Anarkzie

MAP07 - “Plutonium Sonata” by Lawns, OceanMadman I have been really enjoying playing this wad so far but i found this level to be tedious, I'm hoping that it is down to me playing with the wrong settings or comp level but it appears that there are no enemies in the map. The between level blurb mentions arriving at a town with no resistance so I'm assuming this was intentional. The music for the stage is great and has an otherworldly empty feel to it but the stage it self, despite having no enemies, is still designed like a regular doom level and just keeps going on and on, you think it's about to finish and then theres yet another area. I think the concept of an empty level could have been pulled off if it were better designed around that idea, taking into account the atmosphere that the team were trying to evoke, which is probably hard on the Doom engine, and player engagement, what the player is doing and for how long. I think an open layout like the last level would have worked better for this concept, purhaps featuring lots of Doom cute showing an abandoned city; the size and length of the last level would have been perfect for this as well. Another approach would have been to focus on environmental dangers, traps and platforming etc. I respect that the team tried something different here but this was a miss for me. It's sad too, because with enemies in place this would have been a really good level

Map 5 I ride the lift down to an ambush of cultist and bullets. This level has a hot start. Aintr has a real knack for crafting natural looking cave environments, I'm sure the texture pack helped but there are lots of artistic choices made all over this level to elevate it beyond a bog standard cave level, I like the use of wood and metal as support beams to give it that authentic "Mine" feel. The combat after the opening is moderate in difficulty, good but nothing that will stretch you as a player, the level gets a second shot at trying to kill you as it becomes Hell-a-fied, the Pain Elementals are the most engaging encounters at the point but it's really not all that hard. I missed a lot of secrets, there was a BFG that I could not work out how to access and a whole other area of the map that maybe a death match area or something I gave up and IDCLIPped over to it and it looks fantastic but I had killed almost everyone and there was no extra bosses or anything. Map 6 I depart from my boat/temple to see a giant bill board: OMG, map 6 has Depeche Mode playing. This whole level has a holiday break like feel to it. It's structured like a typical Doom 2 city map with loads of self contained buildings, my favourite is the building that contains the mini concert with the Rev's watching the show while some imps order their drinks and that one cute Lost Soul watching TV. The levels over quite fast but its memorable and a fun time.

Map 4 Axis Forces vs Homicide by Godzialox666 I'm in prison, my life of crime finally caught up to me. Moving around I'm struck by the cool design on the floor over to the right. Godzialox666 is flexing on us with his mapping skills. Opening the secret right next to it, reveals some excellent story telling, simply positioning the the Nazis in the way the author did with the dead Imps sprites does a great job of conveying what just happened. Talking of sprites, the new Nazi(Neo Nazis?) sprite looks great. I never understand why the SS wore blue overalls, they just looked like maintenance guys with guns. There's fantastic little touches all over the level, a crack in the stairs after leaving your cage was cool. I also loved the design of the lava pit a little later. The tank towards the end of the level is another mapping achievement. This level has some of the best texturing I've seen using the Wolf assets, they don't tend to gel well with Doom textures normally, with that said parts of this level look bad, it's an odd mixture of really good with some faults here and there. Some of the silent teleporters have different textures at their location from their destination which causes continuity problems, these are mostly minor though and I don't think I would have noticed if I were playing this out side of this club. The level overall has a great adventure feel taking influence(I'm guessing here) from Indiana Jones. It nail's this to perfection(if that was what it was trying to achieve, once again I'm guessing). I enjoyed the combat but theres nothing out of the ordinary to mention about it, it's good.

There must be away as this thread talks about downloading new ones:

That was my take away too!

Map 3 Dusty Debris This level's opening sight of the gallows is very powerful. Dusty Debris looks a lot more dreary than the last two maps, I can almost feel the effects from the lack of Vitamin D, it's like its set in London. Not a fan of the midi. Moving pass the imp congo line into the second room gives me the first true Plutonia like moment as the four Chaingunners rip me to shreds, I survive but in the confusion I'm left with little health, I die a couple of rooms later. I restart the level, now knowing what to expect of the second room, I breeze pass it while keeping 100% health. I thought the room had a weird switch puzzle, but it was just that the right hand switch was misaligned. The lost souls usage in this map is very effective, in the room with the caged Revenant turrets they work at preventing you from easily controlling the situation. My first encounter with them had me manoeuvring behind a pillar to avoid the Revenants only to have a Lost Soul gnawing at my elbow wondering where these guys came from. Pairing the two was a great choice. I do very well in this stage at finding the puzzles, which is something I normally suck at, I notice immediately the skull feature with the red arrows for eyes on the wall. Skiping ahead I think the last room is the best designed room in this map, it's visually dynamic and I like the progression. This map most fealt like something from the original Plutonia, the hit the player with with an aggressive trap that will get you for sure on your first try but still a trap that has a way to avoid the punishment is very Casali.

Plutonia 2 is really good and I agree with RHhe82 that Cydonia is a great map set but honestly if it's not made by the Casali brothers then I don't understand how it's a sequel, Plutonia was just a Doom 2 mod made in the Casali's brothers unique mapping style. I feel that most of us have our own unique style, Plutonia 2 feels a lot more like Kamasutra for example due to the influence of all the Gusta maps, than Plutonia.

Map 2 This level is really the polar opposite of the first map, the areas are cramped and stuffed with enemies. I was initially scared that this was going to play like "The Mucus Flow" but I soon found the rhythm of combat. It mostly consisted of me peaking into a room saying hello and then back tracking while the demons chase me. The visuals are gorgeous, where as the last map looked like it took place in a temple that had long since falling into ruin this level looks like it's at its peak. I wonder if doom guy travelled back in time or if this is an isolated community similar to the last Tomb Raider game. I have to take a moment to mention how well the midi goes with this level, I absolutely loathe t.A.T.u's "All the things you said" and I'm not a fan of midi renditions of real songs in general but when it works it works, and it lent this level a light-hearted atmosphere. Good level, I'm enjoying this wad so far.

"Humans are not real" Finally a wad that is willing to address the elephant in the room. Level one The starting area where you're running around in a humongous empty area collecting armour and the blue key was a bit frustrating on my first playthrough but It also delivered a sense of setting off on an adventure, It reminded me of uncharted 2, chapter 16 Tibet. I could completely be reading into things that's not there. The next area is also huge with very few enemies, an imp jumps out of a rock, then you walk a bit and another Imp jumps out of a rock with a Revenant, this happens a third time and im left wondering why is this area so large if this is the only resistance you're facing. As I continued on I noticed that this is a general feature of the level as all the areas are huge, this may be an early map from the author as I know that I had the same problem with gauging space when putting a level together. The mapper does a good job of conveying being in a temple or some kind of ruined ancient culture, again uncharted vibes. I see a lot of custom enemies have been added, the Imps are black(yay, diversity), cultist from Blood show up, Mancubi have been tweaked and the Arcantrons are using an alterated sprite that have also been darken. The map carries a consistent sense of adventure, I do think more enemies could have been added to fill out the areas and make the combat more exciting but there were some good set pieces; the Archvile flanked by the Revenant was a good challenge. The last room is a homage to Plutonia which is cool but I like that the mapper did not over do this sort of thing.

Why? If you're not enjoying the game then stop playing it or at least play on an easier setting with saves. It's not like the game has a super important story to tell.

Porting Doom 1 and 2 would have made no sense as PS2 was backwards compatible and the PS1 had a good port already. PS2 had some very impressive looking fps games for time I don't think there was much of a market for them.

No worries man, take the time you need to sort out your issues. The core content has already already made it to the masses, this is just a re-tooling.

Thanks, I'm so happy to hear that.

Updated: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZWGxeQXwRdTc8snyEMNcrrqwiWJDR1FY/view?usp=drive_link I'm hoping I got everything. The co-op starts have been added.

@Demonic Meatball I'll update the map tomorrow morning.