The DWmegawad Club plays: Moonblood (it's our 5 year anniversary, golly!)

[Demtor]

 

MAP06 - "Central Command"

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/no saves

 

Oh what a lovely little melody for such a wonderfully crafted map. I was digging everything already and then the ending sequence happened. Amazing! Perfect way to have the first episode end while introducing the next with a ride down to set the stage for the next encounter. Surprise triple knights waiting behind the door with a pincer ambush from the side windows by cacos AND teleporting trickery. Intense fight with a suspenseful set up. Whew. Fantastic!

 

The water is on the ceiling! Must be UAC devil magic! So glad the view through the window minutes before was paid off in the end. I was willing to let it go as an artful touch but once I stepped outside there was a really cool, ”Ahhhh” moment. I loved it.

 

All of that after exploring the tech base, searching in the dark for the RK, finding cool secrets, going in then carving your way back out with the BK and wading through the watery maze ambush to get the YK. Just one cool sequence after the next. Also, the SSG shows up! Thank god because using a RL usually made things worse for me considering the close proximity of these enemies in these bases this first episode.

 

Hmmm, introducing...The Girl.

[Capellan]

MAP07

It's nice to see something other than the usual Dead Simple clone, with the 'trons and mancs being intermingled throughout the level, but it's also a little sad to see in DB2 that there's no use of the 666 or 667 tags at all.  Having the exit become available that way, rather than by grabbing a yellow key, might have been nice.

 

This map definitely feels toothier than what came before, with the monsters being much more able to dish out pain if you fumble your dodging.  There's also good use of demons and spectres here to put pressure on, especially in places where the player might be itching to use the RL on a manc or 'tron, or in the darkened crate section.  The exit area however is something of a disappointment: a lone mancubus once you're through the yellow door isn't much threat, and nor is the single hitscanner that follows.  Something of a letdown, that.

 

It's a solid-looking level, with metal and cement combining to create quite an oppressive feel.  The layout is a bit too fond of blind drops and lifts for my taste, but it certainly gets your heart started when you pop out amidst a mixed bag of demons and big guns.

 

[NuclearPotato]

MAP06 - Central Command

92/92 kills, 2/2 secrets (MAX'D)

 

Boy howdy, this was quite the sendoff to E1!  This is probably the most non-linear the set has gotten so far, and it's an absolute beauty to fight through, both in its E1-styled aesthetic, and in its frantic gameplay.  (Is it just me, or did the last map also begin with an elevator? I'm sensing a subtle theme in continuity, here...)  I love how the map is so freewheeling in where you can go, and yet has itself set-up so that the key doors are pretty much directly ahead of you once you make it out of the pickup area.  Fight of the map probably has to go to the wild crossfire behind the red door; I only very narrowly avoided rocketing myself when the pinkies teleported in.  Deadwing's usage of enemies around corners keeps things tense throughout, even considering this map taking things a little bit easier with the overall difficulty; said difficulty curving down is probably due to the first appearance of the Super Shotgun, which is surprisingly untrapped (the same of which can't be said for the rocket launcher, which proved to be the second most deadly trap in the map).  The HK and caco trap at the end proved to be surprisingly tame, helped by the little indicator on the floor marking where the HK's could teleport behind (thankfully, the elevator door never closed after entering, which gave me breathing room for rocket spam).  A quick hop outside brings an end to the first episode, and gives us a very curious intermission text.  Time will tell how that one sets up the next episode.

[Magnusblitz]

E2-1: Industrial Zone

100% kills, 3/3 secrets

 

Good thematic shift here, while it's still a base, decidedly into the metal/cement stuff, giving the industrial episode its name. Despite not being a Dead Simple remix, it does have a fair amount of arachnatrons and mancubuses, with some demons and a couple others thrown in the mix. I like that despite being given the SSG early on, there's plenty of rocket ammo around, giving plenty of chances to use it when it could simply have turned out to be just another SSG crawl. The blind drops/lifts and teleports from earlier annoyingly make their return; again, I'm hoping that's something that doesn't show up too much going forward. Took me far too long to realize I could simply walk over this ledge here to the yellow key, I think I just assumed it was a window like the one beside it.

[paymentplan]

MAP06 - Central Command

 

I very much liked this map. It has a really nice vibe, just exploring around, seeing what paths go where. It was nice to get more of the grey and blue from MAP04, though I'm bummed by the amount of staring at switch starts so far. This map, plus the prior, and MAP03 makes 3 staring at switch starts! Oh well, not a huge deal.

 

The combat is mostly low pressure (until the end) and can be kind of coasted through. The red key area with the strobes was neat at first but did give me a slight headache. Liked finding the secret in there, though.

 

The last little battle with the hell knights and cacos was a good bit of fun, as most have already commented on. I pulled out the rocket launcher eager to make quick work of it when the hell knight teleported behind me! I'll never get sick of traps with that kind of dynamic element.

 

Loved the transition to what I'm guessing will be at least one theme for episode 2: the green rocky cliffs and trees. Looking forward to it!

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP06: Central Command

15:46 | 100% Everything

 

Another silver-and-blue techbase, with parts reminiscent of earlier maps (like the red key are Snikle mentioned.) Compact, but with a windy progression that it was easy to get lost in; there being no real distinct areas to serve as "landmarks" aside from a large hallway or two. That said, it was fun, and looked nice. I died three times: once in the nasty blue key ambush, which I walked into with just a single shotty and was quickly pinned in by, well, everything. The other two came at the end with the knight pincer trap. Took me three tries to be able to get them all in front of me and unload rockets. Those outdoors textures are gorgeous, by the way. I was hoping to spending a little more time outside...

[riderr3]

MAP06
Now we going up.
Dark tech-halls with lost souls seems so familiar...
The chaingunner on balcony and two cacodemons are whacked me and I'm going forward with less than 20%HP.
I feel I can not progress faster without SSG, and finally I found it. I thought it will be on MAP09 or even higher.
Ambush near exit area is dangerous, it's better to run forward in next room. Secret with berserk pack is very helpful after this.

MAP07
58 minutes of play time is passed.
Another techbase which looking similar as the previous maps, except outside area.
Have no problem with mancubus close encounter.
The pinky can not come down from stairs, because stairs is too narrow.
Use chainsaw against those pinky groups or you will run out of ammo.
I hope to find backpack but still no luck.

[Spectre01]

MAP05 - "Infrastructure Sector"

Another sewer/nukage-themed map with the usual techbase sections throughout. I liked the main courtyard area with the grass and trees. It was nice to start with the Chaingun and not feel starved for ammo. Although it would be nice to start seeing the SSG with mid-tiers like Hell Knights and Cacos becoming more common (and rocket ammo still scarce). Another aspect of the set I'm noticing is the generally rectangular/orthogonal design of the rooms. Nothing wrong with that, just seems everybody's drawing curves all over these days.

[Spectre01]

MAP06 - "Central Command"

Finally an SSG and a surprisingly tougher encounter in the room above! Overall enjoyable map, although I strongly dislike the blinking maze section. Never a fan of the seizure-inducing "flash to 0 brightness" effects. The ending was cool too and the first time the RL ends up doing some work on those Knights and Cacos. I really like those green outdoor rock textures and it looks like we're finally venturing outside. Interesting intermission text too, which will hopefully make sense later.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP07, E2-1: Industrial Zone

 

Now this one's an interesting shift in many ways, abandoning the relatively bright and functional techbase theme for a descent into grimy industrial darkness now that night has fallen.  The average opposition here is quite a bit tougher, lots of mancubi and arachnotrons serving as tough nuggets of gristle to stymie your progress at key points and intersections while pinky demons and spectres make up the "meat" of the demonic forces.  While the map does serve to funnel the player in a particular direction, toward the yellow door and then off to the eastern end of the level to pick up the required key, it does permit an invading marine to double back and approach problems from a different angle, although the use of one-way transitions - lifts, drops, and in one case a door that's locked from one direction only - means that you often have to push forward to find an escape route, rather than simply camping or retreating.  All in all this is a solid level and an engaging start to the new episode and theme.

[DAZZER]

MAP07: Industrial Zone

Time: 8:38

 

I am a little bit sad, the rock outdoor setting is just here to connect the previous with this level and lead to another Tech-Base. But this one is quite hard if you compare it to previous ones. With Arachnotrons and Mancubi this Map creates hard situations throughout the Level. Most of the time your Rocketlauncher can be very helpful here but sometimes there wasn't enough space and your Super Shotgun had to do the Job. Luckily there always was enough Munition for both. The Layout of the Map was pretty unlinear and some areas were decorated really cool and interesting. For some reason I really liked the rise of the Pain Elemental from the firered window :) A solid start in the second Episode.

[Deadwing]

Map 07 -  It's a fun level, mostly based on one setpiece after another. There's also no hitscanners except the Chaingunner in the beginning (to provide the weapon to the player) and shotgunner in the end (so I could add a shotgun in the beginning of the next level). This is all about dodging and moving strategically while being out of the comfort zone (going through a lift, ledge drop, one-way doors or acid cross). Because of the mostly simple layout of the level, in some other areas you have teleport lines that should help to keep things interesting and avoid the classic camping fighting.

 

Originally this was supposed to be a Dead Simple clone, but thankfully I didn't know how to use the tags 666 and 667, so things didn't got too clichê haha The level went through a lot of iterations, where many rooms got more interesting battles and interconnected layouts, although I agree with @Capellanabout the exit being whatever. It could have a more interesting layout and a setpiece.

 

 

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP07 Industrial Zone

 

Well this is MAP07, so in anticipation I clearly thought it was another clone of Dead Simple as given the previous maps, I thought it progress as such. But this isn't an arena, and even though our Dead Simple monsters make their grand appearance in this map, I really don't remember seeing anything triggered by the 666 or 667 tags in this nonlinear level. Good to have the right kind of space and mobility to take on who I can here. Liking the room with the demons and spectres near the chaingun, and the cargo area wasn't bad either, also we got an early appearance by pain elementals in a devious pincer trap. No hitscanners apart from that shotgun guy I saw at the exit, strange.

[Demtor]

 

MAP07 - "Industrial Zone"

gzDoom - UV – pistol start/no saves

 

Well hello there fat guys! Lets get crazy! Spiders too? Oh my.

 

Time to step up the challenge a bit eh? I liked it. This was a nice nonlinear map with a variety of different ways to approach. The challenge seemed to be picking the best route and surviving the space squeezes.

 

Again we have to deal with another tech base with lots of ceiling lights and what not. I thought we were moving away from that theme with more natural settings instead but oh well. The view from outside was nice but it seems we are destined to slog it out in straight angled rooms of varying shapes and sizes.

 

The fire windows in the dark cargo box area are kind of weird. I dunno. For whatever reason they seemed really out of place here. Perhaps it’s because there is no fire or red anywhere else in this map. Just a few spots randomly here and there that use the same design. Seems odd given the theme of the rest of the map.

 

As was finding the two switches to fill the green goo pit so you could jump through the window. How did that work? Did the goo drain? I thought it was recessed into the ground? Did it fill with quick drying cement? How did it get covered up? How?!?! *head explodes*  Whatever. The YK fight was frantic and a fun surprise.

 

All in all this was a fun map to introduce the next episode with a few new enemies and a slight change in the design approach. Felt like a good pace changer. Again, awesome music. Is there a bad track in the bunch? I bet there isn’t.

[paymentplan]

MAP07 - Industrial Zone

Kills: 96% Secrets: 66%

 

Yay, an interesting starting view in this map! Was excited to see lots of different textures on use here. Unfortunately little time is spent in the outside area with the lovely green rocks and grass textures. Oh well! Had one death in this map due to an inability to dodge arachnotron fire. Oops! SSG gets to do a lot of work (at least until ammo starts to become tight). The player is encouraged to use the rocket launcher, gaining access to it right at the start, but the map is mostly small rooms and thin corridors, so using the rocket launcher can be scarier than the monsters! I opted to rely mostly on the SSG and chaingun and berserk after a not insignificant amount of self-rockets.

 

I think my favorite part of the map was the incongruous rock area in the heart of the map with the teleporter in it. It was so strange seeing that rock texture inside the building. Really liked it!

 

Difficulty is slowly ramping up... Hoping for a more unique setting soon. Like @Demtor said it seems like we're destined to stay inside buildings all day!

[Deadwing]

You guys are going to get dissapointed =x

 

More open levels will appear only in episode 3...

[Capellan]

MAP08

Hello revenants.  I've not missed you.  Not that old bony gave me much trouble on this map, as I had plenty of cover in my first encounter, and good RNG luck on my second.

 

Strong Underhalls vibe in the early going, with the pipewall and water combo plus the 'house-like' structure on one side.  After that it was mostly back to the cement and metal visual style of the last map, though with generally more open areas that didn't feel as oppressive.

 

The action is milder than last map, at least on HMP, with fewer multi-pronged threats.  Progress-wise, I think the red key should have been omitted.  Make the red door a blue door and leave the PG room as an optional journey.  The weapon by itself is plenty of reason to make the trip, IMO.

 

I appreciate that the secrets in these maps are often larger than just the little closets we commonly see, but they're sometimes a bit scant on the resources.  In the balancing act of trying to make secrets worthwhile but not overpowering, I think Moonblood is tending to fall on the "underwhelming" side of the line.

[Snikle]

MAP07: Dead simple clone 

Ah yeah, new episode, new look. And new opposition. Being map 7, there are many mancs and trons, but it is not the usual arena map. I like that. I also liked the nonlinear and strange progression of this map. And the visual style was better than episode 1. Doom always feels more at home in grungy bases than in flashy ones. There was also the lack of hitscanners, sans 2, that made this map different from the preceding ones. Will this hold up through the entire episode? Who knows, I haven’t played it yet, but it may be interesting if it does. Like someone else said, I had no idea that you had to cross through the window to get the yellow key, and I was looking around for ten minutes before I accidentally went to the other side of it. That’s my only gripe though. Another good map.

[NuclearPotato]

MAP07 - Industrial Zone

60/60 kills, 1/3 secrets

 

So I think it's pretty safe to say that Deadwing took off the kid's gloves for the start of E2.  Rather than the blind corners of the past 6 maps, here we've got blind lifts and monster closets, invariably full of arachnotrons and Mancubi.  (Of course they'd show up here; it's MAP07).  Fortunately, this is no Dead Simple clone; the corridors in this base are just as winding as the previous maps (and seems a bit larger than the E1 maps, in my mind).  The map was difficult enough that I had to resort to saves, just so I wouldn't have to deal with going through it all again whenever an ambush blindsighted me.  That's not to say I didn't like the map; just that the difficulty is a whole level above what's come previously.

[Demon of the Well]

I've been playing along as well, but am going to try a much more abridged posting format (for real this time!) for now in the interest of time management. My plan is to drop in with some commentary after each 'episode', based on the assumption that these are set up more or less similarly to the Scythe II model (i.e. blocks of 5-6 maps or so all sharing a general setting or theme), which was my impression of the project from before it was called "Moonblood."

 

FDAs pack (skill 4) for E1 (m01-m06): http://www.mediafire.com/file/q85yw2vm7sh6juw/MoonbldE1_DotW.zip

 

Mostly routine stuff, though I did very nearly GAD myself into smithereens in m06, courtesy of proper specter usage, hats off to Deadwing for that. Also, don't ask me why I dropped into the nukage system in m05 without donning one of the clearly placed haz suits 3 feet away first, I honestly don't know what the fuck I was thinking there.

 

I'll admit that seeing a Phobos-alike setting used for the first episode had me immediately lowering my expectations for gameplay and design just a bit (having not previously played any of the author's other work), but fortunately actually playing the thing shows that the set has its own distinct voice not based in any significant way on homagery. Within the bounds of the relatively modest Phobos texture scheme, there's a pleasing and mostly effective effort of distinguishing maps visually from each other while maintaining the sense that they belong together in a themed block (crucial to the episode format); KDitD is so deeply ingrained in the psyche of most Doomers that using its visual style can probably be viewed as a cheap/easy out for achieving the latter, but there's no faking the former. The increasingly industrial slant of later maps in the block (with more cement, rusty metal, and exposed copper circuitry) contrasts nicely with the more traditional brown/green toxin refinery/military base look of the earlier maps, something fueled by the steady introduction of more Doom II textures, presumably a sly way of slowly seguing into the greater theme shift of E2.

 

As for the action itself, well....it wouldn't be incorrect to say I was entertained, but neither was I blown away at any point. To some considerable extent, of course, this is probably down more to my personal attitude towards 'traditional' E1 fare than to any particular problem with the design. As with the aesthetic aspect, the layouts and structure are generally clean and functional without anything particularly ostentatious, and while certain tropes in physical design are evident from map to map they all have some kind of feature or features to keep them from blurring together too much--the titular cement courtyard in m04, the cordoned-off nukage system with filtration grates and stilled turbines and such in m05, the peculiar underground bunker housing the red card with lift-laden circuit of narrow hallways around it in m03, and so forth.

 

No level struck me as being particularly phoned in (something I find to be a recurrent issue with sets made out of small/simple/casual maps, including some of The Greats), though I did notice that several of them have small areas which feel like vestigial organelles or the like, taking up space off the beaten path, but containing next to nothing to make them worth visiting, either--the south/central computer room in m02, the upstairs 'potion attic' in m03, the grey server 'maze' at the southeast corner of m05 (which is actually part of mandatory progression, I suppose), that sort of thing. These are small maps to begin with, and so I don't want to overstate the impact these areas make (they take only a few moments each to play), but they do strike me as padding, something that small maps by their design generally don't need. I noticed all of these rooms are also rather similar in terms of both geometry and content, suggesting they might be less developed relics of the author's actual design method (i.e. drawing shapes and rooms as they come and figuring out how to tie everything together as one goes along), but perhaps I'm mistaken about that, of course.

 

Not much in the way of memorable fights per se, yet, though of course I'll certainly remember almost exploding myself in the underhalls of m06 for a while to come. The combat gains most of its character not from monster placement or fight design but rather from item balance, which by early game standards is noticeably rather tight, with surprisingly little 'scratch' until very late in levels from pistol-start, not something commonly seen in a context where basic imps and zombies in conventional placements are the main fare. In effect, this is something of a mixed bag. The primary weapon for like 90% of the time is the shotgun; surviving from bandolier to bandolier, or from dropped shotgun to dropped shotgun reads fairly naturally, since it's a single-shot sort of weapon that can reliably see 5-6 kills for every 8 rounds of ammo against the core opposition in the episode. However, this stinginess saps the fun to be had with chaingun and especially RL to no small degree, since very rarely do you feel like you can actually cut loose with the former, and it's very difficult to read satisfying uses for the latter; there's far less inclination to fire a rocket at what may be a 'lesser' target when you only get to fire the weapon 2-3 times per level, if that. To some extent, this almost exaggeratedly understated attitude towards items takes some of the interest out of the secret-hunting, since often I found the reward to be nothing than a small room with a few potions or helmets, almost closer to Wolf3D in tone than anything. Some secrets are still quite relevant (sewer RL in m04, etc.), mind you, and some are fun to find even if the actual payoff is piddly (like the quirky chainsaw drop in m03), but in hindsight 20/20 and all that I reckon the episode probably could've done well with a few less of its throwaway secrets and just gathered its better stuff a little more tightly into its niftier ones. Of course, too early to tell if this is going to be a set-wide criticism, of course--for all I know, it could be a theme of E1 in particular, or the result of a very gentle touch with the game-length difficulty curve, etc.

 

More generally: I'm quite a fan of mapsets using custom palettes or colormaps, and so I'm happy to use the filtered/washed-out one that comes standard with Moonblood. Not one I'd want to use every day, mind, and if anything I might say it is perhaps a mite too subtle to add as much flavor as it otherwise could, but it's an appreciated if largely inconsequential touch nonetheless, like parsley flakes in your tomato bisque or whatnot. I've also been enjoying the new music so far, as well. These are of course original compositions of the author's own making, but there's a certain comfortable familiarity about their tone and arrangement, which moves calmly from genre to genre between songs (but seldom within them). The more or less conventional compositions don't really remind me of well-known Doom midis from the 90s as such (at least not the original ones as opposed to sundry pop/rock/metal covers, anyway), but they most certainly DO remind me of other video game music writ large from that period (in the FPS field the closest comparison I kept finding myself making was to the Blake Stone soundtrack), with an emphasis on brawl-jazz and chip-funk and a touch of butt-rock here and there. I like it, I guess it's hitting the right notes on the nostalgia spectrum for me, sounds authentic/sincere rather than fashionably retro.

[antares031]

MAP08 - Sewers
ZDoom, UV - PS, KIS(%): 100/97/100

 

Scored first death in front of red keycard. I should have paid more attention against mancubi duo. Anyway, here we have a medium-sized, non-linear level to play. For some reason, the titular sewage tunnels reminded me the MAP02 of Doom 2; Underhalls, since they have similar texture usage and lighting design. The monster placement is pretty reasonable, without any teleportation ambushes from behind. But keep in mind to hunt down the spectres in the dark tunnel before they bite you. Not a bad level, and I'm enjoying this second episode so far.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP07: Industrial Zone

17:54 | 100% Kills | 96% Items | 100% Secrets

 

So E2 starts ramping up the difficulty real fast. Ugh. So many absolute dick traps in this map, it might as well have been named "I Had The Wrong Weapon Equipped When I Entered The Room So Now I'm Dead". The starting manc room alone cost me probs half a dozen, and that was just me getting started. Missed an item somewhere, dunno what. Figured it would have been one of the bonuses in the darkened crate room, but I pored over that place twice. Speaking of, it took me way too long to realize I could hop the windowsill to get into the yellow key room there.

 

MAP08: Sewers

17:53 | 100% Everything

 

A very Underhalls-y vibe, as has been previously noted. A lot of mean traps here, too, though not nearly as brutal as the previous map. I died only once, in the teleporter wing near the blue key. (Not sure what the point of that room was, really?) Also, can I say I'm getting bored with the dark areas in these maps? The secret areas in the couple earlier levels were obnoxious enough, but these last two have had more expansive areas of near-blackness. (I'm playing in a darkened basement and can barely see anything. Guess I could hit the gamma key, but...) On a related note, I thought there was more strobe-lighting going on here, but it was just my chaingun lighting up the darkened tunnel walls. Is that OG Doom behavior? Or something (G)ZDoom does? (I don't have lights.pk3 or brightmaps.pk3 or anything loaded, so it's not that.)

[Magnusblitz]

E2-2: Sewers

100% kills, 1/2 secrets

 

Yup, definite Underhalls vibe here for the actual sewers, given the water + green/brown pipe texture combo, though it doesn't make up too much of the level, instead having a bit of Doom 2 techbase and metalbase to it. I found this level quite aggravating for awhile because I was stuck with the single shotgun so long, with not enough bullet and rocket ammo to use anything else, until I realized there was an SSG right at the start, but I had taken the wrong hallway. Fun. I also got lost more than usual so far, though part of that might've been because I played the level in two chunks.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP08, E2-2: Sewers

 

I'll second (fourth?) the MAP02: Underhalls impression that's been previously mentioned; it's particularly evident toward the start of the map, with the sewer tunnel splitting in two to encircle the substructure that (the player eventually learns) contains the red key.  It's intriguingly nonlinear, with a lot of replayability, not just because the player can take different routes on subsequent playthroughs, but also because the player's very lack of knowledge of the map shapes the probable route(s) taken on the first playthrough.  There are various drops and connections that are one-way passages initially, that might embolden some players and discourage others, sending them instead looking for passages that allow backtracking rather than taking a blind, one-way leap into the unknown, but having played through the map and discovered where the switches that permit return journeys are, those passages become more appealing avenues of exploration even for cautious players.  The tendency toward tunnels of fairly uniform width, many rooms of quite similar scale and tecture, and a lack of significant areas of void space in the layout, made this one a bit difficult for me to get my head around in terms of its overall layout; even quite late in my progression through the level, I found myself checking my automap rather often because I was struggling to build one mentally.

[DAZZER]

MAP08: Sewers

Time: 10:38

 

Like Everyone before I have to say it again. This Map really feels at some points like "Underhalls" from Doom II. These Waterfloor areas have those Classic vibes. It also felt like this Map had more hitscanners then previous Maps. But maybe it just feels like that cause the last one only had 2. The Map itself was pretty strict forward but All in All it really felt unlinear most time. Finding Keys and Doors wasn't a big problem and the idea with the timebased Teleporter ontop of the crate was also very Doom II like. I can't remember getting much health in this Map but somehow it was clearly enough. I would wish there would be a theme change cause if it wasn't said nobody would notice this is a different episode. So another solid Tech-Base Map :)

[Deadwing]

Map 08: A map quite inspired on the classic Doom 2 one haha It's one of the least linear of this mapset, although it's very small, but the relative small size of the rooms allows a lot of different routes, and even seeing lots of fda's/playthrought of this, it always surprise me that someone finds a different route from what I was expecting. Revenants are introduced here, but they aren't hard to take down. Gameplay-wise the level is easier than the previous one, IMO, mixing the quick action of the first episode with more setpieces moments and some unpredictable traps. My favorite is the last one, where the HK push the players to the next area and then the spiders + fodder reveal themselves, making it a challenging setpiece, but not really hard, especially if you use the PL. Some more conservative players will prefer to take down the HK before going outside and killing the rest of the monsters while being safe, though. It's a level which I enjoy more than the last one, although it feels too cramped by today's standard.

 

Originally this was the arachnotron level, so there was no mancubi, revenants or pain elementals. It was a linear level too, most rooms were more simple shaped and cramped and you could kill all the enemies from safety (except for the Plasma Gun trap). When remixing it, I thought the spiders weren't doing much, so I added the mancubi and Pain Elementals, and then only after getting some feedback I added Revenants (they were supposed to appear initially only on map 14). The downside of this is that the level lost one of its features and it made feel less "unique", especially considering the next levels which were quite similar. (I hope not so much anymore lol)

 

(the sound becomes really awful after I get the Plasma Gun :/)

 

Edited August 8, 2017 by Deadwing

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP08 Sewers

 

Oh well hello Underhalls. Would've expected a map to look like Underhalls sooner rather than later, but the challenges actually are quite tough. As you would expect, hitscanners are the biggest threat, but don't leave out the rest of the enemies either. The layout makes things a lot harder to deal with, it was actually easy for me to get myself lost. The other enemies, were there revenants in the last map on HMP? I don't remember seeing them in MAP06, but whatever. A cool sewer map.

[riderr3]

MAP08
Starting area of this map is reminds me of MAP02:Underhalls, and that is nice.
I like how CEMENT texture is used there. I'm rarely use this texture set in my wads, pity.
Watch out of chaingunners, especially after getting blue key, they are roaming among the sewers.
As the other maps in this wad you are always need medikits and always searching for them.

[antares031]

MAP09 - Delta Labs Industrial Research
ZDoom, UV - PS, KIS(%): 100/73/33

 

Just in case if you're wondering: No, those blue circles are not pain sectors, so feel free to step on them. Anyway, this level starts with a cross-shaped corridor with some zombies and imps to fight. You can find a yellow skull nearby, which is not essential to finish the level, but it will provide some useful items during the progression, even a night vision goggle in the secret area. Speaking of which, there's a dark maze beyond the red skull door with only few light sources. You'll be attacked by unexpected spectres and shotgun guys from the darkness, unless you find the powerup that I mentioned. But this is not a major problem, compare to the worst part. An UAC door from the dark area, sector 293, is designed as an open-close door. Which means that you need to press the switch again, just to open the closed door. So if you are interrupted by zombies and a revenant, and you're out of radiation suit, I hope you don't bother to cross that hazardous pit repeatedly. You may just enter the room before the door is closed, but it would be better if the door is just stay opened after I press the switch.

[Capellan]

MAP09

A bitier map than the last level, at least after the fairly gentle opening tekgreen section.  The trap in the plasma gun area is likely to hurt if you have the wrong weapon out, for instance, and cunningly, it gives you time to switch away from the PG before springing it.  Or there's the pincer on the red key.  It isn't all that deadly in absolute terms, but it's certainly more aggressive than anything on map08.  And as for the revenant/sergeant/chaingunner gangbang after you run through the timed door in the SE corner?  I'm certainly very glad I was still benefiting from the light amp goggles when I hit that little hootenanny!