The /newstuff Chronicles #216

Why hello there! Here I am again with yet another basket of goodies, depending on how you look at it. We got on the plus side some new and innovative wads from different authors. And we also take a trip back to 94 to take a look at some (by our standards) poor maps. We also got a surprise map pack from Bloodskull, which turns out to be the only modern DM mappack this week, and upon our doorstep we got some Edge weapon sets to spice things up. On with the show!

• Cdoom v2.05 - Carlos Guariglia
  Source port - n/a - 227k
  A source port based off Marine's Best Friend 2.03. Some pretty neat features of Cdoom include: REAL 3d floors, new cheats, liquid 3d floors (Water elevator? :O ) and some other stuffage you can find in the text included. The source is also included.
  
  
• Commandos! Doom - Snarboo
  Edge 1.28a - Weapons TC - 449k
  Now here's a nice little weapons conversion for Edge. The name Commandos! Doom is quite appropriate, as you get to wield silent exploded grenade launchers which do a hefty amount of damage to anything nearby, and all sorts of little weapons. You got dual pistols, machine gun, and even the SSG is renovated into a 2 shot reloading right held SSG! Pretty innovative and a good Weapons conversion for Edge!
  
  
• Contaminated Zone - Jason C. Bennett
  Doom.exe - SP - 43k -
  Well here we are, the first of map 1994 wads to come this week, and no, it isn't really good. You got vine walls, doors the size of houses and the like. The game starts off with a room like this one in the screenshot above, and you navigate vast hallways, and encounter a lot more of these same rooms, and you got the misaligned textures on both the floor and the walls, and you get to fight off a few imps with a plasma gun and then get tricked into traps where you are doomed by the literal army of shotgunners. If you don't like the 1994 style wads, save your energy and don't play this.
  
  
• Dave1 - David Bruni
  Doom.exe - SP - 38k -
  Hallways that can barely fit you? Check. Health shortage? Check. Attacked by 5 cacos in absolute darkness? Check. The entire level is made mostly of 1 texture? Check. Fighting off zombies and shotgunners with 2 health and only your fists? God help us. That pretty much sums it all up in this 1994 wad. You heard it firsthand, now play this, and concern it as a bad experiment, or a jokewad, your pick.
  
  
• Dcat1 - Jimmy a. Davis
  Doom.exe - SP - 10k -
  Another 1994 wad, this one isn't so much fun. Ward off 4 or so demons with a pistol, then proceed to an absurdly easy battle against 2 barons with 10 rockets and so on and so forth. Include your sector bleeds, misaligned textures, and you got yourself Dcat1. In my opinion, not a good play.
  
  
• Demon's Battlefield - Cacocacodemon
  Doom2.exe - DM - 511k -
  Well, here's a rare wad this week, a DM wad. What's rarer (Is that even a word? Doesn't sound like it.) is that this is a hybrid map, meaning you can play both SP and DM on it, but to a limited degree on SP. DM, you got option based on skill levels, where you can have no plasma or BFG, or just plasma, or plasma and bfg, or everything + 2x ammo. And for a 32 map set, it isn't that bad, although the levels have pretty much the same design throughout the set. The monsters, are supposed to be there for DM. For who knows why, but according to the textfile, they are supposed to 'interfere' with your DM battle. Sounds like fun. Give this a whirl, some of the maps can be fun in a 1 v 1 game.
  
  
• DOOM 1.666 WADS The Gateway ; The Pedestal ; The Great DOOM - Dave
  Doom.exe - SP - 150k -
  Now here's a small collection of doom wads, although strangly titled, that actually I found to be somewhat enjoyable. Although the wads included here do not at all have any sort of theme or texture alignment and the such, the gameplay is simplistic and fun to play though. At least through my perspective. Although it is pretty damn confusing at times on what to do or where the keycards are, it did feel like a good wad, excluding the detailing and texturing. Final summary: Not bad at all, you should give it a play.
  
  
• Immoral Conduct SE - Cory Whittle
  Edge 1.27 - Weapons TC - 2,258k
  Not soon after Commandos! Doom did this little treasure come along. This is quite a marvelous Weapon conversion indeed. First off, you begin with a little bot helper, and You can not only wield one pistol, but two! Quite the assortment of little weapons also hide on slot #7, some of which include a auto-handgun, revolver, and other little toys for you to kill monsters with. Beware of the shotgun as it packs a considerable punch, with the shrapnel flying off walls it can come back to kill you instead! One of the best features about this is it includes a reloading system with all the weapons, making a SSG fight against enemies a bit more fun, with reloading after every shot! But the fun doesn't end there. The shells come out of the weapons as you fire them and are left on the ground! A good weapons pack and a must play even if you don't have Edge.
  
  
• Hordes of Chaos X - Christopher Emirzian (Udderdude)
  Zdoom - SP - 5,079k -
  Well here we are, the (maybe?) last release of Hordes of Chaos, and it's quite a finisher, including all previous 4 Hordes of Chaos and also including a new set of levels to top it all off! This is a very detailed final set, as we can expect nothing less from Udderdude. It has all the settings you can imagine, a graveyard, hellish caverns, etc etc. The first levels usually start out with giving you a good assortment of items and weapons, and you would need them if you are playing on a higher difficulty, as it's not called Hordes of Chaos without reason! A great level set which kept me interested until the final level, and that is not usual, in my case. The best part of this is if you haven't played any previous HoC, then now is the time to pick it up!
  
  
• Hell's Twisted Influence: The new Nightmare - Andrew "Ninja_of_DooM" Fernie
  Zdoom - SP - 7,006k -
  Well this is a hard gem to find, a dark wad that looks like Torment and Torture but it really isn't. It's dark, hard, and has a good storyline for one map. And this isn't the only map, Ninja_of_Doom is supposedly going to make sequels to this map along the same storyline. First off the problems, 1, I found it hard to replenish health in this level, especially on UV and NM. Although this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it does take that dangerous step towards the hard wad section. Next, the wad is dark, and almost too dark, so you might want to up the gamma if you actually like seeing stuff, as the light levels are not very friendly to gamma 1 users. I mentioned before about the good storyline, and here's basically what it is. As from the text it states that the Demons are coming back to invade earth with new Weapons. Sounds interesting. Another great part of this wad is the detail in it. You can see stained glass and the like, little carpets rolled out here and there. It really is a work of art, in both gameplay, and detail. Try it out!
  
  
• Motion2 - Owen "Sarge Baldy" Lloyd
  doom.exe - SP - 97k -
  What week can be complete without a joke wad? This one comes from SargeBaldy, usually a great mapper who releases good maps, now has re-released a joke map, and it still pulls off some smiles and maybe a bit more. You start off in a room covered with one texture, but behind you, you see a scrolling wall of a pale blue sky. Enter the next room, and beware, for the Doomguy stares down at you as you trek across the pits of peril to open switches and face vast monsters with your pistol. The great strange fun doesn't end! A good wad for all you clowns out there.
  
  
• Resurrection - Bloodskull
  Skulltag - DM - 1,257k -
  And here we are, presented with the last DM mapset and wad of the week, and fortunately this is a winner indeed. You got a varied style of maps, although the theme mostly stays the same, from a downsized version of NukeDM, an island with a few cool secrets and an unexpected surprise, an arena type map, with a passage outside, along with a BFG secret which is quite hard to get, and finally a larger open area suited for big duels and deathmatches. Good stuff, as it's got good gameplay, good detail, however some of the powerup placing I found a bit odd, as I believe some soulsphere hiding secrets shouldn't be revealed with just one switch! Still, it's good stuff, and certainly worthy of a download, give it a whirl with other people if you can, some fun moments do occur.
  
  
• Waterwheel - John Bishop
  doom2.exe - SP - 129k -
  I can't really say much about this. This is alot like dave1, which was reviewed up there. You got more cramped hallways, ammo AND health shortage, and monsters which you can't hope to beat with a mere pistol and 4 shotgun shells. Most of the ground is covered with the water flat, due to flooding on the dark side of the moon. But then it is called Waterwheel for a reason, right...