Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #070

[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 Compound
2. Project666
3. expansiv
4. PRINCTN1
5. Speed of Doom

 

Spoiler

The Top 10 (Out of 68): 

 

1. @Roofi | 7690

2. @LadyMistDragon | 4150

3. @Sena | 2570

4. @Walter confetti | 2445

5. @ICID | 1540

6. @brick | 1415

7. @Endless | 1220

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]

FANTAstic 🍊

[LadyMistDragon]

DAVES2ND.WAD(1994) by Dave Cameron (Crispy Doom)

 

I didn't know the British guy who fucked a pig made Doom maps! This is likely the result of several months of mapping refinement, being uploaded to the archives not long after Doom II was released. It's the author's second map, and while it does feel a touch disjointed, it's actually not too bad, other than the underground cave. 

 

Starting, you're glancing down through a window from which you can see the exit. But to get there, you'll have to turn around and go down some hallways behind. The first door directly in front of you leads to a teleporter room, filled with teleporters that don't really work too well. From here, there's mostly hallways, leading to each key, with both the red and blue keys opening up optional rooms close to where they happen to be. The blue door specifically opens up a fascinating optional area, leading to a series of hallways, one leading to a probably Toxin Refinery homage has barrels. A switch somewhere then opens up an irradiated river framed with tech pillars, leading to another room we might have seen with a backpack! Gee, could've had a Supercharge.

 

Going behind the required blue door leads you to a lift that takes us down to a strangely well-done underground cave and the need to spend most time on the curving red rock path before finding a rad suit because the ground elsewhere is scalding-hot. Now this gimmicks of raising and lowering platforms isn't well-conveyed as running to the edges doesn't seem to work, and it seems like pushing the yellow door reveals the yellow key. There's also a plasma rifle and Baron that also prove superflous.

 

The yellow door then leads to a vast outdoor area, of which the other end takes you to the exit as seen at the beginning. Not a wholly bad map, but the combat is frankly lacking in particular area. Visually, despite some odd texture choices, there's not really much to complain about. 6.5/10

 

 

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

ah, went and recorded an actual video. I missed the chamber to the backpack though this time.

 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 1 map

 

The Compound 2010 by Ceeb. 1 SP map for Doom II in GZDoom.

This is a mixture of standard Doom action, attempts at more atmosphere, and scripts to create a more objectives-based mission. The music from Doom 64 and sounds from PS1 Doom combine well with the moody lighting to set a more atmospheric experience. The detailing is very nice in parts, and aside from a couple of unfortunate overuses of DOORTRAK the map looks good. The map seemed very linear at first as we proceed through narrow corridors with no side excursions. I started wondering what the point of the objective system was, but this became clear once I reached the "end" of the map and new objectives appeared, requiring going back through the map to recheck familiar places. The backtracking mostly works because the map isn't too big and usually gets repopulated with new encounters on a second (or third) revisit. Text is minimal and there are no cutscenes but there's a nice if simple story being told through the missions. Speaking of encounters, aside from one bullshit ambush the combat is alright, though the linearity sometimes makes it a tad repetitive, the worst part was SE section which is one long slog up the stairs with no challenge and a lot of grinding. I think the biggest problem is that the plasma rifle secret is practically required, I don't think there's enough ammo if you miss it, and health is not particularly abundant either. Despite the flaws I liked the map, there are little details here and there with the way some of the encounters are set up, with the objectives, even the ending is nicely evocative with nothing but sound and a black screen.

Spoiler

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 21

 

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

 

[1] Tab Level by Michael Cortorno (1997)

 

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First in a series of wads. This level makes for a good Dooming experience for beginners. Check it out.

 

The first opus of Tab series has nothing outstanding. The layout is mostly made of square rooms with unfitting themes : just look the ugly transition between green marble castle and red hell near the blue key ! Nonetheless, the gameplay remains relaxed and short, which is pleasing.

 

Grade : C+ (10,5/20)

 

I failed a jump in Decapitation: Skulltag Teamgame and ended up in the black void.

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

Death and Destruction (1994)) by Kevin Roels (Crispy Doom)

 

At first I was going to joke that due to Player 1 starting in a library, it's an indication of how Doomguy regards reading, with plenty of ripping and tearing to satiate yourself with. But to the north is a generic interior Doom 2 area and to the north of that is an oval-shaped room of green marble that might just be a little bit too large for its own good. Then again, there's plenty of ammo. There's also somewhat long hallways on the sides that act as alternate ways to move around. Honestly, it's just short of being too large but really isn't too bad if you don't mind going some time without frags 5.5/10

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Spoiler

 

 

 

Mortal Kombat Pit (1995) by Joe McNally (Crispy Doom)

 

So I stop recording near the beginnning but that really doesn't matter too much. This is practically as bottom of the barrel as they come with the map consisting of two paralell chasms with scattered enemies and a stretch of walkway you know breaks the visplane limits. In a serious example of unfairness, we're stuck facing an Arch-vile on either side starting with zero health supplies and NO chance to dodge. After this things get stupidly easy, with a metric ton of ammo supplies at one clastrophobic alley end of the map, with an irradiated area containing a series of long wooden platforms in between. Things get flat-out stupid from here because we've got to return to the last series of pits we were at, plunge down into it, and hit a wall below another section of the level which then activates the previously-mentioned wooden platforms....but there's seemingly no way up 1/10, will this crap ever end?

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

The UAC Rebellion (2009) by Adam @Doomkid Post (Crispy Doom)

 

 

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 You are a normal marine, no more important than the rest.
                          You've worked at the UAC for years now, and have had time
to learn about what all of their funds go to. They research inter-dimensional travel
and genetic alterations. However, the UAC, as you have recently learned, is corrupt.
They let it be known that experiments are only done on willing individuals, but that
isn't true: one of your fellows was reported as "mysteriously missing" and never found
again. One night, at your workstation, you decide that these corrupt bastards are
going down. It's going to be a tough fight, but you have to kill a few to save many.

 

 

Far as anyone can tell, this was Doomkid's first single-player effort and the first time he applied his DeHacked treatment to a wad as well. It's hard to comment too much on the changes but we've got a pistol that's not really more powerful but definitely has a far higher rate of accuracy, a few different varieties of human troopers that aren't from the base game, and some light bits of environmental storytelling.

 

Map 01 is the perfect example of this. We'll start out in a computer room with dudes manning the consoles and stuff, which basically sits in the center of a storage complex that seems adjacent to subway tracks? Not sure and it's not terribly important. You've got to like the lone Hell Knight in the cage that growls like a Baron. I missed the secret though, so the Lost Souls in the vents were really annoying.

 

Video below

 

 

 

[brick]

Brick | 2 wads | 3 maps

Adventure | 3 wads | 4 maps

 

Project666 (2005) by Stealthy Ivan. 2 SP maps for Doom II in ZDoom/Legacy.

I'm not sure what the port requirement is, the text file mentions these but I don't think the wad needs anything fancier than limit-removing. Anyway these are 2 small maps but packed with enemies, and with no difficulty balancing. The first is a small castle of sorts, with a hot start that encourages constant movement. The second is a more abstract location with encounters being more individually defined, which makes it easier in some ways. In both cases progression is pretty straightforward, with a key or two to find and some switches to pull whose effect is usually obvious. The wad is bundled with the Gothic texture pack and of course it looks very good, there's also some work put into lighting and it fits well with the texture choice. I don't remember what the first map played for music, the second has Metallica going on, and there are I think MIDI replacements for later maps too. This was supposed to be a demo for something bigger (perhaps a full megawad) but it was Ivan's last release. They're not the most memorable maps but they're not bad either, despite the lack of balancing.

Spoiler

 

expansiv (1996) by Craig and Brian Sparks. 1 SP/Coop map for vanilla Doom II.

This is another one of those family collaborations that I love so much, this time two brothers who have apparently released a large number of maps together or separately (most unfortunately do not seem to have survived the passage of time and are not on the Archives). This one definitely deserves its name, it is indeed very expansive. Craig recommends playing it in coop and warns of high difficulty in SP, but the brothers were kind enough to balance for easy difficulty, I found HNTR to be very forgiving and the map is crammed with health and armour.  There is some nice architecture and light detailing but the humongous sizes do not work to the map's advantage, most of the space is just empty and cannot mask the fact that, despite those nice beam-and-column structures everywhere, each of those huge "rooms" is ultimately just a plain rectangle. Getting to the red key then requires backtracking all the way back, but there are enough surprises that populate the way back to make it interesting. It's not a perfect map but it's another one of those that was trying new things, it works better than others of its ilk, and ultimately it's quite fun and doesn't take long despite the size.

Spoiler

 

[Clippy]

 

 

I cant believe you guys are on 70 thats insane

 

I need to ramp it up

 

This is Fanta Factory by Hebridean Isle

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/d-f/fanta

 

Short but honestly one of the best well crafted maps I played on this random search thing LOL

 

I mean I absolutely loved the colour theme and play of this teeny map - Fanta mapping contest wtf

 

man you really never know what you will stumble upon and I love that

 

send us that Fanta bucks please

 

short and sweet will be back for more

[LadyMistDragon]

UAC Rebellion (cont)

 

Map 02: We emerge from some vents into a sort of welcoming office, complete with a fountain in the middle. In the first accessible hallway can be found something that looks like an Internet cafe, a financial office? and even a pool! There seems to be a PacMan machine on one wall. Doomkid's attempts at Doomcute are charming but in many places aren't too terribly convincing. The map goes past some medical rooms before ending in storage rooms and basements. Combat mostly follows the same but more intense tendencies of the previous maps. The hallway leading to the yellow key then proves like a release since we get to blast fools with a newly-acquired Uzi for which the firing sound doesn't clip correctly. This map also introduces rocket zombies, an overly tanky foe that you'll be guided to corretly use a chainsaw from the outset and a custom Caco using the doom 64 firing sound but otherwise lacking in anything special. The blockiness of the rooms sort of makes sense with the theme but it probably doesn't hold up everywhere.

 

 

 

My Second Level - What Fun! (1994) by Richard Chapin (Crispy Doom)

 

Wait, Harry Chapin had a son that attempted Doom mapping? It makes the note of thanks for "My wife, for not leaving me" all the more hilarious. Anyway, this is kind of a bog-standard '94 map. Chapin claims he stuck to a theme and while there's some truth to that, the insertion of hell textures inside typical slime world doesn't make much sense, anymore than what seems to be like a tube through slime. The map would be almost shovelware, thanks to the existence of an ultimately optional maze-like area that leads to the red skull key. But honestly, this key just open up a quad of diamond shaped rooms that all contain barrels, so namely said key just opens up a stupid gimmick area. Back to the main progression, the ending teleporter will take us to an outdoor castle area that's actually quite well-done, though not taking up lots of square footage, though this quickly transitions to something like industrial again, and we can see some inacessible Lost Souls in a sewer grate. At a certain point, we teleport back to the start, where the exit has opened up, containing a Cacodemon and near the tunnels, a large collection of Imps and Demons. 5/10, teeters on being shovelware but other than the ending bit, there's nothing wrong with monster placement that it's either easy to avoid or with zero room for escape.

 

 

 

[Roofi]

45 minutes ago, Clippy said:

Fanta

 

Hey , I'm not the only one to like Fanta as a drink and as a map. I played it and found it was a nice short orange map too. Perhaps a bit too brief, but whatever.

 

Year 2 Month 07 Day 22

 

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

 

[1] Justify v1.1 by Antony J. Burden (1995)

 

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Just Play for the Fun of it.

 

A base rich in themes and combats featuring a puzzley progression which might makes you feel the map is broken at times. However, the first thing you'll notice is the starry sky which never gets old and the somewhat overbright outsides which oddly look pretty and not so out of place.

 

Justify is a sharp product on many aspects, let's talk about the combats first. The map remains straightforward thanks to the all the available medkits and ammo but the many monsters closets that open at different moments of the map always maintains a certain degree of surprise, and demonstrates a certain sense of trickery on the part of its author. The traps don't increase the difficulty of the map that much but greatly help in preventing the map to fall in the usual dullness found in countless levels from the 90's. Moreover, the monster usage follow a certain logic : you encounter most of formidable midtiers in the large outdoor area you unlock after getting the blue and yellow key. The 2/3 of the maps are mostly populated with low-tier enemies with a pinch of mid ones.

 

Now, the visuals field represent my favourite aspect of the map. The author incorporated a wide variety of themes for a mid-sized level but the level blend well thanks to a careful texture usage and sector lighting. The starry sky and the music of map 02 create a comfortable, slightly off-ground atmosphere, a bit like playing one of the Hell Revealed maps that doesn't use ROTT music. And I love the floating yellow key. Simple but magic.

 

And at last, Justify contains some riddles such as finding hidden doors and pressing some pseudo-switches. Nothing surprising for a map from the 1990 but it's probably the most polarizing aspect of the level according to the idgames comments. 

 

All in all, Justify is a little gem from 1995, far more polished and charming than I'm used to. The nocturnal theme and slightly " enhanced " difficulty give me Hell Revealed vibes in small doses.

 

Grade : A-  (15,5/20)

 

[2] IDE by -VS- productions and Simply Silly Software (1995)

 

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This is the latest build of IDE, the freeware DOOM/DOOM2/HERETIC editor from -VS- productions and Simply Silly Software.

 

Extremly outdated.

 

[3] sleepy.wad by Michael Sager (1997)

 

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"Sleepy.wad" is an add-on file that I created for DOOM 2 on my roommate's 
computer.  I last modified it on February 20th, 1996 and I just decided to 
distribute it on the internet.  It contains one new level and a little bit of 
sound and graphics information.  The only sounds that I replaced were the 
sounds for when you get hurt and when you die, they are just sounds that I 
thought were funny.  I replaced one of the sky textures with a starry night 
sky to achieve the effect that I wanted.  Other than that I don't remember 
making any sound or graphics changes.  As far as I'm concerned, you can do 
whatever you want with the sound and graphics that I added.  I do not have 
any copyright restrictions or any such thing on this file, but please be 
courteous:

        1. Feel free to distribute the level - but please distribute it along
        with this text file, or just distribute the archive (sagerwad.zip).
        2. Feel free to use any ideas that you see in my level, but give me a   
        little credit if you copy something exactly.
        3. Please do not distribute modified versions of this level - if you 
        really want to, email me at  msager@eden.rutgers.edu

 

Sleepy.wad is another old map which use a starry night sky and that one presents more like a weird dream (or nightmare?) : weird structures, unmatching themes and typical randomness from the 90's.

 

When I launched the map, I thought sleepy.wad will be a sucky experience because the first enemies you meet are a group of chaingunners hidden behind fake walls and the yellow and red keys's section look ugly overall.

 

However, once I was able to unlock the door leading outside, I realized that this map had the potential to take me on an abstract journey. The width of the outdoor spaces highlights the starry sky, and I feel lost in an immense place, as if I were on a small planet lost in the middle of space. It's bewitching, and the contrasts in light make the outdoor areas particularly enticing. I'm thinking, for example, of the infernal red texture, which goes strangely well with the dark sky.

 

The section after the blue key is more classic, but also has a certain quirkiness that I like, such as lights that turn on and off, a circular duct or a hellish red corridor in which pinkies poke through fake walls.

 

Sleepy was a particularly trippy experience, with environments that were sometimes quite pretty.

 

Grade : B (14/20)

 

Tried to escape from an arch-vile in Madness before realising that the door behind me was closed.

 

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[brick]

Brick | 2 wads | 6 maps

Adventure | 5 wads | 10 maps

No screenshots this time, sorry. One wad doesn't deserve them, and I couldn't get them to work for the other.

 

PRINCTN1.WAD (1994) by Michael Reilly. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom.

Yes, it's another myhouse/school/university map from the early days, and every single time I play one I am more impressed with just how good The Unholy Trinity was compared to the competition. This one is frankly not good, the texturing is awful, it's all blocky and flat, and the enemy placement is nonsensical. Michael was clearly a joker, UV is the only real difficulty, lower ones have barons and a cyberdemon in the starting room. I admit I chuckled at the joke placement there, but unfortunately the more "serious" (if you can call it that) combat later on does not fare that much better. Michael also recorded a bunch of new sounds (I think they're all his voice) to replace certain voice clips (weapon pickup, baron wakeup, and a handful of others), I actually spent some time trying to figure out how to get them to work without running DMAUD (not the best use of my time). I'm not sure if I broke the map or if it's broken to begin with, I never managed to get the yellow key that I think is supposed to be required to get the red one, somehow I got the red first, did a portion of the map backwards. I'm not sure it's something I did honestly, of I understand the progression you need to open the yellow door to get to the yellow key anyway... This mess did not much to change my low opinion of the map, it's just a mess.

 

One Doomed Marine (2010) by Alexa Jones-Gonzales. 5 SP maps for Doom II in Doomsday.

Alexa had been mapping for a good 15 years before, but as far as I can tell this is her first released wad. It bears several hallmarks that I tend to associate with her output: pushing advanced features of the port (including custom coding), a keen eye for beautiful detailing and stunning lighting, and a soundtrack entirely composed by her. Here the customization takes the form of Doomsday DED files that are used to add dynamic lights and custom linedef actions. The detailing is fantastic as always, with some very dramatic use of Doomsday's coloured lighting in parts. There's a separate download for a music pack which I already had and that I also loaded, it's both very fitting and quite good, my favourites were the title and MAP01 tracks. The gameplay is traditional Doom, there are a few moments of intense combat but it's otherwise the usual find keys and switches, survive ambushes, incidental combat. While I liked a lot of the wad's content, I ran into a plethora of technical issues. Modern Doomsday didn't like the wad and just crashed when loading directly in Doomsday. For some reason starting it through Doom Launcher worked fine, but the first time the textures were all garbled and corrupted, a problem that then mysteriously fixed itself. There's a switch in MAP03 that's missing a sector tag and does nothing, which makes it impossible to get the yellow key and finish the map. In general I found using Doomsday a bit strange, and as always happens to me when I try a port I'm not familiar with I couldn't find where my screenshots went. Everything else I've played by Alexa surpasses this, but elements of her style and of her versatility are already present here. Despite the issues I enjoyed the wad, the maps are well done and fun to play, and they look and sound beautiful.

[LadyMistDragon]

UAC Rebellion (cont)

 

Map 03- 

 

Shorter and easier than the last map, signs of prolonged demonic habitation are starting to show. There are lots of tan stone brick walls, a bloody corpse or two and some stuff that probably is meant to comprise a security station. The first outdoor courtyard was quite tricky, and finally starts to suggest Doomkid's tendencies toward run-and-gun action. For some reason, we can finally access a Supercharge near the exit we saw earlier. From here, it's sewers. Apparently, we're near volcanic rock? I wonder what that could be about?

 

 

 

 

BLINDSIDE (1996) by Dan McAleese (Crispy Doom)

 

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Blindside is a compact, fast-paced, beautifully designed Deathmatch level with incredible new sounds and textures. It's been playtested on the Dwango server, and the frag-count just kept spinning higher and higher like the wheels on slot machine. It's insane. No sane person should own this wad.

 

 

It's really a pretty average DM map, with a central building of green industrial textures, surrounded by a courtyard and a raised section with rails along the very outer end. There are a few sound effect replacements. The SSG sounds highly annoying in its clunkiness though. The BFG might be a little on the silly end of things but it's still impactful. One thing is true though, this has a certain modern feel to the design that makes it playable even today 6/10

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

 

Oh, fun (1995) by Drew Dibble (Crispy Doom)

 

From the minute we saw chaingunners firing from a central outdoor courtyard with ceilings as low as possible, we knew we were.....nah, just kidding, just was reminded of Graf Zahl's map in Community Chest. There's a consistent color scheme happening at least, and the two-pronged Imp trap wasn't bad. And neither was the Imp appearing in shadow as the superfluous blue key that opens up a poorly-aligned Wolfenstein door. Even the room with the Imps and the Keen hanging from the ceiling wasn't too bad. At the ending is a Cyberdemon, standing behind a helipad with Invulnerbility in the corner and all too easy to avoid 3/10

 

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 23

 

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

 

[1] ÅHe ReSuRReCÅioN by MéKä (1996)

 

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Sequel to Lounge.Wad.. Contains new sounds, textures, and music from Descent and Duke Nukem 3D! Level sorta resembles a radioactive factory..

 

A Deathmatch map I already visited during Year 2 Month 07 Day 20 (15 October 2023) so, just a few days ago. What's going on with idgames? 

 

Anyway, here's my previous review :

 

"A charming DM map in which the imported textures make the game more colorful : I love those yellow and black fences and those bright red silos constituting the center of the map. This map also contains a sharp-looking black statbar with green digits which could be used in other projects. I really like Dm maps with this high degree of customization because they give interesting ideas for how to use resources from other media in Doom."

 

I launched crispy doom this time and the experience didn't change at but I forgot to mention the odd fake marines located in the air conducts. There are just here to fool you !

 

[2] OGRE Labs (version 2) by Russell Pearson @Russell_P (2006)

 

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A steaming pile of dung masquerading as a single player and co-op map.

 

Ogre labs tells the story of a large lab lost in a very dense forest which turns into a real slaughterhouse due to the 800-900 ennemies populating it. This is a moderatly detailed limit-removing map which mostly uses stock resources and bunch of custom assets in order to give to "Ogre Labs" its special touch.

 

This map quickly turns into a sort of softcore slaughtermap in which you kill an endless number of imps and other low-tiers enemies and where you're constantly supplied with ammo and items.  I also really enjoy of Russel Pearson puts a ton of small items such as armor shards, bottles or shotgun shells just to make the player feel wealthier than he actually is. You spend a lot of time grabbing items in Doom maps and its author understood how to fulfill the endless player's greed. Moreover , you'll find the same weapons several times in the map just in case you've all the equipment you need to defeat the numerous enemies.

 

The combat philosophy is as simple as it's fun here since the monsters more as pure popcorn than actual threats. I think my favourite part of the map resides in the test chambers leading to the blue key : the more you advance, the more doors open in order to liberate small hordes of monsters from their cells. You can either progress slowly in order to methodically eliminate the enemies or just rush, create a large mess and destroying everything with the BFG. The nitpick I have for the gameplay is the fact the ambushes rely too much on teleporting enemies, which isn't bad in itself but become way too repetitive and predictable in the long run. This reaches its climax in the sort of distorted hangar containing the soulsphere.

 

In terms of visuals, Ogre Labs's  mostly use sober colors such as brown and grey, which contrast with the lively green forest surrounding the large complex. However, The many gradations of light, the spacious rooms and the clean use of textures exude a cosy atmosphere. A lot of areas look a bit copy-pasted but overall this map has aged well for a map released in 2006 but I'm quite disappointed how anecdotal the vegetation is this map whereas the beginning of the level seems to foreshadow a level with a lot of it. I was expecting some sort of rustic, overgrown base, but this was definitely not the case.

 

Otherwise it's a must-play map considering its release date despite the minor remarks. The map concludes with a rather disturbing trip but I prefer to let you discover by yourself. Russel Pearson is a reliable source of quality maps.

 

Grade : A (17/20)

 

[3] Babble On When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk! by Hardy Davis (1999)

 

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Easy day. Fast insert, quick recon and do a body count from the last mission. The COC reports no enemy life forces present. Well, you've heard that crap before, just in case you'll go in tight and be ready for anything. You've lived this long by NOT listening to Data Dinks!

 

An early bizarre boom-compatible map I already played during Year 2 Month 02 Day 27 (March 1st 2023). Here's what I said about it :

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Babble is one of the odd early boom-compatible maps released in the late 1990's. Why odd? Because there is a dehacked accompanying the wad and that one obliterate all kind of challenge. Indeed, your weapons fire at turbo speed and have infinite ammo. Also, it burns the weaker enemies thanks to high tech technology I need. On the other side, the level looks really hard at best and maybe completly impossible without the dehacked because Hardy Davis placed several cyberdemons whereas I saw few ammo on the ground and I was stuck with my "weak" weapons from the beginning to the end. No plasma gun nor BFG in sight.

 

About the level itself, you start in a square arena made of brick and metal and your goal consists to obtain three keys by discovering different sections. Some prboom special features without serving a true purpose, such as swimmable lava pools or silent teleporter whereas the classic teleportation would suffice. I appreciate the level despite being a tad confusing at times because of the symmetry.

 

So, maybe the dehacked doesn't work as intended but using it makes you overpowered and ruin all the challenge , and not launching it results to a frustrating map subject to critical ammo famine. I prefer to recommand you the first option or just play another map because lot of high-quality boom mapsets have been released since. 

 

Grade : C

 

I tried to max it this time but I eventually pressed the exit pillar by accident. Anyway, it doesn't change that much. As I previously stated, the overpowered dehacked guns eliminate all resistance in the click of a finger.

 

It's a great stress reliever after a hard day's work, but I maintain that it takes the fun out of the map itself. Nevertheless, the strange experiments with Boom's functionalities lend a certain charm to this type of level just wow, I can swim in pools of blood, it's so fantastic !

 

Grade : C (10/20)

 

I stop here for today.

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 24

 

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

 

[1] EPA HOLD-UP v1.05.3 by Benjiman R. Lierman (1998)

 

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The aliens have returned to retreive the EPA                            
                   data that the gov. is hiding from you, the
                   people, about their secret polluting factories.

 

I could write my own review from scratch, but the comment on idgames perfectly resume my opinion about this map so let's quote it :

 

"Awful, tiny, useless level. Relies upon you pressing unmarked walls in a certain order, and it's impossible to finish because there's no yellow key. The level is tiny and should never have been released to the public."

 

Actually it's even worse : the map is not only impossible to beat because of the absence of the yellow key but also because the tagged linedef is on the wrong side , so even if you have the yellow kand in hands you still have to idclip in order to open the "door". Moreover, I would like to mention the useless cyber which is just here to waste your ammo and the eye-hurting custom STATBAR, definitely one of the ugliest I've ever seen.

 

I'll give half a point for the failed attempt at making a puzzle, but otherwise it's a big pile of stinky crap.

 

Grade : F (0,5/20) 

 

I was helpless against the Spider Momma from E.M.'s 10 Monster Pack

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

The UAC Rebellion (cont)

 

Map 04: Yup, it's a sewer map, which means it sucks...except it really doesn't! We plunge down from some drains, shoot the nearby barrels to kill some dogs, then keep going. Clastriphobic and annoying battles follow, like near the Berserk Pack, we're ambushed by a Baron from behind with two rocket launcher guys not too far ahead. We've got to be careful though I think we're probably supposed to punch more of the latter we find if they're not over some ledge. At the bottom, we're out of the sewers and into a section where a Baron proves annoyingly difficult to kill because of the little room available to fire. We lost patience and ran down eventually. A nearby lift will lower. One, we can access an open pipe with a plasma rifle sitting on top but heading down will softlock us because....ambitious detailing was too much or something. Anyway, taking the tunnel with the unmodified Pain Elemental leads us to some barrels we're basically using to attack the Barons and Mancubi that ambush us. Right after this comes a nicely vertical outdoor area with a decent variety of enemies and directly in front, the exit. There's also a secret exit, but the tunnel leading to the switch that opens is blocked by corpses and in any case, doesn't seem to exit to 31, at least in this port.

 

 

 

 

Deathroom.WAD (1995) by Matt Gibson (Crispy Doom)

 

An incredibly ugly deathmatch map, with no aligned doors and flesh being used as DOORTRAK for an entirely indiscernable reason. It's sort of nice how this is made of 3 different shapes I guess.

 

 

Spoiler

 

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 32 maps

Adventure | 6 wads | 42 maps

 

Realm of Chaos (1999) by The MacIntosh Team (TMT). 32 SP Maps for vanilla Doom II.
The big selling point of Realm of Chaos was that it was developed almost entirely on the Mac, with the tools available in 1996, and released that year (several bugfix updates followed, the latest seems to be from 1999). The idea was to gather the best mappers in the Macintosh scene and build a megawad compilation much like what was happening with PC Doom. I think the achievement is more impressive than it may seem, when you consider that the earliest equivalent DOS project (such as Memento Mori) came out less than a year before it, and that TMT (I like to think the pun was intentional) were working with brand-new mapping tools that were a couple of months old. They even threw in a few sprite modifications, which I admit I liked. The maps are a mixed bag as expected but the quality is generally consistent, and considering most are probably beginners' maps it's surprisingly good. Early on I expected this would go quickly as I blazed through short maps in under 5 minutes; how foolish of me! When I hit Steve Duff's MAP06 Splatterhouse I realized it would not be this easy, the map is large and sprawling and filled with over 200 enemies on HNTR, with some nonlinearity and a nice sense of adventure. As a rule Steve's maps are big and probably the best ones, but there are other big ones by other mappers. They're interspersed with smaller outings and, intentionally or not, the pacing is very good since big maps do not follow each other relentlessly. Detailing is vanilla but there's some nice architecture, some beautiful rooms with very few custom textures (there are barely a dozen custom patches), and the lighting is well done throughout with some standout maps (Steve's among these). I liked the doomcute architecture, especially the spaceship pair in MAP11 and the docks and big ship in MAP19. There are also some unfortunate designs, the progression is logical and fun in most maps but a few are frustratingly obscure. The worst instance was a one-way lift in MAP31 that leads to a softlock if you don't already have all 3 keys, I'm not sure if this was by design or a bug. One common trope in the wad is using hitscans in turrets over vast distances, and that started to get on my nerves long before the end. The finale will probably not win many fans, we have to contend with four Icons and run around a large arena with many slow lifts while trying to figure out what to do and in what order to get a shot at the boss (thankfully once we do there's no timing rockets). Although this last map and a few others were more irritating than anything I found myself frequently enjoying the maps, it has the typical energy and experimentation of those early megawads with some fun setups and occasionally some very clever ones.

Spoiler

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 25

 

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

 

[1] Synapse by Jacob H. Orloff (2007)

 

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A lengthy, challenging tech map with a few tricks and traps along the way.

 

I don't think Jacob was a hardcore doomer because this zdoom-compatible level can be completed in more or less 10 minutes and tons of rewarding secrets. 10 secrets for 70 monsters , that's pretty crazy ! You can find at least 3 soulspheres in them, just as an instance to show how the author was worried to see you dying.

 

In any case, although zdoom-compatible, this map doesn't really use any special effects apart from teleporters activated by pressing a switch and not by walking on a linedef. Synapse takes place in a very confined and underlit tech base. It's suffocating, and frankly I'd have liked more fresh air. The theme is correctly implemented but really nothing extraordinary, especially when aiming at advanced ports like gzdoom.

 

In reality, the most fun aspect of this map comes in the search for secrets. They're easy to find and there are plenty of them, so finding them is always a joy. But the level is straightforwad enough to make them rather useless.

 

So, Synapse isn't a fancy product from 2007 but whether you like or not this map, I guarantee it's impossible to not groove on the midi rendition of "Du Hast" by Ramnstein.

 

Grade : C+ (11/20)

 

[2] James Brown Doom by James Stewart (1995)

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This is easily the funkiest sound wad ever.

 

It replaces Doom sounds by tracks from one of funk's greatest figures. Each level ends with the legendary "I feel good". I never listen to funk music so I don't care about this file, sorry.

 

[3] OH EM GEE by ravage @Fletcher` (2004)

 

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A Zdoom map showing off my use of slopes

 

"OH EM GEE" shouts at you : "OMG dude ! Look at this ! YOU CAN MAKE SLOPES ! THAT'S FUCKING COOL ! SAY GOODBYE TO STAIRS NOW!" Ravage used the slopes in various ways : for decorative purposes, doors which slide diagonally, ramps etc. However, the map itself consists to dark concrete bunker with a lot of crampy corridors and fifty shades of grey textures.

 

You also have a new submachine-gun which is more or less as powerful as your chaingun but the tight ammo in this map prevents you from accomplishing big massacres. As the other map I previously played, that one contains a lot of secrets (9) but I only found 2 of them. The combats remain quite dull without being unpleasant. This is really not the main point of the level anyway.

 

At the end, I think there should exist a category named "outdated technical showcase" in order to regroup all those kind of maps made in the late 99's/early 00's which have the main or only purpose to show off the cool features offered by the new ports (mostly Boom and Zdoom). These maps were a wow-factor at the time but the Doom community evolved so much since, that there is no real interest to download them nowadays. We went from "OH EM GEE" to "Lullaby", "Ar Luminae", or more recently "Myhouse.pk3" and it's beautiful. I wonder how the doom community in few decades. Maybe dead? I hope not.

 

Grade : B-  (12/20)

 

[4] Teams by Phillip Edwards (1995)

 

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A Deathmatch only wad for Doom2. holes for each player to start in. Each person gets Large main arena, and 4 overlooking rooms that overlook one another, some teleporters, balanced weapon loadout at each start. Designed for 4 players 2 on 2, but is just fine in a free for all. A team must work together to get the plasma gun (ultimate dm weapon)

 

A large combat-zone made with curvy organic-shapes. The large courtyard represents the main area of the map but players access to ancillary indoors too. About the plasma gun, your teamate must press one of the switch located afar from the plasma gun in order to lower and raise the lift holding the weapon. You don't have the time to do it alone so this map isn't definitely suited for duel. I think it still playable without the PG but it would be boring due to the size of the map. The author placed teleporters in order navigate faster.

 

[5] BASE.ZIP (Includes BASE.WAD & BASE.TXT) by Brandon Davids "TALON" (2005)

 

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You have just entered the secret BASE of the enemy. Your mission is to steal the heavily guarded backpack of jewels and reach the exit alive. This level is supposed to be as close to the real DOOM levels as possible. This level does support different difficulty levels. The main difference's between the skill levels comes at the end of the level. There are 3 different scenarios of Bosses you can fight. ALL of which are managable even in Ultra Violence. If you can't out-smart the Cyber-Demon without codes, then just play an easier skill level.

 

A love-letter to the first Iwad which consists to a sort of fusion between the three episodes. BASE.ZIP has the appearance of a E1-themed tech-base at first sight, but you'll discover some hellish parts the further you explore the map and meet tougher enemies not present in the first episode such as the cacodemon, the baron of hell and even a surprise cyberdemon (Not really because he's mentioned in the desc but still).

 

It deliberately tickles the sense of déjà-vu by incorporating particularly memorable areas from the IWAD maps, such as the slime-covered paths from E1M6, the first room from E2M7 and the crates from E2M2. That method was also used in the megawad "Wonderful Doom" released in 2007.

 

So what about the quality of the map? It's Doom. If you like the original Doom, you"ll appreciate BASE.ZIP. Still, it's impressive that the author was able to do this in 6 hours, in 1994. The visuals are particularly pretty.

Grade : B (13,5/20)

 

I stop here for today.

Edited October 21, 2023 by Roofi

[Walter confetti]

2 hours ago, Roofi said:

 [5] BASE.ZIP (Includes BASE.WAD & BASE.TXT)

Neat and fun map, It was used also in Heroes 2 MAP23 iirc

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 05: The UAC Rebellion

 

Here's a map that is probably a little lacking in distinct theme when compared to the previous ones - it seems to be some sort of industrial facility, although there's little sign of the occurrence of actual industry - but it's also soundly the best map so far. See, Doomkid at one point simply didn't have a natural gift for the editor and so every so often, he'd turn out these maps that really aren't so streamlined when compared to certain modern wads by skillsaw and the like. This basically means that while overall about as claustrophobic as the other maps, height and room size variances really help to make this interesting! Barring an incredibly rough beginning owing to the lack of ammo, this is a fun sort of run-and-gun almost all the way through! Without really breaking down too much detail regarding specfic combat situations, monsters are used quite economically for an apparent lack of plasma rifle and rocket launcher and while mid-tiers can kind of clump together, it's in small enough numbers that it's not so tiresome. At the same time, dickish monster placement continues, including a rocket zombie right behind a door and an Arch-vile in a sort of little station where there's, guess what, hardly any room to shoot them with, especially when there's two zombies for them to resurrect! At least the last Arch-vile is easy enough to punch without too much inconvenient resurrection.

 

There were a couple of distinct locations despite my earlier remarks about the map's identity. One is the locker room and nearby bathroom that suggests another function. Another is the small grassy courtyard toward the end, right before we go underground again

 

 

 

 

 

 

8MBGM and 8MBGSFX Gravis Patch Set v 1.3 (2004) by Rich "Weeds" Nagel

 

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The files in this archive consist of a complete set of high quality Gravis format patch files that were created from EMU Technologies "8MBGM.SF2" and "8MBGSFX.SF2" SoundFont format soundbanks (E-mu Rev B).

The patch set consists of 635 Gravis format patches (a total of 32,156,227 bytes of patch files) which make up a single high quality General MIDI compatable standard melodic bank, and a total of nine different General MIDI compatable drum kits (Standard, Room, Power, Electronic, TR-808, Jazz, Brush, Orchestral, and Sound Effects drum kits).

These patch files can be used with the software wavetable synthesis MIDI music synthesizer "Timidity", or any program or utility that supports Gravis format patches for music synthesis (such as the native Gravis patch support included with PRBOOM, the native Timidity support included with ZDOOM, the software wavetable synthesis digital MIDI "DIGMID" music driver support included with BOOM or any other Allegro based application, or the MIDI player support of the Cubic Player).

Essentially this patch set will make the MIDI music playback of any of the above mentioned applications sound highly realistic, all without the need of expensive MIDI hardware.

 

 

Frankly, this is outdated, but I'd already skipped an Skulltag map that I assume was tragically unplayable like the rest, so there was basically zero chance of that, especially if I wanted to keep playing another dratted multi-map wad. Anyway, this basically sounds like a method to take midis composed in the Gravis sound format and play them outside a wad without having to purchase special hardware to actually hear the playback of your Gravis-composed midi. Naturally, midi composers these days can mostly simulate all that, although you still will probably have to get something with a monthly subscription if you want optimal results.

[brick]

Brick | 2 wads | 2 maps
Adventure | 8 wads | 44 maps
 

Doom City (1995) by Shams Young. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom II. Played in GZDoom on UV.
The late Shamus Young was only active as a Doom mapper for a few months and he only published 4 wads, but I think they are all very memorable. Doom City was his attempt at creating a believable Downtown, and while it lacks MAP13's verticality and absract progression, it makes up for it with the sheer cuteness with which Shamus created each locale. There's a gas station with a 7-11, a Burger Hut with a mancubus serving very hot meatballs, a bank with a drivethrough and a secret hidden inside its ATMs, the public library... The star of the show is the selection of custom textures Shamus created to bring each place to life, there's only a dozen or so of them but they're so well done and perfectly aligned. I played on UV for a change and even then found the map very easy, but the care Shamus put in the map is admirable and the playful humour of the whole thing is infectious. It was a short but very enjoyable 10 minutes.

Spoiler

 

The Villa of Pain (1996) by Michael Reed. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom II. Played in GZDoom on HNTR.
Mike Reed is another one of the early mappers who sometimes tried for a touch more realistic places, though using only iwad assets. This one has us cleaning up a demon infestation in the titular villa. The map can be easily broken down into discrete sections: the initial drop down into the underground to get the red key, the living quarters with some lovely doomcute, the SW section and the blue key, and then the northern storage area for the yellow key. The path through the map is pretty linear but there's some interconnectedness to make progression seem a bit more organic and it works well. The map is stuffed with enemies but most go down pretty quickly. I think some of Mike's other maps are better, in particular his most more famous Hoover Dam, but this one's a fun little excursion, like most of his maps.

Spoiler

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 26

 

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

 

[1] MayDay.wad by Joe Vallee (2005)

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Seven days ago the "Mayfair" issued a distress call. The Mayfair is a deep exploratory vessel and is currently scouting a black hole in sector 95. Garbled reports of the distress call reported an unknown race of aliens attacking the ship. You are being sent as part of an UAC task force to assist the Mayfair. Good luck.

 

Mayday.wad was made in 1994 and whereas it officially takes place in a spaceship, the presence of boxes and the massive use of the gridded floor texture give me the impression of exploring a sort of slaughterhouse. Moreover, you have the occasion to explore some bloody areas in the later parts of the level. This map replaces E2M1 and provides a creepy atmosphere if you don't take account to the stock midi. For my part, I used the one from E1M7. Despite being simple, the architecture made me feel a bit uneasy and more specifically the long straight corridors serving as a hub between all the warehouses. Add to that most of the places are underpopulated, which contribute to the eerieness of the map.

 

It's not the most straightforward 1994-map I played. Qualifying as "hard" or "tough" would be very exaggerated but ammo was pretty tight so I had to be careful and monsters are free to navigate in the map, which tend to increase their unpredictability. The last switch is guarded by a Spider Mastermind and you have almost no cover except a duo of barons. Create the infight and run to the exit !

 

Grade : B- (12/20)

 

[2] TRUCK.WAD by Andrew Noyes (1996)

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Technically innovative. Contains graphic enhancements, reminiscent more of Duke Nukem 3D than Doom, though requires no EXE enhancements - just load up the PWAD and go!

 

A small gem in Doom history mostly because of the small black and white screen which manages to play a small animation under vanilla limits ! Really impressive effect for the time but hard to use in vanilla because it needs quite a lot of linedefs to work.

 

However, the animation is not the only point of interest here. Just look at this truck ! So cute and you can even entering in ! TRUCK.WAD also contains a a kind of tube that ends with a fan, really classy.

 

This DM map is a work of art but I highly doubt of its playability for DM. The areas remain poorly interconnected and the exit is guarded by a surprise crusher, but nevermind. I love this map.

 

I fell in a HOM pit full of invisible Hell Knights in Perrile Base

 

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[Sena]

Trick or Treat Madness 2012 by Unholypimpin/Alwaysdoomed (2012)

I seem to be a week early for this to be thematically appropriate, but no matter. This has an interesting format, which can be hard to discern from the text overlapping into itself, but you have to collect 90 (I think?) bags of candy from various copy-pasted streets in the neighbourhood, featuring a voice-acted resident which is a nice surprise. Most of them give me a couple bags, and I have to kill them to break into their house for more, and some people tell me to go away but I'll just kill them too, and I think it is my murderous tendencies that resulted in me sometimes being attacked by some invisible force, although I can't really tell, it doesn't do a good job of explaining. The decorations and the concept on offer here are endearing, this is the kind of mod that nobody would make for any game other than Doom, but it is truthfully not very fun to play, as the scavenging gets boring fairly quickly, especially with no enemies. 4/10.

 

[Walter confetti]

FEAROFDK.WAD by Unknown - Vanilla Doom, SP, 1 map, 1994 but uploaded in 2007, played with DSDA-Doom 0.26.0

Spoiler

 

A raw looking map made with a unspecified "DOOM Editor for Windows" (looks like DeeP stock assets with that MARBLE1 walls, but i'm not sure at all about it) with a nice interconnected layout with some interesting ideas like a dark pit before a ominous lighted room where you fall down, a unkillable monster that i didn't found out, all misalignments and broken stuff you expect from a filler shovelware CD random wad uploaded here by FunDuke 13 years later for some bizarre reason. Title is cool, that Iron Maiden song is great.

 

Dagobah by Chris Wright - Limit Removing, Doom 2, SP, 1 map, 2010, played with GZDoom 4.10.0 and DSDA-Doom 0.26.0

Spoiler

 

A better looking map from the previous but conceptually is a similar kind of map using a series of curvy rooms with different battle types in each one but not strong theme changes. Kinda abstract and overall fun, stock music doesn't really fit in this map. Title makes me think of some political Talk Show for some reason. Despite the text file says this map can be playable only on GZDoom, it played on DSDA-Doom without any issue.

[LadyMistDragon]

UAC Rebellion: Map 06

 

Basically, a sort of condominium in a forested area, although there also seem to be extensive storage areas. Thanks to some determined chaingunner placement, it's also the hardest so far. The rocket guys at the end along with the Arch-vile proved to be horrible dickish. Granted, my health was lower than it needed to be and I hadn't found the hidden rocket launcher though. Shorter than the last map actually!

 

 

 

 

 

Doom II-Level (1998) by Peter Tauber (GZ Doom)

 

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nice

 

Odd thing to put down when this was before 69 as a reference took off. Anyways, we've got a map that's so horribly broken because of the lack of subsectors that it refuses to run in DSDA and Crispy, probably barely runs in Chocolate Doom and just struggles in Eternity, so GZDoom it was! To say nothing of the generic name which would be like if someone called a Castlevania ROM hack "Castlevania-Stage", although the filename is wait for it, SATAN.

 

The MSPaint title screen is simple and efficient though, and there's one custom weapon, a Sten-like machine gun which replaces the plasma rifle. The map itself, though....it's entirely green marble which isn't such a bad thing in and in itself....but there's just two rooms plus a hallway. While the sharks swimming around the tree strcutures a la a swamp is amusing, it's also possible to get softlocked in the chamber with the gun. Also, don't bother looking for a yellow key, it's nothing but a yellow herring. There's also some Barons in cages at the start but they're entirely inconsequential. No matter, this review is long enough that I don't think I'll have to hunt down something else to pad this out, so like 2/10

 

 

 

[DrRock]

DeathMatch Chase by Ryan J. McCaffrey, (Vanilla, 1995) - Heretic

played in Zandronum 3.1 against 4 bots

Spoiler

A circular deathmatch arena, that apparently has all of the weapons in the game laying around. In my brief try-out of this map, I only ever found the Firemace and the Phoenix Rod. Not that I looked very hard. There also are plenty of Tomes of Power and Wings of Wrath(seems kinda busted for DM) to be picked up. Also some fake walls here and there. I don't see this being too great of a deathmach experience, given how big the map is. Though I can also see how there might be some super primitive entertainment to be gotten out of this with lots of players present firing away mindlessly.

 

 

The Adventures of MassMouth by Cyb, (ZDoom, 2000) - Doom II
played in ZDoom 2.8.1 on Ultra-Violence

Spoiler

From the annals of ZDoom modding comes this early game mod. One that spawned an entire series, no less. I'll be honest here and say that I utterly detest this. Things go south as soon as the first mission, where killing a security guard to wrest away a better gun in his security booth is made far too difficult because of the beyond pathetic peashooter your funny little alien guy starts out with. The second misssion is set in an ugly brick temple where you have to lure a mini-Baron into a cage contraption. Likely because I played this mod in a much later version of ZDoom, some of the behaviors and scripts may be altered a bit much. I say this because having any of the Barons walk onto the sector triggered the ending of the mission. Mission three throws at the player annoyingly loud and overpowered bats in some labyrinthian cave network. This is the point where I decided that I had seen enough of the mod and quit.

 

I'll give props to the author for creating a mod that utilizes so many new features this early on in the life of the port, but actually playing it has had to be one of the least fun experiences I've ever had with Doom in any form. The changes made to the base game are pretty much all for the worse. Something that seems more enjoyable to study and look back on in a historic context than to actually play. I'll take a guess in that the nostalgia and/or positive reception towards the series has to come from the sequels, rather than this first outing.

 

Note: This was one of the recommended WADs in the 59th ER/iWA. Plenty more reviews and screenshots of this mod to be found in that thread.

 

 

Death For You by Jeremiah Bean, (Vanilla, 1996) - Doom II

played in Zandronum 3.1 against 4 bots

Spoiler

I'm not entirely sure what the author was going for with this map. Two halves of a map connected by a central pyramid in a sort-of cross shape with two Megaspheres at it's horizontal ends. One half having the only spawn point in the map as well as a few Shotguns and shells. On the other side players can grab a SSG and make a leap to a BFG, made useless by being on a lower platform, with no way back into the fray other than getting fragged or jumping down a slime pit. The four slime pits on the edges of the cross shape in the middle have Rocket Launchers and rockets placed at the bottom. Presumably to kill yourself for a faster respawn since there's no way out other than having the slime slowly wittle your health points away. Utterly baffling, even by the generally strange standards of early DM maps.

 

 

Egregor1 by Egregor (Eregore), (ZDoom*, 2012) - Doom II

played in ZDoom 2.8.1 on Ultra-Violence

Spoiler

For a first release, this is really good. Egregor built this fortress with 2048x2048 dimensions. And while none of the sections, be they indoors or outdoors, are very roomy at all, the map doesn't feel cramped whatsoever. Monsters are placed with maximum efficiency and will ruin your day if you slip up even slightly. The Chaingunners overseeing the central yard can especially be annoying. It also takes a bit to get a hold of the more powerful weapons and the SSG is entirely absent. Not to mention the general tightness of health pick-ups and ammo. I failed numerous times tackling the map but happily tried again and again. Egregor1 is high in quality and is well thought-out. I'd say give it a spin.

 

Note: This has already been reviewed in the 27th ER/iWA.

 

*"Tested only with the zdoom port"

[LadyMistDragon]

The UAC Rebellion (cont)

 

Before we start, I checked out the pistol sound in DSDA Doom and it seems to replicate fine there. It's a nice crisp and clean sound.

 

Map 07

 

Shouldn't really be saying very much, because there's really little to speak of, but I'll say this. Some ways, it's like Tenements if it seemed more single-player focused, but at any rate, this is a map that's meaner and more unforgiving of slipups than the previous ammo. Ammo is scattered in such a way that getting 100 percent kills, if that's your goal, is much harder than it would be otherwise. On the plus side, we get to punch out a rocket guy or two. On a bigger plus side, we have enough rockets to blow the ones on top of the outdoor knolls to bloody chunks with single rockets! The surprise Arch-vile in the narrow corner killed me more than a couple of times. Rocket zombies are used more intelligently but in greater numbers believe it or not. Even though that twisty dirt corridor can go die and feels like the wrong way to emulate TNT. When the red key is revealed, so are a Cyberdemon and Arch-vile! The amount of room here is probably best now dwelled on though we do get a BFG replacement! Although it's horribly inefficient and shoots some weird electrical current that feels funny. Fine though, as long as we have enough ammo for the Arch-vile on Baron on the ledge we teleport to. Get past more hitscanning nonsense and the exit shouldn't be too far away. The kind of map that begs for repeat playthroughs, but with some situations where someone might get a little offended at the BS.

 

 

 

 

My Frist Map (2009) by @Eye del Cul (Crispy Doom)

 

The best part of this is a humorous /idgames comment referring to former Republican Senate leader from Tennessee Bill Frist, who came between Mitch McConnell and Trent Lott, and also had an unfortunate medical mishap, a la Ben Carson.

 

I don't care if politics annoys you though, because that's about how much this map is worth. It commits almost every single '94 cliche imaginable, such as mostly leaving detailing to the birds, textural themes changing every room, pointlessly twisting rooms, and other areas near the keys that are probably unnecessary to visit and are basically uninteresting anyways. One positive thing are the key doors actually being marked properly, rather than being stuck in random areas and things like that. If this has a plus side, the map is mercifully short, but unfortunately, the red key is much closer to the beginning than the end, necessitating some backtracking and there's no justification, like interesting design or anything like that. 1/10

 

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 11 maps
Adventure | 9 wads | 55 maps

 

Pleiades (2000) by Roger Ritenour. 11 SP maps for Doom II in ZDoom. Played in GZDoom on HNTR.
I was always a fan of Roger Ritenour's attemps at doomcute and realistic architecture, especially with his obvious love of spaceships and space stations. All his original wads were for vanilla Doom II, but he later remade all of them for ZDoom. This one is basically the 4 maps from Phobos and all of his one-map wads (including the titular Pleiades) merged into a single iwad and linked into a coherent story, with a few extra maps created to fill in the gaps. I really like his ZDoom additions: deep water, strategically positioned ambient sounds, frequent story texts between maps, the occasional low-gravity room, nothing that changes the gameplay much but it all adds to the atmosphere (the spacewalk at the beginning of MIR was impressive back then). The wildly different origins of some of the maps create a lot of variety, the only ones that were obviously meant for each other are the Phobos ones, but the architecture is very well done, and the level design itself is often interesting and it was a lot of fun trying to figure out what to do. Combat was never Roger's strongest suit; I like that he uses closets and teleport ambushes away from the player's current location, it's more unpredictable when we don't know where enemies are as they're coming after us, but unfortunately many of the maps are just too dark and constantly bumping into them without seeing them gets tiresome after a while. There are also a couple of technical issues; I think the wad is too old to need hardware rendering, but one map had HOMs all over the place in software. Some of the architecture is truly impressive, such as the reactor core in Nuclear Plant, but the crane needed to get the blue key is a vanilla bridge that broke so many times I even thought I was doing something wrong (I wasn't, you just have to cross it very carefully to avoid bugging it out). Music is an odd selection of Bobby Prince tracks, classical music (of course Holst's Mars plays on the first Phobos map) and wait is that Pink Floyd? Being used to 3-minute MIDIs in Doom wads, I was surprised hearing a rendition of Shine On You Crazy Diamond that runs the full duration, and even a Mike Oldfield that goes for the whole 20 minutes, but I must say it's nice not to have to listen to a short MIDI a dozen times on repeat. Much as I enjoyed the wad in parts, I admit that the enormous and dark caverns and passages and the combat therein eventually got on my nerves, and it's a shame because the darkness mars some otherwise excellent level design, some really great doomcute and some very beautiful visuals.

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

The UAC Rebellion (cont)

Map 08: Desolation HQ

 

I had to switch to GZ Doom because for some reason, this was the map where Doomkid decided to use unique functions that would make the map unplayable otherwise. The numerous computers, sick bay with a Cacodemon nurse and reddish-sewage filled basements are all evidence of this. It's also here that pistol-starting starts to become quite problematic indeed! Sure, a BFG can be found near a balcony, but the amount of cell ammo after a certain point is quite difficult, even with the discovery of a hidden plasma rifle. And the amount of rocket zombies falls just short of abuse and doesn't necessarily provide the ammo to dispose of them easily on pistol start, making it to where a machine gun is probably the best action to take against them. The red key trap even has the gall to throw a Spider Mastermind at you in a room with hardly any ammo! After more switch funkiness, we lower a wall near the beginning to what seems like yet another waste disposal site. Hitscanners crowd in the pits, along with a Baron and some other scattered enemies. Lower the barrier to the exit, then be confronted with a barrel that may or may not blow the nearby chaingunner to red chunks, then a Lord of Hell and an Arch-vile that basically beg for BFG ammo to be spared.

 

 

 

 

Painful Echoes (1999) by Qingshao "Pixel Rex" Wang (Crispy Doomn)

Maps made by East Asians in the late 90s were rare and those that exist tend to be of almost absurdly low quality. Which makes this map that much more remarkable. There's nothing particularly strong about it, however, this is one of those maps that has an utterly timeless aesthetic and combat flow that could be part of any map today.

 

This, despite most rooms consisting of a boring square shape and the only non-secret gun being a Super Shotgun at the very beginning. Shades of Gene Bird are hard to escape, but this is a shorter map with an arguably greater grasp on the visual aesthetic, that of being a temple and given the author's origin, perhaps its the final resting place of Qin Shihuandi. The room that turns to red carpet with the Imps just inside was a cool moment but is not really an indication of increased danger inside. We also end up shotgunning a fair few Barons (insert obligatory Yonatan Donner joke here) but there's only 58 enemies on UV so it's not really a big deal. One more interesting characteristic of this map: there's a grand total of zero hitscanning enemies. There's enough ammo to where it's not really a big deal but it's an interesting quirk regardless, and one I was kind of grateful for with how I rushed through. Speaking of which, it seems I made quite the appropriate midi choice as well. 6/10

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 07 Day 27

 

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

 

[1] Communications Center by Morpheus (2009)

Quote

 

 

The day starts with an intraveinous injection of good' ol Doom. That short and sweet traditional tech-base provides a relaxed adventure and a satisfying exploration involving easy to spot secrets. For a map made under the vanilla compatibility, "Communication Center" features a rather elaborated architecture at some places that you don't necessarly take notice in reason of the classic feeling.  Playing this type of map is like going to your favorite restaurant: you know what to expect and that you'll be well served.

 

Grade : B (14/20)

 

I fell in a small deadly lava pool in Afterlife.

 

Quote

[LadyMistDragon]

UAC Labs (cont)

 

Map 09: The Gateway

 

So, we're in a marble fort of sorts with a well in the middle. Head to the door at the end of the stairs and bam, the walls around us lower, revealing a wooden fort that may or may not be makeshift and symbols that suggest this beachhead has probably been here for a while. 

 

This is a fairly short map and it's also easily the hardest so far! Imps fire from seemingly everywhere, with Mancubi pair firing from one end and behind them, a frickin' quad of Barons. And unfortunately, we can ill afford to mess with them from pistol start, but remember the Blursphere. It just might save our life!

 

In any case, we go up some stairs, past a blood river with a chaingunner and zombie down below and here, our waterfall exploring is finally rewarded as we go down a tunnel behind yet another bloodfall to pick up a berserk pack in a boiling section! We also get the Supercharge here.

 

After the key is found, we open a building and are transported straight to hell! Doomkid's surprisingly strong grasp on Hell surrealism has to be praised here with the way he organizes things. Though before that, we should be able to acquire the lightning gun, which we use to blast through the guys in front of us, then take out the rocket zombies inside the red cave at the very end before switching to Uzis for the remainder because this shit ain't over! See, after the guys in the central fort have been wiped out, we have to press two switches so we can access it...but in addition, a massive horde of monsters starts to teleport in, with an Arch-vile in the middle and probably at least half a dozen rocket zombies towards the end!. It's probably a matter of choice to wait before getting the rocket launcher in the middle, but just hope it's not after the Arch-vile.

 

One last thing, cool floor symbol at the exit. I think we all know where John Romero really got the idea for cracked floors from.

 

 

 

 

 

Brutalist Doom (2014) by 1337 Doomer (GZ Doom)

 

Once, before the 8-map project known as Brutalisk was in development, there were other sorts of people who saw the stark Commie minimalism of state-owned buildings and decided that would be an incredible and oppressive idea for a Doom wad. But as a good friend of mine found out with a map called Concrete Fear, drawing inspiration solely from stark grayness will end up with you as bitter and disappointed as those who've had to live under that BS and its aftermath. Bottom line is, this gives a gray overlay than can enhance artistic qualities in some formerly vanilla areas, but in others, does basically nothing. It's like someone tried to copy the Brutalist style without really trying to capture its griminess. 3/10, just because there might be more fitting vanilla wads for this (it runs in vanilla, btw)

 

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by LadyMistDragon