense of adventure. I started playing with 30% health, and with the tight health placement, I had to be really careful with the corners and those pesky shotgunners. In the end, I got a strong feeling of this being a more elaborate map1, where you go into a "branch" to get a key and reach back the initial area , allowing you to use access the next locked area, also opening the map to different parts (giving a good illusion of non-linearity). The YK area was pretty interesting, although I was expecting more enemies when its final trap got activated, and the invincibility secret was another really fun setpiece.

 

Others traps made me take more conservative routes (running into safety), due to low health, but the final one was a remarkable one, with a good baron placement (which was one of the main qualities of this wad - baron's are really hard to use, imo) and I felt that the most conservative way to deal with it was to run over through the lost souls so I could get some some space to take down the baron.

 

8: And here's is the finale! I remember well that level, it's really easy to stuck in your mind with a very remarkable layout and setpiece. The void setting with the open space makes this a refreshing map and a pretty good closer, although it isn't really that hard. After you kill all the Cyberdemons, you're good to go :D I didn't care much about the roaming monsters, so I let them in-fight with the Cyber, with made them to be more vulnerable and easier to target with the BFG (or rockets). Anyway, a great closer for a great journey :)

 

9: I should've played this before, trying to find the secret exit lol It's a really fun short arena styled map, which is very distinct from the previous maps. Again a very good Baron + Cacodemons placement, putting pressure on the player while he has to move without falling down and losing momentum. It's another good breather from the cramped techbases and one of my favorites from the set, although it's definetely shorter.

[TheOrganGrinder]

All right, time to get started on Unwelcome.  I've played this before, but that was the RC1 version of the WAD, dated to November of last year or so, and I didn't make it all the way through in any event.  ZDoom, Hurt Me Plenty, continuous play with saves.

 

MAP01: Unforgiven

 

Right from the title screen, a tiled wallpaper of staring, unblinking eyes, you're confronted with the fact that this is going to be a strange experience.  Central to that is the custom palette, built around layers of desatured colours that might as well be grey next to the bold shades of fuchsia and teal that pop alarmingly from the muted background tones.  Is this a fever dream, an acid trip, some corrosion of Doom toward a more primitive technological paradigm?  Certainly the truncation of the usual broad range of colours, in combination with the gloomy spaces of this first level, calls to mind memories of playing games on my father's Amstrad CPC 464, all splashes of bold colour leaping out from black backgrounds.  It's an aesthetic that continues in the choice of music, and in the map's overall layout, all disjointed spaces and odd angles and curious transitions that suggest a Frankenstein's monster of a level, a hodge-podge of pieces stitched coarsely together and cemented with scar tissue and coagulated blood.  That isn't to say that the level doesn't work, far from it; the disjointedness is wholly purposeful, the hodge-podge quality reminiscent of the way the dreaming minds constructs a nightmare out of cherry-picked and dissected memories and half-forgotten horrors.

 

The map doesn't hold the player's hand, choosing neither to make weapons readily available (with the exception of the chainsaw) nor to make the objective immediately clear; eventually it will become apparent that, roaming through the distant corners of the level and standing on a succession of floor switches, you're assembling a staircase to grant access to a fleshy door.  I think a player could spent a lot of time in the early moments of this map, trying different routes, exploring in different directions, sometimes stumbling into an inescapable mess before finally puzzling out something resembling an optimal order to its various spaces and encounters.  And then the level ends on a note that's just as strange as anything that's come before: The deed is done.  Open your eyes.  The eye symbol may functionally be little more than a variant exit sign telling you were to go to to conclude the level, but the tone it sets is a different one indeed.

[Sui Generis]

Now on to Unwelcome. I think we're all actually a bit behind schedule now if it was supposed to start on the 20th? Not that it matters. I guess this way does cut down on the dead period at the end of the month.

 

I play UV continuous with saves in PRBoom+

 

MAP01 - Unforgiven - 4/4 Secrets
I'm slightly bewildered - this is a rather unusual and very conceptual episode. The new palette turns down the colour to virtually monotone levels, but pumps up and lightens the blues and reds. This is immediately highlighted in the starting room with it's greyed out concrete textures, all familiar in the mind from their many years of play and yet wrong. These are juxtaposed against the suddenly vibrant fireblu. It's undoubtedly a unique aesthetic. As you progress out into the level. the usual kinds of things I think I like in a map seem to matter less - the relevance of texturing drops, it looks as though as the map would look quite simple in normal circumstances, but with the volume turned down, then instead lighting and contrast with the highlights comes to the fore. The gentle music reinforces this and adds to the surreal quality of the map.

 

The gameplay is more familiar, but potentially quite top-heavy and ammo starved initially - at one point I had used up most of my shells on a hell knight and had to resort to chainsawing a revenant. However I also respect @TheOrganGrinder's take, that it's fitting for the player's initial steps to be subject to some confusion and difficulty; however a bit like the fog of tiredness lifting after one awakens from sleep things do start to come together, weapons and ammo are found, and the progression method with floor switches raising stairs becomes apparent and intuitive (thanks to the first being so nearby).

 

Most of the map is indoors, but the one small outdoor view of the sky and the river is a colour explosion after all the drabness and takes a moment for the eyes to adjust - naturally this is flanked by a pair of open eyes. There's also an amusing secret involving 2 keys, whose pay-off is a single health potion(!) - I had the feeling that the map was toying with me. Finally, the exit switch as already described by TheOrganGrinder is essentially a gimmick, but in the context of this wads style, it was perfectly appropriate, until I was then forced back into briefly wandering around in confusion again until I stumbled on the actual exit.

[Salt-Man Z]

Good to see a couple of folks getting started on Unwelcome. I've been unable to keep pace myself, but as I stated upfront, part of the plus of doing multiple episodes in a month is it's easy to jump back in when the new WAD kicks in. I do have a couple of writeups pending for Monument, and of course I haven't quite finished either of the first two WADs, but now let's dip into Unwelcome!

 

I actually played Unwelcome for the first time back in May. I had downloaded it a bit ago, and actually gave MAP01 a quick run-through (to make sure everything loaded properly, as you do) and it scared me off with its difficulty! So when I did get around to playing it earlier this year, I dialed it down to HMP. I will replaying it on UV now, GZDoom/continuous/saves/keyboard-only per usual.

 

MAP01: Unforgiven

12:26 | 100% Everything

This is a fantastic introductory map for the WAD, because it (mostly!) gets you ready for everything that lies ahead. Immediately you see the crazy palette of dull greys punctuated by bright magentas and teals, and you hear the mildly-unnerving background music. You also are immediately faced with a fork in the road: do you go left or right? Both times I'd played previously, I'd gone right, so this time I went left just because. Either way, you run into some heavies quickly: the right way gets you a revenant, pain elementals, and at one point a manc. The left way gets you some knights and cacos (a lot more cacos on UV than HMP, it seemed.) I feel like the lefthand path went smoother, grabbing an early shotgun and a decent trickle of shells. (The righthand's rocket launcher is handy, but dangerous in the narrow passages.) You'll quickly figure out the main mechanics for progression, including floor switches that change color when pressed, and of course the exit switch that reveals its sinister-sounding message, which you'll eventually figure out means you can now return to the starting point to exit. In this map, there are four switches that raise pillars creating a stairway to the exit switch, though you only need three of the four (you can skip the lowest pillar and reach the second from the edge of the pool.) Progression isn't entirely clear, but thankfully the map's footprint is small enough that it's easy to quickly figure out where new stuff opens up. The keyed secret is a nice bit of trolling. And the couple of glimpses outside are fantastic. A good map to kick off a great WAD.

[Magnusblitz]

Unwelcome MAP01: Unforgiven

100% kills, 2/4 secrets

 

Well this is certainly different. The palette (mostly grey with some pink and aqua turned up) certainly stands out, and it was kinda interesting seeing some of the results... at one point I had a caco moving around in dark shade, for example, and all I could see was a little dash of aqua hovering back and forth that looked a lot like the nearby health bonuses. There's also some interesting texture use like the flesh walls (now bright hot pink) as doors, which helps them stand out. Certainly interested stuff and I'll like to see where it goes.

[galileo31dos01]

We need to get this to minimum 6 pages. Everything is possible.

 

 

E2M7: Hunt ‘em Highnlow

 

Yes, the theme of dark, sprawling, demonized bases is almost over. I don't want to say finally though, as fun has been there above any minor details. However, echoing others, with this solo theme expressed in similar styles of gameplay, layout and progression, there's not much for me to say that stood out. It did intrigue me to never find certain powerful weapons present in previous maps, or combat elements that didn't show that teeth we'd usually see in a penultimate map: SG/CG shine throughout for the most part in low-key situations we have seen already, conspicuous lack of a RL to perhaps blow a few groups of weaklings, PR/'zerk for the last two stretches plus a godsphere for some silly punching, albeit neutralizing the trap. It blended well with the strict health management, where both the soulsphere and megaarmor were high rewards for observing with attention, not so simple to find so nice there... Then again, Monument is a collection of older releases, refined to fit in the project, and it occurs to me the author didn't have the typical difficulty buildup in mind, which is perfectly valid. Hansen always provided good flow between areas, easy understanding of what to do, fights were decent, but left me thirsty for something a bit more, spicy, that wasn't there. Maybe the final map guards the real standout of the set...

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

E2M8: Domain of Evil

 

Sure, I'll take this. In fact, I replayed this map another three times to find ways to reduce time for a more satisfactory demo. Very fun concept for an episode closure, great take on the pitch dark background for added atmosphere, great midi, but have still to point out one thing: part of the waves of cacos tended to remain stuck outside the windows, particularly close to the bridge they just hanged there forever each time, and one has to track them to the main area somehow. Another minor thing and most possibly a mishap from playing how I played is that the imps, cybers and cacos blocked the three ways to the central room on my way back after releasing them. This would have not happened if played conservatively, I suppose. If not then infighting has to happen, and that's where I preferred to not interfere. Once it was just cyberdemons, BFG kissed them goodbye and yay victory!

 

Also, I saved the first attempt in case anyone wants to watch it (monument_e2m8bonus.zip), surprised the map ended that quick, usually takes two or three seconds after the last boss-type monster dies. Anyways I'm going to bed...

 

Spoiler

 

 

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP02: Unknowable

 

Oh, I remember this one from playing through an earlier release candidate of the WAD, with its gunfire-activated liquid barriers serving as airlocks of a sort between one area of the level and the next.  It's something of a puzzle map, with its alternation between two states (fuchsia doors open vs. teal doors open) compelling the player to think about "okay, if I can get into position x when the level is in state y, I can do z..." and a succession of knife switches making further, permanent changes to the level as you progress.  It's not just a puzzle map, though, since the combat encounters to be found herein are plenty ferocious, ranging from a pair of revenants to punch out at the start, to a Cyberdemon blocking your path to the switch that activates the exit.  I think the biggest pile of health that I lost to a single encounter happened in the south-west corner of the map, when a switch that I thought would open a set of bars also popped open the shutters holding back a host of lost souls; I've got no-one to blame for that but myself, though, for failing to parse those liquid textures as doors/shutters and not just decoration.

[Sui Generis]

MAP02 - Unknowable - 2/2 Secrets
So this map feels slightly more conventional and more recognisably Doomy compared with the last one, except of course for the shootable switch puzzle theme running through it. The two colours of Unknown are employed in double doors that must be gunfire-switched by firing from the other side to flip them and permit passage. It's a pretty clever idea and is satisfying to puzzle through. Normally I'm a bit sceptical of puzzle maps, as sometimes they tend to be (in my opinion) a cover for inscrutable, poorly discernible progression, but this case is entirely the opposite. It requires thought but is unlikely to pose a problem for many people - it's just good, well thought out fun.

 

Combat is generally small scale, with there being little in the way of incidental fighting, which is to be expected in a concept wad. However some of the fights can catch you off guard, for example the two revenant welcoming party early on which pistol starters must fight with the berserk, and like @TheOrganGrinder I also lost unnecessary extra health at the pain elemental/sergeants/lost souls section - damn those dratted PEs. There are also a few revvies along the way with attendant risk of a health smashing accident if you're dodging goes wrong and the RNG plays hard ball. There is a useful secret plasma rifle although it's only available late in the level.

 

At the exit switch the blocking cyb is near a crusher which I noted is in the general direction of the secret plasma rifle room. I assumed this wasn't a coincidence and there must be a puzzley solution, so instead of  fighting it I woke the monsters and then took the cowards conservative way out and teleported back to the plasma rifle room, and went for a cup of tea whilst waiting for the cyb to be squished! I like to presume that was intentional and a designed solution though, as otherwise I would feel shamefully cheesy. Still I got to keep all the plasma and armour for the next level though. It was actually quite relaxing really what with the soothing music, notwithstanding the angry mechanical stomping and occasional agonised screams of the cyb, of course. Fun, clever map!

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP02: Unknowable

16:13 | 100% Everything

Puzzle maps live or die on how well the puzzle element is executed, and this level positively shines. Not only is the single puzzle element communicated early, it makes you think without being too tricky. And there's a visceral element to it as well, where the movement and "thunk!" as the walls slide into place makes for a highly-satisfying sensation. I'll confess those those surprise revenants at the start killed me the first try. I don't think they were there in HMP (maybe some imps or something instead?) In general I had a much easier time navigating this map than I did back in May; I don't feel like I really remembered too much of the tricks of progression, maybe it's just I was already comfortable with the puzzle mechanism, I dunno. Like @Sui Generis, I was able to trick Cybie into the crusher, though it was entirely accidental; I heard what was happening through the walls, and then when I went back up to face him, a handful of cells finished him off. Unlike Sui, I did not lose much health to the PE/souls, what I did lose was all of my copious bullets, meaning I had only shells left to trigger distant switches. (Thankfully I only needed to trigger 3 or 4 from that point on.) One of the secrets here (a box of rockets, I think) is apparently a single-use switch that I thankfully caught just in time; last time I only saw the door as it was closing. Anyway, I love this map. It's so clever! Actually reminded me a lot of the switch puzzles you'll get in a Zelda game.

[galileo31dos01]

Unwelcome is eight maps so we're still having extra days to catch up with everything at the end of the month. Let's get deep into CGA Doom!

 

 

MAP01: Unforgiven

 

My first impression when Unwelcome came out was "Damn, this gotta be something"'. After downloading the beta and booting it, I was left open-mouthed, that only by seeing the start room a storm of memories went in my head. I used to play a bunch of DOS games when I was a little kid, and many of those in 4 colours, beautiful innocent times. Never pictured Doom would look so, striking, this way, with such limitation of colours but it creates a whole different experience. Now onto the level itself, people here already described the map in the best and complex ways possible (if the caged monster placement in Monument reminded me to Demon of the Well, since he always had strong opinions on that sort of trope, TheOrganGrinder's rich-in-vocabulary texts also does :P). So I'm simply adding that I really dug the quirkiness of the opener, the mood the music put me in, as if I was trapped in another dimension or something. The little troll-ish secret made me laugh, certainly a hint from the mapper that this wad's probably not meant to be taken so seriously, which doesn't equal "like a walk in the park" (;. Anyways, great stuff.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Magnusblitz]

MAP02: Unknowable

100% kills, 1/2 secrets

 

So I'm gathering that each map will have a different sort of puzzle, which is fine by me. This one has doors of both colors, only one of which can be opened at a time (as opening one will close the other) so there's definitely some thinking required to progress. I did feel that the latter half of the map felt less puzzle-ly and more just having only one possible direction to go, and the combat wasn't too inspiring (far too much single-shotgunning of hell knights, for example). The PE/lost soul area definitely took a big chunk of health from me too, though that was mostly because I was running really dry on ammo by that point.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP03: Unhuman

 

This one is pretty straightforward in its structure, laid out as a central hub from which two separate wings/puzzle-rooms divide, loop around, and reconnect; you can look around the hub, take in the keys, the doors, the long northward hallway with its damaging floor and a gargantuan skull-switch at its far end, and the radiation suit behind two sets of bars, and very quickly piece together what's expected of you.  I found the left-hand path to be rather less of a puzzle than the right-hand route, and even in terms of combat it's a bit more straightforward; yes there's a lot of meat to cut your way through (a hell knight, a pain elemental, a pair of mancubi, plus no shortage of imps up on the balconies) but in general your opposition there is positioned ahead of you, waiting to be blasted, rather than the pincer ambush involving both teleporters and a lowering wall in the "piston chamber" on the eastern side of the map.  And then it's back to the hub and yes I ran past the Cyberdemon this time because I so didn't have the firepower on hand to deal with him, and I'd found in necessary to thin out the incoming crowds to the point that I couldn't count on them to take him out by proxy.

[Chris Hansen]

Just popped in to say a BIG THANK YOU for having played and written such immersive and honest reviews of the Monument levels! I enjoyed reading all your comments and thoughts about the levels. So, thank you @Deadwing, @Sui Generis, @Salt-Man Z, @TheOrganGrinder, @Magnusblitz and @galileo31dos01! Your time and effort is inspirational and commendable!

[Magnusblitz]

MAP03: Unhuman

100% kills, 1/2 secrets

 

Yup, this one is pretty straightforward, being focused more on combat than puzzles (of which I'd say there's only really one, the timing lift puzzle in the blue door wing). Even with having more high-tier enemies I actually found the combat easier than last map due to ample supplies (tons of health and a nice amount of rocket ammo). Might run a bit dry at the end; I did manage to hold off on using any ammo on the crowd at the end and let the cyber slay them all, still had to finish him off with the shotgun though.

[galileo31dos01]

MAP02: Unknowable

 

Interesting idea, soon or later the new palette was going to take the role in the main gameplay. I felt there were definitely some hits and some misses perhaps that didn't work as the author pictured:

 

- The first room is a clever introduction both to show the specific functionality of the switches, as well as mandatory boxing (contrary to the first map where chainsaw was more of a safety tool).

- Next setup took me a minute to get, should be trickiest puzzle of the map as you have to stand a certain distance away from the switches. That being said, this is a great use of shootable switches. 

- Past the first roofless hallway, the right side has a little trap with lost souls, which was simple to skip and they never see you, as shown in the video. On a blind playthrough everyone will most likely fall in the illusion, I found the cheese after dying once later. 

- Cyber and revs room, because infighting in cl-11 is goddamn weird, there's no reliable way to have the cyber busy with the revs long enough to flip the switches safely, nevermind the box of rockets under the crusher, but I'm talking from a keyboarder perspective, guess with the mouse you can work it out better... though with knowledge of the PR secret there's no need to yolo that part. Was expecting the crusher to deal higher damage, when I heard the cyber on pain only, but nope. 

 

The other side was straightforward incidental combat in the road, didn't seem to use the puzzle idea in any significant way, which was strange but no big deal. Rest of the map flowed pretty fine. Must praise the abundance of flesh around, looked sickening in bubblegum pink. I almost don't find the exit since it was covered of dead imps lol

 

Side note: maps 02 and 03 are missing the titles in the tally. This is because of a typo in the lumps: both say "CWIL01, CWIL02", when the correct names are CWILVXX. There's also a potential sequence-breaker in map 03 which I'll talk about later. Paging @Plusw to make sure they read this.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited August 25, 2019 by galileo31dos01

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP04: Unbound

 

Right up until I flipped the giant skull switch to be greeted with the now-familiar "The deed is done.  Open your eyes," message, I was thinking to myself that this level felt more like a conventional Doom map than any that had come before.  It's quick to lay out its objectives, showing you the skull switch behind two sets of coloured posts before sending you off into the depths of the map to retrieve the corresponding keys; there are battles and traps to be found waiting for you, but no real puzzles, nothing so jarringly strange as you stumbled your way through in the first three maps of the set.  I'll admit I was perplexed by the purpose of the secret area in the courtyard, at least until I subsequently revisited the room after opening the path to the giant skull switch; it's entirely possible to press the hidden switches before you've crossed the trigger linedef, which does lead to some visual peculiarity.  Other than that, though, the first half of the level could be resaturated and exported to another project and wouldn't seem at all out of place there.

 

And then you hit the giant skull switch and things are not at all as they were before; turning around to retrace your steps to the start of the level, you might at first think that someone has simply turned out the lights, but everything around you has changed and you've got a fresh set of obstacles to overcome before you can make scramble your way to respite.  It's a wonderful bit of pacing, a slow game that plays out over the first half of the level to incrementally coax the player's guard down, a bait-and-switch at what ought to be the last minute that instead catches the player in their most vulnerable moment, when they're about as satisfied and as relaxed as a Doom player is ever going to be.

[Capellan]

+++ Nanopineapple

 

[Plusw]

Thank you guys so much for playing Unwelcome! I'm not around of the forums much these days as I'm busy with a non Doom related game project, so it took @galileo31dos01s mention for me to notice this thread. In regards to his post, I was in quite a hurry messing with all of the DEHACKED and general wad editing so I'm not surprised I made some typos... As for the MAP03 sequence break, I believe I know what you're talking about but I'm pretty sure I put in a failsafe at some point. My memory is a little vague however.

[galileo31dos01]

Two suggestions: Garrulismo and NDCP1, the first is a solid D2 the way Spanish people did that gets better towards the latter half, the second is a community project and thus a mixed bag, think between CChest 2 and 3 of quality should be a fair analogy. Nanopineapple is interesting too. Think some lesser known easily accessible wads from time to time would hurt nobody (:

 

+++ NDCP1 because we can't vote more :(

 

 

MAP03: Unhuman

 

Right, a slightly toxic environment to start with a long stretch in the middle and a giant switch at the end, suspiciously thin and underpopulated for the moment. You're given two choices where either is comparatively okay to pick first. I blindly chose the pink skull for breakfast and stuck to that route. As that was the basic concept, it appealed to me more to leave the little lift puzzle for lunch. The final meal included all those monsters I was expecting to see, bubblegum barons and whatnot, plus a cyberdemon desert. There was no stronger weapon than the RL available so the walking chocolate cow had to die to bullets, while myself trying not to swallow too much slime. All being said, I really enjoyed each section and the overall idea.

 

Now for the potential bug, in one of my attempts I managed to flip the skull switch at the end of the tunnel without the wall of text appearing, which also didn't lower two of the columns in the start room nor lowered the fireblu barrier, so I was unable to exit. I can't really point out why that happened, here's the demo if it helps: unwelcome_03fail.zip

 

A fun fact, irrelevant from a casual playthrough, it is actually possible to survive the middle tunnel to the switch and skip the keyed sections. Requires SR40 or 50 idk, super precise timing to derail the first hit on toxic, and maybe good RNG is obligatory. I found out by curiosity, but really it's nothing to worry about, because it's essentially a speedrun/pacifist thing.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Spectre01]

+++ Adonis + Misc 15ish map set

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP05: Unspeakable

 

This is once again a map that I feel is more about its (relatively conventional) combat gameplay than the WAD's unique palette and peculiar atmosphere.  The layout consists of a succession of chambers around a central hub, with periodic opportunities to return from the outer loop to the hub to resupply as necessary; everything's quite neatly carved up into (relatively) manageable chunks, and my one attempt to rush through a particular overwhelming-at-first-glance encounter area in the hopes of finding safer ground beyond ended... poorly.  The lack of significant puzzles and the straightforward progression from one area to the next game me something of an opportunity to focus on what the WAD is doing aesthetically, to appreciate its texture and its decision to abandon a paradigm of representational design for one that is purely about the feel of spaces as you're navigating, light and dark and bursts of bold colour engaging your brain and your sense of the environment in a raw and unmoderated way.

 

As a quick note, I ended this map with one monster not killed (it was probably something that failed to teleport in, but I'm not sure exactly which monster or why) and the linedefs forming the eye logo are assigned Walk Over Once rather than Walk Over Repeatable status, so it is possible to disable the exit by walking back and forth through that section too much prior to hitting the giant skull switch.

 

Also, no vote for next month from me, as I will have other commitments and won't be able to participate.

[SiFi270]

+++ Demon Eclipse E1 (both the limit removing version from 2004 and the standalone ZDoom version from 2014), Hell-Forged

[Deadwing]

+++Lunar Catastrophe

Edited August 26, 2019 by Deadwing

[gaspe]

+++Garrulismo

[Demon of the Well]

+++ Bloodspeed

[baja blast rd.]

+++ Mayhem '19 and Paradise

[Chainie]

+++ Bloodspeed

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP06: Undying

 

I'm sure this is the largest map in the WAD so far, a sprawling ordeal that feels to me like nothing so much as a fever-dream hybrid of MAP15: Industrial Zone and MAP24: The Chasm.  Darkness abounds, as do long drops into the endless sea of toxic slime above which the whole map is so precariously constructed; it's designed in such a way that it does an excellent job of hammering home just how small, exposed, and fragile the player is, with monsters of all sorts slinging fireballs and plasma from distant corners of the map, catching you from unexpected angles and in vulnerable moments.  Foremost among these is the Cyberdemon who reigns over all from the centre of the map, and who has to be turned loose from his high castle so that you can snatch the blue key from beneath his mismatched hooves, but there are plenty of other memorable encounters to be had here.

 

The nature of the map's central puzzle may not be clear initially, and it's easy enough to mistake the first puzzle piece that you find for some kind of button or indicator rather than part of a combination; it's not until you've encountered several such strips of blocks, each with a different block highlighted in one of two different colours, that their interrelation and purpose becomes clear, and it's entirely possible to have found four or five parts of the combination before you stumble across the lock that you've got to plug those scattered fragments of data into.  I rather wish I'd started noting them down sooner; I'd have saved myself some backtracking that way!  It's interest to me that one of the eight pieces of data is tucked away in a secret area; one missing piece out of eight leaves you with only minimal brute-force iteration to do if you don't find the secret, it's not going to slow you down outrageously, but it's something that helps the secret area in question feel as though you're being rewarded with more than just another box of rockets.

[meapineapple]

...Can I vote for my own megawad? I would love to see what everybody thinks of this one. Thank you Capellan and galileo for your interest!

 

+++ Nanopineapple

 

[Roofi]

+++ Bloodspeed