Superb Single-level Doom Map Roundup

[Bloodshedder]

Afterglow just belched out a lengthy blog post entitled Best Individual Add-On Doom Levels (in his opinion, of course).

This list is very subjective. They are my favourites, favorites, or fab favs; and maybe not yours. This is the best Ultimate Doom and Doom 2 have to offer in the single modification department, when the technical limits of their engines are stretched and creativity is forced to run rampant.

[Scuba Steve]

Debatable whether they are the 'best'... but the maps are all of a high quality that I can concede they would make a good choice. Some of the Suspended in Dusk maps are phenomenal, I may have added one of them.

[kristus]

Scuba Steve said:

Debatable whether they are the 'best'

Any list is bound to be based on personal taste, so it's a given that people will not agree with the choices made.

[John Smith]

Normally I don't question news items, but I really have to ask, how exactly is afterglows (or anyones really) opinion on the best SP maps ever news?

[esselfortium]

John Smith said:

Normally I don't question news items, but I really have to ask, how exactly is afterglows (or anyones really) opinion on the best SP maps ever news?

Haven't you seen Bloodshedder's top 10 news submissions list?

:|

[Colusio]

It's good he choose individual levels of megawads and it's great he explains why these levels are the best. I didn't check but I'm rather sure all of them made the doom top100 or got a cacoward. With the exception of endgame which I didn't know off. Well not till now.
Edit: For me this worthy because of the quality of the reviews, like the title said.
Also by knowing afterglows maps, I'm personally interested in his opinion. The same account for everyone who made it in the top100 or got a cacoward.

[Karthik]

Afterglow's blog post -> Score: 5, Insightful :)

An EXTREMELY well written and rich article... as he said at the beginning, it's very wordy, but the amount of information he presented is staggering - so much detail on the levels, the engine, the tricks used, the authors...

Very, very insightful stuff. Depth-first traversal of a Doom map? Man, I never thought of it that way...

This one definitely goes in my "Saved Pages" folder...

[Manc]

John Smith said:

Normally I don't question news items, but I really have to ask, how exactly is afterglows (or anyones really) opinion on the best SP maps ever news?

We update about other people reviewing maps, why not afterglow?

[Jonathan]

Looks liked it's been Doomworlded.

Edit: Never mind, working again.

[myk]

Mancubus II said:
We update about other people reviewing maps, why not afterglow?

Indeed, and looking back, there aren't any strict rules on what can make it to the news, as long as it is about the games and seems worthy of note.

[CodeImp]

I don't think it is that easy to draw a hard line that defines what is newsworthy and what isn't. The moderators decide whats newsworthy and it works well (there is a lot of garbage filtered out in New Submissions forum). But its a little offtopic. I agree, these reviews are newsworthy.

[Afterglow]

John Smith said:

Normally I don't question news items, but I really have to ask, how exactly is afterglows (or anyones really) opinion on the best SP maps ever news?

Because I'm fucking brilliant.

[Ralphis]

I've always been able to respect Afterglow's brutal honesty

[boris]

Heh, I remember when I first played End Game Map07 back in the days. It made me orgasm.

It's that kind of map that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside. I wish I could map like this.

[Aabra]

They're good levels but pretty oldschool for the most part. It would've been nice to see some truly newschool stuff in there. Sapphire comes to mind.

[myk]

I think it's great they are mostly old school, but maybe they are a bit too "technical" for what I look in levels, at least too many of them are. It seems more an engineer's or an architect's top ten than a player's*. Even the Chord levels, which do have their refined playability, aren't presented or really judged from that perspective, which is critical in their case.

But Afterglow is known more as a level author than as a player, so the result goes in character. Even then, in such a list I would have expected one of the SID levels, for being the most effectively "doomy" in mood through the use of layout style, resource choices and changes, and editing tricks.

The page is rather cool, in any case, with a neat layout and a nifty screen shot expansion method.

* What is a level but a playing field within a game?

[John Smith]

Aabra said:

Sapphire comes to mind.

I lol'd hard.

[Colusio]

Why not Sapphire? Afterglow says:
"When reading this list, keep in mind I do not actually play this game. Every level I download and run through is done just as that: with god mode and an eye open for pleasure"

* What is a level but an eye open for pleasure within a game?

My pleasure is the playing field too but I don't think that's the case with the majority of the mapmakers here.

Edit: Removed silly joke

[John Smith]

Coldfusio said:

Why not Sapphire?

If you're looking for an excellent example of an NS map with great architecture, there are plenty of things that are better than Sapphire. Things like Phocas 2, RTC, Hellcore 2, UTNT, KDiZD (e1m6), Demon Eclipse, etc.

[myk]

Coldfusio said:
My pleasure is the playing field too but I don't think that's the case with the majority of the mapmakers here.

There's a share of such authors, or else we'd have few truly playable levels.

Myk said
* What is a level but an eye open for pleasure within a game?

I said no such thing. Did you actually type that or did some prankster edit it? Anyhow, if that were the principle, the best wads list should surely include quite a few porn wads!

[Memfis]

Nice post, very interesting to read.I like Requiem MAP03 too, but I didnt know about his Dystopia map before.Thank you!

[BoldEnglishman]

Come to think of it, when is the line drawn between Old School and New School? I'm thinking 1994-2001 is Old School, and 2002-Present is New School.

[Fredrik]

I'd draw the line on December 23, 1997.

[kristus]

I wouldn't use a date, since I consider Alien Vendetta and other Doom2.exe compatible to be old school.

[myk]

Yeah, I agree it depends on what (engine) format is used, rather than a date, and then it's relative, since you could say a limit removing but "v1.9" wad is pretty classic and a Boom wad is somewhat classic, for example.

There release of the source has no direct effect on that, especially considering many authors hence hardly touched said source.

A table made in a classic style doesn't have to be made in the 18th century. It could be new but hand crafted by a carpenter in a style much like the ones used back then.

[BoldEnglishman]

Hmm good point. Shoulda thought of that since I was studying Harpsichords today, seeing that Workshops present-day are creating instruments that had their hayday in the 1600s.

[Fredrik]

kristus said:

I wouldn't use a date

It's symbolic, duh.

[myk]

Fredrik said:
It's symbolic, duh.

Fair enough; generally, the more it relies on the source the less "classic" it is. It's just that maybe it wasn't too obvious: A position like "well, now that the source it out you can't assume anything made since is really classic, so maybe nothing is since then" isn't unthinkable (I bet it would be the "postmodernism" of DOOM).

[BoldEnglishman]

myk said:

(I bet it would be the "postmodernism" of DOOM).

Heh, different WAD movements ;)

"...and over here, we have a simply stunning piece from the SMMUmamites..."

[Kid Airbag]

Sverre also did the big warehouse/sewer map towards the beginning of Eternal, right? I think it was map04 or something. I remember that map blew me away the first time I played it.