PWADs for beginner level player

[Get_Pentiumed]

I recently played Ancient aliens, but i found it too hard even on a hurt me plenty difficulty. 

 

So im seeking out some "easy" PWADs to play. I havent played doom for 20 years like other people has, so keep that in mind.

[baja blast rd.]

The wads I listed in this post fit that description. Their moments of high intensity are generally very forgiving. 

[continuum.mid]

Japanese Community Project and Freedoom are the two that come to mind for me. Also play Final Doom (TNT and Plutonia) if you haven't already.

[1Destro3456]

I suggest you look at this post 

 

[NuMetalManiak]

Easy 90s wads: Fava Beans, Demonfear, Requiem, the Memento Moris, Obituary, Cygnus IV, Trooper's Playground, Earth, Phobos
Easy modern wads: Scythe (good learning curve when it comes to increasing difficulty, even MAP26 the slaughtermap is incredibly easy to deal with when you figure out what to really do), Jenesis, Kuchitsu, Mars War, Lunar Catastrophe, Doom the Way Id Did

[Major Arlene]

Keep in mind as well there's difficulty skills below Hurt Me Plenty. No shame in playing on I'm Too Young to Die or Hey Not Too Rough. 
Hmm... I'd recommend something like Eviternity, good skill curve. 

[Omniarch]

11 minutes ago, NuMetalManiak said:

Lunar Catastrophe, Doom the Way Id Did

These two are excellent choices, imo, though I'd avoid Lunar's E4, which is drastically more difficult than the first three and borders on sadistic at times. To add on to this, I'd recommend the rest of the Doom the Way id Did 'franchise' (The Lost Episodes, Doom 2 the Way id Did etc...), Jan Van der Veken's works and pretty much all of @pcorf's extensive output. All of the above are good vanilla style sets with forgiving difficulty even on UV.

 

If you are in the market for GZDoom sets, I'd recommend @DavidN's Ascent of Titan, which is both well-made and very forgiving in terms of difficulty.

 

26 minutes ago, northivanastan said:

Japanese Community Project and Freedoom are the two that come to mind for me. Also play Final Doom (TNT and Plutonia) if you haven't already.

I'd agree with Freedoom, though if I recall JPCP can get pretty rough at times? Though, admittedly, it has been a while, so I can't say for sure.

[continuum.mid]

Just now, Omniarch said:

I'd agree with Freedoom, though if I recall JPCP can get pretty rough at times? Though, admittedly, it has been a while, so I can't say for sure.

There are some hard levels towards the end (26 and 28) but outside of that last episode it's roughly Plutonia difficulty or lower.

[Jacek Bourne]

Rush if you want to get into slaughter. It is entry level so it should be easy enough.

[Omniarch]

1 minute ago, northivanastan said:

There are some hard levels towards the end (26 and 28) but outside of that last episode it's roughly Plutonia difficulty or lower.

Makes sense that I'd remember it as being difficult, considering Plutonia seemed nightmarish to me at the time!

 

That does bring up an interesting point, though. OP said the Ancient Aliens was too tough for them even on HMP, so wouldn't Plutonia be in the same boat by extension? I have yet to play either wad in its entirety, but from what I can tell Plutonia is on a similar level to AA, at least in the early levels.

[continuum.mid]

2 minutes ago, Omniarch said:

Makes sense that I'd remember it as being difficult, considering Plutonia seemed nightmarish to me at the time!

 

That does bring up an interesting point, though. OP said the Ancient Aliens was too tough for them even on HMP, so wouldn't Plutonia be in the same boat by extension? I have yet to play either wad in its entirety, but from what I can tell Plutonia is on a similar level to AA, at least in the early levels.

Eh, even in the early levels AA is a step or two above Plutonia, at least based on my memory. JPCP's a lot easier.

[dei_eldren]

Serenity trilogy is very similar in difficulty as Doom, and i really enjoyed it a few months ago.

[Omniarch]

4 minutes ago, northivanastan said:

Eh, even in the early levels AA is a step or two above Plutonia, at least based on my memory.

Well, I suppose AA does start off with a semi-Tyson map dominated by a Cyberdemon. I seem to remember having more trouble with Plutonia, though maybe that's because the brothers Casali were in many ways the pioneers of the combat puzzle, meaning their maps become drastically easier on repeat playthroughs. Perhaps that's the cause of the discrepancy.

[Euphoricape]

I recently got back into Doom after many years, one of the first wads I played was Back to Saturn X (ep.1) Found it a bit tricky in places but really enjoyed it, then went on to alien vendetta which was a big jump in difficulty but absolutely amazing and improved my skills a bit. Since then I've played through Scythe, lunatic, vanguard and going down. All being very enjoyable and highly recommended. Currently half way through valiant, which seems to be much harder in every way but I love a challenge.

[LordEntr0py]

If you'll forgive the self-promotion, I designed this to be pretty gentle on lower difficulties. I recommend playing HNTR.

 

[DMPhobos]

Im gonna also join in recommending the 'Doom the way id did' series, it's as difficult as the IWADS are, which is perfect for low skilled players or beginners

[Deadwing]

For something closer to the IWADs: Deathless, Mass Extinction

 

Mixed: 25 Years on Earth, Scythe (gets quite hard in the later maps, but the curve progression is really smooth, starting up very easy)

 

Modern: Lost Civilization, Back to Saturn X 1

[SPIN]

imo final doom in general is a great introduction to IWADS they aren't perfect but both are way harder than doom 1 & 2 and will teach u the hard way of how to git gud. From there its up to u on what IWADS interest u for me it was scythe, hell revealed, vanguard, and alien vendetta yeah those are hard but they gave the muscle memory to not suck.

[Catpho]

If you like some consistently chill, not flashy but well-crafted 32 level megwads that you can finish in an afternoon or two, Revolution! and The Rebirth are great old-school picks that aged gracefully (Just be sure to play continuous/with carryovers). Be sure to grab their respective music packs on their Doom Wiki pages too!

[Michael Jensen]

Icarus: Alien Vanguard

[Stabbey]

2 hours ago, Deadwing said:

For something closer to the IWADs: Deathless, Mass Extinction

 

Mixed: 25 Years on Earth, Scythe (gets quite hard in the later maps, but the curve progression is really smooth, starting up very easy)

 

Modern: Lost Civilization, Back to Saturn X 1

 

Scythe only has a smooth curve up until Map 20, then the curve becomes a cliff at map 21.

[sht]

  If you are a complete noob i recomend Chex Quest 3. its very easy but still fun because of the cool level designs, and it includes both chex quest 1 and 2

[Doomkid]

Some great suggestions in this thread already, but two I haven't seen yet (unless I'm blind) are The Far Side of Phobos and Operation BIOWAR are two old faves of mine that are really easy by modern standards. I also tried to make Ray Mohawk and the first Rowdy Rudy pretty darn easy and accessible.

[Phobus]

20 hours ago, Get_Pentiumed said:

I havent played doom for 20 years like other people has, so keep that in mind.

 

I'd say the clue here is in your question - head back 20 years and the playing skill of the mappers was generally lesser than today, so the maps they were making were easier... Combat-wise, at least. You may find navigation and exploration a bit more difficult, but you're less likely to get crushed outright, particularly on lower difficulties, where implemented.

 

With that in mind, a list of megaWADs I'd suggest, with notes:

• Revolution! (TVR!.WAD)
  • Another one-man show - very easy, I'd say, so perhaps start with this first
• The Rebirth
  • A one-man megaWAD that's a joy to play, in my opinion and a good follow-up to the above
• Icarus: Alien Vanguard
  • A bit like Evilution, but with a more adventurous theme
• Memento Mori
  • A mixed bag, but a product of it's time
• Memento Mori 2
  • More of the same, but a little more polish
• Requiem
  • Essentially MM3, so if you liked the other two, you'll probably be happy with this
• Scythe
  • Even if you can't handle the last third, the first two thirds are fun to play and the whole package is a decent one-man megaWAD
• Doom II: 25 Years on Earth (One Year Late Edition)
  • I made this, and recently, so I'm heavily biased, but it's built in the vein of these older map sets. Unlike Scythe, difficulty has spikes, and even some late-game maps will be only moderately difficult. If you beat this, most modern megaWADs are probably within reach

If it were me, though, I think I'd be happy just hitting "random" on the /idgames archive legacy interface and sampling the fruits of 27 years or so of people making maps. You'll find a lot of stinkers, but it'll be a more interesting journey than the same few recommendations we always see here.

[Side-O-Fries]

I think Scythe is probably a pretty good wad to check out but it does suffer in the fact that the later third is MUCH harder than the first 2/3.  But if you do get stuck at all, there are some really good walkthroughs on youtube to check out.

No one has mentioned it, but I would HIGHLY recommend playing Hell Ground!
https://www.moddb.com/games/doom-ii/addons/hell-ground
 

It is easier than the harder Scythe levels and the levels are very well designed.  It also has the best music out of any wad I've played.

[Andromeda]

Perdition's Gate is also worth a shout, bite-sized fun.

 

Oh, and obligatory Eternal Doom plug if you can stomach the Myst style gameplay.

[MajorRawne]

Oldschool, wasn't Demonfear pretty good back in the day? IIRC it was by Adam Windsor who was one of my favourite mappers, he made lots of short, sharp, exciting levels with clever touches.

 

Would Alien Vendetta be an appropriate megawad? It's very hard on UV, although nowhere near as tough as some. Never played it on lower difficulties. The maps are beautiful, the music is excellent, the gameplay is absolutely first-rate. There is a strong sense of adventure and exploration, like you are being led into hell and things are only going to get more scary.

[Andromeda]

47 minutes ago, MajorRawne said:

Would Alien Vendetta be an appropriate megawad? It's very hard on UV, although nowhere near as tough as some. Never played it on lower difficulties. The maps are beautiful, the music is excellent, the gameplay is absolutely first-rate. There is a strong sense of adventure and exploration, like you are being led into hell and things are only going to get more scary.

MAP26 through 29 and MAP31 might prove too tricky for a beginner to beat even on lower skills (assuming beginner means able to beat Doom II on UV, and not taking ITYTD in consideration), but the rest should be appropriate.

[MajorRawne]

38 minutes ago, Andromeda said:

MAP26 through 29 and MAP31 might prove too tricky for a beginner to beat even on lower skills (assuming beginner means able to beat Doom II on UV, and not taking ITYTD in consideration), but the rest should be appropriate.

In that case I'd second Requiem and the Memento Moris, they were absolutely top-drawer stuff in their time. AV would probably be the natural progression after those, as it is definitely more challenging but the difficulty doesn't fall off a cliff until the end as you mentioned (Dark Dome, Demonic Hordes, Firewalk With Me and the other maps are still difficult today).