Never_Again

Another day, another stolen map.

 

E2M1 of IMMLEV is a ripoff of ARENA, a tutorial WAD David Bruni designed and wrote detailed tutorials for in the 3D Alchemy book. Walbert's edit of it was so incompetent that four times out of five it will crash vanilla seconds into the level with a "P_CrossSubsector" error. Crispy and prboom-plus crash every time.

 

Oddly enough, Choco loads the map without complaints but you get stuck early on due to the "author" apparently using a paper bag over the head as a map-editing tool.

 

The second map is largely a barebones crate maze. A secret door next to the first key leads to an unmarked exit that dumps you on the stock secret level. Too bad, as the third level finally shows a glimpse of promise, albeit somewhat marred by HOM and mislabeled key doors. This, too, is apt to an abrupt end with another unmarked exit switch.

Three levels in three separate WADs (EHD11, EHD12 and EHD14) dated March 31 1994 - 26 years and a day ago. The author, Ed Jankovsky - a student at Northern Arizona University, announced them on the same day in newsgroup alt.games.doom in a thread titled "Try These New Levels!!!"

 

https://groups.google.com/d/topic/alt.games.doom/VUFq8jK-RxM/discussion

 

The number of the exclamation marks in the subject reflected the author's excitement rather than the quality of the levels. Even by the standards of the day they were rather poor - Michael Kelsey's STONES had been out for several days already.

 

The only noteworthy level in this pack is EHD14. It's a 5x5 grid of empty 256x256 rooms, each with a teleporter in the center. No monsters or exit, this was probably meant to be a DM-only board. All weapons except the shotgun are present, as well as some ammo. There are a couple more rooms extending north from the north-easternmost grid cell, but to proceed you need to raise the bridge across the nukage first. The switch is in the center of the grid. Once you get to the northernmost room the things finally start getting interesting.

 

You can walk out of the map into the void through the north-eastern corner of that room. Then you can go west and circle the map to your heart's content, provided you keep far enough away from the two nukage sectors. You can even travel in the void between the individual grid cells and examine their contents from outside. Once you drop into the nukage sectors extending out into the void the journey is over, however. The nukage won't harm you and you can get back into the map but you cannot get onto the walkway or back into the void.

Another kid steals somebody else's map to pass as his own. ZEH is a slightly edited conversion of Andrew Murphy's BIP.WAD. Ignore the imposter and play the original, it's excellent.

Dire even for June 1994. With the amount of visual glitches caused by bad nodes this should have never been released.

A simple, flawless map. Clean, economical design. Lacks memorable highlights, though.

8 small DM levels, playable solo. M1-M3 & M6 are terrible, although mercifully short. M4 is OK but too short; has two unintentional voodoo dolls. M5 is a much larger underground maze, has semi-invulnerable Cacos, blah otherwise. M7 is similar, though improved by some nice recolors. M8 is a boat with multiple decks, passable execution. M9 was the original E1M1 with a couple more Sarges in the courtyard outside the green armor room, a Cyber in the main courtyard and the exit made fake à la E2M6.

A small unfocused map from August '94. Most of the doors are unmarked, although they do show up on the automap. Worse yet, the exit is not marked as well. The red and the blue keys offer two short side trips when the level is almost over. The clever Cyber scare is the only highlight.

A nearly perfect '94 WAD. A little on the short and easy side, but the execution is flawless. Even the textures are aligned, can you believe it?

A small sprawling map that could have been designed by Greytale of DARKHELL fame. A fun little ride if you don't mind unmarked switches and teleporters. The second reviewer is right about the crucial switch in the side of the window frame: it's invisible unless you happen to use the window sill as a switch. And if you go for the plasma rifle before doing that and getting the red key, you are stuck.

A medium-sized courtyard surrounded by green marble hallways with lifts. Playable in single player but the exit is broken -- the switch to open it doesn't work (tested in v1.9, Boom and v1.2 compat modes). Should have been set up as "lower floor to *lowest* floor" not highest.

Two linedefs have invalid sidedef numbers, Prb+ has no problem with that. A large softcore slaughter map with lots of shotgun fodder and places to go. Don't drop into the Cyber's arena, there's no way out.

Two small concept levels from July '95 that seem impossible at first sight but are quite playable and fun to figure out. 100% kills is doable on the first map, with a little planning. Generally I would dock a point for mandatory secrets, but they are not a big deal with short levels like these.

A squiggly layout, blah texturing, sliding doortracks, interminable lifts, random deathtraps, a blur sphere whose only purpose is to get the player stuck, feeble opposition -- this WAD got it all! The last lift is a particularly bad design idea: not only it takes a full minute to rise, near the top you get attacked by Lost Souls you cannot see or shoot.

An outstanding map. Clean design, fairly involved layout, superb texturing and lots of Sarges to keep you on your toes.

An amazingly complex, twisted map, better than anything in DARKHELL. The monster density is low, so the emphasis is on exploration and puzzle solving. The texturing is still odd, but that's probably just Greytale's signature style. This is one of those maps that make you wish it would go on forever and regret finding the exit.

Strangely delightful or delightfully strange? Either way, it's legendary. THE GUN IS GOOD! 4ever

An older version of id=927 (see my review there), and the worst of the three 1994 Reactor WADs.

This is an updated version of id=887. The disclaimer in the TXT is ironic if you consider how much better Scott F. Crank's REACTOR2 is (currently only the D2 conversion is in the archive as id=2659). Unlike that WAD, this is just a small cramped mess of misaligned STARTAN3, with a few lifts, unmarked critical doors and a deathtrap pit. Good thing the author didn't forget the exit.

Landis, Klem, Keranen, Helmberger, Windsor, Herman & Nathrath all on the same team? This would get an automatic 5/5 if they had released nothing but the TXT file. Kudos to TGH for the much belated proper!

A small, rather flat level from May 1994, shaped like a boat. Not bad for its time and nothing particularly memorable either, besides the odd use of key-skull textures for decorative purposes.

I always thought that women somehow had a better grasp of aesthetics than men. This map must be an exception that proves the above rule. A textbook example of a terribad 1994 WAD. Of the two versions provided, only the September one is playable. The earlier one is incompletable past the yellow key.

Surprisingly good for a maze level. A few spots can take you unawares, so it's not exactly a walk in the park.

What the previous review said. Good WAD spoiled a little by mandatory secrets that require random wall humping.

Large sprawling level, fun to explore and figure out a couple of puzzles. The other reviews covered the flaws, to which I can add that you can get stuck behind the corner pillar in the reg. exit area and the cheap gotcha crusher.

Three small fun levels, minimalistic design and low monster counts, focus on tough (for the time) gameplay. Two linedef specials in the wrong places on E3M1 and E3M2 can get you stuck in vanilla compat. The former is negligible in practical play, the latter requires killing the free-wheeling Imps in the start area, otherwise you may find the first door inoperable on return.