The DWmegawad Club plays: TNT: Revilution

[rehelekretep]

map03 - fda here


this is actually the most 'TNT' map so far; i felt it could have slotted in with THT Threnody very easily. its got a lot of quirky design choices, just like TNT did. my chief complaint is echoed by rdwpa; for the scale of the map and the time it took to play through, the combat seemed a bit understated. which i guess is a little bit TNT but i was expecting more. not a bad map at all though - i had fun playing it, even if i did get a bit lost.

[rehelekretep]

map04 - fda here

sexy opening shot here boi

i dont think ive ever played a SteveD map before, and this one is savage. the traps and set-ups in this blood pumping-station are exactly what id expect from a guy who seems to enjoy multiple deaths while playing through with us and the club! the BK one is particularly evil w/ the surprise chaingunners. luckily i followed the DotW advice (i think?) of not moving too much in an unknown situation unless you have to and luckily avoided blundering into the revs and spectre-trigger-berserk which would have absolutely destroyed me (and im sure many others!)

as a side note, this demo itself is thoroughly entertaining as i manage to get myself into some tricky situations and somehow pull them out of the bag, especially in the final arena - which is just a bastard move/setpiece by Steve ;)

[Jaws In Space]

Map 4 is Blood Factory by SteveD it was accepted into Revilution at the end of November 2015 by Eris Falling. I was a bit nervous when I asked Steve to join Revilution to make a map. At the time I barely remembered anything about Realm of Chaos & I wasn't really a fan of his newer maps that I had played. I didn't like that Steve maps were quite lengthy with a slow buildup & then things would get almost overly relentless as you made your way through them. What I did like about his modern maps though was the sense of scale to them, E1M6 of Shotgun Symphony is just a map that's great to look at as you play through it. So what I did to eliminate the problems I had with Steve maps was to give him a monster count restriction so that he wouldn't be able to use more than 140 monsters. I figured that Steve would force himself to get the action moving right away & also keep the map from becoming overly long. Steve absolutely delivered with this map, it's fast, brutal, & it looks pretty dang good. When I ended up adding outside areas to map 6, it was this map that I emulated with it's use of Brown12 & Blood1 covering most of the exterior scenery. In addition to delivering a great map, Steve also became one of the more important testers & bug fixers for Revilution, so I'm quite happy that asked him to join instead of letting my reservations get the best of me.

[Demtor]

MAP05 - “Graveyard Shift” by Jaws in Space
gzDoom - UV – pistol start/no saves


Haha, this map is crazy. RUN!!! Chainsaw pick up. Saw the spectre. Run, run, run, run, run, run. Dont's stop. Dash to the shotgun, ignore the Revs, angle past the HK for the RK, jump out the window, hustle quick to bob and weave through imps and zombies to get the SSG, then run up the platform to grab more shotgun ammo, kill a few shotgun dudes as you circle back down then up the stairs and through the RK door, blow your way through a chaingunner, grab his gun, sprint past the AV, (not that way!) hop down in to the dark corridors. Grab a med kit and breath quick.

Ok, run some more!! Specters and Cacos are coming for you!! Take down the rev and shotgun guy, say hi to the mancubi. Use the CG to deal with the other hitscanners. Surivive the specter onslaught, chainsaw as many as you can. Breath again. Scrounge for health and ammo. Hope you have enough to deal with the two mancs otherwise you'll have to draw them out and circle around them. Avoid the wondering cacos if you can otherwise SSG em carefully. Don't waste ammo! Grab the armor, use that chaingun like a surgeon up the path but again don't waste ammo on the spectres. Hit the switch and don't die. Take cover from hitscanners. Chainsaw when you can, clear out as much as possible before taking out the AV. Double back for the switch to open his enclosure. Deal with whoever is left outside carefully. Back up to the top, CG hitscanners and work your way to the exit.

Whew. I'm not one for speed running maps, but I like to think for a complete amateur speed run with gzdoom mouselook and no autoaim, I did okay there. I should think about recording something like that next time but I see that rdwpa's run would put mine to shame. Nice work!

Bucket nails it with his music track, (Here Comes) The Night Train, which pulses and frantically beats at a quickening pace that perfectly compliments this map. Very well done, all around. The lighting, the enemy placement and drip drop of just enough ammo. Took me quite a few tries to get down the proper path to handle things. Never been so aggravated by spectres before! Not only do they serve as bullet sponges but they are also so bulking that the almost always block your path and slow you down as you are desperately trying to run away from everything else and get to safety. Hahaha, that was crazy frantic fun.

[Magnusblitz]

I think I'll start giving this a whirl tomorrow, but just wanted to note that MAP27's automap name is misspelled.

[sincity2100]

MAP05 - “Graveyard Shift” by Jaws in Space

Last time I checked this map was in the episode 3 spot, but this one is in map 05 spot,it's another nasty map with Mancubus right infront of you,it's a pretty hard map,a lot of action, a very old-schoolish style map, a small slaughter map with some neat quirk in it,specters are annoying in this map,the soundtrack is pretty cool as well,solid map.

[sincity2100]

MAP06 - “Communications Relay” by XenoNemesis, Kyka, dobu gabu maru, Jaws in Space

This map design resembles much the old school TNT pretty much,the gameplay has really some cool secrets,this one has a yellow key secret which is a really good idea,some really cool fighting style,some monster placement though are bad, I nearly missed a kill because of an Imp,and there is a bad Arch-Vile outdoor placement,the only Arch-Vile outdoor placement that is not good at all,you could miss all your rockets out there,otherwise pretty solid map that looks like the modern TNT design,perhaps one of the maps so far that resambles the TNT style alongside maps 1,2 and 3

So the first 6 maps in TNT revilution, although the level designs mostly resembles the TNT style, the gameplay doesn't do much,it's propbaly harder, and I like playing difficult hard maps,but I don't like putting 4 archviles in each of the early maps,they should be on the later maps IMO,I think the difficulty in the early maps should be toned down a little bit and then progress the difficulty a long the way, otherwise,nice maps.

[cannonball]

MAP03 - “Access Denied” by Chris Hansen
Lots of cool moving parts and a few sweet set pieces based around them which I really like, but in the end the map feels like a missed opportunity where the map would have suited a later slot in E1 with a beefed up opposition to really fit this map. It is still really fun and I actually quite like the midi for the map as well.

[floatRand]

I've had the particular wad sitting in my folder for some time, so I guess it is good time to tackle it.

Pistol-starting unless indicating otherwise.

MAP01 "Uprising" (UV) - 100% kills, 100% secrets
Brownie points for a remix of the TNT track!

I like it, it begins as a tyson-ordeal like map01 of TNT, although much larger. Visually pleasing and not too difficult. The secret fight was cool, I like those sort of things.

MAP02 "Geothermal" (UV) - 100% kills, 100% secrets
Rather pleasant map. Secrets echo bit first map, with one being an arena-like ordeal. I personally am not a fan of damaging floors, especially if you have to take damage ( I suppose you could get key without damage, but still ).
Layout's good, and music track is soothing.

MAP03 "Access Denied" (UV) - 100% kills, 66% secrets
First 'difficult' map. Really sprawling, with lot of elevators, secrets, nooks and crannies. Couldn't find all of them, but rather pleased with what I did find.
I'd like this lot otherwise, but the music track's quite not my tastes. Bit too repetitive. Visually it is bit crude, but I can forgive a lot. The cylindrical room with meatball & tomatoes was my favourite setup of the map

MAP04 "Blood Factory" (UV) - 100% kills, 75% secrets
Really fun theme for a map, and the soundtrack does kinda nail it. Sorta cheeky, with bit of sloshiness around. Good job overall.
Difficult map with plenty of devious traps.

[NuMetalManiak]

I'm playing on ITYTD again by the way. Gotta find those missing teleport destinations and keys on these difficulties.

MAP04 Blood Factory

Forgot to mention that the combat previously as ramping up on the small monsters as TNT would put it. So SteveD amps up the scale and gives us plenty of space, which is something I can get by. And blood and metal, thankfully none so damaging. This one's not as tough as the previous, and offers quite a way of reaching the red key. Also found a secret plasma gun too.

Though I honestly don't recall what the ending of this level was. I think it was shorter the last time I played it, but this new room with the crusher in the center of a blood pit is actually quite empty, save for a revenant. The last part in the mountain I also don't recall, and found it cheap since chaingunners already started firing. So why they awake? Pain elementals were fun though.

Might as well do the next one since it's short.

MAP05 Graveyard Shift

Pretty much blink and this one is missed easily. Very short level, probably was channeling Mustaine here. Gritty textures, some working for the blue key with some mostly mild opposition to get around. That is all there is to it.

[rehelekretep]

map05 - fda here


the first thing you see when you start this map sets the tone; cover, cover, cover.
the beginning is brutal; multiple avenues/windows that you can be blindsided by, with the first actual armour pick-up being after the RK (i think?). couldnt get that backpack secret, but i dont think its really needed.
lots of wall-hugging required unless i guess you RNGeesus the start and rush for the RK?
i was playing this in the daytime and so the spectres really terrified me; couldnt see them half the time. the chainsaw is actually useful in this map which is nice.
the ending was a little undercooked, i was expecting an AV again but we get a brief CG ambush which i guess could really wreck you, but the map already has you expecting traps and you can see me spazzing out with my mouse as im so tense!
the MIDI is cool and suits the map, with tense synth stabs and a bass note throughout.
i must say i prefer a little bit less cover-shooting in my maps but i cant say i didnt enjoy this!

[rehelekretep]

map06 - fda here

reminds me of Hell Revealed map01!

woowee this map is tricksy. lots of evil cg traps and darkness (good luck software renderer guys!). i also use 'shaders' for lighting in glboom+ so i couldnt see anything in those dark corridors either.
very E1 of Evilution here with the shiny techbase trappings.
is the AV at the berserk secret meant to just appear like that? caught me by surprise for sure.
the other AV Robinson Crusoe i left, convinced it would come back to haunt me later on but apparently not. hes not really in any position to strongly influence that fight in the red radiation room.
the anti-cheese set-up with the aforementioned rooms doesnt really work. i think it would be better to have a lock-trigger once you enter the room. the timed door closing is just obnoxious.
the standout fight was the imp-block/HK/Noble floor-drop trap. luckily i recognised the set-up and used the PG to clear them out quickly. im glad there weren't any spectres in the mix as that wouldve been brutal.
fun map. so far im having a blast with this mapset. fingers crossed it keeps up!

[baja blast rd.]

^ At the beginning of map05 you can get the SSG quickly with roughly a 100% survival rate.

What are your settings for filtering and stuff?

[rehelekretep]

wall bump?

ill take some screenshots of my settings for you rdwpa, cant be arsed typing them out :p
http://imgur.com/a/mnYdB

[baja blast rd.]

The route I took in my video. There's a small chance of arachnotrons blocking the drop but nothing serious.

[rehelekretep]

just watched it- actually looks like a lot of fun to max - although spectres are The Enemies of Progress™ :|

[baja blast rd.]

Filtering off it is. I decided it looks kind of ugly. Hopefully it doesn't turn into mush on YT, however.

Map 06: "Communications Relay" by XenoNemesis, Kyka, dobu gabu maru, Jaws in Space

TNT: Revilution is batting a pretty high average so far. This one is a bunch of fun too, lots of gratutious hitscanner spam, RL-oriented mush play, barrel bonanzas, and many cool secrets that are OP for pistol-start oriented casual play with foreknowledge but would make a fast-paced maxrun very fun. The conceit of an optional key that delivers secret goodies is always cool, although in this case the discovery of the key itself is somewhat underwhelming -- a simple closet trap instead of a cool alternate path or a tough fight. Dobu's name is among the authors listed, so I'm surprised there wasn't a mean Dobu fight™ tethered to the key.

I am not really a fan of the mechanisms used to confine the player to the optional color wings. You can only leave the blue section once you've cleared a path through the cacos, and at that point the threat is over anyway. In the red section, leaving the main ambush immediately exposes you to fire from the chaingunners, so you might as well just stay and fight, because it's only a single manc vs. your plasma rifle at first. (Also I'm not really a fan of the vile here, but at the very least someone had the good sense to install monster-block lines to keep it mostly in place, because LOL at that placement without them.)

Also I like the midi a lot too. One of the melodies kind of reminds me of that "I'm a barbie girl" song.

I self-rocketed on a whim to waste some of the megapshere and make the last section more fun, but I didn't really plan this out well. :D I should have squandered the pea soup sphere too because it makes health kind of meaningless at that stage anyway. I played the map with gamma 2 because of the dark parts but the video is in gamma 1.

[Tristan]

rdwpa said:

One of the melodies kind of reminds me of that "I'm a barbie girl" song.

LOL can't unhear it now.

[Tompig]

MAP 04 BLOOD FACTORY

Have to leave the house in 4 minutes so going to make this quick.

Only had 7 minutes to play the map, to be honest speed running it was an incredible experience with the amount of enemies and firepower thrown my way, architecture could have been a bit more violet for my tastes, there was a lot of blood (obviously) but very little in the way of corpses outside of the opening.

Solid map, but I do fear that the artistic style laid out by the original maps is wavering now.

[rehelekretep]

yeah not a fan of those secrets - esp YK :\
im struggling to see what the invuln is for; preserving some HP going into the final fight? most first time players will be running out of time with it before then...

that troll imp :D
thank god you turned off the filtering! :p

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP05: Graveyard Shift

Compared to the preceding map, this one carries with it a sense of lowering the pitch but maintaining a faster tempo, with a constant trickle of relatively squishy opposition (gun-toting zombies of all sorts and significant numbers of spectres chief among them) and a relatively trim roster of heavy hitters. The quirky music plays this up, generating a sense of manic intensity that fills every shadowy corner or fold in the geometry with an imagined (or not!), diminutive threat, rather than steadily building a sense of dread that something big might be lurking around the next corner. For a fairly compact map, the central area and the windows overlooking it offer a surprising number of angles from which an awakened and patrolling chaingunner can take potshots at a player scrambling from one section of the map to the next, keeping the pressure on and encourage the player to stay light on their feet. The map's solitary secret feels rather like an afterthought.

[Magnusblitz]

Alright, time to get this going. Playing on UV, ZDoom (so likely won't be much help with bug finding), mouselook.

MAP01: Uprising
100% kills, 2/2 secrets

I'm a fan of Evilution's music for the most part, so a remix of the opening song there is fine by me. As is Mr. Berserk Pack start. I agree with others that this map is fun to play, a good mix of being pretty easy (and providing plenty of fun weapons to splatter guys with) but still having some teeth. Looks-wise despite my hatred of overuse of brown in Doom, this one does a good job mixing the beige and darker browns in a pleasing way. For some reason I completely missed the exit switch at first, assuming the blue key must be necessary (DRAIN THE SWAMP! sorry). Enjoyed the tougher enemies in the secrets.

MAP02: Geothermal

I guess I'll play this from pistol starts, goodbye soulsphere and rocket launcher from last level. Hello oversized teleport pad!

Another fun level. I agree with rdwpa that it has what I consider the 'formulaic' modern-era layout with a looping path, height differentials, lack of doors and lots of windows to previous/future areas, etc. A lot of that is good - it's become prevalent among many mappers for a reason - but it's also a bit predictable in spots. The red key battle feels a bit "unfair" not in that it's mercilessly difficult (it's not) but that the player will take unavoidable damage either from the floor or getting hit by the hitscanners while escaping the pit. It's not a problem if they go into it loaded up but if they're real low on health going in it could be bad. Aesthetically, it's alright... I've admittedly found most of AD_79's maps (or at least his earlier stuff that I've played) to have a bad case of color vomit, but this is fairly restrained sticking with brown/grey/mint green/bright red.

This map has some really weird hissing in the MIDI, not sure if that's intentional or something wrong with the sound settings. Looking at some of the other reviews, seemed some people liked it, but for me it definitely made me pause and wonder if something was wrong with the game, taking me out of the moment.

MAP03: Access Denied
100% kills, 4/6 secrets

This map feels like a good counter-example to my comments on last map being a fomulaic/predictable layout, as this one really kept me guessing on what was coming next, despite being set in another Ye Olde Toxin Refinery. Even simple stuff like the series of walls lowering upon presence before the blue key was a nice novel touch. The downside of this, of course, is that sometimes it can become easy to get lost... like Demtor, it took me awhile to figure out how to get to the red key leg. Aside from that, it's a good yarn, with lots of cool design areas to keep things fresh (no one will have trouble telling the helix staircase in the blue key area from the outdoor sludge in the red key area, for example) though it might be tad bit too easy in parts.

Really enjoying this WAD so far, guys.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP03: Tsk tsk Chris! Such an easy one to spot too!

I think Chris' map does exactly what it needs to do--show the player that the megawad isn't afraid to go back to its oldschool roots. We have here an open base with two keys that need nabbin' in the order of your choosing, complete with a nasty open nukage room that will have imps barraging you with fireballs from afar (and is full of overflows--I think its needs a serious re-examining in something like GZDoomBuilder). It's a bit tough on HMP honestly--died a couple of times despite knowing where to go/what to do. But that doesn't detract from its overall quality, and how fun & adventurous the map feels, even if at times it's a bit muddled on where to go (I still hate needing to hit that bridge switch even after getting both keys). Cool map.

MAP04: Despite being from different eras, Steve and I have a somewhat similar philosophy when it comes to mapping: make the player sweat. The main difference between us (other than use of space in our layouts) is that I'm more cruel whereas Steve is just rude. Take the opening for instance--if you don't find the secret SG, you're likely to get torn to shreds just trying to grab one out of the decaying hands of a zombie sergeant, and even if you do establish a good foothold in the opening area, the blue key traps will slap you all the way back to the start. This isn't inherently a bad thing, mind you; this kind of design does exactly what Steve intends it to do, which is to earn him a pile of pelts. Thankfully the rocket launcher makes the middle section of the map a lot more smooth than before (was quite boring shotgunning all the mid tier monsters to death), but the ending puts a fire back under the player, forcing them to act fast or lose their skin. For as much as Steve adores Chris Hansen for making some vicious maps, I think Mr. Duff is the real one people need to be wary of. Solid map.

(Also Steve, one of the reasons why I don't adhere to the "rule of threes" for difficulty balancing is that it ignores the real "problem makers" on a map most of the time. For instance, it doesn't matter if there's one or three chaingunners in Sector 117--their surprise presence is likely to catch the player flatfooted and rip them to shreds, especially when they trigger the ambush. IMO they should be scaled down to something like zombiemen for lower difficulties. And also, what the hell were you thinking with that final fight? For UV it's great but I played on HMP and all you did was remove one stinkin' PE & rev! There's no additional health, no addition rockets, no non-secret PG; in fact, I think the less meat for the monsters to infight with can make it even more tough at times! You definitely need to ax an AV there, because that is a pretty huge spike in a map that's perfectly manageable from pistol start on HMP [though I would also recommend giving the player 2 more stimpacks in the starting area])

[Tarnsman]

dobu gabu maru said:

MAP03: Tsk tsk Chris! Such an easy one to spot too!

I don't see the HOM so what's the deal? That VPO is awful, by seg overflows you don't see are fine.

[Pirx]

MAP03 - “Access Denied” by Chris Hansen


a techbase with a central corridor leading to the exit. access here is denied and has to be gained using the keys found in the sections on both sides of the corridor. traps here were easy to avoid, lots of sniping humans. architecture is fine and interconnected, but the progression is somewhat convoluted, requiring much backtracking.



MAP04 - “Blood Factory” by Steve D

always look behind you first? where did i read that. and spiteful map you say? heh. i think steve is good at judging a player's reaction on the first playthrough. nearly got killed by the cacos at the berserk trap just because of my insistence to use said berserk on the revs. shotgunning the mancs on the ledge from below was rather tedious, as i didn't see another way, but then, the rocket launcher speeds up gameplay considerably. and then the red key trap: i would have run right into the revs if my mouse didn't slip a bit out of my hand, so i stayed at the switch - and survived by barely a scratch. the rocket launcher got me through the exit fight in one piece, although i limped away with 17 hp, and the biggest problem were the damn souls, had to shoot them all to make sure one doesn't bite me in the butt while i'm trying to take the exit room (there was indeed another vile inside)

all with an excellent music track. good work steve

[Steve D]

Tarnsman said:

I don't see the HOM so what's the deal? That VPO is awful, by seg overflows you don't see are fine.

Just to clarify, you can get away with seg violations that you see in CRL -- red flashing background -- as long as you don't also get a purple flashing background that says HOM? Because you can get over 270 segs as soon as you open the first door in Access Denied, but when I did a back-up check in Chocolate Doom, there was no visible problem. When I made my maps for Revilution I was extremely hardcore in looking for and eliminating anything that went over any limit, but maybe I was too zealous?

[Tarnsman]

As long as the HOM isn't visible on screen you could have 500 segs for all it matters. All a seg overflow does is render the excess segs as HOMs. 500 segs would probably lag vanilla doom to fuck but it won't crash the game.

[Steve D]

Thanks, Tarns!

Edit:This time I'll do what I didn't do last time -- re-check the map in Chocolate Doom to see if the seg violations create visible problems.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 04 -- Blood Factory - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets - Unperson demo (skill 4) for no real reason.
The .lmp is there mostly because I know Steve likes watching them. It's a full clear, but not a speedrun by even the most liberal stretch of the imagination, and while it represents the first time I ever personally played the map, it's not really an FDA since I saw Dime play it on his stream the other day. Think of it as an unsolicited flyer for a shady-looking establishment left under the wiper blade on your car windshield, something like that.

Like Mr. Hansen, Steve Duff is a mapper who was active during Team TNT's own time. Following a long hiatus, he returned to the community a few years ago, not unlike a trapper returning to a prior preserve in search for fresh bounty. Having been privileged to play both most of his very oldest stuff and much of his recent work, I can say that he's a delightful example of a creative vision staying strong over an extended period of time, adapting to changes in the landscape (vastly increased average player skill vs. the situation in the 90s, a significantly increased emphasis on combat setpieces in level design, newer/more efficient tools, etc.) while always maintaining the same fundamental goals and means, which in this case are to cheerfully harvest player pelts via filling up broad, airy spaces with buzzing clumps of hitscan attrition as flocks of gasbags gather like clouds on an overcast day.

"Blood Factory" is an interesting piece in that you can tell from the encounter design and generally very straightforward progression that it's one of Steve's newer maps, though visually it possesses a certain loose abstraction, particularly as regards a rather laissez-faire hand with texture/color selection, which gives it something of a more old-fashioned look reminiscent of his older maps from the RoC period (esp. the rather, um....homely...blue/blood room), which in its way helps it find its place in a project with a certain nostalgic slant. As with the first three maps, the general visual theme is still polyglot industrial base made of varicolored strips and blocks of metal and composite, set in desolate rocky canyons, though here the lava and toxin of the earlier maps have conspicuously given way to rivers of blood, which is apparently being pumped/harvested by the juddering machinery of the titular Factory with no real explanation as to why (but then, who really needs one?). Even more obvious than in the previous maps, the color palette is dominated by angry reds and squalid muddy browns banded with green and bronze, giving the setting a decidedly hostile, glowering look not normally encountered in traditional E1 settings. Wholly apart from Steve's individual take on it, I'm still finding the theme just a mite eye-tiring somehow, but his preference for big open spaces and his liberal usage of diorama detailing in the surrounding caverns and some later views into inaccessible blood-grottoes feels a little more like home to me than the more tight, controlled spaces of earlier maps.

While not the smallest thing he's made recently, the level is rather on the short side as Duffmaps go despite covering a goodly chunk of real estate, comprised of only a handful of discrete areas, one of them being the sizeable soulsphere secret. Progression seems a little bit impromptu and monster distribution comes in irregular spurts and pulses, with some areas serving little practical purpose other than being extended monster-lounges (most notably the aforementioned blue/blood cave across from the control monitor deck on the south side of the factory core), and at least one reading as somewhat suspiciously uneventful in general, that being the southern blood-font chamber--I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop in there, but it never did. One can look at this potentially herky-jerky pacing in two ways: either as conceptual disjointedness or as a side-effect of a rough and ready layout not overly concerned with micromanaging the player at every turn, with less feature-intensive areas framed as optional engagements or as brief interludes. I lean more towards the latter in this case, though I do think this reads more like a Duffmap which was edited/abridged from some larger design than one which was purpose-built to be smaller/tighter/quicker.

You can always count on Steve for fun catch-as-catch-can combat, fortunately, and this is no exception. After you get tooled up at the start--shame on you if you miss the free secret shotgun!!--you momentarily face what is perhaps the level's single deadliest trap, potentially hemmed in by meat on the BK platform while being brutally broadsided by a sneaky chaingunner from across the way. Make it through that--watch out for traps within traps!--and the level spills out into familiar Duff territory, caroming wildly through the bloody sump below while plasma bolts, fireballs, spat souls, and ballistic ordinance of all sorts flies hither and thither in a barely-contained scrappy revel. Steve loves pouring firepower on the player, but also loves giving you tons of room to run, a vital synergy that makes most of the engagements fast and inviting rather than oppressive and stressful, a rare trait in such a hitscan-minded designer. Lots of health and ammo to go around, too, with a supply of rockets that is genuinely 'adequate' for once in our lives, in contrast to the more common extremes of rockets being either cockteasingly spare or piled on in excess. The final battle in what used to be the segue/link into Dobu's "Devil's Den" map (since broken due to a reordering of maps) is classic Steve, just throw shit into the pot until it hits a rolling boil, and leave the player to use running room and the generous application of heavy artillery to sort it out. Ironically, the easiest way to handle this encounter, which actually holds for a lot of encounters in the map, is to simply not deal with it at all and run past (not hard to punch through the two-knight guards on the paired stairways if you've a mind to do so), but of course self-respecting marines won't readily let the Spitter's orphaned brood off so easily.

[Dylan Jarvis]

Gotta play this one. TNT is my second favorite IWAD behind Ultimate Doom. I always enjoyed TNT over Plutonia for the shear creativeness and charm of the levels. Plutonia may have been overall better designed, the enemy usage get's rather stale half way through because the difficulty is mostly the same throughout the whole wad. TNT's levels vary widely, and the new music is a great addition as well. Just an overall more enjoyable experience so I'm curious to see how this is.