FATAL
June 18th, 2007, 11:09 AM
Reviewer: Danimetal
4Corners, Labirynth, Fragathon and Volcano
by Steve Wilson. 1996.
Doom2.exe,
Deathmatch (single player also supported),
67kb, Stvdm.wad
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/games/idgames/levels/doom2/deathmatch/s-u/stvdm.zip
Score: 4
For a little historic record, at the beginning there was no intention of reviewing this wad. It was just that Fatal and I were looking for some DeathMatch wad to play that afternoon and just stumbled over one into the reviewing list. I can´t say it was an impressive frag festival but it was fun enough... Today we just decided we could review it along with other DeathMatch wads and here it is.
This wad is not actually a level itself but a compilation of four different maps that don´t actually share a theme or have any conducting thread... They can work if you set small time or frag limits (with the possible exception of map02) and if you liked the experience of Map03 you may come back, but this is not a favourite DM map pack. Take it into account if you run out of them and want to host a small game. They also support Single Player gaming but with the possible exception of map02 (again) there´s not real gameplay on them.
Since they´re DeathMatch wads let´s go through each one of them with a limited depth:
Map01 -> 4corners: This is a rather symetrical map. It´s comprised of nine square rooms (the ones on the sides of a higher height level) connected to each other in a tic-tac-toe fashion. At the four wind points there are also bigger rooms with teleporters that will take you to the higher rooms and in one of them there´s a secret with the exit itself... Everything on it doesn´t look precisely great but at least there´s no bug or something really wrong with it besides the strange theme mixing.
The fun part of it is the door action: there are some doors leading to the central square and the extreme rooms that will open or close depending on your position. Combined with the teleporters it may happen that you can lock a foe into a depressed room and kill him from an upper one with the weapons you´ll find on them... Other than that, this surely wasn´t a jewel for four players, but could be fun with more.
Map02 -> Labirynth: This is a rather medium sized maze (with about three big rooms and some smaller) with lots of height levels resulting on a much more confusing DM experience than you would expected. It has nice connectivity and the four wind points of the map can be accesed by outer passages. The thing that makes it incredibly confusing is that almost all parts of the maze look the same (depending on the height level). They don´t look bad at all, there are some nice touches here and there on the texture using and there is no strange mix of themes but in the end you´ll have to know the maze by heart not to get lost on it.
You´re surely to spend more time looking for your foe in this maze (specially in One on One) but somehow it could be fun enough for a lot of people during some time (the visibility and space to move is not great anyway). In Single Player it seems to be more interesting for the layout itself but clearly that´s not the point of it.
Map03 -> Fragathon: If you browse enough you´re surely to find lots of maps like this. It´s a joust style map: a large open air passage with lava pits at both sides and some "headquarters" on each extreme filled up with weapons. Each player starts on a side, picks up a huge arsenal (BFG included) and start to shoot like crazy BGF shots, missiles and plasma along the passage until the other is killed. Eventually you may run out of ammo if your opponent managed to hide and then you´ll run through the passage with the other weapons...
This map has a red-hell-rock theme to it that makes it really loud and somewhat unpleasant but I had fun with it. Anyway, there are surely better wads on that fashion if you look around, but this can work for some minutes.
Map04 -> Volcano: As was said during gameplay "Madness!!". A small square room with four alcoves, each one with ammo, health, chainguns and BFG´s... Everyone goes crazy with his weapons until runs out of ammo and switches. After thinking about it I found the chaingun much more reliable in this map but most of the time whoever takes the first kill dominates (unless you´re using invulnerability when respawning. In that case frags are alternated) and the map gets boring after a while. Visually it wasn´t appealing, a mixed cement theme... Only play it if you wish to learn how to dodge close BFG shots.
Based on the DM playability of this maps I decided to give the ratings for them separatedly. 4corners earns a 3 (nothing really special or playable), Labirynth a 1 (not fun on small squirmishes), Fragathon gets a 6 (a fun experience for some minutes) and finally, Volcano reaches 4 (fun while it lasts but gets real old). The final score for the whole pack is just a mathematical thing: 3+1+6+4=14. 14 / 4 = something near... 4.
RATINGS: 4
Note: All screens were taken with Legacy. I didn´t take them on Skulltag and ZDoom kept on crashing for some reason.
http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/9799/stvdm019nn.jpg
"Not much to offer in single player...".
http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/9629/stvdm028fv.jpg
"A view of almost all Volcano map".
4Corners, Labirynth, Fragathon and Volcano
by Steve Wilson. 1996.
Doom2.exe,
Deathmatch (single player also supported),
67kb, Stvdm.wad
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/games/idgames/levels/doom2/deathmatch/s-u/stvdm.zip
Score: 4
For a little historic record, at the beginning there was no intention of reviewing this wad. It was just that Fatal and I were looking for some DeathMatch wad to play that afternoon and just stumbled over one into the reviewing list. I can´t say it was an impressive frag festival but it was fun enough... Today we just decided we could review it along with other DeathMatch wads and here it is.
This wad is not actually a level itself but a compilation of four different maps that don´t actually share a theme or have any conducting thread... They can work if you set small time or frag limits (with the possible exception of map02) and if you liked the experience of Map03 you may come back, but this is not a favourite DM map pack. Take it into account if you run out of them and want to host a small game. They also support Single Player gaming but with the possible exception of map02 (again) there´s not real gameplay on them.
Since they´re DeathMatch wads let´s go through each one of them with a limited depth:
Map01 -> 4corners: This is a rather symetrical map. It´s comprised of nine square rooms (the ones on the sides of a higher height level) connected to each other in a tic-tac-toe fashion. At the four wind points there are also bigger rooms with teleporters that will take you to the higher rooms and in one of them there´s a secret with the exit itself... Everything on it doesn´t look precisely great but at least there´s no bug or something really wrong with it besides the strange theme mixing.
The fun part of it is the door action: there are some doors leading to the central square and the extreme rooms that will open or close depending on your position. Combined with the teleporters it may happen that you can lock a foe into a depressed room and kill him from an upper one with the weapons you´ll find on them... Other than that, this surely wasn´t a jewel for four players, but could be fun with more.
Map02 -> Labirynth: This is a rather medium sized maze (with about three big rooms and some smaller) with lots of height levels resulting on a much more confusing DM experience than you would expected. It has nice connectivity and the four wind points of the map can be accesed by outer passages. The thing that makes it incredibly confusing is that almost all parts of the maze look the same (depending on the height level). They don´t look bad at all, there are some nice touches here and there on the texture using and there is no strange mix of themes but in the end you´ll have to know the maze by heart not to get lost on it.
You´re surely to spend more time looking for your foe in this maze (specially in One on One) but somehow it could be fun enough for a lot of people during some time (the visibility and space to move is not great anyway). In Single Player it seems to be more interesting for the layout itself but clearly that´s not the point of it.
Map03 -> Fragathon: If you browse enough you´re surely to find lots of maps like this. It´s a joust style map: a large open air passage with lava pits at both sides and some "headquarters" on each extreme filled up with weapons. Each player starts on a side, picks up a huge arsenal (BFG included) and start to shoot like crazy BGF shots, missiles and plasma along the passage until the other is killed. Eventually you may run out of ammo if your opponent managed to hide and then you´ll run through the passage with the other weapons...
This map has a red-hell-rock theme to it that makes it really loud and somewhat unpleasant but I had fun with it. Anyway, there are surely better wads on that fashion if you look around, but this can work for some minutes.
Map04 -> Volcano: As was said during gameplay "Madness!!". A small square room with four alcoves, each one with ammo, health, chainguns and BFG´s... Everyone goes crazy with his weapons until runs out of ammo and switches. After thinking about it I found the chaingun much more reliable in this map but most of the time whoever takes the first kill dominates (unless you´re using invulnerability when respawning. In that case frags are alternated) and the map gets boring after a while. Visually it wasn´t appealing, a mixed cement theme... Only play it if you wish to learn how to dodge close BFG shots.
Based on the DM playability of this maps I decided to give the ratings for them separatedly. 4corners earns a 3 (nothing really special or playable), Labirynth a 1 (not fun on small squirmishes), Fragathon gets a 6 (a fun experience for some minutes) and finally, Volcano reaches 4 (fun while it lasts but gets real old). The final score for the whole pack is just a mathematical thing: 3+1+6+4=14. 14 / 4 = something near... 4.
RATINGS: 4
Note: All screens were taken with Legacy. I didn´t take them on Skulltag and ZDoom kept on crashing for some reason.
http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/9799/stvdm019nn.jpg
"Not much to offer in single player...".
http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/9629/stvdm028fv.jpg
"A view of almost all Volcano map".