Doomworld Community Top __ Most Fun Maps (Community Activity)

[baja blast rd.]

So I was thinking about doing a community version of the Top 100 Memorable Maps feature -- with a different focus. The memorable maps list tends to focus more on concept, storytelling, adventure, setting, and historical import than pure nuts and bolts playing, which is fine...but that means we have room for a counterpart that focuses on other pleasures of playing. 

 

What is "fun"? Doesn't that vary greatly? Exactly. Everyone has their own definition of that, so inclusion or not is going to depend largely on your discussion. We're going to be focusing more on gameplay and 'core experience' stuff here, but as anyone who has thought about it for more than five minutes knows, no element of map design is strictly disentangled from the rest, and 'fun' is often a holistic thing that can be supported by what would normally not be thought of as a gameplay element. BUT...pure basic meat-and-potatoes maps are obviously fine. 

 

What can be "fun" -- what is gameplay? Depends. Some people like fighting most, some exploring, some moving around in the engine, some manipulating the environment in creative ways, and so forth and so forth. Some people play quickly, some people play slowly. Some people save a lot, some people love doing Ironman-style D2ALLs. Some people play with mice, some people play with foot pedals and buttcheek pads. Everyone has different mixes of preferences and ways of engaging mechanically with the game, and I don't want to restrict it to a specific mold. Naturally, that means people who play on settings other than UV are welcome. Carryover players are welcome. Speedrunners can join too. Whether you play on an old netbook or do all your gaming on this, you're welcome. One restriction is that the map should be played with its native content, so gameplay altering mods (beyond what is baked into a wad itself, if anything) should not be used.

 

There are at least a couple approaches to this you might want to try: 

 

- (Necessary.) Talk about how you directly enjoyed the map, on a personal/subjective level. Why do you find it fun? Go into all the details. Specifics and examples are great.

 

- Analyze the map as sort of a 'system' and argue for why it's well designed to be fun.*

 

Spoiler

*(Obvious author intentionality isn't really that important imo. I think people sometimes overrate being able to clearly and obviously see the 'roles' monsters and different map elements are playing -- when a lot of what can be fun is emergent possibilities that are more subtle or even incidental.)  

 

(If the map has significant custom gameplay content, it would be odd to completely avoid talking about that, but it should not be the focus in isolation of the map experience. Like a certain custom enemy might be great and all, but that alone, disregarding use, isn't enough.)

 

How to participate:  

 

- Decide on a map you find very fun for the reasons that are important to you.  

- Replay the map you want, at least once, but ideally more often, so that you have insights and analysis about them. 

- Write about and make a case for the map. (Even if it's not ultimately chosen, the thread is going to exist to read, so there's still lots of value in that.)

- Later on, I'll give instructions for writing a concise blurb for your map that is part general overview and part discussion on why the map is fun. 

 

Some caveats and reminders:
 

Spoiler

There is so much Doom and so many different ways it's done. So unless you're very omnivorous, a completed list might easily match your own preferences only in like, 20% of choices, maybe even less -- leaving the rest as "take it or leave it" or "what you don't really enjoy." That's fine. 

 

No genre or form of Doom is verboten. That might rankle people who can't conceive of, say, slaughter or platforming or resource starvation as fun, or can't conceive of ultra-easy '90s wads or story-first wads as fun, or think certain styles of gameplay are generic Fast Food, or don't like puzzles (<- don't use that list of styles as a reference; they are just examples) -- but again, it's not all about any one person's preference. Fixating on just a few specific types of wad would be boring. Also I wouldn't start the thread if I wanted it to just be all things I like and know about.

 

If your whole conception of the value of a list is what's on it and what's not on it -- or worse, whether something is placed higher than something else -- and the commentary parts don't matter, this thread probably isn't for you.  

 

Avoid the thread if you have a bone to pick with certain styles/genres and simply want to use this thread as a pulpit against them.

 

No BDL'ing. 

 

Don't make posts in this thread that are simply map names, without any explanation or analysis. Will delete lazy, low-effort spamming. Just please put effort in if you're going to post. 

 

Ultimate choices will be further selected from the maps that are presented by me and/or a secret committee rather than by likes (lol) or voting. I think some selectiveness is a good way to make sure that choices are argued for well and the final result has some breadth to it. It's hard to forecast now, but maybe something like half or a bit more of seriously-argued-for cases will be selected? That was about the ratio the Memorable Maps feature had. To be fair, if I participate, I'll choose no more than half of my own posted maps, but post analysis for all of them, and give preference to others' suggestions if they'd overlap with mine. 

 

More details:

 

We'll try to scale list size to participation (to a round number). For example if there's several people we can maybe do a top 20 or 25. If there's a ton of participants somehow, we might go higher -- 50, 60, 70, who knows, maybe even 100.

 

I do want to spread around what gets featured, and I think a good way to do that is to restrict the number of maps from a given wad based on total list size. There's no way a Top 25 would have a repeat for example. As we go higher, it starts getting into "maybe" territory but you'd be hard pressed to argue that any single wad needs 2-3 maps even of 100, so consider repeats begrudging and don't go out of your way to argue for them. There are other soft restrictions that will be involved (such as # of maps by a specific author, or maps in one hyperspecific style/sphere), but I will treat those as flexible rather than quotas or hard limits. This all means there will be some light "competition" between maps that are clustered in a similar wavelength.

 

At first, I will limit any one person to 3 possible maps to argue for, to prevent one person from drowning out the discussion and avoid spamming, while still permitting flexibility. That will be lifted later to a higher number.

Eligible: '93 to '22, singleplayer maps, for a Doom engine FPS game (includes TCs). So in other words, more or less the shape of what would have been eligible at the time for the 100 Most Memorable Maps feature. But mappers don't argue for your own work (including projects you contributed to). 

 

This is the first time something like this is being done, so we might have to smooth out a couple process things as we go. (Like when the deadline will be. I don't want to preemptively cut it off too soon, or set one far too late, so it'll probably be announced when I see activity lower.) 

[Nefelibeta]

Revenge of Demonhouse - Wormwood map02

 

Probably a weird choice but I do replay this map from time to time.

The "fun" part for me is mainly about challenging yet vastly manageable fights here (with lots of saves of course) Think about the starting area where you need to lure a bunch of enemies to infight with the cyber, the plasma gun fight and the secret "Elysion" fight. Most of them here aren't something too frustrating or obnoxious, well I still die aplenty but I'm capable of beating them without getting stuck for too tong, yet they're still challenging enough to give me a sense of achievement. And of course, it's obviously very relaxing and fun to see monsters shred each other to pieces rather than doing it on your own.

 

Also a part of the reason is the amount of cleaning up here. Trust me, literally half of the map after the starting area is picking off rubbish folders and punching stuff and collecting keys, pressing switches etc.. Can't say if it's everybody's cup of tea but it's a nice change of pace you can get there, and it serves as a warm-up for more exhausting parts here. Bonus points for collecting part, collecting stuff is pretty satisfying not gonna lie. Especially when you get the two keys to unlock the BFG. It's not very necessary because ribbiks could've just place the BFG in the arena or something. But it is pretty exciting to walk down the stairs and see the BFG placed on the ledge of building.

 

Now come to the harder(est) parts of the map, the yellow skull fight and the finale. After replaying this map for a couple of times, I've already found out pretty reliable strategies here, and well, maybe deaths are still inevitable due to how much I suck. But hey, I can't tell you why but replaying those fights is pretty entertaining, like mowing down hell knights in the finale with BFG, or running around in the yellow skull fight watching flames and fireworks flying everywhere. Not to mention how rewarding it is to beat those two fights and see corpses scattered everywhere.

 

I have a soft spot for the ending sequence here, if beating a fight isn't rewarding enough, you also get to jump down a monster's throat, wake up a bunch of bats for no reason at all, and BFG romero in his mouth. Again, it isn't necessary but it indeed makes up for a whole experience, like the end of a journey, or a adventure. Feels good and very cool. (Same with the ending map)

 

oh and midi is beautiful, visuals are amazing without stacking too many linedefs and sectors together. How can I forget that? ;)

[LadyMistDragon]

Back to Saturn X Episode 1

 

The Hard Way: Few maps in BTSX1 can be called boring, but trying to distinguish one from the other can get difficult. Yet, this still shines above the rest. Packing seemingly every piece of square vista with fun fights, this is a guarantee winner.

 

Ancient Aliens

Map08: The Nectar Flow. Difficult, but eminent. Like, combination of difficult but excellent fight

 

 

Alien Vendetta

Map 13: Suicidal Tendencies - Somewhat misleading name but probably the most fun map in the first half of the megawad. Lots of close quarters combat but you're generally gold if you take things slow.

Edited June 5, 2022 by LadyMistDragon

[Roofi]

34 minutes ago, LadyMistDragon said:

 

Alien Vendetta

Map 13: Suicidal Tendencies - Somewhat misleading name but probably the most fun map in the first half of the megawad. Lots of close quarters combat but you're generally gold if you take things slow.

 

I can't agree more with this. Brad Spencer's overcrowded tech bases are also my fav in Alien Vendetta. I especially remember the corridor full of zombiemen which are so satisfying to kill.

 

 

[Nefelibeta]

Uh-oh, thread is dead now. Fortunately I completely miss out the fact that everybody can have three choices so guess that’s a good idea for bumping. Not gonna write a lot bcs I hate writing.

 

Scythe X map02 - Forgot the name

This map really doesn’t have a lot of things to say. But somehow I fell love with it’s laid-back gameplay and maybe-too-elaborate details here. Few things I like here. The center tunnel with crushers in it which represents the map’s garbage disposal area theme, as long as the rooms outside of it which make me thing it’s the control rooms or something. You even get to visit it twice so that’s pretty cool. I also dig the rocket launcher placement here. You don’t get lots of rockets, but they are enough to completely ruin one or two ambushes. Feels like “Don’t feel like shotgunning imps? Blow’em up instead”

Generally pretty relaxing and fun.

 

Magnolia Map01 - Another Place, Entirely.

I really find exploring different and unique structures fun, and this map has lots of those, so very cool. Probably due to the fact that I watched some play throughs before, so I know you need to ledge walk and hop around a lot in order to make progress, but some of the puzzles here still caught me off guard. Thought solving them was very rewarding too.

 

The gameplay here is relatively chill, comparing with ribbiks’ other maps, which I genuinely love. Because the complexities of the fights here still remain but they are easier so I don’t have to savescum too much. You’ll still need to figure it out but you won’t get punished too hard. So additional points for that. Also loved the “relaxing” sections of the map, some less complex fights but still fun to deal with. Or there are some places which is just picking off monsters with berserk. I love tysoning and infighting and saving ammo in general.

 

Bruh I don’t know what the hell am I typing anymore. Better just stop it now. :)

[baja blast rd.]

LadyMistDragon could we get more analysis of maps? 

 

18 hours ago, Nefelibeta said:

Uh-oh, thread is dead now.

 

No rush. Reponses ask for a lot of writing so I don't expect (or really want) a high rate of participation or a fast-moving thread. But even something like 3 maps posted a week for a few months provides enough for a solid 25 or 30, so we can probably manage even a bit more than that with modest activity. 

[vdgg]

Strain MAP13 qualifies. It gets an occasional praise, be it from the "club plays" thread, or from @kmxexii, yet it is not enough for me :)

 

A short, intense, mini-masterpiece which I enjoyed demoing like few other maps, and I will return to it one day for sure.

 

We have an awesome turbo imp swarm by the rocket launcher in the very second room. Nowhere else I have seen these little, chaos-inducing creatures used so well, thanks to the little space, weaponry available (SSG) and the steep stairs.

There is a very satisfying "sneak the guys from behind" moment, if you aim your RL well, you will kill seven buddies at once. They form an inversed wedge pattern and an imp has the highest HP there, yet it is so cool.

An introduction of the mini-cyber to the WAD is not to be missed, I don't like the monster, but it is undeniably used well at the top of a tower you may teleport into and finish him off with your SSG if you are brave.

Plus, a "lower wall, reveal monsters" cycle towards the end is just perfect, not too long, just fun.
A must play if you don't scoff at Strain dehacked changes.

 

[RonnieJamesDiner]

It was super tough to narrow this down to just 3, but, these were top of mind almost immediately, so here they are. I'm not even sure that I would call them my "top favorites of all time" or anything like that, I just know that I can load these up whenever, and I always have fun.

 

 

Haste MAP06: Concrete Vice, by Insane_Gazebo

 

If you happened to read my review during the DWMC playthrough of Haste, you already know how much I adore this map. There’s just something so viscerally satisfying and fluid about it, and it’s a BFG spamfest in the best kind of way. IG presents a handful of very straightforward, entertaining fights built around this idea, and then happily doles out Cell ammo and Powerups to keep that momentum as high as possible (brilliant). The timed waves of archviles on the stubby pillar balcony, and the pinky corridor immediately following were two fights that took me by surprise, popping up as highlights along an absolute joyride of a level (with the big crescendo at the end that I’m sure most players were hoping for, or at least I was!). I just love how IG managed to make the BFG shine so bright here; the fights don’t walk a razors edge where every tracer counts, but the weapon never feels overpowered in them, either. It’s like... combat puzzle meets power fantasy. Buttery smooth, and amazing.

 

Valiant MAP15: Screams Aren’t a Crime...Yet, by skillsaw

 

This one is a dead ringer that jumps out at me every time I think of fun, replayable maps. It kicks off with a RL, a Soulsphere, a hotstart of low-tiers bearing down on us (including suicide bombers!), and the best damn midi choice skillsaw could have possibly made – and just like that, we’re making things go boom, desperately avoiding death, and havin’ a blast. This whole map feels frenzied and fast-paced for nearly every beat; when you aren’t trapped inside the structure chewing through swarms of hitscan, you’re outside dodging the constant reign of turret projectiles – it’s exciting stuff. Hordes (and hordes) of fodder to mow down, great use of the custom assets like the new Chaingun weapon and Suicide Bomber enemy, and honestly, some of the best explosive barrel usage I can think of. (Seriously, this level should be studied for its barrel usage). Interestingly enough, two of the three big lock-in fights are both waves of fodder/hitscan – yet, they’re remarkably distinct, between the Zombieman/Bomber bloodbath, and the Chaingunner/Blursphere + Archvile ambush. And, they’re both ridiculously satisfying, probably (in part) because you make mincemeat of that 500 kill count in record time, giving Doomguy good reason to wear that sadistic grin on his face. I’ll never get sick of this map.

 

MAYhem 2020 MAP12: The Running of the Bulls, by Bauul

 

Considering the criteria for this is “fun”... Bauul’s MAYhem 2020 submission is definitely making my list. Fun, in this instance, is pretty much interchangeable with words like intense, and traumatizing, but The Running of the Bulls never fails to make me smile and get my heart pounding. I really don’t know if Bauul basically winged it with the layout, or if he sat down and very methodically arranged each and every corridor and connecting tunnel, but it’s a nearly perfect balance between coherent/memorable, and chaotic/maze-like. It’s simple enough to get your bearings in a brief still moment, and then just as quickly become completely disorientated when you stumble face-first into one of the titular bulls. The (sometimes) unpredictable movement of the Cyberdemons is the other half of this gem, creating unpredictability, and easily making this one of the most replayable doom levels for me. I’m sure this is one of those... love it or hate it type of deals, but I absolutely love it. It's just such a thrill ride, and it feels nigh impossible to get the same experience twice. 

[baja blast rd.]

2 hours ago, RonnieJamesDiner said:

It was super tough to narrow this down to just 3

 

True. Finding that out now myself. :P

 

I think I'll have my own (possible) choices posted later this month.

 

2 hours ago, RonnieJamesDiner said:

I'm not even sure that I would call them my "top favorites of all time" or anything like that, I just know that I can load these up whenever, and I always have fun.

 

Yeah this is fair and probably going to be the way it is for many people's choices. Fun is so subjective that you might have a choice you might not expect to be considered 'objectively' great -- but the map just happens to do lots of things you really like, not much you don't like, and you're drawn to it again and again. And that's not only fine, but probably even ideal.

[TheLippyServer]

Boy oh boy. Just 3 is hard. I'm sure plenty of people will disagree with these but, my favorite "pick up and play" maps are:

 

Death From Above (A.L.T. Map 04) - Looking at just the map concept on paper it's the kind of thing that sounds almost insufferable, but Azamael strikes an amazing balance here. The type of challenge it presents is different than your garden variety Doom map, and while it's not easy, it's also not frustrating. Lot's of built in surprises that can catch you off-guard and send you to your death and some sections take a few tries to get the timing or strategy right, but there's nothing that I'd call unfair. It probably helped that I went into it completely blind, but running through this map for the first time was one of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences I've ever had playing Doom.

 

Cliffside Siege (Speed of Doom Map 05) - I just love Joshy's SoD maps generally, but this might be my favorite layout in the entire set. It's a little bit of a difficulty spike compared to the first 4 maps, but not especially hard which makes it a fun one to return to. The layout is extremely fluid and well thought out, and the monster placement is exceptional (especially the Mastermind and the Manc and Archie placement near the yellow key). Was a tough call for me between this one, Map 27, and Map 29, but after some thought I decided this is my favorite SoD map.

 

200 Mega Hurts (Going Down Map 19) - BFG spam maps are a bit hit or miss for me, but this one is just dynamite. Taking the Archie/PE only concept and executing this well is truly an impressive feat. I absolutely love the mirrored layout of both separate areas and the way it clues you in to the location of the secrets. I love the aesthetic choices, especially the way the portals are done. I love that it takes a concept that, again - almost like A.L.T. Map 04, sounds almost insufferable on paper and makes it not only fun, but something of a downturn in difficulty from the previous maps. Absolutely brilliant, brilliant stuff.

[Phobus]

I can draw from three different eras quite happily here:

 

Yakworld E1M1, by Spackle Limited, from YAKWORLD.WAD (1994)

A classic example of how the little things can make all the difference, even back in the first wave of over-enthusiastic, under-experienced Doom mapping. From the start, where you're confronted with a horde of Demons in a wide open space featuring the eponymous sign, to the Barons reimagined as gruff Sergeants to the demonic foot soldiers (and just with a replacement to their "see" sound file!) and most definitely the Cyberdemon "see" sound replacement being an announcer excitedly setting up the showdown between "Goat Man" and "Mister Green" for an audience of impaled spectators, the barrel of ideas of runneth over. The high octane classic Doom game play and wide exploration of the map won't be to everybody's taste, but to somebody who sees nostalgia in stuff that they played pretty near it's original release date and has a lot of fun with it, I've come back to this a lot of times over the years. Of course, the explosion sound is a minor fly in the ointment, leaving all of the barrels and rockets chattering away at you after they've blown up, but not all good ideas work in practice!

 

ZDoom Community Map Project Take #1, by ZDoom forums members circa 2004 (zdcmp1.pk3, these days, although it used to be .wad)

This will be driven for nostalgia for that period where I rediscovered Doom via ZDoom, but I strongly maintain (and continually bring up) that this is one of my favourite WADs of all time. An hour run-time through a wide variety of locales, mapping styles and game play scenarios, all brought together by some classic T667 polish, great music (particularly the first, main track) and the monster resource pack of enemies. Part of the joy of this is the sheer excitement of the mappers, which spills through in all sorts of ways, such as the various comments on the automap, the scripted messages and just the sheer scope of the map. It's like playing a whole episode in one map, with a wealth of variety and yet an overarching sense of consistency and interconnectedness that makes it a joy to play. I'll miss the "nucking futs" megasphere that went a bit wild on the original slope physics, but the continued development of (G)ZDoom is always welcome progress. The fact that it ends on a scripted cutscene fly-through of the map is particularly fun, with all of the credits, comments and editor choices (the last bit was very helpful for me, back in 2004). Such a great adventure... I'm looking forward to going back and giving it another play, now that I've finished writing about it!

 

MAP03: Virgin Alarm, by vertigo, from DBP24: Spaceballs: The Sequel: The Search for More DBP Maps (2020)

Honestly, picking a single map from the "Tomatoman" era of DBPs is extremely difficult. Big Ol' Billy, glenzinho, supercupcaketactics, Scrangus McBrickdad, vertigo, gaspe and the others were on fire for a good year or more, making increasingly creative and wacky projects, pushing limit-removing maps further and further and fairly consistently dropping gold on a monthly basis. I made some of my best maps ever in this period too, which meant resisting the urge to pimp one of my own wares. However, what it came down to in the end was a relatively simple choice: which project was the most fun, and then which map most embodied that fun? Spaceballs is the project, and MAP03 does it very well indeed. We've got plenty of frantic blasting action against the lower tier enemies, fun features such as the utterly pointless teleport from one side of a door to another (as inspired by the movie, naturally), secrets that are fun to find and a good escalation through the range of enemies, culminating in some Arch-Viles being unleashed on some conspicuously dead Barons. I could just as easily have picked glen's map or Billy's here, but this one is just a little easier than glen's and a fair bit shorter and easier to navigate than Billy's, pitching closer to the apex of frictionless action fun.

 

 

That last one was a difficult choice, and I was actually halfway through writing up a different map from a different DBP before I reconsidered the choice between "fun" and "memorable", and how being fun to play and conceptually fun are slightly different. It was pretty tough ignoring how much of a fun of my own work I am, too :P

[Dubium]

This sounds fun, I think I will talk about a couple of maps that I have in mind.

 

1. Ancient Aliens - MAP15: Wormhole Junction

Skillsaw seems to love making fast-paced run and gun maps and this is one of them. 15 seconds in and you will get immediately ambushed by a couple of cacos which forces you to jump down into the main hub, and as you do so, a massive amount of enemies will teleport in and fill the area. Revenants, HKs, mancubi, arachnotrons, cacos, stealth aliens, and more. It's a crazy opener, but I love how the map tries to rush you right away, really sets the mood.

 

Perhaps a massive infight will happen there, but that's okay because I enjoy watching them kill each other for me, it's entertaining. But if you want to, you can try to interfere to speed up the process. I find it satisfying to blow a group of enemies using my rocket launcher.

 

As you progress, enemies will teleport into the main area once in a while, replacing their fallen friends. But don't worry, skillsaw is generous when it comes to ammo and health. Megaspheres, soul spheres, boxes of rockets, and energy cell packs are everywhere, so you can almost always go wild and shoot everything that moves without being afraid of running low on ammo. Of course, you still need to be careful when you move around because you can still get hit by their projectiles.

 

Oh yeah, I also need to mention the MIDI, Hypercube by stewboy. I know this is not directly a part of the combat design, but believe me, this music knows how to set the atmosphere. It sounds energetic and really fits the pace. Running around and shooting the enemies while being accompanied by this music is-- really good stuff :D

 

To recap, the map has one of the combat styles I find really fun. You need to face a lot of enemies, but at the same time, you can go berserk by rapidly shooting them with your powerful weapons. Even if it still sounds too difficult, don't worry, the demons themselves will help you by killing each other.

 

2. Sunlust - MAP18: Mu Cephei

Oh, I find this one fun as well. As you might already know, this map has a similar combat style to the previous map I covered. It mainly consists of an open area filled with a large amount enemies that you need to face at the same time. But it's still different in several ways.

 

The reasons I find this map fun also more or less the same with Wormhole Junction. Mu Cephei, however, is more difficult due to the less space to move around and the higher enemy density, the map forces you to shape the horde to leave more breathing space for you. Thankfully, it is a gimmick I always find interesting because it's challenging and requires planning on where to move.

 

Also, almost every weapon and health item here is scattered, and trying to pick them will spawn even more enemies. You will not get a BFG until near the end and instead the map gives you the weapons gradually. A super shotgun first, then a rocket launcher, then a plasma rifle, and finally a BFG (you can intentionally try to pick the weapons in a different order, but I believe this is the intended one). For me, this kind of progression helps the map build a more dynamic experience because none of your weapons remain useless.

 

Furthermore, although the map consists mostly of running around in an open area, there is still this one crazy locked fight located at the end of the map. During my first playthrough, I was surprised by how daunting this fight was. You will be squeezed by hordes of enemies from both sides while being sniped by a spider mama. But now I know how to properly handle the fight and it's much more enjoyable now. Just use your BFG to rush through all 3 directions as fast as possible to obtain the keys and get out. It's an amazing moment that pumps adrenaline into my brain.

 

I guess two maps are enough for now. I will make writing about another map in the future if I have more time.

[Sena]

The Egg of Human Endeavors

 

For a level that comes out to 666 enemies, it has remarkably few actual sections with combat, there's a fairly easy and low-intensity section at the beginning to ease you into it, and only 2 areas with enemies after that point. Not because the rest of it is puzzles and platforming, but because those 2 sections are wired tight, with a good balance of creating a sense of urgency with the number of enemies deployed, while also making the arenas wide enough to give the player some degree of freedom and decision making. If you ignore the grandiose and imposing architecture (don't), you'll find that you actually have a lot of ways to use the terrain to your advantage, with varying degrees of subtlety in terms of height changes, and the health and ammunition is pretty evenly spread out, i.e. the whole thing requires you to be smart about how you choose to engage with the enemy, rather than just funnelling everything into a narrow chokepoint. 

 

yeah it's peak

[Alaxzandarz]

Ray Mohawk 2: Ray Wreaks Havoc! Map 08: Chocolate Island

 

This map is super compact and has less than hundred enemies, but manages to have suprising amount freedom in the way you want to tackle it. It is really open, allowing you to run around the main area pretty much freely. You have a lot of choice in when you get your weapons, you can get the pump shotgun or the blaster first, alerting different groups of enemies. You can either kill a lot of the enemies with those or rush the cell cannon (basically a fast rocket launcher) and the auto-shotgun and wreck havoc with those. There is one more confined fight, but it's also really nice. I think what makes this map so fun is how short, explosive and lean(?) it is. And by lean I mean it has no grind or cleanup, nothing non essential to the map. You are given 140 cells for the cell cannon, which just destroys all the snipers and makes cleanup non existent. Every time I have played the map, when I went to open the exit, all the enemies were already dead. Just an absolute snack of a map.

 

Spoiler

 

Flotsam Map 08: Nursery

 

It's basically a bigger, badder and more fun permutation of Hell Revealed 2's Playground. You get all the weapons at the start and the level is riddled with rockets, cells and megaspheres. The level has multiple phases and you can trigger them when you are ready. I think this is the one of the maps strong points. You can go slow if this is your first playthrought or really fast if you have played the map before and want more chaos. The map has so much ammo and health that it is really hard to run out of it, but you have to be mindful how much left you have and where the pickups are located. The map also gives you five invulnerabilities, which you can use to rush the roughest groups. The maps basic loop is: you kill enemies, press the switches when ready, get an invulv, wreck the most dangerous opposition with it and continue to kill enemies. It is also quite a short map keeping in mind that it has nearly 6000 enemies. I think that BFG spam is one of the most pure forms of joy that Doom can elicit.

 

Spoiler

 

I'm still thinking about the last map I'm gonna talk about.