What are Your Favorite and Least Favorite Heretic Maps?

[Halfblind]

I Rated mine this way, 1 favorite map, 3 runners up, and 1 least favorite map.

 

---Favorite Map---
E4M7: Ramparts of Perdition
    Note: This map has a missing texture in the room with the Phoenix Rod on the right side of the room as you enter it.

 

---Runners Up---
E1M4: The Guard Tower
E1M7: The Crypts
E4M6: Halls of the Apostate
    Note: Episode 1 and episode 4 are my favorite episodes.

 

---Least Favorite---
E4M9: Mausoleum
    Note: I read somewhere that @Ichor really likes this map but I really don't like this map at all.

[galileo31dos01]

That is so hard to think since most maps look and play similar, and it was months ago so I don't recall exactly each map... I think one of my favourites must be E4M9, it's really dark and mazy, plus the Iron Liches crept me out. You know there's also a creepy background sound in that map, and I always thought it was an iron haunting me all over the map. Also E3M6, I like the starting bridge. E5M2 because of the rivers. Perhaps more that I don't remember at this moment.

 

I do recall one being a pain to navigate, E5M9 is full of lazy monster placement and boring corridors copy pasted multiple times. 

[ASD]

Best 

E3M6 - Most aesthetic map with striking colors.

 

Runners up

E1M2 - Straightforward shooting with many ambushes and traps to avoid. Typical "crazy" second level.

E1M6 - I recognize this map maybe a bit too well. When I was new to the game, I spent like 2 weeks trying to find that switch in the green key room.

E2M2 - Map that connects both styles of E1 and E2.

 

Worst

E5M4 - Most generic and forgettable.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Favorite:

E1M2.  True, it's not the most challenging, but I love the loopy design and some of the more unorthodox secrets (like the linked lift or the spot where you can break into the guard turret behind the fake wall and ambush the ambushers).  It's one of my go-to maps for inspirations to my own designs and probably one of my favorites across all IWADs.

 

Least favorite:

Probably E5M8 for being the least interesting out of all the boss maps.  It's bordering on being like a kid's first map where he's discovered he can draw a picture on the automap and throw in a bunch of the biggest enemy.  Weak end to a grand adventure.

 

Bonus least favorite:

If we count the hidden extra maps, E6M1 also sucks, par for the course with maps based on a real location.

[ShoDemo]

I loved E1M6 the Cathedral (it really looks like a Cathedral to me) and E3M8 D'Sparil's Keep (that sexy water mosaic texture is everywhere and the boss fight is pretty good, although the teleportation annoyed me from a point and after).

As for levels I didn't like, I can't remember anything right now.

[Matthias]

well I love E2M4 - the map is perfect, the design, the atmosphere, the music, the idea of a city under a rock behind a wall... Love it!

 

E1M4 fascinates me how complex the layout of the map is to such an old game.

 

I don't remember episodes 4 and 5 much, I will have to play them again soon :)

[leodoom85]

Isn't that strange that I like E1M6, The Cathedral, because I always find the secret exit instead of the normal one? Episode 3 overall is really colorful too, making it in this list of favorite maps.

Sadly, the expansions (episodes 4 and 5) are meh, so I put both of them as the least favorite maps. Surprisingly, I don't hate any maps to say that a specific map is the worst...

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

4 hours ago, leodoom85 said:

Isn't that strange that I like E1M6, The Cathedral, because I always find the secret exit instead of the normal one?

I think the very first time I played through Heretic shareware I found the secret exit instead of the normal one too.  The normal exit itself is a big obvious structure, but with all the switches you have to find to finally open it I guess it's easy to end up wandering by the secret passage instead by the time it's open.

[galileo31dos01]

On 4/1/2018 at 10:46 PM, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Bonus least favorite:

If we count the hidden extra maps, E6M1 also sucks, par for the course with maps based on a real location.

I didn't know the hidden maps had enemies! Well, just played them and, yes E6M1 looks very bland, E6M2 was a bit better and E6M3 looked good despite it cannot be finnished. 

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

12 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

I didn't know the hidden maps had enemies! Well, just played them and, yes E6M1 looks very bland, E6M2 was a bit better and E6M3 looked good despite it cannot be finnished. 

Yeah, those maps have some SP functionality, it just doesn't help that the hidden "episode" is often characterized as a deathmatch episode which is almost definitely the case for M3 and probably for M1 as well, but M2 seems more like it's an outtake that got rejected from the main episodes but someone still wanted to sneak it in there.  There was an interview with one of the level designers once where he mentioned that they made a lot of maps that didn't make the final cut and I suspect that was one of them, there's no definite info though.

 

Whenever I do one of my full runs of Heretic I generally include a playthrough of E6M2 in it but don't bother with the other two.

[MFG38]

Favorite: E1M1.

 

Least favorite: almost the entirety of Episode 5.

[Grain of Salt]

Favorite maps (~90% based on how nostalgic they make me):

 

E1M3: The Gatehouse

E1M6: The Cathedral

E1M8: Hell's Maw

E2M4: The Ice Grotto

E2M5: The Catacombs

E2M6: The Labyrinth

E2M8: The Portals of Chaos

E3M6: The Halls of Fear

E3M7: The Chasm

E3M8: D'Sparil's Keep

E4M4: Sepulcher

E4M7: Ramparts of Perdition

E4M8: Shattered Bridge

E5M7: Foetid Manse

 

Least favorite maps:

 

???

[Cynical]

I've barely played Heretic at all, so I have to say "the ones that were redone in Kama Sutra".

[NaZa]

Alright... by episode. 

 

FAVORITE

E1M2: The Dungeon

E2M6: The Labyrinth (solely music tho) 

E3M6: The Halls of Fear

E4M1: Catafalque (striking opener kinda like AA MAP01 in a sense) 

E5M3: Quay / E5M7: Foetid Manse

 

LEAST FAVOURITE

E1M9: The Graveyard

E2M7: The Great Hall

E3M7: The Chasm (hard pick cuz E3 has all very solid maps imo) 

E4M5: Great Stair (probably tied with Courtyard for most forgettable map of the set) 

E5M4: Courtyard (see above)