Cyb says: Okay, ignore the previous message here. Yay newstuff!
Somewhere in between filling my new mod with new monsters and promising to get to work on the maps again, I bring you another week's worth of wads to play through. This week it's an old skool special, as no source ports are required to play any of the wads here. Unfortunately there's only 7 of them, containing 12 maps, and you may have played half of these before. Quite a weak week then, and a Doom 1/Doom 2 mixture, including another blind alley to go up...
- Tower of WAR Demo v2.0 by The Net Nomad
291kb - doom2.exe - SP -
This appeared a few months ago, and for those who don't know, it's a 6-map demo wad for a megawad called Tower of WAR. This version has the new sprites - the green key, overhead lamps, office lamps and computer screens. A dehacked patch has also been added. If you've played the original demo, you won't need to play it again unless to want to see it with the new sprites etc. but if you haven't played it, here's my original review from newstuff 114.
- Blind Alley U: Deja Vu by Gene Bird
137kb - doom2.exe - SP -
The 10th map in the series (and the 4th one I've reviewed) and it's business as usual, as you blast through nearly 300 monsters in the usual fast-paced manner. This time it's a primarily gothic setting, with a handful of more modern-looking areas as well. The detail comes mostly from linedef structure, pillars and scenery things rather than from sectors, leading to some bare-looking areas but it's not extremely bad. But, as with all maps in this series you'll be too busy to worry about it. Gameplay is up to the usual tough standard, with plenty of ammo and there's more health this time around. It's a bit easier than some of the maps in this series, but it's still tough enough (and good enough) to be affiliated with the Blind Alley title.
- Bahdko 1 for Doom II by BahdKo
19kb - doom2.exe - DM -
A fairly open deathmatch wad, set in some kind of techbase. Detail is low, but that doesn't really matter in a deathmatch map. Bits of health are scattered around, and you'd better like Mr. Buckshot, as it's mostly an all-shotgun affair. (if you want a plasma weapon, you'll have to work a bit harder to get them). Finally, the lack of doors/lifts (save for the exit door) means it should flow pretty quickly, and the high-shelling battles should be a good measure of player accuracy.
- 2 lost levels by Christoph Oelckers (Graf Zahl)
101kb - doom.exe - SP -
A 2-map wad for Doom 1, replacing E3M6 and 9. These maps were made in 1994, and it shows. The layouts are pretty much random, the texturing follows suit and the rooms/corridors are very bare (except for scenery things). The gameplay is quite tough at the start of both maps but isn't too tough after then, except for the odd ammo shortage here and there (keep that chainsaw handy). Ammo and health are in reasonable supply but on the second map there are quite a lot of cells, soulspheres and blue armour - perhaps a bit too much, although the map's enemies might have something to say about that. Some players are likely to get annoyed by the find-a-switch-and-don't-know-what-it-does layout, and there's no texture alignments either. The maps do have that early-Doom-era feel to them, which will please the nostalgia hunters, but apart from that it's one to miss.
- Enigmatic Complex by Grimm
194kb - doom.exe - SP -
Another Doom 1 wad, this time a tech map set in a computer lab. Not surprisingly then, there's a fair number of computer rooms of various kinds. Detail is fairly basic and, together with the unusual design in some areas, the map does have a 1994 feel to it. There are also some neat touches and a really good tune to listen to. Unfortunately, the gameplay has some fatal flaws - you need to find a secret chaingun (started by pressing non-obvious switches a fair bit away) in order to survive the yellow key trap, nearly all the health is holed up in a couple of rooms (after you need it) and there's a huge secret room where you face a huge teleport trap in the dark (not a good idea). Monster wise, it's nearly all zombies, except in one or two areas (so get those reflexes sharpened). There's also a Doom 2 version, which is identical but for a few chaingunners and some altered textures/flats. Some of you will like this for it's nostalgic feel (including myself) and it's all-zombie challenge (not many maps like that around), but I don't know about the rest of you.
- Grafix Project - Alt Death by Job
287kb - doom2.exe - n/a -
A graphics wad which replaces all the death frames of the monsters with, err...the death frames of all the monsters. They've all been altered in some way, but in most cases you'll need a microscope to spot the difference between the modified one and the original one. The exception to this is the cyberdemon, who now crackles with electricity as he dies. Comes with files for vanilla use (no flames, now), but source port users will know what to do.
- City in Chaos by Alex Busby
149kb - doom2.exe - SP -
A rather large Doom 2 map, set in a city. The title is appropriate, as some of the buildings are ablaze (see screenie) and there's plenty of monsters to blast at. Everything is pretty large scale and the low detail level leads to a mostly bare look about the map. However, the buildings vary in design/content, and in one of them the flames are everywhere, which doesn't look bad. Ammo is plentiful, health is too, and the difficulty is average - most Doomers should be able to handle UV, while the Doom gods will want to turn on fast monsters. The map does have that old skool feel to it (which it should do, given it was actually made in 1995) and it's not often you see a map with so much open space (and so much distance for those never-tiring legs to cover). Nothing special, but not bad, and worth checking out for it's uncommon features. And definitely worth playing if you love those mid-90's style maps.
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