The DWmegawad Club plays: Doom Zero

[Azure_Horror]

I fell behind a little bit, trying to catch up. now

UV with saves, pistol start, glbloom+ (complevel 2)

 

Map 23 Atmos Caves

A bit of breather map with cool central hub and some vague TNT:Evilution overtones.

 

The sky island at the start looks amazing. The combination of dark gray clouds and stock doom textures works very well. It is a bit sad that most of the action of Atmos Caves will happen inside of caverns or buildings. The opposition at the starting area packs a punch, but it is not that hard compared to fights encounterted on maps 21 and 22.

 

Of the three subareas, I found the north-east one to be the easiest to tackle first. The canyons allow you to evade monsters and choose your battles. (Contrast it with other two locations, which throw you right in the middle of an open battlefield). Notice that each of the areas has its own copy of SSG and Plasma Rifle, so after clearing your first location, you will be much better armed for the next one. Compared to maps 21 and 22, Atmos Caves is much less vicious in its use of Alpha Souls and Revenants. For the most part, combat here feels less hard then on maps 19, 21 and 22.

So don't worry too much, take your time and enjoy the scenery. The scenery is rather beautiful, and most importantly, hides some powerful secrets. You don't want to fight three archviles unprepared, do you? (Yeah, the last fight can become quite nasty, unless you have found the secret BFG)

 

Overall, this was quite nice map. Not as nice, as map 22, though.

 

Map 24 Booster Hub

Big, corrupted tech base in the style of doom E2. Seems like the demons keep stealing techbases and taking them to the infernal dimension. UAC should take those bastards to the courts!

 

Like map 23, Booster Hub has some TNT:Evilution overtones. The map is quite big and convoluted. Yet Booster Hub is easy to navigate, thanks to the clever design of the central area. At first the opposition may look rather tame, but the further you go, the less easy fights will be. After the yellow switch, all hell breaks loose, and the last stretch of action is pretty intense. In the penultimate fight even specters do bite both figuratively and literally.

 

At first, I was not impressed by this map. But it has grown on me. It has cool atmosphere and some IWAD-style charm.

 

Map 25 Abandoned Compound

Another techbase, with intense hot start. This base is less corrupted than map 25, yet still full of demons.

 

The combat is fun, but somewhat dries out by the time you get the bigger guns.

Abandoned Compound has circular iterconnected layout. For the most part, it is fun to navigate. But there is a big weird spot at the northen part of the map. Half of dark area behind the red door marked as a secret, yet it is neccesary for progression. You cannot access the yellow key without going there. The combat there also felt less engaging than on the rest of the map. Overall, the northen part felt strange and clunky.

 

About the exit: For me personally, the exit part of the map felt like a well-made exploration puzzle. It cleverly employed the tricks introduced in the previous maps of Doom Zero. For me, the weakesst part was the whole Northen Part - Yellow Key stretch.

 

Map 26 Fortification

Time has come to explore another part of the demonic dimension. We are back on the floating islands introduced on map 23. (Or maybe it is tall mountain this time?).

 

The map begins with a fork in the road. The choice is to either go forward and run into the biggest demon horde of the map, or turn around and take a more slow and cautious approach. Both paths lead to the big plateu on the south end of the map. By strategically plunging into the abyss from the plateфu, the player can get a SSG. (And a secret plasma, if the leap of faith is taken from the right spot). With heavy weapon at hand, the player is ready to clear the area. The combat here is pretty grandiose and has a lot of opportunities for infighting. The Alapha Souls prove to be quite dangerous in this chaotic environment. Clearing the caverns and southern plateau provides a safe access to puzzle switches, which open the path to the red key. (The key is trapped, so keep the plasma gun ready).

 

With red key in hand, you can return to the starting area and... Oh, hello cyberdemon! The cyberdemon encounter allows for multiple approaches. You can use the plasma rifle to take the cyber head on. You can backtrack a bit, get an invulnerability sphere and use it to your advantage. Or you can remember how the teleporters in the lava work, and telefrag the cyber. (BTW, examine the teleporters carefully. One of them is not like the others...)

 

After the cyber is dead, there is not much of the map left to conquer. Just be careful when platforming above the lava, and you will be fine. (Unless some archvile ambush gets you)

 

Overall, Fortification proved to be a wonderful map. My only complaint is the ending. The map just abruptly ends. This feels especially bizzare, because there are not just one, but TWO secrets accessible only after the final battle is won.
 

Map 27 The Junction

This is a weird map. Like map 06 in the first episode, this map starts with single-digit HP on continuous, offers the choice of the three key and employs many monsters which stand near walls, unaware of the player's presence.

 

Personally, I like map 06 much more than The Junction. The choice of the keys on Map 27 is illusory: after you open the colored door of your choice and slip past mostly sleeping demons, you get the remaining keys, berserk, soulsphere and megaarmor. So on continuous playthrough the whole gimmick disappears before the map has properly begun. On pistol start there is also little difference: you just run through the other two paths and gather the remaining weapons and ammo. The clearing of the monsters is rather easy, and involves mostly corner camping in the correct spots.

 

Of all the subareas, I only really liked the dark labyrinth. It was really well realised dream-like area, where you go from one light source to the next.
The crusher area was ok, but less impressive than the one on map06.

 

The four archviles near the end of the map were pretty vicious. I am torn between "Ha-ha-ha, that was a funny joke, LoL!", and "Whyyy? This ambush was too mean and abrupt for the map!"

 

Overall, this map felt like a weird and linear homage to Monster Condo from doom2. The dark area with islands of light, the weird, mostly calm ambience, which is abruptly broken by combat, the abstract layout - all those things are present on The Junction. But, in my opinion, the combat encounters on Monster Condo, were more varied. The Junction, on the other hand, offers more interesting secrets than Monster Condo. I especially liked the "choose your prise" one in the crusher area.

 

I cannot say that The Junction is bad, but it felt rather boring to me. Only the cool darkness section felt really good.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

Two writeups today since I was too busy again yesterday.

 

MAP28: Suspension

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 7/8 secrets

 

The final act of Doom Zero is done messing around. This level is the hardest one since MAP19, and is pretty fun to boot. I was about to go off on this level for having me stuck finding out how to progress for a long time again, until I realized I was fool and actually forgot to hit one of the switches I found at one point. The layout of the level is relatively confusing in any case, but I don't think it detracts too much as it moreso just requires some good memory to keep track of where all the switches are along with the doors that have the matching faces. 

 

Combatwise, I thought this was a lot of fun and a relatively nice challenge. The techbase is densely populated and is able to supply some nasty ambushes using relatively few monsters at some points. I would highly recommend against pistol starters going through the silver door first when given the choice between that and brown, as you may find yourself gunning down barons with the shotgun and chaingun, which is always a tedious experience. If you pick the brown door first you at least get the SSG right away, which makes them more tolerable. The level does kind of overuse barons of hell in general with a formidable 18 on Ultra Violence. The level also doesn't have a single hell knight throughout, so I'm wondering if some of the pain could have been spared by replacing some with hell knights, but oh well. The level also really showcases the potential deadliness of the alpha soul, with a whopping 55 of them. It also likes to ambush you with one or two alpha souls directly in your face, and if they immediately start firing they can really tear down your health in a hurry if you weren't prepared. Apart from these two monsters, this level also loves its shotgunners, which always have the potential to be deceptively dangerous.

 

I also have to highlight the ending of the map. You are given a fake exit switch that teleports you right into an arena with a spider mastermind and cyberdemon, a couple of barons, and some pillars for cover. The best choice here is obviously to get some infighting going. Funnily enough, the spider mastermind won both matches with the cyberdemon in this wad for me (this map and MAP32). If you get the infight started relatively quickly, this fight isn't much of a threat, but it's still a nice bit of a thrill to end off the map with.

 

Great level, and a refreshing boost in difficulty to a final act that has been a little bit lacking in challenge in my opinion.

 

MAP29: The Rematch

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/1 secrets

 

The Demon Witch is back for more, and this time you get to kill her. Instead of puzzles to get to her this time, you have two paths that have monster encounters. One path gives you an SSG and leaves you with lost souls and two archviles to deal with, while the other gives you a chaingun with alpha souls and revenants. Neither encounter is too tough, with there being plenty of cover in both, although the alpha souls again can be a bit of a nuisance if they sneak up on you. After this you make it to the Demon Witch, who is a more traditional Icon of Sin-like encounter this time. First you need to find the hidden switch on the ledge below to unlock the way forward, and then you hit the other switch that temporarily exposes her heart. Launch rockets at the heart while avoiding the monsters spilling out of the 4 teleporters until she dies. The level gives you two megaspheres, one by the switch that reveals the heart, and another as a secret which involves running onto a somewhat awkwardly placed ledge, so there isn't too much threat of dying here so long as you are efficient. Was still a fun little encounter.

[LadyMistDragon]

It's been at least a couple of years since an Ultimate Doom wad has been done. Just saying.

[Goody]

Excitedly seeing what is being voted on for next month, because it'll be my first time joining in. Looking forward to it!

[Crusader No Regret]

Map 23: 100% kills and secrets

 

     Another hot start with alpha souls facing your starting position.  Hop to it, marine.

 

     I had forgotten about this map by the 23rd until reading other posts jogged my memory of it.  Very few points get as hot as the start, just a few where you teleport into a space and are immediately spotted by arachnotrons.  There's also a part with a one way drop landing uncomfortably close to hell knights.  I had lured out the lost souls down there which had alerted them already so rather than risk brawling with them in tight spaces, rockets from above.  (Might as well have fun with my continuos arsenal)  Mostly however, the monsters will only be attacking in one direction at a time if one advances slowly and deals with them as they appear.  When I had raised the steps to the exit and still had 1 living monster, well of course it's going to be an archvile popping out of the floor.  Meet Mr. BFG you predictable rat.

    The red key section stumped me for a while.  Blue key also was a puzzler but I worked it out a lot faster.  Some neat secret placement here.  I especially like how the map hints at how to reach the caged items in the yellow key area; don't think I've seen that kind of hint before.  (They are reachable by random guessing but guesswork is unnecessary if observant.)  And while the map uses a setup of three separate areas to reach the exit, it lets one backtrack out at nearly any time and jump into a different area if desired: a point in its favor.

[Doritos420]

Map30 - The Sarcophagus

Spoiler

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/File:Doom_Zero_MAP30_map.png

At first I thought this was gonna be like the gore trench from Map24 that gets darker and darker until it’s pitch black, luckily it never got to that point. Fun little level felt a bit like the small cherry on top of a ice cream sundae, just a little treat to cap off the game. Again a bit let down that it wasn’t a more substantial final level, but I see what the DASI-I was trying to accomplish with it. Just a simple straightforward blast the monsters and feel good run & gun. The ending twist/revelation that this is a prequel to Doom 2016 is pretty neat, though I wish there was a bit more foreshadowing to it with more fantastical levels that take place in the Sentinel/Argent world. Up until this point it feels like the only maps we've seen have been tech bases, cities and hell levels, which is fine, but seems a bit out of place with the game ending. I get that this came out before Doom Eternal but theres still a lot of lore from the codex entries in Doom2016 that can be used to get level ideas from. For example you could have a level that takes place in The Blood Keep, or maybe you can meet the Wretch who fashioned your armor? Or theres a level where you fight the Titan in the Great Steppe? To me it just seems a bit strange that up until this point is been a game more Doom1/2 focused with the only reference to nu doom being the "rip and tear" quote (which originates from the comic). I dont know why but it bugged me a bit that there wasn't more to it. Not sure I'm conveying it well enough but I am not against they idea of a prequel to Doom2016, but I feel like if you're going to do it, make it be more of a focus to your wad. To me it almost seems like an afterthought.

 

Overall Thoughts - 

Very solid wad. The levels played well, I really liked how a lot of the levels wrapped around themselves and had a solid progression. Going into it I was a bit worried that the puzzle aspects would take center stage or be too cryptic to decipher but I was pleased with the straightforward nature of the switch puzzles and platforming. Never got stuck, most of the secrets were very well telegraphed and weren't overly complicated. I especially liked how DAS-I used the face switches throughout the wad to denote what each switch did (I'll probably have to use that trick in some of my future maps). Not a criticism; but, I had expected some more challenging maps since the trailer stated that it was meant for a high skill level. Even on pistol start I found a lot of the maps pretty tame (this is probably just because we played 180 Minutes Pour Vivre in April, so my idea of difficulty may be warped from some of the ball buster levels in that wad). To me the difficulty curve was sort of linear early on but then plateaued a bit early, felt like the later levels could have pushed the envelope a little more. To me the wad really shined early on with the smaller compact maps, later on the levels tended to blur together (that's probably partially my fault for having to catch up through the last third of the wad though). All in all a very good mapset.

 

Standout Levels:

Map3 - Marble Zone

Map5 - The Pits

Map9 - Ancient Archives

Map15 - Peak Factory

Map31 - Meat

Map18 - Atom Transporter

Map22 - The Cracks

Map24 - Booster Hub

Map28 - Suspension

 

It's been fun playing along with everyone and reading their thoughts on the various maps. Looking forward to next month!

[Snikle]

MAP30 – Sarcophagus

Starts where 29 left off, including a dead Witch jaw. It’s a small cave map with fodder monsters (save for two barons at the end). Then you’re put in a casket as punishment for killing the Demon Witch. Sadly I didn’t find the single secret. It wasn’t until reading this thread I realized the Doom 2016 connection at the end, but that’s really neat.

 

 

Anyway, Doom Zero was a great WAD! Decent challenge but I was actually able to beat it on UV, which never happens with new WADs these days. The gameplay was IWAD-like but still felt distinct, which makes sense with what the author was trying to do. It’s no wonder why this was one of the WADs chosen for the Unity port’s “official add-ons,” which is cool. My favorite maps were probably 10 and 17, but I enjoyed almost all of them quite a bit. The puzzles were actually fun for the most part and the secrets were well-enough hidden that I didn’t find all of them but telegraphed well enough that I also didn’t miss all of them (Like in some Ribbiks maps). I really enjoyed playing this. I kinda wish I played it a year ago when I first discovered it instead of waiting for the DWMC, but I enjoyed being able to play along with everyone else.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP30: The Sarcophagus

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/1 secrets

 

Doom Zero's send-off is of the calmer variety. You are immediately started where MAP29 ended, the room darkened, and the Demon Witch reduced to chunks of gore on the ground before you. You then venture down into the cave behind her, where there are some weapons, and are then teleported into a more hellish cavern. It's a straight ahead trail littered with some weak monsters, and finally a couple of barons at the end. You simply just have to open the door and step into the titular sarcophagus, where you are then crushed. The wad chose to take the atmospheric and story relevant approach to an ending map, which I am always good with. I think it does a pretty good job closing things out.

 

Overall thoughts:

I really enjoyed being able to play this one. I had never heard of it prior to the Megawad Club, and it was definitely a pretty new kind of experience for me as someone new to the community who hasn't really played a ton of wads apart from the most well known ones. The quality of the wad is very consistent, with there not being many maps at all that left me with a negative impression. At the same time, it didn't have any maps that I'll be calling one of my all-time favourites or anything, but that's just fine as it provided a steadily solid experience throughout.

 

One of the things I want to highlight as a great thing about this wad is how distinct and memorable the maps feel. This wad never really feels like it's getting samey as we see a great variation of themes presented through mostly vanilla textures here, and the layouts and gimmicks the wad employs also vary quite drastically and help to further cement the individual maps as distinct experiences from one another. I never really felt like I was getting bored of the wad, or that I knew what was coming next, which is a great thing to feel.

 

I also of course have to talk about the puzzle element, which I think was really well done. The wad rarely ever felt like it was too obtuse, with the puzzles for the most part feeling intuitive and clever. I also tend to not really like secret heavy maps a lot being a not-so-good secret finder, but the wad did an overall good job of telegraphing its secrets and integrating them into its puzzles.

 

I will say that the difficulty of the wad is a bit below what I tend to prefer. I do think this is a wad that would be great for somebody newer to Doom to get into, as it is pretty easy as far as modern megawads go. It also has a bit of a classic feel to it mixed with its fresh new ideas, so I can see it pleasing a lot of people with that too. I still had fun, but I think the layouts and puzzles were definitely bigger highlights than the combat for me.

 

Favourite map: MAP24

Least favourite map: MAP25

Hardest map: MAP19

 

I had a lot of fun doing this, and look forward to playing and writing more next month!

[FistMarine]

Spoiler

Time to wrap Doom Zero (1.8) up!

 

MAP21: Starbourn
You start in a room with many doors closed, those doors are marked by the demon witch texture. There is only one door that you can open and you will notice you have to time your jump to make it to the next area. You will shortly meet the last new enemy: the Alpha Souls! These little lost soul like enemies will shoot cacodemon fireballs at you. Apparently they used hitscan attacks in the earliest versions of Doom Zero but I don't know when this was changed in which version. All I know is the version 1.8 has them spitting the cacodemon fireball attack.
As for the map, it felt a bit gimmicky at times with some interesting encounters, especially at the end! Before I get to that, I will say that although I have been careful most of the time, I had to screw up a bit at the time the archvile showed. I had the rocket launcher in hand (as I didn't feel like using the BFG just for one, ironically said archvile was also guarding a rocket launcher), got blasted because I poorly timed my cover and also fired a rocket close to a wall at same time (ouch!) meaning my health and armor depleted to around 90%. I had to play a bit more careful in next parts. I handled the part with barons and revenants surprisingly well, using the BFG and only took minimal damage.
At end, I didn't hop directly into the teleporter and I'm glad I didn't, as I went to look for the secrets. There is a very handy invulnerability secret found by landing on the nearby torch that activates a bridge. It helped a LOT in the final room!
Some secrets I found myself early like the berserk and the one with a lowering elevator (activated from blue armor room). Other secrets (which I found when looking on doomwiki.org, before stepping on the teleporter) included when I fired at a torch in front of a darkened wall, only to unleash a few revenants behind me. As soon as I realized, I went to hide and carefully took them out around the corners. And then the invulnerability secret already mentioned. Other than that, not bad!

 

MAP22: The Cracks
One of the easiest levels in the wad. At least that's how it seemed to me. There weren't many difficult encounters.
Anyway, you start under attack from a few Alpha Souls. Kill them and the Revenant in next few steps awaiting you. You will notice this level resembles E3M2 from original Doom.
The only problem was when I had killed most enemies, I was wandering around without realizing I had to step through the infamous Fireblue (FIREBLU) wall. So I consulted an YouTube video and then I asked myself why I didn't think to simply go through the wall?
Some interesting traps happening every now and then (like when you approach the switch after you kill an archvile, then get ambushed by few revenants and alpha souls) but with my BFG ready for the nastier parts, there was no problem for me. I saved the invulnerability for the plasma secret, which I already knew it was a trap, so I just left it there for the moment. I found the megasphere secret myself but I saved it for the end because I was already having large amounts of health and armor. Other secrets I just looked at that YouTube video. Hey, I didn't say that I can't look for the remaining secrets on a blind 100% playthrough. I am not that good at finding secrets in this wad (except for few maps where I got most or all secrets by myself).

 

MAP23: Atmos Caves
I guess the full name of the level would be "Atmospheric Caves"?
Anyway, for me it was another easy level with some tricky traps happening at few points. You start once again under the attack of a few alpha souls (when they will ever learn?) and have the choice between three teleporters. I don't remember in which order I went but I don't think it would have made much difference if I choose another order (in a continuous run anyway). 
I don't have much to tell about this level other than somehow the last three archviles did NOT spawn when I initially reached the exit. They spawned after I loaded my save to look for the remaining secrets (after I checked an YouTube video and saw there were supposed to be 3 archviles), then I use my chainsaw to make noise and then they appear! I go to hide behind wall and use my BFG to get rid of them! Then I go to find the rest stuff I missed. I have no idea how the archviles didn't wake up the first time. I don't think I rushed to the exit when it was finally open, I saved and stayed there for a few seconds, looked around the corners then exited to check my stats, as there is no other way to view your stats in-game in vanilla Doom.

 

MAP24: Booster Hub
You start in a cave with a chaingunner. After getting rid of him, you will see a bunch of imps outside. They can be easily taken out with your shotgun while strafing and I did this without taking any damage. Once ready (and getting the secrets at the start of the level), step into the teleporter!

This was a really tricky level, not gonna lie. Not because of the amount of archviles but because of traps (such as revenant pop up traps) and a surprise cyberdemon in a secret area, though in latter case I found out by looking on YouTube or consulting the doomwiki.org and looking at level stats, which I often do in preparation what can await me in a given level!

I got lucky when I got "surprised" by the revenants, because I quickly panicked and switched to my BFG and a single BFG blast took them all out and that without taking any damage too! I refer to part where they guard the rocket launcher, that was a bit unexpected but my BFG saved me from this unpleasant situation. There is another similar trap later in the level, where I also reacted quickly to revenants getting revealed behind me, so I can only advice to be alert at all times!
The part that leads to yellow skull key was also quite tricky at times because by the time you get closer to it, it gets really dark and I admit I took a few homing revenant rockets to the face because I just had a hard time to see them. I tried spamming a bit my SSG and chaingun and hoping to hit them but then I decided to go back and wait them up there so I can have a better chance to see them instead of eating revenant rockets for breakfast. After that, it wasn't too bad. Some monsters teleported, waiting for you, that could be taken with your rocket launcher.
After returning to the main room and open the yellow door (and deal with cacos and alpha souls), you get to proceed into another tricky trap to deal with, that you can't go back for the moment. Where various monsters get unleashed from both ahead of you and the windows in your right. So you need to quickly deal with them before you get surrounded. And if that wasn't enough, there's another trap with the revenants and imps on ledges waiting for you a bit later. But if you manage to survive, there's also an easy to get megasphere secret if you need health and armor.
As for the cyberdemon mentioned earlier, he guards the invulnerability and BFG in the secret place with the fake wall, so I quickly went inside the secret place and tried luring him and making space so I can rush and grab the invulnerability and BFG him quickly. It worked. And after I was done, I had to look for the rest secrets, some of which require you to traverse dangerous lava, so make sure you've got enough health and armor before doing that (one of those secrets can be grabbed with the radiation suit that you hopefully saved). There are plenty of blue armors in the level as well as a soulsphere and megasphere, so the level is quite generous with supplies at least.

 

MAP25: Abandoned Compound
Like in maps 22 & 23, not only you start once again under attack by the alpha souls but also some other demons as well. So you must be quick to clear them and give yourself some time to breathe. In general, the way I cleared this level was carefully checking around corners for monsters waiting for me, as I deal with many rooms that way, most of the time when I get the chance. It saves me health and armor instead of blindly rushing and taking damage.
The part with the monsters inside that dark room, I lured most of them outside because I didn't want risking entering, then I realized when I went to that room with red damaging floors, that I could have just grabbed the invulnerability from the secret place and rush in there. At least I got some usage of the invulnerability (which was guarded by a few monsters), including killing the archvile and other nasties while I grabbed it, then trying to clear the leftovers from the dark room.
And the part with the skull keys located close to another (that can be grabbed by strafing into them, at least two of the keys), I thought at first it was another one of those levels where you get to choose a key. Well it wasn't like that but one of the next levels does feature that, so maybe it was a sign that we will have another level with that feature.
The part at end with three hell knights and the two archviles (waiting for me), funnily enough, I had activated only one of switches before I reached the exit, so I had an easier time to kill the archviles behind those bars that didn't lower. So after killing them with my SSG, I was wondering what I missed and went back and realized I missed a switch, after I watched an YouTube video (and to also check for remaining secrets). Makes me glad that missing a switch resulted in dealing with the final room easier. The rest of the level wasn't too bad.

 

MAP26: Fortification
Just until you thought that there aren't any more levels that start you under attack, here comes another level where you are attacked immediately by monsters! This time from a cacodemon (maybe other imps behind as well?), so act quickly and take him down (and the rest monsters that are lurking in the next darker rooms).
There is an interesting puzzle where you must step on two switches that lower bars and elevator while rushing to get there in time. The rest of the level wasn't as hard as I expected to be. I had an easy time dealing with the encounters in general and kept my health and armor at higher values. As usual, I saved the invulnerability secret for the cyberdemon that appears near the end of level. And then quickly killing the archvile and a bunch of monsters before it expires. Don't worry, there's two other archviles and other monsters awaiting for you in the final room but they can be easily killed with the BFG and being careful! After that, I went for the remaining secrets before exiting.
The ending features yet another damaging floor combined with a crusher, meaning you get to start the next level with low health once more! It really feels like a slap to the face to those who manage to have 200% health and armor at the end of the level. But hey, a bit of challenge happening sometimes doesn't hurt to have, right? As I don't mind "death exits" happening every now and then. But I can understand that some players may be annoyed by that.

 

MAP27: The Junction
Similar to MAP06: Echo Halls, you start with 10% health (and 10% armor this time, since I had 200% both before stepping on the ending sector, though regardless of the armor amount, it won't help much when you are low on health anyway) and you get to choose between one of the skull keys. There will be two imps guarding them but there is no problem taking them out and dodging their shots (if they happen to fire at you), unless you are unlucky to eat a fireball that rolls high damage.
I chose the yellow skull key (yeah I know I quickly looked at an YouTube video to see what's this level about, since I was close to the end and a bit burned off from playing the megawad in the two weeks I played) because that's what seemed the easiest path to me. It resembles the paths from the MAP06, although this time you don't get to crush the monsters for some reason! At least not the ones in this room, you will see later.
So once I was done with being stealthy and getting my health and armor back to 200% (as well as the other two keys, as the author was kind enough to give the other two keys back as well, which are intended for progression anyway), I could start killing those enemies.
Once I was done with the first room, I went to the red skull door. This seemed dangerous at first but all I recommend is try getting on the end without waking up anyone, THEN wake everyone up, so you bring them together closer and maybe help make them infight.
Don't grab the secret light amplification goggles, save them for later! You will need them for a later room! This room isn't as dark as you think it is and the monsters can be seen. Well maybe except for those spectres lurking in the darkness...
For the blue skull door, you have quite a variety of monsters, once again with their backs at you. This seemed like another easy path (maybe the easiest path?) to take. Just wish this room wasn't that dark either.
Once you clear the three key rooms, you will get access to other three rooms. The first one features another one of those rooms where you must run quickly to press the switch so monsters get crushed. Ignore the lost souls that are in your path and just rush to the switch. Due to vanilla Doom 2 limitations, the monsters started flickering in and out while they were getting crushed. Must be caused by the blood they spawn while they are getting crushed.
Once the monsters are crushed (and they won't be flickering anymore, if playing in vanilla executables or ports), kill the lost souls and proceed. Funnily enough, some revenants appeared and I went to hide for a while, they seemed to get crushed too because when I came back, they were gone. That made for a funny moment when I realized what happened.
And then found some secrets, including a backpack and one with teleporters where you get to choose between Plasma with extra cells, Blue Armor and medkits or Rocket Launcher with extra rockets. I chose the blue armor because it was nice to have and I had mostly full ammo, although my health and armor may have been around 140% at that point and wasn't exactly sure what to grab. This might be more beneficial to those that pistol started the level.
Once you press the next switch (and crushers also stop), you get to access the next path, the one with the bunch of lost souls in a completely dark room! I hope you saved the Light Amp secret for this room! Because you won't be able to see almost anything!
After clearing them all quickly, I saved the soulsphere and second blue armor for the end of level (though I admit it was difficult to find soulsphere and megaarmor in darkness when I had the level done, must have taken at least 5 minutes of wandering around until I got them, as I wasn't leaving the level without them), so I went with what I had for now. I was ready for the last room. A baron waiting around the corner? Don't worry because once you press the switch there are FOUR archviles that get unleashed, so have your BFG ready! They resurrected the baron at least two times but with my BFG it wasn't a problem putting him back to sleep, as well as the archies. Then finding the rest secrets (if there was any I had missed) and getting those two goodies from the dark room.
Overall, fun tricky level and with a high replayability.

 

MAP28: Suspension
This map felt like a Doom E1 styled level to me. My only problem was I think Barons of Hell may have been a bit overused, as someone mentioned earlier, though I appreciate that it only had Ultimate Doom monsters used (and the alpha soul), giving it more of a Doom E1 feel. The room that gave me a bit of trouble was the darker one where you are surrounded by imps, demons and there's even a few barons lurking around. I did take some damage and had my health and armor go slightly below 100% at times, which made me play a bit more careful in next rooms, at least until I manage to figure out how to get that soulsphere secret.
The ending got spoiled a bit by watching an YouTube video (I know, I kinda relied a bit too much on YouTube videos for the last couple of levels as I really felt a bit burned off from playing so much Doom Zero at that point) and I saved the invulnerability sphere from a secret place for that final battle, which I'm glad I did.
There was also a weird HOM in the final room (which BTW was fixed in newer versions of Doom Zero) but thankfully I got 100% everything, since there was no way to backtrack, though I had backup saves just in case. I may not have ended up with 200% H/A this time but I'm alright with 197% too. As the invulnerability may have expired a second earlier but then I reminded that the battle could have been much worse, so I was happy it turned out better than I expected.
Also another advice, save the radiation suit (from that secret place behind the blue key) for the megasphere secret, which is what I did. I'm glad I didn't go through that secret area before I watched an YouTube video, since the acid does 20 damage! And that megasphere is also guarded by a surprise baron of hell, so you don't want to be low on health when you get there, if you manage to get there without the radiation suit. :P
There is also a Wolfenstein secret to be found, which contains some weapons and extra ammo. Seems a bit out of place for a Doom E1 styled level but when I think about it, it's a Doom 2 megawad so it makes perfect sense to have a Wolfenstein reference thrown near end.

 

MAP29: The Rematch
Time to fight the Demon Witch! But first of all, you need to collect the red and blue skull keys. Red skull key is guarded by two Archviles and many lost souls, while Blue skull key is guarded by three Revenants and many alpha souls.
Once you are done, activate the switch and go into the portal! You will get teleported to a cave. Continue running and you will eventually reach the place that contains the demon witch, if you don't mind walking a bit through lava.
There is a secret Megasphere (along with a cell pack) you have to strafe to. I would recommend grabbing it now quickly (as there is another one close to a switch you have to press), then quickly activate the switch which reveals the demon witch's heart for a short while and use the RL to destroy the demon's heart! You will quickly realize that this is sort of an IOS fight, there are 4 places that monsters can spawn (marked by those pentagrams) and thankfully they can't telefrag you, due to exception of telefrag happening only on MAP30 slot.
One time, I had it happen a Mancubus teleported inside me and got stuck, meaning I switched to my BFG to get rid of it. Some monsters will be hopelessly stuck, while others can bite you or punch you or whatever. I would just recommend using Plasma or BFG to quickly get rid of them.
I also had some bad luck on first attempt because I would miss the time to rush to the heart or would just shoot rockets close to the wall, must have taken at least 5 attempts to press the switch and get there in time, because more often than not I would be too busy with clearing the monsters that got spawned and I would have to press the switch again.
Eventually I managed to destroy the heart at the cost of also taking me out in explosion, because I was also low on health. This is the second and the last death in the whole megawad, thankfully.
As a result, this counted as a death exit (which is employed in megawads such as Scythe series) and I started the next map with just the pistol. At least I got 100% in every level so far (including the final level), so that wasn't too bad, I guess.

 

MAP30: The Sarcophagus
The final level is rather short and easy. There are only zombiemen, shotgunners, imps, demons, spectres and two barons. You start at the end of MAP29 where the Demon Witch got destroyed and make your way to the next room. You are given almost all weapons at start (except Rocket Launcher) and a berserk pack in the cave you will teleport to. Before that, make sure you grab the BFG, which counts as the level's only secret! The berserk pack can be saved for later if you need health, because the bullets and shells should be enough to carry you on until the end.
Even if I was careful at times and taking it a bit slower, I completed the level in about 6 minutes. It wasn't difficult at all, even from the pistol start. Just a few health points lost and other 6 points I recovered when I backtracked to get the berserk, then other 3 points at one of last zombies. The barons can be simply BFG'ed.
Then you can notice the ending makes a reference to the start of Doom 2016 (AKA Doom 4). Step into the sarcophagus to get crushed and end the level/game!

Replaying both maps 29 (to survive) and 30 with weapons was only a slightly different experience, the final level is far too easy with weapons and extra health/armor, from surviving map 29 with good health and armor. Funnily enough, I took more damage when playing continuous with weapons and extra health/armor, I guess the enemies were a bit more accurate this time, to make up for coming in with full arsenal. I guess this means I was really lucky on my first attempt to only take 9 damage overall, considering the lack of armor and health (other than a single berserk) in this level.

 

E3 (both parts) overall: Pretty good, although in last few maps I was getting a bit burned off from playing so much Doom Zero (this also explains having to check a bit some later levels before I started playing), as I finished the whole megawad in almost two weeks. And then I had to take a bit of a break before I started writing about the last 10 maps for the club.
E3 (both parts) deaths: 1 (MAP29)
Total Deaths: 2 (MAP07 and MAP29)

 

I wanted to pistol start MAP07 as well (as punishment for dying earlier, being the only time I got unlucky in the megawad which is surprising since there were other trickier parts as well in other levels but I guess I was very lucky overall, with help from some YouTube videos in some trickier parts) but right now I don't feel like going back to Doom Zero for a while. Maybe another day when I get to replaying it and check out the latest version. I just wanted to do version 1.8 for the club since I had it downloaded on my hard drive from last year and it was the last one before the big changes after it became an official addon!

 

Conclusion: Doom Zero is excellent! I highly enjoyed playing this megawad. It came as a huge surprise and although I was aware of its existence since early 2020 at least, I didn't get the chance to play it until recently. It felt like a brand new classic Doom experience that also felt official at times, it had the professional looks and gameplay. It is even more apparent that it became an official addon in the Classic Doom unity port, making this more than just a simple coincidence.
My only complaint is mostly in regards to puzzles and platforming sequences, I feel like sometimes they showed up too often. Some levels relied too much on these gimmicks. I think this kinda dragged things down a little bit or at least unnecessary slowed down the players. However I do appreciate how innovative were many puzzles, don't remember seeing these kind of puzzles being used before in other DOOM or DOOM 2 wads.
The level design and gameplay were excellent. Bonus points for being able to get 100% everything in every level, unlike most megawads out there (even the official IWADS were plagued by that)! Besides that, the traps were predictable for the most part, overall balance was spot on, I never found levels too difficult or too confusing (except few puzzles that required a bit more thinking than usual, which may have made me look on YouTube for a quick answer when I didn't feel like solving the puzzle on my own, no I didn't want to use any cheats at all since I don't like cheating in normal gameplay), in other words the levels all had the sweet balance for me, at least on UV continuous and I admit, some levels may have been too easy (especially when at least 20 of them were finished with 200% health/armor and half of these with full ammo as well), this is why I plan to replay through all maps from a pistol start (possibly without saves), to get a much more difficult challenge. And that when I will check the newest version 2.2 or newer upcoming versions if there will be another update one day. I'd wait for an idgames release before that, since I'd like to have a final version to play instead of having to redownload every new update coming out. I don't own the Unity ports sadly, so I don't get to play the addon version. At least not until one day when I decide to buy the new ports.

To not make it longer, I loved Doom Zero, even with its minor flaws. It has nailed the classic Doom feeling and felt like an official expansion that could have been released back then in 1996 or so!

 

Time to vote for the next month's entry:
+++Base Ganymede
+++Bourgeois Megawad
+++Clandestine Castle Crashing

These seemed the wads to get the most votes and although I wanted to vote for Hexen again, this month there were no votes for it, so I figured I'd vote for the most popular choices. Whatever wins, I hope to be next month as well!

 

Spoiler

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by FistMarine

[princetontiger]

Doom Zero definitely feels like an official expansion pack. I loved it.

[dobu gabu maru]

The thread for Bourgeois Megawad is up. Both it and CPD were tied at 5 votes, so I used a random number generator to determine the winner.

[Crusader No Regret]

Map 24: 100% kills and secrets

 

    When I see a bunch of teleport destinations, I'm conditioned to expect a flood of teleporting monsters.  But this is Doom Zero.  Doom Zero doesn't do large scale teleport ambushes.  Doom Zero is considerate and takes into account the sprite limit in vanilla.  It's been a while but I think the stating area is the only instance of teleporting monsters in the map.  Just because this part is easily wrangled doesn't mean the whole map will be a cakewalk.  The trend of using effective placement of small numbers of monsters continues.  Near the end of the map has some spicy encounters.  There's the small space with hellknights from one direction, cacodemons from another, and faraway alpha souls to blindside anyone distracted by the closer monsters.  Also has an encounter with elevated revenants and no easy cover.  Hope you are able to guide homing missiles into walls.

 

    Some intricate secrets to reach.  And not-so-intricate.  It took a long time to before I worked my way to the weapons and ammo in the starting outdoor area.  Seems I was off by just enough to climb onto the elevated portion.  There's a sequence to open up a secret behind lava; don't take the radsuit until it's opened up.  There's also the BFG secret; come and get it mwahaha.  It guarded by... well I won't spoil it.

 

Map 25: 100% kills, 8/9 secrets

 

     Another hot start with alpha souls right away and a nearby arachnotron waiting to join in.  As well as other assorted riff-raff to bait into infighting (or not but I found them forgettable since I did).  Easy enough on continuous.  I imagine the gameplay is more frantic on pistol start trying to find weapons and ammo and carve out a foothold somehow.  There are enemies nearly everywhere.  Easily mowed down when coming in with full ammo, maybe more of a formidable presence when underarmed.  Seems there's a mid-tier enemy around nearly every corner.  Even barons have a chance to be effective if one or more are alerted and doesn't have the ammo to take them out.

    I didn't have trouble finding the exit.  The set has already conditioned me such that when I see multiple switches close to each other, I'm going to fiddle around with them until I make something happen.  So I found it early, long before I had done everything to open it up.  Most memorable were secrets.  There was a neat setup for a backpack based on observing the area and noticing the part that didn't fit the pattern in the room layout.  The BFG secret is a case of it being more about the journey than the reward at the end.  It's at the end of an extended sequence of hidden passages and there's nothing in the map that warrants its power.

Edited June 2, 2021 by Crusader No Regret

[Crusader No Regret]

Map 26: 100% kills, 6/8 secrets

 

    Most memorable bit about the progression was raising the bridge to where the red key is.  Regardless of which order one activates the two needed switches, still got to take the long way around.  Then there's the part where one is lowered into a monster pit which did take me by surprise even though I should have expected it.  Feels especially trolly if the one on the lower level is hit first.  The cyber is going to take some effort to off it fast with BFG since falling in lava becomes a factor.  (I didn't spot the telefrag potential, which is a cool alternate approach)  Trivial with invulnerability but I didn't find it until after offing the cyber.

 

     BFG secret remained tantalizingly out of reach though I'll admit I didn't search too long for it.  Liked the hinting for the early plasma gun.

 

     Death exit starts me off at 3% health on the next map.  Anticipation builds.

[Azure_Horror]

Finally manged to write down my thoughts on the last three maps of Doom Zero.

UV with saves, pistol start, glbloom+ (complevel 2)

 

Map 28 Suspension

The name Suspension seems like a play on the word Suspense. Or maybe it implies a limited suspension of hostilities. Either way, on this map the action steps aside and the atmosphere takes the wheel.

 

This big techbase may appear oversized and clunky at first, but it is cleverly designed and loops on itself in surprising ways. The main focus of map 28 is exploration and ambience, as opposed to action. This is somewhat rare for a slot 28 map. Typically, maps in slots 27-29 focus on engaging the player through combat loop, with slot 29 often housing the ultimate action map of the megawad. (Funnily enough, the original Plutonia Experiment has a relatively calm, exploration heavy breather map in slot 28, while Doom 2 and TNT:Evilution maps 28 attempt to wow the player with the action. Talk about subverting expectations.)

 

The combat on Suspension is easy. At first. But more difficult encounters will come later. The string of easy combat encounters managed to lull me into the false sense of security, and then I repeatedly died to Alpha Soul flocks in cramped areas later. More deep parts of Suspension sure love close-quarter Alpha Soul ambushes.
 
The notable trait of Suspension is the total lack of doom 2 monsters. This results in a mostly slow-paced fights, which serve to enhance the atmosphere. But not all fights are slow: the combat against flocks of Alfa Souls and troops of shotgunners is fast and vicious, and can easily go badly. Both slow-but-easy and vicious-but-quick types of combat serve the same purpose: they keep the player's focus on the map exploration, while providing enough challenge to preserve the grim, unwelcoming ambience.

 

Overall, Suspension is the ultimate tribute to Doom 1. Absence of Doom 2 monsters, relatively flat, exploration-focused techbase layout, some lightning and toxic floor tricks to spice things up, scores of secrets - all those things are reminiscent of Doom 1. And the ending puts the cherry on top of the Doom 1 birthday cake. The ending area has a teleporter to the floating arena in the void. And on that arena there exactly 4 monsters: 2 barons, 1 cyberdemon and 1 spider mastermind. If you miss the Doom 1 homage here, go and (re)play Doom 1 ASAP!

 

 

Map 29 The Rematch

Only two keys stand between us and the final battle. Demon Witch, beware!

 

The key hunt, with all the annoying monsters, felt like an unnecessary busywork. I know how to fight archviles, come on, let me to the final arena already!

 

After finding the two keys and walking through an impressive corridor full of Demon Wicth memorabilia, we find ourselves in the titular rematch. Our goal is simple: press all the buttons, expose the demon witch's heart, pump it full of rockets.

 

The final arena presents a good twist on an Icon Of Sin setup. There are still buttons, timing windows, and infinite summons, but everything is very compact and there is no janky lifts, or vertical aim silliness. The resulting fight is a pretty fun variation of a standard obligatory traditional Doom 2 final boss. The only problem is the interaction between the monster spawner RNG and the super compact playing space. I feel like some monsters, especially archviles, are blatantly overpowered on that arena, given the lack of space and cover combined with timing constraints.

 

Like many Icon of Sin maps, The Rematch has two parts: the pre-boss part, and the boss arena. The arena is pretty good here, but the introduction - not so much. Nevertheless, this is one of the least janky Icon of Sin maps, so it desreves its share of recognition.

 

 

Map 30 The Spoiler

Curses! The demons got wind of the Doom Marine's completionist tendencies and used them against him!

 

So what should one do after defeating the final boss? Go home, right? But wait! There is a tunnel behind the final boss remains! Let's check it out! It has monsters inside, come on, we need those 100% kills! Where does the tunnel lead to? Hey, this stone platform looks like a teleporter, let's go in...

And thus, with a small nod to nuDoom, the Doom Zero is concluded.

Spoiler

 

There were no Argenta people, no Hell Priest and no temples falling on doom guy's head. So even if Doom Zero is a full part of the nuDoom canon, this stone box is not the one from doom 2016. As they say, the demons gonna need a bigger boat box.

 

 

Doom Zero as the whole: It is wonderful and memorable.

My top 6 favourite maps:
- Map 22
- Map 31
- Map 19
- Map 11
- Map 09
- Map 28

My favourite traits of Doom Zero:

1) Doom Zero captures the feel of Doom 1 and Doom 2 IWADs. Recapturing the feel of a thing made 25 years ago is not easy.
Recapturing the feel of two distinct things made 25 years ago is even harder. Yet @DASI-I succeeds in this difficult task.

2) Doom Zero uses the full spectrum of doom design elements. Lifts, Damaging floors, different monster types - everything has some memorable use. The thing that impressed me the most was extremely efficient use of "big imps" in some of the more difficult encounters of Doom Zero. The Hell Nobles have big HP pools and low pain chance, yet in the most cases they are pretty harmless due to their low speed. Thus small-scale fights against them often fail to be challenging and dynamic. But in many maps of Doom Zero small squads of Hell Nobles are used to a great effect. Examples include: map21; the knight-caco fight of map09; the baron-chaingunner fight of map08.

3) Often-present, yet unobtrusive puzzle elements. The marked switches help so much!

4) Plentiful and fun to seek secrets. Mmaps with many secrets are rather rare in modern megawads, and the secrets themselves are often super-obscure. I was very happy to find out that Doom Zero secrets are plentiful and many of them are easy to find. This allows for happy casual secret hunting. Such thing is impossible for many, many, many megawads.

5) The Plasma Sound Replacement. Finally! Someone managed to preserve both our ears and the punchy Pow-BAM! sound of traditional plasma rifle!
I hope this sound replacement will find its way into other doom PWADs.

Edited June 6, 2021 by Azure_Horror

[Crusader No Regret]

Map 27: 85% kills, 8/8 secrets

 

     A gimmicky map based around starting at single-digit health.  Let's take a tour, shall we.

 

    The only available destination other than some starter weapons for pistol starters is the key shrine.  There are also a few imps around.  More paranoid marines may assume that they are bait for a nasty teleport ambush but no, one is meant to shoot them.  Of course only one key can be chosen and the others as well as the health on the platform remain tantalizingly out of reach.

 

     Whichever key is chosen will allow entry into a chamber with monsters that are facing the walls.  But you just know that a single tap of the fire button will wake them all up.  At single-digit health, it's very likely to end poorly.  Best to sneak through quietly where a weapon awaits.  Also grants access to the platform to pick up the rest of the keys and a welcome berserk pack.  The gimmick from map 6 is expanded upon here.  Each of the chambers behind the key doors contains a face switch.  All must be pressed to complete the map as well as grant access to a BFG.  All the face switches are guarded and there are monsters physically blocking access to them.

 

    The only available armor before hitting any of the face switches is behind the blue door so that's what I tackle first.  There's a mass of hitscanners blocking it though.  Seems like it would require waking up the room.  But I found an alternate solution.  Since I need to alert monsters blocking access to a face switch anyway, I stayed silent and baited cacodemon shots into the hitscanner mob guarding the armor.  Race around the corner and let the monsters settle their disagreement.  Repeat as needed until I can pick up the armor without attacking.  Then lure the caco somewhere I can shoot it without alerting everything else.  Repeated the process of brushing up to monsters to wake them up and lure them to locations where I could shoot them without waking everything else up until the face switch is reachable.

 

     Chamber behind red door is easier.  Zip in, tag the switch from an angle, dash out.  This will alert a baron or two but that's still less than waking the whole room.  Lure them far enough away and take them out.  Ignoring them is possible but I'd rather have them gone so I can return for ammo.

 

    Behind the yellow door is the hardest setup for a stealthy approach.  There's an archvile facing the face switch and if the pain elementals are aggro'ed by another monster they will produce a lot of skulls.  I did try to be sneaky but gave up that plan when a pain elemental fixated on a monster that hit it.  So every monster guarding that switch gets taken out with violence.

 

    The three areas the face switches open up all have their own gimmicks.  They must be visited in order to open the path to the exit.  First up is more firewall areas with monsters facing away.  It's quite clear the intended solution is to evade the few lost souls, keep quiet and activate a crusher to flatten the waiting crowd.  Ammo may become an issue if trying to take them out directly.

 

    Next area has pitch black rooms and lots of flaming skulls lurking around.  Automap is disabled here too.  The idea is to use the lighted decorations to find your way around.  I came here first and made my way through only to find a door blocking my progress.  Yeah, that was irritating.  It's necessary to hit a switch in the previous area to open up the door leading to another switch necessary for progress.  Hope you don't squander the secret light-amp early (if you found it).  A lot of secrets lie within these darkened halls and it's very difficult to find them without the light-amp.

 

    Last gated area is a short one.  A switch to raise the stairway to the exit and a lot of archviles ambushing at once.  After that, the path to the exit is pretty much unopposed.

 

    There's also a neat secret with a teleport maze and only being able to grab one of three possible prizes for navigating it.  I'd managed to not wake up everything behind the blue key and red key doors so I left them there to stare at walls until the end of time.

[Crusader No Regret]

Map 28: 98% kills, 8/8 secrets

 

     What I remember most about the map is the high number of ammo sponge Barons there are.  It sticks out thanks to the ammo distribution; there aren't a lot of cells so BFG'ing every one had me leaving with less cells than I came in with.  One or two of them were in tight spaces where their high HP enables them to apply pressure but the rest showed up in spots with plenty of room to dance.

 

    That sore spot aside, continues with the Doom Zero trend of various puzzles to advance and clever secrets.  There's the running test very early on to advance which took a few tries.  There's a soulsphere on a pillar and the switch to open up a path to it is in plain sight but needs an intermediate step or two to be able to make a timed run.  The layout is interesting to navigate.  Finding all the secrets took some doing but getting credit for them took more doing, at least for me.

 

    Exit fakeout at the end is neat.  Since I'm playing continuous, I ran over there from the secret invulnerability, opened up the exit, and just left.  Saw no profit in spending ammo killing the last monsters.  I missed the trivia that the map only contains Doom 1 monsters (other than the alpha souls)

 

Map 29: kills irrelevant, 1/1 secret

 

     The boss map.  If there is any subtext with the enemy choices in the intro areas, it flew over my head.  Took 2-3 tries to successfully beat the spawner.  I was gibbed by the boss explosion.  Well shoot.

 

Map 30: 100% everything

 

     Playable epilogue.  Secret BFG isn't that important but I got it anyways.  The gameplay is basic in a vaccuum but mind thy health; there's none other than the berserk.  That's OK though because it serves the narrative.  After dispatching the Baron pair (possible callback to E1, especially given the other monsters are limited to those in the same episode), Doomguy enters the chamber they were guarding only to find its a trap.  I'm not familiar with new Doom so wouldn't catch the reference unless someone told me.

 

  Final and overall thoughts to come later.

[Crusader No Regret]

Overall thoughts:

 

    Doom Zero does a lot of things right.  Effective placement of small numbers of monsters, very few or no permastucks, generally quick pace, progression that rewards using your head while keeping the trickiest stuff optional...  Plenty of secrets tucked away in sneaky ways that one feels clever for finding them.  It's very technically sound, even running on vanilla DOS (or so I'm led to believe, didn't test this).  The IWAD difficulty level will make it accessible to those who are looking for a more casual experience.

 

    Despite all those positives and more I'm not putting down, it somehow doesn't quite land with me and I'm not inclined to revisit it ever.  I'm having trouble finding words to convey why.  IWAD music is a big part of it for me personally but loading a custom music WAD on top of it would take care of that.  So there's something more.  It's not the short maps; that the set doesn't take a great deal of time is something in its favor overall.  Or that it sticks to IWAD textures; it's certainly a valid design choice to do so.  I won't criticize the difficulty; playing on HMP continuous with saves is something akin to a tourist difficulty anyways.

 

    Maybe because it feels like it binds so firmly in the modern era without any of the adventuresome spirit from the early eras where creativity was limited only by the available engines and ports.  And while I can appreciate some modern paradigns (such as avoiding pointless permastucks), being bound by too big a list of do's and don'ts seems to cost something intangible.  Perhaps "by the book" is the closest phrasing to convey why Doom Zero doesn't quite land with me.  I'm more drawn to maps that have a sense of location even if they're not perfectly realized and the maps that stuck out the most to me in Doom Zero are those with a sense of narrative.  Even if they're some of the most sparse from an action perspective.

 

    Still, there's no need to have my issues with the set become anyone else's issues.  And for those who are into the type of pacing, presentation, and gameplay that Doom Zero offers, I'll recommend it.  It won't take too long to complete for a megaWAD which makes it attractive to those who are normally turned away by an expectation of long time investments.

[DASI-I]

On 5/16/2021 at 2:35 AM, Crusader No Regret said:

Map 11: 100% kills and secrets....

....Easter egg I didn't get though the water texture above the fish is a nice artistic detail....

an ester egg in most games from id (and others not directly affiliated with id), oddly missing in Doom 1 and 2, so I added it myself :P
http://www.dopefish.com/fishinfo.html