my 300-word reviews (most recent: JPCP by Japan)

[baja blast rd.]

I have written 3000+ words about some individual maps before. I believe it would be very doable for people to write a whole book about most mapsets (and some standalone maps) without straining for substance. But that can be exhausting and I want an outlet for writing about levels that doesn't end up scope-creeping into a burden. So every review I post in this thread will be 300 words long tops. If I backtrack on that you can call me out on that. No ratings, not my style. :P 

[baja blast rd.]

Mutabor by tourniquet

one vanilla-compatible map for Doom 2

 

 

 

Levels where "everything looks the same" aren't everyone's cup of tea, but Mutabor uses this design style for a rare, peculiar effect. Deep into one playthrough, I started getting genuine deja vu in the particular oblong, green-and-beige pipe-fitted area I was in  -- I've been exactly here before, right? It looked so familiar. But I knew I was more than halfway across the map from UV's spawn point (which differs from HMP's and from the "Onslaught" mode's spawn points). I had to check the automap to be sure. The disorientation was unsettling and it felt like this slime city at the edge of reality was unending, in a way that Miasma alludes to but Mutabor now seemed to more deeply embody. It's made all the more strange by how the numerous "backtracking fights" -- duplicitous encounters that get you in your return through an area -- feel impossible to keep track of. Those setups, which play into the idea that the layout is some intelligent structure that can disassemble and remake itself on a whim, are the defining gameplay trope of Mutabor (the root word being "mutation"). 

 

There's nothing unprecedentedly dark and grimy about the look of this wad -- the most common color wavelength is a bright green, and some of the city textures are outright cheery. zzzv's background music is quirky but not dark either. The combat -- which is a mix of light incidental scuffling, modern-Plutonia minimalist "smart monster placement" fights, some occasional higher-bodycount arena battles, and some gimmick fights that are scattered about -- is not even especially difficult; if you can handle the middle of Speed of Doom, you'll be fine here. Despite all that, it manages to be very unnerving in a unique way. You can sure feel stranded in the infinite labyrinth. Everything fits within vanilla's blockmap limit, somehow. 

[Li'l devil]

Let's take this idea further and write reviews in haikus or something

[baja blast rd.]

Sunlust by dannebubinga and Ribbiks

32 Boom-format maps for Doom 2

 

   

 

  

 

The big thing to understand about Sunlust is that it's half dannebubinga. He's the soul of the megawad's defining combat style: his preoccupations (bloody mixed-horde moshpit fights; open-plan sandbox slaughter; PE gangs; timed setups where the incoming second wave forces you to do the first one quickly; and endurance fights built around a fun repeated tactic) establish much of why it's so consistently enjoyable, and he proves Ribbiks's peer at building an atmosphere.

 

What makes Sunlust special among hardcore wads is not raw difficulty (many releases, some involving these very authors, outdo it there comfortably). It's the pacing, and even more, the range. The seemingly patchwork structure would give the wrong impression of the authors' control of the experience. Few wads escalate from near-traditional intensity to borderline insanity like Sunlust does, while also treating the easier parts as so important: the breather maps, and the early game's wonderfully flowing "Plutonia meets microslaughter" phase. Sunlust has a strong handle on the 'semiotics of danger'. If you want wow factor, it's easy to drop an enormous horde, but this duo does that sparingly, despite the late game dipping into macroslaughter. They rely on striking encounter presentation and on clever concepts. When excess happens, it registers as a "holy shit" moment, like map20's cacoswarm or map24's imp exit-party or map28's [redacted], rather than being the desensitizing norm.

 

There's plenty of levity -- breather maps and easter eggs and silly intermission messages -- but at the end, Sunlust marches into a crushing abyss. The lategame void has few pwad rivals in oppressive feel and in charismatic viciousness, which peaks in the iconic "Go Fuck Yourself," such iconic moments being Ribbiks's biggest contributions. Thanks to the build-up, when you finally reach "God Machine," it feels like something you've been waiting for, or fearing, your whole life.

[Grain of Salt]

Quote

Sunlust by dannebubinga and Ribbiks

 

This one definitely rings a bell

[baja blast rd.]

Japanese Community Project by various authors

32 limit-removing maps for Doom 2

 

   

 

  

 

The character of JPCP is very personality-driven, which has become increasingly common in post-2020 group projects (Solar Struggle, Pina Colada). In 2016 JPCP felt even fresher, infused with a playful energy that is not the comedy of a jokewad, but rather an unfettered conception about what a Doom map can try to be.

 

burabojunior has seven maps, which I hadn't registered until now, because his maps skew briefer -- and the burabojunior of the explosive, hyperkinetic, fodder-stuffed space bases and energy plants is markedly different than the one of the (comparatively) calmer gothic temples and fortresses. The beloved visual artist Nanka Kurashiki has four contributions that each emphasize very different attributes: ambience/storytelling in "Remind"; amusing scripted, on-rails gags in "Nandeyanen"; imposing atmosphere and architecture in "Cakravartin's miscalculation"; puzzles and conceptual gimmickry in the iconic "my fav," a literal fruit salad which spawned "Do You Like Caco?" Toooooasty, who also contributes four maps, is a wizard when it comes to map concept and theme: one level turns the automap into a comic book; one stages a hilarious bank robbery; and his standout "hazmat hazama" tosses tatters of distinct themes into a brain-screwing reality blender. 

 

Around those authors, it's like the Community Chest series all in one -- a highlight being Masa's "HeLLport," whose design style, grand scope, and mournful mood would fit right into Alien Vendetta. JPCP's contributors seemed to never think of Doom as an ultraviolent video game (burabojunior's hyperbloody maps are consistently "silly"). Instead they find their calling in worldbuilding, mood, and quirky ideas. JPCP regularly evokes certain classics, so it's less the outsider art of creators who had no roots, and more a montage of familiar styles being piped through a unique, atypical prism. To me it's the best Community Chest-like megawad, with Nova II coming a close second.