Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #067

[ICID]

^{(logo by @4MaTC)}

 

ICID, what the hell is this now?

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures is a small project of exploration, interaction, entertainment and reviews where we meet once every two weeks to select random WADs in search of hidden treasures, lost promises, or our worst nightmares! We use the /idgames archive’s special feature that lets us search for random files. Of course, sometimes the results are resources or unplayable stuff, so we focus on looking for WADs.

 

So, what do we do here?

1. Play at least one random WAD in a two-week period of time. WADs are selected using the Random File feature on /idgames or from the list below.
2. Post a review of whatever you play.
3. Always provide the name of the WAD, the name of the author, and a link to the file.
4. Play however you want, on any skill level, and with any source port, as long as you play the WAD as intended/in working shape.
5. Be respectful. It's okay to criticize a map, but remember that many mappers read these review threads and behave accordingly. Also, please don't tag mappers into a negative review of their work.

 

What kind of WADs are we looking for?

Any file on /idgames is fair game, but most of us choose to stick to singleplayer Doom or Heretic WADs that work in our sourceport(s) of choice. If you're worried about finding Terrywads or broken files, I also pull at least five random WADs for the event. Feel free to play them with me if you wish, or look for your own! The point of the event is to encourage you to explore this vast, random world. 

 

Recommendations for reviewing:

Spoiler

1. Please take screenshots or video of your adventures.

2. Commenting the source port and difficulty level is not required, but provides helpful context to your review.

3. Try to stick to no more than 1 WAD per day to avoid burnout, but this part’s all up to you, champ!

4. Reviews of all formats are valid. Both longform and shortform are good as long as you write with integrity.

 

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures of this event: 

1. go to hell version 2
2. military station
3. Underground Passage (note: this is a Heretic WAD)
4. TekeN
5. Haunting Outbreak

 

Spoiler

The Top 10 (Out of 68):

 

1. @Roofi | 7430

2. @LadyMistDragon | 3895

3. @Sena | 2560

4. @Walter confetti | 2375

5. @ICID | 1475

6. @brick | 1270

7. @Endless | 1180

8. @Thelokk | 725

9. @Clippy | 570

10. @smeghammer | 425

 

Join the Doom Master Wadazine community for more events like this! » https://discord.gg/Q2RKn4J

 

And check the Doom wiki for the full list of past adventures.

Edited September 15, 2023 by ICID : Typo in title

[brick]

I only noticed now that, if my calculations are right, my previous Adventure put me at exactly 700 maps played with ER/IWA.

Brick | 1 wad | 1 map

 

go to hell version 2 (1998) by Michael Krause. 1 SP map for Doom II in Boom.

Michael Krause made it into the Top 100 with run buddy. This one came out a few months later but has his signature use of all-lowercase for titles, replacement sounds lifted straight out of Quake, and gargantuan architecture that makes you and the enemies look lilliputian. The only difference between this and the original go to hell is that for v2 Michael removed a lot of extraneous space around the playable area that was there for aesthetics, because apparently people's computers couldn't handle it back then. Nowadays there's obviously no reason to use this instead of the original, but from what I remember of that one I don't think there's much difference in gameplay, if at all. Despite the huge size of everything it's not a long map, fielding around 120 enemies on HMP, the massive architecture is there more for looks than anything. It does look very nice though, and I don't think many mappers went for this kind of style, or pulled it off as well. Michael makes good use of a limited selection of stock textures, the visuals are very consistent (some might say a bit samey). There are some nice set pieces along the way, I particularly liked the jump down into the reactor to then get back up to the blue key. The map culminates with a Cyberdemon encounter in a typically Michael large open space, made easy because of the abundance of health and ammo, but a bit trickier because you have no cell weapons and there are lots of lost souls and zombiemen that can get in and disrupt your dancing. I think run buddy is better but this one's also fun, though if you're going to play go to hell there's no reason to play this v2, stick to the original version instead.

Spoiler

 

[DerBlanca]

DUNGEON OF MISERY (DoomHero85) (2010) - DSDA / UV

 

Described by the mapmaker as "an agonizingly difficult hell-revealed style level with some extra twists." I personally don't mind HR too much, so let's see what this is all about. 

 

Sometimes I wonder if mappers who claim HR inspiration remember HR, or have even played the wad at all. Lately it has become synonym with 'fill to the brim with mid-to-heavyweights an IWAD textured room', which I think sort of misses the point. While the inspiration wad is famously economical in visuals and complexity of gameplay, there is a coherence to its modus operandi that most tributes fail to capture. Dungeon of Misery certainly fails to this regard: aside from monster density, there is little reminding one of HR; rather, we see a whole lot of tropes from 90s mapping, such as glaring misaligned textures, convoluted switch hunts (particularly glorious is a sequence requiring no less than eight switches just lo lower a wall), unpegged crushers lighting that completely ignores concepts such as 'objects cast shadows'. There is also a visual mode camera object, for no apparent reason. Combat is a repetitive slog, and not in a HR kind of way - it misses that filthy, gut punch feeling that the inspirer's hordes of monsters had, feeling instead more like a denser IWAD-style combat. 

 

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Day of Chains (2016) by Serious_M0od (Crispy Doom)

 

Reportedly made for Chainie(Chaingunner)'s birthday, this is quite a long map, probably taking around this side of 30 minutes, but with an authentically Doom 1 flare that can be described as essentially a rather complex layout with a certain sense of survival that's hard to pin down other than health is likely to be fairly low at most point but thanks to the cramped layouts, survival is more likely than not. Ammo isn't everywhere though, so it might be a good idea to search around a little more thoroughly than I did for secrets. Perhaps there might even be an extra rocket or two around but somehow, it personally seems like it wouldn't be enough to make the Lost Souls entirely trivial. Aesthetically speaking, the map's probably close to E2 as the textfile says, though largely leaning heavier on the tech side of things with nothing that resembles marble, thank god. Instead, flesh can be spotted melding with TEK and TEK-adjacent textures in a facility with a use of lighting that can be said to emphasize the grim aspects of the environment. Like the little tech cross in a room with a massive ambush that will likely require you to explore some other rooms for a chaingun, maybe a rocket or two.

 

If there's one issue, it might be that navigation is a little bit questionable at times. Specfically, the location of the blue key in relation to the blue door seems to require traversing across the map to get back. And while the layout's fairly interconnected, Serious Mood seems to have adapted a sort of loose Doom 1 understanding to layout and progression so things aren't quite as smooth as "run down this path, get to this section of the map". Though at the same time, there is a certain modernist aspect to the overall construction that one could point to some of the Doom 1 maps of The Slovinator that share some characteristics with this.

 

The final trap will punish anyone who's been careless so far. One single medkit and a pair each of Cacodemons, Demons, and Barons, with one single medkit and a box of bullets and shells each in a sort of space station dock. Thankfully, there isn't too much here.

 

Scoring this is hard. The questionable navigation is one thing, but I think you might be seriously curious about secrets to get the most enjoyment out of this and let's just say they aren't really all that obvious, mostly 7.5/10, 

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 02

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] NAZI COMPUTER AND COMUNICATIONS BASE by ANDREW BURCHILL (1999)

 

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Your mission is to penatrate the Nazi computer and communications base and press a switch deep inside the base that will give you access to a secret self destruct computer.

 

It looks the author liked capital letters, MEIN LEBEN ! "NAZI COMPUTER AND COMUNICATIONS BASE" abreviated as "COMBASE" has the apparence of a jokemap since , beside the presence of soldiers in blue uniforms has nothing in common with a Nazi-themed map. Indeed, the level can be divided into three distinct parts :

 

- the first one consists to a bland brown castle made of bricks and mostly populated with imps

- the silver underground techbase which only houses nazis. Not gonna lie, it's the prettiest area of the map thanks to the computer panels glowing in the darkness.

- the canyon (brown again) near the end which serves decorative purpose.

 

I suppose the nazis are just here to add a dose of quirkiness. Why not, I enjoyed blasting small groups of them with my RL. Apart from that, it's a fairly mundane map with no really major flaws, but nothing transcendent either. I expected way worse by reading the title.

 

Grade : C  (9/20)

 

[2] prewmddw by @dyshoria (2022)

 

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Its a standard techbase level. Nothing to special. Sort of slaughter mapish.

 

This is basically what you get if you mix the GOTHICDM's textures with the absurd surreal design of maps from 1994. That one is completly linear and beatable under 5 minutes blind. Unfortunately, the sound of the pistol/chaingun didn't work because :

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Some sounds dont appear in dos

 

But the shotgun's one worked and I was therefore able to savor its robust sound. This map also features a weird recolored sky consisting of deep blue and red mountains and the midi rendition of Frankenstein by The Edgar Winter Group highlighting the charm of old-school mapping.

 

At the end, I see "prewmddw" as an innocent hommage to old wads but I would have liked the map to be a little longer and perhaps a bit more interconnected. 

 

Grade : C+  (11/20)

 

[3] UNX03: Headquarters by @unerxai (2019)

 

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The third level in the UNX series. This level continues from where "UNX02: Underground" ends. Designed for vanilla Doom but should work with any common source port.

Story:

You finally arrive to a familiar place, only to find the gibs of the secretary you had a crush on. Dark thoughts plague your mind (could it be demonic influence?):

"She always ignored me anyways. Fuck it, she deserved it."

But you quickly remember you have a task at hand... "Man, what the hell is wrong with me? No time for bullshit. It's time to kill!"

Additional features:

-One part of this map is a little tribute to "The Gantlet" (MAP03 of Doom II). -There's a fun "easter egg" in the automap. Don't miss it! :)

 

Headquarters feels like a sweet bowl of fresh air to me. The bright textures , the large grassy courtyard and the small doomcute in the black building provide a good feeling to my mind. Above all, it's probably an insignificant detail for some people, but the odd combination between the green nukage and the water gives a certain visual identity to the map. I ddidn't play other maps by unerxai but I sense a certain talent in the use of Doom 2 textures.

 

Thanks to the low enemy density, the difficulty remains fairly straightforward on the whole, but sometimes it suddenly gets quite spicy. For example, at a certain point you have to fight an arch-vile outside, where there's little cover. Or, in the black building, quite a few ghosts are perched on their computers, as if they were employees or something. The only part I didn't like was in the dark sewers, but all in all it's a good classic map, very comfortable visually. 

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Grade : B (14/20)

 

[4] PEACE.WAD by Christian Hellmann Wolfgang Grassl (1994)

 

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A DEATHMATCH ONLY level for professional deathmatch players ! It's small and very fast. There are all weapons and an exit. The level is based on shadows2, but there is almost everything changed. We began to modify shadows2.wad for our own purpose only, but the result was to good to keep it unpublished (and we spent to much time now to rebuild the level from scratch).

 

This is kinda ironic to call your Dm map "Peace" whereas it takes place in a dark and heavily corrupted base as if it was taken from the Shores of Hell episode. There's the peace symbol drawn on the floor and guess what? The sector is damaging ! Joke aside, I think this level has cool visuals and lot of sinuous paths.

 

[5] The Pharin Agenda, part 1 - Castle Luna by John Llewellyn (2004)

 

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Castle Luna. Part museum, part hi-tech laboratory, on the fringe of the lunar terraformed zone. UAC's gift to the citizens of the moon. But someone had other plans for it, and whatever they're doing up there, is isn't finding a cure for cancer. So the Corps wants you to go up and find out what's really happening inside...Castle Luna. (See pharin1.txt for the complete background story.)

 

Uploaded in 2004, but probably designed in the middle of the 90's , Castle Luna is partial discovery to me. Indeed, I died once in this map a year ago but I didn't report my death. According to the author, Castle Luna contains a wide variety of locations but for my part, I particularly notice the strong influences of the "The Citadel" map from Doom 2. Castle Luna is a rather large grey castle surrounded by a sea of damaging water and including a puzzley progression involving several switch hunts.

 

Castle Luna features a considerable level of unconventionality. The first thing you'll experience is the beautiful blue but damaging water. Is it supposed to be boiling? poisonous? or electric? I don't know but don't walk it for the fuck sake. The other aspect to keep in mind is the fact invisibility spheres and light googles are not here for decoration. The author obliges you to explore unlit areas and even fight a mastermind without cover in order to obtain the blue key. There are also quite a lot of chaingunners ready to snipe you. If you play this level a second time like me, Castle Luna isn't difficult but the level design may easily put in tricky situations without foreknowledge. 

 

Since, I Knowing that I've just finished the map today, the throne room almost cause me a heart attack because of the cyberdemon and the revenants teleporting in by surprise.

 

Overall, lot of mapping decisions look non-sense to me but I eventually quite appreciated this weirder edition of "The Citadel". I never enjoyed map 19 from Doom II because the progression was insipid but and I now find that the more dangerous progression of this map makes it more exciting.

 

Grade : B (13/20)

 

[6] BOX by Simo Malinen (2003)

 

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A square-shaped surviving level. Looks simple but can you manage to the exit room alive?

 

A sort of low-effort mini slaughter-map for Doom 1. It contains hideous light contrasts and a totally blocky layout and architecture. It reminds me of gggmork's maps but without the high difficulty and the crazy lowering sectors revealing armies of monsters. This level is as stupid than as it's fun. I like it , it could be a nice secret map and I'm not trolling.

 

Grade : C (10/20)

 

I stop here for today.

[brick]

Brick | 3 wads | 3 maps

Adventure | 4 wads | 4 maps

 

millitary station (1999) by john cartwright. 1 SP map for limit-removing Doom II.
The last time I rolled a wad by this author, it was so awful that I vowed to never play any of his maps. I gritted my teeth when I saw this, but it's actually not as bad, especially considering it was his first published wad. It's also not terribly engaging, it's a series of square rooms with very simple fights and no puzzles to speak of. That is until the last room, which has an incredibly annoying fight with a bunch of revenants and no real way to get rid of homing rockets. I think the idea is to get them infighting with the hell knights, but it's not set up well. For such blocky level design the detailing is lovely in parts, there's definitely some work that was put into that, though it doesn't do anything for the gameplay. It's not a very good map, but it's too short to be offensive.

Spoiler

 

Underground Passage (2000) by Pritesh Mistry [Ice]. 1SP map for limit-removing Heretic.
Pritesh has a handful of Heretic maps on the archives that seem like they were meant for a full 5-episode replacement - maybe a bit too ambitious for one person. This one was meant for E3M2, it probably runs fine in heretic.exe but Pritesh recommends wHeretic to avoid savegame buffer overflow. Not long into the map I could see why, it's basically a Heretic slaughter map with a few setpieces, each with a big number of enemies. This isn't the map's fault but I also got stuck in one of the secrets that puts you behind the starting point, in a room full of goodies, I hadn't played Heretic in a while and completely forgot about the Chaos Device and so assumed I had softlocked myself. Even then it has the markings of a beginner's map, there's not even an attempt at texture alignment (very noticeable in that long staircase), and the texture choice in general isn't particularly imaginative, which is a problem with Heretic's already limited selection. I think Heretic slaughter can work, I remember having a lot of fun with the secret map in Quest for the Crystal Skulls, but this one felt too grindy, especially since the Phoenix Rod doesn't make an appearance until quite late.

Spoiler

 

TekeN (2022) by Peccatum Mihzamiz. 1 SP map for Doom II in Boom.

A small and quick-playing map meant as a Sigil homage. The references are immediately obvious with new-Romero's signature red cracks, followed shortly afterwards by the evil eye as a shootable trigger to progress. While I liked some of the visuals, in other parts they seem a bit too bold, with fireblu and the intestine texture being used a little too much. The very sharp odd angles are also done a little too thinly and give that impression of paper-thin walls that some authors use, and these rarely work for me. The map is very short, I was surprised when I reached the end, but it was meant as an April's Fool and honestly it doesn't fare badly as such.

Spoiler

 

Haunting Outbreak seems to be a whole 36-map megawad and I'm not sure I'm ready for that.

[DerBlanca]

QUATRO.WAD by Nils Jakobsons (Quatro) & Janis Jagars (Disaster) (1994) - DSDA / UV

 

Ah, the good old days when 74 enemies was ' a lot of monsters'...

Not much to say about this ugly, utterly misaligned, jagged hallway-ed effort from 1994, for the Ultimate Doom. If you like being killed by surprise barrels frying a voodoo doll, or fighting 3-4 cacos at a time with a chainsaw, you're in luck; otherwise there'll be very little to keep interest. Par for the course considering the year. Wish I could play more but this is all I have time for today.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 03

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] Kmetl Series by Kurt Kesler (1998)

 

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Kmetl_8 is a back-stabbing, Shotgun/Chaingun level, with just a few Rockets for......

 

According to the name of the file, it's the eighth episode of the Kmetl series, which consist of tech bases mostly or exclusively built with metal textures. That one uses stock textures and what's really interesting is the conversion of flat textures into wall textures. It's not uncommon to see this in gzdoom compatible wads since it's an official feature from this modern port. However, you've to manually convert the textures if you want to recreate this idea on older ports, especially in vanilla format.

 

Apart from that, the texture you'll see most is the rusty Startan texture, perhaps a little too much, but it's the gimmick of the "kmetl" series after all. As several kmetl maps I played, the maps have a realistic tone characterized by a flat and orthogonal layout, as if you were in a real factory.

 

Combat-wise, my opinion was greatly altered by the fact I missed the super shotgun and I ended killing 95% of the enemies with my shotgun and my chaingun. Thanks to all the scattered shell boxes, SSG isn't necessary but playing without it results to a grindy experience. For instance, I had to kill several groups of barons of mancubus. As a HR enthusiast, I can bear this but it eventually becomes tiring. Anyway, I never felt frustrated even if kmetl_8 tends to abuse of ambushes involving monster closets.

 

All in all, it was a good vanilla map with a decent conventional gameplay. 

 

Grade : B  (13/20)

 

The barons took the opportunity to kill me while I was locked in my cell in UAC Jail

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

Bloodlust (2009) by Phml (Crispy Doom)

 

Phml isn't quite an unknown name to me (I've came across it a few times) but I can't say I'm aware of what exactly they did. But in either case, this map is an ill-fated atttempt at emulating Plutonia 2 that falls flat on its face due to one serious issue: the lack of ammo in relation to the large hordes of monsters here. Perhaps its just that an argument could be made for Super Shotgunning Imps and individual enemies while saving the rockets for stronger ones, but either way, there's still far too little of the rockets to make any difference.

 

A more obvious plasma rifle would have probably worked wonders, but unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be out in the open and that was really only part of the reason for the struggle. You see, this map throws enough bullshit at you in certain locations that it becomes incredibly tiresome. For instance, it's possible to pick the rocket launcher up, trigger the window trap of Arch-viles and Cacodemons, with some spectres in one corner, then run down the most obvious hallway to find a group of chaingunners and Arch-vile in a small window, whilst Barons approach from the other end of the hallway along with scattered shotgunners. Turns out it's best to head down the hallway near the rocket launcher switch first but only for so long because upon opening a particular door triggers  a two-pronged trap of Imps that essentially serve as an ammo sink and by the time one can enter the room they emerged from, there may be not enough ammo for the nastiness within....and so it goes on. Placing a few Arch-viles to teleport in when you pick up a Invulnerbility is a stupid time-waster since there are other places it could've gone to far better use.

 

Eventually comes a flesh-walled room with 80,000 tons of crap and hardly any rockets to use, other than some ones in the corner with the Mancubi. There's a path that circles around with the blue key on it but to be honest, it all becomes pointless after that. I got rather sick of ramming through things. Like I know Map 20 of Plutonia had ammo starvation as a feature, but that map had the good sense not to give the player an ammo-starved version of something from Deus Vult 2. This one takes Plutonia's crampedness and adds the enemy density of the latter but with a rather half-baked attempt at emulating the ammo situation of the average ToD map, resulting in situations to where its too easy to end up shit creek, probably because the mysterious plasma rifle. 4/10

 

 

[DerBlanca]

IRONRUN by Simone Lombardi (2014) - DSDA / UV

 

A set of five maps from 2014, in a retro style that harkens back to the likes of Krauser and Kaiser - you know, hard maps that use stock texture but actually align and trim them properly. In fact, one of the reviews on /idgames complains about rampant misalignments, which I really didn't notice.

The first four maps are, actually, not that great: very simple techbases competently textured but really lacking in the gameplay department; maps centered around the chainsaw were never fun, and still aren't. The final map, a marble castle of sorts, must come from a later time (the author sort of hints at that in the .txt) as it's much more elaborate, and tougher: lots of heavyweights, ambushes that actually deserve that name, and a lot of nice sector work for shadows and highlights. I'd skip the first four maps, but the fifth one (like the others, unnamed and with stock music) might be worth a play. 

 

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Glitched Ending (2015) by Doomguy2000 (GZ Doom)

 

Doomguy 2000 is the creator of some incredibly bone-headed and needless joke wads to say the very least. This particular one changes the ending screen to a weird, glitchy static-y mess that replaces Doomguy with some key-card shaped object. Listen to the heavily-distorted chiptune track for long enough and melody eventually starts to emerge. But really, it's just one more piece of evidence that makes Doomguy2000 look like an utterly clueless joker. A cursory glance at his website seems to show he was active at least 9 months ago, doing his best to get his one serious project Doonmguy's Warzone completely finished. whatever 1/10

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

YIGGLE PATCH (1994) by Joey Cato 

 

A simple graphical patch that changes the former human sergeant to an imaginary creature created by the author called a Yiggle. Unfortunately, it seems like this would take some DOSBOX fiddling to run correctly, but that's probably for the best. One of the /idgames reviews says the SFX replacements are of shockingly high quality. Too bad.

 

 

 

 

CASTLE3.WAD (1996) by Iikka Keranen (Zandronum and Crispy)

 

Not quite Iikka's finest work perhaps, but still more than adequate. Deathmatching potential might be higher than that one set I can't be bothered to look up I know I checked out a month or two back. As the title says, this is a castle, clearly comprised of towers in the corner and the slime river in the center. I don't know why a castle should have a slime river, but then again, I'm not sure why all the towers have wildly different texture sets inside. One is red brick, the other is wood with lights shining into the floor, and yet another is a stucco sort of wall in a mezzanine that kind of looks like it could've been in popular mid 90s wads, perhaps even Requiem, though that's not a wad I really remember all that well. Solid 6/10 Don't bother with single-player, btw, there's a Cyberdemon somewhere and nothing else.

 

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 04

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] POSSIBLE.WAD by Iikka "Fingers" Keränen (1996)

 

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This is an experimental deathmatch WAD that has some unusual tricks in level architecture. For example, there's "multiple floors" and a "bullet-proof" window. However, this is not _absolutely_ best DEATHMATCH LEVEL I have made... The level works a bit slowly on slower machines (like 486dx2/50 or worse) because of its complexity.

(But of course, there's thousands of wads that are worse than anything I have made...)

 

After LadymistDragon , it's my turn to stumble upon a Likka's wad and Possible.wad is an old obscure DM map showing 3D stepstop structures which were at the top of the cool back then. People will can them outdated and perhaps ugly but those are art for me. I just love those 3D bridges, stairs, scaffoldings. You'll remain a source of inspiration to me, Fingers.

 

[2] Busao by Carlos (2010)

 

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Player drives the bus

 

I don't want to judge drawing skills because mine are almost inexistant but I'd never have guessed I was a bus driver if the description hadn't told me so. It's almost like a helmet visor, because I can't even crush enemies with my "vehicle".

 

And about the text file : 

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Credits:Jesus Christ

 

Spoiler

 

[3] sewage.wad by Robert Waltman (1996)

 

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DOOM II Deathmatch wad in a sewer setting. In fact I was going to call it sewer.wad but it was taken. There is a big open area surrounded by other rooms at various hights.

 

The texturing looks pretty consistent for a sewers map but the abstractness doesn't make the level really worth visiting. The high interconnectivity of the map. seems to fit well with the DM, and the BFG on the central pillar seems to represent the ultimate goal. And for your  information, the nukage isn't damaging fortunately. It's just pure waste and I don't have the ability to smell it.

 

I just fell in a dead pit from The Unholy Keep.

 

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[Walter confetti]

Looks like the randomness algorithm Gods of /idgames had a crush for Ikka maps, today.

[SuyaSSS]

Shades of Gray - Walter Confalonieri

Played on: Nugget Doom, UV

 

This level is very gray.

Thank you.

 

Anyways, actual review - A really short and very simple level by Walter Confetti whose weakness is just that it is way too short and simple. The map is actually really, really easy until you pick up the blue key, where... nothing actually happens. So this is an fascinating event, when I did my first playthrough of this map, the most fun part came when I picked up the blue key which spawned an archvile in the room, which was really cool but during my second playthrough, it never spawned. Which was disappointing. Speaking of disappointing, the big fight was just a singular cyberdemon (and he whooped my ass because I'm terrible at dodging cyberdemon rockets but let's not talk about that). What is that boat doing there? Why is the cyberdemon  area marked as a secret when I can see quite a few areas which would be worthy of a secret placement? Wasted potential is what this map is.

 

Grade: C

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Walter confetti]

Thanks for the review! If It was more colored, It wasn't be a "Shades of Grey" map lol

It was my first time making a map with doomcute inserts and a shadow of actually "acceptable" gameplay standards from my older works.

 

Also, it was first time i did a map for boom compatibile ports?

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 05

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] WELCOME.WAD by Neal Rayner (2005)

 

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You can tell that the keepers of Hell are toying with you, making you go around in circles as they welcome you back to hell....

 

The first custom Doom map ever made, ORIGWAD, was released in 17 April 1994. WELCOME.WAD was initially released in 24 April 1994 according to the textfile, so it appears that I played one of the first wads ever made ! And indeed, it can easily be felt in the level design because you'll spend your time navigating among red hellish corridors ressembling a bit to giant arteries and exploring large empty and hideous rooms containing a lot of Tutti-frutti and monsters as well.

 

The progression is a bit advanced for a 1994 map because it mostly consists to return to previously visited areas and kill monsters that emerge from closets. Unfortunately, WELCOME has no interesting place and does not meet minimum decency standards, but it remains largely playable.

 

Grade : D+  (7/20)

 

[2] selfdead.zip by REINER (1994)

 

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Hi DOOMERS !!

This is a nice little WAD for Episode 1, Map 1.
It has a few tricky features inside - so try to find the exit !
It was created with the only choice for really good work : DE_260B4.ZIP
Don't be frustrated - it can be solved !

 

Selfdead is another really old map but I don't think its age forgives the dumb mapping decisions I witnessed here. It's a small map, mostly made of marble and at some point an arbitrary voodoo doll will block your path. I tried to shoot it but it didn't worked.  So what's the solution? Return back and find an unmarked door in order to unlock a secret room. Once you enter the secret room, you'll see an animated red texture rendering an ugly tutti-frutti. This is the exit, C0nGratUlatioNs ! "sarcastic claps"

 

According to an idgames comment, it's one of the first UD maps deliberately using a voodoo doll.

 

Grade : D-  (4/20)

 

[3] Goatse by @savagegrant (2014) [WARNING : X-RATED!]

 

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Caco sprite replacement. Load up E3M1 and enjoy!

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I didn't know the "Goatse" meme so I took several seconds to understand what this sprite replacement was all about. Please don't download this, dear children.

 

 

And I tried to play, one of the countless, nambona's terrywads, Nambona890's Map Pack!

 

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[SuyaSSS]

Dungeon of Misery - DoomHero85

Played on: Nugget Doom, UV 

 

GAVE UP. I can't, i just cant figure out where the fuck i have to go + the switch "puzzle" was way too mad annoying. I came to the map expecting intense battles, what I got was basically hitting random switches and trying to find what i am suppposed to do next. I did pass the switch "puzzle" after a lot of hit and trial and survived the chaingunner closet ambush and then has no clue where to go. I even did the switch "puzzle" twice to no avail. I just give up.

 

Spoiler

 

Baron's Keep - Agent Spork

Played on: Nugget Doom, UV 

 

Woww... This map is BAAAAD! Insanely bad. It's worse than anything my brain was expecting. I thought that the map looked ok at the start, even somewhat good. The worst thing that it did during that start was pitting you against 3 barons with a regular shotgun. And then shit hit the fan. You are given 3 options, 2 of which lead to certain fucking death. This was just the beginning. Also, I have mentioned multiple times and I have to repeat this part. I HATE, and I mean I have PURE FIERY HATRED for Barons. Why did I mention this? This map is ridiculously filled with barons, a lot of barons in small areas in which you have to SSG them. The worst offender for this was the area with the lava. Barons are bullet sponges and hit like a truck and the hallway is so thin that you can't even avoid taking damage and the 20 damage floor did not help. I was almost thinking of giving up but I refused to do that and made a pretty wild rush of getting most of the barons to one side and then getting in to get the health, which I was pretty low on, and then going back and killing them very slowly.

 

Another thing is that the progression is cryptic as fuck and the unnecessarily stupid traps do not help at all. There is one room which is filled with Hell knights and is borderline impossible to not die in. It is a cheap trick at the start where it says the exit and then teleports you there, but Spork used this room, again and again and again and again. Sometimes, an illusion of choice is given, like here are two teleporters next to one another, no difference between them, one leads to certain death while the other... also leads to certain death... AAAAA. What's worse is that teleporting to random places on and on is an important part of this map and making it so that some teleporters kill you, some send you back to the start and some let you progress with barely any difference is just straight up bad game design, not even just a bad doom design. 

 

Ohhh and Progression... It is also really, really bad. It has all the usual suspect of a 90s map, progression hidden behind secret walls, opening doors in places you will least expect, etc. but also with the added teleporter shenanigans and the previously mentioned trap room. The map looks... o.. who am I joking, It is HIDEOUS. random texturing - sometimes there are door textures, sometimes what even is a door? it feels bad because the map showed promise in the graphic department at the start but things go so downhill that the final area is just a square room with midtex walls being used as regular walls. 

 

This is actually, no joke, worse than any 90s map I've ever played atleast they weren't super tedious and were sometimes okishly fun gameplay wise even if they didn't look good. 

 

But, let's end this review on a very positive note. Does the name Agent Spork sound familiar. Me too I was also sure that I've heard that name. Well, turns out this was Agent Spork's first map and they went on to create... motherfucking Simplicity and is now hailed as one of the greatest mappers. Really shows that just because your first map was dogshit doesn't mean you gotta give up on making doom maps. If you are really going to try to improve as a mapper, you will improve as a mapper. 

 

Anyways, the map is still dogshit.

Grade: F

 

Spoiler

 

[Andromeda]

3 hours ago, SuyaSSS said:

Baron's Keep - Agent Spork

This is what most people think 90's wads are like.

[LadyMistDragon]

Europe (2005) by DooMknight (GZ Doom/ w Trailblazer)

 

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This is a huge giant map thtat try to emulate ambients of the real life, including Castle, Subway, City, and some more. All of them only using DooM original textures.

 

 

The instant I saw the /idgames reviews, I knew there was zero chance of it being played modless. And turns out it was the correct decision. Slaughter gameplay here is very 2005 and there are often points where enemies are arbitrarily placed in large fields. But since Trailblazer massively increases your running speed and since the midi here is the utterly kickass "Burn" by Deep Purple, things become much more bearable. Doesn't change the fact that the opening series of hallways is generic dungeon brick and there's even a maze, Nuclear Plant-style, that one has to navigate through. Eventually, we find ourselves in a wooden sort of wing and while things are still rather obnoxious, interesting details start to become more noticeable. For instance, a far room contains a hallway behind an overturned bed leads to a graveyard that's quite impressive and there are also several balconies from whence we can gaze upon a massive field (with overturned trucks!). But eventually, we'll have all three keys and can exit....into a vast open field that's severely underpopulated given its incredibly vast size. At one end, a broken bridge leads to a boat (I'm on a boat!) in the middle of a canyon with Cacodemons hanging around nearby but other than a backpack, it's basically a red herring.

 

The true way to progress is at a subway station that you would think is the exit.....but no! We eventually find ourselves in a city, containing a massive open square with a pair of Spider Masterminds, then at the very end, an honest-to-god football stadium just adjacent to a tunnel that has undergone some corruption and almost suggests the guy may have killed himself. But there's not really much visual storytelling, just a series of locations created unbelievably with all vanilla textures and seemingly compatible with anything that's limit-removing.

 

Every locations outside the prison that's not the graveyard aside though, it's sort of hard to justify playing something that at best will take a little under 45 minutes the first time around playing with a rapid movement mod and without it....it wouldn't be very fun, especially with those garbage opening tunnels 6/10

 

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Edited September 10, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[brick]

10 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Europe (2005) by DooMknight (GZ Doom/ w Trailblazer)

That's a funny coincidence, I was looking at DooMknight's map for reasons completely unrelated to ER/IWA just a few hours ago, and downloaded Europe (and Vanilla Sky) to play at a later date. Thank you for the review, you confirmed my interest, but I will probably follow your advice and play with a mod.

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 06

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] BloodLust by Greg Grimsby (1994)

 

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This level was originally designed as a death match level. I threw in some monsters and changed the layout to make it a playable level too. Its a pretty quick level to clear though, due to its simple design. As a Death Match level, its a pretty fun romp. Its designed to give the feel of having three floors on the same level. The bottom floor, The Sewers, has the basic weapons. The middle floor offers some beefier fire-power. The top, tech-level floor has the big-mommas. So the flow of battle is upward. It tends to be a pretty fast-paced kill- fest. There are plenty of places to commit suicide, for those so inclined 8^)

Note that there are 2 exits to this level. Note also that this level is a secret level. The first exit is the normal exit. The hidden exit (nearby) brings you back to this same secret level. So it is possible to loop this level. This makes it easy to play to a certain number of kills. When you have x kills, run to the second exit. The second exit brings you right back for more carnage!!

 

Imagine calling your level "BloodLust" but there's no blood  in your sewer-themed map but nukage instead. Just joking, this level replaces the E1M9 slot and the star-shaped layout is as quirky as its progression and look. What caught my attention was the level of detail for a mid-1994 map. Bloodlust shows elaborated shadows notable the last room with the soulphere, complex architecture such as curvy stairs and overall more details than what I usually see in 1994 wads. The combination of bright silver and red textures give strong E2 vibes and contribute to increase the surreal aspect of the map. Bloodlust, originally designed as a DM map, plays fine on singleplayer. The low monster density is counterbalanced with scarce ammunition but it still remains a straightforward map.

 

For me, Bloodlust represents a small technical feat from the prehistory of Doom to me.

 

Grade : B  (13/20)

 

[2] Cyberdance by Mr. Chris @Armaetus (2009)

 

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A boss arena for E2M8, notibly more challenging than what the Id version is like. Expect to be dodging and moving a lot in this one.

 

A tribute to "The Tower of Babel", one of the most oppressive level from Ultimate Doom but also one of the easiest and that's why Armaetus decided to spice up the concept. The Cyberdemon is indeed accompanied with lost souls, roaming pinkies, monsters perched on pillars and some barons in cages. 

 

Is it really more difficult? Not at all, unless if you play on NM I suppose but I always play on UV for the Er/iwa. The additional monsters just make the combat a bit longer but at the end the cyberdemon remains lonely and this is a bit heartbreaking.  Dodging consists to perform more circle strafes.

 

Whereas, the remix from Plutonia map 32's sounds a bit too hectic for this map, it's still a nice old-school tribute which is simple to enjoy.

 

Grade : B-  (12/20)

 

[3] THE #1GO.WAD FOR GO BBS IN SACREMENTO by MALACAI DAVIS (2006) [WARNING : X-RATED !!!!]

 

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THIS IS THE #1GO.WAD FOR GO BBS IN SACREMENTO, IT IS THE BEST BBS FOR PLAING DOOM! THIS WAD IS MADE BY ME, MALACAI DAVIS FOR PLAING DOOM2 DEATHMATCH GAMES ON OUR BBS! YOU SHOULD CALL US AND PLAY WITH US (916)851-9032

 

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Deathmatch WAD with gay porn pictures on the walls.

 

Beside this, the map is a sort of W.I.P version of Doom II's map 10 "Refueling Base" with incomplete or even missing parts. Even if "designed" for DM, some monsters are still here but otherwise it's pure map theft.

 

Unless you're desperately horny, these ultra-pixelated gay graphics don't belong here. The author foolishly sought attention.

 

[4] Etpt16.wad, Etpt17.wad, Etpt18.wad by Dave Johnson (1998)

 

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3 Medium to large levels. Very playable wad built in the classic Doom style with attention to detail and design. Comments welcomed to Email address. Really designed for 2 players but not necessary to complete.

 

Those are not the first levels from Dave Johnson I played and over time, I became a fan of his style. Those maps follow the "classic doom" style but the author said it was primarly designed for coop and therefore it results to closets overfilled with supplies and sometimes monsters. For instance, did you play lot of wads in which you can find several powerful weapons, several blue armors and an absurd ammount of shotgun shells and other ammo as well? Those three maps are an exemple of straightforward pseudo-slaughter and I and I've already expressed my enthusiasm for this mapping "niche" on several occasions.

 

The visuals of the maps are cozy too. The author tends to make large courtyard and use viny textures and grass as well, This natural look gives a particularly relaxed, eye-pleasing tone. And at last, Dave was one of the mappers who knew how to import music so prepare to hear some ultra-famous bands's songs which are used quite frequently in old doom wads : Metallica, Nirvana and Nine in Nails. All of them contribute strongly to the nostalgic feeling.

 

All these nice maps make me want to make a  compilation of Dave Johnson's levels one day.

 

Grade : A-  (16/20)

 

I took a trapped teleporter directly leading to a dark room full of barrels in Marduk. Not kind.

 

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[Walter confetti]

3 hours ago, Roofi said:

BloodLust by Greg Grimsby

I remember to had played long ago, i remember the curved staircase!

As well for the other DM map...

[DerBlanca]

SKYLAB by Matt Robinson (1996) - DSDA / UV

 

What a tedious map. I have looked at the map in UDB and there mathematically isn't enough ammo to kill even half of the monsters - and I'm pretty sure even in 1996 we knew zerk punching a mancubus just wasn't gonna happen. The rest is the usual dross - texture series-themed rooms rife with misalignments, rows of enemies in a line, hordes of hitscanners and not a shred of armor in sight (Put armor in your hitscanner heavy maps!!!). This map really put me in a sour mood, so that's all I got for today. Sorry! Only one ss so won't even bother spoilering. 

 

[Andromeda]

9 hours ago, DerBlanca said:

SKYLAB by Matt Robinson (1996) - DSDA / UV

 

I have looked at the map in UDB and there mathematically isn't enough ammo to kill even half of the monsters.

There is enough to kill all the monsters and still have plenty left over without even using the fist/chainsaw and infighting:

[LadyMistDragon]

Demon Plague for Doom 2 (1997) by Keith Phipps (Crispy Doom)

 

Due to another epic failure to record in Crispy, you won't be seeing much, but that's ok. This, essentially, is another simple 90s  SSG-heavy run-n-gun map, no real major issues outside some texture alignment crap perhaps, but overall, possessed of moderately more detailing and competence overall than the efforts of Gene Bird. But give the latter one thing - he was capable of escalating and had a good grasp on flow. This plays roughly as well for the most part, but perhaps it gets stuttery in a way the Gene maps I played at least never did. with a few more impressive visual touches. Namely, the little Stonehenge-like sites that can be found throughout, the little sandstone lava tunnel that made me go Map 29 of Alien Vendetta because i'm not the only one who's had that or a take-off of it forever burned into their memory. or the cool little industrial arena that can be found toward the end and backtracking traps that manage to feel not completely obligatory. You do get a rocket launcher but there isn't lots of ammo available for it. Fight for the last key is honestly a little awkward but this really feels like a map making the best of what was available in 1997 7/10

 

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Edited September 11, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[DerBlanca]

10 hours ago, Andromeda said:

There is enough to kill all the monsters and still have plenty left over without even using the fist/chainsaw and infighting:

 

Ok.

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 07

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] King of the Hill by Boomer and Slaytan (1997)

 

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Tight DM wad with sort of a fort in the center.

 

King of the Hill is a brown and symmetrical courtyard with a certain emphasis on large and thick stairs. Only the shotgun and the chaingun seem available here and if you want to obtain the SSG and the backpacks, you have to take one of the teleporters located at the borders of the maps in order to reach the central cage. I'm guessing the combats are pretty intense due to the small size of the map.

 

And I died in the snow-themed map of Recycled (forgot to take a screen)

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 5 maps

Adventure | 5 wads | 9 maps

 

The Final Gathering (1995) by Daniel "Stormin" Norman. 5 SP maps for vanilla Doom II.

 

I don't think I played this one back in the day, but since it made it into the Top 100 I was curious to see what it was like. Apparently there are 2 versions, one from April that seems to be Daniel's original, and another from June that used to be on the late Dr Sleep's website. Both are included here but I decided to go for the original (it seems the only changes are DM-only additions to MAP04).

 

The wad itself has a bit of a history, it started as 3 maps for Doom, then Daniel released Dark Side of the Mind as a standalone Doom II map, then he converted the original trio to Doom II, made a new map, and added Dark Side as a finale to the minisode. This history is etched into the gameplay; the first map is incredibly basic, flat, frankly quite ugly. The next 2 maps are exponentially better, each has its own unique gimmick (the central lift hub in MAP02, the water reservoir in MAP03). they both still feel a bit amateurish but there are signs of interesting design in them, you can see Daniel's attempts at playing with layouts even if they don't always pan out, such as the western techbase in MAP02 or the (admittedly pretty cool-looking) DooM secret in MAP03.

 

But then MAP04 starts and it's on a completely different planet. There were signs before that Daniel is interested in setting up puzzles, but the lowering pillars of MAP02 have nothing to do with the devious puzzle box that is the entire stronghold of MAP04. The blue key is easy enough, but it took me a long time to figure out the yellow key, it's ultimately really simple (find the path to the single switch that allows access to it), but the road there is long and twisty (both literally and figuratively), there are distractions and triggers that make it seem as if the key is getting even further away rather than closer, not to mention plenty of surprises and secrets along the way. One ingenious bit is with the starting room and its 4 doors, and 4 switches that at first seem to do nothing. Later you end up right next to this hub room but with a wall blocking the way, press a switch... and the entire room collapses to open up 4 additional doors, leading to completely different sections of the complex (the original switches will raise the floor back to the original doors as needed). It's a pretty effective illusion of 3D architecture and quite remarkable this early in the game's life. The map is not too big (it is early vanilla after all) but it is long, this architecture involves a lot backtracking and trying to figure out how to get to seemingly inaccessible rooms or walkways. I don't think it'll be everyone's cup of tea, especially since there are a couple of obligatory unofficial secrets needed for progression. I spent almost an hour cracking the map but I loved it, even those secret doors didn't bother me, they're reasonably well hinted. It's definitely one hell of an adventure.

 

MAP05 by comparison is pretty short but I'm not complaining, I wasn't really in the mood for 2 magnum opus maps in a row. It's also a lot more straightforward, the entire western side is optional. It looks absolutely gorgeous though, even more than the previous map, the light and shadow is subtle but well done, and there are some halls set up with simple but with a tasteful eye for sector detailing. On the east side there's a simple succession of switches to open up Romero's head (which sits there, grotesquely exposed) to finish the map. There's also one of the early uses of the archvile ghost bug, which is used so subtly and I love it for that. The music is credited to a Scotty Ray Warren, some of the earlier tracks are a bit goofy (the Scott Joplin tune that turns into... not Joplin), but the MAP04 track is very suitable for such an involved adventure, and the MAP05 one is fantastic with its use of the organ. I loved the wad overall, there's such a huge improvement in everything with every map. It's obvious it's the last 2 that earned it a spot in the Top 100, but both are absolutely worth it.

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

rustbelt (2018) by @MannerKing (GZ Doom)

 

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rustbelt.wad is a medium-sized map with an uneasy atmosphere. The fog that covers the outside and open areas gives the map a feeling of mystery as you go through it. The textures are from the NMNCorp Texture Pack 1 and I used some textures that makes the map look sort of like Quake 1. All of my custom assets I got from Realm667.

 

 

A decent enough map that makes strong use of its custom textures and isn't really filled with derelictions of visual taste but doesn't really stand out that much. Basically just one of those "rooms connected by hallways" sort of dealies. One of the main problems are that the 'doors' fail to stand out very much from the surrounding metallic textures used. Granted, it was part of the reason why I went into the hallway where the pistol can be found but it does also lead to some situations where sometimes every wall in a room is being pressed. Although it was probably why I found all the secrets.

 

At one point, there's a hedge maze because you know there has to be one. Returning brings us into contact with flamer zombies which will actually kill you very quickly and have a ridiculously long range on their weapons. Don't worry, a hidden flamethrower can be found toward the end in one of the better-looking rooms, and that's quite fun to use against the boners.

 

This one plays well enough but the custom monster usage could be more refined and moreover, this leaves basically zero impact 6.5/10

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 08

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

 

[1] Technical Issues by @Endless (2022)

 

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A large single-level WAD for Doom 2. Vanilla compatible and simplistic. Mostly.

 

Hey ! It was made by the dude who leads the Wadazine ! "Technical Issues" is familiar to me because I playtested it when it was released.

 

Technical Issues is an action-oriented level taking place in a large and intricate tech-base. Knowing more or less the author's taste, it plays like a dungeon crawl in which you're constantly shooting at something and discovering new and most of time crampy places so that meticulous detailing and vanilla compatibility can coexist."Technical Issues" even turns  into a sort of a "light slaughtermap" at times because some areas are filled with a considerable number of enemies. For instance, your RL will serve to exterminate horde of zombiemen in the subway section. In addition, Endless endlessy supplies you with ammo and health so that you don't have to adopt specific strategies to survive. It's the kind of map I can recommand after a hard day of work. Here, monsters are used to satisfy impulses.

 

On the visual department, it's clear that Endless deliberately emulated the classic visuals since the map features the most common theme you can imagine but not only.  Startan textures, particularly gray, are used extensively, and their alignment is so crude that a purely modern mapper would fall into a coma but the progression is intuitive enough to keep you busy shooting at anything that moves. Despite the complexity of the layout, I never got lost even the first time I played this map.

 

This map reminds me a little of the maps I played in Kama Sutra or Alien Vendetta (Brad Spencer's tech bases in particular). The battles are quite gripping, but the difficulty remains moderate, which makes the map easily enjoyable.

 

Grade : A-  (16/20)

 

 

I walked on a tiny glowing sector and I got teleported in a room which instantly killed me from Tread Softly! Well...

 

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Edited September 13, 2023 by Roofi