Best Doom Wads?

[Brad_tilf]

So, I want to add a section to Doom Wad Station highlighting the best Doom Wads pretty much, ever. So here's what I want to try and do with this thread. First, have you guys pick ONE map or conversion, whatever, but only one per person - YOUR favorite and list it here. After like, I don't know, maybe a week, I can go through the thread and choose the top "whatever" - depends on how many different wads are listed and then have a vote on those to come up with a list from x to 1 (1 being the best). Anybody up for that? I'm really hoping some of the old school guys will chip in since you've probably played alot of the older maps and mods.

[obake]

I'm up for that, sure.

[Brad_tilf]

I think what might make it even cooler is if once the maps that are chosen for inclusion are decided upon, then I could include comments from people with each map about WHY they think this is one of the best - plus, you know, do screenshots, maybe playthroughs - etc... REALLY pump it up. I think it will be some work, but alot of fun, really interesting and a benefit to not only the community but to those who may not necessarily belong to the community

[vinnie245]

Hellground from Eternal.
Great enemy placement and challenge, Gorgeous visuals and great use of music makes this my favourite wad to play on a regular basis.

[darkreaver]

So, one MAP or one WAD?

[Brad_tilf]

darkreaver said:

So, one MAP or one WAD?

one wad - a single work, if you will - so it can have more than one map

[darkreaver]

Yup. So, my all time favorite map is Disturbia by Death-Destiny. For me, this map is unmatched when it comes to atmosphere and creativity. It's a very large map, and very difficult. I guess no one else will pick this map, but that does not matter.

Four screenshots and UV-max video:

[Cynical]

Deus Vult II.

Aside from "Eagle's Nest" (god I hate that map...), utter perfection.

[Zed]

Brad_tilf said:

one wad - a single work, if you will - so it can have more than one map

I don't know if this counts, but I want to mention the Odessa Series by Bob Evans. It wasn't released all at once, but it was/is part of a "single work".

[Grazza]

Just one? Well OK, let's say Equinox. If you want a quick taste of the amazing and surreal world that B.P.R.D. created here, take a peak at map01 and then the related map13 (being sure to drop down the waterfront from the start point in both cases). And then maybe map10. Or actually, any of the other intervening maps...

[7hm]

Zed said:

I don't know if this counts, but I want to mention the Odessa Series by Bob Evans. It wasn't released all at once, but it was/is part of a "single work".

I was going to say this too. I love this series of maps.

[Brad_tilf]

Zed said:

I don't know if this counts, but I want to mention the Odessa Series by Bob Evans. It wasn't released all at once, but it was/is part of a "single work".

Can we give that a "perhaps"? lol

[Foodles]

well I think Eternal Doom IV should be nominated for epsi's map alone (the shrine)

[Phml]

Stardate 20x6

Excellent visuals
Great, fitting music choices
Original without being gimmicky
Consistent through the whole episode in aesthetics, gameplay, overall quality
The "cool" kind of slaughter, carefully orchestrated fights with relatively low monster count rather than hordes (on a personal level I feel either style is equally valid, but it's undeniable the former appeals to more people and is perceived as more refined)

Any other wad I've played, no matter how much I may like it I can always point at something and say "this is great, but...". Stardate has no "but", it doesn't drop the ball anywhere.

Like everything, you can argue with overall design choices, i.e. if you hate being locked in arenas, repetitive themes, platforms or engineered difficulty you may not like it. However, Stardate accomplishes everything it sets out to do, it's a perfect implementation of whatever nebulous yet specific collection of tastes in Doom it represents.

[Brad_tilf]

Phml said:

Stardate 20x6

Excellent visuals
Great, fitting music choices
Original without being gimmicky
Consistent through the whole episode in aesthetics, gameplay, overall quality
The "cool" kind of slaughter, carefully orchestrated fights with relatively low monster count rather than hordes (on a personal level I feel either style is equally valid, but it's undeniable the former appeals to more people and is perceived as more refined)

Any other wad I've played, no matter how much I may like it I can always point at something and say "this is great, but...". Stardate has no "but", it doesn't drop the ball anywhere.

Like everything, you can argue with overall design choices, i.e. if you hate being locked in arenas, repetitive themes, platforms or engineered difficulty you may not like it. However, Stardate accomplishes everything it sets out to do, it's a perfect implementation of whatever nebulous yet specific collection of tastes in Doom it represents.

I tried to find that on my site - didn't take me long, but I had never heard of it - so here's the link in case people want to check it out:
http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/index.php?folder=ZG9vbTIvUG9ydHMvcy11 (goes to the page it's on - I try to never direct link files on my site).

Oh - and the file name is just "stardate"
I'm working on This Week in Doom today, so I'll have to pass

[Marcaek]

IDK what people see in equinox outside of some cool new textures, it doesn't play too great, which is a shame because there's a lot of potential in the theme and it's certainly something describable as ambitious, but didn't BPRD actually say that the levels were kind of just a demonstration of the new resources?

[Phml]

Why not mention your own best wad instead?

Threads like this always start off interesting, then either someone goes oh gosh i can't pick just one and drops several names, then others try to one up him and we end up with meaningless page-length lists; or people start nitpicking the other picks turning it into a back and forth argument about a specific wad.

It'd be cool to have at least one topic where we can see the best pick of each participant, no more no less.

[gggmork]

heightfunction222.waka! is teh BEST waka because weird rolling hills is SUPRE awesum, and there's none of those annoying 'monsters' in it:
http://speedy.sh/AgUF7/heightFunction222.wad

[Brad_tilf]

Phml said:

Why not mention your own best wad instead?

Threads like this always start off interesting, then either someone goes oh gosh i can't pick just one and drops several names, then others try to one up him and we end up with meaningless page-length lists; or people start nitpicking the other picks turning it into a back and forth argument about a specific wad.

It'd be cool to have at least one topic where we can see the best pick of each participant, no more no less.

That is all I'm looking for. Nominate your wad of choice and at the end I'll see which ones the most people mentioned and go from there. So, please, let's keep it simple - no debate - nominate your wad/map and let's go from there

[Marcaek]

I dunno, I consider people's choices for what they consider a best-of selection of WADs to be an acceptable discussion topic to gauge what certain groups of people value about their picks and why. If anything a generic "here's an arbitrary list of stuff I like, no justification for it tho" is kind of worthless for anything but maybe trying a wad you haven't heard of before.

That said, If I had to make a top-list it'd probably contain picks like this:

Memento Mori 2 (Classic level design which never gets boring and has levels which would still hold up today, cool music)
Uac Ultra (love the well-realized grungy industrial wasteland theme, really fun exploration and combat)
Stardate 20x6 (a nice balance of careful tactical placement using a handful of monsters and arena based slaughter, cool theme although maybe a little clashy in places)
Scythe 2 (nice change of pace with the episode system here, great atmosphere and small, challenging maps)
Speed of Doom (might be my #1, it takes the aforementioned gameplay mentioned in stardate and mixes it up every other level across some beautiful maps which subtle changes to common themes that make them feel fresh. map21 is one of my favorite maps ever for how effective it is in taking your power from you, making you feel like you really have arrived in hell after the best episode transition ever :P)

But if I actually sat down and thought about it I'd have a harder time making dedicated picks or arranging any of these.

EDIT: if you're not interested in debate or reasoning then fine, I'll take my interest elsewhere.

[pcorf]

Memento Mori, Memento Mori 2 and Requiem were great megawads from the 1990's that were awesome to play. Big challenging levels, excellent original music too!

[Doomkid]

I'm sorta tied between Momento Mori and Scythe. Truth is, there are far too many megawads I love to pick just one.

[Demonologist]

Vanguard.
Of course there are other things I like, including older works, but in this particular mapset Skillsaw managed to take some of the best aspects of those works and created outstanding work on all accounts with their aid that contains pretty much a bit of everything, yet holds itself together better and runs smoother than Deus Vult 2, for instance. A shame it's so short.

[Brad_tilf]

Marcaek said:

I dunno, I consider people's choices for what they consider a best-of selection of WADs to be an acceptable discussion topic to gauge what certain groups of people value about their picks and why. If anything a generic "here's an arbitrary list of stuff I like, no justification for it tho" is kind of worthless for anything but maybe trying a wad you haven't heard of before.

That said, If I had to make a top-list it'd probably contain picks like this:

Memento Mori 2 (Classic level design which never gets boring and has levels which would still hold up today, cool music)
Uac Ultra (love the well-realized grungy industrial wasteland theme, really fun exploration and combat)
Stardate 20x6 (a nice balance of careful tactical placement using a handful of monsters and arena based slaughter, cool theme although maybe a little clashy in places)
Scythe 2 (nice change of pace with the episode system here, great atmosphere and small, challenging maps)
Speed of Doom (might be my #1, it takes the aforementioned gameplay mentioned in stardate and mixes it up every other level across some beautiful maps which subtle changes to common themes that make them feel fresh. map21 is one of my favorite maps ever for how effective it is in taking your power from you, making you feel like you really have arrived in hell after the best episode transition ever :P)

But if I actually sat down and thought about it I'd have a harder time making dedicated picks or arranging any of these.

EDIT: if you're not interested in debate or reasoning then fine, I'll take my interest elsewhere.

Debate and reasoning are fine but really, what we're trying to discover is what people believe are the "best" wads and why THEY think it is. Having other argue about it kind of diverts the thread from it's stated purpose. It's fine to disagree but instead of doing that, put up the map/wad you think is the best and why

[Brad_tilf]

Doomkid said:

I'm sorta tied between Momento Mori and Scythe. Truth is, there are far too many megawads I love to pick just one.

I'm pretty sure that Momento Mori and Scythe will appear in alot of peoples' "best".

[CorSair]

Deus Vult II would be one, but I'll go for Hell Ground. It's cut to 7 maps (one is more like breather, so probably 6 is the correct amount) looks beautiful and the music is quite fitting, and it is pretty good to play, if not counting linearity.

[Brad_tilf]

CorSair said:

Deus Vult II would be one, but I'll go for Hell Ground. It's cut to 7 maps (one is more like breather, so probably 6 is the correct amount) looks beautiful and the music is quite fitting, and it is pretty good to play, if not counting linearity.

Thanks for providing the link to that. :-)
Now, if only I could get you guys to start using the Archive backup on Doom Wad Station ;-)
Not only do I keep an updated backup of the archives but I also add stuff that ISN'T in the official archives - like Doom 3 maps and mods. I think it's more complete. :-)

[Brad_tilf]

I'm certain we have far more nominees than this. ;-)

[Gez]

Brad_tilf said:

I'm certain we have far more nominees than this. ;-)

Here you go, then

[Tuxlar]

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?file=levels/doom2/Ports/v-z/void.zip
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?file=levels/doom2/m-o/mordeth.zip
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?file=levels/doom2/Ports/d-f/fritter.zip