What are you playing now?

[Memfis]

Suffer - simply a great 90's adventure level with an obligatory Metallica midi. Maybe one day I'll learn to map like this...

[Salt-Man Z]

Last week I played through Breach (UV) which was a lot of fun. Gorgeous visuals, especially for sticking to stock textures, and good atmosphere. Just big enough to hit that sweet spot without being overlong.

Also finished up Doom 2 In Name Only (Russian Edition) (HMP) which was awesome. The visuals were impeccable, music was great, and aside from a couple bugs in MAP01 (a secret that can lock you in, and items you can "bump" through the walls) it's another homerun from the Russian mapping community. Maps 1-3 were quick little things, decent enough. MAP04 ("The Focus") gets a little bigger in scope (what it has to do with a "focus" I couldn't tell you, but the same's true for the original map) and then "The Waste Tunnels" and "The Crusher" are just massive epic beasts that make the entire WAD worth the price of admission. Just insane. "Dead Simple" is maybe a little too symmetric but fun. "Tricks and Traps" lives up to its name: it's just brutal, and the only map I didn't at least make an attempt to max out. "The Pit" is good, too, though the titular pit is kind of iffy, and the exit is about as un-obvious as can be. Another epic adventure map would have made a more fitting closer, but still a fantastic WAD all around.

[Ezepov]

MWDoom Episode 1 - nice architecture and gameplay

[elden4]

playing sunlust.wad a nice mod!it remembers me valiant or back to saturn x!

[Antroid]

elden4 said:

playing sunlust.wad a nice mod!it remembers me valiant or back to saturn x!

Funnily enough, I am at the moment slowly getting through btsx episode 2, and I also decided to challenge myself with sunlust yesterday. Although as I was a bit into map02 the electricity in the entire office went out and of course I lost that bit of progress. Haven't replayed it yet since I'm prioritizing btsx.

[frithiof]

I'm playing with the latest version of Sgt Mark IV's "Starter Pack" for Brutal Doom.

It's actually not as bad as you would think it would be. There no real gore or racism in it anywhere.

You can find it on best-ever.org, as starterpacktestoct23.wad (I was playing the one that was a couple days old, but I'm gonna start the new version soon). Dunno if the Freedoom guys are going to have a problem with his "fork" (if only because it seems to be g/zdoom oriented and it might be a challenge to make it just boom compatible), but he's done a decent job of making a complete set of maps with it, and they are compatible with (Free)Doom 1 and 2.

It's also kinda fun, which is one of those weird, intangible things that you sometimes don't find in wads.

edit: I goofed up earlier when complaining about the keys... maybe I just wasn't making enough of an effort to locate them, as I seem to be finding them quite easily today. Weird.

[SFoZ911]

So I played Perdition's Gate for the first and it's fucking amazing! The visuals, layout, monster usage so far has been excellent, really enjoying it so far. I also really liked how varied the levels, some reminded me of Doom 1, others felt a little bit like scythe. Got to map 10 so far and can't wait to load it up again and finish it.

[Degree23]

I'm finally getting around to playing Jenesis and have been loving it so far, although I just came across something that really annoys me.

Having found the secret levels, I finish Map 32 to find that it's a damaging floor exit and I start the next map on 10, or so, total health. If I don't find the secret exit in Map 15 and exit normally, I could exit with up to 200/200 if all goes well. So ultimately, I have been punished for playing through the secret maps as I now start Map 16 with a sliver of health. That makes exactly zero sense to me, especially from someone who has proven to be an exceptional mapper.

[skepticist]

Completed Going Down by mouldy. Layouts in the first episode were a bit too basic and even with all the gorgeous detail it still didn't appeal to me right away. So called "chaotic evil" gameplay (which in fact is just a teleport spam most of the time) and the arena-type maps aren't my cup of tea, that also contributed to my underwhelming first impressions. Not sure if it's quality of the project that got better or me grow attached to it, but in the end I appreciated the subtle narrative and variety of map gimmicks to the point it made aforementioned cons almost insignificant. Not the most fun wad for me to play, but it's still a unique experience to be remembered.

Then I breezed through Khorus' Speedy Shit. Gameplay here is much closer to what I prefer, it's more incidental and trap-centric than chaos driven. However, maps this short and easy tend to end before making any real impression if they don't feature distinct layouts or godlike visuals. Even if you try to take KSSHT as just one big map with checkpoints along the way, it still feels very random and generic to me. A great effort for the timeframe it was made in, but nothing to hold your breath for overall.

The last thing I completed was Edgy by mr. Chris. This was mediocre. Some incidental combat => huge wave of monsters => repeat x times. Most of the difficulty comes from the lack of health to deal with never-ending stream of hitscanners and some fat buddies thrown in-between. It's possible to get trapped in certain segment of the level and infinitely tall mobs can be a problem too. Visuals and layout are OK, pretty standard stuff. A good exercise in door camping, but other than that... yeah.

Now back to Resurgence, which I enjoy. Finally nailed that damn MAP32. It pissed me off so hard. Not the author's fault though, it's just harder than it seems thanks to the snipers scattered all around. My way up to MAP22 wasn't too harsh, but I suppose there's some tough challenges towards the end of the final episode waiting for me. Also started Interception, got up to MAP23. Not impressed in the slightest. Lots of uninspired maps and questionable balance choices there. Even Eli Cohen's "Antidote" and FranckFRAG's "Vertigo Plant" are spoiled by various bugs and gameplay issues. Why there's always so much plasma and rockets without even remotely dangerous opposition, to shoot imps with?

[baja blast rd.]

A search for a random file on idgames turned up "Secret Lab". Easy but fun classic-styled exploration-based level, quite rough around the edges in places -- there are even SS Nazis! -- but not bad. Progression can be more obscure than in the modern style, but I am terrible at navigation and managed to find my way to the exit, at least.

[Salt-Man Z]

Just played through The Darkening: Aftershock on HMP. Played through MAP06 before remembering it's only 4 maps; the others were Darkening 2 maps (and were great.) Aftershock itself was fun. But now I need to play The Darkening levels from the start...

[Ashstrodamus]

Mini Level Megawad- I remembered liking it quite a while back and revisiting now. Pistol starts, UV Max. Up to map 08 but this particular level is a bitch to UV-Max, thanks to the secret

Spoiler

needing an AV jump

.

[Salt-Man Z]

Finished up Plutonia 2 (HMP), other than not being able to figure out the (otherwise cool-looking) IoS replacement. Good stuff. Not sure if it ever really felt like Plutonia, but still an all-around fun set of good-looking levels.

I'm also done with Stomper, having gotten up to MAP29 and officially thrown in the towel. I had to IDDQD just to find my way around, and still wandered around for 15 minutes with nothing to show for it other than 2 keys and no idea what to do with them. Yeah, let's throw a switch hunt and teleporter maze on top of the frigging monster spitter, sure. Apparently it gets even more ridiculous after that. So whatevs; not even gonna bother with MAP30. I did want to try maps 36 and 37 (available only by IDCLEV) but I made it a good ways into MAP36 (which I was enjoying) when I died—and upon reloading, GZDoom threw up an "expecting a compressed file" error; any attempts to IDCLEV to those levels then generated an "attempted to read past end of cfile" error. I was able to fix that by renaming my .ini file, running GZDoom, then setting my .ini file back, but still can't load a save on either map without starting the whole error chain again, so it looks like I'm done. (GZDoom version 2.0.5 and Stomper beta C, if anyone cares.)

Anyway, up until MAP29, Stomper was an absolute blast. I loved the crunchy/gritty feel of the whole thing, the new chaingun was fun, and the gameplay was pretty much right up my alley. Wonder how long until it actually gets finished...?

[Salt-Man Z]

Oh yeah, and after the Vikings game ended, I really needed to shoot something, so I loaded up Violence (UV) and tore through the first map. Great fun.

[T-Rex]

Played through T. Elliot Cannon's Iditarod, a set of 10 maps very nicely done with solid and tough gameplay, though I felt his Odyssey episode was much better. Oldies but goldies.

[skepticist]

It's been a while since my last post in this thread.

Hellbound was very adventurous, but also tedious and flat in terms of combat until some of E3 maps. I have to say I'm not as impressed with its visuals as some people out there. To me it looked like that in many cases the sheer scale of the maps is a result of excessive copy-paste and they are artificially prolonged. A good megawad overall, but nothing outstanding other than some strong semi-realism.

Finished Interception. Pottus' maps bitchslapped me for saying this megawad was too easy, lol. And I haven't technically beaten m27. I could have hit the exit, but backtracked to kill a cyberdemon in the separate area of the map and was locked into a corner right after I teleported there. Whelp, it doesn't really matter. I still considered myself done for now. BTW m29 cannot be completed without cheats due to a mapping flaw.

The Last Sanctuary on UV was all about strict ammo management and sniper hunting, and I can't say it was fun considering how long this map is - the playthrough took 2 hours. At least I've done it on 2nd attempt without any preknowledge of the new encounters, so it's unfair to complain. I can forget about this map and my failure as a tester to notice such an obvious way to get stuck-up in red keycard area now. I'm really sorry, vdgg.

Then I played both of 3 Heures d'Agonie, short and sweet. Well, the first compilation is a bit rough on the edges and maps from less experienced mappers are nothing to be excited about. But It was cool to see their styles evolve in the second set. It really made the WAD flow naturally, like it's some community project with QC rather than just speedmaps thrown together to wrap it up. 6 maps remain unbeaten for various reasons.

Swift Death, sigh... Well, simply put, I despise it. Some may say that dying only a few seconds in the map is totally OK, but this concept of rough start taken to it's limits irrates me to no end. I want to blame myself for mistakes I made, not just some bad luck, and thus comparing this garbage to the Super Meat Boy is disrespectful towards said game. But hey, it's just my opinion no one cares about. Dropped at m23.

I absolutely loved 50 Shades of Graytall on the other hand. Despite variety of approaches to the theme most of the time it's something great. Yes, slaughter maps could have been done better and dobu's map looks much more interesting than it plays - WAD's not perfect, but nothing is. Best gimmick project of the year and well deserved Cacoward, grats to Marcaek and all participants. Another triumph of creativity over pretty looks.

Just like with 3HA, Unleashed 2048 is a lot better on the average than it's predecessor. Probably the restriction really helped to focus on quality this time around. It was a nice sequence of relaxing maps, I had a blast. Until m24, which is tough one, and then m27. Chainsaw vs. revenants, imps, cacodemons, pains - all at once with almost no health. I was so mentally exhausted I needed to switch for something easier.

And it was Estranged. A rather subpar oldschool project, which should have pronounce its adventurous vibe stronger, but it felt just too abstract to establish a sense of place. Many maps require the player to run past the enemies to get big guns and ammo, but sometimes it translates into just one long run straight to the exit, which is kind of lame. Gave up on m27, as it's the most annoying map I've played in a long while (why the author didn't use any block lines for god's sake?) and on m30 (IoS greatness).

I also replayed Grid32. Years ago I had to give up on m04 and m06. This time it went smoother, and I appreciated the oldschool vibe of Wraith maps alot more (initially i didn't really gave him the credit he deserves). Guest's map is still a highlight of the show though, cruel and counter-inituitive little journey. It doesn't really make you think outside of the box, but at the very least the author has an unique take on the level design, which is great in itself.

Now back to Unleashed 2048, I guess.

[Ashstrodamus]

skepticist said:

Swift Death, sigh... Well, simply put, I despise it. Some may say that dying only a few seconds in the map is totally OK, but this concept of rough start taken to it's limits irrates me to no end. I want to blame myself for mistakes I made, not just some bad luck, and thus comparing this garbage to the Super Meat Boy is disrespectful towards said game IMO. But hey, it's just my opinion no one cares about. Dropped at m23.

No, Swift Death is my favorite of the year. Probably the best Doom training wad ever. My skills have gotten much better from playing this insane thing. My cussing skills have also improved ten-fold.

[Salt-Man Z]

I gave up on Swift Death when I realized that, as a keyboarder, I can't even reach the blue key in MAP01.


As for me, I finished playing through Violence tonight, and it was an absolute blast. Just so much fun.

[Budoka]

Beat Hell Revealed on Ultra-Violence with pistol starts only... well almost. I couldn't beat MAP23(Ascending to the Starts) without the gear from MAP22 (which is full of goodies, so big difference there), and I was forced to downgrade MAP24 (Post-Mortem) to Hurt Me Plenty in order to survive it at all. Honestly, it makes the level seem almost... normal. MAP26 (Afterlife) didn't give me that much trouble despite its reputation, although apparently at some point you're supposed to get assaulted by a heterogeneous army of ghost monsters, which never happened for me. The only ghosts I got were the Imps in the temple, which I ignored.

MAP18 (Hard Attack) is probably my favorite, but I'll also give special mention to both secret levels, which are an absolute blast. Should you play through Hell Revealed, I strongly recommend against skipping either. MAP27 (Cyberpunk) sounds cool on paper but is executed horribly here, I actually think AltimaMantoid's take on the same concept is infinitely better. MAP29 (Temple of Fear) is even worse, the Revenant swarm with the two Archviles early on is frantic as hell, but beyond that most of the level sucks. I guess Haggay didn't quite have his partner's knack for Doom 2 level design. Yes, I love most of the Donner levels, "The Path" included.

Overall, after playing through the entirety of Hell Revealed for a second time, I still very much like it. I tried to go through Alien Vendetta after that, but MAP06 (Hillside Siege) put an end to that - again. Makes me wonder if I ever will beat it. So instead, I settled for UAC Ultra, which was overall quite good if not necessarily groundbreaking. The first level is too easy and that final boss should probably be a little more aggressive once you wake it up. As for highlights, I really enjoyed the final room of MAP09 (which is much easier than it seems at first glance), and "Skagway" as a whole is just amazing, and makes me wish Doom 3 was more like it.

[Salt-Man Z]

Finished off Doomed Space Wars (HMP), which was a lot of fun. The architecture and mood were highly memorable, even if the gameplay was fairly ho-hum. That said, I absolutely loved the bonus levels, especially the PSX and Wolfenstein ones. Great stuff.

Now playing through TVR! along with the club, and the bite-sized little maps are some nice relaxing fun, perfect for this time of year.

[Suitepee]

Gonna be playing through Winter's Fury on my next livestream, which should be fun and somewhat appropriate (mild winters around notwithstanding) for this time of year.

[scifista42]

Hopefully you have a powerful computer. Winter's Fury maps are pretty demanding on CPU/GPU power, I believe moreso than anything on your list of wads you've finished so far. At least on my computer the game constantly lagged while I played it, even though I disabled all effects I could.

[Doom_Dude]

I'm replaying Knee Deep In ZDoom and I have no idea if I finished it the first time.

[scifista42]

I think you would have remembered the finale if you did.

[Skrell]

Seeker_of_Truth said:

I'm on map13 of Plutonia. Besides that, I've been messing around with Scalliano's randomizer in the IWADs as well. I did start Scythex again a couple weeks back, but I haven't played it much. Oh, and I'm doing a playthrough of PsychoPhobia on youtube which has taken up most of my Doom playing time.

What is Scalliano's randomizer ?

[kmxexii]

Skrell said:

What is Scalliano's randomizer ?

Scalliano's 667 Shuffle

[T-Rex]

Budoka said:

Beat Hell Revealed on Ultra-Violence with pistol starts only... well almost. I couldn't beat MAP23(Ascending to the Starts) without the gear from MAP22 (which is full of goodies, so big difference there), and I was forced to downgrade MAP24 (Post-Mortem) to Hurt Me Plenty in order to survive it at all. Honestly, it makes the level seem almost... normal. MAP26 (Afterlife) didn't give me that much trouble despite its reputation, although apparently at some point you're supposed to get assaulted by a heterogeneous army of ghost monsters, which never happened for me. The only ghosts I got were the Imps in the temple, which I ignored.

MAP18 (Hard Attack) is probably my favorite, but I'll also give special mention to both secret levels, which are an absolute blast. Should you play through Hell Revealed, I strongly recommend against skipping either. MAP27 (Cyberpunk) sounds cool on paper but is executed horribly here, I actually think AltimaMantoid's take on the same concept is infinitely better. MAP29 (Temple of Fear) is even worse, the Revenant swarm with the two Archviles early on is frantic as hell, but beyond that most of the level sucks. I guess Haggay didn't quite have his partner's knack for Doom 2 level design. Yes, I love most of the Donner levels, "The Path" included.

Overall, after playing through the entirety of Hell Revealed for a second time, I still very much like it. I tried to go through Alien Vendetta after that, but MAP06 (Hillside Siege) put an end to that - again. Makes me wonder if I ever will beat it. So instead, I settled for UAC Ultra, which was overall quite good if not necessarily groundbreaking. The first level is too easy and that final boss should probably be a little more aggressive once you wake it up. As for highlights, I really enjoyed the final room of MAP09 (which is much easier than it seems at first glance), and "Skagway" as a whole is just amazing, and makes me wish Doom 3 was more like it.

Hell Revealed is an awesome megawad, I can tell you that. Really takes a lot of inspiration from Plutonia in terms of difficulty. Ultra-Violence is most definitely for Doomgods, especially in the last 10 maps of the wad. Hurt Me Plenty, while challenging, it's at least doable for the average Doomer, while I'm Too Young To Die/Hey, Not Too Rough feels just like Doom 2 on Ultra-Violence. And yeah, I felt Afterlife isn't as hard as many people would claim. In fact, it's much easier than Resistance is Futile. Yeah, Haggay's levels don't seem to be as impressive as Yonatan's. If I were to make comparisons, Haggay would be the Sandy Petersen while Yonatan would be the John Romero in terms of design sensibilities. Going from Hell Revealed straight to Alien Vendetta is probably not a good idea. If you're going to play the wads progressively, I'd suggest to play Scythe after Hell Revealed, then Plutonia 2, Plutonia Revisited, and then you're all primed for Alien Vendetta.

[Aaron Blain]

Trying to finish AV for the first time. UV/PS, no saves, Chocolate Doom. So glorious.

[Dgemie]

I have just more or less finished playing Eternal Doom. It took me 5 months or so, of which at least a half was spent on MAP31! About the maps themselves... Well, they were different. Probably somewhat similar to total conversions and other FPS-es from the 90's(not only Hexen).

Edit: Yes, I have started the 4th one now.

[Finakala]

Since I just signed up for the NOVA3 project, playing through the original NOVA. Up to map 11 so far.