painful evil - tomi rajala

Filename: painevil.zip

File size: 203K

Author: Tomi Rajala

Homepage: http://www.algonet.se/~rajala/tomppa/doom_frames.htm

Other work: not known

The first thing I said when I saw this level was: hey, this looks
like episode 4. And I was correct. The author of this map has taken
a lot of influence from The Ultimate Doom's "Thy Flesh Consumed" episode
to create a truly amazing gothic-styled level. Some of the architecture
in the map is very nice; in particular the end scene. Real attention
to detail in there. The author says that a VPO crashes the map near
the start, but I wonder if he's tried running BSP 2.3x over it? I
might try that and see if the problem is solved.

Well, the gameplay is a real high point in the map. Really E4-ish
with close moments when fighting. However, there are moments when you've
triggered an action of some sort elsewhere in the level and you're not
sure what you've done. These are VERY annoying, however, you will
encounter them less and less as you play the level. The cyberdemon at
the end can get very tricky if you're not careful.



No bugs anywhere; just what I'd expect from a finished map.

Aesthetics are a strong point in the map, along with gameplay.
I personally like the E4 style a great deal. There are no visual
bugs (I think) except for a few slightly mismatched textures at
the beginning of the map (BRONZE2 and GSTONE1 adjacent to each other)
The marble/wood theme is held consistently throughout the level
but it never becomes boring. There's one area which for some reason
reminded me of HacX... it's in an outdoor area near a bloodfall
and the main attraction of coming there is a soulsphere on the lower
garden.

The thing placement is fairly uneven; but it's overall pretty good.

verdict