Linguica's Ten Must-Have WADs

[Linguica]

Well, you obviously care about my opinion or else you wouldn't have clicked on the link. I decided that I didn't want to list the ten "best" WADs because such a task is pretty much impossible. There are lots and lots of absolutely wonderful WADs, but I feel that these ten give a good cross-section of everything Doom is capable of. You may not think that all the WADs I have chosen belong here, but I feel that these ten are essential must-plays for any real Doomer. I couldn't bring myself to pick a best one among these ten, so I'll just list them alphabetically.

• ALIENS-TC -- What list of must-have Doom WADs would be complete without ALIENS-TC? Created entirely by one man, ALIENS-TC thrust the player into Ripley's shoes complete with new levels, weapons and enemies. The atmosphere created in the levels was so perfect that players were more scared to turn a corner or descend a lift than Doom had ever made them. Although it's over five years old and looks that way, ALIENS-TC is still quite a fright as well as a a momentous achievement. Coupled with the fact that it was developed for an early version of the Doom engine that allowed even less linedefs onscreen than v1.9, it's downright amazing.
  
• Batman Doom -- If you want to play Doom, look somewhere else. Batman Doom bears about as little resemblance to the game it's built on top of as is possible. With 32 all-new levels, new textures, monsters, weapons, incredible special effects, a cohesive plot, and much more, Batman Doom could have been sold as a game in its own right a few years ago. The fact that it can be run using the original doom2.exe only attests to its makers' ingenuity.
  
• Doomsday of the UAC -- When looked at today, UAC_DEAD isn't all that much to write home about. It's full of the wide barren spaces which plague early Doom WADs, and the sparse monster count means long stretches of tedium. However, UAC_DEAD offered a sense of place not found in any PWADs before it, and it also broke barriers with its legendary "candle bridge" and Cyberdemon battle. It shows its age, but it's still a timeless classic.
  
• Eternal Doom -- One of the great things about the Doom engine is that it can be used to create absolutely enormous levels. Under the Quake or Unreal engine, areas may look more realistic, but no current 3D engine can create spaces nearly as massive as those found within Eternal Doom. Did you think that Doom 2's Map29 was a huge level? Go load up Map12 or Map30 of Eternal Doom and learn how large "huge" can be.
  
• Gothic DM II -- Gothic DM II still stands as the absolute pinnacle of level design in Doom levels, and amazingly enough, packs it all into running under the original doom2.exe. The levels are varied in their size, design and style, but all are intense deathmatch experiences worthy of any Doomer's hard drive space.
  
• Hell Revealed -- So, you think you're hot stuff? Just because you can blow through any of the levels in Doom or Doom 2 doesn't mean you're a true Doom god. After all, those maps were made all of six years ago, when circlestrafing had barely been conceived. For truly intense Doom action, Hell Revealed is second to none. Created by experienced Doom speedrunners, the maps in Hell Revealed are absolutely brimming with monsters while still remaining (barely) beatable. Beat this megawad on Ultra-Violence, and you can consider yourself a real master.
  
• Memento Mori II -- Memento Mori II was the second of TiC's community-driven megawads, created during Doom's peak of popularity. 32 levels, created by many different people, all following different themes and styles. The final product is still an absolute blast to play -- pure Dooming action, at its best.
  
• Requiem -- Released in summer 1997, Requiem still stands as one of the most complex and detailed megawads ever created. Although some bugs and glitches can be found throughout the levels (they were never thoroughly playtested), they are nevertheless some of the greatest single-player adventures ever made.
  
• S*T*R*A*I*N -- From start to finish, STRAIN was intended to be one of the most cohesive Doom WADs ever made, and it largely acheived its goal. All levels and enemies were extensively tested for fairness and playability. The plot was an integral part of the level progression. While some consider STRAIN to be rough around the edges in terms of some of its art and level design, the overall experience is immensely satisfying.
  
• Tei Tenga -- The new breed of source ports such as ZDoom have many wonderful and sadly underused features which, when used correctly, can transform a regular level into an extraordinary one. While the level design in Tei Tenga was pretty standard, the massive amounts of scripting used to create and propogate the story has not yet been equalled. Rocket salvos blow holes in the floor, turning off a power station freezes over a pool of water, and a psychotic computer toys with you before unleashing its armies to destroy you.

[Guest PuPz]

BOOOOOO!!!
Heh, j/k.

[Guest Anonymous User]

Or just download his excellent choices. :) Nice work!

[Guest Uberian]

I wouldn't call Gothic DM2 the absolute pinnacle of level design by a long stretch. It was the pinnacle of _that particular style_, the super-complex in-yer-face-haX0r-tricks school of design. For some that style might be impressive, for others (such as me) that level of self-conscious artifice just gets on your wick; and when you move beyond the impact of the style itself, the levels were never particularly amazing.

[Guest Tawney]

The only series I wouldn't really consider best wads of all time would be Tei Tenga. Just because it has alot of scripts doesn't mean it was somewhat fun because it was the first level I played that really had scripts. It was a decent series, but it was basically boring. All of Rick Clarks ZDoom maps in my opinion are much better than the Tei Tenga maps. And I'm pretty sure there are plenty of add-ons that match or even surpass the scripture of Tei Tenga, such as Doom Resurrection...Oh wait, that wasn't released yet...nevermind:) Otherwise I couldn't agree with you more Ling

[Jon]

Good wads all the same, but the megawad/humble-wad ratio is a little too former-heavy IMHO. Track down wupass1 :)

[AdamW]

I'm absolutely with Uberian on Gothic2. If you're going to choose one deathmatch wad (and it looks like that's what Ling did :>), it has to be dweller1.wad. not as complicated as gothic2, but a lot, lot more playable. gothic1 was also better than gothic2 by a long stretch...

[Guest Levendis]

I agree with MM2 and Tei Tenga. Linguica left out earth.wad, which puts pretty much any other "large level" award to shame. Strain? I have never seen strain install properly, across like four or five computers. UAC_DEAD is the bomb, of course. As for the Gothic series...take away the cool textures and what you have are some amazingly simple maps (some that are like single rooms with SSGs) alternating with overly detailed maps. That kind of eye candy is great in single player, but it slows everything down in multiplayer IMHO. Rick Clark also deserves a mention for his ZDoom work. And just for the record, circlestrafing was a standard as soon as the mouse became an available controller (Doom 1.2 or sometime thereabouts).

[Guest Xenocide]

I agree with Mike on Tei Tenga. It was really cool the first time I played it. But then I tried it again and was generally bored. You had to wait for the story before you can get to the action. Greatest wads are ones that I still play... like ATC/HR/or that relive the nightmare episode. Why aren't my wads on the top ten btw?

[Guest HavoC]

Dwango5 was mysteriously omitted from the list above. While being very very far from being the best wad off all time, you simply must have it without a doubt. You know you've all played it, c'mon give it some credit.

[Guest J.F.K]

This would rate very high on my top 10.

[Ty Halderman]

or at least there will be. It got out before the end of the year, anyway. It may even work. Seems like other folks can release stuff that's not perfect, so I guess we should learn to...

[Guest Daggah]

Excepting Tei Tenga of course...nice showing of what ZDoom is able to do, but not much in the actual level design. While I loved Gothic DM2, I think GDM1 was very much more playable too.

Strain installed fine for me...

I've tried stuff like Dwango5 and Dweller...HATED them. Ugh. I don't like that style of map at ALL...would much rather play Andrei Romanov's GDM1 levels or something. Seriously, shit-ugliness seriously detracts from the fun. Also, BOThered by Adelusion represents two of some of the most fun DM levels ever...and FetalDM7 was great too.

[Guest Anonymous User]

Addictive Deathmatch series ripped all these cock spanking TC's to shreds Get that shit india

[Guest Anonymous User]

Dwango 5 Map01 if that isnt the best DM level of all time I will let you suck my wang All Hail Dwango5 Map01!

[Guest the_doom_guy]

I like the list, but i can't like it without one of the best TC i ever play. Operation Rheinghold 2 (i hope i wrote that right). Have cool stuff, you can destroyed cups, and have big maps...

[Guest balanco]

I have to agree with the comment on the intros in Tei Tenga. When I noticed how long it took for the intro to run through, I kept pushing keys in an attempt to abort it. Not to mention that if you accidently backtrack into the previous, you have to see the intro for the level all over again :/. Levelwise, Tei Tenga was good, but not the best wad out there. I liked Cresta much better. (note to Randy Heit: *PLEASE* put a console command in the next release of Zdoom that lets you run through scripts that take long to execute quickly. As for wad authors, please do not put 2 minute intros where the player is powerless to do anything in your wads. It is so damn annoying)

[Guest Anonymous User]

Sure Ikka is a great Level builder and the addictiv also look good but all of them except map03 are terrible to play! Oh and yes GothicDM1 is like twice as good as part 2.

[Guest Ransom]

First we have Linguica telling us circlestrafing wasn't heard of until recently, then Levendis saying it's Doom 1.2. Well, it's been a long time since I was a keyboard player, but whenever there was a wide open area, I would circlestrafe in Wolfenstein, with just the keyboard. Sure it's a lot easier with the mouse, but you don't have to have it to circlestrafe. I know I'm not alone in this. Anyone else out there?

[Guest Opulent]

Howdy. You guys got it all wrong.. =) Tei Tenga was not meant to be Requiem or HellRevealed; anymore than Batman or Aliens was. At least TT _played_ like Doom, Aliens and Batman sucked as far as Doom playability is concerned. And besides that, if you read Ling's intro, he says that these were not only good wads, but groundbreaking ones. In other words, ones that every Doomer should play at least once. Personally, I look forward to Darkening2, Mordeth, and especially Doom Millenium.

[Guest Anonymous User]

it had a few nice effects and all that, but the graphics were horrible and the design sucked

[Guest Anonymous User]

I don´t agree with opulent´s comment. Any wad can play like DOOM. You just have to build a square room and put an imp in it. People who have gone beyond that deserve the credits. Alien and Batman DOOM TC rule!

[Guest Caleb]

its nice to see that we can all kind of contribute to doomworld with the comments feature here. especially when horrors (j/k) named linguica bring up "have to have" wads. Eternal Doom is still my favorite megawad wad to date, and it probably will be forever. its just a damn shame it barely runs under zdoomGL. TeamTnt, Kokak? are you listening?

[AndrewB]

Tei Tenga was the first one I downloaded when I saw the list, but I found it pretty boring. The levels kind of reminded me of something from the Maximum DOOM CD..

[Guest Anonymous User]

Hey, can somebody please tell me which wads require what (DoomI/Doom][/Zdoom/Boom/etc...)

[Linguica]

I seriously considered putting Arctic Wolf on the list of must-play WADs because I liked it so much... but it eventually had to be cut, along with some others which I felt really deserved a position as well.

[Guest Anonymous User]

oh i completely agree with this one.. i downloaded this level when i first started learning about wads.. and it was awesome.. im also going to use the flipped over truck in my TC i got coming up..

[Guest Anonymous User]

Ling, are you mad!!!??? Gothic DM II had lots of flaws for such a herolded classic. Design was mostly based on using fancy textures. There are spots where the player would spawn that actually required a good fast run of to avoid getting stuck forever. A point made earlier on points out how that kind of detail is only for those with super fast pentium process and high-speed, low-lag connections. Remember Dyhani(Gothic DM II, Map 16)? That wad lots of transparent line defs (which require more processing power) and elaborate rooms that wastefully used defs. Remember that plasma gun room? If you took level editor, you would see so many side by side sectors to go along with the ceiling texture, but none of those sectors had a single lighting difference I could notice!! I could go on ranting about Gothic Dm II, but I think that's enough.. Now for Batman Doom. Yes, the graphics were nice. Yes, the special effects, like flame throwers, were innovative and well done using only the Doom II executable and a dehacked patch. No, the level design weren't up to par with the special effects most of the time. Remember how most of the maps played? Like old, "Find the keys, hit switches, and then go backwards to do more of same until the level ended". That is not to see this was all bad- special effects like enemies popping up out of the water in the sewer levels was a nice suprise. This made the old mission scheme a little more durable, but even that got old after awhile. That's not to say I didn't like these wads. I liked to look at the levels in Gothic Deathmatches II for a little while, and Batman Doom had some great music and fighting Killer Croc or Two-Face (who acted too much like a Cyber Demon in an odd suit) was definitely a different experience from playing regular Doom II. These wads had their good points, but I feel their flaws don't make them "must-have" wads. These are my opinions and are not the unchallenged facts. Feel free to disagree with my views. My quote is "Too many Doomers today like eye candy and new special effects over playability!"

[Guest Anonymous User]

Obituary Doom had the flame thrower long before anything else and the graphics were superb, it played well, best co-op experience I have had in a long time, had anyone else even played this megawad? if not hunt it down, its worth every second u sepdn getting/playing it!

[Guest Opulent]

Have you even played Doctor's Crypt? Obituary? Ropy? or even Heretic??? Batman and Aliens are NOT high on the playability scale. Just like Gevert missed the point with Dweller and Dwango5, PLAYABILITY (esp. in deathamtch) is the number one priority when making a wad. I bet Pixel Res. could make a really cool 12000 sector level that is just one huge, awesome-looking staircase, but the playability would be nil. Everyone has their own opinions, of course, but panning Teitenga because it is good but not great to you is lame. It is still the best scripted multilevel pwad released to date -- and that's why Ling chose it. Back to your point - the Addictiv series LOOKS great, but the playability is low. therefore it sucks as a dm wad. Also, I laud anyone who has the patience to apend the sprites and make new textures, but that doesn't necessarily make them better than the original game. Hexen is more advanced than Doom2, but would ANYONE here take Hexen over Doom2??? I thought not. the defense rests.