Alright kids, listen up. The higher ups at Doomworld were lookin' for some people to do T/nC spots, and while this isn't normally my thing I figured I may as well try. I'm not really a mapmaker, or a demo runner, or anything much more than a player. What you're about to read is just the honest opinion of some guy in his apartment who likes to play Doom sometimes. So, if the review isn't exactly up to snuff with your more seasoned T/nC reviewers, then too damn bad.
That said, this week is mostly DM, with a single-player EDGE map and one new release. Without further adieu...
- The Best WAD Ever by Wang, hobomaster22, MasterOFDeath
153 KB - Any DM capable engine/port + Doom2 - DM - 30 maps -
At first I was gonna come on here and say that this was not worth anyone's time blah blah, but then I actually played it. And while essentially each "map" is one room, usually with one kind of weapon (or mostly with one weapon), and lacking ammo completely, I found these maps to be quite a bit of fun. Most of them have little elements that make fighting in them tough. The absence of ammo means you're pretty much gonna fight with what you got, and you'll have to wait until you die before you'll have ammo for gun (x) again. I wouldn't say they're the best small deathmatch maps ever, nor would I say this wad is really fitting of its title, but I can say this pack isn't as bad as people were telling me it was.
Warning: Textfile smacks of smugness.
- Chips Ahoy by Spunkman
1510 KB - Skulltag - DM - 1 map -
I didn't think I was going to even bother playing this for more than 5 seconds, as the author personally told me it was not even playable. I figured "why not?" I'd have to say I was quite surprised. First off, when you load the map, you'll be treated to a bit of visual splendor. The map itself is modeled (pretty well I must say) off an Adaptec internal/external SCSI card. Every resistor, every chip, even the pci connector pins, are all there. The map itself has something else to offer as well: good gameplay. Other than the pecking hunt for ammo, this map is pretty good for about 6-8 players. Any less than that and you'll probably never catch each other. I liked being able to get up on the different chips and hit from up high, but you can also hide behind capacitors as well. This map does suffer from dropped frame rates in some views, but overall on a decent machine it shouldn't be too bad. You may want to knock the resolution down a notch or two before stepping into the ring. Overall I found it visually appealing, just drop in some more ammo and you have a pretty good 8 player slaughterfest.
This map wins my wad of the week!
- UAC Rebels, revision 1 by Fano++64k/Hexagon
17167 KB - Doomsday 1.8.1 - SP - 1 map -
Ok, it says it requires 1.8.1 and nothing else, yet the latest version available off the Doomsday website is 1.8.0. I had to go to here to find 1.8.1 hiding.
Once I finally managed to install 1.8.1, I loaded this up with no trouble. This map is an entry into The Doomsday Editing Contest (there's a contest?!) However, right off the bat there were weird bugs. First, there were missing textures on walls and models. I know I followed the instructions according to the readme. Once I do that and it still doesn't work right, then there's some serious problems. Secondly, the weapon models wouldn't even show up! Some would flicker in if I shot, but that's it. The pistol wouldn't even show at all. The shotgun and super shotgun are from Quake 2, so you'll already know what those are like. The plasma wasn't replaced, so I idfa'd myself some plasma and started going through. Also, you MUST play this with models on, otherwise you'll be fighting bullet puffs and armor helmets.
The new soldier models aren't bad, and there is an ed-209 clone that's kinda neat, but the AI is just retarded. Most of the time, these guys just killed each other; considering they weren't zombies I found that a little bizarre. Textures in this map are not too shabby, but as with many doomsday maps, this one seems to rely on colored lighting and lightspill to give atmosphere, and the architecture unfortunately suffers.
If I had to judge this contest, I'd say this one would fall by the wayside. I hope this is not a glimpse of what could be seen in the contest. Good effort, but the errors make it not worth playing.
- Godless: Megawad by Chris Bilski and Blain Newport
909 KB - Zdoom (?) + Doom2 - DM - 30 maps -
Ah, yet another 30 map DM pack. First of all, I must stress, DO NOT PUT MONSTERS IN DM MAPS KTHX. I know the text file says run it with -nomonsters, but still, there's no reason for it, and it's not as though these maps could be played in SP anyway. It was pretty tough to review things like ammo and weapon placement with having to balance it out with monsters as well. From a technical standpoint, they weren't terrible. There were no weird texture issues or problematic architecture, so it does at least have that going for it. I didn't see anything that would be ZDoom specific in these maps; it appears that they just said ZDoom because it was all they tested it in. Overall, unless you're the monster-DM type, I'd just sit this one out.
- Godless 4: Kingdom Come by Chris Bilski and Blain Newport
430 KB - doom2.exe - DM - 9 maps
Same as above, but only 9 maps instead of 30.
- The Moonbase by MasterOFDeath
83 KB - doom2.exe - SP - 1 map -
From one of the authors of The Best Wad Ever comes The Moonbase. This map is pretty much your standard classic fare. It was tricky at times, but health and ammo seemed like a pretty fair balance. Those who enjoy the "run to the end of the base, get the card come all the way back to the beginning" type of puzzle in their maps will love this one very much. Nothing seemed out of place, but the lack of detail was a little disappointing. However, based on the author's notes in the text file ("This level was originally just me toying around in a editor out of boredom…") I don't think detail was his main goal. No detail is better than bad detail in my book. In any case, overall it was about 15 minutes of quick fun and not worth not downloading.
- Uber Crap by Fiend
346 KB - EDGE 1.28a - SP - 1 map -
Last week Fiend gave us Phobos Oribital and S.Q.W.I.R.E.L., now he takes a dump in our shoe. The name practically writes its own review. The supposed purpose behind this map is that nazi's are taking over your "nightclub" (is the beginning the nightclub?), and you have to fight off giant romero heads. Good times here we come! Besides the technical problems like lots of fullbright and pegged/missing upper and lower textures, this map has no point. The weapons are somewhat interesting in functionality but not worth the download. And of course, what joke wad wouldn't be complete without a gratuitous use of impse (with accompanying sound). As I said, the name speaks for itself. Avoid.
Re-releases
Just one re-release this time, and it's certainly a classic, from what I hear anyway
- 2002 A DOOM ODYSSEY (V2) by Paul Corfiatis (leader), Chris Hansen, Kristian Aro VIRGIL (the Doom Poet), Sam "Metabolist" Woodman
4172 KB - Doom.exe - SP - 36 maps
I suppose I COULD have reviewed this, but I didn't have time to traipse through a 4 episode megawad. I will however make mention of what's been updated for those that are interested. From the text file (adjusted for spelling):
- MAPINFO bugs fixed. You can now complete any episode using ZDOOM, LEGACY, etc.
- Improved texture alignment in E4M6
- Improved music if using the Yamaha SXG50 driver and playing using ZDOOM
- Plasma gun added to E2M6 and textures aligned
- E5M1 improvements, more ammo added, but still sparse so take care
Sounds splendiferous!
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