Agent Slacker

I will now spend the next -3 minutes looking for a Rei doll.

E4M5: Doctrines of Devils DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, played on a Steam Controller I'll probably stick with the Steam Controller for the rest of my playthrough. I had a lot of fun with this map, a lot more than I thought I would. There were a lot of neat set pieces to fight through. The battle for the red key sticks out to me because I really enjoyed riding the lifts one by one, blasting the imps that pop out. It reminded me a lot of DOOM 2's The Pit, (which is another personal favorite map of mine). The BFG room was fun, especially after grabbing the invincibility sphere that was conveniently located near the teleporter leading to it. The room behind the yellow skull key was a good bit of dickish fun. I enjoyed this map a bit more than I did the previous one because it didn't feel like half of the map was covered in damaging floors. It might also be because I could listen to Perkristian's rendition of Waltz of the Demons all day.

Now that I think about it, I couldn't tell you exactly what sparked my interest in DOOM. I'd heard the name thrown around when I was younger. I called any shooter I saw a DOOM game. But I think the first time I sat down and actually played DOOM was probably more than a decade ago. I remember back in high school I had a copy of DOOM and DOOM II for the GBA that I used to carry around. That might have actually been my first experience playing those games from start to finish. When I graduated around 2012 was probably when I was introduced to DOOM proper when I was given a laptop for college. I've been a fan ever since.

And now we wait for the consoles to get patched...

Disregard my last post, I'm voting for... +++DOOM 2 In Spain Only

E4M4: Unclean Spirits DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, played on a PowerA Enhanced Wireless Controller for the Switch (DOOM Eternal Edition) I remember this one being a lot harder. The intro would kick my ass constantly. It's still a pretty rough intro, but I guess I've learned how to maneuver over the years. This ended up being a bit easier than I remember. We went from a couple of easy levels to something more in line with E4. Lots of ambushes, lots of meat shields, a Spider Mastermind, the list goes on. I spent quite a bit of time on this map just searching for more supplies. There was a courtyard with rockets that led to a nasty ambush of spectres, lost souls, and cacos. I was a bit annoyed that half of the map was made of lava, but at least there were enough radiation suits to get by. Man, I'm trying to find something to talk about but I've summed it all up. It's hard and it's on point with the level philosophies of E4. Maybe I should stop watching Sasaki and Miyano after playing DOOM. Or maybe I'm just losing focus on what this whole club is about. Also, I'll just let the club decide the next WAD. Most of the WADs I'd want to chat about have already been covered, so I'd be down to play anything really.

E4M3: Earth, Wind Blood and Fire DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, played on a PowerA Enhanced Wireless Controller for the Switch (DOOM 25th Anniversary Edition) Apparently PowerA managed to snag the rights to release DOOM themed controllers for the Switch. There are 3, but I only have 2 of them. One is for the 25th anniversary of DOOM, one is for DOOM Eternal, and the last one is for the Slayer's Club. I'm just missing the latter. I might prefer M2 if only for the fact that the secrets aren't nearly as much of a pain in the ass to grab as 2 of the secrets here. There's also far less damaging floors. The map is very aesthetically pleasing with the heavy use of right angles and that one green texture. The fights weren't super challenging, although the blue key ambush kind of caught me off guard with the two lost souls thrown in with the caco. The teleport "puzzle" was a bit underwhelming, and a bit annoying actually because of how you were always facing away from where you were going. This led to me getting shot in the back by a shotgunner and taking a decent chunk of damage. Now that I think about it, there aren't a whole lot of regular mooks are there? Like, 95 percent of the former humans so far have been shotgunners.

E4M2: Vile Affections DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, return of the DualSense (Samuel Hayden) Compared to the last level, this one is easy. The only challenge was the lack of health items. The layout of this map was pretty fun, pretty square, like most of McGee's maps. The more I think about it, the more I think, this isn't a super memorable map, but it is a fun one. I don't remember a whole lot about it, even though I just finished it (I always right these immediately after I finish a level), but I remember enjoying the encounters, the layout, all of that stuff. E4M9: Terror Boy does this remind me of NEIS. It's not nearly as brutal, but it is as long as some of those maps can get. I'm not super fond of the use of the red brick texture here. The map itself is kinda big, and tall. As much as I'm trying to avoid direct comparisons to classic DOOM maps, I can't help but be reminded of Fear if it were more vertical, and more red. Other than a couple of monster closet ambushes, the rest of the map was pretty easy.

E4M1: Into the Groove Grave DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, return of the DualShock 4 (Sayaka) And so begins the delightfully devilish levels of E4. This is a punishing level that almost requires ammo conservation at the start. Enemy infighting is a must for the beginning pathway. Once you almost reach the top you suddenly get bombarded with teleporting shotgunners. I'm thankful I remembered the last time I played this level so I could dodge most of them; I wouldn't say I escaped unscathed, I had at least 70 percent health to spare. You drop down a shaft only to be bombarded with even more enemies, it's nuts. At this point you'll probably have plenty of shotgun shells anyways so dealing with enemies is still a pain because of the lava and the tight pathways leading to the blue key. Thankfully I remembered about the nastiest surprise this level had to offer, so I was able to avoid the ending surprise completely and just ended the level. Much like the intro to classic E4, I tried to get through this as quickly as possible because the longer I stick around, the worse the pain becomes. A brutal start to a brutal episode.

E3M7: Inner Sanctum DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, return of the PowerA Wireless GameCube Controller (Kyoko) I love the concept of this map, and the name suits it well. It's all about breaking into an inner sanctum to collect two keycards to open up the exit. I'm personally not super fond of this being an all indoors map, an issue I had with Ore Processing, the penultimate map of the previous episode, but it's not a mark against the map itself. This is also another more open and round level, similar to Lake of Fire, so there's plenty of room throughout the exterior of the sanctum. Unlike Lake of Fire though, it doesn't feel like you're being constantly barraged with enemies. It feels a bit easier as a result. Compared to the other 2 penultimate maps, this one feels easier than E1's, but a bit more challenging than E2's. E1 had some nasty monster closets that actually caused my first death of the run. E2's was just kind of dull. This one had plenty of action packed moments, but when it comes to the exterior, it could have had more enemies pelting away at me. I also like how the interior starts opening up when you collect a keycard. It's a nice touch that makes navigation a bit easier. Also, it's always nice to see a reference to a certain fishy friend. E3M8: Core Talk about an epic set piece; a giant pentagram with the Spider Mastermind smack dab in the middle being guarded by moving walls and 5 Barons. It looks great. I can't say it plays very well though. The Barons were easy to deal with, the walls were annoying and only served to get in the way of shooting the Spider Mastermind. I get that's the point, but it doesn't make for an engaging fight in my opinion. None of this makes the Spider Mastermind any harder to deal with because it's ultimately still a pretty easy fight, just with more waiting. I liked the map's design more than I enjoyed playing it. E3 was always one of my favorite gaming conventions to watch episodes in classic DOOM (even though Unholy Cathedral exists). Peterson was allowed to go absolutely nuts and created some of the most interesting levels in the game (except Unholy Cathedral). I think that this was a fine tribute overall to the surreal level designs of classic E3. Even the weakest levels were still better than Unholy Cathedral (did I mention that I don't like Unholy Cathedral?) As a whole, I'll always look at DtWiD with rose tinted glasses, as it was the first megawad that I remember playing. I love projects like these, ones that are all about vanilla-esque throwback levels. Liberties have been taken here and there, and that's perfectly fine, because in general, it all feels pretty authentic. And now we move onto E4. Now's where the real pain begins.

Speaking of fun and silly remixes of DOOM songs

Really? I remember the last time I played this on GZDoom that the entrance would not open whatsoever. I knew I did something wrong, I'm just not sure what.

E3M6: Depths DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, return of the 8bitdo Pro 2 (Sasaki) and the 8bitdo SN30 Pro (Miyano) I'm just really happy to be able to use these controllers with gyro enabled. A very special thanks to Brad Harding of the DOOM Retro source port for putting up with my requests to get DOOM Retro working properly through Steam. I distinctly remember this level being in E2 for some reason. Maybe it's because of the use of certain textures (I don't know the names of certain textures off the top of my head, but it's probably the greenish tech base textures mixed with the textures in the only outdoor area of this map). The start of this level was pretty dickish. I don't recall there being any traps like this in any of the classic DOOM episodes. Besides that, I can't say I'm a big fan of this map. I was never fond of the more cramped maps like this one. The encounters with the lost souls reminded me a lot of a similar encounter in Pandemonium. The two barons popping out of the large stone coffins was another neat set-piece. I'm also not sure how I feel about access to the secret level. I don't like it when I can get locked out of it because I had no clue that I did something wrong. There are two switches to activate, and you have to shoot one and press the other. There's no hint as to which one you're supposed to shoot and which one you're supposed to press. If you shoot the one you're supposed to press, you can't open the access to the secret level. I remember this happening to me the last time I played this map, and it sucked. E3M9: Ring Lake of Fire (or the place where bad folks go when they die) Where have I seen this map before? I probably have a much better opinion of this map now seeing as I came in with full health compared to the last time I played this in another map set, where it felt like there was no end in sight during a return visit to a certain anomaly. It's a bit of an ugly map in my opinion, but of course, most of Peterson's maps were never about looks. It's about how fun it is searching for keycards. I'll admit, I got lost trying to find the yellow key. I guess it just felt a little out of the way for me. I think this is another map that's perfectly serviceable, but it ultimately didn't stand out to me. I guess it reminded me a bit too much of Mt. Erebus.

E3M5: Chapel of Scorn DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, played on my Steam Controller, affectionately named "Shuichi" My beloved. My Super Shotgun. My Light Amplification Visor in E2M6, Halls of the Damned. I am so happy we can be together again to rip and tear. I sometimes forget that Sandy Peterson levels were the definition of utilitarian; maps that, above all else, were about gameplay. They were never the prettiest maps. This is a very pretty map. Beautiful, even. From the marble interiors of the beginning room, to the front of what I assume is the Chapel of Scorn itself, with bright red inverted crosses on either side of the entryway. Like a lot of my favorite maps in DOOM, this one flows very well. It was always easy to know where to go next, and there was plenty of gibbitude to be had on the way to my next destination. Some fun encounters include the one at the beginning of the map with the teleporting imps, the showdown with the Baron across a bridge surrounded by fire and brimstone, and the onslaught of teleporting enemies when grabbing the blue key from the center of a toxic pool. This was very nice map indeed, and definitely one of my favorites of this episode.

E3M4: Torture Chamber DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, played on a PowerA Enhanced Controller for Xbox Series S/X Now would have been a great time to mention cock and ball torture, but that comparison has sailed. I don't think I liked this one nearly as much as the previous 2 maps. Maybe it's because nothing really WOWed me compared to the aesthetics of M2 or the brutality of M3. The crushing imp cage was kinda cool. The battle with the barons over lava was pretty neat too. It's a perfectly serviceable map.

The acquisition hasn't been finalized yet. It probably won't be until next year. So I don't think we'll know anything about the asset situation until next year.

Never watch something like Sasaki and Miyano during a depressive episode. Worst mistake of this week.

E3M3: Malebolge  DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, played on a PDP Afterglow Wired Controller for Xbox One If you'll excuse me for being crass, the first thing that ran through my mind as I was going through the blood river that dropped me into the level only to be ambushed by imps, cacos, and former humans, was "this is cock and ball torture" (it didn't help that I was listening to Carly Rae Jepsen). I'm quite surprised at how brutal the intro was, especially for something this early. Hell, I'm surprised at how fast paced this map is in general, getting railed by enemies from everywhere. Sitting somewhere too long is a nightmare. I'd normally see something like this one or two levels later. I'm not sure how I feel about half of the map being covered in damaging blood, but once you have everything you need, it becomes considerably less of an issue. It's only when you start looking for secrets that it becomes a bit of a pain in the ass. I remember liking this map more than I did, but as it stands it's pretty good. It just seems a bit difficult for something so early in the Episode, but at least it gets the point across that you're definitely in Hell now. 

E3M2: City of Corpses DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, played on an Xbox One Elite Controller Now's where the fun begins. This is already one of my favorite maps of the WAD. Now we're getting into some surreal imagery and abstract level design. It also helps that the name kicks ass, some real 90's cheese. The way the opening rooms transform when picking up the shotgun left such a strong impression; it's exactly what I was thinking of when I was talking about surreal level design that shows Hell's influence. Sure, the main "hub" area afterwards is a bit too large and a bit dull from a gameplay standpoint, but the path to the yellow key is some good old fashioned Lost Soul closet fun. The room where the key is looks appropriately dark and spooky, and makes for a fun dance against spectres, cacos, and lost souls. I can't help but compare the final wooden building where the exit is to one of the buildings in Mt. Erebus. The resemblance is just uncanny; it even has a way to access a plasma rifle and some ammo. I'm also probably a bit biased because this level has one of my favorite tracks in the game: Donna to the Rescue.

It's been a while since we've seen a new add-on hasn't it? Last one was, let's see here, Oh.

E3M1: Abyssal Stronghold DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, played on a PowerA Fusion Controller I echo most, if not all of RHhe82's sentiments. It's a neat looking map, but I felt it could have looked a little bit more, surreal? One of the things I liked about E3 was how experimental and out there levels were allowed to be. You're in Hell, where reality is never what it seems. To bring up a comparison to Hell's Keep, the first room of that map did a good job at being out there, from the fleshy pit that you ascend from after poking an eyeball, to the simple structure ahead that hides a keep that looks much larger than what's outside. I know I should avoid comparisons to id levels, but what I liked about Hell's Keep was that it was surreal. It's a strong intro that shows you Hell can do whatever it wants. As fun as Abyssal Stronghold is, I feel that if you changed some textures around, this map could probably fit E1 or E2 pretty well. E3M2 on the other hand...

I noticed this too, but it looks like it was only the Switch version that was updated. The PC and Xbox ports haven't had any updates. The lack of patch notes mean that this was probably something insignificant.

E2M7: Ore Processing DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, played on a Hyperkin X91 Wired Controller Talk about a missed opportunity to call it Gore Processing. That might have saved this map. For me, personally, this is the weakest map of the episode, maybe even the whole WAD. Every time I play this map I got oh so lost. I'm not asking for the map to hold my hand, but I do wish that it were a little bit more explicit on where to go next. It doesn't help that the map feels so large and empty, with so much downtime between encounters (although me getting lost has plenty to do with it). The encounters themselves were nothing special, with plenty of space to weave through the fray. I was just a mix of bored and frustrated throughout this map. This might be the first time I flat out dislike a map. Even E2M2 had its moments. E2M8: Vault What a neat twist on an Episode 2 boss fight. The setup is great; a great structure in the middle of the map that has to be opened up like a Matryoshka doll only to reveal the big bad Cyberdemon in the middle (what a great way to build up tension). As soon as the Cyberdemon is revealed, the rest of the level opens up, and then the Cyberdemon starts teleporting around the map. It certainly makes the Cyberdemon fight much more engaging as there's a chance it'll teleport somewhere else. It kept me on my toes. There's a reason I prefer E2 over E1. Sandy Peterson's levels rarely ever follow a set formula, in contrast to John Romero's rather formulaic approach to level design. When it comes to DOOM, I prefer levels with varying themes and ideas over one static type of level. Once I figured out how E1's levels played out, I got a bit bored because I knew what to expect. I never got that feeling playing through E2. There was always a neat gimmick or set piece that kept me on my toes. I think, overall, that DTWiD's E2 does a good job of mixing various kinds of ideas together to keep players interested. There were a couple of duds here and there, but ultimately I was much more engaged with these levels compared to E1.

Good ol' barrio oldies

E2M6: Foundry DOOM Retro, UV, Continuous w/saves, played on an 8bitdo SN30 Pro 2 Well, the name certainly fits the level so to speak. Lots of lava strewn around, something I wouldn't expect to see in a foundry (probably melted steel instead, so let's pretend that's what it is). There are also plenty of moving floors and crushing ceilings. I wasn't aware that there was a thread talking about this level's difficulty, because this level isn't super hard at all. I'd compare its difficulty to the secret level. I remember not really liking this map, but I've once again got to give credit where it's due, Alfonzo did a wonderful job with this level's encounters; from the tight battle with some barons, to the teleporting pinky setpiece, to the bullet bonanza in the final room filled to the brim with former humans and spectres. I think I prefer playing through E2M5 simply because there was more room to breathe, but I think the dark atmosphere throughout the level is on par with E2M4.