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Kenon

Heretic: Dungeons and monsters

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A shame it's so complicated to use custom names for episodes and maps in Heretic, at least when you want to use a vanilla-like port that doesn't support MAPINFO.

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Here's me covering maps 1 and 2 in Walpurgis

Pretty fun set; envisages alot of Heretic E1 (including obvious crushers that still manage to get you, lol). I did have to do a fair bit of backtracking, mind. I had an instinct to split the recording of 1 and 2 and its probably good that I did with how massive map2 is compared to the first one! I'm aware this happens in vanilla Heretic as well, but the amplication is quite extensive here if you don't know the precise order you're supposed to be taking. Considering I was on difficulty 2 as a first check out; this is pretty intense for that level.

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I played through Map e1m1 and had a pretty fun time. Map 2 looks like its going to be a rocker for fighting given how map 01 was laid out.

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  • Limit-removing vanilla
  • Full episode
  • Literal dungeons
  • Those 90's style custom resources

This is perfect. Please make more.

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Hey Kenon, I just spent 90 minutes on this and took a look around. I played through the first two levels with Wayfarer's Tome Mod before adding 'no monsters' and 'kitty' and 'engage' to quickly check out the other seven levels. There is a lot of good stuff here!

 

For the first two levels that I played I noticed there was too much ammo, but I was playing it with Wayfarer's Tome Mod so I can't be certain about this. Layout seemed solid but I wasn't able to verify the level flow for those later levels. The theme was to use 'dungeon maps' as layouts? I'm guessing this would then be from Dungeons and Dragons map images found online. It's a cool theme, and definitely produced some fun results. I did like that the levels seemed to be semi-non-linear. Just enough branching paths to force the player to make some route decisions. My biggest criticism with the dungeon map layout concept is that you often get a formula of small, single tier room followed by a hallway or staircase, rinse, repeat. There wasn't many large, interconnected courtyards, sandboxes, or central hub areas or multi-tier combat scenarios that create the type of controlled chaos that complex/'slaughter' style combat thrives on. Instead it was mostly 'room clearing' which, at times, can get monotonous. I believe this is because there are often pinch-points (doorways/hallways) for the player to fall back on and without a way for the enemies to truly surround the player all he (usually) has to do is back up to stay safe.

 

Detailing and textures were awesome! Some of these rooms were stunning and the color combinations were great. I liked the added texture choices. Midi I felt was a mixed bag; I thought it was a poor choice to use the infamous Morrowind theme as the opening theme for this PWAD. Almost every Heretic fan is probably going to recognize the Morrowind theme because we're all also fans of The Elder Scrolls, and this is already that game's theme song, though that song is great. Personally I'd also ditch the original Heretic track on E1M5, it isn't as bad as hearing D_RUNNIN for the millionth time, but it is getting there, for me at least. Also there was something about E1M8's track, that music box constantly striking that same note over and over non-stop that was just physically punishing my eardrums. The opening screen was beautiful and the intermission dungeon map was a nice touch! Overall a really solid map set, good work Kenon!

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Hey Kenon, I played through map 3 last night and map 4 tonight. These are good, long levels! I'm playing "wand start" on "thou art a smite-meister" or UV with the Wayfarer's Tome Mod. I would describe maps 1-3 as easy. The 4th map felt a little more difficult (I fell in the big lava pit and it soaked up most of my potions). The segment past the portal with the Iron Liches has been my favorite part so far! Overall there has been way too much ammo. I suppose this is a good problem to have, definitely better than not enough, but I am finding most of the time most of my weapons are maxed out and I'm running right by extra ammo. This was also the case with blue health potions in levels 1-3. By the end of level 4 I was happy to be collecting blue health potions again though. I'm not sure if too much ammo is an issue with Wayfarer's Tome Mod or that these levels are just soaked with ammo, but I figure I'd mention it here. Other than that I am having a good time playing through this set! The atmosphere is spot on!

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nice levels, funny to play, with pistol start in mind.
there is too much ammo (i play on normal dif3).

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Late to the party, but hey.
Let me say: holy backtrack batman! Played on UV, continous (exept for m9, since i never remember when to search for the secret exit). It was a nice dungeon crawl experience, lot of switches to find and press, and a lot of backtraking to do. Fortunately i could always rely on the newly released baddies to guide me to the next waypoint.

 

I'd say you nailed both the aestetic and the feeling, so good job on that part.

 

There is way too much ammo everywhere, but it get better in later maps. only time i run out of ammo was in m9, since i took the wrong turn once arrived at the sewer. Also there is ammo for weapons not present on the map, which is weird but inconsequential.

 

Overall i enjoyed it.

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Cool! I will check it out when I get the chance.

 

I suggest porting this mapset to Doom so you can rename it to Dungeons and Demons! :P

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On 6/30/2023 at 11:51 PM, Lightningoof said:

download link is down, can I get a new one?

ops, fixed link

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