FATAL
June 18th, 2007, 11:08 AM
Reviewed by Danimetal using ZDoom v2.0.96.
"Imprisoned!"
by Steve Wilson.
July 1996.
Doom2.exe,
Single Player,
stvcage.wad, 105kb zipped.
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/games/idgames/levels/doom2/s-u/stvcage.zip
Score: 7
Just to state it clear, this is another old wad. It stands out from other wads from the very same period but it´s clearly under the today´s standards. Given that, it really nice to play if you like maze wads and if, of course, you´re patient enough... As an overview of the wad, it´s set in a dark hell stonish prison with lots of grates and blocky passages everywhere. As you progress through it you will come to see other areas, such as the outdoor ones or some rusty tech that it´s a little out of place... Overall, the architecture is not bad at all though some more height changes and light tricks would have been very welcome. The outdoor area and the ones that come right after it are specially nice and somewhat remind me of the original Doom2 levels with one exception: this level is extremely open ended and maze-like in a sense. Almost all dark corridors are connected with some other secret ones (that won´t count as secret anyway)that may lead you from one part of the map to the other in little time. This is very welcome and tough you´re needed to complete some tasks before like finding two keys and hitting some switches (most of the time you won´t be knowing what they do and you´ll be wondering why the red stone one doesn´t do a thing), you can navigate through some parts of the level freely , with comes quite handy if you can survive. This is a double edged weapon too ´cos I don´t know exactly why or how but the first course you´ll choose seems to be the one who works best until you run out of ammo while advancing. Of course, you should be careful when advancing because the level really acts like a maze where hordes of monsters may be unleashed cutting your retreat and leaving you unarmed and almost naked.
Notice the previous "if you can survive" comment since I have been struggling with this map like two days in UV and finally had to settle down for "Hurt me plenty". It´s not like this map has incredibly hard battles but you will find lots of ambushes and fights in narrow spaces with loads of monsters that will easily eat your health. The mentioned secret passages come in handy to recover yourself and refill you ammo reserves (with, by the way, are nicely balanced in both difficulty levels I played, forcing you to play with every weapon you have)but beware, there are little places where you will be safe if you don´t kill anything in sight. Particularly, in UV you will be backtracking to recover your health and ammo frequently and still you will run out of ammo if you´re not careful while facing the high number of foes... Fortunately, not everything in this map is hard battle: you will find several powerups that if picked up in the correct moment, will help you out a lot.
When you first load this you will notice a nice look (and soon you´ll start to see some other things that don´t look nice) and maybe will spend some seconds trying to get out of the room. Then, if you get the misterious BFG teleporter (nothing you will notice at all) you will feel completely overpowered. Beware, after the first mass fights things are bound to change and you´ll start to notice how grates can disturb your aim and how monsters appear where they weren´t before when backtraking... Anyway, from the player´s point of view it´s a satisfying level (notice I don´t use savegames in the middle of levels)and can take several tries to finish. It´s also large enough to keep you entertained for about half and hour and still you won´t have seen everything that there is!.
Has it bugs and flaws?. Of course. Several misalignments, strange and somewhat erroneous mixing of themes, the need of a double barreled shotgun a lot of time before you actually get it and the infamous crusher in a slime pit that you have to go in without knowing when... If you consider the blocky look and lack of detail a flaw you will find several flaws more but well, this is an old wad where those things didn´t count that much and in the end it has decent gameplay, nice balance of difficulties and a good challenge for a single player game if you are not easily frustrated. If you fit that profile of player and you´re looking for an old wad to play, you could choose this one. Otherwise you could at least give it a try and judge yourself.
SCORE: 7.
SCREENSHOT 1:
[URL=http://imageshack.us]http://img417.imageshack.us/img417/1968/stvcage014qa.png[/URL ]
Get used to this darkness and look if you´re gonna play
SCREENSHOT 2:
[URL=http://imageshack.us]http://img417.imageshack.us/img417/3797/stvcage024xm.png[/URL ]
This aged looking wad has some primitively nice architecture
SCREENSHOT 3: [URL=http://imageshack.us]http://img417.imageshack.us/img417/9458/stvcage036cy.png[/URL ]
Remains of a hard battle outdoors
"Imprisoned!"
by Steve Wilson.
July 1996.
Doom2.exe,
Single Player,
stvcage.wad, 105kb zipped.
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/games/idgames/levels/doom2/s-u/stvcage.zip
Score: 7
Just to state it clear, this is another old wad. It stands out from other wads from the very same period but it´s clearly under the today´s standards. Given that, it really nice to play if you like maze wads and if, of course, you´re patient enough... As an overview of the wad, it´s set in a dark hell stonish prison with lots of grates and blocky passages everywhere. As you progress through it you will come to see other areas, such as the outdoor ones or some rusty tech that it´s a little out of place... Overall, the architecture is not bad at all though some more height changes and light tricks would have been very welcome. The outdoor area and the ones that come right after it are specially nice and somewhat remind me of the original Doom2 levels with one exception: this level is extremely open ended and maze-like in a sense. Almost all dark corridors are connected with some other secret ones (that won´t count as secret anyway)that may lead you from one part of the map to the other in little time. This is very welcome and tough you´re needed to complete some tasks before like finding two keys and hitting some switches (most of the time you won´t be knowing what they do and you´ll be wondering why the red stone one doesn´t do a thing), you can navigate through some parts of the level freely , with comes quite handy if you can survive. This is a double edged weapon too ´cos I don´t know exactly why or how but the first course you´ll choose seems to be the one who works best until you run out of ammo while advancing. Of course, you should be careful when advancing because the level really acts like a maze where hordes of monsters may be unleashed cutting your retreat and leaving you unarmed and almost naked.
Notice the previous "if you can survive" comment since I have been struggling with this map like two days in UV and finally had to settle down for "Hurt me plenty". It´s not like this map has incredibly hard battles but you will find lots of ambushes and fights in narrow spaces with loads of monsters that will easily eat your health. The mentioned secret passages come in handy to recover yourself and refill you ammo reserves (with, by the way, are nicely balanced in both difficulty levels I played, forcing you to play with every weapon you have)but beware, there are little places where you will be safe if you don´t kill anything in sight. Particularly, in UV you will be backtracking to recover your health and ammo frequently and still you will run out of ammo if you´re not careful while facing the high number of foes... Fortunately, not everything in this map is hard battle: you will find several powerups that if picked up in the correct moment, will help you out a lot.
When you first load this you will notice a nice look (and soon you´ll start to see some other things that don´t look nice) and maybe will spend some seconds trying to get out of the room. Then, if you get the misterious BFG teleporter (nothing you will notice at all) you will feel completely overpowered. Beware, after the first mass fights things are bound to change and you´ll start to notice how grates can disturb your aim and how monsters appear where they weren´t before when backtraking... Anyway, from the player´s point of view it´s a satisfying level (notice I don´t use savegames in the middle of levels)and can take several tries to finish. It´s also large enough to keep you entertained for about half and hour and still you won´t have seen everything that there is!.
Has it bugs and flaws?. Of course. Several misalignments, strange and somewhat erroneous mixing of themes, the need of a double barreled shotgun a lot of time before you actually get it and the infamous crusher in a slime pit that you have to go in without knowing when... If you consider the blocky look and lack of detail a flaw you will find several flaws more but well, this is an old wad where those things didn´t count that much and in the end it has decent gameplay, nice balance of difficulties and a good challenge for a single player game if you are not easily frustrated. If you fit that profile of player and you´re looking for an old wad to play, you could choose this one. Otherwise you could at least give it a try and judge yourself.
SCORE: 7.
SCREENSHOT 1:
[URL=http://imageshack.us]http://img417.imageshack.us/img417/1968/stvcage014qa.png[/URL ]
Get used to this darkness and look if you´re gonna play
SCREENSHOT 2:
[URL=http://imageshack.us]http://img417.imageshack.us/img417/3797/stvcage024xm.png[/URL ]
This aged looking wad has some primitively nice architecture
SCREENSHOT 3: [URL=http://imageshack.us]http://img417.imageshack.us/img417/9458/stvcage036cy.png[/URL ]
Remains of a hard battle outdoors