27/08/2006 @22:48:16 ^23:22:17

Ganymede I downloaded this because it's mentioned in the PrBoom changelog as having linedefs which use negative left sidedef numbers other than -1 to signify that a line is single sided and I wanted to test that and fix it in rboom. I decided to play it, but it's not very good.

• It has some silly plot line about being a technology institute then you get transported forward in time and it becomes a military base. There's a couple of rooms that look like lecture theatres.
• There's very little detail or texture alignment or even proper use of textures - repeating the computer screens over and over again just doesn't work.
• It's got nearly 500 monsters but they're mostly small ones so it's like a slaughter map for people who can't manage difficult slaughter maps!
• The monsters in the lecture theatres are stuck together and I can't help but think it was deliberate
• There's also this imp transporter gimmick which is mentioned in the text file but it's not half as impressive as it sounds. Sorry.
• The secrets are pretty odd, some of them need keys that you don't get until the very end of the level. They're also mostly unmarked doors you have to hunt for
• Most memorable moment was late on in the level when I found an entrance to Hell in the back of a storeroom - pretty daft theme transition there
• Finally, how can anybody hate cacodemons?!

Holy Hell has been rereleased, with some bug fixes and more resources.

• The red key trap doesn't lock you in for so long, and you can run over the line without getting a MapPlane overflow (although those have been fixed now, sort of) I don't think all the issues with lock-ins have been fixed though, I think some of the forced delays are too long, especially since the sizes of the traps they are tied to have been reduced slightly (e.g. the yellow key area) You can still break the monster teleporters in the final area. Just remember, south before north.
• You can now do each individual map from scratch apparently, as the weapons have been added at the start. There is also lots more ammunition and some of the more extreme traps have been reduced (there are far fewer archviles in most of the teleporter traps, except the one at the very end of the wad) It's still totally overstuffed with monsters on UV and way beyond my ability though, and map05 runs really slowly. I must point out that it does mention this and that's why it was split up into smaller maps; also it does recommend you reduce the skill level, so fair enough.

I wonder if it's possible to speed the monster code up at all? The full version of Deus Vult doesn't run very quickly either until you reduce the population quite a lot. Oh well, it'd probably end up breaking demo compatibility. Original review