Apologies, it's been a long time. I felt like a break from Doom, for various reasons. I'd been reading the Nethack wiki and, as happens every 10 months or so, felt like playing that again for a change. I soon gave up playing properly though, but spent a few days running round in Wizard mode where you don't have to bother with all the tedious and frustrating initial game nonsense like identifying unknown scrolls and potions.
I began playing a wad called Hellfire. There are 15 new levels here, lots of new graphics too. I've only done the first three and started the fourth but so far it's very promising. In the first few maps you are in a city. The first map is in your and your neighbours' flats, the second out in the streets, and in shops and hotels. The third is a couple of train stations, and the fourth in and around a large corporate towerblock. The maps and in particular the shop textures are quite reminiscent of that old classic Doom City.
Hellfire is very well-made and believeable but it is exploration-type gameplay that might not suit replayability. I've been trying to do each map from scratch but I'm not sure it's meant to be done this way; they all follow on, as in the exit of one resembles the entrance of the next, and map3 in particular was ridiculously lacking in health. I will carry on and see where this thing takes me...
IDBEST.WAD is a curiosity at best; imagine a bunch of areas of different episode 1 maps, pasted together. Worth playing once. Starts well but somehow tails off. The exit is just randomly placed, there's no buildup to it or anything, and the keys are rather pointless. Interesting (if illegal) job, could be better though. Making your own large sprawling episode 1 style maps usually turns out better (obligatory mention of UAC Experiment goes here)
Not really much worth downloading here, I just figured I should post something. Oh wait, as of yesterday I have been on Doomworld for 5 years. Where does the time go..?
darkgate.wad Episode 1 replacement, from early 1994; it's just 8 randomly-themed mazes. Far too much unnecessary backtracking and invisible doors; it is often impossible to tell what to do next without copious use of the map cheat or even an editor. Very high population for such old maps too, and the starts of each map are extremely top-heavy. In fact I actually managed to get bored playing this wad!! I stopped after about three maps and looking forward it didn't seem to improve. It's a good thing not all old wads are like this. Definitely one to avoid.
Meretricious Plunge / Gravitation These both fail to load in p/rboom, citing large numbers of texture errors. The former mandates ZDoom; I have no idea why, having looked at it in Yadex. The latter claims to only require Boom, but, well, you know. There's too much of this stuff around. Interestingly at least in the case of Gravitation I commented out the line in rboom that causes it to exit with an error when texture problems are found, and it loaded perfectly. Something to investigate maybe if I ever get out of this slump I'm in.
The Great Bicycle Mystery 15 maps designed for co-op, in that "you can expect to die multiple times" * I ran round this wad a month or so ago when it was being beta-tested, and I thought it might be possible to beat it in single player if you are an expert at high population density maps. I managed to run all the way through without getting stuck, anyway - there appear to be no co-op specific areas that require more than one player to get past. It's good-looking, with new textures and plenty of detail, and the final map looks really spooky with huge layers of fireballs raining down out of a black sky. Uses the same add-on texture set as xenus15d (see previous update) and also replaces the Wolfenstein SS with a zombiefied marine. Worth a look if you are either really good or don't mind using cheats.
* One weird thing about co-op multiplayer is that players can die and respawn, the level can't be "lost" like it can in single player mode. Naturally enough deathmatch works this way, the weird part is that it works in co-op too. I only found this out relatively recently as I never play multiplayer.
