What are you playing now?

[abandoned account]

Not doom actually, i stopped playing this game last year cuz i got bored of it lol, i decided to try more games and not limit myself to playing the exact same game every single day. I gotta say, this was the right move.

 

i do think however that doom 1 is infinitely superior to doom 2

[Firedust]

Replaying the anniversary edition of Doom Odyssey in anticipation of the sequel release this year.

[Lila Feuer]

Beat Reverie for Doom II, honestly a beautiful ending even if I knew about the story beforehand in the readme (it really doesn't ruin anything, it just makes more sense of why everything is surreal and gloomy in the levels), put me in a classic mood for its inspirations so I'm playing Memento Mori next, haven't seen it since 2009 or so, hopefully it's aged as well as I recall it.

[galileo31dos01]

I recently finnished Newdoom Community Project 2, which is a full megawad designed with boom compatibility in mind but not quite friendly with actual boom-supported ports. There were numerous updates past the idgames release and I grabbed the one from DSDA that seemed to be the latest, plus a patch that I downloaded some time ago but unfortunately I don't remember from where, nor the text file says who's responsible. It's called "ndcp2fix" if that hints anyone. It apparently fixes a good chunk of bugs and stuff, though I still found a few other maybe less obvious issues here and there.

 

Anyways, halfway through I decided to write down my recollection of the maps in the form of "whatever comes to my head" commentary, like I had done plenty other times before. If you're gonna read, keep in mind these are not reviews nor that was ever my intention, just thoughts, observation, babbling, nothing formal.

 

My overall conclusion of the wad is that it was partially not my cup of coffee. I would prefer the prequel over this any day as far as personal entertainment goes, but that in some aspects NDCP2 showed some improvement, like texture work and a more cohesive overarching goal, I would believe the mappers coworked with each other more thoroughly behind the scenes, and ultimately delivered a product they felt more proud of, I suppose. Too bad it wasn't largely under-tested. But the first NDCP appeals more to me with much more visceral and dynamic action in general. That said, NDCP2 was steadily on the middle for me, so that would mean neutral experience, and I would perhaps recommend it if you're into a sort of prolonged adventure with a general emphasis on narrative-visuals and low difficulty, with the rare spikes and thorns. The text file mentions doom 3 inspiration a lot of times so I guess that's something else to consider. And get yourself a proper bugfix release, if you can find one first.

 

So without further ado, the babbling:

 

Spoiler

01. Solid starter. I always loved this midi since I heard it in SoD (it's from Resident Evil 2). It blended just about alright with the overall rusty metal setting, which the mapper understood pretty well. One of the secrets gave me the advantage to kill a couple of shotgun turds that would snipe later, big fan of that. I dug the starry sky too. I guess the standout part was the teleporting invaders outside, besides of course the aforementioned secret. Yeah, neat base.

 

02. Holy moses that's a helluva lot of micro-detailing! I haven't seen this much meticulous detailing in a minute, in any mapset. Every nook has eye-candy of 1-2 pixel wideness, or elevated tiny hexagons, idk, anything related to technology you can think of. Beyond that, playability was fine for the most part, like how chaotic the second area could get because shits lurk and come from multiple angles, or the comical hordes of imps and zombiemen after several key points (the second time differed only in actions, it used silent teleport lines). I wasn't a fan of the hitscanners in the courtyard, because high exposure but no armor to be found, so extra caution was more than required, at least until the clumsy arachnotrons/cyb ambush. Speaking of cybs, I was surprised to telefrag one I saw earlier, and then find out it was for the better -- the switch hunt around him was tight and on ice, so if he was alive I would have been slalomed all over the room. Huh. Interesting map nonetheless. Ah, I almost shit my pants nearby the exit, some speedy cacodemon variant appeared out of nowhere, making loud noises and looking nasty. From the way it died, I assumed I was lucky it didn't get to touch me...

 

03. An extremely cramped labyrinth of a base, basically speaking. This reminded of the map 19 from the first NDCP, coincidentally by the same author. I suppose as an early-game map it wasn't going to show the spooks of the older one. It did play ultra slow, by virtue of said cramped, compact layout, kind of a fancy-detailed corridor crawler maybe, adding midtex rail, narrow stairs, narrow ledges, narrow puzzles, and narrow whatnot. But in terms of opposition I thought it was well measured towards lightweight incidental combat, among the rare revenants or cacodemons, so things didn't feel like a slog to me. Some cute bits included the red laser, the map secret, and the deep water. There was an unfortunate D1 door that locked me away from progression, and another one later I think it forbid me to find my last missing secret (the megasphere, not sure though), but the former  door was a serious issue that wasn't fixed in the allegedly "ndcp2fix" patch. Other than that, well and this being the second map without music replacements, it was an okay thing overall.

 

04. I think this was designed with the idea of bringing horror and/or suspense to the game, telegraphed via the texturing and light effects throughout, so it's more clear the outpost was unfortunately too consumed by the forces of hell to be saved, or something, idk. The sparse population would do the trick in the mapper's eyes. I understood the eerie atmosphere, that worked, but that aside this map was practically empty or devoid of danger, at least for me, I may have expected something that never came. The three monsters in the fleshy  area were tucked in there with block lines for some reason - that included a pinky in a totally empty secret. A lot of hidden needed stuff too, that wasn't a cons although I probably had luck that I noticed every switch without difficulty, despite the darkness. There was a backpack on a box I never figured how to reach, hopefully it didn't require jumping but who knows. This was entirely exploratory and probably to unsettle most players so I liked that aspect, but I did want to find the exit as soon as possible. Strange map, not used to this heh.

 

05. Not too bad. It had useful chains of barrels like those at the start, plenty shells to waste effortlessly, some inoffensive symmetry, mancubi in a tight room where they could barely move -- none of these sound like highlights I know, but I don't have much to recollect. The vent section begged for a chainsaw that didn't exist. Yeah, okay thing I guess.

 

06. Excluding the annoying chaingunner with full view over your FOV, this was a promising setting from the get-go. One of the little details that immediately grabbed my attention was that you'd find a pickup under every corpse decoration, I'm a fan of that ngl. I wasn't all that sure what the outpost was meant to be, maybe a UFO kind of deal. The custom textures in this wad so far are something else. I was reminded of the space maps in CChest4, specially with the lasers and shiny tubes and stuff. For best moment, it probably was the revenant pincer attack in one of the corridors, since most everything else was individual or small encounters found along the way, generally without some surprise element. The mapper did use this one boom feature where you'd find an idle monster on your way back, as a means to both keep the backtrack active and to guide players where they ought to go - a good idea. I still got somewhat lost after hitting a couple switches in the "laboratory" (no idea what the last room was) and wandered around for a bit. The few pain elementals remained in silence when I asked them for directions, bunch of stupids. I then noticed a portal revealed itself around some computers and that was the exit, heh. Interesting, although that last part was random.

 

07. I'm fairly sure many MAP07s have been called "Not So Simple" throughout doomstory. I guess the title references the fact this isn't just another simple rehash, thankfully, although the gameplay on offer leaned towards simplicity and efficiency. The first half could be well considered room cleanup service throughout, and with a nondescript mancubi setup alike dead simple (still not a rip-off!). About the harshest bit I'd say the arachnotron down some lift, as I had the wrong weapon for that moment and the shit loved soaking lots of SSG shots. Next I was sent to an isolated section of the base, with some pseudo-bridges in the dark, which looked cool. The pinky ambush would be the highlight of this half, kind of intense while old-school. By the end I was missing quite a few monsters, so with IDDTx2 enabled I noticed a row of sergeants glued on each other, their bond was too strong apparently, and another closet with stuff awake. Those were linked to some blue armor on one of the mancubi's platforms, and so I took the vest and oh boy how terrible that setup was armed. I chose to move on, no incentive on waiting ages til they all walk over their teleport...

 

08. Rough start, inundated by hitscan shots and without some freebie gun. That left me severely bruised for a while, and made little things like the imp ambush kinda tense. Then I nearly ran out of ammo just when another hitscan ambush was spawning in a crisscross of corridors, the barons and cacodemons swallowed about every bullet in my stock and thank fuck I noticed the obvious SSG computer before. That and the secret PR were a must-have, and even the RL wasn't in plain sight. Some cover would have been great for the SMM annex, unless the idea was to get it paralyzed around the glut of pinkies and imps that teleported afterwards. I found what I assume was an alternate route to the exit in some sewers or sum, which had a goofy army of lost souls in a timed trap. Missed a secret because of taking the exit carelessly, heh. Btw, those orange screens look sick and blend perfectly with the rusty metal setting.

 

09. An okay map. Very polished visuals and sick lighting gave life to this outpost (I'm getting rid of the habit of calling every base a "techbase"), while slightly mediocre on the combat/fighting aspect, but that's not to say it was boring, mind you. Each area was dotted with either homogeneous or varied groups of baddies you'd sometimes diligently oust with the shotguns and chaingun, and barring a revenant or a mancubus in the way, things were generally toothless. The PR appeared just in time to spice things up. One of the latter traps, I think the BK yard, that spawned an already hyperactive chaingunner literally next to my left arm, that amused me so much for no reason. I finally got the RL ready to exhaust the generous amount of rockets in the cavern. The mixed bags of monsters came as an afterthought, although as there weren't any "primary threats" of sorts I could just use the vast space to my own advantage. Maybe a BFG would have livened up things a bit more. I will repeat that this mapper made a terrific job with the texturing, all clean and nothing overdone, worth a trip in nomo.

 

10. So much gray, heh, hence the title. I was immediately reminded of Espi's map in the first NDCP, not just because of the monochrome-esque motif but on a structural side as well, perhaps more orthogonal. The few armory rooms did strongly feel Espi to me. Whatever, this was thankfully more enjoyable than it seemed like from the beginning (these mappers loved to have you using the pistol for a minute). Still thoroughly low-key and possibly on the grindy side of the spectrum, but I was open-minded that day. There was a very congested room with goats, revs and mancubi where things picked up as I tried to set the infight going and failed so hard -- the low computers blocked manc fireballs and I ate like three green fireballs. Damn! That was one me, but you kinda have to get yourself into trouble to taste spice in this map. Likely I decided to skip the one random cyberdemon, not knowing if I was gonna get punished for that, but nothing stood in the way so I went back to oust the thing with shells. The last secret was next to the exit, a computer map. I wish I didn't IDDT because the map would have already showed me the other missing secret. Oh well. Favorite detail would be the caco corpses on the water!

 

11. Another Dutch Devil offering, neat. Quite enjoyed this as usual: cleanly textured mint chocolate variant, oppressive action, with a slant towards shotgun guys(!), and good fun secrets as well. I must say, I believe a big part of why I enjoyed this was because I actively sought the secrets, and so I could claim every gun upgrade as early as possible. A controversial design choice, though I'm ambivalent -- exploration is fun to me, though depends on the day I guess. This map was too well designed to see that as harmful. Anyways, my standout situation was when I went down an elevator, greeted a spectre, and the shot woke up a group of revenants nearby, as I ran outside and stumbled upon more trouble, then died in a stupid way: surrounded by paws, fists and teef. Good times. Things calmed down a bit afterwards, the megasphere and PR secret came in handy to feel very safe.  All of the outdoors areas allowed me to admire the sky one last time before the inevitable change. Solid fun.

 

12. Aww, no more nighttime. Spicy, somewhat nightmarish outing nonetheless. I liked how the start sort of entices you to get closer to shoot the shotgunners, only to raise other monsters from the water - it's the intention what counts. The map had several teleporting ambushes at different intervals as a form to sandwich players, and some of them were very effective at catching me off guard, like the one hefty army of lost souls as I met the HKs guarding the SSG, or this archvile plus chaingunners almost close to the start point - that and the instant lowering floor before the RK were rude af. Oh and the crusher? okay sir, bring back the 90s lol. Some of the traps leaned towards quantity over quality, not too mention huge delays in between teleportations (this has been an ongoing flaw in the wad). The switch chain in the RK room was an epic fail because the guardian couldn't attack at all (unless you try to squeeze past him I suppose!).  I liked how after all the trouble you return to the surface next to the starting place and have to fight one last horde to claim victory. Glad I had the BFG for that, rocket supplies weren't that many...

 

13. Right, the evil has arrived. Early Joshy was as rude as, not sure if nowadays but certainly circa his SoD/Resurgence era. I'm mostly remembering the caged chaingunners you can't dispatch until working through the already exposed pool of mud, and the bridge setup, much tighter than in the original Plutonia map 16. Those two caused me the most trouble, and running out of ammo at the end - had I found the chainsaw right at the start, I would have been fine. I was still free of trouble though, though the archvile suffered a little from the blade before pulling me onto the exit pad. With the bridge I tried befriending the arachnotrons, only to be betrayed when they finished their job, so then I tried the SSG-bait thing with revs that sometimes work, and sprayed plasma on my way out. Very little space to work so I did what I could. For being one of the author's oldest public maps it showed he was a promising mapper. Well done.

 

14. Hmm, so basically a continuation of the author's previous map, which was 06. Honestly I'm not sure which one of the two I prefer, probably the outdoors of this while the interiors of the other, as far as combat goes. The UFO excursion started with a hub and, like in 06 I had a few obstacles when it came to progress, but nothing too bad. I'd say my favorite section was the cafeteria, because doomcute, including a vent machine. The bedroom was nice too, it's where the other custom enemy was introduced, a hitscan soldier who's on automatic forever once it's alerted. What a noisy guy. The access to the BFG storage was through the vent and I ended having to backtrack to where I was before, which took two precious minutes! Yeah, finding your way through the station is both linear and complex at the same time. None of the combat inside was to highlight except until I was outside near the coast, thanks to having the BFG I disarmed the archvile ambush in the complete open. Apparently I missed a secret but I couldn't be arsed to go back to the UFO, not after the tedious backtrack I mentioned before.

 

15. Intricacy and 90s flavor, that sums up this pretty well. My experience was satisfying: I had to find the six keys to unlock the secret exit, and because this map played with the wormhole concept, a favorite of mine, I was ready for the immersion. That involved solving something like four or five set piece challenges, besides understanding the similarities and differences of each dimension. Of the "earthly" dimension, the arrows puzzle had the most hidden treasures, and good thing I found everything despite getting horribly stuck in a loop a couple times. I wasn't sure what switched on the arrows, but I did notice them appearing after exploring other areas. The toxic base was the most tumultuous, and shared motifs with map 05, even though the mapper didn't contribute to this one. I liked that trap with hitscan and lost souls and the popup lost soul in the toxic tunnel got a laugh out of me. In the "otherworldly" dimension it was a baron. The conveyor on the lava dragged him to the wall on the opposite end and, you guessed, that also made me laugh. Yeah, those are definitely the highlights. Maybe the archvile linked to the red skull, because it was the last key I picked up and by that time the archvile was just rocket fodder, but him still minding his business and resurrecting gunners was amusing to me.

 

31. Instant idmus01. Had some mixed feelings here at the beginning, mostly related to the secret weapons and me missing the hints regardless of my intensive research abilities. This and being greeted by four hitscan turds shooting at me from the other end of a teleport. Oh well, feel like a broken record saying this... The earthly setting was nice, with the mountains and red background, I could already sense the last episode was going to look charming. At least the good weapons were available throughout the map, though I wished to have the SSG earlier before alerting a mass of pinkies. Speaking of, the one secret SSG visible from the start wasn't accessible up until I used the regular SSG copy to shoot a switch that was too high. I'm sure this was overlooked during testing, it does make the secret one pointless if you're not playing with freelook. The secret exit could be accessed from the very beginning in less than 15 seconds if you know where it is, wow. Anyways, alright thing.

 

32. Umm, not sure about this one. The ol' "cyberdemon scare" at the start was pretty much old, and finicky as well, as one of them seemed to skip the tp line and pushed me from behind. That was on a second attempt, the first ended in the eastern quarters to some drunk cacos (or slomnibi) who were very quick at surrounding me. These guys aren't too healthy but due to required distance they may not die to a single SSG shot occasionally. I then realized the cybs spawned one by one after working on each wing, so a cyberden kind of deal, except it's possibly not viable to skip them til you acquire the BFG. None of the key areas had interesting mechanics going on imo. The slomnibi ambush in the base was repeated three times and that took off the novelty, though it was the most fun in the map. That and the third cyb, because BFG in hand. The mazes afterwards, umm, well first the cacos teleported basically with at least minutes of delay between each other, the "hunted" one was tame, and the much bigger maze dragged on too long exactly for being huge. I then almost died to the drunk cacos and the spiderdemon afterwards - the RNG was on my favor and decided she'd miss most shots. But I couldn't recover, although for that I would have had to backtrack and fuck no. I could not make the jump on top of the mossy walls, no idea why but I simply couldn't find the angle, so I used noclip and then headed to the exit, once the moving wall was out of the way. 

 

16. Apt name, I like guessing who made what in maps like this one. The first chunk was the smallest, probably two minutes spent, and I don't know who designed it but featured bright and rusty metal plus heavy hitscan fire, as one of the sergeants managed to deal max damage from a certain distance. I'm inclined to think the mapper was either Logan MTM or Macro11_1, but there was nowhere near the quality of detailing as their former map so, who knows, there's still other maps in latter maps I've never heard of before. Next portion was definitely by Danimetal , evidently by the shift towards narrow spaces, extensive but non-intrusive meticulous detailing - floor motifs and such. Still kept the health strict here. Then I entered some kind of plasma gun factory, guessing by the two yellow machines, and then I died to a slomnibi trap, oof. Tbh I could have done better, but with both panic and SSG in hand my mind went blank. The crates conveyor in that room was insane. This I suppose was jetflock's work, and Mr.Rocket continued afterwards with the desolate and creepy hallways. I believe the theme was inspired by Doom 3, but others can judge better than me. Latter areas were quite possibly designed by ace (in sync with Logan MTM I think), the cavern section and elevators for sure, it all reminded me of map 09. This is where things went a little dicey as my plasma ammo was draining in hopes the super intimate-quarters combat didn't kill me, or the archvile plus mancubi clausterfuck. That BFG tease was cleverly set. The exit had a double boss battle which went alright. Overall, enjoyed this, more or less.

 

17. Again apt name. It started in the heat of hitscan fire, as a chaingunner and marine were enough to subtract 1/4 of my health. You start on top of megasphere so what's there to complain! The door gimmicks were a nice touch, if the delay and sound propagation could have been handled better so not to ruin immersion. Not much to say about the bulk of the action, just the flavor of incidental like in the mapper's previous maps, although there was one quick teleporting ambush in the open that I liked, for the idea itself. Btw, this same place reminded me of one master levels, think it was called Geryon, idk the setup for the portal took me there (hopefully the connection isn't too far-fetched!). I will though speak against the titular "headache" section and say that yeah, it was a headache, a massive pain in the eyes, thus more harmful than worth the gimmick. It basically consisted of entering a reactor core that has flashing + blinking glass floors of multiple colours, a simple yet stressful switch hunt because of scroll actions in the way, all while under time constraints as the floor is of the most damaging sector special. Yup, lot of negative words for just one part of the map. The most unfortunate was missing a switch and running out of suits, no way I was gonna redo that whole part. Anyways, moving on, another double boss fight like in the previous map, except it added a very intrusive archvile. The path shut off all of a sudden and I hoped it would open back later (it did!). This was fun as I was carrying my BFG to make quick work of the almost useless cybs. The backtrack to the RK door thankfully had some extra surprises tossed in, I appreciate the mapper thought of that for their maps. Not too bad after all, but if I were you,I would skip the cyberspace section and noclip to the BK instead, avoid the harm.

 

18. Really liked the setting here, with gray and cedar brown textures giving a dusty, old feel to the factory. I figured this was entirely Doom Dude judging by the layout, similar geometry and texturing like in his NDCP maps, a "vanilla-plus" feel as well. The bulk of the gameplay was largely incidental with continuous low-key encounters that could easily be skipped, save for maybe one imp horde I think I disarmed the "sandwich" by never shooting a HK that revealed next to my spot. It was all dealt with the shotgun and chaingun, through the entire map. No real highlights but it's been a minute and a half since I was asked to tickle this many barons with wimpy guns, like six or seven no less. The roofless yard to the north was perhaps the standout part, I was pressured to not get hit at all and while managing the arachnotrons was easy, I still had to look at the mancubus overseeing the area. Despite taking me 25 minutes to clear the map, I wasn't bored, nor I skipped anything - temporarily yes I did - though I did hope for something stronger in the secrets. The armor came in handy as health was pretty sparse in general. The last secret I missed had an SSG(!). However, the trigger to reveal the secret was in a pillar with no visual clue or anything, so I was never gonna find that shit on my own. Oh well, still positive feelings after all.

 

19. The start of the BGM was like muffled noises, as if someone was blowing a microphone (non-sexually). That set the tone pretty effectively. I figured there would be areas devoid of monsters to emphasize on the creepiness. Yea, the first face was a jumpscare, rare thing in doom. The area with the lethal laser unfortunately broke for me. It seems that the intended complevel was 1 and not 9, for this map in particular, which is even weirder. I'm not familiar with the default complevel  so I've no idea where's the issue. Whatever, that wasn't my only obstacle. The map was full of ambient gimmicks and puzzle challenges, the kind that are very unfriendly if you don't understand what's going on or if you don't see the little details, not to mention you're always on the edge of falling into instant dead traps -- the map is choke full of them. As it should though, since it's somewhat unique. The maze annoyed me as I apparently had to shoot a texture that flew over my radar. That was on me, and missing the megasphere made things impossible later. I turned on iddqd and used multiple saves to get me out of the map. I even accidentally crossed a line that sent me back to the beginning, oh no baby no baby no... When it was all over, I thought to watch a playthrough to enlighten me. Then I replayed the whole map, legally. There were still a couple of sequence breaks and line skips here and there, unintentional but I'm inclined to fault the map for those. The map is really laborious and has a lot of effort put into its high complexity. Gets a point for that, but it unfortunately lacked more careful testing imo. Next...

 

20. A rather obnoxious map, from a pistol start perspective. You're in underground facility and have several accessible wings to choose, I interpreted that as non-linearity. I chose the door at the end of the corridor, did some work and then I got stuck with insufficient ammo and an archvile overseeing the bridges (plus a chaingunner in the void, it fell off to boom's physics every single time). A restart basically. I then chose another door, and once again ran out of ammo, but then I found a random but useful secret berserk -- a stray bullet must have lowered the barrier, but that's not something I got until checking in the editor, because why is it shootable when it could easily be pushed... That berserk was crucial for me to get somewhere, since I overlooked the plasma gun in the extreme dark a few times. Health was VERY sparse, any damage was a big deal, and with hitscanners around it didn't take too long to grow into annoyance. Things softened a little after the goofy barrel chain, thankfully. I found a hidden HK in a death pit, for reasons unknown. I crossed the exit line too soon - the imp and zombie were tease, you could easily think the exit is behind them and not expect it to be right under the door. I gave it another run and followed the intended route, the map flowed somewhat better. There was still one inaccessible area, you're supposed to make a dash on the nukage to earn a radsuit, before raising the YK bridge. I also confirmed a potential softlock in the cave. Visuals were solid nonetheless.

 

21. Gorgeous void setting. Although I wasn't too keen on this at first, it gradually grew in me. That first puzzle was a real conundrum for me. I required assistance to locate the third switch, ugh, I should have tried harder. The attention to details was superb, as part of the mapper's style, narrow places while moderately easy to navigate, in general, plus a more spacious hub-like court to break the pace. The exceptions were those thin ledges around some stairs, had to catwalk very softly not to fall into the nothing. My favorite bits included the lost soul stained glass -loved them-, the deep water as usual, the various transition points to either new areas or different angles of known places, and the little dramatic scenes behind the switches - I hoped those candle actors were well paid. One small issue was that each scene would start around 2-3 seconds after hitting a switch, and some players might leave the area as they don't see anything happening during the delay. However, if they didn't understand by now that NDCP2 was designed to give a chill and sluggish experience, it's gonna be on them for being inattentive... Anyways, I quite liked the few traps in store, congested and to-the-point. The occasional secret was highly rewarding, namely the computer map and blur sphere just in time to confuse some zombies. Others might ache for an SSG somewhere in the map, but I thought the sparse population blended about smoothly with low weaponry. The second-to-last transition to the underground corridor was not expected at all -- it was visible through glass at the start, but it never came to my mind I would reach the other side! And the last transition to the island on the void was fantastic. Unfortunately missed the secret soulsphere. I pushed a baron off the edge and he disappeared, he ruined my max kills >:(

 

22. Wow, interesting concept. So basically the evil eyes played the role of "area denial" in a special way: where an eye has a view of the marine, the marine should not ever open fire, or else he will become fired. It only took one or two deaths to get the gimmick. I appreciated that it was well communicated from the get-go. And good, creative puzzles as well. First I entered the left wing. It had stationary barons in a long hallway with branches to play hide and seek kinda, plus an ambush that could actually chase me around. The idea alone was amusing, because literally "walls with health", poor guys though. The middle wing was strange, a caged BFG and helmet, never knew the intention there. The right wing had the more tactical setups. Interesting use of the blur sphere to coax two sergeants to hit each other, so you could enter the vent and set the crusher over the HKs. The effect ran out just as I was rushing the chaingunner setup, though he behaved for once. The final area had an innovative challenge around a spiderdemon: dash from pillar to pillar, avoiding the teleport pads and as much fire as possible. Since I was surrounded by dozens of eyes, I couldn't use stunlock on my favor. As clever as it was, the closer I got the more susceptible to RNG disaster I was, and so it took a few minutes of patience to win. There was no way back to the marble corridors and my kill count was a meager 1% of the total, how so! The archviles and barons couldn't be killed, as there was nowhere near enough ammo nor some hidden crusher mechanism. I also unfortunately missed the hidden one-time switch that'd let me access the secret BFG, and apparently it would have turned the tables in the finale. Oh well... oh well oh well oh well, cool map though, definitely going in my top 5, if there's even gonna be a top 5...

 

23. A cool map with a hot start. Every inch of the land was plagued with assorted beasts roaming, floating, and snipers from all angles. Lots of barons and imps, fewer revenants, cacos and the rest. Some slomnibi that'd path really well if I picked the right side -- I had a couple deaths til I figured out a strategy, and that was incidentally entering a building just to find myself safe from outside. I found the SSG and later the BFG, two very necessary tools to turn the tables on them. It was comical watching the crowds outside undo each other, particularly one bulk of slomnibi that grouped up on a rock - everything could see me through the glass but their projectiles wouldn't pass through (was lucky with mancubi fireballs) - one of the rare cases nowadays in which the cheese was more of a comedy show. The other areas were crammed with enemies in the same fashion, allowing for more casual infight. Oh, the RL was on bridge outside, I don't know if I just overlooked it during the storm or if it was unlocked at some point. In any case, having it for the cave was a must and a delight, since the mapper placed boxes of ammo every two inches in the map. This freedom was rare, almost tacky, because surplus of bullets, but a welcome change over the general strictness that characterized the wad so far. The PR was also in a very casual secret, both cell guns in secrets wow, much necessary rewards. The final chapel barely registered, nothing that a couple BFG shots couldn't do. Not sure why the ending room locked me out of the map but whatever. As said, fun map, although it certainly calmed down a lot after the heat of the start.

 

24. Rectangles ahoy! with the occasional curvy stairs for good measure. And again with that fake optionality! To be fair, this wasn't a boring nor effortless map. In some respects I was reminded of pcorf's and Matt Tropiano's orthogonality, except with a vague sense of direction and *connectivity*. The portals at the start for example didn't show any clues of where I'd be taken, and that became a small issue later. I chose the wrong way, of course, a cramped compblu section with barons/spectres and no weapons to play, but I could retreat so all good. Then I entered another compblu section and got the chaingun. The highlight of this, let's call it dimension, was the bevy of revenants in the gory room - I had to herd them away and hoped for a proper gun in the next room, and yes the RL was there, but I kept moving and stumbled upon a raising cyberdemon, plus several mancubi and barons on cubes. I had no incentive to stay nor a reason to leave, except my gut told me to find a cell gun for this. Thankfully there was a secret BFG in another dimension, the first one I got, which I could clear up better with my newly acquired arsenal. But before that there was one longer hellish red dimension kind of similarly structured to the tech-y one. This also had a revenant clausterfuck, just in some optional room as opposed to mandatory, or well that depends on whether you already found a RL or not. The setup was obviously telegraphed, the number of bones not at all, and it got me good in the nuts. This is when I started to look for secrets, like the caged soulsphere and everything the automap spoiled. A total of 15, and I got 11 by the end as at least two of them were very well hinted in the map, but the very idea of backtracking to each dimension repelled me lol. Anyways, when I said before that this map had a vague sense of direction, I meant that it's very possible you'd enter the exit dimension last, as it was my case, and never know the real purpose of the keys until then. You may also stay ill-equipped or the total opposite depending on the order you go. In my case I found just one of the color-coded bars was still up. I assumed I missed something somewhere so I went back to explore those locked doors, cleared the black room, found more juicy secrets (still no backpacks!), and then the rechecked the bars. I could then access the invulnerability, which came with a little horde and bouncing off rockets. Yeah, that was it. Decent overall, with plenty room for improvement/polishing.

 

25. Jetflock maps have been a ride. The lava rush was amusing ngl, moreso because any walking monster would get pulled into the caves at very high speed, and so watching for example a revenant getting yoinked or a slomnibus struggle real hard to get off the lava was pure comedy. Unfortunately the execution had its fatal flaws: for example you could land over a slomnibus if it happens to be in the worse spot, because your stability is greatly reduced. That's not too terrible though. I got pulled into a hanging body without any control over my movement and a mancubus put me out of my misery. That was a bigger concern, and led me to toggle one of prboom's "mapping errors" specials. Some monsters that I left behind too remained alive, due to the aforementioned lack of control, or difficulty to keep up with kills. Other than that, no problems anywhere else. The cave system became more and more fleshy and twisted, while easier to navigate. I liked that transition in the deep mud, or poo as Nirvana would say. Interesting that I could hide in the mud to avoid homing fireballs. The exit pulled a E1M8 in an open and bright clausterfuck, poor continuous players lol. Too bad that the blocking bodies issue wasn't addressed in neither the last update nor the patch, oh well, at least no retina burning stuff. Still enjoyed my time.

 

26. With such a title I hoped for an interesting experience. I'm glad things leaned towards punchy, brutal surprises, more or less in NDCP2's claustrophobic gameplay, and with a brown brick and stone theme, I was reminded of those Congestion 1024 ultra-detailed pillar-heavy maps. The first archvile duo already got me once -- as simple as it would have been to funnel rockets into their spot, I was stupid and released while the pain elemental was alive, so one the archviles squeezed past my body and I got sandwiched. Yea, really dumb from my part. It wasn't my only death, the next came after I took a certain teleport and got immediately blind-sided that I couldn't see where to hide. That wasn't very fair but whatever. Many of the titular archviles were stationary or caged (like the couple that removed my vision), while the few that spawned with freedom did add a bit flavor, if the setups were predictable by the typical "shooters first, archviles last". Also the teleport ambushes in this map were really, really, really slow - I found a belated baron in the pillar maze long after I already worked my ass to clean the area, the poor guy must have felt excluded!. It took me a while to notice the fake rock was the way out of the cross-shaped room, and then that I had to find yet another hidden something to open some bars. The monsters on the steps could barely move, not sure if the idea was for them to show me the exit or to be just obstacles with health. Strange decisions. Oh yea, thank fuck I found the secret BFG earlier on, made things more fun for me.

 

27. A Joshy start with chainsaw is a rarity nowadays, I don't think there has been one since this map, hmm. Regardless, things quickly became anti-chainsaw, as going outside was an immediate red flag due to the presence of chaingunners on ledges. The chaingunners in this map were, randomly obnoxious ngl, oppressive but immediate targets due to either lack of cover or sensing that armor was gonna be scarce later (spoiler ahead, no armor recovery for a very long time!). Rough times. Things I liked include the barons trap, the imp horde afterwards - with unfortunate gunners from a distance - and the whole marble hall, which I played feeling the pressure of those erratic mancubi fireballs on my back. The easily accessible secret BFG came just in time for the increasing number of cybs, and the spider on the lava, which all would have been a grind otherwise. I really wished for some armor during the middle stretch so I didn't feel the obligation to play too carefully, so many ledge revenants and always wondering where was the next ninja gunner lurking in the shadows. Thankfully there was a big shiny french blue vest in the big lava area, ready to fit on my virtual muscles - this part reminded me of his multiple MAP30s sprinkled around, both visually and gameplay-wise. You kinda have to play on the rush and diligently off everything before getting somewhere else, the perched cybs in particular took a lot of time and ammo, but it was fine, had suits to spare for days. The elevator setup was obvious, I saw it coming from a mile. The archviles in the exit nearly got me as the door opened itself without my consent, what a troll door. Now I wonder if I ever found a plasma gun in the map...

 

28. Definitely gonna form a part of my top 5. This was relentless from start to, at least the middle stretch once outside, though in terms of active density it never let up. I really mostly enjoyed the cramped quarters indoors, particularly one trap with hell nobles, revs and cacos IIRC, which required using the entire room and staircases to make some space. The multiple teleporting hordes also spiced up the ambient, arriving at different intervals, although one could say the flavor tastes less appetizing when you have to camp hitscanners by the doors, but I mostly didn't care, the setups were well economized and varied so that things wouldn't turn into slogs like in other previous maps. The final area had a bevy of the widest monsters from hell, nothing too intense but certainly a decent closure. I coaxed two spiders to infight and then found them caught in a loop as neither could hit back the other, and that became a standout moment by accident. One thing I would have pointed out, had I been a playtester, is the nobles ambush while heading to one of the RK doors, exactly because you can always use the other door available, so in my case I almost missed the trap. All in all a cool punchy map.

 

29. The map's called "Absolute Evil", but in terms of "evil" this was of puppy difficulty almost, for a map 29 that is. I liked it though, specially the grandiose scale and breath-taking landscape in the open, cherry red and gray as always an infallible combo when exploited like the mappers did here. The detailing in the starting hall was also superb. But yeah, very underpopulated for a penultimate slot, or even for the setting, and kinda mismatching with the title. About the most danger I felt was when I got stuck on some bricks thinking I couldn't escape a bunch of cacos around me, with a revenant on the other side of a crack, and maybe the horde of nobles waiting in the starting hall (I had nowhere near enough ammo to do anything), otherwise pretty chill. That a big part of the monster count was imps, exclusive to some cracked corridors, realizing that was, amusing. The exploration though was fun. I was shocked when I noticed the blood sea didn't hurt me, normally it would be the other way around! There were lava pits scattered around so it's not that I was completely safe. I liked the tombs and had to laugh when I noticed they were paper-thin midtex, lmao. The chapel was cute, no archvile or baron priest though! At the end I was missing every secret, as well as the nobles. I had no issues this time with backtracking. I even found a newly revealed blue vest on my way, not an official secret. So where were they?? Turns out all the secrets were in the main hall, among them a juicy BFG with cell packs. No idea when they got revealed, but I made goat milkshake! (ew...)

 

30. Started very similar to the prequel's final map - freebie guns and shit. There were only three monsters, and generally those would be ex-bosses and/or archviles. Yes, two cyberdemon obstacles first in hallways, with good looking details and the names of each mapper tattooed on the walls, how neat. Then an archvile on a platform, and then the icon of sin. An easy one, thankfully for me, but with a confusing order of mechanisms to get into the core. I almost never call something "confusing" in doom, it has to really puzzle me to say that. I had no idea what to do after using the switch behind the RK door after looking everywhere for several minutes, all while the icon was too comfy spreading his kids all over the place (yes, I do mean it that way). I opened up youtube, once again, and watched a video in which the player cheesed the icon from a distance - there's a spot on the highest level where you can lob rockets to the gap, a defect of the map that lets you win prematurely. I wanted to know the intended route! I looked in the editor and apparently the switch revealed a fleshy wall somewhere else that I had to press, then wait a minute for it to fully lower, hit yet another switch and then finally teleport to the centre. It just never occurred to me that a seemingly piece of detail had to be pressed!! Kind of my fault but come on, that was obscure! Either way I could kill the brain and win, yay!

 

[ProgrammerPower]

The Japanese Community Project. I hope to find more Japanese-made WADs, as the creativity in JPCP is astounding.

[Budoka]

Recently tried and intend to finish if possible:

 

-Atmospheric Extinction: Excellent! I was surprised to learn that the author is a mapping veteran with a new username. One with very little solo work tough, mostly just guest appearances it seems.

-All of Bri's stuff: Attack on IO, Vow of Vengance, Elysium's curse, Hydrosphere. Full megawad when?

-Cosmogenesis (...oh dear, what in the world is this map.)

-Judgment: early maps are certainly full of promise, very unique atmosphere and creatively brutal setups.

 

Didn't care for: Earthless. Deleted it from my hard drive after nearly falling asleep having reached MAP03.

 

Might try later: Not Even Remotely Fair

 

@Cinnamon Are you perhaps new to PWADs? You seem to be gorging yourself on a fair few certified classics in a row (MM2, Ancient Aliens, Alien Vendetta, BTSX...) that it might end up being hard to find other mapsets approaching the same level of crafting quality. I'm saying that speaking from experience...

[QuaketallicA]

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order

 

Coming from a highly jaded Star Wars fan, it was surprisingly brilliant. Best Star Wars anything since...well probably since Force Unleashed 1 or the Clone Wars tv series. I'm really enjoying it!

"I sense a presence aboard that game...a presence I've not felt since..."

[Lingyan203]

Currently I'm doing some children's PC Game walkthroughs on my YouTube channel. As for other games I'm still playing Pokemon GO.

[baja blast rd.]

I'm about halfway through a replay of 180 Minutes Por Vivre, which I think might be my favorite speedmap set and favorite wad from the French community. It was meant to be a slow replay, but the early half is full of short maps, so I've blazed up to map15 in a couple of days. 

 

In the map08 slot, there is a really neat small Roofi map named "Ruée vers Laure," which takes place in a gold mine and has a lot of cleverness going on, from the use of light textures as mined bricks of gold and the skybox (!) as veins of gold ore. 

 

But my favorite of all might be the felt experience of "value" going on here. The start is rough; unless you go in exactly the right direction, you're likely to be undergunned, bumble into dangerous sniping chaingunners, cacos, a hell knight and a pain elemental, all before you get your first weapon. So the caches of gold, which also double as goodie stock piles, really, really feel like stockpiles in every sense. 

 

 

"Ruée vers Laure" is very far from the first map to use the stockpile trope, and it's not even remotely the first one I've played that has gold mines as stockpiles, but that initial period of attrition and starvation, followed by bounteous reward, made the gold stockpiles feel so damn valuable to stumble across and find, even if they aren't really overstocked with goodies. I have played maps with 10x more health and ammo in such caches.

 

The gameplay also  reinforces the aesthetics and signifiers, which I think you're more likely to see happen the other way around. The gold piles are relatively simple visually, beyond the clever texture repurposing, yet the subjective feeling of value also greatly reinforced their meaning just as much as architectural splendor would have -- vast, gaping canyons of gold bullion, or immense vaults -- which is convenient because with speedmaps you have a bit less time for the grandeur (unless you're Darkwave). 

[brick]

I'm replaying Curse of D'Sparil. I played this many years ago and remembered really loving it back then, but I aside from that one map I didn't remember many details, and was curious to see how it would hold up. The replay does not disappoint so far. It's incredible how each map is more beautiful than the last when all you have to work with is the vanilla graphics and not much more than the vanilla architecture - it's "just" a limit-removing wad despite the support for all the advanced ports. The very beginning is deceptively low-key, but it allows the set to ramp up dramatically with every map. M1 is small and simple. M2 and M3 are larger and more involved. And then there's the Herakleion, and I absolutely love this map, as much as I did the first time around. The palace is lovingly detailed and looks gorgeous. I have hated every other wad that has forced me to navigate a maze without the automap, but this one is so well-constructed and the puzzle is incredibly well designed and well hinted, with the red and blue paths and the way the switches are laid out (and the way the switch indicators "light up" in the exit room - a marvelously simple bit of vanilla trickery). The sense of exploration is wonderful, and for once the hidden automap actually enhances it as you have to rely on the visual cues (of which there are many!), until you really develop a sense of how the various parts are connected and interact. And then of course there's the secret exit, exploiting and extending what you have learned from reaching the regular exit, and very cleverly hinted. I feel the wad is worth playing just to experience this map alone. Thank you @kristus for a wonderful, wonderful wad.

[Lila Feuer]

Nearly done with Memento Mori 1, reached MAP28. I'll say having not seen this since 2009 or so the "white sky levels" were somewhat mixed but what was good was pretty great, the "red sky levels" halfway through however I found mostly unremarkable and unmemorable, with very few instances I cared for. That said the "blue sky levels" are pretty much all great or even just okay at worst. This megawad's aged well and I can see how Reverie was inspired in places, even a small detail such as getting a BFG very late (sans death exit on MAP12 in Reverie when you do get a BFG, you don't see one after that for a long time) and general abstract nature that doesn't conform to any one specific place, it's just Doom.

[Thelokk]

Was playing Requiem but kinda gave up on it halfway, just didn't grip me enough.

 

Right now, along with 3 Heures d'Agonie 2 for the Megawad club, I'm casually going through Resurgence and Interception - both pretty good, though the former is a bit above my skill level. Trying to get as much Doom in as possible before the next Warcraft xpac drops, and I go MIA for at least 3-4 months. 

[Garlichead]

Anomaly Report by valkiriforce.

 

I am on map 22 right now, really loving many of the maps.

 

It kind of remind me of The Revolution WAD, straightfoward level, very Doom Cute, nice music and not too hard.

 

 

[TARDIS32]

Community Chest. Just finished map 20. Ngl, I hate what it did with voodoo dolls, and the thing with the 20 damage area with leaky rad suit. Also one of the few levels I gave up trying for 100% kills, with the 2 minute timer at the end. TheUltimateDoomer's style just isn't for me.

[Silhouette 03]

2 minutes ago, TARDIS32 said:

Community Chest.

The only maps in CC that I really liked were map 02 and map 30. Both are Thomas van der Velden maps. The rest not so much.

[TARDIS32]

26 minutes ago, Silent Wolf said:

The only maps in CC that I really liked were map 02 and map 30. Both are Thomas van der Velden maps. The rest not so much.

I think it's ok so far. Not my favorite. Definitely don't like use3d's or Gene Bird's maps, and Map 06 was awful. I liked Andy Leaver's maps, and Map 02 was neat. I wouldn't say many stand out as great levels, but I'd describe most of them as reasonably playable. No rush to replay when I'm done.

[Thelokk]

Mutabor. Good stuff, huge single maps are starting to grow on me.

[TheFocus]

i'm currently replaying No Rest For The Living, Earthless and Deathless.

[Hawk of The Crystals]

After a rather long absence from doom, I've come back to breeze through plutonia, or at least attempt to. Ultra-Violence plutiona can be a nightmare if you're rusty.

[Daytime Waitress]

Just now, Crystal-Hawk_D00M said:

After a rather long absence from doom, I've come back to breeze through plutonia, or at least attempt to. Ultra-Violence plutiona can be a nightmare if you're rusty.

Have you done it on UV many times?

[Hawk of The Crystals]

2 hours ago, Daytime Waitress said:

Have you done it on UV many times?

Only about three times in the past. The first one was out of obligation, the second out of boredom, and of course the third was because of a doom marathon I was going through at the time.

[ImproversGaming]

Just finishing off Plutonia now as well! This is my second time playing through, but the first in a while. Good fun so far and I'm on map 28.

Spoiler

 

[Okej5722]

I was pretty busy with school for a while, so I didn't have a chance to catch up with my favourite FPS; however, that has changed. I just started playing Scythe.

[sophsoph316]

im playing Thy Flesh Consumed. it's the only of the classic doom games besides TNT that i haven't completed.

[Daytime Waitress]

I've been taking short, single maps off of the front page for a while, not feeling like committing to a proper episode or megawad. But now I've started Hatomo Battles the Pink Robots Yomi Demons and Akeldama at the same time.

 

Thinking of restarting the former and bumping it up to UV already. Short, tight, classic-style levels, and I want to thank @Chainie again for introducing me to it.

 

Quite enjoying the latter so far, but I've read criticisms about its level lengths, so that's got me worried because I don't vibe with really long levels.

[Gregor]

Taking a bit of a break from Doom right now. Playing through the Witcher 3 for the first time actually, as well as my second full playthrough of Dark Souls 1. Doom-wise I'm somewhere in the early maps of Speed of Doom and the middle of BTSX Ep2. I'll get back to that in August...

[LadyMistDragon]

PrBoom maps, a sort of abandoned megawad project by @mrthejoshmon that's around 17 maps. But I don't play too many things of length these days.

[TARDIS32]

So. What they say about Community Chest Map 29 being bullshit is true. Gave up on it and played Map 30. First map I ever gave up on. Continuing my playthrough of the reviews by Dean of Doom and now playing Auger Zenith and enjoying it so far. 

[mrthejoshmon]

2 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

PrBoom maps, a sort of abandoned megawad project by @mrthejoshmon that's around 17 maps. But I don't play too many things of length these days.

I hope you enjoy it, personally I think it has aged kind of poorly but is a great tool to see how my "style" gradually changed over time.

[enigma101]

Slowly getting through Ancient Aliens and Memento Mori