Wads that start out hard and get easier? Wads that start out with huge maps but get smaller?

[invictius]

We have gradual episode-like progression and we have wads where each map takes like an hour to complete.  Has anyone ever done something unusual like pitting you against high tier enemies and the start and have you end up just against zombies etc towards the end?  What about hard maps at the start that require all 6 keys, progressing down to needing one key and maybe even none at the end?

[Walter confetti]

Don't know many with this gameplay style, but it's a unorthodox gimmick btw pretty interesting!

[NaZa]

SlayeR has a really elaborate first map and gets a bit... Well, not necessarily easier, but likely shorter after it.

[Professor Hastig]

If we disregard the cyberdemon in E4M6 - which can be neutered by getting the invulnerability sphere that's available in an unmarked secret, Doom's E4 would be a good example. The first two maps can be brutal, the third one is hitscan hell but after that it becomes a walk in the park.

 

[invictius]

2 hours ago, Professor Hastig said:

If we disregard the cyberdemon in E4M6 - which can be neutered by getting the invulnerability sphere that's available in an unmarked secret, Doom's E4 would be a good example. The first two maps can be brutal, the third one is hitscan hell but after that it becomes a walk in the park.

 

I fell in the lava pit and used the teleporter in the middle but there seems nowhere to go.  You pick up the box of rockets and there's nowhere else to go.  Cheats show the cyberdemon behind the wall with the rockets and no obvious way to get there.

[Shepardus]

11 hours ago, invictius said:

I fell in the lava pit and used the teleporter in the middle but there seems nowhere to go.  You pick up the box of rockets and there's nowhere else to go.  Cheats show the cyberdemon behind the wall with the rockets and no obvious way to get there.

The central teleporter takes you to a different location depending on which direction you enter it from. There's a walkthrough on the Doom Wiki.

[invictius]

14 hours ago, Shepardus said:

The central teleporter takes you to a different location depending on which direction you enter it from. There's a walkthrough on the Doom Wiki.

How common is something like this in pwads?  You'd be surprised about how easily I get stuck - I've even gotten stuck in a map from 10sectors.

[erzboesewicht]

10 hours ago, invictius said:

How common is something like this in pwads?

I've seen that mainly to access secrets, apart from E4M6.

 

Regarding the original question: I don't remember any mapset doing that specifically. One could argue that Plutonia's difficulty curve peaks around the middle (9, 10, 15, 32) and then slowly lowers again, being MAP28 and 29 two of the easiest maps. I kinda like that. But of course maps 01-05 are not among the hardest.

 

What I would find interesting would be a transition from "big and easy" to "small and hard". For example, starting with something like Darkwave0000's maps in Speed of Doom, and ending with something more similar to Swift Death.

[Andromeda]

City of Doom