What's the best megawad you've ever played and why?

[Skullhacker]

The best megawad I've ever played was Eviternity. It's an inspiration. I love everything about it, from it's compatibility to it's music and levels.

How about you?

[Biodegradable]

I haven't been playing community-made map packs for very long, but right now I'd say my personal favourites are UAC Ultra and Deathless. Also, an honourable mention to 25 Years Later that I'm currently playing with the Doomworld MegaWAD Club for this month.

[Horus]

Hard for me to pick between Eviternity, Ancient Aliens and Valiant tbh. Valiant being the most consistent, Eviternity with the most 'wow' moments but also the most amount of levels I don't like out of the three, Ancient Aliens in between the two.

[sergeirocks100]

it's a tie between NOVA: The Birth and the original 1995 version of Mr. Smiley's Head Safari

[KazumaKillyou]

It's very hard to pick favorites for me but one of my favorites thus far has been Going Down. Charming, challenging, technically impressive, it's an all around good time if you don't mind getting bullied a little

[Doomkid]

It's honestly impossible to pick just one. My gut instinct is to blurt out Memento Mori but the truth is there's about 20 tied for first place for a wide variety of different reasons. Even more if we include DM megawads. They all have their own appeal.

[ReaperAA]

3 hours ago, Skullhacker said:

The best megawad I've ever played was Eviternity. It's an inspiration. I love everything about it, from it's compatibility to it's music and levels.

How about you?

 

Eviternity is also my favorite wad. The reason is that it feels like a wad that was "designed for me". Pretty much everything in it like difficulty, aesthetics, use of custom monsters, music, level-to-level connection etc. all align with my preferences.

[Snark]

Going down for me too. It's just... unique. The design of the levels, the music, the humor just build up this feeling of hilarious terror one  thankfully rarely encounters in real life.And there's this map called Insanity in it which is... just... well you just have to play it. I still don't understand how the author did that "thing" at the end.

[plums]

1 hour ago, KazumaKillyou said:

It's very hard to pick favorites for me but one of my favorites thus far has been Going Down.

Like @Doomkid said it's impossible to pick just one, but if I had to choose at gunpoint this would be what I'd go with. It's just so jam-packed with fun and funny moments, and also enemies.

 

I'm also playing @Eradrop's Avactor right now, prompted by discussion on Woof compatibility, and it's totally my thing, definitely in my top 5 for sure. I guess it's not technically a "megawad" but there's enough content there that I'm counting it anyhow. I'm a sucker for forest/jungle/temple maps with a sense of exploration.

 

Another contender is Epic 2, which is funny because while I liked it when I first played it, it didn't really wow me. But I kept thinking about it after I played it, and I loved it when I went and replayed it earlier this year.

 

A few people have mentioned Eviternity and Ancient Aliens. I played both recently, and I liked both of them, but I didn't absolutely love them. Eviternity in particular I felt I should have liked more than I actually did and I'm still not sure why -- it ticks off a lot of the boxes for things I like, but I never really felt engaged with it the same way I do with some other wads. I still enjoyed it though. Funnily, my favourite maps in both Eviternity and Ancient Aliens were secret maps by "guest" mappers who had a large hand in non-mapping development, maps 32 (Anagnorisis by @ukiro) and 31 (Grey Dwarf by @stewboy) respectively.

Edited June 20, 2020 by plums

[Chezza]

Other than the actual Doom Wads I would say Going Down

[Roofi]

I will nominate Hell Revealed 2.

 

I love the simple aesthetics , the music , the "hard" and gimmicky gameplay.

[pcorf]

There are so many to choose from I could mention 20 different megawads but I can only mention 1 and that is Doom the Way id Did: The Lost Episodes. It may not be the greatest but it is my cup of tea, some very solid classic maps in that one.

[Biodegradable]

1 hour ago, Doomkid said:

It's honestly impossible to pick just one. 

 

There's over 20 years worth of community creativity to explore, so you really are spoiled for choice. An aspect I feel very humble and privileged to comb through.

[Phobus]

I played a lot of megaWADs a few years ago and then stepped back from Doom for a bit, before getting more into it again recently. I think my tastes changed in that time, so I'd probably need to replay and re-evaluate most of the classics and mid-2000s to mid-2010s ones to give a properly-informed opinion, but off the top of my head, I think I was most enamoured with Wim Vanrie's Mini-Level MegaWAD (https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/megawads/mlm12), which I gushed enthusiastically about at the time and have tried to point my mapping ideal towards ever since. Here's my review from near the time it came out:

Quote

This megawad is, for me, what Doom is all about. High speed, high octane action, some serious challenges at time, clever secrets and addictive gameplay. The changes in situation are so demanding that I actually got worn out playing it, and its so fun that the occaissional death didn't even feel like a setback! 5'd -Phobus

 

Would I rate it so highly now? No idea, I'd have to go back and check. I'd probably have better spelling these days, as everything has a spell-checker built in!

 

 

Notable mentions to @Jimmy, with Deathless and Jenesis, Erik Alm with Scythe, and @Khorus with Khorus' Speedy Shit, which all hit a similar kind of "quick fix" note. I could launch into a big list of more laid-back, classic megaWADs I know that I still like, and could fire off some that I know I enjoyed at the time, but suspect I wouldn't have the patience for now, too.

[Mr. Freeze]

Tossup between Hell Revealed and Alien Vendetta. 

[Pechudin]

    Hmm, what constitutes 'best'? If we say 'best' = 'memorable', then I'd go for A.L.T., since that one will forever remain in my head as such a surreal DooM experience.

[JXC]

I thought Doom Zero was amazing. It has some of the most creative puzzles and level design I have seen in a vanilla megawad. 

[Tango]

I think it's gonna have to be Scythe 2 for me. I guess nostalgia is probably a pretty big part of it, but Scythe 2 is one of the few megawads where there aren't really any maps that stand out as ones that I could do without. it's great for me the whole way through, and it remains my favorite instance of "one theme for every X maps" megawad

[Maximum Matt]

I'm currently going through Requiem for the first time, savoring it like a fine wine

[Mazze]

So hard to pick one, but Valiant hasn't been mentioned here and I thought it was fantastic when I played it. Honourable mentions to Eviternity, Sunlust, Hellbound, and Speed of Doom.

[Doom-X-Machina]

Sunlust, Eviternity and Extermination Day... all three of them just me gobsmacked the first time I played them.

Genuine labours of love by the creators.

[Test Tickle]

It's a tie between Going Down and A.L.T.

Both of them are their own experience and they utilize nearly the maximum potential of the limitations they're given

[Andromeda]

Eternal Doom, so good id named the latest Doom game after it!^{[citation needed]}

[seed]

Deus Vult II.

 

The aesthetics, the level design, the combat, it just presses all the right buttons for me, as if it was "made for me". Even the story was interesting enough for Doom standards.

[antares031]

Alien Vendetta. The megawad that made me think "I should make doom levels like these.", and here I am.

 

While there are many megawads that surpass the quality of Alien Vendetta nowadays, it will be remained as the best megawad I've ever played in my heart.

[Deadwing]

I'll go with the original Plutonia, maps are short and engaging enough, each one is distinct and it's not too difficult but still challenging. I also love the aesthetics.

[rehelekretep]

Sunlust and Ancient Aliens for me.

both scratch that itch of weird/alien/beautiful mapping, and brutal but fair gameplay. aaliens is obviously a bit less crushing in difficulty though.

also the music! both have excellent midi tunes

[Juka]

BTSX, I could crawl around techbases all day round so it's natural it sticks out for me. I really like Jenesis too though, feels a little more "classic" in a great way

[FrancisT218]

I haven't played many of the 'key' wads but...I love Going Down and Eviternity for sure. Had a blast on Struggle too.

[Btyb88]

Valiant ends up being my number one due to, among everything else, the custom monsters. Not only does it have a lot of new ones, but each one feels like it really adds to the gameplay rather than just existing to fill the roster.