The DWmegawad Club plays: Realm of Chaos 25th Anniversary Edition

[rehelekretep]

map13 fda

this is just a really cool map. exploration is varied without being confusing, fights are threatening without feeling unfair, map is generous with plasma and rockets. nice!

 

map14 fda

those last two rooms are just annoying/a chore - the rest of the map is ok

Edited December 19, 2023 by rehelekretep

[Cutman 999]

MAP19 - “Port Fury” by Steve Duff

 

I have a very particular mental lapse about my opinion on this map. To start and say a positive point, the beginning is actually good, following the type of encounter design in the last map, I especially liked being able to turn the yellow key ambush into a calculated infight party so I can stack ammo. After a while, a fake door lowers, and you are placed with an out of nowhere city slaughter arena. Visuals aside, this is where my conundrum comes. Why has it felt so... Boring? Throughout playing i had this feeling. Technically it had everything I like in this type of encounters, is not that different from the fights in map15, I like big hordes of monsters, I like crowdcontrollling arenas. 

 

The only response I could muster from thinking it for a while was... The combat is completely aimless. Almost every kind of enemy in the game is around the boat thingy, 2 archviles out of nowhere in a big open area that after they die, it just makes the arena just mindless cleanup. The 3 snipers not doing anything to the player because of how many spots they can't even see you. That is the big problem of the map, after the beginning, becomes a glorified cleanup session in that big arena, with no substance at all.

 

For not overextending, the rest of the map doesn't do anything really interesting, not even on the exit slime pit, and the midi is good as always.

 

5/10

Edited December 20, 2023 by Cutman 999

[cannonball]

MAP19 - “Port Fury” by Steve Duff

Before;

 

Quote

I liked this map. Lots of good gameplay, the first section was fun and challenging. The stone building looked nice and was constructed well. I didn't mind the outdoor section but I wish it was a bit busier.
The rest was rather wacky (ss nazis make a return) and some questionable design decisions.
Still a good map though.

 

Now;

I think this one lacks the edge of the previous map, the start and yellow key room is fine and the initial drop into the Port is quite something, but there is probably even less threat here than the last map. The red key area is of course strange with the SS usage being a complete out of the blue moment (At least in map09 we had wolf3d textures). The cacoswarm wants to be menacing but instead turns into a massive pop the balloon exercise with the BFG. The rest is pretty forgettable, just remember to stock up on cells/rockets for the exit push.

This one is okay, but that is all it is.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 19: Port Fury

by Steve Duff

 

 

This midi definitely leans more heavily into DKC than the last few midis though with a traditionally Doom rock component. It does go well with this map which largely is comprised of moderately tedious incidental stuff that feels like a break from the last ridiculously packed maps. An easily-spottable hidden switch will open the way to a hidden plasma rifle because otherwise, we'd have to wait a bit for a hidden Super shotgun to take out the five or so Cacos bearing down on our position after weaving around them.

 

The best bit after that was the computer station where we were surrounded by Arachnotrons and shredded by chaingunners in the area below. Though an Arch-vile will greet us at some point in the station itself so look out for that, might be a nasty shock.

 

But then, comes the encounter that makes this map. It's even more cinematic than the slaughter of the last map, though open enough that it's bereft of much of the challenge of that last map but on the other hand, I've no idea what the original Port Fury was like but there's zero chance that it was this good-looking! But anyways, mostly just dodge the boss monsters (they'll be crushed after getting the red key) other than the Cyberdemon on the ledge with the Megasphere since we're intended to get it before heading into the warehouse and disposing with much the hordes contained here. Side note: the rocket launcher would probably be better right in front of the lift that took us here or maybe somewhere else close by we're likely to head towards.

 

Anyways, the warehouse is somewhat annoying, but we've more than enough rockets to blast the SS, Imps, Spectres, and Lost Souls here to pieces, take a lift up and collect the red key inside a Terminator-style industrial furnace. Then we exit and the beast is unleashed. Significant Caco clouds come from every corners of the map to converge on our position but keep some on the remaining Cyberdemon (if the Megasphere wasn't acquired earlier) than BFG the rest. There should be plenty of room but whatever is done, DONT' climb the boat because Cacos can float in through the windows and with infinite height, it's an absolute mess!

 

Two Arch-viles and a Cyberdemon aren't even much of a threat with all the ammo available as we're taken to a wing near the map's beginning. Rocket dem Impies down the hall, enter the exit room, and deal with an aggravating situation that perhaps we would have been advised to try with more health but the two chaingunners in the tower are quite hard to hit and they'll probably damage us quite a bit before anyone struck by them can be bothered to counter-attack. The Revenants on the ledges are certainly a pushover, but PLEASE don't tarry. There's only one rad suit and we'll have to run down in the center to get the blue key. A slightly awakward but cool end to a map that almost had no right to be.

 

 

[Azure_Horror]

Map 19 - Port Fury by Steve Duff and Cammy

 

Big, beautiful, Alien Vendetta-style map. The big arena does have prolonged clean-up stages, though...

But I think it is not too bad. Personally, the clean up stages in AV Lake Poison final fight, or on Speed Of Doom Poison Ivy 2 map felt more grindy than the clean up of ship battle from Port Fury.

 

All, in all, Port Fury felt like fun map to blast through.

P.S.: The wolfenstein guys do kinda look like zombie security guards, I must say... And wolfensteins' threat level in large, vertical, open rooms hits a sweet spot between zombieman/imp and shotgunner/chaingunner threat levels. So dplyment of some sniping Wolfenstein Zombies on Port Fury is effective and smart, if unconventional.

 

Map 20 - Teleporter Central by Antoni Chan and Cammy

 

I) The ending hogged all my attention, so let's discuss it first...

4 archviles with no consisted cover, no reliable defensive pickups, no way to escape?

This feels like a mapping error. Even with BFG, this setup would have been too extreme. But there is no BFG on the map too!

 

In something hardcore-focused, this encounter could have been okay. Maybe. Depending on what level of hardcore is chosen for the WAD in question.

But for ROC anniversary edition such set up is too much.

 

If I understand correctly, the OG version had one cyberdemon in that yard. This would have been much better!

Or, if the 4 Vile theme is to be preserved, than it would be better to start the room with only 1 vile, and some kind of nasty resurrect-able buggers (barons? chaingunners? Or plain old revs?) and summon viles 2, 3 and 4 when each of escape switches is activated.

 

e1m8 exit setup with 4 mancubi also felt like a troll. This setup is a dedicated Max Kills b Gone, without a mega at least.

 

II) Unlike the ending, other areas of Teleporter Central felt fun and perfectly finetuned to the rest of the WAD! I especially like the plasma section. This was a vile surprise done right!

[Celestin]

MAP20: Teleporter Central by Antoni Chen

 

The map is a six-way hub with a 7th exit blocked by triple-locked doors. I found the progression to be initially confusing a bit, as teleporters on each wall lead to different places and you need to move between one and another.

 

The blue key section is a cramped catwalk with enemies in a slime below you, followed by pinkie+mancubus combo. It's the weakest part of the map, aside from killing lost sould in the hub. The rest is much better. The yellow key part is a teleporting flood of monsters around a temple, it's a quick and deadly fight that luckily equips you properly. The red key path is my favourite, it starts with a ton of zombies to kill, followed by a part where you are jumping from platform to platform, only to walls open up, revealing a staggering amount of imps all around you - the best idea is to jump into their balcony and go wild with plasma.

 

The map ends in a room with constantly moving columns and four archviles - skillsaw's fans will recognise this setup immediately. This is followed by E1M8-style death exit, bringing the end to the Earth chapter. It's a strong note to end on.

[Cutman 999]

MAP20 - “Teleporter Central” by Antoni Chan

 

Way better than last map, this has some very good encounters I like, like the one for the yellow key with all the hitscanners and area deniers, and the red key's tight ledge with snipers and mid tiers. Differently than last map and 18, actually the encounters end quickly, it's more like a crescendo of constant big fights instead of big fights with filler in between like most of RoC was until this point. However, I heavily dislike the final fight. People are comparing it to skillsaw's archvile fights with lowering pillars, I have to say that is a false equivalence.

 

Those fights consisted of managing archvile snipers while you stay fighting low tiers to maintain cover as well as not getting chipped by the other enemies, here is just trying to try to dodge 4 archviles in a close space while trying to maintain cover with the pillars. To say the least, this feels really luck based and finicky, first because you can be in a situation most of the pillars are lowered, making so getting a zapped is unavoidable, also because since the archviles can surround you, this means it can create bullshit scenarios where you get zapped out of nowhere while trying to maintain cover. Like i said, really luck based, is the only part of the map i actually had to savescum.

 

Other than that, solid, very solid map.

 

6/10

[SiFi270]

Map15: Infestation

I didn't know sirens could be a midi instrument. Nor whatever it was that sounded way too much like my phone vibrating.

 

Also, in that room where you kill lots of zombiemen with lots of barrels, the southwestern platform with the arachnotrons seems to be missing textures.

[Cammy]

map12: Home Sweet Home is a real shocker for people who thought map10 meant Jason Fowler was some kind of lazy or incompetent designer. He pulls out all the stops here, for by far the most impressive-looking map in RoC '96 - the room-over-room trick, the barred sky window, and the imps sat atop self-referencing sectors were all from Jason. If he applied himself and stuck around, there's no doubt in my mind he would have given Iikka Keranen a run for his money. Somewhere out there in the multiverse, Jason made some killer maps for Requiem.

 

I didn't even touch up the action in this one as much as you might think - the only big new addition is the climactic final triple-archie fight, because I felt like the one thing this map was lacking was some really beefy payoff. Aside from that, the biggest change is that the entire lower half of the map was mirrored to create a connection back up into the watery cave area. I think those two changes together make the whole thing feel like a more naturally-realized journey than just reaching a circular cave and teleporting your way back to the start to walk out unimpeded.

 

I'm very happy that the tonal shift between map11 and this one smacked so many people as hard as it did, because it was 100% intentional. I knew it would elicit a reaction to have the first earth map be this tense and overcast, especially after so much pep in the previous maps' music.

 

map13: Bloodlands - first of all, I did consider changing the water to blood to make cannonball happy and satisfy the title of the map, but I just thought keeping it water looked better. Maybe I'll ask Steve if I can make Bloodlands II for RoC2 and have it be made entirely of blood textures, 1x1-style.

 

Second of all, welcome to Realm of Slaughter-lite. You got a taste of this in map12, but letting the player blow up a bunch of fodder is my thing, and it made sense to pop the cap off the glass for the earth episode - just another part of that tonal shift. As you guys have experienced, the fights and kill counts have gotten much bigger now - even bigger than a lot of the Hell episode maps will end up getting, if you can believe that. Not that there aren't some heavy-hitters in the final third of the megawad, of course - be ready for those.

 

I'll admit this isn't the kind of thing people would readily do in '96, as has been said, but this goes back to the inability to please everyone. A lot of the '96 maps are sparsely populated for their size, and "overscaled" as a complaint tends to arise more readily these days than "overpopulated", in my experience (unless the overpopulation comes from tanky demons). I doubt people would have found it fun if I had shrunk these maps down to fit their '96 kill counts, and either way it's much more aligned with my personal tastes to scale up the kill counts to fit the maps' sizes.

 

map14: Die Hard was a fun challenge to work on, and one that I have a good idea of how to further tweak. Thinking on it now I understand the unpopularity of the big barrel room, which I didn't do much to change up. I'll give it a second pass. This map also has a bit of Machine Gun Etiquette syndrome, with its excess of aesthetic styles. Not sure that I'll change that part too much. :)

 

I'll admit I don't have too much to say about this one specifically, but I'm happy with the work I did on it. Even with its flaws, I took a map that I enjoyed and made it just a bit more focused and action-packed. Especially that final fight, which in '96 is just a grass square with a few switches you press to reveal a single Spider Mastermind and the exit switch in a big old dirt pit. That's just not what it's all about, if you ask me.

 

map15: Infestation foreshadows what is to come in 32, 18, and 19. I'm glad you guys are playing RC1.5, because the central courtyard being flooded with lava was an absolute last-minute addition. In RC1, that area looked and played only a quarter is good. Not to mention it used to have about 6 dozen more imps than it does right now (yes, really), which was completely unnecessary and made the fight 75% cleanup. Yuck. Now that it's over faster and more treacherous to navigate, it's a lot more interesting.

 

Aside from that, all the wide-open spaces combined with my knee-jerk reflex to add gradient lighting everywhere resulted in this map being very, VERY difficult to make vanilla-compatible. Even the plus-shaped arena with the barrels everywhere was hard in that regard. I want you all to thank Michael Jensen, because he's the reason those barrels are there. He rightfully told me that cleaning up all that fodder was a pain in the ass without them, so I figured turning them into fireworks was the way to go. Nice bit of catharsis.

 

The final outdoor area was also a huge pain in the ass to get working the way it does. I want to revisit it and make it a bit more satisfying (and also a bit more similar to the original version of the map, from which my iteration has always felt like a dangerous departure), but I just don't know if it'll be worth the time.

 

I had the idea of making the huge stone pathway that you ascend drop down into the lava, revealing a cavern behind them with a second contingent, instead of just facing one small army from the front in the current version. Every time I sit down to make these changes, I second-guess myself. I think I should pull the trigger, because it sounds much more exciting.

 

map31: The Mansion had the easiest fix in the whole megawad, because in the '96 version every first-time player of this map will drop into the exit room in the first 60 seconds of the map and get stuck there because they don't have all three keys. This is their punishment for having investigated a completely unmarked and innocuous lift. I don't expect I'll get any complaints for changing this.

 

It only seemed natural to me to move the exit from out of that tiny cellar, and the most logical place for it was the prominent outdoor courtyard. From there, I used the map's pre-existing layout to my advantage, and turned it into a pair of quick treks to those balcony switches. The location of the secret exit is pretty out of the box, I hope everyone was able to find it okay.

 

Being able to shut yourself out of the bathrooms was an obvious error on my end, whoops. At first I didn't want to fix it because I thought it was funny and true-to-life to be able to screw yourself over like that (I did that once before at a friend's house when I was a kid, and I thought I had permanently ruined their ability to go to the bathroom, so I nervously left and never spoke to that friend again), but good sense won out and it'll be fixed for RC2.

 

map32: Nowhere to Hide was a fun one. This one has been significantly different from the original in both visuals and gameplay from the very first revision. Nowhere to Hide '96 is a smidgen larger than this map and contains only 69 enemies, which is actually not very nice since it made the map about as empty as the rocky chasm area of TNT map12, and significantly less easy on the eyes - with sludgy BIGBRIK walls clashing horribly with the red sky and rendered in fullbright. Hence, the introduction of one of the Wolf3D textures to match the floor.

 

From there, I just didn't stop adding monsters until the map was as insane as it is now. There's a LOT less switch-hitting this time around, too; it was replaced with the Keen hunt to give you something more interesting to do while still necessitating a full lap around the map. Yet another removed feature from the '96 version is a bunch of enclosed side corridors in the outer ring, where you could slow-build stairs to make your way up to little groups of cliffside imps while you hid from the single-digit number of baddies that were out there to get you. Yuck.

 

All these changes stemmed from a single question - why would there be places to hide in a map called Nowhere to Hide? From there, the ammo deprivation / Keen cache gimmick became an obvious addition. I'm glad it hit the spot for so many of you, because I was worried it might have felt like too much of a departure, even for a map32. :D

[cannonball]

MAP20 - “Teleporter Central” by Antoni Chan

 

Last time;
 

Quote

Didn't have much issue navigating this one, just went through the teleporters one by one. This map isn't too bad, some of the design is pretty primitive but there are some more violent moments, the yellow key areas is actually pretty cool.
The gameplay was pretty easy with too much health and ammo though.
The exit was quite neat though.

 

This time;

 

Either I vibed with this map more or Cammy has really lifted the gameplay and visuals in this one, It is your not so typical hubspoke where you have 6 teleporters to chose from (2 for each area where you need to use both to get access to the key). There isn't too much dead air in this one, full of action and for the most part the map plays very well and is consistent in high(ish) octane action but a relatively relaxed difficulty. The exception of course is the exit room where you get 4 archviles and a load of pillars that lower and raise. Honestly this is a great effort and will catch most off guard. I think there is a reasonable way of dispatching this, however it is very easy to panic and the loss of visuals via the archvile flames really doesn't help. But this fight feels fresh and it only took a couple of attempts to beat. I don't think this is my favourite map but I suspect this is the most improved of the batch so far.

[Cilian]

Map20------------------------------------------
Pretty fun map. Classic fetch-all-keys-in-any-order-you-want-and-then-open-the-three-key-door-right-at-the-beginning-of-the-map and nowhere near as slaughtery as the last few maps. The gameplay feels much more deliberate than usual for this wad, it puts you in various tricky situations that it already prepared a solution for, like, combat puzzles. I think it does them well, a lot of fights that are fun to tackle searching for a solution. There's a good bit of normal gameplay too and I like it as well and I can't point out exactly what's good about it but if I compare it to maps that I don't like I'd say it's varied enough and never pointlessly drags.

The ending is really vile by the way. There are three archviles in a small arena with some pillars that rise and lower constantly. Most of the difficulty comes from the fact that you start by teleporting into the area standing on an elevated pillar seen by all three archviles, they start attacking immediately and you have to get into position for hiding which is really annoying considering you have to drop down from the pillar and the need to fall hinders your mobility. After surviving the first 5 seconds it gets easier but stays very intense. Unless this map has some secret bfg this is probably the hardest fight of the wad so far.

Spoiler

Map21-----------------------------------------
The third episode begins! The start of the map is actually really hard and it scared me as I thought it's gonna stay this way for the entire map. The start is a run for your guns while being watched by two caged cyberdemons and with other enemies blocking your path, this bit is really intense and interesting. The cyberdemons stop being a threat once you kill the other enemeis and find cover, that was a relief. The hardest bit of the map is over but it stays pretty hard, the fights are still tricky and tense, and far from boring. The most boring part of the map is cleanup of the caco swarm and the rest of the map after that and it's not even that bad, when this is the absolute lowest point of the map it's hard to not call it good.

Spoiler

Unrelated map32 progress again: I continued running that map and I got as low as I feel like getting. Uv-max 02:17, decently close to the par time which assumes uv-speed. I think continuing running this map would be extremely annoying because wandering enemies are a massive issue. My last hours of playing this map were just spamming runs and hoping there won't be an enemy that wandered off somewhere to hide doesn't ruin the run which is pretty rare. Full runs to put effort in only for a coin toss at the end to decide if you actually get to exit the map. In the final run I did get lucky, it became my PB and I decided that it will be the last. I had a lot of fun with this map. (https://youtu.be/b_S1q9NM4ZU)

Edited December 20, 2023 by Cilian : Added a part of the post I forgot I wanted to add.

[Celestin]

MAP21: The Prison by Rob Berkowitz

 

If I'm not mistaken, this is the third time this year, when DMWC breaks out of jail (see also Fragport and Solar Struggle). The 21st slot, early parts with berserk and little ammo made me believe it's going to be a tyson map. Nah, after a bit of pinky punchout and gunning down an archvile under cyberdemon fire it hands you enough ammo to deal with everything comfortably. I won't complain, as resource-starved MAP21 is one of those mapping tropes that everyone expects in a megawad and with the map's name, MAP20's ending the opening shot, I was sure it would go in this direction, so, like with MAP32, I'm glad it subverted my expectations. I also like the streamlined approach to cyberdemon sentries that appear early on - both of them get crushed once you move past the early rooms.

 

The best part is the corridor with crushers that is loaded with rockets and enemies to blow. Round two releases cacodemons and reveals two alcoves of archviles, but I've found a spot to just whip out a rocket launcher and safely eliminate whatever was heading my way.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 20: Teleporter Central

by Antoni Chai

 

Well, come down was essential at some point and here we go! We've got three different wings or at least that's the idea since thematics are kind of incoherent, beyond two of these areas containing slime pits. The lower blue key hallways are the most laughably bland though, with corridor combat straight out of an overeager noob from '95. Good call on placing the secret though. The second run through made us realize that while one set of cells with imps was empty, the others had blood and one even had a cunningly-hidden switch! No dice on the caged Supercharge though. Bad call for casual players, as we'll soon see.

 

The outdoor temple with the yellow key is easily the best section. We're equpped with rockets and a rocket launcher and must immediately attack from the jump. Really, death by Arachnotron has a close to 50 percent chance otherwise. But we should take the upper path so they don't attack us while fighting off the teleport ambush from the temple. It's quite exciting too, with chaaingunners generally being in the front before Revs and nobles come in later, that we might end up having to switch out later. There's not tons of ammo here and we had to dispose of the last Baron with a rocket launcher.

 

The last wing has two parts. One sends into a sort of mansion, packed with chaff, and then an Arch-vile and Pain Elemental in slightly different locations but this hall is quite detailed and there's a good section of pillars to hide behind. Another ambush awaits after pressing the switch in the bedroom, but it's kind of small potatoes. The outdoor slime pit we can access has some dudes (Imps and Lost Souls) at a long distance and this better be something that was in the original version! Anyway, the mass closet of Imps that opens up is quite intimidating but the ambush when we pick up the red key is probably more dangerous. Revenants will fire from the greatest distances and possibly why the Cacodemons here distracts us.

 

All three keys open up a final arena and 4 Arch-viles, amidst what might be kind of an Arch-vile jumping puzzle/slash hide-behind raising/lowering pillars. This is beyond awkward and even if one finds both of the secrets, this borders on something approaching pro reactions. I'm pretty good at Doom but even when I was younger, I highly doubt I had the reactions to deal with such an arguably cheap situation. Sometimes, it's best to not go over the top with every ending and just allow some flatness every now and then. Still, getting surrounded by Mancubi before plunging straight to hell was a nice attempt of storytelling! If there's a sour taste, it's from spending more time on something where basically zero options exist, but the map itself is not that bad. Really more so good than not.

 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[Azure_Horror]

Re: Map 20 finale

Played on UV

 

I readjusted my mindset for things like your middle of the pack Fractured Worlds/Wormwood setpiece, or the harder elements of Valiant/Ancient Aliens/Struggle/Etc.

With renewed mindset, I was able to beat the 4 archvile room in about 8-10 tries. It is just a DPS-race in harsh visual conditions, after all. Very demanding, but easy to understand the basics of.

 

With a proper mindset, such a battle feels 100% fair game... But here lies the problem!

If a mindset is adjusted to Fractured Worlds style of battles, even smaller and easier ones, the other encounters of ROC 25 anniversary feel lacking instead. All the map 20 outside the finale feels like an easy-peasy filler. Hell, 95% preceding WAD feels like an easy-peasy filler, when the player adopts such a mindset!

 

Pick your poison:

- Either faceplant into a skyscaper-sized difficulty spike in the end of map 20;

- Or play the whole WAD, while expecting truly hardcore fights, that aren't actually there most of the time.

Either way, there is a huge chance of dissapointment, which could have been totally avoided.

 

The exit E1m8 trap finale is very neat peice from story-telling/artistic perspective.

But if the player tries to UV-max the map, the trap is reduced to yet another merciless DPS race instead. Having two such races back to back, both without any prior warning, may feel like a harsh joke to the player... Such troll-y setups would feel kinda fun, if the whole WAD was aiming to reference Going Down, or some the more whimsical Ribbiks' maps. But I am not sure that ROC-25 aims for such references...

 

Map 21 review - coming soon.

[cannonball]

MAP21 - “The Prison” by Rob Berkowitz

Last time

 

Quote

Back to using random textures for doors again.
This map is rather ugly and the first half of the map is extremely blocky and has a lot of pointless doors.
The dark tunnel was also annoying.
The level did improve when height variation and differing room shapes took hold. I must say the ammo was pretty well done in my opinion, the level actually became quite fun to play.
Then the exit happened, no just no! :/

 

This time

 

Well the start is truly something, I mean again props to proposing this concept because it results in a rather panic-inducing start. The map calms down somewhat after the initial couple of rooms, you get all of your weapons to fend off the hordes that come at you from time to time but in the end nothing really compares to the start, the ending is a little bit of a letdown given the earlier moments, the combat isn't too difficult and there isn't much stopping the player from rushing to the exit. 

Odd really, it appears last time that this map started bad and improved as you progressed, this time the opposite is true. In the end though this is a decent map on the whole, just don't expect the early gimmick to last and get settled into the usual business from around a quarter of the way through the map.

[Azure_Horror]

Map 21 - The Prison by Rob Berkowitz and Cammy

 

The Prison may be one of my favorite maps yet!

 

The Art, Vibe and Feel.

The MIDIs are consistently good in Realm of Chaos 25th Anniversary Edition. They tend to compliment the maps extremely well.

 

But the harmony between the MIDI and the Map on The Prison is just on the next level!

Even the crushers move up and down with the beat! It is quite a sight to see!

 

The visuals use lots of simplistic elements to create something truly memorable. The simple-and-rough geometric shapes greatly resonate the theme of brutal and unfeeling location. Very fitting for the whole "Prison-in-Hell" level theme. The tons of "dead body" props and cage mid-textures also used very evocatively and fittingly.

 

Also, this whole level really focuses on the old "Hell is a punishment not only for the sinners, but for the Demons too" motif. Are those monsters the prisoners? Or the jailers? Most likely - both. Hell defies logic and also sucks, you know?

 

The Gameplay.

The gameplay flow weaves brutal challenges with merciful periods of calm. The harder parts resonate with the grim atmosphere in the background, while the easier sections allow the player to fully focus on the art side if the experience. And they also provide some quite before the storm moments too!

 

In general, the gameplay is very unprdictable. The map starts with some evil Cyberdemon turrets, than switches to Plutonian type of combat, than refocuses on an old-school slaughter in a Crusher-filled valley. The only common parts in all major encounters: relerless opposition and crazy inventiveness! Everything else varies. There are inconvenient archviles, a pincer attacks by arachnos and spiders, entrenched revanants, a caco cloud, a different setup of inconvenient archviles... This is all feels so refreshing!

 

Conclusion: this is a really memorable, really creative, and really evocative level. A must-play map, IMO.

[Cammy]

map16: The Wolf's Hour is Jim Bagrow's final note in the wad - and the community. I've said before that I wish he stuck around longer, but I won't repeat myself. Instead, I'll reveal that the northern sewer section which connects the two main areas of this map together is wholly my own design (and I'll admit it's not one of my stronger ones). Yet another instance of discrete map sections being joined together by a traversable area, and this time also replacing a stack of long, dark, 64-wide hallways. Take one look at the '96 layout and you'll be able to tell how fun that part is.

 

The wooden abattoir, currently the first place you visit on your trip to the red key, used to house a teleporter to the cave. In order to get to it, your first order of business was to conquer that hallway section, and it was not a compelling start to the map. Realm of Chaos '96 actually features a disproportionately high number of maps in its middle third which have thin, dark hallways like this - they also show up in Hollow Oblivion, Bloodlands, and No Escape. Between the four of them, Bloodlands had the most interesting application of those dark halls, so it was the only one where I kept them exactly as they were.

 

The ending of this map was also fun to spice up, because the '96 version ends off with only about 10 imps, after a map full of mean long-distance hitscanners. In the DWMC's July 2013 thread, a pile of complaints rolled in to the tune of "oh what the hell, it's just a few imps!"

 

So why not add about a hundred more? ;)

 

map17: No Escape didn't receive a lot of changes to its layout, but the order in which you visit its attractions has changed up. The exit used to be tucked away in the northeast area of the base, which didn't lend the map much of a feeling of progression in my opinion, so I moved the exit into the outdoor area. In '96, it's a grassy backyard home to one Cyberdemon, which can be accessed whenever you want by jumping out windows in the western area of the building (and also gives you two secret partial invisibilities to """help""" with fighting cybie). Naturally, it evolved into a double-cyber finale.

 

Fun fact, that third cyberdemon only shows up if you find the BFG secret. If you go in there without having found that secret, you only fight two, and the third gets crushed in his teleporter closet.

 

No Escape '96 also has a very questionable beginning, because this map is actually quite stingy and can be tough to wade through with the limited supplies it gives you... unless you find a secret in the first room that gives you a megasphere, super shotgun, and backpack before you encounter any enemies, which basically destroys the map. I split the middle by giving you the shotguns for free, but no megasphere.

 

But easily the most questionable part of the No Escape '96 is the "RUN" room. The room is packed full of hitscanners, so if you take the map's advice, you get lit up and lose all your health in an instant. Not only is this an excessively mean trap, but the most effective way to disarm it is to door-fight it in total darkness. I wanted to replace it with something that actually required you to RUN, to give the unique concept some actual payoff. As usual, archviles were the obvious solution.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 21: The Prison 

by Rob Berkowitz

 

After getting told by some chunky piggy boys that our ass was gonna be fried like we were Duke Nukem or something last episode, we seem now able to move after presumably monkeying with some bars or another. This midi is really different in a sense, the military rhythm is appropriate to a prison but there's a moment where it gets a little more experimental that it becomes quite fascinating and its overall a rollicking tune.

 

This opening section is easily the hardest. Though the opposition is mostly chaff until we get to the Arch-vile, the Cybers can blast us from enough points that RNJesus can easily screw us over. Although constant movement probably reduces that chance. At least we get most of our weapons within a minute or two. A couple of Arachnotron gauntlets are probably the hardest bits after this but there's nothing terribly challenging. We did suffer a rather stupid death after charging down the stairwell and coming close to surviving against the nearby Revenants. What is the red key for at the end anyway? That is the exit, btw, I know it's probably a little disappointing. Oh well, the gauntlet leading to the blue key was entertaining at least and that's some nice Arch-vile and Revenant placement. I just wish we'd attacked the Revenants with a BFG. Contrary to what someone else said, the Caco cloud is not really that bad and this area of the void's narrow enough that if one or two get away, it's whatever. Though those crushers are indeed useless.

 

 

[cannonball]

MAP22 - “Nova Akropola” by Steve Duff

 

Last time;

Quote

Tried again and seemed to not suffer too much.
The nazis return in drones around two of the keys, the areas always seemed to be either flat corridors or so obnoxiously large it was ridiculous. The sniping zombies was probably the worst thing, plus the demons I felt no reason to kill. There were still some good things, the central area looks kind of neat, I quite liked the cyber and archvile combo but this was quickly dispatched.
Still a better map than many in this set so far.

 

This time;

I didn't have too many issues here, okay there are chaingunners in the outdoor area but these were dispatched fairly swiftly. The rest of the map kind of wants to be this epic, but it doesn't quite manage that level at any point. Also the doors into the blue key area are marked strangely (I think this carried over from the original version). The blue key fight is probably the highlight here, you just need to use the BFG wisely (Or essentially when you see an archvile).

Not much to say really, the map is fine but lacks the cutting edge, oddly the heavier combat felt similar to the last map, but that one had that starting sequence that elevated the map as a whole.

[Celestin]

MAP22: Nova Akropola by Steve Duff

 

A fellow Laibach fan, I guess?

 

Nova Akropola reminds me of Port Fury in a way there's one slaughter fight that the map builds up to. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. After dealing with some rooms by the start, you reach an entrance to an underground marble structure of sort. The place is large, but rather sparsely populated. The goal here is to find one of two keys that unlock the way to the central building. The red key is in the east, it also contains a BFG guarded by a horde of imps (there are also some Nazis here, whose presence in Duff's map is something I don't really understand). The yellow key can be found in the western part of the map, and the fight here was the toughest of the map. Two archviles teleports to balconies with revenants and imps appear around the house with the key. I don't know if it was the right strategy, but my instinct told me to stay inside and try to fit rockets through windows. Autoaim screwed me here a lot, I died a number of times by blowing myself up when something coused my rockets to veer straight into a wall.

 

As I've said earlier, this all builds up to a climactic battle for the blue key, a monster-dense fight in a limited space. Use your BFG well and you'll make it. I like this fight a lot, but, like with Port Fury, the rest of the map doesn't come close to this level of fun. 

[Cutman 999]

MAP21 - “The Prison” by Rob Berkowitz

 

Pretty good episode 3 startup. I actually convinced myself to do this saveless. It reminds me of hell revealed, mostly because the aesthetics are lacking in this map, but also because of some of the scenarios, like that ballbusting start. Probably there was a secret fight somewhere, I noticed the killcounts still remaining 10 enemies. Best ambush is probably the hell knight + chaingunner combo, in that ledge they're deadly because you can't move that much, or you die. Followed by the caco cloud to get the blue key, this wasn't difficult like at all, but managed to catch me off guard in 2 attempts. 

 

6/10

[Cutman 999]

MAP22 - “Nova Akropola” by Steve Duff

 

This map is just, fucking weird. If you can summarize the entire megawad in a map, it will probably be this one. Not only the aesthetics that change whenever they feel like, but also the combat. Sometimes arenas are completely overscalled, sometimes are really good choreographed like the rocket launcher one, or the blue key one. However compared to map 19, I feel the big fights have more substance to them and can be enjoyable. 

 

What the fuck Cammy you actually did a gensokyo the gods loved in this midi, it only lacks the start of the song, its very obvious.

 

6/10

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 22: Nova Akrapola

by Steve Duff

 

This start is so weird, unless I'm missing a hidden SS somewhere and to be fair, we didn't really look very hard for one. Cool midi, but I could not focus on it. What's important is that once we get to the large lava cavern, we'll finally get an SS, though again, we are constricted because if we try going up one of the side lifts, we'll get attacked by whatever enemies happen to be nearby but the trouble is that there's a bit much here to use an SS on. Killing the Arch-viles might have been a waste of time but honestly, it feels like this is a sort of "clean-up" room, unless we want to risk annihilation and we were struggling enough as it was.

 

The two side wings will each take us to either the yellow or the red key. The yellow key wing seems a touch stitched together and the window hitscanners are quite annoying but once we find our way inside, we're FINALLY greeter by a rocket launcher which all the rocket boxes found in the map can finally be put to good use! An Arch-vile also appears here, but they teleport out quickly.

 

The side with the red key is made largely of hell brick and despite some oddity with switches, proves to be a far more coherent effort. I assume the question mark in the open blood-walled plasma secret was there originally because it's place is just flat-out odd.

 

But let's just skip to the end, where we enter the central tower (hopefully with the BFG from the red key wing) enter the depressed section in the center and prepare for a fury of Revenants and Imps to be tossed our way! A couple of BFG blasts should keep things from getting two crowded but we should keep at least a few in reserve for the 3 Arch-viles that appear toward the end of the wave. After this, we can pick up the blue key and *sigh*, use it on yet another pair of Arch-viles and Cyberdemon behind the BK door but surprise, they'll teleport behind us if we don't charge in. Bruh, this honestly feels repetitive in a needless way. That said, this was still among the better maps so far but I dunno if the beginning is one of those "find the right secret" situations. Moreover, there's no reason to return here.

 

 

 

[Celestin]

MAP23: Ancalagon by Steve Duff

 

There's a lot of Nova Akropola's DNA here, with a crawl through a large demonic stronghold concluded by a huge arena battle. Once again, the feature fight is great (assuming you find a secret BFG and bother to get a backpack), with a ton of monsters lead by a cyberdemon. Another thing of note is the red key. You have a rather small and constricted room with weak monsters, only to reveal three archviles that are happy to bring dead monsters back to life. The rest leaves little impression, aside from a rather restrictive health pickups.

 

I have two issues with Ancalagon. One, its pacing. It's a long, mostly slow map that only heats up at the very end. Nova Akropola and Port Fury were also like this, by contrast, Dead Radio and Infestation have more than one setpiece fights. Second problem has less to do with the map and more with the wad in general. I'm talking about the placement, putting two large and very similiar maps in terms of gameplay style felt exhausting.

[cannonball]

MAP23 - “Ancalagon” by Steve Duff

 

Last time;

 

Quote

This map went on for far too long and I'm guessing this is an earlier Steve Duff map based on how the secrets are tagged :P
There are some nice pieces in this map including Steve's bbq party and a few other neat locales. But there is too much backtracking involved here which added to the length and in my playthrough it all sort of merged into a blur. The final room is just tedious and I died and couldn't be bothered to play again when I realised I had previously saved at the human bbq :P

 

This time;

 

This map probably has the worst start of all of Steve's maps, the first five minutes or so is spent with just the chaingun/shotugn and there is quite a bit to clear out. The rest is very hit and miss and there is some hefty backtracking in places. The blue key area was my least favourite area by a mile and it is worth mentioning here that both cell based weapons are in secrets. The mass of pain elementals are a real pain to clear with limited rockets and shells and it is quite possible to run out of ammo. There is also a soulsphere that requires an awkward jump to reach and this is most likely to be necessary to pick up to survive this area. The yellow key is a bit of a non-event in comparison. The red key is pretty fun, but archviles always bring a nice level of spice. 

Again the map ends with a big fight, though goodness knows how you get through this without picking up the secrets for weapons 6 and 7. I guess the fight itself is fun enough, but I had said secrets. One last point is the very varied take on secrets, you can probably guess which ones have been tweaked (A couple of nicely nested shootable switches) and ones that haven't changed since 1996 (Some are literal wall-humps).

In the end this is more cohesive than map09, but I get the feeling that this will be my least favourite Steve D map. 

[Azure_Horror]

Maps 22 and 23, both by Steve Duff and Cammy

I should really play the 1996 versions of those levels.

The ROC-25 re-imagined maps both have 400+ monsters and also include many parts which outstay their welcome.

Something feels out-of-place...

But what is exactly out of place? I feel that I need more frames of reference to answer that question.

[Cutman 999]

MAP23 - “Ancalagon” by Steve Duff

 

@Ancalagon Hola xd

 

I fear the hell maps are going to be as overblown like this is. A very dull, slow start where you just expend time killing hitscanners and mid tiers for like 8 minutes, transforms into very obtuse, late alien vendetta like encounters that give some substance to the map, but they're equally as questionable, and punishing for no good reason. Why out of nowhere, there's like 2 archviles in a room with almost no cover? Why the red key ambush summon 3 archviles and its midtier friends in a very small arena, with anorexic hallways? 

 

The worst offender is definitely the secrets. Without at least one of them you can't complete the map, I think the bfg is also a secret, maybe I'm wrong. And they're in random places where you need to press use in random places or non-switches, like plasma gun one or the fireblue stash. I did the Final fight without the bfg, just the plasma, probably impossible if you don't have the cell weapons, for christ sake there's almost half the enemy count, and the monster population is dense, and space relatively minimal. Quoting mister mtpain27: "If a level requires an obscure secret in order to beat a mandatory fight, then that level, is garbage". I can't agree more with that statement, maybe I'm missing a thing the playtesters of the remaster found acceptable preserving, but from my experience and boredom, I can only say much.

 

3/10

Edited December 23, 2023 by Cutman 999

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 23: Ancalagon

by Steve Duff

 

For what seems like a medium-to-large map, this sure took a long time. No matter, the music is excellent and sounds out of some horror segment of a JRPG. I especially like the repeated note toward the end.

 

Unlike some people....the map strangely doesn't feel overlong, but that might be in part because of the music because there's lots of spinning out into essentially isolated side areas and in some ways, it's the best looking map in the wad - yet it also sort of displays why people get tired of hell thematics. I'm not sure how else to explain it beyond the spaces not really making lots of sense at any point, despite the clear visual coherency on display.

 

Honestly, the frequent Arch-vile usage is appreciated, even though I sort of doubt they would appear in the numbers encountered here. I have to agree with cannonball on the blue key encounter though. It seems like a location where the flyers could be blown potentially annoyingly out of bounds and for the love of god, unless there's a purpose, can we please not put monsters in lava, especially when there's no rad suit. 

 

Complaining about the rest is a little bit difficult. Although we couldn't get the plasma rifle in said blue key area, possibly because the shootable switch required was too hard to spot, but this map had gone on more than enough at this point at any rate.

 

The part where we have to drop down to progress not so long before was kind of weird. We can otherwise keep going forward but we end up back somewhere else without finding what we need.

 

That is a cool end battle but while there's a certain amount of chance to get through if you don't have the plasma rifle or BFG, it's really not that terribly difficult. It certainly doesn't drag down the pacing of this map any worst though again, the issue of cleanup is always in the background.

 

One more thing: the majority of the secrets really aren't that hard to find, or at least most of the ones that'll help greatly. It just means the final room will have to be played more strategically. Though on another note, the fireblue hallway leading to the computer map was really cool! We may have struggled somewhat against the Revenant here though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rehelekretep]

map15 fda

very cool map, although the final area is too big with not enough enemies for my liking. still caught a cyber rocket though! the secret exit is weird, no way youre finding it without the computer area map, and with the map youre 100% going to find it. oh well i guess?

 

map31 fda

the midi is the best part of this map. sorry. although the doom-cute furniture is ok i guess.

 

map32 fda

dont know if i broke this or im just dumb but couldnt work out how to exit after everything was dead. fun enough map!

 

map16 fda

did the whole map without the rl because it was hidden in those corpses. lol.

 

map17 fda

those 3 cybers made me gasp involuntarily - cool map.

 

map 18 fda

i wouldve liked some more radsuits in the final nukage area, but this was enjoyable.

map19 fda

it took me 75% of this playthrough for me to realise the nautical theme

 

map20 fda

vile area is absolutely brutal due to the plasmagun obscuring most of your view while firing. if you can get one quick kill then its much easier. nasty stuff!

 

map21 fda

the combat scenarios were interesting, if a little awkward and not particularly challenging. i admire the effort at creativity instead of simple corridor blasting.

 

map22 fda

dont know what to make of this. its interesting but the fights are not particularly engaging. bit bland

 

map23 fda

very ominous. the midi plus texturing and adventure style reminded me of some of av's hell maps.

Edited December 23, 2023 by rehelekretep

[rehelekretep]

double post whoops