Hello

I am some random, Polish schmuck with Autism that looks like SJW's worst nightmare. Currently focusing on best "Doom" WADs according to DoomWorld. Also, I really like "Assassin's Creed" and "Homestuck" (I sometimes review shit from these media).

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2012): Masters of Chaos E1 (kind of)

It’s time to take yet another detour to Heretic. We have another WAD for that game… a Polish one, I might add.

S2: Masters of Chaos

Main author(s): Caleb26 and Doom_Warrior

Release date: June 24th, 2012 (version 1.1)

Version(s) played: 1.1

Required port compatibility: ZDoom

Levels: 31 (around 10 maps per episode)

Masters of Chaos is a Heretic MegaWAD split into three episodes, each with ten maps (eight normal and two secret ones), aside from the final episode that has eleven maps (with only one secret map).

Its plot is that Corvus, the main character of Heretic, manages to return to his hometown. Five years later, a new serpent rider arrives to wreck stuff off, a secret, fourth serpent rider – Voltrog, who betrayed his brothers in the past, and now uses chaos crystals to suck planets dry. I’ll give you three guesses what you have to destroy to weaken Voltrog; not to kill him, but weaken him so you have a chance to properly kill him yourself.

Now, let’s see what the first episode has to offer.

The Dark Tower looks great. Say whatever you want about the WAD, we Poles are capable of making jaw-dropping locations. From docks and forests to caves and snowy areas, not to mention the titular tower itself.

Musically, most of the tracks are from Hexen, which kind of helps break the monotony. Otherwise, I simply mute the stocks.

There were some new sound effects here and there from what I can remember. The one I remember the most (for the wrong reasons) is the zogging thunder from E1M7 and 8, not completely cacophonic, but you could barely hear anything else, no matter if you are on the ground, under, or above it.

Now, this is where things start to get… interesting.

You see, from what I’ve experienced playing this episode, Masters of Chaos is problematic when it comes to the level structure. Not in how the maps themselves are complicated, because they are not; the maps are rather understandable enough to not get stuck (at least when it comes to the non-secret ones). My problem is how the maps (but mostly the secret ones and the second half of the episode) feel bloated.

Due to ZDoom being used, most of these maps are gigantic. While I find maps this big more tolerable when they are one-map WADs, it starts to get problematic when you have to play them one after the other. And these maps felt like they were dragging out, with the shit amount of locations to visit, and the shit ton of secrets to search for that most of the maps have. The fact that the Heretic weapons and enemies feel underpowered and like damage sponges respectively doesn’t help.

Two secret maps, accessible from Ruins of the Shadowkeep and Chapel of the Fallen Moon respectively, are some of the biggest contenders when it comes to the problems with the level structure. And while Bleeding at least lets you get the Hellstaff and Phoenix Rod before, and after entering the map respectively, all Borderlands has to offer is a new weapon that you only get the ammo for on this map, and not even in E1M8, while also being the most bloated, mangled map in the entire episode.

Now, let’s change the tone to something more neutral. You can now jump and duck. Sometimes it’s mandatory, sometimes it lets you get to secrets.

You can also find disc of repulsion from Hexen; it pushes enemies and projectiles out of the way; I rarely used it.

Also, both the aforementioned Ruins of the Shadowkeep and Forest of Silence have an exit right next to their beginnings.

Now, you might be wondering – How hard is this episode? It is challenging, I guess? It can kick your ass, but, again, it’s such a slog to fight the monsters that I don’t know if the actual challenge is mustering enough determination to finish it.

This WAD made me fully realize how flawed the designs of Heretic’s enemies and weapons are. I wasn’t thinking about it that much when playing Curse of D’Sparil, even if it was much more of a slog to go through than this WAD, because I thought that it was more of the author’s fault that the maps there felt like that. Now I think that the problems with the enemies and weapons are more severe when it comes to making WADs for Heretic.

Like I said earlier, weapons feel underpowered when you don’t use the tome, and the enemies have too much health. I didn’t even mention how, among other problems, the flying enemies fly like balloons when hit (especially by hellstaff), or how Phoenix Rod’s fireballs fly through ghosts even if, by the logical standpoint, they shouldn’t.

This WAD could benefit if the number of enemies from secret maps and the second half were cut by at least 1/3rd, even by half, for a better pacing.

As of writing this, I’m around the middle of E1M5 on my second playthrough, and I think might throw a towel at this point. I am so done. I don’t even think I want to talk about new weapons and enemies, because they replicate the problems the original ones have.

The first episode of Masters of Chaos is another case of a WAD that looks great, but that’s it; everything else is compromised. It would benefit the WAD if it were made less like a Doom WAD and had better pacing.

Now, to not end this unfinished review on a hopeless note, there is a gameplay mod for Heretic called Wayfarer's Tome, which supposedly makes the pacing (at least when it comes to enemy encounters) better, closer to Doom. I’ll probably try it one day with other Heretic WADs, but by now, I think I’ll save the non-Doom WADs for the end of the decade, as in the end of the 2010s in this case, after dealing with all of the other WADs.

See you all next time.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2012): Beyond Reality part 2

In my Beyond Reality’s monster list, I forgot to mention a head monster; his attacks doesn’t always go straight at you (and it usually hits like a truck), and he uses Gnaar sound effects from Serious Sam 1.

With that out of the way…

PART 2 – BONUS MAPS

Besides the main 17 maps released in 2012, by 2026, there are an additional five bonus maps to play, split into two new episodes, featuring more gimmicks and more new enemies. The only thing left to do is to ask if these maps are as good as the original ones.

I would say that the maps look at least as good as the main ones. Like there, the bonus maps have a bunch of cool-looking structures, along with portraits referencing other media, this time having stuff like Ratchet and Clank, Psychonauts, and Brutal Legend; and yes, there are two more GOATs.

As I mentioned above, the bonus maps kind of split into two episodes – the first three maps look like they have bases in some green valley, while the other two maps feel less consistent, but I can see some of the ancient Greece elements here and there.

I think music was better than in the main campaign, simply because there was only one track from Pursuit of Greed, which wasn’t bad at all, mind you. Favorite track was probably Castle of the Mists; it fitted perfectly for the episode finale.

The maps were as complicated as the main ones – might be confusing in some parts, but overall, pretty straightforward.

The first (or rather, technically, sixth) episode’s gimmick is gravity. You have to make the gravity weaker in the area or a part of the map to progress further (or, in one case, reach a secret soul sphere); some map parts even have a stronger gravity, making you unable to jump, and forcing you to play that part of the map good, old Doom Classic style, where jumping didn’t exist along with vertical looking. The stronger gravity was somehow more manageable to travel with, since the weaker gravity makes you constantly fly too high when wanting to go through something; at least I can slightly control myself in the air while at it.

The colors surrounding the gravity-affected areas indicate how strong it is – red color is the normal gravity, green is weaker, blue is stronger, and yellow is a bridge between red and green.

Insert Map Name Here (just roll with the title) takes the crown of the most confusing map in the WAD, since not only it has a maze that gets darker the further you progress, but the entire map also doesn’t appear on the automap, forcing you to memorize which switch in the starting area sends you where and what key is where (you have to thankfully find only three).

Speaking of memorizing, Technofrenzy has a bunch of pillars in the hub, showing you in which order you should go with the colors when getting the key to avoid additional encounters.

The bonus maps were somewhat in the middle ground when it comes to difficulty. Maybe a bit harder than the main campaign, probably because I think there was slightly more bullshit here.

The traps are still here. The spears are more utilized here than they were used only once in MAP05. There is still one moment where it goes completely asinine with these.

Unfortunately, the stealth shitlings come back as well, in MAP19; almost all of them are in a darkening maze.

There are seven additional new enemies. Some more nuts than the other:

We start with Tiny Mancubus. Basically like Tiny Pinky but with another classic monster.

Floating Cyberdemon Head shoots green projectiles at you, at the same speed as a normal siege cow with his rockets.

Another new variant of a cyberdemon is his blue mini version that walks upside down and shoots tiny BFG balls that bounce off walls.

Speaking of walking upside down, Upside-down Imp… I rest my case.

There is Arachnotron Rider, straight out of All Hell is Breaking Loose; for a reminder, it’s a two-headed Hoovy riding a spider. When the latter dies, the former continues to be obnoxious. This WAD fixes the problem with this enemy, in that it finally stops firing when you are out of sight.

Living chainsaw is even more annoying than your floating head since it’s smaller and can do a melee attack.

Finally, there is Megamind – a flying mancubus that changes colors depending on what attack he does (except for yellow, where he flies faster).

I only saw a bug with one pedestal where you could see the void.

That’s all I have to say on Beyond Reality’s Bonus maps. I would say these are at least as good as the original ones; annoying in some places, but not completely obnoxious. They were fun to play.

My verdict on Beyond Reality as a whole – it was great, despite being annoying sometimes; worth checking out.

[m39]

Beyond Reality's enemy list (main campaign)

Hi.

This is the list of new enemies you encounter in Beyond Reality’s main campaign. I recommend checking my review on the WAD’s main part before reading this post [add link to the review].

If you are done reading my review, let’s take a look at the enemies.

Ordered by the maps they appear in, for lack of better words.

First off, the pinkies are now tiny. They attack in swarms, but thankfully, they deal minimal damage.

Plasma elemental is a meatball that vomits plasma in volleys of three. When killed, it explodes into more plasma balls.

Demonic crate shoots either a mancubus fireball or a hitscan bullshit, and both of the attacks have next to no wind-up.

Remember that decoration with heads on a pike? It has been turned into a gigantic enemy called living shish kebab; it throws out smaller heads around it, explodes when it dies, hurting other enemies, and it can also resurrect them.

Face bot is a flying robot with a face of the spiderdemon, and shoots blue projectiles.

Insanity Spider is a smaller spiderdemon that, instead of hitscan crap, shoots red projectiles. Thank God for that.

There is an interesting enemy called random demon. It is basically a monster that constantly shapeshifts between classic monsters. It can also resurrect enemies when it turns into Arch-viles (even other randoms -_-).

Barrel man is a walking, exploding barrel that acts like the headless kamikaze – runs at you and explodes, dealing you damage.

Barrel soldier, meanwhile, shoots tiny barrels at you from his gun.

Then there is maephisto, which looks like some kind of Frankenstein’s Monster made of a dinosaur, and other junk. It can shoot blue projectiles at you (homing or not), do the hitscan shit, or charge up for a one-shot-kill. Kind of a mini-boss enemy.

Flying Doomguy head acts as a lost soul replacement… a much more annoying one, since it’s another enemy that has no wind-up.

Speaking of no wind-up, zombie leader is yet another enemy with that; a heap of zombies with three different types of attack that always go in the same order.

Giant imp doesn’t really need a description aside from the fact that his fireballs are kind of like mini nukes.

Bloated caco is a red mancubus with a caco for a head; I remember it shooting a barrage of fireballs, homing projectiles shaped like cacos, and also mini cacos.

There is also a boss variant of it called King Bloatus, with different attacks.

Haunted sword looks more ghostly than haunted. It shoots its copies at you, and the copies drop shells upon getting killed. Very annoying to fight; I recommend plasma barrage to get rid of it quickly.

Ghosty revenant is a green, headless spook meister, that is basically a beefier variant of the original revenant – shoots two missiles instead of one, and walks through walls.

There are also some small changes when it comes to hitscanners – punks now cosplay as headless from Serious Sam; baldies now drop two shells instead of a shotgun; and hoovies now have two heads, straight out of All Hell is Breaking Loose, and drop two ammo clips instead of a chaingun.

And that’s all for today, folks. Next time we will return to Beyond Reality, it will be with bonus maps. I sure hope this shithole of a social site won't mark the enemy list for adults only again.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2012): Beyond Reality part 1

After the disaster that was Odessa 7, I believe I require another type of insanity; the one that I’ll find more… acceptable.

At least that’s what I would think if I saw what Beyond Reality was before actually playing it.

S1: Beyond Reality

Main author(s): Darsycho

Release date: October 26th, 2012 (itch.io)

Version(s) played: 1.7.2

Required port compatibility: GZDoom

Levels: 22 (15 main ones (separate into 5 episodes), one secret one, and six bonus ones (one after finishing the MegaWAD))

To put simply what Beyond Reality is, it is a WAD made out of 22 maps, five of which were added after its initial release. It’s made up of five episodes, each with a rather insane theme.

Since the main part of the WAD and its bonus maps are separated with an episode selections, I believe it will the best idea to split the review into two parts (that and probably describing the new enemies in the separate post as well), where this part will focus on the original 17 maps, while the second will focus on the bonus maps released after the initial release.

So, without any further ado, welcome to the nutty world of Beyond Insanity.

PART 1 - MAIN CAMPAIGN

I really like how the WAD looks. I feel like each map has something interesting to look at, aside from MAP10 and 11, but I’ll get to them in a few minutes. I’ll also add here that I like how some of the locations are gigantic in scope.

The WAD is split thematically into five episodes: the green-dominated first episode,

the world full of boxes,

the ice/water world,

nostalgia trip to the original games,

and the land washed of the colors.

Most of the maps also have gigantic portraits, representing some of the pop-culture icons (usually from games, from what I can remember), including TF2 Heavy, AVGN, The Mask, Ash Williams, and, of course, the GOAT himself:

Nah, I’m just kidding. It’s actually two GOATs:

New sound effects were mostly fine to listen to. I like how the guy we are playing as sounds, but stuff like the new shotgun shooting might be too obnoxious for my taste (I feel like I’ve heard it in some of the early 2000s ZDoom WADs). Also, the Quake boom sound effect is here, but it didn’t feel as loud as in some of the ZDoom WADs from the past, thank fuck.

I feel the same thing about the soundtrack. All of the tracks (at least from the main part of the WAD) were made by Andrew Sega, and half of it was from a game called In Pursuit of Greed. The tacks from that game were okay. The other ones were better in my opinion.

Despite the sheer size of most of the maps, Beyond Reality wasn’t that complicated to play. There were some confusing moments here and there, but nothing going too far. Odessa 7 or Eternal Dud, it was not.

Anyway, some of the maps have something more interesting to do gameplay-wise, so let me give you a bunch of examples:

Plasma Factory has a switch sequence, where you have to press four of these surrounding the exit to access it.

Since the second episode is the world made out of boxes and crates, you bet your ass you will see the dreaded E2M2 mazes. The worst one is in Crate Island, due to the fact that it doesn’t show up on the minimap.

Box Factory lets you get three keys in any order, and while looking for the red one, you will encounter a crusher; you can find a save spot where the imps stand.

Elpmet Retaw has a secret exit; you have to find two hidden switches and enter the new location in the starting area. Do it immediately as you come back to the start; otherwise, you will block yourself from entering the secret level.

Speaking of which, What is probably the most insane map of all; you have to find all six keys to exit it while dealing with some bizarre scenarios and locations. While there are a couple of other maps that require more than three keys, this is probably the only one that requires six to finish.

As you kill the final boss of episode 3, you are forced to pistol-start the fourth one.

Knee-Deep in the Shores of Inferno is one of the more confusing maps, since you try to remember which door is where, and if you have the needed key. This is a Map is similar, but on a smaller scale.

The only interesting map in the fourth episode is Tower of Dis, since it combines all finales from all of the Doom I episodes (minus the fourth one). Other than this map, the only interesting thing that episode has to offer is the background: a black void with colored tech pillars, surrounding the vintage areas that were snapped together like LEGO bricks.

Episode 5’s gimmick, on the other hand, is much more interesting than the previous one: everything is gray, there is no sound, and the enemies stand in place, like all of it were frozen in time. So you try to find switches to bring it all back to normal.

Despite being one of the smaller maps of the WAD, Tower Top felt just as annoying to play as MAP10/11. Same gimmick as the other maps from Episode 5 (return color to the world), and yet there is so much stuff to memorize that it gets confusing which switch you already pressed or if you already killed the required monster.

I’ve already mentioned the silent areas in E5, but there is also one of these behind the yellow door in MAP08. But these areas don’t get silent sometimes, and I’ll tell you why in the bugs section.

Changing the subject, there are also flying platforms from Rise of the Triad. I can’t remember how these were named, either GAT or GAD. I might be wrong.

Oh, I almost forgot, grabbing berserk no longer forces you to whip out your fist. Great QoL improvement.

Now, enough of talking about the maps. How hard is this WAD?

I would say it’s kind of challenging, but it doesn’t go too far most of the time. It’s rather manageable, but it has some bullshit moments here and there, mostly due to some of the new enemies.

Speaking of new enemies, there are a bunch of them. I’ll make a separate post about the ones I’ve encountered in the main part of the WAD, but I’ll mention some of them here:

There are gigantic heads on pike that spread tiny heads, and also resurrect the enemies,

a shapeshifting demon that constantly swaps between many of the classic monsters,

red mancubus with a caco for a head (both normal and the boss variants),

green revenant that goes through walls,

and a toy-sized Pinky,

Most of them felt kind of annoying to fight, since they had next to no attack wind-up.

Oh, and there are a couple of stealth shitlings in Knee-Deep in the Shores of Inferno. There is another one in the next map, but only on UV.

Yet another reason why the fourth episode is my least favorite.

There are also some traps ripped straight from RotT, including rotating blades, fire traps from the floor, and spears that appear only in Box Factory. There is also a blue fire trap that slows you down for a couple of seconds.

Most of the time, you can get around them smoothly, and then there is bullshit like the yellow key area in Cratepolis, where I feel like you have no choice but to take a hit from the blades.

Also, your fist and peashooter are now faster.

I’ve noticed a couple of bugs while playing the WAD: once, there was no texture right next to the exit in Plasma Factory, another time I fell through the invisible 3D bridge in Skyward Club; also, I feel like one of the invisible walls in Elpmet Retaw was glitching.

The biggest case was with the silent areas. Remember how I said that sometimes, these areas weren’t silent? Turns out that if you load the save, the areas will no longer be silent.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about Beyond Reality, at least when it comes to its main part. Despite some of its problems, I had fun playing it. I think it would be even better if some of the new enemies had a longer wind-up (or had a wind-up at all).

In the following days, I’ll upload the list of enemies that I’ve encountered, plus some changes in hitscanners. I’ll see you then.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round (not really): Odessa 7

What did I say about the last Odessa map? That it was the least enjoyable one by far?

Because I’m taking it back. This one is straight up the worst. Bob Evans turned the moon-logic dial up to eleven, to the point that one of the switches looks exactly like one of the new textures, while some of them are so obscure that you can only find them in Doom Builder or any other editor.

I mean, sure, sometimes you can find a location that looks really cool, but that’s not enough to save this map. It’s yet another case of sacrificing the fun of playing the Doom map for some 90s point-and-click moon-logic bullshit that would perfectly fit in Eternal Dud.

…

I think I’m done with the Odessa series for now… Along with the bonus rounds. I might return to the former one day, but it will happen when there won’t be anything else to talk about.

Anyway, I’m getting back to the 2012 roster.

I’ll see you there.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: Odessa 6

We are back into the moon-logic, people.

Part 4 – Odessa 6 (Kastle Baron)

Level Replacement: MAP06

After the mindlessness that was Call of Dooty II, it looks like a great idea for something more… complex to play. Although a part of me would prefer to play something more akin to The Talos Principle rather than a map from Bob Evans.

Anyway, since there is no Odessa 4 or 5, we are going straight into the sixth map. And we are going medieval this time (well, most of the time).

Like the previous Odessa maps, this one looks fine for the ‘95 standards. My favorite area was probably the throne room with a lavapool in the middle; like it was supposed to be a fighting pit or a torture entertainment.

Compared to Odessa 2 and 3, Kastle Baron uses the music from E2M2. It’s not much, but it’s always something better from the stocks playing.

Odessa 6 might be the most painful map from the series to play by far. Not due to the moon-logic, since in here, you just have to look for a misaligned wall texture if you get stuck. I’m mostly talking about how literally dark the map is.

I feel like half of Kastle Baron is needlessly dark. I can understand one area or two, but half of the map is too much; I don’t want to constantly use the minimap to actually see where I go.

And then there are two areas that throw another shitty gimmick. One has a maze made out of a metal bar texture, which makes it invisible on the minimap. The other has a goddamned, movable chess floor – you know, that stupid gimmick that appears once or twice in the original game’s episode 2, and it only works there?

Oh yeah. There is also the bloody box maze full of imps. As if I didn’t play enough maps with it.

I don’t think this map is hard. The beginning is definitely full of shit since you have only a pea shooter against the squadron of baldies, but after these guys, it’s rather manageable… if you don’t count some of the imps behind fake walls…

…

I think I’ll stop here.

Kastle Baron is a rather obnoxious map to play. It’s kind of weird how the moon-logic moments were the least problematic parts of the map when it comes to Bob Evans’ style of map-making.

It might be the least enjoyable map from the Odessa series by far. I can only hope that Odessa 7 is better.

[m39]

Promoting the Bronze League WADs from 2012 to the Revenant Awards

Instead of saying how the map/WAD gets promoted to the Revenant Awards by default at the end of reviews, I’ve decided that, from now on, I’ll just make a separate post about the WADs from the leagues other than the golden one being featured on the aforementioned ceremony, regardless of whether they get featured by default or not.

From the 2012 Bronze League, we have Dylan Bourke's first maps being promoted to the Pug-of-Pink category (best 2-7 maps long WAD of the year), Call of Dooty II: Green Ops to the Off the Wall category (best partial/total conversion), and Russian Overkill to the Tei Tenga’s Arsenal Category (best gameplay mod). Yes, I’m giving the former the chance to win big, and I don’t care if the maps are the equivalent of kindergarten drawings.

Now, some of you might be wondering – What about “Grezzo 2” and “Community Chest 4”?

To simply put, the latter is already in the top 10 of 2012, so its time will arrive, while in case of the former, I tried to find the English translation but I failed to do so; and besides, from what I’ve seen, I think I would sooner run to the nearest supermarket to buy some bleach than actually finish that WAD. So I guess I dodged the bullet with the What the Pope winner.

Anyway, that’s all for now.

See you all next time with the Odessa 6 review.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2012): Call of Dooty II

:]

…

God…

Damn you, Scuba Steve, YOU WALKING FOSSIL OF A-

cans.WAV

technical difficulties

Br3: Call of Dooty II: Green Ops

Main author(s): Matthew Christian (Chubzdoomer)

Release date: November 13th, 2012

Version(s) played: Collector's Edition

Required port compatibility: GZDoom

Levels: 5 (hub-based (kinda))

Yes, folks. Unfortunately, it looks like Scuba Steve didn’t like how Hobbs removed Mockaward from Cacowards, so he shoved it back to the ceremony. Now, we will have to suffer through more joke WADs up until 2017, when it will be replaced with a much more interesting award.

So, what do we have in 2012 then? A WAD that mocks the Call of Duty franchise and other popular crap AAA games had at the time (some of this stuff is still here (not that I’m complaining, okay))? Fine. Have it your way, Fossil Fred.

Matthew Christian snapped at the beginning of the 2010s; he thought that the AAA military FPSes were too linear, too easy, and felt more like an interactive action movie rather than a video game. So he made three WADs, one per year, to spit on those games (mostly the CoD Franchise).

Today, we will be taking a look at the trilogy’s second installment, subtitled Green Ops.

The plot: Must amerikill evil Ruskis because they no merry cans from A Merry Canadia. AKA your typical military shooter plot, mixed with references to Black Ops 1, Modern Warfare 1, and one line from Half-Life.

There is a little to talk about the looks and the difficulty so I’ll be brief with these topics: The WAD has desaturated colors making it look duller, and fighting demons is now easier since the medikits has been replacement with regenerative health, basically referencing to how, in a typical military FPS, you suck your own thumb when you get strawberry jam on your face (the WAD makes fun of it as well) in the areas colored in gray, yellow, and/or brown.

Now, I’ll try to describe the modes and the bonus map this WAD has, starting with the campaign:

The campaign mode is the main course of the WAD. You start on a shooting gallery ripped straight out of Modern Warfare 1; you are interrogated like Alex Mason from Black Ops 1, but instead of talking about the numbers, you are forced to talk about keycards, as if these were some legendary artifacts of might or something; when you finally reach E1M2, it’s been modified to be painfully linear, not to mention constantly being stopped by the plot to talk with the obviously-not-gonna-betray-you man on the radio and the ads sprawling across the Nuclear Plant.

Did I mention that the WAD also mocks Xbox achievements? ‘Cause you can get them by, for example, shooting ten targets on the shooting gallery, surviving being almost dead, and pressing use on ads.

Back to the campaign, you end up blasted by a nuke in the area were the red keycard was originally; you are forced to mash use to lift the door like Kratos from God of War franchise; you turn on the night vision googles (that brake immediately after grabbing the keycard); you try to grab the armor only to get blasted with the text that basically translates into Fuck you! Buy our DLC! (you can actually wear it if you download the Collector’s Edition of the WAD); if you try to go to the small slime area, the WAD will force you to RETURN TO THE COMBAT AREA under the penalty of death; there is a shitty Press X to not Die moment while crossing the slime road; then you are forced to run to the switch far away from the entrance to E1M3 while you are getting gassed (remember, that you move slower than molasses); and it all ends on a lame-ass cliffhanger.

Zombies mode is what it is – if you played Yahtzee Zombies, you know what to expect: waves of enemies, weapons and powerups you can buy, barricades to rebuild, traps to lay, etc. I checked up to wave 20, and it seems to loop every ten waves with a different boss at the end of the loop. Probably the best part of the WAD. It also has a jukebox to choose the music for the waves (or you can make it choose randomly).

There is also a bonus map to play; you have to mash jump to free yourself (just like in Black Ops 1), then go south to find the Wolfenstein arcade machine that you can play on. The map is basically Wolfenstein, but you start without any weapon aside from the knife.

While in my current age, I prefer parodies made from love to the parodied material rather than hate (although there are still some good parodies made the latter way as well), I’ve got to admit, this Mockaward winner was well made. Even as a fan of Call of Duty (and by that, I’m talking about the games up to 2012), I have to admit that these are guilty of many of the things made fun of on this WAD (although, if you ask me, the author forgot about panicked breathing when getting shot).

You might want to check this WAD out if you want to laugh at the absurdity of the AAA military shooters of that time. Especially if it’s the Collector’s Edition (completely free) since it has the making-of document, the first Call of Dooty WAD, and the screenshots showing the differences between these WADs and the OG Doom maps.

Next time, we will temporarily return to the bonus WADs from the 90s. But before that, expect a short post about promoting the WADs from the bronze league into the Revenant Awards.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2012): Russian Overkill (first impressions)

Oh boy…

This might be too much to handle…

Br2: Russian Overkill

Main author(s): Maciej Banowski (PillowBlaster)

Release date: June 2nd, 2012 (original release)

Version(s) played: 3.0.1f

Required port compatibility: GZDoom

Russian Overkill (ironically, made by a Polish man) is what the title describes – it’s an insanity overload, where every weapon out of dozens is capable of destroying everything that is not a high-tier monster with one shot. All in the colors of the typical, USSR/Ruski Gopnik.

Do you expect me to tell you more about how this mod came into fruition? Don’t count on that. My fellow Polish man just wanted to wreck shit up.

From my first impressions, I think I was grinning constantly in my mind due to how nuts the mod gets, even more nuts than Brutal Doom. I was blasting monsters with a pistol replacement (one of three; one per class). I checked maps from Doom II randomly, along with NUTS, to check how powerful the guns are.

One of the most memorable guns I can remember was the one that shoots missiles that shoot bullets. Other than that, I remember the gun that shoots pills, one of the characters’ special moves, where he super farts and makes the enemies vomit and/or die, and the sniper rifle that has bullets that can also function as a drone.

That’s basically all I’ll say for now. I recommend this mod just for the sheer insanity. I’m not gonna talk about what other things it has; it’s worth checking on your own because describing it won’t be enough. Do it especially when it comes to slaughter maps/WADs.

I’ll probably go into more detail on this mod one day, but I would count on it for later than sooner if I were you. There are so many other WADs to check, and I don’t want to focus on one gameplay mod for a couple of weeks.

See you all next time, when we will be making fun of military FPSes.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2012): Dylan Bourke's first maps

Br1: Dylan Bourke’s first maps

Main author(s): Dylan Bourke

Release date: December 27th, 2012 (database upload(?))

Version(s) played: ???

Required port compatibility: vanilla

Levels: 5

You might be wondering Who the hell is Dylan Bourke? Long story short – he’s the son of Chris Bourke, one of the WAD makers; the former made these maps when he was six (with the help of his dad).

Yes. We are taking a look at the maps made by a child who didn’t even go to elementary. What a way to start the 2012 roster, people!

I think the best way to review these maps is to describe them one by one. Because talking about their looks and difficulty is like talking about kindergarten drawings – they make no sense and look crude, but you can’t force yourself to hate them.

So anyway – the maps:

Doom Station of the Devil – there is a lined-up group of monsters (plus a siege cow) and items, you kill the former, then you kill another group of monsters, and then you blast an armada of tomatoes to get the red key.

Doom of the Fearier – a blue map, where you have to grab the blue key at its end while fighting tomatoes, pinkies, siege cow, and meatballs, among most of the enemies. Don’t forget to take a detour to the area with lava to find an invun.

the Dead Room of Doom – you are boxed with a baron and a siege cow, so you try to distract them with each other to grab the red key and exit (with the exit being blocked by a spider). Then you end up in the area made of wooden doors, and you rush through lost souls and fatsos because the ceiling is about to crush you. After that, you end up in the titular room full of cyberdemons; just grab the invun, fill up your plasma, and run to the exit.

Blood Street – well, the title definitely checks out, since it’s nothing but blood everywhere. It’s an icon of sin map, but thankfully, the monsters only spawn near Romero’s head, so it’s not that obnoxious. Don’t forget to visit the area behind the blue door for BFG/plasma.

Never Survived – that title is a lie because I’m still here. You can easily blast a bunch of monsters in front of you. After that, grab either the red or the yellow key to find the blue one and exit the map.

And that’s all for these maps. Nothing makes sense, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t have fun playing these Doom map equivalents of a child’s drawings. It was definitely more fun playing these than some moon-logic parades or pretentious farts that say I’m Half-Life 3! Please bask in my glory!

But hey. If these maps prove anything, it is that anyone can be a WAD maker.

Next WAD on the list is a gameplay mod. We will see how many parts it will require.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2012): Introduction

click

Ladies. Gentlemen and Others, welcome to the Doom WADs’ Roulette, where I review the best WADs according to Doomworld’s Top 100 WADs of All Times and (now) Cacowards. Today, we are starting to check out the “Cacowards” BEEP “2012” BEEP roster. Here are the rules:

#1 We are primarily playing on GZDoom UZDoom (ver. 4.14.3) unless the other source port is required.

#2 We are playing on “Hurt Me Plenty”.

#3 Vertical aiming is on.

#4 No infinitely tall monsters.

#5 The WAD will be downloaded from the archives unless it’s not there, among other reasons.

#6 We are playing WADs shown on a current roster from top to bottom, split into three leagues (top 10, runners-up and honorable mentions, and other WADs).

#7 Lighting is set on modified Classic, along with a modified fog effect.

#8 Best Multiplayer WADs do not count.

#9 When it comes to the community projects that are like Community Chest series, if I won’t enjoy a map (or two), I am allowed to skip it on the second playthrough.

#10 If I encounter a WAD that gives me severely bad first impressions, I am allowed to make a review without a second playthrough, or even not make the review at all.

click

2012! The supposed year of the apocalypse, and yet nothing happened (although some of you may wish we would all die back then). Euro 2012 happened in Poland and Ukraine (we would be having something else to do ten years later, I can tell you that. chuckling), Obama became the USA president for the second time in a row, and The Avengers were released among other events.

2012 was also a year of Assassin’s Creed III, Black Ops II (the final CoD of the golden age), Dishonored, FTL, Hotline Miami, Borderlands 2, and Torchlight II, among other great games.

As for the Doom franchise, the BFG Edition of Doom 3 was released, featuring a new campaign along with Resurrection of Evil and other QoL changes. There were package changes on Steam, along with one of these being also released on PSN.

For the modding community, Skulltag ends up discontinued, but a couple of days before it, its fork, Zandronum, is released, along with GZDoom Builder, a couple of months before that.

Now, when it comes to the Cacowards, things went a little bit chaotic, to say the least. Hobbs, the man who was supposed to replace Scuba Steve when it comes to the main writer of the ceremony, straight up disappeared without letting anyone know that he would not write for that year’s Cacowards. So the Doomwiki summoned Xaser Acheron, Gus Knezevich (Alfonzo), and kmxexii, the author of ONEMANDOOM: WAD Reviews, to help make Cacowards 2012 a reality.

And you know what? It might have been for the better, since unlike Cacowards 2011 that had no runners-up, this ceremony has five of these; the most of the runners-up per Cacowards by far (and just as many as honorable mentions in 2010).

But we have a couple of WADs to check before we get to those. And today, in just five minutes, we will start with something... interesting.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: KZDoom2

So, I managed to reach MAP06 in Herian 1, and I’m throwing the towel. Not because of the moon-logic, surprisingly (although there is some of it), but because of how the author LOVES spreading hitscanners on the very open field with no cover to protect from them; constantly getting sniped from afar didn’t help.

Now with that out of the way, the main part of this post.

B99.1: KZDoom2

Main author(s): Kurt Kesler (kdoom)

Release date: May 7th, 1999

Version(s) played: Version 2

Required port compatibility: ZDoom

Levels: 1 (MAP01 replacement)

I checked out three installments from the KZDoom series before: The first, the sixth, and the seventh. KZDoom1 was a fine map to play, but it felt more like a ZDoom features presentation rather than a normal map, not to mention stealth shitlings along with hitscanners and imps turning into damage sponges. KZDoom6 and 7 were much better maps, but each had one severe con: a breakable elevator in 6, and the final fight in 7.

Now, we will be taking a look at the second installment of this series – Cacodemon’s Revenge. Let’s hope it’s at least better than the first map.

The map looks good. While I don’t think it looks groundbreaking (possibly because I played many other WADs after KZDoom1), there are still moments where it looks great for the WAD from 1999. The techbase areas feel too claustrophobic and bland most of the time, but once you end up in the valley, it gets a lot better.

The map isn’t complicated to play: while looking for keys, you have to go outside, go north to the guard post to find the red key, and return to the main base.

Like with the visual design, the most annoying part of traversing is the indoor areas due to how tight and mangled they feel.

Also, I think jumping is required due to the river near the red key building.

Difficulty-wise, KZDoom2 is rather easy. Funnily enough, it’s the indoor areas that I thought had more polish than the outdoor ones, since the latter are mostly full of tomatoes (since the subtitle of the map, I guess) and baldies.

Thank God you still have a faster shotgun from the previous map to quickly deal with the latter. Not to mention hitscanners and imps no longer being damage sponges and no stealth shitlings on the map.

KZDoom2 is flawed, but it’s still a good map and a step up from KZDoom1. Might be worth taking a look, although the outdoor baldies have a high chance to piss you off. And as for the remaining bonus stuff from the 90s, the Odessa and Dickie series are on hold for now. I’ll probably do another set of three maps for each series between the leagues of the 2012 roster.

Time for me to prepare the foundations for the 2012 roster.

See you all next time.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: Dickie 3

Part 3 – Dickie 3

Release date: March, 1998

Version(s) played: ???

Level replacement: MAP03

Dickie 3 looks just as good as the previous maps, and like the second map, I felt like it had too many shapes with 90-degree angles in many of the areas.

Dickie 3 is easy to understand… like the previous maps… in case of this one, I can only add that it was kind of annoying to travel between the locations.

Dickie 3 is also easy when it comes to enemy encounters… like the previous maps… And like the previous maps, it has imps in dark caves, and some of the enemies that are questionably placed.

Dickie 3 is a good map… like the previous maps from the series...

…

I mean, what else am I supposed to say here? It’s one thing to talk about a WAD made of at least ten maps as a whole. It’s another thing to talk about each of these maps separately with more than one paragraph that is not the current map is similar to the previous map.

So here is the deal – like with the Odessa series, I’m saving this series of WADs for another time.

The next WAD on the bonus list is Herian 1… and judging by my negative reaction towards its sequel, I think I’ll try checking up to MAP10 to decide if I want to give my opinion on it, or just go straight into KZDoom2.

Until then, see you next time.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: Dickie 2

Part 2 – Dickie 2

Release date: April, 1998 (finished second issue)

Version(s) played: Issue 2 (I guess)

Level replacement: MAP02

Here is something funny about this map – Dickie 2 was actually the first WAD Rich has finished (at the very end of 1997); the first map of this series was the second one.

I think this map looks just as good as Dickie 1. There are moments when it looks better than the first map, but I also felt like it was too square-shaped in many places.

The map is easy to understand; slightly more complicated than the first Dickie map, but like then, there was never a moment when I got stuck for a longer period of time, aside from maybe the one when the square with FIREBLU shows up, and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to press it, or shoot it.

Now that I think about it, the path to the blue key and super shotgun has a lot of forced backtracking, especially when there are enemies that force you to jump out of the path to dodge.

Okay, back on track. Dickie 2 was harder than its predecessor, but I think it was still rather easy. It has a bunch of annoying encounters as well, like fighting in the dark areas or hitscanners in the large, open areas with next-to-no cover.

And I think that’s all I have to say about this map. Dickie 2 felt slightly more polarizing than Dickie 1, but at least it didn’t have an icon of shit. It’s still a good map, by the way.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: Dickie 1

Okay, enough of moon-logic for now. Let’s check the other series of 1990’s Doom maps.

B98.1: Dickie Series

Main author(s): Richard Wiles

Required port compatibility: vanilla

Richard Wiles gives me mixed feelings; I remember really enjoying Dickie 10, but his other solo projects, like SlayeR or Crusades, left me with a sour taste in my mouth.

But what about the rest of the Dickie series? Is it as good as the final map?

Why won’t we start from the beginning?

Part 1 – Dickie 1

Release date: January 1st, 1998

Version(s) played: ???

Level replacement: MAP01

So the plot is that you end up on some demon-infested planet after flying through hyperspace. You can guess what happens next.

The map itself looks very good. It was Rich’s first map, and it looks impressive for ‘98. I might be praising it too much, but after the previous three maps, I really wanted something else to play.

The map was pretty easy to understand, too. After the bullshit Odessa maps had, I like how this one says screw that and throws the moon-logic out of the window.

The only problems with the map are the icon of shit at the end (same as the original, but with an annoying, blocking pole), and how you are forced to go through slime when coming back with the red key.

Dickie 1 is rather easy, even when you fight a lot of enemies in tight areas, and in dark areas, and the enemies behind fake walls. The hardest part is grabbing the super shotty from the same monster closet as the two hell knights are; good luck doing that without the partial invisibility, and even then, pray that they will still not see you (if you play on (U)ZDoom that is).

And that’s all for Dickie 1. The series starts off pretty good, if not flawed. I hope it will keep the quality level.

See you next time.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: Odessa 3

Part 3 – Odessa 3 (Fade to Gray)

Level Replacement: MAP03

After dealing with Oasis, you end up next to the sports club or something, while also realizing that you just saw one of your old friends who died two years ago… He turned into a punk.

scare chord

Now, to properly start the review, I think this map might look better than the previous one, since I feel like the color palette fits better for the abstract fitness club, rather than an oasis (but that’s just me).

Fade to Gray also felt easier to understand; it had less moon-logic than the previous map (a lesser amount of wall-humping, to say the least).

The only piss-shitting moment that map has is with the crushers that have switches slapped into them. That, and the fact that you are forced to do backtracking through like half of the map to go from blue key to blue door. There is also this stupid moment where the yellow door opens up on its own as you go down the stairs near it.

The map felt easier than the previous one; again, it’s filled with almost nothing but cannon fodder on HMP. If not for the Hoovies and super shotty, I would swear that I played the Doom I map instead of the Doom II one.

And I think that’s all for today. Fade to Gray was slightly better than Oasis overall, but, like with every Odessa map I reviewed so far, it was just okay.

Frankly, at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the rest of the Odessa maps were the same – looks fine, not too hard, and has some amount of moon-logic and/or backtracking.

I think I might take a break from these maps for now and go for at least the first three maps from the Dickie series.

We will see.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: Odessa 2

Part 2 – Odessa 2 (Oasis)

Level replacement: MAP02

While you are looking for an oasis, you stumble upon an abandoned-looking area with enemies and three keys next to each other on the metal pillars.

Welcome to the (supposedly) titular Oasis. The storm has arrived.

The map itself looks fine. It’s probably just me, but I was wondering if there was supposed to be another color palette instead of gray for like half of it.

Oasis is more annoying to play than the previous map. Not only does it have more moon-logic (although it’s only slightly more than the first map, now that I think about it), but I also noticed more unnecessary backtracking, forcing you to press one switch, go fetch a key, and then go back to the previous area (I’m looking at you, red key).

Oh, and by the way, as I mentioned in the intro, the keys are in one spot, next to each other.

The map wasn’t hard, but I felt like it was more annoying than the previous map, since there were many cases of hitscanners spread around large, open areas, while all you have is a shotgun and next to no bullets.

The only logical reason why I think Oasis is slightly worse than Odessa 1 is that it was supposed to be MAP02, while the latter had the #8 spot; Bob wanted to show more meat later. Other than that, I have nothing.

I ain’t saying anything more; better for the review to be too short, than to be some high-school-essay-long yapping without any sense.