Can someone recommend good WADs to me?

[0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0]

Hi, sorry if I'm making any mistakes, I'm new to the forum and I set up my account like 30 minutes ago. I have been playing Doom games for a few months, mainly Doom Eternal,The Ultimate Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth together with GZDoom and sometimes Zandronum, I lately got into playing Mega-WADs together with some mods like Project Brutality(my favourite one) and the only WAD I have been playing so far is Hellbound and I really love that WAD, but it's not enough for me. I want more WADs, I've heard there are basically infinite awesome WADs and Mods for Doom which are just as great and I basically wanted to ask, what are the best and most beloved WADs that everyone should have played? Because I'm very new to First Person Shooter type games, honestly, and I think these games, especially Doom and Quake 1/3 fascinate me and I just don't really know very much about it which I'd love to change(it's also the reason I've signed up in this forum).

[TheNoob_Gamer]

The Cacowards would be a good place to start. It is basically an annual award celebrating best community works throughout the year, and I suggest you to start from 2013 onwards. 2020's Cacowards is coming in approximately 3 days.

 

https://www.doomworld.com/cacowards/

 

You should also have a look at this forum thread, since you are fairly new to Doom in general.

And possibly I'm shilling a bit here - since I'm somewhat of a main team member myself.

The Doom Master Wadazine is a very recent magazine project specifically focusing on Doom, and covers Doom (obviously), various interesting bits about it (technical trivia, how maps work, etc.), and most importantly many WAD reviews giving you a good idea of what to play and expect from these. The quality is generally high, as far as I've seen.
A preview forum thread:

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by TheNoob_Gamer

[Archanhell]

I can not recommend many right now because I just do not have a WADs Folder at hand, nevertheless, if there is a WAD I would like to recommend it's HellCore 2.0.

It is very detailed and awesome, however its difficulty is a bit too much even from the first map, so maybe you would like to play it with a decent wepons mod, or with something like Project Brutality. (I also like that one!)

[HLRaven]

Running late is pretty good, same with ancient aliens and hellbound

[SilverMiner]

2002 A Doom Odyssey

Plutonia 2

Elf gets pissed

Herian 1,2

Pirate Doom

Bloodstain

CPD

Resurgence

PRCP

Dimension of the Boomed

Kama Sutra

Caverns of Darkness

Back to Basics

Skepland

Scythe

Adonis

Ozonia

Revolution!

Suspended in dusk

Phobos Anomaly Reborn

 

[P41R47]

 

As simple this will sound, remember that this mapsets are not mean to be played with Gameplay Mods, and so, playing with them may make them act strangely, or directly, break them.

[akolai]

Depends on what you're looking for, to be honest.
Ancient Aliens, Valiant, Back to Saturn X (Episode 1/2) and Eviternity are some really solid WADs that combine exploration and combat.
Sunlust is a pretty good set of challenging maps that take some careful planning to beat on higher difficulties.
Swim With the Whales and Stardate 20X6 / 20X7 crank that 'careful planning' bit to 11.

[P41R47]

1 hour ago, 0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0 said:

Hi, sorry if I'm making any mistakes, I'm new to the forum and I set up my account like 30 minutes ago. I have been playing Doom games for a few months, mainly Doom Eternal,The Ultimate Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth together with GZDoom and sometimes Zandronum, I lately got into playing Mega-WADs together with some mods like Project Brutality(my favourite one) and the only WAD I have been playing so far is Hellbound and I really love that WAD, but it's not enough for me. I want more WADs, I've heard there are basically infinite awesome WADs and Mods for Doom which are just as great and I basically wanted to ask, what are the best and most beloved WADs that everyone should have played? Because I'm very new to First Person Shooter type games, honestly, and I think these games, especially Doom and Quake 1/3 fascinate me and I just don't really know very much about it which I'd love to change(it's also the reason I've signed up in this forum).

Also, if you don't know where to start beside the recommendation we actually give you, we are just a few days away from 10th of December.

That day is the conmemorative day of Doom's birth, and we celebrate de Cacowards, an award for the most outstanding and awesome projects of the year.

 

This year alone, we have 24 different megawad projects of 32 maps each.

So that a lot of maps to play.

Look on the link in blue, you will find year by year the most awesome things the community made since Doom was released in 1993

Hope you have a good time!

 

;)

[0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0]

Hi guys, sorry I reply that late... just had to do something... but I'm back now. Thank you for all these replies and the giant list of WADs. I really should make a folder where I put all the WADs so I don't spam my GZDoom folder... LOL. Also, I prefer something that works well together with Project Brutality if I'm being honest, I just really love the gore effects and the weapons, the new enemy attacks, the new weapon abilities. But I love Vanilla Doom just as much and therefore I will also play the WADs that are intended to be played without any Gameplay Mods. I would probably create two folders in the Doom Section on my PC, one for WADs that are best played with Vanilla but also the WADs that work well together with Project Brutality... also, thank you very much for the Guide, I already have GZDoom up and running so I can skip that, but I'm gonna read everything of it nonetheless.

 

Also, thanks for the recommendation of the WAD festival that is going to take place on the 10th December... I will definitely play at least some of them, for sure.

[P41R47]

9 minutes ago, 0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0 said:

Also, I prefer something that works well together with Project Brutality if I'm being honest, I just really love the gore effects and the weapons, the new enemy attacks, the new weapon abilities.

CPD

25 Years of Doom

Alien Vendetta

Going Down

 

Those will play without problem with gameplay Mods.

 

Be warned, they are really hard without gameplay mods, and with them, they are even harder.

[0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0]

1 minute ago, P41R47 said:

CPD

25 Years of Doom

Alien Vendetta

Going Down

 

Those will play without problem with gameplay Mods.

 

Be warned, they are really hard without gameplay mods, and with them, they are even harder. 

It's alright, I also played Hellbound, I nearly completed it, I had to play on the second easiest difficulty because I suck but I'll save them and try them nonetheless.

[PeterMoro]

Welcome to Doomworld. We have something for every Doomer here.

 

I recommend DoomthewayIDdid and DoomIIthewayIDdid. 

 

 

[0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0]

1 minute ago, PeterMoro said:

Welcome to Doomworld. We have something for every Doomer here.

 

I recommend DoomthewayIDdid and DoomIIthewayIDdid.  

 

 

Thank you! Do they also work well together with Game play Mods? If not, I'll just play them in Vanilla.

[Zulk RS]

You can try Empyreon, Ancient Aliens, ZDoom Community Map Project Take II, Abysm 2 (Though not recommending you start with that) and of course you should check out the Cacowards.

[Horus]

 

[TheNoob_Gamer]

38 minutes ago, 0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0 said:

Thank you! Do they also work well together with Game play Mods? If not, I'll just play them in Vanilla.

They are fine, as far as I'm concerned.

One tip to know if a mapset is gameplay mod-friendly or not is to read its accompanying text file (for example, Alien Vendetta will have a readme file named AV.TXT) for detailed technical information.

If you like Vanilla Doom, you might want to check out Smooth Doom. It smooths out Doom animations (including weapons and monsters) while (mostly) retaining pure vanilla gameplay. Combine Smooth Doom with Nashgore (https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=62641) and you've got yourself a functional cousin to Project Brutality.

Video preview of the mod:

 

[Mr Masker]

If you're looking for some nice Gameplay Mods there's stuff like:

Supercharge

GMOTA

Treasure Tech

Combined Arms

DoomRL Arsenel

MetaDoom

Doom Delta

Smooth Doom

theres probably more that I'll be kicking myself about later but this is what comes up to mind first

[Mr Masker]

also for maps be sure to check out this impressive list of megawads and wad serieses etc https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/118178-the-ultimate-master-wad-guide/

[whybmonotacrab]

Since I only started playing a year ago, I might be able to help out with wads that stick out to new players. However, for some of these I recommend not using a gameplay mod, since they come with their own changes and won't be compatible. It's also worth trying most custom content out without gameplay mods in general at first since using them often breaks the careful balance the mapper has tried to strike and can either remove a lot of the challenge or make it a hell of a lot more punishing and flat out unfair (you'll definitely run into issues with chaingunners if you play Brutal Doom or Project Brutality for instance). Anyway, here's the list:

 

 -Eviternity: One of the prettiest mapsets you'll find, this one is great because it's beginner friendly, ultra polished, and has a fantastic difficulty curve. Starts easy but will kick your ass by the end. Also the music is amazing.

 -Back to Saturn X: Also very pretty, but doesn't flow as well as Eviternity. Less fast and frantic, more adventure-ish and exploratory. Still absolutely fantastic.

 -Valiant: This one is all about keeping you moving. Like Eternal or 2016, if you stay still you die. Simple as that. Fast, frantic, and extremely creative. Valiant has some weapon changes and it adds a ton of new monsters so definitely don't use a gameplay mod with it.

 -Ancient Aliens: Same creator as Valiant, this wad is prettier and weirder than Valiant, but it's very difficult to choose which one is better.

 -Violence: If you want something to blast through in an afternoon and really like the colour purple, this is the wad for you.

 -Akeldama: If you want something that feels a bit more classically minded but with modern polish, check this one out. It's a blast.

 -Dimensions of the Boomed: If you like Quake, you need to check this out. It's very much themed around that game, but even if you haven't played it there's still a ton of atmospheric enjoyment to be had.

 -Lost Civilization: Some of the prettiest and most realistic looking maps you will ever see in Doom. Despite being pure architecture porn, somehow the combat is still really nice and punchy too.

 -Scythe 2: Short, fast paced maps that are fun and frantic. Like Eviternity it starts easy, but by the end it gets really damn difficult. Like... really damn difficult.

 -Paradise: This comes with it's own gameplay tweaks, so definitely don't use a gameplay mod. Don't worry, the weapons are plenty punchy and there's more than enough gore.

 -Rekkr: A total conversion mod that turns doom into a viking themed fps. It rocks.

Edited December 7, 2020 by whybmonotacrab : Make a sentence clearer.

[Mr Masker]

3 minutes ago, whybmonotacrab said:

Since I only started playing a year ago, I might be able to help out with wads that stick out to new players. However, for some of these I recommend not using a gameplay mod, since they come with their own changes and won't be compatible.

I'd say I agree with this. Unless its something simple like Smooth Doom its best to use vanilla except for times where you've already played it or you aren't really that interested in the megawad on its own

[PeterMoro]

21 hours ago, 0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0 said:

Thank you! Do they also work well together with Game play Mods? If not, I'll just play them in Vanilla.

Yes, they both should be fine with just about any mod you choose. 

[0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0]

Hi, sorry for the late reply. I saw your replies earlier and I wanted to respond but I couldn't because for some reason this website thinks it's a good idea to limit the number of posts I can do per day. And it really really angered me, to be honest. But whatever. Does the post limit go away at some point? Because if it doesn't go away, I'm not really sure if I will be a member for long because this stuff annoyed me so much throughout the entire time since yesterday and today because I knew people were writing posts but I just couldn't reply because of this unnecessary artificial limitation that's only there for seemingly no reason.

 

So I have downloaded every single of those WADs you recommended to me and yes, I have also made 2 seperate folders for mods that would work well with Project Brutality and also a folder for the Vanilla ones. I have started playing the WAD Akeldama in Vanilla. It's a little bit bullshit because the third level is just way too insane. The first two levels were an enjoyable challenge, though. Is it supposed to be that hard? I've been trying to play that for 2 hours but at some point there are just way too many monsters and it's impossible to dodge anything anymore. I've been playing on Hurt me Plenty though.

 

Also, if you want, keep recommending good stuff you feel like a newcomer definitely should play even thought I've already saved so many on my PC today because I'm a little bit addicted to the game at the moment where I just barely do anything else besides playing Doom WADs all day. So I will probably have played them all at some point, even if it's gonna take me a year for every WAD if I keep playing 10 hours straight for once at a time because I'm a noob. I know I'm probably a little bit weird for that but that's the price I pay for Doom...

[TheNoob_Gamer]

7 hours ago, 0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0 said:

Does the post limit go away at some point?

It's a method to avoid spamming - it will eventually go away, don't worry.

 

7 hours ago, 0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0 said:

I have started playing the WAD Akeldama in Vanilla.

Akeldama is vanilla-styled, even HMP will kick your ass if you have not prepared. From what I inferred you might have not used any gameplay mods (if you do these wads would be much harder). Lower the difficulty even more if you want an enjoyable experience.

 

7 hours ago, 0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0 said:

even if it's gonna take me a year for every WAD if I keep playing 10 hours straight for once at a time because I'm a noob. I know I'm probably a little bit weird for that but that's the price I pay for Doom...

Welcome to the Club ;)

[whybmonotacrab]

8 hours ago, 0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0 said:

So I have downloaded every single of those WADs you recommended to me and yes, I have also made 2 seperate folders for mods that would work well with Project Brutality and also a folder for the Vanilla ones. I have started playing the WAD Akeldama in Vanilla. It's a little bit bullshit because the third level is just way too insane. The first two levels were an enjoyable challenge, though. Is it supposed to be that hard? I've been trying to play that for 2 hours but at some point there are just way too many monsters and it's impossible to dodge anything anymore. I've been playing on Hurt me Plenty though.

One thing to note is that almost all community mods are hard. These guys make mods for people who have been playing Doom for years and are looking for a challenge. Some are more managable than others, but unfortunately Akeldama is maybe a 6/10 for community Wad difficulty. This is why a lot of people recommend Eviternity or Scythe - they start really easy and don't get monstrously difficult until the end. They ease you into their difficulty.

 

 If you're struggling with Akeldama, definitely hold off on Valiant, Ancient Aliens, Alien Vendetta, Going Down, and a few others. If you want Doom/Doom 2 difficulty, play Doom the Way Id Did 1 and 2. If you're struggling though, remember no one is going to think less of you if you lower the difficulty.

[P41R47]

42 minutes ago, whybmonotacrab said:

If you're struggling with Akeldama, definitely hold off on Valiant, Ancient Aliens, Alien Vendetta, Going Down, and a few others. If you want Doom/Doom 2 difficulty, play Doom the Way Id Did 1 and 2. If you're struggling though, remember no one is going to think less of you if you lower the difficulty.

Thats why difficult setting exist, pal!

;)
They are made to be use, and none of those megawads are far above Plutonia HMP on their easier difficulties.

Maybe more monster density than Doom 2, but manageable treat for sure. They are really enjoyable experience on HNTR.

[Endless]

You'll probably find some good stuff here.

^{Just gonna drop this by...}

 

 

[TheShep]

On 12/7/2020 at 9:20 AM, 0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0 said:

Hi guys, sorry I reply that late... just had to do something... but I'm back now. Thank you for all these replies and the giant list of WADs. I really should make a folder where I put all the WADs so I don't spam my GZDoom folder... LOL. Also, I prefer something that works well together with Project Brutality if I'm being honest, I just really love the gore effects and the weapons, the new enemy attacks, the new weapon abilities. But I love Vanilla Doom just as much and therefore I will also play the WADs that are intended to be played without any Gameplay Mods. I would probably create two folders in the Doom Section on my PC, one for WADs that are best played with Vanilla but also the WADs that work well together with Project Brutality... also, thank you very much for the Guide, I already have GZDoom up and running so I can skip that, but I'm gonna read everything of it nonetheless.

 

Also, thanks for the recommendation of the WAD festival that is going to take place on the 10th December... I will definitely play at least some of them, for sure.

 

I think with many of the wads suggested, they come with their own custom monsters and weapons sometimes, so it's not usually just vanilla gameplay. There's a lot of interesting effects done as well with many of the newer ones. If you end up getting into older classics, like Memento Mori 1 / 2, or Hell Revealed 1 / 2, those could work with gameplay mods. Good luck and have fun out there! I've been DOOMing since 2002, and frankly, played the games when they were new (DOOM on my 386, which chugged and ran real slow... imagine Doom running slow on Episode 2), so it's been a journey.

[AtticTelephone]

Hey, if you ever feel like playing vanilla, use something like PRBoom+, since it has a few details that make playing vanilla a bit better, although it can't play anything ZDoom and up, and you need to dump an IWAD file in the port file if you feel like making it the default application for opening WAD files. If that isn't your taste, use ZDoom, and set it to Doom Strict or Boom Strict, since ZDoom is actually easier to use than GZDoom, and has better vanilla emulation. Playing vanilla is a cool experience when you play astounding vanilla wads, like Requiem, which has 3D Bridges. That's just my recommendation if you feel like switching ports though. Oh, also PRBoom+ maybe can mess up music on rare occasions, but has a better sound overall. 

[0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0]

3 hours ago, AtticTelephone said:

Hey, if you ever feel like playing vanilla, use something like PRBoom+, since it has a few details that make playing vanilla a bit better, although it can't play anything ZDoom and up, and you need to dump an IWAD file in the port file if you feel like making it the default application for opening WAD files. If that isn't your taste, use ZDoom, and set it to Doom Strict or Boom Strict, since ZDoom is actually easier to use than GZDoom, and has better vanilla emulation. Playing vanilla is a cool experience when you play astounding vanilla wads, like Requiem, which has 3D Bridges. That's just my recommendation if you feel like switching ports though. Oh, also PRBoom+ maybe can mess up music on rare occasions, but has a better sound overall. 

Thank for that recommendation, I will definitely download ZDoom and apply the settings you suggested. Also, I will definitely try the Akeldama WAD on the second easiest difficulty. I just need to think like, in Akeldama, Hurt me plenty actually equals nightmare or Ultra-Violence, if that makes any sense. Also, how long will I have to wait for the post limit to go away? A week or somethin' like that? Also, I will probably go through every WAD in Vanilla first before I play with any Game Play mods, since the Project Brutality mod is such a different experience, it almost feels like a completely different game, but only almost because you can still tell it's definitely a Doom game. I always think, Project Brutality reminds me of Doom Eternal to a certain degree.

[whybmonotacrab]

6 hours ago, P41R47 said:

Thats why difficult setting exist, pal!

;)
They are made to be use, and none of those megawads are far above Plutonia HMP on their easier difficulties.

Maybe more monster density than Doom 2, but manageable treat for sure. They are really enjoyable experience on HNTR.

All of the ones I mentioned can overwhelm a new player on HMP though, and that's considered the "normal" difficulty. Also, when you say none of these megawads are much harder than Plutonia, it's worth noting Plutonia is much harder than most modern video games.