The DWmegawad Club plays: Abscission

[Wolfgun Shootner]

MAP07: Corroded Ruins

UV, pistol start, DSDA, 100/100/100, 1:44

 

No armor and 19 arachnotrons and mancubi shooting at you from all angles at the same time is a recipe for desaster, as in - death. There is just no place to hide except this one long narrow tunnel, but that's maybe not the best idea now, is it? This map is two minutes of constant dodging and aiming. At least there are some meditkits lying around. 

[Insaneprophet]

Map 07

 

Done away with are any and all aspects of progression as we are plopped down in some muck with some demons to fuck up and get fucked up by. This can become quite a deadly dance as there is almost nowhere safe from projectiles or environmental damage so watch your footwork, dont step on your partner, keep a good rythm and always be ready for the dip. 😝

[Roofi]

Map 07 "Corroded Ruins"

 

 

It's time to celebrate my first death in this wad. You just have a few medkits to heal your wounds and taking cover is difficult due to the damaging slime pools. This map could have been a lot easier without the corrosive liquid but classic doesn't necessarly mean easy, so let's go a for a short dopamine shot !

 

I like the architecture of this map and "Corroded Ruins" seems to be the name given to a kind of highway that has been decommissioned over time and by the demonic presence. The zone seems less abstract than in Doom 2, which I appreciate.

 

In any case, it remains a typical map 07. It's so short that it's a bit of a filler, but it's a welcome break from the previous map and the more adventurous ones to come, especially map 09, which I have just finished.

 

Grade : B- (12/20)

 

 

 

[Blast_Brothers]

MAP07: Corroded Ruins

 

Quote

 

The text screen beforehand marks the first interjection of narrative, and it sets up this map to be disquieting. No longer is this place a "point of shelter", that's for sure.

 

The traditional contingent of Mancubi and Arachnotrons is strategically placed to make you uncomfortable and redirect you into nukage. What does it imply about the state of Earth if the demons are this entrenched in even the best-defended places?

[DavitW]

MAP06: Slag Dump
This map does a good job of getting as much mileage out of the Crusher motif as possible without overstaying its welcome. Starts out very close quarters and opens up as it goes along, exposing you to more danger in the form of imps, Hell Knights, and the Spider Mastermind. Spider Mastermind is condemned to a crushing as one would expect. The teleporter trap behind the blue key door is definitely the most interesting part of the map. All of the mini crushers seem to usually end up being a big help by killing some of the monsters and serving as temporary cover. The exit room looked like it was leading up to something big, but it only turned out to be two zombiemen hiding behind pillars. Not sure if that was an intentional bit of fun or not, but I found it rather amusing.

 

MAP07: Corroded Ruins
Another map that takes a single idea and gets as much out of it as possible. All of the Mancubi and Arachnatrons are thrown at you at once. It's actually a rather difficult fight. Surrounded with little cover and little room to maunver without taking acid burns. Eyeballs in the back of your head would definitely help here.

 

ab06-07.zip

[TheGreenZap]

(Doom Retro, HMP)

 

MAP07 - Corroded Ruins

 

Get ready to move and fire quickly. Nowhere to stop and take cover here and you have to be careful of the nukage that is all around. I thought this was much tougher than Dead Simple. Once you take care of the Arachnotrons and Mancubi, map over.

[LVENdead]

Map 07 - Corroded Ruins (UV - 100%)

 

As expected, took my first death here. The crossfire of Mancs and Arachnos is absolutely brutal and it's very easy to take a huge amount of damage in quick succession. There are a COUPLE of spots where you can safely take cover for a moment or two, but generally you will need to have a rocket ready to go in short order since the monsters close in on you very quickly. Very effective use of a small monster count. I also love the simple but effective detailing and overall theme of a collapsed highway. Not much else to say other than this is the map that will show you that Abscission is more than willing to kick you in the teeth.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP07 - Corroded Ruins (100%K/I/S):

Snaxolotl's take on MAP07 is straight to the point, as she places every single piece of meat on the grill. Both the arachnotrons and mancubi are shown to you at first glance, and you'll have to prepare for a painful fight.
Considering how small the arena is to maneuver, how much hurting nukage without any radsuits, the little amount of health there is, enemies sniping you from all places, and the little place there is to hide, I just felt it like a painful experience. It was a painful boss-fight as you won't have any breath. Mow down all the enemies as fast as you can before they drain your health, because you won't have any soulspheres and there aren't that many medkits out there. Mancubi are not mandatory to progress, as the exit is locked behind a tag-667 trigger, but they will lower the pillars where some sniper arachnotrons are placed, making them move freely. I don't know if this is an advantage or not, but I usually try to kill everything before I exit anyway.

Order of preference:

 

Spoiler

 

MAP03
MAP06
MAP04
MAP05

MAP02
MAP01
MAP07

 

 

[Cutman 999]

MAP07 - “Corroded Ruins” (Pistol started, 5 attempts saveless, 100% K/I/S)

 

Good combat setpiece, the only nitpick I have is that there is no armor for pistol starters, and also the attempt of replicating Romero's fascination with damaging floors.

 

It's a constant rush of getting the weapons, trying to receive minimal damage, and then target prioritize so you would not get squashed by the sheer amount of mancs and arachnos in the map. Once you carved out a save space, you can clean up the rest, I like that kind of combat design a lot, and this is definitely a map that satisfies that.

 

8/10

[Celestin]

MAP06: Slag Dump

 

Slag Dump is awesome. The centerpiece of the map is the starting room with columns, starting with a cramped fight that reminds me of MAP04's ending, but with plasma rifle and just enough cells to kill bigger monsters. The first destination is a drop into a small box, which involves a very tight ambush of imps, shotgunners and exploding barrels. 

 

Beating this raises some cover in the hub, putting the player in a full view of a mastermind. The crappy prison area has been removed, now she stands on a pedestal overlooking the start. Running past her is probably the sole thing I didn't like here, maybe you are supposed to get her distracted, but I didn't have anything left to use, so it was a trial and error process before reaching a switch that turns on the crusher. At least you can get a secret megasphere to recoup and take on a teleporting ambush of hitscanners. The map caps off with a room similiar to Crusher's finale, except now there are crushers on the perimeter, being both an obstacle to watch out for and helping with disposing of the ambush. 

 

What really impresses me besides CQC is the scale here. Most of the map is set on platforms above molten slag, while narrow walkways and tall columns adds to the feeling of being in a huge industrial facility. Slag Dump left me awestruck like no map in Abscission before.

 

MAP07: Corroded Ruins

 

I was curious how Snaxalotl would handle Dead Simple. Well, half of the map is covered by damaging sludge, there are pieces of rubble that limits your movement and both arachnotrons and mancubi are released from the get-go. There is a possibility for infighting, but with playspace this limited and two monster types that are infamous for spaming the map with projectiles, it is extremally easy to lose a lot of health. Grabbing guns, avoiding damage and firing at anything that moves is one hell of a rush. Corroded Ruins is easily one of my favourite Dead Simple clones.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 07: Corroded Ruins

Crispy Doom, UV, pistol-start

 

Ok, here's an interesting Dead Simple take. A completely open layout, rectangular shaped, containing the kind of cover hinted at in the title but not terribly easy and one it can be difficult to trigger the right infighting to take the pressure off. Meaning we'll probably have to spend at least sometime in the slime overflow at one end. Compared to something like Counterpoint from Doom 2: The Way Id Did, it's both more similar to Dead Simple and at the same time, considerably more dangerous. The midi is filled with doom but at the same time, reflects something a little bit different. Getting out of here without dying at least a few times is going to be very tricky, unless one can figure out optimal weapon collection. Only thing that's certain here is that the Super Shotgun probably won't be worth our while. Arachnotron bunching is going to introduce some luck in no matter what however.

 

 

 

[Magnusblitz]

MAP07: Corroded Ruins

100% kills, 1/1 "secret"

 

Dead Simple remix, but as others have said the layout differs quite a bit which definitely gives a different flavor to the proceedings: both enemies at once, which both helps (infighting) and hurts (different projectile patterns to dodge). Very little cover that won't have you going into the slime, and the back half of the map is mostly slime so you probably won't use it much. I'm a little disappointed there's no real secret; I wonder if the long narrow corridor on the west side is intended as a sort of red herring to draw the player in and potentially trap them. With no armor and a low monster count, it's a thin line between success or failure and the first minute will either probably have you dead or the monsters thinned out and the level all but over.

[cannonball]

MAP05 - “Sludge Conduit”

The cacodemons in the lowest point of the map were well placed to catch you out, this is another map that feels like the OG map but more constricted, as such I didn't really have a particularly fun time. Most of the map is fine but it is a little too cramped at times for its own good.

 

MAP06 - “Slag Dump”

This map feels like it takes the good parts of the Crusher and doubles down on it, it creates quite a tense atmosphere because monsters can easily sneak up on you. As such this map ends up being my favourite so far. This one is slightly paranoia inducing but also fun to push through.

 

MAP07 - “Corroded Ruins”

 

A decent effort on the Dead Simple formula, pretty much everything is in play (Though the turret spiders will get lowered in the event of all of the mancubi being killed). Not much else to say here.

[Snaxalotl]

Map07: "Corroded Ruins"

This is my first and last dead simple styled map, an over saturated kind of level in my opinion but I felt like I spiced it up enough to justify it. Instead of differentiating it by focusing on a different gimmick surrounding the map specific specials I opted to try and just make a challenging arena with a unique setting and track.

While making this level it was initially wide open, then after completion I would go back and add another set of obstacles or expand pools of nukage then play again, and repeat. The end result is an array of seemingly random obstacles that were made to impede the player's ability to counter the demons until I found a happy challenging middle ground.

This is the first "boss" level in the wad, at certain checkpoints in progression I throw a curve ball and greatly increase the difficulty. I'm not a fan of linear difficulty progression so I often punctuate levels like these with easier maps in the next slot to help prevent tedium or frustration.

[Insaneprophet]

Map 08

 

Yes, this map does indeed contain both tricks and traps. It is again both more constrained and more difficult than its grand pappy but doesnt really bust your balls or over stay its welcome. My only gripe is that I can not figure out the BFG! I know how I think it should be obtainable but am stumpted as to how it is actually obtainable. 😝

 

Edit: DOH!!!   I am an indiot and that was simple. Thought I had looked for something like that everywhere but obviously missed one place. I can say that hitscan shooting the demon face is not the way to lower it despite my brains insistance that it should be. 😝

Edited July 8 by Insaneprophet

[RHhe82]

32 minutes ago, Insaneprophet said:

Map 08

 

Yes, this map does indeed contain both tricks and traps. It is again both more constrained and more difficult than its grand pappy but doesnt really bust your balls or over stay its welcome. My only gripe is that I can not figure out the BFG! I know how I think it should be obtainable but am stumpted as to how it is actually obtainable. 😝

I forgot to post my review in the morning before I left to work, but I can spoil and say it’s easier than you think; yet I was also stumped by it and found only after the pinkie horde where it would have been quite useful.

 

Spoiler

The switch is right beside the BFG pedestal, on the side facing the back wall.

 

Edited July 8 by RHhe82

[Celestin]

MAP08: Demon Core

 

Demon Core retains the hub-based design of Tricks and Traps and while some elements have been retained, it feels far less gimmicky than Petersen's map. Pro tip: get a BFG. It isn't hard to find (though in hindsight, maybe it is and I just managed to crack Snax's way of handling secrets), just spot one more hidden button, but it helps tremendously. Without it, you are expected to fight a horde of pinkies and another trap with rocket launcher. I'm not saying it's impossible, only that the BFG makes those places much easier.

 

One thing I was interested in seeing was how the cyberdemon would be handled. Well, he's placed at the far end of a long red corridor, which releases cacodemons for him to infight, effectively merging two different tricks and/or traps into one. It's also a perfect place for a BFG spam, as you get a heap of cells. What's more to add, Demon Core is a good remake of a classic map.

[RHhe82]

MAP08: Demon Core. Played on UV, pistol start. DSDA v0.27.5. K: 122/122, S: 3/3, I: 2/2. Comp. time 12:39

 

I can't help it but be a little put off by the first impression being "Tricks and Traps". Fortunately Demon Core very quickly becomes its own thing, and I think drops the imitation act. Even if there are some familiar elements, they are only "clear" because I was specifically  looking for them. Without the opening room and my preconceptions, this one would have felt like a totally original map.

 

I think the highlight for me was the pinkie horde near the yellow key; it's not exactly a difficult encounter (although I wish I had found the BFG earlier -- then again, that would have rendered the fight actually easy, and not the sort of modern Sunlust-lite ambush I very much enjoy.

 

Speaking of the BFG, that was the one secret I had little trouble finding; The elevator to the backpacks right beside it was an instant find, and I don't know what I did to gain access to the soul sphere. Still, I feel like I haven't had much trouble with the secrets since MAP05. I wonder if it's just a matter of secrets being easier to find all of a sudden, or if I've gotten tuned in on Snaxalotl's mindset concerning secrets.

[Cutman 999]

MAP08 - “Demon Core” (Pistol Started Saveless, 100% K/I/S)

 

That map name awakens the memory on my head related to touhou girls opening the actual demon core.

 

Great tricks n' traps remake, the fights here feel a lot more choreographed compared to the previous maps, depending again, on good enemy priotization to beat. Maybe the map was a lot easier if i wasn't smooth brain, and I would have found the switch that lowers the bfg a lot sooner, but even with just a rocket launcher, the scenarios are fun, even if you are not accustomed to setups like the ones present here.

 

8/10

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP08 - Demon Core (100%K/50%I/33%S):

Snaxolotl gives a more structural sense to the original Tricks and Traps, with less dead ends and a more "direct" approach to the goal. Tricks are still there, like the demons you have blow up with rockets before they get you, this time in a really narrow space. I feel there is something I was missing in this map, but searching for secrets is a bit painful, as Snaxolotl puts it really hard for me to search for any additional stuff. Surprisingly, there aren't any hell knights stacked in an area, in fact, there are no hell nobles to be present in this level. Good combination of the cyberdemon fight with the "wall-of-cacos" area from the original MAP08 before the finish line. Fun map.

Order of preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP03
MAP06
MAP08
MAP04
MAP05

MAP02
MAP01
MAP07

 

 

[Roofi]

Map 08 : Demon Core

 

 

I instantly recognized the "Shadow Temple" influences at the first seconds of the music. Fortunately for you Snax, this my favourite dungeon in Zelda Ocarina of Time and I like how it transforms the "Trick and Traps" concept into a sort of occult ceremony in which you were invited from for unknown reasons, but most likely to your detriment.

 

 

As in Doom 2, the cyberdemon makes its first appearance but he's placed in a more menacing manner as if it was the guru of a dangerous sect you have to defy in order to be free. You can see him in its dedicated corridors, acting like a throne , waiting you expecting you to get the red key, in order to find a valid reason to destroy you. But actually the cyberdemon's fight barks more than it bites as you can easily take refuge, in the corner where the switch is.

 

The meanest fight seems to be the swarm of pinkies near the yellow key and I admit I stopped discovering the maps on pistol-start, since the wad gets substantially harder and I like playing wads in continuous just for the adventure aspect. (I'm actually at map 14 and I just want to say this wad rocks). I don't want to say that obtaning the BFG is life-changing here, but it will definitely help you a lot taking the advantage among those closequarters-fights, specifically the pinkies' trap I mentioned above.

 

"Demon Core" has a more linear progression than Tricks of Traps, which is perhaps the slight drawback I can cite. However, this map is a perfect example of what I love about Abscission: the way it turns the abstract tech-bases of Doom 2 into mysterious dungeons. This map makes me feel more in hell than any Doom 1 or Doom 2 map.

 

Grade : A- (16/20)

 

 

 

[Wolfgun Shootner]

Map 08: Demon Core

UV, Pistol Start, 100/100/100 in 7:34

 

I'm eager to learn if the pinky trap was designed specifically so you can survive with just the rocket launcher. I believe some refining went into this. Also quite clever to put some imps there that you cannot totally ignore. I found the BFG after I went back in my memory to map 01, one of the secrets there impressed me so much that it stuck around in my mind and sort of a similar concept is used for the BFG. Simple but smart. Eventually I use the BFG only for the ambush on the platform with the two cacos. A well placed shot takes care of most of the stuff which otherwise becomes rather dangerous. I take the cyberdemon out with the plasma, which becomes an issue if you have to use plasma for the caco swarm. On the other hand if the cyberdemon takes care of the cacos you have plenty of plasma but then the cacocorpses obstruct the rocket sight, so the cyberdemon becomes more dangerous.

If you know what to do this is a fun map and quite doable. 

[cannonball]

MAP08 - “Demon Core”

 

Yeah the rocket launcher trap is nasty, but doable if you are quick and work the space well. There are plenty of pain elementals too that can cause real problems. The red key trap is an absolute doozy, it isn't too difficult, though you can end up in a position where caco corpses can really block you view of incoming rockets.

Overall I actually like that the layout is more subtly dressed and there are some real highlight moments. I think these carry the map enough to live without the popcorn carnage that Tricks and Traps had.

Solid map and ranks equal with Map06 so far. 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 08: Demon Core

Crispy Doom, pistol-start, UV

 

Other than the opening room and the broadest of combat concepts, this isn't going to be mistaken for Tricks 'n Traps. The playful and generically composed "Dave D. Taylor Blues" is replaced with a clanging midi that underscores a certain sort of ever-present danger as exhibited by the map heading into borderline slaughter-lite territory. Like pick up the rocket launcher and we'll be instantly swarmed on 3 sides by Pinkies. Head to one of the corners near the entrance and it should be possible to thin their ranks enough that we won't be screwed, but expect to lost a decent chunk of health here. Another trap revealed when a series of flesh walls open doesn't seem like too huge of a deal, despite the vast horde of Imps possessing a ledge on the other side, but we then end up suffering a death to a Pain Elemental we'd somehow failed to hear earlier, which may have been part of the point. Though the two Pain Elementals revealed in another closet provided basically zero threat, they also felt like they added to the sort of grimy feel here.

 

See, this map contains a certain grimy, industrial feel as underscored by all the textures that kind of reflects a lopsided battle against a war machine of sorts. Then the furnace with the Cyberdemon is the culmination of the operations here. Thing seem tricky here, at least until we find charging the enemies in the back actually works, when Cacos will fly from the sides like that one Tricks 'n Traps room. It's an appropriately climactic encounter and it makes sense there's a BFG somewhere, but I failed to spot it entirely and to be honest, it's kind of hot here. But the atmosphere is better than Map 06. Because of that pulse-pounding, unrelenting midi....

 

PS. Wait, the Shadow Temple? I can hear it, although that seems more emphatic on the spooky factor which doesn't mean it's bad!

 

 

 

[TheGreenZap]

(Doom Retro, HMP)

 

MAP08 - Demon Core

 

Well, this shot up to my favorite map of the wad so far. Great map and great fun! Ok, so I must be an idiot, because I did not see a BFG anywhere. I have become decent at dodging Cyber Demon rockets, so I just fought him with the Plasma Gun without any trouble. But now I'm going to have to go back and find the BFG. Anywho, I agree, the rocket launcher trap was nasty. I agree with Cannonball about being quick and managing your spacing for that one. Like LadyMistDragon, I didn't hear the first Pain Elemental either and he got me in the back. Coward.

Snax, great job on this one! Loved it!

 

Edited July 8 by TheGreenZap

[Celestin]

MAP09: Hadal Facility

 

I'm not a fan of The Pit, but I think it got an interesting update here. The start gives you four lifts to chose, two per wing of a map. Wherever you go, you'll be traversing around pits of sludge, taking out monsters along the way (mostly imps, occassionally hitscanners and bigger demons) and being teased by locked medikits. Yeah, this one can be tight on health pickups for long stretches of the map, only to open a whole infirmary few rooms later. Careful play is recommended.

 

If you feel frustrated with Hadal Facility, the ending will surely make up for it. It's a big field, packed with all kinds of monsters to kill. No issues with health and ammo here, so you can unwind and attack everything on sight. MAP09 is definitely an improvement over the original, though I miss the chaingunner room (the best fight of The Pit).

[Blast_Brothers]

MAP08: Demon Core

 

Quote

 

Oh, I get it... demon core. Like the nuclear core. Gotcha.

 

This is the first map where I don't think someone would immediately guess the inspiration. Fortunately this does not mean the quality has gone down.

 

Quote

 

"Fleshy techbase" is a theme as old as time, but it looks good here. Paired with a forceful MIDI, it makes for a nice change of pace.

 

MAP09: Hadal Facility

 

Quote

 

I'll always have a soft spot for The Pit. It was the first map that gave me trouble on my first playthrough of Doom II - it took me several days to beat it. Later, I would remake it for Doom II The Way We Remember It, for which I pored over the map's every detail. (I was worried people would find my recreation too unfaithful if I didn't - only to discover that my map was a little too faithful compared to some of the other submissions!)

 

I think this map captures the Sandyish spirit of the original - four paths that adjoin a central meeting point. Only here, that point is not the lifts themselves, but the big sea of nukage beneath them. The result is a winding, nonlinear quest that often doubles back on itself in unexpected ways.

 

Quote

 

I love the Doomcute mess hall, and the numerous small resource caches scattered about. They do a great job of making the space feel plausible as a real facility while not clashing with the abstract hell elements surrounding them.

[Snaxalotl]

Map08 "Demon Core"

This map honestly confuses me, I wasn't satisfied how it turned out and felt it ended up in the "filler" category which abscission has very few of in my opinion. The only thing I really enjoyed about it was the midi which is very inspired off of the shadow temple song from the Ocarina of Time.

I felt that the track wasn't used to its full potential so I decided to reuse it again much later on to try and do it justice, which in hindsight wasn't really necessary as "Demon Core" has received almost universal praise from all the feedback and videos that I have seen covering this wad. Regardless its interesting to see how wildly different the perception of a map can be between the author and the players.

My original intention was that this would be the first level with an influence of hell, straying away from pure human created spaces. But I felt like it kinda flopped and I didn't do as good of a job at creating what could be viewed as a "real" location like many other maps in the wad manage to do.

I guess at this point I should probably explain my weird secret habits since the bfg caused a bit of a stir. Personally I'm not a fan of secrets and view them as non essential, and when I place them I have wildly different difficulties for finding them. Some almost every player can expect to find, and others are nearly impossible without looking at the editor and may even be locked after a player progresses to a certain point (This happens extremely rarely). Though almost all fall into a middle ground between the two, and have specific patterns I won't spoil, that way the player can learn from previous secrets and get better at finding them as the wad progresses.

[RHhe82]

MAP09: Hadal Facility. Played on UV, pistol start. DSDA v0.27.5. K: 202/202, S: 2/2, I: 56/57. Comp. time 26:57

 

Longest map yet! This is even more removed from The Pit than Demon Core was from T&T. Only in hindsight I see there were four interconnected paths to choose from, just like in The Pit, but that's universal design trope enough so as to not warrant critical comparisons to The Pit.

 

Hadal Facility is once again a solid map. At one point I got a little overwhelmed with the having too many places to go, but I guess that was just a passing feeling: map is not a linear affair, but a second play through would be much more relaxed with the knowledge that I can safely press onwards where my nose is leading me, and nothing is left behind permanently.

 

The final fight took me a little by surprise by how hectic it was. I foolishly chose the rocket launcher where a plasma rifle would have been the obvious choice.

This time the second secret (the storage room with blue armor, soul sphere, berserk and ammo) was an elusive one, but only because I never went in the room overlooking the secret area. The search for the second secret added a couple of minutes of playtime; the rest comes from the actual map, which is indeed quite long -- relatively speaking.
 

[Magnusblitz]

MAP08: Demon Core

100% kills, 2/3 secrets

 

I think the opening of the map (essentially a shrunk-down version of the hub from the original Tricks and Traps) does this map a bit of disservice as the rest of the map is plenty interesting on its own without needing to be compared to the original. I especially liked how the sections intermingled a bit in progression early on. Not many tricks here, but definitely some traps. For the pinkies I admittedly just hugged the corner with the chainsaw instead of risking the RL. I can see what Snax is saying about the lack of "real" location here as it does feel very abstract Doom, but I think the gameplay makes it work. Didn't find the BFG secret but no biggie, wasn't necessary.

 

MAP09: Hadal Facility

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

This one on the other hand is quite mean. No SSG in this one, so if you're pistol starting things will definitely be a bit of a slog as the map starts with a lot of one-way drops and there's a lot of monster meat to carve through. Most annoying part was probably getting the first berserk pack after spending my ammo on the pinkie horde in the southwest. If you go down the yellow key wing (1/2) there's a rather tough fight near the start where you have to take care of a manc, a hell knight, and some imps without much room to dodge, but after that it's mostly just single shotgunning imps for most of the map. The blue key wing (3/4) is more hitscanners and snipers.

 

This is the first map so far where I don't think the inspiration has been immediately apparent; in fact, if I had been playing this as a one-off and not part of the preceding levels I don't think I would've ever clued into it referencing The Pit at all. You can say both start with a bunch of lifts in the opening room, but only in the most general sense, and it's presented completely differently. The Pit is a bit of a slog too but in a very different sense (read: it's chock full of Pain Elementals and annoying lifts). This one really stands on its own though, with an interesting layout/progression with two non-linear "wings" eventually linking up into the final battle, and connecting in a lot of non-obvious ways. It's the sort of thing that feels a bit overwhelming at first but rewarding when you've finally figured out how it all pieces together. And there's some nice Doomcute mess hall stuff to boot.

 

6 hours ago, Celestin said:

and being teased by locked medikits. Yeah, this one can be tight on health pickups for long stretches of the map, only to open a whole infirmary few rooms later. Careful play is recommended.

 

The medkit bars all just open up by pushing on them. Yeah, kinda non-intuitive IMO.