The DWmegawad Club plays: Akeldama

[Phobus]

MAP07: Carnage Facility

Fuck this map.

 

Playing on UV, I felt every choice of direction was "rewarded" with a flood of chaingunners or some other high-threat situation I was ill-equipped for. Save-scumming seems to be the only logical option, as it's trial-and-error, but without the requirement to restart the map.

 

I think I'll go with the other logical solution, and skip ahead to the next map. If that also proves to be like this tomorrow, then I guess we'll have to look at lowering the difficulty.

[Snikle]

MAP07: Carnage Facility

If it reminds me of anything, this map reminds me of Dobu’s “Enwrong” map from THT. Both are chaotically-designed, labyrinthine office buildings covered in details and monsters. This map obviously was not as visually wild as that map, since this one is vanilla-compatible (which boggles the mind), but the similarities are there. This map was pretty hitscanner-hellish, having all three varieties of them at every turn it seems. This map had some vary fun and intense moments, particularly near the beginning. The exploding chaingunner hallway was a hell of a good time too, plus it led me to an early plasma rifle. I only found 2 of the 5 secrets, I feel like I haven’t even begun to wrap my head around the layout of the map as a whole. Despite that, this map is my new favorite in the WAD so far, let’s see how long it can hold that title.

[Andromeda]

MAP06: Insurrection (Akeldama)

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

 

The longest level so far, it captures the spirit of oldschool epics (if you can call a level beatable in less than 15 minutes an epic, but I digress) really well - linear layout, economical detailing compared to the scale of the architecture and with the SSG as the primary weapon of choice to dispatch the monsters. Despite the hefty killcount of over 250 enemies the level flows quite fast, in no small part due to the way enemies are deployed (in small groups in front of you and promptly wiped by a single SSG shot) and the minimal backtracking.

 

Secrets are important here, especially the chained sequence that rewards you with the level's only rocket launcher which clears out the "demonic garage" at the end in a matter of seconds, providing a spectacular scene with corpses flying all over the place. Just wish the SSG was given sooner, the first third of the level had me skipping monsters beefier than a lost soul because I couldn't be bothered killing them with limited weaponry. Gripes aside, fun level!

 

MAP07: Carnage Facility (Akeldama)

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

 

This one's pretty much the antithesis of the previous, other than the slightly smaller monster count and size. Starts terribly with two zombiemen stuck in a teleport loop, which to my mind serves as just a way to add one or two minutes to the playtime for no good reason. It then improves somewhat by revealing its deceptively confusing nonlinear layout, which is actually simple to understand because each area has its own look, making it hard to get lost.

 

The plasma gun makes its first (and second) appearance, but I didn't feel like using it - I could have used it in the small room with two hell knights and a cacodemon (probably the hardest encounter in the wad so far) but I decided to just stick to the SSG. Plenty of stuff to do here, but make sure you grab the backpack first to make hoarding ammo easier. The computer area map secret was intriguing, a sizable warehouse completely devoid of monsters - was expecting the gates to burst open in ambush, filling the area with enemies but that didn't happen either. I think the path to the yellow key could've used some signposting, I did stumble upon it quickly but it's easy to miss. I liked the usage of the MAP07 tags to reveal a secret. In short, a good level that reminded me of Memento Mori MAP09 with its high-tempo gameplay and relatively cramped environment.

[pcorf]

6 hours ago, Phobus said:

MAP07: Carnage Facility

Fuck this map.

 

Playing on UV, I felt every choice of direction was "rewarded" with a flood of chaingunners or some other high-threat situation I was ill-equipped for. Save-scumming seems to be the only logical option, as it's trial-and-error, but without the requirement to restart the map.

 

I think I'll go with the other logical solution, and skip ahead to the next map. If that also proves to be like this tomorrow, then I guess we'll have to look at lowering the difficulty.

 

Yep, this map had a very Richard Wiles (Crusades) approach to it when it came to difficulty.

[Pseudonaut]

Map07: FDA including 5 deaths, no exit.

 

After this, I gave up on recording and finished the map with saves. It seemed like I could scarcely move an inch into unexplored territory without taking loads of hitscan damage, and health was scarce by comparison. I'm gonna have to agree with Phobus that this is trial-and-error. One particularly egregious example was found near the end of the map, after I stopped recording: suddenly, the player is dropped into a tiny room surrounded by four mancubi. Sure, it's possible to survive something like that when playing blind, but how likely is it? Maybe I'm just a scrub, but I don't like this map on UV.

 

When my UV-Savescum playthrough was finished, I gave it another (partial) try on HMP, and while it is less punishing, I think it suffers from most of the same problems (or maybe I was just very tired of it), primarily an overabundance of hitscan. Too many fights are best handled by peekaboo shooting. Maybe there's some kind of speedrun route that avoids this problem, but I can't imagine what it is. This is my new least favorite map of the wad.

[Doom_Dude]

Map05 - Bunker Hill

I wasn't very careful when I died several minutes in and had to restart, twice. This one has a series of outside areas connected by short tunnels and loaded with revenants. Thankfully some of the sniper nests are loaded with exploding barrels (checkmate Imps!). hah! Oh wait, some of those get replaced with revenants (checkmate Doomer!) The fighting is brutal with the guys in towers and demons beaming in for the kill. My ammo was getting low, so I decided to backtrack, decided to go another way and was rewarded with enough ammo to make it through the rest of the map. There's lots of rockets and using them can be tricky at times. I did find the three secrets in this one. Good, solid fun level.

 

Map06 - Insurrection

This one is longer than the previous levels. I didn't find it as hard as Map05, tho it had 454 monsters on UV... until near the end that is. Then I had to go health hunting with only 8 health left to my name, but I knew I had left some in various spots, so I was patched up and made it through somehow. The three secrets I found in this one seemed to be a give and take situation, considering they're filled with enemies. I think the enemies in secrets, especially with traps could've been played down a bit. I missed 3 secrets so maybe they were more tame. I did like that the secrets I did find were expansive, interesting areas and not some square room. Decent map, but I think so far I prefer maps03, 04 and 05. Once I got to the exit, I was glad to be on my way. ;)

[Woolie Wool]

MAP08: Arctic Compound by Diego "DJV" Villarroel and Valkiriforce (4/5)

Skill: HMP | Time: 17:19 | Kills: 99% | Items: 0% | Secrets: 33%

Wellcume 2 hitscan zone. ;) While the higher-tier Doom II enemies are a bit more plentiful than in earlier maps, including an archvile that dominates the atrium courtyard until you get the opportunity to telefrag it (or just bring in rockets from the previous map and kill him in the first few seconds...), the real threat comes from the legion of shotgunners and chaingunners who lurk around seemingly every corner. While some people seem to have a great deal of trouble with both this and the previous map "Carnage Facility", I found that the hitscanners were mostly in fairly obvious places and never even got close to killing me. Maybe it's all the Wolfenstein 3-D and Descent I've played. We're back in the snow for this map, with a central brick and metal industrial thing that resembles several Memento Mori and Requiem levels, but most notably the pictured room, which strongly reminds me of Adam Williamson's "Trapped" from Memento Mori II, but also a series of icebound caverns outside, which thankfully don't make the blue water a damaging floor in the vein of "Poison Processing" or other famous ice levels. It's good, but not all that memorable. The music was really hideous this time, so bad that I loaded MMMUS.wad from Memento Mori to get rid of it for this map.

Edited July 7, 2020 by Woolie Wool

[DJVCardMaster]

24 minutes ago, Woolie Wool said:

by Diego "DJV" Villaroel

Oh god even here my surname gets mispelled 

[Woolie Wool]

e: nm

[DuckReconMajor]

MAP07: Carnage Facility

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

 

This map was quite daunting until I was able to clear out most of the big areas. Still then, there were surprise encounters that took big chunks of health.

As others have discussed, this map didn't so much have big fights as it did shorter deadlier ones in succession. This made me glad I'd chosen to savescum this month.

 

Idk what the extreme teleportation arch-vile was about, but it was among a few noises in this map that were grating enough I ended up turning the SFX volume down.

I decided to leave it and come back later if i had to.

When I came back later it wasn't the so maybe it died? Maybe it teleported into the blue key area and I fought it there.

 

I personally was a fan of the brightly lit colorful areas. I thought the secrets that I found were really cool. Overall I did enjoy the map

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Endless]

MAP07: Carnage Facility

UV, LZDoom and Brutal Doom.

 

 

Fuck Revenants. Anyway. This map is one of those cases where we find a map clearly designed with a plan in mind and a good-skilled author, but that ends up being slightly ruined by the fact of becoming an incredibly combobulated map. The first areas are pretty straightforward and unforgiving. The difficulty is probably the highest of all the maps so far, having multiple encounters with Archies and several tight areas with Barons and Mancubus that if we don't have good practice with those succulent circle-strifing skills, we'll probably have a hard time.

 

The map design is quite attractive to the eye and has colorful areas compared to other maps, and this is where I have my concerns. The theme of the megawad is supposed to be recreating a vanilla experience, but in my humble opinion, I think this is the least vanilla map there has been so far. Even the ''exit'' isn't vanilla, (although it's my favorite kind of exit.) Still, it's a good map that gets stuck within its own ambition. Much more difficult, of course, but my biggest problem is losing 15 minutes walking around the map, as opposed to having to spend 15 minutes in an intense fight.

 

PS: Holy shit the author loves chaingunners.

 

[Arbys550]

Map07: Carnage Facility

 

I'm not sure what all the buzz is about to be honest. I didn't find this map hard at all. Combat for me was fun and the layout was intricate and well thought out. There were some cool optional secret areas too. Only problem for me was the progression. I never knew what I was doing the whole time. It was very much me on autopilot hitting random switches and trying to find out what they did. Also the exploding barrel trap in that one secret is incredibly stupid and shouldn't have made it past testing.

 

Video:

Spoiler

 

 

Ranking:

Spoiler

Map06: Insurrection

Map07: Carnage Facility

Map02: Knights of Ilasac

Map03: Renegades

Map04: Chillwell

Map01: The Generator

Map05: Bunker Hill

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by Arbys550

[Pseudonaut]

Inspired by Arbys550's video of map07, which made it look easy, I played it again and produced this demo: UV-Max in 14:24

 

Looks like I'll have to take back much of what I said before. Once I had a good plan, it wasn't that hard, and it wasn't tedious at all. I had a lot fun trying to speedrun it. Seems like it's much more punishing with cautious play than aggressive play. Also, I actually like the midi.

 

Map08: Two deaths, all kills, 2/3 secrets, FDA in 23:48 (excluding time spent on the two runs that ended in death)

 

Challenging, generally fast-paced, and fun. I like the arch-vile near the start; simple to remove when you know what to do, but if you don't, you have no choice but to run quickly in that area if you don't want to be incinerated. I felt the pressure when running for the SSG, not realizing I could telefrag the arch-vile immediately, even though I had done it on previous runs; I guess I assumed the teleporter appears later. Either way, it's a very fast and fun start.

 

This map unapologetically uses larger numbers of tough enemies, including some decently-sized packs of revenants, a good fit for a map with a rocket launcher that's easily obtainable immediately.

[Phobus]

MAP08: Arctic Compound

Looks like yesterday's map was an aberration, luckily! Today we have a map that has the icy theme with mixed tech-base environs and a mixture of incidental combat (rather heavy on hitscanners and low on health, IMO, but manageable thanks to a couple of green armour pickups) and set-pieces that you have time to react to. I've emphasised that last part, because I think it's the key difference that allows a fight to be hard, yet feel fair. In this instance it's usually a big clump of Revenants coming from somewhere in front of you, with ample supplies, a clear trigger and often only light support. There's plenty of space, unlike in MAP05, so the Revenants don't have the advantage of you getting hung up on fiddly details.

 

It's got a reasonably open layout that is nonetheless easy to hold a mental picture of, progression usually flows clearly from objective to objective once you've got the lay of the land (the switch behind the yellow key door was the one switch I didn't immediately know how to follow up, but at least the way it opened wasn't far) and the texturing and architecture make for enough difference between areas to allow for easy navigation without resorting to the map. All good, and coming in on a continuous start from MAP06 (see my previous post on why it's MAP06...) meant that I had freedom to pick the early fights off through windows. This wasn't "safe", as such, as I took a lot of damage, but it allowed me to find the first green armour, hidden a bit out of the way of the main progression, and defuse some of the more threatening situations.

 

The music was great, and suited the generally fast-pace of the action, although I often found myself having to fight from cover or around doorways because of how many chaingunners there were facing the entrance to the room. Likewise, it was chaingunners that I didn't see (that one fucker in the dark warehouse in particular) catching me out in the open that caused a lot of the damage I took. Still, with the secret plasma rifle and ample rockets I could get through these fights quickly, and my chaingun was well-supplied enough to keep on top of the hitscanners. I managed to beat the map without dying, but there were multiple low/critical health situations. Up until the second green armour, I felt like there wasn't really enough armour and that health was a bit low, but afterwards the focus moved to more Revenants and other big enemies, which meant dodging was more of a survival skill and I could actually avoid damage without needing to keep a corner between me and the fight.

 

So yes... Good map, but the chaingunner action made me feel on edge. Also, the scaled up crates near the end of the map felt weird, to me.

[Biodegradable]

MAP08 - Arctic Compound

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

 

This one felt pretty standard after MAP07, which will probably be a welcome relief to some folks since I see a lot of you didn't care much for MAP07. Personally though, despite its flaws, I think it had more personality than this one. MAP08 is certainly competent, progression was decent and even got me a little lost for a moment there when it came to finding the other areas. However, nothing really stood out to me with this one. It has some good combat moments with larger demon group encounters, especially surprising me a few times with Revenants, but I find myself not being able to say anything more substantial than that. Especially regarding the map's layout and design. It's good and there is beauty in simplicity, but... eh, it's just not a real stand-out for me, personally.

 

Gameplay footage:

Spoiler

 

 

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP08: Arctic Compound

 

This one's rather more my cup of tea, though I'll agree with @Biodegradable that it has less personality than the preceding map, perhaps in part due to its broader, flatter, and more open layout.  What's distinctive here is the repeated motif of flipping a switch to open an oversized door elsewhere, though each of these doors becomes a natural chokepoint and I found myself playing pop-and-shoot around the corners of doorframes more often than the map's author may have intended.  I enjoyed the more prominent role that snow and ice played here and the overall division of the map into northern and southern halves, but its somewhat flat and open nature means that monsters tend to trudge their way to wherever the player is and there aren't a lot of engagingly intractable combat scenarios to be had.

[DuckReconMajor]

MAP08: Arctic Compound

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

 

The lift that pops down to reveal the path to the red key confounded me to the point where I had to pop open doom builder like a chump.

I also used it to find the soulsphere secret since i didn't want to just leave that behind.

I am among those who appreciated the return to the overt icy theme again.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[DJVCardMaster]

Full review of the map later, as I don't have much time for today, preparing a LoL shout-casting for 5000 people or so.

 

The only thing I want to say for now, T H I C C crates at the end.

[Deadwing]

MAP 8:

 

This map is the opposite of the previous two ones, with more consistency regarding texturing and some cool areas, such as the entrance with all the ice, the little chaingunner watch tower and the large shaped room with the backpack. The monster placement was a mix of being too busy with very light hitscan-killing-with-chaingun. Some of the big doors encounters were a bit too much camp-and-shoot and I decided to ignore all the demons and revenants from the YK trap. Still, I had lots of fun with the map, it reminded me a bit of MAP 2 with all the "horizontality" and space, but with its own twist.

 

MAP Preference

 

4, 5, 7, 1, 8, 3, 2, 6

[lirui1001]

Map07: Carnage Facility 

Time: 10m32s

 

A typical valkiri's map with low health. I have done max runs of about 1/3 maps of reverie and almost all maps in reverie have low health.

 

 

[galileo31dos01]

03

 

Ah, the SSG is available from the get-go, yet my eyes never went towards it but to the encounter to the north. It's more fun without it imo. After that, the map officially becomes "grab SSG > hold down shoot" since the meat is well suited for double/triple kills, barring blockmap stupidity. One of the traps is sandwich a la MM-ish with a pair of cacodemons in front and three pinkies behind. It springs quite early that it's easy to foresee an escape in time, which I did and I don't think my reaction was necessary at all. 

 

Map flow is pretty interesting: there is a semi-hidden annex with only monsters and shells that takes you back to the start. Taking the SSG side first and going to this annex ensures you're nonstop scoring kills while decreasing the backtrack, which I'm sure is how speedrunners like their SSG spam. 

 

All in all, good quick fun.

 

 

04

 

I was so glad to hear the new music since in a WIP state it used a doom 2 track that didn't even fit. An btw, the track gave me BTSX vibes, which is always a plus.

 

There's a good selection of alternatives to bring replay values to the map. I took CG>RL>B, and all of them work very well in their own microcosm: chaingun's tap-tap trick to snipe the pesky hitscanners coming from the rooms seems the most conventional combo, with the berserk side the nastiest of them all when zerking alone can get you fucked in multiple ways. The RL wing seemed quite sedate in comparison, probably because at that point I owned every available weapon -- little big plus: a tower with chaingunners also has barrels, great way to reduce sniping tedium to zero. 

 

Secrets enhance exploration and feel rewarding regardless of how much utility they provide at a given time. One of my favourite things the map does is hiding secrets inside other secrets, like how you traverse the tops of the hub-ish after finding the backpack, or the megasphere. Maybe the jumps to the ammo boxes could have been less tight imo, since the backtrack after falling down by accident can be a little tedious.

 

I have no serious complaints. Well, surely someone might find a few lone hell knights boring without a SSG, but I'm generally okay with shotgunning two or three nonthreatening mid-HP monsters, it's not like they steal my weekend or something (:

 

Next time I play the map I'll scramble my choices. Favourite map so far. Hmm, okay, I'll do the order of preference using my dumb star rating:

 

Spoiler

 

5. 03, 04

4. 01, 02

3. 

2.

1.

 

 

[Andromeda]

MAP08: Arctic Compound (Akeldama)

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

 

One thing I forgot to mention in my MAP06 "review" is that it breaks the episode's theme somewhat, sticking out like a sore thumb much in the way MAP24 does in Alien Vendetta (despite both being good levels). This level has a similar feel to MAP06 but actually sticks to the theme, which is a positive. It's smaller and has less monsters than the last couple of levels, but since midtiers make a significant portion of the opposition the difficulty remains about the same.

 

Rockets and cells are provided in plentiful amounts to give a well deserved rest to the SSG's trigger and kill the beefier enemies faster, making the level flow quite fast. There's some backtracking involved but it doesn't bother me. What eluded me is the lift you have to lower to access the red key area, I usually don't struggle with obtuse progression but I completely overlooked what is obvious in hindsight. Combat is straightforward, the traps are predictable and most encounters can be camped - although it's much more fun to blitz through the spacious rooms and only leave when everything is dead, which can be quite dangerous because the choice of monsters is spot on. Secrets were quite tricky to find other than the chainsaw (<3), but they were quite rewarding and made the last fight much easier. Not much more to say other than I really enjoyed this, the kickass MIDI might have contributed to that as well!

[Snikle]

MAP08: Arctic Compound

What to say about this one, hmm. It was still an amazing map, it was just good in a more consistent way with no huge memorable parts that I can write about. The map introduced the Arch-Vile, but he was pretty neutered, up as a turret that could be easily telefragged. Had some fun times with the rocket launcher in this map, but I usually ran pretty low on ammo for it pretty quickly. Blame my bad aiming more than the map itself. Whatever I couldn’t get with the RL was quick work with the SSG, always a pleasure. The layout of this map was nice as usual, got lots of outdoor areas to play in mixed with windows and vistas into the compound itself. This proved pretty useful at the beginning of the map, allowing me to kill some of the hallway monsters from outdoors so I wouldn’t have to deal with them in the small corridor spaces later on. Another good level, but probably won’t break my top 3.

[GarrettChan]

Here is some speedrun input for a couple of maps in case anybody is interested :P

 

Map01: The Generator

 

UV Max in 2:29

 

This map has some really great architecture. I like the whole design a lot, like a Arctic camp or something. Every time there's a castle or building in an icy area, it gets me for sure.

 

For maxing this map, this map is quite annoying for sure. You need to actively trigger infights in order to gain time. In the outside, you can gain a few seconds by using the Chaingunner to soften the Pinkies, but sometimes the Chaingunner doesn't want to shoot, or straight up killed by the Pinkies. Then the second building has such a messy situation that you can't really control it, but you want those 2 Arachnotrons to shoot at varies things as it basically acts as a Plasma Rifle that you don't have. The most ideal outcome is the Cacodemon in the corner get killed, which is quite rare. I was lucky enough to have this in the run.

 

The other thing is that this level has so many medium weight meats that a SSG would be nice to have. Only Shotgun makes the run not really fun in some places.

 

Map03: Renegades

 

UV Max in 2:03

 

I don't have too much to say about this map design, but the gameplay is definitely fun although it is just spamming SSG.

 

For maxing this map, it's those kind of maps that you utilize the reload time of the SSG to everything other than killing enemies. It's quite a lot of fun by doing it as soon as you get into the pace of "fire - movement" cycle. The only not-so-fun part is where you are forced to switch to the Chaingun due to those 2 Chaingunners on the platform. Other than this, the map pace is pretty good and it's quite fun. You have enough health and ammo to work on things even skipping the Soulsphere and Armor.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP08 - "Arctic Compound" - Diego "DJV" Villarroel & Michael Jan "Valkiriforce" Krizik (100%K/I/S):

Author's comment: This is a map made on a 50/50 or 40/60 by me and Valkiriforce, I only made the basic layout of the map, and Valkiriforce did the monster/item placements, as well as adding some things like the AV with the teleport thing, more detail and the tower at the middle of the west yard. Also some late changes to the east yard by adding the nukage pool and the stairs to the catwalk. So I think this map is more Valkiriforce than mine. But Anyway, I really enjoyed making this layout, as it was a "last moment" thing where Valkiriforce needed to fill mapslot 10 (now map08), and I felt pretty much inspired with the E1 looks that I wanted to make or try something. I did something as fast as I could and I gave it to Valkiriforce to complete it. I really like the end results, with some added secrets and details apart from actual gameplay.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Some kind of base in the middle of the Arctic as the name of the map suggests, returning again to the snowy base/landscape we have seen on the first 5 maps. the map presents a really interconnected central complex with many paths to take, and what I like about this layout is that you can pass through the same central part many times over your playthrough (recurring rooms). I really like the idea of exploring an icy cave, even though this part is short, I quite like it. I feel like I took many things from MAP04 with all this "ice grotto" thing, or MAP05's type of connectivity in between areas.
The map is not as big as the previous one, nor  harder, difficulty in comparision to MAP07 lowers up drastically, often without presenting many challenges. I feel this map is really good, but does stay in its mold, without trying to throw you big surprises. Overall is a sweet "transition" map that sets you again into the snowy mood and gives you a breath from MAP07. But certainly there are better maps to find in this megaWAD itself. 

Deaths: 10 (HMP Playthrough - Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:

 

Spoiler

MAP05
MAP06
MAP04
MAP08
MAP07
MAP03
MAP02
MAP01

Also those T H I C C crates were taken from another of my maps, Trial To Hell, which is a WIP megaWAD that I will probably not finish in my lifetime. I thought this was a nice thing to slide through Akeldama.
I'm happy this map ended being better than my later one, MAP24, more on that the 24th.

Edited August 14, 2020 by DJVCardMaster

[Woolie Wool]

MAP09: Winter Stronghold by The Mysterious Moustachio (4/5)

The "Memento Mori meets Evilution on ice" texture theme is really starting to get old by the ninth level of Akeldama's first "episode", and while "Winter Stronghold" looks and plays like a solid MM  or Requiem map, it lacks the je ne sais quoi that made maps like "Karmacoma" or "nataS oT etubirT" truly memorable, and would stand as a very well-constructed second-tier map in any of those classic Möller-led megawads. How is "Winter Stronghold"? It's fine. All the encounters play fine, it looks fine,there are no gross texturing errors or serious gameplay flaws, the midi is boring but not annoying, a well-earned but unenthusiastic four stars. But Akeldama still hasn't come up with a level that hooks me. Hopefully that will soon change.

[kawadec]

Decided to get in on the fun and rev up this megawad in GZDoom. For gameplay I went with High Noon Drifter since I haven't played around with that one for a while, plus Autoautosave for a bit of QoL. Started off by marathoning the first five maps on UV.

MAP01 - “The Generator” by vakiriforce, waverider

Starting off with a nice snowy area, me likey. Eviternity's wintry levels still take the medal for best snowy areas in a WAD I've ever seen, but aesthetically this is very nice nonetheless. As others have pointed out, this is certainly a level 1 that pulls no punches, what with all the hell knights, cacos and arachnotrons kicking around. I figure this means the later levels really won't be messing around either. Layout was pretty straightforward, with the only time I really ended up wandering around was when I forgot to hit that switch to access the red key (yeah, expect me to derp out a lot with things like that). Overall a pretty nice start.

MAP02 - “Knights of Ilasac” by Philnemba

Thought for a sec we were resorting to Romero-esque Sigil design by starting us in a pit surrounded by trouble, but then the knights warped away. And thus we have a neat little gimmick of knowing those bastards are out there somewhere, but not knowing when they'll warp in and strike. The last trap at the end was a fun little surprise; reminded me a little of one of the traps in Doom 64's Hectic, but far more merciful.

MAP03 - “Renegades” by ZaBigBoss, valkiriforce

First map to get some "crapcrapcrapcrap" reactions out of me, especially with that blue key room, well done. Seemed like one of the shorter levels, but maybe that's because my sense of direction never got as confused as it did in the next couple. Nice and action-packed to the end.

MAP04 - “Chillwell” by dt_

Overall a nicely-designed location. Sparked the imagination as I wondered what this facility was supposed to be, helped by the mood set by the music. Had me going around in circles for a while due to missing the locations of various lifts, though that's more my fault than the map's; all the audio clues were there. Enjoyed the dark room with the berserk pack and barrels, as well as the last fight before the exit.

MAP05 - “Bunker Hill” by DerFurer’sFace

They call me the wandering cowboy Corzo, and we're at Bunker Hill, you ready? I ain't gonna let it get to-okay I'll stop. Phew, this one was a bit of a ballbuster for me, and took the longest yet for me to finish. With an actual rocket launcher I'm sure those bunkers are a cinch to clean out, but Corzo White's grenades only explode on impact if they hit an enemy, otherwise (since he yeets them with the force of a thousand suns) they bounce around like a pinball, sometimes right back near your feet. So you gotta try aim a direct hit into those dark spaces while fireballs and hitscanners are after your hiney from every direction. And naturally staying on the move just flushes up more baddies, so in the end my approach was to play it safe from cover until enough trouble was cleared out in order to continue. The blue key room was when I finally started getting smart with my movement, using my character's slide to zip under revenant fireballs, so I might finally be getting a feel for this gameplay mod again (of course I forgot until later that I could toss the hat to distract enemies...yeah, that woulda made more than one area in this wad a spot easier, whoops). Anyway, I picked UV for the challenge, and this level certainly delivered.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited July 9, 2020 by kawadec

[Endless]

MAP08: Arctic Compound

UV, LZDoom and Brutul Dewm.

 

Once again into the conflict, the cold boots on the snow, the white blends with the red, it's time to kill the demons of this lost world.
Wait, aren't we going to Ohio?

Well, once again, we're in a place that's winter enough to say it's... well actually the map itself tells us we're in the Arctic but oh well.

I liked this map, it's simpler than the previous ones, and much less complicated than the previous one, also less difficult, but that doesn't mean that it's a boring map, on the contrary, this kind of ''rest'' maps that offer us a simple path and a fast entertainment through a well designed map are welcome in this slaughter through Akeldama. We're still on the subject of winter, but I imagine that will change on the following maps, although I wouldn't mind if that didn't happen, I'm enjoying this change from the hellish pits to the frozen layers of the Arctic.

Let the adventure continue, let's see what it brings.

[Biodegradable]

MAP09 - Winter Stronghold

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

 

This one was a lot more fun and interesting than MAP08 and a reasonably better act to follow MAP07 for me in terms of layout, progression and demon encounters. I definitely felt more challenged with these kind of wide, yet close ambushes that had me quickly scrambling to give myself some distance for some much-needed crowd control. I was able to hold my own very well and still haven't died yet, leaving with full health and plenty of armour and ammo. I liked the room that suddenly sprung to life with all the mini-crushers, that was a fun surprise. I had no luck finding any of the secrets, so they're either well-hidden or I still suck at that aspect lmao. I'll have to watch DuckMajorRecon sniff them out in his run to hopefully give me a better idea on what I missed. So yeah, this one's fun. Doesn't really stand out from the crowd like some earlier maps, but it's a solid experience.

 

Gameplay footage:

Spoiler

 

 

[Pseudonaut]

Map09: One death, 176/179 kills, 2/4 secrets, FDA in 19:41

 

Another one that plays fast. There's some rough terrain, sometimes even light platforming, in areas with lost souls and pain elementals. It makes the player uncomfortable (in a good way), much like those arch-viles. If I'm keeping track correctly, this is only the second map to place arch-viles in areas where they can actually move and resurrect enemies, but this time I counted at least three such arch-viles, one of which appeared alongside a pain elemental and some fodder. Neat.

 

What I didn't like was those cacodemons outside a fence, as hitting them often made them drift so far off into the distance that Doom's vertical autoaim couldn't reach them, and I had to wait for them to get closer to finish them off, since I generally try to kill as much as I can. I can't think of a better way to deal with it.

Edited July 9, 2020 by Pseudonaut