The DWmegawad Club plays: Interception II

[DFF]

Map18: The golden Palace by Moustachio

UV, Continuous, GZdoom, Corruption Cards 3.1 (card: a Cyberdemon spawns somewhere in the map ;] ).
K: 97%, S: 100% T: 16:37

 

Another fun and geometrically quirky map from Moustachio, a gilded temple of yellow water and tomato brickwork. As stated I'm fine or even sometimes a fan of cramped fighting so some of the thinner aqueducts and ramparts were decently enjoyable for me. Only three secrets but moustachio continues to entertain me with clever passageways and some ledge jumping. The snaking corridors were always fun to explore and the combat flows pretty well from set piece to set piece. I managed to find all 3 secrets but never got that juicy megasphere on the ledge near the start, oh well...

This map did not give me too much trouble or deaths (under 15 i think). Others have noted that the resources present are overabundant, which may be true, but they were just right for me. This is however with my corruption cards wich tried damn hard to pull a fast one on me so maybe thats a testament to the surplus of supplies. Right from the start a duplication mancubus happened to be next a freshly spawned wave of specres AND 2 arch viles, which needless to say soon became a horde of specres and FOUR arch viles. Not a fun time but thankfully this was on the podium at the end of the initial courtyard so while a slog, it was manageable to a dree. Then the map stuck the cyberdemon in a rather clever location at the bottom of the large indoor golden waterfall. This stopped me from progressing in the level as the way up out of the pit is an elevator. This meant i had to play some intense Super-Shotgun footsie with the cyberdemon, always careful to not stray too close to the walls of the pit. Some good masochistic fun thanks to random chance. the rest of the map was pretty standard with the corruption card bullshittery, only other notable occurrence was a full knockback aracnotron blast in the yellow key room forced me into the lava without grabbing that nice invul, such a shame.

Probably a bit simple for regular play, but this map made what could have been a nightmare into a rather entertaining (mis)adventure. However my day of reckoning is upon me, my next map will not be too kind for all the hitscanner cards i took earlier: Corpse throwing zombiemen, 1 second immortal shotgunners, chaingunners that do not flinch, a random cyberdemon, and backup zombiemen and pinkies. Hoorah...

[Doritos420]

Map19 - Asteroid Assault by DFF

 

Welcome to hitscan hell. Surprisingly difficult beginning with all the chaingunners. This level really tests your reflexes. Loads of secrets as well. My favorite part was probably the cargo area that’s surrounded by the conveyer belt. Loads of doomcute in this level as well with all the computer terminals and such. Really dug the music, reminded me a lot of System Shock 1. Despite the limited monster roster I really enjoyed this one.

[FragsBunny]

MAP18: The Golden Palace (99%/93%/100%)

1.       Mancubus projectiles explode on impact

2.       Chaingunner receive damage one second later

3.       Monster health totals are shuffled

 

Another gem from Moustachio, sparking in shiny golden color. Most of the known textures are repainted in gold to give the level a unique feel. I guess color aesthetic became the new standard since Stardate 20x6! In either case, the opening is quite hectic, especially for pistol starters, but continuous players should not have troubles dealing with opening hordes, given the abundance of health and armor bonuses. I was expecting another 3-key run, but ultimately only 2 keys were present on the map. There are lots of powerups, such as several blur spheres, high amounts of rad suits for a single pool of lava and even one invulnerability!

 

I managed to find all 3 secrets, the first one particularly because of Daisy’s sounds behind the wall, and the BFG secret right after it. Grabbed all the goodies, including the megasphere, but its bonuses were quickly wasted by that arch-vile whose position made it tricky to dodge. And the card-boosted pain elementals… Oh god, why there have to be so many pain elementals and no barons! Did I choose the wrong card back at MAP17? Feels like cell weapons are the only solution to those soul spammers!

[FragsBunny]

MAP19: Asteroid Assault (100%/98%/85%)

1.       Several monsters receive a random card enchantment

2.       Players heal nearby monsters when damaged

3.       One monster is cursed. It explodes into miniature army upon death

 

For a level that includes only zombie firing squads, this one manages to be quite entertaining – particularly of those shotgun guys picking up practically everything lying on grounds. There are so many zombies firing at you from many sides that the best tactic you can use is to shoot at them behind corners. While chaingun is a good option against them, you will run out of bullets fasters then you think, but on the opposite end, you’ll be swimming in shells cause every second zombie seems to be a shotgun guy!

 

The yellow key teleport ambush was handled by me by taking cover in nearby uncovered secret area. The area itself was empty, but I assume that the secret item being taken was the invulnerability, since I found one by killing guys on the opposite side of the wall. The conveyor belt is another notable area - if you just stand at the entrance facing yourself towards moving best, you can enjoy killing those guys being circled by the same belt. The trickier part is killing the snipers in storage area while running on the belt itself, and then surviving another teleport ambush after flipping another switch. And the red key, which I expected to be found after flipping the switch, turned out to be in quite a different place.

 

The secret hunt turned to be more challenging than I expected. I saw Daisy running on top of computer cubicles, and I only managed to jump there through careful strafe-running. The computer area map evaded me for a long time until I found the teleporter leading to it. In the end, I still ended up one secret short. Kudos to that massive zombie horde in the exit area! What a great massacre! With so much ammo, I wouldn't mind adding more demonspawn - in fact, on my previous playthrough, I had a card that would spawn a gang of cacodemons!

[finnks13]

MAP 19 - Asteroid Assault by DFF:
Back to the techbases we go with my new favourite level in the set! Who needs the expanded cast and weapon selection of Doom 2 when you can bung nearly 500 zombiemen, shotgunners and chaingunners into some large rooms and let you go nuts with the shareware arsenal of weaponry! If it's not clear already, I absolutely loved playing this map. It reminded me of TNT's Stronghold in all the best ways - ridiculous packs of zombies clustered around conveniently placed barrels, slightly bizarre progression almost indistinguishable from secrets (seriously, I thought I had found like 3 secrets which turned out to just be the way forward) and a rocking MIDI!

 

The first outside moments when after killing the initial few zombies, a couple dozen more spawned in almost perfectly timed to when I was forced-switching off of the rocket launcher, was funny and the yellow key fight, which I think I stumbled into very early and with very little ammo, was the moment it dawned on me "hang on a sec, I haven't seen any imps yet have I?". I found this fight very entertaining, I think because of how little ammo I had. I liked that a lot of the secret areas allowed you to mitigate traps that would spring later, the two secrets disarming the red door trap (of which I found one) were satisfying to get.

 

This map felt pretty self-aware with how silly the premise is, with the ridiculously fast conveyor belts surrounding the crate maze with shotgunners rushing past you, the frankly absurd horde of monsters spawning in right outside the exit standing absolutely no chance against the barrage of rockets I was sending their way and the excellent doomcute here (the tank and little satellite were absolutely adorable, wish I knew how to make doomcute that good) I just had a smile on my face throughout this map. I think this map is absolutely excellent, the only slight issue I had with it was the progression was a bit weird at times, but in spite of that, this is easily the most fun I've had with Interception 2 so far.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP19 - Asteroid Assault - DFF (99%K/94%I/71%S): 

This one is, as mentioned previously, a big hit or miss, as all its gameplay consists on a hit-scanner hell so big that it's going to make TNT's Stronghold a run for its money. The map is, as always, quite long, and you'll be running and gunning around the place since the start, where there are many enemies sniping you from the start. I liked it until I stopped liking it. The conveyor belt part was just hilarious, I have to say this map has quite some sense of unintended humor here and there.
The level itself looks way too Doom-cutey for my taste, and has many mish-mashes of textures at places. I think this was one of the first maps made by DFF, as it does not look as well made as the other ones. Still I enjoy the grindyness of this level. 

(HMP Playthrough - PrBoom+)

Order of preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP11

MAP06
MAP10
MAP18
MAP17
MAP09
MAP15

MAP05

MAP04

MAP03
MAP07
MAP19
MAP12
MAP13
MAP08

MAP02
MAP01
MAP16
MAP14
MAP31

 

 

[Krenium]

MAP19 - Asteroid Assault by DFF

PrBoom+ / Hurt Me Plenty / Pistol start / Saves / Demo

 

 

(Disclaimer: I like hitscan more than just about any Doomer I've met. This may be coloring my perception of the map somewhat.)

 

What an experience. This map has a vision and executes it expertly. What is that vision, you ask? Hitscan. Hitscan everywhere. For having a roster of only three monsters, this map is more entertaining than you'd perhaps think. Less focus on monster composition is made up with more focus elsewhere. More focus on the setting. More focus on details. (The tank, the satellite, etc.) More focus on environmental gimmicks (the conveyor belt). More focus on flow. (The map is pretty non-linear, and even secrets can change the direction you first enter an area.)

 

Aside from the opening, there are never any ambushes that threaten to overwhelm you with sheer size. (I should point out here that I found the invuln before the library ambush.) Any ambushes or releasing of monsters is done in small amounts or in a way that increases pressure over time. This of course is the way to do it with hitscan. Any part of the map that releases hordes of hitscan allows you to retreat to cover. So generally, what will kill you here is your own impatience.

 

 

The shotgun and chaingun are the stars of the show on this map, despite being offered a SSG, rocket launcher, and plasma gun. In fact, since the shotgun has a buffed reload time in this wad, I kept using it against chaingunners even after getting the SSG. The buffed shotgun may actually be a good amount of the reason why this map works as well as it does. I generally didn't bother with rockets until the huge horde of zombies in the outside area near the end of the map. The secrets were generally fun to find (of the ones I did). Especially the one that takes a while to finally dump you at the soul sphere near the entrance.

 

Let's talk about that conveyor belt, though. That was really cool! It was funny to watch zombies flying by too quickly to shoot at times. And it made it difficult to kill zombies in the main area without getting shot, adding a bit of spice to a roster that definitely needs it. The way the conveyor snakes not just around the perimeter but through vents in the ceiling was fantastic. I really loved this use of boom features; it turned a good map into a great map for me.

 

Map ranking (favorite -> least)

6 11 19 12 4 2 17 3 15 18 14 13 8 10 16 9 7 5 1 31

Edited November 20, 2021 by Krenium : add some disclaimers

[cannonball]

MAP19 - “Asteroid Assault” by DFF

 

After looking at the other reviews I get the feeling that I am going to be the one urinating on the fire here. I did not like this map.

Welcome to hitscan hell, obviously in some ways trying to emulate TNT Map 09 (Even though that map does have imps and demons I believe). That map i fairly compact and you can  chew through the fodder briskly. In this it felt like a real chore at times and found very few times where I thought the rocket launcher could be of much use, so chaingun/shotgun work it was. The yellow key can be disarmed by a conveniently place secret that I found after the fight (I actually enjoyed this as I looked for a convenient place for the monsters to bottleneck within that library), however I hated the storage bay section, the conveyor gimmick felt if anything underdone on the craziness and as such just made movement annoying, the actual route to the red key is probably close to impossible given I had no armour. This resulted in myself having to cheese this badly by using the teleporter by the switch that allows access to the red key (To essentially allow the htiscanners to all teleport in without the risk of being hit). Once the red key is obtained the level improves somewhat with some more open spaces that fills with large numbers of hitscanners (Now I can use the rocket launcher). 

In the end this felt surprisingly stodgy for a map where there is not even a mid-tier enemy as such in my opinion the gimmick kind of falls on its face to some degree. Add in some wonky progression at times and some inconsistent visuals then you end up with something that falls on the below average side of the set. What really sums it up is the fact there are zero partial invisibilities in this map (Not even in the 7 secrets), I mean this is literally the only type of map where they are actually useful!

[Book Lord]

MAP 20 – Moonlit Escape by JadingTsunami

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

On the last level of the second episode, we must enter a portal to end this journey between planets and return to Earth. The gate structure was found just outside of the starting caverns, and to activate it we must explore the surrounding control facility. The automap curiously provided written names for each section of the tech-base, allowing for some speculation about their content and the order in which they should be tackled.

Spoiler

All this freedom seemed great, and my continuous play required no strict resource management, which might have characterised the first minutes of a pistol start. I firstly visited the “Mines”, collecting some ammo and being surprised by Lost Souls descending from a shaft like in Mill. Then the only way forward was into the base, where about three different paths branched out. I began with collecting the YK in the “Waste” treatment facility, after bite-sized battles against Revenants and Arachnotrons.

Spoiler

I decided to continue northwards through the air duct, emerging in the “R&D” labs hosting a plasma gun room and a bigger hall with a lot of stationary spiders, including a Spiderdemon. Making the Arachnotrons infight with the Mastermind looked risky, so I opted for safer SSG attacks. There were several crushing mechanisms to effortlessly kill the monsters, but I discovered them only after wasting both ammo and time. The YK opened the big door to the “Power” station, where activating the energy generator both granted the BK and released a swarm of 50 Lost Souls, bone-chilling but ultimately devoid of any threat.

Spoiler

I spotted the RK in the western “Annex”, which was accessible only through the “Rec Area”, featuring a library, a swimming pool with an overloaded Baron ambush in the locker room, and a strange, huge grotto with deep lava. Was it for the recreation of hellspawn? It felt a bit out of context, even though the nearby tech area showed signs of demonic corruption. The room before the RK had multiple conveyor belts with Imps and hitscanners on both sides. I did not understand a thing about what happened, I only know I was almost dead before running back to the barred entrance and killing the assailants from there. A voodoo doll then mercifully set me free.

Spoiler

The keys allowed for the portal controls to be accessed and the dimensional gate was unsealed, but a bunch of Arachnotrons and an Arch-Vile teleported around me. I retreated into the mines, from which I rocketed them without seeing a thing. That was the end of Moonlit Escape, a map that I found less challenging and less graphically refined than what we have seen so far. By no means it was bad, and progression was far from obscure (a much appreciated fact); still it showcased naïve concepts, had mostly orthogonal walls, seldomly used different heights, and its largely incidental combat would have been at home in older megaWADs. There will be another entry by @JadingTsunami in the third episode, and I am curious to see if he evolved from this functional but not so striking design. The quality was acceptable but below average, considering the relatively high standards of Interception 2.

[Dragonker]

MAP19 - “Asteroid Assault” by DFF

 

Woof! * HMP * Pistol start * Saves

 

What can I say about this map? Well, it's a map, for starters. One where only gunmen roam. And... not much else.

 

I think the main problem with this map is its length. Hitscanners-only is a gimmick that burns fast—there's only so much you can do with that. Around 5 minutes in, I was already done (ended up clocking 18 minutes). Besides some pruning, puzzles would have been nice to spice up the gameplay a little. It's easy at least, and the conveyor belt segment is funny.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP19: "Asteroid Assault" by DFF

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 5/7 secrets 

 

The sci-fi answer to TNT MAP09's action movie. The monster count of 487 definitely piques curiosity upon entering the map, wondering whether it will be another big epic or maybe have some slaughtery fights, but instead the point is that their ranks are taken up entirely but hitscanners. The setting is a nice looking techbase situated on an asteroid, and the midi is nice and intense. The progression is a little obtuse at times, with there being parts in the early stages where I thought I located a secret but was actually just progressing through the level normally. Nothing too extreme though.

 

Admittedly I kind of have a soft spot for these kinds of maps, and this one is no different. The map makes sure to keep health pretty frequently within reach which does well to limit its leaving you at the mercy of RNG. There is a tricky part that I was lucky to find the nearby secret invulnerability for on my first go, where a cramped library area floods with enemies. This takes place quite close to the beginning of the level so you don't have much of an arsenal yet, so this one is quite dangerous without the invuln. Otherwise I have to bring up the conveyor belt section. It's more amusing than anything else, but you gotta love the humour of the shotgunners just zipping down the corridors after you. It's priceless.

 

Had a lot of fun with this one. As I said before I am a little biased towards these kinds of maps, but it's a well done and very fair one.

[finnks13]

MAP 20 - Moonlit Escape by JadingTsunami:
Didn't really care for this one. This is a techbase map, which seems to be attempting to recreated a realistic environment (for doom standards), with the different areas of the map given titles on the automap such as "Rec Area" or "Mining" and I think this gives some more context about the different areas than what can be realistically done with boom format. I did like the pool room a lot, thought it looked really good.

 

The start of the map is actually pretty brutal, as the courtyard you make your way into after the starting point has chaingunners sniping from both sides, very high up in fortified areas and unpicking these is quite challenging. The spectre trap with the rocket launcher is pretty mean, you've basically got no chance if you're not expecting it and have already blown up the barrels as you'll be mid-switch to the launcher as they run for you. In general, this map seems a bit more challenging than the rest of the episode, as should be expected from the finale, though I think this is more from the lack of resources and health than the monster placement.

 

For a map which is pretty open with how you tackle it, I found myself thinking that I had went the "wrong" way a lot, as I was very undergunned and had very little ammo in the first half of the map and then by the end I had so much, I could afford to BFG single imps to death. There are lots of rooms here that are just annoying to take out as you kind of have to painstakingly snipe monsters from far away in the doorway as there are so many in some rooms that it's infeasible to rush it, when playing blindly. The spider mastermind room, for example, lets you crush all the turreted spiders in there but the switches aren't visible so I decided to plasma gun them all to death from the other end of the corridor which was tedious, which was followed by the disappointment from finding the switches that activated the crushers. The final fight was fairly wimpy and didn't end the map and episode off well. This map isn't awful, it just fell a bit flat compared to the rest of the set for me.

 

Overall Thoughts on Episode 2:

I have to say, I think the aesthetic styling of the first episode has helped it along much more than this episode's style. I like the planet-hopping, deep space theme and I was looking forward to seeing where this was going, but most of the maps have been pretty standard cc4 techbases and I've played this kind of map so many times that I can't get immersed in it anywhere near as easily as I could with episode 1. While Maps 17 & 18 do mix things up with the black and yellow castle theme, this comes out of nowhere and is abandoned after just two maps - if Map 19 and 20 where also in this style, this would have felt a lot less weird. Maybe this is just a personal taste thing - I do tend to enjoy the more demonic scenery that mappers come up with - but for a mapset which seems to prioritise exploration and being slow-paced romps through detailed, interesting areas, after the cool take on hell that the green void levels provided, I was hoping an equally interesting one would be presented with the space exploration/techbase episode and what we've got is "techbases but the outside areas are quite dark, and two maps which look cool and don't fit with any of the others" and I think that's a shame.

 

That being said, I think the map selection here was better than episode 1's, with the odd numbered maps (13, 15, 17 and 19) being the highlights. I did think this episode was a bit more inconsistent than episode 1, which I overall thought was fine with only a couple of standouts, and I feel much more polarised on these last 11 maps. There was a bit more of a focus on interesting action in this episode and I think it did it well, though the difficulty is still pretty low, there is definitely more pressure being applied to the player in the more challenging ambushes in these maps. I think overall, I preferred this episode to the previous one, even though I didn't care for the theme of the episode that much, I definitely had more fun with it.

 

Ranking for Episode 2:

Spoiler

I'll rank all 31 maps after I've played them all.

(Favourite)

19 - Asteroid Assault

17 - Yellow Sea

15 - Volcanic Research

13 - Habitat Ring

31 - Beamfleot

18 - The Golden Palace

14 - Murder Mountain Mayhem

16 - Planet Vertigo

12 - Deep Space Mine

20 - Moonlit Escape

(Least Favourite)

 

[Doritos420]

Map20 - Moonlit Escape by JadingTsunami

 

I really enjoyed the map. Lots of memorable set pieces in this one.  Especially like the lava room where you have to run atop the pillars to grab the invulnerability. Theres also the power room where you can crush the lost souls. Very well done “realistic” sort of tech base. The doom cute is really off the charts in this one (the swimming pool was great).

Edited November 20, 2021 by Doritos420 : spelling

[FragsBunny]

MAP20: Moonlit Escape (100%/99%/57%)

1.       Mancubus may dodge your attacks

2.       Arch-vile respawns once after death

3.       Monster health totals are shuffled

 

I guess I am done choosing “easy” cards. This card was not in my compendium yet, so I decided to pick it as next card for why whole run. And boy, what a pain this card is! On one hand, powerful monsters like arch-vile and baron go down like paper. On other hand, trash monsters like imps and zombies are very hard to deal without using BFG or rocket ammo! Infighting between zombies becomes a drag as even regular zombiemen become very hard to kill! Had to reserve the chainsaw for beefiest of such monsters in order to save ammo. While this card does not affect ALL monsters, the choice is still hard enough!

 

The level itself is a solid finisher for Episode 2, if not for those cards stacking against me. There is even a free megasphere, but it should not give you are reason to go Rambo. The red key area had some very nasty set-ups, including the visible pain elemental set-up and a hidden BFG, which you can use against packs of barons while locked in. The lava cave has a non-secret invulnerability, but due to lowering rocks, you have only one chance to get it – but it will be still helpful to survive a hitscanner ambush on your way to the red key. The deep 20% lava further adds injury to the insult!

 

The yellow key area is considerably easier, but I still had to deal with my card while clearing the toxic waste area (also I found Daisy there). The center area has more spiders guarding the way to the main reactor where you can eventually grab the blue key. I had to deal with many lost souls there, some of which were very tedious to kill – I eventually lost my patience and used BFG again. Luckily, the secret stashes offer you a fair number of cells – but plasma gun secret is one of the few places that I was not able to reach. The finale brough an arch-vile and many many arachnotrons near the exit portal. Knowing that they would eventually respawn one more time, I chose to give up my search of remaining secrets and went into portal. Episode 3 is the “hard mode now” – can I survive it after wasting half of my rocket and cell supply?

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP20 - Moonlit Escape - JadingTsunami (99%K/99%I/42%S): 

There was a big map at the MAP20 slot, a really nice looking map, I only remember that being a little bit more enjoyable, said map was changed, or I'm just imagining things. This map does not feel right for me, several areas connected by long air-vent tunnels, orthogonal rooms, the starting area promised something more, but it's just another long map, I did not find this interesting, maybe the "exit" part, revealing a portal to god only knows where it leads. The end fight leaves a bitter taste as an episode ender, but it's possible because of how high the bar was set with MAP11, and maybe I'm being a little bit cruel with the analysis. The silo area north-side though, was really good, and I think it was the highest point of the map.

(HMP Playthrough - PrBoom+)

Order of preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP11

MAP06
MAP10
MAP18
MAP17
MAP09
MAP15

MAP05

MAP04

MAP03
MAP07
MAP19
MAP12
MAP13
MAP08

MAP02
MAP01
MAP16
MAP20
MAP14
MAP31

 

I swear there was another bigger map at the MAP20 slots once at dev-stage.

[DFF]

5 minutes ago, DJVCardMaster said:

MAP20 - Moonlit Escape - JadingTsunami (99%K/99%I/42%S): 

There was a big map at the MAP20 slot, a really nice looking map, I only remember that being a little bit more enjoyable, said map was changed, or I'm just imagining things. This map does not feel right for me, several areas connected by long air-vent tunnels, orthogonal rooms, the starting area promised something more, but it's just another long map, I did not find this interesting, maybe the "exit" part, revealing a portal to god only knows where it leads. The end fight leaves a bitter taste as an episode ender, but it's possible because of how high the bar was set with MAP11, and maybe I'm being a little bit cruel with the analysis. The silo area north-side though, was really good, and I think it was the highest point of the map.

(HMP Playthrough - PrBoom+)

Order of preference:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

MAP11

MAP06
MAP10
MAP18
MAP17
MAP09
MAP15

MAP05

MAP04

MAP03
MAP07
MAP19
MAP12
MAP13
MAP08

MAP02
MAP01
MAP16
MAP20
MAP14
MAP31

 

I swear there was another bigger map at the MAP20 slots once at dev-stage.

There was, originally from DMPhobos, however when Moustachio left development for a break from Doom, he messaged me and politely asked me to remove his map as he wished to submit it somewhere else/a different WAD at a later date. It was a good map and I did gently ask that he kept it in but I wanted to completely respect his wishes and let him withdraw the map. No hard feelings about it at all and understandable considering the circumstances.

[cannonball]

MAP20 - “Moonlit Escape” by JadingTsunami

 

Nice opening shot, however this was probably the highlight of the map, the rest is pretty slow going and not particularly difficult. I found two secrets that couldn't really be called secrets, one of which landed you a bfg that you had to spend plus interest disarming the baron trap. It's another key hunt through a variety of different themes mostly derived from techbase, connected by stringy ducts or corridors. These can be collected in any order but care must be taken so you can get weaponry without snookering yourself in certain spots. In the end this wasn't overly engaging and the fight at the end for the portal can be a little irritating. 

The caverns look nice, however the friction lava isn't a good addition. 

Overall a rather underwhelming end to a rather underwhelming episode in comparison to the void theme that felt far more compelling and in general saw higher quality maps. The best of this episode was probably map17 for me with 15 and 12 being honourable mentions. 

[Krenium]

MAP20 - Moonlit Escape by JadingTsunami

PrBoom+ / Hurt Me Plenty / Pistol start / Saves / Demo

 

 

I found this one surprisingly charming. To me, this map feels like it was done by a 'consultant' so to speak compared to the rest of the wad, as the style is starkly different. I'm not gonna lie; I'm a real sucker for this doomcute stuff. Normally, I wouldn't think a map with a layout like this would be too entertaining but the thing is that JadingTsunami put some actual worthwhile stuff to see and do in every section. Highlights for me were the rec area (pictured above), the hall of burning barrels, and the lost soul crushers.

 

I appreciate the freedom this map gives to choose your own path, and especially that you can leave the vile and company in the room with the megasphere if you don't yet have the firepower to take them on. The dissection room was kinda weird, as the way I approached it for the first time there was no indication of any way to activate the crushers yet, so I simply took it head on with the BFG. Luckily there are enough cells on the map to use it here and for the final battle.

 

There are some nice details sprinkled about, such as the elevator, the broken teleporter, and the drooping door near the red key. I adore the idea of labeling parts of the automap with what they are intended to be! Only drawback is that you can tell what's coming up. The lost soul crushers were a ton of fun to use! I probably crushed a good 60% of them. I wonder how the mapper got them to congregate underneath? Final battle was kind of interesting, since you have to keep moving but you also need to break LOS with an archie, you have to plan a head a little with your route. I wouldn't want to try it without the BFG, though!

 

Downsides of the map include somewhat forgettable encounters, not fitting in with the rest of the episode, weak secrets, and a plain layout. But in general I enjoyed myself here thanks to the positives.

 

Map ranking (favorite -> least)

6 11 19 12 4 2 17 3 15 18 14 13 8 10 16 20 9 7 5 1 31

[DMPhobos]

11 hours ago, DJVCardMaster said:

I swear there was another bigger map at the MAP20 slots once at dev-stage.

 

11 hours ago, DFF said:

There was, originally from DMPhobos, however when Moustachio left development for a break from Doom, he messaged me and politely asked me to remove his map as he wished to submit it somewhere else/a different WAD at a later date. It was a good map and I did gently ask that he kept it in but I wanted to completely respect his wishes and let him withdraw the map. No hard feelings about it at all and understandable considering the circumstances.

 

To clarify a bit and give some context, i did had a submission for the map20 slot early on, however there was a brief period of time where it was unclear what was gonna happen to the project due to Moustachio stepping down and because of this i decided to use that map for a personal mapset (which ended up becoming Arceon). Thankfully this didn't lasted long and DFF stepped up to pick the project and later on Moustachio returned as well, but by then i had made up my mind on this and i asked for the map to be removed.

 

DFF asked me if i was interested in contributing to another slot, but unfortunately by then i had too much doom mapping stuff on my plate and i couldn't commit to this, while i do regret leaving an empty slot at the time (specially when the project was getting back on it's feet), im glad that i still ended up contributing to the final wad with my collab with misty in map03, and with map04

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP20: "Moonlit Escape" by Jadingtsunami

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills*, 4/7 secrets

 

The second episode ends with another spacy techbase among some cliffs and caves. The midi is nice and intense, and has a cute little motif of At Doom's Gate in it at one point. Speaking of cute there are some fun little additions to this map, such as the Doomcute swimming pool and the automap containing some labels for different areas, that give this map a sense of groundedness and personality that I was fond of.

 

Gameplay-wise my opinion kind of flipped a few times on this one. I felt like there were some factors to it that were somewhat unfriendly to pistol start, most notably if you don't branch off to get the rocket launcher at the beginning there are some rather unpleasant moments ahead, such as a baron and revenants that you'll only have the regular shotgun and chaingun for, and near that there is a library encounter with an archvile and other foes that can be really unpleasant unless you've stocked up on ammo/weapons from the other areas first, but this fight is optional and does give you a useful megasphere. Otherwise the combat felt a bit slow but there were some areas I liked. The conveyor belt trap, while liable to land you some cheap damage, was cheeky and fun if you are somewhat prepared. The area with the lost souls and the two crushers you can control was a neat and creative encounter. The final ambush with the arachnotrons and archvile wasn't too bad with the secret BFG, but it provided some nice thrills. The mastermind area was pretty cool, but honestly I felt like the crushers weren't totally necessary here as I had more than enough resources to take down everything in the room myself. The lava cavern area looked very cool, although I can see the lava slowing you down getting on peoples' bad side.

 

This one was decent. There were parts of it that I definitely wasn't fond of but there was a charm and personality to this one that I liked.

[Book Lord]

MAP 21 – Return to Sender by A2Rob

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

Return to Sender was misleading, ruthless, and wicked like no other map in Interception 2. In case somebody was longing for a difficulty spike, here they go. After reading the intermission text I expected an infernal and daunting place, so I was mystified while taking a leisurely stroll inside a moderately guarded tech-base. The chainsaw and SSG ambushes were telegraphed, but @A2Rob was only shamming while harbouring deadlier plans. This phase permitted to get familiar with the surroundings: I located an unreachable RK, the red door, and a yellow-marked switch. It took me a while to realise I could jump to a ledge to progress.

Spoiler

If I wanted blood, I got it. Large pools of blood, neither belonging to Doomguy nor to his sworn enemies. For now. Pressing the switch inside the area with the twin tankers opened the way to the external blood reservoir but also released the first threatening ambush. I survived the chaos generated by Revenants and an Arch-Vile, though I felt the heat for the first time in the megaWAD. It was not going to stop for the duration of the level, continuing outside with big clusters of opposition and some more monsters teleporting in after I raised the blood level to reach the RK. Secret stashes were not gratis either.

Spoiler

The area behind the red door immediately teased me with the YK on a ledge. Everything had a price on this level, so I expected the path to it to be tough. I ended up in a blood pit where switches raised the liquid level multiple times, always releasing additional enemies. I tried to handle the situation without the plasma weapons that the level blatantly lacked, but it was not for my skill. The room was too narrow and crowded for rockets, hitscanners filled every alcove and the opposition was too thick for a slow weapon like the SSG. I resorted to carry-over plasma rifle and carved my way out of that bloody mess.

 

With the YK in hand, I returned to the switch. That switch. The first time I flipped it I was dead in three seconds, without seeing a single enemy. Lots of them were released from various closets, among them two Arch-Viles ready to raise fallen enemies and dispense surgical blasts to incautious marines. I tried the encounter several times before finding a viable strategy, which was retreating behind the red door and recklessly pumping rockets, at least until no zigzagging enemies were left standing.

Spoiler

While searching for supplies, I found the BK. I was trembling during the long lift ride to the top, where a Cyberdemon oversaw a crowded area from a central podium. Compared to the malicious yellow switch setup, the exit room was fair play. It was fun to make the boss infight with Barons and then tear the Arch-Viles apart. The author was so polite to devise an unmissable telefrag before the exit, but I was more than willing to unload my SSG on the Cyberdemon as payback. Return to Sender was designed with combat in mind and it offered the most challenging encounters so far. It also achieved a genuine corrupted base vibe, complete with yucky blood level raising effects. The secrets were also nice, I missed only the one behind gratings. Since I was playing continuous, everything went fine, and I cannot say the map was unfair or too rough. It was great, actually.

Edited November 21, 2021 by Book Lord

[FragsBunny]

MAP21: Return to Sender (96%/88%/50%)

1.       Revenant respawns once after death

2.       All projectiles travel faster

3.       Hell knight reflects projectiles back at you

 

This is where I need to enter the “save scum" mode, cause the difficulty of encounters also goes up along with card difficulty! The third card choice felt more manageable assuming that I usually kill hell knights with SSG, but this map offered more rockets than shell, so there were still situations where I was forced to dodge reflected rockets! And no plasma ammo either, the 300 carryover cells are the only thing I could allowed to use!

 

Like in the last map, I had a lot of pain dealing with “fodder enemies”, but thanks to the abundance of rockets, they were less of an issue compared to the map opening. The rocket launcher area had a lange monster ambush that included an arch-vile – hilariously, he got down in a single SGG blast, and infighting did the rest of the job, but those flying imps! They’re now such a bug pain to deal with. The yellow key area was another source of pain – an ambush with two aggressive pain elementals, followed by blood elevator in a congested area with no way to retreat!

 

And fuck the yellow switch, pardon my Russian. As soon as the switch is pressed, a large horde including two arch-viles spawns across the central area. Before you can even clean the shit out, you need to pin-point and kill the two arch-viles ASAP, our you’ll waste all your rocket ammo very fast, in spite of many ammo cubicles being accessible. Infighting and rocket splash damage should take the heat off you, as long as you do not allow them to corner you. You can retreat to the blood pool below, make a turn-around and hit them from the flank, like I did.

 

In the final area, I just simply made the cyberdemon busy by making it infight with barons and flying imps. Then I killed him with my reserved BFG ammo, only to find out that I could telefrag him! And this is not there hardest thing yet; MAP22 waits up ahead, though I hope the berserk power-up should make things even!

 

Current cards on my run:
1. Pain elemental steals nearby items

2. Arachnotron respawn once after death

3. Hell knight turns to stone after death

4. Sergeant will steal items off the ground

5. Imps are able to fly

6. Cacodemons are always focused on players

7. Baron of Hell has a regenerating shield

8. Revenant turns to stone on death

9. Arachnotron shoves nearby entities on death

10. Cacodemon fires mancubus projectiles

11. Sergeant hunt the player in silence

12. Hell knight projectiles are partially invisible

13. Sludge rain will fall outside, slowing your movement

14. Pain elemental shoves nearby entities on death

15. Imp projectiles bounce off of walls.

31. Find Daisy before finishing the level, or else…

16. Hell knight projectiles ignore armor

17. Pain Elemental is more aggressive

18. Mancubus projectiles explode on impact

19. Players heal nearby monsters when damaged

20. Monster health totals are shuffled
21. Hell knight reflects projectiles back at you

Edited November 21, 2021 by FragsBunny

[finnks13]

MAP 21 - Return to Sender by A2Rob:
The final (Earth, I think?) episode is off to a fantastic start with this map. I was looking forward to it after seeing that A2Rob made it as 'Running Late 2' is one of my favourite wads of all time (definitely in the top 10) and he did not disappoint. The aesthetic here is a concrete installation filled with blood, I think the combination of dark grey and red looks very good. I thought the use of a rocky sky for the first part of the map, with the sky texture changing to the top of the mountains with an orange sunset after you go up the long elevator being a really cool detail - though this effect did break for me in the side windows of the final area while using the GL renderer on dsda-doom (this renderer has always been awful at doing skies so I wouldn't worry too much, just thought I'd mention it.)

 

The map itself is a bit shorter than most of the maps so far - only taking me around 10 minutes to 100% - and the gameplay is what I was expecting, fast and frantic. The opening section with the zombiemen flooding out of the walls was great. The fight in the blood after picking up the rocket launcher was very fun and I really liked the small corridor fight after opening the red door. This is a map which forces you to be pretty trigger happy with the rocket launcher. The best two fights were the rising blood silo with the two staggered hordes of monsters, which was quite challenging, really wish I found the other cubby hole before the one with 3 chaingunners in and the second time the blood rose caught me off guard completely - I thought that the switch would have opened a door somewhere.

 

The other excellent fight was the one after hitting the yellow key - there's lots of monsters here and you have to cut through them in order to be able to kill the archviles before they resurrect enough monsters to make the supply of rockets run out. The ending fight with the cyberdemon was a fun little skirmish to end off an excellent map.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP21 - Return to Sender - A2Rob (100%K/75%I/0%S): 

Really solid episode opener, now this time on what I guess, is the planet Sender, which, if I'm not mistaken, is the planet which some maps take part in the first Interception. This map has a brutalistic look to it, pretty similar to those at the 4th episode of Eviternity, really good looking map. In terms of gameplay, it was a wreckage, tons of explosives, and a gameplay oriented on you blasting bunchs of demons with your rocket launcher. The map is constantly flooding with blood, and in the end, it will lower every room to the lowest point, to reveal you a really grindy fight, where there is no place to hide, and several arch-viles complemented with revenants blocking your way. Your last room was your usual "Cyberdemon" last room to put a cherry on the cake. This was one of the most professional looking maps of the entire set, but the problem is that, there is one part where I have to do a strafe-run jump to progress, and that may hurt gameplay a little bit, as I usually tend to think strafe-run jumping is not allowed in normal playthroughs, and I couldn't figure how to get to the bloody area by only running and jumping. It may be an oversight, but nothing that kills the map, just learn how to strafe-run.

(HMP Playthrough - PrBoom+)

Order of preference:
 

Spoiler

MAP11

MAP06
MAP21
MAP10
MAP18
MAP17
MAP09
MAP15

MAP05

MAP04

MAP03
MAP07
MAP19
MAP12
MAP13
MAP08

MAP02
MAP01
MAP16
MAP20
MAP14
MAP31

 

 

[cannonball]

 MAP21 - “Return to Sender” by A2Rob

 

This from both a visual and gameplay perspective is probably the most polished of the set so far. Oddly in a strange turn of events I barely took a hit after hitting the yellow key switch, odd because of the comments above about those fights being particularly nasty. I merely danced through the mass of imps/revenants and archviles to the start and let the mob funnel into a 128 unit wide gap and that was it with my vast stash of rockets. The final fight is also pretty straightforward as you are given ample room to move around and get the monsters to fight each other.

From a technical standpoint I think the staged fight in the blood filled shaft is probably the highlight here, but there are plenty of useful boom triggered moving parts here and the combat as a whole package is rock solid. My only complaint would probably be the ending, the design and very obvious symmetry allows the fight to disarm itself and perhaps more could have been done to make this harder, however maybe the intention was to not slam the hammer down on the player at this point.

Funny thing, the map is designed to telefrag the cyber when you approach the exit, however I was more than able to dispatch the cyberdemon with the SSG whilst still having a few shells and 30 rockets to spare (I had not found any secrets at this point), however I appreciate that there is a lot more flex in how you can handle earlier parts of the map, especially as I was rather ammo efficient in the bigger fights anyway.

Overall - One of the best maps in the set, from a technical point of view it is probably is the most well built. That isn't a surprise given the maps I played in Nova 3 that were all solid entries.

[Krenium]

MAP21 - Return to Sender by A2Rob

PrBoom+ / Hurt Me Plenty / Pistol start / Saves / Demo

 

The heat is now definitely on. This is easily the hardest map of the wad so far, with brutal ambushes being unleashed constantly. And as more and more ambushes get unleashed, the map opens up considerably, making room for... you guessed it. Even larger ambushes! It's not generally my preferred style of play but I can appreciate what the author is going for and observe that they pulled it off well. Nothing in this map is given for free (except the keys?) Weapons will make you wonder if they were worth it. Even soul spheres will make you wonder. I don't remember actually dying but I think I had at least ten near death experiences. That one archvile in the hallway full of corpses might have been the most evil vile I've ever encountered, lol. I just couldn't seem to make my way past the mountain of meat to get to him. I exhausted my final rocket finally killing him, thank goodness.

 

The map is absolutely beautiful. Walls have a weightiness to them and overhangs jut off at all sorts of angles. Speaking of angles, 90 degree angles are not a thing you will see that often here. The lighting is very well done (see the second screenshot). Texturing sticks to a nice-looking theme and is a bit on the reserved side, which is a preference of mine. A lot of contrast is done with lighting and architecture instead, lending some more to the 'weighty' feeling of the map.

 

 

All things considered, it's a fantastic map that I only rank this way because of personal preference in gameplay, and not because of any defect. I can see this topping others' lists.

 

Map ranking (favorite -> least)

6 11 19 12 4 2 21 17 3 15 18 14 13 8 10 16 20 9 7 5 1 31

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP21: "Return to Sender" by A2Rob

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 2/2 secrets 

 

The third episode begins with a largely grey techbase flooded in blood, and you'll be raising that blood in certain areas to progress through the level. Visually this one doesn't have as much flash as most of the set up to this point but it pulls off its look very well nonetheless. Progression here is also a lot more linear than lots of the set, but the layout has some quirks to it that keep things from being totally straightforward.

 

The combat in this map is stellar, especially towards about the latter half of the map. Many of the fights here take place after you hit a switch, and the arena adjusts either by raising blood or lowering floor, and the area is flooded with monsters, and honestly those fights never get old in this one. The fights are very well calibrated here. By far the hardest part of the map for me was the fight after pressing the yellow switch, it's a large scale fight that takes place among the techbase's halls and includes two archviles that I always found it difficult to fully keep track of. When I succeeded in this encounter it was by the skin of my teeth. You also have a neat cyberdemon area after this, which I didn't find all too difficult but was still pretty fun. I just caused a bunch of infighting with him and the other monsters and then finished him off with the SSG, not knowing that there is in fact a telefrag that you do before exiting the map. Taking him down the old fashioned way wasn't too much trouble in any case, I had enough ammo to spare.

 

Loved this map, episode is off to a great start.

[Doritos420]

Map21 - Return to Sender by A2Rob

 

I thought this map was one of the best. Lots of room to run around and blast monsters. Very nice aesthetic to the map. Loved the gimmick of raising the blood to access other areas. There was even an elevator section which felt like Doom Eternal’s cultist base blood shaft arena. The fight after you use the yellow key was hectic and fun with the 2 archvilles. Very impressed with this level.

[FragsBunny]

MAP22: System Corruption (100%/95%/75%)

1.       Imp projectiles are partially invisible

2.       Zombieman fires a baron of hell projectile on death

3.       Pain elemental has increased movement speed

 

Ok, this is not the map that I previously thought about, and there is no berserk. Still, it feels more manageable than previous map, up until the big crescendo. Cell ammo is plenty, and a shotgun guy delivered another BFG to me – probably part of the reason why I did not go for 100% secrets. Even with cards stacked against me, the first several parts of the map were more or less manageable, since there was also quite a number of barrels scattered around. I liked the moments with monster closets featuring a number of barrels that you can blow up to soften the ambushes. The most hilarious one being the revenant/lost soul closet.

 

The red and blue key areas are straightforward, if not a little bit tricky. But don’t you dare to step into the big flesh and lava area without some proper preparation! First, take down the cacos and a pain elemental along with a few snipers. As soon as you step in, the barrier beside you immediately closes! With so many snipers firing at you from multiple directions and the damaging lava below, it will be a long time before you manage to get a solid footing! I only did cause I discovered the mega-armor secret - before that it took me a fair amount of resets. The blind drop into imps and pinkies just right before the yellow key turned to be quite nasty for me, but still nothing that few BFG blasts couldn’t solve. And if you believe that you can survive the yellow key ambush without rushing out of a tight place… go ahead and try ) At least the cyberdemon can be telefragged properly!

[Book Lord]

MAP 22 – System Corruption by Moustachio

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

The level started off with the approach to a vine-covered base, reminiscent of the jungle installations seen in Plutonia and in many other WADs. Just like in previous maps, @Moustachio scattered a bunch of barrels within enemy ranks, making the cleansing of hellspawn a lot quicker in the first section. The BK was soon mine, but the exit was behind a yellow door, so further search was needed.

Spoiler

I liked the looks of the ornate chamber in the second area, shifting abruptly to medieval and hellish textures, especially the creative use of MIDWINDA to create a hanging chandelier. Zombie & Pinky crew made room for more mid-tiers, trying their best to stop my ascension to the RK. It was mostly frontal opposition which could not do much, as I was armed to the teeth, thanks to both hidden ammo supplies and a generous non-secret BFG. This was only the warm-up for the real challenges, which were waiting beyond the red door.

Spoiler

From the small entrance, I could see that the outdoor area ahead was rather big, if compared with the rest. It was the core of System Corruption, an area swallowed by a hellish growth of skin and flesh, bathed in hot lava pouring from the corrupted soil and dropping into a fiery ravine. The author has good mastery of vertical map design and handles such scenarios very well. Moving around the volcanic precipice was tricky, because I disabled vertical mouse look and strongly missed it there, both for checking the pits below my feet and to snipe the numerous faraway enemies. The barrage of Revenant rockets and other missiles discouraged rushing into the open ground, so I killed as many as possible from the narrow entrance, then I was trapped by yellow bars and must press forward, stimulated by an all-seeing Cyberdemon.

Spoiler

Radiation suits helped finding the way to the other side of the lava, which hosted a switch that unsealed the portal to the Cyberdemon monument. I accessed inside and obtained the YSK after a very cramped ambush. I did not find a way to reach the boss and possibly telefrag him, so I let him be and moved to the exit. The team leader provided another valuable piece to the megaWAD mosaic, mingling a jungle bunker with corrupted tech-base and then infernal landscape, with good gameplay relying heavily on height variation. Basically, Doom E1-E2-E3 tropes in one solution, with contemporary visuals and exciting combat as expected from @Moustachio. Solid and interesting to play.

 

Edited November 22, 2021 by Book Lord