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Hardcore, tough for newbie, need to be brave and fast.

IMO, this wad is a must try. The level is design is so beautiful, with a unique aesthetic and so much attention to detail. Great effort has been put for this. The first 5 maps are the core of the wad: (post-)Soviet industrial areas, underground facilities, a factory and a mining complex, all done in a very realistic style, and I love it. On the maps you'll find all sorts of cool stuff like Soviet propaganda posters, TVs, soda machines, various furniture and other neat things. But after map 5 the wad changes direction drastically, instead focusing on old/ancient architecture. Map 6 is a really nice mansion, map 7 is an antique temple... I've only made it to map 7, on ITYTD, because... As with most modern wads, the difficulty hates casual players. Well, not immediately of course, but it escalates pretty quickly, and by map 7 it becomes the true Modern Wad Experience (TM), with swarms of enemies, arch-viles on every step of the way, frequent cybers, combined with being put into traps where it's hard to dodge stuff coming at you. Everything the hardcore crowd needs! I should mention, even on early maps the enemy traps are often trollish. Be prepared for enemies to suddenly pop up all over you. I hope you have a plasma gun at hand! The music in this wad is... sometimes fitting, sometimes it doesn't fit so much that it becomes funny. And most of the tracks are MP3s that are compressed to like 64 kbps, which results in poor quality with a very audible artifacts. I found that even funnier... tho most people probably don't. Anyway, all in all, a very beautiful wad with a really cool stylistic, but later it gets difficult. Even if you're not a true hardcore doomer, I still recommend playing at least the first 5 maps, you won't regret it! One more thing: play on GZDoom (or GLBoom+). The text file says "engine needed: prboom-plus", but PrBoom+ or Eternity will work only for the first 6 maps, and you'll get segmentation fault on map 7 if you keep playing on them. Besides, the wad uses some features like hi-res images which work only on GZDoom, so play on it.

Datacore is one of those mappers you can rely on to create a short, decently playing, all-in-all fun map. the map like all his other work never overstays its welcome, and provides a thematic consistency that you can clearly see in the color scheme. if you like blue, this is a nice, fun quickie. when you want to take a break from hardcore slaughtering or anything else for something short, simple, to the point, and to the focal point, this is the wad to do so.

Medium quality WAD, notable mainly for it's hardcore features. I came across it while testing modifications, so I will briefly describe it. Settings and other: * GZDoom. * Passed in combination with Heretical Doom. It goes well. * Difficulty - "magister" (analogous to "Ultra-Violence" from Doom). * Some secrets. * 9 moderately compact levels and few (on average within 150) monsters. * Metal heads and minotaurs, which were relatively rare in the original and especially were mini-bosses, can be found here regularly and not in single quantities. * There will be a sequential fight with two bosses at the end, but both, in comparison with the original Heretic and groups of enemies at normal levels, do not pose much of a danger. * 100% of secrets found. Pros: + E3M5 - Castle of Sorrow. Not a bad level with 148 opponents. At the end, a battle with 6 minotaurs awaits. On the same map, I abandoned testing HeXeReTiC Fantasy earlier - it is hardly passable and the excessive randomness of it became completely clear. + E3M6 - The Unholy Font. "water" map. Contras: ? On the map E3M9 - Forgotten Chapel you can pick up 1 secret only with wings and another one, apparently, is bugged, which is why you cannot pick up a weapon and kill 1 enemy.

Awesome wad, hardcore players only. Not a slaughterfest, just very brutal monster placement.

Hi there! One of my few hobbies includes testing WADs for Hexen. I've played all the ones on DoomWorld, and I'm sure you're familiar with all the superb ones (eg. Scourge of Viscerus, Vaults, Caldera). I came across this WAD a few days ago. VERY impressive. I would even go as far as to say that if an expanded version of this was released instead of Hexen 2 (which I also quite like), or even Deathkings, it wouldn't be at all questioned. I had a fantastic time playing this WAD. Very taken aback by the sheer creativity and ingenuity of each and every map. Any hardcore Hexen fan (like myself) would have an absolute field day with this WAD. As is typical Hexen character, the puzzle element is incredibly intricate and sophisticated, but yet somehow still not overdone. I used zDoom and it ran fine without crashing - however it did become a bit slow and glitchy in the Garden of Torture map - especially when facing the "blender" torture device. Highly recommend this WAD - very well done! - Anthony.

The transition from small areas in the beginning to that big city feels weird and the progression is nonsensical at times. But the city itself provides tons of entertainment when you're not running around all confused. It's a good feeling slowly conquering it and pwning these dumb hordes of monsters. Enjoyable "easy hardcore".

Sunlust is one of those WADs that aims to be ultra-challenging and hardcore. And like most of those WADs, Sunlust relies entirely on a handful of cheap tricks and gimmicks that very quickly grow old. Many of these maps are spent simply taking out your BFG and holding down the fire button, as the maps often eschew complex encounters based around level design in favour of simply throwing massive hordes of enemies at you. (Naturally, a large number of these hordes consist entirely of revenants.) When Sunlust isn't doing this, it's fond of warping in or opening monster closets directly behind you, trapping you in cramped arenas, and placing hitscanners in cheap locations and overabundance. The problem isn't simply the cheapness of these "challenges" but also their predictability—coupled with unpredictability, ironically enough. You know when the game is going to do something stupid, but you never know exactly what, necessitating trial-and-error to find out where you should be standing at any given time/area, whether or not you need to quickly clear out an encounter or if you can take your time. Incidentally: Though the map recommends UV only for "ubermensch doom-gods", lower difficulties change almost nothing about how the maps play. You're still having massive hordes throw themselves at you(r BFG), with the only differences being that the hordes are a bit smaller and some of them are replaced with weaker enemies. It's nothing but a difference of "I have to dodge 30 revenant rockets" vs. "I have to dodge 40 revenant rockets". While it didn't start terribly, Sunlust quickly devolved into a joyless experience, where almost every major fight turns into the same repetitive chore and victory felt less like a result of skill and strategy than "okay, now I know what BS happens here". It's a perfect example of how trying to design a WAD around "challenge!" often overlooks making encounters and levels interesting, unique, or just plain fun.

Extremely great wad, alot of time was took into making textures and had some great references to the movies along with badass Ash quotes its pretty "groovy". If you consider yourself a Hardcore Doomer try this out it is very challenging and takes alot of effort to fight through this army of darkness.

To me, this is an epitome of "non-hardcore guy trying to make hardcore maps" kind of thing, the combat is rather dull and half-baked most of the time, and the whole concept of "floors" kills all the potential scale and interesting architecture. Was never able to force myself to play through the whole thing, even in moments of utter boredom. Quantity over quality, and fantastically overrated for no apparent reason on top of that. *sigh*

Are you up for a brutal, non stop challenge through detailed, but bland environments? The Secret Energy doesn't let up, so it's either a low health slaughter map or a speed runner's dream to get from switch to switch, all while enemies constantly spawn in with each button press. There's little health for such meaty enemies and even on the easiest difficulty, it's a slog to kill them all. To balance out the lower health, there are less hitscan enemies that seem to be relegated to a few chain gunners that can get distracted in a sea of madness. It feels like a punishing experience from the first room. It fills with imps, then pinkies, then flying enemies, then revenants and a cyber demon. The entire map is like that. Enter a room and it will flood in via waves. Each wave opens up something new and you need to find where that new thing is. Is it a switch on a wall? Is it a switch inside of a pillar? Did a door just open up? Are you supposed to go back into the main corridors of the complex? At least on my first play through, I felt there was a poor flow to the level. The place is so big and centralized, you might miss where you need to go next. No arrows, the switches are around corners and walls inside of rooms that may or may not have opened. The game has its detail, but detail with greens, browns, a few blue wires across the floors, perhaps to guide you to the next area. It was all lost on me and blurred together into a jumble. While the structures of each new room was different, it's the color scheme and darkness that stayed the same. Give it a try. There is something redeemable in here for those hardcore enough to endure the first room, let alone the entire map.

This is one of the best Doom experiences I had. Valiant plays like Doom 3 as it should've been done in the 90s. The map design is breathtaking, and I just cannot stress this enough. These maps are some of the finest maps I've seen in my life. And the talent of the author is such that not only maps look beautiful, they are also very fun to play. And this combination is very rare in gaming in general. The mix of new enemies and new weapons is as close to perfection as it gets. It begins to make so much sense, you think that you need more Valiant maps. I would rather welcome, in fact, a whole custom mod community around Valiant. Because I want to see more. The whole experience has brought me to a state of absolute gaming satisfaction more than once. This was a megawad that made me rush from work to play new maps. Valiant also rewards playing a map over and over again. Many maps are non-linear and you wonder what is the best way to beat them. The music selection is superb and adds so much thrill. Of course, the megawad is immensely difficult and I could only master it at difficulty levels 1 and 2. But even if you are not a hardcore player, it is well worth it. Just set it to the easiest level and set yourself on a magnificent journey. Definitely, a gem. Valiant, in my personal opinion, is a separate game built on the Doom engine. It is a milestone of the Doom community, and something that deserves to be considered legendary.

An elaborate multi store house. Look quite badass from the outside but the insides get boring after a while since it's mostly just flat rooms. Kinda hardcore gameplay somewhat redeems it but then there is the incredibly confusing exit room...

Nightmare indeed. It's an early attempt at slaughter-ish hardcore gameplay and it is not good. The main area is so large that you'll be totally fine as long as you simply keep moving, and the rest is all mazes with dozens of barons to kill. Yawn.

7 extremely simple wannabe-hardcore mindless fun scenarios. If you die you're kinda screwed since some maps obviously require the ammo from previous levels. Looks like a worthy candidate for a max\/reality type demo.

Released in 2003, Hell Revealed 2 is a spiritual sequel to everyone's favorite excessive megawad from 1997, Hell Revealed. Yonatan Donner and Haggay Niv are nowhere to be found in this project, making way for a team of 14 people, such as Jonas Feragan, Sam Woodman, Yashar Garibzadeh, Martin Friberg and Andy Olivera, just to name a few. Their mission: make the hardest Doom 2 WAD ever made. They sure have succeeded, but will this result in you wanting to play it? As early as MAP02 (High Voltage), you will see that unlike its predecessor, Hell Revealed 2 is not interested in easing your way in the level set. On paper, these levels feel like HR: the levels are small and cramped, they're full of beefy enemies that you have no room or supplies to fight with, the levels also look very basic for their time, being full of tiny hallways and square rooms, but in HR2, the game feels way less interested in giving you leeway for your mistakes and it loves to spring gotcha! moments that will assuredly kill you in almost every map. The other major difference between HR1 and HR2 comes in the form of its signature enemy: HR1 abused barons of hell to an absurd degree, HR2 instead overuses archviles. Sadly, its use of archviles is often not even that interesting: instead of letting them loose in interesting arenas full of cover and corpses to resurrect, HR2 loves to spawn archviles in tiny hallways where they trap you and freely incinerate you unless you have a BFG9000 handy (MAP22: Sewer Slaughter has the worst encounter of that kind). And even then, survival is not always guaranteed. While Hell Revealed 2's mission statement is to be as hard as possible, it also does that at the detriment of trying to be original. There's a staggering amount of maps that are content to not only openly recycle concepts from Hell Revealed, but also other WADs as well. Look at some of the level names: Not That Simple II? The Siege II? The Path II? The Descent II? The Inmost Dens III? Some other levels go under different names but still wear their influence openly on their sleeves. MAP13 (Hardcore) is a straight remake of HR1's MAP 25 (Dead Progressive), but while the original level served as a break, Hardcore instead wishes to break you, making the gameplay much slower, calculated and grindy. It's likely one of the better examples of HR2's grindy gameplay because the map still is fun to play despite its intimidating exterior. MAP27 (Resistance Remains) is also a direct remake of HR's MAP22 (Resistance is Futile) and it barely tries to disguise the inspiration. Yet, the map fails because its archvile placement, it prevents the map from being the slaughterfest it wants to be and forces a much slower, calculated approach. Later on, the map devolves in you sniping away cages of archviles and revenants with a rocket launcher, stopping the pacing of the game dead in its tracks. While HR1 had a simple yet distinct visual identity, HR2 doesn't. There are no distinct themes in any of the episodes and the constant author switching make it so that about no 2 maps seem to belong in the same map pack. Maps like MAP16 (The Chapel of Black Granite) feature stronger visual chops than the average HR2 map but in turn, it feels like they belong somewhere else. Jonas Feragan mostly has a basic feel to his maps, but when you feel like you got a grasp on his maps, he also has crown jewels like the majestic hellish mountain of MAP29 (Hell's Cauldron) and nice setpieces like the lighting of the opening staircase in MAP21 (Conflux). Another thing you'll see a lot in HR2 are room over room bridges, which sometimes are nice and fit the scenery well, but other times they're used for the sake of being used and very often break (MAP12, Anti Static is a prime offender). Faring better is the soundtrack, entirely composed by Sam Woodman and Petter "Thyrbse" Mårtensen. The soundtrack is a nice mixture of ambient (MAP13) and metal as all hell (MAP15: The Path II). The failing point of HR2 is that the beginning stretch is almost all uniformly poor and punishing. MAP1 (IGNITION!) promises a fiery and fun beginning, but maps 2-6 all are clunkers, all favoring the most flavorless tiny corridor shooting where mistakes are not allowed, without any deviation to the formula. MAP7 (Not That Simple II) is the first inkling of fun you'll have in the WAD, all because it features an interesting platform switch mechanic and finally... IT GIVES YOU SPACE TO MOVE. Then you get MAP9 (The Siege II), which takes the opposite route, stuffing you in a tiny box, surrounded by hordes of revenants and flying foes you must drive back for over 4 minutes while you wait for the exit pad to be accessible. Out of all episode 1, I can only recommend MAP7 and MAP8 (Ballistics); the rest of the episode feels like a thankless chore. Episode 2 is not as aggravating and likely features the most fondly remembered maps of the set. MAP15 (The Path II) goes against all odds and is a brilliant re-imaging of The Path. It features the best MIDI track of the whole set and makes the concept of the deadly giant cave with a small safe pathway work, thanks to Jonas Feragan axing the original's baron of hell count and making each encounter more massive and varied. Whether you like it or not, you remember this map. Another winner is MAP32 (Playground), which was the king of slaughtermaps back in 2003. Packing a whopping 1651 monsters and no wimps, it's a fight for your life, only hindered by its somewhat cryptic out of reach 8 megaspheres which will constantly taunt you (HINT: after climbing up any of the pyramids, go down the stairs and go in a straight line for the other pyramid in front of you). Sadly, these successes are balanced by the usual grind and gotcha! encounters of MAP17 (Eye for an Eye) and the completely disjointed MAP18 (Excess Meat) which can't commit to a singular theme to save its life. Episode 3 is well... more of the same than Episode 2, but with bigger extremes. MAP29 (Hell's Cauldron) is the best overall map of the set, which sets a great climax to a megawad which sadly has no buildup or feel of progression. Its scenery is impressive and the fights often are a welcome change from the tear and grind in tiny hallways. It's massive, majestic and yet very oppressive. It only loses points for its completely random teleporting monsters at the very end. MAP23 (When the Heavens Fall) is ugly as sin, but features some of the best action in the WAD and features some very fun (and large) arenas. On the other end of the scale comes MAP24 (The Inmost Dens III), which takes HR2's claustrophia factor and multiplies it by 10. It's painfully linear and no fight in it can be postponed for later, while also mandating the player to find secrets to even have a fighting chance. Fighting archviles and mancubi with only a shotgun? Seriously? MAP26 (Dis 2000) is a lazy remake of Doom's E3M8, favoring similarly boring and grindy gameplay. MAP25 (The End is Nigh) comes straight in the middle with a map that both features steam-blowing slaughter gameplay in fun and roomy arenas and the usual, tiny hallways full of big monsters fare that plague most of HR2. It feels like wasted potential and it further shows the fractured identity of the pack; this map was devised by 3 people and virtually no effort was made to not make their disparate mapping styles violently clash against each other. Then you get hit with MAP28 (Beyond The Sea). This is the most asphyxiating map I have ever played, making you fight hordes of heavy monsters (which include 4 cyberdemons, 18 archviles and 57 revenants with nothing stronger than the super shotgun and a rocket launcher with only 87 rockets. No plasma rifle, no BFG9000 and no cells. Even then, reaching the super shotgun in a pistol start is a herculean feat which require dispatching many barons, mancubi and archviles with just a shotgun and chaingun. If this seems fun to you, then go ahead and play it, but there's no way this map can ever be remotely fun for me. This map actively hates you and shows the worst possible extreme of HR2's grindy gameplay. Thankfully, the Icon of Sin fight in HR2 is short and merciful. The demon spawner now shoots 10 cubes at once, but the spawning points are all marked so accidental telefrags won't be an issue and there's no finicky elevator to ride and time rocket blasts on. Kill the archviles, get their keys, kill the cyberdemon standing on the platform allowing you access to the brain, then get there and kill the icon. Just don't fall in the lava; there is an elevator granting you access out of this death trap but the monster spawning is so intense that climbing out of the pit is near impossible. So there's Hell Revealed 2. It doesn't have the same ruffian or happy-go-lucky charm that Hell Revealed 1 had. It's hard for sure, but it's not enjoyable and that well made in general. Too many of its maps devolve in a slow, methodical approach that often require an in-depth knowledge of the map to disarm and its fun moments are way too far and between big chunks of tedium. If you feel like you have something to prove, then play HR2 by all means. Chances are you will not like it, though. It feels too anonymous, fractured and charmless and doesn't have anything to offer to the player other than extreme difficulty.

ESP is a very unconventional wad. I can't really say if it's really good or not , but I can say it's one my favourite wads. TimeOfDeath has an unique style and this is why I had a lot fun playing his maps. This wad differs from all standards and offers a totally different conception of what a Doom wad can be. It will especially please players who are looking for a very strange but at the same time rather hardcore adventure, because other mappers know how to differentiate themselves without offering a confusing gameplay: Obsidian, Dobu Gabu maru and many more. TimeOfDeath is a very good mapper and can draw very ingenious layouts. ESP has a lot of varied maps in the sense that there are large maps as well as small ones made in a hurry, semi-realistic maps as well as totally abstract maps.... On the other hand, if we disregard the slaughter and quite arduous gameplay of his maps, ESP constitues a huge source of inspiration for mappers who would like to integrate more strangeness into their maps, without including all the extremes ideas of ToD maps: strafe 50 mandatory jumps, deadly holes, , very obsucre progression... Also, even if I spent a lot of time on this wad, I have to admit that ToD doesn't seem to always take his maps seriously. Some maps he published under the name "Anigav" refer to actresses (Nina Dobrev , Cassie steele...). Peter Perv private Place (map 29) has some questionable secret pictures, some maps are so abstract that they no longer look like to something (Map 10 , 14, 33) or some maps have a far-fetched scenario (Degrassi , Nina Dobrev 1 and 2...) However, most of them offer an interesting adventure, especillay "Cassie steele" which is one of my favorite maps of the megawad. Best maps : - Map 01 : "Degrassi" - Map 21 "The Room Below" - Map 25 "Nina Dobrev 2 - Map 12 "Brookhaven Hospital - Map 19 "Cassie Steele" Worst maps : - Map 10 "Forest of undesirables" - Map 07 "KSP" - Map 31 "Nostril Caverns - Map 30 "Bump" - Map 18 "64 Lemons map 03" Here is a link of my saveless demos done on Ultra-Violence : DEMOS

Speed of Doom is often considered as one of the earliest great modern MegaWADs around, although Speed of Doom may be a misnomer, given the careful attention one would have to go through in order to beat some of these levels. Authored by Joshy (who makes the odd-numbered levels) and Darkwave0000 (who takes the even-numbered levels), this adventure mostly feels like 2 different WADs stuck to each other, with each author taking their own approach through the WAD. Joshy often likes his maps small, cramped, with monster placement evil enough that individual monsters will matter in the long haul, but Darkwave takes an approach more akin to Serious Sam/Painkiller, where you get thrown in arenas and need to fight your way through sporadic, yet intense encounters that are devious and brutal, but thankfully Darkwave does prefer spectacle over sadism, keeping his levels hard but not overly mean and unfair. Having being done in 2010, the WAD looks gorgeous no matter which level designer is at the helm. There's a fair amount of default textures that got used, but Boom allows the environnments to look far more detailed and rich. Map 28, Twilight Massacre, is not the most original Hellscape ever conceived, but it looks appropriately massive and imposing, the perfect scenery in order to BFG over 2900 demons in mere minutes. While this above description may make Speed of Doom appear as a slaughter WAD, only a few maps in the set fit the bill, such as Map 28 and the ridiculous Pyramid of Death occupying the Map 32 slot, which features the most explosive beginning in the whole WAD. You'll have to sweat profusely in order to finally carve a foothold into this descendant of Go 2 It / Go 4 It / Pharaoh / No Guts No Glory / Playground, as the intro itself says. Gameplay in general is more styled around the Alien Vendetta school, except way harder. One of the trademarks of this WAD is to feature linedefs that, upon crossing them, make monsters instantly pop out from the ground all around the place. While it's cute the first few times, this trick is used so much throughout Speed of Doom part of me kinda groaned every time they happened, there's about no level in this WAD where this trick is not used. Joshy's levels love to feature tricky monsters in places where you can't do anything about them, but they can make your existence a living hell. The final episode in particular is the worst offender in this regard: Map 23, 27 and 29 have monster placement so evil you feel powerless to even start tackling the levels. Revenants sniping you from way beyond your own hitscan range, archviles hidden behind walls of mancubi you have no recourse against... these are a couple of the scenarios waiting for you. I also couldn't help but feel some encounters are literally impossible to react to unless you know about them firsthand, which to me is lousy level design. And finally, some maps kinda default to just sic a wall of revenants on you and make it the only challenge, which I always groan upon seeing since it's so cliche and the bane of many modern mapsets. However, the earlier parts of the WAD really shine. Map 06, Dreamscape, is one of the many gems the WAD have to offer. It's a spectacular cave network, with some indentations of technology sticking out, which is completely empty upon your first arrival. But be prepared for the worst as you pick this plasma rifle, as the previously large empty cave turns out to be anything but empty. Imps everywhere, well placed arachnotron and revenant sentries and other meaty mid-level monsters will jump you all at once and the pace of the level never lets go. Map 31, which stands for 666 in binary, is brutal, yet an impressive highlight in the WAD with the most gorgeous looking visuals of the whole set and offers some fierce, yet fun fights. The checkerboard Revenant room is my own vision of Hell, but can be disarmed with some methodical moves and well provoked infighting. Map 10, Vile Pain, will startle you upon seeing the masses of Archviles and Pain Elementals waiting for you... but don't worry, they all teleport over the level and you meet them all in small numbers, alongside big enemy numbers. Speed of Doom is often considered one of the must play WADs around, but sadly for me, I have to say I like about only the two thirds of it. Almost every Darkwave level was a hit for me, but Joshy's contributions feel a bit more uneven and I'm not as fond of their gameplay, especially for the late game maps which are so merciless. Even if this review does seem a bit critical of Joshy, I still enjoyed many of his earlier efforts throughout the WAD, barring perhaps some maps like Map 7, Simple Prison-Yard, where the fighting is so cramped and asphyxiating. 3 and a half stars, but I'll be good and round it to 4 because it still deserves a play. Maybe lower the difficulty if you're not overly hardcore, though.

Very hardcore, probably heavily inspired by Squadron 417. Try UV-Max here if you're tough.

Hardcore oldschool maps with a manly soundtrack. On Map17 there is a "split" moment where you need two players to progress, the rest is playable in SP too. Awesome.