The DWmegawad Club plays: Newgothic Movement 2 & Deus Vult II

[Deadwing]

+++Moonblood

+++ No Sleep for the Dead, Scythe X, UAC Ultra

[Spectre01]

I'll chime in on DV2 here for my quick impression. The high density of memes and pop-fiction references is off-putting.

[Tristan]

9 hours ago, Demon of the Well said:

Thanks much for the info about NG2's m16 music track, @Eris Falling! Doom midis that are that long (with a linear composition, as opposed to just a long-ass repeating loop) are a rare beast indeed, perhaps because comparatively few maps are long enough to really accommodate them. I don't recognize the name "Dragon's Revenge", but perhaps I might know the track. Has it been used in anything that's released or otherwise 'on the market?'

I'd also add that writing something that long is quite difficult :D I'm not aware of anything of a similar scale except Jimmy's 43-minute MIDI, but that's a suite and not a single composition like LotBS. I'm trying to think what the longest track specifically written for a Doom map is and I'm only coming up with Petrichor from BTSX, it's only a measly nine minutes long too, pfft!!

 

KoD's Dragon's Revenge was used on Shai'tan's Luck MAP28, and I'm not aware of it anywhere else, and at 6 minutes long it's actually one of his shorter offerings since - LotBS aside - he usually managed around 7-10 minutes on his MIDIs. It's more the style than the scale of it that appeals to me, very heavy on symphonic elements and blisteringly fast-paced appropriate for the most chaotic of fights, so I'm surprised actually I've only heard it on that one map.

 

[NuMetalManiak]

1 hour ago, Spectre01 said:

I'll chime in on DV2 here for my quick impression. The high density of memes and pop-fiction references is off-putting.

If you forget about them entirely the whole thing is great.

 

MAP21 Unholy Cathedral

 

This ain't E3M5, it's a gargantuan and complex cathedral with a boatload of secrets and quite a lot of monsters to fry. The central cathedral battle will be the standout, and the next true slaughter encounter this wad offers. But the rest of the map doesn't offer much in terms of slaughter, so we don't have to be ready for the big fights but we do gotta be ready for the suspense.

 

Premise besides the whole central area, there's the West Antichrist section, the East Library (also known as the Library of the Damned from the sign), and then there's the hellscape to the north of the cathedral itself. And it's got enough satanic imagery to prove that it is, truly, an unholy cathedral. I usually start on the west side (the West Antichrist section) and go around there picking secrets (also the zombieman wall). I then ended up in the hellscape, which I usually save for last, but then I get the secret yellow key too. Also in a lot of places including the secrets, there are pentagrams you can step on. I actually believe that stepping on all the pentagrams in the map leads to a certain secret at the exit, though I have not actually confirmed this. Oh, and there are the two new enemies, though players on ITYTD will not get to see one of them. The first is that annoying cleric enemy that shoots fireballs and doesn't flinch, but at least his health is low. The balrog is the other one, and is like the well-known Afrit we have seen in other megawads, except he has much less health than his Scythe 2 incarnation.

 

Not a whole lot in the way of puzzles for the West Antichrist section, but the library is a thing on its own almost. Having to look for small red books is the gimmick for this library section, with tons of things to find. I also don't know for certain how to open up the central area, but I guess hitting enough pentagrams or something does the trick. There are a LOT of voodoo triggers for this map, which bothers me quite a bit. The central battle is done via the organ, and there are more than enough pickups to make this slaughter section extremely easy. I usually grab the invulnerabilities by the time the hell knights come over, or when the organ spawns numerous lost souls. The red key is in this place as well, but this is the slaughter section of the map, and as easy as it is, I still consider it a lot of fun.

 

Not to outdo the blue key section. I usually get the blue key first, but this time, it was the last key I obtained in the map (for really no real reason). This one is quite controversial though. Imagine being on a damaging floor in this damaging circle with no key or pickups, forced to fight a load of enemies while burning your feet. The exception is a voodoo doll will save your life for the most part, because it runs over both berserk packs and supercharges. It gets annoying with the berserk's weapon switching and the consistent damage taken. Am I a fan of it? Not even close. But it is something I don't think I have seen elsewhere.

 

So yes, this map is a gargantuan one, lots to do, explore, slaughter, and defile. And I did notice you can exit using either the yellow or blue, but you need the red apparently, so the biggest slaughter will not be avoided. As for the pentagrams, I did get the secret at the end, which makes the next map a bit sweeter, but since that's a gimmick map again, not much there for now.

[Ribbiks]

4 hours ago, Spectre01 said:

I'll chime in on DV2 here for my quick impression. The high density of memes and pop-fiction references is off-putting.

 

There was an interesting thread here..

 

 

where that point was brought up. Similarly, all the portraits of VG antagonists in Hell's Vendetta also comes across as a bit "immature", though it's probably only so noticeable because the rest of the mapset seems to take itself comparatively seriously.

 

 

Didn't have time to replay through more doom stuff recently, but here's some drive-by commentary on a few maps:

03 - along with 13, this was a notable influence for me wrt automap aesthetic. also it was the obvious source of initial inspiration (and base textures) for some recent maps of mine. thing forests are horrible, I don't find this map fun to play at all, heh.

12 - interesting how the lack of auto-align here actually helps articulate the structures. this map (and m13) were the inspiration for some of the "tower" structures I've made over the years.

19 - striking map, vrack on overdrive. the animated laser effects seemed to be highly influential as well, still see many recent maps using them (unless there is a notable precursor?).

21 - amazing map. really enjoyed ironing out the mechanics to this one the first couple times I played it. curvy rock sections (along with m12) left a big impression on me.

 

lots of inspirational stuff in this set, very dense with ideas. lots of not-so-good things come along for the ride, but ohwell. It's a shame bitcoins and h1n1 paranoia characterized huy's final days on the fora, the occasional screenshot of "dvii: definitive game-of-the-year edition" had me pretty hyped that he'd eventually drop some more cool maps on us.

[Memfis]

+++ SUDTIC TEUTIC OBTIC

[gaspe]

The best thing of DV2 is all its references to other wads, games, movies and other stuff. The point of the wad is to be this grandiose collection of stuff that the author likes, put in form of Doom maps and made in an outstanding way. The various levels are like disjointed pieces, but this is how the wad wants to be, even though the skip maps give more a feel of a rough and unfinished project. I dind't always like some directions that the gameplay takes, and the very high details were more of an obstacle to understand what to do sometimes, especially in the space level and the cathedral. I prefer more the first DV as a proper and complete wad, but it's cool that something inimitable as DV2 exists.

 

+++ SUDTIC TEUTIC OBTIC

[Ribbiks]

57 minutes ago, gaspe said:

The various levels are like disjointed pieces, but this is how the wad wants to be, even though the skip maps give more a feel of a rough and unfinished project.

 

False:

 

On 8/24/2009 at 10:31 PM, Doom Marine said:

As for many complaints about the mish-mashing of themes in the level lineup, DVII-1 originally was going to be a 32-map megawad with a continuous plot, but I didn't create those levels in sequential order and released what was done at the time. What I'm trying to say is, there is an actual physical progression going from level to level. The full arc of the DVII level's progression doesn't just go from tech, Asian, green... and so forth in a psuedorandom manner. There was supposed to be a logical transition going from one level to the next, take the progression from the Stargate to Egyptian map to Hell for example.

DVII-2 is going to totally justify the transition from one theme to the next.

[gaspe]

I stand corrected, didn't read that thread yet. Personally I like the mish-mash of themes, but sure it would have been very interesting to see how the overall progression was going to wrap in the final version. But I guess that sadly we can only speculate about this...

[Demtor]

 

Map 31

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/saves

 

Lots of running and hiding at the start of this one which was interesting. Very intense moments were had fighting off lost souls in the tech filled dark crawlspaces while avoiding rockets. Opening up more areas (and adding more enemies) after collecting weapons was a cool feature as you’ll definitely want to try and arm yourself ASAP but it then adds more elements of danger to deal with. You can’t rush it too hastily either, those CG’ers on the steps taught me that.

 

The map takes a dramatic shift once you managed to ride one of the crazy colored elevators to the top. Lots of fun with the zombie horde and some futuristic BFG rock ‘em sock ‘em key battles. I beat this map with just the blue key though I don’t think that was meant to happen as they were clearly labeled blue and yellow but the BK worked for both and I didn’t have to bother with the YK fight. The final portal had some crazy action to deliver as well. I always like a good starry gateway. Looks good to me in almost any map.

 

Anyways, a decent secret level with a drastically different look from the rest of the wad with more great music. Too bad it couldn’t have been a bit longer or perhaps some of the ideas taken and made to sprawl out and use more space a bit. Like the key battles being something a little bit more than just a locked down circle.

 

 

Final Thoughts

This was one helluva crazy ride! I’m glad I was able to play it well as sometimes these massive slaughter maps with huge monster counts and large areas tend to chug really badly. Other then Map 16, it all played smoothly and was a lot of fun. Which is crazy considering how grand map 09 is. While this was mostly a very challenging difficulty level, I don’t think I ever got extremely frustrated with any of the areas that made me “call bullshit” on. Some of the puzzles and traps didn’t quite work the best but nothing game breaking. I had fun on every single map. Each had their own unique style and feel from one to the next. Lots of fun. Except for 16, which is unplayable. If it weren’t for such a massive turd to end this, I would’ve rated this a 5/5. As is I can’t. Something fell off there at the end and it’s a shame.

 

Another minor quibble with this set is the map names. Or lack thereof. It’s not that hard to name your labor of love, especially when they are so different from one another. So I don’t understand why they are omitted here and I do better reviewing and remembering which map was which with their names and not numbers. There were glaring HoM sectors and such that others have pointed out. So not a flawless wad, but a solid one for a well earned 4/5.

 

Favorites

Map 02

Map 03

Map 09

Map 11

Map 12

Map 15

 

Meh

Map 16

[dobu gabu maru]

Here are the voting results (I changed my HR2 vote to support the Innocent Crew trilogy):

 

Moonblood: 7

SUBTIC TEUTIC OBTIC: 7

Eternal Slumber Party: 6

 

I'm hoping any undecideds determine the winner kinda soon because I have a wedding to officiate on the 1st and thus need to get this thread made ASAP.

[Demtor]

This trilogy seems very intriguing to me and I would love to rewind back to '94-'95 for the summer.

 

+++ SUDTIC TEUTIC OBTIC

[Demtor]

I'm woefully behind but will be soldiering on as work and summertime fun allows. So, on to...

 

                               DVII - Judgement Day?

 

                               Soo… much… red

 

MAP01 - Entryway Pass

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/saves

 

Holy shit this music! It’s like a throwback to Super Double Dragon with a twist of it’s own thing. Absolutely love it.

 

The setting is very modern with lots of great use of water and foliage. I liked the look of the urban roads and dams within the mountain rock. The surprise spider in the dark was a funny moment. Speaking of… huh, that’s different. I’m not used to inside jokes so easily found in Doom 2.

 

Anyways, this was short and upbeat way to kick things off nicely. Didn't expect this given the intro screens and music but great stuff for a map 1 opener. The caco ambush with the uber-barrels that do 5x more damage was a shocker and the zombie horde before that was good too.

 

Neat fiery intermission art. Again, a little too much red perhaps but it does fit in with the intro screens.

[Demtor]

MAP02 – Mutagen

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/saves

 

An extension of the first map (even with the music) more or less but with a focus more on teleporting around a UAC techbase of sorts that has weird experimental devices and more blue water rooms. Again the use of natural rock and water as the surrounding environment looks really good.

 

The teleport station that brought in a shit ton of imps was pretty crazy.

 

Again, really? At least this one was funny on it’s own instead of some weird inside forum humor. Still a bit odd though.

 

Not a bad map. Another really short map that works well off the first with a few cool moments and heightened weapon levels and a few more mid tier enemies. Nothing really too crazy though. The green warp points are an interesting style choice over the normal doom tele pads.

[Demtor]

MAP03 - Crouching Demon, Hidden Archvile

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/saves

 

Whoa. Now this is different. It felt like a Duke3d map through and through though. That forest… is something else. I loved the look, but moving around it was a chore at times. I did like that it was big enough to get lost in and finding shortcuts and secrets felt really good. That said, is that Bruce Lee?! Hahaha, wut? I don’t even… okay. Again, Duke Nukem’s voice should be chiming in on my speakers here.

 

The music really fits the map nicely in theme with it’s eastern whistle and rapid drum beat. It’s like a track from a Tenchu game on crack.

 

The valley below looks dark and ominous and that night sky is really amazing. It looks good almost all the time and adds to the atmosphere of the last battle at the top. In fact, without that sky texture… I don’t think I’d like this map. It sets the dark tone really well and the torches stand out in the night.

 

Lots of tricky teleport ambushes and traps. I ended up running circles frantically around the larger groups before hiding in the trees when I ran out of ammo. The key switches that triggered some of the larger enemy swarms were a thrill.

 

The exit portal is kind of different. Interesting that you’re able to see it from far away before reaching it and finding out that was the intended goal the whole time.

 

Overall this was a really odd shift in tone from the first two maps. The whole biome and theme completely changed. If the next few maps are any indication, a player had best get used to that if they want to enjoy playing the rest of this.

[Capellan]

Moonblood looks interesting and I would definitely be willing to vote for it next month, if that encourages anyone who voted for it to switch to the TIC trilogy this month :)

 

[Scotty]

Change my vote please...
 

+++ SUDTIC TEUTIC OBTIC

[Deadwing]

I'll change my vote to +++ SUDTIC TEUTIC OBTIC.

[NuMetalManiak]

yeah dawg, let's do the +++ SUDTIC TEUTIC OBTIC thing homies. We gunna put off with Moonblood (and my always vote for 2048 Unleashed) for another month.

 

MAP22 You Shall Not Pass!

Time to coin another abbreviation before someone else does: NACW - not another concept wad

 

This is another Lord of the Rings-inspired map, for the Balrog chase. It's really difficult, mostly because you are supposed to run away from all the Balrogs chasing you, and numerous obstructions and rather annoying jumping puzzles come into play to make things hard. Sometimes, it's even trial and error, which is not good for this gimmick. We do get to see Sauron's gauntlets though (I missed them in MAP21), and they kick a lot of ass so I used them quite a bit. But the majority of this level is pure run and gun. On ITYTD things are a bit easier, as there are less Balrogs floating around and some cacos take their place.

 

Either way though, once we get the invulnerability on the hill, our Doomguy becomes Gandalf with some perpetual invincibility so that people like me who want to max everything can attempt to do so, killing Balrogs and cacos with the BFG and such. Could be problematic since they are flying enemies, but that invincibility will last awhile.

 

Wonder what Anima Zero and Belial think of the easter eggs that reference them? Also I really hate this suicide exit the most, since you pretty much need to be fully prepped to walk in the opposite direction and on max damaging fire fighting through enemies to reach it. Really nasty map and a NACW to go with it.

[SleepyVelvet]

Map22 DVii Exam:

 

It turns out -skill 02 is not the same as -skill 2 in prboom-plus:  I got rekt by Efreets on UV.  They chase you down and you have to race away from them until you can hold out in an enclosure later on.  You won't know this first time through, though, and they will destroy you while you are still dicking around on the platforming segment.

 

On HNTR, this map still kills you if you fall off the platforming section.  This was my first HNTR death so far on this mapset.  It's sort-of just a linear obstacle course sorta map.  It's fine for what it was, and I enjoyed it.

 

I'm glad to see the gauntlets here again, because I didn't use them much last map and didn't appreciate them until using them here:  You get to run up to archviles and just fry them, all while flailing around hilariously.  I assume it is just a chainsaw but with it's speed turned up to max.  When you start zapping someone, you just flail around, back and forth, similar to the 'chainsaw grab' but to way more extreme degree.  It's basically just fuckin fun.  I love this mapset.

 

Map23 Hell Museum: (I dont remember the names exactly)

 

Here we see portraits of villains from various movies and videogames.  Are the villains imprisoned in the portraits for doing wrong, or are the portraits to honor the evil villains?  I will never know.  It's basically just a symmetric arena, and wasn't particularly interesting on HNTR; the fun portraits made the map for me.  It's an easy map on HNTR, but you will die though to the popup ambush of a hundred knights when you grab the (red?) key.  It turns out you can tip toe towards it and then back off, and that way you wont just get surrounded and die.

[galileo31dos01]

I'm stuck in map 21 (The Unholy Cathedral), got the blue skull, but then I can't find anything to use it in, plus the central cathedral is still closed for me. Both the West Antichrist and the East Library (if those are their names) are cleared. Help please :(

[SleepyVelvet]

@galileo31dos01 i think I ran into the same problem.  I found eventually bumbled around and found a couple more secrets, but then the center was open.

 

also 

you use the blue skull or the yellow skull after getting the red skull in the middle.  Perhaps the order of the key gathering doesn't matter.  I never found the yellow key, and there was some of the map left unexplored.  I hope to come back to this map on UV at some point cuz it was a great map packed with all sorts of stuff.

[galileo31dos01]

22 minutes ago, NoisyVelvet said:

 I found eventually bumbled around and found a couple more secrets, but then the center was open.

There was an alcove with a berserk that I had to jump to get there, I thought it was impossible but I was wrong. Now the central cathedral is open, apparently you have to 

Spoiler

step on the pentagrams, and many of them are secrets, which would make them mandatory, but I'm not sure because this map is quite confusing.

 

[Magnusblitz]

+++ SUDTIC TEUTIC OBTIC

[rehelekretep]

it will be interesting to revisit TIC's offerings; i was very unimpressed when i first played them a year or 2 ago...

[Demtor]

MAP12 - Minas Morgul

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/saves

 

Huh, quite the story to go with this. I feel like a grammar nazi would tear that wording apart though and what’s up with that art? Ugh, what is that? The music is kind of cool at least.

 

The beginning really looks great from above. It was fun figuring out how to get in and get going past the YK requirement as you run past the HK's and specters. The climb through the caves and up to the top was probably my favorite part of this map actually. I wanted more cave crawling and less gigantic encounters. But aw well.

 

The view from the passage leading in to the inner hall past the thousand imp army was pretty neat as well. Lots of large architecture both outside and in[/url] helped add a lot of dark atmosphere to this map.

 

I didn’t so much like the dark trap boxes on each side for the keys but the noble army with two cyberdemons was a lot of fun.

 

Smaller map but it had a lot of unique atmosphere to it. Missing something though, can't quite put my finger on it. Just didn't feel that "Doomy" perhaps.

[Demtor]

MAP13 - Eagle’s Nest

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/saves

 

Uhh, if you thought the pop up ambushes from Speed of Doom were bullshit… look out. Try not to panic as it’s a loooong waaaay down.

 

From the start, you can see another large green structure but it’s kind of a fake out as the real objective is at the top of the mountain. Eagle’s Nest, ya dig?

 

BS insta spawns aside, it really was an awesome journey up the side of the giant mountain through bursh and green lava falls with far off views in the distance. Lots of smaller scaled encounters and heroic trials and triumphs along the way. At one point I had an AV launch me off the cliff only to land on a smaller ledge below that auto raised me back up to level ground. That was a really awesome moment.

 

Another thing I REALLY enjoyed about the long winding climb up to the top was being able to look down and see where you started out below. It gives you a good adventurous feel. Reinforces that this is a dangerous journey and you can see how far you’ve come but it’s not over yet.

 

Again, the starry sky is a really sweet backdrop to the perched temple. The temple itself was a fun little puzzle of how to approach. I liked being able to wrap around the sides and discover stuff. WAH?! A cyberdemon way up here? Fun PG fight for the YK but don’t let him get locked in the room with you!

 

The last part of the map after the sky teleportation bit involves another green interior palace of sorts with a BFG styled encounter against a lot of enemies (That’s where I realized doomguy has sunglasses on. LoL. Well done.) including a shit ton of AV’s guarding the keys to the exit. It was okay but nothing crazy awesome. The 20 or so CG’ers at the top of the steps was a shock to the system especially if you tried running past all of the revs and cacs below.

 

Overall this was a great adventure map with a really epic sounding music track to go along with it. Kind of had a SNES RPG feel to it with big drums and an opera voice. Worked really well to heighten the drama of the experience. Probably my favorite map so far.

[galileo31dos01]

MAP21: The Unholy Cathedral

Time: 2:25:44

Death Count: 5

Secrets legally found: 13/17

 

This map was, something for sure! I spent many hours to finnish it. While the map was fun with impressive visuals and immersive atmosphere, it was rather confusing where to go next and what to do. Sure, the idea was to open the path to the altar and get the red key as well as the blue or yellow key. What was not clear at least to me at first, was which pentagrams (because you have to step on 9 pentagrams of 16) functioned as triggers to open that path, since many of those pentagrams are in secrets, and I've seen a couple videos where the player opens the path way earlier, without stepping on all those reachable pentagrams. I'm sure now the secret pentagrams are not mandatory, so I'll figure next time...

Anyway, the map features this effect where you kind of teleport to another section but without the green lights. I liked that! Once I got into the cathedral, to my sides were the East Library and the West Antichrist. This last was the first path I took, only because I didn't want to wake up that cyber. There wasn't much health but the encounters were fine. Also, when you see a distant tower outside the cathedral, a dark macabre voice automatically sounds, which was a neat effect, reminding me where I was, and where in real life I would never want to be in... Ok, after killing everybody I went with low health to the other side. Some pentagrams functioned as teleporters so I used them to find health. There wasn't... To get to the library, I had to step on the chaingun's pentagram, which trapped me in a deadly scenario with hitscanners everywhere. These guys killed me twice. The third lucky run was the best one, and finally some health/armor to recover. Then some switch hunting to get more and more deeper, as well as finding secrets. Once the East Library was clear enough, I saw by accident that a new room was opened. What a battle!! Those berserks were annoying as f***, I wanted to use the gauntlets (which btw are AWESOME) but my weapons were constantly switching. Still the battle was fun, and I could grab the blue key. From there I got lost a bit, but later found the way. I found more pentagrams and the centre finally opened! And a nice big slaughter battle including various enemies! The wide variety of supplies made it easier but no the battle itself wasn't very easy. All that practice with NGM2 served for something after all lol.

So yeah, grabbed the red key and realized that I could exit the map, but I hadn't found more than half of the secrets!. Some of them involved shooting stuff that I would have never thought as shootable. Nevertheless, I liked them all so no actual complains.

One of the secrets needed to be triggered by stepping in all the pentagrams in the map. There was a secret yellow key that I legally missed and involved a nice battle against Pain Elementals. There was a "RUN" text on the floor, similar to the one in Scythe's map 28. Another one though non-secret included a fun fight with zombiemen. More secret rooms, in this one I confess I stupidly embarrassingly died once... And some messages, ok if you say so... Finding all the secrets really stressed me out, and I even missed to tag one. 

The new monsters were cool. On one side, the cleric from Hexen, they have a ranged attack consisting of three fireballs and a melee attack using his mace. On the other side, the balrog, which is a slighltly weaker twin of the afrit. I noticed their roaming sound is the same from the mechanic mancubus in Hell To Pay, at least that is what it sounded like to me.

Also, a new weapon, the Gauntlets, known from Heretic (and Hexen maybe, idk), these are silent rapid killers. 

Overall, entertaining.    

[Demtor]

MAP19 – Stargate

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/saves

 

Hah, I’ve never seen a ”skip map” feature before. Funny, I missed this earlier. Do what you gotta do I guess. Fun way to do it.

 

It might just be the assets used but this map reminded me of two Community Chest 4 map’s by Chris "lupinx-Kassman" Kassap. Those were maps 20:Interstellar Sickness and 21:Shaman Device. Or perhaps a bit of Valiant Ep 4. Anyways, it’s probably coincidence as I’m sure there are a lot of similar styled maps that I just haven’t discovered yet or perhaps there is a landmark wad that I have completely missed which was the original one to use these textures and weird oddities in. *shrug*

 

In any case, this was it’s own thing and it worked really well as a tightly balanced health and ammo restricted start that slow ramps up and up and up until finally your blasting with the BFG and keeping large hordes at bay. It’s almost perfect.

 

The difficulty really jacks up once you get the SSG in the red area, as it should. It was time to stop having to dink and dunk HK’s with my pistol and single barrel.

 

The tech base design really lends itself to flipping switches, opening doors and closing off previously opened stuff with lifts and ladders (awesome!) and all manner of inter-connectivity and re-spawning enemies with AV teleports and ambushes. Really great stuff. I was very happily lost a few times.

 

One of the more memorable moments was when you get in to the blue area and get locked in with a newly found PG and all you hear are the sounds of all the enemies loading up behind each door before they both open again and you get sandwiched. (Handled!) That happened again with the BFG. Well timed and executed stuff. There was another big ambush with imps and mancs before the YK as well that I should have seen coming.

 

I missed the South Park secrets (hahaha) but the chemistry lesson was pretty fascinating. “The citric acid cycle, by Huy Pham.” Huh. Was this a part of his college term paper or maybe his actual job perhaps? In any case, at least we got some cells before leaving this one.

 

The BK maze was interesting as was the RK spot with the big beefer with his back turned. You don’t see that too often. Things got real messy when you had like 6 AV’s running around the tougher areas, whew.

 

Always love it when a map links up at the end for the next one to follow and the Egyptian Stargate was pretty cool from afar and even cooler up close when all the enemies start pouring in. The sequence of traveling back to earth was really really cool. I love space stuff like that in old shooters. Duke 3D’s episode 2 was always my favorite.

 

This map is crazy awesome. I can't imagine how long it must have taken to get everything to work well together and juuust right. Apparently this wad and the first Deus Vult are Huy Pham's (Doom Marine) only works. Wow. No wonder this got a Cacoaward in 2008. It's impressive stuff!

[galileo31dos01]

MAP22: You Shall Not Pass

Time: 15:28

Death Count: 9

Secrets legally found: 2/2

 

Remember Scythe's Run From It? well this is similar in a simple way, you must fucking run the fuck away for your fucking life. I'm sure this map is entirely inspired by Scythe's infamous map, except here you are being chased by afrits balrogs, and while there aren't exploding barrels near your voodoo dolls, there's absolutely no time to waste with any obstacle. Obviously one can't just stop for a second and care about the visuals, so I took more pictures later. Some of my unlucky runs went out with me being roughly killed, to not say raped, by those flying redheads. Gauntlets were the stars, these pair of metallic globes made magic, killing nobles and archies in 2 seconds, although they were not so efficient against mancubus. Also thanks to the rocket launcher and plasma rifle. I tried to use the corresponding weapons for each fight, just to follow the "rules". It also seemed like all the bugs worked against me: blockmap, elastic collision, slippery jumps, more blockmap. 

I spent one save right before where the imps were, so far I had died 5 times, and after the first save 4 times more. Then, I reached to uppermost building and skipped the cyber like "I don't have time for you, there, there go play with your friends"... oh they were not friends? oops, sorry :)

Stepping on the two squares opened the bars and went to grab the invulnerability sphere, and then returned to take revenge! (For me, not for the cyber). I liked the voodoo doll trick which provided me unlimited cells and immunity. And finally after beating all the balrogs, I took some time to explore the space a little bit. Found some goodies, some weapons near the start point that I simply didn't know were there, and some hidden messages, and a gif... Who's "Anima Zero" btw?

Anyway, loved this map.