#doom Escape from Castle Chezcrea

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2008): Escape from Castle Chezcrea

Okay, people. Enough of the cereal kid shit. We are back at the familiar, bloody, and gory territory.

G9: Escape from Castle Chezcrea

Main author(s): Paul Hiebert (Creaphis)

Release date: February 16th, 2008 (original version)

Version(s) played: 1.1

Required port compatibility: Boom

Levels: 1 (MAP30 replacement)

Looks like we have another underdog today, people.

Escape from Castle Chezcrea is the first Doom WAD created by Paul Hiebert (at least the first one uploaded on the internet). So that means I will try to go easier on this map.

I have nothing else to say, so let’s take a look at the map.

For starters, I like how this map looks. It looks like a prison wing of the castle with torture chambers and machines turning bodies into meat. There is even a part with the sewers at the last third of the map with a leaking pipe that has blood/liquid meat swimming through it. If you could try to guess a concept of a map just by its title and if it fits, this one would fit rather well. it would be only better if there were an original music track.

Chezcrea is rather simple to understand – you try to escape the titular castle through various locations until the floor near the fake exit collapses and you are forced to escape through the aforementioned sewers. Not to mention going through the tunnel darker than the asshole (to the point that it doesn’t even show on the minimap) before the sudden drop.

Overall, I don’t think you will get stuck while playing this map. It’s rather easy to understand where to go and what to do.

I like the cleverness in most of the secrets. The best one is with the pickaxe. If you press the use key on it, you grab it, and you will be able to break through the gap in the wall in the nearby area with the conveyor belt to get a secret rocket launcher.

I would also mention that in the original version, there was a puzzle placed somewhere in the halfway point of a map; and judging from the textfile that it was moon logic level of complexity (AKA utter bullshit), I don’t think you will feel like something was missing.

I would not call Chezcrea a hard map. Sure, you are usually forced to punch demons before reaching the area with the yellow key where you will find green armor and a shotgun nearby, and there are some bullshit moments here and there (mostly involving fighting demons in complete darkness) but honestly, it was still an easy map (at least when compared to the tougher WADs from 2008).

Escape from Castle Chezcrea is a fun map to play. I am even capable (to some degree) forgive some of its cons due to it being probably the author’s first map. Give it a try.

Only last WAD from the 2008 roster to go people. I’ll see you then.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette: Revenant Awards 2008

You look out of the bunker. You see nobody.

Okay, I think they are gone now. I’m back on the surface.

THE IRON KUNG FU DOOM GUY – REVENANT AWARDS 2008 EDITION

Well, folks... We did it. 15 years of the best Doom WADs (according to Doomworld and not even all of them) reviewed. It is another big milestone, yes, but only one WAD will win one of the awards, and in this ceremony, we will be choosing four winners (not counting the ones by default).

Okay, enough of the pretentious rambling. Let’s start with the first category.

SOLE SURVIVOR – BEST ONE-MAP WAD OF THE YEAR

In this case, we have a surprise. The winner is the underdog – Escape from Castle Chezcrea. I do realize that XXXI CyberSky is a better map in almost every department, but unfortunately, that map is also a slaughter-type one, and I’m not really fond of these. At least Chezcrea is more accessible.

PUG-OF-PINK – BEST 2-7 MAPS LONG WAD OF THE YEAR

Here, though, Eternal and his WAD, Gravity, easily win. Thunderpeak has its moments, yes, and gameplay-wise is more interesting to play, but, like many other ZDoom before it, it tends to have annoying and unnecessary moments that feel questionable at best. Not to mention Gravity looking much more pleasant and original compared to the other WAD.

PLATINUM REVENANT – BEST 10-19 MAPS LONG WAD/MEGAWAD OF THE YEAR

Another category, another slam-dunk by Eternal, this time with Remain 3. It feels like a reverse situation with Sole Survivor, where one of the two WADs (in this case Deus Vult II) is better than the other one in many departments but I still prefer the other WAD because it’s not a slaughter map/WAD. In that category, Eternal’s WAD lost; in this, however, his WAD won. Even when most of the non-slaughter maps from DVII are better than in Remain 3, I would still rather play the latter.

OFF THE WALL – BEST PARTIAL/TOTAL CONVERSION OF THE YEAR

I thought it would be harder to choose the winner here, but it wasn’t that hard. Of course, I removed Eternal Doom IV and BGPA from the equation because these are just more of the stuff that I hate in their predecessors. Meanwhile, Community is Falling 3 and Cold as Hell: Special Edition might be technical marvels at the time they were originally released, but the former’s almost entirely juvenile humor and the gameplay becoming more and more annoying as you progress, and the latter’s questionable decisions with some new mechanics and changes in gameplay, soured my enthusiasm for these WADs (but at least I managed to finish Cold as Hell compared to Community 3).

And so were are now with two golden eggs – Urban Brawl and Chex Quest 3 (or Chex Quest Trilogy as I like to call the latter). One is the FPP Beat ’em Up that came out of nowhere and became an instant classic that I am appreciating more and more with each passing day; the other is basically Doom for children that even adults can enjoy.

But there is one thing in Chex Quest Trilogythat makes it better by an inch– expectations. Urban Brawl is the prequel to Action Doom, an already fun homage to Contra and similar games, so people thought they would get a fun game too after playing the previous one (and they got); Chex Quest’s concept sounds like a perfect recipe for disaster and people were expecting flop before ending up surprised that it was a high-tier quality product. That’s what makes CQ3 the winner in this category.

But you know what? There is still a part of me that badly wants to play Urban Brawl again. Even if it’s not a winner of this category, I’ll still play this when the Decade of DOOMstruction returns as an honorable mention. I seriously need to try it again to see if I’m not losing my marbles.

OTHER AWARDS

And now for the WADs that won by default. Starting with Golden Spider (best episode replacement) and its winner, Back to Basics...

sigh

This WAD is lucky there wasn’t any other episode replacement, let alone the vanilla one.

But let’s not forget about Diaz: Last Hours of Purity. I didn’t like it that much, but it still deserves an award for being a gameplay mod for Doom. And so, I’ve come up with an award for it (and the future gameplay mods as well) – Tei Tenga’s Arsenal award for the best Doom gameplay mod of the year.

cricket noises

What? I couldn’t think of a better name.

CONCLUSION

And that’s all for the 2008 roster of Doom WADs. At this point of writing, I have reached the half point in Doomworld’s yearly lists of the best WADs. And that’s in almost four years since I started reviewing these things, with shorter or longer breaks.

Speaking of breaks, I need to finally finish both the original Half-Life and its Source remake Black Mesa. It might take me less than a week; it might take more than that. It will depend on how many WADs from the next year will check out. Either way, after one day of finishing both of these, I’ll start properly looking at the 2009 WADs.

Thank you all for reading my life-coping slop. I’ll see you next time.

Bye.