Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #009

[ICID]

ICID, what the hell is this now?

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures is a small project of exploration, interaction, entertainment and reviews where we meet once every 2 weeks to select random WADs in search of hidden treasures, lost promises, or our worst nightmares! We use the /idgames archive’s special feature that lets us search for random files. Of course, sometimes they are resources or unplayable stuff, so we focus on looking for WADs.

 

The event is named after its originator, fearless leader and WAD reviewer par excellence Endless, but I am helping to run things for the time being.

 

So, what do we do here?

1. We/I try to play at least 5 (or more if you can) random WADs on /idgames. For that, we use the Random File feature.
2. We comment/review the WADs for the duration of the two-week event. There’s no required pacing (you can do all 5 on the first day if you want), but most of us post a review once every 1-2 days.
3. Please take screenshots or video of your adventures.
4. Play however you want, on any skill level, as long as you play the WAD as intended/in working shape.
5. Avoid shitting on people’s work and try to review in a respectful manner. Of course, we can all have a good laugh if we find something odd.

 

What kind of WADs are we looking for?

Mostly singleplayer Doom or Heretic WADs that work in your sourceport(s) of choice. You can skip DM WADs if you don’t have anyone to play with. I also pull at least 5 random WADs for the event and add them here. Feel free to play them with me if you wish, or look for your own! The point of the event ifs to encourage you to explore this vast, random world.

 

Tips/recommendations for commenting/reviewing:

Spoiler

1. Always provide both the name of the WAD and a link to the file. Very important.
2. Providing the name of the author is also good form, especially if you know their work.
3. Commenting the source port and skill-level is not required, but provides helpful context to your review.
4. Try to stick to no more than 1 WAD per day to avoid burnout, but this part’s all up to you, champ!
5. As mentioned above, screenshots or videos are awesome.
6. Reviews of all formats are valid, both longform and shortform are good as long as you write with integrity.

 

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures of this event:

1. The Clave
2. The Fireworks Factory
3. Warpzone
4. 25% Doom 2
5. Never Not Completed Episode
6. Thy Infernal
7. Breathless

 

 

Spoiler

The Top 10 (out of 22)

1. @Roofi | 830
2. @Sena | 295
3. @Walter confetti | 235
4. @Endless | 205
5. @Maribo | 145
6. @smeghammer | 115
7. @LUISDooM | 110
8. @Misty | 75
9. @Biodegradable | 65
10. @leodoom85 | 60

 

Join the Doom Master Wadazine community for more events like this! » https://discord.gg/Q2RKn4J

 

» Previous adventures:

Spoiler

1. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #001

2. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #002

3. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #003

4. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #004

5. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #005

6. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #006

7. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #007

8. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #008

 

[Biodegradable]

Who the hell are you and what have you done with Endless?!?! hehe ;^P

[ICID]

1 minute ago, Biodegradable said:

Who the hell are you and what have you done with Endless?!?! hehe ;^P

 

On the old thread, Endless said:

 

Quote

Sorry for the lack of recent activity. Some life changes going on and I'm getting chocked with time.

 

I was actually wondering if someone would like to help me with managing these events. It's pretty easy actually, I just don't have the time anymore to even participate on them. The only requirements are to participate in the events and to take note of the players to add up their points in the scoreboard. Nothing out of this world, really. I would appreciate it very much.

 

I got in touch with him via Discord and took him up on the offer. Same old ER/iWA, only difference is I'll be making the threads and calculating scores, since he does not have time to.

[smeghammer]

@ICID, thanks for taking this over, dude!

 

I really enjoy the random adventures, and am really glad it is to continue.

[ICID]

@smeghammerThe random adventures will never die! Thanks man, I know I have big shoes to fill.

[Roofi]

Thank you for the new thread  @ICID ! :)

 

 

Month 2 Day 25

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop.

 

 

No review for today. I died in a weird IOS map which was the last level from the amateurish wad  No Remorse

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Phobus]

Heh - me again. This is the power of uploading tons of stuff for years on end. Number 3 on the main list is an absolute slog on UV. Hell Revealed and the like were what I was playing at the time, with a dash of HeXen style hub backtracking. Good luck to any brave enough to take that on. Maybe consider swapping the music for something more suitable for a huge map, than the very heavy couple of minutes I got from Tom_D that should've just been boss music or something!

[ICID]

1 hour ago, Phobus said:

Number 3 on the main list is an absolute slog on UV. Hell Revealed and the like were what I was playing at the time, with a dash of HeXen style hub backtracking. Good luck to any brave enough to take that on. Maybe consider swapping the music for something more suitable for a huge map, than the very heavy couple of minutes I got from Tom_D that should've just been boss music or something!

 

Can confirm. I actually loved it and wouldn't call it a "slog" by any means (my highly positive full review for this event will go up on Friday) but it is LONG, so anyone joining in on those selections should make sure to set a couple hours aside to play it.

[ICID]

Anyway, here's today's review.

 

The Clave (1995) by Roberto Ullfig

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Source port: glboom+, complevel 2}

^{Difficulty: UV}                

I wanted to love this. The Clave is the sole map (as far as I can tell) from Roberto Ullfig and it makes me wish he’d done more – this level of polish and sense of scale and place was all but unheard of in 1995. It’s a massive brown fortress with tight, winding corridors full of sharp monster placement – Ullfig stretches the verticality of the Doom engine to its limits and at times the result is truly impressive.

 

Unfortunately, it’s still a ‘95 map – mazey, brown, and dark, with at least one inescapable pit and no idea how much ammo is appropriate for a given encounter. Plus a lot of “what did that switch do?” Progression is so inscrutable and backtracking takes so long that I’m sorry to say I quit without beating the WAD. Maybe one of you will figure out how to open the room with the yellow key, but I never cracked it.

 

By the standards of its time, The Clave is something special. But even though this awesome castle’s best moments made me think of Misri Halek, the switch puzzles and progression are more like The Citadel.

 

Grade: 6/10

TL;DR: Huge and beautiful, but you’ll mostly be looking at the automap.

 

[Endless]

@ICID Thanks a lot for joining the ranks ! This is a big help, I might actually have time to play now :P Hope you guys have fun with it!

[Sena]

Day 1: The Clave https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/s-u/theclave

 

Well, I suppose, for 1995, it was ambitious. It's got some pretty tall structures, big elevators, and a castle-like structure, which given its size, is probably a castle for cyberdemon size people, rather than the shotgunners who actually inhabited it, but in any case, even if a lot of other stuff from that era was bad, regrettably, so was this.

 

Superficially, it looks okay, but when it comes to actually getting around, it is very disorganised, as ICID mentioned, there's a whole lot of "what did that switch do", and also a couple instances of "why does that switch do", such as with a big wall you have to lower to advance, and with the first set of switches, there's 3, one opens a door (correct), and the other two lower and raise that wall, but since you can't actually get above the wall in time, those other two are literally pointless. Also, there were some switches which didn't seem to work properly, I had to press the use key multiple times for it to actually register, which is something I've never seen before, and I know it wasn't just a single mistake on my part because it was a whole room of switches that worked like that.

Another major issue is that getting around is just a huge pain, there's way too much backtracking, halfway through I got frustrated and just ended up noclipping through a ton of the level, not to access parts of the level I wasn't supposed to yet, but because I couldn't be asked to take the scenic route when I just want to move forwards and be done with it, because I don't think I've ever played a WAD so good looking that I'd want to go through each room upwards of 3 or 4 times, and I most certainly don't want to with this one, structurally, this place looks like a castle (sort of), but it's about as colourful as a holiday to Belgium in 1917. Not to mention, the place is very narrow, sometimes being precisely as wide as the player is, and like all maps that are a slog to walk through, there's a section containing stairs with the ceiling too low so you bump your head on every single one.

As for the enemy placement, it's pretty basic, 90% imps and shotgunners, easy as it could be, even when they spawn 50 imps into a room at once, which probably would be difficult, if not for the aforementioned huge structures, they're not much of a threat when you're in a room the size of a football stadium. I didn't finish the level either, I got to basically the very end, but I was in a room with teleporters on every step, didn't show you which squares actually were the teleporters of course, I'd killed everything, maybe I was softlocked, maybe not, but when you walk in every single direction and still can't advance, that's a bit of a problem. I'd just say that it was bad luck releasing a map like this at a time like this, if he waited a year he could've just made it for a game where you can rocket jump over everything, and made the experience a whole lot better.

[ICID]

1 hour ago, Sena said:

with the first set of switches, there's 3, one opens a door (correct), and the other two lower and raise that wall, but since you can't actually get above the wall in time, those other two are literally pointless.

 

I guess I sort of generously interpreted this as an attempt at realism/sense of place - if this was a real castle where people once lived, they would need to both raise and lower the drawbridge, right? But you're correct that when I was actually playing it, it took me a looong time to figure out what to do with these switches. As actual gameplay, it's ass.

[Roofi]

Month 2 Day 26

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop.

 

File 1) Tutorial: Lifts by JagDogger2525 (2017)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

I made this as a tutorial for those whom want to learn about the floor lifts with texture and special changes.

I am making a megawad and it requires this.

Same as the previous 3 - Doom in Hexen Format

 

A simple test map that allows you to see some of the lifts that can be done in the GZdoom format. In reality, it is a simple lift and a bridge that comes out of the liquid. With a few nuances, these actions are totally feasible in vanilla so I don't really see the point of this tutorial, knowing that the map itself does not explain how to do it.

 

Opening any gzdoom map using this effect will be just as useful.

 

Also there are an exit , 3 monsters and a SSG so you can do an uv-max lol.

 

File 2) SLY1.WAD by Anthony R. Adams (1994)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

"Nice room(s)... lotsa space" Seriously, this is my first attempt at creating a level with enough room and variety to allow for both interesting multi- and single- player action.

 

SLY1.WAD is the name of a dark and quirky base with notably large spaces. In fact, this level is a demonstration that large is not necessarily synonymous with interesting. In fact, there are many empty areas due to the technical limitations of the time. Some are better than others but the gameplay is poorly developed with too much life and ammo and monsters placed rather randomly.

 

In any case, despite the width of the layout, the author has created corridors that are sometimes very narrow to the point that it is not very easy to move around inside.

 

I rather liked the attempt to make rooms of various shapes and traps sometimes rather interesting with notably surprise crushers in the BFG room.

For a first map dating from 1994, I was expecting much worse honestly.

 

File 3) Ed Deths Castle by Eddie Randall a.k.a. Ed Deth (1996)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

This is the first level I have made availble to the public, some feedback would be nice. It is a castle designed for death match but can be played single; or co-op if you are wimps.

 

A green marble castle lost in a world full of vines. First, a bridge must be raised to cross the moat. Then you have to explore the inner courtyard and the ramparts. Everything is extremely symmetrical so that it can be played both solo and in DM. 

 

The architecture seen from the outside is very classy but the inside of the castle is very empty so that you quickly get around it. Not a very fascinating level but it does keep you busy for a few minutes.

 

Moreover, the beginning is a bit tense with the hitscanners acting as guards.

 

 

I made a score of 660 in the hard but fun arcade-style wad Let Life Pass You BY

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Sena]

Day 2: The Firework Factory https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/d-f/fireworx

 

Pretty good, actually. It seems to be 4th of July themed (albeit not uploaded on that date), with a Star Spangled Banner midi, and to progress through the level, you must collect red, white, and blue keycards, but apart from that, it's a mostly standard tech base, you get a rocket launcher, groups of enemies who will appear as the level progresses, and it works quite well. It's basic, and I get the impression it's a seasonal diversion from the standard works of an experienced mapper, since the building staircase was pretty neat, but if I have to make one complaint, it's not jingoistic enough. If they really wanted to be something special, rather than just fighting imps and revenants in some tech base (which, like a lot of them, is so white it looks just as much like a mental asylum as it does a tech base), I would have preferred to be killing Osama Bin Laden's army of clones, and then I go out for a maccies with Jesus, George Patton and Thomas Jefferson. Maybe my expectations are too high, but as you start the WAD, there seems to be a custom texture of some city skyline, couldn't say what city because you take one step forwards and it's out of your field of vision, but in any case, could probably cobble something together. In any case, it's not a bad WAD by any means, but it's just a standard one that happens to have the American national anthem as its midi, rather than a less-grotesque American Grezzo, which I would definitely play by the way.

[ICID]

The Fireworks Factory (2009) by Eric “The Green Herring” Baker

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Source port: glboom+, complevel 9}

^{Difficulty: UV}

 

I dunno. I was probably never going to care for this Fourth Of July-themed WAD. Despite living in America all my life, I have refused to celebrate the Fourth for years now. The whole event and the misguided patriotism around it leaves a bad taste in my mouth – absolutely none of which is Eric Baker’s fault.

 

The mod itself is solid, if extremely simple – a single rocket-only level where you blow up square rooms of baddies, capped with a rocket-only cyber fight for all you E2M8 fans out there. Probably way too much health on UV. The truly impressive thing here is the visuals; Baker limited himself to only red, white, and blue textures and the result is a striking example of how often less is more.

 

The most annoying thing here is the MIDI – even divorced from my personal politics, The Star Spangled Banner is an annoying, repetitive song I found way too short for a level of this size.

 

Grade: 4/10

TL;DR: Fun and well-made, but not for me.

 

 

[Roofi]

Month 2 Day 27

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop.

 

File 1) dickie02.WAD, issue 2. by Richard Wiles (1998)

 

Spoiler

 

 

Quote

Issue 1 Although this is my second release, its the first wad that I completed to my satisfaction. Went back to it recently and added a few lighting effects. I also pinched the sky from "plutonia" to give a 'bright & breezy' feel.

This level is 214kb when unzipped.

(Issue 2) Many thanks to those who e-mailed me ref Issue 1. This issue has removed that terrible bug at the start (how annoying). I have also changed the sky - less garish than before.

 

A fairly large level in a metal base set in a white rocky landscape filled with blood. The contrast between the different colours (green, white, red...) makes it quite psychedelic and cheerful.

 

The beginning of the level is quite hard. Indeed, we start in a very dark cave with some ammunition before being teleported by surprise in an outside zone filled with rather dangerous monsters such as an pain elemental and manucubus. You get some good weapons (SSG/PG) as well as the first green armour later in the level. Surviving the beginning of the level requires good dodging skills and shotgun skills. The rest is simple exploration with a few traps to spice up the adventure.

 

The bestiary used reminds me of a plutonia-like with notably a pronounced use of chaingunners as well as ambushes consisting in teleporting an enemy visible behind the player.

 

I especially liked this map for its exterior scenery.

 

 

 

I got destroyed by a surprise mancubus ambushin Geo X

 

Spoiler

[Sena]

Day 3: Warpzone https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/p-r/ph_wz

 

When I saw this, I thought the name meant it was going to contain a ton of teleporter puzzles, and I was going to hate it. Fortunately, it didn't contain any teleporter puzzles (probably, I'll explain that later), but I still ended up not particularly enjoying it.

For starters, it's got some banging metal song, that's not a midi, and a starting room with a choice of 4 teleporters, some of them being basically the same place (i.e. reaching the end of teleporter A brings you to the top of teleporter B, but at a different angle), so user experience may differ. However, after going through all the teleporters at least once, I have one major thing to say: gieus a gun you dickhead. Apparently this level takes place in the Remington Arms factory, because basically the only ammunition you're going to find is shotgun shells, by the truckload, and that's about it. The level totals about 800 or 900 monsters, and I was well over 400 when I found my first weapon which wasn't a shotgun or chaingun, and it was the rocket launcher, which I didn't even bloody want because you hardly get any ammo for it. Furthermore, the map really likes to throw clusters of cacodemons and/or pinkies around doorways, which means that unless you want to run forwards and knowingly take damage (as I did, because I was getting bored), the only real strategy is to just hang back and take them out, which certainly isn't particularly interesting, and that aside, having to spend as long as it takes to fire 7 shots at the very numerous hell knights outwears its welcome.

I will say that the map design is at least vaguely competent, not too much backtracking or switch hunting, at select moments it can produce interesting combat encounters through the way it positions the player, and there's a lot of visual variety. Personally, I think anything more than 2-300 monsters in a single map is usually a bad idea, the mappers are just making it hard on themselves, because after it reaches that length I guess they just run out of good ideas, and the pacing usually falls apart, either that or they just turn the difficulty from 0-100, and I don't think I'd ever want to play a map where all I get is a standard shotgun with any more than 50 monsters in it, I'm no speedrunner, but I'm not a big fan of having to sit behind a wall for a minute and a half to kill an archvile in upwards of 10 shots.

[Roofi]

Month 2 Day 28

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop.

 

File 1) Urban Escape by James "Phobus" Cresswell (2014)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

A 3.5-hour speed map for WildWeasel's birthday which takes you out a "fire escape", let's you leap off of a roof, fight it out in a street segment and then back indoors to an exit. Pretty linear and easy, but that's speed mapping for you!

 

A small level that takes place in a devastated city. I liked the dark atmosphere with a strange hole in the building at the beginning and the outside area dominated by a greenish sky that was a bit scary. The level is very grey, which goes well with this colour.

 

The level contains a unique section where you collect a heart as a red key near the sprite of an impaled marine.

 

The map is quite cramped and very linear, which leaves no doubt that it is a speedmap. However, it is quite difficult at times due to the scarcity of health and ammo items. I almost died in the area where the road is located. Hitscanners and spectres can be deadly.

 

Good small map.

 

File 2) PERD DeathMatch 04 by Anthony Czerwonka (1997)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

1 Level, 8 DM Starts, Small 'Arena' type level. That's all you need for some Non-Stop Action

 

A small deathmatch map made by one of the most famous mappers of the 1990s. It uses gothic themed textures and consists of a small arena with some sort of structure in the middle with a water fountain.

 

Other than that, nothing special in single player anyway. It's very small and you get the hang of it quickly. Anyway, the new textures look good.

 

 

File 3) UnlimitedStar23's Skulltag Deathmatch Party by UnlimitedStar23 (2006)

 

Spoiler

Quote

16 Deathmatch Maps by UnlimitedStar23

 

A pack of 16 Deathmatch maps designed for the now defunct Skulltag port. Although the maps are vanilla/limit-removing, the wad uses Skulltag items such as the BFG10K, the grenade launcher and the turbosphere.

 

Most of the levels contain a lot of powerful power-ups, weapons and ammunition. The width of most of the maps also makes me think that this wad is meant to be played by many people at once. 

Most of the music used contributes to the party atmosphere with music like Mortal Kombat or Pink Floyd's "the Wall". Some of them are accelerated, such as one of the music used in Heretic and one in Descent.

 

Aesthetically, the maps are decent to good. Some of them use new textures, but are not necessarily the most interesting because of their symmetry. Some of the maps contain a lot of secrets (over 40 in map 15). The first level has a cyberdemon in a pit.

 

In short, a DM wad that seems more than adequate.

 

File 4) The Evil Courtyards (DOOM2 Map) by Andy Iafrate (1997)

 

Spoiler

https://u.cubeupload.com/roofi/5ccevilyard1.png

 

Quote

Since I suck at making WADs that you wave to think to complete, I filled this one with monsters and left thinking to the dumbasses. You have three big courtyards, each locked and you have to kill lots of guys. It is hard, but at least you don't have to think your way out. :)

 

A level taking place in several courtyards that are far too big and empty to be interesting, aesthetically and gameplay wise. Moreover, the very square architecture does not help to break the extremely simplistic aspect.

 

You start with a shotgun and 100 shells and then you find an SSG which turns out to be the only other weapon.The author has placed medkits in grapes to regenerate health. 

There are three keys to find, one of which gives access to some sort of house which is itself far too empty and large to be of any interest.

 

In short, a map without substance but it is easy to finish at least.

 

 

 

Got sadisticly crushed by a fast crusher from a secret in Escape from Enemy Mountain

 

Spoiler

 

[Sena]

Day 4: 25%doom2.wad https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/0-9/25doom2

 

Not a fan of this one. It's got the gimmick of having a small sized of each room, inside each room, which I wouldn't have known about if I didn't look at the readme, because it's so insignificant, you don't really notice, you just notice some small room you can't get inside, except sometimes you can, there was one I got inside, and then I got stuck and had to noclip my way out. And that summarises the whole experience, it's sloppy, you know you're in for a bad time when the opening room has enemies who are stuck in the floor and can't react to the player. The general level design, rooms you can't enter that look ugly and are a waste of space aside, is quite poor, in particular it takes place in these large areas which are big, but narrow, giving the player pretty much nowhere to move unless they want to fall into a pool of nukage, and of the two big rooms, the first one gives the player absolutely no decent openings, whereas the other one is trivialised first by the plasma rifle, and second by the fact you can just do the old "punch the air, stand still for 2 seconds, and you've killed nearly everyone". It's functional, I guess, but it's not got anything legitimately good I can say about it, even if the gimmick was something impressive, it can't really do anything to counteract the 90s shovelware style level design. The real reason it's called 25% doom 2 is because that's the score it deserves.

[Roofi]

Month 2 Day 28

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop.

 

File 1) Yarmouth High School by Scott Ashley (1995)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

This PWAD is based on the floor plan of the Yarmouth High School. New graphics have been created. I have a 486DX2/66 and this level crawls because of its size. I would recommend something faster. It could be called poor design since I didn't know this level would be so large when I began. Otherwise, I think this a great level. I have been told that this level is a good representation of the macintrashes and general layout of the school. I know the graphics for the macs came from another patch file for Doom, but I do not remember where. Type 'SCHOOL' in the Doom directory to play this level.

 

I don't know if Scott really liked school at the time but I'm sure he loved the doors and the empty rooms. Yarmouth High School is one of the old wads before the events of Columbine where the author was trying to poorly replicate his school.

 

The enemies could be students and teachers, but if I hadn't been told it was a school, I would never have guessed it. The buildings are spread out with a mind-boggling number of rooms connected by an incredible number of doors. The progression is very boring but it's fun to hear doors opening all the time because of the enemies.

 

The map seems at first to be on one floor, but in reality you can access a teleporter that allows you to go to a pseudo second floor. The second floor still contains many doors and empty rooms.

 

In short, uninteresting but I liked how large the outside areas were.

 

Also the school looks like this in real life.

 

 

File 2) EDGE WAD for V1.27 by The EDGE Team (2002)

Quote

Required engine data file for EDGE V1.27. This is needed for developers in addition to the source code.

 

Nothing to say.

 

 

 

I got surprisingly burst by a teleporting exploding barrel in Remain 1 (Chapter 1)

 

Spoiler

[smeghammer]

Been a bit distracted with something else, but back with another random playthrough.

 

it is https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/a-c/chester, by Nic Bedford & Simon Davis - supposed to be - well - Chester:

 

It kinda does too, map-wise. The level itself doesn't really bear any resemblance to streets though.

 

Gameplay wise, it's a bit basic - way too much ammo/health and not enough variation in lighting etc. The exit was not obvious and I left unexpectedly, so I did not get all secrets or kills.

 

E1M1, UV, freelook, no jump.

 

Here is my playthrough:

 

 

 

Edited June 18, 2021 by smeghammer

[Sena]

Day 5: Never not completed episode https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/m-o/notcompl

 

Definitely not a completed episode, only 3 maps, which combined equal roughly 150 enemies, and took me roughly 10 minutes to beat. I don't particularly enjoy the thought of being a cynic who complains that everything is complete arse, but it's not my fault that a lot of stuff is.

 

The first problem with this mapset is it's a complete joke with how narrow it is, and I mean that quite literally, the rooms are so narrow that taken out of context, you'd think that they're from some parody of modern FPS design a la Cod of Duty. Completely plain, with nothing of interest to look at, so narrow you can't can't move left or right, and they give you a chainsaw at the very beginning, so a whole lot of the time you will just hold it down and wait for everything to die, which is not particularly fun even if you do it once, let alone when it's the experience for a significant portion of the WAD. As previously stated, it was somewhat short, but they still managed to make a quite substantial number of mistakes, including but not limited to having keys locked behind secrets, rooms being marked as secrets that aren't secret at all, doors being marked (sometimes with multiple keys, no less), despite not needing keys at all, and teleporting into rooms where you get encircled by enemies who are so tightly packed it's impossible to not get hit. To summarise, it's old, ugly, too thin, and can't really get anything right, i.e. me in 20 years.

[ICID]

Warpzone (2006) by James “Phobus” Cresswell

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Source port: gzdoom}

^{Difficulty: UV}

 

Here's the thing. My favorite Doom maps are huge, non-linear levels. StormCatcher's "Infraworld - The Hatehammer". Ukiro's MAP32 "Anagnorisis" from Eviternity. Much of the work of antares031. You get it. There's just something about traversing through a level that takes hours - slowly building up your arsenal and finding your way through a giant region without much guidance - that appeals to me beyond any other type of Doom gameplay. Which is probably why - even though it got negative reviews in this thread from both Sena and its own author - I adore Warpzone.

 

Originally intended as MAP31 of Phobus’ megawad Scourge (which I’ve never played, but now feel I absolutely must), Warpzone is an epic, hours-long adventure across four gorgeous worlds that culminates in a brutal boss fight with a new custom monster, and I loved every minute of it. The story, lovingly detailed in the associated .TXT file, is that UAC experiments have pulled three of the UAC’s experimental installations – plus a large chunk of hell itself – into one area, merging the worlds together. In practice, this means Warpzone takes the form of four level-length areas accessed from a starting teleport hub.

 

 

I’m sad to say I’m not really familiar with Phobus’ other work, despite the fact that he’s contributed to a number of high-profile community projects and was even a Cacoward runner-up last year.  This early work shows a true mastery of the art of Doom mapping, so I can only imagine how much better he’s gotten in the last 14 years. Despite relying mostly on vanilla textures, the areas are gorgeous and memorable – cliffs running over with blood, a large underground facility that looks like it’s built out of an abandoned mine, surreal hell environments, a high-tech crusher facility where you crawl through a vent, and my personal favorite: a doomcute golf course.

 

Despite the size, and the fact that you’re encouraged to go between the four areas multiple times, I though progression was pretty straightforward and I never got lost. Most importantly of all, the combat is exquisite. There are too many memorable setpieces to list – my personal favorites being the final boss fight and an early encounter on a landing strip with a cyberdemon. Ammo is plentiful (don’t be afraid to lean on the BFG once you get it) but health is scarce, forcing you to treasure every stimpack. Weapons are doled out sparingly (like Sena, I killed 400 monsters before finding the SSG) but I think that makes the map feel like a true adventure rather than a mindless slaughterfest. In a map of this size, finding the next tier of weapons should feel like a reward and not a given imo.

 

It’s not quite perfect. There’s a few too many barons in early areas for my taste, and I wish Phobus wasn’t so stingy with the boss monsters – but maybe that’s just my 2021 brain looking back on a 2006 map. Also: fair warning, the TXT file doesn’t specify the fact that jumping is required to progress, so if you’re normally a filthy purist (like me) make sure to turn that on.

 

But still, I think this is a true hidden gem, and easily the best thing I’ve played for the Random Wad Adventures thus far.

 

Grade: 9/10

TL;DR: Four levels combine into a true magnum opus.

 

[Endless]

9 minutes ago, ICID said:

Warpzone (2006) by James “Phobus” Cresswell

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Source port: gzdoom}

^{Difficulty: UV}

 

Here's the thing. My favorite Doom maps are huge, non-linear levels. StormCatcher's "Infraworld - The Hatehammer". Ukiro's MAP32 "Anagnorisis" from Eviternity. Much of the work of antares031. You get it. There's just something about traversing through a level that takes hours - slowly building up your arsenal and finding your way through a giant region without much guidance - that appeals to me beyond any other type of Doom gameplay. Which is probably why - even though it got negative reviews in this thread from both Sena and its own author - I adore Warpzone.

 

Originally intended as MAP31 of Phobus’ megawad Scourge (which I’ve never played, but now feel I absolutely must), Warpzone is an epic, hours-long adventure across four gorgeous worlds that culminates in a brutal boss fight with a new custom monster, and I loved every minute of it. The story, lovingly detailed in the associated .TXT file, is that UAC experiments have pulled three of the UAC’s experimental installations – plus a large chunk of hell itself – into one area, merging the worlds together. In practice, this means Warpzone takes the form of four level-length areas accessed from a starting teleport hub.

 

 

I’m sad to say I’m not really familiar with Phobus’ other work, despite the fact that he’s contributed to a number of high-profile community projects and was even a Cacoward runner-up last year.  This early work shows a true mastery of the art of Doom mapping, so I can only imagine how much better he’s gotten in the last 14 years. Despite relying mostly on vanilla textures, the areas are gorgeous and memorable – cliffs running over with blood, a large underground facility that looks like it’s built out of an abandoned mine, surreal hell environments, a high-tech crusher facility where you crawl through a vent, and my personal favorite: a doomcute golf course.

 

Despite the size, and the fact that you’re encouraged to go between the four areas multiple times, I though progression was pretty straightforward and I never got lost. Most importantly of all, the combat is exquisite. There are too many memorable setpieces to list – my personal favorites being the final boss fight and an early encounter on a landing strip with a cyberdemon. Ammo is plentiful (don’t be afraid to lean on the BFG once you get it) but health is scarce, forcing you to treasure every stimpack. Weapons are doled out sparingly (like Sena, I killed 400 monsters before finding the SSG) but I think that makes the map feel like a true adventure rather than a mindless slaughterfest. In a map of this size, finding the next tier of weapons should feel like a reward and not a given imo.

 

It’s not quite perfect. There’s a few too many barons in early areas for my taste, and I wish Phobus wasn’t so stingy with the boss monsters – but maybe that’s just my 2021 brain looking back on a 2006 map. Also: fair warning, the TXT file doesn’t specify the fact that jumping is required to progress, so if you’re normally a filthy purist (like me) make sure to turn that on.

 

But still, I think this is a true hidden gem, and easily the best thing I’ve played for the Random Wad Adventures thus far.

 

Grade: 9/10

TL;DR: Four levels combine into a true magnum opus.

 

Phobus really has a way of making explosive maps with amazing vanilla-visuals. I'll put this WAD on my to-play list.

[Phobus]

It’s easy to forget how much time and effort I put into that back then. I’m glad it’s finding an audience at last!

[Sena]

Day 6: Thy Infernal https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/s-u/thyinf

 

First thing I have to say is thy infernal what? I'm guessing the mapper just combined thy flesh consumed and inferno, but the end result is a title which is grammatically incorrect. But, despite being a 2005 map, Thy Infernal Sigil would have been a good title, because its visual design has a lot in common with Sigil, and, if I didn't know better, I would have assumed it was a direct inspiration.

 

The visual design has quite a few points worth covering. Firstly, the texture design is on point, it's a great hell map, with a progression from 'kinda hell' to 'hell as hell', they've got the laughing wall, and the flesh walls, the latter of which is utilised to great effect, and when I say that, I partially mean it's just utilised in the first place, because the flesh stuff is strangely underused. Furthermore, there's a lot of decent structures incorporated throughout, cracks throughout the floor, lava gaps in the rooms, and inverted crosses and pentagrams. The pentagrams, combined with the incidental "DIE" and "HELL AWAITS" written on the floor are kind of cliche, but they didn't really detract from the experience, it's the kind of thing that I'd argue is right at home in a game like Doom, the same way bad voice acting can sometimes actually be good.

 

As for the gameplay, it's pretty solid, you could make the argument it's somewhat boxy, mostly square rooms, they might look good, but they don't have much cover or anything to break the enemy's line of fire, and quite interestingly, I think this is the only map I've played that contains every single powerup in the game, and also every weapon, but apart from a cyberdemon at the very end (who would have been a lot less scary if I knew there was an invulnerability in the same room), I don't think I ever saw anything tougher than a lone baron, so if I had to give one major criticism, it is the opposite of the one from 1 or 2 days ago, if you're going to give me upwards of 500 plasma cells and 50 rockets, give me enemies against whom they are necessary, of course because of my complaint from yesterday now I just look like a dickhead who's impossible to satisfy, but in any case, they are still somewhat lacking in any singular section that is particularly noteworthy, when I saw "HELL AWAITS", I was expecting them to spawn in 20 pinkies or something, but it's just a lone cyberdemon, who isn't that big of a deal when we've all beaten E2M8 before. To further drive the point home, you need all three keys to advance, and once you get the yellow key, you need the blue key, and to get the blue key, you walk through an area you've already killed everything in, and then take the key, which is defended by a singular spectre, who took just as many punches to take down.

 

In conclusion, it's quite a solid map, plenty of visual variety, and the fights are pretty alright, but they are basic, it's not bad at all, it's just a shame that the enemy placement doesn't share the same level of ambition as the architecture.

[ICID]

25% Doom 2 (1999) by Thomas Bringle

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Source port: glboom+, complevel 2}

^{Difficulty: UV}

 

Thomas Bringle contributed a dozen maps to the Doom community between 1999 and 2001, and it's clear he had a few particular interests. His surreal, unusual use of visuals, sense of scale, and overuse of optional content makes him feel like a successor to Sandy Peterson (for better and worse), albeit with much higher monster counts. He also liked trying out unique concepts and gimmicks, really wanted to push what Doom could be as much as he could within the limitations of his time. While writing this review, I tried another of his WADs out of curiosity (POOLPARTY) and found it to be quite fun, packed with trippy visuals and nonstop SSG action.

 

POOLPARTY has huge outdoor areas, hundreds of monsters, just an impressive sense of scale overall, and based on the text files and /idgames reviews that sense of maximalist bigness ran through almost all of Bringle's work. But not 25% Doom 2, which is all about smallness. Cramped rooms, a fourth of which have to be devoted to the WAD's titular gimmick: an intricately-detailed miniature recreation of the room, down to lighting effects and functional doors. Behold - the only thing this WAD has to offer:

 

 

This decision means that Bringle can't play to any of his strengths. He can't do crazy over-the-top visuals because he knows he's going to have to recreate them all in miniature (most telling is a dark room with a single torch that just reeks of "I give up") and he can't pack in hundreds of monsters because he only has 3/4 of each room to work with. Unlike, say, the amazing miniature city of Antaresian Legacy's MAP17, there's no attempt to integrate the mini-rooms into gameplay here. They just sit there. Useless. Annoying. Dumb.

 

After exhausting himself building all the rooms (he even admits as much in the text file), Bringle clearly could not be bothered to give a shit about combat, so he just throws some monsters and weapons around and hopes it works out. It's almost insulting how poorly-made this is - enemies that spawn stuck in floors, a super shotgun that as far as I can tell is completely inaccessible without cheating, multiple inescapable pits (shoutout to an especially miserable Chasm-like room where you get pelted by revenants), completely inexplicable ammo distribution, and an exit linedef that comes out of nowhere halfway down a nondescript hallway. Plus the various platforming sections are made even harder by an overuse of spectres and Bringle somehow forgetting that infinite height actors are a thing. It's awful, top to bottom.

 

The Random File feature giveth and the Random File feature taketh away. Yeesh.

 

Grade: 2/10

TL;DR: Tiny, unpleasant maps with tinier, unpleasent-er maps inside them.

[Sena]

Day 7: Mortal https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/mortal

 

While I had every intention of playing every map in the OP, Breathless made me lag to the point the game was unplayable, both in LZ and Crispy, it looked interesting from the opening 15 seconds, but I suppose that one will have to remain one of life's mysteries.

 

Mortal's opening level is grandiose, both in terms of its structures and fields, and also its enemy count. It starts off quite well, with a cool looking opening room reminiscent of Half Life, albeit nothing like the rest of the WAD. Not a problem per se, the whole thing looks okay, that combination of grass, stone and wood that permeates 90s maps, even if this one came a little later. And, that somewhat does show, with a couple odd structures, doomcute that is just kind of there, a large table and chairs, but I've got no idea what the table is there for, some stuff verges on being an eyesore, like a red and blue staircase that's a bit in your face, being a piece of furniture I can only imagine being owned by some 1980s drug lord who had no sense of taste. But, for the most part, the place is pretty good, the opening 5 minutes or so do a great job of cementing the tension via the way in which it's so difficult to take cover, and the enemies therein aren't weak enough you can dispatch them with one or two shots. You could make the argument this map follows the same structure as Dead Simple, only if there was a door separating the arachnotrons - most your time fighting will be in one central room, with doors in the sides to get a key, and then return to the starting area and get out. If I have one complaint, which some people might think is just because ur bad lol, it's that in this central room, there are these 2 unit wide holes through which chaingunners appear intermittently, which leads to a semi frequent "why am I taking damage there's nobody there", because unless you're looking right at it, there's no sound, no muzzle flash, which I consider a bit of an annoyance and something I don't particularly enjoy, but I suppose it's just part of the game. Other than that, there's two specific moments that I considered poorly executed, first, an "activate a switch as monsters teleport in as you're trapped and have to wait for the door to open", which was kind of bungled because the door in question gave you 100% cover, since unlike most of those traps, the monsters spawned outside the room, so even though it seemed to be on a timer which was a bit awkward to work around, it really wasn't a problem. Secondly, once you get the key and prepare to leave, they spawn a good 50 imps to make leaving very difficult, if not for the fact you're given a chest high wall which stops their projectiles, which surely must have been an oversight, because holding down mouse1 as you kill everything was probably not what they planned for.

 

At least, that's all map 1. If map 1 is a painting that belongs in a museum, then the rest of the maps are vandalism. Map 2 is a crate warehouse that's pretty much exclusively white, and basically impossible to play coherently if you play without mouselook, as I do, your only option is to just run through it like a tosser, not having an angle on anything, through a place that has about as much visual variety as a Wolfenstein level, and I think Diogenes' search for an honest man parallels my search for an elevator that actually is an elevator and not just one of the thousands of crates, if not a plain square. I played 10 seconds of map 3, through which I found a very long sewer, and turned right to see more sewer, and these disgusting metal domes that looked like they were lifted from a scrapyard of good sci-fi architectural ideas, from which I deduced that it wasn't worth playing. Good map 1, better than average, but for all intents and purposes, the WAD ends there.

[Sena]

Day 8: The Day of Chains https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/d-f/daychain

 

Quite a few times in the past, I've said something to the effect of "it doesn't look particularly good, but you can't do much with Doom's stock textures anyway". Turns out I was wrong, because this WAD has some legitimate artistry, not just incidentally, entirely throughout there is a considerable amount that is made visually clear to the player, seeing the combination of walls of demonic intestines combined with the wires of some UAC facility has a lot going on, they might be unmoving textures, but there's a lot going on, for a game that's mostly about killing stuff with big fucking guns, they're surprisingly good at conveying a sense of conflict in the atmosphere, and speaking of guns, if in the next Doom game, I don't get my rocket launcher off a five pointed star floating in space, I'm getting a refund. In any case, while I'm not much of an art critic, I don't believe there's any mistaking that this level design just might be the best use of Doom's stock textures I've seen. The level design itself has plenty going for it too, put together in such a way that you don't want to stay, don't want to go, and have to figure out what the best decision to make is, which is something you don't really see much of, usually it's either something so easy you barely even have to stop walking forwards to kill everything, or they just throw them all in such large groups that your only real option is to immediately take cover and use the singular spot that's given to slowly fight back. Regardless, this map doesn't do that, it gives you options, owing largely to the fact that a lot of the rooms are split off, when standing in any given spot, you will usually have two possible ways forward available to you, which also helps with the aforementioned making the level look good. 

It's not perfect, once you need them, figuring out how to get key cards is less than intuitive, owing largely to the fact that a large part of progressing through the level means opening new entrances to areas you've cleared, which means more places to go through that you're not supposed to, and while this is a level I'd enjoy getting stuck for 10 minutes in more than most, eventually I get bored and just want to figure out where to go already, but that doesn't negate the level's positive qualities, and they even have a credits level, normally those say something to the effect of "thanks for playing", rather than just being "the end", but I guess a barebones credits is better than seeing Underhalls. In any case, the level is positively quality, and the best one I've played in a long ass time.

[Roofi]

Month 2 Day 29

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop.

 

File 1) GODLESS: The Adventure Begins A Berry Creek Software Production by Chris Bilski and Blain Newport (1996)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

8 levels for DM fun. They are not the best levels you will ever play, but they're darn close. :)

 

Godless is a compilation of 8 Deathmatch maps for Doom 2 using almost exclusively the original textures. Indeed, in the first map, you can see white rock textures strangely covered by a grid texture.

 

Beyond that, these levels are particularly interesting visually with a good mix of textures, varied shapes and significant height variations (stairs, lifts...). I find it hard to believe that this was done in 1996, the rendering is quite modern in my opinion. 

 

Besides, some maps use monsters. These are well placed so that these maps become small single player challenges and demonstrate the efficiency and compactness of the layouts.

 

A very good DM wad to explore thanks to its aesthetics and theme diversity.

 

 

 

 

I stop here for today.