Hellbaron

I believe all the iwads have a redeeming factor which make them stand out from the rest. Doom 1's focus was on atmosphere. The maps actually felt like realistic depictions of whatever they were supposed to depict. Having fewer monsters on each map added to the game's atmosphere. Maps like E3M7 felt very claustrophobic for this reason. People still play Doom 1 for the atmosphere alone. Doom 2's map design was more abstract and less realistic, probably because realistically depicting earthly cities would have been much harder to do with the engine compared to, say, the tech bases of E1. I am not a fan of Doom 2's textures either. The game also became more action oriented with maps having more monsters and larger battles. Apart from a few memorable maps like Map28, I didn't really like Doom 2 that much as an episode. Its greatest contribution was the addition of the new middle tier monsters and the SSG, all of which added more dimensions to gameplay. TNT was very much like Doom 1 in that its emphasis was on atmosphere. It had these large, epic, breathtaking maps, many of which looked very realistic. I was completely blown away by maps like Pharoah, Mount Pain and Map 19 (which actually had a truck with wheels). I was amazed to see the Doom engine was capable of such things, which made me dislike Doom 2's design choices even more. The textures were great and while Doom and Doom 2 had really great music, TNT's soundtrack was a valuable addition to the series and many of the tracks were absolutely fantastic, some of the best videogame soundtracks ever. Maps like Map 12 and Map 15 really made me feel like I was the lone marine, trapped on a moon of Jupiter fighting demons. The only downside of TNT was that it had the occasional texture that looked like it was made in MS Paint. It also seemed to have more hitscan enemies (zombies) compared to Plutonia which had more demons and as a result, people find TNT more frustrating even though it is easier. The gameplay is inconsistent compared to Plutonia but that doesn't bother me. I like having that variety and the wonderful atmosphere, map architecture and music more than make up for it in my opinion. Plutonia had a more consistent feel and gameplay compared to TNT because it was made by only 2 people. While the textures were actually of great quality, I personally prefer the tech theme of TNT over the jungle/hellish theme of Plutonia. It felt more like a compilation of 32 maps for the hardcore player than like an actual episode. There were Revenants, a Pain Elemental, Mancubi and even an Archvile on Map 1 so it lacked a sense of progression compared to TNT which started out easier and gradually got harder. With its emphasis on strategic placement of monsters and traps in order to push the player's skills to their limits, Plutonia's maps feel more like puzzles or challenges that need to be solved, if that makes sense. Plutonia has probably aged better than TNT and perhaps even Doom 2. It has gone on to inspire several megawads and is considered an archetype. Beating it on Ultra Violence is still a challenge. You really have to play wads like Hell Revealed 1 and 2 which spam hundreds of monsters all over the map to realize how Plutonia manages to be almost just as challenging despite having a much lower monster count. This shows how skillfully it was designed. Not to take anything away from the Hell Revealed series though. They were great as well.

I have a habit of randomly screaming "Paaaaaaaaaaaa" (the Revenant's alert sound) in my dad's ear while he is watching TV :) He ALWAYS gets mad at me for that.

Thanks all. I'll try it.

Shotgun and SSG. In Doom, they're always the default weapons.

I'll go with Hitscanners too. Or maybe Revenants in large groups.

I'm currently making a WAD called "Elemental Pain" for ZDoom so I was just how do you make PEs resurrectable by Archviles? Thanks in advance.