The DWmegawad Club plays: Ancient Aliens

[mouldy]

MAP17 - "Daylight Under a Dark Sol" by skillsaw

Real treat for the eyes this one. I had to stop and stare for a few moments at that rock texture. I sometimes forget to appreciate the amount of work that must be involved in putting together a whole new set of textures. Fun to play as well, lots of setting off traps and running away, and tons of space and options for dealing with the hordes.

[jerrysheppy]

MAP32 - Ah, and as others have said, now we come to the promised land--a distinctly classic-feeling hell romp through a castle of red, black and bone. If we are to take this map as being a part (albeit secret) of the AA 'continuity' rather than a deliberate or careless non sequitur, the implication is of a heavily demonic-influenced alien complex (or conversely a demonic complex assimilated from alien origins), a sacred space dedicated to arranging the remains of the fallen in a tribute to dark powers. If parts of this theme were/is used later, it could provide some more of the context for why we're still playing Doom and not, say, Prey. Certainly the existence of this map makes the excellent Arachnotron and Mancubus resprites seem appropriate in a way that's been absent so far this megawad.

This makes me think-- one setting genre I've not seen very often in Doom mapping is the territory of other (nonhuman) races who are themselves resisting and/or being assimilated by hell, similar to Argent D'Nur of DOOM 2016 (the D'Nurians do seem to be phenotypically human, but I digress). Some episodes claim to be set on demon-besieged alien worlds--thinking of The Darkening E2 here--but they often don't seem to actually do much with the concept, instead using it as an excuse for the mapper to play around with a different texture set; not that that's a sin in itself but it definitely leaves something on the table. AA feels like it could be going either way so far.

Also have to give a shout out to the sky, which complements the aforementioned themes and implications very nicely-- we're clearly in some sort of space where the physical laws and types of matter give rise to things like stars and gravitationally bound galaxies, but the stars themselves are all tinted with an unnatural hue that brings to mind a sort of creeping corruption.

MAP16 - This is an interesting concept and one I'm generally a big fan of, much as any map that has you jaunting between worlds (though doing it via flying saucer has been a new one in this megawad). The starting region was familiar and largely unoffensive, though I do have to note that I hate when a map seems to be herding me or getting me to flee in a particular direction, and then I turn a corner or enter a room and get instantly (and lethally) walled in by enemies I had no chance to know were there. I'm fine with dense configurations of enemies as a 'don't go here just yet' signal, and of fights designed to push me into waking up more monsters, but combining the two in such a way that leaves me no room to maneuver is just unfun. Thinking here of the Arachnotron/Hell Knight ambush.

Once we're on to the different planets, though, shit becomes cool. At first the coolness is literal! I skimmed over people's mentions of an ice planet but hadn't been expecting an icy ruins planet, which is a nice distinction that makes this more than just your bog-standard Hoth. The Hell planet-- or perhaps I should say fire/lava planet, though the red marble faces suggest this may be more than just your mundane vulcanism--likewise. The collapse into the lava pit area was well done, with enough radiation suits and relatively low enough monster HP that, while I could feel the time pressure, I wasn't being forced to speedrun/optimize it by any means. Finally we end up at a more conventionally alien planet, to coin an oxymoron, and it's nice-- the strange purple rock-flesh stuff is one of the more interesting new textural experiences to come out of this megawad and seems like the sort of thing Hell would do given alien biomolecules to work with. I wasted a bunch of cells on one of the Cyberdemons before realizing that my spirit brethren would give me a hand again, but it's not a big deal and it's cool that they're back.

If this generally really interesting and well-designed map has a downside, it's what some people have noted, that the ice and fire areas each try to make do with an extremely limited texture stock, and it really shows-- ice more so than fire since fire at least has a wider variety of red textures that incidentally fit in. I think that including even a few more of the massive amount of icy textures that are out there could have paid dividends.

Also, I liked the fact that the first two areas were encircled, on the automap, by, well, big circles. I thought it was an attempt to evoke planetary or planar cartography, sort of like looking at a Manual of the Planes map with the different realms denoted by circles floating in the astral plane. Alas, it seems to have just been an accident as the fire planet didn't have a circle. I didn't check for the last alien planet.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP32: Ossuarium Exoterre
100% kills, 0/2 secrets

Funny how after all the neon and space stations, a hell level sticks out like a sore thumb. I too really felt like this was a map that could've come out of Valiant's episode 2, though I might just be reading too much into the design of having a citadel with expansive outer decks and lots of fences. It's actually pretty small-scale; I was expecting a lot more monsters being a secret map, but nothing too bad. The worst moment was the final ambush since I forgot there was a drop-down right there preventing me from retreating, heh.

[SoundofDoomDoors]

MAP17: Under a Dark Sol

100% Kills 0% Secrets

My first thought after completing this was "another solid skillsaw map." I didn't think it distinguished itself from the many other great levels of his I've played recently, both in this wad and Valiant until I thought about it a little bit. Thinking about it a little more brings two points to mind. First, there's a lot of optional health and ammo to pick up. I found two plasma rifles, a BFG9k, and a megasphere off the beaten path. None of these items are marked as secrets. Unfortunately, I got all that after fighting the other distinguishing factor in this level: the large number of cyberdemons, including two at the exit. It's been a while since I saw a skillsaw map that used this many. The megasphere would've come in handy for the end!

[jerrysheppy]

MAP17

Though it's obviously early to call, I wouldn't be surprised if eventually I can look back and identify this map as the place where AA hit its stride for good. Gone are the maps that look like a truck containing the Las Vegas strip collided with a bus full of silver textures, and in its place we have this moody, brooding gray-and-purple monstrosity, with lighting textures used deftly to excellent effect rather than seeming like a load-bearing staple of the architecture. (Mind you, I didn't actually count the number of times they were used-- I'm speaking of the overall effect here.) The movement through the map felt good, with a lovely, crisp distinction between the high and low areas; not only the textures but the sorts of encounters, types of powerups, sightlines, etc. All the fights were fun, though I could have done with fewer Arachnotrons being able to harsh my buzz from literally the opposite side of the map. In particular I'm glad the mapper had the stones to include no one but two Cyberdemons on HNTR.

Took a peek at the next map and I'm already jonesing to be able to play it. Hopefully the interstitial text is right and we really do get some answers!

[dobu gabu maru]

mouldy said:

I sometimes forget to appreciate the amount of work that must be involved in putting together a whole new set of textures.

Yeah, usually when a megawad usually uses a new texture set, it's so easy to forget to comment on the visuals because every map usually looks impressive since there's thousands of new things to look at. If anything sticks out, it's a map that doesn't utilize the textures well... which hasn't happened yet.

MAP17: A dark map that plays a bit dirty at times. I thought I was having a pretty easy time until I went to grab the yellow key and two 2 AVs warped in while I was dry on rockets... that was a rough fight (one more rocket box might be nice there, or at least move a rocket box over to the room where the two mancs guard the switch). The rest of the map wasn't so bad though I did eat plenty of rockets trying to maximize my BFG shots, and I kinda liked how the player has the option at any time to drop into the pits to pick up more equipment/weapons. Fun map, though not anything to write home about.

[Suitepee]

https://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/v/73024216 = part 2 of my playthrough, covering maps 11-20 plus both secret maps. (UV, pistol starts)

The fun in Ancient Aliens continues to remain strong, but a blip or two has occurred....

I mostly enjoyed the second episode of AA, especially map 16 with the cool planetary transitions on the UFO. I also kind of liked the giant scale of stewboy's map 31, which just about avoided being too dull of a map. (one person in chat commented it gave them a Duke3D vibe)
I also liked the use of the neon transparent platforms/lifts, particularly on map 15 which was a fun slaughter-lite experience.
But then "skillsaw had to go and spoil it all, by doing something stupid, like ADDING a goddamn Icon of Sin map to end the episode on map 18...."
Sigh. Mutter. Groan. Silent persistence (and one lucky AVJ) got me through this tedium. I don't like IoS maps and this didn't do anything to change that. I just hope map 30 isn't an IoS fight as well.

Episode 3 started with a good Tyson map, but then I felt that AD79's guest map was kind of a jarring difficulty transition immediately after. (loved the creative barrel/Archvile setup though, reminded me of The Mancubian Candidate) Felt a bit too dickish for my liking, although the map itself was alright. I've played better from AD79.

And so onwards into the depths of episode 3 for next time. I hope Ancient Aliens ends on a high note, since it's been mostly sunshine and rainbows for the most part. Hopefully the remaining guest mappers will keep the feelgood factor coming.....

[Magnusblitz]

MAP16: Leave Your Sol Behind
100% kills, 1/1 secret

This turns out to be the episode ender (er... actually, I guess not, but it does end with a text screen!), and as such it's fittingly packed with some good thematic moments. The first was the return of the lightbridge, I'd been wondering if/when they'd show back up from Valiant. The first section isn't too tough but still could make a decent early level in itself. Then its into the UFO, and we actually get to travel between worlds, which is pretty cool. First icy ruins, then volcanic lava... I agree the ice ruins is a bit bland looking (being slathered in pretty much a singular texture) but I liked it more than the volcanic area, which was a bit annoying (didn't want to use the radsuits early, resulting in a lot of tiptoeing and sniping from the first 'walkway'). I actually had more luck in the icy ruins area by taking everything a chunk at a time, when my usual approach is to run around, wake everything up, and run around in circles while they infight... but lack of room makes that untenable. Nice to see something that forces me to switch it up. Then it's onto the finale which sees the return of the spirit animals. Cool stuff, I really liked the 'warp speed' trick with the UFO monitor.

[baja blast rd.]

rehelekretep said:

hectic opening! i enjoyed this map but my chief complaint is i think it rewards slow, boring, methodical play too much. i dont know how this could be improved...

Everything in these maps can probably be YOLO'd through if you think up something logical to do in the tougher spots and practice it a few to several times. I think they're meant to accommodate many types of play styles.

jerrysheppy said:

MAP17

Though it's obviously early to call, I wouldn't be surprised if eventually I can look back and identify this map as the place where AA hit its stride for good. Gone are the maps that look like a truck containing the Las Vegas strip collided with a bus full of silver textures

:D

[jerrysheppy]

rdwpa said:

:D

I don't know if you're sharing in my joy or cackling in schadenfreude at the disappointment I'm soon to face.

I'm afraid.

[baja blast rd.]

map17

Wait, there's a BFG? Haha, that explains it. I ran dry on ammo, even with my usual infighting-heavy play, and had to just ditch the two cybers at the exit. AND a megasphere? If this map is that generous I might just record a demo for it. I'm really glad the aesthetic has changed. Granted, like the Vegas strip theme, it's one that doesn't work for me. Maybe it's the texture scheme and the colors, but it feels like there isn't much lighting variation at all. But fine, at least there's variety.

Incidental cybers are some of my favorite things. It's like, "Hey here, have a cyber!" You don't really have enough ammo to kill the first two cybers early, so they play something of a light overseer role until later on. Also noteworthy that you can escape nearly all the encounters in this map, but you won't really be able to make progress without killing things, so ... eh, I've run out of things to say.

[baja blast rd.]

Here's a demo for map10. Goal was to max it in sub-10 without having to use much of the health available (particularly in the last arena) and without any ugly near-death stuff. I don't think I did anything too ungracefully. :D

http://www.mediafire.com/download/bbjd36bxf0u56ak/aaliensrc3a_10_rdwpa_demo.lmp

[KBlaney]

Eris Falling said:

all I can think is "thank fuck they weren't the other way around," because otherwise I'd have just played that map again and had to put up with those damn stealth monsters. INVISIBLE ARCHVILES!
Also we've seen plenty of ancient temples in this WAD already, and a secret map should really deviate from something you'd find in the normal maps.

Two very good points. I have fought enough invisible archviles for one life. (And secret levels have to be special to justify being secret.)

Map 17: A slightly more timid map here with no major difficulties due to the copious amount of health. The splash damage from a cyberdemon is pretty good at making enemies of the other monsters, so let them do the heavy lifting here and then pick off the remainders.

A big part, I believe of why 2 cyberdemons were left in here is that, largely they are being used to fight other monsters. As a result, it sort of makes them half-monster, half-power up.

Map 18: Good take on the Icon of Sin type levels here (although I wonder what the thing said backwards because it seemed longer than the usual IoS speech). Realizing that the Illuminati were spawning more aliens I decided to take a suicidal run through the level (or, as said above, I YOLO'd through it) which, surprisingly, paid off quite nicely. Good bit of environmental story telling at the end there with your spaceship getting shot down and you getting wounded as a way to end the episode with a pain floor.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP17: Under a Dark Sol
100% kills, 0/1 secret

An assault through an alien citadel, and finally starting to feel some heat. I too love incidental cyberdemons, and while I took out the one on the blue door side, I purposely left the other one alive, and was very glad when that paid off as the red key area unleashed a bunch of mancs and revenants. Interestingly, I left them to play and hopped off into the southwest corner of the map, finding a BFG and returning to find not much left. Definitely needed it for the next pair of cyberdemons at the end though!

Suitepee said:

I just hope map 30 isn't an IoS fight as well.

Spoiler

I can guarantee you that MAP30 is not an IoS fight.

[Steve D]

rehelekretep said:

hey Steve, definitely agree with you on the BK fight - first time i got to that point i had run out of rockets. i dont like fights that force you to either have a weapon/ammo or fail.

Thank God I'm not the only one!

rehelekretep said:

also im playing with 1.2 gamma i believe, and youtube normally darkens the video somewhat. maybe i should try lowering the gamma slightly!

I took a look at Gamma 1.2 in GZDoom and it really does make a significant difference in monster visibility without ruining the color vibrancy. The setting I use is called Gamma 1 in GZDoom, not Gamma 0, as I'd thought. Looking at your video, the double-Archie fight room looked like what I'd expect from a brightness of 144 or even 160 rather than 112. The colors still looked good though.

[Magnusblitz]

KBlaney said:

(although I wonder what the thing said backwards because it seemed longer than the usual IoS speech)

Extracting it out and playing it backwards...

Spoiler

(well, it's missing the "to me" but still)

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP18: Whaaaaat a messsss. Took me a few minutes to realize what was going on (my sound is a lot lower than my music volume)—I'm always a fan of surprise IoS maps, but honestly I didn't have that much fun here. There is a chaotic flow to the map that generates a lot of interesting scenarios, but the problem is the player is pulled in too many directions. Finding which direction to go in first takes some time, and I missed the jump to the three medikits because I was busy fighting enemies that were swarming me. After that the player is constantly torn between mopping up the riffraff and pushing on ahead, as there isn't enough ammo to outlast the growing horde but keeping them alive creates a whole lotta problems. By the end I was dying left and right to projectiles as I used the last of my BFG ammo to carve out a path, and when I reached the UFO I didn't feel like I had accomplished anything or successfully figured out the map—bumbling my way through the map was more or less my only option.

Perhaps if it was made clearer where to go or the player was allowed to pursue the keys in any order they please it would've been less stressful/confusing, but as it stands it's a disappointing closer to an otherwise solid episode. The spinning eye is cool at least.

[baja blast rd.]

map18

This map is a hot mess, in a good and a bad way. First off the fight design is really cool. Cacos are eternal pests in this one, everywhere you go a big FLEET of them is bound to show up eventually to harass you, and if you get rid of a couple dozen, a couple more dozen will take their place. There's also a crowd of hellbeef around that pyramid thingy that isn't really much of a threat but sure prevents you from every camping there and looks quite amusing while doing it. It's another somewhat novel map after the early e2 doldrums. The bad: that infinite height! The cacos are one of the map's big strengths but also a icky nuisance.

But yeah, glad I played it. I can really appreciate what it's going for, and I'm sure it'd be a lot more fun with infinite height turned off. Music is also really good.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP18: Illuminati Revealed

This one's a lot of fun, relentlessly chaotic and presenting the player with a 'timer' of sorts on their route-finding and puzzle-solving in the form of the IoS/monster-spawner mechanic that gradually fills up the playing space with stronger and stronger opposition. The solution isn't the traditional IoS solution; there is no "get to this ledge, engage this mechanism, fire rockets at this point" to it, instead you're scrambling to escape with your newfound knowledge as the all-seeing eye disgorges wave upon wave of minions to block your path and guard its secrets.

Visually this one is a feast, the contrast of light and dark, of muted tones and brightly coloure accents and details and outlines, of technology and ancient ruins, all blended together into a seamlessly menaching whole. I think the relatively complex layout and architecture make the constantly spawning monsters less of an issue than they might be in the traditional arena setup; the map itself presents barriers to movement and to lines of sight and fire, giving you temporary, partial respite from the ever-growing horde as you head off to accomplish whatever youe next objective it - though the cacodemons and pain elementals can follow you the whole way, growing in prominence as threats throughout the level and swooping down on you from unexpected directions under the shadow of alien towers. The alien pyrmid itself is a magnificent centrepiece to the level, and one of the few parts that you've actually got the time to really admire as your route takes you back and forth around its foundations. The level ends with your escape via flying saucer to some unknown destination, meeting a sudden and explosive end - I guess they didn't cover How to Land a Flying Saucer in basic training.

[Spectre01]

Map 17

Overall solid map with a bit of everything we've come to expect from challenging modern mapping. Roaming Cybers, Manc/Spider snipers and some clever traps. There's also plenty of optional loot to find, like a BFG and Megasphere. The toughest part for me was after the first portal with all the rocket boxes and hordes spawning on both sides. And by that I mean I died once before remembering how to do that part, which requires carving out a path either left or right and jumping off as quickly as possible before getting overwhelmed. Not too bad, and there's a nice Plasma Rifle guarded by two Chaingunners there. After killing the first Cyber with the PR, I kept the second one alive as long as I could and he ended up clearing the whole RK ambush for me, including the Archvile. I just camped behind the blue door switch and killed the Cacodemons. I remember the last area being a pain in the ass with all the Lost Souls getting in the way, but I found a way to trigger both Cybers and the skulls by jumping on the barriers and getting out. Much easier to handle that part from one direction rather than fighting in the actual arena. I had my BFG out and took out the Vile + Plasma Trooper trap in one shot before the exit.

Map 18

dobu gabu maru said:

Perhaps if it was made clearer where to go or the player was allowed to pursue the keys in any order they please it would've been less stressful/confusing

This pretty much sums up this map's gameplay. Going in blind is going to be a frustrating experience full of dying and savescumming. I will go on record and say this is the hardest map in the megawad to play without foreknowledge. On the other hand, if you know what you're doing and where the keys are it's all a matter of: 1) Rush the BFG at the start. 2) Speedrun to the red key only killing junk directly in your way. 2a) Optionally jump down to the Megasphere if you need it or want the secret. 3) Bail out and rush to the red door, again ignoring everything that's not directly threatening you. 4) Rush the blue key and only fire as few BFG shots as possible while avoiding the crushers. 5) Get the hell out of there to the left of the red entrance past the crushers while BFG'ing Hell Knights and Revenants. 6) Rush the yellow key then run past everything, ignoring the Cyberdemon and company, down the elevator. 7) Quickly kill the 4 Archviles. Trivial if you grabbed the BFG or enjoy dying repeatedly because there's a swarm of 30 Cacodemons coming from the left side and you can't handle the Viles quick enough. 8) Hit switch, run past the bars and BFG spam your way to the UFO.

Took me 3:38 to do in one go. I did save a few times but never died on that run. It's a cool closer if you know what you're getting into. It's a massive pain in the rectum if you don't. The difference in difficulty between the two is way too high in my opinion and better cues could be used to guide the player. Otherwise this falls under the category of maps I like to call: "Watch a UV-Max route on youtube or have a bad time."

[SoundofDoomDoors]

MAP18: Illuminati Revealed

76% Kills 0% Secrets

And now for something completely different. Skillsaw must have known the relatively similar maps that precede this one would start to wear. Here we have an icon of sin spawning enemies to hassle us while we gather the usual three keys to leave. The pacing is even faster than skillsaw's already quick norm on account of this. I love it. The level ends with doomguy hijacking a UFO and traveling to the alien homeworld. The flight effect is great as always. Time for episode 3.

P.S I played this yesterday. Some additional thoughts based on posts above:

First, I hate most IoS maps, but love this one. Why? Because you don't have to rocket this one. It's all about running away.

Second, I took a while to figure out where to go too. It didn't take too long, though, and I found health and ammo at all the dead ends.

Third, I have infinite height monsters off, but I remember the cacos lagging behind me for most of the level. I don't think they would have posed much of an issue if I'd had it on.

Fourth: What does the new dialogue that plays when you wake the eye mean? It's not the usual Doom 2 IoS line.

[Tristan]

SoundofDoomDoors said:

Fourth: What does the new dialogue that plays when you wake the eye mean? It's not the usual Doom 2 IoS line.

Spoiler alert

[NuMetalManiak]

How do you even pronounce rdwpa's name anyways?

MAP18 Illuminati Revealed

The best part about this boss shooter map is that it's virtually impossible to get telefragged on ZDoom by mistake (or stuck otherwise). Unfortunately, SINCE it's a boss shooter map, I decide to abandon my more colorful style of play and try to beat this to a pulp as fast as possible without cleaning house. Getting the red key was harder than it looked, I forwent the trail at some point and realized where I screwed up. The blue key is a bit more fun, with crushers and all, but it was rather easy for me to grab and run there. The yellow key is a pretty pincer, but the arch-vile duo after that was a real pain. All the while cacodemons and other enemies teleport to the center, but since I'm so fast, I could care less about them.

[mouldy]

MAP18 - "Illuminati Revealed" by skillsaw

A rollicking charge through hostile territory, great fun. I managed to get as far as the cyberdemon before dying, which considering that I was just legging it past all the monsters is a testement to the design of the map, it has just enough visual clues amongst the chaos to guide you to where you need to be going. Very important in a map like this, I'm assuming you aren't meant to stick around clearing everything out. The archviles were a bit of a nasty surprise having spent most of my health and bfg ammo on the cyber. Escaped in my flying saucer and died from excessive g-forces I imagine. Cool episode, definitely got more interesting as it went along.

From the other comments it looks like this map was a bit controversial, so dunno if I was just lucky. I tried it again from pistol start and the main difference was not having the bfg this time for the archvile trap, turns out you can run out of there and take them on with the rocket launcher anyway. But yeah, this kind of map lives or dies by its navigation. The only confusing bit for me was grabbing the red key and jumping off the cliff, I ended up down in the lava and had quite a run to find dry land. I'm guessing there is a more sensible route than that which I missed.

[rehelekretep]

Getsu Fune said:

How do you even pronounce rdwpa's name anyways?

AR-DEE-

[rehelekretep]

MAP31 - "Grey Dwarf" by stewboy demo here

pretty awesome space-base map here. i really liked the visuals but i didnt enjoy playing the map that much.

+ great MIDI
+ beautiful sense of place and visual design. the first glimpse of the BK arena is wonderful with the space backdrop and the pulsing blue wall strips

- encounters BEFORE BK arena are tiresome, and then the BK arena is either too difficult, or irritating to clear if you complete it in stages. this makes playing through to get back to that fight a bit boring, and if you hit the switch, then drop off, you have a two-stage fight with an awkward first bit against AD_79s and plasmagunners, and then a slightly lame fight against archviles
- slightly too low ceilings on a few inside staircases are just a pain to navigate; like doomguy is bumping his head on each step down.

[rehelekretep]

rileymartin said:

Map 32

The very first encounter is quite overwhelming with double Archviles and company getting right in your face. The best way to handle it is to Archvile-jump right back up to the starting area and use the cover there to take down the enemies in the temple.

thats a good idea; didnt think of that! :o

[Pirx]

MAP14 - "Blazing Boulevard" by skillsaw

a map visually reminiscent of the lightbridges from valiant, i even saw the pulsating framework somewhere. a mix of space station and startan recolored in violet and turquoise with a central courtyard that reveals more enemies with every switch. the ambushes are telegraphed (have 30 rockets, guess what follows) but still mean, mostly because of the new enemies that can deal a lot of damage and become a higher priority target even than the archviles who come as medic for every squad. i said the plasma dudes are easy to see and to hear, well that changes in the heat of a battle where they're mixed with a lot of other enemies, and they're a pain in the ass how they run into you while you're shooting rockets. took me a few tries because of that.


MAP15 - "Wormhole Junction" by skillsaw

heh, another map with lightbridges, and pretty slaughterish. the wall fill with imps while cacos and especially these drones come to hunt you down. at least there's plenty of rockets for them, and soul/megaspheres, because one drone launches 2-3 rev balls at once. i avoided the cyber until i had the bfg (and ate a rocket because i couldn't see it coming for corpses). one has to traverse the central bridge several times to get the 3 keys needed for the exit. unfortunately the area in the screenshot below looks like it allows you to run under the bridge, but you run into an invisible wall if you try to. didn't find any invulnerability, so i had to do it the hard way.





MAP31 - "Grey Dwarf" by stewboy

a space base, concrete and shiny steel but in the known pastel colors, pretty convoluted map with an archvile closet here and there to revive to enemies you have just killed. relatively skimpy on bullets (they're the best weapon for the plasma dudes, after all) but plenty of rockets (because the dudes run into you, yeah). so it's about ssg-ing into blue / purple concrete corridors and rocket management. the big ambush at the blue key with at least 20 drones is safely handled by running circles around the crates. didn't get that soulsphere. the exit area is in a very different style, reminds of that drab bio-organic design from the aliens movie.


MAP32 - "Ossuarium Exoterre" by skillsaw

oh yeah. a more classic doom / quake mapi didn't expect here. a colorful castle atop a mountain, with brick walls, wooden beams, blood pools, and a soundtrack that appealed to me more than the "easy listening" bgm of the last few maps. the custom enemies still blend in well with the classic ones. notable moments: the narrow path to the YK suddenly getting full of knights, while 2 distant spiders sniped at me (luckily i play with mouse aim, would have been more complicated without) and the evil revenant ambush in the end, got away with 2% because the first reaction is to run back and up the stairs... which are raised now.


MAP16 - "Leave Your Sol Behind" by skillsaw

lovely concept: infiltrate an alien base (the start is a bit stingy with ammo), steal a ufo from there and visit a series of world, an icy one, a hellish cave under a red sun, and the blue-magenta thing where you use your "spirit animals" to telefrag the cyber guards.

[rehelekretep]

MAP32 - "Ossuarium Exoterre" by skillsaw FDA here

pretty easy compact hell-map here. i liked it!

+ another perfect MIDI
+ i liked the colours and the sky a lot (not sure about the red/black banding on the stone work though - it looked a little bit fashionable for demons!
+ great enemy encounters; especially the revenants when coming back to the central arena, the use of arachnotrons as supressors, the platform HK bit, the first AD_79/mancubi/archvile fight. top stuff!

- once i had the YK i was prepared for another fight, so it was a bit anti-climactic hitting an exit at that point!

[Tristan]

MAP18: Illuminati Revealed
Time: 06:05 (02:55:49) | Deaths: 2 (16)

So who do I give my £5 to?
I saw a screenshot of the pyramid at the start of this year, though maybe it was still early in the map's development, since I don't remember it looking this elaborate. No doubt it's one of the most impressive sights of the WAD so far, and as a whole, this is a very nice looking map, more purple everywhere with suspiciously human-like structures dotted about.

Gameplay is a lot smoother than I was expecting, but this map's thing is that the illuminati pyramid is in fact an IoS, and not one that can be killed by any means, so you're required to run past most of the monsters and reach the exit - another UFO - as fast as possible. We've seen maps where you're supposed to initially run past monsters anyway, many of those in the first episode, but we haven't yet seen it on such a large scale as this, so this is a cool and pretty major diversion from the norm.
The pyramid has its own sounds, one of which is a reversed sentence like the original IoS (which I reversed and sped up in my previous post), spoken by Giorgio, I assume. The spawn sound is shared with the AD head, which is a bit confusing at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly. In multiplayer I was mostly dead from the start, so without actually playing I found the sound really annoying, and I wasn't the only one, with memfis being quite vocal about it. Here though, I didn't have a problem with it, so I'm not sure what happened, it either gets drowned out beneath other game sounds, or I was too busy concentrating on everything else to really pay attention.

I guess the biggest problem I have with this map is that it's pretty difficult to navigate, which is kind of annoying to me since it feels like it's contradicting the intention of playing as fast as possible. It seems like those yellow light pillars mark out a trail you're supposed to follow, but it's not very obvious that this is the intention (and I'm not sure if it is, so..) and even then there's so many of them about because of the looping layout of this map that the path gets mixed up, so they're almost redundant. Near the end of the map the trail goes blank completely!
Perhaps having a clear path makes it too easy, though neither of my deaths can really be attributed to being lost. The first was not being ready for a plasmagunner-archvile duo, and the second was approaching the UFO a bit too quickly and not being prepared for that many mancubi.

Anyway, even if you get lost, the pacing doesn't let up, since monsters constantly spawn at the base of the pyramid, and you have to pass it multiple times. It's an aggressive fight to escape, a bit like the end of ZDCMP2 but not as annoying. Me likey.

Once we finally get to the UFO, we teleport up to it to make our escape. We hit the switch, and see the same hyperspace animation from the MAP16 UFO, and in transit with nothing to do, let's look around a bit..what's all that purple rock doing embedded in the interior?
Yes, the episode comes to a rather explosive ending aboard a damaged UFO with the sound of the engine exploding in the distance, and further explosions making their way to the player's position until eventually, bam. An innovative form of death exits for sure, and I would think that even the people who aren't fans of death exits generally will at least enjoy the way this one is executed, pun possibly intended.

Fantastic music from stewboy, a pretty recent track as I remember him posting it in #DoomMusicians maybe not even three months ago, around the same time as the MAP02 theme. A favourite of some, I've noticed, and one of mine too, though my absolute favourite MIDI is still to come.
A map not without its flaws, but still pretty enjoyable.

8/10