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dobu gabu maru

The DWmegawad Club plays: Reverie

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blah

 

08 - epic.

09 - very catchy short map, very appropriate between two monster levels. nice puzzle-like gameplay.

10 - masterpiece.

11 - very fun music and lovely almost house.wad-ish design.

12 - nah, cramped monotonous caves will always be boring and the length makes it hard to take the map seriously.

13 - masterpiece, make sure to look up fortress of death on idgames if you love this.

14 - cramped and annoying cuz no good weapons for too long (never found that ssg).

15 - kinda impressive but something is missing. maybe the buildings feel too isolated from each other.

31 - masterpiece.

32 - not much happening here, filler?

16 - ok, but rather random.

17 - again kinda filler-ish and uneventful, guess that's what happens when you want 32 maps.

18 - very strong mood, love it. but why put ghosts if you can kill them immediately?

19 - somehow works really well despite feeling like filler. great mood, excellent music.

20 - fantastic music and everything.

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MAP20: No Such Reverie

UV/Pistol start/Saves

Deaths: 0

 

First map so far where I appreciated foreknowledge, some monster placement here can be nasty if you are not well prepared, particularly after taking teleporters, chaingunners greeting you on the other side. It's not a very long map by Reverie standards, and it's a little bit tight on ammo at the beginning. I'm not sure why are there numbers near the teleport pads, if it's all linear and straightforward you always go 1-2-3 without choice. Anyways, not my favourite map but, it was good, I liked the open areas after the blue key where you can see the water. 

 

 

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MAP16: Dark Zone

20:34 | 100% Kills | 100% Items | 66% Secrets

 

So here you start in a small room and there's like a million different paths. I definitely chose a different order last time, but this time I wound up doing that little stretch of highway or whatever; probably the most deadly section of the level, what with all the meat at one end and a commando squad sniping you from above. I was more-or-less ready for it this time, just hugging the left wall and pumping rockets down the road. Lots of fun a little areas that thankfully didn't drag too long. (The other deadly trap--that actually killed me once--was that one ambush by a vile and his gang of heavies. The secrets, man, I am not a fan of VF's philosophy on secrets (at least in this WAD) where every switch is so obscure, and even the existence of secrets is usually hidden away entirely. The soulsphere had that tiny little camouflaged switch that I only barely noticed on the way out. The blue armor was even more ridiculous: some usable wall detailing (which was plastered all over that area) which briefly lowers an otherwise-innocuous wall? C'mon. No idea where the third secret even might have been. I am disappointed that there wasn't available down in the water (unless I overlooked it.) Decent map.

 

 

MAP17: Fatality

18:19 | 100% Kills | 66% Items | 50% Secrets

 

Oh, this one was fun! Easily one of my favorites from the WAD. Just running through canyons guns blazing, taking care around corners. Just...I dunno. I love this level. Oh, except for those color-coded switches that give access to their key, instead of requiring the key as God intended. I can't stand those; they trip me up every single time.

 

 

MAP18: Sleeping Spirits

100% Kills | 92% Items | 50% Secrets

 

This one's memorable mainly for two reasons: the animated rain, and ghost imps. The rain is a cool effect, though it really needs some ambient sounds for the full effect. And the ghost imps really seem like an afterthought, since there's so few of them. (Maybe a dozen, tops?) Otherwise this is a fun, cramped little mansion crawl with an oddly-large and underpopulated ending area. (Surely one of the secrets I missed was in there?) And the yellow key battle was terribly easy to cheese by just running back to the teleporter. (And then cleanup consisted of teleporting in, firing at everyone clustered in one corner, and teleporting back out ad nauseam. Still, I'm a sucker for non-linear wood-panel-themed house levels.

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map21: Sunrise
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

This is the first secretless map in Reverie, the other 2 are map29 and map30. The map is a short but very intense encounter with a large number of teleporting enemies. There is plenty of health as you tackle the slaughter horde. The party is joined by 2 archviles half way through that are priority targets that can make or the break the fight. This fight took me 4 or 5 attempts to uvmax.

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MAP21: Sunrise

 

Ah, this is where I got to last time I played Revere; the sudden shift from interesting exploratory maps to a carnage-choked arena wasn't what I was in the mood for last time and I can't say I found myself caring for it much more this go 'round.  Which isn't a commentary on the map itself so much as my tastes.  Next please.

Edited by TheOrganGrinder

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MAP21: Short, simple and hard. But I liked this change for a map, and the symmetrical layout was well suited for the big fight that was going on. I don't understand the purpose of the green armor in the starting room, when you take the teleport there's a megasphere you can't avoid to pick up.

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MAP21 Sunrise

 

Aha! A nice and fun arena map with good freedom of movement and not too many spoiling hitscanners. The space makes this one worthwhile, and challenge can occur, but is often mitigated by monster infighting. Word of note, those backpacks will really fill you up more than what a standard backpack does, so be careful when grabbing them. Maybe he made it too easy.

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I will jump ahead a little and say that overall I'm not a fan of the 3rd episode. I think the sky with these pink patches is rather ugly, there is a bit too much "meat" to kill, and too many levels begin with you already having all weapons except for the BFG. I usually find it boring when I'm given everything immediately because it's like I have nothing to look forward to then. In my opinion Doom is most fun when every map is like a little RPG game where you begin as a weakling and gradually upgrade your arsenal. I love the feeling of getting stronger. So I never really got into the last 10 levels.

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MAP19: Dusk Town

100% kills, 3/3 secrets

 

Despite the layout this map is pretty much one big linear path, thanks to the chaingunner wall at the start and the typical switch hunt. I did really like the bit with the coffin at the start, pretty cute. The rest was pretty meh for me. I'll echo @rehelekretep that the AV use is underwhelming, the two locked behind the yellow key aren't interesting, the second in the courtyard doesn't get to resurrect much, and the first one is only dangerous because of that stupid 64-wide lift design.

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map22: Egyptian Plains
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

A tunnel based map with some back and forth to find switches to open the way to the outside for spider mastermind fight. Finally, you go back into a tunnel system for a nasty fight with archviles followed by a tricky trap involving mancubi, revenants and a archvile in cramped quarters.

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MAP21: Sunrise

UV/Pistol start/No saves

Deaths: 5

 

Ok where do I start... obviously NuMetal is not playing on UV (not judging, I already knew he doesn't), because the initial chaingunners placement is no, if there's one thing I don't like is starts that will screw your health for the sake of it. Then, the hordes were ok, if maybe there weren't more annoying chaingunner. My demo is a bit experimental, I thought that forcing progression to clean up everything from the exit area was going to be the best idea, and it turned out better than I expected. It's overall a map I didn't enjoy thanks to the chaingunners, so it is what is.

 

 

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MAP22: Egyptian Plains

 

So, this one's much more to my taste and is divided pretty neatly into three sections, an initial tomb/tunnel crawl that's perhaps a little obtuse but can ultimately be brute-forced simply by pressing every switch in both branches of the complex with no regard for what they do, and then an outdoor pitched battle which culminates in a duel with a Spider Mastermind, and then a delve back into sewer-like tunnels for another round of tough combat before proceeding to the exit.  The Egyptian part of the level concept is obvious enough, Plains not so much as the outdoor areas are more cliff/river themed.  I think the most memorable of the combat encounters comes toward the end, in the northern part of the sewer with various walkways that the player was to scramble up only to be greeted by arch-viles at the top ready to eagerly undo all your hard work.  It's an enjoyable map overall that does a lot with its theme and diverges from it as necessary for the sake of variety and challenge.

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People nowadays no longer make fun maps on UV anymore. They only make uber-hard ones. That's why I avoid UV.

 

MAP22 Egyptian Plains

 

It's a surprisingly straightforward map, using the TNT Pharoah textures for its theme. Plenty of nasty traps abound inside here. Think of that one particular closet that has all the hitscanners, or having to run across lowering pillars (I fucking hate these), the back-and-forthing involving chaingunners, what about that one homage to TNT MAP31 with the backwards switch? The theme opens up to the open space upon leaving the pyramid (a reverse Misri-Halek, if you will), and the enemies outside can be just as rough as the ones inside. Chaingun Face shows up too. And then we have a minor sewer system to cross. Yet, MAP24 is the one called Sewer System, so what is in store for Green Marine upon exiting this sewer system?

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MAP22: It's a rather strange take on the ancient egypt theme. The first part actually follows that theme with some nice custom variations of stock textures coupled with the custom textures of TNT MAP31. Things get weird when you come out from the pyramid to reach a standard grassy Doom 2 outdoor area and then go for the exit in a little sewer area. The idea isn't bad but the sewer seems too disconnected, having a more expanded outdoor area would have been better to me, but I still enjoyed the map overall.

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MAP22: Egyptian Plains

UV/Pistol start/Two saves

Deaths: 1

 

This one was more enjoyable, chaingunners here are more palatable than obnoxious. This uses Pharaoh's textures to ambient the place like if we were in a pyramid, then you leave it and enter a sewerage, both themes together seemed to me like something a 90's wad would do, well Requiem has this map which starts in snowy mountains and immediately you are inside a sewer system, the disconnection of themes in Reverie is connected to old wads, if I'm clear enough. Anyway, there're more and more cramped rooms where valkiriforce put as many monsters as he could, like the hallway with meatballs and revs, the bridge with hitscanners and hell nobles, or in the sewers umm all of it is cramped. He was very merciful with cells, not only to slay the spider but also because the sewers section require a lot of spamming, particularly in the part with revs/vile/mancs which is where I died, one moment I was shooting a revenant and then I don't remember anything else...

 

 

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map20 fda

uv pistol starts, saveless

really enjoyed this. tense, good midi - fun progression with some lateral thinking required and some quirky switches etc. for example, from RK->YK had me stumped until i remembered the marked YK cube from earlier on. some close calls but just about balanced to make it through. the one bit i didnt like was the HK and surprise chaingunner that almost toasted me around the RK area - not cool! but overall a good level.

ps did anyone see the message on the automap? :o

pps im going to start putting my 'conditions' on the posts so people have some context, i like it from others in this thread.

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map23: Cyclone Rider
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

A great map that is a lot of fun. The map opens in a large room with 4 sections and a slaughter-like opening, with only one section open to begin with while the other 3 sections are opened via switches. There is a lot of room to move and pillars to hide behind. The 4th section is a staircase guarded by spider masterminds!

The next area of the map is a hunt for the keys. The blue and red key cards are fairly easy to pick up but there are a series of nasty traps on the way to the yellow key card. Fortunately all of those traps can be managed without taking much damage once you remember the sequence and trigger points.

There is one particularly nasty trap at a cleverly concealed lift near two key doors that will drop you down to an outside area guarded by 2 cybies and some other enemies. This descent can prove to be quite fatal unless you are ready for it.

Edited by tmorrow : grammar

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MAP18 - “Sleeping Spirits”

 

a haunted house. brown stone and wood, so... mostly brown. heavy rain outside. it's haunted by (brown) imps. i agree with numetalmaniac here: good thing they're no wolf-ss, that would have looked completely out of place. smacking them with rockets sounds easy, especially if you can aim at their feet, but there are few rockets in the beginning, which forces you to move quickly, so the ghost imps don't catch up with you in the narrow corridors that are ill-suited for use of rockets. a bit later the ssg and 20-25 rockets are added to the arsenal. the only bigger fight is the one at the yellow key, and consists in running circles, while hell's finest bash each other's heads in. echoing rehelekretep at the bk vile: rather annoying way of getting rid of him. nice touch with the tv remote and the torches (nicely recessed into the wall, so you don't bump into them!). very atmospheric, thanks to the music and the rain, but no outstanding fights, except for said running circles (i was left with 1 baron standing, heh)

 

 

 

MAP19 - “Dusk Town”

 

good start with the revenant rising out of the coffin and offering a soulsphere. indeed some plutonia vibes with the wall manned by chaingunners, but then, who says you have to assault that wall frontally! you're pretty well armed then for the notable fight in the courtyard, where the archvile has to be taken care of immediately. there are plenty of opportunities for infighting, but still, things can go wrong, like eating a manc shot through the columns that should give cover, so kill him quick. the other viles are indeed wasted: the 2 at the yellow switch can be shot while standind near the wall, and the other 2 that were spawned outside came running at me into the hall, instead of reviving the corpses outside, which would have given me more trouble. and then the level was over. surprisingly short, this one.

 

 

 

MAP20 - “One Such Reverie”

 

the start is a bit ssg-heavy since there's little other ammo, but later i had several hundred cells, enough to gun down the cyb and everything after him. i liked the metal structure and the gotcha! references, plus the ominous, low droning music. linear affair with the keys, but the map recreates the abstract style of the iwad map so well.

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map22

An egyptian themed level that bothered me. The first half of the level was fine and I was doing great. However, after the outdoor part with the mastermind, I was left in pretty bad shape. That wouldn't really be a problem except for the fact that from that point forward there were never really supplies to get back on my feet. That's also when the opposition actually starts getting tough. You'd think somewhere in those sewers would be the few things you needed to rock the last part of the level, but I guess 15 health, no armor, and 10 shells is just as good isn't it?

 

map23

Awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed this level. The large opening horde, the crushing ceiling trap, the way the yellow key area slowly opens itself up, the music, everything. Lots of fun here. That's all I really have to say about this one. Complaining about maps you don't like is much easier than praising maps you enjoy.

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MAP20: One Such Reverie

100% kills, 1/1 secret

 

I think this map really does a good job capturing that Doom 2 IWAD abstractness/weirdness, with a lot of unexpected or unique room designs, as well as stuff moving around (creating lifts, stairs, etc). I especially like the first half of the level, as that big metal structure is pretty different - usually a structure raised up like that would be made like, well, a big tower or something, but this one is designed in such a way you can forget you're way up high. And there's a lot of theme shift later on with the outdoor area, the slime pit room, etc. The latter part of the map gets a bit more linear and there's more of the "one hallway filled with big monsters" design that doesn't quite jibe with me, but so far this would be the map I would point to if I wanted to identify Reverie's bonafides as an old-school IWAD-style mapset.

 

Edited by Magnusblitz

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MAP21: Sunrise

100% kills, no map secrets

 

Just an arena map here, one big room and another area branching off it with the blue key. Pretty well-designed for the most part, the AVs and PEs slip in near the end giving you some time to hopefully clear stuff out and establish a bit of a beachhead. My immediate reaction for the chaingunners at the start was to run and hide behind the switch, thankfully that worked well and there were no surprises. Not much else to say about this.

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MAP23 Cyclone Rider

 

Oh right, this...

 

Well then, our first part of the map may actually be the best part of it. It's arena-style combat, made to be inspired by Between Scattered Corpses, that one Memento Mori map that actually felt like you could slaughter there. It's a load of fun, but then there's the whole rest of the level.

 

The rest of the level is a semi-puzzler in a few ways. The blue key is easy enough. Now get out. Yeah, with the way the halls are structured, the crushers require pinpoint precision to get through unscathed. Yes they do. There's a lot more traps to deal with in this level too. The library on the way to the red key? Look out for those heathens that drop in. Heck, I actually needed the megasphere secret. And those claustrophobic encounters on the way to the yellow key, especially the ones with hitscanners? Need to be fully prepared against those. And then you gotta find all the key switches, which I don't actually believe require keys whatsoever, but the doors to them do need keys anyways. There's an area like The Courtyard's red-floored room too. This is a striking example of a map in Reverie that has a little of everything, and not everything will be made suitable entirely.

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MAP23: It's quite cool the more intense introduction where you can face like half of the population of the map. I think it's more funny if you open all the sections and mix the monsters. Then the map turns into a slower hunt for the three keys, which was nice but I think that the second half of the map has too much meaty corridors. I wonder if the wooden area of the yellow key was inspired by Icarus MAP25, it has a similar puzzle area that keeps to transform. And after the yellow key door there's a recall to Courtyard's marble maze. Perhaps it was the music, very cool btw, that put me in a mood for some faster action like the "slaughter" intro but all in all it's a cool level. There's also a more prominent use of Doom 64 textures.

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MAP23: Cyclone Rider

 

Very much a map of two halves, with a straightforward arena of slaughter followed by a more intricate at at times downright vicious labyrinth of monstrous ambushes and puzzle segments.  It's pretty generous with ammunition, less so with health in the second half of the map though not to the point of starvation, especially if you happen upon the secret soul sphere (fairly straightforward) and megasphere (not so much, though the chain of secret panels necessary to access it offers a fun little puzzle).  The initial arena is solid fun, the later labyrinth section is a bit uneven, with some areas and encounters standing out as better developed and more carefully balanced than others; the non-stop barrage of tricks, traps, and false floors in the wooden area leading up to the yellow key was a delight, for example, while the winding stairwell into darkness that led to a cramped confrontation with a pair of Barons of Hell just felt like a health tax, given the player's restricted movement and ability to dodge in such close quarters.  I do think both halves of the map benefit from the presence of the other, with the arena getting the blood pumping before the player heads into the maze, and the maze providing more substance than the arena alone could offer.

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MAP22: Egyptian Plains

100% kills, 1/1 secret

 

Funny how slapping some egyptian tomb textures on the map can make me more appreciative, almost expectant, of a switch hunt. Though this one actually isn't too bad, as it's basically hit the switches and keep moving around to see what opened up, and it's pretty logical to follow (especially if you've paid attention to the rest of the maps so far). SMM caught me by surprise but was an easy kill thanks to the cliff and loads of plasma. The AVs in the sewers were a lot nastier, especially the one right at the end - hope you had the right weapon out when you landed, or like me abused the deaf monsters.

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map21 fda

uv pistol starts, saveless

fun little throw-away map. the only bit i didnt like was the lock-in; its not like its blocking the next half of the map, just 10 enemies and then youre out. not a fan of that choice.

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map24: Sewer System
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

A map consisting of rooms with a sewer tunnel connecting them all. It appears that archviles are attracted to the sewers since there are a hell of a lot of them on this map, in fact one room is chock full of the buggers! Cybie guards the final room but he is at a sad disadvantage as you can take him out with no risk if you position yourself on the right step on the stairs leading up to the final room. There are several secrets to find with decent health and ammo rewards.

The map appears to have a minor bug that only 61% (16/26) items can be found due to 10 health bonuses that are in an unreachable offmap closet with your dormant zombie player.

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MAP23: Cyclone Rider

UV/Pistol start/Saves

Deaths: 3 or 4

 

This was very fun with basic knowledge of all the traps. Like TheOrganGrinder said it's a two-halves map, the first one is some slaughtery in big square-shaped room, and the second one is your typical key hunt. For the first half, releasing everything soon would be the winner option, but I found better to reduce the pain elementals before, and then stay away from the spiderdemons' sight, it's very tricky to set infighting with the uppermost two and I didn't want to keep dying because of them. As for the second half, well this is where foreknowledge is kind of important. There's a bit of Tricks n Traps/Plutonia in here, basically all surprise traps you are meant to react fast, but at this point you are supposed to be fully armed to tackle everything with moderate ease. I particularly loved the bloody maze reminiscent of The Courtyard/Heck, it's shorter and maybe not so interesting but I felt nostalgia so it was really nice. That juicy megasphere took me a while to figure out the very first time I played this map (actually had to resort to a video), and I recommend to grab it particularly for the YK sequence. Umm, yeah nothing else to say, very good map overall.

 

 

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MAP23: Cyclone Rider

100% kills, 1/2 secrets

 

The two halves of this map are so disparate I almost wonder if they were intended as two separate levels and then were squished together as the first part isn't really enough for a level on it's own (and the textfile does seem to lend credence to the idea that they were conceived of separately). It's fast enough though, quite easy to cause infighting and the spiders will easily finish off the cybers for the player thanks to the height advantage. The second half of the level is alright, the yellow key leg kept me guessing, for better or worse... I admittedly starting getting a bit annoyed and savescummed because it felt like every new switch was a trick that required a different weapon to be prepared for. Also took a few tries going into the courtyard with the two cybers in it, since if you wake them up early they'll just happily camp that blind lift. The switch hunt in the marble/lava rock area behind the yellow door is a bad choice I think, not only is it anti-climatic (you've cleared out a bunch of cybers and other threats, then go back to killing lone chaingunners in 64-wide hallways) but the trope of the self-contained switch hunt is something that's been repeated over and over again this mapset and it gets old after awhile.

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MAP21 - “Sunrise”

 

first, fuck those chaingunners at the starting point. they're here like a middle finger given to the player for the sake of it, and the map would have been better without them.

 

it's a slaughter map, and a quite fun one, when you know what you're up against. staying in the central arena is just asking to be overwhelmed by hordes of monsters coming through the 2 teleports as soon as you touch the gate switch. therefore, breaking through their ranks aggressively is pretty much the only way to play this. there are 2 megaspheres, but you're likely to have several rev balls trailing your ass at any moment, and the most dreaded ability of doom monsters is getting in  your way at the worst possible moment. so, run to the chaingunner pyramid on the outer ring, get the blue key, flip the blue switch right in front of the pyramid (2 barons will likely block the way here, while revenants come from both sides), return to the arena to open the blue gate, and get immediately back to the outer ring because the arena will be brimming with monsters at this point, of which at least 2 viles which are very hard to kill without the bfg (there is none). hold the outer ring for maybe 30 seconds as the gate lowers really slowly. break through and run through the gate as soon as it's down. you're free to leave here, or kill everything that tries entering the gate. i got hit by one of the viles here because i couldn't see him in the mass of corpses, and preferred to leave. anyway, nice change of pace.

 

 

 

MAP22 - “Egyptian Plains”

 

your usual ancient egypt map. lots of corridors, switch hunting, oriental music. blow up some doors with health. nothing spectacular. egyptian textures are mixed with some modern switches. then, as we get out of the tomb, it's like two unrelated maps had been linked here. there's an outside area with water and sewers, where the archvile encounters are easily harder than anything the first part had to offer. luckily there's enough ammo so one doesn't have to grind through with the ssg.

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