cannonball

MAP24 - “Burnt Guts” by Slava Pestov Last time Now; Well the baron snipers remained for some reason, okay the only secret crushes them, but frankly they offer little to the proceedings. Most of the map is pretty ho-hum in how it pans out, the yellow key trap being pretty awful in terms of execution (Looks like this was mostly unchanged). The blue however is in a different league, pretty striking to look at and offers not one but two "Oh shit" moments. Overall this is slightly above par, but mostly because of that one area which elevates the map above mediocrity. MAP25 - “Castle of the HellKnights” by Antoni Chan Last time This time Fair play, I actually enjoyed this one a lot this time. Okay so we still have the starting area and going through the mouth of the Icon of Sin, beyond this is the kind of flesh horror that I last experienced in Skulltiverse, it actually pops nicely and the encounters in here are not exactly hard, but more amusing, the highlight for me was managing to get all three barons crushed at the same time. The final room offers the most resistance, I wouldn't exactly say that this room is well designed, because it is flawed but how everything panned out was a real mess and I am thankful for the recovery items in here that would be deemed generous by modern standard. Another mark here is for a mastermind that actually carry a sizable amount of threat, mostly because the safe spot at the exit isn't immediately available, other cover is the bare minimum and achieving distance between yourself and the spider queen is hampered by mid-tiers coming from every other angle. Overall this is one of the most striking maps in the set and finally offers something more than that opening vista, good job Cammy. Note - Technically I have played map25 on Christmas eve (It has just gone 11pm here), but I thought I would get a pass because it is Christmas. Enjoy yourselves tomorrow.

Funnily enough as someone who worked on this project, I have the complete opposite feeling. There is a lot of regret, not only for my own work in this but also the fact that it was a project that was undertaken at the wrong time by people who needed a little more experience. That said Map31 by Xaser is absolutely worth playing, it is on another level of quality and deviates so strongly from not only the rest of the wad but offers something I haven't really seen anywhere else, whilst remaining completely vanilla compatible. It is probably the closest to an example of the OP's question I can give, purely because I don't believe that a tiny percentage of an entire megawad can throw the general experience that much either way.

MAP23 - “Ancalagon” by Steve Duff Last time; This time; This map probably has the worst start of all of Steve's maps, the first five minutes or so is spent with just the chaingun/shotugn and there is quite a bit to clear out. The rest is very hit and miss and there is some hefty backtracking in places. The blue key area was my least favourite area by a mile and it is worth mentioning here that both cell based weapons are in secrets. The mass of pain elementals are a real pain to clear with limited rockets and shells and it is quite possible to run out of ammo. There is also a soulsphere that requires an awkward jump to reach and this is most likely to be necessary to pick up to survive this area. The yellow key is a bit of a non-event in comparison. The red key is pretty fun, but archviles always bring a nice level of spice. Again the map ends with a big fight, though goodness knows how you get through this without picking up the secrets for weapons 6 and 7. I guess the fight itself is fun enough, but I had said secrets. One last point is the very varied take on secrets, you can probably guess which ones have been tweaked (A couple of nicely nested shootable switches) and ones that haven't changed since 1996 (Some are literal wall-humps). In the end this is more cohesive than map09, but I get the feeling that this will be my least favourite Steve D map.

MAP22 - “Nova Akropola” by Steve Duff Last time; This time; I didn't have too many issues here, okay there are chaingunners in the outdoor area but these were dispatched fairly swiftly. The rest of the map kind of wants to be this epic, but it doesn't quite manage that level at any point. Also the doors into the blue key area are marked strangely (I think this carried over from the original version). The blue key fight is probably the highlight here, you just need to use the BFG wisely (Or essentially when you see an archvile). Not much to say really, the map is fine but lacks the cutting edge, oddly the heavier combat felt similar to the last map, but that one had that starting sequence that elevated the map as a whole.

Given I tentatively expressed interest before in Map09, I might make a claim for Map07 now if that is okay?

MAP21 - “The Prison” by Rob Berkowitz Last time This time Well the start is truly something, I mean again props to proposing this concept because it results in a rather panic-inducing start. The map calms down somewhat after the initial couple of rooms, you get all of your weapons to fend off the hordes that come at you from time to time but in the end nothing really compares to the start, the ending is a little bit of a letdown given the earlier moments, the combat isn't too difficult and there isn't much stopping the player from rushing to the exit. Odd really, it appears last time that this map started bad and improved as you progressed, this time the opposite is true. In the end though this is a decent map on the whole, just don't expect the early gimmick to last and get settled into the usual business from around a quarter of the way through the map.

Given that the Doomawards was created essentially in bad faith (Anger at being snubbed in the cacowards), it isn't a surprise to me to see this flop badly. There is definitely scope for another awards ceremony from another group of people, but they need to share the same passion and work ethic as those who volunteer to write up the cacowards, it cannot be like the "Well, I'm going to make my own awards ceremony, with blackjack and hookers"approach (Futurama reference), because like in said reference, the person in charge has seemed to lose complete interest to the point where the write ups were essentially made by a computer.

MAP20 - “Teleporter Central” by Antoni Chan Last time; This time; Either I vibed with this map more or Cammy has really lifted the gameplay and visuals in this one, It is your not so typical hubspoke where you have 6 teleporters to chose from (2 for each area where you need to use both to get access to the key). There isn't too much dead air in this one, full of action and for the most part the map plays very well and is consistent in high(ish) octane action but a relatively relaxed difficulty. The exception of course is the exit room where you get 4 archviles and a load of pillars that lower and raise. Honestly this is a great effort and will catch most off guard. I think there is a reasonable way of dispatching this, however it is very easy to panic and the loss of visuals via the archvile flames really doesn't help. But this fight feels fresh and it only took a couple of attempts to beat. I don't think this is my favourite map but I suspect this is the most improved of the batch so far.

Ah I have had this happen before (I think my Jamal Jones map also had monstered submerged into the floor). Unfortunately this will probably be a case of trial and error to remove this issue, from what I recall I had to in the end move some linedefs around until the problem went away. I guess this does need fixing, especially as this issue might behave differently depending on the port too.

MAP19 - “Port Fury” by Steve Duff Before; Now; I think this one lacks the edge of the previous map, the start and yellow key room is fine and the initial drop into the Port is quite something, but there is probably even less threat here than the last map. The red key area is of course strange with the SS usage being a complete out of the blue moment (At least in map09 we had wolf3d textures). The cacoswarm wants to be menacing but instead turns into a massive pop the balloon exercise with the BFG. The rest is pretty forgettable, just remember to stock up on cells/rockets for the exit push. This one is okay, but that is all it is.

I am tempted to make a second map for this, so a tentative claim of map09. However if someone who hasn’t claimed a map is interested, then consider their claim as trumping this one.

MAP18 - “Dead Radio” by Steve Duff Last time; This time; I will assume that some of the layout issues have been sorted. Just a note - a revenant closet didn't open up for me in the blue key area, as such I could not get 100% kills. Fair to say that this one does the same thing as Map15, but with much better results, the big fights do take place in large areas, but they are smaller and more nuanced, as such the fights become pretty darn hectic, though I will say that despite the bark, the bite isn't too bad if you are used to more modern wads. In the end this one ended up being pretty darn fun and Cammy's improvements see this one head towards the top of the pack. In short the map is just good fun once the party dtarts in the blue key room, and yes I crushed both of the cybers in that room, which of course saved ammo to spam at everything else later on.

E6M7 - Some impressive scale to this map, it is a shape that everything else appeared to be thrown under the bus here though. The pacing was very slow in this one, and whilst the pace hasn't exactly been quick in the other maps, this one also lacked that sense of dread and fear that something could get you at any moment. There are so many moments in this map where was questioning why said construction or element of progression was here to the point where the red key section made me roll my eyes pretty bad. Mazes, those lifts that everyone hated from E2M3, some sigil switches that opened secrets yet others were also mandatory for progression that were hidden better than the ones for secrets. In short, this is probably going to be my least favourite map in Sigil 2, at least E6M2 was short. Sorry. E6M8 - The name is a little fitting, okay I will give it one point for being better than the straight up tiny arenas of E2M8 and E3M8, but still and again the use of those lifts make for a experience that I didn't want to be a part of, I simply got the mastermind to infight with one of the cybers and hosed the other one. I left the map before the squabble had even come to a conclusion. Overall - I must confess that I have not been a particular fan of Romero's mapping style since his return to the scene. That said the fact that Romero still wants to make maps for this 30 year old game is a great shot in the arm for the community. Whilst the man is clearly a legend, I think we perhaps try to pedestal certain mappers too much, after all Romero was out of action in terms of Doom maps for around 20 years. In the end Sigil 2 continues the design ethos of the first Sigil and as such if you loved Sigil, then you will love this, however the same can be said for those who disliked Sigil, however there are a few new things brought to the table. Mixing in more techbase elements prevents the fatigue of playing nothing but hell-themed maps and there are also some new textures here and there to add an extra layer to the visuals. On the whole the visuals were solid, however there is a real variation in quality from some maps that truly stand out to some that looked below the standard of Romero's maps from 1993-1995. There were some other questionable additions, maps had those fireblu secrets and also timed ones that had to be reached quickly from the start, these felt like adding things for the sake of adding things (Many of these secrets held very little reward apart from "Congratulations, you found that one fireblu texture that I hid etc etc", I don't know maybe I am being overly harsh and have regretted playing the final two maps together which were rather disappointing. In the end Sigil 2 felt like a bit of a mixed bag, there are some maps that show that Romero still has that midas touch, however on the other hand there are a couple of duds in this one. The most sadistic moments sometimes hit the spot, sometime they didn't however it is noteworthy that my least favourite map tended to lack this killer edge in a compromise to the larger acreage of the map. Overall you can only compare this to other works currently being released and Sigil 2 probably sits around the middle of the pack, Romero still continues to build maps that feel different to other pwads being released in the community and I guess that is a bit of a double edged sword, still I really do hope that we see a Doom 2 wad appear (Even if it is just a few levels), just to see if any design decisions change based on the Score - 2.5/5 Favourite map - E6M6

MAP17 - “No Escape” by Antoni Chan Last time This time; Well there is still a lot of dead air in this one, like the entirely first section of the map, and the area behind the red door are simply there to grind meat. The section beyond the blue door offers a shock as the mundane and rather bland corridor shootout is interupted by first the archvile gauntlet and then a caverns room that feels like it was ripped from a completely different universe. The ending is nerfed hugely by the very obvious BFG secret. Overall this is an improvement on the original but ultimate so much of the original mapped was at the point of being un-salvageable, so we have probably the best case scenario without having to rip the whole map to shreds.

MAP16 - “The Wolf's Hour” by Jim Bagrow Last time; This time; Funny really, I didn't have any issues at all with this one, in fact I would go to say that I actually enjoyed this map. The start is frantic but I didn't get pulverised by hitscan, the triple archvile trap is a good jolt of adrenaline, beyond the red door I was able to skip pretty much everything, triggers the imp takedown of the mastermind, rocketed the remain imps and returned to the tunnel section with the BFG to clear the rest of the monsters. This is a brisk and fun map, despite the monster count saying otherwise. I suspect that Cammy really pushed on with the positives of the original and added extra meat at the end, good job.