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[Relic]

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Edited December 8, 2021 by Relic

[Porsche Monty]

Anyone who disagrees with Reverie being in at least the top 3 is blowing smoke.

[kmxexii]

PRCP is probably my overall favorite but my night is young and there has been so much great stuff I'd rather replay it all than choose a definitive pick

[Kira]

There are too many great wads for 2011, but one that has a place in my heart is Vanguard.

[Relic]

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Edited October 14, 2021 by Relic

[Doomguy 2000]

Well that's a tough question for me. But my personal favorite besides the wad I made myself would have to be Memorial because of the concept of combining all of the Doom 2 levels in one gigantic map.

[Vordakk]

The best 2011 wad that I played was Reverie. Can't comment on Skillsaw's wads, but I'm sure they were probably real good.

[fiend-o-hell]

I have yet to play Vanguard, but given that its Skillsaw mapset, I bet its something. For now, I'll give it up for Reverie.

[NaturalTvventy]

DTWID, though more for the spirit it generated in the community then the final product.

[Grazza]

Double Impact was notable for being excellent E1-style maps with a "modern" difficulty level. Apart from Flashback, that's a rare achievement.

[fullmetalvaran33]

As much as I liked skillsaw's "Vanguard," Arch's "Church" was my favorite of 2011.

[Graf Zahl]

Porsche Monty said:

Anyone who disagrees with Reverie being in at least the top 3 is blowing smoke.

I disagree with you. :P

I have seen that same stuff hundreds of times over the last 17 years and it can't get me excited anymore.


Back to topic: 2011 was a dismal year in my opinion. The amount of more ambitious project was shockingly low so my choice has to default to Rex's Phobos directive, although I wasn't too impressed by it either.

[Phobus]

I had an awful lot of fun with Doom Vacation myself (the Duke3D Caribbean partial conversion).

I agree with Graf in that a lot of the stuff that's come out this year hasn't really pushed the envelope in terms of originality (particularly as at least one of 2011's premier mappers is very strongly influenced by the mid-late 90s), but I disagree with the idea that it's a bad thing. There's been a lot of fun maps from what I've seen. I don't think I've managed to play many .WADs that weren't the big "blockbuster" popular ones, so I've probably missed out on a couple of hidden gems... but, if I had to go with my gut and just say a released .WAD that I think was best, it'd probably be Lunatic.

[Khorus]

Last year had plents of wads with solid gameplay, but yeah very little outside of the mold.

[WH-Wilou84]

Porsche Monty said:

Anyone who disagrees with Reverie being in at least the top 3 is blowing smoke.

Well I'll disagree as well, Reverie is cool but not in my top 3 of 2011 since imho there were many better wads and maps released last year : Plutonia Revisited, Vanguard, Lunatic, Vela Pax demo, Combat Shock, Double Impact, DTWiD, Jenesis, and many others that I'm probably forgetting... not to mention the latest four Sunder maps, which are masterpieces, and skepticist's three maps, with which I had a lot of fun.

No hard feelings though, valkiriforce. I'll keep an eye on your work for sure :)

Eternal's Voodoo Guns wasn't up to my tastes but it's very impressive in its own way.

As for OP's question, I'll go with Plutonia Revisited.

Graf Zahl said:

2011 was a dismal year in my opinion. The amount of more ambitious project was shockingly low

One-man megawads are always ambitious in my book, and last year we got quite a few of them.
Also don't tell me esselfortium / Mechadon's "Shoguki" ( SpaceDM9 ), Xaser's "Enigma Helix" ( Plutonia Revisited map 15 ) and Mechadon's Vela Pax demo weren't ambitious :)

[Jimmy]

Graf Zahl said:

The amount of more ambitious project was shockingly low

Well, with any luck, this year will see the release of Blocks of Doom II and The Adventures of Square. :P Maybe even Omega TC.

[Phml]

Vanguard, easily ; and yet it's been a good year. :)

[j4rio]

pppp.wad

;)

[hex11]

SLIGE seed 1162831338 ftw!

Well okay, maybe not. ;)

[skillsaw]

32in24-11. So much fun to play!

[TimeOfDeath]

j4rio said:

pppp.wad

lols, *loooook into my hooooole*

[Vordakk]

Graf Zahl said:

The amount of more ambitious project was shockingly low ...

Define "ambitious project".

For instance, if one's ambition was to create a one-man megawad that felt like the best wads of 1996/1997, then Reverie was pretty damn ambitious IMO.

I take your post to mean that most of the projects of 2011 didn't attempt to break new ground. Am I right? If that's the case perhaps you're correct, but I hardly think that qualifies 2011 as a "dismal year". Just my two cents.

[Guest]

Doom2 Redux was pretty amazing.

And then the usual amazing suspects: Lunatic. PRCP. Reverie. Awesome stuff.

I thought the 1994 tune up was good, though it was a mixed bag.

So how did I miss vanguard? I haven't played it at all.

[PRIMEVAL]

From what I've played PRCP, Reverie, and Vanguard were all pretty good. Dunno which is the best, hard to judge.

[molten_]

For me, it's probably a tie between DTWID and Reverie.

[fiend-o-hell]

Wait wait. I forgot about Jenesis. Jenesis definitely aroused the fun spot within me through and through.

[HavoX]

How come nobody mentioned Return of the Triad yet? I know it doesn't count as a Doom wad (it uses [G]ZDoom though), but I just finished playing it last night, and to make a long story short, it was a lot of fun. :)

Other than that, Reverie and Jenesis were both pretty good.

[Porsche Monty]

Graf Zahl said:

I disagree with you. :P

I have seen that same stuff hundreds of times over the last 17 years and it can't get me excited anymore.

I'm offended by your disagreement and I demand an apology...not really :)

Here's the thing. I'm specifically drawn towards good, challenging, and balanced playability these days (because there's hardly anything, specially this big, offering the whole package anymore) and if it's vanilla, even better (also a personal thing). That's what this wad delivers. It's not Plutonia 2 material as far as visuals is concerned, but it's pretty well thought out, pretty fun and definitely an admirable effort from single mapper that deserves more than being thrown in the should-have-never-happened bin like many wads I've played in recent years.

[Seeker_of_Truth]

My top wad is either PRCP or Lunatic. I can't really decide which.

[Snakes]

While there were many great wads (PRCP, Mandrill, etc.), nothing really came close to Vanguard for me. Skilsaw made a remarkable product with that.