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Starts in a unexciting way, but then becomes good. The levels are supposed sets at Mars moon, Phobos; staring the one and only Jena Plissken from John Carpenter movie "Escape from New York" and "Escape from L. A:", no sounds from that movie are been used but former soldier forces alert growls are changed with thunders, for some bizarre reason. MAP01 starts in a computer lab of sorts, then evolves into a twisted hellish place with a pentagram structure similar to Phobos Anomaly, is a pretty nice starting point, lots of nice vanilla trickery as well; MAP02 is a rip-off modified version of Nuclear Plant, but looking more creepy and destroyed, then evolves in a sort of labyrinthine structure with some weird sense of progression, a thing that it will be shared in the other levels of this series. Also, how it be possible to unlock the yellow skull pillar? MAP03 starts in a boring way and have, again, the bad sense of progression of the previous map it's here again, just be careful for looking at every switch in all rooms. Hit switch everywhere, reach the pretty good looking shuttle and exit. It's a conceptually interesting mapset, but a little boring to play.

Bob is a new hudface. Bob is an MS paint cucumber-shaped head. Bob's speech patterns resemble high-pitched squealy noises. Bob is an anomaly.

This is a pretty fun and underrated megaWAD. If I had to briefly sum it up it would be "Eternal Doom but with most of the cryptic switch hunting bullshit cut out". As you progress through it, the levels get larger and more complex. I like how you actually end up going to Hell in the middle of the megaWAD and eventually return to the corrupted city at about the last fifth of the megaWAD. I did have some gripes with it though. It has a death exit (I'll never like those) and sometimes it's not 100% clear as to where you have to go. Expect to consult your automap and even blindly wallhump some to figure out where to go or to find a key. Also, I think the level Ungod may be broken as I couldn't reach the yellow key as intended. I had to straferun across the slime pit in that level in order to reach it. Mind you, I was using Boom compatibility mode with GZDoom. I didn't check to see if Boom (strict) compatibility mode made a difference. Finally, there are some graphical anomalies in the form of GL holes due to the use of faux-3D floors if you play this in OpenGL mode. Despite my gripes, this is easily one of my favorite megaWADs to play through and I highly recommend it.

Revolution by TVR Revolution is a limit removing megawad for Doom 2 published on 2003 by Thomas van der Velden. I have beat this wad several times, as it is one of favorite fan content for these games. At the time of writing this review, I have just beat it on Ultra Violence, on continuous play and saving after every key using Doom Retro with the awesome Midi Pack This wad is famous for popularizing the Doom Cute aesthetic. The levels are more or less based on real locations, and the ingenious use of texture works great in its favor to recreate places such as moving trains, cinema theaters, factories, mansions and so forth. At the time of release, the megawad received mixed reviews, while many players praise the realistic locales and the creativity, some others found the difficulty too low. Despite of this, the wad has achieve a cult status and it is often recommended for new players or fans of realistic architecture in Doom. 20 years later, it is hard not to see the wad influence in map sets like Anomaly Report, Monster Hunter Limited, Nostalgia and some others. Difficulty wise, this may be between the original Doom campaign, and Doom 2. None of the levels get particular frantic, and there is plenty of health items around the map. TVR intention appears to be more on trying to tell a story and letting the player explore the levels without too much pressure. This may be a drawback for people looking for a harder experience, but it is perfect for a chill afternoon or for people starting to get into fan content. On 2022, the map set and its midipack were added to the unity release making it even more accesible. Revolution is divided into roughly three episodes. The first set of maps take place on planet earth and are roughly based on real locations while moving into tech base territory at the end of the episode. This is followed by a set of maps which have an hellesque aesthetic mixed up with brick bases kind of similar to the first Darkening Episode. Finally, the last episode combines surreal landscapes (such travelling the innards of a giant worm) with temple ruins. There is an increase of difficulty on each episode, but as it has been mentioned before it rarely gets very too deadly. I have beat this map set around three times and at the time of writing this review my death count was quite low. All three episodes are memorable, but I find the last set of maps less so than the rest. They are not bad, but they feel more generic than the early escapades. Overall, Revolution is an enjoyable romp made out of gorgeous vanilla maps and exploratory based gameplay. You may want to look into it if you are getting into fan content, or if you have a knack for a more relaxed kind of gameplay. Veterans, or people looking for more challenging content may feel up being disappointed. Favorite Maps: - Map 03 Infestation: A sandbox level set on some city ruins. Pretty good level with some powerful weapons hidden. It´s main gimmick is that after every key a new set of enemies is released into the contested streets. - Map 12 Utopia: The player is tasked to explore a demon infested city. Have a cool fight against a Cyberdemon inside a chapel and some nasty teleporter ambushes near the end. I love the city design. - Map 13 Dead End: A weird map in which the player is ambushed by a Cyberdemon and needs to traverse some lava infested caves to telefrag him. It is one of the most combat oriented maps of the megawad. - Map 23 Pyramid of Pain: An exploratory level set on a pyramid. Full of traps and little puzzles. Kind of feels like a Tomb Raider inspired map. - Map 26 Phragmobasidium: An Innmost Dens / Circle of Death inspired map set on a series of small islands surrounded by waste. Some nasty fights on this one as the player traverse tight catwalks while being sniped from afar.

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

The Rebirth is a one-man megaWAD from an era when such big efforts were no commonplace. Nowadays the editor utilities have been upgraded with user-friendly features that facilitated both testing and troubleshooting; in 2003, half his lifetime ago, the German author Björn Ostmann (a.k.a. Vader or Bobjet) had less sophisticated tools at his disposal. He was not short of ambition and determination though, as he did not settle for stock resources and predictable IWAD homages, but he wanted to add something new and personal to his first submission to the community. He used a DOS programme called Doom Construction Kit (DCK) to build the maps, WinTex utility to edit textures and sprites, and an obscure software named Capella800 to compose his own MIDIs. I have tried building Doom levels with a DOS editor myself, and I know how difficult and time-consuming it can be. The language barrier from German to English was another obstacle that Vader overcame quite proficiently, despite his disclaimer in the info file and a few oddities in the level names. I am not forgetting that he started working on The Rebirth when he was 17 or 18 years old, which is undoubtedly an adequate age with lots of free time that you might dedicate to modding, but it neither implies the maturity to bring such a long and cross-disciplinary work to completion, nor does it guarantee that it will feature consistent quality and solid gameplay. The young Ostmann showed his talent by uploading a full megaWAD of small to medium-sized levels, sure to not overstay their welcome while featuring a nice challenge, at least on continuous play. The awkward weapon, ammo and resource distributions on most maps suggest that pistol start was not considered a standard approach, ideally reserved to speed runners that wanted to record demos. Beating The Rebirth on pistol start requires foreknowledge of map layout, encounters, and secrets, and it promises to be a miserable experience for contemporary Doomers facing it blind and with a casual attitude. June was a short month with not much free time, so I opted for a relaxed continuous play on Ultra-Violence, with savegames mid-level (not during encounters to cheat the RNG or to facilitate anything). I got pistol-start sensations by self-restraining my weapons (I used only weapons provided in each map, after acquiring them), and sometimes I found myself in trouble because of this choice. Some maps in the second and third episode hid crucial armaments out of sight or in the secrets, therefore I ran out of ammo just like a blind pistol starter. The Rebirth was set 12 years after Doom II: Hell on Earth and the defeat of the Overlord of Hell. While humankind slowly repopulated the planet, a small part of the Overlord’s brain had survived and reanimated itself. Our Doomguy woke up one day in Starbase Omega2 (maybe a reference to Space Station Omega released in early 2003), he learnt that a new invasion has begun, so he grabbed his pistol and got ready to kill some ugly creatures from hell. His journey followed the customary progression through a first episode consisting of different types of tech-bases, followed by a streak of urban maps that was diluted by brown and abstract/generic settings in the second half. These entries might have been influenced by The Plutonia Experiment, although they did not strike the same balance between fair challenge and wickedness, due to scarce and unevenly distributed resources. The third episode brought the protagonist to hellish places, offering a decent variety of settings, gradually increasing the complexity of the layout and the use of the beautiful textures created by Vader himself. The custom artwork, dominated by grey and vibrant red hues that reminded me of Quake, must have raised some interest in a time when quality textures and sprites were not plentiful. His accurate touch up of the Baron of Hell, called Lord of Heresy, is still used today in the Doom community, and the headless Former Human was both silly and creepy. I enjoyed the exaggerated sound of the pistol, replaced by a loud shotgun blast without the pump action, also turning the chaingun into a badass weapon like the Commando’s. Other audio changes included an unsettling Arch-Vile alert noise, and a few midis composed by Vader himself (used on MAP 03, 10, 12, 15, 30, 32) that add a unique feeling to the megaWAD. Despite having a nice midi pack made by the community, I chose to play with the original soundtrack lo listen at the author’s music selection, and to have the bespoke tracks stand out a bit more. Considering that each map took between 5 and 20 minutes to complete, I never got bored of a song, even if it was D_RUNNIN. The whole playthrough lasted 6 ½ hours, one of the shortest experiences I had with a 32-map megaWAD. Beyond the graphic adjustments and the sound personalisation, The Rebirth shapes up as a classic Doom II megaWAD, a journey down the memory lane to an era when standards were still set by the original games, and not by ground-breaking community projects released after 2010. The monsters were used adequately, but still followed the IWAD tropes and mandates; the maps were suitable for both exploration and incidental combat, but they lacked a few big and fast encounters to spice up the routine; the secret design was traditional, and the only innovation was that they were often mandatory for pistol starters. Vader was surely aware of the Doom modding scene of his time, as proved by the Toxic Touch-y looks of MAP09 and by the involvement of none less than Vincent Catalaà in the playtesting, but he chose to stay true to his original ideas. A glaring first attempt with the editor like Operator was not a proper introduction for The Rebirth and in hindsight it should have been replaced, but the author left it there and chose to show everybody his humble beginnings. I appreciate this kind of artistic honesty, and the amazing technical gap between MAP01 and MAP29 is the true abyss that Björn Ostmann crossed on his own, working for more than one year on a solo project. For contemporary Doomers, The Rebirth has less appeal than recent, more streamlined releases, especially if pistol starting is a must. Sticking to this approach will probably sour the blind attempts; on the other hand, pistol starting with foreknowledge was an interesting challenge that I tried on a couple of times, just to confirm my impressions. While it had not been forgotten by the Doom community, as proven by The Rebirth Midi Pack compiled in 2019, Vader’s debut was not included in any shortlist of relevant PWADs from 2003, maybe because that year featured fundamental opuses such as Scythe, Phobos: Anomaly Reborn, and spectacular ZDoom mods. The Rebirth might have felt old-fashioned even at the time of its release, but it still has some historical significance as an attempt by a single author at modifying all the game features at the same time. Probably Vader did not plan everything since the beginning and he added new features as he gained expertise, resulting in a slightly incoherent work from the thematic standpoint. The player clearly perceives the author’s progress as they advance towards the end of the megaWAD, and I find it a fascinating way to establish a connection with another individual from another time and place. If you like the IWADs, you do not expect to beat the maps on first try when pistol starting, and you have always dreamed of making your own vanilla megaWAD with custom resources, The Rebirth is well worth a few hours of your time. Best maps: MAP 09 – The Depot MAP 14 – The Undertown MAP 20 – The Gateway MAP 27 – Wired Hive MAP 29 – The Abyss Other standout maps: MAP 11 – Teleport Center MAP 31 – Snowed-in Mansion MAP 16 – The Musty Ones MAP 22 – Withered Fields MAP 28 – Netherworld Detailed commentary of each map can be found in the June 2023 DWMC thread.

While most Doom I megawads drag on and bore you, this one is very worth the play. Episode 1 is a fantastic opener, not too challenging and stocks you up before the Anomaly. The latter episodes bring the pain. I enjoyed the map layouts, they encourage speedrunning! If you're into Doom I maps, give this pack a shot. Add Complex Doom for more of a struggle.

Large adventure map. Ambiance is basically very good, but lacks variation, and is often too dark. Layout is frequently quite rectangular, but the detailing helps; sadly it has a high copy&paste factor. Fights @ UV are not bad, but predictable, and the teleporting revenants are nice once but get annoying. Also the map has some anomalies and needs to be finished. All-in-all it is about a factor 3 too long. Despite the cons: 4* for a once-play experience.

[ SUPER LONG REVIEW ] I like the idea of a WAD being created by inexperienced and/or new mappers: it can showcase new idiosyncracies and allow little (in most cases, I guess)-known people to make a name for themselves on these forums. Having beat this for the third time and knowing how a good chunk of the levels worked, I also turned my focus to design and thematic consistency. Thankfully, the levels all seem to have about the same sort mapping skill on an aesthetic scale (with a few exceptions). This isn't a negative, by the way; if there's anything I dislike, it's seeing a beautiful map followed by a vastly inferior-looking one. That sort of thing doesn't gell well. The first NOVA on the other hand is consistent on that front. And, besides, considering the whole nature of the WAD, maps not looking quite as polished as stuff you'd see in Sunlust or BTSX isn't at all bad. So, what comes to basic looks, the WAD comes together nicely. How do the mappers themselves, what comes to gameplay, fare? Above-average, I'd say. PRIMEVAL, who made the first level (Outpost) and co-made The Seventh Circle (Map28) goes for typical pistol gameplay in the former. Kinda stale type of gameplay, but it works for a simple Map01. Jaws in Space only made Map02 (Administration Center), a sort of fast-ish paced techbase level with a nukage-cavern and ocean backdrop. Besides the hideous-looking toilets (well, I suppose that's the point), it looks fine. Gameplay can be a bit annoying, considering you'll have to use the Pistol for a bit. mrthejoshmon ups the game, making 3 levels: his first (Map03: Water Treatment Plant) is a compact map with some bigger monsters. It's alright: okay secrets and a non-official SSG (while I do like). Compound (Map08) is a kind of tribute to Containment Area (or I guess Storage Facility from TNT?) and has some secrets that weren't placed too good. Again, it's compact, and slow-paced. Luckily his third and last entry, Incubator (Map12) is a faster run-and-gun through an admittedly blocky-looking tech area (it uses that ugly black-and-white texture quite a lot). Still, a fun map is a fun map, so I can't complain too much. EvilNed is one of the more prolific mappers in this particular WAD, authoring 5 maps: 04, 07, 10, 14 and 17. All have a distinct look to them: tech levels that contain some form of liquid, whether it be simple water, lava, etc.. I must admit, his secret placement isn't what I'd personally call stellar, and the gameplay is really hit-and-miss: for some maps, like Map07, it's really fun (besides that damn ending!), others are adequate (04 and 14, the latter of which I'd argue has TOO many Mancubi, in spite of the map's jokey name "Man Cub Up") and the other two are just a bit frustrating (in 10, some areas shut off and potentially ruin a 100% run, and 17's ending is flat-out annoying, and has pretty shaky pacing). Next up is kildeth. Not a fan of his first map, Hazard Facility (Map05), what with the damaging floors everywhere, monster placement that I found obnoxious and, in my mind, crappy secrets. His second entry, Sensorium (Map27) is weird in that it's quite large but has sub-100 enemies. The first time I played it I hated it, but using the current UV-max strategy, it's more bareable. Arjak's two levels are quite different from one another: the first, Sewage Processing (Map06) is a compact map with a lot of secrets (relatively easy to find, one of which has an SSG!) and rather fun gameplay. Map20 (Castle Bloodletting) is a much larger level, with an annoying start that has enemies just about everywhere, but progressively gets better. The ending is quite tense. FuzzyFireball's only level is Suspend (Map09), a very linear massacre through hallways where the enemy fodder becomes stronger as you progress. Tense and fun. Phobus Anomaly (Map11) is a very Phobus level; rather small, and precise (and concise) enemy placement. I will admit though that I wasn't a huge fan: some of said enemy placement did feel annoying. sgt dopey delivers one of the first bigger maps in the form of Warehouse District (Map13). The start isn't great; for one thing, there's a slow lift that you have to manually activate to proceed, and falling from where you end up meand you have to repeat a dumb ascent to a switch, blah blah blah. The highlight is the ending in a city-looking area, with a fight with a Cyberdemon. Cannonball is a mapper who, in general, is REALLY hit-and-miss for me, and his NOVA levels are no exception. His first outing, The Prisoner (Map15) is not one of his masterpieces: aggitating enemy placement and Arch-Vile traps that bugged me to no end. The ending's quite tense, but it doesn't make up for the rest. Power Core (Map18) is our first real taste of slaughter-ish gameplay; it's okay. The Hell Revealed-inspired "maze" looks neat but plays like crap, but besides that, the map's serviceable with enough resources and well-thought secrets. Paul D made Teleportarium (Map16), quite the fun "go-left-or-right-to-find-whatever-key" sort of level, featuring an ever-increasing growth of enemies that swarm the centre of the map. He revisits some of the areas of this map with his second entry, Immaterium (Map23), which is sort of Map16 if it was merged with Hell. Cool design, but I don't think the gameplay elevated it to quite the former map's status. Cyriak (or mouldy) is one of the mappers (along with Cannonball and dobu) whose aesthetics rise above most of the others, and sort of fucks with the consistency I was on about above. Despite this, his maps are fun to play and you can see his surreal design bearing fruit (and being perfected in Going Down). Bad Blood (Map19) is apparently his first Doom map ever, and it's quite impressive. The ending with the Hellish tentacles are very Cyriak-y. Vile Arterium (Map25) has the fatal sin of being beatable in less than 30 seconds: you can literally run straight to the exit with a Hell Knight and maybe a Cyberdemon in your way, whom you can avoid. Besides that, it's okay, with a lot of diverse areas like a blood sewer (?), machinery, vents, etc.. The Seventh Circle is, I'm guessing, mostly a product from him, and is possibly my favourite map in the WAD; a large cave, a library and prison-like areas... also, inventive traps. joe-ilya delivers a couple of Hell-themed maps, the first being Beta Base (Map21), which does have ammo and the like, but just enough to kill everything. It's weird since the last level didn't have a death exit, so why do this? I dunno, maybe for pistol starters. In any case, okay, the ending with the enemies in the field is dumb. Hell's Playground (Map26) is a "jog"-paced (between slow and fast) map revolving around the chaingun and the shotguns. It's more of a filler level than anything. Getsu Fune's two maps are distinct for having large rooms: Broken Confluence Point (Map22) starts off with a few monsters, then gradually opens up revealing Hellish caverns and gives you a nice dose of heavy artillery to help out. The ending involving telefragging teleporters sucks, though. The secret map Riptide (Map32) is a borderline-Tyson adventure underwater. Interesting idea, just very slow and not well executed in my opinion. Stygian gives us one of the big maps, Rings of Gyges (Map24). Getting some of the secrets is a pain, and a lot of the enemies feel like they're there just to boost the monster count up. Some fun areas involving key traps, but that's about it. dobu gabu maru's secret map Iron Exuviae (Map31) can be beaten pacifist, but going for the super secret exit, that's a whole different story. I actually enjoy the non-fighting portions, since the areas where you DO engage with enemies are generally poorly conceived. The first area is tight and has a ton of corners that you can easily get pushed into and it's game-over, and the last has a massive swarm of Revenants and a bunch of pillars you can easily rocket yourself into. Nice design and music, but otherwise bothersome. Memfis and fiend-o-hell collaborate on the same map, the penultimate one: Extorta Nova (Map29). Usually a map made (or at least co-made) by Memfis is a good sign, but sadly the first half is a bit daft, waiting on slow lifts to get you into areas with 20-dealing damage floors and, once again, telefrag teleporters. To me, that is indeed "artificial difficulty". Just teleport the player near the start. The Cyberdemons are in tight corridors. God help those playing this from pistol start. So, that should be just about all the mappers. Some of them (namely: kildeth, dobu, Cannonball, Cyriak and Arjak) collaborated for the behemoth of a final level, Megiddo! Each made their own section. Only three are required, but for completion's sake I did them all! Arjak's is probably the easiest and has by far the least enemies, though the Revs and the Spider Mastermind can be bitches. Dobu revisits some areas from the previous maps (that's an idea I've always wanted to see, so cool), which flows quite nicely. Cannonball goes for slaughter-like gameplay, and it's quite fun actually, and can get really intense. Cyriak is more fiendish, using Arch-Viles especially to catch the player off guard. I can see this frustrating some people beyond belief, but knowing this stuff beforehand, it's fine; I also like the blue design. kildeth, I suppose, made the southwestern portion which I stand by as the "bullshit" section: a wide-open cavern with Pain Elementals, a few Cyberdemons, Arch-Viles and hitscanners galore. Sure, there's an Invulnerability, but even so, it's dumb. Also, 20-damaging floors are aggravating! The actual ending looks cool, and isn't that tough: a small clan of monsters, then focus on a trio of Cyberdemons then shoot into the boss brain. You win! All-in-all, a mostly consistent (I have a limited vocab, I know), interesting WAD that warrants a try. Best Maps: 06, 09, 16, 19, 28, 30 Worst Maps: 05, 15, 31

Doom the Way Id Did birth from the idea of making maps that could replace the original campaing and made mostly with the same aesthetic and limitations of maps made on 1993. But not only that, the idea is also to emulate the designing styles of the different authors of the maps of the original Doom: Romero, Petersen, and Hall. This made the authors of this megawad analyse the quircks and designing ideas behind the original creators. For certain, after completing this mapset not only one, but like more than 10 times already, i feel that this mapset is overrated. Yes, some maps are really good, especially on episode 2 and some on episode 3. But the first episode not quietly match up to the original shareware episode. That said, here is a review map per map of all episodes along UDTWID, as it was later expanded to contain also all new Episode 4 maps. Every map has it name, it author, the author style to mimic, and an individual rating for the map. Episode 1: -E1M1: Communications Bridge by Sarah Mancuso (esselfortium)(Romero) 2.5/5 For certain, it start differentiating itself from the regular way Id Did their job. Esselfortium opening map is vastly more complex than the original Hangar by Romero. It is still a short map, but it chain of secrets is far more complex. Also, not great opening sight to set the mood, just a green wall with windows. The music used on the DTWID Music pack isn't a great opener, but its ok. A little repetitive, even before it start looping. -E1M2: Military Bunker by Nick Laurent (hobomaster22)(Romero) 3.5/5 Again, a far more complex map than the expected for a second map on the first episode. This time, a little bit longer than the map on the same place of the original. The layout is intricante and non linear for the most part. Still, this one is fun. So Hobomaster did a good job here. The music is quite up to the atmosphere of the map, fitting well with it pacing. -E1M3: Fuel Synthesis by Sarah Mancuso (Romero) 1.5/5 This is where things started to stray from the usual. This map is really big for a third map, almost too much. IT start to drag a lot when the Id formula by Romero just make it long enough to beat it on one sitting. Great map by Essel, no doubt. But too long. Also, for some reason, its fairly easy to find the secret exit before the normal one. The music is quite spooky and good. But the map is soo long that is makes the action seem slower than what it is. -E1M9: Excavation Site by Stuart Rynn (Stewboy)(Romero) 2/5 Another really long and slogish map with a lot of interconnected areas. Stewboy make a linear map, but it interconnectivity detriment it pacing. There are some really good desings here, but again, it is a bit too long for Ep.1 The music here is a stright rip of Zero by The Smashing Pumpkins. As the map is longer than it should, it start to loop heavily on the back for a boring action. -E1M4: Treatment Plant by Jason Root (Hellbent)(Romero) 4/5 Really good medium to large map that opens up a lot and has a really good nonlinear nature. This is far more complex than the map on the same sloth, but somehow, it catches the same ambience and atmosphere for a good action packed round. So Hellbent did an amazing job here with great secrets. The music is simple and repetitive, but it works. -E1M5: Engineering Bay by Jacob Zuchowski (ellmo)(Romero) 4/5 Another great medium to large map. But this one is a bit more linera with a lot of interconnected areas. The areas are greatly designed and the secret are quite good. The music here is slow and atmospheric going perfectly with the lenght of the map. -E1M6: Reactor Complex by Nick Laurent (Romero) 3/5 Pretty long map, but fortunatelly, it doesn't drag too much. Is a linear map with side secret areas. It goes well in this spot as the orignal map6 was also a little longer than the previous. Hobomaster did another great map quite fitting with Episode 1 aesthetic. The music is a stright rip of Sex Type Thing by Stone Temple Pilots. -E1M7: Logic Core by Trevor Primmett (iori)(Romero) 2/5 Long, kinda non linear interconnected map. It goes well for the slot number as map7 on the original was also pretty long. Problem here is the interconnectivity, making easy to loose track of where you are. Sometimes a strightforward approach is better, but anyway. The aesthetic is good here with some areas reminicent of the original maps in general. The music track is a march style slow one, pretty menacing and kinda spooky. It mesh so so with the map. -E1M8: Transport Facility by Jacob Zuchowski (Petersen) 3.5/5 The episode ending is quite similar to the original, but with a little more ramp up. Lonelines and dread is sense during all the map until the final area. And thats really good. The secrets are good, but one is kinda stupid as you need to beat the bosses to access it. The musis isn't as dreadful and the original, but its also quite good and fitting. Episode 2: -E2M1: Receiving Station by Xaser Acheron (Petersen) 4/5 It set the tone for corrupted tech base quite well. Far more than the original map. The lenght is right for the slot, and the secrets are good, making the little backtracking worth. Undoubtly, Xaser knows what he did with this map as its a perfect introduction to Ep.2 The music is a stright rip of Big Guns by Ac/DC. Repetitive as fuck and not meshing with the map at all. -E2M2: Filtration Compound by Sarah Mancuso and Xaser Acheron (Petersen)(Romero) 4/5 Now this is how a good colaboration is made. Essel and Xaser deliver a really atmospheric and quite complex and interconnected map. It deviates from the warehouse setting of the original, but it deviates for good. The corrupted techbase theme is taken to the max here. The music is repetitive slow but quite atmospheric and fitting for this map. -E2M3: Rec Facility by Captain Toenail (Hall)(Petersen) 5/5 This map is a really good fun. Again the usage of corrupted tech base is top notch. The length is right and the pacing is just amazing. Capatain Toenail delivered a great map for sure, right there as good if not slighty better than the original slot map. As like the original game, the music is the intermission music. Since the map is on the action side with a subtle exploration, it fits quite well, even if it becomes a little repetitive. -E2M4: Mental Ward by Jacob Zuchowski (Hall)(Petersen) 5/5 Amazing atmosphere from the get go. This is kinda in line with the darkness that dominates Deimos Anomaly, too. But here is far earier and haunting. The lenght is surprisinly medium to short, but there is no bad moment on it. Excellent map. Far better than the original. The music piece is quite earie and atmospheric, too. Meshing perfectly with the map. -E2M5: Deimos Command by Mike Alfredson (Use3D)(Petersen) 2.5/5 Even when the atmosphere and the layout is good, the pacing of thi map is not good. There are too much workaround to get to the later areas, something that could be easily fixed by putting switch that activated a set of stair or a lift on the courtyard behind the lue door. That, and making one secret inaccessible if you move onto the room after the yellow bars, it make the liking of this mapset not good. Its kinda a let down from the great maps that were before this one. The original map for this slot was also really convulted, and long. On the good side to this map, is that it is fairly more coehesive and easy to explore, even without checking the automap. The music track is an ominous spooky march, previously seen on E1M7 i think. Its good for this map, certainly. -E2M9: Nebulous Origins by Trevor Primmett (Petersen) 4/5 Now, this map, is what map e2m5 should had been. Complex and long with a good pace, neat sights and interesting areas. It even has a secret exit back from the starting point. how this one was relegated to E2M9, a map with a name that hinted some kind of bizarre setting, just to deploy the usual corrupted tech, is beyond my understanding. Anyway, this was supossed to be faithful to the original game, so making a really abstract and bizarre map would had detracted for the faithfulness. In this case as it was a secret map, and for a map that had a really abstract map on it original slot, i wouldn't give a fuck to the faithfulness. As i said, great map. The music track is kinda good for the ambience, but a spookier one would have been better i think. -E2M6: Foundry by Gus Knezevich (Alfonzo)(Petersen) 3.5/5 This map has a perfect atmosphere and pacing...but really a lot of the map can be accidentally skiped, so that kinda is a let down, as most of the side areas, and even a key are optional. So i'm kinda divided on what this map offers. The atmosphere is top notch and the explorative aspect is cool, but at the same time, i feel its not implemented properly onto the pacing of the map itself. Taking that in consideration, the map is kinda short. Ok, the original map on this slot is not really good, even kinda tiresome on how long it could be, but the progress is dsigned to almost all areas being visited before having all the needed keys for the exit. One good way to solve this could be ad a colored key door with a switch behind that activates the stairs to the exit, that way, one need to explore more before completing it. The music track is a slow and atmospheric quite good for the map. -E2M7: Ore Processing by Brendt Pantley (Megalyth)(Romero) 2/5 Great atmosphere, but the map is really complex, interconnected and kinda all over the place with it pacing, so progressing through it is really tiresome and could make the player feel lost most of the time. This map is kinda analogue as the original E2M6, where the pacing is not clear and the progress is disjointed. Its a good map, but it not up to the excellent map that was on the same slot on the original. The music track is really good for the atmosphere, but as the map is a really mazey it becomes annoying and boring really fast. -E2M8: Vault by Michael Fraize (Marcaek) and Sarah Mancuso (Petersen) 4/5 strightforward boss map, better than the original, but annoying to loose track of where the cyber is teleported from time to time. The music track is not even near to how good was Nobody told me about Id. Episode 3: -E3M1: Abyssal Stronghold by Jacob Zuchowski (Petersen) 2/5 Kinda simplistic map. Theme wise, it works. Now, it lives up to the original? Hard to say, its a good map, but the original has kinda an iconic introduction. This one is just somewkind of portal inside a cave. Things are more spacious and less corridor here, and thats good. But i feel that it needed a little bit of atmosphere. Not much hellish, more than volcanic cave fortress. The music track is not good, feels more up to a tech base map than something like hell. -E3M2: City of Corpses by Walter Confalonieri (daimon) and Jacob Zuchowski (Petersen) 2/5 Not Interesting map with some nods to Mt.Erebus, its a big and linear map that tries to simulate non-linearity. Not bad map at all. Kinda empty and with boring sights. The music track is again more fitting for techbase and completely ruins the atmosphere. -E3M3: Malebolge by Icytux (Petersen) 5/5 Awesome nonlinear map with great interconnectivity and great areas. Secrets are top notch, too. First proper hell map on the set, and this one delivers as it should. Being far different from the original map on this slot, this one is a great example of good material here. The music track, even if a little punchy works pretty fine for this map. -E3M4: Torture Chambers by Captain Toenail and Jason Root (Petersen) 3.5/5 Quite short map, but good non less. The inspiration, aesthetically, is clearly the original Limbo, and it is delivered quitly well. But one of the things that i didn't liked much is that after collecting the keys, the path wasn't clear, still. That along with two shooteable switches, that don't appear on the original game before TFC, made me reluctant about this one. Its a good map, thats for sure. But has a few pacing problems. The music track is the same as on E1M8, earie, dready and quite fitting for the map. -E3M5: Chapel of Scorn by Paul Corfiatis (Edits by Alfonso and Essel)(Petersen) 5/5 Excellent map for sure, a little bit longer than one thought, but excellent. Paul really knows what he was doing here, the pacing is marvellous and the action is just right. Secrets are cool, and the areas are really good looking. The map seems to take inspiration from various maps, like E3M2, E3M5, and even map28 from Doom 2. Even though, there is also a clear TNT influence on almost every map Paul make, kinda greatly meshing the abstract and the semi-realistic. The music track is the same as E1M7, the menacing march, it goes well with this map, but i'm getting kinda tired of hearing it. -E3M6: Depths by James Cresswell (Phobus)(Petersen) 3.5/5 Good map, really good. The secrets are well hidden, but the shootable switch detriments from the original experience, making the search for the secret exit a little tedious as its not what one would search on a map from the original game. The abstract nature of the map along the semi reallistic areas give an awesom vibe for sure. One of the best maps of the episode for sure. The music track is again Sex Type Thing by Stone Temple Pilots, strangely, it doesn't go bad with this one, but the map is soo good that probably any kind of music could go well with it. -E3M9: Lake of Fire by Christopher Lutz (Petersen) 3.5/5 Pretty good map in the same vein of Mt.Erebus. This one should have been a main level, not a secret one. Lutz, as always, deliverd a great map. A little bit more linear than the original, but still with great pacing and explorative aspects. The music track is again ZERO by The Smashing Pumpkins. And doesn't fit the map at all. -E3M7: Inner Sanctum by Jacob Zuchowski (Petersen) 3.5/5 Really good puzzle map, in fact, it is quite short, but as it is kinda big, it seem much larger than what it is in reality. Its a good mash-up of the sandbox open ended style of Mt.Erebus, with the concept of limbo, as all is surrended in darkness to simulate emptyness. Only thing that didn't mesh well with the map is it name, but well, it kinda and not. The music track its quite atmospheric and fitting for sure. -E3M8: Core by Eli Cohen (ProcessingControl)(Petersen) 5/5 A really good final boss map. Quite improvement over the original, but still giving it an homenage with it form. The map has it difficulty on properly aiming to the Mastermind. The music track its quite good as a climatic one. On the ending, the Bunny theme is quite good, too. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From here i will be reviewing the Ultimate Domm The Way Id Did, Thy Flesh Consumed Episode replacement. From the get go, the team took really long time to complete it, and it is only 9 maps long. And thats is something to take unto the equation. Seems like all those years, the team making the maps forget about the idea of maps being made on 1993/1995 as the maps here are far more complex than anything saw on the previous episodes. Not only that, but also some maps are not, even if they supposelly did, resemble anything that could had come from the head of the original authors of this episode: Romero, McGee, Green, Willits and Anderson. The designing cues may be there, but the aesthetic and limitations of the time, are not. So UDTWID is somewhat controversial as it doesn't fulfill at all what it should. But anyway, here is the review map per map. Episode 4: -E4M1: Into The Grave by Walker Wright (Pavera)(Romero) 4/5 Right on difficulty for the hardest episode. The map is nice for sure, grasping the TFC aesthetic quite well. Its pretty linear, and the secrets are easy, but is ok. Its notoriously more difficult than any of the previos maps on DTWID. The music track is the same as E1M8, similar to the original and fitting for the atmosphere, too -E4M2: Vile Affections by Matt Cibulas (RottKing)(McGee) 3/5 Not even near the difficulty of the map on the same slot as this one. Even though, the map is quite good and entertaining to play, with good monster placement and tight encounters. The aesthetic is more in line with map E4M3, but its ok. The secrets are pretty hidden, and probably not even thought as secrets on first sight. Maybe a more notorious approach would have helped more. Its quite interesting to note that maybe there are some kind of hardcoding ramp up in difficulty, somehow, as the shotguners in this episode are starting to be really hard hitters, unlike the previous episodes that they were kinda cannon fodder. The music track its not as cool as Donna to the Rescue, and its kinda repetitive. -E4M9: Terror by Mike Alfredson (Use3D)(Willits) 2.5/5 Really good map, good pacing and interesting layout. Its not techbasey as the original map, but still match with the aesthetic of the TFC. Albeit that, its easy to get lost in here, somehow. The secret are so so, some are easy to find and some need great explorative skills or just luck. But one time only secrets are a big no no. The monster placement is good and its moderatelly difficult. Just like the original. The music track is ZERO by The Smashing Pumpkins. It fits here, strangely, but is repetitive as hell. -E4M3: Earth, Blood and Fire by Chris Bourke (purist)(McGee) 3/5 Nice map, but the aesthetic doesn't feel right. Too much gray for the TFC. Aside from that, its a really good map that plays well and its really entertaining. The secrets are easy, except for the running one that may take more tries than one would like. The sight is good and i like the idea of a rising a bridge to access the other areas, even when most are acceded bua teleporters. The music track is surprisingly fitting for this map. -E4M4: Unclean Spirits by Michael Fraize (Marcaek)(Green) 1/5 Great achievement on vanilla mapping, gorgeous, top notch aesthetic grasping fully TFC. Problem? Balls hard, even playing continuous and on HMP. This maps needs a lot of tries to be completed. And you know what is the biggest offender? Well, yo don't need to go to the side areas at all. Yes, if you carefully made your way onto first area, and collected the blue key, you completed the map. Not even the side areas are in need to be explored, and the worst of all is that there is not enough health to completelly explore the map. If the side areas had good rewards that could be good, but just a few rockets, a berserk pack or a soulsphere is not reward enough for all the monsters you will have to kill to reach them. And the ammo loose on them. Seriously, how do you guys think this was on release state? This need a lot of balancing as i seriously thinking that maybe there is not even enough ammo to complete it on pistol start. Or even enough rad suits for explore it as it deserves. Or you are a dooming god or you spend lots of time trying to conquer it for a reward not that gratifying. And from the start, DTWID and it expansion, UDTWID aimed for a conservative design, trying to replicate or made maps on the style of the authors of the original game and a difficulty similar or a bit above the original game. This is nowhere something seen on the original game at all. Designing wise and difficulty wise. Those designs are not even near to what Tim Willits or John Anderson did on his master levels or released PWADS. Not A.McGee, not even Romero has this level of designing. And certainly not Shaw Green. They did something far more in line with the original game aesthetic and design. So this is completely bullshit about what UDTWID should be. Maybe it was made a joke? As the original E4M4 by McGee wa really simple and easy, so you guys went for something far more complex and ellaborate and balls hard? Well, this one was not fun at all, and not what is expected of a true UDTWID. The music track surprisingly fits this map, giving it a mysterious atmosphere. -E4M5: Doctrines of Devils by Gifty (Petersen) 4/5 Now this one is a true TFC experience. Gifty made an excellent map. It is supposelly on Petersen style, but it feels like meshing T.Willits and J.Anderson influence greatly. The simplier and clean design is faithful and makes for a really enjoyable experience. The map has a hub area with three different routes to tackle. So the pacing is at your choice. All of them are challenging and has greatly designed encounters. The final room after the yellow door, is a bit unforgiving with all the spectres and barons on almost complete darkness. But if you still have some BFG ammo, this is the place to use it. So perfect design for sure. The music track fits greatly on this map. -E4M6: Molten Gods by Richard Frei (Tarnsman)(Romero) 5/5 Excellent map in the style of Romero. Tarnsman did a great job here. The map is really fun, even when it is quite short. The layout and flow is excellent, allowing exploration and action in a good mix. There is even a surprise Cyber that offers a good challenge. The aesthetic is a bit woodey, too much wood for TFC, but mesh well with the map flow and design. The secrets are rightly done and none of them seems to be hard to find. The musci track, surprisingly, fits perfectly with this map. -E4M7: Hand of the Heathen by Gus Knezevich (Alfonzo)(Anderson) 2.5/5 Really interesting map, but has some flags. The layout is mostly like what Anderson did, orthogonal rooms with some interesting texturing. The pace is a little convulted as there are sections in need of a rad suit to be traversed, and if one loose something or miss as switch, it becomes tiresome. Maps that relies a lot on sector damage need a safe return or way to access the concealed area in case of need. Aside from that, the map is really hard on hitscanner action and Caco mobs. Not bad, but certainly something no note. The map is short per ce, but the use of the rad suit and the sponge enemies make for a slower action. The texturing may have been better, as Anderson make use of TFC aesthetic on an interesting way. The secret are not that hard to figure, and one is key dependant on a heavy damaging sector zone, so thats kinda annoying. Then there is a surprise Cyberdemon after the blue door that could literaly kill you on the surprise. The map gets flooded of demons, specters and lost souls that difficult the fight with the cow a little. After that, just a little more to access the final room with a neat self referencing bridge with a dead marine body on it. Something that didn't appeared at all on Doom or TFC, but well, nice touch. Not bad map, but could be better i think. The music track is quite fitting for sure. -E4M8: An End to Darkness by Xaser (Anderson) 3.5/5 This map is a tribute by Xaser, to the late John Anderson. The starting area of the map resembles the only know image of what is supposed to be the last map on his Inferno serie, ''Waters of Lethe''. Aside from that, the map doesn't resemble something Dr.Sleep would make. Its far more complex and kinda puzzley. In fact, it is almost a complete puzzle map that turns slaughtery at the end. Great map for sure, but doesn't mesh at all with the DTWID aesthetic, as this is too complex for something that could have come from 1993/1995. This fully grasp the TFC aesthetic, though. The map itself is divided on two parts, east or west. You don't need to explore both to complete the map, but only for completionist sake. The east area offers an interesting puzzle and the west area offers a more action packed approach. Both sides lead to the unique complain of the map, that is fighing a cyber on a tight corridor. Not only you are on a tight corridor, you also are under hitscanner fire and imp love. The proper way to face this part is founding the secret invensivility, but its kinda too well hidden, and this lead to the secrets. Most are cool and rewards exploration and attention to details. The pace is good and mostly you are all the time going from loud-quite-loud during all the map. There is a secret not reacheable by any means, and are just two textures in memory of Dr. Sleep. Great map, again. But departs too much from what UDTWID should be. After all, DTWID + UDTWID make for a great mapset. Far more loved than it should as it is vastly inferior to Wonderful Doom, or far less ambitious than 2002: A Doom Odyssey, for example. The authors couldn't stoped themselves of including some of their own quircks and designing choices. And thats not bad, as it adds some new fresh air to the style. But could have been done better as shown on the examples mentioned above. Mixing the boldness with the faithfullness is rather hard, thats for sure. And this was not an easy task. They succeded? For some yes, for me, not completely. So after playing it for long time, i can say that the real complete UDTWID is clearly Wonderful Doom made by Wraith777.

Anomaly indeed. This is a strange strange wad. The author didn't copy anyone, instead he developed his own very unique style. It's full of things that are almost universally considered bad: invisible walls, unmarked doors, dark mazes, etc, but due to the overall weirdness they actually kind of work... "Kind of". After two maps I got annoyed anyway and only briefly looked at the rest of the wad. Definitely don't download this if you just want to relax.

A brilliant 94 WAD, shame this was only fairly recently rediscovered though as it is a truly fun map. Monsters are placed thoughtfully and so is the ammo, the secrets are used well and as far as I could tell there was no texture mis-alignments. I can just imagine this being included in an E1 replacement as it would fit so well maybe as an alternative to Deimos Anomaly 5/5. PS I am only guessing here but maybe tmp stands for The Marble Palace?

Created in 1995 and released in 2003--a whopping 9 years after his magnum opus RRWARD02--RRWARD04 is nothing more than a crummy Phobos Anomaly clone that would've been dated even for '95. It's a damn shame; Richard Ward had a lot of talent for an early mapper, but never quite reached his full potential. 1/5

^Hey, why not convert this to Doom II and put this in oskyrt3 so that there are really NINE maps for the NINE anomalies? Anyway, nothing special here, but not a bad map either. Would do fine in oskyrt3. 3/5