Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #016

[ICID]

^{(logo by @4MaTC)}

  

ICID, what the hell is this now?

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

 

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

 

So, what do we do here?

1. Play at least 5 random WADs in a two-week period of time. WADs are selected using the Random File feature on /idgames or from the list below.
2. Post a review of each WAD. There’s no required pacing (you can do all 5 on the first day if you want), but most of us post a review once every 1-2 days.
3. Please take screenshots or video of your adventures.
4. Play however you want, on any skill level, and with any source port, as long as you play the WAD as intended/in working shape.
5. Review with integrity - be respectful. Good rule of thumb: making fun of a map is okay, making fun of the mapper is not.

 

What kind of WADs are we looking for?

Mostly singleplayer Doom or Heretic WADs that work in your sourceport(s) of choice. You can skip DM WADs if you don’t have anyone to play with. I also pull at least 7 random WADs for the event and add them here. Feel free to play them with me if you wish, or look for your own! The point of the event is to encourage you to explore this vast, random world.

 

Tips/recommendations for commenting/reviewing:

Spoiler

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

 

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures of this event:

1. GARDEN
2. What Lurks Beneath Base12?
3. Hell's Gate and Hell's Alley
4. Another Bloody Chapter
5. HEADLESS CROSS
6. Nine anomaly's bug free edition
7. ODESSA 3: "Fade To Gray"

 

Spoiler

The Top 10 (out of 26)

 

1. @Roofi | 1940
2. @Sena | 795
3. @Walter confetti | 410
4. @Endless | 320
5. @ICID | 320
6. @LUISDooM | 235
7. @smeghammer | 185
8. @Maribo | 145
9. @LadyMistDragon | 135
10. @Biodegradable | 105

 

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

 

» Previous adventures:

Spoiler

1. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #001

2. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #002

3. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #003

4. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #004

5. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #005

6. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #006

7. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #007

8. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #008

9. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #009

10. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #010

11. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #011

12. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #012

13. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #013

14. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #014

15. Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #015

 

Edited September 23, 2021 by ICID : added high scores

[ICID]

A few notes on the new thread:

1. After I had several people asking me to clarify how the event works last time, I tried to re-write the rules a bit to make it more clear. For those of you who've been here before, the rules are the same as they've always been - only the copy explaining them has changed.
2. I am currently away from my home and my usual computer, celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, and I forgot to bring the hard drive with all my Doom stuff on it with me. This drive contains the scores for the ER/iWA, which means I am currently unable to calculate those. My bad! I will update the OP with the new high scores before the end of the week and I apologize for any inconvenience in the meantime.
3. For the same reason as point 2, I will be unable to review anything myself for a few days - but I'll catch up later, and in the meantime I'm sure the many incredibly talented writers of the ER/iWA will more than make up for my absence! :)

[thiccyosh]

Oh bouy, my favorite time of the month!

 

The first wad out of the bat is Aarrghh! (source https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/a-c/aarrghh )

 

A Doom 1993 wad with 4 levels (and 5 placeholder levels? Yeah, I don't know either) making it half a normal Doom episode. It was released in 1994 before Doom 2 (9-June-1994)! So I will go less rough on it, considering the standard of a good wad back in 94' with the tools they used.

 

I played E1M1 on UV with dsda-doom.

 

I have to say, this is a pretty decent start. Sure you start in a non-square big and empty room with one Baron with only a pea-shooter without any other weapon but the rest is only half as bad. This level has a high enemy count, berserk and a Cyberdemon turret. Which may sound boring and uncreative  at first was a huge deal back in 94, especially Cyberdemons were a huge threat, I mean they still are but you get the idea in what time this was released. Though some things are a bit of a thorn in my eye. The texturing is random, you start with marble, then wood and then have red bricks all over the place with a hint of lime and compblue techbase, you have to tickle the Cyberdemon-turret with a shotgun and a small handful of rockets while shotgunners hole-punch you with their shotguns and with limited health that is going to be a bit of a pain if you don't find one of the ten secrets, with me only finding about two or so. Spoilers: Unless you find it fun touching walls until you'll get to be a registered wall-offender, you have to IDDT the secrets, and you'll want to as this level only has one secret chaingun, and you want that chaingun. Believe me.

 

The rest is straight forward, gently persuade Imps to go back where they came from, berserk punch pinkies into small piles of putrid pulp, make ketchup of out Cacos and slap them meaty Barons-buns~

 

One room however lives in my mind rent free now, and that is the Lost Soul room where you can go ham with berserk. And, might be the first time a rocket jump was ever built into a wad. A Pwad to be more accurate, as E3M6 in DOOM had one (even though you could strafe over to the exit without invul rocket jumping). And that rocket jump isn't easy, as the 20 dmg inescapeable pit is large and you don't get an invul for it. Nice about this red brick room is that you can punch Lost Souls without them fighting back! If you hate Lost Souls (like me),  you should give this level a try!

 

I give this wad (or level) 3.5 out of 5 snakes in boxes.

 

You know what happens next.

 

 

(The first screenshot is from the second level in case you play this wad for yourself)

(This is the rocket-jump room in case you're wondering.)  |

                                                                                   V

[Sena]

Day 1: GARDEN https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/a-c/bmgarden

 

Talk about a bad start. You can ignore what I said the other day about how you can make flat levels consisting entirely of squares still interesting, because this isn't one of them. A confusing maze that all uses the same ass-grass texture, save for one secret room which didn't have a wall or floor, and just the incidental pinky, who might be tough if it wasn't so long. Nothing else to say, it's confusing, it's boring, and I would find it impossible to find one positive quality. 1/10, I cannot at all conceive anyone enjoying this in any way, not unless you're a fan of bananaland.

[thiccyosh]

Next map: The UAC Water Refinery - Part 2 (saucer: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/themes/terrywads/urfinry2 )

 

A terry wad you cannot beat. 0 out of 5 eaten clocks.

 

If you want want a real and honest review: I refuse, and if I will only give a half-assed one.

 

I played this on UV in dsda-doom.  This wad gives you a bit of foreplay with a standard tech-base with nice visuals and then rips your nuts off with a pair of  pliers by putting in a penis-shaped Terry room. This could have been a decent level if it weren't for the Terry room. I'm sorry to say this, given the rules I have to follow, but fuck. This. Map. This is a joyless waste of time. Do not play this map, ever.

 

Note to the dungon master known as ICID: do not count this review towards my useless points. I beg you. Or remove this review if you want to.

 

I'm not gonna bother putting screenshots here, it's that crap.

 

 

[thiccyosh]

*sigh* Guys this can't get any worse, can it?

 

Entering: Soaked in Blood  ( Sour milk: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/s-u/sib )

 

I played map E1M1 on UV with dsda-doom.

 

Woah, this took an unexpected turn, a map that is really good! This wad takes some visuals from Ultimate Doom and remixes them. E1M1 in this wad, according to the mapper, was just like E1M1 in Doom 1993, bulit last. And boy it doesn't disappoint. Kickass midi (Well, it's vanilla anyways), kickass level design and a feast for the eyes if you're into oldschool visuals with kickass zombie and Imp killing with a shotgun. All of that creamy Doom goodness. It takes everything Romero did in E1 (yes, even the feature of everytime you can look outside, you can go outside) and refreshes them with new ideas and modernises them. What I think should be changed is adding fewer enemies in secrets, but that's only a minor point if you have this much fun.

 

What else is to say other than it's E1, but in better. And from what I have seen it only has one episode so if you're curious you should give this a try (Given these are nine maps)!

 

I give this wad 4.8 out of 5 sweaty Mancubus socks. Play it now or else.

 

And the rest enjoys these screenshots.

 

[Roofi]

Thanks for the new thread again !

 

Month 5 Day 2

 

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

 

File 1) Q3 Arena floors and walls by Chris "Dragon" Pisarczyk (2000)

Quote

I finally got my grimy paws on a copy of the Retail copy of Q3A, and got 113 textures and 37 flats out of the PK3 file(3 which use the ANIMDEFS lump for Zdoom).

 

A texture pack for quake addicts. I just played Quake 3 Arena once in my life so I dont know the potential of the textures. I checked them on slade and they look really great but I don't think you can make a lot of themes with it contrary to some popular resource packs like OTEX.

 

File 2) spooky03.WAD, issue 1 by Richard Wiles (1999)

Spoiler

Quote

You need a registered version of Ultimate DooM to play this. 140 kb when unzipped.

Hmmm....this one's not very Spooky at all - but what's in a name? Made in the classic "Ultimate DooM" style. No source port needed. SEND ME YOUR DEMO'S !!! (preferrably in zdoom v1.17)

 

The name "Richard Wiles" is familiar to me but I never had the occasion until now to play a level from him.

 

Spooky03 is a E4-style Ultimate Doom map replacing E4M3 which consists to a tense compact fortress made mainly of wood and marble. Episode 4 has always been considered as a particularly tougher episode than the others in Ultimate Doom , and spooky03 perfectly followed this rule.

 

Richard Wiles proved you with this level that it's far from being impossible to create a difficult level with the restricted bestiary of Doom 1. Crampedness and items restrictions are the keys to make the monsters and especially the barons more threatening. I almost died multiple times due to repeated ambushes involving barons and cacos.

 

However, the level is not frustrating because it is well designed. The layout is intuitive with lots of interconnectivity with teleporters. As said before, it is quite small and compact. Aesthetically, it's very well done but nothing special to say except that it's very faithful to episode 4.

 

Very good 1999 level. (However an idgames comment said it's from 1996).

 

File 3) JennyDoom for Doom1. by I know who I am and I'M sure you do too. (1997)

Quote

Regular Doom but with some new wall textures. I wonder who these pics are of.????

 

I don't know how I'm supposed to launch  this. There is no wad file but exes and lot of GIF. It's an X-rated wad so GIF files consist to badly converted pixelated pictures of nude girls. Forget yourporn or pornhub, real men go on idgames in the "i_am_old_enough_to_look_at_this" section instead.

 

File 4) Skinship by Michal @Lorenz0 Kurowski (2020)

 

Spoiler

Quote

Skinship is a large map for GZDoom with four new custom monsters, replacements for the cacodemon, imp, hellknight and baron of hell. They were all taken from realm667 and modified by me for balance's sake. Freelook is recommended. Dynamic lights should be turned on. Otherwise, important switches could be missed.

The textures used are a mix of default ones, MISCTEX and Doom Potpourri. There are a few textures from outside of those packs, made by ChaingunnerX, BLAZING_DUST, Absorbed Hatch.

 

This map is very familiar to me. Indeed, I died in the yellow key trap in Day 25 and to be honest , it was one of the easiest part traps in the level haha. I only played Alienated from Lorenzo a few years ago and I really liked it. I enjoyed Skinship as well which has a similar style with an exploration-oriented level rythmed with big fights at the most important parts.

 

Skinship has nothing related to an actual ship but a sort of giant hellish tech-base located in mountains full of blood. You start in a huge central tower and you have to find 3 skulls keys in an undetermined order. The thing I liked the most in the map , I think , was the tall architecture and the gzdoom effects like bloodpools where you can swim, floating platforms, mirrors (even if I thought that an evil marine was shooting at me at the beginning....) Gameplay was fun and challenging without being too sadistic but I have some personal complaints about custom enemies.

 

Aesthetically-wise , the level made me appreciate the pale beige skin textures. I'm usually not a fan of them in doom levels but this managed well to exploit them and create an interesting combo between metal and flesh. I absolutely digged the eyes textures. However, some areas felt a bit underdetailed to me, especially the wider ones and some textures were globally quite misaligned.

 

The wad uses the same music as "Altitude" by Tourniquet so I can't help but make an analogy with this map. I really like this midi which perfectly fits in an exploration-oriented level. The non-linear gameplay and the big fights in closed places separated by more calm passages reminded me of this level.

 

Concerning the gameplay, I have a mixed opinions about custom monsters. I think adding some can improve the gameplay value. However, I have to say , I hated the red baron with a passion. It's more a matter a taste I recognized , but I found their attacks more annoying than really dangerous.The other ones were ok but not truely memorable in my opinion.

 

Nevertheless, it was a very good and ambitious map.

 

 

I stop here for today.

[Lorenz0]

@Roofi

 

I'm pretty proud of Skinship, as it contains a lot of ideas I really liked and executed well, but it's also really flawed. It's an experiment in many ways. It was my first time using custom monsters, which I had to nerf significantly from their original r667 versions, but they still turned out to be pretty strong lol

 

Having swimmable water in your map is such an outlandish idea to most players that many gzdoom mappers don't even try to use that feature, as it's really hard to use well and I definitely experienced that for myself in this one. Its purpose in Skinship is mostly decorative, except for the big fight at the end of one of the paths where it's used for slowing down your movement during combat. I honestly love that fight, but I found the swimmable water gimmick too hard to execute well consistently so I abandoned that idea afterwards. It's not even consistent within this one map.

 

I agree that I left some areas too underdetailed, or architecturally insufficient in general. The level looks good for the most part, but I couldn't nail the texture use everywhere. If I made this map today, I'd definitely find a better use for that cool eye texture you mentioned, for example.

 

I think I grew a bit as a mapper since then, so if you're interested in playing more of my work, you could check out my recently completed wad  Perpetual Powers. Though I know you're not a fan of OTEX, so maybe this one's not for you.

 

Anyway, thanks for the review, it was a very welcome surprise :)

[Sena]

Day 2: What Lurks Beneath Base12? https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/a-c/base12

 

3 levels, although I only played one, because, as bad of an idea as it may seem at times, I'm here to try and have fun. This WAD came out in 2004, but it feels more in line with something released a decade earlier, I suppose I should give them credit for being long relative to the time of release at 250 enemies, and precisely one good looking area, but I don't think I could find much else to say about it that's positive. In a sense, it's somewhat remarkable that it goes from a techbase to hell in the same level, but I'd have a hard time describing it positively when it just happens, it doesn't really emit an atmosphere of either, feels more like going from a white killing house to a red one.

This map might not be painful the way GARDEN is, just quintessentially lifeless and boring. Huge arenas which contain 5 enemies leading me to just give up and go pacifist after about 10 minutes, excessive backtracking, an extended area of stairs with nothing in them, to be more particular stairs with the ceiling so high you hit your head and completely stop all momentum every time you make a step. In summary, it's got a ton of issues that make a boring amateur map a boring amateur map, with nothing to make up for it, with all the red I was under the impression this takes place in hell, but it feels more like purgatory. 3/10.

 

[ICID]

13 hours ago, thiccyosh said:

A terry wad you cannot beat...Note to the dungon master known as ICID: do not count this review towards my useless points. I beg you. Or remove this review if you want to.

 

 

 

I won't if you really want me to, but as a general rule, I actually give bonus points for surviving a Terry trap if you want em.

[Endless]

The bravery needed to dive deep into one of those WADs is already worthy.

[thiccyosh]

The next wad idgames pulled from the trash was Bobcat Doom2 (  Crtl V : https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/a-c/bobcatd2 )

 

I played this in UV with... GZdoom. This is getting interesting.

 

Everytime I tried to play this with dsda it would crash and burn due to some subsectors missing. What a level.

 

This level is so lazy, boring and short that I have to give it a short review. Believe me when I say I don't like writing short reviews here but what else am I supposed to write, when this level is unbeatable due to a broken linedef, only has 16 monsters with three of them in an unmarked hallway so you have to iddt them or already know where they are, and has leveldesign so flat with boring texturing it makes E4M6 look like a masterpiece, but without d_runnin runnin in the back.

 

0 out of 5 trash cats. Utter garbage. And the map maker knows it himself.

 

It's not even funny, just look at these screenshots.

 

 

 

[thiccyosh]

Before I talk about the next wad, take a good look at those screenshots.

 

 

 

Took a good look at it? Good because from all of the other I wads I showed you here this is my favorite one by a mile.

 

This is Esselfortium's Birthday Cave ( pasta: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/d-f/essel11 )

 

I played this on UV with dsda-doom.

 

Most of this level is grade-A stuff. The atmosphere with the soothing midi in the back, the level design with the natural landscape outside the cavesystem made with vanilla textures, the fights. Everything is just great. But, there is one thing, this thing just slightly bothers about this wad. Everytime you progress in this level, other parts you've just visited get locked behind you, meaning you cannot backtrack to kill monsters you might have missed, hence the no clipping off message in one of the screenshots.

 

Health and ammo are plentyful, but not too much for this level to be easy, at least if you punch everything including Cacos during your first about three minutes into this level. Why? You need the 50 pistol ammo to kill the Imps on the ledges and you won't be able to reach them with berserk and you get the normal shotgun after the Imp-ledge area, a bit of an oddball but I don't mind punching Revenants and Hell Knights so it's fine by me.

 

One fights sticks to my mind when I think back playing this about 10 minutes ago, the red rock area with the party of monsters ambushing you. You get the rocket launcher and the SSG, go ham. I love it.

 

I feel it would ruin the magic of this level to tell you what makes it so good to look at, so I'd recommend playing this wad if you have about 10 minutes to kill, this is one of the politest wads you'll play today. I give this wad 4.9 out of 5 friendly and polite car crashes.

 

Thank god I didn't have to end with a Terry wad. This week was a total train-wreck of wads. Who made the algorithem for the random files of idgames anyways? A Bandicoot?

[Roofi]

Month 5 Day 3

 

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

 

File 1) GANYMEDE by Robert Kacsich (1996)

 

Spoiler

Quote

The year is... - well, take your favorite year from the future. You are a student at Ganymede University of Technology, experimenting with time travel. By mistake you travel about 50 years into the future. You had learned earlier from a history book which had been brought back from the future that at that time Ganymede will be taken over by a military regime, using your University as headquarters. Fight your way through Ganymede Tech and find the time port that will bring you back to your time...

 

Do not be confused with the megawad "Base Ganymede" !

 

GANYMEDE is a kind of a pseudo-slaughtermap for Doom 1 full of zombiemen and imps to endlessly shoot with your boomstick. At the beginning , I expected nothing about this map because it looked like many other dull levels I already played but in the end I got pleasantly surprised by the size of the level and the presence of "realistic" kama sutra-like locations.

 

The author used one of the most popular dramatic musical compositions called "Carmina Burana" , which sounds more amusing than terryfing. I laughed a bit when I saw the big speaking room and the public swimming pool full of stucked shotgunners in the stands. Except those parts , the architect is extremly generic with a boxy layout. 

 

Concerning the progression, it's the classic "Find three keys in a determined order" so the map proved to be pretty lenghty. Plan on 20 minutes of intense shotgunning. However , you can meet only one cyberdemon which was totally skippable because stucked in a totally optional area... Also there was only one baron which is  obviously not afraid to speak in public.

 

I want to say this map was pretty badly designed but I had a lot of fun on it . I would like to replay it someday for sure. I really become an addict of the old 90's slaughterwads which mainly consist to regular maps overfilled with monsters.

 

Good little find.

 

 

One of the most stupid deaths I have ever had on ER/iW. I got killed by a hidden cyber whereas being in a room full of megaspheres.... from the jokewad  SPACIA: A Silly DOOM space advanture.

 

 

Spoiler

 

[Sena]

Day 3: Hell's Gate and Hell's Alley https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/g-i/hlzwadz

 

Not too unlike yesterday's, this WAD's opening level is characterised by two main features, a confusing layout, and unremarkable gameplay, matter of fact, it's so unremarkable, I'm not even going to talk about it, because there's nothing to say. The only thing I can really mention is the level layout which I had to give up on after about 20% kills, because, despite my best efforts, I was boxed in with nowhere to go, no matter how many times I pressed the few switches and doors open to me, nothing would happen, strangely there were some elevators along the edges that didn't actually take me anywhere, but I'm not bothered. The second level is more of the same, and while I want to say it's better because they did some interesting things with the lighting, but it's completely negated by the enemy placement, which can be basically summarised by "put a chaingunner behind every single fucking corner", feels like fighting the Viet Cong, it's arduous, it's tiresome, it's got the same directional issues as the last map, and once you've played it for 10 seconds, you've seen all it has to show you, and it's nothing worth staying around for. 3/10.

[ICID]

High scores have now been added to the OP! Thanks for your patience, everyone.

[Nikoxenos]

SERIOUS.WAD by James Relunia (1995)

 

A pretty solid 5-10 minute map with three keys and multi-skill monsters. Very enjoyable classic style map. It feels very Doom 1-esque however a Mancubus, Revenant and Archvile spice things up a little on UV. Modern players would definitely consider this an easy map, but it was just enough for me. Secrets were very obvious and there is one confusing stair section with Chaingunners that is just weird. Video here.

 

 

[Endless]

@Nikoxenos Well, well, well, well, well, well, well. Kewl.

[Sena]

Day 4: Another Bloody Chapter https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/p-r/pc_abt

 

A map by @pcorf, perhaps best known for Zone 300 and its recent follow-up Zone 400, which also happen to be the only other WADs of his I've played. The man might not be the most famous mapper out there, but if my experience is anything to go by, he certainly knows how to consistently make good levels, of which this is no exception.

 

If there's something that I think characterises pcorf's maps, it is being simple in their construction, he's not the kind of mapper that likes to pull the rug out from under you, or to abuse fake walls and the like, so perhaps it's appropriate that this map abbreviates to ABC. Not a bad thing at all, matter of fact, despite what I just said, there's plenty of variety in the encounters, there's typically something that prevents each encounter from being completely harmless, and forgettable as a byproduct, whether it's toxic floors, restrictive hallways, or just finding yourself quickly encircled and having to figure out how to get out of it. Granted, this is a map with a ton of verticality, so you're going to find yourself meeting my vile, arch nemesis - the stairs, who are as deadly as they always have been.

I did say the maps are simple in their construction, but simplicity has its benefits, there's plenty of precedent to keeping things simple, because that can quite easily make for a well refined experience, and you won't be surprised to hear that I can appreciate the simplicity because it means I don't have to spend half my time on the map trying to figure out where to go. Secondarily, its simplicity in how the map is put together does not mean that he chose to forego detail in the individual rooms, in its best areas, this map looks nothing short of outstanding, probably one of the best maps I've seen that just uses the default Doom 2 textures, albeit half the shit I end up playing on the ER/IWA is by people who somehow think STARTAN looks good.

 

Not a perfect map, while I suppose I should be grateful that the map decided to save all its bad ideas (just 2 of them) for the very end, that's 2 bad ideas I could've done without. To be exact, to leave you have to climb a set of stairs, in which there is a hell knight hiding in every crevice, at least 8 of them, which ends up getting a bit tiresome after the halfway point, and as is strangely commonplace, the closing room contains an archvile, who's as much of a threat as any other end-of-the-WAD archvile, don't know why anyone even bothers, maybe it's one of those things where if I see mappers put pointless archviles at the end enough times I'll start finding it funny, I don't know, until I reach that point I'm only going to have to classify it as pointless, especially when that encounter is in comparison to a major ball breaker involving a certain Archibald earlier on. Nonetheless, those are two minor issues in a map that's consistently quality, looks good, plays good, it gets it all right, can't ask for a great deal more from a vanilla map. 7/10.

[Nikoxenos]

TOONPORN.WAD by Justin White (1998)

I can't believe my luck with this roll. This is an example of the just terrible juvenile wads lurking behind every corner back in the day. Graphically the mod adds some cheesy 90's pron and what seems to be hentai ripped straight from PC-98 games. However the way this is done makes it questionable what this mod could possibly EVER be used for. It's not like there is hentai that can be worked into the level design somehow, it is just a jarring visual disaster. For sound we have the complete sampler of typical 90's sound bytes. You've got Star Trek, King of the Hill, Knight Rider, all kinds of random sounds going on at all times. It is like an ADHD simulator from 1998. Ridiculous, edgy for 1998, and pointless.

 

[Roofi]

Month 5 Day 4

 

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

 

File 1) LinBoom by Colin Phipps (2015)

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Early port of Boom 2.01 to Linux, binary version

 

A self-explaining enough description of this file. Very niche.

 

File 2) OCTAGON by Christian Arnaud Irles (1995)

 

Spoiler

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The principal room has eight sides, every side has a corridor wich lead to diferent rooms, jailïs, computer room, library, etc. ( youïll find some Girls in bikini !! ) ( it is NOT a porn Wad )

 

OCTOGON is one of the levels that I don't understand why it was designed for deathmatch knowing that the map is big and quite complex like a singleplayer map. Indeed , there are a lot of areas to explore where each of  them could relatively be a deathmatch arena. You can find at least one teleporter in each section leading you to the central octogonal room which actually consists to a huge lift.

 

The level looks really not bad, visually and architecturally speaking but I got frustrated it wasn't designed for singpleplayer instead. I was able to console myself by finding funny textures on doors and images of women in bikinis at least.

 

The author also placed a lot of spheres and powerful weapons. I don't think he really took care about balancing...

 

I got stuck somewhere and got killed by a damaging stucco texture in AbbsDth2.wad

 

Spoiler

[Sena]

Day 5: HEADLESS CROSS https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/g-i/hdlsscrs

 

As the description tells me, the schwerpunkt of this WAD is a homage to a Black Sabbath album cover, which seems to be a cross of some sort, the Celtic one maybe, I'm not a cross expert, not that it matters. Strangely, for someone who clearly likes this particular music group, it doesn't use any custom music, but no matter, it takes up the map 9 slot which means no D_RUNNIN so I can be thankful for that. At the end of the day, this is a gimmick map, and as far as gimmicks go, this isn't a bad one by any means, it's completely flat, and the ceiling is very low, but the shape of the level plays okay, all things considered. Unfortunately, that does not correspond with the enemy placement, it starts off giving you an SSG and all the shells you can carry, with pinkies spread out way too far apart, the map is balanced for UV, but without fast monsters the only possible way you could take damage here would be if this was your first time ever playing a video game. After that, they've got a line oval formation of shotgunners around some oval-shaped part of the cross, who, given their slow reaction speed, aren't much of an issue either so long as you can just keep your distance, I guess these hellspawn must be too busy rocking out to their satanic heavy metal music to be paying attention to their surroundings. Beyond that, no real remarkable encounters, it's a big map, so if you were in a mecha you'd still have all the time and space to dodge anything that comes your way, and it's not a boring map, despite how rudimentary it is, and how there's not much to it, I kind of enjoyed it, as far as 90s maps go, you can do a lot worse. 5/10.

[Roofi]

Month 5 Day 5

 

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

 

No review for today. I got owned by a surprise crusher in the deathmatch wad CIRCLE2.WAD

 

Spoiler

[Sena]

Day 6: Nine anomaly's bug free edition https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/os3

 

The title got it wrong, it's actually eight anomalies (i.e. levels), and despite both the title and opening level having spelling mistakes, which I often take as a bad omen, for the most part this is some quality mapping. Made by @hardcore_gamer, it's ostensibly the third in a series, although I had trouble finding what they were, or anything else he'd done (could just sort through his Doomworld posts but that's bare long), presumptively because a gaming magazine with the same name was taking up all the search results.

 

To actually get on with it, these are some good levels, which can look very impressive in places. In all but 1 of the levels, it's got custom music, which is all well done, including one track that sounded straight out of the PS1 port, albeit some of these tracks had issues looping, leading to an awkward 5-10 seconds of complete silence. Regarding the level design, I'd say the most major feature is a lack of ammo, it's not the worst you've ever seen, but I'm someone who probably rations my ammo at least 80% of the time when I shouldn't be, (if you'd like an example of that, take map 1, wherein, with only about 8 shells, I decided the best course of action was to punch around 6 lost souls) but I still found myself running out of shells/bullets completely on multiple occasions, for which reason these must be an absolute pain to try pistol starting, if you're into that sort of thing. Something else I found was a fair bit of homage to the original duology, you've got 'the pinky room' from E3M1, and almost half of map 2 felt exactly like O of Destruction, which I don't consider a bad thing for the record, there's a difference between a homage and copying, and this falls under the former, though I'm sure some of it also falls under me assuming anything that shares design features is a homage, the same way that I think any map that starts off in a hub room with multiple doors (as the O of Destruction-like does) is doing so because the mapper must have gotten the idea from Tricks And Traps.

However, much like the original Doom games, the last few levels see a major decline in quality, to be exact, most of map 7 is spent pushing buttons to climb stairs to reach a cyberdemon, and there is nothing fun about saying "I hope the cyberdemon doesn't decide to shoot me as I wait for this slow moving platform to rise", much less "I sure hope as I go on this elevator to finally have an angle to kill the cyberdemon, he doesn't happen to be positioned in such a manner that I die immediately". And then after killing him you deal with a lone spider mastermind, who went down with one BFG shot. The next and final map, which probably was more deserving of map 7's title of Clusterfuck, involves pushing a button, and then, a clusterfuck of enemies spawn in, including imps with wings and some other things, Marathon enemies maybe, and then you have to basically just find good timing to walk down into the centre and push another button about 3 more times and then you win, maybe if it was a big arena and I was consistently moving forward, it could have been fun, but it felt like something you'd find in a speedmap, rushed idea that needed some more forethought to ensure it's actually executed properly.

 

In essence, it's not a bad WAD, I had fun playing it, and though it's got a couple annoying pitfalls, not to mention one or two squares with weapons that hurt you for no reason, I'd suggest playing maps 1-6, as the other maps aren't really worth it, but it looks far above what you'd expect out of '09. 7/10.

 

[Roofi]

Nine anomaly is very familiar to me , I already played it during my second day! I found it pretty great and enjoyable despite being quite amateurish. The episode has some cool concepts.

 

So,

 

Month 5 Day 6

 

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

 

File 1) The Death Star by Matt Falk (1994)

 

Spoiler

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The DEATH STAR!!! Based on blueprints of a set built for the movie and as well as information contained in the SW RPG. These are the first of many Star Wars levels I will do, and I will eventually replace these levels' textures with my own. Doors needing keys aren't marked by colors primarily because I wanted the levels to look as much like Death Star as possible. -----> If the game runs to slowly, just run an IMPORTANT!-----> easier setting to limit the number of -----> monsters (they slow down slower machines). This isn't as bad as it used to be now that I've used a reject compiler.

Level 1 includes the chasm Luke and Leia swang across, the elevators Luke, Han, and Chewie entered on their way to the detention level, and the large corridor with the blast doors. The blueprints covered 1/6 of the level, so I had to make up the rest.

Level 2 consists of the detention level, the trash copmactor, and the security station from the RPG. I copied some of the sections for deathmatch reasons.

HINT: follow Leia's technique on getting to the trash compactor

 

A little set of 2 maps for Ultimate Doom presumed to be destined for Star wars Fan. However don't expect fighting Dark Vador and his star troopers, using a lightsaber or other things related to this serie. The Death Star obviously takes place in a large space base but no particular resources have been added (not even new music).

 

However, this wad remains a hidden gem for me mainly because of the architecture and the layouts of the maps (The second one looks a lot more generic though.). Indeed, the author knew how to draw circles and curves. The first map litterally was "What if Xaser built a map in 1994?" There are a ton of misaligned textures , but they don't harm the whole aesthetics thanks to the consistent texture choices. The other impressive aspect was the tall architecture which greatly helps the map to feel big and therefore adventurous.

 

 The gameplay turns out unfortunately  to be quite clumsy  would like to say beforehand that the latter is quite compensated by the possibility to explore many places. So, you will meet a ton of ennemies in the first map but a lot of them don't wake up until you shoot them , even if you are their sight. I'm not totally sure but this glitch is caused by an error in the nodebuilding. 

Also, a lot of them also got stucked because of perpetually moving platforms and the omnipresent doors. These also tend to make the progression particularly redundant. 

 

However the worst issue in the first map was the absence of yellow key despite you have to open a locked door to progress. You litterally have to cheat in order to finish the first level because of the lack of testing I suppose. Fortunately , you can explore 99% of the map before opening the yellow-key door because it justs allow you to obtain the red key in order to reach the exit.

 

The second level proved to be a lot tougher for my part because the gameplay radically changed where health and ammo were seriously lacking until I found some supply rooms full of useful stuff. The last map was a lot less memorable for me , mainly due to the fact you explore a lot of chambers located next to long straight corridors and the ones looked blatantly copy-pasted. I still enjoyed though but the ammo's scarcity can be really frustrating.

 

Definitely a hidden gem from the doom's prehistory. This one reminds me a lot of CRESCENT.WAD during my first day in the er/iwa.

 

 

I stop here for today.

[ICID]

GARDEN (1996) by Bri Madore

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Source Port: Prboom+, complevel 2}

^{Difficulty:Ultra-Violence}

 

So here I am, back for a triumphant ER/iWA catch-up, planning to write some really great reviews to make up for lost time, and I immediately slam right into GARDEN, one of the worst maps I've ever had the displeasure of trying to describe.

 

Imagine a FULLBRIGHT monotextured same-height maze with pinkies and no weapons or ammo besides the starting pistol. Pretty bad, huh? And yet you are already enjoying something better than GARDEN. Add to your mental portrait of hell missing textures, dizzying HoM effects (which the author admits were a mistake in their text file, despite leaving them in), walls that disappear when you look at them from the wrong angle, and a whole host of other nonfunctional elements.

 

 

And then, once you stumble your way out of that maze (or, far more likely, cheat through it) Madore tapes on what essentially feels like a second level that's even worse. A sort of half-assed techbase that forces you to complete inane "puzzles" (really just: "guess what random texture counts as a switch and which random texture counts as the elevator it lowers") to progress, stuffed with a truly astonishing number of misaligned textures, putting you up against 5x10 blocks of hitscanners - all of which you're somehow supposed to endure with whatever you saved from your pistol start. This is also where you'll find the secret area containing nothing that's mentioned in all the /idgames reviews. Profoundly terrible stuff.

 

I mean, what can I say about this? GARDEN doesn't even meet the minimum viable standards for a Doom map. It fails to be even remotely interesting or playable. It would be hard to make something worse than this - even any given level of Mock2 is more fun and far more competent, because a person with a working brain couldn't possibly replicate GARDEN, or replicate the absolutely unearned confidence necessary to release it somewhere where other people could see it. If my name was attached to this thing I would die, not by my own hand, but by some kind of shame-wormhole imploding in my chest as the fundamental forces of the universe itself sought to right the terrible wrong. This is, I assume, why Bri Madore has not been heard from since the day this map was released. GARDEN is bad, not in the way most subpar Doom maps are bad but in the way that most war crimes or Netflix originals are bad. It left me genuinely questioning what was wrong with our world, our internet-poisoned, self-obsessed world where everyone believes themself to be the star of their own story to such an unearned, endless extent that someone might create this, the nadir of first person gaming, and blithely put it up for play and review thinking they had done nothing wrong in doing so. This culture I myself participate in, here and now, with this event representing a niche of a niche of a niche. What we create here is of even less value than what Madore has created - their work at least lives on in the endless pantheon of WADding, while this is just a comment destined to capture between two and four likes before being immediately forgotten. I could get hit by a bus today, and one of the last things I did with my precious gift of time would have been to play fucking GARDEN. Look upon our works, ye mighty, and despair.

 

Grade: 1/10

TL;DR: The worst thing that has ever happened.

[smeghammer]

I'm baaaack! Bit distracted by actual work recently as we all come off furlough - oh and a big-arse map I'm doing too...

 

Anyway, to the map:

 

It's Ultratower, A Doom1 map from 2014, by Mr Chris.

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/s-u/ultower

 

GZDoom, UV, I think I maxed it, but didn't notice as it went to the end screen.

 

Pretty easy map with straightforward progression and gameplay. The reviews on ID Games are quite polarised - I can see why. This is definitely an 'old school' map that has some flaws (see the reviews for more).

 

Plenty of ammo, though there could have been more cells - I found the BFG as I automatically went round the back... Personally, I think this would be better served as a D2 map, with more enemies nearer the top (mancubi etc.), to complement the cyberdemon.

 

The overall size was just too big for the amount of enemies - again, better served as a D2 map with the larger roster. There is plenty of space to continue the spiral stair rather than the big lift.

 

A so-so map that could have been much better, but not bad per-se.

 

5/10.

 

 

[Sena]

Day 7: ODESSA 3 ("Fade to Gray") https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/m-o/odessa_3

 

When I played this, one major thought I had was "this could be a Master Level", or, for those who are not familiar, "this level is arse". And I wasn't that far off, as it's by odessa, who was part of TeamTNT, so it's understandable that it felt like it had that unpolished janky 90s style to it. Maybe that's got an appeal to some people, every so often I play Day of Defeat even though I hate that game just because I like that janky GoldSrc style. But, in any case, I wouldn't want to play DoD for a long time, and even if you can find appeal in the appearance of this map, I'd struggle to point to anything it really does right. Granted, it is devoid of the sheer painful incompetence of something like GARDEN, nor does it do anything particularly noteworthy, even if noteworthy for all the wrong reasons (i.e. The Chasm), Fade to Gray is an appropriate title, because that's how it feels. Devoid of colour, lifeless, boring, mediocre. It had its moments where I got lost, because of course any poorly made 90s map is going to, it's got some bland enemy placement, and the design is completely forgettable - if you showed me some rooms from 3 different techbases released that year, I wouldn't be able to identify the one I played. 3/10, it is anhedonia in WAD form.

[ICID]

 

What Lurks Beneath Base12? (2004) by Scott Tingley and Wesley Leong

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Source Port: Prboom+, complevel 3}

^{Difficulty:Ultra-Violence, pistol starts}

 

It’s very possible that I’m being too nice to Base12 because I’m playing it right after GARDEN, the worst thing that has ever happened. Either way I had a decent time with it. MAP01 is pretty visually lacking and has some needlessly annoying progression that overstays its welcome, but loads you up with the weapons and ammo you need to plow through hordes of hitscanners and even has a clever room with barrels and elevators I quite enjoyed.

 

The second and third maps, made by a different author, are similar in the broad sense of “fun combat, confusing progression, so-so visuals” but both take the form of complicated mazes. I don’t hate Wolfenstein-style gameplay as much as Sena does, but there’s no denying these are a step down. The third one, a hell level, is definitely the worst by combining the bizarre elevator love and “anything can be a door” mentality of MAP01 with the maziness of MAP02.

 

That said, all three maps load you up with tons of ammo and high-tier weapons (there’s even a BFG hidden in a great secret room I stumbled into on MAP03) and again, all complaints aside, I had a pretty good time. All in all, not bad for a 90s map.

 

Wait a second.

 

(Checks header.)

 

2004??

 

…

 

Well, it’s still fine.

 

Grade: 6/10

TL;DR: I’m so broken by the ER/iWA that just having three maps in a row that immediately give you the shotgun feels like a minor miracle.

 

[Roofi]

Month 5 Day 7

 

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

 

File 1) Cave Dweller by @ejboogy (2021)

 

Spoiler

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Are you prepared to find out what lurks in the cave? I thought so.

Jumping, crouching, and freelook are allowed.

 

Yes I am , as always.

 

Cave dwellers is the name of a gzdoom map that weighs almost 40 mo. This is huge for a map that can be finished in 10-15 minutes but it's probably because of the music. It's not a big deal thanks to the new technology but it's still very surprising.

 

The map seems particularly amateurish, aesthetically speaking and in terms of gameplay too. However, I particularly liked it because of its strange and medieval atmosphere.

 

I have indeed found a lot of points that in my opinion deserve to be improved. If we remove the gzdoom effects, the level is as detailed as a vanilla level and the textures are often badly aligned or stick together. I like the use of Hexen (or Heretic) textures and the different visual effects such as glows and fog.

More precisely, the Gzdoom effects are one of my favorite aspects of this map. I liked for example the earthquakes or the fact that you can destroy walls with barrels for example.

 

As far as the gameplay is concerned, it's still quite classic with fights that don't present big stakes. Most of the traps consist of monsters teleporting simultaneously to the same place. I must say that I have a crush on the cyberdemon that moves twice as fast. I'm not sure if it's more scary or more hilarious. In any case it is much more dangerous although it is not very well highlighted. One of the good ideas of the map.

 

I also liked the small platforming phases in some places that are not very difficult but still hazardous.

Amateurish but very enjoyable amateurish gzdoom map.

 

File 2) Yikes! by Joseph J. Pecoraro (1995)

 

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his DOOM2, level 1 PWAD encompasses a very large virtual space with a surprise around every corner! I designed it to be a "mini" game that takes you from pistol to BFG 9000. it contains a creative use of two sided line defs that I have not seen in any other pwads, and an interesting maze problem. "Yikes" should give you a good hour or so of play.

If anyone adapts this PWAD for cooperative or deathmatch play please let me know. Since I don't play in those modes, I did not know how to best implement them.

Spoiler

 

Two new things for my adventure. Vanilla levels are now played directly and Dosbox and I use a screenshot software. However I took multiple screens but he saved only one of them sadly...

 

So, Yikes is an old weird gimmicky doom 2 map which attempted to create "minigames". I would expect more joyful scenery instead of a subterrean dark base but whatever. You have to survive in some challenges which were actually way too simple because of health and ammo overabundance. 

 

However the worst part of the map was the red key's part where you have a platforming section like TNT map 30 but instead of dying , platforms lower and if you walk on them in the wrong order , the key become unreachable and you get stuck. Yikes!

 

Fun level despite that.

 

I stop here for today.