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

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 3: Snoutish Pug Nose by Ribbiks

100% kills, items and secrets

Time: 4:57

 

Probably the shortest map in the megawad, Snoutish Pug Nose is the first entry in Haste made by everyone's favorite torturer, Ribbiks. As always with him, the visuals, detailing and atmosphere are on point, which is even more impressive for a map with less than 2000 linedefs. The NecroHeadbanger midi is also perfect for this level and contributes so much to the atmosphere. Combat-wise, it's pretty difficult of course, but satisfying to pull off and pretty fun. After the first fight with hell knights and revs, you get the first main fight with a really dangerous cyber, arachnos, imps, hell knights and mancubi. It is pretty difficult mostly because the space is pretty small, but it's still great. Then, you drop in the final area where the largest-scaled fight in the wad so far takes place, groups of obstructive demons, an annnoying cyber, and some archies and hell nobles guarding the switches necessary to leave. Don't waste your ammo as it's not plentiful, watch out for the cyber and archies and you should have a good time. After that, do some short platforming and you're done. This map is highly detailed, fun and nails it's tone, just some good Ribbiks stuff!

Spoiler

 

Really like:

Map 2

Map 3

Map 1

 

 

[Arwel]

Haste Map3 - Snoutish Pug Nose by Ribbiks

UV, 100% kills, no secrets

 

From my limited experience with other author’s works I’d expect combat puzzles, progression, y’know, but here, we get thrown straight into pure slaughter, and a pretty tough one! In starting fight I tried to be a smartass and after many tries it turned out pressing the switch prematurely before clearing out all the revenants just makes things harder. Master dancing with revenants - and the forthcoming fight won’t be a problem as you’ll get all the room you need for circlerunning. Next comes the main fight, big and surprisingly painful as for how much room there is. I’m still not sure about good strategy, personally I found myself winning more often after stopping trying too hard rocketing things asap, instead focusing more on running between safe floors and eventually making my way into one of the rooms. After everything’s dead, mostly by cyberdemon, player is rewarded with just enough cells to 2shot said cyberdemon, which is even harder than usual due to his placement and damaging floor. Overall, this map is here to beat the shit out of you! Have fun, I sure did!

[RHhe82]

MAP03: Snoutish Pug Nose. HNTR, PS, 243/249 kills, 0/0 secrets, 3/4 items. Comp. time 7:25.

 

It’s by Ribbiks. But you know what, well, I found the level hard, but I guess it’s the kind of slaughter I like (meaning, I didn't have too much hard time with it as opposed to expectations), if it can be considered as such. Not over the top, but somewhere not far from the border of ”traditional” wadstyle, but beyond the border nonetheless. HNTR so far seems to be a good choice for me playing Haste.

 

Snoutish Pug Nose (what a weird name) looks great, I really like the alienating look of the starting corridor. I mean, the whole level looks good, like the two previous levels have looked, and like most of the MSCP looked. This community has some dedicated, professional people, if you allow to me kiss some asses by saying so.

 

I didn’t use midfight saves here, which I’m proud of, but I also fled the final fight, because I ran out of ammo. Some of the Hell Knights guarding a switch I had to kill with pistol. I guess I was being inefficient with rockets or something, or inefficient at inciting infight. I don’t know. At least one Pain Elemental was still roaming at the time I clenched my unberserking fists.

 

Great map.

Edited April 17, 2022 by RHhe82

[finnks13]

MAP03 - Snoutish Pug Nose by Ribbiks:

DEATHS - 7
I found this map a sharp uptick in difficulty, even the simpler fights don't mess around. The opening fight requires fast execution of revenants on both sides of you to grab a soulsphere which gives you some health to bargain with. The second fight is a bit easier, it's not too hard to get everything to infight with the cyberdemon though you still have to keep on the move in case the cyberdemon gets bored of rocketing imps and decides to target you for a moment. The aesthetics in this first part are odd but pretty cool and I really like the foreboding atmosphere that Ribbiks is able to make with fairly limited texture variety.

 

The main event here is the final fight, which is where all of my deaths bar one happened. It seems tailor made to get everything to infight with the cyberdemon but due to the cyber's far away position, and two strategically placed rocks, this was very hard to get going and caused most of my deaths. I had much more success by killing everything myself, and hoping that the cyberdemon wouldn't target me too often. The ambushing archvile on the western room was very eager to wake up from random projectiles or my own rockets missing and was very annoying (in a good way). I liked this fight, it was well paced and challenging, but fun to figure out, and this can be said for the whole map.

 

RANKINGS:

Spoiler

Really Liked:
Liked: MAP01, MAP02, MAP03
Eh: 
Didn't Like:
 

 

[Book Lord]

MAP 04 – Floodplain by @Scotty

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

 

Today’s slaughterhouse was a flooded castle. Water was everywhere, as it covered 90% of the accessible floor, and went nowhere, mysteriously disappearing into invisible, high flow drains. Blue is a relaxing colour, especially the gamma corrected one in vogue in contemporary, OTEX-based WADs; quite the opposite, Floodplain offered relentless action in all its sections, with only the prelude being a bit more forgiving, as it allowed collecting the weapons before awaking the enemies.

 

As with MAP01, Scotty sent the player on the quest for the skull keys to the right and to the left of the starting point. The Rocket Launcher and the BFG were offered in both places, though I noticed the one on the left first and plunged into the flooded basement. After some preliminary ambushes the weapon was finally given, though it was necessary to handle the big closets that had opened. Making the Cyberdemon infight with Revenants was not easy, so I spent a lot more ammo than justified in this section, ending with the BSK pickup.

Spoiler

The western lake displayed the YSK and had another Cyberdemon in store, this time paired with a teleporting Arch-Vile, Mancubi and Revenants. There was enough room and cover to exploit, but I was very clumsy in this part and had to retry the fight more than expected. I could not use the BFG too much since I wasted most of my cells in the previous area. The teleporter pads forced me to make a second visit to the same area, now with higher water level, swarmed by Cacodemons and Revenants, and featuring many Chaingunners in dangerous spots. A Baron appeared behind me as a stimulation to enter the combat zone and take some attrition damage while shooting rockets to the hitscanners.

Spoiler

Floodplain ended with one last cramped fight in another basin, situated in the northern part of the map. Two Cyberdemons were unleashed, one elevated and the other at floor level, but they were not the only threat: two chambers opened as well, full of Cacodemons and Barons of Hell facing away and ready to be summoned to the fight at the first pull of the trigger. I caused the Cyberdemons to hit them instead, leading to a long game of silence and infighting. When the Barons were all dead, I decided to kill the first Cyberdemon and let the Cacos out, with the second boss shooting rockets in the middle of the flock. There was one last, unnecessary speed challenge to perform before the exit. Scotty surely did a good job with the detailing, the texture choices, and the map transformations, which were the most interesting element. The combat still felt more puzzle-oriented than the previous two entries, even though I found the last part with the infighting to have a slower pace than the rest of the level. Good job, nonetheless.

 

Time: 23:02    Deaths: 7

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP03: "Snoutish Pug Nose" by Ribbiks

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 0/0 secrets

 

A brown-and-red colour palette on this one. Some bricks, cavernous, and hellish textures in use with some muddy damaging floor in lots of places. It's another map with a visually striking starting area, with two branching corridors with red rock textured diamond shapes on the floors and ceilings. The midi is a nice one, very gentle and atmospheric.

 

I actually found this one a bit easier than I expected, probably falling somewhere between the first and second maps in difficulty. With that said, I think my successful run was a little flukey, I had done some practice trials of that last fight earlier today, then when I sat down to do a fresh run and practice the last fight again I knocked off the whole thing at once. This map opens with a cyberdemon instantly teleporting away and the introductory corridors having groups of revenants with one hell knight at the end of each one. Poke a hole through the revs guarding the soulsphere so you can grab it, and the rest of the fight comes easy. Don't go too close to the back of the corridor though, it's shaped in a way that it can sneakily prevent you from dodging oncoming missiles. The second part of this area is a gibfest with a ton of imps, a couple mancubus turrets, and some hell knights and arachnotrons, with the introductory cyberdemon coming back to finally say hello. Similar to one of the rooms in the previous map, you want to blow up all the imps so you have space to run around, for the rest you can try and cause some infighting and then grab the BFG to finish off the cybie last.

 

The final fight can be a real toughie, it's a decently populated slaughter with a cyberdemon at the head of the room while monsters pour out of cages in the opposite corners. There's also damaging mud everywhere that you will almost certainly be taking a fair bit of damage from. In my successful run, I had a couple BFG shots at the beginning which I used at the very beginning on the cage with the revenants. The rest was just trying to keep moving while minimizing damage from the mud. You have to be wary of the two archviles on the ledge in the other cage too, once the craziness dies down a bit they are easy to take care of but while they are alive they can be quite nasty. This fight is probably more difficult than the closing fight of the previous map, like I said I feel like I kind of fluked my way through it a bit in my successful run while in the previous one I had just gotten it down to a point of feeling very comfortable with it. Also, luckily that platforming sequence to close off the map is easy. I'm horrible at platforming so I'm praying we don't see ones that are too tricky later, haha.

 

A nice bite-sized and enjoyable slaughter, fun stuff.

[General Roasterock]

Map 03: Snoutish Pug Nose

Haste03.zip

  I put a very high standard on Ribbiks maps, almost unfairly so. Seeing as Swim with the Whales was my first experience with Doom outside of vanilla assets, hsi work has always set the bar as to what could be creatively achieved; a bar that has been constantly met and raised as the years have gone on. His incredible eye for chromatic wonder, and genius mind for technicality not yet achieved in any other map, all combined with creativity unmatchable by most mappers and a sense to push the difficulty of his experiences far beyond comfort to achieve unforgettable points in time. It is exactly why I care for this game so much.

  So forgive me if I think Snoutish Pug Nose was really disappointing. 

  Even in the context of making speedmaps, Ribbiks shouldn't have any problems whatsoever. The whole frog series is full of prickly yet entertaining stuff, and they were made in a lot less time than Haste had. Even his "stuff" series worked its obtuse angle to some really interesting setups. The seasoned mapping skill clearly pays off in this kind of development.

  So why in the FUCK is this the second map in this high profile WAD to have a HOM issue?

Spoiler

You can find this by lowering yourself off the ledge after the first triangular fight.

  Even by comparison to the rest of the WAD, this map is pretty bog standard. It opens with a Revenant cluster, because of course, leading into a relatively hard fight that introduces a BFG in an admittedly unique way, barely giving you enough ammo to just kill the Cyberdemon marching around the area. Aside from that, the only weapons you'll have for the whole map are the SSG and Rocket Launcher, the former meant mostly for the "oh shit" close quarters sections as the latter is the only way to quickly clear out the horde without wasting cells, of which there are 300 (140 if you manage to two shot both of the Cyberdemons perfectly).

  I see Ribbiks's artistic manner of using agreed upon Doom elements in a way that makes them both unconventional and perfect for the environment, but I can't shake the feeling something is holding him back. The double-wide stone switches scratched a visual itch I didn't know I had, and every pickup feels incredibly purposeful to the point of necessity, but the map doesn't last long enough for these elements to grow into anything. Crumpets had pretty similar muddy cavern settings that do a much better job at taking their time presenting themselves. I know the whole point of Haste is quicker and choppier maps, but this is still just two arena fights that give the direction room to fly. They're definitely hard fights, as I ended up increasing my 2 attempts on Map02 to 42 here, primarily because trying to bunch up the revenants in the first hallway is painful, and any Cyber rocket or quick burst of damage is instant death with only a Green Armor at most to protect you. 

  I think my biggest problem with my approach is that I wanted to find something that called to me to push through the step in difficulty. Ribbiks maps do that amazingly, offering unique encounters or great visuals that encourage a continued engagement with the level. I couldn't find that for Snoutish Pug Nose, and I was trying a lot harder to look for it than other maps. I am far more accepting of people having a problem with this take since it's more personal than anything I've played this month, but it is what it is, I didn't enjoy it. 

 

Power Rankings:

Spoiler

1. The Wheelhouse
2. The Barbican
3. Snoutish Pug Nose

 

Month Power Rankings:

Spoiler

1. Technocratic Terror
2. Beluga Sanctuary
3. Sanguine
4. The Three Kings
5. Cherry Blossom
6. Slaughter Factory
7. October Skeleton Appreciation
8. The Wheelhouse
9. Fire In Your Eyes
10. The Barbican
11. Marble In The Blood
12. Viridescent Synapse
13. Duel
14. Crossroads of Destruction
15. Floody Hell
16. Snoutish Pug Nose
17. Tarnished Luster
18. Metal Head
19. Crippling Legion
20. Team Rocket Slaughter

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by General Roasterock

[Thelokk]

Haste MAP04 - Floodplain by Scotty

HMP / 100% kills / 1 secret

 

Much like The Barbican, I didn't really feel this map. Decino mentioned in their playthrough that it was their least favorite map as it felt a bit generic, and I kinda have to agree: design-wise it's simply not on par with the maps that came before, and the ones that come after. The main culprit is the texturing work in my opinion - it looks rather monotonous and drab, what with all that MOSSROCK stuck all over the place. Some contrast was needed, and there is none to have. The layout is also a bit uninspired, possibly even simpler than The Barbican.

 

Combat-wise... yeah, still generic. There are a number of fights but, save for a short opening sequence, all of them are centered around the old, worn out trick of using the provided cyberdemon(s) to fight in your place, a cheapened-by-overuse scenario that would better be shelved for a while. I mean, when we have to resort to the 'stay silent and get the cyber to shoot at backwards-facing hell nobles' formula we might just as well admit we've ran out of ideas for the map. 

 

I... really don't know. Scotty has never been my favorite of the 'hard maps' mappers staples, but in Haste I'm finding them particularly out of shape. After the 'bat-it-out-of-the-park' homerun that was Cydonia, I'm starting to wonder whether Scotty simply isn't into slaughter anymore. Nothing wrong with changing mapping genre, Scotty, it's sure better than putting out boring, by-the-numbers stuff like this map!

[Pseudonaut]

Haste Map03:

Rationing your BFG shots is very important in this map. As soon as you get it, it's tempting to use some BFG shots right away, but every shot used there will make the main fight harder, so I saved all of it until then. In the big fight, walls of enemies and area-denial archviles push you toward a cyberdemon, requiring you to be well aware of where he's firing much of the time. Eventually, the crowd loosens up enough that you can BFG rush the roaming pain elemental and archvile, then clean up with rockets/SSG. It's still a good idea not to completely run out of BFG shots in this fight, or you'll have to perform an uncomfortable 2-shot on the last cyberdemon. It's great, like every other map in this wad... I'll probably stop pointing that out for each and every map now, since it's unnecessary.

 

 

Demos:

has03.zip

[RHhe82]

MAP04: Floodplain. HNTR, PS, 225/225 kills, 1/1 secrets, 53/53 items. Comp. time 23:51.

 

Another one by Scotty, is it, and I think it’s easier than The Barbican, but only because I was traumatized by the end fight of Map01.

 

Haste strikes four in a row, Floodplain is another great map. On HNTR the fights are just hard enough to test me. I was able to do them without midfight saves — I feel like a self-righteous ass every time I mention this, but I guess it serves a personal assurance, and I guess there’s bound to come a point where I have to resort to them. In Floodplain, I did chicken out in the RSK fight, the highpoint of the map, and saved with one measly revenant, trapped in the corridor, still alive. I still count my run midfightsaveless!

 

Aside from fun encounters, I also digged the Plutonia-esque visuals. In fact, the whole reminded me very much of Plutonia except for the monster density (or, rather, the amount).

This level took me a considerable more time to finish than the ones preceding it, but it’s partly because I had to really look for the secret despite having seen Decino’s video back when he played the level.

 

One thing I didn't find so fun was the timed lift at the end of RSK fight, but that's a small grief; it doesn't require any fancy SR50 shenanigans, but it kind of tries to nudge me out of the mood.

[RonnieJamesDiner]

MAP04: Floodplain, by Scotty

DSDA, pistol start, HNTR and UV

 

Right away, everything just felt a little brighter here, almost pleasant, and Scotty returns to his non-linearity of MAP01 while presenting the first truly optional fights of the set. I loved the idea that, despite only requiring a single skull key to progress, I was encouraged to tackle both routes in order to unlock the full pair of powerups before the drop – a fun addition to a layout clearly designed with choice in mind, and rewarding UV with its only Blue Armor.

 

If I wasn’t comfortable dealing with Cyberdemons in a variety of scenarios – dodging rockets, inciting inter-demon rivalries, and weaving careful lanes between projectile traffic – Floodplain was ready to provide some more practice. Thankfully, as seems to be the theme with Haste so far, HNTR does away with the presence of Arch-Viles, freeing up a good portion of my monkey brain to focus on other aspects of each arena.

Like the Blue Key arena, which decided to give me a far tougher run for my money than the rest – even the finale, which on paper appeared a lot more challenging, yet I seemed to manage rather intuitively on both difficulties. Nay nay, the Blue Key fight on Ultra-Violence had other plans. It seemed no matter what, the Cyberdemon and Rev horde were up my nose in an instant, unshakable and unwilling to infight. Then, by some stroke of luck during one attempt, the Cybie managed to lock horns with the Revenants almost instantaneously before ever leaving his starting position, leading to my successful run. RNG? Probably. Do I feel cheap? Hell no, I’ll take it!

 

I loved the peppering of incidental fights throughout this one, like beats breaking up the more meticulously choreographed combat puzzles. I think it helped give Floodplain some added levity for me, and I really enjoyed this map a lot. Unfortunately, I do not possess the secret-sniffing superpowers of a Bloodhound, never finding the hidden switch (I discovered it after dissecting the level in UDB) – and alas, failing to get 100% of the kills. A floodplain of salty tears.

 

Another great map!

[finnks13]

MAP04 - Floodplain by Scotty:

DEATHS - 2
Emulating Plutonia 2's aesthetics is a fast way to win me over, and using one of my favourite MIDIs from that wad to boot? I really enjoyed this map. It starts off with a small fight against some fodder as well as some sniping revenants, and (after grabbing one of two soulspheres from the surprisingly hidden secret) I'm presented with two paths to take. You only have to take one to exit the level, however that'd deprive me of some of the kills, and more importantly, the fun fights on offer.

 

I took the blue key path first because it has a BFG on display and while both paths do give you a BFG, I'm easily manipulated into grabbing the first BFG I can! I think this is the harder of the two paths as it gives you much less space to run around in, the cyberdemon is very oppressive and can splatter you if you don't get him to infight properly. The yellow key path takes place at the bottom of a flooded canyon that slowly fills up as you complete the two fights here which looks really cool, the large amount of space you get in the first fight makes this route a fair bit easier and more relaxed than the other one, though teleporting an archvile behind the player is a dick move :P

 

The finale is a tough nut to crack, though I think I lucked my way into a decent strategy. I hid from the monsters as the walls lowered and punched to wake them all up at once, and to get one of the two overlooking cyberdemons to immediately teleport into the fray. After that, it was a case of BFGing my way through the cacodemons and getting up to a higher point that had a pillar blocking the cyberdemon up there from firing rockets at me. After this, the cyberdemons cleared everything up for me and I just had to not strafe into a stray rocket (which I definitely didn't do once) then kill a final group of revenants to exit. I really liked this one, it's fast paced with some entertaining fights.

 

RANKINGS:

Spoiler

Really Liked: MAP04
Liked: MAP01, MAP02, MAP03
Eh:
Didn't Like:

 

[Arwel]

Haste Map4 - Floodplain by Scotty

UV, no idea how to get that one secret

 

After playing previous maps in the set, you can tell the author of this one in first ten seconds. While being clearly grounded on the same foundations as The Barbican, this map takes all its ideas further and achieves impressive levels of sophistication and freedom in some of its encounters. For example, I couldn't stop coming up with new approaches to the first fight, and eventually it resulted in first successful UV-Pacifist run in my whole gaming experience! I consider it either a miracle or an exceptionally thorough open-ended design that it was possible at all to go pacifist through that last fight with 2 cyberdemons guarding the key, 4 static AVs guarding the timed switch in a dark cramped room, and tons of barons and cacos. Overall, many fights here reward creativity and experimentation, there is no single right way, and at the same time, this freedom didn't make it regress into completely casual territory, punch is still there, and I still got some proper beating while UV-maxing. Great map and a very promising step in evolution of author's ideas.

Edited April 18, 2022 by Vrhrlv

[FragsBunny]

MAP04: Floodplain (96/96/0)

1.       Mancubus may teleport away when in danger

2.       Pain elemental may teleport to pursue the player

3.       Cacodemon projectiles weave back and forth

 

I swear, this is not the kind of map that can be finished without saves. Unless you’re a Doom God, which I’m still far from it. The opening is already hectic enough, requiring you to beat groups of shotgunners and imps while being mindful of revenant snipers and a hell knight. This is where plasma gun finally comes to play, but I found it to be much less effective on revenants after their card boost. In fact, I’m starting to hate revenants even more, as their scattering gives them even more angles to fire their rockets!

 

The first two fights in the blue arena are nothing special as long as you know what is going on. The actual fight for the blue key… well, it requires you to make a choice! Should you use the BFG on the pain elemental and the horde behind it to clear space, or rush the Cyberdemon and revenants? The first choice seemed to be more realistic, but even then it took me numerous attempts to finish the encounter.

 

The path to the blue key offered more space. It’s revenants and cyberdemon along with mancubi and arch-vile. To make things worse, the Specialists also joined the fray! I had to kill the baron specialist twice after he was resurrected by an arch-vile, and that only happened on my successful attempt! The second part is even worse – there is practically no cover against arch-viles and chaingunners unless you kill them ASAP. And you still have to deal with revenants and cacodemons, not to mention that pain elemental. The alcove where the arch-vile teleports behind you seems to be the only reasonable choice to start with…

 

And then there is also the finale. It came be done with just one of keys, but you’ll miss megaarmor or soul sphere. Two meatwalls will assault you once the switch is pressed – one of barons, and the other of cacodemons, and neither of those hordes can be BFG rushed easily! The two cyberdemons only makes things worse, even when you’re supposed to make them infight the horde. Eventually I retreated to baron alcove and started the clearing from there. Populating the other alcove with arch-viles along with a strafe-run timed switch was quite a dick move!

[cannonball]

MAP03 - “Snoutish Pug Nose” by Ribbiks

The warm up was fairly easy, but the main event is by far the hardest fight so far, especially as you need to run across damaging floor at times and the fight isn't really designed to make infighting a given. As such I suffered a lot of deaths here. However this was a lot of fun to play, and it seemed to make you run around a lot more than the previous maps. Not much else to say here, it's a Ribbiks map, and a very good map to boot. 

[Alaxzandarz]

Played with pistol-starts on UV on DSDA-Doom

 

Map 04: Floodplain

 

Water drenched Plutonic castle map. In this map you have two wings to fight through and then a final fight. Both of the key fights are quite similar, you need to prioritize archies and pain elementals, in the blue key fight you have just less space. In the final fight you need to get the cybers to infight with the barons and cacos and use the BFG to make space when necessary. This map is pretty easy, way easier than map 03. The waterfall texture usage especially in the blue key room is really nice. The visuals of the map is sorta standard plutonia, but for some reason I like it. I think it has a sorta weird sense of place to it. I really enjoyed this map.

 

My rankings:

Spoiler

1: Floodplain

2: The Wheelhouse

3: Snoutish Pug Nose

4: The Barbican

 

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 4: Floodplain by Scotty

100% kills, 96% items and 100% secrets

Time: 9:06

 

Man, what a joyride! This Plutonia inspired outing from Scotty is my favorite Haste map so far thanks to it's great combat, pretty visuals inspired by Final Doom's latter half and it's midi, which is one of my favorite Plutonia 2 tracks. I also love the layout as even if the natural landscapes are much more complex than anything the Casalis could do in 1996, it still has that simple but effective nature that you could see a lot of Plutonia, especially in a lot of Milo's maps like Ghost Town. The map is organized around a central structure that leads to 2 areas, with each one giving a key, technically, you only need one to go to the final fight, but come on! Who would skip almost half of this map? After killing the first few monsters, I like to start with the west wing of the map, which starts off by throwing skellies, mancubi and a cyber. After taking care of this fight, take the teleporter which also causes the water level to raise, and fight more revenants and a sniping arch-vile helped by chaingunners and an other archie coming from a newly opened area. Focus on the most threatening demons and use the cyberdemon for infighting and you will love this one. The right wing puts you against a small ambush, then some chaingunners because Plutonia and finally, the feature fight. You get in a pretty tight space a cyber, lots of revs and a closet with a pain elemental, cacos and imps. If you manage your space well and make the monsters infight properly, it will be done without too much problem. After that, the final fight puts you against a cyber on a platform, one on the ground, and tons of cacos and barons who can make the area almost impossible to navigate if you don't take care of the enounter correctly, but a lot of health and armor, a BFG and fruitful infighting will allow you to get out alive. This map is a ton of fun, pretty and it's music is awesome, one my favorite ones in Haste.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

Love:

Map 4

Really like:

Map 2

Map 3

Map 1

 

[brick]

Haste MAP03 - "Snoutish Pug Nose" by Ribbiks
Some small cramped incidental fighting, followed by a cramped small-scale slaughter, followed by a big-scale slaughter. I think much of the first arena can be skipped if you just rush, though I'm not sure if that would bite you later on, so I killed everything; I got lucky, by the time the cyber was done infighting everything else it only took one shot to finish him anyway. The big arena took a few attempts, there's damaging floor everywhere (ugh), and despite the spaciousness it can still get cramped early on thanks to the horde of demons and knights. Once you control the central chamber the rest is pretty straightforward.

 

Haste MAP04 - "Floodplain" by Scotty
I started wondering some way into the map if it really gives you the choice between going after the blue or the yellow key, and whether you can ignore one of them entirely. I ended up getting both just to see more of the map. Both sides, as well as the following red key area, encourage infighting and especially using one cyberdemon each (sometimes stationary and unable to move) to soften the opposition for you and keep them distracted, it works quite well. There's one instance of obligatory straferun that irritated me a bit but it's not too bad. There's an abundance of health on easy, so while it's possible to die quickly, it's also very possible to recover from mistakes if you're quick. I kinda liked the map, though the surprise finale is a bit of a letdown. I couldn't find the one secret on my own but it's a pretty cool one.

[cannonball]

MAP04 - “Floodplain” by Scotty

 

We get a choice of two directions to travel, you technically only need to take one, but taking both will give you 200/200 into the final room. The blue key is rather cramped, the yellow key has a lot more space but the archviles carry more threat here. Neither are too difficult and pretty fun. The final fight is a caco/baron/cyberdemon moshpit that with enough patience can be turned into a mass brawl among themselves. The escape mechanism is a little too much (Including a tight sprint to the lift beyond the red bars). 

Another tough map, though not too over the top as of yet. Pretty fun and the slight irritation at the end isn't enough to spoil the map.

[NiGHTS108]

MAP03: Snoutish Pug Nose

By Ribbiks

Kills: 100%
Items: 100%
Secrets: 100%
Time: 4:29

 

Oh hey my favourite mapper!

Snoutish Pug Nose is alright, it’s not my favourite map in this wad but it gets the job done, I really like the MIDI and the lighting but I don’t think the gameplay is the best here, my favourite fight of the two major ones definitely is the first one, I like the Cyberdemon as he’s placed in a way to really easily infight with the Imps and you get enough rockets to deal with the rest of the enemies, the second one kinda rubs me the wrong way though, you’ll never hear me say this about this man’s maps probably ever again but I find the damaging floor a tad too obnoxious for my tastes, also I wish there was a touch more BFG ammo just to deal with the horde more effectively, you do get a Cyberdemon who’s easy to make infight for this though, Ribbiks will do better work later on

 

Grade: B

Difficulty: B+

 

 

[General Roasterock]

Map 04: Floodplain

(Not making a demo because I am incredibly sick right now and will just hate every moment of recording it)

  Seeing a map open with primarily Plutonia textures triggers the automatic response of "Oh no" in my brain. I'm happy to say that Floodplain doesn't simply attempt to recreate that WADs style beat for beat like most other similarly visualized maps do. The fights are somewhat self contained, and I like maps that don't force you to kill every single demon to be comfortable in the navigation. 

  The Yellow Key fight was cool, I definitely liked the illusion of the basin being filled with more water to revamp the arena. The Red Skull fight had the neat use of monsters turned the other way to allow for better preparation for the assault. The secret fight I could give or take, it didn't seem like there was enough in it outside of an early pack of Rockets to make it worth being a secret, or a fight. I honestly wasn't a fan of the Blue Skull fight, it's the similar threat of taking a Cyberdemon rocket from the YS one except with a quarter of the space. This caused me to go ahead do the RS fight after the YS so I'd be better supplied, and relieve myself of the pressure of being put in a shit position with resources after the BS. 

  This map did point out to me that something is off about the blues in the palette, the waterfalls weren't as vibrant and high contrast as I remember seeing them in other WADs. Considering the fact that Floodplain is mostly water on account of its title, you would hope that the shades of blue would be top notch, but the changes are a double edged sword. One one hand, they do a great job at not being distracting when it comes to the combat, but on the other, close examination does them no justice. The recent Tarnsman stream "TNT2 but with a different palette so it will win a Cacoward" strikes a poignant chord for me.

  I'm pretty much blind from here on out, aside my adventures into the second Ribbiks map, so this is definitely going to get interesting. 

 

Power Rankings:

Spoiler

1. The Wheelhouse
2. The Barbican
3. Floodplain
4. Snoutish Pug Nose

 

Month Power Rankings:

Spoiler

1. Technocratic Terror
2. Beluga Sanctuary
3. Sanguine
4. The Three Kings
5. Cherry Blossom
6. Slaughter Factory
7. October Skeleton Appreciation
8. The Wheelhouse
9. Fire In Your Eyes
10. The Barbican
11. Marble In The Blood
12. The Floodplain
13. Viridescent Synapse
14. Duel
15. Crossroads of Destruction
16. Floody Hell
17. Snoutish Pug Nose
18. Tarnished Luster
19. Metal Head
20. Crippling Legion
21. Team Rocket Slaughter

 

[Thelokk]

Haste MAP05 - Firebug by Nirvana

HMP / 100% kills / 1 secret found

 

Oh boy, what a map! My first candidate to downsize to HNTR, but for now it's still HMP. I always had a soft spot for Nirvana's off kilter, out there mapping style, and once again I wasn't disappointed: Firebug looks as good as it plays, what with its bold yet restrained color choice and massive re-use of a rather small estate. 

 

Now, I am pretty sure I have beaten this map the 'wrong way': there is a massive puzzle game of 'trigger this in order to do that' to get weaponry but, in a headless chicken-like panic state - I really, really hate cyberdemons - I decided to simply ignore all ordnance, activate all the switches I could find, and make the cyberdemon do the dirty work for me while I ran around like the coward I am. It worked! By the time I got my hands on the RL, PR and BFG I was down to a dozen enemies left, which I cleaned up with little effort. Same with the final dual cybers fight, much easier than it looks as the room's geometry really works in your favor.

 

What else can I say? the first Haste map I can certainly, unambiguously say I enjoyed. There are a few more great maps ahead before a big, sad dip down in quality, so I'm really looking forward to the next few days! 

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP04: "Floodplain" by Scotty

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/1 secrets

 

Check it out, the second MAP04 of the month to have a title beginning with "Flood". The aesthetics of this one are unabashedly Plutonia 2 inspired, with the brown and green brick fort as well as the water-flooded ground. The midi is also borrowed from MAP05 of that wad (titled "Flooded Chapel" because we need to throw out another Flood-named map), it's a good track.

 

The combat in this one actually felt pretty forgiving this time around. You start off in a hub area crowded with fodder enemies and some revenant turrets, it's not much trouble though as there are little alcoves you can camp in that give you a semi-safe spot to shoot from. After this, there is a blue key path and a yellow key path, and they both will give you a rocket launcher and BFG. The blue key path gives you the RL right away, but holds off the BFG temporarily. First you have a small fight with an archvile, hell knights, and pinkies. Rocket the archie right away and the rest are easily taken care of with the SSG. Lower in the chaingunner squad and blast them, then use their lift to access the switch that lowers the BFG, as well as the walls revealing a much larger fight. There's a cyberdemon, a lot of revenants, and some imps and cacos. There's also a pain elemental which is the only monster that starts off being able to see you. I grab the BFG and all the ammo first, and fire off two blasts at the pain elemental + imp and caco closet. Then I rocket the rest of those monsters, and let the revenants infight the cyber. I try to get in a point-blank BFG shot on the cyber somewhere, either while he's distracted or by the traditional weaving method. After that the revenants usually do enough damage to him along the way to either kill him or put him within a few SSG shots of death. 

 

The yellow key fight is the one I tended to take second. This one gives you both the RL and BFG right off the bat, but also has two "big" fights as opposed to smaller ones before one big one. The first unleashes two monster closets, one with mancs and an archie, and another with revs and a cybie. Naturally, the archie takes priority, although the big chunky mancubi tend to get in the way. The arena is spacious enough that once the archie is out of the way things tend to go pretty smoothly, just get some infighting with the cyber going again and finish him off with the BFG/SSG. The second fight teleports you to higher ground and raises the area up to meet you. Stepping off the teleporter causes an archvile to come in, which I try and SSG quickly before the other monsters can get to me. I then clear the area a bit and then take the BFG over the opposite archvile and chaingunner horde and melt them, then I just camp with the rocket launcher to finish off the rest.

 

The next fight, the last big one, is the trickiest. What I did was fire two BFG shots in close on the caco-closet to make the ensuing chaos a little less cramped. The cybie who teleports in I get mixed up with the barons, and usually after not too long I can get the turret-cybie in a little trouble of his own. I simply BFG the turret-cybie as he's distracted to prevent him from sneaking in a rocket on me, and then use his area to camp as I rocket any cacos who try and come up (or BFG if it gets too hot). The rest of the fight typically plays itself at this point, the barons tend to win the fight with the other cyber and I can just BFG what's left. The map closes with a tight running exercise and a small rev and archie ambush before ending. There's also a secret fight that I did at the end as I didn't find it until then. You get two soulspheres and some ammo, and have to fight off some revs and hell knights. Not much trouble, especially if you have some BFG shots left over.

 

Probably the easiest map so far in my opinion. I liked it a lot though, it was fun and friendly slaughter.

[FragsBunny]

MAP05: Firebug (100/54/0)

1.       Hell noble projectiles ignore armor

2.       Demon have a regenerating shield

3.       Sludge rain will fall outside, slowing your movement

 

For once, the opening of the map looks calmer compared to previous levels, even the music is supposed to be relaxing. The opening area can be cleared in any order, and the wandering Cyberdemon can be largely ignored until you have enough arms to take him on. But once the first switch is pressed, you’ll be dealing with hordes of hell knights and revenants, along with couple of arch-viles that must be searched and destroyed. The second switch ambush can cause some nervous ticks cause of delayed activation of arch-viles and suddenly disappearing cover due to pressure plate traps.

 

The BFG along with berserk allows you to prepare for the third switch, which releases a clusterfuck of archviles from one single location. If you don’t kill as many of them as possible with BFG before they start raizing corpses, you can just simply quit. And the only solution that allows to spill the least amount of blood is to make them come at you from tight passages – presumably the parts that do not contain the dead monsters. That way, you can cover yourself from numerous revenant snipers as well.

 

The finale is just you, the BFG, and two cyberdemons. I still suck at three-shotting them, though. And I couldn’t find any way to reach either of 2 secrets, so I’m heading to the next level with 44% health and 25% armor. Hope it is not another October skeleton appreciation!

[RHhe82]

MAP05: Firebug. HNTR, PS, 90/90 kills, 2/2 secrets, 24/24 items. Comp. time 18:29.

 

Speaking of midfight saves, this level is basically one long fight (except for final room is kind of separate), and I midfightsaved my way out of this.

 

I don’t know. Of Nirvana’s body of work I know only of Fractured Worlds (of which I’ve played first three maps and been saving the rest until I’ve gotten better at Doom), which I adore, but Firebug is, ahm, merely okay. I’m not sure why I don’t find Firebug as exciting as the first four levels. Maybe because it’s basically one arena, and the other room is basically a square. On the other hand I found it fun herding monsters to the cyberdemon rocket trajectory, and it must be said that while some parts of the level look blocky, overall its detail is magnificent, like I’ve already come to expect from Nirvana.

[Solmyr]

It's been a while so it's time to catch up!

 

MSCP: MAP 16 "Beluga Sanctuary" by Antares031.
HMP /Pistol Start.

Kills: 73%
Items: 85%
Secrets: 100%
Time: 8:58
 

Spoiler

We get to play the title screen map and appreciate its beautiful design. This is the prettiest looking map of the set, it looks like a gaint temple that sort of resembles the Dome of Rock or Hagia Sophia, surrounded by thick minarets with crowned by blue cone shaped roofs. On the distance there are several blue skyscrapers with various shapes and design, it must have taken a ton of work and time to craft something this pretty looking. 

Too bad the initial and final platforming sections suck, even though they are very short trips, the first one is acessible after dealing with a Cyberdemon turret blocking your path. It consists of long thin platforms which have sharp turns and are in descending order. The final platform section, is much more simple, just a series of thick stone platforms in descending escalonated order. Sadly i could never make it past this part while recording a demo, because it get too nervous which makes me fail to reach the final platform, only to get teleported to the starting area to try again and die to the monster horde i didn't bother to kill, but at least i managed to finish the map fair and square before.
The encounters of this map can be divided into turret monster types, and slaughter. There are 2 of the former, and 3 of the latter.

Turret Encounter #1: It takes place after the first platform section, you cross the flat with blue lights and an Energy Cell pack to fall onto a previously empty arena which instantly reveals all of its monsters, an Arch-Vile running side to side on a ledge, behind two Cyberdemon turrets standing beside each other on platforms, a Chaingunner turret hiding behind the switch which will allow the player to continue past this arena, medium sized groups of Revenants on platforms close to where the player got into the arena, and two Mancubus each positioned on ledges close to the Cyberdemons. There's a Megasphere, two Soulspheres and four medkits. Target priority on this fight is to dispatch the Arch-Vile as soon as possible, then running around enough to get the homing fireballs colide with the Cyberdemons to initiate infighting with them, the Mancubi are the least of target priorities, they will contribute to soften the Cyberdemons, but they are not much use besides that, then when the Cybers got distracted i finished them off with a close shot of the BFG 9000 each. The stragglers which tends to be the Mancubi and a couple of Revenants are best dealt off with the SSG.

Turret Encounter #2: It takes place after crossing the portal which was barred by yellow and red skull bars. After crossing this portal the player is taken to a large area with is mostly damaging floors and gate flats around it, there are several radsuits a couple of megaspheres around, and four soulspheres on top of 4 platforms, each of these platforms have several steps leading to a switch, which when all of them are pressed will take the player to the last platforming section and end of this map.

 

Slaughter Encounter #1: Takes place after crossing the portal to the yellow key, a tons of Imps start teleporting in, alongside two Arch-Viles, there are two turreted Cyberdemons on oposite corners of the map. After killing the Viles, the Imps are the following priority on this since they are an incredible annoyance that can deny your moving space very quickly and get you killed by one of the Cyberdemons, or themselves might claw you to death. Once they are dealt with, the Cybers are next, since each of them are guarding one of the four switches which will lower the central pillar of the arena which has the yellow skull key.

 

Slaughter Encounter #2: Takes place after crossing the portal to the red skull key area; you get teleported on the middle of a square arena with several escalonated platforms on each corner, that each has a blue skull key, which is useless on themselves, but nice decoration given the map color scheme. the room is full of Revenants, there are also a pair of Cyberdemons on your face, and a pair of Arch-Viles wandering about on outside of the central part of the arena, there's plenty of cells to deal with the Cybers, but infighting is key to get rid of the Revenants, once soften up, the Cybers are easy to kill with a single well placed BFG shot. 

 

Slaughter Encounter #3: It only happens when the player starts pressing the skull switches on the final area, pretty sure there's enough ammo and health to kill them all, but there are tons of Revenants, four turreted Arch-Viles, and some wandering Viles too, alongside a legion of Hell Knights, it's a pain in the ass so i didn't bother dealing with them and left them be.

 

Bottom line: Antares sure likes the color blue, i can't blame him given that it looks elegant combined with gold, and his maps from this set were pretty gorgeous. The map itself is a good finale for this CP, it sure packs a strong bite, but not as strong as his "October Skeleton Aprreciation" map. Too bad i suck at platforming so i got cucked out of the ending in the demo.

 

Screenshots: 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Demo: MSCP_MAP16DA.zip

 

 

 

MSCP: MAP 17 "Epilogue" by Bauul (and everyone mapper too).
HMP /Pistol Start.

Kills: NO
Items:  NO
Secrets: NO
Time: It doesn't matter.

 

Spoiler

Nice epilogue, it felt like the ending of Super Castlevania IV, with all bits of the starting area of nearly all maps (except duel) from the set, and their corresponding credits. It's like the end of a journey with all of those bits as if they were memories from the player as it went through the mapset. Pretty nice and emotive ending for this fine mapset.

 

Bottom line: It was quite a journey, with emotions varying from regret, anger, pain, frustration, confusion, excitement, satisfaction, joy, and a rush of adrenaline. It was a great epilogue for a fine mapset.

 

 

HASTE: MAP 01 "The Barbican" by Scotty .
HMP /Pistol Start.

Kills: 101%
Items: 98%
Secrets: 100%
Time: 8:41

 

Spoiler

The first map of the set, and its a hell map. I wonder if its named after the Hexen II starting level. 

At first glance the starting area looks deceptively easy with a Megaarmor, a Rocket launcher, a Chaingun, a Berserk Pack, a ton of Zombiemen, some Lost Souls and two groups of turreted Imps. However its a though start, because there are two Chaingunners each located on alcoves besides the starting area, and behind the player, these are a priority to deal with, the rest of the fight just drains most health and armor, the former can be replenished by the Bersker Pack.

The player can at any time choose to skip this fight and grab all that it needs, then jump down to either of the adjacent rooms located east and west, but ignoring the Lost Souls could be problematic, well if they didn't infight with each other, and other monsters around them.
The eastern room, has a non damaging lava floor and a rock in the middle for cover, behind it there are two Chaingunners and one Revenant, they can all be dealth with a couple of well placed punches, there's also a wooden door to a large outdoors area, but this one doesn't open, in fact it opens two alcoves with shootable eye switches, one of them opens the door, the other opens up an Arch-Vile closet behind that door, also a pair of Cacodemons, and Imps, as well as a turreted Revenant also appear. Infighting is your friend and punching floating Cacodemons is kind of a pain.

The westwards room, has several blocking pillars, and the same kind of door which acts like a switch, this one starts lowering floors on several alcoves on the walls of this room, these floors varies in height, so they reveal enemies in a progressive order, the first one is a Chaingunner, the others are couple of Imps, a couple of Revenants and a Pain Elemental, this is kinda tricky to deal with due to the reduced moving space between the narrow pillars, and the Pain Elemental and Revenant combo. Rocketing the Pain Elemental is mandatory, before it releases too many Lost Souls that will cramp your space even further.

Both of these rooms, takes the player to the same outside area with two switches that lowers a lift on each of the Imps platforms, the eastern one has the yellow skull key, the western one, has the red skull key. Back on the outside area there's a door that's activated by two skull switches besides one another that requires each key to activate, this opens up said door, there are three Revenants behind, and two walls raise from the lava and a platform two, it's not that bad of a fight, even though there are two Mancubi, each placed on platforms were it could attack the player from avobe, it's still an easy fight.

The last fight is the most tough of this map, it consists of the player running on a hallway towards a square room with four large square crushers, a Cyberdemon, and a Revenant and some Imps on alcoves to the sides, it's quite frightenning having to move around in such a small enclosure.
 

Bottom line: This opener sets the higher difficulty of this mapset, in comparison to the Micro Salughter Community Project, which is far more begginner friendly.

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

Demo: HASTE_MAP01.zip

 

HASTE: MAP 02 "The Wheelhouse" by Insane Gazebo .

HMP /Pistol Start.
Kills: 97%
Items: 52%
Secrets: 0%
Time: 7:40
 

Spoiler

I like how this map has a beautiful mandala at it's center on the ceiling, while the rest of it has a more utilitarian desing and far less detailed design. The map is divided into four rooms, 1 that has a door which requires all three keys to acess it, while the other three can be entered any time, each has its own micro slaughter with varying difficulty, enough health, and ammo to deal with the challenges these rooms houses.

 

After having played the first five maps so far, i'd say this one's my favorite so far, despite its monotonous look it's really well done, has a lot of traps and its designed to take advantage of the monsters attacks and movements, and it's fair until the end when it gets really brutal and truly demands haste from the player to exit.

 

The last area wasn't so bad, despite the huge number of monsters, specially Revenants, and the major threat that were severeal roaming Cyberdemons, until the Arch-Viles showed up, and that made me speed towards the exit, not even bothering to face those monsters. It gave me a rush of adrenaline, i felt my heart pumping against my ribcage and cold sweat running down my face.

 

Bottom line: It was the most fun map, quite a rush in the end, and masterfully crafted.

 

Screenshots:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Demo: HASTE_MAP02.zip

 

HASTE: MAP 03 "Snoutish Pug Nose" by Ribbiks.
HMP /Pistol Start.

Kills: 100%
Items: 100%
Secrets: 100%
Time: 6:16

 

Spoiler

I wonder why this map was named like that? Maybe it has to do with the Cyberdemon's nose? Well, this map is the shortest map so far, no keys and no exploration, in fact the end is very close to the starting area. 
 

The player starts in the middle of an "L" shaped hallway, a Cyberdemon is in sight, which quickly teleports away and a Souslphere appears where it used to be, on this place there's SSG, a Rocket Launcher, a Plasma Rifle and some ammo to deal with the monsters which are on the ends of this hallway, these are a small group of Revenants, and some Imps and a pair of Hell Knights, it's a bit tricky to dodge incoming homing missiles on such a narrow space, but if done properly and with optimal use of the Rocket Launcher, the player could get away unscathed from this encounter. 

 

On the eastern end of the hallway, there's a satyr texture switch but its double, and this seems to be part of this map's aesthetics. Upon activation of this switch, the hallway opens up revealing where the Cyberdemon had teleported, on a turret position surrounded by rockets, there are two Mancubi on raised platforms acting as turrets as well, alongside a small group of Hell Knights, on the back of this room, and two pairs of Arachnotrons located close to the end of what used to be the "L" shaped hallway which on its center, Imps were starting to teleport in to limit player movement and get it killed by the higher tier monsters. This fight was not so bad, a bit though but once the Arachnotrons are done, the way towards the switch at the back and BFG 9000 is open, in fact the player doesn't even need to use the BFG, with infighting alone, the Cyberdemon dies, so does the Mancubi, and the Arachnotron(s) straggler(s), most of the Imps, and some of the remaining Hell Knigths. The stragglers could be either ignored, or done with some Rockets and SSG shots.
 

With the way to the final area open, the player must jump into a large inescapable Arena surrounded by damaging slime and wood and stone architecture. There's a caged Cyberdemon on the way out, which is kind of hilarious to look at, and a switch on the central pillar which opens up the cage, fortunatelly for it, the Cyberdemon is in a turreted position, and can be more of an annoyance to the player rather than an infighting boon. This switch also opens up two alcoves full of monsters each, one of them has two Arch-Viles on a ledge inside, which is annoying because they can zap the player any time, that, the Revenant homing fireballs, stray rockets from the turreted Cyberdemon and the damaging floor are the main source of pain on this encounter. Once all the monsters are dealt with, there's another two double satyr switches which lowers the pillars allowing the player to reach for the exit instead of falling to its doom on a black void filled with sludge.
 

Bottom line: Short, sweet, and annoying at the same time.
 

Screenshots:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

HASTE: MAP 04 "Floodplain" by Scotty.
HMP /Pistol Start.

Kills: 96%
Items: 96%
Secrets: 0%
Time: 14:08

 

Spoiler

This map has a plutoniaesque vibe, it kind of reminds me of MAP 02 Well of Souls, but bigger and far more humid, there's a lot of waterfalls and ponds on this map, and its also the longest in the mapset so far, with alternate routes for the blue and yellow skull key both of which takes the player towards the same route, the hallway at the end of the starting area which has two barred entryways, one marked with the yellow skull and the other blue, they also open up one alcove each, one with the Soulsphere and the other with the Megaarmor. I like this apporach because the player can choose to go either way for one of them goodies, or go for both, or ignore either of them entirely and just go for the final arena.
 

I love this map's midi, i believe its from Plutonia 2 and was made by Jimmy. IIRC it was called deadly towers or something. 
 

I like how the encounters for the skull keys have one Cyberdemon each as the strongest monster, and despite the Arch-Vile and the Mancubi from the yellow skull key encounter, the blue skull key one felt harder, because of the thighter space and having to kite around the Cyberdemon in such space to reach for the blue skull key, and then run for the switch to acess a teleporter both of which are located on opposite ends on a square "C" shaped alcove, while the Cyberdemon was stomping around very close.
 

The final encounter takes place on an open area with a switch on the middle of a wooden platform, ther are two rooms, one has a switch which will activate a lift located on the other room, which will take the player to the exit area. The former room is filled with Cacodemons (and three Arch-Viles on a small alcove where the switch is), the latter has Barons. Upon activating the switch, two Cyberdemons are revealed, the one whos' to the player's left teleports into the arena. The previous monsters mentioned are unaware of the player, so i used these Cybers to initiate infighting with the Barons first, they both managed to kill most of the Barons, before the free roaming Cyber got killed, then i decided to lure some of the Cacodemons outside to deal with the remaining Cyber, again this one managed to kill most of the Cacodemons before dying. Then i decided to finish off the stragglers with the BFG 9000, which were some Cacos, one Baron, and three Arch-Vile turrets, the whole thing was fun at first, but then it got boring waiting for the Cybers to get rid of most of the monsters, and then dying to a stray rocket or fireball.
 

The exit area was kind of a dick move, after all that shit, getting jumped on by three Revenants and an Arch-Vile, not fun at all. I thought that the map was overstaying its welcome at this point before i realized it was the exit area.
 

Bottom line: Plutoniaesque fun map, fun for the most part until the last area where it drags on a bit on infighting but its not the map's fault, rather mine, because there was enough cell pack ammo to finish the process much quickly.
 

Screenshots: 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

HASTE: MAP 04 "Firebug" by Nirvana .
HMP /Pistol Start.

Kills: 137%
Items: 37%
Secrets: 50%
Time: 12:02

 

Spoiler

I dig this map's atmosphere and design, it looks vaguely ancient egyptian like, but has a dreamy otherwordly quality to it, because of the walls, the sky, the darkened trees from the map's borders. Thankfully this map's platforming sections weren't terrible as usual when it comes to Doom platforming, and it was fun to keep the Cyberdemon alive and kiting it around to deal with all of the roaming monsters, i was surprised to see it lasted until i got the yellow skull key to open the way to the pyramid, at that point it took quite a bit of punishment from several different monster types, such as Revenants, Barons, Mancubi, Imps, Arch-Viles and still it took several SSG shots to bring it down! 

 

I didn't enjoyed the ammo starvation, and having to deal with two Cybers inside the pyramid with limited ammo, i wandered around like an idiot for a while before i figured out i had to wait inside the pyramid for something else to happen, and that was the way to the exit switch so i could escape this bloody sandstrone nightmare.
 

Bottom line: Dig the ambience, but it was rather boring and so far, its the weakest map, which is far too weak in comparison to the previous entries.

 

Screenshots:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by Solmyr

[Book Lord]

MAP 05 – Firebug by @Nirvana

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

 

Firebug did not save its strongest visuals for later, nor did it postpone the beginning of hostilities. The action took place in a charming Egyptian arena under a starry red sky, complete with a pyramid, a lava crater, and abstract structures resembling temples and ruins. Having a Cyberdemon at my heels since the first second was rough, though the worst offenders were the hitscanners that massacred me while I was collecting the Rocket Launcher and ammo in the crater. Once they were killed and the SSG was stolen from the Revenants in the pit, the opposition could be wiped out with confidence. I find it curious that three Barons of Hell and a second Mancubus were present on HMP, while UV had none. I assume they may help by infighting with the boss, but bringing the groups together was no easy task.

Spoiler

The trap in the south-eastern corner deployed quick reinforcements to surround the player, paired with two Pain Elementals in the distance that I prioritised. The Arch-Vile was inside a wall of meat and could not be killed easily, so he had the opportunity to resurrect a Baron and a Mancubus. Arch-Viles were the absolute protagonists of Firebug, featuring also in an interesting puzzle fight with shielding walls lowered by pressure plates. The last ambush before obtaining the YSK involved a lot of Arch-Viles and Revenants, but the former tended to follow me and to fall prey of my barrage of rockets, instead of going on a resurrection rampage with the fallen bodies.

 

The atmospheric ending was a BFG two-shot test against Cyberdemons inside the pyramid, with a silent teleporter creating the illusion of entering a real 3D building. I performed badly as usual, requiring 3 attempts before I killed the duo without being dismembered by their rockets. Nirvana’s first contribution was very nice to look at, with exceptionally beautiful colours, shadings, and contrasts; it achieved an immersive Egyptian slaughter experience with a low monster count, if compared to the previous entries. This was the Haste level I liked best so far.

 

Time: 17:14    Deaths: 7

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 5: Firebug by Nirvana

100% kills, around 60% items and 100% secrets

Time: between 9 and 10 minutes

 

Small thing i need to mention, if the times and percentages are not precise in a few of my next messages, it's because I lost the document that I created to regroup all of this info. 

This map is my first exposure to Nirvana's work, and it's a great one. I am drawn out by it's atmosphere and visuals, it is dreamy, especially if you add that Secret of Evermore music, and I love that pyramid and the mix of brown, black and red, Nirvana absolutely nailed it. Combat-wise, the map is more open than the previous ones but unlike what you may think, it has the lowest kill count in the wad and it's openness makes hitscanners, revenants and the cyberdemon thrive because of the limited cover. After the hot start in which you need to grab guns and supplies, you need to trigger multiple ambushes to open the exit. The first big one has revs, hell nobles and imps, so infighting is your friend. The second one is the most clever, 3 arch-viles and a baron in a cramped area with lots of cover, but the cover lowers if you walk on some buttons on the ground, so be careful to not lower too much! Then, the third one throws lots of arch-viles who will resurrect everything you killed previously along with some sniping revenants. After that, enter the pyramid, kill the cybers and you're done. This map is fun, dreamy and creative, but I have 4 issues with it : 1- The revenants in the arch-vile wave are a pain in the neck to kill. 2- the secrets are overly obscure. 3- The map was too stingy in the previous versions of Haste, but this newer verson is too geerous. However, I understand that lots of people (me included) struggled a lot in the previous version and I think that for this wad, its better to be too generous than too stingy. 4- This one is very nitpicky, but I noticed a small texturing mistake.

 

Spoiler

 

I still think it is a very good map despite these flaws, but it could be a bit improved on.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 4

Really like :

Map 5

Map 2

Map 3

Map 1

 

 

[RonnieJamesDiner]

MAP05: Firebug, by Nirvana

DSDA, pistol start, HNTR and UV

 

This is one of those maps that made me feel like I didn’t quite “get it” for the first few minutes, but the more I played, the more and more I grew to love it. MAP05 felt like a sandbox, opening with a bit of chaos that had me bouncing around like a squirrel in a state of anxious curiosity, and by my second playthrough, had all the charming characteristics of a playground. Every pickup felt like hidden treasure, and the slightly erratic arrangement of the combat space had this inescapable effect of leading to some very fun, very intense, and very unpredictable fights.

 

Already working with a relatively low monster count, the differences between HNTR and UV weren't huge, and the standout for me in this regard would have to be the peek-a-boo Arch-Vile corridor. This fight gave me another reason to appreciate my HNTR run, essentially “previewing” the encounter with a lone AV before facing down the diabolical UV variant, now featuring a Baron backed by a trio of Viles – this encounter is such a fun concept, and a bit of a white-knuckle experience on Ultra-Violence!

 

What this map sets out to do feels a little unconventional compared to the preceding levels, but I think it does it very, very well, exchanging the tighter arena formula for a bit more of an eclectic brawl. I also feel inclined to suggest that any play-by-play might be a disservice to it; Firebug is one of those levels that’s just begging you to jump in, discover things firsthand, and have some fun. Wonderful map!

[Gibbon]

RZDoom, skill 1, blind w/no saves

 

Haste - MAP01 - The Barbican

 

So the barbican was a fun little map.  I enjoyed the work you have to put into getting the switches and the keys, it breaks up the slaughter enough that it isn't just a pulse-pounding, wrist-twitching affair.

 

Those damn Barons at the end..  I should have just ran for it..  but I wanted to fight damnit, it is slaughter!  This time (and actually for most of Haste itself), I'm the one being slaughtered.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Haste - MAP02 - The Wheelhouse

 

Well this one I really liked.  The starting room is beautifully decorated and the textures really mesh well with the theme.  I loved those mini fights for each key and I was so close, alas, those damn Archies.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Haste - MAP03 - Snoutish Pug Nose

 

Don't hate on the pugs, poor things are a result of careless human breeding programs.  Pugs rock!

 

That is about all I can say for this map, I died.

 

Spoiler