Shades of Grey - a tiny techbase (like a couple of rooms) in some caves under a mountain. Very short and quite easy, the only difficult part was the teleporting archvile, which is easy to avoid due to a level bug. People just can't design proper monster teleporters can they? It's not bad but a little dull and the relatively high level of detail doesn't make up for it. Another one of those "what doom maps would have been like if doom builder had existed in 1994" ones.
MDL.WAD - some guy's first set of Doom levels, replaces episode 1 with some very simple constructions. Very easy, has insane amounts of ammunition available. Probably not worth the bother.
Das Labor - large, maze-like map with a very randomised texture theme. Quite detailed though - another product of highly-automated map editors with time saving features I think. Stuffed with over 2000 monsters, and a severe lack of health. I just about managed to get through using savegames, but had to resort in one part to using the IDBEHOLD cheat to give myself extra radsuits as running round a lava maze with 9% health on small stepping stones to find a key while chased by a hundred monsters was never going to happen. This was all right but the lack of health was very frustrating.
Gyrotechnics - A tiny, partially-outdoor, overly detailed techbase. High monster density and ammunition is quite tight but it's a very good map nonetheless. This was originally a speedmap; the original, itself also surprisingly detailed for something presumably made in under two hours, was also included. But then again, as I said earlier, they do have editors now that do everything for you.
The day is over now so you can shut up!!
Aaargh. I just played The Bitchin Levels again and have thus been driven crazy by its replacement sound effects. Executive summary:
There's not much point in describing each map separately as they're all quite similar. Designed for co-op so there's plenty of room so players don't get in each other's way, and that very characteristic "two or more corridors between each room" design. Yes it's mostly simple rooms and corridors, it dates back to 1995 or something although the version in the archive is a compilation with tarted-up lighting. Map05 has this cute trick with teleporters to simulate land mines, and maps 7 and 10 are enormous. Map10 is probably the best one in fact.
There are a few replacement textures which look to have been created in a very very simple drawing program. Doors with "Intruders will be shot on sight!" written on them in naff pixelly fonts, that sort of thing. It's mostly just a hodgepodge of Doom 2 textures though, vaguely tech/industrial for the most part although there are bricks, marble and hellish areas, it's pretty much a mixup.
As I said it's supposed to have had its lighting improved, which means there are a lot of sectors with flashing lights, a few sectors for light casting and surrounding lamps and stuff. It's nothing amazing, it looks like a mid-nineties map which is what they are.
Gameplay is fun though. Plenty of ammo and room to move. Easy too, you can do a maxrun of all 10 levels in two hours (I just did) and each level is fine from scratch too. I could have done with a few more rockets maybe but you get quite a lot of cells, there's less emphasis on the shotguns than most Doom 2 wads.
The only thing left is to mention the sound effects. Its author is clearly a huge popular sci-fi nerd as he's put in all kinds of Star Wars and Star Trek samples. Most of these are fairly obvious, transporter beams, laser blasters, doors etc. The most memorable are the zombies who go "There's one, set for stun!" or Riker's repeated line "Red alert!" or the alarm siren thing from the Enterprise when they wake up. By far the worst is the death sound, Worf's "It is a good day to die, but the day is not yet over". After 10 levels of this you're like "No fuckhead, it is over now, shut up"* And that's not even mentioning when you are pressing on walls looking for secrets and Han Solo goes "you can't get out that way" over and over again.
This is the first PWAD I ever played so I have a soft spot for it and play it again every couple of years. Your mileage may vary. Without sentimental value it isn't much by today's standards. You may enjoy the opportunity for fast-paced gameplay and not having to worry too much about health and ammo. You may wish to delete some of the resources from the wad before you do. Or you may wish to have a life; either's good.
* okay I admit I searched Memory Alpha to find out which episode it was from. If you listen carefully you can hear a click in the middle of the sample from where the name "Duras" has been cut out.
Should take you about 15 minutes
HAND - a silly set of replacement weapons that I played for 5 minutes and was still laughing half an hour later.
Two remakes of Doom's E3M1 are floating around Doomworld's forums:
- spd-e3m1 is a remix more than a remake, you can tell it's E3M1 but it changes a little bit towards the end. Very good.
- mdkeep is much more similar to the original.
I preferred the first one, the second was a bit too similar to the original.
Just played the Flashback demo again. Executive summary:
- E1 map, seems quite empty somehow. Needs a bit more detail or at least texture variation. Far too much STARTAN3 makes it look like one of those early DEU maps.
- E2 base which I cannot seem to praise enough, this is easily as good as anything you'll find in the Classic Episode or whatever. Superb progression and the outdoor areas especially look great.
- Another E2 base clearly influenced by Doom's E2M4, some great secrets like the plasma gun but the blue armour at the end is a bit pointless. Maybe a few too many demons, it gets boring using the shotgun on them after a while.
- Red brick castle. Quite hard to begin from scratch due to lack of weapons. Feels like it should be bigger, somehow, like it needs an extra section or something. You get one key and then it's over. Still, pretty good.
- Pretty much a clone of E3M2. Supposedly resembles a foot, but I think only superficially (the original was a hand) Another difficult start due to lack of ammunition, helps a lot to know exactly where to go. Decent map, nothing spectacular.
- Green brick castle thing with typical E4-style nastiness, traps and barons all over the place. Definitely easier if you bring a pile of rockets along from a previous level! Another one with good progression.
This was one of the most promising projects ever and I still hope it will be completed; however I don't think it will live up to the promise of the demo as the good mappers have apparently left the project, instead there was a thread where it was opened up to all comers on Doomworld last year (so it will be more of a "mixed bag" I suspect)
If you liked this wad remember there were also two other Flashback maps released as part of DAC 2005.
what is the point of the death penalty
Surely if you really wanted to punish someone you'd make them do something they really really hated for the rest of their natural life, like cracking rocks, shovelling manure, or being an office temp.
7 maps and one week (and 4 more maps)
Contrary to what you might expect the One Week Megawad was not a megawad made in a week. Instead it was a wad in which each map was allocated a week to be made. So like speedmapping only you get time to think about it.
- Industrial 4 Metal base style map, quite easy although short on ammunition and one area where you might leave health and stuff turns out to be closed off once you've left it. I prefer being able to backtrack, at least eventually.
- Industrial 5 E2M2 clone with some hellish parts. Looks pretty good but was quite nasty. Lots of zombies especially in teleporter traps, and low on resources, so watch that health. But it gets easier towards the end. Pretty top-heavy.
- Caverns of Malice Couple of tiny plain caves and a great marble hall. Not particularly well-tested, I think. Very low ammo. Many rockets but no launcher on UV.
- In and Out Nukage processing plant or something, various base/industrial styles used. Some nicely large areas with high ceilings. Some big crowds of monsters and not much health. I can't get past the end.
- Fort Aphex Bioweapon Containment Facility Some large plain rooms in compblue and marble. No real theme. Poor monster placement removes incentive to get 100% kills.
- Close Combat Very cramped and dark rooms and corridors, vaguely tech theme. Not too hard if you're lucky. The archvile halfway through could cause you problems maybe.
- Hell Simple Outside of a large castle. You must find the secret entrances to get weapons while avoiding an army of mancubi. Some areas clearly inspired by maps from Doom's E3. Pretty good on HMP, UV is really hard especially if you want 100% secrets.
- Castle Another castle only this one you start inside. The inside is just plain wood and metal rooms but outdoors is pretty good. Features a teleporting cyberdemon and a massive army of hellknights. Not as hard as I first believed. Ammo can be tight on UV, HMP is better.
- The Archvile's Revenge Lots of slaughtering monsters in arenas. I like this map because it blatantly doesn't care what it looks like. Besides you don't get time to look at the architecture. It's too hard for me on UV though. I could deal with a couple of cyberdemons but the crowd of revenants and archviles was too much. I needed lots of reloads and managed to be permanently stuck on <5% health. Fun if you like this sort of thing.
- 3-Tech Dark techbase. Lots of attention to detail, and especially lighting. Uses a lot of Boom features. Good progression - it feels like an entire mission even though it's quite a small map. I don't know why the exit door has blue stripes on it when you need a red key to leave, though. Pretty easy barring accidents.
- The 24 Cyber Spirits Massive slaughter map in hell. Can't really describe this one, you just have to play it. Seems to like corridors with supports packed with monsters. Yellow key area seems vaguely inspired by Doom2 MAP28. Most of the secrets need archvile jumps to access, at least one needs a double jump which is probably impossible. This map is way too hard for me on UV, haven't tried lower skills yet.
This was done in 2001 at the height of a difficult period of mapping. Literally difficult, I remember at the time wondering if people were deliberately making their maps harder or something, and was this the wave of the future? It was the nasty kind of difficulty as well, where you give the player minimal resources. I prefer having tons of everything and then trying to fight 300 monsters at once. Still, there are a few weak maps but overall this is a decent wad.
And a couple of others:
Great Falls This is what you'd get if people had had Doom Builder in 1994. Mixes up all kinds of themes, the texturing is all over the place, sky textures on walls, architecture all higgeldy-piggeldy (the best thing you can say about the crates is that at least they're quadrilateral) but there is quite a lot of small "detail" as you'd expect when your editor makes it really easy to just draw sectors. Also another map in which I didn't feel it was worth bothering with 100% kills. I think there's enough ammunition but it's in the wrong places. In fact some of it is inaccessible. Lack of resources and high probability of accidents makes for frustration.
Trippy Skrill This map is like a poster child for ZDoomisms. At first glance it's just a map in the random theme style of early Doom 2 maps. Nothing wrong with that. But if you play it, you'll soon find it's been clearly designed by someone more used to having mouselook, as there are stairs too steep for the autoaim, and steep dropoffs with monsters underneath. None of that stops it from being finishable in other engines at least in theory, but the door with the walk trigger in front of it will bring you to a halt! I wouldn't bother if I were you.
