The DWmegawad Club plays: Uprising

[Doomy__Doom]

Playstyle: dsda-doom (-cl2), UV (generally max but occasionally might skip secret hunt), pistol start, sparse saves/rewinds (no mid-combat)

 

Map 10 - Outskirts

 

A city-themed breather map after nonstop action of 9, mostly back to maps 1-4 style with no big setpiece fights. If there's one thing this map achieves, that would be giving you NI shells and SSG and relatively little in ways of CG/RL ammo to make up for all the times the workhorse was in stables. There's also a rare so far early berserk to spice things up by playing punch-out with revs and/or chaos knights.

 

Highlights include a CK dying to tripleimpguy and a Rev finished off by a brave zombieman.

 

Bonus content: solo-net is again a good upgrade in intensity.

 

The areas are sufficiently populated and hectic, and a lot of them happen to be desired by @Gibbon mancs/spideys, as well as extra cacos, although of course expect obligatory coop cybers/viles. The map splurges health items - 2 Megas and 4 Soulspheres on top of regular UV - and I am quite happy it does so.

This is also the point for another heavy-tier roster upgrade (as of M10 I'm 3 monster types ahead of regular play here).

 

Another observation prompted by a random coop-only pinky - they are really underused in Uprising so far, aren't they?

[Gibbon]

2 minutes ago, Doomy__Doom said:

Another observation prompted by a random coop-only pinky - they are really underused in Uprising so far, aren't they?

You won’t be saying that in the next few days

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 10: Outskirts

101% kills, 100% items and 100% secrets

Time:9:21

 

Another slower paced map, Outskirts mostly takes place in outdoor areas (there's a slight hint in the title) like 8, but it is more staightforward and way less confusing. The level has some deadly ambushes, such as the moment when you are sandwiched between 2 chaos knights on the sides and attacked by a lot of imps and hotshots in front of you or the final fight with a few revs, an arch-vile and some marksmen and dark imps. Overall, the fights are mostly really fun, but a few of them such as the harmless arch-vile that teleports after grabbing the blue key are pretty underwhelming. Despite that, the map still plays very well, on top of being pretty and having a fitting midi, this time courtesy of Plums.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 9

Map 4

Really Like:

Map 6

Map 1

Map 10

Map 7

Map 3

Map 5

Map 2

Like:

Map 8

 

 

[finnks13]

MAP10 - Outskirts:
A more laid-back map after UAC HQ, I find this map to be less difficult than most of Episode 1 and also less interesting than the previous few maps too. It's not a bad map, but barring the SSG fight and the finale, there's not much to the gameplay here. The visuals are a return to the BIGBRIK style of the first few maps, but I find the fairly anonymous stylings of this map much less distinct than those maps, which tended to feature some doomcute detail.

 

The SSG fight that drops you into a pit of dark imps and a revenant is fun, and I will take this oppourtunity to say that I'm really happy that the dark imps are being used as common as the other fodder monsters, since I expected them to show up much more rarely than they do. The finale involves an archvile on a high-up crate with an near perfect view of the courtyard this fight takes place in, as well as a few revenants and dark imps. This is a fun fight, you have to snipe the archvile quickly to give yourself some breathing room, but it tends to dodge your rockets by running around on the crate it's perched on.

 

Overall, this is a fairly bland follow-up to Maps 06-09, which I feel should have been placed earlier in the episode.

[Azure_Horror]

Playstyle:

Pistol start, DSDA-doom complevel 2, playing for fun so saves and time-rewinds allowed

Difficulty: each level played on HNTR, then replayed on UV.

 

Map 10 - “Outskirts”

Both HNTR and UV

 

This is a fine Doom 2 - style map. Nothing super exiting, but no frustrating things either. Right on time, a breather map feels very welcome after all the events in the previous 3 maps.

 

The map has pretty good looping layout with some cool bits of verticality. It is fun to navigate for the most part, but riding the same lift over and over gets a bit annoying after a while. Combat feels laid-back after the previous maps, but some fights, like the ones around supershotgun, can still be pretty tough. (HNTR does not have chaos knights around the SSG, but the chaingunners are very much present)

 

Don't know what else to say about the map itself.

 

But I can say some things about Outskirts in the broader context of Uprising.

1) Outskirts feels like a long lost map from Doom 2 IWAD. This is quite impressive. Not only this map was made in 2021, 27 years after Doom2, it also uses quite a lot of new monsters. The new monsters fit perfectly into Doom 2 roster! This is quite an achievement, in my opinion.

2) Outskirts is a perfect breather map for this stage of Uprising - it is not too long, it offers a pretty laid-back gameplay, and it does not have any crazy gimmicks. In the longer mapsets a well-executed breather map can greatly enchance the overall experience - and Outscirts does this job perfectly!

[cannonball]

MAP10 - “Outskirts”

 

Getting to the red key is by far the trickiest part of this map, there is some decent combat up to this point and some very easy ways to get yourself killed. That said we have another irritating lift surprise. The middle section of this map feels very padded out with very little to offer in terms of threat. The yellow key is barons and cacos and the blue key has nothing apart from an easy to dispatch archvile. 

The ending area is probably the neatest looking part of the map, but could have easily been utilised for a more engaging finale, in the end the position of the sole archvile is the biggest threat, and even then you can cheese the fight to some degree. 

Overall a rather uneventful map apart from the initial acquisition of weapons up to the red key. I guess this could be considered a breather map and it lacks the intensity of Map09 and also the length and complexity of Map08.

[NiGHTS108]

MAP09: UAC HQ

Kills: 100%

Items: 83%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 5:58

 

There is simply not much I need to explain about UAC HQ. This map is a simple good time, finally! Solid setpiece after solid setpiece here. As a whole UAC HQ is really really nicely paced, and virtually all the fights stick the landing for me. A map like this in a wad like Uprising, despite being everything I've asked for, is realistically difficult to pull off. One-off maps like this can risk feeling either overly flat or overly insane, and this one strikes the perfect balance. There's stuff here like... the opening fight with the plasma, the blue key ambush, and especially the two fights behind teleporters. One involving the wad's first Cyberdemon, and the second involving lots of Imps, explosions and danger. I guess all that's left to say is warning

 

demonic threat

 

extreme

 

Grade: A

Difficulty: B-

 

 

MAP10: Outskirts

Kills: 90%

Items: 80%

Secrets: 33%

Time: 10:16

 

Outskirts is also map I have little I need to explain, but unfortunately not for good reasons. Of all the maps so far this one is the most irrelevant. Even the best setpiece in this map is kindly described as "a little dry". All I have to mention on this map is the placement of the red and yellow key doors can feel arbitrary and I encountered both only by walking around. It feels like UAC HQ stole this map's energy right out of it. The MIDTWID MIDI is fitting. This map feels like busywork.

 

Grade: C

Difficulty: C-

 

 

[Gibbon]

Uprising - MAP11 - Shipping Zone

I did this one with K8Vavoom but bandicam had some microstutters due to my computer being a potato.

 

So this one is actually one of my favourite levels in the wad.  It gets cramped then opens up and gets cramped again, tons of teleporting enemies, tons of traps and every single rule book on ambushes was followed.  
 

It’s a great level, lots of variety, height differences and good encounters.  Oh and PINKIES! <3

 

Spoiler

 

 

[RHhe82]

MAP10: Outskirts. 165/165 K, 3/3 S. Completion time 20:41.

 

As everyone else have already said, 'tis a breather map. But unlike some, I quite enjoyed it. Sure, it lacks the intensity of MAP09, and at some point I got the same reaction as I did when playing Moonblood: geez, of course there'd be revenants. But no matter, I still had good time with Outskirts. For a city-themed map, it's far better than the confusing MAP08, and I think it has to do with being a little more compact: each moment I had an idea where to go next, as the flow of gameplay feels as if it's designed such that you'll most likely see the locked doors on your way to the keys.

[RHhe82]

(Sorry for the double post)

 

MAP11: Shipping Zone. 235/235 K, 2/2 S. Completion time 32:03.

 

Here's a level a thoroughly enjoyed! It's challenging (for me), it has the rising complexity we've witnessed throughout the wad, it skirts the ammo starvation issue (comes close, though). Maybe there's a little bit of that feeling, when you hear a revenant screech in your mind a second before they actually emerge and awaken. But it's not an issue, when the level is otherwise so enjoyable. I love the small pools of blood indicating immediate traps, and I love how the level loops in of itself, breaking linearity without being too confusing.

[Doomy__Doom]

Playstyle: dsda-doom (-cl2), UV (generally max but occasionally might skip secret hunt), pistol start, sparse saves/rewinds (no mid-combat)

 

Map 11 - Shipping Zone

A non-linear 2 out of 3 key hunt - yellow + 1 can get you out. A open-ish layout with lots of perched snipers, more shells than bullets, non-fantastic amount of health to fall back on, 2 green and 1 blue armor, low stakes setpieces which barely qualify as such... sound familiar?

 

Yup, I predictably didn't like this one gameplay-wise, found it mostly to be a slog/chore. All you do is worry about what can see you from where, and if you take a bad hit - time to recall where you left a stimpack or two in a messy interconnected layout. I remembered that in my original blind run (not this month) I somehow ran out of ammo completely at some point and had to rely on berserk.

 

It's still excellent visually, and the iwad-like idea of open layout to explore where a lot of things are optional is well executed.

 

Bonus content: solo-net doesn't change monster layout drastically, but allows a lot more aggressive playstyle.

 

You have 2 Megas to work with in the starting area, plus a ton of bullet boxes, so you can mostly ignore the whole "improved shotgun" business and go wild on chaingunning to clear out all the pesky fodder snipers and roamers. When your first mega gets chipped down, you can use an extra supercharge in SSG area (ft. obligatory Cyber) and should be able to access secret blue armor to resupply without backtracking all the way back to the start.

[finnks13]

MAP11 - Shipping Zone:
A decent finale to Episode 1, Shipping Zone wins points from me for it's excellent doomcute ship and submarine, but the combat feels slightly off in it's placement and difficulty. You need the yellow key and one other to access the exit, but the work required to get them is vastly different - the blue key requires a trek between a series of entertaining ambushes, provides a rocket launcher, and ends with a rather harsh trap, whereas the red key requires you to ride up a lift and kill about ten monsters. I don't think that these parts are bad, but the red key area of the map feels like an afterthought, as if the blue + yellow key areas had already made a plenty long map, but Cheesewheel had already decided on a 3-key lock at the exit and so, quickly made a throwaway area to house it.

 

The map's pretty tough due to the large presence of tight corridors and I found myself getting sandwiched between revenants or chaos knights in these areas a lot. This is especially prevalent in the blue key area and in the crate maze on the ship. I love that we get to go on a cargo ship, there's a couple of fun little ambushes here, including a mini-caco cloud that was my finale to the episode. Cheesewheel has mentioned how Uprising was created in map order, and I feel like that might have gotten in the way a bit here, since Map09 feels like a far better conclusion to the episode gameplay wise, since it has a plasma gun and a climatic cyberdemon fight which are two things that this map lacks and it's short length and intensity would, for me, fit better as a finale to an episode. This isn't a bad map, and the speed of Uprising's combat is still very enjoyable to play but it's certainly one of the lesser maps in Episode 1.
 

Overall, this map is plenty good, but due to it's placement in the map order and slightly imbalanced layout I didn't really love it.

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 11: Shipping Zone

101% kills, 74% items and 100% secrets

Time: 12:35

 

Just like 8, this is a level I really want to love. Shipping Area is one of the prettiest maps so far in Uprising, with the highlights being the doomcute battleship and submarine. Of course Velvetic's midi also fits very well, but the combat is again very flawed. Most of it feels like it lacks bite, even some of the more noteworthy ambushes feel very easy. For example, at one point, you are locked inside of a room, but only 4 weak skeletons are here to murder you. The only 2 encounters that I really like are the caco ambush after grabbing the yellow key and the gotcha moment before the blue key, the rest was just okay. Also, I don't know what this says about the combat, but the hardest fight was the red key teleport ambush with 2 dark imps in front of you and 2 revs behind you. Don't get me wrong, this map is solid, but it could have been better.

 

Footnote: Given that Uprsing's “first episode” is over, I will add 2 things about this playthrough:

1- Out of all the wads that I have played, I think that Uprising has some of the easiest secrets to find, but I ain't complaining!

2- It is one of the 2 wads in which I am using the shotgun the most, along with Strain.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 9

Map 4

Really Like:

Map 6

Map 1

Map 10

Map 7

Map 3

Map 5

Map 2

Like:

Map 11

Map 8

 

 

[Cheesewheel]

MAP11 - Shipping Zone

 

At the time of creation I was really happy with this one. I hadn't created a three key open non-linear map before so my first serious attempt at it came out reasonably well. It looks great and feels quite realistic. Gameplay is the afterthought for this though - I think I was much more focused on creating the look and setting of the map and populated as an afterthought. Again, this map is quite old.

 

However there is one deep philsophical question everyone has missed. How did the boat even get there if it's completely surrounded by walls and fences?

 

 

[cannonball]

MAP11 - “Shipping Zone”

 

The trouble with creating maps like these is that you will get one player who will stumble into the worst possible situation and as such have a pretty painful and sluggish time in said map. So.. that will be me who picked the blue key path first and didn't get the SSG. So it is fair to say that tight corridors and a couple of traps where you have a small number of rockets meant that the entire blue key path was a complete slog and not fun. Once clear of this the map was a little better but again the highest weapon you get is the rocket launcher and most of the monsters are fodder with a couple of mid-tier (Revenants excluded because they are pretty numerous). The only slightly larger trap was the one where you get the soulsphere that I survived first time, the cacos are pretty straightforward to deal with if you have enough rockets.

In the end, this map looks really nice and it is a nice change to have a different colour dominate, however the map felt rather anticlimactic for an episode closer and the combat was often slow and methodical with a real lack of spark. As such this is probably the map I liked the least of this episode.

[Monsieur E]

Been busy for the last couple of days and couldn't make any time to write up so, time to do those now!

Map08- street fighter
100% kills, pistol start

I quite enjoyed this one, mostly because I actually found the yellow key path very quickly despite assuming I was going towards a secret. I think this level carried a tighter punch than previous maps and I thoroughly liked it. I also enjoyed the open ended nature of this map but my biggest gripe with the level arises from it, that being the ssg should have been placed such that you are naturally inclined to go towards its area at the beginning of the map. Chewing through the opening with just a chaingun and shotgun felt like total ass. But the rest of the level, it was pretty good stuff. 

Map09- UAC HQ 
100% kills, pistol start

From the first moment where you read the sign and teleporting in interrupting what I presume to be a demonic corporate meeting of sorts stacked with cells ready to go guns blazing, this level kicks ass. None of that shotgunning fodder stuff, it's straight in with the big guns trying to survive. The RL launcher fight is cool too but could have been balanced a bit better, probably by lowering the number of dark imps at the front by a bit but honestly, I liked it alot especially with the cacodemons applying pressure from the behind. Good stuff. I'd call this level Going Down-esq not only with the tight corporate doomcute setting, but with the much higher kinetic action and also the much more uplifting "rock and roll" vibe rather than the more methodical and somber vibes of the previous levels thus far evidenced by the generally brighter lighting.  Excellent stuff. 

Map10- Outskirts
100% kills, pistol start

After Map08 and Map09, this level is a breather. There's nothing I dislike here but honestly, this is just very milquetoast. Nothing stands out here, everything is just alright. Unfortunately, I don't have much else to say but what it is, it's fine.

Map11- Shipping Zone
99% kills [missed 3 enemies, they were all low tiers], pistol start 

Remember what I said about Map08 and ssg placement... YEAH. The ssg fight is literally the last thing I did in the level, somehow I missed the damn switch leaving me to shotgun/chaingun my way through like 200 enemies with, thankfully, some assistance from the rocket launcher. But man, this level got my nerves and I was annoyed through most of it. I was going to give this level a retry like Map05 but a) that was a much shorter level and b) Map05 w/o RL is only a pain in the ass in terms of the yellow key. Not gonna fault the level for it entirely as frankly, it is solid; the doomcute stands out exceptionally well here with the boat (duh, it is a shipping zone), I appreciate the shake up with the more metallic palette and brighter lighting, and the encounters are neat. But just shotgunning revenants and dark imps gets very monotonous after a while. I'll give this level another go later in the month and offer it a more fair assessment. 

[Gibbon]

Uprising - MAP12 - Bunker Bust

 

Another one I decided to play in k8vavoom.  A short sweet action-packed level that is damn good fun.  Introduces some new monsters and generally tries to kick your ass but allows just enough leeway to make you feel like a badass.

 

Took me about 3 minutes and got a secret.  Good fun!

 

Spoiler

 

 

[RHhe82]

MAP12: Bunker Bust. 126/126 K, 1/1 S. Completion time 11:08. (2nd run: 8:19)

 

It still feels like a breather level, or maybe an episode start. And yet the start was on the hot side, it would take a while before the player gets to take a breath. As these are blind runs with pistol starts for me, I ran into a problem during the level: I'd run out of ammo. It took some serious time before I could obtain a shotgun. In general I was starving for ammo for a major part of the map, although after entering the yellow key area things eased on that department a bit. (I suppose a second run would be easier, as I'd knew where to go first to remedy the shotgun situation early on).

 

Good level, I like the snow theme. The new enemy was a surprise, like

 

Spoiler

some Star Wars jedi training drones? I suspect my attitude towards them will go like the similar drones in Ancient Aliens: okay at first, but before long hoping the author would just be done with them.

 

When writing this capsule commentary, I decided to double check the ammo starvation situation on a second run. Indeed, the map was considerably easier this time, although I had to restart the map several times for dying in the opening fight. Other than that, I could now beat the map saveless even, with another hard part being the final fight (which didn't kill me once, but I feel my survival consisted of little bit of luck both times).

[Doomy__Doom]

Playstyle: dsda-doom (-cl2), UV (generally max but occasionally might skip secret hunt), pistol start, sparse saves/rewinds (no mid-combat)

 

Map 12 - Bunker Bust

 

Another short piece, with chaingun start and no heavy weapons in the entire level. It's very easy to run out of ammo by accident in the early stages depending on where you go.

 

Plasma drones are yet another addition to the "projectile fodder that snipes you from downtown" formula - the flying component. I guess I'll take that over Lost Souls.

 

Red pillars ambush is... really nasty. It's cramped and you completely lack weapons capable of reliable breakthrough unless you're a continuos player. This can go very wrong very fast for wrong reasons (low damage rolls).

 

Bonus content: solo-net is painful

 

Starting position is upgraded with Revenants immediate shotgun/chaingun + 80 shells and some bullet boxes a bit further in, but eventually you'll end up fighting multiple mid-tiers (cacos, mancs, CKs) and a couple viles with really evil placement with just these. Health situation is not improved, unlike previous maps. At least there's no obligatory Cyber this time. In conclusion - better bring a friend.

[finnks13]

MAP12 - Bunker Bust:
The opener to Episode 2 immediately gets us acquainted with the Drones, little flying bastards who shoot plasma bolts every so often. They're certainly less annoying than lost souls, though Uprising does love using them in very large numbers, and despite the visual they don't actually explode upon dying so you can't get fun chain reactions of explosions. We've gone from the ruined cities of the first episode, to snowy techbases as hinted from the intermission screen text. I like snowy maps, there's just something cosy about the theme that I really like.

 

The gameplay of this map takes us back to basics, we just get a shotgun and chaingun and the meatiest thing in the map is an arachnotron next to the red key. This makes Bunker Bust a very pacey map, it took me around 5 minutes to clear and never got boring. The standout moment to me is the finale, where the floor lowers in a fairly standard concrete room to reveal a hellish corrupted layer along with 2 revenants and a bunch of imps and dark imps. It's pretty easy to get cornered here so hopefully you've got plenty of bullets to get you out of tight spots.

 

Overall, this is a fun little opener to Episode 2 that introduces the theme and the first of the new enemies well.

[Azure_Horror]

Playstyle:

Pistol start, DSDA-doom complevel 2, playing for fun so saves and time-rewinds allowed

Difficulty: each level played on HNTR, then replayed on UV.

 

Map 11 - “Shipping Zone”

 

 

Despite being very different, both Shipping Zone and UAC HQ (Map 09) are my favorite maps of Episode 1.

 

Map 11 offers a modern take of good old Doom 1 / Doom 2 / Evilution approach to Doom level design:

- For the most part, the individual encounters are easily winnable. But those easy fights still matter. A string of bad engagements can result in a lot of damage, more than you can heal with resources around you.

- Positioning and awareness are very important, because attacks from unexpected angles are frequent.

- The exploration is important too. Ammo and other resources are often placed away from the main action. And sometimes exploration allows you to flank some annoying monsters and clear them before they can cause much trouble.

 

Exapnded monster roster of Uprising works perfectly for this sort of gameplay.

New low-tier foes allow for a huge variety of quick and dangerous close-quarter encounters. They also work well as snipers. And the chaos knights also fit better than the traditional hell nobles. Fisrts, the chaos knights shoot a strong volley of projectiles. Second, unlike mancunbi, they can go into narrow spaces. This is very useful for setting up high damage incidental encounters.

 

While playing such a map, it is important trust you feelings. If you suspect a tough fight is ahead, and feel that you may be insufficiently armed - do not press further! You should turn around and try to find additional resourses, like more rocket boxes, or the SSG, or berserk. And here the Map 11 really shines compared to Maps 08 and 10 before it. Resource-gathering detours do not feel tedious on Map 11, because the map is very interconnected. You can almost always find a convenient fork in the road.

 

Interconnectedness of the map goes beyond different pathways. Some sections of the map have a clear line of fire between them. The monsters from yet un-cleared areas can still shoot you! Thus the map feels more like one big battlefield, and less like a cluster of small ones.

 

Map 11 on HNTR

On this difficulty, the map is pretty laidback and allows for more focus on adventure instead of combat. Routing for weapons is not important – single shotty and cahingun provide enough firepower for almost any fighton HNTR.

 

Map 11 on UV

UV put much greater emphasis on combat. Going for Blue key without SSG or a big stock of rockets is a bad idea, but interconnectedness of the map greatly helps to agther supplies. The yellow key is also pretty difficult without bigger guns, but it hard to miss at least the ssg while goinf for the ywllow key.

 

Highlight of the UV playthrough - getting stuck in a narrow corridor with revs on one side and chaos knight on the other was scary. Talk about a rock and a hard place!

 

In conclusion, This map is fun to explore, fun to dismantle carefully, fun to navigate and fun to route. Going forward guns blazing can also be fun – but this is a very high-risk approach, especially without a pre-planned route in mind!

 

And the doomcute submarine is amazing! Perfect ending for the map!

 

 

17 hours ago, Cheesewheel said:

MAP11 - Shipping Zone

...

However there is one deep philsophical question everyone has missed. How did the boat even get there if it's completely surrounded by walls and fences?

This is likely a Hellish disruption of reality, like on some places of maps 02, 03 and 08. Alternatively, this is a result of a big bureaucratic mess, which led to wet dock being decommissioned with a loaded ship still inside.

[Sethlab 79461813]

*GZDoom - UV - Blind - Pistol start - Saves allowed, no cheese*

MAP10- Outskirts
This map opens with 3 very different angles with which to approach the map. I found going down the right path to the yellow key pillar and further running to the SSG and instigating a large infight was the best way for me to get geared up on this map. I found ammo economy incredibly tight here. I would recommend pistoling everything in the opening area and sniping the plasma guys on the cliffs to the right (they have a tendency to end runs very abruptly from seemingly nowhere). I'm starting to really not like some of the *cheaper* placed plasma guys. It feels more like a "gotcha" moment every time I die to one because it's generally because one that I didn't know even existed across the map took a lucky shot. What this means is you really can't afford to slow down in this wad at all, which is perfectly fine. I'm just having a hard time with some of their placements sometimes. This map was the first time I really got upset about it. Cheesewheel's maps are starting to feel like a gearing up puzzle which is actually a pretty unique and fun idea. This map, however, felt like I was at an extreme disadvantage, ammo wise, unless I took the aforementioned path. To me, this level felt a little restrictive and irritating. I love all the secrets on this map. I love Cheesewheel's secret philosophy in general. You can almost always see the item in question, they intrigue you to explore, and if you think just a little outside the box, you're rewarded (usually with a mega or SS; nothing broken or necessary to complete the level). These are my favorite types of secrets. The midi suits this map well with the sauntering sort of confidence that you're ready to take the fight straight to the demons. The harmonized arpeggios were a nice hook; I found myself humming this tune as I mowed the lawn later that day lmao.

MAP11- Shipping Zone
I started to notice @Cheesewheel's distinct mapping style here. Their map are compact, boxy, and efficient, with intersecting pathways and lots of height variation. Looking at the automap reveals an extremely efficient use of space and wanting to keep the player moving throughout a familiar environment the entire map. This one really reminded me of Scythe 1's sort of small and mean boxy maps. The texturing is very familiar and comfortable. It's reminiscent of Knee Deep in the Dead and the first half of TNT but with the familiar red twist. The worldbuilding here was very nice. I loved the ship encounter in the center and the cargo areas. These areas combined with the previous map's cargo areas reminded me of Blood's E6M3: Public Storage. Good stuff. I find that I'm finding most of the secrets in these maps but I ended this map with 15 bullets, 5 shells, 6 rockets, and 40 cells. I'm finding the ammo just a smidgen too short in these maps. I feel punished for jumping into fights with my guns without prior knowledge of when I should be infighting or not. There are some stretches where I feel like I pickup a shotgun and 8 shells and then don't see any more shells for like 5 minutes. Maybe I'm bad, maybe it's a style I don't like. Either way, I'm strugglin. I love the ending of this map with the tiny submarine. The midi here was serviceable but I don't remember a lick of it. It didn't stick out as annoying, so that's good.

MAP12- Bunker Bust
Here we have an excellent continuation of the last map's ending. You arrive in your submarine at a distant UAC base, greeted with unaware zombies and imps. Coupled with the spy/espionage sort of midi opening really set the stage nicely here. The mild enemy count also suggests they were not ready for your arrival. The building chord progression is like a ticking bomb inside the hero's chest. There is a new enemy introduced in this map, the flying plasma drone thing. Not a fan. Take my already least favorite enemy in the wad and make them fly. Blech. Not looking forward to any potential abuse involving these guys. I legitimately said "WHOA" out loud like a 90's totino's commercial when I saw the snow textures. Snow maps are some of my personal favorites so I'm extremely excited about what we may see in the next few maps. Overall, this map was a fun power fantasy and excellent world building. It's extremely easy, but with the midi choice, it all culminates in a fun intermission before the next big encounter. 

I will say, though,

you can consider my jimmies sufficiently rustled if the next map has no snow.

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 12: Bunker Bust

100% kills, items and secrets

Time: 4:01

 

Varis Alpha's track sets the tone perfectly for this short, punchy map that serves as the perfect follow-up to map 11's slower pace of play. Bunker Bust is pure fast-paced action during it's entire run time, culminating in an awesome final ambush with shotgunners, imps, dark imps and revs. This level also introduces the drone, a tiny flying enemy with 50 health and who shoots plasma bolts. While he may not be obnoxious here, I feel like this guy is gonna become a pain in the next levels. Despite the visuals being weaker than in maps 1,4 or 11 for example, Bunker Bust is an appropriate start to Uprising's second episode as it is short, fast-paced and really entertaining.
 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 9

Map 12

Map 4

Really Like:

Map 6

Map 1

Map 10

Map 7

Map 3

Map 5

Map 2

Like:

Map 11

Map 8

 

[cannonball]

MAP12 - “Bunker Bust”

 

A shotgun/chaingun workout for the majority in the mostly grey/silver techbase. The layout loops around nicely and the combat is mostly brisk thanks to most of the enemies being fodder type. There is a new monster that is implemented quite well, these have the advantage of having freedom of movement that you do not have, and as such can sneak up on the player. 

The end fight is pretty hot, okay the floor descending I could have guessed, but the full on corruption was a nice touch, the combat here is quite tough on you as you have to rely on infighting a lot to allow you some breathing room. Good stuff.

The spider by the red key is probably seeking retribution from whoever placed him there, poor guy... That is the only blemish on a fine episode opener and a complete contrast to the previous map that felt rather stodgy.

[NiGHTS108]

MAP11: Shipping Yard

Kills: 77%

Items: 82%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 7:22

 

I appreciate the higher pressure Shipping Yard brings to the table. I wouldn't say this map is particularly more dense with specific setpieces you can highlight, but what does feel more dense is the general placement of enemies. It somewhat blurs the line between incidental and choreographical. I like the visual style of this map, somewhat of a teaser for what's coming next, I didn't really care a whole lot for the damp yet dusty ash hills and stone buildings previously but I do enjoy this stainless steel science station. The lighting does a lot of solid work and it has a good contrast with the grim, hellish sky. You'll only need two keys to leave, but for once I actually recommend seeing everything on offer, especially the cool ass ship in the middle of the map. There's a neat fight on it and I always like boats in Doom.

The only remaining question now, is really how DID that ship get there surrounded by all those walls? Cheesewheel is right to wonder about this.

 

Grade: B
Difficulty: C+

 

 

MAP12: Bunker Bust

Kills: 88%

Items: 95%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 5:01

 

Something of a smaller, more direct version of MAP11, Bunker Bust kicks episode 2 into a fast lane immediately. It's more linear and takes less time, however it does squeeze in the introduction of another new .deh enemy. These robotic Lost Soul buggers like to float around and spew plasma bolts, but lay off the aggressive charging and screaming of their flaming skull counterparts. This map is notable for having my very favourite combat setpiece (outside of MAP09) so far. Speeding through the red key door will have you sinking into the hellish underbelly of the base in no time. There's not a super complex fight here or anything, but it's punchy and it feels nice. That's a good summary of this map as a whole.

 

Grade: B+

Difficulty: C-

 

 

[Doomy__Doom]

Playstyle: dsda-doom (-cl2), UV (generally max but occasionally might skip secret hunt), pistol start, sparse saves/rewinds (no mid-combat)

 

Map 13 - Sci-Labs

 

A Doom 1-style exploration with a couple small setpieces weaved in. A dark, cramped and eerie corrupted UAC lab, accompanied by appropriate soundtrack for slowly crawling through corridors and peeking every corner. A convincingly done research-themed techbase with pods housing imps, experiment subject corpses, a stream of blood, demonic flesh eating away at patrs of the complex... Another nonlinear layout, and I'll praise the nature of layout - compared to Shipping Area, backtracking here is a lot easier due to more distinctly detailed areas.

 

Combat takes second place to the horror atmosphere here, with most danger consisting of hitscanners in dark parts of the map. The only notable bit here is the final fight - depending on whether you took unfortunate hits elsewhere and wasted your secred supercharge + green armor stack, it can go wrong quickly if you aren't on point with instantly recognizing you need to make space via some quite tight dimensions-wise RL usage. The setpiece ends with a sizeable wave of drones, which I've found to be surprisingly good at dodging rockets.

 

Bonus content: coop monster placements were probably untested

 

Right away, you're given out a shotgun with 60 shells and have to use it to dispatch 2 CKs in a narrow vent. Not a problem outside of tedium, since you can fall back on the starting room and watch CKs get helplessly get defeated by a -cl2 door.

 

But then comes the real problem. Once you hit the switch to reveal 3 zombiemen, you'll end up making a sound that propagates through HALF OF THE LEVEL, and this wakes up a variety of coop-only enemies who are missing ambush flags. This quickly overpopulates starting area with 2 revs, CK, imp, chaingunner... and you have to drop down through that, which mostly ends with being blocked by infinite height. So you have to dance at the narrow vent in hopes to cause infighting or try to lure them away by going far right into the vents and quickly running back:

Spoiler

 

Other than that - the final fight adds a couple arachnotrons that force you to stay in the starting room, but at least there's a megasphere that can (and should) be saved for that fight.

Edited June 13, 2022 by Doomy__Doom

[Gibbon]

Uprising - MAP13 - Sci Labs

 

Well, this one was a real blast.  A beautifully done some kind of underground science lab / base.  Half filled with flesh and ooze and half tech.  Really nice flow, great choice of monsters and some nice traps towards the end.

 

I have to say though, I despise those floating robot things..  I really don't like them.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Anarkzie]

Map 11 Shipping Zone

When I play a level I like to ask myself if I think I could pull something like this off myself, with this one I'm not so sure I could. It's technically very impressive and I'm sure it must have taken a lot of planing to get right. I found the layout complex with the map morphing and changing in unexpected ways. It seems to be a stylistic choice but I would have loved more variety in the texture use. I love the midi it went well the feel of the level.

Map 12 Bunker Bust

This feels like part 2 of map 11 as it features much of the previous maps philosophy of interconnected paths ways that loop around on themselves. I found this far easier to navigate than the last though. There an ambush that really stands out in this level where the ground lowers to a hellish corrupted version of the previous room. A new flouting plasma drone enemy is introduced in this level, which I'm sure we will see interesting uses later in the wad.

[RHhe82]

MAP13: Sci-Labs. 196/196 K, 3/3 S. Completion time 20:33.

 

Another decent map, although f**k those dark imps in dark corridors. I thoroughly enjoyed this one too, it's just a good kind of challenging, not too confusing, player is always equipped enough but not so much as to instigate laziness and careless shooting.

 

A highlight for me was the final fight, survived it just barely. I panicked there, and yet somehow miraculously survived. The drones from MAP12 are still not annoying.

 

"Fun" fact: when I was a kid, Doom was new and me and my cousin were first trying to make maps for Doom (in times before Doom 2 or Ultimate Doom), one common trope was trying to recreate our schools, but another trope was a science fiction (probably System Shock 1) inspired, E1/E2 -like maps called "Scilab". I must have had wads named scilab.wad, scilab2.wad, scilab3.wad and scilab4.wad in my doomwad directory, each of those wads containing a couple of GRAY-wall textured rooms with some SUPPORT2 and the silvery textures, and they'd always be left unfinished. I'm glad someone manages to finish their own versions of it :-D
 

[Sethlab 79461813]

48 minutes ago, RHhe82 said:

"Fun" fact: when I was a kid, Doom was new and me and my cousin were first trying to make maps for Doom (in times before Doom 2 or Ultimate Doom), one common trope was trying to recreate our schools, but another trope was a science fiction (probably System Shock 1) inspired, E1/E2 -like maps called "Scilab". I must have had wads named scilab.wad, scilab2.wad, scilab3.wad and scilab4.wad in my doomwad directory, each of those wads containing a couple of GRAY-wall textured rooms with some SUPPORT2 and the silvery textures, and they'd always be left unfinished. I'm glad someone manages to finish their own versions of it :-D
 

I love this story. Thanks for sharing your experience :)