The DWmegawad Club plays: Uprising

[RHhe82]

MAP21: Voidwalk. 95/95 K, 2/2 S. Completion time 15:21.

 

I sighed with relief when I first saw the kill count: this wasn't going to be one of those longer maps. Still, it took me some time to complete it. It is notably easier indeed than some of the previous maps, but I think that's only because of lower volume. Voidwalk somehow managed to frustrate me with its snipers I had to handle while walking on some narrow staircases, where I would plunge into void when an enemy projectile bumps me just a bit.

 

That aside, I like the grey marble aesthetics and the fact that it's still a breather map, that allowed me to get back on megawad club schedule.

[cannonball]

MAP21 - “Voidwalk”

 

A big change of scenery here, the marble/void aesthetic I suspect will be brief, but it is fully welcomed. The gameplay is from a technical point of view is probably one of the most competent in the set so far. Every monster carries a threat and has value on its own. The ambushes are small but can carry a punch, yet can be put down swiftly. The only odd thing about this one is the very quiet ending. Once the yellow key is yours, you have to trek to the finish line on your own as I suspect everything will be dead by now and nothing new appears. 

Honestly this is probably one of the highlights for me, very plutonia-like in gameplay and it executes this well. Short, fast paced but with enough challenge to mean that you need to keep your wits about you.

[Monsieur E]

Been very preoccupied for the last week or so and didn't get much time to do any writeups. Better late than never I suppose, let's get back into it!

Map12- Bunker Bust
100% kills, pistol start 
 

Pretty solid map which is more basic than previous maps but it's a pretty solid recoup map. Never really had a feeling where I was wishing for stronger weapons but the map wasn't a cakewalk either. The little plasma drone is alright, it does bother me however that they don't do explosive damage despite looking like they're exploding. Not that I'm complaining lmao, they'd be absolute ass if they exploded. The aesthetics in this level are pretty cool [pun not intended] and I'm glad that it wasn't just a onetime thing, here's to more snow themed DOOM maps. My favorite bit of the level is the sinking floor trap but everyone already went over it so I'm not gonna add much.

 

Map13- Sci Labs 
100% kills, pistol start
 

I really like this level. The combat here is more oriented around medium sized set pieces which are alright alongside the usual serving of low tiers but frankly, it's made up for by the entire vibe of this level. As others have pointed out, this invokes the og Doom's E2, to me specifically Halls of the Damned and Deimos Lab synthesizing the more subtle sort of hellish corruption and somber techbase further brought up by the MIDI selection which feels eerie and at parts, visceral. It's no masterpiece of a level or anything but it's one of my favorite levels in the set so far.  

 

Map14- Lockdown
100% kills, pistol start
 

Ehh, it's cool but honestly, found it kinda tedious. More of a chore than the levels which preceded it since I don't think it equips you quite adequately deal with the heightening stakes. The new monsters are alright. Cocobot reminds me of the Afrit from scythe 2 and the cybergunner is basically the cyberbaron from Eviternity (with 100 less health, thanks doomwiki) except I don't like the sprite lol. They're both fine ig but honestly, especially the cybergunner, I need to see them used more in action and in setpieces to appreciate them because rn, they stick out like a sore thumb in a way none of the other custom enemies have. I appreciate the returning snowy aesthetics but my favorite bit in the level was, what I presume to be the area under lockdown, it felt neat.
 
 

Map15- Communications 
100% kills, pistol start
 

I originally checked the enemy count and thought to myself "yeah no, this can only go so well", but consider me wrong, this is a really good map. It doesn't try to starve you for resources and the fights here are generally bigger and better, the obvious highlight being the final yellow key fight and also the blue key sandwich. Only weird aspect of it was the redkey placement which was just awkward. 

 

Map31- Dereliction
100% kills, pistol start.  

An excellent gimmick level, ominous and atmospheric, great MIDI choice, the "skybox" so to speak of the empty void of space sprinkled with stars invokes both a sense of isolation and dread. The scattering of corpses, both marine and demon indicates a fearsome foe which could be lurking at any corner ready to jump at you. And well it's fucking Mr X (called traitors here). I just, do not like them in the slightest and find them total ass to handle. This is by all definitions a great secret level but I personally find it very unenjoyable. I think MtPain27 said something to the effect about him enjoying Map31 of scythe2, another traitor only level, more when he started doing more deathmatches. Well, over a year later for me, that still hasn't changed. I really do not like them. But, barring my own preferences and bad DOOM skills :P, this level is great and a level perfect for the 31st spot.

 

Map32- Beyond 
99% kills, pistol start. [One chaos knight didn't spawn in the Unknown map, one traitor didn't spawn in the London map]
 

Well this was a pleasant surprise. Four (technically five) short maps distinct from one another packed into one.

Chronology Labs- Mostly an interlude between the various main courses to speak. Nothing too special in any of them, just enjoyable transitions. The only noteworthy thing I noticed was that the plasma rifle was introduced here rather than in the maps proper which I found strange since most of the rest were introduced in the maps.

1) Passchendaele- The abundance of hitscanners here is a pain in the ass especially those located in the fortifications which are too dark to actually look at from afar, might be a problem on my mind tho. But I think what I like the most here in the depressing and oppressive atmosphere here; the dark and cramped trenches, the corpses scattered, the fires raging; very well made. The final encounter in the level is a pain in the ass if I hadn't grabbed the ssg which made it way more tolerable. 

2) Popocatepetl- Half of this map is straight up ass, the interior part of the mountain is a bundle of pain despite the ssg. I think it could have benefitted from more health placements. The archvile encounter is a clever room and I like it while also despising the cacobot placement there. The volcanic ruins bit is much cooler though, in general the aztec ruins compounded with the more natural caves and volcanic area make it visually probably my favorite in the level. The only other fight worth nothing is the one after the red key which is cool. Also we finally get the rocket launcher, wish we were given it earlier even if with limited supply.

3) London- Enjoyed the open layout of this with distinguishable areas making it pretty easy to navigate in it, the two cyberdemons aren't an active nuisances but every so often I see a rocket flying in my direction to remind me to deal with them. All of the switches are pretty noticeable and placed in places you're bound to explore so it doesn't feel weird. All around, a fun little map.

4) Unknown- This takes place on a green platform in the middle of a giant void as massive pictures of a weird green humanoid stand stark against the background. Wonder what the fuck is going down. This is a straight forward BFG romp with sufficient (and honestly too many) megaspheres provided. The only hard bit of the level is clearing the beginning since the area is too crowded for you to maneuver effectively but you get an invulnerability so go off. The fights activated by pressing each switch are honestly underwhelming since you have enough space (assuming you cleared the horde first) to just make a fool out of them. The archviles spawned get too busy infighting to actually target you straight up generally. Pulled off all of them in one try. But there's no way to make a BFP romp unfun so yeah, enjoyed this one.

All in all, I think Map32 is the best of the wad so far despite it being admittedly unfair for me to rank it against other levels which at most were only like a third in length. But, I'm needlessly excited for the wad going forward and hope there's gonna be a level to match this one!

[RHhe82]

MAP22: Welcoming. 240/240 K, 1/1 S. Completion time 26:19

 

Martian lava techbase! What's not to love? Well, there is one thing, but for the most part I had fun with this one, too. At first I was having it hard time, the initial ambush when you first enter the base, my health whittled down to single digit values. After that there's the first encounter in the area with the blue and yellow keys, and I was kinda overwhelmed there, even if closer analysis the ambush isn't that difficult, we've seen worse. After that I had it much easier time. Not breezy, but easier.

 

Two things I didn't like (slightly spoilery if someone hasn't played yet):

 

Spoiler

 

- The final cyberdemon. This is a trope one tends to see quite often in megawads in general (not necessarily Uprising, though), I get the feeling that there just has to be a cyberdemon encounter and it feels like an unnecessary obstacle. At least you'll most likely be well-equipped to deal with, even if I had to do it with an SSG.

 

- The gimmick enemy from MAP31. I was hoping we'd never see them again, that they suited the secret map but not much else. Luckily they are not that numerous here, so it really doesn't matter that much.

 

But these are minor grievances, positives greatly outweigh them.

[kalaeth]

let's get it on with, shall we?

 

MAP 20 - Heroism, part 2. 

Starting at 428 kills in 26 minutes with 5 deaths. So, I'm at the yellow door, opening it reveals 2 chaingunners that die and a nearly dead manc that goes down to a single rocket. Up some steps, then down to the side, there's imps, knights, shotgunners, and a free bluesphere on the path to the next yellow door at the top. Chaingunners and then zombies of the shotgun and the plasma type. A pillared AV shows himself to be showered with rockets, some side flamethrowing zombies, rockets and a switch. A pair of implosions! Then, outside. Kill some more spiders and jump down into a chaingunner trap that nearly kills me.Grab some health and then save because two mega and one invunerability sphere tell me that a big fight is coming. And arrive it did. Ended up picking up the invun because of an AV jump and then cleared the fight with BFG. Oh, ofc there are more revs. Dark imps and mancs on the other side, but this leads back inside so I'll try the rev side first. Oh, nice, a blue armor. And now, inside. Spider, a few zombies, take a lift to press a switch, oh good, more revs. And tons of zombies. And a few cacos. Oh and a manc. Clear the fight, go press another switch. No ambush this time, but the path is now open up the steps, and we are at visual distance of the red key. There's an outside section that I explore first. Flame and plasma zombies and a switch. Press, a bunch of teleporting chainfuckers, back inside, pick the red key and.. Nothing happens? Good. Pick the megasphere, door, save, switch. Ok, not too terrible a fight, one more switch, lowering a single AV and another switch. This will likely open the way to the big fight awaiting me outside. Nice of them to warn there is no return after the lift down.. Maybe I should go hunt for secrets? Ok, found the secret invencibility on one of the previous arenas, now to the last fight! Also found a bug. In the room with the 2 yellow bars and 2 yellow doors there's a lift texture that should take you out of the water bellow but doesn't work. Since the water is non-damaging, it's a soft lock. I used fly to get out of there. Fully armed, armored and healthy I go for the final fight.

Switch lowers a BFG, and then lift down. Invun and jump into the slaughter! Ok, 2 to go and a secret. It's a easily spoted one but, how to reach it? Ah ah! You need and invun to get to the invun. Still 2 enemies to go, they seem to have decided not to teleport? Yeah, two mini-cybers.. Oh well.

99, 100, 100 % K/I/S, 5 deaths, 59 minutes and 46 seconds.

 

MAP 21 - Voidwalk : 

It's a dark sky that greets me as I step into another demon infested area. Satanic grey walls, gray water and blue torches. Imps are everywhere and down bellow the void is all there is. Climbing a tower gets me a revenant and two knights guarding a SSG, going back I take a sidestep to grab a backpack and the secret blue armor, and then I fall into the void and die. Second try, after the switch a quick run gets me the RSK, which I can now use to refuel on rockets and press another switch, then use said rockets to kill the knights and dark imps that pop up protecting the BSK.The keys gives me access to another tower, from that another path, a secret bluesphere, another tower, another walk and a teleport. Megasphere, YSK. And done. Jump down, teleport, blue door, yellow door, exit.

 

100% K/I/S, 1 death, 7 mins 45 seconds.

 

MAP 22 - Welcoming : 

I believe I might be in hell. Clear the clearing, pun intended, press the switch, enter the doors. A sign tells em I'm in mars, the UAC base. It's filled to the brim with demons, and eventually two AVs and two cybercacos got the best of me. Retry. Second run I go for the top when entering the base, press the switch to lower the SSG and a traitor shows up! Then back inside I press a switch to bring a lift down, step into it, up. Another switch, two cybercacos the red key and then an AV. Up some more steps, a secret wall leading to a bluesphere, a bit of outside fun and a circular room with a central spider and a switch. Then a non-secret blue armor, a switch and a non-secret blue sphere and I'm outside the big room I died on before. Save, pick the yellow key and let's go! Clear the room, switch, clear the alcoves, switch. BFG the AVs, rocket the cybercacos and then blue door away. Kill the last 4 chaingunners and off to the exit! 

 

100% K/I/S, 1 death, 11 minutes 49 seconds.

 

Totals : 7 hours 31 minutes and 00 seconds. Almost 100% kills (doom launcher tells me I've missed 10 enemies out of 5674 I've encountered in Uprising), 100% secrets and a total of 22 deaths, not counting secret levels. 

 

[Doomy__Doom]

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

 

Map 22 - Welcoming

 

Taking almost a 180 from prior designs, Welcoming is littered with hitscan. Shotgunners to the immediate left of starting position reduce my 100/0 to 11/0 in a few ticks, which ends up in a 1:16 death in search of medkits inside the facility, as more shotgunners and chaingunners are behind each and every corner. Considering Uprising teaches you to expect most fodder opposition to be projectile-based for the past 15-ish levels or so, the twist is quite... unwelcoming.

 

The rest of the level is mostly more of that, with the only exception being RL fight having traitors, CKs, Cacobots, Viles, Revs... Straight after work, I was supremely unfocused and died 3 times there for absolutely no reason. The second iteration of the fight in that area is a hitscan fiesta, but you're guaranteed a blue item combo + secret supercharge for 200/200 to withstand it.

 

Bons content: Rerouting power

 

Monster count goes up by almost 60%: 220->348.

 

You are immediately greeted by a massive zombie wave that's fun to mow down. Two supercharges and a ton of boxes collected with even more to spare, the doors into the base now house like 8 revs. The base itself is way too busy to rush in, so you pretty much have to cheese revs one by one with CG stunlock without moving an inch from the button you've just pressed.

Spoiler

 

Path towards SSG unlock is now populated with the obligatory coop Cyber and a ton of plasmarines (similar density to the zombie wave). Gib time! Obtaining SSG and cleaning up stuff (cyber, more arachnotrons, sea of hitscan, some mancs), the route changes a lot.

 

Going for RL is now a complete suicide, as the arena now houses extra viles in the back and traitors that start in the main wave, plus a vile and a traitor in the alcove in YK/green armor area. Oh and I guess there are some random arachnotrons roaming the area, and more stuff in general. Either way, that fight is unsurvivable, at least not for the me today.

 

Ergo, we go do the YK section first. Not without own issues, as lacking RL hurts a lot there, but eventually we can arrive to the YK dropdown with 200/200. The aforementioned vile and traitor will wake up and roam, but the most important element is now in place - we've never triggered the lockdown sector for RL fight, so we can blaze through, grab RL and some ammo and turn the rest of the level into an infight/RL party at that door since it has nice holes for demons to see the player. As usual, be vary of ghost resurrections.

Spoiler

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 22: Welcoming

101% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 11:10

 

Welcoming surely lives up to it's name as the demons seem very happy to meet Doomguy right from the start! Sadly, we all know that the marine is not here to befriend them, but to mercilessly exterminate them. Kidding aside, this map is reminding of some of the earlier interconnected techbases that we've seen in this wad. However, this one is non-linear as all of the keys can be obtained in any order and you need all 3 to exit. While the red route is pretty simple, the blue and yellow ones trigger pretty dangerous ambushes with cacobots, zombies, knights, revs, traitors (yeah,they're back!).... These paths are all pretty fun, but there's also some optional content in the form a quest for the SSG, which of course spawns a few more enemies. On top of playing well, Welcoming looks great and is scored very well (by Lippeth), just like the rest of Uprising's maps. This is another really solid entry.

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 9

Map 15

Map 13

Map 20

Map 32

Map 19

Map 12

Map 4

Really Like:

Map 16

Map 6

Map 31

Map 1

Map 14

Map 22

Map 21

Map 10

Map 7

Map 3

Map 5

Map 2

Like:

Map 11

Map 18

Map 8

Mediocre:

Map 17

 

 

[cannonball]

MAP22 - “Welcoming”

 

This is one of those non-linear three key hunts where there is clearly one correct way off collecting them... which of course I didn't do.

I say this because the yellow key fight, which frankly was easier than the blue gives you essentially 200/200, whilst the blue key fight hands you a cluster of medkits and a green armour. As such the progression for the easiest experience is probably red-yellow-blue as the rocket launcher is given for the latter two fights, which take place in the same area. The SSG is teased from the start and simply involves a short loop to get it that involves a lot of hitscanners and eventually some unsavory reprises. 

Overall the map had some good fights and the initial rush was really fun, however it is hard to not see how wonky some of design decisions are in places. Oh a mark lost for plonking a pointless cyberdemon at the end, tut tut.... A middle of the road map, that outside of the blue key double header was surprisingly easy in my opinion.

[finnks13]

MAP22 - Welcoming:
Bloody hell, this map is very red! It's almost unpleasant how red it is, which seems intentional considering this is meant to be where the invasion originated from. You're given the shotgun and chaingun at the start, and anywhere you go will reward you with another weapon - either the SSG, rocket launcher or plasma gun. I grabbed the SSG first, I think it's optional as it's not near any of the keys, but it's very useful considering this map also reintroduces the Traitor (what I had been calling the Scythe 2 marine in Map31's description) which is easier to take out with it than with any other weapon in my experience.

 

The blue key area is probably my favourite part of the map, you've got loads of rockets and the projectile density in this room will force you to play aggressively to get to safety, but the two Traitors make this very hard to actually accomplish. I'm not really sure why the red key exists, it's on the way to the yellow key and I wouldn't have missed the little ambush it's guarded by if it wasn't there to be honest. The yellow key trap reuses the blue key area and features a couple of cybergunners which are a pain to take out since there's very little cover here. The cyberdemon guarding the exit is pointless, and a waste of time that ends the map in a pretty disappointing manner - I will never understand why so many maps from obviously talented mappers have "fights" which are just a single cyberdemon in an open area, cause this always sucks.)

 

Overall, this is a decent map with good fights that I enjoyed.

[NiGHTS108]

MAP20: Heroism

Kills: 96%

Items: 51%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 25:12

 

Remember what I said about thinking Beyond would easily be the best Uprising map? Yeah. I'm taking an L on that.

God, I love how big and grandiose Heroism is, it's like a streamlined and condensed Deus Vult, how it starts in this unassuming and mild-mannered tech base that just expands and expands. I'll admit the broad combat COULD be more co-ordinated, but honestly, I think this kind of level is all in the drama, that underlying sense of dread. I love how you can see the hellish area in the horizon early on, it paints a portrait of exactly what this is going to be. Honestly, I'm glad the combat is as broad as it is, I don't see this map working nearly as well as it does if it just kinda sprinkled monsters in places. The setpieces add to the tension. This map feels most comparable to Drake O'Brien's work from TNT: Evilution, so naturally I don't think this map is for everyone, but to me, Heroism succeeds with flying colours.

 

Grade: A

Difficulty: B+

 

 

MAP21: Voidwalk

Kills: 100%

Items: 92%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 8:15

 

Voidwalk is a pretty breezy and straightforward intermission on your path to hell. It's more of a transition map than anything honestly, a part of me feels maybe this could have been slotted in at the end of MAP20. That said, I do enjoy the visuals, despite being pretty common I always enjoy these deep voidscape maps and the grey temples add to the visual splendor quite nicely. With the passive combat, dense layout and small monster count, this feels more like an Ozonia map. It may come off like I'm doing a lot of complaining and although Voidwalk isn't my number one pick in this megawad, it's a pleasant break after Heroism.

 

Grade: B+
Difficulty: C-

 

 

MAP22: Welcoming

Kills: 100%

Items: 100%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 10:14

 

Out of every Uprising map so far, I'd probably call Welcoming the most well-rounded and dependable. I enjoy the visuals, I didn't think Scythe I and modern TNT would really go well together but it weirdly kind of does. There's a little bit of that Speed Of Doom MAP21 energy to the looks here. Gameplay wise there's a surprising focus on Chaingunners as well as what I'm calling the Chaingunner 3000. If you remember Eviternity's Annihilators, they're the same thing. Yeah, I know these guys were introduced in MAP15 (I think?), but honestly they hardly existed with not usually more than one in a map up to this point. Several of these mechanised fiends roam the inner mechanisms of the base here, they add a surprising amount of difficulty to fights here actually, especially combined with their fleshier counterparts, which isn't to say the rest of the monsters take a backseat though. I really like the brawl for the blue key, it's a simple AV fight but the architecture is done well giving it some extra tension. This probably isn't a "sexy" pick for the top 10 of this wad, but Welcoming is warm, dependable, and successfully delivers thrills.

(Also Mr. X appears for the first time outside of the secret slot in this wad? Idk, it's a bit of a strange introduction.)

 

Grade: A-

Difficulty: B-

 

 

[RHhe82]

MAP23: Digital Demons. 442/442 K, 1/1 S. Completion time 31:57.

 

At first this looks like a sort of map we've seen before, a slaughter arena that assaults you as soon as you press the first switch and never lets go. Turns out, it's an actual level that has an almost constant pressure on you. And I like it! It's hard enough for me to use a couple of middle-fight saves, especially since the final arena you can only exit with a red key at the end, is one gauntlet of hordes, that only a couple of times lets you catch your breath.

 

One minus: the cyberdemon triplet arena. It's another one of those "mapper just had to put them there"-sort of situations, which feels like a chore, especially with the easy-to-find invuln sphere which emphasizes the nature of the encounter as a task to be done, like you'd take the garbage out. When the hall afterwards is swarmed by cacobots, it's much more fun (even if a bit tame at this point).

[kalaeth]

Ok, let's digitalize some carnage! 

 

MAP 23 - Digital Demons:

Backpack, plasma gun and cells before we even start... Blue armor and bluesphere to put you at 200/200 and then a switch.. Damn! Immediate cyber in a small room with damaging floor! Plus two revs. Switch, two cacobots and some imps. Moving into one door there's revs, lots, imps, manc and a spider. I end up dying to a manc. Retry. This time I'll know what's coming. And playing continuous means I have the BFG for the damned cyber.  This time I take the other door with it's much more manageable singe rev and drones. Then I start "calling" the revs to come at me from the corridor, so I can rocket punch them. Grabbing the rockets means dealing with 3 more cacobots, then it's slow advancement until we reach the other door, kill the spider, go down the steps, kill the other spider and the dark imps, pres the switch, use the plasma to clear the room, switch. A few dark imps, a blue sphere, another switch. And a cyber. BFG, switch. Lift, pick up the yellow key, plasma the spider and then rocket the rest. Careful with the second ambush, knights, pinkies and cacobots. Rockets will still be the weapon of choice if you can gain enough space. There's a side room with a bit of ammo and a 2 knight+rev ambush. Move on, killing dark imps, don't forget the small corridor for the bluesphere and more ammo, and then it's outside where the skies are red. Going back in there's another huge knight ambush and I end up dying to one I missed while thinking I had it cleared and was focusing on the mancs. And it's back to the cyber.. And cyber done, lift, spiders, mini side ambush and then I triggered the big one before clearing the first and ended up dead again. Finally managed to clear both the small and the big ambush, back to outside, back inside, and this part is done. Now, on to the yellow door.

 Outside! But a megasphere is given to help out. jump down and.. Oh lots of mancs. And a cyber. And a lot of other things. Like, all of them, but zombies. I managed to run to the end and from there I'll try and clear it. The cyber didn't come after me, so it's a slow retreat and then BFG to his face. Done. Now, the imp switch, teleport and ah, damn. Had I known and I would have left the cow alive. Well, no use crying over spilled cyberdemon guts. Kill it all! And then enter the new path. Not a terrible ambush, despite the snipe-AV, mostly because he wasn't paying attention so I managed to clear the ground floor before worrying about him. At end, another switch, more bars gone. Revs, pinkies and a mini-cyber. Now.. there's not many more enemies to go, but there's a secret invun, 2 megaspheres, a non-secret invun and a BFG on my path... As expected, a trio of cybers. Switch, run for the invunerability, corner one of them and BFG him then deal with the other 2 and now switch, pick up the red key, open the big door.. A swarm of cacobots made trivial by BFG + secret invun. Then into the spiders room, kill them, grab the blue key and fight 4 mini-cybers on one go and.. That's that. All done. Pick up a healthpack and move to the exit! 

 

100% K/I/S, 4 deaths, 24 minutes and 24 seconds. 

 

Totals : 26 deaths, 99.83% kills, 100% secrets, 7 hours 55 minutes and 24 seconds

[Doomy__Doom]

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

 

Map 23 - Digital Demons

 

Not sure what's supposed to be digital about the demons, they're really more "red metal techbase demons". But there are a lot of them.

 

Action-heavy map that doesn't bore you with fodder and light weapon slots. This map is all about big fights and set pieces that you tackle with plasma and RL with a dash of SSG inbetween. If you're not comformtable around cyberdemons, quick target prioritization and occasional breakthroughs it's time to step up your game.

 

My favourite part is probably the drop from the yellow door - the area with 2 cybers on either end, lots of roaming and sniping mid-tiers, a vile in one of the edges, caco swarm  - all of that triggered at once generates a hectic and stressful zone. You're probably supposed to rush the vile, trigger the 2nd wave and use invuln, but I didn't. That cost me a lot of ammo as I opted to plasma rush 1 cyber while the other was busy.

 

My second place would go to the 3 pillar viles fight - is it the first actual proper zone denial in Uprising?

 

Not a massive fan of 4 cybergunners of the bfg arenas.

 

Bonus content: I see

 

There are no extra coop spawns. Now the name makes a lot more sense - some demons just prefer to stay home and surf the Hecknet :)

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 23: Digital Demons

101% kills, 66% items, 100% secrets

Time: 17:42

 

Digital Demons is a classic key-hunt, but it shows what the final episode will probably be like as it's longer than most of Uprising's maps so far and conatins over 400 demons. Also, like the title implies, a lot of them are mechanically augmented : 105 revs, 23 cacobots, 16 arachnos, 22 mancubi, 7 cybers, 15 drones and 7 cybergunners along with their non-augmented friends inhabit this base and must be taken care of with your mostly futurstic weaponry. This level places a heavy emphasis on the rocket launcher and the plasma gun right from beginning, as you start with a plasma in front of you and you get the rocket launcher very early, along with a lot of ammo for both guns. However, while this map has some great fights like the invuln massacre or the 4 cybergunners guarding the blue key who you can make infight, some parts of it annoy me. The map “only” has 23 cacobots, but it feels like so much more, and that's not a good thing given that they are already really starting to piss me off and to make matters worse, their placements are really aggravating. It's a shame as outside of the invuln massacre, the fights without bots or that contain a very low amount of them are really fun. Visually, Digital Demons reminds me a lot of Eviternity's map 24 (even if Digital is a techbase of course), which is probably why Cheesewheel decided to use the latter map's midi in here to great effect. Overall, it's a really good map, but some parts are annoying, which makes it drop down in my rankings.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 9

Map 15

Map 13

Map 20

Map 32

Map 19

Map 12

Map 4

Really Like:

Map 16

Map 6

Map 31

Map 1

Map 14

Map 22

Map 21

Map 23

Map 10

Map 7

Map 3

Map 5

Map 2

Like:

Map 11

Map 18

Map 8

Mediocre:

Map 17

 

 

[finnks13]

MAP23 - Digital Demons:
This third episode's giving Scythe's third episode a run for it's money in the red department! Digital Demons is my favourite map for quite some time, for one Jimmy's Ghost Grinder is a perfect accompaniment to the action, it goes hard. This map also contains some of Uprising's most fun set-pieces so far, and definitely the highest amount of cyberdemons found in the wad so far. We get the rocket launcher and plasma gun from the beginning and face off against a cyberdemon and it's revenant entourage over a damaging lava pit. The first techbase section has some fairly mean teleport traps but there's so much cell ammo and soulspheres around, it's quite hard to actually die after the initial few moments.

 

Going through the yellow door drops us into the main area of the map, a semi-circular corridor containing a cyberdemon at one end and a bunch of other demons on high-up podiums or in your way. Rockets are fairly plentiful so it's not too difficult to carve your way through the horde, but after taking a teleporter you'll have to chew through an even larger horde in the same area. It's probably in your best interest to leave the cyberdemons alive here, since ammo became very scarce for me near the end of this fight, even though I tried to get as much infighting going as possible, and as much use out of the invuln as I could.

 

There's a few tricky ambushes to get through before the exit, the first involves three perched archviles and a group of revenants that's followed up by two Traitors that will absolutely catch you off guard. A horde of Chaos Knights and Revenants with an archvile at the helm is behind the metal bars, and this leads to the red key trap. Honestly, I think the invulnerability is a bit too easy to find before this, and it completely declaws this tricky cyberdemon trio - I do appreciate getting a BFG this early in the episode as it suggests that we'll be getting some larger fights from this point onwards. The finale is a squad of cybergunners that surround you, but enough BFG spam should be able to take them out.

 

Overall, this map has fun ambushes, great music, well done visuals. What more could you want?

[cannonball]

MAP23 - “Digital Demons”

 

Well that was a hot start once the first switch is pressed. Funnily enough I stumbled through the first five minutes in a state of sheer panic and came upon the yellow key without any real guidance. The fight down here was solid enough. There is more than enough health and ammo to get yourself out of trouble in many of the ambushes and with rockets and plasma you will have to work to hold your ground. For the most part the high octane action is pretty decent and there is enough wiggle room to play each area at your own leisure. However I think there were a couple of dud fights, the first hands you and invulnerability and megasphere. This isn't a great fight, especially if like me, you left some monsters from earlier standing, in this case a cyberdemon who I goaded into slaughtering most of the horde without barely taking a scratch. This fight could have been better designed as frankly handing a power up like that suggests a fundamental flaw with the fight itself. The other fight I was't keen on was the blue key fight, you can literally take the four cybergunners out with the BFG before  they can even attack you, so they posed no threat. I had no issues with the red key, the number of cybers is sufficient to allow pressure, whilst handing you the tools to put them down quickly, its fine.

Overall I think this has a few flaws, but overall this was a very enjoyable experience. 

[Doomy__Doom]

Map 24 - Mars City Walking simulator

 

I found RL at 24:XX. I exited at 33:31 with 80% kills (??????? probably infighting or something). I circlestrafed without a single shot on the final lift because a) I couldn't be bothered to and b) I'd just facerocket anyway having never found a plasma rifle in that mess of a level.

 

This map is horrible for pistol starting, it's trivial to miss essential equipment and wander for ages in a mazy city fighting sniper perches with SG/CG and occasionally stumbling into ambushes that clearly expect you to have more than SSG.

 

"Just get me out of here" is the only feeling this map evokes in me, and I believe that's where I quit Uprising in my original playthrough. It's probably a pretty level, but lack of accessible weapon duplicates destroys any potential it has.

[RHhe82]

MAP24: Mars City. 476/476 K, 3/3 S. Completion time 73:54.

 

An hour long level? Three key hunt, with much of the time spent on trying to figure out where to go next? Sniping arachnotrons and mancubi from across a wide open level? You spend good part of the level hinging on regular shotgun, chaingun and even pistol (here's to us pistol starters)? One mandatory roadblock cyberdemon at the end?

 

This is the kind of level not for me. Sorry. It's far too long*, it somehow lacks the exhilarating, chaotic encounters seen in previous levels. The "Two archviles, a horde of revenants in a damaging floor pit, pray the radsuit lasts long enough"-encounter doesn't cut it.

 

I mean okay, it's not a bad level as such, I suppose, I admire the scale of it. And I quite like the idea -- as Uprising is a narrative-driven mapset (although admittedly I haven't paid it that much attention. Then again, I rarely do, Going Down is perhaps the only exception), and we are on Mars colony of sorts, so it makes sense in this reality that there's a city, and that we'd be there to liberate it.

 

But in the end I find it too confusing, and while ammo scarcity isn't really an issue this time, I still found it tedious when it'd take ages to find plasma gun and the rocket launcher. 

*) I bitch and moan about the map lengths, that's of course only my personal preference, but was it so that this is a solo project? That was made from scratch in a matter of months (less than a year)? Because that amount dedication and hard work certainly deserves a praise - these are not just some speedmaps put together in haste. It would take months to produce even one of the maps we've seen after the first episode or so.

[kalaeth]

one more day, one more map.

MAP 24 - Mars City : 

Uhh, underground martian city? Nice. Oh, the zombies are back! Oh, it's not underground. I'm outside now, giving the old shotgun a bit of use, but it's a short trip outside before entering again a different building. Whoever decided that red walls in a planet with red sky and red all around was a good idea should be fired. I found the shotgun and another small outside area opens, clear everything and move to the next outside area, where I get to chose between stairs and a lift.. I use the stairs first. Oh, big fleshy lift, and the first big enemy :  a knight. In that same area a secret SSG and bluesphere. Back, side, cacos, lift stairs, zombies and chaingunners (they are too fat to be called zombies), down again, revs, switch, more revs! Outside, lift, the biggest outside so far. A manc, and then after a walk around the block takes me to the lift I ignored a bit back. I clear the area and keep moving around. I eventually find a lift that almost kills me because I miss some 10 SSG shots on a revenant while he hits me 3 times and what for? A single blue armor. This forces me to retrace my steps a while to grab health, and this makes me realize I had missed a part next to the brain lift. Also, that I hadn't yet saved. Ok, back to the path. Then it's time to pick up a rad suit and jump into the lava. Clear the revs and the AV, switch. Grab the plasma, go back, back inside, secret bluesphere, keep moving. Another big area and I'm almost dead, and this was the worst time to find the rocket launcher. Still,I somehow survived, now the yellow key, then another hard cross and then the end but I don't have the keys.. Kinda lost. Ah, found some alive enemies. Oh, more revs. And a huge lift. And then I die. 

Back to the lift, oh a megasphere! Nice. Oh, no more rockets or cells. Not nice. Some rockets in the knight's balcony, this will come handy for the AV.. Av down, switch, back to the water fountain.. Oh, a nearly hidden teleport and a secret sector? Nice. Grab the key, grab the rockets and survive the carnage! And now, for the blue key.. Ah,over here. Kill the mini-cyber, kill the AV and.. Off to the exit, I think. Three keys, three switches, room 1, switch, kill as much as possible, up, kill the rest, repeat, repeat, and now with 17 demons to go there's an exit sign. As expected, the teleport brings me into teh middle of the room that has been climbing the building with me. Switch and it's cacos for a start, and.. It's the actual exit. So I missed a few.. Yeah, I missed an entire building. And this is why you save before entering the exit. Reload, go kill those 9, back to the exit and the final caco swarm and done!

 

100% K/I/S, 1 death, 52 minutes and 25 seconds! 

 

 

totals : 99% Kills, 100% Secrets, 27 deaths, 8 hours, 47 minutes and 50 seconds.

 

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 24:Mars City

100% kills, 98% items, 66% secrets

Time: 32:14

 

Another very long joint, Mars City takes place in a city built in the middle of a "hellish" plain, which serves as a great environment to explore. As usual, the map looks great and the midi, taken from Runescape fits very well, even if it's a bit too silent. Unlike most of the wad, the combat is almost exclusively incidental with the only standouts being the red key massacre and the final fight with the cacos, cacobots and later cyberdemon. Despite that, it still has some pretty fun sections like the archvile duo accompanied by revs in the lava or the part in the last building in which you need to go up while enemies block you and spiders snipe you. However, this map's main appeal lies in it's exploration as there's a lot of optional areas which hide more enemies to kill and some goodies. The downsides caused by that focus on exploration are that the map drags and it can be pretty confusing as some parts look the same and you may think you never went somewhere but actually did and vice-versa. But overall, it's a pretty good map despite the fact that it's not focused on combat.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 9

Map 15

Map 13

Map 20

Map 32

Map 19

Map 12

Map 4

Really Like:

Map 16

Map 6

Map 31

Map 1

Map 14

Map 22

Map 21

Map 23

Map 24

Map 10

Map 7

Map 3

Map 5

Map 2

Like:

Map 11

Map 18

Map 8

Mediocre:

Map 17

 

 

[TJG1289]

Map 20 is an amazing beast of a map that somehow doesn't drag, ending with the biggest fight in the WAD so far that kicked my butt a lot when I played it, but was super fun. Once I figured out how to get the secret invul, it was all over. Map 21's void aesthetic is fantastic and is a nice breather map. 2 of my personal highlights from this WAD

[FrancisT218]

+++Lost Civilization (20 maps, but many are huge, so two maps per every three days)

+++Pagodia, What Remains, & Vigor (34 maps, Vigor 1-4 and 6/7 are short so two maps per day on those)

+++3ha2 (paired with 3ha1 if desired)

[NiGHTS108]

+++ Lost Civilization
+++ Pagodia, What Remains, Vigor

+++ 3ha2 (Possibly with 3ha1)

 

This is a Squonker club, pretty boy

[Xyzzу]

+++ Xerxesia ^{to make me feel better about the effort I put in to that}

Though, I'm not sure how feasible it is for the club to play since at least a couple maps are known to not work properly in Z-family ports.

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 25: Bloodvine

100% kills, items and secrets

Time: 11:14

 

Bloodvine is a break map taking place in a hellish fortress filled with blood (as you would expect). The visuals are again, very good and Varis Alpha's Blood Jungle remix is a banger. The level is completely linear and way shorter than the previous one, but it still has some very nice fights like the imp teleport ambush before the yellow key or the final area, which makes you circle strafe and kill marksmen, revs, knights and an archie. The rest is still pretty cool and not too difficult as long as you pay attention to the sniping spiders, mancubi and skeletons. Overall, a pretty good map that was needed after Mars City and Digital Demons.

 

 

Rankings:

 

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 9

Map 15

Map 13

Map 20

Map 32

Map 19

Map 12

Map 4

Really Like:

Map 16

Map 6

Map 31

Map 1

Map 14

Map 25

Map 22

Map 21

Map 23

Map 24

Map 10

Map 7

Map 3

Map 5

Map 2

Like:

Map 11

Map 18

Map 8

Mediocre:

Map 17

 

 

+++ Ray Mohawk's Manic Monday and Ray Mohawk 2: Ray Wrecks Havok!

+++ Fragport

+++ 3 Heures d'Agonie  2 and 1 (just like Francis and Nights, I would prefer 3HA2 if we only get one of the 2 wads)

Edited June 27, 2022 by tonytheparrot

[Biodegradable]

+++Fragport

+++Doom 2 in Spain Only

+++400 Minutes of /vr/

 

Edited June 25, 2022 by Biodegradable

[cannonball]

+++Doom 2 In Spain Only - I still need to play this fully.

+++ Xerxesia - If there are to be difficult maps, they might as well be short ones.

 

I will try to catch up with maps24/25 at some point today.

[Doomy__Doom]

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

 

Map 25 - Bloodvine

 

A much needed after the #24 disaster compact map. If there's one thing to remember it by, that'd be how all keys look like there's an ambush waiting for you, when in fact there is none.

 

Most of the time is spent in close quarters combat, navigating a somewhat claustrophobic layout. Very red - the last episode is getting as heavily red as Struggle is blue. The only notable set piece involves a perched vile pinning the player to a small area and some imps (I can't really describe that as a dense wave) closing in on the player from both sides to get rocketed.

 

In the end, I guess I'm left with "unremarkable on its own, but serves perfectly well as a map slotted just after magnum opus type" as the conclusion.

 

 

Bonus content: supporting cast

 

Coop adds some random shotgunners, more arachnotrons where they already exist, one early vile near SSG room and, most importantly, an entourage of Revs behind the very last Vile. That one felt really lackluster/obligatory on regular UV, a bunch of Revs makes the ordeal ever so slightly more spicy.

I'll think about my votes for next month later.

[LadyMistDragon]

Mostly I just want something older to win so....

 

+++ 3HA 1 & 2

+++ Fragport

+++Community Chest 3

Edited June 25, 2022 by LadyMistDragon : okay, what was I going to say?

[Nefelibeta]

1 hour ago, cannonball said:

+++ Xerxesia - If there are to be difficult maps, they might as well be short ones.

Literally an excuse to get people to play Axolotl.wad lol