Best megawads with custom enemies

[nobleflame]

Hi all,

 

What are you most memorable medawads with custom enemies? I'm not thinking of total conversions, more a couple / few extra enemies that add some new gameplay to classic DOOM II. 

 

Examples: Valiant, Resurgence.

[DuckReconMajor]

Eviternity obviously. 

I like the Afrit and Mr X from Scythe 2. 

Heartland and UAC Ultra (though UAC's customs are just bosses iirc)

[Andromeda]

STRAIN is pretty cool.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Pirate DOOM

Void and Rainbow

Golden Souls 1/2/3

Castlevania: Simon's Destiny (TC, but it's excellent work)

Maskim Xul

Ultinate Torture and Torment

Winter's Fury

Hocus Pocus

Stronghold

Mario DOOM

DOOMed Space Wars

Edited November 10, 2021 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[NuMetalManiak]

Struggle, unless that one counts as a TC due to both different weapons and monsters. Then again, most of the Doom monsters just has some changes to it and adds in the others, so it would still work.

[Roofi]

Mapgame because rf had the very cool idea to add sentry turrets instead of boring new enemies.

 

All my favourite megawads don't add custom enemies. The Spider Mastermind definetely deserve more love.

[nobleflame]

That’s for the suggestions people! Very kind :)

[ducon]

Yes, the two new monsters of Scythe 2.

And the tough red pinky from DSV3-war (and the friendly monsters from this WAD).

[maxmanium]

Surprised no one has mentioned Valiant yet.

[Rudolph]

Supplice.

 

^{Just kidding. :P}

[ChopBlock223]

Love the ones in Nihility, they're real mean bastards.

[scwiba]

2 hours ago, Andromeda said:

STRAIN is pretty cool.

+1 for STRAIN if you don't mind them a little goofy

[ReaperAA]

In my opinion, the best megawads with custom enemies include:

- Heartland (not a megawad, but definitely worth playing)

- Eviternity

- Valiant

- Struggle

 

and recently, 1000 Line 3 CP

[Rudolph]

Kidding aside, is there a way to display the new level names in Scythe 2? In GZDoom, at least, I am getting the vanilla Doom II names.

[KubaloBlackMT]

Unloved has a lot of custom monsters in it. probably one of my favorite horror wads.

[Noiser]

Valiant is an all-time favorite.

[BetelgeuseSupergiant]

Definitely this is Eviternity.

[whybmonotacrab]

Might lean a little closer to Total Conversion, but Tango's Paradise is a personal favourite of mine, and very much feels like "Skillsaw does GZDoom". The new monsters rule, and the new weapons to combat them are equally awesome. The Diabolist is my personal favourite - an archvile that doesn't have line of site and forces you to keep moving rather than run and hide - but they're all winners in my book.

[Deadwing]

Some lesser known wads: Running Late 2, Donuts, Adonis

[i suck at nicknames]

Brace yourselves- I had alot of free time and I wanted to type out the wads which have the most notable use of custom monsters (which I've played at least), how I feel about them and how they meshed with their respective wads...so I did so. If you wanna avoid spoilers, just peep the bolded wads and note them, cuz I'm gonna fill some lines here lol.  

 

Valiant. Freaking fantastic wad with IMO the best custom roster ever. The super imp here is my fave variation of the imp in any wad- the two-shot fast projectiles actually makes it a credible threat lol. The kamikaze is the all-time GOAT custom monster IMO, with creating a whole new dynamic as far as facing meelee monsters go. The arachnorb is also extremely interesting as a monster in how it spawns from an existing arachnotron and as an additional flying monster (tho the wad does tend to overuse them). Cybruisers and Pyroknights are incredibly fresh takes on the Baron-skin, and I think the cybruiser is the best version of the now done-to-death variant of the monster. I really liked the super-vile final boss, tho personally I feel it could have been made to feel truly formidable (like the archviles from NoSp2 which can resurrect other archviles and boss monsters .-. ), tho then again skillsaw is a merciful deity so I guess I'm grateful for that :3

Ancient Aliens. Good wad, tho only one custom monster i.e. the Alien Guardian that really sticks in your head, tho partially (in my case) because of how another wad (Tarnsmans Projectile Hell) used them to be absolutely brutal. Like the stealth alien, even tho its just a much more forgiving version of Scythe 2s evil marine. 

Heartland. Favorite wad of all time, tho admittedly because of how fucking good the gameplay is. The custom enemies are all good, but not Valiant level IMO. Cybruiser is there, the floating squid monster is serviceable tho annoying at times. Rocket zombie had one fantastic role in that freaking amazing bridge fight, but otherwise just serviceable. Kamikaze is the GOAT so obv points for using that.

Hurt. Most of the custom menagerie is fodder, tho had to mention because of the baby caco. I freaking loved them and I wish I saw them used more around.

 

Eviternity. Loved this wad, and the custom enemies were mostly all pretty good. The Annihilator was a pretty interesting take on Valiants 'Cybruiser', tho think the inclusion of his hitscan was kinda annoying to deal with. Liked the Plasmagunner, tho doesn't really stick in your head admittedly. Nightmare Demon could've been used a lot meaner than it actually was, which kinda made it irrelevant. The Astral Caco I absolutely loved with how unpredictable its movements and attacks were, and a great idea for a flying monster in general- wish I saw it in other places. The final boss was absolute trash tho, sorry. 

 

(Random but I kinda want there to be a caco family wad having normal cacos, fast cacos, astral cacos, baby cacos, the fire cacos & toxic cacos from Rowdy Rudy, the Doom 64 cacos, the Halloween cacos in Tangerine Nightmare...just a freaking caco gumbo wad full of every caco under the Sun. Y'all can have that idea for free btw)
 

(1/2)

[i suck at nicknames]

(cont.)

 

Mayan Mishap. A very short but good-naturedly tough mapset, and alot of that has to do with the custom monsters (tho alot of monsters are simply reskins). The floating mancubus is a very interesting concept I will say, tho I feel the cybruiser in this wad has some of its potency nerfed with it shooting its normal green projectiles along with its rockets. 

 

Scythe 2. A top 5 wad for me, and you can find probably the most effective use of custom monsters ever here. The evil marine is probably one of the best bullshit-but-in-a-good-way monsters I've ever seen, and the Afrit is an all-timer as far as a boss monster goes. Its use in Level 26 alone warrants it in my top 3 of GOAT custom monsters. Erik Alm is an evil genius, nuff said.

 

Tarnsmans Projectile Hell. By far the most extensive family of custom monsters I've seen in any wad and Tarnsman utilizes all of them, for the most part, in a very effective manner....tho at times the fights are designed to be kinda unfair towards the player....at least for me, I am no Doom God by any means anyway lol. The best example of this as far as bullshit-but-in-a-good-way goes are the invisible Alien-Guardians in the virtual reality maps. Aesthetically gorgeous, and its probably the first ever custom monster that employs the slow projectile as a killer. The use of the slow revenant missile is such a stroke of evil genius that I cant help but commend him for it.

Other notable monsters from TPH which come to mind include the Arachgunner (which looks and sounds exactly like an arachnotron but has a chaingun instead) which I really liked, the super duper imps (basically fast monster imps), the motherfucking driller (a bullshit monster which...I admittedly disliked), the green goblin replacements for the hellknights (which are imports from Scythe X, if I'm not mistaken?) and....thats it I think. Kinda wish the arachnotron and the arachgunner were completely identical in everything except the attack- it would have made approaching fights alot more unpredictable IMO, but thats just me.  

 

[One thing I will give flowers to Tarnsman for however, is the small tweaks to your normal roster of Doom-familiar monsters....like the pinky biting the player at the star of its bite animation instead of at the end as it normally does, or the turbo-speed cacos. I freaking love stuff like this because it makes you approach things as simple as punching out a pinky differently and I wish mappers did stuff like this more (like a cyberdemon periodically shooting a volley of 4 rockets instead of 3; a pain elemental exploding at death in a way which damages the player; the NoSp2 archviles I mentioned before; etc)].

 

All Hell Is Breaking Loose. Had to mention because I think the arachnotron replacement in that wad is the most hilarious thing I've ever fucking seen in Doom. I wont spoil it- I'll just say play it because its worth it just for that alone. Other than that, good and fun wad, especially considering its from the 90s. 
 

(2/2)

Edited November 10, 2021 by i suck at nicknames : added some details

[RonLivingston]

Super Sonic Doom is my favorite with all those enhanced enemies, Neodoom goes great with my style, Even the Afrit from scythe 2

[pcorf]

Strain

Rekkr

Adventures of Square

[nobleflame]

12 hours ago, i suck at nicknames said:

Spoiler

 

(cont.)

 

Mayan Mishap. A very short but good-naturedly tough mapset, and alot of that has to do with the custom monsters (tho alot of monsters are simply reskins). The floating mancubus is a very interesting concept I will say, tho I feel the cybruiser in this wad has some of its potency nerfed with it shooting its normal green projectiles along with its rockets. 

 

Scythe 2. A top 5 wad for me, and you can find probably the most effective use of custom monsters ever here. The evil marine is probably one of the best bullshit-but-in-a-good-way monsters I've ever seen, and the Afrit is an all-timer as far as a boss monster goes. Its use in Level 26 alone warrants it in my top 3 of GOAT custom monsters. Erik Alm is an evil genius, nuff said.

 

Tarnsmans Projectile Hell. By far the most extensive family of custom monsters I've seen in any wad and Tarnsman utilizes all of them, for the most part, in a very effective manner....tho at times the fights are designed to be kinda unfair towards the player....at least for me, I am no Doom God by any means anyway lol. The best example of this as far as bullshit-but-in-a-good-way goes are the invisible Alien-Guardians in the virtual reality maps. Aesthetically gorgeous, and its probably the first ever custom monster that employs the slow projectile as a killer. The use of the slow revenant missile is such a stroke of evil genius that I cant help but commend him for it.

Other notable monsters from TPH which come to mind include the Arachgunner (which looks and sounds exactly like an arachnotron but has a chaingun instead) which I really liked, the super duper imps (basically fast monster imps), the motherfucking driller (a bullshit monster which...I admittedly disliked), the green goblin replacements for the hellknights (which are imports from Scythe X, if I'm not mistaken?) and....thats it I think. Kinda wish the arachnotron and the arachgunner were completely identical in everything except the attack- it would have made approaching fights alot more unpredictable IMO, but thats just me.  

 

[One thing I will give flowers to Tarnsman for however, is the small tweaks to your normal roster of Doom-familiar monsters....like the pinky biting the player at the star of its bite animation instead of at the end as it normally does, or the turbo-speed cacos. I freaking love stuff like this because it makes you approach things as simple as punching out a pinky differently and I wish mappers did stuff like this more (like a cyberdemon periodically shooting a volley of 4 rockets instead of 3; a pain elemental exploding at death in a way which damages the player; the NoSp2 archviles I mentioned before; etc)].

 

All Hell Is Breaking Loose. Had to mention because I think the arachnotron replacement in that wad is the most hilarious thing I've ever fucking seen in Doom. I wont spoil it- I'll just say play it because its worth it just for that alone. Other than that, good and fun wad, especially considering its from the 90s. 
 

(2/2)

 

 

 

Thanks for the time you put into these posts. Much appreciated!

[CrocMagnum]

Strange Aeons: a horror themed megawad (45 maps) with custom monsters and a few new weapons. In my view a must play for fans of the Lovecraft books. 

 

 

 

[Faceman2000]

14 hours ago, i suck at nicknames said:

If you wanna avoid spoilers, just peep the bolded wads

14 hours ago, i suck at nicknames said:

I wont spoil it- I'll just say play it because its worth it just for that alone.

Dang it man, I read this whole thing because I WANTED spoilers! :P

[Astronomical]

Rowdy Rudy and it's sequel when played back brings you up to 32 maps, The custom enemies are amazing especially because they are done in vanilla.  Almost anything Antres touches has an extensive dehacked file (Eviternity, Struggle, and more).  Most Skillsaw outings tend to have custom enemies.  Just by looking around you may find wads with them.

[ducon]

I forgot Aliens Doom, of course.

[i suck at nicknames]

7 hours ago, Faceman2000 said:

Dang it man, I read this whole thing because I WANTED spoilers! :P

Hehehe trust me on this dude. Its worth the.....'suspense'.

[i suck at nicknames]

Two more wads just came to mind as far as custom monsters go. 

 

Doom The Way Id Did. I love how the secret maps are (SPOILERS!!!) homages to Commander Keen the same way the OG Doom 2 was for Wolfenstein. The harmless dancing alien things are cute but harmless, and the pinkie/lost soul hybrid alien thing is also an interesting concept for a monster, tho also pretty harmless (unless you play with fast monsters, in which case its more annoying than actually dangerous). The Dopefish boss is actually pretty uhh...dope, tho I feel the setup of the map kinda makes facing it a bit easy. Playing with fast monsters is pretty exciting tho. 

 

Negative One (tho I'm only halfway thru). Just wanted to say invisible imps are actually way more threatening than I initially thought they would be. They sneak up on you and brutalize you with their fireballs easily if you're not actively looking out for them, and trust me when I say they're not as easy to look out for. Also wanna shout out the kamikaze lost soul, which I also think is freaking genius- thank God there are no pain elementals in this wad (at least so far). The dragons are just cool, nothing special tho.