elend

A.L.T. quickly emerged as one of my favourite megawads as well. With its "realistic" style maps, that more than once delve into the abstract and surreal and thus form something quite unique and... unsettling. The amount of neat ideas and gimmicks this mapset employs is really quite amazing and I think every single map surprised me in at least one aspect. Be it gameplay, design, atmosphere, or layout. No map is the same and apart from one I really did not like they all play very well. Most surprising of all did they manage to not get me confused and lost, which says a lot. The music was incredibly moody as well.

Well, here goes my idea for a "Doom but not Doom" texture pack, heh. I was wondering how some of the high-res textures out there would look like when resized and Doom paletted, now I can finally find it out.

The result is...  a mixed bag. While some look really good and interesting, most of it doesn't really work. It makes everything look like a cheap Doom "knock off" project. Certainly interesting to see and I can check this off of my bucket list.

Great megawad that re-imagines Doom 2 how it should have been: With recognizably earth like settings. The maps look generally very realistic with some really good Doom cute furniture and the occasional funny vignette. Gameplay stays classic and imho on the easier side, which is a welcome treat in times of slaughtermaps and too much actual mapping, thus not having enough times to actually play Doom. This is no Sandy Peterson or overly hellish WAD mind you. You do get some hellish hellscapes in later maps, but the majority is earth-like and rather corridor focused. Enemy encounters are on the traditional side as well, with almost nothing standout, except that weird "Warehouse Siege" map that features what felt like 1,000 Archviles. I did not know how to progress there and had to cheat in the end, other than that you can pretty traditional encounters which means a shotgunner around the corner, and a pinky in the sewer, etc.

Even so, the really great design and occasional custom textures make this a standout WAD that traditionalists definitely want to check out.

Great map with an intricate layout that rarely gets confusing. I really enjoyed the look of it, especially the blue carpet. Generally it features a ton of custom resources that fit well together and make for a coherent total. Gameplay wise there is nothing to complain about, except maybe that ammo is getting a bit tight in places. I liked the idea with the space suits, as well as the "clear glass" textures, heh.

Absolutely not my cup of tea. Incredibly mazey map designs with hardly a landmark to grasp on to. Just look at the layout of Map02 and you get what I mean. That the author felt it necessary to guide you through the maps needs no further comment I think.

I did enjoy the custom and new assets. Some of the architecture looks really great as well, although most of it looks rather samey in the end.

Great Episode that picks up where the first one left off and increases the difficulty quite a bit. Again you'll wander through gorgeous architecture and eliminate hordes of hitscanners, imps and Cacos. Especially in later maps you'll encounter a ton of cannon fodder, but it always remains manageable. That's what I like about these maps, they seem to emphasize fun and not punishment.

Great Ultimate Doom Episode with gorgeous and expansive architecture. You'll find a ton of hitscan enemies and especially lots of Caco swarms in these maps, but rest assured, there's always plenty of space to dodge about. Sometimes I wish the visuals would offer a bit more variety throughout this episode, but at least it is overally very coherent and later episodes offer different visuals.

Great mapset with some very neat detailing using mostly vanilla resources. At times the maps look really gorgeous and moody. Gameplay is on the easier side, which is just perfect for me. Generally I did enjoy the "real places" the maps depict, as well as the sense of story progression you get.

What a set of maps. At first I only expected random maps that use use Mario textures, but this is so much more. From the cutesy bullet puffs of the weapons, to the plasmagun sprites, there have been more changes than "just" textures. All together they form a very, very coherent picture which makes you almost disappointed, that there are no Mario enemies in the game.

Even then, the actual quality of the maps surprised me quite a bit as well. Very, very fun to play from the beginning to the end, with admittedly frustrating parts (the map featuring only Archies and Revenants or the map featuring ice and wind. Oh god, the ice...). These are not just simple techbases given a Mario texture paint, these maps are well thought out and tailored to the textures, ranging from grass lands, over desert to impressive castle scapes and even an air ship. I played on TYTD not only because I am a wimp, but also because those maps are really, really hard and have some frustrating moments. It speaks for this mapset's quality, though, that you can live with those moments and still enjoy the maps.

Try it out at least.

Awesome small map set focusing on tiny corridors and exploring huge interconnected maps. I really, really enjoyed traversing the different maps and although they are very, very crammed and chock full of nooks and crannies, I rarely got really lost. Sure, once I got a key, I had to find that specific red / blue / yellow door again, but as with any exploration focused games, it is best to remember where important locations are in a map.

What really amazed me was the look of the maps. This is the perfect amount of vanilla detail, imho. Every room looks detailed without being too crammy or confusing. All maps have a very concise look and clear sight lines, which makes navigation really easy and overally just fun. Monster placement also makes good use of all the crammed corridors, the windows, the corners, etc. by placing monsters in a way, that they more often than not surprise you from behind a corner. It's best to slowly and methodically proceed through those bases and take your time. This is not run and gun Doom.

Absolutely gorgeous in all aspects, amazing works.

A techbase (orbital space station?) that lacks gameplay and tries to make up for it with detailed corridors and very neat effects. Unfortunately the really gorgeous visuals (awesome skybox, great textures and their usage, good lighting) cannot make up for the corridor gameplay. This is one of those maps that feel very copy and pasted, because you entweder one corridor after the next and apart from some different colored doors they all look the same. All key pickup rooms look the same, all corridors look the same, only one room at the beginning of the map has something more unique to it. Corridors are usually fine, if they are connected to actual rooms and not other corridors. It's a pity, because everything else is really great and with a little bit more effort (i. e. more "unique" rooms inbetween) it could have been so much better.

Before playing this map please make sure of the following:

- You like tech bases

- You like shotgunning Hellknights

- You love Arch-viles

- You have time on your hand

Alright, if you can check all of the above, then please play this map. It's a huge underground tech base with lots of nooks and crannies to explore. The automap may look daunting at times, but the author did a very great job of guiding you and you rarely get lost. It also helps, that it's a fairy linear map as well. The base also lives up to its name, being mostly green and at times very, very dark. You might want to adjust your brightness levels, I don't judge.

Gorgeous Megawad which eases you in with compact maps and lots of switch hunting, before going full on chaingunners and archviles on you in later maps. I especially enjoyed the first third of this mapset, though, which feels like Tomb Raider, only with good controls. The layouts are intricate and interleaved and although you have to look really closely for some switches, it never gets too confusing or convoluting. There's always guidance and even *I* managed to finish it without noclipping. The alien spaceship levels are a bit jarring in contrast to the egyptian theme, but are in itself great maps too, as are the odd city themed maps.

In overall, highly recommended.

I really like this palette edit. I am not sure about the "better visibility on CRT screens" part, since I find it a bit dark at times, but I do love the toned down colors. I don't play everything with this palette, but I noticed that some WADs definitely benefit from it.

Regarding the people who don't like it; Well, just check out the screenshots. If this looks cool to you, use it when you play Doom. If it looks crap to you, don't download this.

What a surprisingly great set of small maps. It's actually a pity that the maps are small and only 3 in total, because overall the quality is high. The gameplay may be a bit slow and monster encounters are rather simple, but at least it ends with quite an enjoyable endfight. Throughout those 3 maps you can see nicely detailed and well textured mine shafts and outdoor areas that look really cool.

A welcome surprise.

Back To Saturn X E1 features amazing texture work, varied map design and a surprisingly incredible soundtrack. I especially enjoyed the empty intermission maps, where you just walk around, soak in that atmosphere and think about what you did the previous maps and where it will all go from here. I did have some problems with later maps, which just threw hordes of enemies at me, yet BTSX is one of those packages, that make you easily forgive, because everything else is just so damn awesome.

Ancient Aliens is an incredible achievement and maybe one of the most unique megawads out there. Not only does it looks vastly different to stock Doom, but the maps also „feel“ different. The first couple of maps have a certain: "Oh, it's one of those gimmick things..." feel to it, but very quickly one realizes that there's much more effort put into the maps, than they first let on. This feeling only grows with each map, culminating in one of the most creative mapsets I have seen so far. The use of architecture, game mechanics and overall feel of the maps is - stupid pun intended - quite out of this world. Towards the end I found myself swarmed by too many enemies, though, but I am not a really good player, so others might have no problems with it.

All in all, amazing texture work, great music, great maps, just overall one of the most enjoyable projects to emerge from the Doom community.

Putrefier is one of those maps that go for atmosphere instead of out right slaughter and action. There's plenty of that, too, but in my opinion the atmosphere is front and center. Accompanied only by an ambient hum you explore this architectural marvel of a doom map always looking at its details while getting smashed to bits because you weren't paying attention. And attention you must pay, for the map's switches can sometimes be hard to see. Having such an intricate and detailed map, which is at times quite dark in places has its drawbacks, I guess. But don't worry, the fights and the overall feeling of the maps definitely make up for it.

Also, it's just one map. Don't act like you have something better to do and play it.

When first reading this wad's description I thought this will be a 1994 style map, where someone just tried to recreate his office building to shoot up his colleages. Boy, was I wrong!

Going Down emerged as one of my favourite megawads so far, with its very clever use of small to medium map space and interesting gameplay mechanics in every single map. The first couple of maps start innocent enough, but soon you will find yourself navigating literal crawl spaces, thinking about use of space and / or slight puzzle mechanics just before being thrown into hell itself and fighting for your life. Going Down is designed as a literal descent into hell, which was the most beautifully realized aspect of it. How every map slightly changes into a more and more hellish theme is just great, great design work. Even though the later maps delve into slaughter territory I must admit that I still quite enjoyed it. Actually this was the first time I enjoyed being slaugthered and figuring out how to approach the map.

Going Down is simply an amazing piece of work, oozing quality from start to finish and rewarding the player with incredible elevator music inbetween. A must play.

"Dark Universe" is what I would consider "small but powerful". The amount of levels can be counted on one hand and even the initial playthrough is over before you know it. Yet, "Dark Universe" oozes with atmosphere and makes you come back to it, because its levels feature so many nooks and crannies that you just want to see everything. The incredible texture work, lighting and map detailing have to be seen to be believed. If you consider yourself a tech base fan, then give this one a go. The Star Wars influence is huge, yet not so pronounced that those maps wouldn't run fine with stock monsters or other gameplay mods.