Rattled through the entire wad in 3 or so days (UV). I think the wad starts very weak but picks up in quality afterwards.
Map01 is pretty offputting, gameplay-wise it's outright bad with the best course of action to just run past all the sniping hitscanners. Also leaves a pretty bad impression with the MSpaint sky and solid yellow texture. I think a more standard sky to begin with and then switching to the bizarro sky once you leave the city block would work far better. The corruption could still be bright yellow, but it really should have a subtle texture since I thought I might've been missing resources or something when I first seen it. I'd probably rework the whole first block, both for the dreadful gameplay and, being a geometrically boring location with clean textures and a touch of doomcute which doesn't sell the Urbex particularly well..
Map02 and Map03 feel a lot closer to what is promised with something about Urbex, and Map04 really sells the fun cinematic/story stuff which is the real strength of the wad. Map02's midi is probably too cheery and stuck out like a sore thumb immediately. With retrospect it's even more out of place, and map03's midi feels like a far better fit.
Map05 and Map06 have some dreadful MIDIS, Map05 especially seems to have a midi that loops every 15 seconds or so. The only other maps with MIDI issues would be Map18 and Map21 (not a bad midi at all in this case, but doesn't loop properly.)
Map08 locked me in for the rest of the set, perfect midi and a genuinely cool and atmospheric hub idea. Map09 was a great followup. From here the set is a lot more consistently good with some real runs of standout maps like Maps 15-17 and Maps 20-23.
I think a common problem is not getting access to fun weapons, you often have to slum it with just your 3 and 4 slot (and sometimes it's not even the super shotgun). There's quite a few levels where you do have access to your rocket launcher but still have to fall back on chopping down mid tier with your shotguns since there's not enough space etc. Some maps have a fun take on dealing with resource starvation with little side areas/houses etc. having a stash of health etc. but I'd say the mapset can feel a bit frugal on health and armour at points which is exacerbated by the occasional 80 damage rev rocket and abundance of hitscanners milling about.
I'd generally give more access to stronger weapons with limited ammo. Given the maps generally involve you fighting in cramped spaces, I wouldn't limit rockets much at all since you should be rewarded if you can find a way to use them safely. Rockets would also make it fun to actually deal with the abundance of mid-tier snipers or mid-tier milling about wide spaces, since I started getting into the habit of just ignoring them. The wad also suffers from an overreliance on hitscan, especially snipers, and there's more than a few cheap usages of ambush chaingunners. The mid-tier enemies aren't often that fun to fight, often just vibing in cramped rooms or otherwise acting as window dressing, which isn't helped by often only having the SG or chaingun to hand. The setpiece fights are generally pretty good.
There's a lot of genuine quality and great ideas in this mapset, and I'm glad I stuck with it after the pretty poor early levels (map04 is probably the only reason I didn't drop the wad at map05).
