m39

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2010): Valhalla

G6: Valhalla

Main author(s): Edward Cripps (Ed)

Release date: November 14th, 2010 (bug-fix version)

Version(s) played: With bug-fix

Required port compatibility: ZDoom

Levels: 1 (MAP01 replacement)

Today, we will be having a map made by Ed Cripps. We encountered his work years ago with Sin City 1 from 2001. If my memories aren’t faulty, I remember that map fondly in spite of being an early ZDoom WAD, and these tend to age faster than milk.

Will Valhalla be better than Sin City 1? Well… Why won’t we take a seat and have a look?

The map looks great, if not overly detailed, to the point of my computer slightly choking itself up while trying to load it. It gives me the post-apo vibes (the sky texture helps with that) with exploring some abandoned complex/bunker/whatever.

There is some music here, although it’s pretty damn quiet. I don’t think I’ve heard anything while playing the map (especially during my blind playthrough), so I don’t know what to think about it.

I don’t really think this map is complicated, although the same-looking areas tend to get confusing, and sometimes it gets hard to exit some of them. Luckily, if you get lost, you can follow spawned enemies to the next important area.

Valhalla can be challenging to some degree, although I would like it more if we had armor sooner than around the second half of it, and didn’t throw two fights that are just random shit being thrown at you.

Aside from the aforementioned minor stability problems, I didn’t encounter any other bugs. The Doomwiki mentions some enemies not being able to teleport to fight, however.

Valhalla is a pretty good map to play (and yes, it is better than Sin City 1). Despite having some problems, there wasn’t anything that severely hindered it. And hey! It’s not overwhelmed with the ZDoom features, so that’s always a bonus.

As for the next WAD on the list, it looks like we will be playing some banger, since it’s Speed of Doom…

I wonder how much time will pass until this WAD turns into another slaughter galore.

See you all next time.

[m39]

Unloved WAD's enemy list

Hey guys. I’m back from Cracow… Need to remind myself to not take me mum with me on vacations; it’s like I was babysitting a child who wants to see everything (she really wanted to see Cracow).

But enough of personal stuff. We will be talking about new monsters that appear in the Unloved WAD; if you haven’t seen my review of it, go do that first.

I’ll try going in order these guys appear (somewhat).

We start with a chainsaw zombie. A melee enemy with next to no wind up. I don’t recommend going melee on them.

Bloodfiend is a red pinky that spits blood on you from a distance. Honestly, a good update from when these buggers would suddenly charge at you without any warning (and were differently named).

Golem from Heretic appears as an enemy here. If you didn’t play that game, it’s basically a weaker pinky with a smaller wind-up. Doom shotgun has a chance to blow it up to smithereens in one shot.

Howler acts similarly to the arachnotron, except it’s an imp variant. Kind of hard to notice these in this WAD.

Soul harvester is an imp with homing projectiles, and these have insane sharp turning. Might as well be hitscan since 9 times out of 10, you get hit even after dodging the fireball.

Satyr is a hell noble that can only melee you. Nuff said.

There are two familiars you fight. One is a bat that is annoying to kill since it’s very small. The other is a dragon – still annoying, but at least it’s slightly bigger than a bat and is more distinguishable.

Acolyte is a reskin of a dark bishop from Hexen, where he shoots a spinning line of projectiles at you.

Cultist yells like the ones from Blood, but unlike these guys, his attack doesn’t shred health (it’s still really fast though).

Vulgar shoots a projectile that poisons you and looks like a mix between an imp and a skeleton to me.

Lord of heresy is a tougher baron of hell. Nuff said.

Imp warlord can summon familiars along with using shields and firing powerful attacks. At least they don’t have much health.

Disciple is a tougher variant of a flying human cultist with two attacks (at least that’s how many I’ve noticed).

Daedabus is a tougher variant of mancubus that looks like the one from Doom 3.

Dark avatar is one of the two new boss enemies. It’s a reskinned heresiarch from Hexen, but unlike the acolyte, he has different attacks, with the protection spell being thrown out of the window (thank God). Two/three BFG face-blasts will blast him to kingdom come.

Suicide zombie is basically a headless kamikaze from the Serious Sam series (down to even screaming like him) – runs towards you before blowing himself up.

Wicked is actually scrag from Quake I but with homing projectiles instead of spitting acid.

Thamuz is the second new boss. It’s a cyberdemon variant with BFG. Can be killed in two/three BFG shots like dark avatar, although his attacks feel like were filled with more bullshit. I feel like it’s a dice roll if you won’t end up obliterated before you even step off the lift unless you place yourself in such a way that the boss won’t notice you on it.

According to Doomwiki, there are also a couple of enemies that weren’t used, like rocket zombie and cybruiser.

And that’s the list.

Thankfully, the next WAD on the 2010 roster, despite being another ZDoom extravaganza, has only one map. So hopefully it won’t take long to gather materials for the next review.

I’ll see you then.

[m39]

giggling

That's the last thing I'm gonna show before being unavailable for a week (vacation). I just wanted to show a noncontextual spoiler from the newest chapters of Deltarune that cracks me up.

See ya.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2010): Unloved

G5: Unloved

Main author(s): Paul Schneider (BlueEagle)

Release date: April 14th, 2010

Version(s) played: 1.3

Required port compatibility: GZDoom

Levels: 5 (hub-based)

Here is some spooky underdog today – Unloved. Despite its name, it earned one of the Cacowards from 2010.

No. There is no story. You are just stuck in your house, which is either haunted and bigger than it looks, or you are just losing your marbles.

I’ve run out of things to say in the intro, so why won’t we look at the WAD itself?

The WAD is creepy… What? You want me to say more? I mean, there is a living room that’s either covered in ice/web that can change into demonic guts when going from MAP01 to MAP03, a river of slime, demonic church, spooky child room with the blue keycard in the crib, the fact that you can see the buildings in the distance in your house but the glass is bullet proof and the exit is bricked up, etc.

Does it all at least look good?

…

Yes… It looks very good IMO. Nothing else to add here.

The music fits as well, although I feel like the track from the Basement’s Basement is a bit tryhardy. My favorite one is in Lost Childhood; it adds to the creepiness.

This WAD is not complicated, although you might have problems with finding some switches (the darkness in some of the areas doesn’t help). If you have probably guessed from the description at the start, Unloved is hub-based, with Alone connecting to the other maps.

To make you understand it slightly more, you start trapped in your bedroom, find the yellow/red keycard (depending which one you get first), unlock access to the blue one and the super shotgun, grab the yellow and red skulls, unlock access to the blue skull laying in the attic, and finally returning to Lost Childhood to kill the final boss and unlock the exit door in MAP01.

If you hate cheap jumpscares, don’t worry, there is only one in MAP01. And it’s just a revenant that doesn’t even appear.

Also, jumping is required in some cases.

The WAD is rather challenging from start to finish. It takes a while to be able to shoot something that is not a peashooter.

Although, I feel like at least third of the fights feel full of bullshit. Mostly due to how many times you fight an armada of monsters in tight areas. I feel like there is at least one such fight, like, for instance, the church in MAP03, the second half of MAP02 (as in probably everything behind the red door #2), or, to a lesser extent, fighting cacos in the caged-up maze in MAP04. Unless you find a secret BFG on MAP04, and/or go for the wrong map, you will be suffering.

Two of the biggest cases of how fairness is uneven are the yellow skull area and the aforementioned, demonic church, both appearing in Living Room. The former is actually fun, with a lot of space to make monsters fight with each other and finish off the scramblers. The latter meanwhile, while giving you rockets, plasma, and a megasphere, forces you to fight around a similarly dense army of demons and cultists, while giving you a smaller main area, plus a couple of smaller rooms to press switches, where each one summons an arch-vile that starts resurrecting everything and a boss. Good luck trying to beat it without a BFG or ammo for it.

If you want a rather perfect roadmap to not rip your remaining hair out, go like this after the first visit in MAP02 – yellow 1 (MAP03) ==> blue 1 (MAP05) ==> everything else before going through the red door on MAP02 ==> the rest.

There are a lot of new monsters to fight, but I think I will describe them in a separate post because there are a lot of them. Here, I will only mention a tougher imp that shoots toxic fireballs, scrags that shoot homing projectiles, some enemies from Heretic and Hexen, and the BFG cyberdemon as a final boss.

Unloved is another case of a ZDoom WAD that probably went too far with its idea; although, I think this one feels better than the similar ones that I played. It is flawed, in some moments even deeply, but it’s still a good WAD. It’s worth at least taking a look at on the easy difficulty.

By the way, there is also a game based on this WAD, made by its author and released in 2016. It might look like an Unreal Engine 4 slop for me, but what do I know? Maybe I’ll try it one day.

Also, don’t expect the enemy description in the following days, since I’m flying to Cracow this Sunday for a week.

But, yeah, that’s about it for today.

…

See ya next time.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2010): UAC Ultra

So, uhm… a little change of plans, people. Turns out Curse of D’Sparil seems to be a slaughter map fest, and I don’t really want to waste a couple of days forcing myself to finish it as quickly as possible (currently, I’m at the fourth map). I’ll probably finish a map or two in between other reviews (screenshots and secret hunting will be completed in one go when I reach that part), but don't be surprised if my second playthrough will be on easy.

So, yeah, let’s take a look at another WAD from the roster.

G4: UAC Ultra

Main author(s): Jamie Bainbridge (Super Jamie) and Jon Vail (40oz)

Release date: March 28th/29th, 2010

Version(s) played: 1.2

Required port compatibility: Boom

Levels: 12 (11 normal ones and an epilogue)

Now, here, we have a somewhat of a semi-underdog. While Super Jamie is a member of the BTSX Team behind the two episodes of the titular series, WAD enjoyers will recognize 40oz much quicker than the former one. I mean, come on, the latter kickstarted the Doomer Boards Project series of WADs that goes from 2018 to this day; not to mention winning the Mapper of the Year award in the 2010 Cacowards.

But enough about the authors. What is UAC Ultra exactly?

Well, it started as an experiment by 40oz to see if it was possible to make amateurish maps look great with brown textures. Four completed maps later, the WAD ended up in a garbage can.

Later on, he came out with the idea of making a WAD (different intentions) with Jamie since they both noticed that their map-making style is similar. While talking, the latter mentioned wanting to make a WAD with new textures (especially Quake ones), reminding the former of his abandoned experiment. 40oz decided to dust off and improve the old textures (at least that’s what I understood from the Doomwiki), and he and Jamie started working on the WAD in mid-November 2009. It was announced on January 6th of the next year, and the rest is history.

Speaking of history – What bullshit and where did the UAC do this time?

You pick up a note.

Mars…

You pick up another note.

Unethical experiments…

…

So, Tuesday, I presume.

If I could describe the WAD’s design in one word, it would be oppressive. The facility feels like it was made by hell itself; the Mars’ terrain looks off as well; even the skyboxes feel oppressive. It looks so great that it doesn’t make me think of how the indoor locations look samey most of the time.

But, not gonna lie, some part of the wishes there were more colors.

Half of the soundtrack is made out of the one from the Abuse game, while the rest is one stock and the tracks made by Nick Baker and Jimmy Paddock. It was great to listen for most of the time; I don’t think I have anything severe to complain about.

The maps didn’t really feel complicated. There wasn’t even that much backtracking, which is always a plus.

A couple of times, you will be forced to walk into a cold room or a radioactive outdoor area, and have to find a rad suit. Thankfully, there is a plethora of these, so you won’t be in that much danger.

You end up killed at the end of Collapsys and forced to pistol-start the next map.

And BTW, that next map, Haymaker, is the typical Dead Simple clone, down to using the stock music. The only different things are the textures and the new enemy that appears after dealing with the typical meat cannon of these kind of levels.

On the other hand, Sick, the final, normal map of the WAD, is not another icon of shit (thank God). You just have to shoot three, fleshy tentacles of the boss (called Chimaira), and destroy its heart that shoots a barrage of fireballs.

Also, this WAD ends with a credits map. Just mentioning that.

UAC Ultra is somewhere in the middle when it comes to difficulty. Starts off easy and steadily becomes hard by the final two or three maps (minus the epilogue map). Although, I feel like Sick is filled with much more bullshit than Skagway; at least the latter only had lacking rockets and plasma.

Other than that, there is other cheap crap sprinkled in between the remaining maps but nothing to severe.

It also has a new enemy – haymaker. A fusion of a cyberdemon and maulotaur that throws three mancubus’ fireballs and looks like it endlessly charges while moving.

UAC Ultra can easily fit into the category of great WADs that have aged well. It’s fun to play, even when it sometimes doesn’t look that interesting.

I wish I could say more, but I think it would be better if you check the WAD yourself.

Next WAD on the list – some spoopiness, I presume. And no, I’m not waiting until Halloween.

See ya later.

[m39]

Noelle at the most huggable/floofiest.

girl of all time

[m39]

Deltarune No Longer Tomorrow

Okay… Yesterday, I finished the newest chapters of Deltarune (3 and 4 as of writing these words). I had a blast playing them, despite sucking at bullet hell games (Raise Up Your Bat is the best music track from both chapters).

Had to block all the popular social media sites to avoid getting spoiled.

Also, note to self - play only in the morning to avoid an adrenaline rush while trying to sleep... and limit myself to only one chapter per day.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2010): Arcadia Demade

Something, something, Would You Kindly joke funny… I have no idea where to put it.

G2: Arcadia Demade

Main author(s): Jean-Paul LeBreton

Release date: August 19th, 2010

Version(s) played: ???

Required port compatibility: Limit-removing

Levels: 1 (MAP01 replacement)

Hey! Ever wanted to play part of Bioshock 1 in Classic Doom? Now you can. This is Arcadia Demade, a map based on the original game’s Arcadia and Farmer’s Market, made by one of the designers behind both Bioshock 1 and 2 (although I’m not completely sure if he helped with both of the original maps the WAD is based on).

Now, it would be one thing if this map were made by just your typical, WAD-making bloke who happens to enjoy Bioshock. But the fact that it was made by someone who was working on this game?! Bruh… How about we skip to the map, because I can’t wait!

Despite looking like it uses only stock textures (aside from the sky one), I think this map looks great. In spite of playing Bioshock years ago, I still managed to recognize many locations from the original maps, like the ADAM-infused plant represented here by a bunch of skulls, Julie Langford’s lab, the area with a gigantic tree (although without the aforementioned tree), etc.

The music track is also great. It was made by John Weekley, who would, a decade later, earn two Odyssey of Noises awards in a row. And this is one of the earliest works, people.

The map is kind of complicated, but mostly due to how mangled it is. Even then, I don’t think it’s worth calling it a con since it was based on the original Bioshock maps, so I don’t think I should be that irritated by the map’s design.

The map has a secret exit – all you have to do is reach the normal one, and come back to the starting area to notice a new corridor leading to a new teleporter.

By the way, the starting area, as you progress, unlocks a sort of one-way fast travel teleporters that will let you come back to the visited areas without wasting time.

AD is rather easy. I can recon only one cheap hitscanner ambush, and even then, there is a lot of health and armor scattered around the map. It’s not that surprising to me since the map focuses more on an atmosphere.

Speaking of which, a lot of monsters tend to pop out and disappear. Normally, it would be annoying, but with this map, it feels like it was simulating the behavior of Houdini Splicers, who like to appear and disappear before chucking a fireball at you. It works especially well when recreating your first encounter with this enemy type in the original game.

While I didn’t find any bug on the map, Doomwiki mentions a really nasty one – normally, your way to the normal exit is blocked after crossing one of the nearby linedefs, and you have to press the blue switch to unlock the door back. The problem is that that switch can be pressed only once, so if it happens that you didn’t cross all of the five linedefs that block the door before pressing the switch, then congratulations, you just soft-locked your ass from completing the map unless you noclip through the door.

Arcadia Demade might be an unpolished diamond, but it’s a diamond nonetheless. It’s a great recreation of part of Bioshock 1, and the fact that it was made by one of the game’s designers makes it even better. Even the cons that would annoy me in the other type of map/WAD feel like they nicely fit here.

So, yeah. This map gets a 100% recommendation from me.

Unfortunately, I am taking another one-week-long break from reviewing since Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4 are out on June 4th or 5th (I don’t even know anymore), and knowing the Undertale fandom, they will immediately flood the Internet with spoilers. Besides, I just had a mole from my jaw removed; I need some rest.

But, hey! The next WAD is going to be interesting. It’s going to be a Heretic WAD.

I’ll see you next time.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2010): No Rest for the Living

Welcome to the ten best WADs of 2010 (according to Doomworld). And we start off with a bang.

G1: No Rest for the Living

Main author(s): Arya Iwakura (Squibbons) and Russell Meakim (The Castle) of Nerve Software

Release date: May 26th, 2010 (along with the X360 port of Doom II)

Version(s) played: ??? (used Doom + 2 to run it properly with the 2021 MIDI pack)

Required port compatibility: Limit-removing

Levels: 9 (standard episode format)

And that bang is official content for Classic Doom. People thought we were done with stuff for the originals, and yet, lo and behold – No Rest for the Living, a new episode for Doom II. Originally released with Doom II port for Xbox 360 (weird choice but okay), it would later be brought on PC (officially) with Doom 3: BFG Edition on October 16th, 2012.

The plot, from what I’ve gathered, takes place after Doom II, and it involves a cyberdemon trying to, and bear with me on this one, […] turn hell into a personal amusement park, and make Earth the ticket booth.

…

Let’s just go with the standard hell invasion stuff, okay?

Around 14 years have passed since the last add-on for Classic Doom. Time to find out if this one will deliver.

There are two ways to look at NRftL – with and without context. If you take a look at this WAD without context, then it looks rather good. For a limit-removing WAD, it has many great-looking locations, although something tells me that I saw better stuff in other WADs of the past.

But, if you add context to the WAD, knowing that it’s a new episode to the Classic Doom after 1996, than it looks incredible. It blasts the other, official stuff out of the water.

When it comes to music, it’s made of stocks, but at least the tracks are arranged differently (providing that you don’t use the BFG Edition IWAD).

Since I’m not a fan of stocks, I used the MIDI pack made in 2021, and it’s great. My favorite tracks were Homesick, Dry Gulch, and Staccato Slaughter.

The levels weren’t complicated (at least for me). I don’t think I even encountered a moment where I had to stop for a while to think what to do next, and if I had, it was probably due to how some of the maps are mangled, like Inferno of Blood.

Many of those maps use a carrot on a stick to tease you (especially Earth Base). But instead of a proverbial carrot, it’s usually a key/weapon/item.

At least three of the maps also have unmandatory keys, scattered in secrets that might even require other secrets.

NRftL can get challenging, but it’s still rather easy compared to some of the harder mods in the past. If you compare it to the previous, official WADs (minus Plutonia), then, yeah, it’s hard. The only parts where it got legitimately hard for me were with the final fight in March of the Demons and, maybe, Tomb of Malevolence, where you fight the cyberdemon in tight areas (if you don’t know where the switches are and/or have no BFG).

The WAD likes to get devious – Earth Base fills back with enemies if you grab the yellow key; Vivisection tends to flood itself constantly with enemies, especially after grabbing the red key; and the aforementioned final battle in March of the Demons distracts you with spiderdemon while the arch-vile resurrects dead demons.

Also, because I forgot to mention, there is no backpack throughout the entire WAD until MAP08.

The WAD itself doesn’t have any bugs, although I had problems properly playing it with the MIDI pack. It somehow works when I use the PRBoom+ version of the latter with the Doom+2 version of the IWAD (probably because ID24 feels like MBF21 with some additions). Trying the ZDoom version of the MIDI pack with the original IWAD doesn’t work, and if you modify the former with SLADE, you are unable to play the WAD normally without command lines (at least, that’s what I experienced).

But aside the problems with the MIDI pack, No Rest for the Living is a great WAD. If you are able to play it, do it! You won’t be disappointed.

Also, check Civvie’s video in it. He does a much better job of describing the WAD than me.

As for the next WAD, it’s going to be interesting as well. Because we will be exploring part of Rapture.

I’ll see you then.

[m39]

2010 Honorable Mentions Promotion

Okay, the break is over, and I finished Doom: The Dark Ages a couple of days ago. I think it was very good. Although, the constant crashes were obnoxious up the ass; somehow, turning the screen mode to windowed fixed the problem.

But we are not here to talk about Dark Ages. We are here to choose which one of the honorable mentions from the 2010 WAD roster gets to be promoted to the Revenant Awards 2010 (because all of them are partial/total conversion). So let’s take a look at them:

Realm of Cheogsh is annoying piece of crap; it barely fixed problems from Cheogsh 2 and, in fact, adds more obnoxious, ZDoom features. Paranoid is good once you figure out what to do, but the stuff like RNG damage hinders what could’ve been a great WAD. Temple of the Lizard Men 2 is good, but it’s yet another, unpolished GZDoom WAD with obnoxious elements that doesn’t even run properly on modern ZDoom-like source ports.

Not counting Serpent: Resurrection because I would spend a month trying to beat it from what I’ve seen from the first hub.

And so, we have the winner – Threshold of Pain. It might just be a love letter to the PS1 port, but of all the honorable mentions, this one felt the least annoying to play. It didn’t try to go too far with quirks. And that’s why it gets promoted to the main award ceremony.

Now with that out of the way, tune in the near future. We will be finally tackling the ten best WADs of 2010.

[m39]

First impressions on Hexen + update on Doom WADs' Roulette

Hello.

I just finished Hexen. And after my half-blind playthrough (I used the guide on Doomwiki) as Priest, I think I lean closer to liking it rather than hating it.

I like how the game looks, even though I feel like it’s too gray for half the time. Same with how it sounds.

Some of the hubs have less moon logic than the others. I think I would probably finish two of these without wasting that much time without a guide. Hubs 1 and 4 will still give you an aneurysm, though.

Combat-wise, it’s rather easy on medium in the first two hubs, and it gets harder (both in a fair and cheap way); I don’t know if it was my fault, but I ran out of ammo two times. Some of the enemies were fine, while others were annoying (stalkers and centaurs mostly). Priest’s weapons were fine as well.

I can somewhat see why this game is loved by one and hated by others. As I said, I lean closer to liking this game, but I think I would despise it if I didn’t have a guide on standby.

Now, changing the subject, when it comes to the Hexen WAD from the 2010 roster (Serpent: Resurrection), I looked at it after finishing Hexen, and from what I’ve seen from the beginning, its scale overwhelmed me. I don’t think I am capable of reviewing it, at least now, and in a normal way. I might check it from time to time and I would eventually post my opinion on it, but good lord almighty, the amount of stuff this WAD has makes me thing that it would be better for me to now split reviews in half if there is a shit ton of new items/enemies/weapons/anything.

But for now, I’m taking a break, since I’m counting four days from finishing honorable mentions now along with a week before being able to play Doom: The Dark Ages (I sinned by pre-ordering this game as soon as it was possible; you can put a bullet in my head now), and I don’t want to get between that game and No Rest for the Living review. After I’m done with the game, I’ll choose which partial/total conversion gets promoted to the Revenant Awards, and then I’ll start reviewing the best WADs of 2010.

Until then, see ya next time.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2010): Temple of the Lizard Men 2

Good news, fellas! I managed to play the Lizard Men WAD on GZDoom 1.4.2 (the one recommended)… after wrestling with controls that is, and the stupid-no-mouse-on-the-menu bullshit. But hey, now that everything is in place (I guess), let’s get to the show.

S.HM3: Temple of the Lizard Men 2

Main author(s): Alando1

Release date: November 26th, 2010

Version(s) played: ???

Required port compatibility: GZDoom

Levels: 10

Today, we won’t be dealing with demons, nor aliens and marines from the previous review, but with bipedal lizards… I mean, the title is literally Temple of the Lizard Men 2; I would be surprised if it was anything else (not in the case of demons).

Here is the deal – there is an island where people disappear. A bunch of marines are sent there to check what’s going on. They send a distress signal about monsters. And this is where you come in.

Now that we know what the deal is, let’s start with the usual how this WAD looks stuff.

The WAD looks good. It might not look as good as some of the WADs from the past in my opinion, but it looks great on its own. The various caves mixed with Mesoamerican-like stuff help it.

The music is great. Although I prefer stuff from other WADs rather than Unreal’s soundtrack.

The sound effects feel… iffy for me. They aren’t bad quality-wise at all; it’s just that, without counting enemies that are not regular lizards, I feel like these are not bit crushed enough, or not over the top to fit the Doom WAD. Not to mention the typical environment crap in the background that you probably heard a hundred times before in other ZDoom WADs.

Lizard Temple 2 is not a complicated WAD. It’s mostly straightforward, and even if it gets complicated, there is a nearby text log that will guide you on what to do next.

There are two new items worth highlighting – one is the flight rune AKA reskinned Wings of Wrath from Heretic that doesn’t really need an explanation IMO. The other is the lantern, which can be picked up and thrown to light up the area; useful in dark areas, especially when sector lightning is not set to bright.

Other items are basically reskins for the ones from Doom or transplanted from Heretic, but very small.

Even skulls are now tiny.

The last item worth mentioning, though, is a flashlight. Other than being placed in the first weapon slot, I don’t think I have to go on about how it functions.

There are also text logs scattered across maps. As I said earlier, these will guide you in some cases, but they can also explain how the nearby, poor schmuck died or say something about the lore of the WAD.

There are cutscenes in the WAD. Half of these feel like an info dump, and, yes, these can get cringy, especially when our protagonist talks in the second half (it’s like he was made to be as self-unaware as possible), and can’t be skipped. -_-

At least you can move around while it’s happening, like in Assault on Tei Tenga… WE WENT FULL CIRCLE, LADIES AND GERMS!!!

…

Watch out for fall damage. I forgot about this.

Lizard Temple, on normal (Novice), starts off rather easy, and later gets kind of challenging, but not too far. It helps that there are no hitscanners.

Although I still feel like it gets cheap, especially when it comes to the melee enemies. I feel like, when it comes to most of the new enemies, especially the ones that weren’t taken from other games 1 to 1, I get damaged as soon as I touch them. The attack wind-up is miniscule.

Now, speaking of the new enemies, many of these split between regular and tougher variants (green and brown colored (not always in that order)), and, like I said earlier, half of these are from other games while the rest are either reskins or have original sprites.

There are regular lizards that can sometimes leap at you (it gets obnoxious); berserkers who are like the previous enemies but on coke and are reskinned rippers from the original Shadow Warrior (the green ones look like shit); shamans, who are reskinned heresiarchs from Hexen that shoot a fireball or two (miniscule wind-up as well); chaos serpents from the same game that shoot fire balls; stalkers, again, from the same game (kind of irritating to fight). maulotaurs from Heretic but can only fight melee (and are also named minotaurs now); weredragons from the same game, now with the additional wee variant that dies from a single shotgun blast, and bone eels and gill beasts from Blood (the latter can now spit acid bubbles)

There are also two bosses, encountered in Arena of the Minotaur and Village, respectively. The first one is a super minotaur, who functions closer to the original maulotaur, although his attacks look different. The second one is a gigantic ripper that, for some reason, is called T-Rex man. Still, he functions like any other berserker but with a charge attack.

You get a bunch of new weapons, although I feel like only three of these are actually useful. Knife and fists could be useful but then again, bullshit melee enemies. Pistol can hold up to 12 bullets before reloading (the only reloadable weapon), but that’s the only interesting thing about it. Shotgun feels like a bridge between the regular shotty and the super shotty; it is also the most useful weapon in the WAD. Chaingun is great for fast enemies and crowd control, and has two fire modes (although I can barely notice a difference aside from the noise these make); it also feels more like a modified Skulltag chaingun. Grenade launcher is great for big enemies and a crowd of weredragons in Village. Sniper rifle is useless; it might have the power of a point-blank shotgun blast, but it’s still not enough for a 100% chance to kill a wee weredragon; I can only think of two places that this weapon is useful, and that’s it. The last weapon is Hexen’s serpent staff – shoots two projectiles and siphons health from enemies when up close (not recommending the latter).

When it comes to bugs, I already mentioned in the previous post how this WAD is not compatible when it comes to stability. Now, I have found out that when you use a sniper rifle’s scope and change the weapon, if you come back to the sniper rifle, the view zooms in without any scope used.

Also, the sound sync is late by around 0.25 second, and it sometimes crashes when trying to save/load the game, but that’s more of a problem with GZDoom 1.4.2 than with the WAD itself.

Temple of the Lizard Men 2 is a relic of its time and has problems, but most of the time, I had fun with it. It’s worth giving a try if you can survive its archaisms.

Only Hexen WAD left to check out. But before that, there is Hexen itself to be played. Don’t expect the normal review of it; more like a summary of my first playthrough.

I’ll see you then.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2010): Paranoid

Adding an additional rule to the Roulette:

click

#10 If I encounter the WAD that gives me severely bad time, I am allowed to make a review without a second playthrough, or even not make the review at all.

click

Now, with that out of the way, here is the deal: I’m removing Realm of Cheogsh from reviewing due to it being obnoxious to the tits; while it doesn’t feel as moon-logical as Cheogsh 2 (at least when it comes to its first half), and it looks great, the enemy encounters are cheap as hell, full of sniping soul harvesters, tight corridors and small platforms, water that slows you down, bosses that feel like damage sponges (especially the second one), and, oh yeah, did I mention STEALTH SHITLINGS?!?! Not to mention platforming and unskippable cutscenes as major cons.

Also, Temple of the Lizard Men II is (at least for now) skipped because the optimization tanks as soon as you reach the first enemies (when it comes to the newest GZDoom). Take a look at this fire beacon:

Looks normal from a distance, right? Well, here is what happens when you get close to it:

And with just that, the frames drop to 1 per 2-3 seconds. I tried a couple of configurations I could think of to fix it, but nothing worked. I’ll dig up the older version of GZDoom in the future to see if it won’t shit itself before the end of the first map.

But nothing is lost, people. There are still two WADs to check. We will be saving Serpent: Resurrection for later, though, after looking at Hexen. For now… Who wants to play Half-Life 1 on Doom Engine?! :]

S.HM2: Paranoid

Main author(s): The Persecution Complex (led by Rex Claussen)

Release date: March 31st, 2010

Version(s) played: database version (I guess)

Required port compatibility: GZDoom

Levels: 8 (hub-based, 7 normal maps and a secret one)

Yes, a mod that turns Doom into Half-Life 1 – Paranoid. Developed by The Persecution Complex, the mad men led by Rex Claussen. The latter made Darkest Hour (a Star Wars total conversion that I’m not really fond of), Phobos Revisited (one of the best WADs of the 2000s), and two maps for NDCP1. What’s funny about Rex is that it’s not his first Half-Life TC for Doom; a decade before Paranoid, he released similarly-named Paranoia.

The story of this mod focuses on Dr. Bellmer, a spy (I guess) working for one of the Black Mesa’s competitors (I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Aperture Science), who’s tasked to sabotage the BM’s database or something, using the Resonance Cascade (and implying that his employers were (at least partially) behind it) as a diversion.

I can’t wait to see Bellmer’s employers’ faces when the Combine knocks on their door.

But enough of the plot. What about the mod itself?

Well, for starters, it looks great. If someone took a screenshot of the mod and posted it on the Internet, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else mistook it for the real Half-Life 1 (apologies for the lack of screenshots; I kind of got sick of the mod during my second, proper playthrough). Not to mention actual 3D models that fit like a glove.

So, yeah, the mod looks very good. Even if it uses… the HD models.

screaming

Now, look, I do realize that the original HL1 models have a lot more charm than the HD ones, but listen. These ones won’t bring the apocalypse just by looking at them… They are fine on their own.

...

Oh, hey. There is a mob of fans coming towards me- OH MY GOOOOOO-

technical difficulties

...

Anyway, moving on.

I could say the same thing about sound effects (most of the time) and the music. The latter, while not using tracks from HL1, feels like it would come out of that game. It would be great if some of the former were quieter, but, hey, that always feels like a problem with Doom WADs and the new sound effects in them.

Playing Paranoid might be confusing to some of you. Compared to HL1, it feels more nonlinear, maybe a bit too much, but still, I don’t think it’s on the level of insanity that some of the WADs from the past gave me.

And also, I noticed that returning to some of the maps feels more pronounced for the lack of better words than in HL1.

There are three ways to start the mod, each after choosing the difficulty. You can listen to the briefing before ending up where Gordon Freeman started (after the original game’s intro, of course), skip the briefing, or just skip all of the intro bullshit and start right next to the HEV suit in MAP02.

Sometimes, you will find walkie-talkies (I don’t know if that’s the proper term) where your boss tells you where to go or what to do next. These can be really helpful. Although I sometimes feel like they were treating you like an idiot.

There is a secret map, but I feel like it’s disappointing. You have to get into the secret in MAP02 (in the second half of the mod) from another secret, and you have only one shot to do so. All for a map that feels like its half was made out of sewers. At least I now know what the Dirty part of Dirty Little Secret refers to.

Oh, I almost forgot – some of the 3D models can be pushed.

Not to mention cutscenes. You can’t have a (G)ZDoom WAD without these, some people say. And in case of this mod, they get the pass, even the unskippable ones.

Paranoid feels harder than Half-Life, but it doesn’t feel completely unfair. If you judge it by the Doom WAD standards, I would say it’s at least in the middle ground of difficulty (at least on medium).

That being said, the mod is harder for the wrong reasons, specifically due to the dreaded RNG. Now I don’t think that HL1 has damage RNG as far as I know, but even if it does, I don’t remember the damage difference being either a small boo-boo on your pinky finger or your arm getting ripped off.

I recognized almost all of the enemies from HL1. Among them, there is also Baby Gargantua (Sven Co-op) that functions as the mini-boss in the middle of the final map. Some of them have some changes like vorts now having a really fast projectile attack instead of a hitscan, and barnacles spitting goo at you (because how the hell can you translate the original barnacle’s behavior into the GZDoom engine).

While I like the enemies, I have some problems with them – too many barnacles hiding in corners, controllers flying like crackheads when attacking (most of the time) and (that one is more of a nitpick) HECU marines having new sound effects, where now they sound like mindless drones.

I might as well list HL1 weapons that doesn’t appear in this mod – grenades, satchels, Gluon gun, Snarks, Hornet gun, laser trip mines, crossbow and Tau cannon (they could’ve at least keep the last two; these are awesome). The ones that we use do their work well, but I feel like the machine gun should’ve been more powerful.

There were a couple of bugs, like the keycards’ icons being plastered on the screen if there is a status bar, flying objects, and glitching textures of gasoline in a tank near the generator, and gargantuas flying with light speed when they get hit by a rocket. There were also some flying objects here and there.

Paranoid is a mixed bag of a mod, but for me, it leans closer to being good than bad. Not recommended for more than one playthrough in a short time.

As for the next post, except either Lizards 2 or my summary of the blind Hexen playthrough.

See you next time.

This review could’ve been earlier, but Talos Principle: Reawakened happened.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2010): Threshold of Pain

Finally, after five Cacowards of no honorable mentions, the honorable mentions have finally returned… Okay, not exactly. This WAD, and another four, were mentioned under the runners-up section of the 2010 Cacowards. But the Doomwiki calls these WADs honorable mentions, so I count them as such as well.

Okay, let’s start the show.

S.HM1: Threshold of Pain

Main author(s): John Gourley (scalliano)

Release date: September 10th, 2010 (original release)

Version(s) played: Original from 2010

Required port compatibility: ZDoom

Levels: 12 (10 regular and 2 secret ones)

We start our journey with honorable mentions with Threshold of Pain, a homage to the PS1 port of Classic Doom, named after one of its levels. And it’s all because the author’s first exposure to Doom was this port.

The plot is, you guessed it, UAC being at their bullshit again (this time in mountain range of Triton) and you are send there to clean up the mess again again again.

How the fuck did these mentally handicapped wankers survive half a year there without blowing themselves up is beyond me at this point.

But okay. Enough time has been wasted. Let’s take a look at the WAD.

Threshold of Pain looks great, at least when it comes to recreating the vibes of the PS1 port. There is a lot of colored lightning (I feel like over half of all locations have this lightning), and it’s kind of dark (especially before you end up in hell again again). I only watched some of the footage of the PS1 port, but looking at this WAD and that, I think it gets the job done.

I can say the same about music and sound effects. If it were possible, this WAD uses stuff from the PS1 port as well. Yes, it fits like a glove, aside from a couple of sound effects. And it’s possibly the first time taking a closer listen to the PS1 soundtrack – it does fit when you want some more creepy vibes, but being used to the blood-pumping stuff from many other WADs, makes me miss the original OST.

I don’t think this WAD is complicated (at least for a partial conversion). I can’t recon the moment where I got stuck. What I know is that some of the maps felt like they were dragging on (especially the hell ones, and especially Realm of the Iconoclast), and many of these had hub areas with multiple, colored doors, along with stacks of ammo and health shaped like arrow/triangle.

And by the way, jumping and crouching are required, mostly when it comes to secrets.

There are two additional items. The first one is Skulltag’s Doomsphere, which increases your damage. The second one is something called Chi Gem… we will get to it later.

The secret maps are actually fun. The first one is Frantic, a homage to Hectic from Doom 64. Two of its challenge areas are straight from the original (the north one is based on one of the locations from the PS1 port’s Mansion). Even the way to get to the map is literally from D64, AKA destroy all barrels in Loading Bay.

If you manage to get all three keys in the secret map (it’s easier than in the original), you get access to the second secret map – Vinyl Resting Place, a homage to the map titled Club Doom but with zombies instead of revenants. It even has a secret boss (we will get to him later).

Threshold of Pain feels kind of challenging, especially in hell levels, but it doesn’t go too far. There won’t be slaughter map fodder to kill, and if there is one, it’ll still be rather small.

There are a bunch of new enemies to fight, but most of them are tougher variants that I already talked about in my previous reviews, like lord of heresy (who now has a 360-degree attack). And, yes, it also includes nightmare variants from the PS1 port (although I can’t remember nightmare caco acting like that).

When it comes to demons that I didn’t talk about before, I count three of these. The first one is called the unmaker zombie. As if we couldn’t have another hitscanner, this one also hits like a truck. Ain’t life great? -_-

There is the cyber prototype, who function as the final boss; aside from normal cyberdemon’s rockets, he shoots homing ones and plasma; after losing 1/3 of his health, he starts summoning demonic cubes and attacks at angles; 1/3 more and he starts using bruise brother’s ground attack.

I mentioned the boss in MAP12, and, from what I’ve gathered, his name is JG. You basically fight the WAD’s author himself; and he has two phases. In the first one, he functions like the buffed unmaker zombie that sometimes fires a railgun shot. In the second phase, he turns into the purple cycloid emperor, where he breathes fire, shoots plasma, and drops bombs.

Of course, we get new toys to play with. That, and the super shotgun looks slightly different.

The first new weapon is the skulltag minigun – shoots much faster but has a long cooldown before taking another shot.

I talked about unmaker being wielded by enemies, and guess who’s using that weapon as well? This one is less like the original and more like a slightly more powerful hitscan that shoots a more powerful attack at its secondary for a price of 4-5 energy from demonic orbs. Now, here is the kicker – remember chi gem? This thing will turn the unmaker into a railgun that has regenerating ammo. I still think it’s underpowered, though. I only used it on nightmare cacos, window imps, or other special occasions like the red key trap in MAP09.

Also, with the chi gem, after grabbing it, it kind of screws the regular status bar. If you have the alternative one, it works fine.

Some of the maps might overstay their welcome, but it doesn’t really change the fact that I like Threshold of Pain. A delight for people who want to experience the PS1 port of Classic Doom on PC, and still a fun WAD on its own.

There is a special edition of this WAD, released over 4.5 years later to make it more consistent with the sequel (of which, from what I know, is still in development). I think I’ll take a look at it as a bonus round or something.

And as for the next WAD to check, we are going back to the world of Cheogsh… Let’s hope it won’t be as much of a disappointment as its predecessor.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2010): Base Ganymede Episode 2

Just a little disclaimer before we start – I made a mistake in the previous post about the bugged music. I thought that the music tracks were played like it was shown in the Doomwiki page like half the time, but it turns out I misread something and didn’t think that the music is already properly integrated with the WAD itself. All this time, I needlessly used the optional WAD file with music from DtWiD. I might be an idiot, but hey, it could’ve ended up worse.

S.Ru2: Base Ganymede Episode 2

Main author(s): Adam Woodmansey (Khorus)

Release date: November 18th, 2010 (standalone)

Version(s) played: BG: Complete

Required port compatibility: Vanilla

Levels: 9 (episodic standard)

Honestly, at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if UAC (providing it’s them in this WAD) unleashed literal hell on every planet and moon on our solar system.

...

Anyway, we have talked about the first episode of Base Ganymede during a bonus round in the previous post. Now, we will be tackling the second episode, which, as you already know, was named one of the two runners-up of 2010.

As a reminder, before the WAD was finished in 2012, the first two episodes were separately released in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Now, let’s see if this episode delivers, and the final map is better than the one in E1.

The second episode looks at least as good as the first one. There is still at least one big area per map, but the episode overall feels less like another Shores of Hell homage; for me, it’s more like three techbase maps and the rest takes place in hell.

Musically, it’s still great to listen to. Although, I don’t think I have a favorite track this time, not to mention having nothing else to talk about.

Gameplay-wise, E2 is similar to E1. It’s not complicated, some of the maps feel mangled, and the episode tries to organically move between each map.

Ganymede’s Core, like Twitch in the previous episode, kills you with barrels, forcing you to Tyson the following map – Ultramarine. Still better than what happened in E1 and its final map.

Also, for some reason, one section of Haunted Research has a bunch of platforms that try to resemble stairs, except they go in zigzag… Just wanted to point that out.

This episode is a little hard. Once again, the amount of enemies is ridiculous in around half of the maps, although the difficulty feels cheaper than in the previous episode, mostly due to constant ambushes behind you and pop-up monsters. The former might be tolerable when it happens like once in a while (and once per map), but when it happens in over 50% of encounters, this is getting tiring and uninteresting. The latter, for me, sucks no matter what.

Another bullshit is with Strut. Remember those shitty cyberdemon fights where he constantly teleports around the area? This is THAT kind of boss fight. At least it’s not as bad as E1M8.

I’ve noticed an interesting glitch, where in Demonic Concrete, in the area where you have to shoot four switches to get access to the fifth one, after shooting one of the four switches, the texture surrounding it slightly changes. It probably is just that there wasn’t the exact texture for both turned on and off switches, but what do I know?

Base Ganymede’s episode 2 feels more annoying to play than the first episode, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t have any enjoyment while playing it. It’s still a good episode; just more obnoxious. For all the things it does, at least it didn’t feel boring (for a Doom I WAD that is).

And since we are done with runners-up, I am automatically promoting both this episode and Beyond Revival to the Revenant Awards 2010 (Golden Spider and Pug-of-Pink categories, respectively) due to these WADs having no competition (I forgot to write this section down).

After taking a short break from WADs, I’ll start taking a look at the honorable mentions of 2010.

I’ll see you then.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: Base Ganymede Episode 1

As I said in my previous post, there is one episode to check out before tackling the second 2010 runner-up... which is actually an episode of the same WAD as that one.

B21: Base Ganymede Episode 1

Main author(s): Adam Woodmansey (Khorus)

Release date: November 15th, 2009 (E1)

Version(s) played: BG: Complete

Required port compatibility: Vanilla

Levels: 9 (E1 standard)

Now, the way this WAD was released is quite interesting. Base Ganymede’s first 2 episodes were released separately on November 15th, 2009, and November 18th, 2010 respectively. It was only on January 20th, 2012 that all three episodes were released as a single WAD titled Base Ganymede: Complete. What’s funny is that while the second episode, as I mentioned at the beginning, was named runner-up in Cacowards 2010, the complete trilogy earned an actual Cacoward in the 2012 edition.

But we are not here to talk about the awards that this WAD got; We are going to talk about its first episode. I played the entire WAD before when it became an official addon for Bethesda’s (then) Unity port of Doom. I remember it was a rather pleasant experience, although the final maps of E1 and E2 were terrible and filled with cheap bullshit.

Will I have the same opinion for episode 1 as I had before or it will end up different? There is only one way to find out.

For the vanilla standards, this episode looks pretty dope. The corruption appearing much earlier than in the typical techbase episode for Doom I is always a plus for me; not to mention how sometimes the scale of areas is ginormous (for the vanilla standards that is). I feel like there is at least one, big area on a map, indoors or outdoors.

The music is also great. The tracks were made by Mr. Freeze, and were used in the 2011 WAD Doom the Way id Did; in case of this WAD, the soundtrack is in a separate WAD that can be downloaded. If I had to choose my favorite track, I think I would go with The Halls Have Eyes that plays in Hunting Giants.

This episode isn’t that complicated to play through. Sure, some of the maps feel mangled like Warped Outpost and The First Base (the latter to a lesser degree), but I don’t reckon any of them having obnoxious switch-hunting.

I like how this episode quasi-organically goes from one level to another for lack of better words. It doesn’t feel as smooth as some of the other WADs I’ve played that do that, but, hey, I’m glad it's still here.

Also, I would like to mention that Twitch ends up with you getting blown up by barrels, forcing you to pistol-start The Incredible Machine (we will get to that map later).

The first episode is not that hard. Sure, it can be challenging, mostly due to the ridiculous amount of enemies on maps (one goes up to almost 300 on HMP), but most of them are imps, so at least their attacks can be dodged. Should’ve toned down with hitscanners in some places, though.

Especially when it comes to the final map. The Incredible Machine is anything but incredible. Hey! Wanna run around like a headless chicken because there is a spiderbitch in a cage to telefrag and you have next-to-no cover, making the entire map completely luck-based? No? Well, fuck you! :D

Changing the subject, I’ve noticed the bug with the soundtrack, where, sometimes, it doesn’t play the tracks in a proper order, basically going like it was in The Way id Did instead of what Doomwiki article about BG says. I have no idea what causes it, and I tried turning GZDoom on and off like twice on my latest playthrough to fix it and it did nothing.

But anyway, despite the soundtrack working properly like half a time, and the E1M8 sucking a shit ton of crap, the first episode of Base Ganymede is fun. It’s rare for Doom I WADs to have exciting fights (at least from what I experienced) and this episode delivers these most of the time; less so if you conserve rockets and plasma for tougher enemies.

I hope the second episode is at least as good as this one.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2010): Beyond Revival

Now with TurboCharged ARCADE 2 out of the way, it’s finally time to take a look at WADs that actually feel much less experimental.

S.Ru1: Beyond Revival

Main author(s): Fiend

Release date: November 27th, 2010

Version(s) played: Final (I guess? It was updated at least three times from what the text file says)

Required port compatibility: Boom

Levels: 7

Starting with the underdog, right here – Beyond Revival. Six months in the oven; with the premise about dealing with the typical UAC shenanigans again again again, this time in South America.

I hope I’ll see some pyramids. (Spoilers: there is at least one)

Starting, of course, with the visual side of the WAD – it looks good. Most of the time it looks pretty standard when it comes to Boom-compatible WAD, but for me, there wasn’t anything jarring.

Beyond Revival isn’t complicated to play through. There were two moments where I got stuck, either due to the areas blending with each other or not being more obvious, but aside from these, I don’t think you will get stuck for a longer period of time.

I like how by the end of Armory, you press the fake exit switch and the surrounding area turns into hell.

Monoliths has four zones separated by teleporters; two of these are more like gauntlets.

…

I think I’m kind of running out of things to say.

…

Anyway, this WAD isn’t that hard. There are a couple of bullshit moments here and there, but overall, it was rather manageable. The only tough fight was the mosh pit that appears after pressing the first switch in zone 4 of Monoliths, and it was mostly due to the area being rather tight for this kind of battle.

The only bug that I encountered was one or two enemies being stuck; no idea if it’s the WAD’s fault or the source port’s.

And that’s all I have about to say. Beyond Revival might not stand out, but it’s still a fun WAD to play. I just wish I had more to say about it.

Now, before we tackle the second runner-up of 2010, you have to know that that WAD is actually a second episode of a bigger WAD titled Base Ganymede. So I think we should take a look at its first episode as a bonus review before the second one.

Anyway, I’ll see you then.