Sena Posted January 6, 2022 Day 8: Sin City https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/ma_sincity A 2001 level by Ed Cripps, which takes advantage of some pretty advanced ZDoom stuff, most significantly, flowing lavafalls which actually look convincing, and some Quake-style switch puzzles, and also some invisible enemies, which are still absolute tosh and being attached to a good level doesn't distract from that. The level's got some solid atmosphere and enemy placement, alongside a soundtrack which at first I thought was a dynamic piece that changed based on entering certain areas, but it was just a regular, unchanging .midi like most of them, it just so happens that this one is quiet and subdued for most of its duration, with a minute or so where it raises the tension, which works great if it actually corresponds to the gameplay (as it did the first couple times, hence my misconception), but feels a bit out of place when it's just some standard platforming. Which there's plenty of, including one particular section in which I had to jump across the aforementioned lava, which took a nasty 40 health on just one tick, which was a bit much if you ask me. Anyway, the main point of this level is you go through all this shit, and then you activate the floodgates, which turns all the lava in the level into blood, which is actually quite a cool concept, but getting softlocked immediately afterwards is comparatively much less cool, presumptively because ZDoom's changed a bit over the past 20 years resulting in a coding error of some sort. Secondarily, the actual flooding isn't that clear, you have to flood things probably 3 separate times in Half Life, and in that game it's very clear that it has been done, whereas here you see the lava change to blood, and blood pouring in, but the amount of liquid does not change, which may or may not have been the reason I got softlocked, I don't know, doesn't matter how it happens, all I have is the fact that the level doesn't entirely work. But despite the abrupt end, I had a good time with it, noclipped out of there and it was a fairly standard conclusion, which is to say a functional one. 6/10. 1 Share this post Link to post
Roofi Posted January 7, 2022 Month 7 Day 07 I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop [1] ARMAS 22 (Weapons 22) by @Daniel (2004) Spoiler Quote Replaces almost all the Doom 2 Weapons with new ones. A weapon mod made by Daniel, a gzdoom modder from the 2000's who used to replace official weapons by others mainly took from other FPS's released after Doom 1&2 while taking a very relative care about the balancing between them. This one is particularly fun for several reasons: - the shotgun is replaced by an overpowered minigun that uses shells and keep the power of the original weapon. The SSG that fires 4 rounds per shot is useless compared to it. - Various rocket launchers can be used: the RL of ROTT which does not vary from the RL of Doom 2. The grenade launcher of Duke Nukem which replaces the Plasma Gun, having the same rate of fire while having explosive projectiles! Finally, the RL of Half-Life which shoots atomic rockets. - In the same way as the health and armor bonuses, it is possible to stack medkits and stimpacks beyond 100hp (300 hp maximum) - It is possible to store much more ammunition in general. In short, an unbalanced but fun weapon mod. [2] Demise Deathmatch Series by Broderick Arneson (1996) Spoiler Quote Small level design and good placement of weapons makes for fast and furious gameplay. A 4-pack of Deathmatch maps that are as classic as possible with two natural themed maps, a tech-base and a bloody, marbled temple. The maps are beautiful with consistent themes. I probably have a favorite for the two brown and green maps. [3] JAX04.WAD by Glenn Jackson (1996) Spoiler Quote This wadfile is pretty tough to beat but, it is possible. . .to win if you've got what it takes and also, once again as always the wad you're about to play is, totally . . . evil, and absolutely without mercy for the weak. THINK YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN? WITHOUT CHEAT CODES? I designed this wad when I was pent-up and full of anger after yet another nice and patronizing day at my job, which I hate but must go to because I'm stupid So, trust me, you're in for a fight you'll remember for the rest of your life. I also included a *.LMP recording of this wad so you could clearly see that this wad is indeed a nightmare come true so, lock and load. And try NOT to use codes. If I can make it through the game, than you should be able too! Anyway, give it a go and tell me what you think. Wow, I had a lot of fun on this old slaughter map ! Indeed, the author has placed so many spheres and ammunition that the level loses all its difficulty. However, the fun lies in the ease of killing hordes of monsters. Moreover, this level illustrates that slaughter doesn't necessarly mean difficult. Aesthetically, the wad has nothing special, although there are a lot of stairs. I really appreciate that the layout doesn't consist of arenas, unlike many modern slaughtermaps. A very nice find. [4] DOOM V (1994) Quote Here you go ! You don't need DOOM II if you already have DOOM V. [;)] This patch is for DOOM 1.2 and DEHACKED 2.0. I tried to keep the changes in this way that the game is possible to play without any IDxxx help. (... well, maybe a IDKFA at the beginning of mission 2 and 3 .. ULTRA VIOLENT...) So what has changed : # Based on an idea from the creator of undead12.deh, ... # I've never understood the use of tortured bodies ... # Demons suffering under high blood pressure ... # The shotgun and the pistol ... # The amount of ammo ... # Imps have made a diet ... Find out, have fun and take care ! A dehacked which didn't work for me. It's totally pointless anyway. [5] time2die.zip (1995) Spoiler Quote This wad is for deathmatch for up to 4 players. This wad always has a second way out, and has an even amount of ammo. This wad also contains a nifty secret in which you may lurk to kill an opponent. A very standard Deathmatch map with a strong greenish look. Quite a few interconnections with weapons to pick up, but nothing very distinctive despite what the author points out in the description. I like the heavy use of mossy cement texture in the outer areas. [6] Teleporter War!! (telewar.wad) by Captain Snow (John Cangany) (1997) Spoiler Quote This is a wad made from scratch. I put in the Mortal Kombat theme so you can listen to a good tune while playing your friends. New titlepic too. Oh yeah, to make matters more fun, you only have your handgun and a chainsaw. For the music, it sounds best on an AWE 32. An extremely simplistic DM map, I'm sure there are only 3 sectors or even less. We are on a huge bridge surrounded by a ravine full of trees. I guess you have to not fall down, I didn't try. To tell the truth, I like the setting, exarcerbated by the music of Mortal Kombat which puts us in the atmosphere of a bloody duel. [7] Chester.WAD (Version1.0) by Nic Bedford & Simon Davis (2006) Spoiler Quote The level is based around the streets of the City of Chester in North West England. Landmarks of note include the city walls, the Rows, the Grovesnor Precinct and the Canal Bank towards the Levels end. A level for Ultimate Doom published in 2006 but made in 1994. Honestly, I didn't feel like waling in a city but rather in some kind of catacombs because of the extensive use of skull textures at some places , blood or wooden textures (You can find lot of Startan though). Maybe the impression of exploring a city would be in the grid-like layout with long straight paths, or in the very unbinding progression. You can go anywhere you want. You have to get a yellow key to reach the exit, but you can explore many optional places. The whole proves to be extremly messy but it was not bad. There are lots of monsters, plenty of medkits and ammo. A good map after all. I stop here for today. 1 Share this post Link to post
Thelokk Posted January 7, 2022 Portol Author: Andrew A. Fritz Year: 2014 Port I played it on: GZDoom Made in 2014, smells like late 90s. The single map is a convoluted maze of green brick with a few tech elements thrown in. Lots and lots of backtracking, dark alleys and unthreatening enemy positioning is involved - keyed bars cover the exit right next to your spawning point, and your mission is to meander until you bump into the keys, mostly by accident. Occasionally very good use of lightning is on display, but otherwise the obtuse and meandering nature of the map really distracts from any other merits it might have. Enemy setpieces never go beyond one mid-tier monster plus two or three low-tier lackeys at a time. Overall feels like something you might have found in TNT or the Master Levels. Not terrible, but nothing special. Spoiler Spoiler 1 Share this post Link to post
Roofi Posted January 8, 2022 (edited) Month 7 Day 8 I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop [1] fork.zip by josh desrochers (1996) Spoiler Quote This wad turns your fist into a wimpy fork. This is pretty neat, but its kind of cartoonish. "Kind of cartoonish what an understatement ! It looks like it was drawn by a 3 years old child ! I got killed by a Doomworld troll in the jokewad The Community is falling!! Oh No!!! Spoiler 0 Share this post Link to post
Sena Posted January 8, 2022 Day 9: The Military Base https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/m-o/mbase If there's one thing to say this one, it's that it's not as bad as it seems. Its opening minute is definitely its worst part, with you spawning atop some bizarre metallic structure while encircled by an array of hitscanners, and shortly thereafter having to fight 5 barons at once, after which point, the whole thing manages to calm down. Nothing that remarkable about it, just a standard affair of shooting some small crowds of monsters, in a place completely devoid of atmosphere, you couldn't convince me that if David Lynch was an architect, he'd design a military base that would end up looking like this, as it is largely just some featureless hallways, with maybe one structure in the middle at best. Secondarily, the combat is somewhat repetitive, as apart from one room with cacodemons in which I used the chaingun, you will always exclusively be using the SSG, as they do give you the RL and plasma rifle fairly early on, but they probably forgot they did because you get barely a single box of ammo for both of them, you can deplete your ammo for both in a second, and you'll just be back to the slow-firing double barrel, which has a borderline comical abundance of ammunition for it. Still, beyond that, the arenas themselves are fairly well conceived, as is the direction throughout, for 2001, they were ahead of the curve, it is visually uninteresting, but if you can look past that, you've got a fairly decent level on your hands here. 6/10 2 Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted January 9, 2022 (edited) Deth2U.wad.wad.(1997) by Jamie Secord (Eternity) "A hard level for hard core players." Ok, stop, stop, stop, STOP. Do NOT brag about what your map does because 4 times out of 5, your map will end up panned into oblivion (assuming anyone's actually aware of it, of course). This map is actually decently made and plays pretty well for the most part, though(and nice choice on the Hexen music). Having monster closets to the sides of the start that open up at ridiculously random spots (one, two steps from starting, while the other opens as you climb the stairs to the right around the time you end up outside) was kind of stupid. But the worst part was the darkened room where you're constantly being sniped at by hitscanners from god only knows where. Too many people overdo the darkness filter when they decide to insert it in their maps, and it's especially annoying here as you'll have to wander a bit to find the switch you'll need to press to progress. Not to mention the overall dearth of health in the room as well The fights are shockingly engaging though, despite some rather eye-rolling enemy placement, like the chaingunner placed right next a teleporter that's easy to miss because he's located right in the center of some shrinking marble circles in the one outside location here, or the completely pointless SS guy near the entrance here. Sniping at enemies and watching the infighting of everyone below is one of the best parts, easily. But I have to dock it off a whole point for being overly dark. 6.5/10 Spoiler Edited January 9, 2022 by LadyMistDragon 0 Share this post Link to post
Roofi Posted January 9, 2022 Month 7 Day 9 I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop [1] Deliverance: ONI Facility Demo (stripped version) by Elric Sullivan (Fisk) (2016) Spoiler Quote A simple one-level demo with three exits. This version fixes a lot of bugs and is stripped of music to comply with /idgames standards. A level that has the particularity of having 3 exits and therefore 3 different ways to finish it. However, the size of this level stays particularly standard with more or less 190 monsters. Moreover, the difficulty to reach them differs. One of them can be reached in less than 5 minutes while another one requires to take more paths and even to kill several barons. In general, the level still remains relatively easy because, although it is designed with the IWAD of Doom 2, the level only features bestiary of Doom 1 without containing any boss. However, unless all the best weapons are in the secrets, you only have the right to use the shotgun and the pistol, knowing that the ammunition is limited. I had to kill several times a baron with berserk. However, I would like to point out that I could only find one secret out of 10! So maybe the author hid everything in the secrets. The author also stated that the wad was designed for Zdoom but that sounds like limit-removing to me. To tell the truth, he didn't use any zdoom effect that would justify the use of this port, unless I'm wrong. Aesthetically speaking, it's ok. The architecture and the space theme make me think a lot of Base Ganymede which is an excellent megawad for Ultimate Doom. A good map where the different exits add some replayability. [2] HORROR.WAD by Patrix a.k.a Patrick Hipps (2005) Spoiler Quote Kill and enjoy! An Ultimate Doom level created in 1994 but uploaded in 2005. HORROR.WAD takes place in a dark underground area empty of almost any detail. Nevertheless, if you take away the music of the game, the atmosphere is particularly interesting. As far as the gameplay is concerned, I expected to encounter few monsters, but there are actually a lot. I could even say that the last fight turned a bit slaughter-lite with small hordes of monsters coming from all sides. Moreover, the progression of the map appears to be linear. I died on a weird damaging floor after stucking myself behind a throne in WARCASTL.WAD Spoiler 0 Share this post Link to post
smeghammer Posted January 9, 2022 (edited) Here is a fairly dull 1994 Doom 1 map, called TEMPLE.wad: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/d-f/dmnast Quite open but also quite mediocre map with too few enemies and not enough attention paid to altering the lighting. As I have said before, a lot of these early ones seem not to have much variation in lighting - and just doing that would make them a LOT better visually. I did quite like the phased crushing ceiling and staggered bars to get the keys near the start though (1:15 or so) - that was fairly cool. The gameplay was way too easy as there were not enough enemies. Also, the ending was somewhat surprising - the exit was marked with an exit door, but the sector it was in was marked as a secret, suggesting it was not in fact the exit... Played with GZDoom, freelook, no jump, no crouch. Here is my playthrough: Edited January 9, 2022 by smeghammer 0 Share this post Link to post
Sena Posted January 10, 2022 Day 10: Green Day https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/g-i/greenday Two short maps with an emphasis on grass and courtyards, albeit not exclusively; the latter one in particular has a much greater proportion of indoor areas. Despite not having much to work with, there's a clear level of actual expertise here, in most maps that are over quickly, they don't put in many enemies which means you can complete them in barely any time, and without having to engage in anything in the level. As an example, I went ahead and beat E1M1 again, and despite having to stop to take the mega armour, it only took me 15 seconds, which is probably as much time as it took to select the WAD in my folder and load the level. Conversely, you can't just rush through Green Day, it's designed in such a way that you have to actually fight the enemies they put in front of you, which even for openers to professionally made megaWADs, isn't something you always see. Granted, the first level does lack any health packs at all, and I did spot a glitch in a singular square floating in the air, but beyond that, there really isn't anything bad to say about the levels. They're over quick, but it's better to be quick than dead. 7/10. 1 Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted January 10, 2022 (edited) JP ZOO(1994) by Jean-Phllippe Gsell (Eternity) Replaces E2M1. This is one of those maps that feels hardly better than a random collection of rooms. Too few radsuits for the amount of damaging floor y'all have to walk through. Progression is quite confusing and while you can figure out where to go next if you look carefully at certain details, secrets are either ridiculously easy to find or hidden behind anonymous walls, and every so often, you have no idea what switch or linedef you crossed that activates the highly visible red key platform for instance. And again, there has to be a room that you can't even see in. Thankfully, it's 'secret' and has two pairs of night-vision goggles. The combat mostly seems slapped together, but it could be much, much worst. However, as a 'zoo' of monsters, it works excellently. Humorously, there's a pinkie behind a cage at one point that you can punch out safely. Near the end, you even run across a picture of 'ol JP himself. Pushing on it opens up a monster closet with sergeants that counts as a secret for....some reason and also lowers the picture into the floor. There's a joke here, but I don't quite see it. Speaking of which, JP's teleport use is quite playful. Go down a narrow and possibly outside path with a Megarmour at the end and find yourself teleported to an entirely different location! Try heading to the exit without opening the blue key door and back you go to the ol' Baphomet-walled slime pit central hub! But honestly, I think he just forgot to tag the blue key door, as you don't even need the blue key to open it. Being as the blue key is located through a teleporter at the end of a sort of blood pit semi-remote from the rest of the map, you might as well skip it. This is quite unwieldy with some godawful texture usage in spots and some rather shitty and cumbersome progression, but i can't quite hate it. 5/10 Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler 1 Share this post Link to post
ICID Posted January 10, 2022 Great adventure, guys - great to see reviews from newcomers as well as the old heads. The first ER/iWA of the new year is here! 0 Share this post Link to post
