WADs: Most Overrated/Underrated, Most Surprising/Disappointing

Most overrated: Let's see, I think it would be Deus Vult II. Now, I haven't played the first Deus Vult, yet I took a look at the levels. The architecture was top notch, and the visuals were very impressive. I even viewed the megamap Map05, at the cost of my computer lagging. I honestly don't understand the hype of the wad. I watched the YouTube video playthroughs of some of the maps, and thought they were ok. They looked good, there's plenty of action to boot, and it has multiple level themes like Scythe 2 and Whispers of Satan. The one thing I can't put my finger on is the package size. This may be from the fact that the wad uses MP3s instead of MIDs. Because of that, I'm incapble of downloading the wad since I can't wait for hours for the thing to be fully downloaded so I can take a look at it, until I install my retail Doom games in a powerful computer. Again, this raises my question if the most of today's computers can handle it due to the fact that the wad has been known for killing several computers with its immense size and maps. Next thing I want to point out is the difficulty. I can see that Huy Pham is trying to give the wad that HR/AV-feel, but it seems to edge closer to Nuts due to the sheer number of monsters, especially in the penultimate map. Now, authors like Fredrik Johannson and Erik Alm managed to emulate the HR-esque slaughter with their wads, the Vrack series by Fredrik and the later maps of the Scythe megawads by Erik Alm, but they were careful enough not to go over the top with the monster count so that their wads won't lag. The Casalis' Plutonia and Yonatan's HR were tough, but they weren't insane as most of the Plutonia/HR wannabe wads. Challenge is one thing. Frustration is another. Finally, the textfile kinda dropped points. Comments of the maps were good, but the problem is that Huy Pham pointed out all the pop culture references in each map. Rule of presenting a map, or anything in general, is to show, not tell. If the maps are inspired by movies or whatever, there's the additional credits section for that. Yes, other mappers shared certain maps or so that influenced their creations, but they were modest about it. Huy, on the other hand, boasted all the way through, giving me the impression that he's egotistical or something. Other than that, given some of the good points of the wad, I'll give Huy Pham the benefit of a doubt. The wad looks great, and it should deliver promise by the time it's fully complete, but for the author's good, and for the sake of making the wad deliver a better promise, he should try to reduce the size by not having too much in the maps and replace MP3s with MIDI files. Visual is nice and all, but gameplay is the most vital factor in any game/mod. Also, when he redoes the textfile, he should tone down his ego a little bit. Suffice it to say that there's no excuse to give Deus Vult 2 all the hype it was given the past couple of years.

Most underrated: Fragport by The Ultimate Doomer. Seriously, I don't know why so many people don't like this megawad. Yes, some of the levels are big, lengthy, and boring (especially the first half of the megawad), but there's some interesting-looking maps among all the bland ones. There were some pretty good ideas too, like in Map03 how as you progress further, the caves flood. That was pretty nifty, even if there are other wads out there that implement the same idea. The spaceship levels were also good. Not as good as the spaceship designs of Icarus and other wads that have spaceship levels, but still good. The super-secret-level, which I won't spoil, was both innovative and clever at the same time. So, despite the boring parts of Fragport, this is a megawad worth the spin as The Ultimate Doomer knew how to design and orchestrate his maps, as evident in his Super Sonic Doom megawad.

Most surprising: Eternal Doom. Alien Vendetta and Eternal Doom were the only two vanilla Doom megawads I have that nearly clocked up to 10 megabytes. I, for some reason, treat them as brother and sister because of that, even if they were made in different timelines and different authors, and as a result, play them in two different Doom 2 IWADs; TNT for Eternal Doom (considering that this megawad was partly by Team TNT), and Plutonia for Alien Vendetta (being a difficult megawad). Now, since I'll be mentioning Eternal Doom, first time I played it though, I couldn't imagine how it could be any good. The levels were impressive, both in architecture and size, completely felt different from Doom (due to the futuristic design of the first few maps and then the Heretic/Hexenish maps for the rest), and take awhile to complete. The castle maps amazed me, especially Maps 12, 15, 22, and 30. Sverre Kvernmo, who contributed to The Master Levels, outdone himself after designing 3 maps for Eternal; Maps 04, 05, and 12. The time travel context was good, especially in Sverre's Map were two gates are the exit while another two are "bad endings". Very innovative for a megawad made back in 1997. What also surprised me is that instead of a short boss map, Eternal Doom's Map30 wsa treated as any other map in the megawad, which took me hours to complete the first few times. Finally, I was able to beat this map in less than 40 minutes. After all the puzzle solving, switch/key hunting, you get the Icon of Sin battle. Props to Team Eternal and Team TNT for creating this megawad. "Welcome to Eternal Dooom, muhahahahaaaa..."

Biggest disappointment: I would say the Community Chest series. At first, I liked the idea of a megawad consisting of maps designed by various authors within the Doom community. But after playing the first Community Chest, I kind of didn't like it. Well, I have played parts of, if not all, all three Community Chest megawads. I even looked at the other maps I didn't beat to see how it plays. The first one was decent, it had maps designed by noteworthy mappers; Metabolist, Ultimate Doomer, Thomas van der Velden, Kaiser, and Rex Claussen, but there were also many maps that were just either yawn factories, or just plain ugly. The second Community Chest was the worst of the bunch. Although it had its share of good mappers like Erik Alm and Ian Cunnings, there were more terrible mappers in this megawad than the first. Lastly, there's the third Community Chest, which, in my opinion, is the better Community Chest. There were more talented mappers in this megawad than the other two, mappers like The Green Herring, Paul Corfiatis, Dutch Devil, Matt Tropiano, even Thomas van der Velden made a comeback since he didn't contribute anything in Community Chest 2. Despite that, what really disappointed me was that too many of the maps were exceedingly big. This is Community Chest, not Eternal Doom. The first two Community Chests didn't have many huge maps, so I don't know why is it the third one. There's some short maps, but there's very few of them. A lot of the maps even have a tendency to lag, like, oh boy, Map28. Overall, the Community Chest series were ok, but they either have maps that were boring, ugly, or in the case of Community Chest 3, have one oversized map after another. Not even Eternal Doom have that many large maps as there are a handful of maps that can be beaten in less than 10 minutes. After my disappointment with the first three Community Chests, I can't say if Community Chest 4 would be any better. Can it redeem itself? We can only hope...

Overrated: ZDaemon (not the community just the port)

Underrated: Onslaught DM Series. The Third best Set of Dm maps I've every played.

disappointement: Online dooming. When I started playing a few yeas ago I could find a good Dm CTF or other fun game mode going almost every day (that was public). Now its hard as hell to come by a good DM once a week. The only thing that kept me play were the weekly Events FNF, The ZDaemon one (forgot its name).

surprising: How many Doom (1) projects were started/completed the past few months.

oh well, the thread managed to stay relatively sane for nearly one standard page, i guess that's a success.

Graf Zahl said:

I would expect that some considerations were made for single player mode since there is a single player mode. Even if it just means to reduce the number of waves. I am certain that in Coop it's a lot more fun but that still doesn't make the SP mode anything worth playing.

I don't see how playing the boring maps with a friend would make them any better. The levels in Stronghold are fundamentally flawed. And even if they bare similarities with the Skulltag invasion maps they are not as good. That being said, I've yet to see any maps rival the stock Skulltag invasion maps. (Not that I've looked anywhere in the last couple of years though) which is a shame since there are room for improvement.

Anyway. My 2 cents.
Most underrated. Dunno. Phocas island 2 perhaps. Hoping to see the next version of it some day.

Most overrated. Most wads. But I'll just pick Requiem for this as it's the first wad I found to be truly overrated. Looks nice but it plays so very bad. Just like most if not all of Iikka keranen's work.

Most disappointing. Daedalus for sure.

Biggest surprice. Phocas island 2 I guess. I had played the former and not cared for it. Then I played the sequel expecting pretty much the same but it was totally different and I don't even know why they bare the same name other than being on an island.

Overrated: Action Doom. C'mon, how is it enjoyabale when you (the player) has only 1% health while the enemies take several hits. It is just overwhelmingly unfair and wasn't thought through properly. Not mention way to short. I can play through it in like 10 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Action Doom I just think it's overrated. It was certainly original and at times entertaining. Another thing that bugged me was the sound effects, they ranged from good to just crap with lack of consistency in the quality.

The prequel was a ton of fun, though again a little short and the sound effects were a little meh but other than that it kicked ass.

Malinku said:

Overrated: ZDaemon (not the community just the port)

Port!=WAD
But sure, zdaemon.wad is disappointing as they come! I downloaded the damn thing and there ain't even any maps in there! WTF?!?

Malinku said:

Underrated: Onslaught DM Series. The Third best Set of Dm maps I've every played.

Good call, although it does suffer from a few spawns placed too close to walls. Be interested to hear what your top two DM picks would be.

Malinku said:

disappointement: Online dooming. When I started playing a few yeas ago I could find a good Dm CTF or other fun game mode going almost every day (that was public). Now its hard as hell to come by a good DM once a week. The only thing that kept me play were the weekly Events FNF, The ZDaemon one (forgot its name).

Kinda funny that you can remember the FNF trademark, but not 'Zdaemon Sessions' (despite it having the port in its name). But if you want hardcore DM action then you should check 'Frag Your Brains Out' there on a Sunday.

A week on Saturday (02/07/2011) is also a date worth noting. Multiplayer on Zdaemon is about to get a whole lot more interesting ;)

And personally - although my forays out of multiplayer are infrequent - I'd have to vote for cyb's Void as a 'most surprising'. It was such groundbreaking stuff, and you never knew just what you'd find around the next corner.

Cybershark said:

And personally - although my forays out of multiplayer are infrequent - I'd have to vote for cyb's Void as a 'most surprising'. It was such groundbreaking stuff, and you never knew just what you'd find around the next corner.

Tech demo

Great post, Phml.

kristus said:

I'll just pick Requiem for this as it's the first wad I found to be truly overrated. Looks nice but it plays so very bad. Just like most if not all of Iikka keranen's work.

I liked Requiem's gameplay. Some levels play better than others, and some don't play well at all, and most aren't really challenging, but I do enjoy it because it gives you room to play aggressively, and it is a relaxing megawad to play through, sadly the last episode had a few totally redundant levels though.

Underrated, amma have to go with Icarus. By modern standards (pffft), this mapset might seem dated and has a few texture misalignments, and one or two of the maps have a few eyesores, but once you look past those flaws, this is a really enjoyable and solid action packed adventure and I'm going to sound gay here, but I'm going to go ahead anyway and say that the atmosphere puts a very cozy and warm feeling in my heart. :)

[gets up on soap box]
As far as overrated detail orientated mapsets go, the worst for me is RTC-3057 by far. It is pretty much the crown jewel of boring, sterile, shallow, pretentious, tedious corridor shooting, and switch hunt ridden pseudo realistic modern map design, all the symmetrical copy pasta "tasteful" design and "unique" architecture doesn't ever amount up to anything special and after the first 20 minutes it all starts looking the same anyway, so what's the point... so yeah, whenever I try it out it makes me wanna go play Icarus or Memento Mori because atleast those mapsets have interesting layouts and aren't cluttered up with pointless detail that's boring to look at and don't have tedious switch hunting "gameplay". If this is considered professional modern mapping then I'd rather stick to old schoolish styled maps which emphasize nice layouts and clear cut landscapes that focus on gameplay, even the uglier ones. :P

Biggest disappointment is Mordeth 2... :(. Although if I had to go with a wad that was actually released, it'd be Vae Victus 2, or Scythe X as neither of them were as interesting as the prequels were.

Biggest surprise for me was Alien Vendetta, after seeing an inside joke thread about it, which I thought was serious and was aimed at bashing AV I thought I was in for a flop... but AV turned into an epic and chaotic adventure that I can't wait to revisit.

CeeJay said:

Overrated: Action Doom.

Heh, forgot about this one. While the insane challenges were fun to start with, they just got way to... I don't know... Insane. I rage-quit at the highway level thanks to the damn cannons that appeared everywhere and the barrages of Chaingunners.

dew said:

a gem in the mud

:)

dew said:

most overrated:
crucified dreams. so many legendary mappers, comments overflowing with adoration and awe.... now that no one plays it, EVER, the circle-jerk over its stunning visuals seems overrated.

At what point was there an expectation that the community would actually play it?

Afterglow said:

At what point was there an expectation that the community would actually play it?

yeah, when DWANGO FUCKING FIVE exists? why play anything else?


*headdesks repeatedly*

I'm honestly so out of the loop with modern WADs that I don't really have anything relevant to say. I will say that Daedalus was pretty disappointing, however. Not that it was awful, and I felt it was quite immersive, but as a sequel to Icarus, it's a big letdown. Icarus just feels so much grander in scale, with more variety in its locales, and much better music and custom textures.

Daedalus also plays more like an adventure game, constantly tasking you with puzzles that go a bit beyond the complexity of your typical switch hunt, which can be a bit off-putting.

Most Surprising (so far): Of the new megawads I played so far, it's a tie between Doom 2 Reloaded and Doom Core.

Most Disappointing: Daedalus and the Community Chest series. In the former, being an adventure game sort-of deal quite a bit of a turn-off... and this being a sequel to Icarus, I can see how it's a letdown. In the case of the Community Chest series, I definitely agree with Map06 being the absolute worst of the first CC, though the author of that map also made the gigantic Map29; the two secret levels weren't that good, to be frank. CC2's Map23 and Map24 I remember enjoying as well... though there were a few duds-of-maps (I forget which ones, though) in there as well, with the two secret levels being hit-or-miss IMO. CC3 was the best of the three, though, with its two secret maps being awesome. (well, moreso map31, but map32 was decent in its own right) Map30, if I recall, was the best endboss map of the three... but man were maps 28 and 29 absolute nightmares to beat. All in all, the Community Chest series was a mixed bag.

First off, much love to Graf and bgraybr for the mentions. Made my day. Give your PMs a check when you can.

Underrated I would say Kyka's Mea Culpa project.

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/54938-meaculpa-map-07-logistics-version-4-compatibility-issues-fixed-and-other-stuff/

All-right, I'm jumping the gun here, since it isn't even released yet, but the thing didn't generate enough buzz on his last demo level release. It's an amazing achievement choked full of interesting, highly diverse and innovative gameplay, jaw-dropping architecture that is consistent throughout, and the best re-imagining of the original DOOM story with additions of a villain and other elements. More people should know about this thing and be waiting eagerly. It's way better then DOOM3.

Overrated, well, most WADs I tend to find pretty dull, but I'm going to go with UAC Ultra. I've tried playing this thing at least half a dozen times to try to figure out what all the excitement is about, but each time it doesn't do a thing for me. The linear gameplay kills it, as I feel I'm being lead around and all I really need to do is shoot and dodge, brain off. The consistency of texturing makes me feel like I'm going nowhere, causing each level to blend into the last. I keep hoping it's like a song you're not into at first but eventually you realize something about it and it clicks for you. No luck so far though.

Biggest surprise for me was ZPack. It was one of the first WADs I played after my long absence from the DOOM, and it blew my mind. DOOM had become so much more dynamic, and all the new resources fit with the original DOOM canon perfectly. The new monsters just blew me away, and I realized I'd missed a lot in the past 15 years. Levels were big and beautiful and very interesting to play. It's probably the WAD that got me back into the community. It showed how all the editing restrictions of vanilla mapping were long gone.

Biggest letdown I'd say was KDIZD. I was hoping for another ZPack-style WAD, but it felt totally different to me. Less epic, less health, larger, boring levels. I spent most of my time being lost. Kind'a sucked. Got better towards the end once I got my hands on some bigger weapons, but I still found it wholly unfullfilling.

NT

Overrated: Not sure on this one.

Underrated:
Phobia - The Age. A lot of people may have missed this as it's based on the Legacy engine. It had a very well done atmosphere and is inspiration for my 3d floor usage. It also got me into the music done by Fanatic (Marc Pullen).

Surprising:
Urban Brawl: Action DooM 2. I wasn't expecting it at all. It's the complete opposite of action doom 1 with all it's hype.

Disappointing:
Foreverhood. The screen shots and story/descriptions had me looking forward to this project. It had a unique setting and I was expecting it to be a great adventure. Instead it's only a few levels and like someone said, feels more like a cheap portfolio as opposed to an actual doom project. Had a nice concept, but I was expecting more for a release.

Cybershark said:

And personally - although my forays out of multiplayer are infrequent - I'd have to vote for cyb's Void as a 'most surprising'. It was such groundbreaking stuff, and you never knew just what you'd find around the next corner.

kristus said:

Tech demo

Well yeah, that was the 'groundbreaking' part of it, no? And I can hardly see how you personally could gauge my own levels of surprise as I played through it. Or maybe the floor puzzle, clone fight, shrunken area, etc, etc were all perfectly predicted by yourself?

And 'tech demo'? Pfeh, anyone could have cobbled together a few ACS functions and called it a tech demo. But hey, I'm sure there's equally cynical film critics out there who'd write off Blade Runner as nothing more than an fx reel.

Csonicgo said:

yeah, when DWANGO FUCKING FIVE exists? why play anything else?


*headdesks repeatedly*

Yeah, that's the reaction I usually have when I see one of you SP nerds talk DW5 like you actually have a clue what's played on servers in this century.

Myself? I got bored of DW5 after about half a week playing it, but I'd still probably choose it over more unbalanced, unhinged WADs like Crudream *shrug*

Csonicgo said:

yeah, when DWANGO FUCKING FIVE exists? why play anything else?

Well, I'd be more likely to play dwango5.wad over crudream.wad, simply because the former doesn't need an advanced port. :)

Then again dwango5 ain't all that, and most of my DM has been with TeamTNT's Icarus.

I had fun DMing on Dwango5, 32in24-5, and Crucified Dreams. So there. :P

Cybershark said:

Yeah, that's the reaction I usually have when I see one of you SP nerds talk DW5 like you actually have a clue what's played on servers in this century.

AOW2 and GvH?

gun_psycho said:

Most Surprising (so far): Of the new megawads I played so far, it's a tie between Doom 2 Reloaded and Doom Core.

Most Disappointing: Daedalus and the Community Chest series. In the former, being an adventure game sort-of deal quite a bit of a turn-off... and this being a sequel to Icarus, I can see how it's a letdown. In the case of the Community Chest series, I definitely agree with Map06 being the absolute worst of the first CC, though the author of that map also made the gigantic Map29; the two secret levels weren't that good, to be frank. CC2's Map23 and Map24 I remember enjoying as well... though there were a few duds-of-maps (I forget which ones, though) in there as well, with the two secret levels being hit-or-miss IMO. CC3 was the best of the three, though, with its two secret maps being awesome. (well, moreso map31, but map32 was decent in its own right) Map30, if I recall, was the best endboss map of the three... but man were maps 28 and 29 absolute nightmares to beat. All in all, the Community Chest series was a mixed bag.

Deadalus is a disappointment, seriously? I thought it was an okay wad. It's by Team TNT, so it's a megawad of quality. I can agree that there are some parts where the pace is slow, coupled with gameplay that can be boring and nonexistent at times, and also not many hints on what to do in certain objectives. Other than that, the levels were designed well, some ugly bits here and there, but there's also some appeal. Given the fact that the new textures, ZDoom scripting, and adventure style of gameplay were implemented in Deadalus, makes you feel as if you're playing another game instead of Doom, and it felt more of a successor to Icarus than a sequel. Besides the puzzles in Deadalus are a bit more explanatory compared to KDiZD. I agree with everything said about the Community Chest series. In CC3, Map28 was just ugly and the insane number of monsters didn't help either since alerting them all at once caused the level to lag badly. Map29 was designed well, but I couldn't get smooth gameplay due to the vast army of monsters, even greater than Map28's monster count.

bgraybr said:

The most underrated is probably anything by NaturalTvventy.

I'm probably biased now, but very much this. He's also the crazy behind a certain end1.wad I can't help but mention any time someone brings up anything even remotely related to "post thy favorite wads!" I'm also shocked that Awakening got scarcely a Cacoward mention -- I could've sworn I (or someone else) nominated it at some point. If not, then I have failed in my duties. :(

As for the rest, well..

Overrated: Hard to say. Maybe CIF3 -- it seems to be lovable, but I couldn't bring myself to play through it all. Also Hard-Doom to a lesser extent, though I'm biased against it by default.

Surprising: Action Goddamn Doom 2. Also Plutonia 2, because it almost single-handedly made me fall in love with vanilla Doom again.

Disappointing: Daedalus. Very much Daedalus.
Also, Prolly gonna sound like a dick, but UAC Ultra as well. Despite the hype, most of the maps just didn't do anything for me -- very dark, very same-y, very linear. The last two maps almost completely made up for it, though (they're a blast), but to such an extent that if I ever played the wad again, it'd likely be just those maps and nothing more.

Also, Sunder gets a mention for being a weirdo paradox. I personally place it in the "things Xaser absolutely cannot stand for more than five seconds" category, but I still think it deserves all the love it gets. It does what it does bastardly well, even if I don't like what it's doing. :P

Thanks Xas :) We should colab on a project some time!

Overrated: Action Doom, it's really about the 1% health and the large
number of monsters that I don't like mainly. The stupid bullet
projectiles fly all over the place and it's just annoying.

Underrated: Doomguy's Warzone, it's just a mix of crap, but it makes
you have to think of a strategy to beat the levels rather than kill
everything with a super shotgun and advance. Although some of it might
be annoying, there are multiple difficulties. The only thing I don't
like is the PDAs. They crash the game when you touch them.

Most Surprising: Scythe 2, I didn't know what was so good about it but
the levels are really fun to play. Some of it's hard which is probably
just me but I really like it...

Most Disappointing: Community Chest, it could be a great wad, but
there's just the maps that spoil everything by generally going straight
from techbase into hell and then back again. Plus most spend to much
time putting pointless detail in, sometimes there's so much that the
game slows down...

Most Overrated: Plutonia 2, it was very good but there were many things in here that just didn't really fit, like the ice map for example. The Plutonia revisited community project was better I think.

Most Underrated: Endgame.wad, no doubt one of the best WAD's of all time. Superb level design, gameplay and atmosphere. Not many people mention it. This 8 map WAD for Doom 2 may be the best Doom 2 WAD ever made. I love this WAD!!

Most Surprising: Jenesis by James Paddock. Very good maps for such a newcomer to mapping along with some excellent original music.

Biggest Disappointment: TNT Evilution, Doom Millennium

From the scant few WADs I've played...

Overrated: The Lost Episodes of Doom. I get that people love Chris Klie's maps but between him and his partner I rarely saw anything that approached say the works from Doomworld's top 10 of '94 (but I admit that Klie made more interesting levels than Carter). That said, I haven't played any of Klie's WADs beyond that collection, and look forward to playing his Master Levels when I get around to it.

Most Underrated: Alpha 1 Trilogy by Rob Schweiner. I never heard of this WAD before finding it in one of jive's collections. It's a Doom 2 minisode with large levels. Gameplay is tough without being bullshit but the real beauty is the third map, Origin. It's a magnificent adventure with some great detailing and a memorable climax.

Most disappointing: I wanted to say Lost Episodes again but after playing the Xmas Doom '94 minisode I'll choose that one instead. The monster replacements are cute but the gameplay and level architecture is clearly wanting; I guess I expected more from a '94 Doom II WAD. Then again I played it after mulling over some of H2H-Xmas, which has so far featured some fine gameplay if you can look past the hordes of Revenants.

Most Surprising: The Wraith Corp commercial WADs. After playing Lost Episodes I was pretty skeptical of unlicensed commercial Doom WADs, but Mustaine and the rest really warmed my petrified heart. There are some great ideas and nice custom graphics in Perdition's Gate (mostly just great ideas in Hell to Pay). I wish they'd get some official status so they stopped lurking in the dark corners of Doom's History.

Most Metal: D_RUNNIN. 'Nuff said.

pcorf said:

Most Surprising: Jenesis by James Paddock. Very good maps for such a newcomer to mapping along with some excellent original music.

He's been making maps since 06 from memory, possibly earlier. I remember reviewing a skulltag map of his from then, may have been survival. He's certainly come a long way. :)

Most overrated: DV2

Most underrated: AV (it needs to be rated 6/5, and until then I`ll consider it underrated)

Biggest disappointment: Scythe X

Biggest surprise: Speed of Doom

T-Rex said:

Deadalus is a disappointment, seriously?

[...]

Given the fact that the new textures, ZDoom scripting, and adventure style of gameplay were implemented in Deadalus, makes you feel as if you're playing another game instead of Doom, and it felt more of a successor to Icarus than a sequel.

Neither of those are necessarily good things, and certainly not what I was expecting (or what I wanted) from what was supposed to be "Icarus II." Again, it's by no means a bad WAD and I really enjoyed the atmosphere, but it's unarguably a letdown when considering its forebear.

Most Overrated: I had a hard time choosing this one, but if I have to I would go with the ghouls forest series. It was a novel idea when the first one was released, but it has been absolutely run into the ground, and I don't really see what makes it stand out anymore. Don't get me wrong, the wads aren't bad for what they are, but they aren't the best thing since sliced bread as many make them out to be. Not to barrage on cutman, he has made some impressive stuff before, but I think all of the hype surrounding the ghouls forest wads is a little silly.

Most Underrated: Insertion. If you liked classic wads like memento mori and requiem, you will probably enjoy this 11 map episode created by the mappers involved in said megawads. This episode is surprisingly unheard of.

Most Disappointing: I can't really choose a specific wad for this, I suppose any wad that would probably be really cool if not for extremely confusing/switch hunty layouts. Any map where the player must go on a wall-humping spree to find the next small drivel of progress is not a good one in my book. A megawad I once played called revenger fell neatly into this category.

Most surprising: Vanguard. I wasn't expecting it at all, and it was awesome.