The DWmegawad Club plays: Reverie

[bioshockfan90]

MAP05: SUBSTANCE|93% KILLS|

 

Contrary to the title, this map really doesn't have much substance. 

 

Did someone do that already? Shit.

 

Anyway, it's samey, overloads you with hitscanners and not much health or ammo to make it fun, and the layout's as simple as it gets. That's all, goodnight everyone. Hopefully MAP06 impresses me more. 

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP05: Substance

 

So, "light on substance," that particular remark has already been made, but am I still good for "style over?"

 

And, yeah, a lot of that style is delivered by the delightful, playful choice of music here, a jazzy little number to which the player can strut while working methodically through the parade of imps, hitscanners, and goat-hoofed walking roadblocks ahead.  The layout here is mostly pretty squarish, and the combat is largely direct; I did like the transition from relatively confined rooms and corridors for much of the map's running time to a larger arena-style battle beyond the blue door, but even that is tempered by the rather narrow walkways spanning the toxic slime that fills that arena, which are just as confining as the earlier passages and leave the player exposed to green plasma incoming from multiple directions.  That sense of being confined is especially true if the player notices and activates the secret in the arena's hub early, since it goes and cuts the accessible area neatly in two and forces more dancing around the narrow exterior balcony.  Overall I liked the moments here (the arena, the secret teleporter just a little to the west of the lobby, the meat locker/gibbet not far beyond that) more than the level as it's all put together and added up, the parts more than their sum.

[gaspe]

MAP05: Less striking than the previous level but all in all it was an enjoyable straightforward romp. The gameplay ends too much on being a shooting gallery. The very funny music made up a lot here.

[SGS Man]

MAP05: Substance

Eternity Engine, UV-Max, Pistol Starts, Saveless

 

This map flashes us with a fun midi. That's pretty much the meat of the map. It's a less substantial version of MAP04, with an homage to 'Circle of Death' tacked on at the end. Although that homage features some enjoyable multi-directional fire, it arrives too late. Neat map, although definitely weaker than the previous.

[floatRand]

Map06 "Sledgehammer" [UV pistol-start] - 100% kills, 40% secret

 

Game is starting to get rather mean. Visually distinct from previous two maps, featuring largely dark, linear metal complex with chaingunners galore, with some outdoorsy bits in vine-conquered sections. Traps get really nasty and particularly honorable mention goes to explosive barrels. 

Also first time boney boys are featured in Reverie too, and at very end we get our first archvile. Really neutered one and signposted one, but hey.

I really like this map despite it rather devilish features, for featuring some rather smart player-teaching and nice visuals. I feel there is theme of 'infiltrating' a fortress, with shooting switches from maintenance-tunnels to open doors. The music is fitting for this, too. 

 

We also get a story bit that doesn't really tell anything. 

Edited January 5, 2018 by floatRand

[Roofi]

Map 06 : Sledgehammer

 

 

I liked this one although it was a bit too much linear. Nothing special to say about the theme , it's an another metal/brown base themed level. The use of switchs is rather original , I liked the switches behind vines and also switches placed behind doors which must be triggered with your gun. The gameplay is straightforward , no monster should cause a lot of trouble except some parts where the difficulty is slightly harder. Some parts remind me directly Doom 2's levels , blue key's section ressemble a lot map 25 of Doom 2. The theme is also similar to Doom 2 map 06 without a Spider Mastermind under a slow crusher (Maybe after who know?) .

[tmorrow]

map06: Sledgehammer
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

A trickier map with a ramp up in difficulty. You need to solve small puzzles to progress involving remote partially hidden switches. The enemies are meaner, the revenant has been introduced. The trap to lower the yellow keycard is quite nasty.

[Memfis]

06 - a much better linear level than Map03. Juicy SSG action, satisfying trigger sequences reminding me of Map04's beginning, good atmospheric midi that again makes me think of 04. Somehow I feel like this is one of the most memorable levels in Reverie. I think the idea with automap looking like a sledgehammer really helps, it makes all these separate rooms look like a part of one big system. More mappers need to explore this playful concept of the automap being an art object in itself. It does matter.

[Capellan]

MAP06

I like most of this techbase map. The two things I'm not really a fan of are the vines area with the multiple switch puzzle, since it combines the twin sins of (a) obstructive mid textures that have you firing blind and (b) switch puzzles.

 

The second thing I don't like is the exit area after the teleport behind the yellow door. I think the map would have been stronger if it had skipped that area completely. It's not an engaging part of the map at all, especially running all the way to the exterior switch and then all the way back to jump out into the final trench.

 

Better, I think, would have been to put the exit right after the yellow door, but put the switch for that door in the little building to the west (instead of a switch to open stuff up earlier in the map – just make that a walkover line on the stairs up to the building). Then put the revenants in that courtyard.

 

[bioshockfan90]

MAP06: SLEDGEHAMMER|100& KILLS|

 

Interesting linear romp to get keys with a lot of hidden switches and puzzles. Hitscans still take center stage here, but they're used to better effect and genuinely set up for some devious traps. The aesthetic here is a lot better as well, with more detail and variety of rooms. For some reason, I had trouble remembering where the yellow key was and spent some time looking around for it. After you get all 3 keys, it's back to the opening of the map for a neat little interlocking arena. Sadly, this is one of the easiest points of the map and the archvile at the end is surrounded by barrels, making it a quick kill for no reason whatsoever.

 

This was a pretty enjoyable map overall, and it had the blend of oldschool/newschool that MAP04 had that I appreciate. I also like that the maps are starting to get harder, and I can't wait to see what lies ahead.

[gaspe]

MAP06: After a brief introduction we start in what is a classical hub-room with three key-locked doors and only one way to go. But you need to go back there only after you got all the keys, which are located at the end of a linear route where some steps to progress are held back by puzzles.  I usually don't pay so much attention to the intermission texts but I really liked this one.

[galileo31dos01]

MAP06: Sledgehammer

UV/Pistol start/No saves

Deaths: 0

Spoiler

 

Linearity back but this time much more interesting. There's a more prominent presence of hitscanners in packs and hordes, combined also with the introduction of revenants. I remember having troubles to find three of the secrets, see you don't just find a secret magically, there are hints but sometimes you don't see them. The secret backpack has this hint that I've seen multiple times in Epic, and I think I read somewhere that valkiriforce likes Eternal's wads, so it would make sense if some inspiration came from his works. Then the one in the quadruple teleports room, with the teleporting ambushes, like you have to incidentally spot that different texture. And finally one in a chain of teleporters, I don't see the point of this one. Anyway, the music was good, it would fit better in a more spooky dark map imo. 

 

 

Looking at my demo, I didn't notice the big arrow on the floor at 2:05 before. Huh, ok.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP06 Sledgehammer

 

valkiri apparently titled some of his maps based on what they look like. This one and MAP03 share that distinction, and also for being METAL AS FUCK, okay sorry, but there are metal textures, lol. So MAP03 was to be named "The Cup of Wrath" due to it looking like a hand holding a cup, while this map is titled "Sledgehammer" because its main area holds the distinction of looking like a sledgehammer. Also it looks like there was effort made for four similar starting rooms, for coop players. It's the little things, people.

 

And as for this map, there's the starting room, the hub area which ends up being the exit, and the sledgehammer itself. An interesting culmination. There's plenty of hitscanners, and like in MAP03, they are pretty much all in front. Progression from the handle to the hammerhead does get a bit wonky at points. For one, I absolutely hate the obstructing vines here, and it's easy to forget about the yellow key once you lower it (thanks teleporting enemies). Let's also not forget, dropping to the hammerhead itself, the north exit has barrels right in front. Nasty as hell. And the secrets were actually pretty darn hard to figure out too. A real nasty one, this level ended up being, but sometimes even the nasty linear crawls do well. Oh, also the text screen mentioning the next level's name was neat.

[Capellan]

6 minutes ago, NuMetalManiak said:

It's the little things, people.

 

Very little things, since that looks like a copy/paste job if ever there was one.

 

[Magnusblitz]

MAP06: Sledgehammer

100% kills, 2/5 secrets

 

Starts off with some subverting of expectations here, as what initially looks like a PCorf-style hub beginning turns out to be nothing of the sort, and instead the map is a linear quest before returning with all three keys to the end. I liked it for the most part, despite the somewhat constrictive linearity, as the goings here are much more interesting than say, MAP03. While I usually find myself agreeing with Capellan I will disagree with his disliking of the blue key puzzle, I really like midtex vines and the switch puzzle was just the perfect length. I do agree that the ending room beyond the hub doors is pretty lame though with the 64-wide rut.

 

6 hours ago, NuMetalManiak said:

So MAP03 was to be named "The Cup of Wrath" due to it looking like a hand holding a cup

 

I guess? I don't really see it, even after it being pointed out, but whatever. I suppose that explains the (equally pointless) computer maps shared between the two levels though, not for being useful but to show off the map visual.

[Spie812]

Map06 'Sledgehammer'

Crispy Doom - UV Pistol Start - Saves

 

To start off, I like the little puzzles that are scattered around the map. They aren't difficult (not that I'd want them to be), but they're pretty fun. I also like the metal theme which is pretty hard to go wrong with, and this map pulls it off nicely. One thing that I noticed was that there were quite a few monster blocking lines in weird places. This is probably most noticeable with the revenants after the red key. I'm not really sure why that's there but it makes the revenants pretty much useless.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP06: Sledgehammer

 

I'm not going to mute the music here and put on some Peter Gabriel.  I'm not.

 

(And that's probably for the best, since I actually rather enjoy the low, omnipresent menace of the music that's included.)

 

So this is a bit of an odd bird, with the player dropped almost immediately into a room that looks like the classic "four door, three of them locked" hub of a wheel-shaped map, only to be yanked just as quickly onto a separate path along which all three keys can be found before doubling back to what turns out not to be a hub after all.  It's interesting in the way it crates and then subverts expectations, but it also happens to build all the level's meat into a sequence of obstacle rooms that is perhaps over-long.  The eventual unlocking of a sequence of three teleporters connecting various points along that course feels a bit superfluous since the whole thing only really takes time and effort on the first pass, as you unlock the doors, solve the puzzles, and remove the obstacles.  That said, the atmosphere here is great and there's certainly conceptual space in Doom for deliberate artificiality in concept and layout like this.

[bioshockfan90]

MAP07: LAZARUS|100% KILLS|

 

To be fair, only half of this map was "dead simple-esque". Even at that, I guess the arena fight was a bit more spiced up than usual, and actually provided a pretty good dose of challenge. But I really didn't find myself enjoying this one. The first half of this map is a cramped, gross system of ducts with odd placements and linear progression. It's only after you get the blue key and fight your way up to the castle arena does the map really take off. It's actually quite hard, seeing as how by the point you get there, your ammo's almost gone and you're getting attacked from all angles. The strategy I took through this was to just rush to the center, grab the RL and all its ammo, and start blasting away. 

 

 

After you've cleared out the main crew of baddies, it's just a horde of arachnotrons that's left to cleared out with the plasmagun and it's over. I guess it's better than a Dead Simple clone, seeing as how that was the standard for 90s wads back then, but it wasn't that fun to go through. 

[Capellan]

MAP07

Not much impressed with this. A very bitsy, linear beginning with too much 64-wide corridoring, followed by a very uninspiring Dead Simple redux. The Mancubi around the exterior are mere time sinks, as are the 'trons on the outside. The crossfire Mancs in the middle are the most interesting from a gameplay perspective, and when turreted Mancs are the best your map has to offer, something is wrong.

 

I found the megasphere secret and there is a wealth of ammo on this map, so I am going into map08 very nicely stocked.

 

 

 

[tmorrow]

map07: Lazarus
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

Ammo is tight early on and plentiful later on. A nasty trap once you reach the inner ring of enemies. Fortunately you can manage the damage by using the stairs and walkways to avoid fire. The megasphere secret is kind of overkill and allows the outer ring battle with the arachnotrons to be disappointingly easy after surviving the inner ring chaos.

[Memfis]

07 - OK. I also made a Dead Simple remake once.

[Roofi]

Map 07 : Lazarus

 

 

I didn't like this level a lot , partly because I'm not a huge fan of traditionnal "Dead simple" maps but especialy because this map is quite weird. The beginning of the level is useless in my opinion , too much narrow because of the overuse of  64 pixels wide corridors . The mancubus area is the most difficult part of the level , the shotgun guys can kill you easily and the health is rare . Fortunaly the megasphere's secret is very easy to find. The arachnotrons' area is very basic but I had a lot more fun to kill them.

 

 

[floatRand]

Map04 "Lazarus" [UV pistol-start] - 100% kills, 0% secret

 

Once it pulls back from over your head, you find yourself on a Dead Simple map - not that it is a bad one, it certainly had some moments, but did feel bit uninspired. And since it is a Dead Simple map, it also marks introduction of arachnatrons and mancubi in the mapset.

But really, it is hard to say much about it, other than that there seems to be a scarcity of medikits in second half, but at least it is remedied by a berserker pack (that I almost missed) and a megasphere secret - which I didn't get. So at least there were tense moments. But that tease of the next map! 

[galileo31dos01]

3 hours ago, floatRand said:

Map04 "Lazarus"

Umm, are you sure? (;

 

MAP07: Lazarus

UV/Pistol start/No saves

Deaths: 2

No tally because I forgot to take a screenshot, also the perfect excuse to stop posting them...

 

The map, I didn't quite liked it. The Dead Simple part with the mancs and others was ok, seemed to me the only enjoyable section; the arachnotrons part, well unless you go aggressive then it should be more fun but if not they can be offed via Door Camping volume. 7; and the start was for me totally RNG based, the chaingunner on the pillar can screw your health while you're trying to approach higher so you can aim him. I always came out with low health after that and died at the mancs part, if not when recording dying many times at the first part, which became more and more annoying each time. Also, the secret berserk took me like 10 minutes to find, it's not hinted at all but whatever... As for the midi, I think these last midis are very iwad-ish (old-school), which is cool since that's what Reverie offers in gameplay aspects. 

 

 

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP05: Substance

12:28 | 100% Everything

 

This one was fun. Just run around mopping up hordes of former humans (always a blast) and then the end area honestly felt tacked on, but whatevs. It was short and sprightly enough that it can't help but be inoffensive.

 

MAP06: Sledgehammer

21:57 | 100% Kills | 61% Items | 60% Secrets

 

A step up again, here. I liked all the vines obscuring switches and making combat interesting. Secrets were pretty obscure, and I missed one (the one in the teleporter room, I guess.) Layout was a bit strange in that it starts looking like it's going to be a 3-key hub map, but then you pick up all three keys in one linear journey and just use them each to do a single switch? Okay. I also remember that I was lost for a long time during my first play, not realizing that the final switch had raised the step to get over the outer ledge. (Reverie is often a little too subtle for its own good, is my general feeling.) The archie here felt rather superfluous and stupidly easy to take out. (I'm sure that will change!) And I didn't realize it was named for the shape of the map until it was remarked upon above. Hunh.

 

MAP07: Lazarus

16:03 | 100% Everything

 

The level name made me worry there were going to be a bunch of viles here. (Phew!) Anyway, it's a weird map. Very corridor-crawly to begin (boo overhead chaingunners!) and then it just tosses you into the most interesting part of the map. I was weak (I think I had taken a dumb rocket hit from an earlier revvie) and when I found my self facing a manc I bolted--right into a row of shotgunners and a knight. Eep! Keep running: another batch of the same! Keep running: ditto. I was down to 10% health at this point, and ended up just running circles around the outside track potshotting the mancs and HKs until things were clear. Headed into the center and recognized the arena from my previous play years ago, whereby I retreated again. Found the megasphere secret, allowing me to clear out at least one platform, but then I played poorly and lost half of that taking out the other rev/manc turrets. Boo. And speaking of boo, the final section was booooring: just zapping a few walls of spiders? (At least I made it interesting/stupid by deciding to SSG them. Oops.) Anyway, not a great map, but that central arena is at least memorable. The last 6+ minutes were spent hunting for that final secret, which, once I had finally given up, I randomly discovered...right at the exit. #Facepalm

[Capellan]

I've played ahead through map10 and I am going to bow out this month.  Not a fan of the WAD thus far and don't expect the design philosophy will change enough to make me feel differently about it later on.

 

[gaspe]

MAP07: It's ok. The mancubus area is the most fun, the ending with the spiders is a bit underwhelming though.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP07 Lazarus

 

So what kind of espresso do you want with your Dead Simple remake? Flat white, Doppio, Latte...oh forget it.

 

Again, a nice balance in making this one a shorter map, and a somewhat interesting beginning area. For the mancubi, just roll around the rim. The supplies are in the middle, make a beeline in necessary. Or open the bloody wall for a secret for a sneak attack. The arachnotrons are easy too. Don't miss the end secret.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP07: Lazarus

 

This one differentiates itself from Dead Simple with an initial corridor/puzzle segment and by sorting the mancubus and arachnotron battles into separate arenas, but I feel that what little it gains in identity from the latter, it then loses through the neutering of the arachnotron fight; the baby spiders lose the ability to roam, to outflank and invade, and instead end up clustering around the single connection between the inner and outer arenas wher they can be pounded with the player's weapon of choice from a position of near immunity.  The brevity of the initial puzzle segment feels like a bit of a tease, too; "Oh, is this going to be something other than an iteration on the theme of Dead Simple?  Oh, hah, not really."  I feel like maybe this level wants to go beyond its origins and use the level-specific tags in a more unique way, but doesn't quite get there.

[tmorrow]

map08: Triplet II
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

An outstanding map with good fights, great puzzles and tricky secrets. According to valkiriforce's notes this is a tribute to Jim Flynn and the doom2 episode replacement called enigma which I have not played (but is now on my list). I managed to uvmax it after a couple of retries. The progress halting row of 4 colored teleporters puzzle in the blue area caused me the most trouble but i finally related it to something I'd seen earlier and was able to come up with a 5 move solution in the end. If you've found all of the secrets then the fights won't be too threatening but are harder than in earlier maps. The cyberdemon is introduced at the end of this map.