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Bloodshedder

The /newstuff Chronicles #367

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  • Janitor Adventure 3D (a.k.a. "Junko") (RC16) - Fizz and TOGoS
    ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 13298901 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: magicsofa
    The title and text file imply a terrible joke wad. In a way, that is not true, and in a way, it's completely true. Confused yet? I am. Let me explain.

    I fired this thing up and was greeted by a slick little title screen. I started a new game and BAM - cutscene on a spaceship. Fortunately it was just stupid and boring and not very long, unlike other cutscenes which are extremely stupid and boring and long. The scenery looked pretty cool.

    The scenery turned out to be the only cool part. In fact, every cramped hallway on this ship is loaded with retarded amounts of detail. It looks nice at first but after you are running around for a while it loses the novelty. The larger parts of the ship were really nice, and there are parts where you can see outside and at the end of the level you actually see the ship (from the inside) descending through the atmosphere of a planet! This was super awesome! However, everything else SUCKED...namely, the gameplay. Apparently the authors forgot that Doom is about action. They also seemed to forget that you can't dodge hitscan attacks. Most of the time you will face...drumroll...zombiemen. You won't find any useful amount of health or ammo on this level, so the zombiemen (which fire twice now) just whittle you down and, let me tell you, it is NOT exciting. I gave myself health and ammo because I was sick of having to save after every ZOMBIEMAN - ITS A FUCKING ZOMBIEMAN, the easiest monster in the game! And I was being constantly gunned down by them! Now, I'm playing without a mouse and I suck at keyboard and it was on UV but, seriously? Not to mention there's a hell-infested part of the ship which, while looking nice, periodically spawns demons and lost souls. This was the worst part of the map, since you can't find any other source of ammo once you clean out the hitscanners (there are shotgunners too, but ironically they didn't kill me as often).

    Now, aside from the absolutely horrible gameplay, the layout was increasingly retarded. Despite the fact that it actually looks and acts like a spaceship, there is no sense to the switch hunts. For example, the yellow key is in this tiny room, but you have to flip a switch on ONE side and then get all the way to the OTHER side to get in because one door doesn't open. Thanks for nothing. The ship is littered with very clever elevators which go to multiple floors. This might be cool if there weren't like 7 of them and they only helped you get more lost.

    And that's just the first level.

    Continuing on, you jump down to this planet where you get to run around endlessly searching for orbs. There are imps stationed thousands of map units away so you can watch their pretty barrage of fireballs that seem to hang in the air without really getting anywhere. Using turbo and noclip, this map still takes too long to explore. Oh wait, that's also true of all the other maps! They all seem to have no actual battles, just enemies strewn about because Doom maps are supposed to have enemies. There are maps with inspiring titles like "Zimmer Halls with Lights" and "Tan Block Hide and Seek." There is a hub. There is a "Find Four Skulls" map which is apparently a minigame or something but, at this point I was just skipping around the maps to see what they were. And they were all generally the same: Insanely huge architecture such that it takes 20 minutes to run across the map (not to mention you won't know where you are going so you'll probably just end up at a locked door), ridiculous switch hunts (or orb hunts or whatever), and non-battles. There is competent scripting and decorate which add absolutely nothing.

    This was one of the most disappointing wads I've ever played. Fizz and TOGoS can create beautiful epic environments, but unfortunately the maps tended to be fit for a flight simulator or a massively multiplayer RPG, rather than Doom. I just don't understand. Every map had a lot of work put into it. Although, Zimmer Halls was rather bland...but it was HUGE and has lots of different areas in it. It's just that the gameplay is non-existent. Some people commenting on /idgames liked it, so I guess there are people out there who enjoy this kind of map design. Perhaps it is just my preference - I'd rather not spend hours just trying to walk around the map. I like exploration and adventure, but there's no direction to these areas, no hints as to where you are supposed to go, and often you're just wandering through empty hallways and fields. Play this if you want to spend your entire day being lost, and don't really care about tactical battles. In fact, this would probably be more enjoyable with -nomonsters.

  • Beyond the veil - negke
    doom.exe - Solo Play - 608442 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: magicsofa
    This is a rather strange E1 techbase map. The visuals are usually nice, although the corridors inside are repetitive and there's some cut and paste that I really don't like. The layout can be confusing, and there are a lot of weird switch hunts and doors that you can't open yourself or don't open at all, but it's not impossible to figure out where to go, and the areas actually look kind of realistic.

    The gameplay is sort of fun, but really not that exciting. Despite the lack of health in certain areas, you will find this to be very easy, so I recommend playing with either -respawn or -fast. However, as I said there's not very much health most of the time, so all the hit-scanners might get annoying with fast monsters. Something to note is that the author decided that being near toxic sludge, rather than walking in it, is enough to hurt you! This was actually where I was hurt the most (there is also a big electrical room or something that hurts you, where the blue key is—watch out!) Anyway, the base seems quite deserted, because some of the time you will not find any monsters, such as at the beginning. I like this touch, but it doesn't really work when you are listening to that damn E1M1 song...you should probably change the music to something more eerie.

    Overall, this wad is mediocre. The detailing and realistic environments are cool, and also negke apparently tried to make the structures somewhat interactive, but the nice design is counteracted by several flaws. You are always flipping switches and stuff, and some of the time it's not obvious what happened, especially when what seemed to me to be a necessary switch to progress opens the windows. The monsters are usually not a threat, and there is a ton of ammo, although not so much health. Finally, the cut and pasted areas were a letdown because they weren't just symmetrical features; rather, you would enter a new area to find it looking exactly the same as some previous area. Anyway, it doesn't take long to beat and the exploration is fun, although you might need to offer yourself more of a challenge.

    P.S. There is a bug-fixed version on negke's website which fixes some things such as a crate with an unknown sector effect (some engines just crash while others treat it like a hurting sector) and a broken door. Also, there's an unfinished map on E1M4.

  • Blood, Fire, Death - Azamael (Kolybenko M.O.)
    Heretic Support - Solo Play - 471496 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: magicsofa
    I'm not going to waste any time here: This wad is awesome.

    Yup, that's my whole review...wait, you want an explanation?

    Fine. Brought to you by Ukranian mapper Azamel, BFD is among a small but growing library of Heretic PWADs. I must say, it's a necessary addition for anyone who is interested in collecting Heretic wads. This one's best feature, in my opinion, is the architecture. It looks really beautiful save for one or two hallways, and it's BIG. As you will see in the screenshots, you get to battle in some truly immense places. This is mostly why I say it's "awesome" - it literally fills you with awe as you gaze at the impossibly epic structures towering over you.

    However, unless you're a total cheating wuss you won't be gazing for very long, because the level features several slaughter-style battles. At the beginning, ammo is very tight and you must be really precise. However once the really large battles start you will be properly stocked. I loved the abundance of time-bombs as they are actually quite useful (even after you get the Phoenix Staff). Now, despite the huge battles, the difficulty in this wad is actually not very high. This is mostly because you always have plenty of room to run around while laying into the swarms. Also, most of the battles can basically be skipped over, since there's nothing keeping you from just running past and continuing to the next area. I don't find this to be a flaw however, since the over-use of gimmicks like gates that take forever to open are pretty lame.

    In conclusion, you should definitely check this out! Even if you don't like slaughterfests, you can always play with no monsters or just run past the battles when you get tired of them. At the very least you should be appreciating the epic visuals Azamel has constructed for you. I reviewed 4colour by him a while ago, which basically sucked, and this is a huge improvement (plus he has released other stuff in-between according to the .txt, it's always good to see a mapper steadily improving).

    There is also new music by Bathory which fits the level well. Don't listen to the text file, it's not on map01, it is e1m1...also, the second level is actually just an "end sequence" of sorts. Interestingly he included a little story (story.txt) which I thought was pretty cool despite the poor translation, and it makes the ending pretty sick. Play it!

  • The power supply [Remake] - DooMknight
    ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 1324811 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: st.alfonzo
    ...Several rainforests, megatons of ink and literative figures later, it remains true for many speakers of the English language that expressions of interest cannot be positively established without the word "good" forerunning deeper analysis. Just like its sister words "nice" and "fine", "good" is a word completely bereft of meaningful substance save only for conveying to the listener a degree of positive connotation. "The soup was good". "My pants are good". "Your wife was fine."

    I mean shit, is it so much to ask for? What ever happened to speaking your mind? No mum, the chicken was dry and salty like a crying sponge, the carrots were undercooked, I had to gnaw my way though the parsnips, the rice had the consistency of gravel, the potatoes were green, my steak was bleeding all over the plate and the dog ate my salsa dip. Dinner was not fine! So on, so forth...

    ...But then it occurred to me that, despite this having just been said, and given the right context, there's actually more than enough semantic complexity in the word "good" to sink a battleship, and you really needn't be saying anything else at all. To grant outright definition, and to swing us neatly round to the review at hand, the original Power Supply by Eye del Cul is just uninspired enough yet at the same time precise enough in its gameplay, look and feel, that to provide any word other than "good" would fall abysmally short of pinpointing just how inexorably standard (and, uh, good) the map really is. I could of course say "standard" but then I would lose out on positivity. It's a well made, solid, decent map, no more, no less. Playing it will leave you just as numb and glazed over by the end of the level as when you first started (you toffee apple you!).

    The remake by DooMknight, for better or worse, isn't all too dissimilar from the original version, but it does need a little more unravelling regardless. "Good" as a word simply doesn't cover it. What's so different about the level is less so down to the inclusion of new areas (of which there are few), but rather the "simplification" of the map, Spork style! The palette swap is the same, the music choice is consistent, and the layout, while obviously resembling primarily the map on which it's based, is also quite tidily orthogonal, detailed and linear in design. And in a good way! If you've played the original map before, then, it's certainly interesting to see how vastly the refurbishments in detail go toward improving the atmosphere and setting, although, if I must be honest (and I must!), I'm not entirely sure if a second download is in order if what you're looking for is a complete overhaul. Unless you've never played the first, in which case you might want to try it out for its great gameplay and brevity.

    Make sense?Good.

  • Marble Blood - Gillibert Raymond ak (Ramon_Demestre)
    Limit Removing - Solo Play - 2749090 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Scet
    Are you a tough son of a bitch? Do you eat beef-jerky in Tabasco sauce for breakfast? Well then this is the WAD for you! We have here ten very large, very well detailed and very very hard maps.

    Seriously though, either Mr. Raymond is the greatest Doom player ever, or he doesn't playtest on UV. This reviewer, however, has entered a new level of manliness, because I was able to beat nine out of the ten maps on UV without cheating. Take that "this level is impossible" cowards on the /idgames reviews. MAP06 was the only one I couldn't beat.

    Marble Blood was obviously designed to be played on HMP. It seems that the author went on some copy-paste binge when it came time to place the UV monsters, because the monster count is sometimes double that of HMP. Placement is another problem; right from the start of many maps you are under attack. In MAP01 you start in a small room surrounded by sergeants and barons; the monsters aren't facing away from you either. Also Mr. Raymond, please stop with the hoards of cacodemons, it's just plain not fun. More ammo also would have been nice on the first three maps.

    Architecture is superb, a lot of work obviously went into these levels. It's too bad it's overshadowed by the often ridiculous difficulty. Marble Blood is a WAD that, while good, could have been great. Let this be a lesson to everyone to play test your maps in every difficulty setting they support.

  • Hitscan Massacre - lathaniel
    doom2.exe - Solo Play - 44637 bytes - (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: st.alfonzo
    Hitscan Massacre is the same Doom we all know and love, except in Pez dispenser form: A short, sweet, sugary blast of a level that in its difficulty and theme doesn't feel too far fetched from the starport levels of Doom II. While it may undoubtedly seem off-putting for those many players who remain still terrified at the prospect of being diced into wet patty by streams of lead, I should stress that it isn't at all mass genocide in the way one may expect. On the contrary, Lathaniel's map eludes most of the hitscan mapping clichés in favour of maintaining the simple joy of mowing down zombies like pins in a bowling alley.

    Gameplay is quietly accommodating, and while the visuals aren't anything to write home about, they fall in second behind the conceptual aim of the map, which, all things done and dusted, proves to be only too successful by the time this little number has run its course.

    Cool shoes.

  • UAC Ultra (v1.2) - 40oz & Super Jamie
    Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 2309100 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Traysandor
    UAC Ultra is an 12 map replacement designed for Boom-compatible engines. Though PRBoom-Plus is recommended by the authors, I ran this wad just fine in the latest version of ZDoom. This wad follows the story of a space marine charging through yet another UAC base to find out what lies beyond. What the player finds... you'll see soon enough.

    Most of the 12 maps are set in a techbase layout, though you'll see some hell themes here and there, especially in the later maps. I was quite impressed with what I saw in these maps as I fought my way through these levels. I couldn't find anything out of place through the maps, and the detailing was quite pleasing overall.

    I rather enjoyed the pace of the maps as well. On UV I found the difficulty to be reasonably tough overall... at least until you get to Map 11, which throws some HR-style difficulty at you. This might be a little unfair for the casual player, especially in the HR area damages your health unless you're wearing a rad suit (I would have done without the damaging floor in this area). I found enough ammo laying around to get the job done, and was never an issue as I fought through the maps.

    Overall, this wad is rather solid and can be enjoyed by almost any style of Doom player. I would recommend this wad to anyone looking for a good wad featuring solid techbase designs.

  • Tigger's Respite - Chris Wright
    doom2.exe - Solo Play - 15907 bytes - (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: walter confalonieri
    All right, this time I want to review another abstract map from the unstoppable Chris Wright. This time is just an abstract room around an earth-shaped island, gameplay is barely easy.

    Whatever, a tiny enjoyable map, not so hardcore like other works from the same author, like calisas or similar maps, but a good way to waste 5 minutes of your time in your coffee break.

  • Hemifax - Chris Wright
    doom2.exe - Solo Play - 5090 bytes - (img)
    Reviewed by: Joshy
    28 Monsters. 5 Sectors. 3 Rooms. 0 Fun.

    I'll present a theory of my own: What is the definition of fun in the context of Doom? A sense of euphoria triggered by unique and sound creativity. Such creativity are well designed layouts/monster placements/gameplay scenarios with real effort put into the imagination of the surroundings as a means to immerse the player into a decent environment. Such immersions are said triggers of euphoria. Excellent technical mapping is not a requirement. Knee-deep in the Dead was more than good enough to achieve this immersion.

    Let's apply this idea of immersion to a non-Dooming context. For instance, the Matrix film. The programmed dream world was sufficiently designed to keep all the human slaves, encapsulated within pods, asleep. This "stable sleeping" is a result of immersion. The dream was not too perfect and not too imperfect enough to encourage immersion into the environment (I am referring to a specific spectrum of immersion, not the kind of immersion that comes from discourses with intricate descriptions/imageries of very abstract worlds/environment/concepts or whatnot which does encourage immersion); in other words, you'd pinch yourself if it was too good or unreal to be true. No power would be provided if the slaves woke up. Power is important (if you're an ugly bald pro-capitalist businessman whose values are seriously fucked up, yes, but also since I'm trying to use this example without capitalist implications, just think power as a necessity/driving force of running a machine). You need power to have any good use of a machine. Power and euphoria, because of immersion, are vital for running machines and enjoying a Doom map, respectively. So basically, the immersion of the map is a good way of gauging its enjoyment potential. Apologies if I'm too vague and/or preachy, but I do hope it's immersive enough for the concept of immersion to be grasped and its relevance to Doom maps.

    This map has no immersion at all. Its number on the immersion Richter scale cannot even compare to a kitten's fart. The only enjoyment I got from this map was trying to justify how bad this map is. Nothing more needs to be said.

  • Bronkodoom - Bronko
    doom2.exe - Solo Play - 901576 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Scet
    Five somewhat amateurish maps for Doom 2 that were made several years ago. Right away I knew this was going to suck when I saw the bad texturing and Wolfenstein Nazis mixed with Doom. Monster placement is also awful; the author seems to love hit-scan enemies. For the first few maps almost every enemy is a zombie type or Nazi. It also doesn't help that health and armor are pretty much non-existent. Things get better around MAP04, we're almost at "standard Doom map" quality here. Then, however, on MAP05 you're greeted by a monster spawner right at the start, and monsters can spawn pretty much anywhere on the map. It doesn't help that there's next to no ammo either.

    Overall I'd skip this bunch, there's nothing really special here, and even if there was, the Wolfenstein crap just ruins it.

  • Friendly Cooperatives 2 - Alando1 (Alan)
    ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 4855863 bytes
    Reviewed by: MegaDoomer
    This is an updated version of Friendly Cooperatives, a mod that generates bots in single player. Basically, Friendly Cooperatives is a mod useful for simulating co-op play in order to play co-op wads without multiple players. If you already have the original Friendly Cooperatives, you should still download this if you're interested, as it contains multiple upgrades and new features.

  • Gibbage - Melon
    ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 3067 bytes
    Reviewed by: Philnemba
    An interesting mod that forces you to only use the rocket launcher, but in an interesting twist all projectile type monsters can also shoot rockets, making monster infighting hilariously funny. In addition to that, all zombies and SS Nazis drop rocket ammunition to keep you from losing ammo.

    BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!

    Armor now absorbs 99% of damage, which makes it more or less challenging than it already is. However, there is a downside to this mod: you can't use your fist (and because of that the berserk packs are replace by the Soul Spheres, so I guess you could also call it a good thing). This mod is recommend for anybody who loves to constantly use the rocket launcher a lot, although I wouldn't recommend playing this on Slaughter wads like Hell Revealed 2 or Deus Vult.

  • Unloved - Paul Schneider
    GZDoom - Solo Play - 42916273 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Traysandor
    Unloved is a 5 map hub-based wad designed for GZDoom. If I had to pick a single word to describe this wad, I would say atmospheric. If I had a few more words, I'd add in dark, kinda creepy, and somewhat cramped too. And what can the player expect to find? A lot of damn good stuff here.

    The premise of the wad is that you wake up in bed alone, but you quickly get the sense that you're not. As I fought my way through the five maps, I always felt a solid sense of progression, and that it was hard to really get lost for too long. You'll need to do some backtracking to access new areas of the five maps once you obtain the corresponding keys, but this didn't bother me too much, as usually the new areas were reasonably accessible from the main hub.

    The detail in these 5 maps is top-notch. I couldn't find anything that really looked out of place in any of the areas I went. The lighting was simply fantastically done too. For the most part it's pretty dark but overall you can see where you need to go (but not necessarily where the monsters are hiding). Also, many places are pretty cramped, making maneuverability an issue (and when you come to a wide open space, don't expect it to remain that way long as it will soon be filled with monsters). But the atmosphere created by the lighting and the detail is really the icing on the cake.

    The difficulty of the mapset might annoy some players, though. The first two-thirds of the playthrough isn't too bad; most players might get hung up on a few places (mostly in the key locations, expect a good fight)... but reaching the concluding parts of the wad, it goes from from difficult to HR-style slaughterfest. I thought the ammo placement was well done for the most part, aside from the first main map I had to chainsaw a lot of small enemies. Other than that, I got what I needed to deal with what was coming ahead. I could have also done with a bit more health placed around the maps too... too often was I running around F6ing every 20 seconds or so because I had <25 health left. If you're not a fan of HR or difficult wads, you'll definitely want to knock down the difficulty a notch or two.

    Also, a fair few new monsters make their appearance, as well as a few old friends from the monster resource pack (and some baddies that were borrowed from either Hexen or Heretic). First one I saw was a chainsaw zombie that wasn't too tough unless in packs. I saw a souped-up version of a Mancubus (looked like a zombie to me) that was mostly in places where I could easily neutralize it. And a new spin on an old, familiar boss (I won't spoil the surprise, but good luck beating it).

    Overall, Unloved could win a Cacoward simply for the way it looks and feels. Seriously, no amount of screenshots could do these levels justice. If you don't believe me, download this wad and wander through these maps with -nomonsters turned on; you'll likely be rather impressed—I know I was. Unloved may be the title of the wad, but I think that the Doomworld community will really love what they find inside, even if you're not a fan of the action or the difficulty.

  • Doom 2 French Version (doom2f.wad) binary patch - Simon Howard
    doom2.exe - n/a - 284850 bytes
    Reviewed by: MegaDoomer
    This file converts the original v1.8 of Doom II to the French version. If that sounds interesting, have at it.[Ed: for more information, see this thread: On the trail of DOOM2F.WAD]

  • Chowquin - Chris Wright
    doom2.exe - Solo Play - 27095 bytes
    Reviewed by: MegaDoomer
    I'm tempted to let these two lines of the text file speak for themselves:

    Author: Chris Wright
    Description: Two open areas populated with an assortment of motherfuckers. Kind of like Canada and the US.

    Needless to say, that's exactly what you get. Virtually no detail, no height variation, dull brown textures against a brown sky. The first area is a curvy outdoor corridor, the second area is a random maze. The whole thing felt utterly pointless; in fact, this is one of Chris's worst maps, although it's clear by now he's not even trying in the slightest. Taking a screenshot of this garbage would be a waste of time. Needless to say, avoid at all costs.

Does this /newstuff Chronicles suck? Does your wise ass think you can write better reviews than these jerkoffs? Then get over to the /newstuff Review Center and help out. I know you must have a Doomworld Forums account because you like griping about every edition in the comment thread, but if you don't, you need to get one to submit reviews.

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And the last is abruptly cut off. It appears a draft was sent before it was finished.

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Unlike the reviewer, I found the long damaging floor sequence in UAC Ultra's 11th map to be really good, cause you actually had to worry about those radsuits AND the waves of enemies.
Although maybe it was too much of a change in difficulty compared to the previous maps.

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[WH]-Wilou84 said:
Unlike the reviewer, I found the long damaging floor sequence in UAC Ultra's 11th map to be really good, cause you actually had to worry about those radsuits AND the waves of enemies.
Although maybe it was too much of a change in difficulty compared to the previous maps.


The lattermost part was more my opinion than anything. I've personally played and beaten the vast majority of HR-themed maps on UV, so the HR part on Map 11 didn't bother me that much overall. But when I review wads, I take into consideration the casual Doomer as well, someone who at the sight of a massive demon hoard like the one you see in Map 11 is probably going to reach for the keyboard and either A) type in IDDQD and IDFA, then BFG the heck out of said monsters until everything's dead, or B) Press F10, then y.

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Heh I've never realized that "Blood, Fire, Death" was a Heretic wad so I guess I'll go play it now ^^

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Well what do ya know, more Wright maps!

Take a hint Chris, quality > quantity

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Come to think of it, I should have spiced up gameplay more, indeed (originally the map was supposed to be the first map of an episode which somewhat explains the easy gameplay).

I didn't know if it's possible to update a map in idgames/ without creating a new entry, that's why it's still the old version.

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mrblood07.png is a great "I'm fucked" picture

EDIT: neg!ke, I believe there are instructions in one of the /idgames text files (like UPLOADING) for what to do if you want to replace an existing file

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Of course UAC Ultra's screenshots had to have been taken with stretched skies and and gamma correction turned all the way up. Oh well. You can't win all of the time.

Also I want to congratulate all the people who reviewed all those crappy wads. I just couldn't do it.

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I realy did not thought Marble Blood wat too hard on UV, as I mainly tested on this skill.
I made shure it was possible to beat each map from pistol start at UV, and did not think they were too hard compared to other wads as BBB or Deus Veult. However the doom comunity make me realise it now.
I am working on an other relese. It will take some time however
Ho sorry for Caco.

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Many people in the doom community can't accept that there are players that are better than them. If they can't beat a map in UV, it's the wad that is the problem, not their skill.
Maybe you should look over the other skill levels too though. Make sure they are evened out as that seem to be an issue with some of the critics.

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I love Unloved (lol), but what exactly is new about

Spoiler

Thamuz?

It's been the final boss of quite a few good GZDoom maps (and probably quite a few bad ones, but I haven't played any).

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I'm still kind of mixed on that area in UAC Ultra. On one hand, it was a nice twist on the old standard, but it felt like it went on for a smidgen too long. Good RL fun, though.The rest of it was great, for the most part.

I really need to get my hands on a copy of Heretic. Don't see it happening anytime soon, though.

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Many people in the doom community can't accept that there are players that are better than them.


Hey I did beat the damn WAD, let's see you do it.

The problem is the amount of time it took compared to other "hard" WADS, and how it just isn't enjoyable on UV. There are too many times were your "reward" for something is to be covered in monsters, and the only way to fight them sucessfully is via the teleporter. Sure in Doom fighting more monsters can actually be a reward, but it's done wrong here.

Marbled Blood has some great maps, and everyone here should try it. Just start on HMP instead of UV.

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Scet said:

Hey I did beat the damn WAD, let's see you do it.

Chill there tiger. More power to you, but I really don't care. What even makes you think I was talking about you?

Scet said:

The problem is the amount of time it took compared to other "hard" WADS, and how it just isn't enjoyable on UV. There are too many times were your "reward" for something is to be covered in monsters, and the only way to fight them sucessfully is via the teleporter. Sure in Doom fighting more monsters can actually be a reward, but it's done wrong here.

And you miss the point entirely. it takes long for YOU. I haven't played the WAD in question so I don't know how hard it is, but that is really irrelevant. There are people of all skills and they will make wads that are of different skill levels.

Like my Heretic wad for instance. Some people had a fair bit easier with it than I did I'm sure. And others said that even on the lowest skill levels they had to work for it. Which I thought I had been very forgiving on to make sure everyone had a chance.

Now, what many people in the Doom community do is play it on UV "because I always play UV" and then get pissed off when they can't hack it. Instead of lowering the skill level to something they can hack, they go on the internet and complain about how it was too hard.

All one really can do as player is try and find the skill level that works the best for your enjoyment. And go with it, now you can reasonably criticize the game play based on that. Now, if a wad is awfully hard and doesn't have more than one skill level. Then I can see how one can complain about it.

Scet said:

Marbled Blood has some great maps, and everyone here should try it. Just start on HMP instead of UV.

Good advice, I'm sure.

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That may all be but your review just goes on and on about the ridiculousness of UV. What's this obsession with treating it like the default skill? If it's obviously too hard or too extreme to be enjoyable, test on a lower level and make a mention of it - but don't focus your entire review on this one aspect.

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kristus said:

Now, what many people in the Doom community do is play it on UV "because I always play UV"

I never play on anything less than UV or Black Plague, because I don't like watering down the difficulty. Odds are the author didn't even test it on anything less. But anyway, if I lose, I just ragequit.

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Well the wad ain't that special on UV, the first 3 maps are fun but afterwards it's not that good. Map04 has some really slow parts, map05 is quite low on ammo and health, map06 seems like a fun slaughter map at first but it slows down to a crawl when you realize you have to kill most of the caco horde with rockets because the BFG will be more useful elsewhere. That and I spent a couple of minutes looking for a switch that turned out to be the other half of a switch I already hit. Don't do that, just fucking don't.

Map07 is where it gets better again, but there still aren't many clever traps and the fights are mainly simple room clearing exercizes, with plenty of health and armor, probably the stuff missing from map05 :p

Map08 and map09 are good, though the tag 13 monster teleporter on map09 didn't work for me, so I was left with 50 monsters alive.

Map10 is by far the best map of the wad, even though a bunch of monsters end up being unreachable in sector 308. It's so good it seems almost out of place in that wad.

The maps aren't that long, most take 10-15 minutes to max playing casually.

There's other stuff that gives the wad a really unpolished feel, like stuck monsters here and there, floating items placed too close to tall edges etc.

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Graf Zahl said:

What's this obsession with treating it like the default skill?


It's pretty much impossible to post a review here that's not done in UV, because a lot of people do treat it like the default skill level. I really didn't want a bunch of "couldn't hack it in UV?" type comments, so I had to play it that way.

Belial said:

stuff


Yeah I left a lot of that out because I thought the review was already too negative. Given how much work the author had obviously put into the maps, I wanted people to at least try them.

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Scet said:

It's pretty much impossible to post a review here that's not done in UV, because a lot of people do treat it like the default skill level. I really didn't want a bunch of "couldn't hack it in UV?" type comments, so I had to play it that way.



You 'had to'? This implication alone is nonsense. If you deem UV inappropriate because it's badly designed you mention that and review a skill level that may be more fun to people.

I'm getting really tired of this 'must be UV' nonsense that seems to run rampant here. Far too few maps here use skill properly - which should be HMP aiming at the average player, HNTR at those who prefer a bit less action and UV for experts only. At least this maps got that right.

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I agree with Graf here. Review wads on a skill level you can actually play and potentially enjoy, or else you're not really telling us much.

I usually don't play UV; I'm not ashamed.

Well, okay. Maybe a little ._.

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This really reminds me of a recurring problem with reviews in general (and not just /newstuff, either) - reviews written by people who are obviously not the target audience. I mean, of course a 25-year-old software engineer and self-professed gun nut isn't going to like playing a game like, say, Imagine Party Babiez for the DS. And likewise, somebody who absolutely swears by Doom's arsenal isn't going to like playing a weapon replacement mod.

While this hasn't exactly cropped up in this installment of the Chronicles, it's a problem that I'm seeing once every few episodes, that there will be at least one WAD reviewed by someone who really doesn't like that specific map archetype, or that author's style, and rates the WAD poorly in spite of that. What I'm trying to get at here (and not sure if I'm really succeeding at it) is that if you don't like a certain map theme, author, or game type, please reconsider whether you should be reviewing that WAD.

(Yes, I'm still a little upset over the "mistreatment" of many weapon mods at the hands of "unqualified" /newstuff reviewers.)

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The "UV too hard" review pushed me to try Marble Blood on UV.

I just played Map01 for now. So far, I don't agree with it being too hard. It's just poorly done. Monsters are seemingly randomly placed, none of the fights were particulary interesting. There's tons of floor height variations. The visual clues are inconsistent, sometimes a particular looking floor will teleport you, sometimes not. I've found one secret with a rocket launcher and no less than 56 rockets ; if I didn't find this secret, I would have had to take on a small horde of barons, hell knights, cacodemons, imps and hitscanners with about 20 SSG shells and a berserk pack. The gameplay consists mostly of moving forward and shooting stuff, it's all very linear and the architecture so far is not interesting to me.

Map02 is a bit more open and the architecture looks better, but still very straightforward in gameplay. Balance was somewhat better in that it didn't require secrets to keep going without trouble, however it's still just monsters randomly placed (or so it seems).

Map03, on the other hand, is a big step up. Alternate paths, varied architecture, some good traps too (I liked the 3 revenants + PE + caco horde). Monsters are used in better ways. It still suffers from nonsensical visuals : sometimes slime damages you, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes something teleports you, sometimes not, sometimes a particular texture is a door, sometimes it's a decoration.

Map04 - climbing on a 8 pixels wide lift to shoot a small horde at point blank ? Seriously ? Seriously ?!

Moving on. This map went back and forth between a flat corridor and a ridiculously cramped room with unfair height variation.

I felt pretty good beating the archvile + horde released by opening the door leading to the YK starting with only 30 hp, but that was in spite of the map... And if it wasn't for the arachnotron blocking most monsters, I would have been dead.

Map05 quickly greeted me with a ghost bug on -complevel 2. As the text file mentioned a ghost bug on Map06 only, I thought I was safe. Bah.

Height variation overload, tons of stairs and situations where you can't see shit, monsters stuck on stairs, cramped cramped cramped rooms, walking over wall detail.

Map06 originally looked more interesting, with a wide open space, ample health/armor/ammo without having to find secrets and a bunch of monsters ; but after a while it starts being tedious, as I moved into more cramped rooms and finally back into the main outdoor area. I didn't finish that one as it got so annoying I started killing myself with rockets into walls. Again, difficulty didn't come into play here ; it was just plain tedious.

I liked Map07, I really liked it. There's nothing particulary original about the fights, and there's still some of the above flaws, but the fights were alright, there was a good sense of progression that is, I think, lacking in earlier maps. There wasn't much "bad" floor height variation, and the rooms weren't cramped or too large, just the right size.

Some things I disliked : fighting hitscanners/mancubii hidden behind no less than two middle textures. Infinitelytall spectres blocking the way before I can see them. Balance also seemed off with tons of blue armors (2 blue armors + 1 invul sphere for the final fight !), and a BFG with plenty of cell ammo without enemies around (and in the larger fights where you might actually need it, there's no cell ammo to be found). The exit door wasn't really obvious, at least to me.

Still an enjoyable map, with great visuals sometimes, and the one I'd recommend playing so far.

Map08 is another fun map. A bit cramped, but it doesn't hinder movement too much here. There's a switch that didn't seem to work or do anything, and as usual I had to randomly press the spacebar to find some doors, but other than that it was fine.

Map09 started OK, but quickly enough turned into something boring. It's either super cramped corridors/rooms or on the other hand, enormous empty space, and there's the usual height variation abuse, with monsters shooting at you before you can see them.

Map10... Okay, I didn't get a good look at Map10 because at this point I'm just frustrated, so no comment on this one.

In conclusion, I'd say Map07, 08 and 03 are worth playing. The others aren't so good. There's maps that are, in my opinion, beyond redemption, with poor layouts, poor fights and poor visuals. Some other maps could have been better with outside playtesting. All the maps seem to be completable from a pistol start on UV (I haven't finished 06, 09 and 10, but it's because I get frustrated easily).

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Just finished Unloved, it's awesome. Creepy atmosphere, good fights, and not too frustrating concerning hub puzzles ( unlike Hexen for example ).
One of the best GZDoom wads I've played, for sure. 5/5

The author should credit Eriance for some of the monsters he used though.

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Graf Zahl said:

and UV for experts only.

The problem with this is that Nightmare!'s difficulty will become so hard it won't be fun anymore.

In any case, which skill of Heretic and Hexen do you consider the average one, considering that #5 has no respawning but still extra ammo? Skill 3 or 4?

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