Ralgor

Final Thoughts Solar Struggle was on my radar before it even released, as it looked like a wad that would be fun to play. But like most wads, they end up in the "I'll play it one of these days category", which means it was likely I never would have played it. Luckily it was chosen by the club for this month, and while I was originally thinking about taking a break, seeing this chosen convinced me to give it another go. I'm glad I did, since this wad was great. The concept of having a theme for each episode, plus a pre-chosen name, along with other restrictions, gives this wad a cohesiveness that is missing from most community projects. The only downside is its length due to the number of maps, but that was really only a problem because I had other things going on that kept me from being able to focus on it. There were times I wasn't sure I would make it to the end, but thankfully I did. I definitely felt some pretty extreme fatigue at the end, which is something I didn't feel in the previous months. This is not the fault of Solar Struggle, but more that I've been playing a lot of Doom the last six months, so it's about time for a break. No map in this wad was truly difficult, which gave it a casual feeling. I'm really glad for that, since last month's was a little too hard to immediately follow with another difficult wad. I feel like this wad was a little bit on the easy side, but not so much that it became boring. A few of the maps did manage to kill me a few times, but ultimately it was E4M6 - "Mass Propulsion" by SMG_Man that killed me the most. That rocket duel with the cyberdemons in the beginning was probably the most difficult part of the entire wad for me, since I was playing blind while pistol starting and had no idea which way to go. I don't think I'm going to try to make any kind of coherent list, since all of these maps are worth playing. I am going to mention a bunch that I think are memorable in one way or another. I felt that E1M1 - "Detention Facility" by myolden, E1M2 - "Admin Offices" by Peccatum Mihzamiz, E2M3 - "Stock Exchange" by DFF, and E3M8 - "Space Elevator" by muumi really made you feel like you were in the place that the title described. E2M1 and E3M4 - "Fusion Plant" by BluePineapple72 had the best doomcute. E1M8 - "Ceres Gateway" by ViolentBeetle and E2M6 - "Transport Nexus" by Jark had great oppressive atmospheres that put me on edge. E3M1 - "Lunar Gateway" and E4M1 - "Docking Station", both by LordEntropy, were great episode starts that made use of resource constraints to really delay you getting control the map, forcing you to scramble around until you found your footing. The cyberdemon fight at the beginning of E4M6 was terrifying and is not something I'll forget soon. And of course the massive E4M5 - "Waste Recycling Facility" by MAN_WITH_GUN was a great adventure that could have stood on its own. I could probably go on about other little things in various maps (the cave secret in E1M5, the nifty barrel design in E3M5, etc) that are memorable, but I'm worried I'd end up naming most of the maps at that point. There seems to be something for everyone here. I had a lot of fun with this wad, and it really shows what an Ultimate Doom wad can actually be. Everyone involved did a great job here. Like last month, I've discovered yet more map authors I will have to watch.

E4M8 - "Impact Site" by PinkFlamingo MIDI: "Moaning Souls" dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 1 Time: 8:52 I was hoping for a big finale. Something with multiple spider masterminds and cyberdemons. Something memorable. What this is instead is a pretty competently made spider mastermind boss level, but it isn't more than that. Like E3M8, the big momma is on a pillar in the center of the map where she has plenty of opportunity to snipe at you. This time all you have to is make it around the lava-filled crater rim by shooting a procession of eye-switches. Once you get there, grab the BFG and eliminate the spider, and then the avengers who teleport in afterward. Then you're done. The map looks nice. The bit at the end with the rising eye stalks is appropriately off-putting. It may not be the end I was hoping for, but it is a good map and I enjoyed playing it. Having some crazy end level would probably be a bad idea anyway, since I'm pretty sure we all have severe wad fatigue at this point.

E4M7 - "The Tether" by Engired MIDI: "Legion of the Lost" from TNT dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 3 Time: 11:39 This level is pretty small and quick compared to the last two, and is mostly just a series of large teleport fights. There's a bit of a puzzle involved here, in that you need to realize that you want to grab the blue key before the yellow key, since the yellow key will cause a cyberdemon to teleport in. Plus the blue key grants you access to the BFG. The level isn't that hard once you realize that fact, and know to properly hide from massive numbers of hitscanners when you need to. My first two deaths were just from that cyberdemon since I didn't have the appropriate hardware to fight him, and the last was just due to hitscan attrition because I wasn't being careful. Overall this was a pretty uninteresting map. Fighting things in doom is always fun but it didn't really offer more than that. While I'm sure that "tether" is where you exit the map, it looks kind of weird. I enjoyed the break though after the last two maps, so despite all of that I was still happy to play it.

It looks like @MtPain27 (intentionally or unintentionally) decided to become an honorary member of the Megawad Club this month, since he posted a new video showcasing Solar Struggle. It starts about halfway through the video (the first half is a different Ultimate Doom wad), and of course he goes through all of the maps. I had already finished all of my write-ups for the month, so I wasn't worried about spoilers.

E4M6 - "Mass Propulsion" by SMG_Man MIDI: "Cry of Desperation" by Tristan Clark (Eris Falling) dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 5 Time: 41:58 This level has the most terrifying opening to any level in Solar Struggle. On UV, you're thrust into a game of cat and mouse with two cyberdemons (three if you're in multiplayer!), and you're the mouse. You have to hunt around a bit for the rocket launcher, but the real problem is finding enough rockets to take them out. Luckily there are plenty of invulnerability spheres around to help you out. Those spheres are the only thing that makes this part fun, since if you get in a bad spot you can always grab one for some breathing room. Still, hearing a cyberdemon open a door or teleport in near you is still scary. This part of the level is by far the best part of this level. You have to kill all of the cyberdemons to get access to the yellow key that will let you progress. On lower skill levels this level is completely different and I can't speak to that. The massive teleport ambush when you grab the yellow key is pretty fun too. They teleport all over the level that used to be empty, which is exciting since you'll not know what's around each corner. Unfortunately, after this point the level gets kind of boring. I kind of wish it had just ended here... I would be praising this level as one of my favorites. Unfortunately that's not to be. After hitting the yellow key switch you have three different paths to the exit: one involves hunting down a few switches across the level, another has you wading through damaging sewage while dodging crushers, and the last has you hunting down an obscure switch in a lava maze. All three of these options kind of suck, although the standard switch hunt is probably the least objectionable. The progression of the level past this point is just needlessly obtuse. The sewer path is the easiest to navigate, but is miserable to deal with. The switches for the switch hunt are all over the map and a couple would be easy to miss since you will explore the area long before you can flip them. There are several other switches which have mysterious effects that you won't be able to divine. The lava route is practically a secret. Getting 100% kills is obnoxious since you have to follow all three paths. I get that levels don't have to be designed for that, but I feel like I'm missing out or did something wrong if I don't at least try. I guess that's my problem and not the map author's though. The main reason that this bothered me so is that I went through the sewer maze first, and then to get back to the rest of the level you have to backtrack through that mess. None of the combat of these paths come even close to how fun the first bit before hitting that first yellow key switch was. The map did look good, although it was a bit incongruous as well. There are a few different architecture types in this level, and they seem to be almost just thrown together without much thought. It did at least make each section stand out so you knew where you were. Not that it helped as much as it should have due to the number of teleporters around the level. The secrets were reasonable to find, and I think I only needed help on the BFG secret (which I had found the switch and hit it already, I just never figured out what it opened.) Most of the secrets weren't hard to find if you got into a habit of just hitting every switch you see. I really didn't like the lock-in at one of the soul sphere secrets though... it was just a waste of my time. The initial cyberdemons don't exist in difficulties under UV, and they instead appear in an arena that you enter at the exit teleporter. I love it when different difficulties have these kinds of differences. The yellow key is in a different spot too (the UV version is only available behind some bars that open when all cyberdemons die). I'm extra excited to read anything from someone that played this on HMP. Overall I'm really conflicted about this map. The opening was fantastic, and the difficulty design is great. The back half of the map just isn't fun though, mostly due to the lackluster combat, obnoxious damage floor mazes, and obtuse progression. I really like the non-linear design in theory, and probably would have loved this part if it wasn't for the other problems.

E4M5 - "Waste Recycling Facility" by MAN_WITH_GUN MIDI: "Under Death" by Mark Klem dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 3 Time: 58:56 This is an absolutely massive level, with a confusing layout, nonlinear progression, and over 500 monsters. It took me an hour to beat, making it much longer than the next largest level. It was also one of the most difficult levels in the wad. This is actually the kind of level I was expecting when we made it to episode 4, along with things like E4M1. Despite the length, I never actually felt like it overstayed it's welcome. It kept revealing new interesting areas and refilling old areas with new monsters. One of the most notable areas is the dark area in the southeastern part of the map. Clearing this area out initially is already a pain due to all of the hitscanners here, but that's not the painful part. The plasma rifle is here, but collecting it releases a crazy trap. Barons, cacodemons, imps, and specters all get released. You can't see the specters at all, and the horde will effortlessly corner you and kill you if you stay in place for too long. My working strategy ended up being to go to the right side to lure the closest monsters away, then run back to the left and run all of the way to where the lone cacodemon was hanging out in a rare lit area in the northwest. It took me three deaths to figure this out. I can't say I enjoyed this section of the level too much. The massive server room (that could be a crate maze with different texturing) was really fun to navigate. It wasn't actually a maze, but the there were threats around every corner, and often portions would drop down to reveal more monsters. There were a couple of secrets in here too. The crusher area next to this was one area I didn't like too much. It wasn't hard, just time consuming and kind of boring. It is the worst part of the level. The big final fight north of that with the cyberdemon was very exciting though, but I did it without the BFG. I didn't find that until I went back to look for the secrets. I'm pretty sure a few of these areas of this map are completely optional, but without playing it again I won't be able to confirm it. There's also this neat city skyline you can see in the distance at the exit. There is another area that was added just to give you something to look at in the distance too. There are also eleven secrets, and I managed to find all but one without consulting the editor. And even then I think I would have eventually figured it out, but this map kind of exhausted me. This was one of the larger and more fun adventure maps I've played in a while. I really liked this map, but I kind of hope the next one isn't so long.

E4M4 - "Residential Areas" by DJV MIDI: "Archaic Doctrine" by TrialD dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 1 Time: 18:13 The opening of this map is pretty rough. There is very little health but large numbers of hitscanners that will chip away at you. In my case a shotgunner got a lucky hit on me through a window early on for around 40 damage that ultimately led to me dying once. It took me the rest of the level (after reloading a save made after that event) of playing carefully to climb back up to 100% health. Once you get the blue key the level becomes much easier, since you have more cover and some of the monsters get replaced with meatier varieties. There aren't any notable fights, since the map is almost entirely composed of incidental combat. Overall I wouldn't say the level is hard, but you do have to be careful in the first third of the map since you can't recover health easily. The detailing is functional. It doesn't go overboard or anything, but does enough to sort of evoke the idea that this is a place where people live. There's only one bed in the whole place, but honestly that's enough for Doom. The light poles are pretty well done though. The "quarantined" apartments at the beginning that were overtaken with hell's corruption was a nice touch as well. I had fun here, but the lack of time to play lately and general wad fatigue has me not enjoying this one as much as I probably would otherwise. There's nothing wrong with it though, though there's also nothing particularly memorable about it. I do appreciate the break, especially here in hindsight after the playing the next few maps...

E4M3 - "Commercial District" by RataUnderground MIDI: "Devil's Ground" by Mark Klem dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 1 Time: 33:48 This level seems to take place in an open area between probable corporate offices. It's mostly linear and starts out with a lot of incidental combat at first, then some massive teleport ambushes and reinforcements arrive later. From the very beginning there's a spider mastermind patrolling near the big fountain, but another SMM and two cyberdemons will join the party at various points. The SMMs in particular are very dangerous in this map, since you don't have the weapons to deal with them early on and they can shoot you from range. My first attempt at this map ended early due to constant hitscan attrition, including from both SMMs. Going for the plasma rifle will trigger reinforcements, and you'll probably use most of your ammo doing that. The blue key is guarded by a cyberdemon and some barons. The barons only really serve to distract the cyberdemon briefly. I was then able to get the SMMs to fight each other and the new cyberdemon, which hurt him enough I was able to finish him off. I like to see a good cyberdemon-SMM fight occassionally, and this map delivered. Going for the yellow key triggers a massive reinforcement of the level, but also gives you a BFG. So you can BFG down hordes of barons, which is really fun to do. There's no lack of ammo once you get a foothold on the level, so you can have fun killing everything without a lot of stress. There is a slight shortage of health though, mostly due to being pelted with bullets. This map is very stark with the grey texturing throughout the level. There's plenty of detailing though, including the light pillars of various forms, and the blood pouring out of the hellish room in the center. For the most part the progression is linear, although it does snake around the level and teleports around. After getting the red key, I forgot where it was used and it took me a couple minutes to figure out where I was supposed to go next, but that was mostly my fault for being distracted. The secrets are also well done. The one in the hellish room I found immediately, but the one in the fountain took me a little bit. I only figured out the fountains could be passed through when a rocket nearly hit me after passing through one. That was a good little surprise. I really liked this map. It's pretty evocative of a "commercial district", has fun combat, and looks good.

E4M2 - "Customs Office" by Anarkzie MIDI: "Mars Processing Station" from Descent dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 0 Time: 35:32 So now apparently you have to go through customs after taking the tram... and there's a long line. There's also some security behind you that you apparently snuck past. Luckily you can grab a chaingun and just go postal on the zombies that arrived before you. It's a humorous and fun start to the map. There are a lot of entertaining elements like that. I love all of the little details in the cargo area, like the paintings on pallets. There's also some well-placed explosive barrels that can be used to help you save ammo. I also liked the look of the area that hangs down from some structure overhead. I'm less excited by the layout. It's pretty close to just one long (if curved) hallway. There are a few places that require some backtracking, and usually through a shortcut that opens. Most of the combat is incidental, although there are a few teleport traps. The spider mastermind is pretty hapless as usual, since there's not much in the room and you have plenty of cover. The cyberdemon fight can be pretty fun, but it's easy to not realize there's a plasma rifle where he starts. I ended up killing him with nothing but bullets and shells, which took forever and was kind of boring. Most of the combat outside of that was fun though. I kind of like how you access the secret exit. You have to go all of the way to the end of the level to pick up a key after lowering it inside another secret. After that will be a teleporter that should make the trip back and forth easier. This will unlock an optional part of the level. You have to grab all three keys (with the last two being in the same room) in order to take the secret exit. It was kind of fun unlocking more parts of the level, but it did feel just a tad incomplete since two of the keys were together. Still, I thought it was a good design for a secret exit. Overall I had fun with this map, although there were some parts that left me a little bored. I had fun finding the secrets and the secret exit. I just could have done without the spider mastermind, and wish the plasma rifle was well in front of the cyberdemon. E4M9 - "Cult Headquarters" by Mystic 256 MIDI: "Junkie Smack" by Mark A. Klem dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 0 Time: 14:17 This is a small level with around five fights. But those fights involved dense packs of monsters teleporting on top of you, so it's pretty exciting. None of them are difficult really, but they make good use of the ultimate doom roster. The first fight starts the instant the map does, since some of the perched barons can see you immediately. You don't get any good weapons here, and it's not worth trying to shotgun down barons (if there's even enough ammo to do so), so I think you're intended to flip the switches to take on the wings. Each wing has a high-level weapon, but you don't get it for free. Collecting each will cause a wave of enemies to spawn in. Once you take out the wings, cleaning up the center is easy. Even the reinforcement wave on collecting the red key is easier than what came before. The last fight is very similar to the end of E2M8, just with more light and thus easier. You can still get caught by a stray rocket, but the cyberdemon was so distracted I don't think he shot at me once until there was enough space to actually dodge his rockets. The one secret (with two marked sectors) was easy enough to find, although I didn't find it until I went looking for it after I had killed everything. The level is fairly bare with just the three towers to give the level any personality. You're going to be fighting more than looking at the sights anyway. I had a lot of fun with this level. There's never a dull moment.

A little late posting this one, but I should get back on track soon. E4M1 - "Docking Station" by LordEntr0py MIDI: "Escaping the Doomed Forgress" by Myrgharok dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 3 Time: 21:12 LordEntr0py again starts us off in this episode. But this time they are a little more malicious with their design. I died as many times in this map than all of the previous maps combined. It's still not terribly difficult though. We start with a pistol, and that's all you're going to get until you infiltrate deep into the level to find a rocket launcher. There's plenty of rocket ammo around, so don't bother trying to be too efficient. Luckily there's plenty of health to deal with the damage you're going to take trying to reach that rocket launcher. Once you get it, the real fun begins. There are some nasty teleport ambushes in this map, and trying to kill everything with your rocket launcher is going to risk face-rocketing yourself on something. Trying to make space so you can use your rocket launcher is the primary skill involved here. Once I had an imp teleport in right in front of me and I only barely managed to stop myself from firing. Also, you have to be careful about falling off of ledges. Two of my three deaths were from face-rocketing myself after falling off a ledge or because auto-aim decided sending the rocket to the left into the pillar was a good idea. Only one death was from the monsters direct damage. I found the combat quite enjoyable, and a good difficulty... if only I could stop eating my own rockets. This level looks great. I would describe it as haunting. The level consists of several islands suspended in a eerie green sky. At the far end of the level from the start is the back half of some large spaceship, with glowing engines. It's a good, if simple, piece of sector art. The one thing I didn't care for as all of the damaging blood everywhere. It's especially harrowing when you're rushing for the rocket launcher, but then you still have to play "the floor is lava" even later when things are quiet. A little bit would be fine, but the stuff is everywhere. I really enjoyed this map. Being limited to just the rocket launcher makes you play a bit differently, and so it helped to break up the repetition of ultimate doom maps. I really need to start checking out more of LordEntr0py's work.

E3M8 - "Space Elevator" by muumi MIDI: "Escaping the Mechanism" by Jimmy dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 0 Time: 12:54 The episode 3 closer is much more of a boss map than E2M8 was. You start out in a quiet area with a nice view of the space elevator. The effect here is pretty nice, since the elevator is small and close, but it feels like it's large and far away. There is still some work for you to do before you can engage the spider-momma, but you do it under her watchful eye at nearly all times. The arena itself starts flooded with enemies, and you have just a shotgun and a few shells to make do. The initial challenge then is just to dodge enemy attacks while killing shotgunners and grabbing their ammo. The level slowly serves you better weapons, and before too long you have the BFG and can really start to clean up. Every time you hit another switch or grab a key, more enemies flood the central area. Trying to dodge them while not stepping in lava can be difficult, but there are places where it almost forces you to wade through lava. I find that a bit annoying. It's not really a big deal though because there is a ton of health in this map. And you'll need it since you'll get pelted by either shotgunners on the ground or the SMM on the central pillar. You might think you can induce some nice infighting here, and you can, but the SMM is somewhat resistant to fighting with the army down below. The monsters tend to hide behind pillars instead of attacking her. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but it makes the level way more fun. After acquiring the blue key, you head through a teleporter and are placed on a perch up above the arena. From here you can spam BFG at the SMM until she dies. Doing this with any of the monsters down below left alive is probably not a good idea, so you really need to clean up before jumping in. The fight itself is pretty easy, although you could be knocked off by the SMM if you're unlucky. This was a very fun end of the episode. It makes great use of the mastermind, who is usually hard to use effectively. The combat is fun, and it looks pretty good. Especially that view of the space elevator from the beginning of the level.

E3M7 - "Freight Terminal" by MemeMind MIDI: "Freighthoppers" by Jimmy dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 0 Time: 26:36 This map is probably one of the easier ones in the episode, and also the worst looking. I do see the effort put into trying to create actual train cars for this "Freight Terminal", but I'm not sure that CEMENT3 was the right choice of texture. Unfortunately large parts of this level come off as kind of ugly to me, despite the lighting effects. The layout was pretty simplistic compared to other maps in this episode as well, with pretty well only ever having one way forward. I wouldn't say it was a bad map though, since I did have fun playing it. It gives you a BFG and plenty of monsters to use it on, so that's a plus. Most of the fights and even the incidental combat were somewhat fun, although in most cases it was just a bit too easy. I didn't find the opening to be hard at all, it just required luring monsters around to get by them. The two secrets were pretty easy to find as well. I think this map would have been better in an earlier slot... at this point I'm kind of looking for at least a mild challenge. Still I don't want to be too hard on it, since it was actually fun. I suspect the author isn't terribly experienced at making maps, this isn't a bad outing for anyone who is still new to level design.

E3M6 - "Deep Crust Borehole" by myolden MIDI: Stage 1 from Cybernator dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 0 Time: 30:23 Apparently we've bored a hole into some sort of pressurized blood deposit, because the stuff has gotten absolutely everywhere. Luckily it doesn't hurt us as we wade through it, so that's a relief. Most of the level takes place in a tech-base next to the bore-hole that gives the map its name. This map has a good balance of incidental combat, teleport traps, and a couple set-piece fights. I'm definitely used to myolden being less forgiving, but this map is actually not too terribly hard. It's probably the right difficulty level for an episode 3 map. My favorite fight is probably the one in the bore-hole itself. While the blood level is lowering monsters teleport in, including a baron or two. There's a secret BFG right before this, so it's not hard, just fun to finally be able to get and use the BFG. This map is pretty linear, but it uses a fairly compact layout that turns back on itself in multiple spots. It's pretty common to hit a switch somewhere, and then find that you're above or below that switch sometime later as you work your way around. It's very well done. The secrets are well done as well. I was able to find them all after spending some time hunting for them, and they are very helpful. Taking the secret exit requires you to find two separate secrets, one to reveal the yellow key door, and another for the yellow key itself. This map is pretty good looking. The red on white aesthetic is pretty pleasing, and there is a good amount of detailing. The area around the bore-hole is probably the most plain looking part of the level and that is still interesting to look at. The blood filled cavern leading into the moon canyon is all properly moody. This was another fun secret-hunting map, along with the fun combat. I was happy to see the BFG finally, so that also elevates this map. I have to say I'm enjoying episode 3 a lot so far. E3M9 - "The Dark Side" by Astro X and ViolentBeetle MIDI: "Thermite" by Jimmy dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 0 Time: 26:04 This map has a very obvious theme of lunar phases. This is presented through the use of many high-linedef curves. I was expecting a lot more darkness in this map, given the name. Besides the sector art, the walls themselves tend to be pretty low-detail. But it still looks pretty good. This map feels pretty high energy, partly due to the music tracks, but also due to the combat. There are a lot of monsters on this map with not a ton of floor area, so the density can be quite high at times. The combat is pretty fun, with many teleport traps. It seems like every time you take a step more monsters teleport in. There are also three weapons on pedestals that you have to lower to get them, but that sends you into another area with a set-piece fight to conquer with your new weapon. The plasma rifle was the first weapon I grabbed, and I wasn't expecting to get trapped. I nearly dead, managing to finish the fight in the lower room with just 4% health. I was scared to touch the blood lest it kill me, but this blood is safe. Don't make the mistake I did and go for the BFG without the rocket launcher though. I thought I was being crafty by luring the barons away so I could steal their treasure, but instead I ended up in a bad spot. The BFG fight involves a lot of monsters in a small amount of space, and includes hitscanners. I nearly died here, but managed to persevere through copious amounts of in-fighting. The only other notable thing is the fight with the cyberdemon, but with the BFG he's a pushover. That said I'm surprised I didn't eat a rocket since there was not a lot of space to dodge. Surviving this map was at least partially down to luck I think, since I nearly died three times, but never quite gave up. That made this map pretty exciting, and I was pretty happy when I found the exit. Right there is a computer map, which allowed me to easily reveal the final secret and item. I also like how space is reused with the final few rooms getting new fights when you have to backtrack through them. P.S. I'm pretty sure the quality of some of my write-ups is suffering due to the lack of time. I should make it to the end of the month since I'm pretty far ahead already, but I doubt I participate next month. I hope to rejoin at some point later this year though!

E3M5 - "Helium Refinery" by Captain Toenail MIDI: "Dark Halls remix" by Jay Reichard dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 0 Time: 20:37 We are now in a very round tech-base that is supposed to be a helium refinery. All kinds of blue-striped barrels that presumably contains the stuff are scattered around the map. The base is centered on the southeast quadrant of a crater. Besides the central building, it has multiple "wings" that spread out in the cardinal directions. However, you can only enter the western wing. There's also an outbuilding to the northwest you can enter, and the courtyard there is also part of the play area. It almost feels like the author originally wanted the map to be larger, but cut back at some point. In some ways this is the best rendition of a moon base I've seen in Doom. Having the whole thing take place inside a crater is a nice touch, but there are many other details to sell that this is a real base on the moon. There are little shuttles to haul around the level's special barrels. There are even details you can only see if you idclip or use the editor, which is another thing that makes me think this level was initially meant to be bigger. The combat isn't anything special. It's almost purely incidental combat with a few teleport traps, but nothing in close quarters. You get plenty of rockets and other ammo to kill everything efficiently. There's also plenty of health around, so any mistakes you make should be easily recoverable. There's only a couple secrets, and they are pretty easy to find. I kind of stumbled into both of them and didn't really think they were secrets until the game told me they were. I really enjoyed my time with this one, but the detailing and sense of place is really the only thing that really stands out about it. I did notice that some extra fun is included if you play this one in co-op (or use solo-net), so that might be interesting. Edit: I forgot to mention that I liked this midi. I actually really like the original Doom music, and I enjoy hearing remixes of it.

E3M4 - "Fusion Plant" by BluePineapple72 MIDI: "Well of Ass" by Jimmy dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run 100% kills and secrets Deaths: 1 Time: 34:19 This map took me way longer to complete than it should have. I would almost say I got unlucky, but whatever the reason was I couldn't wait for this map to be over. Part of the problem was the midi track... I liked it at first, but twenty minutes in it started to grate on me and I had to turn it off. The real problem was that I couldn't figure out how to progress after I grabbed the blue key. You have to jump through a tiny window that's easy to miss, through a path that itself doesn't appear to lead anywhere. I think that's dumb and I don't like it. I spent a good ten minutes or more figuring out how to proceed, and this includes some time spent in the editor trying to figure it out. I was in that room half a dozen times before I figured it out. Maybe I'm blind but I feel like that nearly qualifies as a secret! In fact some of the secrets in this map were easier to find than the path to the yellow key. The detailing here is actually too good. I mean that. It's great, but I kept getting hung on every little corner, causing me to take more damage than I meant to. I seemed to be fighting the geometry of the map more than the monsters! It really does look fantastic though. It does seem to be waaay more detailing than what was meant to be in this wad. The combat is actually pretty great, although I'm not a big fan of the cyberdemon. He seems to be able to cause splash damage through the pillars, which makes it difficult to actually avoid any of his shots. That's what caused my one death. Excluding that though everything else is great. The fights around the blue key are exciting. You get plenty of rockets to make liberal use of them as well. Still, me missing the progression past the blue key ruined my enjoyment of this map. So far this map is the one I like the least of the whole wad. I hate to say it though, because the level looks so good. And it plays good when I'm not getting hung up on detailing or wondering around lost. But it is what it is.