I have created this special section to celebrate an important goal of this site: 50 reviews! After the uncelebrated third anniversary of the birth of this site, the 21st September 2005, because I was busy with lots of other stuff, I want to celebrate this great goal with some new stuff, such as the best .WAD reviewed, the worst one, those with the best gameplay, graphics or difficulty. But also stuff like the best and the worst .WADs of mine, the best and the worst of the so-called "Other levels", eveything voted by you in my forum. Here you find also a special review, written by the guest Bob Larkin a.k.a. Semetary, that is the web-master of Doom Wad Station, one of the most renowned Doom-related sites! I hope you enjoy it: have a good time!
Here you can find also a table with all the 50 reviewed levels and their assessments: Doom reviews.xls or Doom reviews.pdf.
50 Reviews:
Other levels:
My levels:
Guest's review (by Bob Larkin a.k.a. Semetary):
"Revisiting Phobos" by Buzzomber
It has been many moons since I have had the opportunity to review an actual map for original Doom. It seems that everyone is making maps for Doom2 but almost no one is making them for Doom any longer, so it was nice to revisit the roots of Doom. Revisiting Phobos is supposed to be a map which recaptures the feel of the original E1Mx (especially the later maps). For the most part I would say that the author accomplished this goal rather well. While there is not a lot of detail to the map (expected since it is supposed to emulate the original game), it is not to say that it is boring. It most certainly isn’t. The design is intricate with some hidden areas and a non-linearity that while welcome, also led to some downtime as I searched for the next goal I needed to accomplish. This was mostly while I was trying to get the red key. After that the pace picked up quite a bit. By the way, it took me about half an hour to finish the map.
You will find a TON of baddies to mop up in this level, with plenty of ammo and health to keep you going along the way. I wouldn’t say that this map is exactly super difficult or anything but the author springs quite a few traps on you (unexpected) which eat up health AND ammo. For the most part though, you have plenty of both. That’s not to say that you can simply go on a shooting spree while traversing this map. You especially need to watch your shotgun ammo at points but there is plenty of handgun/chaingun ammo lying about. And don’t think that getting the chaingun will be a simple matter. I’m not going to spoil it though. Overall, I would say that gameplay was pretty good. As I said earlier, there is a little downtime at one point but for the most part there are plenty of bad guys to play with. The only thing I found disappointing was the lack of really difficult creatures. The most difficult creatures I found were the shotgun guy and the imp (plenty of both). I think difficulty could have gotten a shot in the arm with some more difficult creatures and a little less health and ammo laying around. The author was kind enough, however, to make sure that he had creatures spawn into areas you had already been previously so that the battles could continue on.
Overall, this was a pretty good map, especially for a Doom map. I liked the map layout because of the non-linearity and I liked that the author placed the bad guys back in places I had already cleared. I definitely got a feel like I was back in the original game but it did seem that it was somewhat more intricate than those levels aspired to. If you are one of those people who consider yourself to be an Uber Doomer and are looking for a map that will challenge your abilities then I wouldn’t recommend this map. For those with above average skills you may find yourself challenged at points but will probably find yourself bored quite a bit as well. For everyone else, it’s a solid play that will offer you some surprises. Have fun. It’s a good map.