The DWmegawad Club plays: 50 Shades of Graytall & Erkattäññe

[scifista42]

MAP04 - "Urinals"

No disappointment from this map's design or gameplay. Their traits were similar as before, but I didn't perceive any boredom or repetition, I rather felt that it kept me in good mood. It was fun, inspiring, intuitive to navigate, etc. I couldn't access the Computer Map secret, otherwise I've got all of them.

[Demon of the Well]

Magnusblitz said:

While I had the same exact experience as you (not having enough ammo to take out the cyberdemons with just the plasma gun, because no BFG) it's worth noting that you don't actually need the red key to proceed - the same trigger that lowers the red key column also opens up the next area back in the main hub; there's no actual red key or switch. Which is unexpected, certainly, and another point of obtuse design, and probably unintentional, but interesting nonetheless.

That's really strange, I wonder if there's more port-related shenanigans involved. In my game (playing in Eternity), when you finally reach the small exit tunnel (which is marked by the word 'Exit' spelled out on the floor at its entrance), there's a concrete slab initially blocking the tunnel and a little FIREBLU switch-cubby to its left. Pressing on the cubby returns the message "You need a red key to activate this object", and if you have it (from the central pillar in the 4-cyb room) it removes the slab (revealing a conga-line of viles) and lets you reach the exit. I guess the little switch can be used without the key in ZDoom?

[Surreily]

Me playing through the entirety of Erkattäññe, using frequent saves because damn those chaingunners are brutal. Expect written reviews soon. I don't have the paid Twitch subscription, so I think this will only last 1 week.

https://www.twitch.tv/surreily/v/37231650

I liked this one more than 50 shades :P

[gaspe]

MAP06 - Dead Signal

Kills: 100% | Items: 100% | Secrets: 100%

Nothing so different from what I have seen so far. There were some mandatory walks on the nukage but we have some radsuits. There's an interesting contrast of big and almost empty rooms and cramped corridors. The chaingunners were particulary lethal here.

[Naan]

MAP04 - "Urinals" - UVMax minus one secret on third try

So there are actual urinals in there, wow, and it seems we're heading on more cubic level design. Definitely an improvement over the last map in terms of progress and actual gameplay. Cacos and knights are being added to the mix even though they are no match for the rocket launcher and plasma gun provided. The main challenge here remains on dealing with hitscanners with low health provided, and secret hunting, which I miss the invisibility sphere one which I have no clue on how to get it - I suppose from a side teleporter near the so called urinals? The last encounter with cacos and demons teleporting to the back is somewhat nasty.

[Magnusblitz]

Demon of the Well said:

That's really strange, I wonder if there's more port-related shenanigans involved. In my game (playing in Eternity), when you finally reach the small exit tunnel (which is marked by the word 'Exit' spelled out on the floor at its entrance), there's a concrete slab initially blocking the tunnel and a little FIREBLU switch-cubby to its left. Pressing on the cubby returns the message "You need a red key to activate this object", and if you have it (from the central pillar in the 4-cyb room) it removes the slab (revealing a conga-line of viles) and lets you reach the exit. I guess the little switch can be used without the key in ZDoom?

Nevermind, I'm a moron. I thought I had gone to the exit before going back and IDDQD'd for the red key, but I had actually grabbed it. There is indeed a red switch that opens up the last exit room.

[scifista42]

Surreily said:

I liked this one more than 50 shades :P

I personally see them as surprisingly equal to each other, despite their differences. I think it's the "you have to look away from their visuals to appreciate their content" spirit.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP06 Dead Signal

And now it's Daft Punk, yay. Nukage being the main gimmick and traversing tunnels, totally not my thing. Really not a whole lot else to say, lots of tunnels, nukage, not the forte I want. It's probably easier than the previous level but whatever.

[TheOrganGrinder]

As mentioned earlier, jumping into the early maps of Erkattanne is more appealing to me than picking up where I left off with 50 Shades right now, though I do intend to come back and finish up MAP14-MAP18 there at some point. I'll also be playing this one with the extra-'e' "Knee Deep in the Dead" WAD.

Erkattanne MAP01: 1st Matters

A fun little techbase of unexpected shapes and interconnections; the bulk of the time I spent here came from some after-action secret-hunting rather than core combat gameplay, and the bulk of my health losses came from nukage (when dashing out to grab the backpack) rather than enemy fire. Endearingly retro without being imitative.

MAP02: The Scorpion

Presumably deriving its name from its overall shape, this one steadily introduces more of the familiar bestiary and arsenal, as well as providing a more readily accessible backpack for those who didn't pick up MAP01's offering. Corridor-gunning action is interspersed with shootouts across slime pools and there are a few traps set up to surround and/or enclose the player, though generally not in a fashion that feels unfair. Some quick platforming is necessary for the soulsphere secret. There's a HOM from a couple of missing textures (at least in the KDitD version of the WAD) if the player jumps down into the slime pool between the main part of the level and the 'tail' and activates the switch to get out.

MAP03: The Islet

This map feels defined by its use of monster closets and teleportation to fill the map with free-roaming threats rather than carefully tailored ambushes, giving rise to unpredictable gameplay; you're never sure quite what is going to turn loose another cluster of monsters elsewhere in the map, or just where you'll bump into the opposition so unleashed. Lots of windows present opportunities to take fire from unexpected angles, too, though of course you can take advantage of the same to pay it back. Overall it didn't feel quite as fluidly intuitive as the first two maps; it's also the first where I hit the exit without taking the time to find all of the secrets (4/6 in this case).

[scifista42]

MAP05 - "Camara Obscura"

Once again brilliant, unique and inspiring irregular shapes of architecture / usage of heights / lighting / texturing, and half-chaotic half-organized gameplay / secret hunting, absolutely appealing to me. The usage of damaging floors was interesting: Crossing them wasn't really required, but it opened up shortcuts and a secret area, and Radsuits were present in sufficient amount to make this fun. Found all secrets on this map.

[Lingyan203]

Well, it looks like I've finished my playthrough of Erkattäññe!

Here are my opinions so far:

The levels are quite solid, not very challenging, and a lot of fun. Overall, this wad's kinda easy for me.

My favourite maps (Top 3): Map10, Map07, and Map11
Least favourite maps (Top 3): Map08, Map06, and Map09

So overall, 3.5/5 stars.

Good luck to those who are still playing it, and thanks for having me for this month's wad(s) for DWmegawad Club! I'm looking forward to see what we're playing for next month! :)

P.S. I vote for either Speed of Doom, Hell Revealed, or Alien Vendetta for next month's wad!

[gaspe]

MAP07 - The Fountain

Kills: 100% | Items: 89% | Secrets: 100%

A big courtyard with the titular fountain and some buildings around it. It was quite nice to explore. The imps coming out from the nukage waterfalls made me smile. Though the last fights were a bunch of mancubi then the arachnotrons like a classic MAP07 at least this wasn't just an usual bland "Dead Simple" remake.

[dobu gabu maru]

Guys, guys...

Hell Revealed.

Let's do it. Next month. It's time.

MAP03: The layout in this one was real nifty. The gameplay wasn’t as tense as the previous map since a lot of the traps are directly ahead of the player, but I like the hazardous ravine of muck lining the outside of the base. It was a little too hard to find the Yellow Key (especially since the player isn’t keen on running around the damaging ring), but I liked how often it interconnected with other paths. One minor thing that bugged me was the branching tunnel at the top-left that has a chaingunner in both wings, as I got killed a couple times just trying to clear them out.

I think part of why I’m digging Erkatanne is that I think the layouts synergize well with the lack of health. It feels like you have to keep your eyes peeled for new enemies roaming the fractal compound, as any wounds you take can permanently put you in a bad place. Plus I’m also enthralled with Monti’s adherence to asymmetry; as a predominantly symmetrical mapper that’s trying to branch out, this kind of mapping style can be quite inspiring.

MAP04: Didn’t quite enjoy this one. Besides having a hubspoke design, I don’t think encounters are Monti’s strong suit—the low tier units can be pushed through and you can find an efficient choke-point to defend. The last encounter was pretty good with its composition, but nothing else was really grabbing me like the previous missions. The CEMENT urinal section was kinda cute.

MAP05: Wasn’t thrilled about this one either, but the layout is much better than MAP04. My nitpicks come in the form of specters in the dark (of course) and the myriad of chaingunners that are propped up in the rafters throughout the map. Health is a scarcity for the first half of the map so you’ll be getting pelted from dark rooms while you’re trying to get your bearings, and if that’s not bad enough there’s a chance for some radsuit leakage when you’re looking for secrets out in the lava. A decent map with some tense fights, but a bit too annoying for its own good.

MAP06: A vicious little sewer run here. Tight corridors, nukage everywhere, and chaingunners aplenty. Those aforementioned chaingunners are pretty obnoxious, as Monti continues to barrage the player with them from every opening, which is an absolute pain in the ass until you can grab the SSG (and even then, you need to make sure you have the ammo to use it!) I dug fighting the revs in the tight spaces, so the map was a bit of mixed bag in total. Better than MAP05, but not as cool as the first three maps.

[Demon of the Well]

I also vote for Hell Revealed for next month, time to give it its due. Don't count me out for Erkattäññe either, I have every intention of catching up on that in the next few days.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP05: Camera Obscura
95% kills, 2/7 secrets

Can't say I cared for this one too much... this one is scarce on both health and ammo, which combined with large cavernous rooms and placing lots of hitscanners on far away ledges made this one frustrating to play through. Spent a lot of time at low health, which made exploration feel punishing rather than fun, since each new room was just another opportunity to run into a spectre's jaws or get blasted by a chaingunner on a high-up ledge. I'm generally not a fan of Doom maps with large spaces because the player's arsenal is obviously tuned for close-range combat, and this map is no exception.

MAP06: Dead Signal
100% kills, 2/5 secrets

Doesn't look like much on the minimap, but a lot of tiny corridors worm their way through the larger rooms in this one. Another rough start with not a lot of health and lots of chaingunners, but thankfully I was able to build my way back up with some fights left (unlike last map, when it happened only once everything was pretty much dead). This one also probably takes the cake so far for bad texture choices/usage.

[TheOrganGrinder]

More catching up!

MAP04: Urinals

And now the medium-to-heavy hitters are out in force, with cacodemons and hell knights joining the roster prominently. The overall layout is a variation on the classic hubspoke, but each spoke and its corresponding area in the hub is entertaining enough, and the long, narrow windows that allow the player to peer from one spoke into the adjacent one(s) keep the map from feeling like several smaller levels joined together at the hub. Slime is omnipresent, but radiation suits are supplied generously, in stark contrast to MAP03's dearth of the things.

MAP05: Camera Obscure

Not so much with the clicking for me here; I think the repeated motif of circular-ish slime holding vats and overlooking walkways/grated sniper vantages just didn't provide enough in the way of landmarks for ready navigation, though it's certainly a bold layout overall. Also not a fan of quite so high a percentage of the map's navigable floor space being damaging, even with the abundant radiation suits. This map adds revenants to the mix in force, leading to quite the frantic (if brief) battle after grabbing up the blue key.

MAP06: Dead Signal

The choice of music track gives a 'cool' feeling to this level, inviting steady-paced action, and for the most part, it delivers. Colour-keyed segments of the map form twisting, branching paths that ultimately lead the player back to the central hub, but only after increasingly tense encounters in the gloomy and claustrophobic bowels of the facility. The stand-out monster here is the pain elemental, dropped onto the player from the top of a descending pillar to cause chaos.

MAP07: The Fountain

Coming on the heels of MAP06's claustrophobia, this level's open, almost urban layout is a breath of fresh air, though it's not without the delves into slime-choked sewers that are becoming just as much this WAD's hallmark as it delightfully deliberate rejection of orthogonal corners. It makes decent use of the MAP07 special with the unleashing of a two-stage assault - mancubi, then arachnotrons - just prior to the map's climax, in the process sealing off most of the early areas that might provide supplies or places to hide from the relentless barrage of fireballs and plasma; these sealed areas do eventually unlock to allow for the hunting of earlier secrets the player might have missed. Good times were had here; while a staggered introduction of familiar enemy types isn't strictly necessary in a PWAD, it helps to avoid repetition and ensure that the player is steadily faced with more and more they haven't yet encountered within the WAD's confines.

[Kharnivore2099]

I'm new to these forums but would love to get involved in this. I'll wait until the next one seeing as it is already the 25th, I'll see if i can finish Back to Saturn X before then.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP07 The Fountain

Oh yeah, some open air is always nice to have. the fountain itself in the middle of the town square isn't much to look at though, but it's the main deal anyways since several switches are the key to raising the water up I gotta find them, and then pressing the one switch in the middle reveals...textbook MAP07 mancubi and arachnotron. It's an alright level.

I wanna see some muthafucking Bloodstain!

[scifista42]

MAP06 - "Dead Signal"

Slightly more threatening usage of damaging floors (and enemies too) this time - anyway, all great! Music, architecture, exploration and combat = awesome as usual in this mapset. I've found all secrets again. :)

[Magnusblitz]

MAP07: The Fountain
100% kills, 5/5 secrets

I'll agree with "breath of fresh air" for this one, as it is indeed a lot more fun to move through than some of the last maps. Larger open areas, less damaging floors, and most importantly, Monti resisted the temptation to fill it with chaingunner snipers. The titular fountain is indeed rather inconsequential looking, unfortunately. The mancubus/arachnatron fight works pretty well for what it is.

[TheOrganGrinder]

50 Shades of Graytall MAP14: Astral Nausea

A pretty, trippy series of arena fights that just aren't my cup of tea at all, but as an answer to the question "How do I use this hideous wall texture?" it's a clever sidestep, so points for that.

MAP15: The Serpentine Lemniscate

200+ monster count? Check. Emerging from the previous map a bloody pile of hamburger? Check. Surrounded by monsters that sight me as soon as I spawn? Check.

But there's a megasphere right there. Okay, let's do this.

Actually, this was... not the horrendous onslaught I anticipated it being. It's very structured - it has to be, for the map-reshaping tricks to work as intended - but instead of a frantic scramble to stay ahead of the flow of monsters being pumped into slaughter arenas, the player is largely given control of exactly how many monsters are fought at any given moment, while the rain of cacodemon fireballs from on high prevent camping and keep play kinetic rather than static.

Also I love the music. Fits so well a map where both the player and the architecture are in a constant flow of rhythmic motion.

[Demon of the Well]

Okay, alright, let's look at some Erkattäññe. In the interest of functional "classicism" I've been playing this one in PrB+ -cl 2, UV pistol-starts as always. I should also mention that I've been using the standard erkatane.wad, rather than the bonus/alternate erkaknee.wad (has anyone had a look at that yet?).

Map 01 -- First Matters - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Indeed, it does. This first map is in many ways quite emblematic of the mapset as a whole, which according to Monti himself is his take on more humble (or simply less historically renowned) mapsets of no particular theme or gimmick from the mid-90s era of PWADing. In practice this concept is expressed mainly through 'principally unprincipled' aesthetic choices (i.e. the much-vaunted lack of respect for texture alignment), as Erkattäññe is distinctly and decisively in Monti's own style and bears very little substantial similarity to anyone else's, past or present, beyond vague possible nods to IWAD content here and there, which are of course more or less timeless and the property of no particular creative era. For the most part this is a good thing, IMO--the world of PWADs has more than enough active homagery as it is--although it does make certain design aspects of the WAD seem needlessly contrived in a roundabout sort of way, ala the deliberate 'ugliness' of some of the texture usage. I'm bringing this up here and now, at the very outset of the playthrough, in order to avoid repeating myself over and over for the next 10 maps: Monti's approach to architecture, layout, and lighting all evince a lot of personality and meet or exceed period standards, but the literally slapdash approach to texture choice, combination, and alignment adds a layer of artificial amateurishness to the presentation which does not do the WAD any favors. If we could accept this as a credible representation of a bygone visual style perhaps things would be different, but truth is that most old WADs which pay the same amount of care to gameplay and layout and the like as Monti does here are generally not as broadstroke-lazy in terms of concourse issues like texture alignment as Erkattäññe persistently is (although most of them have rough patches, of course), and so the effect comes off more as tacky caricature than as fond reminiscence, which I don't believe was the intended effect. The error, methinks, is in conflating a practical issue (e.g. the amount of labor involved in making a clean presentation with editors of the time) with an 'artistic' one, and I believe the WAD as a whole would've been that little bit stronger if the author had had it comb its hair and change out of its sweatpants and stained wifebeater before lighting out into the world.

Whew. Despite all of my windbaggery on that subject, however, fortunately the WAD is usually easy enough to look at (visuals in Doom are not just about texture and color, but also about shape, scale, and light), albeit in a rather roughshod way, as we can see here in map 01, with its airy open yards contrasted with squat, sinewy corridors which wrap around the center in a loose sort of 'cinnamon roll' formation. Given the general texture scheme (green riveted metal, cement, some blue carpet, some grass, and assorted brown composite) and the level's theme of presenting exterior spaces with no obvious way to reach them, we might surmise that there is some allusion to Sandy Petersen's "Entryway" at play, although it's difficult to tell for sure, given that some of the Erka maps seem to share marked conceptual parallels with their IWAD mapslot counterparts, while others show none at all. A great deal of the visual sense comes from the strange angles between room connections, and the emphasis on height differences, which is communicated in ways both obvious (lots of monsters fire at you from higher places as you spiral around the center) and subtle--almost every time you change rooms you change height as well, even if only in a small way, such that before you know it you've looped around to an earlier area at a higher vantage. Music here is pretty unobtrusive, and I assume based on past experiences with Monti's work must be a midi rendition of some pop song or another. Unfortunately, in terms of music selection, things tend to go downhill from here....

As one might expect, things start out easy-peasy on the action front. Monster population is about half imps and half former humans, with the occasional perched shotgun sergeant representing the only likely source of significant damage for most players. The pistol features heavily as the main weapon, with shells for the shotgun only becoming common via looting sergeant corpses as proceedings draw to a close, and a chainsaw available in a secret that many will likely not find. While for some it is anathema, I myself don't mind having to use the pistol for a stretch provided the opposition is mostly light targets as is the case here, although it did occur to me that given the preponderance of small groups of imps along the winding path Monti might have done well to place a few more explosive barrels throughout the level, which would not seem out of place given the large number of them in the big polluted room near the security vest and backpack secrets. Theoretically speaking, most of the danger in the level is not from the killing potential of traps or the like but via the potential for slow attrition, with healing items and armor being rather limited relative to the amount of gunfire from zombies you'll have to contend with, an attrition-based angle which is symptomatic of a lot of the later maps, as well.

One of THE most defining--and most entertaining!--aspects of this mapset is Monti's penchant for secret-hiding, and even here at the beginning he's showing all sorts of quirky tricks and clever devices to hide what are, comparatively speaking, largely inconsequential material rewards. I think the secret-hunting aspect of Erkattäññe is fun/rewarding enough that I don't actually want to spoil too much about some of the more creative ones, but it's worth noting that the all of the secrets here are good examples of similar ideas you'll encounter in later maps, so search early if you want to get a tactical leg up for the duration, and in particular, keep an eye out for unevenness in walls beyond the level of mere texture alignment, and for gunswitches in the unlikeliest of places! One thing mentioned by other players that I will agree with is some questionable use of tripline secrets.....I'm not exactly the world's biggest friend to "fairness", but I reckon if you're going to use these it's generally only fair to place the actuated sector in such a way that the player can actually hear or even see that something has moved, otherwise uncovering the secret falls to pure chance, which I reckon sort of undercuts the merits of secret-hunting as a gameplay layer.

[baja blast rd.]

No FDAs? I'm not planning any more, so you wouldn't be stealing my (entire) audience.

[baja blast rd.]

Map06: "Dead Signal"

This map has quite a few setups that allow you to weaponize barrels for some off-screen fatalities -- that might even the map's defining concept, now that I think of it. If last map was the coming out party for revenants, this map throws an event for pain elementals, but it's more of a funeral than a party, because they blow up fast. Most of the encounters are generic Erkattäññe -- the BK bonanza is a typical multi-closet hitscanner + decoy setup -- but the incidental claustrophobia with nobles that can corner you is a slightly different setup than the setpiece-centric variety of claustrophobia seen earlier.

I did not like the early hitscanner sniping, but there were a few decent set pieces later on, and I found two secrets, including a very useful infusion of firepower courtesy of the berserk fisty pack, so it was all decent fun.

[dobu gabu maru]

Demon of the Well said:

rather than the bonus/alternate erkaknee.wad (has anyone had a look at that yet?)

TheOrganGrinder is braving that wacky path. Even though I don't think too highly of Doom E1, I think it's neat that the Knee Deep visual style is included.

MAP07: Alright, now we’re cookin’! Big open layout, delectably abstract cityscape, and the map culminates into a big manc/arach brawl. I completely forgot that this was a MAP07 so I wasn’t expecting the manc/arach stuff until the city started transforming. This level doesn’t feel quite as ripe for exploration as the others but I liked the central scuffle in it—it was fun zipping around enemies and searching for ammo mid-fight. Plus there was only one bad area with chaingunners this time.

[Naan]

MAP05 - "Camara Obscura" - UVMax on second try

Not that "obscura" of a map, but just well rounded, decent challenge navigating through the map in search of health and weapons while taking minimum damage, which was somewhat reminiscent of Plutonia nonlinear style of progression. At least radsuits are provided here! One thing great about the secrets in this map and the next one is there is no longer unfair timed jumping involved like MAP02 and 03 had. The invul sphere was questionnable at first but came handy to face final fights. I quite liked this map.


MAP06 - "Dead Signal" - UVMax on second try

Back to linear setting with this rather enjoyable map featuring Daft Punk (!), damaging floor and more than enough suits to walk on it. If I got used to handle hitscanners, fighting barons and knights in cramped corridors was a bit unexpected and a bit irritating, even though now (and in last map) all weapons up to plasma and rocket launcher have their time to shine, and not just being overkill fodder to fit on secrets.

Speaking on which, if they are still cleverly hidden, are becoming a bit predictable in what they grant, computer map, berserk pack, ammo backpack, invisible sphere, megashere and so on... And there's a pretty dark button to shoot I almost missed. Speaking of which I strongly advise anyone not to play this mapset with a small vanilla screen resolution (640*480 or lower) as most of those shooting switches won't be remotely visible.

Oh, and the almost detailed computer made me smile.

[gaspe]

MAP08 - Peri Physeos

Kills: 100% | Items: 92% | Secrets: 66%

Best map so far. We will mostly navigate nukage canals, and there will be many radiation suits around. It was really nice to explore all the place. I liked that spectre that disappeared to come back at the exit. The archvile felt like the protagonist of this map. That BFG moment was kinda cool.

[Demon of the Well]

^^More power to TOG, then, I've just had a look around in erkaknee.wad and I reckon most of these maps are even homelier when rendered in just the Phobos tileset!

rdwpa: Nah, not this time. I actually recorded ones for maps 01 and 02, but then forgot for the next few maps before it crossed my mind again. That, and most of the hypothetical recordings would probably be 10 minutes of me clearing out the level followed by 15-20 more of me ambling around an empty map trying to ferret out weird Montisecrets, probably not something most folks would find entertaining.

Map 02 -- The Scorpion - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
The BGM here is utterly intolerable. I couldn't stand more than 45 seconds or so before typing "IDMUS 12", something I'll end up doing more than once before all is said and done, I reckon.

Initially sour impression aside, my goodwill was promptly renewed by the security armor secret right at the start, love that. It is from hoary old 90s mapsets that the DotW 'best practice' of "always check behind you when the game starts" originates, and so it's fulfilling and stimulating to see something like this here. Secrets in general are a little easier in this map than in the previous one (e.g. this time you can hear everything that triplines actuate), but very much in the same general vein conceptually, more good practice for tricksier ones to follow. Aesthetically this is actually one of the more cleanly/subdued offerings in the set, both in terms of texture scheme, which is of a fairly anonymous dingy Doom II composite/dark metal outpost, and in terms of concourse (few really crass misalignments or jarring transitions on display), though there are of course some homely bits here and there, ala the bronze-door 'vault' that houses the red keycard or the awning made out of an irregular chunk of monitors over the red door (which is really more a shutter than a door). I suppose the most notable conceptual gimmick is that "The Scorpion" is kinda-sorta shaped like a scorpion on the overhead map, but it's a pretty loose resemblance, and it struck me that Nick probably named the level after noticing the similarity in map view, rather than consciously building it to look that way (at least at first, anyway). Interesting conceit, that, and perhaps a sort of opportunistic synergy, given that building levels to look like particular objects on the automap is indeed very much A Thing in vintage mapping, though I personally think the practice is at its most endearing when the mapper sort of plays the gimmick with a straight face and leaves it for the player to notice (if they notice at all) rather than pointing it out to them in the map title or textfile or whatnot.

In play terms, in "The Scorpion" you spend a lot of time running to and fro down long, window-bounded corridors inlaid in the outpost's outer shell in such a way that you're constantly seeing some other area (and occasionally more than one) that is mere inches away yet inaccessible due to some physical boundary; getting from point A to point B is often a deceptively circuitous process, and it's perhaps easy to become disoriented early on, but in truth the layout has a lot of convenient interconnections and is really quite compact, so you'll be moving about with ease once you get your bearings. Naturally you're under fire most of the time while doing this, but despite a higher monster count and a more pronounced slant towards sergeants and commandos in the zombie population, I don't reckon it really serves much more heat than map 01 did, simply because the way the level is laid out means the enemies are constantly obstructing each others' fields of fire without you having to consciously prod them into doing so, so a good many bullets intended for your chest will tend to end up in somebody else's ass instead. Without the secret soulsphere and other goodies, the armor/healing balance remains tight, but doesn't seem very likely to factor in much unless you're unlucky and get winged by the guys peering out the long windows at the start while you jog over to your shotty. The end goal is perhaps not terribly obvious, but again, progression is fairly straightforward once you learn the layout, aided along by occasional dribbles of closet-dwellers who help to guide you in the right direction. In contrast to some of the "Entryway" parallels I thought I saw in map 01, I didn't really notice much in the way of "Underhalls" references here, although I suppose there is a tiny network of watery tunnels in the central basement that you'll have to navigate at some point. The most eccentric bit is probably the escape route from the red keycard's vault, which involves some awkward impromptu skittering from ledge to ledge around triangular partitions before you can hit the release valve and leave; suffice to say Doomguy is probably glad for that codpiece he wears during the proceedings here. Two easy-to-see but tricky-to-trigger secrets in this small space, as well, neat how feature-rich some of these architecturally humble setups are.

Map 03 -- The Islet - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Ugh. IDMUS 21. Also, alternate title suggestion: "The Amoeba."

Another circuit-style map with a well-defined high road and equally defined low road. The layout is again fairly intricate, although the way the playspace is partitioned both practically and visually into separate 'tracks' makes it difficult to get a real sense for the space's relative complexity at first. The high road is initially rather intractable, full of locked doors and churlish decomposing snipers in elevated nests (the chip-damage they can levy being more of a concern in this case than in the past two maps); the low road's not a whole lot more hospitable, flooded with toxic manure and lousy with nasty vermin in the walls as it is, but tiptoeing around its distractingly thin foot-ledge with your shotgun in one hand and your nose pinched in the other is key to rooting out the first in a series of keycards which will allow you to gradually clean house upstairs. The slant towards hitscannery continues here; sniper fire coming from a distance (often through several windowed sectors before reaching you) and from elevated vantages aims to wound you early on, while later progression is marked by pockets of more concentrated firepower aiming to finish you off, ala the squads of chaingunners and other trash who are deployed into the main circuits as you near and reach each keycard (the fellows who attack through the lattice upon getting the blue key are particularly nasty). The rub is that between these two endpoints you'll likely spend a lot of time traversing the filthy trench down below, which for many will see a net depreciation in physical wellbeing--the sharp angles of the low road coupled with the thin footledges you have to keep to in order to avoid damage from the harmful muck betoken a lot of scraping awkwardly against the wells, which becomes tiresome after a while and will likely lead to many players soaking unnecessary damage when they inevitably get in a hurry to traverse the area as quickly as possible....something you can't really afford to do here, since the supply of healing is tighter than ever, and you've naught but another green vest you get early on and a paltry few helmets to do you for armor.

Secrets can help, of course, but here are more difficult to locate than ever, including a sneaky 'shooting range' gunswitch which nets you a berserk pack (at a point in the level where said reward is largely meaningless, to boot) and a dastardly hide-in-plain sight trigger for a secret soulsphere--I actually nearly died from ooze damage while initially barking up the wrong tree in pursuit of that one when I myself grew impatient with hugging the wall in the trench! I particularly like the backpack secret, that's a weirdly 'realistic' access mechanic to use in a mapset as patently abstract as this one, and a gameplay idea I'd like to see feature more regularly in parkour-heavy modern adventure-style maps, sort of simulating the free climbing aspect of character-based action games in venerable old Doom.

Aesthetically it's more of what we've seen from the preceding maps, a vibrant jumble of freehand shapes hastily clothed in the general early Doom II 'Starbase' tileset, with most of the visual interest eliding from the structures themselves rather than surface aesthetic. The toxic trench is a bit of a downer in this regard, its monotextural 'brown on brown on brown' look and lack of any lighting contrast makes it appear unusually dull, whereas other areas, if not exactly clean-looking, have some structural or other feature that sets them apart, ala the dark techno-craggy look of the backpack/RK chamber or the requisite crate room behind the red door.

[TheOrganGrinder]

So having had a quick look at the Doom 2-styled version of the WAD, one thing that's jumping out at me is that, lacking any liquid flats other than green slime, the KDitD version of the WAD has a very different pattern of damaging floor placement in a lot of levels. KDitD MAP05, for example, has green slime everywhere, compared to the mixture of non-damaging water and highly damaging lava in the D2 MAP05. Were I not already running behind it'd be interesting to play the two versions side-by-side.

[baja blast rd.]

Map07: "The Fountain"

Up until now, Erkattäññe has doled out its hundred or so monsters per map bit by bit, a a couple snipers here, a nest of imps there, supplemented by the occasional preset encounter, but "The Fountain" sees most of its monster count crammed into three big brawls. Despite the larger-than-usual scale, "The Fountain" has easily the simplest layout so far, so it's over relatively quickly. I managed to nab a few secrets this time; two were in plain sight, simple strafejumps. There are two (or even three) surplus radsuits that seem to exist solely so that an avid secret-hunter can make return trips to the drink. This seems to be a trend in levels that feature radsuits.

The last encounter is simple -- there's just so much space -- but it's sort of necessary for an easy going to anticipate that arachnotrons will immediately follow the mancs, and leave one manc alive while you run around and grab the boxes of rockets they were squatting on. That's a cool strategic wrinkle in a mapset whose combat has mostly been pure twitch until now.