The DWmegawad Club plays: Eternal Doom

[punnyone]

Map 22 - The Seeker - 81% Kills, 100% Secrets.

Another massive Couleur map that can neatly be divided into two equally colossal parts. The first half takes place in an absolutely nebulous castle complex, which looks even more labyrinthine on the automap. Although there are many different ways to initially progress, much of the map is surprisingly straightforward. There are some incredible visuals in this level such as the waterfall courtyard to the east and the courtyard full of ruined fortresses to the south/south-west. Even some of the tighter corridors and smaller rooms are stunning to look at.

The combat in this section can get quite hectic, especially in the aforementioned south courtyard, where revenants took me down quite a bit. The four barons just before the red key door almost seem to foreshadow the final battle of the map. The secrets are located exclusively in the first half of the map, and while none are too hard to find, I always wondered how to properly get that non-secret berserk pack in the western courtyard. Perhaps an arch-vile jump?

Then we enter the second half of the map and everything changes drastically. It's one huge symmetrical arena which looks like the final segment in Forlorn Fortress. This time however, instead of a moderate-easy challenge and an obscure switch hunt, we have to reach four easy to find switches hit to unlock the exit, all while being under constant crossfire from four cyberdemons, and countless other enemies. I died quite a bit in this section and even with the abundance of ammo, I still found it quite a challenge.

Overall, A very challenging and beautifully designed map. By this point, Couleur's style is not only apparent, it's become a bit of a trademark.

[Ribbiks]

21: fda. Felt a bit pedestrian following the wonderfully creative m20. A bit straightforward, some mild switch-hunts, some moderate corridor shooting. Perhaps a tad insulting with the "hey, AV jump up here!" texture.


22: fda. Given the author I was expecting a much more switch-hunty affair, so I was surprised by this spacious, high-tier mobs + excessive ammo map. I found the architecture very clean and appealing. I liked the insane number of interconnects via balconies as well. The nonchalant way of giving away keys was appreciated too. Fun map overall.


edit: ran out of backlog, time to actually start playing maps again -.-

[baja blast rd.]

edit: bad

[Ribbiks]

player comfort is overrated.

at least it's not at grove/dvii03 levels of irritating thing-barriers :p

[baja blast rd.]

This wad is for Ribbiks. I made it. And the music. >:-D

http://www.mediafire.com/download/0au587r68ck318z/nonsense.wad

[Rayziik]

rdwpa said:

This wad is for Ribbiks. I made it. And the music. >:-D

http://www.mediafire.com/download/0au587r68ck318z/nonsense.wad

Sorry for posting this here, since this is the DWMC thread, but after playing this and subsequently witnessing this, I absolutely had to.

Spoiler

[Cynical]

rdwpa said:

This wad is for Ribbiks. I made it. And the music. >:-D

http://www.mediafire.com/download/0au587r68ck318z/nonsense.wad

Well, that wad certainly lives up to the name.

[dobu gabu maru]

Even your garbage is interesting rdwpa :P

MAP22: I gotta say, every time Couler’s name pops up in the maplist, I get a little excited. While not as stupendous as MAP19, this one still has plenty of fun action and a clever layout (LOVE that the castle starts at a 45 degree angle), though I found that he didn’t optimize his monster placement as efficiently in this one. For instance, the RK courtyard keeps monsters from utilizing the outer wall (meaning they only suppress you from the castle itself), and while the cyber-dominated end arena is an interesting concept, clearing out the outer walls is booooooooring. Despite Couler’s missteps, I still enjoy his spacious scenery and his light investigation-style “puzzles”, so I look forward to playing his next effort (as opposed to dreading Evans’ MAP30 finale).

[plums]

dobu gabu maru said:

I gotta say, every time Couler’s name pops up in the maplist, I get a little excited.

If you like his name so much, you should at least spell it right! ;)

But yeah, Couleur's maps have been the most consistent attraction for me too in ED, I even liked map 11. I think I said before that he struck me as a player who was maybe not all that skilled at Doom, given that he's got some questionable monster placement, gives the player tons of ammo, offers blur spheres as legitimate powerups, etc., and so not all his combat is top notch. There's enough good moments though, combined with everything else that he does in his maps that I love, that I really enjoy them.

Soundblock (if you're still following this thread), any info on Chris Couleur you could share with us? I googled him and found a tiny amount of personal info (he was mid 30s when he made these maps, he's a warehouse manager I think) but nothing about mapping. And I don't see any maps he's made outside of Eternal Doom.

rdwpa: That was more fun than it should've been ;p

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP23 Time Gate II

The unofficial sequel to MAP05. Now we finally get to figure out exactly where those "bad endings" will lead us, won't we? First there's the matter of choosing our destination each time. First, a trip to the past, not the ultra distant past of earth formation, thankfully, but the past nonetheless. A little Dead Simple bit at first, then a reacharound to find the yellow key. I think it's possible to fuck this segment up, as if you hit the switch way too early it may not rise the walkways all the way.

How about the more futuristic city scape? Opening room is a bit annoying, but it has some interesting room over room segment, the other buildings aren't much to note, other than a spiderdemon on one of them. There's an easily missable berserk pack, having to sidle along a very thin ledge going THROUGH a fake rock wall leads to it and several supplies in a non-secret.

The secret in the hub is a bit silly, "SECRET IS NOW ACCESSIBLE", yeah good hint. For the "super secret" though, both red and yellow keys are needed, then some backtracking through already-known areas, and then there's "Caco heaven". They're everywhere, but it's so open that it's only a problem just taking all of them down. A cute level, and rather solemn music goes well with it.

[gaspe]

plums said:

And I don't see any maps he's made outside of Eternal Doom.

Apparently he made only Eternal related stuff, at least what is in the archive. He contributed to the Eternal Deathmatch Set and to Eternal Doom IV.
Also, a bit off topic, but it seems that some maps/areas of the deathmatch wad were reused and tuned-up in ED IV.

[punnyone]

Map 23 - Time Gate II - 98% Kills, 100% Secrets.

Dia's final map in the set is a sequel, in name only, to Soundblock's Time Gate. Unlike the original, which dealt with accessing a lone fortress to get to the time gate, here we start off in the fortress with a fully functioning multi-year time machine at our disposal. Doc Brown would be proud.

The starting room is a bit plain/boxy, but things heat up when we set the time machine back to 1,000,000 BC. Here it is apparent that the UAC have taken this otherwise plain brownstone and lava temple and added their own technologies such as lights and glass walls. It creates quite an interesting aesthetic, with a few hefty challenges against some of the heavier monsters.

The second area takes us apparently to the year 5,000...a bit hard to believe as it looks like any old ruined current cityscape. For those who selected the 5 years into the future ending for the first Time Gate, this level offers a much more generous portion of that same theme. There is a really cool faux room over room effect in the first building, and a tough challenge to evade and eventually fight the spidermastermind. Otherwise, it's over pretty fast.

The secret areas are quite interesting. You have to revisit both of the first two time gate destinations to open the awesome caco heaven. Although I always found the revisit of the cityscape to be pointless as there is nothing new unlocked unlike the first time gate destination.

Overall, a fun and slightly quirky map that gives us some nice visuals and entertainment before the next massive map in the set.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP23: Time Gate II

This one is a little workmanlike in its execution; the idea of a time gate over which the player has full control, venturing at different points in the level to different eras of the past and future, definitely has potential, but here it feels as though it's not explored to sufficient depth to be really engaging. The different time periods which the player explores are visited too briefly, their environments lacking real definition and differentiation (though this may be an product of the limited resource pack; the WAD authors only have so big a texture selection and don't have a lot to spare for one-off appearances). In the context of a level that's designed to remind the player of the setting and to move the story arc forward, the fourth-wall-breaking secret hints feel even more out of place than they otherwise would, lacking a sense of endearing cheekiness that they might have possessed in a more playful and abstracted setting. Maybe I'm not giving this one its fair shake but it's honestly not doing a lot for me.

[Naan]

To me MAP22 is a testament of what's Eternal Doom about: epicness. This map I just can't get bored to play it again and again. The intertwined environnement and archirecture, all the interconnections teasing further areas that populates as you get to them, the battles ramping up to the quad cyberdemon arena fight, the epic switch hunt dodging the cybies rockets while dealing with all the mid tier repopulating the corridors... Not forgetting the epic music of course! This map has so much key moments.

One of my favorite maps of all time among a selected few such as AV MAP20.

[plums]

I'm a sucker for time-travel style maps, so I liked 23 despite it's somewhat poor execution and hamfisted text indicators. I liked being able to explore the -1 million year area, and the idea that the aliens have built a base there was kind of neat -- something I would've liked to see explored in other maps a bit more. The clash of modern and medieval textures didn't work so well to me, as opposed to conveying a sense of mixed eras it just looked scattered. Nonetheless I found this map fairly memorable and enjoyable. Caco heaven was a silly bit of fun.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 22 -- The Seeker - 101% Kills / 100% Secrets
I'm glad to see that Chris Couleur's mapping is starting to grow on a lot of you guys, I really like it, too. There are a lot of different ways to do 'leisurely' gameplay, of course, but his big/rollicking location-based style has always struck a chord; some relatively obscure progression choices aside, huge spaces like his are fun to move around in, and of course a lot of the joy of Doom is the joy of movement.

Interesting to see "The Seeker" praised for its feeling of adventure and non-linearity in comparison to how some of the other maps were received; not that I really disagree, mind you, but this sort of shores up my belief that the way a map looks or is presented--largely matters of aesthetics rather than of substantive gameplay--can synergize with and influence the way people will feel about it as they actually play, beyond the level of "this sure is pretty" or the like. To whit, moreso than any of Couleur's other maps in the set (though my memory of map 24 is fairly vague at the moment, I should admit), "The Seeker" is quite linear in terms of progression, with a very straight path from beginning to end, and minimal reuse of areas for proper exploration or combat purposes (and it is probably the least vexing of his maps from a progression standpoint for players who still can't quite the hang of Eternal Doom, requiring only some more or less obvious 'secret' impact-walls as far as that goes). It still feels like a roaming, freewheeling adventure, though, because of how it's structured: From the starting point, you have a bunch of different pathways you can take, and even though all of them but the right one terminate in a dead or wind back around to one of the courtyards in a matter of moments, these route redundancies in concert with the many windows allowing peaks into later areas and random pathing element of the assorted monsters loitering around the place create an early impression of open-endedness. The farther you get into the level, the more straight and narrow the path becomes, with only a brief/minor fork in the road shortly after the blue door, yet the sense of being on quite the jaunt increases; what you are essentially doing is gradually spiraling outwards through the layout, repeatedly moving through or around earlier areas on discrete tracks separated from one another by railings or height changes or the like, ala the outdoor park-walk that finally ends in getting the yellow skull and neatly ending up right back near the yellow doors--a bona fide 'looping layout', if you like.

Like Chris's previous maps, there's also more of a sense of climax than in other ED maps play, with the yellow key opening the way to a big symmetrical arena with heavy (relatively speaking, of course) enemy opposition, most notably a quartet of cyberdemons protecting the central raised tabernacle, where the final exit portal is located. As per usual, given the vast amount of movement space that an enterprising player here enjoys, not to mention the truckload of military surplus littered about, it's not too difficult to find triumph, but as with "Forlorn Fortress" this also subsidizes a highly aggressive playstyle, so it's only slow and steady if you want it that way. Worth noting, I think, that while Couleur's monster placement leans heavily towards the mid and upper tier here, there's not much of a feeling of perfunctory action or slogginess, save for an occasional quaint 90s-ism here and there, ala the four Barons who rise out of the pool right outside of the red door; the author's usual tack of constantly repopulating the play area in short spats and trickles via teleporters and distant closets and the like proves nearly as effective here as in his more genuinely open-ended maps, with more of a focus on heavy firepower in lieu of the more random/organic element.

Oh yes, and once again, I do quite like the music track here, rather 'heroic' in cast yet also dignified and ambling, suits the long safari-stroll nature of the map quite nicely.

[antares031]

MAP24 - Rainbow Bridge
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 99/72/66

Here's yet another giant level designed by Christopher Couleur, the author of MAP11, 19, and 22. Once again, this level gives you a highly explorable environment with some height variations, just like the MAP19. But unlike the other map, MAP22, it's a little bit hard to track the way to go if you get lost since each areas are not well-connected. Still, the gameplay is just fine with no tricky moments. But I recommend you to grab that plasma rifle at the secret area, or you'll have a trouble to deal with cyberdemons later. Overall, it's another fine level to play, but not as good as MAP19 and 22, in my honest opinion.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP24 Rainbow Bridge

Oh snap, Couleur goes grand in scale, and I mean grand. Then again, there's not much here that we haven't seen elsewhere in a Couleur map. The medieval theme is something this guy stands by very well. The wall disappearing after the stairs at the beginning was quite sudden. Above the grounds are many enemies who usually sit tight in some compartment, so snipers are common here. I take my chances against them as swiftly as possible. the bridges (more like walkways), have the most turrets, so I tread lightly.

Despite this, as usual, Couleur provides a lot of space, so there's a lonely feeling to this map, as if the music wasn't enough to prove that point. It really is just a long map. There's a bit of platforming at one segment near the middle, and some weird speedrun trick I found out involving a plasma gun. But it takes me quite a while to reach the whole eastern side of the map. There's more snipers here, but the space makes it easy to avoid everything. A few walkover linedefs are the big cause of grief though. Some of those snipers are really hard to hit too. So far I've taken the longest time in this map, but that will change soon...

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP24: Rainbow Bridge

This one has all the hallmarks of Chris Couleur's style by now: large, ambitious in scope, full of intricate mechanisms and sequences, and far from shy about throwing some pretty ferocious combat in the player's face. For a few reasons this level doesn't resonate with me quite as much as the author's earlier contributions to the WAD; the predominantly orthogonal architecture, rather than the rounded shapes used to great effect in MAP19 and MAP22, feels less polished and professional, and the overall heavier dependence on monsters in inacessible buildings and on ledges left me feeling less as though I was confronting challenges, and more as though I was ducking and weaving to avoid nuisances that harried me. Overall it left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied; of all the Couleur maps in the WAD, this is the one that I struggled to feel as though I was really getting my teeth into, and stopping to dissect it in detail felt like it would be a chore rather than an achievement. That said, even when he swings and misses Couleur's work is enjoyable, and the central intricate part of this map, between the early castle towers and the more industrial-themed conclusion, was a delight to work my way through.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 23 -- Time Gate II - 106% Kills / 100% Secrets
This plays out a lot like most of Westerteicher's other maps, in that it's a series of discrete experimental concepts in a vaguely Petersenesque mould, although as with "The Crypt" prior it's tied together a little more coherently as a setting, by virtue of the time-traveling progression concept, which I think is a clever way of gussying up what is essentially a non-standard (but still very simple) hubspoke level design. At this point in the playthrough I find I'm somewhat regretting how relatively hard I was on "Interbase" from way back in map 03, as despite its aesthetic half-bakedness it was probably the most interesting thing Dia has done here in terms of layout/flow (reckon "The Crypt" still actually plays the best, though), but "Time Gate II" does its best to add interest to its very linear flow by having you travel around from segment to segment via teleporters and switches rather than doors and passages, most notably with its conceit of repeatedly using the titular Time Gate to reach a number of different destinations at different points, as set by the computer terminals on the elevated command platforms in the main hub. IIRC, I don't believe the Gate can actually be reset after each of these progression milestones, but there are alternative 'secret' means for backtracking into previous segments of the timeline should you feel the need to do so, so no breach of popular mapping etiquette need occur. As a bonus, doing this enables a small subquest to open up the silly little "Caco Heaven" area, to add an extra touch of intrigue to an otherwise straightforward outing.

Like "The Crypt" before it, "Time Gate II" seems to make proper use of the Eternal textures, rather than looking like a fly-by-night conversion clinic outpatient, and so it's one of Dia's more aesthetically palatable maps in the set, featuring a mix of medieval and tech assets one might expect given the theme, with the sets mostly sequestered into their own timelines and meeting in a loose Doom-abstract mixture in the main hub. While more visually coherent than many of his other maps, though, I here continued to be struck by the impression that Dia's maps generally continue to look quite a bit rougher than those of the other authors, with less attention paid to lighting contrast beyond a few token fixture-shaped patches under ceiling detail in a flew places, and more in the way of harsh texture transitions and obvious misalignments and the like, things which are generally quite rare in this WAD, despite its age, and a bit of an odd contrast to the inventive mechanical setups which the author is clearly capable of, like the simulated "true 3D" setup of the first building in the 'ruined future' timeline. I also don't care for the way the hovering text is used here--a bit too "you are playing a video game" for my liking, especially when you are blatantly told about 'secrets' becoming accessible--but of course this particular issue is solely a matter of personal taste, I suppose.

Because the map is very linear at root, a lot of the combat boils down to straightforward blasting, with a marked slant towards Barons and Cacodemons of all things, which gives the proceedings a touch of odd OG Doom flavor. Generally the thrust of the combat is to try to stop you straight up with heavy opposition (including periodically restaffing the hub), but there are a few traps to spice things up here and there, ala the teleporting arachnatrons after 'leaping' the chasm in the future timeline, or the mancubus ambush in the so-called 'secret area.' Since you can quickly accumulate heavy weaponry and a good stock of ammo, most of this action ends up feeling fairly rote and unremarkable, though I did rather like the restaff segment where an arch-vile is sent back to the Gate hub; he resurrected a ton of stuff there while I was away, and when I returned he promptly walked over one of the opened key-locked pads and teleported up to one of the command platforms, where he proceeded to make quite a nuisance of himself, making for a good fight. Save some BFG juice for the end if you can, it's by far the best way to clean out Caco Heaven, which if fought with only the supplied mountain of shells is probably the dullest bit in the map.

[Ribbiks]

23: fda. Daw, I wanted to see caco heaven. Guess I wasn't clever enough to unravel the path to get there. A pretty ehh map, combat was centered around high-tier mobs, but with the space to move the bark was always worse than the bite. Good midi, nice and cheesy with the (borderline insulting) explanatory textures.

24: fda. This demo contains a lot of me sitting around staring at an automap while eating pizza, including an embarrassingly long sit trying to figure out how to open the exit door (big straight spaces had me inclined to SR50 around and miss a few small details in the process, including the YK switch), good thing fast forward exists ey.

Big map, difficulty quite low. I thought I managed to sequence-break it by getting to the opposite side of the RK door before intended, but it didn't seem to affect anything.. Atmosphere was decent, combat was forgettable. I'm coming around on this wad's overall style that forgoes streamlined layouts and other such niceties, though I'd definitely like it more if the average difficulty was a bit higher (e.g. m12, m04 easily my favorite in the set, and it's looking to stay that way)

[gaspe]

MAP23 - Time Gate II

This one is really interesting. With the time gate you will be sent to the eras of the wrong exits of MAP05, which they take place in areas separated from the starting hub. The concept is cool and it's executed rather well. And remember to make a visit to the caco heaven!

[Crusader No Regret]

map 19: One from the blooper reel. I reached the exit in a (saves used) max attempt with a number of monsters still alive. Used IDDT to reveal there were several in a teleport closet that had somehow never awakened. Thus began a session of running around punching air until they woke up. 99% of players will likely not encounter this so chalk it up to my infighting tendencies complicating things.

Map 21: Looking at it now, this feels like what would be the result if map 15 made a "mini me" version of itself. There's a number of separate areas with variable themes that don't share any sense of connection with each other. There's also a general inability to backtrack to previous areas that's also shared with that map. Probably the most blatant "rail shooter" map in the set which subjectively clashes with Eternal Doom's reputation.

Tried an experiment which resulted in being able to UV-Max the map, however inconvenient it is (after about eights deaths worth of hitscanners). I do know that the archviles in fire are lowered into invisible pits when the fire is extinguished so saved all my rockets. Hit switch, flailed around with the berserk fist to off the other three archviles, then attempted to kill the last with rockets from above. I had played this map on continuous before so expected to need 30 rockets so was surprised that the archvile ran out of HP before I ran out of rockets. Used getsu fune's idea of jumping out to the ledge that's designed to require an AV jump too; that saved some damage and allowed me to eventually exit with 200/64 health and armor.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 24 -- Rainbow Bridge - 101% Kills / 100% Secrets
Huh. Have all of the chandelier props been animated before now, and I've just not noticed?

Accounting for the time a player might spend wandering around looking for a hidden switch or other bit of progression in maps such as "Dawn of the Dead" or the like, I reckon "Rainbrow Bridge" works out to be Couleur's longest map in the set, marrying a circuitous early path involving perambulating around and eventually climbing a stone tower with a second half featuring all manner of running around in a huge artificial island-shrine that works out to be much more involved than the battle royale in the similarly arranged map 22. From the outset, there is a strangely surreal quality to the setting here, beginning with the grim, desolate BGM track and the feeling of being dwarfed by the towering buildings during the first couple minutes of play, and it's an impression that only deepens as the map wears on....in contrast to Couleur's other maps in the set, which all featured some form of dark ages theme, this one uses an odd blend of medieval and tech assets, arrayed both as discrete 'pockets' (ala the waste-pumping station near the end of the road) and as a more open juxtaposition; guard towers of sandstone and stained glass house hi-tech slipgates (as opposed to the swirling blue magic portals more characteristic of the medieval setting), and massive wooden bridges suspended in an endless sky are surrounded on all sides by the ruined husks of buildings, teeming with twisted evil beings, that seem to have come from another age entirely. Another neat little detail that caught my eye was the rising of great sheets of flame beyond the windows of the western promenade, from which cacodemons (ever Chris's favorites) emerge. The map's name may clarify this somewhat, assuming that it is a reference to Bifröst from Norse mythology, an astral bridge connecting the realm of man to that of higher powers. Whatever the case, the thematic changeup is a welcome one from the author, I think; another thing I like about Couleur's mapping is that while he very obviously has a settled style from which he seldom deviates, his approach to design is rich enough that each of his maps feels like a place distinctly different from the others despite following some similar patterns.

The play also feels a little different from previous maps, in some ways a good thing and in others not so much. Even moreso than in "The Seeker", there's a theme of fighting on and along railed tracks and narrow ledges, which can lend the relatively spread out opposition a little bit of an edge in trying to harm you, and as per usual the mobility that cacos and other flyers enjoy allows them to serve as a constant rogue element, occasionally showing up at strange times and places by dint of having pathed towards you from some considerable distance away. The downside to the suspended-track nature of the layout is that what at times feels like a disproportionate number of the monsters are positioned as distant snipers in buildings or other perches which you can never physically reach. This tends to lend the combat significantly more of a janitorial flavor than what we've seen in previous maps, especially in those spots where a given nest is double-sided in order to allow its occupants to fire on different tracks, which in practice more often leaves both of you just waiting around for an unsatisfying long-distance exchange.

Fortunately things improve in the second half, where another of Chris's signature symmetrical macro-arenas lends itself better to more of the freestyle play that better suits his spacious constructions (albeit with the continued presence of some isolated sniper element)--it's pretty entertaining to dash around not really fighting anything here, which can eventually lead to quite the riot in and around the central square. Here we also see more of the author's propensity for using cyberdemons as end-level 'bosses', as a pair of them eventually appear on the elevated outer bridge at different times. In practical terms, not particularly threatening given the amount of space/resources you enjoy, of course, but I like about the way these guys are used is that they can and will follow you for great distances given the chance (even potentially into the central square), and can end up trapping you in a tough situation of you get too cute with them, as happened to me when the first dude managed to corner me at the end of the RK path. Against my better judgement, I tried out one of the blurspheres provided (they seem to be Eternal Doom's signature powerup, don't they?) for handling the second guy, and it actually works pretty well provided you keep enough distance, which is not hard to do given the nature of the surroundings, allowing you to hose him down with impunity using the plasma rifle while hardly having to move at all yourself. Just be sure not to lose one of the light brown rockets against the light brown bridge backdrop amidst a pile of caco corpses or the like...

[gaspe]

MAP24 - Rainbow Bridge

This is one of my favourites maps of the wad. It looks like an abandoned city, and there's a cool surreal and eerie mood. The sequences of the burning buildings make feel like something big is coming. Gameplay is pretty light overall, with a few moments featuring some bigger fights but you will be engaged almost all the time. There will be many monsters sniping from windows on the ruined buildings all around.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 25 -- Beginner's End - 103% Kills / 66% Secrets
This is the shortest and smallest of Jim Flynn's three maps in the set, though of course if you get stuck on one (or more!) of the puzzles there's no telling how long it might end up taking you to complete (I got through in around half an hour this time, but I spent quite a while trying and failing to figure out how to get the megasphere secret). The setting is a ritzy modern-day corporate highrise complex, which includes a decorative pillar exhibition, security staff training center, executive office suites, a cybernetics lab, a brief peek at a demon-infested suburb (a hint of what's to come in the next map) and of course the much-vaunted "First Eternal Bank of UAC" segment, which is what most folks know/remember the map for.

Suffice to say that the representationalist design slant from "Monster Mansion" earlier on has returned here, though outside of the bank segment (particularly the boss's office) the visuals tend to be a little more on the purely practical side than in said map, perhaps a function of it being so compact and tightly-packed. Not the greatest source of eye-candy in the WAD, certainly, but the intricacy of the layout, riddled with ducts and shifting stairways and emergent shortcuts and little micro-parkour bits and all manner of other moving parts and whimsical features is fascinating in and of itself and carries the presentation more or less on its own. Things do take a turn towards the wholly abstract at the end, to say the least, but once you've witnessed the transformative knot of building and collapsing stairs that ultimately grant access to the tiny exit module, I don't reckon you'll mind too much. Incidentally, the floating text I complained about in map 23 is back with a vengeance here....this is still not a favorite tack of mine, but I feel like this feature is more at home/less off-putting here for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that it's used to regularly supply you with sly hints on how to proceed.

The combat element features a lot of close-quarters slugfests with creatures of all shapes and sizes where the SSG will be your workhorse, with some careful RL use as backup when heavier firepower is called for. The consistent claustrophobia and continued slant towards stronger monsters mean that the action is not trivial, but I doubt that the battles will be what holds most players up, and that the action will be what many most remember from the experience. Yes, once again it's the puzzles that are the real star of the show here (or the villain, depending on one's temperament), this time ranging from wit-testing monster-based boobytrap scenarios (including a somewhat janky "Gotcha!" remix) to 'point and click' quasi-interactive skullduggery to logistical brainteasers to straight up trial/error observational pieces. At least some of the map's relative infamy surely stems from the fact that it's possible to screw up and fail the map if you make a mistake (which may or may not result in your actual death, depending on the situation); suffice to say that this sort of thing is not very FDA-friendly, at least not without allowing yourself a safety save (it is at least unlikely you'll save halfway through screwing things up, provided you exercise a little common sense). In contrast to "Monster Mansion", which was mainly about turning and occasionally re-turning over every stone to eventually open up the whole property, here the puzzles and their solutions tend to be a lot more tightly localized; knowing this can help you stay on track if you're having trouble. For my part, I recall I had the most trouble at first blush with the impact-switch combination puzzle early on, which is one of the places where you can fail irretrievably. The big hint here is the light-amp goggles, but they're a very roundabout sort of hint, and it's a matter of some luck for your eye to happen to fall on the right place at the right time in order to figure out what you need to do (and NOT do). My favorite bit has always been the sequence to outfox the "Diablo Security System" in the manager's office, surely one of the easier bits but one that adds a lot of color to the proceedings.

[plums]

Where do I even start with map 25? Well, I liked it more than I didn't like it. It was definitely a unique experience, and the combination of harder-than-average combat (for this wad) with interesting puzzles was enjoyable in itself. The fact that some of the puzzles can be permanently failed seemed quite a ballsy move to me, but they were all pretty clearly marked, and so I had no problems there. There's also a lot of interesting linedef actions going on here, not just the staircase at the end but also the pathways that moved up or down to reveal new doors, the whole bank area, and more. It was certainly memorable, and there was a lot to like.

But holy christ was it ever cramped. I think the whole thing could've been scaled to twice the size and it still wouldn't feel too large. I think I was hunching my shoulders throughout the whole thing. It's also quite ugly, and full of text (show me don't tell me, Jim!), and while the puzzles themselves were fun to solve there sure were a lot of fiddly switches and lifts that made the whole thing pretty unergonomic. Also the narrative continuity kind of falls by the wayside, after 26 other maps that take themselves more or less seriously we're rummaging through a hellspawn-staffed bank? It seems like Jim Flynn was just going to make a Jim Flynn level and stick it in the wad, and to hell with everything else that had been going on before.

Overall, probably the map I have the most mixed feelings about. I probably would have enjoyed it more as a companion piece. It certainly wasn't dull or forgettable, at least.

[Pirx]

MAP22 - “The Seeker” by Christopher Couleur

another large castle with a sense of being a real place, plus some techno and demonic magic, so i can understand why players here seem to like couleur's maps. this map invites explorers with its various pathways all leading somewhere and back, and windows through which one can see his next destination. all while giving the player a good supply so he can rambo through, so the action doesn't get boring due to the map's low monster count in relation to its size, even though it gets repopulated at time by teleports and other tricks. the barons in the outer courtyard were an idea that has not aged well, i didn't know how much ammo i'll get later and punched them just because. the bfg was not hidden at all, to my surprise, so i used it on the first 2 cybs on the outside of the exit tower after cleaning the hallways surrounding it. the other 2... no idea how that happened.






MAP23 - “Time Gate II” by Dietmar Westerteicher

another time machine as a hub, sending you to 4 different timeline, represented by separate areas within the same map, rocky for preshistoric times, etal and glass towers for the future, which apparently has also been invaded by hellspawn. several high-hp monsters, which are easily brought to infight, as there's mostly enough space for dodging, and even a bfg conventiently places for nuking a mastermind. i didn't find any caco heaven, but tbh didn't look for it much, practically i walked straightforward from one timeline to another and into the exit.

many ED maps have a good soundtrack btw, like this solemn music, or the map before.

[baja blast rd.]

For next month, I nominate Bloodstain, out of curiosity for its appeal.

[dobu gabu maru]

Since it's the 25th, we're back to our regularly scheduled voting time. Capellan told me that he's casting a vote for MAYhem 1500, whereas I'll be personally pulling for the Japanese Community Project. Next month should be interesting either way.

Also heads up—these last six maps are LONG, so plan accordingly.

MAP23: ... And whenever I see Westerteicher’s name next in the mapset, I set my expectations low. The closest this guy came to pleasing me was with MAP08, but otherwise the rest of his maps have barely left anything other than a hohum impression. Thankfully, his final map in the set is memorable, which is especially surprising given that it’s piggy-backed off of one of Kvernmo’s originals. Where Westerteicher succeeds is in letting you explore each era, using a different set of textures to define them. I’m a bit puzzled why there’s techbase elements in 1,000,000 BC, but other than that the map played mostly fine—compared to what I expected from the author, anyway.

MAP24: Not too often you see a city map made from brick and mortar! I’m starting to get a really good grasp on Couleur’s style, which is exactly what Demon of the Well described of him back in his debut MAP09. Generally cityscape levels don’t enthuse me—and it’s not all the different here—but I continue to enjoy his trademark trickle-warp-ins as you progress through the level, and how he keeps the switch-hunting on a forward moving track (for instance the middle part of the map feels like a dead end at first, until you start snooping around). Also interesting that three of his maps thus far end on a big symmetrical arena with boring hallways overlooking it :P

MAP25: Flynn just loves being a devious bastard, doesn’t he? I was dreading this map based on how long MAP31 took, and sure enough this one took even longer. It’s a really, really queer map, at first being some nondescript trap-infested house of horrors (every few steps lowers another monster closet), and then transforms into an outdoor memory game, then you go into a bank (???), then another nondescript area, then some stair raising nonsense before you get to the end. Can’t say I liked it more than MAP31, since it has less of a cohesive setting and there’s text eeeeeevvveerrryyyywhere (Doom is a game that thrives on environmental storytelling, so why squander that?). That, and there’s absolutely no health in the latter half of the map and some of the monster placement is real stupid for such a tight space (thank god I’m playing continuous).

I don’t dislike Jim Flynn maps—I can at least beat them with only a couple of walkthrough checks—but I seriously dread playing them because they’re such intensive time-sinks.