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Bloodshedder

The /newstuff Chronicles #353

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  • Shotgun for Two REVOLUTIONS - Daniel Aguilera; Nicolas Foppiani
    Skulltag - Deathmatch - 87517 bytes
    Reviewed by: Eligitine
    This is a basic duel map for Skulltag. It is very plain and tight on ammo. You can easily find yourself being all-powerful or very weak depending on where you spawn. It's a good try, but the level is way too plain.

  • Deathspace - PUN1SH3R
    Skulltag - Deathmatch - 451641 bytes
    Reviewed by: Eligitine
    Death Space is a interesting Skulltag-only deathmatch map. It is located at an unfinished space station. The map itself is fun to play on, but suffers a few bugs. The falling system is not so great and it is almost impossible to get the middle powerup. Otherwise this map has great flow and looks great. The author uses a really interesting way to create a custom sky and its always fun to see hundreds of gibs on the ground.

    Must see, if only to play once.

  • Nazi Enemy Bumper Pack - Captain Toenail
    ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 1176480 bytes
    Reviewed by: Eligitine
    The Nazi bumper pack is a set of 6 EXTREMELY well made custom Nazi sprites. It is honestly amazing how much effort went into the sprites. They have realistic sounds and you don't notice that they don't have full rotation pain and attack sprites in single player. All in all, if you want to make a Nazi wad, use these sprites.

  • Quake 3 Style Doomguy - Captain Toenail
    Skin Support - n/a - 475295 bytes
    Reviewed by: Eligitine
    This is a skin wad by Captain Toenail. It's actually very nicely made. It's the standard Doomguy, but he has no sleeves. Very good sounds. A must for your skins folder.

  • Bloodlust - Phml
    Limit Removing - Solo Play - 752396 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Abyssalstudios1
    "Bloodlust" is another wad by Phml that I've had the pleasure of reviewing. Unfortunately, it may be my last for a while. It's not that this a bad map; it's very well-done. I just don't know how much more killing I can take in one sitting.

    It is the avowed aim of this map to overcome me with superior forces until I'm reduced to running, hiding, and shaking in a corner (think of Frodo in Shelob's cave). I imagine the Doomguy experiences post-traumatic stress WHILE THE STRESS IS HAPPENING. It's really quite an achievement. Once the monsters surround, trap, and kill your pitiful, quivering form, your corpse will be ripped to pieces. These pieces will be ground down by Cyberdemons and fed to pinkies, who then vomit the remains into a vat of lava, where they boil away to be diluted into the fumes of Hell.

    The fighting starts out intense. "Intense" isn't typically a word I use to describe a fight consisting of zombies, sergeants, and imps, but it certainly fits in this case. You have a shotgun and limited ammo with no armor, and there's a dozen or two creatures to kill. The map gets slightly bigger and bigger, but nothing special. Then (after a really nasty trap), you emerge into a titanic room. I won't describe this room in much detail. Doing so would take up too much time and too much looking into my thesaurus to find more adjectives. Anyway, you have the screenshots. This fight is simple enough to overcome, but it's literally a taste of the madness to follow. I won't bore you with a step-by-step account of the build-up fights that I endured. Let's just say that it was all quite draining.

    I never could find the rocket launcher. The boxes of rockets that I frequently happened upon represented a sort of Greek hell for me. It was probably hidden very cleverly in plain sight. I got the first four weapons within five minutes (out of 30+ minutes total), and without too much effort. The amount of shit I went through to acquire and hold on to the plasma rifle was incredible. And when I finally emerged, dripping with blood, onto the BFG platform, I felt like a kid who just got a Playboy magazine from a messed-up Santa Claus.

    After slaughtering what I foolishly believed to be the last boss (a cyberdemon), I ascended a lift. Now, I'd killed about 400 monsters, I think. In my naivety, I thought that by avoiding some powerups and secret areas, I'd avoided most of the monsters. At the top of the lift, I expected perhaps 200 or so more.

    I jumped off the lift and entered Sector Sadface. Archviles and Revenants were on up-down pillars. I took them out pretty easily, sucked up a ton of ammo and one of six(?) Megaspheres, and greedily approached three switches, believing a few hundred monsters to come, and that I could easily bypass those and somehow exit.

    Idiot that I was, I flicked all three switches at the same time. I'm quite certain my oder of operations was wrong. I don't want to spoil the simple (in thought) puzzle for you, but suffice to say that I pretty much did it backwards. I turned around to see, oh, around SEVEN HUNDRED monsters teleporting in. The resulting insanity caused me to die well over twenty times, and even crashed the entire game twice. I was ultimately forced to retreat back down the lift in a desperate gamble to make the monsters infight.

    When I came back up, BFG blazing, a few hundred monsters had died. Most of the remnants were Cacos and Hell Knights/barons, so there was little chance of more infighting. I managed to escape into the darkness and move onto MAP02: Underhalls. As I exited the game, I had a vivid mental picture of the Doomguy falling to his knees in shock as the tears began to flow.

    Gameplay: Slaughterfest. If you don't blunder around too much, it's pretty controlled (until you arrive at Sector Sadface). This doesn't make it easy, by any stretch of the imagination. But it's manageable. If you don't like slaughterfest maps, even well-designed ones, do not get this.

    Balance: You'll live.

    Detail: Much like the last Phml map I reviewed (the name remains elusive), d-sectors (detail sectors) are more focused on varying heights and architectural niceties, rather than obsessive shading. The placement of shadows and bright areas make enough sense to not be bad, but just enough. The map's main area has a semi-epic feeling to it. "Only bad things can happen here", it says. "Come on in..."

    And, just like last time, I was warned of the perils of playing this on UV. So, this review was done on HMP. I don't care what you say, this is the only way I survived. If you doubt this, load it up on UV and try out the first room. My death time was 4 seconds. I'm not the best Doom player, but somehow, I got the impression that ONLY the best could do this on UV.

  • Bad Guns 2 [requires Beautiful Doom] - Jekyll Grim Payne
    GZDoom - n/a - 5767882 bytes
    Reviewed by: Mr. Freeze
    This is a weapons mod by Jekyll Grim Payne, the author of Beautiful Doom. Unsurprisingly, it only runs on Beautiful Doom.

    Your fists are replaced with a knife, which can be slashed or thrown at targets. Picking up a berserk pack this time around will give you increased speed, jumping, and power, but at a cost: pick up another one while you're already supercharged and you die.

    You start off with a 9mm handgun, which can be set to burst fire or single-shot. Burst fire is actually pretty fun, especially if you've seen Robocop. This weapon is carried by a former human recolor, who is dressed in grey instead of beige.

    Replacing the shotgun is a semi-auto shotgun. It can fire pretty rapidly and has a pretty decent spread, although I would've liked to see an alt-fire.

    In place of the super shotgun is a powerful hunting rifle. Activating the zoom control allows you to use the scope to take out distant targets. Very fun to use.

    Instead of the chaingun, you will receive the G36c-looking assault rifle. Fully auto with a grenade launcher, this weapon will make you appreciate automatic fire more than any chaingun or minigun. Just be sure to stay away from the blast. Carried by a red former human who can even toss grenades. Watch out!

    The Desert Eagle also shows up, as required by every action game ever. However, the author screwed up when he had the gun hold 12 rounds. This is blatantly wrong, as the real-life DEAGLE BRAND DEAGLE can only hold up to 9 rounds and only in .44 Magnum. Carried by a green-looking Commando.

    Editor's note: "Deagle brand"? Perhaps you meant Magnum Research or Israeli Weapons Industries. Nine round capacity is on the .357 Magnum version only. As for extended magazines for the .50 AE version, at least one exists, albeit only 10 rounds.

    The Quad Rocket Launcher can deal some serious damage either with single fire or quad fire. I especially liked the aesthetics of this one, as the all-black cardboard tube-like design—coupled with the primitive 3D GZDoom engine and sniper scope's night vision—made me feel like it's really 1998 again.

    The Phased Plasma Rifle replaces the Plasma Gun, but as the Plasma Gun is my favorite weapon in Doom, the Phased version is definitely the weakest of this wad. Although it boasts a great firing rate, improved ammo, and a railgun alternate fire, the weapon is too damn weak! It should not take me 3 shots to kill a former human. Period.

    At the end of every weapons mod lies a BFG replacement. After the disappointment of the Phased Plasma Gun, Bad Guns 2 swiftly recovers with the Fusion Purifier. Goofy name aside, this weapon is a monster. Three firing modes await you (my favorite being the second), each pretty awesome. I won't spoil them here, but I will say that this gun alone is worth downloading this wad.

    All in all, a solid effort from Jekyll Grim Payne that enhances the already awesome Beautiful Doom. Download this if you want some spice with your vanilla maps.

  • Temple of the Flags - Mr. Nice Guy
    Skulltag - CTF - 350746 bytes
    Reviewed by: Eligitine
    Temple CTF is one of those wads that manages to both look absolutely stunning and lower your FPS down to the speed of a PowerPoint presentation on older computers. This wad is a jewel for CTF. It is based around two sides, chaos and unity, fighting each other on the sacred temple of life. At least, that's what I got out of it. It seems impossible that this is Mr. Nice Guy's first wad because it looks like it would take a skilled mapper a month of solid work to match the brilliance of Mr. Nice Guy's work. Mr. Nice Guy also created a brilliant waterfall effect on the outer walls that makes it look like the temple is more than a temple, possibly a house of the gods. I went through the whole map and found only six barely noticeable texture problems. What's even more amazing is the level of detail in this map. The bridges look real, a feat almost impossible to achieve; the columns are realistic in that they have curves and bends that make them that more realistic.

    Ten sentences in and I still haven't talked about the gameplay. It's sub-optimal. The wad is actually small as CTF wads go, taking only 6 seconds to capture a flag, and there are a few gameplay bugs. One critical thing the author needs to fix is the fact that you can climb on ledges up to the area above the flag and use jump-maze-like skills to reach an almost invisible ledge with a torch. The ammo dispersal favors the bottom half of the level. The really interesting thing I found was that if you rocket jump PERFECTLY you can reach the highest possible place on the map. You start off with the SSG at nearly every spawn and ammo is really no problem, so you can just hold down the fire button until you die.

    This is really a great wad, a must download if only for the architecture.

  • Generic Techbase - arrrgh
    Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 123972 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Eligitine
    The Generic Techbase was well, generic. In its only map it starts you off in a small room that looks nice before pitting you against an array of hellspawn right outside the starting area. Basic Doom, right? This wad is very well made, excluding the outdoor area through the window of the third room where you get stuck.

    arrrgh, I discovered, is excellent at putting monsters places where you wouldn't expect them. One time after killing four spectres I ran face first into a deaf archvile, who simultaneously caused me to jump and resurrected the four spectres behind me. The map is very nice in itself, with neat monster battles and only very minor texture misalignments. The only thing I could find wrong with the wad was, after you get the blue key, the monsters that are spawned are facing the wrong way. Minor, but substantial never the less. Ammo and health are distributed sparingly throughout the middle of the map, but that only enhances the tension. If you like hard but manageable battles and can put up with a few errors, I would recommend this wad.

    As a side note, this wad has difficulty level scaling, which is uncommon in one-map wads.

  • Mini-level megawad - Wim Vanrie
    Limit Removing - Solo Play - 1392120 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Do0minat0r
    32 maps for Doom II. As the title suggests, the levels are all fairly small in size. They are also variable in quality, as the text file points out. However, there are many good maps, and even the less good ones are mostly OK. The architecture is simplistic throughout, but many of the levels end up looking fairly nice anyways, and few if any are ugly. In fact, a few (17 is an example) look quite believable considering the limited detail. The style of architecture slowly progresses from earthly into a more hellish environment, not unlike the original Doom II at times.

    On to the gameplay, and most will find little to fault in this category - that is, until around Map22. The difficulty up until then starts out a bit easy (but not brainlessly easy) and slowly becomes challenging, but at few points was I truly severely challenged or frustrated until that point. Maps 22 through 24 are slaughter based, and fair if you know what to do, but those who don't like slaughter maps may want to skip these.

    As for maps 25 through 28, one word describes these: hard. I mean really, REALLY hard. I was severely challenged on these four maps. In fact, some of the situations in these maps looked impossible to me at first and it often took me time to even figure out how to handle that area/section of the level. If you are skilled and you don't mind having to put deep thought into how you go about beating the challenges, then these maps are fun. However, less skilled players should stay far, far away from these maps, at least on single player (or play them on rock bottom skill level). Map29 is a huge cavern full of monsters, but actually isn't as hard with plenty of supplies around; the only concern is staying alive. Map30 is actually surprisingly easy after these later maps, and the secret levels are just an arena full of monsters, with Map32 having much harder monsters than Map31.

    Overall, I can recommend the first 2/3 or so of this wad to just about anyone - it's fun despite some mixed quality. The next few maps are for slaughter fans, and the final maps (at least 25-28) are for fans of truly hard and puzzling levels that will take great thought and attention, quick reactions, and also a fair amount of trial and error to figure out and survive. The architecture looks decent, despite limited detail. This is another megawad in the category of Demonfear and Scythe, although harder than those two wads. With the extreme difficulty and high monster counts, especially in the later maps, this would probably be an enjoyable wad in cooperative mode as well. In conclusion, I think there's some good stuff in here, and that is enough for me to recommend it.

  • Selfish Series (Boom Edition) - Paul Corfiatis
    Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 661394 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Do0minat0r
    Seven maps for Doom II. These maps were previously released both separately as the Selfish series and in an older version of this episode, but they date back several years. This wad is the episode version of the series, but with some improvements, such as new music, a new sky, slight architectural improvements, and new level names. If you have played maps from this series before, you know they are of a high standard - and this compilation is no exception. The gameplay is mostly spot-on, except for an occasional ammo balance issue (mentioned below where appropriate). The levels all look good, despite limited actual details. The styles of the maps vary, often within the same map, but they tend to blend in surprisingly well. The new music is also pretty good and fitting, and consists of tracks I've never heard before. Here are my brief thoughts on each map:

    Map01 is fairly small, appropriate to start the episode. The map uses three distinct styles in three distinct areas - the starting area is brown/brick, and the other two areas are E1 and E2 style architecture (one area for each). One thing I particularly like about this map is that from the first area, you can tell which style area is in which direction - there labels with arrows pointing where to go to enter the area in the style the label notes (see first screenshot).

    Map02 is mostly a canyon/caverns map, and a bit bigger and harder. My only gripe is one area where you have to run across a lava pit multiple times - it is possible to get across the pit without losing any health, but if you lose health, it is a lot, and having to restore until you make it across without losing health can be frustrating.

    Map03 is a mix of all styles, which blend well. The map is bigger than the last two, and has some areas that are optional to visit, but contain useful supplies. There is also a Cyber to fight at the end.

    Map04 is more mixed style, but the difficulty notches up here, especially around the red key door, where you are likely to run short on ammo and have to visit a future area before returning to finally clear out the earlier area. Otherwise the balance is still fair.

    Map05 is mostly in the E4 style, and has a cute music as well. There is another Cyber near the end, but all the fights are fair. Probably my favorite map in the entire set.

    Map06 reverts to mixed style, but revolves around a main canyon/lava themed area. The ammo here gets very tight in the second half - you have virtually nothing to spare if you want to kill all the monsters, and that is even with the making sure I conserve in the first half as well. It's fair and it's fun, but prepare to be challenged, especially in terms of ammo. I'd say this is the hardest map in the set.

    Map07 is a somewhat atypical way of battling a Baphomet - you shoot into it to reveal switch that, when flipped, eventually kills it. The style is green brick, and the map is quite small. Not a bad ending to the collection.

    Overall, these maps are definitely worth playing - especially if you haven't played this series in an earlier form already. The brief ammo issue around the red key door in Map04 and the very tight Map06 (though this could be intentional being the last normal level) are really just about the only things I could find to criticize. Other than that, these maps deliver on all fronts. Even if you've already played this series, this new version might just be a good enough reason to do so again.

  • Friendly Cooperatives - Alando1 (Alan)
    ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 1719014 bytes
    Reviewed by: Eligitine
    I have to admit, when I first saw this was Alan's work, I thought this would be a chance to unload a bunch of puns about how bad this wad is. I was sorely mistaken. This is a wad that, compared to the rest of Alan's stuff, is pure gold. The gist of this wad is that you get an inventory item that spawns three random marines to help you. Simple enough, right? Wrong. The catch is that there are 19 or 20 different marines you can spawn. The marines are representations of Alan and his 9 friends. Their weapons vary from pistols to shotguns to plasma rifles.

    The wad also introduces a plethora of new custom made sprites. I found the animation where the marine kicks to be very nicely made. The marines respawn, which can lead to very funny situations where they telefrag a cyber or even you. The weapons that the marines have are beautifully made, with gun sounds that look realistic, and the fact that they reload! Friendly fire is on, but that just makes it all the more funny Alan blindsides you with a SSG when the zombieman he was trying to hit was behind you. The marines all have different personalities such as one who hides behind you and others that go kamikaze over and over again.

    Sadly, this release is only usable by ZDoom users because the new player class overrides the Skulltag weapon slots in order to give the player the friend spawner. Alan could have done this equally well by just giving the player the friend spawner in MAPDATA.

    Over all this wad is a must download for, when lonely, your Internet craps out.

  • Beautiful Doom (version 4.6) - zer0 aka Jekyll Grim Payne
    GZDoom - Solo Play - 4632590 bytes
    Reviewed by: Mr. Freeze
    Beautiful Doom returns with version 4.6. Still one of the best mods for GZDoom, 4.6 boasts original-looking SSG, chaingun, and pistol sprites, a fixed fire rate on the plasma gun, sprite fire effects instead of pure particle effects, and more. It isn't too much of a change from previous versions, mostly cosmetic.

    I still have some minor issues with Beautiful Doom. The plasma gun's light when fired is yellow instead of blue, the the sound that plays when you uncover a secret is still annoying, and the plasma gun just does not look good all silver. The biggest issue however, is compatibility with Doom. Doom II and derivatives run just fine, but Doom's weapons tend to skip frames and look glitchy when fired. Since this mod is called "Beautiful Doom" and not "Beautiful Doom II", I'd like to see this fixed.

    But don't let that scare you off. Beautiful Doom is - in my very humble opinion - one of my favorite mods ever and the sole reason I still keep GZDoom on my hard drive. If you have GZDoom, download it now.

  • Killing Adventure - Ruba
    Limit Removing - Solo Play - 1284077 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Abyssalstudios1
    "...I believe that as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering." - Agent Smith, The Matrix

    Why did I choose to review this wad? Well, in part, it's because of my custom not to look at mini-reviews on the archives page, to keep myself from becoming biased. But I did see the 2 or so star rating that this mound of junk had received, so why did I try it? I suppose the fact that I've never reviewed a 32 map WAD before may have played a part, but Agent Smith's pronouncement must certainly have been the driving force.

    In hindsight, I should have relinquished my claim the moment I saw the TITLEPIC. It was some stick figures made with MS paint.

    MAP01 is a square room, with a square pillar on top. You press a button, and a magical crusher descends from the pink (yes, pink) sky and destroys a barrel and four Cacodemons. The remaining cacos live and try to kill you. Sorry guys, I'm already on map02.

    MAP02 is where I knew that I was in trouble, mentally. The music is horrendous and the author's decision to include SS in this map makes very little sense.

    MAP03, however, was where I started to get pissed. It borrows many elements almost directly from Doom 2 maps, and changes the textures a little bit. I'm fighting a few critters, everything's fine, and all a sudden I'm in a twisted version of Doom 2's 'Refueling Base' area (with the cubbyholes filled with zombies). Call me a noob, but I don't enjoy fighting 150 zombies and a cyberdemon while suffering from an epileptic seizure from flashing lights. On MAP THREE.

    MAP04 could have been awesome, but it ended up bearing a 'You Fail it' badge courtesy of Skulltag. Black and gray catwalks meander around over a really deep, black pit. Every now and again a demon and a few imps get in your way as you get a key. And then you leave. I heard an archvile waking up as I pressed the exit button, but it was a completely unnecessary addition.

    MAP05: Grrrrrrr. I don't like it. I fight thirty zombies, get a megasphere, and teleport into a nice ol' room of death. I got out of that one with 14 health. There's no thought required to this fight. Just fire with the BFG and hope that the game's randomizer likes you today.

    MAP06: This is a boring map with bars, barrels, monsters behind aforementioned bars, and a crusher deathtrap that has no right to exist. Then the intermission screen showed up, and I burst out laughing. You'd have to see it to understand, but it's worthy of the Failblog in terms of colossal stupidity.

    MAP07 is another boring map with a few Mancubuses and zombiemen.

    MAP08: It's common knowledge that 12-year-olds have invaded the Internet, but I shudder think that this army has found Doomworld. I'm not even going to bother describing this bland, unimaginative map that was so clearly made by someone who thinks he's so cool.

    MAP09: Square rooms with imps and a heavier monster is the theme for this waste of memory. At the end is a Spider Mastermind. But, like MAP04, it pops up behind me right as I flick the exit switch.

    MAP10 has a bit of interesting architecture, but the fact that I'm given a BFG against nothing scarier than a Hell Knight ruins the effect. Well, there is a cyerdemon, but he doesn't count since I get an invulnerability and he teleports somewhere behind me, leaving the exit clear.

    MAP11: The follow-up intermission screen tells me that many people believe this to be the hardest Doom level in existence. I for one don't believe that this guy has a clue. There's tons of ammo and soulspheres lying about. Then I get the honor of catwalking a la Doom 2's 'The chasm', and then leave. Big whoop.

    MAP12 is basically a Tyson run, but only with zombies.

    MAP13 is where I gave up. The map involves a lot of ammo, health, weapons, and monsters. But it's segmented out so much, it's way too easy. In fact, it's just plain tedious. I skipped off to MAP29 about one minute into this.

    MAP29 sadly proved that I hadn't missed anything. 100 demons, loads of ammo, and one cyberdemon are all that are featured here.

    MAP30 was, quite frankly, a piece of shit. The author really outdid himself on this one. There's 32 archviles and one zombieman. There's also a few dozen switches, only one of which allows me to kill Romero's head (no BFD to be found here).

    This wad was a completely miserable waste of time. Don't play it, and don't download it. By the end of this map, I was turning on cheats just to get some screenshots to demonstrate how freaking pathetic this file is. And to the author: Leave now, and do not come back.

    This WAD may be considered for a Cacoward for the worst wad of the year. It probably won't be chosen, but it should certainly be in the semi-finals.

    Gameplay: Awful! Incredibly easy and bland fights take up most of your time. There is NOTHING exciting here.

    Balance: Again, way too easy.

    Detail: There are some fairly interesting bits architecturally, and the lighting was okay. On MAP31, there was no point in posting random pictures of former president Bush, and that bit with you and your girlfriend has no place in this game.

    Music: Congratulations, you inspired me to add a new section to my end notes, just so I can show how bad it all is. The music tracks belong in a B-movie, not in a demon-slaughtering game.

  • Cyberdance - Mr. Chris
    doom.exe - Solo Play - 13302 bytes - (img)
    Reviewed by: Eligitine
    This is a remake of the E2M8 boss battle. I initially detected problems when I discovered that the author didn't know that multiple actors can be put on top of each other. As soon as I walked out of the main room I discovered a monster proof sector that allowed me to complete a large part of the map damage-free. It was only when a very fast cyber came around the corner that I started to panic. It was actually very easy to kill him because of the vast amounts of rockets. The level is ugly and has a glitch where you can't continue to episode 3.

    In short, AVOID!

  • Heroes' Tales - Various
    Limit Removing - Solo Play - 4674859 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Do0minat0r
    32 maps for Doom II, requiring TNT: Evilution as well as a source port to play. This wad is a community effort, made by members of the Russian Doom community, and all the maps were made in a relatively limited amount of time. Therefore, it is a real mixed bag - and the overall quality, especially in terms of architecture - is not as good as some of the more well known community projects (Community Chest, NDCP, etc.). Much of the architecture is old-schoolish (i.e. low detail), and while most maps aren't ugly, you wouldn't download these maps to look at them. The gameplay is a bit better, especially if you don't mind maps with lots of monsters - this wad has plenty of those, and those who don't like hordes of monsters or considerable requirement for aiming (i.e. monsters above or below) might want to consider passing on many of these maps. However, those who like this style, or are flexible enough to enjoy this style, should have a good time on many of these maps.

    In terms of individual level quality (mainly regarding gameplay/progression), this wad is, as I said, a pretty mixed bag. That being said there are some gems in here; in particular, Wraith's maps, Shadowman's maps, Nil's map (Map10), and most of the last 10 maps, were rather good. And there are other maps in here that are worth playing, if nothing special. Finally, there are some rather "meh" maps, but not a huge amount - the majority of the maps here are acceptable and provided some enjoyment. In terms of puzzles, there aren't too many, and I found few, if any, to be unfair. In summary, most of this wad entertained me - even if the gameplay isn't for everyone (see end of last paragraph) and there are some maps that really aren't very good.

    The old-schoolish style of this wad means that those looking for real eye-candy will probably be rather disappointed by most of these maps. There are even some rather ugly bits, but for the most part the architecture here is tolerable. In fact, some areas even look rather nice, such as the mountain area on Map28.

    There is new music for some of the maps, from various sources, while some maps have unchanged music tracks (unchanged from the original Evilution tracks). I found all the replaced musics to be acceptable, and in particular, I loved Map10's track - it's a good tune that I haven't heard before and being nearly 15 minutes long, it is one of the longest custom tracks I've ever heard in a Doom wad. It also fits in with the map itself, which is a rather long map that should take at least that long to complete on the first playthrough.

    There are a few new graphics, and a replaced sky texture in the final episode. The graphics were mostly relatively simple replacements but fitting nonetheless, and the replaced sky in the final episode matched with the hellish style of many of the levels in that episode.

    Overall, this megawad is quite a mixed bag, but it's not bad at all; the old-school style of many maps will undoubtedly feel refreshing to many and some of the levels are quite good. The only exception I would make is if you know up front that large amounts of monsters and aiming are not your style, in which case you might not enjoy many of these maps all that much. Otherwise, this wad should provide some fun; at the very least, I'd recommend downloading it and giving it a try. I enjoyed most of it myself, and therefore I'm glad I played it.

The /newstuff Chronicles is comprised of reviews submitted by readers and players just like you. Head to the reviewing center to help today. You need a Doomworld forums account to participate.

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That Ruba wad is quite bad, but I think AbyssalStudios exaggerated it a bit. Oh well, makes the review more interesting I guess, compared to a typical bad review of a wad. Either way, I wouldn't recommend that wad to anyone.

Otherwise some well done reviews here that I enjoyed reading. Not much else for me to comment on at this point.

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Bloodshedder said:

This wad is very well made, excluding the outdoor area through the window of the third room where you get stuck.

You should be able to get back up to the teleporter by walking up the river. Should, at least.

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The Desert Eagle also shows up, as required by every action game ever. However, the author screwed up when he had the gun hold 12 rounds. This is blatantly wrong, as the real-life DEAGLE BRAND DEAGLE can only hold up to 9 rounds and only in .44 Magnum.


It's the future. The desert eagle of the future is so advanced it can hold more rounds.

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Ok, so I can appreciated JGH for all his effort on the beautiful Doom series, but seriously, how about some variety?

As for Heros' Tale, its a good classic mapset, but the Slaughter maps killed it for me.

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7th Killing Adventure screenshot is gold. Successful troll is successful.

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Let's try and name the song in each level of ruba's megawad, LET'S FREAKIN DO IT. I'll start!!

Map03: Chrono Cross, Star Stealing Girl
Map05: Killer Instinct, Cinder's theme
Map06: Chrono Trigger, Magus' theme
Map07: Final Fantasy 6, Battle theme
Map08: Chrono Trigger, Battle theme
Map15: Super Mario Bros Starman theme, from which game though?!?!
Map28: Castlevania, Vampire Killer
Map29: Jurassic Park for the Genesis, visitor center

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I sort of agree with TimeOfDeath. I am too easy to please I guess. Still, I wouldn't exactly recommend Ruba's wad to anyone else.

RottKing said:

Let's try and name the song in each level of ruba's megawad, LET'S FREAKIN DO IT. I'll start!!

Map03: Chrono Cross, Star Stealing Girl
Map05: Killer Instinct, Cinder's theme
Map06: Chrono Trigger, Magus' theme
Map07: Final Fantasy 6, Battle theme
Map08: Chrono Trigger, Battle theme
Map15: Super Mario Bros Starman theme, from which game though?!?!
Map28: Castlevania, Vampire Killer
Map29: Jurassic Park for the Genesis, visitor center


Map04: Mega Man X, Sting Chameleon's stage

Megaman nerd out! I don't remember any of the music for the rest of the stages that hasn't already been named :P.

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I tried bloodlust. But it seems to me that the map isn't made to be beatable without saves. Would the author verify this or is it?

I got about 3 or 4 sections into it before I were overrun. Did get me excited. :)

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Bloodshedder said:

  • Nazi Enemy Bumper Pack - Captain Toenail
    ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 1176480 bytes
    Reviewed by: Eligitine
    The Nazi bumper pack is a set of 6 [/b]EXTREMELY[b] well made custom Nazi sprites. It is honestly amazing how much effort went into the sprites. They have realistic sounds and you don't notice that they don't have full rotation pain and attack sprites in single player. All in all, if you want to make a Nazi wad, use these sprites.

Heh, the graphics are from this site, and the sounds likely from RtCW.

The DECORATE work is nice, and testing it by replacing the three zombie types with these live humans was a success in Doom.

The sounds are a bit too shrieky for Wolf3d, but fit Doom. The sprites do look a bit peculiar, because, except for the trenchcoat officer I forgot to test, their upper body is not animated, so if you don't see their feet, it's like they're sliding. This also reminds of the contradiction with the original Wolf sprites, which twitch like running when seen in front; these guys march all the time. Not unfitting considering they're Nazis brainwashed to fight to the death :P

The sprite themselves are merely edits made by their authors, from their original forms, also.

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It seems to me that the map isn't made to be beatable without saves. Would the author verify this or is it?


Saves aren't required to beat UV, but it's designed to be something tough that takes a long time and lots, lots of attempts to get through (at least for someone at my skill level ; I'm not a doom god, YMMV). Levels I enjoy include thespire, thespir2, BBB, CyberSky, and to some extent I tend to emulate that kind of gameplay on UV - not claiming I succeed at it, but that's the goal anyway. I probably should include demos, but GZDoom is my engine of choice (for the smooth mouselook, mostly) and I completely suck with PRBoom, which means you'd get to watch me slam ackwardly into walls more often than doing anything else.


Abyssalstudios1, your review made me laugh so hard. Well done, sir. Now I'm thinking I might have to tone down difficulty on my next map just so I can get you to review it too. :)

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ah. good to know. I was mostly thinking of how the map is lain out to be sectioned up, as well as it being extremely unforgiving. ;)

When I played it I found that the Doom autoweapon switch on pickup did me the most harm. I would be using an SSG and suddenly I changed to the chaingun in the middle of it all and then I died. :p
I'm gonna see if eternity allows you to turn that off.

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I just downloaded Whispers of Satan and Killing Adventure

Me thinks i gonna play Ruba's wad first, looking at the screens i think i would enjoy this one it doesn't always have to be good and look good to have a good time.

Whispers of Satan looks good but i think it would be another "work yourself from easy levels to harder levels megawad" it could have nice traps which i like in a wad but i'll have to play it to know it :)

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printz said:

Heh, the graphics are from this site, and the sounds likely from RtCW.

The DECORATE work is nice, and testing it by replacing the three zombie types with these live humans was a success in Doom.

The sounds are a bit too shrieky for Wolf3d, but fit Doom. The sprites do look a bit peculiar, because, except for the trenchcoat officer I forgot to test, their upper body is not animated, so if you don't see their feet, it's like they're sliding. This also reminds of the contradiction with the original Wolf sprites, which twitch like running when seen in front; these guys march all the time. Not unfitting considering they're Nazis brainwashed to fight to the death :P

The sprite themselves are merely edits made by their authors, from their original forms, also.


Eh, I really don't pay atention to those things. Untill you mentioned it, I never knew the sprites were stolen. I checked the metadata from the sounds and it turns out they were taken form RtCW. I really need to pay more atention.

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The sprites wern't 'stolen', the purpose of that site is a resource for mods, although yes, the sounds are from RtCW. When I saw those sprites I simply had to code them into monsters!

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I just played through Killing Adventure and I can't help but feel respect for Ruba. It's tempting to think that he's just some doofus, earnestly trying (and failing) to make levels that people will consider good. But I'm starting to think that he knows exactly what he's doing. He's just making simple maps for fun, and uses them to troll everyone who takes Doom more seriously than he does. It's the wad's presentation that gives it away; the cute TITLEPIC and intentional level-name mispellings already show that this a less-than-serious effort, and the intermission texts drive that point home. The writing in this wad is brilliant. The absurd segues into defending his sexuality, the oblique references to the wad's mission which is, apparently, to "save hell"... great stuff. A joy to read.

Another sign that this guy isn't just some fool is that the level design in this wad actually isn't bad. His architecture is extremely uninhibited and imaginative, his traps are over-the-top but clever, and the levels are balanced (in their own special way) for play with weapons from previous levels or from pistol starts. The only thing that irks me in the level design is when the gameplay is copy-pasted - but even then, Ruba knows what he's making, and copy-pasted gameplay is part of it. What bothers me much more is when I find identical rooms with identical monster placement in "serious" wads (like WoS).

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Creaphis said:

What bothers me much more is when I find identical rooms with identical monster placement in "serious" wads (like WoS).

I figure that makes it good for nightmare mode. You start to ignore anything aesthetic when playing nightmare.

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Well, if you're playing them, then you can do it yourself :p

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