Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #072

[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:

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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. Area 53
2. SomethingWrong?.WAD Unfinished
3. Horror
4. Scorched Hell (this is a HeXen WAD)
5. UnNecessary: 30 Days, 32 Maps, Zero Texture Alignment; or, UnAligned 2: A WAD No One Asked For

 

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The Top 10 (Out of 69):

 

1. @Roofi | 7910

2. @LadyMistDragon | 4350

3. @Sena | 2590

4. @Walter confetti | 2480

5. @ICID | 1570

6. @brick | 1515

7. @Endless | 1220

8. @Thelokk | 725

9. @Clippy | 590

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.

[brick]

Brick | 2 wads | 12 maps

 

Area 53 (1998) by Adam Jacob Czarnecki. 4 SP maps for vanilla Doom.

Pretty bad set of 4 maps with misaligned textures everywhere, a completely random selection of textures in the first place, right angles and boring corridors everywhere, boring combat, and in general just not much to it. The maps are so flat that I was genuinely taken aback when entering a room in E1M3 and finally coming across some Z-axis (not much is made of it). The final map has what is supposed to be an arena for an epic Cyberdemon fight (though there are way too many supplies lying around) but he's in a tiny room off the arena and I couldn't get him to walk out of it, so ended up just killing him there, rather anticlimactically. I've probably played worse, but there's nothing good I can say about this wad sadly.

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SomethingWrong?.WAD Unfinished (2023) by SnowyBoiWhoMakesStuf. 8 SP maps for Doom in GZDoom.

Modifications of iwad maps are nothing new, the Casalis were doing it even before Final Doom, but the past couple of years saw a surge in popularity of concepts such as "recreated from memory" or "but something's not right". This wad initially seems like it's doing the former, but it becomes obvious early on that it's going for the latter, with visible seams in the maps' reality and corruption pouring into familiar hallways. Unfortunately the idea is hampered by some awful design. The references are recognizable because of how memorable they are, but they're often rendered simplistically and amateurishly. There are some questionable choices, such as repeating sky textures as walls or misaligned super-tall door textures. Very little of the original maps remains, sometimes just the starting room, and the rest is just padding, often one long monotextured hall with nothing to it. Combat is minimal, the biggest fight is in E1M6 in a room full of 20 or spectres that you have to shotgun, boring more than anything else. I couldn't help but be reminded of The Thing You Can't Defeat, but with a completely botched execution. It's a shame because there are some clever ideas in there, such as the music tracks that start sounding just slightly off and then get completely distorted into something almost unrecognizable, or E1M7 which really looks like completely madness or as if reality is falling apart. Unfortunately none of these glimmers of good ideas can save the wad.

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Guardian Angel (2019) by Abe87 (GZDoom)

 

A 10-map set with little to really say about it. The theme seems to be a Doom II in Name Only approach on a spaceship, with all areas bearing some vague resemblance to their namesakes. Gameplay is fairly average for the most part, while the layouts are a little bit more complicated than in certain starter wads I've played on Endless /idgames adventures. One of the largest standouts was the Residential Area (07), utilizing verticality and more complex geometry than any map before or since. But that's easily the best one. While the last map tries to end things on a high note by throwing both the boss monsters at us, the Cyberdemon feels obligatory and placed very awkwardly. Funny thing is, difficulty never really changes too much since Map 03 or so. 6.5/10 because things still flow fine but there's only so much to speak of. Abe87 also released a set this year that I have zero memory of, which I can safely say at this point isn't a good sign and certainly didn't have a map like Residential Center.

 

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Edited November 15, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[LadyMistDragon]

The Training Session (1994) by Ramsey Hanafi, aka GamerX, aka Anakin (Crispy Doom)

 

Quite apart from the user name that feels ripped retroactively from 5 years later, and the stringiness and lack of detail, this isn't too bad. The changing of textures is gradual and subtle for the most part, oddball rooms in the center excepting. Go exploring around and secrets are actually really easy to find! Especially the BFG, although perhaps it'd be best to wait until ammo has been collected from the nearby cross hallway before taking the Cacos here on, or even the same with the Baron of Hell at the little garden in one room. At the end, we teleport into the middle of some Barons and apparently, this is an older version of a different wad. Maybe I'll get the old version anyway, but in either case, this is an easy 5/10

 

Spoiler

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[brick]

Brick | 2 wads | 2 maps

Adventure | 4 wads | 14 maps

 

Horror (1996) by Steve Terry. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom.

Between the author's name and the zero rating I expecting something unfortunate. This is thankfully not the infamous Terry, and the map is really not as bad as the review makes it sound. If anything it's a bit schizophrenic, it really feels like various bits and pieces made by completely different authors and randomly stitched together. The starting hallway is dark, and getting out requires going through a (hinted at) fake wall. Go one way and you're in a series of tunnels with some nice lighting in parts, full of secrets. Go the other way and you're in this fullbright series of room-corridor-room with some not great texturing. Then out of nowhere there's the UAC logo lifted straight out of Doomsday of UAC (and properly credit to Leo Martin Lim in the text file). The map's really just a succession of puzzles, which I didn't find particularly difficult but some are well laid out. The one that seems like trial and error (picking which of the stairs leads to an invisible bridge over lava, and which will send you into the lava) has the solution spelled out elsewhere. The tower with the spiral stairs has some clever linedef setup to make it seem like it's doing room over room (or corridor under corridor). I also liked the succession of secrets that eventually not the BFG. I think most people will call this a 1994 map, but I enjoyed the attempts at establishing puzzles even if the architecture is pretty blocky and flat in parts.

Spoiler

 

Scorched Hell (2005) by Adam Landefeld. 1 MP map for vanilla Hexen.

I did a double take when I saw the author but yes, this is him of Team TNT, specifically of Eternal Doom and Eternal Deathmatch (and the entire soundtrack of the latter). Years later he decided to release a gimmick map for Hexen. It's basically the old DOS game Scorched Earth converted to Hexen, using some very clever ACS scripting. Just like that Doom Arcade bonus mission I played a few days ago you control pitch, speed and angle of the shot, but here there are also different kinds of projectiles that do different amounts of damage. The real fun is that you're not using the projectiles to kill enemies but other players, who also control similar stations. In the absence of a player, the station will be controlled by the computer, another case of pushing the scripting and twisting it into bizarre workarounds to do what Adam wanted. I can see this being fun with friends, but it's also another demonstration of the creativity some mappers exhibit when trying to fit a completely different genre into the engine.

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Metal (1996) by Dave Johnson (Crispy Doom)

 

Don't you just like having such a terribly common name as Dave Johnson? Makes it hard to know if there isn't an imposter or two practicing Doom mapping. In either case this 'very playable wad' lives up to its promise, despite the perhaps ill-chosen color scheme. Not to mention the diagonal shapes of certain outdoor areas and the fact that two doors are placed right next to each other at either end of these areas. Barrels are quite plentiful early on, but later, enemies are placed in such a way that they won't be damaged too much by them. I only found one secret, and that's because an Imp decided to ride the hidden lift down inexplicably. Work on your monster blocking lines Dave. Anyway, the map terminates in a location that seems to be a military training ground, complete with a different enemy in each barrier. Before I close, the custom sfx all sound like they've come from other 90s wads, the exception being the rocket launcher which basically chunks out before letting out a whistle. 6/10

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 08 Day 07

 

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

 

[1] TOF by Christophe DELATTRE (2021)

 

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"Dooming, yet more Dooming! Yes, but it's quality, "homemade", concocted with nothing but my little hands during long nightmare nights.

The levels are completely new (no façade renovation of old stuff), and special care has been taken with the architecture, both from the aesthetic point of view and from the point of view of the structure (keys, secrets, traps, ...). In this regard, from the first room of the first level you will discover - with a little perseverance - an effect not employed by the creators of Doom themselves.

These levels target "pleasure" and not "butchery" (a rare phenomenon, won't you say). If you are bored with WADs whose only challenge is the massacre of a hundred monsters in five minutes these levels should please you.

The difficulty levels are done properly: level 1 is easy, 3 is recommended and 5 is strictly for mental cases. There is therefore no reason to use cheat codes.

If the first stage seems too cramped and bloody to you, it's because there must be something hidden someplace. You'll never get stuck (yes, that's right, I'd swear to it), and you will always be able to backtrack in order to look for any missed secrets.

TOF.WAD currently only contains two levels, the others are still being worked on. Unfortunately, the price for quality and the determination to let no bug get through is long hours of hard work, but I promise I'll keep on."

Original TXT in French included in ZIP.

 

2 Ultimate Doom maps made in 1994 which replace E2M1 and E2M2.

 

I don't have much to say about E2M1 because I didn't even kill 25% of the enemies as the exit is reachable from the first room and you don't need any key to unlock it. This present review will be centered on E2M2 so, and, that one seems a lot better by the way.

 

TOF's second map takes place in a concrete bunker and it includes a certain amount of corruption in order to fit with the spooky E2M2's midi : damaging water, mazy cramped labyrinths, hidden doors... The heavy presence of gray and vine is another mark of the second episode.

 

For a map made in 1994, I've no complaint to do since Christophe DELLATRE managed  to bring decent visuals and easygoing while unremarkable gameplay. It features some traps and secrets and I actually like the contrast between overbright large areas and underlit tight maze. The architecture and progression aren't as competent as the IWAD but TOF's E2M2 succeeds at providing a good old classic experience.

 

Grade : B- (12/20)

 

 

I died in E1M5 from TPH 12.3: Part 1A - The Prequel to Part B Galaxy's Brink!! The Super Incredible Bulgarian Necromance

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

Amalgamation 2: Cairo AD (2021) by Josh @mrthejoshmon Baker (From Doom with Love)

 

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Requires the TNT IWAD

Amalgamation is a series of maps that takes every failed, unfinished and unrealised map idea I have ever had and, well, amalgamates them into one.

The first map contained all the "conventional ideas" and this second map now contains all the abstract and unconventional ideas I have had, from asteroid belts to space Egypt.

This is a culmination of everything I have never made, I have done my best to string them together cohesively.

It is quite a long level, it takes me about 30-45 minutes to complete, playtester usually took an hour or so.

I have hopefully made this map as user friendly as possible using feedback given by playtesters, it should be a fairly challenging yet not frustrating experience for new and old players.

Important Requirement: Infinite Lost Souls need to be on, jump and crouch are not to be used and projectiles must be able to pass through objects for the best possible experience.

 

 

I was tempted to skip this since I've played it before, but then I was like, what if I play until I die (but not from plunging into a seemingly inescapable pit)? So here we go!

 

Josh says this is an "amalgamation", but really, it feels like he just combined many  of the various TNT concepts into one map. Ancient Egyptian Ruins, dark caves like the Deepest Reaches, another rocky area that might be something from Crater and other locations that probably recall the latter sections of Central Processing.

 

It's also quite a stiff challenge starting out, to the extent I could easily have died from being cornered by multiple pinkies or whathaveyou. I did prevail, enough time to explore the various tombs and later, enter another cavern after traveling through a void that I got stuck in for a little bit, trying to evade enemies from every side. It was finally a Baron which killed me in the end, while attempting to rush through.

 

As someone who appreciates the TNT tendency toward grandeur, it's really hard for me to hate this map in any way, and indeed, it can't get lower than 8.5/10. Higher would be more than it deserves I think after having played a fair amount since then, but it's still the best thing Josh has done since I joined Doomworld.

 

 

 

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 09 Day 07

 

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

 

[1] D9-2.WAD for DOOM II! by Mal Blackwell (1994)

 

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D9-2! This is a 7 level mini deathmatch episode for Doom2!! This mini jobbie contains the first three levels from the original D9 plus four more for your killing enjoyment! D9-2 will put the fun back in funeral!

 

A  set of DM maps made of wood and metal I already explored in Year 2 Month 05 Day 20 (19 June 2023) on Dosbox. Here's what I said about it :

 

"Well, my day starts with a minisode of DM. I don't consider myself very lucky but D9-2.wad presents refined texture usage for an early Doom 2 wad released in 1994, despite the omnipresent browness. All layouts are symmetrical in their design but also spacious and interconnected. It's really solid stuff in terms of visuals and all the maps remind me a bit of the fourth episode from Ultimate Doom without the green marble."

 

I launched it with prboom+ and challenged myself to find all items in each map, so that it obliged me to spend a lot more time in each level. The new thing I have to say is that I love how the author hide secrets paths and goodies behind fake walls. I just feel like Harry Potter entering in Poudlard each time I find a narrow passage behind a fake wall.

 

[2] Destroyer of Life by Scott Amore (1995)

 

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This is my first wad ever. Because I don't
know enough tricks to make it an interesting single player wad, I made
it a D-match. The level is not that pretty. Unaligned textures and the
like. However, the level has been balanced out for great play. There
are no dead ends in this level. Every room connects to another room
for fast, furious fun.

 

Mostly designed for DM, this map consists to a bunch of disgusting hand-drawn large rooms populated with a handful of zombies. This level is so ugly that it does not meet the 1994 standards. This map will not destroy your life but I'm afraid that seeing such poorly shaped maps will be bad for your mental health in the long term.

 

[3] A Slightly Twisted PWAD by Drew "Too much time on his hands" Hurlstone (1995)

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You're a marine. You're in Hell. You've got immense quantities of high powered weaponry. What's there to know?

 

This wad belongs to the "combos" category because it contains (crappy) SFX and (cheesy) custom midis. Just, I don't need to go to idgames just to download another midi rendition of simpson theme or blade runner. Useless file except if you want to enrich your midis library for old-school maps.

 

I stop here for today.

[LadyMistDragon]

ABBEY3 (1995) by Klaus Scholstrom and Daniel Lindskog (DSDA Doom)

 

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You are a apprentice returning to your village, but something is wrong and you suspect the priest for inviting the evil forces.

The game is constructed for single player, multi plays or dm (deathmatch).

 

 

Three maps that are...almost better than they have any right to be! 1st kind of feels like a Docks reimagining, only with water that slowly scalds the skin because of course it does! But basically, we've got to enter the buildings here, find a key then enter a chapel to open up the channel here. The lack of ammo here is notable.

 

Ironically, it's only in the 3rd map that an Abbey starts to become visible. Combat also improves somewhat and we can grab a Tome of Power! Don't use it right away however - the map decides to toss a Maulotaur and two Iron Lichs at the end where the wad name is listed on the floor.

 

The town is nicely detailed undoubtably. However, the lack of ammo and fact that Iron Mace random spawn chance is still active, it starts hurting what might have been the best part by a fair bit. 5/10

 

 

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 09 Day 08

 

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

 

[1] Night DeathMatch 2 by The VooDoo Master AKA J.D. Spindler jr. (1999)

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This is a DeathMatch only level. You need ZdooM to play it. Hehe, hit the button that says "Launch" to fry everybody in the weapons pit.

 

A small experimental Deathmatch arena taking place under a starry sky and using zdoom' features. The core area consists to a square metal pit with 4 cages each of which contains a weapon. If you take one of the lifts, you'll spot a small room locked by a strange spinning door. You'll find a switch which launch lots of rockets in the central area so I suppose the main objective of this map resides in reaching this room without being killed by your opponents. The layout itself is bare-bones and the map offers little of interest apart from these 'hi-tech' functionalities.

 

I didn't manage to defeat the "Dark Avatar" from Death Beckons.

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

Clear Focus (Hardcore Edition) (2011) by Mr. Chris (Armaetus) 

Played in Crispy Doom

 

The one-star /idgames review of this is so hilarious. Quite apart from the fact that you'd have to be extremely careless to blow your ammo like he did, this isn't even hardcore unless you count the Baron of Hell in the small room at the end. This is an extremely average techbase map, to the extent it's unclear why people really cared enough to bitch about the difficulty. The increased amount of enemies made it more fun as a result but there's really nothing more to say than the detailing is respectable despite the presence of several misalignments 5.5/10

 

 

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 10 maps

Adventure | 5 wads | 24 maps

 

Astrostein 2 (1998) by Laz Rojas. 10 SP maps for vanilla Doom II.
I've played the trilogy out of order, but with this I've gone through the whole series. The most interesting thing about this outing is the custom PLAYPAL and COLORMAP, which did not come back in Astro 3 (I think it's the only WolfenDoom wad to do so in fact), and while I didn't see radical changes they do give the wad a different look. Otherwise the maps suffer from many of the same problems as the first Astrostein (and the later part of the third): too much fodder combat, too much backtracking, layouts are too symmetrical, too repetitive, and while it's been a while I could swear some of the layouts are lifted wholesale from the first wad. There are some memorable bits, and when looking through windows the lunar station setting looks very different from the spaceship visual of the first, but the majority of the gameplay is not very interesting and the flaws combine together and amplify each other. I think the later entry was a huge improvement, if you want to play the high points of the series I recommend The Portal prologue and Astrostein 3.

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

AvPvT2 - Alien vs. Predator vs. Terminator (2000) by Sparky of KISS Software (Crispy Doom)

 

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A Partial Conversion based on these three movies, featuring:
3 single-player levels, new monsters and weapons, new sounds, music, graphics, etc.

This is a legalized and bug-fixed version of AVPVT.ZIP.

 

 

So this is the second Sparky mod I've gotten. For anyone cowering in fear because of that godawful excuse for a DBP happening to share a name, fear not! The gameplay's of much higher quality and while the presence of vanilla textures is quite odd where they're found, at least it doesn't feel like that's from lack of effort to convert textures unlike Doom 2099(in that case, it was probably due to the overly-complicated game files not exactly integrating into modern source ports effectively). Too bad the SFX replacements are extremely annoying clips from the titular movies. The weapons are all better anyways, exception being the shoddy excuse for a shotgun with such a narrow range which probably exists to use the assault rifle for the most part. It's all a little chunkier than more sophsticated sfx in later mods.

 

The enemies are an entirely different can of worms however. While once again, projectile enemies have an annoying tendency to shoot the weapons of their sprite replacements as opposed to whatever emits from them, their increased speed and sense of danger they add is greatly appreciated. Can't say I really wanted to bother but well, maybe that's kind of obvious.

 

The first map isn't too bad, but you'd better be memorizing the layout because there are several locked doors operated by consoles labeled by the particular wing they open. It's all quite symmetrical but crawling in the vents is cool, though the scorpions have the speed of turbo pinkies roughly. The so-called "T-1000" just appears to be a guy in a blue uniform, though his amount of health suggests he replaces the Mastermind. I'm not sure why one has to shoot some location behind a console to open someplace in the bridge, but that's why I didn't bother.

 

Now the 3rd map (the second map has a cool midi and some incredibly vistas, but there's really not much else to say beyond check the offices, PLEASE) has some metal ship sections but mostly is just a horrible and confusing mess of what seemed to be vanilla Doom II flesh given a dirty green makeover. Now contrary to what the author says, it's not necessarily hard for those who go slow - but this is just such a huge, huge mess and if you don't hit a particular panel in the room with health, the door to the exit won't be open.

 

Needless to say, that area killed the momentum like nothing else. 5/10, and a real shame because the actual gameplay is quite good, crappy regular shotgun aside.

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 1 map

Adventure | 6 wads | 25 maps

 

The Hazard Variation (2003) by Karthik Abhiram. 1 SP map for limit-removing Ultimate Doom.

I've played other maps by @Karthik but it's been a long time and I don't remember much of them. This one was meant to be the opener for The Ninth Gate, an episode replacement by a team that included and was I think led by Pablo Dictter (I initially thought this was related to Pablo's The Gates series, but it seems like the projects are different despite the name similarity). The Ninth Gate never materialized, so in 2007 Karthik decided to release his map as a standalone. The collaboration is obvious, the map aesthetics and lighting certainly call back to Pablo's own. The abundance of impaled and hanging corpses could be seen as cheesy, but if you can ignore it the texturing is beautiful, with some great contrasting colours and everyone's favourite orange sky visible through windows and ceiling openings. Lighting is impeccable, the small changes in consecutive sectors make it almost seem like "real" lighting and not just sectors. Combat is what it is, it's an Ultimate Doom M1 so very limited weaponry and even a baron to shotgun. For such a small map progression is surprisingly involved. One trick that Karthik uses and that I love is putting a small wall indentation next to switches with a mini-representation of the obstacle the switch is removing, it rewards paying attention while exploring and cuts back on pointless backtracking. It's a short map but I had fun with it and enjoyed the visuals.

Spoiler

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 09 Day 09

 

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

 

[1] E1M1 ReMIXed by VolraSlava (2020)

 

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A simple map that I've started and finished creating in just about 3 days, it started looking a bit like E1M1 so I just stuck with it and went from there. It ended up being a fairly short level, taking just under 3 minutes to beat but I am nevertheless happy with what I ended up with. It's my first map and I am mainly looking to dip my toes into using Doom Builder to see what mapping is like in the idtech engine. Would love to hear feedback on possible issues and mistakes that you might encounter throughout the map, or even ways to improve my mapping should I start another project after this.

 

A small gzdoom-compatible "hommage" I already played in Year 2 Month 01 Day 17 (8 December 2022). Here's my past review :

 

"When an artwork, either it's a music, a painting or even a doom map has right to countless remixes.  Sometimes, it undoubtedly improves the original creative but unfortunately, the opposite may happens too.

 

I don't know who VolraSalva is , I never saw that nickname until now. So, I easily suppose that he was a beginner when he (or she?) made this map. From a pure technical point of view, this map is a success : everything works well. I never got stuck and the items balance was fair. However, as a tribute to E1M1, I think it's a mediocre one.

 

The layout proves to be a lot more squarish and less more organically interconnected. The progression tends to be a lot less fluid. Moreover, this map has a more questionable use of textures. Between the beige startan and bricks, the hellish outdoors or the clashing colors in the main room housing the mancubus, the visuals attack the eyes more than comfort them.

 

At least, the layout doesn't look copy-pasted, so I still felt playing a new map.

 

Grade : C-"

 

I still think the original largely surpasses its copy after replaying this map. However, I think I was a bit too rude giving this map a C-. Visuals are definitely unappealing and roughly textured. The layout is quite unimaginative and clearly lacks fluidity but above all it's a short, easy map that doesn't require any effort. 

 

So it's mediocre but not painful.

 

Grade : C  (8,5/20)

 

[2] COOL.wad by Your name here (1995)

 

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Various sound effects for Doom 1 and 2. Including
a few from Radio Free Vestabule (Those I recorded myself).
 

 

Small sound wad I already download and "reviewed" in Year 2 Month 06 Day 18 (12th August 2023). Here's what I said about it :

 

"A sound wad replacing few sounds of the game with lines from sketches and movies. Cool? No. Useless? YES. YES. AND YES"

 

Nuff Said.

 

[3] Dethtag ][: Warzone (WARZONE.WAD) by Talon (1995)

 

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Dethtag ][: Warzone is another wad in the Dethtag
                    series written by one of the original authors of
                    DETHTAG.WAD  and U_DTAG.WAD. This one features three
                    modes of play: Deathtag (the default), 2-player Deathtag,
                    and plain ole vanilla Deathmatch, all configured from
                    within the game. In addition, there is also a slick
                    2-sided digital scoreboard (no more posts to count).

                    For rules on Deathtag play, and instructions for the
                    wad, check out INFO.TXT included with this package (or
                    at least, it should be - if its not, email me and I'll
                    send the info to you).

 

It's not the first map from the "Dethtag" series" I visit and its concept resemble more or less to the popular "Capture the Flag" mode. There are the blue and the red team and each must score points in order to win. They have to press a switch and perform a serie of actions in order to get points instead of capturing a flag, and those actions require teamplay as moving throughout the map is undeniably very risky. Here are the rules in the spoilers :

 

Spoiler

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2-PLAYER DEATHTAG
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        2-player Deathtag is totally new. Using the same map, you can
        play Deathtag when you cant find a partner. The rules are the same.
        The only difference is that when you start, you MUST hit the switch
        in the start room labelled 2 PLAYER DEATHTAG. Once you do this, a
        shortcut is opened up between the switches and the doors (look for
        it in the East wall of the Blue switch area and in the West wall
        of the Red switch area) that will allow one player to hit the switch
        and then get to the open door and get the suit before the door shuts.
        First one to 5 points wins.

 

The map itself consists to natural environnements and you can squeeze between sectors trees, climb a small grassy hill... under a bright blue sky. It's funny to call your map "Warzone" while it contains a cute and breezy theme.

 

I got nastily ambushed in the purple and cyan tech-base from  DUMP Episode 1: Fuck Time Limits

 

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[Walter confetti]

14 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

AvPvT2 - Alien vs. Predator vs. Terminator (2000) by Sparky of KISS Software (Crispy Doom)

 

Played this mod ages ago (maybe one of the early mods i downloaded) and yes, it's weird but somehow fun. Nothing to the levels of original Aliens TC episode btw... But a interesting relic of the past at least.

[LadyMistDragon]

The Aphexius mines (1995) by Stuart D. Smith (Crispy Doom)

 

 

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The Aphexius mines takes you on a ride to the pit of hell, down to the depths of the moon of Deimos, A moonwide clean up of all the dead bodies from the Deimos base is in operation, unfortunately, the clean up crew didn't anticipate the danger of the Aphexius mines, surely not all of the bases on deimos are overrun by these monsters they said, a clean up crew went to investigate the place, the poor souls! It's your job to clean the place out. Not an easy job, it's thought that the base is literally swarming with the sods. To top that, you have no base schematics, the base has apparently undergone some pretty major structural changes since the base was inhabited. On top of that, you have nothing but a shotgun and a few shells, and two boxes of pistol ammo. We suspect there are weapons in the base though. The background on the base is like so, it's a base that helped supply the Deimos research base with the necessary raw materials for their research, and to supply power for the base. God knows what happened to the personnel.

 

Within probably the first two seconds, I recognized this as a map I'd once played for the Shovelware Society. There's what I guess is supposed to be the above-ground facilities, or an open area that's basically an airfield/traffic control tower. The bulk of this map is in the mines though, and it's quite a repetitive and confusing journey filled with countless amounts of backtracking, unclear progression signposting and far too many unmarked doors. That said, the combat is not half bad for a rough map like this. But the lift system is in addition to being odd, horribly clunky, and the strange ammo distribution doesn't really help matters either 4/10

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Roofi]

Year 2 Month 09 Day 10

 

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

 

[1] Frag Me One More Time by Alan J. Post (1995)

 

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This DOOM II pwad was designed specifically with 2-player Deathmatch 2.0 in mind and is the sequel to FRAGME.WAD and FRGMEAGN.WAD Skill levels are fully implemented for those with different deathmatch tastes. This level has a cooperative exit. If you like this wad, LET ME KNOW!

 

It's a rather large DM map for duel with large grassy courtyard, many hidden paths behind fake wals and lot of actions to trigger in order to unlock ammo, weapons or health. For a map released in early 1995, the visuals are particularly pleasing.

 

For single players like me, you can play against the few monsters populating this spacious map and try to reach the "cooperative exit" without a buddy ! I like it because it somewhat challenges my speedrunning skills. You have to rush through several fake walls in order to reach the exit in time and I had to try again at least 10 times because the slightest bump against a wall slows you down and that's fatal if you want to get to the exit before the door closes.

 

[2] Enigma of Sector Sigma by @Albatross (2021)

 

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5-map wad. Pistol starts are the intended experience, but continuous playthroughs are supported too.

 

Playing hundred of amateur wads made with no more than IWAD's resources help me enjoying this sort of meticulously crafted smallish mapset using the colorful OTEX texture pack. I never played Albatross' maps before but I know he/she's toward experimental themes and shapes. Despite being not the first wad exploiting only the OTEX's textures, its author succeeded at creating an unique experience thanks to strange textures combinations  but not only.

 

First of all, the wad features several custom monsters : a buffed up imp firing deadlier projectiles, a "coal" revenant firing two missiles at each attack and a recolored Affrit. They don't necessarily complicate the adventure, but rather reinforce the particularly 'magical' feeling of this wad. The difficulty of the wad is on the whole fairly moderate, punctuated by locked-in arenas that can be violent, such as the purple room in map 05 where you are instantly surrounded by hordes of mid-tiers. The intense battles are nonetheless separated by exploration phases of varying length, in which caution and curiosity will reward the player: many of the battles are easily won by keeping a steady approach, and most of the secrets are quite useful if you want to survive the danger spots. However, I have to admit that the use of monsters is optimised at the start of the wad, ending up in less subtle but nonetheless very fun slaughters combats.

 

As I mentioned before, the aspect which caught my attention the most was the theming of the wad. I already played lot of Hell-themed maps and tech-bases as well but the way Albatross imagines these environments seems unique to me. Not to state the obvious, but the visuals are splendid for a wad made in 150 hours but what's more splendid are the color combinations. The tech-bases use lot of purple and green bricks, which sometimes make feel like in a world made of Legos. Apart from that, on the tech-base side I can mention olive-green and white metal.  I also like the pronounced use of orange to represent a lava-filled inferno and a base resembling a beehive. This wad is a true interdimensional journey.

 

The detailed, non-orthogonal architecture really brings out the texturing. This wad in particular shows that the OTEX texture pack is particularly adept at creating architectures that are as abstract as they are varied. This demonstrates the creativity of its author, who has managed to cram so many unique locations into a mapset of 5 maps. What's more, the scale of the structures allows you to immerse yourself in this universe, something that wouldn't be possible in much more confined layouts.

 

And at last, I can only approve the use of "Variable Geo"s soundtrack. Damn I love the theme of Yuka and Albatross exploited it well in the final map in which you fight several hundred of baddies in a star-shaped arena.

 

To conclude, I spent a really good hour on this mapset, definitely recommanded.

 

Grade : A (17,5/20)

 

I stop here for today.

[Clippy]

my goodness 72 this is nuts I gotta ramp up production

 

 

 

This was 

Operation Oberon by Ruba which I guess somebody might know

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/m-o/operober

 

it was short. They placed an ammo pile with medkit once and copied and pasted it a bunch

 

night

[LadyMistDragon]

Hachisch (2005) by Eye del Cul (Crispy Doom)

 

Barely any time after receiving his first effort comes what you'd assume would be a much more mature and assured effort. But is it? Eye del Cul was already starting to make a name for himself with the megawad Garrulismo, which gained some traction in the DWMegawad Club voting the past few months, but I'm not even certain that's his most known work, despite what the Doomwiki claims. I know he was a fairly major influence on Cacodemon187 or another Latin mapper who remade one of his more questionable maps.

 

This largely isn't, as it happens, even if you wouldn't know from the various 90sisms scattered throughout. Random SS guys, oddly clashing textures, and the sorts of rooms that 'professional' mappers are strongly encouraged to avoid. But add in the 'derpy' music track that sounds like something out of Trout Mask Replica or Cyriak and you might start to realize that Eye del Cul is in on the joke. 

 

I suppose one would be advised to glance at the title. The name is probably most known as a certain 'cooked' strain of marijuana but let's just say the blue key silliness is probably supposed to be like a bad acid trip. The bedroom transforms to a room of slime, then blood, then something vaguely industrial, before returning us right on top of the key!

 

Otherwise, it's a fairly standard map of Latin origin, albeit with some rather painfully small rooms that recalls the 90s. Mostly this is due to the prevalence of brown and tan hues everywhere which Latin mappers really seem to favor for some reason, although it doesn't exactly make for what one would call a 'colorful' aesthetic. That is a nice green sky though which plays into the 'drug trip' theme.

 

Combat for the most part, is a series of moderately challenging situations, including one case where we're ambushed by a mass of Imps. There are a fair amount of Barons and Arch-viles are rare, mainly used for the shock factor more than anything. The yellow key bit is probably the hardest. Here, we have the 'ugliest' part of the map, metal supports surrounding a yellow dried lava walkway with probably the most intense section of the map, containing little health and a collection of nastiness that happens to include a Pain Elemental stuffed far in the back.

 

But all in all, this is actually quite solid. Combat could probably have been polished a little more in certain locations (I'm thinking of a passage toward the end where Spectres and Revenants killed us once or twice) but as a 90s product that plays on the surrealism that wasn't even intended originally, it's actually quite good 8/10

 

 

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 10 maps

Adventure | 7 wads | 35 maps

 

The Adventures of MassMouth Do Over! (2002) by Cyb. 10 SP maps for Doom II in ZDoom.

A while back when ICID rolled The Adventure of MassMouth, I tried playing it but gave up at the 4th map. When I rolled Do Over I decided to try again. I managed to finish it this time, which wasn't really difficult considering the maps are tiny, almost half of them are just cinematic interludes, and the whole wad can be finished in half an hour. Do Over is more update than remake, Cyb tried to polish the wad up a bit, added some fancy camera work to the cinematics, but the maps are identical from what I remember. Unfortunately this means that Do Over doesn't fix any of the problems of the original. Some are not really Cyb's fault, modern ZDoom doesn't like the wad, and while it doesn't spit out any errors some things clearly don't work the way they're supposed to, including both MassMouth's signature blaster and the Eye of Mahan weapon later on. This makes the wad much harder than intended, but gameplay is so weak anyway it doesn't really matter. Which is the problem with the wad: there's really nothing to it. Other than the fancy camerawork in the cinematics there's no story or lore or anything of much interest. Maps are tiny and incredibly straightforward, combat is either laughable or just tedious against some of the health sponges. There are a couple of cute joke textures in the early maps, but visuals are incredibly bland and it feels like the later maps are even more rushed, with zero interesting combat, progression, architecture, or anything really. I'll have to check out the sequel some day to see if it deserves its Cacoward, but this one is absolutely not worth even the minimal time it takes to play.

Spoiler

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

I am Evil 1 (2001) by Dr. Beefstupid (Crispy Doom)

 

Soooooo funny. A tower with a lift that goes up for 2 whole minutes almost before despositing us on the top of a very narrow tower and a Cyberdemon with hardly any room to dodge and a rather small collection of spare ammo. That two note midi is as awful as they come and the map shows zero effort beyond that required to make the tower as tall as humanly possible. Complete waste of space, 0/10

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Friendly Cooperatives 3 (2010)  by @alando1 

 

An updated version of a mod that allows one to play co-op maps without other players but AI-controlled teammates instead. Maybe this would be good to play Stronghold: On the Edge of Chaos with but I don't currently have any co-op maps right now. It does sound fairly sophsticated.

 

 

Granite Base (2009) by @Captain Toenail  (Crispy Doom)

 

Now this is more like it! This was reportedly Captain Toenail's first serious effort to make a map under vanilla restrictions. Admittedly, it doesn't stand out in lots of ways but you can imagine this is something I'd much rather get than a 90s DM map. "Deep into the Code" blares underneath an E4 sky and only the lightest concessions to said theme since this is basically a base map, complete with cramped rooms containing crates. Doom II monsters are quite sparing and I'm fairly certain a solid majority are chaingunners. Captain Toenail does try to feed us some explosive combat on a fairly frequent basis and the result is something probably slightly harder than System Control from TNT but without the sort of climatic ending encounter ripping off Halls of the Damned. Still, there are some neat environmental storytelling bits such as the Imp probably feeding on the corpse behind one door or the frigtening teleporter room where Imps are sent pouring in while nearby closets with Lost Souls are opened up. Ok, maybe it's more than 'a little' harder than System Control but you get the picture. Don't expect too much and it's a good map 7/10

 

 

[Sena]

Risk Blazer (2022) by SuperCupcakeTactics

 

This is a runner map, and seeing as I ended up with just over double the par time of 2:10 displayed at the beginning, that makes for a pretty good illustration of how accustomed I am to this sort of gameplay. Still, I did enjoy it, although I normally have a distaste for levels that add first-person platforming, when it is the centrepiece of the level, even a naysayer like myself can get behind it. The level does include a couple of beginner's traps, and while in this context I don't mind having to navigate a falling platform that will lead to death by nukage if I'm not fast enough, shooting at a row of explosive barrels which activate a crusher on a voodoo doll half a minute later is a gameplay decision I'm not really sure feels fair - especially when it took me a few deaths from what appeared to be nothing to realise my mistake, as I at first assumed I was just too slow walking through the current section. Still, I enjoyed this one, its relatively short length is to its benefit, and the custom textures and soundtrack, along with its relatively underused genre produces an experience that challenges your abilities in a specific manner that helps it to stand out from the crowd. 7/10.

[LadyMistDragon]

Corridors from Hell (1997) by Michael E. Toliver (Crispy Doom)

 

Ahhh, the days when everyone felt comfortable uploading their shit, no matter how godawful it was. But apparently, our boy here was actually a speedrunner! Still, this series of boxed rooms and corridors somehow manages to make Yonatan Donner and Haggar Niv look like Doom artistes in comparison. Shit has too much of a tendency to block the doors, key placement is extremely haphazard, to the extent a critical yellow key is actually located in an tiny unmarked closet in the main room! Some thought is given to the monster placements when it comes down to it, but only so far as enemies like Barons and a Cyberdemon are put into, I guess, key spots. 1/10, I can't recommend anyone should touch this unless they haven't played an actual slaughterbox of a map before.

 

 

[brick]

Brick | 1 wad | 12 maps

Adventure | 8 wads | 47 maps

Lifetime | 240 wads | 1004 maps

 

Bella (2003) by Paul Corfiatis. 12 SP maps for Doom II in ZDoom.

I'm not sure about my calculations, because I know ICID and I have a different number for my total wads played with ER/IWA, but if I have it right then this wad pushed me over another milestone. It came on the heels of @pcorf releasing 2002ADO, which I really like alongside a lot his releases both new and old. It does feel a bit weird, Pcorf loves mapping for vanilla and sometimes for Boom, but this is one of his rare wads that requires ZDoom for more than just MAPINFO. It doesn't go all out mind you; no scripting, no overuse of slopes. Unfortunately Pcorf did find the stealth monster flag, and uses it for just about everything, including (especially) archviles. I admit it was the most irritating feature; getting constantly mobbed by stealth chaingunners is not what'll get me sold on the flag's existence being a good idea. The maps also like to spam cyberdemons (and I was playing on HNTR...), some are more like puzzles and require figuring out how to get past them, but others are just an exercise in BFG spam and dodging. The maps are short, with several interesting combat setpieces here and there to make them more interesting even if I don't think they're all set up very well. There's a lot of Dehacked to make variants of several enemies, including cacos that move faster and have more health, another bizarre caco variant that can land and shapeshift into a chaingunner and that explodes into lost souls like the PE. There are other oddities too, like one of the secret maps taking you back to the same map you reach it from, with everything reset since this is not a hub. All this combined with the ZDoom specials gives the wad a strange feel, it just does not play like a typical Pcorf. It does, however, absolutely look the part, lighting is beautiful, and there are some very nice looking rooms, all of it with nothing but stock graphics. It's not my favourite of Paul's wads but some of the maps are fun to play and I think it's worth a look for some of the interesting ideas.

Spoiler

 

[ICID]

Thanks for playing, everyone! A smaller adventure, presumably due to the holiday weekend, but a good one all the same.

 

Here is the new thread: