The DWmegawad Club plays: Zone 400

[Capellan]

 

[Book Lord]

MAP 16 – Hypatia

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

 

As soon as the level started, I was already under siege. I wanted to carefully emerge from the library I was in, but they kept coming in conspicuous numbers. A pistol starter would not have lasted for long in there, unless he fully understood the teleporting lines that actively repelled the monsters getting inside. I killed the first waves of enemies, then I despaired and resolved myself to run out and see what kind of place lay around.

Spoiler

It was a sandbox level, consisting of several buildings, pillars, and ledges with snipers. Monsters roamed the ground, most notably hitscanners who scored some hits in the open spaces. When I secured the area, I climbed upon the building in front of the library and found the YSK. Picking it up triggered the first monster closet in the north-west, but the demons did not simply come out of it. They were teleported in all directions, requiring another round of urban guerrilla to regain control of the streets.

Spoiler

The path to the RSK required platforming on the black pillars and caused more mayhem at ground level, because an even bigger closet was opened in the north-east. Once the storm calmed down again, I opened the red door and reached the BSK. I knew that shiny BFG would have been great for the last mob, unfortunately it remained unreachable on its pedestal. I saw the way up there many times, but it just did not click with me. The monsters were of the most annoying kinds, they appeared just in front of me and then they were scattered by teleports. At least I killed the Pain Elemental immediately, but the Arch-Vile had the time to resurrect some minions. An action-packed level, where for the first time I felt without options to trivialise the encounters. The wide outside areas were perfect to dodge attacks and move swiftly, but also made tracking down the enemies a lot harder. There was also fine detailing for the limited lines (the gallows, the water pipe, iced water), so I conclude this one was a winner on all fronts.

Spoiler

 

Edited August 16, 2021 by Book Lord

[LadyMistDragon]

UV Fast, Pistol-start

 

 

Map 32 Devonian

 

Here now is half of the reason I've been playing this wad; an incredibly refreshing change of pace from the peepetually tight corridors much of the megawad's been in so far. Green forest and swamps along with some mountainous terrain, this is the Pcorf we crave Also, I love "Perverts of Prehistory", the rhythmic background being the perfect complement. At one point, you can even hear some impression of dino growls in the mix. Thankfully, this is pretty low-fi because it would certainly become a massive cheese fest otherwise.

 

Despite being over 400 defs, it's still quite linear and hell for pistol starters. Don't enter the cavern with the Manicubi right away because otherwise, the switch behind them opens a massive trap, as well as raise part of the ledge leading to the base. I spent a good 3 minutes wandering around frantically, picking up a chainsaw, chaingun, and rocket launcher before I felt even remotely comfortable fighting back, and it still took another 4 minutes before I started running low on ammo, headed back to the Manicubus switch, and accidentally opened a chamber containing a plasma rifle! Unfortunately, it mostly came too late, but I still was able to use it take out some Revenant and pinky stragglers.

 

The base, by contrast is incredibly plain brown. You pick up a Berserk Pack near the front, and this proves invaluable, as I ended up punching 8 Revenants and a few Hell Knights as well. Once you get to the red key, you trigger a trap almost stupidly reminiscent of everything encountered in this wad so far. Shotgun them, run to a safe place, then punch the shit out of stragglers. In one of the open closets, you'll see some stairs to a ledge along a seemingly-anonymous wall (containing backpacks) and a passage across from the swich you hit earlier to access the red key containing a Supercharge. Shoot the switch behind it and a platform will raise so you can pick it up!

 

It's absolutely critical for the next section if you're pistol-starting. While the initial scattered Manicubi/Revenant pairs won't present much trouble, you'll soon hear the roar of a Cyberdemon, and probably the hardest ambush of the map will soon follow. While the Arch-vile died within the first 90 seconds or so, I think there has to be a BFG somewhere, because I was spending the first few minutes scrounging for ammo being very much deprived of decent firepower. It did get better, but I still wasn't exactly overloaded with rockets. No one group of enemies was really more trouble than the other when it came down to it, and the Imps were just noise. Trying to figure out the amount of plasma shots needed to kill most of the Revenants, as well as the Cyberdemon, really took some doing. The Cyberdemon came close to killing me, and the overgrown natural bridge on which he resides can be tough to aim at accurately. Once this was done, I was able to pick up the health behind him, pick off some straggler Imps and claim my yellow key prize. Good thing was I had enough plasma for the Arch-vile at the exit. The exit corridor, is as progression dictates, a stone wall and a portal leading back to the castle which the demons reside in.

 

I'm not sure I can call this my favorite map of the megawad so far, probably because I may be a touch burnt out on Pcorf, but honestly, the traps feel much less cheap and predictable than they have in previous maps. It's still unquestionably better than that crappy sewer section from The Great Urban Battle, and probably better than vanilla Quake as well if I'm honest

 

Map 33: Gangajang

 

Yes, I actually decided to play this map. Paul provided no information on it in the text file, so I can only assume it's something else he was working on for the past few years. Visually, it's quite unimpressive, consisting largely of layered outdoor techbase, though there are still some nice, though minor touches, scattered throughout.

 

Combat is nothing more than a joke, for all intents and purposes. At first, you're just facing down minor Ultimate Doom baddies, albeit in many traps. Seing the enemy count only trick up slowly, you can't be blamed for thinking something big must be coming. Yet, you'll reach the exit with hardly over 200 enemies and feel like that has to be a fake exit of some sort. In one sense it is, but that's ok, you still have to open it up after all. I will say, it was clever of Paul for the nearby Supercharge secret not to open unless you brush up against a computer console in the room that opens the exit door.

 

But of course, it's not a real exit. Instead, it opens the way to a long moat of sorts you saw earlier. You finally start encountering Doom II enemies, but they are still too scattered to provide much of a challenge. A lift with a Supercharge and a Zombieman nearby lead back to thet starting courtyard. Just keep going through the moat, and eventually, you'll see the window where you can see "Thanks for playing Zone 400" through it.

 

At this point, you'll encounter a Cyberdemon along with a Manicubi Arahnotron guard that sort of hangs back until the figh is done. You're absolutely overloaded with plasma, and when you finally enter the nearby chamber, you can finally pick up a rocket launcher you've been taunted with for so long. Hit the switch here, and prepare to be greeted by.....too many SS to stuff in anywhere, as well as Wolf 3D textures on the back wall. This was such a crappy, weak, and ridiculous end to a mediocre map that I give this an instant two thumbs down. 

 

It feels like something that could be reworked later. At any rate, that's the super-super-secret bonus map!

 

Edited August 16, 2021 by LadyMistDragon

[pcorf]

7 hours ago, cannonball said:

Apologies for the rather harsh reviews for the last two maps, but I must confess that map10 rubbed me up the wrong way, especially the first half.

 

I hate you so much!, nah just kidding. It has been a blast reading everyone's opinions about Zone 400.

 

But here is one thing, once you beat this mess you will feel proud. Never give up!

[Biodegradable]

MAP16 - Hypatia

UV | Continuous |GZDoom and Vanilla+

 

Shaking up the formula a bit, Pcorf takes to a more outside setting with structures that hollow out and spill their demonic guts out as we progress, collecting the keys and dealing with the replenishing horde. I don't really have much else to say about this one, though the height variation on this one did a great job making me feel small, which is fun on that immersive level. I also found the BFG secret rather cheeky once I figured it out.

 

 

[cannonball]

MAP12 - “Dagon”

The theme is a nice change of pace, overall an ok level with a drop in difficulty in some forms. I wish the berserk was accessible earlier on as there were a few times where ammo was a little too tight to have some real fun here. I punched the majority of the imps/demons in the final room, which allowed me to kill the cacos/lost souls in the starting area that I had previous left.

 

MAP13 - “Lipperhey”

A couple of barrels go a long way here, good placement to take out some of the troublesome hitscanners. This was actually quite enjoyable and fairly easy until the exit where I must admit I didn't bother replaying after my one and only death as the level was essentially done. A good map overall, the two sets of caco/PE traps are more of a nuisance than a general threat though.

 

MAP14 - “Dulcinea”

I appreciate the deviation from a series of rather orthogonal looking maps, actually this one is fairly brisk to pay through. I must however question the sheer amount of firepower and recovery items on this one that make this quite possibly one of the easiest maps in the set, especially as the biggest hordes tend to be imps/hell knights. An enjoyable map but questionable difficulty.

 

MAP15 - “Majriiti”

Should have seen the start coming, alas one death here. The only one though. I skipped the big ambush on the upper level and ran for the yellow key. Fun and still manageable without the armour. The fight behind the yellow key isn't the best with first bit rather grindy and the second easily avoidable. Still a decent map overall and the secret exit isn't difficult to find as long as you backtrack from the normal exit.

 

MAP31 - “Spooky”

A rather tense start, just two monsters I believe are present, the trooper in the start room and a single cacodemon. Once the BFG is collected and the switch hit, then all hell breaks loose. I nice little battle mostly involving demons/spectres, but you get an archvile, cyberdemon and a couple of pain elementals for good measure. A reasonable challenge and a nice build up. A good map overall, the secret exit is again easy to spot.

[pcorf]

10 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

UV Fast, Pistol-start

 

 

Map 32 Devonian

 

Here now is half of the reason I've been playing this wad; an incredibly refreshing change of pace from the peepetually tight corridors much of the megawad's been in so far. Green forest and swamps along with some mountainous terrain, this is the Pcorf we crave Also, I love "Perverts of Prehistory", the rhythmic background being the perfect complement. At one point, you can even hear some impression of dino growls in the mix. Thankfully, this is pretty low-fi because it would certainly become a massive cheese fest otherwise.

 

Despite being over 400 defs, it's still quite linear and hell for pistol starters. Don't enter the cavern with the Manicubi right away because otherwise, the switch behind them opens a massive trap, as well as raise part of the ledge leading to the base. I spent a good 3 minutes wandering around frantically, picking up a chainsaw, chaingun, and rocket launcher before I felt even remotely comfortable fighting back, and it still took another 4 minutes before I started running low on ammo, headed back to the Manicubus switch, and accidentally opened a chamber containing a plasma rifle! Unfortunately, it mostly came too late, but I still was able to use it take out some Revenant and pinky stragglers.

 

The base, by contrast is incredibly plain brown. You pick up a Berserk Pack near the front, and this proves invaluable, as I ended up punching 8 Revenants and a few Hell Knights as well. Once you get to the red key, you trigger a trap almost stupidly reminiscent of everything encountered in this wad so far. Shotgun them, run to a safe place, then punch the shit out of stragglers. In one of the open closets, you'll see some stairs to a ledge along a seemingly-anonymous wall (containing backpacks) and a passage across from the swich you hit earlier to access the red key containing a Supercharge. Shoot the switch behind it and a platform will raise so you can pick it up!

 

It's absolutely critical for the next section if you're pistol-starting. While the initial scattered Manicubi/Revenant pairs won't present much trouble, you'll soon hear the roar of a Cyberdemon, and probably the hardest ambush of the map will soon follow. While the Arch-vile died within the first 90 seconds or so, I think there has to be a BFG somewhere, because I was spending the first few minutes scrounging for ammo being very much deprived of decent firepower. It did get better, but I still wasn't exactly overloaded with rockets. No one group of enemies was really more trouble than the other when it came down to it, and the Imps were just noise. Trying to figure out the amount of plasma shots needed to kill most of the Revenants, as well as the Cyberdemon, really took some doing. The Cyberdemon came close to killing me, and the overgrown natural bridge on which he resides can be tough to aim at accurately. Once this was done, I was able to pick up the health behind him, pick off some straggler Imps and claim my yellow key prize. Good thing was I had enough plasma for the Arch-vile at the exit. The exit corridor, is as progression dictates, a stone wall and a portal leading back to the castle which the demons reside in.

 

I'm not sure I can call this my favorite map of the megawad so far, probably because I may be a touch burnt out on Pcorf, but honestly, the traps feel much less cheap and predictable than they have in previous maps. It's still unquestionably better than that crappy sewer section from The Great Urban Battle, and probably better than vanilla Quake as well if I'm honest

 

Map 33: Gangajang

 

Yes, I actually decided to play this map. Paul provided no information on it in the text file, so I can only assume it's something else he was working on for the past few years. Visually, it's quite unimpressive, consisting largely of layered outdoor techbase, though there are still some nice, though minor touches, scattered throughout.

 

Combat is nothing more than a joke, for all intents and purposes. At first, you're just facing down minor Ultimate Doom baddies, albeit in many traps. Seing the enemy count only trick up slowly, you can't be blamed for thinking something big must be coming. Yet, you'll reach the exit with hardly over 200 enemies and feel like that has to be a fake exit of some sort. In one sense it is, but that's ok, you still have to open it up after all. I will say, it was clever of Paul for the nearby Supercharge secret not to open unless you brush up against a computer console in the room that opens the exit door.

 

But of course, it's not a real exit. Instead, it opens the way to a long moat of sorts you saw earlier. You finally start encountering Doom II enemies, but they are still too scattered to provide much of a challenge. A lift with a Supercharge and a Zombieman nearby lead back to thet starting courtyard. Just keep going through the moat, and eventually, you'll see the window where you can see "Thanks for playing Zone 400" through it.

 

At this point, you'll encounter a Cyberdemon along with a Manicubi Arahnotron guard that sort of hangs back until the figh is done. You're absolutely overloaded with plasma, and when you finally enter the nearby chamber, you can finally pick up a rocket launcher you've been taunted with for so long. Hit the switch here, and prepare to be greeted by.....too many SS to stuff in anywhere, as well as Wolf 3D textures on the back wall. This was such a crappy, weak, and ridiculous end to a mediocre map that I give this an instant two thumbs down. 

 

It feels like something that could be reworked later. At any rate, that's the super-super-secret bonus map!

 

 

MAP33 consists of the first 3 maps from Zone 300 linked together and the Wolfenstein surprise at the end was there to remind you that you were playing a Pcorf map and his old habits were still there!. I just threw it together and it is not really meant to be taken seriously.

[FistMarine]

MAP08: Natasha Ozone Research
Thankfully this map wasn't as hard as the previous map! It was mostly on the easier side, although I would suggest to first get out of starting room to not get cornered by the hell knights. I was lucky that RNG rolled lowest damage for the fireball, so I was able to clear the starting room with around 80-90% health.
Two secrets to find: an invisibility sphere that is easily found and needed for the next few rooms and a soulsphere secret that is reachable by pressing on the switch that reveals when grabbing the yellow key.
Once again the fights aren't difficult and monsters can be often picked off from far away with chaingun sniping or just fighting around corners and taking cover. Traps are predictable as well.

 

MAP09: Cath's Communications
Interestingly, I didn't have any problems dealing with the traps, what I did was for example when picking up the blue key and seeing the walls lowering, I was thinking to stay up there and let monsters infight while taking cover. I even managed to run from one place to another and let monsters see me, so they get infight. I know I decided to take the coward way once again and it took a couple of minutes which made it a bit boring but at least this way it saves me health/armor and don't have to risk fighting all those monsters on the ground level, not that I couldn't do that myself but I just prefer the safe/smart approach. When most monsters died from infighting, I finished whatever was left. I saved the soulsphere secret for the end since my health was probably near 200%, so there was no point to collect at that time.
Later, you get to fight a bunch of spectres, demons and there are even some revenants, hell knights AND an archvile all waiting for you! What I did was when approaching that section, simply take my rocket launcher (or the BFG) and start firing at them and took them out, as I noticed they were waiting for me. Some hell knights and revenants managed to infight and even managed to screenshot the moment two were fighting, though I don't remember who won but in either case, the winner gets to be killed by DoomGuy!
After clearing everything, what was left was grabbing whatever item was left in the level (including the soulsphere secret, which I think I ended up grabbing it at 200% health, as I barely took any damage in the level), as it's recommended to grab everything before leaving a level!

 

MAP10: Katherine Space Security
This was quite a tricky level but thankfully not too difficult. There are some interesting parts of the level, including teleporting monsters in some places and the parts with the crushers which you have to quickly pass but at same time watch out for those zombies and imps waiting for you in the next corridor, so that's where the Plasma comes in handy!
As was the case so far, when I grabbed the blue key for example, I stepped back instead of rushing in the room (some monsters may have gotten infight too), then carefully took some monsters that came from behind and carefully made my way.
At the end of level there are some interesting traps that can be taken carefully and there is even an archvile thrown into the mix, though with the weapons you have collected so far, you should have no problem dealing with the archie!
There are two secrets to find, which I admit I had to check YouTube just to see how to get the soulsphere which I have seen earlier and the second secret you had to fall into the damaging floor, press that hidden switch, teleport and then find the BFG that was revealed.
The best part is that you are given a soulsphere and a blue armor at end of level, for a nice 200% H/A boost! And you will need them for the next level!

 

MAP11: Tanya's Cybernetics
As expected, things are heating up in this level. This is the second "hard" level so far, which also includes a Cyberdemon at the end guarding the exit, as the title of the level might have hinted the presence of the cyber! Until that point, you have to fight your way and there's some tricky fights which also did some good damage to me, like accidentally dodging into a projectile after taking cover or not managing to dodge a homing rocket that managed to follow me well. So I had to take it a bit slower by the time I got the blue key (the last key) and was preparing for the final battle, as my health and armor might have reached around 100% or less and eventually the blue armor was running out, as I remember having to pick up a medkit or two and eventually the green armor.
The way I handled the cyber was by peeking around the corners and shooting with the various weapons. I tried getting it to infight when all those monsters teleported but he didn't want to cooperate, so I had to kill the monsters first to make sure I don't get distracted during fighting. After a few minutes, I managed to kill the cybie and then what was left was getting everything before leaving the level!
Funnily enough, after I was done with the level and looking for the secrets missed (the first secret was a plasma rifle, second was hidden megasphere), after checking YouTube to see where was that second secret, I grabbed the radiation suit and that floor still managed to hurt me just as soon as I landed into it, though thankfully it affected me BEFORE I grabbed the megasphere, so I still ended up with 200% H/A at end. I dislike when the radiation suit leak happens right after grabbing the extra health/armor. :P

 

MAP12: Dagon
Short and easy map with only a few teleport traps that may do a bit of damage on you (such as when I grabbed the yellow skull key and I was waiting for the lost souls and cacodemons to come at starting point but then a caco teleports behind me which manages to hit me and make me move around, as otherwise the trap would have been too easy by camping) but again nothing too bad on continuous run. I also sniped those revenants and arachnotrons (some managed to infight) through windows at start to save myself from trouble later.
A secret (that contains a few goodies, including the only green armor in the level) can be found halfway through the map (before the right blue door), helped by PrBoom+ automap feature which had that wall marked as pink line, so I knew that one was a secret.
I like the fact that this "episode" uses Heretic and Hexen textures, giving the levels a bit of a fresh look! And it seems both types of ice floors are used (from both Heretic and Hexen), sometimes in same place, though this was noticed in MAP15, forgot if this combination was present in other maps.

 

MAP13: Lipperhey
Another level that's still mostly on the easy side with some tricks up sleeve, especially the mancubus trap halfway which I realized in time and ended up running at door to quickly open and take cover, with only minimal hitscan damage and the trap at end that I didn't realize immediately but then when I was getting shot from behind, I decided to jump to take cover. But again, there's nothing too bad and there is even a soulsphere secret (which teases you from the beginning of level) easily accessible from the hidden area with the rocket launcher and teleporter, the one which had mancubus inside and you can see the different texture to access that secret.
One thing to mention that I notice in maps so far is traps often get revealed BEFORE you press a switch, usually just approaching something will reveal or teleport monsters, so if that happens, try to quickly run to take cover and focus on killing monsters and THEN collect/press switch instead of rushing.

 

MAP14: Dulcinea
Well, this level was much easier than I expected, I don't think I ever dropped below 180 or so health if I'm not mistaken. And the best part is that this level is very generous with resources, as you can find both a soulsphere and a blue armor in this level, which are very much needed for the next level, so it's recommended for continuous players to save them for before exiting the level. Plus you can also find the BFG in a corner during one of the later fights, which will come in handy, though I already had my own BFG from previous levels and I only used it at the end at last few fights.
There are also a couple radiation suits placed around in the level, though there was no need to dive into acid as there's nothing down here in all the three sections. The later fights in the level are quite interesting and it put the BFG to good use (which I admit I haven't used much, as I ended up saving most of cells and occasionally used the Plasma for some tricky fights in previous levels).
Strangely enough, this map has no secrets at all (maybe the blue armor should have been placed in a secret area instead of being put in sight?), though once again since I use PrBoom+, I get 100% secrets instead of 0% in the vanilla ports.
I can say this was probably one of the easiest levels so far.

 

MAP15: Majriiti
OK, now I admit this level was much harder (as expected there's a difficult level at every couple of maps, usually before the text screens) with some tricky traps but thankfully with the 200% health and armor, I was able to survive the nasty fights, especially the one at beginning (and the end). That beginning trap in particular with the many monsters made me eat one or two damaging revenant rockets (alongside taking a bit of hitscan damage) and I was lucky enough to lure the 3 homing missiles (that were continuously chasing me) into the hell knight that just managed to win a fight with a revenant. And yeah I didn't think of using the BFG at first, instead ended up wasting a shot when I tried firing at a revenant (while those missiles were chasing me) and had to change direction, prompting me to switch to SSG and take down that revenant quickly before spams too many homing missiles at me.
I liked how you had to smash that glass to progress, HeXeN style! Though I used the chainsaw to smash it. I didn't think that was possible in vanilla Doom 2, though in this case it wasn't exactly like in Hexen as it didn't act exactly like breaking the glass in Hexen, that feature exists in ZDoom family ports but in this case in more vanilla ports, this feature used here was a bit more simplistic but still replicated nicely.

After that, collecting the yellow skull releases a bunch of imps/zombies, most of which will teleport on ground level, I found this time around the safe thing to do is to stay where you are rather than the usual running, as if I had decided to run, I would have ended up surrounded by monsters, so I like how this was a different approach this time around and I did the good thing of staying in that area and then try killing monsters in library from up there.

The next part isn't too bad actually, after carefully clearing those lost souls, the arachnotron and chaingunners waiting for you, there will be monsters revealed when grabbing the rocket launcher, so step back and take them down from a safe place, preferably with shotgun/chaingun while saving rockets for later. After that, you must press the switch and rush for the elevator but before doing that, look behind that switch and you will see some goodies, including a soulsphere. The soulsphere is recommended to be saved for later if playing continuous and your health is still above 100% at the moment, to make best use of it.
At the end of map, checking the automap for stats, revealed there are still 4 enemies. I was thinking what if there's 4 archviles or maybe one of the enemies being a cyber/spider? Instead there were THREE demons in the exit room (one that teleports behind you) and ONE archvile that teleports into the room! Of course when the archie teleported and started attacking me, I took cover but too bad he had to resurrect a revenant which started firing damaging homing missiles at me (I had 128% health and 135% armor at that time before approaching the exit), while at same time the archvile got infight with something (forgot what exactly it was, a resurrected zombie or whatever) and I started firing rockets at him and of course I didn't realize that until switched targets and I got blasted, though somehow I only took like 20% damage from the archvile blast? Not sure how it happened since I heard it is rarely possible to only take 20 blast damage by hugging a wall. What happened was either I was running backwards when this happened or I was close to the stairs leading to the Heretic glass. Not sure how to explain but it was weird as it threw me a bit in air but didn't take too much damage.
After clearing everyone, I was down to about 50% or so health thanks to that Revenant spamming missiles at me (that were difficult to dodge in the cramped space) and my remaining blue armor was only 65%, so I had to replace it with a fresh green armor which was found nearby. At least I saved that soulsphere for the end of level, so I ended up with 200% health at least.
I didn't initially find the secrets, so I saved, went to normal exit just to check the next level and indeed it was a normal exit, so I quit and went to consult YouTube once again and see where were the two secrets. Looks like I was supposed to backtrack upon reaching the normal exit, then press a switch that was revealed (first secret) which opens the bars at beginning of the level which leads to secret level (second secret). I'm curious what awaits me next!

 

Deaths (so far): 0

 

I may have been very lucky so far, especially when compared to most other Doom 2 megawads where a death happens sooner or later at this point but I have a feeling something will go bad in the secret levels or the later levels. I guess we will find out tomorrow when I resume playing. :P

 

I will also tackle the hidden MAP33 at a later time, probably after I finish the wad first. I assume it's a warp only map, right?

 

Screenshots as usual (forgot to take at end of two space levels, also took one of the text screen of MAP15 leading to MAP31, noticed a spelling mistake and might have been more spelling mistakes in previous text screens from MAP06 and MAP11, I don't know what's with that /R at the end for instance)

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 16 - Hypatia

 

It honestly seemed to me there might be plenty of ammo, if for no other reason I picked up plenty while walking around. Unfortunately, I had nowhere near enough to handle the final fight a Pain Elemental, some Cacodemons, an Arch-vile and other assorted trash so I just ran for the exit.

 

It was still a decent change of pace though. The action-movie-cum-Celtic melody thing the music was doing was kind of nice. Suffering a death from a shotgunner 90 seconds in after getting nearly blocked in by demons who inexplicably teleported away was kind of annoying, but things were mostly ok from there. I wished I had seen the berserk pack that's revealed when you pick up the yellow key though. I would not have run out of ammo for sure, but the trouble is, that location is occupied by monsters that'll occupy your attention, so I dunno if wandering is necessarily expected or just more infighting. I also could have been a bit more careful with the rocket launcher I didn't even realize I'd picked up. Either way, my Revenant-punching quota wasn't met. Boooooo!

 

The backpack secret was easy-peasy (in a water column) but I could not access the BFG secret for the life of me. I spotted the ledge after going around the building it was on a couple of times, but I was not about to perform anykind of ridiculously narrow SR50 walking trickery to acquire it when it's so easily accessible elsewhere in other maps.

Edited August 16, 2021 by LadyMistDragon

[Pseudonaut]

Map16: FDA in 9:49 (No deaths)

z416FDA949.zip

 

Having lots of space to move around like this feels good, but also makes combat a bit trivial. The map feels somewhat tight on shotgun shells, otherwise it would probably be even easier. Even so, chaingunning mid-tiers in a wide-open space isn't particularly engaging for me.

 

Map32: UV-Max in 8:18

z432-818.zip

 

I decided to play this map again rather than ignore it after the failed FDA attempts. Pretty enjoyable once I had a decent route partially worked out. I never fully worked it out, and was pretty much just winging it after the BFG grab. It seems inevitable that a UV-Max run of this map will end with a hunt for missing monsters.

[dei_eldren]

MAP17 - Ugarit (HMP, pistol start, no saves, 2nd attempt): K 100%, I 96%, S 100%, D 0

 

Spoiler

Played this first continuous on HNTR, but due to the video having too low audio decided to play it from pistol start on HMP so as not just having to play through the same thing again.

 

The map begins outside in a memorable area with central black towers atop which are Imps shooting incessant fireballs, while on ground level there is a whole assortment of enemies.  RL is available immediately behind the Hell Knights, and soon enough the Chaingun is obtained, too.  The start for me was really poor, but i managed to turn it around.  The valley-like area is very aesthetic, with ice below the looming dark central tower formation, surrounded by dark soil and framed by dark rock walls.

On my first run i didn't know the towers would come down, which was pretty obvious after noticing that there are items on top of them, including the YSK, so it was a bit grindy killing the Imps up there before pressing the switch, but on my HMP run i lowered the towers after killing the Cacodemons that appeared when approaching the switch, and had a much better time of it.

 

Behind the YSK door is an interesing staired hallway, from which a Revenant emerged first, not present on HNTR at all, and at the other end was a Baron of Hell.  After pressing the switch the Baron was guarding, the central stonewalls lower, turning the space into a room, and revealing Mancubi and some Imps in an alcove.  The two secrets of the level are both related to this place, the shootable switch to open the passage to the other, the Soul Sphere classically seen from the outside, whilst the other secret, BFG in front of the switch, is accessed from elsewhere - a sort of a clever set up.

 

The penultimate encounter in the next room works like an appetizer for the last one, and it wasn't really a very simple one on HMP, with an Arachnotron, Chaingunners, Cacos and others present.  Done mostly from the door, some with infighting, but i ran out of rockets, thanks to the malfunctioning autoaim, and had to run into the room to kill the Arachnotron, to get sniped by Imps from behind, while there were still also some hitscanners left.  Health went quite low, but i wanted to save the Soul Sphere for the end of level, and luckily health and armor was in fact quite plentiful (as i got my health back to 100%) before the final combat, for which fortunately also the plasmagun was available.

 

So, in through the last door awaiting were two Mancubes, guarding the BK for the exit.  When grabbing the BK, lights go out and the walls on both sides open up, joining together the whole area, and monsters start teleporting every which way.  It's a mini-slaughterscene, and i had enough plasma to resolve the situation, shotgunning the last Hell Knights, never really being in danger.

 

Another great map with some new design ideas.  Am enjoying this WAD much more than i thought i would, because i think the author has been very creative to make a virtue out of the limitation.

 

 

[Capellan]

 

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/Blind/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 31 - Spooky

100% kills and secrets

Time: 6:22

Deaths: 1

 

So this map was a nice surprise! This is completely open map, set in a dark abandoned city. Your goal is to hit a few switches to open the exit. Initially, you won't find much opposition. There's a zombie in front of you at the start just asking to get berserk'd (cue cybie roar once you hit fire), 2 chaingunners right outside the door, and at least 1 caco just roaming (more show up later, but I don't know if they are active yet). We've got 100 enemies, but only 4 are here so far? Uh oh. I think there were 3 switches, and each has a weapon in front of it. The one with the BFG is the trigger. When you hit that one, things get intense. A giant swarm of pinkies and their spectre cousins teleport in around the map, along with more cacos, at least 1 pain elemental, an archvile, and a cybie. For the most part, I just stood in the entrance to this area and punched most of them to death, bringing out the BFG when non pinky-family baddies appeared. My lone death came from trying to get out of here so I could grab the soul sphere, and got cornered by the cybie. Upon reloading and trying again, the cybie done messed up. He got 3 pinkies/spectres to corner him and bite him to death (see pic). I've seen pinkies maul Spider Masterminds to death, but I don't think I've seen this. It was very impressive. They took him out, then I took them out. Finding the secret exit isn't too hard. In the normal exit, look through the window to the left of the switch to see another one you can shoot. Go out and head behind the building to find a raised path to a secret area with a mega armor, light amp, and another switch. Hit that and head back to the beginning to access the secret exit. This was a really fun map, and really moody. The very understated MIDI helps keep the tension up.

 

Map 32: Devonian

100% kills and 66% secrets

Time: 15:03

 

One of the only maps in the WAD that is over 400 lines, this is a sizable jungle filled with vines, ledges, and close to 250 monsters. This is the first level in a while that feels like a traditional level. There's only 1 monster closet trap, and 2 giant teleport battles. Mostly, we deal with the monsters already out in the open while searching for the 3 keys needed. There's 6 secrets, and I found 4, including the BFG secret. To find that, you have to head to the lower outskirts of the map, at the very base of some stairs leading up to the map's cybie. You can just make out a small tunnel with a shootable switch at the end. Shoot it, and head to the center of this area to find a passage opened up leading to a teleporter that takes you to it. You'll definitely need it with the giant swarm that spawns when you hit the elevated switch the cybie is by. All-in-all, this was a nice change of pace. A little more traditional, but fun, and the jungle textures are nice. MIDI fits the jungle theme too boot.

[DuckReconMajor]

MAP16: Hypatia- dsda-doom - skill 4 pistol start

 

I survived this one! Felt like MAP31 Spooky but in the light time.

Loved the big faucet. It contained what I imagine to be an incredibly soggy backpack: the best of all powerups.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[DJVCardMaster]

On 8/15/2021 at 12:37 PM, pcorf said:

 

A little typo, I think MAP32 should be MAP31.

No it's not, I'm separating the "MAP16" exit with the "MAP32", as the exit that leads you to said maps each time.

Edit: sorry, I did not see the maplist, that was the error, thanks!

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP32 - "Devonian" (71%K/100%I/83%S):

A big change of pace with a jungle like map, really nice indeed, this is the only main map with more than 400 linedefs (notably), without counting MAP33 which is unnaccesible without cheats. This makes for a great map with open spaces and cave systems. A pretty large map two, I think this one is the best map in the megaWAD, but I won't rate it with the rest, as I think it wouldn't be fair to measure this one with the same ruler as the rest of the mapset, because this one has no linedef limit. 
The map feels mostly mild until it floods with enemies each time you progress, there are three different sections, the first big area, the temple at the middle, and finally, the last big area where the big fight comes, with cyberdemon included, I commited a mistake of getting the invisibility sphere, and I just started dying here. I had to quit and return later to this map, in with I died several times after. Save spamming was my option, specially at the end where I took the advantage of not awakening teleporting monsters, because I did not want to deal with them. So I avoided the last fight at the yellow key grab, I've felt with no time to deal with them. Great map anyways, but again, it's not going to be rated with the rest, the best on the mapset.
 

MAP16 - "Hypatia" (86%K/100%I/50%S):

A pretty similar threat to MAP31, this time, with lights on. Again I did not want to deal with the fuck-ton of enemies at the blue key room, so I rushed through the exit once and for all. The strategy is simple, first, rush through the other side of the map for the green armor, then rush again to the other side, at the corner behind the building, where the rocket launcher is. I killed everyone and proceed through the first building you can access. I liked the "parkour" section where the red key is, but again I made the mistake of getting the invi-sphere. This is what usually happens with this type of  maps, clear everything, proceed, clear everything again, repeat. Still, an amazing job at making yet another open map, with so few linedefs. And this raises the prize a little bit. Fun map, just don't get the invi-spheres.
 

 

Deaths: 95(UV Continuous/Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:

 

Spoiler

 

MAP14
MAP31

MAP10
MAP15
MAP16
MAP11
MAP09

MAP08
MAP04

MAP02
MAP13
MAP07
MAP06
MAP05

MAP12
MAP03
MAP01

MAP32**

 

 

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

Busy few days for me, time for some catch-up.

 

MAP13: Lipperhey

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/1 secrets

 

Like in some previous maps, there is an opening ammo squeeze that may lead you to leave some enemies behind at the start initially, or have to practice some creative infighting. The format of this one is also similar to some previous ones, where we have keys situated in the starting room that you need to lower down and obtain, and the room gets repopulated with some monsters as you do this, although the fights aren't quite as lively as some previous maps.

 

The main obstacles in this level are hitscanners. There is a pretty large amount of them in a few of the fights, with quite a few chaingunners among their ranks as well. Whenever you open a door or come up to a switch, it's good to expect to be made into swiss cheese unless you're quick to react. If you don't let the hitscanners get the best of you and plan well with your ammo, the level isn't too tricky. Especially if you find the secret, the rocket launcher is a huge help for some of the encounters here.

 

An okay level. Still digging the visual theme a lot.

 

MAP14: Dulcinea

UV, pistol start, no saves 

100% kills, 0/0 secrets 

 

This level mixes the castles with some caverns and some rooms full of nukage. Lucky for you pcorf seems to be generous with rad suits, so you can typically use the nukage pits as extra real estate with ease, which is especially helpful in the yellow door room. This map is probably the easiest one in a little while, largely owing to some rather generous item placement, but I found it quite fun to play with some nicely paced combat. The soulsphere and green armour upon getting the yellow key and mega-armour inside the yellow door room do kind of neuter the difficulty quite a bit, as does the BFG towards the end which definitely feels like overkill for the remaining monsters.

 

Most of the combat highlights take place inside the yellow door room. Upon first entry, it's a decently tough spot, mancubi, revenants, and an arachnotron placed on ledges around the room, always ready to take potshots at you (the revenants being particularly annoying about this). There's also a pretty cool imp and hell knight ambush when you lower the red key, which isn't very hard but is quite satisfying, especially with some rockets. The fights in the closing stretch are nice too, but again can be heavily nullified with the BFG that the level gives you.

 

Easy level, but quite fun nonetheless.

 

MAP15: Majriiti

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

We have more of a brown castle this time, with a brief trip outside to a neat looking area with cliffs of both stone and ice. The outside area looks really cool, even though you are only there for a short while. The secret exit, like most secrets in the wad, isn't annoying at all to find and just requires some backtracking to find a switch that newly opened up, with the exit being situated behind where you began the level. Despite me beating this one in my first run, I thought this map did show teeth in a few encounters. 

 

The level kicks off with one of its best fights, with the library you start in having its shelf lower to reveal a miniature slaughter's worth of monsters in a rather cramped room. The switch to lower a lift in the area with a bunch of goodies has a nice booby-trap too, leaving you surrounded with enemies from above. Finally, a special shout-out to the archvile at the end, he is a bastard, especially because the plasma is in a place you are unlikely to notice in a blind run until you begin your hunt for the secret exit. While his zaps are pretty easy to avoid, he spawns in an area with a lot of corpses, and in my run he resurrected a good 20 monsters for me to take down along with him. A good nasty archvile placement.

 

Enjoyed this one. Will do multiple maps tomorrow as well to continue my catch-up.

[Biodegradable]

MAP17 - Ugarit

UV | Continuous | GZDoom and Vanilla+

 

Hot diggity daffodil, that shit was neato on a burrito! I loved every single fight in this one. Even though the map feels probably one of the shortest, it was by far one of the most exhilarating in terms of runnin' & gunnin' I must say. I felt like I was pushed to really practice the skills I've developed to run around, prioritise targets, duck and weave around projectiles and so forth. I like how the opening fight with the pillars of sniper Imps complements the ones in MAP16 too. That was a nice touch. Too much fucking fun, mate!

 

 

Edited August 17, 2021 by Biodegradable

[Book Lord]

MAP 17 – Ugarit

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

 

The first area somehow reminded me of E2M1 of Heretic: a large crater of ash, with monster turned away from me and waiting for me to stir them. Once outside, I realised the basin was surrounded by many former humans, which spotted me and started shooting. I had to sacrifice myself to get some knowledge of the surroundings and to be better prepared for a second attempt. The second try I went directly for the hitscanners and climbed the stairs killing as many as I could, pushed the switch recklessly and soon the area was flooded with enemies. The switch lowered the Imp pillars, and this provided an immediate advantage, since the area was large enough for me to circle-strafe and provoke a total mayhem. I only had to give some special attention to the Pain Elemental and his regurgitations.

Spoiler

The small section with a strange staircase with diagonal square steps was something I am sure to have seen in Heretic as well but cannot tell exactly where. The arrow pointing at a wall was a bit weird, since it spoiled the ambush somehow. Probably it was added because of the mandatory shootable switch behind the BFG. I found the Soul Sphere there, but I did not remember the sealed teleport in the starting room, so I missed the big weapon just as in the previous map.

Spoiler

I dealt with the last room by means of door camping. It was such a convenient point to funnel enemies and kill them, instead of running like a headless chicken under a rain of projectiles. The same approach saved me from the scary BSK ambush, which used a typical Heretic trope of lights going off and closets opening in all directions. I must keep my hair on and retreat to my safe doorway. Everything was fine and entertaining, only that door was too easy to exploit and somewhat ruined the second part of the level.

[pcorf]

Fact: MAP17 was the final map I created for Zone 400.

[cannonball]

MAP32 - “Devonian”

Well this is a change of pace, rather sedate at times, at other points things can get rather frantic. The yellow key area being the big showstopper event with two waves, the first initial bout including a cyberdemon and the second wave when the yellow key is lowered. Ammo felt rather tight in the first half, the second half has enough (Though it is infight dependent I guess).

Visuals - Not the best, I am not sure whether some of these textures can be used as extensively as they have here, I like the vines and grass though, the gameplay was on the whole engaging enough too.

 

MAP16 - “Hypatia”

A sandbox map, the visuals could be described as function, the gameplay could be described as the best seen in the wad so far. The incidental combat at the start is frenetic and challenging. A good exercise for the SSG, the key traps are generally solid too with monsters repopulating the play space. A very well done map.

[FistMarine]

MAP31: Spooky

Here we have a very interesting map that is very dark and contains EXACTLY 100 monsters (at least on UV and above)! Most of the monsters present are demons and spectres, with a few surprises thrown in. Anyway, when you begin the level, you will be in a small room with a berserk and a zombieman in front of you! You know what to do (grab the berserk and punch the zombie). After that, you will notice it is very dark (and no I didn't find the light amp goggles until after I was done with the map, so I took the hard way) and have to navigate the dark streets and find some switches. You will be given powerful weapons immediately, as well as a soulsphere (and a blue armor, I believe was one of the secrets), though I recommend saving them for the end on the continuous run. You will know what to do, prepare your weapons and begin! But before that, kill the chaingunners at start and then the few cacodemons (and a pain elemental, which I think teleports at the last switch). There are also some barrels that may be better blown up. Just have your BFG ready and go crazy with it once you hit the switch in front of BFG!

There will teleport LOTS of demons, spectres, plus an archvile AND a cyberdemon! What I did was spam BFG and took care of most demons (plus the archvile) quickly, though annoyingly, some demons managed to roll max RNG from the bites, bringing me down to 100 and less before I retreated to the starting area where I took care of the leftover 10 or so enemies. Of course some of them (demon/spectre and lost souls) managed to open the door and try to ambush me, so I was camping for a couple minutes in starting room and taking cover. I was at 79% health and still had a decent green armor remaining from the previous level, meaning it's probably a better thing I ended up with a green armor that lasts longer than the blue armor that would have been mostly gone at this point (by blue armor, I am referring to a half used one, not a full 200% one that lasts a long time, had I ended up conserving more than 100% blue armor in previous level).

Unfortunately at one point, while I'm shooting with SSG at the cyber that managed to approach the door, one of the times he fired rockets at me (most times the rockets didn't harm me), his rockets' explosion hits the door and actually kills me once! Ouch! Well, it looks like I finally managed to die after all. Reloading the save in disappointment, I try to kill the cyber after receiving another explosion (though this time surviving) and eventually my last BFG shot manages to take him out and grab a medkit while I'm taking a screenshot, though it seems the Cyber's body is not seen in the screenshot, oh well.

After that, there were still few demons remaining, I had to find them and punch them with the berserk which I just picked it up, still ended up taking a bit of damage from their bites (it is quite difficult to punch demons in vanilla compatible ports) and my green armor was almost gone at this point, meaning once again it was a wise decision to end up with the weaker armor this time around, since the level seemed to have a decent amount of health available. Once done with clearing the monsters and grabbing medkits, I manage to reach exit, shoot the button that raises the bridge to blue armor (or unlocks the secret exit), grab the light amp, grab the soulsphere and blue armor and go to the secret exit that opened at the START of the level! Overall, not bad with only one death, I suppose it could have been much worse but I kinda wish the cyber got stuck and bitten by pinkies, as it happened to other people. I guess the cybers just don't want to cooperate when I am playing. :P

 

MAP32: Devonian

The second secret map! Although this map is much longer than any map so far, it is actually easier than previous map, as now it is bright and you can actually see what's ahead of you! The map is jungle themed, possibly Plutonia inspired. There are many interesting traps happening, though I somehow handled the first part of the map without taking a single hit (meaning I got very lucky with hitscanners and avoiding all kinds of projectiles) until the part with the red key trap that when grabbing it, reveals a bunch of monsters that managed doing a bit of damage to me, so then I ran away in a safe place and picked them off with SSG/chaingun or whatever. The blue key trap was much easier since I just ran away when the trap happened, though it was just a few cacos and imps, nothing too bad. The real fight happens at the end when a Cyberdemon will get revealed on top of the ledge and can snipe you, though I was careful to avoid all the rockets, progress slowly and try to kill monsters around me first (and when something was revealed, step back and hide and wait for monsters to come if they are moving from their location) and THEN the cyber with my Plasma rifle by approaching him on the ground level, though it took a while since sometimes the plasma wouldn't aim at him, so I had to be precise with my shots! After that, with no more cyber around, I was able to progress safely without worrying about having to think about the cyber firing at me. I also grabbed the invisibility that may have helped when I grabbed the yellow skull key, which spawned a bunch of monsters, including an archvile, which I managed to take it down quick just a few seconds after it teleported (with rockets and plasma), so it wouldn't create chaos while I'm fighting the various monsters that teleported, though some of them were fighting each other. It was all going flawlessly, until I somehow manage to run into a non-homing revenant projectile that does max dmg, knocking me down from 158 to 118% health (with blue armor). I find funny how the rare times I get hit, it has to be the max damage projectile, at least most of the time. :P

Alright, after I was done, I noticed there are 2 enemies remaining. I wonder who could be? It turns out there was an archvile (as expected) and a zombieman in the exit room, funnily enough. Using the BFG took care of them quickly. Well obviously the BFG was for the archvile, as there was plentiful cell ammo and ended up with 600 cells anyway.

There are 6 secrets to find, 4 of which I found myself and the other 2 (an early plasma and the BFG near end of level) I had to look on YouTube to see where they are, so I can have 100% everything. The BFG secret also contained a very useful blue armor, so I can end the map with 200% H/A.

 

MAP16: Hypatia

Now back to the Heretic/Hexen styled maps, it seems you start in a library (as how MAP15 would have normally ended) and you are now in a town. There are many monsters at start waiting for you, so what I did was wake them up and camp at starting room with taking a bit of damage occasionally. It seems when some of the demons/spectres managed to get into the starting room, they teleported away, probably on the outside area. Not exactly sure but I did indeed notice monster teleporting lines on the automap, so I thought that monsters would teleport here in the starting room instead of the other way around. After I was able to kill 50 or so monsters, I proceed further. Eventually you have to take the lift and make your way on the roof until you get the yellow skull key. Doing so will reveal many monsters, so after a bit of camping at starting room and waiting for monsters, I ended up running through the whole level in circles and that worked well enough, while I was firing at enemies until they were all dead. Once done, I entered the door with the yellow key and ended up on roof again, this time platforming and strafing to get some bonuses, the invisibility and the red skull key. Once again more monsters revealed, repeating the running in circles until they are dead and then proceeding to the last room. I ended up using Plasma a bit and this time I decided to use the BFG for a while, which definitely helped in the last room with the mancubi, as well as all those various monsters that got revealed upon grabbing the blue skull key. I didn't grab the soulsphere (and the blue armor seen earlier) until the end of level, so after I was done killing everyone, I was trying to figure out how to get that BFG secret. In meantime I found the other secret (the backpack secret) hidden in a water pillar or whatever was it, it wasn't solid and you could walk through it, so it was funny. Then after wondering how to get the BFG (including trying to shoot at a glass seen on the roof), I noticed a ledge that leads to the BFG and that ledge becomes accessible AFTER the final trap gets revealed, so I'm not sure why you get the BFG right at end but hey, it's more ammo, I would gladly take it and score 100% everything! Then I found out you have to hop from those pillars to the platform to get the blue armor, so I did that and ended up with 200% H/A once again at end of level! Cool stuff!

 

MAP17: Ugarit

Much like the previous level, the fights aren't too difficult and you are being offered just the right amount of supplies needed. Though this level doesn't contain the blue armor, instead there are many health & armor bonuses and the soulsphere secret. And two green armors I guess. There are two secrets to find: soulsphere and BFG, which are both easily found. To reach the BFG inside the castle, get on the ledge where imps used to be and shoot that switch, then go back to beginning, as that teleporter behind you is now available! It will teleport you on the place where BFG is found! The soulsphere should be saved for later. I tried conserving the bonuses but I ended up picking up most of them at 200% health/armor as they were mostly placed on the way. As for the fights, there's traps happening at certain points but nothing too dangerous, plus the last room which contains a bunch of enemies might seem a bit tricky, though camping at the door seems the best solution in dealing with them, at least without taking damage. The real highlight is the last fight, when grabbing the blue skull key (guarded by two mancubi) as lights turn off and a bunch of monsters will teleport or simply get revealed from the wall. What I did was knowing that a trap will happen, so I ran as fast as I could while I grabbed the key and while a demon tried to block my way to the door, it got BFG'ed (as I had BFG selected just in case). It seemed a bit of a waste of shot but after that I switched to SSG, chaingun and plasma. Some monsters tried to overwhelm me in the previous room where I was waiting for them but thankfully I didn't take too much damage and still ended up with 172 blue armor at the end of the level. I was expecting an archvile at end, though there wasn't any. Perhaps for the better...

 

Deaths (so far): 1 (MAP31)

 

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

UV, Pistol-start

 

Map 17: Ugarit

 

Oh dude. I had to restart on three occasions before I finally found the patience to circle around and wait for infighting to happen. Think ammo was tightly controlled in the previous maps? Think again. I think that even if you were playing continuous that shooting at the Imps above you would be a bad idea. Shoot some of the pinkies, but you can probably get at least a few of them to attack the hitscanners on the surrounding stairs. At some point, you'll be able to grab the rocket launcher in the cave with the yellow key door to the right of the entrance. And it's not really the hell knights you'll need it for. Head to the switch at the top of the stairs and when you cross the ledge closest to it, you trigger a pair of monster closets with a Pain Elemental and some Cacodemons. Press the switch to lower the platforms with the Imps to reduce the amount of ammo you'll have to spend, though you can go ahead and rocket the delinquent. Not far behind the yellow door is a pair of Revenants that you can probably chaingun, though I did end up running back to the portal entrance to get away from a homing rocket. At the end of this hallway is a Baron of Hell. I think you're supposed to shotgun him, but I was able to run around and push a switch, opening a monster closet with a Manicubus and Imps, as well as a Berserk Pack and a bullet box. You'll probably have to shoot the Manicubus since you have no room to circle-strafe. Once everyone is dead, you can then head to the ledge they came from, turn around, and see an alcove containing a BFG9000 and a switch at the end. Shooting the switch opens a passage to your left which leads to a Supercharge you saw through a window earlier. It also opens a teleporter in the start room to the BFG, but I didn't realize this until I had finished the map and searched the rest of the map for some sort of clue.

 

Anyways, open the door you see into a courtyard which you should not enter right away unless you want to be left high and dry. There are 2 Chaingunners and Cacodemons each, along with some Imps on the surrounding ledges. There's also an Arachnotron on top of a ledge, though you probably won't meet him until nearly everyhing else is dead. I did end up missing the second chaingunner because of him. I also attempted firing at them from below, which is a bad idea because you waste too much ammo that way. Granted, you'll have plenty of shotgun shells soon, but it was just kind of dumb.

 

Anyway, I entered the square room to the left of where you first entered, disposed of the Manicubi, and then picked up all of the ammo surrounding the structure with the blue key. Picking the key up doesn't crush you I think, but it does turn all the lights out and opens up the largest ambush on the map. This won't be too hard with a BFG, but I ended up dying twice to Revenant rockets more from bad luck than anything because for once, pinkies blocking me had nothing to do with it. You've got plenty of ammo, so you should probably do better than I did.

 

So I may be depressed as anything, but the openness of these past few maps really helps reduce the grind of the combat.

[Pseudonaut]

Map17: FDA in 8:25 (No deaths)

z417FDA825.zip

 

A bit more threatening than 16, and I found it pretty enjoyable overall. I think the fight at 5:18 would be better without all the hitscan. In this case I had hardly any choice but to camp the door until they were dead, otherwise I could just rush in. I'm sure it would be different if I figured out how to grab the secret BFG, though. Either way, the start is really the deadliest part since there's so much exposure to hitscan and no armor (at least not immediately), but I was lucky enough to survive.

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/Blind/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 16 - Hypatia

100% kills and secrets

Time: 14:01

 

This is almost like map 31, except you can see. It's another wide open, city-ish level, but this time most of the opposition is out in the open and not hiding. Not to say that this WAD's tropes of opening a monster closet and having demons teleport to random areas isn't a thing, cause it is, and will happen every time you grab a key. But the fact that almost everyone can see you makes combat a little more intense than normal. There's a rocket launcher in the bottom right corner, and a plasma in the first monster closet, so make sure you grab those when possible. I admit, I had to watch Biodegradable's video to figure out the BFG secret, since I spent like 5 minutes trying to figure it out, and in hindsight, I should have been able to figure that out. But since I'm playing continuous, I already had a BFG, which made the last 2 monster closets trivial, and definitely helps with the archvile in the last one (can you access the BFG before this closet opens?). The openness of this level makes it one of the best maps so far, and the jaunty, medieval MIDI gives it a nice atmosphere. 

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP17 - "Ugarit" (100%K/98%I/50%S):

Reminds me of The Ice Grotto map in Heretic, great map that was, this one resembles the early maps in the episode, where there are two or three areas connected, and some fights, both the starting and the final fights are pretty punishing, specially if you are pistol starting, yet again, Paul is not giving us any ammo to deal with monsters, making this map even more painful, the worst part is that you can see the BFG right there, yet, I don't even know how to get it, some linedef lowering the platform or something, I don't know. 
 

Deaths: 97 (UV Continuous/Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:

Spoiler

 

MAP14
MAP31

MAP10
MAP15
MAP16
MAP11
MAP09

MAP08
MAP04

MAP17

MAP02
MAP13
MAP07
MAP06
MAP05

MAP12
MAP03
MAP01

MAP32**

 

 

[DuckReconMajor]

Map 17: Ugarit - dsda-doom - skill 4

 

Start with a face full of GREETINGS MORTAL

Managed another survival. Cut it close though.

The area behind the yellow door was surprisingly bright. Which made sense later somewhat when the walls opened up, but still was an odd lighting choice. Still, that combined with the shape of the room I found quite pleasing, even if i would have drawn the shades a bit.

This map features another instance of 🤮arachnotron🤮 which I managed to work around for the most part

 

Spoiler

 

 

[dei_eldren]

MAP18 - Halla (HNTR, continuous, blind 2nd attempt): K 100%, I 92%, S 100%, T 10:59, D 0

 

Spoiler

A stone fortification.  The whole area of the map is quite small, but the progression is such that it is a true adventure, with new areas opening many times during the course of the exploration and killing, and the result does not feel small in size, overtly linear, nor rote by any measure.  There's a central structure, surrounded by a path on ground level, and surrounding walls that function as walkways, and at first, one door in the wall, for which the YSK must first be collected.  After this, the area is opened up ever more in few stages, with always more monsters coming either from closets or teleporting in (as they teleport quite liberally, it's hard to tell at times.)

 

The final fight is where my first attempt ended, as there are included in the mix several Revenants, and i didn't have the presence of mind to take out the BFG9000.  One problem with rockets are the clandestine Spectres, who sometimes get in the way as if they were ghosts.  i managed to kill some under the impression i was aiming at a totally different enemy, without any clue of the Spectres existence.  A frustrating situation i must find a solution for.

 

There is quite enough health and armor around to save the secret Megasphere to the end, continuous runners having thus full health and armor going into the next map.  Despite the quasi-slaughter scenes, this was a really enjoyable map for me.  As intense as it gets, on HNTR it never gets despairing, like in too many modern WADs for my taste, so i think the implementation of the difficulty-levels has been impeccable, whilst i still wish i had had the guts to play the whole WAD on HMP, and yet, this is precisely the kind of map why i wouldn't do it. :P

 

 

[Book Lord]

MAP 18 – Halla

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

 

This one was a big turning point in the WAD, at least for my play-through. Not only it had an awkward start, where I had to fail some attempts before figuring out a strategy, but it featured an intense escalation of wicked assaults without places to hide or ways to exploit the environment for protection.

 

Halla’s initial appearance was that of a small fort, surrounded by a rectangular moat and ledge on the perimeter. Obviously, the fort and the ledge were teeming with snipers and the moat, at ground floor, was like an obstacle race with zombies and Demons. I swallowed two inglorious deaths before remembering my experience with E4M2 of Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders: in such a situation, you can run around the structure in circles and dispense death, but do not stop for any reason. In Heretic you can do that without a scratch, but Doom hitscanners will surely make you bleed.

Spoiler

However, I entered the fort and made short work of its beefy defenders, then I gained access to the ledge and followed it to the YSK. Before I could take it both southern corners of the ledge lowered to reveal big chambers behind them, full of critters with some Revenants and Hell Knights to boot. I retreated to the nearby north-eastern corner and handled the situation from there. I did all right, but it was difficult to avoid the shots of all those former humans.

Spoiler

The room with the BSK had the typical looks of a sophisticated trap. I was ready to run like hell, but I took the wrong direction and rushed through an army of hitscanners, who promptly gunned me down like game. I tried again and chose to run back to the yellow door and up to my trusted north-eastern corner, which helped dealing with this second wave of aggressors as well. The north-western corner and more closets in the BSK chamber had been revealed, releasing more hit points than the previous ambush.

 

It seemed the map had opened itself enough, and I even found the uncomplicated Megasphere secret. The exit demanded the RSK though, which I took with bated breath. I was right, there was a third wave coming, this time with a bunch of Revenants, three Mancubi appearing at the corners, a plethora of mid-/low-tiers and the most feared of them all: the Arch-Vile. The battlefield was so littered with corpses that he had an embarrassing wealth of choices. I struggled a lot with this encounter, because the RSK position was not practical for attacking and I had to move on, but the Revenants would always find me with their homing missiles. The abused NE corner was too far and into AV line of sight, so I must try many routes and alternatives. Eventually a Mancubus enraged the Arch-Vile and this gave me the time window to blast him with rockets.

Spoiler

Phew! This was a clear step up in difficulty and required a lot of trial and error to survive its bloody battles. The teleporting lines arrangement was perfect: it created unpredictable monster movements that ensured no flight path was safe. A good candidate for the best map in the second episode, but there are still two more to go before the real hell begins.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP31: Spooky

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

The first secret level of Zone 400 takes the place of a small city level drenched in darkness, with a dark ambient sort of midi in the background. The place is peaceful apart from a couple of monsters, but chaos breaks out once some switches are hit, and the area is flooded with pinkies and spectres, with some cacos and a pain elemental flying around, and a cyberdemon an archvile as well. Luckily though, you are well equipped. The rockets thin the herd nicely, but you don't have many of them and it's easy to take a facerocket on a spectre in the darkness. Once you're out of rockets, you can get to BFGing the most problematic foes that are left-over, and SSG the leftover. 

 

It's a pretty simple and easy level if you're liberal with your weapon usage, but I really liked it. It was a nice kind of mini slaughter, and a nice stylistic break from the rest of the wad, ideal as a secret level.

 

MAP32: Devonian

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 3/6 secrets

 

Here we see a hard juke in the other direction. Where the last level was the darkest and gloomiest level in the wad up to this point, this is the brightest and most vibrant, a level thick with vegetation and with a bright blue sky. As the intermission text notes, this is the one level to break the 400 linedef limit, and while it's not an hour long epic or anything it is a bit of a longer level than the previous ones, and contains 233 monsters in total. The opening stretch is open and heavy on ammo hunting, leaving you to scrounge up the ammo scattered around the area so that you can take care of all the threats that are roaming around, and that teleport in once you've approached both of the switches. 

 

After some scrounging around inside a brown castle, the level's last arena is a doozy. It's a wide open and watery canyon sort of area, with a fair few monsters scattered around, including a cyberdemon on a ledge. There's not a lot of options for safety in this area, so you can expect to take a decent bit of damage (especially if you grab the blursphere like I did!). Even after clearing out the area, accessing the yellow key causes it to repopulate with more enemies, including a potentially nasty archvile. A fun and deadly arena that I really enjoyed.

 

Big fan of both secret levels, they filled their spots admirably.