Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
dobu gabu maru

The DWmegawad Club plays: Cydonia & Arrival

Recommended Posts

MAP 05 – The Spectre's Manse

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

 

In the second chapter of Day 2, Doomguy visited a huge building called The Spectre’s Manse. Spectres were present and were the first enemy to stealthily appear, after a nice stroll around empty courtyards that generated both awe and uneasiness. Apart from the initial brawl, they were mostly confined to their traditional role of groaners at the bottom of pits, waiting for me to lose patience and jump down to silence them. The map featured @Pavera’s signature gameplay: lots of ammo, countless bonuses to collect or miss, and ambushes dominated by hitscanners, Revenants, and Arch-Viles. He wanted the player to hear the monsters lurking in their closets, and he unleashed them late enough so that their looming menace was almost forgotten.

Spoiler

773283141_ArrivalMAP05_01.jpg.649c7f19f2d621e21961cc43f4d32b86.jpg

The journey was quite long and almost on rails, with frequent glimpses of next areas and no chance to lose your bearings. The first section in blood-filled halls provided essential weapons to the pistol starter, pitting him against several monsters shooting from awkward, elevated spots. After the first Arch-Vile duo bite the dust, I entered the SSG room which lay roughly at the centre of the level and served as a crossroads of sorts. I rushed for the weapon ignoring both the Hell Knights and the crowd at the staircase window, and this unusual imprudence saw me pinned down for a while, on top of the ledge. Once through, I arrived to the eastern tip and continued until I found the plasma rifle, which was strangely unguarded.

Spoiler

1005438599_ArrivalMAP05_02.jpg.bd6a193a7859c70cb0d6400d9d7401c3.jpg

My favourite part of The Spectre’s Manse was the streak from there to the RSK: it was an onslaught of ambushes and fights that were really fun to sort out. First the Revenant mob, then the confusing closet & teleport by the Berserk Pack. The zig-zag bridge was a tricky point to pass: firstly, I killed the Arachnotrons with a few sorties, one of which led me to a secret discovery at the bottom of the pit; secondly, I assaulted the Arch-Vile and Revenants frontally with the plasma gun. It worked, and the RSK was found not very far from there. The Cyberdemon encounter was not too difficult, but if I had not killed the Spectres beforehand, they might have frustrated my evasive moves.

Spoiler

783489491_ArrivalMAP05_03.jpg.93d5cbead85292329b778a5eec10e331.jpg

I was sent not very far from the red door in the southern courtyard, so I headed there. More Revenant, zombies, and Arch-Vile aggression was in store, and curiously the teleport pad without yellow key marks sent me to a non-secret ledge with bonuses, before dropping me in front of the lowered YSK. Revenants breathed down my neck again, and at this point I remembered to pick up the Combat Armour I saw since the beginning. Secrets were easier to find than some non-secret bonuses on this level. I did not like the BSK room very much: even though it underwent some nice transformations on the way to the key, it always relied on Arch-Viles and Revenants for the real danger, while the rest of the enemies were cannon fodder. The final Arachnotron swarm was much ado about nothing, and the exit flooded by 20% damage floor was either a test lab for leaky Radsuits, or a tax for continuous players. This was a fine level, showcasing nicely interconnected spaces and lovely vanilla visuals, It confirmed that extensive use of WOODGARG texture is still a good way to creep me out, even if the map’s aggressiveness was a bit restrained. I attribute my dislike for the last part to fatigue, which often overwhelms me when I hit the 30-minute mark on the same map.

Share this post


Link to post

+++Running Late 2, Overboard, & Fractured Worlds (estimate RL2 15 days, Overboard nine days, FW seven days)

+++Claustrophobia 1024

+++Ad Mortem & Wormwood trilogy

 

Preference in the case of any ties is for Ad Mortem & Wormwood, followed by RL2/OB/FW as second most preferred.

Edited by FrancisT218

Share this post


Link to post

Arrival map05

 

A large tech base with a long trek for the red, yellow and blue keys. The red key takes the longest to reach and is guarded by a face to face with cybie. The other 2 keys are pretty quick to pick up after that. There's just enough archviles released from time to time to keep doomguy on edge. There is ample weaponry and ammo to handle all foes.

Share this post


Link to post

Map 04: Free Press

 

  These puns are going to give me diabetes. 

  Free Press felt great to run through. Despite feeling much less open than the other maps, I felt that the tradeoff was worth it. Having so many indoor romps allows for the crushers to have a meaningful presence, able to come down at any moment. That whole idea culminated in the section by the switch with the lava, having so many of those things come down was legitimately threatening. It's unfortunate that the highlight of this combat culminated in the double Cyberdemon fight, which is not to say that it's the best one in the map, simply that this is the part used crushers in the best way. My favorite fight would have to go to the tidal wave of zombies supported by Arch-Viles. It reminded me of the Yellow Key fight from Crippling Legion, except this one isn't held together by used dental floss and RNG. It was cool as shit to not only level half the map, but then reuse the space as well with the secret invuln to take on another pair of Cybers. This is the least trouble I've had with navigating, feeling downright lucky for finding all the weapons before getting into any hairy situations. I would go on, but most of this map hits a very happy medium that has similar positives for the entire time. It's solid.

 

Power Rankings

Spoiler
  1. Waste Abandonment
  2. Free Press
  3. Water Putrefier
  4. Saltstone Sanctuary

 

Share this post


Link to post

+++ 2022 A Doom Odyssey - public beta 2 out now
+++ Solar Struggle
+++ Doom 2 in Spain Only

Edited by tmorrow : added the 2 in doom 2 in spain only

Share this post


Link to post

MAP05: The Spectre's Manse. DSDA v0.24, UV, PS. 332/332 K, 2/2 S, 442/444 I. Completion time 42:27.

 

The beginning evokes feeling of dread, with no monsters in sight, eerie music playing, the map title seems to refer halloweeney stuff... We do get a lot skellies, granted, and archviles, but it's not a horror themed level, but slightly thy-fleshy mountain fort. It's a long level, and you get this feeling from seeing yet unvisited places for a good part of the map. I was half expecting to be exhausted before long, but Spectre's Manse retains its good energy -- it didn't feel like 42 minutes in the end, but rather something like 25 minutes. Long map, for sure, but cheerfully evades that "overstays its welcome"-feeling that's always glooming over long maps for me.

Share this post


Link to post

+++ Doom in Spain Only

+++ Anomaly Report

+++ Fragport

Share this post


Link to post

Let me resume my customary, hopeless voting choices:

 

+++ Number One Kill & Number One Kill The Next Generation

+++ Hexen: Beyond Heretic 

Edited by Book Lord

Share this post


Link to post

Lemme cast votes too.

 

+++Running Late 2, Overboard, & Fractured Worlds (copied from FrancisT218; Already played first half of Overboard, but I'll be glad to replay. Fractured Worlds I've played first three maps, but I was too unskilled at the time, and maybe still am, but I've just been waiting for an excuse to restart it. I trust the map count is compatible with the club).

+++The 10x10 Project & Auger;Zenith (I think these amount to roughly 30-31 maps, not sure how many credits/thankyouforplaying maps these contain)

+++Anomaly Report (copied from Roofi, but this one is in any case awaiting in my "next in line"-folder).

Edited by RHhe82

Share this post


Link to post

I don't really feel I want to talk about Cydonia right now. Let's just vote

 

+++Solar Struggle

+++Doom 2 in Spain Only

+++Fragport.

Share this post


Link to post

Arrival map06

 

How lucky doomguy is. He is the center of attention. He gets run through a pool of slime while countless hitscanners on the walkways above gleefully try to mow him down. Its not until he teleports up to the walkways and pacifies his admiring fans that he can take a good look around and discover what needs to be done on this map. There's a yellow door to the north, a red door to the south and a blue door to the west with the yellow skull key perched on the ledge nearby. A teleport and a long ledge walk takes him to the yellow skull key and he's on his way. Progression is yellow, red and blue skull keys.

 

The yellow door area is the easiest. The red door area involves a fight with cybie and later, a couple of archviles. The blue door leads to a twin cybie showdown. Doomguy should be getting used to these by now. Fortunately a bfg and cells is provided.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP05 - “The Spectre’s Manse”

 

This level goes along quite nicely until a certainly fight. The SSG trap is really spicy and well thought out. There are a lot of monsters coming from different directions, which you need to chose who to kill and who to leave. There is a nice eerie atmosphere to this level that hasn't really existed before now. 

However there is a big "Nope" moment before reaching the red key, this involves an effectively mandatory pickup of the berserk pack to allow access beyond a certain dead end. I mean I have seen stuff like this before, but considering the author, considering the people who would have tested this set, I was shocked to see something like this left in. I entered the area with 100% health and left with 20%, now without the buffer of this berserk pack.

Unfortunately that kind of killed the vibe this map had, especially as the combat was much weaker in the second half of the map. The cyberdemon is easy given the room, and the rest of fights can be handled in ways that generally avoid direct confrontation. 

In the end this felt like another map that grips the player during the first half, but then sags during the latter stages. This isn't because the map is too long, but the map sort of gives up after a certain point and you are left with a fairly routine run and gun to the finish. This promised far more than it actually delivered, which is a shame.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP05 - “The Spectre’s Manse”
A sprawling and beautiful map, I'm once again amazed at how good stock assets can look. It's maybe only my imagination but I feel that the architecture in Day 2 is becoming more freeform and abstract than in Day 1. The map progression flows perfectly, once again there's later areas that you can see early on and that give you an idea of your objectives, there's older areas you revisit. There's something impressive about a map that looks so large but in which you never feel lost because every room is so distinctive and everything is laid out so logically that you always know where you are and where you're supposed to be. I'm normally not enamored with enemies shooting at me across huge distances, but it didn't bother me so much here, maybe because it's used sparingly. Aside from a couple of revenant telepots that made me groan I'm still really enjoying the combat, and pretty much everything else about the mapset.

Share this post


Link to post

Map 20: Reaper

 

Deaths: Um, 4

This is not going to win awards for the prettiest map in Plutonia. A couple of rooms that kind of feels dark for dark's sake. Some sort of sunken, though strangely intact, city aesthetic seems to be at play here, which is quite curious because unless you're Odyssey of Noises, than you can't claim to be Plutonian in layout at the least. But either way, this still has under 100 enemies but is probably the hardest and possibly best map of the set. Sadism in general's turned up to 11, to the point where a certain trap of delinquent backed by Revenants seemed quite tame in comparison to everything else. Changunners menace you at least in 2 important locations, Arch-viles are utterly merciless, and I just sort of save-spammed after a bit because it's the end of the day, and by god, I'll get through by hook or by crook. Hats off to Scotty though. This map lives up to its name, with the final battle music just what we need.

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

I've slowly come to realize that the Plutonian combat style of merciless sadism combined with strangely limited monster counts just isn't for me. Speedmaps are great when you don't play too many of them at once. This, on the other hand, seemed all too willing to fall back into certain limited modes of combat that aren't exactly what modern Doom (and the kind that I like, to be completely honest) are all about. All the same, I decided to give this the 'old college try,' essentially because my experience with strict Plutonian-styled wads (and stuff like Plutonia 2 and Urania too) is quite limited and the maps wouldn't take too much time. Ozonia is undoubtably better than this, but I was depressed in January and also, justifying the time to go back to that is, um, hard.

 

And I largely had a good time with it. There were maybe just a few maps (Volcano, perhaps Aggrandizement and Venemous too) where I was basically like "Enough already!" Everything else was incredibly hard to complain about. Although maybe AD_79 still has trouble making entirely non-backtracking layouts, many of his maps seemed like they might be trying too hard ("Sasquatch" comes to mind). And waddaya know, the other map I listed were all his! Scotty started out much duller in comparison, but he was hitting 1 winner after another in the last 4th, to the point where I almost want to rank this above Zone 400, which is probably a touch more my preference. And in fact, I've convinced myself to go ahead and do it! Zone 400 might just be a little bit more on the rough side and honestly, I like the opening maps in Cydonia better than this one.

 

 

I should probably do a list of the best maps

 

20

18

05

32

17

15

14

10

19

07

 

 

Sorry, I can't remember all the names, therefore you get none :P)

 

See you all next month!

 

Share this post


Link to post

MAP 06 – The Ledge

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

 

One of the smallest levels in Arrival, The Ledge featured intricated paths and in-built cinematic moments that left a lasting mark, just as the longer chapters of this journey. The environment surrounding Doomguy was a nukage-filled hellish keep, visually akin to Thy Flesh Consumed with the predominance of marble, wood, and SP_ROCK1. As the title suggested, ledges and verticality dominated both the progression and gameplay. There were four secrets to find, but I scored only half of them since the others were a bit cryptic and the items inside were not essential for survival.

Spoiler

399564096_ArrivalMAP06_01.jpg.1b795f452a5ca53c1ca4125c7c677ff1.jpg

The first task was to escape the corrosive bottom of The Ledge before being dissolved or riddled with Chaingunner rounds. Once on higher ground, YSK was visible at the opposite side but reaching it required the whole circumnavigation of the pit, passing through a cave section and facing numerous snipers, including lots of teleport reinforcements who fought back from the far side. Pistol starters do not have many rockets for the job, though chaingun & shotgun were the weapons I used the most. The yellow door was on the opposite side of the YSK ledge, but I figured out the teleport shortcuts by that time. The quest for the RSK followed right away and relieved the pressure for a while, offering a free plasma rifle to waste on a Revenant squad, and a few blind teleports that scared me more than what was placed beyond them.

Spoiler

221803485_ArrivalMAP06_02.jpg.23d40f2f658b619bcce1967279db93d3.jpg

Once through the red door in the southern portion of the level, I was attacked by many alerted monsters without warning. Revenants killed me because I did not hear them coming from the bottom of the staircase and I was already fighting the Cacodemons. I really liked the design of the BSK area: the scale and the vistas were nice, the enemy placement was very effective, and every step was compelling. The Evil Eye teleporter brought me to the terrace overlooking the pit, where a switch unlocked a new section and summoned a Cyberdemon. Fighting a lonesome boss is normally not a huge deal but doing it on the bending stairs was not trivial too. He got quite close before I stopped him. The Arch-Vile duo appearing when I lowered the BSK pillar was one of the greatly staged events I hinted to since the beginning: seeing them approach relentlessly and resurrecting fallen hellspawn was superb.

Spoiler

1622210500_ArrivalMAP06_03.jpg.cc1649e701e3380987f072c216cbfbc4.jpg

Entering the last locked door allowed to finally eliminate the hawk-eyed monsters that have harassed me since the beginning. At the bottom of the shadowy stairs, guarded by another troop of skeletons, a warp gate sent me to an entirely different place. The first thing I noticed was a change in the sky, shifting from yellow to a green hue, the viridescent nova referenced by the upcoming intermission text and Arrival’s TITLEPIC. I did not know such a feature was possible in the limit-removing context. However, the large hall ahead called out for the final battle, which pitted me against two Cyberdemons, an Arch-Vile, and a small host of Imps and Revenants. No creature at floor level could create as much trouble as the Mancubi shooting from high above. They hit me multiple times while I was struggling with others; luckily, I had a BFG and enough cells to quickly vanquish the opposition, or else the fatty snipers would have burned me to death. A good climax for an outstanding level taking advantage of damaging floors and height variation, with lots of memorable events happening in 25 minutes, a short completion time for an Arrival map.

Share this post


Link to post

map06: The Ledge

 

This might be my favorite of the first six. Action packed from the start to the finish. Love the way the layout loops around itself multiple times making some monsters relevant on multiple passes if you don't want to kill them immediately (or at all). The secrets and optional areas add a lot of mystique, particularly the nukage gorge in the red key area, which is extensive and cuts through two separate areas and allows you an alternative way of traversal. That especially stands out as really cool to me in general, like when parts of a layout seem to just exist without having been invented for a specific gameplay purpose, but then the gameplay purpose comfortably fits in too.

 

 

Share this post


Link to post

Arrival map07

 

A lava map requiring some rad suit management. The red key is the first pickup and is a little awkward for pistol starters since ammo is tight to begin with, although plentiful later. There are a lot of mancs around the outside of the path to the red key and one irksome archvile loose in the map exit room. Doomguy had to ignore some of these enemies on the long trek to the red key and take care of them later.

 

Each of the keys is placed beyond a lava section which while you explore and clear out, you want to use the provided rad suit preceding each lava section. There's plenty of time to get everything done in each stretch. The section that leads to a cybie showdown is a little nastier and a second rad suit is placed in that area for a top up while you clean house in this monster infested area. Cybie is a cinch when he appears, being confined mostly to his spawn location.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP06: The Ledge. DSDA v0.24, UV, PS. 205/207 K, 3/4 S, 126/136 I. Completion time: 34:34.

 

Damn that start! Arrival hasn't been exactly easy thus far, but somehow I'm hit with the feeling that nice and easy is over. Although I think the pressure eases towards the end of the map, as soon as the chainsniping ledgegunners are dead.

 

My UV-MAXing neurosis got the better of me, I must have spent some 10 minutes trying to find the last secret in vain, and then at the end of the final arena, trying to kill the two highest mancubi, in vain.

 

But that's my problem, and other than that, I loved this map.

 

(I looked at UDB, and found out there was a teleporter to the final secret. I didn't look close enough, so when I returned I still had to find out about the switch to reveal the teleporter by myself, but I won't update my DWMC stats. I can play on lower difficulties, but I still suffer from this habit of maxing stats (except items) which can sour the experience for nothing. If I like the wad enough, I could always replay it, on second and later playthroughs maxing is easier and more enjoyable since surviving is easier already. And yes, after getting the final secret, I went to the final arena, and spent considerable time trying to get the auto aim work for me against the high mancubi. Geez. But that I'll leave out of DWMC stats for having found them in ungentlemanly ways).

Share this post


Link to post

Map 05: The Spectre's Manse

 

  I immediately bumped the Blue Armor from below the ledge, and we are off to a rip roaring start. This should speak more to the set's strengths than its weaknesses, but this is probably the map I felt was least secure in stability, being able to throw myself out windows into areas I felt unequipped for, making laps around the entire ring of this map without progressing. I still enjoyed how this map was set up, the fights are still very pronounced with the signature quantity over quality approach, but I constantly feel very equipped to handle them. Plasma is a constant, I'm always finding myself stocked up on it to the point where I have thrown away my disposition to be stingy, and am now having a much better time when it comes to groups of Revenants or lone wandering Arch-Viles. I do like that this map is layered in such a way that I am able to constantly backtrack simply by falling into the inner sections from the ridges. Less and less to say about these as time goes on, as I believe I have now full acclimated to the mapping style, but there is still a lot to enjoy here.

 

Power Rankings

Spoiler
  1. Waste Abandonment
  2. Free Press
  3. Water Putrefier
  4. The Spectre's Manse
  5. Saltstone Sanctuary

 

Now for the voting

+++Nostalgia, legitimately one of the best sets I've played this year

+++The Box of a Thousand Demons, artsy, a whole lot to talk about

+++Ad Mortem + Wormwood through Wormwood III, total of 29 halloween maps for October (Orange is True Love would bring it up to 32)

 

Share this post


Link to post
7 minutes ago, General Roasterock said:

Plasma is a constant, I'm always finding myself stocked up on it to the point where I have thrown away my disposition to be stingy, and am now having a much better time when it comes to groups of Revenants or lone wandering Arch-Viles.

 

yesss ... yessssssssss .... Let go of your frugality, embrace rockets and plasma!

 

anyway, had to comment here because yes, indeed part of the design of Arrival was to give you the ammo-soaked confidence to jump right into the trouble and duke it out with all the plasma and rockets you need. there is really no need to be conservative with ammo here, I wanted you to feel powerful. The hordes of zombies are there for you to melt into gibs with glee, while still having enough to take on the cyberdemons around the corner.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP05: The Spectre's Manse

 

This is again a long fun romp, very much in the vein of MAP03, but with more wood and a little bit punchier fights. There are less spectres in this map than I feared: they are actually very well used here, as a complement to other monsters, above all to make rocketing more challenging. Even small revenant groups can add some tension with invisible sidekicks, and it becomes really fun if viles are thrown in in the mix. Another gameplay element I noticed were the long-range snipers particularly around the red key pit, which prevent you from taking that part too slow. The map has again nonlinear elements, a big part of the red and yellow key branches is open, but I think you have to go for the red key first. At one part I had a bit of a problem with progression: Just before the last stretch of the red key area there is a berserk you have to take to open a crucial door. I thought I had already taken a berserk in another place (which was wrong, it was only a chainsaw) so I wanted to skip it, and was stuck. I went briefly into the YK area, lost health and then decided to return finally to that berserk. So I wandered around a bit. Anyway, a really addictive map, the "you're a invincible badass!" gameplay helps a lot to hide its length.

 

Rating: 9/10
Difficulty: 4/10


MAP06: The Ledge

 

Until now, this would be the map in Arrival which most resembled Cydonia. Not just because of the green Plutonic vines at the end, but also because the gameplay is less "mowing down fodder" but reacting to traps and ambushes, and because it's not a big complex but a rather compact fortess you have to traverse in a simple U-shaped path with some minor ramifications (particularly the blue key area). It is maybe also the most standard Doom 2 level in this mapset so far, with varied gameplay, lots of typical Doom-y locations like waste rivers and small fortresses and without any kind of strong "concept". Three cyberdemons will spice up gameplay a bit, one of them has to be taken down with plasma, rockets or SSG but the fight is quite fun because circlestrafing him isn't too trivial at this ledge. At the exit, you're taken into a separate arena with a BFG, which made me believe something grand had to come. But the fight was underwhelming, two cybies, an archvile and a small group of midtiers with a LOT of space to run around. It would have been an opportunity for a healthy massacre, even without increasing the difficulty level. And these mancs at the skyscraper-high wall were really awkward to take out, maxers will hate that part. A map with strengths and weaknesses, overall still solid and mostly entertaining.

 

Rating: 6/10
Difficulty: 4/10

 

(prboom+, UV, pistol start, sometimes with saves between fights. Difficulty scale roughly: 1-2 - easier than all of Plutonia, 3 - Congo, 5 - Genesis, 7 - Abattoire, 8 - Twilight/Go 2 It, 9-10 - harder than Plutonia.)

Share this post


Link to post

At least I got to complete Cydonia. Yay?

 

Map 15 - Hatchet

This would be the first map which to me looked more modern, rather than Plutonic. It's hard to nail specifics, but the configuration of fights just doesn't evoke the same feeling as previous levels. They're good fights, but there's just something different about the air.


Map 31 - Night Terrors

While originally my mind rejected the level as Plutonic (let's be real, the influence of contemporary designs here is well beyond anything iwad), upon some deliberation I'm going to pass it. Plutonia most certainly contained experimental ideas - Hunted, if nothing else, was a radical departure from "normal". In fact, now I've come to think that any wad claiming to be heavily inspired by/imitating Plutonia should have something sufficiently experimental in it.


Map 32 - Get On It

Despite not having the scale of the original and somehow fitting in Plutonia's IoS area, this level definitely evokes Go 2 It's feel - in your face crowds, awkward Cyberdemons and doorways, interconnected "pick your poison" layout.


Map 16 - Sasquatch

I'm no expert on mystic creatures, but not-so-mystic blockmap bug was sighted a ridiculous amount of times for a level of this size. My blind run was cut short by a 4 SSG Revenant depriving me of means to continue in RK area. The map ended rather unceremoniously with a lone chaingunner - nothing resembling a final encounter upon activating both sides felt mildly disappointing after 32's high octane ending.


Map 17 - The Cesspools

There were certainly pools, and they certainly contained cess. Much like previous nukage-related installments, little reason to traverse them. The scramble for equipment leads you either away from armor or away from weapons, depending on what you spot and get encited by first. Overall - dynamic but not oppressive, I made some pretty massive blunders (imagine getting silently flanked by a HK all the way to melee range), but could still recover.


Map 18 - Backlash

Continuing the trend of high verticality, this one throws bigger and more stressful fights. Fitting since it's close to the end. Not a fan of vines though. The theme never clicked with me in general, and vines-as-mid-textures-to-annoy does little to help the case.


Map 19 - Purgatory

Dynamic and quite mean from start to finish. There were a few transitions where I felt underequipped, especially on the armor front. The worst was being dropped into the plasma room with chaingunners scattered around at like 80%. The invuln secret went unused because, well, it's a secret only helpful in premediated play. I had no reason to pick it up when I found it and no means to backtrack to it when I felt I could use it.


Map 20 - Reaper

The closing level is another hectic scramble from start to finish. Tasteful mix of Plutonia tropes in an open and opening more as you progress, constantly keeping you in a state where you need to push forward, but also watch your back.

 

Overall, I'm somewhat happy I played the second half in batches (not all of this post was done on the same day). This type of levels feels best when you hit a groove and your dodging instincts and sixth sense are on point. Especially the last 5 or so, which involve evasion on awkwardly limited ramps of some kind. Arguably that's true for all dooming, but Cydonia in particular did not feel nice when making a lot of mistakes - it was pretty hard to recover resources here and there if you made a massive blunder or two. The wad did a stellar job of consistently keeping me on edge in more or less exact ways expected. If the maps were any bigger through, I'd probably find a lot more of them overstaying their welcome.

 

I doubt I'll have time to take on Arrival, considering the month ends before weekend.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP06 - “The Ledge”

 

Given the comments above, I was sort of expecting this map to put up more of a fight. In the end this felt more like a slow burner, especially once those chaingunners were cleared. That said I found this to be on the more enjoyable end of things, the fights are consistently engaging and fun to take on. The late SSG isn't too much of an issue either given you can deal with the fodder with the boomstick/chaingun and use your rockets and later plasma on the mid tiers. The final fight with the BFG was a little underwhelming, more spectacle than a proper full blooded fight. This is not helped by the awkward placement of the mancubi that are a chore to clear, even when flush with rockets. 

I don't know whether it was the texture usage (Which certainly felt more pleasing to me personally), or the mid, but there was this mystical whimsy that interwove with the action to create one of the better experiences so far in Arrival. A solid map, though again I wish that Pavera would perhaps show his meaner side a little more.

Share this post


Link to post

MAP06 - “The Ledge”
The opening view gave me Tenements vibes, which were immediately dispelled when everything started attacking me on sight and fighting back woke up archviles and cyberdemons. Hot start is one thing, hot-all-the-time is another, and repeatedly dying and reloading was a bit of an ego bruiser. The map wants to constantly push you forward and everything is open on all sides to make it as hard as possible to establish a foothold. Once I did I started enjoying myself a bit more, until the blue key, at which point I started getting tired of archvile-teleports-and-resurrects-everyone. The final arena was just a BFG spamfest spiced up by mancubus turrets, I don't think you're meant to be able to kill these. The map makes no concessions to baddies like me (this time I checked, as far as I can tell even the items are all the same), which might explain the spike I experienced on HNTR. I admit I didn't like this one as much, though it looks like everyone else did so probably more of a me problem. The intermission text is very nice, moody and quite poetic.

Share this post


Link to post
26 minutes ago, brick said:

I don't think you're meant to be able to kill these

 

The higher ones are possible from this angle. I would focus on the higher ones first so that the splash damage (or auto-aim misses) sometimes kills one of the lower ones. I took around 25 rockets to kill them all rockets-only (a BFG shot or two is good too for the lower ones), but I don't play Arrival with a 100 K/S style so there might be something better. 

 

i30G149.gif

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×