The DWmegawad Club plays: Scythe

[Marcaek]

If you want some play suggestions, maybe Congestion 1024? If another IWAD would suffice, how about Plutonia Revisited?

also obligatory d2twid plug

[7hm]

Map 22
Despair

Introduction to Cyberdemon fighting allday erryday. I found myself pretty rough for ammo the entire map, and to be honest I can tell that this episode is going to be beyond my skill level on UV without a stupid amount of saving / loading. That being said, I'm enjoying the individual encounters even if they're a bit much for me. I like the hallway Revenants and the use of archviles in small spaces. I used the BFG on the Cyber.

Map 23
Anger

Soooo red. My eyes are starting to hurt. That whole first fight is a doozy. I chose to activate everyone, murder the archviles asap, and go hide while the remaining monsters fought it out amonst themselves. I then spent a lot (a lot) of time learning how to identify cyberdemon shooting patterns during the tagteam fight. I really enjoy how Erik maximizes the space he gives you by having a series of fights take place in the same area. He's been doing it during the entire wad, but on this map it's just so incredibly obvious.

Map 24
Hatred

redredred. Lots of single monster hordes here, which I really am not a fan of. I relied heavily on infighting to weed them out, especially once the Cacodemons joined in. The Revenants upstairs took me forever and a bit to figure out how to fight effectively, and the same for the Cyberdemon. I can tell that I am nowhere near good enough to be playing this wad on UV, but hey, it can only make me better, right?

I also did not figure out the purpose of the red key, but then, I also made a beeline for the exit once I realized where it was.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP24: Hatred My Time: 7:32

I loathe this level. It's gotta be those mancubi up near the RK which make perfect snipers. I attempted to instigate infighting again, between the hell knights/barons and some mancubi or even the cyberdemon, but this put my hand-eye coordination in too many places for me to consider, so I spammed rockets on everyone. Then there's the big area where an invulnerability can be taken to confront plenty of revenants; instead I use the invuln to kill the cybie. Unfortunately, doing that meant many of those guys survived up there and they would always corner me if I try to go up, so I lured them to the elevator and lowered them instead to keep myself alive. It was like MAP18 of Hell Revealed in other words. Rest of the level after grabbing the BFG wasn't really anything special. I don't honestly know how to trigger the secret sector here also; I seemed to have accidentally triggered it somehow when runnning through this (usually I miss it altogether) and it turns out the berserk was in there. Oh well, didn't have much use for the sucker.

BTW I think the red key just triggers something when you pick it up and that there's no red door. Remember MAP18 of Hell Revealed? There's keys but no locked doors in that map.

[scifista42]

MAP23 - Anger

Even though the environment stays true to a very specific and limited aesthetical style, I admire it a lot. It's a good and appropriate interpretation of hell. The layout also makes sense both in the context of theme and in regards to actual map's gameplay. Atmospheric lighting (I already accepted it) and impressive decorative use of height variation. Even the monster inhabitants here amplify the feeling "Now I am in hell!". Considering also the challenging difficulty, this must be my favourite map so far.

I died many times, but enjoyed the challenge - everything was well managable, I just shouldn't make so many mistakes. I once saved the game in the middle, upon seeing the cyberdemons. Despite my expectations, I survived them and got it to the maps very end, but then the last archvile managed to incinerate me a milisecond before I rocketed him out. So I had to retry the fight with cyberdemons few more times, because my luck apparently left me for that moment. The stronger was my satisfaction when I eventually won. :) (the same archvile hit me again, but this time I survived with 39% health)

[Phobus]

MAP25: Envy
It's not red! It's largely grey instead. I do like me some ASHWALL2 - it just feels so classic. This map is largely about killing archnotrons, but with a few friends and a pair of Spider Masterminds too! Pretty tough, but with only 42 monsters it's also fairly quick and encourages a bit of trial and error to enjoy the challenge. I found myself overdone for soulspheres and rather tight on ammo, but there were a couple of infighting opportunities I avoided in order to play it safe.

Also, I've just seen the start of MAP26. I remember this. Tomorrow won't be an easy day.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP25: Envy My Time: 4:35

I don't have much memory on this one other than it being filled with spiders. It's not hard SSG'ing or rocketing any of them. Kinda boring level really. The archie at the end can be difficult to avoid, or not, as you can simply enter the area behind the YK door is, not using the teleporter, and take him out the long way which I did.

And Phobus is correct in that it's largely gray. There's still some red around but a nice change in the predominant color is pretty good after four whole red maps.

Too bad MAP26 is also red.

[BaronOfStuff]

MAP11: Sneak Peak
Real Men™ use Berserk for all it's worth. For some idiot reason, Alm actually gives back most of the weapons that were lost after the previous map's death exit. Why bother with the fucking thing then? This one is something of a harsh opener, all things considered.

MAP12: Walk In The Park
And then it all goes back to routine murder. Difficulty drops like a stone, although that's no surprise given the map's title.

MAP13: Subverted Base
No ammo? No problem! Of course I've got stacks of the stuff (again), but that doesn't stop me from knocking teeth out and heads off. Quite a fair bit of stuff to do given the map's compact size.

MAP14: Power Outage
Blink and you'll miss it. This map seems way too easy for something this far in, and in all honesty would probably be better suited to open the episode. It's nothing horrible to play and visually it's pretty good, but the action is completely underwhelming.

MAP15: Blood Bath
Eh, I'm pretty indifferent to this one. I suppose if you're a big fan of The Inmost Dens then this is like finding a load of loose fries in your takeaway bag, but for me this just evokes memories of playing shitty IWAD maphacks (although I must stress that this map itself is not shitty). The Super Shotgun is delivered at last, although not out in the open like it usually would be. It doesn't get any use either.

MAP31: I Dunno Torn
Blah, this one is bland. Just rush around a dungeon-esque locale while stuff around you dies without asking questions. I suppose it's okay as a gimmick (what can be done with barely any texture choice), but I wouldn't regard it as a particularly memorable level. Getting the secret exit can be a bitch depending on port/flags, because of Doom's stupid z-clipping (and hanging bodies being 'solid' decorations).

MAP32: Soahc Enoz
Not really all that chaotic when you keep an eye on teleport landings and doorways. The Berserk/Hellknight drop is nothing short of a cunt's trick, the sort of cheap, player-limiting artificial difficulty bullshit that Alm should be shot into the Sun for.

Not that I give a fuck about UV-Max speedrunning, but the end section of this map is pure dumb luck as far as the rate that the enemies will teleport in goes; having to wait around like a twat for some shithead Imp to pace up and down a chamber until it stumbles over the teleport trigger is hardly stellar design.

MAP16: Burial Grounds
Going to need more space. Easy map with a couple of potentially tricky spots, but nothing that the usual weapon selection can't/won't handle. I like the small chapel area here; there's always a certain charm with faux-realistic design in the Doom engine (unless it's taken to ridiculous 'sector soup' extremes), and this is no exception. Fun stuff.

MAP17: Book Lords
In the spirit of MAP16, this continues with the theme of creating a semi-realistic area and then letting the player's imagination fill in the rest of the details. No imagination? Well fuck you, the map's still good. It's not something to be considered 'difficult', but the action and monster numbers are finally starting to pick up and keep minimal pressure on the player during progression.

MAP18: MS Futura
Ah bollocks, I spoke too soon didn't I? Filler. Good god is this ever-obviously just something thrown together to make Scythe reach that magic number of 32 maps.

[worrior]

MAP21 Solitude
Okay, looks like we're in hell, gentlemen, hopefully that stuipd thief will be around here somewhere. Few demons and imps spot you as soon as the level starts, so better scout those chambers on the left and right to get some firepower (shotgun, of course, and a chaingun, of course as well, and a - you guessed it - a berserk pack). A kinda-secret soulsphere was really easy to grab but of coursie I had to lose a fair bit of superhealth on the most stupid occasion (this time in a form of a super-easy hellnight's plasma ball). You'll get a rocket launcher and a super shotgun so keep arming up!

MAP22 Despair
A journey through red rock tunnels continues! Hellish atmosphere vibrates very strong here. As usual, this level is quite short but I like how it makes use out of every room available. A hell nobles cave caught my attention and you can just go wrong with a cybderdemon in the end. I didn't get rid of him - even though I found a BFG - and made a run for the exit.

MAP23 Anger
It's red, infested with monsters... and really nothing more is left to say. It keeps up the pace, packs some challenge and makes you want more of the same. The starting area can get crowdy, so watch out.

MAp24 Hatred
Once again, lot's for red in here but this level nailed hellish atmosphere even better! Rocking soundtrack makes a great background for a slaughter you're about to begin. Yes, slaughter - even if we're still playing Scythe, this map packs some serious monster count. I was actually pretty short on ammo at times and had to provoke infights, but hell, it was totally worth it! Last minutes of the map kept me on my toes, making me pray to see the exit soon. I really appreciate the main arena layout: it does support you with clever hideouts and makes you feel like you have nowhere to run at the same time.

[Phobus]

MAP26: Fear
A Scythe-sized map, but with over 700 monsters on start-up. About 12 cyberdemons I think, but there might have been more. I found it kind of hard to tell as I really didn't need to do much killing. The invulnerabilities were welcome and the shedload of BFG ammo and rockets, combined with generous megaspheres, meant that, bar one or two silly deaths, this was pretty easy. Just keep moving and dodge the rockets! I felt an obligation to kill everything, so it was handy that most of the cyberdemons had fallen to infighting or were limping about on low health by the time I turned my BFG on them, whilst the hell nobles had done their usual trick of out-enduring everything else in a crowd, so I was ploughing through a herd of beef by the end of it.

There's a few moments where you have to hold down the trigger and really push through the crowds (aim for the arch-viles), but if you're not invulnerable or coming in on a fresh megasphere, you're doing it wrong in this map. A fun slaughter that doesn't outstay it's welcome.

[Suitepee]

Well as my suggestion for NOVA: The Birth got shot down, I'll suggest Scythe 2 for the next DWMegawad Club. :D

[BaronOfStuff]

Suitepee said:

Well as my suggestion for NOVA: The Birth got shot down, I'll suggest Scythe 2 for the next DWMegawad Club. :D

You'll make it just far enough to regret that choice.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP26: Fear My Time: 5:25

What some may call a "boring BFG spam" is clearly one of two very slaughter-ific maps in Scythe, and a level many people look back at when remembering Scythe. Plenty of cell ammo means plenty of BFG shots fired. It has an interesting teleporter mechanic, using a perpetual lift to bring revenants into the gameplay a few at a time. Goal: grab three keys, but with this many inmates of hell it's bound to be a big fight. And it definitely shows. I first kill the cybie on the far right, then lured the other two away from the switch which will reveal the revenant staircase. For me, this was the hardest part, since I was trying to save the invulnerabilities. I know there's one right behind you when you start, but I saved that too. Getting the three keys is actually pretty easy, as there's an invulnerability before each one, plus the one right next to the three teleporters means I saved another one for later. A lot of monsters would teleport after each key grab, but there's always time to save them for later. The switch behind the three key door where the archvile was not only reveals the exit, it kills any spare revenants in their teleporter closet with a crusher. Then, whether or not to kill the remaining enemies (usually hellknights/barons remain) and get 100% kills is the player's choice. There's no question about it, this is an intense level that's pretty much Scythe's highlight.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP24: Hatred
75% kills, 0/1 secret

Definitely starting to reach the point where my objective is just to get out, rather than make sure every monster is dead. That's fine though, and actually more exciting in a way. I have fun frantically running for the exit under a hailfire of fireballs instead of searching every last corpse for a key.

Looks-wise, it's more red red red, but the combat is definitely starting to intensify. Unfortunately, I got frustrated at the start since the way to go (lift up to the blue key) is a bit non-intuitive and easy to miss. There's also the non-intuitive red key with no red door (looking in DB2, grabbing the key triggers a line that lowers the yellow skull key to make it reachable).

The main battle here is the revenant swarms on the way to the blue key. Funny story, I remember this part (long hallway overlooking rest of level leading to blue key) and thought that the one in MAP16 with the gravestones was it, and I thought "I remember this being a lot harder..." well, that's because it was the one in MAP25, heh. Once you grab the blue key, it's off to the races... grab the BFG, waste the cyberdemon, grab the yellow key, ignore ol' brain'n'legs and hit the exit.

[ClonedPickle]

My vote's for D2TWID as I still need to get around to playing that.

Or at least something new or in need of feedback

[Dime]

Has requiem been done? It's old but damn i would love to see some reviews.

[Demon of the Well]

Since we seem to have sort of lost the 'old' WAD/new WAD alternation, I'm still voting for Epic 2 foremost, simply because I'm very fond of it. I'm pretty easy, though, there are only a very rare few WADs I just flat out am totally uninterested in playing (or rather playing again, in most cases).

Map 25 -- Envy - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
This is a pretty crucial map in the overall flow of the third episode, I think, despite its relatively unassuming/mostly corridor-based gameplay, the reason being that it provides some much-welcome aesthetic variety. If you look at it on the overhead map you'll see that in terms of layout it's a fair bit boxier and less organic in shape than most of the other Hell maps to this point, but the crucial point is that it's ash-grey (with some red highlights) and mostly very gloomy for a change, rather than red-red-red-times-infinity-so-fucking-THERE-red. Really underscores the power of surface aesthetic to affect the feel of the game (and hence, how the player might approach a scenario), despite its ostensible lack of direct, concrete impact on actual gameplay. I reckon Alm himself must've suspected that E3 is thematically a bit one-note, as he decided to pull a "and now for something completely different" trick in maps 29 and 30, making them feel almost like their own little final minisode--a cool idea that's not seen very often, or dare I say, often enough. The most recent megaWAD I can think of that really did this was Jenesis (where it's done very well, I might add), or maybe arguably BTSX E1 (although this is quite a bit more of stretch). Kind of makes you wonder why more folks don't treat Hell (or whatever otherworldly realm one ends up in at the end of most DooM mapsets) as more of an excuse to go wild with a whole bunch of completely different themes over the final 10 maps; while I don't personally agree with the sentiment sometimes expressed that the traditional base-city/corrupted base-Hell thematic progression needs to be categorically retired in favor of something completely different, I'd certainly agree that there's a lot more room for thematic variation (especially in Hell) within these broader themes than is often seen.

Anyway, enough of that tangent. 'Envy' is memorable not only for its addition of ashwall alongside all of the redrock, but also because it's 'the spider map', where semi-cybernetic creepy-crawlies are the feature enemy. The meat of combat itself is actually bit mundane, with lots of straightforward corridor-shooting action (including some opportunities to easily abuse heights, angles, and doorways so that the poor baby spiders can't even hit you with their plasma cannons), only really coming into its own out in the dual-mastermind setpiece, which is fun to tackle in a somewhat brash way; if you're brave enough to ride that lift while most of the demons are still alive, you can quickly stir up a hilarious infighting jamboree. There's also a simple cyberdemon duel at one point, not a problem unless you don't feel comfortable fighting these things without a football field worth of space to move around in. Oh yes, and in case the map is really bugging you, you can just leave it halfway through by leaping onto the zig-zagging rock formation that leads to the exit skyhole from near the top of the lift in the mastermind area, no strings attached. It's so obvious it feels sort of strange, but that's pretty much the nature of this map, unusual and memorable, if a touch half-baked in execution.

Map 26 -- Fear - 108% Kills / No secrets
Probably one of the most famous maps from Scythe (as opposed to the infamy of map 28), at the time this first appeared a map of this size with a monstercount of 666 was somewhat more remarkable than it likely would be today. Yes, it's a slaughtermap, and for the most part a pure one (albeit on the small side, as Scythe is wont), as opposed to the slaughter/other hybrid style typical of, for example, the later maps of Alien Vendetta and some other mapsets of similar vintage. Ammo is plentiful, monsters are plentiful, health and armor are for the most part plentiful, albeit mainly available in large one-time chunks via ____spheres; it's up to you to figure out how to utilize your resources and your movement capabilities to overcome what might seem like insurmountable odds on paper. I wouldn't say it's a particularly hard map; if you're not used to this style of gameplay you probably get your ass handed to you a number of times starting out, but once you sink your teeth in and start to get the lay of the land and a sense for how the battles progress (about half of the total fighting consists of three identical reinforcement waves), it's quite doable as long as you remember to stay mobile. This is under classic settings, mind--without infinitely-tall actors enabled, it's easier still, since cacos 30 feet above you can't keep you from cutting through apparent gaps in the horde this way, and you have the new option of unleashing all three reinforcement hordes at once for a climactic final battle (in classic settings you'd be prevented from leaping off of the three-cyb key ledges by infinitely-tall monsters on the ground below eventually). I've played it both ways at various points, and it's my opinion that it's usually more fun to play without infinite-tallness (as is almost always the case), but even played classically it's a surprisingly forgiving and flexible romp that's a lot of fun for the ~5 minutes it lasts, no doubt a formative experience for many of today's players who enjoy this type of action.

Oh yes, and it's RED.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP25: Envy
95% kills, 1/1 secret

As Demon said, this is a much-needed "break map", both gameplay-wise and aesthetics-wise. Finally some ashwall instead of red red red everywhere. The gameplay is also much more corridorific rather than the open arenas of enemies, though the area outside can get hairy with the spiders above and the cacos coming out of the pit. After clearing that area, things become a bit ho-hum (and not just because you can skip half the level by just jumping to the exit from the lift in the spider area, heh).

[Phobus]

MAP27: Terror
A much slower pace than it's predecessor, much less red (aside from outside) and probably one of the nicer aesthetics where the brown brick bits are, what with arched windows and book cases. Pretty much everything opens up, but it's pretty easy, especially if you come in heavily loaded from the previous map like I did - even though you get no armour throughout the map (aside from maybe the secret I missed) I came in on a full megasphere and had only just gotten down to no armour on the final two fights, where an invisibility and some cyberdemons make for a challenging fight. Didn't die once though!

[Memfis]

I'm voting for HELINHEL, of course.

[scifista42]

What about to play D2INO beta next month?

[Phobus]

I kind of fancy Community Chest 3, myself - it's been a long time since I last played it and with the average size of the maps one-a-day seems reasonable.

[NuMetalManiak]

Imma have to go with Demon and say Epic 2 for next month.

EDIT:

MAP27: Terror My Time: 9:11

Again, not much memory on this one as it's not a red level until much later. It's got that "Monster Condo" aspect of libraries and high tier monsters, but this time with more emphasis on archviles than usual. The main concept of the map has you going back and forth in the library section several times grabbing keys and several monster closets open after grabbing one key, and at least one archvile encounter in each one. Weapons and ammo are all open, but it's still okay to punch a few big guys every now and then, especially if you play carefully like I did. The encounter with cyberdemons in the bright red area after the blue bars was the worst part, due to a forced invisibility pickup. Here I just spam BFG doing my best to avoid rockets. For the final cyber I decided to not attack him until after my invisibility wore off. It's pretty tough overall.

[Phobus]

MAP28: Run From It
I think that's the first time I've ever bothered to beat the map - took about 10 attempts, the first two of which were getting to grips with the pitfalls and working out where stuff was, the others were either stupid mistakes or just not quite quick enough. I did lose a fair bit of health to the crusher on the timer, but got through alive. Very conceptual, this hell - I like the idea, even with the very tight timing. Possibly harder in ZDoom due to the lack of wall-running, but then possibly easier due to always-run and only needing to press two keys to SR40 and steer using the mouse. I could probably beat the 32 second time I got, but it'd be too much effort - I'm on MAP29 and that'll do :P

[Magnusblitz]

MAP26: Fear
74% kills, no secrets

Now, THIS is the map that I (and I'm sure many others) think of when they think of Scythe. And it's my favorite map by a longshot, and one reason I think highly of the WAD. At 666 monsters (many more after the Arch-Viles come to play) and with all the BFG ammo and megaspheres strewn about, it certainly can be played as a slaughter map. But as I've said, I have more fun trying to run from monsters, and this map is perfect for that. My typical path is to run straight forward, go to the right to hit the switch, then back to the left side, using the cacos and revenants to distract the Cyberdemons. Run to the top, grab the invulnerability that's right behind the start, then start rushing through the teleporters to grab keys, then run to the exit. The hardest part is definitely grabbing the keys (those cyberdemon rockets will knock you off easily, even when invulnerable) and infinite tallness definitely needs to be off. But it's a lot of fun. The music is good, and that ear-splitting sound of nearly 600 monsters screaming when you enter the level is great.

[Darch]

I don't know if I will be able to play more this week, so I tried to finish it... until IT.

MAP 16 Burial Grounds

Nice map easy map, maxed this one from pistol start. Could be a little darker by the cemetery / church theme.

MAP 17 Book Lords

Right at the start, this map looks much more detailed then the previous one. It has some nice bookshelf secret passage gimmick.

MAP 18 MS Futura

Music is good, although I think it would fit map 16 better.
Very nice dimensional(?) gate at the start. Probably more fun from pistol start, because I had ammo from previous map and was able to kill the spider at the beginning of the map. So I was able to grab a soulsphere and blue armor before exiting the map :P


MAP 19 AD

I'm not a big fan of the "gray base" theme and we had a shotgun only gameplay in the first half of this map, which I also don't like very much, so I was about to say I didn't enjoyed this one until some other ammo types showed up, some bigger fights came in, and the non linear design also made me change my mind. Having a spider at the end again was not so creative.

MAP 20 Starport
I liked the music, but I think it would fit a jungle map better. It felt out of place at the cyberdemon fight and the subsequent imp horde.

map 21 Solitude
Another rough welcome at the episode start. Died twice before being able to pass the first monster wave. Tight ammo. Good map.

map 22 Despair
Difficulty keeps growing, I suppose this must be very hard without the BFG secret, luckily it was very easy to find.
I was doing well until the last room and I accidentally stepped on the exit with 17 health or so.

map 23 Anger

Luckily in hell author(s?) keep healing players between levels, now in a even better way> berserk packs right at the start. This is very convenient since ammo gets tighter at this last episode. I found a big skip by aciddent: an Arch vile attacked me and I flied to the exit right at the beginning of the map. I started it again to actually
play the map and understand what happened.


map 24 Hatred

Great music, great fights. layout out was also good, so great hell map overall.

map 25 Envy

Well when a map gives you a bfg right at the start, it generally means one thing... but it was not that hard.
I don't know if you are supposed to jump to the exit bridge.. I did it, but had a feeling a skipped some of the map, I didn't find any keys and killed about 80% of the monsters.

map 26 Fear

A slaughterfest with plenty resources, megaspheres, invulnerabilities, rockets and plasma. I liked it. I remembered having played it once, maybe I've finished Schyte but can't remember?

map 27 Terror

Monster count goes down again, lots of megaspheres make this kind of easy. The going back and forth progression isn't very fun to play.
The three cyberdemon fight at the end is totally skippable, leading almost directly to the exit.

map 28 Run from IT

Ok, so this map starts telling me to run. But I answer to it, "run from what? I ain't running from you, map! There are some lost souls and I feel like killing 'em".

So the map smashes me with its invisible hand. Ok, so I will run. This is a race map, ok. I run. Gibbed guy gives me blue key. Press button, strafe run along corridors... map smashes me again. Ok, now running like crazy since the beginning. Map wins. How they have a counter in vanilla? So I decide not to move.

Nothing happens. Maybe trigger is out this cave? I go out and go back. I hear sounds, barrels explode. A door closes repeatedly, are these supposed to be steps from IT? IT smashes me again.

Yes, the trigger must be outside the cave. Ok, some more runs. Killing enemies is useless, as IT is coming fast. More runs, with a bit save scumming. More squishes. Quit. Youtube, tell me what's the secret. Oh, there is no secret. Just run a flawless strafe run like crazy until you do it. No, thanks. IDCLEV29. On a second though, that's enough Scythe for today.

[Veinen]

Map22: Despair

This is where the deaths start piling up. That said, this is still relatively easy compared to what's coming up. Tried to be clever with the berserk at the start which was a direct or indirect cause of the majority of my deaths so a fter a while I had no choice but to swallow my pride and fire up the SSG for good. Take your time and the opposition isn't terribly hard to dispose of but provides a challenge nonetheless. Especially for unprepared players, that single noble ambush (you know what I'm talking about) and the finale are quite bastardly traps. The Cyber is but a speedbump due to the pretty obvious BFG secret. A fairly enjoyable roughly 3 minutes spent.

Map23: Anger

Good stuff. I was being a stubborn dumbass again and absolutely had to cause as much infights as possible, which naturally meant many deaths at the start. I reconsidered my approach only after getting a stray rocket into my face at the final battle. The start is a delightful panic if you're new to the map with that turret Archie watching over the battlefield and all kinds of other shit waking up all around you. When things settle down a bit it gets easier but still I felt this was a tougher cookie than map22. Finale is a couple of Cybers and Archies with a small heterogenous horde thrown into the mix for an easy infight bait. Nothing too bad if you take your time.

Map24: Hatred

Lovely map. Those Revenants were my main obstacle here, especially the first horde which is awkwardly close so that you'll have to dance around a bit to not get splash damage'd by your own rocket fire. The second horde is more of a dodging exercise but still requires some finesse to mow them down effectively. The BK is followed by some Noble on Caco action, taking down a lonely Cyber with the BFG and the relatively simple cleanup operation aided by the Mastermind.

Edit:

Map25: Envy

The calm before the storm. A big time break map in both redness and gameplay, both indeed rather welcome at this point. Weapons are given right at the start, plenty of ammo and the opposition is pretty light. The only thing that can really hurt you is if the Masterminds don't cooperate since there's no armor that at least I managed to find. The shortcut is very odd since it's way too obvious and easy and not really in line with other speedrun possibilities in the wad either.

Oh, and Epic 2 is my vote for next month as well.

[dobu gabu maru]

Looks like Epic 2 is the only one with 3 votes so it's being chosen for next month.

[worrior]

MAP25 Envy
Do you like spiders? Hopefully so, because you'll face plenty of them here. Map architecture isn't exactly eye-catchy - rather dull, one would say - but arachnotrons are fun enough to shoot. First, they're really annoyng with those stomping sounds. Second, they're pretty short yet wide, so they are simply made for Doom's shotgun attack pattern. Third, they're destruction sound is so rewarding that you simply can't get eough of it. Those three reasons should warm you up before the MAP26 which you're going to experience next.

MAP26 Fear
The not-so-small playfield is literally filled with high-tiered hellspawns and lots of cyberdemons patrolling it just for some extra kicks. Yeah, sure, we've all seen bigger onslaughts, but as for Scythe, you don't really expect that kind of a battle! While the concept of a map is relatvely easy and there's both plenty of invulnerability spheres and BFG ammo, I still managed to die few times. With neraly 700 monsters to start from, this map is what Doom is about.

[Phobus]

dobu gabu maru said:

Looks like Epic 2 is the only one with 3 votes so it's being chosen for next month.

I was about to say "As nobody else is backing CC3, I'm up for Epic 2 as well", but that's a bit superfluous now :P

I've realised I simply won't have time to do a map tomorrow and I know full well that Fire and Ice is gigantic (by Scythe standards, at least) so I figured I'd get MAP29 done today as well...

MAP29: Hell on Earth
Mournful music welcomes you to a grey, futuristic techbase. As you go through the door and get a glimpse outside, you can see you're in a map somewhere between Odyssey of Noises, Downtown and a frozen wasteland. Once you get the lay of the land you can also add The Living End to those influences, with the Cyberdemon in the ice cave up the top of some as-yet-not-climbable stairs. This map is good and springs plenty of other Cybs on you in steadily shrinking arenas, as well as every other monster you've seen in Scythe, bar the Spider Mastermind. Gameplay is mostly oriented around the Chaingun, SSG and Plasma Rifle, although you do get everything else with some secret hunting and enemy killing. General exploration is fairly safe, but when a trap is sprung, it will have teeth (and probably involve an Arch-Vile). Much to my own pride, I only died once for all that, mostly thanks to the supplies being generous enough to take a few hits, even when starting the map on low health like I did.

Overall it feels a bit bigger than a normal Scythe map, less dense than the Hell maps were and maybe a little less challenging, although by no means a breather. The theme stands out as unique when compared to the rest of the set, although not as much as what is to follow...

[EvilNed]

I'd love to give CC3 a crack sometime!