Operation Portalus (MEGAWAD)+CONSOLE PORTS

[Kloki38]

Three years in the making I present my first megawad Operation Portalus for Gzdoom.

The story takes place after the invasion on Earth. People are rebuilding destroyed cities, but some demons have survived. There are special teams, which kills these demons. Besides this, they are also search traitors. One day, they finally find one, who helped to open the gate on Earth. Main hero breaks into his complex to eliminate him. But then he discovers, that the gates were opened again. Together with another teams, he must close them forever. He will travel throught many locations such as old factories,cities and even in time !





As a part of an experiment I made special hacks from GBA and Sega 32x Doom ports.
Now they are portable versions of this wad suitable for mobile phones and tablets !
They include modified levels from the WAD, new textures (32x version) and an exclusive 3rd episode, which is not based on the WAD.

GBA


32X


VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey1G_0qCd08

DOWNLOAD (UPDATED 1.2) :mediafire.com/download/t6fjzss11zazfvt

UPDATE:
(1.1a):Fixed map07 in the GBA port.
Fixed teleport on map17 in the 32X port.

(1.1):Fixed text screen on map00
Added map (for script purpose)
Clue pickup message has been rewritten

(1.2):Fixed ending screens

[Walter confetti]

Another new megawad! Looks good from screenshots!

[Dav_NW]

I shouldn't say this, but i really like the backstory you put on this one. Nice work! it totally deserves a try.

[7hm]

I figured someone should give you feedback...

I made it up to the 5th map, and while I think the attempt at a backstory is good, and your actual technical mapping skills seem to be ok (I got a shitton of HOMs but I'm running in zdoom instead of gzdoom so it's probably me), the maps themselves are aggressively mediocre.

These are two big problems with what I've played. The first is that these maps are just so flat and boring. Encounter design consists of discrete groups of a few enemies fighting along a single plane. There is no crossfire, no interesting use of mixed enemy types, and really nothing memorable. The most memorable encounters were the spectres at the berserk pack (lights turning off was cool, but there were only 2 spectres sooooo...?) and the weird lizard fish things that pop up at the end of the 4th map. I didn't seem to be able to damage them though, so I just rushed the switches and the exit.

One issue might be the difficulty level (I kind of doubt that's the issue, but it might be). I played on the 3rd / 4 options. I'm not a fan of changing the names of the difficulty levels unless it's abundantly clear from in-game what the intended difficulty should be. But even if the game improves at the 4th difficulty, it needs to be better at the one I was playing.

Anyway the second, larger, problem is the progression. These maps are switch based like I honestly can't remember playing in years. Every two seconds there's another switch that opened another door. You actually did a decent job of making it pretty obvious most of the time where to go look, but running back through the level once you've already cleared it is boring as fuck. At least open up closets or something. You also make it worse by having doors that just don't ever open, so I have to try to remember what sections I need to go back to.

Soooo yeah. I'd try to take another pass at the level and encounter design. I think you could just dump 3/4s of the switches and that would make the levels more fun to play (honestly just remove the doors and open the levels up), but even then you're going to have the issue of the maps playing along a single plane for the most part.

[Kloki38]

Thank you for your review. Yes, I know that the first chapter is kinda boring, because it contains levels which were my first. You should play it with GZDOOm- there are bulletproof windows, which works only in GZDOOM - this is why you have that homs. Doors, which can be opened by switch are marked with RED lite frame. I hope, that you will like the later levels, they are really much better. The ice stalkers can be only damaged when they are about to attack.

[Lizardcommando]

Not bad. The levels were ok. I didn't really care much for the new weapons.

[roadworx]

it was pretty good! :D

[Kloki38]

Which level was for you the best ? I´m just asking :D

[Lizardcommando]

I only got up to MAP06 as of now, but the levels feel pretty simplistic and basic. It feels kind of like that old Fragport megawad by The Ultimate Doomer from 2001. I agree with 7hm's critique on the level design. The constant switch hunting is a bit annoying.

[Caleb13]

Anyone figured out what the flare-shooting gizmo from Map03 does?

[Psycho11704]

Caleb13 said:

Anyone figured out what the flare-shooting gizmo from Map03 does?

It is an inventory item, I used it and it shot projectiles into the sky that had a splash damage effect. I only used it once, and I was too close so it killed me.

[Caleb13]

But... when you pick it up, it says something like "go back to landing area, I found something useful". I thought it would trigger some scripted event, presumably to award the player with a powerful weapon or something. Except it never did.

[Kloki38]

Updated version 1.1 has been released. Sorry, I forgot to remove that message- it was used in the first demo (for a review on anothed site), but here it doesn´t make much sense. You can use that item agains flying enemies if you want.