The /newstuff Chronicles #219

Lets start off Super Bowl Sunday with a freshly made batch of reviews for our favorite game! No i'm not talking about the Superbowl. So wether you're rooting for the Patriots or that other non-existent team whose name I never remember, these wads should tide you over until the big game starts. This week we got a bunch of 1994/1995 levels uploaded, but we also got 2 or 3 good hitters to even that out, and 1 application. What are you still here for, get to reading!

• Citadel - Jim Flynn
  doom.exe - SP - 93k -
  The first wad here and boy is it a stinger! As you might guess from the screenshot it is another one of those pesky 1994/1995 wads, with queer texturing and design. You start out in a plain of marble around a castle, where the only entrance in seems to be a hidden teleporter, to where you face a spiderdemon with near no hope to survive to grab the BFG at it's legs. Get past that and you have to survive a triad of puzzles and traps. For the sake of your own sanity, don't play this.
  
  
• DEPTHS OF DOOM - Richard Torquato
  doom.exe - SP - 45k -
  Another mid 90's wad, and it only gets better as we move right along this week, this one is actually a pretty good replacement of E3M2. Using a good array of switches to open walls in the main area, you eventually unlock an arena with a slew of shotgunners (Who will decimate you, due to lack of health and armor.) if you aren't careful. A good wad, take a look!
  
  
• Despair - David L. Farrington
  doom.exe - SP - 93k -
  Another doom 1994 wad, this one is a lot more confusing. First you find a shotgun and ward off a few trap doors full of monsters, then you get the key and somehow make it up to a ledge where you find rows and rows of hidden doors I didn't notice until I used automap. More mysteries and I don't know how I came across a red key, but the rest is history, as I quickly ran out of health in a very small hallway filled with cacodemons to either side. Avoid this one.
  
  
• DESTRCT - Jim "DOOMinator" Weis
  doom.exe - DM - 45k -
  First DM wad of the week, and it's bad. It's an E1M1 DM replacement, but it feels like a mixed up SP level, as you spawn in a random room, and fight off monsters, who knows why the author decided to put monsters in a deathmatch level. But then it's 1994, what would you expect, right? Using a modern port's No Monsters DMflag should keep you out of trouble however, and it should prove for some interesting games when put to the test with a couple people. Otherwise, stay away.
  
  
• Hemdale - LordEquimanthorn
  doom2.exe - DM - 28k -
  A nice, underdetailed area with SSGs and Rocket Launchers about, and an invisibility sphere in the center. Not much to say about this, other than it needs a considerable more detail and weaponary, and needs to rethink the texturing, but otherwise, probably still a good play, try it out with a few friends!
  
  
• Heptic - Steve Rountree
  doom.exe - SP - 53k -
  Here we are once more with another 1994 E2 level replacement, although this one isn't much fun or graphically appealing as some of the previous ones, this still takes you for a loop in terms of errors and texture misalignment and/or poor choices. This level's layout is pretty simple to figure out, run down one of these absurdly long hallways, get a key, survive darkness, get another key, and find the exit. Nothing new here.
  
  
• New Doom Level: Episode 2 Level 1 - Steve Rountree
  doom.exe - SP - 22k -
  Another wad from Steve! This one is...well, very bad. You begin in a room shown in the screenshot above, and you would slowly die in the nukage while trying to navigate the maze of misaligned textures. Beyond that, is a teleporter, which takes you to a room with fake skull doors, fortunately, an imp telefragged me on my way out, ending my misery. Keep away, far away.
  
  
• No Brakes - Lutrov71, Cyber-Menace
  Limit removing port - SP - 300k -
  Now here's a nice level, and (at least to me) is rated toughest level of the week. You open up with a lost soul behind you, SSG right in front of you, and a RL right in front of that SSG, with only an imp and a couple spectres and zombiemen around, but that all changes very rapidly. This level is not really suited for using the rocket launcher, as it has many small areas where you can easily destroy yourself with the splash damage. Not much health and ammo, but there's a ton of monsters, including many shotgunners and chaingunners to keep the ammunition supply moving. Great map for the ones seeking a challenge this week.
  
  
• Nostalgic: MAP03 - ler
  doom2.exe - SP - 26k -
  A simple remake of "The Gauntlet", this one actually is a fun short level to play through, good detail amount for such a small size, a good secret or 2, ample amounts of health and ammunition, and a good monster amount, not much else to say about this. I had fun trying to break the par though, so in my opinion it's worth a shot. :)
  
  
• Starlit Map1 - Jodwin
  Edge - SP - 147k -
  Now, first off, before you even think of playing this map with normal Doom weapons, you can't, you won't make it far, no matter how good you think you are. That's why you need the Immoral Conduct weapon set, as stated in the text. As for the level itself, with the Immoral Conduct weapon set it still is hard, but it can be beaten, and you can't even get past some parts in the level without some of the weapon's special abilities, like flares. A good level, and most likely the best SP one this week.
  
  
• Ultimate CTF - Izm, Danny, TUD, Meph and Exl
  Zdaemon - CTF - 2,748k -
  Now here, I think, we have a real winner. Made by some of the best mappers in the Zdaemon community, or rather in this case, the ones that pay the most attention to detail! They have banded together to create a slew of fun and innovative CTF maps for us to enjoy. And by a slew I mean 20. They all have tons of different styles too, like in one of the maps, you have a library map where the only way for an intruder from the other team to get in is via a staircase on either side of the main gate, and they jump down to get the flag. They can go out either one of 2 ways, lower the main gate and run to their base, or run up the ladder opposite the game and run back down the stairs from where they came in from! Now what caught my eye here is most of the maps made by Mephisto. Sometimes his maps include so much detail, like pillars, that it's hard to play them without getting stuck on some object. Here this is not the case, and for that there's a thumbs up. Truly a top of the line map pack in terms of detail and gameplay, and a worthy download as well. Try it out for yourself on the servers that it's playing on!
  
  
• Mus2midi - Just_Joe
  Application/Modding Tool - n/a - 24k
  A tool used for converting the MUS files used in Doom wads back to MIDI. Good for converting the music of old Wads to MIDIs.
  
  
• UAC Research Vessel #1024 - Will "Kid Airbag" Hackney
  Advanced port - SP - 135k -
  Here's a level from our own resident citizen Kid Airbag, and it isn't half bad. Set in a spaceship, it had 2 'real' decks of which you traverse and find the exit. My only complaints are that it isn't really that tough, and it's VERY cramped, not much room to move at all. It does look like someone sacrificed space for detail, as most of the eye candy takes up over half the space in every room. Other than that it's worth a look.
  
  
• Wicked Be The Ways of Men - ReX Claussen
  doom2.exe - SP - 357k -
  Dark. That one word pretty much sums up this level. It's hard to see anything apart from fireballs and shotgunners firing on the default gamma. After you up it, you'll see that you are basically in an underdetailed cave, with hardly any source of ammunition or health, and are sent on a quest to the exit through dangerous peril without any knowledge or real signs of where to go in the darkness. Count your blessings that you have the Automap.