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Bloodshedder

The /newstuff Chronicles #395

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  • Heretic: Contention - Matt "Peanut" Clauder
    Heretic - Vanilla - Deathmatch - 1257713 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Creaphis
    Heretic: Contention, a set of 9 duel maps for Heretic, was uploaded to the /idgames archive on the 22nd... of February. Seeing as the time-frame for a thoughtful, in-depth review has more-or-less expired, here's one that's summaric and unceremonious simply to get this wad cleared out of the queue. Hopefully "Peanut" agrees that this is better than nothing.

    Visuals:
    These maps were decorated with a restrained tastefulness. The bright colours of Heretic and the popular texture set made by essel and RottKing feature prominently, but the detail level is kept in check by the need for visual clarity and smooth architecture in deathmatch maps. Much of the unnecessary geometry in each map is beyond the bounds of the play area itself, so it's just out there, above the horizon, looking pretty without making a nuisance of itself.

    Gameplay:
    These maps have good flow - almost too good. Most of the layouts resemble formula one racetracks in that there's one main circuit with a couple of branching paths where you can take your pit stops. As duel maps, these should lend themselves well to games of cat-and-mouse, as there's always a place for the mouse to run but seldom a place to hide. What would be particularly amusing is if the mouse were to place a time bomb in the cat's path, in a classic Tom-and-Jerry-esque maneuver. Unfortunately, beyond a handful of quartz flasks, there are extremely few inventory items in this mapset - this being the wad's main flaw.

    I hope someone has actually hosted this wad since its release. It definitely deserves it.

    Note: This wad's text file doesn't mention any specific compatibility requirements, but it crashes Heretic Plus (and presumably vanilla) with a texture lump error.

  • Gatchaman Doom:Version 2.1 - a TC for ULTIMATE DOOM - Dan Patanella
    Ultimate Doom - Vanilla - Solo Play - 1182421 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: magicsofa
    I'm not sure what to say about this one. The only good thing about this wad is that some small fraction of the levels are well designed.

    Other than that - lots of mazes, overuse of textures, repetitive monster encounters. There was a lack of health and ammo in some places, and overabundance in others.

    By the way, it can hardly be called a TC. There are a handful of new textures which are actually just pictures of anime characters, and the "new" monsters are just modifications. Except for these really strange robots and...a puppy. Yes, there is a cute little dog. I assume it's from the show? These "enemies" however didn't seem to work. There were lame new sounds, and the music was exactly what you would expect during the credits of any anime show: CHEESY. Melancholy end-scene music doesn't really work in Doom.

    I almost forgot, the entire wad didn't seem to work. You are supposed to run a patch which, upon inspection, seems to only add mancubus fireball and icon of sin cube sprites. Some of the new monsters are actually Doom 2 monsters, even though this is supposed to be Ultimate Doom. Anyway, I tried to run in Chocolate Doom, and got a "no frames" error.

    Whatever.

    I played it in ZDoom, and the robot and puppy just sat motionless making noises and blowing up when I shot them. There is a heavy-weapons-dude and a hell knight which work. But...is it not possible to add new frames using a dehacked patch? Am I missing something?

    Anyway, it was kinda fun. However, it's totally thrown together; the only thing that seems like effort was put into it was the map layouts, which often sucked anyway.

  • The S-Project - CarpetolA
    Doom 2 - GZDoom - Solo Play - 36047881 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: fullmetalvaran33
    "The S-Project" has you go through a hell-infested UAC tech base in a canyon. The outside area is bathed in an ominous red light, and the facility itself begins eerily quietly, but quickly picks up as you progress until you find yourself in some slaughter-y situations. They lead you to the hellish finale with a boss from the 667 bestiary and a rather nice little twist to the slow-burning thriller-type story.

    Well, it's not exactly the most thrilling or intense WAD, as there could have been some stronger lighting and shading effects. The music is very atmospheric--dark, brooding, and intense--and I would have liked to see dark, shadowy maps to complement this. Still, the last 2 maps make up for this aesthetic flaw, and if you love slaughter-like battles, you should be pleased. Although, the boss battle may provide you with a bit too much ammo, and it may come off as a bit easy to some.

    Overall: short, sweet, and rather brutal.

  • Mortal base - Wraith
    Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 169903 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: fullmetalvaran33
    This was quite awful. The map tries to be creatively nonlinear, but it's essentially filled with pointless, poorly-textured bland rooms and halls, including parts that have no real point whatsoever other than to confuse you and waste your time. The game play is uneven, ranging from pretty easy to unfair. There's not enough ammo, and the monster placement is sporadic at best. Definitely a typical n00b map that one should simply avoid.

  • DoomHero85's Speedmap Session 001 - Various
    Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 1049314 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: BloodyAcid
    Here we have DoomHero85's first speedmapping session, where the apparent theme was "Sewer Slaughtermap." There are eight maps, six of which were constructed under 100 minutes.

    As much of as I enjoy slaughtermaps like these, 99.9% of these battles will either take hours upon hours of slowrolling or cheating. Otherwise, they are impossible (as demonstrated by the screenshots).

    For maps under 100 minutes, they don't look half bad. However, many ares were copy paste hallways stretching only sewage, wall, and monsters.

    The design. Most of the maps are the typical sewage. Green brick, sewage. However, a few of the maps bring in outdoors...which also includes impossible battles. There isn't too much detail considering the time restraint, but still better than most 1990's-esque maps.

    The gameplay. As shown by the screenshots, most of the maps involve impossible battles with insufficient ammo (I mean, if you try to run for some, you'll awaken MORE monsters, and therefore need more ammo). It's also pretty much impossible to avoid all the monsters too. Although there will be infighting, the amount of monsters left over are too great to be killed. Especially in the final map. Thinking that there are only 32 monsters in comparison to the previous maps IS WRONG. The Icon of Sin spits out around 8 cubes at a good rate into an open area, so that nullifies any chance of survival.

    Instead of me rambling on about these type of maps, some people out there will indeed enjoy them more than me. Expect an overwhelming challenge set in very similar settings, repeated for eight maps.

  • Another Refinery - NoneeLlama
    Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 48031 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Megamur
    Relatively short techbase map. Detail and lighting effects are simple but present, staying true to the abstract architecture of the original IWADs.

    Combat isn't terribly impressive, with most fights being of the "open a door, small crowd of enemies behind it, blast them from cover" variety, with weak opposition consisting largely of zombies, imps and demons. There's a section where you must fight several spectres and cacodemons in near-pitch-darkness, but you're given plenty of maneuvering room--the result is that, instead of receiving an actual challenge, you have a somewhat irritating fight where you wait until somebody spits a fireball so you can figure out where to shoot (and even this can be circumvented somewhat by slowly approaching the item that triggers this trap, as the monster closets open before the lights go out). Ammo can be tight at points and you may have to punch a pinky or two to make it through, but you won't be sweating for long. Rocket launcher seemed unnecessary considering the underwhelming enemies. There were a couple of monster closet ambushes I didn't expect, though.

    Level progression is very linear and simple. No puzzles, and keys are never more than a room or two away from where they need to be used (which makes me wonder why there are keys at all. Might as well just make them regular doors if you're going to be walking through them a few seconds after you first see them).

    There seems to be what might be considered a glitch around the blue key platform. If you jump down into the green sludge below, you'll find some lifts that will carry you back up. However, at their highest point, they're still 72 units below the nearest floor, making it impossible to ascend to solid ground again.

    (Played in vanilla. Compatibility is fine aside from a tiny bit of tutti-frutti on lines 569 and 571.)

  • Exalt not the Wicked - ReX Claussen
    Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 173313 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Megamur
    Technical Stuff - Played in vanilla with no errors.

    Visual Design - Mostly a techbase map, with a few excursions into outdoor terrain. Fairly solid vanilla detail, with bits of gradient lighting, a couple of attractive skylights, lots of light fixtures, computer panels and support structures in the walls, and some nice curved walls (and an archway). Outdoor areas seem a bit more plain than the indoor ones, with the walls being largely flat and mono-textured.

    Gameplay - Fairly good overall. Many traps and ambushes await you, to the point that you might find yourself looking over your shoulder a lot, though there's enough variety in them that you're not exactly sure how you'll be attacked. Area design is a bit cramped at times, so you'll have to keep on your toes, but generally never gets too frantic. Ammo is a bit on the tight side for the first half of the map or so, doling out some supplies just when you need it and not a moment sooner. Health is given out more leniently, so while you're not tripping over soul spheres, you'll probably be at 100% much of the time. Gameplay does fall apart a bit at the end, with you being over-equipped and blowing through some monster spam in a seemingly tacked-on segment, but it's fairly brief.

    Oh, and, of course, special mention must be given to any WAD that can make an invisibility sphere seem actually useful.

    Layout/Complexity - No real puzzles to speak of. (The only thing resembling a puzzle has a big arrow on the ground to give you a not-so-subtle hint.) Quite linear, though with good connectivity, with new passages opening up to old areas instead of forcing you to backtrack.

  • The Pumping Station - Robbie Laliberte
    Ultimate Doom - Vanilla - Solo Play - 362785 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Megamur
    Technical Stuff - Works mostly fine in vanilla, though there's a REJECT error in one area that makes it difficult for monsters to see you.

    Visual Design - Mostly techbase with some green marble. Detail is crude at best (though the use of windows is occasionally nice), entirely absent at worst. Extremely square room design. Repetitive texturing. Fairly dark, which is either moody or annoying, depending on your point of view.

    Sound Design - New sound effects, while not unbearable, are generally rather tinny and occasionally obnoxious. New music reminds me of something from Corridor 7; it's subtle and sort of creepy, but repetitive.

    Gameplay - Pretty dull. Nothing worse than a spectre assails you, there's generally plenty of maneuvering room, and there are no significant traps or ambushes. Coupled with the sufficient supplies, you never really feel in any danger. "Open door, waste bad guys, move on" is the best way to describe this.

    Level Flow/Puzzles - Any difficulty encountered in the level stems from needing to find a few secret doors in order to progress, and not being entirely sure what a few of the switches do.

  • Base_16 - Henley Bailey
    Ultimate Doom - Vanilla - Solo Play - 37165 bytes - (img)
    Reviewed by: Megamur
    Technical Stuff - Works fine in vanilla.

    Visual Design - Techbase with a lot of repetitive, gray texturing. Fairly crude and amateurish overall, and some areas look like they're basically stolen from the original DOOM (the opening staircase with the armor at the top from E1M1; the rising bridge from E1M5). Many ugly texture misalignments. Several rooms feel overly large and empty.

    Gameplay - Way, way too much ammo is given out--there'll be plenty of shell boxes you won't need. Opposition is generally thin, and there's lots of maneuvering room. Only one significant trap, but it's pretty obvious. Most of the map just feels like someone experimenting with linedef actions.

    Level Flow/Puzzles - Go forward, blast through bad guys until you find a key, backtrack and open a door. Simple. I do like how several new rooms are opened at the beginning of the map when you trip a line, feeling like the level is changing shape as you pass through it, but this idea is employed only once.

  • Room over the Room - FullMoonDog
    Doom 2 - Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 5500 bytes
    Reviewed by: Processingcontrol
    This is just some map which showcases that Boom silent teleporter "room over room" trick which everyone knows about. Don't download this unless you can't figure out how it works (which is highly unlikely considering how simple it is).

  • Death surrounds you - Joey
    Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 3534993 bytes - (img)
    Reviewed by: Processingcontrol
    Here's another worthless WAD, this one a jokewad by "Joey" (Terry?).

    At first it appears to be a serious level, but once you use one of the doors you get teleported to... ...uhh... ...just look at the screenshot.

  • BADTRIP (for DOOM II) - Christopher A. Rada
    Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 397875 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: BloodyAcid
    Quoted from the textfile: "You may notice a lot of areas that serve no purpose other than to provide good deathmatch sniping points. This is meant to confuse the player into going into areas that look as if they were important in order to finish the level."

    This quote pretty much sums it all up. The level BADTRIP includes one new level for Doom 2, and replaces some of the sounds in the game. Let's start with the map:

    The texture usage and transitions in this map are horrendous. You have wooden/marble areas going to tech/computer connected by a door, and then to hell in another. Many rooms look like they were drawn randomly, with texture usage the same. Doors are especially horrible. Some are regular BIGDOORs, while some are tech squares, and others a plain metal textures. Detail is also at a complete minimum, with the exception of a few lights here and there.

    Gameplay-wise, this map is too much of a maze.

    "You may notice a lot of areas that serve no purpose other than to provide good deathmatch sniping points."

    Except that this greatly outnumbers the useful areas. Maps are TOO non-linear, and areas transition from complete brightness to pitch black. The dominant monsters are shotgun guys, so you'll get hitscanned a lot. The keys take a while to find, after several mazes usually.

    Now, on to the sounds. The sounds replaced are the pistol/chaingun shots, rocket impact, zombiemen/shotgunners pain/death sound, and floor lowering. The pistol shots do not match at all with the other sound effects, but is probably the best compared to the others. The zombies have a weird pain sound, and sometimes use the one identical to the Icon of Sin. The death sounds are long groans, and sound out of place too. Other ones are just plain weird and do not fit in well.

    To sum up, this map could have never been a DM level, nor an SP level. Bad sounds, maze-like gameplay. Only play out of extreme curiosity or boredom.

  • aloha_oe - Alamain
    Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 387374 bytes - (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Megamur
    Technical Stuff - DOES NOT WORK IN INTENDED ENGINE. Is not compatible with vanilla (due to visplane crashes and monsters getting stuck between ceilings and moving floors) or PrBoom+ (due to sector action behavior, which makes the red key impossible to get). Use ZDoom or Skulltag.

    [Reviewer's Note: I'm going to admit right here and now that it's going to be slightly difficult to remain unbiased against this map when it took me no less than four attempts--sometimes losing as much as forty minutes of gameplay--before I figured out what this blasted level was compatible with. Level authors, don't say your map is vanilla-compatible unless you've actually tested it in vanilla/Chocolate Doom. Seriously.]

    Visual Design - Ugly texture misalignments all over. Most walls are flat and undetailed, and the whole level just feels blocky and angular. Repetitive texturing and room design and many overly dark areas makes it hard to tell where you're going. I actually got lost once because there's so many green walls blending together that I didn't even see a hallway right in front of me.

    Gameplay - Lots of traps, but many of them are obvious, or can even be circumvented. Armor and soul spheres are given out regularly, and enemy count is mostly light, so you're not in much danger for most of the map. Much of the difficulty simply stems from not knowing where to go. The whole map is basically a gigantic switch hunt, so heaven help you if you miss even one of them. The real "highlight" is a final mission where you have to run through a maze while multiple cyberdemons chase you, and you have to--you guessed it--hit more switches. If you think switch mazes suck already, wait until you have a bunch of unstoppable monsters on your tail as you work through one.

    Oh, and there's multiple locations where you can be permanently stuck, as well as several inescapable damage sectors. Have fun!

  • PC Speaker simulation - finnw
    Doom 2 - Vanilla - N/A - 118051 bytes
    Reviewed by: BloodyAcid
    PC Speaker Simulation is a sound replacement for most (if not all) the Doom 2 sounds. These sounds are NOT computer sounds from modern ages.

    Most of the weapons sound the same, with a few pitch changes here and there. Most monsters have indistinguishable noises when mixed with more than one. They're all higher pitched beeps that get annoying after the first level.

    For example, if you were to fire a few rockets into a crowd of zombies, you'd hear pretty much the same noises all round. You wouldn't be able to tell apart a cyberdemon firing at you compared to a revenant.

    There isn't much to say, so I'll sum it all up:

    Random beeps for ALL the sounds. Download if bored.

  • Malign Paradigm - Jointritual/Printz
    Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 87970 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: BloodyAcid
    Malign Paradigm features one new map for Doom 2 that is set in hell.

    MP (for short) is a hard map overall of medium length, without any cyberdemons or spider masterminds. As with most maps nowadays, players are required to grab three keys in order, each required to unlock the next.

    The detailing in this map is very nice, with only one or two misalignments with the marble textures. Hell blends very nicely with the wood and marble, and metal compliments the design overall. Decorations and light sources are used sparingly, creating a nice feel of atmosphere for the level. Rooms were creatively designed, but nothing phenomenal.

    The gameplay of this map is also on par with the level of design, though in my opinion Jointritual used a few too many archviles. After successfully grabbing the later two keys, an archvile will usually spawn somewhere, making life hard and not fun at all. This happens not only when you claim a key, but sometimes just for hitting a switch, with each situation harder than the last. Many traps were either teleporting monsters or floor lowers. My only complaint in terms of difficulty would be the lack of moving space for after you grab the red key, where many revenants assault you in a small cramped area.

    Verdict: Very good map overall in all aspects that you should download when you get the chance.

Does this /newstuff Chronicles suck? Does your wise ass think you can write better reviews than these jerkoffs? Then get over to the /newstuff Review Center and help out. I know you must have a Doomworld Forums account because you like griping about every edition in the comment thread, but if you don't, you need to get one to submit reviews.

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Not my fault for that error :P

Great reviews, finally seeing 395. Been waiting for a while.

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My review "layout" kept fluctuating from review to review. I apologize for that. I finally settled on just breaking things up into Technical Stuff, Visual Design and Gameplay. I thought my somewhat verbose reviews would be easier to digest if broken down into categories.

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In all honesty, when it comes to reviewing I prefer to avoid people using "templates" as too many of them will eventually become redundant. Mixed in with the other reviewers, I suppose it works, but I personally couldn't see myself writing out the same pattern of review time and time again.

Anyways, cool stuff.

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Just figured "templates" would be easier to read than unorganized paragraphs, but I really have no clue.

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Seemed to me that Megamur's style was fluctuating more based on the .WAD than anything else - much like Creaphis went for barebones technical because the .WAD had been waiting unreviewed for so long. In any case I'm glad he did so many as he appears to have been chopping at the backlog a bit, as has BloodyAcid.

Only two or three projects of interest for me this /newstuff, although as I've not actually played them yet it's nice to see a recommendation.

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magicsofa said (in his review of Gatchaman Doom:Version 2.1):

I almost forgot, the entire wad didn't seem to work. You are supposed to run a patch which, upon inspection, seems to only add mancubus fireball and icon of sin cube sprites. Some of the new monsters are actually Doom 2 monsters, even though this is supposed to be Ultimate Doom. Anyway, I tried to run in Chocolate Doom, and got a "no frames" error.

It'll run in Chocolate Doom if you ignore that patch and add "-merge 1rover1.wad -deh gdoom2_1.deh" to the command line. Apart from the maps having been run through a different nodebuilder this appears to be the same 12-year old mod that can be found here.

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Phobus said:

Seemed to me that Megamur's style was fluctuating more based on the .WAD than anything else - much like Creaphis went for barebones technical because the .WAD had been waiting unreviewed for so long. In any case I'm glad he did so many as he appears to have been chopping at the backlog a bit, as has BloodyAcid.

Only two or three projects of interest for me this /newstuff, although as I've not actually played them yet it's nice to see a recommendation.


*has discovered Newstuff reviews


/me

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Megamur said:

My review "layout" kept fluctuating from review to review. I apologize for that. I finally settled on just breaking things up into Technical Stuff, Visual Design and Gameplay. I thought my somewhat verbose reviews would be easier to digest if broken down into categories.


An assembly-line approach is a decent way to clear out a backlog, and at least nobody will complain about the reviews being too long, but if you're forcing yourself to stick to a template you'll get bored of writing the same review over and over. I wouldn't normally write "Visuals" and "Gameplay" paragraphs but it felt right this time.

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Oh, look! Terry's back!

Terry, if you're reading this, I know you have "talent", as you can make some convincing start areas before you thrust me into bullshit, so why not make a real map?

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Csonicgo said:

Oh, look! Terry's back!

Terry, if you're reading this, I know you have "talent", as you can make some convincing start areas before you thrust me into bullshit, so why not make a real map?


He probably does. Anyone can hide behind a duplicate name. Also judging by the maps being for skulltag, and the first terry wad having references to clan BD and other skulltag/multiplayer community stuff in general, I think its safe to say he is a skulltagger.

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Nice, another Wicked series wad. I see ReX is still a fan of circular sectors :-)

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cbronson said:

I quite liked Megamur's reviews. Short, sweet, and to the point.


Thanks! :)

I think I'm finally starting to hit some sort of a medium between my usual, elaborate review details and concision.

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I really enjoyed

Exalt not the Wicked - ReX Claussen
And
Malign Paradigm - Jointritual/Printz

Classical look and play. made for a fun afternoon today. I will replay both again soon.

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How do I play sproject? I'm getting missing textures (in the first map the sky is wrong right away for example)

I'm using the latest gzdoom

Thank you

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methy said:

How do I play sproject? I'm getting missing textures (in the first map the sky is wrong right away for example)

I'm using the latest gzdoom

Thank you


That's...a good question, actually. I have the most recent GZDoom and I didn't notice anything amiss. Maybe ask around the GZDoom forum for help?

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Searcher said:

I really enjoyed

Exalt not the Wicked - ReX Claussen
And
Malign Paradigm - Jointritual/Printz

Classical look and play. made for a fun afternoon today. I will replay both again soon.

Thanks. I really wish I had more time to make random Doom 2 maps and give them random names, ala Chris Wright. But it's all booked up.

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methy said:

How do I play sproject? I'm getting missing textures (in the first map the sky is wrong right away for example)

I'm using the latest gzdoom

Thank you

I included a wad called "TEXTURES". Drag and drop that along with sproject.wad and your problem is solved.

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CarpetolA said:

I included a wad called "TEXTURES". Drag and drop that along with sproject.wad and your problem is solved.


Oh there we go... thank you.

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