FATAL
June 18th, 2007, 11:53 AM
No Brakes by Lutrov71 and Cyber-Menace.
Nobrakes.wad (300kb)
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/games/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/nobrakes.zip
Port: Limit Removing Port.
Designed for Single Player.
4th February,2005.
1 map.
Danimetal using Zdoom V.2.0.96.
Score: 5.5
As you may have read in the summary, this wad is highly unstable. It would take some time to explain why I think so but I´ll try to be as accurate as possible in this space and time I´m given. First, unstable doesn´t mean "Bad" or "Good" or anything. I could have also used another term like "Diffuse" or "Irregular" but I didn´t want to hold to a word that could have negative connotations... Anyway, this wad features both good and bad points, as all wads, and both of them are on high pure forms. That´s it: the good is really good and the bad is quite negative.
Let´s begin with the layout and style... The layout for this level is "unstable". It begins with a nice brownish and claustrophobic tunnel section with tech details that give a good starting feel and then it progress through some other styles in an unpredictable fashion: now you´re in some tunnels, you get to an open area, you´re teleported to a gut hellish place or you´re in a big blood lake with wood and green marble architecture... As said, unstable. The layout doesn´t seem to decide at all where it´s going to due to the use of teleporters and the only thing that you´ll know for sure is that you have to go back to the beginning with a yellow key to exit the map... The beginning is that brownish tunnel I mentioned earlier but, suddenly, it´s connected with some outdoors area with primitive architecture (primitive in the sense of... really old) that doesn´t seem to belong there. At the end, you feel like you´ve been in some strange trip through hell (hell decorations, bloods and guts are a constant in some places of this map) and back without a sense of direction... No sense of direction is needed anyway, since you lineally progress and come back to areas as you need to.
Detail on these areas also varies during the whole show. This may have something to do with the wad having two different authors but, anyway, if the first area looks really good and is quite promising, some others look plain bare and, unfortunately, there are a lot of them and they tend to be huge. Maybe the first area makes the player expect something else but in terms of detail I was dissapointed: I expected a much better looking wad and the map did even look ugly sometimes due to the texture combinations used in some places (I never liked red and green together, to be honest).
Gameplay was unstable too... First of it all, don´t even try this in UV. Trust the authors, it´s really hard. I tend to ignore those warnings but this time I was forced into Hurt me Plenty when I miserably failed to get out of the third area like ten times so if you want to try this and don´t want to feel frustrated, start in a medium or easy difficulty level since UV it´s not only hard but almost unplayable sometimes. That doesn´t mean that Hurt me Plenty was easier: not at all. If you master the save and load technique you may progress trough this map quickly but you´ll be loading a lot of times due to the quantity of unfair traps, in-your-face encounters and tough monsters (I saw little former humans or imps among the 500 monsters in this wad, really... The number of revenants was, on the other hand, absurd). What does this mean?. It means that this map abuses though encounters in tight areas (how about a lot of mancubi and an Arch-Vile surrounding you instantly?) and does little use of regular battles. O.k, there are signs that bad stuff will happen so you´re warned, but that´s not enough. The reasonable amount of ammo and health it´s not enough too: battling 8 revenants at the same time more than once in a map it´s not fun at all, at least for me... So, well, in terms of battling gameplay I was also dissapointed with this wad. There were nice moments, some of them really intense and strategic (like in the area with the two teleporters) but they don´t pay for the quantity of unfair battles, predictable and unavoidable traps and other bad habits. There may be players that enjoy this, but having to load a lot of times doesn´t show how much you master Doom, but the level you´re playing.
The level also features puzzles, challenges and other gameplay elements... The worst of them all, are the traps. It´s not that they aren´t imaginative; the problem is that they are predictable and unavoidable. You´re bound to do some action that will unleash a raging horde of monsters to you and you know they won´t be precisely imps (in fact, there are some double barreled shotgun fests with demons, revenants and cacodemons mixed together). That´s, by far, the lowest point of this wad. Speaking of other things, the regular key and switch action is present and works nice as expected. It doesn´t shine a lot but, on the other hand, some challenges are actually fun (for example, the invulnerability moment or shooting through grates you can´t almost see through... This last is both a "good" and a "bad" anyway) and worth trying. Again and, unfortunately, I wouldn´t consider some of the battles and traps a challenge but a suicide, like in the very last battle when you know something is gonna happen (I could only beat that getting away from the field to a safer position). As with detail and layout, I don´t know how much the duplicity of authors is to blame for this, but well, this wad is not friendly to players that want engaging and fair gameplay but will please the most hardened warriors out there.
So, what´s the fun factor of this wad?. Depends on you. Honestly, I didn´t have a lot of fun with it but I know that there are players that like this kind of "trial and error" gameplay (and I´m sure they feel terribly mighty if they survive a trap without loading a game... I tend to feel lucky like "I was holding the BFG and I happened to be facing the right direction when hell broke loose). The whole responsibility for my opinion of the fun value is on the battles: it could have been much more enjoyable if they would have been designed in other way. On the other hand, I kept on playing until I finished the wad so that means it´s, in a sense, engaging. On the other hand of the other hand, my expectatives weren´t fulfilled as I played (I kept on playing to see new nice stuff and I didn´t) so I tend to negatively think about this wad. Giving it a score lower than a 5 would be unfair but being really demanding as I am, I´ll give this wad a 5.5.
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Nobrakes.wad (300kb)
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/games/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/nobrakes.zip
Port: Limit Removing Port.
Designed for Single Player.
4th February,2005.
1 map.
Danimetal using Zdoom V.2.0.96.
Score: 5.5
As you may have read in the summary, this wad is highly unstable. It would take some time to explain why I think so but I´ll try to be as accurate as possible in this space and time I´m given. First, unstable doesn´t mean "Bad" or "Good" or anything. I could have also used another term like "Diffuse" or "Irregular" but I didn´t want to hold to a word that could have negative connotations... Anyway, this wad features both good and bad points, as all wads, and both of them are on high pure forms. That´s it: the good is really good and the bad is quite negative.
Let´s begin with the layout and style... The layout for this level is "unstable". It begins with a nice brownish and claustrophobic tunnel section with tech details that give a good starting feel and then it progress through some other styles in an unpredictable fashion: now you´re in some tunnels, you get to an open area, you´re teleported to a gut hellish place or you´re in a big blood lake with wood and green marble architecture... As said, unstable. The layout doesn´t seem to decide at all where it´s going to due to the use of teleporters and the only thing that you´ll know for sure is that you have to go back to the beginning with a yellow key to exit the map... The beginning is that brownish tunnel I mentioned earlier but, suddenly, it´s connected with some outdoors area with primitive architecture (primitive in the sense of... really old) that doesn´t seem to belong there. At the end, you feel like you´ve been in some strange trip through hell (hell decorations, bloods and guts are a constant in some places of this map) and back without a sense of direction... No sense of direction is needed anyway, since you lineally progress and come back to areas as you need to.
Detail on these areas also varies during the whole show. This may have something to do with the wad having two different authors but, anyway, if the first area looks really good and is quite promising, some others look plain bare and, unfortunately, there are a lot of them and they tend to be huge. Maybe the first area makes the player expect something else but in terms of detail I was dissapointed: I expected a much better looking wad and the map did even look ugly sometimes due to the texture combinations used in some places (I never liked red and green together, to be honest).
Gameplay was unstable too... First of it all, don´t even try this in UV. Trust the authors, it´s really hard. I tend to ignore those warnings but this time I was forced into Hurt me Plenty when I miserably failed to get out of the third area like ten times so if you want to try this and don´t want to feel frustrated, start in a medium or easy difficulty level since UV it´s not only hard but almost unplayable sometimes. That doesn´t mean that Hurt me Plenty was easier: not at all. If you master the save and load technique you may progress trough this map quickly but you´ll be loading a lot of times due to the quantity of unfair traps, in-your-face encounters and tough monsters (I saw little former humans or imps among the 500 monsters in this wad, really... The number of revenants was, on the other hand, absurd). What does this mean?. It means that this map abuses though encounters in tight areas (how about a lot of mancubi and an Arch-Vile surrounding you instantly?) and does little use of regular battles. O.k, there are signs that bad stuff will happen so you´re warned, but that´s not enough. The reasonable amount of ammo and health it´s not enough too: battling 8 revenants at the same time more than once in a map it´s not fun at all, at least for me... So, well, in terms of battling gameplay I was also dissapointed with this wad. There were nice moments, some of them really intense and strategic (like in the area with the two teleporters) but they don´t pay for the quantity of unfair battles, predictable and unavoidable traps and other bad habits. There may be players that enjoy this, but having to load a lot of times doesn´t show how much you master Doom, but the level you´re playing.
The level also features puzzles, challenges and other gameplay elements... The worst of them all, are the traps. It´s not that they aren´t imaginative; the problem is that they are predictable and unavoidable. You´re bound to do some action that will unleash a raging horde of monsters to you and you know they won´t be precisely imps (in fact, there are some double barreled shotgun fests with demons, revenants and cacodemons mixed together). That´s, by far, the lowest point of this wad. Speaking of other things, the regular key and switch action is present and works nice as expected. It doesn´t shine a lot but, on the other hand, some challenges are actually fun (for example, the invulnerability moment or shooting through grates you can´t almost see through... This last is both a "good" and a "bad" anyway) and worth trying. Again and, unfortunately, I wouldn´t consider some of the battles and traps a challenge but a suicide, like in the very last battle when you know something is gonna happen (I could only beat that getting away from the field to a safer position). As with detail and layout, I don´t know how much the duplicity of authors is to blame for this, but well, this wad is not friendly to players that want engaging and fair gameplay but will please the most hardened warriors out there.
So, what´s the fun factor of this wad?. Depends on you. Honestly, I didn´t have a lot of fun with it but I know that there are players that like this kind of "trial and error" gameplay (and I´m sure they feel terribly mighty if they survive a trap without loading a game... I tend to feel lucky like "I was holding the BFG and I happened to be facing the right direction when hell broke loose). The whole responsibility for my opinion of the fun value is on the battles: it could have been much more enjoyable if they would have been designed in other way. On the other hand, I kept on playing until I finished the wad so that means it´s, in a sense, engaging. On the other hand of the other hand, my expectatives weren´t fulfilled as I played (I kept on playing to see new nice stuff and I didn´t) so I tend to negatively think about this wad. Giving it a score lower than a 5 would be unfair but being really demanding as I am, I´ll give this wad a 5.5.
<a href="http://img484.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nobrakes011vt.png" target="_blank"><img src=" http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/7568/nobrakes011vt.th.png" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
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