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The DWmegawad Club plays: Plutonia

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Got through Go 2 It. Hardest bit was the mountain of cybs up on the ledges, too many rockets flying in every direction. Got to see a Cyb killed by Pain Elementals though!

 

Back in the day as a kid, you see this map and you think 'how am I spposed to do this? How is ANYONE supposed to do this?' but these days its perfectly doable, and in ways its easier than Twilight and Speed.

 

Still, a map like this takes a lot of my energy out of me. Map 16 can fuck off, im gonna go cool off with an RPG

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Map16: The Omen

 

This a really easy map. Especially after map32. I honestly don't really know what else to say. You get a backpack, blue armor and soulsphere right at the start. I only died once because I tried to run away from the blue key trap and speedrun the hitscanner room... it didn't end well. Also, you can still get softlocked at the end even with -complevel 4. I guess nobody fell down there.
 

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Map16: UV-Max in 3:49
Three things worth talking about here. The blue key ambush is ok, but circlestrafing makes it kinda simple. The ending probably seems excessive if you don't know how to trivialize it with the BFG. The raising and lowering bridge is a double edged sword: if you time it right, it's faster than a regular lift that the player lowers manually. If you time it wrong, it's slower than a manual lift, which is annoying.

 

pl1516stuff.zip

 

 

Oh, and I did a nightmare run of map15. Really easy by nightmare standards; only needed 6 attempts. I'm sure 100% secrets is significantly harder since you spend much less time invulnerable compared to the length of the run.

 

 

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Map 16: The omen UV, continuous

An omen? For what? It's as if all that I've faced so far wasn't worth an omen....

 

This map has teeth. four noteworthy traps are present in this map ,as well as the world's slowest and most annoying platform. The first is the bridge with the red skull key with revenants teleporting onto the bridge and arachnotrons on either side of the bridge. The second occurs once you pick up the blue skull key, whereupon revenants and mancubi teleport in. The third occurs in the yellow key room with two archviles teleporting into a caged area and then teleporting into the area where you acquired the blue key. The final room with the hitscanners on rising platforms is annoying, though BFG'ing them into Hell's version of New Jersey A very nice place( I'm sorry).

 

Also toxic water now doesn't hurt you.... I'm a new mapper and even I make sure you know what liquids cause damage.

 

Kills: 100%

Secrets: 100%

Deaths: 6

Wondering  why plutonia's levels are SO much better than TNT's: YES

Waiting for Any forum members from New Jersey to send me death threats: YES

 

 

Edited by Silhou3tte

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MAP16 - "The Omen" - Milo Casali (100%K/100%I/0%S) - 13 deaths:

Don't be fooled by the size of this map, or how thrown into the map pool looks because we needed to finish the mapset. This map is a big pain in the ass there is barely any enemy at start, but immediately when you start shooting and grabing those keys they'll start teleporting and killing you. The problem is the revenant spam and no armor here, only a soulsphere and a couple of medikits. You are given a BFG right at the start of everything, and the strategy is simple once you figure out there are so many sound block lines, making all those TP monsters not to wake up. Don't shoot a bullet, you can avoid everyone and speedrun this map until you reach the nasty hitscanner room. Another one of those infamous Plutonia moments. You can waste your BFG shots here and proceed. Too bad I just tried to deal with every trap each. Don't waste your time, as you can skip everything.
It's a broken map, "Oh Men" I would call it, because of how annoying every trap is, but how stupid it is to be silent and rush through every objective. Luckily there is a blue armor when you have to start making sounds.
The end presents one of those inescapable pits, trademark of Milo Casali, so don't fall, proceed in a straight line into the exit.

This one is a big "Fuck You" from Milo, he does not like players. Also, I hate those lifts, the one in the middle can block your escape from the blue key area.
Also, why nukage does not damage you? Thanks, because this would be even harder, but why?

Edit: the last pit is a softlock, nukage there does no damage to you, so even worse. Yes, this is the worst map yet.


Deaths: 135 (UV Playthrough - Chocolate Doom)
 

Order of preference:
 

Spoiler

MAP12
MAP14
MAP11
MAP04
MAP01

MAP10
MAP03

MAP09
MAP07
MAP05
MAP02

MAP13
MAP06
MAP08
MAP16



Another classic map to play online.

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MAP16: The Omen

 

A rollercoaster of a level difficulty wise. Most of it is a walk in the park, but the red and yellow key traps have a high chance to kill you if you're not prepared. Still, you're given a supercharge and most importantly a BFG so if you use it well it shouldn't be too bad. The hitscanner room is funny and you don't even need the red key to exit :P Shame about the softlock at the end, but otherwise another good level.

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I’m playing this wad with no mid-level saves but in ’31: Cyberden’ , I quicksaved before finding those two archviles. Any level with a few cyberdemons is going to make me nervous even though in this level there’s a big arena for me to fight them in.

 

The music from the midi pack is good. ‘Cry of Desperation’ from Eris Falling is a nice chill track that contrasts the carnage of Cyberdemon’s sparse but hostile atmosphere. I like the prominent use of drums.

 

I did use a lot of BFG shots to take out the first two cyberdemons, and then for the last two I used mostly rockets which take down cyberdemons pretty quickly. I imagine cyberdemons having this colossal level of health but even with rockets they go down before long.

 

In terms of the ‘switch rooms’, I handled the baron trap pretty well and the mancubus blood pool that hurts you wasn’t too bad. The room full of chaingunners wasn’t too bad. I kept by the door and sniped them with the chaingun. The pinky invasion later on in that room wasn’t too bad but admittedly I got myself cornered by a few of them when I was looking for the secret.

 

I was nervous after getting that fourth switch because I knew there was a trap. I watched a video on this level and made a plan for the revenant rush. I readied the BFG and let them out. I got two shots off then went through the bunker passage to safer frontiers. Some revenants ran under that bunker but very sparingly so it made it easy to take care of them. I mostly used shotgun to take them out through the window but I could have used rockets, especially since the level has a lot of rocket pickups that went to waste at the end.

 

Another rule-breaking Plutonia thing: having no regular exit out of Cyberden to Map 16 and instead forcing the player to do Map 32. Cyberden works as a great prologue to ‘Go 2 It’. On its own, it has a decent gimmick, the four cyberdemon fights are repetitive but are still intimidating. Up to this point, ‘Cyberden’ is probably the hardest map in commercial Doom. Then the next level happens...

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Anyone else had terrible luck with the MAP16? I just kept getting so unlucky, I guess Hexa's luck is contagious. It's weird because this map is not hard.

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This is it, time to take on the brutal secret levels of Plutonia! Bring them on!

 

Map31: Cyberden (Dario Casali)

100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 09:33

 

So this map has been labeled as the second-hardest level in Plutonia. I'm going to confess, when I first played this level, I was so freaked out at how many cyberdemons there were. Seeing four thankfully not alerted left me wondering how I was going to take on a group, until I found that they are only released one at a time, which put me at ease to some degree, but not completely as I always had trouble fighting cyberdemons back then. Now that I'm older and more experienced with Doom, I have a better handling with those titanic terrors, if marginally. But anyway, this is somewhat of an arena level as most of the action takes place in the central courtyard, and the cyberdemons are released one at a time by a sequence of switches situated on the foreheads of the Baphomet faces located from out of the arena, and hitting those switches also give you access to switches that will open up more parts of the map and also raise stairs up to the pillar in the middle where the yellow key lies. Tricky part of these sequences however, is the one switch that lowers an elevator where you see two nobles from opposite indentions, one of which guards a switch. After defeating the final cyberdemon, you can relax for a while as the last obstacle before the yellow key is in a marble room full of chaingunners, a couple of revenants, and eventually pinkies that flood the area once you hit the switch guarded by the gunners. The berserk pack gives you a chance to play punch out with the pinkies. Now that you have the yellow key, you open a room that supposedly seems to be the exit teleporter, but nope, it just lowers the wall revealing rockets, and additionally the last and, in my opinion, the most lethal challenge than the cyberdemons. Two walls in the arena open to reveal hordes of revenants. Best strategy is to circle around them to avoid the missiles and fire your rockets at them. That doesn't guarantee you will not take too much damage, so if you find yourself running low on health while there are still survivors, quickly retreat to where you go and hit the Baphomet switches to heal up. You can take out the remaining revenants there, but keep in mind some of them will follow you to the safe spot. They can be easily dispatched with a super shotgun, though as usually they only come in singles. Despite being somewhat better in Doom, this is still the most harrowing part of the map. The Cyberdemon segments, I see it's been lifted in Hell Revealed's Map15: Gates to Hell and Map17: The Black Towers, not to mention Plutonia's sequels having their own spin on the concept. With all the revenants are dead, heal up, max your armour, and collect the ammo you can find to fully load your weapons, because the super-secret level is absolute murder...

 

Difficulty: 9/10

 

Need to rest up for the super-secret level! Oh boy, the hardest one in Plutonia!

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Maps 13-16 with 31 and 32

Lots of stuff here, lots of good maps. Go2It is pretty funny with Colorful Hell and basically impossible without an additional mod. I didn't have any of the more difficult bosses spawn, so it wasn't bad. I've played map 32 before with CH and had some much worse bosses.

 

 

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3 levels in a row!

MAP31: Pretty neat arena style map, pretty tough too in difficult wise, even if i recall it more harder than it is, but this map is pretty challenging, especially at the end. The puzzle switches are good too. The midi pack music choice is really cool, reminds me of a boss battle from Final Fantasy.

 

MAP32: Damn, this coop release of Dwango MAP01 is hardcore! Without joking, the Casalis aren't lying about this map difficulty! The first slaughtermap (even if its a remake of a older released map called "The Punisher") is here to crush you with his foreboding difficulty, there's lots and lots of enemies!

 

MAP16: Oh, is the map sets in a mine that starts with a descending stairs... and there's almost nothing else that really strikes on me while playing this map again. There's some minor layout details that got me like the mining tunnel entrance that leads to the soulsphere and the exit room is pretty neat looking, but for the other parts of the map... wasn't that good for me. Soft-locking pit without a way to escaping and a mostly barren look of the map makes it a big downer and the difficult is though (especially after the yellow key room with the chaingunners on the moving wooden platforms and the revenant surprise attack when you get the blue key, but after MAP32 is like a walk in the park... One of the worst so far after Hunted.

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I'm back, ready to tackle the super-secret level! Buckle up, and let's go 2 it!

 

Map32: Go 2 It (Milo Casali)

109% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 18:17

 

Boy, are we in for one hell of a fragfest! This is the granddaddy of slaughtermaps, Milo Casali described the map as the hardest Plutonia map, and for certain it lives up to its title. It's pure, unfiltered insanity. My first-time experience with this map was anything but great, as I was so astonished at the difficulty as again and again, I keep getting pulverised by the opposition that lurk around the map, from the cluster of mancubi, to the parade of revenants, to the arch-vile nests, to the cloud of pain elementals, and above all, the full house of cyberdemons. No matter what I do, every attempt resulted in my immediate death. Suffice it to say, I ragequitted and deemed the wad as cruel, undeserved punishment. Over the years as I played slaughtermaps like those in Hell Revealed and Alien Vendetta however, I came to find it somewhat fun, though to this day it still keeps on kicking my ass, and honestly, I struggle more on this map than I do on Hell Revealed's Resistance is Futile. The map is basically a modified Doom 2's Entryway (Dario already did the same thing with Punisher), stuffed to the gills with tons of the heavyweight monsters, and in such merciless placements. As you start, you get all your weapons, a megasphere, and ammo, and the moment you step out of the safety zone, the insanity begins. Go for the BFG, and the walls open to reveal a massive group of mancubi, head to the Entryway area, and you'll quickly be greeted by a cyberdemon in a very confined space. Go around to the courtyard, and you'll see another cyberdemon including a spider mastermind and her babies all eagerly waiting to reduce you to a puddle of blood. Ammo for the BFG and rocket launcher are plentiful including a generous amount of megaspheres, but even so, this map is still so difficult, and you must be careful not to take too much damage, easier said than done, as things can quickly spiral out of control if you're not lucky with the RNG, and the enemies have a nasty habit of blocking your entry and escape routes. Toughest spots include having to plough through the arachnotron barricade and hit the switch as quickly as possible before the spider mastermind wastes you, trying to find the right moment to grab the yellow key when the revenants and the cyberdemon quartet join the fray. You'll be doing a lot of running around and going up and down to avoid getting blasted by the cyberdemon rockets and revenant missiles, and there's also facing the three single cyberdemons in small spaces. Trying to attack them in point blank range with the BFG is suicide, so use the plasma gun as you can dish out substantial damage from a safe distance and have time to take cover the moment they start firing their rockets. The arch-vile nest that gets unleashed after obtaining the red key is another annoyance as they can resurrect all the revenants and arachnotrons, but luckily, given you dealt with the mancubi in the tunnels and the pinkies, chaingunners and arch-viles in the "control room" that connects the tunnels, you can keep them packed and shoot your rockets at them, but keep in mind to take cover when they start lighting you up and pay attention to the second wave of arachnotrons. Grabbing the blue key releases chaingunners, revenants and arch-viles in the Entryway, and also more arch-viles in the mancubi area, so be ready for them. After you're done cleaning up and taken out the third lonely cyberdemon guarding the switch behind the blue key door, you'll open up the last fight consisting of three cyberdemons and a bunch of barons, which is probably the easiest one as the cyberdemons will take more time being busy with the barons when they infight and you can BFG them while they're distracted. Go 2 It is just insane, but it is a fun and great level, with so many monsters to slaughter, and it gave us Hell Revealed's Resistance is Futile and Alien Vendetta's No Guts, No Glory. For a small level, it sure takes a while. Keep in mind that no matter what difficulty you choose, you'll face the same monsters and the same amount, so don't expect I'm Too Young to Die/Hey, Not Too Rough to be any easier.

 

Difficulty: 9.5/10

 

Phew! So glad to be done with this level! Well, it's back to the regular levels of Plutonia, but I'll be taking a rest for now. This map is just, insane, chaotic, and brutal, but so much fun when you have the right strategy, and it helped me develop an appreciation for slaughtermaps. See you soon, everyone!

Edited by T-Rex

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A bit behind, that's what 15/31/32 day does to you (beside being busy with other things)

 

MAP31 - "Cyberden" by Dario Casali

 

The first of the secret levels is one that probably had more of an impact in 1996. Nowadays, the combat is easy, especially the four cyberdemons (although the two invisible archviles at the start are very annoying), and the architecture amongst the plainest in Plutonia so far. Even the final rev spam fight disappoints, because you’re given just too much space. Meh.

 

Level rankings:

Spoiler

MAP15 - "The Twilight" by Milo Casali
MAP09 - "Abattoire" by Milo Casali
MAP05 - "Ghost Town" by Milo Casali
MAP08 - "Realm" by Milo Casali
MAP07 - "Caughtyard" by Dario Casali
MAP04 - "Caged" by Dario Casali
MAP01 - "Congo" by Milo Casali
MAP12 - "Speed" by Milo Casali
MAP13 - "The Crypt" by Milo Casali
MAP02 - "Well of Souls" by Dario Casali
MAP10 - "Onslaught" by Dario Casali
MAP06 - "Baron's Lair" by Dario Casali
MAP03 - "Aztec" by Milo Casali
MAP11 - "Hunted" by Dario Casali
MAP14 - "Genesis" by Dario Casali
MAP31 - "Cyberden" by Dario Casali

 

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Map17: Compound

 

This map is neat. It has a cool layout and gameplay, even though this map was also pretty easy. I only died once because I ate a rocket. I like how you have to blow the barrels to get to the yellow key. The midi is also pretty awesome, one of my favorites. And uh... yeah, cool map I guess.

 

Spoiler

I realized that I am not really saying that much about these maps, and my reviews are usually just "cool map. i liek it." :/

 

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Time to get back on track. 

 

Day 16 ~ Maps 13-16 (plus 31-32) ~ DSDA Doom/PRBoom+ 2.5.1.5 ~ UV-Max ~ NM100s ~ Pistol start ~ Midi pack

All Demos - pl maps13-16 nm.zip and pl maps13-16 uv.zip

 

MAP13

UV - 0 deaths: Lots of SSGing stuff here. I guess the two main highlights of the map are the ending and the archvile/chaingunner trap. Otherwise it is quite chill.

NM - 30 deaths: I did many many more attempts to go for the NM100s record for this map since Xit Vono misses a jump in his demo. Can’t say it went well, definitely was a waste of time. There you can choose to take a mega armor for the outside section or just go without it. Want the mega armor? You have to convince a mancubus to give it to you then. And they don’t like to move.

 

MAP14

UV - 7 deaths: I wanted to be somewhat fast here. This one is easy, beware of the shotgunners by the yellow key. They can block an archvile from spawning in which would ruin the UV-Max. Unfortunately I learned that the hard way by losing a full-game attempt to it.

NM - 74 deaths: Really annoying. I use a rocket boost skip to get the yellow key early. 

 

MAP15

UV - 0 deaths: First try, I did around 50 more attempts to get a good time. Lots of cells and HP lying around so why not yolo. One attempt ended with the all-ghosts bug.

NM - 26 deaths: Super easy, just learn the route for it and don’t screw up. Nineteen secrets await you that all need to be tagged for a NM100s run.

 

MAP31

UV - 1 death: Yet another Plutonia map that is more fun to play continuously. I do enjoy the buildup in the map though. This was always the place to pull myself together before MAP32 in d2all attempts :).

NM - 113 deaths: Oh boy. I spent so much time practicing this map, it is the hardest in the game if we are talking about pure skill and strategy. There are like 2 luck-based sections and that’s it, practice practice practice, grind some attempts and hope you get somewhere. I’m quite proud of this demo :D.

 

MAP32

UV - 0 deaths: First attempt, I improvised everything, and got a time of 5 minutes and 11 seconds. Hardest map in the game on UV, and it’s still not that bad with practice.

NM - 57 deaths: Learn the route, get used to dodging cyber rockets, get lucky, and win.

 

MAP16

UV - 5 deaths: Probably one of my least favorite Plutonia maps. The midi gets on my nerves and the lack of armor can be frustrating at times.

NM - 40 deaths: Even more frustrating than UV. Imagine how I felt when I got the run, went to grab the demo, and saw the size of the file was 0 bytes for some strange reason. PepeHands

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UV Max (-solo-net) from pistol start

 

MAP14 - Genesis

 

This map was way more difficult than I was expecting when looking at the map statistics on Doom Wiki! In a regular single-player playthrough, this map is pretty easy, but with -solo-net this became easily the most difficult in my playthrough so far (though I've done some scouting ahead and know the worst is yet to come...). The cyberdemon and arch-vile added to the main blood pool room are tricky to deal with, the cyberdemon in particular forcing one to tread carefully since it can reach you in places that would be safe in single-player. On top of that, there's an arch-vile in the ambush with the collapsing walkway, a pain elemental in the yellow key pit, and 13(!) extra revenants scattered throughout the corridors leading around the map and the corridor leading to the exit.

 

But it's not any single one of these that's the real killer in this map (though the cyberdemon is quite troublesome). The real problem is the lack of ammo to deal with all of them. The map provides no extra ammo for co-op players, so you have to stretch the same amount of ammo you're given for single player across a bunch more enemies with a lot of hitpoints. On the plus side, you're provided a BFG (next to the partial invisibility at the end of the collapsing walkway), so you can actually use the cell ammo, which you otherwise couldn't if playing from a pistol start. But even with that, ammo is scarce. I had one attempt where I ran out of ammo for all my weapons dealing with the revenants in the final corridor, and there's no berserk pack or chainsaw in this level. Much of the ammo is placed in awkward locations that expose you to the cyberdemon, too. I resorted to using the arch-vile at the yellow key to resurrect shotgunners so I could kill them repeatedly for more shotgun ammo. Kind of a dirty trick, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

Note that some of the pickups (e.g. medikits and shell boxes) are stacked so that there's actually two appearing as one. If you're not aware of this, you could easily waste valuable resources.

 

I think the ammo balance could be fairer, but I still enjoyed this map. It gets a lot out of an enemy count that despite all the additions still isn't very high (71 monsters).

 

Since this map was so much trouble to beat, I recorded a demo and uploaded it to YouTube:

 

 

MAP15 - The Twilight

 

This is one of the quintessential Plutonia maps, and not just because of the 62 chaingunners (the most of any map in Plutonia). Every which way, you're confronted by a Plutonia-ism. First it's the firing squad of chaingunners in the distance, tinting your screen red (as if the sky weren't red enough) and endlessly resurrected by arch-viles. Head to the left and it's chaingunners to your left, chaingunners to your right, chaingunners in front, creating a cacophony of overlapping firing sounds. Head to the right and you get surrounded by hell knights, revenants, and an arch-vile in a narrow corridor. To the uninitiated, this level looks incredibly difficult, mandating careful disarmament of each trap.

 

However, this map also hides many secrets providing a ton of resources tilting the balance in the player's favor, including a BFG, lots of ammo, health, and armor, and even an invulnerability sphere. Milo went overboard in tagging the secrets (not just tagging every step in one of the secrets, but also tagging the room itself as well as the switch that opens the room, and in another place tagging both the entrance to a teleporter and its exit, but interestingly not tagging the secret exit), but even disregarding that, there are a lot of secrets in this map, some nested within other secrets. The difference between playing without these secrets and playing with them is like night (or should I say twilight?) and day. A player armed with full knowledge of the map can play very aggressively (and in fact is encouraged to do so in order to get the most out of the invulnerability sphere), and it turns out the map isn't actually very difficult.

 

I like how the wall behind the row of chaingunners in the center of the map appears to be blank sky, but after pressing the switch gated by the yellow key it opens up to more of the level. It doesn't make sense spatially, but that makes it all the more dramatic.

 

 

MAP31 - Cyberden

 

The first of the two secret maps. The intro text describes it as the second hardest map in Plutonia, but to today's players it's more long than hard. It does have a relatively high number of cyberdemons, but you can deal with them one at a time in a large open area so they don't pose much problem. The biggest threat is that it has no normal exit, only a secret exit, so continuous players entering this map have no choice but to go through MAP32 as well. The setup with arch-viles hidden behind fake walls is really mean, but fortunately it's early in the level and isn't very difficult if you know where the fake walls are. Overall I find this level rather underwhelming, especially for a secret map. The MIDI is quite good, though, lending the map an unexpected but fitting air of serenity.

 

The co-op additions to this map include an extra spiderdemon and cyberdemon starting in the central arena (you can easily get them to infight), another cyberdemon in the room with the chainsaw (you can either take it down with SSG or run past it and grab the plasma gun first), several more barons in the room with the barons, and an extra arch-vile for the final fight with all the revenants (like with the revenants, you can use the center pillar as cover). You also get a lot more rocket and shotgun ammo, so ammo isn't even remotely a problem in this map.

 

 

MAP16 - Omen

 

A pretty laid back map after the last few. There are some classic Plutonia-style traps, particularly the red key trap with enemies teleporting behind you to block your retreat (though if you're quick on your feet you can slip past before they've fully blocked the way), but you get more than enough armaments to deal with them. The room with all the hitscanners may give you a nice jumpscare the first time you encounter it, but it's mostly a lesson in BFG usage. If you somehow got up to this point without understanding how the BFG works, now would be a great time to learn.

 

The co-op additions to the map aren't very significant, just two cacodemons, one pain elemental, and a cyberdemon. Obviously the cyberdemon can be a threat, but it's in a pretty open area and isn't much trouble to kill with the BFG. It's also useful for infighting with the enemies from the blue key trap.

 

 

Still working on MAP32, but in case you were wondering, co-op adds one extra megasphere and 22(!) extra cyberdemons to the map. Not sure I have the patience to get through this in a single segment...

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Map 16: The Omen

A small map that I tend to remember, partly because it comes after the hell that is 15/31/32, and party because it encourages a lot of BFG spam. Also that final room with the hordes of dudes just WAITING to be BFGed. With the early BFG on the map, and the doublestacked cell packs, you know this map was designed with use of it in mind.

 

Map 17: Compound

This one starts hot as you dash in the nukage, and you get a neat memorable crisscross of platforms with chaingunners all around. A levle with memorable architecture that ends too soon; I always see that I have maximum kills then go 'Huh, thats IT?'

 

Now to play non-Plutonia things for a while :p

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Map17: UV-Max in 3:32
This map begins with the player standing directly on a damaging floor, and a switch must be pressed to make a safe floor available. So the player will take at least 15 points of unavoidable floor damage right from the start. Pretty ballsy for an IWAD map. There's a lot of mandatory damaging floor traversal after that, but you usually have a radsuit for it, and it's quite a short map.

 

 

pl17stuff.zip

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I am not too happy with my recording of MAP32, so that will have to wait a bit. In the meantime ...

 

MAP16: The Omen

    I just had the most rotten luck with this one. Shotgunners chunking me for 20+ HP, Revenants being Revenants and Mancubi firing max-damage rolls camouflaged by the corpses of other monsters. I must've repeated this map about 10+ times. I still hold this map is not hard. There are tricky moments, especially the Red Key fight, where your survival depends on clearing the teleporting Revenants and escaping the pincer.

 

    The Yellow key fight was weird. I expected more than a single Archvile, though I suppose he will zap you if you do not react fast due to absence of cover in that room. The final room was absurd, and I wonder what was going on in the mapper's mind when he was making that map. Perhaps the deadline was coming fast, and they just needed to crank out a couple more maps.

 

The Video:

Spoiler

 

 

MAP17: Compound

    Easy breezy. The main hazard in this map is probably the nukage, as the monster encounters are not very threatening. It seems like the map draws something from the McGee's MAP22 in DooM II, but this time I would say the original is harder. Also, how does one climb on the central island and get the green armour? I tried all the switches.

 

    Notable encounters are the Hell Knight teleport pincer attack, and the secret teleporter that loads you up on ammunition, but also allows you to defuse some nasty Chaingunners and Cacodemons after the Red Key door. I like that, when the secret not only gives you stuff, but allows you to defuse a trap or see the trap before you should in normal progression. The final fight is a snooze. Camp the door and pump rockets into the crowd until the Archvile dies.

 

    What's the matter, Plutonia? Running out of steam? I hope I do not regret those words ...

 

The Video:

Spoiler

 

 

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Map 17: Compound UV ,continuous 

Remember in my last post I said Nukage doesn't hurt you? Well, in this map Nukage does hurt you.... seriously, why the inconsistency?

 

This map makes me want to say: "what, that's it?" There isn't much to actually talk about, considering the only credible threat is the damaging surface and the hitscanners. The only noteworthy traps are the archvile teleporting in and the hell knight teleporting behind you. The layout isn't particularly interesting either.....

 

Why do I have the feeling something bad is coming?

Kills:100%

Secrets:50%

Deaths: 0

boredom: 85%

Sick of using the words "and a archvile\archviles teleport in:YES 

    

 

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MAP17 - "Compound" - Dario Casali (100%K/60%I/50%S) - 5 deaths:

Another great map that sumarizes well with MAP14, how Dario made maps for this "episode". This one may be easier aswell, and shorter, but it has interesting traps and looks. For me, it's one of the better looking plutonia maps. The teleporting hell knight/baron to your back is something we have already seen from Dario, kinda like a recurring joke, you may expect this whenever a bruiser appears to attack you in short corridors. I had no idea how to get the green armor, but I'm sure I needed it as hell, as hitscanners here can get pretty painful. Luckily I died less than I thought, as the map is short and traps may get obvious until this point. I would like longer maps with this aesthetic, sadly, most of Plutonia maps are short and to the point.
The problem I saw here is that nukage here damages you for some reason, while MAP16's nukage didn't, so it can trick your mind specially at the start, where you are surrounded by a sea of nukage, and you need to be quick not to get melted by it.

Deaths: 140 (UV Playthrough - Chocolate Doom)
 

Order of preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP12
MAP14
MAP17
MAP11
MAP04
MAP01

MAP10
MAP03

MAP09
MAP07
MAP05
MAP02

MAP13
MAP06
MAP08
MAP16

 

 

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MAP17: Compound

 

To me this feels like a less engaging version of the previous level. The barrels are annoying, the traps are pitiful and the secrets feel tacked on. On the other hand, the fact that there's no armor until the end (and that is if you're able to find the well hidden shortcut to the exit) makes things slightly more interesting, but not by much. This level was also where the suicide exit trick was discovered, so now you know where to address your hateful remarks should you happen to despise death exits :^)

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9. Abattoire (Milo Casali)

 

OK, I am way behind now and I blame it all on this level. I suffered my first (official) and many other deaths on this level mostly, but not exclusively, to the cruel last area. I can't honestly say I like this map. I mean, up to the last area only the blue key area and the final area are of any challenge but both are trivial if you work out how to cheese them. The level is what someone who hates Plutonia is likely to include as exhibit A. The difference in difficulty between being caught unawares and going into the area with foreknowledge and a strategy is a chasm. The strategies for the blue key area, bloody pit and red key area are all quite obvious so it is just a matter of how badly you fair in the initial ambush that will decide your fate. The last area at least gave me a sense of acheivement once I worked out the strategy given how intimidating it is from the get-go. Still, even then, the strategy itself (I camped the door taking out the row of chaingunners with rockets, took out a couple of Arachnotrons quickly, then found cover to take out the rest pragmatically) felt cheap rather than rewarding. Still, having taken my fair share of lead and plasma in the process to work it out, I took some pleasure in meting out my revenge never mind how inglorius. In my final play through I had saved the invul for the last area but decided to scope it out first and so it ended up unused.

 

I can't give this one a purist point. I honestly feel that now I have worked the level out I would find it more fun to replay but it took my more than week to bring myself to come back to it here so that is not going to happen for sometime. Hopefully, now it is behind me, I will put my best foot forward and try to catch up with you guys.

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MAP15 - "The Twilight" by Milo Casali

6EBEC9C9E0B20BFB2088AD3CABB5F0B97C16D43E

 

This map is a real bitch from pistol start unless you have some idea of a route and which of the many secrets to grab first. Plutonia tends to average at like 3 secrets per map, but this one sits at an absurd 19 for a level not much larger than it's earlier counterpart in map04. 6 of those secrets are pointless stairs leading up to the Megasphere behind the starting area. In fact, most secrets, which you access through various teleporters in the damaging blood, have additional secrets nested within them.

 

So remember The Cage? Twilight is a remix of that map which already remixes Doom's map26. The difference is in the harsher difficulty, but the metal visual theme remains and map04's damaging sludge is replaced with blood. Gameplay is also similar, with turret enemies giving you a hard time and Cacos floating around at the start. By far the most annoying aspect here are the pairs of reviving Chaingunners in the map's central hub. It also doesn't help that a lot of teleporters from the side areas shit you out on the platform right in front of them for some guaranteed damage. I like to remove the additional Chaingunners in the middle right away, which makes it easier to take cover from the reviving ones while traversing the map. The toughest part after that is the path to the Yellow Key, since a bunch of enemies, including a Vile, teleport in to sandwich you in a narrow hallway with no cover and additional turret Mancs on the sides. To make that not suck, I make sure to grab the BFG secret and the Invul, which lets you faceroll that section.

 

The rest is a lot easier, just Chaingun tap or rocket the various Chaingunner nests and the Caco/PE trap after flipping the yellow switch can be handled prior by shooting them through the small gaps to their monster closets. The final area that opens up is more of a spectacle than anything, as a bunch of stuff will die through infighting. I also like to save an Invisibility and run in there just to trigger the crushers that kill those asshole Viles which revive the Chaingunners. There are 3 Spectres in the blood with no purpose in life other than making max kills slightly more annoying. I just jump in the damaging crap to kill them, as the map does have plenty of items to heal up with if you didn't waste them earlier.

 

The path to the secret exit is slightly weird, as you have to press use slightly to the right of the metal texture that opens to the teleporter.  Overall, I think it's a fun map, assuming you've got some foreknowledge for pistol starting. It certainly feels like a step up in difficulty from the rest of the set so far.

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MAP32 - "Go 2 It" by Milo Casali

 

So, here we have a key milestone in the journey of slaughtermapping, the next step after Doom II’s Suburbs. It doesn’t really compare to modern slaughterwads, but for its time and compared to the other IWAD maps, it can certainly strike fear into the first-time player.

 

However, the level’s bark is worse than its bite. Ammo, health and armor are all in very generous supply, with plenty of megaspheres and rockets. Probably the biggest danger in this map is getting caught in cyber crossfire, or perhaps getting overwhelmed by the archviles. But it lacks the hindsight traps that are prevalent throughout the rest of Plutonia, you are given easily enough time to react to each battle.

 

So given all of this, I actually found this one of the easiest levels of Plutonia, managing to complete it without dying, which I certainly haven’t done on most of the rest of the mapset.

 

I still enjoyed myself however, and most of the action was free of the grind prevalent in the next milestone in slaughtermapping (Hell Revealed). Though I find most of the IWAD homages in this mapset lazy, here I find the homage far more interesting, building on Entryway’s architecture, fleshing it out in each and every area to make a far more imposing map than the original. Good stuff.

 

MAP16 - "The Omen" by Milo Casali

 

After maps like The Twilight and Go 2 It, this was pretty underwhelming to me. I always struggle with revenants that are free to roam and have a height advantage over the player, and I struggled here. The RK battle had some promise but was too easy to flee past the revenants.  The YK battle was also boring. The BK battle was the best, but the final splattering of chaingunners and shotgunners is just meme-territory.

 

MAP17 - "Compound" by Dario Casali

 

The continuous player could be a bit screwed here if they finished The Omen on low health. Unlike The Omen’s benign nukage, the nukage here is damaging, and you start taking some mandatory damage on your way to safety, a radsuit and an SSG, if you can safely deal with the guardian imps.

 

Combat here is, at least for the first half, a cramped affair, dealing with enemies and traps in narrow corridors. Later on, a couple of classic Plutonian ‘gotcha’ chaingunners at the top of some stairs, which finished me off the first time. After this though, things get a bit more open, and as a result, easier.

 

MAP18 - "Neurosphere" by Milo Casali

 

I’m a fan of hot starts, but not the kind of hot starts where enemies attack you right from your starting position, as I always like to take stock of my initial surroundings and check level starts before moving. Aside from the initial shock though, I found most of the combat pretty fun and laid back. Aesthetically, whilst it looks decent, it is a bit too much of a homage to The Inmost Dens for my liking, and the regularity of Doom/Doom II homages do start to get a bit boring in my view.

 

Level rankings:

Spoiler

MAP15 - "The Twilight" by Milo Casali
MAP09 - "Abattoire" by Milo Casali
MAP05 - "Ghost Town" by Milo Casali
MAP08 - "Realm" by Milo Casali
MAP07 - "Caughtyard" by Dario Casali
MAP04 - "Caged" by Dario Casali
MAP01 - "Congo" by Milo Casali
MAP12 - "Speed" by Milo Casali
MAP13 - "The Crypt" by Milo Casali
MAP02 - "Well of Souls" by Dario Casali
MAP17 - "Compound" by Dario Casali
MAP18 - "Neurosphere" by Milo Casali
MAP10 - "Onslaught" by Dario Casali
MAP06 - "Baron's Lair" by Dario Casali
MAP03 - "Aztec" by Milo Casali
MAP11 - "Hunted" by Dario Casali
MAP16 - "The Omen" by Milo Casali
MAP14 - "Genesis" by Dario Casali
MAP31 - "Cyberden" by Dario Casali

 

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Back again to continue Plutonia, and we're pretty much past the halfway point!

 

Map16: The Omen (Milo Casali)

103% kills, 100% items, 0% secrets

Time: 05:42

 

This is a welcome from the brutal secret levels, but don't let your guard down, because this map has some really nasty tricks up its sleeve. One thing this map likes to pull off is monster ambushes, which is prevalent in collecting the keys. All of them are booby trapped. With the blue key, a swarm of revenants (including mancubi in Ultra Violence) will spawn all around the spot where the blue key is, so the safest approach is to wait for the rising and sinking platform to lower, then grab the blue and get the hell out. A few revenants may follow, so stay on your toes. The super shotgun may be useful against a single revenant, but if more are coming, use the plasma gun or BFG. Grabbing the yellow key, which is accessible after collecting the blue key, will reveal a pair of arch-viles, one of which will teleport in the area. You can kill one or both viles before they could teleport if you time it just right. Finally, collecting the red key after riding the rising platform up will spawn hell knights and revenants, so get the BFG ready. Also some arachnotrons on Ultra-Violence will spawn in the platforms to replace the ones you've already killed. But that's not all, the ending houses so many hitscanners, and the chaingunners are extremely deadly. Use the BFG to wipe most of them out, and the rocket launcher for the rest. Small map, but really nasty, and you will die a lot if you're not prepared for the ambushes.

 

Difficulty: 6/10

 

Map17: Compound (Dario Casali)

100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 04:54

 

What's this? An easy map at this point in Plutonia? Seems so out of place, as it is relatively easy compared to most of the other maps in this wad. Not that I'm complaining, since this is a very short and quick level, and fun too. I'll take it as a break, a nice little breather from the chaos, much like how Hell Revealed has a couple of breather levels with Map19: Everything Dies and Map25: Dead Progressive. This is also the second and last map that doesn't have revenants, so it seems like the Casali brothers want us to relax with this level. That being said, it still has a couple of rough moments, though not too overwhelming. It uses Dario's hell noble teleport trap again that we've seen in The Crypt and Onslaught, including TNT Map32: Caribbean, only this time it's hell knights and not barons. You also have to clear out some exploding barrels in order to progress, like to access the area after hitting the switch in the main area, and to be able to collect the yellow key, thanks to the infinite height factor. There's really not much to say about this level, it's just there, it's decent, it's short, and it has some action, though not too great. Even so, I will not skip it since I enjoy levels where I can just sit back and chill.

 

Difficulty: 5/10

 

Map18: Neurosphere (Milo Casali)

100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 05:36

 

Here we have a nice homage to American McGee's The Inmost Dens, Map14 of Doom 2, only that the water is now blood. It serves as inspiration for Xaser's PRCP Map 15: Helix, and true to Milo Casali, it has Tom Hall's sense of aesthetics and geometry, but much more refined. The level delivers a hot start as enemies, notably imps and shotgunners spawn all around you, but luckily you can take out some of them as you can see them from a window to the north. Also be careful as there are sniper chaingunners everywhere, many of which are situated on pillars over the blood, the worst of which is in the south area where you collect the red key. The west section which becomes accessible once you hit the switch which lowers the red skull bars houses another intense fight where you deal with revenants, hell knights, chaingunners, imps and even a pain elemental. Everything else is straightforward after you collect the blue key, just open the blue key door, and you'll teleport to the east of the starting area and walk along the path where you have one more chaingunner that guards the switch which lowers the bars to the exit teleporter. Another short map, though not as short as Compound, but with enough action-packed moments to keep you on your toes.

 

Difficulty: 5/10

 

On 1/16/2021 at 6:30 AM, DJVCardMaster said:

MAP32 - "Go 2 It" - Milo Casali (?) (100%K/I/S) - 30 deaths:

I doubt it is a Milo map aswell, by looking at Dario already making and submitting a pretty similar map to this to the archives, a map called "Punisher". Maybe again a Milo take on a Dario concept? I don't know, I feel like playing a Dario map. 

 

I believe it is a Milo map. Here's a snippet from Andy Olivera's Visions of Doom review of Dario's Punisher, which was even before we were given the author credits to Plutonia: "Dario was so successful that he made a few modifications and released it as a sequel. It didn't end there, however, as Milo completely reworked it and made it MAP32 of Plutonia, Go 2 It..." I also believe somewhere in Doomworld's 5 years of Doom where Dario was interviewed, he said that Milo did Go 2 It, and it shows, since even though both Punisher and Go 2 It uses the Entryway layout, there are stylistic differences, with the former having additions that look messy in both aesthetics and texture selection while the latter looks much cleaner and has a consistent theme going, which is textbook Milo. It could be possible that maybe some of the Plutonia maps were not just designed individually by the two brothers, and both would collaborate on some maps, sharing ideas and making miscellaneous edits, with the main designer having done the most work to make it seem like each brother did half of the maps. I'm surprised I haven't gotten to you on that when you quoted my statement on Map13.

 

Okay, that will do for me. See you in the next couple of maps.

Edited by T-Rex

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MAP31 - "Cyberden" by Dario Casali

D3BB61A7D45ADA5A15C4A9839D99EF3BDC2A962D

 

I, and I'm sure many others, would argue with the story text claiming this to be the 2nd hardest level in Plutonia. It's certainly easier than map15. It does have that opening "Woah!" factor of seeing 4 Cyberdemons in the starting area, but at this point it's not enough to scare the average PWAD player. You also fight them one at a time in a spacious arena, after finding a pentagram switch, and since this map floods you with rockets more than anything else, it feels like pistol starting e2m8 4 times. There are barely any cells around, and if you used the Plasma Rifle before reaching the BFG like I did, you're only gonna get one shot off with it. 

 

The one annoying part is right at the start with 2 Viles that teleport behind fake walls. The one right behind you has decent room to move around and your cover is questionable, so I ended up getting zapped. None of the other side areas are particularly tough. Stacked rocket boxes are questionably placed in front of progression switches, which caused me to inefficiently grab them a few times. The Pinky stampede in the Chaingunner room is amusing, if entirely ineffective - just punch them out with Berserk.

 

The finale is like ~20 Revenants where you fought the Cybers, which are easy enough to circlestrafe. I kept expecting much harder fights but that's probably because my mind was confusing PL2's Cybernation with the original.

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MAP32 - "Go 2 It" by Milo Casali

AED484723C55F549A7706AC92240F0A9DCB8B92F

 

I wrote before about Hunted being a memorable map and this one is no different in that regard. The sheer volume and density of high-tier enemies is like nothing seen before in an official map! Aside from the Pinky room, fodder enemies are not welcome here as Mancubi and Revenants casually inhabit parts of the map. Viles often make an appearance, sometimes in groups of 3 or 4, to repopulate previously safe sections of the map. Cyberdemons are also aplenty and making them infight is very helpful in dealing with the ever expanding outdoor area. It doesn't matter if you pistol start or play this continuously since you get all your weapons and full ammo in no time. And there's little reason to use anything besides a good combination of BFG and rockets. Yep, this is some classic early slaughter!

 

There are no lock-ins or choreographed setpiece encounters - you are free to engage or retreat combat any time you want. Played safely, this map is not that brutal. There are block lines in several places which allow for some safe engagements, namely the iconic triangle stairs from the start of Doom 2's map01, and the window looking outdoors where you can funnel Pain Elementals to blow up yourself or have the Cybers destroy them. This type of map is difficult to make without the player abusing camping and cheese or making it feel like the majority of the experience is just tedious cleanup of turret nests. Which is why you make setpiece fights and save yourself the headache. ;)

 

Back to the level in question, the 3 indoor Cyberdemons are place in a way that makes them difficult to remove without taking some splash damage. I ended up peaking the first one with the SSG and attempting dangerous 2-shots on the other 2 (they ended up being 3-shots). The 4 which survived the outdoor chaos also did a good job of splitting up and creating some engaging rocket crossfire as I went to grab the Blue Key. Foreknowledge helps a lot after this as making noise causes 4 Viles to flood the Manc area and a bunch of Chaingunners (and at least one Vile) to fill the indoor halls. I chose to surprise the Vile quartet with a pre-fired BFG and funneled the Chaingunners to the triangular stairs. The ending isn't too difficult, with 3 Cybers and some useless Barons.

 

Great map, memorable, and easily going into my top5 from this wad.

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Day 17 ~ MAP17 ~ DSDA Doom/PRBoom+ 2.5.1.5 ~ UV-Max ~ NM100s ~ Pistol start ~ Midi pack

Demos - pl map17.zip

 

UV - 1 death cuz I yolo’d the death slide too hard: There is nothing like booting this map up and hearing Lippeth’s epic “Massacre Machine” midi. You can play safe, you can play aggressively, and this map is still a blast. 

NM - 10 deaths: Fire a pistol shot at the start so that the imps move away from the SSG. Kill stuff, tag the secret, and death exit. It’s that easy :). Really fun to play. I don't even know if the map is possible to complete without that skip on NM.

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gzdoom +set compatmode 2 -iwad plutonia.wad -file plutmidi.wad jovpal.wad psxsounds.wad

 

I got through these tonight, much quicker than my normal play style (getting lost). I think if i zone out and just mindlessly rush through, sometimes the maps flow better and I find the intended route? I ran like a coward through most of The Twilight. Never did find the AV re-spawning the chainholes. I did manage to panic and drop the spider demon with a BFG as I squirreled my way through that mess.

 

Screenshot_Doom_20210117_222100.png.d68e3b5a494edda51085376c62885683.pngScreenshot_Doom_20210117_222105.png.e0624b029d01bffa2201d198f663de90.pngScreenshot_Doom_20210117_223015.png.f1293790710f08326d1c2b34d61d6b13.pngScreenshot_Doom_20210117_223816.png.bd4b167a71a65f571e414cef9cddc1ac.pngScreenshot_Doom_20210117_224356.png.e681b7fb0948f0bc65ab9722f56dfddb.png

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