The DWmegawad Club plays: Akeldama

[Phobus]

MAP29: Boglach

A decidedly old-fashioned, simple and squarish map that is serviceable in doing the job. For a lot of the first two-thirds of the map, up to the blue skull key door, it feels quite a bit like a Shores of Hell map made with Doom II, and after the door you've got a more hellish environment that climaxes with two Cyberdemons up here. I died once to a "good at Doom" rocket with a Spectre and again later to a mishap with the Cyberdemons, and I was honestly pleasantly surprised to discover I'd been saving regularly, as the threat was generally low on UV with a continuous load out. I suspect ammo might've felt short from a pistol start, but on the other hand I was pretty wasteful with health and still left plenty of medikits around. Finding eight of the nine secrets probably helped on that front.

 

A solid map that wouldn't have been out of place in the late 90s, but feels a bit low-effort or by-the-numbers now, particularly knowing how many maps pcorf has made over the years and how much experience he could bring to bear.

[Endless]

MAP29: Boglach

UV, LZDoom and Brutal Doom mod.

 

Despite being much simpler than the previous repertoire of maps (the last 10 maps out there) Map 29 does the job. Efficient and direct, this map is not afraid to be what it is. Of course, it's not a massacre like the previous maps, which makes it feel a bit ''oh'' so I can understand where the desire to have moved this map to another position comes from. Despite that I think it was a pretty satisfactory map, after all, bigger doesn't mean better.

 

A fairly straightforward style as well as an attractive but not ''extreme'' texture work, this map was enjoyable. It was only 12 minutes long, but every minute was entertaining, fun and with enough variation to give it its own touch and belonging within Akeldama. As I've said several times before, Akeldama doesn't have mediocre maps, and these last ones have been quite enjoyable. Although I'm not a fan of the ''hub key'' style as I usually say, here it feels fresh enough to go on. The final battle is a bit easy, I think it could have been a bit more challenging, but it was still fun and rewarding for the last arena. Map 30 being done in part of valkiriforce, I can already feel the pain in my ass for the following challenge. Bring it on.

[Andromeda]

MAP29: Boglach (Akeldama)

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

 

Sort of a breather level, possibly the calm before the storm? Anyway, this is a solid Ultimate Doom style level (with Doom II monsters of course) with a deceptively simple layout, as backtracking is almost non-existent given that you loop back around where you need to be each time you grab a key - even the secrets are placed in a similar convenient way. Speaking of, make sure you get the easy to find secret with armor or else you'll have a hard time with the chaingunners.

 

There's a mix of predictable and surprising traps which is interesting, I especially like the heavy lost soul usage that nonetheless didn't deter me from using the rocket launcher pretty often. The final arena feels like a more compact and less meaty version of the one in Eternal Doom MAP22 (although I'm sure there's plenty of similar ones, just mentioning the first example that came to mind), it's pretty fun to let the Cyberdemon do most of the work and then finish it off with the secret BFG9000 - to make it a little bit more fair I rode the lift so that I could deliver the killing blow up close and personal. Time to leave, a few cacodemons I'd forgotten about had bunched up like this and it was really satisfying to kill them all with a single BFG shot :) Another excellent level, while it may not be that memorable I think it's competently crafted and a pleasure to play through, with no flaws that I can see.

[Arbys550]

Map29: Boglach

I'm not gonna go into detail about my thoughts about this map as to not offend the author, but I really didn't like this map. Pretty much all my pet peeves rolled into one map.

 

Ranking:

Spoiler

Map08: Arctic Compound

 

Map20: The Devil's Triangle

Map06: Insurrection

Map14: Darkness Beneath

Map22: Dark Sacrifices

Map17: Blood Covenant

Map25: Opulence

Map07: Carnage Facility

Map26: Duskbound

Map02: Knights of Ilasac

Map11: The Glacier Base

Map23: Chimera

Map10: Hangar Facility

Map24: Alexandria Library

Map32: Operation Pump and Dump

Map03: Renegades

Map19: Death March

map18: Mortar

Map04: Chillwell

Map15: Breaching the Source

 

Map27: Bitter Waters

Map12: Urban Strike

Map13: Toxic Disgust

Map28: Climbing Blood Mountain

Map09: Winter Stronghold

Map01: The Generator

Map21: Disaster County

Map05: Bunker Hill

Map16: Aqueduct Fortress

 

Map29: Boglach

Map31: Make Believe

 

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP28 - "Climbing Blood Mountain" - Adam "Khorus" Woodmansey (100%K/100%I/80%S):

I don't see the climbing aspect of this mountain, but I see some neat fun and progression. I enjoyed it, there is also a castle part into it that I'd wish to have more of that. With some of the textures providen for the megawad, in fact, I would wish to have more "castle maps" such as MAP22, the castle part of this and the castle-like structures found in MAP31, done well. I loved the end with all that platforming section filled with monsters. The atmosphere here is what gets my heart, a really simple but good looking map here.

MAP29 - "Boglach" - Paul "Pcorf" Corfiatis (100%K/95%I/77%S):

Yes, map placement here ends being a problem all throughout the wad (More on that the 31th of this month) and sadly, this is going to hurt the map's rating for me, as it is a good short map, with a pretty oldschool setting and progression, placed on a "Ultimate Doom" landscape. But it clearly does not fit into the MAP29 spot. Talking about it being effective, I don't know how much effectiveness does this map has, as I felt playing two separate things interconnected to each other by a simple door, first you have the techbase, then you have the hell gate itself. Both parts are good, and the final fight is totally welcome, I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the map itself as a standalone, but being a part of the sum of all things, I'll say, again, that its score is going to lower.
A map taken from '97, or even from other Pcorf works, specially from WOS.
I expected a little bit more from a mapper with such legacy as Mr. Corfiatis, specially on the length side of the map, as it was particularly short.
 

Deaths: 98 (HMP Playthrough - Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:
 

Spoiler

MAP17

MAP14
MAP15

MAP28
MAP23
MAP26
MAP10
MAP11
MAP05
MAP06
MAP04
MAP22
MAP21
MAP09
MAP08
MAP29
MAP25
MAP19
MAP16
MAP18
MAP07
MAP03
MAP02
MAP27
MAP24
MAP31
MAP13
MAP01

MAP20
MAP12
MAP32

It's been a great journey so far...

[DuckReconMajor]

Map29: Boglach

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

 

Craziness!

I first loaded up the level and felt disappointed. Ugh, another techbase.

But, nope! This level takes Coltrane-level giant steps through seemingly every IWAD.

At times I was reminded of anything from Ancient Aliens to Plutonia, always keeping me guessing this one.

 

End fight made me groan when I found I could not just run through it, but I ended up having much more fun with it than I'd expected.

Cyberdemon podium fights are something I feel are a guilty pleasure, I love getting the cyber in just the right position I can plasma-tize its head without its rockets clearing the platform on the way to me.

I did have an issue with ammo at this point, due im sure in no small part to my running through most of the level, that led to me finishing off the cyber with my SSG.

Despite any qualms I might have with said gun, that is always a deeply satisfying experience.

 

The same CANNOT be said about fighting the Arachnotron atop its platform (5:00)

Already among the worst of enemies, this setup took me to another plane of annoyance. However, being able to take the tunnel around its back alleviated this quite a bit.

 

I made the un-wise decision yet again of refusing to leave the level without 200/200 health/armor which I know will be supplemented once I reach MAP30. We'll see though.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[loveless]

prboom+, no saves, uv pistol starts  
map 29 

 

kudos @pcorf you made me nervous a few times but i still got it on the first attempt.  real recognize real, you made some dangerous situations, quality map!! 

 

 

akeldama-29-loveless.7z

[head_cannon]

Oh, why not. One more session before the deadline and the cutoff date.

 

-Crispy Doom, UV Continuous

 

MAP14 - Darkness Beneath

 

This is a long-ass adventure, from natural cave to marble castle to steel factory. It justified its length by always having a new vista to take in around every corner. One standout moment is the outdoor monument early on: Its view into the red key shrine is pretty cool, but is soured a little by how if you examine that area too closely you can see past the bottom of the skybox.

The way you gain access to the caves at the start is quite theatrical. The three-stage deployment of the lights, bars, & stairs certainly made an impression. And I think it's interesting how a player who decides to jump down to the watery floor of the cave will have a different experience than one who stays up on the path (like I did).

The blue key area maintains that high standard of visuals, but is functionally a little awkward. When initially jumping down into the blue key shrine, the staircase up out of the water was clogged by monsters trying to walk down from the upper floor. They had a hard time navigating down the narrow & winding staircase, and were just sitting ducks to be slowly picked off at the choke point. Similarly, the army that is summoned to protect the Blue Key is pretty much effortlessly defeated by the hallway between them and the key: they were having a hard time navigating through the tiny doorway and I was able to pump rockets into the windows until the Arch-Vile went down.

The "rope bridge" was pretty neat, and it seems that some care has been taken to keep the monsters away from it so they won't ruin the effect. I thought it was kind of clever how it cuts back through the level to deliver you to the exit door, but found the actual exit a little lackluster with its basic "open a door and shoot everything directly in front of you" setup. Still, this level was overall worth the trip.

 

MAP15 - Breaching the Source

 

The way it was all quiet at the start set a nice mood, and the way that the quiet was shattered by the Chaingun trap was really cool. This level was gorgeous to look at. I loved the theatricality of breaking in to this demonic factory and heading deep within the infernal machinery. The path into the heart of the machine was mostly intuitive, with the exception of one design decision that irked me.

There are two spots where the path forward is a sharp step down onto a small platform: when climbing around at the very beginning (outside, marked by those yellow light-bars) and at the very end (up the piston in the final coolant-tank arena). Both were very difficult to spot because they were such steep, out-of-sight drops; in each case I eventually got lucky and stumbled into them rather than noticing any clear way to go.

The radsuit gauntlet was really fun; I liked the pressure of the limited radsuit duration with which to wade past the crusher and access the switch within the machinery, and the way that the crusher could compound the panic of the sudden Revenant reveal by cutting off escape. Scrambling backwards to try to get to safety and nearly getting squished before hurtling out into the nukage pool was quite a memorable moment. I thought it was clever how those monsters were reused elsewhere in that facility after their initial jumpscare had concluded. And when they were dealt with, I was quite surprised with how brutal the shootout was with the zombies and the Pain Elemental in the very next room - I mistakenly assumed that the escape from the trap would be the climax of that scene, but this level has a habit of repeatedly topping itself.

The slow lift up to the circular reactor core room and the dramatic reveal (where you're allowed to take in the scene and prepare to alert all the Revenants) were both fantastic. If that had been the finale, this level would have been one of my favorites hands-down. The followup trap of being surrounded by bruisers and needing to get the Mancubus firing at the goat-men was pretty clever in how it demanded quick thinking. Just like the one-way elevator, the timed door meant that there was no going back; having to dive in and fly by the seat of my pants trying to survive was exciting.

That blue key trap was brutal in that there's nowhere to dodge if the Arch-Vile feels like running right out of his hall into the center of the room. At least you get a Soulsphere right beforehand so you can tank the hit. (The Blue Armor prize directly afterward certainly helps too.) The blue door itself is a fantastic gag: Since it had slammed shut on an empty hallway, suddenly finding myself face-to-face with three Revenants was quite a shock.

It was a little annoying to spend so much time on the final battle in the coolant tank only to realize that I should go back and do it all over again so I could spend the Invulnerability skipping it. Grabbing the powerup and making a run for it is always fun, but the progression to unlock the path through this reservoir room was something that nobody is going to guess their way into on their first madcap sprint around.

I don't know what was more obnoxious about the exit room: the last-second Arch-Vile in a small enclosed room with no cover, or waiting for the timed door to finally let me out.

 

MAP16 - Aquaduct Fortress

 

I like how the calm stillness of the starting outdoor area is immediately shattered once the player moves out of their starting position. There are many, many hitscanners to chew through to get where you're going, and they're generally placed in an entertaining fashion, with moments of tense countersniping contrasted with the occasional full-auto massacre.

Clearing the dark corridors of this castle was something I found really fun - there was another monster around every bend and it kept up this steady pacing for basically the entire adventure. It's a good thing that this "something to say boo around every single corner" approach worked as well as it did to keep me engaged, since this level was so huge and sprawling. The different sections interconnect in a few ways, and I'm always a fan of when different players could set off in different directions and end up with slightly different experiences depending on what their route was.

This castle looked amazing, from the grand halls to the outdoor promenade to the poisoned sewer tunnels. The visual polish on those two teleport chambers with ornate spiral staircases might have been entirely unnecessary (unless they conceal secrets I didn't find), but I appreciate all the added detail to sections which, functionally, could have just been small-scale and utilitarian.

When I found the red key challenge down one of the sewer tunnels, I got smothered and killed by the second wave before deciding to head back and check some other paths before my radsuit burned out. I was surprised to discover that it was a back-door into the exit; I don't see many of these "either/or" setups for keys nowadays so that was something I found novel, and I suppose I'm glad that the blue-key path was so much more forgiving.

[pcorf]

3 hours ago, DJVCardMaster said:

 But it clearly does not fit into the MAP29 spot.

  Reveal hidden contents

MAP17

MAP14
MAP15

MAP28
MAP23
MAP26
MAP10
MAP11
MAP05
MAP06
MAP04
MAP22
MAP21
MAP09
MAP08
MAP29
MAP25
MAP19
MAP16
MAP18
MAP07
MAP03
MAP02
MAP27
MAP24
MAP31
MAP13
MAP01

MAP20
MAP12
MAP32

 

Exactly. I got a bit too carried away with my style instead of attempting slaughtermap style. I even considered moving it back but in the end tried to make it as hard as possible from pistol start.

Edited July 30, 2020 by pcorf

[pcorf]

8 hours ago, Arbys550 said:

my thoughts about this map as to not offend the author, but I really didn't like this map.

Ranking:

  Reveal hidden contents

Map08: Arctic Compound

 

Map20: The Devil's Triangle

Map06: Insurrection

Map14: Darkness Beneath

Map22: Dark Sacrifices

Map17: Blood Covenant

Map25: Opulence

Map07: Carnage Facility

Map26: Duskbound

Map02: Knights of Ilasac

Map11: The Glacier Base

Map23: Chimera

Map10: Hangar Facility

Map24: Alexandria Library

Map32: Operation Pump and Dump

Map03: Renegades

Map19: Death March

map18: Mortar

Map04: Chillwell

Map15: Breaching the Source

 

Map27: Bitter Waters

Map12: Urban Strike

Map13: Toxic Disgust

Map28: Climbing Blood Mountain

Map09: Winter Stronghold

Map01: The Generator

Map21: Disaster County

Map05: Bunker Hill

Map16: Aqueduct Fortress

 

Map29: Boglach

Map31: Make Believe

 

 

All good, you are not offending me. I didn't really like the map myself to be honest once I found out 27, and 30 were slaughtermaps. But I was trying my best to make something vanilla compatible with a classic size (still bigger than the id software maps).

 

I came very close to removing my map from Akeldama and converting it to Next Doom Odyssey (limit removing project), but I thought it wasn't good enough for ADO. Don't worry, in MAP30 you'll get plenty of supply early on because you'll be in for one hell of a fight.

 

If I was to make another community project I would not assign maps to slots (apart from 15, 30, 31) and instead arrange maps by theme, amount of monsters, etc.

Edited July 30, 2020 by pcorf

[pcorf]

3 hours ago, DuckReconMajor said:

I made the un-wise decision yet again of refusing to leave the level without 200/200 health/armor which I know will be supplemented once I reach MAP30. We'll see though.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

Will you pay for it?

 

I think you have the skills, you can certainly do it!

[mArt1And00m3r11339]

I have a live stream of maps 1 through 4 on my Zandronum server (stopped on map 5 because I was trying to solve a problem with players starting with 1% health instead of 100% but none of the remedies worked). I have tried rehosting my server but then it no longer works because of Complex Doom Just Ammo (because it is not compatible with version 27).

 

Edited July 31, 2020 by mArt1And00m3r11339

[Phobus]

MAP30: Mind of Enmity

Or "The Devil's Capital", as the automap would have it. I spent about 50 minutes getting 100% kills on this map, and there's no secrets, just the starting sector tagged so you don't get 0% secrets at the end.

 

After a nice opening view (the remains of "The Beast of the Earth", according to the ending text screen), this map starts off with a very inauspicious slaughter setup, where I ended up killing about 80 enemies from the little room I'd teleported to just by rocketing through the doorway and side-stepping the odd Revenant rocket. Not sure how that would've gone on a pistol start, but on continuous I didn't see any other way of doing it. For a while I feared the whole map would be like that - then the route to the red skull was worse, with Barons up on high plinths.

 

The yellow skull I just sort of stumbled into, as there's a few teleporters in the opening area of this map that lead you to seemingly random areas that you're likely to have not seen before. It gives you a bit of a glimpse into what I'd consider the bulk of the map, but it's mostly self-contained. Mouselook players, like me, can afford to waste some of their ammo shooting at things from afar, as there's ample ammo in the map and even chaingun or shotgun sniping mid-tiers from a very safe distance will save you some hassle when you get to later parts of the map, although obviously rockets are preferable. The multiple waves of Cacodemons accompanying the four Cyberdemons in the yellow skull building didn't help me out much with infighting, and I actually died a couple of times getting my BFG action right in there. Other than that I proceeded with relative safety throughout the map, probably due to the odd big health boost, my continuous load out and my willingness to snipe and rocket from afar.

 

The main building that you teleport into houses a BFG9000 in a central red skull locked area, so it's worth clearing, but the main goal of the level is actually to collect all three skulls. The yellow one is definitely quicker to get to than the blue one, and takes you past a soulsphere that can provide a much needed top-up once you've cleared a lot of this section of the map of enemies. The true quest of this level, to my mind, is the journey to the blue skull. It's a "Living End" style ascent, albeit mostly outdoors, that probably houses half of the monsters in the map and took me at least twenty minutes to surmount, if not longer. You'll fight multiple Cyberdemons and tons of other enemies on the way, including a very BFG-one-shot-friendly Spider Mastermind (one of at least four on the map). Progression in this section is muddled with teleporters, long jumps and even a brief Arch-Vile maze (yay...), but it's effectively a linear gauntlet of individual challenges. Not sure what the weird thing with the teleports behind the "starting room" was about, as they were numbered 1 and II, but seemed to lead to the same place. Could've cut out some of the hassle and teleported us straight to the blue skull key from the end of the linear gauntlet and then had a separate teleporter either back to the "starting room" or straight to the room with the three skull bars.

 

There's some bizarre use of height differences, considering the vanilla nature of this map, such as a Pain Elemental on a very steep flight of stairs that I can only imagine will cause no end of infinite-height shenanigans. On the other hand, there's a few loose Lost Souls on the map that I didn't come across until very late, so I guess a player using the Lost Soul limit will not be quite as susceptible to so much bother from the PEs anyway. There's a Cyberdemon in a tower on the way to the blue skull that I guess is meant to be some sort of sniper, but rarely had a shot at me. I dealt with him early from safety with the plasma rifle, just to be sure. Likewise, there's a big row of chaingunners on a high structure later on that I also felt it best to shotgun snipe from very far away - there were more up there later, but thinning the numbers must have helped.

 

Visually, this map is very mixed. The big outdoor areas look rather sparse and plain thanks to the limits, whilst indoors areas are variable. The design highlights to me were the Doom-cute fighter jet up on the ceiling in a shadowy hangar near the starting teleport, and the even better Doom-cute tank by the blue skull key.

 

The ending is a strange little sequence, where you open the bars, get some supplies then teleport into close-quarter combat with a pair of Masterminds. Given the BFG and cell ammo on this map, this isn't difficult even if you don't get them to infight. You then press three switches, teleport again and there's a megasphere and a switch. I rushed up and pressed the switch, which turned out to be a detonator for a second Icon of Sin ("The Beast of the Sea", apparently), then it was over. Didn't even get time to grab the megasphere.

 

It's a weird map, which does many things. The blue skull adventure is probably the highlight, but even that felt very constrained by the format. I like the vague integration of story into this map, but had kind of forgotten that there was meant to be a story in this last stretch of ten maps.

 

 

Overall Thoughts on Akeldama

A modern take on the classic vanilla megaWAD formula, it avoids the worn-out tropes (MAP07 isn't a Dead Simple clone and MAP30 isn't an IoS, thankfully), but a lot of the mappers appear to be battling the limitations of the vanilla format. waverider (MAP11), anteres031 (MAP17) and Khorus (MAP28) are probably my highlights from this set, thriving within the themes and limits to deliver highly enjoyable maps. There's some other good efforts here too, from the likes of Breezeep, gaspe and probably some others, but the overall experience isn't one I'd recommend - particularly on UV. It's a lengthy slog, suffering from the ambition and often falling back on mean-spirited traps and thickets of corridors in the pursuit of "bigger is better".

 

I'm half inclined to try my hand at an ambitious vanilla map myself, after this, just to see how I'd fare and to put my interest in the genre to bed. I can't see myself starting any time soon, though, so hopefully this inspiration passes before I act on it. There's a lot of hard work gone into this, clearly, and I'm sure for a lot of players it pays off in a big way, but I think I just don't get much out of big vanilla map sets, and haven't for a long time.

 

 

I'm in two minds about participating next month, so I'll see how I feel on the 1st and will reserve the right to quietly drop out if I do start!

[Biodegradable]

MAP30 - Mind of Enmity

HMP  | Continuous with Saves | GZDoom + Hellrider

 

Wow, this one took me a solid hour to complete heh. A pretty spectacular send-off, I must say as the map wastes absolutely no time putting you in mortal danger. I actually died at the first encounter because I wasn't really sure how to deal with the sudden flood of Revenants and Chaingunners barging their way into my tiny domicile. Second attempt I managed to push through them with rockets and machinegun fire and just kept running around trying to give myself some distance so I could figure out where the hell I was, but oh man, Valk's got this shit packed to the rafters. Running n' Gunning was the best strategy for a bit as I just darted through rooms in a similar fashion to my boy @DuckReconMajor until I had sufficiently killed enough bastards to give myself some breathing room... and trapped myself in an area with a Cyberdemon lurking just outside lol. Anyways, killed that big galoot and then moved onward from there. Decided to give you all that as my gameplay footage is 21GB and rendering that bastard takes 2 hours and I really can't be bothered, honestly. This map is bloody MASSIVE but there's not a single hint of wasted space which is a commendable achievement for Valk in that regard. He has well and truly mastered how to make big-ass maps but use every part of the buffalo. The use of verticality in this one is incredibly fun and really makes you feel like you're storming the final castle and defeating the bastards once and for all. There's a great deal of finality to it that I really appreciate.

 

The map's level progression was a litte odd at times as I felt like I was just wandering around, really not entirely sure what I'm supposed to be doing or going, so there was a bit of confusion, but it all makes sense in the end for the most part. The was one area inside a tower with a button that lowers a bunch of walls in an almost star-shape that reaches up to another button, but you can just shoot the button. I have no idea what this button did nor did I understand how to get out of the tower once I had pressed it. Perhaps there was an elevator texture somewhere that was too subtle for me, but I spent close to a minute ambling around inside before giving up and using Hellrider's double-jump to get myself out back the way I came. Really not sure what the deal with that area is. That was the only sore point I found with the map, everything was really great with the balance of large groups of enemies that always felt fair and very well planned out. I found the little nod to the infamous ArchVile Maze map from Plutonia to be pretty funny and the surprise final boss fight with the two Spider Masterminds was a big OH SHIT kind of moment that had me quickly thinking on my feet. For the final map, I think it's a pretty terrific one.

 

Time to round off my top favourite maps in the megaWAD's chronological order:

• MAP01 - The Generator
• MAP11 - The Glacier Base
• MAP14 - Darkness Beneath
• MAP18 - Mortar
• MAP21 - Disaster County
• MAP23 - Chimera
• MAP24 - Alexandria’s Library
• MAP26 - Duskbound
• MAP28 - Climbing Blood Mountain

 

Final thoughts

Now given I don't have a great deal of community-made megaWADs under my belt at this point, my opinion is likely going to be more positive than others as I've gotten the distinct impression that is one was a mixed bag for more of the veteran Doomers here in the club. Honestly, for me personally, I guess the biggest criticism I can honestly lob at Akeldama is that it has a really strong frostbitten medieval theme to it that's unfortunately lost after only a handful of maps and barely if ever returns. I promise that in my eyes it's not a huge deal, but it is noticeable and hurts it slightly. Besides that, this was an excellent romp through some rather spectacular levels and I really enjoyed myself. Even the maps that I didn't necessarily love were still a fun time to be had and I can't think of a single map that had me feeling bored out of my mind and just pleading for things to be over. Not a single one. Truly, this was a phenomenal megaWAD and I again wish to congratulate Valkiriforce and everyone else who worked on it. Thank you very much, folks. :^)

 

Just going to reiterate my vote for next month's megaWAD: +++Doom 64 for Doom II  

 

Edited August 2, 2020 by Biodegradable

[Phobus]

1 hour ago, Biodegradable said:

The was one area inside a tower with a button that lowers a bunch of walls in an almost star-shape that reaches up to another button, but you can just shoot the button. I have no idea what this button did nor did I understand how to get out of the tower once I had pressed it. Perhaps there was an elevator texture somewhere that was too subtle for me, but I spent close to a minute ambling around inside before giving up and using Hellrider's double-jump to get myself out back the way I came. Really not sure what the deal with that area is.

 

I think the shoot switch raised the metal pillar a little higher (which was indeed a lift you can press on). Riding that pillar up and then running towards the centre pillar in those four switch-activated lifts is enough to teleport you to the next thing you need to do (or just back to somewhere more useful - I can't remember for sure).

[Andromeda]

MAP30: Mind of Enmity (Akeldama)

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

 

The end at last! But Akeldama won't let us get off so easily, as we have to conquer this 45 minute behemoth before we're allowed to press the switch that kills the Icon of Sin once and for all (ehh...). This starts with a neat vista similar to the one in MAP31, with the Icon of Sin proudly standing in front of us but with its exposed head just out of reach... After entering the teleporter that brings us to the rest of the level, we're allowed a brief moment of respite to collect supplies before opening the first door, which reveals a flood of chaingunners and a few revenants, talk about starting with a bang!

 

There's a few areas to explore from here, most notably the red key area which is oddly almost unguarded - just half a dozen hell knights that pose no threat whatsoever. This key is quite important though, since it allows access to the BFG9000 which is going to be really useful to dispatch the handful of bosses present. A few unmemorable sections later we arrive to a snowy area, from here we can take a teleporter that leads to the yellow key that's guarded by a Cyberdemon and a bunch of other monsters - there's potential for infighting here but I decided to take it slow for once and triggered each wave separately, two shotting the Cyberdemon at the end.

 

Yellow key in hand, time to follow the blood river to a deep cavern that'll lead us to the majestic area we'll have to traverse to collect the blue key. Around the middle of the extensive stairway a sniper Cyberdemon is alerted, I figured there had to exist a way to telefrag it and sure enough I found the fairly well-hidden teleporter soon afterwards. Throughout the level I came close to death a few times, but none as close as when I shot a rocket at point blank that the autoaim helpfully directed to a wall instead of the revenant above, leaving me at 8% health.

 

Fortunately the supercharge nearby patched me up and I was able to proceed. One last notable battle before taking the final teleporter leading to the blue key, consisting of a Cyberdemon/Spiderdemon combo aided by four revenants on pillars, which I tackled rather aggressively thanks to the benefit of the invulnerability I'd saved near the teleport to telefrag the sniper Cyberdemon. Not much resistance remains, just a few more clusters of monsters to clear while running along the path and a mini arch-vile maze as an interlude before the end.

 

The tank in the blue key area was really cute though - reminded me of the blue key area in Kama Sutra MAP13 that had a turned over truck instead and a horde of imps, which led me to draw out the BFG just in case this level tried to employ the same trick :P One last enemy to kill, a Spiderdemon that poses no trouble due to the convenient pillar in the middle of the room. The finale is cool, as the Icon of Sin wall rises into view to enable you to see it exploding. Small nitpick, I'd prefer to lob a couple of rockets to it instead of pressing a switch to finish the level. All in all, a great conclusion to Akeldama, long-winded but without ever feeling like a slog.

 

Final thoughts:

 

The premise of Akeldama as I understand it was to create a wad following the trail of the popular ones of yore. In my view it succeeded in replicating the style it set out to emulate, while feeling like its own thing and not a lame copycat. You can definitely feel some "modern polish" thrown in, noticeable in the lack of bugs, the smooth difficulty curve and the thematic consistency. If I had to pick a favourite episode it would be EP3, despite having many long levels which I usually don't like. Overall, if you wonder how the classic wads would be like if they were released today, look no further as Akeldama is the answer!

 

Favourite levels:

1. MAP22: Dark Sacrifices

2. MAP29: Boglach

3. MAP30: Mind of Enmity

[DuckReconMajor]

17 hours ago, pcorf said:

Will you pay for it?

 

I think you have the skills, you can certainly do it!

No! Actually it worked out well!

 

MAP30: Mind of Enmity 

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

 

The insanity continues!

We're dropped into what seems to be a cute mini-battle against everyone's favorite MAP30 menace. A short teleport later, and this illusion crumbles like a chaingunner hit with 3 shotgun pellets.

My 200/200 exit from MAP29 allowed me to clear out a decent chunk of the considerable monster mass in the beginning, then run back and reset to full armor and health.

Each time I met a new area, the possible paths branched out again and again, which led to a breathing, living, non-linear experience.

 

The room with the Archviles flanking the Spider Mastermind and the Cyberdemon's throne was super cool. I don't know whether the fact that I had to run through it quickly detracted or added to the experience. I liked peeping back in there for a second to grab the soulsphere.

 

This map certainly went on for a long time, coursing into vistas that I still don't believe are vanilla compatible. Despite this, I do not count these among the 'went on a bit too long' group, as I was genuinely thrilled throughout almost the whole thing.

This MAP30 has a certain quality that I won't forget for quite a while.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[DJVCardMaster]

Peak Vanilla mapping

[loveless]

33 minutes ago, DJVCardMaster said:

Peak Vanilla mapping

 

this is it, lads and lasses

mutiny's forklift has been outdone

[Arbys550]

Map30: Mind of Enmity

I started off really liking the map but got extremely bored once the city started. Not only that but sniper enemies placed above the view of the player I thought was really stupid. Plus the cacos were annoying. You'd shoot them, they'd float off, then randomly come back in 5 minutes later and screw you over with infinite height.

 

Ranking:

Spoiler

Map08: Arctic Compound

 

Map20: The Devil's Triangle

Map06: Insurrection

Map14: Darkness Beneath

Map22: Dark Sacrifices

Map17: Blood Covenant

Map25: Opulence

Map07: Carnage Facility

Map26: Duskbound

Map02: Knights of Ilasac

Map11: The Glacier Base

Map23: Chimera

Map10: Hangar Facility

Map24: Alexandria Library

Map32: Operation Pump and Dump

Map03: Renegades

Map19: Death March

map18: Mortar

Map04: Chillwell

Map15: Breaching the Source

 

Map27: Bitter Waters

Map12: Urban Strike

Map13: Toxic Disgust

Map28: Climbing Blood Mountain

Map09: Winter Stronghold

Map01: The Generator

Map21: Disaster County

Map05: Bunker Hill

Map16: Aqueduct Fortress

 

Map30: Mind of Enmity

Map29: Boglach

Map31: Make Believe

 

Overall a pretty good WAD. I guess map08 was my favorite, which makes sense. I liked that one.

[Endless]

MAP30: Mind of Enmity 

UV, LZDoom and Brutal Doom mod.

 

And here we are, the end, at last.

Map 30 is the pin that gracefully closes this big megawad. From beginning to end, a map that shows more violence inside his vein than any other map. The biggest of all and one of the hardest. Demons flood into every corner and resources are stretched thin. You do not come just to play, you come to face the hordes of hell. From one side to the other, enemies everywhere. The satisfaction of being able to fight 100 low-tier demons in large rooms or open fields is enormous. Especially if you use the BFG, a total satisfaction from start to finish. Despite the huge size of the map, it's not that hard to find the right path. It prompts you to follow different paths that in one way or another lead you to the right place, however, certain paths can be a little more difficult than others depending on where you position them. This map also features one of the most vanilla designs in the entire collection. The abstract architecture and the stock textures shine because of their simplicity, as well as the airplane in the hangar and the tank... on the roof? As DJVCardMaster said: Peak Vanilla mapping.

 

The length of the map may be a negative point for some people, but considering that this is the final map, I find it acceptable. It can last from 30 to 40 minutes, 30 at the rate I've usually been destroying everything and not worrying too much about secrets. It's not as tiring as other maps just because it doesn't force us to do extreme backtracing or spend long-ass minutes looking for buttons or keys. That's an aspect I quite appreciate, thanks to the good use of portals. The difficulty is higher than most maps, but I'm not sure if I consider it one of the most difficult maps. Probably the most complex area is the beginning and the middle. After that there are usually not too many complications, it even has a kind of small ''maze'' in the style of we-already-know what iwad.

 

Probably the only negative aspect that I have of this map is the fact that in the end it doesn't feel like a ''final boss fight'' in that style, but that's more my subjective opinion than anything else, since even though the use of IoS is something that already has us tired, here it also makes use of it, but in a much, much simpler way that in reality it seemed a bit anticlimactic compared to the rest of the huge battles. There are plenty of Masterminds and Cyberdemons, but they are only part of the monster repertoire without possessing a true evil presence within the whole scheme of the final map. Still, in the end, this was an entertaining, long and well done map in terms of evocation of the vanilla style, probably one of the best ones in that case.

 

Conclusion:

We have reached the end of Akeldama, a megawad inspired by the spirit of the 90s but modernized to meet the qualities of the present. Big, strong and pretty long, this megawad took me 7 hours and 47 minutes to finish. A considerably long set on average (although I don't really think there is an average between megawads.) From start to finish I think it manages to satisfy the fundamental aspects within my regimen: To be fun, to have style and to have charisma. I've said quite a bit about this megawad in the magazine I'm working on (check it out, wink.) but I can always repeat that it's one of the best works to come out of the course of 2020. It's simple, it's big, it's intense and it's made with passion to deliver a project to the veteran Doomers.

 

I've quite enjoyed this megawad, I can see that it's a bit tiring to play in one go, but the way it's played ala DWMC style, it's quite entertaining and gives enough adventure to have a good month. In conclusion, with my last words, as redundant but sincere as ever, Akeldama is just cool.

 

PS: No vote this time since I'm a little behind the current, but I'll play whatever comes next! It's been a great pleasure

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP30 - "Mind of Enmity"/"The Devil's Capital" - Michael Jan "Valkiriforce" Krizik (100%K/80%I/100%S):

Nice looks of the starting area with a dead IOS buried in the sands. Amazing post apocalyptic view here at out last outpost. First I feared this was going to be an overpopulated slaughter map just like MAP32, because of that Revenant/Chaingunner start, pretty obnoxious, but luckly, we have guns. The map is another of those long journeys/keyhunts as other maps  by Valkiriforce. I  should say this is one of those Magnum Opus maps that can make an author be on the Mapper's Hall of Fame for our community, like it or not, this is one of the most impresive MAP30's we've seen so far, I could not believe at times this map was Vanilla compatible, as there are some HUMONGOUS parts on this map, specially at the "city" where you can see so much on your little 320x200 screen. 
I see some people complaining about the length, seriously? for MAP30? this is totally alright, what we need on most mapsets at the end, not only a small little IOS fight with nothing more to it. We usually find this type of maps at the MAP28/MAP29 slot, this time Valkiriforce dared to end his work with a memorable map.
Not the one I liked the most, but I'm sure this one is a really accepted finale.
The map looks is more of a reprise of everything we have seen so far throughout all Akeldama. Every single aesthetic aspect from previous maps, with some little exceptions.

Side note, I like how some few textures I "made"/placed on MAP24 were used here, again going with the "reprise" factor of this map. That's what most Megawads don't do, a reprise/coda map at the last slot. Something that gets every aspect of previous maps or "landmarks" in said megaWAD. This is why, for me, it's a good ending, again something you may not like mostly in the gameplay department, but I think it's undeniable this map is a magnum opus. All things said.

 

Deaths: 105 (HMP Playthrough - Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP17 (Great) 

MAP14
MAP15
 

MAP28 (Good)
MAP23
MAP26
MAP30
MAP10
MAP11
MAP05
MAP06
MAP04
MAP22
MAP21
MAP09
MAP08

MAP29 (Ok)
MAP25
MAP19
MAP16
MAP18

MAP07 (Average)
MAP03
MAP02
MAP27
MAP24
MAP31
MAP13
MAP01
 

MAP20 (Bad)
MAP12
MAP32

 

I'll give my final thoughts tomorrow. 

Edited July 31, 2020 by DJVCardMaster

[DuckReconMajor]

10 hours ago, Phobus said:

I think the shoot switch raised the metal pillar a little higher (which was indeed a lift you can press on). Riding that pillar up and then running towards the centre pillar in those four switch-activated lifts is enough to teleport you to the next thing you need to do (or just back to somewhere more useful - I can't remember for sure).

This is what I saw as well.

[loveless]

gave map 30 a good 4 proper attempts and couldn't survive. i made it through half the monster count but i shan't give up!  may just spend the rest of the night playing Grandia on Vita or watching educational stuff but tomorrow is back on the grind.  good to see so many people enjoying this wad overall, cheers fellas!

[Snikle]

MAP27: Bitter Waters

Another favorite of the mapset so far (although this close to the end, I don’t know if the “so far” is necessary any longer). Valk gave us a nice river valley with a couple complexes built into and around it. Although all the stations were separate from one another, physically, visually, and gameplay-wise, the level felt coherent as a whole. The starting complex was built around interconnectedness and felt similar to Antares’ level from earlier. Found the secret soulsphere in the chiangunner alcove, setting up a trend for the level. Lots of soulspheres, some marked as secrets, others just in optional areas. Across the river was a gothic, marble, and above all, dark grotto with a cyberdemon and a bunch of other nasty shits. Luckily it also gave me the BFG, which came to great use later on.

 

Going downriver there was another Cyber. This was the better cyber fight because there were other monsters around with him. Stop putting cybers by themselves, they’re always more fun when there’s other shit to deal with too. Here there were two more constructs, one on each side of the river. I went into the yellow-key one first, with all the hitscanners. That was a fun romp, but I didn’t find the key in this go-around. Then I went across to the other side, got the blue key which wasn’t in as interesting of an area, but the caves were very well constructed, and the glowing nukage was cool as hell. Then I went to find the yellow key, and then went again to figure out how to open the other gate. Turns out I never stepped on the pressure plate in the courtyard in the blue key area. Then there was a rev hoard, and then the end. Amazingly fun time.

 

MAP28: Climbing Blood Mountain

A large and naturalistic map that takes the player up the eponymous Blood Mountain. Map was a visual treat of course, and I thoroughly enjoyed most of the gameplay as well. There were a couple areas that annoyed me, although that could probably be blamed more on me than the level itself. The first Mastermind and her friends up above were one of those areas. The Mastermind itself went down easy, but took enough of my health with it that I was consistently one hit away from death for a while. Platforming at the end also irked me a bit, but it was over quickly. Most of the other areas were fun as hell though. The opening areas down in the caves were very well-made, I always appreciate a good cave. Weapons were scattered about in here, which I tend to enjoy more for aesthetic purposes than just putting them all in line like the previous map (although that is usually more practical, if the mapper intends for you to get all the weapons quickly). The middle parts of the level were enjoyable as well, more caves to crawl through and courtyards to blow shit up in. The fight to get the yellow key was probably my favorite part of the level, so much shit happening around me. I had a great time in here, let’s see where the final two maps take us.

 

MAP29: Boglach

This was still a fun map, but didn’t scratch the same “penultimate” itch that the last couple did. For a set of long maps, the slot usually holding one of the longest and hardest wasn’t too much on either count. This one was also marred by ammo starvation at a few points, and the fighting was still very high-octane and fun, but not any more so than some of the previous maps were. Ammo starvation was the worst around the yellow key and door. I needed to punch out the Archie up there near the teleporter. I realize this may have sounded negative towards the map so far, but that is far from the case. I still very much enjoyed my time here. Secrets were plentiful and intuitive, which is always a plus. The linearity of the map was pretty well masked by the interconnectedness. The final fight was fun as hell, too bad I didn’t stumble upon the secret BFG until everything was dead though.

[VanaheimRanger]

I'm down for 1000 Lines Project.  Might jump in this round with you guys.

 

+++1klines

[pcorf]

16 hours ago, Snikle said:

MAP27: Boglach

Ammo starvation was the worst around the yellow key and door. I needed to punch out the Archie up there near the teleporter. I realize this may have sounded negative towards the map so far, but that is far from the case. I still very much enjoyed my time here. Secrets were plentiful and intuitive, which is always a plus. The linearity of the map was pretty well masked by the interconnectedness. The final fight was fun as hell, too bad I didn’t stumble upon the secret BFG until everything was dead though.

 

Yeah, you probably wasted your SSG and it is important to use the pistol say if you shoot a Cacodemon twice with the SSG, then finish it off with one or two pistol shots if fighting it solo. Since I wasn't making a slaughtermap I wanted to make the ammo balance as tight as possible. Allowing monsters to fight each other and secrets help.

Edited July 31, 2020 by pcorf

[mArt1And00m3r11339]

I have maps 5 and 7 up if anyone wants to check out my live stream. I have a server of this wad with Complex Doom up on Zandronum.

 

[Snikle]

MAP30: Mind of Enmity

Well now we know why the last map was a relative breather. I was expecting a regular ‘ol Icon fight, but I got something much, much better. This was a monster of a level, with amazing varied fights across a bunch of different environments. Not a single dull moment here. From the chaotic opening with a horde of revs and chainnies, to the numerous cyberdemons (and a nice Gotcha-style fight), to the Arch-Vile maze, and so on. The best overall part of the map was the massive outdoor area, which was a visual feast and combat slaughterhouse. Hopping between constructs, killing everything, such a fun time. The place to get the red key was maybe the only weaker link, being a single-room fight with nothing more than a bunch of turreted barons and an AV, with a few perched chaingunners for good measure. Wasn’t bad of course, just not as grandiose as the rest of the map. The absolutely massive horde of imps was fun as hell, as was the large fight in the semicircular hallway that followed. The end of the map was a treat, since I didn’t have to do any icon puzzles myself, just call in the bombers to take it away. That’s how it all would end in real life. Also the tank was one of the coolest things ever.

 

So I’ve actually finished Akeldama! Sure, I ran a few days behind the club here at the end, but no matter. It was a very fun megawad. 1K lines doesn’t interest me much for now, so I’ll probably sit next month out, take some time to play or replay some other mapsets. As I usually do when I actually finish the month’s mapset, here’s a top 5 and “bottom” 5, in no particular order. Bear in mind that nothing in the bottom 5 is actually a bad map, just the ones that didn’t grab me as much. This high-quality megawad had no “bad” maps.

 

Top 5:

MAP07 – Large and complex, and also very fun and challenging

MAP11 – A great way to cap off the first episode.

MAP17 – A layout that boggled my mind in its interconnectivity

MAP23 – Similar to 17, but on an even larger scale.

MAP30 – Just amazing in every way

 

Bottom 5:

MAP10 – Middle of the map was great, but the beginning and ending had way too much hitscan BS

MAP13 – The beginning of the map dragged down the rest. The green parts were great, the brown parts were not

MAP19 – Visually same-y all the way through, got me lost a bunch. Also lots of chaingunners

MAP24 – Not as intriguing as the maps around it. I enjoyed it still, but it didn’t grab me

MAP29 – Fun map, but didn’t feel grand enough

[loveless]

prboom+, no saves, uv pistol starts  
map 30 

 

six attempts, 51 minute exit. goddamn, what a journey.  thank you for not having an IoS!!!

the video is about 1.2gb and will be slow to upload on my connection. i'll put it up sometime later tonight and post back.

akeldama-30-loveless.7z