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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.

My Top 5 HR2 maps : Map 12 - I love the minimalist aesthetics and the big compartments with lots of monsters. Map 19 - One of the real "big" maps with a lot of verticality. Map 32 - One of my favourite slaughtermaps ever made Map 18 - Very good exploration in natural landscapes Map 29 - Amazing "rise to the top" kind of level with many monsters My Flop 5 : Map 03 : Boring and very grindy gameplay Map 09 : The concept ok but I would like to have more exploration before the last fight. Map 14 : Too symetrical Map 26 : This map is ok but that's all Map 30 : Ios map My opinion on HR2 : I have a very strong opinion on this wad: it's one of my favorite wads despite all its flaws. A lot of maps have aged badly, but the wad has its charm for several reasons and it's the kind of wad I can play several times. Here are several reasons why I love this wad: - Vanilla megawad with only stock textures (with a few exceptions). - The maps are aesthetically simple and I like it. I really like several maps for their minimalist look and the use of brown and metal textures. - Regular use of 3D bridges.I'll always be a fan of those little quirks that can be done with vanilla. - Memorable music. I love this alternation between the very atmospheric music of Metabolist and the Metal music of Thyrbse. - Good ideas for traps and gimmicks on some maps. - Many HR2 maps are "old fashioned" slaughtermaps with an overabundance of ammunition, not really threatening enemies to kill in groups.... However, I couldn't really compare it to HR1. To be honest, I don't think it deserves the name "Hell Revealed 2". The atmosphere is not at all the same. The only real successor to HR is Kama Sutra in my opinion, for reasons I won't list here.

The Inmost Dens seems to be one of the most loved Doom II levels. Milo Casali's Neurosphere is heavily inspired by it and it got 2 sequels in MM and HR2. It has a unique and detailed architecture unlike anything else in Doom II, which certainly makes it stand out. Tom Mustaine is another author who took inspiration from it. His map is fine, not as good as the original but pretty good for 1995. It really isn't anything special though, worth playing mainly for its historic value. I really like Mustaine's levels, but this is probably his weakest. The story behind it is much more interesting than the map itself. Apparently, it was made for the Master Levels, but when American McGee saw it, he told Mustaine "...go make some of your own geometry! We aren't putting this in the Master Levels."

One of Roofi's first released maps, this shows the signs of one who's been honing their craft for sometime. Roofi utilizes his penchant for minimalist texturing to create this series of caves and trees guaranteed to make your life a living hell. Fairly difficult, if the HR2 track written by Sam "Plagbolist" Woodman is any indication. Roofi is far more restrained in his sadism however, thank god, but there's still more than plenty of it to match. Ammo availability is a strange thing. Sometimes, there will be lots while at other times, there's hardly any. Case in point: the large open area towards the end where 4 Cyberdemons appear after hitting a nearby switch which opens a cave. I believe you're supposed to get the Manicubi located some distance in to infight with the Cyberdemons, but the thing is, 4 Cyberdemons almost guarantees crossfire. Roofi does provide a decent amount of supplies but he doesn't take care of you like he ends up doing in future projects like 180 Minutes Por Vivre. Still a strong map, but perhaps with just a slight touch of balance missing.

One of the most iconic DD's maps because of its extreme difficulty. No Chance consists to explore a non-linear large red cave housed by a thousand of viciously placed monsters. A lot of unpredictable deadly ambushes await you and DD gave you few items to let you survive. No Chance is a masterpiece and a must for maxxers looking for sadistic challenging maps. As go 2 it or Playground from HR2 , No Chance showed how hard a doom map can be. This map was released 10 years ago but aged very well contrary to many hard maps and still need a lot of skill and patience to be finished. Here is my UV saveless Demo (maybe boring to watch but whatever !) DEMO

The WAD prides itself with being one of the the most difficult WADs that exist. The first few levels are hard but fun. You're curious if you can escape the situations you are put in. But by level 10 or so it becomes clear that HR2 is not hard, it's just unfair and tedious. You are put in situations where you're forced to take damage. You're trapped in a room with four baron of hells. You wasted all your energy ammo on the boss battle before, not anticipating the situation you were put in and you cannot use rocket launcher because there is no room to evade the splash damage. Unfortunately, this happens in every map. After reloading and planning for those situations (that do not require skill but only the use of the quick load button) you again have to chew through dozens of hard-to-kill monsters. When you press that button and are greeted again with 20 revenants, 10 hell knights, 10 baron of hells and 3 arch-viles. There is an abundance of ammo and enough cover to easily kill them off, but you still question every action that took you to reload and tediously gun them down again for 5 straight minutes. In short: The map design is uninteresting. The layout mostly alright. This WAD puts you in unfair positions and makes you tediously chew through hordes of monsters without any real demand for skill. There is a lack of interesting monster encounters. All in all, 2/5 stars, do not recommend.

And the sequel has been finished. Oh boy what a journey it was, one that didn't really pay off unfortunately, so let's see why that was. First of all, as the name implies, this acts as a sequel to the original classic and popular megawad Hell Revealed, however it is mostly HR in name only. This is a consequence of multiple factors. The main factor is the drastic deviation in style from the original for more than its half, and it's not for the best. The first 15 maps or so, with very few exceptions, are not slaughter-esque at all, and there's barely anything of even decent quality to be found at this stage. Their design, the enemy placement and usage is absolutely mediocre at best. These levels are very boxy in their design and pretty short, but they are full of often almost unfair enemy encounters that don't push your skills to the limit and are instead meant to be simply deadly and nigh impossible to survive with no fun, forcing you to take damage in the best case scenario. A perfect example to illustrate this would be MAP04. This level is extremely boxy and the enemies are placed in such a way that they are lethal and extremely difficult to avoid, besides always forcing you to take damage of some sort. It's full of Arch-Viles, the last 2 being almost impossible to avoid as you don't have very powerful weapons, save for the Rocket Launcher, and using it will likely result in taking splash damage since the area is very small and there's nowhere to hide. If this isn't enough, up ahead are 3 Hell Knights waiting in a very small room where you must press a switch. In front of that switch is also a Lost Soul, sitting on a Berserk, and the door closes behind you once you step inside... Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. As I've previously stated, over half of the maps are similar to MAP03 in terms of overall design and gameplay, but a bit better with less deadly encounters. These maps are not fun to play but instead frustrating because they do not make you think and act smart as the original did, instead resorting to terrible design and enemies placed in such a way it's more or less guaranteed to take damage, if not die, which can be extremely quick early on. The other half on the other hand is mostly slaughter-esque stuff similar to what's seen in the original, and yet, even these maps suffer from the same problems, but to a less extent. It would seem the authors tried to craft challenging levels in the vein of the original but which ultimately turned out as maps that offer no real satisfaction or sense of difficulty, because they are poorly designed and suffer from almost unfair traps and encounters. The environment is not used efficiently. The original required you to act smart and fast whereas HR2 seems to want you to be just fast most of the time, as this is how the most "challenging" levels seem to work... MAP21 for instance is one of the worst levels in the megawad. It exhibits most, if not all the gameplay and design flaws mentioned. Boxy design, poor navigation, boring or outright terrible encounters, such as Barons waiting for you on very small elevators who block your path and damage you with their melee attacks when you're standing close to the said elevator to activate it since its height is very low, and waves of 'em + Hell Knights teleporting in near the end, but you can just climb a floor and blast them to pieces, easily avoiding all damage. There's also a few waves of Pinkies in cramped spaces at the beginning but they feel more like they're placed there just so that there's an obstacle in your way or something to kill. Not challenging, and nothing interesting to see in action. MAP22 is not a whole lot better either, being easily summed up in a few words as "a sewer mess". Lots of Chaingunners, possibly unfair Arch-Vile traps, uninspired teleporting waves of Hell Knights and Spectres, general ugliness accompanied by a few strange design choices, potentially insufficient ammo, and so on. Another difference in design is the final level, MAP30, which requires the player to destroy a reactor similar to what's seen in Icarus as opposed to an Icon of Sin as it was the case in the original, but both are working the same way so it's a change that doesn't really impact the actual gameplay, with the only exception that you also need to pick up the 3 skulls to open the door with the switch that makes the pathway to the core accessible, and they're not hidden. A requirement that doesn't add anything to the experience, but neither complicates the situation. One of the problems in the original were the overused enemies, though it wasn't that big of a deal to be honest, as I've already said in that review. HR2 however does not correct this but does the exact opposite. It does indeed add more hitscanners overall, but most of the enemies who were overused in the original are overused here as well, to an ever greater extent, those being the Hell Knights, Barons, Revenants, and especially Arch-Viles. It is simply ridiculous how common they are, which only gives the impression the authors were struggling with ideas of how to make the combat more interesting but failed, instead over-complicating everything. Be it a trap, a cage with other enemies which makes them very hard to reach depending on your position and angle (and infighting doesn't always work since there may not be any tough enemies around such as Cyberdemons to use the technique to its fullest potential), whatever, it's absurd how frequent you run into Arch-Viles who are coming for you, and in sheer numbers on a couple occasions no less, thus overwhelming the player, while other times they may block your way out, giving you a very quick death. HR2 also includes a couple of maps from the original that were redesigned, such as The Path, which is MAP15 here. This is also my favorite map in HR2, just like it was in the original, even though there were technically better levels in it. Not so much here... Either way, MAP29 was pretty interesting as well, and probably one of the best maps in the megawad, excluding the remade levels from the original which are honestly very faithful to them, and a bit more difficult. Surprising, considering the vastly inferior quality of HR2 compared to HR. Still, MAP29 is a simple, straight to the point level with overall good enemy usage, but as expected the number of Arch-Viles is crazy in some parts of this level. Eh, at least there's Invulnerability spheres around I guess. The sequel also includes a new status bar, menu background, an animated ENDOOM screen which is just sick, new music, and a few (sky) textures. Now the music. There was some confusion here as some of the tracks are credited to the death metal act Grave, but these songs are apparently mistakenly credited as such. From what I could find they were in fact composed by a guy who goes by the name "Petter Mårtensen". The soundtrack is of course not limited just to death metal, there's some brilliant, very atmospheric and epic stuff in it as well, some of the songs reminding me of the Hammerheart era Bathory. To sum things up, Hell Revealed 2 is unfortunately Hell Revealed only in name. It does a few things right, particularly the remade levels from the original, it has some nice new textures, some interesting levels here and there, but falls short due to the mediocrity of over half of the maps, and even those that are not bad are little more than decent, nowhere near the expected quality from a sequel of a classic. The only reasons I've finished this were my willingness to complete the duology since both megawads are classics that are held in high regard (the first one justifiably so, the sequel, not at all), how enjoyable and satisfying the original was, and because if I start something, then I finish it, I'm giving it a chance until the last moment so that I can best evaluate it and make a solid opinion. No, I cannot recommend this to anyone, especially to a fan of the original because it just fails to deliver, it doesn't live up to the name. And if you're looking for slaughter-esque, pure slaughter, or challenging megawads that make you think and act fast and smart while still being fun and enjoyable there's much better stuff out there. I'd recommend the original, Alien Vendetta, Ancient Aliens, and maybe Scythe instead, although there's very few such levels in the latter, and play HR2 only if you want to experience and complete the duology, because there isn't any other reason to do it.

"The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian Sanskrit text on sexuality, eroticism and emotional fulfillment in life." Therefore, Kama Sutra has been finished, played through GlBoom+ on HMP difficulty. So what do we have here, what bizarre positions do demons take in this megawad? Or is it the player the one who performs them? Kama Sutra is a 32-level megawad with a gameplay focused design which later on features various slaughter maps of varying difficulty. It comes with new music, textures, menu background, and one new enemy, returning from Wolfenstein 3D, the Schutzstaffel. The main feature of the levels probably lies in their inspiration. All levels in the megawad appear to have been inspired heavily by the Hell Revealed duology, both aesthetically and gameplay-wise, with enemy encounters and traps generally very similar to that of the HRs. Techbases, cities, castles, caves, and hellish locations are visited in the journey. The enemy count ranges between a few dozens, hundreds, to little over 1000. At the end of the journey the IoS awaits the player for a final confrontation, following the choice of the duology. The difficulty curve is the traditional kind, starting easy and becoming more difficult as you progress, with an occasional spike. But there's more to it than that. It appears Kama Sutra has been balanced primarily for UV, although lower difficulty settings are implemented. They do not seem to have been properly tested, and as such, some maps are unusually empty or easy. Additionally, the difficulty itself is inconsistent. Towards the end in particular it's easy to run into a level that is abnormally easy, only to run into one that is exponentially more difficult immediately afterwards. Some maps also offer a ridiculous amount of resources so that you never have to worry about managing your ammo or health most of the time, if at all. This is especially obvious when played continuous, but even without playing this way, there are often a lot of Megaspheres, Soulspheres, ammo, and medkits in the maps. More than you'll ever need. Another problem with the maps would be the repeated gimmick across some of them, namely the teleporting barrels which explode right in front of you, thus claiming your life almost instantly. A cheap way to kill an unsuspecting target, as this can only be avoided with previous knowledge. Moreover, MAP20 has an inescapable trap, fooling the player to enter a cage in an attempt to gain access to the yellow keycard. Both of them are poor design decisions as they do not require the player to do anything to avoid them, unless they have previous knowledge of the maps. The soundtrack could be described as having a little bit of something for everyone. More atmospheric, action oriented, metal, tracks from various games, covers of popular songs by various artists or bands, a lot. But this does not become a problem as the music is used in levels that actually fit what's going on and the general mood of the maps. All in all, though certainly with flaws, Kama Sutra manages to be a memorable experience from the beginning to the end with its fun maps and overall decent enemy usage, and is also a worthy spiritual successor to the duology it heavily takes influence from. It is likely better than HR2 in particular, which was a disgrace, but not the first. HR2 did get better down the road, but that's about it, it was mediocre overall (particularly during the notoriously bad first half). KS also features a few maps from the duology after MAP20, but I'm letting you discover which on your own. Keep in mind that KS is best experienced on UV difficulty as most effort was put into it, HMP and potentially lower settings suffer from insufficient testing and less than ideal balancing. Now get your BFG and impress those demons with your moves.

"gameplay is an unrepentant grind in HR2's worst traditions" ~ :). It's visually impressive, though.

Average design that reminds of early 2000s, and gameplay is an unrepentant grind in HR2's worst traditions. Monsters are just randomly thrown in bunches everywhere and don't serve any real parpose whatsoever.

hard as shit. very fitting for those who like Hell Revealed 2 as these levels are not very detailed but have a lot of hard gameplay. MAP06 is just like HR2 MAP28.

It's not AV but it's sure better than HR (and probably HR2). Can't really compare it to Scythe, it's too different IMO. But anyways pretty good wad. Gusta's maps are definitely the stronger ones.

And after a couple of agonizing hours, lots of deaths, and anger the sequel to Stardate 20x6 is finished at last, also done on HMP just like its predecessor. Starting with an introduction to the wad just like I did with all the others, Stardate 20x7 is a challenging wad with the color purple at the center which sets the overall tone, mood and atmosphere. It features a new menu background, a few new sounds for some weapons, some new enemies, new textures, and a new soundtrack. The majority of the levels in the wad are very challenging, which is also its main problem. The kinds of challenges you face when playing the wad are neither fun nor enjoyable most of the time. The first levels, or rather half of them, have cruel enemy placements and traps that force you to take damage at best, or die all the other times. Worse yet, there's a lot of resource starvation in these levels which offer you only the minimum for survival. You rarely, if at all find yourself with a higher percentage of health/armor and ammo when proceeding to the next levels, and infighting doesn't help much most of the time either. You will also resort to the Berserk and nothing more on quite a few occasions thanks to this, often against tough enemies. Thus, the gameplay in the sequel is radically different from that of 20x6 which provided both fun and challenging gameplay, whereas the sequel lacks the fun element most of the time and wants to keep you on the edge of your patience. In fact, it can be said the only thing the two have in common is the theme, and nothing else. The new enemy introduced is a purple, flying Baron who attacks the player with fire and lots of homing rockets. He is only seen once during normal play near the exit of a level, his attacks being very difficult to dodge, and seems to have around the same health the standard Baron has. He could've been used in more (and varied) instances than just one, but I imagine an efficient and interesting usage of the enemy would be no easy task considering how deadly he is, and tough. He could easily be a mini boss if used wisely. The difficulty curve is basically nonexistent, or if there actually is one, works backwards. The wad starts very difficult and only after finishing the first 4 levels it becomes more tolerable when the style changes a bit and the resource starvation ends, along with the merciless encounters. Finally, some fun can be experienced. Similar to its predecessor the final levels are more slaughter oriented with the final map being slaughter with almost 1800 enemies. Another problem is that the first few levels are also difficult to navigate. They feature some interesting puzzles and some platforming sections but it's extremely easy to get lost in the levels and spend quite some time figuring out what you're supposed to do or get back on track without circling the areas you've already been through plenty of times. While most of the levels are architecturally beautiful, there isn't anything that really stands out or catches your attention like the predecessor did with some amazing sights from outer space when you found yourself outside, although some traps will surprise you with their creativity, such as a room in MAP02 (if I'm not confusing the level) where you need to run quickly or carefully in order to reach a switch that gives access to the rest of the room without alerting every Hell Knight around you and die immediately as a result. After that you'll find yourself in a world of hurt considering that there's not much space to walk until you clean up the mess a little, and lots of Arch-Viles are placed at the exit and staying out of their line of sight is difficult. There's also a Cyberdemon with you at the party to make your life more difficult. There isn't much else to add this time, so to sum things up if you're familiar with HR2 the first levels are kinda similar in terms of difficulty and gameplay style, from my POV anyway, minus the mediocre, boxy design while adding resource starvation. I would honestly not recommend 20x7 to anyone. It's without a doubt targeted at veterans or very skilled players in general, but frankly, I genuinely doubt even they would have much fun playing this, or not the first few levels anyway. Even HMP which is the recommended difficulty due to the balancing is ludicrous. I've seen some videos of the first few levels on UV and I... don't even know what to say, I'm almost speechless. I can't understand how would anyone have any fun playing them, especially on UV. I would totally recommend the levels from MAP05 onward and pretend the previous maps don't exist instead. If you expect the sequel to use the same formula seen in 20x6 but improved, while also bringing something new to the table you're going to be very disappointed, it's not what you're signing up for, so unless you want to experience the duology and not just stop after completing 20x6 I can't find any good reason for why you should play this. My thoughts on 20x7 are negative, it barely gets 3/5 stars from me purely for being interesting, good looking, and features some good or ingenious traps, encounters, puzzles, and solid second half.

I can handle most HR, HR2 and SOD maps on UV; can't get anywhere here. This is a clever, but brutally difficult map; save yourself some time and start out on HMP.

What happens when you morph E4 style maps with E4M2 difficulty + D2 monsters and piss on the original HR which was hard but actually fun? You get HR2, it's overly angsty sequel (for all we know it could be a prequel ala DMC3) that went from challenge the player to just "kill the player on sight". I played UV on the original but I enjoyed it. I consider myself a Doom masochist; HR2 actually hurts. 2/5

Best ever, along with AV, Scythe 2, HR2 (HR has very bad level design overall) and Ksutra. Deserves all of its 5 stars

I really liked the short and difficult levels towards the end. They provided a good challenge while not being tedious to retry if failed. The long difficult ones (29,30) were good too, but nothing unique. (lots of levels like that in AV, HR, and HR2 :P) 5/5 because this wad has some of my favorite levels.

Amesome megawad. It's recommended provided you don't have a distaste for hard, violent and big levels, then this will be a torture, but if you like detailed, beautiful and tough maps you'll love this. It's better than hr, plutonia, ksutra, hr2 or scythe 2. Killer maps: 11(my fav), 20(unique egiptian maze), 25-26(these two are tough and violent, but unforgetable), 05(beautiful), 31(again, unique design), 18(plutonia style, but better). Weak levels, only 21 and annoying 30. 5/5Teh NeXus.

5 stars, especiallt for the author's 1st wad. One of the great megawads of 2003, the others are Scythe 1, Daudelus (TC/Megawad), Com. Chest 1, and HR2 (almost an 04 wad), but the great megawads from 04 still include Vile Flesh, Com. Chest 2, and Super Sonic Doom (TC/Megawad). From 05 (so far through 6/19) we have already seen two great ones, Kame Sutra and Scythe 2 (real shame Scythe 2 was released at only 29 levels, but it's fantastic anyway). Enjoy!

Very good level. I'd dare to say exceptionally good. My type of difficulty - not the HR2 type. And it definitely does not "suffer from massive overdetailing". But the music was kinda too agressive - even for doom. 4/5 -- ellmo

Damn beautiful!! After like 2 weeks of playing and 1 hour with the hard maps i can say this pack rocks. Wich is best? mm dunno hr or hr2. both are extreme challenging very funny maps. Is not just killing things, is the monster placement the puzzles the nasty situations and lot of stuff. ck

Graphics & music are fine .... whatever. Bottom line, if you like HR, HR2, Alien Vendetta, Speed of Doom, Sunder, etc ... then this is a must play.

Pssssshhhhh the gameplay is awesome, it seems some people need to brush up on their SP skills before diving into HR2. It's meant to be hard as hell.

This set of levels are an overrated, HR2-ish, gimmicky, and all around unendearingly dull slogfest of doors locking behind you and having to go through the slaughtermap type of forced gameplay. I imagined that a set of maps centering around dark mazey hallways would be a little more "pick off baddies stealthily" than "try to see how much you can get gangraped by 5 Hellknights and 4 Barons of Hell in one room before you die while at the same time attempting to find anything fun about the entire thing."

It's okay, but the later maps really get stuck in this recent HR2 monster-spam rut of later maps. Also, why wasn't Galaxia.wad included in the touching up? I would have liked to see that.