22/04/2006 @14:57:34 ^20:37:53

THE UNREVIEWABLES

There are some maps - quite a lot of them, in fact - for which I put off writing my little "summaries" for as long as I can, which basically means forever. This is usually because I know that writing a review that does the WAD in question justice would take so long as to be prohibitive. These tend to be:

• Megawads - full replacements of Doom or Doom 2 would have over 30 maps, and writing a summary of each one would take all day and end up with a post so long nobody would read it (not that they do anyway)
• Wads that have a large number of replacement graphics, or a complicated DeHackEd patch, or some other complex internal construction that uses the linedef actions in a unique or otherwise impressive way, etc. I know it'd be impossible to mention absolutely everything notable about such a wad, so it gets put off too.

So having said that here's a bunch of wads I should have written about ages ago. It goes without saying that you should play all of them.

• Suspended in Dusk Four maps for Doom2. Theme is a base, with some outdoor rock and grass areas. A texture obsessive's delight, this thing looks absolutely flawless. Broken pipes hanging uselessly. Force fields. Crates suspended from grappling hooks. A million point bonus for using the Doom alpha console flats. Map 3 is a reworking of Ruma and contains the funniest monster teleporter I have ever seen. The wad is apparently vanilla compatible as well - this is hard to believe, although its a bit cramped (you can have detail, or openness, but not both) The only obvious criticism is that it is so complex it's quite easy to get totally lost!
• Scythe 2 29 maps for Doom2. Six "episodes" of five maps each, after which it takes all your guns away and changes theme. The themes are: gothic/castle; egyptian/aztec; techbase/underground; earth/outdoors; "doom gardens" (bricks covered in vines, metal, grass...); and hell (which was never finished, map28 is a blank map) Half the maps are similar in size and population to the original Scythe, the others larger, more detailed, and a lot more populated. Also it has two new monsters, an evil red-suited plasma marine, faster than an archvile, too fast to shoot; and a majestic flying baron of hell, with a huge spam of fireballs and a ton of health.
• Mordeth 6 maps for Doom2. Castles, mansions, swamps, towns. Tons of new graphics, one of the most complicated DeHackEd patches ever, new monsters, floating fog, booby trapped candles, statues that come to life, etc. Mordeth is a very well known wad, it came out in 1997 and we're still waiting for episode 2! I don't think it's as atmospheric as some people say it is though, it contains the default episode 1 sky texture, which is too bright for a supposed "town lit by gaslight". Also, the version in /idgames only works with doom2.exe, the source port compatible version is unfortunately only on the crime against humanity that is 3ddownloads

Okay that'll do for now. There are dozens more, obviously, but I'm not really getting on very quickly here...