What are you playing now?

[PeterMoro]

I recently played Freaky Panties, based on the screenshots posted here on Doomworld. It was pretty good! A bit hard and shorter than i thought but oh wow the detailing was something else. Pretty amazing work for a couple of months. 

[Deadwing]

I played 3 more levels (6, 7 and 8) from Ancient Aliens, and that felt like dropping to HMP without actually doing it lol

 

- 8 was by far the best level of the set, with some more space to breath and explore a bit. The pacing and the difficult setpieces were awesome, especially the Arch-ville + spectres one. The UFO thing was also really cool and beautiful.

 

- 6 had a smiliar arena concept to the previous levels, but without the gimmicky element. Fun little level, although I missed a lot some chaingun ammo to kill all these shotgunners. The arch-ville reveal was quite obvious after the pile of bodies you create in the arena haha

 

- 7 is your typical skillsaw 3-key quest which was also a lot common in Valiant, this time with some cool little twists.

 

These levels felt better than the previous ones, and also more balanced, although there was still too much shotgun gameplay imo, especially on map 6. So far you only use rockets in specifics moments, when you really need them, but mid-tiers and grouped enemies are everywhere, so I wish there was more oportunity to blast these guys. Another option would be the plasma gun, but it was only revelead in map 8, so not much space for it yet. Finally, this wad so far features a lot more hitscans than I'm used to lol

Edited August 5, 2018 by Deadwing

[tib_]

3 heures d'agonie, great French doom megawad

[galileo31dos01]

The Abyss was dope, awkward and silly and fun regardless. Now I'm about to start Gridlock 64 with glboom+, why it isn't on idgames yet is beyond me. Hope it's fun. 

[Nems]

Now playing through TNT: Evilution and TNT: Revilution with the Doomzone mod, playing as the Colonel class.

[Misty]

Playing Doom 64 for Doom II. Fun megawad and quite easy. 

[seed]

Started playing the PSX Doom - The Lost Levels yesterday (also a let's play).

 

Pretty good, but honestly I can see the reason why the missing levels were cut, without taking the technological limitations in consideration. It really does look like they picked up the best levels and made them as good as they could. While those levels are quite faithful to the style of the real PSX Doom and done according to its limitations, not all of them work. Downtown is the first map that comes to my mind here. The Hell levels are amazing, but beside them, nothing particularly brilliant so far.

 

But I do like the changes done to certain levels for sure. I love The Chasm in this.

Edited August 12, 2018 by Agent6

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

Dimension of the Boomed. It's been on my "to play" list for a while now and I'm only just now getting around to it.

[ResidentEvilGod]

Doom the way ID did with Complex Doom :)

[Dear Hoplite]

The Current Version of Extermination Day

 

I'm nearing Behind Hellish Lines, running Project Brutality 2.0

[Salt-Man Z]

22 hours ago, Aquila Chrysaetos said:

Dimension of the Boomed. It's been on my "to play" list for a while now and I'm only just now getting around to it.

 

I just played through the second half of Dimensions of the Boomed (HMP) last night. Awesome stuff. Nothing in the back half quite regained the epic-ness of MAP04, but it was still very, very cool.

 

Also finished Innocence X3 (HMP) over the weekend. Love the series, and this was another fine entry. I'll confess I IDDQDed the final boss pretty quick, though. I'm pretty impatient with Doom boss fights, and IoSes in general. (Cool boss, still, but yeah, I'm not gonna bother with that.)

 

Currently playing Fall of Triton (UV), a PSX-flavored megawad from earlier this year. The relatively slow pace of the PSX style is quite relaxing after the usual stuff, and despite an abundance of baddies it's a pretty easy play. Nice and relaxing fun.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

5 minutes ago, Salt-Man Z said:

I just played through the second half of Dimensions of the Boomed (HMP) last night. Awesome stuff. Nothing in the back half quite regained the epic-ness of MAP04, but it was still very, very cool.

I played it on UV and MAP04 was my favorite, though the bonus map was really interesting to play through after starting off with only 1 health, due to choosing the hard path in MAP07.

I'm playing back through Strange Aeons right now and I'll finish up PSX Doom here soon enough.

I finished D2TWID the other day and it's pretty good.

Along with the DWMC, I'm also playing Scythe X and will soon be playing Counterattack.

[MTF Sergeant]

Replaying Valiant on UV!

[Xeogred]

Plutonia 2 is amazing! Except for that Arch-Vile level...

 

Playing on UV, even though I don't think I've ever played the first one on UV haha. Always thought Plutonia was the hardest of the old official releases.

[trem0lo]

I picked up Doom again after a long, long hiatus in 2015 and played though Scythe 2 after noodling though some Cacowards lists. Not knowing much about it I was enjoying the level design quite a bit; however I was taken aback at the slaughterfest in the latter part of the WAD. I can hold my own so I bore down and managed to complete it on UV. Intense gameplay for sure! That one level, Whispering Winds, was borderline traumatic. 

 

I’m currently working through Sunder now and it’s a really impressive WAD from a design perspective. I’m on Map 10, The Hags Finger. Great atmosphere and some interesting fights there (particularly liked the “imp gardens” and tunnel of charging pinkies and endless HKs). The opening vista of the path to the huge wooden castle is fantastic. I enjoyed Map 2 (The Burrow) a lot, even though it took me a few tries to realize you need to leave a Cyber alive to deal with all the Revenants. The pink tunnel is a stunning work of art and a nice vantage point to sneak-shoot the Revenants. Map 8, Pale Monument, was borderline too much for me... soooo many Cacos and they just kept coming. 

[galileo31dos01]

Finally went through Gridlock 64 and I must say it was a rollercoaster of quality, miscellaneous gameplay. Many enjoyable maps mixed with stinkers (a glitched one), or at least I found them the complete opposite of fun. Things like clouds of pain elementals in the open make me wonder "why am I doing this?", but on a positive note the maps I liked had notorious well balanced weaponry, non-linearity and multiple pressure traps, and abstract weird texturing for a change of pace. There's the second secret map that I had to put off for another day to play in ZDoom, because I'm not sure it was made with PRBoom+ testing in mind. 

 

So now I'm about to start Sacrament with crispy doom, hoping that it works like a baby. I know it's going to be something of its kind, less action and more adventurrrrre, but there hasn't been a russian community mapset that I didn't enjoy so far.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

I'm currently on MAP04. It's trying so hard to be Containment Area.

Edited August 15, 2018 by Aquila Chrysaetos

[Deadwing]

I've got into the third episode of Ancient Aliens (I guess I'm in map 21) and, tbh, haven't been enjoying much.

 

It features some really good-looking levels, with themes which are way more interesting than Valiant, for me. Still, the gameplay and the layouts isn't much my taste. There's some really good stuff (especially maps 16 and 10) and very creative setpieces in the whole set, but the whole feel I get is the "saturation", where every item/switch/room I enter activate some trap and monsters spawns in. TBH, I miss some more room to breath, to just pick-up a key or press a switch and nothing happen. Then you also have the endless lockdown-traps + find the hidden switch to progress which gets tiring after a while.

Moreover, most layouts feels similar to each-other, normally some large open-arena area with a linear progression without much to explore (it's very hard to get lost though) sometimes even with a similar texturing between the levels (like the purple and cyan STARTAN in episode 2). My favorite so far in that aspect was map 9, which featured some more chaotic layout which felt very unique and distinct, although the monster placement was a bit too saturated to me, especially in the last key trap which I honestly just ran away and exit the map. (same for maps 15 and 18).

 

It's a really well done mapset and really well balanced, and so far none of the maps were too hard bar some very specific fights. It's just not much for me. In the end I guess I've enjoyed more Valiant, although AA does take more risks

Edited August 16, 2018 by Deadwing

[Xeogred]

Yeah I thought Ancient Aliens was pretty cool but I liked Valiant a lot more.

 

I knocked out MAP20 Lurking Fear of Plutonia 2 tonight, didn't love the map but it's really ramping up difficulty wise here in the home stretch. Overall still loving this megawad. I love how it's true to the Plutonia name... chaingunners everywhere, brown walls, unsafe starts for most maps, etc... haha. I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

I still haven't actually played Eternal Doom myself and didn't know Team TNT was behind it, so I might have to check that one out sometime. Though I hear mixed things.

[Nems]

1 hour ago, Xeogred said:

I still haven't actually played Eternal Doom myself and didn't know Team TNT was behind it, so I might have to check that one out sometime. Though I hear mixed things.

 

The main things to keep in mind about Eternal Doom are that (and these are from my recollections of it): 1) the maps are larger than normal, 2) progression at times depends on a lot of backtracking, and 3) hope you like switch puzzles because hoo boy there's some switch puzzles to be had (especially the Jim Flynn maps).

 

I still like it for what it is and this is coming from someone who absolutely hates switch puzzles.

[Salt-Man Z]

I love Eternal Doom, though I could probably take or leave roughly half the levels. (Jim Flynn's Eternal maps can die in a fire.) Standouts include Sverre Kvernmo's MAP12 masterpiece, Chris Couleur's massive medieval maps, Paul Schmitz's brain-bending MAP28, and Bob Evans' two mind-melting puzzle maps. (Oddly, though I hate Flynn's levels with the fury of a thousand suns, I've always enjoyed Evans', despite their high difficulty.)

[Deadwing]

Continuing my Ancient Aliens playthrough:

Map 21 was actually a fun ride, although the beginning was quite annoying with the constant traps. There was some greater sense of exploration in this and the last cyberdemon battle was a lot fun.

 

22 was one of my favorites so far. It follows the trends of this mapset, but the larger and unique landscape + limited movement with a bit of platforming was quite fun. Also, the pacing here was awesome, without traps everywhere and the arch-ville placement was really good (no obvious sea of corpses followed by archies resurrecting enemies after pressing a switch, yay). Also the exit was really cool (instead of the regular boring room with the teleporter)

 

23 worked well as a breather, but wasn't a map I've enjoyed much. It's definitely unlikely anything past this mapset, with some really abstract, chaotic but beautiful environments. The first part (outdoor area), was too spacious for me and some enemy placement was annoying. Also, I hated a lot that triangular lift lol For some reason I kept missing it. The indoor area felt like it could've been a separated map, since the player already has the three keys, the outdoor area is already really long and it plays a lot differently (with a slaughter approach). TBH, in that moment I've just skipped the monsters, pressed the switches and reached the exit. (dying few times in the process) The gameplay in this was also way too focused on SS, where some rockets would have make things more fun.

Edited August 17, 2018 by Deadwing

[seed]

@Deadwing What do you think about Illuminati Revealed (MAP18)?

 

That map raped me so, so hard the first few times I played it :v .

[Deadwing]

19 minutes ago, Agent6 said:

@Deadwing What do you think about Illuminati Revealed (MAP18)?

 

That map raped me so, so hard the first few times I played it :v .

 

It wasn't a map I've enjoyed much. >.<

It's one of these maps with a constant pressure which I don't like much. it just makes me want to run and ignore everything else, which was what I've done lol.
That was indeed only possible because I was playing with saves, but eeh, if I had to kill everything (although it was impossible due to the icon of sin), I would get even more annoyed, especially that there was too much snipers around too, which are usually an annoyance to kill. I remember struggling especially in the 3 (or 4) arch-ville setpiece, especially because I hadn't dealt with the cacodemons swarm (which got released in the crusher's area) and I had to kill the archie's quickly. It's one of the hardest map so far indeed, though.

[Catpho]

On 8/16/2018 at 4:42 AM, Aquila Chrysaetos said:

I'm currently on MAP04. It's trying so hard to be Containment Area.

I know, right? Even better!

(Please the break my dreams, Kvernmo maps in Eternal Doom are boss)

On 8/16/2018 at 11:59 AM, Salt-Man Z said:

Jim Flynn's Eternal maps can die in a fire

no u

Heh, admittedly they weren't his best.

[seed]

1 hour ago, Deadwing said:

It wasn't a map I've enjoyed much. >.<

It's one of these maps with a constant pressure which I don't like much. it just makes me want to run and ignore everything else, which was what I've done lol.
That was indeed only possible because I was playing with saves, but eeh, if I had to kill everything (although it was impossible due to the icon of sin), I would get even more annoyed, especially that there was too much snipers around too, which are usually an annoyance to kill. I remember struggling especially in the 3 (or 4) arch-ville setpiece, especially because I hadn't dealt with the cacodemons swarm (which got released in the crusher's area) and I had to kill the archie's quickly. It's one of the hardest map so far indeed, though.

 

Heh, looks like you did exactly what I did. The AV ambushes were by far the most brutal in that map, and the ordeal can get quite confusing before learning the map. Enemies keep coming, and coming, and... where do I even need to go :v ? Luckily, it's probably the hardest map in the megawad, I remember only another level a few maps later where I ran out of ammo right before the end, and there were some nasty final encounters I barely managed to survive. But after more attempts, it was eventually done.

 

I think it's best to run away in that map, that's what people did in the videos I had watched, before shit hit the fan even harder, but otherwise I liked the map, just like the rest of AA. It's just that yeah, we're not the target audience, I died so many times it almost stopped being fun around MAP20.

[Deadwing]

10 minutes ago, Agent6 said:

 

Heh, looks like you did exactly what I did. The AV ambushes were by far the most brutal in that map, and the ordeal can get quite confusing before learning the map. Enemies keep coming, and coming, and... where do I even need to go :v ? Luckily, it's probably the hardest map in the megawad, I remember only another level a few maps later where I ran out of ammo right before the end, and there were some nasty final encounters I barely managed to survive. But after more attempts, it was eventually done.

 

I think it's best to run away in that map, that's what people did in the videos I had watched, before shit hit the fan even harder, but otherwise I liked the map, just like the rest of AA. It's just that yeah, we're not the target audience, I died so many times it almost stopped being fun around MAP20.

 

AFAIR, map 20 had some very strict ammo management. I had to run into the exit because I didn't have enough ammo to kill everything in the last setpiece lol It's a cool level with some interesting gimmicks, though

 

19 was also a pure berserk map. Thankfully it wasn't really hard or long though, because I'm really bad punching and tbh I don't enjoy that much >.>

 

Let's see how the next levels (24 onwards) will be. TBH it's not even about the difficult, but more the design style which isn't much my taste

[seed]

21 minutes ago, Deadwing said:

 

AFAIR, map 20 had some very strict ammo management. I had to run into the exit because I didn't have enough ammo to kill everything in the last setpiece lol It's a cool level with some interesting gimmicks, though

 

19 was also a pure berserk map. Thankfully it wasn't really hard or long though, because I'm really bad punching and tbh I don't enjoy that much >.>

 

Let's see how the next levels (24 onwards) will be. TBH it's not even about the difficult, but more the design style which isn't much my taste

 

I liked the level design and theme, although you could probably sum AA up as a "modern, futuristic, and hardcore re-imagining of Epic 2" (that megawad sure was a big influence). The difficulty was the only thing that kinda ruined it here and there for me. Please stop killing me, give me a break :v . The following levels will be fine, I don't remember it getting more intense after that map. I think there's a few slaughter levels left, but none of them are as nasty as that map. As for me, I'll probably always prefer AA over Valiant, I didn't like the levels of the latter that much and especially the new enemies. They were interesting and some of them even tricky to deal with, but that's all.

 

While I'm pretty decent at punching things, particularly HKs and Barons, I'm not great with the BFG, I'm almost all-theory with it. Though I usually use it efficiently it against most enemies, it's the Cybies that are the problem, I can never two-shoot their ass, so if the situation allows it I tend to shotgun them to death instead, I like to think I'm pretty good at that :v .

[Deadwing]

2 hours ago, Agent6 said:

 

I liked the level design and theme, although you could probably sum AA up as a "modern, futuristic, and hardcore re-imagining of Epic 2" (that megawad sure was a big influence). The difficulty was the only thing that kinda ruined it here and there for me. Please stop killing me, give me a break :v . The following levels will be fine, I don't remember it getting more intense after that map. I think there's a few slaughter levels left, but none of them are as nasty as that map. As for me, I'll probably always prefer AA over Valiant, I didn't like the levels of the latter that much and especially the new enemies. They were interesting and some of them even tricky to deal with, but that's all.

 

While I'm pretty decent at punching things, particularly HKs and Barons, I'm not great with the BFG, I'm almost all-theory with it. Though I usually use it efficiently it against most enemies, it's the Cybies that are the problem, I can never two-shoot their ass, so if the situation allows it I tend to shotgun them to death instead, I like to think I'm pretty good at that :v .

 

Oh cool, if the slaugther levels are similar to map 15, I'll just let the in-fighting do most of the job, I guess. Maybe if I played the wad in HMP that design approach would have been more enjoyable for me, IDK. (more skilled players wouldn't feel too much annoyed by the constant traps/setpieces)

 

In the end I guess I've enjoyed more Valiant. AA has a more interesting theme, with more unique levels and does takes more risks, but in the end I ended up enjoying the more "traditional" gameplay of Valiant.

 

I love BFG but suck badly at doing the two-shot trick

[seed]

21 minutes ago, Deadwing said:

Oh cool, if the slaugther levels are similar to map 15, I'll just let the in-fighting do most of the job, I guess. Maybe if I played the wad in HMP that design approach would have been more enjoyable for me, IDK. (more skilled players wouldn't feel too much annoyed by the constant traps/setpieces)

 

In the end I guess I've enjoyed more Valiant. AA has a more interesting theme, with more unique levels and does takes more risks, but in the end I ended up enjoying the more "traditional" gameplay of Valiant.

 

I love BFG but suck badly at doing the two-shot trick

 

Welcome to the club, I'll teach you to use the SSG for Cybies instead xdd.

 

Honestly I think it's a matter of preference rather than something related to skill, maybe they'd like constant traps, maybe they wouldn't, I do agree that both Valiant and AA are tiresome with their traps. Here's a trap, here's another one likely with mandatory damage now, and WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, 500.000 MORE TRAPS YAY. I remember now that that's the reason why I could only play a few maps in one sitting since they would quickly become exhausting. Well, at least with the exception of Illuminati Revealed there's no more difficulty spikes.

 

You can rely on infighting in some of them but not all, or not as effectively afaik, you'll see why when you get there. Funny, now that you mentioned it MAP15 was actually a level I was thinking about, but I remembered it as being 20-something :v .

 

Talking about level design, now that I look back I think it's kind of a waste that everybody tried to immitate skillsaw, I don't remember any map making me think about their designer because, I don't know, nothing really created any contrast between them. Why did that happen, no idea, probably to avoid inconsistency.