Recommended WADs for beginners

[Stupor]

Hello!
I just started playing Doom 1+2 again. To my surprise the Doom-community is still active and new WADs are still coming out nearly every day which results in having a huge aboundance of WADs which is great.

But it's also a big problem for beginners like me. I really liked Doom back then and I really do like Doom nowadays. But I haven't had internet back then in the early and mid 90s and when I got internet I was more interested in games like Unreal and Half-Life, so I never came to know the promise of WADs.
But I've heard there are some real great WADs that every Doom-Fan should have played.
The point is: I don't know which of the WADs to start with. Some seem to be junk and others seem to be quite hard to play them through.

Any recommendations which WAD to start with?


Have a nice day

[40oz]

I don't really know how to answer this question. I'd strongly suggest the IWADs. I would assume it would be best to play them until you are familiar with the monsters and their attack patterns, then just about any wad from there reaches generally the same difficulty. If a wad is too hard, play it on a lower difficulty level.

[myk]

Check out the 10 years special, which has a pretty well-made top ten WADs list for each of the first 10 years of DOOM. You could try the search feature here on the forums. Searching for megawads, favorite wads or best wads should bring up a lot of results, as this topic has been done many times. There's also the Cacowards (awards given to WADs since 2004), for newer releases.

[PhilibusMo]

As a general rule more recent WADs tend to be more difficult as people have been trying to better the last ultra-slaughterfest WAD in terms of difficulty and monster count. So some of the earlier WADs may be more to your ability. I am currently working on a WAD that tries to be as difficult as the original DOOM iwads but with a new and interesting style of game that should prove a challenge at later levels.

[myk]

As for WADs being hard, difficulty settings help. If a WAD seems intimidating, try it on skill 2 or 3 instead of 4 (which people sometimes take for granted).

[PhilibusMo]

Yes, lower skill levels are always a good idea (don't be ashamed of playing on Hey not to rough)I was just suggesting older wads as they will fit in more with what he is used to and will consequently find them easier and less confusing as I don't think he has played any custom WADs ever. Also on a side note I know at least 2 people who refuse to play any Doom WAD unless they have half a chance of getting through it on Ultra Violence. Shame, they miss out on some great WADs.

[Doctor Faust]

Hi,

if a WAD is too difficult on UV, consider playing on easier skill levels. In my opinion, good design is to tune the UV monster setup to satisfy expert players.

Doc Faust

[Pirx]

well, i recommend...

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=7947

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=12349

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=11790

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=15238


heh :D

jokes aside, go to http://www.doomworld.com/10years/

i suggest you don't rush through them and play them one by one.

pick especially the older wads, as difficulty has increased since even in standard maps of today.

icarus: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=5191

TTP: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=5302

requiem: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=8194 (a not really coherent megawad featuring some beautiful maps nevertheless, iikka's especially imo)

mordeth: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=7694 (remarkable unique style)

talosian incident: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=8131

classic episode: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=11658

the list goes on, check it out. the chord series and crusades are rather difficult to begin with.

as for people who think they _must_ play any wad on UV because they're too l33t for anything lower, that's just silly. UV was meant to be a setting for advanced players, and if you're not up to that, or don't know a map well enough yet, playing more relaxed is definitely more enjoyable than saving and reloading every minute.

[Shanoa]

in my view a good beginner wad for Doom 2 would be Revolution (or tvr like the .wad files is called) its not a hard map set. Also most of the ultimate Doom episode replacement are good for beginners.

[Stilgar]

"Fava Beans" is quite easy and held in high regard.

[Pure Hellspawn]

Any wad that has at least 3+ stars in the iDGames Archive, is not a slaughtermap (read reviews!!), on ITYD or HNTR difficulty.

[printz]

I'm skeptical to lowering the difficulty level choice, because I may well miss on lots of stuff intended for UV. And I also doubt I'd replay that wad anyway.

[myk]

That's if you can relate "playing" to play hacked up by cheats and saves on a WAD you'll for the most part forget.