31/08/2009 @12:14:14 ^13:31:56
Dominion of Madess
A rather nice blood-soaked red-brick castle map, for Doom 2 but more in the style of Doom episode 3. Well put-together and integrated. Quite large, plenty of room to run around, and has the right amount of detail (enough to look interesting, not so much as to be overdone) The difficulty is balanced just right for me - it's not trivial, but not overwhelming. It uses the larger monsters but you are rarely surrounded.
In fact there's very little wrong with this map. Maybe it's a bit empty during the run back to the start after you pick up the red key. Maybe the switch that lowers the blue key could have been better distinguished (it looked more like a secret area switch) Maybe the soulsphere secret could have been a little less inscrutable. Still, I am nitpicking - this is an excellent map and very much worth playing. Recommended.
Maledictio
E2M5 of Mr Chris's E2 series (1-3, 4) which has a name now but I can't remember what it is offhand. By now if you've played all of them you should be used to the style - small areas, plenty of windows, computer panels, with hell corruption and demon faces - and it's more of the same. Decent, though. Maybe a bit too disjoint, could do with all the separate sections being better integrated, but it's quite hard to design levels that way without careful planning so whatever.
As usual the monster teleporters don't go off fast enough for me. Also unfortunately the author seems to be succumbing to invisible secrets syndrome. In earlier wads, most if not all of the secrets could be found by pressing on obvious things like computer panels. In this one, many cannot be discovered without humping on every featureless unmarked wall in sight. (Or, as I did, by using the map cheat.)
Tormentum
E2M9 of the same series. Does not live up to standards set by previous. At first glance you're in a green stone castle inside of a lava canyon, but it's little more than a couple of rooms with some monsters in. A hallway with jail cells, a throneroom (ish) with some barons, return to the start, floor lowers, there's the exit. And indeed you can bypass the whole thing if you know where the switch will rise up out of the floor.
I believe I recall seeing on Doomworld that the author had the layout in mind after completing Maledictio and put it together very quickly. It shows.
