Sui Generis

I found it was possible to make Doom levels after it seeing being highlighted on the TV show, Bad Influence, back in the 90s. However the earliest pwads I played were limited to ones with batch files, because I think I only had Doom 2 and I mustn't have known how to use the command line or the appropriate command in dos to load the wads. As such the earliest pwads I played after repeated searches and finding the idgames archive, were a slightly weird trio of levels called the Altair series, and more prominently, Dimensions of Time. They aren't that great (particularly the Altair levels) but as they were among the first I played, and playing totally new doom levels seemed absolutely amazing, I loved them. Later I had Final Doom and was able to use Doom95 to load pwads. I therefore also tried this oddball set by Malcolm Sailor, Realm of Chaos and The Twilight Zone, the former of which I still quite like. I was aware of Doomworld at the time and the forum, but was not particularly interested in 'putting my face out' and preferred to just play Doom levels. Also it meant I still did not know about source ports and boom, so this meant some of the pwads I found weren't playable. Finally after intermittently playing pwads in this fashion I decided to look again into Doom around the time when I went to university in 2004ish - I found the Doomworld top 100 and learned about source ports, and then later started noticing newstuff, and it went from there. Oh and for fun, here is the TV show clip I mentioned showing Doom level editing (starting @ 1min 40 seconds)

MAP07 - Unfeeling - 0/0 Secrets This is not a Dead simple clone, but to me it feels as though it may aswell be. The successive manc, then arachnotron wave trope may not be strictly in play here, but the principle of arena based combats is still intact, and there's only a limited 'Unwelcome' type twist with the teleporting monsters in the first arena. The rest is quite conventional, with some good uses of arch-viles and revenants to get the player moving. The final arena leading to the return to start/'The deed is done' switch is quite crowded and @galileo31dos01 mentioned previously, infighting in MBF/comp 11 isn't as effective as the monsters revert to targeting the player if too many target another monster. Nonetheless I held off from firing for a time as I tried to get the mancs to damage the knights, and even though I found it ok to dodge around the crowd, this wasn't very effective at thinning them out like it would be in vanilla infighting compatibility. The last release of archies is ok but has less scope for resurrections than you might have feared - I agree with @galileo31dos01 that door-camping when returning to the starting area trivialises many of them. It's an ok non-map07 style map07 I suppose. MAP08 - Unwelcome - 1/5 Secrets initially, subsequently found all 5. Whew, this is an epic final map, with vast open space between the playable areas and an almost hypnotic kinetic ballet of raining distant caco projectiles from the tower turrets. Unlike TheOrganGrinder I didn't make much of an attempt at thinning out the caco towers as I presumed it would be too costly to be practical and also felt as though they were intentionally not meant to be shot. Other than the odd sheltered breathing spot, you pretty much need to stay constantly on the move. The progression in the map is mostly quite simple, albeit long. I approached the red key first, and found the revenant trap to be very well (too well?) signposted - with the shrieking emanating from the big door-less structures and the lone innocuous switch I cannot see who wouldn't be - and when it came the trap was less effective than expected due to the limited amount of access points opening to permit them to egress. I naturally strafe-ran back to the sheltered part and found that only some of the revvies were able to come out, so after they were dealt with the remainder could be dealt with piecemeal, defraying the danger of the trap. The subsequent archie trap was far more damaging however. Strangely, the blue key quest is very short and simple, with some mancs that cannot shoot you over some low walls/rocks but you can happily camp and corner snipe or shoot over the top with impunity. The large interior beyond the key switches is fun, with a sweeping corridor with a revenant horde which was great fun rocketing and forcing me to concentrate more intensely. The one secret I initially discovered round here with the invulnerability was used up naively before I got to this point - incidentally the visual effect really messes up the players vision whilst in operation, as you'd expect. The other secrets I found later, and agree with @galileo31dos01 that they are pointless: the revenant health potions and nearby rocket box I had already seen but ignored as I didn't want to have to slime run to a teleporter to get back up - quite a bizarre false economy, imo. Finally, the concluding area with the icon of sin is a great use of low-light levels and non-mapping areas a la map04, in keeping with the wad's theme of eyes and of vision being degraded. The transition from the bright, blue first part of the map to the dark red latter section really helps also. In spite of the non-mapping, I still found the automap helpful for marking switches to try and make clearer to me once I'd done a circuit and to know if I might have missed something, though I guess simple wall following ought to work too. The use of this whilst the icon is busy spawning distractions is a great use of a monster that is difficult to use originally and something that deserves plaudits in it's own right. Overall this is a good and satisfying conclusion to the wad, albeit a tiring one. The lack of an ending text is not normally an issue in a random level set, though in something more polished with such a strong theme like this is more noticeable and I personally think might have been fitting. However I'm sympathetic to @TheOrganGrinder's view that it leaves you wondering what happened. Certainly starting off in regular Doom 2 Map09 but with the palette and no music is a slightly disorienting twist on the familiar - something the map set holds as it's stock in trade, which I guess is fitting.

So I really dropped off the radar with this one - real life intervened as I was at a friend's wedding last weekend, and that probably did for my motivation, even though Map03 encouraged me to think I could keep pace owing to it being quite trivial. I do want to make a bigger bite into Unwelcome than just the first three maps though - sooo here comes the wall of text! MAP03 - Unhuman - 1/2 Secrets This is quite a short and rather less interesting map than before - essentially just a pair of brief side key quests followed by a progressive monster warp in concluded by a cyb. The red door quest is straightforwards but includes a secret I missed - backtracking is prevented so I couldn't clear the level and find it on my continuous playthrough (though I found it when pistol starting). The blue key has a trap with revvies and chaingunners, but is most remarkable to me for the pillar hopping puzzle, although puzzle is the wrong term since it's immediately apparent what to do, just a bit of a pain as my timing/jumping was off, so I took a long time to pass it on the first playthrough. The final warp in can be as simple as staying alive till the exit opens, by circling to dodge projectiles whilst picking off the hitscanners and then leaving the cyb. Or if 100% is sought, then there is sufficient ammunition to do so, though I sought to use infighting to help with this. It's a lot more like a standard doom level, only less substantial and sadly more gimmicky than conceptual. The bichrome theme doesn't seem to be up to very much. MAP04 - Unbound - 3/3 Secrets I broadly agree with @TheOrganGrinder that this map mainly seems like a shortish conventional map with a funky palette rather than a part of a concept wad - like the last map. The dark part after the switch with the revvies and hell nobles was quite different though as the pressure to move and dodge the revvie fire really makes the obstruction of the hell nobles more relevant, although with hindsight I might simply have just gone more aggressively after one of the revvie towers and then the others can be rocketed/chaingunned as needed and you are safe from the nobles. One of them had a light amp too. The blue key archie trap can catch you out a little first time if you blunder into it and don't scrupulously take out the nearby cacos and spectre before grabbing it. Not a terrible map, but I'm not seeing much to it beyond the novelty palette. MAP05 - Unspeakable - 1/2 Secrets This map also lacks the puzzley element of the first two levels. I quite liked the initial opening vista with the somewhat creepy pair of eyes showing the way to proceed (or at least seeming to.) The rest of the map is a kind of odd mixture of cavern/hell/tech and it is quite non-orthogonal, with a sort of central hub area that the layout revolves itself around (it does put me quite in mind of Witness of Time, in fact), and a nearby trap area with several teleport ins too. Most of the teleport traps weren't too bad - I found the drop into the revenants, knights and cacos on pillars with the soulsphere to be rather more nasty. The archie after that area is quite tame as there is plenty of cover and the concluding trap after opening the blue key door gifts the player with the plasma rifle if it wasn't already available, so the AV there can be fairly painlessly neutered. There are some good contrasts between dark, muted areas and the bright flesh area with the blue key, or the manc water area, as TheOrganGrinder also noted. I found the switch closet secret to be quite apparent, but have not spotted the other one. MAP06 - Undying - 2/2 Secrets So this is the reason why I've been playing this wad! Now so far, other than the first two levels of the set, I have felt the maps have been rather desultory, conventional affairs with a funky palette rather than anything particularly conceptual. Other than the ending of map04 they haven't been exceptionally remarkable either as puzzle/concept levels or as conventional ones - I was unsure whether I felt like continuing with the wad. This map however really makes up for the others. Feeling like some kind of bizarre cross between Gotcha, Industrial Zone and perhaps The Living End (or a scaled up E4M2) in a slightly Monti-esque texture scheme, this is a great and relatively epic open map, with plenty of exposed areas that (initially) put you in sight of lots of incoming fire from multiple angles - there is the central cyb, mancs and the balletic plasma streams of distant arachnotrons all there to add to the fun. It demands that you get moving and look for safer areas with cover, quickly - but of course on initially playing then you don't know where the safer areas are and just have to run and improvise as best as you can, at least for a short while at the start. I like this sort of pressure to dive into the map, as it makes harder to be too methodical in playing and adds a little bit of excitement. It did start to cool down quite quickly once I hit the blue key switch, as the cyb then became free to be lured into infighting the hell nobles and then some of the arachnotrons so it could then be dispatched fairly promptly thereafter. Once the initial cohort of unfriendlies hits the dust the map becomes a lot more settled. This is by no means a bad thing, as even though I liked the dangerous crossfire of the start it's good and satisfying to earn yourself a breather; however I do feel that a monster repopulation part way through wouldn't have gone amiss. As I took the blue key fairly late (I like to explore what I can before using rad suits) I didn't come to the combination puzzle until I had visited much of the map already. As others mentioned figuring out what the clues are as you progress is half the battle, and I at first was a bit slow as I initially expected the main map to change a la map02. I did subsequently make the connection between the colour coded clues and the puzzle though and then backtracked round the level to the obvious clues, but by that point it had been some time since I picked up the red key and I had forgotten that two of the clues where other there. As that section was marked not to map for some reason then I didn't see return to them for awhile, leaving me with just 6 out of 8 parts of the sequence, though I did ultimately find them. It's a great puzzle and very satisfying once you do finally crack it. The reward of the BFG swiftly finds use, although I paid for my reticence in using it when the archie came in. Overall this is a fun and clever map that works well as both a conventional and puzzle level and for me is definitely the highlight of the wad thus far. Two thumbs up for this one.

MAP02 - Unknowable - 2/2 Secrets So this map feels slightly more conventional and more recognisably Doomy compared with the last one, except of course for the shootable switch puzzle theme running through it. The two colours of Unknown are employed in double doors that must be gunfire-switched by firing from the other side to flip them and permit passage. It's a pretty clever idea and is satisfying to puzzle through. Normally I'm a bit sceptical of puzzle maps, as sometimes they tend to be (in my opinion) a cover for inscrutable, poorly discernible progression, but this case is entirely the opposite. It requires thought but is unlikely to pose a problem for many people - it's just good, well thought out fun. Combat is generally small scale, with there being little in the way of incidental fighting, which is to be expected in a concept wad. However some of the fights can catch you off guard, for example the two revenant welcoming party early on which pistol starters must fight with the berserk, and like @TheOrganGrinder I also lost unnecessary extra health at the pain elemental/sergeants/lost souls section - damn those dratted PEs. There are also a few revvies along the way with attendant risk of a health smashing accident if you're dodging goes wrong and the RNG plays hard ball. There is a useful secret plasma rifle although it's only available late in the level. At the exit switch the blocking cyb is near a crusher which I noted is in the general direction of the secret plasma rifle room. I assumed this wasn't a coincidence and there must be a puzzley solution, so instead of fighting it I woke the monsters and then took the cowards conservative way out and teleported back to the plasma rifle room, and went for a cup of tea whilst waiting for the cyb to be squished! I like to presume that was intentional and a designed solution though, as otherwise I would feel shamefully cheesy. Still I got to keep all the plasma and armour for the next level though. It was actually quite relaxing really what with the soothing music, notwithstanding the angry mechanical stomping and occasional agonised screams of the cyb, of course. Fun, clever map!

Now on to Unwelcome. I think we're all actually a bit behind schedule now if it was supposed to start on the 20th? Not that it matters. I guess this way does cut down on the dead period at the end of the month. I play UV continuous with saves in PRBoom+ MAP01 - Unforgiven - 4/4 Secrets I'm slightly bewildered - this is a rather unusual and very conceptual episode. The new palette turns down the colour to virtually monotone levels, but pumps up and lightens the blues and reds. This is immediately highlighted in the starting room with it's greyed out concrete textures, all familiar in the mind from their many years of play and yet wrong. These are juxtaposed against the suddenly vibrant fireblu. It's undoubtedly a unique aesthetic. As you progress out into the level. the usual kinds of things I think I like in a map seem to matter less - the relevance of texturing drops, it looks as though as the map would look quite simple in normal circumstances, but with the volume turned down, then instead lighting and contrast with the highlights comes to the fore. The gentle music reinforces this and adds to the surreal quality of the map. The gameplay is more familiar, but potentially quite top-heavy and ammo starved initially - at one point I had used up most of my shells on a hell knight and had to resort to chainsawing a revenant. However I also respect @TheOrganGrinder's take, that it's fitting for the player's initial steps to be subject to some confusion and difficulty; however a bit like the fog of tiredness lifting after one awakens from sleep things do start to come together, weapons and ammo are found, and the progression method with floor switches raising stairs becomes apparent and intuitive (thanks to the first being so nearby). Most of the map is indoors, but the one small outdoor view of the sky and the river is a colour explosion after all the drabness and takes a moment for the eyes to adjust - naturally this is flanked by a pair of open eyes. There's also an amusing secret involving 2 keys, whose pay-off is a single health potion(!) - I had the feeling that the map was toying with me. Finally, the exit switch as already described by TheOrganGrinder is essentially a gimmick, but in the context of this wads style, it was perfectly appropriate, until I was then forced back into briefly wandering around in confusion again until I stumbled on the actual exit.

E2M7 - “Hunt ‘em Highnlow” 3/3 Secrets I haven't played the High/Low series which this map belongs to (I probably should) but straight-away the gimmick of contrasting high and low places comes out, and recurs through the level. Anyway, this map came across to me as a sort of 'junior' and lower ambition version of the previous map. As before it consists of a good few medium-smallish rooms, with the odd slightly larger area mixed in, but with nothing like M5. You rarely get the run of any of the larger spaces though, as they tend to have nukage in, so in effect they are functionally still like small areas - in general this map is pretty constrained and gated. E2M6 was generally smoother flowing and easier to pass through the differing map areas, with more ways of getting around due to non-linearity and routes being a little less tight and more free-wheeling. The layout is quite clever though, as you consistently find that after collecting a key a map part opens up and deposits you neatly near to the relevant key door. A hiccup occurred for me with the blue key switch though as that was slightly less blatantly obvious and it's location wasn't salient enough to stick in my mind upon initial visit, so I went off in the wrong direction for awhile. But that's arguably more my fault than that of the level. Combat is also reminiscent of the last level, but seems more of a steady drip-feed, with fewer stand out traps and moments, although my continuous arsenal probably will have affected that perception. Traps in general seem more contained and gentle, with nothing like the big pinkie charge from the last map. Also, few of the traps had as much of the close quarter danger and intensity of the fights in E2M2 either. The second teleporting baron is a good exception and it surprised me (as it did for @Magnusblitz) - so the tight choreography works well for that, and the invulnerability berserk punch-up was fun too. The secrets are neat as always, and the megaarmour was for me the cleverest, as my initial presumption was that it must be accessible by Doom parkour, but it wasn't. So a good subversion of expectations. Overall, I'm sympathetic to @TheOrganGrinder's suggestion that this level is perhaps a little bit too designed and maybe even stilted for it's own good. Like a less free-flowing version of E2M6, but less epic in ambition and the showcase fights being less remarkable, or less intense than E2M2. However recall I do like E2M6 so perhaps that's just my preferences rather than anything with the level. Either way it's still a fundamentally fun level of course. E2M8 - “Domain of Evil” 0/0 Secrets After a brief panic moment at the start we go into a boss level stock up room (TM) with in fairness what is a pretty spectacular initial reveal of the boss arena structure. I won't comment too much about 4 cyb fight, as TheOrganGrinder and Magnus have it covered other than to note it's interesting that you get the choice to decide when/if to release the cybs from their vantage points. I personally elected to release fairly early (after lobbing a good few rockets at the imps), as the cyb release platforms themselves actually make a pretty good hideaway that you can teleport between. After doing that a few times (having already led the cybs to hit some of the cacos first) the monsters kept getting caught in crossfires and had largely been finished off by infighting. That neatly left the 4 cybs to be BFG'd. It's a pretty fair boss map as far as they go, with variation on a theme rather than a revolution. Personally I like boss fights that cap a big normal map, like the last level of Nihility, from the club's June playthrough, doing particularly well in my book. My position is that a boss level appended to a good finale living end type normal level has scope to be more interesting and enjoyable. After all, most levels doomers play are non-boss, non-map07 types, so why not make use of the last map slot of a wad accordingly? Some brief overall thoughts on Monument It's been nice to play through an E2 set with the club that is of such consistently good quality and looks throughout, although that consistency also applies to the mapping style too. I find it notable that everyone seems to have particularly liked E2M5 - Chasm Control as it provided such a change from the other maps and for me was refreshingly open. I personally would like to see a few more larger spaces mixed into future maps by the author, and perhaps try sometimes painting with broad brush strokes. With maps like E2M7 in particular I found that map generally tight, but also the texturing was at times quite busy, with things like vines near sladwalls for example. I can't help but wonder if a dash of minimalism here and there might help the more richly detailed parts, by helping them to stand out. Secrets and gameplay in the episode have both been well done throughout and this combined with the new palette really does show this episode as a pretty damn professional and solid 'product', which I've had fun with.

Yeah, I thought that that early caves part had a hint of early map to it. I'm quite surprised that my other hunch though about the spiral shaped lava channel in the south west of the initial area was wrong. Also the eastern slime tunnel and blue skull key area look quite similar in the original version. It's really quite interesting to see the two side-by-side in the editor shot though - there's definitely several of the same structures in there but I can make out from the editor view that they have noticeably changed. Thanks for sharing! E2M9 - “The End?” 1/1 Secrets Here be your Fortress of Mystery remake right here - the map is naturally more interesting, as would be the case with practically any remake of that map, though it doesn't go in with the big geometric shapes like the original. This makes the concept more substantive by having multiple waves of monster releases which build up fairly nicely. Of these, I found the second wave (on the promontory containing the plasma rifle) to actually be quite frustrating, as in addition to having to deal with the lost souls and cacos, there are several sniping sergeants that warp in behind which kept taxing my health several times each time I would strafe which caused me to die initially. With hindsight I might simply have ran ahead off of the promontory and just manoeuvred in relative safety around the opposite end of the map near the megaarmour, as @galileo31dos01 did. Similarly, teleporting sergeants were the source of most damage (albeit to a far smaller degree) in the first wave too shortly after you immediately enter the arena - luckily once that's done you can at least take out the bombarding imps on ledges and the like, making tackling the rest of the map waves piece-wise more simple. I did quite like the last release with the lost souls cacoswarm, as that offered a pure opportunity to mix it up with the monsters and foment a bit of infighting with the barons, once the lost souls are chaingunned, plus you can gather up the cacos for everyone's favourite pastime of rocketing cacoswarms. Otherwise, I agree pretty much entirely with what @TheOrganGrinder said - it's a moderately diverting, but somewhat desultory map, the type of which I wouldn't get excited about replaying. It does however provide a good opportunity for a continuous restock with the megaarmour and soulsphere though. E2M6 - “Smash It!” 5/5 Secrets And this would be the second map from rip it, tear it, smash it - a personal favourite of mine which I remember well. In it's original release, this followed on from E2M1 of this set, and although the balance has been adjusted, I still think that there is a more noticeable build up in opposition, from lower-level monsters to gradually more difficult encounters, which it retains from it's roots as a kind of finale map to a mini episode. Although the map is among the earlier constructed ones in the set, it seems to be at a transitional stage in Chris Hansen's mapping, between the 2002 ADO based E2M2 and the more recent wailing halls maps (M3 and M4), as although it is still quite rooms and corridors based, there is more of a mixture of larger spaces brought in, eg. the red key room and the latter slime walkway areas. This map is quite non-linear too, with the three paths to take at the start letting you choose the order and angle from which you approach fights. And with the well woven interconnections and overlooks as noted by @TheOrganGrinder you do get some windows to pick off several monsters remotely. I feel that this map is a little bit more ambitious in some ways than some of the other maps, and for me gave some more memorable moments. The big teleport in of demons in the south after you first obtain the chaingun (if pistol starting) comes to mind as pretty cool - I love the whole back to the wall, grit your teeth chaingun overheating, desperate defence type of sentiment there. I could have used my continuous chainsaw (I initially missed the berserk secret) but I figured I'd get into the spirit of the map a bit more. Also the ending battle and the monster closets with lost souls dotted about which open after collecting the red key, was a pretty atmospheric way of hinting that the level has taken a more evil turn. Indeed, although none of these are necessarily super deadly traps, I really like the sense of atmosphere in this level, with the constantly moody and contrasting lighting, the progression from techy elements through the marble area near the yellow key bars, then seeing more flesh/tech near the red door and then that rather cool guts/warped area, to the part of the techbase which appears to be dimensionally ruptured altogether, with the no access sign being a rather understated why of suggesting to the player that that is a very fucked up part of the level as though this is perhaps where the UAC's teleportation experiments originally occurred, and went wrong (and the appropriate consequences of venturing past it). Really, sticking with the point of atmosphere I think the music on this map, although good in and of itself, is misplaced. If I recall in it's first release this map used something like iwad E2M2 music - this is the kind of level which I think profits vastly more from a creepy, suspenseful track than a more driving, quick one as is employed here. I do respect that monument isn't simply a repackaging of old levels and the author wanted to put a fresh stamp on the maps, but that's one thing which I think would have been better leaving as is. Anyway after all of these things the player finally traverses the marble and vine walkways over slime, with good use of warping snipers, cacos (although in both cases you can run back, and the snipers are fairly slow to teleport and come as a drip feed, rendering them more a time sink than a danger). The final battle with the barons in close quarters where, absent that precious Doom2 SSG you have to be careful not to get cornered before you can waste them, is cool. In particular if you use the rocket launcher then that part becomes much more interesting. I can't recall if the original release of this omitted the BFG/Plasma rifle but I seem to remember finding the last battle much harder back then. Maybe I was just worse at Doom. Anyway, great level with some excellent design, interconnections, good aesthetic throughout and fun gameplay. Tl;dr - I really liked Rip it, tear it, smash it back in the day.

E2M4 - “Hive of the Horde” 7/7 Secrets This is a pretty fun and well laid out map. The chaingun opening wall around the yellow key was clearly going to be a trap, so when it instead opened into the whole upper room and all the monsters started pelting at me it was a good twist which I like. The sheer number of imp fireballs can really hurt if you're not careful as @Magnusblitz said, but the cacos and hitscanners demand your attention more, making the risk of a mishap greater. More noteworthy as the traps go is the one with the timed door and big unveiling of flanking imps, with warping in monsters and cacos, that stands out as a good trap. I also like how it toys with you a little before it kicks in. As you enter it immediately throws you off balance somewhat by short-range teleporting you into the middle of the room, facing the opposite way - I then knew something was afoot, so attempted to retreat through the door by which I first entered only to have it close in front of me and then the trap commenced in earnest. Then when you pick up the key it's followed up by a further trap with more cacos and lost souls - that was all in fun. The layout of the map is pretty cool, with the exit near the start and the area reuse is good: in particular the larger slime area slightly before the return to the exit which gives a temporary change from some of the tighter areas. I'm a little bit unsure why the yellow key needs to be on a lower pillar than all the others, as I think it makes it needlessly less clear so I didn't immediately see it. Perhaps that's just me being faintly dumb though, as it and I cannot see that anyone else had any issue. I guess it didn't particularly cause me any problem really, but it's just a decision that doesn't make sense to me. There are some powerful secrets here, although some I don't know how I triggered. The plasma rife, I cannot recall what I did to make it accessible, and the early berserk secret I mistook for another part of the level and didn't even realise it was a secret that had opened! I'm relieved to see that other people struggled with the BFG secret, as I got really trolled by it - I had cleared the level and found all other secrets, including the two component switches that lower the way, but must've spent the better part of 10 minutes being irritated that I couldn't find it but yet must be so close, haha. In the end persistence paid off and I departed this level very well equipped. I sincerely hope that after all that there won't simply be a BFG freely given in the next level! E2M5 - “Chasm Control” 6/7 Secrets Fortunately for me there wasn't - the BFG on this level was secret. So this map apparently utilises the oldest map base used in this wad, with the original being from 1998. It's interesting as even with the map being apparently massively revamped it does seem to have strokes of cruder mapping still left in. The early caves come across to me a little that way, and particularly the curling promontory in the lava at the initial plateau. I haven't seen the original base map, so I cannot be certain if the parts I perceive as crude really are original, but it does seem that way. @Chris Hansen I'd be curious to know what things are least changed in this map. I was not frustrated by the lava crossings, as I was able to time my run to cross without taking damage. This map is very different to the last ones in that it is so much more open, more like a city map, or Mt Erebus as per @galileo31dos01. The series of small to medium orthogonal rooms of E2M2 is gone and you have the option of first clearing the overlooking imps on ledges, or of simply leaving them to be dealt with as the player clears each building. To an E2 purist, this map is arguably less E2 themed as (with the exception of E2M8) no maps in that episode were set predominantly outdoors, and the closest one comes to such large areas were the mysterious, cavernous interiors of E2M4. But equally, I don't care about that, as there is no E2 standards police and the map is fun and a great change from the earlier ones as is. Indeed it's good to have a level that breaks the style in a wad, as per the comments of @Magnusblitz and The Organ Grinder, and I really appreciated the different buildings and how they all linked together. In some ways, it feels a little more like Doom 2's The Living End, only with a shallow, non-damaging pit, rather than a city map, as the way in which one approaches the buildings is more linear, and the buildings are less self-contained and more interlinked. In particular the teleport to the north east corner blursphere, from whence one accesses a hideaway teleporter back to the raised building and the secret BFG stuck out to me as cool in the way it all interlinked and used the space of the map. I found it surprising how easily accessible the secret exit was, which is not to say that it is highly obvious - indeed I would not have noticed it were it not for the automap - but in principle you can quit the map without having cleared much of it's population, as @TheOrganGrinder (and others) also noted (EDIT: Apparently a switch had to be pressed to open it - still, it remains that you can exit the map easily). I do not hold this against the map though, as the playing of the rest of the map is fun in and of itself rather than simply exiting as swiftly as possible. I found most of the secrets with only the early chaingun one eluding me. I think overall this is a good and enjoyable map, which goes to show that a mapper's earlier, weaker work can still be of value for re-working, but also lending variety in forcing the mapper to adopt a style of mapping they may well have move away from. Also good comment by @galileo31dos01 with the reference to the initial vista - I agree it works great with the new E2 sky.

E2M3 - “The Wailing Halls” - 2/3 Secrets (3rd found on replay) This map is more spacious and less rectangular than before - given that M2 was based on an older map you can see the change in mapping style already. The big close quarter traps are gone (well, there's a smaller trap near the beginning but that's it.) and between the central slime hallway that much of the map plays around and the large-ish L-shaped outdoor area, the average room size of the map is bigger too. As a result, I found the gameplay more sedate and easier. That's not to be confused with boring by any stretch, but just there was a lower pressure overall. @Magnusblitz is on point about the hitscanners at the beginning though. The biggest release of monsters (by the switch which raises the crossing to the blue key area) seems flawed - a good number of monsters warp in but you are in ready made cover with the two tech pillars and can quite casually camp out there and handle it with the chaingun or shotty. Other than the odd flanking lost soul you are then basically set and the trap is largely defanged as the majority of monsters file through the narrow entries. That said, a map certainly doesn't need to be difficult or pressure the player to be fun and I did still enjoy that part. I also quite liked the release of shotgunners and cacos in the rock section after the blue armour/lost soul ambush - a little bit of level transformation (even as insignificant as a few pillars lowering) makes the map that little bit more dynamic and helps keep it interesting. The platform hopping crushers section with the troopers was a bit odd and different but ok - it does make that section a little more eerie though if you revisit it after the crushers stop, as I kept getting paranoid whilst hopping across that they would restart and be done for. The secret chainsaw was fairly intuitive and easy to find, but is only available a good way into the map, so it's value to pistol starters is more limited. The blur and energy cell secret I also found, albeit perhaps more by chance/intuition than by my observational skills. I really have to applaud @Chris Hansen though for the soulsphere secret, which eluded me on my continuous playthrough, but on replaying I discovered- a nice clever yet satisfying to find secret there and some good secret hiding by the author. As stated I replayed this map from pistol start after passing continuously and overall I found I enjoyed it more on replaying - the areas to the side of the big(gish) central slime hall were a little bit samey first time around but on replaying I think the map generally flows quite nicely - the author has a habit of if not quite making clear precisely that you've done what you needed to progress, but still guiding you to the point you need to be at (I'm thinking of the aforementioned pillar-crossing switch to the blue key area again) and then you can usually figure out what to do as if you knew what you were doing in the first place. Perhaps given that I am only saying this on a replay it suggests the flow could be more intuitive or better telegraphed though. I sympathise with @Deadwing when saying you are lost, but still making progress!

So on to Monument now - it's also good to see others have joined, and that @Steve D will be dying with us. As before, I play UV continuous with saves in PRBoom plus, and as @Chris Hansen has been kind enough to iron out any boom or zdoomisms, I'll be playing CL 3. E2M1 - “Rip and Tear” - 2/2 Secrets This would be the first level from Rip it, Tear it, Smash it, which I recall from the Doomworld top 100 from back in the day. The level is pretty much identical to how I remember it, which is a small, compact and competently made initial level. I always liked how the vertical space in the starting area varied with the snaking double height space looping across and outside of the starting area. Elsewhere we see a gentle, E2M1 homage, where the player runs around an overlooking platform a la the area after the first teleport in the iwad original albeit in smaller scale. It does seem quite a bit more square now on replaying it, but this is probably more noticeable to me than normal because of the 'Nicolas Monti effect'. Gameplay is really simple of course, but competent and slick with the initial wall lowering 'trap' (of sorts) being a neat touch to alter the play dynamic for a moment early on. Thereafter it's pretty gentle, with several little bunches of low level monsters are briskly presented for the player's shotgunning pleasure, generally in procession of course but it's an episode starter map so that's all in order. I agree with @TheOrganGrinder that an earlier placement of the berserk pack may have made sense given the name, but then I guess the name is a reference to the map pack it came with. These are all things that are familiar from previously playing it years ago, however the new palette and sky give it a new set of clothes. In line with @ Magnus @ I'm actually a little ambivalent about the new palette as it seems a little muted, but perhaps that's down to my having played this before and therefore expecting the more gaudy original palette. Certainly a darker look for an E2 theme is far from inappropriate. But yeah, the map was good on first release and is still retains it's charm now - I appreciate the re-use of the starting area (good to make extra use of a part with good architecture) and also the charming little 'press switch to progress' mechanic with the stepping stones to the exit - the kind of simple trope that is pretty trivial and yet satisfying. E2M2 - “Beta Station” - 3/5 Secrets (found all 5 subsequently) This map is far more substantive, but also not that long. The map is mostly rooms and hall-based, with some of the larger rooms acting as focal points. I particularly liked the sort of anteroom containing the yellow key protected door across the slime pit, which stuck out more due to it's size and was a helpful reference point. The decor is nice and E2 ish, with a crusher corridor a la iwad E2M2 and the positioning of the blue key was reminiscent of spawning vats, but otherwise the map broadly does it's own thing and is pretty compact overall. It also feels like it ought to be non-linear, with the choice of whether to go to the slime corridor part early on or not, but it doesn't seem to make too much difference. Although there are plenty of encounters where the monsters are just in front of you, there are several traps which really mix things up a bit, and also a few monsters teleporting behind the player at various points too, so I pretty consistently found myself losing health - that's not to say that there isn't enough, but I first exited having used nearly all of it and still not being 100% so that's a sign of good balance (or poor play by me!). The reveals of monsters in the areas past the yellow door are fun, but also so is the smaller marble room with the red blood round two of the edges prior to the yellow key. I agree with @ Magnus @ about the blue key reveal being a bit unobvious, but also I think that doesn't matter since there's only a limited number of ways to go before you drop down into the slime chamber and lower the monsters, which is generally a good indication that you're doing the right thing. Arguably having the three traps in a row after the yellow key activated door is a little bit much, and might have been better to vary, but this is also a minor (and debatable) point - I suppose it is also fitting to have a tougher build up to the level exit. As with the last map, this is also quite a squarish level, and particularly a lot of the rooms are rectangular and look a bit grid-like on the automap, but no-biggie. I initially found 3 of the 5 secrets but discovered the other two on replaying. The last one I found (the automap one) in particular I shook my head at myself for failing to realise it was accessible before, but it was fun to finally uncover them so thumbs up. Decent, squarish map with nice looks - good job.

MAP08 - Taioron - 10/11 Secrets Whew! You guys were serious when you said this was a long map! The map is a little bit overwhelming, both in the quantity of level (ie. the area it covers) but also the scale of many of the areas and structures, with the cavernous corridor areas in the initial building being particularly prominent - they put me in mind of Michael Krause's maps. These areas do not prevail universally, and are contrasted with several comparatively cramped areas. I'm quite grateful for @TheOrganGrinder's precis of the level in the three distinct sections which is a pretty good summary, as otherwise it's a little tough to digest. These areas where the cyb battles take place stood out to me most though, and I will join in @Magnus in complimenting the design of the cyb fight in the yellow key area with the archies - that is an excellent use of monsters to compliment their strengths and complicate dealing with them. I believe the music is tubular bells and I agree with @Magnusblitz that it's atmospheric, although I think this is always going to be limited in a brightly themed mapset like this with such a busy and well-populated map. This map counters my criticism of the previous map about 'gatekeeper' bosses that aren't able to roam or have built-in, easy cover. Here the three cybs do still have cover but are all able to roam their respective areas whilst presenting you with other monsters to deal with - the result is far more interesting than Map07's encounters so well done to Mr Monti for being quick to confound me. It's not all big boss battles though and the quieter, cramped moments in the maze for example or in the side areas in the southern building give a nice variety to play, even if the map is so big they did start to blend into one for me a little bit. The map naturally encourages exploring the slime channel (particularly with the many hidden secrets in Monti's maps), and it struck me after just a little bit of exploration that this would be the key to many of the map's secrets, as indeed it was. Also the teleporters that throw you around the level are also disorientating, but helpful for getting past and then dealing with the spider mastermind on the long catwalk when you have the BFG. Although that brought out in it's own issues in then needing to deal with the Cyb and accomplices near the exit. I don't think I can get this far without having to applaud the epic scope and ambition of this map, although I'm glad that they aren't all present like this as it is a lot. I also appreciate the number and hiding methods of the secrets to hunt for, as by now Monti's methods are becoming more familiar. Good map, although it is a slog, and I wouldn't want to play maps of this length every day. MAP09 - Tears in Caelo - 0/1 Secrets And in contrast to the last map, we have this conclusion, which in spite of the monsterless areas is still quite brief. I respect @TheOrganGrinder's comments about how bizarre the atmosphere is in comparison to most other Doom wads, but I'm starting to think that contrast, and a disregard for convention are Nicolas Monti hallmarks, with contrast in: texture choice; architecture (with the vast coupled with the small) and; the more rocket launcher focused gameplay (in partial rejection of the usual bread and butter shotgun action). Instead of monsters in the earlier parts, we instead get a show case of architecture, with the external two tech towers across the void and (for me) the tall veranda pillars area with the BFG being particularly good looking, although other parts are varied and visually interesting too. The one area of combat prior to the final arena with the zombiemen can actually take a surprisingly significant portion of your health, particularly if you are slow to chaingun your way to the switch; getting your back to the wall and using the alcove of the walls to cut the line of sight for the hitscanners is the most important thing, whereas I made the (essentially irrelevant) mistake of just trying to chaingun a bunch from the centre where you are more exposed. The final fight is a matter of loosening one's BFG trigger finger after the first few riff-raff teleport in and then prioritise the arch-viles and then pain elementals. For me the concern was less so much the resurrections which due to the rate at which fresh enemies were teleporting in resulted in comparatively few additional monsters being added to become BFG'd/victims of infighting but rather the archies' unavoidable attack. It's good to try and stay close to the central pillar as it is quite crucial for breaking line of sight and replenishing the player's health, and being close permits a swift circumnavigation, but it quickly gets crowded so I did tend to take a few AV burns. Probably I needed to be more aggressive with the BFG, really. I didn't hang around too long trying to find the one secret in this map (even though with there being only one then it adds to the desire to find it and gain another 100%) -- after having located the secret in an editor after finishing, I think this was the right choice as I doubt I would have found it. This was an architecturally good looking map, and in some ways a neat send-off, though I agree with @Magnus that the monsterless part was an interesting idea that seemed as though it was trying to portray something, but didn't.

MAP06 - Myriads - 6/8 Secrets A much more conventional (in the relative sense) level, being a well designed techbase in a kind of sliced ring doughnut layout. Also contrary to several of Monti's other maps in this wad, there are fewer choices of where to go early on and the map is rather more directed in general - that's not a bad thing necessarily but just a difference I note; it's good to have the variety. Although I respect and agree with @TheOrganGrinder and @Magnusblitz's opinions that the map is E1 style in architecture, though I wasn't specifically getting a Phobos lab vibe from this one. (Indeed I'd be curious to know how TheOrganGrinder saw that). I slightly spoilt the map for myself as I stupidly failed to explore the well-lit chord of the doughnut leading to the yellow key, so I did a few confused laps wondering how to progress - whoops. As with many others, the cyb really caught me by surprise, although that's essentially all it did, as it's easy to back round the corner or drop off the catwalk and you're immediately in cover and ready to start rocketing it at your leisure. Moreover, given the firing angles, the lip of the catwalk often prevents the cyb from being able to hit you, but with the cyb's height, the player is largely able to rocket it with impunity. Surely giving the cyb the run of the larger open area below the catwalk would have made for a better fight, possibly with a few monsters teleporting behind the player on the catwalk to discourage the player from hanging around there. Beyond this I think the map is relatively conventional by Monti's standards - with a few more orthogonal and straight walls, and perhaps a few less interconnecting windows then it could probably have been made by any other mapper as a fairly generic (but competent) E1 map. This is only in the relative sense though and it's still recognisably Monti. Of the secrets I only failed to access the two outdoor areas, with the texture for the earlier one being a bit too non-obvious for me, given the pretty varied texturing in much of this set. The second remained a mystery to me even after looking in an editor, though I see how it would be done now. Good casual map to stand in as a breather. MAP07 - Sol Y Verde - 4/6 Secrets This would be another entry into the bright, open-ish and cheery map style of this set a la Map03 and 5 - this time the map is structured vaguely in a sort of flat-ish reduced scale city style, with much off the map accessible from the outset and a need to search for weapons (if pistol starting), somewhat like map01. It put me more in mind of Mount Erebus though, than any of the more sprawling Doom2 city maps. Monti's signature overlooking windows connecting sectors are present here with the need to systematically extinguish the hit scanners and monsters contained therein before starting to get the keys and proceed with the map. There are a couple of pretty good traps: for example at the switch granting access to the blue key (which as per @Salt-Man Z and @Magnusblitz I visited first), with a warp in of revenants in a tight, slightly curving hallway - dodging their rockets becomes pretty difficult and I had to spam rockets and suffered some damage; similarly the revenant release in the spectre pit was pretty hairy with the chaingun and trying to manoeuvre to keep them close enough to encourage their melee attack, without actually being punched, although with hindsight I probably would have been fine with the plasma gun. Beyond this, the combat actually felt fairly casual and gentle: the arch viles were employed with cover, both in the one in the building and another outside from which the buildings are simple enough to hide behind. The two cybs (and indeed the mastermind) have 'gatekeeper' roles in that they are positioned in fairly constrained ways that force you to deal with them to enter or leave an important area. This makes some sense from a progression point of view, but does cut down on their gameplay role to mere roadblocks as there is generally ample cover, so you can casually corner-camp them at your leisure, but as it's difficult to close them for a BFG double-shot, dealing with them degenerates into a time-consuming grind with rockets. This would be fine, except because of the cover the player isn't in much danger, other than splash damage if the repetition makes the player sloppy. This is more like a drill than a danger and a tad tedious - I am generally much of a fan of letting boss monsters roam, or having other monsters around to complicate the combat. The first cyb in particular forces the player to patiently rocket it, although there is scope to sneak out through the corridor at which point it can be BFG'd. Some of the secrets didn't make sense to me - in particular, the berserk texture did not strike me in retrospect as being marked at all and I only happened on that secret by a mixture intuition ('Oh, this feels like a good place to put a secret switch') and chance. Also, I feel as though the blur artefact was intended to be a secret but not marked as such, given it's slightly obfuscated means of attaining it - certainly non-secret items do not require the same level of puzzle solving to obtain, but equally it might just be that my ego is subconsciously hurting at not getting credit for a secret, given this wads general efficiency at hiding them. I was unable to gain access to the computer area map and the secret near the blue key revenant trap. I really appreciate the fact that Monti left several rad suits to permit backtracking to hunt for additional secrets. This map is an interesting variation on the city style and I appreciate the fresh thinking, and interesting, almost anti-Doom airy feel.

I do remember playing and enjoying Rip it, tear it, smash it back in the day so I'm quite keen to get to this. I never played the High-low series or other maps so it will be interesting to see how your style has evolved :) However, before that I want to at least try and make further inroads into Witness of Time: MAP04 - Charon Lab - 6/7 Secrets Whew this was a slog! In contrast to the bright, open spaces of previous maps, here we have a dark and more enclosed playable area, but it is set within several dark and cavernously tall open areas. Due to the aforementioned vanilla doom 2 incompatibility I restarted this one from pistol start and made it needlessly harder for myself by forgetting about the damn SSG at the start, leading to me eventually desperately chainsawing the initial AV and praying for pain states - that may possibly cloud my judgement. This said the whole experience of the vast dark spaces is a memorable one. I sometimes see people commenting on levels that an area is 'too big'; this I find disappointing - large spaces in architecture can be as interesting as highly intricately micro-detailed ones, and the soaring cathedral like voids set this apart, with the emptiness and vastness giving it a cool feel of a darker and more eerie Deimos Lab crossed with E1M7 on steroids (Presumably that is what gives the map it's name?). I agree with @Salt-Man Z that the faintly pulsing mid chasm staircase is especially striking - you simply wouldn't expect to see something so crazy and abstract and yet 'what the hell let's just do it anyway' outside of the 90s. The cyclic chain of four teleporter pads I found fine to navigate, although that's partly because I spent so long in the first half of the map on my first attempt (as I was convinced I was hitting the cyberdemon release switch out of order, as opposed to it simply being broken), but I don't put it purely down to that. I note each telepad was distinctive and the landing areas were dissimilar so a quick hop-in hop-out whilst viewing the automap gives you your bearings. The latter areas of the map I enjoyed more, partly because the stupid switch issue was behind me then, but also as the action starts picking up too. In particular we see some significant traps, such as the revenant and archie release by the red key and yellow key. Also the raised platform area behind the three key doors was quite interesting in an unusual way aswell. After all time I spent on this map being stuck on at sector 76, and then having to replay from pistol start, I really didn't feel like lingering for long looking for all the secrets - ironically I then ended up finding all but the backpack secret. It's a striking map and atmospheric map, with a pity for me about the vanilla incompatibility. MAP05 - After Cefyl - 10/10 Secrets \o/ This was a pretty cool, brisk level. The map is open and superficially resembles Map03 as @Deadwing says, but it's more three dimensional, and the slime plays a more prominent part in directing the flow of the map. We have a nice variety of encounters at different ranges, and I appreciate that the player is forced to proceed using cover and think which monsters you can get close enough to pick off so as to simplify dealing with the others. Although the previous map had taller areas, this one seems more three dimensional in terms of gameplay as the map does see the player repeatedly jumping across the slime channel to progress. In fact the progression mechanics as a whole are pretty clever really - in keeping with the previous maps, any switch needed to move forward is always pressed in view of the thing it opens, but also the trope of visiting the central island, departing it, and then finally returning back into the computer map structure nested inside of it once again is all nicely integrated. There are several arch viles, although I retained the BFG and a few extra cells from the last map (in spite of a continuous restart) so they were not a problem, similarly with the bosses which were generally encountered singularly and in space, although the spider master mind can hurt you a fair bit with the lack of cover before it dies. The number of PEs hanging around encouraged me to go steady with the rocket launcher, which is a good countervailing incentive after all the rockets that are generally given. Finally I discovered all the secrets at last, with 8 being found by the time I reached the exit and then I backtracked and managed to access the remaining two. I like the design of the map.

Nb. Looks like Sector 76 in Map04 does not lower in PRBoom+ on complevel 2 - the sector lowers as intended on complevel 9. I'm not sure if this was the issue that was raised at release, and supposedly rectified here: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/1785003 If so it would be good if the text file made it clear that CL 9 is needed, although I see now that the release thread did state it was prboom compatible. Unsure if this is relevant to anyone now given most people have moved on, maybe @galileo31dos01? EDIT: Yeah, I wish I'd have seen that post warning about precisely this - d'oh!

Apologies for dropping off the radar a little bit, given that I voted for this - I'll have to be playing catch up for a few days though by the looks of things Witness of Time I play PRBoom+ UV with saves on complevel 2 MAP01 - Hic Et Nunc - 5/6 Secrets I'm grateful to @galileo31dos01 for translating the latin title and saving me the time. Wow - this is a culture shock after playing WoS. This map is proudly non-orthogonal and unaligned. Everything is a glorious warren of irregular 94ish higgledy-piggledy sectors, I quite like it. I did find this map a little unstructured at first, in that on starting you swiftly face imps and tougher monsters at a few junctures with several possible paths to take and nary a more powerful weapon immediately in sight - it's a world away from some more spoon-fed wads. If this kind of thing is not done carefully it can sometimes give me an impression (quite possibly unfairly) of bad design - I just expect not to be facing more than a token imp or so with a pistol - fortunately the shotgun are close by, so it's not too bad. There's a great deal of variety of room shapes and sizes, and everywhere interconnects or overlooks something else - it makes it a little hard to get your head around the 3d space because of the relative complexity and convoluted feel to it. It takes a bit of getting used to but is there undoubtedly order to and deliberate design to the seeming chaos and disorder of the map - We have a kind of looping figure 8 layout, circumnavigating the big exit slime lake with a terminal point in the north and the route to the exit is revealed in full view as soon as the penultimate switch is pressed (always a plus in my book) after a lap round the bottom right of the map. Gameplay-wise, there don't seem to be many traps - rather the level makes use of open fire arcs for chaingunners and similar to force the player to head for cover where necessary. I guess there's time for more traps in larger levels. The lighting and sky (and general feel of the level) is for me a bit too cheery. I suspect this is partly down to the music choice too which I'm not super keen on. Also the alpha textures are present but after their successful employment in Nihility, here they feel more like a gimmick than anything else, along with the doom furniture benches which contribute to a slightly cheesy waiting room feel. I eventually found 5 of the 6 secrets, sadly with the one for the soulsphere eluding me, though the backpack and chainsaw will come in handy as I am a continuous player. But that's not a major issue - I'm more impressed by the misshapenness and complexity. Getting such a relatively rich layout from a simple map is impressive, although I fear I will be hitting up the automap a heck of a lot more in the bigger maps if this is anything to go by! MAP02 - Scurrilous Knave - 4/7 Secrets I also have no idea what the title has to do with the map, although 'Scurrilous Knave' is certainly a fine way of insulting someone if you are English. This map continues the theme of bright, open spaces with unashamedly rough, and the 'noisy', slightly garish texturing (with the 94ish tiling of computer textures, say) from the previous map. The level has the same initially perplexing number of route choices, particularly if you drop down into the slime at the start, or to a lesser degree with the free-form crate strewn room down the lift. Monti's maps are so far linear (in that there is a defined sequence in which some objective destinations must be traversed) and yet feel the opposite, in that later areas can be visited early. It's almost like a city type map, but with a little more direction, which for me is quite unique for a layout style. The large slime pool at the centre forces you to think a bit more carefully about where you go and why and what secrets you look for as per @TheOrganGrinder. Although playing continuous, I also noticed the paucity of shells in this map - something which turns my normal playstyle (of relying on shells as my bread and butter) and conserving other ammunition types more carefully on it's head. It also makes dealing with the monsters a little more tricky as the narrower corridors are risky for splash damage. A couple of archies are used to good effect, with the first being potentially nasty if it starts it's attack from behind before you figure out the angle and can take cover as happened to me. The second one is a little more bullshit in my opinion due to the lack of cover and freely available BFG earlier. It is essentially an "Oh I'm sorry you couldn't switch to the BFG fast enough - health tax please!" type affair. The cyb is a fairly relaxed battle and an opportunity for me to rebalance my ammo once I figured I had a surfeit of rockets and not so much of everything else. I did particularly like the vertically revealed nature of the central slime pool though, with the raised balconies and promenades from the key areas seeing the player go progressively further and further up. However in keeping with the experience of @Salt-Man Z and @Magnusblitz, the switch that lowered the second half of the crate room was not obvious to me, even though with hindsight that corridor overlooks the area I needed to go! Instead I wandered, and spent some time trying to figure out what the secret soulsphere switch actually did, (or indeed whether it was not secret and actually required). Secrets wise, I eventually found 4 before I decided to throw in the towel, with me secrets count being on 3 for most of the level, leading me to think that would be all I'd discover. The upper backpack secret early in the map was the fourth one and was particularly gratifying to me to find, as it was rather sneakily hidden. Otherwise the type I seem to find easier to discover are the remote switch operated door types, where you get a positive indication from the switch that something has happened, and then can usually home in on it by listening to the lift sounds. Overall, I think Monti's maps so far are an acquired taste, but I'm perhaps beginning to acquire (or at least admire) them - it probably helped that the music for the second map is less inappropriate than the first. MAP03 - Tezzi Principle - 6/9 Secrets Google says the map name is something to do with the extinct Tocharian languages of western China...? O_o This map takes the open central area trope of the last map, but instead of having it a slime filled traverse amongst tech textured canyons, we have a large open central area, juxtaposed against the small subway corridors and side areas. This is also interesting: long, repetitious corridors are normally a no-no in modern mapping sensibilities, yet here we are - it's almost as though Monti revels in being an iconoclast. The whole idea of having these nods at semi-realism is a bit weird given the totally abstract central courtyard too, although I guess that's just another aspect being juxtaposed. The gameplay is initially a bit more active due to the large open space with lots of potential for hitscan sniping, although there's nothing more than a few chips to be suffered rather than anything serious. The remaining parts of the map are generally more sedate, particularly those in the subway tunnels where monsters are just encountered in front of you. There is one arch-vile hidden on the corner of a subway station, but unless you rush in you're quite likely to see the edge of it before it sees you, allowing you to prepare. Other notable parts of the map include the cyb encounter and the yellow key trap thereafter. I used the secret invuln to make BFG'ing the cyb easy, and then BFG'd the hell knights. I might have tried conserving ammo but the setup screamed trap. Ammo distribution seemed to be more even than before, although there were certainly more rockets than cells. Bullets and shells are more plentiful this time too. I was broadly ready to exit with around 3 of the secrets, but went back to try and improve this and found a further 3, including the most unhelpful computer map ever, which revealed practically nothing useful. These secrets are fun to find, but they are mostly so well hidden that I'm unlikely to benefit from any other than in a continuous capacity as I don't find too many whilst initially navigating the level. Decent level overall, and it's more gentle imo than Map02 as there's no arch-vile dick moves.

That's a good point - I entered with basically full ammo due to continuous and there were times when I was heading down towards 30 shells out of 100 - normally this never happens to me when playing continuous and I frequently chainsaw monsters, so pistol start must have been tight. MAP30 - “The Verge of Revelation” by Kristian Aro and Paul Corfiatis And finally I got round to finishing the last map. We have some nice looking empty areas with a few small- scale fights inbetween acting as an extended prelude and warm-up to the icon of sin itself. I don't have masses to say, as each area does look good individually but you simply pass through much of it. I understand that he authors would hardly have wished to make a big elaborate map as a prelude to a boss fight, although on the other hand, there is precedent for it - it worked on a smaller scale with map29 of the original Doom2 and map30 of Doom2 Reloaded had a lot of combat before the actual icon of sin was even seen, for example. That said it's better than just starting the player in a room full of ammo and a megasphere. In any case, the IoS fight itself is pretty conventional but has been tastefully tweaked, so that monsters spawn faster and the boss brain doesn't rely on timing a platform for the rocket launching - a welcome change. Instead the boss brains are more sheltered from the splash damage and take longer to die, and we see the PCorf multiple switch progression trope put to good use for a change in raising the stairs to shoot the icon. I actually found the map a bit frustrating and died a few times, as I kept getting knocked off of the platform leading to instant death, however this is arguably just me failing to adapt to circumstances - a little bit of side to side dancing and then single-mindedly firing is enough, maybe with a break to BFG accumulated monsters behind if they start getting too much, and then the icon is dead and you win again. I'm not bothered about IoS maps in general, and think the concept needs either reworking or ditching - there's nothing wrong with the Doom1 boss monsters, and they can happily be incorporated into big final battles. So as far as map30s go, this is a better example I think, and extends the idea whilst toning down the gimmickiness a little with no elevator timing rocket shots to bother with. I guess it's an above average average IoS map. Overall thoughts on Whispers of Satan And so ends Whispers of Satan. Although I've had reservations for many of the maps I think I'm glad overall that I've played the megawad, if nothing else but to tick it off the list, but also even with my criticisms of many maps, there were some pretty damn good maps mixed in that bring the home the bacon for this wad and deserve to be praised too. I'm thinking most prominently of Maps 25 and 28 as my favourites of course, with the hell episode in general having the higher overall quality, but also there was a stronger stretch in the early-mid teens at Maps 12-15, but also Map10 was good. The Hexen maps were thematically cool but had some of the most prominent disagreeable aspects I felt, and the first third of the megawad although rarely terrible tended to be a bit indifferent in terms of map quality. It's been well and truly stated to death that many WoS maps are symmetrical, and that's true, but actually I think the bigger issue has been that these maps have been repetitive, with the repeated switch pressing to progress. Most Doom maps involve switches of course, but the difference is that usually you only need to press one or so before you get to move on to some other, different area - some of the maps were like a broken record for Quake style "X more switches to press!" progression mechanics. As to the authors' personal mapping styles in this wad, keeping in mind that both have long and storied repertoires outside of WoS, I found Kristian Aro's maps tended to be more consistently good in quality, but also that Aro seemed to have a much narrower palette of architecture in his mapping style in this wad. His maps were generally well detailed with good layouts but copy pasted a bit much and were overly corridors-based and flat - the same ideas from some of his maps (a crate area, some hilly scenery, corridors) tended to reoccur, particularly in the earlier Aro maps of the wad. The latter ones had this a little less so. Paul Corfiatis' work is much more hit and miss, in that I tended to like his good maps more than Aro's but his weaker ones were significantly less fun to me. PCorf's maps tended to be more varied in height and in size of area - you were far more likely to get a big tall cavernous room with PC than KA. Both authors tended to do better I thought when they mapped on a larger scale and created larger areas. Also the maps with caves/naturalistic settings tended to be better, as that kind of style naturally discourages the repetition and uniformity and encourages randomness and variety, so perhaps that is a factor in strengthening the hell episode. It would be remiss of me not to note the pretty accomplished ease with which both authors through nearly all of the wad were tastefully decorating their levels - the experience here in the volume of work they've done shows. Also there is generally good use of traps to mix up the play experience of the level (although some traps were very well telegraphed and not surprising). Secrets varied between difficult to spot minute texture misalignments, which if found tended to be either by chance wall humping or via the automap, and other better secrets involving remotely triggered nearby doors, shootable switches and the like. The former sort I didn't enjoy but I think there was some cleverness and good work with the other types of secret. Below is my very approximate and subjective ranking of some of the maps: Finally, I would like to pay some tribute to both the authors for making this - a megawad is always a big undertaking when done by a small number of people and these guys have produced several which were well-received. It's natural and inevitable that some maps in a megawad will be weaker or better, and given the rather adverse personal circumstances both seem to have been experiencing at the time, in that light I'm surprised that they were able to produce any good altogether. Yet there are definitely some better maps here that are worth playing, plus there is the original music too, and it's generally nicely decorated. I think the wad was worth the price of admission for the better maps, and it was good to be able to play it with the club - thanks guys.

MAP28 - “Sacrificial Grounds” by Kristian Aro Wow. It's almost as though @Kristian Nebula anticipated my criticisms whilst playing the previous map and set out to counter them. The boxy, subtly undulating rooms and corridors of the last map are gone, and opened out into a fantastic looking vista set in a hellish lava lake. The walls of most areas are knocked down or windowed to great benefit, permitting more views of the outside surroundings and more chance for the mancs in the hills to fire upon the player. It's a great way of taking a map and making it more interesting, both visually and gameplay-wise. After passing the initial starting areas, the player ventures out on to a plus shaped walkway, which serves as the focus of the map. By now I would say I'm getting quite weary of these sorts of hubs, but this case doesn't feel like that because of the open plan surroundings of the map - it just feels like a smaller part of something bigger and more interesting. The individual end points of the cross have basically key quests, but whereas in some of PCorf's weaker maps they might just end with a couple of switches, here there are fully blown different areas with something interesting and different at each to explore and clear to obtain the reward of the key. It's much less formulaic. Although @Magnusblitz mentioned the rooms are still boxy, and to a degree I guess they are, this to me is not universally the case and there is enough variety from the trips outside, with windows on the outside areas that it is far less prominent. Probably I would not have even noticed it were it not so prominent in the previous map. It still feels as though the corridor and boxy room motif of earlier maps is still present, but transplanted into the lava lake - if walls were put up on the central walkway and the windows onto the exterior scene closed, then this map would feel a whole lot more like the last map, and indeed some of the others, only with a simpler layout. Also, if you disregard the exterior and just run from spur across the plus walkway to another, then it's apparent again how planar much of the play area of the level would be. Really the open area transforms this map, with the variety and feeling of space making it memorable and rather epic to me. I'm honestly unsure whether I think this or PCorf's Map25 is my favourite of the wad - either way, great work guys! MAP29 - “Heated Trauma” by Paul Corfiatis This map seems to be pitched as a long epic penultimate map type job, and whilst it really is long, I found it a tad samey for the most part. The hub at the six key door is a Pcorf WoS classic and in and of itself that's fine, none of the spurs for the keys are bad and they are all different, several tend to feel a bit indistinct as they generally play similarly. The blue key spur however deserves to be singled-out for praise as the climb up the huge cliff to the marble mansion overlooking it is a great and inspired area. The overlooking monsters can rain down something of a bullet curtain on the player if you stay put too long but that's all in fun. The employment of cacos is naturally well merited here and their flight means the player can soon have ball lightning flying in from unexpected angles too. Other than this and the starting area though there isn't too much in the way of pitched battles, and traps are used fairly sparingly, or in a repetitive way (eg. substantial imp teleports) The ending battle with the two cybs was difficult but in an awkward way - I found it was necessary to try and BFG one of the cybs with my back turned to the other, and that often didn't work too well, heh. I'm not used to having to measure my strafes to try and dodge with my back turned. Also I only found the one secret in the blue skull key spur, although that was a satisfying secret. The fact that you cannot backtrack to re-search for secrets or collect leftover pickups is a little bit disappointing, although it does help keep the map more easily navigable. Although this map is reasonably good, it went on a bit long for me (at least on my playthrough now - perhaps replaying it would improve) and I didn't enjoy it in the same way I did Maps 25 & 28.

Ok ok, I should be able to play a decent amount again in August, so I can vote: +++ Witness of Time / Monument / Unwelcome Now on with the show: MAP26 - “Hellhole” by Paul Corfiatis So this is the last map with a full blown symmetry warning from PCorf for it, but I don't think symmetry per se is the issue with this map really, as what's there in some ways serves the map quite well - I will elaborate. So yes first of all the initial hell church does indeed look good as per @TheOrganGrinder and @Magnusblitz, but to me, it's not just the big church structure that's good but the grand scale landscaped setting in which it is placed, too. The interior of the church isn't as cool as the exterior, but it still looks good and is as tastefully decorated as ever. The teleporting AV is also a well-chosen addition, encouraging the player to either snipe the distant ledge imps from the pews or charge the AV with the SSG and hide round the rear of the throne. And as others state the subsequent [Insert collective noun here] of Lost Souls coming over the distant hellish landscape to attack is cool also. Oh and I did appreciate the dual Doom parkour secrets for the soulsphere/megaarmour too. However after this, we then cease to make hay with the theme and aesthetic established thus far and instead of say taking an E4M5 style walk through the rocks, we go instead into a fairly generic red rock tunnel in the mountainside. Of the areas that follow, thematically each had individual merits but doesn't mesh well. So the smallish central chamber in the mountainside with the lava flowing walls is cool - and evoked the idea of a journey to the centre of the earth type drill machine going down, or a room suspended in the caldera of a volcano, but this idea isn't explored and it's just another random but coolish room. But then in a weaker spate we have the long narrow staircase leading to a classic PCorf plus shaped walkway, with progression switches on each side needed to continue. This part employs void and might have been continued as something good, except the rest of the map is not void themed. We also several single monsters behind doors, particularly hell knights, or mancubi down narrow corridors. These lone, mid-level monster encounters don't do much gameplay wise and aren't very engaging. It's not exactly a problem but if done too much it starts to feel like padding gameplay-wise. Finally there's the big Gotcha arena. In keeping with the initial hell church, the large scale and symmetry work in it's favour, as I feel symmetry in large structures lends them grandeur which is cool, but the setting is very disjoint from the rest of the map, and the combat within after you mop up the losing boss monster is nothing like as epic, once you rocket the arachnotrons, there are just a few imps and fliers round the edges and that's it. No big teleport in to fit the scale of the arena, sadly. I think this level juxtaposes some of @pcorf's strengths and weaknesses in WoS - we have the cool large scale epic structures, but also symmetrical, repetitive progression gimmicks and an essentially very simple layout, when you strip off the bells, whistles and scenery. I don't dislike this map, but it's a bit too simple and insubstantive and incoherent to give the structures in it justice, and sadly there seem to have been some interesting ways that the map might perhaps have been developed a bit more but these weren't explored. At least it gives good eye candy though. MAP27 - “Halls of Cocytus” by Kristian Aro This is a fairly architecturally simple level, with a good, interesting layout, and dressed up in some admittedly pretty impressive details. The ceilings and floors have that cool sector detailing whereby individual tiles of the flat protrude, overlaid upon a layer of skin which has been peeled back to reveal entrails, as though the entire structure were a living, mutilated testament to hell. Or so it seems if I put my imagination too it. Zooming out from the details however, I find the map to be flat and boxy for a good part of it. The initial areas in particular, after descending the initial stairs are essentially (when stripped of the details) are quite simple square-ish rooms, adjacent to one another and connected to other areas by several long, very pretty (but repetitively detailed) corridors. Also I've remarked that @Kristian Nebula's maps can be quite flat and on a plane earlier in the thread, and I feel this map is more inclined in that direction, sadly. It's not that there isn't any height variation altogether of course - there is but what there is tends to be gradual staircases or slightly raised ceilings/crossbars - there's certainly nothing like the dramatic sheer chasms or pillar runs across sunken lava lagoons of map25, for example. Nothing looks ugly - quite the opposite in fact - but it would benefit from something a little more contrasting to add a touch of spectacle architecturally, in addition to just polish. The gameplay I can praise more earnestly though - we have a good fun mixture of incidental combat with monsters along the way versus monsters in traps. In particular, the trap at the initial key with the raised catwalk (yes, I know that's height variation, I didn't say it was all flat!) with the imp closets and chain gunners was a good use of low level monsters to take a chunk out of the player for instance, unless you can take down these chain gunners quickly or keep breaking their lines of sight with the thin metal columns. Also the brick gap from which lost souls intermittently emerge during the hell night warp in switch was well-worked too, since the lost souls don't all appear straight-away and you have to be mindful of being charged in the back by a soul whilst fighting the knights and thus you must keep moving accordingly. Good stuff. Lastly I am with @Magnusblitz that the ending area, whilst reasonably ok as a final battle, was a bit anti-climactic with the handful of demons jumping in afterwards - surely something like several viles to threaten the player and do some resurrections would have been more apt, or simply nothing at all and leave the cyb as the high-note. Also I think the arena design didn't lend itself to the cyb as well as it might - there was plenty of room to manoeuvre and not too much complication from the other monsters. You can just dash for the wings and clean them out for cover, then you're broadly set to finish the cyb safely. Of the 4 secrets I found two: the soulsphere and the pretty ingeniously hidden early eye switch. I do enjoy the 'this switch did something unknown nearby' type secrets as you are fairly conspicuously lured into trying to solve them, but it isn't always immediately obvious with the solution. You get both teased but it's also reasonably likely you'll find it so you get the reward too and satisfaction of solving it. This is better than some of the millimetre texture misalignment types which I mostly will have just ignorantly sailed past or simply randomly blundered into if the spontaneous instinct to wall hump arose at a fortuitous occasion. Pretty decent map overall.

Finally got back to it after a busy weekend and temporary loss of internet connection for a few days, pending the replacement of the WiFi modem: MAP22 - “Soul Disruption” by Kristian Aro This is a pretty good green marble halls and rooms type hell map by Aro. We take a semi-circular wheel like hub, with radiating arms and spokes and find added key door spurs. The initial impression in the central hub area is that the parts of the map are quite individual and weakly connected, but the larger area containing the red key puts paid to this and is more memorable to me. I quite liked the developing spurs of the map though, as although they are relatively isolated they do sort of interlink a little bit and individually reasonably interesting. The latter area beyond the final key door is fun, although it felt as though it perhaps warranted a bigger teleport in. The entrance of the cyb was welcome though, indeed it came in handy for squashing the hell noble meat barricade near the exit. It also looks generally polished throughout and although the detail is again repetitive, because the hell episode is still young it is just pleasant. The midi is particularly interesting though, being an odd kind of mix-up of E2M2, D2 Map07 and perhaps Map30? Pretty cool and quite fitting overall. MAP23 - “Pathway to Elysion” by Paul Corfiatis This and Map 26 are among the last PCorf maps with symmetry health warnings, yet at first I didn't think this one suffered particularly. The theme initially came across as quite desolate; with the parts missing from the starting door, the void, and the empty, quiet starting area, I was put in mind of Map06. The early windowed maze with switch quests did hint at a kind of broken, structure-vanishing-into-the-void type theme, however the map quickly ditches this. The whole lowered thing was a fairly good subversion of a corridor/maze though as others have noted. To be fair the subsequent big hallways and chambers pretty much all look great, with plenty of large scale grand architecture, something I think tends to be superior in PCorf's maps versus those of Kristian Aro's. and actually these areas were pretty good. but then later my opinion was less positive. The symmetrical plus shape in the void was repetitious but ok-ish and much of the fights felt anti-climatic. I found all 5 secrets. Not at all bad as a map really, although I think that the broken theme at the starting area deserved further exploration and it would have been cool if something could have been made of the big scenic area which you view, but cannot access midway through the map MAP24 - “Ultimate Hatred” by Paul Corfiatis A pretty simple and brief hell map that at first seems like it could be something more than a hub spoke map, but then later reveals it's true nature. We see some straightforwards slightly mid-90s ish cave areas early on (not a bad thing in and of itself) down a lift (reminiscent of TNT map16, or 23). This part is more varied than some, with differing areas, a simple trap round the little slime pool and a surprise crusher that may catch you whilst distracted by the monsters, giving some much welcome non-sequential, non-repetitious gameplay and appearing like it will be more expansive than it actually is, but then the cave area turns back on itself and leads you back to the start. Still the sidequest for the red key which I took next in the raised marble catwalk area was also reasonably interesting and was leading me to feel the map would be more varied then it was. unfortunately the next two keyquests use repeated symmetrical areas which dampens my enthusiasm. Later we have another big grandiose arena which would've benefited from some stronger monsters than the imps and 4 arachnotrons that warp in, but was ok I guess, followed by the ending area with lost souls which was so so. It's an ok map, I guess - I kind of like the brevity. Finding the secrets is still fun though. MAP25 - “Vulcana” by Paul Corfiatis Wow, now this is a pretty great, epic-scaled map! All the patience in playing through the more repetitive mid-teen PCorf maps pays off here in spades. So to business, we have a lot of naturalistic redrock caverns replete with, ash lava and all kinds of hellish goodness. It wouldn't be WoS without a hub, but here the spurs are so much more than the simple, desultory little side-quest stubs. The epic starts after going through the first door and turning right, and hopping down the enormous magma columns. Combat-wise, although the imps and occasional lost soul are used well, it's gentle, but there is something to be said for the first impression experience of it. The extreme height variation is also rather reminiscent of Map31. A little later there is a further neat column hopping jaunt (a la map10) across a lava lake to a plateau. Therein awaits a repetitious four switch part, and yet because of the variety and spectacle in getting there, I don't much mind. As a general rule I'm finding that the PCorf maps that are either more open-air or larger scale are tending to be the better ones. The gameplay is also better than several of the prior PCorf maps - the narrow walkways mixed with distant snipers make things more interesting than just the simple shooting straight ahead that many other of his maps here fall into the trap of. Speaking of traps, there's a particular one in the red key section and you enter the walkways over lava section where after being lured on to the walkway to deal with imps a pair of hell knights were released behind and then more cacos close in - that was actually a pretty hurried moment for me and a good, well-worked trap, so applause for that. The archies in this level are to my mind used a little less effectively though, since they guard keys where you expect to be ambushed and you hear them well in advance of picking up (or even gaining access to) the key, so the surprise is taken away. Finally the initial shy cyb from the beginning makes it's return near the end in what can be a dangerous fight because of the close-quarters and splash damage danger. Also there is a potentially quite nasty hell knight trap in the exit which actually caused me quite serious pain at first. I did ultimately backtrack in the level and find the megasphere secret once it was emptied of monsters though, speaking of which I only found 2 of the 6 secrets here. All in all, I think this is a fantastic map and far better from @pcorf - more like this, please!

MAP20 - “Inexorable Opposition” by Kristian Aro And so we now enter hell, with a pretty neat and competent hell keep type map. The map is fairly constrained and corridors based, in common with Aro's earlier techbase maps, though we do get the odd open area or larger room helping to mix things up and helps dispel the feeling somewhat. The layout can be seen pretty early on to be hub-spoke again, but I found the individual spurs to be pretty competent and interesting in their own right. The drive by arch-vile teleport at the megasphere courtyard is a good, unexpected way to trap that area, as even though it's not necessarily as effective as a traditional trap, it surprised me and also got a hit in on me before warping away again. Backtracking along the spurs is necessary but kept reasonably interesting via the additional monster releases when retracing one's steps. The chaingunner closets are an ok example of this, but the cyb release at the final key pickup is best, with the overlook of the area where it emerges giving a good, cinematic reveal and then the way to engage it made trickier by the corridor, which if you're not quick (or fortunate) the cyb can start walking down, constraining the player's room for manoeuvre and making the splash damage from the rockets a great deal more dangerous. I found 3 of the 4 secrets, partly by automap and partly by chance, as the secrets are all of the shifted wall texture type and I tend not to be eagle-eyed enough to pick up on small texture offsets. Others have commented that the map was not very memorable - whilst I accept it is not exactly epic, I got a Hell Keep vibe from this level, in large part due to the starting area but also to a degree from the more heavily corridors based layout. Also I personally found the ash and flesh columns area with the pain elementals was fairly memorable as an interesting piece of architecture, as relatively few levels use flesh textures very extensively. MAP21 - “2048 BC” by Paul Corfiatis Now this is a better Corfiatis map - it takes a similar secret sauce to Map10, having separate areas but linking parts of them in a larger area, making it feel larger at least at first than it actually is. The initial vista of an open city like map is impressive, with it's multiple options and several interesting places to explore. Of course this fades a little bit later on as it becomes apparent that this is a hub and there's only three or four places to go, but nonetheless it makes the map feel less like you're on rails. The spurs of the hub lead to separate areas but each one has something interesting (and asymmetric) in it, with a nice hellish feeling cavern that stuck out as memorable. I am with the @TheOrganGrinder that I'm never going to be the biggest fan of 'The Chasm' style of tight walk-ways, although a minute dose on odd occasions is ok for the sake of variety - it helps that the architecture with the big open area with ceiling cross beams is interesting. It does indeed seem a pity that each of the three areas was not expanded more, as others have said, although given past experience I fear that this may have simply led to more repetition and symmetry. I'm divided as to whether the map stayed as relatively varied as it is by @pcorf's conscious efforts or merely by virtue of the different areas being small and not mattering too much if they displayed symmetry, as all three were different. Probably I think the author deserves the benefit of the doubt. In any case this is a pretty good map, though Corfiatis has made good techbase maps too I think in the E1 episode and an E2 themed map he did. I found all four secrets, none of which were of the much used misaligned texture type, and I feel struck a decent balance between requiring searching and puzzling to find, versus being too easy. Also I appreciated the music too. All things considered this one's a pretty decent entry for me.

MAP18 - “Elements” by Paul Corfiatis So Pcorf warned earlier in the thread that this was another symmetrical map, and this warning is borne out. Also, it's almost as though when producing it he knew that I appreciate the imp trap from Map17, as here pretty much the same trap is used again beyond the blue key door three times! Ok, that aside, we have a fairly simple modest length map with a snowy/hexen-ey theme you really don't see very often, which is cool. The snowy vista on the other side of the first teleport is great, and the map generally has a good few layers of polish on throughout. The combat in the outdoor vista, although making appropriate use of cacos was a little staid and undynamic though - as you deal with the immediate monsters and cacos there isn't really anything else other than the elevated imp snipers to take out and there aren't any surprises. The key area itself is trapped and a little more interesting, although the AV on exit is neutered by the monster blocking line, thereby granting easy cover. It loses any threat value or possibility of resurrection and easy cover is granted. It just becomes a speed bump. A further example of a not so well employed monster is the ending cyb: it is encountered singularly without other monsters to distract from or complicate shooting it; it is caged in and pretty much guaranteed to take your rockets, and; there is again easy availability of cover due to the side walls. Dealing with it is simply a matter of holding fire and occasionally strafing a few taps one way and then the other when it fires back. There is no case of having to constantly re-assess where it is safe to attack from as the cyb roams, nor is there any need to manage other monsters or indeed try and sow infighting. It's purely just sideways a bit, tap fire button, and then sideways a bit, fire again. In fact if you replace 'press fire' with 'press switch' then that does sound like the modus operandi of the many of the layout/side quests. Sadly, it's feeling very barren. The area beyond the red key door was a little better, I think. Although there is still the s word and a silly amount of redundant switches (seriously, you press two switches to enable you to press two more switches?!) there is at least the revvie release, which is at least not immediately presented. I do not necessarily say it's a surprise as some trap is expected and it's evident there are monster closets. Still revvies are good in that sort of more open area. I think I have to agree with @gaspe and @TheOrganGrinder - I'm not sure what order these maps were made, but the fizzling of creativity layout-wise in the mid-teens is disappointing after the earlier maps, particularly 14 and 15. Perhaps if these were made earlier then the subsequent ones may be post-mapper's block and be more creative. Not an amazing map overall, although I like the theme - the sector work for the broken window early on is quite impressive. Those arrows were generally excessive and unnecessary though. MAP19 - “Cryosleep” by Kristian Aro After the long mid-wad stretch of maps by Corfiatis, we see Nebula returning, with a map riffing off of the naturalistic scenery elements of his previous maps to introduce icy caves. The level feels like a change consequently and the naturalistic environment inoculates the level against the plague of symmetry too - although a latter area beyond the key door does feature this in a hub-spoke arrangement, it's relatively brief and the rest of the level offsets it. Also the mixture of tighter passages in the caves and the big open canyon. I did find the map to be a bit slow-paced in places, particularly the second series of caves after the canyon with the stream of monsters in low-light levels always ahead of the player tending to encourage gradual play. The hub-spur areas beyond the first key door were better though, with the more varied directions of attack and ranges at which combat can take place, plus there was more frequent use of traps to mix up gameplay too. I had no problem finding the secret rocket launcher, but in spite of spending a long time looking the secret soulsphere completely eluded me. The ending area with the gradual passage down into a hellish little outro is a good bit of in-level story telling which I appreciate, although I don't much care for the one way lift, as I often leave power ups and ammo boxes for later so as to ensure I get the full ammo/health benefit from not picking them up too early. In general I think I like this level although it's perhaps more the theme (and impressive sector work with the caves and broken ice floes) that appeals most, though the gameplay in the latter areas is ok too.

^^ I believe the latter maps of the wad are more highly rated, and in any case if you still find PCorf's maps disagreeable there are more Aro maps coming. MAP16 - “Undervilla” by Paul Corfiatis After the rather neat looking Plutonia episode, the next is kicked off by this map, which has the more muted and dreary vibe as others note and also seems more cramped too. Having never played Hexen, the textures, whilst not being totally unfamiliar, are something of a novelty to me though they do meld well with the Doom2 library textures. The mancubus shoot through walls are good little gimmick which is quickly picked up on and dealt with, but gives the map it's own motif. With the tight confines and generally dingy light levels the spectres play a significant role, where in the library and graveyard particularly they are difficult to spot and there is more chance for them to flank you with there being greater access. Beyond this we mainly see imps, chaingunners and sergeants. The odd revenant occasionally adds a little bit of punch to the tempo of the map but otherwise I'd say it's quite slow and steady, which I guess suits the ambience. I found both secrets, with the chainsaw one being in retrospect something I should have spotted sooner. The arch-vile crusher if you smash the window is quite random though - would that be the easter egg? I don't mind this map at all, but probably the most memorable thing is the general aesthetic rather than the substance of the gameplay, due to it being quite short, yet also slow. MAP17 - “Mines of Despair” by Paul Corfiatis In contrast to the last level, and the occasional words I noticed when posting about map32, this level is far less dingy and cramped. We have tall light and open areas; the overall theme that this is a mine has quite limited resonance, I was expecting something more along the lines of Iikka Keränen's Map08 of Requiem. Still the sense of some kind of dilapidated subterranean structures is still fairly good imo. A benefit of more open spaces is that you get possible angles of attack via the monsters by default - the large area with the cacos comes to mind here, as you are attacked from distance and with the chaingunners up close, whilst the imp fireballs rain down and the cacos move in. A little bit of variety in ranges and spaces affects how the player must tackle them and helps keep play more varied. The demon trap near the SSG is well signalled but also greatly neutered if you find the secret near there, not simply because of the invuln, but rather the doorway provides a convenient bottle-neck, particularly for a miserly chainsaw-wielding continuous player such as myself. I do also appreciate the imp trap around the megasphere secret. It's not dangerous but there is still fun from the desire to preserve health and of course the shotgun/SSG's reload time causes you to place your shots carefully and make them count to keep them getting to close. Beyond this though, there aren't so many surprises, indeed there's a staircase with repeated revenant closets a la Map12 and the predictability does away with the surprise and is pretty contrived. Following the blue key, the latter parts are a bit less fun. We have a tunnel-ish area leading to the surface, with an open area that might be ok but tends to tempt the player to just camp at the entrance as with other fights in map 12 too. The final area feels quite different to the rest of the map and has the redundant switches to progress also. I don't mind the Arch-vile double-team at the end, though on their own they aren't too bad to isolate and deal with quickly, particularly if you have the BFG from the secret. I find this to be a reasonable map in the early-mid parts, though the design and fight design of the latter areas might be improved. It's in no way offensive though.

MAP32 - “Ultimative Geheimnis” by Paul Corfiatis After the unusual theme of the secret map, for the super secret map we get a Wolfenstein tribute. I suppose if the wad is vaguely following the Doom2 theme as most megawads do then it's hardly unfitting, but it would have been nice to have something a little more unorthodox after Map31. Anyway, as to the map, Wolfenstein style maps play much the same as most Wolf maps do - a case of exploring the layout whilst cover sniping Nazis making these maps a bit monotonous. If you have the chain gun then it's particularly trivial, a case of CG tapping them till they die. At least with all the weapons being present there are opportunities to mix it up a bit and go Tyson for a time. Also with them being hitscanners, the Schutzstaffel have always been pleasingly efficient at killing one another - encouraging the player to wantonly strafe back in and out of cover, fomenting the shooting and listening to the cries of 'mein leben'. The only possible danger to the player is hitscan attrition from being too careless, and I think most people will play carelessly because otherwise it will get too dull. What I will say in favour of Wolf maps is that I think they do encourage the mapper to think more carefully about the layout of the level - with such limited options from the Doom engine available, it encourages more elaboration in terms of simple 2D layout to try and make the map more interesting, much in the vein of how 1024 maps can encourage authors to think differently about area re-use and efficient use of space, and vanilla limits mapping map discourage the extraneous use of details to mask an otherwise mediocre map. So in my opinion this arguably has merit as a mapping exercise, and this map in particular is not bad for a wolf map, although I generally don't enjoy Wolf maps so much overall. Also, the sex dungeon is lifted from cybie.wad by Randy and Mandy.

MAP15 - “Temple of Water” by Paul Corfiatis Well this is a good fun map that moves quite far from it's earlier symmetric forebears - this map is large and elaborate with a general stream of enjoyable combat. The plutonia grey textures and blood red sky can be used to form great, contrasting vistas and that is employed here, helping the map look polished and nice. The large, open watery area on the blue key branch is particularly noteworthy, although it is a pity that more of the map does not take place in such a striking area. Although this is worlds ahead of some of the earlier maps in terms of layout sophistication, we do have a hub spoke arrangement here but on a grander scale, although it seems fairer to describe it as more like a tree structure because of it's elaboration. I can sympathise with @gaspe saying much of the combat takes place in corridor like settings, which is fair enough, but the increasing number of larger areas and asymmetry is all to the good. Personally I find the incidental combat to be quite pleasant, and I'll go along and say that the post-red key door corridors are initially a bit dull, the mass wall drop down is good and @TheOrganGrinder's point is well made. I spent a long time looking for the secrets in this map, scouring it even after the last of the opposition is killed, frustratingly I found everything except the secret exit and I had to check the doomwiki for it - well done to the author for a pretty cunning secret that certainly beat me. Incidentally on checking the Doom wiki I see that Map12 was made first, which is a little surprising but kind of makes sense given the simplicity of that level. It's surprising, given the mappers block that this level seems better than some of the earlier techbase ones - I had assumed that all the levels were built roughly in map order. Hey @pcorf, what order were the maps made in? Overall this is a decent map and it's looking more and more like WoS is getting it's act together, although I find the name a tad underwhelming. Surely the temple could be of something more exciting (temple of absolute pure evil or some such) than just water..! MAP31 - “Space Station Skywalker” by Paul Corfiatis Oh look we're on the death star! So clearly the novelty of the texture theme is, for someone like me who hasn't played many Star wars themed maps, obviously quite fun. In particular A New Hope happened to be on TV recently, so it's quite fortuitous that I get to play this now. The grandiose external vistas with silhouettes of the vast station are really quite special. Indeed, this void element (well space I guess) is more the kind of thing I would have hoped for in the Map06 theme with the tech base hanging in the void kind of thing. The sort of tall circular platforms put me exactly in mind of Obi Wan having to sneak around to disable the tractor beam generator, albeit with rather less sneaking of course. The aesthetic is all good fun, however the gameplay is a little bit indifferent if I'm fair - the repetitiousness is dialled up a bit again after being more muted in the last two maps: starting with the big room with the four sequentially opened imp rooms for the first key, we get four rather mundane sequential identical releases of three or four imps per closet and mostly empty space - I was at least expecting all four closets to open simultaneously and be more monster filled, but alas, excitement gave way to pedestrian repetition. As @gaspe said a large portion of the map involves shooting monsters straight ahead at the same height as you. The neat little elevated imp closets beyond the red door in map15, for example, are nowhere to be seen here. Generally, there's also often a closable doorway to cover snipe from so it's a bit grindy rather than exciting. And later in the map we start seeing the same rooms repeated opposite one another symmetrically with the same monsters in the same position which frankly just seems lazy with the copy pasting - really, it's just like being made to play the same part of the level twice, but being flat, untrapped and having only one source of angle from which one is attacked is means it wasn't that interesting first time. There are some better moments: the lowering maze with the big demon release with mancs was a cool trap; having to dash to manoeuvre around, getting the monsters to infight and the demons to munch the mancs whilst trying to avoid getting cornered was good fun - also the release of the cyb, although signalled with it's awakening roar did catch me somewhat by surprise in one of the circular caco trap stair rooms. It's a good use of the corridors to exploit the cybs rockets and the circular stair room is also way too close for comfort with a cyb. I felt quite fortunate to be carrying full cells for my continuous BFG with which to urgently deal with it. The caco traps themselves were ok, although in common with some other traps they were quite easy to back away from and lure out and deal with the monsters piecemeal. I found all but one of the secrets in this map including the secret exit, so presumably the one I didn't find must be the one time megasphere. However there was one that opened with cells and a PR near the red windowed catwalk across the death pit, so that suited me fine as an ending health top-up. Overall this is a level with a great aesthetic and spectacular views, but the gameplay is rather more mixed and needed some more variety to the rooms and encounters. Also, if the map is doing a star wars theme, I would have liked a few more locations/scenes referencing the films - why not go all out and have a millennium falcon, for instance? I respect it would be difficult to make, and the circular bridge window would have been problematic, but I imagine a view from above might be doable, perhaps followed by a silent teleport to an identical area from whence it is viewed below to accommodate the lack of the 3D floors) and entered into below. Maybe a crusher to simulate the trash compactor from the films? Or the prisoner cell block where they rescued Leia? Perhaps the textures were not suitable, but it does seem a pity of having gone to this much trouble not to take it further. Still, what's there looks good, and it's certainly a good choice of theme for a secret level.

MAP13 - “Traps of Torment” by Paul Corfiatis Surely the name of this map would have been better assigned to the last? Here we have a straightforwards plus-shaped hub arrangement with sequential key quests off each spoke - it's a simple arrangement but actually feels a little more elaborate than it sounds because of the interconnection via windows, foreshadowing the red key area - glimpses of future areas always add to a map in my opinion, as there is the feeling of recognition you gain as you actually arrive at the previously glimpsed landmark. There are indeed promised traps in this map, although I find that they are much tamer than in Map12. Also, they are way more predictable too, the repeated chain of opposing chaingunners in monster closets was reasonably apparent after the first one, let alone the second and third times! Surely at some point there was an opportunity to do something different and exploit the player's expectation of chaingunners with something unexpected? The gameplay as before is broadly a chain of arenas with various traps, so it's simplistic but also brisk, snappy and fun. I felt like some more secrets wouldn't have gone amiss here as the existing ones are pretty straightforwards in my opinion, at least in comparison to the previous map. The different skull texture for the berserk secret is certain to be pressed immediately and pressing the entry door at the start of the level in case it's a secret is surely second-nature to most doomers now? Still, I don't dislike a dash of well-worn tropes in a map when the result is still broadly enjoyable and inoffensive. Certainly I will compliment PCorf on his use of switch texture and marble face decorations, for which he has a pretty-well honed vocabulary and knack and which certainly give the level a generally polished appearance. MAP14 - “The Wasted Dens” by Paul Corfiatis We now graduate from a hub-spoke arrangement to something rather more intricate; we do still have some 'go to one side, then the other' switch quests, and there are some mirrored and repeated areas, but it's less frequent now, or perhaps the side-quests are more elaborate so it's less noticeable. Several of the areas are once more locally symmetrical but often lead into each other and this helps reduce the perception of it and makes the map more varied. In fact there's some nice area re-use early on and We're getting to a pretty good layout design. There is also some more interesting progression with things like the raised walk-way early on and the map is replete with tasteful decoration as before. In keeping with the two maps prior to this one there are a good deal more traps. Although some of the traps can be anticipated (particularly those at keys), I don't see this as a problem, since even a trap that is anticipated varies the tempo of the level and makes it seem more dynamic. And better still there are traps which aren't so easily anticipated (at least by me), including: the manc trap behind the player on the way down to the blue door; the PE early on; some of the teleport traps, or; the first monster closet after the red door. Although as others have said, that corridor after the red key door was too repetitive - it's like the repeated chaingunner closets on map13 - the bad old mappers block seems to make authors into a broken record. We also finish up with an identical exit containing a single manc. The manc doesn't serve much of a purpose since it can be easily SSG'd and the door abused if necessary to kill it so it's a bit of a speed-bump, but I guess it gives it some consistency. And I appreciated the secrets to find, even if the backpacks one was identical in location to the blue armour one on a mirrored structure. I still feel that the design tropes of previous maps are present here, with the two side quests to proceed past an area, but in this map the side-quests are generally more elaborate and varies, which helps disguise this tendency. The result is an encouraging improvement and a more enjoyable map.