FATAL
June 18th, 2007, 11:44 AM
Simplicity
By Agent Spork
sp_simp.wad (21MB) ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/games/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/sp_simp.zip
Zdoom. Single player and cooperative.
October, 2005. 21 Maps.
Reviewed by Fatal using GZdoom
Score: 5
A wad with all maps done in a few hours each, says the readme. It all started promising, some basic dooming with some traps here and there. Good balance of monsters and ammunition. Nice looking levels. What could go wrong? Lack of ideas, I say. After a few levels the player will see a clear concept in all of the levels. Press a button, get ambushed, take a key, get ambushed, walk through a hallway, get ambushed. Needless to say, it gets frustrating and boring. Not to worry, though, there are only 20 levels of this concept, the last level seeming to be some sort of joke, not related at all to this whole thing.
If this wad was left 4-5 levels long, it would've been great fun, I'm sure of it. There were ideas to supplement those levels very well. Enough to make them interesting and fun to play. Now that there are 20 levels, the ideas just dry off. For the first time it's fun to get suddenly teleported to some other place without a warning, but it isn't funny for the fifth time. Overall, the same kinds of traps repeated and repeated, making most of the levels something that I just wanted to get over with. One thing worth mentioning is that most of the time, when the player is ambushed, the escape route is blocked by bars or by other means, Serious Sam and Painkiller style. I liked neither of the games. Fighting two arch viles at the same time in a cramped area filled with dead monsters isn't funny, when all you have is a rocket launcher. I have to say, that even though there was enough ammunition to supply the player, the traps were just crude and created the opposite of their wanted effect. They raised the difficulty way too high, even on hurt me plenty, and compared to the usual battles, the traps were the only thing that made the difficulty. The levels had about half of the monsters included in traps, and the other half in traditional doom style, waiting in the hallways. I didn't like it. Some traps are cool, but if I meet the same traps over and over again, in more and more unfair circumstances, I'm bound to get angry. Some battles, however, were really cool. For example one where you meet tons of monsters rushing towards the player, and the player just tries to kill them with a rocket launcher as they march forward. Those were the lifting force of this wad.
The levels themselves were nicely done. There were pumps really looking like pumps, a control room really looking like a control room. The areas were really distinguishable. It was almost impossible to get lost in the levels. This is a plus and minus in the same time. It's good that the player doesn't have to look for too long for the next area, but I found the levels to be too much tube-like. Some levels had a nice mix of tube running and backtracking, though. One level had a couple of puzzles. While they're always a very welcome addition, one of them didn't have any logic at all involved, and I find it uncomfortable to push the wrong button combination if every time I get assaulted by spawning monsters. I had to cheat and systematically try the combinations until I hit the right one to get through. The other ones were working quite well. Nothing big to complain about here, though, the levels were overall good.
The new monsters were done alright, although one of them was rather annoying with its ultra rapid movement and even faster firing. They were also semi transparent. The other monster, the upgraded mancubus, was a bit better, although its attacks weren't really working at long range. The new textures did their jobs and looked rather good. A thing worth noticing is that each of the two episodes had a boss, which was a nice addition, although the first one was a bit buggy. The bosses had much more hp, and were scripted nicely to have some good effects, such as turrets firing at the player, or teleportation.
Visually this wad shines the most. The levels had a good consistent theme, although the first episode was just full of tech based levels. The second episode was a bit better, as it took place in hell, and allowed the author to have more freedom. One level brought episode 3 from the original doom into mind, which isn't a bad thing. Also some zdoom effects were a good addition. A door opening towards the top and bottom, or even sideways looked mighty fine. Also slopes were used in some occasions. The wad had lighting, but it just was there. It wasn't used in any way to create atmosphere in some areas or to make some areas darker than others. Overall the levels were well lighted, but around lamps they were even brighter. Nothing special, nothing bad either. One level had a rotating light made with zdoom effects, which was a nice trick.
Overall I didn't enjoy this wad. It had all the resources that a good wad needs, but didn't use them. This is also a good example, that a wad shouldn't be stretched to be longer than what it really should be.
<a href="http://img299.imageshack.us/my.php?image=simp18am.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/5857/simp18am.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
The new grey demon look-alikes are quick and annoying.
<a href="http://img452.imageshack.us/my.php?image=simp22lf.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/1570/simp22lf.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
Arch Viles don't always equal fun.
<a href="http://img452.imageshack.us/my.php?image=simp31ci.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/2060/simp31ci.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
Some of the battles were very fun.
By Agent Spork
sp_simp.wad (21MB) ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/games/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/sp_simp.zip
Zdoom. Single player and cooperative.
October, 2005. 21 Maps.
Reviewed by Fatal using GZdoom
Score: 5
A wad with all maps done in a few hours each, says the readme. It all started promising, some basic dooming with some traps here and there. Good balance of monsters and ammunition. Nice looking levels. What could go wrong? Lack of ideas, I say. After a few levels the player will see a clear concept in all of the levels. Press a button, get ambushed, take a key, get ambushed, walk through a hallway, get ambushed. Needless to say, it gets frustrating and boring. Not to worry, though, there are only 20 levels of this concept, the last level seeming to be some sort of joke, not related at all to this whole thing.
If this wad was left 4-5 levels long, it would've been great fun, I'm sure of it. There were ideas to supplement those levels very well. Enough to make them interesting and fun to play. Now that there are 20 levels, the ideas just dry off. For the first time it's fun to get suddenly teleported to some other place without a warning, but it isn't funny for the fifth time. Overall, the same kinds of traps repeated and repeated, making most of the levels something that I just wanted to get over with. One thing worth mentioning is that most of the time, when the player is ambushed, the escape route is blocked by bars or by other means, Serious Sam and Painkiller style. I liked neither of the games. Fighting two arch viles at the same time in a cramped area filled with dead monsters isn't funny, when all you have is a rocket launcher. I have to say, that even though there was enough ammunition to supply the player, the traps were just crude and created the opposite of their wanted effect. They raised the difficulty way too high, even on hurt me plenty, and compared to the usual battles, the traps were the only thing that made the difficulty. The levels had about half of the monsters included in traps, and the other half in traditional doom style, waiting in the hallways. I didn't like it. Some traps are cool, but if I meet the same traps over and over again, in more and more unfair circumstances, I'm bound to get angry. Some battles, however, were really cool. For example one where you meet tons of monsters rushing towards the player, and the player just tries to kill them with a rocket launcher as they march forward. Those were the lifting force of this wad.
The levels themselves were nicely done. There were pumps really looking like pumps, a control room really looking like a control room. The areas were really distinguishable. It was almost impossible to get lost in the levels. This is a plus and minus in the same time. It's good that the player doesn't have to look for too long for the next area, but I found the levels to be too much tube-like. Some levels had a nice mix of tube running and backtracking, though. One level had a couple of puzzles. While they're always a very welcome addition, one of them didn't have any logic at all involved, and I find it uncomfortable to push the wrong button combination if every time I get assaulted by spawning monsters. I had to cheat and systematically try the combinations until I hit the right one to get through. The other ones were working quite well. Nothing big to complain about here, though, the levels were overall good.
The new monsters were done alright, although one of them was rather annoying with its ultra rapid movement and even faster firing. They were also semi transparent. The other monster, the upgraded mancubus, was a bit better, although its attacks weren't really working at long range. The new textures did their jobs and looked rather good. A thing worth noticing is that each of the two episodes had a boss, which was a nice addition, although the first one was a bit buggy. The bosses had much more hp, and were scripted nicely to have some good effects, such as turrets firing at the player, or teleportation.
Visually this wad shines the most. The levels had a good consistent theme, although the first episode was just full of tech based levels. The second episode was a bit better, as it took place in hell, and allowed the author to have more freedom. One level brought episode 3 from the original doom into mind, which isn't a bad thing. Also some zdoom effects were a good addition. A door opening towards the top and bottom, or even sideways looked mighty fine. Also slopes were used in some occasions. The wad had lighting, but it just was there. It wasn't used in any way to create atmosphere in some areas or to make some areas darker than others. Overall the levels were well lighted, but around lamps they were even brighter. Nothing special, nothing bad either. One level had a rotating light made with zdoom effects, which was a nice trick.
Overall I didn't enjoy this wad. It had all the resources that a good wad needs, but didn't use them. This is also a good example, that a wad shouldn't be stretched to be longer than what it really should be.
<a href="http://img299.imageshack.us/my.php?image=simp18am.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/5857/simp18am.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
The new grey demon look-alikes are quick and annoying.
<a href="http://img452.imageshack.us/my.php?image=simp22lf.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/1570/simp22lf.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
Arch Viles don't always equal fun.
<a href="http://img452.imageshack.us/my.php?image=simp31ci.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/2060/simp31ci.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
Some of the battles were very fun.