galileo31dos01

Done with these settings:

- ZDoom 2.8.1

- Bringest Them Oneth, aka skill 3.

- Continuous combined with a wand start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

This is the first Heretic pwad I've ever played and I enjoyed it a lot. It brings some classic scenarios and a lot of stuff you don't get in the iwad. Visually, well it's multicolored, it's Heretic after all, some nice designing and recolored textures, not much to say. I liked the usage of different themes in a same map, like in E1M9. The third episode has the best looking maps in my opinion. 

Ok, there are only 3 episodes but plenty of maps of varied length and gameplay. I'd say, in terms of gameplay, it's a mixed bag actually, there's many maps that follow the style of the iwads, meaning packs of the same type of monster in corridors, or a very little traps, specially teleport traps. The ones present are quite good, involving moving a lot to avoid high damage. Infighting is possible in almost every map, and some of the later ones have the best scenarios. There're also maps where enemies will start to infight before you even do something, which is not so fun. You'll also get completely long straightforward maps without a chance to return to previous parts, a pet peeve of mine but whatever... A few of my favourite encounters include a massive infestation of nitrogargoyles in a cave, a tricky trap with lots of disciples and iron liches, and a wave of disciples against a malotaur in a ring (I use a decorate to make any monster able to target the malotaur). And more and more.

Secret wise, given that, even the original game is really hard to spot the secrets, I won't complain too much here, but I'll add that in some maps I had no idea how to get their secrets, like not a clue. Wall hunting is needed in several cases. The rewards are good though. Music wise, apart from iwad tracks, there also some nice new midis and Doom tracks too, particularly in E2M5, if it's not remixed though.

I found several bugs that I won't specifically mention because I doubt an update would ever be released... HOMs, monsters that fail to pop up, items that cannot be grabbed, doors that open from one side but not the other side, and particularly in E3M8, you can exit the map without releasing D'Sparil, and if you decide to fight him and company, you can't get out of the arena as nothing is triggered after his death, at least it didn't happen to me, and ended up using kitty to exit. 

Favourite maps: E1M8, E2M5, E2M8, E3M2, E3M3, E3M7. Least Favourite maps: E1M6, E2M3. The other maps are very good, good, and so so. 

Overall, enjoyable mapset, goes quite on par with the iwad and outside of the box too. Give it a chance if you like Heretic. I'll rate this 7/10

Done with these settings:

- Crispy Doom 5.2

- Ultra-Violence.

- Continuous combined with pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

Important note: For those who opt to play in sequence, it is recommended to use a Boom compatible source port like PRBoom+ complevel 9, or directly ZDoom. This is to avoid potential "bugs" that can break progression in a few maps (04, 06, 11, 19), and tons of other minor issues impeding to max them, possibly due to having tested only in (G)ZDoom. However, the majority of maps can be finished (not maxed: 08, 09, 14, 32, 17, 20, 21, 23, 27) in Crispy Doom without problems, which is the equivalent to complevel 2. Whatever source port you choose, expect some secrets impossible to tag and maybe in map 11 a door which can't be opened from one side.

I haven't heard or read about any of the people involved into this project, thus it was a completely fresh experience to me. It's an interesting spiritual community chest of many flavors, described also as a solid mixed bag of different styles of mapping, many first-times and subsequent releases by the same authors. The aesthetic side is quite decent in general, reminded me to other megawads alike Memento Mori and Perdition's Gate or anything in the vein of 90's/00's, where the texturing could be similar from map to map until one changes the theme completely, heavy usage of greens/browns/gray in either monotextured or multitextured schemes, and includes some new textures of many colours in specific usage like windows for a city level or the ugly orange boxes that don't always fit with the rest of the map. The same could be said about detailing, there're all kinds of light variation from full brightness to suddenly pitch black for merely ambient, although nothing intentionally invasive I should say. While the megawad doesn't contain more than three additional midis, I decided to add one for each map resorting to midis from other wads, which enhanced the gameplay a lot, most of the stock tracks wouldn't have fit in their maps.

What could be claimed about a project of this kind is the unevenness of the quality. Like it naturally happens in community projects there're stronger offerings and less palatable entries, whether intentional or not, but from my perspective this megawad has a wide range of tones of action to be experienced and delighted. I won't say it's exempt of weak content, but that's the minority, at least nothing remarkably offensive in general, aside from the garish HOMs in the last map. The maps vary a lot in shapes and forms, generally mid-sized layouts, including longer linear/non-linear affairs in between, and industrial/city-esque maps. The bigger levels will take a while to get used to, particularly to understand how progression is conceptualized, more often involving backtrack and good memory of keyed doors placement (map 23 would be the "infamous" one, but as long as you pay attention to the details, it'll become easier). Action is deliberate for the average player, although including a few slaughtery fights and even an old-school slaughter map nearing the end. It's comparable to the 90s in its gameplay, a bit of hitscan hell reigning the earliest episode and some later maps, also a lot of corridor-shooting and congested rooms putting pressure until you see an easy escape, which is better to overlook and stay in the battle as much as possible. You're rarely trapped in a lock-in fight, but when that happens it surely puts some decent tension, like the pillars room in map 29 where you can be sandwiched by barons and archviles if you don't react fast. I have to appreciate the little modest puzzles scattered, in which you have to follow a sequence of colours or else interpret what they mean. 

Secret-wise, in part there's not much to say, I liked the commander keen task in map 32. In several maps there is important weaponry excluded from the mandatory progress, so it's suggested for pistol starters to explore and not be afraid to hump walls, or else maximize in tyson gameplay when possible. Favourite maps are 03, 08, 10, 31, 17, 19, 22, 27 and it could have been 29 too since foreknowledge makes a difference. The rest of the maps vary from enjoyable to a few boring ones. I did not hate map 23 or the IoS (:  

Overall, I was impressed by the content in general, so I'd recommend it specially for casual players who enjoy old-school styled mapsets, or anyone looking for something alike the Community Chest series. Also, I'm open to share the wad of midis I used for this, if anyone wants it let me know. Anyway, my rate is 7/10.

Done with these settings:

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 9

- Ultra-Violence

- Continuous combined with pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or dobu's traps so.

Phew, enough DOORTRAK for a year... I mean, a very well done megawad consisting of a special limited texture selection and diverse gameplay. That this is product of a meme in the community is out of my knowledge, since 50 Shades was launched way before I registered in the forum. Joke or not, the concept is intriguing: only the popularly acclaimed "ugliest" textures to create interesting maps, focused on what mappers can do with such strict rule so their creations are appealing in every sense possible. Because we are here to judge, I'll say the results are really impressive in general. The mappers involved brought tons of ingenious ideas to contrast each texture and make the best of them. I'm someone who wasn't very familiar with these three textures, more specific with DOORTRAK and GRAYTALL, until now. The first one has to be my least favourite, it's exclusive to doors, borders and certain structures like the tunnel in NoisyVelvet's map, which was combined with hall of mirrors in a very creative way. On the other side, GRAYTALL covers the majority of layouts' walls. It's partially plain as a single texture when its red stripes are too near from each other, in my opinion, not so much when they're spared or only the gray part is visible. However, the usage is generally decent due to light variation, the darker the better, also contrasted with FIREBLU's striking visual, the last texture that stands out in every context. There're also a few flats and ceilings to add some extra colour and some neat pitch black shadows, but another important complement is that amazing space sky. Whoever did it deserves an award, I absolutely loved how some mappers exploited it as either a texture replacement for switches, or simply the void. DGM's map is an example where it can be appreciated in its essence. The music selection isn't listed in the text file for some reason, I can say many are recognizable at first "glance", then others more speedy or chill midis according to the case, generally fitting. 

Gameplay is serious business. It's the kind that keeps you on your toes pretty much all of the time, and entails acquired skills to play on UV. The interesting part is that each map was designed by a different person (minus a collaboration map), therefore the diversity, many of which I have experienced their content before. For those who are new to the mappers involved, you'll get to find their names in the tally, or else on the internet. Naturally, I had expectations of what some of the mappers were capable of. The strategic set piece encounters from Ribbiks' map 12, or Mouldy's introduction into the slaughter-ish camp in his map 08, are examples of nothing to be disappointed at. Same for Mechadon's massive map 10 which serves fantastic non-linearity for days, and Joshy in his classic hectic start followed straightly by slaughter including a couple nonsense intermissions (more specifically, pain elementals in the open). Jimmy's remake of Entryway is a fun starter, easy to take your first steps into the new world of unpopular-only textures. For the rest of mappers, I had a few vague conceptions of their styles in other community projects, that after playing this megawad I will be able to recognize them. I know Xaser likes to play with circular very tall towers, his map is a huge infinite symbol whose gameplay is partially engaging, like the RL vs. pain elementals trap. Dobu Gabu Maru must have been an archvile in another life, otherwise it's out of my knowledge why such a mean-spirited map. It's ingenious, let's get that straight, the way he created architecture out of the sky and shadows and all that intricate geometry, which is put to maximum devilish reasons, and I liked the frantic setups even if it was near impossible to feel comfortable in the limited available space. TimeOfDeath did a decent boss map, the mix between resource and layout tightness. His etiquette two-(BFG)shots incidental mini setups against cyberdemons is present, they only persisted in the same exact contexts more than I like to see, but there're more variants of hard setups to experience too, and includes a full view of the mister of your dreams, or nightmares (I'm talking about the giant dude at the end, ok?)... On another side, there're some ups and downs from the rest of maps. I have to praise NoisyVelvet for such a great exploratory level, including the aforementioned tunnel of hall of mirrors, and a creepy face at the end. I also dig Megalyth imposing FIREBLU room with several setups for pressure-inducing. The one by Marcaek (not the credits map) left a sour taste in my mouth at first, since I'm not a fan of running away from monsters all the time. It gradually turned more palatable as I became more comfortable with the concept. Breezerp did a solid short BFG-spamming map, even though it's not my type of gameplay. Those by Quakis, Alfonzo, Ezormer and shockblast4 are somewhat similar, in regards to progressive difficulty and resource management, all of them enjoyable in their own way. Last but not least, the bonus map, a throwback into the old-school style of congested rooms, which can only be understood after a full playthrough. Don't try this map blind without a sense of exploration, if you have touched any Hell Revealed wad before you'll know what I'm talking about...

Secret-wise, to begin with, depending on the author, some went for something more exploratory full of secrets, while others dismissed the idea of placing at least one (Joshy, ahem...), nothing wrong with it though. It's wasn't easy to find all of them in the bigger maps, but still fun to be encouraged to explore and find extra portions that covered half of the map. I'm not sure why a couple of secrets in Mechadon's map are not hinted at all, like one required to shoot random FIREBLU, or maybe I needed glasses to detect a tiny difference between all of the FIREBLU walls, no idea. As to the bonus map, well it was expected to have important "mandatory" secrets, but it seems like not everyone moved on from the HR era, by the time this megawad was being made. Just don't go too far if you haven't found the, big thing, yet. Anyway, for favourite maps I'll pick 03, 06, 08 and 12.

On the subject of bugs, I found out that in map 08 a random monster from the first ambush might not pop up, could be a pinky or a hell knight. In map 15 it is possible to get stuck in the last step of the spiraled stairs, more specifically the point where a bunch of pinkies teleport in, the step never raised on my first try. There is also an unintentional HOM in the tower of sergeants. Lastly, not a bug per se but I found it weird that the chaingunners in the blue key trap in map 16 were stuck in their cubicles, still able to shoot, because there're teleport linedefs in the borders.

Overall, just a lovely mapset I recommend to anyone out there. Be smart and choose the appropriated difficulty, I'm sure lower skills are more accessible to casual players. Also, granted you'll end up loving FIREBLU if you haven't yet. One last thing, try to find the caged dog in map 07, it looks a bit like a floating skull on fire (; . My rate is 8/10.

Done with these settings:

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 9.

- Hurt Me Plenty.

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

Ever wondered what is that "slaughter" thing that everyone talks about?... Here it is! Well, a part of it, and if you are totally new to this genre, you came to the right place. This is a very fun wad in many aspects, not just the slaughter component but also visually, almost every map is placed in a different theme: starting from ruined techs entering to snowland, then arriving to a gothic fortress and, well more gothic/hellish environments, culminating into a massive dark underground (gothic of course) citadel, which has top notch detailing (and no, details do not interfere with gameplay, I assure you). I quite appreciated this variation, and I have to admit that hordes + gothic textures are a great combination. Plus, the soundtrack is amazing, some strong and some smooth tracks depending on the case, I particularly loved maps 08 and 12 midis as they are more quiet yet fitting. 

The combat component is pretty consistent, usually offering hordes to slaughter in multiple ways, with a moderate demand of crowd control, trap-based or not. One of the most common ways to handle the situations Rush provide is via circlestrafing + infighting, periodically removing what gets in the way. I preferred the occasions in which you must shape the scenario to be able to control the herd, which required some quick reactions and movement skills. In terms of progression, save for maps 06 and 12 that are more complex, the maps are fairly linear and easy to understand. As far as monster placement goes, revenants can be nasty in this wad, in companion to hell knights for your typical infighting shows. Yeah, mid and high-tiers in the majority, and rare presence of former humans, leaving the hitscan action into your hands, and a few spiders scattered in the set. Plus, there's a new mancubus a bit tougher and creepier than the ordinary, not an outstanding addition but something to be alert of. Archi made good use of the areas to put pressure not only from the monsters on the ground but from a considerate number of turrets. He also didn't abuse of lock-ins, so don't be surprised if you can leave and camp behind a hole, but expect to find more stuff ready to punish you for cheesing. When it comes to my personal highlights, I share some of Alfonzo's ones, particularly his last point, that was hilarious as one second I was exploring all cool all relaxed and the next one I was running in panic on lava like oh shit!. I'll also add that part in map 10 where I was pushed against my will into a room with monsters on grandstands, it was so funny. 

Secret-wise, they are the usual different/misaligned-texture with a power-up or weapon inside, but there are also secret telefrag chains to save ammo, and secret fights!. The most complex map (12) has the hardest-to-find ones, so pay attention. 

For favourite maps I'll pick 01, 06, 10 and 12. Unfortunately the last one has a bug that prevented me from exiting, otherwise a gorgeous map. No disliked maps. 

Overall, I found it pretty accessible to anyone with enough experience in the game, so give it a try, at least on HMP, it's fun and worth of replay. Of course, avoid it if you hate hordes, after all, it's not the author's fault if you don't take a second to read the description ("boom-compatible slaughterish maps", yeah it's pretty clear to me), or play something else... My rate is 8/10.

Done with these settings:

- Crispy Doom 5.2
- Ultra-Violence
- Continuous combined with pistol start mindset.
- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

Important note: The wad is almost fully playable in Crispy Doom or complevel 2, but due to two inaccessible doors which are part of progress, maps 03 and 04 cannot be completed without cheats. Because of that, ZDoom is the source port to be used like the author said in the text file, or else for PRBoom+ users I suggest to use this patch file that fix them. Thanks to WH-Wilou84 for sending me it, though Alfonzo made it for this thread. Also, other specifications about what's recommended to play this wad will be described below. 

This is a solid episode of mid-sized maps for those who fancy Alien Vendetta in its semi-slaughtery way. Same for its visual design, the wad features mostly a similar texture arrangement from the earlier and latest episodes from AV, ranging from techbases and industrial factories to underground caverns in a lite hellish context that gave me some nice throwbacks. It apparently includes new textures, but their purpose don't seem to stand out in any particular context, more like a complement to the stock ones, and to be honest they went unnoticed during my playthrough. I did see the blue Wolf3d texture usage as part of colour variation among other details, a modest appearance though, which was neat. If something cannot be overlooked is detailing, specifically the part that refers to "things". Users of source ports that allow to turn off infinite height will have it softer to maneuver around, because of dead trees and hanging corpses out of the FOV you can get stuck in. I understand they are part of the transition from man-made structures to more natural landscapes, yet they can be potential annoyances in later maps. It's a little slip in design, given the existence of many ports that support this wad, and regardless of the author's recommendation, not everyone is going to stick with it. Anyways, I liked the midis, they certainly fit in their maps except the one in map 04, it's a beautiful calm track but not for outdoor areas, in my opinion. 

Vae Victus is only short in number of maps, but it's plagued of monsters to kill, assuming you're ready to dispatch every meat shield in the road. Difficulty is forgiving for the skilled player, there isn't much in the way of pressure or hectic encounters as long as you have your feet on the ground, literally speaking. I did notice how limited in ammo are some maps, requiring berserk usage specially from pistol starts. Also there is an oddity in the 4th map, all of the weapons minus berserk are multiplayer-only, and while you'll eventually steal the shotgun and chaingun from zombies, all of the cell packs are of no utility, which indicates the author missed to place weapons in single player. Still, what's more strange is the sheer absence of the BFG throughout the wad, not that you'll really need it. On another side, the wad is easily comparable to the two wads the author got inspiration of: the aforementioned Alien Vendetta in its design structures, hallways connected by compartments (of which resources are located and typically small intruders too), few switch/key hunts involving backtrack and mostly the kind of meaty incidental combat where you either stay and fight or escape and camp, which is up to the player's will. The mapset gets more in the vein of Deus Vult later, when the bigger areas are meant to be explored in depth, and killing everything turns a bit more time-consuming and less obligatory, besides monsters completely out of the player's aim. The penultimate map is where this wad excels, although I must admit the initial area is a chore to navigate. Nevertheless, it's a decent romp in difficulty, the skinned walls room is the first fun lock-in trap, followed by some crowd-herding in order to eliminate the primary targets. It's unfortunate that the last map is a bit of an anticlimax after the previous longer map, which could have served perfectly as a closure to the wad. 

Secret-wise, if you wonder why you still haven't found any of the 13 secrets in the third map, don't worry, 10 are on top of crates the author probably forgot to untag. Maxing the map is impossible due to that, though. Outside of that, the secrets don't require much skill to find, if anything you'll be ok with humping suspicious walls, pistol starters will definitely appreciate the berserk in map 04. For favourite maps, that's hard to tell, I honestly don't have any highlight whatsoever, I liked all of the maps pretty much the same, except for the underwhelming map 07. I also wonder why they don't have names, huh...

Overall, it's fairly enjoyable in what it offers, I'd recommend it more for the casual player rather than the one looking for a new challenge, but still should deliver some relaxing grind with bits of slaughtery if you're open to it, just don't expect anything bizarre. Oh and, non-ZDoom maxers, remember to turn off autoaim to try to kill those snipers from afar in map 05, although in Crispy Doom it was still impossible to reach them :/ ... My rate is 7/10. 

Done on HMP/continuous/saves

This was so fun and challenging! Certainly a very well done megawad to feel nostalgic with its pace, the midis, the feeling of playing something made by the original authors of Doom. Very tough maps, since I played continuous, there was almost never a problem with ammo, but I still saw that for pistol starters the thing would be totally different. For the most part, great. 

What I found a little (too much) overused was many mandatory type 16 damaging floors (except the ones to get to secret exits) in some E3 maps, at least they were the minority. Some maps can be veeeery mazy, which is cool, for those maps I spent over 1 hour or 2. There is a bug in E4M7 with a pool of spectres that doesn't raise. Didn't play E1M0 and E4M0 as they are not supported by the ports I use, I'll try them someday...

In general, monster placement was fine for me. A couple of annoying moments, with lost souls, everywhere... E4M6 was incredibly long to maximize or complete, whatever the word is. I think I died a whole load of times there, every single monster from the tiniest to the biggest became a singular problem. Regardless, liked the map. Lovely ending in E4M8 to simulate hell's fall.

Secrets were very UD-ish, and a few very clever ones. Liked the secret hunt in E4M6, it's practically the most memorable episode for me lol.

So yeah, recommendable, my overall rate would be 8/10. 

Done with these settings:

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 9.

- Ultra-Violence

- Continuous combined with pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

Sweet literal flashback to Doom II, a set of fun maps of nice consistent quality. The story is comically lengthy, like nothing you'll usually expect to see in contemporary wads, and I took my time to read it (too tempting for tl;dr). It's fascinating how much thought the author put into something most players generally overlook, and in spite of recalling little of it, the plot starts after the incidents in Plutonia, scientists researching ways to prevent the resurgence of the Icon of Sin, but due to outdated technology, they sent the marine back in time to help to complete their work, once again. What I wasn't expecting is to find the initial map quite familiar (I didn't do my research, as you can see). These maps are re-imaginations of the iwad levels, but with a slightly different design perspective. Yes, techbases, sewers and miscellaneous man-made buildings are back, even the classic "O' of destruction", they constitute the first and longest episode, though in a more new-fashioned, higher quality way in terms of layout design. The later section is thematically hell, my favourite since the author combined darker shades of grey/brown rocky areas with classic hot red textures, giving it strong visuals. Part of the new music is remakes of classic tracks from the game, which accompany the journey in a nostalgic way. The rest go well in their spots, such as the "Hell" maps include one of the most quiet tracks I've ever heard, very nice. On another side, the new sound effects, which are supposedly enhanced versions of the original ones, were a welcome change in general, like the cyberdemon's death now sounds more explosive. There's a "clean" version out there without the added SFXs, if anyone dislikes them, not that they impact gameplay wise.

Much of the combat is alignments of incidental cleaning and classic setups corresponding to the map's slot, that means plenty of homages (super shotgun debut in map 02, the confined zombies at the start of map 04, the helpless spiderdemon under a crusher in map 06, the famous barons vs. cyberdemon infight simulator in map 08, the zombies closets in map 10, etc.), even though the maps aren't built around them. With a higher monster count than average, the levels are still far from grindy scenarios, any casual player can feel at home playing these maps, besides the difficulty peaks near the last entries. That is not say they lack strong opposition, but the balance is adapted to encourage exploration, and to be careful mostly with hitscanners and the occasional horde in tight quarters or special trap (like the dark corridors that turn into lava in map 13), while you experience flashbacks continually. The hell maps seem to be fresh design, perhaps some The Living End vague vibes in map 13, but a deviation from the homages, which is a nice change considering the start/exit connections from the first episode kind of wore out after a while. If something valuable to rescue from them, is that the author put health and/or ammo pickups for free, presumably for continuous players' commodity. To my surprise, the hell episode doesn't contain any single former human type, not that I missed them, they reappeared in the secret maps.

Secret-wise, on this side there's plenty of nice secrets to find. Not much like misaligned textures or fake walls, a sign of good variety which includes hidden switches in many ways, and generally easy to figure. A thing I noticed, players' possible major obstacle could be to find armor for free, specially pistol starters. If you don't see one anywhere, it'll most likely be hidden. For favourite maps, could be 12 and 13, though the techbases were fun too. I'd pick 14 up until the inopportune boss fight, but that's just a personal distaste towards that kind of gimmick.

Overall, thumbs up! I find it accessible to anyone looking for throwbacks maybe, or moderately easy maps with simple difficulty progression. I wonder how the other original levels would have been interpreted here, but I guess we'll never know, unless there's a sequel somewhere. Anyway, my rate is 8/10. 

Done with these settings:

- Crispy Doom 3.5

- Hurt Me Plenty, Ultra-Violence.

- Continuous for myself, and pistol starts for the DW Megawad Club.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so. 

This is a good old school-ish megawad with plenty of fun scenarios. Very Memento Mori-ish as well as keeping it original. It's also notable one inspiration was TNT, as some levels are structured resembling the most memorable maps of the iwad. A lot of well developed switch-hunting and puzzles, I never felt lost to be honest. About visuals, they are ok, some neat rooms like in map 18, some arrows to mark where to go (which I find acceptable), very neat trick with doors at the end of map 17, I liked how map 30 was a mixture of Caribbean-Last Call-Viper style, map 22 has some nice Pharaoh textures well used. In general, visuals are not outstanding, but that's fine, although in terms of secrets, visuals practically don't help, it was really hard to spot a misaligned wall or a simple different detailed portion of a pillar, stuff like that. Map 31 comes to my mind, the way to get the keys felt obscure, not uninteresting but I had to resort to a video to look for the blue key... On the other side, cool midis!

Combat is ok, there are great encounters and easy ones. One of the most common things to see is gunners in straightforward corridors, something that became very predictable throughout the wad. Many cybers and queen spiders used really good. Not a fan of those ride a lift/take this teleport - two/three revenants right in your face, but these were uncommon.

My favourite maps so far are 01, 08, 16, 20, 22, 24, 28 and 29. The others are good too, specially map 30 in which I really appreciate the IoS fight not being stressful.

So yeah, recommendable wad for people seeking non-modern stuff. I'll give this 7.5/10

Done with these settings:

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 9.

- Hurt Me Plenty.

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

Important thing: if you want to fully attempt each map of the megawad, load jenefix.wad which can be found here. I say this because I found myself with a few bugs I'll mention below.

Onto the review...

This wad is pretty impressive, a truly fun set that manages to be a tough and nice experience. The author did a solid job on polishing the maps to look really good, using the Plutonia resources as well as many textures from some well-known megawads like Memento Mori and Requiem. It's a set that the more you advance, the greater it is visually. I was very sold on the theme-progression, the tech/brown structures predominates in the first two episodes, but it is also mixed with sewers (lots of slime), crates rooms, caves, open highways, tombs, golden lakes omg, and much more, and it culminates inside hell, and I'm not just talking about red bricks. About details, well I couldn't be more impressed with the lightning usage in certain maps, it's mostly all bright enough for you to see where you are, but for example in map 29 there's little to no light variation, which boosts its already creepy and fleshy theme. Oh, can we talk about the skies? Every map has a different sky, my favourites are the blue one in map 12 and the red one with two moons(?) in map 22. I also loved the soundtrack, many recognizable midis from other wads as well as new ones, the one in map 26 was my favourite, and the one in map 29 that sounds like anything from Going Down. 

If you have played any of the wads Jimmy payed tribute, you can have a general overview of what Jenesis is about. Yes, this isn't a walk in the park, neither a disagreeable torture. Maps are medium-sized, typically with key hunts along with switches, linear and non-linear progression, varied in scenarios: lock-in traps or incidental ambushes right after a door or a switch pressed, or nothing at all, just a lonely key on a pedestal. I liked this as it added variety and mystery, not 100% sure if something will happen or not. For monster placement, overall it's meant to be challenging, if a bit too hitscany in some maps. There're a bunch of particular enemies that stood out in a good or bad way: chaingunners out of your aim, there are many instances of these; revenants are particularly nasty in this wad, having a lot of advantage over my movement skill, in some ways the area denies you to fully dodge homing missiles, in others it denies your accuracy, because they can be behind fake walls; archviles seemed inconsistent to me, they are either neutered by block lines or suddenly thrown with 0 cover, the "good" thing is that (on HMP) health resources are instantly given to recover, which still doesn't convince me. Regardless, there are some good archvile placement, as well as the rest of the monsters. There's a new enemy, a possessed marine, a bit stronger than a shotgunner, it's best usage is in map 29 imo. There's also a new boss, nothing you haven't seen before, well, it freaked me out a little bit. 

Secret-wise, the majority of the maps contain 4-5 in total, some easy to find and some not, a couple of secret fights too, the key is to know what the author used mostly to hide a secret (not just a misaligned texture), and then you'll easily find the rest. Nothing outstanding as they are usually a little cubicle containing a powerful item. 

For favourite maps I'll pick 06, 12, 17, 22, 24, 29. The third episode was my favourite imo as action was getting quite sharp The other maps were ok too, save 09 and the secret maps which I didn't like too much. A few bugs prevented me to max certain maps (didn't know jenefix.wad existed), in map 20 at the helipad part it is possible to block monsters to teleport in IF you press the lift's switch. In map 24 a cyberdemon may or may not teleport in at the exit section. 

Overall, it's recommendable, only for people who can bare tons of hitscanners. I think it would be better to play on continuous for a first time, as some maps have ammo for weapons that are nonexistent. My rate is 7,5/10 

Done with these settings:

- PRBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 9.

- Hurt Me Plenty.

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

My curiosity started when the DWLeague or something chose this wad and I, checked what was its deal. I liked what I saw. Now it's done, a pretty nice and short episode replacement. Gameplay in general is the same throughout the wad, it's actually quite easy, reason why I regret not picking UV, and I'm sure on pistol starts would be easy too.

Monster placement is ok, it keeps the classic feeling but doesn't go far beyond simple: open a door, some monsters, flip this switch, go look for what it did, fight these monsters, get the key, etc. Not complaining, it's actually a style I enjoy for a few maps. There's a new enemy, a turret, I liked it but it has it's disadvantages. On one side, it keeps you alert when you hear one, that's a good point. On the other side, since it doesn't walk or fly, you have to kill it slowly by wall-covering, but the actual problem is, its target or hitbox (or whatever) is too thin, autoaim fails a lot, bullets or shells generally don't touch it unless you're close and that can cost your life. Luckily no one could kill me but the are health drainers for sure. They replace the Spiderdemon so that's why their bullets are highly painful.

Visuals are really cool, some nice architecture like the "lampposts" in map 06. I liked the fire animation in some levels, as well as the blue lights on teleporters. Also I saw a gif of a swivel chair in the same map which was funny. Secrets are cool, all of them are easy to find. I missed a secret though in map 04, no idea where could it be. My favourite map is 08, was actually odd to see cacodemons only at the end of the wad, they should have appeared much earlier. 

So yeah, nice episode, not the most exciting but good for visuals and easy stuff. My rate is 7.5/10

Done with these settings:

- Crispy Doom 5.2.

- Ultra-Violence.

- Continuous combined with pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

Not everyday I see much appreciation for the earliest era of mapping, as many people have acknowledged its primitive essence and moved on to more contemporary stuff. However, from time to time I find relics that could still keep enjoyable for anyone, such as this solid piece of work from 1995. The Abyss is a collection of maps that look like ripped off from the Master Levels, except by just two authors, one who passed away a year ago. This does have a conceptual theme that can be extracted from the maps themselves, as some sort of dungeons and/or mines you explore in depth, though in short periods of time. Apparently, the authors set a series of goals regarding to the aesthetic side, and that could be noted perfectly. Sure, the texturing is minimalist, most of it is green marble, wood, grey rocks, besides a few custom ones (most notably the cross on the wall) and colorful windows from Heretic, but a lot of care in alignments, sometimes placed dynamically. Other bigger contrasts are lighting and geometry variation, both giving the maps a classic appeal, less boxy design (lots of spiraled stairs!) and more interactive with the environment. You'll find more than one example of light switches a la "The Focus", comically useful to see the intruders better. This wad comes with several tracks of no genre in particular, including a waltz-piano song, but most maps don't have custom music or uses recycled iwad tracks. I would suggest to add them on your own, thankfully I had a pack that a fellow user sent me a while ago. 

It's kind of amusing how these maps work as a whole. For a megawad that creates the impression of having no connection between each map, there's a "slightly" obvious sense of continuity that anyone is going to notice regardless of their gameplay decisions. More specifically in how supplies are distributed, leaning towards comfort for continuous players, and those who decide to pistol start will have to conform with a very limited arsenal depending on the map, sometimes only stolen from zombies and other times scavenging through secrets and ignoring enemies, while they keep filling in other types of ammunition without nothing to use them. This, however, can be interpreted as a sort of "challenge", even though the maps favor a casual easy experience. Rarely you come upon a tense situation, although I saw myself praying not get chipped to death a few times, or sandwiched by barons. Progression on the other side might put an impatient player off in cases, often requiring some switch/key hunting or random walls to push, but the key is to take a good look at the environment (or the automap, if that's possible), most if not every piece of wall minimally different from the rest leads to somewhere, and at least you could find alternative paths to complete the maps, which implies non-linearity in a silly way, if that's your thing. Since the maps are short, taking no more than 10-15 minutes blind, it's nothing to feel offended in my opinion. 

Secret-wise, expect them to be simple and contain from just a few stimpacks and maybe a zombie inside, to an essential weapon to defend yourself from big threats. The majority are hinted, just think of a typical 90's wad in that regards. I must admit though, a few were very cleverly hidden, like in one I needed to pay attention to the lighting contrasts in a room. For favourite maps, not going to pick any in particular, as I enjoyed them all pretty much the same, even if I wasn't so fond of the gameplay in a few later maps. I only wished there was a more proper conclusion to the wad, apparently the authors lost interest in filling the rest of the slots, but we get what we get.

Overall, a neat antique wad I'd recommend to any player akin to the iwad difficulty, or if someone can't (or doesn't want to) afford the Master Levels, this will hopefully fill the space. I mean, don't be fooled by the age, sometimes a little 90's simplicity is good for the soul. My rate is 7/10. 

Done with these settings:

- Crispy Doom 4.2

- Ultra-Violence.

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 seconds or so.

Fun mapset, a mixed bag of varied styles. The set is all speedmaps by different authors, some I recognized in their maps, like JC or FranckFRAG, and others completely new to me, so it was nice to meet all sorts of offerings. Visuals aren't the strongest feature, of course, still many authors managed to create some nice looking areas using mostly stock and custom textures. A few maps play with lights variation, such as having to find resources in darkness while waking up tons of enemies. The music selection is a mix in between iwad tracks, several others from well-known pwads, and also unused Doom tracks, I had no idea those even existed, really cool soundtrack. 

As a community based project, there's a lot to see in terms of progression and combat. Each author shows their own style, and the contrast between them is quite notable once you make further progress. I'm not sure whether some of the authors were completely new to mapping or not, since part of the contrast I mentioned before is due to the quality of the content by all meanings (visuals, geometry, combat, etc). This is not to say the ones that didn't stand out for me were bad, because others might find them more suitable to their tastes. However, I was more keen to the maps that provided a higher difficulty while having more than one way to deal with them, and not exactly to particular authors. Speaking of the mappers, you'll probably several contributions from the same guys, such as JC, FranckFRAG, and Datacore. The former one provided some old school slaughter(y) levels, I really liked his earlier maps where you are subject of crossfire in fairly open spaces, indoors or outdoors, he usually put the monsters in the way to find your weapons. I wasn't a fan of the symmetry of certain maps though, nor the repetitive combat that came with that, but still generally fun gameplay. On the other side, FranckFRAG opted for bite-sized maps with small but effective monster placement and traps. His maps are sometimes hard to taste given how short they are, I preferred those where after 2 minutes I still had more enemies to kill lol. Datacore didn't stick to one single style, incidental combat in the majority,  the weapon progression is what can put off some players, as using just chaingun for 300 imps in a big box didn't seem so exciting, to name an example, although I did like his second to last map. Other notable contributions include [WH]-Wilou84 maps, his last level was hard to digest, I'm not so fond of that sort of clausterfuck gameplay, personally speaking. There's also the Darkwave0000's biggest map, which was everything I expected from them, and it kicked my ass a lot of times, neat and brutal level. Oxyde's map is another one I really liked, it's heavily congested and has many surprises that can catch one off guard. The rest are some hit-and-miss, such as ZyklonB's two maps that were a little boring, or the HR-ish level by subject_119 which was weird and fun. Necrotikflesh maps can result in a funny or horrible experience, depending on how much you like darkness, or shotgunning a cyberdemon, all I'll say is I made an exception for my "100% everything" rule in the second case. 

Secret-wise, I don't remember any lol, well being super short maps there isn't much to talk about secrets, FranckFRAG maps surprisingly have more than 1 secret, that they are meaningful or not depends on each one. For favourite maps I'll pick 08, 15, 16, 19, 26, and probably 29 even though I had my anger moments. 

Overall, a success in my opinion, it might not be the most consistent megawad, but it does provide a little bit of everything for everyone. People seeking a fun time with short maps will surely find something up their alley here. So yeah, my rate is 7/10.

Done with these settings:

- Crispy Doom 3.5

- Hurt Me Plenty, Ultra-Violence.

- Continuous on skill 3, pistol starts on skill 4 for the DW Megawad Club.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

This is a great community mapset. Many original ideas and also a lot of homages. The visuals are pure Plutonia, textures and detailing are on the iwad side, for example, lots of wooden pillars and walls in square shape, invisible bridges, vines, skull non-switches, and more. I like that many maps have unreachable spaces just for scenery. Midis are really good, particularly the ones from Xaser's maps (15 and 25), and map 11 sticks in my mind too. 

Gameplay is fun in the majority. Some maps are pure tribute of the iwad, including combat. There's a good variety of themes, sometimes triple key hunt, other times is straightforward linear, and other times non-linear exploratory. Progression is hardly ever obscure, aside from a few maps, you are usually exempted of backtracking, which is great. Most maps can be short, but a few are particularly really really long, map 15 is the best example. It's still a good map though, depends on your tastes. Combat is heavy, but in most cases you are able to elude big fight scenarios. Plutonia has never been about constantly closing you in traps with timers. It does have a lot of incidental challenging encounters. This doesn't mean it's always going to be fun, for example, chaingunners are abundant, and sometimes an obnoxious presence. Tributes of battles are present: there's a standout map dedicated to archviles, in the style of Hunted, including many other enemies; another one almost exactly like The Twilight, that is a new arena revealed and god mode chaingunners for sure; and the obvious secret maps alike Cyberden and Go 2 It, the last one goes crazy with infighting and I love that. Plus many more memorable parts, like a hitscan hell trap reminiscent to Ghost Town, or a ring of enemies similar to The Sewers, or an invisible bridge surrounded by snipers a la Aztec. 

Secrets are not always easy to find, I like the use of hidden switches which encourage good observation. They are mostly powerful and needed to make the gameplay smoother.

Favourite maps are 06, 10, 16, 23, 27, and 28. Least favourite maps are 18, 20, 21 and a "honorable" mention to map 30 for being a real nightmare to play. The rest of the maps are good, map 29 is mostly memorable for it's exploratory ambient, for example.

Overall, the mapset is fun, it's all Plutonia in the best way. So if you're a fan of the iwad's harshest quirks, I recommend it. My rate is 8/10.

Done with these settings:

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 9.

- Hurt Me Plenty.

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so. 

Interesting fun mapset. I think it develops its aim quite well, lots of Evilution bits and use of Boom quirks. Really nice visuals, apparently textures that come from Eternal Doom (which I haven't played yet), and they look really good. Detailing is a notorious feature, some maps are greatly detailed, with messages and hints, and others are a mess, good mess in my opinion, like map 19. I found some cool effects like the runway in map 07 and the doors in the RL secret room in map 13, and there's more. 

Gameplay is very varied, in terms of the kind of monster placement and flow of the levels. The difficulty curve is odd, meaning that some further maps are easier than earlier maps, in a way that it feels like playing two different episodes stuck together to form a megawad. In other words, maps 13/14/15 were, for me, much easier than 10/11/12. That is not to say it's a bad arrangement, it's just not usual to have many breather maps after many harder ones... Combat comes in many colors and shapes, there're a lot of incidental encounters, multiple traps, and bits of slaughter. Puzzles, switch hunts and lengthy levels are present too, in fact, most maps are of a considerable wide length and long progression that might demotivate some players. I found them all completely playable and enjoyable for the most part, but it will depend on each one's tastes. 

Secrets are easy to find in general, I think I may have used IDDT only for two maps. Maps 08, and 12 are the stars of secret hunt, and map 19 has the most interesting secret (BFG), which is non-Doomish in every way. Midis are mostly good, there is a nice remix of Death Bells and another one of TNT's intermission text screen. 

My favourite maps are 03, 10, 11, 15 and 20. The other ones are good too, the only two I had mixed feelings were 17 because of the last trap (invasive detailing), and 12, if you want the full experience try it on UV, HMP cuts 1/3 of the map and over eases it too much.

Overall, a pleasant experience. It's not a hard wad, but it has it's nasty moments. I'd rate it 8/10.

Done with these settings:

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 9.

- Ultra-Violence

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset. Actual pistol start on map 33.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

This is one of those exotic wads I stumbled upon the pictures and thought "Wow, this looks promising!". It certainly captured my attention from the beginning, reason why I had great expectations for the further maps. Truth is, the wad did not disappoint me, about certain aspects, but the gameplay wasn't its strongest feature and I'll mention why later. One thing is for sure, the architecture and visuals are high quality, probably one of the best examples I've ever seen. Those textures (cc4-tex) are excellently used, it was easy later to remember the maps based on the variety of colours that predominate in each episode, like green/brown in the first, blue for the second and red/orange for the third, with also darker shades of grey in all maps, which of course blend beautifully with the rest of the colours. No invasive detailing, a little bit of creepiness with light variation in certain parts. Honestly, no real complaints on this side, except for a few HOMs that once seen can't be unseen, still nothing game-breaking. The set comes with tons of amazing well-known tracks from the iwads and other pwads, I recognized a few from Speed of Doom too, the list of midis used is missing unfortunately and I really need to where does MAP23's track come from, so if the author is reading this, please provide a list.

The situation with the gameplay is this: monster placement is mostly found casually in front of the player, sometimes symmetrically in smaller rooms, after you open a door or you're teleported somewhere, which leads to incidental combat, while traps exist less often and at times without a sense of being actually trapped, unless you stay still for too long and get overwhelmed in a second. There're are also tons of teleporting ambushes and hordes after you reach parts of progression, but this is nothing new. In general, these encounters consist of different type of monsters, rather than packs of the same specie. However, a great percentage of the monster composition are former humans. Their usage is what irked me so much in almost all of the maps, because more often than not I found myself having to camp behind a door, pillar or whatever to clean them from a "safety" point, since they appeared in every single setpiece. The situations aggravated when I opted to play more aggressive and get into rooms, I saw my continuous health/armor reducing to none thanks to the abundance of hitscanners, in comparison to other types of enemies, which were used more or less well though, if I ignore the many pain elementals in wide open spaces. I'm not really saying that hitscanners were used terribly, if something is true is that their placement in this wad implicates one could see themselves forced to play conservative most or part of the time, at least in my experience I had to do it regularly, as I never knew when the last sergeant was going to die, with foreknowledge it could be different. On a positive side, you'll most likely see them before they could chunk your health (no snipers, or not that many to feel too tedious). Well, the high difficulty is there, so maybe players that enjoy a slower-pace will find these maps more appealing the way they are. I myself had more fun when other monsters provided more danger than the zombies themselves, or a balance between them. In terms of progression, maps become longer and larger the further you get, part is because of how high is the monster count, which I didn't have a problem with, and they are mostly linear, with some vague sense of non-linearity from time to time, thanks to how the layouts are constructed (reused spaces, optional backtrack from end to start). Weapon progression and ammo is something I cannot speak with the same knowledge a pistol starter would, all I can say is that ammo seemed to be on the tight side, and you can have many different options for weapons in every map, so that's a plus.

Secret-wise, with the exception of those that are not marked with any visual/audible clues, I think they are all very easy and useful. There are quite a lot of powerful secrets that might nullify the effect of hitscan attrition, or those that can trivialize an encounter, well, I know a few cases where the secrets are almost mandatory to avoid death, not a fan of those. I should mention that some maps cannot be maxed due to some secrets are impossible to tag on complevel 9, as well as several bugs, you can read about them here. For favourite maps I'll pick 01, 14, 31, 32, 33, 16, 19, 27, and 28. A shoutout to map 30 for not being a non-tedious IoS map!

Overall, I think with some more reviews from other people we could provide more feedback so the author can bring us more content, if they can and/or want of course, I'd like to see more of their work. Hopefully, anything mentioned above might capture your attention, or not, whatever, give it a try, we all have different tastes... Ok enough rambling, my rate is 7/10.

First things first, if you want to experience the map, do yourself a favor and look for a cool fitting midi that inspires nature and beavers, open this wad in an editor like SLADE and import that new midi, which will replace the ol' d_runnin, which doesn't suit the environment. For reference, I picked Requiem's MAP05 and it worked nicely. 

Did you do it? Good.

Hoover Dam is a recreation of the actual place in the USA named like that, which I've never seen in real life and never will. It's atmospheric outside, with a neat vista of the dam, and the canyon, although dry and empty, isn't painted in just one texture but various different rocks interspersed, kinda gives it more colour. Visually the only boring parts are deep inside when it's not cool sector enginery. 

Most of the action happens on the ledges around the rocks and plenty more to work out in the interiors, you wander through caverns, facilities, control bases, a hellish portion, and even a very flat very narrow maze that can rub a pain elemental's little arms. It's nothing exceptional if you're familiar with '90s type of combat flow, and the high ration of blue artifacts will diminish some of the dirtiest surprises later on, unless you're being too careless with The Tomato Crew. I quite enjoyed the exploration and the feeling of ending an invasion of imp-like beavers, who wouldn't enjoy that?!

Cinematic elements abound. My favourite was a fissure in some generator room expanding behind me while the floor was slowly collapsing, that felt a little scary. Arriving to the top of the dam, long after I stared at its imposing height from below, was a good sensation, as if I marked the most important checkpoint in the map.

Horse Shoe is said to be a symbol of good luck and protection, according to a research. It's also footwear for horses, or should I say "HOOFwear" (*insert drumroll fail) ... but what does any of this have to do with the map? Well, that may depend on the user, or whether you watched some video the text file mentions, but if you are like me and occasionally prefer to read at least one complete and, hopefully, charismatic wattpad story review before submitting to the unknown, you'll see that the shoe is indeed symbolic and appears to fit in where your heart desires, which isn't going to be too obvious in plain sight...

All rambling aside, this isn't an understated map. It starts humble, with the first of various E1Myounameit references you'll find throughout, pumping shells and bullets into small fry, and soon delves into dangerous toxicity and explosives together, and traps galore that'll wake your ass up, though without necessarily locking the back door most of the times should you please to engage them in your own terms. One of them happens relatively early on, in the form of a sudden firefight as you climb some stairs, with bullet spam and agitation - I probably ate three homing fireballs of low damage on my way out, how lucky!

Things don't go too crazy from there on, but remain consistently fun and true to testing reflexes - the brief interlude over nukage that follows is a cool memorable fight that quickly pits you against several perched shooters, gasbags patrolling around, all assisting a much taller guy in the middle, whose stay didn't last as long as I believed it would (shells for days in my case). The pitch-dark room serves as a (temporary) switch to the overall uniform brightness in the map. It's also a good excuse to shave spectres with chainsaw, because why not.

Outdoors is vast, letting those ledge snipers become more of a temporary nuisance until you meet the empress upfront, which by then you're probably in a godlike state, provided you didn't leave with claw marks all over your body out of that final twisted Entryway room - the best barons of the map. Speaking of outside, I actually like that little transition to a more open area after fighting through enclosed spaces, it defines the second part of the map for me. If I didn't speak about visuals before, it's because this is where, in spite of looking empty, the scale and AV midi blend the most together (again, for me). Not that indoor visuals were lame or anything, green/tan/gray scheme is usually a neat combination, though maybe it's missing a malfunctioning light or two here and there.

Anyways, that'll do this review. Positive experience aside, I'm still not entirely sure what's the 'horseshoe' of the map for me, and I don't care to be honest, but maybe you'll find yours. Just perhaps enter expecting a little more punch than your average classic iwad tribute, remember to pick the right skill setting for your own joy. 

Done with these settings:

- Crispy Doom 4.2

- Hurt Me Plenty.

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

Important note: this is indeed a vanilla megawad and you can use any compatible port, however, expect some bugs to happen with the wad itself.

This is a solid set of speedmaps, quite intense and fun. It consists of super short maps that can be completed in a few minutes, or seconds if you don't want to max them. There isn't a lot to talk about visuals, it uses the stock textures in a simple way, basically to ambient the maps for standard playability focused on action, no unique theme or episode progression. The text file mentions new graphics, but honestly I didn't pay attention to that. I could see it as a plus, given the little time I spent in the maps. If there's a comparison it would be the iwad's maps, visually speaking, if that sounds attractive to you. The soundtrack consists in iwad tracks mixed with some others not specified from where, or if they are custom, but they are alike the stock tracks. 

Its main attraction is the fast-paced gameplay, as these maps will challenge your reactions and movement skills in constricted areas, some times forcing you squeeze through your enemies to find weapons (and a single place to breathe), or putting you in a situation you can't overthink what to do. I wasn't very hyped by this at first, not a huge fan of short and/or speedy maps, but as I was playing my mind totally changed. I'll say this, the maps aren't so hard on a casual play, monster placement isn't too demanding by itself, it's the slight existence of health/ammo available what makes them punishing. You basically have very little room for error, and any hit from anything can mean a restart. In addition, ammo is super tight, almost the strict minimum for a max. I should have to play them back on pistol start to confirm if they can all be maxed, but from my experience on continuous with my restrictions in some maps I felt forced to skip monsters (e.g. barons), thinking that I could kill them later, and then seeing the way back closed, particularly in map 20 that lacks a plasma rifle on HMP. There was a considerable number of instances where I was unable to complete the map without cheats: in map 18 there was a secret soulsphere easy to see on a tall ledge, due to the lack of an archvile on skill 3 it was impossible to reach it, besides a bunch of monsters that could never teleport out of their closets; in map 22, there's a double teleport pad in the room with 4 mancubi and others, it was impossible to use it, I also tested that part in other ports and complevels, no solutions; in map 27, there's a similar case of a teleport I wasn't able to use it, the one behind the blue skull bar. I'm not sure how others handled with these situations, I simply cheated and guided myself thanks to some videos. If there's a patch somewhere I don't know. 

There's nothing important to talk about secrets, since most maps don't have any, I mean, there's no time or room to explore or you'll be murdered in a second, so the lack is logical. No favourite maps, as I liked them all in a similar way. 

Overall, it's not for everyone, if any speedrunner haven't seen this yet, they should try it. Exploration fans might have to overlook this. Also, continuous doesn't make this much easier, trust me (start the next map with 21% health and tons of turrets everywhere was pretty intense). My rate is 8/10. 

Done with these settings:

- Crispy Doom 5.3.
- Ultra-Violence
- Continuous combined with pistol start mindset.
- No saves, mostly.

Very decent tribute to the original game. Each map is essentially a remix of the ID's levels, built around the same theme and music tracks per episode, albeit with the author's personal changes to the design. Aesthetically, the only notorious difference, and by no means less important, is the texturing he decided to use in some sections. In general the maps look extra polished, there were no signs of misaligned textures, but I wasn't that attentive to be honest. He did left the most distinctive visual features of each map untouched, for example where it's supposed to be a dark secret dungeon, it is a dark secret dungeon, just not copy-pasted. 

As said before, Wonderful Doom is just a revamped Ultimate Doom. If you know the game by heart, there may be little room for surprises, so you can take it as a memory test. Of course, the author added his own touch to the gameplay. I would underline the size of the rooms in comparison to the iwad, tending to be more compact though in no way less attractive. In consequence, they lead to a bit more claustrophobic combat, specially throughout the latter episodes, sometimes you'll find yourself in a hairy situation like a slow drop in a cluster of imps and barons coming from the shadows, or starting surrounded of pinkies and barrels to detonate using your ol' peashooter. Another thing is the resource balance, sometimes giving more leeway where there wasn't originally, other times less obvious for the pistol starter. This is part of several plot twists Wraith added here and there to the main concepts to keep it somehow fresh and interesting, but I'm not going to spoil any in particular. 

Secret-wise, I guess it's not needless to say almost all of them can be found normally, there is one in E2M9 that can't be triggered due to the teleport line. Otherwise, there are no broken sectors or staircases of secrets (sorry to burst your bubble ;P). There are no disliked maps, and so I'll avoid to pick favourites this time. I also didn't care if most maps were extremely similar to the iwad ones, but that could not be the case for you.

Overall, I won't lie and say this turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable. It's what I expected from an author with such love for plain vanilla Ultimate Doom. Nostalgia fans should give it a go. Well, as long as you wish to "play Original Doom one more time", otherwise if you expect a thing like "Doom the Way ID Did", it might not be wise to download this. My rate is 8/10.

Done with these settings:

- Crispy Doom 3.5

- Hurt Me Plenty and Ultra-Violence.

- Continuous and many pistol starts.

- Saves.

Amazing megawad. I had a lot of fun, as well as a lot of anger moments, but this is totally a challenging mapset. Won't deny I raged quit several times, you have to be very patient to play this wad. As a mapset that claims to be Plutonia inspired, there are also lots of TNT homages, to the point the gameplay felt like a fusion between the two. That being said, visuals are simply Final Doom-ish, with lots of nice buildings and cool use of liquids, specially in maps 04 and 16.  

There are a few confusing switches in some levels, not a fan of that, it didn't really affect my gameplay in a serious bad way though. Some maps do have obtuse progression, while others are a total clear adventure/action pack. Again, patience is required. I noticed that ammo can be a problem for pistol starters, though the author recommends to play in sequence, yet ammo is meant to be used wisely and carefully. When it comes to monster placement, traps and such things, well, did I mention patience is required?. Heavy use of revenants and chaingunners, nasty I would say, annoying objectively talking. Slow approach is the way, and I personally don't have a problem with that, but that's something generally perceived as bad. I remember in map 24, the pace had to be so slow that it became tedious, as I had to be playing hide and seek all the time. Maps 29 and 32 had very brutal starts, didn't enjoy being blasted off constantly or being spitted with flying skulls in pitch darkness. 

Secrets are very clever, some are good, some can be hard to find. My favourite maps are in the second episode, the blue sky is just beautiful and blends good with the atmosphere. Maps 16 and 19 are in between the best ones in my opinion. 

So, I did enjoy this more than it looks like, it was a 9 for me back then, even though I would rate it a 7 nowadays, so maybe the appropiate number is 8/10. (sorry Rider, don't mind my numbers).

Done with these settings:

- Crispy Doom 4.2.

- Ultra-Violence

- Continuous combined with pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

A nice entertaining mapset. It's a mixed bag consisting by different styles of action to spend a weekend or two, using the resources from TNT. This gets you to travel through different landscapes like ruined cities, egyptian catacombs, the inner of a spaceship, well-known sewers and some caves here and there, mostly resembling the aesthetics of the iwad but not acting like a sequel to it. The first map might not leave a great impression, suffice to say it's the most vaguely detailed of the mapset, but the second and forward maps show a progress in the way to create more natural, realistic environments, whether grand scale red fortresses, cramped tunnels of lava, or castles built with brown bricks. The music selection consists of several tracks from the iwads, which all casually fit very well, along with multiple tracks I'm pretty sure I've heard before, like the one in map 17, that's an amazing slow track for a dark cave.  

Being a speedmapping community project the results are uneven, not to understand it as a lack of quality control. There's an atypical flow we often don't see in megawads, like when certain species of monsters are introduced and their context, which also go in line with the maps slots, but difficult gradually raises in a similar way most megawads do, in general above the iwad-level. Also, the styles of the authors aren't that different from each other, nor the size of the maps is a determiner of what they're going to be like. There're shorter maps where the core of the gameplay is concentrated in an arena where you're demanded to slaughter big numbers of enemies (not as high as in natural macro-slaughter wads) before you're able to exit, such are the cases of Archi's map 22 and Shadowman's map 27, or in other levels apply your skills to survive several nasty ambushes in more claustrophobic areas and call it a day, like most maps in the first and second episodes. You'll get breather maps in between too, which some share a bit of TNT's classic aesthetics and incidental combat, and I had fun with them too. What larger maps have is that sense of exploration reminiscent from older megawads, such as map 28 having the premise of a large epic adventure in a massive hellish landscape a la Alien Vendetta, or a city in ruins after an earthquake in map 10, depending on how you interpret scenarios, and you build progression bit by bit. However, there're also a couple large maps devoted directly to slaughter setups, as is Shadowman's map 21. My only gripe with him is the archvile usage, it seems like he wanted to enforce meticulous approaches to deal with them, except in certain situations these can target you while out of your FOV, and there's nothing you can do about it. But this and a blind drop on damage floor type 16 are about the only bits of "unfair" design I found, the mapset counts with so many distinct scenarios to test your abilities that a mishap with an archvile or two didn't stop my enjoyment. 

Secret-wise, nothing hard to peak or miss, but you'll definitely want important weapons and resources if you play on pistol start, like that juicy BFG in map 21. For maxers, the secret SSG in map 03 becomes unavailable if you don't take the lift. My favourite maps are 03, 10, 11, 15, 16, 23, and 27, mainly stuff from the second and third episode, but the first one is a solid introduction too. The final map is, fortunately, short and kinda easy. The bonus map requires you to make decisions, and it's better to have a certain degree of foreknowledge. Still a good map imo. 

Overall, this might be my second experience in megawads by the Russian community, and I'm certainly hyped to try something else from them in the future. Heroes' Tales should be on your list too, it's worth the try, there's material for every taste here. My rate is 7/10.

Done with these settings:

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 9.

- Ultra-Violence.

- Continuous combined with a fist start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

One of the most atmospheric wads I've ever played. The level of artistic design is impressive, the connection between the many new textures, details and layouts is worth of looking. I can't simply describe what's the ambient theme about, it's a sort of dark, rocky planet, where apparently monsters came from different dimensions to construct hotels and read books... yeah well, that's my interpretation, and I don't have complaints about the overall designing, except for the blue dimension in map 04, that was bad for my eyes. I also didn't enjoy its track, somehow it gave me the wrong vibes, but the rest of the music tracks went well with the mood of the maps. 

On a gameplay side, I could say it has its old-school/90's vibes. There's a strong feeling of adventure, given all the visual/audible effects that can be seen/heard throughout the mapset, modernized because of the time the set was made, but most clearly that mystery factor when the low count of enemies can still catch you by surprise at any time, while not being unfair, if I exclude a couple of instances with archviles. However, besides a few particular and memorable circumstances, the combat is generally low-key incidental, not as trap-based as Plutonia (despite the "Congo" rendition), but many sneaky bastards camouflaged in corners and fastpops. Said memorable cases include a battalion of barons in a switch-hunt trap, a deadly slaughter on a circular lift, a puzzle-ish big box where you release as much enemies as you want, and other situations not entirely focused on killing something. With that said, the pace of the maps vary a lot between each other, there are shorter maps where combat is the notorious side (hopefully you have fun punching the first shotgunners), and longer maps for prolonged linear exploration with intricate progression (basically, switch hunts), although I wasn't a fan of the only story-based map, simply because it felt inconclusive. About the extras that Hell Ground comes with, like meteorites, something I've never seen before in a non-ZDoom wad, very cool. Even though I didn't get a chance to test their effect on doomguy, I'm guessing they could smash him instantly. The living missiles could have been deployed in more hilarious situations, it was really funny to see an arachnotron mad at one, even more when the missile crashed and the spider kept shooting the wall lol. Similar with the dark imps, a tanky much faster version that shoots green fireballs, their usage is very limited, but I won't complain about that. A thing that didn't impress me was the ending in the last map, a bit anti-climatic and not very intuitive to solve, apart from a few monsters that had it hard to teleport in the area. 

Secret-wise, there was a huge secret quest in the last map I have a lot of fun with, where one of my favourites includes a soulsphere, which when you grab it the lights cut out and suddenly you're being observed from above D: ... The larger maps come with tons of secrets along the way, not super tricky to find nor mandatory ones, thankfully. I'm curious about the purpose of the secret in map 06, perhaps useful if you start from that map and play continuously, but who does that for only two maps?. Anyway, favourite maps, 01, 03 and 05. I'd add map 07 if it wasn't because it ended poorly imo. 

Overall, just great, anyone with a casual-adventurous mindset should definitely try this. I'm not saying I enjoyed everything here, but I'm grateful for the experience, so my rate is 8/10.  

Done with these settings:

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 3.

- Hurt Me Plenty.

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

A good megawad of varying levels of enjoyment. The aesthetics are quite simple, it's all Doom textures, maps are mostly structured in similar ways, that is a lot of symmetry in some maps, square shaped rooms, semi-circle stairs and big spacious areas. I found the maps to look just good enough to keep me immersed into the gameplay, and it got better in the third (and fourth) episodes. A few maps play with darkness and/or complete lack of light in some parts, which added pressure specially when dealing against hordes or turrets. There's a nice selection of midis, except for the one in E3M1, I liked them all. 

Gameplay was fairly enjoyable, most of the time. One would think that, the absence of Doom II enemies and the SSG would lead to boredom or repetitive battles. That might happen sometimes here, it can depend on your willingness to enjoy the limitations of the first edition, if you're accustomed to see all the bestiary, but it also depends on what the maps have to offer, and I think ConC.E.R.Ned succeeded at developing interesting encounters at times. In many occasions, you have to skip enemies to look for weapons and ammo; in other situations you get ambushed by teleporting enemies from several points, whether you get to squeeze through them or not it's up to each player; or use your agility to be as least exposed to crossfire as possible. There's a questionable use of barons in the mapset, sometimes too many of them and not in a threatening way, and sometimes replacing a UV cyberdemon that wasn't any necessary to be replaced. Although there are good moments, like tight traps where you are given rockets to use. I liked that the two boss-tiers were frequent since the first episode, there's even a map dedicated to cyberdemons in the third episode, and a hidden spiderdemon serving as a sort of Romero Head in the last map (the photo, though, unexpected). 

In terms of secrets, the usual ones are computer panels probably flashing, in episode 1, a different texture in a square shaped pillar, or a secret tiny green switch somewhere. I got accustomed after a while, despite I'm not a fan of hitting random walls. All provide nice rewards, though. 

My favourite maps are E1M4, E2M6, E3M8, while the rest are good and ok, also some are a bit uninteresting, specially from episodes 1 and 3. 

Overall, I had fun, would recommend it to anyone who's loves no revenants anywhere, as a change of pace. Also, add Draft Excluder and play this as a full 36-maps megawad. Without it, my rate for the three episodes as a whole is 7/10.

Done with these settings: 

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 9.

- Hurt Me Plenty.

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

Fun mapset. Some good level designs in different shapes and length. Aesthetically, generally pleasing, using the Plutonia resources to create a sense of iwad-ness in several maps, specially with the vines texture. As a sort of community mapset, it's a mixed bag in this aspect, you can see squar-y shaped corridors with metal bars in the corners in maps from the same author, or multi-shaped layouts a la Plutonia, and even one map with more than three themes, kind of an odd in many ways. Well, maps are not always very good looking according to my tastes, and if you do some exploration/backtrack you might find visuals bugs (as HOMs), for example in map 09 in the crushers room, which looks horrible. In regards to details, expect extreme darkness in some maps, mostly as a plus feature to interesting gameplay. Anyway, if one midi sticks to my mind is the one in map 02, the rest are ok but this one is super neat, although not the best one for that map. First level has "The Imp's Song", one of my all time favs.

You can also expect a bit of Plutonia gameplay here, but it's mostly concentrated in the first map. It's a mixed bag in terms of combat too, the variety is pleasing to me, and you get incidental combat in the majority mixed with a few teleporting enemies here and there. Tight quarters with enemies is very present, specially in darkness. Progression is what rubbed me wrong way in some maps. While I appreciate non-linearity, I can also be fond to linearity if there's always a way to get back to previous areas, in case I missed a secret or decided to skip it for later. That's not the case here, and I found myself having to idclip near the exit, to look for those skipped secrets. It could be a matter of preferences, I simply don't agree with that design choice. Whatever... also expect some confusing switch-hunts, particularly in maps 03 and 05, but this something I am fond of (uh, preferences part 2 :P). 

Returning to the secrets topic, no complains, except for a couple that I could not find in the last map, and I think one of them is unreachable. There's a troll secret in map 06, well, there could be something else if you keep an eye...

My favourite map is 01, (hey, first time a starter is one of my favs!), and also maps 03, 05, 08 are in the list. Map 10 could also be if it weren't for those secrets, but on the very very very positive side there's no IoS! The others are ok and so so. 

Overall, fans of Plutonia might find a couple of gems here, although I still recommend it for varied easy-medium gameplay. And don't forget this runs with PLUTONIA.WAD, using PrBoom+ complevel 9. My rate is 7/10. 

Done with these settings:

- GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4. complevel 3.

- Hurt Me Plenty.

- Continuous combined with a pistol start mindset.

- Saves every 10 minutes or so.

- Loaded along with concern.wad

Very good episode. It serves as a final inclusion for ConC.E.R.Ned, if you wish. Aesthetically is quite superior to the other three episodes, using more variety of textures in between the maps, and structurally way better. 

The gameplay is tougher, really tougher. It's obvious that it is for ConC.E.R.Ned, as Thy Flesh Consumed to Doom. That is, heavier use of every enemy, loads of traps and turrets, particularly cyberdemons where you're have to expose yourself constantly and bare with the obstacles, in the form of mid and low-tiers. I would have preferred a stronger presence of spiderdemons in general, but whatever, the ones from map 08 were fine. 

Favourite maps are 09, 05, 06 and 07.  

Overall, yeah I liked it more than the other episodes. Load this with ConC.E.R.Ned to have a full 36-map megawad if you want. My rate is 8/10.