The DWmegawad Club plays: Serenity & Eternity & Infinity

[scifista42]

Infinity

E1M1 - "Switch Bored?"

And so the year 1994 greets me again, in Serenity's and Eternity's style in full parade, complete with repetitive texturing, orthogonality, narrow corridors, 128-high ceilings, imperfect usage of secrets, inescapable exit room, simple combat scenarios only, nice relaxing music, occasional better looking rooms or lighting effects, and occasional questionable gimmicks like the locked doors in a damaging floor in this map. But the map actually looked and played okay, and some rooms were increasedly nice to look at, while still simple. This map definitely gives a better first impression than Serenity's starter map, and maybe slightly better than Eternity's too. The overall spirit apparently stays. I feel that I know what to expect further, now.

[Demon of the Well]

Infinity E1M1 -- Switch Bored - 100% Kills / 75% Secrets
Bit of an odd name....it's a pun, of course, but one that suggests maybe it was actively intended to be obnoxious....?

More very taboo design choices here, most notably the mandatory nukage damage. It's one thing to ask a player to slalom through a linear 'racetrack' section of harmful terrain with no radsuit, where one's speed and fluidity/efficiency of movement have some impact on the amount of damage taken, but the nukage here is used more like a straight-up tax on one's health that has to be paid in order to enter certain areas; e.g. it's found in front of standard-speed doors or around switches that are mandatory for progression. Some of this you can metagame a bit in order to minimize the harmful impact--for example, you can avoid damage on most trips through the riveted metal doors by positioning yourself just so and opening the door from a sharp angle before actually setting foot in the ooze (saving you having to absorb damage while waiting for the door to lift when standing directly in front of it)--but it's difficult to tell whether or not this was actually an intended 'puzzle' aspect of the design, or if the author was trying to ensure that the player absolutely would take a set amount of guaranteed damage on a full trip through the map. Whatever the case, the sense of attrition-based play is fairly pronounced wholly apart from the issue of the nukage--as has been said, there's no armor, a fairly limited amount of healing available (something like 150% total, although at least one medikit is actually sitting a nuke-flooded area and thus has its effect reduced by 5-10%), and a goodly number of hitscanners, although many of them are just basic troopers who are easy to beat to the draw.

Tell you the truth, much the same way the lack of balancing for pistol-start in some of the maps in Eternity didn't bother me, the somewhat 'questionable' use of damage-floor in this doesn't bother me, either....on the contrary, it adds a little bit of flavor to what is otherwise still a very rote gameplay experience. While you can see definite improvement in some areas--e.g. the room behind the yellow door, which is spacious/complex enough to rush into and thus actually have some kind of brief fight in between the initial population at different height levels and the various pockets of caged enemies revealed later--a lot of the same basic problems still remain, most notably the continued presence of inappropriate monster-blocking lines (that poor lost soul in the first main hallway says it all). Tagging of secret sectors continues to be as daffy as ever, as well--I'm pretty sure that 2 of the 12 are effectively unreachable (the monster cages on the upper level of the aforementioned room), but I probably missed or skipped that third one I didn't get.

Aesthetically, this is a noticeable upgrade over Eternity, although not to the same degree that Eternity was over most of Serenity. Overall the layout is still quite boxy and corridor-centric, but room shapes have become more flexible, and more attention is paid to the purely visual aspects of architecture, ala the four-post cutout skylight in the first large wooden room. Texture usage seems to have grown in sophistication, as well--now we're seeing things like metal braces where walls meet or chrome corner-caps on doorjambs, the sort of detail that was nowhere in sight even in Eternity. As ever, the characteristic sector fan-lighting continues to aid in deepening the scene, as well. While saying "it's above-average for the standards of the time" was more or less token praise in regards to the previous two episodes, at this point I feel that the aesthetics genuinely are beginning to become noteworthy, so we'll see if that continues (the first level of Eternity looked better than most of the others as well, after all). Very nice music, too, wouldn't mind hearing this tune again in a modern WAD.

[Walter confetti]

E1M1: Eh, the music is nice. The map is kinda forgettable and the final door switch is annoying if you for mistake trigger the door close linedef, layout is rectangular but with more details and nuke pits on first two locked doors...

I don't felt really taken from this map... next!

[Never_Again]

ETERNITY

Eternity, or Serenity II by Bjorn Hermans and Holger Nathrath is a full episode that replaces the Shores of Hell. This, I think you will agree, is a huge undertaking when you consider that they have already released a highly acclaimed replacement episode for Inferno called Serenity. Having gotten some of the more bizarre ideas out of their systems in Serenity (for example, mazes with walk-through walls), the authors have settled down and designed a beautiful, traditional episode with an emphasis on playability.


You emerge from the end of the pipe into a bloody reservoir. At your feet lies a shotgun, which you snatch up gleefully before quickly wading forth. Some cannon fodder in a pipe a few steps to your right guards a radiation suit, and you rapidly clear the blockage in the pipe, off to the left, which leads to the main part of the complex.


Here, the presence of the Radiation Suit fools the player into thinking that this bloody complex of passages is going to be huge and tortuous to navigate. The immense simplicity is then a great and unexpected relief (as well as an excellent design decision). Having gone to the trouble of selecting appropriate wall and floor textures, most designers would have made this section overly large, immediately frustrating the player.

On a more general note, acid floors in the episode are handled sensibly: they mostly are avoidable, a punishment for falling off a ledge, rather than being a necessity to run over. Where it is necessary, near the edges of the acid radiation suits can be found, often in hidden areas. There are perhaps too many acid floors for my taste, although they do add to the atmosphere and feel of the levels. The authors have ensured that it is impossible to get trapped anywhere.


Down a pair of symmetrical stairways a passage stretches away, its lights flashing rhythmically. Between the stairways, an alcove sports a huge marble engraving of a Baron, illuminated by a pair of striplights. As you venture down the passage, a door suddenly opens just ahead of you and its occupants stream out and attack.


Many of the rooms in the episode display partial symmetry, broken only by the passages in and out, adding an element of realism to the architecture. The authors are not afraid to borrow an idea or two from the original id Software levels, such as the passage with its alternately dark and flashing light levels.

There are many recurring decorations, one of which is the Baron engraving. In contrast to the id Software levels — where the presence of this icon symbolized the imminent appearance of a Baron and hence served to set the player's nerves on edge — in this episode it usually is just decoration. Similarly the conventions of what are normally teleport pads have been upset, as quite often the pads are nothing more than placemats for keys. These and other details are at least consistent throughout and contribute to the unique feel of the levels.

In the majority of homemade WADs, when rooms full of bad guys open suddenly, those rooms are usually behind you, and Sergeants will make short work of your back. Not so here. This is typical of the fair play of the enemy. It is a rare moment in this game when you are not given the opportunity to shoot first.


Beyond the strobing passage is a marble-walled room, the marble broken vertically at regular intervals by rusting iron beams. In the center of the room, brightened by a large rectangular skylight, the yellow skull-key rests atop a platform. When you throw the switch facing the platform, however, parts of the balcony drop into the floor, revealing stairs down into the lower regions of the room.


The marble-and-iron motif crops up repeatedly in the levels, and it is one of the many original and imaginative combinations of textures that breathe new life into the old id Software graphics. Holes in the ceiling are made to accentuate the dramatic look of a room, contrasting sharply the edges of the room and its center.

The playing sequence is not entirely predictable, but at the same time it is usually made obvious what to do next. It is clear that the levels are designed almost exclusively for single-player rather than Deathmatch mode. Travel from one point to another in a level is by a specific route, The effect of the switch, although unexpected, is both visible and audible from the switch location, and hence rewarding.


A line of archways splits the lower area in two, and at each end lies a door. Through the archways, strips on the columns of the arch cast overlapping cones of light onto suspicious-looking panels. You nudge a panel open and find the blue skull-key. Meanwhile, one of the other panels slid open, releasing more of the usual beasts to roam amongst the archways. You take the key with one hand while you pump the shotgun with the other.


Lights affixed to beautifully constructed
archways.


Wherever possible, the authors added realistic lighting in the form of light coming in through windows and skylights, artificial light sources such as torches and wall strips, and the shadows cast by both. The effort they expended was not wasted; indeed the lighting is one of the most eye-catching features of the episode.


The lighting was inspired by the starting
room in id Software's Spawning Vats.


Just before the exit you come across a serifed capital R cut into the floor of a room and filled with glowing slime. The slime casts a faint reversed R on the ceiling. Ignoring it totally, you sprint into the exit room, and having waited for the opposition to be crushed, you time your bid for the central column and freedom (at least until the next mission).


The trademark of the episode, a letter which
forms the centerpiece of a room on each level.


Each level has a letter prominently incorporated into one of the rooms in some way, so that over the eight levels the letters spell out Serenity. (The level just described was number three.) Fortunately, this did not influence the design of the levels as the rooms in question are just tacked onto the map. The final level recapitulates the letters and then adds the Y, which is also used to make the Cyberdemon easier to deal with by raising and lowering just enough to block his rockets when raised.

Also of note on the final level is a beautiful semi-transparent stained-glass texture that looks terrific with the hellish red sky visible through the gaps. Perhaps coincidentally, Heretic also features stained glass textures, although not transparent and not so realistic (the Eternity graphic appears to be a scanned photograph).


Eternity comprises eight varied yet consistent levels that have a unique and enjoyable feel, with the style of play allowing a mainly offensive approach. The difficulty levels are sensibly chosen, with "Hurt Me Plenty" about equivalent to "Ultra-Violence" in the original DOOM, and "Ultra-Violence" roughly the same as "Ultra-Violence" in DOOM II. A lot of care has been take to make the levels look good and play better.


———————————————————————————————————————————————


Tricks of the DOOM Programming Gurus (1995, Sams Publishing, First Edition)
- Episode 3 The Land of the Gods
-- Mission 1: From the Gurus of Gore
--- Room 1: The Top Five WAD Files by Steve McCrea (pp. 443-446)

The above section reviewed the following WADs, in this order:

• Aliens-TC
  
• Doomsday of UAC
  
• Eternity
  
• Return to Phobos
  
• The Unholy Trinity

Yes, Steve was one of the authors of Trinity; and yes, he listed it last (although apparently no ranking was implied).

[Capellan]

Infinity 2
Well, so much for getting my hopes up in the first map. This one compounds the usual 64-wide corridor nonsense with a maze using moving floors. Not lifts, which are quicker and you can control, but the ones where you have to wait until they feel like coming to you. Boooooooooorrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnngggggggggg.

The usual problem of monsters in front of you and no reason not to camp doorways returns. The paucity of health - at least until you get the supercharge - does go some way to creating some difficulty, but it doesn’t help make the fights any more interesting.

A big step backward.

[mouldy]

Infinity time.

E1M1 - "Switch Bored?"

The first thing I noticed was the insane amount of monster blocking going on. I've seen people mention it in the previous wads and it never bothered me so much, but here it is utterly ridiculous. Hard to say what the gameplay would be like without it, its generally a case of open door shoot monsters, but there are some traps and a big room which makes things a bit more interesting, or would if the monsters could go anywhere. Some dodgy design choices too, putting arbitrary damaging floor everywhere will be popular I'm sure. But stuff like that is just par for the course by now. Visually its not a massive leap ahead of the previous episode, but still a noticable improvement over the first.

[scifista42]

E1M2 - "Say Jazz To Another Excess"

The beginning started as relatively promising. Seeing the Eternity-alike curved staircase and lighting effects, I thought that the authors were going to pay more attention to better looks and generally to a better standard. My dreams were ruined very soon. I've only encountered more bland narrow corridors, misplaced secret sectors and quirky gimmicks, such as incredibly dragging slow-moving floors, damaging water (only in the exit room), and a needlessly impassable linedef on a side of the staircase in the main outdoor area. Most of the map didn't look good at all. Gameplay was also nothing much, just basic shootage of monsters in front of you, or (at best) coming from behind a corner. However, due to a serious lack of health, the beginning was tough from a pistol start, and I've eventually died upon picking up the key.

This should have been better already.

[Walter confetti]

E1M2: i recall to have heard this song in another doom level, about the map... it was nice, better than E1M1 imo, nice layout and good theme organization (i don't get the walking sky section in the first secret, but whatever...), even the obligatory level maze is nice, it was an unexpected place to put a key since this maze is all signed as a secret section, and in one of the dead end of the maze you found a larger room, a switch that raise to next floor and to the key...

Gameplay is ok, a little bit hard and health draining due to lot of hitscanners here and there, i saved in this level much more than the other maps in all this episodes walk trough... overall nice map with a nice mood, next!

[Magnusblitz]

Never_Again said:

In the majority of homemade WADs, when rooms full of bad guys open suddenly, those rooms are usually behind you, and Sergeants will make short work of your back. Not so here. This is typical of the fair play of the enemy. It is a rare moment in this game when you are not given the opportunity to shoot first.

Interesting read. This point especially stuck out to me - nowadays, most people would say that 'ambushes' that give the player the chance to shoot first (because the enemies are in front of them) are pretty easy and boring. Different times, I suppose.

E1M2: Say Jazz to Another Excess
99% kills, 8/8 secrets

The start looks nice, but once the player reaches outside, it all falls apart. Really boring texture use (greys and whites, how fun) and the slow-moving 'elevator' gimmick brought back terrible flashbacks to last month's WAD. Still plenty of the usual problems such as mis-tagged secrets and block monster lines preventing lost souls and demons from being anything but ammo sinks. Oh, and the one-time only teleporter for the soulsphere is lame, especially given how little health the level provides (and after last level too).

[dobu gabu maru]

E1M1: A bit of a dud starter. LOTS of doors, damaging sectors everywhere, a boring room to explore… I’m still pleased by the use of the METAL/SUPPORT3 texture use, but the gameplay sure was a stinker.

E1M2: A very BTSXy name… or maybe BTSX just has very Serenity-esque names? In any case, this one is another dud. Sticking sergeants at the edge of platforms that slow moving elevators are connecting too is just cruel, and especially since there’s barely any health here until post BK door. And that room past the BK door is just dumb due to the block monster lines, as you sit on one end and just fill everything far away from you with lead. Booooooo

[Never_Again]

dobu gabu maru said:

E1M2[/b]: A very BTSXy name… or maybe BTSX just has very Serenity-esque names?

I always figured that this title was homage to Yello's discogs.com/master/35031]You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess.

[Salt-Man Z]

E1M1: Switch Bored
This map I remember as the "Where am I supposed to go?" map, as those doors in their little slime alcoves aren't very obviously marked. I managed to avoid most of the nukage damage by careful maneuvering, but still took a lot of hits, exiting the level with a scant 18% health. A decent map, I guess, but not particularly memorable.

E1M2: Say Jazz To Another Excess
Well, that first hallway looks fantastic. Probably the best thing I can say about this map. I lucked into the maze exit right away, and so had to go back for max kills, ammo, and health. Never did manage to get the supercharge (and thus exited at 26% health) but if it was a one-time teleporter as scifista mentioned, does that mean it was one of the two teleporters in the maze exit room, and I picked the wrong one? Blah.

[Capellan]

Infinity 3
This feels a bit like the map where the author discovered monster closets, as it has a lot of them, but given we’ve had 20 maps before this, I guess it’s just happenstance. It also makes me wonder if the authors were alternating maps: this feels a lot more like e1m1 than e1m2, right down to having the same starting room.

Architecture is mostly pretty solid. There’s pleasantly few 64-wide corridors, and no mazes, for a start, and I particularly liked the corridor with the lift in the middle, nukage at the north end, and the yellow door to the east - it looked nice, had some decent use of height variation, and was quite fun to play.

Difficulty remains low. As always, most of the danger comes from sergeants. Lost souls get deployed too far away (and are often blocked by things), while cacos and barons are not much danger when used singly. Demon use isn’t quite as bad as 2002:ADO (and in fact one spectre got a chomp on me in the blue key room) but they’re too often unable to even reach you.

Health seemed pretty light until the supercharge in the blue key room. Sergeant attrition might cause issues for pistol starters before that, maybe. I do note that the text file claims UV has been beefed up in this episode, but the wadspy results don’t look at that different to HMP, to me.

I was all prepped to yell about the blue door room since it is really easy to scoot in, grab the yellow key, and bolt before the monsters in the obvious trap there can react. As they have no way to get out of the room, that means you don’t need to fight any of them. But after I killed them (it wasn’t like it was difficult, after all) it turned out that the room they’re in has the only suit of armor on the level. So there is a trade-off to skipping the battle.

Overall, I quite liked this. I hope the majority of the levels in the episode are by this guy :)

[scifista42]

E1M3 - "Beat It!"

I thought this was the best looking map so far, and a well playable one too. The first "elevator" with a circular corridor around it was cool. The BK and nukage rooms didn't look bad either, the bridge before blue door was also interesting. There were still many bland and ugly-textured parts, though, but not too bad. Gameplay-wise, this was an enjoyable ride, with nothing much dragging it. Usage of secrets was still terrible. On the other hand, the weapon/ammo/monster balance seemed as a huge improvement to me. Very good music. In context of the year 1994, this was a well designed map. Outside of the context, it's still kind of meh. Nevertheless, I liked it.

[Never_Again]

Capellan said:

Infinity 3
<...>
It also makes me wonder if the authors were alternating maps
<...>
Overall, I quite liked this. I hope the majority of the levels in the episode are by this guy :)

INFINITY.TXT:
Authors                 : Bjorn Hermans and Holger Nathrath. Holger did
                          ALL of the design work this time + the
                          selection of the music.

ETERNITY.TXT:
Authors                 : Bjorn Hermans and Holger Nathrath. Holger did
                          ALL of the design work this time.

Holger always was the main level designer throughout the series. In July '94 they released their first WAD, a four-level pack. E2M1 from that WAD would wind up two months later as Serenity's E3M2; E2M2 as E3M4; E2M3 as E3M5; and E2M4 as E3M7.

The WAD was called "Nathrath's Fab Four" (NATHRATH.WAD).

[Capellan]

Then I hope he stops wearing whatever it is that strangles the flow of blood to his brain and leads to rubbish like the maze in e1m2 :)

[Magnusblitz]

E1M3: Beat It!
99% kills, 7/7 secrets

I'd wager this is the best map so far, and with only 5 maps left, might be the best one of the month. The aesthetics stay strong throughout the map, with good lighting and some cool doorway designs. And while the level itself is fairly flat, I do appreciate having some floor changes on the doors, helps things feel less 2D, even if gameplay-wise it doesn't make any difference. The blue key room is actually a good fight, since the player likely won't have enough ammo to deal with the baron right away and will need to go around and grab the rockets/plasma to do so. It gets a little repetitive after the blue door (lots of: hit switch, find monster closet it opened, kill monsters, hit new switch, repeat) but it's still not bad. Oh, and the "F" was a little bit boring after the nice serifs we've gotten on the other letters.

[Walter confetti]

E1M3: Like in E1M1, the map was nice, and the feeling that i'll already played this becomes strong...

Some concept in this are pretty cool, layout is strong and flows great but... the map doesn't appealed me so much...

[Demon of the Well]

Infinity E1M2 -- Say Jazz to Another Excess - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
It's pretty hard to look past the maze of narrow corridors and auto-cycling lifts in this one--an elephant in the room that's just too big to ignore. If memory serves, even older Doom reviews sources, including those which have a generally positive overall assessment of the Serenity trilogy (or of just Infinity specifically), tend to find fault with this section....it was a bad idea, plain and simple, time-consuming and without a hint of any engaging sights or encounters. I imagine this section would probably be significantly less offensive (though still far from exciting, mind you) if the small silver lift-sectors had been user-activated rather than functioning on an automatic cycle; this would both tend to speed up basic traversal of the maze itself, and also reduce the number of cheap shots monsters lurking at the foot or peak of the trip would be able to take at the player, simply by dint of the manual lifts' faster default speed.

Beyond this segment, very little about the action stands out; more corridors, more boxes, more turkey-shoots, no ammo problems in sight, although health could probably seem tight if you let too many sergeants shoot you at point-blank range (most likely to happen at the end of a lift-ride in the maze, of course). I'm struggling to find much that's really positive to say, here...monster-blockery seems a bit less rampant in this one (there is a stuck zombieman, though), but doorway-marshaling fights are even more common than usual, largely a side-effect of so many of the doorways in this map being very small, I suspect. I think I can sort of intellectually grasp how the Baron in the N-room might've seemed threatening back when this was released--his movement isn't blocked for a change, the confines are fairly tight, and neither shotgun nor rocket launcher may be strictly ideal for dealing with him--but from a purely experiential perspective he's just another helpless victim, a boring fight in a boring map.

I will disagree with the others about the aesthetics, though, I think they're mostly serviceable, if somewhat on the bland side (which is once again largely a function of the lingering impression that the lift-maze makes). A largely monochrome texture scheme isn't something that bothers me much (especially when it's not brown), and I feel like the walls of anonymous concrete and continued lighting effects from the occasional fluorescents fit well with the classic E1 sky, giving the level a bit of a cold, insensate feel. The music....well, other than sounding like it was chosen specifically to mock you while you traverse the (gasp!) lift-maze, I don't really mind it, seems less appropriate than the similar track from E2M2, though.

[Memfis]

Heh, complaining about that little maze... You guys should do Cleimos 2 one day. :D

[Capellan]

I played it when it came out and have no desire to repeat the experience.

[Salt-Man Z]

Eh, the maze never bothered me. "Sump" in Hexen: Deathkings has a similar (and larger) maze.

[Capellan]

Infinity 4
Do not want.

Stacks and stacks of 64-wide corridors, another tiresome maze with another tiresome gimmick (one which makes the monsters even more helpless than usual), and really sharp and obvious textural “sections”. This is the wood hub, that’s the gray spoke, that’s the metal spoke, and that’s the stone spoke. The lack of textural detail or interesting architecture becomes very obvious in the larger rooms too, with their big blank walls of repetition.

Gameplay is a bit of a step up from e1m2, at least: more monsters, more often coming from a couple of angles. Monster closets also seem to be a big part of this map, as they were e1m3, though again they are handily fairly clumsily for the most part.

[Magnusblitz]

E1M4: Everybody Frag Now
100% kills, 10/10 secrets

I'm not as down on this map as Capellan is, though it certainly has its flaws. Very orthagonal, and there are a lot of small corridors (though nothing as bad as a Tom Hall-styled 64-wide maze. The first "maze" isn't that bad since the walls are only half-raised (though the setup of the room does make the lost souls/demons worthless, as is usual through these WADs). The one for the red key is much worse, as the bar-door gimmick just slows it down and makes the monsters non-threatening. The exit area is actually a pretty decent fight, with closets continuing to open up. The last closet unleashes a horde of demons - wait, pinky demons that can actually reach the player?! Inconceivable! Yeah, there's a few too many monsters in cages, and being given the BFG makes it simple, but still, a good fight otherwise.

Map also deserves some bonus points for barrel placement... plenty of room here to splatter lesser creatures around. Early barrel placement in these WADs was pretty poor, as they would usually be hidden in corners or placed in areas far away from the monsters, but this is much better in that regard.

[Walter confetti]

E1M4: Another nice map, another strong feel that i'll already play this episode... layout is pretty basic and similar to E1M2, a little open maze, lots of wooden\metal style like earlier episode maps, the barrels are well placed and gameplay is ok... also the midi rendition of that Snap song mocked in the title of the map is kind of bland... also there wasn't that huge ammount of lighting details and eye-candies like earlier maps so... yeah, that's a ok experience. To the next map!

[scifista42]

E1M4 - "Everybody Frag Now"

Finally a fun to play map! Chaingun at the start probably helped it a lot. There were enough spacious areas and interesting lighting and architecture, even if not downright beautiful. I'd say that this map easily could have been a modern-day speedmap (!), almost. I actually liked the little mazes. Music was great. The only downsides were (once again) bad usage of secret sectors and extensive monochromity in texturing. But I've got an impression that gameplay wasn't bad this time. Surely it wasn't perfect (skippable Barons, Lost Souls behind monster-blocking lines), but good enough for a Doom 1 map.

[mouldy]

E1M2 - "Say Jazz To Another Excess"

Cool music. Design is a bit more interesting in this one, and includes a nice reveal near the start as you emerge into a courtyard with dangerous crossfire from all angles. Unfortunately it loses big points for the annoying elevator maze. There is no armour to speak of, and not much health to make up for the damage lottery of the courtyard, which doesn't allow for many mistakes in that maze. And yet most of the damage you will take in there comes from monsters who will see you before you can see them. After that i got a soulsphere and all the health i could need, and monsters queueing up infront of my gun waiting to be shot, so felt a bit out of balance. Anyway, the music made up for it to some degree. Also I got a rocket launcher which I am keeping now, so there.

E1M3 - "Beat It!"

This feels moree like a run and gun type of thing, open door or activate trap and mow down monsters. I suddenly had a thought regarding the weird monster blocking, and after quickly checking the first few maps in doom builder it seems that there aren't any monsters flagged as deaf. I'm wondering if the monster blocking was a way of controlling them because the author hadn't figured out how to make deaf monsters. Anyway, this felt a lot more comfortable playing continuous, not particularly difficult, but had enough variety and monster closets to keep me entertained.

E1M4 - "Everybody Frag Now"

Much like the previous map, collecting keys and mowing down bunches of monsters who occasionally spill out of closets. The room design is showing a bit more imagination, though there's still quirky mazes and stuff. I fell into a HOM pit in the door maze for some reason. The highlight was the weird blue key room, which was kind of tricky with the hitscan sniper crossfire with roaming baron to deal with. Though checking on doom builder I can see that the entrance had monster blocking anyway. Also still no deaf monsters, and now I realise why a feature of a lot of these wads has been the sound of monsters wandering around opening doors. I did enjoy letting rip with the plasma. BFG is a bit of overkill perhaps, but maybe thats for later.

[scifista42]

E1M5 - "Dungeons Of Doom"

Spoiler

Another relatively good map. Now I'd say, it was better than anytime before, which I liked. It allowed me to play fast, with just a minimum increased risk. I liked the trap behind the blue door. Generally, it seems that the authors have finally improved in creating fun through challenge, and also at reducing the most jarring-looking visuals. Good health and ammo balance, and texturing and structure were also okay (mostly). Nice music and bad secrets are a constant. But the exit room was escapable at least. :)

[dobu gabu maru]

E1M3: Better than the other maps but still feeling mediocre. I think the visuals for E1 have been the best thus far in the Serenity trilogy, but the gameplay is still really tepid, this map being a series of hallways you just shoot down. The “F” room had a decent fight (which would’ve been aided if there were deaf monsters waiting for you in the back of the room) but otherwise like I said, I haven’t been really impressed (exit room did look cool though).

E1M4: A good map. Granted there’s a lot of door pressing here, but I felt like I had to at least think about what I’m doing due to the scarcity of health here. Also the BFG got some use which is a rare enjoyment for this mapset.

[Capellan]

Infinity 5
I liked that this level gave you a couple of different ways to get your first introduction to the gray courtyard. Of the two, I suspect that teleporting in is the easier outcome unless you’re playing with (evil, wrongsick) mouse look. The courtyard itself was quite fun too, with enemies on all sides. You could use the terrain to help limit how many could attack you, but it actually required you to take action to do so, rather than just being “why not just shoot all these guys through this doorway?”

Speaking of which, we had another of those ‘monsters can’t reach you’ rooms in the southern chamber (with the red door). Lost souls are kind of pointless when all they can do is get aggro against their own allies, guys. You should probably stop doing that.

Speaking of trapped monsters, this level lampshades the whole ‘helpless pinkie’ thing pretty heavily. I’m not sure if they were actually poking fun at themselves for that, or just trying to coax you into wasting ammo on the demons, though.

Lots of monster closets again, sometimes opening up more bad guys in previously explored areas (though the lack of ways for sound to reach them means they’re usually still chilling in their boxes when you head back there). Also a cross fire trap in the western section beyond the blue door, but done sufficiently obviously that anyone surprised by it has only themselves to blame. I’m okay with that, myself.

I didn’t like this as much as 1 or 3, but it was better than 2 or 4.