What are you playing now?

[pcorf]

I know I am a latecomer but I have played 6 maps through Ancient Aliens on UV. It has been fun and predictable, lots of revenant ambushes and also shotgunners (who are your main source for ammo).

[Chud]

3 minutes ago, Krash said:

Yeah, Something that going down has is that the more you advance the more difficult it gets, but I feel that it is a little easier compared to sunder 2406, and now that you are talking about scythe 2 I have heard of it but I have not had the opportunity to try ,it I think that within I'm going to play it soon.

 

Going back to the topic of Wad Goind Down, I feel that it is a particularly difficult wad since I had to kick my ass off to pass it the first time... even in some levels it was so difficult that it took a few hours to complete them.

The style and textures in scythe 2 is honestly great so far. There are some pretty tough traps but nothing super crazy. A lot of them encourage different approaches to play really well which I love. Definitely recommended so far.

 

But man if GD only gets tougher as the WAD goes on I'm in for a rude awakening since iirc its a 32 map WAD and stuck on map 9 lolol. I'm pretty new to tough maps/slaughter maps so there's definitely a learning curve. Another one I'm in the process of right now for the first time is Rush and its the first slaughter WAD I've been able to play without immediately being gangbanged by demons. 

 

Like i said, lots going on :D

[bulldawg8879]

finished eveternity, now doing doom 2 the way id did with brutal doom on.. really likeing it with brutal doom 

[RHhe82]

Recently finished Alien Vendetta for the first time on UV (great stuff except for map11, map27 and maybe map28).

 

Currently concentrating on replaying Plutonia. Also restarted Sunlust on UV (previously played maps 1-7 on HNTR), although I suspect that’s gonna be an on/off project whenever I hit skill roadblock. Also Kama Sutra, myolden’s Nostalgia, slowly churning Speed of Doom.

[Womp the Cat]

Still busy with Combat Shock 2, and Just beat maps 3 and 4. map04  has probably cemented itself as my favorite map to date. XD a proper epic. 

[Shanoa]

Played through @Doomkid first Rudy and Ray Mohawk's WADs to further practice pistol-starting stuff and I had a fantastic time with both, gonna play the sequels soon.

[Rrev]

20 hours ago, Chud said:

The style and textures in scythe 2 is honestly great so far. There are some pretty tough traps but nothing super crazy. A lot of them encourage different approaches to play really well which I love. Definitely recommended so far.

 

But man if GD only gets tougher as the WAD goes on I'm in for a rude awakening since iirc its a 32 map WAD and stuck on map 9 lolol. I'm pretty new to tough maps/slaughter maps so there's definitely a learning curve. Another one I'm in the process of right now for the first time is Rush and its the first slaughter WAD I've been able to play without immediately being gangbanged by demons. 

 

Like i said, lots going on :D

 

Yes, at least for me from level 20 onwards they are already a bit advanced, I am not so much into playing extremely difficult wads, but as Goind Down has a curious premise that is why I appreciate it a lot

[TheSlipgateStudios]

Brutal TNT Evilution and Freedoom Phase 1.

[Wyrmwood]

Lost Civilization, been meaning to play this for a while. Seems great so far, some of nicest looking maps I've played so far and the gameplays top notch too. Only on map 6 but this could be an all time favorite based on what I've played so far.

 

Also bought Wolf 3d some time ago, tried it with a source port but found it a bit uninteresting. Tried Brutal Wolf last week and although I didn't really like brutal Doom, Brutal Wolf is a huge improvement over Wolf 3d. Love that it basically shows you the secrets on the auto-map too, didn't want to hump every wall, most are unmarked in Wolf. The movement feels so much smoother too, guess that was a whole dollar down the drain on the Steam version!

[joepallai]

Continued playing Silence then switched it up and started playing Valkiriforce's Anomoly Report (currently on Map07).    Both are excellent so far and I am certain that they will continue to be extremely fun for me.

[Steveb1000]

Just finished Scythe 2 yesterday. I was a bit skeptical beforehand, thinking it may be overrated. And most of the early maps feel fairly standard. But the final two episodes are incredible, as good as anything I've played before. I now understood the legend of Erik Alm.

 

Not sure what to try next - suggestions welcome. If there are any styles of WADs different to the one here, which I have played, be good to hear; Alien Vendetta, Going Down, Struggle, Epic 2, Auger;Zenith, Scythe 2, Fractured Worlds, Miasma, Sunlust, Eviternity, Valiant, Arrival, The Eye, ALT. 

Edited September 7, 2022 by Steveb1000 : typos

[Ar_e_en]

Going through the Rowdy Rudy wads currently. About halfway through Rowdy 1 right now, it's good, but that one BFG secret in MAP 07 can go fuck itself.

[ducon]

4 hours ago, Steveb1000 said:

Not sure what to try next - suggestions welcome. If there are any styles of WADs different to the one here, which I have played, be good to hear; Alien Vendetta, Going Down, Struggle, Epic 2, Scythe 2, Fractured Worlds, Miasma, Sunlust, Eviternity, Valiant, Arrival, The Eye, ALT. 

Speed of Doom? Kama sutra?

Edited September 6, 2022 by ducon

[Budoka]

2 hours ago, Steveb1000 said:

Just finished Scythe 2 yesterday. I was a bit skeptical beforehand, thinking it may be overrated. And most of the early maps feel fairly standard. But the final two episodes are incredible, as good as anything I've played before. I now understood the legend of Erik Alm.

 

Not sure what to try next - suggestions welcome. If there are any styles of WADs different to the one here, which I have played, be good to hear; Alien Vendetta, Going Down, Struggle, Epic 2, Scythe 2, Fractured Worlds, Miasma, Sunlust, Eviternity, Valiant, Arrival, The Eye, ALT. 

Speed of Doom, Resurgence, Ancient Aliens, Heartland, Sacrament, Sunder.

[MarsHappyNation]

A megawad I've been exceptionally fond of recently has been @Deadwing's Moonblood. Playing through it for the first time and enjoying it immensely.

It's really difficult for me to become too invested in most mapsets because they all feel either out of my skill range or too far removed from the gameplay I'm used to. Moonblood feels just my speed though and I love it to bits. It doesn't seem to deviate much from vanilla conventions, very comfy playthrough. I'm still fairly early into it after entering the second episode but it's already one of my favorites.

[bb2731]

Currently replaying Plutonia, after that I'm going to replay tnt and then play doom the way id did.

[Daytime Waitress]

On 9/7/2022 at 1:30 PM, MarsHappyNation said:

It's really difficult for me to become too invested in most mapsets because they all feel either out of my skill range or too far removed from the gameplay I'm used to.

 

That's a shit feeling, no doubt, but the longer I play, the more defined my tastes become, and I feel like this community does an exceptional job in catering to most every niche. If you state up-front what you love, a dozen people will jump to recommend something similar that they've adored just as much :3

 

On topic - Struggle: Antaresian Legacy. Brash, vicious, and arcade-like. One day I'm gonna be able to express exactly why @antares031's maps tickle my pickle, but I ain't there yet.

[Ar_e_en]

Finished Rowdy Rudy 1, It was quite fun, but I'm probably gonna enjoy the sequel a lot more.

[Lizardcommando]

I finished playing Anomaly Report on the Nintendo Switch Lite. It was still a blast to play through on that instead of on PC. I did miss having that bullet time mod and the smooth doom weapon sprites though lol.

[Rymante]

Recently started Lost Civilisation by Jaska.  Absolutely marvelling at how intricate, detailed & pretty these maps are. I'm only 5 maps in so far and it's blown me away multiple times.

[galileo31dos01]

I have played a good number of cool wads since Czechbox, among them I'll mention the freshly released Pandora, a full megawad comprised of 35 maps that tried to emulate the shovelware era of custom doom levels, for which I wrote whatever commentary came to my mind at the end of every map, in a text file. I've done this several other times before, though I find it amusing that ultimately my informal speech has had the tendency of mutating into some review format, sort of like kmxexii does in his blog but within my more limited vocabulary. These comments are from the perspective of someone who didn't have the opportunity to play custom doom content in the '90s but many years later. I pistol started on UV, used crispy-doom, enjoyed the overall experience, and would recommend to whoever finds curiosity in anything said below.

 

 

Maps 01-11

Spoiler

01. Dark setting is a good way to start. First instinct was to grab the berserk and let my bodyguards thin out the sergeants, which left me with the cacodemons. And then the map was over. Well, I found it funny the layout was shaped like a pair of goggles.

 

02. Your ol' little castle rooms, medieval perhaps as hinted by the music (I'm an ignorant so take me lightly please). It was cute, liked the classic carpet at the start, and a nifty view of the starry night. The obvious standout was the crowd of zombiemen at the YK room - unfortunate that there wasn't a RL somewhere, for the extra goof, though I suppose the belated SSG was more than a mere gift to carry through the next maps, who knows.

 

03. A hectic start, or so to say: a bevy of chaingunners and sergeants surrounding me, but with a generous RL, affordable cover, and a soulsphere afterwards, how neat. The rocky setting got me expecting a trip to hell afterwards, but it was more tech-base/castle hybrid, roughly textured of course. I sensed the short nukage setup was inescapable and hopped from platform to platform very carefully. The rest, room clearing in all its simplicity, no harm. Pleased to hear one of my favorite doom tracks once again.

 

04. I somehow intuited who designed this just by feeling the silliness of the start, and got the confirmation as soon as I saw their sign on the ground. Can't say I know the author's style like the palm of my hand, yet this still seemed true to their fashion of spreading a ton of pickups and silly stuff for comedy, just coated in shovelware appeal. The gimmicks were cool, in particular the very start with the barrel I had to push away to claim the almighty shield, and the secret row of shotguns was hilarious. A lot of high firepower, seems like I could have spammed BFG far more comfortably than I did, but failed to predict that. However, my gut told me to not shoot any of the stuck goats and simply run in between them, and how pleasant was to hear them dying afterwards. Automap spoiled me the "correct" exit teleport pad, or maybe none of the rest were teleports? oh well, all good.

 

05. I think this could very much pass as a legitimate ancient lone map, one you'd definitely find it had received a ton of praise in the old archives' commentary section. Pretty fun trip, and so far the most elaborate in detailed architecture, with some curvy pillars and inaccessible areas for immersion, like that E3M4-ish one in the megasphere secret. Maybe a tad flat in light variance, but I honestly didn't care this time. Quite a lot of sweet incidental skirmishes, mostly in small doses and with a lot of opportunities to ninja something around the corner, though I missed the chance on this one closet full of lost souls and cacodemons (again, not exercising the BFG enough!). There was also a cyberdemon in like a little stall, whose role is up to personal interpretation - I assumed he was there to sell barrels, and his incapability of moving could only mean he had no choice but to sell them by the next morning or else his boss was gonna be pissed. I put him out of his misery, because I'm a good person... Anyways, really liked the change of setting at the end, suddenly all fleshy. I guess with that many supplies you might expect some tumultuous finale incoming, like I did, but it was fairly sedate -- a few miscellaneous monsters in the open, followed by a pair of cyberdemons and company, one that got distracted quickly, allowing me to push him back to his house. I liked the rows of pillars on the sides of said house, although I don't know what "WZ" means. Cool stuff.

 

06. The overall flatness reminded me of the original E1M0 "Sewers", just enhanced by dim lighting and the existence of revenants. This being like a shovelware edition/reimagination of "The Crusher" had me thinking. I imagine that if there was a community project like "In Name Only" around the time Doom II came out, this map would have been a goal achieved. I kinda enjoyed it, berserk-hitting these goats here, these other revenants there, quite possibly a map some would find Tyson friendly, specially with good rolls on the sergeants in the corridors. Of course one of the pillars hid a secret powerup, a great feeling when your intuition wins. The titular crusher and its poor SMM can go back to hell one more time!

 

07. Oh, harsh! A series of high-impact, on-your-face fights, with the main ingredient being the surprise factor. The berserk-infused start was tricky, since it required dancing around an arachnotron, revenants, a mancubus, and chaingunners shooting at close range. Making it out alive wasn't too bad if for the teleporting archvile and finding more bodyguards around the corner, which all ended my 1hp misery. I noticed a commander keen through a peephole and hoped for an interesting bonus (spoilers: there was!). The central setup was even trickier, with lots of area denial archviles and chaingunners, various roamers, and pain elementals incrementing the cleanup phase. The second round, not as diabolical but still fun to steer infighting (I woke this trap just as I shot another hidden keen, lol). The ambushes afterwards nearly caught me off guard... well, the revenants did, bad time to change guns, though I cheesed the teleporting finale by camping on the green, they couldn't reach me so no risk from splash. The exit was on the other side of an inescapable pit of water (lol x2), but I still got the keen hunt pending, so I explored the entire map twice until I spotted the last peephole. That opened the crackle2 wall next to the exit. Oh boy, what a bonus trap lmao, the peskiest arachnotron ever! It liquefied me to death and insisted so much the second time, though with the timed spectres and revenants I was too scared to rocket myself. That was a fine conclusion, kudos.

 

08. A Roofi map, neat. Quite enjoyed my time here, exploring the ins and outs of a corrupted base, painted in pink flesh, red blood and silver walls, modestly clean texturing, surely this would have been a stellar map in the ol' days. The collapsing bridge was one my favorite bits, despite being clearly telegraphed, the trap involved was frantic and fun. I wasn't quite sure about the crushers, in particular the second run with the skulls, where at first glance it seems like you either find death or success by way of yolo-ing. Lucky for me, my first dash was safe, and that's when I figured the checkpoint was the armor. Thing is, crushers are scary!... The finale was in the heart of the creature, or whatever was attacking the base, with a simple cyberdemon on a pedestal and several goats around, no infight needed and more than enough ammo to spin everyone around like a record baby round right round. I got me softlocked in one of the veins, probably part of the intended experience, so no harm. Pretty good stuff, as always by this mapper.

 

09. A simple abstract base outing, where the fun was primarily connected to the secrets. Not only because most weapons were hidden, but also because of the spoofs, like the bigass arrow pointing at the RL, which already set the tone. I think the SSG was mandatory, because of the switch behind it. The BFG was definitely not, yet I thanked the baron for spoiling the fake wall to me, since it came in handy for the several masses of zombies in the map. There was yet another big arrow on a long pool of slime, but it didn't seem to do anything, and I had yet to find the other fifteen secrets or so. Turns out, they were all stashed on sector letters in a small room. What a troll! The finale was pretty much like in the previous map, except no goats and no flesh. Fun times.

 

10. Very sweet map here. Entirely comprised of KDITD motifs and quirks, but with a much higher level of detail, cute detailing should I say, in order to tell a sort of narrative through its different events. Basically the mission was to escape an industrial plant where the hell architects would plan and build the layouts we know nowadays as doom maps, and while interrupting their work you also have to find the remote switch to gain access to the exit teleport, which a sergeant is trying to hack, or something along the lines. This game is abstract so everyone's gonna make up their own narratives... Anyways, good times exploring and hopping over those prototype doors, my favorite piece of doomcute in the map (don't think I've seen such use of them before), along with the floating detail on the teleport pads and the tiny marble pipes. The big teleporting mass for the RK was very welcomed, though I didn't expect to see barons. Oh well, what's a minute of shotguning barons gonna do, no harm. Maybe the hidden plasma gun would have been useful, if I found it in time. Cool stuff. The "THY" on the floor though, I wonder what was the reference about...

 

11. Oh my, a high-concept, haphazard -but intentionally- experimental map. To quote Kris Jenner: this is exactly what I was afraid of... Not without its charm, I kinda giggled when I first thought you had to nerf the archvile's blast by using the platform in the middle, then being completely fooled by the actual mechanics involved. And that was just the start, most everything that followed either included falling into seemingly inescapable situations, deadly or not, and being humiliated by this one archvile that would always evade the crusher in the BK room. It was over pretty fast, thankfully. If there was more ammo or anything somewhere I have no idea, nor do I care now (spoiler: yep, a plethora of hidden backpacks). Fits in the wad, and does have a sense of puzzle-solving, so it was alright.

 

 

Maps 12-20

Spoiler

12. Right, more of Walter's quirks, bring them on! Not as conceptual as the previous though still requiring a bit of lateral thinking in places. I had a somewhat rough time getting a foothold, as I first headed towards the pool outdoors where the chaingunners on the sides would wreck my naked body of crystal, or I'd mutate in said pool out of panic. There was another sort of hidden path in the starting hall, which led to more hitscanners in the wide open - luckily a lot of convenient medikits spread around too. Oh and an imp glued to a wall, similar to the mancubus in the exit door. As for the specialties, we got on one side the boss mini-encounters, both handing me heavy tons of supplies so I could feel OP enough - I found the spiderdemon the most amusing for its ceremonial reveal, basically her sitting on the throne, though the cyberdemon among the pillars made sense as well. The other quirk was the pain sectors. I liked the twist in the lava being the safe part, while darker areas not quite (reminded me of that mazelike Heretic secret map), and that included one non-lava floor next to the RK door, which tripped me up at first. The BK pool was the most corrosive of all, so leaving that for last was a wise choice. And I guess I can call the last chain of secrets another of Walter's quirks, though he has used that trope other times before. Solid stuff.

 

13. Not too shabby. I felt like this map wouldn't be too out of place in a more modern context, since the attention to visual detailing, specially on the floors, is something I've seen more towards the '00s era onwards, but maybe my memory is failing to me right now... Either way, it's a classic doom II ambiguous base, with classic monster closets - those that opened so slowly I could blast the monsters inside them before they could even see me, which was mildly cathartic. The warp to the fiery maze was cool, and I liked the dramatic lock-in for the final area, plus the baron claiming back his mini-boss role alongside his minions. Unfortunately there was no point of return, and I missed a couple secrets - ironically did find the unofficial box of shells inside a pillar, but then forgot to check on some bullets on a high place. Oh well, noclip for the win. There was certainly something wicked about the static fire in those monster closets...

 

14. Hedge maze time, from start to finish. A super tense one, as they tend to be, if because I meandered through most of the maze with only the chaingun and shotgun, playing cat and mouse with barons and whatnot. Speaking of, barons and hell knights felt invigorated in this context, where there was always the chance of getting cornered in a dead end. I have no idea how I managed to evade fatality several times, specially after seeing the quartet of archviles fade away and start undoing my job, which btw what a fucking move! At least with my newly acquired stronger weapons I felt more slightly compelled to track down these assholes, when normally I would be reluctant to (I mean, they resurrected every single baron). The exit sequence was a case of back and forth, so there was an excuse to clean up a second time. I ended up using double IDDT to find whatever I missed, since everything was hidden in the automap (probably a nightmare for UV maxers). The actual exit pulled out a Plutonia MAP11. I would have thought the Y for "yes" was the one to kill me :)

 

15. Ouch, sergeants galore. While the start was a problematic case of exposure + fragility, it didn't get any smoother onwards. What annoyed me was having to grind the same two barons upon many deaths to hitscan, although I guess if I knew of the earlier secrets (armor, PR), things would have been different. Some of the misaligned walls wouldn't open right away, so my brain assumed they were for later, except for that one. The base was chock full of juicy secrets and hidden branches, including a very early shortcut to map 31 (lol). It also looked -and behaved- like one of those golden old non-linear maps. The BGM from Memento Mori carried the atmosphere too. It actually got better once I found that armor, and the map as a whole was decently enjoyable and sophisticated, with more than one way to get to the finish line. I liked the modesty behind certain setups, like the bridges of thin platforms, or the cube of pinkies, which honestly had me expecting an archvile or hitscanners, given the walls in the room. There were also imps and chaingunners stuck on each other with a barrel right next to them, which confirmed it was all deliberate, after wall this has an element of barrels of fun too. Finally, I can't not mention the chainsaw after another chainsaw secret paths, which made laugh. So all in all, pretty joyful despite the salt at the beginning, though glad there exists a way to smoothen the hitscan hell.

 

16. Short and punchy. The archvile next to my spot was laughable, yet I didn't want to stay in his line of sight for any longer, not with other menaces spawning around. I took a blur sphere and headed straight to the totally non-suspicious room with the BFG in the centre - it was a trap, who would have thought! I didn't last for too long, died to some combination of archvile fire coming from behind hell knights and rocket splash (think it went through the computers). The next time I avoided the blur sphere and things went alright, made that cyberdemon exercise a little extra. Only after all that hassle was when I took some seconds to explore more, and found me a shotgun and chainsaw sitting on pure soil, plus two barons glued on each other. Heh, looks like I automatically enabled the "fun" route :P

 

17. Holy shit, 24 secrets! No sweat, just mostly inflated by sector steps and door/wall frames, of course, though certainly containing fat prizes. That was one of the main attractions, the other being, well, more shovelware goofiness. Starting with an immediate cyberdemon telefrag, with stuck zombiemen and lost souls overlooking and hapless pain elementals on the corners (you can actually intercept their cages). Then some horrendously tall doors, few random nazis on crates, a bunch of archviles that got squashed without having a chance, and the secret message popping up on loop on some staircases. The firefight that followed outside was quite a party: excitement, anxiety, and spiderdemons infighting. I laughed when I realized the baron secret was the obligatory path to the exit - as I was killing shits under green sphere effect, I didn't notice there was an impassable barrier in front of the exit. Heh, 'twas funny.

 

18. Ye ol' town/city map, with emphasis on "old". The start was an unusual one for the wad, being outgunned for a set of sleeping hell knights. I was surprised that nothing stood in my way to open the gate to freedom, heh. Once outside, I got my breath taken, and not only because of perched gunners - enormous, vast openness, characteristic of '90s city maps, that made the few buildings seem relatively tinier - but looking fine under the starry night. I ran around for as long as stuff was infighting, and that left me just two weakened cyberdemons for myself. Now, confusion entered the chat... Main progression required escalating  the buildings, and one of them  had these sunken sectors which I was supposed to fall inside and press some remote switch to access another building, but that's not something I figured out by myself... I thought maybe you had to make a leap of faith in pit of spiderdemons, but there was no escape by any means. This pit had to be raised, and once I did I could net me the BFG, off the remaining spiders (got me a two for one!), and move on to the minister's condo (according to my own narrative, btw). This included a nice firefight with archviles, spectres an imps, and the tense brawl in the alley outside was a cool climax. Well, technically the actual finale was a row of barons in a narrow L-shaped corridor, but I liked everything that involved BFG-melting.

 

19. Another quickie, this built almost entirely from cement tiles, or how I like to call them, bathroom textures. Not a whole lot to mention, just solid bread-and-butter SSG action in close quarters, with bonus chaingun if desired. I liked to think the caged trees were yet another failed experiment from the demons trying to conserve vegetation, but with their fetid asses exposed the contamination was too lethal. They kept the trees on exhibition, and held chaingunners and imps in cages as well, probably the ones responsible of said failure. Too bad I couldn't release them and push them into the cacodemon pit so they could cleanse their bodies. Oh well, better end their misery!

 

20. Something predominantly earthy and natural, giving slight E4 atmosphere through the textures, with touches of E3 corruption. I started surrounded by floating libraries, the more reason to believe some strange things going on. There was even an isolated sort of sanctum with what I assumed at first was a portal to hell, though nothing came from it when I picked up the skull key. Other than those moments, it flowed like a traditional low-key map. The compblu watery cavern and fireblu pillars was a great vista, though I personally loved the secret valley even more, for its close-up view of the night. I also liked the trip for the skull keys, with jumps over lava and the aforementioned sanctum to claim the BFG, and waste it on a cyberdemon. As a final treat, an invul-fueled rush towards more imps and cyberdemons, good times. Apparently I missed to explore one small room with a berserk. It must have been linked to some teleport I ignored, since I did land on one by accident, which took me to a much needed radsuit. Exploration failed. Oh well, sweet map.

 

 

 

Maps 21-30

Spoiler

21. An entirely freeform dimension, painted like a first map effort, which in this megawad is a fitting choice of aesthetic like in few previous maps. I mean, BSTONE3 is a main character, alongside GSTVINE2 and CRACKLE2. Those surely keep the areas lit for everyone... and not to forget lots of water pools too, some of which played the role of "healing sectors" with bevies of soulspheres. How generous! On the other hand, gameplay leaned towards a more modern sense of brutal combat. I'd dare to say contemporary even, since monster placement was at its most clever so far. From the surprise cacoswarm pushing me into the RL pool along with barons, to the huge SMM setup and its obnoxious teleporting archviles (btw, block lines around the spider is a very modern trope), to the nasty final pincer ambush in, once again, limited quarters. Even the seemingly innocuous cyberdemon duo in the healing pool pulled out a dick move I wasn't prepared for. Suffice to say, I was very entertained throughout, lots of great fun ideas that would stick out in a real shovelware map -- again, whether the combat mindset "clashed" a little or not with the era this megawad is trying to emulate, is something I couldn't care less. I even had the opportunity to cut through a ton of zombiemen, and let me say something, you have to be boring if you ditch the chainsaw here (;

One thing to revise: a certain group of teleporting cacodemons would only wake up if I made a noise on the staircase where the RL on the blood sector was, thus super easy to miss kills.

 

22. This was a good-looking level but it's busted in vanilla compatibility. I had the unpleasant experience to find me stuck and reloading many times due to a couple tag 0 triggers, the first which messed up most of the roofless area and left HOMs nearly everywhere. It was seeming too excessive to think it was all part of the intended experience. Besides, I had to bare with hanging bodies I couldn't even see. Nah... so I went to fix the biggest issue myself so I could give the map a solid chance in crispy-doom, and while I was it, turned off infinite tall blocking corpses. Now things were much better. Still difficult at times, since gameplay revolved around awkward situations, like the avalanche of spectres at the very beginning, while already on a tightrope with imps and sergeants. The SSG grab was finally not borked, and could engage most traps without getting hanged on invisible decoration - still got a cheap baron scratch when lowering one marble cube lift. I liked the looks quite a lot, giving E3 meets doom II hell motifs, but I can't not wonder if the amount of curves would cause VPOs (another reason to think this map wasn't properly playtested in vanilla). The massive cauldron on the west seemed a tad too troublesome to stay in it. I'm all for darkness as a source of threat, but I couldn't see well what was safe ground or not with all the projectiles flying around, and I didn't want to bump on a pillar and explode. Ended up luring the two floor cyberdemons to the starting room, carefully maneuvering because of my 20 something HP. Much to my dismay, the megasphere secret was impossible to get, because of yet another tag 0 wall. At least it was all cleared up, except for a bunch of monsters who never woke up and one pain elemental closet that never opened. Lots to fix here...

 

23. Great adventure with a banger BGM that looped between long periods of silence. It mixed old-school set piece scenarios with fiendish monster placement that somewhat reminded me of Plutonia, but on greater numbers. Not too difficult to follow, as for every major trouble there was usually a workaround, adding a twist to your options, although I wasn't always aware of them until the storm passed. For instance, I was ready to piss on the hitscan lagoon underneath the start, when I saw the medikits to recover. There were several hidden invulnerabilities throughout the map, like that early one requiring a blind jump, which I saved for later, or the very convenient one downstairs (btw, lmao). The reveal at northwest was one of my favourite pressuring moments, with cliff zombiemen, revenants and an army of chaingunners (punctuated by a blur sphere in a corner that I took immediately), though I was also surprised when I got to the invisible crisscross - wasn't expecting a Plutonia reference! It got hairy rather quickly, since pain elementals ahoy. I really wished I found the secret BFG before the tedious lost soul cleanup, but that was the price for not scavenging enough. Loved the valley fight at the end, slightly hectic with constant chaingunners and assorted shooters teleporting, though with the opportunity to neuter much of it with another invul at the top of the mountain. I'm now intrigued whether you can dash to the SMM platform and skip the whole fight, but I'll leave that for others to see...

 

24. Not the most friendly start, but I got to saw a sergeant's stomach, which is always good. Parts of the map reminded me of those abstract starports from wads like "32 Hours in Pain" or "Dimensions of Time", with incidental skirmishes in general, and up to the long platinum hallway that bisected the map it was more demonized tech vibes. Then it changed to dark wooden/basement-like ambient and more claustrophobic surprises, although I guess the supplies containers were a hint that I was still exploring a forgotten base (hence the title probably). That archvile duo was a jumpscare. The final boss encounter was in a humongous space, no practical cover, and relied on the babies to distract the mother while I rushed for the BFG to end her. Still not as shocking as those archviles from before. Pretty good. Oh and the RL chair was super cute.

 

25. Cool opening area, with the evileye red pillar and the shaded facade of the castle. It sort of reminded me of the classic start in "The Courtyard". The detailing inside was superb, I liked that fountain with the HK and the curtains in the bedroom, plus a closeted revenant that both spooked me and got me a laugh at the same time. Big fan of the classic green torch secret. As for combat, it's got its dirty surprises, and shockingly I managed to elude death or severe damage more than once. Those snipers in the pitch black for example, I could have missed the chaingunner if it didn't shoot right as I was leaving. The spooky BSK trap, I ran away with impunity as the archvile and imp neglected their only chance to corner me. Fools! But the library clausterfuck at the end, it could have gone terrible if the instapop cyberdemon enabled UV-fast strats on that BFG grab, and I wasted too many shots pushing revenants and spectres away. Oh my, well done mapper.

 

26. A radical change of theme, back to a standard -but shallow- doom II techbase. Texturing and geometry weren't the main attraction but I kinda dug the huge room where the majority of monsters spawned in - I imagined the baron, hell knight and mancubus hated the idea of leaving the crates spread around the area and rather put them away in the storage rooms. It's funny if interpreted that way. My most favorite thing was the tiny switch that opened the exit door, I don't know why that made me laugh. Maybe because it was so comical how it was simply there on a long table. Standout: well, aside from all aforementioned, I thought the revenants trio in the metal stairs was very "The Crusher".

 

27. Monochrome concrete map that was pretty stylish. The feeling I had was of exploring a big vent system, given the tight spaces and overall "Grid 64" design, and grayness of course. In reality, it was vaguely more like a labyrinth but with verticality, cool lighting effects, and rooms of torture. Basically, playful details, like the power button in the huge room, the crusher over caged pinkies, or the treasure room of red keycards. It wasn't rough or difficult to navigate at all, nor to get my bearings, and monsters appeared sparingly and in specific situations. The only true concern arose when I got bamboozled by the armor trap, which was a shock. I didn't save up to that point, but starting over wasn't a big deal. There was also the troll lift which put me in a hairy situation with barrels and chaingunners, though fortunately I lived. I was ready for the next dick move when the exit was a chasm away from me. That was one last optional group of archviles, which didn't seem intended to be killed if for the extremely awkward space and resurrected obstacles (out of curiosity I tried and succeeded with luck, thanks to a former death pit I used for safety). Phew, next!

 

28. Started out offering a nice cave view appropriate for the doom II track, and did not waste a minute to show its true colors. With the highest monster count so far, I anticipated an epic journey, and in a way it could be interpreted like such. This was, uh, a lengthy series of the most nightmarish '90s/shovelware/my-first-map-very-hard obstacle challenges, so to speak, with the main (and only, obligatorily) approach to enforce a survivalist run from start to end... that is, if you're even supposed to reach the finish line. Well, I don't wanna quote Kris Jenner again, but I was indeed afraid to stumble upon a map like this one. I can say I did what I could, but eventually surrendered and turned on iddqd in a certain "impossible" clausterfuck of chaingunners. Even if I passed that alive by a miracle, I'd have to brute force through more hitscanners (among other unkillable roadblocks) and then touch lava naked for two seconds, with nonexistent recovery in between. That said, I kinda enjoyed a few of the puzzles involved, like using cyberdemon rockets to call as many archviles as possible so I could squeeze past them, or the seemingly inescapable zombiemen party except for the sergeant clue, or even the imps playroom with magnified objects. That chasm serpent with stuck chaingunners was a moment of catharsis, and some general appreciation for the overall idea. At least you aren't always under a timer, and there is some killing to do here and there, but unless you mind rocketing like eight cyberdemons I'd advise ghosting about everything that isn't blocking the way. Yeah, a shame that it's missing minimum balance to win in a couple parts, since it would have been one of those "phew, that was something!" kind of feelings of completion/relief. Alas, it wasn't the case, though no one can't deny that it fits the megawad goals.

 

29. A marble interiors of a castle/palace that was both solid looking and a much needed breather after the previous mess. For real, I blasted through most of it at a moderately speedy pace, without sweating over deadly timers or cryptic teleport shenanigans. That's not to say it lacked teeth, it simply brought back the classic hallway shooter gameplay of the era and earlier parts of the wad, and thus more lax in general. I liked the old-school, free-style monster placement that very much reminded me of wads like "Dystopia" or "The Raven Series", with mixed incidental conflict and a couple more concentrated fights saved for climax. There were also some shortcuts I assumed for a little non-linearity - I hopped from ledge to ledge to snag a green vest that was tempting me and found progression this way, then noticed another more straightforward path down from the start. I appreciated these options, as well as the secret invuls - Pandora's staple powerup. The finale's super button was the perfect way to cap off this little adventure. Well done again, Endless.

 

30. This has to be the shortest Icon of Sin I've played in years. You start in a nonagon surrounded by loads of shells and cells and spheres, an image of D!Zone's Gold edition's CD, and a mancubus guarding it. Well, shooting at the CD ends the hellspawn, and nothing prevents you of doing that. Myself personally, I was left unsatisfied and decided to reload and try to stick around for as much as possible, something completely unusual coming from me. The rate of spawning was slow and infighting and ammo/health refills were at my disposal, so I set a time limit of 30 minutes -- probably too much, but it was an experiment after all. Considering that only three archviles were summoned, it was all very easily manageable. Played that way, and it did feel a bit more like a proper closure, with a score of 42,300% kills!

 

 

Maps 31-35

Spoiler

31. Ah, the classic "turn around" at the start. Really enjoyed this overall. Seems like it was designed  to run in powerhorse mode, with enabling BFG solo and not even close to exhaustion, provided you know where the big stash of cells is. I simply let things flow the natural way, and stopped at times to admire any eccentricities - for example, graytall's red stripe used like doortrak, or this one hidden piece of HOMed startan near the start. The map had its dose of '90s cuteness too, like the barons on the boat, or the tall tree near the mancubi couple. And for incidental comedy, the SMM unable to escape the crushers because of the mass of barrels around. Like I said, quite fun. No idea what the steptop letters said, or if they were letters to begin with...

 

32. Hmm, a quiet map, or centered around pacifism, in other words. The idea was to lure monsters into destroying barrels to make up space for you, as first priority, with the plus of getting themselves mutated. As an extra kick, they may get into infighting if the RNG is on your side -- straightforward when it came to barons, but seeing two imps duke it out was a nice bonus. The two latter stages were a bit different: no barrels involved, instead crushers for revenants, and cyberdemon rockets for commander keens. This was all while being absolutely forbidden to shoot a single bullet, lest I wanted to end up combusted in a blink of an eye... or that's what I assumed for every setup, since I never actually tested my faith. It sometimes got nerve-wracking, courtesy of doom's AI, and I had to contain myself several times not to do the dirty work myself out of anxiety. That said, I enjoyed my time nonetheless. At first I had my suspicions about what was "shovelware" in the map, since I don't think this gimmick was yet explored in the "novelty" era of doom mapping, plus the visuals were a tad polished - no sharp angles, no texture oddities - so yeah, but I honestly couldn't care less whether this map would be considered out of place or not.... Pistoolkip has a gimmick map similar to this in "Gorehounds of Doom", which I also enjoyed. Cool stuff.

 

33. Not a whole to say, just a nondescript, ugly techbase that wasn't even half functional. About the only interesting part was the four archviles that intercepted at the time I was logging off the token cyberdemon. None of the doors and closets in the bricked room worked in crispy-doom, prboom+ or zdoom, so I deemed this skip-worthy. In strict vanilla, you may at least see one tutti frutti effect.

 

34. Something random and fantastic in a twisted way. It's basically galleries of monsters confined to their invisible boundaries, endless amounts of goodies, and some additional artwork best observed in the automap. The pinkies and revenants would refill each time I killed a bunch, while the cybers and cacos were the main roadblocks. Later on, nonsensical piles of zombiemen around a scribble, blocking the exit, plus some windows archviles that I never knew what released them. A primitive slaughtermap, in simple words. I could imagine Hell Revealed would cite this as source of inspiration if it existed back in the shovelware days. I'm also sure it would have been absolutely unplayable until the arrival of source ports, since the original executable would explode every single time upon loading the first view. I mean, there are still ways and ways to render proceedings borked in crispy-doom, which is no doubt part of NoisyVelvet's plan. Most of the killing was perfectly doable, but the real deal was pushing through the zombiemen while avoiding intercept overflow. As inconsistent and daunting as it was at first, I ended up gibbing them all with extremely cautious rocket splash, which worked better than BFG shots. Heh, what a map.

 

35. This last bonus map put the marine in a congested silver base in hell, with the outer panels drenched in boiling juice. Gameplay combined claustrophobia and exposure to high degrees of violence, in '90s flavor  -- each mandatory button revealed dense packs of imps, hell knights and zombies, among other unsavory things like a few problematic archviles and cacodemon invaders, while I didn't count with much room to move, partially because of a cyberdemon overseer outside and the cluster of chaingunners inside, the latter which was more comical than anything. I enjoyed the tricks behind each and every ambush and, my favorite part, defusing the thin corridor trap by clearing the aforementioned chaingunners in beforehand. The bridge part wasn't all that dangerous, most of the stuff died to the overseer and he was an easy target. There was a bit of back-and-forth around the BK but always with extra fighting, so all good. Neat thing overall. I unfortunately missed the BFG hidden in the lava, sad times.

 

[Devalaous]

I recently finished Hexen, Memento Mori, No End in Sight, Pulse and 2002 ADO. Will likely work on MM2, Alien Vendetta and Vilecore in the upcoming weeks.

[Kyka]

Currently, replaying No End In Sight, TNT Forever (because map development,), Ultimate Needs More Detail, (a great Ultimate Doom1 megawad), playtesting a wonderful Limit Removing Vanilla Project by @Fernito, and Playtesting @Stupid Bunny's speedmap wad, which is also great.

 

Recently finished Anomaly Report by @valkiriforce, which was the usual high level of vanilla awesomeness.

 

Also recently played Jade Earth (jadearth.wad) by @Jodwin, a huuuge single map which was a cacoward runner up probably ten years ago. (edit: and which I also playtested at that time.)

Edited September 16, 2022 by Kyka

[Walter confetti]

Playing through Ancient Aliens for testing the strengths of Nugget Doom port on my laptop, reached MAP14. Pretty good wad, I've excepted better: is still a great wad, absolutely, but big part of episode 1 is just a series of arena-like maps with the exception of MAP01 (best starter ever so far!), MAP08 and MAP10. MAP06 have a pretty neat gimmick and MAP04 is bad. Episode 2 so far, so good.

[Thelokk]

The daily random /idgames wad, that's pretty much it. Haven't been playing or mapping much Doom lately.

[Gougaru]

I have a ton of projects and I've just recently decided to finally finish tartarus. I just really love the aesthetic.

Edited September 17, 2022 by Gougaru

[Dusty_Rhodes]

22 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

20. Something predominantly earthy and natural, giving slight E4 atmosphere through the textures, with touches of E3 corruption. I started surrounded by floating libraries, the more reason to believe some strange things going on. There was even an isolated sort of sanctum with what I assumed at first was a portal to hell, though nothing came from it when I picked up the skull key. Other than those moments, it flowed like a traditional low-key map. The compblu watery cavern and fireblu pillars was a great vista, though I personally loved the secret valley even more, for its close-up view of the night. I also liked the trip for the skull keys, with jumps over lava and the aforementioned sanctum to claim the BFG, and waste it on a cyberdemon. As a final treat, an invul-fueled rush towards more imps and cyberdemons, good times. Apparently I missed to explore one small room with a berserk. It must have been linked to some teleport I ignored, since I did land on one by accident, which took me to a much needed radsuit. Exploration failed. Oh well, sweet map.

Somehow my first time seeing this comment. I really appreciate it and I'm glad you enjoyed the level! Seems like you caught the vibe it was going for. Very well written, it means a lot thank you.

[Lingyan203]

Currently doing a 100% UV Max full continuous playthrough of Anomaly Report

 

 

[Wyrmwood]

Revolution on my Switch at break times, love all the Doomcute details and how the story and visuals compliment each other. The info box informed me it was on the easy side (words to those effect) so playing UV pistol starts and it doesn't feel that easy to me, thanks info box.

 

Started playing 2022 A Doom Odyssey on PC also, only played the first episode but already love it, proper old school Doom gameplay with prettier levels. Working nights right now but I know what I'm doing on my off days

[Thelokk]

After watching Vile's stream and enjoying (most of) the Mapwich 2, I decided to give @Tango's Paradise a shot and it's easily the best thing I've played in a long while. Modern, dynamic, manages to feel like a conversion and classic Dooming at the same time. A cut above all other GZ projects I played so far.