Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #068

[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. The BF Wad (note: this is a Hexen WAD)
2. WWF DOOM
3. Web.WAD
4. Blindside2!
5. What Lies Beneath

 

Spoiler

The Top 10 (Out of 68):

 

1. @Roofi | 7545

2. @LadyMistDragon | 3980

3. @Sena | 2560

4. @Walter confetti | 2375

5. @ICID | 1505

6. @brick | 1330

7. @Endless | 1200

8. @Thelokk | 725

9. @Clippy | 580

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.

[Clippy]

Holy Hannah u guys so fast 

[Walter confetti]

Blindside reminds of something i played already, as well as WWF (but the map it's different from the one i know, It was for Doom than Doom 2 and didn't have any new graphics)

[Endless]

PEACE-D3.WAD (New Peace for Doom 2) | Wolfgang Grassl Christian Hellmann | 1995

 

A small DM map designed for some brutal violence across peaceful geometry, literally peaceful because of the symbol. This is quite the big piece of shit. It is terrible in almost all sense of the word and doesn't seem to understand even the basics of what makes DM a multiplayer mode. It also includes a large number of monsters without any care in the world in SP, and good luck trying to kill them all in UV. Pass.

 

The Kult v1.1 | Ravenwing | 1995

 

The antithesis to what a 90s map should be. This one is slow-paced, extremely easy at less than 15 enemies, feels atmospheric due to its very interesting usage of textures, and occult-like details. I'm quite fascinated by the simplistic style of it and how it tries to take things slow and heavy, with a sense of impeding dread looming over. It's probably because it feels so out of place when compared to the usual 90s /idgames crap that lies everywhere. It's not a ''YOU WON'T SURVIVE THIS MAP'' kind of deal, is just a map, it just is, and it is is pretty decent. I do find it to be quite boring in the gameplay deparment, but it is not often you find a map that, for once, doesn't try to be the hardest^TM in the world. It is quite inspiring as a matter of fact. Why? I don't know, it's a feeling that seems to evoke what quietness can do.

[LadyMistDragon]

Doom-plus and Doom v1.91 hacks (2006) by Miguel "myk" Folatelli

 

 Mainly, I'm just trying to avoid a DM map because the next one is quite short, but basically, this is a little utility that seems to hack vanilla essentially so that limit-removing levels can be played AND record longtics demos, basically combining tools made by two different people. DeHackEd patches can also be applied. Nowadays, people would rather just work within the limits, barring them playing with mods that heavily modify the gameplay so it's safe to say this is outdated.

 

 

 

Rf 1024 (2006) by rf @Fletcher` (From Doom with Love)

 

This seems to have been made for a...sigh...1024 mapping contest held then by who I believe was a 14-year old Thomas Lutrov. However, Fletcher has taken a serious step up from his earlier mono-textured designs. There are several vined walls and all sorts of neat little details you'd expect to see in the average techbase and the verticality ain't half-bad either. Unfortunately, this gets bogged down in the same killer of most 1024 maps everywhere with the horribly cramped spaces which basically lead to players door-camping everywhere in order not to be completely destroyed. Admittedly, there seems to be a rocket launcher secret that makes the Baron pair at the end less grindy but it wasn't found in my playthrough. Still, it's a solid 5.5/10 I do wish the platform in the slime leading to the exit door would've lowered though.

 

Video here!

 

 

[Sena]

Doxylamine Moon: Overdose by Lainos (2011)

 

This one comes from Lainos, who did the Urotsuki level I played a long time ago which I really liked. But this one isn't so good, although I have no issue with the .ogg music, or the custom weapons which have some great sound design to them, the level just isn't very interesting. This is a open city level set at night, with really poor visibility that feels like an annoyance, rather than a deliberate decision that the level was designed around. Further, it is a pretty huge level, with a lot of areas that seem to just serve no purpose, and adding them for immersion or atmosphere is one thing, but when navigation is exasperated by the darkness, it more often just feels like it's there to waste your time, and regardless of intention, that was the outcome I found myself with. I got to 50% kills before I decided I'd had enough, as I found its enemy placement to be pretty random, and just plainly not interesting to run through, and getting sniped by hitscanners in an area that is both vast and too dark to properly see them is about as fun as it sounds. 5/10.

Edited September 19, 2023 by Sena

[brick]

Brick | 3 wads | 8 maps

 

The BF Wad (1996) by Dave Bolin. 6 SP maps for vanilla Hexen.

The lone review on the archives describes it as "not the worst but quite poor" and unfortunately this is an accurate description. The early goings can be tough because the first weapon is hidden, but not long after the hub map just hands you the 4th weapon and a ton of ammo, and there's no reason to ever use anything else after this (I don't think you can even get the 3rd outside of the secret level). There are kernels of good ideas in the design: the hub has a central structure with 4 portals that open up one at a time, each leads to a small pocket world, completing it unlocks the next one back in the hub. The worlds are all very different thematically, with different challenges to overcome, but despite the huge spaces (the batch file to start the wad even uses turbo 250 as the base player speed, without it going through would be even more boring) there's not much to do and really no challenge considering the abundance of ammo and all the items. As another sign of bad design, the hub map hands you the Wings quite early, you need them to get to the first world, but the author seems to forget this is Hexen and they never expire within a hub, so you can use them to bypass most of the challenges in a couple of the worlds. I do like the design idea behind the worlds (the graveyard, the tower, the water/lava contrast) but the wad does too little with them and the item overabundance kills the gameplay.

Spoiler

 

WWF DOOM (2001) by The Kreator. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom II.

This is little more than a jokewad. The graphic replacements are fun, the sound replacements are an acquired taste but go with the theme, and the attempts at doomcute work well most of the time (if you can ignore some weird oddities with those banners, the walls holding tend to disappear when looking under certain angles), but the problem is that there isn't any realm map there. Sure the wrestling ring is very cute, and watching the crowd go wild is funny, but then that's it, there's nothing more to it, no real objective or any way to end the map, or any real map outside of this.

Spoiler

 

Web.WAD (1997) by Derek Merrill. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom II.

Straight away the large flat room and random assortment of tree decorations everywhere made me feel this was not promising. Not long in there's a tantalizing BFG that when picked up teleports you into an inescapable room with an IOS spawner and no way out, a mean-spirited trap that didn't endear me to the map. Pushing on without triggering the trap there are arachnotrons, a small section with a hidden yellow key (short of trying to push every wall, I've no idea how you're supposed to find it). Then there's a huge arena with revenants, a long hallway with a Spider at the end, and behind her the exit, I just ran past all of this and ended the map. The whole thing feels like a pointless exercise.

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

VortexDM (1996) by John C. Boyle (Crispy Doom)

 

Very sleek, professional, and nice map with a generally rectangular layout...and composed entirely of green sewer brick, outside of the little structures and cells in certain hallways. there are also hallways that sort of twist between the main room and the surrounding hallways. Seems all right.

 

Spoiler

 

Cool Doom Level (1995) by Adam Grommes (Crispy Doom)

 

Quote

You are stuck in the basement from hell and you don't know how to pass the time?  Try killing a few demons, after all, what else are you gonna do?  Be sure to check every room, wall, and switch.  The beasts love to put things in hidden places so others can't find them.

 

 

Well, that's certainly an apt description. Too bad I don't care. And wow, could DEU produce some rather odd visual errors for those who were utterly incompetent in its usage. Literally, we're gazing from one texture set to another with a slime trail so bad, it almost seems like one would have to be trying to make something so bad. Anyway, I suppose the little landmarks like the room with corpses are nice but there's really nothing here of value 2/10

 

 

 

[Sena]

DBM Random Map by Demmon Break Master (2011)

 

This one is claustrophobic, a bit too much for my liking, but I can respect it as being well-made. A short level, heavy on hitscanners and its level of detail, although it does feel a bit confusing, with its detailed areas not necessarily correlating to providing direction or light sources to indicate where to go. Decent level, it's short and compact, and does what it intends to. 6/10.

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 1 map
Adventure | 4 wads | 9 maps
Lifetime | 200 wads | 769 maps

 

Blindside2! (1995) by Scott Harper (aka. MadMax). 1 SP map for vanilla Doom II.
If my calculations are correct I've hit a landmark in my Adventures, so I was hoping for something memorable. It seems I got my wish. This is apparently an expanded version of the original Blindside2, which dates from 1994. The name of the author didn't initially register, until I realized Scott Harper was friends with Jim Flynn, one of my favourite mappers, and they made Oracle together. The text file credits Flynn with many ideas and conversations, and his influence is definitely felt, though Scott also seems to have his own style. Flynn of course was the one of the masters of early puzzle maps, but he also liked to have large numbers of enemies creep up on the player and make life more difficult while you try and figure out his puzzles. Scott goes for a similar approach but puts his own stamp on it, with a heavy use of lifts that constantly collapsed under my feet and kept sending me into more dangerous positions, surrounded by imps or chaingunners or cacos (that honeycomb section in the south was just insane). The exit is well guarded behind 4 switches that need to be found, scattered across the map. Despite the difficulty in both combat and progression, Scott is not without a sense of humour and a helpful streak. Not far from the exit (which you can see but not reach) is a "Clue!" sign, which indeed leads to a small animation that spells out how to reach the switches; one of the frames even gives a hint for how to reach one, which was very helpful in finding it. There's a certain playfulness to this, and the map in general, that made running around being thrown off by the lifts less frustrating, and trying to figure out where to go next more palatable. Despite being confused as hell early on, eventually I started to get my bearings and understand how the map works, there is a logic in the layouts even if it's not immediately obvious. The map is surprisingly large, but I guess compartmentalization avoids the dreaded VPO. It's a long and tough nut to crack, and it will not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you like puzzle maps in general, and Jim Flynn in particular, it is definitely worth playing. Scott's last release seems to date from 1997. I hope he is well, and I look forward to playing more of his maps.

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

boo (1999) by Aardappel (Crispy Doom)

 

Quote

Doom2 DM map meant specifically for duels. It's very compact & vertical, has some sound cues to track / mislead your opponent, diversity in attacks and ambushes, balanced item placement. Makes for tactical but still very intense combat. Architecture is quite vertical and centers around 2 round pits, all dressed up in q2 textures, and with moody late summer night lighting. Item placement is designed around old deathmatch with a SG, SSG, CS, CG, RL, PG, BFG, with the last 2 putting you at a slight tactical disadvantage when you get them. altdeath adds only a green armour and some health/ammo.

 

 

Well, this map certainly accomplished what it sets out to do, with the added note of not being overly symmetrical. Feels like there could be a bit more imagination in some locations but that's not a quality a DM map should probably attempt to achieve 6/10

 

The next two wads were subsequently one I'd played before  and a top 100 wad so I hit the button and got.....

 

 

Black Hole Sun (2020) by Josef Ilya "joe-ilya" Lazarov (Crispy Doom)

 

Joe-ilya has the reputation of someone who's mapping talent is a mixed bag, with many of his last several maps for DBP falling more into "lame gimmick category". This map, however, essentially conceived as a tribute to Chris Cornell but mainly mixing art and concepts inspired by that song and setting it within a run-down and largely outdoors techbase to create what's yet another solid Doom map. It's not really difficult for the most part. Lots of caves circle the outside and finding one's bearings can be quite difficult. I'm not really certain that leaping to the blue key bars was even the correct way to do from the rather far position I'd done it from, but it certainly seemed to work! In case neither of the at least 2 BFGs have been found by this point, a Cyberdemon will teleport in that could cause quite a lot of trouble. Then in the little building where the exit is marked are two doors. One has spectres and chaingunners inside it and lead straight to the exit. The other one is a humorous sort of Habitat reference where you can gun down zombiemen in sewers, right before plunging into a rather nasty gantlet that grows worst the further you get in. It's still not too bad and at the end is a little tunnel in the blood that leads to the Chris Cornell tribute room. Cute art.

 

There are plenty of reasons why this map can't be hated but much of it is the general solidity of the combat and its general flow, even though a spectre cheaply murdered me at one point, and they and Lost Souls are seemingly everywhere. At this point, Ilya obviously has learned how to space out encounters and give healthy amounts of rocket spam without being excessive. And some of the more interesting shapes are just so cool! Perhaps they'll be surpassed by a map or two in Ilya's in-progress megawad though, where every single map shows love and care put into it! Some of the stuff in the likely non-mandatory corridor does fall into the corridor of monster window dressing but its optional and anyways works much more than annoys. Easy 8/10

 

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 11

 

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

 

[1] HHH-22.WAD by Robert Zubek (1994)

 

Quote

 

 

Quote

"Well, well, well..." started Hades, "You have solved that little puzzle(*) with amazing speed... Good for you, my boy. How about something tougher?" Answering your icy glance, he quickly added "Okay, just a _little_ tougher..." His wide smile exposed strong and healthy teeth. Suddenly it came to your mind that no one ever saw Hades smiling -- or did not live to tell about it? "The problem is," he continued, "that I have one little palace I don't really like. One architect designed it for me some time ago, he was trying to suck up to me, you know, so I would let him live another 50 years or so. I didn't. Anyway, the place didn't suit my taste, really; it's so small and tight, and definitely not warm enough for a winter palace. So I decided that with some remodeling it would make an interesting puzzle for you. How about it? Oh, come on, I know you start to like these puzzles, don't you?" His voice became more and more patronizing. "It's good, you know, for your body, mind... and speed!" he said, and honoured you with another smile, clearly enjoying himself. Impatience, however, overcame him, and he quickly finished up his monologue -- "You are really good in conversations. It's a pity we've got to go now. I can't wait to see you in that palace. I only wonder how quickly you'll get out of there... IF you'll get out...

(*) see HHH-21.WAD (HHH Part One)

 

Whereas I download this wad for the first time, HHH also known as "Hades House of Horrors" isn't unfamiliar to me because it's one of the chosen maps for the 1994 Tune-up Community Project. I played this megawad a decade ago so I have almost no memory of this map, except the immense marble room with the red carpet at the very beginning of the map. Perhaps this particular room is not a  technical feat, but it's the only place that doesn't fall into the usual "abstract doom" of 1994 maps.

 

Let's talk about the rest of the map. It's a mish-mash of themes : green vine, tech base, pseudo-medieval... I didn't remember that its remake improved this map that much but HHH is rather decent compared to releases of the same year. Each zone features a rather consistent texturing and the progression isn't totally disorienting. Most of the doors and switches are clearly marked and it's a quality for a 1994 map.

 

In short, if this map was taken from the 1994TU project, it's because it has potential, despite its old-fashioned nature. But don't expect anything transcendent.

 

Grade : C (10/20)

 

I stop here for today.

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 11 maps
Adventure | 5 wads | 20 maps

 

What Lies Beneath (2023) by ViolentBeetle, Muumi, LordEntr0py, Pegleg, DFF, WeirdSandwich, Dac, myolden and Shawny. 11 SP maps for MBF21 in Doom II. Played in GZDoom on HNTR.

I admit that early on I was not really enjoying this. Combat is modern in all the ways that irritate me, especially this obsession with having everything trigger a teleport ambush. Pick up a key? ambush. Pick up a weapon? ambush. Press a switch? ambush. Go up some stairs? ambush. Look in the general direction of some nondescript wall? ambush. I switched into "modern wad" mode and started doing everything backwards because the ambushes become predictable (such a paradox). It also takes way too long before giving the SSG, while still throwing spongy mid-tiers. Considering how often the teleport ambushes happen, the RL was often more suicidal than useful, especially indoors. The last few maps veer into pure modern slaughter, and I disliked these even more (more on the last map in a bit).

 

In-between the beginning and end though, I found a lot to love in the middle half. The combat became less one-note and started introducing more varied challenges and IMO better pacing between ambushes, setpieces and incidental fighting, sometimes they even all flow into each other very organically. The atmosphere is fantastic and the maps make great use of the expanded Boom/MBF21 actions. Generators slowly power up and come to life as the lights come on. Walking into a huge cavern you see a large drill, you actuate it and it starts burrowing into the ground to uncover a RSK. While playing MAP04 in particular I couldn't believe it doesn't use ACS scripts. The Boom scripting is used well to create interesting progression, not quite puzzles but still, often going forward is just a little more complicated than "pick up key in the open" to make it interesting. It's almost a shame the expanded power of MBF21 Dehacked is used for decorations, the bestiary is almost exclusively good old Doom II (with one major surprise). There's a lot of thematic variety between each map, with an incredible use of textures, but there's also a great sense of progression from one map to the next: going into the mansion and underneath it through the modern secret labs, into the excavation site and onto the old ruins and into the unknown beyond, there's such a great sense of adventure. One of my favourite bits was going through the time portal in the ruins and finding myself in the ancient city in the Glory Days, there's such evocative storytelling without using a single printed word. Architecture is simply stunning throughout, I'll let the screenshots speak for themselves. I'm also happy to report that despite playing in GZDoom (4.10) I didn't encounter a single bug or hiccup, the port's implementation of MBF21 seems to have matured nicely.

 

The last map deserves a few words of its own. It's not completely removed from everything before, but it's still so different and almost as long as the entire rest of the wad combined. It's definitely the big magnum opus conclusion, with ~750 enemies on HNTR, a huge map size (GZDoom pauses for several seconds while loading, which I haven't seen in a while), and jaw-dropping visuals that put to shame previous maps that already looked gorgeous. The gameplay is nothing particularly new, it's a succession of arena slaughters, but the presentation is so good, and the execution of some of these arenas is so well done that I found myself enjoying the map a lot even though I don't normally care for these kind of arenas. That is, I was enjoying myself until the instakill-lifts arena; honestly I thought this was a particularly mean, trap, considering it's so easy to accidentally step on them and die while dancing around a few dozen projectiles, and because they are the way out... but they'll still kill you if you use them at the wrong time. The one MBF21 enemy is at the very end, a big surprise but also a fun fight.

 

I didn't like all of the wad, but when I did I loved it, and the quality is stellar throughout.

 

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

September Under the Sea (2020) by Various (GZDoom)

 

 

 

This is the debut of the now-established Pineapple Under the Sea series, and I'll be honest, it's ROUGH. A number of the people here obviously weren't experienced with speedmapping and it shows in the rather bland visual stylings of most maps here. Anyway....

 

 

Map 01: Very short and small. The trap with the zombiemen where the bars close behind you is kind of nice because it actually shows some personality.

 

Map 02: Too ugly and open but oddly enough, one of the best maps in the set due to the amount of action and balance per square footage. It'll take a few tries though

 

Map 03: This might actually be the best. @Steve88 had done a few maps for the now dormant Hellforge sessions. It's also quite frustrating though. My first run through actually went a lot better because more enemies would end up dying over the long term. Although the chaingunners still sliced off tons of my health and left the next wave to finish me off (not what happened in the below video)

 

Map 04: Not really lots to say here. Pegleg can get brutal at times, but stuff here feels quite handle-ble

 

Map 05: I guess Blue Pineapple had not been speedmapping for long. The blue floor is nice though and I like the general arena but it's just like, circle around the two Cyberdemons and fight off the other 35-40 enemies. It's definitely not up to the polish of his later efforts.

 

All in all, this gets a 5.5/10 There are a few moments that shine and Survival Station is good if you don't mind being rather trapped, but it's not really a collection that can be recommended.

 

Video here!

 

 

Edited September 22, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[brick]

Brick | 2 wads | 10 maps
Adventure | 7 wads | 30 maps

 

The Singularity Complex (2006) by Jan Van der Veken. 9 SP maps for limit-removing Doom.
Just as with the original Classic Episode, Jan started releasing some of these maps (in this case, two) separately before deciding to compile a full episode. The premise is that you're tackling 4 different facilities around the Complex, when they're all shut down the path to the Singularity is open. The gimmick is that half the maps are in fact the same location (the Complex) that you return to every other map, to simulate a hub structure within Doom. I'm not sure if this was the oldest attempt at doing this, but I think it's the most memorable early one. Jan is by no means lazy, each visit repopulates the hub with different encounters, but also different items and secrets, it's fun poking around familiar corners to see what's changed. On the last visit Hell is visibly bleeding into our reality through the Singularity, and the visual changes to the hub are very effective since the place is so familiar by then. The first maps are small, smaller than I remember the ones in The Classic Episode, they can be deadly but they play fast. In the second half the facilities are much larger and progression is more involved, not quite puzzle-map but there might be some head-scratching, I found it just the right amount to not slow down the pace too much and had a lot of fun figuring them out. Typical of Jan, architecture and detailing are beautiful and functional, using nothing but stock assets. Due to the hub and map sizes it's a quick-playing episode but it's a ton of fun.

Spoiler

 

Doomsday of UAC (1994) by Leo Martin Lim. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom.
I haven't played this one in a long time, but every time I replay it I enjoy it immensely. It's difficult to overstate just how revolutionary it was when it came out. It was the prototype of those long adventure maps that would become so popular once limit-removing ports came out. It set high standards for doomcute detailing, and they were rarely matched at the time (the overturned truck reached almost meme-like levels). It pioneered the use of special effects, the most famous is probably the self-referencing sector (Paul Schmitz, another early adopter in his The Artifact, specifically credits Lim for the idea). For such an old map it has a surprisingly rough start, there are 50 or so enemies that attack early on and it took me some optimizing to deal with them. Once that was done I could start exploring and admire some of the detailing, including the sector-art UAC symbol. Once inside the facility proper there are simple but effective attempts at detailing, especially the reception area and the travelators upstairs. Nearby is one of the most intricate secrets, a reactor core of sorts with lighting that contrasts so well with the fullbright of the more public areas of the facility, it's absolutely worth going through for the energy packs in there. Back on the main path another memorable set pieces is the circular conferences room, but another cute nod at realism (the doors that look like they've been flung open). A bit searching reveals the secret stairs down, where the visuals and lighting shift so dramatically. The cavern with the Indiana Jones-inspired invisible stairs still looks great even after playing the dozens of maps it inspired. This leads to another atmospheric bit with another trick, the tag 666 boss action is used twice. Killing the Barons finishes the sacrificial ritual, the marine corpses release Lost Souls and the Cyberdemon is unleashed; killing him lowers the red key. There's a long trek back to the surface, and one final cinematic bit past the red door: as you walk in there's an explosion and the ceiling collapses, shooting barrels nearby blows up an alternative route through the walls (I remember loooooong ago messing up here: I used the RL to blow up the barrels, which didn't open the passage because it's a GR action). Getting to the shuttle finally allows escaping. It's certainly easy to criticize the humongous spaces that can sometimes be so empty (though I think that, in parts, it really helps build atmosphere), or the fact combat is easy even on UV (even for an unskilled player like me), and 30 years later the then-revolutionary tricks are commonplace. I do think that there's more to the map than just historical curiosity though; even playing it now I think it's a genuinely fun adventure, very enjoyable and very memorable. And if we do consider it in the context of the time, it's one of the most important landmark maps in the game's history.

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

all aboard the mega magilla gorilla floatilla (2014) by @Xaser (Crispy Doom)

 

 

Quote

Single map for Doom 2.

In this episode of DOULM 2: ELECTRIC DOOMALOO, Our Hero The Goddamn Doomguy accidentally books a cruise to THE UNDERWORLD instead of Fiji and gets caught up in a massive naval battle with the satans or some shit. And then he said "fuck it" and sank all the ships with his special mind powers which he then lost due to some plot device or another.

Now DAMNGUY is trapped and has to escape by hopping from thing to thing while trying not to drown in the toxic totally-not-nukage ocean water. Cue the Emmy nominations for this exceptional narrative performance.

I made this after binging too much Dark Souls, so expect to have to die a lot before finding a path that works for you. With apologies to FDA-ers. Maybe.

 

 

Here, we have a submission to the Battle of the Bits contest that seems to have been updated in 2017, probably to fix some rather glaring bugs. Anyways, this is a collection of buildings in a lake of slime and a cloudy green skybox whose origin seems to be unknown. It's probably not coincidence that "Message for the Arch-vile" plays because god, this map is mean with the Arch-vile placement. Moreover, progression is tricky and it seems to be one of those "go to places in certain orders to lower barriers and whatnot". That's not to say this isn't bad, but we don't really have lots of time right now. Personally, it's interesting to me that Xaser would choose to make something with such a steep difficulty curve. But I actually really like these sort of maps where one has to run through a gauntlet than find a weapon or a critical progression point before one can get their bearings. Probably at least an 8/10. After the first couple of buildings, we have a little more freedom to go where we want.

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 12

 

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

 

 

[1] Warped by Jason Free (2000)

 

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This is the eighth of eight levels that I made a long time ago.

 

A brown and boxy fortress made in 1996 which can be finished in less than 5 minutes. The only attempt at creativity resides in the darkest areas where you walk between burning barrels but beside this, the only thing you'll do is chewing up the enemies with your super shotgun. It's fun and not too headache-inducing at least.

 

Grade : C+  (11/20)

 

Got nastily gangbanged by two chaingunners in a tight corridor from rgrta1b.wad rrgraph.wad

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

OCD-Doom (2015) by Peter Hawes @MathsDevil (Crispy Doom)

 

Well, I'm not positive but I doubt there are many people named Peter Hawes in the Doom community. Which would mean he's been around for a good few years more than I realized. So anyways, there's 9 maps that use the "voodoo doll" bug that makes this unplayable to the patient, or to me anyway. The more objective problem with this is how certain maps (I think 26) have their gimmick stretched out far beyind the point where things remain fun. The first base map is kind of cool, though. Like, check out that sweet Doomcute desk! Some of these other ones feel like deathmatch maps with their simple shape. It's definitely a good use of the engine, but isn't really that fun to play 6/10

 

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[brick]

Brick | 1 wads | 9 maps
Adventure | 8 wads | 39 maps

 

Alpha Accident: Terra Nova (2016) by Wraith777. 9 SP maps for limit-removing Ultimate Doom.
@Wraith777 of Wonderful Doom fame spent a few years making this episode replacement that draws heavily from the Doom alpha. The most obvious is the texture selection, I'm not sure if they're directly taken from there but if not they're definitely made in that style. There's also the choice of decorations and the way they work; not all barrels explode now, empty ones can just be knocked out of the way, and some of those tech columns are now destructible (the first time I encountered one it took me some time to realize this). These changes gave some Tom Hall vibes, but what really confirmed the influence for me was the level design. The first map is relatively short and not too complicated, but it is the lone exception. All the following maps are long and convoluted, requiring going back and forth between different sections, some backtracking if you do things exactly right, but I had to do a lot more as I went around trying to understand what I was supposed to do. The impression I had was of someone taking the various alpha maps that were meant to work almost hub-like and throwing them all together as a single map, for each map, the one episode took me almost as long as a megawad of mid-sized maps would. I admit the backtracking got on my nerves sometimes (especially when I had to do it over damaging toxin and I had used up the precious few radsuits), but honestly not as much as I expected (except maybe E1M6, which drove me nuts). I don't find the alpha textures very good-looking but they are functional, and what they lack in aesthetics the maps make up for in design complexity. Secrets are numerous and hunting for them can be a lot of fun (I didn't try to get all of them and just left when I got tired), there are a few particularly cool chains of secrets where they unfold one after the other. I don't think any of the music is specifically composed for the wad but the selection is excellent, especially since the tracks will be on repeat, they're great to listen to and also very evocative of each map. Despite the high quality I don't think the wad will please everyone, if you hate the idea of running around a large level looking for that one switch you missed, or trying to remember an hour later where that locked door was now that you have the key, steer clear. I found exploring the sprawling levels very enjoyable, but even then I recommend playing the wad one or two maps at a time at most to avoid exhaustion. I need a break, but if the sequel episodes ever get released I'll be first in line to play them.

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[LadyMistDragon]

Lost Underworld (2023) by @Dahbeez  (GZ Doom)

 

 

This is listed as the....5th map in a 9 map WIP episode which I barely have any recollection possibly because the megawad bit made me put it aside and totally forgot due to the short description. Doom 2 in Spain flashbacks were almost instant because of the ridiculous prevalence of brown everywhere, bolstered by a structure that comes off kind of like a less confident Sophia Kirschner. Basically, the twisting passageways at the beginning go on for moderately too long, worst is the fact that the average player will probably be backtracking once or twice and possibly more if they're bad at finding their bearings. Then, the somewhat confusing monster teleportation when the red key is finally opened doesn't necessarily make navigation any better. Granted, the last grouping of enemies was probably the reason I figured where the red key was in the first place.

 

That being said, I don't want to be too harsh to this map, but negatives are easier to spot than positives, yadda, yadda. It actually plays quite well, the SS getting placed like halfway through was actually kind of an interesting choice and while the exit was a little sudden, it actually works. 6/10, might be worth it.

 

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 9 maps
Adventure | 9 wads | 48 maps

 

Favillesco - Episode 2: Tragedy over Europa (2013) by Nicolas Monti. 9 SP maps for vanilla Doom.
My streak of Doom iwad rolls continues! @nicolas monti is an enduring figure in Doom mapping, still releasing episodic wads 20 years later. Although he has several Doom II wads, his love of the Doom iwad running on original exe is obvious in his output; even the Doom II maps have a tendency to go for Deimos or even alpha inspired themes. Favillesco was meant to be a full vanilla Ultimate Doom replacement, released in episodic format. I remember E1 being more than just Phobos inspired, clear Romero homages would often creep into those maps. E2 is a little more Nicolás's own style, the Tom Hall inspiration is there but repurposed into an end result that feels more original. Even when something familiar like a crate maze shows up, it ends up looking and playing very differently from the iwad one. Nicolás stated he wanted a "clean" Deimos, so most of the Hell aesthetic is completely absent, if you ever wondered what Deimos as pure techbase should look like this is a good contender. Maps are mid-sized, larger than in E1, similar in gameplay style to the iwad maps. The monster count is often higher but the difficulty is still manageable, though Nicolás really likes his shotgun guys. Progression is definitely more complex, it's not Eternal Doom but most maps had me scratching my head more than once, there are a lot of windows that look like doorways on the automap and it can make navigation occasionally confusing. The abundance of damaging floors on some maps doesn't help. I think Nicolás's later releases are better but this one is still perfectly fine and definitely worth playing for anyone who enjoys the Doom iwad.

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[Walter confetti]

WWF DOOM (Version 2) by The Kreator - Vanilla Doom 2, SP, 1 map, 2001, played with DSDA-Doom 0.26.0

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Got some time to waste and i'll play some random wads, starting with this mod that genuinely interested me due of being such a oddball in the modding scene of this game! The level sets in this abstract Wrestling arena, the 80s age Wrestlemania nonetheless! The only thing i know based upon Wrestling is this insipid marble space and similarly to that thing, in the year 2001 this Kreator guy made a very late 90s thing with new sprites, new textures and... no exit and a broken floor (at least in DSDA Doom)? What the hell is happening? Oh, anyway you can find in semi-hidden areas the wrestlers The Ultimate Warrior and The Undertaker based upon some... action figures, i think? All resized really badly, as well for some textures. The arena actually looks decent, too bad the floor is awfully broken for some strange reason. A very odd map replacement in the world of odd maps and that's saying a lot, unluckily not that good to be memorable.

 

gsxr_13.wad by Alyssa Colby aka Lisa - Vanilla Doom 2, DM, 1 map, 1996, played with zandronum 3.1 and bots

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A unknown but very good with a great flow small deathmatch arena located on MAP13 slot for some strange reason made by this biker lady named Alyssa in 1996 and you wouldn't believe this map was done back then, due to it's modernity in design! The silly SP can be literaly punished by toxic waste, showing you in the hard way that this map can be only played in DM, leading you to a fast action battle in this simple but yet very effective arena, as i wrote above the flow is good and battling bots here is fun. I downloaded as well the other maps from the series from idgames for see if it's any good like this one!

[LadyMistDragon]

Escape from Damnation II: The Cavern (1997) by Brian "Captain Camshaft" English (Crispy Doom)

 

Fair warning: if your last name's English, I hope you rise to the challenge. I don't care what that means right now. What's important is that this seems to be the second map in a series and as you can expect, I haven't played the first. It's largely a dark cavern map, with the expansive opening room consisting of seemingly inaccessible pillars with Imps and other objects on them. Grab the shotgun and shells near the central lava area on the right from the entrance because we're going to need them! From here, you've got to maneuver your way through a series of caverns, only shooting what's in your way until we can suddenly find ourselves apparently with too much ammo. These passages twist around in an entirely random fashion, and worst yet, there are some invisible doors and fake walls that prove entirely mandatory for progression and given the overall lighting level, is not exactly promising. Getting murdered by a possibly invisible Mancubus sucked, but on the other hand, some exploring in his chamber led...to a basically useless yellow key which opens up a room filled with supplies that guess what, is entirely superflous! And there isn't even a rocket launcher that I found! 

 

But worst than that is that a particular lava room you may have spotted from another passageway with a Mancubus not far from the entrance has an invisible linedef that needs to be crossed in order to access a nook with a switch that lowers the ledge to the exit. This ledge is accessed from a crimson cavern we'll just say has some utterly baffling monster placement. About as puzzling are the monsters in the large room covered with lots of red textures near the exit. It's actually kind of a relief to see a room like this after the hellish nonsense of the rest. The final room then has the yellow key door as well as an exit teleporter.

 

There's too many things that don't make lots of sense for this to go too high. It's fine as sort of a creepy dungeon explorer but the progression is considerably trickier than necessarily needs to be and outside of about 2 secrets, doesn't actually seem to contain too much of interest 5.5/10

 

 

[Walter confetti]

Web.WAD by Derek Merrill - Vanilla Doom 2, 1 map, SP, 1997, played with DSDA-Doom 0.26.0

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A spacious looking marble "maze" with a very abstract layout and a amateurish design made using mostly stock editor assets textures (like STARTAN2, CEIL1_1 and FLOOR0_1 in Doom Builder 2 and above), a crappy teleport trap leading you to a dark room with 2 IoS spawners in it and another broken sector appear in DSDA-Doom after WWF Doom, wee! Anyway, it's a easy map with nothing too extraordinary in it. Forgettable.

 

Temple of the Massassi by Kevv "The Sac" Daves - Vanilla Doom 2, 1 map, DM, 1995, played with zandronum 3.1 and bots

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A map for MAP03 slot, in the text file called E1M3 like it's Doom.

Another large looking map for DM that doesn't look bad (even includes some cute sector art in one room) with a nice looking castle structure where you run run across different areas fighting nazis and other demons, but it ends here by having many classic errors of old DM maps: layout too large to be truly enjoyable, weird thing placement and, cherry on the top of the mountain (literally) a unmarked exit activable by walking a random spot, maybe even a series of them (for some crazy reason) due to having the map finished mysteriously by a bot cross a exit line somewhere... oook. The only other memorable thing is the kinda strange title, what is a massassi and what this have to do with nazis? A slightly weird forgettable map.

 

Landmine by Anthony Rocchio -  Vanilla Doom, 2 maps, SP, 1995, played with DSDA-Doom 0.26.0

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Two puzzle maps for episode 2, sets in a maze like structure with many new areas revealing at your passage if you cross or hit a certain switched action. Nothing too great, but after the previous two maps for me it was like playing Ancient Aliens. New funny graphics that reeks of 90s jokes are present here, giving you a overall funny experience. The layout, maze making and gameplay is good, even if a little tedious sometimes. Cool stuff. Also there's nothing that makes think of landmines in these maps despite the title.

Edited September 29, 2023 by Walter confetti

[LadyMistDragon]

I soon realized that this one had been played before around the time I exited though so.....

 

gmouse.zip (1994) by EFisher 

 

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This mouse driver solved my PS/2 mouse problems, so I thought I'd upload it for others to try!

 

I have no idea what's being said here. However, is there anyone who wouldn't say that playing Doom with a mouse in 1994 wasn't a clunky, unresponsive and thusly annoying mess? Actually sounds kind of cool.....if it actually worked

 

 

Captured! (1997) by The Dark Lord (Crispy Doom)

 

I skipped another DM map DL did because....I'm not really sure but I can't really afford the luxury of doing so again, so basically this is a series of self-contained sqaure and rectangular areas, leading in single-player at least to a central room with 2 Cyberdemons. Other rooms include a library with a Wolfenstein elevator in a fireplace, a Wolfenstein room and room of pillars surrounded by chaingunners leading to a BFG. Despite being DM, this doesn't really seem like it would be fun to do so and in single-player, it's just a stupid joke 2/10

 

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Oh what the hey, I'll throw this one in too.

 

Huge Slime Resevoir (2010) by ElFuzzo (From Doom with Love)

 

A rather short, but surprisingly efficient slaughter map. One of the first rooms has a mass collection of chaingunners that's kind of BS but aren't really in huge numbers. The same room also has this block filled with Lost Souls and an Invulnerbility Sphere good because of reasons. No matter the next room has these square hallways, and a series of escalating encounters culminating in Cyberdemons. There's also some large slime-floored hallways, and I don't remember too much else since this was kind of an impromptu post. This was an excellent, if short slaughter map with an ethos that while kind of of the time, was also vaguely forward looking to the extent I'd have believed you if you told me this was a Slaughterfest 2012 map 7/10

 

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[Walter confetti]

7 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Captured! (1997) by The Dark Lord

I played this map long ago in these random adventures iirc

And yeah, it's not a good map, with the only memorable thing the octagonal stairs pit.

[Walter confetti]

Sorry for double post.

DOOM2 Leprechaun patch v1.2 by DeF-46 and TetrisMan - Vanilla Doom 2, 1 map, DM, 1997, played with DSDA-Doom 0.26.0

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A misplaced DM arena that changes the player sprites, graphics and sounds with a cute cartoony leprechaun, as well as some other sprites and dehacked work for guns, monsters and other stuff. The graphic replacement are the best part (with the leprechaun player replacement been on top of it and also re-used in other assets like Legacy port and DBP christmas wads) but the map itself is nothing really too good, just a pretty plain arena with a chainsaw pit fight in the middle of it and "when the saints marching in" blasting out as a music replacement? Everybody blames 1994 for batshit stuff but you had to seen stuff from this year first... sure 1997 in Doom was strange. and awesome at the same time, but that's another story.

 

Sharonian Temple - Frag Fest 2 by Matthew Mauger - Vanilla Doom 2, 1 map, DM, 1995, played with Zandronum 3.1 and bots

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A very basic and brow circular arena with the wild idea of having all the guns sets on lifts far away from the player, making the gameplay with bots pretty chaotic but not very fun. No votes on idgames, nothing to see otherwise.

 

Slugfest by Shamus Young - Vanilla Doom 2, 10 maps, SP, 1995, played with DSDA-Doom 0.26.0 (complevel 2)

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A classic episode by the talented old time mapper Shamus Young, author of Doom City, Torment and other great wads during the early years of modding in Doom. The episode is pretty straightforward and every map can be completed in short time (5/6 minutes max) and it's divided in 3 segments: water ancient Roman looking buildings with pools and fancy structures, a techbase structures that imitates Knee-Deep in the dead and finally a large void maze that leads to the final mistery boss. Gameplay is challenging, with the massive usage of chaingunners in the episode, find the 3 keys (or 2. or nothing and just go straight to secret labeled (?) exit like for MAP07) to escape the hub a la E2M6/MAP19 and enter the next. Very great stuff for finishing the night! 

[LadyMistDragon]

I got a map that I think i played before which I remember to be garbage, anyway....

 

SATANIC DEATHMATCH v 1.1 (1995) by Joao Tavora (Crispy Doom)

 

 

 

Actually, this has has a surprising amount of effort put into single-play! It's not like the combat is anything particularly dangerous or thought-out, but honestly, it's kind of shit to play with bots because of the numerous small corridors and irregularly-shaped room+. These definitely try their very best to have asymmetrical layouts though. Themes do have a way of switching halfway through however. Mostly free of serious taste derelictions, other than those hallways with the combination of eye-straining red textures in one large area of Map 02.

 

Map 03 does this weird thing of wrapping indoor caves around techbase, whereas Map 04 has multiple dark rooms and honestly is the best map in the set with how it puts pressure on the player and encourages a fair amount of steady movement. 

 

Perfectly playable then, though playing in layouts that are single-player's never not going to feel weird personally and visuals are quite ehhh 5/10

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited October 1, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 18 maps
Adventure | 10 wads | 66 maps

 

The Magenta Spire (2022) by Cole Bryden "thelamp". 18 SP maps for Doom II in MBF.
It's not often you see a wad that advertises itself as specifically for MBF! It's not the only way this wad differentiates itself either. The most obvious is visually, the PLAYPAL lump doesn't even look that different from Doom's but the results are striking, with obviously magenta dominating and completely changing the look of almost everything. Even more impressive is the extensive Dehacked work done, I think there are more new enemies or old ones that behave differently than ones that are unchanged. Almost everyone is more deadly now, imps have a flying variant, the one that doesn't throws much deadlier fireballs. The archvile is now insanely dangerous as it has a chance to revive itself after being killed, sometimes multiple times. I was wondering at first why MBF, but this quickly became obvious when I saw the friendly marines. They're used for more than just show too, in a few maps you start with nothing (pistol starts are enforced on several maps) and the marines are the only way to chip away at the opposition until finding weapons. The wad has an incredibly wide range in difficulty even within the first episode, E1M1 is pure atmosphere and visual storytelling and then E1M8 is a proper BFG slaughterfest. There are several other gimmick maps, E2M2 is a monsterless puzzle, E2M6 is complex puzzle map with no weapons and a dozen Cyberdemons roaming the open. Speaking of storytelling, this is done really nicely sometimes, when returning to the same location a few maps later and seeing things have changed (very obvious with E1M1 reappearing in more corrupt form later on). I admit that I cheated through some of the maps, dealing with ~2000 enemies was not something I was particularly keen on, but I wanted to see the rest of the wad because each map is so different from the others and the gimmicks are pretty unique. The last map did sour me a bit, partly because the combat gets ridiculously difficult (on ITYTD, mind), there are a few too many "find what the lift/switch is disguised as" puzzles, and because of a lack of of difficulty testing, it is completely impossible to get the red key on ITYTD/HNTR because one of the teleport landings doesn't exist. Still, the wad is a remarkable achievement with so many changes to both gameplay and aesthetics, so many absolutely stunning visuals, and some very original gimmicks.

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[LadyMistDragon]

Forseen Version 3 (2013) by Alex Williams (Crispy Doom)

 

A simple map of what appears to be the third version of, probably just to fix a bug or two, because there's nothing but square rooms here, albeit with some intriguing detail like the corpse hidden in the inaccessible cavern with blood leaking out or the red key sitting in the tiny bottom of a pit being dug for some reason. It plays well, though it's definitely quite cramped overall, and the final room with chaingunners on one side and Imps on the other with red walls seems like it could be dicey construction-wise. Still, camping takes care of most of these and at worst, it's just another non-entity 5/10

 

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