The DWmegawad Club plays: Akeldama

[Arbys550]

Map01: The Generator

 

It started off pretty good with a winter theme and breezy, light combat. However, I think it overstayed its welcome a little, especially when I was asked to single shotgun/chaingun a good handful of midtiers. I missed a secret which was probably a super shotgun.

 

Edit: Just realized I had a rocket launcher the whole time! I really am stupid.

 

Ranking:

Spoiler

Map01: The Generator

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by Arbys550

[Capellan]

MAP02

Solid looking map.  Plays pretty good, though I was not a big fan of the unreachable hitscanner cubbyholes that got used a few times.

 

I did like the couple of teleport traps and conventional closet based traps, though.  Some attention paid to putting the player under threats from multiple angles is always appreciated.

 

Got 100% secrets, which just feels weird and wrong.

[Woolie Wool]

MAP02: Knights of Ilasac (3/5)

Skill: HMP | Time: 9:18 | Kills: 100% | Items: 94% | Secrets: 50%

Meh. "Knights of Ilasac" starts off with a pretty cool introductory scare with four hell knights screaming at you and then teleporting away, but the rest of the level is just a series of big brown boxy areas that are dull on the eyes and not all that much better in terms of gameplay. The titular knights are deployed one at a time in the various setpiece fights, and accomplish little aside from eating a bunch of shotgun shells. The MIDI tries for the Mark Klem slap bass vibe but lacks any sort of melodic hook or fun chord progression and as a result sounds awkward and disjointed, as if it were compiled from bits of multiple unrelated hard rock midis. The only real wakeup moment was the fight pictured, in which you find yourself boxed in by pinkies, cacos, and a hell knight on a set of fairly narrow catwalks while shotgunners plink at you from afar, but the incredible ease of wallrunning along the railings makes it too easy to slip past monsters and control the fight.

[Pirx]

what's an akeldama?

[Revved]

28 minutes ago, Pirx said:

what's an akeldama?

Akeldama is a city in Jerusalem, and is an Aramaic term for "fields of blood", which considering how dense with monsters this whole WAD is, I would say it's pretty appropriate.

It's also a kickass album by The Faceless.

[Biodegradable]

MAP02 - Knights of Ilasac

HMP | Continuous Play with Saves | Running on GZDoom + Hellrider

 

A little disappointed with the overall look of the map after I was rather dazzled by the texturing of the last one, but while it's not pretty like its predecessor, it more than makes up for it with its combat and level progression. The surprise setpiece fights were fun and kept me alert and on my toes. The teleporting Hell Knights was also a unique touch that I quite liked. Overall level progression was again straight-forward, but not at all boring. I also found myself trying to be a little more thorough and try and not miss out on anything, but alas, my secret hunting abilities are still rubbish at this point. Even found a mystery valve switch and I have no idea what it did :P Oh well hehe. So yeah, nowhere near as lovely on the eyes as MAP01, but good fun nonetheless!

 

Gameplay footage:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by Biodegradable

[Pseudonaut]

map02: All kills, 1/2 secrets, No deaths, FDA in 14:09. I realize my first playthroughs are very slow.

 

I actually replayed the first map and part of this one just to find the secrets, and both of the secrets that I missed seem really obvious once you already know where they are. Especially in this map. Since I somehow missed the secret chaingun, I was stuck with a shotgun for the entire map, and I wasted enough ammo that I eventually had to use the pistol briefly to finish off some mostly-dead hell knights. Still enjoyed it. I like how this map's secrets are similar in how they are accessed.

 

[Deadwing]

MAP 2

 

Map 2 is a nice departure from the entry level. This one gives a little more space to explore, without a hot start, and most of the action happens inside the techbase. The 3 doors inital room is really simple but also effective visually. I like how Akeldama, while having visual tropes like Plutonia influences or Snowy level, has its own visual identity.

 

The opposition isn't much trouble here, although certainly meaty, but again it's skippable if you don't feel like single shotgunning Hell Knights. The combat highlight for me would be the little fight against a HK in the elevator, though. Here I think his high HP pool worked nice to give pressure to the player. Also, I was able to find the outdoor secret :D

 

It's not a small level, but it still works well as a build-up level.

 

Map Preference:

 

1, 2

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP02 - "Knights of Ilasac" - Philnemba (100%K/I/S):

Here is a brown map totally different from the previous, with a MM2/Requiem feel to it. It's rather simple and not as challenging as I expected, it totally works as an early map, because is both short and easy. I really liked the simple progression here, with a recurring area at the middle. Both secrets, easy to get, searching for parts of the fences that are not "broken" or just leave a space for you to go through. A little bit of a leap of faith on both of them, specially in the one you have to hump the wall spotted by a corpse.
Nothing too interesting in terms of combat until you reach the elevator or the final room, which is clearly a bigger threat, I remember this room being punishing in UV.
It's just a simple map, less detailed than the previous, but still enjoyable, both maps are at the same level.

Deaths: 0 (HMP Playthrough - Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:
 

Spoiler

MAP02
MAP01

 

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP02: Knights of Ilasac

 

The map opens with the impression of a "hot start," monsters all around you hungry for your flesh, but they're quickly whisked away for later mischief and that sets the stage for a map that feels like it's more sound than fury, one that's quick to promise but slow to deliver.  I think some of this comes down to the map's tendency toward cavernous spaces, large enough that lazily-drifting fireballs can be readily avoided and even hitscan attacks from the numerous shotgun sergeants aren't the threat they might have been; 90-some monsters on Hurt Me Plenty isn't a small monster population this early in the WAD, but they've been assigned to garrison a chunk of real estate that's just a bit too big for them.  I did enjoy the secrets, although they're similar enough in nature that once you've found one, the other should be pretty easy to detect.

[lirui1001]

Map02: Knights of Ilasac

Time: 3m04s

 

Well...I got 3:0X, and I think sub 3 is possible but it needs lucky infighting. You can do wall running with these fences.

 

 

[Pirx]

4 hours ago, Revved said:

Akeldama is a city in Jerusalem, and is an Aramaic term for "fields of blood", which considering how dense with monsters this whole WAD is, I would say it's pretty appropriate.

 

 

yeah that's appropriate  ;)

 

thought it's something someone made up so i didn't even bother to google it ...

 

[Andromeda]

MAP02: Knights of Ilasac (Akeldama)

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, HNTR-PS, no saves, 100% everything

 

A small hublike level. I like the start, with the star on the floor and the demons that fortunately teleport right away. Difficulty increases a bit but it's still very manageable, as expected. Combat can get a bit sloggy as you won't get a better weapon than a chaingun to fight against plenty of demons and a few cacodemons, but it's easy to skip monsters if you wish due to the relatively wide areas. The yellow key area reminded me of a smaller scale version of a similar setup in MM2 MAP19 and was my favourite part of the level. The trap at the end was cool as well despite not being very dangerous. A decent effort.

[Snikle]

MAP02: Knights of Ilasac

An indoor map this time, so no eye-candy ice-lands, oh well. Non-linear little key-hunt type place, getting the red and blue in order to zap you to a fun little elevator fight for the yellow. Lots of hell knights running around this level, always popping in at the worst (best?) times. I found both secrets, something I don’t do often. Both of them were marked in a similar manner, which is missing railing over a damaging pit. Still didn’t die yet, although I imagine that secret soulsphere I got helped with that. This level and the last one both featured our hitscanning friends in droves (although the chaingunner was absent in this one, IIRC), so we’ll see if this one keeps them through to the end like 25yoe last month or fades out their use as the levels get harder like most other WADs.

 

Another note here is the MIDI which tripped me up a bit. Part of the MIDI was the chorus to a Led Zeppelin song, but the rest of it was its own thing, so I was playing through the level alternating between “I know I’ve heard this before” and “Wait, have I?” So @Woolie Wool was correct about that.

[Lykos]

Maps 01-04

Good maps, until the moment the difficult is quite good.

Map 01 good introduction of the wad i enjoined it.

I didin´t understand why map04 has so many secrets, blue and green armor were not needed. But stiil i joined the map, good fights. Its me or there is an inspiration of  plutonia map04 at the end? I love plutonia. With map02, good visuals and the knights of the beggining were good.

About midis, map04 was very good, not noisy at all.

Map03: keep the good level of the wad but personally i didint like it to much that map i dont why.

[DuckReconMajor]

9 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

Even found a mystery valve switch and I have no idea what it did :P

lol it opens the exit area which was closed off by the previous encounter

 

MAP02: Knights of Ilasac

prBoom+ 2.5.1.7um, skill 4, continuous with saves, no complevel specified

 

I loved the vista at the start and spent some time just looking out the windows.
Another part I loved was the green bricks, which gave a Zelda 2 vibe, of which I am a fan.

 

I found the first secret on my own and was very happy to receive a soulsphere, thinking the map was over. However it just got harder instead, and I ended up losing it by the end. It still allowed me to leave with full health though which was nice.

 

I had to IDBEHOLDA at the end to find the other secret, when I saw it was a chaingun, which I already had from being continuous, I just re-loaded to undo the slime damage. It was a well-hidden and nice-looking secret though, and I'll use it if I come back on a pistol start.

 

Spoiler

video starts a bit weird because i forgot to save in map02 yesterday

 

 

[Endless]

MAP02: Knights of Ilasac

UV - Brutal Doom - LZDoom

 

We have moved from the open environment to a closed box, but it seems that we are always in that sweet and cold winter theme, with some wonderful skyboxes that I can't stop looking at. Anyway, the map follows the ''trident'' formula with three paths to open the main road. I'm not a big fan of this kind of game, but the simplicity and the level of progress make it not even noticeable, since there's no need to do huge backtracking to reach our goal.

 

The use of a combination of imps, shotgunners and hellknights made the challenge increase a few more points, without being really frustrating, taking into account that I'm playing in UV and I haven't found any Baron yet, I feel relieved (because I don't have the SSG or the rocket launcher yet). Overall, nice, decent map.

 

PS: This kind of maps look pretty good when we activate the fly command and just watch it from above.

 

[Ola J]

Map02: Knights of Ilasac

HMP, GZDoom, Continouos

 

Another good-looking level, with lots of lovely details and a good sense of place - I can grasp the geography and layout of the map and it feels somewhat like I'm exploring a real, existing space and not a construct solely made for battles. Even if it clearly is the latter. And fun battles there are, as well. I especially like the section with the gangways hunting for the blue key, but it's all pretty good, in my book. The teleporter/elevator trap kills me quite a few times before I figure it out, but beacuse what has come before has been so enjoyable I don't get fed up and quit, wich has happened in quite a few other wads I've been trying these days. A very solid, enjoyable map.

Edited July 2, 2020 by Ola J : Typo

[Phobus]

MAP02: Knights of Ilasac

Coming in continuous from the last map, I was very ready to fight those Hell Knights up front! They teleported away, though, so I got on with the rest of the map...

 

It's a nice-enough looking map, mostly decked out in Plutonia-style brickwork and metal, with plenty of nukage in the background. I thought it all felt a bit... Basic? Mostly orthogonal, with very predictable traps. There's some clever stuff, like the lowering floor cage-match you have with the Hellknight and the Spectres when you get the yellow key, but generally speaking it felt a bit "by-the-numbers". Certainly competent, but probably easier than the last map and wide open enough to never feel threatening. I took some unnecessary damage, and so lost the benefit of my secret soulsphere, but was content to plink away with the shotgun the whole map, despite having a chaingun from the off (I never found the secret one @DuckReconMajor mentions up above!).

 

I liked the music in the last map, as it conveyed an icy tone to me, but I really liked the music in this map. It felt like the kind of punchy, short, repetitive music you'd hear in an old arcade game. The valve switch looked amusing janky in a "90s" way, whilst the infinity/ouroboros symbol was very nice and made for a recurring visual motif. I wonder if we'll see more of it throughout the set, as a bit of a logo?

 

If I had to point a finger at why this map didn't pop for me like the last one, I wouldn't worry about the level of challenge (highly appropriate for the map slot), or the appearance (very nice). I think it's more of a "soul" thing. This is nicely polished and very agreeable, with some solid set pieces. It's just a little too safe and normal to have much personality, reminding me of the sort of stuff people used to make a lot around the time Simplicity came out.

[Arbys550]

Map02: Knights of Ilasac

 

I decided I'm gonna record all my playthroughs, since I live with good wifi now.

 

This map was pretty good, a nice romp around an indoor base that reminded me of something out of Alien Vendetta. There was more single shotgunning of mid-tiers but I didn't mind it too much this time.

 

Video:

Spoiler

 

 

Ranking:

Spoiler

Map02: Knights of Ilasac

Map01: The Generator

 

[Capellan]

MAP03

Solid looking map.  Some fun set-piece/ambush type encounters, with a good mix of environments and foes.  The lowering water near the exit is a good recipe for getting infinitely-talled, though.  If you're targeting vanilla, this is really something you should think about.

[Biodegradable]

7 hours ago, DuckReconMajor said:

lol it opens the exit area which was closed off by the previous encounter

 

Oh gosh darn it, was that all it did? Hehe :P Does this reflect badly on my observation skills or reflect well on my growing secret hunting intuition? You're the Secret Master, Duck, you tell me lmao

 

MAP03 - Renegades

HMP | Continuous Play with Saves | Running on GZDoom + Hellrider

 

I really enjoyed the layout and progression of this one. The inter-connective aspect made the map flow really well and I was having a ball, plus the monster closets were especially surprise-worthy and kept me guessing on where demons would pop out next. Also, thematically, I thought the texture work was consistent and well put together. Much more on par with MAP01 for me, personally as far as aesthetic pleasure goes. There's a considerate attention to detail that feels emphasised in this megaWAD and it has me buzzing with anticipation with what I'll get to see with each map.

 

Gameplay footage:

Spoiler

 

 

 

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP03 - "Renegades" - ZaBigBoss & Michael Jan "Valkiriforce" Krizik (100%K/I/S):

Here we can see something more detailed and less snowy 'till some extent. More focused on nukage pits and that "wooden" style you can see in Thy Flesh Consumed, or some Memento Mori maps. I totally dig this style and the progression of the map, I enjoyed it. I specially like the pinky/imp trap, although expected, it's still challenging and puts you on a hurry. Finally you can have a SSG, and have some fun killing monsters.
This map is the shortest of the three we've already played and totally feels oldschool even if it has some nice details here and there.
A simple map aside from the ocassional snipers and traps such as the early one at the east side.
The map teases you the exit more than one time, with the usually-used-for-the-exit door, and the water lowering at the end.

Deaths: 0 (HMP Playthrough - Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:

Spoiler

MAP03
MAP02
MAP01

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by DJVCardMaster

[Ola J]

Map 03 Renegades

HMP, GZDoom, Continouous

 

A fairly short and compact map. Nice details and textures, again. Lots of traps in the form of monster-closets, wich keeps me on  my toes. The Super Shotgun makes its appereance, something that never fails to put a smile on my face. Two Cacodemons taking a slightly unexpected route and coming up behind me is the standout moment for me (happens both times I play through the level, so I guess they will choose that path sort of consistently). I suck at secret-hunting, but I don't feel like spending too much time on it either, so I never get to the soulsphere (the blue sphere, I'm not entirely sure what it's called) I can see through the grate. A solid level, fun to play through, but not very memorable. Probably because the sense of place is not as present here as in the two first maps - I'm not left with any clear image in my mind of what this place actually is, or how the different rooms "go together", so to speak.

[Phobus]

MAP03: Renegades

Very nice map! If I had to nitpick, the brickwork below the grate when you're outside in the secret not being lower-unpegged looked odd to me (even though the bricks would've been cut off otherwise), and I felt there were too many occasions where you open a 64-unit wide door and the monster density in the room behind it was such that, even with the SSG, camping the door felt like the only sensible option.

 

Otherwise, I think it looks great (even if I'm missing the snowy theme from the exterior of the first couple of maps) and plays really well! It made me want to keep switching weapons to deal with the varied threats, had a multi-stage ambush early on that surprised me without being immediately painful (when you cross the little bridge on the way to the blue keycard) and had interesting progression, with jumps to make, pits to work around and low-threat encounters everywhere to keep my weapons busy.

 

The monster density in high places meant that moving around would trigger a steady stream of new attackers, whilst still leaving some leftover when you'd picked the alerted ones off and had made it up and round. The small and compact layout, with a lot of the path to each objective open right away gives the map some semblance of non-linearity, whilst the placement of the green armour will influence your decisions based on whether or not you came in continuous. I did, so wasn't in a rush to go and find it and therefore went for the key first. I imagine a player who spots the armour from a pistol start will head there first - particularly if they have to pick off the chaingunners up high near the start with just a pistol or shotgun!

 

A nice little taste of everything I look for in a vanilla map, I reckon.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP03: Renegades

 

From the winter wonderland of the first couple of maps, we've moved to more familiar territory here, bricks and slime commingled in some decrepit, Victorian-era industrial facility where the legions of Hell find themselves right at home.  I played sloppily at times (blame the distracting scent of chocolate-walnut brownies baking, wafting through from my kitchen) but I came in from the previous map with most of a soul sphere still fortifying me and managed to stag another here; it feels like a pretty generous map overall, provided you make only surgical use of the chaingun and stick to one shotgun or the other as your tool of choice as you make your way through.  I like the fact that you've got a few different routes available to you right from the start, so you can go and grab the blue key straight away if you're focused on speed, or you can stock up on armour and other supplies first if you'd rather play it safe.  I'm inclined to agree with @Phobus about the monster density in certain places encouraging significantly cautious; even a bold, kick-in-the-door-and-rush-in approach requires that there's actually space on the other side of the door to move around, and both the "underpass" leading to the southern green brick/slime room and the L-shaped corridor connecting to the northern outside area were natural choke points with crowded spaces on the other side.

[DuckReconMajor]

MAP03: Renegades

prBoom+ 2.5.1.7um, skill 4, continuous with saves, no complevel specified

 

I fear sounding like a broken record on how good these levels looks so at this point unless I start griping about ugly it can be assumed.

It looks like a lot of my favorite areas in Plutonia for the most part which I liked.

 

I agree with what Phobus and TheOrganGrinder said about combat in general but this map met me on my level well enough I didn't notice and I had a great time.

I have to disagree with Phobus, some of us take a lot more damage and came in with no armor! I wasn't even trying to find the green armor, I was just doing my usual 'walk around and shoot stuff' when I stumbled upon it, I was happy to find it when I did.

 

I found the secret (waste tunnels throwback aww yeah) and was able to get the soulsphere and not squander it this time, as all the combat was finished.

I did miss that un-marked hidden path from the slime pit room that even Biodegradable's 'bad' observation skills found.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Deadwing]

MAP03

 

It's the map that introduce us the Super Shotgun, which helps a lot dealing with the Hell Knight and Cacodemons through the level.

 

It's also the shortest map from the first three, which is interesting because I believe the authors did a good job creating a strong MAP 1, and then scaling down a bit to give some build-up to the Journey, like Skillsaw did with AA and Valiant (especially). A strong and more complete opener might work better as a first impression instead of our usual short map 1 that nobody likes (as I received many complaints for my almost pistol-only moonblood map 1 lol).

 

Anyway, the visuals is again distinct from the previous maps and has almost an IWADish feeling, with all the wood and slime. Also, as others has said, the progression is really interesting, because the level keeps spiraling on itself in different heights, which is pretty cool. The combat is pretty straightforward, sometimes too much, but it works as a "beginning the journey" kind of level.

Map Preference:

 

1, 3, 2

Edited July 3, 2020 by Deadwing

[Snikle]

MAP03: Renegades

This one here was shorter then the previous offerings, with a focus on using switches to raise platforms to progress around the looping layout of the complex. Nothing here was too dangerous either. Still mostly low-tier monsters, with only a few cacos and I think a single Hell Knight mixed in. Still enjoyed this one, but not as much as the first two. SSG was very appreciated of course, always is. The outdoor/naturalistic area at the end was my favorite part visually, as I tend to love places like that, at least more than brown indoor bases (Although I acknowledge their importance to Doom mapping as well).

[valkiriforce]

8 hours ago, DJVCardMaster said:

MAP03 - "Renegades" - Michael Jan "Valkiriforce" Krizik (100%K/I/S):

Another map made by Valkiriforce, this time made 100% by him. Here we can see something more detailed and less snowy 'till some extent. More focused on nukage pits and that "wooden" style you can see in Thy Flesh Consumed, or some Memento Mori maps. I totally dig this style and the progression of the map, I enjoyed it. I specially like the pinky/imp trap, although expected, it's still challenging and puts you on a hurry. Finally you can have a SSG, and have some fun killing monsters.
This map is the shortest of the three we've already played and totally feels oldschool even if it has some nice details here and there.
A simple map aside from the ocassional snipers and traps such as the early one at the east side.
The map teases you the exit more than one time, with the usually-used-for-the-exit door, and the water lowering at the end.

Deaths: 0 (HMP Playthrough - Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

MAP03
MAP02
MAP01

 

 

Actually the map is by ZaBigBoss, I only made the map vanilla-safe and added the exit area as it's originally from his GZDoom mapset Back To Thunder Road.