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Valiant is one of those rare megawads that gets the difficulty balance just right. It's able to create a challenging experience whilst not being difficult to the point of being unbeatable. Valiant features several custom monsters which all fit in well and compliment the already existing ones. There have also been some changes to the pistol and chaingun making them more balanced (the chaingun is no longer a direct upgrade from the pistol) as well as more satisfying to use. The sprite work, texturing and levels are all very pleasing to look at. Valiant is divided into five episodes each with their own distinct themes ensuring that the gameplay doesn't dry up. These episodes include: Techbase, Catacombs, Industrial, Helltech, and the moon Overall, I highly recommend valiant and I consider it to be one of those wads that everyone should try. Favorite maps: Almost all of them, but especially the ones in episodes 1 and 5

claustrophobic map, doesn't even feel like we're on the moon

From the get go, one just notice the impressive mood that this mapset offers. And solely for that this leaves a watermark of how mood maps can be made. Some of the maps here are probably masterpieces of atmosphere and mood. This large episode map has a really good start, first maps its pretty much an introductory map, and map02 is the famous Doxylamine Moon. I'm really proud of myself as i solved the map puzzle without any help, but it doesn't offer much after that. But its an impressive effort by Lainos. The subsequent maps continue to be really good and moody. And map11: Seaport seems to be the properly end of the wad... but no, there are three more maps in the set. Map12, aside for the impressive architecture, its really annoying as it abuses the darkness, making it pretty difficult to navigate. Map13 made the same mistake, but its a little more easier to navigate and it comes to be somewhat fun. Map14 its a no exit map intended as the end of the mapset. This set up makes me wonder if the Clan [B0S] intended map12 and map13 as just bonus maps. Don't know if there is answer to this (maybe @Wraith777 knows something). Returning to the review, the first six maps are glorious and i loved Doxylamine Moon for being soo different, and Lavatrazz a remake of TNT map07: Prison. The rest of the maps from ma07 to map11 are just big good maps. I didn't like much of map12 and map13 aside from the awe inspiring architecture they offer. And map14 is spooky and marvelous. Could be a really neat feature and not just and no exit end map. All in all, i liked this mapset, much more in the first part than the second part (even when map07 starts with Serial Experiment's Lain theme song, a soundtrack i love soo much). I would really like to see the story of Sacrament properly developed. Maybe someday...

I was wowed by the amount of special effects on display for something as simple as vanilla Doom 2. Despite complains about the gameplay, I found myself enjoying it for the most part; it only felt a bit wonky to have the monsters teleporting in random locations which wasn't the most ideal setup for the amount of close quarters combat you'll be having in some tighter spaces. Someone could end up not having a good time with the monster placement getting randomized while it plays nicer for others. There's some dark caves and vent tunnels, and lots of wonderful little touches throughout like animated vent fans, a plane taking off, a computer running Doom II and other detail treasures. I would liken it to a Doom museum with a gameplay gimmick that may not fancy most Doomers out there, but I quite enjoyed my time exploring the world (or moon) of Phobos. I only wish it had more maps.

Pagan's Run is a lengthy "Run From It"-style map. "It" isn't the silent curse of that infamous Scythe map, however, but rather lethal threats located in the map itself. Caged cyberdemons pump rockets into your butt, and pesky fodder loiters in your path, which once in a blue moon is flattened by a crusher or narrowed into a Chasm-like sliver. Most of the tests over the 2.5-minute trial are fundamentally similar, testing consistency through repetition, but they evolve and morph into different forms: At first you're shooing zombies with shotgun blasts, soon you're navigating barrel clusters with spiders trying to show you love, by the end you're cleaving through greeting mobs with plasma, cybies looking on. At best, I found Pagan's Run exciting and inventive, and I love movement test maps. But implementation flaws were too common -- potential linedef skips, floors with a fluky chance of not rising if blocked by a monster, and a late unguided drop seemingly designed for freelook. The latter hurts FDA value even on lower difficulties. On UV early, hitscan RNG was disproportionately impactful even with perfect shots. HNTR and HMP seem better.

Man on the Moon Despite the fact it's a single map, it may take up to 2 hours to complete it. Plenty of monsters, lots of routes to walk around, unpredictable traps, enough stuff to fight back. Basically, it's a common practice for a single-map WAD nowdays. MBF here is used for graphical enhancements only, but I like the overall architecture even without those light scrolling effects all over the place. The map's size is too big and sometimes it requires extra walking around to see what has changed after you've crossed this linedefs or that switch. Sometimes it's more reasonable to do some research in GZDoom Builder to figure out where you're supposed to go, rather than roam the map blindly. After finally beating the map, you're not likely to revisit the map again. It's for 1-time play, to be honest. Also, there is no intermission text. An arduous journey has been come, so why not to show an epilogue or a short outcome? That would be nice! Deserved 4 stars! It's a little bit vexing this wad didn't get any cacowards.

since this came out, the moon look has been explored with more ornament and grandeur to it. (examples are Valiant by the same author and the single level Man on the Moon by Yugiboy85.) it's easy to write off Lunatic as slightly dated, with its sparkly clean CC4-tex look feeling like a design relic of the time. imo that would be a mistake. Lunatic has a great trick that the secret mysterious Doominati wants to charge you recurring payments of $19.99 for. throughout, there are a lot of cool, memorable "events" that I'd describe as cinematic. they are kind of like cutscenes, telling a ministory through motion and change, without of course stealing the controls away. their periodic appearances give Lunatic the vibe of a lived-in movie -- which, as an incidental bonus, meshes super snugly with the "action caper" pitch of the combat. "The Final Countdown" is basically a cinematic event from start to finish, along with being arguably the most iconic arena map ever and a preciously rare musical gimmick/pun map. I think it's telling that Valiant's "Rocket Zone 2" would have been highly recognizable as a remake of Lunatic's "Rocket Zone" even if it had a completely different theme and gave the architecture a substantial overhaul. the sense of identity transcends the things that most commonly produce identity. combine that with essentially the perfect musical fit -- the cheesy, synthy jams of '90s arcade games and of course...that other one -- and a great skybox and props. Lunatic's combat is defined by its unification of "challenge" and "fun" (not the way I classify things, but I've seen it often and it works here, so I'm rolling with it). basically, the parts where you plow down lots of fodder with powerful weapons -- in a way that might read as comic relief -- are also arranged to be the most dangerous fights, instead of serving as pure low-stress interludes. that danger comes from a wider range of powerful attacks (no surprise that both new monsters are zombies with hard-hitting non-hitscan attacks) and from the constant worry of the weakling mobs infiltrating your space. the result is a sort of hedging against either part not translating to a given player: if a fight is too easy to be exciting purely based on its threat-resolution arc or if it's frustratingly hard (not that the latter is likely in Lunatic), it can still redeem itself with raw components that are inherently satisfying. skillsaw is also dogmatic about placing the needed parts of your progression goals in convenient sight -- a key might be hoisted on an unreachable platform, reached from somewhere else, with the matching key door adjoined in the same room. that both makes it hard to get lost and gives the action an undercurrent of psychological momentum. it is a pageturner in Doom format, in a way. having a clear picture of what's next encourages you to see it through, to tie the loose ends you've been handed. nothing's wrong with intentionally cryptic maps that refuse easy progress, but provided one wants super smooth flow, wads like Lunatic make a great study for avoiding the occasional hitches that often surface in maps that are 95% of the way there. 9/10 or so. improved on (nominally) but still indispensable. /still not a reviewer. I don't do it often enough to count!

I have a real blast while playing this megawad. Think that Quake is not brown enough? You will get the ultimate browness here. I think that, beside the simplistic ugliness of it, it gives a good cohesive look to all the maps. And this one are really big and fun to explore. The ideas of cities, fortresses, islands, canyons and caves, and finaly tech base on moon, are really neat and some looks really good. The story of the wad is pretty good, too. I love the liberties that the author takes while doing this mapset. As i played a lot and i found this kind of ideas in a few wads along the way. What i didn't like it much, is that there wasn't other skies than the episode one sky from Doom 2. Again, i think it is that way for a cohesive storytelling, but anyway, it would be cool to feel the sense of time in the maps with different skies and shadows deploying in differents ways along the maps. This could be the Eternal Doom of doom stock textures, but the linearity of the maps, aside from the somewhat empty but interesting areas to explore, departs slighty from the formula, and there are not soo much details as one might expect from a mapset like this. Don't get fooled by that, even with the somewhat Heretic-like linearity, the maps are fun, gorgeous in its brownway and pretty challenging. I recommend this megawad to anyone that likes to explore and have a challenge in the vein of the best of team TNT mapsets.

Single handily created from the mind of legendary 90s mapper Cranium, Echelon is a megawad that is essentially a retelling of Doom 2 from small tech base/moon maps to small/medium size city maps to neat medium size hellish landscapes. While there are a few dull maps early in the megawad along with a disappointing map 30, I would honestly say most of these maps are fun & worth playing through...especially map 29 which is my favorite :) -Philnemba 4/5

Pretty good tbh but the Valiant moon episode was better in every way.

Stephen Clark, a.k.a. @The Ultimate DooMer, is one of the key figures of the Doom community in the early 21st century, an author that is best known for his important ZDoom contributions and for amazing creations in the worlds of Heretic and Hexen. I had no chance to examine his extensive body of work, but his Boom-compatible entries in the Community Chest series allowed me to experience his technical competence and design habits. When the DWMC chose his first vanilla megaWAD for March 2023, I approached it with a mix of curiosity and concern. Fragport was Clark’s debut on idgames, and it was no humble beginning. Not only it was a full 32-map replacement, but it also included custom sounds, additional textures of practical purpose (most notably the revolutionary ALPHABET used to write signs and marks in maps) and sector tricks that must have been innovative for their time. Another exclusive feature was the seamless progression between levels: the starting zone of the next map was always seen before hitting the exit line or switch, and in the same fashion the player could turn around from the start and get a glimpse on previously traversed areas. Surely it was an expedient to break maps that were too large for the vanilla engine, but it also improved immersion and storytelling. The player impersonates the top marine Jody Russell, sent to the remote city of Fragport to investigate after communications with the local military bunker suddenly ceased. His ‘call sign is 'Kill Crazy' because (he) kill(s) like crazy and love(s) every minute of it’, so he was the best choice for a dangerous mission into the unknown. The protagonist is shot down by demonic alien invaders, is captured and moved to a desert prison, presumably for execution. He escapes instead and begins a long trek through the brown stone mines and wastelands surrounding Durncrag town. He leaves with a motorboat and manages to sink an ironclad ship carrying monster reinforcements. After a detour on a remote island, Jody crashes his second boat on barren shores and slowly approaches the military installation, disarming the demon-operated defence system and then navigating the sewers into Fragport. Fighting from district to district, he discovers that the invasion started on an artificial moon hosting a tech city, which he promptly reaches by boarding on a spaceship. He resists the assaults of the hellspawn and their vicious traps, until he finds the reactor core and blows it up. He barely escapes the moon and returns to Earth to be celebrated as a hero. I could not omit a plot summary when presenting Fragport, since the unfolding story and the adventures of Kill Crazy were a prominent feature. A lot of effort has been put in creating a plausible journey, building varied places to explore, and providing realistic connections between them. I admire The Ultimate Doomer for the method, the rigor, and the creativity he put in his Doom efforts: the progression in his maps tends to be a little obscure, but ultimately it becomes clear thanks to the visual hints, achieved by writings and colour codes. Nevertheless, Fragport could not cancel my bias against his lack of restraint. Sometimes he could not realise that too much was too much, and that a stale part of a level could act like a ball and chain. The megaWAD had a few exciting combat moments and an outstanding construction for 2001, but for the most part its gameplay was grindy and repetitive. Despite a brown palette dominating 20 consecutive maps, there was enough variety in the environments and nice Doomcute props to make the exploration interesting, but when I reached MAP13 I was sick and tired of searching for three keys in every level. The mechanic stayed firmly in place until the end, with coloured switches being added to string out the progression even more. Maps tended to last 18 minutes on average for less than 10 hours of total completion time, placing Fragport in the vanilla age that preceded the sprawling limit-removing creations of the following years. I played continuous on Ultra-Violence, with savegames mid-level (not during encounters to cheat the RNG or to facilitate anything), and I spared myself the ammo deprivation issues reported by pistol starting DWMC members. Still, I found myself nearly out of ammo at the end of MAP24, and levels like MAP30 did not accommodate for a wasteful behaviour. Besides a resource distribution favouring continuous play, the difficulty seemed rather flat throughout the megaWAD, with only a few harsh monster deployments taking place in the third episode. I felt more challenged by the exploration and the occasional puzzles, especially on MAP29-30 and during the unconventional trial that was MAP32. The author invested all his skill in the super-secret level, based upon a British gameshow and reproducing both its challenges and settings with the Doom engine. It must be noted that Stephen remade this map for GZDoom in 2016, inspired by “The Crystal Maze” new live attraction in London, and that it counts as his last submission to idgames. This meticulous undertaking perfectly represents The Ultimate Doomer as a mapper, showing his pros and cons, and it aptly stands as the current alpha and omega of his successful career. If the secret levels were worth seeing, and their uncovering process on MAP15 was one of the nicest moments in Fragport, the standard secret compartments seemed casually placed. The statement ‘for those of you who like secrets, there are at least 3 in each level’ confirms they have been added just for completeness, and it surprised me that some were nearly mandatory in the later maps. The original megaWAD used stock music, but I chose to play it with FragportMidiPack_v1.0, released for the 20th anniversary. The compilation included popular songs, mostly rock and heavy metal music that predates Fragport’s release, with only a few tracks being an exception. I do not mind the soundtrack very much, except when it feels created exactly for the maps, but I generally enjoyed @P41R47’s choices. They usually matched the pacing of the map or had a thematic connection with the environment that got a smile out of me. Fragport was a bold experiment in 2001, an attempt at bringing Doom on the same level of more advanced games like Quake 2 and Half-Life. Stephen Clark compensated for the engine shortcomings with his own creative solutions, bringing a huge one-man project to completion where most people would have given up. A 32-map megaWAD is an exhausting effort for a single author though, as confirmed by the lack of fresh ideas in some parts of the second and third episode. In retrospect, the boxy level design, the monotone texturing of large areas, the repetitive mechanics, and the copy-pasted encounters caused the experience to become less and less engaging as Jody Russell progressed towards his objective. This should not discourage vanilla enthusiasts from giving Fragport a try, since there are small wonders to be seen in addition to the highlights listed below. A super-solid first submission from a staple of the Doom community, after more than 20 years it shows its age and limits but also the power of method and resolve, two qualities that The Ultimate Doomer possesses aplenty. Best maps: MAP 11 – Military Bunker MAP 13 – Pipe Factory MAP 15 – Freight Depot MAP 23 – Monad Other standout maps: MAP 01 – Desert Prison MAP 19 – Dockside MAP 22 – Tech City MAP 28 – Sub-Level 05 Special mentions map: MAP 32 – The Crystal Maze Detailed commentary of each map can be found in the March 2023 DWMC thread.

Despite the browns and grays that are prominent in this megaWAD, I found it to be fun. I also found it to be quite the challenge. The first map gives you a taste of what to expect in terms of enemy encounters. The author makes good use of mid-tier enemies to apply pressure on the player. Monster count for most of the maps barely breaks the 150 mark but, as said before, the use of mostly mid-tier enemies puts pressure on the player. I also like how the megaWAD handles level progression. Most of the levels you go through consist of caves, cities, islands, and tech bases in space. In fact, there's only one real Hell-like level and even it's within the confines of the moon base you fight through in maps 21 - 30. About the only gripes I have with this megaWAD are with regards to maps 32, 29, and 30. I know the text file and map 31 give warnings about map 32 but there really should be some kind of alternate exit in map 32 instead of trapping you in place if you don't pass one of the puzzles. I wasn't a fan of how close quarters the IoS fight was in map 29, especially since it can get cramped quickly with monster spawns. Finally, the randomization of what keys spawn during your escape in map 30 isn't fun either. 10 minutes seems like plenty of time but between navigating the vent system (again) without light goggles and dealing with mid-tier enemies, that 10 minutes can get eaten up really quick. Overall, it's still a fun megaWAD. I'd recommend at least giving it a shot.

One of the best all-around WADs, Valiant has a little of everything for everyone. While not as aesthetically accomplished as Ancient Aliens, Valiant is still a pretty WAD to look at, with every episode revolving around certain themes and some individual maps striking a great level of detail and scale (MAP 6, Engineering Disaster, is one of the best city levels ever devised). Gameplay also has its own unique flavor thanks to the Dehacked wizardry going through. On the arsenal side of things, you have a pistol that shoots much faster and... the super chaingun, which is one of the most satisfying weapons ever made. It fires twice as fast than the regular chaingun and is the perfect room clearer to mow down hitscanner hordes, imps, demons and even solitary strong baddies since it stunlocks monsters so effortlessly (archviles can still zap you through a super chaingun barrage so use at your own risk). You even get a bigger bullet ammo capacity to encourage you to use it leisurely. To compensate for these new toys, the monster roster also get new additions and overhauls of their own, like the super imps which fires faster projectiles at a faster pace or the super demon, which bites much faster and discourages berserkers or chainsaw wielders (personally not a fan of him). There also are new enemies like the floating arachnorb, the fearsome pyro knight or the super mancubus, whose volleys of fireballs are so much harder to dodge and commands your immediate attention. There are other new monsters to discover, but half the fun is finding them out. The gameplay of Valiant is its true star, as skillsaw is the master of tuning the perfect battles. They never outlast their welcome, never grind you down spitefully while never being pushovers. Many fights like to start things out by driving you in a panic with either the well placed archvile or monster hordes that will catch you off guard, but careful play can very quickly defuse the situation and make the encounter manageable. Special mention goes to MAP 15 to illustrate this point: the hitscanner ambush coupled with this one particular unique monster makes this one of the most memorable fights in the set. Monster count tend to be on the high side, but gameplay never devolves in slaughter, with a possible exception in MAP 31, which also deserves a mention for its wicked cyber aesthetic pulled straight from System Shock. Valiant's 5 episodes all have something to offer to the player. Episodes 1 and 3 shine with their takes on the tech base formula, Episode 2 takes the action outdoors and show skillsaw's ability to make nice nature settings, Episode 4 features a very orangey hell setting and Episode 5 closes out the WAD with a moon journey. Episode 1 sets the table nicely, introduces the first few Dehacked tricks of its repertoire and closes with MAP 7: The Mancubian Candidate, which is the most unique Dead Simple replacement ever devised. You are warned to not kill the mancubus, and for a good reason: a herd of archviles will burn you down to the ground should he die. Can you deal with the masses of enemies around you, avoid the mancubus and make sure other enemies do not kill him first? Episode 4 looks good and ominous, but to me it was the lesser episode of the pack. MAPS 22-23 are a little too similar design-wise, featuring a central hub and 3 paths that lead to the three keys you need to leave the level and MAP 24: None More Merciless, features the most tame fights of the whole WAD, putting more emphasis on its hell cathedral motif and visuals. While these are the low points of the WAD, these levels are only very good instead of being excellent. The Dehacked stuff might not be everyone's cup of tea, but only the new pinky replacement bothered me because it seems only there to make the chainsaw and Berserk lesser options in combat. If you really want a 100% traditional Doom WAD, you can always download the Vaccinated Edition, which removes all of the enemy and weapon mods, but I feel that these additions are what makes Valiant distinct and unique in the first place. Skillsaw has a good knack for making his changes to the Doom formula still feel like Doom and the combat is almost always electrifying without feeling overdone and labored. The great music by Stuart Rynn, Jimmy and others make the package even more complete. While I prefer Ancient Aliens as a whole, this comes really damn close to matching it in greatness.

I just finished the whole episode in one sitting. It was great. I had a lot fun discovering each mapper's style in relatively classic Ultimate Doom limit-removing maps. Indeed , each mapper offered more detailed and more complex maps than the original IWAD. Whereas the three first levels were rather classic (good but not really interesting) , the later levels were more unique , especially the last ones. Here is my personnal top 3 maps : 1) E1M7 - Eden Log by @Angry Saint A really intriguing and unusually curvy tech base. It reminds me of Nicolas monti's maps but with aligned and carefully chosen textures. It was the most beautiful map for me . I really liked exploring it despite the fact that the gameplay was very basic. A few more secrets would not have been too much too. By the way , I loved this map because I saw you tried something new. 2) E1M8 - Obliterate Anomalies @Spectre01 Hum... That map was just completely chaotic and psychedelic lol. I really loved the visuals , you definitely have an unique style. You have the best representation of hell : A mess of nonsensical textures but with a massive and detailed architecture. I found your map diabolically beautiful. I liked the gameplay but I was not really prepared for slaughter. It's bad you gave up your map for Deadly Standards 2. 3) To The Surface by @riderr3 It's maybe one of the only maps I liked more for its gameplay than its aesthectics. The level was quite beautiful but I above all enjoyed the progression and especially the part with the huge elevator. This map has a more pronounced adventurous aspect due to fact you must go up to the surface. It's a good gimmick to make more height variations in a Doom map. Honorable mentions E1M5 - Third Moon Lab by @CarpetolA : An aesthetically pleasing level with light gradients and fine details. I only regret that some brick textures are poorly misaligned. E1M6 - The Inner Port by @mrthejoshmon : A quite short level which manages to give a creepy atmosphere. The lack of armor (except in the secret) keeps the player on stress E1M4 - Research Station by @The_SloVinator : An interesting mixture between action and darkness. teleporting lots of different monsters to the same place is simple but effective ! You can watch my demos : HERE