LadyMistDragon

Well, I missed the black and purple keys but that's ok. This map took an INSANE amount of time to decipher progression in, not to mention at least one particular obscure shootable switch seeming to be mandatory! I kept missing the switch that lead to the blue key which was kind of disappointing. A couple of things relating to the meaning. The tiny little caches in the most obscure points made me essentially think there's always hope in darkness and madness. The numerous circle-shaped platforms and the overall feel of the map made me think of going around in circles over and over with hardly a better clue on what to do next and any finding of progression forward always managed to feel like pure happenstance :P The BFG message was hilarious and to be honest, how I'd expect this kind of relationship to be I missed out on far too much of the story, but if I were to take one overall theme from this, it's the contrast between turbulence and tranquility, between nihilism and the ever-tiny bits of hope which can be found throughout(the obscure non-secret caches and the lights that can occasionally be spottedin the distance. What's more, I would say the memory of what made the relationship happened has never really faded. As evidence by The industrial area was oddly enough, the most interesting to pick apart. The poisoned liquid wasn't harmful, yet, it was definitely precluding of actual harm. Navigating the area around the blue key was unsurprisingly the grimmest and probably touched on how life forces us into machine-like roles and breaks us down or smth. All I know is that it may have been too dark here because one would have to either look at the map or take a leap of faith to reach the blue key Then that ending......what were you saying about dramatic exactly?? :P A massive portion of the map opens up and we get swarmed by a stupidly massive swarm. But when that's all concluded, the closing walk through heavy rain is precisely how it feels to cool off after something quite extraordinary. And of course, I have to shout out the ending screen message that everyone will get their first time. Video coming soon.

heck +1 to FRAYED

Floating Points - Fast Forward

To be honest, I'd spotted those covers Dark Pulse found but catching the references wasn't my purpose. I feel like there might be references to Alien and Event Horizon in there

I hope little of note gets released tomorrow is all I'll say for now :D

I just couldn't figure out how to open to exit. Otherwise, nice callback to some of your early hell-themed material in the design sense, although the only real puzzle box is at the end.

Good idea, though there are visibility issues toward the end.

SURVIVAL.WAD (1995) by Jay Ashworth (Crispy Doom) Weird enough that this was made for Doom 1 in 95. But there's little else to say. STARTAN is everywhere. Themes change randomly. There's an oblifgatory Cyberdemond. Enemy groups are thrown into some rather non-threatening positions. There's a random slime-floored maze. And soooo many overly open areas. The stairwell leading outside seems it could lead to something cool with the framing. But nah. And what's the point of returning to that stupid maze anyway through the COMPBLU hallway? And the last wall raising before the end is pretty pointless when one can just press a nearby switch to lower it again. I swear there's a Jay Ashworth who went on to work in games but a quick google search revealed no obvious answers. 2/10

Catastrophe (2002) by Kevin "Magikal" Reay (GZ Doom) I knew I was going to hate this map the moment I rolled it. I also knew I was going to need plenty of time to finish it! And thank god this is only one of TWO Magikal solo releases in the archives (there's a few more on his personal website but that can only be accessed through archive.org and uh, I don't have to elaborate) Because this map in addition to throwing large hordes of enemies into places which are best avoided until quite late in the map when you've found some weapons, also loves sector tricks. Let's just say this: the each tower of the central building will spring some kind of maze inside, other than the one behind the blue key door that leads to a deadly trap that doesn't make a whole lot of sense until you return to the command center and find a red switch has appeared. Magikal's ability to be deceptive with visual language is quite vast and also has plenty of sadistic traps up his sleeve. For instance, fooling around with the console at the beginning will trigger a mass teleport trap probably best dispatched with a chaingun from upstairs but you're going to be ruined no matter what! Though I like the unique way the chamber opens to reveal itself. Probably only possible with pre Doom Builder editors! And just like Citadel at the Edge of Eternity, Kevin is not blocking off a single gap, meaning that you'll plunge yourself into an unwinning in the ugly as hell courtyard surrounding the tower if one doesn't watch out! The most infuriating region would have to be the maze that it seems really easy to find oneself going around in circles, especially if you miss a thing or two like I did, like the rocket launcher. One can probably expect the textures to hide things at times. And indeed, in one case, this opens up to an ugly as sin lava-room with transparent walls and nobles teleporting through the middle. But there's two switches. One leads to a key while the other opens the way back. But wait, it deposits us near the red key door! There's also a fake hallway that loops back in on itself, a marble room probably best described as a temple and what seems to be a waste plant with slime leaking everywhere. This latter one leads to a massive courtyard, containing pinkies at the bottom for no reason and all and a massive Imp teleport trap, backed by Revenants in seemingly inaccessible areas. Bottom-line is, we end up in a beautiful lava-filled cavern, with seemingly scattered enemies and increasingly uninspired teleport trapping. Although the one bit with the Baron in front and Revenants appearing mysteriously in the back is kind of nice. At the very top is a switch, which lowers a lift to the darkened chamber across from us and also causes two Cyberdemons to teleport on different pillars here. Thankfully, the darkened chamber is the exit, though you'll still have to contend with a Revenant or two. This map is so difficult to summarize, besides being profoundly cheap at the beginning. Like it's clear Kevin had a vision and stuck with it to the end. Perhaps the last crater scaling was meant to be a bit of a cooldown even. But while progression isn't quite as cryptic as it seems (some areas almost channel Jim Flynn I swear), the amount of inexcusable meanness is a bit much. If you want a Doom equivalent of the original Mother, you could certainly do worst and once one knows where to go, only the beginning is utterly unbearable. 6/10

In about 5-10 minutes, we're finishing Echelon before moving on to other stuff! https://www.twitch.tv/ladymistdragon1

And there was me thinking it was some shitpost. Looks so cool

Floating Points - Peroration Six

I don't know how much of a pillar it was when it was a serious thing for like, maybe 5 years if I'm remembering my Cacoward skimming right? Anyway, it's like Terry wads or other general immature tendencies of the time that are much better left in the past. If someone wants to make a jokewad, they're free to so, but most attempts are made by people that simply don't know what they are doing.