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MAP 11 – Another Glance at the Paradise by @muumi DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves The small landing module from MAP10 dropped Zorglo on a verdant world of mossy caverns, limpid freshwater ponds, and rivers shrouded by foamy white clouds. What a heavenly place to relax, take a walk in the tranquil gardens, sit on a stone bench under a white marble shrine looking at the pristine beauty of nature! Obviously, Another Glance at the Paradise was not about contemplation, as a Doom player might guess in advance or learn at their expense when entering the first cavern; quite the opposite, the map was loaded with monsters and put the pistol starter against an opposition that cannot be faced with the provided resources. Coming from a continuous playthrough, I limited myself to the given weapons, but my ammo stock was larger and allowed me to tediously clear the first area and painfully dispatch the Arch-Vile and his Revenant sidekicks. This delayed the epiphany I should have had since the beginning, considering that the map had a name suspiciously similar to the infamous MAP13 of Hell Revealed. When I heard a Spiderdemon spawning behind me and saw a Cacocloud erupt from the return path, its size surpassing the granted offensive power, I finally understood I must sprint forward to reach a large open area, working as a vent for the monsters and as an infight arena. This was what Doomguy was supposed to do when pistol starting Last Look at Eden, and realising the connection was probably the best moment of the whole map. The analogies did not end there: a Spiderdemon was released when picking up the rocket launcher, a group of Hell Knights with an Arch-Vile protected the YSK on the south-eastern hill, and the Soul Sphere in the south-western cave was trapped as per tradition (a closet replaced the teleporting enemies ). I methodically cleared the area, helped by the monsters' animosity, then I retraced my steps to kill the first Spiderdemon as well, since I must return there later to open the stuck door. I missed both secrets, even though a closer look at the automap should have sufficed to find the Blue Armour. The side rooms expanded the rough drafts of Hell Revealed into longer and well-structured quests for the skull keys. The yellow door opened on an immense natural cavern with a chasm, filled with unhealthy violet liquid and crossed by a tortuous path. I was not surprised by the Mancubi appearing on the cliff and forcing me to deal quickly with Imps and other creatures on the walkway. It took me 3 or 4 attempts to get through, and the final ambush at the meditation place was kept under control with rockets. Zorglo reappeared on the central fountain to collect the RSK and a plasma gun, which came in handy for the upcoming Cyberdemon. Thankfully, no Pain Elementals were spawned in the large area; a mob of Stealth Aliens was activated instead. I hoped not to see an updated version of the BSK trap of Last Look at Eden, but it was back in all its BS-ness. Muumi went even further than Donner, trapping the poor player in a round fence and releasing several waves of monsters before letting them out, including the elusive Stealth Plasma Aliens. I could not survive the deadly crossfire and I was ready to give up the continuous play, then I tried to straferun faster than the cage and… surprise! Something broke in the sector mechanism and I was able to pass through the cage and save myself from an ordeal of fruitless attempts. The Cyberdemon spam on the way back to the start and the Imp slaughter were a bit over the top, extending the duration of a map that overstayed its welcome by a good margin. I enjoyed the quote of an all-time classic and its restyling with the Ancient Aliens palette, but some of the encounters tended to be more frustrating than enjoyable. Another Glance at the Paradise was a bold attempt and an approach I want to see more often, preferably done without time constraints. Muumi had a vision and possessed the skill to realise it in a speedmapping event, but in my opinion he lacked the adequate time to test and assess the proposed content.

MAP 09 – Alien Tartarus by @muumi DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves Mapping at Warpspeed featured an unusual high number of maps by muumi, another one of my favourite mappers. His first entry was Alien Tartarus, a stone temple containing scenarios that could be described as combat puzzles. The presentation was extremely clear, as exemplified by the first shootable switch that crushed a group of Former Humans: the same mechanic was used multiple times throughout the level, requiring the player to lure monsters behind crushers and activate them. The action was always useful to thin out the large opposition, but sometimes it was mandatory to stand a chance against big mobs in confined spaces and with limited ammo. The architecture used the various Aztec bricks from Ancient Aliens to build a surreal temple in the space, encircled by scrolling pillars that seemed to warp between different planes of existence. Despite showing a monotone brown, the interior was nicely detailed with round columns, niches, and pools of damaging blood, strategically placed to put additional pressure on the player. After the first skirmish against low tier creatures and a lift trap near the shotgun, the only available path was to the south and it crossed a chamber with a secret SSG. A door closed behind me and trapped me in a maze, where crushers must be operated to squish big groups of deaf Revenants. I liked this part a lot, even though it was possible to use crushers earlier than needed, while the rocket launcher should be collected as soon as possible. The YSK was retrieved in this area, but to bring it back to the hub Zorglo must hop between floating structures and drop in a large courtyard, soon to be filled with dozens of Imps, hitscanners, and Stealth Plasma Aliens. Two big crushers should be activated to kill enemies and stop their onslaught for a while. I could not find a way to get the visible BFG, scoring only half of the total secrets. The return to the hub was immediately followed by a large monster deployment consisting of Alien Guardians, an Arch-Vile, Revenants, and an assorted army with many Chaingunners and Stealth Aliens. The healer guarded a precious Megasphere, but once again the crushers should be exploited, along with the splash area of the Guardians. The final tunnel with many static Arch-Viles (except the teleporting one) was not entirely needed, but I cannot complain about it. Alien Tartarus had a sound concept with the varied use of crushers, it offered stimulating combat in a pleasing environment, and showcased curious Boom effects. A very good contribution by muumi. MAP 10 – Lagrange Disruption by @notTyrone DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves Another short entry from notTyrone, Lagrange Disruption denoted some good world building to host a limited number of enemies and only one standout fight. The flying saucer landed between two hills in the middle of the desert, and the nearby teleporter sent Zorglo inside a supposed Egyptian tomb. The encounters in the dark tunnels were not something to remember, but the lighting and texture choices created the right atmosphere. They also built up the expectation for a bigger fight, taking place in a nicely decorated throne room, firstly against a Cyberdemon and his splash damage, then to contain a Cacoswarm that slowly filled the limited space. The only complaint I have with this map was the impossibility to retrace steps to the beginning, since the secret Soul Sphere in the starting room was easy to miss. I unveiled the Combat Armour though, and the unorthodox use of Tsoukalos’ hologram was amusing. The name Lagrange Disruption followed the same pattern of Oberth Malfunction, mixing a famous scientist’s name with the supposed failure of his established principles. The map itself did not elaborate very much on the subject, but it was a decent intermission between two demanding levels.

Surge (2012) by Joshua Sealy @Joshy (From Doom With Love) Speed of Doom only probably stands next to Sunder and Sunlust as the most important PWAD of the past 13 years. But although there was the vague idea of a sequel, Joshy and Darkwave fell out of regular communication for no particular reason other than being one or the other or both stopped for a bit. So Joshy would then start work on a project much closer in spirit to the original vision for Speed of Doom consisting of maps with a more speedmapp-ish length. Although he kept excellently to the limits for around 13-14 maps at least, it might have been inevitable that signs of larger ambition would eventually start to creep in. In any case, he was in the middle of college and didn't think he'd have any more time for mapping, so he would end up releasing this set at the beginning of 2012, with an 18th map set in a sort of sewer only partially in development and his semi-permanent retirement announced in the text file. Well, stuff happened, he was asked to do a map for Back to Saturn X and then, he'd end up taking a second look at Surge, then fleshing out, combining, expanding, and increasing the difficulty of the old maps while adding in some new ones to make a full megawad. The end result was, wait for it, 2014's Resurgence. Now it seems that Josh wants to go into therapy(as a therapist, XD), so perhaps his retirement will indeed be a semi-permanent thing. Which means there'll have to be a new Plutonia godfather if someone wants to make Plutonia 4, I suppose, though that doesn't discount continuing contributions of a map or two. But finally, we gotta talk about the map. It's interesting that despite the lack of a story or even named maps that would normally mark something that was worked on for at least a bit, there seems to be an underlying visual narrative. I think we can talk about that inside the map descriptions themselves. Map 01: A map that Joshy himself called forgettable, but it does it's job as a Map 01! Maybe there's a little too much pistoling action, but these cramped red caves manage to set the mood beautifully! Not so surprisingly perhaps, it was not included in Resurgence Map 02: still an easy map, but about as tight on ammo as the last map. some slightly spicy moments, but it's still lots of low-tiers. And don't be surprised if you've got to pistol a pinkie or two. Map 03: The red caverns grow more expansive and gorgeous, although this is also where Josh's ever-notorious damage floors start to rear their ugly heads, though perhaps not everywhere such as near the RK. Also, the cavern with lava running down the middle and Lost Souls was a shockingly strong moment in this early section of the wad, even though it's not even that threatening. And you even have the opportunity to rocket little pairs of Imps far away from your position! Even though this starts off like a Tyson map, the Rl and later chaingunner prove to add a lot. The Lost souls still aren't too threatening, but they're stil a problem until a changun is found Map 04: Well, ammo manages to be even tighter, even though you should find a berserk pack before too long. "Cold Sublety" was the first midi I recognized (were the others from Plutonia 2 and Speed of Doom?) and honestly, it goes quite well. Cliffside Imps start to become a more serious menace here(definitely not important), Not so much the case with the RK teleport trap, although if you can actually be bothered to climb the cliff and wind around to the ruined building before that (dunno if there's an intended order), you might be better equipped. Good thing too, because ammo comes at a serious premium. Nice square arches you can see at the beginning. Map 05: Well, finally a true hot start! "Elf" from Heretic then proves a most appropriate introduction! Some scrambling, quite a few enemies close by and larger numbers than any previous map but with little to distinguish otherwise, besides the presence of an open-air lava pool with quite a few high platforms and some chaingunners/Imps on raised surfaces. Strangely enough, our ammo woes disappear close to the end! Map 06: I think we're all getting a little tired of Hell and window-dressing Imps, right? Well, this isn't really all that much harder if anything! But we're finally leaving the mountains and entering a fort of sorts. That green armor placement in the front of some shotgunners is so trollish. But ammo manages to be almost plentiful this timer around! Despite the presence of two Mancubi and 3 Cacodemons each in distinct locations, the over-reliance on Imps approaches the point of parody. Josh is good enough with combat that it's not quite as much of an issue as one might think. I did end up cheating to get the red key because I'd pressed every switch and it didn't really seem worth it. BK trap was sufficently dangerous though with pairs of pinkies and a chaingunner emerging from each room Map 07: Now here's a map that can be seriously annoying if you don't know what you're doing. In a last series of knolls stands this wooden fort, with mancubi on the immediate ledges, a Baron of Hell standing near the exit, and some other varieties of monsters on the lower ledges. don't press the switch below the Baron if you don't want to be melted by Arachnotrons. This map would be scrapped in Resurgence but making variations on Dead Simple is easy.....I think! Map 08: A fortress with some gray marble walls surrounding. I was quite intimidated when "You Suck" started blaring from the speakers. But the apocalyptic mood conveyed by that track comes more from the large mobs of weak enemies that attack at different points. The Arch-vile at the left will be threatening at first, but seemed random. The hitscanner trap at the graveyard is quite nasty but somehow still manageble, although you must be quick to get the RK for some reason...probably. Those hanging poles in the middle are quite intimidating though. This one would be cut entirely, and while it is a shame to lose any maps, it does feel a little wanting for personality in the encounters. Map 09: Resurgence has the reputation of a wad with an all-over difficulty curve, so it's quite ironic that each map has seen a more or less consistent raise in difficulty. I have no idea why I brought that up now when you're attacked by Revenants and Hell Knights basically from the beginning and the other middling opposition is just enough to distract your fire, but this little blood moat surrounding an outpost almost seems like it should be easier. Standout encounter is, of course, the Cyberdemon guarding the fireplace in the basement, along with his two dogs that serve as a nice distraction. I dunno who could kill him the first time. Map 10: So I suppose people who've completed Going Down (which this maps somewhat resembles in square layout and overall amount of verticality in a map or two) would probably sneer at the overall difficulty of this, but it's still probably the most challenging thing thus far. We return to red rock, although things aren't so mountainous, and most of the map is indoors at any rate, but there are many large pools of lava that are damaging. There are no rad suits, but we won't be spending enough time in them for it to matter much. What does matter is being assaulted by Revenants and Arachnotrons almost from the beginning! And there really isn't much of a place to hide, what with Revenants and chaingunners on at least one raised platform and an arch-vile whose location we neglected to note but is kind of sneaky Eventually we'll have to make a stand somewhere though. Just hope that you'll find the Super Shotgun sooner than I did since it's not really located so far from the starting location. There's the fairly helpless Mastermind of course....until we have to hit the switch right next to her that allows us to progress. Some platforming follows to get the rk, platforms which are rearranged twice for some reason. Not the hardest platforming even, definitely, but we're still godawful at it. After some incidental stuff, we stand on a ledge with an exit portal that kills us when we exit because no weapon but the pistol can cross dimensions or something. I don't get it, but it's a convention and a balance restorer most important in the modern age, so... My research seemed to indicate that changes in monster composition were fairly minimal for the next several maps so it was decided to stop here. EANB ultimately proves to be a more successful purveyor of what Joshy was probably going for here. Too many Imps at the beginning and the set is in slight danger of heading into repetition for a little too long. I think though that things would go up a little more in intensity if more was played and for that reason, this set gets an unapolegetic 8/10, for having one of the smoothest difficulty curves in recent memory.

Map 07: Holodeck by @myolden Here's a map I fucking hated the first time I played it. The combat is not unlike that of Alien Covenant, but the difficulty was turned up a few notches and I ended up having an absolutely awful time, vastly preferring Myolden's next map, which is a little more furious from the jump but isn't quite as vise-like ultimately. This time though....great stuff! So starting out, we have shotgunners and Imps facing away from us in a circle which proves ultimately to be the tiniest of mercies, along with zombies and Imps firing at us from some platforms we guess. Anyways, the stimpacks here probably exist to shield up from the initial BS. After entering one room, encountering a Pain Elemental because myolden takes a sick pleasure in forcing us to fight off a Pain Elemental with a single shotgun whilst harried by hitscanners and fighting off some more enemies including some rather nasty plasma troopers, a switch lowered the Super Shotgun and opened the way to the rest of the complex, a sort of outdoor tech-y thing a little bland in the walls but with that wonderful series of void platforms like something out of Wormhole Junction kind of in the center between the various structures. Not like we can really enjoy it at first because at either side of the entrance can be found a Mancubus on the right and an Imp or two on the left, along with Revenants waiting in the wings that makes hesistation very unwise. We'd suggest targeting the Mancubus first, but honestly, they can be liquidated later because this is a terrible place to make a stand. Running past some more Revenants and Hell Knights, we come into another area with some critical supplies that locks us in and forces us to contend with a number of enemies such as Mancubi, Revenants, and an Arch-vile! While there might be some room to hide, we were as surprised as anyone to dispatch this latter the first time! Eventually we can exit and handle the Revenants, Hell Knights, and Mancubi pair that had bunched up in the meantime. After easily spotting a secret with an invaluable backpack, we took thhe only other available path leading through a wide hallway lined with power tanks into a circular arena that screams 'predictable ambush', several central structures, along with some raised platforms containing Supercharges, a rocket launcher and a red key. Thankfully, we can pick up the RL almost instantly, and we'll really need because we're fighting off three different waves of enemies. The first are some shotgunners start teleporting in almost instantly, along with Revenants which basically serve to keep up moving. Second consists of some Cacodemon and Pain Elementals (I can't say Myolden has quite the same fondness for them as Angelo Jefferson but at the same time, he always seems to have a few of them around in most ambushes!) whilst finally the third contains two arch-viles, as well as Hell Knights and Revenants! Thankfully, the structures here are sufficient enough to avoid the psychic flame attack of the viles. The way back throws an incredibly nasty Revenant trap that killed us a time or two when we first played this, but here, backing up and hiding proved to be an easy solution. Although we were somewhat disgruntled to find that we should've saved our rockets against....some of the enemies earlier because we were resorting to a shotgun after a little bit. Behind the red door then are some pop-up turret Revenants, that thank the alien gods do NOT have replacements, and an Imp mob that makes dispatching the former a teensy bit more difficult. Hell Knights, Mancubi, and more Imps await on the second floor here, but they're here mainly to take up space. The real encounter comes when we reach a certain point, we're trapped, and then 3 closets open up right next to us, containing shotgunners in the closest, a Pain Elemental in the next one (see what I mean?) and a Revenant in the far cubbie. Enemy placement seems a touch random in that respect, but they succeeded in whittling down our health, to the extent that a Revenant pair we hadn't even spotted would end up killing us after emerging from a closet in the direction we'd entered this area. At any rate, we barely had any health to contend with the last trap here, two Arch-viles, each spawning at a different level, along with several small groups of Revenants. The closest Arch-vile was not so difficult to handle, but the one at ground level proved to be quite difficult indeed. Quite apart from our own health, there's a decent chance that they'll get stuck behind a Revenant or two which leads to some rather BS RNG situations. The series of fights at the end then isn't quite as difficult as this, but the path isn't so wide that we can really feel completely safe, especially at the end when Pain Elementals prove to be quite a pain. At this point, we'd really like to call Holodeck the best map so far. It's a different style from what Death Bear does perhaps, but Bear played to my combat preferences particularly in Ursus Minoris. However, I can see why some people would really like this map because I'm one of them! This time at least. lmd_pussIX07.zip

@Rudolph I think it's a great game, it's an excellent sequel, but I like the first game more in other departments even if the gameplay is scaled back significantly. Blizzard had the least involvement in it and it shows, meanwhile Act 5 from the expansion almost feels like a different game tonally. I just blew through the true tomb of Tal Rasha by locating the exit ASAP and killing Duriel to get out of Act 2. Good thing you never lose the Horadric Cube when you finish the game the first time because I couldn't get past the first room of the Halls of the Dead due to serious elite mob bullshittery. Things should be a lot better from hereon out, at least until I get to the Ancients in Act 5, which are worse than Baal himself.

MAP 06 – Ursae Majoris by @Death Bear DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves The premises were the same of the previous map, with Sergeants replacing the Former Humans in the crater and in the hub with the coloured buildings, where Zorglo found another secret chainsaw and a portal to a different place. Ursae Majoris consisted in another floating space fortress, but its locations were notably larger, and solemn. The gameplay also had a completely different tone, leaning more towards slaughter than the sudden shocks that I did not enjoy very much in Ursae Minoris. The appetizer was a mob of hitscanners in the vestibule, unleashed before I was ready to hop on pillars and steal the rocket launcher from the Mancubus guard. Once past the first building, the bridge area saw me hide once again because of Alien Guardians in the open. As soon as I entered the main building I was gently nudged ahead, sent to deal with Arachnotrons on pillars and some invisible monsters wanting me to face rocket. Two switches must be pressed to reach the BSK and leave the room: the first replenished the Arachnotrons, and the second one released hitscanners, Revenants and an Arch-Vile in the pit. I liked this room, as it was creatively challenging. The next chamber contained a Cyberdemon and a few pre-placed monsters. Both the plasma rifle and the BFG were available here, the first on a platform in the middle of a pit trap patch of damaging ooze, the other inside a cage that could be opened with a switch. Getting on the Cyberdemon platform required pressing a switch and dealing with monsters appearing on various platforms, but it was mandatory to access more progression switches. Besides reopening the blue door to backtrack to previous areas, the other switches opened both the western and the eastern chambers. To the east, a second Cyberdemon dominated a vast chamber with pits, flying monsters, and a thin bridge to raise in the middle. Arachnotrons appeared on tall towers as seen before, putting some pressure but this time there were many options to find cover or dodge, regardless of the obstacles. Conquering this room and collecting the RSK was a lot of fun, possibly the best moment of the map. The western wing contained the exit, which was revealed along with a Spiderdemon and many other ambushers. Despite wielding the BFG, I was defeated the first time I attempted this fight, because I was surrounded by infinitely tall Cacodemons and Alien Guardians around the Blue Armour spot. On my next attempt, I kept my distance from the teleport destinations and things went smoothly. I noticed a yellow door in the eastern section and still four missing secrets. A look at the automap evidenced a ledge around the whole base, which was accessed passing through a grating, signposted by a pillar with a clip on the other side. Finding all secrets and the YSK was only a matter of perseverance, and I cackled at the treasure room à la Wolf3d behind the yellow door. The automap showed also that the blinking square pillars were arranged like the stars of Ursa Major, not only the Big Dipper but also its numerous, less known bright stars (Talitha, Muscida, the Tanias, the Aulas, etc.). I found the gameplay stroke the right chords in Ursae Majoris, and I enjoyed its telegraphed and well-organised monster deployments. The visuals were less elaborate than in Ursae Minoris, but they allowed for some beautiful vistas, especially when approaching the main fortress. An excellent speedmap by Death Bear.

That was a first playthrough without foreknowledge, and he got into that area when that fight is the hardest (you can easily route to have cell weapons already), and he still kept a cool head and comfortably survived it. M1 with RL/PR happens in normal maps all the time. There are spots in KDitD where you hold down the shotgun pretty much the entire time. Has nothing to do with slaughter. The BFG is by far in a league of its own with dps. Big difference from the original "BFG spam" phrasing. Also the fight in the video is definitely not a M1 fight considering he had to gather the revenants out of the way of the plasma rifle (and could have held back on the aggression at some points in exchange for more safety). The comma-shaped area fight gives you two soulspheres and at that point you have BFG (because you need the YK for both that area and the BFG right before it), so it is survivable on first attempts. The imp-mob fight also has the imps backfacing you, and no unexpected tricks, so you have all the time to think of an approach. It seems like you're projecting your own tastes (that you think the visuals are nice but the gameplay isn't). Imo Sunlust maps are cool-looking but I'd give it an 8/10 or 8.5/10 for pure visuals (and higher for atmosphere and control of tone/vibe, which is imo what Sunlust is best at aesthetically). Which is good but not enough to remotely gain a pass based on looks. Late Sunlust on UV is not really meant for the "normal gamer." They can of course start playing it, but ideally they'll have engaged with it for what it is (and not seen it as mindless BFG spam, an attitude that will prevent them from learning anything and improving their skills) -- and if they do that and reach the late portions, they won't be a normal player anymore. All things considered, it's a really good set at teaching you how to play. For example sl25's big cacohorde fight has a chiller precedent in sl22 that can show you how rockets can be used to manipulate cacoswarms. The cacocloud fight is forgiving. It gives you a mega (no matter how you got here) and a heap of rockets. You even have the BFG but don't really need to use it. :^) The relevant tactics are min-moving, and using rockets to disperse / poke a hole in cacoswarms, and the cybie has very limited line of sight of the space so it is easy to hide from it. But anyway, I'm glad you engaged with specifics.

MAP 04 – Oberth Malfunction by @notTyrone DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves The second consecutive entry by notTyrone was Oberth Malfunction, possibly hinting at a failed manoeuvre done with the alien spaceship before landing on a weird, floorless red stone asteroid. The Cacoswarm with a Pain Elemental in the wide open area was horrible, but enough weapons were provided on the green flying saucer to dispatch it quickly. The outdoor area was enormous, with the only reference points consisting in the spaceship and a mysterious Mayan-Egyptian shrine in the middle of nowhere. The switch was trapped, as expected, but the mob of hellspawn was a bit too slow to cause problems. Once into the red cave, I collected the plasma rifle and the Berserk pack expecting some reaction, but there was none. The tech-base area beyond the unlocked green door was full of resources, suggesting a dangerous fight, and the teleporting ammo scared the hell out of me. The switch opened a closet full of monsters guarding the BK; I took some damage because I was playing bad, expecting a second group trying to backstab me. The monster placement in the closet was not the most efficient, with Arch-Viles on the front line and Demons at the rear. They should have switched places to pose a threat. The RK was guarded by a lonely Hell Knight, if you ignore the peeper scientist, and the Arch-Vile with Sergeants was a formality with the available arsenal. Entering the portal caused a world changing effect, which took me some time to figure out. The places were the same, but they became darker and without light sources. Many Stealth Aliens lurked in the darkness, requiring caution during exploration. Despite looking abandoned, the alternative reality tech-base had still plenty of ammo, carrying me smoothly through the caverns and to the red stone outdoor area. The starry sky had been replaced by a bright rain of meteors, a wonderful spectacle that made me feel dizzy while fighting the alternative version of the resident Cacoswarm. I boarded the red flying saucer and hoped not to run into an Oberth Malfunction anytime soon. The transition between worlds was OK and the tech-base part looked nice, but not every graphic choice was appropriate in the transition, and the combat design left much to be desired.

C-Mob — Choice

Map 28: Sub Level 5 My brain is cooked, thanks to my digestion once again taking a trip to Anything Disruptus-land. But let's see if we can do this.... We start in a circular hub room filled everywhere with fucking white everywhere (it's not SHAWN anywhere than maybe our start), along with all the weapons we could possibly need, probably including the BFG but I somehow failed to note when I picked it up. In any case, our first port of call is "Pipe Room", with a few Hell Knights in addition to Imps and pinkies. For some reason, getting a certain ways into this room will trigger a teleport trap outside that seems a little bit ill-conceived to say the least. Mainly because if the two Arch-viles in the mob aren't in a rush, we'll end up spending a shitton of ammo in order to exterminate them! Things didn't work out that way, thankfully. After futzing around with the switches in the back, there was still one that was blocked off so we wandered into the little storage hallways of very distinct texture usage. Mazes are never appreciated, honestly. When this stupid junk is over with (and after having dealt with at least 1 pair of Barons) the switch in the middle is finally accessible. Pressing it finally grants access to the red key, and with it, a Revenant sneak attack! This part was actually pretty fun as dodging around the computer banks and taking potshots at the screeching skeletons with a decent amount of room is quite hard to hate. Of course, there was still the fight I referenced above..... But with the red key, we can enter a bright red and fairly-wide rectangular that seems suited to piss players off....and spring a blatantly-obvious trap (highlighted by the message of "Hmmmmmmm" that's not too hard to handle, although we're surrounded. The next room then provides us with two choices that we can tackle in whatever order we choose. One is a bloody office space filled mostly with pinkies and Imps that are fairly short order to handle with the chainsaw, despite one of them getting behind us and damaging us quite badly....but wait, there's an Arch-vile in the main cubicle It was trying to watch for them that the aforementioned pinkie saw its opening and took it while I was busy trying to avoid Lumberg. Then the other room is that old Doom staple, a crate maze! I think camping is probably intended here, since there's a Pain Elemental sitting some ways to the left and three Cacos that will be alerted the instant a shot is fired, along with several Hell Knights and chaingunners, about half of which will probably converge on our position. Maybe a Revenant or two? Anyway, find the super-obvious crate secret, barely and unintentionally manage to avoid getting immolated by a healer guarding a switch, then climb the crates, plasma said Martian in an ill-advised haphazard manner then press the switch on top. This switch and the other one open a hall in the previous room with the green key, and a nasty Revenant trap that we probably shouldn't have used any rockets for, but it seemed good as opportunity as any. From here, we then enter "the Control Room". Not unsurprisingly, hitscanners are clumped around computers but on either side in raised closets are Revenants (sorry, but no one will tell me that Stephen Clark didn't know the game he was riffing on with this layout) and several Barons of Hell in the center, along with a couple of Revenants. On the side with the broken monitor is a secret that would've saved many of our ammo woes if we'd actually bothered to press it the first time instead of pressing 'dead space'(I'll see myself out). But on the other side is a cruddy tech maze filled with Imps and not really a whole lot else. The end once again contains a Baron 2-pair guarding the blue key, the acquiring of which triggers far too many Arch-viles that have any right to exist in such a tight vent. It was around this time we realize we had the BFG. Not like it mattered because we were all but out of cells after eliminating the Barons and we expended our remaining shotgun cells against the viles....and there were still three alive when we ran out. So after chainsawing and chaingunning them while also chainsawing a Cacodemon or two and rewinding at least once or twice, we finally prevailed, ran out, grabbed the secret ammo and BFg'd the two barons remaining in the control room with little effort. Opening the door to the exit (which we luckily did the first time) will reveal a vent and the ultimate troll move: a computer map that reveals, among other things, a secret in the last maze we came from containing an entirely useless blur sphere and the existence of the berserk pack mentioned above behind an entirely anoymous SHAWN wall. Needless to say, this and the presence of ammo/health in the locker/storage room felt like the ultimate troll move. Still, I'll have to agree with Veeda Vidlak here on an overall positive impression. The ammo situation didn't really become dire until near the end and the hidden berserk pack would have had some, if limited function by the time it can be accessed. But the fight near the pipe room was garbage, not as much as chainsawing three Arch-viles in a row, but at the same time, I had missed bits of ammo in the control room lmd_fragport28.zip

Crusader No Regret: thank you for your account of how it was to do demos for this. Always interesting to get impressions on maps we play only once or twice on the month and another player has elected to really grind a good time on. re: monads, I think Azure's right in the sense that what the mapper probably means by monad is 'all-in-one outpost' on the moon or whatever, so presumably there might be other monads (not just be blue grid monad) housing other all-in-one habitats on the surface of the planetoid. Are we on the moon? I haven't been keeping track exactly. My Jody's really happy she took her UAC_Pod with all her music with her because she's mainly been killin' and listenin', not doing a lot of thinkin' to be quite honest. They sent a clueless marine on the moon! See, even one interestingly chosen word by the mapper and we had a little conversation and imagination about the whys and hows. Text strings in doom wads are underrated. Map 24 - Balanced Chaos Oh, I really thought it was going to be more fun than it turned out to be, this one. Half an hour of footage for a map with 200 monsters speaks for itself. Do I suck this bad? Is my ammo management just utter shit, even after 30 years of playing Doom? There's a load of secrets I didn't find on this map, pretty certain one of them is a quite mandatory BFG, but what about that BFG anyway? At the end of my footage I'm down to zerk punch aggroing 20 ambush revs and viles one by one so something must have gone terribly wrong with my run or I missed something super obvious. There is that darkened middle part of the map with some goodies in there I didn't try too hard to get, I suppose that dangling sphere would be nice to have for the utter embarrassment that is the tail end of this map. I don't mind the vile packs with the rev backups. If that's how we're escalating the violence for this set, fine with me, bring it on. But at least give me guns and ammo on map 24 of 32. There's cool stuff in this map. There's a very classical archvile church with a studious imp congregation, there's a blood pool with a 3 switch puzzle that was actually well paced I would say, had fun with that encounter. I still had ammo... There is another marble palace space with a vile leading the mobs from atop his jade throne. The encounters here are a little bit 'let's just put 4 of everything in this big room and an archvile conductor... done!' but that's ok. By the time we get that jade vile we have all 3 keys and 124/204 kills so you would expect endgame, but nope. As you clear out the top vile in the jade palace a cruel brother teleported far back on the outside corridor and resurrects about 2.000 HP worth of mid tier for you while you fuck around with the blue skull key. I think this is where my ammo woes started, clearing out all that resurrected material. Eventually I just leave a bunch of nobles in a corridor and go away for a while, returning with zerk to punch what's left out (and eat my saves and reloads). That's where I was making notes in my saves 'am I missing something?' because I kept pushing through with no ammo to find even more mid tier and higher enemies. Eventually I had to savescum-strategize to make it out... you know exactly the feeling, not just a reload, but a reload where you have optimized what you do down to the microsecond followed by another save half a second later, lol. Terrible. Just to finish this strange map. I will wait to see what the rest of the gang says, I suspect 'not balanced for pistol start' is going to be the resounding theme as we finish up with this. Two monthly wadclubs and I managed to find the least appropriate way to play them both. If it's before 2014 and it's an one man show, I am playing continuous from now on! I don't hate the map, I think a thorough replay and getting all the secrets will solve all the issues I had on first go, but I did have these issues first go so this isn't super great a first experience. footage

Having not yet crafted a wad myself and also new to the Doom mod scene, it would be unfair of me to be hyper critical. Instead, I'll share what I liked and what I didn't. Liked: Lore (story) Weapons Disliked: No secrets No surprise/trap mobs Non-threatening mobs Final Thoughts: A good Doom map IMO creates focused pressure and forces the player to have to think on their feet! Your map (even on Nightmare) was not challenging. Thanks for the wad!

I was able to play the first few maps and honestly, they were far more substantive than I was expecting. Hell Palace was quite uninviting thanks to the proliferation of hitscanners. To be fair, I wasn't playing very well. Although the Invulnerbiity spheres may have been meaningless. Though worst was probably the absence of a non-stock midi. Map 03 was basically the complete opposite on the other hand. So many mobs of enemies and yet hardly any ammo to bother with. Missing the plasma rifle may have been a mistake but otherwise, it just seems like infighting is far too dependent regarding the chances of getting 100 percent kills. lmd_halls.zip

MAP 20 – Spaceport DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves I did not comment the FragMidiPack choices since I usually found them appropriate, but nothing more. The Final Countdown really helped setting the mood of Spaceport, the final chapter of Kill Crazy’s journey through the remote city of Fragport. Instructed by written memories found on a dead marine’s body on the train, he decided to get on a space shuttle and head for the artificial moon where the invasion began. The FAC (Fragport Aerospace Company) concrete building was controlled by enemy forces, so reaching the space craft required barging through a crowd of enemies. Pistol starters received an early rocket launcher, but they were likely to miss the SSG in the northern warehouse for a while. The sprawling corridors were stuffed with enemies, the toilets were filled by hulking Mancubi, and the waiting rooms were teeming with zombies expecting their flights. Ammo was not a concern with all those dropped weapons, but I found myself in trouble when I triggered the RK ambush. I did not know that the key was in the central hall, and I was just exploring the Spaceport when I heard unsettling noises. A large group of monsters suddenly teleported in the corridors, with Revenants converging on me with shocking rapidity. It took some time to regain control of the surroundings, then I thoroughly searched the offices on the upper floor behind the ‘Reception’ desk. They contained the GK and all plasma weapons behind red doors, complete with a good ammo supply. The new Revenant closets consumed a part of it, but it comfortably carried me through the rest of the level. Two additional ammo secrets could be accessed by shooting concealed switches in other parts of the map, but my inspection would never have got that far. The GK granted access to the ‘Control Tower’, hosting a mob of Chaingunners that was perfectly placed for BFG tracers. After killing the obligatory Arch-Vile guarding the BK, I finally entered the southern warehouse, almost a mirror copy of the northern one, and jumped on the conveyor belt bringing wares to the shuttle’s cargo hold. A Cacoswarm appeared as a last, feeble attempt at stopping Jody Russell from embarking. Spaceport was ok in my book: it was a credible futuristic travel hub with generally entertaining combat; it suffered a bit from excessive symmetry, a few grindy sections, repetitive props (a Lost Soul for every W.C.!), and the haphazard deployment of monsters while searching for the RK. Good, but it could have been excellent with more variety in the room design and monster placement.

MAP 19 – Dockside DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves The next stage of Jody Russell’s sightseeing tour of Fragport was the seaport, which featured a naval yard along with warehouses and a chemical plant, conveniently placed there to discharge huge quantities of pollutants into the sea. The soulless boxy buildings of Northgate were replaced by dignified structures with clear purposes and representation, and their exploration was undoubtedly more exciting. I could not take for granted that also combat would become compelling, but it was exactly what happened at the Dockside. Lots of former humans watched the streets from the windows, so a pistol starter must be quick to collect the weapons in sight. The building near the rocket launcher contained a mandatory switch that lowered the GK in the locked ‘F_agport Toxins’ facility, but it was possible to press it right away, before venturing in the docks. The opposition in the area was mild, allowing to admire the lighthouse, the moored ship, the crane, the ‘Workshop Office’ that should be visited for the SSG, the ‘Storage’ that contained a progression switch, and the ‘Dry Dock’, a cute shipyard where our hero had the privilege to launch a new ship, messing about with switches in the control room. Flooding the area around the vessel allowed to get on board, something that would have been trivial if The Ultimate Doomer had not placed so many blocking lines to prevent straightforward jumps. This is the only complaint I have about Dockside, since it broke the realism by making the docked ship outside inaccessible unless you press a nondescript button, and it even caused me to get soft locked on the Megasphere boat. You can strafe jump to it, but you cannot get out if you do not press the switch first. I also failed to trigger the ambush when collecting the RK, unleashing it inadvertently when I came back to score the secret. The GK was obtained with a quick visit to the chemical plant, full of Arachnotrons and monsters lurking behind props. I returned on board of the moored ship to enter the locked door in its hold. Picking up the BK released a large mob of hellspawn in various points of the level, including a Cyberdemon and a Spiderdemon that eventually engaged in a duel. The Spider won this time, against a weakened Cyber that helped me a lot against his supposed allies. I had a fully loaded BFG to cover all eventualities. The final area was less remarkable, even baffling at times, especially that labyrinth of screens that appeared on a platform where I had already killed the Arch-Vile. Reaching the train station was a formality, but I liked the idea that every district had its stop like a real city. Dockside was a distinguished map in the urban episode of Fragport.

MAP 18 – Northgate DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves Northgate indirectly confirmed how difficult it is for one man to create a 32-map megaWAD. The next district of Fragport was just another sandbox, carrying the legacy of Downtown and complementing it with a few Doomcute details for the sake of variation. The standard 3 key linear progression was carried out by the book, and there were no standout moments or locations, just square buildings to explore one after the other, closets releasing creatures in the streets, Arachnotrons in dead alleys, and the occasional Arch-Vile that cannot be called “surprise” anymore. I struggled to find something memorable or remarkable in this map. The start followed a familiar pattern: explore the streets to collect weapons and resources, get rid of the annoying snipers shooting from cages (above all, Chaingunners), then enter the structures, starting with the ones with the yellow or orange marked doors. The switch in the roof garden lowered the RK pillar, then picking up the key released a small horde in the main square. Threat for Jody Russell was minimal, the biggest danger coming from the barely visible pit. I fell in it like a stone while circling around the enemies, learning at my expense that the bottom contained 20% damage lava, instead of fresh water as the waterfall might suggest. The GK was inside a warehouse with schematic monster placement, and after some more Arch-Vile & closet shenanigans I came to the L-shaped building, a nicely decorated library with a large burning fireplace. The BK pickup was saluted by a Cacoswarm on the main square, but this time I stayed away from the pit. The last building presented some strictly frontal opposition, easily dispatched from the door, and the switch that removed the barriers from the western alleys. By the way, the same switch also made the secret BFG available for pickup. The small train stop at Northgate shared the COMPOHSO colour theme seen in MAP16, but the mob of Troopers populating it was underwhelming. The whole level gave me the same vibes, just as Stephen Clark was giving me the runaround; he seemed to offer either trite or mediocre stuff to keep me busy, before showing off his best work. I hope it does not take long for Fragport to change the course and delve into more compelling stuff than standard Doom urban sandboxes.

Map 11: Military Bunker The maze at the beginning was really bad. Thankfully, things improve greatly. The little green fort area with the Barons and Hell Knights seemed stupid on pistol start....and honestly it still is! Carve a path, head to the last switch opening the chamber which lowers the red key, then shoot probably two of those Barons then escape intact. The next area is an overly dark area that thankfully wasn't too hard, thanks to enemies mostly being Imps and Spectres and in any case, we finally get our hands on some weapons and enough ammo to handle pretty much everything. Unfortunately, this came after expending basically every spare shotgun shell on two large groups of Revenants and there appears to be little ammo in secrets, relatively speaking. In any case, the rest was smooth sailing. The staired and open room with the blue key at the bottom did not conform to Stephen Clark's usual sense of place. When compared to the darkened storage rooms from whence can be found the green key or even the outside stations which grant access to the red key, they made little sense. What did have some place was the final room with the two Arch-viles amidst the incredibly tasteful strobe lights! Contrary to Book Lord, I thought this was concise, if slightly dickish way to end the map, although we ended being dropped to 1 percent health and the last pop-up Arch-vile ran towards the exit, forcing us to rocket them to death before leaving. Kreator's best song is as good a complement as any for probably the best map since 06 or 07. Although one may not want to pistol-start because Stephen Clark throws mobs of Revenants with little regard for such a playstyle lmd_fragport11.zip

000 EMERGANCY (2005) by @pcorf (Eternity) This map sees Paul Corfiatis, not really making awful troll maps but also not really spending all that much time on them either. Even so, he can't help himself with the excellent lighting choices made throughout. Both maps feature a nasty ambush at certain points. The 3rd map proves easily to be the best, packing quite a few enemies into a few small spaces. The most dangerous bit comes in that darkened tech room down some stairs where a pair each of chaingunners and shotgunners will cut you to bits whilst trying to fight off some pinkies with an extremely limited amount of ammo. At least it concludes with an open air fight with an Imp mob on your right and approximately 4 Cacos floating near some curious pyramids. Although the exit skull switch is nearly invisible as only the bottom bit can be seen at its location. And why is a so-called Doom 2 set consisting of nothing but Doom 1 enemies? 6.5/10, mainly due to the lighting and the undeniable strength of the last map.

Heading toward the end of the last Chapter - Lava. In Chapter 6, the yellow/orange damaging floor/liquid would be set as the main color tone to the end. All maps in chapter 6 contain lava (the damaging yellow liquid). While using Liquid Texture Pack 6.0, the visual effect seems to be upscaled to the next level and phenomenal. Map28_Conflagration of Souls The 2-level layout confused me, yet it's not hard to figure out the way to the end. The map scale is small though the engagements in this map are pretty brutal; the player will face 2 more cyberdemons with mobs in most of the fights. Hordes are as always swarming all over the place once the line is triggered. The switches for the secrets are hidden well, just need a bit more patience to look around the corner for collecting items. I jumped out of the rings several times for securing kills, and the reinforcement keep spawning in, that was crazy! Map29_Azazel's Descent Into Madness Here we are, the title screen background is from the very beginning of the map. This map's scale is large and the enemy placement is no mercy to the player who'd come this far! The wide corridors seem to be a decent place to hold and engage the incoming mobs but soon will be locked in the limited space. The player could expect to see that Azazel has been preparing lots of his minions for the "welcome parties" here. Not the most chaotic one I've seen so far, yet it's still a challenging map in this wad. I really like the "surprise" features that lower the walls, locking down the corridors and revealing mobs swarming at once. The decorative stuff like the lighting floor and the torch arrangements truly draw my attention and make the map more atmospherically awesome before reaching the end of the wad. I quite enjoyed these 2 maps since the fights get more intense one after another and it's pretty decent to demonstrate my all-time favorite Doom weapon mod Guncaster. I adopted "Hammersmite" and "Skullfire" on map28, and switched back to my favorite lightning spells - "Thunderstruck" and "Sigil" for killing efficiency. Azazel's big showdown is waiting ahead. I'll finish him for good.

Curtin Computer Science (1995) by Scott LaVertu Another myschool wad! Although this one is actually pretty good and actually bears a decent resemblance to its attempted simulated location I suspect. Granted, the author takes something of a proto-slaughter approach to the combat but even if door-camping is mandatory, the bathrooms are kind of cute, the classrooms with the disruptive Imp students and screaming wall heads are nice and there's just something so amusing about seeing Revenants in the labs and having mobs of pinkies randomly unleashed to attack you. Still, progression has some odd nonsensical bits that keep this from being an unvarnished recommended curio. But it looks and plays quite well regardless. One has to understand that if a room looks walkthrough, it probably is. Can't say I'm such a huge fan of the latter part but it resembles more a traditional school building I suppose. I do find it amusing the security is prepared to vaporize you with plasma here. 6.5/10

An extremely overdue completion of Diablo II LoD (started with a Barbarian in 2011 and stopped before Diablo and just recently beat it with an Amazon) and now going through it again on Nightmare. I've died like 20 times. Glad your corpse is teleported back to town when you exit and reenter because sometimes you just run right into an elite mob the moment you enter indoors and have no time to react. That said I'm having a total blast and almost cleared Act 1 in a couple days, just imbued a superior ceremonial javelin with the malus and rolling along pretty well at level 45.

The Godson. Basically this ridiculous and oftentimes quite stupid mob spoof that throws in a Bill Clinton impersonator admidst a West Side Story-esque main plot point and you'll have an idea what it's about!

MAP 01 – Desert Prison DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Pistol start, blind run w/saves In this interesting opener the playing character, the top marine Jody Russell a.k.a. “Kill Crazy”, must escape from a prison block in the middle of the desert. His aircraft was shot down and he was captured by the hellspawn, obviously responsible for the invasion of Fragport, the remote city where he had been sent to investigate. While he was waiting for execution, he caught the opportunity to snap a guard’s neck and break free, armed only with a pistol and his natural fondness for killing. The first thing that struck me was that the map was packed with way more monsters than needed. There was plenty of ammo to comfortably kill everything, but even the four Chaingunner wardens felt excessive, let alone the guards patrolling the outer walls and populating the barracks. Clearing the whole place was time-consuming with basic weapons. The ‘revolutionary ALPHABET texture’ was showcased in the cell wing and on nameplates that identified the function of each building, elevating them from square blocks to semi-realistic structures. The RK allowed to access the executions house, offering the fun option to crush unruly Imps in a gruesome press and the GK (Green Keycard) as a reward, another feature of this megaWAD. The barracks were full of Doomcute beds with lovely skull cabinets to check for ammo, the BK, and a secret medikit that I really needed thanks to my sloppy play. The storage was a super-cramped combat space, holding a few enemies hiding behind crates, and a switch guarded by an Arch-Vile. Instead of opening the way out of this place, it raised stairs to climb on the perimeter wall and summoned a mob of mid-tiers in the courtyard. Once on the wall, I found the rocket launcher and two Medikits protected by pop-up Barons of Hell, but it took me a full recheck of the ramparts to find the switch that opened the main gate. Desert Prison presented the megaWAD in an excellent way, showing both its positive features (realistic design, sense of place, engine tricks, new sounds and textures) and its shortcomings (boxy structures, monster overload, excessive length), all offspring of its author’s ambitious mindset.

(well, guess I'll get down my thoughts from last night. btw, I decided to play the maps from pistol start after having finished continuously and....my experience was actually far better than expected! Let's get to it then! No demos this time because I didn't feel like it) Map 19: Hell's Destruction Well "Death's Bells" is certainly an appropriate one since we are actually traveling through a perverted vision of destruction the demons probably wrought in their invasion. Although we initially start in a basement seemingly containing ammo stores. It's only upon emerging from our hideaway that the horror of the demonic invasion is layed out in the starkest terms possible. Because in addition to the intimidating red sky, this ruined, burnt, and bombed-out city is also far from uninhabited as there are still plenty of demons camping out because.....they like to observe the fruits of their "labour." And actually, this is one of Angelo's best displays of architectural command due to how well these places actually look like bombed-out buildings. Not like that matters too much though because the lack of a nearby SS or chaingun makes this quite unfriendly to pistol start. Chaingunners snipe at us from the corners of the closest destroyed building as flyers lurk in the eaves, thusly making exploration there impractical, if not impossible. Revenants, backed by some Imps, will lob missiles furiously in our direction. And the tool we need to leave this scene of utter devastation, the red key is located on the second floor of a building accessed by a pair of circular stairs that probably were part of a foyer and occupied by a Mancubi quad that only increased the amount of luck we need to pick the key up. It's after this we head toward the building the Revenants came from and use our key to open the way to a basement, as well as face off against a chaingunner with nothing but a pistol. Unfortunately, this is why pistol-start feels overly painful, as progression is entirely linear here and there's no reason to return up the ASHWALL shaft once the SS below is picked up. We do take care to enter a passage containing ammo that's also stocked with hitscanners. Anyways, the lower floor is filled with blood, but ultimately, there's little time spent before we reach the next area, a small square chamber over blood with a Baron of Hell sitting in the middle and a plasma rifle and Megasphere both free for the taking. Veteran doomers will know such generosity always comes with a heavy price and indeed, once the Baron was disposed of and we step onto the platform, we are ambushed by an utterly hideous and terrifying cavalcade of threats, including a Pain Elemental on either side, a chaingunner firing from the open cross in front of us, and some Hell Knights and an Arch-vile will teleport onto the central platform fairly shortly. But firstly, we SS the Pain Elemental on the left into oblivion because that's where we have to go for the moment. Unfortunately, things are no easier, and we are confronted with a rather cramped scenario involving shotgunners and Imps, along with a Mancubus in the middle. There was enough chaingun ammo for everything. Once the rocket launcher is acquired, we then hit a switch, which probably raises some bars sitting somewhere behind that cross and are subsequently ambushed by a mob of Demons and an Arch-vile! Angelo's Arch-vile placement is starting to approach genius practically. Like I believe that we're supposed to rocket here, but of course, there's always a risk a pinkie will break itself off from the mob, get in your way, and causing you to get damaged by the concussion. But honestly, it would be hard to get at the Arch-vile otherwise. Although thanks to some bad luck in that situation, it makes taking care of the enemies in the previous room that much harder. We end up running out of rockets and end up shotgunning the resurrected Baron before shooting the chaiingunner behind the cross and then, the Pain Elemental behind the fake Baron portrait at the other end, which is actually a secret area with a Berserk Pack. After this, we continue through the cross, take the lift at the end up and then ascend out of yet another basement before we're immediately confronted by the fearless roar of a distant Cyberdemon, amongst the setting of a building larger than anything in the first area. We try to lure the Cyber out, grab the vast ammo stores contained within, then dodge a pair of Hell Knights to press a switch, opening another darkened area with some chaingunners and a Cacodemon or two. We then set to rocket most of these enemies into oblivion as best we can because the instant the first shot is fired, the most thrilling teleport battle of the entire wad commences. Chaingunners, Pain Elementals, Imps, Revenants and three Arch-viles will make their way here eventually. The chaingunners will prove the primary priority target, then the Pain Elementals and at some point, the Arch-viles will appear probably one after the other. Weaving in and out of the rooms of the ruined building once the Cyberdemon was successfully lured out was probably the best moment of this map and nearly the wad. Unfortunately, there are just enough Arch-viles to add an unpredictable element that thanks to a near dearth of health in this last section put an end to us and to make things fair, we'd only saved when we entered the area. Getting them to infight ther Cyberdemon is ideal, but for obvious reasons, we don't spend so much time with that, though maybe more time than we needed to make the Revenants infight with the Cyberdemon. Once the army had been extinguished, we headed to the teleporter in the opened-up closet from earlier, find ourselves in a mandatory?? bombed-out building containing this map's last enemies, some Mancubi and chaingunners, along with Imps in fairly close quarters, but we've still got enough ammo to make short work of them. At some point, the exit then opens up. What a map! Taking a tiny break really helped gain some perspective admittedly, but also, maps like this need to exist to bring everything home. Angelo now feels comfortable about including slaughter sections but clearly, it was probably a bridge too far for him to make that the entire premise of a map, and with the quality of certain contemporaries, who can blame him? Map 20: Final More uninspired names. But on the other hand "Horizon" is also as good a choice for the endgame midi as one could possibly hope for. I mean, the Starfleet symbol is peppered literally everywhere Angelo could stuff the bloody thing, so it actually makes complete sense. The starting area for one. Initially surrounded by crimson rock, a pair of switches reveals some flesh pillars allows us to escape and take care of the immediate threats, one including a chaingunner behind a window. Thankfully, pistol starters are throughly taken care of as well with every non-BFG weapon present, although perhaps not enough as everyone else's who played this has observed, so we try to avoid picking up every piece on the ground. This corner room is only one of 4 different starting rooms, suggesting that Angelo was actually placing a strong emphasis on co-op as well as DM. It might actually explain the situation toward the end. They surround a series of cross-shaped hallways that actually might be 4 Starfleet symbols stuck togther. From this point, it's behind the only unlocked door into an area of wood with meat pillars and several Barons of Hell, two of them actually located behind fake walls on either side of the room. Is there anyone who really disagrees that fake walls were one of the worst legacies bequeathed by TNT?? Like stealth monster are furiously and righteously condemned but fake walls are a sort of whatever factor. No matter, we just avoid them the best we can, fight off the Cacodemons, then pick up the blue key to cause a few Hell Knights to teleport in. Everything but the Barons in the walls and a Caco or two is rocketed. The next room isn't really too much to speak of, just some scattered Cacodemons and a Pain Elemental across an arena with the Starfleet symbol in the middle and a Spider Mastermind in the middle. It was here that things started to become incredibly frustrating as health at this point basically becomes nonexistent and the Spider Mastermind unfortunately scored several hits on us before we were able to take her out and collect the red key. A greater threat confronts us behind that door though. Not the Cyberdemon standing below the symbol at one end of a marble area, but rather, the chaingunners and Arch-vile that lower from the ceiling when we pick up the yellow key. Cells seem the best option here, although it only came after using rockets and dying twice. The yellow door seems to have little behind it but a pair of Chaingunners and a Hell Knight. However, we get to the other end, and then, the atrium on the outside goes instantly dark and enemies start teleporting in by the frickin' droves. While the Revenants and pinkies that are closest to us are immediately disposed of, several more keep coming including.....sigh....Chaingunners and Pain Elementals! It was good then that we had 1) gone back to collect the ammo left at the start and 2) left the Cyberdemon alive because otherwise, it would've been suicide to stand and fight, and even so, we were at 13 percent health! Coaxing the Cyberdemon out can be tricky but proved to be worth its weight in gold as literally every enemy that teleported in with the exception of some Lost Souls was ultimately felled with enough shells and probably over 100 bullets to step on the teleporter sitting in the middle of the bloodfall steps and reach the final area! It consists of a rectangular room of red bricked-walls, pillars that don't quite approach the craft of those in E1M8 of #1Kill and some lengthy alcoves above us on either side with Imps in them and the growl of Romero. But ultimately, it's little trouble to get up to the alcoves, hit the skull switch that can be accessed from either end which then opens up the darkened basement containing a sole pair of chaingunners guarding the little room here containing a lift that lowers with the Romero head that was previously inaccessible that we subsequently blast to bits with our last cells. A fitting conclusion for a sadistic and sometimes remorseless megawad Final Thoughts This has gone on too long so I'll keep it short. While the somewhat rougher visuals and proliferation of bugs suggest that Angelo Jefferson was working of a limited timetable similar to that of id Software in 1994 (I imagine he was probably in his first year of college at this point) and lots of door-camping that belonged to another area, there are also a shocking amount of scenarios that have a certain forward-thinking dynamism to them that simply did not exist in 1997. Although perhaps that's a good thing when you consider his almost cheerful Pain Elemental spam. But like Yonatan Donner, Denis Moeller, and several other mappers of the late 90s, he seems to have never looked back as RL became far too much of a concern and other things besides an outdated computer game might well have garnered his attention. A bit of a shame, because the description of The Next Generation on /idgames reveals he was influenced by Hexen, Heretic and the Obituary episode created by the Moeller brothers around roughly 1995. Granted, many of these 'experimental' choices fell flat, with particularly embarrassing results in Stra(n)ge Universe. But it's funny how lif works though. Never say never to The Final Frontier though, as a 5-map replacement for E3 that came out last year demonstrates. Best maps 31 31 15 19 11 10