What are you playing now?

[Nymbus_Hustle]

Currently playing Sigil and Nihility. Sigil is a challenge but nothing too bad on HMP. I'm started playing Nihility on UV today and oh my god it's hard. I can't tell if I'm just a noob or if getting past even the first map is supposed to be this difficult. Nevertheless, I'm loving both wads. 

I'm hoping to get into playing single map sets, but megawads and bigger projects have been holding my interest lately.

Aside from that, I've just been replaying the original Ultimate Doom with Romero's newer maps in episode one and chipping away at episode four on UV. 

[galileo31dos01]

Playing this little-known episode called City of Doom by Paul Maurone, released in 2000, and it has been delightful so far, I'm a sucker for city-downtown maps as a concept or theme and this guy delivered a goody. Of course it's an absolute switch hunt for every map, not as convoluted as it may have seemed at first, and there's plenty of secrets and nooks to explore which is a plus in my book, and no regrets at all for pistol starting. The only downside is, it appears to have had very little to no recognition throughout the years, I would have never known about this wad if it wasn't for elmle who streamed it a while ago. At least demos exist thankfully, and I'm stuck in map 09 without a clue of what to do in the northernmost section, so there should be something I'm missing, if not simply one of the doors is broken. But this old nugget is fun anyways, if you're into indirect progression, switches of all colours, and tall monotextured buildings, then take a look, the segment of maps 02-07 were the highlight imo. 

[Walter confetti]

Yeah, I know that episode too! Played long time ago, it is a great episode from what I remember...

 

I'm playing sporadically at Grim sense of humor (doom episode, reached E1M6) and wadpak3 (1994 levels compilation megawad, reached E1M6). Grim sense of humor is... kinda boring, there's a interesting (and asshole-ish) trap room in E1M4 and E1M5 is kind of nice level, but over this is a boring episode... wadpak3 is a mixed bag, nothing else. First levels of episode 1 (taken from a wad called combat.wad) looks like shit.

Edited June 16, 2019 by Walter confetti

[Grimosaur]

Playing through Alien Vendetta for the first time on Ultra Violence.

MAP18 broke me, but I know there must be much worse to come ;_;

 

I hate revenants so, so, so goddamn much now.

[galileo31dos01]

Indeed it's quite an episode, and I just beat it, turns out I missed the point of a switch in that map 09 (ironically, every map is a switch after the other), and figured that jumping for the BFG would be counterproductive, as it's a softlock that way and had to noclip. Thanks to a demo by vdgg, the map went smoother. Had to do the opposite in the map 11 where after wandering around for minutes looking for progression I tried straferunning through a window and basically skipped a couple key areas, yet finnished the map cleanly this time. Few easy tricks for speedrunning for sure, the last three maps fully embraced the "Eternal Doom effect" to the point of becoming too tedious to explore in depth. Still a satisfying choice. 

 

Next is revisiting Double Impact but in its original form, not in Freedoom like two years ago. And with pistol starts, knowing how chewy some of the fights get, and the last map, hopefully it'll stay chaotic but more chill for me with the experience I have. 

 

Edited June 16, 2019 by galileo31dos01

[3saster]

4 hours ago, 𝕲𝖗𝖎𝖒𝖔𝖘𝖆𝖚𝖗 said:

Playing through Alien Vendetta for the first time on Ultra Violence.

MAP18 broke me, but I know there must be much worse to come ;_;

 

I hate revenants so, so, so goddamn much now.

You're gonna have fun later...

For what it's worth, MAP25-MAP28 is the hardest part of AV, with MAP25 being the hardest IMO.

[galileo31dos01]

And so Double Impact went super smooth and super fun, beat every map with a total of 4 or 5 deaths and yes, they got quite chewy but with good use of resources I could turn the grind into slaughtering (not the genre), which was a more fun way to perceive the fights, it's actually my aim with every mapset as much as possible as it increases the fun. The last map though was madness, running around in desperation to find the switches while the biped cows were chasing my back and the sound of metallic heels stomping behind the walls, then using the last bullet to kill the last living cow as I couldn't get the spiders to kill or weaken them all enough. And then fell into a pit of death. All good, even more fun than I remembered, definitely keeping it as an inspiration for my own mapping.

 

Next was Baker's Dozen by Eternal, I gotta say I do appreciate his style but, at the same time, when it comes to huge spacious areas like the slaughtery encounter in map 10 or the last map, the gameplay gets strange, either these high number of monsters that put no pressure at all, or these snipers from way above my FOV that are annoying to kill. However, in the subject of texturing and visuals tricks, amazing job imo. Well the gameplay was fine throughout, like in Epic 2. And most of the music being Eternal Doom midis giving me the feeling I'll get lost at any second, but thankfully not lol. It's a fine set of maps I should say.

 

Now it's going to be 3 Heures d'Agonie II, in the mood of some french dooming, hopefully fun moments will be had. 

[joepallai]

Started playing The Becoming by @Jayextee and all I can think of is, "How the hell did I miss this?"    It's fantastic.  

Edited June 20, 2019 by joepallai : spelling

[Kyoh1]

As Insane_Gazebo is back to business, I am currently giving a try on his new maps, with save.

Aside from that, I am playing Speed of Doom, pistol start, w/o saving, but I am hardly making progress.

[HavoX]

The Golden Souls 2 by Batandy. The first one was so much fun and wacky.

[SpaceTrash]

Working my way through Ancient Aliens on UV. It's an uphill battle – I now have a huge mistrust of Bezerk packs.

[galileo31dos01]

Reviving this thread!

 

Played many different wads in the past weeks, all of them bringing some aspects of the game I love and others I still have to live with. A self-reminder not to try new stuff when I hit a really low mood due to IRL stuff, because I then make stupid mistakes, everything annoys me, and I end up in autopilot basically. Anyways here's the stuff:

 

- 3 Heures d'Agonie 2, so much going on here from a community that, to my understanding, always developed new high quality and demanding stuff. Really a vast improvement over the prequel, should I say. Most of the authors I already knew their styles, like FranckFRAG's short entries with devilish starts (figure this is repeated 32 times in Swift Death), JCD's love letters to HR including a cyberspace gimmicky cool map, [WH]-Wilou84's slaughter-in-vanilla-flavor, Datacore's slightly weird combat painted in Inferno-ish theme, and Memfis' with Plutonia-esque action. I didn't have any particular recollection from Oxyde's style in my mind (did remember his map in 3hda), so the transition to casual action to sudden nonstop attrition kinda shocked me, in a good way. Darkwave's great map felt a lot more forgiving than I expected. The other authors also added their own spice, ChowW's being the highlight imo, though everyone provided nice maps. Definitely recommended if you're looking for plenty of action.

 

- The Devilz Work by Doomkid, a nice collection of maps involving strict resource management and a modified palette. Gotta say the ultramarine blue gave its own pretty touch. Some strange monster usage here and there, like the wtf archvile in map02. A good one to pick for no reason in particular.

 

- Coffee Break by Matt Tropiano. To be honest I did't really fancy it that much, but my low mood might have influenced. Felt like the hitscanner usage slowed me down too often, frequent instapops here and there, I probably would have liked this more in a different context of my life. Not saying is bad quality, it has its Plutonia vibes and all, just the style wasn't my cup of coffee, ironically.

 

- Number One Kill The Next Generation by Angelo Jefferson, very old megawad probably many people out there never heard of. It's sort of TNT and Plutonia had a baby and that baby was the devil. This one wasn't the smartest choice, but stubborn me yet madly went through it in four days. Don't exactly remember where I read something that was so accurate, mappers back in the earliest days didn't have an "imaginary manual" of what to and what not do in Doom, like monster placements. This isn't meant to criticize their willing to create and share their stuff, after all mapping/designing/etc is on a constant period of evolution, but man if no one didn't tell him some of his traps were damn unfair... though it's okay considering the era this was made, and it should be hilarious on multiplayer, just watching one of your teammates fall gets jailed in a tiny room with endless hell knights spawning must be laughter material. A positive thing is, it's fully playable on UV pistol starts, but the ideal choice is neither that skill or mode, as there are situations you'll wish you had a BFG and 200/200.

 

To be continued...

 

EDIT: Episode 2

 

What I forgot to comment is if I liked the wad or not. The answer is yes, baring the fact over 90% of the main threats came from zombies and archviles thrown with impunity (oh and pinkies, wow). I had to think my movements, inspect the environment, and yeet the fuck out of death traps, something that the inspirational iwads taught you, so for that era I'd call it a fine challenging wad. Moving on...

 

- Incineration by PCorf, simply a fine easy episode replacement for Inferno. Awesome texture usage. Not much to say, it accomplishes what it promises.

 

- Khorus by Shadowman, looking for some russian mapping and knowing beforehand this author has his peculiar ways to keep players on their toes. Found it attractive and frustrating to go through. Hitscan usage was out of control in a couple maps, just getting shot from every window every five seconds would irritate anyone. But attractive thematically and adventurous nevertheless. I don't think I'll play a wad by him in a long time, unless in community mapsets. At least nowhere near nonsense as map 21 in Heroes' Tales.

 

- Dystopia 3 by various people. Boy this was something, think I would have loved-hated this had I played it along with Requiem back in the old days (2017). Only one map forced me to be extremely careful from any kind of damage, with that slow elevator also seen in Requiem, the rest was pretty fun and impressive for its age, even cute to meet the STRAIN maps in their original form. Also, like in the first time playing Requiem, I still believe Iikka's mancubi usage is the most hilarious I've ever seen.

 

- Mutiny by various people. To be honest Dystopia was an excuse to play this. Absolutely loved this wad, just what I needed apparently, action maps around city-cyberpunk-rusty-etc theme, and blue, plenty of blue, and great music. First map instantly became one of my favourite openers, which didn't happen since BTSX:E2, whatever trick they used to make reflection on water blew my mind. And all the maps were super fun. Totally recommended.

 

Wow that was a lot of writing... also replaying the iwads on UV pistol starts, just to relax a bit, currently on E4M4, next will be Doom 2 and last Plutonia. Omg I'm tired.

Edited July 4, 2019 by galileo31dos01

[3saster]

Well, since this is back, might as well post what I played since last time!

- I gave Sunder a full run-through, to enjoy the old maps again and experience the old maps. The old maps were a lot of fun, for the most part, though it did remind me how rough and in need of the polishing some of the gameplay can feel in certain levels. As for the new levels, they were fantastic! The fights as a whole were very enjoyable (save for the hedge-maze in MAP32), and the level of detail is as high as ever. Like the old levels in Sunder, there is an extremely strong sense of place, and a feeling of domination by the architecture itself. MAP15, 32, and 16 are extremely long maps though; they took me 3,4, and 6 hours respectively. I don't mind it, but I really hope some of future levels are smaller in scope, or else everyone would get super burned out. Something like MAP06 would be perfect for this.

- Hell's Eventide was a cool map. Lots of fun encounters, well put together, looks pretty good too, especially for 1997. I was surprised that this was made by three dudes passing around a map, it really doesn't feel like it. Just a solid map in general.

 

- Kuchitsu by Memfis. Short mapset, I finished it very quickly. Honestly, the maps look and play okay, but there was really nothing special at all to me. It's doesn't do anything bad, but it doesn't do anything standout either. I am completely amazed that this won a Cacoward.

 

- Toilet of the Gods by Benjogami. Very cool mapset, with a very distinct purple-ish color to it. MAP01 is cool and inventive, although it has a lot more platforming than I'd like. MAP02 is excellent, with a great opening fight with the cyber, mancs, HK's and revs. No complaints here. MAP03 is an awesome slaughtermap with lots of ways to tackle it. My only complaint is that the (red?) key on the platforms is kinda weird to get to, with all the raised ledges and whatnot. MAP04 was horrendous, but it's kind of a bonus map, so it's not a big deal. Overall, a great mapset, and makes me very interested to check out Benjogami's other stuff. It definitely earned its (Missed) Cacoward.

 

- Doom 404 by Adam Windsor. I really didn't like this. A lot of it felt very boring and tedious, and wasn't very fun to play through. When I got to the Hell episode, there stopped being much ammo for anything except the rocket-launcher, in small spaces full of demons and what not. I hated this style of gameplay so much I just dropped it on MAP23. I'm sure some people will like this, but I certainly didn't.

- Khorus' Speedy Shit by Khorus. Excellent mapset, loved every second of it. I loved Base Ganymede, so I thought I would enjoy this too, and I was not disappointed. Compared to BG, these maps are generally smaller in scope (very few maps are over 100 monsters), and more direct action. There were only 11 secrets in the whole megawad, and a large emphasis on tricky monster placement. I mentioned before that Base Ganymede kind of ran out of encounter ideas about halfway, and could have benefited from Doom II monsters. Low and behold, that's exactly the case here, and Khorus squeezes lots of unique encounters out of the expanded roster.

Overall, the layouts and levels themselves feel less polished than BG, but are shorter and "punchier". A fine mapset (except for the name) that I will absolutely be coming back to in the future.

Edited July 16, 2019 by 3saster

[galileo31dos01]

Hola

 

Like I said in a previous post, I've been replaying stuff to get back to my comfort zone and then break it again, something sort of therapeutic after the disaster that was myself two weeks ago. The condition is that these are only wads played back when my choice was HMP/continuous, and mainly with Crispy Doom, though Ancient Aliens is on my radar too. Both TNT and Ultimate Doom are already covered on UV pistol starts 100% everything, the former would be the third time played through. I said another iwad was next but actually changed my mind and chose the BTSX series, honestly because Mutiny put me in the mood. Too bad the second one hasn't been updated after so many years, considering the few issues that don't let you to fully clean some maps. Still consider the first one among my favourite wads. 

 

Now I'm going through D2INO up to map 07 where I'm starting to regret everything lol. Think I'll leave it for another time and change to Revilution or Plutonia 2, or maybe AAliens, idk, something colorful and with good music.

[Andromeda]

Just played through Hell Revealed. Favourite levels, in order:

1. MAP09: Knockout

2. MAP08: The Jail

3. MAP23: Ascending to the Stars

Edited September 3, 2019 by Andromeda

[Crusader No Regret]

Slowly making my way through the Alfonzone.  There are those moments where I forget jumping is enabled and expected being so used to playing in PrBoom+.  Gameplay feels mostly conventional and there are interesting details scattered around.

 

Also got around to firing up Mayhem Mansion.  A goofy diversion with a new set of weapons and enemies to play around with.  Enjoyed the combat enough with the new arsenal and enemies that i replayed it on hard.  It's mostly easy to avoid damage but it's also easy to go from healthy to dead/crippled in 2-3 hits if one gets sloppy with dodging.  Can't remember how i heard about it.  Downloaded in 2017 and it sat on my hard drive for two years.

[Simomarchi]

Kama sutra:

I've recently played this cacoward winner for the first time, and honestly I disliked it almost at all. It is full of hall of mirrors and bugs (they are left here for some reason, at least this is what the readme file says) and it is a very poor quality wad. Most of the fights are door fights and the monsters always teleport in a room behind you where they can easily infight each other to death (I remember a level with at least half of the population in a single room that after an infight was left with only a low health cybie).

And I found the levels to be ugly to see.

 

Community chest 4:

this was a beutiful experience. Perfect levels, perfect gameplay and a not so easy difficulty level. The speceship levels are something that I could not build even in my dreams, really. Every map is so well detailed that is not a surprise that the build time is 4 years. 

Really a great wad

 

Sunlust:

I'm playing this wad right now, and I'm on MAP15 I think. 

I also think that I've never, never become so angry and frustrated for a doom wad like for this one. Some moments seem really impossible at least for the first 10 attempts. I can't play this without saves. However it is visually impressive and I totally understand why it is a so praised wad.

[3saster]

The Devilz Work by DoomKid. Pretty fun mapset, short and straightforward. Some of the monster placement can be a little ammo-spongy though. The teleporting monsters seem like a good idea in theory, but in practice doesn't really work as intended. MAP07 is a fun amped-up version of Underhalls, but very different from the past six maps. Overall, neat little mapset.

 

Chord Series by Malcolm Sailor. Very distinctive style of maps, they were a lot of fun to play. Lighting was great throughout, and the monster encounters are challenging despite being low in number (hope you like the berserk fist!). Chord G was probably my favourite, although Chord 3 was easily the hardest. A good set of maps that still hold up very well, recommended.

 

99 Ways to Die by Warren Marshall. Plays fine, although pretty easy, and pistol starts can be a bit funny at the beginning of the maps until you get some weapons. This WAD is known for its lighting, and yeah it is good, but it is too subtle most of time. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been specifically looking for it. Overall, nothing wrong with this WAD, but not very memorable to me.

The Talosian Incident by The Black Star Coven. Very cool mapset, it has a fantastic atmosphere and cool music. The level progression also works quite well. Like 99 Ways to Die, the lighting is excellent, but this time it really stands out by much heavier use of darkness. It's really awesome to see a lamp in the corner casting shadows on the boxes nearby, with varying intensity based on how close to the light it is. The maps generally play alright, although some of the maps are much longer then they need to be, and can become switch-hunty (MAP05 and MAP15 are the worst offenders). The WAD probably could have benefited from using DEHACKED to give some more context in the intermission texts, but that's a minor complaint. Overall, a cool and memorable mapset, well worth checking out.

[Rince-wind]

Somewhere in Time (Zoltan Schmidt "Katamori") - I found this wad thanks to the Random File button on idgames, it's amazing how many hidden gems there are.

This is a 15-level mapset with small to medium sized maps with some good stock texure usage and simple but pleasant architecture. The difficulty is on the easier side (at least for me), I've only died once in the entire wad, but that's not to say the combat is boring. Not sure if the wad is supposed to be played from pistol starts, but even then there's health and armor in abbundance. Would reccomend this to anyone who wants a quick stroll through some fun and simple levels.

[Salt-Man Z]

Finished Nihility: Infinite Teeth, which was glorious. A great Ep2 episode, reminded me of some of Nic Monti's stuff a little bit. Good use of new/tweaked monsters, too.

 

Seeing the release of Sinergy gave me the urge to get back to Baculus, which I tried a year or so ago, but abandoned when I ran out of ammo on MAP02 on UV. I started over on HMP this time, and have blitzed through the first 8-9 maps in a couple of nights. Great stuff; short, punchy maps kinda in the vein of the first Scythe.

[Rince-wind]

Earth Ends (The Doomer Boards qrew) - 6 maps with some fun and challenging level design. Like most DB projects it has really creative level design that still plays and feels like Doom, even with the addition of new textures, sprites and monsters.

[Rince-wind]

Corruption 2 (Doomaniac) - A short and simple level with a techbase-cavern-hell progression, perfect for someone who wants a quick vanilla wad.

[Rince-wind]

900 Deep in the Dead (Jay 'Jayextee' Townsend) - 9 maps with the gimmick being they're made with no more than 100 lines. Because of this the levels are short with very basic architecture and texture usage, the gameplay also being quite easy. But with such a limitation Jay still manages to make the levels fairly fun, especially if you like old-school minimalistic wads.

[Magicana]

Finally managed to get past this trap (I haven't been playing a lot lately, so I've been stuck here awhile) and finish the map.

 

Fantastic looking wad (Sunder), but seriously challenging for a nub like me.

 

[Tango]

currently almost done with @Octavarium's Ol' No Name, and it's pretty incredible. there's so much variety in both visuals and combat, and it's all really fantastically done. really can't believe I missed this when it came out a few years ago - it's definitely going to be a huge inspiration in whatever my next mapset is.

 

also just finished playing @A2Rob's Panic in Paradise, which was truly excellent. it's only a single map sadly, but I would love to see a full episode of maps like it. great map design, and the new enemies/weapons are tons of fun. plus it's got Thunder Force IV music!!

[3saster]

dead.wire by Xaser. Very solid map. Looks cool, plays well, the new weapons are fun. I didn't realize the guns have alt-fires until after I finished it, heh. The transparency of the enemies can get a bit annoying though, but otherwise this is an incredibly good release.

 

dead.air, also by Xaser. WOW. This map was good, like REALLY GOOD. This might be one of the finest maps I've ever played. I am completely amazed that Xaser was able to combine strong level design, interesting new enemies, exciting and challenging combat encounters, and strong, effective, creative weaponry. The most inventive I think is the fusion mortar, where you'll intentionally miss in order to maximize its effectiveness, and the encounter involved is perfectly designed for using it this way. There's a great progression of weaponry too, where every weapon gets a chance to shine. One of my favourite fights is when you fight a hundred or so faceless demons (pinkies that attack way faster) backed up by tons of birdmen with only a Flak Cannon Shrapnel Cannon. And the climax is awesome too, featuring a monster of a weapon that wouldn't be out of place in Russian Overkill. I genuinely can't find any faults with the map, it really is that good.

As a funny side note, the reason I played these two because dead.air is actually featured on the zdoom.org homepage, under "Limitless Mod Potential". I thought the picture looked awesome, so I asked what it was, and so I found out what it was, and got to play it. Not disappointed.

 

Plutonian Winds by darkreaver. A really enjoyable and challenging set of maps. Despite the name and the use of the Plutonia IWAD, it doesn't really resemble Plutonia's gameplay, but instead has its own distinctive style. darkreaver particularily likes using archviles in relatively open areas, so target prioritization and fast movement is very important. The traps are also very vicious with little downtime, giving you little time to rest. I'm also a big fan of how often the architecture keeps changing, with MAP13 having perhaps the most extreme example at the beginning. Also, the maps are relatively small, so dying doesn't said you far back, and encourages you to experiment with different strategies. My favourite map was probably MAP14, although MAP16 and MAP18 were highlights too. Highly recommended.

[Rince-wind]

Bossed (C30N9) - 5 maps that use ACS script and custom monsters, where each map ends with a boss fight. It gets pretty difficult at the end (at least for me) and it contains some puzzles (jumping ones too) but I had quite some fun with it for what it is.

[Salt-Man Z]

Finished up @Crunchynut44's Baculus last night on HMP/continuous. Woof, those last couple levels were pretty brutal. But the whole WAD is gold. Mostly shortish, really punchy levels. Memorable stuff, and lots of fun.

 

 

[seed]

Some Hexenwahn Hexen wads. Finished Scourge of Viscerus yesterday and nearing the end of A New World now.

 

Pretty damn good stuff, and @RonLivingston's palette works pretty well with ANW. Very good-looking levels full of atmosphere and great music, as well as lots of ideas and pretty neat voice-acting despite the standard video game plot of the '90s. The mental exploitation part in one of the maps was... insane :p .

[Rince-wind]

Back To Hell (David Seager) - An overlooked old school Episode 3 replacement. For a '96 wad it has some noteable texture usage and level architecture, and the lighting in some places is really striking and atmospheric. My favourite map would be E3M9, a hellish manor with a cemetery and mausoleum.