UUN4

MAP13: Bloodlands Nugget Doom 2.3.0 | -complevel 2/vanilla UV | Pistol start | No saves K: 70% | I: 90% | S: 60% The initial horde of enemies at the start of the level is pretty daunting, but I found it best to let them infight and run past them to grab the rocket launcher and plasma rifle ahead before using those weapons (plus the chaingun to conserve valuable ammo) to deal with any stragglers. The early SSG and supercharge was neat to find after hearing the faraway door sound and then noticing the open water hole. The (initially) incredibly dark room containing the yellow chaos key was pretty daunting (partly because I'm not a fan of darkness in the first place), but that was small potatoes versus later fights which had hordes of enemies (I'm tempted to call it kinda like slaughter, but I have zero experience in slaughter maps so don't quote me on that) accompanied by pairs of arch-viles. Another notable part of the map was the fork of 3 paths peppered with chaingunners and revenants, and the rooms being guarded by pairs of mid-/high-tier monsters (including a pair of arch-viles). The voodoo doll room was unexpected and pretty scary versus chaingunners and a final surprise arch-vile; definitely made me try to think on my feet a bit differently than usual (basically trying to bodyblock the arch-vile in the exit cubbyhole to minimize collateral damage). If the previous map wasn't any indication, the difficulty ramp-up is becoming pretty noticeable now. I may play more later today, and I'll edit this post if I do.

Played on Nugget Doom 2.2.1 | -complevel 2/vanilla. MAP10: Hollow Oblivion MAP11: Mars Starport MAP12: Home Sweet Home

MAP08: Research Lab MAP09: Machine Gun Etiquette

MAP07: Deathstay UV | Pistol start | No saves K: 100% | I: 50% | S: 0% This map was pretty straightforward and not too taxing. The most notable thing was that I didn't realize this was MAP07, so I forgot killing mancubi and arachnotrons to raise platforms was on the table; this left me in a bit of a panic in the final fight when the platforms raised to the last arena, but it wasn't enough to get me killed since I quickly noticed the megasphere. Before that though, the long tight corridor overseen by a single mancubus was relatively scary since it felt like I didn't have room to dodge the fireballs. Other than that and the kinda funky music track, I can't think of anything else to write down about this level.

MAP06: Splatterhouse UV | Pistol start | No saves K: 50% | I: 77% | S: 55% For a pistol start, this map starts off pretty nasty and stays nasty. I was mostly stuck with the shotgun and chaingun to deal with enemies (meaning I had to pepper cacodemons, revenants, and hell knights with regular shotgun blasts); that isn't to say the combat in this level is bad because I did ultimately have fun with it. Also, by the time I reached the end of the map I had only gotten half of the secrets and kills thanks to the computer map in one of the secrets; I heard monster SFX and I kept trying to figure out how I could access the remaining part of the map, but I decided to cut my losses and decided to move on. At the very least, the music kept me invested. Also, the text intermission music does a nice job at complementing the longer break between levels.

MAP04: Sewers MAP05: Mission Control

MAP02: Outpost 27 MAP03: Mars Base Alpha

Like with Spectre01, my thoughts are from the perspective of someone who hasn't played the original Realm of Chaos, so the 25th Anniversary Edition will be my first experience with it that'll probably lay a precedent if I ever decide to play the original. I'm giving thoughts on these maps on their own merits, so Cammy's improvements to the levels may or may not shine through to me, and I don't know if it'll be good feedback since this is still a release candidate. MAP01: Dropoff UV | Pistol start | No saves K: 100% | I: 100% | S: 100% It's MAP01, so it's nothing too crazy; there's a good handful of hitscanners though like Spectre01 said. I kinda just ran into the hallway I came from and took pistol potshots after grabbing the red key. I think the most notable part of this map is the final room where you press switches to raise paths in the shape of a pentagram; the "secret" blursphere lasted long enough for it to be useful against the chaingunners here, but you also have to shotgun a cacodemon here if you don't manage to nab the chaingun (and subsequently access the berserk secret that's useful for restoring health more than punching things). The level ends with you jumping a crevice on one of the pentagram's corners to the exit room. As expected from what I've heard of Cammy's musical work (mainly just MIDIs for Doom), the music elevates the experience; Dropoff's new track gets you a little pumped up for the first map, and the intermission track gives a nice sense of relief while still being boppin'. Another thing to note are the small graphical additions (like the blue HUD numbers, ammo pickups, and muzzle flashes, as well as the decorated health items) which are neat.

MAP29: Pop MAP30: Goodbye Final Thoughts

MAP28: Castle of Corruption UV | Pistol start | No saves K: 101% | I: 100% | S: 100% The first part definitely took me a few tries to map out a route, but with a bit of practice it was satisfying to nail down; the baron of hell also usually died to infighting from imps and arachnotrons which I thought was kinda funny. From there, the automap helped with finding the secret BFG, megaarmor, and backpack, all of which helped smooth things out (especially with making the cyberdemon fight relatively trivial; I think when I beat the level he ended up infighting the monsters below him and was idle before I hit him with the BFG). I found all the fights pretty fun to chew on (the plasma gun room in particular fires some dopamine into my brain by being able to kill everything with the BFG), and groups of 3 revenants jumpscaring you when you press each of the skull switches to grab the blue key. Arguably one of the more memorable fights was teleporting into the quadruple arch-vile room which was made manageable with the BFG (out of panic I didn't use the secret yellow key for the crushers, and I only activated them after the fight out of curiosity). Overall I think this was one of the WAD's most fun maps. The castle aesthetic is also pretty neat.

MAP27: Regenerations UV | Pistol start | No saves K: 100% | I: 98% | S: 0% This map seemed a bit more daunting to traverse than I initially expected; I feel like there was only really one part of the level where it "overlaps" itself, and it's mainly that rising metal hallway near the red key area. That aside, I feel like I got tight on ammo a few times despite being presented a backpack and a relatively healthy amount of ammo. I got scarily close to dying a few times on this map; in particular, during the final fight I forgot about the initially-inaccessible BFG due to panic and ended up getting hit by enemy fire and my own rockets, putting me close to death (infighting and constantly moving definitely helped out though). Also, I kept thinking the little blood reservoirs were secret doors since previous maps kinda taught me that little gaps in the wall may indicate a secret door, but none of them were actually doors on this map.

MAP26: AKA Desu UV | Pistol start | No saves K: 115% | I: 100% | S: 100% Despite the four-way teleport hub presented at the start, progression is linear since you need to grab each key sequentially in each area. The megasphere secret in the first area was neat and fun to figure out. I panicked and died to the surprise crusher room in the third area (unlocked by the blue key), but once I stopped and looked at my automap it wasn't too bad anymore. In the same area is a double arch-vile encounter that initially alarms you with the arch-vile cry but doesn't release them into the field of corpses until you grab the red key; I feel like this would've been a good opportunity to use the secret BFG (I hadn't used it until the last area [unlocked by the red key] because I thought there would be something tougher coming up); but I had used my rockets, SSG, and chaingun instead which left me pretty tight on ammo and health (I had rocketed a wall). The last area isn't as tough, but it was especially scary running out of ammo until I remembered I had a BFG that I wanted to save but ended up having to use. I think I enjoyed playing through this one.

MAP25: Putrid UV | Pistol start | Saves used* K: 106% | I: 93% | S: 50% I found the elevator segment at the start a tad annoying to go through when I died, so I ended up making a save* after the elevator ride to skip it; otherwise I beat the level saveless. That aside, the level seems to throw the whole kitchen sink at you at the start, and it'll probably slap you silly if you don't have a plan for it. I found it easiest to quickly nab the chaingun and bum-rush to the SSG before systematically killing everything I left behind, and it became a tense but manageable fare from there. The first arch-vile that was in the SSG room seemed to get stuck and got pushed into a corner by a few enemies, which was really lucky and let me shoot rockets at it from across the sludge river. Some other scary encounters include a spider mastermind after grabbing the blue key (which you don't get a blursphere to give you a win this time, but the walls as cover still helped me out) as well as the second arch-vile in the room after the yellow key door (since I had shot a rocket into the wall and hurt myself). I think I'd say I enjoyed this map. December 2023 Votes +++ Ultimate Doom In Name Only (UDINO) +++ Realms of Chaos 25th Anniversary Edition (RC1) +++ Garrulismo

MAP24: Epping UV | Pistol start | No saves K: 100% | I: 85% | S: 100% This admittedly wasn't as fun as the previous map, but I still enjoyed it; the SSG and chaingun helped move things along. I naturally stumbled upon the berserk secret which was neat, although the additional backpack ended up being more useful than the aformentioned berserk. For the red key fight, I ended up forgetting about my plasma gun and used my SSG and got through with only a few scratches; I might've just gotten lucky. The biggest fear I had was hearing the cyberdemon cry and seeing him have a large view of the outside area, which always keeps me cautious even though it isn't that scary in retrospect. Telefragging the cyberdemon after the revenant grave was a big "sigh of relief" moment for me though, and it let me go wild with the plasma on the few remaining enemies in the map.