The DWmegawad Club plays: 3 Heures d'Agonie 2

[cannonball]

MAP17 - “InfiltrAction” by Ch0wW

 

This one starts with some degree of promise. The opening room is pretty fun and the large area with the two archviles at the far side is quite neat as they deny a lot of safe space. Unfortunately this is where the positives end, the rocket launcher is in a secret where it is quite clear the author expects you to find it to have any chance of finishing the map. The mess of mid-tiers is hard enough to deal with when only having the SSG but the rest of the map? Yeah this is pretty much mandatory secret level here. The final room behind the yellow door is frankly awful, there is only one way you can play this and it isn't fun.

I guess this is better than this author's other efforts, there are some brights sparks in this one at least.

 

MAP18 - “Somewhere in the Slime Ocean” by Plut

This one tries to get the feel of some of Darkwave's work, it doesn't really work in that regard because it just feels like a plutonia map, but one that uses a lot of the tropes from Speed of Doom. That said this one is perfectly playable and a lot more fun than a lot of the maps so far. The pop up monsters beyond the red door do get a little excessive and are more annoying than anything else.

 

[Book Lord]

MAP 19 – Brexin by William Huber @WH-Wilou84

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

 

What’s the point of giving drug names to maps? Whatever WH-Wilou84 was thinking of, Brexin had worse collateral effects than MAP31. The monster count was a bit lower, but there was less room for errors in this slaughter-oriented layout, made of brown metal with blue inserts. The pistol start was particularly mean with all those enemies guarding a measly shotgun. Even though a Soul Sphere was granted to heal some wounds, the mayhem waiting at the bottom of the lowering water prevented the player from finding any safe spot to recover his wits. The SSG was close but easily missed, beefy snipers were everywhere, and it was not advisable to kill the Imps beyond the grating, since Arch-Viles would appear for retaliation. I died a couple of times while I learned the monster and item placement, then I tackled the arena with a plan and succeeded at first attempt.

Spoiler

Clearing the welcome committee was not enough to claim victory. Once I took the YK and annihilated the complimentary Pain Elemental swarm, I must clear off the jammed cubicle behind the yellow door. I was anticipating some big monster deployment when I pushed the ugly face switch, and it turned out to be a 40-Revenant host. I had trouble handling them in the open without a BFG and the ledges were unsuitable, so I retreated inside the yellow door and killed them from there. The next encounter was a Cyberdemon duo, perfectly acceptable in such a wide space, but time-consuming without a BFG. The last fodder teleport looked like a white flag from the author, regardless of the roaming Arch-Viles that demanded the usual priority, including the ones that warped in after collecting the RK. The Megasphere secret was welcome, but a BFG in the same spot would not have spoiled the level of its challenge. A solid slaughter design from WH-Wilou84.

[Monsieur E]

Map18 - Somewhere in the Slime Ocean by Plut
100% kills

This level is pretty cool. The combat here feels enjoyable and feels space efficient but nothing here quite sticks out much. Really, I think the stars here are the aesthetics and general mood of the level. The stewboy tune fits well here and the dark techbase located somewhere in the slime ocean™ as well as the cavern area are well detailed and look good. I think my favorite bit of the entire level is looking over the railings in the red key and seeing the expanse of the titular slime ocean you're in the middle of, very pretty. It's another good level but it's definitely the aesthetics which carry it imo. 

[RHhe82]

MAP19: Brexin. 220/220 K, 1/1 S. Completion time 19:53

 

A niveau whose title nowadays sounds vaguely political (I'm sure it has some totally other meaning), I consider this one slaughter too. It was a little beyond my skills, I used rewind a lot, especially when the revenants were unleashed. I kinda like the map, but on the other hand it slightly veers into the kind of slaughter that I'm not necessarily so keen on.

[brick]

MAP16 - “Vile Sombre” by JC Dorne

Another map that makes me glad I'm playing continuous, and even then that hot start made me roll my eyes a bit. The rest of the level was ok, at least with the SSG, but as with other maps in the wad I'm not a huge fan of constantly spamming archviles behind your back to resurrect the same pack of monsters over and over. Compared to JC's other maps, better than MAP11, but nowhere near as memorable as MAP32

Speaking of, I realized also while reading others' comments that I forgot to praise MAP32's fantastic visuals.

 

MAP17 - “InfiltrAction” by Ch0wW

Havana Smooth is such an awesome track, but my feelings towards the map are more meh. I didn't find the secret, which would've resulted in a lot of hair-pulling on pistol-start. The layout of the map is pretty cool, I like how the yellow key is visible so early on, but combat was a pain. The map feels more Plutonia than anything: hidden chainguns depleting your health from far away, revenants forcing you to keep your head down, archviles running everywhere. The worst was the teleporting revenants, I expected something clever there but no, they just teleport into the next big room that already has a bunch of them. Carryovers meant I didn't have a bad time, but I didn't particularly have fun either, and found the map a bit tedious.

 

MAP18 - “Somewhere in the Slime Ocean” by Plut

Another one that I didn't enjoy much, though it does look good and has some simple but very nice detailing. Every fight is a surprise-closet or a surprise-appearance and it becomes predictable very quickly. I ended up dealing with most by hiding behind a doorway and sniping everything with the SSG; although there's a rocket launcher (which of course triggers one of the many ambushes) most of the map is too tight to use effectively. I also wasn't a fan of the last room, being dropped in the middle of a bunch of imps and knight with no room to maneuver. The music track is uncredited but fits the visual theme really well.

[Biodegradable]

MAP19: Brexin

UV | Continuous | GZDoom

 

Wilou returns with a pretty gnarly techbase arena-style map with all the trimmings. Lots of sniper enemies, plus plenty of bastards running around on the ground that comes out in waves. I held my own pretty well with the only really bad wave being the one with what felt like 50 Revenants. That one took a few times to really find a strategy. My strategy was really stupid and should not have worked, but bottle-necking the majority of them by hiding in the yellow key door was the solution after dying a few dozen times. There's probably a better strategy, but it's the one that worked for me and I sure as hell wasn't going to complain about lucking out. I think I'd go as far as to say that perhaps the amount of Revs in the area might have been a little excessive, but I beat it in the end so who knows. The map's progression was pretty fun and, besides the frustrating boner party, I had a lot of fun with it as per usual when it comes to a Wilou map. ;^)

 

 

Edited July 19, 2022 by Biodegradable

[Gez]

4 hours ago, RHhe82 said:

A niveau whose title nowadays sounds vaguely political (I'm sure it has some totally other meaning),

It's one of the commercial names for Piroxicam.

 

[Azure_Horror]

20 hours ago, Roofi said:

There are no visuals hints about the ambushes so you cannot predict any trap.

This is a very fair critisism. However, I found is a solution. You just should suspect an ambush everywhere.

This way, all the traps would get predicted. This approach is not perfect, but it gets the job done :-/.

 

14 hours ago, Doomy__Doom said:

the "in your face haha, sure hope you picked the correct gun to hold"

During my playthroughs, only the last trap before the exit felt depended on weapon choice. Rocket Launcher ambush can be escaped either with rockets, or with a rapid switch into the SSG (Classic Doom engine quirk. Preselect the fist, or the chaingun, press 3 while grabbing RL, and you will prepare SSG intead of RL). Other traps give enough space to fall back and/or change weapons.

 

MAP18 - “Somewhere in the Slime Ocean” (by Plut)

Dsda-doom, UV-max, pistol start.

 

“Somewhere in the Slime Ocean” is a clear homage to Speed of Doom. It is green, slimy, vaguely technological and even has a green cave. Appropriately for Speed of Doom-inspired map, the combat is pretty tough.

 

The map begins in a dark storage yard. The yard is full of imps, and some chaingunners are lurking further ahead. Every meaningful action triggers an ambush. Super shotgun? Triggers a trap! Entrance to the second room? Triggers a trap! Rocket launcher? Yep, triggers a trap! Red key? Take a wild guess...

 

Three of the four traps combine small monsters with some revs and hell knights, and three of the four involve an archvile. The monsters in those fights either attack from different angles, or try to corner the player in a dead end. Fights like these can easily get tiring. Fortunately, after the red door the combat gets easier. Still, the second half of the map is filled with pop-up monsters, and quick reflexes remain important.

 

“Somewhere in the Slime Ocean” is a fun map to replay. Unpredictable and difficult fights at the start add a lot of replay value. Short runtime also encourages replaying the map. Map18 was a perfect exersice in improvisation and quick thinking.

 

In conclusion:

Map 18 combines short length with pretty challenging combat. The gameplay of “Somewhere in the Slime Ocean” is pretty demanding and requires a correct frame of mind. The short runtime feels very appropriate. This way, casual-leaning players won’t be beaten into a pulp by an unexpected rise of difficulty.

“Somewhere in the Slime Ocean” is a minor highlight for me. I like many maps from 3 Heures d'Agonie 2, and Map18 is not among my top favorites. But from a certain view point, map 18 is one of the best maps ever made for Doom. It is a perfect introduction to challenging Doom combat. It is franting, vicious and unpredictable, yet it is short enough to not feel overbearing.

 

 

One more thing:

Spoiler

 

The pre red door part of “Somewhere in the Slime Ocean” reminded of map 13 (“Soul City”) in Doom Negative One– Beyond the Experiment.

“Soul City” also begins with evocative grim storage facility. The action in “Soul City” is a slow burner, unlike the explosive start of “Somewhere in the Slime Ocean”. But many minor gameplay tweaks are present on both maps – lots of low tiers from every direction, paranoia-inducing chaingunners, a few strategically deployed revenats and other midtiers. Even the nasty archviles are present on starting sections of both maps, though their purpose on “Soul City” is quite different from “Somewhere in the Slime Ocean”.

 

 

[Dersulbob]

Unexpectedly busy weekend so having to catch up. I'll keep them brief because it's very hot and I can't be bothered to type.

 

Map 16 - Vile Sombre

(Blind run, UV, Continuous, saves allowed, GZDoom)

 

Needless to say, this map had a lot of Arch-Viles. They killed me a lot. I quite liked the layout, which was compact but clever in the way that it required to you to return to find new things (maybe a key, maybe a new set of enemies). 

 

Grade - B

 

MAP17 - Infiltraction

 

Fun map. The first pair of Arch-Viles is positioned annoyingly well meaning that nowhere really feels safe, especially when you're also trying to dodge Imps, Chaingunners and Spectres. The fight in the courtyard after pressing the first switch kicked my ass a few times.

 

Layout was a little symmetrical for my liking but the combat made up for it.

 

Grade - B

 

MAP18 - Somewhere over the Slime Ocean

 

Another compact map. I really despise the 'pop-up' encounters. I can't really describe why I hate them more than your standard teleport ambushes, but I do.

 

The use of Arch-Viles over the last few maps has been really good and this map is no exception, however I am a bit tired at this stage of playing maps centred around them. Fingers crossed that the next one provides a different challenge.

 

Grade - B

 

MAP19 - Brexin

 

A different challenge indeed. I'd call this a slaughtermap though I don't know if it would qualify in the eyes of you more skilful players. I found the first fight in the main area to be quite challenging in particular due to the Arch-Viles in the alcove with the Knights and Barons. If they've started an attack on one of their pals and take damage from you, the attack instantly switches to you. That killed me a few times.

 

The Revenant ambush was also difficult. I ended up picking most of them off with BFG shots from height before finishing them with the SSG.

 

After that it was fairly smooth sailing. The encounter with the Cyberdemons was fine due to the ample cover and the remaining Arch-Vile spawns were fairly easy to wipe out with rockets.

 

I thought the layout worked well for a map of this type and I enjoyed the effect of the blue texturing. After the Arch-Vile theme in the previous three maps this one was a breath of fresh air. Though they do appear throughout this map, it doesn't feel completely centred around them.

 

Grade -  A-

 

[Roofi]

Map 19 : Brexin

 

 

If I had to elect the best map of 3 heures d'agonie 2, it would be "Brexin", followed by "Gutter Grave" that DWMC haven't playet yet.

 

After replaying this level, it appears Brexin matches all my preferences.

 

First of all, it uses one of my favourite tracks from Hell Revealed 2. Also, The blue colour fits perfectly with this music as wave sounds can be heard and the water is basically blue. My favourite color is green but the mix between metal textures and flashy blue ones is top-notch.

 

About the gameplay, I'm always fond of vanilla maps designed with slaughter-lite combats. With some foreknowledge, Brexin isn't a big deal when you know where to hide. Brexin brings back good old memories of HR2 where the monster closets reveal groups of mid-tier monsters as well as cyberdemons.

 

I think a lot of people will prefer "Gutter Grave"  thanks to its grandiose scale and its unique and threatening atmosphere. For my part, I found it a bit more generic in terms of visuals. Also, thanks to its moderate size, Brexin benefits from more replayability for my taste and respect more the spirit of 3ha trilogy.

 

Grade : A

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 2022 by Roofi

[TheLippyServer]

Map 19 - "Brexin" (by William Huber)

 

A really great map, with probably the trickiest start so far - those arachnotrons ate me for breakfast a few times. Once you get a decent circuit going and rid the field of the near-constant archie surveillance it gets a bit easier. The giant revenant ambush made me laugh out of shock, as there's way more than I would've expected given the available space. I bottlenecked them in the little alcove where the hell knights and mancs were, and eventually pulled through but that took me a few tries. There's also a big pain elemental ambush, and if you couldn't already tell, I'm a fan of such things. Another cyber double whammy near the end, just as in map 31, though I found this one quite a bit easier. The map looks great, with sharp and clean texturing, but I prefer 31's more jovial palette personally. Another personal favorite.

 

9/10

[tonytheparrot]

(Played from a pistol-start on UV with Prboom+, saves are allowed)

Map 19: Brexin by William "WH-Wilou-84" Huber

120% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 10:09

 

Sometimes, I struggle to understand how can a map like Brexin appeal to me so well. This Community Chest 4 inspired base is home to immensely fun "slaughter-lite" encounters with big groups of enemies that you will need to negociate with good movement and some heavy weaponry. After the pretty tense hot start with chaingunners and the E1 crowd , you will be dropped into an arena in which arachnos will block you, mancubi, revs and hell nobles will snipe you and arch-viles even accompany some of the snipers. After that part is cleared, you will be able to get the keys, but doing so triggers some tough but also undeniably entertaining ambushes with packs of revs, pain elementals, a pair of cybers and even low-tiers backed up by archies at the end. On top of that, perhaps the best Hell Revealed 2 midi is used here: “Last Wish” by Thyrbse, which fits the map like a glove and makes Brexin the “Last Wish map” for me instead of the “very entertaining” Inmost Dens III. As I said, Brexin is incredibly fun throughout it's entire run time and represents perfectly not only my favorite kind of Doom combat, but also why I love Wilou's maps so much.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

Love:

Map 19

Map 31

Map 6

Map 32

Map 18

Map 3

Map 5

Really Like:

Map 12

Map 17

Map 8

Map 13

Map 4

Map 14

Map 7

Map 9

Like:

Map 2

Map 1

Map 10

Mediocre:

Map 15

Dislike:

Map 11

Map 16

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 2022 by tonytheparrot : sent it again too early, what the hell....

[kalaeth]

I did play MAP 16 yesterday, but it seems the forum lost my post... So no MAP 16 stats, but I do remember I died a lot and finished at 100% K/I/S, in about 6 minutes.

 

MAP 17 - Infiltration : 

Also, apparently I finished MAP !& with only 30-ish health. So let's infiltrate! We start in a small brick room that appears to have had a bit of ceiling failure, and then enter into the tech-base grey room, where two doors lead deeper inside, a old-school shrine with the YSK will be reached somewhere through there. Both doors lead to a outside court with at least 2 AVs, several chaingunners and god knows what else. And I die to an AV while trying to get some rockets. Retry. 

 In the second room there's a switch that opens up and gives us a RL, this time I save before going outside. Wisely, since I've already died thrice after. Fifth try I managed to kill the AV, then grab the not-so-secret backpack and then, switch and die to a skull flying towards me and a rocket. Next try I chaingun the PE first, SSG the rest and down the steps I go, then grab the plasma, up one of the chaingunners balcony, switch one, jump down, stairs down, other switch, grab the YSK, kill the AVs and the PE and the caco, go back, beware the chaingunner trap, then final fight : revs. I die to them, again, and then I manage to kill them all and there's one enemy to go.. I'm guessing it's an AV. So first I grab the cells, press switch one and then switch two.. It's actually a manc, uff. Done.

100% K/I/S, 8 deaths, 9 minutes 52 seconds.

 

MAP 18 - Somwhere in the Slime Ocean: 

Tiny room, a normal looking slime processing plant yard with a few imps. I kill them and then I die to the SSG trap. Second try I clear the yard and don't go for the SSG yet, and I die to the RL trap. Next try I go for the red key, and die to the unfair as f5ck rev... Next try, the rev won't show up unless you pass the trigger line, so I grab the key and go back, then red bars, red door, then back to trigger the rev fight. Die once, then succeed. Next, the SSG fight, done. Down, pass the pools, door, secret rockets, and instant death. Next try, another death. Next try I press the switch and run back, kill all, go down, and then die and die and die until I finally manage to kill the imps and the HK.

100% K/I/S, 9 deaths, 8 minutes 55 seconds

 

This level had some unfair enemy placement! 

 

MAP 19 - Brexin :

Hot start, and then entering a water corridor with a megasphere... And I die once, but next time I managed to clear the spiders, then switch to the BFG to clear the AV, then keep wasting all my ammo, after clearing everything, SSG cheese the HKs, grab the yellow key, kill the PEs, enter the yellow door, kill the AV, baron and the rest, secret megasphere, switch and die to the revs. And again, even with the BFG. Then eventually I survive, but then die to the cyber. Next time I save before facing the big cow, and when I fianlly kill him, there's still a wave of hitscanners outside, besides the AV and ressurected baddies inside.. Finally! 

100% all, not sure how many deaths but a lot, 12 minutes 50 seconds.

 

Total time 2 hours 54 minutes and 1 second.

[RED77]

Map 18

Pick Up.
Boobie Trap

Small crowded space.
Repeat till completion.
 

★☆☆☆☆ 

[tmorrow]

game mode:  gzdoom4.8.0, uvmax, pistol starts. If a map is too hard, I'll revert to using saves and note it on that map review.

---

map20

The episode 2 finale is a step down in difficulty from the previous map19. The action takes place in a mansion of sorts. There's even a hedge maze for doomguy to fight through and plenty of secrets to track down. The biggest battle is the one spawned after collecting the blue key, a wall comes down with 3 archviles and their buddies to contend with. There's a surprise spider mastermind in a cramped space behind the blue door guarding the exit. How did he even get in there? He can't fit through the door! Doomguy believes the spider mastermind was there first and refused to budge so they built mansion around him!

[Dersulbob]

Removed post as posted too soon.

Edited July 19, 2022 by Dersulbob

[Thelokk]

MAP19 - Brexin by Huber

HMP / 100% kills / 1 secret found

 

Holy crap, the secret trolled me hard the first time around. In spite of being the map where I finally had to downgrade from UV to HMP, Brexin also happens to be, in my opinion, the best map we've played so far. I'm a sucker for the METAL series, my favorite after CEMENT; and, while I'm usually not crazy for metal MIDIs, I really liked Huber's selection here. The custom Quake textures really added a special touch.

Overall, I also enjoyed the gameplay, which had bite but never felt cheap - a very real danger, considering the utterly dastardly use or AVs to delete a large chunk of your hard murdering effort. The cybie felt a bit... just kinda there to have a cybie, and was definitely one of the easiest ambushes of the map. 

Overall, I enjoyed this map a lot. It sort of channelled the MSCP spirit, but with mostly vanilla textures. Well done. 

[Book Lord]

MAP 20 – Charnage by Maëllig Desmottes @Ch0wW

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

 

The end of the second episode was set in a hellish temple with a texture pattern that felt both classic and unusual at the same time. I liked the room with the ZIMMER5 columns, it had proper lighting and enough detail for a speedmap. However, it soon became clear that the last Ch0wW entry was far from perfect, suffering from weird ammo balance for pistol start and strange design choices that slowed down the progression.

Spoiler

I restrained myself to provided weapons; unless the blind player owned a crystal ball, he would not find the SSG until he was very deep into the level, after being forced to gun down a lot of heavyweights with basic weapons or leave them be. The available ammo was ridiculous, and I exhausted all my shells and bullets to clear the first area. It was probably required to run past the roadblock in the water pond, enter the maze, and find better weapons there. Oh, the maze! No real danger awaited between the hedges, especially if the weapons were found right away. The biggest problem was reaching the YSK, which escaped me for a good while. It always takes me a long time to press a switch marked as a yellow key switch but intended as a means to reach said key. I am flabbergasted by the number of mappers that think this is a sound design principle. By the time I found how to progress, I had discovered 4 out of 5 secrets, which was enough to prove that weird ideas had been implemented.

 

Regardless of the number of deployed monsters, there was not much threat in the BSK segment. Pumping rockets was enough to keep the Arch-Viles at bay, and angled plasma shaving was the right answer to the intolerable Spider Mastermind in the exit room. This level had potential, but it got wasted with the unnecessary ammo starvation and strange choices. It seemed the author had something to communicate but failed to do it in the correct manner. The odd title spelling, which should be Carnage in French, is another example: why write it that way if it does not result in an understandable pun, and why give such a gruesome name to a level that never reached the intensity of a slaughter map?

[finnks13]

MAP19 - Brexin by WH-Whilou84:

12:46/6 Deaths
I definitely did a double take, when I saw this map's name...

 

Huber continues to carry this wad with this black and blue slaughterfest. The layout is fairly simple, with most of the action taking place in the large main area - but the combat is consistently really fun and engaging. I missed the rocket launcher for the majority of my first attempt, which made the larger waves rather tense to take out. The double cyberdemon ambush is the only point where I felt the action sag, mainly due to how long it takes to whittle them down. The visuals are top-notch, the deep blue water and sky work to create an oppressive atmosphere when combined with the dark metal, and the Hell Revealed 2 MIDI adds to this too. Fantastic map, probably the best in the wad so far.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 19: Brexin

by William Huber @WH-Wilou84

 

I don't know why William likes cough syrup so much. I guess you could say it's a method of using a drug reference without using a drug reference, but I'm tired, I played this for almost half an hour so time to get going (and I don't think I'll be doing a demo for the later maps, it's not legit having to rewind, but on the other hand...)

 

So there are lots of blue stripes everywhere. And right from the jump, you're attacked in some seriously cramped quarters, topped off by the Chaingunners teleporting behind you and possibly putting an end to your run before you even start. The music was cool, but that's a bad mood setter. A lift just past this takes you to the main room, where initial panic will kill many, and the teleporting Arch-viles in the little railed Imp room to your left. To the right are Arachnotrons, so no resting here. Then you have Revenants and Mancubi shooting at you from surrounding ledges, along with a couple of ledges of hell knight/barons and in one case an Arch-vile pair. I'm not completely certain when you're supposed to grab the rocket launcher, accessed from a ledge with a couple of Mancubi and probably shooting that definitely not obvious CC4 face texture than leaping to a ledge with some Hell Knights, but it should probably be after you've found the YK. Because a pistol starter that can not find it will be annhilated by the massive Revenant ambush, their cries truly those of the utterly damned. They're unfair in Combat Shock (I barely got past that stupid one in Map 04 after an hour of trying) and they're unfair here. This isn't something I'm remotely capable of without save-scumming. The subsequent fights, feauring a pair of Cyberdemons, and another mob which teleports in when you pick the RK up, were not up to this amount of pressure, not so surprising because Revenant armies are all but unstoppable. I found the two Pain Elementals at the end quite amusing though, like a poke in the eye for all the other nonsense you went through.

 

 

lmd_3ha2_19.zip

[RHhe82]

MAP20: Charnage. 83/83 K, 5/5 S. Completion time 11:15.

 

A sort of a breather map after the last map, it's decent, if not too exciting either. The hardest part is the beginning, When I ran out of ammo and hiding places I had to run through the place to the start of the hedge maze and make my stand there. After that it's more or less by the numbers. I really didn't appreciate the exit room guardian.

[Thelokk]

MAP20 - Charnage by Ch0wW

UV / 100% kills / 5 secrets found

 

Great map, if only because I can finally revel in some proper secret hunting! Granted, they're not byzantine scavenger hunts, but at least there is some effort on show. Visually the map is serviceable but not great, your typical marble hell with a few ZIMMER touches - still, more than acceptable for a 3 hour speedmap. The combat is rather tense at first, until you clear a bit of room for yourself, especially ridding of those pesky bony bastards who seem to be pretty much everywhere. Pinkies make a good shield against their rockets! A few surprise popups - including a very in your face manc - and a rather simple labyrint where a large chunk of the secrets are offloaded. Make sure to pay a second visit to the entrance before you leave! A couple of barons guard the entrance, a nuisance and nothing more.

 

Not quite as pleasing as MAP19, but still a decent offering. By the way, I will be skipping MAP21... guess why. 

[Lingyan203]

 

Late to the party, but here's my playthrough of the wad

[Dersulbob]

MAP20 - Charnage

 

I really the setting of this map, It feels like some sort of castle built over an entryway to hell.

 

Unfortunately there were too many things that irritate me for me to truly enjoy this one. After the decent first fight in what I think of as the entrance hall, the pop-up encounters I despised in MAP18 returned, which got an audible groan from me each time.

 

After that you make your way in the castle grounds where you find a hedge maze. I don't typically enjoy playing through labyrinths in doom and this did nothing to change my mind, particularly because the enemies were all already awake as I entered the area, meaning anything could show up around the corner at any point without any real warning.

 

After two decent fights before and after picking up the blue key, the final fight was with a Spider Mastermind, completely neutered due to it's placement in the tiny exit room.

 

Admittedly the things I disliked about this map are entirely subjective things that I personally dislike in Doom, but unfortunately this resulted in one of my least favourite experiences in this megaWAD so far.

 

Grade - C-

 

[TheLippyServer]

Map 20 - "Charnage" (by Ch0wW)

A small, adventure style outing from Ch0wW with a nifty hedge maze that's executed fairly well (I kinda wish some of the enemies didn't wake up and wander into the building before you get out there though), and lots of secrets to find but not much else that's particularly memorable. I remember feeling a little under equipped before going back and finding secrets (one of which I thought was pretty obscure), but that may have just been bad play on my part. Silly mastermind at the exit too.

 

6.5/10

[Poncho1]

Map19: Brexin

Author: William Huber (WH-Wilou84)

 

A semi-slaughter rampage through an abstract tech facility. The claustrophobic fight out of the beginning room is a sign of things to come: the meat of the map takes place in a large outdoor area with tech islands dotted around, and side areas where Barons, Hell Knights, Revenants and Mancubi send hailstorms of projectiles your way. Arachnotrons on the ground and Arch-viles in caged-off areas only add to the insanity. As the map progresses, the level opens up more with batallions of Revenants, swarms of Cacodemons and Pain Elementals, a pair of Cyberdemons and - naturally - a rush of Arch-viles intent on undoing your hard work. Wilou paces the action in such a way to make the odds against you, but never overly so, handing out the necessary equipment and leaving several items (Supercharges and the like) to make the experience a lot of fun. This is a map with just the right amount of each enemy type, the right amount of space to make combat manoeuvre-able whilst still feeling challenging, and the right amount of difficulty, all backed by "Last Wish" from Hell Revealed II, one of my all-time favourite MIDIs. The best map in the WAD so far.

[Biodegradable]

MAP20: Charnage

UV | Continuous | GZDoom

 

I'd say this is arguably Ch0wW's best map of the WAD. While it has some weak points such as the rather tedious hedgemaze, the combat was never dull save for the awkwardly-placed SpiderMum at the very end. That just felt rather silly, if I'm being honest. Ch0wW also proved too clever for me as I was unable to figure out the majority of their secrets, which I guess either also shows some improvement or just evidence that my secret-hunting skills are still in desperate need of sharpening. Regardless, this map flowed decently, the combat was cool and visually the map held up rather well. Each map this mapper provided imagination and a willingness to try and that alone should be celebrated. Given how old this particular WAD is now, I can only imagine how much better Ch0wW's current output must be provided they're still around and making stuff, which I hope is the case.

 

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Biodegradable

[kalaeth]

MAP 20 - Charnage : 

A pair of imps, and a jump down to the water, teleport back up and now another teleport, and immediately I'm met by some rev balls to the face. Switch to the RL to clear the caged one, SSG for the free roaming one and the pinkies. Up ahead, another rev and a fireboy and a fatboy. I end up shooting the wall, somehow, and die. Retry.

Again on the next room, I clear it from outside and then more revs pop up while I'm trying to rocket the AV and I die.

This third time I managed to kill the AV before stepping into the room, then I trigger the revs, go out, rocket them, next room, chaingun the pop-up manc, two doors. I pick one at random, it's a hedge maze, find one switch, fins the SSG, find the mandatory AV, secret teleport to the plasma gun, secret backpack, YSK marked not YSK needing switch, steps into the YSK, jump down. Yellow door, kill the pinkies and the barons and the cacos, grab everything before picking up the bluesphere blueskull combo. Wall opens, a single AV with some imps.. Not bad.Back, blue door, back, blue door, two barons, exit. But! I'm missing secrets and enemies. One of the secrets has to be the gap... Yup, two switches lift the bridge, cross, grab the blue armor, then.. Ah! Another secret and now only one more to go... AH, it was this one, it judt didn't trigger on the way in, only on the way out. Still two enemies to go.. Somewhere in the maze? Yeah, that was it. And exit.

 

100% K/I/S, 3 deaths, 11 minutes and 25 seconds.

 

Total : 3 hours 5 minutes and 26 seconds.

[Azure_Horror]

MAP19 - “Brexin” (by William Huber)

Dsda-doom, UV-max, pistol start.

After short, but nefarious map 18, we ready to face next challenge. Map 19 is a ‘real’ slaughter map of 220-monster.

 

In many ways, map 19 feels like a sibling of William Huber's map 31. The name “Brexin” is another medical reference, like “Dextromethorphane 84%”. Both map 19 and map 31 have a slaughter-ish gameplay, somewhat reminiscent of Hell Revealed. And the aesthetics of both maps also a bit similar. “Brexin” is composed of dark metal structures and colorful blue elements. Such texture choice feels like a foil to Gold-Silver visual design of map 31.

 

Moreover, Dark Walls + Bright Color approach is a traditional visual design for challenging maps. Even Plutonia Eperiment’s infamous map 15 (Twilight) has Dark Walls + Bright Red color scheme. Nowadays, Dark Walls + Bright Color combination is even more famous, thanks to the works of Ribbiks (Stardate20X, Swim with the Whales, Magnolia, etc.). In this context, Dark Metal + Colorful Blue texture scheme of “Brexin” looks as a small nod to Swim with the Whales (SwotW was released in 2013, a year before 3 Heures d'Agonie 2)

 

Ok, visual design of map 19 is pretty and all that, but what about the gameplay?

 

Introductory section of the “Brexin” challenges the player with a nasty set of small monsters in a tiny room. Once the player fires a shot, the map set off its first trap. Two chaingunners appear right behind Doomguy (Nothing pesonnel, kid ). After map 18, this initial evil encounter does not seem too vicious, but it sets a perfect mood for the slaughter ahead.

 

The main area of the map is filled by archnotrons and perched snipers. The sniping archviles are the most annoying, but revenant, mancubi and hell noble snipers are also dangerous. At this stage, the player should gather the power weapons and get enough supplies to take on the monster hordes. Clearing the monsters is encouraged, because both the yellow key and yellow door compartments are filled with beefy monsters.

 

The main action begins after clearing the yellow door hallway. This hallway contains a single secret of the map, and also allows to start the main action sequence. After two button presses realese the huge horde of revenants. This fight is, arguably, the toughest on the map.

Here, the secret area comes very handy. It gives access to both a megasphere and a very convenient balcony on the opposite side from the yellow door. By teleporting between the yellow door and the balcony, the player can easily herd the revenants, while remaining in relative safety. The main risk is running out of rockets.

The rev horde can also be fought inside the main big room. This is harder, but doable. To win the rev fight, it is best to use rockets at long range and switch to plasma, when skelebros get too close.

After the rev fight, another two button presses will release the two cyberdemons. Those guys are tough, but less tough than skelebro horde. If the player so desires, they can release the cybers before clearing the revenant horde. This leads to some juicy infighting.

The cyber lair contains the last important button. This button unlocks the red key, and with the red key in hand, the player can exit the level.

Aside from bigger monster waves, the map also unleash smaller monster squads, consisting, of cacos, pain elementals, archviles, and numerous low-tiers. Those waves are less demaniding, than the bigger fights, by they are still not harmless.

In total, the fights on “Brexin” leave a great impression.

 

“Brexin” is an approchable and very enjoyable slaughter map.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Azure_Horror : Many silly grammar mistakes

[tonytheparrot]

Played from a pistol-start on UV with Prboom+, saves are allowed)

Map 20: Charnage by Maëllig "Choww" Desmottes

106% kills, 66% items and 100% secrets

Time: 6:09

 

Charnage is Choww's last entry in 3ha2, a hellish castle with a cute hedge maze on it's backyard. Outside of the high amount of secrets compared to the rest of the wad, this map is not too memorable, but it provides a nice break between the last few maps and the next episode, which is a feeling reinforced by the Doom 2 story text midi. Combat-wise, Charnage is much easier than Choww's last map, mostly because you get a ton of rockets and a plasma rifle if you explore enough (especially in the maze), allowing you to destroy everything in your path. However, sometimes a good power fantasy is all we need to have fun. Overall, it's an enjoyable map.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 19

Map 31

Map 6

Map 32

Map 18

Map 3

Map 5

Really Like:

Map 12

Map 17

Map 8

Map 13

Map 4

Map 14

Map 20

Map 7

Map 9

Like:

Map 2

Map 1

Map 10

Mediocre:

Map 15

Dislike:

Map 11

Map 16