an_mutt
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File Reviews posted by an_mutt
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For as long as I've been playing Doom (around 10 years now), I've only been truly excited by a small number of things from this community. Things such as Alien Vendetta, when I was first starting to dabble in pWADs. I had no idea Doom could be like that. Back to Saturn X: Episode 1 - the mapset that directly influenced me to really take an interest in mapping myself. UAC Ultra, which to me felt like the first Perfect Doom Experience™ I had come across. Yet another is Cold as Hell, which was the first ZDoom mapset that really made me think about Doom Modding as something that is Doom, but also as something beyond just a collection of maps with (maybe) some additional resources thrown in. lilith.pk3 is the latest and, for me, perhaps the most exciting of all. It's the first mapset I've played that treated Doom not just as a modifiable game, or as a base in which to create custom levels for, but something that specifically called on the relationship I had with gaming, and the prior knowledge I had of Doom, to further add to my own playing experience. The sheer unpredictability of the mod made it so that - for only the second time* in the past few years - I felt genuinely vulnerable and tense while playing a Doom mod. Just like how I felt when I was a kid, when I always felt that visceral, nervous thrill of trying to play the original Doom maps. lilith.pk3's treatment of the resources (the subtle changes to monster and action behaviour, along with its changes to things such as songs) were the first time I'd seen changes made to Doom where the intention was not to please me or make me feel powerful, but instead to unsettle me as a player, to make me feel uncomfortable.
This reason is why I feel lilith.pk3 truly deserved a Cacoward. Whenever I load up a mapset, it doesn't enter my mind that I might experience something other than that same old feeling I get when I usually play Doom: the desire to kill things, to beat the map, and to enjoy whatever sights the modder may have worked away at to present me with. This is the experience I have with 99.99~% of WADs. This isn't a problem, and I'd hate for things to change too much - I mean, I play Doom because it's a great game! I don't want that great game to go away any time soon! As the same time: I'm an artist. I'm an appreciator of art. I seek out new and unorthodox things to expand my horizons, to make me reconsider how I create and take in other artistic works, and to hopefully influence my own artistic process for the better. I feel that every artist - even those who have found their artistic voice and are happy in their current artistic situation - is letting themselves down if they choose to stick with what they're comfortable with, to not expose themselves to new and unusual pieces of artistic expression when the opportunity presents itself.
There are a lot of content creators now in this community, and the natural outcome of this larger collection of modders is that we will have more content to play. This is good. The most important thing for a community of artists is that not only do we have a growth of actual artists, but also a growth of the ways in which we can express our ideas. lilith.pk3 opens the door for content creators to think of Doom modding not just as configuring and piecing together resources (monsters, textures, music, etc.) into a new set of maps, but to encourage us to develop and consider our relationships, as players, to the content already available to us. By relationships, I specifically mean the relationship between us and our knowledge of prior Doom content, and our experiences with what currently exists in the community. Using map 03 of lilith.pk3 as an example, take the reference to The Gantlet, where the player is briefly shown a snippet of a wholly perfect and clean Map 03, before being dragged back into the glitch-filled monstrosity they must fight through. It references The Gantlet not just for reference's sake, but to specifically make us aware of our situation as a person playing a mapset that is much more alien to us than a typical Doom mod - it juxtaposes our sense of the familiar with the overwhelming unfamiliar that we are experiencing throughout this gameplay experience. This is just one example, and it is an example using only the stock resources. With the massive amount of user-made material now existing in the community, the new design space that this kind of design theory opens up can be massive. I say with full sincerity, on the back of this realisation, that lilith.pk3 may be one of the most important WADs released to the community so far.
Does that mean I want another lilith.pk3? Or that I want some kind of trend in mapping towards the glitchy mapset or whatever? No. As much as I really enjoyed lilith.pk3, I've mostly had my fill of it at this point. What I actually want to see - going forward - is more content in the spirit of lilith.pk3. More content that explores the relationship I have as a player with the content I take in when I play Doom. I want intertextuality. I want content that makes me think about the worlds I explore whenever I load up a pWAD, content that allows me to have more visceral and surprising sensations whenever I play Doom. I'm not saying that I will be disappointed with future mapping endeavours that choose to not take these things into consideration, because the things I'm describing aren't the be-all and end-all of future Doom modding. It's probably a new (and not particularly exciting) idea to a lot of people in the community, and at the end of the day we're here first and foremost to play Doom and have fun. When it comes to content creation there are a ton of things that I've not yet experimented with in the community, so I'm in no position to judge other people on what they choose to do with a game that at this point is now 24 years old. However, this idea of intertextuality is something that can absolutely join the mapping brain space of a modder when they sit down to create a new project. Aesthetics. Gameplay style. Choice of source port. The balance of modern vs. classic old school feel, or the balance between realism vs. the abstract. These are the things we broadly think about when we sit down to start a new idea. lilith.pk3 shows us that our project's relationship with the other content that exists around us can also influence how we create our work. I'm very excited by the idea of future projects possibly taking these ideas into account and making a richer, more fulfilling Doom experience in the coming years.
* The other time was Nihility. That shit was scary, folks.
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As much as I enjoyed playing this map, the requirement of playing the wad in an advanced port which supports UDMF is pretty baffling to me, as it could very easily be simplified down to Vanilla or Boom while losing basically nothing. The only things I could recognise were a few out of place stealth imps (which aren't inherently bad, but are poorly utilised here), along with some scripting at the end of the map for one particular fight. Otherwise, this map could easily be part of any given old-school vanilla mapset and I wouldn't bat an eyelid.
One aspect of this 'old-school' feel is the texturing, and the fact that Yummy Pie goes for the almost Wolfenstein 3D-esque approach of having most areas have their own wallpaper of a single texture throughout, and a few supporting texture variants for detail. This works for most parts of the map, with the exception of the opening area - its use of brick being too repetitive and garish, and making me wish that some different textures were also incorporated to support said bricks visually. The 'old-school' feel is also enforced by the fairly ordinary architecture within the map - the most dynamic changing of architecture you're going to see here is some doors being opened and a few blocks being raised out of lava. While this isn't a problem, it does continue to raise the question of why the mapper would choose UDMF as their map format of choice if they aren't going to experiment with what UDMF is capable of. Because of this, the map feels very safe, artistically - too by-the-numbers.
Some final points about this map, and keeping on the topic of it feeling too safe: the monster placement and general gameplay progression also falls into this same feel. The map is quite nicely paced, with gameplay difficulty ramping up at points where it feels like it should, and the map ending at a satisfying point. (it doesn't end too abruptly, or go on for too long once you feel you've experienced everything it has to offer) This is definitely the strongest part of the map's design. Unfortunately, the final areas is too by-the-numbers and generic as a final boss fight that things go from "natural" to "predictable" once you reach the final areas. As for the map's 'multiple paths and branching areas', it was not something I particularly picked up on until reading the wad's description after the fact. While there were multiple areas that had some additional areas, they usually amounted to single off-shoot rooms or pathways that gave me either a few monsters to fight, or some goodies to pick up. Again, unfortunately, it feels very safe. It would be interesting to see the mapper move into some more experimental non-linear design, if they're interested in including it in their maps going forward.
Lastly, I felt that the final baron "fight" was laughably bad, and I simply sunk 40 cells into it before leaving. For some reason it's not a scripted fight, and I can just lower the bars to avoid it and walk into the exit. Once again, this raises questions on the use of UDMF, as the fight before this does use scripting for what is essentially a very similar fight, fundamentally speaking (kill a thing, then be allowed to leave). The baron encounter is a strong sign that a similar approach could have been made in the previous fight too. Again: baffling.
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First few rooms are fairly stock in terms of appearance and gameplay, and a bit on the tough side due to a lack of armour against a good number of hitscan enemies. The yellow key room is pretty interesting, and was fun to play, although I think it needs some tweaking. Final area stands out as the best part of the map, with its unique set-up and much more enjoyable gameplay. I would play more maps from this author if they maintained a level of skill shown in this area! -
I quite enjoyed this, although some of the Baron usage is a touch questionable. Progression is achieved through one of two paths and, unfortunately, one of them is much more beneficial to take first as it gives you much better goodies, thus removing some of the non-linearity. Still, a fun romp none-the-less!
Toxic Complex
in a-c
Posted
For a first map this is pretty impressive. I could definitely identify the influence of No Rest for the Living, a mapset I really enjoy and would love to see more maps in the vein of. My main complaint for the map is that - until near the ending - pretty much all of the monsters are placed in front of the player and the gameplay consists of simply moving forwards and clearing out what's in front of you. The combat picks up slightly near the end, with the fight just after the blue key door (of the Hell Knight, along with a Revenant that teleports in just as you're getting started) is the highlight.
The layout is fine, with progression naturally looping from key pick-ups to their corresponding doors. The most exciting part of the progression is dropping down into a nukage pit near the end of the map to make your way to the blue key, although - and again I have to mention the limited gameplay here - it feels like the mapper doesn't take advantage of the player's vulnerable position when they're down in the nukage as there isn't enough exciting gameplay to raise the tension.
Aside from those complaints, I think it's pretty good! The map is quite well-made from a technical standpoint and I found the visuals to be decent enough. Wasn't a fan of the music though, unfortunately. I'd love to see the mapper play around with the visual style of No Rest for the Living and give us some more maps, with spicier gameplay and perhaps a little more space in which to play around in and explore - I definitely think this wad shows a lot of promise!