cs99cjb
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Thanks for the reviews. Ancient Aliens looks amazing.
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After an unnecessarily invidious start, this sprawling but surprisingly intricate map throws into perspective how insipid most third-party levels are. John Romero paints with a broad brush but with flair and imagination, reminding us that there's more to Doom than rooms and corridors. His multidimensional style is a breath of fresh air. Minuses: gameplay relies heavily on scripted teleporter ambushes, and inevitably many players will find the ending anticlimactic. Also where were the cacodemons?
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Whereas I see the word "Deathmatch" and immediately know that I'm completely uninterested in a review. People can have different criteria. If you can't be bothered to read a long review then you might not be bothered to play a long WAD, or does it not work like that? I don't think I've ever seen a map-by-map review of Doom or Doom 2; presumably such a review would be just as laborious to read as a review of a megawad. I think long reviews are okay as long as they are preceded by a précis or synopsis.
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The first two maps are alright but a bit of a slog. The 2nd map is the weakest but it's worth persevering; this WAD hits its stride on the 3rd and 4th. Most took me about 9 minutes. It's easy to get cornered by a horde on map 3, which was the first to get my pulse racing. The next is intricate but never cryptic. Unfortunately Cacodemons and pop-up monsters are overused. Lighting and texturing quality is consistent but never spectacular. Some nice room designs but it's mostly spartan. Interesting secrets.
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The review of Prototype intrigued me enough to play it (well worth it, if you were thinking about it) but in at least one respect it is factually inaccurate: there is definitely a cyberdemon in 'Belly of the Whale'. Perhaps it only appears on hard difficulty. By the way, I think 'Prototype' is considerably underrated in the database (currently 3 stars).
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What types of enemies do u like killing most in games??
cs99cjb replied to VGames's topic in Everything Else
Maybe I'm getting old but I've gone off killing. -
The first few maps of Doom consist of advancing through successive rooms of monsters who attack from in front, shooting them and picking up items. Most of the early PWADs were like that too. I think most of us are bored of that style of gameplay now, but the trouble is that it's hard to make anything better in the same game engine without resorting to teleporting monster swarms or the kind of cheap tricks one might see on a Ghost Train ride (surprise lifts, monster closets, etc.) I enjoy making architecture but struggle to reconcile my quasi-realistic style with the kind of gameplay expected nowadays. Where do you put your monster closets if there's no rational reason for a closet to exist in that environment? On a positive note, the gameplay in Doom 4 looks as though it could be engrossing.
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Another of Bob Evans's Marmite-like (love or hate them) WADs, laden with booby traps and infuriating switch puzzles. Its strength is gameplay; this is not a tourist attraction. Lighting is above par but not fussy. Texturing is competent apart from a dodgy ceiling change but also rather whimsical. I never found the blue key (or visited those areas) and had to use the map cheat to solve the red key puzzle, having failed to pick up an automap.
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Many people seem to be sore about their PC specifications. Yes, the detail is excessive in places and not always tasteful (first slope I've seen outside of ZDoom). What I found interesting was playing Doom 2 (from The Pit onward) afterwards; it has mostly arbitrary texturing, inconsistent broad-brush lighting and big shapeless rooms. If the 'Gothic' movement inspired designers to think differently, maybe we should all be grateful.
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Jumping puzzles, lift puzzles, switch puzzles, walking puzzles: it's crammed with intricate little mechanisms. The gunplay is mostly shotgun sniping. If you like obvious progression then you'll loathe it; even the non-hidden doors are easy to overlook in the dark. The ending screen helpfully told me that my time of 01:05:54 'sucks' but I think I should get a prize for patience. I hated the one-time door that needs monsters to block it (in fact I cheated) so 3* from me.
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Realistically, that's true of every endeavour you'll ever undertake. It's only since the advent of the Internet that we have our noses rubbed in it though.