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dobu gabu maru

The DWmegawad Club plays: Zone 400

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 MAP11: Tanya's Cybernetics

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

The space station episode closes with a dark metallic base that contains some demonic textures in the opening room, and a tense midi track plays in the background. We have 4 doors at the start, 3 of which are key doors, and the monster count is again bumped up, this time eclipsing 200. Despite this large monster count, I felt the level had a little bit less bite for most of its runtime than some previous maps, definitely laying on large numbers of monsters but without too many tricky placements or surprises ambushes that are all too overwhelming.

 

That's not to say the map is without its highlights though. One nice encounter is the fight when going for the yellow key, which has you walking on a ledge situated between two of the rooms to get to the key, while monsters teleport on both sides of the ledge, a neat little encounter. Another highlight is the final fight, where you flip the switch beyond the blue door to open up the walls separating the blue and yellow door rooms, and unleashing a large number of demons while a cyberdemon is revealed in the starting room. This fight again isn't too challenging, but is quite a blast to play. The cyberdemon is relatively easy to deal with, you just have to stay away from the starting area and locate the revealed plasma rifle that is hidden in a now opened wall, then go to town on him.

 

A fun closer to the space station episode, has a little more bark than it does bite but enjoyed it still.

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UV | Pistol Start | Crispy Doom 

 

MAP10

A lot of the fights felt too easily avoided or cheesed, and with sparse ammo (I couldn't figure out how to get to the plasma rifle) it felt like a more lame approach to the encounters was my only option. After grabbing the blue key just hanging out up there made it easy to just cheese the whole room below with infighting. Then—after getting the yellow key, having close to no rockets, and sans plasma rifle—I just booked it for the exit rather than spend all that time forcing infighting again.

 

MAP11

Ammo wasn't as tight as the previous map, but infighting was still something to lean on. The room through the yellow door looks intimidating at first, but there it felt like there was no way to actually safely enter to face them down from within. So, with forced door fighting half the room killed itself to infighting with no effort and the other half was funneled through the door for easy killing. Again I didn't find anything stronger than a rocket launcher so I opted to just walk past the cyberdemon and leave rather than spend my time killing him with lesser weaponry.

 

MAP12

I dig the heretic/hexen medieval theming of this map, and am looking forward to the rest of the batch with this theme. It almost turned into a tyson map partway through when ammo was low and a berserk pack was handed to me. This one felt like the shortest in a while. I was expecting a bit more resistance at the end, but it was still overall enjoyable. 

 

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MAP12 - Dagon

UV | Continuous | GZDoom and Vanilla+

 

Pcorf's gone all Lovecraftian on us now hehe. I feel like he's swept us into Innsmouth with this dilapidated city/castle mish-mash going on here, stainglass windows and there's water everywhere too. A curious turn of events to be sure heh. Once again, the heat's been turned up as the encounters turn a tad more dastardly. I'm curious to see how far he pushes this new visual motif that's sprung out of left-field. Couldn't find the secret in this one, so I look forward to seeing someone else find it and make me feel stupid. ;^P

 

 

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Map12: FDA in 7:25 (1 death)

z412FDA725.zip

 


Didn't notice that rev missile until it was too late. I suspect the secret was behind some "breakable" glass somewhere but I'm not going to check.

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MAP 12 – Dagon

Doomsday Engine, UV-Fast, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

The first element that caught my eye was a Korax carving inside a niche. The theme of the “dark island” episode relies on a lot of Heretic and Hexen material, supported by a melancholic soundtrack that would not feel out of place in those games. This was the first time I played a Doom level borrowing most of its graphics from my favourite games. Even though most enemies matched the fantasy theme seamlessly, the more sci-fi ones (Arachnotrons, Revenants and zombies) felt a bit out of place, just as my weaponry. This did not detract anything from the gameplay experience, though.

Spoiler

2032068122_Zone400Map12_01.jpg.76e2a7cd30899be9cc5a4cb8ecbaac2c.jpg

I carried over a respectable arsenal, but decided to use only SSG and chaingun, as allowed by the item pickups. Certain encounters were undoubtedly harder and longer, but the author decided to go a bit soft on this one. However, I took heed and prepared myself for harsher setups in the next maps, The main novelty that was implemented here were teleporting lines inside closets, cleverly designed to thwart my flight instincts. This was hinted on MAP11 as well, but here it was accurately executed and with a clear purpose. The YSK ambush with Cacodemons and Lost Souls was the first example; the smaller but very effective closet by the BSK was the second. I fled exactly where the teleporting demons would easily box me in, and they did it with passion. I survived thanks to my high stats, pumped by MAP11 Megasphere.

Spoiler

243085245_Zone400Map12_02.jpg.6311c519953966ab2639c5a4df9fc549.jpg

After the blue door, the level calms down a bit. The Baron of Hell acted as my infighting champion by the door, neutralising almost everyone else. The switch opening the exit door was guarded by an ambush of 2 Cacodemons and 1 Pain Elemental, a monster grouping which is dear to the author for some reason. A good map, my only regret was not finding the difficult secret. Looking forward to what comes next.

Edited by Book Lord

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1 hour ago, Pseudonaut said:

Map12: FDA in 7:25 (1 death)

z412FDA725.zip

 


Didn't notice that rev missile until it was too late. I suspect the secret was behind some "breakable" glass somewhere but I'm not going to check.

 

The secret is a differently textured wall near the right blue key door.

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44 minutes ago, Book Lord said:

MAP 12 – Dagon

Doomsday Engine, UV-Fast, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

The first element that caught my eye was a Korax carving inside a niche. The theme of the “dark island” episode relies on a lot of Heretic and Hexen material, supported by a melancholic soundtrack that would not feel out of place in those games. This was the first time I played a Doom level borrowing most of its graphics from my favourite games. Even though most enemies matched the fantasy theme seamlessly, the more sci-fi ones (Arachnotrons, Revenants and zombies) felt a bit out of place, just as my weaponry. This did not detract anything from the gameplay experience, though.

  Hide contents

2032068122_Zone400Map12_01.jpg.76e2a7cd30899be9cc5a4cb8ecbaac2c.jpg

I carried over a respectable arsenal, but decided to use only SSG and chaingun, as allowed by the item pickups. Certain encounters were undoubtedly harder and longer, but the author decided to go a bit soft on this one. However, I took heed and prepared myself for harsher setups in the next maps, The main novelty that was implemented here were teleporting lines inside closets, cleverly designed to thwart my flight instincts. This was hinted on MAP11 as well, but here it was accurately executed and with a clear purpose. The YSK ambush with Cacodemons and Lost Souls was the first example; the smaller but very effective closet by the BSK was the second. I fled exactly where the teleporting demons would easily box me in, and they did it with passion. I survived thanks to my high stats, pumped by MAP11 Megasphere.

  Hide contents

243085245_Zone400Map12_02.jpg.6311c519953966ab2639c5a4df9fc549.jpg

After the blue door, the level calms down a bit. The Baron of Hell acted as my infighting champion by the door, neutralising almost everyone else. The switch opening the exit door was guarded by an ambush of 2 Cacodemons and 1 Pain Elemental, a monster grouping which is dear to the author for some reason. A good map, my only regret was not finding the difficult secret. Looking forward to what comes next.

 

You are looking directly at the secret in the second screenshot, the wall texture is a bit different.

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45 minutes ago, pcorf said:

The secret is a differently textured wall near the right blue key door.

 

I couldn't find that secret either, so I decided to give it another look.

 

 

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12 hours ago, DuckReconMajor said:

aw you missed the megasphere :( it did look like a slog without it

im not the best at secret finding and nothing jumped out at me and i couldnt be bothered to do any specific secret hunting

edit: an interesting debate actually: should secrets fundamentally change the way a map is played? for example with 200/200 i would have been a lot more aggressive and the map may have been more enjoyable. i can see both sides of the debate but i think it harmed the experience of the map here not enhanced it.

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1 hour ago, rehelekretep said:

im not the best at secret finding and nothing jumped out at me and i couldn't be bothered to do any specific secret hunting

edit: an interesting debate actually: should secrets fundamentally change the way a map is played? for example with 200/200 i would have been a lot more aggressive and the map may have been more enjoyable. i can see both sides of the debate but i think it harmed the experience of the map here not enhanced it.

 

The MAP12 secret is probably one the hardest to find in Zone 400. The map originally had no secrets but I decided to add a secret so I needed to change the shape of certain areas so I could free up linedefs for this secret. It was a sure challenge designing Zone 400.

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2 hours ago, rehelekretep said:

edit: an interesting debate actually: should secrets fundamentally change the way a map is played? for example with 200/200 i would have been a lot more aggressive and the map may have been more enjoyable. i can see both sides of the debate but i think it harmed the experience of the map here not enhanced it.

 

There are so many things that can change the way a map is played. Difficulty setting, secrets, continuous vs pistol start. I may add -fast monsters. This is not a valid reason to avoid secrets, they are a part of Doom gameplay that deserves attention. With the DWMC, we've been through 2 different map sets where secrets were largely absent or pretextual (Bourgeois Megawad) or mostly irrelevant when not detrimental (Base Ganymede). I prefer the take of @pcorf on this subject. The secrets will become harder to find on par with the gameplay difficulty on this WAD. Especially BFGs are usually not a freebie. For this reason, I am using the big friggin' gun a lot less than I would like to.

 

I found MAP12 secret later on Doom Builder, but I could not even guess its existence during play.

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(I completed Tanya's Cybdernetics yesterday, but don't really have the time to write about it, and truthfully, it's not a lot more besides 'more of the same.' Safe to say that I avoided dying and the music was very cool).

 

Map 12: Dagon (UV, pistol-start)

 

The visuals now take a highly drastic turn. A castle environment clearly drawing most of its inspiration from Heretic (and maybe Hexen?), it's definitely more abstract than the last few maps, but regardless, it's a look that goes over much better than the ugly and unnecessarily-unlighted-at-times Tanya's Cybernetics (I must say that it still gives me an impression she'd likely be my favorite of Paul's exes, but I'm not getting into that now). I'm not sure where those early-modern window textures near the first gatehouse come from though./ And this sad music goes very well with everything displayed.

 

There are hitscanners in front of you and to the right and some Imps on a ledge, as well as a pair of Revenants across a moat to your left next to the yellow key. And you'rr expected to dispatch them with hardly any available ammo. The gatehouse the Imps are near contains a switch that raises a walkway to the Revenants that's broken in the middle for some reason. The yellow key subsequently triggers a trap with Cacodemons and Lost Souls which is manageable but still stinks because you still don't have lots of ammo (I had to reload the save I made after killing the Revenants because the next area will likely make you miserable.

 

Pass beyond the yellow door, and there are lots of Imps on a ledge with the blue key. In front of you are two Arachnotrons on the opposite end of the room. Shoot at them as you walk towards them and hopefully kill one of them, and when you ascend the stairs leading to them, some Revenants will burst out of a stained glass window and demand you cause infighting with the Arachs. The window they emerged from has a switch at the end of a short hallway that lowers the lift to the blue key. Before this, you might want to head down the right hallway with the blue door whilat hugging the wall because a barrier will lower containing a box of rockets and some other items behind it. Rockets will make clearing out the Imp mob on the ledge much more tedious.

 

The blue door courtyard was fairly interesting. I was blocked early on, so I ended up camping and terminating close to 90 percent of the remaining enemies. When so many of them are hitscanners, I dunno if I can really complain, especially when there's chaingunners. After finally emerging, the Barons shortly ended up infighting with the pinkies and Spectres and there was hardly anything left. I still managed to expend nearly all my remaining shells to put the Baron down.

Edited by LadyMistDragon

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4 hours ago, rehelekretep said:

should secrets fundamentally change the way a map is played? for example with 200/200 i would have been a lot more aggressive and the map may have been more enjoyable. i can see both sides of the debate but i think it harmed the experience of the map here not enhanced it.

 

Secrets that change gameplay are at least in the spirit of the originals, but naturally that doesn't follow that it's good to follow that spirit in every instance.  i guess it's also a little bit similar issue as continuous vs. pistol starts.  It's virtually impossible, i would think, to find balance for all the variables, unless the WAD is only meant to be played by players of a certain skill level who want to play in a similar way.

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Map 12: Dagon - UV, pistol-start

 

I'm going to be blunt about it: This map...just kinda is. It's pretty simple, even from pistol-start, and doesn't play any new tricks on the player. It's a step-down challenge-wise from the previous maps, with no particularly-tricky areas or even scarity of ammo at times. There isn't really much I can say about it.

 

(On the topic of Map 11's Megasphere: The thing I didn't like about that...you have to run across hurt-floor to reach it, and to get back to the rest of the level. And given the level design, it practically screams that there's going to be something at the back of the starting room past the hurt-floor. But there is in fact a radiation suit you can get later on to grab the megasphere without taking any damage. So it's a semi-obvious secret that sort-of punishes you for figuring it out immediately (especially if you run back there starting from near-full health/armour and don't need it right away anyway) as opposed to going for it when the map "wants" you to get it). 

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MAP13 - Lipperhey (HNTR, continuous, blind): K 100% (79/79), I 100% (30/30), S 100% (1/1), T 7:01, D 0 - Does this take place in Lipperhey's workshop?  Whether or not, it's another map with Heretic-style visuals and a surprisingly strong ambience for such a small size.  i enjoyed very much the exploratory style of the level, and the more classical combat.  It seems pistol start would change the gameplay significantly, as even the Chaingun needs to be earned, and i'm not sure at what point the SSG would have been available, let alone heavier artillery.  i was happy to have the RL ready to use, and for me the level would have been a drag without it.

 

The secret is extremely useful, and there was a clear clue to solving how to obtain the just-out-of-reach Soul Sphere in the map.  No deaths, played through only once.  The main difference to MAP12 - Dagon is the enemy count.  i won't be recording any more demos before i figure out how to do them from continuous play (so that the demo is actually watchable afterwards - i tried one but it couldn't be watched due to desyncing).

 

Spoiler

DOOM0011.png.321f2946c16ac2303d91a048a2d8b397.pngDOOM0014.png.c1918ba39f88ee6bcb8ce61747735cbe.pngDOOM0013.png.b143920087044beea8f788829291d55f.pngDOOM0012.png.1fa33c00e321a67b71a3dc359b3dac45.png

 

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MAP11 - "Tanya's Cybernetics" (100%K/I/S):


Here we have a TNT styled tech-base. This level gives me some spaceship vives. The map structure is some kind of a hub area, with lineal progression. Again, the map opens itself each time you progress, until the end, where the entire map converts itself into an arena full of monsters and a Cyberdemon at the exit, our first Cyb if I'm not wrong, pretty late I would say, but nonetheless, this fight was really nice. I should say the 100% Kills are because of the respawning lost souls/revived enemies, as I did not try to kill everybody, and rushed through the exit, trying to sneak through the Cyberdemon "Scenario". I've died many times since the map converted itself into an arena. This is where the action starts in this level, the rest is corridor shooting, mostly. I liked this map, but again, the formula of opening the entire map starts getting a little bit predictable.

Episode 3 - Heretic/Hexen medieval mix (Extrasolar planet names):
 

MAP12 - "Dagon" (93%K/100%I/0%S):


Here is a big change of style, long time since I don't see a Heretic/Hexen styled map. I dig the aesthetic, but I think this map has a really big problem with ammunition, and that's why that lowers my rating a lot. I think the berserker pack is given to us really late, and the last area ended by just waiting behind the blue key doors until enemies come to you, so you punch them, and also use them as walls to hide behind the enemy fire from far away. Finding that cheesy secret that some people are talking about would have helped me a lot, but well, I did not find it. I don't think it is possible to reach the Arachnotron part with many resources, even if you were an infight god, I've really struggled there. Having gunshot linedef actions without ammo is something I would not do, yes, I can open what glass wall with a punch, but, those revenants behind are a little bit of a pain. Sadly this map is a little bit flawed because of ammo, but nothing too bad, you will have to die many times to learn what to do and to not struggle with ammo.
Good episode starter, and also good to have some "variation" from the map opening itself theme from past maps.
 

Deaths: 53 (UV Continuous/Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:

 

Spoiler

 

MAP10
MAP11
MAP09

MAP08
MAP04

MAP02
MAP07
MAP06
MAP05

MAP12
MAP03
MAP01

 


Well I've expected for the names of this episode to be something like "TES 2390-1203" "RIGEL CENTAURUS BETA" "KOI 23913" or something like that, I did not know that extra-solar planet actually had a proper name.

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Map 13: Lipperhey - UV, pistol-start

 

Do you love maps where you're expected to rush around in the vicinity of high-damage enemies, into large swarms of hitscanners, with multi-chaingunner ambushes without any nearby cover, all with minimal health pickups and not a single armour pickup until after a bullshit ambush with four chaingunners and a mancubi all out in the open? Which you probably triggered by accident scrambling for the two paltry stimpacks while dodging revenant rockets and a pair of hell knights? If so, this is your level! Hopefully you have far better things to do with your life than this garbage though.

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MAP 13 – Lipperhey

Doomsday Engine, UV-Fast, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

This was a small map with medium threat and some interesting twists. Once the immediate surroundings were clear, two skull keys could be spotted on top of triangular pillars, with the corresponding doors available nearby. The YSK could be gained immediately after a close encounter with Chaingunners, followed by Cacodemons.

Spoiler

856647295_Zone400Map13_01.jpg.0445d7a39c721479374bfae10b28f8a0.jpg

The way to the RSK was a bit longer and passed through a courtyard fairly stuffed with monsters, some of them well hidden behind corners, and Imps dominating the area from cages. Door camping was again my favourite approach and it helped reduce the damage from the big hitscanner closet. The key became available after a fight with @pcorf's signature triptych of flying balls (1 potato, 2 tomatoes).

Spoiler

1139901097_Zone400Map13_02.jpg.84bef16653badfe02d7bc07236e3ae3e.jpg

I cleared the desolated garden behind the red door, then I bumped into a hallway that could be entered only with a lift high as a step. A few seconds later I was still wondering about that device, when the last ambush was released. The shriek of a Revenant scared the life out of me and I run like hell towards the key pillar room, just to discover I was relatively safe there and that I could return to the hallway from the other direction. I eliminated the assailants and then I found the secret with a thorough search. After a check with Doom Builder, I recognised the trap as cleverly designed, but it did not work as intended in my play-through. Either I fled too quickly for the monsters to surround me, or they attacked without moving at all, thus missing the golden time to teleport. A situation where -fast may have thwarted the author’s plan. Good ideas at work here though, and I had a fair share of fun with Lipperhey

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MAP12: Dagon

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 0/1 secrets

 

This map ushers in the medieval episode, inspired by Heretic/Hexen. I haven't actually played those games yet, but this level looks great and is a nice breath of fresh air from the vanilla Doom textures (not that they were a problem, but the shakeup is nice), so I'm excited to see how the rest of the episode looks.

 

This level is almost a polar opposite of my experience with the previous level, and not just thematically. We see the monster count dip back down to its lowest in a while with only 61 enemies, but the difficulty doesn't feel like it follows suit. The level features some tricky placements and the ammo squeeze of some maps in the past re-emerges here especially if you fail to find the level's secret like I did, which contains a rocket launcher and lots of other goodies. With my secret-free run, I was minimally armed and had to take great care with my shots. Even just the starting room is a little awkward, with those pesky revenants eyeing you down from the far ledge and even the arachnotrons in the next room sometimes pitching in a couple shots from the window if you stand in the wrong spot. The berserk was a godsend when it appeared, and the level was much smoother sailing from that point on.

 

Solid opener to the episode, and I am digging this visual theme a lot so far.

 

 

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GZDoom/Blind/UV/Continuous/Saves

EXTRASOLAR PLANET NAMES (Heretic/Hexen medieval mix, Blue cloudy sky)

Map 12 - Dagon

100% kills and secrets

Time: 5:49

 

It's time to get medieval on some demon asses, as we've got an episode filled with Heretic and Hexen textures to work with here. As it's the first level of the ep, it's pretty easy, especially on continuous. We've got a very nice number of monsters on UV, which is a far cry from some of the levels we've dealt with lately. Though the mapping tricks are still pretty similar. Grab a key, stuff shows up, usually through a wall opening up, and some of them may teleport around. Honestly, if the rest of the WAD is going to be like this, I'm not going to keep mentioning it, unless there's some cool intricacies to the specific fight. None of that is here, but we do learn that the stained glass can be shattered by shooting it. I chainsawed it to save ammo and got smacked by a rev behind it. Oops. I honestly have no idea how you're supposed to tell that the secret is where it's at. Nothing looked out of ordinary to me. If it wasn't for the purple line on my automap, I'd have no idea. I actually liked the actual design of the map when I was looking at it in the automap. Idk why, it just looked nice. MIDI was pretty solid too. Understated and worked well with the theme. It's a solid opening map.

 

Map 13 - Lipperhey

100% kills and secrets

Time: 7:34

 

As someone who has never played Heretic or Hexen, I was surprised by the textures we got immediately upon starting. Dumb me would have though these beige stones and walls with symbols would be more Egyptian than medieval. Anyway, the new textures give this map a nice boost. Combat is about the same as it's always been, but a few monster closets are opening at surprising times. Take the very last hallway. At first, you have to deal with some close pinkies, and then some revs that teleport closer to you (nice twist on that Z400 trope). Then as you head down it, a giant closet opens next to you unexpectantly. Definitely did not see that one coming. Even though we've got ~40 more enemies than last map, the only real threats came down to the 4 chaingunner room, the monster closet that has access to the only secret, and the closet I just mentioned prior. All have chaingunners. Other than that, many of the rooms can allow you to pick off some baddies from their doorways before venturing in to take out the rest. So it's pretty simple. Still, it's fun, and that's all that matters. MIDI is good, and I didn't expect the short horn blasts.

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Map13: FDA in 8:19 (1 death)

z413FDA-819.zip


I could hardly think of anything to say about the previous map, but this one is better and more interesting. A little harsh with the hitscan for a map with such scarce health, so it's fortunate that the hidden soulsphere isn't hard to find. In the ambush at 3:16, I thought it was cool how the mancubus generously offered itself as a meatshield.

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MAP13 - Lipperhey

UV | Continuous | GZDoom and Vanilla+

 

I'm really enjoying the visual change with the Heretic/Hexen textures. The manage to mesh pretty well with the demons, so it doesn't feel like too much of a visual clash. As for the map itself, Pcorf is getting cheekier with the surprise monster closests as he managed to spook me good a few times. It's a fun energy jolt to keep the player on their toes and not get too confident or lazy. I know I sound like a broken mp3 at this point, but hot damn, this WAD's great fun! :^) Excited to see more of this spooky castle motif in the coming days!

 

 

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MAP13 - "Lipperhey" (93%K/94%I/0%S):


New textures give a map a professional feeling, even though they are under-detailed, possibly because they are new, and we are not used to seing an overdetailed environment with said textures, or maybe because vanilla Doom textures are just getting old and ugly in comparison to Hexen ones. Another sweet and simple map, overshadowed by low ammo, again, I had the same problem than with the past map, ammo here makes you struggle, so I stopped caring about most fights, and tried to only kill hitscanners, make the rest of the enemies infight, task that is a little bit painful, as the level feels too narrow. 
I could have enjoyed the last fight if it wasn't for said ammo problems, without mentioning this problem, the map is fun to play, but I'll have to get used to being conservative with ammo.
 

Deaths: 73 (UV Continuous/Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:

 

Spoiler

 

MAP10
MAP11
MAP09

MAP08
MAP04

MAP02
MAP13
MAP07
MAP06
MAP05

MAP12
MAP03
MAP01

 


Please, give me more ammo, Paul.

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MAP12: Dagon and

MAP13: Lipperhey - dsda-doom - skill 4 pistol start - rewinds

 

My excitement was [hyperbolic adjective] when I saw the Hexen/Heretic textures filling these maps. It's always good to see these, I am a big fan of the 'guns in Raven games' feel. There was even a moat.

Something about fighting Hell Knights in what felt like a hallway straight of Hexen in MAP13 felt right.

The maps continue to be punishing, I am increasingly more a fan whenever I'm given a berserk pack, as I'm often at very low health at that time (and soon to return to low health lol)

 

Spoiler

 

 

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Map 13 - Lipperhey (UV, pistol-start)


Some pseudo-atmospheric percussive gloomy music. I might have expected this environment of brown brick to have something more appropriate to a dungeon. 

I'm not sure why there's a dead sergeant in the starting room when no one's around. They probably just found him annoying and useless. Or perhaps he screwed up and the trash hasn't quite been taken out yet.

 

Anyway, you'll want to ignore the Imps locked in cells for some reason, and head to a triangular room on the left with a couple of barrels and several enemies including a chaingunner and a pair of hell knights. Once you're done, you'll climb some stairs and find yourself in tiny room with a chaingunner quad. This violates several Doom design rules, so naturally, I was murdered since I had my shotgun out. The trap that occurs after hitting the switch feels essentially like an ammo drain. Continuous play's really starting to feel prioritized, though the secrets are often concessions to pistol-starters in certain ways. 

 

So you'll find yourself heading to the red door with considerably more shotgun ammo at this point. As you enter the courtyard, you'll see several enemies along with  a Super Shotgun. You can lean on infighting to a large degree because you won't have too many bullets at this stage. Once you hit the switch, you'll raise a platform to the second level of this room and open up a closet with a Heretic painting at the backside, combat armor and several enemies including several chaingunners and a Manicubi. These chaingunners would end up hurting me very badly. I ended up heading up to spend most of my remaining chaingun ammo on the Imps and ran into a Hell Knight/Revenant pairing meant to encourage infighting but I ended up just attacking in the end. Feeling some anxiety after this, I ended up heading back to the open monster closet and seeing a differently-textured wall on the left side, in true Heretic style. Pushing at this opens up a teleporter to the Supercharge you saw near the beginning on your right, as well as a rocket launcher.

 

Retyrning to the Revenant/Imp hallway, you'll run into some Imps at the other end. When you push the switch to lower the yellow key, a closet opens with Pain Elementals and Cacodemons. I had 4 rockets and while it was enough to take out 1 or 2 of the Cacos, the Pain Elemental survived. Lacking chaingun ammo, I had to shotgun the Pain Elemental, which was fine because there was plenty of shotgun ammo.

 

Step behind the yellow door, and pick up a much needed berserk pack I'd been crying for since before the first Revenant pair behind the red door. My health was also rather low at this point, so I was about as grateful as you'd expect. Another courtyard with more infighting, press a switch to raise a platform to.....another damn meat corridor, though at least you get a Berserk Pack. I was killed once by a Revenant because it's like all my training punching Revenants in Ancient Aliens meant nothing (or doing it in a narrow corridor is probably a bad idea). Anyways, at the end, another monster closet opens up at the end with Chaingunners and Revenants among them. Used a couple of rockets, enemies teleported randomly away, and used a combination of shotgun shells and punches to take care of the stragglers. Nice Heretic-styled exit door I guess. The medkits/stimpacks near the end definitely feel like something for continuous players.

 

This took too long, and I find myself wondering why I wrote so much. I really hope the next map proves a change of pace.

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MAP14 - Dulcinea (HNTR, 2nd run): K 100%, I 100%, S 100%, D 0 -  As in the last two levels, the ambience is strong in this one, which is something that was largely missing from the first two episodes.  The map begins in a cave, from which i emerged  onto the small courtyard under the open sky of an imposing stone structure.  There is a nukage pit with some sort of rusted metal structure, on top of which is the YSK, guarded by a Hell Knight.  i killed the HK before venturing further into another cave that meanders from behind the starting area to the other side of the courtyard, to the top of the metal tower.  Just before taking the YK a small ambush of Imps happens on the courtyard, and if one doesn't want to take the long route back it's possible to jump down from the tower, as long as one doesn't fall into the pit of green slime.

 

Behind the YSK door awaits a little situation, as far ahead is a Mancubi, and across a pit to the left is an Arachnotron, and a Revenant, plus some Imps and Cacodemons.  There's a switch to raise a large portion of the pit to the floor-level, bringing together all the parts of the area, and giving access to the next switch, which raises a bridge yet to another, which a while ago was guarded by the Mancubi.  Upon a raised platform is also the RSK.  Getting close to the switch releases a distant ambush, from a monster closet at the other side of the space, of Imps and a Hell Knight, and as has now become the rule, some of the Imps teleported next to me.

 

Behind the RSK door is a nice little setup as it's possible to kill most of the enemies with barrels which leaves some Imps alive on the upper ledge, as well as a Revenant guarding the last switch of the map.  This one opens the exit-area, as well as triggers the last and potentially deadliest ambush of the map, as Imps and Hell Knights are lowered into the room.  i fired on BFG shot their way, getting rid of all the Imps.  In the central room an Arachnotron had teleported in, and as both nobles teleported away, one of them got infighting with her.  The final enemies are couple of Arachnotrons and some Pinkies.

 

Not a difficult level on continuous play, but very atmospheric, with lot of nice tricks and good visuals.  i like the progression using a combination of switches and keys, it adds flavour to the usual routine of just collecting keys and always opening the next door.  i have to admit the maps of this episode have made me feel like i should be playing on HMP instead, but it's too late now, and i'm sure this feeling will at some point evaporate as if it never existed.  Enjoyed it.

 

This is my first ever recorded playthrough, and it's my second run of this map.  Playing while recording still makes me a bit nervous of my performance, partly also because i play without saves, while being used to using them regularly simply as a safety net.  Hope you enjoy it.  (The video quality isn't the best, sorry about that, but i raised it on MAP31, and also there'll be live commentary..)

 

 

 

Edited by dei_eldren

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MAP 14 – Dulcinea

Doomsday Engine, UV-Fast, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

The action began in a dark cavern one could naturally find in Hexen, except for the UAC green slime™ around the crenelated metal tower overseen by Hell Knights. The good lighting of this area and of the surrounding tunnels created a creepy atmosphere, reinforced by the display of a “human barbecue” midway and culminating in an ambush when I took the YSK on top of the tower. I was hit because I was picking up the rockets, but if I had just retraced my steps immediately, I would have handled this encounter without a scratch. There was a generous Soul Sphere to mend any wounds and prepare for the next challenges.

Spoiler

 

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The locked stone building contained some more toxic pools and various ranged attackers. The faraway Mancubi inundated the doorway with fireballs, so I used their shooting frenzy to my advantage. I only had to carefully dispatch the Arachnotron and the two Revenants on the left, before gaining full access to the area. The door was a safe bottleneck for any assaults taking place inside, from the first Cacoswarm to the subsequent Imp & Hell Knight closets. Enemies were supposed to teleport by the door, but my determination to gain a foothold there was so strong they could not stop me. Hell Knights probably killed more Imps than I did.

Spoiler

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Dulcinea had another excellent music track, a great mood, and a compelling layout. I found the area behind the yellow door to suffer from the same problems of MAP11, with its huge monster groups falling prey of their infighting instincts, exacerbated by -fast and the abuse of a choke point. The quality was on par with MAP 13, but the result was less convincing.

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