The DWmegawad Club plays: 3 Heures d'Agonie 2

[RHhe82]

MAP25: Crise Infernale. 69/69 K, 2/2 S. Completion time 9:30.

 

Angry map! I quite liked it, it follows the red brick aesthetic, and assaults the player brutally. Plasma gun saves the day here. One problem I had was the baron elevator. It was visually cool, but a chore to kill les barons with archviles lurking behind them.

[Book Lord]

MAP 26 – Pacte de Noirceur by William Huber @WH-Wilou84

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

 

WH-Wilou84 could not just take the leave without presenting one last map, his hardest concept for this megaWAD. No drugs this time, but the allusion to a dark pact, possibly sworn by the hellspawn to kill Doomguy once and for all. This is the likely outcome of the first few attempts if pistol starting; once the SSG was acquired, the cavern was suddenly swarmed by enemies from all directions, in numbers that could not be kept at bay with buckshot. Arch-Viles were stationed everywhere to prevent the player from finding a camping spot, and there were zero chances to kill them right away. After dying a lot, I decided to rush for the teleporter in the west. It sent me to an enclosed cave with the YSK and an essential rocket launcher.

Spoiler

I returned for the reckoning and claimed several dozen demonic heads. The yellow door was to the south, behind the Mancubi, and led me to a large grotto with a structure that worked like the one in MAP27: Monster Condo. The four sections lowered one by one, revealing different enemies, summoning others nearby or in distant places, and opening new closets. The 20 Revenants would have been easy without the two Arch-Viles spawning in the flight path. Eventually, I found the BSK and returned to the main cavern, only to find it repopulated with hitscanners and Hell Nobles.

Spoiler

Pressing the blue switch was saluted by another wave, featuring mostly flying monsters and lots of healers, a safe bet considering the mass of corpses that littered the floor at that stage. Pacte de Noirceur was not over, as one last, treacherous fight had been planned in the dungeon behind the blue bars. It involved the nastiest elements of the bestiary, from the Shotgun Guys to the Cyberdemon, all placed with extreme accuracy. I admit that this congested, disorienting fight gave me a hard time: I died many times and I succeeded only because the Cyberdemon got randomly locked in place. He was almost torn to pieces by a Spectre. This gave me the time to kill the Revenants and some Arch-Viles, who negated a lot of space. Whew, this was no cakewalk by any means; WH-Wilou84 bid farewell with his stiffest entry in the megaWAD, featuring deviously placed enemies and situations where the player was often in a disadvantaged position. All was technically amazing, but I had more fun playing MAP31 and MAP19.

[RHhe82]

MAP26: Pacte Noirceur. 284/284 K, 1/1 S. Completion time 26:30.

 

A great map, I gotta check what Wilou maps I have played before and if I liked them too.

 

Pacte Noirceur is well above my skill level to say the least, though, I have to rely on my luck quite a bit. One complaint: it looks like the blue skull key bars is a point of no return? I rushed there with plans to return once I had more ammo (rockets) to deal with archviles left in the main arena, but it turned out I had to resort to an esoteric technique called idclippe, which is a bit disappointing, but what can you do; I wasn't going to replay to map anytime soon.

[brick]

MAP24 - “Supplice Claustrophobe” by Datacore
A very beautiful, very atmospheric map. Pros will not like that it seems tuned to the easier side but I enjoyed not having to kill revenant hordes and a half dozen archviles on HNTR for a change! I liked some of the visual cues that help progression and keep it from being obscure, and while there's quite a bit of back and forth and switch-hunting the small size once again makes it much more palatable. One of my favourites so far.

 

MAP25 - “Crise Infernale” by franckFRAG
Another very hot start, though it's not so bad once you get a foothold. The hellish theme is done quite well and the open layout is done well, though it does make the start trickier. I thought the gameplay was ok, though the final ambush has been done so many times it's very predictable, which is a shame because it's actually telegraphed quite nicely visually.

 

MAP26 - “Pacte de Noirceur” by William Huber
The polar opposite of MAP24. A mini-slaughter map with ~200 enemies on Easy, lots archviles, tons of revenants, cyberdemon in tight spaces, and absolutely no concession for novice players. If you're pistol-starting I hope you like the SSG, because (unless you find the secret rocket launcher) it and the chaingun is all you'll have against the revenant walls, archviles, barons, mancubi, and more, until something better shows up halfway into the map. Many will probably enjoy this one but it's really not my thing. I remember that the French speedmap CPs do turn more slaughter in their final act, so I'm dreading that this is only a sign of things to come.

 

I likely won't have much time next month and it seems pretty clear which wad will win, if it does I'll have to skip it because it seems great and I want to be able to dedicate it the time it deserves. So I'll vote for wads that I have a better change of keeping up with.

+++ 3 Heures d'Agonie 1

+++ Altars of Madness (first one if combined with others)
+++ Doom 2 In Spain Only

[Deadwing]

+++Running Late 2, Altars Of Madness, What Remains

+++Cydonia & Arrival

+++Ray Mohawk 1/2 

Edited July 26, 2022 by Deadwing

[Roofi]

Map 26 - "Pacte de noirceur"

 

 

Lots of midtiers, nasty ambushes involving arch-viles , a cyberdemon in tight space, Pacte de noirceur is the hardest map in 3ha2 for me. It's not harder of course compared to a lot of wads from today but it appear that the infamous map 28 caused me a lot less trouble than that one.

 

The toughest part resides more in the blue key's room fights than in the ambush involving the cyberdemon. I prefer dodging some cyberdemon's rockets than an army of revenants in an enclosed space. Because of the high difficulty and the trap-heavy progression Pact of Darkness reminds me of Death-Destiny"s maps.

 

Beside the gameplay, I love the mysterious ambiance created by the dark brown and the flashy orange, the black coal and  the hypnotic music composed by Stuart Rynn. The atmosphere oddly made me feel relaxed.

 

Anyway , Pacte de Noirceur is my second favourite map from Wilou. It's a fascinating cavern to explore.

 

Also, fun fact,  map 26 has a very similar name to map 29 of 3ha3 which is called "Serment de noirceur".

 

 

Grade : B+

 

 

 

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 26: Pacte De Noirceur by William "WH-Wilou-84" Huber

107% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 14:23

 

Pacte de Noirceur is Wilou's final outing in 3ha2 and it doesn't disappoint. This map is very pretty and atmospheric thanks not only to the contrast between the occasional bright colours and the darker ones of the walls and marble, but also the excellent Stewboy track from SOD. On top of that, the gameplay is great and still very tough despite ammo being tighter, the enemy count lower (relatively speaking) and the pace slower than in Wilou's other levels. Some fights, especially the Monster Condo-esque area in which you drop wave after wave of enemies or the final fight with the cyberdemon are especially dangerous. Despite all my praise, this map is actually my least favorite Wilou level in the set as it feels like it is the grindiest of his entries and I slightly prefer the encounters in his other 3 works, even if I still can't say that Pacte De Noirceur isn't an excellent map.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 19

Map 23

Map 31

Map 6

Map 32

Map 26

Map 18

Map 3

Map 5

Really Like:

Map 12

Map 17

Map 8

Map 13

Map 21

Map 4

Map 25

Map 14

Map 20

Map 7

Map 9

Like:

Map 24

Map 22

Map 2

Map 1

Map 10

Mediocre:

Map 15

Dislike:

Map 11

Map 16

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by tonytheparrot : moved the update of my votes to map 25 for convenience sake

[Thelokk]

MAP25 - Crise Infernale by franckFRAG

MAP26 - Pacte de Noirceur by William Huber

UV / 100% kills / all secrets found

 

Commenting these two together 'cause I caught up on the same day, and they were both equally forgettable for very similar reasons.

First of all, repeat with me, slowly: 'choking your level with archviles does not make for compelling gameplay'. There. To put archvile traps all over the place, in the hope of some banal 'gotcha!' moment is the kind of rookie thing I would hope franckFRAG and Huber didn't need to resort to: yet, both of their maps would hit like a wet piece of paper, if it wasn't for annoying (yes, I said annoying, not challenging) archviles placed all over the map as artificial difficulty inflation. It's a cheap trick that is bothersome the first time around, let alone the fifth or sixth.

FRAG's map at least has the mercy of being short and not overstaying its equally short welcome; Huber's, on the other hand, wastes a lot of space in large rooms that, when not  furnished with archviles, offer little more challenge than a map01-map05 slot. Just peek, hide, and let everything kill itself. I found both map's texture work unremarkable, including Huber's puzzling and out of place SHAWN abuse.

As we play further, I have sadly seen the wad's quality overall decrease, rather than increase, and the starting floor wasn't really that high to begin with. I wonder what awaits me for the next four maps (certainly nothing good, as I understand map30 is a IoS fight...)

[Biodegradable]

MAP26: Pacte De Noirceur

UV | Continuous | GZDoom

 

SO MANY FUCKING PAIN ELEMENTALS!

 

Ahem, yes, Wilou's phase three is upon us and he holds nothing back. It's pretty much the most slaughter-esque map we've encountered thus far, but our man once again proves he is as kind as he is cruel and continues to provide you with a healthy amount of supplies to make sure you're up to the task. That being said, pistol-starters will receive a huge dollop of pain once the first trap is set loose upon them, holy shit! Fortunately for me, I'd been hoarding a lot of plasma that I hadn't used in a while and a BFG to help things run smoothly. There was also one trap that allowed me to exploit a block line once I was able to make my way around it, though Wilou came prepared with a surprise Archie from back the way I came to keep me on my toes. The map repopulating itself as you make your way back to get to the exit is definitely the most trying as the cheeky bastard farts out a huge, huge Caco-cloud with a sprinkling of Pain Elementals. My god, so goddamn many of the buggers that I eventually decided I was better off making a run for it than letting the behemoth of floating anguish eat all my ammo, which turned out to be a good decision. Why? Because dear reader, Wilou pulls the rug underneath me with a surprise final fight with closer quarters completely surrounded, enveloped by pools of lava and a Cyberdemon directly behind me. It's a great fight though and I kept a cool head and use the environment to my advantage. That was definitely my favourite part, honestly.

 

 

[kalaeth]

let's agonize a bit more, shall we?

 

MAP 26 - Pacte de Noirceur : 

Again with the chaingun. There's lava, some steps, a pair of nasty chaingunners waiting for you to step into their field of view and some imps, an SSG with a ton of shells, armor... And a wall with a face... Oh damn! That's a lot of monsters. I die to the AV while 'exploring'. Retry. Again, I die to the AV. I believed he was dead, I was wrong. Next try, I go down and find out there's even more AVs? Fourth try I decide to say "f5ck it" and use the BFG to clear the field a bit, then rocket the revs and then up the steps and.. Oh gods, another AV? Ok, dead, clear the ledge, teleport. Shotgunners, imps, revs... Did the mapper forget the AV? Yellow key, imp, HK, baron. Secret Rl, and yeah, no AV yet. Cool. Off to the wall of mancubi and then the yellow door. Not-secret RL, and another wall of mancubi. Berserk, more ammo, blue armor, switch. Hks, fine. Revs, fine. Oh the wall falls. More revs. Way more revs. Barons and an AV somewhere? Dead. Next time I know what is comming so I can clear the wall of revs with a blast or two of BFG and then clear the room with the RL, and there's just 3 more barons. Right? No? More AVs you say? Oh, ok. The bluesphere was totally wasted. Then its a wall of hitscanners and nobles! Oh yeah, and another AV. OFC. A ton of rockets after, up we go and SURPRISE! another AV. Switch, and there's no way anyone could have predicted this, but there's another AV! Also, some cacos and two pain elementals because... Well you know. Kill those, go outside and the revs are up, cacos still roam, a PE was still hiding there to shoot a skull at just the perfect time for me to catch it with a rocket too close to my face. So it's not one but actually two AVs... So now, teleport, pass where the blue bars were, down we go. Kill cacos, switch and.. Yeah, f5ck this. I'm off to lunch. I'll decide if I want to finish the insane amount of AVs all around after.

 After lunch, somewhere around try what felt like 100 I managed to grab a foothold and from there clear the map, with the help of the BFG.

 

100% K/I/S, a f5ckton of deaths, 13 minutes and 18 seconds (that took way over 1 hour of actual playtime)

 

totals : 

4 hours 6 minutes and 35 seconds.

[RED77]

Map 25

 

This is an ULTRA-short-heavy-action Map.
Loved it. Good secrets, good setting. good variety. I think it's one of my favorites so far. 

★★★★★

[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.

---

map27

Oxyde slams down a ferocious map with a burning hot start. Doomguy had a bit of trouble getting a start on this map but enjoyed the challenge. Once he finally got a good run, he found most of the rest of the gameplay to be less callous and easier to handle. Every new trigger brings new enemies with archviles in the mix. No shotgun is provided and only limited chaingun, so a lot of doomguys battles are at short range. You do pick up a plasma rifle but you want to save cells for the crucial battles, i.e. that last couple of waves. Oxyde decided that one cybie is not enough so he has 2 guarding the exit.

There's an important non official secret on this map.
 

Spoiler

On the north end of the map, you can run off over the pit and onto the alcove where the baron was (marked by 2 candles) and collect an invulnerability sphere behind a false wall. It's a little tricky to nail the jump. Doomguy saves it for one of the last 2 waves.

 

[kvothesixstring]

 

+++Ray Mohawk 1/2

Edited July 31, 2022 by kvothesixstring

[Azure_Horror]

MAP25 - “Crise Infernale” (by franckFRAG) 

Dsda-doom, UV-max, pistol start.

 

Another vicious compact map from franckFRAG.

While his map 13 reminded me of Going Down, map 25 feels more like a Scythe 1 episode 3 map. Miniature, but relentless and deadly.

 

Very good secret design. Map is perfectly beatable without the secrets, but the secret SSG and Soulsphere allow for much more reckless playstyle.

 

Map does have one obvious imperfection. Blue key room is a bit obtuse. The specters inside add nothing but annoyance, and a baron gate is definitely too thick. I would replace 4 of the barons with some combination of revs and hell knights to make the door less of a chore.

 

Aside from the blue key, the map is extremely fun. The final room provided my favorite single-archvile ambush in a while. There is a lot of plasma and some medkits, so the player can just stay and fight. But if the player hesitates, the archvile can literally kick the player out of the room. Funny, when that happens, and also allow the archie to ressurect all the revenants in peace.

 

Great map.

 

MAP26 - “Pacte de Noirceur” (by William Huber)

Dsda-doom, UV-max, pistol start.

 

My opinion: “Pacte de Noirceur” is not fun, nor is it interesting or novel for the most part.

For the most part, map is filled with claustrophobic encounters with fat monsters and super shotgun combat. Tried and tested approach, but also banal and grindy.

 

Wanna to ignore fat monsters and run to the next exiting battle? Say goodbye to your health bar!

Wanna have some fun by fully utilising your rocket launcher at the wrong time? Prepare to watch helplessly, as two archviles undo all your hard work.

Wanna to use a lot of plasma? Good luck, you have made the final fight much more annoying.

 

“Pacte de Noirceur” has 4 somewhat memorable pieces

1) stationary archviles in annoying places.

2) start of the first big fight (the chaingunner wall mini-puzzle).

3) blue key fight.

4) ending fight.

 

Let's discuss the above points in order.

1) Stationary archviles. They are repetitive. Thus, memorable. For all the wrong reasons.

 

2) The start of the first big battle is an interesting combat puzzle. The firing squad of chaingunners appears. From other directions, big fat monsters advance. Your weapons are the super shotgun and the chaingun. Any cover will be overrun by midtiers, if you try to hole up in there.

 

What should you do?

 

You should run towards the chaingunners and provoke them, of course!

Do not attack them! With bullets flying in every direction, the chaingunners are bound to wound each other. This leads to a big infight party, and soon enough, some of the other monsters will join too. This is a very reliable way of dealing with the chaingunner problem.

But what happens when the chaingunners are dead? You circlestrafe around and clean all the monsters with SSG. You need to do that, otherwise you will not be able to get into the yellow door.

 

The fight is essentially won in 20 seconds, but can drag out for 3 minutes, or more! And the cleanup process is boring, banal, and grindy. Dear map makers, do not design your fights in such a way!

 

3) Blue key fight brings an interesting rev horde, some zoning archviles, and juicy fat barons for infighting. But! It also has almost no cover in the final wave. This wave contains two archviles. In a room with dead revenants and barons (dead or alive – it does not matter in that case). Have fun! Either you dispose of the archviles immediately – or the battle is pretty much lost. For bonus points – the final wave can be triggered accidentally.

William Huber, you forgot to spice your Sadistic Encounter with Fun!

 

4) Final fight is a messy battle in a small room against a cyberdemon and some fat monsters. Fast-paced and, on its own, exiting. But we already had ending cybers in maps 22, 23, 24 and 31. Cyberdemon finales are getting a tad repetitive. And if the player comes to the final without a big pile of cells – than the final battle becomes pretty annoying and less dynamic.

 

The aesthetics of the map are cozy, but not as cool as in maps 08, 31, or 32. The secret rocket luancher is there, but its is almost irrelevant (too little rockets). This map has some promise, but firing SSG at big monsters gets old eventually.

 

If this was a rocket-focused map – it would be pretty exiting. All clean up fights would be quicker, and the claustrophobic encounter design would keep the map challenging. Alas, “Pacte de Noirceur” is a SSG-focused map, and a pretty grindy one too.

Edited July 27, 2022 by Azure_Horror : Formatting, a bit better phrasing

[Paf]

+++Running Late 2, Altars Of Madness, What Remains
+++Ray Mohawk 1/2

Edited July 30, 2022 by Paf

[finnks13]

MAP26 - Pacte de Noiceur by WH-Whilou84:

14:44/2 Deaths
I hate to say this, but I wasn't a fan of this map - the fun fights that flow nicely into each other are replaced by dull, easy to tackle ambushes that show an uncharacteristic lack of thought. The best bit of the map is the start, you're thrust into a very bad situation and must flee to safety but this is easier said than done, as revenants, hell knights and archviles will block you. The biggest example of the dull combat comes in the blue key room, after a boring nod to Monster Condo, a massive group of revenants appears from behind a wall, with three archviles blocking the exit, but due to a very odd monster blocking line, it's very easy to kill the archviles and then demolish this very harsh ambush with zero threat to your safety. The rest of the map can be summed up as having too many barons and not enough incentive to actually engage with the fights. The large pain elemental cloud that appears upon hitting the blue switch only comes from two of the three entrances to the main cave, and slowly SSGing them all to death from the safety of the third is not fun. Visually, this is the most "speedmappy" that Huber's maps have looked in this wad, it's not awful but pretty bland.

 

~~~

Since I forgot to vote yesterday, here we go:

+++ Cydonia and Arrival

+++ Fragport

+++ Solar Struggle

[cannonball]

MAP25 - “Crise Infernale” by franckFRAG

ANother very short map by this author. There are a couple of gripes here, the blue key is a sloggy mound of meat that is more of a chore to get through, the other are the hillsides with the imps/hellknights that can be a little annoying to hit because of the bordering wall. Otherwise this was fine, tough but fair is the best way to describe this. The ending suggests that speedrunning would be actively encouraged given the mass of cells by the exit switch.

 

MAP26 - “Pacte de Noirceur” by William Huber

This was a little slow going for my liking (AKA a few too many moments where you had to chew through a large clump of monsters to proceed with little threat), these included the Mancubi that I returned to for the yellow key door. There was plenty of smart fights in here too, the blue key section with the lowering pillars where infighting is well advised is a nice tough, you can accidentally bite off more than you can chew there. I really liked the red key fight, monsters are well positions and there isn't too much to clean up afterwards.

Overall, this was a rather mixed map in terms of the combat, some good, some sluggish. Still, this was an enjoyable experience.

 

[sandwedge]

Played maps 19-21 to warm up on the stream last night before Sunlust.  19 was good and reused the central area rather well, always like a nice revenant swarm.  Map 20 was ok until the hedge maze and the misleading switch with a yellow key pattern on it, which kinda ruined it for me.  And map 21 was overshadowed by a silly conversation we were having, as usual LOL.

 

(link to wad start time)

 

 

Oh and also,

 

+++Ray Mohawk 1/2

[Monsieur E]

Map26- Pacte de Noirceur by William Huber
100% kills 

Pistol starting UV Max-ers beware, this level is gonna be a chore. WH's final map is unfortunately, my least favorite of his in the set. The first fight is my favorite in the map, a kind of frenetic rush for you to pick and eliminate the most dangerous targets to negotiate a strong position to thin the rest of the herd. Navigate the caverns, pick up the yellow key, get rid of the dummy mancubi meat wall (like, why is that even there they barely are a threat even if you decide to burn them with your super shotgun) and enter the blue key room.

The blue key room is a cool setup but I think it was largely wasted potential. The fight preceding the clutter of revenants aren't much to note really and the revenant team itself are easy to bottleneck and dispose of. If that was restricted however, the proper area isn't spacious enough and/or offers too little cover to allow for the fight to be organized such. Regardless, I'm a little biased towards simple revenant bombardment setups so I can't say I was disappointed :P

Then there's the massive hell noble wall with zombies sprinkled in which is... yeah no, this just blatantly sucked. There's not much of a challenge here since you're far enough to reduce the chance of severe hitscan damage as well as being easy to dodge the noble projectiles. Put your chaingun to use and clear out the zombies, probe for a weak spot and carve through it. After this, just wrap up the crowd which is simple but a tad tedious. Be frugal with your cells and rockets though, you'll need them for the main clean up coming up.

The real shame is the crowd of cacodemons and pain elementals because it starts off really exciting in a vein to the first fight and if I didn't decide to aim 100% kills, I think I would've liked this map better. The cleanup here isn't enjoyable since you've likely diminished your cell and rocket counts forcing you to rely on your super shotgun to window-clean the cloud. This could have benefitted greatly from more rockets or cells; unfortunately as it is, I dislike it quite a bit.

Oh and, in general, I think there was an excess of archvile snipers placed in this level but eh, they're not too bothersome. The final arena is cool too I guess but I'm largely indifferent towards it. Visually, this map looks really good and I like the MIDI selection but yeah, largely a miss otherwise. 

 

[Napsalm]

 

+++Ray Mohawk 1/2

Edited July 30, 2022 by Napsalm

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 26: Pacte de Norcieur

by @WH-Wilou84

 

Slick Willy returns with might be his best outing so far. Or perhaps not if you cheated on the last maps with rewinding while I did. But while 31 relied excessively on brute force and 19 was sort of a Joshy tribute, this volcanic cavern throws large hordes at you while giving you room to breathe (and that's what she said). Like, take the first main encounter. Personally, I went after the chaingunners first (ill advised in normal situationns) went to the little river cubby with the Hell Knights which sort of became my nest for later fights, and I'd then proceed to chaingun the Revenant trio while leaving a fair number of Hell Knights/Barons alive. Like others have said, the Arch-viles in cubbies thorughout basically exist to keep pressing you forward (....) and it proves shockingly effective.

 

In some ways, I think thelokk is right as you can cheese a fair amount of encounters but if you've ever seen William Huber uncloaked, you can probably guess why such a possibility exists. But see, I'm not good enough to fight off a ridiculously tight () noble trap near the YK without stepping back and teleporting a bit, and since there seems to be a monster-blocking line a foor or two from the teleporter...you can probably guess where that ended up. In the same area is a not-especially concealed secret marked by a candle containing a rocket launcher. Deprivation can only last so long before pleasure after all.

 

With the hidden rocket launcher, it's far less tedious to clean up the remains in the main room before going behind the yk, dealing with some annoying Spectres who killed me when I rushed the chaingunners with rockets and then came upon the next trap: a sequential series of fights where Arch-viles are sprung at two different locations along with, of course, a murder of Revenants ready to pounce on shitty players. But I actually survived this one, believe it or not. Given my poor play in some other wads, that was rather surprising. I think you end up with the BK at this point. Then back in the main room, you kill some Cacos, press the blue switch and get ready to deal with a massive collection of flying beasties, 4 Pain Elementals among them, along with several more Arch-viles among them. After some mad survival skills that basically led to the expending of all my remaining rockets/plasma, I ended up going to where the blue bars were and dropping down into an inescapable dirt tunnel.

 

The two Cacodemons here provided no trouble and it soon became evident that the nastiest trap yet awaited! That's a room which surrounds you with lava, hitscanners, Imps, Demons, and nobles, along with a hapless Arch-vile and Cyberdemon behind you. I would've have certainly died from the cyber rockets more than twice if I hadn't reloaded; there was literally no room and the nobles effectively limited my options here. The distant Revenants were really no threat here and were dispatched afterwards. A single Imp awaited in the exit room, plumb for the taking and feeling like a real joke ending after all of the madness encountered before.

 

I liked the last map better I guess. Still probably third best.

[Book Lord]

MAP 27 – Passage a Vide by Arnaud Florian @Oxyde

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

 

The intensity of 3 Heures d’Agonie 2 reached the apex with the last submission by oxyde, whose creations progressively shrank in size while brimming with enemies. 174 monsters on a 2638 x 1664-unit map meant the scenery was crowded from the very start, requiring a swift reaction to break out from an uncomfortable siege and reach a safer spot in the halls, out of the Arch-Viles’ gaze. Monster blocking lines kept the snipers on their ledges, like in MAP23 but more efficiently, so once I cleared a path to the Soul Sphere and to the gargoyle switch, the map went downhill for a while.

Spoiler

I was playing continuous, so ammo was not an issue, but I saw my rockets, plasma and shells diminish steadily as I moved from one congested encounter to the next, with frequent Arch-Viles deployments that granted lively intermissions and plenty of resurrections. The resulting 136% kill score was a proof of the healers’ extraordinary activity, and a reason behind the exhausted ammo reserves. I am not sure if balance is ok for pistol starters, I do not know how they are supposed to contain the never-ending enemy waves with the finite ammo pickups.

 

Health was assured by plenty of spheres in the secrets, and there was an unfathomable Invulnerability in an alcove reached by strafe jumping, either missing the secret sector effect or deliberately hard to find. The power-up could come in handy for the final Cyberdemon duo, since the ammo to kill them was stored in the exit room and collecting it under their noses was only for the brave. Oxyde delivered fierce, uncompromised aggression in a compact layout and probably deserved the hardest speedmap trophy for this megaWAD, even though MAP26 by WH-Wilou84 was longer and with extremely awkward situations at the start and right before the end. MAP28 competes in another weight category, as we will see tomorrow.

[Roofi]

Map 27 - Passage à vide

 

 

"Passage à vide" deserves the trophy of the hottest start in the whole megawad. You barely open your eyes and you see an army of imps and hell knights nibbling your vital space in record time. You hear the legendary midi "Goin' to the fast way" from ROTT and you instantly know with what you're dealing with : an compact map with intense combats.

 

Contrary to many people, I have a lot of foreknowledge about this wad. I know when traps occur and where the secrets are. Passage à vide figures among the hardest maps of course but , for me it's a bit easier than map 26 for two reasons : Oxyde tends to overuse the "block monsters" linedefs which greatly help for camping and cheesing the nastiest traps , and the three secrets prove to be extremly generous because you can get 2 soulspheres and 1 megasphere.

 

Compared to the two other entries by Oxyde, There is much less emphasis on the aesthetics. Of course you can find the same elegant black and white checkboard floor but it's less apparent. Most of the map had been built with marble. It's pretty generic, "Passage à vide" is a lot gameplay-centric. The use of a ROTT soundtrack reminds a bit of the good old HR maps.

 

Edit : I forgot there was an invulnerability in this map haha

 

Grade : B

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Roofi

[Biodegradable]

MAP27: Passage a Vide

UV | Continuous | GZDoom

 

Another map that makes me thank Satan for my complete lack of interest in pistol-starting because Oxyde drops the gauntlet on the player from the outset with this overbearing, compact nightmare of pea-soup marble and blood. Progression is very trap-heavy and will quickly make you paranoid of just how many Archies will teleport in with every move you make as you navigate this map. Imps, Hell Nobles and Mancs play a particularly heavy role as they serve their Archie generals with a smattering of Revs. Hitscanners are absent for the most part with scant use of the Chaingunner. The Red Door/Yellow Skullkey encounter proved to be the most frustrating for me personally, killing me over a dozen times. This map feels like the cruel lovechild of Hell Beneath and The Chasm with its love of close quarters and edges teetering over hurt-floors. Despite its viciousness however, Oxyde balanced out their cruelty quite well with bountiful amounts of health, ammo and powerful secrets to help you through it. It's as action-packed as Oxyde's previous offerings with the heat turned-up to "Well Done". It's a pretty awesome map for Oxyde's final submission to the WAD. It's a juicy offering plump with delectable high-stakes combat and surprises. Great stuff!

 

The Cyberdemon double-kill I pulled off at the end? Hoo boy, that was so fucking good. :^)

 

 

[Azure_Horror]

Club votes for august

+++ Number one kill & Number one kill the next generation

+++ Running Late 2, Altars of Madness, What Remains

+++ Ray Mohawk 1 and 2

 

MAP27 - “Passage a Vide” (by Oxyde)

Dsda-doom, UV-max, pistol start.

 

Playing this map on pistol start felt like a meme

How it started: Sick dodges, high stakes combat, frantic movement, epic battle for every inch of space.

How it is going: I am fighting those 8 barons with a super shotgun, because I need those 400 plasma cells and these 50 rockets for later, thank you very much.

 

The start is oppressive, frantic and fun; the visual design is beautiful; the secrets are interesting and helpful. The music choice is awesome. However “Passage a Vide” has the same problem as map 26:

 

SSG the barons, SSG the Imps,

SSG archviles, SSG all things!

Otherwise the big ambush

Will completely ruin your day,

'Cause you won't have the rockets

To keep resurrections at bay.

 

On a pistol start, non-SSG heavy weapons are emergency use only. Rockets must be kept for big archvile warp-ins, and the final fight once again requires the player to hoard plasma. The final battle involves not one, but two awkwardly positioned cyberdemons! No BFG on the map, SSG method is slow, so the fun in the final encounter is directly proportional to your stocks of plasma. Repeat after me

 

SSG the demons, SSG all day,

If you want the game

To be fun to play.

 

SSG-ing two cybers

Is simply not fun,

So you need enough ammo

For your trusty plasmagun.

 

The map has an awesome starting setpiece and a lot of terrifying archviles, but it also has a lot of bland SSG clean up. So, in the end, “Passage a Vide” is a fine map, but I prefer Oxyde's “Enceinte Infernale”.

 

To be fair, my considerations are valid for pistol start only. On a continuous playthrough the maps 26 and 27 would be much more fun with all the ammo kept from previous maps.

 

Map Rankings (old rankings reconsidered!)

Spoiler

 

Great maps

map 19 and map31

map 32

map 08 and map 09

map 20

map 18 and map 22

map 17

map 13

Really good maps

map 25

map 06

map 03

map 23

map 05 and map 15

map 04 and map 12

map 01

Good maps

map 27

map 02

map 24

map 14 (see note 1)

Ok maps

map 26

map 07

map 21 and map 11 (see note 2)

map 10

Poor maps

map 16 (see note 2)

 

The rankings are subjective!

 

Note 1: map 14 would go up one grade (to Really Good) with less obtuse caco crowd at the start.

Note 2: maps 11 and 16 would go up two grades (to Really good and Good respectfully) with a properly strong weapons.

 

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Azure_Horror : Replaced the second poem.

[kalaeth]

Let's go! 

 

MAP 27 - Passage a vide :

So.. A hot start is when everyone starts shooting at you as soon as you enter the level. How do you call a level where everyone starts shooting as soon as you shoot the first shot? Whatever you call that, that's what this is. I've died some 6 times, and I can't even leave this first room. Next try, I do it a bit better, from the starting point I clear as much as I can, then slowly kill, kill, kill, move, kill, kill, kill, move and I reach the first soulsphere, switch. Another AV, ofc. Kill him, clear the baron and imps, go to the door kill imps and revs, oh, secret! Megasphere, and now RSK. Oh damn, the AV on top of the lift was hard, clear it all, another secret soulsphere, one more secret to go, and now red door. Eeeevil. Glad I picked the bluesphere, else I'd be dead. Then I die. And again, and again and finally! success. Now.. Switch. Two cybers? Two?! And I'm almost all out of cells. At try four. Fifth. The solution should be around keeping them in the platform and snipe at them. Finally, many tries after, I did it! Yey. I'm missing a secret but I can't find out how to reach it... Oh well.

100, 60, 66 K/I/S, no idea on deaths. 20 minutes and 51 seconds time, a lot of it trying to reach the secret bluesphere. 

 

total : 4 hours 27 minutes and 26 seconds.

 

I'll be off the rest of the month (and most of next month too), so I'll play the rest of the levels today but leave my comments of them in the spoilers. I hope that's allowed.

Spoiler

 

MAP 28 - Gutter Grave : 

so.. I might not finish this level without cheating. Yeah, I just said fuck it, iddqd, and am now, 13 minutes and over 1000 dead enemies still going.

Even with cheats it took me 23 minutes to reach the exit, and I finished with 89% kills, 60% items and 0% secrets.

Did not enjoy. But now I see why people mentioned it as the hardest one in the wad.

 

MAP 29 - Chair Brulante :

Much better! Fast action, never overwhelming, I did it in 6 minutes 36 seconds, 0 deaths, 100% K/I/S.

 

MAP 30 -3 heures d'agonie II :

nice atmospheric IoS, I could do without the platforming bit, and the secret is kinda... Useless. I'm not sure how to kill it though.

 

 

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 27: Passage à Vide by Arnaud "Oxyde" Florian

124% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets

Time: 7:27

 

I am sure that Passage à Vide is gonna be very divisive due to it's very compact layout, incredibly intense gameplay and very dangerous traps, but I think that it is the best Oxyde map I have played. The start is one of the hottest ones I know of, making you run like a madman and kill obstructive imps, hell knights and cacos while dodging arch-vile flames and revenant snipers. After that, it still doesn't get easier as the traps stay very tough, with some examples including the one triggered after opening the way to the red key and that spawns archies, mancubi and barons or the one that activates after grabbing the yellow key and that teleports imps and archies (I recommend finding the “non-secret” invuln for this one). On top of that, while you may think you are showered with ammo at first, the last 2 cybers will drain your supplies faster than all of the resurrected enemies, so you still need to not waste your rockets and cells. Despite it's cruelty, which will not appeal to everyone, Passage à Vide is one of the most fast-paced, satisfying and purely fun entries in the series, but on top of that, it is also detailed and one of the very few levels that I know of that completely deserves it's usage of Goin'Down the Fast Way. All of these qualities make for an outstanding map.

 

Footnote: I am starting to notice how much the french love their pairs of cyberdemons!

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Maps 19 and 27

Map 23

Map 31

Map 6

Map 32

Map 26

Map 18

Map 3

Map 5

Really Like:

Map 12

Map 17

Map 8

Map 13

Map 21

Map 4

Map 25

Map 14

Map 20

Map 7

Map 9

Like:

Map 24

Map 22

Map 2

Map 1

Map 10

Mediocre:

Map 15

Dislike:

Map 11

Map 16

 

 

 

 

 (I also updated my votes on the map 25 post)

[Thelokk]

Map27 - Passage à Vide by Arnaud "Oxyde" Florian

HNTR / 0% kills / 0 secrets

 

Sorry but this is the map where I peace out, hoping for something a little less frustrating and needlessly hostile for next month. 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Thelokk

[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.

---
 

map28

Saves and reloads were required in my playthrough, the west and north corridors proved to be too much for my feeble strategies and skill. This is typical for a Darkwave0000 map.

The most difficult map in the wad takes up the map28 slot. It's a slaughter map consisting of an array of giganormous, roughly rectanglar arenas with some clever connections and of course buttloads of enemies everywhere. The pistol starter is provided with scant weaponry and ammo to start with and has to flee the monster packs in the start room. Doomguy needs to route to better and stronger weapons, spawning more mobs and somehow survive. Good luck.

The rooms can be divided in to 2 classes. There are 3 warehouse like rooms that you can move freely between (subject to enemies). Then there are 5 non damaging, toxic waste arenas. The toxic waste is a pit marker which are areas you can enter but can't leave until you've found the switch to raise steps back out. The pit enemies for the most part cannot leave their pit with some exceptions, the most important one being the pain elementals, cacodemons and lost souls. The pain elementals are a real menace on this map and can chew through your ammo like crazy.

The players skill and handling of the pit areas is what makes or breaks uvmax attempts. All pits come with some walk over triggers and switches. Some careful triggering can sometimes divide the fight up into easier smaller fights. All pits contain area denial archviles, hitscanners and missile generators and walls of enemies that effectively deny doomguy free movement. Success is usually down to adeptly kiting the enemy to a point where he can race for the switch that allows him to get back out of the area and use the extra space and cover to stay alive. The clever player can archvile jump out of several of the pits and even access a switch behind the blue door to avoid a trap.

I could say a lot more about the map but I'll leave the commentary to those who can uvmax it, Roofi for instance who when he's not completing d2all's for 3HAfinal, 3HA3 and 180MPV finds the time to bust out a uvmax IL for this map. BTW @Roofi, where's the d2all for 3HA2? It's a big hole in the series!

 

----

 

My nominations for next month:

+++ Solar Struggle
+++ Cydonia & Arrival

I'd like to see most of the wads people have selected get a playthrough at some point. A lot of good wads out there.

[RHhe82]

MAP27: Passage a Vide. 174/174 K, 3/3 S. Completion time 22:10.

 

Printemps des chattes! Oxyde clenches their fist and delivers a crushing blow, mashing the player into a pulp... Anyway, I love the map, I mean the idea of it, the look of it, but holy hell was it above my skill level. Things were not going well, when I reached the satyr switch overlooking the general area, and more hordes were unleashed upon me, forcing me to take a stand in the stairway. Rockets would have been optimal, but I didn't have that many of them (still pistol starting on UV...), and monsters were coming in too close, I couldn't back away because of hell knights and revenants aiming at me through the window, and I couldn't switch to rockets either when the opportunity presented itself, because switching weapons is too slow so that said opportunity would have passed by the time I could fire a rocket. I survived that encounter with 7% health. Things were not going well indeed.

 

I did prevail at the end, thanks to never ending rewinds and saves whenever I'd make progress, but still...

 

After playing I watched MtPain27's capsule review on this map. Apparently there's an invulnerability sphere somewhere. BOY COULD I HAVE USED THAT, GEEZ.

 

One more thing: the map features my favourite track from ROTT. Totally fits the map, and I never get tired from hearing it in custom wads.