Ancient Aliens beaten! This one was long overdue. I started this WAD back in October of last year and only now I’ve gotten around to beating it. Like most skillsaw WADs, the total time up there doesn’t represent the actual total time because of death exits. I’d say I spent at least 10 hours on Ancient Aliens.
This WAD is nothing if not colorful. If you like cyan and magenta, you owe it to yourself to at least load this up and wander its levels, regardless of whether you keep the monsters on or off. I’m not sure I’m personally that big of a fan of it though. I generally like the basic Doom aesthetics no matter how tired they are, but at the very least this made for a nice departure from that.
The general gameplay is very solid the whole way through. The last few maps get a bit slaughter-y, but generally the skill level required to beat most maps stays the same the whole way through. For less-experienced players, this may be good to hear. For someone like me, it generally means most maps play out in the same kind of way. I could never find it in myself to keep playing more than a map and a half at a time without feeling like doing something else.
Is this a problem with Ancient Aliens, or is it a problem with me? It’s probably the latter, though I did blaze through Hellbound+Guncaster and Doom 64 for Doom 2 with no problems, so I dunno.
Ancient Aliens has a few sprite swaps for existing enemies like the Arachnotron and the Mancubus to make them look more “alien”, but there’s a new enemy as well: the Alien Trooper. When they’re active and moving around, they’re cloaked with “active camo”, appearing entirely transparent save for a shimmering dotted outline around their shape, but when they open fire they become fully visible. They shoot a small burst of plasma at you before recloaking, and that shit stings. They’re fast buggers too, and can actually be tricky to hit if you’re not aiming properly.
Overall, a solid time. Not personally a favorite though, but good nonetheless.
Man, what should I even play next. Community Chest 4? Jenesis? I dunno
