What would you say the most important WADs are?

[ConorMacLennan]

Just beaten Doom 2 (have previously beaten The Ultimate Doom), and am currently playing through Eternal Doom. What WADs are the most worthwhile to play for a newcomer to the games?

[BaronOfStuff]

http://www.doomworld.com/10years/bestwads/
You can start here.

[ASD]

ORIGWAD

[VGA]

ConorMacLennan said:

Just beaten Doom 2 (have previously beaten The Ultimate Doom), and am currently playing through Eternal Doom. What WADs are the most worthwhile to play for a newcomer to the games?

There's TNT and Plutonia.

[snapshot]

ASD said:

ORIGWAD

We know this was the very first PWad, but does that make important ?

[PsychoGoatee]

No Rest For The Living is a good one. Nerve.wad for Doom2, comes with Doom3 BFG edition. Important may not be the right word since it's relatively recent, but it's a good official Doom episode.

[Koko Ricky]

I've always felt Dues Volt kind of raised the bar for really ambitious maps with stock textures.

[Cynical]

"Most worthwhile to a newcomer" and "most important" are two different questions. To attempt to answer the latter (and note, most of these are wads I personally dislike, but their impact was huge):

UACDEAD
Fava Beans
Plutonia
Memento Mori
Memento Mori II
Eternal Doom
Gothic DM
Hell Revealed
Requiem
Demonfear
Alien Vendetta
Caverns of Darkness
Scythe
Deus Vult
Simplicity
Ultimate Torment and Torture
Scythe 2
Deus Vult II
Sunder

[Xaser]

Immoral Conduct most definitely belongs on any sort of "most important/influential" list. It set the gold standard for every gameplay mod that would ever follow it.

[this is maybe one of the few situations in which I can't legitimately say end1.wad but i'm mentioning it anyway because I wouldn't be a Xaser if I didn't; it's important to me at least o:]

[HavoX]

Icarus. It almost feels and plays like an IWAD...

[JudgeDeadd]

I think Icarus is one of TNT's worse productions, actually. But I recommend Memento Mori 1 & 2, which in my opinion have more of an "IWAD feeling".

Apart from that, I recommend Back to Saturn X, Scythe (until it suddenly becomes super-brutal in the final levels), Community Chest 4, and if you're up for a bigger challenge, Going Down and Alien Vendetta. And if you're up for some TCs, Batman Doom.

[snapshot]

Justing Bieber doom is also an Important .

[purist]

Cynical said:

"Most worthwhile to a newcomer" and "most important" are two different questions. To attempt to answer the latter (and note, most of these are wads I personally dislike, but their impact was huge):

UACDEAD
Fava Beans
Plutonia
Memento Mori
Memento Mori II
Eternal Doom
Gothic DM
Hell Revealed
Requiem
Demonfear
Alien Vendetta
Caverns of Darkness
Scythe
Deus Vult
Simplicity
Ultimate Torment and Torture
Scythe 2
Deus Vult II
Sunder

Nice list! I think that would make for a cool blog, podcast or video series - going through influential WADs, showing other stuff the influenced and why. I thought that was what Evolution of the PWAD was going to be but the one I saw was people talking off topic over the top of a long, dull playthrough of EARTH.WAD.

[Koko Ricky]

JudgeDeadd said:

And if you're up for some TCs, Batman Doom.

Are there any TCs as game-changing as Batman Doom?

[printz]

View the list linked in my signature (link). It lists the wads which have been the most popular. For now they're the single player ones, but I'm thinking of including deathmatch and game mods as well.

[Lvangundy]

EDIT - this is about the most important WADs so I just wanted to point out that these are some I like, not the most important.

Vrack 1, 2, and 3. Vrack3 is a big jump in difficulty compared to the other two but they are all solid.

Back To Saturn X 1. 1st one is great, 2nd one is convoluted, too big, and too difficult to make it fun. It's just too tedious and doesn't feel like a Doom wad.

No Rest For The Living is a 9.9/10. It's old school Doom with modern mapping and challenges. Simple optional puzzle system in each map.

Vanguard is good too.

[Xaser]

I mentally merged a couple of those lines together when reading it and saw "Vrack to Saturn X."

[Captain Ventris]

Xaser said:

I mentally merged a couple of those lines together when reading it and saw "Vrack to Saturn X."

YES

[dew]

Sorry. No Vrack For Saturn X.

[LogicDeLuxe]

How can any WAD be more important than DOOM.WAD/DOOM1.WAD? They started it all! Nothing would be here without them.

[j4rio]

DMGUYDZ64 said:

We know this was the very first PWad, but does that make important ?

DMGUYDZ64 said:

Justing Bieber doom is also an Important .

Your title should be 'ignore this member'.

[Tristan]

j4rio said:

Your title should be 'ignore this member'.

I think he actually thinks that's what 'ignorant' means :P

[LogicDeLuxe]

MOCKERY.WAD also belongs on the list of the most influential WADs. It has nothing to offer on its own, but it inspired a whole lot of joke WADs for sure.

[Varis Alpha]

Eris Falling said:

I think he actually thinks that's what 'ignorant' means :P

what a stunning example of self-demonstration, honestly.

[IMX]

LogicDeLuxe said:

How can any WAD be more important than DOOM.WAD/DOOM1.WAD? They started it all! Nothing would be here without them.

Sounds pretty silly, but people should recommend playing the IWADs more often; even the TeamTNT ones.

[Doomkid]

Momento Mori 1 and Scythe 1 = God tier, IMO. The sequels are fantastic as well, but I can replay these two almost endlessly...

There are some great single-map wads totally worth playing as well: doomcity.wad, area51.wad, and if you're feeling really adventurous, hellrun.wad. All great maps.

[jdagenet]

If you're fan of Ultimate Doom, The Classic Episode does a pretty good job at replicating it and it's pretty fun.
I haven't played any other WADs by Veken but I'd imagine they're quality as well.

[snapshot]

j4rio said:

Your title should be 'ignore this member'.

You sir are correct .

[june gloom]

Reminds me of zajazd over on TTLG.

Anyway GoatLord, I'd argue that Aliens TC is equally gamechanging, especially since it predated Batman Doom IIRC.

[40oz]

The correct answer is "All of Them."