Crusader No Regret

Map 24 of Requiem and map 20 of Deus Vult 2 take some tight ammo management to clear from scratch without busting out the cheat codes. Several TimeOfDeath maps give just enough cell ammo to 2-shot every cyberdemon with no extra. The Brookhaven hospital remake stands out as one where routing also matters to prevent encountering a cyber when you don't have the 80 cells and the BFG to deal with one. Map 10 of Sacrament is somewhat longer than one would expect for a resource puzzle map but it's one where in continuous, I exited with less ammo than I started with. If going to try this one for resource puzzle aspects, make sure to grab the original release and not the updated one. DSDA might have it or I could try to dig it out of a backup on a flash drive.

Blind type 1. Dead: map 5 Got worn down from too many careless hits and finished off scrambling for a more defensible position. dsda-doom -complevel 2 dwiron_rrudy_cnr.zip

I'm willing to admit I died on the first map. What I'm choosing not to do is to leave physical evidence of my dismal performance. Participation points isn't worth this degree of scrubbiness. Demo has been deleted and I'm consciously choosing to not retain or reveal any of the details of it. Symbolicly, the evidence has been burned to ash and then the ashes were dissolved with acid. Only this testimonial will remain for posterity. I did play this for the IronEagle when it was chosen which was a factor in why I was so salty at the end of the recording. Better luck next month, so it goes.

Avactor, Epic, and portions of Epic 2 come to mind. Fragport maybe, I don't recall that many WADs of comparable length that have the next map continue from where the previous map ended.

Couple of replays. I haven't played through Doomed in Space continuous until now. So I wasn't aware there was an actual ending after the last map. The quirky cast of enemies makes it feel like its own world. Granted, I'm probably biased having playtested this one. Went through UAC Supply Depot again with the Alien Vendetta weaponset from Final Doomer. I wound up feeling the absence of the plasma rifle and BFG as that arsenal feels awkward for focusing down archviles. Found a few more secrets that I missed on the first go-around. Also somehow missed a monster somewhere but it's not likely worth combing over such a huge map for it. Not a replay but I did try out My House. The mainstream attention had turned me off for a while but it seems to have mostly settled. Part tribute, part showcase of doomcute, part mind screw is what I'll say about it here. I'd avoided most of the spoilers until after running through it 2-4 times. Then I caved and looked stuff up and lost most of my motivation to play it any further. Heh.

map 30 No monsters spawner to put up with and no timing rockets from a lift. 10/10 . . . Oh all right, I'll say a little more. Looking at the monster counter does spoil a lot of the suspense but there's still ways to kill unsuspecting players without monsters. Surprise crushers, barrel traps, instant death pits, baiting into telefragging a voodoo doll, etc... Also, seeing that 0 on the monster counter at the start doesn't preclude the absence of a spawner. The journey through this map takes the player to a number of past locales. As an easter egg, any secrets in the revisited areas are accessed the same way as they were previously, though untagged. The way the map ends and the ending text unsettled me to a similar degree as the ending of A.L.T. How much of the resultant rampage is the protagonist's own doing (as they already had a bone to pick with the UAC even without some dark entity getting involved) and how much is from the influence of whatever entity has been stalking the TormentGuy through the maps is uncertain. Some concluding thoughts From my perspective, E1 is the "show off the Boom trickery" with gameplay a secondary consideration episode. E2 strives to combine the various elements into a cohesive package. E3 is the horror and gloom episode. The experiences of each episode feel quite distinct from each other and which one(s) a person will enjoy most will very well come down to personal preference. For me, E2 had the most enjoyable gameplay overall while E3 had the strongest atmosphere. E3 spooked me in a way that a slaughtermap with armies of thousands just isn't going to match. The overall set does live up to the premise of a unique experience so I suppose it is a success in that area. One more gameplay mod experiment I want to do with this mapset. map 11 - UV with Touhou Doom enemies and weapons The showdown with the cybers is more fun and frantic with this mod set. All the invisibility artifacts as well as the computer map are replaced with spellcards, which increase the variety of tools available to use. Having spellcards to cancel shots in case enemies line up a shot when going after the monster release switches is a welcome addition. The weapon in slot 5 is more fun to use than the stock rocket launcher and also has three firing modes for more flexibility. Also, the cybers can be replaced by character bosses for more variety. The bullet hell can get really wild with two or three character bosses/dammaku cybers prowling around. Also, there's higher infighting potential which will result in less monster HP to grind down. Wasn't able to complete the map though, in an instance of "user beware" when using mods the mapset wasn't designed for. Whatever wizardry is used to open up the path to the exit when killing the cybers, Touhou Doom enemies breaks it. Some monsters don't teleport in at all. I tried this map 2-3 times and each time, there were 40 living enemies when the dust has settled vs 1 when I didn't mess around with enemy replacements. So it goes with using mods. I suspect the finale of 20 would be much harder with this modset with 4 or more boss tier monsters in an enclosed space compared to the triviality of 4 masterminds and an invisibility but haven't tried that one yet. Assuming map progression doesn't break in some other way before then.

map 29: 100% kills, 0/1 secrets Over 900 monsters on HMP which rose to over 1,000 before it was over. Because ZDoom counting lost souls. Very much structured as a linear path forward and generally no turning back. Despite the large monster count, it's mostly basic. Most encounters can be solved by application of heavy firepower to packs of monsters advancing from one direction or circlestrafing and letting infights thin out the ranks. The challenge of the first leg is dealing with about a third of the population without any chance to restore health. Playing with a gameplay mod greatly expedited clearing out packs (pretty sure the large horde of red demons is designed to take more than one BFG shot to clear out, as one example). Next segment opens with being greeted by dozens of speedy demons charging your direction. Intimidating when played under intended conditions, I imagine. Me coming in with a mod definitely ruined that effect as 1-2 rockets or one BFG shot decimates the pack. Next big fight I made more difficult on myself by insisting on taking out the pain elementals without them spewing too many skulls (more than 30-40 being "too many") but without using the BFG to do it as all the buffs I stacked on it wipes out the cacos too and I want them around for infighting. One of the floating islands has a setup where the only ammo provided was rockets so I was using only that and berserk fist on the lurking monsters there (with a bit of chaingun use for the resident chaingunners). After overcoming the islands, there's one last megasphere going into the final set of challenges. The initial setup takes a bit more effort than just circlestrafing everything. Trying to bait infights without taking too much damage from cyber rockets or the dozens of other monsters lying in wait took a number of attempts. Ammo looks somewhat scarce for an aggressive approach. I had both cybers killed by infights in my successful attempt and I'd much rather face the flock of cacos in almost any instance. Three more challenges to overcome before the exit; I can see where others' complaints about repetitive setups are coming from. Beating back a pack of knights and barons was simple. The dark caves that get populated with arachnotrons and mancubi isn't really going to be much harder if one doesn't care about maximizing infighting. The two pyramids room has a lot more teeth and it looks like a setup from Combat Shock 2 or another dedicated slaughter map. Thanks to gameplay mod, my first crack at it ended up feeling too easy so i reloaded and did things differently so that it would take some work to win. Tangent: Unintended effects of gameplay mods Far as I can tell, seekers affected by Gun Bonsai's Personal ECM perk are treated as they came from the player. They'll give weapon EXP to whatever weapon the player has out even when not actively attacking. Monsters hit by reprogrammed seekers will treat it as a player attack for purposes of targeting instead of the monster that fired them. Most significant (in the case of this particular combat setup), is that reprogrammed seekers will trigger any perks of the currently held weapon. This includes all elemental effects as well as those that activate on a kill. I had the BFG out on the first go. So when a monster died to a redirected seeker, inevitable with all the scrambling I was doing, Chain Lightning + Submuntions would take out 2-4 more despite me never firing a shot. This trivialized things more than I wanted so I switched to a different weapon while running around trying to infight bait to not break things as extensively. (end tangent) Once again with less cheese. (actually more than once working out a strategy) I still want to get the cyber to infight but I cannot stand still for very long or other projectiles will find me with a wall of mancubi and the pyramids stuffed with revenants. Going in somewhat of a figure eight pattern seemed to eventually achieve what I'm going for without dying in the process. Eventually was able to squeeze past the cyber blocking the way out while it was distracted with another monster and the hardest part was over. Didn't have this thought until after the map was over but this doesn't feel like a part of E3 of Sign of Torment. It could be entirely retextured with a completely different texture set and would still be the same map. Same with map 27 too but that one's shorter so it didn't have as much time to sink in.

Blind attempt on HMP. DNF on map 5 due to exhaustion after a two and a half hour marathon. Looking for all the little concealed switches was a colossal waste of time in this format. Great choice of mapset for an ironman format. eagle_etitan_cnr.zip

map 28: 100% everything It's different at least, having a map 28 be this desolate. It's a bit of a puzzle to access the first key, assuming one doesn't stumble into the solution by chance. The cybers guarding the next key I feel is the most difficult part of the map. Didn't really work out a reliable way to hide from them for the duration of their timer, instead opting to accept an attempt where I took about 80 splash damage in total. My choice of gameplay mod has some interesting side effects here. Because the cybers are telefragged by voodoo dolls, it counts as damage coming from the player. This gives a lot of weapon EXP leaving to a decision behorehand about which weapon to give it too. Pondered some before opting to pour it into the BFG. I end up adding the following: - Thunderbolt: The same momentary freeze effect I've been putting on plasma gun. Not the biggest deal but it is a prerequisite for the next upgrade. - Chain Lightning: Killed enemies produce lightning that seeks out other enemies for added damage. Damage does scale based on max health of killed enemy and overkill damage so I like the effect on a high power weapon. Enemies killed by Chain Lightning will trigger the effect again for potentially massive chain reactions. - Submunitions: On a weapon that can already knock off many enemies per shot, this enhances the devastation potential. Combined with Chain Lightning, this can waste large swaths of monsters with one shot. Also added more damage and the acid upgrade. This is a gloriously overpowered weapon of mass destruction. The last key, I was expecting an ambush or cage fight (sure looks like a setup for one) on grabbing the key but there isn't one, a welcome subversion of the norm. There are some small ambushes hitting the switches as well as a few harmless fakeouts (well harmless as long as one doesn't impulsively shoot a voodoo doll) Instead, the bulk of the monsters await in the final arena. Hands out an invulnerability to get a head start on going to town multiple revenants, archviles, and cybers. Mainly a chance to let off some steam. This went easier than intended due to all the buff I stuck on the BFG. There's a top-of-skyscraper view accessed via a secret that I don't have an idea of its narrative significance. Could it be a reference to Going Down (which I've never gotten around to)? Maybe it's an internal self-contained reference to the WAD's story. Hell if I know.

map 27: 96% kills, 0/2 secrets Structurally similar to map 20 where one brings the keys to a central location to open up the path onward. Much greater focus on setpiece encounters with very little incidental combat and fewer cyberdemons to slay. It's the fights themselves I'm inclined to gab about this time. Red key: Did this one first, the one with the light-amp goggles. With no ammo provided in the lock-in arena, this lends itself to getting everything to infight. I feel this is the easiest way to win as leaving the cacodemons alive allows them to distract the mancubi. There is that risk of body blocking but decent crowd management and herding everything to the center minimizes that danger. No health either but I came in with 200/200 so retries were from taking more damage than I wanted rather than outright dying. White key: This one came second. The invulnerability provided on HMP does not turn the cyber duel into a freebie as the impact from a rocket will still send one flying into the death void. The later circular arena on this path is still more difficult though how much varies. If one can keep the arachnotrons herded closer to the center and quickly eliminate pain elementals before they vomit tons of skulls, it will feel easier. But if the spiders and their fat bodies spread out, it becomes noticealby harder to stay in motion (to avoid being peppered by plasma). I lost a lot of attempts here due to falling off the sides. Black key: This one is made up of smaller fights that feel more incidental than orchestrated. It's the smaller spaces that create any sense of difficulty here. The dual revenants are the most intimidating of the ambushes but plasma (or the Rapid Fire SSG I was toting) take them out handily The exit is located in the same lab as map 22's for that internal continuity. And raising more questions. I was missing 5 monsters and did make a token effort to find them but soon gave up, topped off resources, and left. BFG for reals this time. With the upgrades I earned this map, I attach more damage, two levels of lightning upgrade (slowed enemies are much easier to connect the green ball on), and a level of Rapid Fire to counteract the native slow firing speed.

map 26: 100% kills, 0/1 secrets Back in the start room of map 21; whatever force is behind thing in gloomsville wants to keep the protagonist there. This map really ups the unsettling feeling from map 22 with the dark caves where enemies could be lying in wait in the shadows. And what was that manmade facility doing in this otherwise otherworldly realm. I was on edge exploring it uncertain as to when the monsters would break the silence. I feel it well played that taking the first key didn't immediately spring a welcoming party, to keep up the uncertainty. Map becomes more action-oriented as it progresses with less quiet exploration before the next encounter. Coming in with 200/200 and toting an overpowered arsenal, was in little danger from the combat but it was engaging and that's what matters in custom maps. I was constantly failing with the jumppads before the showdown in the castle in the void. Thought it was my choice of port throwing things off though I suppose I was just dense and didn't pick up the timing aspect. There should be enough ammo in that arena to not require infight baiting but I did so anyway as it is more enjoyable for me. Other than terminating any archviles and pain elementals with extreme prejudice, only needed to finish off the cybers myself. Straightforward from here on to the exit. Though I did return to the castle to top off. And proceeded to fail even harder at the jumppads leading up to it, eventually resorting to -noclip out of frustration. Heh. Jumppad frustrations aside, this feels like one of the strongest entries in the mapset on multiple fronts.

map 24: 100% everything Managed to forget about this map a couple of days after finishing it. Which feels weird as it doesn't appear that forgettable. There's more variety in the demotivational words directed at the protagonist. The cyber duo was terrifying on first encounter and even on repeat playthroughs, being left at 1 heath is unsettling. The atmosphere is effective enough that even teleporting in harmless decorations has the capacity to spook. The use of bloodfalls in the library section with the plasma gun is an improvement over similar effects from episode 1 as rather than going full on infrared zone, it goes with a less obtrusive tinting effect. Easier to see in action rather than me trying to describe it. The pack of demons charging in assisted by conveyors was another notable scare. Only got to squeeze of 1-2 rockets before they got close enough to risk splash damage and that was with foreknowledge. I did try to single-segment this a few times but too many tricky fights had me give up on that idea. Black key involves an archvile (just one on HMP) and red demons that can chew up the player if the cyber blocking the exit doesn't aggro most of them. White key is easier to handle though I did die a time or two due to revenants in cubbyholes able to attack from awkward positions. Red key is brutal with being thrust into a welcoming committee of revenants and speedy demons. And once those are dealt with, there's still getting jumped by a pack of archviles and a turret cyber. The trap at the plasma rifle in the bleeding library also has teeth. Most combat was done with rockets and plasma with only occasional use of weapons in slots 3 and 4 to pick off lone stragglers and low-tiers. map 25: 100% kills, 1/3 secrets I think the start is staged to leave the player at 1% health or close to it. Coming in on continuous (as well as two levels of Tough as Nails for 18% damage reduction) does spoil the intended effect though. Gotta hustle to catch all those timed lifts that start things off. And I did carelessly charge right into the crosshairs of multiple chaingunners when I could have taken them out one at a time, well placed. There's a secret that the automap revealed but I couldn't quite make the jumps across the pillars to register. Only got the one with the backpack. Not sure how one would find it without visible secret sectors on the automap; with them it was hilariously simple to locate. And yes, I did savescum to avoid picking up the megasphere. "We forbid you to kill the cyberdemon." I took the warning as if it were genuine but I never did try to find out what happens if one does kill the cyber early. Could it be a troll? It uses the same white text as the "secret" from map 23 so I did later consider it maybe being intentionally misleading. Now maybe a more skilled player can come up with a reliable means of avoiding stray rockets when entering the various doors it's guarding. I'm not that player, instead going with the safety save and reload if I take a direct hit method. If you're playing with a weapon mod and have access to any means of slowing or freezing the cyber, this is a good place to use them. I had lightning inscription on my plasma gun for slow but I hadn't gotten that effect on the chaingun like I wanted. So that was something. Not using plasma for anything else as none is provided within any reachable area at that point. The mini-arenas for the keys are an interesting enough bunch. Revenants and spider masterminds I felt was best handled by infight baiting and taking out the survivors afterwards. Dead Icon of Sin was a neat moment. I did fall for the booby-trapped BFG, oops. That area proved frustrating because the jumppad after the trapped BFG was being finnicky for me and I kept missing the landing. Dark cave section has many monsters hiding in the shadows but easy when taken slow. Rocket launcher gets a workout in the other arenas, a task made significantly easier by the Exploding Death upgrade on mine. Most combat (when I wasn't baiting infights) is handled with rockets and chaingun; this map doesn't provide that many shells. It's different. After everything is killed, only then do I pick up that megasphere to go into the next map at 200/200.

map 23: 100% everything Maybe I could have killed everything at the start as I did carry over a full stock 50 rockets. But I chose to play along as if it was a pistol start. Booked it for the teleport (not necessary to go full speed) and thrown right into another arena with me in the middle and arachnotrons and later mancubi taking shots from the side. Acid upgrade and a Damage upgrade on my rocket launcher made this a bit easier as I can generally nails 'trons in two shots and mancubi in 3. Took a few lumps due to sloppy dodging but whatever. Whatever entity is leaving the text around is going for blunt. Thing is, seeing DIE plastered everywhere had me soon become used to it and I mostly tuned it out after a minute or two. I found the secret plasma gun before I found the "secret" so I ended up not falling for the trap (other than saving beforehand and trying just to see what would happen) One encounter going for the white key was semi-tricky though only because I insisted on trying to get cacos to inifight the blocking mancubus. Archvile could have been worse but a Rapid Fire boosted rocket launcher barrage took it (and some of its support) out before it could complicate things. Cyber on the islands was cool. Baited it into taking out other monsters in the area before doing the jumppad hopping to telefrag it. Unless the cyber fires immediately after landing from a jump, there's ample time to line up the next jump so taking it steady will prevail. Coming back around to the mob of screaming skeletons one ran from at the beginning is a fitting way to close out the map. It is somewhat tricky to win through infights as revenants sometimes slip past the infighting mob to pursue. Had a funny moment in my successful go where the first cyber came out on top on the brink of defeat and went down in 2 plasma gun shots. Shooting down the other cyber gives weapon EXP to the plasma gun for which I take Bouncy Shots (shots reflect off terrain up to twice or until they hit a monster, probably never going to be relevant) and the first level of lightning upgrade.

map 21: 100% everything Now this is a horror atmosphere, thanks to the texturing and music selection. Well, less music and more droning but it does work at creating tension. There have been a few not-quite-whole demons strung up in the last map or two (a detai I forgot to acknowledge) but starting from this map, they're much more prominently displayed. I died several times attempting this before realizing there was an alternate path than running off a (not actually activated) jumppad into the void. And the first time I located the intended way through the map, I ate too many revenant missiles and died from attrition. The green armor at the start is the only one available and it's likely to get worn down before the map is over. Was fortunate to spot the secret since scanning the automap for secret sectors wouldn t have turned it up. The rocket launcher within wasn't used in the map other than the secret fight itself but it does give me a chance to start putting weapon EXP on it. Not much to say about the rest of combat, just stay alert for ambushes. map 22: 100% kills, 2/3 secrets I haven't felt so much tension in a Doom map in a long time. There are moments in the later maps that will top this but this map managed to put me on edge even when there isn't fighting going on. Never has teleporting a pair of dead zombies gotten me to jump before. At least once, I managed to wander into the middle of an ambush due to monsters silently warping in an area I'm passing through. Did try to go saveless a few times but gave up on that. One reason is a secret which involves using a jumppad at an unconventional angle where messing up means plunging into the deadly void so having a safety save before trying is welcome for sanity. But the main reason to use saves is a number of tricky combat setups. Getting the rocket launcher involves an ambush of archvile and Undead Hunters where it's easy to end up getting filled with lead. Coming back from the white keycard, an ambush with many Undead Hunters was even more trying given how I was low on armor and it was between me and any green armor on the map (and it's a lock-in so running past was not permitted). The exit became accessible at a time I was around 60% kills and I was somewhat tempted to simply bail but chose to go through the unexplored portion of the map, filled with more trying resistance. Right upon entering, there's an ambush with the speedy red demons and some hitscan support so gonna take a few hits. The ambush at the red key itself is a tough one but I was able to handle it with executing arachnotrons first, which let me handle the hellknights at my leisure. Getting locked in a room with three mancubi at uncomfortabe angles tested me more. This one I didn't perform really well at even with a buffed rocket launcher and was mostly saved by ZDoom physics (projectiles impacting on decorations). The white key gaurdians were a tricky bunch, though felt fair. And of course, the monsters aren't letting me leave without another brawl. All this was done without SSG and its absence I felt. There is a hidden SSG but I didn't find it until the map was over. And I somehow forgot to pick it up when I was running around to top off going into the next map.

map 19: 100% kills, 2/3 secrets Never did solve the mystery of the one room which flips realities when crossing the halfway point and I suspect is involved in the missing secret. Oh well. Forgot about parts of the map soon after playing it. This includes the whole red key segment which is interesting now that my memory has been jogged. Kind of frantic since one enters via a one-way lift into a surrounded situation and it's a scramble to reach a defensible position. Balancing on platforms over liquid while chasing a runaway key is also an interesting setpiece. Short on words to say about this map. Maybe I'll go back later and add more. map 20: 100% kills, 0/1 secrets Correctly called that the starting chamber cannot be re-entered after leaving. Played the map through 2-3 times and even with the megasphere, the opening fight seemed to pummel me down to around 20-30 health each time. Progression is rather intuitive. Venture into side areas to find the keys. Bring them to a central area and use them to open up the path. Use the transport switches to access the various side areas. There's a number of cybers to slay, with the pair in the enclosed library being the most tense. Having buffed guns definitely twisted the encounter into my favor as lightning upgrade + Thunderbolt upgrade let me unload plasma at them with drastically reduced risk of retaliation. The area reminiscent of E1M6 felt like a breather with no cybers to grind down. Upon using all the keys to open up the path to the exit, map closes out with a 4 spiderdemon brawl. Grabbed the invis, bait them into infighting, finish off the survivor. Easy and enjoyable enough closer to the map. One more spiderdemon to hose down, a death exit, and end of episode and kicked back to the title screen. Secret sense was not working here and not a lot of incentive to track it down on continuous.

Map 16: 100% kills, 0/2 secrets A curious mix of good ideas, bemusing moments, routine progression, and aggravation. Putting in a form of a list. Good ideas: - Having a choice of which path to take at the start - Providing visual cues to indicate which jumppads are active and which switches have already been activated in the large jumppad chamber. This area also raises the skill requirement on jumppad challenges asking for skill with dealing with landing on slippery or damaging ground. Thankfully, the ground around the jumppads themselves is always safe and stable to enable lining up correctly with them. Bemusement: - Runaway key. Won't be the last time either that gimmick gets use. - Cyber in the white lake. It's so tall that its head sticks out, making it simple to shoot at it from the shore. - In the crate room, how one side warps in turret chaingunners and replaces them with revenants while the other side reverses the monster order. - Another map where one cannot return to the start room after leaving it. Might as well top off any spent resources. Aggravation: - The crusher segment. There's no helpful secret to skip it this time and unless one chooses to start with it, requires doing it twice. - The secrets dangling tauntingly just out of reach and not working out how to access either. I really would have liked that SSG in particular. - Jumppad placement in the crate area. Running at one when it's not active will most likely result in plunging into inescapable acid. Conversely, trying to walk over one like it's solid ground (the case when a jumppad isn't active) when one is will also likely result in death. map 17: 100% kills, 0/1 secrets The distinct visual style and some interesting Boom feature use help raise the memorability of this one. Not the first time the set has used solid white and black for walls and relying on noticing color contrasts to help navigate but for some inexplicable reason felt more memorable here. The speedy red demons make their introduction here and can pile on the damage if they get on your flank unnoticed. Don't have a name, at least as far as ZDoom obituaries are concerned when dying to one. They're too fast on the draw to safely chainsaw so other means (including berserk punch) are preferable to dealing with them without injury. Beyond the white door has the most interesting environments of the map. The ground on the islands to hop between are changing from safe to harmful at timed intervals. There's a few safe spots to take advantage of if you want to catch your breath. There's the building where one lands on the roof and can also enter (thanks to clever Boom feature usage) that others have already spoken about. There's the cyber duel back at the islands. I found it easier to mostly stick to a safe spot and take the damage from the lava if it comes to that to dodge rockets than to jump around the islands. Rest of the map isn't as notable. Not bad, just not coming up with words to say about it. Map 18: 100% kills, 3/3 secrets For a welcome change, got all the secrets. The berserk one dangled tauntingly out of reach but it turns out to be simple to access. Starts out looking like a tomb level that would fit in a variety of themes, a departure from what I'm used to from established Sign of Torment style. The fallen ladder is a neat bit of detail. After going for so long without a backpack, felt anti-climactic to have one handed out in the open though not complaining. Fairly simple map to blast through, enjoyable enough. Only died because of getting greedy trying to bait infights though did come close to death once from the "behind you" ambush due to my own inattentiveness. The Boom feature use is rather restrained here, with only a few jumppads and slippery ground patches to contend with. I almost got 100% items here too save for one 1% bonus that was located in a place I couldn't backtrack to. So close.

map 32: 100% kills, 18/19 secrets The secret count looks daunting but in the end, I got all but the megaarmor one in the IWAD homage area. Turns out a bunch of the map's secrets are in the IWAD homage area and are mostly acquired the same way so familiarity will land around 40% of them before even needing to put effort into searching. There's a number of switches almost entirely obscured by wall except for a narrow peephole that open up secrets so be on the lookout if a high secret percentage matters to you. I'm not quite sure what the intermission text and map title were getting at. Could be a reference that went over my head. But the setting was compelling enough even without catching all the subtext. Early on, I thought maybe I'd returned to map 14 but without the ice, snow, and corruption. It appears to be a new location though, at least the parts that aren't a reference to something else. Tried jumping into the well at the cyberdemon fight anticipating a secret or hidden route, nope it was just death. Not sure what the penalty for messing up the letter puzzle is as the idea clicked after staring at it for about a minute and I guessed correctly first try. Map has some quirks which caught my attention. There's no cell ammo in the back portion past a one-way drop so over-dependence on the plasma rifle could very well find one dry when one wants it. (in my case, I messed up on ending the map with full ammo, though it ultimately doesn't matter due to the start of map 16) It's pretty easy to get stuck in a pitch black passage that leads to a secret. There is a hidden switch that will light it up though the placement feels random: a texture that's never been used for a switch up until now so there's no reason to suggest that this one time, pressing use there would do something. Feels rather easy to miss 100% kills, more so on continuous. Some teleport ambush monsters are in random corners or other places one might not think to step into. I still like the map overall though these little details bemuse me.

Map 31: 100% kills and secrets (looks at the monster/item/secret count) I think this map is trying to make a statement. There's a teasing mood to the map that gives it personality. From a secret with no items. to the "why are you doing this" message, a maze where nearly every passage is worthless save for one thing that matters, and going around in circles for a key until one works out the trick to escape the loop, there's a feeling of looking at a checklist of what mappers shouldn't do and doing things on that list on purpose. One more scare that had me jump while going for the secret exit and, well I'm not going to give that one away. The large monster count actually goes by rather quickly with most of them being packs of fragiles vulnerable to gibbing by rockets into their ranks. A fifth of the monster count lies in wait behind the first door ripe for a rocket barrage. (expedited by gameplay mod buffs for me) The red key took me by surprise even though I ought to have expected it given the mapset has pulled the "enter room, come out somewhere else" bit several times already. Most of the monster population lies in the passage beyond and there are several equally appealing options for going about it. Massive infight provocation, keeping the hellknights alive and using them as a roving attack force on the other monsters. Or a more direct method of chewing packs up with my buffed rocket launcher and triggering massive chains of Exploding Death. I appreciated the options. That cyber arena gave me no end of trouble trying to get through it. There's no recovery whatsoever within the arena itself and I seemed to keep getting clobbered by revenant or cyber shots. Just going for the switches that bring in more monsters to infight the cybers was tense and I've gotten nailed going for them more than I care to admit. Only rockets are provided so it's tedious finishing them off. The low point combat-wise.

Map 15: 100% kills and secrets A lengthier journey with enough threatening sections to not feel good about going through saveless. A new monster make a debut here. The Undead Hunter (that's what ZDoom calls them if getting killed by one) is functionally identical to the SS from the vanilla game. Though I believe it is capable of facing away from the player, an improvement on the original. The first big brawl in the fountain area is what got me to resort to saves. Between revenants and undead hunters, one can pick up a lot of unwanted damage and/or death. There also the fights around the white key, both the immediate one and the hitscan gallery right after. The big cacodemon swarm I cheesed by hiding behind a monster-blocking line and sending rockets at them while they were bunched up. In general, I've noticed the maps becoming more resistant to door camping. Doors often are closed by walking over a nearly line rather than a timer and sometimes cannot be closed manually. This gives monsters prowling on the other side more of a window to slip through. Not sure when in E2 it started showing up but there's a decoration the drips blood. Maybe it's a ZDoom only port feature but it's unsettling and contributes to the creepy atmosphere. The confines after diving into the liquid after securing the red keycard are rather cramped and a bit claustrophobic for fighting in. It's vital to not allow the archviles lurking down there to get out of control. At one point, a pack of revenants will get alerted and it's far preferable to rocket them at a chokepoint lest they spread out. The end stretch was memorable though perhaps not in a good way. Checkerboard floors, diagonal pillars, and narrow passages. It's introduced very early in the map but there, I could easily deal with waiting monsters from outside the mess. That luxury isn't happening at the end; it's way too long for that. In what I imagine was intentional design, there's a lot of cells provided. Creating the idea that one is to use plasma to deal with the monsters and running that risk of shots hitting walls and corners instead. Gets tense when trying to take out archviles and not get flanked by other monsters, particularly revenants. The computer map at the start and the clue the writing provides allowed me to locate the secret exit without hassle. The rest of the numbers aren't too important to keep track of, mostly they'll be naturally encountered while proceeding through the map. The other secret is fairly easy to avoid triggering even if one picks up the relevant reward (or in the case of continuous never bothers to approach it due to carryover). So quite likely to not trigger it and I only got it because I randomly walked over the secret-tagged sector near the hidden item. Gameplay mod gave me the lightning upgrade for the chaingun as well as Rapid Fire. With both, it can reliably take down a lone revenant without retaliation so I ended up using it quite a bit. Missing that SSG though I suppose I should have used plasma more on revvies, given how much spare cell ammo there was by the end. Snagged for the rocket launcher my favored acid upgrade and Explosive Death. Also ended up taking a level of Fragmentation Shots (hits send out hitscan attacks in multiple directions for a bit of added damage).

Map 14: 100% kills, 1/2 secrets Straightforward premise spelled out right at the start; find the plasma gun to kill the cybers. Even with carryovver, I'm not finishing 3 cybers with 200 bullets and 50 shells. Took a few attempts to complete this without dying or mid-level saves. It did take a bit of exploring to work out how to proceed. Using the jump pads is actually not that scary as close cybers won't have a line of fire when up on the platforms. I suppose one could get infinite height blocked in most ports which is something that I didn't have to deal with in GZDoom. Died at least once with the shadow imp canyon finding out the hard way that yes, the cybers can shoot rockets down there. Future attempts have me scurrying around drawing rockets to hopefully hit shadow imps and tie up their attention instead of me trying to kill them directly. Platforming to the white key was a simple matter of timing since the rising and falling lifts follow a set rhythm. Black key also proved no trouble once I figured out what to do. At this point, I believe there was enough spare ammo to slowly grind down the cybers, (using the fire upgrade on my shotgun to burn them down to half heath first) but I opted to stick to the intended path. In a welcome twist, instead of the plasma being at the very end of the gauntlet (as one may predict with the premise), it's given out around the middle. Still got to go through the whole map to get into a good position to fight them though. The long ravine occupied by many midtier monsters and some archviles to put the new weapon through its paces. When the mod allows me, I grab lightning upgrades to improve the stunlock ability and also went for extra damage. Also earned a player upgrade during this trek. Out of the random options, chose Scavenge Blood (killing an enemy has it drop a +1 health pickup) and actually used it for a bit as health is almost non-existent in the ravine. So mistakes are painful. Once I reach the megasphere and yellow key door, I turn off Scavenge Blood and leave it off. I made the wrong assumption about the yellow door at first but realized what I was forgetting later on before I had a successful run. Some panicked running and gunning being fearful of the cybers sending rockets in my direction. There's another army that warps in upon returning to the starting area to help soften up the cybers. I also lure them into finishing off shadow imps from earlier too before finishing them off. Run through the main path again to top off ammo and snag the megasphere I'd saved for entering the next map at 200/200 and done. A well done map overall.

Map 12: 100% everything An experienced player will probably blow through this one first try but I ended up playing this multiple times for favorable ending numbers. I left the berserk behind for later health recovery to begin with. I rarely had trouble with the revenant; standing on the inset of the switch stablized my position and revvie was baiting into shooting pillars while I shotgun it down. Got more beat up by the imps in the same room due to the sliding floors. Spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to open up the skull door in that room forgetting that's where I entered it from. Shadow imp introduced; they're much better at blending in during Ep3. More on that later on. Map 13: 100% kills, 1/2 secrets My trips through the map were full of msihap. - I planned to preserve the green armor for the end to max out how much health/armor I enter the next map with. It's not possible to return to the starting room past a certain point leading to spending a lot of time running around at zero armor. - Tried to be gutsy and fight 40 zombiemen out in the open. Result: guts spilled out onto the stone from numerous bullet holes. - Anyone who plays this map will probably remember being caged while revenants spawn all around. I did it the hard way the first time, having not spotted the invulnerabiltiy. They're not able to pursue into the narrow passage that leads into the cage, allowing me to make a stand there. Barely survived berserk punching them out ending at 2 health, groan at spotting the invulnerabiltiy. Finished off by hitscan because I wasn't paying close enough attention on the way to the exit. Gave into to using mid-level saves at this point. I got the chaingun secret (unneeded since I have the one from the previous map but still a thoughtful inclusion), but not the visible berserk in the jumppad section. Solution is probably something obvious that I overlooked, given how mishap-filled my experience for this map is. Punching out revenants went much better on the revisit being aware of the intended method, with some extra help from GZDoom melee mechanics.

Map 11: no tally screen I have this image in my head of episode enders being massive behemoths of maps so something snappy like this one manages to stand out from the masses. Routine incidental combat to start but it quickly gives way to the centerpiece. I did manage to trigger the one secret in the leadup. With the computer map handed out so easily, I believe the intention is to look at it and zoom in to read the nearby text as it gives out useful info. A unique and creative use of that item; I like it. I neglected to look and it would have helped size up the situation instead of relying on a hope and a prayer while running around trying not to get splattered by rockets. I did not relish the thought of taking out multiple cybers with just rockets so I stumbled into the alternative approach regardless. Oh, there are no blur spheres on HMP, which further supports the idea that they're there on UV to make life difficult. I died a few times when running for the monster release switches when a cyber lined up a shot into the corridor. I suppose there are more reliable means of herding them to prevent that from happening but I consciously chose to continue being reckless. Fairly certain the intended solution is to summon the monsters to infight the cybers. They'll usually take down one or two, cutting down on the tediousness of finishing them off. Gameplay mod helped make it less tedious as well due to the acid attachment causing additional continuous damage for a time on each successful rocket hit. So would setting them on fire with the shotgun's fire upgrade but I didn't really think to use it. A straightforward if somewhat lengthy exercise. Do believe finishing the cybers is required to open up the way out. Whether this is some Boom-enabled function or the more hacky solution of turning Keens in cybers, I'm not sure. The other monsters don't seem to be required at all. I was missing one monster when steeping on to the death exit but whatever. Managed to hit the spacebar at the wrong time and have to redo everything from the last save. Which was the autosave at the start. Oops. Anyhow, this map goes by quickly enough to not feel like too much of a setback. Make my ways to the end again ending on only 15 health but death exit so it's an immaterial statistic. Read the story text and it's back to the title screen. No stacking upgrades over 32 maps to turn my arsenal into a juggernaut of destruction. Oh well.

Map 9: 92% kills, 0/2 secrets The last three maps already had me thinking mid-level saves would have made things less stressful. This one I caved and set aside the save slot as it proved too much for me to do in one go. Archviles show up in some difficult setups and there's some other areas that put one at high risk for damage. I didn't find any armor on the map after the starting area where one cannot return so that lone green armor is all I got for the whole map. (other than piddly armor bonuses and killing things with the chainsaw, didn't really expect that 1% health/armor gain from Dark Harvest to feel relevant) I did have a bit of damage reduction from gameplay mod but I was still dying to attrition. First fight left a sour initial impression, dealing with pain elementals and revenants in mostly open arena was not fun. I had it a little easier in GZDoom because projectiles can impact on decorations and Personal ECM reduced the number of seekers to shake and still disliked it. The symmetrical layout revealed on the free computer map seems better suited to a deathmatch map and I think this map would be a better experience as a 5 (or 10) player deathmatch. Go through rooms, clean up the monsters within, grab the keys. By the time I got through all the wings, there were still 20 monsters alive and no secrets found but I was done with this map and I had no motivation to search for them. Gameplay mod sped up the grinding down the masses part, which I appreciated. There is a potentially neat bit about being suspended on air over lava but I was mostly going through on autopilot. Also, I've decided I don't care for extended periods in the red-tinted zones. (map 7 was especially guilty of this) They're visually uninteresting and it can become a pain to identify things within them. Did get one glorious gameplay mod enabled moment though. Several dozen demons would take a while to pummel with the stock arsenal. For me, one rocket sets of a massive chain reaction of Exploding Death that wipes out the mass, only occasionally with a straggler that drifted far enough from the herd to live through the splash damage. Map 10: 100% kills, 3/4 secrets Somewhat on the long side but enjoyable enough. Feel like it would be most enjoyable if one was in the mood to go on autopilot. Start of on a plateau with supplies to recover from the beatings in the previous map. Can't return so might as well top off. Linear path for the first segment going through techbase that is clogged with low-level riff-raff. The Submunitions upgrade on my SSG is very well suited to the cramped quarters and monster density: a single shot can eliminate 15 or so enemies in a chain reaction. (as enemies killed by the bouncing bombs can trigger the effect again) The middle part of the map may be derivative (walking over triggers summons a bunch of teleported monsters nearby, deal with them, rinse and repeat), but was engaging enough and was anemable to baiting lots of infights. Underneath the castle was particularly satisfying to exploit infights instead of trying to fight large armies on the shifting floors. More jumppad action in the final leg and this time it didn't irritate me as much as in map 8. Failing a jump not leading to death is probably the biggest factor though it felt better paced. Overall positive reception of this map. Learned the Hallucinagens upgrade for the SSG. Monsters at low enough health to die from poison will turn friendly. As if the ammo situation wasn't already lopsided in the player's favor. Hilarious if it's an archvile as any monsters a turned archvile revives will also be friendly. Mostly just extra comedy factor to see them turn on each other even more as the allied monsters do go after anyone within their line of sight but don't put much effort into seeking targets out.

Map 8: 100% everything This map succeeds at creating spectacle though I find it a chore to play. At least without a few mid-level saves. Don't do what I did and try to do it single-segment. Lost quite a few attempts due to entering jumppads as a bad angle and falling into inescapable death. If you run at them straight and let go of forward after being launched, you'll be fine. If you're off angle or get fancy with straferunning, you may find yourself undershooting or overshooting the landing. There's also only one green armor for the whole map so if you're sloppy with taking damage, you could very well fail due to attrition. First part of the map is rather routine save for the hidden drop. The centerpiece of this map is all the islands in the sky. Map really wants to show it off given the number of times criss-crossing the islands is required to complete the map. Visually striking but the danger of falling sapped my enthusiasm for the scene, multiplied by the number of times I ended up doing the map. The tract that starts deserted then comes alive later on is an artistic bit, another highlight. One last cruel trick to thwart my attempt to exit with max possible health/armor. The puzzle at the exit where picking the wrong switch dunks you in lava. (chipping away my carefully preserved resources) I missed the clue and the correct switch was the very last one I tried. Just for added taunting, there's no benefit to preserving 100 armor for the next map. It starts out with a green armor that one cannot return for. The puzzle itself is neat once I spotted the clue and adds variety. Over this map and the last, I added a Rapid Fire for my chaingun to really fill things with lead. Also picked up Tough as Nails for the damage reduction. Nothing else really game-altering came online from playing with a weapon mod.

Map 7: 100% kills, 2/3 secrets Random ideas - the map, is my overall impression of this after the fact. The lava lake reveal is rather neat and the monster spawning pools are a neat idea but the rest of the map comes off as opening up an editor and plopping down ideas as inspiration strikes. Nothing wrong with that and it's useful for mapping practice though the end result looks like something one would find in a Community Chest or similar collection. Also plays like a random community project map - decent enough while it's happening but slips out of the memory once done. One neat feature of the set so far and in future maps is how that most of the supplies appear to be scavenged from former UAC personel. Creates the impression that they were here before the player character arrives doing something before and during the time shit went down. Sometimes the bodies found near supplies are of former humans which adds to the mystery if you care about that sort of thing; what sort of horror caused them to become zombified?