Alien Vendetta

[Retog]

I have just finished playing through Alien Vendetta for the first time and I have to say it is one of the best wads I have ever played.
The huge levels are well designed and are absolutely gorgeous. The difficulty is a challenge but not too difficult that it makes you rage quit.

What are your thoughts?

[darkreaver]

My thoughts on AV = orgasm. Best wad ever for me.

[Retog]

darkreaver said:

My thoughts on AV = orgasm. Best wad ever for me.

I don't think I quite had an orgasm but it was epic. **

[Grain of Salt]

[Scypek2]

After playing through Vendetta, I was getting suprised every time when grabbed a key/weapon and nothing happened.

[kmc]

The best megawad of all time imo

[Memfis]

It's a shame that map30 is just a lame Icon of Sin battle...

[DuckReconMajor]

It's bad until you play it.

[Taedium]

Memfis said:

It's a shame that map30 is just a lame Icon of Sin battle...

Yeah, I also found the end to be very anticlimactic. But as a whole, its by far one of the best, most influential WADs of all time.

[darkreaver]

I want to point out that many wads have just as fun/better gameplay (Scythe and others comes to mind), but no WAD will ever "beat" AV for me because of nostalgia. The feeling I get when I load up ANY AV map is just...yup.

[MajorRawne]

Memfis said:

It's a shame that map30 is just a lame Icon of Sin battle...

This. I can't stand Icon of Sin battles and never play that type of map. A shame such a creative wad ended on a note of "Here's something you see in EVERY megawad ever". If you're reading this, and you contributed an Icon battle to a megawad, I just skimmed through your map looking at the architecture and declared the mission over at the end of map 29.

EDIT: Which megawad ends with a boss battle against the giant alien boss from Duke Nukem with "Midnight Train" (IIRC) playing? I always thought of that as the ultimate final battle, because there was a giant monster and some rather mellow music.

AV is even better on co-operative mode. One of the only wads that is actually good for co-op without one player getting stuck, etc.

There is something special about AV for me. Many, many good memories. Some of the best levels I've ever seen are in AV and yet it still feels like Doom. They just nailed it. I don't really like PC Doom 2, I just don't think it compares to Alien Vendetta, though of course AV came along years later and obviously owes everything to Doom 2.

[Krispy]

Alien Vendetta here for those who haven't played it.

[Retog]

Memfis said:

It's a shame that map30 is just a lame Icon of Sin battle...

I agree. Map30 is it's only downfall.

[Vordakk]

Nah, Icon of Sin battles are awesome.

[Archy]

Why can't WADs actually have good Icon of Sin levels like Requiem level 23?

That level's awesome.

[vdgg]

It was one of my first WADs I've played. I wasn't disappointed. To be quite honest, I found a few parts absolutely gorgeous, MAP11 and 20 had particularly memorable moments.

However:

I got stuck on the first level, didn't find that stupid torch.
On MAP08 I thought 1-pixel wide ledges on the outer castle wall were... stupid.
Never really liked maps 25,26,27,29. Huy Pham, do you hear me? (I'll mercifully skip that Icon of Sin).

AV is not in my top five. Maybe even not top ten. That said, I can understand why it was so well received and is so favourited by many.

[TimeOfDeath]

Yeah, very nostalgic, one of the first pwads I ever played. Played it a lot on zdaemon with infinite ammo (how dare you!) in the mid-2000's. I remember the first time I played map20 was on zdaemon, and some of the players were like "theres no exit in this level, seriously" and I believed them.

[printz]

Ah, Alien Vendetta. I really liked that one. I was young and was disappointed by Hell Revealed, because it had too little hell and the music was too upbeat. But I discovered Alien Vendetta, which seemed to work hard to appease nostalgics.

I liked the final map and found it very challenging, because I was only playing by keyboard that time. It was very hard to strafe-run in time. An extra challenge was that SHIFT+LEFT+UP didn't even work, requiring me to pull that lever and coordinate my turning with my running to reach that lift.

The Alien Vendetta mappers really seemed to like Revenants and teleport traps, and hate Pain Elementals and Arachnotrons. The Elementals were quite underused, like some pariahs.

MAP29 felt damn apocalyptic.

[Vordakk]

It's funny to hear what passes for "nostalgia" nowadays in this forum. I guess it dates me a bit, but I really don't consider a wad from 2001 to be nostalgic. Try 1994 or 1995. Obituary, Fava Beans, Infinity, Eternal DOOM...those are nostalgic. I've played through AV a number of times, and yes it's great. Really great. Light years ahead of anything I'll ever do. But it doesn't quite live up to the BEST WAD EVAR!!11!1! reputation it gets here IMO. Honestly I find Reverie more impressive, because although its quality is about the same, all 32 levels were made by one guy.

And sorry, but the Icon of Sin is awesome. I was floored when I first encountered it on Map30 in 1994, hunched over my keyboard in a dark room with the sound cranked. I have a feeling some of the younger people don't have an appreciation for IOS because they simply weren't around at that time. For 1994, that shit was cool.

[TimeOfDeath]

Vordakk said:

It's funny to hear what passes for "nostalgia" nowadays in this forum.

Not everyone got into Doom in the 90's. :)
I played it in the 90's but I took a long break and didn't even play pwads until 2004.

[darkreaver]

TimeOfDeath said:

Not everyone got into Doom in the 90's. :)
I played it in the 90's but I took a long break and didn't even play pwads until 2004.

Same, just replace 2004 with 2002 (IIRC)

[Katamori]

Good 'nuff. Not a perfect masterpiece, and sometimes too long, but nevermind, very good stuff.

[Marcaek]

Say what you will about the Icon fight, but that small leadup was magical.

[Snakes]

Loved the sound replacements on the Commander Keen. Great little touch to the atmosphere!

[PRIMEVAL]

I have yet to get passed the first few levels...they just don't interest me enough to keep going. However, I heard the later levels start becoming better so maybe one day I can do a playthrough (or even an LP) of it.

[molten_]

I remember a lot of the later levels impressing me, but I don't think I finished it. It's been so long I don't even remember how far I got ... I might do a fresh playthrough in the future.

[Grain of Salt]

[T-Rex]

printz said:

The Alien Vendetta mappers really seemed to like Revenants and teleport traps

Like most megawads that emulate the gameplay of Plutonia and HR, right?

[ReFracture]

I remember back in 2003 when I started playing Doom online, found Doom Connector. On the webpage they had a list of of recommended Megawads for coop, Alien Vendetta, Hell Revealed, Memento Mori, Icarus..

Regardless of quality, I hold all these wads near and dear. Countless hours on Doom Connector in the inexplicable boom of Doom Legacy being insanely popular, playing so much coop..

Alien Vendetta is my favorite Megawad, though there are a number of levels I dislike.

[T-Rex]

Some of the maps in Alien Vendetta are huge, you'd think you're playing an Eternal Doom map. Maps 11, 20, and 27 are prime examples.