The DWmegawad Club plays: Tangerine Nightmare & UAC Ultra & Realm of Shades

[Capellan]

UACUltra MAP11

I quite like the idea behind the final boss in this, though I don't think this was really the best implementation of it.  Other than that, I don't feel there is a lot to recommend this map: the starting section in particular is just a series of tedious set pieces based around cover shooting.  Meh.

 

I'm not going to bother with a write-up of map12 tomorrow, for obvious reasons.

 

 

UACUltra Overall

Memorable more for the (very nifty) new textures and visual design than the gameplay, IMO.  I doubt I will be re-visiting the map set any time soon.  I may play with the textures when I have a chance, though (for the second time, actually - I did a speedmap using them a couple of years back).

 

[gaspe]

MAP10: The techbase parts looked a bit too basic but the cool part of the wad is the long trip in the red caves and canyons, and i really liked that those areas were toxic and you are forced also to grab rad-suits. It's not clear to me if we went back up to the surface or we were going deeper to the planet nucleus, but whatever. Gameplay throws quite a lot of opposition but this time we are given lots of cells and rockets to have fun with them.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP11 Sick

 

Wish I could grab those yellow armor bonuses, but okay then. Now, on my way to the armor secret which I knew about beforehand, I noticed STARTAN3 in the void below. Pretty sure THAT'S not supposed to be there. As for the rest, ominous intermission music reveals that this could well be a typical boss level. It tries out for something different, step on pad to teleport spectres in, then each of the three switches in the next area must be used to reach the next area, but also to reveal lots of small enemies and one of the usual necessities. Surprise arch-vile after each one too. A little interlude before our boss and...

 

At least it's not a monster spawner. But there's no real threat to this final boss at all. The real threat comes from the enemies just outside, the haymaker and mancubi being the worst cases, plus the snipers far off. As for the boss, just hit those pink things, then as usual, fire in the hole. The imp fireballs being launched are not hard to avoid. The heart is only slightly stronger than a regular IoS, but goes down just the same. It doesn't need to be that hard overall.

 

MAP12 The End

 

Elite wad, elite poster.

[gaspe]

MAP11: The switch trap at the teleport almost got me, I started to press all the switches and I wasn't expecting the arch-viles. The boss looks cool but the battle is a bit disappointing, having sniper monsters around the arena is a nice idea but the boss does nothing meanwhile you clean the area so when you are finally able to kill it it's easy to dodge all the fireballs it shoots. Overall it was a nice ending. MAP12 is a little credit map.

 

I was very glad to revisit this wad, it wasn't always at its best but it's plenty of nice ideas. Maybe the texture set could have been expanded a little, but it's more a matter to vary a bit the details, the levels already have their own character while they still stick to the overall theme.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP11: Sick

100% kills, 0/1 secret

 

Like @gaspe, the main surprise for me was the AVs suddenly popping in (well, and the one being full of chaingunners too). After a restart and realizing I had to hide behind the pillars it was easy. Then a section of some rote room clearing and ... well, I guess I appreciate the attempt for the final boss (and points for not doing an Icon of Sin), but, I was pretty underwhelmed. I agree that it's just too dang easy because the "boss" doesn't actually do anything but sit there at first, meaning you can quite easily just clear out the rest of the room. The snipers don't do much and the haymaker is pretty easy to kill with plasma from the stairs, then clear out the rest of the room and the boss is basically helpless. As much as I don't like Icon fights, there is a reason they're designed to constantly spawn enemies and create some time pressure on the player.

[tmorrow]

Starting Realm of Shades a day earlier than scheduled since the credits map12 of UAC Ultra was accidentally allocated a day.

 

Realm of Shades (1998) by NokturnuS

Based on an idgames search, NokturnuS was quite an active mapper in 1998 with 4 releases before going quiet until 2012 when he came out with Can't Run Frm Evil (Part I), 4 large, extremely difficult maps that I haven't tried yet. If you read the description NokturnuS still has "lots of incomplete maps which never see the light of day". I hope he gets motivated to finish off and distribute more of his maps. Let's enjoy Realm of Shades for now.

map01
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

The first map is fairly challenging, a taste of things to come? Enemies are well placed and some clever fights and traps are arranged to keep the player on his toes. After a couple of replays you will notice that there is quite a lot of variation as to what monsters pop up when due to the rng of monster movement and which monster teleport lines they run across. While it can be frustrating when you teleport into a bad monster combo during a good run, it does give the map plenty of replay potential since the map will never play the same way twice.

I am also impressed with the map layout, in particular the way the halls are reconnected so that earlier areas can be reused for new enemy waves. The first example is the west hallway which wraps back to the outside area. Later on you will notice that the toxic waste area leads back to the start or to the blue door room depending on which path you take.

One aspect of the map that I do not like so much is the secret hunt. Secrets are meant to be found and subtle clues left to hint at their whereabouts. I may have overlooked something but 2 of the 4 secrets on this map have absolutely no visual or sound clues, including the one with the megasphere which you will definitely want to pick up on this map. Additionally, there is a non official secret with a shotgunguy and an invisibility sphere that you need to find if you want max kills and items. Most players don't want to have to resort to punching and actioning every surface looking for missing secrets, items or enemies . I resorted to watching Belial's demo to find the missing secrets.
 

Edited February 21, 2018 by tmorrow : grammar

[vdgg]

2 hours ago, tmorrow said:

Based on an idgames searches NokturnuS was quite an active mapper in 1998 with 4 releases before going quiet until 2012 when he came out with Can't Run Frm Evil (Part I), 

In between, he contributed to 10sectors and Caverns of Darkness. Everything highly recommended

[Capellan]

I played Realm of Shades a few years back.  My level by level write-ups start here.

 

[NuMetalManiak]

ROSMUS has none more than IWAD music, I AM DISAPPOINT. Also no map names, BOO

 

MAP01

 

Right off the bat, I just know I'm gonna hate this set, and this first map left no good impression. While it's cool that the map's exit is at the starting area, the goose chase for the eggs left a horrid taste. The dropoff can stun you a bit, the open field coming later on has a few nasties that are annoying at worst and boring at best, thanks to me only having a shotgun. The field ambush once you get to the key actually came from a secret area with a rocket launcher. But the worst part is that Living-End like slime area. Maybe it isn't too bad, but there's some revenant that I found can be permanently missable (walk on the bridge to the SSG platform and don't cross the linedef where the SSG is, the bridge will lower into the slime in the meantime). Also the one secret here is a blind jump through a metal column for a switch, then go back to the outer walkway. Bland as hell. These Quake textures do not help the map at all.

[Memfis]

I remember trying Realm of Shades some years ago but abandoning it after a map or two. Let's give it another chance...

 

01 - yeah, not so good. Way too many monsters in most areas. Especially the beginning with these shotgunners and spectres that can't even reach you is stupid, but the outdoor area is unnecessarily overpopulated too, and it gets even crazier once you reveal the key. My beliefs in quality over quantity are totally ignored in this map. I was also quite annoyed by the screaming revenants on top (who can punch you from above by the way) and pain elemental overload in the last area. Of course doortraks without "lower unpegged" didn't go unnoticed either. :p

 

I kinda liked the design though. Not a fan of the way the author repurposes classic textures (TEKGREN turned 90 degrees and colored brown is super weird, this is very "ugh" too), but the rest was nice. Best room by far IMO: https://i.imgur.com/zFJfOJa.png

[gaspe]

Never heard of Realm of Shades, lets see how it goes...

 

MAP01: Mixed feeling on this level. I must say that I really liked the layout, and also the texturing to a certain extent. It looks less polished than some of its contemporaries, but I can buy it unless it goes with some really ugly stuff. I was glad also to see those faux-3d turrets, very 90's indeed. Gameplay had the right ideas in some places but it throws too much stuff.

[Memfis]

02 - ok, now this map doesn't suck. The structure is very interesting, almost giving a sense of adventure. There are still too many monsters that aren't even that good at reaching the player (funny PE assault where the lost souls can't cross the barriers), but I'm starting to enjoy the carnage a little and I definitely enjoyed using the cyber to kill some goats. Maybe I simply wasn't prepared for this HR-like gameplay. Now I'm actually curious what's next.

 

Btw I wonder if you can break something by jumping from the first lift into the spider pool. And WTF at the part where you teleport in front of many chaingunners unless you were smart enough to kill them from below.

[tmorrow]

map02
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

An excellent and long map. You start in the middle of a building. There are concentric rectangular sections leading out to an large rectangular outer where you fight 2 cyberdemons at different times. There are some inner buildings and outside buildings off the large outer.

You face a lot of snipers outside and it takes time to clear them. The most dangerous spawns are the swarm of cacodemons and pain elementals spawned towards the end. The cacodemons are free to move outside and inside and it's hard to keep track of them.

There is an excellent secret hunt, official and unofficial. One building full of imps and demons is easily overlooked and there's a megasphere that can be difficult to reach and requires a lot of backtracking to retry. You will want to find all of the secrets, especially the rocket launcher secret and also the one loaded with shells and rockets. You don't have plasma or bfg to help on this map if you start with pistol so you have to make due with shells and rockets.

[Roofi]

Map 01 (Realms of Shades)

 

 

Difficulty : Medium FDA

 

I agree with some reviews. I'm also pretty mixed on this level. In fact , you know this wad has aged at first glance because everything prove to be weird , for better or for worse. In fact , I like how distorted and incoherent the layout looks , there are a lot of variations in shapes : circles rooms , long corridors , the very high room with slime... At the beginning , you must fall in a kind of hole guarded by shotgunguys for instance. None of the mappers of today would dare to make maps with a so eccentric progression.

 

The first map is quite long and tough. Many monsters populate the first rooms and also I did't expect a slaughter-like battle when you reveal the "secret" with the RL. Revenants can be dreadful at times but I like how they are perched on their invisible sectors . I love those 90' effects , the 3D bridge is my favourite above all. Secrets are sometimes cryptic to find , I wanted to find them all but I accidentally walked on the exit line. Another thing I like is the fact that the layout loops. You finish the level exactly where you started.

 

It's a shame that the author kept the levels unnamed... Also , contrary to some people , I always like when a DOom 2 wad uses music from DOOM 1.

 

Another point , this sky is one my favourite. It's from the first Doom if I'm not wrong. A few new textures were used altough it doesn't render very well in general to be honest. However , the wad was made 20 years ago , it was very good for its time !

[Pirx]

11 hours ago, Memfis said:

I remember trying Realm of Shades some years ago but abandoning it after a map or two. Let's give it another chance...

[...]

I kinda liked the design though. Not a fan of the way the author repurposes classic textures (TEKGREN turned 90 degrees and colored brown is super weird, this is very "ugh" too), but the rest was nice. Best room by far IMO: https://i.imgur.com/zFJfOJa.png

 

ouch. if that's the best room, then i didn't expect much of it. 

 

actually, i mistook this realm for yukiraven's shadows of nightmare realm when we voted for it. upon loading, i had very confused memories... of playing it 20 years ago when it came out. i must have been suitably impressed back then by its large scale architecture, but i must also have abandoned it back then, because it's not exactly intuitive in parts, and throws those stupid pain elementals at you on the first map already.

 

roofi hit the nail on its head with his "eccentric progression"... i fell literally on the head of a shotgun guy when stepping off that platform (using gzdoom). then there's this cistern with said elementals where you press on a unmarked pillar(?) and lower a lift, and the secret with the blur sphere and a shotgun guy inside a wall? weird. the underground part looks interesting enough with its 3d bridges, but i found it tedious with all those sniping revenants and skull spitters.

 

 

 

MAP02 - realm of two cows

 

nokturnus didn't name the maps, so i have to make up for it. large and imposing buildings, with plenty of space in between them. there's a truckload of rockets, but i found the launcher and its ammo only late in the map, which soured my experience of it, as i was forced to snipe those damn chaingunners from the opposite windows, and wherever i saw them, they were slowly grinding me down from the distance. i recognized the double columns gate instantly, now that's not bad for a map played so long ago. the map is pretty empty in the beginning, but you release more and more enemies as you progress. in the end i had the two cows stomping around, as i had thought that i should save my ammo (actually, there's plenty of shells and rockets for them), and when the cacos and pain elementals were released, i nearly blew myself up and ran straight for the exit. not a heroic, but efficient finish. btw, i jumped into the spider pit, and it didn't break the map. i liked its oversized architecture, and i think it's more fun to play if you know it already and get the rockets earlier, else it's too much shotgunning and sniping.

 

[Magnusblitz]

Ok, guess we're moving onto Realm of Shades, though it isn't the 22nd here yet...

 

MAP01

98% kills, 3/4 secrets

 

Yup definitely a lot of that old-school PWAD weirdness, for better or worse. In a way it's a bit refreshing, at least for the first section. The second half tilted a bit too much to the 'did not like' design with the huge open area (filled with PEs no less). Despite the huge glut of monsters slammed into the tiny space it's actually not very difficult, thanks to the layout providing plenty of cover and windows to hide behind. The most dangerous bit was taking that long elevator out of the sludge, first time I had my SSG out instead of the chaingun and got pinned by the mass of monsters waiting at the top. Texturing is pretty random and relatively ugly, as expected.

[tmorrow]

47 minutes ago, Magnusblitz said:

Ok, guess we're moving onto Realm of Shades, though it isn't the 22nd here yet...

We moved it up one day because map12 of UAC Ultra was accidentally assigned a day when it is only a credits map with one room, so for ROS we have map01 starting on 21st rather than 22nd.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP10: Skagway

30:19 | 100% Kills | 98% Items | 100% Secrets

This was (mostly) a ton of fun. I did miss two items, I assume they were either health or armor bonuses, but then this level is not particularly conducive to backtracking, eh? It's an interesting challenge to throw out, having to keep moving forward to move from radsuit to radsuit, plowing through walls of meat, but still hitting the right switches as well as grabbing the secrets etc. The final area was maybe a little underwhelming; can you simply ignore the cybers et al, and just step onto the exit teleporter? I wasn't even sure where the exit was until I'd (finally) killed everything, but there it was right in the middle...

 

 

REALM OF SHADES

MAP01

22:26 | 98% Kills | 95% Items | 75% Secrets

So, uh...this map. Hrm. I'm playing on HMP, by the way, just to relax a bit. (Still GZDoom/continuous/keyboard-only/saves.) I... don't know that I have anything nice to say about this map. It's very 90s? And there seems to be very little in the way of rhyme or reason as to why anything is the way it is. Okay, the first half is pretty bland, but not terrible. The second half, though? With the nukage, the dropout floors, the windows that you can jump out to nowhere, the ridiculously-tall lifts that you have to wait for, the final lift that if you don't disembark quickly enough, you'll hit your head on the ceiling and be heading down again, the dick-move berserk trap, enemies repopulating behind you that you'll never see if you don't backtrack for whatever reason? I mean, really. Maybe I'm just bitter that I kept falling into the nuke at the very end, having to backtrack to the first half of the level and grab four medikits twice. But, blech.

[Phobus]

As it's the only one I've not played...

 

Realm of Shades

MAP01

Playing on UV, this map seems to have a lack of armour and a lot of shotgunners and Revenants. That's not to say that there is no armour, just that there isn't enough to keep me healthy. There are a lot of medikits, so as long as you're not wiped out by the RNG feeling unforgiving, recovery is pretty doable. It's a surprisingly compact map for the monster count, which hints at the seemingly endless horde you get relatively early on. I want to say there's some early charm here, it being from the late 90s, where mapper skills were variable and tools weren't so helpful, but there's a lot of times where you go up or down a lift into a crowd of already-active enemies with no real way of neutering it. I've picked up a lot of ammo already, even though I didn't get one secret (I know where it is, I just didn't find a way to open it), so at least I won't be lamenting a lack of firepower. Not sure where the rocket launcher would really be safe to use, by the time you actually get it, but at least it's there for later.

 

I'll be playing UV continuous in GZDoom, with saves as I can see this will be frustrating otherwise.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP02

 

It is a better map than previous overall, but still so many bad design choices. I often don't bother to check the bars directly, so I spend time looking for a switch instead, only to realize I never needed one to open those bars. The water pool secret southwest of the start has NOTHING inside it on ITYTD apart from a demon. And two secrets behind the yellow door are somehow even worse. They both look like you can just open either of them but you can't. DO NOT DO THIS MAPPERS. Hell, the rest of the secrets pretty much require a lookup. Ignoring them, the level is all walkways until you get the three keys. And there's TWO blue keycards. The blue skull door in the main yard doesn't even need a key, you just need to flip a switch near the key to open that for good. Or just ignore that and take the REAL blue door which is a straightforward march to the exit. Those who want carnage, might as well go for the blue skull door, there's barons and hell knights and cacos on the way back. But I still do not like this level due to its bad design choices.

[gaspe]

MAP02: Interesting level, it feels like a city level with its layout but it isn't a city level. It's rather bare but it was fun to explore the place. I like that initially you keep to hear the cyberdemon stomping without having an idea of where it is and how is structured the outdoor area. It was also fun to let the cyberdemon kill the horde of hell nobles and give a hand with the cacos.

[Roofi]

Map 02 (Realms of Shade)

 

 

Difficulty : Medium FDA

 

Well , I can describe easily this level : bare aesthetics but interesting and eccentric gameplay !

 

The difficulty is surprisingly high , far from impossible but UAC ultra was a piece of cake compared to this. As memfis said , a LOT of monsters populate the level and also we already meet two cybies. Some monsters can be dangerous like the chaingunners sniping you from a distance or the cyberdemon guarding the yard which can reach you by the windows.

 

As you can see from the layout , everything is very pretty squarish but on the other hand you can freely explore the level as you want. The non-linearity constitutes the strenght of this city-like map. It was really fun to explore  despite the ugliness. However , I loved the design of the room in the North-West and a lot of vanilla tricks which contribute to the eccentricity of the wad. For instance , I liked the transparent lift you use to go out of the secret with the spider or even the way the blue key was perched. The trap with the Cybie and the bunch of caco/pain elementals was my favourite part of the level , it reminds me a bit of "Umbreion Nils" from Tangerine Nightmare when you reach the last room.

[Memfis]

03 - I guess most of the effort went into the first room? It looks sexier than everything we've seen so far with these pretty lights. I'm not sure what to say about the rest of the level, it's just DOOM. Almost Kama Sutra-like in gameplay, but without the good visuals.

[Pirx]

1 hour ago, Memfis said:

03 - I guess most of the effort went into the first room? It looks sexier than everything we've seen so far with these pretty lights. 

 

heh. that's true, sadly. i liked how the first room with the lowering walls plays, releasing a group of enemies with every switch, so you can run around and fool them. it's a bit square and ugly though with those bathroom tiles.

 

what follows made me save my game a few times, just for not having to play certain sequences again if i bit the pixels. like the one where you're locked between bars while the hellish loons kill each other outside. that takes far too long. and many other things can be solved with a healthy dose of door camping. combine this with some backtracking to the yellow door, and the map drags on. i ran past the vile at the exit.

 

[tmorrow]

map03
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

Another enjoyable map with a good mix of enemies right throughout. There is quite a bit of nonlinearity so you can tackle the map in many different way. There is ample ammo and health so you can afford to be cavalier or even reckless at times. All of the traps can be managed fairly easily. Probably the worst traps are the one where bars come down on both sides of you (as noted by @Pirx), sandwiching you between enemies and the final room trap with hellknights and an archvile.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP03

 

Here is an actually good level. It has encounters that are fine, and secrets that are actually simple to get to. Plus it's less confusing. Quite a few bits with lots of nukage towards the southern and western parts of the map, along with lots of shotgun guys, but these aren't so hard to handle now. There's also a red key right at the exit switch so you can get out of the trap room there if you forgot something. Only thing I don't like? That one trap past the plasma gun platform, because it TAKES TOO LONG to go down. But again, this levelset is improving bit by bit.

[Phobus]

MAP02

 

That was an enjoyable half an hour. Took me back to the earlier days of modding where you'd have large open areas with some sort of base plonked in the middle. The monster placement, density and supplies with which to take them on felt much more generous than MAP01. I found and killed every enemy and only missed the one secret. I know where it was, I just don't know how to get there. Probably something silly like taking the back of the teleporter at the end of the blue skull door path...

 

I found that progression was pretty haphazard, with enemies just kind of appearing over time with little hint as to which of the things I'd done had triggered them. The Cacodemons got everywhere! I'm quite liking this map set so far. It's got that late-90s charm.

[gaspe]

MAP03: It's funny that some rooms have an impressive lighting, while most of the places keep to follow the trend and basic rooms but the map is quite varied and I liked the tekgren rooms even though they are nothing special. The first pool of nukage isn't damaging lol. The gameplay was a bit weird, it has a bit the flavor of Hell Revealed but it's also very different, @Memfis comparison is spot on for me.

[Roofi]

Map 03 (Realms of Shades) :

 

 

Difficulty : Medium FDA

 

Yep , the first rooms looks very sexy compared to the rest , light gradients make every level so more beautiful but it must be really tricky to do without an advanced software like doombuilder. Also , who says a lot of gradient says a lot of linedefs. ROS's levels are pretty large so making those everywhere would probably be too much for vanilla restrictions.

 

I agree with Memfis for the kamasutra-like gameplay , I found it similar to "Miss Sporty" (Map 15) but in a larger and less detailed version. The player explores a big base with varied but weird rooms. The zone where bars come down on both sides reminds me a lot the swimming pool's part from KS map 15 , perhaps because it uses a lot of textures ressembling ceramics in this specific part. Also , you can note that this wad uses wall textures for floors. It's interesting because you can do it only on zdoom if you don't want to import new textures.

 

This map was a drop down in terms of difficulty even if the beginning was pretty tough because you don't know that the slime pool doesn't damage you... No cybies , a lot of larges spaces allowing you to move freely , superabondant ammo , a very useful blue armor near the beginning...  Same as the previous level , you can visit the base in the way you wish.

 

I prefer this wad than UAC ultra for now. ROS has a more varied and better gameplay despite its antiquated graphics.

[Memfis]

04 - I don't get it. Where is health? Unplayable. Also, you're not supposed to put monsters on 3d bridges that can move! These chaingunners falling down are just silly. The design seemed great from what I saw. It's interesting how all maps so far looked and felt very different.