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dobu gabu maru

The DWmegawad Club plays: Reverie

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oh, great. not only had the dreaded mid point of the month two big maps in a row, but i also managed to shut down my pc yesterday without saving all my ramblings, so just some short comments on them:

 

 


MAP15 - “Blade Runner”

 

city map featuring a collection of elements from various iwad maps, i think others have already named them, i observed and smiled, as i like such "fan service". the start is a bit austere, you have to use the few rockets wisely, and punch or saw a lot. ok, that was a bit easier for me because i sawed the spiders in gzdoom, and sniped back at whatever chaingunners using mouselook. the ammo problems disappeared when i found the backpack. as the organ grinder said, valkiriforce found his formula for city maps, and i enjoyed how i went smoothly from one key to the gate it unlocks, although only a few days ago i complained how disoriented i am at city maps, so the formula works, i guess  ;)


the map soon transitioned from austerity to an almost slaughter-like finaly, where the revenant pack behind the yellow door was the more difficult part, because i stumbled back into the teleporter. the beasties waiting below were an infight simulator.

 

 

 

MAP31 - “Metal Mansion”

 

monumental map, a huge fortress made of dark metal, but not so player-friendly as m15. it has chaingunners in every corner, revenants in tight places, and archviles. and especially puzzles. really impressive map in size and complexity, how well he combined all those passages opening up. reading that it's meant as a map in the style of bob evans was not exactly inspiring. to each his own. i kept pressing whatever i guessed was a switch, searched now empty corridors to no avail. but as my patience was running out, i appreciated valkiri's fair play of offering the exit right away. 

 

 

 

MAP32 - “Deadlock”

 

the contrast to the sprawling m31, a short, punchy slaughtermap. it's not that hard for its kind though, that is not one of these where you fire the bfg like there's no tomorrow. in fact i didn't even find the bfg during my first playthrough and i didn't really need it. not if you don't play speedy and release all 3 waves without clearing the previous one (first mancs and cacos, second 2 cybs and many revenants, third knights, pains and cacos). without the bfg i shot the mastermind in the exit in its legs to kill it, standing behind the corner where it couldn't see me. not as heroic as running at it with the bfg charging up, but effective. so, yeah, that was relaxing fun after having abandoned m31. i had to load this map without smooth doom though because else it slowed down to a crawl.

 

 

 

MAP16 - “Dark Zone”

 

or tricks & traps II, and how it plays depends in which order you take the branches leaving off the central hub. some encounters are rather harmless, like humans or imps in corridors or on bridges, some hilarious, i mean the mob on the street, begging for a rocket salvo, and one cost me a life, that stupid elevator which lowered me suddenly in front of 3 revs, with no space to back off. i assumed the archie behind the yellow bars would teleport out, but instead he let himself get shot there in his closet.

 

 

 

MAP17 - “Fatality"

 

thanks to tmorrow and gaspe for commenting on this map, i was about to call it a day after those lengthy maps, and m17 came refreshing after the long maps, a good hub map, not very difficult, many nobles in front or revenants with corners to dodge their missiles, but still looks oppressive with its stony browns and drumming music.
 

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crispy - uv pistol starts - saves

map16
A pretty cool map, again letting you choose what order to grab keys in. I ended up going red->blue->yellow as that seemed to be the easiest way for me. Generally I have nothing much to say about this map since I pretty much liked everything that was there.

 

map17
This map reuses the three key things from map32, but as opposed to being used as a large combat area, it merely serves as a hub for the various branches in the level. Again, you can choose keys in any order you want to. I chose blue->yellow->red since that was probably the easiest way. The red key section is by far the largest area of the map, itself having three places to go to in any order. I did the left first (getting you the PR to help with the canyon). Overall, probably one of the better maps in the set so far.

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6 hours ago, Pirx said:

oh, great. not only had the dreaded mid point of the month two big maps in a row, but i also managed to shut down my pc yesterday without saving all my ramblings, so just some short comments on them:

 

Yeah I know what you mean, mappers should start making their 15-31-32-16 maps small and quick to get through for the dreaded hump point of the Club. :)

 

MAP15: Blade Runner

100% kills, 6/6 secrets

 

Not sure what the name has to do with the map, but then again, the name didn't have much to do with the movie either... anyways, this is another city-style map with lots of discrete buildings, and I'd say it's definitely an ode to Industrial Zone as there are a few spots (the square spiral building, the northeast building) that seem homage-y. It's alright for the most part, there are a few annoying bits here and there, such as some blind lifts/teleports and a few rooms that are just huge groups of chaingunners. The climatic battle was a dull thud for me, as the player can just start infighting simply by staying up above where they are, and the layout of the ground floor makes it quite easy to deal with the demons.

 

I wasn't a fan of the ammo dispersal either, as it's mostly gathered in a few huge clumps here and there, meaning things can get lean if you go about things in the wrong order. I myself didn't get the rocket launcher until I already had the red key, which meant I was carrying around 25+ useless rockets for most of the map while straining on bullets/shells. At the red door I said "ya know, there's probably a launcher somewhere" and I did go find it, so that's not really the map's fault, and if anything maybe a point in it's favor, for letting me go explore instead. Something that is a nice break since the progression is otherwise pretty linear with the keys and blocking columns.

 

Took me frickin' forever to find the exit... I actually had the switch that opens the door fairly early, but the switch that opens up the plasma gun/soulsphere in the south building took a lot of wall-humping to find.

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MAP17: Fatality

 

A fairly interesting variation on the hubspoke layout, in that the red key spoke of the main hub functions as a miniature hubspoke layout of its own.  It's a very brown map but it's not unattractive in spite of that, making the best use of its restrained palette, all accompanied by a menacing music track that throbs and looms and eventually brings in a playful, eerie whistle to set the player's nerves on edge.  Difficulty seems like it would be very variable depending on which path the player chooses to take first, fortunately the red key area asks the player to drop into holes in the ground as a subtle hint that maybe the other paths are easier and should be explored first before committing to such spelunking.

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MAP17 Fatality

 

Reminder we are not playing Mortal Kombat here, and this map also is apparently inspired by Cleimos's The Five, which had the same pillars at the start. They all have keys, save for the one with the secret. You guessed it, a real ye old hub map. Three paths, all lead to one key. Blue and yellow are shortest, red requires quite some work, including heading through three different teleporters for different sidequests. The valley sticks out most. A bit of moat crawling will reach the switch. Also, having the color-coded skull bars around the switches that lower keys can confuse players sometimes. Whatever. Combat-wise, a hitscanner haven again, with the mid-tier or baron showing up for some variety. The door swinging wide open to the next level is great.

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map18: Sleeping Spirits
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

A nasty map. The "sleeping spirits" or ghost imps are triggered from your first shot. These buggers can walk through most walls and can only be killed with melee infighting or rocket splash damage. Not many maps feature the ghost imp, ones that come to mind are Requiem map23 and Hell Revealed map26.
 

The second problem after the ghost imps is the crusher area with 3 switches guarded by an archvile. You need precise movements to avoid being crushed. I ended up using tab with the map zoomed in to make the moves. Two of my uvmax attempts were ruined at the crushers.

Finally the yellow key card trap can be quite tricky as well if you can't get the enemies to infight sufficiently to keep the heat off you.

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MAP17: Fatality

UV/Pistol start/No saves

Deaths:0

 

A brown short map starting in a hub. Not much to say, it's inoffensive as whole, and it's easy as monsters are placed to find them always in front of you. I went yellow-blue-red, with the last wing being the longest to traverse. Yeah, it's a fine map, don't really have anything else to say.

 

 

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map17 fda

a foreboding and menacing midi not matched by much of the combat, which is presented pretty much front-on for all the run-time. still, it wasnt a bad map and didnt outstay its welcome. the only sour note was the teleport onto the tightrope with  the two HKs either side. felt a little bit unfair and mean-spirited.

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MAP18: It's quite remarkable the use of the ghost monsters, after your first shot they'll start to chase you. At least the rocket launcher to deal with them is easy to get, maybe a bit too much. The map is largely inspired by Icarus MAP19, both have a similar look and they both feature a rain effect used in the outdoor area. Despite everything is brown the level isn't dull looking, the texturing is varied and lots of colored torches are used. The mood is pretty spooky, thanks also to the music and I liked that valkiriforce included a little trip to do outside the mansion.

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MAP18: Sleeping Spirits

 

I think it would be easy to dismiss this as a gimmicky map built around the surprising use of ghostly monsters (imps, in this case) and the unique challenges and inconveniences that they create.  And that would be a shame, both because the ghostly imps are (relatively) easily dealt with when they make their appearances, thanks to the early provision of a rocket launcher to reasonably sharp-eyed and situationally aware players, and because there's so much more to this map than a single monster-related gimmick.  It's a creepy and atmospheric crawl through a haunted mansion that's just disjointed and peculiar enough in its architecture to be disorienting, subjecting the player to a barrage of elevation changes and looping stairways and windows overlooking vistas of rain-drenched darkness where other rooms, other parts of the structure, ought to be.  Yes, the transparent animated rain texture is nothing too technologically fancy, but it really works, especially during the player's brief jaunt through the yard from one porch to another, fumbling almost blindly through the depths of the storm from shelter to shelter even as the presence of two visually similar porches serves to further disorient and discomfort.  I do like the very deliberate shifts in setting, tone, scale, and gameplay style from map to map in this WAD, which have become more pronounced now than was the case earlier in the month; I'm left with a feeling as I sit down every day that I never know quite what Reverie has in store for me.

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MAP18 Sleeping Spirits

 

Since the end of the previous level didn't look like the start of this one, we just assume that Green Marine entered the library of this house and decided to sleep in someone's bed. Whoseever it is, it didn't matter to Green Marine, as things were 100% quiet and vacant upon his arrival, and he was so tired he needed that refreshing nap. And yet, during the stormy night, the monsters come, and they have some new tricks up their sleeves in this one.

 

What? I felt like writing that! Also that guitar tone I love shows up again for this MIDI.

 

A unique level, as it is one that utilizes the ghost monster bug from the get-go. We also have a shootable switch at the start, gotta shoot that OR just use the secrets. Several easy ones to get here, could be helpful, because the moment you shoot, the moment the arch-vile in the blue key area resurrects the ghosts, and a rocket launcher is just behind the starting point in a secret. Other than that, not a whole lot in the way of surprise attacks, Green Marine just wakes up to find that unwelcome guests park their butts around the whole of this not-so metal mansion. I for one am glad that the ghosts aren't SS this time around. At the top, we got another ye old hub, sadly, but we gotta do some work for the red and blue keys. Red involves running out in the pouring rain, which normally would be a visual effect. Blue, where the arch-vile is, involves killing the damn thing and some three switches behind crushers. Staying in the middle is very hard to do, need some precise movements here to get in, get each switch, and take the lift back. The yellow key is in this level's only teleporter ambush.

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Replayed map 18:

 

I remeber it as not very impressive on my first playthrough on continuous; now, on pistol start, I think it's one of the best of E2. Pretty tricky, you have to move fast at the beginning to find the few rockets scattered in the map for the ghost imps. The level being quite strict on the ammo/powerups doesn't allow many mistakes on the player side. The YSK room is really nice visually and my favorite bit of the map

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map18 fda

love this map! the rain effect, the midi, the intertwining route (but still easily navigable without using automap 100% of the time!), the ghost monsters chasing you about - 1st class

only thing i didnt like was the BK vile - what is the intended strat there? i just had to time the lift and go up and down shooting him every 'journey' - boring!

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MAP18: Sleeping Spirits

UV/Pistol start/couple of saves

Deaths: 3

 

How could I forget to mention the trick with the doors from the previous map! That was a good way to make the entrance more creepy. And yes this map is haunted by ghostly imps, fortunately they can't resist a good dose of splash damage. The task is to find more rockets to kill them all, before you choose to get keys, unless you don't care about a few scratches from the walls. To make it even more spooky, the author added a texture to simulate it's raining, I think I saw this in Icarus and Batman Doom too, except here you can run through the blurry rain. I don't know if anyone else noticed you can turn on and off the TV in the bedroom, seems to be an effect valkiriforce liked since you can also turn TVs on in his Oceanside wad. Now, about the blue skull key part, seriously those crushers are annoying, I could come out alive during my recording, but previously I died two times, you have to press the three switches to open a path that has hidden shotgunners in order to max the map. Besides it was also tedious to off that archvile in those conditions. But the rest was enjoyable, particularly the YK part which is easily cheesable by not shooting the mancs until you can leave the room, then let infighting take care of everything. I dig the hub/hallway with torches of different colours, it's a neat way to detail it imo.

 

 

Edited by galileo31dos01

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map19: Dusk Town
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

A small, linear map that contains 5 archviles and some mid and low tier enemies. Fortunately only 3 of the archviles can roam. The most dangerous trap is the one triggered when you collect the plasma rifle.

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Skipping the secret levels for now since MAP31 is a big puzzle one and I need to catch up.

 

MAP16: Dark Zone

100% kills, 1/3 secrets

 

Like a lot of the rest of you I was expecting a Tricks and Traps homage, but other than the starting room didn't really get that feeling, just more of a valk's usual mapping styles. There are a few too many 64-wide corridors for my taste, and a good portion of the map is either clearing out chaingunners in a hallway one at a time, or just clearing out a room full of demon meat with only one way in, but thankfully the map is quick and punchy enough that it doesn't become too much of a downer.

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MAP17: Fatality

100% kills, 1/4 secrets

 

Another hub map, and a relatively small one, perhaps a bit repetitive after MAP16's similar design. The blue and yellow zones are basically glorified hallways, most of the map is actually in the red key portion (including it's own little hub). The one benefit of this is that I was left with a "that's it?" feeling that made me reach out and hit the switch and realize that it was one of those "this is labelled with the skulls because it lowers the key, not requires it" things... anyways, not much memorable about this map, it's very Doom 2 brown and finishes before you know it. I will say that the item placement was much better than some of the other maps so far, the RL in particular came at the perfect moment.

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map19

A pretty short level which is really short on health if you don't know any secrets. Unfortunately I didn't find the soulsphere so I was stuck playing that way. Other than that, the level has a nice mixture of cramped and outdoor areas and some pretty deadly arch viles (especially at the end).

 

I got a HOM in the blue key area but it seems to be more of a random thing since I can't do it again.

 

doom04kvgjhkbhjkljkl.png

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MAP19: It's pretty cool in its simplicity, with some nice details here and there to break the overall basic look and I liked the layout.

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MAP19: Dusk Town

 

A map that's almost surprising in its compact footprint, straightforward gameplay, and fast pace of combat and progression from area to area; I can't help but feel that I'm being set up for something here, invited to let my guard down, though with the next map occupying the end-of-episode MAP20 slot I suppose that may well be what's just around the corner.  There are some fun visual effects and secrets to be found here, such as the tomb/crematorium with a coffin that the player flips open to release an angry and prematurely buried revenant, and the general layout and atmosphere of the computer/library area in the west of the map is really cool; I enjoy the level of abstraction that's at work here, where there's an obvious atmosphere and sense of place to the level but the smooth flow of gameplay and movement from place to place is never sacrificed on the twin altars of detail and verisimilitude.

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MAP19 Dusk Town

 

Possibly the shortest map we've seen yet. Got some Plutonia vibes, some tough scenarios. Actually scratch that, this one isn't tough, but it's certainly short. In fact the last few maps are medium-sized to the short scale, this one is truly short. Forget that, we've got quite a few revenants, some mancubi, and chaingunners on a bridge seen at the beginning. It's easy to play your cards right for this map though, as nothing here is frustrating. Amazing how all three keys are used in this very short map too.

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MAP19: Dusk Town

UV/Pistol start/No saves

Deaths: 0

 

Nice short map, this one has its moments, not only combat-wise but the little details, like the revenant popping out from the grave, or the army of chaingunners you can see their heads from below (this was very funny to me, you can see in the video that I stared at them for a few seconds). But combat-wise it can be rough, particularly after you cross the bridge, which btw the whole outside area is an augmented version of the triple-colour-bars section of map 16, now that I think about it... Anyway, the demo is a bit sloppy, of course archviles, and mancubi, I don't care, it was a fun map overall. 

 

 

13 hours ago, Spie812 said:

I got a HOM in the blue key area but it seems to be more of a random thing since I can't do it again.

That's rare, it doesn't happen to me in Crispy or GlBoom+.

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map20: One Such Reverie
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

A bigger map than the last four. This map is fairly linear, leading you from section to section via teleporters. Designing the map this way adds an element of surprise each time you teleport into a new area. There are no nasty gotcha traps but you do meet cybie for an interesting fight. Try not to make my mistake and overlook the rocket launcher as you will run out of ammo near the end and have to resort to punching to death 2 archviles and a bunch of chaingunners. My second attempt at a uvmax succeeded without difficulties.

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map19 fda

another pretty straightforward level, although it did have some more interesting scenarios such as the mancubi courtyard and the surprise chaingunners.

strangely enough the AV use is some of the weakest, even though the wad has been generally good with them; the two locked inside the YK area are completely ineffectual unless youre clumsy enough to let the door close behind you and block you, and the two at the end dont really path into anything they can resurrect.

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MAP18: Sleeping Spirits

98% kills, 2/6 secrets

 

So we awake in (our?) bed, perhaps the preceding 17 levels have all been a dream? Truth be told I'm not really sure if there's a story here. In any event, the main course for this map is the horde of ghost imps that runs around haunting the player. I'm a big fan of ghost monsters, and actually found their use here to be quite exciting, constantly harassing the player as he forges through the level in an attempt to reach the rocket launcher so tantalizingly close at the start. I initially thought the whole map was going to be a quest just to reach the RL, then I'd be able to fry the imps and leave, but I realized by the time I got to the blue key I had somehow unlocked the RL at the start (which was in a secret) and I could just kill the imps now with a good portion of the level left. There's another non-secret RL at the end, so perhaps that was the aim, but I think the level would've been much stronger with just the one RL to reach... as it was, everything after the blue key once the imps are killed is back to the gameplay I've found to be somewhat lacking throughout this WAD, lots of just clearing out medium-tier monsters in non-threatening rooms and hallways. And I really hate that AV near the blue key, I probably died and had to reload at least 10 times on it, because the lift would either raise me back too slow (and the AV would kill me) or it'd raise me back up, bump my head, and then I'd get fried. But yeah, good use of the ghost monsters.

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MAP20: One Such Reverie

 

Things are getting larger in scale again, but this didn't feel too intense, particularly for a level in the MAP20 slot?  The pacing and layout felt a little peculiar, with a sense that the importance or 'value' of an area in terms of progression or available supplies didn't line up neatly with either the scale or the challenge of those areas, and the map itself, the way it fits together neatly on the automap but is broken into distinct and disconnected segments by a sequence of teleporters, has the feel of an exquisite corpse to it, perhaps a result of the stop-start process of creation mentioned by the author in the text file.  Amidst the disarticulated bones of this corpse are some rather delightful nuggest of deviousness and cleverness, though, and overall it's fun to play; I found myself appreciative of the teleporter shortcuts that open up should the player wish to go through the cycle of rooms again in search of additional supplies before leaving the map on continuous play.  I was anticipating a death exit to round out the episode but instead things advanced as normal; I don't know if either that or the big pile of weapons presented at my feet upon loading the next map bodes well for what lies ahead or not.

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MAP20 One Such Reverie

 

You know I never really liked this one all that much. Sure, it's a bigger map than the last four or so maps,  It's not very big though, which I think is fine. But I just feel eh all over. Past the beginning room, figuring how to get up top takes a while, and not a whole lot of opposition greets me there. The level does have a few very good combat moments afterwards, like the yard and any other area with monsters all around an open space. With that bridge over nukage, you can linedef skip the bridge falling down. There's a few puzzling parts, not real puzzles, but finding switches in rather obscure locations. Check that room past the metal stairs, the right side of a computer terminal, or behind a waterfall, for instance. All of these happen to be required switches. And the red key fake-outs were fine, but not all that interesting. The yellow key is surprisingly the last key to get, despite clues that it could be the first to pick up. Just a meh level for me.

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MAP15: Blade Runner

1:00:04 | 98% Kills | 98% Items | 50% Secrets

 

I may have put off playing this for a while due to this map. Last time it was definitely one of the major "what the heck do I do now?" levels for me. I fared much better this time, with fairly minimal running around between buildings wondering where to go next. This one definitely doesn't do any hand-holding. I think the only death I suffered was the chaingunner trap at the top of the elevator in the southeastern building. I did get down to single-digit health a couple of times as well, but thankfully there was a lot of health laying around; a couple of berserks and soulspheres that I rarely needed at the time, so I kept them in the back of my mind (or marked them on the automap) until I needed them. The building interiors themselves were all mostly straightforward, barring the central building that was by far the most interesting to play. (And where I amused myself by SSGing the vile hiding behind the crate early on that would have otherwise been the surprise end to that path. The two big memorable battles were at the switch that lowers the blue bars, and at the end with the whole mob just getting released everywhere. I sorely missed having a BFG, whose secret I never discovered (and only know about thanks to the wiki.) I did get the secret exit, but not by finding the secret switch to lower the crate; rather, I pressed the switch inside the crate from outside. Totes not cheating, I swear.

 

 

MAP31: Metal Mansion

1:07 | 0% Everything

 

This one gave me absolute fits before, to the point where I gave up for like a year before attempting a continuation. Eventually I just gave up entirely, switched to a new update of GZDoom, and pistol-started MAP32 to start a new game. (And of all the levels to pistol start, I picked that one? Blah.) Anyway, this time I simply said screw it, made sure to grab all the ammo I could (since the finale of MAP15 left me pretty dry) and just booked it for the normal (weenie) exit.

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MAP20: This is one of the levels that I liked the most, I only vaguely remembered the first part. The big metal structure is cool, giving a mysterious and ominous feel, and I really liked those skulls and yellow crackle rock details. There's a little detour you can take in a garden to get some supplies, and then some back and forth before taking the first teleport to our quest to get the three keys that will go in a linear way. The blue key part seems like a mix of The abandoned Mines and Gotcha!, with a clear homage to the latter. The red key area gives some Icarus and TNT vibes and it gets more playful with the switches.

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