The DWmegawad Club plays: Community Chest 2

[E.M.]

MAP19 - “The Marbelous Three” by Hirogen2

DSDA-Doom, UV, Pistol Start

 

This one was a bit tricky at first, but once I knew what to do, it became one of my favorite maps in the WAD. It's short, for starters. I've already established just how much I love short maps. I was able to beat this one in less than 7 minutes. Secondly, this level has some of the most extravagant detailing I have ever seen. He put more effort into the starting area than most people do in their entire maps. The combat is pretty fun too. It puts up quite a bit of resistance, but it never turns into a slog. My favorite part is when you grab the berserk and invincibility and then wreak havoc on every demon dumb enough to get in your way. It's a shame that Hirogen2 just disappeared after making this map. I would have loved to see what sort of intricately detailed creations he would have concocted.

[brick]

GZDoom, Boom compatibility, HNTR, blind, continuous with saves.

 

MAP19 - “The Marbelous Three” by Hirogen2
Oh boy, what an absolute pain this must be on pistol-start. The SSG is 3/5 keys into the map, the RL is just as deep but in a secret, and otherwise you have nothing but shotgun and chaingun to go through barons, PEs and cacos. UV even has a Cyberdemon, and you're given all of 4 rockets to deal with him. Continuous is not bad (even though I was almost out of shells at one point), and aside from the ammo starvation the map is fun. There's a nice feeling of the place being old and slightly falling apart, one of the secrets is behind exposed masonry that clearly hints it can be destroyed. Speaking of, most of the secrets were fun and not hard to find (though for one of them you get one try and that's it). There's a bit of Boom trickery with the glass windows, the RSK flowing along in the blood onto the sacrificial altar. The visuals are evocative like this, and of course there's a lot of marble everywhere. There are lots of keys but the map is not large and the back and forth is fun as a result.

 

MAP20 - “Enigma” by The Flange Peddler
The sight of the BFG secret right as you start looks memorable, though it turns out it is very easy to miss (and, it seems, actually impossible to reach outside of old versions of ZDoom where the AV jump was bugged). The map continues the previous one's aesthetic and is marbelous to behold. There's blood floors everywhere, and they fit well with the visuals, but this is where I started getting irritated. There are too few radsuits, there are a lot of treks across the blood that you need to do (and a few extras if you don't already know in which order to do things), you are often under attack while running on the blood, and the radsuits are positioned in the most annoying way, where you cannot see them until after you're already taking damage. The worst troll is that two of them become inaccessible right when you start needing them, and become accessible again only as you're about to take the exit. Compounding this, I found the map incredibly confusing to navigate; not because rooms are samey, each one is in fact unique-looking, but because there are so many switches that need to be pressed in order, and it is never clear what any of them does. I often found myself running around retreading empty corridors (and more damaging blood) trying to find just where I'm supposed to go next. Of Ian's three maps in this wad, this is unfortunately the one I liked least.

[Veeda Vidlak]

Ack, I’m falling behind. I’ll try to catch up today and tomorrow.

 

Map 16: Spirit World HQ (GZoom, complevel 9, UV pistol start)

 

Hmmm, don’t think I can spin this one. First things first, Spirit World HQ is not favorably positioned in the map ordering. This is level 16 and we’ve had several strong showings just beforehand, so it visibly underperforms by comparison. Secondly, this map makes several mistakes I’d praised Gene Bird for avoiding in prior outings… On top of having the problems his Blind Alley maps tend to have in general.

 

The combat flow I enjoyed in Redemption and The Pit just isn’t present here. The player starts in a (plain) outdoor area with two square buildings and a pyramid-like structure behind them. The buildings have annoying monster window dressing™ and after clearing the outside this entire section consists of moving through small rooms so you can proceed to the second part. It is a pain in the ass to make sure you’ve killed everything here and you’d better damn well do so if you’re maxing because you can’t teleport back (grrr). On my first run this became the first level in CC2 I did not get 100% kills without noclipping because I missed an imp who probably teleported in late or something.

 

The second section plays more like his prior maps but again, it doesn’t have the flow. I can’t fly from room to room because there’s too much backtracking, waiting for lifts, waiting for teleporting monsters, and general awkwardness that stifle the level’s fluidity. There’s a little room here with an archvile and some hitscanners you can only see through a teeny window and is completely inaccessible. Why is this here? They don’t do anything. Later you have a small platform with a switch and a teleporter nearby that… jumps you onto said platform. The ending section is obnoxious. There’s a narrow hallway to the exit with revenants and mancubi just outside nipping at you through narrow windows. They’re completely harmless but grating to kill, finishing the level with one final slog. All of this adds up to a level I got little joy out of playing either time.

 

There are some interesting tidbits here, like the outside buildings implying they’re storing mapmaking materials (cute), but the overall level is such a chore. It’s the weakest of Bird’s maps so far and I know there’s one more, so I’m hoping he goes out on a high note.

 

Side note: This is the third map of four that he gives effectively the exact same name as an IWAD level. I don’t know if this is intentional, but it is a little eyebrow-raising.

 

Map 17: Through the Black (GZoom, complevel 9, UV pistol start)

 

A nicely timed combat focused map, Through the Black gets the blood pumping with this short but feisty outing. The lighting is strong, and I’ll agree with the commenters comparing the visuals to alien vendetta, though the style strikes me as more “quality old-school doom” than reminds me of any specific map.

 

You start out in an alcove laced 64-unit corridor which houses a telegraphed ambush, and the combat carries you through the rest of the level from there. Most of Leaver’s fights are entertaining and your resources are really tight unless you find the hilariously overpowered secret in the red key room. Said red key area is the best part of the level, featuring a nifty combat puzzle that punishes charging in and grabbing the rocket launcher to kill the pile of revenants sniping at you. There are deaf chaingunners behind the pillars and waking them all up at once hurts (though is still fine to do as long as your fallback path is clear). The level loses steam afterwards, featuring immobile or helpless enemies the rest of the way, but is too short for it to get aggravating.

 

I’ll give specifics on monster placements I’m not the biggest fan of. The cacodemon pairs behind fake walls could probably have just been cacodemon singles, having two in each closet feels superfluous. The quad baron attack when you grab the red key is groan inducing, they’re the last enemies you encounter and only serve to waste your time. Perhaps more annoying than both, however, is the room before the red key area. There are cacos and hell-knights behind monster-blocking linedefs on both sides as well as three mancubi sniping from above an inaccessible bloodfall. These enemies serve their purpose of ushering you into the next room well but are an utter chore to clear out later. You’ll want to use your rockets on the revenant horde, mancubi groups above the red key, and baron quartet so you’ll have to either carefully extract these guys with the super shotty and chaingun or save your rockets and shotgun all four barons. What a drag! More rockets please! Given that the level’s threat is over once the revenants are dead, more than half the runtime is procedural cleanup. It might have been better to have these guys crushed upon grabbing the red key, given their purpose has already been served.

 

Overall, I suppose I’m not as high on this one as the general consensus. Too many instances of monster cleanup for me that manage to make a short level feel protracted. It’s still a fine map, and I enjoyed playing it, so it helps CC2 recover momentum leading into map18.

 

Map 18: Infernal Reaches 3 (GZoom, complevel 9, UV pistol start)

 

Here we have a level in the same mapslot as TNT’s Mill, using the same midi as Mill, roughly twice the size of Mill, and making me wish I was playing Mill (and I don’t want to play Mill). Infernal Reaches 3 is a sprawling adventure that has plenty to admire but also issues that make it a bear to play.

 

Firstly, this level has a major backtracking problem. You must backtrack to use the red key, you must backtrack to use the yellow key, you must backtrack to use all of the keys… This pads out an already long level and craters the navigability. It isn’t trivial to move through this map either, there are lifts, boxy mazes, and a spiral staircase that is wonderfully engineered but takes time to move through. The result is a map that seriously drags and has a lot of dead time where the player is just running through already cleared rooms. Even if they know the layout perfectly and aren’t secret hunting.

 

Another issue is that all your non super shotgun weapons are in secrets. They’re not exactly hard secrets to find, but in a level so massive its easy to overlook them. Failing to find the rocket launcher and cell weapons engenders an utterly miserable experience as there are nowhere near enough shells to compensate. Oh, and the berserk is in a secret too, so that’s not an option either. In fact, there are 15 (!) secrets in this map in total. That’s waaaaaaay to many. I’m curious how many players who normally try to max see 10/15 at the end of playing for like 30 - 40 minutes and just say “fuck this” instead.

 

Finally, we have the gameplay, which has both good and bad elements. Combat is actually pretty varied with some traps, corridor brawls, outdoor fights, and a cyberdemon arena with a contingent of idiots that shouldn’t cause problems. There are a few extremely cramped encounters that can rankle you, notably a blind lift drop into a tiny room with a revenant you’d better have the super shotgun or (secret) berserk for. There are two fights that stand out to me as particularly nasty. The first is the blue armor ambush in the northern room with the yellow door. When you hit the switch it’s on, you’d better move away immediately or you get rendered almost completely immobile for 30 seconds while chaingunners, imps, and a pair of revenants spawn in and obliterate your helpless ass. Not cool. The second is in the isolated area you teleport to after getting all three keys. Hitting the switch there causes two archies to arrive behind you and its extremely hard to take cover (using the dais in the middle to swallow blast damage isn’t practical with two of them). I’d recommend pre-firing a rocket, hitting the switch, then immediately turning to rocket them… You should be able to down one and tank a hit from the other. Overall, a neutral to subpar experience, there are a few too many rude moments in a level I’m already annoyed at.

 

This is a good example of a map that really needed more restraint to be good. For sure, aesthetics is not the problem here. Neither is complexity or ambition. Rather, the level needed to be trimmed down and streamlined to limit all the backtracking. I could definitely see someone enjoying this, but I most certainly did not and I probably will not play it again after two run-throughs today.

[Book Lord]

MAP 20 – Enigma by Ian Cunnings @The Flange Peddler

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

 

When collecting ideas for a new map with exploratory puzzle elements, taking inspiration from the IWADs and trying to improve on them might sound like a good idea. E3M7: Limbo was apart from all the levels in the OG, forfeiting a crescendo of bloody fights for an atmospheric and somehow depressing adventure through damaging blood floors, looking for the teleporter that unfortunately escaped the attention. Combine this with a much more polished, dynamic, and detailed layout, and you get the idea of what Enigma is about.

Spoiler

I love the texture scheme of Doom’s Inferno, and I appreciate the key and switch hunt as presented in Limbo; as soon as I emerged in the large round chamber at the centre of the map, I immediately got the reference and began exploring. I sticked to the weapons provided by the map, and soon noticed that I was facing lots of Hell Nobles armed with only a shotgun and chaingun. Blame on me for going right instead of left, thus delaying the much-needed SSG. The long path to the satyr switch that caused the lake of blood to sink and reveal new areas to explore was quite a grind as a result.

 

At least the caverns in the blood pit contained both plasma rifle and rocket launcher, which I unleashed with repressed fury on all those fatsos lumbering on the harmful liquid, then I pressed the eye switch to lower the corridors I crossed before and found the RSK antrum, defended by invisible Spectres, Imps, and an Arch-Vile. When the healer was dead, I noticed a hole that should be climbed with his cooperation, and obviously led to the BFG seen at the beginning of the map. I cannot be bothered to max out a level that requires omniscience to do so, so I missed that secret along with the Blue Armour in the eastern tower. It appears that a height miscalculation bug prevented scoring that secret anyway.

Spoiler

The key I found did not allow much progress, because I only had yellow and blue doors to open. After visiting every inch of the map, I noticed there was a column next to the YSK ledge that I failed to check, and there I found that cursed teleporter. Everything was smooth sailing from then on, and I laughed at the nonthreatening Baron quartet that protected the BSK, and at the army of Former Humans that was deployed as hellspawn’s last stand. I liked what I saw in Enigma, as I crave for Doom levels that elaborate on E3 visual style, but the combat was sedated and the whole puzzle architecture was bound to the single gate that I missed. An acceptable entry, sadly failing to deliver what it promised.

Edited January 20, 2023 by Book Lord

[RichardDS90]

5 hours ago, Book Lord said:

When the healer was dead, I noticed a hole that should be climbed with his cooperation, and obviously led to the BFG seen at the beginning of the map. I cannot be bothered to max out a level that requires omniscience to do so, so I missed that secret along with the Blue Armour in the eastern tower. It appears that a height miscalculation bug prevented scoring that secret anyway.

About that hole. It wasn't so much about height miscalculations. In older ZDoom versions, the Archie's blast would send you much higher than normal, high enough to reach that secret, but after a specific update, it became the Archie jump you know today.

Edited January 20, 2023 by Salahmander2

[Book Lord]

1 hour ago, Salahmander2 said:

About that hole. It wasn't so much about height miscalculations. In older ZDoom versions, the Archie's blast would send you much higher than normal, high enough to reach that secret, but after a specific update, it became the Archie jump you know today.

 

I do not think that testing with Boom format would ever have allowed to jump so high. Therefore, the AV jump height was calculated and tested in ZDoom (Wiki says "pre-2.4.0 versions of ZDoom"), which was not exactly the target port for Community Chest 2. It does not count as a proper mistake, but it is a sign that the concept of "target port" was still undefined in 2004.

[E.M.]

MAP20 - “Enigma” by The Flange Peddler

DSDA-Doom, UV, Pistol Start

 

This map is pretty to look at but a drag to play. The gameplay mostly consists of pressing a switch and then stumbling around, wondering what it did. The combat is pretty boring. The hitscanners can be a nuisance, but for the most part, you can just SSG most of the fights. The only interesting part is when it gives you a berserk to punch out 4 pinkies and a hell knight, then gibbing a bunch of zombiemen with rockets. I didn't even bother getting 100% kills because playing this map makes me want to go to sleep. By the way, one of the secrets is impossible to get because the author only tested it in an older version of ZDoom that allows for higher archvile jumps.

[Book Lord]

MAP 21 – Undead Nation by @Draconio

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

 

I was just asking myself if Community Chest 2 featured only maps by veterans or famous authors. Draconio is one of the least known mappers in the team, having released only three deathmatch maps on idgames before contributing Undead Nation, which turned out to be his swansong and not a particularly memorable one. The starting room and the surrounding ring hub displayed classic Doom tech-base visuals, E1 monsters, and “Dark Halls” as a soundtrack. There was nothing interesting or disappointing to report, just a sense of déjà vu that plagued most of the map and its locations. Most problems here would be noticed when pistol starting, since ammo was tight and required a strict management, meticulous collection of scattered resources, and relying on the provided chainsaw.

Spoiler

From the hub Doomguy could only go westwards through a crate warehouse, arriving in a large chamber with a pit full of Demons, Chaingunners on the surrounding ledge, and the RSK. I liked the sniping duel with the Commandos, as the Pinkies below often messed with everyone’s auto-aim. The southern SLADWALL wing continued the sequence of large-scale rooms and corridors, which felt rather empty. Two metal columns blocked the way to the YSK room, and it was possible to raise one by visiting either the computer room to the right, or the nukage tunnels to the left; the unchecked part could be skipped if desired. In retrospect, the numerous secrets suggested that Draconio envisioned an optimal route to max out Undead Nation, but I felt not much compelled to do a thorough search.

Spoiler

The yellow door to the east opened on a staircase with Imps and a Mancubus sweeping the area with his fireballs. This was a nice little situation, much better than the following corridor shooting and the non-existent BSK battle. I admit that the final hug fest with Pinkies and Hellknights, topped by an Arch-Vile in a nice marble arena, was rather unexpected after breathing an air of tranquillity for the whole duration of the map. While it ended the journey on an exciting note, it also revealed a general lack of balance in Draconio’s work. Undead Nation might be interpreted as an extra-tight resource management puzzle, that could be solved on pistol start only with foreknowledge and adequate planning. The unassuming visuals and the largely incidental combat suggested this was a passable beginner’s map instead, which was never followed by more sophisticated propositions.

[Monsieur E]

Map20: "Enigma"
By The Flange Peddler, 151/152 kills, 1/5 secrets, 18:25

Enigma, much like the map it seems to be basing itself off on, is confusing and tedious. You have to teleport from occasionally hidden teleporters to press switches, find keys, and keep doing progression points spread across the map you will go around in circles to locate properly until you finally raise the bridge that lets you reach the exit.

You will have to grind down enemies one after another, initially armed with a chaingun and shotgun and a supershotgun later on that can be missed, and towards the end, the RL and plasma rifle. In general, this map has a climb up in enjoyment; starting off awful, bored, confused and annoyed grinding down enemies, but later on as you get more familiar with the map and get heavier weaponry, it becomes less tedious.

It still isn't enjoyable but with the rather generous damaging floor (only 5% damaging floor I believe) and radsuit allotment, coupled with the somber mood to the tune of Sign of Evil and strong gloomy presentation of doom1's hell, I think Enigma succeeds in surpassing its inspiration but still required much more fine tuning to be something I actually like. 

Map21: "Undead Nation"
By Draconio 161/191 kills, 1/8 secrets, 9:55 

Inoffensive and uncompelling, I have nothing else to say. It's a bunch of corridors connecting rooms which thankfully are rather open allowing me to just ignore a lot of the stuff thrown at me, there is a relatively tight ammo balance here but I don't think this is anything too demanding. This is just a rather a lackluster map overall.

[NiGHTS108]

MAP06: The View

By Lutrov71

Kills: 88%

Items: 26%

Secrets: 20%

Time: 6:50

 

Definitely the best map so far, The View is a refreshing and easy little tech base with some nice detailing and a cool ending. I'll admit I'm not wild about the hitscanners in this map, they can be surprisingly annoying early on, but the deeper you get in this map the better the combat gets. It culminates in this great shootout on the cliffside involving tons of fodder to rocket. In general whenever you have the rocket launcher in this map it's a really fun time. I don't have a lot to say about this map, it's just simple clean fun.

 

Grade: A-

Difficulty: C-

 

 

MAP07: To Hell And Back

By The Flange Peddler

Kills: 89%

Items: 40%

Secrets: 25%

Time: 12:17

 

Eh... I'm not really into this one. To Hell And Back is a pretty neat concept that kinda fumbles the ball in execution. Visually this tech base is... okay? Between this and Coolant Platform, I guess very overdetailed Knee-Deep In The Dead visuals were kinda the in thing for a while. No, what really bugs me about the visuals is how it interferes with the progression. I thought I had it figured out after a point, that green doors are locked and everything else is open, but not only is that not the case but for a necessary progression beat, in the room with the portal you're kinda just expected to know that one of the green doors can open and everything else can't. It's also surprisingly easy to get lost in this map I find, I guess lost isn't exactly the right word but it has this elevator system which can sometimes block you off from where you need to go, just making navigation even more inconvenient. I have no idea what inspired The Flange Peddler to make progression in this map the frustrating annoyance that it is. It all builds to a mediocre Dead Simple clone that I softlocked in because a Mancubus refused to wake up and it also has this palette change that makes the map look like vomit on software rendering. Not worth it in my opinion. It does have some redeeming elements that prevent me from disliking it necessarily, mainly the first few minutes just churning through hitscanners being pretty fun, though when the gunfire dies the map goes with it.

 

Grade: C

Difficulty: B-

 

 

MAP08: The Pit

By Gene Bird

Kills: 89%

Items: 33%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 9:42

 

What. A. Masterpiece. The Pit truly is amazing, somehow even more hilarious than Deja Vu for me. I'd almost feel like I'm not doing it justice listing this map's many wonderful features because I feel like it needs to be seen to be believed. Playing this for me was honestly pretty interesting, I think it finally clicked for me just how much my taste has changed since March, because MAN I just love how three rooms in this map basically look the exact same, the only justification for this map being called "The Pit" is this sluggish elevator, at least one room in this map that is just a complete dead end and... and... and... I hate to say this but yeah basically everything MtPain said about this map is right and more. It's a miraculous spectacle of ironic enjoyment. I'm not going to pass this one, it's so ridiculously incompetent I honestly can't make excuses, but it's the best map in Community Chest 2 so far in my heart.
(Sorry Searcher)

 

Grade: F

Difficulty: C

 

 

MAP09: The Transformer

By Graf Zahl

Kills: 97%

Items: 48%

Secrets: 66%

Time: 4:15

A decent little tech base that doesn't annoy me nearly as much as you'd expect if you know my opinions on shotgunners, The Transformer is *another* short tech base but honestly after the last two maps, I'd say that's welcome. This map is rich with easy to find and downright overpowered secrets, but I wouldn't say any of them are particularly necessary to have fun outside of maybe the chaingun at the start. It's easy to find everything you need in this map so you shouldn't end up a salty member.

 

Grade: B-

Difficulty: D-

 

 

MAP10: Intermission

By Volteface

Kills: 92%

Items: 66%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 4:38

Another pretty short tech base... huh... feels like I've been saying that line a lot. Not a lot to see here, a relatively brisk map that doesn't do anything particularly interesting but has a nice comfortable atmosphere. Got some nice secrets to find and some really easy encounters. I don't know, I quite enjoyed this map but you can pretty much just copy paste one of my previous reviews to show my opinions on this one. I guess the Cyberdemon fight at the end was pretty interesting.

 

Grade: B

Difficulty: E

 

 

[Devalaous]

I got heavily distracted by a modding project and then was forced on a 'holiday' with many days of no PC access, so I havent gotten any more progress on this, pretty unlikely I'll catch up now. I suppose I can dump thoughts on things in a megapost later once I do though, as im still going to finish the wad, but I dunno, its unlikely to be done in January.

[E.M.]

MAP21 - “Undead Nation” by Draconio

DSDA-Doom, UV, Pistol Start

 

Here's a Doom 2 map that looks and plays like a Doom 1 map but is nowhere near as fun or memorable. The layout consists almost entirely of large square rooms with simple detailing. You'll spend half the map grinding through loads of hitscanners, imps, pinkies, two cacos, and two hell knights with nothing but the pump action and the chaingun. That large pit with the pinkies is especially bad. You'll need clairvoyance to find many of the secrets, especially the one that contains the level's only radsuit, which you'll need to grab the berserk. There's not a lot of ammo, so you'll have to rely heavily on infighting. The level isn't that long, so that's not much of a problem for me. The final fight with the hell knights and pinkies is actually the easiest part of the map as I was able to just run around, get them all to infight, and SSG the survivors. Overall, "Undead Nation" is bland, boring, and forgettable. Even Gene Bird's maps are more interesting than this.

[brick]

GZDoom, Boom compatibility, HNTR, blind, continuous with saves.

 

MAP21 - “Undead Nation” by Draconio
I don't know why, but this map gave me strong iwad E1 vibes. Maybe because, aside from the SSG and the chaingunners (and one rude surprise at the end) most of the enemies are shareware-only. Maybe it's specific rooms that gave me a deja vu to E1 maps (I think big computer room with the slow-moving platforms reminded me of both E1M7 and I'm not sure which other iwad map). In any case when I saw the relatively small size and the relatively high enemy count I was dreading a micro-slaughter, but this turned out not to be the case at all due to the enemy composition and the fact they're unleashed in pretty small groups. In fact most of the combat feels incidental, and when teleport-ambushes are triggered the enemies actually get teleported quite a way behind you and you only meet them on the way to your next locked door. It's another map that I don't think does anything extraordinary, but what it does do, it does it well and is good fun as a result.

[Crusader No Regret]

Welp, the last batch of maps from about 20 onwards I recall being stuffed with "you have to know what's coming or you're going to get hosed" setups.  So I predict there's going to be a lot of FUn to be had, with a few exceptions.  (There's also a high chance my recollection is inaccurate since I last played CC2 in 2007-2008)

 

Switching gears, I made it through a map.  32 is now in the "complete" column.  As I've been Dooming on and off since 1997, I sometimes get bored with shooting Doom monsters with Doom weapons so I added Touhou Doom weapons and enemies to this playthrough again.  HMP diificulty as is usual for me.

 

I can see how some would miss the SSG. I very well may have missed it back then myself.  With Touhou Doom weapons, the location was noticeable since the replacement sprite is much taller.  I still missed the first armor until after I had lost my first life later on in the map and happened to backtrack to its hiding spot.  That sure would have been useful when I spent a long time running around at 0 armor.

 

Once inside the structure, I didn't figure out that many of the panels could be used as doors until the map was 80% over.  So my journey ended up as mostly linear.  The upshot is that I didn't have issues with getting lost and this particular path had sufficient ammo to be a viable one.  It was really dry on armor though.  I have no regrets with replacing 40% of the numerous hellknights with (usually) less beefy opposition as there are lots of them.  And they're scattered (so rockets aren't attractive for dealing with them) and often remote (and unable to close to melee range) so taking them out is slow. 

 

Right, now I remember why I stopped my previous attempt at the map.  It wasn't something external or getting bored at plinking at hellknights through small floor gaps.  I died in the rocket launcher shrine and didn't continue since I hadn't been using saves.  Imps in the cubbyholes at the sides and a hellknight and baron in somewhat tight quarters.  Touhou enemies makes the nobles deadlier as their firing patterns are far less predictable and they have a couple of high damage shottypes.  Pull out the heavy weaponry, pop that panic spellcard, and frantically take them out finishing at low health.  Only to lose another life to a dammaku imp landing a killshot.  Jerk.  Yay for extra lives.  Rest of the map goes routine by Doom standards.  There's plenty of rocket ammo around to cut loose with heavy firepower from the rocket launcher Hakkero gun so I can spare the ammo to be aggressive.  Also found all the secrets including the BFG (though no plasma rifle).  Some of the ambush squads leave a mark on my health but none of them take it to zero so that felt good.  Even with some pacing woes and how easy it is to miss the SSG and first available armor, still consider this one of the highlight maps of CChest2.

[Book Lord]

MAP 22 – Thematic Elements by Thomas Lutrov @Lutrov71 and Kimmo "Jimi" Kumpulainen

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

 

Thematic Elements was the offspring of the “enfant prodige” Thomas Lutrov, a 12-year-old lad that produced technically sound Doom levels with nice visuals, as proved by his solo effort The View. Being not a very skilled player at that time, he felt inadequate to ramp up the challenge for veteran Doomers, so he was assisted by the experienced Kimmo Kumpulainen who implemented the gameplay. For some reason, this map was released on idgames a few weeks before Community Chest 2, and it might have been fished out to fill an empty slot.

 

Not for the faint of heart, Thematic Elements could be an authentic shock if you expect the same treatment as in MAP06. It was hard as hell in some parts, especially at the beginning, and it shamelessly played dirty to anyone trying it for the first time. The teleporters with Hell Knights on them sent Doomguy to three separate map sections, each one ending with a key pickup that was required to open the exit. If choosing the leftmost one first was practically a death sentence, the other two led to temporary dead ends, but the central one dropped me exactly in front of a BFG. The mightiest weapon was mandatory for the first, bloodiest segment, where the authors unleashed fierce monsters without restraint or care for unequipped pistol starters.

Spoiler

The first playable room displayed the same colour theme as The View, but it was bursting with deadly monster closets. Releasing 9 Chaingunners and an Arch-Vile without cover just a few seconds into the map was crazy, and I survived only because I found the BFG. More weapons were available in the same area, and they found good use in the next chamber, hosting a reckless teleport with every kind of baddies. The BK chamber contained a stealthy Pain Elemental, acting freely while hidden by dripping nukage, and the nearby tunnel was full of trip wires with Hell Nobles and Pinkies trying to squeeze me in between. The key was eventually mine, but the way back to the coloured bars had been suspiciously sealed.

Spoiler

The crate warehouse was the theatre of the main combat set piece: 66 enemies, belonging to the upper tiers, were released all at once and followed by two Arch-Viles appearing in the middle of the battlefield. It was not extremely difficult if compared to contemporary stuff; I was uncomfortable moving between crates, so I insisted on solving the encounter quickly with the BFG and I died an embarrassing number of times. After this intense slaughter sequence, the action calmed down a bit, as I collected resources and stopped being constantly low on health for a while.

Spoiler

The RSK part started with the colonnade room with the CAMO fountain, a Cacoswarm, and lots of Spectres to propitiate face-rocketing. Retrieving the key was not very difficult, despite the numerous ambushes devised by Jimi. There were lots of aesthetic references to Plutonia in this part, including a room that was copy-pasted from Aztec; I still think that teleporting in front of three Mancubi in a small crypt, with three Demons ready to bite behind you, was a troll move even for the Casali standards, and it was not the last in store.

Spoiler

Thematic Elements culminated with the YSK section, not exactly the hardest, but I came here exhausted by the prolonged tension. Ammo was granted and regularly expended, just as the health and armour, and I completed the map in pitiful conditions. The last streak began with a Baron of Hell trapping me in a 64-wide dead end, followed by a courtyard full of monsters on pillars, a titanic room that was probably a reference to Metal from Evilution, and more closet action that ended with the obligatory party of Arch-Viles. Even though this was a memorable level that featured nice architecture by Lutrov71, taking different themes and inspiration from the IWADs, and energetic Doom action delivered by Jimi, I think it was a bit too long for its own good. The first part lacked any idea of balance and seemed conceived just to scare away weak-willed players. Not a map I am eager to play again.

[Doomy__Doom]

MAP20 - Enigma

 

If you showed me this map without attaching a date to it, I wouldn't be able to even remotely approximate when it was made. A quality reimagining of Limbo with the kind of detailing, layout and combat that can be found in 21st century "Ex style" wads regardless of the year.

Much like the original Doom designs, the majority of the level ends up being completely optional. Despite never having seen a UV-speed of Enigma, after stumbling blind into the YK skip first thing and some quick research on top of that, I arrived at more or less the same route as the one holding the record (minus me doing more safety stuff adding a minute or so on top).

My only design complaint would be complete absense of accessible armor. Broken secret is unfortunate, but "tested with zdoom only" moments are something I expect from early 2000s wads. Switches bearing unclear functions is something I can live with - it's nice when they are marked clearly, but at least for Limbo it's thematically appropriate to be confusing.

MAP21 - Undead Nation

 

That pinky horde at RK, yikes. Thank you Doom engine for not allowing to shoot above heads, the joint effort between me and a chaingunner was quite spectacular. Expecting another one of those disasters, I opted to excercise a 32-unit gap bypass maneuver at the double pillars instead of exploring side rooms. BK room with RL and hilariously spaced out HKs... and MOAR pinkies at the end.
I'll echo "inoffensive and uncompelling" as the final verdict, although it's not bad as a reset between Enigma and the next map. If anything - I feel this level should have been swapped with Intermission (map 10).

MAP22 - Thematic Elements

 

This was pretty enjoyable. Between plutonic homages visually and "openly nasty traps that you know are coming every step of the way" combat, I can see this being a progenitor of deeper designs.

Sure, most of the time it just kinda throws things in your face (or back, as it would be), but you can see that effort definitely went into health and ammo progression considerations - I was relatively trigger-happy with the BFG and RL, with SSG/CG mostly relegated to cleanup after the first area, and rocket conservation was always pinging at the back of my mind, yet there was always enough to be sure "I can promptly defuse a problematic scenario". A quite decent balance was struck between evil traps and simple "unwind" fun inbetween as well, with maybe a few sections like that marble room spectre spam being not entirely necessary.

I don't know what is in slot 23, but I do know 24, so a level serving as combat instinct wake-up call at this junction is a good choice.

[Veeda Vidlak]

Map 19: The Marbelous Three (GZoom, complevel 9, UV pistol start)

 

What a little gem this one is. The Marbelous Three is short, easy, and brimming with character, taking place in what to me looks like a worn demonic establishment, with some materials for repair still lying around. Regardless of what it is, Jan Engelhardt’s The Marbelous Three is a delightful break map, wisely positioned between two more contentious works.

 

You start in a little plus shaped chamber with an SSG, pinkies, and locked doors in three directions. You will ultimately collect five keys in order to exit the level, which sends you on a linear but circuitous route that feels organic. Despite there technically being a lot of backtracking, it’s nothing like Infernal Reaches 3. The playing area is so small it takes mere seconds to return to prior locations, so it doesn’t feel like there’s any backtracking at all. The map design emphasizes detail and just about every room has gorgeous marble hell architecture or something memorable like the outdoor excavation pit. There are also some nifty boom features, including a switch you shoot behind glass to release the red skull key onto a little blood altar to be collected.

 

Normally I’d want a little more challenge from the gameplay in a map 19, but I just don’t care here. The Marbelous Three is an engineering showcase and succeeds in its role well enough that I enjoyed a map whose style (aesthetics over gameplay) is not normally my cup of tea. Like Graf Zahl’s map, its short runtime work perfectly, providing a pleasant vignette that leaves little to dislike.

 

This is the sort of level that makes me wish Engelhardt had stuck around longer. Wonderfully crafted and teaser-like. Very much appreciated to have this to take five between Infernal Reaches (3) and Enigma.

 

Map 20: Enigma (GZoom, complevel 9, UV pistol start)

 

The Flange Peddler’s third and final outing in CC2, Enigma maintains the ambition of To Hell and Back, but ramps up the visual intimidation to better fit the map20 slot. We take a stylistic return to Doom 1’s Inferno in Enigma, a map clearly based on Limbo in both esthetics and design philosophy. In fact, it’s effectively a remake, enhanced to cater to the (at the time) modern audience. Inferno's visuals could be considered a Doom classic, and The Flange Peddler implements them skillfully. However, Limbo itself is a controversial level, and Enigma appears to inherit that trait as well.

 

My first run was a mildly vexing experience. You start out with a shotgun and have a lot of cacos to chew through (or ignore, which I did). After leaving the initial area you can go either way. but I’d highly recommend turning left unless you enjoy chopping down hell nobles with the single shotgun. With SSG in hand combat is ok but heavy on cramped encounters and there wasn’t anything fightwise that stuck out to me. The big problem, of course, was the cryptic progression. Like Limbo you will need to perform a switch hunt in a bloody, teleporter-packed morass to make it to the exit. Unfortunately, it has been a solid decade since I played E3M7 and I did not recall the level well enough to get much help here. The result was a map where the monsters played second fiddle to the constant “ergh” of taking 5 (and sometimes 10?) damage as I stumbled around looking for where to go. I didn’t have to. I’d already bypassed the need for the yellow and blue keys with an SR50 so the exit was open. But I wanted to max and ended up taking more total damage from the blood than all the enemies combined (seriously, I think I actually did).

 

It goes without saying that I did not particularly enjoy spending ~35 minutes playing scavenger hunt blood maze simulator. But I had a bad time playing Beyond Pain at first too and now it’s on to my second playthrough. So that one went much better right? Well… no, not really. I knew where everything was (sort of) so I wasn’t wasting as much time looking for shit. But the combat was still boring, maxing was still a chore, and I was still getting annoyed at how awful pathfinding is in a level filled with switches, teleporters, and damaging blood... while possessing an artistic theme that makes everything look samey. That would still have been fine, except at the end when everything was dead, I couldn’t get to the exit. I spent maybe seven minutes wandering around (to a chorus of erghs again) getting increasingly frustrated until I finally determined I hadn’t missed anything; the level had been broken. Somehow hitting the switch accessible with the yellow key only raised the bridge a tiny bit and I was softlocked.

…

Yeah, I think I’m done here. Two irritating playthroughs are enough. Now, I am willing to concede the powers at be appear to be conspiring to make me hate this level, so I won’t denounce it as total rubbish like I kind of want to. Nevertheless, I have gotten nothing but negativity out of nearly an hour of playtime. Enigma probably does succeed at what its trying to accomplish (improve on Limbo), and I’ll credit The Flange Peddler for his visual chops, but like Infernal Reaches 3 I will not be playing this one again.

Edited January 22, 2023 by Veeda Vidlak

[Book Lord]

MAP 23 – Death Mountain by @cyber-menace

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

 

What a great map! I have never played Legends of Zelda in any of its many incarnations, so I cannot compare the original locations with Cyber-menace’s rendering on the Doom engine. I am sure though that I had a blast going through this action-packed adventure in Death Mountain’s plateaus full of rocky mounds & pyramids, caves, and towers. The fast-paced music from MegaMan X3 encouraged pressing forward and diving fearlessly into danger; an attitude that costed Doomguy’s life on a couple of occasions, but I do not regret being killed when I am having so much fun.

Spoiler

Thanks to the cumbersome heritage from MAP22, completed at 26% health, I had to move carefully to avoid being shot dead by any zombie that pulled the trigger. I gradually healed my wounds as I ascended to the top of the crag, entering the caverns which were packed with low-tier enemies ready to jump at my face. The use of silent teleporters was nice and reminiscent of exploratory adventure games like Zelda, which used similar systems to switch from the outside to the inside. In Doom this led to exploitable telefrags and other ridiculous situations, which increased my amusement instead of standing out as flaws.

Spoiler

The upper part of Death Mountain featured two main buildings to explore, which I am going to label as indicated by Doomwiki. The pyramid of red bricks was the Tower of Hera, where the SSG was given to deal with a timed wave of teleporting monsters in a small room, ending with a vicious Arch-Vile that claimed my head on the first attempt. I was lucky to find the secret Soul Sphere before entering, or I would have needed more than just one try. The second was the Turtle Rock, which I wrongly mistook for a chicken (!), unlocked after conquering the Tower and leading to a large cavern full of roaming Demons and elevated Hell Knights. I picked up the plasma rifle and started running around in circles, alerting a Cyberdemon and pressing the four switches that released him. I used the boss to kill as many foes as possible, before finishing him off.

Spoiler

I emerged on the other side of the broken bridge seen from the start. Three caverns opened in the rock face: one contained more low-tiers and another secret Soul Sphere; the remaining two led to the exit cavern, which had been filled to the brim with a full array of nasty creatures. I was almost killed by Chaingunners combined with a face rocket, courtesy of a Spectre, as I underestimated their numbers in the semi-darkness. I unloaded my best weapons on the horde trying to overwhelm me, and I eventually prevailed. Death Mountain intrigued me with the visuals inspired by a different videogame; more importantly, it was super-entertaining thanks to the avant-garde combat design. A must-play in Community Chest 2.

[E.M.]

MAP22 - “Thematic Elements” by Lutrov71, Jimi

DSDA-Doom, UV, Pistol Start

 

This ended up being my favorite map in the whole megawad. Sure, there are some grindy sections and dickish traps that you need to memorize (that cramped room with the 3 mancubi was the one that stood out to me the most), but I'm a fan of Plutonian brutality, so playing through this was an absolute thrill. The detailing isn't as fancy or intricate as the other levels in this WAD, but this one of those maps where the gameplay is what really matters. It lures you in by allowing you to mow down low-tier enemies, then it hits you with a hard trap that may or may not include an archvile. You then need to use your quick moves and thinking to overcome it. My favorite part is the giant fight in the warehouse that is perfect for BFG spamming. The ending is a bit anticlimactic, but I still had lots of fun regardless.

[brick]

GZDoom, Boom compatibility, HNTR, blind, continuous with saves.

 

MAP22 - “Thematic Elements” by Lutrov71, Jimi
Right off the bat, from that majestic view and the first bars of that magnificent E2M8 music (one of my favourite Bobby Prince tracks), I expected a magnum opus map. It wasn't, but unfortunately it was also not a map I enjoyed. The 3 teleporters, the exit teleporter locked by the 3 skull keys (a la The Citadel) and the illusion of openness fool you into thinking there is some nonlinearity, but in fact the map leads you by the nose and every room is done in strictly linear fashion. Combat is exhausting and is a ridiculous difficulty spike compared to everything before; from rather early on you learn that every step you take will unleash barons, revenants and chaingunners, usually in rooms so tight that none of you can move. Trying to push ahead past them is not always a good idea, since there'll be another wave of revenants and nobles waiting to crush you in the pincer. You will also learn early on to keep looking back so you can kill the archviles that appear before they revive everyone. Health is not too stingy but it's very strangely paced; I spent a large chunk of the map under 50% health, watching it get closer and closer to the single digit, waiting for something other than the one stimpack that seems to be the only health in that entire section; backtracking wasn't even an option since a door locks you in until you finish that entire third of the map. Elsewhere you find both of the map's Supercharge within a minute of each other. Apparently Lutrov did the architecture but didn't trust himself with thing placement so left it to Jimi. Considering how much I liked everything about MAP06, I wish Lutrov had done it himself, as he was much more forgiving in the earlier map. As for the architecture, it didn't wow me as much as The View. The various sections seem a bit visually haphazard (sometimes even within the same section), but there are some very nice touches, the large hall with the columns being a particularly striking one. It wasn't the longest map (15 and 18 both took me longer), but it felt more tiresome.

 

MAP23 - “Death Mountain” by Cyber-Menace
This one also left me with mixed feelings. The concept is cute, it looks pretty good, but some of the ideas that sound good on paper are not executed well. My major source of annoyance was with those silent teleporters to enter caves and buildings. Like I said, great idea, but almost every time I took one I'm put right in the middle of a bunch of imps and demons ready to instantly remove half my health. I learned early on to blindly fire and step back instantly, wait for something to come through so I can shoot it, pop back in (usually telefragging a demon), rinse and repeat. It's not the most exciting gameplay but unfortunately it works all too well, and the alternative was not in any way appealing, especially since most caves are so dark I could virtually see nothing. Visually the trick with the bridges hanging over nothingness is quite good, as is the broken bridge, though the latter ends up funneling a large number of enemies together, for good or ill.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 22: Thematic Elements

by Thomas Lutrov & Kimmo "Jimi" Kumpulainen

 

Tommy Lutrov brings us yet another delightful sort of mid-2000s techbase romp with a couple of visually strong areas (the outside desert cliffs near the start, the warehouse, and the little check station reached from the last teleporting techbase, complete with conveyor belt and desk) amidst a hodgepodge of connecting hallways utilizing largely bland textures, along with some minor IWAD homages scattered here and there (I'm pretty sure the cave with the pillars came from Well of Souls). 

 

For some reason though, he seems to have felt a later map should be more difficult so he almost entirely handed off combat duties to some Finnish mapper who liked Jimi Hendrix or smth. But regardless, he seems to have come off a strangely prolific line of Finns (only the Czech Republic might meet or exceed the population of Doomers per capita), represented as well at the time by Simo Malinen and Espi and to this day continues with MFG38 and Muumi. And if there's anything Finns really seem to like (mostly, at least), it's a certain tasteful use of detail and certain confidence in its use. Granted, Jimi's influence in the design department was quite limited. Yet, "Don't Tell me about Id" might be the perfect stock track for his map.

 

However, Jimi distinguishes himself with a combat approach that adds in just a dash of Plutonia sadism with a combat philosophy clearly ripped from Alien Vendetta, which is to say, over-the-top ambushes in areas which arguably aren't suited for such with ammo being shockingly controlled. I don't exactly think this was the Brad Spencer or Anders Johnsen way but this means you're really going to have to scramble for cells in certain areas.

 

Like the room with the BFG accessed from one of the oddly-placed teleporters near the start which pistol-starters on UV better not miss has a quad of Arch-viles and Barons on either side behind some extremely obvious secret doors that aren't too difficult. But then, head into the conveyor-belt room mentioned above and we find ourselves almost immediately assaulted by shotgunners and Hell Knight at uncomfortable close quarters! Run to the other end of the room then bam! chaingunners and an Arch-vile appear in the middle of this nonsense. 

 

The deadly traps only continue. Most notably, in a darkened blue room not too far from this section, a massive teleport trap occurs behind you, involving some Revenants, Hell Knight, a Baron or two....and an Arch-vile who killed me the first time around before being defeated with plasma. Not too long after this is the warehouse room which is roughly about as deadly as that. There are technically enough cells to defeat the Caco cloud that appears when the switch here is hit. The main problem is that there are also several Mancubi and a Baron or two in the way....not to mention another Arch-vile!

 

After the tech area, you end up in a Plutonia-inspired castle region. Not exactly the smoothest transition. Certainly not smooth enough to handle the combat. And this is where things really started to become problematic. See, the combat can get a little bit grindy in spots. I don't think Jimi was deliberately attempting to emulate Hell Revealed necessarily, but that's not far away from the end result either. Like, Overwhelming Odds from Alien Vendetta was annoying but this is rid....no, scratch that.

 

I could go more into the individual big fights, like a certain gray room with a load of chaingunners and Arch-vile in the middle we hardly had any ammo for or the chaingunner ambush on the way to the switch the YK that finally convinced us to hang up for the moment. 

 

It's quite brilliant though. A talented young mapper who was at the very forefront of Doom mapping detailing trends teams up with someone who probably worshipped Brad Spencer, Lee Sczymanski, and Anthony Soto in equal measure (just check out the warehouse fight and the blue-floored room if you don't believe me!) to produce a constantly compelling and surprisingly speedy experience that probably takes somewhere around 20 minutes to complete at the speed we did. Even the texture and slight room pilfering somehow works out to display some shocking amounts of inspiration, along with stitching. Sudden thematic transitions start to make plenty of sense when you realize it's literally in the title itself! The best? It's definitely the most mature feeling in how fights flow into each other but  the old-school  grinding did get really bad and there really isn't much ammo hidden in secrets either. I'd say it's neck and neck with Internal Reaches 3 and The View.

lmd_ccchest_22.zip

Edited January 23, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[Veeda Vidlak]

Map 21: Undead Nation (GZoom, complevel 9, UV pistol start)

 

So here we return to the OG Doom techbase theme (last seen in Coolant Platform) with an outing by an author I do not recognize. Compared to the last few levels, this one comes across as very generic, with heavy hitscanner use, square or rectangular rooms, and an average runtime. While this map on its face is mid, as the kids would say, it benefits greatly from its position in the map ordering. Two of the last three levels have been exhausting and a straightforward run and gun is just what the doctor ordered.

 

I actually quite enjoyed the combat here, something no doubt aided by Enigma’s chicanery. The initial hitscanner hub area provides reasonable Doom 1 shotgun fighting, you get a chainsaw (and later berserk) to handle demons, and the ending slaughter was good fun (nice surprise at the end). The highlight for me, however, was the pinky pit. It is absolutely hysterical to watch the helpless dumbasses get mowed down by the chaingunners on the far ledge every time. I like to think doomguy just pulls out a lawn chair and some boomer juice, observing and muttering a deadpan “ow” when the undead commandos actually hit him (it doesn’t matter how much damage you take, you’ll get a berserk shortly). I don’t care if it’s intentional or not, kudos to Draconio for concocting my favorite thing in this megawad since Sodding Death.

 

Outside of that, there isn’t much to talk about here. It’s a techbase. Kill the former humans and pinkies. Don’t die. I have to admit that upon returning from the secret levels I have not been having a good time and it’s a bit suspect this ok techbase feels relieving to play (I bet I’d like Spirit World HQ more if it was here). The megawad is really stuck in the mud right now and badly needs a shot in the arm.

[LSC Lasico]

Hello, i’d like to chime in and say that i won’t be sharing anymore of my cc2 headcanon in here, since i can’t keep up with the schedule.

For people who were interested in it, i might, sometime in the future, make a whole separate post on doomworld where i will make a whole ass story about all of community chest series, in line with what i shared here (i might even do an attempt at the Nova series). 
That thread will be better than anything i could have done here because i plan on screenshotting specific locations of levels and describing what i think they are and what they do, which is a thing i never would have had time to do here.

So, yeah, stay tuned.

[Poncho1]

Map32: Sodding Death

Author: Chris Hopkins (chopkinsca)

 

Oof, not a fan of this one. I mean, sure, it's one of the better detailed maps in the WAD (to the point that it lagged my shitty laptop), but the gameplay *really* leaves wanting. The initial ascent is a tiresome exercise in picking off mostly Imps and hitscanners from cliffs that you'll never reach - which begs the question why you'd waste the player's opposition in such a trivial manner - and, once you actually get to the temple, some Hell Knights, Revenants and Mancubi. This part is probably the most fun I had; juggling the enemies on the ground level with the Revenant snipers makes for a good challenge. Once inside the temple, things go downhill. Personally, I hated the Boom doors, mostly for their inconsistency: some shut very quickly, others work normally. Just keep the doors the same, for Pete's sake. On top of that, the Arch-vile traps are usually diabolical, and not in amusing ways: the Blue Key and Yellow Key traps are especially egregious, with the YK Arch-vile being in a room with little and hard-to-reach cover. Upon leaving, there're a few more Arch-viles (I got very lucky fighting them this time around, since they didn't target me at all), and the final fight is an incredibly anticlimactic encounter with... 6 Cacodemons. Really? The map loads you up with supplies and ammo, but that doesn't change the fact that the pacing is lathargic at best, the Arch-viles are, as mentioned, usually annoying, and some of the details such as a staircase to the YK chamber is rickety, and the room itself has hanging corpses on the ceiling that, no thanks to infinite height, can unfairly block you and cause you to take damage. Overrated, in my opinion.

 

Map16: Spirit World HQ

Author: Gene Bird

 

"Seriously, can this guy not come up with his own map names or what?". I admit, this knack for identical or near-identical titles to official Doom maps is a little suspicious. There is a reason for the title, but I'll get to that in a bit. As for the map in general, well, it feels like 2 different levels that were slapped together once Gene saw that each individual half was too short: the first is a city-esque area with a pyramid structure, some ramparts, and a couple of warehouses. I suppose it's nice to see him working outside of his narrow corridor shooter style, though the results are definitely wonky, to say the least. For instance, having to know to press one a tech/skull texture that opens another tech/skull wall opposite it feels needlessly cryptic, and the detailing ranges from acceptable 90s Doomcute (I like the TV with the remote) to just bizarre (what's up with all those random 3x3 item tables?). Ironically, it's when he returns to his usual schtick that Gene's map improves. The tighter action makes for more dangerous encounters; one room with an Arachnotron, Hell Knights and a few low-tiers surprisingly nearly got me (it's the room where you stupidly teleport to the centre switch), and a later ambush where the walls gradually collapse and reveal small gaggles of monsters, along with another near-impossible-to-miss secret. It's also in this second section where the title's more-or-less justified: an Arch-vile in an unreachable room can resurrect some Shotgunners and Zombiemen, who become ghost monsters... not that many will notice, since only one of them actually made it to me, so I technically left without 100% kills. The second part is better and more "thrilling" than the city area, and for that, the level as a whole is better than Déjà Vu, though it's another middling effort.

 

Map17: Through the Black

Author: Andy Leaver

 

The certified "Map17" expert of the Community Chest series returns with an adequately detailed and lit actioner. I don't have too much to say besides the fact that the proceedings are rather enjoyable, even if it suffers a little from symmetry which occasionally leads to repetitive gameplay (the two walls of 3 Mancubi are a good indicator), and I'm not too sure how Pistol-starters could possibly beat the level to 100% without the insane ammo-supply room, which is overpowering to those going continuous (like me)... and actually, still overpowering if you're starting fresh. Eh. When the mapping quality's competent and the ambushes actually make you think and move, there isn't too much to criticise with Leaver's work here.

 

Map18: Internal Reaches 3

Author: Samuel Villarreal (Kaiser)

 

The TNT track used for this level is "Infinite", and how appropriate, because the map seems to go on forever with no end in sight... until the exit manifests itself - at the very beginning, might I add - and it just sort of ends with no real climactic encounter. The best fight you're gonna find here is an entirely optional battle with a Cyberdemon and a small roster of other monsters, which is only needed for a secret Megasphere. I mean, a Megasphere's nice and all, but couldn't this fight have been a part of the actual progression? Speaking of, the gameplay is so boring: it's literally corridor-central, with a ton of incidental scuffles with mostly hitscanners and Imps, though Kaiser is nice enough to throw in a ton of Barons too, Hell Revealed-style. One moment that could've been interesting is when a Mega-Armour tries to trap you inside its cage while enemies teleport in around you, but that can be easily cheesed. The detailing is nice, sure, but the religious focus on symmetry is also a massive detriment and makes a lot of the level feel the same. Seriously, I'd take Gene Bird's unpretentious - and surely more fast-paced - works any day over this.

 

Map19: The Marbelous Three

Author: Jan Engelhardt (Hirogen2)

 

Another bloody easy one whose only source of difficulty comes in a small corridor that slowly gets flooded with Imps should you stay for too long (as I stupidly did). The fight right after throws both a Berserk and an Invulnerability to handle a few Hell Knights, Barons, Revenants and smaller foes, which lowers the difficulty to about zero. Yeah, the problem is the level's lack of intensity or stakes, and due to this, there's no real build-up: no tense final fight, no slaughtery conclusion... you kill a few Barons and Cacos in a cramped crate maze and hit the exit switch shortly after. The attention to detail, as with most of the previous maps, is commendable - I especially like the dug-out pit by one of the Yellow Keys - but if the map can't equal its visuals in the gameplay department, then there's a problem.

 

Map20: Enigma

Author: Ian Cunnings (The Flange Peddler)

 

Definitely the Flange Peddler's weakest contribution to Cchest2. "Sign of Evil" certainly adds to the atmosphere, and the traditional mixture of Hellish brick and marble helps with the mood, though it's rather been-there-done-that in terms of theme, and the slowish gameplay certainly doesn't help. Much like the last two maps, most of the fights can be easily handled, or outright skipped: a trap that's supposed to pinch the player between a swarm of Hell Knights can be avoided by simply running away and waiting for them to take the teleporter back to the start. The progression is also a hinderance, mostly because of the surprisingly confusing layout, and the Flange Peddler forces the player to run back and forth looking for the necessary keys, which makes one feel like a dog, randomly fetching stuff and needlessly running across large stretches. And the treat at the end is only mildly amusing, in which you can blast a load of Zombiemen into gibblets. The sole Arch-vile - necessary to get the inaccessible secret, at least in Boom source ports - is a massive pain in the arse, but with my carried-over BFG, he finally shut up. As a mood-piece, Enigma sorta works, but as a Doom map, it's somewhat mediocre.

 

Map21: Undead Nation

Author: Draconio

 

Reading the previous comments, it seems that mapper Draconio only ever made this and a couple of deathmatch maps before vanishing from the mapmaking scene entirely. Judging from his only foray into singleplayer territory, maybe that's for the best, because it's an incredibly slow, badly-paced, under-stocked, and almost depressing sit (the original Doom music adds to that last bit). If you're Pistol-starting, I'd lean heavily on the Chainsaw, because ammo isn't in high demand here, so have fun knocking the teeth out of a bunch of Pinkies. That won't get boring at all! What comes to requiring secrets, Undead Nation is one of the worst offenders in the WAD: if you even want a chance at surviving, you have to locate the Supercharge, the Rad Suit for a nukage section and rockets for the finale which throws a bunch of Pinkies, Hell Knights and an Arch-vile in your direction. Then again, the secrets don't so much tip the balance in the player's favour as only giving them a slightly better chance at reaching the exit. Poorly balanced and endlessly dull: one of the worst the WAD's offered in a while.

Edited January 24, 2023 by Poncho1

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 23: Death Mountain 

by Cyber-Menace

 

Thomas Lutrov and the sole author of this map would later team up for perhaps the most celebrated map of the 2006 Cacoward winner New Doom CP, No Brakes. But right now, the menace himself brings what's possibly the most conceptually original map in Community Chest and also probably the best map so far and maybe the best map in Community Chest 2, other than the next one, which I'm sort of glad to not really have the time to properly invest in tomorrow because it's been written about enough that no additional perspectives would necessarily be needed.

 

But anyways, speaking as someone who quite likes Zelda and am familiar with the debut title in the franchise, this is quite a strong representation of that location, if perhaps with a larger percentage here being outdoors. There are little brown pillars everywhere which probably weren't as annoying when one plays keyboard-only, but here, we end up falling off nearby cliffs onto the below levels of the mountain.

 

Also, this doesn't exactly seem designed for a pistol start because ammo in the start is incredibly limited and acquiring a shotgun is rather difficult when the sergeants are all surrounded by mounds and mounds of other enemies and the only other weapon to counter everything else is a chainsaw sitting in a corner it's all too easy to fall from. Needless to say,  we die at least half a dozen times in this section, and possibly more. Even after breaking out on one occasion and climbing the nice little Doom ladder and taking care of the enemies at the top, we are humiliated by a Cacodemon and end up repeating the starting process out of sheer stubbornness. 

 

Let's start discussing one of this map's main and most discussed features though: the silent teleport caves. They are quite lovely tributes to one of Death Mountain's prime characteristics and combat always serves to add the requited danger these areas contain (to say nothing of the final dungeon, but that's something that doesn't come into play too much) These caves were actually quite a bit bearable than I expected from the comments because while the player will spot enemies immediately in all but one of these caves, they also aren't located directly in front of the spawn point. Although there was one exception where we exited a cave and a Caco to the right killed us almost immediately and forced a rewind. So aggravating....

 

The first section is mainly dispatching mid-tier enemies but eventually, we come into a temple room with a Super Shotgun and a switch that unleashes a teleport trap that seems modest, but slowly becomes tight 'n hard (that's what she said) and culminates with an Arch-vile that immolated us when we attempted to duck through a gap of hell knights. With just a shotgun, this is definitely amongst the harder fights in the map.

 

It was here that my memory failed because I don't really remember Zelda's final dungeon too well, although the yellow dried lava was reminiscient of....something. Raised sqaures with lots of hell knights, more pinkies than you could shake a stick at, and in the middle of it all, a Cyberdemon that experienced Caleb's greatest irritation and found himself entirely frozen in place by 2 humble pinkies who eventually put an end to him after a few minutes or so. Meaning the hell knights were thusly deemed not worth the time to exterminate, but that's not something Cyber-Menace probably took into account. It's practically like two arch-viles infighting which once happened while I was playing through Lullaby.

 

The end fight is something that seems like we're expected to basically be far more aggressive. We are not and thusly come really close to running out of ammo and failing to spot the boxes of rockets in the darkness. As there is an Arch-vile along with several Hell Knights and a few Barons, this actually was a real problem.

 

Final verdict? I'm getting a little tired of grinding maps which isn't a verdict on this so much. On the other hand, this comes close enough to total triumph that it's hard to care too much. 

lmd_ccchest_23.zip

[Monsieur E]

Map22: "Thematic Elements"
By Lutrov71 and Jimi, 1/13 secrets, (overwritten my saves again and I don't remember my monster and time tally for this map)

Thematic Elements takes you on an adventure through three thematically different locales on the hunt for skull keys, I like to imagine them being inspired on the 3 doom2 iwads; the first being the regular doom2, the second plutonia (including a literal rip from Aztec which rubbed me the wrong way), and the final TNT (particular the metallic room). Admittedly, other than the Plutonia one, they aren't really that adherent to these themes but I liked them either way. The combat is rough and gives you heavy weapons early on, but the ambushes feel obnoxious and underwhelming simultaneously. They're difficult only until you learn where they prompt from after which it becomes an affair to hit a BFG ball and take out the rest, leading to the challenge only being in regards to the surprise for your first attempt. Otherwise, it's well designed and looks good, with the thematic changes working well. It's a map I don't really have too strong of an opinion on, it's fine but needed more fine tuning in the combat regard for me to say I liked it.

Map23: "Death Mountain"
By Cyber-Menace, 347/414 kills, 1/3 secrets, 13:05

I have to cast a dissenting vote on this map unfortunately. The map is AGAIN, shotgunning through hoards, now in pitch dark corridors where you can't see half of the opposition through rooms linked via silent teleporters so there isn't a way to bottleneck them, which is a good idea if I wasn't stuck shotgunning for the two thirds of the runtime. Of course, all of this while under health depravation. I have to say specters are used well in the dark environment but I think they tip too much into obnoxious by being overused and shotgun being a weak weapon against crowds of them. And the map is loaded with hitscanners, so much fun.

The outside portions suffer from the thing placement and decorative detail including the invisible walls blocking you from walking on the sky, continuously blocking or otherwise complicating your movement in an already tight environment, I hate even traversing in these sections, now couple this with fighting through enemies and you get a mess. I like the room with the supershotgun has a challenging but fair teleporter ambush, and the one with the cyberdemon seemed interesting but I did not care enough about this map to engage with it unfortunately.

The final room is the worst of the caverns loaded, now with midtiers to balance out your supershotgun and an archvile boss, it's okay I guess in theory but I don't like the actual combat setup in this map so I wasn't into it. The visuals here are great though, even if I haven't played much of TLoZ. Just that the combat got on my nerves unfortunately. 

Map24: "The Mucus Flow"
By B.P.R.D, 879/879 kills, 5/8 secrets, 46:21

You would think the pinnacle of health and ammo depravation in this wad, for someone who's constantly disliked this setup like me including in literally the previous map, would absolutely hate this map. And, so did I frankly, I set some time out in the evening for the inevitable grind. And to my complete amazement, no. This map is nowhere near as horrible as some of its peers. In fact, I liked it.

I did have foresight that this map requires resource rationing from DoD video alongside other bits of other gameplay. And I was aware of the secret that lets you get a berserk and the switch to deactivate the turrets, but not how to access them. Other than that, I went in blind. The fundamental difference I feel in this map is that, it is pretty open spaced, with its relatively large corridors and open caverns where you can berserk significantly better and generally maneuver yourself much better, including around crowds and force infighting among different clusters. Oh and, this map gives you berserk in a secret accessible rather straightforwardly by pressing on a wall as well as an automap to help locate the other secrets. Berserk and infighting are such game changers to manage the ammo depravation here, alongside the fact this map isn't obnoxiously claustrophobic. Also, this map doesn't surprise you with random clusters of hitscanners on you either. And because of the centralization of health in depots, easy to navigate to them if you're running low on health after you close the turrets, deactivating which can be accomplished relatively early on. Furthermore, roughly around 300 of the enemies are actually regular enemies, the rest being turrets or replacements.

The real killer in this map will be the pain elementals, they will choke the area with the lost souls who are chaotic and can easily deal damage you really do not want to take, my worst instances in this map were grinding down the pain elementals in the cavern before the runny nose secret, the secret nearby the turret switch secret and the final area. That final area is chaotic, under fire from chaingunners, arachnotrons and mancubi, while juggling groups of pinkies, imps, cacodemons; hell knights taking shots at you and a few revenants ahead; while the pain elementals will go out of hand as they inevitably end up infighting with other enemies in the chaos, forcing you prioritize them. I don't like the chaingunner turrets since it puts way too much in the hands of RNG, but I think they make up a short part of the map overall if you organize around minimizing backtracking through their zones. But either way, I would've preferred the arachnotron or mancubi or even revenant turrets to have been predominant. 

The atmosphere of this map is great, especially helped by that haunting MIDI selection. I love exploring the abandoned base, aged and decaying as the "mucus" from an.. eldritch nose seeps throughout. It feels utterly forsaken, with the diamonds indicating a fading power supply perhaps the now depleted starlight column in the base it was exploited to sustain for years, barring an automated defense system still active. I love how the area at the start is linked to the base but its door is jammed from entirely opening and supply depots, some with marine corpses indicate previous failed expeditions perhaps. I like how alot of the map is optional, with the keycards required only to open further ammo depots and unlock your other weapons. And your supershotgun is accessible from the start!

But there are parts of this map I don't like, beyond the aforementioned turrets using hitscanners. It's still a grind even if it's less tedious, and backtracking does get annoying; something one of its spiritual successors, Disturbia, provides a solution to by giving teleporters back to the start in secrets; and truth be told, barring the final stretch, the combat ends up being boring at places occasionally tedious when you're trying to minimize damage. But I will take this map despite its flaws over almost every other map in this wad.

I think The Mucus Flow is just a good map with flaws, I don't like it as much as others do and neither do I hate it. And I don't want to make it seem like this map is "easy" in any way or if it's difficulty is overrated, I did play with saves and I really respect the effort of those willing to do this map without saving. Overall, despite my initial reservations, I can say I liked The Mucus Flow and think it's among the highest of cc2. 

[E.M.]

MAP23 - “Death Mountain” by Cyber-Menace

DSDA-Doom, UV, Pistol Start

 

Here is yet another map that has nice visuals but horribly rough and unpolished gameplay. You'll spend half the map cutting through loads of hitscanners, imps, and pinkies with nothing but the pump action. The layout consists of outdoor areas and caves which are connected by silent teleporters. The caves are dark and filled with way too many monsters, but you can actually cheese those encounters by running into a cave, alerting the monsters, and then repeatedly running out and back in again, allowing you to telefrag them. You don't get the SSG until the fight in the brick temple. Said fight is a pain in the ass, but not impossible. You can cheese it by just running in and pressing the switch without firing a single shot. After that, the experience is way easier. The cyberdemon fight inside the rock beast is neutered by killing the pinkies and coaxing the cyber into infighting with the hell knights. The big fight in front of the exit was pretty fun. It's just too bad you had to slog through tedious encounters to get there.

[brick]

GZDoom, Boom compatibility, HNTR, blind, continuous with saves.

 

MAP24 - “The Mucus Flow” by B.P.R.D

 

And here it is. The map people say you should play CC2 just to see. The one that placed as the 3rd most memorable map in the Top 100. This being the first time I play it (yeah yeah I know), I wanted to walk in with no expectations, but I was hopelessly doomed to fail, there's just too much said and written and known about the map. So, how did it compare to expectations?

 

Visually it is absolutely remarkable, so much that I found myself more than once just staring wide-eyed at the sights. Even with so many expectations I don't think I was ready for what the visuals have to offer. There is such a tightness to the texture selection in each part, so much detail done with so few choices, it's really amazing. The small trickles of slime, the majestic architecture, the ominous green sky as you walk through the valleys, everything contrasts superbly with everything else. Then you walk into the building and have those beautiful custom tech walls, the teleport pads connected by cables that have power visibly surging through them. Some rooms hint at what they could be, some have strange and intriguing pieces of technology, others with benches and trees look like waiting areas or an indoor arboretum, except the trees are dead and everything seems to be falling apart and the slime pours in through every tiny crack and threatens to engulf it all. I can't stress enough how much the atmosphere worked for me, we often talk about Doom maps being scary or creepy or any number of emotions, but this one made me feel a unique sense of creepy strangeness and wonder that I don't think I've felt elsewhere. That sense of mystery, of decay, of unknowable fate, is so strongly cemented by the MIDI, a 7-minute original composition that could stand on its own as a fantastic piece of music.

 

Unfortunately, I felt the gameplay does not exist in the same plane. Even without the expectations set by the map's reputation and its visuals, there were many things I disliked about the design, chief among them that singular stash of almost all the resources and weapons. The map does not even try to make backtracking easier, and even on continuous there was too much of it, and every time more of it as you get further into the relatively linear map. At some point you also get locked out of being able to go back, without any warning, which is a problem when all weapons, half the health and 90% of the ammo is at the start of the map. One of the required switches is hidden in a similar way as some of the secrets, a baffling choice. A lot of the combat occurs over vast distances, with green balls being lobbed your way (they fit so well with the aesthetic too), hitscanners trying to turn you into swiss cheese, and PEs that are an absolute pain in such settings. I disliked the almost-infinite hitscan turrets; doing all this running back and forth is tedious enough as it is, and with how much ammo the map has you do not want to waste it, so you suffer their fire every time (and slowly dwindle the health supplies). There's a good 500 enemies tied into these turrets, which seems excessive. Thankfully there's a secret switch that will kill all the reinforcements and give you some peace; unfortunately the secrets are a horrible chore. Some will require humping every wall of the enormous map, with absolutely zero indication there could be anything there. On HNTR I got stuck inside one with no way out (I had to idclip) because the teleport landing to get out inexplicably doesn't exist on this setting (incidentally this secret explains the map title; YMMV on whether this is a humorous touch or breaks the map's atmosphere; or maybe enhances the atmosphere). Three other secrets are just inside one of the others but unobtainable, probably erroneously tagged.  One is broken on ports that do not allow Use to pass through special lines (and it's the one that kills the reinforcements); worse, one switch required for progression has the same problem, which renders the map unwinnable in these ports (ZDoom and PrBoom have compat settings to fix this kind of thing). One door that looks like it's supposed to act as a shortcut through some of the endless backtracking doesn't work properly. It is so utterly strange that something that clearly had an insane amount of time, effort and care put into its construction can simultaneously be so sloppy in other aspects.

 

Perhaps surprisingly (or maybe not), my verdict is that this is still a must-play map. Despite everything I disliked about the gameplay, despite bugs that had no excuse being there on day 1 (never mind year 19), I think the sights, the music, and the actual architecture of the map are still worth experiencing, and even if the gameplay didn't work for me there are some pretty clever ideas there, and they must be seen too.

[E.M.]

MAP24 - “The Mucus Flow” by B.P.R.D

GZDoom, UV, Pistol Start

 

Well, here it is: The Mucus Flow, the most famous map from Community Chest 2. I'll just go ahead and state my controversial opinion upfront: The Mucus Flow is the most overrated Doom map ever made. I despise this map. Why do I hate it so much? Simple: it's not fun to play. Allow me to explain.

 

First of all, nearly all the health and ammo is located right behind you at the beginning, and he doesn't give you anywhere near enough to get the job done. It's the same problem Elixir had, but far worse. And before anyone says it, I'm fully aware that Ribbiks enjoys making ammo deprivation maps, but at least his maps are short. The Mucus Flow, on the other hand, is incredibly long. Way too long, in fact.

 

Secondly, the chaingunner turrets are a beginner's trap. When you see them for the first time, you think you can just snipe them, but no. There are 500 chaingunners in reserve ready to replace those who fall, and the only way to permanently deal with that problem is by pressing a secret switch. When I first played this map back in 2019, I ended up wasting all my ammo on those turrets. I know MAP03 from Ancient Aliens had constantly respawning arachnotrons, but at least that map warned you about it beforehand and went with the whole theme of mysterious and powerful aliens invading Earth. There's no logical reason as to why the chaingunner turrets exist other than B.P.R.D. wanted to be an asshole to the player.

 

Since there's so little ammo in the map, you are pretty much required to get the secret berserk. You're not allowed to return to said secret, by the way. It's at that point that every encounter turns into a grueling slog as you punch large groups of mostly imps to death. It's either that or spend several minutes waiting for monsters to kill each other, like in the northern area. The combat is made even worse by the ungodly number of pain elementals. This is Boom, which means there's no lost soul limit, which means every area which contains pain elementals will become filled with dozens of lost souls. B.P.R.D. was fully aware of the map's lack of ammo, so he put those pain elementals in there to force the player to waste what little ammo they had.

 

I almost forgot to mention that all of your weapons are locked behind bars at the beginning. The SSG is unlocked, but in order to unlock the others, you need to grab a key and run all the way back to the start. That's another major problem with this map: the constant backtracking. I thought that problem was bad on Internal Reaches 3, but that's nothing compared to The Mucus Flow. While we're on the topic of viewing the same areas over and over again, I might as well talk about the visuals. They look impressive the first time you see them, but if you're like me and had to play the map for several hours straight, you'll eventually grow sick and tired of repeatedly seeing the same sights. Same with that famous MIDI. It sounds nice at first, but hearing it on loop for several hours made me want to stab out my ear drums.

 

Then there are the secrets. Good luck. They all involve humping walls or passing through midtextures with no indication that secrets are hiding there. There are also 3 crates that were erroneously tagged as secrets and are thus impossible to obtain. Speaking of which, this map also contains a gamebreaking bug making it unbeatable in anything other than ZDoom based ports. The door in the northern part of the map is right behind 4 linedefs with actions that are not set as PassThru, which means the switch cannot be activated. After putting up with the atrocious level design choices and insufferable combat, I started avoiding fights altogether because I had grown sick and tired of it all and I just wanted to get it over with. I felt no enjoyment or sense of accomplishment after beating it. I was just glad to be playing anything else.

 

You might be wondering why I'm getting so angry over this particular Doom map when I never got truly angry over all the bad maps I've played. That's because the deeper reason why I hate The Mucus Flow so much is because I feel like I've been lied to. Everyone talked about it like it was the greatest Doom map ever made, so I expected nothing less than perfection. It then proceeded to shit all over my expectations by being the antithesis of fun. I then looked closer at all that praise and saw that people always talked about the visuals and the music, but the gameplay was nothing more than a footnote. I feel like I got scammed. I feel like I bought a defective product. People often describe the emotions they felt when playing this map. The only emotion I felt was constant searing frustration. Whenever I hear that level's MIDI, all I can think of is how infuriated I felt while playing it. It is for all of those reasons that I utterly despise this map. I never want to play it again. I would rather play Gene Bird's maps. At least those try to be fun.

Edited January 24, 2023 by E.M.

[Roofi]

Some thoughts about CC2's map 24 :

 

- "Disturbia" by D-D which is maybe the most remarkable tribute to "The mucus flow" perfected it in all ways , especially about the inifinity turrets gimmick. If I was Mtpain27 , I would give a straight A for CC2's map 24 for the concept and an A+ for Disturbia for polishing it in the most sadistic way.

 

- About the music, it's one of the most legendary midi ever composed by a doom member for its overworldly melancholy, but it tends to irritate me at some point and I think the doom community tends to overuse it. The use of "You suck" from Rott is an another reason why I prefer Disturbia even if it's another heavily used midi.

 

- I love the use of stock textures in this map and especially the slime as midtex.

 

So, as other BPRD's maps, it offers an unique experience but the gameplay tends to seriously lack.