FATAL
June 18th, 2007, 11:18 AM
Palace of the beast.
Author: Thrain Shadbolt
Palace.wad (151kb)
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/games/idgames/levels/doom/p-r/palace.zip
Port: Doom.exe
Single Player, DM, Cooperative
October 1994
Reviewer: Danimetal
Port Used: Doom Legacy v1.42 in software mode.
Score: 7
While digging around the old files one may find shiny gaming jewels like this one. Palace of the Beast is an old wad of a quality I hadn´t seen in a long time: it´s not only fun to play, but it also has nice looking touches, a sweet titlepic and sky and the right amount of everything so you can have a nice Dooming session. It´s even of the right size to finish it within an hour (providing several tries if you just restart each time you get killed) and leave you with a nice flavour to it. Of course, the wad itself isn´t perfect but we will go into more detail about it later.
Right when the player is spawned in the starting point you get the familiar "Oh no... Another misaligned, odd looking old wad..." and indeed, this sensation only grows as you move trough the first area. If you´re ever to get out of there without hitting the "Quit" key you will be rewarded with a surprise: out of this strange signature room you will start to find nice looking areas reminiscent of the original Doom tech style andm as you move on, you will be switching themes with wooden, marble or stone in winding staircases... The detail and quality of the architecture ranges from plain boring to nice and simple always getting a feel of a clean style. There are nice angled walls, nice height variations and a few interesting texture alignments in some areas, while others don´t look aligned or even pleasant at all. Also, some of the themes are strangely mixed (like hot red with blue tech) but these tend to be in areas where you won´t even notice or care. The layout accompanying this particular style is outstanding: excellent connectivity, a nice amount of secret passages and a well thought gameplay line that proves to be really enjoyable.
Some things on this wad are particularly remarkable in a positive fashion. For example, you can get a well hidden switch near the beginning that will open a new way to an area you would only be able to access later on. There are also interesting traps (some of them predictable anyway) that won´t kill you instantly along with the mini-radioactive-slime-maze, nice linetriggers and interesting lighting effects (some shadowcasting and even a passage being lit when a door opens) that almost always serve a gameplay purpose. In fact, I would say that gameplay is the most important part of this map.
About gameplay we could start talking about the monsters themselves. They´re nicely placed and they outnumber you in a very enjoyable way: there are some of weak monsters and a few stronger ones that will keep your ammo exactly where it needs to be. Ammo and health supplies are well balanced and important weapons are hidden so you will have to look for something better than your shotgun if you´re having problems. Looking for things on this map is the most fun part of it. It´s not only using switches and keys but actually looking for them in the layout, solving puzzles and doing multiple guessings on what to do next and how to do it (since some of the puzzles are nicely integrated in the architecture... by the way, the automap can help you a lot in this wad). There are even optional quests to start if you want extra ammo, health or invencibility but the ones you´ll have to play are the most fun: the spider room kept me busy for three tries and I only found the yellow key by chance while fighting!... Still, all this fun I had is relative: I like this kind of "quest" wad while some other can find them boring and frustrating. The monsters will keep this entertained while they last, but if you don´t know what to do next and there´s nothing to kill around you could start to get bored. In the end this wad and the fun you can have with it will last for a few tries. You can always come back to find the secrets you missed since it´s not a huge map, but knowing the things you need to do you may not find it as replayable as other levels.
Back to the "Boring and frustrating" part, I think this wad would have been much better and more accessible to other people if the hints to "What to do next" and "Where the secrets are" would have been less subtle. Indeed, this wad could make a nice remake for any port with scripting functions that would help clarify the whole thing. Also, some more monsters and ambushes would have been welcome. It´s not like this map is easy, but I would have loved some crazy firefights instead of the small squirmishes we can find here.
Overall, given it´s age and quality I can do nothing but recommend this wad to every player out there. I´ll give it a 7 out of 10 (which is a high score) and would rate it even higher if visually it was more attractive (somewhat sad, but true for me). Not like the gameplay couldn´t take some boost, but I like it the way it is.
<a href="http://img21.imageshack.us/my.php?image=palace015gw.gif" target="_blank"><img src=" http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6225/palace015gw.th.gif" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
Don´t be fooled, no crate mazes this time.
<a href="http://img21.imageshack.us/my.php?image=palace023hy.gif" target="_blank"><img src=" http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/4551/palace023hy.th.gif" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
Blood sacrifices below burning skies.
<a href="http://img21.imageshack.us/my.php?image=palace034ap.gif" target="_blank"><img src=" http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/9891/palace034ap.th.gif" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
Firefight in evil´s dining room!.
Author: Thrain Shadbolt
Palace.wad (151kb)
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/games/idgames/levels/doom/p-r/palace.zip
Port: Doom.exe
Single Player, DM, Cooperative
October 1994
Reviewer: Danimetal
Port Used: Doom Legacy v1.42 in software mode.
Score: 7
While digging around the old files one may find shiny gaming jewels like this one. Palace of the Beast is an old wad of a quality I hadn´t seen in a long time: it´s not only fun to play, but it also has nice looking touches, a sweet titlepic and sky and the right amount of everything so you can have a nice Dooming session. It´s even of the right size to finish it within an hour (providing several tries if you just restart each time you get killed) and leave you with a nice flavour to it. Of course, the wad itself isn´t perfect but we will go into more detail about it later.
Right when the player is spawned in the starting point you get the familiar "Oh no... Another misaligned, odd looking old wad..." and indeed, this sensation only grows as you move trough the first area. If you´re ever to get out of there without hitting the "Quit" key you will be rewarded with a surprise: out of this strange signature room you will start to find nice looking areas reminiscent of the original Doom tech style andm as you move on, you will be switching themes with wooden, marble or stone in winding staircases... The detail and quality of the architecture ranges from plain boring to nice and simple always getting a feel of a clean style. There are nice angled walls, nice height variations and a few interesting texture alignments in some areas, while others don´t look aligned or even pleasant at all. Also, some of the themes are strangely mixed (like hot red with blue tech) but these tend to be in areas where you won´t even notice or care. The layout accompanying this particular style is outstanding: excellent connectivity, a nice amount of secret passages and a well thought gameplay line that proves to be really enjoyable.
Some things on this wad are particularly remarkable in a positive fashion. For example, you can get a well hidden switch near the beginning that will open a new way to an area you would only be able to access later on. There are also interesting traps (some of them predictable anyway) that won´t kill you instantly along with the mini-radioactive-slime-maze, nice linetriggers and interesting lighting effects (some shadowcasting and even a passage being lit when a door opens) that almost always serve a gameplay purpose. In fact, I would say that gameplay is the most important part of this map.
About gameplay we could start talking about the monsters themselves. They´re nicely placed and they outnumber you in a very enjoyable way: there are some of weak monsters and a few stronger ones that will keep your ammo exactly where it needs to be. Ammo and health supplies are well balanced and important weapons are hidden so you will have to look for something better than your shotgun if you´re having problems. Looking for things on this map is the most fun part of it. It´s not only using switches and keys but actually looking for them in the layout, solving puzzles and doing multiple guessings on what to do next and how to do it (since some of the puzzles are nicely integrated in the architecture... by the way, the automap can help you a lot in this wad). There are even optional quests to start if you want extra ammo, health or invencibility but the ones you´ll have to play are the most fun: the spider room kept me busy for three tries and I only found the yellow key by chance while fighting!... Still, all this fun I had is relative: I like this kind of "quest" wad while some other can find them boring and frustrating. The monsters will keep this entertained while they last, but if you don´t know what to do next and there´s nothing to kill around you could start to get bored. In the end this wad and the fun you can have with it will last for a few tries. You can always come back to find the secrets you missed since it´s not a huge map, but knowing the things you need to do you may not find it as replayable as other levels.
Back to the "Boring and frustrating" part, I think this wad would have been much better and more accessible to other people if the hints to "What to do next" and "Where the secrets are" would have been less subtle. Indeed, this wad could make a nice remake for any port with scripting functions that would help clarify the whole thing. Also, some more monsters and ambushes would have been welcome. It´s not like this map is easy, but I would have loved some crazy firefights instead of the small squirmishes we can find here.
Overall, given it´s age and quality I can do nothing but recommend this wad to every player out there. I´ll give it a 7 out of 10 (which is a high score) and would rate it even higher if visually it was more attractive (somewhat sad, but true for me). Not like the gameplay couldn´t take some boost, but I like it the way it is.
<a href="http://img21.imageshack.us/my.php?image=palace015gw.gif" target="_blank"><img src=" http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6225/palace015gw.th.gif" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
Don´t be fooled, no crate mazes this time.
<a href="http://img21.imageshack.us/my.php?image=palace023hy.gif" target="_blank"><img src=" http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/4551/palace023hy.th.gif" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
Blood sacrifices below burning skies.
<a href="http://img21.imageshack.us/my.php?image=palace034ap.gif" target="_blank"><img src=" http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/9891/palace034ap.th.gif" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
Firefight in evil´s dining room!.