28/08/2012 @08:22:15 ^08:58:18

15 years of Doom

I don't seem to play it so much any more, though, which is a shame. Thinking about this, I still find playing (some) wads enjoyable. So what stops me? The sense that if I play a wad I have to write a review or whatever of it here. I am sick of writing map reviews, so that gets put off. So I get a buildup of unreviewed wads. So I don't go and find more wads, because I don't want the unreviewed pile to get any larger. In conclusion, it's this wretched website that's hurting my enjoyment of the game. Therefore, I should stop doing the website...

Hellfire: Reborn

Oh, this again. Posted about the original several times, several years ago. Now it's back and has been remade from scratch (maps 1-7, anyway, there's no maps 21-28). I had to convince myself this was true, by comparing the old and new side-by-side. The author seems to have carefully remade the wad so it's almost identical to how it was before. I mean the details are different, but overall the thing plays the same. Same order of maps, each map has the same basic features and progression, etc.

Differences are mostly noticable in the graphics and so on, the maps are redone with a higher level of detail, and this time a lot of the sprites have been replaced, e.g. trees are actual things instead of made from linedefs. But most noticably the monsters have been changed, for some reason zombies are walking around in bright red and white spotted boxer shorts. Oh and there are female zombies as well, which look more like models than soldiers, and never mind what they sound like.

As for the gameplay, well, as I said it's hardly different from how it was the first time, the only real difference from what I remembered was that the last map has this whole "fields of corn" theme now, including, at the end, a huge maze (no puns, please) of the stuff. A 64-wide maze of impassible linedefs and floating middle textures, which must be traversed repeatedly, which does not show up on the automap. There is no health and the monsters can't be seen through all the corn, although of course they can see you fine. If you do reach the middle where the key is, a spiderdemon is released outside the maze, which, again, you can't see, or hide from. It's difficult to express just how awful, how terrible, how unplayable this part of the map is, and how mystified I am that the author could think it was a good idea.

Play this if you like the attempt at realistic (or at least, believable) environments, as it does do that very well, but be aware it is not very fun, or forgiving of mistakes. (Or just play on HNTR or something...)