FATAL
June 24th, 2007, 11:39 AM
Map 06-Bitter Loathing.
Back on track, this map seems like an excellent play that could have been released solo and had a nice response. First thing that gets your eye on this map is the theme: metal, wood and marble create an space resembling the "Thy Flesh Consumed" episode with a depressive atmosphere. Constructions and architecture look fine with a good managing of heights, textures and balance between squary sections and curves. There is also some stunning detail, like the mouths of the lions, the light effect on the teleporters and the overall usage of lighting (with some Vanilla Doom tricks thrown in)... So to say, this level has a great look and theme to it in each of the areas (indoors, outdoors and the castle-like constructions) and lasts enough to deliver eye pleasure.
Gameplay is also pretty nice from the start: players can lack on ammo right when the level begins and it´s not until the end when you can have some spare ammo to waste around. Before that you´ll be fighting an increasing army of both weak and strong monsters (most of them are Hell Knights, Mancubi and Cacodemons) in a variety of ways: sometimes they teleport and ambush, some others they stand there and in a few places they´re more like sitting ducks unable to harm you. Still, the level can put you into trouble if you´re not cautious, specially a little later the middle of the level, when you enter a particularly violent area riddled with monsters shooting from all angles... All battles proved to be fun and entertaining, helping the map keep its momentum without being too hard.
Puzzling is also interesting. There is a variety of switches, actions and traps that, combined with the design and layout, force the player to backtrack and look for ways around (that usually are not far away... You may spend a few minutes wandering around in a few places, but nothing more). You´re likely to come across closed doors and bars that are opened much later in the map but being it of medium-big size and well connected it´s not much of a trouble. Anyway, puzzling was one of the aspects I enjoyed more of this map and it was really fun to unfold it´s secrets.
To sum up, this is a great, balanced map that happens to occur soon into the map pack.
Map 07-Identity Check.
This map has a classic Doom feel to it. Notice that it´s not a polite way to say that this wad is ugly (that will be said later) but to refer to it´s gameplay. Identity check is all about puzzles, cohesion and winding passages with lurking monsters, just like classic Doom maps were to me. It has a few stuff from what I call "modern" mapping, like an impossible battle, furniture and little Doom tricks but for the rest of it, it could be a classic Doom map.
Identity Check´s watermark happens to be its design and layout: there are a lot of odd shaped passages, a long curve hallway that is the spinal of the map and then rooms here and there. A look at the editor reveals how simple this map is in its conception and, while playing, some of this simplicity comes through: there´s only a hard battle, puzzling is not complicated (but it´s somewhat coherent and imaginative) and the way to go is completely linear across the spinal hallway. Then the map has imaginative height variations, optional stuff to hunt for, a nice door system (as said before, coherent), a certain atmosphere, winding layout and some twists and turns that are very nice. That was for the puzzles and same goes for the battles: there is good stuff and there are more plain moments. So to say, this is a map of contrasts that won´t please everybody as for gameplay.
In the top of it: the look. Another bunch of contrasts. For example, there´s nice lighting in some places (and even a shadow casting trick) and some others are just too right or too dark. There are nice details (primitive, in a sense) and there are blocks here and there... I would say that this map doesn´t look bad or horrible (except some misalignments here) but there´s nothing remarkable about it´s appearance in a positive way.
So, well, you could think that this map is balanced because of all contrasts but I think that this is a very extremist map: either love it or hate it. Or so it seems to me.
Map 08-Xenturion.
Along with "Shotfun" and as far as I have played, Xenturion is one of the maps that took more tries to beat. I guess that it´s because the hardness of its battles, since puzzling is not really hard, but let´s start right from the beginning: right at the start the player is greeted with a chaingun a few steps away. Looking closely, you can see a couple of shotgunners standing there. "Ohh, trap" - you think "I´ll take them with my handgun"... Wrong: once you fire you´ll get a bunch of demons, a cacodemon and (you´ll later say "of course") a Revenant. Fight them with your handgun :P... Anyway, there are some moments like that in this wad, when you have to know what´s next if you want to take the right approach but aside from that, it´s worth trying.
Xenturion takes place in a tech-base environment with some bricks and stone. It looks nice enough to guess it was crafted not long ago, but also captures a feeling that makes it look good and classic with no excessive amount of useless details. That doesn´t mean that you won´t see screens, lights and even a dynamite pack somewhere!!. In visual terms, this map is pretty solid. The layout is quite clear (you will see when you get the automap, sooner or later) and there´s a definite direction you have to follow. Still, the layout offers some forking here and there giving you chances to explore the place but unless you enjoy doing some Revenant or Arch-Vile safaris I doubt you´d like to explore a lot :P. Anyway, the map is medium sized so you´ll end up visiting almost all places (or all places if you get a pistol start and want to kill the Cyberdemon somehow).
Battles... Battles... Well, let me remember... One, two, three, four, five, six, seven... Yeah, I think that there are seven Arch-Viles in Hurt me Plenty. Only that makes battles hard. O.k, one of them is render useless if you make good use of the invulneravility sphere (you´d better do that) but, don´t you think it´s excessive?. The amount of imps, demons, shotgunners and chaingunners is small, so is the number of mancubi around but, what about Revenants?. Again, plenty of them. You´ll get to face like three or four at once as you´ll face two Hell Knights and a Baron in a small room (with a mancubus, two revenants and an Arch-Vile in the next one) but well, you´ll have to get used to it if you want to enjoy this map ´cos, in fact, I found this map to be real fun. Some battles had a nice thought work on them (I loved to take cover behind the crates in the crate room) and some others were so uneven that you´ll feel "heroic" (glad I recorded a demo :D).
If I may complain I would say two things. One is about the Cyberdemon: there´s a room that allows you to kill it without even giving it a fair chance. The other is about the secrets: I did only find one... Surely I´ll look at the edit to find the others. Other than that, the battles on this map are exxagerated, but fun.
To sum up, Xenturion was a fun, difficult and worthy map. Now I´m off to see my demo!.
Map 09-Baleful Confines.
So far, Baleful Confines is the map that has taken me more time to finish... You could look for the reason in it´s non linear setup, it´s tricky battles or the difficulty of some puzzles but well, don´t be fooled: this map took that long because I never saved my game and any of the reasons above got me killed time after time (there are nine demos of this map on my hard drive and I died in eight of them!)... You see, the same reasons above are bound to be positive ones for me: I liked the puzzling, I enjoyed the battles and it´s non linearity proved to be enjoyable and flexible but maybe it was too difficult for me. I feel as if I had to learn all the places in this map before being able to finish it and I won´t blame the author for that: if I only used savegames... Anyway, my feelings for this map are a strange mixture of love (fun, challenge, wit) and hate (frustration, frustration, frustration...).
But probably, one of the things that tells a part of me to hate this map is it´s look. There´s nothing bad with it: it´s the classic wood-stone-metal combination: dark, brown, moody but highly depressive when you´ve played this map for too long!. Other than the theme, most of the structures were quite simple and clean with not a lot of detail (occasional books on the library and some beams on the ceiling of a courtyard) revealing a blocky but convincing structure. The layout of the map is set to be circular to great effect: it helps a lot the non-linearity of this map.
This very same non-linearity is very interesting... The only thing you´ll have for sure is that you´ll get the shotgun when you start. Then you can go for some armor and the chaingun or the double barreled chaingun, the rocket launcher, start getting into puzzles and troubles... It´s a very interesting effect. It will draw away the fans of linear maps but will be quite engaging for the others: you may find a path you trust a lot, but try to experiment since there are multiple ways to go and there´s not a definite order to solve the puzzles and face the most heavy battles. As said, the setting itself makes the layout and gameplay flow very interesting. You may have some moments of "where do I go now?" and some cries of frustration regarding certain puzzle-trap but, in a sense, the map is small enough to run through it looking for answers.
While you look for them you´re likely to find some individual monsters (Mancubi that you can´t reach but you can still shoot), a couple of cacodemons and spiders and some small groups of imps, lost souls and demons. The rest is pure mayhem: big battles with a lot of monsters and a lot of gunfire everywhere... I won´t forget as a great moment in this map when I first walked into the library and shoot my weapon: lots of zombies came out from behind the shelves as a couple of cacodemons tried to fry me from the distance. The best was when there appeared even more zombies and a fiery squadron of lost souls... Nearly 49 monsters in that battle. Then you have even more messy ones that may feel cheap when you begin but, once again, try not to get fooled: I found an strategy for each of the battles (except for the library one) that worked if nicely put into practice and I´m sure that they could get even better if I made better use of monsters infight. Ammo and health balance were o.k when using the infights, but there are a lot of baddies out there to waste ammo around.
So, well, I see I´m writing a lot of stuff about this map. Certainly and deep inside I liked it but it was much too frustrating to try again and again. Just play it with savegames and you could enjoy it but guess that part of the fun is to restart and try new ways once and again as I guess Nuxius likes.
Map 10- Processing Station 10-29:71
This map keeps on reminding me of the original Doom... Maybe it´s the usage texture or the crate and computer mazes (one of them with pulsing light) but I´m tempted to think that it´s the gameplay. In a few words, this map is fun. You can have some problems finding your way but it´s not hard, plays fine and has many fun moments. Let´s go into some detail:
First the layout, look and feel: just one look at the map in the editor and you´ll notice how it´s made of squary rooms and sections and big blocks but, you know what?. It works in game and happens to look pretty funky: it´s like a Doom base full of cables and pipes everywhere with metal plates here and there. There´s not a lot of detail, there aren´t detailed lights but it has mood. You can look for this mood in the layout (pretty convincing) or in the piercing darkness (a lot of the map is damn hard). Anyway, without having lots of details or architectural twists (there are nice touches like the beams, the crates or the pipes) it works in the visuals. I would have liked it more if there was some border or trim between the techie textures and the floors since it was much of a violent contrast to me. Other than that, there´s something in the big dark pit area that I liked: it mixed structure, gameplay flow and battles in a pretty nice way.
Then with the gameplay itself: plays fine. I finished it in my first run but wasn´t dissapointed with that. Even though I could have use a more careful approach I found a balanced level of difficulty and a nice flow. I had some problems (like you could probably) looking for the blue key since there´s no way to know that certain section becomes accessible by hitting some switch on the other side but, other than that, there´s a nice flow. I also liked the connectivity a lot: this may belong with the layout comments but it was interesting that you could take different approaches to battles. For example, I was about of going through a big locked door when I remembered a smaller one on a side. When entering for the side I could take the monsters without being seen and ended up in the very same area. This kind of thing makes the map interesting... Secret hunting was also interesting but I reckon that I failed in finding other than a couple of them.
Still, the funniest hunt here is the monster hunt: most enemies have low health values and are found in medium numbers (but with good placement) so each time you enter a new place you´ll go killing a lot of monsters. There are stronger monsters here and there but if I had any trouble while fighting I didn´t find it with them but with the little hitscan zombies. Ammunition started out tight (and I started playing so rushed, maybe this has something to do) and health ended up being more than enough but, anyhow, I had a lot of fun with this map.
In fact, if I had to say something that I would remember of this map it would be it´s fun value: the big room with twin structures is not impressive, the battles are not menacing and puzzles aren´t original but well, the sum of the whole experience was fun and remembered me a lot to the original gameplay. Not the best map in the lot, but a fun one.
Back on track, this map seems like an excellent play that could have been released solo and had a nice response. First thing that gets your eye on this map is the theme: metal, wood and marble create an space resembling the "Thy Flesh Consumed" episode with a depressive atmosphere. Constructions and architecture look fine with a good managing of heights, textures and balance between squary sections and curves. There is also some stunning detail, like the mouths of the lions, the light effect on the teleporters and the overall usage of lighting (with some Vanilla Doom tricks thrown in)... So to say, this level has a great look and theme to it in each of the areas (indoors, outdoors and the castle-like constructions) and lasts enough to deliver eye pleasure.
Gameplay is also pretty nice from the start: players can lack on ammo right when the level begins and it´s not until the end when you can have some spare ammo to waste around. Before that you´ll be fighting an increasing army of both weak and strong monsters (most of them are Hell Knights, Mancubi and Cacodemons) in a variety of ways: sometimes they teleport and ambush, some others they stand there and in a few places they´re more like sitting ducks unable to harm you. Still, the level can put you into trouble if you´re not cautious, specially a little later the middle of the level, when you enter a particularly violent area riddled with monsters shooting from all angles... All battles proved to be fun and entertaining, helping the map keep its momentum without being too hard.
Puzzling is also interesting. There is a variety of switches, actions and traps that, combined with the design and layout, force the player to backtrack and look for ways around (that usually are not far away... You may spend a few minutes wandering around in a few places, but nothing more). You´re likely to come across closed doors and bars that are opened much later in the map but being it of medium-big size and well connected it´s not much of a trouble. Anyway, puzzling was one of the aspects I enjoyed more of this map and it was really fun to unfold it´s secrets.
To sum up, this is a great, balanced map that happens to occur soon into the map pack.
Map 07-Identity Check.
This map has a classic Doom feel to it. Notice that it´s not a polite way to say that this wad is ugly (that will be said later) but to refer to it´s gameplay. Identity check is all about puzzles, cohesion and winding passages with lurking monsters, just like classic Doom maps were to me. It has a few stuff from what I call "modern" mapping, like an impossible battle, furniture and little Doom tricks but for the rest of it, it could be a classic Doom map.
Identity Check´s watermark happens to be its design and layout: there are a lot of odd shaped passages, a long curve hallway that is the spinal of the map and then rooms here and there. A look at the editor reveals how simple this map is in its conception and, while playing, some of this simplicity comes through: there´s only a hard battle, puzzling is not complicated (but it´s somewhat coherent and imaginative) and the way to go is completely linear across the spinal hallway. Then the map has imaginative height variations, optional stuff to hunt for, a nice door system (as said before, coherent), a certain atmosphere, winding layout and some twists and turns that are very nice. That was for the puzzles and same goes for the battles: there is good stuff and there are more plain moments. So to say, this is a map of contrasts that won´t please everybody as for gameplay.
In the top of it: the look. Another bunch of contrasts. For example, there´s nice lighting in some places (and even a shadow casting trick) and some others are just too right or too dark. There are nice details (primitive, in a sense) and there are blocks here and there... I would say that this map doesn´t look bad or horrible (except some misalignments here) but there´s nothing remarkable about it´s appearance in a positive way.
So, well, you could think that this map is balanced because of all contrasts but I think that this is a very extremist map: either love it or hate it. Or so it seems to me.
Map 08-Xenturion.
Along with "Shotfun" and as far as I have played, Xenturion is one of the maps that took more tries to beat. I guess that it´s because the hardness of its battles, since puzzling is not really hard, but let´s start right from the beginning: right at the start the player is greeted with a chaingun a few steps away. Looking closely, you can see a couple of shotgunners standing there. "Ohh, trap" - you think "I´ll take them with my handgun"... Wrong: once you fire you´ll get a bunch of demons, a cacodemon and (you´ll later say "of course") a Revenant. Fight them with your handgun :P... Anyway, there are some moments like that in this wad, when you have to know what´s next if you want to take the right approach but aside from that, it´s worth trying.
Xenturion takes place in a tech-base environment with some bricks and stone. It looks nice enough to guess it was crafted not long ago, but also captures a feeling that makes it look good and classic with no excessive amount of useless details. That doesn´t mean that you won´t see screens, lights and even a dynamite pack somewhere!!. In visual terms, this map is pretty solid. The layout is quite clear (you will see when you get the automap, sooner or later) and there´s a definite direction you have to follow. Still, the layout offers some forking here and there giving you chances to explore the place but unless you enjoy doing some Revenant or Arch-Vile safaris I doubt you´d like to explore a lot :P. Anyway, the map is medium sized so you´ll end up visiting almost all places (or all places if you get a pistol start and want to kill the Cyberdemon somehow).
Battles... Battles... Well, let me remember... One, two, three, four, five, six, seven... Yeah, I think that there are seven Arch-Viles in Hurt me Plenty. Only that makes battles hard. O.k, one of them is render useless if you make good use of the invulneravility sphere (you´d better do that) but, don´t you think it´s excessive?. The amount of imps, demons, shotgunners and chaingunners is small, so is the number of mancubi around but, what about Revenants?. Again, plenty of them. You´ll get to face like three or four at once as you´ll face two Hell Knights and a Baron in a small room (with a mancubus, two revenants and an Arch-Vile in the next one) but well, you´ll have to get used to it if you want to enjoy this map ´cos, in fact, I found this map to be real fun. Some battles had a nice thought work on them (I loved to take cover behind the crates in the crate room) and some others were so uneven that you´ll feel "heroic" (glad I recorded a demo :D).
If I may complain I would say two things. One is about the Cyberdemon: there´s a room that allows you to kill it without even giving it a fair chance. The other is about the secrets: I did only find one... Surely I´ll look at the edit to find the others. Other than that, the battles on this map are exxagerated, but fun.
To sum up, Xenturion was a fun, difficult and worthy map. Now I´m off to see my demo!.
Map 09-Baleful Confines.
So far, Baleful Confines is the map that has taken me more time to finish... You could look for the reason in it´s non linear setup, it´s tricky battles or the difficulty of some puzzles but well, don´t be fooled: this map took that long because I never saved my game and any of the reasons above got me killed time after time (there are nine demos of this map on my hard drive and I died in eight of them!)... You see, the same reasons above are bound to be positive ones for me: I liked the puzzling, I enjoyed the battles and it´s non linearity proved to be enjoyable and flexible but maybe it was too difficult for me. I feel as if I had to learn all the places in this map before being able to finish it and I won´t blame the author for that: if I only used savegames... Anyway, my feelings for this map are a strange mixture of love (fun, challenge, wit) and hate (frustration, frustration, frustration...).
But probably, one of the things that tells a part of me to hate this map is it´s look. There´s nothing bad with it: it´s the classic wood-stone-metal combination: dark, brown, moody but highly depressive when you´ve played this map for too long!. Other than the theme, most of the structures were quite simple and clean with not a lot of detail (occasional books on the library and some beams on the ceiling of a courtyard) revealing a blocky but convincing structure. The layout of the map is set to be circular to great effect: it helps a lot the non-linearity of this map.
This very same non-linearity is very interesting... The only thing you´ll have for sure is that you´ll get the shotgun when you start. Then you can go for some armor and the chaingun or the double barreled chaingun, the rocket launcher, start getting into puzzles and troubles... It´s a very interesting effect. It will draw away the fans of linear maps but will be quite engaging for the others: you may find a path you trust a lot, but try to experiment since there are multiple ways to go and there´s not a definite order to solve the puzzles and face the most heavy battles. As said, the setting itself makes the layout and gameplay flow very interesting. You may have some moments of "where do I go now?" and some cries of frustration regarding certain puzzle-trap but, in a sense, the map is small enough to run through it looking for answers.
While you look for them you´re likely to find some individual monsters (Mancubi that you can´t reach but you can still shoot), a couple of cacodemons and spiders and some small groups of imps, lost souls and demons. The rest is pure mayhem: big battles with a lot of monsters and a lot of gunfire everywhere... I won´t forget as a great moment in this map when I first walked into the library and shoot my weapon: lots of zombies came out from behind the shelves as a couple of cacodemons tried to fry me from the distance. The best was when there appeared even more zombies and a fiery squadron of lost souls... Nearly 49 monsters in that battle. Then you have even more messy ones that may feel cheap when you begin but, once again, try not to get fooled: I found an strategy for each of the battles (except for the library one) that worked if nicely put into practice and I´m sure that they could get even better if I made better use of monsters infight. Ammo and health balance were o.k when using the infights, but there are a lot of baddies out there to waste ammo around.
So, well, I see I´m writing a lot of stuff about this map. Certainly and deep inside I liked it but it was much too frustrating to try again and again. Just play it with savegames and you could enjoy it but guess that part of the fun is to restart and try new ways once and again as I guess Nuxius likes.
Map 10- Processing Station 10-29:71
This map keeps on reminding me of the original Doom... Maybe it´s the usage texture or the crate and computer mazes (one of them with pulsing light) but I´m tempted to think that it´s the gameplay. In a few words, this map is fun. You can have some problems finding your way but it´s not hard, plays fine and has many fun moments. Let´s go into some detail:
First the layout, look and feel: just one look at the map in the editor and you´ll notice how it´s made of squary rooms and sections and big blocks but, you know what?. It works in game and happens to look pretty funky: it´s like a Doom base full of cables and pipes everywhere with metal plates here and there. There´s not a lot of detail, there aren´t detailed lights but it has mood. You can look for this mood in the layout (pretty convincing) or in the piercing darkness (a lot of the map is damn hard). Anyway, without having lots of details or architectural twists (there are nice touches like the beams, the crates or the pipes) it works in the visuals. I would have liked it more if there was some border or trim between the techie textures and the floors since it was much of a violent contrast to me. Other than that, there´s something in the big dark pit area that I liked: it mixed structure, gameplay flow and battles in a pretty nice way.
Then with the gameplay itself: plays fine. I finished it in my first run but wasn´t dissapointed with that. Even though I could have use a more careful approach I found a balanced level of difficulty and a nice flow. I had some problems (like you could probably) looking for the blue key since there´s no way to know that certain section becomes accessible by hitting some switch on the other side but, other than that, there´s a nice flow. I also liked the connectivity a lot: this may belong with the layout comments but it was interesting that you could take different approaches to battles. For example, I was about of going through a big locked door when I remembered a smaller one on a side. When entering for the side I could take the monsters without being seen and ended up in the very same area. This kind of thing makes the map interesting... Secret hunting was also interesting but I reckon that I failed in finding other than a couple of them.
Still, the funniest hunt here is the monster hunt: most enemies have low health values and are found in medium numbers (but with good placement) so each time you enter a new place you´ll go killing a lot of monsters. There are stronger monsters here and there but if I had any trouble while fighting I didn´t find it with them but with the little hitscan zombies. Ammunition started out tight (and I started playing so rushed, maybe this has something to do) and health ended up being more than enough but, anyhow, I had a lot of fun with this map.
In fact, if I had to say something that I would remember of this map it would be it´s fun value: the big room with twin structures is not impressive, the battles are not menacing and puzzles aren´t original but well, the sum of the whole experience was fun and remembered me a lot to the original gameplay. Not the best map in the lot, but a fun one.