The DWmegawad Club plays: Judgment

[Book Lord]

MAP 19 – Mourning Palace

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

“Hear the cries from the Mourning Palace” … I was pretty sure where the name of the map came from, yet I could not help but wonder what reverie gave Rayziik the inspiration to create a place of such infernal magnificence. Think of MAP06, double the size and the detail, improve the lighting as much as possible, break any boring symmetries, design intense set pieces with good incidental combat in between, add a couple of fascinating secrets, and you get the idea. Playing is recommended though, as this is one of the best maps in Judgment.

 

Remembering missed secrets in The Stronghold, I explored the outside before entering the building, and I found a poor puppy in a cage. My only gripe with Mourning Palace was the helper dog; I stubbornly kept it at my side, regardless of the layout that was not drawn with the four-legged companion in mind. The dog got stuck everywhere, unable to run on the steep staircases, or to follow me on narrow elevators. When it was not sealed out of the action, it did its duty, but I wasted a lot of time looking after it, until it was woefully killed.

Spoiler

The staircase hall acted as the crossroads hub, from which the progression unfolded in an exquisitely linear way. The exploration began with the western wing, firstly through small rooms and dark corridors, offering simple but engaging fights, then it moved to the outside, where a large assault by Imps and Revenants, supported by unusual Fallen turrets, amped up the challenge a bit. It was quite easy with carryover rockets, but pistol starters must break through with only chaingun and SSG, and it might be worth having the dog around. The plasma rifle arena was not so threatening, while the YSK ambush used a deadly Arch-Vile placement. I resigned myself to take a blast and escape from the zero-cover zone, bombarded by so many baddies at once. I found the Invulnerability secret when everything was over, it would have spared me a couple of deaths, and I also uncovered the nice Ty Halderman tribute room. Having it on MAP19 was not a coincidence, but I was not expecting it in this megaWAD.  

 

The eastern wing followed a similar approach, with some warm-up combat paving the way for a more substantial attack in the dark dungeon, where my canine friend yelped for the last time. The combination of Demons, Hell Knights and an Arch-Vile worked just fine. The secret BFG was on display here and I am quite proud to have resolved the triple switch puzzle by myself. The upper level hosted the RSK arena, this time without Cyberdemon but with heaps of mid-tier shooters instead, adding the torment of Forgotten Ones. I messed up the fight a bit, taking heavy hits, but I overcame it at first try.

Spoiler

With all secrets already scored and the required keys in my hands, I entered the inner sanctum of Mourning Palace. After an Archon iteration of the Bruiser Brothers, the opulent chamber with the BSK appeared before my eyes. It was surrounded by a gallery, soon to be filled with monsters, and it offered some merciful shelter behind screens in the centre, but also the chance to be boxed in by advancing hordes. Imps and Hell Knights were released in sheer numbers, supported by a few Mancubi and preceding the arrival of her majesty, the Spider Demolisher. I was holding the ground until I saw her coming, and my determination wavered. The damaging floor had no mercy and played a primary role in this memorable encounter; pressing the hyperbolic number of skull switches (8) around the perimeter was not the solution, as the death of the Spiderdemon had the same effect (tag 666) and was a more satisfying goal. I enjoyed the tense and puzzling nature of the final slaughter, and the entire map was rich in great moments.

[NiGHTS108]

MAP18: Forgotten Abbey

Kills: 84%

Items: 54%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 7:25

 

Forgotten Abbey is okay. I don't have too much to say on this one, probably a shorter write-up than usual. This one is sorta too dark for it's own good, and feels like an upscaled E1 map in combat. I like the ending fight, a mass of Heresies, Revenants, Wraiths and a Cyberdemon, but outside of that this map feels a little thin. There is also this cool part with silent teleporters, but this feels like a rehash of something like MAP03 or 04. The fights outdoors also are highlights, especially the one with Revenants, Hell Knights and Azazels. This one is okay.

 

Grade: B+

Difficulty: B-

 

 

[kalaeth]

ok, time for another map! 

 

MAP 19 - Mourning Palace : 

Oh, great, now I have to go and listen to Dimmu Borgir. 

An avenue of health potions leads the way to the palace, outside lava is all there is. Before entering, I rescue a dog on the right side of the palace, kill a zombie, grab the potions and the mini-gun and I'm ready. A SSG and a berserker in the entryway, a not-so-secret green armor and a switch to open both wings. They look the same, so I pick the one on the right. A spider, some zombies, lot's of shells, and the path is blocked here, so I go back to the first of the doors, a HK shows up from behind, switch, a rev, next door. This time I'm ready for the HK, and then I shower the imps in lead. Not much to do, except throw a few rockets to the rev and I fall down, SSG the HK, blue armor, switch, lift, rocket the mancs, mini-gun the plasma zombies and I'm outside. Lot's of rockets after I reach the other side where a blue armor, cells and the YSK wait. And it's a cyber on a pillar! BFG, my dear friend, and he dies. The path back is now open. Left wing now. The spider, with pinkies this time! Then it's two revs and a PE. All that dealt with I enter a courtyard on the side where autoaim kill the dog and leaves the rev alive and well.. For a while. Then it's off to a lift, that takes me into the darkness. There a plasma, cells and a BFG inside a secret. As expected, picking the weapon released the pinkies and HKs that were inside the cells and reveals a switch that opens up some bars to another lift, so up I go. A corridor with cacos on the other side, and then outside, the RSK. A bunch of imps and a demon manc, no big deal. Found a secret switch, but what did it do? Oh, another one. Three, and.. There you go! Secret BFG is mine! Back to the enrtyway, two keyed switches, save.

 A neon-baron and another BFG. This will be fun.. Another neon-baron, and then. Big room. Megasphere, ammo. Checking.. Yeah, 100 enemies to go. Save again and let's go! Oh damn, damaging floor. Ok, imps and pinkies. Rocket fest! And then.. The mancs and finally, BFG for the big lady. Then it's a lot of switches, some steps up and.. I'm 10 enemies and 1 secret behind. Oh I'd missed an entire room that had a plasma and a green armor and the ten enemies left (8 HKs 2 spiders) and then... Ah, found the, by now, completely useless invunerability and exit.

 

100, 98, 100% K/I/S, 0 deaths, 24:35 minutes! 

 

Be back on monday for more.

[tonytheparrot]

(Played continuously on UV with DSDA-Doom, saves are allowed)

Map 19: Mourning Palace

100% kills, 91% items and 33% secrets 

Time: 16:11

 

Scored by Tristan's first midi in the wad so far, Mourning Palace is very reminding of maps 6, 10 and 17 in a way, as it is an other of Rayziik fortresses that get a jawdropping introduction at the start. However, I feel the same way about this map's action as with map 18, even if Palace has more memorable moments. On one side, The yellow key is guarded by a cyber and some enemies on the ground, and getting here requires beating a fun fight with lots of hell knights, arachnos and an archie. On the other side, the red key is guarded by hell knights and revs on pillars along with an azazel on the ground floor, and the path to get here has an encounter with a big group of pinkies accompanied by an archie and a few hell knights. These fights are all very fun to take care of with the plasma, but that's not the level's best moment. The final fight that triggers after grabbing the blue key is one of my favorites in the wad so far. You get tons of supplies including a megasphere and 2 soulspheres, and have to take out a horde of pinkies, then a horde of imps accompanied by sniping mancubi, and then a spider mastermind and a horde of hell knights, all of this while being surrounded by damaging floor. It was the best way to end this map and it saved it from going into the lowest of the "really like" category or into the "like" one. Overall, the map looks great and balances out it's generally basic combat with some very satisfying and memorable encounters.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 32

Map 5

Map 10

Map 6

Really Like:

Map 17

Map 13

Map 15

Map 33
Map 19

Map 31

Map 12

Map 3

Map 9

Map 16

Map 8

Map 2

Like:

Map 14

Map 7

Map 18

Map 4

Map 1

Dislike:

Map 11

 

 

 

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 20: Ruination

 

Good balance of outdoor areas and a temple with some possible futuristic leans if the occasional lighting sprinkled throughout is any indication. "Aztec Gods" is a seriously rocking midi, as befits an episode closer. The tendency toward large-scale archtecture continues here, which can only help this map. Pistol starters will have quite a rough start. The former marines at the start don't really seem like much, but a problem arises from the starting shotgun's limited range. Than at the opposite end of the room from your start, there are chaingunners and other enemies that make taking a stand anywhere for quite some time impossible, forcing you to run into a canyon outside with Cacodemons in the middle and Revenants and Chaingunners on the sides, with the blue key overlooking the central platform which spawns in an arch-vile when you pick it up. There are a couple of different rocket launchers if you wander off somewhere, though only 1 Super shotgun. It's the location of the latter with a rather curiously-placed lava fall that I found had nothing behind it. What I had missed was a hidden switch that lowers some bars blocking some Megaarmor you may have seeb earlier. One thing I did find fairly quickly though was the hidden backpack. One thing I never found was how to reach the pack of cells inside an Arcahnotron closet. It didn't help either that there's no way back to the chamber with the red key once you down from the ledge its on due to a stupid softlock.

 

Otherwise, there are some cool large-scale fights. The YK shrine throws some Lords of Heresy at you along with some strategically-placed Archons is quite a small space. And the final battle....well, there was a reason I spent so long trying to grab the spare cells, but it turned out not to matter because after being killed a few times and thusly wandering around, I prevailed immediately when I returned. See, press the switch at the end and find hordes of Imps/Demons/and Hell Knights teleporting in, along with Lords of Heresy and Revenants on the surrounding ramparts keeping you from just spamming rockets on the ground. This would not be quite as hard if there was enough BFG ammo to cut through the crowds, but I was basically forced to shoot some Revs than turn my attention back to the main threat and pull some risky maneuvers when things thinned out enough to get out of the way. The Cyberdemon was never going to be worth my time here with how the outside enemies won't necessaruly be attacking him due to their positions, so I exited to my death.

 

This map....feels a touch different from Rayzik's usual combat wheehouse, ngl. This combination of unforgiveness and relative ammo starvation is not exactly so common. It certainly made taking out the Arch-viles more dfficult than it would be otherwise (the second one killed me twice because pinkies kept getting in front of them).

lmd_judg20.zip

[cannonball]

MAP19 - “Mourning  Palace”

 

My feelings towards this one are pretty much the inverse of the previous one. Here the final fight really saves this one after a period where you encounter a fair few fights that were rather lacklustre, in particular the yellow and red key fights. The one with the rising/falling revenants/hellknights was practically a non event. The fights for the plasma gun in both wings are fair but offer a jolt of intensity (Though the archvile/hellknight fight is over when the archie is slain and frankly I had to return to finish the nobles off).

The blue key fight is probably one of the most ambitious fights yet, a multi-wave showdown where a fair section of the floor is damaging. It is pitched very well to the player as being generous with health to not make the damaging floor too annoying. It is probably one of the best in the set so far.

Overall a well dressed and scored map, however the combat is a mixed bag of big hitters and some bum notes. A solid effort though.

[Book Lord]

MAP 20 – Ruination

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

The last map of the fourth episode did not beat around the bush and immediately revealed its crossroads hub, an octagonal chamber with a huge wooden pillar at the centre, initially populated by hitscanners. No matter how long and convoluted each path might be, it will invariably return here and see an Arch-Vile and his sidekicks trying to ambush the player. Except for the eastern door, accessible at any moment and leading to the plasma rifle, the other directions must be visited in a predetermined order.

Spoiler

Apparently, the theme of Ruination were the ruins, but most of the depicted buildings looked well-kept and perfectly functional, serving both as connections and as set piece scenarios. The first streak granted the rocket launcher after a telegraphed Pinky ambush (I killed most of them through the bars with chaingun), and the BSK at the end of a tour dotted with small surprise attacks. Three out of four secrets were in this first portion of the map, and I liked how the secret buttons were concealed, especially the “loose stone” that opened the backpack vault.

Spoiler

The blue door was in the western wing and opened on an extensive outdoor area, dominated by a cross-shaped staircase that connected the four quadrants. On top of it, a Cyberdemon appeared at the centre and Hell Knights in the surrounding cages. I could not make them infight as I wished, so I just killed the boss by circle-strafing with plasma gun, then I dispatched the turret enemies. The surrounding areas featured two teleport ambushes, both part of the necessary progression to the RSK, and one optional area that rewarded the player with a Soul Sphere and a green armour. I was never caught off-guard by the events on this map and I responded effectively.

Spoiler

The red door brought me south of the hub, in front of another ruin in good state of repair, holding the YSK, the BFG, and a beefy garrison that demanded big balls of plasma. The yellow door was in the western wing, so backtracking there meant another walk through the crossroads hub, where the last Arch-Vile was in for the kill. The final showdown was a BFG slaughter fest in an arena shaped like an inverted cross, summoning demonic hordes on the ground level and elevated snipers all around. I conquered the arena by concentrating on one of the side branches, clearing it quickly with the BFG, then I turned around and faced the rest. It was not as difficult as it seemed. Ruination was a rather long level with creative combat and good visuals, but it tended to repeat itself frequently with the texture schemes, the monster combinations, and the requested approach to the situations. It felt less polished and refreshing than MAP19, which was a great effort that drained the best concepts expressed by Rayziik in his 2015 output. However, it was a suitable conclusion for the episode and a piece of work that ranked above the average for Judgment.

[finnks13]

Falling a bit behind, nothing to do with the wad - I've just been rather busy over the last few days and haven't had as much time to devote to the playthrough as I'd like.

 

MAP19 - Mourning Palace:
I'm conflicted, on one hand I respect the more ambitious and gimmicky fight design that is present for the key fights, but on the other hand, this map suffers from similar problems to the previous one - monochrome, samey visuals and sloggy combat. I don't think these problems are as bad here as they are in Map18 but I wish that the combat was more consistently entertaining as it's obvious that Rayziik knows how to make fun combat (see: the majority of this wad) but I think he tends to use high-HP monsters too often when more lower health monsters would be more entertaining.

 

My favourite two fights are the plasma gun fight in the dungeons on the red key path and the large blue key fight. The other two key fights are interesting and gimmicky but don't really work - the red key fight is laughably easy and the yellow key fight would have been better served with a slightly less bulky turret in the middle. The plasma gun fight in the dungeons is great, the pinky swarm is slightly terrifying when you hear the archvile teleport in (and something I definitely have appreciated about Judgement is when single enemies are teleported in, they're teleported in "asleep" so you can hear exactly what's there) since you have to push through the swarm to get to cover.

 

The blue key fight is much more staged than anything that's come before, with monsters appearing in four waves - first a pinky horde, then a shitload of imps, thirdly a spider demolisher and finally a bunch of hell knights to block you in. The damaging floor limits space quite a lot here, but it's definitely possible to run across it in small doses. The only thing that doesn't really work for me about this fight is leaving it, where you have to hit EIGHT switches on the damaging floor to lower the bars to the exit which feels rather excessive. This fight is very good and definitely saves this map from being unmemorable, but I wish the other 80% of the map was as good as it.

 

RANKINGS:

Spoiler

Really Liked: MAP02, MAP05, MAP33, MAP13
Liked: MAP06, MAP07, MAP08, MAP09, MAP12, MAP14, MAP15, MAP31, MAP17
Mixed Opinions: MAP03, MAP32, MAP19
Didn't Like: MAP11

Boring: MAP01, MAP04, MAP10, MAP16, MAP18
(Don't take these as an objective measure of quality, they're just reflections of how much fun I had with the map after completing it and this could vary wildly for various reasons.)
 

 

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

Gonna play some catch-up, so may have to be brief here.

 

MAP17: The Slayer's Tomb

UV, pistol start, saves

100% kills, 2/3 secrets

 

This map is the opposite of the previous in almost every way. While the first looked peaceful and pretty, this one is rugged and hellish. Cliffs and caves, lots of red textures on the grounds, and large black marble structures. Things are a lot less quiet here too compared to the sparsely populated MAP16.

 

The fights in this one are quite busy, and there's less of a focus on incidental combat than in much of the wad. Gotta say, this is the toughest map in the regular lineup by a mile. Part of this is owing to it being relatively lengthy, but it also does start to get quite difficult around the key fights. The yellow key fight is probably easiest, featuring an archvile on a centre pedestal as the room becomes cramped with imps. The red key fight gives you a BFG, and covers the room in hell nobles, while archons spray at you from each end of the room and there are pillars with repopulating monsters at the top. This is a real fun one, although the cleanup of the pillar monsters is tedious. The blue key fight is the hardest, it tosses a couple pain elementals and a ton of fallen at you in a not-so-spacious area. Having some BFG shots saved up helps a lot, but it's still tricky even with that.

 

Quite fun, and a very challenging map.

 

MAP18: Forgotten Abbey

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/4 secrets

 

This one continues thematically from the previous map, but this time it keeps you indoors for almost the entirety. You're in a black brick fortress with the odd hellish cavern accents. The calmness of MAP16 really feels a distant memory now. The midi is a nice one, it's action packed and the melodic parts sound great.

 

It's another pretty tricky one, although not as much as the previous map. You'll be fighting less than half the monsters here, but don't think you'll get by too smoothly. The hell knights that shift around that hallway can be quite a mindfuck, and the encounter with the arachnotron turrets and fallen, while not being too bad, can go south. The final fight is a pretty busy one, but the key switch rooms make a great spot to rocket enemies from. The cyberdemon can then be SSG'd once everything else is gone. If there was a telefrag or something I didn't find it, but I'm terrible with secrets so I'm an unreliable source.

 

Solid map overall. 

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Blind/Saves

Map 19: Mourning Palace

100% kills and secrets

Time: 26:19

Deaths: 1

 

This map is probably one of my favs so far. Lots of different encounters here make this map one of the more varied, and it ends in a big set-piece. First off, head to the right end of the outskirts of this fortress to find a helper dog. Once in the fortress, you can nap a SSG and berserk, and take out a few hell knights. Then, you have 2 different paths to grab the red and yellow keys. You need both to access the final fight. I don't remember which key was which path, but I ended up going down the path where you can find a secret BFG since my helper dog ran down that way and bit a few things to death. The plasma fight down here looks like it just unleashes some pent up pinkies and hell knights, but an archie teleports in too. You can see the secret BFG behind the plasma, and it took a little bit to figure out how to get it, but if you remember how to access the first secret map in this WAD, you'll have the general idea on how to do it. The key fight in this path just involves some hell knights and revs on pillars - nothing much. The other path has some more intense fights compared to this one. Unlocking the way forward involves setting off some nasty teleport traps in close quarters. Once outside, you get a bunch of dark imps and revs to minigun through, with a lot of bullets to boot. The elevated area here has another plasma gun, and this fight is about as tough as the last. It's all hell knights and an archie, but there's a little more room to maneuver. The key fight here teleports in a cyb, revs, hell knights, and arachnotrons. My only death was here as I fell in the center pit, and was an open target for the cyb when trying to ride the lift back out. There's a hidden invul nearby if you need it. Using the 2 keys nets you a non-secret BFG, and the biggest arena of the map, some of which is on damaging floor. The rocket launcher and blue key is here, and now it's time for the final fight. First wave is pinkies, then dark imps start showing up. Some ledges with goodies also lower here. As does a demolisher. As the imps died off, I thought I was getting close to the end, and then a hell knight wave showed up, and the demolisher was fully lowered onto the playfield. You can escape when this happens, and I did. You do need to run around the damaging floors and hit a bunch of switches first. Thankfully the giant spider was preoccupied, so I just BFGd it from the walkway as it dealt with hell knights. Super fun fight tho. Solid map overall.

 

Map 20: Ruination

100% kills and 75% secrets

Time: 25:16

Deaths: 3

 

This map definitely has some episode-ending vibes to it, but I kinda think this and map 19 should have some areas swapped around. I think the ending of map 19 is a better ep-ender than this map's, even if the fight is little harder. Before that, we have to collect all the keys, and it's pretty linear this time. Idk what it is, but I'm having a hard time remembering more than just the outdoor fights, and I literally just finished this map. The outdoor fights are pretty fun though. The first big one traps you with a stationary cyb and some hell knight snipers that your continuous BFG can make short work of. The outskirts of this area also have some teleporting monsters around when you go to grab their goodies. The yellow key fight traps you in with some nobles, revs, and spectres, but does give you the BFG. Then the final fight throws a lot at you. You get a ton of rockets, but the teleporting dark imps, hell knights, and pinkies close the gap quickly, as dark imps, revs, and barons snipe at you. Eventually, a cyb enters the fray. Just rocket as much as you can, then BFG to escape. It's a death exit, so don't worry about saving ammo. The only secret I couldn't figure out was the mega armor one. I can see a switch in the room, but it's not shootable, so I'm assuming you teleport in there or open the bars somewhere else, and they're on a time. Oh well. Overall, I didn't like this one as much as the last few, but it was enjoyable enough. 

[finnks13]

MAP20 - Ruination:
I like this map, maybe it's due to the presence of colours other than black (there's brown now too!) which is a nice change from the last few maps or because of the much faster and more fun pace to combat. I think this is partly to do with how much more freely available rockets and cells are in this map, but I also really like how there's a continuous string of ambushes waiting between the start and finish of the map that remind me of the best Erik Alm maps, compared to the more set-piece heavy maps that have come before. One thing that's struck me while playing this map is how non-impactful the cacodemon's double projectile attack has turned out to be, I said in Map02 that it was a cool change and honestly I completely forgot about it until here :P

 

The best part of the map is the large outside area where you get the red key, after a fairly mundane cyberdemon encounter (the low-HP cyberdemon that's fairly popular nowadays might have been a decent idea to include if cyberdemon turret ambushes are going to be a trend) there's a series of very entertaining ambushes, first with a horde of pinkies and then a horde of imps as a mancubus forbids you from entering the exit teleporter. The finale is a cross shaped arena with many turrets sniping you and a cyberdemon that teleports in at the end to serve as the final boss, this fight was pretty fun and surprised me with how swift the cleanup turned out to be. The lack of spider demolisher suggests that maybe Map19 was originally intended to be the episode closer and these two were swapped. I think this is a better final map than Map19, but I can see why some people seem to disagree with that. I had a good time here overall, it's definitely my favourite in the episode.

 

RANKINGS:

Spoiler

Really Liked: MAP02, MAP05, MAP33, MAP13
Liked: MAP06, MAP07, MAP08, MAP09, MAP12, MAP14, MAP15, MAP31, MAP17, MAP20
Mixed Opinions: MAP03, MAP32, MAP19
Didn't Like: MAP11

 

Boring: MAP01, MAP04, MAP10, MAP16, MAP18

(Don't take these as an objective measure of quality, they're just reflections of how much fun I had with the map after completing it and this could vary wildly for various reasons.)

 

[tonytheparrot]

(Played continuously on UV with DSDA-Doom, saves are allowed)

Map 20: Ruination

100% kills, 96% items and 50% secrets 

Time: 12:51

 

My favorite map in Judgment's regular order so far, Ruination is another fortress, but this time, you start inside and need to explore it's interior and the outdoor areas next to it, all of this under the beat of an excellent Jimmy midi. Since the level is organized around a central hub, it can be pretty confusing, but I appreciate Rayziik using lights to indicate which keys are needed for the doors at it makes the level easier to navigate in. Outside of the path to the optional plasma gun, traps are common and deadly. The red key is protected by hitscanners, cacos, a pinky teleport trap and a hell knight and revenant sandwich, while the blue key path contains some barons, spectres, revenants and an archon. However, the path to the yellow key contains my favorite encounter in the wad's non-secret roster so far, in which you need to run and press switches while avoiding teleporting foes, hell knight snipers and a centrally located cyberdemon. The most dangerous enemies in here are actually the imps and pinkies, as they are the most likely to block you, allowing the cyber to hit you easily. Also, I need to mention that grabbing a key or the optional plasma spawns an archie in the central room. Finally, the yellow key leads to the exit, which is opened after beating one of the hardest fights in Judgment's regular roster so far. It is a cross-shaped area with a lot of imps, pinkies and hell knights taking space while you are being sniped by archons, barons and revenants. Since Rayziik thought it wasn't enough, he also throws an inconvenient cyber at the end, but that doesn't make the encounter less fun. Overall,

this map is one of Judgment's highlights so far and a perfect episode closer.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Map 32

Map 20

Map 5

Map 10

Map 6

Really Like:

Map 17

Map 13

Map 15

Map 33
Map 19

Map 31

Map 12

Map 3

Map 9

Map 16

Map 8

Map 2

Like:

Map 14

Map 7

Map 18

Map 4

Map 1

Dislike:

Map 11

 

 

[cannonball]

MAP20 - “Ruination”

 

Honestly with the exception of the final fight, the start of this map is the hardest as you are faced with a lot of hitscanners. Once clear of these the majority of the traps can be defanged with relative ease. The biggest joke being a fight with teleporting demons that can be nullifed because you can see into and shoot the demons in this closest from the central hub (Why?). The blue key fight can essentially be ran past and the only punishment is dealing with the archvile/couple of revenants in the central hub, the fights to the red key are not that difficult (The cyber/hell knight fight in the centre is ok, but despite the mass of plasma, you can simply circle the cyber and use the SSG and then use the plasma to kill the hell knights later, the ambushes beyond this I decided to trigger as one big fight, again not biggie because monsters tend to collect in non-threatening areas. The yellow key fight actually puts you in a lock-in situation, though the biggest threat can be lured and killed before triggering the fight that gives you a BFG (That probably isn't needed though I understand why it might be placed here). 

The final fight is quite a spectacle though, honestly the revenants were the biggest issue for me, and also running out of ammo so I left the two sets of beefier foes alive. This was generally entertaining and a spike in difficulty from the rest.

Overall - I feel rather lukewarm about this one, it looks nice and there isn't anything here that will frustrate the player. That said, some of the big fights were executed rather haphazardly and as such the player will leave feeling rather underwhelmed at what is the finale to this mini-episode.

[Book Lord]

MAP 21 – Entrancemperium

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Pistol start, blind run w/saves

 

Entrancemperium was the strange neologism that marked the beginning of the fifth episode, entitled On the Seared Surface. There were some visual affinities with MAP19 and MAP20, built on the same year 2015, but natural landscapes prevailed over constructions in this level, for how natural a hellish scenery might be. Flickering flames seen on MAP13 rose out of the ground, often on top of yellow stone chimneys. The golden sky was the biggest variation from the colour scheme of the previous levels, but before admiring it the map presented a puzzle involving a Mancubus at the centre of a stairwell, whose steps need to be raised one ramp at a time. An easily missed writing on the wall advised “Don’t kill fatty”, suggesting he was a wanna-be Mancubian Candidate. I tolerated his presence while fighting Revenants until I reached the top of the stairs, as required; killing him too soon elicited a disproportionate retribution by Arch-Viles.

Spoiler

The SSG was the trusted companion for half of the map, which responded to my attempts to advance with small groups of dangerous enemies, like the ambushes by the BSK and the plasma rifle. The first BFG could be found by jumping into the lava in the southernmost tip of the level, but the player ought to be prepared for more Arch-Viles and some Lords of Heresy. To obtain the YSK, I climbed the lava river upstream and pressed several switches on round islets. Some enemies teleported and I escaped like a coward down the river, but I returned soon to finish the work. I was a little confused by the YSK being in a distant place that required some counterintuitive backtracking, one of the rare instances of abstruse progression in Judgment.

Spoiler

Behind the yellow door, Rayziik went straight to the point and pitted me against a considerable number of Imps and Lords of Heresy in a cramped space. A second BFG was offered, and it was a convincing way to suggest it was the required weapon. I received the RSK as a prize for surviving the encounter and went straight for the exit, where only an Azazel and a Cyberdemon made a feeble attempt at stopping me. The two secrets were easy to find and consequently not much rewarding. Entrancemperium was an easy-going start for the fifth episode with some intriguing ideas, like the Mancubus gimmick and some of the smaller ambushes, while the large-scale encounters were in line with what the megaWAD has proposed so far.

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by Book Lord

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP19: Mourning Palace 

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 2/3 secrets

 

Another black fortress, this time in the middle of an ocean of lava. I think I prefer this map in the visual department compared to the past couple maps though, the fortress has a bit more style to it with the hanging white lights, stained glass windows, and red carpets. Last map didn't look bad, but a bit monotonous in comparison. The midi lays more toward the atmospheric side this time too, a nice Tristan Clark piece.

 

There's another dog companion to the side of the fortress, but I chose to leave him behind as I found trying to make use of him made me move slower. It can help save ammo, but this is one of the less oppressive ammo balances in the set, so it's not needed so much. Despite being relatively long, I found the difficulty of this one to be quite manageable, although I had a great time with it. You have two paths to go down for the yellow and red keys, and both bring some nice incidental combat and ambushes before ending in a small arena fight for the key. The yellow key fight brings a cyberdemon, a horde of revenants with an archvile, and a couple arachnotron turrets. Taking care of the monsters isn't the toughest, but falling into the pits can be quite a hazard. Especially the middle one, as that one requires a lift instead of a teleporter, and the cyberdemon has quite a nice view of you. The red key fight is a bit easier, just some hell noble and revenant turrets with an azazel to make things more difficult. The blue key fight is a big one though, scattered teleporter waves and another spider demolisher. Just try and take things out while taking cover from the demolisher and wait for her to come down. She tends to get into it with the hell knight waves and you can use the opportunity to sneak some point-blank BFG blasts in.

 

Really enjoyed this one, probably one of my favourites so far.

 

MAP20: Ruination

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 4/4 secrets 

 

The black fortress theme continues, this time with some wooden floors and some venturing back to the lava-soaked crags outside. I don't know whether it's being able to spend some time in outdoor areas again or the fantastic Jimmy midi's sense of urgency, but I get a real sense of adventure and intensity in this map. There's a vibe that this one really nails that feels very appropriate to cap off the episode.

 

This one is similar to the previous map both in difficulty and how damn fun it is. It doesn't crank up the difficulty all too high at any point but the action in it feels very constant and is almost always engaging. I enjoy the tight quarters cyberdemon with the hell knights around the perimeter, it's a nice exciting encounter and as far as cramped cyberdemon encounters go it's quite simple. All the fights in the same outdoor area with the teleport mobs are good fun too. The final fight is also very chaotic, but some good old BFG spam and proper saving of the megasphere will see you through. There is a cyberdemon that joins the party a little bit in, but you can actually leave the arena at this point. I keep 2-3 BFG shots saved from before and get him infighting with the opposite hell knights, then get him point blank with BFG shots as he's distracted. The cleanup afterwards is a bit annoying, but oh well.

 

Love this map, perhaps even more than the previous one. That closing one-two punch of maps really ends this episode on a high note.

[NiGHTS108]

MAP19: Mourning Palace

Kills: 86%

Items: 63%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 12:04

 

I love the themes and tone of Mourning Palace. It's like a stronger and grander MAP06, which was already one of my favourites in the wad. This one feels like it's constantly crescendoing. I think it's pretty neat layout wise and structurally, feeling almost like a real palace, yet cutting back on things that could hold back the gameplay. I'll admit this one doesn't have as many memorable moments as MAP17, but I think it compares really favourably to MAP11 and 15. Even so, there are cool things like the two key fights and ending, and stuff in between to fill in the blanks, like the Arch-Vile/Pinky plasma fight. The ending is probably my favourite fight of the whole episode. Using the BFG in the blue key pit is actually really fun, and I love seeing the Destructor infight with the Hell Knights. You could argue the floor here being damaging is a little too much, but it doesn't bother me personally.

 

Grade: A

Difficulty: B+

 

 

MAP20: Ruination

Kills: 86%

Items: 30%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 8:44

 

Okay. The biggest criticism of Ruination, is it's really odd to me this and 19 haven't swapped places. Other than that, this is a wonderful E4 kind of map. It's another one with several memorable moments. I like the opening hub, with the four Arch-Viles encased in wooden cylinders, and from there the map definitely peaks whenever it gets outdoors. The blue key fight is peculiar, and I dig it. The Cyberdemon adds a lot to this one, he does a really solid job grounding the combat in this gimmicky layout for a key moment. Also speaking of Cyberdemons, the ending fight is pretty strong, even if I'd rather be flicking switches in a palace dungeon right about here. As stated, this being the finale instead of 19 doesn't make a lick of sense to me. 19 is more sinister and broad than this, AND it has a Destructor, AND it has this really cool moment at the end with a large spiral staircase. I dunno. Feels like they were arbitrarily swapped at the last second.

 

Grade: A-

Difficulty: B

 

 

[finnks13]

MAP21 - Entrancemperium:
This is a very "nothing" map, moreso than pretty much everything that's come before it. I guess the focus on outdoor scenery is a nice change from the previous few maps, but we're still in hell fortresses and while I like this them, I am starting to find it rather one-note. The progression of this wad overall has been quite odd, I'm not sure why you'd separate your wad into distinct episodes but then not try to make them play differently from one another, every episode has given away weapons 1-6 freely and with the exception of Map11, there's been no attempt to vary up the weaponry provided to the player - I'd even take a generic shotgun+chaingun vs fodder at this point, since it'd be at least different from 95% of the maps I've played in this wad. The action in this wad hasn't really raised from low-stakes to higher-stakes, I had to SSG a load of barons in Map03 and I'm continuing to have to SSG a load of barons here.

 

The Mancubian Candidate gets an homage at the start of this map, though I think it's quite poorly done - 3 identical waves of "raise stairs, press switch, SSG 2 revenants, press switch" with no attempt to switch it up at all. The best part is probably the large red key fight, and that's mostly because I enjoy BFGing imps. The finale basically solves itself since the Azazel shoots so many missiles it practically invites the cyberdemon to have a fight with it. Hopefully this episode is more interesting than this incredibly bland starter, since the most notable thing about this map is how stupid it's name is.

 

RANKINGS:

Spoiler

Really Liked: MAP02, MAP05, MAP33, MAP13
Liked: MAP06, MAP07, MAP08, MAP09, MAP12, MAP14, MAP15, MAP31, MAP17, MAP20
Mixed Opinions: MAP03, MAP32, MAP19
Didn't Like: MAP11

 

Boring: MAP01, MAP04, MAP10, MAP16, MAP18, MAP21
(Don't take these as an objective measure of quality, they're just reflections of how much fun I had with the map after completing it and this could vary wildly for various reasons.)

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 22: Watershed

 

The story text promises a trip back to hell, but...this isn't quite the case here. Transported to some water-treatment facility in the American Southwest, your objective is to treat the demonic infestation. Although perhaps things will get infernal before long. I do like the red-rock used here quite a bit, it's something we don't see much of in Doom.

 

The start here is among the hottest experienced so far. Ok, Map 20 was worst in some ways, but immediately being surrounded by Mancubi and Imps on the surrounding carved ledges when you pick the rocket launcher up does help to set the tone. Worst, Revenants will teleport in when you reach each of the platforms your opposition is on. An Arch-vile will teleport in to join the fun when you lower the platform to pick up the Megasphere. It goes without saying the average player on pistol-start will have trouble initially finding their bearings (and I just said it anyway...can you tell I hate this shit?)

 

Anyway, another switch opens a gate which then leads down to a vast open area with some strategically placed Mancubi and Arachnotrons along with Imps and some other enemies. I ran out of rockets, so I then had to pick up some more. You generally get enough to counter the worst threats, but I wouldn't go beyond that. Anyway, a large area toward the far right will lead you to an obvious sewage collection area, along with some pinkies and a slightly-hidden switch that will teleport you to a useless chainsaw when pressed. Like you wonder why chainsaws are so hidden when nobody likes them. But anyway, the blue key is also here, in the middle of a treated pool on a seemingly unreachable platform. Drop down into the surrounding pool....and the water level mysteriously raises, granting access but also teleporting in a fair amount of hell knights you're forced to deal with in close quarters.

 

Not far from here, you also can pick up a plasma rifle in the center of a pool but be wary - the Fallen and Cacodemons which spawn behind you will give you far more trouble than the Arachnotron in front. I was killed here once because Fallen will most likely be deadly to those who don't expect them.

 

Heading inside where all the filtered water is gathered is an annoying amount of turret Imps, along with some zombiemen near the beginning. It all seems a bit strange, but reach the end where a Lord of Heresy is, press the switch, and the barrier in front of you will open revealing a fairly large murder of Revenants will some Hell Knights tossed in. Worst is the fact that many of them will decide to teleport behind you. There's only one solution: rocket a way out with extreme prejudice and probably kill yourself in the process quite a bit. But no matter. The platform the Lord of Heresy is on turns out to be a teleporter.

 

From here, you're provided with two different paths. One contains the blue key and is probably the harder of the two. Arachnotrons fire from the sides, while Brutes threaten to cut you down to size with their furious shotgun reports, while Hell Knight and Imps are among the supporting cast. This was kind of a blur to be honest. I did think there might be a way to pick up the Supercharge you see on your left when you plummet down from the first area here, but like any secret likely accessed in an unconventional way, I couldn't find it or basically any other secret either.

 

The yellow key path was more desultory, shooting some Revenants and killing some pinkies.spectres. Unfortunately, I can't remember if there was some natsy surprise at the end, but I know you're not attacked when you pick up the yellow key.

 

Ending is....a mess you'll wish you have the BFG for. Frankly, this is starting to become a trend with Rayziik of sticking down tanky enemies and hoping you'll spend the time to find secrets that may or may not be rewarding. Seriously though, Barons suck. Stop trying to force them on us. Shit. But decent final area. Probably.

lmd_judg22.zip

[Book Lord]

2 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Map 22: Watershed

That's not because you're slightly posting in advance but... What do you think about MAP21?

[tonytheparrot]

(Played continuously on UV with DSDA-Doom, saves are allowed)

Map 21: Entrancemperum

100% kills, 93% items and 100% secrets 

Time: 9:21

 

« Don't kill fatty », now that ain't nice Rayziik ! Kidding aside, episode 5 starts with a mancubian candidate inspired fight, in which you need to trigger a few light ambushes and reach the exit of the fortress you start in while not getting the mancubus killed as if he dies, 5 archies will telport in his cage. When you reach the top, you can kill the mancubus and no flame bois will take his place. It's honestly a pretty weak encounter as it is too easy and passes in the blink of an eye. Thankfully, the map improves a lot after that. Despite it becoming an other linear key hunt, it has a lot of exciting fights, with my favorite one being the red key encounter with the barons, revs and imps who you can obliterate with the BFG. The rest of the map is pretty fun outside of the last azazel and cyber sandwich which ends the map on a weak note. Entrancemperium sets the theme for the episode and goes back to a hellish theme with temples, lava and rocky landscapes, which looks great, especially as it is helped by a very good Jimmy midi from the Plutonia midi pack. Overall, a really nice opener, despite it's weaker moments.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Map 32

Map 20

Map 5

Map 10

Map 6

Really Like:

Map 17

Map 13

Map 15

Map 33
Map 19

Map 31

Map 12

Map 21

 

Map 9

Map 16

Map 8

Map 2

Like:

Map 14

Map 7

Map 18

Map 4

Map 1

Dislike:

Map 11

 

 

[cannonball]

MAP21 - “Entrancemperium”

 

The start of this one really is on the nose regarding my feelings towards this set so far. It uses a gimmick from the one megawad that you can directly compare this to (Valiant being an earlier MBF compatible wad, albeit when the tools were not as up to date as MBF21). Honestly the start isn't particularly challenging or engaging, just killed pairs of revenants that you can lure away from the Mancubus with ease.

The rest of the map was generally fine, the red key is a little on the nose as clearly the only solution is to brute force it with the BFG and the final fight is rather forgettable. 

Again this map has a fairly hellish tone to it, kind of like the majority of the maps in this set except for some maps in E2 and the whole of E3.

The map is okay, but that is just about it for this one. Honestly the best fight was the first archvile fight for the blue key as your weapon selection is limited along with effective cover, making for a rather tense moment.

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Blind/Saves

Map 21: Entrancemperium

100% kills and secrets

Time: 13:18

 

This episode beginner keeps up with some of the WAD's more hellish themes. After taking out a few dark imps with just your rifle, you get the SSG and a note to not kill "fatty." What is this, Valliant map 07? Oddly enough, this gimmick only pertains to this room, as you make stairs and take out a few pairs of revs. I'm not entirely sure when it becomes ok to kill the mancubus, but I waited until hitting the red key switch right outside and I was fine. Trying to head to the blue key sends you into a pit with hell knights and pinkies. Heading out you can take out a few mancubi and a chaingunner, and then I wasn't sure what to do. I backtracked and found the floor where I fell had elevated. Idk what caused it. Grabbing the blue key sends a rev and an archie at you. You only have the SSG and not a lot of cover, so this can be a tough one, but I got the rev to nail the archie with a rocket, so that helped a bit. Lowering the blue key bars gets you the plasma. Heading outside, you can see a path to the side with some health bonuses leading the way, but jump into the pit in front to find a BFG. And barons. And an archie. Almost died here since the archie sniped me, and a baron came out of nowhere after I thought I had killed everything. Following the side path allows you to nick a minigun off a chaingunner, grab the yellow key, and jump to a really obvious secret. Behind the yellow door is the other secret, and the big red key fight. Another BFG is here, along with enough cells to fill 'er up. Hit the switch, and hold the fire button down on the imps, revs, and barons. I'm still not the best at grouping enemies for the best tracer damage, so I did almost die, but I didn't and that's all that matters. The final fight is a cyb in a narrow pit, with a azazel blocking the exit. You can try to get them to infight, but it's kinda hard. Just 2-shot the cyb, and SSG the azazel. Overall, a pretty good opener. I liked the tight ammo balance, and the visuals look pretty good. 

[LadyMistDragon]

6 hours ago, Book Lord said:

That's not because you're slightly posting in advance but... What do you think about MAP21?

I hinted at this in my Slayer's Domain post but basically, I found it be weaker than literally any map in the fourth episode Like it's fine if it's the first episode, but this is the fifth and  given that this isn't exactly something like 1000 Lines 3 where I don't think that GuardSoul, Dreadopp, and Lord Z were under any obligation to create difficult maps. The Mancubean-Candidate style gimmick was a lame attempt at a homage. The fight right after you can find the BFG was the best part of

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP21: Entrancemperium

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

This episode keeps the lava-filled cliffs theme, but trades in the jet black fortresses for more of a red and brown colour scheme. Almost feels like this map would fit into the general theming of the maps in the first episode. I do have to agree with finnks13 a tad, in that I think hell fortress exhaustion is setting in a bit for me. The maps look good, but I wouldn't mind a bit more of a shakeup. We shall see what's coming though. 

 

The combat in this one is quite breezy by the standards of what we've seen lately. The Mancubian Candidate homage at the beginning is pretty cute, I kinda like the idea of centering just one fight around this gimmick rather than making an entire map around it. There isn't really much danger of having him accidentally killed, but his presence does encourage you to handle the revenants a bit differently than you otherwise would. The fight to lower the yellow key is the toughest in the map in my opinion, the monster placements put you in a pretty awkward situation. The red key fight is hectic, but honestly you get so many cells here that it's not a big deal. I used the BFG for basically the whole fight and still had 5 shots left over, which made the closing cyberdemon fight a piece of cake. 

 

Like many of the episode openers, this one stays on the chill side of things. It's alright.

[Book Lord]

MAP 22 – Watershed

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

The first area made instantly clear that we had reached the last third of the megaWAD. The maps so far had been designed between 2013 and 2015, except for the secret ones; the remaining maps were produced at a slower rhythm, between 2016 and 2021, and if the first impression matters, they received extra polish and attention to details. A natural cavern, criss-crossed by irregular ledges, with the rocket launcher and a Megasphere in the middle, constituted a tight combat scenario involving Mancubi, Imps, Revenants, Cacodemons, and an Arch-Vile. The super-damaging tar pits were inescapable, so there was no margin for hesitation or mistakes. The monsters spawned at the centre could reach the player’s hideout quickly, preventing exploitation of cover. As a first encounter, it required good movement skills.

Spoiler

Jumping in a hole is not something I am very fond of in Doom. Nevertheless, the outdoor area below was sparsely crowded and could be roamed freely once the zombies lay dead. I dug the aesthetics choices here. There was a nice alternation of yellow stone and water ponds, concrete walls, and plastered surfaces, with good perspective that gave the full view of the gigantic building in the background. The progression path allowed for multiple approaches, as no direction was blocked. It was advisable to start with the RK section, marked by towers with matching red lights, or else it would be necessary to backtrack here just one step away from the exit. An interesting corridor shooting against many different actors introduced the water cistern with the key; at the bottom, I was attacked by Hell Knights in a claustrophobic space, while the water level was raising. The chainsaw was the only secret I scored on this level.

Spoiler

The extensive, L-shaped structure occupying the northern part of the map acted as the titular Watershed, as it separated two bodies of water and regulated the flow between the round reservoirs. Its ample interior was ideal for a typical Revenant and Hell Knight horde, which was easily split in two and decimated with rockets. The green teleporter brought me to the outside again, where two possible paths branched out. The one running along the north-western side of the edifice led to the YK, which was less guarded than the plasma gun in the same area. The other route entered the south-eastern concavity and relied on flying monsters appearing out of nothing to ambush Doomguy, shifting to Pinkies, hiscanners and Archons as the last challenge before gaining the BK.

 

From that area, the last two keys were used to access the gate to the exit area, located inside the biggest round water tank. If the RK was collected early on, the final fight could be triggered by pressing the red switches. An Azazel appeared in the middle of the pool and a considerable number of Hell Nobles and Imps appeared from the orange pentagrams. The goat-like demon must go down first, then it was a matter of spraying a lot of plasma while moving swiftly. Easier said than done. The high chance of stepping inadvertently into the exit, before killing the stragglers, was the only defect I came across in Watershed. This was a great map, a joy to play due to its well-staged and varied fights, characterised by the tasteful juxtaposition of natural rocky landscape and artificial tech-base elements. I have rarely seen CEMENT stock textures look so good as in this context. A remarkable achievement by Rayziik.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 23: Plateau of the Beheaded

 

Map 23 (who's name I completely forgot for a second) takes place among more industrial/water treatment locations, though with a few marble temples scattered throughout, some sludge that slows your movement along with that of your enemies, along with quite a large proportion of brackish water that will slowly suck the life from you every second you spend in it. I don't think that's quite how poison works, but anyway.....you've got two different options to choose. The right one won't take you very far but will net you a chaingun when you get to the end, with essentially non-threatening Hell Knights.

 

The left path on the other hand...you'll come across a pair of Archons not too far from you on the left, and soon as you come across the supplies, Hell Knights will start teleporting behind you, along with a pair of Cacos directly in front of you, along with a mass of dark Imps teleporting into the mud to the right of you (everyone knows real quicksand will suck you in and leave you with zero chance to escape). This one fight (along with a couple of others, let's face it) are really proof of a emerging ability Rayziik has to truly utilize monsters effectively, despite the total monster count being under 200. Not exactly a slaughter map, but he really knows how to throw large numbers at you where they provide the greatest challenge. Not sure of a coherent strategy to beat this to be quite honest, although perhaps you should attack the Archons before carving your way through the mass of not-so-hapless Imps since their rapidity can seriously ruin you.

 

That might not be the hardest part of this path though. But you'll eventually come across a little field of hot coals with some ever-hideous marble structure in the middle. Head to - the switch here - and you're immediately assaulted by a pair of Hell Knights and an arch-vile that all will teleport around in a stupidly frequent matter and force you to move far quicker than I was capable of. Too easy to screw up, let's move on. Though I managed to get through without rewinding, somehow.

 

Anyway, you'll have the red key at this point. I used it to lower a nearby platform and trigger a large teleporting ambush of Hell Knights and Fallen that aren't too terribly difficult to kill and then teleport back to the start. I'm honestly not 100 percent certain you couldn't have taken the right path all the way to the blue key, but anyway, after going al the way to the right path, I pressed a curiously-placed switch which teleported me to a platform I saw from the dock near the RK platform which contains an Invisibility Sphere and many other valuable supplies.

 

Not far from here is also another industrial building, with only some lifts to serve as a method of entrance. You can see Revenants in here sitting in raised closets, but don't fire at them like I did, seeing the barrels but not really seeing them. Instead, just run to the other end of the room, probably press a switch as you pick the BFG up and lower the platforms with the Revenants which you should probably not use the BFG on, mostly, and actually just shoot the damn Barons and kill the Revenants and most of the Imps that teleport in here.

 

This was far from the end of my sloppy gameplay, though. After taking the middle path from the start and finding out that I didn't actually need the yellow key to find the yellow key, I found myself in an arena with a Cyberdemon that was easily dispatched with a plasma rifle - or not because I was slower than usual. After this, I entered into a raised rocket area I was forced to run my through mostly, due to the proportion of strong enemies and my complete lack of health at this point. A Fallen or two came in from the left, Revenants jogged in from behind the rocks with Mancubi bringing up the rear while a former Marine or two will exist just to make you stop and hesitate. Bad idea. I died here maybe once or twice. Finally picking the berserk pack up at the end of this section just felt like a taunt for being all out of shotgun ammo earlier while I was fighting some pinkies.

 

That wasn't as much as I did in the final area. Let's just say that you'll want to save far more cells than I did so that you can unload properly with the BFG. In addition to the Archons, there are quite a few Hell Knights and Imps that you'll have to worry about. Due to my piss-poor gameplay however, half a dozen rewinds were forced until I accidentally stumbled into the exit, and I thought it was better to cut my losses at this point.

 

I guess Map 22 might still be better. At the same time, monster masses are used quite cleverly here. After the cruddy beginning of E5, this seems like a nice processiion toward a climax.

lmd_judg23.zip

[finnks13]

MAP22 - Watershed:
For the first half of my playthrough I was suffering from a bizarre feeling of "did Rayziik read my write-up of Map21 and then change my version of Map22 to compensate?" since the first part of this map (that I played, since it's fairly non-linear after a point) answers pretty much every complaint I had about Map21. New, interesting setting - I was apparently wrong when I said Episode 3 would be the only tech-themed one since there's a couple of CEMENT themed techbases coming up, which look pretty great despite the fact that they're mostly built using the CEMENT textures that normally look awful. There's a greater focus on a more limited arsenal, I was stuck with the rocket launcher, SSG and chaingun with pretty limited ammo for the first half of the map, and I really liked this. I already knew I was going to enjoy this map from the first ambush, the small walkways with the imps + mancubi coming at you from all directions - it's pretty tense as falling off means death, but you've got enough space and can tip the odds in your favour by playing aggressively.

 

After getting out of the starting cave by dropping down a hole, there's a small skirmish outdoors where you'll get the SSG and chaingun. The large ambush in the hangar was entertaining - it's not too difficult but I can't say that rocketing a massive horde of hell knights and revenants isn't fun. I chose to do the blue key path first, and it's a fun little ambush with little cover against the zombie hordes, with an Archon and arachnotrons overlooking you - this is the map that has used the plasma zombie the best by far, since they're actually a threat here. I then got the red key, which is a little dull but goes on for short enough that I don't mind it - the chainsaw secret is laughably worthless since there's not really any good place to use it here. The yellow key path is the most expansive, but is my least favourite of the three, it goes on for a bit long and upsets the rocket launcher only balance that I thought this map was going for. The finale is a claustrophobic ambush with barons, hell knights, imps and an Azazel. I think that Judgement has relied a bit too much on this sort of ambush, but this is fine on it's own and fairly tense. Not my favourite map, but a solid entry that I had fun with.

 

RANKINGS:

Spoiler

Really Liked: MAP02, MAP05, MAP33, MAP13
Liked: MAP06, MAP07, MAP08, MAP09, MAP12, MAP14, MAP15, MAP31, MAP17, MAP20, MAP22
Mixed Opinions: MAP03, MAP32, MAP19
Didn't Like: MAP11

 

Boring: MAP01, MAP04, MAP10, MAP16, MAP18, MAP21
(Don't take these as an objective measure of quality, they're just reflections of how much fun I had with the map after completing it and this could vary wildly for various reasons.)

 

[kalaeth]

Monday, doom day! 

 

Map 20 - Ruination : 

Ammo, weapons, a door, a skull switch. And then, the ever present four way room with the first few enemies, zombies all around. To one side a green armor and the SSG, I pick that side first. another room and rockets on lava, RL after it, a switch. Crossing the lava releases a few HKs, pressing the switch opens some bars and then pinkies and imps from above and behind. After them, cacos inside a cage, a rev ahead and HKs behind until we reach the BSK, releasing an AV. Blue key in hand I pick another path, the one with the chaingunners. At the end a manc hidden and two spiders behind a wall that falls. I kill all, grab the RL and go up some steps, grab a berserk, go back down, find the secret health potions + backpack, and then, blue door. Outside! A chaingunner and a pair of flying flaming revs, then a megasphere, a invunerability and switches. A cyber shows up and lot's of HKs in cages. I don't even grab the invun, just BFG the big dude to death and then rocket the hks, go down, rocket pinkies, press switch, go to another side, press switch, plasma the rev, grab megasphere, another side, kill manc, plasma cacos and imps to death, teleport. Grab RSK, kill AV, other door. Outside again, caco, skinny winged manc, pinkies, grab plasma, kill AV, and then.. Red door. Outside, another megasphere, a BFG up ahead. Caged revs and HKs, a free neno-baron.. Switch one releases what is still alive of everything, grab the YSK, kill all, other 2 switches open the exit back up. And it's back inside. Kill the final AV,go grab the soulsphere at the yellow door, and then the exit takes me outside again. Another megasphere and HKs and imps and pinkes. Kill everything, grab megasphere and now.. I'm 3 secrets away from finishing. Found one, useless. just a shortcut. Found a secret switch that did.. Nothing? Or maybe it popped the switch I pressed to reach the cells secret? And now I'm guessing I'm missing another switch that opens the teleport for the blue armor...  OOh, it's timed. 

Finally. 

100 % K/I/S, 0 deaths, 21:52 minutes.

(don't have time to play more and catch up today, will leave that for tomorrow)

[tonytheparrot]

(Played continuously on UV with DSDA-Doom, saves are allowed)

Map 22: Watershed

100% kills, 96% items and 25% secrets 

Time: 14:00

 

This map sets the theme for the rest of the episode, in which we get to explore wastelands that contain little signs of non-demonic life. Again, Watershed is pretty and AD_79's midi is great and sets the theme well. The map's combat is mostly centered around the usage of the rocket launcher, which is fine and sounds great on paper. However, I admit that the first encounter rubbed me the wrong way as it's very difficult to dodge revenant rockets in that area. Thankfully, the map improves from that point on as the next area is full of enemies and is great fun to clear. Later, Rayziik allows you to get the 3 keys in any order, and I started with the red, which is guarded by some light opposition, followed by a fight with 4 hell knights made more exciting by the limited space. The yellow and blue keys must be obtained by going through the castle, triggering a really fun fight with lots of hell knights and revenants and taking the teleporter they guard. The yellow key path is not very interesting outside of the optional plasma fest, but the blue one houses a clever enounter with lots of teleporting foes and an archon ready to catch you off guard. After getting all 3 keys, get in the final area and kill the azazel and the group of obstructive enemies  and you're done. This level is again, really solid even if I disliked the beginning.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 32

Map 20

Map 5

Map 10

Map 6

Really Like:

Map 17

Map 13

Map 15

Map 33
Map 19

Map 31

Map 12

Map 21

Map 9

Map 16

Map 22

Map 8

Map 2

Like:

Map 14

Map 7

Map 18

Map 4

Map 1

Dislike:

Map 11

 

 

 

[sandwedge]

Hey folks, I got stalled with this because I got stuck in the secret level Walk with me in hell and was dreading playing through it lol.  So I just went back to the regular maps and will return there at the end.  I'm out of sync now but I don't really mind, will just get thru this a bit slower.

 

 

General thoughts from YT description:

Played in GZDoom blind on Ultraviolence with pistol starts, compatibility MBF (strict). I decided to skip the crazy secret level for now and go back to our regularly scheduled programming. We get to return to a cool pink mossy level that continues the theme from the last secret level Shaman's Grove. It's a bit tough finding ammo at the start but I get through it. Difficulty is definitely starting to ramp up as I take a few deaths in some tricky setpiece battles. Of course the star of the show is Map 17 Slayer's Tomb as this is a huge level with 3 different paths to choose, each with their own challenging battles. Ammo does become rather tight and I don't end up using the invincibility sphere very well, but some encounters are definitely making me flex those slaughtermap muscles. Secret telefragging the cyberdemon might be one of the more satisfying secrets you can find as well!

 

More thoughts:

I'm actually really enjoying every time I return to this because it's definitely more challenging a bunch of stuff I'm playing, it's really great with the slaughtery setpiece battles and there's always really cool visual stuff to look at.  Plus all the dehacked stuff is really fun.  Some of the tight ammo stuff is on the edge of being a bit much but I'm usually able to find enough if I push into new areas.  Though if I was trying to kill all the monsters that would be more challenging, like map 17.