The DWmegawad Club plays: Down the Drain

dobu gabu maru · November 1, 2022

What is the DWmegawad Club?

This is a place where we settle down, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice) and take a month to play through a megawad on our own, together! Any keen observations, criticisms, or frustrated ranting about it goes here in the discussion. As long as you want to say something about what you've played, feel free to speak your mind.

Can I join?

Sure. The only rule is that you have to play at least some of the levels in our monthly megawad to contribute, but you're generally encouraged to finish the whole thing, even if you've played it before.

What levels am I allowed to post about?

Whatever day of the month it is, is the upper limit for the map you can post on. So if it’s the 6th, you may discuss up to MAP06.

Do I have to post an entry every day?

Nope, not at all. This is only for our more enthusiastic members. As long as you play through it with us you’re part of the club.

When do we vote on the next month’s megawad?

Voting begins on the 25th of the current month. Remember to add one “+++” before your vote to make it easier to count. For example:

+++ Ultimate Doom

Note that you can vote for up to three separate nominations in a single month, and every wad must contain at least three maps each. The winning nomination must receive at least four votes for a thread to be made. Ties will be decided by RNG.

----------

>>>DOWNLOAD DOWN THE DRAIN HERE<<<

With the year winding down, we’re turning our sights back to some classic vanilla dooming. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t in for a strange and memorable trip! Down the Drain by the master-of-crooked-linedefs Benjogami isn’t your usual 90’s throwback, as the maps and gameplay have a frenetic blend of both modern and old, creating an undoubtedly eclectic experience. So dive in and expect the unexpected!

Author & Maplist:

MAP01 - “From: Unknown”

MAP02 - “Someone’s Castle”

MAP03 - “Private Island”

MAP04 - “Kick the Can”

MAP05 - “Rolling Down”

MAP06 - “Baloney Town”

MAP07 - “The Perfect Gerbil Cage”

MAP08 - “Deep Tech”

MAP09 - “Forts and Alleys”

MAP10 - “Here n There, Now n Then”

MAP11 - “Cache Raiders”

MAP12 - “Into the Tomb”

MAP13 - “Vet and Process”

MAP14 - “The Perfect Human Cage”

MAP15 - “Doors of Opportunities”

MAP31 - “Down the Drain”

MAP32 - “WW1.wad”

MAP16 - “Vidhead”

MAP17 - “Passive Social Test Lab”

MAP18 - “Slime Activation Facility”

MAP19 - “The Empty Box Abyss”

MAP20 - “The Top of the Bottom”

MAP21 - “Niven’s Ravine”

MAP22 - “Pournelle’s Hole”

MAP23 - “Valley of Mirth”

MAP24 - “Designyland”

MAP25 - “The Three Buffets”

MAP26 - “Everyone Loves the Beach”

MAP27 - “Lakeside Rentals”

MAP28 - “Closing Crush”

MAP29 - “Choke”

MAP30 - “The Great Filter”

BONUS CONTENT

TBA

--------

OLD THREADS

Spoiler

The DWmegawad Club Metathread

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Edited April 23, 2023 by dobu gabu maru

Anarkzie · November 1, 2022

Map 01 From unknown

Okay, my first impressions are not good. The map is hideously ugly, and the music is really bad. I think it's an actual artistic choice however, I'm not sure what this is referencing. Aside from the last Arachnotron fight the combat was not that great either. Lots of in fighting set ups.

Almost everyone voted for this last month, so there must be something great about the wad. I honestly feel like Kanye in South Park. I'll see what others have to say.

General Roasterock · November 2, 2022

32 minutes ago, Anarkzie said:

I think it's an actual artistic choice however

You are absolutely right, the whole WAD is made this way on purpose. I am personally aligned with this thinking, which is why I am as excited as I am to see everyone else's reactions to what this WAD creates.

Capellan · November 2, 2022

3 minutes ago, General Roasterock said:

see everyone else's reactions

Well, mine is "Nope". But if others enjoy it, more power to 'em.

finnks13 · November 2, 2022

Right, well I remember seeing this come out last year, but I completely forgot to play it in the end so this is a blind playthrough. I will be playing in dsdadoom v0.24.3, on UV, going for 100% kills if I can but not really worrying about it that much.

Map01 - From: Unknown:

6:07/1 Death
The weirdness starts from the very first moment of loading the wad - I can't remember the last time I played a megawad that elected not to change the titlescreen, but did have a custom M_DOOM. I wasn't around in the nineties (literally :P) but I get the impression that this is meant to be a send-up of kinda crap 90s mapping tropes? I suppose I should have expected something rather unusual from how people described this in the previous thread, and the fact that Benjogami made this, but I really don't know what to make of this map.

The visuals are fairly hideous (some of the IWAD rock textures are just awful), though I do love how COMPBLUE has been used as a "waterfall", and I've recently started to quite like the "this looks like total shit, but on purpose" aesthetic that I think is the intention here. I actually enjoyed playing the map, for what it's worth, there's not much health around at the start so you have to be rather particular in what monsters you gun for first, but exploring the dark caves will reveal a lot of supplies - and a cyberdemon! The cyber's not that hard to take out, but you don't see one on Map01 every day - particularly not one that you have to kill yourself! The arachnotron + baron fight at the end was the best bit of the map, I died once here trying to save myself time and grab more rockets but on my second attempt at the fight, I'd actually picked up the SSG which helped a lot.

Admittedly, if Benjogami's name wasn't attached to this, I think this map would have scared me off from playing the rest of the set, but (and I'm not sure if this is just the pretentious twat in me talking) I'm very intrigued on where this is going.

Ravendesk · November 2, 2022

I have played Down the Drain not so long ago, so will not participate, however I will also follow the thread to see how people react :)

I personally fell in love with it somewhere around map 04. Very unique experience.

Catpho · November 2, 2022

1 hour ago, Anarkzie said:

Okay, my first impressions are not good.

1 hour ago, Capellan said:

Well, mine is "Nope".

51 minutes ago, finnks13 said:

Admittedly, if Benjogami's name wasn't attached to this, I think this map would have scared me off from playing the rest of the set

Haha, my first impressions were the opposite of these. My write up will come later. This will be an interesting month ;)

Benjogami · November 2, 2022

I look forward to all the unfiltered thoughts and feelings on the set ;) I hope everyone enjoys but I also think that's unreasonable, so I welcome and enjoy hearing the plurality of opinions! I might chime in with some fun facts or answers to questions if it seems appropriate.

General Roasterock · November 2, 2022

Map 01: From: Unknown

From what I've played in Down the Drain, I have yet to have one map put me in anything but the interpreter's fugue state. From the secrets that are just entire walls lowering, to the caged Barons, to the Cyberdemon rocket duel, everything is a singular vision of campy. That is, until I got to the exit. That exit sign unravels pretty much every intent I was gathering. You have to consciously make it to where the height of that exit design is fucked up. There's no classical limitation of editing utility being emulated, this is a train of thought from "I want this sign to be half submerged" to making the sign half submerged. It tells me that the whole thing was fine tuned to remain in this state of untouchable art such that people could ponder over its crudeness, seeking a higher reasoning than "I made it like that". Needless to say, that's not the best first impression for me either.

I've played a lot of this WAD already, but not the whole thing, and I'll gladly use this thread to help cross it off.

Edited November 2, 2022 by General Roasterock

Pseudonaut · November 2, 2022

Map01:
There are some 1994-style secrets that annoyed me here. On several of my early playthroughs, there was always at least one secret I couldn't find when everything else was done, and it always turned out to be some wall with a different texture (maybe even the same texture as the surrounding wall!) that I didn't hump. Nonetheless, when I had everything memorized, it turned out to be a lot of fun to max. It's cool how you can go almost anywhere in the map right away, allowing you to wake the cyberdemon early and cause chaos.

Demo:

https://dsdarchive.com/files/demos/drn/68513/drn01m311.zip

brick · November 2, 2022

Down the Drain

GZDoom, blind, continuous with saves, HNTR

English is not my first language, so sometimes the way I word my sentences can sound a bit odd. I mentioned a few days ago that I had liked Benjogami's MAP13 in Haste but found it "utterly bizarre", and that I was "hoping to get a similar feeling." I meant that I enjoyed the unusual aesthetics (that opening view made to look like a slope really stuck with me) and gameplay and was looking forward to something equally original. I seem to have gotten my wish more literally: this wad is definitely bizarre. Just like Arrival it uses nothing but stock textures (not even new skies this time) but then goes for almost the complete opposite, with simple shapes, low detailing, some very strange texture choices, and small maps with medium enemy count. I'm using the custom soundtrack, and the mixture of Radiohead and Sailor Moon definitely adds to the whimsical feel.

I was going to write something more substantial about the whole "94 wad" meme but decided this wasn't the place for it. Suffice to say I don't really like or agree with it, many of the complaints about early wads don't bother me, and I like many of the early experimental mapping designs, sometimes more than what's become established. I am also indifferent to "intentionally terrible map design" - telling me something is bad on purpose won't change my mind about how bad it is (this isn't limited to Doom or gaming). I've seen hints of this wad being called a 94 wad on purpose, but I'm probably going to end up judging it outside of that, for good or ill.

MAP01 - “From: Unknown”
The beginning feels like a bit of a mad scramble, but it's much more manageable than it seems. I kept reminding myself that I didn't have to kill everything, I just needed to clear a path and only deal with what's in my way. I just ignored imps and knight and slowly creeped up the path, dealing with the ambushes one at a time. I didn't immediately notice the SSG and so had to stick with the shotgun and chaingun for a bit longer. The RL fight wrecked me, but on my second try I made sure to go the other path first and clear the spectres, then circled back and just rushed past the barons. The RL makes the rest of the fights much easier and I could now kill everything. The final arena went pretty well, though I didn't notice the keys until I found the locks and started wondering where they could be in such a small map.

NiGHTS108 · November 2, 2022

OH

BOY.

Edit: Might be worth noting I've streamed this before https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiNulJM2GZvvwOmXUDk_9Wer06MSGH1zC

Edited November 2, 2022 by NiGHTS108

RHhe82 · November 2, 2022

Down the Drain

MAP01: From: Unknown. Played on DSDA v0.24, Ultraviolence, Pistol start. 93/93 K, 5/5 S, 23/23 I. Completion time 11:15.

I guess I'll just tag along, see if I hang on until the end. Depends on how Down the Drain grips me.

I'm not all too familiar with Benjogami work, I think their map on Haste is the only one I've played personally. It's funny, my gut feeling on Benjo maps are that they could almost be like babies' first maps... and yet somehow they are better. It's more like they imitate newbie design with strange acute angles, minimalistic style, but somehow transcends the first immpression in the gameplay department. I mean, MAP01 at first seems to have some sort of ammo imbalance and we are faced with cyberdemon almost right away... but in the end the map turns out to be fun enough. Were it made by a newcomer, the map would be a tiresome experience at best, agonizing at worst.

I'm not the biggest fan of the style, but otherwise it's a good start.

*

MAP02: Someone's Castle. Played on DSDA v0.24, UV, PS. 130/130 K, 0/0 S, 69/69 I. Completion time 10:38.

I'm finding it hard to say something clever and insightful about this map. Just like MAP01, it looks crude with hints of weirdly design here and there, but the gameplay works, and this time we don't even need to look for slightly off wall textures to find secrets. Okay, fine, I'm still good.

Catpho · November 2, 2022

To preface, I'm about as starry-eyed as a Benjogami fan can get, so if you'll accuse me of being uncritical or writing fluff instead of substance as certain points in this playthrough... you'd be right, and apologies ;) But that doesn't mean I'm going to take the easy way out!

Now, on to the toilet god himself. I think the most apt comparison for Benjo was when Demon of the Well brought up Italian horror filmmakers Dario Argento and Joe D'Amato when playing Benjo's level for Mayhem 19. For the benefit of those not in the know, there was once a magical place known as the Italian horror industry, whose signature blend was favoring garish, colorful flights of fancy and pure audiovisual thrills over any semblance of coherence and logic in its preposterous (non-)plots. The joy here was that there is nothing resembling discipline, everything was a mess, elegance doesn't exist, yet the imaginaction and the raw emotional response was so intense that any sense would actually lessen the experience. It’s the same thing with Benjogami. Far more than his acute and very modern sense of layout and slaughter gameplay, and unlike the more contemporary looks of his SlaughterMAX and Haste crew collaborators (bemused, Scotty, Nirvana, etc.), Benjo has been defined by his embrace of Doom as the glorious mess. Same as those horror films, Benjo understands doom as a dance of shapes that shouldn’t make sense yet do, of locations that feel like a burrow into some messed up consciousness, like a capricious god at his toy box. It’s the fact that a mapper who otherwise has his finger on the pulse of Doom modernity gleefully exploiting the outer limits of Doom presentation and gameplay is what makes his brand repulsive to some, intoxicating to others.

(Although I’m not so far gone to actually watch D'Amato's films yet Demon :D)

Ok, time to play. I’m on Crispy Doom, UV, keyboard-only, saves galore.

MAP01 - “From: Unknown”

Now, a point of commentary on the aesthetic choice: yes, it’s trying to emulate those random amateur 90s wads you might find in a shovelware compilation, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. After map01, Down the Drain is more interested in a certain mood that came from those mapset; specifically, the idealized vision that the 90s were a time of freewheeling invention, where weird shapes give way to weirder level design ideas. DtD is not interested in being “Doom the way id did '' authentic, however, as even visually there’s Benjo's own perilicitons. “From: Unknown” has a geometrical style that actually tries to keep the shapes have prominent angles and subtle height variation, unlike true blue 90s levels with lots of moments of crass flatness. The mono-texturing and stock use seemed to try to paint the level with a feel of the amateurish, but the colors and fuzzy surfaces are actually pleasant and complimentary. What I meant to say from this is that there’s so much actual visual interest in this that I can’t find it in myself to consider it ugly. DtD’s look falls into my board category of “consistently stimulating visuals”. We all love the conventionally pretty wads like your Eviternitys, your Sunders, but something that maintains visual interest like this is very valuable too imo. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but Benjo’s brand of looks is too “fun” to look at to be dismissed as “intentionally ugly, the irony!” imo. This is one of the ways DtD seems to me after m1 to be the first megawad that actually fits the description of the fantasy land of the 90s that so many forum goers in the past have pined for. The unicorn finally exists!

Anyways, the combat of m1 is not something I’m going to write much about, as I actually played this first map some months ago and am now writing from memory. I will say I had fun, and @Pseudonaut makes a good point about the emergent possibilities about this level. From what I remembered, the looser monster placement (perhaps trying to emulate a certain laid-backness of the amateurs) allows for many monster blending shenanigans, with a cyberdemon as a chaos agent. Good brawl, that.

A little stream of consciousness-y from my part, but that's what I get for writing from memory. Maybe my proper playthrough of m2 onwards will result in more focused analysis, but Down the Drain does bring the "deal with it" within me ;)

Edited November 2, 2022 by Catpho

Catpho · November 2, 2022

I will also say that I prefer to play this levels with high resolution rendering off, as I think it brings out certain qualities of the level's architecture and texture selctions more. It's kinda like digital and film stock; sometimes hyper clarity is better, sometimes the tick is the smudginess of a dream.

RHhe82 · November 2, 2022

43 minutes ago, Catpho said:

The mono-texturing and stock use seemed to try to paint the level with a feel of the amateurish, but the colors and fuzzy surfaces are actually pleasant and complimentary.

Indeed. I now realize the green parts of MAP01 remind me of TNT’s Habitat, and still there is a significant difference. Habitat is ugly, From: Unknown looks as if it was ugly.

KickAss · November 2, 2022

Just downloaded the file right now and I'll check it out later. Realy looking forward for this game. Hope I am having some more luck with this one this month. "DooMing" the last month sucked like hell.

Book Lord · November 2, 2022

MAP 01 – From: Unknown

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

At least Benjogami did not pussyfoot about his intentions: Down the Drain started off as ugly as your average 90s shovelware WAD would have done, dropping the player in the middle of a small network of outdoor canyons plastered with blurry ZIMMER and ASHWALL textures. The combat was sustained by the absence of effective weaponry, as closets opened continuously and well before reaching the single-barrel shotgun. Most of the time I was instigating animosity between monsters, missing most of the pickups along the way, including the SSG at the end of the pointed zig-zag peninsula protruding into the acid lake.

The dim caverns in the south were the lowest moment, as I was getting tired of shooting down Spectres without finding anything useful or interesting. A Berserk power-up would have been more reasonable than a redundant Soul Sphere+Megasphere, but this megaWAD was ostensibly non-compliant with modern sensibilities (quite the opposite). The Cyberdemon appeared out of the blue and was a good shock, prompting a mad dash for the rocket launcher seen at the beginning.

Spoiler

1586283843_DowntheDrainMAP01.jpg.8355efe694bd65a3adfe4a242b8501f6.jpg

If you played From: Unknown, you know that jumping on the ledge revealed the final wave of enemies behind the strange COMPBLUE waterfall, consisting of a ludicrous amount of Arachnotrons and three caged Barons of Hell. Luring the boss down the slope to do the dirty work was complicated, and I preferred to manually kill everything on my first attempt. The triple key exit was overkill, and I realised that I did not spot a single key in the map. I had to establish a logical link between the number of Barons and the number of the keys, thus finding a purpose to the whole arrangement. In the cages they were, hidden by large corpse sprites and behind textures that resembled all but doors. This first map was ok, let us see how long I can cope with these visual and gameplay oddities.

Edited November 2, 2022 by Book Lord : Paragraphs reworked

Monsieur E · November 2, 2022

Alright, time for Down The Drain. I've played the wad on and off and had most recently reached map17 a few days ago. I won't be entirely consistent this month so my apologies ahead of time. Playing on dsda-doom, complevel-2, pistol starts on UV with saves. In terms of other benjogami levels I've played, none except for Rotten Under The Foot of Time (Haste map12)

Down The Drain

Map01: "From: Unknown"
93/93 kills, 5/5 secrets

From: Unknown establishes the world Down The Drain will craft and the rulebook it expects you to play by from the first look at the strange vista it has dropped you into without explanation. The best way I can describe its style is faux-nostalgic, on the surface seemingly 90s but distinct from it at the same time, in an uncanny region of sorts between authencity and homage. The maps themselves, despite using stock doom textures and admittedly simple and "ugly", are often consistent and well crafted. Maps are accessible to move around in, progression is often contradictory to what we expect but it mostly never actually interferes with the experience of playing the map. In map01 for example, the whole sequence of reaching the exit is very strange with pressing a switch to lower a lift which is also a cliff to enter a cave where you press another switch to lower the comblue.. waterfall (?) revealing a massive spider infestation; the exit is locked behind three doors requiring all three keys, all of which are located in three baron cages right outside. Why DTD works so well imo is that I am often bewildered as opposed to being confused.

The combat in From: Unknown is rather fun to if you decide to play courageously, the cyberdemon is ideal to use as an infighter and knowing where the traps are gonna spring from and planning accordingly makes the map much more enjoyable. On my first go around a few months prior, I distinctly remember being annoyed at this map since health and ammo are relatively spread out thus step by step progression can often lead you short on them, but playing aggressively hunting for weapons and ammunition, targeting higher priority threats make the map much more fun. I think something this wad does quite effectively is the use of lost souls. Here a small group springs up during the cavern who can make revisiting this area dangerous and can also be a nuisance if they pour out.

The MIDI selections is strange but work well together. As an aside, I like how the MIDI pack has to be loaded separate to the actual wad. I think the default DOOM2 skybox kind of matches the look and style of the levels too. All in all, From: Unknown is a map which not only sets the stage for Down The Drain, but with a bit of hindsight, is a lot of fun to blast through.

General Roasterock · November 2, 2022

Map 02: Someone's Castle

It wouldn't be worth mentioning that any map from here on out is pretty ugly, since that's the achieved purposeful standard here, but I do like that Someone's Castle is much more kinetic. That giant block of water allows monsters to roam the entire expanse of the building, the lights on the floor are never organized in a straight grid for very long, and the exit "progression" involving stepping on both the illuminated diamonds is something no one would ever figure out without retrospect. That's the illusory nature of this whole set, I don't feel like what I've done should let me into the exit, and yet I always find myself making it there almost by accident. This is no doubt a combination of skillful setup, and the observational entropy these maps put you in, where it's impossible to get downtime to focus entirely on the gameplay. Instead of commenting on the fight with the Arch-Vile, or the mass of Imps and Pinkies that lower down from the "waterfall", I instead come away remembering the lift with one half being the switch, one half being a skull, painstakingly lined up to keep the green wall consistent whereas the majority of the rest of the map had no prior issue with that.

Power Rankings:

Spoiler

Someone's Castle
From: Unknown

Azure_Horror · November 2, 2022

Map 01

From: Unknown

DSDA-doom, pistol start, UV difficulty

Of course, the mapset is not the prettiest thing ever made for Doom. But I don't understand, why some people call map 01 ugly. Sure, it is not super-detailed, and it uses only basic texture set. However the different elements fit together rather well, given the constraints. Better than Knee Deep in The Dead, or Hell Revealed, in fact.

So visuals are solidly OK, in my book. Music choice is unusual, but for me personally it works.

Now to gameplay. The map manages to include lots of different monster types, and it presents a pretty convincing progression from lowly zombies all the way to arachnotrons and beyond. The monster density is carefuly calibrated: the map feels busy, nevertheless slipping past monsters is possible almost everywhere. Both standing your ground and running past the monsters are viable approaches.

Secrets are, for the most part, are not singposted. Sole exception - blue armor spot. Map progression is eclectic, but not obtuse. You need to find two buttons, than check a bunch of Baron-inhabited pillboxes - and you are golden! Some progression items are a bit obscure, but I don't think that it is a big deal. The map is small, and navigation is easy.

The most surprising part of the map is the inclusion of cyberdemon. However, given all the pandemonium outside, the cyberdemon does not look outrageous. And finding the cyber provides you with a soulsphere and a megasphere! So the cyber is not too punishing either.

All in all, this is a very pleasant map. Gameplay is, IMHO, very cool in many different spots, so it is definitely worth experiencing.

tmorrow · November 2, 2022

I'd like to participate in the DWMC's but the wads I want to play and talk about now are rarely selected so I'm opting out. Down the Drain is an interesting choice. Anticipating it would be the next DWMC playthrough, I downloaded it and had a peek last week. I settled on a halfhearted playthrough of map31 and quite enjoyed it. I didn't beat it but have some ideas that I think will win the day next time. I might add a review when the club reaches that map if I decide to attempt it again. Enjoy Down the Drain this month guys, doomguy will be watching from the sidelines, taking surreptitious notes with his partial invisibility sphere running.

Pseudonaut · November 2, 2022

Map02:
Much is being said about whether or not these maps are ugly... all I'll say is that their looks don't bother me.

Like the first map, this one has many free-roaming monsters and generally allows the player to roam freely as well. There's also a large stash of rockets toward the end, so I decided to try a route that prioritizes reaching this stash and cleans up the surviving monsters after. This resulted in some entertaining chaos that I barely managed to survive, as the archvile wandered to places I didn't anticipate and made things difficult. Unfortunately, the amount of backtracking involved in this route outweighs plausible infighting outcomes (not to mention archvile resurrections), so a straightforward route is much faster. I'm posting both runs:

Spoiler

Demos:

drn02.zip

Catpho · November 2, 2022

MAP02 - “Someone’s Castle”

Fun map. High-tier weapons vs. mid to high tier monsters in light hordes and fodder in large hordes is always going to be enjoyable thanks to lots of priority switching, and there's a decent variety of "modern" pressure set ups in here that function as mini-climaxes and allow for some good low-stress running around. What I really loved, however, is the atmosphere of the place, as the age-old “storm the lo-fi castle that’s actually just a gate with a few walls” set-up quickly spirals into the personal and the mystical. @General Roasterock spotted a number of cool details I didn't notice, so go read that instead. As a substitute, have this mini album of my favorite areas visually:

Spoiler

I love the persistent association of compblue with water

Can't deceide which I like better. The green armor compliments the light texture and the surrounding jade earth, and is contrasted by the darkness, the soulsphere, and the inferno behind the manc. Good prop, lighitng, and texture as (crazy-looking) "detailing" here.

Found this little rocket cove to be very peaceful. A small water shrine but it's trapped in a 90s FPS

Other than what I mentioned, there is nothing truly weird in this level aside from being a modern take on a 90s-ish level, with an embrace for a more abstract and messy looking aesthetic. Especially when you stack it against the first level, which imo had more going on with its unconventional weapons progression and infighting opportunities. Just wanted to post to say that I'm fine with it in the context of a megawad, where a couple of restrained but fun ones with cool devils in detail are fine for pacing. Would make for a charming lark of a single level release otherwise.

Edited November 2, 2022 by Catpho

Roofi · November 2, 2022

I'm back for a new fancy vanilla wad ! I'll play on UV and I will not bother on maxing because I don't have access to the stats on DOSBOX.

So,

Map 01 : From: Unknown

DRN.wad_MAP01.jpg.png.2edf7bf566fb8c3d18b0e5258f9c2d2d.png

So, what to say about map 01?

It's hard.

Besides the deliberate simplistic aesthetics , Map 01 is both unexpectedly and expectedly tough. Unexpectedly because at least 90% of amateur maps from the 90's have less optimized monsters/items placements and traps but also expectedly because the mapper is Benjogami and Benjo's stuff are known for their high difficulty and quirkyness.

Just for your information I'm currently at map 08 on my continuous playthrough and I want to warn you to not be fooled by the cute natural outdoors and the chill soundtrack. The first map perfectly shows what you will have in the following maps : "ugly" aesthetics faithful to the 90's era counterbalanced by very optimized monster placement paired with ammo drought.

"From : Unknown" doesn't joke with ammo management. I ran out of ammo during my first playhtrough while fighting the cyberdemon (A cybie in the first map??) and I still struggled with ammo while recording the ammo. Don't miss your rockets and look at for secrets because they will considerably help.

Also, Benjogami made enough large pathways in order to let the monsters navigate. If you let the cyberdemon escape from the cavern, he becomes quite unpredictable. The weak monsters such as zombies force your to advance with caution because armor is rare at the beginning.

IIt's a well-crafted level in terms of combats but it doesn't look like a Map 01 in my opinion. I really like the midi , it gives me some "Ray Mohawk" vibes since it sounds like a relaxing vacation.

Grade : B-

Edited November 2, 2022 by Roofi

Azure_Horror · November 2, 2022

Map 02

Someone's Castle

DSDA-doom, pistol start, UV difficulty

Whenever I play this map, I always associate it with Greverobbers from Scythe 2. Guess, I should compliment @Benjogami on a work well done, because Greverobbers is my favorite Scythe2 map!

Someone's Castle is a more straighforward map than Map 01, and also more frantic one. The consant inflow of new enemies to fight is great! The first archvile of the WAD also makes an appearnce here, and it is almost guaranteed to leave an impression. The final fight is almost guaranteed to have a lot of annoying foes to be ressurected, and even more baddies to distract you from the vile.

Personally, I slightly prefer map 01, but map 02 one is also pretty great.

Edited November 2, 2022 by Azure_Horror

Book Lord · November 2, 2022

MAP 02 – Someone's Castle

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

Every WAD collection from the 90s featured several maps called Someone’s Castle, with “Someone” being the author’s real name. Benjogami’s forgery began like many of those early efforts, putting Doomguy to the outside and suggesting he should infiltrate the fortified building. An aggressive attitude was rewarded with an early SSG, not very useful against the low tiers outside but probably intended for the Green Armour ambush, which got me well. The seemingly random trees were in fact placed to hinder Revenant rocket dodging, and the barrels were part of the trap as well.

Spoiler

585273515_DowntheDrainMAP02_01.jpg.e8850581f4eff72b446a9b4d4c1a7755.jpg

The inside hosted a weird environment with placid pools, more COMPBLUE waterfalls, and ineffable texture juxtapositions. The rocket launcher encounter and the first cleansing of the pools were not overly exciting, then approaching the plasma rifle on top of the ledge caused all waterfalls to disappear, revealing groups of mid-tiers, with an Arch-Vile and two Barons in the mix. On the first time it was hard to see where everybody was coming from, and I ended up trapped by Hell Knights while trying to cause infighting. The staircase and the water elevator behind the Baron waterfall allowed the enemies to chase me everywhere, but some of them remained stuck because of it. These moving platforms will be a recurring element of Down the Drain; while imperfect and buggy, they created unexpected situations in this rather fierce battle for the MAP02 slot.

Spoiler

1455480153_DowntheDrainMAP02_02.jpg.2635eb5c771446ad41a209bebe14ead3.jpg

Roofi · November 2, 2022

Map 02 : Someone's castle

DRN.wad_MAP02.png.8994e8a7368ed445662971f2c1b0ef40.png

I seriously wonder who made this castle but by looking how balanced the ammo are and how choreographed the last fight was, I know it's someone who try to imitate the 90's without living in !

Seriously, this level was a lot more fun than the previous one. First of all, I cheerish the "old castle in natural outdoors" theme. It's a timeless classic for maps made with stock textures. As the previous level, the detailing is reduced to its strict minimum, but I appreciate more the semi-realistic aspect. The indoor part turns out to be more abstract but I like the openess and light contrasts.

I admit I didn't have a lot of fun fighting the cyberdemon in map 01 but the big fight involving an arch-vile in map 02 was a lot more entertaining once you know where all the rockets boxes are concentrated. Also, I found map 02 easier than map 01. Despite involving some tricky scenarios such as roaming revenants, sniping mancubus or an arch-vile used among a large group of enemies, "Someone's castle" corresponds more to what I expect from a map 02.

The use of a distorted and inverted version of the music of map 23 of Doom 2 seems silly at first, but in the end it contributes positively to the eccentric aspect of the wad. It's joyful, weird and catchy. I planned to give a B+ to that level but the music encouraged me to give a slightly better grade.

EDIT : the music comes from a song from Nirvana. Damn I really thought it was an altered version of "Bye Bye american pie" midi...

Grade : A-

Edited November 2, 2022 by Roofi

NiGHTS108 · November 2, 2022

- PLAY INFO -

Spoiler

- GZDoom 4.8.2 source port
- Doom (strict) compatibility
- Ultra-Violence difficulty
- Pistol start every map
- Saves are allowed
- Beaten this entire wad before on stream (A first for me)
- I try to get 100% kills sometimes
- Using mods Autoautosave and IDCLEVer (Improves GZ autosaves and auto-forces pistol starts) and a few other mods that don't change gameplay (Doom II Minor Sprite Fixing Project, widescreen huds, DSDA-Doom hud in GZDoom)

MAP01: From: Unknown

From: Benjogami

Kills: 84%

Items: 100%

Secrets: 40%

Time: 3:39

From: Unknown is a MAP01 I respect more than I like. Naturally, it's a visually brutal start, Benjogami wastes no time getting knee-deep in the 90's visuals. This isn't a point I'll consistently bring up or anything but it's worth noting it adds a lot to this wad's tone and atmosphere, and while some may call it lazy, I call it distinctive. This map is surprisingly cozy for me, boosted quite a lot by what I'm pretty sure is a Radiohead MIDI, gameplay wise it's nothing special, I usually avoid the Cyberdemon in the cave unless I need a health boost because he's not worth killing. Overall if this map teaches you anything about Down The Drain, it's probably that you should forget about UV-max, believe me. Overall I'm not wild about this map but it's quite pleasant in a weird fucked up way and introduces what Down The Drain is all about pretty well.

Grade: B-

Difficulty: D+

MAP02: Someone's Castle

Kills: 79%

Items: 52%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 3:18

A considerable improvement over the first, Someone's Castle is a quick trip through... well... a castle. As stated before it's not worth talking about the visuals but in this map I love the blue tech base walls meant to imitate waterfalls, it's just the right level of both goofy and creative. The action here is better than the last, this map gets a surprising amount out of 130 enemies, particularly when you lower the mass of Imps indoors and an Arch-Vile pops up. If you don't find the (pretty obvious, but I missed it at first anyway) rocket launcher you're gonna have a bad time here. The ending is something of a letdown, after a pretty good fight that almost made me forget I was playing "shovelware" there's just a flock of Revenants and Hell Knights, and that's all she wrote. They're fun to rocket I guess.

Grade: B

Difficulty: C-

General Roasterock · November 2, 2022

1 hour ago, Book Lord said:

Every WAD collection from the 90s featured several maps called Someone’s Castle, with “Someone” being the author’s real name.

Source? As much as I'd love to dig through D!Zone for the rest of the day, time doesn't really permit it, but I would love for some better context into what these maps take inspiration from, as I know from Evening with Nirvana that they definitely have specifics.

2 hours ago, Azure_Horror said:

Whenever I play this map, I always associate it with Greverobbers from Scythe 2.

One of us sure as hell needs to replay Scythe 2 then. Maybe I can see the height variations through ledges being a clean comparison, but otherwise I have no idea where that could be. I'll jump in that map a bit later then.

Sign In

The DWmegawad Club plays: Down the Drain

Recommended Posts

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

Create an account

Sign in