12/02/2005

Hear the drummer get wicked

Another back-dated article, written during the time I was rebuilding my site. I don't know how many of these there'll be. If I write too much nobody'll read all of it if/when I put it back up. Oh well.

Classic maps

The Classic Episode is an full replacement for Episode 2 of Doom, and if you haven't played it, you should. There are two versions; the one above is version 2, released mid-2002, and Classic Episode Original hosted by Doom2.net or Classic Episode Original hosted by Compet-n is the first version, released end of 2000.

The differences are mainly that the re-release is easier. The compet-n version is considerably more difficult on certain maps, due mainly to lack of health. It only still exists because lots of people had made demos for it by the time the rerelease was made. There's a changelog document in the rerelease zip file. In fact that's the point. Something recently inspired me to get both versions and play them side-by-side to examine the differences.

Those are the ones that I can remember. Anyway, enough babbling, the point is you should play this wad right now!

Hell Revealed on skill 2

I got into doing Hell Revealed on a lower skill level, again. I can now claim I've done all but a few of the maps, even if I have to whisper "on HNTR" afterwards.

The maps I still have yet to do on HNTR are 23, 24, 25, 26 and 30

25 seemed the most probable, but it turns out it's hardly any different from the UV version, and hadn't been toned down at all. No wait, there's two differences, on easy and medium skills you get a BFG at the start and on easy skill there's an invulnerability replacing a partial invisibility at the far end of the map. I found this not to be enough. Map 25 consists of a sequence of very nasty traps and frankly one invulnerability wasn't enough for me. I could have done with at least four.

To compare, I've done 1-8, 10, and 12, on a proper skill level. Of the others I think 9 might be possible if I got really good with the berserk box, and 21 might be possible because the entire level's weapons and ammunition supply is at the start. (The problem with many of the levels is not that they're impossible but they're impossible without already having an arsenal at your disposal on entry to the level)

Hell Revealed is one of those perennial WADs, but I've got sick of it again so I'm done now.