The DWmegawad Club plays: Micro-Slaughter Community Project & Haste

[Book Lord]

MAP 13 – Rotting Under the Foot of Time by @Benjogami

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, HMP, Pistol start, blind run w/saves

 

The bizarre shapes and textures exhibited right off the bat were a proper presentation for Rotting Under the Foot of Time, a.k.a. the gimmicky, crosscurrent map of Haste. I have no experience with Benjogami’s work; I read he had been a prominent author in the slaughter scene since 2016, so I assume he designed fantastic stuff, both single-handed efforts and collaborations with other big names in this project (e.g., Abandon). Unfortunately, I could not put up with the content of this level; I was on the verge of rage quitting multiple times, appalled at the blatant sadism of the various situations, which were triggered randomly and without the benefit of any introduction or explanation.

 

In the first area, beneath a sick FIREBLU structure, the player was placed in front of eight dubiously textured doors. They led to small cubicles packed with tough enemies, some of them facing the other way, some ready to attack (how to know that without trial & error?). I am talking about Barons of Hell, Revenants, and many Cyberdemons. No weapons were available, except an SSG, two plasma rifles, and a rocket launcher inside closets that must be stirred first. I figured out the infighting puzzle after several unavoidable deaths. Better players would surely unleash multiple closets and make the Cyberdemons kill most of the Hell Nobles, but I did not risk getting cornered in such a small area. I learned that Hell Knights can easily scratch a Cyberdemon to death if the boss is unable to move.

Spoiler

The closets contained a prodigious number of Soul Spheres and only one switch, used to open a path through the lava. I picked up the Invulnerability sphere and my first guess was to jump down a hole, that revealed itself as an inescapable trap. Oh, great! The intended progression was into a large chamber, displaying the weirdest texturing of the whole megaWAD, soon to be filled with monsters without a warning. It was not a terribly difficult fight once I understood the event sequence, but the first impression was of total chaos. The Cyberdemons appeared behind vines on a ledge and could easily kill an unwary player; afterwards, they teleported on the ground and helped Doomguy more than their brethren. Ammo was just enough to finish the job, there were only shells left for the surviving Barons on the upper floor, and not even enough. I like shotgunning Hell Nobles, even if it takes a long time, but I murdered the last one with bare hands (no Berserk!).

 

The big ambush granted me the BSK, but to end this torment I needed the RSK as well. To get it, I must cross a thin, zig-zagging ledge over inescapable lava, on 20% damaging floor, under the threat of an Arch-Vile. The round chamber with the RSK held more Viles, but I just ignored them and retraced my steps as fast as I could. I could not believe that I passed the ordeal after only a few failures, and I was not looking forward to trying it again. The same could be said for the rest of the level: nothing here was appealing, not even the visuals that were deliberately hideous and undetailed. Maxing the kills was also a disgrace, since there were many Arch-Viles that were not crushed and must be killed manually. Looking at the automap, it seems that Benjogami outlined the figure of a burning tank, possibly the Metal Slug SV-001, and then decided what horrors he could fit into that shape. There is surely an audience for maps like this; as for me, I classify it in the special category “Rotting Under the Foot of Time” and leave it there to rot forever.

 

Time: 12:32               Deaths: several, but I did not care to count

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP12: "Thrown to the Wolves" by Scotty

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/1 secrets

 

This one brings your classic demonic marble castle aesthetic, complete with damaging blood areas. Really enjoy the grandness of that central area, with its nice high ceiling and big pillars, and that dark eerie lighting on the sides. It's a more linear affair than Scotty's previous maps, there are two paths open to you, but you need to go down one in order to unlock the red key stored in the other. We also hear a nice FFVII midi, the same known for its use in Scythe's MAP18.

 

I mentioned previously that I've found Scotty's maps to generally stick out as being easier than the other maps, but this one bucks that trend a bit. Actually wasn't sure I'd get a saveless run in, as my early attempts were marked by some pretty big struggles. You begin in the grand central area, there are 4 archviles on a central blood fountain, mancubi on one side, and imps on the other. One thing you can do is approach the imps and have the spider mastermind further up take some of them out for you. Not only does it whittle down their numbers a bit, but on rare occasions a funny thing can happen where one of the imps will wander all the way up to the spider, immobilize her, and painstakingly claw her to death. This does not happen often, usually the imps either just wander down into the blood pit and go back and forth aimlessly or the spider takes them down, but it's nice when it does happen. As for this fight itself, it's a fun one. I start by taking down two of the archviles on the imp side, as you have a window of safety before the imps make their way down to you, then I go to the north side of the room to rocket everything, dipping to the other rockets for ammo at some point before things get too busy.

 

Next up is the area to unlock the red skull key. It features the same host of monsters as the previous fight, imps, mancubi, and archies. This time though, the archviles have the imps in front of them for cover, so you can't get rid of them off the bat. There's some rubble beside the imp area that you can use for cover from the mancubi as you rocket your way through the imps and, eventually, the archies. Once they're all down the mancubi can just be chaingunned to save the more important ammo. Here's where I get that soulsphere secret, and then lower the BFG. Next up is a big horde of revenants. I go to the same rubble I used as cover in the previous fight and sneak in BFG shots from in there. The revenants tend to get a little caught up when trying to navigate around those bricks, so it's a pretty convenient area to shoot from. Once I'm out of BFG shots I run back into the main building where there's more room and take care of the rest with rockets. Now if that spiderdemon is still alive, you can get the cells around her and BFG her. If there are mancubi in her area still alive, it's best to get her infighting with them first so you can do this more safely.

 

Grabbing the red key teleports 2 cyberdemons into the central area, and slowly starts feeding in cacodemons from the room you're in. Run out to the central area and wait for the cacodemons to start pouring in and have the cybies deal with them. If you try to do everything yourself, you'll find yourself out of shots and the cacodemons will prevent you from going back into the red key room to restock. Once the numbers in the central room start dwindling you can go back to the red key room and take care of the mass of cacos that get themselves stuck in there. Now you can either kill the cyberdemons, or leave them alive to help you in the next fight. Hitting the red key switch reveals segmented hordes of pinkies, revenants, hell knights, and barons on one side, with 3 cyberdemons on a ledge on the other side. If you left the other cyberdemons alive you can use them to rocket the side with the hordes. It makes this fight wayyyy easier, but also much slower. Without using the cyberdemons this one is trickier, but not too bad. Start with a bunch of rockets from a space out of the ledge cyberdemons' sight, then try and use them to infight whatever is possible, and BFG when things get too hot. You get two megaspheres and quite a lot of cells in this fight, so there is room for error. 

 

This one's great. The nice and puzzly fights were a lot of fun and the visuals + midi give it this awesome imposing atmosphere.

[kalaeth]

time for a bit more! 

Yesterday I replayed level 12 a few times, even beat it from pistol start and with only mid-level saves. And I managed to finish the level with a better health, 193 instead of 3, so I ended up saving that one for the continuous play.

 

MAP 13 - Rotting Under the Foot of Time :

Trippy! Under the fireblu thingy there's a invun.. Always a bad sign. While checking the doors I woke up a rev, SSG him and a fried to death, another door brings out barons and a cyber.. One of them eventually kills me. Next try. I went into the first baron / HK door, opened a rev door as well, pressed the switch and now.. Oh, there's a plasma in one of the rev corridors, actually in both of them. And the baron corridors have a RL or a SSG. I managed to snipe the cyber from the SSG corridor, with some help from the barons. Switch to rockets, finish them, switch. Change back to SSG and repeat at the next corridor. Now I have two paths. Blue sphere one. And I ran too far and fell into an inescapable pit. Restart, from the start. This time I just opened the doors pressed a switch and tried the other side. Inescapable pit on both sides of a tiny ledge an AV attacks you on? Evil. I have a feeling I'll hate this level.

 This time I saved after clearing the 8 doors and now I'll go blue again. Ok.. I died two times already to the big fight with the never ending archies. Third time I killed the snipping cybers before they teleported, and managed to clear the room of everything but the AVs. Then I find a vantage point and shoot rockets at them. I counted at least 24 AVs.. After that, grab the blue sphere, save, switch. Bsk, blue door, fall, weird half room that opens up, blue sphere, lift, back to the top, save. Now the evil ledge, once, twice, thrice, after picking up the key and managing the ledge all the way back, dead to the floor. And on the 5th try I did it! 

 Save. Blue switch, red switch, DONE.

 

100, 94, 100 KIS, 10:10 / 2:38:17

 

This level was eviiil.

 

edited to add : pistol starting the level I managed with only 2 deaths (both to the AV ledge)  in 11:57 and exiting at 200 health / armor. The level looks way more scary than it really is.

Edited April 27, 2022 by kalaeth

[tonytheparrot]

(Played on UV with pistol starts on Prboom+, saves are allowed)

Map 13: Rotting Under The Foot of Time by Benjogami

100% kills, items and secrets

Time: 8:09

 

A vanilla midi? In Haste? Thats unexpected! Outside of that surprise, this map, being made by Benjogami, screams unconventionality and weirdness in almost every single way (outside of the midi of course). On the visual-side, that fireblu thing at the start, these tubes with the blue spinning lights at the blue key area and the weird layout make the level pretty and especially distinctive. Combat-wise, the map is split in 3 fights, the first one is at the start, in which you need to open alcoves containing monsters and make them infight to access the switches that open the way to the blue and red keys. The gimmick is that you don't have any weapons, the monsters are bulky and the space really tight, so you need to make the cyberdemons infight with all the revs and hell nobles, but revealing too many of them at once can make you easily overwhelmed. These alcoves also contain some goodies like soulspheres, plasma rifles, an SSG, a RL, some ammo for them and there's even 2 alcoves that allow you to start infighting in an other one without even opening them, which is really cool and creative. Then, you've got 2 paths to take, each leading to a key, the red key one is a balance beaming section on a damaging ledge, with the middle of it being surveillied by an arch-vile on a pillar. What you need to do is to walk on the ledge's extremity in a very precise way to make Doomguy's hitbox not hit the damaging floor while you are not falling off the ledge and when the archie has an eye on you, sprint past him and grab the red key. After that, get the hell out of here while minimizing floor damage, and come back to kill that surveilling archie if you're maxing (the replacing ones get crushed). After that weird stuff, there's the blue key fight, which doesn't seem that weird outside of the visuals, lots of cacos, hell knights, revs, pinkies and 2 cybers on the ground floor, some archies on pillars who get replaced if they're killed before you escape the room and a sniping cyber. However, while going into this encounter, you can either grab some cells, a megashere or a BFG, and you can't come back to the goodies you missed until you've grabbed the blue key and escaped the room, so choose wisely! This map is definitely pretty, distinctive, memorable and fun, but not knowing how to deal with it can be miserable and it's gameplay, while really creative, is not my favorite in Haste. This is why I can understand anyone absolutely loving it, but also can't blame anyone for absolutely hating it, just like most of Benjo's work, it's an acquired taste.

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 9

Map 6

Map 8

Map 4

Map 12

Really like :

Map 5

Map 13

Map 11

Map 2

Map 3

Map 1

Like:

Map 7

Dislike:

Map 10

 

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by tonytheparrot

[RonnieJamesDiner]

MAP13: Rotting Under the Foot of Time, By Benjogami

DSDA, pistol start, HNTR and UV

 

Adjusts disheveled shirt collar. Pours 18th cup of coffee. Lights 87th cigarette. Stares mangled and beaten from beneath the rotting foot of time...

 

There’s a lot of things that I could say MAP13 is not, but what I can say for sure, is that Benjogami’s Rotting Under the Foot of Time was the sweatiest victory I've had on Ultra-Violence so far in Haste, by a country mile. I genuinely feel like I came away from this map as a better slaughter player, and sometimes, those growing pains can make an otherwise outstanding level feel sort of... prickly and unpalatable, at first. MAP13 felt like a giant combat puzzle, and I don’t care to describe it in any other way. After a moment of adjusting to the unusual – let’s call it eccentric – aesthetic choices, I began picking up resources and popping doors open, and it became abundantly clear what type of experience this was going to be. At some point during the UV run, my thoughts gradually declined into “alright, come Hell or high water, I’m gonna beat this goddamn thing”.

 

Benjo is merciful on HNTR, offering up an Invulnerability to tackle the opening box of chocolates, eliminating the hard choice of what to take as I drop into the BSK arena by granting the BFG no matter what, and generally filling the map with enough powerups to soften his evil ways. UV, on the other hand, felt like a hard line of skill and critical decisions. I loved having to figure out which monster closets to open at the start – in which order, and in what specific timing – to clear that first trial by fire, and being forced then to pick between the BFG, a Megasphere, and extra Cell ammo for the BSK felt absolutely brilliant; I was convinced I wanted the Mega, but my successful run came after deciding to snatch the BFG instead (the green armor and health packs were just enough).

 

I’m sure anyone listening to me shouting and swearing at my computer screen may have drawn the conclusion that I wasn’t enjoying myself, but this was actually an incredible little level full of interesting choices. It’s the kind of map that I was nervously waiting to see rear its head, and here it is! I can empathize with players who might feel put out by this entry, but, I’m a big, big fan.

[SleepyVelvet]

+++Anomaly Report (I wanna play this when RC3 drops)

+++DBP34: Luminous Gloom (10 maps, haven't played)  &  DBP37: AUGER;ZENITH (21 maps, have played but want to read reviews of)

[finnks13]

MAP13 - Rotting Under the Foot of Time by Benjogami:

DEATHS - 7
I feel like your experience with this map will entirely depend on how much you know about it. Without any knowledge, as was the case in my first playthrough a few months ago, this map is miserable and the blue key fight is a complete crapshoot whether you can get everything to cooperate and escape. With the foreknowledge of "I probably shouldn't fire at all until I've left the blue key area", this map is actually pretty fun. It's an infighting puzzle, with cleverly placed sound blocking linedefs allowing for you to only activate certain groups of monsters at a time and this puzzle is fun to figure out and solve.

 

The map certainly looks bizarre, being part of the new trend of "let's make the map look as shit as possible, but on purpose though" and I can't deny there's a certain charm to the completely insane aesthetics. The only part of the map I don't like is being forced to balance on a damaging floor, and even then that's mostly due to the fact that it's quite annoying to kill the perched archvile after you've grabbed the red key, and the mechanism that kills the other archviles is hilarious. I had a surprisingly good time here, and I'm glad about that since I was not expecting to.

 

RANKINGS:

Spoiler

Really Liked: MAP04, MAP06, MAP07, MAP08, MAP10
Liked: MAP01, MAP02, MAP03, MAP13
Mixed Opinions: MAP05, MAP11
Didn't Like: MAP09, MAP12

 

[Arwel]

Haste Map13 - Rotting Under The Foot of Time by Benjogami

UV, 96% kills, no secrets

 

Rough psychedelic visuals of this map are well complemented by brutal fights player is thrown at from the very beginning. Figuring out what each door hides significantly helps organizing infighting though, almost to the point of only having to finish cybies with plasma and SSG. The next encounter sets up a rather tricky monster arrangement, with cyber turrets eventually teleporting to the battlefield, cacos sometimes becoming unreachable vertical turrets and archviles in cage respawning indefinitely. Nevertheless, some basic timing and pathing efforts are enough to sort this out. The last bit is a weird platforming challenge with most archviles being somehow automatically killed a second after you face them. Overall, a decent angry map with hallucinated visuals but pretty sane combat structure.

[cannonball]

MAP13 - “Rotting Under the Foot of Time” by Benjogami AKA the map cannonball savescummed and subsequently redecorated in a brown hue....

 

Went in on UV and blind, the outcome probably obvious to all. In all honestly the truly harrowing bit is the start room with the doors. Yeah this went out of hand and it turns out running away is a bad move because you are then force fed rockets on the return journey from both key wings. 

The blue key made me want to cower in the corner and hope everything dies by itself, a fact made worse by the fact that the game decided to ignore me dropping on the BFG and taunt me with its presence as I added the liquid textures on the floor. In fairness the blue key fight can be handled using the methods you have picked up (The horseshoe should be okay, but watch for the inescapable pit). The red key isn't so bad, the irony here is the narrow ledge actually has a ironic knack of interfering with the damaging floor effect and as such you suffer far less than you should, the archviles were surprisingly passive on the ledge and the red key reveal is just hilariously stupid. 

I left with the cybers prowling the start room and the archviles on the ledges still intact. I found this to be more horrific than Crippling Legion in terms of the pain dealt out. But I must confess that this had a level of charm to it. The visuals seem very much inspired by some of the works of TimeOfDeath, though there is a level of cohesiveness to the madness. 

At the end of the day, I can't fail it. It is a law unto itself and I respect it for that. However I think I might need to play Fava Beans as a form of counselling....

[Book Lord]

MAP 14 – Athenaeum by @bemused

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, HMP, Pistol start, blind run w/saves

 

Athenaeum, “the university of slaughter”, the academy where aspirant devotees to this branch of Doom gameplay take their last hard lessons, before preparing for the exams. After graduating through blood and suffering, turning back to more mundane, forgiving, and relaxed action might be impossible for some players, while spiralling down towards larger and harder maps of this kind shapes up as the only meaningful way to play Doom. I am glad I did not possess the dedication to pass the test. As my nickname suggests, I had a great time while exploring the dismal libraries of Athenaeum, but I would never beat the numerous challenges proposed by Bemused without savegames, a fact that ruled out any escalation of my lust for slaughter. I faced some circumstances with pathetic awkwardness, and even if I legitimately overcame them with some tries, I was convinced to be unfit for this style of play. It is incredible that only the last maps of Haste showed me the truth.

 

This layout was just amazing; the clever progression utilised the available space multiple times, for the maximum effect. The starting chamber, a mini arena on its own requiring more than basic skills, was transformed twice in the course of time, putting me against increasing aggression and high-risk scenarios. I flipped many switches under foreboding vaults and in demonic archives, but I never hesitated to take the right direction. Everything was signposted and perfectly logical, even the more hectic moments had some hint that showed a “recommended” direction to take; for example, the Megasphere marked the Imp closet when the starting room lowered for the first time and was swarmed by an army of monsters.

 

I did pretty good in some of the set pieces in store, such as the staircase in the plasma gun room, the trap with Barons and Arch-Viles, and the telegraphed ambush protecting the BK. I found the Chaingunner closet with the teleporting Arch-Vile to be particularly nasty, even if it could have been featured in Plutonia, and I struggled too much in the YK room, no matter if it was toned down for HMP (no Cyberdemon, and less enemies in general). I obviously got into trouble in the BFG chamber, featuring mandatory pillar hopping on an inescapable pit, while being bombarded from all directions and surrounded by infinitely tall Cacodemons, but I succeeded after dying only three times.

Spoiler

The fury of the battles intensified until I entered the RK arena, beholding an army of demons waiting only for the foolish Doomguy to release them. Obviously, the fight involved more creatures than the presented ones, as two large closets opened at the far ends, letting Imps and Revenants loose, and more Imps appeared in the cavern outside the windows. I won this battle at first attempt, but I could not be proud of myself as I saw that its UV incarnation was dramatically meaner, with twice the Revenants and Arch-Viles in each closet’s rear, forcing to pursue completely different strategies.

 

The way to the exit comprised a duel with four more Cyberdemons in cramped spaces, requiring two-shot proficiency that I am still lacking, and an SSG dance with two Barons in a cubbyhole. Athenaeum offered plenty of chances to test skills beyond mine, leaving no room for errors during its rather long unfolding. The classic wood library theme received a superior polish and visual detail in every area, constituting an excellent scenario. Sadly, I mostly felt inadequate and out of place while making my way through this iconic map of Haste.

 

Time: 21:39    Deaths: 18      

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP13: "Rotting Under the Foot of Time" by Benjogami

UV, pistol start, saves

100% kills, 0/0 secrets 

 

I have pretty limited experience with Benjogami maps, but one thing I have gotten from the ones that I have played is that when I play a Benjogami map I expect something that's pretty alienating on some level. Right off the bat the visuals in this one are quite strange, with the scrolling vine textures, textures that look like skies being used for walls in some places, and in the main area you have some giant fireblu... thing. Definitely a bit of self-awareness to this one, and hey I've always kinda found liberal fireblu usage to be fun. We actually have a Doom midi in this one too, being They're Going to Get You.

 

The eccentricities don't stop at the visuals though, this is the most puzzly map in the set so far, and I find it hard to imagine it'll be topped in that regard. The vast majority of this map's difficulty depends on familiarity with it, at least in most places. I bashed my head against the wall for quite a while on this one until I decided it was too smart for me, and I gave decino's playthrough a watch for some guidance. I kind of wish I didn't, because most of the map is honestly really easy with his route. The main thing to know is that you'll want to avoid firing your weapons in the opening stretch of the map. In the main room you want the cyberdemon in the blue switch room to infight both of the baron closets on the same side simultaneously. He usually gets overwhelmed and dies, and in the meantime you can get the SSG and hit the blue switch, turning off to grab the BFG and head outside. Don't go all the way to the end of the path, it's a death pit. Out here, grab all the goodies and wait until the cyberdemons teleport down to meet you. The switch will eventually reveal itself behind a scrolling blue sky texture, and you can grab the blue key and escape. Back in the main room you can do an attack to wake up the teleporting mobs outside and bait some attacks from inside the room, which will eventually cause all sorts of infighting.

 

You can now wake the last cyberdemon on the blue key side and get him to infight some of the hell nobles across the way. Keep some of them alive and finish him off yourself though. Next up you can mow down the revenants in the closet directly next to the hell noble closet, and after they are gone, firing a shot at the cyberdemon from outside the door will wake him up and leave the hell nobles asleep. If you get him to hit the hell nobles, they will most likely trap him and claw him to death. You can then do the same with the other revenants closet and cyberdemon, and then finish off the remaining hell nobles. Hitting the red key switch reveals the main tricky part of this map, and what I needed a save for. You have to sprint across a very tight ledge that damages you, with an archvile being able to see you for the hardest bit of it. At the end is a red key and a nice archvile jumpscare, and then you have to sprint back. This took me quite a few tries as I suck at this stuff, had no choice but to save for this one. After all this is done you can go back to the blue key path, instead turning later for a megasphere (and later cells if needed), and finish off whatever remains outside. You will have to finish off that tightrope archvile yourself too though, whenever is needed (I did at the end).

 

Definitely a cool map. I'm not sure how much replayability it has because the planning:skill ratio is heavily in the favour of planning, save for the red key part. But in any case this is a map that succeeds at what it tries to do, and gotta respect it for that.

[RonnieJamesDiner]

MAP14: Athenaeum, by Bemused

DSDA, pistol start, HNTR and UV

 

MAP14 physically assaulted me, and hurt my feelings; it was verbally abusive, kicked me in the shin, and stepped on my head. I went home crying.

 

Athenaeum is the first map of the set to bring me to the conclusion that, it simply was not made for a player like me – that is to say, it was made for a better player (at least, UV certainly was). Regardless, I persevered and eventually completed it on HNTR twice, and UV once. I did this partly because I feel committed to seeing Haste through to the end, and partly because this map is genuinely very well crafted, beautiful, and I really wanted to see what it had to offer around each corner (and how much more I could improve with each attempt), which all seemed to overshadow the masochistic reality of me just slamming bloody stumps into the keyboard until each arena miraculously cleared.

 

Bemused thankfully eased me into combat with the early encounters, but by the time I reached the slippery AV / Baron RL arena (that’s such a dirty, devious, brilliant way of creating low-friction terrain...), I quickly found myself sinking beneath the depths of any ability to bang these arenas out on sheer reaction. The Yellow Key, BFG intro, and Red Key setpieces all devolved into trial and error, each one taking me an embarrassing number of attempts to overcome. By the time I ventured into Athenaeum on Ultra-Violence, I was noticeably more comfortable with the Red and Yellow Key arenas, enough to make the added Viles, Cyberdemon, and extra mobs a manageable escalation, but the BFG introduction remained the bane of my existence. I’m terribly unpracticed at platforming, and this feature of the BFG arena alone made it one of the toughest spots for me to develop anything approximating a “consistent strategy”. I was consistent alright – consistently shit.

 

There’s a lot to admire about MAP14, and I appreciated the range packed into the variety of encounters here. Bemused seemed to keep finding different ways of encouraging me to fight for space, prioritizing certain pockets of enemies one-by-one in chronological order as the tempest unfolded, and (particularly on UV) being very mindful of my pathing. The layout is spectacular, and I love the use of that central elevator as both a hub and a home for several distinct fights. Adjustments between HNTR and UV could certainly be felt (Ultra-Violence violated me in ways that HNTR never could), but even so, I think the core mechanics present in nearly every arena are designed such that, if you’re capable of beating this level on HNTR, there’s a good chance you can probably manage it on UV.

 

Athenaeum is the type of map I generally think of when I think of “slaughter”. It’s exhausting, demands attention, and is expertly crafted. Amazing stuff.

[finnks13]

MAP14 - Athenaeum by Bemused:

DEATHS - 22
What is it with these wads and the number 14? Is this an in joke that I'm not part of or something? In any case, this map was bloody hard, the hardest in Haste so far, and if my memory is correct, the hardest map overall in the wad. I like a lot about it, the atmosphere is great and it's a very lovingly detailed (if incredibly brown) library which is always a fun theme to see. I also like the variety of fights on offer, there's around an equal number of small, tight ambushes and large, open slaughterfests and that works very well. The opening few fights were entertaining to complete and ease you into the incredibly harsh combat. I like the baron + archvile fight especially here, it's tense and hectic and coming up with a strategy is fun.

 

A lot of things really irritated me about this map - for a completely linear map, the progression felt very off and stilted, there's a lot of "oh I guess this lift raised" and hunting for 16-wide switches hidden in SUPPORT3 beams. I really disliked the BFG fight, maybe it's just because it kicked my arse but it felt just too restrictive in how you're supposed to complete it for my liking. I couldn't find any sort of consistent strategy and had to look up a UV-Max, there's just so much going on from every angle that it feels impossible to get a foothold on things, and I didn't think the mandatory platforming added much beyond the tedium of falling in occasionally and having to restart. I can only describe the pop-up cyberdemon next to the blue key as a kaizo trap, and it wasn't very funny to die to it, so I wouldn't call it a very good one either.

 

I liked the battle after raising the central elevator for the first time, while you're under attack from all directions, the imps hide a soulsphere and grabbing it gives you just enough health to work with to carve a space out to rocket the rest of the enemies here. I thought the final large ambush was great, it's very tempting to let everything trickle out of the monster closets and infight, but you're much better off going nuts with the BFG and killing everything yourself. The turret archviles here were annoying, but that meant taking them out was all the more satisfying. I think the map should have just ended here, as the elevator fight against the cyberdemons added basically nothing to the map and it lost the momentum the final fight gave it. Overall, this map is undeniably well crafted but I left it with very mixed opinions.

 

RANKINGS:

Spoiler

Really Liked: MAP04, MAP06, MAP07, MAP08, MAP10
Liked: MAP01, MAP02, MAP03, MAP13
Mixed Opinions: MAP05, MAP11, MAP14
Didn't Like: MAP09, MAP12

 

[kalaeth]

so, let's do the next one! 

 

MAP 14 - Athenaeum :

SSG, shells, backpack, a fuckton of imps and revs and HKs. A megasphere on the other side of the pillar.. Ok. So I'll have to start the fight. Ok, got rip to shreds. So, the most promising side to go to is the one with the most HKs. Second run I managed to clear the room but now I'm at 2% health.. Switch, down, and dead. I need to improve my first room. I was doing better but.. Revs got me since I was trying to save the megasphere. Next try I picked the sphere unintentionally but cleared the room above 100% health and armor so I'll accept it. I was actually getting it done but then instead of going down the steps I jumped and got cornered by the HKs.. Next try. Same strategy : plasma the revs all the way up. Success on the room. I survived the way up and the rev closet. And then I die on the switch ambush. From the revenant stairs, success! All the way to the switch ambush. Now, down, platforming, megasphere, rockets! And the AVs show up BEFORE pressing the switch. On my 3rd try I actually left the room and noticed some switches... I pressed the one in the middle pillar and got ambushed. I did it again, but on purpose and cleared the ambush. Now.. Oh, a lift. Grabbed the YK an then fell into the pit. Next try, from the lift. This time I died to the revs. Next try I ran over and went down and actually cleared cleared most of the room and got a baron ball to the face. This time I managed to press the switches and just up and left the room. Oh yey, now it's platforming...  Ok, I actually cleared most of the room on the 1st go! But then got hit by a manc and died. Next try : I die to the final rev's homing missile. Next time I fell. Then two more falls and then from some reason the BFG isn't hitting the damned manc. Damned snipping revenants. Several more deaths after I take a break.

 After the break I die some 5 times to falling down and then finally! I found a decent strategy : clear a few imps, cross over, enter one of the niches, kill enough cacos to reach the BFG, kill the revs and then cross over again and on the second try I managed to clear the room! A bit more platforming and the blue key with two small AVs.. Done! Now I'm guessing.. Down? Nop. This is just backtracking.. Oh, this way. And oh wow. Thats.. Two cybers, a few revs and spiders and a ton of nobles. At third try I managed to clear the room. It's just the cows now, but I have enough cells to deal with them. Done. Save and switch. And.. So.. Three cybers? Oh, 4. I died 5 times before even seeing one. Yeaaaah.. I think I'm gonna cheat on this last part. 4 cybers on tight space is not fun for me. Two more tries and I gave up. god mode, killed one cyber, killed the barons and that's that for the level.

 

97, 100, 100& K/I/S in 20m53s / 2:59:10s

 

EDIT : since I'll be way for the weekend, I decided to play the next levels today and.. yeah. Hard pass. I think this is the time where I don't finish the wad. I have the saves, maybe I try again monday, but I will not count on it. 

So this set proved me that I do not really enjoy slaughter.

Edited April 28, 2022 by kalaeth

[tonytheparrot]

(Played on UV with pistol starts on Prboom+, saves are allowed)

Map 14: Athenaeum by bemused

100% kills, 78% items and 100% secrets

Time: 15:23

 

I have not played much of bemused's work, but if what I have played of his work (Haste and Flotsam) represents his general style, he is definitely one of my favorite mappers in the “challenge scene”. His maps have a Gazebo-esque feel aesthetically, but manage to stand out as his work, and this map represents that perfectly with it's library theme, architectural complexity and great detailing. Combat-wise, the fights are difficult, but well-balanced and entertaining with a high enemy count. Also, one of my favorite aspects of bemused's work is that the fights all get progressively bigger, which allows the map to build up progressively to the “big one”, and this map is a perfect example of that. You start off by SSG-ing revs, imps, hell knights and pinkies in a pretty tight space, then take on a staircase with revs, who are supported by chaingunners, pinkies and hell knights, then get surprised by archies, chaingunners, revs and pinkies and finally arrive at the first difficult fight of the map. A small horde of barons blocking your path and 2 archviles who each get replaced twice after dying, all of that with very little cover. I recommend camping near the switch, make some space by killing the barons, and then start to move to get more cover before finishing off the barons and wasting the archies. After that, there's the first standout fight of the map when you ride the lift. You get sandwiched on all 4 sides by revs, hell knights, mancubi and imps. Go through the imps with the rocket launcher, beware of the barons and the static spider and revs, and kill every enemy daring to give you a hug. After that, you will enter the most infamous area in the entire wad, the double stairway fight. Some barons, imps, revs and a cyber on the ground floor, cacos blocking your path, little room to move and an inescapable pit in the middle. It is a bit luck based as you need enemies to not block you too much, but if you get good RNG, it's not too bad. After that, there's one of the hardest fights in the wad in my opinion, in which you get imps teleporting to block some safe spaces, sniping arachnos and mancubi, cacos blocking your path and revenants appearing if you grab the BFG, while needing to platform to move around the area. Good movement and resisting the temptation to grab the BFG are both key to succeed, but even then it's pretty difficult. After that, you get a point blank cyber and finally the encounter that all the map has been building to. A large area, tons of supplies, lots of cyberdemons and hell nobles, imps attacking from the back, and 2 alcoves on the sides opening with hordes of revs, imps and 4 archviles each. Crowd-control and good movement are again essential to survive, but it's still not that hard if you know what you're doing. After that, there's 4 archviles appearing to ruin your day, 4 cybers appearing at the start, 2 barons blocking the exit and this map is done. The cherry on top of this entire experience is Hatshepsut by Jimmy, simply one of Haste best midis. This map is one of the hardest ones in Haste, but it's music is awesome, the visuals pretty and the action really entertaining, one of this wad's standouts.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 9

Map 6

Map 14

Map 8

Map 4

Map 12

Really like :

Map 5

Map 13

Map 11

Map 2

Map 3

Map 1

Like:

Map 7

Dislike:

Map 10

 

 

[Paf]

+++Judgement

[Arwel]

Haste Map14 - Athenaeum by Bemused

UV, 100% kills, no secrets

 

Probably the biggest and the hardest map in the set! Surprisingly, it all seems to be made by a single author, unless that nickname is an alias for collab. Visually, this map seems to follow the design principles used in combat rooms from Map02, which I overall appreciate, but I also feel that at such scale it especially needs either more variety or some contrasting standouts like a hub from 02. In terms of combat, almost every single fight here feels like it could be the last one: they're all hard, tricky and huge. Personally, I find the hardest one to be the fight with two cages of archviles and everything in between, it got me stuck for very long time, almost to the point of having to give up. Eventually, I somehow managed to clear a large portion of midroom and play safe from there. Overall, the best word for this map is epic, it's as hard as it is big, and it's packed with all kinds of puzzle and slaughter.

[cannonball]

MAP14 - “Athenaeum” by Bemused

 

Well this is an absolute show-stopper of a map.... Though typically I decided to completely screw up the two hardest fights in the map. I didn't realise the BFG had two stages and instead triggered the entire lot. That said it is clearly a doable fight, even with do both bits at the same time, but you need a little luck to not get knocked off any of the platform sections. One complete lap should allow you to get behind the revenants and cacodemons and essentially allow yourself to create safe spots in the arena. The other section was the red key where I got cornered early on after clearing one the the wings with perched archviles. No BFG ammo and just a single switch, I pressed it, which seemed to make the situation worse, but I have cells???? Yeah I had to scythe through the mountain of meat, ironically once I managed an attempt to clear the other archvile vile wing the rest of the fight was easy. Still I guess there are far better ways of dealing with this because I had to throw the dice to get clear of the mess I made.

 

Now onto the map, it is a real looker, oozing suspense and atmosphere. There are a large variety of fights on offer in this one. The start is a typical warm up affair with the rocket launcher fight being the first real obstacle. I found that killing the archviles was the highest priority as you can generally herd the barons into the centre of your space and there is enough cover to hide from the archvile attacks. The next is the return to the start area, which morphs into a deadly attack from all sides. The map seems to suggest that rocketing the imp wing is the best bet, especially as your "blocker" monsters (One spider and one revenant) can be dispatched far more easily than the archvile down the other escape route. The yellow key turned out far easier than I expected as the biggest threat tends to get distracted easily. 

There is some real devious points in this, the blue key is just plain evil for instance, showing how deadly even a minute number of monsters can be.

Ironically I got lucky with the final cyberdemons, one of them wandered off leaving me with three to fight, I had to finish the last one off with the SSG, but that is a cakewalk compared to the rest of this map. Just ride the lift to the barons, kill them and be rewarded by being turned two-dimensional.

 

The sign of a good slaughtermap is one where once the fight is beaten, you do not have to spend too much time clearing up the remaining monsters. This map excels at this, even the biggest fights only take 30 seconds or so once the danger has ceased. I cannot really point much fault at any of the fights either, except maybe the red key. But the only reason for this is because I messed the fight up before figuring out a solution. This was an all holds barred thrill ride from start to finish. Brutal but ultimately satisfying to walk away from. This is probably the stand out map of the set so far for me.

 

Edit - Yeah the red key fight is fine, I did just royally messed it up and almost check-mated myself.

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by cannonball

[RHhe82]

I didn't manage get home for thursday, so it's an early friday double- or even triple-feature. Sorry 'bout that.

 

MAP14: Athenaeum. HNTR, PS, 699/699 K, 0/0 S, 14/14 I. Comp. time 24:03

 

Midfightsaves, midfightsaves... but not until the "Have fun surviving the platform crossfire"-section, I think. I'm not sure, because I played in two sessions. A great level, I really love the look of it, and I guess I love the fights as well, even if I'm not up for them, even on such a low difficulty level.

 

Some of the fights felt a little rng-ey, although I'm sure my skills and lack of tactics are the real culprits here. Like the first really big fight, when you first raise up the central hub and monsters close in on you on four sides. I got really lucky after numerous tries getting out of the imp hallway. If there is one fight I didn't like it's the four cramped-quarters cyberdemons at the end, it feels like something that mapper for some reason deemed necessary.

 

After the Infinium map Haste has been sailing well above my skill levels, and now the levels are also getting quite big. That's not a gripe as such, but I kinda wish Haste had retained the compact level philosophy to the end. On the other hand, there's not that many left, if they all are of this quality, I shouldn't mind.

***

 

MAP15: Tell Me More. HNTR, PS, 613/613 K, 3/3 S, 15/15 I. Completion time 28:30.

 

I resorted to midfightsaves here, but I think mostly in the very first fight that launches immediatly as you enter the map. Even the massive army at the end went without saves after all, although I think I got lucky there.

 

I was prepared to not-like this level, because somehow the first fight rubbed me slightly the wrong way. I guess the first impression is that the map's gonna be a chore, but once you get going, that's proven wrong. At least HNTR is an enjoyable ride, where some of the cybers are replaced with mancubi (based on what I remember from Decino's playthrough).

 

Enjoyable, but not easy. After the first fight there's one on the easier side with imps and mancubi, but then there is tight spot on a rampart of sorts against flowing hordes of demons and imps supported by some chaingunners, revenants, turret mancubi and I believe barons. I love it.

 

And I loved the final fight, even if it does seem a bit "mindless" chaos, but it's glorious. After that I must have spent something like 5 minutes trying to search for the secret exit, but I guess there isn't one? I didn't check UDB, but I watched the end of Decino's video where he found out about that. If there is one, it's not marked as a secret.

 

The music I didn't care for it, it somehow gives the level an unwanted flare of a meme level or a parody, which I think it's not. The map is serious business, and good one at that.

 

***

MAP31: Hibernation. HNTR, PS, 248/248 K, 0/0 S, 9/9 I. Completion time 02:50.

 

A short and sweet map that doesn't feel so much a secret level than some sort of "snack" level between actual levels -- or maybe something, that would have been more at home in the early parts of MSCP. That said, I didn't find Hibernation easy as such, I think I had a bit of luck with hell knights behaving and archviles dying.

 

I resorted to a midfightsave here, but the level's so short that with little practice and luck I think I could do it. The archviles are the troublesome part here, you need to take care of them or steer very clear of them to survive -- sometimes I think they wouldn't attack me for some reason despite them being alerted if I just stayed away from their platform, but when I'd approach them even once, they could hit me from distance.

[Book Lord]

MAP 15 – Tell Me More by @Ribbiks

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, HMP, Pistol start, blind run w/saves

 

Believe it or not, I was really looking forward to the second Ribbiks map. After being introduced to all masters of slaughter that cooperated to Haste, I was longing for a more substantial offer from him, bringing the sleekness of Snoutish Pug Nose to a larger scale. Given that MAP03 was one of the fastest to complete, I was surprised that Tell Me More turned out to be the longest map of my blind playthrough, at least for one day.

 

Hot starts were uncommon in this megaWAD, but this one was a welcome adrenaline rush. Picking up the weaponry and promoting a huge scuffle among the various breeds of hellspawn was automatic at this point, though I had to watch out for an Arch-Vile voyeur that wanted to interfere from his tall observatory. The two Cyberdemons were the only survivors of the massacre, and they continued to support me against the next troop of Revenants.

 

Behind the skeletons, a lot of resources and a shiny BFG were guarded by AVs and Barons. I fully cleared the first area before proceeding and finding myself swarmed by Imps under Mancubi suppression fire. I was a bit prodigal with ammo in this section, and as a result I reached the walkway upstairs with insufficient resources. When I flicked the switch and found myself between Hell Knights, Pinkies, and tickled by Chaingunners in the back, I retreated just to find myself in front of a mob of Imps, with Arch-Viles in the background. It was a frantic moment, and I really scrambled to wipe out everyone and collect some ammo before the pursuing horde arrived. I improvised a desperate resistance dancing on the damaging floor, and for some reason I was not killed.

Spoiler

I was in a pitiful condition after that fight, and I could not find health anywhere. I was also low on ammo, so I took the less bad direction fighting Imps in the northern building. A tower contained a stationary Cyberdemon and the YK; my two-shot attempts resulted in the waste of leftover cells and in many deaths, as the slightest splash damage was enough to kill me at 14%. A few seconds later I discovered the nearby secret, which offered a generous cell recharge, a complimentary ambush, and the now useless option to telefrag the Cyberdemon. The YK opened the path to the south, starting with a close and personal Cyberdemon duel, and continuing with small ambushes and the search for health, still missing from the scene. The new walkway brought me to the western tower holding the RK, almost identical to the northern one, including an option to telefrag the Cyberdemon via a secret teleporter.

Spoiler

I gathered all the items I needed to enter the eastern section, where the last big arena was waiting for me with a smile on its face. I do not know if Ribbiks is prone to such humour in all his works, but many situations in Tell Me More were funny and cheered me up for the battle. The pandemonium consisted of several hundred monsters unleashed in compact formations; it required a specific approach, though it was rather straightforward to figure out after three attempts. The author pulled off a rather pleasing product by using mostly brown vanilla textures, achieving good detail and sense of place with the interconnected, multi-level layout. Combat was challenging, exciting, and fair, regardless of the rationed resources. The most unsettling situations could be escaped with a bold approach, promptly denying the monsters the opportunity to box you in. I had a great time with this map, and I consider it my favourite in the set.

 

Time: 23:50    Deaths: 12      

[Book Lord]

MAP 31 – Hibernation by @bemused and @Insane_Gazebo

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, HMP, Pistol start, blind run w/saves

 

This was the first time I played a secret level without a secret exit leading to it. It somehow made the whole concept look like an exercise in futility. If you do not want to place a secret exit on MAP15, just make another map and do not use the MAP31 slot. As an alternative, you can provide only the exit to secret level on MAP15, for the idiosyncratic guys playing continuous in a megaWAD like Haste. The pistol-start players already know how to reach the maps.

 

Hibernation was another arena fight in two parts, the first based upon rocket gameplay, the second relying on BFG spam against… (drum roll) … a Revenant horde! How original. Still, the first situation was noteworthy: I needed to clear an Arch-Vile nest before they incinerated me, but at the same time I must keep an eye on Cyberdemon sharpshooters and a legion of Hell Knights approaching from behind. I succeeded on the second attempt. When the Viles were dead, I must quickly create an escape route through the wall of Nobles to reach a safe spot behind a skull switch. I abused that position to effortlessly kill everyone.

 

I wasted time trying to kill the Cyberdemons, but there was not enough ammo and they eventually got crushed as soon as the switch was pressed. The Revenants were numerous, but once I learned how to exploit the trees to stop their rockets, the fight was won. The Cyberdemons refused to infight with them, so they were engulfed in wild BFG blasts just like the rest. The group of Arch-Viles guarding the exit were just a formality, but one of my deaths came from the bad decision to move in their direction. There was enough space to handle the Revenants in the tree area.

Spoiler

Not a bad level to have some additional carnage, in case the standard maps were not enough, Hibernation was quite unremarkable if compared to the ultra-polished slaughter in other Bemused maps. The texturing by Insane_Gazebo helped differentiate the location, though it could not turn it into an outstanding place. I have already seen plenty of secret levels using grass and foliage mid-textures, and from a map with this title I was expecting a frozen landscape with demonic legions trapped under ice, instead of a rainforest.

 

Time: 6:03      Deaths: 3

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP14: "Athenaeum" by Bemused

UV, pistol start, saves

100% kills, 0/0 secrets

 

Bemused is the first mapper to appear whose work I have not played before. I have dabbled into wads they have appeared in before, but have yet to actually make it to one of their maps. Blame me for always trying to play multiple wads at once and not having time to progress super far all the time as a result. The visuals in this one are great, a brown metallic map with a library theme. Architecture looks fabulous, and I've always had a thing for cool usages of that bookshelf texture. The midi is supplied by Jimmy Paddock, and it's a great one that suits this map's action well.

 

What to say of the combat apart from it being spectacular. I found myself loving it right from the early stages of the map, and to my surprise it just kept delivering non-stop. The first fight gives you an SSG to deal with imps, pinkies, hell knights, and revenants. There are a few lone barrels scattered around the area for you to make use of if enemies gather close, and also watch out for in case an enemy hits one close to you. The next fight gave me a nice jumpscare, popping up pinkies, hell knights, and mancubi right in my face, while chaingunners pepper from the side ledge and a murder of revenants start barreling down the side stairs. Use the barrels around the center pillar and up by the chaingunners to your advantage, then switch to plasma and take up a post in the area the monsters popped up from. Standing here will give you safety from the revenants, as they will be manipulated to move back up the stairs where they can't really get a good shot at you. Once everything else is gone, you can kill the revenants. On your way back you'll be blindsided by an archvile while chaingunners emerge from a closet. Take down the archvile with plasma ASAP, then peekaboo SSG the chaingunners.

 

Back at the center area, there are some more small ambushes before you unlock another path. Down here, going for the rocket launcher teleports in two archviles on the ledge you came from, and a group of barons come from a closet on your side. Killing the archviles will teleport in another to take their place, with there being 3 archviles for each platform. So for this one, focus on rocketing the barons as quickly as possible. Your safe spots from the archviles are the baron closet, a small wooden pillar at the centre of the ledge, and a veeeeeeeeery cramped little corner opposite the baron closet (best to avoid this one as much as possible). You'll want to juggle these safe spots as needed while killing the barons, as the barons themselves will try to flush you out of your hiding spots and leave you open for the archies. This is a very cool fight, I gotta respect any fight that uses the tankiness of the baron in interesting and creative ways. When you head back, there will be a switch revealed on the centre pillar of the beginning area. Pressing it will give you a surprise as the center room rapidly raises up to meet another slaughter. It's not so bad, rocket your way through the imps and get the megasphere, use that area as a foothold for a while as you clear monsters, and then move around the navigable area as needed.

 

The yellow key fight after this however is the first truly big obstacle of the map in my opinion. Have to give thanks to YouTuber "SoBad", as the moment I saw this area I instantly recognized a video they made where they outline a proper strategy for the ensuing battle. I didn't really remember the strategy in detail, but I did "cheat" and go back to reference the video for this fight, because it indeed does feel very unintuitive to handle at first. But with their strategy even random guys like me can nail this fight down within a couple tries easily. To summarize briefly, you instantly want to run down to where the cyberdemon is standing and get it infighting, and then run a path up and down to the top of one of the staircases, and back to the cyberdemon's closet, back and forth spraying plasma until you have enough room to run a circuit through the whole area. The whole time you want to avoid hitting the cybie until the end, as the goal is to keep it focused on the monsters and away from you. The fight after this makes use of some dreaded platforming, but it does a damn good job at making it fun. I take care of the mancubi behind me first (and any imps that get in my way), then try and take down some arachnotrons before the cacos get too close. Once they do I grab the BFG and go to town on the revenants, turning around to extinguish some cacos on occasion. If I survive these waves, the rest of the fight comes pretty easy, and the potentially deadly platforming does a great job of amping up the pressure without feeling like it takes over the fight too much. After this comes a cramped cyberdemon duel, and the blue key is yours.

 

Next up you get to raise the platforms in the cool archie/baron area to meet your level, and run across them to the final slaughtery fight. This one is the simplest in theory, but the execution is anything but. Really you just have to keep up the classic horseshoe movement pattern and avoid getting hit. The fight is determined not to make that so easy for you though. First off, at each end of the arena is a wall with 4 archviles, and venturing too close will cause them to light you up. So during this manoeuvre you have to be careful not to go too far to either side the whole time. Secondly, there are just a ton of monsters here, so any misstep can melt your health away very quickly. Doesn't help that there are cybies, as well as imps peppering you from behind. It's a fight that can definitely feel overwhelming, but skilled play will see you to the end. To close off the map, you have a few archviles coming into this arena that you'll need to take care of, but they aren't so bad. What is much more dangerous is the group of cyberdemons that greet you once you lower the central lift back down. You have to actually try and be pretty precise with your shots here, or else you may find yourself needing to backtrack for cells. Once you get through this though, you just have a couple barons between you and the exit switch.

 

This is actually a relatively long one, so may go against the formula of the set a bit. With that said, you won't see me complaining, because this map is brilliant. The layout and visuals were top notch. The fights are creative and distinct, whenever they get tricky they never feel unfair, and it always felt greatly rewarding when I came up with the right idea for a fight (or stole someone else's). I adored this map, it's easily one of my absolute favourites since I started playing with the club about a year ago. If I gave grades, this one is an A+ all the way.

Edited April 29, 2022 by DisgruntledPorcupine

[Arwel]

4 hours ago, DisgruntledPorcupine said:

Killing the archviles will teleport in another to take their place, with there being 3 archviles for each platform. So for this one, focus on rocketing the barons as quickly as possible.

 

This is what I did as well, then watching Decino's playthrough, he goes like "Oh so they keep respawning... This is smart, I like it, so lets focus on archviles!"

And it turns out it's easier if you just ignore the rules and kill all 6 archviles first 😅

[RonnieJamesDiner]

MAP15: Tell Me More, by Ribbiks

DSDA, pistol start, HNTR and UV

 

This is just an awesome level. At first glance, nearly every encounter looked hard as nails, but as long as I managed to sniff out my priorities correctly, I seemed to glide through this like a bat out of Hell; turning Cyberdemons into personal artillery units, instantly vaporizing Arch-Viles with extreme prejudice, and chewing through hordes like a one man army. MAP15 rides such an incredibly fine line between fast-paced action and intimidating combat puzzles, but it never seemed to tip the scales too far in either direction, landing in a delightful sweet spot I thought. Love it.

 

The biggest impact switching from HNTR to UV had to be the extra gaggle of Cybies, who almost became the star of the show on the latter difficulty. There were a handful of supplementary mobs sprinkled in – the new Caco swarm during the zig-zag ambush felt noteworthy – but otherwise, the ol’ hoof stompers really seemed responsible for upping the ante, and certainly provided some spicy, hairy moments during my playthrough! I absolutely adore the added value given to the secrets here, when played on UV (I’d rather not spoil the fun).

 

The layout definitely hit the nail on the head, for me – great opportunities for risky offensive plays or infighting, sudden walls of meat for my rockets and cell ammo to feed on, and seemingly effortless transitions into small, intimate encounters. The finale is, of course, a beautiful excuse to hold down mouse1 like a glutton, though it isn’t without the need to maintain a weather eye on that shifting horde (or the Cyb rockets, for that matter). I really can’t say enough good things about that zig-zag bridge ambush, though. It took me a minute to find a consistent foothold on it (and even longer to realize the sneaky-beaky shenanigans going on with those Arch-Viles!), but, this fight seemed to use every monster involved to its fullest potential.

 

Interestingly, I think I had more trouble with Ribbiks’ MAP03 than I did with Tell Me More (well, on UV at least), and whether that’s because it was easier(?), or because Haste has genuinely improved my slaughter skills, I enjoyed MAP15 tremendously. Fantastic level!

[FragsBunny]

MAP12: Thrown to the Wolves (100/94/0)

1.       Imp projectiles ignore armor

2.       An arch-vile will try to assassinate you

3.       Hell nobles are partially invisible

 

The Specialists from the first card pick were rather weak, so how about adding a surprise arch-vile assassin? And I have used all my shells in previous level, so it came to no surprise that my primary weapons of choice were RL and BFG. The opening arch-viles can be cheessed with carryover BFG, but the imps along with their miniature versions were a complete hassle. The outdoor arena is even worse, there are so many imps that I can’t get a clear shot on those arch-viles. I had to shoot down mancubi from the window and even then it still too me several tries because the death blasts kept scattering them around, and the supplies ended up being tossed in damaging blood. Not to mention the follow up revenant horde, which has to be kept inside the corridor for as long as possible!

 

The finale after the red key pickup comes in two parts, but both can be activated at the same time. For the first part, two cyberdemons drop in the main hall, while the horde of cacodemons is closing from behind. By pressing the red switch, another horde will be unleashed, but you will be able to pick two megaspheres and lock out the cacodemon horde. Then it becomes a matter of making the two cyberdemons infighting the horde while taking out the guardian trio with BFG so that you can take the second megasphere. And when you pick up the yellow key, they rest of the map will be unlocked, but so does the cacoswarm. You can either fight it or cowardly retreat towards the exit. I chose the former.

 

MAP13: Rotting Under Foot of Time (93/91/100)

1.       Add vegetation near certain monsters

2.       Collecting keys gives every monster random enchantment

3.       One monster is cursed. It constantly swaps its position with others.

 

Screw this map. Especially regarding pistol starters. The only weapons you can grab are guard by monsters behind door, and in order to claim them, you have to make them infight against Cyberdemons behind the big doors. Even if you are carrying ammo from previous map, you still need to do it. Otherwise you’re left with RL and BFG for you first major arena. There’s respawing arch-vile watch post, the demonic horde coming upfront, the cacoswarm coming from the sides, and the cyberdemon snipers that eventuall get bored and teleport into fray by themselves. And all heath supplies are on the edge of an inescapable pit…

 

But what might make you hate this map is not this. It’s the damage floor that you need to traverse on the way back! Again, the hell nobles need to be lured to infight the cyberdemon behind then. Then, the hardest part of the whole level. I can’t describe it properly because English is not my native language. In short: fuck that run for the red key and back.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

4 hours ago, Vrhrlv said:

 

This is what I did as well, then watching Decino's playthrough, he goes like "Oh so they keep respawning... This is smart, I like it, so lets focus on archviles!"

And it turns out it's easier if you just ignore the rules and kill all 6 archviles first 😅

Ha, I killed one and saw it get replaced and just assumed that would be too complicated and never went that route. Love it.

[FragsBunny]

MAP14: Athenaeum

1.       Each cacodemon fires a different monster’s projectiles

2.       Cacodemon may teleport to pursue players

3.       Arachnotron spawns 3 chaingunners on death

 

I give up.

[Roofi]

I vote for more sl0tter next month 

 

+++ Noreason's Speedmaps 2

[Nefelibeta]

<<<=== Bottomless Pit

 

+++ Noreason's Speedmaps 3

[tonytheparrot]

(Played on UV with pistol starts on Prboom+, saves are allowed)

Map 15: Tell Me More by Ribbiks

100% kills, 36% items and 100% secrets

Time: 13:58

 

The second and last Ribbiks entry in the wad, Tell Me More is a weird indoor structure full of really fun fights. First of all, the midi, I have a strange fondness for these bizarre covers of famous pop songs in Ribbiks wads, and this one, a midi rendition of “Push Push!” by Falco is no exception. Visually, it's a weird lava cavern that I can't really describe, but I can say that it looks great. Combat-wise, it feels like a break, despite it having the 3rd highest kill count in the wad and a start making it look like a nightmare. Imps, revs, arachnos and barons who attack you from the start, backfacing cacos and cybers, along with 2 archies protecting a small nook with supplies. All of this is later followed by a second big horde of revs that you need to kill using the cybers. After that, it's another horde, this time of pigs and imps that you need to kill using another cyber, and you can start getting the keys. To get the keys, you first need to activate a fight teleporting 2 chaingunners and opening 3 alcoves, one with 3 barons blocking it, and then a horde of pinkies and a lot of mancubi, a second one with hell knights and imps, and a third one with imps and archies. I like to rocket the zombies, BFG the barons, rocket the hell knights and when the pinkies come too close, BFG through the hell knights and camp to kill the rest, including the teleporting cacos. After that, press the switch in the HK alcove, kill the archie and get the yellow key protected by the cyber, for that you can either kill him and grab it, or find a secret fight with revs to telefrag him. Then, go to the imp alcove and open the way to the red key, an easy ambush and another cyber who you can kill with your weapons or telefrag. After that, go the the pinky alcove, press the switch and open the final fight, which is actually the easiest in the map. A ton of hell knights, cacos, imps, 4 sniping arachnos, 4 caged cybers guarding the blue key and some barons guarding the 2 switches needed to open the exit. It sounds threatening, but you get so many supplies and the area is so open that the enemies will kill each other on instinct and the BFG can get you out of sticky situations. Also, there's a cute smiley face, which immeditely makes it a whole lot better :). This map is weird, but beautiful, scored really well and the encounters are a lot of fun, definitely the better Ribbiks entry in Haste.

 

 

Map 31: Hibernation by bemused and Insane_Gazebo

 

 

100% kills, items and secrets

Time: 3:53

 

Scratch what I said about map 3 being the shortest map in the wad, this one is the shortest. This collaboration between Gazebo and bemused is one of the megawad's weirdest maps, but I love it. First of all, the aesthetics are impeccable, all of this vegetation, poison, the weird layout and the soothing Ecco music make the map peaceful despite the carnage. Combat-wise, you start off with a horde of barons that you need to make infight with cybers, but the gimmick is the cybers and also a lot of archies can't be reached, but can still hit you. The archies especially are a pain in the neck as they control a lot of space and it's not easy to hide while also being attacked by cybers and a horde of barons. After you make some space for yourself, you can get behind the barons and grab the BFG and megasphere, this will reveal the final fight, as well as blocking the unreachable enemies' lines of sight and cushing them. The final fight throws a ton of revs and more cybers on the ground, a few pain elementals and some far away archies. It's a basic but really fun encounter, BFG, infight, and finish off the archviles when you've killed everything else. This map is beautiful, peaceful despite the carnage and it's combat is simple, but really fun.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 9

Map 6

Map 14

Map 8

Map 31

Map 4

Map 15

Map 12

Really like :

Map 5

Map 13

Map 11

Map 2

Map 3

Map 1

Like:

Map 7

Dislike:

Map 10