Here you can find reviews both on most recent .WADs and old .WADs. If you want a level of yours or one you like reviewed, then contact me!

In the reviews I consider the playability first of all, then the graphics (architecture, detail, textures alignment, lightness), the skill level and the balance ammo/monsters, the choice of new music and new graphics (if there is a new MIDI, new textures or sprites) and then I write an overall judgement. I'm not a great reviewer, but I want to try to review some levels. I will not be too strict in my judgements and I will try to be diplomatic... hoping you appreciate this!

These are the marks I use:

insufficient 1-3 (!); sufficient 4-5 (try again!); fair 6 (you can do better!); good 7 (OK!); very good 8-9 (good work!); excellent 10 (you can't do better!).

Reviews:

"Drip Feed" by Iori: Playability: This .WAD is a large "Doom 2" level (map30) for Boom-compatible ports. The map layout is complex, but gameplay is quite linear and never confusing, in spite of several puzzles with switches. You must also look for three keys, in the following order: Blue Skull Key, Red Skull Key and Yellow Key Card. What makes it simpler than other complex maps is the fact that you can see what a switch does, as it activates something nearby. To sum up: a good level, with gameplay based on action, key hunt and puzzles with switches. Assessment: 8! Graphics: "Drip Feed" has a particular theme, that is something between hellish, medieval and gothic. As the author states in his .TXT file: "a GSTONE fortress, a red glowing sky, silhouetted bodies writhe on spikes in the distance, fortelling your fate". GSTONE textures are not the only ones the author used, although the colour scheme has a green dominant, due to green stone and marble textures and flats; but there's a lot of brown of wood and metal structures, stone textures and flats, etc. Architecture is great-looking and highly detailed with pillars, columns, arches, windows, battlements, bridges, etc. Lighting is simple, but good. Assessment: 10! Difficulty: This is a challenging level even on HMP: it is not hard, but it keeps you on your toes. Iori prevents it from being easy with good monster placement: he doesn't use many tricks and traps - the most dangerous being those with Arch-Viles! - but he manages to catch you with ambushes, which do not even use teleporting enemies. Monster population vary with skill level: 319 on the first two skill levels, 364 on HMP, 416 on UV and NM, with the toughest monster being the Baron of Hell. Health is finely balanced, with several Medikits and Stimpaks scattered throughout the whole map. Ammo is well balanced too: you can find shotgun shells and bullets here and there, as well as rockets and cells. As for weapons, you start with a Shotgun and later on you'll find Chaingun, Rocket Launcher and Super Shotgun. There's also a Plasma Gun, but it is not essential. There's even a BFG in a secret area, but again you don't need it. As for secrets, there are other two, but only one can be found with the help of Computer Map: there you'll find a Backpack full of ammo and box of shotgun shells. As for power-ups, there's a well guarded Soul Sphere. Some fights take place in large and open areas, where you can be hit by snipers and surrounded easily; other battles take place in tight rooms or narrow hallways, but architecture never hinder your manoeuvres. The .WAD lacks of an epic battle: a final showdown would have been the icing on the cake. Assessment: 9! New graphics: The .WAD includes some new textures and flats and others from "Doom" and "Plutonia" (waterfalls): they all look good. There's also a new nice red sky. Assessment: 10! Overall: So, at the end we can say that "Drip Feed" is an interesting level, with good classic gameplay, great-looking graphics and challenging difficulty. Assessment: 9!

 

"Abyssion" by Death-Destiny: Playability: "Abyssion" is a .WAD for vanilla "Doom 2". Like other levels by the same author, it features a hard difficulty, although not HR-styled like many others. So, it takes you a lot of time, in spite of its size: it is smaller than other Death-Destiny's maps. Also gameplay features a simple two-switch puzzle, that must be solved to take the Blue Skull key, but it based mainly on action. Once you have got the Blue Skull Key, you can take the Red one and then look for the exit. So, the map is quite linear and straightforward. What makes this .WAD different from others is the lack of conventional weapons (Shotgun, Super-Shotgun and Chaingun), counterbalanced by the presence of Berserk, Rocket Launcher, Plasma Gun and, only near the end, BFG. Assessment: 8! Graphics: This level doesn't have impressive graphics: map layout and architecture are quite simple and detail level is minimum. However the level doesn't look bad, because texture and flats are chosen and used with criterion. The main theme is hellish, as it can be understood from the dominant colour (red) of stone or rock walls and floors. Lighting is good. Assessment: 6! Difficulty: As disclosed in the "Playability" section, this level is hard, even in HMP... and it is not even HR-styled like other maps by Death-Destiny! What makes this level so hard is accurate monster placemnts, as well as some deadly traps: they consist mainly in teleporting monsters or enemies behind fake walls. So, you'll face certain death if you do not know them and rush into the first thing in your mind, as you are ambushed! Saving game often is suggested, if you are not an experienced Doomer! Moreover most health is placed in the start area, whereas just few Medikits or Stimpaks are scattered here and there. On the contrary, ammo is more abundant and scattered throughout the whole map. As mentioned before, your only weapons are Rocket Launcher, Plasma Gun, Berserk, that you must use at the beginning until you get one of the former arms, and BFG, that is placed in the final arena. Hitscanners do not appear in this level, whose population includes: Imps, Revenants, Mancubi, Pain Elementals, a few Cacodemons, Hell Knights and Barons of Hell... and not few Arch-Viles and CyberDemons! Monster count varies from 160 to 270, depending on the skill settings. I suggest that average Doomers play it on the 2nd skill level first and try HMP or UV only after the first complete run. Third and fourth skill levels are set for seasoned players and people who played "Abyssion" at least once and want more gore (yours or monsters')! Do not ask for power-ups until the final battle (there's a MegaSphere, replaced by a Soul Sphere on UV, in the final arena), unless you can find secrets. In few words: extremely challenging .WAD! Assessment: 7! New music: The background music is from "Doom" and fits the ambience, although it doesn't suit the pace of the game! However, it is not new, so I don not assess it. Assessment: n/a.! Overall: To sum up, Death-Destiny made this level in his typical style: basic action-packed gameplay, simple graphics and very hard and challenging difficulty. Assessment: 7!

 

"Evil unleashed" by Dutch Devil: Playability: This is a .WAD for "Ultimate Doom": it requires any limit-removing port - "Doom 95" should be fine, apart from few reported HOMs. In spite of map size and monster count, it will take you around 20 minutes. Gameplay is very simple and linear, with few switches to press and all three keys to find. There's no story provided in the .TXT file. Assessment: 7! Graphics: There's no fixed theme here: the first half of the map is E1-inspired, with tech-base theme, whereas the other half recalls E2 and E3, as the same author states in the .TXT file. The map has nice layout and good architecture, although most areas consist of hallways and square rooms, apart from outside areas, and detail level is not high, except for few occasions. So, it can be said that graphics is old-school or classic, as it doesn't feature complex structure and lots of details; nevertheless this level is quite good-looking, thanks to good choice and combination of textures and flats, with simple, but pleasant colour schemes (all brown, all grey, green and red...). Lighting is very simple with few variations. To sum up: not a great-looking .WAD, but it is not bad either! Assessment: 7! Difficulty: Don't be impressed by the monster count: although it is quite high (204 in the first two skill levels, 241 in HMP and 267 in UV and NM) for a 20-minute .WAD, the level is not so hard. This is because most enemies are Imps and hitscanners. Beware of traps, especially those with teleporting monsters: they can overwhelm you, if you are not careful! These tricks introduce challenging fights, although the monster placement is good enough to keep you on your toes during the whole game. Health is finely balanced and scattered throughout the level; ammo is abundant, especially if you use the Chainsaw and try to exploit infighting. The first secret is easy to find, unlike the others. Average players can try even UV for a nice challenge. In few words: fun and enthralling level, that can be really challenging, if played without caution. Assessment: 8! Overall: "Evil Unleashed" is a nice .WAD from Dutch Devil: classic action-packed gameplay, challenging but not hard difficulty and simple but good-looking graphics. Assessment: 7!

 

"Infernal Venice" by UltimateLorenzo a.k.a. Toranaga: Playability: This .WAD is a big level for "Doom 2" and requires an advanced source-port, like ZDoom or GZDoom. In spite of the large map, that can be explored freely with a few limitations, gameplay is quite simple, based both on action and a big puzzle, that consist in switch hunt: after you have found and activated 7 switches, a door to the final arena will open. In order to complete the puzzle, you must find two keys as well: the Red Skull Key and the Yellow one. Apart from the puzzle based on switch hunt, very few ZDoom gameplay features have been exploited. Beware of the water: if you fall into it, you'll die instantly as if it was lava - not a good thing at all! The author didn't provide a story, which can't be even guessed from the level itself. In two words: nothing special. Assessment: 6! Graphics: As the title suggests, the author tried to construct an "Infernal Venice", that is an hellish town on water, like one of the most beautiful city in Italy and in the world, Venice... and he succeeds! Moreover the author exploited ZDoom graphic effects, especially slopes, to make this level unique for its graphics. Map layout is complex, but built in a square, as if "Infernal Venice" was an island surrounded by sea. Architecture is top-notch with high detail level: walls are finely carved with lots of details. Look at screenshots: you'll notice lots of windows with different shapes, arches, big and small columns, pillars, balconies, bridges, metal and wooden structures, etc. Also interiors are good-looking and nicely detailed. Textures and flats were chosen and combined to create multicoloured buildings, but always keeping everything good-looking and never clashing. So, there is not a fixed colour scheme, as you'll find almost all colours of Doom without any dominant: blue, green, grey, red and brown. Lighting is not painstaking, but good, with enough contrast between outside and interiors. To sum up: an awesome level without any glitch! Assessment: 10! Difficulty: In spite of the high monster population (279 in the first two skill levels, 288 in HMP and 292 in UV and NM), "Infernal Venice" is not very hard, but it is quite challenging. It is not very difficult because there's lot of ammo, as well as health. Nevertheless, you must watch out for your health, because it is scattered here and there throughout the whole level and you may not find it where you need it! On the contrary, power-ups are located in key points or "hot spots". So, what makes this level challenging? Its large and open layout for sure: it is easy to get surrounded outside, as enemies can shoot and come from different directions! Moreover they often appear in large groups. Try to find cover, when you are outside. The fact that you can explore the map freely means that you can face some challenges without proper equipment (armour, weapons and ammo), so be careful in choosing battlefields, which usually are quite large, apart from a few narrow ones (usually in hallways or staircases). Beware of ambushes and traps, which are nasty, but rarely deadly. Arachnotrons and other snipers can be annoying, if you are too bold and don't exploit cover. Arch-Viles are probably the most dangerous enemies, but you can prevent them from resurrecting dead corpses easily. The final challenge against the boss, the Dark Avatar, is quite easy with BFG; probably it would have been harder and much more interesting, if other monsters had been teleported in the final arena during the battle, instead of later. As you probably noticed, the monster number doesn't vary significantly with skill settings; also there are few variations with them - not a good thing! To sum up: "Infernal Venice" is a very interesting and challenging level. Assessment: 8! New monsters: There is just one new DECORATE enemy, the formentioned Dark Avatar, the final boss, that features several diferent attacks. Due to his slow speed and slow attacks, he is quite easy, in spite of his toughness. Assessment: 8! New graphics: The .WAD includes a new TITLEPIC (a nice photo of Venice) and new sprites for the Dark Avatar, the final boss. Assessment: 10! New music: There is a new catchy background music, that fits ambience and pace of the map. There are also new title music and final music: they all sound good. Assessment: 10! Overall: In conclusion, "Infernal Venice" is a good level: graphically, it features an awesome and great-looking architecture; difficulty-wise, it is challenging (attention: skill levels aren't properly implemented!), although the finale is quite easy; gameplay is quite simple, in spite of the big puzzles based on switch hunt. If you like other levels from this author, you'll surely like "Infernal Venice". Assessment: 8.5!

 

"The Power Supply [Remake]" by DoomKnight: Playability: As the title says, this .WAD is a revamped version of Eye del Cul's "The Power Supply". Gameplay is almost same as the original level, apart from the new start outside the building. So, there is not much to say, except for a few things: it needs ZDoom or any other source port that support translucent textures (this is the only special feature I could find!), but the author didn't exploit any particular gameplay characteristics of ZDoom (ACS Scripts or special actions). Assessment: 7! Graphics: This is the only department where DoomKnight improved the original level. He kept the same layout (he just added a nice outside area, where the player starts his game) and map concept and revamped graphics completely by using completely new textures, adding details, modifying architecture slightly to make it better-looking. The theme is the same of course, but the new graphic resources fit it better than the classic "Doom 2" stock textures and flats! The colour pattern is almost the same, in spite of the difference in the choice and combination of textures and flats. Architecture is almost the same, apart from a few differences, but more detailed (compare screenshots). Lighting is more painstaking as well: it has more variations, fading effects, etc. Notice that lighting is changed completely in few rooms. At the end, DoomKnight did a great work: although the map is almost same, it looks like a new great-looking level... unfortunately a flaw with one translucent texture (look at the 6th screenshot) prevents the author to get 10 in this department: what a pity! Assessment: 9! Difficulty: There are very few differences from the original level in terms of difficulty. Apart from the new start, which forced DoomKnight to add new monsters (mainly Imps and Shotgunners) outside and in the rooms before the start of the original level, there are almost no differences: the author didn't change or move monsters, he just added a few monsters in some spots; so, the difficulty balance is the same as in the original map. Health is finely balanced as in Eye del Cul's map, as well as ammo (i.e. abundant!). Secret ares haven't been varied significantly: so it's easy to find them, if you have found them in the original map. If you want some hints on skill setting, read my review of the original version of "The Power Supply". Assessment: 8! New graphics: As mentioned above, the .WAD include new textures by Agent Spork: they are nice and wisely used to make the original level better-looking. The author also included a new blue, starry sky (very nice) and a new colour palette by Agent Spork: its colours are lighter than those in the original "Doom 2" palette. Assessment: 10! New music: DoomKnight had the great idea of including a new background music track: it is catchy, fits the ambience of the map and increase the gameplay pace, making it more challenging and interesting. Good choice! Assessment: 10! Overall: DoomKnight really made a nice remake "The Power Supply": it has almost the same gameplay and difficulty, but completely revamped graphics: more detailed and better-looking, thanks also to new textures and palette. This and new music really improve your experience in playing "The Power Supply"! Assessment: 9!

 

"The Power Supply" by Eye del Cul: Playability: This is a single-level .WAD for vanilla "Doom 2". It is a medium-sized map, that will take you less than half an hour. Since it doesn't require any particular source port, it features the classic gameplay, based mainly on action and research of two keys (the Yellow Key Card and the Red one) without just one switch hunt (you must find the switch that opens one door). So, gameplay is quite linear with minimum backtracking, that is not boring, because new monsters appear on your path; moreover distances are small. The .TXT file provides a sort of story too. In few words: simple gameplay, nothing special or particularly interesting. Assessment: 7! Graphics: You may expect a power plant (maybe even a nuclear reactor) from the title, but your expectations are going to be partially disappointed: although the author tried to give a nice look to his level with eye catching colour schemes (with blue and grey dominants), he didn't succeed perfectly in his work, in spite of his efforts. That's because there are few things that recall a power plant: some computers and consoles, other textures "techy" textures (like COMPBLUE) and flats, the brown building in the middle of the lake could be a reactor...! The problem is that there is not enough detail; the map layout is good, but the architecture is too simple, sometimes even bare. Unfortunately choice and combination of textures and flats don't compensate the low level of detail, especially because the basic graphic resources don't fit this theme. Lighting is not bad, thank to some simple effects (mainly blinking of lights) and good variations between dark and lit areas. To sum up: the level is good-looking thanks to nice colour pattern, but architecture is too simple with low detail level; I couldn't see any flaw, so this grants the pass-mark. Assessment: 7! Difficulty: This level is quite easy, if handled with care; but if you like rushing (especially if you are a speedrunner), you'll get some challenges. The number of enemies varies with skill settings: 63 on the first two skill levels, 122 on HMP, 142 on UV and Nightmare. Monster placement is simple and rarely threating: monsters never tend to surround you. There are no traps, except for ambushes when backtracking. Ammo is plentiful: you can even waste it! On the cotnrary health is finely balanced, so you should watch out for it: if you are imprudent, you may get seriously hurt and then you may have some problems finding Medikits and Stimpaks to heal your injuries. Secrets are hard to find: they are not essential, but useful (there's a MegaSphere in one of them!), except for the last one (a Backpack full of ammo near the exit: useless)! So, difficulty depends most on the way you play than on skill level: if you are cautious and strategic, you won't have any problem; if you are "rushy", you may find it challenging even on HMP. The average player can try this map on UV, but beware of the lack of green armour; skilled Doomers who don't feel challenged on UV may want to try a speedrunning approach or spice it up on NM or with -fast parameter. In few words: not bad at all, but could have been more challenging with better monster placement and less ammo. Assessment: 8! New graphics: The .WAD includes just few textures from "DooM" - so they don't count as real new textures. Moreover they don't add anything. Assessment: n/a. Overall: In conclusion, "The Power Supply" is a "normal" .WAD for vanilla "Doom 2": it doesn't stick out for anything - its gameplay is simple and linear, it has good-looking graphics but detail level is low, difficulty is not very challenging, unless you play like speedrunners. Assessment: 7!

 

"Cheogsh 2" by Shadowman & Guest: Playability: This .WAD is not a sequel to "Cheogsh", but it is a reinterpretation of that level - you will understand it, once you play it. "Cheogsh 2" is a 7-map hub for GZDoom: this means that maps are interconnected in a complex way, like "Hexen" or Tomi Rayala's "Hell Factory"  - you can enter one level from various maps and in different spots, without an intermission screen; you can go back to the previous map, if it is possible, and you'll find it as you left it. But "Chegosh 2" is not the typical "Doom 2" level; on the contrary, it reminds "Hexen" for its puzzles, most of which are based on switch hunt, but some use new items (like Blue Gems and the Blood of the Unnamed). The whole game is based on the research of the Blood of the Unnamed, that you must spill on the altar of the Temple of Seth (map03 - the centre of the hub) in order to gain access to the parallel infernal dimension (Otherside - map07) and fight against Seth himself. Now I'll write a "short" walkthrough of the whole .WAD, so, if you want, you can skip the following SPOILER and go down to the last paragraph of this section. The game starts in your bedroom in a UAC military base (Installation - map01), your boss calls you and explains your mission: discover what happened to Delta Squad, sent through the usual dimensional gate. You obey, equip yourself and reach the lower level, where your mission will start in a "Doom 3" style! There you find out that some monsters have already come out: after finishing them off, you must activate the dimensional gate and use it to reach an infernal town (Border Village - map02). Here you'll have to explore it, look for the Red Skull Key, find the Blue one in the building locked with Red one, unlock the towers and then the gates of the Temple of Seth (map03). The temple is a very big map and has several puzzles to solve: first of all you must gain access to the inner temple, then take the Red Skull Key and explore the rest of the level, which has entrances to the New City of the Damned (map04) on the Northern side and to Upper Mines (map05); but to open those gates, you need to solve other puzzles. Unfortunately this switch hunt will turn out tedious and boring, especially because switches are not big and you may miss some! Once those gates are open, you can go to map04 or map05, but you can't go far in the former until you have a Blue Gem, that allows you to raise a bridge. So gameplay turns out linear, in spite of its complexity! In map05 you can't explore part of it (north-western area) until you have got another Blue Gem to raise the bridge towards the tower. So, you must proceed towards the Lower Mines (map06), where you'll be deceived by a comrade of yours - you'll have to escape and find 2 Gems. After you accomplish your mission here, you must go back, but some bars block exit/entrance - these bars can be opened with a switch, hidden behind a column in the room locked with the Blue Skull Key! Switch hunt can be fun, but it becomes tiring and boring, when small switches are hidden in this way! Anyway, you have to cross map05 (Underdark - Upper mines), map03 (Temple of Seth) and reach map04 (New City of the Damned). Map04 is antoher very large and complex level, where it is easy to get lost because of darkness, complex puzzles, key hunts (you must find White and Black Skull Keys), boring switch hunts and idiotic silent teleport lines, which make you feel like you were lost, because, as you cross them, you notice that your position is changed, but you still see the same corridor - in this case, don't go forth, but go back and then turn: you'll pass this stupid trick! Once you find the Labyrinth of Bones, you'll discover another entrance to map06 (Underdark - Lower mines). In the northhern part of these mines you'll find the Blood of Unnamed... at last! Then you can go back to the "entrance" of map06: you'll find an open door, that leads to the northern part of map05. You must explore the caves in this area, look for another Blue Gem, that allows you to raise a second bridge towards the tower, and then go back to the Temple of Seth (map03). Once there, you can spill the Blood of the Unnamed on the altar to reach the Otherside (map07): you'll find yourself in a twisted temple, where everything looks surreal. You have to go upstairs and solve a simple switch puzzle to breach the first seal; then you'll have to breach the others until you discover access to the underground, where you'll fight against Seth himself! Once you defeat him, you can go back to your world through Temple (map03), Upper mines (map05) and Installation (map01). To sum up, a very complex hub-&-puzzle-based gameplay reveals itself quite linear, as you can't explore maps freely, but you always have constraints given by keys, items, puzzles, etc. Although not written in the .TXT file, the story is quite nice and well developed through the game, thanks to the use of cut-scenes, description of items, books, talks with survivors, etc. Those who like pure action won't like it, but credit must be given to the author for the concept behind this .WAD: it is a sort of stand-alone game, finely developed with ACS Scripts and features of GZDoom. Unfortunately, most puzzles are based on switch hunt, that gets boring soon, especially if you get lost and don't understand what to do next - it's easy it happens in map03 and map04 (which features an underground village below the town!), the two largest and complex levels of the whole set; moreover some switches are tiny and easy to miss. In few words: nice game, but few things ruins it - what a pity! Assessment: 8! Graphics: This is the department where the author did their best. In fact, all levels look spectacular! They all feature an awesome architecture with great care to detail, even the smallest. Of course GZDoom features have an important role: look at impressive 3D structures, but also slopes, underwater effect, etc. Moreover choice and combination of textures and fltas makes everything even better-looking. Painstaking lighting plays a main role in creating the proper ambience in every level, better in every part of each map! Let's have a look at all levels. Map01 (Installation) looks extremely realistic thanks to the 3D engine of GZDoom: just look at chairs and tables, but also transparent windows and sliding doors make it great-looking. Map02 (Border Village) makes an extensive use of 3D structures, as you can enter buildings and jump on their rooftops. The Temple of Seth (map03), although very symmetric, is simply a grandiose demonic temple with its imposing architecture: look at the two-storey inner temple, pentagrams and trident on its floor, arches, columns, pillars, blood and lava pools, etc. Map04 (New City of the Damned) has a very spooky atmosphere, thanks to proper choice and combination of dark textures and flats, as well as dim lighting. The main theme of map05 (Underdark - Upper Mines) is a brown cave, surrounded by lava, with a tower on an island and a sort of tech-base on the top of a mountain; the level features some interesting 3D structures, like cages hanging on lava, bridges, etc. Map06 (Underdark - Lower Mines) is a brown cave with blue crystals, which monsters want to extract using marines of Delta Squad as slaves; here you'll notice a very detailed architecture: look at wooden beams, metal gates, rail lines, bridges, lava lakes, etc. Map07 features a demonic, hellish theme, with Gothic architecture and a high level of detail: notice that the layout of the inner temple is the same as map03, but textures and flats are changed completely! Lighting plays an important role in making the ambience of this map gloomy and scary - the underground is very dark, except for areas near light sources (torches), and this is part of the final challenge against Seth! To sum up in few words: this .WAD is surely a masterpiece as for graphics with just few glitches (as you can see in some screenshots), like few misaligned textures and sort of HOM effects, especially near 3D structures (but they may be due to engine limitations!?) - just for these it takes 9, but credit must be given to the author for their engagement and their effort in this sector: they would have deserved the highest mark, if the .WAD had been perfect! Assessment: 9! Difficulty: If played at proper skill levels, "Cheogsh 2" will give you a feasible challenge! Average Doomers should play it on HMP (skill 3), whereas UV (skill 4) is recommended only to seasoned players or those who already played it at least once on lower skill levels. The difficulty curve is finely designed: the .WAD starts nicely with an easy level (map01 with just few simple monsters) and gets harder and harder, as you progress, although you'll surely have nasty moments sometimes. But let's analyze difficulty level by level: real action starts in map02 (Border Village), an open level where you'll be attacked from several directions when you are outside: hitscanners and snipers (in the towers) are the main threat. The fights inside the buildings are quite easy: only cramped room makes them a bit tough! The battle against the Arch-Vile in the cavern is really nasty, but you can deal with him easily, if you have got the Rocket Launcher. The hardest fight is the final one against the sentinels of the temple, the Ghauts, whose psionic rays are very hard to avoid! In map03 (Temple of Seth) you'll be warmly welcomed with an ambush by Satyrs and a Templier, but this is just the beginning: you'll have to face several battles and ambushes! The fight in the inner temple is surely the hardest and one of the most epic of the level, as you have to fight against Hell Knights, Barons of Hell, Satyrs and two Arch-Viles (in HMP)! As for the other battles, they are less difficult, but they must not be understimated: most of them take places in big areas, where you could be surrounded; other battles happen in small rooms, but in these cases you'll face few enemies. Map04 (New City of the Damned) is a hard level with several tough fights, where Arch-Viles have a predominant role. Darkness doesn't help you for sure, as enemies, like Howlers and Shadows (sort of dark, crouching Imps - the latter vanish when not firing) hid in the dark; as it wasn't enough, there are Ghosts, hateful enemies, who appear suddenly and whom you can shoot only when visible: how nasty...! The first fights in map05 (Underdark - Upper Mines) are quite easy, but the next ones in the lowering lift are surely quite hard, but fortunately enough there's lot of health and ammo in it; the others towards the entrance of map06 consist in sniping a thorny race of Imp - nothing hard, just a bit boring! Once back from map06, you'll have to cope with annoying Ghauts on the cliffs: a very dangerous battle, as you can fall into lava: they appear again on the top of the tower, together with some Hell Knights (some are inside as well). The battle inside the tech-base on the mountain is quite challenging, because monsters will surround you from different directions! In map06 (Underdark - Lower Mines) you'll lose all your weapons (including the SSG, that you won't find anymore!) and ammo and you'll be with very low health - this makes things very hard, as you have to kill the first monsters you encounter (Chaingunners, Mauler Demons, Satyrs and a Ghaut, whom you must escape from!) with just your chainsaw; but things will get easier, as you find more health, weapons and ammo! The problems begin when, while exploring mines, you meet ghosts and vanishing dark imps - they are really nasty! As for map07, the fights against the Obsidian Statues are nasty, because they are tough and attack in couples or groups of 4, except for the first battles before the stairs. Fortunately enough, you should have enough ammo and health to cope with them. The final challenge against Seth is extremely hard, as it take places in darkness and he is almost black! Moreover his attacks blacken completely part of the map and suck your health: so, you must avoid them (not easy!) and be quick to shoot him. Fortunately enough there are two useful Soul Spheres and Blue Armour (in HMP), as well as lots of rockets and plasma cells. This ending really fits such a great .WAD, although you have to come back to your world in the style of Lara Croft: you have to cross lava rivers, broken bridges, steep stairs, etc. So, there are different kinds of fights, so you won't get bored; unfortunately some of them are nasty, like those against Ghauts and Ghosts. In general, health is scattered here and there, but there are good provisions where you need it; ammo is abundant and finely balanced for all weapons, so that you are forced to change them according to situations; power-ups are placed in "hot spots". Secret areas are hard to find, but very useful if you find them! To sum up: the whole .WAD provides a very nice and tough challenge with just few annoyances. Assessment: 9! New monsters: The .WAD includes several new monsters, which are used extensively together with the original ones, whereas some of these are replaced with the new ones. They spice up the game, making levels harder than normal, because you don't know their behaviour (written in DECORATE lumps). They include: space marines, enslaved marines with drillsaw (traitors), Faust (a guy with rocket launcher), Devil (a sort of dark Imp), Afrit (a flying and flaming Baron of Hell), the forementioned Ghaut (a sort of Cacodemon, that fires a volley of fireballs or a sniping psionic ray), Malevolant (a revised version of the Revenant), Howler and Shadow (sort of crouching dark Imps), Soul Harvester (a grey Imp that fires yellow "souls"), Satyr (a small species of Hell Knight, that can just scratch you), Templier (a sort of orange Baron of Hell that launches yellow fireballs with his paw or green bolts with his shield), Warlord of Hell (another race of Baron of Hell, but more dangerous than the others with his multi-shots), Mauler Demon (very red, fast jumping Demon), Nightmare (a sort of grey Lost Soul, that launches red fireballs), Ghosts and Obsidian Statue (tough race of Satyr, that launches harmful stones). The final boss is Seth or Guardian of Darkness, a tall dark sort of Baron of Hell (it is Vader's Bruiser Demon, modified by Shadowman and Guest): he features three running "mouses" with dark trails, which suck your health rapidly, and shoots a painful black bolt. They are various, good-looking, fun to fight against (apart from Ghosts and Shadows) and enliven the gameplay. Assessment: 9! New graphics: The .WAD includes several new textures and flats, coming from various resources. They are used in place of the original "Doom 2" resources to create completely new settings: they look good and the author used them nicely to create great-looking levels. There are also new sprites for the chainsaw and for new monsters, items and decorations (such as hanged and paled, corpses, trees, mushrooms, etc.): they look great! The .WAD includes also a new TITLEPIC and CREDIT pictures, as well as new menù graphics: they all look good. Assessment: 10! New sounds: There are new sounds for new monsters, but also ambient sounds - they all sound good, except for that of the wind, which makes an annyoing periodic buzz! Assessment: 9! New music: There are several new background music track, but unfortunately one per each level, plus few ones for particular cases, like the final battle against Seth. This means that, due to the size of the maps, they'll soon become repetitive, monotonous and boring. Authors should have thought of this and could have avoided it with multiple tracks for each level - maybe changing them from time to time, according to battles or situations. It's a pity, because they are not bad and suits ambience and pace of each level. Assessment: 8! Overall: At the end of this long review, just few words should be spend on "Cheogsh 2": it is surely a piece of art, especially for its stunning graphics (thanks to new graphic resources too!), but not flawless: there are some visual glitches, gameplay is enthralling with its nice story, but boring with its complex puzzles and switch hunt; difficulty is challenging, not too hard, but it has some nasty situations with few of the new monsters, which could have been omitted; music is catchy, but turns out trivial very soon. In spite of these flaws, it is worth your time: play it! Assessment: 9!

 

"Paradice" by UltimateLorenzo a.k.a. Toranaga: Playability: "This WAD is a patchwork of many wad fragments and incompleted levels" that UltimateLorenzo "did in the last 5 years". He "gathered them all in this wad, connected the various parts, added monsters and ammo". This excerpt from the alleged .TXT file is significant, as it warns players about the quality of this .WAD, designed for ZDoom. As written in the .TXT file, this level is "very big and full of monsters" (410 enemies in all skill levels). It is quite simple, but not linear: in fact, you have to explore the map and look for keys, but there's a lot of backtracking, that becomes tedious because there's no opposition when you backtrack! Theoretically you should find keys in this order: Red Key Card, Blue Skull Key, Red Skull Key, Yellow Key Card, Blue Key Card, but the author forgot locking a door with the Yellow Key Card: so, after you take the Red Key Card, you can look directly for the Blue Key Card and reach the exit... without even killing half monsters and without exploring most of the map! That's really a bad error, that could be avoided with proper beta-testing. This error and tedious backtracking make this ZDoom .WAD, whose gameplay is pretty simle, lose few points in the "playability" department. Assessment: 5! Graphics: "Paradice" is a mixed bag, as for graphics: in fact there are good-looking and very detailed areas with interesting layout and architecture, but other parts are too simple, empty, underdetailed, with bare walls, floors and ceiling. You can notice it especially if you compare outside areas (large and rather underdetailed) with those inside buildings (smaller and more detailed). This is probably due to the fact that the author used "fragments" of previous incomplete levels and linked each other with insignificant corridors and large areas. Maybe the author tried to compensate lack of architectural detail with texture and flat choice and combination, but the mix of new and original textures doesn't work nicely. There is not a main colour scheme, although red, grey and brown seem to prevail over the other colours. The fog looks tacky, but other ZDoom effects, such as slopes, coloured lights and water effects, are not bad. Lighting could have been improved. To sum up: the whole level doesn't look bad, but could have been much better, if the author had put more effort in it! Assessment: 6! Difficulty: As stated in the .TXT file and at the beginning of this review, this level is "very big and full of monsters", but it is not the typical slaughter-fest with AV- or HR-style difficulty. In fact, monsters usually come in small groups and rarely in few large hordes; also, they are often coming towards you and there are few ambushes, where you are surrounded from behind or other directions. So, monster placement is rarely a problem. Some traps exploit the "surprise effect", but they are not deadly. You'll find all weapons and abundant ammo for all of them; health is provided throughout the whole map, especially where you need it. There are no secrets, but there are power-ups scattered here and there (two Soul Spheres, a MegaSphere, Backpacks full of ammo, etc.). Don't be scared of the first CyberDemon you encounter without any powerful weapon: just run past it and other opposition! You may stumble on a Spider MasterMind too, not far from that CyberDemon: if so, you can provoke infighting and then finish off the survivor easily; you may avoid the big Spider as well, depending on the route you choose after the CyberDemon - in this case, you can kill them later, when you get powerful weapons. There are other two CyberDemon in the map, but they do not pose a serious threat, if you have got the BFG and enough ammo. To sum up: the level should challenge the average player. It is a pity that difficulty skills are not implemented! Assessment: 8! New graphics: The .WAD includes new sprites for decoration, weapons and almost all monsters (except Chaingunner, Revenant, Spider MasterMind and CyberDemon): they come from "Doom 64" and they are really ugly! Moreover the sprites for the shotgun lack a real animation, so it is hard to say when you finish reloading it, which makes the first battle hard until you get used to it. The chaingun has a strange blue flash, as if it fires plasma bolts! There new textures too: they are mostly from "Quake 2" and, as I wrote above, they don't help making the level better-looking. To sum up: a disaster! Most .WADs get high assessment here, raising their mean mark, but this time it is the opposite. Assessment: 3! New sounds: There are some new sounds for monsters, weapons, doors, etc., but they are not very good! Assessment: 7! New music: The new music tracks are the good only add-ons! The background music is nice and fits the ambience of the map, whereas the intermission music is catchy. The title music sounds a bit out of place: it would fit an "Heretic" or "Hexen" .WAD better than a "Doom 2" .WAD, nevertheless it is not bad! Assessment: 10! Overall: In conclusion, "Paradice" is not a great .WAD because of its simple and bugged gameplay nd its bland graphics. Difficulty is the only sector where the author succeeded and didn't fail. Unfortunately the new sprites ruin this experience, because the ones of the SSG affect even playability! To play, only if you don't mind ugly sprites from "Doom 64" and want a nice challenge. Assessment: 6.5!

 

"The Support Relay" by 40oz: Playbility: This is a Boom-compatible .WAD for "Doom 2". It is a small linear map, that won't take you more than half an hour. There's no story and the gameplay is very simple, based mainly on action and few switches to activate: they open doors, lower lifts or pillars. There's just one key to look for: the Yellow Key, that opens the door to the final arena. In few words: a normal level - good, but nothing extraordinary. Assessment: 7! Graphics: The level looks like a tech-base and this theme is well executed. Architecture is simple, but good-looking: you won't see any intricate structure and lots of details, yet the map has a good look, thanks to wise choice and combination of textures and flats. The colour scheme has a brown dominant, with some red, green and grey here and there. The main details are: crates, computers and consolles. Lighting is not painstaking, but still good. Again, the level is nothing exceptional, but it is not bad at all. Assessment: 7! Difficuty: In this department the author did quite a good job: this level is challenging for all kinds of players, without being extremely hard. Of course difficulty depends on the skill level you choose: the first two (with 82 monsters) are recommended to beginners, the third one (with 120 enemies) is for the average Doomer and UV (monster count: 151) is designed for seasoned players. Monster placement is rarely troublesome, since enemies don't come from unexpected directions and they rarely surround you. Nevertheless there are traps and ambushes, but they are not deadly and health provisions are always there, where you need them. Ammo is plentiful, but alternating chaingun and shotgun is suggested. Secrets are not hard to find, if you have a good eye: one of them hids a Medikit (not very useful, actually), the other hids a useful Rocket Launcher. This one is the most powerful weapon you'll find and is good it to weaken the CyberDemon in the final battle: you won't have enough rockets to kill him with the RL, but you can finish him off with your SSG. This showdown is a fine ending, but it is not very good for all players, because it takes place in a small arena and it can be nasty, if you didn't find the RL. It is surely a good challenge for the experienced Doomer, a tough one for the average, but casual players and beginners will find it hard - that's why I think that the CyberDemon should have been replaced with a horde of monsters in the first two skill levels. As a whole, the level is a good one. Assessment: 8! New graphics: There are new textures and flats in this .WAD. Most of them are modifications of the original ones. They are good and the author used them in a good way. Assessment: 10! New music: Actually the background music track is not new, since it is from "Ultimate DooM". Nevertheless its choice is good, because it really suits the pace and ambience of the map. Assessment: 10! Overall: "The Support Relay" is a typical "Doom 2" level, featuring the classical action-based gameplay, good-looking graphics and challenging difficulty. Assessment: 8!

 

"Pi2" by Shadownman: Playability: "Pi2" or maybe "π2" is a small "Doom 2" level for limit-removing ports. I do not know why this name and it is not explained anywhere. There's no story and the setting is unclear as well. However, the level is quite simple and linear, based mostly on action, with only two keys to find (Red and Blue KeyCards) and just two switches, three if you include the exit one. There is not much more to say. Assessment: 7! Graphics: The level seems to be set in a sort of tech-base with a theme resembling "Quake", mainly because of new textures and flats, which have brown and red dominants, though there is some green, that recalls "Plutonia". Also, the map layout is squared off, but the architecture has a good level of detail, not very high, but still good-looking. Lighting is simple, but not bad. In few words: not an extraordinary level, just an ordinary map. Assessment: 7! Difficulty: Although it is a small map, it is not an easy one, if you take it lightly. The monster population (62 in the first two skill levels, 82 in HMP and 99 in UV) consists mainly of hitscanners, plus some Imps and Demons amd just two Revenants (in HMP). Health is finely balanced: Stimpaks and Medikits are scattered here and there, where you need them; ammo is abundant: you'll never run out of ammo, unless you waste it. As for weapons, you'll find Shotguns and Chainguns, but there's also a Rocket Launcher hidden in a secret area: it is not hard to find, whereas the other one (with a Soul Sphere) is not so easy. What makes this .WAD hard is the placement of monsters: hitscanners are always a pain in the neck, when placed properly! Beware of traps: there are three with teleporting monsters and they can be deadly. The only thing this level lacks is a good finale, a great battle. To sum up: "Pi2" is a challenging level for every kind of players; just choose your correct skill level. Assessment: 9! New graphics: The .WAD includes new textures (included a new sky) and flats, as well as some new sprites - for tree and recoloured version of Imps and Demons: their colours are darker, but their behaviour is the same as the original monsters (there's no DECORATE or DEHACKED lump). Assessment: 10! New music: There's a new catchy background music track, that fits the pace and ambience of the level. Nice choice! Assessment: 10! Overall: In conclusion, "Pi2" is a small, linear, good-looking and challenging level. It is beatable in few minutes. The first two skill settings are suggested to beginners, HMP is designed for the average player, whereas UV is recommended to experienced and skilled Doomers. Assessment: 8.5!

 

"Elysion" by Death-Destiny: Playability: Here we go with another level by Death-Destiny, in the same style as the others. It is a "Doom 2" .WAD and requires any Boom-compatible port. Gameplay is based mostly on action, as usual in Death-Destiny's maps: there are lots of monsters ready to kill you. In spite of lack of a story (in the .TXT file) and ACS Scripts, your mission is clearly outlined: you are in UAC mining facility overrun by monsters and you must use the teleport in the start room to leave this area. Unfortunately you need the Red Skull Key to activate it, so you must shoot the other switch to open the control area and find that key; in order to find that key, located in "Sector C" (a warehouse), you must find the Blue Key Card and then look for the Red and Yellow Key Cards, respectively in "Sector A" and "Sectpr B": you can take them in any order. So, on the whole the map is quite linear and straightforward, with few switch puzzles. In few words: gameplay is simple, but good. Assessment: 8! Graphics: "Elysion" is a good-looking level, but it doesn't shine out. The start room is imposing and detailed, as well as "Sector A" and "B" (which are very alike, apart from lighting), but the rest is quite bland and uninspired: the main hub is just a big room with lots of crates and low-medium detail level. The map layout is good, but the architecture is not developed. The colour scheme has a strong green dominant, without any eye-catching patterns; choice and usage of textures and flats could have been better. Lighting is simple too. To sum up: the level is not bad at all and I didn't notice any flaw, but it could have been much better - probably the author wasn't very inspired; after all, in the .TXT file he wrote that this is a "speedmap [...] made to combat mapper's block". Assessment: 7! Difficulty: As stated above, this large level features the typical style of Death-Destiny, inspired to "Hell Revealed": hundreds of monsters (451 in the first two skill levels, 492 in HMP, 605 in UV), usually coming in big hordes, strategic enemy placement, traps with teleporting enemies, fine balance of health and ammo. Secrets are quite hard to find, but provide useful things; nevertheless some power-ups are provided where you need them (e.g. Berserk and Invulnerability Sphere after the first battle or the Soul Sphere near the Red Key Card, in HMP). Beware of the skill level you choose: HMP is a very hard challenge for the average Doomer, UV is for "Doom gods". I'll give you an example of the difference between these 2 skill settings (it is not just the number of monsters!): you start with Shotgun and Super-Shotgun in HMP and just with Berserk in UV (by the way, the Berserk restores your health to 150%). Unless you have great skills in manoeuvring and punching, you won't survive the first battle against hordes of Imps, Demons, Pain Elementals, Revenants and Hell Knights plus an Arch-Vile! I want to give you an idea of what you must expect from the rest of this level (in HMP!): after the first fight, you'll have to kill several Imps, Barons of Hell and Hell Knights and a CyberDemon. Once the whole room is cleared, you can go forth in a blue corridor, where Revenants, Chaingunners and Imps are defending the access to the main room of the mining station. Once there, you'll be welcomed by a Mancubus and two Revenants; the depot will look empty after their defeat, but it will become full of hitscanners and Imps in an instant. After finding the Blue Key, you can go outside and reach "Sector A" and "B", where the Red and Yellow Key Cards and hidden: be careful there - nasty traps will make you sweat blood! With the Yellow Key Card you can go back to the start room and get the BFG - it is not "necessary" to finish the level, but I defy you to do it! Beware of the trap with BFG: two CyberDemons are ready to teleport and stop you! With the Red and Yellow Keys you can open the door to "Sector C", where snipers, Imps, Pain Elementals, a Mancubus and two Hell Knights are waiting for you. After pressing a switch and killing some other opposition (Imps, Pain Elementals, Revenants and Arch-Viles), you'll  reach the "hazard storage", defended by a bunch of Arachnotrons and a Spider MasterMind. Then you can enter it and take the Red Skull Key: this will make hell break loose! Hordes of various monsters (including two CyberDemons!) will teleport in almost everywhere. If you are quick, you can run through incoming opposition and reach the start room, where the last group of Pain Elementals will teleport in to defend the exit. If you want to kill all monsters, you must be clever and think of a good strategy (one is that I just explained: you can reach the main room and face the great horde with calm). To sum up: this .WAD is very hard and extermely challenging, because of monster placement, tricks and traps. Assessment: 8! New graphics: The .WAD includes few new textures, a new green sky with yellow mountains and some new sprites, used to simulate an acid rain (actually it doesn't hurt you, as well as most of acid pools). There's also a new title for the map (used in the intermission screen). Assessment: 10! New music: There's a new background music track, that doesn't fit the pace of the level, because it is too calm; nevertheless it suits the creepy ambience of the map. Assessment: 7! Overall: In few words, "Elysion" is a large speedmap for "Doom 2" (Boom-compatible port required!) with action-packed gameplay: it features the typical HR-styled difficulty of Death-Destiny's levels, good-looking graphics, though uninspired. Becaue of its very hard and challenging difficulty, I suggest that you choose skill level wisely! Assessment: 8!

 

"Awakening" by Emil Brundage: Playability: This level is a very big map (E4M1) for "Ultimate DooM", designed for ZDoom, as it uses new DECORATE monsters from Daniel Tormentor667 Gimmer's "Bestiary", although the level itself exploits Boom features above all. The .TXT file provides a nice story, that is nicely developed in the map. Gameplay is peculiar: you start in a room of a big UAC base, that looks empty, abandoned. First of all, you must look for the three Key Cards in the perimeter of the UAC base; after finding all the Key Cards, you can enter the core of the base. Once you reach the centre of the base, you'll be immediately surrounded by hordes of monsters. After surviving this first massive attack, you must explore the whole UAC base again, where now the previously locked areas are unlocked, and find the way to lower the Blue Skull Key, that opens the exit door. Because of the structure of the map, gameplay is not linear and you can explore the level freely, apart from few limitations. To sum up: the gameplay is very good, but could have been even better, if the author had exploited all ZDoom potential and features (like ACS Scripts), to help the player understand what to do. Assessment: 9! Graphics: You can say that you don't like gameplay or difficulty of this .WAD, but you can't surely dislike its graphics. "Awakening" is truly a piece of art with its big and complex layout, its imposing architecture (the ring perimeter of the UAC base, the warehouse, the core and all the structures in it), its very high detail level (columns, pillars, pipes, carved walls, windows, light sources, computers, consoles, etc.), its brilliant choice and combination of textures and flats with eye-catching colour schemes. Lighting is painstaking and creates the right ambience. In short, everything is perfect and great-looking. To sum up with just one word: artwork! Assessment: 10! Difficulty: Some players won't like this level for its almost insane difficulty, others will love it for the same reason. I'll try to describe the difficulty as good as possible, so that you can decide if you can beat it or not. However, remember that you can always choose lower skill levels, if UV is not for you, although the easiest skill levels are not implemented and HMP differs from UV for the absence of new enemies, replaced with standard monsters. So... actually there's just one skill level, which is not a good thing! Now let's focus on the level itself. As forementioned, there's no monster to deal with until you reach the inner core of the UAC base; then you'll be welcomed by a giant army of troopers (Rapid Fire Troopers, Zombie Men, Chainsaw Guys), Imps and Devils, who'll be soon reinforced with Demons, Mech-Demons, Cacodemons and Crackodemons. After this slaughterfest, you'll have to explore the areas nearby and lower the pillar with the blue Skull Key on its top. You can explore these areas freely in the order you want. I suggest that you go in the Northern area (in the 4th screenshot) first, so that you can carry more ammo with the Backpacks in there: they are useful, because you don't have to watch for your ammo continuously and look for refill, but you can accumulate it as you progress. The battles you must face there and in the Western area (where you can find a Rocket Launcher) are very hard, because you are literally overwhelmed by large hordes of various monsters. Infighting helps you, but you can't rely just on it, because enemies tend to fill all the area and you can't escape from it, because doors close automatically as you enter the sector. So, "you have to kill to staty alive", as Iron Maiden say in a famous song ("The Mercenary")! The problem is making your way through the monster crowd. I think that you'd better keep moving and never stop, unless you are in a safe place with enough cover (hard to find, actually!). The Southern area is probably the easiest one, although it is not "easy", because you have to face a big troop of Shotgunners, Cacodemons, Cacoliches and Crackodemons in the small tech-base, whereas Barons of Hell and a Lord of Heresy are awaiting you in the underground part of the base. It is easier than the other parts of the map, because there is lot of cover (columns and stairs above all), unlike other areas. If you have got good manoeuvring skills and a good strategy, you won't have many problems there. The sector in the North-Eastern part of the map (sort of nukage refinery) is quite easy, if you understand how to cope with crossfire coming from Vulgars on two sides: remember to exploit cover and be careful when you are on the conveyor belts, since it is easy to fall into acid pits and die! If you have the Rocket Launcher and enough rockets, the fight against the two Archons of Hell should be quite simple. The battle in the South-Eastern sector is probably the hardest: here you must face Demons and Blood Demons coming from three different rooms, where they teleport in, and two Thamuz (dark CyberDemons with multiple attacks). In this area you can activate three crushers, one for each corridor; so, what you have to do is forcing enemies in these corridors and activate the crushers as many times as needed to "kill'em all" (oh... another "metal" quote, from Metallica this time!). After getting the Blue Key, you can go back to the start room and reach the exit... but just after the final challenge against three possessed marines, each one armed with a different weapon: Shotgun, Chaigun and Rocket Launcher. In general health is quite low for average players, whereas ammo is better balanced, but not abundant; armour is finely balanced, with a Green Armour near the core of the base and several helmets scattered here and there. Secrets are hard to find (I found just one, that with the Berserk), but I am sure that they are very useful, if discovered (I caught a glimpes of an Invulnerability Sphere in a room near to the core of the base, for instance). Unfortunately the Computer Map doesn't help much to find them! Saving game often is strongly recommended. To sum up: fights could be better choregraphed and the lack of skill setting is not good; the level is extremely challenging and very hard for the average Doomers, who may not like it, on the contrary seasoned players may be pleased with this HR-styled map. Assessment: 7! New monsters: As stated above, the .WAD includes several new enemies, which appear only if you play it in UV, otherwise they are replaced with standard monsters. They all come from Daniel Tormentor667 Gimmer's "Bestiary". There are the Chainsaw Guy, the Rapid Fire Trooper (the names are self-explanatory), the Devil (a darker and tougher Imp with longer claws, that throws two fireballs in a row), the Mech-Demon (a redder and stronger Demon with mechanic legs), the Cacolich (a stronger yellow version of the Cacodemon with two different attacks), the CrackoDemon (a dark Cacodemon with a powerful attack), the Lord of Heresy (a winged yellow version of the Baron of Hell, that can launch one, two or three fireballs at the same time in different directions), the Vulgar (a sort of slimy Imp, that throws a poisonus fireball), the Archon of Hell (a cross of a Baron of Hell and a CyberDemon, that has two different powerful attacks), Thamuz (a dark version of CyberDemon, that can fire a homing quick green bolts, green flames on the floor or a BFG shot, that can kill you instantly), the possessed marines with Shotgun, Chaingun and Rocket Launcher. All of them are good and spice up the level, making it fun, interesting and challenging. Assessment: 10! New graphics: Of course the .WAD includes the sprites for the new monsters, but also some new textures, most of which are recoloured or modified versions of the original ones. There's no new sky, but the author created a nice sky-box in the map (look at the 8th screenshot). The .WAD includes a new TITLEPIC and a new title for the map: they are not bad, except for the text that has got a background colour and doesn't fit in the picture nicely. Assessment: 9! New sounds: There are new .WAV files for the sounds of the new monsters. They are all good. Assessment: 10! New music: The new level comes with a new background music track, that is a Metallica's song, that really suits the ambience and pace of the map and never gets monotonous, in spite of the map size! The .WAD includes new title music too. Assessment: 10! Overall: In conclusion, "Awakening" is surely an awesome map as fore graphics (top-notch quality!); its gameplay is quite good, unique, open and non-linear; the difficulty is extremely hard for average players, but gives a nice challenge to experienced Doomers. Assessment: 9!

 

"DooM: Assimilation (Demo)" by UltimateLorenzo a.k.a Toranaga: Playability: This is a single level demo of the "DooM: Assmilation" project, that UltimateLorenzo started some years ago. It is designed for ZDoom, but it exploits very few features of this port (DECORATE and MAPINFO lumps) with almost no gameplay enhancement, apart from new monsters! The map is very simple, linear and straightforward: first of all you must find the well guarded Yellow Key Card, then look for the Blue one in another building and gain access to a small structure, where you'll face a mini boss monster, before finishing this small level. This should probably be the first map of a MegaWAD, but it doesn't look promising at all. Assessment: 6! Graphics: This is the only department where the author succeeds, although he can't even get the highest assessment. The setting is a sort of tech-base, that shows a nicely detailed architecture, especially inside the buildings (light sources, computer, consoles, etc.). Detail level is not top notch, but quite high. Unfortunately outside the look is quite bland, especially the central building, that features an ugly texturing. As for the rest, the choice of textures and flats is quite good, as they are nicely combined. Lighting is quite simple, without fading, shadowing and special effects. To sum up: the level is quite good-looking, but the author could have done better! Assessment: 8! Difficulty: In spite of the low monster count (40, 45 and 48 respectively for the first skill levels, HMP and UV/NM), this level is really hard. And it is not challenging, it is frustrating! That's because of new monsters, which are deadly, especially Borgs. Since you do not know them, you'll get killed at least once. Moreover there are nasty traps, which you can't survive, unless you already know them and how to escape! This is not a good way of designing difficulty at all. Ammo is enough to kill all enemies, although you'd better not waste it, whereas health is quite scarce. The final battle against a dangerous CyberBaron takes place in a very narrow room, that makes it quite hard, especially if you do not know it, are low on health and/or wasted all your plasma cells before. And this is not the only fight that takes place at close quarters...! There are no secrets and power-ups, which could have been useful. To sum up: a very hard level, even on low skill levels, which differ from the higher ones for a bit more health and ammo and just fewer enemies. Assessment: 5! New monsters: As implicitly stated above, the .WAD includes some new DECORATE monsters, which make this level very hard. There are two different Borgs: one of them fires a rapid series of Arachnotron fireballs, that can kill you instantly, if you don't dodge them; the other one is weaker and fires just one shot at a time. There's also a Tesla Imp, that fires a volley of Imp's fireballs: they are slower than the shots fired by the stronger Borgs, but can be extremely dangerous, when a horde of Tesla Imps attacks you! Blood Demons are quicker and tougher than normal Demons, whereas the forementioned CyberBaron is a tougher Baron of Hell with a rocket launcher in one of his arms, firing just one rocket at a time (instead of 3, like CyberDemon). As forementioned, they ruin the difficulty of the level, because of their usage, as well as the strength and attack speed of stronger Borgs. Assessment: 5! New graphics: The .WAD includes new sprites for new monsters, of course. There are some new textures, most of which come from Ultimate Doom, plus few recoloured versions of existing textures. There's also a new orange sky. Everything looks good and is well used. Assessment: 10! New sounds: There are also new sounds for new monsters: their quality is really good. Assessment: 10! New music: The .WAD includes a new background music for the level and another one for the intermission screen. They are both very good. Assessment: 10! Overall: Not a great .WAD. Gameplay is very simple, based mostly on action, and difficulty is very high, without being challenging - on the contrary, it is quite frustrating, because you can't beat it without dying for every new encounter or trap! Graphics is the only department where the author did a good work, apart from few questionable texturing issues. Assessment: 7.5!

 

"Brood of Hatred" by Christian Lian: Playability: You probably haven't ever heard of this author and this .WAD could be his first (released) level. In spite of the premises, this is a fair map for limit-removing ports. Gameplay is quite simple and linear: you need all 3 keys to reach the exit, but there's only one path you can follow and you must look for keys in the order: Red - Blue - Yellow. Considering the map structure, the author could have made it less linear and with two paths to choose, so that you could have searched for the Red key or the Blue one first and then the other. Nevertheless it is not bad and the solution the author adopted avoids confusion in the player, so that it is impossible to get lost, because you always know where to go next. As you probably guessed, this level is basedd mainly on action and key hunt, but there are some simple puzzles with switches too. To sum up: good gameplay from a new author, especially if you consider that the .WAD is for limit-removing ports (no Boom effects, ACS Scripts or such). Assessment: 8! Graphics: This level would have been great and would have deserved a very high assessment, if the author and playtesters hadn't missed some serious flaws. In fact, the architecture is very good-looking and often imposing, with a high level of detail (look at columns, pillars, stairs, platforms, carving in walls, floors and ceilings!) and beautiful eye-catching colour schemes (mainly grey-green, brown-green and grey-red), thanks to a wise combination of textures and flats. The author used various themes, which mingle nicely: a natural landscape with rocky mountains and caves, gothic ruins and an hellish land with lava rivers and pools. Lighting is the icing on the cake: it is used effectively to create the proper ambience. So, what described till now would really deserve a 9 or even a 10... but, unfortunately, there are serious flaws, which cannot be neglected: HOM (Hall Of Mirrors) effects, due to missing textures! Errors like these (and I found three! - see screeshots 6, 8 and 12) inevitably lower the assessment, because they shouldn't be there: every .WAD editor warns about missing textures and such glitches shouldn't go unnoticed during playtesting! Assessment: 5! Difficulty: The name of this .WAD should make you think about the difficulty level to expect: quite high! The level is quite big and features a relatively high monster count (363, 489 and 556 respectively for the first two skill levels, the third one and last two), but it is different from HR-styled maps, although challenging. What makes this level hard? Monster placement for sure: there are very few hitscanners (Zombie Men, Shotgunners and Chaingunners), but there are several sniping Imps; most of the enemies you encounter tend to ambush or surround you. Various kinds of traps (teleporting monsters, Revenants coming from an acid pool, enemies hiding behind walls, etc.) raise the difficulty level. Not few battles take place in narrow areas and even large rooms can suddenly look small, because of the number of enemies in them! Fortunately enough, ammo is plentiful and you shouldn't ever worry about it. Health is nicely balanced with several Medikits and Stimpaks right where you need them. Nevertheless some fights can be annoying, because of forementioned monster placement and sudden traps, where you can find yourself surrounded by hordes of monsters! You'll get all weapons, so use the most powerful when you think it is necessary: don't let enemies mow you down! Secrets are very hard to find... well, actually you can even see power-ups (like MegaSpheres and Soul Spheres), but understanding how to take them is not easy at all: fortunately they are not necessary to complete the level successfully, although the author could have made some of them a bit easier to discover. One of the best challenges is the showdown against the CyberDemons protecting the Yellow Key: actually the Invulnerability Sphere makes it quite easy, especially for experienced players, who know how to destroy a CyberDemon in few BFG shots. The author could have made it more interesting for seasoned Doomers by removing or replacing the Invulnerability Sphere with another power-up in high skill levels. The final battle against a CyberDemon and a large horde of Revenants is quite annoying. Overall the difficulty is nicely balanced, with some interesting and challenging fights, but also some boring battles. Assessment: 8! New graphics: There are several new textures and flats, which are extensively used with wisdom to create nice colour patterns and make the level much better-looking. Most of them are recoloured versions of the original "Doom 2" textures and flats, but some come from "The Plutonia Experiment" .WAD. Assessment: 9! New music: The .WAD includes a new nice music background, that fits the tense ambience of the map. It gets repetitive, but just because the level is long. Assessment: 9! Overall: "Brood of Hatred" seems to be the first .WAD released by Christian Lian, nevertheless it doesn't look like the typical first map from a newbie... apart from few HOMs! In fact, as for graphics, the level features an impressive architecture with fine details, good-looking combination of textures and flats, eye-catching colour schemes and painstaking lighting. Gameplay-wise, it is based on action, key hunt and switch puzzles, but it is almost straightforward. Difficulty is nicely balanced, as it provides nice challenges; unfortunately there are some annoying fights, but they don't ruin the fun. Remember to choose skill level according to your abilities: HMP is challenging enough for average Doomers, but can be very hard for the occasional player. Assessment: 8!

 

"Nightomb" by Aleander "Eternal" S. a.k.a Deadall: Playability: This .WAD is a single level for Boom-compatible limit-removing ports. Gameplay-wise, it is very interesting because it is not based on key hunt, but on puzzles and traps, implemente by the author without using ACS Scripts, but just voodoo dolls and Boom effects. Although the author didn't write a story for this level, it is clear that you have to explore this ancient tomb, eliminate opposition, solve puzzles and find the exit. The map is quite linear, although you can choose between two differents routes at the beginning; but just after solving these first two puzzles, there's a definite path to follow. Keep in mind that there aren't real "switches", so don't look for switch textures, but for peculiar details, like shootable switches carved in walls and wooden or metal poles. To sum up: this .WAD features a very nice and interesting gameplay, based mostly on puzzles and traps; players without intuition and a good eye may not like this. Assessment: 9! Graphics: First of all it must be pointed out that this .WAD is part of the "2x2 series", whose idea comes from iddqd.ru: the main concept is creating a level with only 2 textures and 2 flats from the original IWAD. The author chose BRICK7 and BIGDOOR7 as for textures and CRATOP1 and FLOOR7_1 as for flats. In spite of such a limited graphic resource, Eternal created a great-looking map, that never gets repetitive or boring, although he uses always the same textures and flats: this is because he was clever enough to choose one of the most varied textures, BIGDOOR7, that has got wood, metal and the characteristic demonic symbol. Thanks to the wise use of this texture and to a very detailed architecture (pedestals, columns, niches, arches, etc.), the author succeeded in making an impressive level. The painstaking lighting is another important characteristic of this .WAD: it creates a very tense ambience, that perfectly fits theme and setting (an ancient, maybe Egyptian tomb). To sum up: an awesome level made with very limited graphics resource! Assessment: 10! Difficulty: As forementioned, "Nightomb" is based mostly on puzzles and traps. Unlike HR-styled levels, like Death-Destiny's "Disturbia" or other slaughter maps, this .WAD has a relatively low monster count (121 on HMP) and you usually fight against a single monster or a small group of enemies. Nevertheless it is a hard and challenging map, not only for monster placement, but also because of several ambushes and traps, that will catch you most of the time when you first play it, because you don't know them... though you sometimes know that something is going to happen, but you can't foresee what! Traps include teleporting monsters, crushing ceilings, closing doors or bars and even an instant-death trick, that fortunately is properly signalled! The very scarce amount of health makes this level even harder - forget Medikits and Stimpaks: after all you wouldn't find them in a real ancient tomb... although there are armour helmets here and there, as well as some health potions and ammo. By the way ammo balance is pretty good. If you have a good eye, you will find all or most secrets, although one of them requires very good speed-running skills! There are 3 secret areas: one with a useful Soul Sphere, another one with a Computer Map and the last one with a MegaSphere (speed-running skills required here). You'll find another MegaSphere in the arena, where the final showdown against the CyberDemon takes place. Even if you missed BFG and Plasma Gun, this challenge should be quite easy for most players, because the arena is quite big and there are 4 columns for cover. The author could have removed the MegaSphere in Ultra-Violence or changed it with a Soul Sphere, in order to make the final battle more interesting and challenging, especially for skilled players. To sum up: this .WAD is very tense and challenging with a lot of traps and ambushes, low health and fights in both narrow and large rooms; average players may not like shortage of health and some kinds of trap, but after all it is a good level. Assessment: 9! New graphics: The author replaced some sprites with new ones: they are two new light sources, that fit the setting, and a full moon, that appears at the end of the map. The .WAD includes also a new nice TITLEPIC, a new INTERPIC with big brown bricks and a new map title. Assessment: 10! New sounds: The .WAD includes new sounds too: mind that they are not ambient sounds, but replace some monster sounds; nevertheless the author exploited some tricks to use them as ambient sounds, to make the atmosphere more frightening. Unfortunately they are not so good, but sound a bit "squeaky"! Assessment: 8! New music: There is a new background music, that fits the creepy ambience of the level. The .WAD includes new title and intermission music too. Assessment: 10! Overall: "Nightomb" is another great map by Alexander Eternal S. a.k.a. Deadall. It has interesting gameplay, based mainly on puzzles, and challenging difficulty, founded on ambushes and traps. Graphically it is an art-work: it features an awesome, great-looking and very detailed architecture, in spite of a very limited graphic resource (just 2 textures and 2 flats from doom2.WAD!). Have a look at the screenshots in the relative section and download it! Assessment: 9.5!

 

"Disturbia" by Death-Destiny: Playability: Like previously reviewed Death-Destiny's .WADs (Crimson Horizon, Grime and No Chance), this Boom-compatible single-map .WAD features the typical author's HR style in gameplay and difficulty. It stems out from his work for the lack of Shotgun, Super-Shotgun and shells. There are no Shotgunners as well. In this way the author forces the player to use only an enhanced version of the Chiagun. Actually this is an original idea, that is rarely seen in .WADs, where usually Shotgun and SSG are the first weapons to appear and the most used. Of course this affect the difficulty of this slaughter fest. As for gameplay, the level is quite linear and straightforward: you have to look for keys in the order Blue - Red - Yellow and find switches that lower portals, that let you go forth till you reach the main UAC computer, that opens the mouth you see at the beginning; you'll reach the bowels of Hell, where you can finally  stop the invasion, after challenging several Arch-Viles adn CyberDemons. Assessment: 7! Graphics: The setting is unclear: it looks  like a mountain landscape with sort of tech-bases and the mouth-like entrance of Hell. This level doesn't show a particularly awesome architecture: in fact, in spite of map size and height of buildings, the detail level is not high, apart from few things like the forementioned hellish mouth and main UAC computer. Nevertheless the map is quite good-looking, thanks to a wise choice and a good combination of textures and flats. Lighting is simple, but features some nice effects, like the power-off after activating the main UAC computer: that's an artwork, especially considering that this level is Boom-compatible (so, the author didn't use ACS-Scripts!). To sum up: the author focused mainly on gameplay and difficulty, but you can't blame him, because he did a good job and the level doesn't look bad at all. Assessment: 7! Difficulty: As mentioned above, this map features a difficulty level like that of "Hell Revealed" with a very high monster count (more than 1100 monsters!). Ammo and health are not scattered throughout the level, but they are concentrated in the start area and in other rooms, usually locked with keys, so that you must be careful in managing your ammo... and health! This is where the difficulty of this .WAD lies. It is not just monster placement, but also ammo and health balance, that is up to you. If you are cautious, you can make your provision of Medikits and Stimpaks last till you find the next "infirmary".  As you go forth and find a new key, remember to go back to the switches and doors locked with it, so that you can get more health, ammo and - above all - new weapons (the Plasma Gun with the Blue Key, the Rocket Launcher with the Red one and the BFG with the Yellow one). Ammo isn't as troublesome as health, provided that you don't waste it. In fact you'll notice that there are several snipers (mainly Imps, but also Arch-Viles, Arachnotrons and even a CyberDemon and a Spider MasteMind), that are continuously replaced as you try to kill them. So... forget it or you'll waste all your ammo in vain! You must live with them: just try to avoid their attack and focus on real fights. Those replacements make the overall monster count high; actually you must kills fewer enemies. You can solve the problem only near the end: there's a secret area, where an important UAC computer is hidden. If you find and use it, you'll kill all replacements and make your last battles a bit easier. As you may have guessed, monster placement is quite tricky, since you are continuously attacked from snipers from almost all directions, as well as the incoming hordes of enemies. Fortunately enough most battle take place in large open areas, except for few ones. Beware of traps: most of them can be deadly, if you aren't careful enough. The hardest fights are those in the high buildings, where keys and switches are located. Once you find the main UAC computer, things get easier: you'll just have to face big hordes of monsters with your RL, PG and BFG. But after that slaughter fest, you must enter the mouth and face the hardest challenges in the bowels of Hell: a lot of Arch-Viles and CyberDemons are waiting for you! Some secrets are easy to find and will save you time, thanks to useful teleporters, which bring you back to the start area, where most health and ammo is placed. But other secret areas are hard to find! To sum up: this .WAD is hard, but features a lot of interesting challenges; forget to beat it without saving, especially on the first attempt. Maybe you can try it, after you finish the level once, because you need knowledge of the whole map; but maybe only "Doom gods" can do it. So I suggest that average players save the game often to avoid frustration: you'll need to resort to "trial and error" technique, especially if you are a bold player and not a cautious one. The lack of SG and SSG may be a problem for less experienced Doomers, but after all it makes everything more interesting and challenging!  Assessment: 8! New weapons: As forementioned, the .WAD includes a new powerful version of the Chaingun, that has got a 50% faster rate than the original one. Moreover you can carry double ammo than usual (i.e. up to 800 bullets, with the backpack). In this way the author tried to compensate the lack of Shotgun and SSG... and he succeeded. Graphically it is just a darker and longer version of the original Chaingun and this is a bit annoying at the beginning, because it covers a good part of your screen and can be dangerous when some monsters are throwing fireballs or rockets against you, since you may miss them! You'll just have to be more careful than usual and you should get used to it after some time. I'd like to give some hints to those Doomers who don't use Chaingun often: it is useful to snipe by pressing rythmically the fire button, so that you avoid "spread fire" and the shots are always aimed on the target; on the contrary, when fighting against tough monsters, just press the fire button, while adjusting your aim if necessary - in this way you won't give them little chance to attack you; it is incredible powerful to mow down big hordes of weak monsters (like Imps). Assessment: 9! New graphics: The .WAD includes new sprites for the Chaingun and also for Pistol, Plasma Gun and Chainsaw, because the author wanted to give black gloves to our beloved marine: they all look good! There's a new sprite for the Box of Bullets: now it is grey instead of green. There are also some new computer screens with peculiar messages, a red version of COMPBLUE and LITE5 textures and a new green sky (quite odd!). Assessment: 9! New sounds: There's a new sound for the Chaingun: it is nothing great, but it is quite good. Assessment: 9! New music: Although the new background music track has a much slower pace than that of the game, it fits the tense ambience. Maybe it doesn't give you adrenaline, but it helps you keep calm even during intense fights! Assessment: 8! Overall: "Disturbia" is a big level by Death-Destiny: it features a linear gameplay like Grime, simple but good-looking graphics and HR-styled difficulty. The lack of Shotgun and SuperShotgun, compensated by a faster Chaingun, makes it a unique .WAD. This map is recommended to skilled Doomers for its very hard and challenging slaughter fest. Average and occasional players may want to try it on low skill levels (not higher than HMP), at least on the first run; seasoned Doomers may want to try UV on the first run for a tough and intense challenge. Assessment: 8!

 

"Doom 2 Reloaded" by Andy Stewart: Playability: As the title suggest, this is a MegaWAD for vanilla "Doom 2" (though a limit-removing port is recommended, because of possible VPOs, HOMs and such) and it is a sort of remake of the original game by Id Software, although map names and settings are different. According to the .TXT file, the author tried to "make something that would follow a similar story to the original Doom / Doom 2 / Doom 3" and he succeeded. The author created a story, that is a mix of those of three games by Id Software, and developed it nicely throughout the levels, exploiting the same screen messages of the original "Doom 2". Moreover all the levels are linked each other, so that you have the feel to go forth really. In addition a good amount of levels (the first 20 or so) are designed so that you feel like you are accomplishing some missions (and it is so, if you read the .TXT file), but without any ACS scripts or special ZDoom effects: for instance you have to find and press switches, which raise antennas, power pumps, activate force fields, etc. As for real gameplay, almost all maps features a simple and classic one, based mostly on action and key hunt with very few simple puzzles with switches. Particularly most of the first 20 levels are very linear, nearly straightforward, since they are "close", i.e. the exploration of the level is very limited and you just have to follow a path, a route towards the exit; in few cases the maps are so linear, that the keys are useless, because you find a key and the door locked with it nearby; In other cases there's no key to look for or switch to press. The only exceptions are map11, 15, 16, 17 and 19: although they are quite big and open, exploration is limited by keys, that you must find in a certain order. In map19 there's a sort of switch puzzle to solve and it is not so easy to find two switches! map07 is the typical remake of "Dead Simple". Most of the hellish maps, i.e. the last 10, are non-linear: they are quite large, open, free to explore, apart from the areas (usually just the final part, where the exit is located) locked with keys, that you can find in the order you want. The only hellish levels with linear gameplay are map23, 24, 28 and 30. In map23 and 28 you just  have to find the Blue Skull Key and look for the exit. map30 is the typical final level of every MegaWAD with the Icon of Sin to defeat at the end, after pushing your way through last resistance and solving a simple switch puzzle to activate the lift and then use it to fill its brain with rockets! map24 is probably the most linear, straightforward and boring level of "Doom 2 Reloaded"; there's no gameplay, except for action: you just have to follow the path though a sort of labyrinth towards the exit! This map looks like a "fill-in", as if the author didn't know how to fill this mapslot. On the contrary, the level with the most interesting gameplay is map18, that is unique: you haven't to shoot at all till you activate the "security field", otherwise you'll be overwhelmed by the "sentinels" (some Arch-Viles), that hide somwhere in the warehouse and are ready to kill you; once you turn on the switch of the "security field", you can start your killing spree! However the level is quite linear: you must explore the level, find the Blue and Yellow keys (in this order), secure the area, take the Red Key and proceed to the exit. To sum up: the whole mapset has good story, a nice flow, that gives you a sense of progression between levels, and it is fun. Gameplay-wise it has pros and cons; most of the first levels are designed as if you were supposed to accomplish a mission, but they are also very linear; there are few puzzle switches and almost all levels have a classic gameplay, based on action and key hunt. Assessment: 7! Graphics: Aesthetically this MegaWAD is quite good, if you consider that it is designed for vanilla "Doom 2", apart from few bugs listed in the .TXT file. Most maps are good-looking, featuring a nicely crafted architecture, medium detail level (it is never too low, but it rarely gets very high), painstaking lighting, that creates the right atmosphere, thanks also to some nice effects (such as columns that cast shadows in a lit room). Sometimes map layout and architecture are a bit squared and some rooms look even empty, with bare walls and plain floors and ceilings, but you'll find also spiral staircases and other round architectonic elements. Although architecture is often simple and not very detailed, almost all levels look good and even realistic thanks to wise choice and combination of textures and flats, which sometimes strike pleasantly your attention for eye-catching colour schemes. Moreover there are several new graphic resources, that are well used and mixed with the original ones. The bridges in map08, 09 and 20 are nice examples of clever usage of textures, that make things realistic, in spite of simple architecture. The first 11 levels are set on Mars and its moon Phobos: the main theme is tech-base with variations - for instance: map01 is a water processing station; map05 looks like a delivery station with its conveyor belts, cranes and depots; map06 is a communication station with a tower and an antenna to raise on its top; map07 is a revised and more detailed version of "Dead Simple"; map08 is a waste processing facility; map11 is set in Phobos laboratories. The next 9 maps are set on Earth and feature a realistic look: map12 is a large train/metro station, complete with gardens, waiting rooms, control room, ticket office, toilets, etc.; map13 is set in a sewer system, characterized by dark tunnels, slime falls (actually nukage/acid falls!), green brick walls, pumps, etc.; map14, 15 and 17 have a cityscape theme; map16 is a research facility; the setting of map18 is set in a warehouse, a sort of crate maze actually; map19 and 20 are set in a tech-base and in the UAC headquarters respectively. The last 10 levels are set in hell, consequently they feature a hellish theme, with a strong Gothic touch - just look at architecture and texture and flat combination: marble, wood and metal are the main textures and flats used, together with some red rocky textures, blood rivers and lava pools. map22 is a castle at the shores of the River Styx; map23 is set in a sort of cemetery and catacombs; map25 looks like an hellish fortress; the second part of map28, beyond the door locked with the Blue Skull Key, reminds "The Living End" (map29 of "Doom 2"); whereas map29 vaguely reminds "The Spirit World" (map28 of "Doom 2"), but it is probably bigger and more detailed - like the inspiration source, it is set in hellish rocky caverns with lava rivers and strange building nearby and the map layout is quite intricated. map31 "Entriway Reloaded" is a nice remake of the original map01 of "Doom 2". In the .TXT file the author wrote a long list of .WADs as inspiration sources, so you may find similarities with them here and there. The ugliest level is also the same with the worst gameplay, map23: architecture is not-existant and detail level is almost zero, except for a pool of lava, cracks on the floor and the exit room; fortunately enough textures vary here and there, but it is still a boring map. It is difficult to say which is the best map, but it is surely among the first 20, one of those with the tech-base theme. To sum up: the author showed his talent, making good-looking levels without the help of special effects (like those that ZDoom and GZDoom feature), but exploiting the potentials of the engine of "Doom 2"; the architecture is usually simple, but realistic and effective, thanks also to a good combination of textures and flats; the levels are not as detailed as the most recent ones, but they are good-looking anyway. I couldn't find any flaw, apart from a misaligned texture in map04, visibile in the 3rd screenshot. Assessment: 8! Difficulty: All the levels of "Doom 2 Reloaded" can be played in sequence or from scratch, i.e. from pistol start. The problem of this design is that ammo will always exceed, if you play levels in sequence, but it is finely balanced for games starting from scratch in almost every level; only the hellish map can be troublesome, if played from pistol start, especially because you have to fight against tough monsters without powerful weapons (like SuperShotgun and Rocket Launcher) at the beginning. As for the health balance, it is quite good: it is not excessive, but you'll always find Medikits and Stimpaks scatterd through the level, especially where you (may) need them. The difficulty increases as you go forth, though monster count tends to be constant throughout the .WAD (around 100 enemies for map) and tough monsters appear very soon (Cacodemons and Hell Knights in map01, Mancubi in map02, Arachnotrons in map03, Arch-Viles in map06 and so on). Nevertheless the levels are never difficult, mainly because the enemy placement is rarely threatening - only sniping hitscanners (Zombie Men, Shotgunners and Chaingunners) are relatively troublesome, if you don't get rid of them immediately. Moreover you don't face big hordes of monsters very often and most fights take place in open and large spaces. The hardest battles are those against tough monsters (like Revenants and Barons of Hell) in tight rooms. Almost every map has got ambushes and traps, which make levels a bit more challenging: they aren't very dangerous, but some of them can be deadly, especially in the last 10 hellish maps: so, remember to save from time to time! As for secrets, there are around 5 per map, but most of them are quite hard to find and require good eye or intuition. The entrance to the secret level in map15 is really hard to find: it is complex to reach it, because you have to sovle a puzzle with switches, hidden in secret areas; the author could have helped players by hiding a Computer Map somewhere. You would expect that hellish levels are hard... on the contrary they are quite easy, except for the very last ones. In particular map28 and 29 are those with the highest monster population, with more than 200 and 300 enemies in HMP respectively. In map29 CyberDemons make their appearance since the beginning: there are 3 (one for each key) guarding the caverns, where the keys are hidden. You are supposed to run away from them at the beginning, especially if you play this map from pistol start: only after taking Rocket Launcher or the Plasma Gun and the BFG, you can get rid of them. The peculiar gameplay of map18 influences its difficulty: you must avoid to encounter monsters or to shoot them, if they see you! As you try to shoot, a group of Arch-Vile will teleport in and hunt you... and it's impossible to survive! Taking keys can be troublesome, since they are guarded by various monsters that you can kill until you activate the "security field". Fortunately enough, there are some "devices" (such as a lowering platform and doors), that will help you: just press the right switches at the right moment - in this way you can make those "guards" inoffensive. To sum up: the whole .WAD isn't hard at all; in the .TXT file the author stated that he wanted his MegaWAD "to be more fun than a challenge"... and actually the levels are rarely challenging... and that is not so good. Nevertheless the .WAD is qutie enjoyable. I suggest UV to average players, if they want a real challenge; skilled and seasoned player may want to try beating UV-max par times or finsihing levels in UV-speed gamestyle (I think that a good amout of maps are designed for speedrunners)... maybe NM-speed is possible in some maps. The -fast parameter could be a nice idea to spice difficulty. Assessment: 7! New graphics: The .WAD includes a lot of new graphic resources, especially textures and flats. Some textures are modified or recoloured versions of the original ones; others are new. Most flats are taken from original "Doom 2" textures. All these new textures and flats are wisely used and mix nicely with the original one, creating nice combinations, that make levels good-looking in spite of their simple and not very detailed architecture. There are also a black & white version of the original TTILEPIC of "Doom 2" with the text "Reloaded" coloured (nice!), a modified version of the CREDIT picture with a yellow border and the author name below it, a new INTERPIC (a red screen with a grey skull in the centre, enclosed in black hexagons), a new brown BOSSBACK; there's even a new menu title. They all look good. Good job! Assessment: 10! Overall: All in all, this MegaWAD is quite interesting: first of all, it was entirely made by just one person... and that is not easy. Although the gameplay of single maps is quite simple and very linear, that of the whole .WAD is good, since you have the impression to go forth, once you finish a map and start the next one. Graphically the levels are nice and good-looking, in spite of simple architecture and medium level of detail. As for difficulty, all the maps are quite easy, with just few exceptions; they are rarely challenging or hard, but most of them are enjoyable and fun. Assessment: 8!

 

"Stomping Grounds" by Morpheus: Playability: In the .TXT file the author claims that this .WAD is for any limit-removing source port, but actually it requires a Boom-compatible port, since it uses some specific Boom features, such as voodoo dolls, transparent textures and generalized doors. Moreover you can skip the outdoor area, unless you want to get maximum kills and items: that's quite strange; the author could have forced the player to visit it by putting Yellow Key there and locking a door with it. There is also a bug in the fake, that hides the only secret room (it can be opened only in ZDoom-compatible ports, because it is a switch-activated door without a tag) lower the assessment! Now let's have a look to what is left: "Stomping Grounds" is a small single map, that will make you busy for just few minutes. Gameplay is simple and based on action and key hunt: you must look for the Red Key and then for the Blue one. There are very few switches to use. It is a bit non-linear, but never confusing, because, after you take the keys, you must go back to open the locked doors with the Red Key or with a remote swtich, requiring the Blue one. To sum up: "Stomping Grounds" is not a bad level, apart from few bugs. Assessment: 6! Graphics: As the appearance suggest, this level is set in a tech-base. Architecture is very nice and features significant height variations and a high level of detail: almost all walls, floors and ceilings are crafted, so that no room looks plain or bare; some rooms may look a bit empty, because of their large size, but they look awesome, thanks to their impressive and grand architectural structure (just look at screenshots n. 3 and 4). Lighting is painstaking too: you can notice lights fading from light sources, that are carved in walls or ceilings. Unfortunately there's a glitch in the fake wall hiding the secret room: as you open it, the texture will raise like a curtain, meaning that it is wrongly upper unpegged! Apart from this flaw, all the level shows great-looking graphics and deserves a high assessment. Assessment: 9! Difficulty: The author wrote in the .TXT file that he implemented skill levels, but only the first 2 differ from the other ones, since ITYTD (I'm Too Young To Die) and HNTR (Hey, Not Too Rough) feature 65 monsters versus 96 for HMP (Hurt Me Plenty) and 97 for UV (Ultra-Violence); moreover there isn't even any difference in health, armour and ammo balance between skill levels. If you are not too bold, this level will never be too difficult, since most enemies are Zombie Men, Shotgunners, Chaingunners, Imps and Demons; the strongest monsters are two Mancubi, four Barons of Hell and an Arch-Vile in HMP/UV. The weapons you find in the map are all conventional: Shotgun, Super-Shotgun and Chaingun. Ammo is plentiful for both kinds of weapon. Health is finely balanced too: there are Stimpaks and Medikits scattered throughout the level, together with few Heal Potions. There are 2 Green Armours, but actually one is enough. In the only secret room there is just a SSG. To sum up: it is not a challenging map, but neither easy. Assessment: 7! New music: The new background music track is a very catchy .MIDI by Lexus Alyus: it fits the ambience of the level and gives you a nice adrenaline charge! Assessment: 10! Overall: Gameplay suffers few flaws, but is quite good after all. Graphically the level is great-looking, thanks to imposing and very detailed architecture, painstaking lighting and good choice and combination of textures and flats. Difficulty-wise, the map is not challenging, but neither easy. Mind you that this .WAD is the third one released by Morpheus: he surely has talent in the graphics department, but he must learn how to implement different skill levels and how to make more challenging maps. Assessment: 8!

"Claws of the Enraged Beast" by James "Phobus" Cresswell: Playability: This .WAD a big "Doom 2" single level for ZDoom. Although you need this source port to play this level, the author didn't use any particular ZDoom feature, apart from few ACS Scripts, that are used to make traps and few other things. In fact gameplay is classic, based mainly on action and search for the Blue KeyCard. It is also non-linear, because you can explore it freely as you want, without any limitation; in fact you need the Blue Key only to open the exit door and you'll find it while exploring the map. The few switches in the map open doors and/or activate traps, but there's no switch puzzle. In spite of its non-linearity, the level is not complex and never confusing: you can't get lost, because every area is different from the other ones. Assessment: 7! Graphics: The setting of this map is a UAC tech-base: this theme is finely developed with some nice variations. Architecture is very good and crafted with a lot of details: just look at borders, stairs, computers, consoles, etc. Detail level is really high and ZDoom graphic effects (mainly slopes) enhance it. The combination of textures and flats, as well as colour schemes, make the level great-looking. Lighting is good, but not painstaking: in fact, there are nice transitions from lit to dark areas, but there's no particular effect. To sum up: an awesome level without any imperfection. Assessment: 10! Difficulty: The author changed the skill levels. In fact, in this .WAD you can choose just among 2 skill levels, instead of 5: "Tough" and "Slaughter!". The fiormer is good for the average Doomer or for your first run; the latter is designed for seasoned players or for a second run, if you want a real challenge. These two skill levels don't differ just for the number of enemies (182 vs. 414), but also for different health, armour, ammo, weapon and power-up distribution. However, health and ammo are finely balanced in both skill levels. What makes the "Slaughter!" difficulty level much harder than "Tough" is mainly the higher monster count, but also the enemy placement: you are surrounded by enemies and it's quite easy to be overwhelmed! Fortunately there's enough health scattered throughout the map and there are also a Soul Sphere and a Mega Sphere in the "hottest" spots. "Slaughter!" is characterized by two showdowns, that are not included in "Tough": a battle against the Spider MasterMind defending the Blue KeyCard and the final challenge against the CyberDemon. Some secrets are qutie easy to find, such as the one with the Backpack of ammo, the one with the Invisibility Sphere and the Berserk, the one with the Computer Map, that doesn't help very much in discovering the other secret areas, which are hard to discover. Fortunately enough they are not important at all! To sum up: this .WAD is very challenging and fun! Assessment: 10! New graphics: The .WAD doesn't include any new graphic resource, apart from a new TITLEPIC, that is a screenshot of a part of the main area of the level, full of monster corpses, with the the name of the .WAD and the logo/signature of the author: it is not bad, neither exceptional. Assessment: 8! New music: There's a new music track (a .WAV file), that really fits ambience and pace of the level, but its quality is not high... a pity! Assessment: 8! Overall: To sum up, "Claws of the Enraged Beast" is a very interesting .WAD for its awesome graphics, challenging difficulty and catchy music. Play it now! Assessment: 8.5!

 

"Heartless" by Doomguy93: Playability: This is the first and only map published by the author in the archives, but probably it is not the first map he made, because of its quality. "Heartless" is a Boom-compatible level for "Doom". It features a simple gameplay, based entirely on action and key hunt, with just few switches to press. The level is quite linear, apart from the necessity to backtrack in few occasions. There is no story behind this map, but it is a sort of remake of E2M4 after all. To sum up: the gameplay is not bad, but could have been made less linear and improved with more puzzles. Assessment: 7! Graphics: Doomguy93's map is inspired by the original E2M4 of "Doom" and you can notice it while playing. Several parts are reminiscent of that level, but in general the style is much better. The first part of the map looks quite bland: it features long and high hallways, with almost plain walls and very few details. But the rest of the map is really good, featuring a medium-high detail level: walls, floor and ceilings are nicely crafted with borders, niches and other decorations, computers, consoles, etc. The combination of textures and flats is nice and helps to make this level good-looking, thanks also to eye-catchting colour schemes (e.g. grey and blue or brown and green). Lighting is quite good too: the map is mainly dark (but not pitch black!) with light sources, that enhances the ambience! To sum up: architecture is not top-notch, but the level of detail is quite high in almsot every area, except for the first part of the map. Assessment: 8! Difficulty: It is a challening map for the average Doomer: since it is for "Doom", you have no SSG, but on the other side there aren't tough enemies, like Chaingunners, Hell Knights, Arachnotrons, Mancubi and Arch-Viles. This doesn't mean that the level is easy, so prepare to face troops of Zombies and Shotgunners and hordes of Imp, Demons and Spectres. Traps make this level challening. Moreover ammo is finely balanced, so that you shouldn't waste it, especially at the beginning, when you must use the pistol too, though you are provided with a Shotgun in the start room. Health balance is good too, with scattered Stimpaks and a lot of potions, whereas Medikits are placed only where necessary. Armour is also nicely balanced: you can find several helmets throughout the whole level, as well as some Green Armours and a Blue one. Secrets are not easy to find: only players with a good eye can discover them. The first one can be helpful at the beginnig, because there are several shells! The others are less important. The showdown against the CyberDemon and a teleporting horde of various monsters is probably the most challenging part and probably one of the best moments, but it is not hard, because there are lots of Medikits in that room. To sum up with few words: finely tuned difficulty! Assessment: 10! Overall: "Heartless" is a fun and enthralling level for "Doom" with classic gameplay, good-looking graphics and challenging difficulty. Don't miss it! Assessment: 8!

 

"Marine's Last Stand" by TheeXile: Playability: "Marine's Last Stand" is completely different from the usual "Doom 2" level. It is a sort of "survival level", i.e. you must survive fights against hordes and hordes of monsters, coming in on a fixed schedule, till the exit door opens after 30 minutes from the beginning! So its gameplay is based entirely on pure action: there's no key to look for, there's no puzzle with switches, it is just a massacre - it is a "slaughter map", as the author defines his own work in the .TXT file. This .WAD exploits voodoo dolls, so you need ports supporting them (like Boom, ZDoom, etc.). The author exploited them to schedule events on fixed times, making an interesting gameplay, without using ACS Scripts, but just Boom features. There's even a story in the .TXT file, if you mind it in a "slaughter map"! Note that, when you teleport for the first time, you have to use the Chainsaw you find to chop down some pillars, on the top of which are placed Invulnerability Spheres (the author and I recommend to chop down this pillar first!), a BFG and Plasma provisions and the teleport leading to the main room. To sum up: completely new kind of gameplay for a single-player .WAD (as far as I know!), based on pure action and HR-styled difficulty, with events scheduled on fixed times to provide an intense challenge to the player; maybe key hunt or some switch puzzle could have been added to spice up the gameplay. Assessment: 9! Graphics: Unfortunately the author didn't spend as much attention on graphics as he spent on gameplay and difficulty. In fact, this map features a very basic architecture, with low detail level, simple texturing and only a bit of care on lighting, that is used to make the fights in the eastern part of the map more challenging and in the main room only towards the end, when almost all lights turn off. After all, you must consider that a highly detailed architecture could have been dangerous in such a "slaughter map": architectonic elements could have hindered your movements, though they could have been used for cover! To sum up: very simple graphics, but not bad, after all; at least, I could not find any bug! Assessment: 7! Difficulty: As forementioned, this is a "slaughter map", with HR-styled difficulty, because you have to face several hordes of various monsters. So this is not a level for beginners, because it requires experience and skills in manoeuvring and managing various battlefronts. At the beginning you have to face a big horde of Imps and a Baron of Hell with only your pistol, but the columns in the main room will lower, while you are fighting, and then you can take health provisions and powerful and powerful weapons, as you resist: Shotgun, Rocket Launcher and Plasma Gun, with relative ammo! As you go forth more ammo, health and power-ups (mainly Invulnerability Spheres) will appear, but only a wise timing in taking these power-ups can allow you to survive till the exit door opens. The monster population, including the number of boos shooter (and so the spawning speed of enemies), changes with the skill level, whereas the power-ups are always the same. HMP gives you a fair challenge, if you are quite good; UV is designed for seasoned players. Forget to beat it on the first run; on the contrary you'll have to save often. You can think to win without saving, only after beating it for the first time and learning when scheduled events happen and where power-ups, health and ammo are placed. In fact, this level can be beaten only with a good plan and a clever strategy. The nastiest part is probably the fight against the wave of Pain Elemantals. To sum up: very challenging level, with finely balanced ammo, health and number of power-ups. Assessment: 10! New graphics: The .ZIP file contains two .WADs, one with the level itself, the other with a black flat and few new black textures with the initial messages. Nothing special, but well made. Assessment: 10!  Overall: This .WAD is a different level than usual, with its simple "survival" gameplay based on pure action and timed events; the HR-styled difficulty makes it a hard, but challenging "slaughter map". Graphics is simple, but good. Assessment: 9!

 

"Freame 2" by Evil Space Tomato: Playability: After some map sets, this time we deal with a single level .WAD, that is designed for "Heretic" and requires ZDoom. Like Toranaga (see my review of his "Final Heretic - Chapter One: The Docks"), Evil Space Tomato tried to enhance the gameplay of his "Heretic" .WAD by exploiting ZDoom features, like ACS Scripts, new DECORATE weapons and monsters, as well as graphic special effects. Unfortunately he is not quite successful. Let's see why. First of all, he gives a very short and simple story in the .TXT file and actually he could have written a better one, giving an explanation of what to do through the level. In fact the map is very big and not so linear, contains 789 monsters and requires a very long long time to finish. The concept behind this level is not bad at all, but it is badly developed, because what you have to do is unclear and you understand it slowly, as you explore the map, whose size and complexity makes your adventure very long and tedious. If the author had implemented missions and objectives, the game flow could have been much better and less confusing. You have to explore this giant fortress in the middle of a lava lake, surrounded by mountains, and look for and kill the Heresiarch (your primary mission). But to reach him you must accomplish secondary objectives, necessary to complete your mission: solving puzzles with switches and take keys. So, after all, the gameplay is not so innovative! As for complexity, fortunately enough there are cameras, that let you see what's the action the switches do, so that you know where to go and what to do next. But there's an error: when you press the switch in the very southern part of the map (that locked with the Red Key), you see the central courtyard of the fortress, but the switch makes the bridge appear in the western area of the map. Another error, even more serious than the previous one, could make the level impossible to finish, because the door locked with the Blue Key is not set as "repeatable". In fact, you can't reach the final arena, without leaving the D'Sparil's Staff where it was; so, if you don't do this, open the door locked with the Blue Key and then go back to leave the D'Spail's Staff, you won't be able to open that door again and you will be stuck! To sum up: the concept is nice, but badly developed; the map is too big and complex, though gameplay is linear, after all, and classic with few innovations. Unfortunately some errors, especially the serious one, mentioned above, makes my final assessment even lower than it would have been! Assessment: 5! Graphics: As forementioned, the level is set in a sort of fortress in the middle of a lava lake, surrounded by mountains. The map layout and the concept behind it is quite good, but not well executed, like gameplay. In fact, architecture is quite simple and with a medium detail level: there are some nice ideas, like crypts and sort of small houses, a library and so on... but most areas look very simple, with plain walls. Nevertheless the level is good-looking, thanks to the choice and combination of textures and flats, with nice colour schemes. Look at the central courtyard of the fortress, for instance: it is nice, if you look at it from the battlements, but the walls surrounding it are plain; surely it could have been made much better by adding lots of detail. Look at the blue room on the northern side of the courtyard: it looks good with the contrast of blue textures and flats against the white ones of the surrounding corridor and lighting enhances the ambience, but again it looks also a bit empty. There are many areas like these, featuring nice ideas, but not well developed, especially as for detail. It is a pity: with more work, the author could have made an impressive level, with great-looking architecture. Unfortunately there are some flaws, mainly misaligned textures, noticeable here and there: they don't strike out, but they are there! The author wrote about them in the .TXT file... but if he knows that there are such bugs, why don't he fix them?! However, I don't want to give a low assessment to the author, because of his effort on this big map, but he could have done a much better work. Assessment: 6! Difficulty: In spite of the very high monster count (789), this .WAD is quite easy, mainly because health is plentiful: there are Crystal Vials almost everywhere and Quartz Flasks are scattered here and there. So you can even play without worrying about your health, because you know you can heal yourself whenever you want with your Quartz Flasks or with nearby Crystal Vials. Ammo is abundant too, but a bit better balanced than health, so that alternating weapons is recommended. As for items, Quartz Flasks apart, they are well-balanced: Time Bombs can be found here and there and are useful when facing groups of enemies, to save a bit of ammo; Tomes of Power are few and are useful when you fight against boss monsters or big hordes of enemies; there are also some Rings of Invulnerability and Invisibility Spheres, but you rarely need them. Monster placement is quite simple: the author didn't place enemies to scare or ambush you, no... he just puts monsters in front of you, so that there is almost no difficulty in facing them, even if they come in hordes! That's because most times they come in front of you. Moreover there are few traps and only two are deadly. One is that on the eastern side of the fortress, near the library: after crossing a mazy corridor populated with Weredragons, once you arrive in a big room, Saberclaws and Disciples of D'Sparil suddenly appear and surround you - you'd better use an Invulnerability Sphere and a Tome of Power to get rid of this great horde of monsters! The other deadly trap is that with almost invisible Saberclaws, appearing from nowhere, when you take the Green Key (in the western part of the map): they are extremely tough, because that room is dark and you can hardly see them; moreover they also seem to be invulnerable! I tried to mow them down using an Invulnerability Sphere, a Tome of Power, the Sun Staff and the Hell Staff, but I couldn't even kill one, though I wasted a good amount of my ammo! So, once you take the Green Key, you'd better leave that room immediately. To sum up: easy level, where battles are not choreographed and monsters are placed just to be slaughtered, not to provide challenges. The only showdown is the .WAD is the finale with the Heresiarch, but it is not hard, although you haven't got the D'Sparil's Staff any more: that's because you can mow him down easily with an Invulnerability Ring and the Sun Staff (don't use the Tome of Power or you'll waste all your ammo without killing hm!). Moreover, just before the battle, you take the Soul Sphere (yes, the same from "Doom 2"), that gives you 200% health! Assessment: 7! New monsters: The .WAD includes some new DECORATE monsters, though actually most of them are just modified versions of "Heretic" monsters or inspired by the "Hexen" enemies. There's the Crisp, a flaming version of the Wendigo ("Hexen"). There's a new kind of Disciple of D'Sparil, but a bit more resistant and tougher, with its spiral fire-shot: he is similar to the Dark Bishop of "Hexen". There are two new kinds of Saberclaws: the forementioned invisible (and invulnerable?) one and the blue one that can teleport himself quickly in front of you. The final boss monster is the Evil Sorcerer, actually a sort of Heresiarch, very alike the one of "Hexen": he has several attacks and can teleport himself (almost like D'Sparil). They all are quite good, apart from the tough invisible (and invulnerable?) Saberclaw, and make the .WAD funnier and more interesting! Assessment: 8! New weapons: In the level you can find 3 new weapons, which makes enemies' life more painful: the Ice Wand, that is very alike the one in "Hexen" and can freeze your enemies with some shots; the Sun Staff replaces the Phoenix Rod, from which it differs for graphics, but has got the same behaviour, unless you use the Tome of Power (in this case, it "burns" ammo much faster... he, he!); the third weapon is... D'Sparil's Staff, yes the same weapon D'Sparil used against you in E3M8 of "Heretic": you can launch lightnings with it and burn instantly almost every monsters with just one shot, except for Ironliches and Maulotaurs. You can try its great power on the hordes of enemies defending the Blue Key, but unfortunately you can't take it with you for the last challenge! After all, it is a bit too powerful and doesn't use any kind of ammo, making the last part of the level a bit too easy: it is just a massacre! The author could have balanced this weapon better, if he had set it up to use ammo, to collect while exploring the map. Assessment: 8! New graphics: The .WAD contains new textures, but most of them are modified versions of "Heretic" textures, new sprites for new monsters, weapons and decorations (trees and slime bubbles). Statues are made in DECORATE, not with new sprites, so that they have a real 3D appearance. As for credits: Eriance made the Ice Wand sprites, NeoWorm those for the Sun Staff, whereas the D'Sparil's Staff comes from Cult.WAD. Notice that credits are not in the .TXT file, but in a lump inside the .WAD! However, everything looks really good! Assessment: 10! New sounds: There are new sounds for new weapons and monsters: they sounds good and I am quite sure that they all come from "Hexen". Assessment: 10! New music: Actually, there's no music... "So what is to be judged?" you may ask! Well... keep in mind that this is a very long level, as forementioned, so surely one music track wouldn't have been enough, because it would have become repetitive and monotonous quite soon. Nevertheless it is boring playing a level without background music, unless there is a good variety of ambient sounds to justify the lack of music; unfortunately this is not the case, since the autho didn't exploit them at all! Then the best solution is to use several music tracks: for instance the level starts with one track, but when entering a new area the music changes, maybe accordingly to the new ambience, and so on... So I must give the lowest assessment for the first time! Assessment: 1! Overall: "Freame 2" is based on a nice concept as for gameplay and map layout, but unfortunately this concept is not well developed in both department. In fact, although this .WAD is designed for ZDoom and contains ACS Scripts and other nice features of this port, the gameplay is simple and classic, based mainly on action (789 monsters!), key hunt and some puzzles with switches; the big size of the map and the low difficulty level (for the average player - with few challenging moments) make your adventure a bit boring! The lack of music makes it even more boring!! As for graphics, the level has got some nice ideas and this proves that the author has talent, but he didn't exploit it, because architecture lacks details, though some areas are great-looking, but just because of a good choice and combination of textures and flats (creating eye-catching colour patterns). New monsters and weapons make the .WAD more enthralling than it is. Please, note that skill levels are not implemented! Play "Freame 2" only if you have a whole afternoon of free time, since it requires hours and hours of exploration and massacre. Assessment: 8!

 

"Hellcore 2" by Devon "Darkfyre" West & Robert "Fusion" Babor: Playability: First of all, "Hellcore 2" is not a sequel to "Hellcore", but it is a sort of new revamped version, where all bad maps, as well as some good ones by other authors (like Chris Hansen, Brad Spencer and me), are removed; some of the maps by Darkfyre and Fusion are revamped versions of those in "Hellcore", other ones are completely new. So this 12-level set seems to be a collection of revamped levels and new ones (map02, 06, 09 and 12) by the project leaders of "Hellcore", but actually the .WAD has a game flow, though there is not a story in the .TXT file: in fact, almost every map starts where the previous one ended or is the continuation of the last map you played. The .WAD is Boom-compatible, but requires a good limit removing port, such as ZDoom and GZDoom, but the level does not contain any special effects for these ports. In fact, the gameplay of every map is classic, based on action, key hunt and few simple puzzles with switches. Almost every level is simple and linear, though not straightforward, because you often have to retrace your steps. The only level with a unique gameplay is map07, where you have to detonate dynamite placed near doors and walls of a wrecked UAC office to find your way to exit. On the contrary, there's no gameplay in map06: it is a sort of transition level, where you just have to look at monsters crossing a gate, while you wait for bars to open... and then cross yourself the gate. It is pretty stupid! Well... actually the idea is not bad, but the author could have put some fights in it, at least! Why don't make a real level, instead of a sort of "cut scene"? If map06 is the smallest level, map04 is the biggest one and has also the highest monster count (between 400 and 500, depending on the skill level). Most level are large, but never complex or confusing. If you don't understand what to do, just look at the automap: this is useful in map02, for instance. In some levels automap is completely absent (like in map12) or some linedefs or even areas are missing (like in map03)! The last level (map12) doesn't have an exit! To sum up: nice game flow through levels, classic and simple gameplay (maybe too simple!), but with few flaws or bugs, such as the lack of any kind of gameplay in map06, incomplete automaps in few levels and the missing exit in map12! Assessment: 6! Graphics: This is the department where the authors did their best! In fact, all levels are great-looking, feature an awesome architecture with a very high level of detail, have got good combination of textures and flats, that makes most levels look realistic, thanks also the wise choice of new graphic resource; colour schemes makes all details, even the smallest, eye-catching! Lighting is always painstaking and enhances the ambience of levels, making them creepy and gloomy; some effects are really good! Every level deservers a mention: the main theme of map01 is a sort of military warehouse or UAC storage base; the most striking parts are the prisons, the simple, but nice crane and at railways near the dock... but the real masterpiece is the ship, but the lighthouse is good too! The title of map02 is "Baron Streets" and its setting is a town, with several buildings, nicely rendered with various textures. The landscape is really awesome, but also the few buildings you can visit are finely crafted inside: just look at computers, chairs, lifts, etc. That's because the authors used several new textures and flats, which make everything look almost real! Lighting is painstaking, with nice effects and enhances the ambience of the map. The architecture of map03 isn't as good as that of previous level, but has several details, like borders along corridors, pipes, windows, the tech base on rocky mountains with waterfalls (probably the best-looking part of the level) and so on... Map04 is set in a sort of military base; architecture is finely crafted with a very high level of detail both outside and inside. Outside you can notice a nice dam in the background, a river and various buildings on a rocky mountain. Inside everything is nicely detailed: chairs, tables, computers, consolles, etc. Parts with fleshy and hellish textures and flats mixed with the tech ones give you a good idea about how the invasion spread out! Map05 is another infested UAC base with a good and realistic architecture architecture, , thanks to a high detail level and a wise combination of new and old textures and flats, that create also some nice colour patterns; the flesh that covers part of the tech-base gives a good idea of the infested base. There's not much to say on map06: it is a nice level with a hellish theme; The setting of map07 is quite strange: it looks like a wrecked UAC office in the middle of a valley, between red rocky mountains with a very hellish feel. The setting of map08 looks like a UAC base on a rocky mountain with caverns: there's a dig with a maze (eastern part of the map), a sort of toxin refinery (western part) and a tech-base, protected with mines around it (southern part); only the northern part is quite bland. Authors like levels set on the streets of a town and they show that they can create very realistic map with this theme, with highly detailed architecture and great-looking landscape, thanks also to the usage of new textures and flats. The clock tower is probably the masterpiece of map09, but look to houses too: they are nicely crafted! The interior of the hotel, where to search for the Red Key, is very good too! The setting of map10 is an unholy cathedral and its hellish catacombs, featuring a Gothic dark style. In fact most of the catacombs are dark, but with a very nice and painstaking lighting: torches lit feebly corridors and rooms and create a spooky atmosphere! Architecture is awesome, great-looking and highly-detailed, with borders, columns, niches, coffins, ruined walls and floors, etc. The choice and combination of textures and flats is good, though the predominant colour is grey. The main theme of map11 is hell, as you can understand from dark red corridors, caverns and such. The demonic buildings have a sort of Gothic style and a nicely detailed architecture, enhanced by the choice and combination of textures and flats, making this level great-looking. Map12 features several themes: the first part is hellish, the second one is a toxin refinery, the thid one is Gothic/hellish, the forth one is unclear (it is a small courtyard), the fifth and sixth one are very hellish, whereas the last one is a sort of prison/dungeon. To sump, all levels are impressive and I couldn't find any glitch, apart from few slime-trails, due to the very high detail level, but this problem is mentioned in the .TXT file, so I can give full marks to "Hellcore 2" as for graphics! Assessment: 10! Difficulty: Unfortunately, the authors didn't pay on difficulty as much attention as on graphics. In fact, "Hellcore 2" is a sort of mixed bag as for difficulty and it hard to judge it in the whole. So, let's examine maps one by one and then try to sum up! Unless you find secrets, map01 can be very hard! In fact you have to face several Barons and big hordes of Zombie Men, Imps and Demons only with your pistol; you find the Shotgun and the Chaingun only at half level, in the area locked with the Blue Key... if you have survived Barons protecting the Blue Key and the hordes of Zombie Men, Imps and Demons appearing after taking this key! Moreover health is very scarce with few Stimpacks and even fewer Medikits! Fortunately ammo is better balanced than health, but tight! Almost all secrets are hard to find, except for that with the Shotgun on the pillar (fortunately enough!) and that with a Soul Sphere inside (in the whereabouts of the same area). Looking at wide open areas of this map, it would have been a nice slaughter level, if it had been later in the .WAD and if it had been filled with lots of monsters! - 3 Map02 would have been really fun, if it had contained lots of monsters to kill along roads, especially as a later map. Unfortunately it is just the second one and it contains few monsters (around 70). Moreover, if you play this map from pistol start, you must kill with your pistol and shotgun various groups of Imps and Demons... and there's a very scarce amount of shells, meaning that you have to kill most of them with your pistol... what a fun! But that is not all: after taking the Yellow Key, you must face an Arch-Vile with just your pistol... and shotgun, if you have enough shells after the first battle to take it. Take note that there's not even one Stimpak in that room: so nice! After taking the Yellow Key, you must unlock the passage to the second part of the map... and then a CyberDemon and a horde of Hell Knights and Barons of Hell appear: exploit infighting, if you want to reach a high kill score... but don't think to get max kills! You must save ammo for the rest of the map, where other hordes of Imps are waiting for you, if you want to finish it. - 5 If you play map03 from pistol start, you'll have some problems with ammo at the beginning: so try to be very neat with your shotgun and if one shell is not enough for an Imp, finish it with a bullet! But as you go forth, ammo becomes nicely balanced. Health balance if very fine, so that you must be really careful and avoid serious injuries! As for secrets, that with Green Armour is really trivial... the others are much harder to discover and you must have a good eye to find them! - 6 Map04 gives you a very good challenge at last, with its very high monster population: between 400 and 500, depending on the skill level you choose. Get ready to fight against armies of Zombie Men and Shotgunners, against hordes of Revenants and Imps and against various tough monsters. Some traps (mostly with teleporting monsters) can be deadly, so always watch your back! Ammo is really plentiful and never a problem, even if you play this map from pistol start; health is finely balanced, with not many Medikits and Stimpacks scattered throughout the level, but with two Soul Spheres in the southern area of the map. If you are curious and/or have got a good eye, secrets are not hard to find. - 9 Unlike previous maps, map05 is a relatively easy level, maybe because of the low monster population, but surely because most fights are against single monsters of small groups of enemies instead of big hordes of monsters, like in map04. Ammo is finely balanced and, if you play this map from scratch, you can't waste it; health isn't well balanced, because there are just few Medikits and Stimpacks scattered throghout the level. Secrets are hard to find. - 8 Nothing to say about map06. - ? Map07 is a very hard level, because, after detonating the first dynamite, you have to deal with a great horde of Demons, that immediately teleport in and occupy all the room: take your SSG and fight or take the Berserk and start punching, if you feel like Tyson! After this bloody battle, you must find the other detonator and use it: after the explosion, a large horde of Revenants will hunt you. To deal with them, I suggest that you take immediately the Rocket Launcher nearby, kill a good amount of skeletons with it and then finish the rest of the horde with the SSG. Beware to sniping Imps, that you can easily kill with your Shotgun. Then enter the gate, take some ammo and prepare for your last battle against Arachnotrons and Mancubi, defending the exit door...! I suggest that you save your game between waves of monsters. - 8 Like the previous level, map08 is very hard, mainly because of very deadly traps, some of which are very nasty, even annoying sometimes. In fact some of them are extremely hard to survive the first time you fall in them: the trap with Chaingunners, when taking the Shotgun; the one with Arch-Vile and Barons of Hell, when taking the Red Key. Also the part of the map beyond the gate on the south-western side is pretty nasty, because you have to face several Imps in a cramped corridor, with a sniping Chaingunner! Moreover there's not much health near these "hot spots", whereas ammo is fortunately better balanced. Secrects are very hard to find! - 6 Map09 is a very fun action-packed level, though it doesn't seems so at the beginning. In fact, after arriving in this gloomy town with a jeep, you don't encounter any monster, till you arrive at the villa, where some Imps welcome you at last. But the fun starts when you leave the villa with the Red Key: Demons suddenly appear from nowhere and start hunting you, while sniping Imps fire at you from the roof of a house and one or two CyberDemons (depending on the chosen skill level) defend the entrance of the railway station. Be sure that you have taken all weapons and a part of the ammo scattered through the town: in this way the fight won't be difficult, if you have a good strategy You can let the CyberDemons kill all the Demons for you, if you are good in avoiding their rockets: in this way, you can save a lot of ammo! Suggestion for seasoned players, who want a nice challenge against CyberDemons: duel against them with only the SSG! Secrets are quite easy to find: there's one with plasma provisions, that can be found looking at the automap; the other one contains a very useful Soul Sphere (there are no health provisions in this map - not a good thing!) and can be found in the villa by the players with good eye and mind! - 8 If you consider the map10 as a whole, it is not hard, but it surely has its difficult battles and challenging fights. The catacombs are infested mainly by Arch-Viles, Arachnotrons and Imps, but most fights against Arch-Viles are quite easy, if you know how to deal with them ("hide & seek" strategy), apart from the battles against more Arch-Viles at once. The challenge against the Spider MasterMinds defending the Red Key in the arena with the "fire pentagram" is great, but simple: just exploit infighting, if you haven't enough ammo to kill them (i.e. if you play from pistol start). Another dangerous fight is that against the Arch-Vile and the horde of various monstes (Hell Knights, Barons of Hell and Mancubi) defending the Yellow Key in the red hellish part of the map. The final challenge against various teleporting monsters (including a CyberDemon) is nice, but simple, if you exploit infighting. Ammo is abundant, but not enough to kill all monsters, if you play from pistol start, even if you exploit infighting (for instance you can't kill the CyberDemon at the beginning!). Health isn't well-balanced: Medikits and Stimpaks aren't many, even in the deadliest traps, but there are two Soul Spheres. Secrets are hard to find: you must have a very good eye to find them! - 8 As for map11, you must have good skills to finish this HR-styled level: in fact, you always have to face hordes of monsters surrounding you and this requires a very good strategy. So prepare for a blood bath! If you are not an experienced Doomer, I suggest that you save often. Health is finely balanced, with a good amount of Medikits placed in the arenas, where the most important fights take place, and few power-ups (armours, Soul Spheres). Ammo is plentiful and you are supposed to use BFG extensively, since plasma provisions are scattered throughout the whole map, but Rocket Launcher and Super Shotgun can be useful in duels with few tough monsters (Barons of Hell, Revenants, Arch-Viles). Infighting can be exploited only in few battles, to save ammo (though it is abundant) and health (if you are good enough to avoid crossfire). - 8 All the difficulty of map12 lies on the tough marines, placed throughout the map: they are extremely hard, because they are very fast and fire plasma shots and rockets. It is almost impossible to avoid their first attack, when you encounter them, making this level really nasty; so, save often! Moreover health is scarce, whereas ammo is better balanced. So, to sum up: this map is very difficult, especially if you play it from pistol start; if you come from map11 you can exploit BFG to kill quickly those bastard marines! - 6 To sum up, the first two levels are almsot impossible to finish, because of bad balance of health and ammo; fortunately enough the other maps are better balanced, especially as for ammo, though their difficulty level is challenging and inspired by "Hell Revealed" in some occasions. Assessment: 7! New monsters: There's just one new enemy, made with DeHackEd: a very tough Zombie Marine, who can fire Arachnotron's plasma bolts and rockets and he has the same appearance as the Doom marine. He appears only  in the last level and, as forementioned, he is very fast: in fact, as soon as he hears you, he starts firing, unlike other enemies; moreover he moves quickly and his fire rate is higher than Arachnotron's. This makes all fights against him very difficulty, because you must shoot at him when he is firing, so that he is still and an easy target; the problem is that you must avoid its shots, in the meanwhile! Assessment: 6! New graphics: The .WAD includes textures and flats from "Doom" and "Plutonia" and a lot of new textures and flats by the authors, Esa Espi Repo and Steven Dark Knight Reimer: the usage of this new big graphic resource makes level great-looking! There are also new nice sky textures: a red one with yellow clouds, a starry one and a red hellish one. The new titlepic is simple, all red, but nice. There's also a new nice bloody menù title. New map titles are made with grey letters, with the author names in red small letters. The new interpic is a real piece of art! There's also a new grey BOSSBACK picture, but it is not used. The sprites of the Zombie Marine are made by Bouncy. Assessment: 10! New music: The new background music tracks are very nice and fits perfectly the various kinds of ambience of the maps. The .WAD includes also new interesting title music and intermission music. Assessment: 10! Overall: "Hellcore 2" is a very fine 12 map-set as for graphics, with very realistic levels. As for difficulty, it is a mixed bag: the first two levels are very hard, because of bad health and ammo balance, the other ones are better balanced as for ammo and challenging, but health is always a bit low. As for gameplay, it is quite good, based mainly on action and key hunt, but always the same, apart from the unique map07; moreover there are some bugs here and there (the lack of any kind of gameplay in map06, incomplete automaps in few levels and the missing exit in map12). Assessment: 8!

 

"Titan 2" by Jesper Krag Rasmussen ("Ixnatifual"): Playability: As the name suggests, this .WAD is the sequel to "Titan" by the same author and continues its story in a different setting: Hell instead of Titan. It is a 9 map-set, like its prequel, plus a secret level (map10), that you can reach from the sixth map. It requires GZDoom 1.1.6+, but it doesn't contain any particular effect as for gameplay (such as messages, cameras, etc.), except for the new monsters in DECORATE and few simple ACS Scripts, which are used to make traps or change music during important fights. In fact, gameplay is classic, based mostly on action, key hunt and just few simple puzzles with switches. Apart from the first map and the last one, all the maps are big or, if smaller than others, long because of the high monster count (like map07 with more than 1000 monsters!). Most of the levels are non-linear, but not complex: that's because they are wide and you can explore a large portion of the maps freely, following various routes, with the only limitations of areas locked with keys. To sum up: gameplay is good, but doesn't exploit GZDoom features very much, as one would expect from such a .WAD! Assessment: 9! Graphics: This is the strongest point of "Titan 2": in fact, all maps features a very good-looking architecture with a high detail level, enhanced with GZDoom special effects, like real 3D bridges and floors, skyboxes, etc.! Texture and flat combinations are well chosen, usually to get nice colour patterns. Lighting is painstaking and improved by GZDoom features, such as glowing lights. The dominant theme in all levels is hell, though it is not so clear in few maps, where a demonic/hellish feel stands out only in some parts (see map02 and 04 for instance). Architecture of map01 is good and nicely detailed with rocky caverns, borders along all corridors, metal columns... everything improved by GZDoom features, like a 3D gate! In map02 the setting isn't clear, but the theme is nice, with a mix of brick, metal and wood textures and flats plus a hellish-themed part, with lots of lava and red rocks and a real 3D bridge! The setting of map03 is a sort of hellish rocky mountain with a tower in the middle of a lava lake. In map04 the theme isn't clear, but looks hellish, with metal and wooden structures built around blood and lava lakes. In map05 architecture is good, but less detailed than previous map. In fact there's just a simple 3D bridge and few eye-catching things, like the "fleshy" part of the map; the theme isn't clear again, but still sort of hell. The main theme of map06 is a sort of hellish city with a Gothic style too. Map07 has a strong demonic/hellish theme, with a Gothic touch, deriving from the use of marble and from the finely crafted architecture, with a lot of great columns, arches, carved walls, floors and ceilings, etc. The main theme of map08 is hellish and resembles that of map29 of "DooM 2": it features a rocky landscape with a lava sea, a lot of brown and some grey stone textures, but also columns with red and yellow rocks, whereas imposing demonic structures are made of marble, wood and metal. Architecture is imposing and nicely detailed: walls are finely crafted and carved. In map09 architecture is initially simple, but then it becomes greater and great, with a good detail level; the final arena is really imposing and great-looking, with a very high structure. Map10 stands out for its different theme, that is tech-base, with a lot crates, some computers and consoles plus few hellish touches, but architecture features a medium detail level, lower than usual. Everything looks good and this .WAD would have deserved full marks, if I hadn't noticed some misalinged textures, like that in map08 (look at the 9th shot). Sometimes misaligned textures are even used as hints for secrets: a questionable choice! Assessment: 9! Difficulty: The .WAD is nicely designed as for difficulty too. In fact, it features an increasing difficulty curve on the whole: as you go forth in each map and in the level-set, you encounter harder and harder fights; but in map04, 06 and 08 there's a break in the positive slope of the difficulty curve. Health balance is always good and ammo is plentiful. All levels (except for map09) have several secret areas, containing useful items (health, armour, ammo, power-ups): they are usually quite easy to discover, even if you haven't got a very good eye, but some are pretty hard to find out! What makes this .WAD hard isn't monster placement, that is rarely threatening, but traps with ambushing monsters, that teleport in or appear behind walls. Moreover you often have to face hordes of monsters of different size: small, medium, big... and giant in the HR-styled maps. So, let's have a look at each level! Map01 is quite easy, but challenging, because monsters come in hordes and you haven't got the the Super-Shotgun, but you are provided with Shotgun, Chaingun and Rocket Launcher. In map02 difficulty increases: tougher and tougher monsters appear, like Afrits, traps become deadlier and secrets harder to find. Map03 features different kinds of battles: the fights inside caverns and other narrow areas are surely tough, but here you have to face monsters coming from just one or two directions; on the contrary, outside, in the wide open arena you are surrounded by monsters, shooting at you from a lot of directions, making your journey quite nasty. The final challenge against several Pain Elementals is very hard! In map04 the difficulty level is a bit lower than previous levels, because you face single monsters or small groups of enemies: they are tougher (there are several Hell Knights and Barons of Hell), but if you know how to deal with this kind of monsters, you won't have many problems; moreover there are not many sniping hitscanner. The only hard fight is the final showdown against Bruiser Demons and other monsters, descending into the arena, as you kill one of the boss monsters. Health is well-balanced, but in this arena health is quite low! A Berserk would have been great here... and if you have already taken the Berserk and almost all Medikits and Stimpaks in the map, you can end it with very low health! Unlike the previous level, map05 features several battles against hordes of monsters, especially Cacodemons, which most of the time come out from alcoves hidden by walls, in order to ambush you. They can force you to fight in narrow areas, so be careful! Watch your ammo too and try to switch weapons while fighting against these waves of Cacodemons, since ammo is finely balanced for all weapons. Health is well-balanced too. Secrets can be found only by players with good eye and can be very useful, because they contain ammo, a BFG and power-ups (a Soul Sphere too!). In map06 you have to face single toguh monsters and small groups of enemies, placed throughout the level, and also big horders of monsters, that are hidden behind walls, which you open with the switches scattered through the map. The hardest fights are the ones with these hordes of enemies, whereas the rest of the map isn't hard. Secrets are quite hard to find, unless you find the computer map. In one of these secret areas there's the Yellow Key Card you need to get access to the passage to the secret level (map10), that is of course well hidden! The difficulty of map07 is HR-styled and inspired by Huy Pham's "Deus Vult": you have to face giant hordes of enemies almost since the beginning. After a relatively simple start, you go up to a large arena, where lots of Imps, Cacodemons, Hell Kinghts and Barons of Hell come in: this is proabably the hardest part of the map, where you have to kill half of the monsters population. To survive this long challenge, it is important to take the three Invulnerability Spheres, two of which can be taken only lowering two pillars with two switches. After this epic showdown, the difficulty goes down and the hordes of monsters you have to fight are smaller, but tough anyway. Fortunately health is well balanced with some power-ups scattered here and there, whereas ammo is abundant!  The difficulty level of map08 isn't as high as that of map07, because here you have to face smaller waves of monsters, but traps make your journey risky! Fortunately most fights are simple, not hard. Moreover you'll find enough ammo for all your weapons. Map09 is probably the second level with the highest monster population after map07: almost 600 monsters in HMP and 800 in UV! Like map07, this is a HR-styled level, since you have to face hordes of monsters from the beginning. In fact, you start surrounded by more than one hundred Imps; after killing them all, you have to descend with a sort of lift and face various kind of monsters at every "floor". After a "zombie parade", you enter a big arena, where the final showdown takes place: you are hunted by a Spider MasterMind and surrounded by Hell Knights and Barons of Hell, firing at you from the higher floor; after a while, various kind of enemies start teleporting in... and the slaughter fest begins! In spite of the high monster count (that includes several tough monsters - even the CyberDemon!), this is not the hardest part, because you can take advantage from infigthing: so, if you are good in manoeuvring through enemies, you can get rid of several hundreds of them without even firing one shot or using the Invulnerability Spheres you are provided with. Of course, you must be quite good and take the MegaSpheres or the Invulnerability Spheres at the right moments. After this incredible battle and solving the simple switch puzzle, you have to face the final challenge against the boss (the Supreme Fiend): but it is simple and quite easy, if you are clever enough to keep an Invulnerability Sphere and a MegaSphere for this battle. Just few BFG shots (6, if accurate) and the Supreme Fiend will be defeated! The average Doomers will be satisfied and pleased by the final showdown, whereas the experienced players will find it a bit easy and could be disappointed, because of the presence of so many power-ups even at UV! Maybe the challenges in the lift are even harder than final showdown, because you have to fight against tough monsters in a narrow area! To sum up, "Titan 2" is a very challenging .WAD from the beginning of the first level to the end of the last map. Average players will be challenged especially by the HR-styled fights, which take inspiration also from the well choreographed battle in "Deus Vult" and "Deus Vult 2"; seasoned players will find this map-set more interesting in UV than in HMP, though the power-ups aren't finely balanced as in Huy Pham's .WADs. At least, this time the final showdown is beatable without using cheats, unlike the last level of "Titan". Assessment: 9! New monsters: This .WAD is fun and enthralling thanks to several new monsters, that make levels harder and more challenging. The Lord of Heresy (courtesy of Vader and Bouncy) resembles a Baron of Hell with wings, but a bit tougher (it requires 7 rockets) and stronger, with its 3 attacks: it can fire a single fireballs, 3 in your direction or several fireballs all around him! The Afrit (courtesy of Nanami, Keksdose, Espi and Ebola) is a sort of red floating Baron of Hell, who lost his legs and whose chest is always burning: he is as resistant as the Baron of Hell, but his flaming attacks are more dangerous. The Zombie Marine fire plasma against you: he is a bit tougher than Shotgunners and Chaingunners, not only for its fast and powerful weapon, but also because you need to fire a SSG shot to kill him. The Bruiser Demon (courtesy of Vader, Ghastly Dragon and Keksdose) is an evil bastard, whose arms and feet are always on fire and can launch 3 different attacks: a fire-ball with a burning tail, a fan of several smaller fire-balls or exploding mines on the floor, probably the deadliest attack; you'll have to spend at least 17 rockets or 2 BFG shots to mow it down! The Hectebus (courtesy of TheDarkArchon) is a grey and bigger version of the Mancubus, firing blue explosive orbs, one of which can kill you instantly; 4 accurate BFG shots are required to destroy it. It is a pity that it appears only at the end of the secret level. The final boss monster is the Supreme Fiend (courtesy of Raz and Ghastly Dragon), a sort of flying head of the Spider MasterMind, that fires Arachnotron's plasma bolts and BFG shots: it is tough, but not too hard - just shoot it with your BFG, while running to avoid its plasma bolts, and look for cover when it is firing BFG shots. To sum up: all new monsters (made with the DECORATE lump) are very good-looking as for graphics and fun to fight with, making this .WAD more interesting and entertaining; they are all wisely used, but the Hectebus could have been used in other levels (not just in map10) and the Supreme Fiend isn't as epic as expected. Assessment: 9! New weapons: Yeah... there's even a new weapon: the Mini-Gun, that comes from SkullTag (notice the pun in the message, when you take it for the first time!). It is just a long chaingun with a higher fire-rate, but is very useful for its incredible firepower: you can mow down great hordes of monsters (such as Zombies, Imps or Cacodemons) very quickly with it! The author made some fights for you to use it and provides you with enough bullets. Very good! Assessment: 10! New graphics: The .WAD includes new great-looking sky textures, few new textures and several textures from "Doom" and, of course, the sprites for the new monsters and the Mini-Gun. Notice that the TITLEPIC is replaced with a map, where a camera moves around the title ("Titan II") written on the floor: nice idea! Assessment: 10! New sounds: The new weapon and monsters come with their own sounds of course: they all sound good! Moreover there's also a new sound for the Berserk: a sort of howl of anger - quite good! There are also some new nice terrain sounds, like those you or enemies make after a splash in lava or blood. Assessment: 10! New music: The .WAD includes new background music tracks (courtesy of Lexus Alyus) for all the levels plus another one playing during important fights and that for the intermission screens. They all sound good, sometimes even catchy, and fit the pace and ambience of maps, with few exceptions: the music tracks of map02 and map10, suit the ambience, but not the pace of these levels: nevertheless they are nice. The background music of map08 isn't properly new (I've already heard it before!), but good anyway. The epic music track of the last level fits perfectly its granduer. To sum up: good choices, but something better could have been chosen for map02 and map10, to fit their pace. Assessment: 9! Overall: It is hard to sum up this .WAD in few words. It is an enjoyable and fun map-set, with classic gameplay, based mostly on action and key hunt. Graphically it is very nice, with awesome and highly detailed architecture, great-looking texture and flat combinations, eye-catching colour schemes, painstaking lighting and good special GZDoom effects (like 3D floors and glowing lights). Difficulty-wise it features several challenging fights and hard battles, with balanced health and ammo provisions and a good amount of power-ups (maybe too many in map09 for experienced Doomers!). The new weapon and new monsters make the game more interesting, whereas new graphics and music enhance the atmosphere! Assessment: 9.5!

 

"Plutonia 2" by various authors: Playability: "Plutonia 2" is the unofficial sequel to Casali brothers' "Final Doom: Plutonia Experiment". As written in the .TXT file, "It emulates Plutonia's design and gameplay styles and follows from where it left off". In fact, the gameplay is very alike that of "Plutonia", i.e. classic, based mostly on action and key hunt with some simple switch puzzles. Most maps are also linear and simple, but there are some non-linear maps (like map02, 03, 04, 05, 13, 17, 29). Unlike "Plutonia", several maps are quite big and require a long time to finish; only the first maps are relatively short: I am referring both to map size and monster count. Mind that the mean monster population is around 200 at HMP ("Hurt Me Plenty", 3rd skill level)! The longest level is map29, where you'll spend a really long time. In some big maps (such as map05, 09, 16, 17, 22, 29) the player can explore most of them freely with just few limitations, imposed by switches and keys, that in some cases you can look for in the order you want. However, in most cases gameplay is simple, linear and straightforward; even in the big maps it is difficult to get lost, because their layout is well designed. The only flaws are few monsters stuck in architectural elements or decorations and some annyoing issues in map21, like the doors that must be opened with switches and close after few moments, so that you must open these doors a lot of times, if you don't enter new areas immediately and prefer to kill monsters from your side... but actually pass doors and fight against several strong monster isn't a good idea! Map11, map31 and map32 deserve a special mention, because of their particular gameplay. The eleventh level inspired by map11 of Casali brother's "Plutonia": in fact it has the same gameplay, i.e. you are chased by severl Arch-Viles and you must find your way in a bloody maze, looking for keys and then for exit. The secret level is a revised version of the original map31 of "Plutonia": gameplay is very similar to that, apart from few novelties, that improve it, making it a little bit longer and more interesting; there are no keys to look for, but switches, that open doors and lower platforms with CyberDemons on them. Map32 is inspired too by the same map of "Plutonia": it based a lot on action and key hunt, with a switch puzzle in the finale... but I won't spoil you the surprise at the end! To sum up: "Plutonia 2" keeps the same gameplay as the original IWADs ("DooM", "DooM 2" and "Plutonia") with just few novelties and very few flaws and no bugs! Assessment: 9! Graphics: Most of the 32 levels feature a medium detail level, some times it is medium-high, other times medium-low. Nevertheless most of them have a nice architecture, that looks great and imposing in big maps: that's true especially as for outside areas, whereas inside the building the detail level usually is lower. It's the good choice and combination of textures and flats that makes all levels good-looking, though some of them haven't a detaied or finely crafted architecture! In some maps there are some eye-catching colour schemes, that improve their beauty. As for lighting, some authors didn't exploit this means to enhance the ambience of levels, whereas in some maps it is very painstaking. The main theme of the first half of this MegaWAD is jungle and military base/outpost, whereas the predominant style in the second half of "Plutonia 2" is hellish, though it is not a truly hellish theme. However most levels are themed like those of "Plutonia". There are some maps, which deserve a particular mention, because of some nice ideas. Map10 features a very original one, a space ship lifting up from the ground, and a part very alike map10 ("Refueling Base") of "Doom 2": after all, according to what the author wrote in the .TXT file, the level is a "refueling base for space ships". Map11 has a mazy layout alike that of the original 11th map of "Plutonia". Map25 is very different from the others, because of its unique snowy and icy theme, where black wall textures nicely contrast with white textures and flats. Map26 and 29 are probably the best ones for their awesome architecture, high detail level and hellish theme: map26 is set in a sort of castle with a very hellish feeling, with a lot of blood and flesh; map29 is not as hellish as map26, because of its varied colour pattern, but features some great ideas, like a sort of hellish mouth (where's the exit) and a tower with a "more than 360 degrees staircase", as it is called in the .TXT file! Map31 layout resembles that of the secret map of "Plutonia": but also architecture and texture and flat combination of these two secret levels are alike. Map32 ("Go 4 It") is inspired by Casali brother's "Go 2 It" as well: in fact, layout and architecture are similar, but there is a mix of different levels from various IWAD: map01 of "Doom 2", E1M1 of "Doom", map01 of "Dwango 5" and map23 of "Requiem". The worst levels are map21 (quite plain architecture) and map04, that features a very simple architecture with a low detail level and a brown-ish theme isn't very good-looking - it's strange for Frederik, the author of the "Vrack" series! Unfortunately there are several flaws and visual glitches scattered through the levels: a box of bullets suspended in the air near the space ship lifting up from the ground and a "slime trail" in a corridor in map10; some slime-trails in map13, 22, 24, 26, probably due to badly built nodes; in map24 the door locked with the Blue Key is upper-unpegged and this affects the gameplay, because it covers two Revenants hiding behind it till the doors is wide open; in map25 two Hell-Knights appear below the floor level; in map29 there are few misaligned textures. To sum up: there are just few maps that strike your attention for their beautiful graphics and finely crafted architecture, whereas most of them are medium-detailed; unfortunately the several bugs and flaws scattered through the levels lower my not-so-high assessment! Assessment: 7! Difficulty: "Plutonia 2" is not a cakewalk! On the contrary it is challenging from the beginning till the end, because tough monsters (like Revenants, Mancubi and Hell Knights) appear since the first map. So don't expect for a "crescendo" in difficulty level: in fact it is almost constant, all levels are medium-hard. Surely the first third of the MegaWAD is a bit easier than the rest and the last third is the toughest, but wait for nasty moments in all maps. Some levels have an "Hell Revealed"-like difficulty level, with hordes and hordes of monsters to face, but you are usually provided with proper weapons and enough ammo, as well as health. Moreover, if you play at skill levels lower than UV, you can find several power-ups, like Berserks and Soul Spheres, near key points, where important battles take place; in few occasions, you can find also Invulnerability and Invisibility Spheres. So health and ammo are usually well-balanced, but also armour is finely distributed in maps. What make most levels hard are tricks and traps (especially with teleporting monsters!), but also fights taking place in very large and open areas, where you are surrounded and attacked by enemies from every direction, especially sniping Chaingunners and Revenants, that sometimes can be annoying and even hateful. Not few levels have a very nasty start, that is quite annoying, especially if you begin every map from scratch (i.e. "pistol start"). map21 is one of these and probably the worst level of "Plutonia 2": you have to kill monsters through doors, that close continuously and you must open and open and again with a switch in another room; sniping Chaingunners and Shotgunners make your journey quite disturbing; there are also some HR-styled moments, when you have to kill a horde of Revenants, surrounded by Imps, Chaingunners, Mancubi and two Arachnotrons: you must face this challenge with a high amount of health and armour... and even this couldn't be enough, if you haven't got enough experience with such challenges! An odd flaw is in map23: some parts of the blood lake don't hurt, others do - quite stupid! As for secret levels (map31 and 32), they have higher difficulty level than "Plutonia" secret maps, but they feature the same kind of challenges. If you don't like HR-styled maps (map32 is a slaughter-fest!), don't look for the secret exit in map15. Also map11 is inspired to Casali brother's level in "Plutonia", since you are hunted by Arch-Viles in a mazy map. To sum up: "Plutonia 2" is not bad as for difficulty, on the contrary it is challenging, though it can get quite boring for the large monster count; the only flaws are the nasty start in some maps and the annoying snipers! Assessment: 8! New graphics: The .WAD includes also new graphic resources: first of all there are new textures and flats, some of which come from "Doom", whereas the others are modified vesion of original "Doom" or "Plutonia" textures or completely new ones: they all look good. There are also new titlepic, interpic, credit, help and bossback picture, as well as a new menù and its relative graphics: they all present the same nice style; the new status bar is quite good (if you like playing with it) and the new level names (with authors too!) are pretty good too! Assessment: 10! New music: The majority of the levels features completely new background music tracks, most of which are quite good, sometimes even catch and fit the ambience/mood of the maps or the pace of the gameplay, with some exceptions: in map02 the new background music is quite bland and doesn't fit well the ambience of the map; in map10 the Arabian theme is catchy but out-of-place; in map20 and 21 the new music tracks aren't good and they soon get monotonous and boring. Only map04, 06, 13, 22, 23 aren't new, since they come from "Ultimate Doom" or other .WADs. The background music of "Go 4 It" (map32) is a sort of remixed version of "Go 2 It": it is not bad at all and suits pace and ambience of the level. The new music tracks of map26 and map27 deserve a special mention, because they are unique, with peculiar styles. As for the new title music, it is the music track of some levels of "Doom": not proper as title music; something more epic would have been better! The new intermission music is a relatively short, but nice track. Assessment: 8! Overall: To sum up in few words this long review... "Plutonia 2" is a nice sequel to Casali's "Final DooM: Plutonia Experiment": they share the same classic gamplay, based mainly on action and key hunt, and the same difficulty, though a bit harder; as for graphics, "Plutonia 2" is inspired by Casali brother's IWAD too, although with some licenses and new graphic resources, that actually are well used together with the original one; the new music is generally good, apart from few choices. With some more extensive play-testing, some flaws and bugs could have been avoided and I would have given this .WAD a higher assessment! Assessment: 8!

 

"Kobal 2" by Shadowman: Playability: This .WAD is the sequel of "Kobal". Like its predecessor, it is designed for prBoom and doesn't feature any story, but unlike its prequel it conatins two new maps instead of one. The first is quite linear and easy, compared to the second level. Gameplay of both maps is based on action as well as finding keys and solving simple puzzles with switches, which open doors or lower crates (uh? Yes, that's it!). The first map is short, linear and simple to solve; on the contrary, the second is longer, non-linear and mazy: it can be even frustrating, if you don't have good eye to find small switches carved in the wall, previously hidden by crates! To sum up: Shadowman exceeded in non-linearity, losing points in this department! Assessment: 7! Graphics: Shadowman is really good at making a fine architecture with a high detail level: he already showed it in "Kobal" as well as "Cheogsh", but he uses again the same geometric scheme and simmetric layout as the prequel of this .WAD - somebody may not like it, but I don't find it bad at all, though it's quite clear that he used quite extensively "copy and paste"... but who doesn't use it? Moreover everything looks good and never trivial! The main theme of the first map is a bit unclear, but still nice: it is a mix of Gothic (with metal and wooden touches), tech-base and grassy landscape. The main themes of the second map are sewer system and warehouse. Lighting is painstaking with some nice fading effects, but a bit too dark in the second map, affecting difficulty! I would have said "bravo" to Shadowman, if I didn't notice a visual glitch: a "slime trail" or sort of HOM effect in one of the corridors of map02 (look at the last screenshot): I don't know what causes it, but maybe rebuilding nodes could avoid this problem! Assessment: 8! Difficulty: As I already wrote above, the first map is easier than the next one, but challenging: after a quiet start, you find yourself in a large grassy battlefront with a river separating two grounds, where Imps, Zombies and Shotgunners attack you. You'd better kill Shotgunners first, take their weapons and then kill the other enemies with them. Then you have to activate two switches in the two guard towers in order to raise two bridges and go to the other side of the river. After killing some Cacodemons, you can enter the area where monsters are protecting the Yellow Key: here you'll meet Chaingunners, Revenants and again some Zombies, Shotgunners, Imps and Demons. Then you can reach the exit after killing the last opposition. To sum up the first level: it is challenging and fun with good health and ammo balance. I won't describe the whole second map, but expect for a really hard challenge: though the toughest enemy here is still the Revenant, monster placement, nasty teleporting enemy traps in tight rooms and bad health balance make map02 very hard; moreover darkness makes everything much harder, since some times you must wait for enemies to shoot in order to see them (and this means that they wil hurt you!) or shoot in the dark with the risk of wasting ammo! Last but not least: the Super-Shotgun is hidden in a secret area in map02, meaning that you have to face Demons and especially Revenants with just your Shotgun or Chaingun (not so fair!), if you don't find it.; as for secrets, they are hard to find. To sum up: whereas the first level is good and well balanced, the second is quite bad, because it is too hard... so I must make an average and map02 lowers the assessment of map01! Assessment: 7! New graphics: The new .WAD includes several new textures and flats, extensively used in both levels, making them very good-looking! If I am not wrong, most textures come from "Quake", "Final Doom - The Plutonia Experiment", maybe Nick Baker's graphic resource pack and Danie Tormentor667 Gimmer's "Blood" graphic resoure pack. The author doesn't mention the source of the textures and flats he used, nor did he credit their authors: that's bad and I lower my assessment for this! Well... actually he credits just the "Onslaught" team, that I don't know, but I am quite sure about the origin of most textures! The new graphical resources include also new recoloured sprites for Imps and Demons (whose behaviour is still the same!) and new sprites for trees. Assessment: 8! New music: Though the background .MIDIs are nice tunes, they don't fit both levels. They are not Doom-ish at all, nor do they suit the mood of the maps. Well... maybe the background music of map02 (by "Death Tormention II" team) suits its creepy ambience, though its initial part seem to be incoherent with the level, but the Russian air doesn't fit map01 at all! Assessment: 6! Overall: It's hard to sum up a .WAD that is a "mixed bag": surely both maps are great as for graphics, whereas background music doesn't suit both levels; map01 is much better than map02 as for gameplay and difficult, since it is more linear and easier than ma02, though still challenging. I believe that even seasoned Doomers will have troubles in ma02 because of forementioned flaws (darkness, lack of SSG, monster placement, nasty traps in tight rooms and bad health balance)! Assessment: 7!

 

"Final Heretic - Chapter One: The Docks" by Toranaga: Playability: As the name suggests, this .WAD is for "Heretic", but requires ZDoom, since it uses extensively a lot of its features, which make this level realistic as for graphics and interesting and fun as for gameplay. It is a completely new remake of the original E1M1 of "Heretic", but they share only the name of the map ("The docks"). The level starts with a nice cutscene (thanks ZDoom!), that recalls the story of Heretic: you are sent to the docks of a citadel to look for D'Sparil, the last Serpent Rider (not "Raider", as  the author wrote in the messages!). Then your adventure starts: you have to find the inn and ask the innkeeper for weapons and ammo; he'll give you a Crossbow and a Quiver of Arrows to fight D'Sparil's army and look for the Chalice stolen from Anana's Temple, where you must bring it back. Once you accomplish this mission, you must search for the Yellow Key that opens several doors in the town, among which there's the main one, to fight against the boss, the Death Knight! While completing your objectives, you could find 3 coloured gems, that enhance the powers of the Multi-Wand, a new special weapon. You are quite free to explore the docks as you wish, but it's "recommended" that you follow your missions, so that you don't have to face dangerous fights without proper weapons or ammo. So, the level is "open", but you have to reach some goals in a certain order to go forth, though you are free to explore most of the map as you want. Finding the Multi-Wand and the three coloured gems is not necessary, but the final battle against the boss would be extremely hard without it. To sum up: this kind of gameplay, structured in missions/objectives with some puzzles and new feaetures, make this .WAD really interesting and very pleasant to play! Assessment: 10! Graphics: The map is set in the docks of a medieval citadel and the author indeed succeded in making it realistic with wooden structures, boats, ships, a guard tower, an inn, houses with sloped roofs, a market with fishes, pigs and hens and even a temple (the forementioned Anana's Temple)! Everything has a high level of detail and looks realistic, thanks also to ZDoom features, like slopes. You can't understand how realistic this level is, if you don't play it or don't look at screenshots: there are lots of fine details on ships or inside the houses and the architecture of the outside areas or inside the temple is just awesome and great-looking! Lighting is good with lit and dark areas. To sum up in one word: perfect! Assessment: 10! Difficulty: The first time you play this .WAD, especially at the beginning, you will find it quite hard, but after all it is not. What makes the level apparently difficult is the open space: yes, that's because you will find yourself surrounded by enemies everywhere: there are Undead Warriors and Archers on the rooftops, other Archers on boats and ships, Golems and Nitrogolems on other boats and ships, as well as confusing among innocent civilians, and Gargoyles flying in the air! But don't get discouraged: look for cover and kill enemies one by one, while hiding from snipers. Follow your mission, as explained in the intro scene, and you won't have many problems: if you go immediately to the inn, you will be rewarded with a Crossbow and a Quiver of Arrows after defeating two Nitrogolems. Then you can get rid of lots of monsters with it and complete your next objectives. Ammo is never a problem, since there are lots of Arrows and Mana for your Multi-Wand scattered through the whole level. Health is well-balanced: you can always find some Crystal Vials or Quartz Flasks here and there, but save the latter ones for the final battle against the boss. You are also provided with a Silver Shield (armour) in the market. The Anana Chalice will give you 100 extra healh points (like the Soul Sphere in "Doom"). There are two secret areas: in one of them you can find a Torch, in the other one a Silver Shield, Arrows and 4 Time Bombs, protected by Spiders. There aren't other power-ups and that's bad, because they could have been useful: for instance, one or two Mystic Urns would have been great for the final battle. As for the fight against the Death Knight, the Multi-Wand with at least one of the coloured gems is recommended: you'll find the weak version of this weapon while completing your missions, but gems are hidden through the map. But you can find them quite easily if you listen to the prisoner, who gives you the Multi-Wand and follow hints in game. To sum up: the difficulty is quite challenging, but not extremely hard; the fight against the boss is extremely hard, but not impossible! Assessment: 9! New monsters: This .WAD includes several new monsters, which make the gameplay much more interesting and funnier: there are the Spider and the Archer from "Hexen 2", the Hell Guard (sort of Ophidian) and the Death Knight (a stronger version of the Undead Warrior). They all are quite good, as graphics and behaviour (they are made with DECORATE). The Spiders are nasty because they are small and spit something like acid, but you can kill them with one Arrow or some shots of the Magic Wand. The Archers require several shots (at least 4) of Crossbow before dying and are good snipers because they throw fast arrows against you. The Death Knight is very hard, because he is fast and has got a lot of health points and different kinds of attack, one of which can kill you instantly, if you are not fast enough to avoid it; moreover he can reflect your shots back with his shield. Killing it with the Crossbow is not a good idea, because the battle can last a good amount of time and a lot of Arrows are necessary to kill him! So the Multi-Wand is strongly suggested with at least one of the coloured gems (I suggest the Blue and the Red). The author would have been better making the boss a bit slower and weaker. Assessment: 9! New weapon: As forementioned, one of the most important new things in this .WAD is the Multi-Wand, made in DECORATE: without any gem, it's quite useless, because it is weak, but it doesn't wear out ammo. The Blue Gem allows you to throw icy shots, that can freeze monsters; the Red Gem allows you to fire a fire ball, that bounces on the floor and explodes after few rebounds; the Green Gem allows you to throw 4 or 5 small green fast arrows in quick succession. The Multi-Wand becomes a powerful weapon with these gems! Assessment: 10! New graphics: The .WAD includes several new textures and flats, which make the level great-looiking. It includes also new sprites for new monsters, weapons, ammo and projectiles, of course, as well as new sprites for civilians, monks, rats, pigs, fishes, jar, pots and other decorations. Everything looks good and fits the level. Assessment: 10! New sounds: Of course there are new sounds for the new monsters and arms, but also for the rats running freely on the docks. They are ok! Assessment: 10! New music: There's a new background music, that really fits the mysterious and creepy ambience of the docks: good choice. The new title music is good too! Assessment: 10! Overall: In few words, this is a very interesting .WAD for "Heretic" for all the novelties introduced by the author in gameplay, graphics, difficulty, etc. The mission-structured gameplay with puzzles and other enhancements makes this "Heretic" level more enthralling than others; realistic graphics with awesome architecture, fine details and new graphic resources make the rest, together with a challenging difficulty, improved by new monsters and weapons, and a proper background music. It is really worth playing and spending 45 minutes of your life! Assessment: 10!

 

"Full Options" by Morbid Doomer a.k.a. Dutch Devil: Playability: This .WAD is a 2-level set designed for vanilla Doom 2, SP, Coop and DM mode, though only the first mode was tested; actually the maps are a bit too big for a good DM. There's no story behind it, but the levels look like a fortress with a tech-base theme, that you have to clear out as usual. The gameplay has a good flow and it's really to nice to see that the second map starts from where the first map ends; moreover they are actually mingled, i.e. you cross again some parts of the 1st map and explore new ones, without it being a hub. This makes the gameplay really nice and interesting, giving a fine touch, really original. Whereas map01 is quite small, pretty linear and straightforward, map02 is a large and a bit non-linear, but not too complex, since you have to go to and fro various areas, after you take a key or press a switch, that opens a door. So there are some few simple puzzles, based mainly on switches and door; but actually the gameplay is based mostly on action and search for keys. To sum up: a very interesting gameplay with good flow. Assessment: 8! Graphics: As forementioned, these two maps look like a fortress with a tech-base theme. Why? Because it has good outdoor areas with a rocky and grassy landscape with imposing walls and turrets surrounding the compounds of the base, like in a fortress; whereas the indoor areas recall a tech-base theme with lots of computers, consoles, some teleport pads, etc. Both indoor and outdoor areas are finely detailed and architecture is really great-looking, thanks to the care put by the author on small details, as well as texture and flat combinations and colour schemes. Lighting is wisely used and painstaking, with simple but good fading effects and such. In few ford: just perfect! Assessment: 10! Difficulty: If graphically this .WAD is simply perfect, difficulty-wise there are some imperfections, due mainly to health balance, whereas ammo is finely balanced. Both levels are quite hard, though they are filled with Zombies, Shotgunners, Chaingunners, Imps and Demons and just a Hell Knight! So there are just humans and not so tough monsters, nevertheless they make your journey hellish, because of well crafted traps, mainly with teleporting enemies and monsters in ambush behind walls. These tricks and traps, though sometimes predictable, can be deadly or lower your health considerably. The problem is that health is not well balanced, with just few Stimpaks and even fewer Medikits scattered here and there. It is useful finding the secrets with the following power-ups: a Berserk and a Green Armour in the two secret areas in map01 and a Backpack of ammo, another Berserk, a SuperShotgun and a Computer Map in the four secret areas in map02. To sum up: a challenging .WAD, though there aren't tough monsters, but a bit too hard because of lack of health. Assessment: 9! New graphics: The .WAD includes a new cloudy sky and few new textures and flats, most of which actually are just simple modifications of original "Doom 2" textures and flats. Assessment: 10! New music: The first level features a new original background music track, whereas the second one has a .MUS already used in other .WADs. However they are both good and fit the ambience of the maps. Assessment: 10! Overall: This .WAD features 2 good maps with nice classical gameplay, great-looking graphics, challenging difficulty (hard, but still beatable, in spite of unbalanced health) and fitting music. Assessment: 9!

 

"Granite Base" by Captain Toenail: Playability: This is a small map, set in a military base on a granite mountain, as the name suggests. It is vanilla Doom 2 compatible and shows a simple and linear gameplay: what you have to do is straightforward: eliminate all monsters along your way, find the Blue Key card and then the exit. Very simple, but effective, since you never rest, you are always surrounded by enemies to kill, keeping a high game pace. To sum up in few words: classic gameplay, based on action. Assessment: 7! Graphics: The architecture is well defined with a good amount of detail: it is never plain, but neither amazing. Texture and flat choice and combination make the level good-looking, together with some fine details, like metal windows, columns and lintels and few hellish touches. Lighting is quite basic, but not neglected. In few words: good, but not great. Assessment: 8! Difficulty: Being a small map, it is quite easy, though I played small but hard maps. What makes this map so easy is the abundance of health, as well as ammo: you can waste a lot of bullets and shells without any problem and be injured various times, because there are several Stimpacks and Medikits scattered here and there throghout the level. The monsters you have to face are mainly Imps, Zombies, Shotgunners, Demons and few Chaingunners, Cacodemons and Hell Knights... nothing serious actually, though they often come in hordes and the battle against the 2 Hell Knights defending the Blue Key is quite challenging in such a narrow space (but not so tight, after all!). It must be said that the only weapons you find are Shotgun and Chaingun, so the game is not unbalanced. Half secret areas are obvious and easy to find, whereas the other 2 secrets are better hidden and harder to find. All the power-ups (Backpack, Invisibility Sphere, Berserk and Blue Ammo) are placed in these secret areas, but they are not necessary. To sum up: the level could have been better balanced, especially in terms of health and ammo, and maybe some more monsters (perhaps even some tougher ones) could have made this .WAD more challenging... but it is not bad at all. Assessment: 7! New graphics: There's just a "new" sky, but actually it's the texture from Episode 1 of "Doom". Assessment: n/a. New music: There's also a new background music track, but again it is not new at all, since it comes from "Doom" too, but let me say that it fits the ambience. Assessment: n/a. Overall: "Granite base" is a good map, though it is nothing extraordinary. Designed for vanilla "Doom 2", this .WAD feature a classic gameplay, based on action, good-looking graphics with a medium detail level and, difficulty-wise, it is quite easy. Assessment: 7!

 

"Death Incarnate" by VeinCrawler: Playability: This time we deal with a quite long map for ZDoom: it will take around one hour, but you'll enjoy this adventure. In fact, gameplay is interesting, though it doesn't exploit any ZDoom features or ACS Scripts: it is based mostly on action and solving simple puzzles with switches, some of which do complex actions (so I suppose the .WAD is just Boom-compatible); nevertheless the gameplay is never boring, on the contrary it is fun and enthralling. That's because the map is quite "open", i.e. you can explore it as you desire, by choosing various routes; so it is even non-linear, but not in a negative way, because it is never confusing. Of course this helps to increase the life of this .WAD, since you can try to play it again choosing different routes than before and you can even play it on harder skill, to have a more challenging experience. The only limit to non-linearity is that, before entering an area, you need two keys (the Red and the Blue one), that you can look for and take in any order: in this locked area, then you have to find the Yellow Key, that opens the exit room, located near the entrance. To sum up: very nice gameplay, though it doesn't exploit the features of the port required to play it. Assessment: 9! Graphics: This is the only (so maybe the first!) .WAD publicly released by the author; nevertheless it shows impressive graphics, with an awesome architecture, high level detail, nice combination of textures and flats, good colour schemes and a very painstaking lighting, that is often disregarded, but makes the difference between a good level and mediocre one. Fine details like borders, windows, balconies, columns, computers, consoles, light sources and other well crafted architectural elements make this level great-looking, without any flaws (at least I couldn't find one!). Notice that the author didn't use any special graphic effects or other features by ZDoom, nevertheless the map shows great graphics! If "UAC Outpost 11", the first .WAD by Davitch, is quite good, "Death Incarnate" by VeinCrawler is just excellent as for graphics and deserves the highest assessment. In the map there is a secret area, that resembles the final one of map11 of "Doom 2" (look at the last screenshot): nice tribute! Assessment: 10! Difficulty: "Death Incarnate" is not just a good-looking level, but it is also a very challenging map... since the beginning! In fact, the game is tense after just few minutes with Zombies, Shotgunners, Chaingunners, Imps, Cacodemons surrouding you. The Super-Shotgun is not so far from the beginning, but you can miss it for some time, though it is not in a secret area, having to kill monsters (even Mancubi and Hell Knights) with just the Shotgun or the Chaingun. On the contrary the Rocket Launcher is hidden in a secret area, not so easy to find, unless you grab the Computer Map near the ending (but then it gets useless, since you should have already killed almost all monsters). The Plasma Gun is near the ending too and is useful to eliminate last monsters, but it is not necessary, since you can exploit all your other weapons and some infighting to take the Yellow Key. There's even the BFG9000, hidden in a secret area, spotted in the automap, but it's exaggerated for this level, because the hardest ones (CyberDemon and Spider MasterMind) aren't used and the toughest enemy in the level is the Baron of Hell; moreover there aren't big hordes of monsters to kill! We can say that hard monsters, like Hell Knights and Mancubi, appear since the beginning, but it's the good placement of monsters as well as several tricks and traps that make this level really challenging! Ammo is well balanced: you should never get out of ammo, since it is quite abundant, but not too much. Health is finely balanced too with Medikits and Stimpaks scattered throughout the level; but if you can find secrets, then you won't have any problems with health, since there are various Soul Spheres and even a MegaSphere. There are also Green and Blue Armours, which are awlays useful. To sum up: very interesting and challenging map for all kinds of player: I suggest the first 2 skill levels (with around 150 monstes) to occasional Doomers, HMP to average players and UV to seasoned Doomers. Assessment: 10! New graphics: There are just few new textures and flats, but they are nice and wisely used in the level together with the original graphics resource. Assessment: 10! Overall: "Death Incarnate" is a very nice .WAD in all aspects: enthralling and fun gameplay, great-looking graphics and challenging difficulty. If you consider that it is the first published .WAD by the author, it's simply amazing! Download it and play it now! Assessment: 10!

 

"UAC Outpost 11" by Jeff Ligda a.k.a. Davitch: Playability: This .WAD is a small map for Boom-compatible source ports. As the name suggests, the main theme is tech-base, but quite original. The untold story is always the same: to clear this infested UAC base. Gameplay is quite simple, linear and straightforward: find keys to open doors and go forth to the exit, without any puzzle or sort of. So, gameplay is based just on action. After all, not bad to be the first .WAD released by the author. Assessment: 6! Graphics: Of course this map doesn't show impressive architecture or high detail level, but it features some nice ideas, which make the level good-looking, thanks to a wise choice and nice combination of textures and flats, pretty and eye-catching colour schemes, as well as a simple but not bad lighting. In the screenshots in the relative section and playing the .WAD you can notice that the author has a good potential: architecture is nicely crafted and carved and here and there it features some fine details, though somewhere it gets a bit plain. Overall Davitch did a good job! Since I couldn't find any error, I give a high assessment to spur the author. Assessment: 8! Difficulty: Being a small map, it is also quite easy, though we know about small but hard levels! You have to fight against Zombies, Shotgunners, Imps, Demons and Spectres... and Hell Knights in the final battle. Weapons and ammo are proportioned to enemies: Shotgun, Double Shotgun and a Rocket Launcher hidden in a secret area; ammo is well-balanced, so that you have enough to kill everything. Health is well-balanced too with the right amount of Medikits, Stimpaks and also a Berserk hidden in another Secret Area. But mind that secrets are quite hard to find! Near the final area there's even a Blue Armor, that could be useful for the final challenge against the Hell Knights, but I took it after that fight, so it became useless, since I already killed every monster. Altogether difficulty level is quite good, though I think it could have been made a bit harder and more interesting. Assessment: 7! Overall: To sum up, "UAC Outpost 11" is a small, but nice level: it is really good to be the author's first released map. Gameplay is simple but good; graphically the map is nice and has got some pretty ideas and finely detailed architecture; difficulty-wise the level should be easy for almost every kind of player. Download and play it now! Assessment: 7!

 

"Grime" by Death-Destiny: Playability: "Grime" is a big HR-styled single map with a hellish theme. Actually the author took inspiration from maps 23-25 of Erik Alm's "Scythe 2", the last 4 maps of "Alien Vendetta", map14 of "Community Chest 1", map32 of "Community Chest 2", and map25 of "Community Chest 3". As for gameplay, you can guess that the map is based mostly on action, killing a huge amount of monsters: it is just a slaughter fest with almost no puzzle. You just have to look for three keys and then use the relative switches to raise a bridge: very basic gameplay, though the author used some special tricks. The map is quite linear, since you have to follow a certain path to go forth. The only non-linearity is the choice of which weapon to take before being teleported to a showdown with Revenants, Hell Knights and a CyberDemon in a long corridor: you can choose between a Rocket Launcher and a Plasma Gun. To sum up: very simple gameplay, but after all it's just a HR-styled level! Assessment: 7! Graphics: The main theme is hellish with a lot of red rocky and wall textures, green stone textures and some metal and wood textures. Texture and flat combination is pretty good. Colour scheme is very simple: as mentioned above, red is the predominant colour together with green with some brown touches (metal and wood). Architecture is nice with a high detail level: you can notice borders, columns, windows, arches, etc. Map layout is good too and is characterized by various height variations. Lighting is painstaking and fine light effects make the level a bit more beautiful and interesting. I noticed just few flaws, like a slime trail and some misaligned textures (look at the sky in the 4th screenshot, for instance): these bugs lower the assessment, that would have been higher! Assessment: 8! Difficulty: As forementioned, this map is HR-styled, i.e. it is based on the massacre of monster hordes: a real slaughter fest! Nevertheless the map is not impossible to finish: it is difficult, but not so much... at least in HMP. Maybe UV is harder and is suggested to seasoned player, who already experienced .WADs like "Hell Revealed" and its sequel, "Alien Vendetta", "Deus Vult" and "Deus Vult II". Average Doomers will have a nice challenge on HMP, whereas less experienced players would better play this map on lower skill levels. Health is finely balanced: Medikits and Stimpacks are counted and placed just where you need them. There are some power-ups which are really useful! Ammo is well balanced too: it is not plentiful, but you have enough ammo to kill all monsters without any problems, but wasting it is not recommended! I suggest that you save ammo of powerful weapons (Rocket Launcher, Plasma Gun and BFG) for the toughest enemies. All the showdowns against CyberDemons are really challenging, but there are other nice fights. To sum up: this level is a well choreographed war! Assessment: 10! New graphics: This .WAD include a new simple vine texture and a new bloody red sky, that is quite nice and fits the hellish ambience. Assessment: 10! New music: The music replacement really fits the tense atmosphere of the level, though it is not as fast-paced as the game. Assessment: 9! Overall: As I wrote above, this HR-styled or better AV-styled map isn't just a slaughter fest, but a well choreographed war: I mean that you just don't have to kill monsters, but you must act with strategy, you have to think while fighting, choosing the best tactic to use in a certain battle... like in "Deus Vult" and "Deus Vult II". To sum up: a very challenging level with very nice graphics and basic gameplay! Assessment: 9!

 

"Nordhell" by Alexander "Eternal" S. a.k.a. Deadall: Playability: It is a medium size single map .WAD for limit-removing ports. It is set in a sort of infested old manor house in a village covered by snow and everything let you think to winter and Christmas. The author didn't write a story for it. As for the gameplay itself, it is nice with the classic feel (kill the monsters and look for switches and keys), but touched up with some variations and interesting puzzles: first of all, you can notice that at the beginning you are free to explore the interior of the manor house as you want and take the Blue or Red Key first, but then you have to follow a defined path to go forth; if you play it twice in different ways, you can notice also that some things are locked but not with keys neither switches... that's a nice and hard feature to implement without using ZDoom special effects and actions or ACS Scripts. To sum up: good and interesting gameplay. Assessment: 9! Graphics: As forementioned, the author made a winter/Christmas theme, by using new wooden, stone, snowy and icy textures and flats. This gives a nice look to the whole level, different from the usual appearance of hellish, Gothic or tech-ish maps. But the author didn't just choose this set of new resources, but he crafted a detailed and good-looking architecture: just look at the staircase in the big main room of the manor house, at columns, niches, windows, water ponds in frozen lakes and so on! Lighting is not painstaking, but good though. Maybe the level is not astonishing, especially as for detail-level, but it is surely a great-looking map. Assessment: 9! Difficulty: "Nordhell" is not very hard, even because it is not a big map, where the difficulty level can get higher and higher. Nevertheless it is a challenging level, especially because of enemy placement and traps, which can be deadly, if you are not careful and quick. In fact the monster count is not high at all (70-78) and most enemies are just Zombies, Imps, Demons and Shotgun Guys plus some Cacodemons and Hell Knights, few Barons of Hell and Mancubi and just one Revenant. Health is well balanced and there are even two Soul Sphere: one is hidden in a secret area, that is not hard to find, the other one is near the end and is easy to discover. In the other secret areas there are a Computer Map and a Berserk: they are not difficult to find. Ammo is abundant, though at the beginning is tight and you need to use pistol, but just for few fights. There are all weapons, except the BFG, but the Plasma Gun is more than you need here: the Rocket Launcher is enough even in the last battle. Some players could not like the fact that you have to use the Shotgun for half the map and you pick the SuperShotgun only later, but this helps to make the level interesting. A more challenging ending would have made the level much better, but after all the map is quite good! Assessment: 9! New graphics: As mentioned above, the author used new graphical resources in his level, especially snowy and icy textures and flats, as well as new wooden, stone and brick ones, some of which have a Gothic look. There's also a nice blue sky. But that is not all: the author has also recoloured some monsters in a winter/Christmas fashion: the Demons now are white, the Imps and Mancubi are grey, Cacodemons and Barons of Hell are white with some green touches... and the Revenant has a funny Santa Claus's hat! This winter/Christmas version of Doom monsters is really amazing: great idea! There are also new recoloured version of torches, candelabra and teleport fog, as well as new trees covered by snow. At last, the author included also new TITLEPIC and CREDIT screens (they are the same picture: a good one!) and a new INTERPIC, that is a photo of a snowy mountain landscape. Great stuff! Assessment: 10! New sounds: There are few new sounds, mainly replacing the door and switch ones and one death sound. They are quite good! Assessment: 10! New music: The author included a new background music, that really fits the Christmas mood: it's Haendel's "Joy to the world". There are also two new .MIDIs for title and intermision screens: not bad. Assessment: 9! Overall: To sum up, "Nordhell" is a very nice and challenging level with a funny Christmas mood and ambience. The gameplay is good with a classic feel, graphically it is very good-looking, difficulty is well balanced; but what makes this .WAD great is the new graphic resource, as well as the new music background! Assessment: 9!

 

"No Chance" by Death-Destiny: Playability: This is a single map .WAD, designed for Boom-compatible ports. Gameplay is pretty simple, since this is an HR-styled level with big hordes of monsters to kill and just few simple puzzles: the gameplay of the whole level is based mostly on action, of course, and on search for 3 keys: once you got all of them, you can activate the switches in the start area: these will open a passage to the exit area, where the final battle takes place. Notice that you need all 3 keys to open that passage and the author made an interesting puzzle without using any ZDoom feature or ACS Script: that's impressive! Moreover gameplay is a bit non-linear, i.e. you don't have to follow an order to take keys, but it's open, you can choose the route you prefer: of course difficulty will depend on the chosen route. There's no story, but actually you don't need it in a .WAD like this. To sum up: nice gameplay for an HR-styled map, though simple. Assessment: 8! Graphics: The level is probably set in hell or hellish caverns with red rocks and lava. So graphically it is quite simple too with a low-medium detail level: it is not on a par with the majestic architecture and awesome texturing of "Deus Vult", another HR-styled map. It is not bad at all, on the contrary it is good-looking, but it is nothing special as for architecture, texturing, mixture of texture and flats and colour schemes (it's all red!); but lighting is quite painstaking. I couldn't notice any flaw, so I think this level deserves a high assessment, because it not easy to align this kind of textures, though the map isn't overstanding. Assessment: 8! Difficulty: As forementioned, this level is HR-styled, i.e. inspired by "Hell Revealed", though actually the author states that his main source of inspiration is Erik Alm's eaxt.WAD: this means that "No Chance" is an insanely hard map, extremely challenging, that requires ability in manoeuvring and good strategy. So it is not for casual players and beginners, unless they want to try it on the first 2 skill levels; the average player can beat it on HMP saving game often; experienced and seaoned Doomers, who like this kind of .WADs, should be able to finish it on HMP without saving game so often, whereas Ultra-Violence makes this .WAD really challenging for them. Monster count raises with difficulty level, whereas health and power-ups are already tightly balanced in HMP; ammo is never a problem, since it abundant everywhere. What makes this .WAD very hard and challenging is number and placement of enemies, who tend to sorround and attack you from every side; every fight is well coreographed with deadly traps (especially those with teleporting monsters), which are activated when using a switch or taking keys. The main problem is finding a good tactic at the beginning: once you found it and killed the first hordes of demons, the level gets a bit easier till the final showdown against Barons of Hell and CyberDemons. Exploiting infighting can be a good idea to save health and ammo. There's just one secret area, that is pretty easy to find, especially if you look at automap. A better balance of health would have made this .WAD a bit easier without the need to save so frequently, but still keeping it challenging! Assessment: 9! New graphics: The .WAD includes a new hellish orange sky and lava fall textures, which are essential for this kind of map set in hell: they are well used together with the original stock of textures and flats. Assessment: 10! New music: The .WAD includes a new background music track too: its fast pace fits perfectly ambience and mood of this furious level. Assessment: 10! Overall: "No Chance" is a good map for those Doomers who are looking for a serious challenge, but it features simple gameplay, though well crafted, and mild graphics. Assessment: 9!

 

"Exist" by Th0r: Playability: "Exist" is a single map designed for ZDoom, but it just exploits MAPINFO in order to add a special action, that let you finish the level as you kill the Spider MasterMind. This has got a negative effect too, because you can beat the map, without exploring the whole map and killing all monsters, if you have got enough shotgun shells, when you enter the room with it and the Yellow Key Card: I consider this a serious error! Moreover as I mentioned above, this .WAD doesn't exploit any other ZDoom features! Gameplay is quite linear: you have to find keys in the order Blue - Red - Yellow, tracing back your steps from one area to another one and some monsters appear in the middle; moreover it is quite simple, since it doesn't feature any puzzle. The author didn't write any story. To sum up: poor gameplay, based just on action... that is not even challenging and fast-paced! Assessment: 4! Graphics: The map layout is simple and consists mostly in rooms interconnected with corridors. Aesthetically it is not bad: the author used a set of textures and flats from Quake, which make the level a bit good-looking, though architecture is quite simple, with a medium-low detai level, in fact most areas look empty and walls plain. Moreover there's no actual colour scheme, since it is all brown. Lighting is quite good, though not so painstaking. To sum up: the map is a "mixed bag" as for graphics, because of simple architecture, plain walls, empty areas with almost no detail, but the graphic resource the author used makes the level better-looking. Assessment: 6! Difficulty: In this level easy fights alternate with hard battles, but usually they take place in quite wide areas. What makes this map hard is not monster count or placement, but the bad balance of health. Fortunately enough ammo is better balanced, though it is not plentiful, so do not waste shells and clips and exploit infighting, if it is not risky! There is no secret and no power-up. Actually a higher monster population would have been welcomed, since the pace isn't as fast as the background music. Traps near the keys are good and make the map harder and more interesting than it is actually. As forementioned, if you saved enough shells, you can finish the map by killing the Spider MasterMind with your SuperShotgun, when looking for the Yellow Key Card; but if you keep it alive and take the Yellow Key Card, you can enter a new area and get the Plasma Gun, after a difficult fight against Cacodemons and Hell Knights in a hellish location: with that you can kill the boss at last. To sum up: challenging level, but just for badly balanced health... not so good, actually! I was forgetting that the author didn't implement difficulty settings: quite bad! Assessment: 6! New graphics: As already written, the author used a graphic resource pack, that includes textures and flats from Quale: all textures and flats look good and make this level better-looking than it is actually, though the map tends to look too brown! The .WAD includes a new red sky. Assessment: 9! New music: I already mentioned a fast-paced background music track, that sounds good and catchy, but actually it doesn't fit perfectly the slower pace of the level, though it is Quakish as the graphics! Assessment: 9! Overall: To sum up, this map is worth playing, but just one time. Some player couldn't like the Quakish graphic theme, so this map is not for them; but apart from graphics, it is a challenging level (though its difficulty is due to lack of health in some places); the real problem is gameplay, that actually is very poor, because based just on action (not as fast-paced as the music) and search for keys. Assessment: 7!

 

"Thunderpeak" by Björn "Vader" Ostmann: Playability: This .WAD is a 2-map set for ZDoom, originally designed for the "ZPack" community project. I said it is for ZDoom and, in fact, this .WAD exploits several features of this advanced port: new monsters in DECORATE (more about them later), a special lightning effect with thunder too (very nice, but it can slow down your computer!), polyobjects (like sliding doors and rotating sectors), graphical effects (but we'll see them in the next "department"), etc... but actually there are just few gameplay enhancements, made mostly with ACS Scripts. There is not a story, but you can imagine it easily: you are in a sort of base on a mountain and you must clear it out, as usual! First of all you must find the Yellow Key, in order to enter the reactor and restore power in the southern area: this sort of mission, that actually is not specified, makes the gameplay more interesting and enthralling. After completing the first level (that is medium-big sized), you enter the second one, that is another base, linked to the first one by a long bridge, where you have to kill Terminator! To sum up: nice gameplay, though I expected some more gameplay enhancements (puzzles are few). I noticed only one bug: an unidentified object in the final area (look at thr 4th screenshot in the relative section). Assessment: 8! Graphics: "Thunderpeak" isn't just a challenging .WAD with enthralling gameplay: it also features impressive graphics with an awesome architecture with an astonishing detail level: cliffs (where you can fall from and die!), borders, columns, arches, windows, balconies, computers, consoles, light-sources, etc. Everything is improved by the use of ZDoom special graphic effects, such as slopes and polyobjects; coloured lights are missing and I think they could have enhanced ambience, if wisely used. Lighting is painstaking with lots of fading effects. New textures and flats are well mingled with the original ones from "Doom 2"; you can even notice nice colour combinations sometimes, though brown and greay are predominant. I couldn't notice any flaw: it's just perfect: great work! Assessment: 10! Difficulty: As anticipated in the previous "department", this .WAD is pretty challenging, thanks to new monsters, good monster placement, nice tricks and traps (mainly teleporting monsters): prepare to face new monsters while tracing your steps back, after getting the Yellow Key Card or restoring power in the first map! Ammo is abundant (you can even waste it!), health is better balanced with Medikits and Stimpaks scattered throughout the levels and placed especially where you need them; there are even 2 Soul Spheres in the arena of the 2nd map, where the final challenge against Terminator and its Cybruiser fellows: this showdown is quite challenging, but not hard, if you learn quickly how to avoid Terminator's attacks and hurt it. Secret areas are very hard to find, but they are not necessary to complete both levels! To sum up: nice challenging .WAD, never impossible and never boring. Every kind of Doomer (from beginners to seasoned) will like it and have fun. Assessment: 10! New monsters: As mentioned above, the .WAD includes some new enemies: Shadow, a crouching dark Imp that hides in darkness and fires a long fire trail; Catharsi, a small demon that launches a series of fire bolts with a cannon; Cybruiser, a sort of cross between a CyberDemon and Baron of Hell: in fact he has head and body like the latter and two tech-ish legs and a cannon firing powerful rockets like the fromer - his strength is intermediate between those two monsters; Terminator, the tough boss monster, that features several attacks: in fact he is provided with a powerful chaingun and a cannon than can launch rapid fire shots and sort of grenades. All these monsters have their own sprites and sounds, which look and sound good, and make gameplay more various and difficulty more challenging! Assessment: 10! New graphics: The .WAD includes several new textures and flats from "Knee Deep in ZDoom" and Nick Baker's resource pack and other textures were made by Eriance (who made the Cybruiser as well): everything looks good and is well used together with original textures and flats from "Doom 2"; there are also new palette and COLORMAP by Tormentor667 and a starry sky. Assessment: 10! New sounds: Apart from the forementioned sounds for new monsters, the .WAD includes also ambient sounds, which makes both levels more realistic, as well as some sounds replacing the original ones, like those for door, elevators and lifts. Assessment: 10! New music: The author chose a nice gloomy music track by Slayer, that perfectly fits the creepy ambience of the first map, and another tense musick track for the 2nd level; when fighting against the boss monster (Terminator) music changes into a fast-paced riff, that suits for the final challenge! Assessment: 10! Overall: This .WAD is just the opposite of the previosuly reviewed .WAD: it has got a fun, entertaning and enthralling gameplay with just few flaws (an unidentified object and very few puzzles), enhanced by some ZDoom features and new monsters; great-looking graphics full of details and with several special effects (lightning, slopes, polyobjects, etc.), featuring lots of new textures and flats; challenging, but not too hard difficulty level; new ambient sounds, which makes game more realistic; great music tracks, that suit the atmopshere of both levels. So... download and play it: it is worthwhile! Assessment: 10!

"Genesis of Descent" by Hobomaster22: Playability: I already reviewed another .WAD by the same author: it was "The Lost Gateway". This is a 3-level set for "Ultimate DooM", designed for (G)ZDoom. Actually it is a 2-level set, because E1M1 is just an intro scene, whereas the ending scene is included in thee second and last proper map, that is E1M3. E1M2 is the biggest level and has got the highest amount of monsters. Actually I don't understand why the game consists of 3 maps... maybe originally it should have been just one level, then splitted into 3 maps because of editing necessities. The author doesn't explain this in the .TXT file, but actually it doesn't affect gameplay. As for gameplay, it is a bit non-linear, but never complex and it's hard to get lost: at most you can't understand what to do next after pressing a switch, but just look around and you'll find the effect of that switch. Puzzles are few and actually the author didn't take advantage of ZDoom gameplay features, apart from ACS Scripts and cameras, mainly used for the intro and ending scenes. But the author claims that he wanted "to retain classic and fast paced Doom action" (from the .TXT file): so maybe that's why he didn't used so many ZDoom gameplay features; but you'll notice that gameplay isn't fast paced at all! In fact, though monster count is quite high in E1M2, you usually face small groups of enemies, mostly Zombie Men, Imps and Shotgun Guys; moreover some rooms and corridors aren't filled with monster at all and there are some "dead moments" in the levels: I refer to lack of battles and not a high frequence of fights. That's quite boring and bad in "Doom" maps! At last there's also a bad built node tree, that must be rebuilt every time you launch the game or reload your savegame: this is very annoying, especially if you have got an old slow computer (not my case, fortunately!) and you save & load quite often! Moreover mind that health and ammo balance is quite bad here and this forces you to save & load your game quite frequently. Last but not least: there's a console in E1M3 that hurts you, if you walk on it! UH?! If you don't believe it, look at the 5th shot in the relative section. To sum up: I have nothing against classic gameplay (though the map is designed for ZDoom and I expected something better!), but it is not fast-paced at all, as the author claims, on the contrary it's too slow-paced and quite boring; moreover the bugs described above make everything even more annoying! I don't give "insufficient" just because of the well done intro and ending scenes. Assessment: 4! Graphics: This is the department where the author did his best work, though he isn't successful. Architecture is just astonishing with imposing element and good-looking combination of textures and flats, though sometimes transitions between different kinds of textures/flats are quite rough. Maybe level detail isn't top-notch, but levels are still great-looking. In some cases colour schemes are eye-catching, other times they are not. ZDoom special effects, such as 3D bridges, slopes, translucent textures, coloured fog, etc. helped the author to create nice architectonic elements (like arches with slopes) and to enhance the ambience. Lighting is painstaking. The main theme is tech-base, but few times it gets hellish too. Till now we dealt with almost good things, but unfortunately there are several flaws and glitches, like misaligned textures and even HOM effects! I took some screenshots of the errors I found and you can look at them in the relative section. Of course I cannot ignore these bugs and I cannot give a high assessment that the map layout would have deserved: the errors are serious and I would give "fair" because of them; I give "good" just because of great architecture, nice map layout and all the author's work and time spent on this .WAD! Assessment: 7! Difficulty: Making a .WAD for "Ultimate DooM" isn't easy, mainly because of less kinds of monsters than "Doom 2", but this can't be an excuse. If a .WADster can't design levels for "Ultimate DooM", they shouldn't design them for it. As for this .WAD, it is a mixed bag: I mean that the levels aren't hard, because they are populated mainly with Zombie Men, Imps and Shotgun Guys, just sometimes Demons, Spectres, Cacodemons and Barons of Hell make their appearance. What makes the map harder and, above all, annoying is the bad balance of health and ammo... maybe I'd better say "lack of health and ammo". That's it! Ammo is really tight and you cannot waste a singol shot, otherwise you'll find yourself punching a Baron of Hell! I am not joking, I am serious, really! I found myself several times with few bullets and shells and once had to fight against 2 Barons of Hell, a Cacodemons and some Imps with shortage of ammo: I had to exploit infighting to spare a bit of ammo for next fights, till I found some ammounition at last. I warn you: prepare to bloody fights with Chainsaw, prepare to exploit infighting continuously to save some ammo, prepare to save even your single shots! Let me give you another hint: alternate weapons, even Rocket Launcher with Barons, but save plasma for the final challenge. As for health, maybe it is even less than ammo: several times I had to wander seriously injured looking for Medikits and Stimpaks, badly balanced and scattered here and there. I suggest that you save quite often and reload your game, if you are seriously harmed and can't find health! Armour is nicely balanced (strangely enough!), but power-ups and secrets are hard to find: only few are simple and one - in E1M2 - requires the Red Skull Key, that's near the end: if you find it, I suggest that you go back and look for the door locked with it: there you'll find something you'll need for the final challenge in E1M3. There are few traps and most of them exploit teleporting monsters: some are nice, but other ones are annoying because you need to exploit infighting! Mind that you can't kill all monsters, because of insufficient ammo - I suggest that you don't kill any monster in one of the last traps in E1M3, the one where you are suddenly teleported in a hellish place: just solve the puzzle and grab the Yellow Skull Key. By the way the last map ends with the Yellow Skull Key (again!), that once taken makes you teleport to a sort of hangar, where you'll find a ship that you leave with. I found a bug in this department too (good grief!): a Baron and Spectre in the same postion of the map, hindering each other (see the 4th screenshot of the series in the relative section). To sum up: the levels themselves aren't hard because most enemies aren't tough, but lack of health and ammo makes them annoyingly hard. More ammo and health would have made everything much better; actually a larger number of monster would have fitted big areas, which often look empty, and made the .WAD more interesting; the flaw I discovered compels me to lower my assessment fro "fair" to "sufficient"! Assessment: 5! New graphics: There are four new flats (light sources - from Nick Baker's graphic resource .WAD) and also few new textures, most of which are used to form the new sky, that looks really nice. The .WAD includes also a new nice status bar and new TITLEPIC and CREDIT pictures, that actually are the same image, that is quite good. Assessment: 10! New sounds: The .WAD includes three new sounds, which actually sound exactly like two CyberDemon's sounds and that of the awakening Icon of Sin from "Doom 2", that is used few times without a good reason. How can I give an assessment on original "Doom (2)" sounds?! So... no assessment! New music: The .WAD includes also a new music track, that actually sounds like a mix of ambience sounds. I think that it is a bad choice. Why didn't the author used real ambience sounds and also a good music track? The levels really need one, because they are quite boring, as forementioned, and maybe a new music track would have made maps less boring and more interesting! Assessment: 5! Overall: If I had to describe this .WAD with just one adjective, I would use "boring" or "annoying", because of boring low-paced gameplay with few puzzles and lack of ammo and health that makes levels annoyingly hard; graphically the maps are nice and it's a pity that some flaws (like misaligned textures and HOM effects) ruin them. Assessment: 6!

 

"Sin City 3" by Ed Cripps: Playbility: The 3rd installment in the "Sin City" series by Ed Cripps keeps the tense ambience of the previous levels, but the style is different. There's a story provided in the .TXT file and in the introduction to the level itself. Infact the author exploited again ACS Scripts, used especially for introduction and ending, and other ZDoom features. Yet the gameplay is classic, based on action, search for keys and just few switch puzzles, which actually aren't real puzzles. That's a bit disappointing, since it is .WAD designed for ZDoom, but its gameplay doesn't fully exploit the port features. Gameplay is quite linear, though sometimes you must trace your steps back, but it is never boring, because new enemies appear in the meanwhile, nor complex. Maybe you could ask what the effect of the switch you used is, but, if you have got a good eye, you'll know that probably some bars raised or a door opened in one of the explored areas; actually the author could have used ZDoom features like cameras and ACS Scripts to show what a switch does or to tell the player what to do next. Anyway the map isn't big, so it's easy to understand what to do next and really hard to get lost. To sum up: nice gameplay, though not very enjoyable. Assessment: 7! Graphics: Aesthetically the map is quite good, though it is nothing exceptional. Architecture is quite simple, but with some nice ideas, like broken floor, a crane and few other things, but the author made it good-looking with a good choice and combination of textures and flats, as well as nice colour schemes. Lighting is painstaking with simple but good effects. To sum up: detail level isn't high, but the author was clever enough to make the map good-looking with his choices and thanks to new graphic resources too. Assessment: 8! Difficulty: Choose your skill level with care, because this map is quite fair on easy skill levels, but it gets really hard on higher difficulty levels, because of a greater monster population of course, but also because of health balance, that is not good. So I suggest that you save game quite often. Ammo is better balanced than health: it is abundant, but scattered throughout the map; this means that you could run out of shells, especially at the beginning and at high skill levels; so don't waste ammo. There are almost all weapons except for BFG, but actually Plasma Gun is even more than you need, because the toughest monster you'll face is the Baron of Hell and you can get rid of it easily with Rocket Launcher, if you aren't good in SSG duels with it. Enemy placement and traps (mainly with teleporting monsters) are studied to ambush you from every direction; so prepare for open fights. Almost all battles take place in large areas: this makes things a bit easier. There's just one secret, as well as one power-up (a Soul Sphere), probably hidden in that secret area. To sum up: the level is nicely designed as for difficulty, but it suffers bad health balanced, a nasty flaw, especially for those who don't like saving game very often! Assessment: 8! New graphics: As mentioned above, new textures and flats were wisely used by the author to make the level better-looking: some of them are taken from "Doom", others are new or maybe ripped from other .WADs (I sadly noticed that the author didn't credit anybody - that's bad and he can't avoid a punishment by me!). The .WAD includes a new TITLEPIC too: it is not excellent, but surely well done. Assessment: 8! New sounds: There are several new sounds replacing those of the weapons and monsters, some recorded, some ripped from Resident Evil; most of them don't fit the monster and sound badly or even ridiculous. Bad choice... sorry! The .WAD includes ambient sounds too: these are better than those for the monsters. Assessment: 5! New music: The background music is nice... fortunately enough! It is a song named "The Lost", recorded specifically for this map by "Pregnant With Worms", probably the band where Ed Cripps plays. It fits perfectly the tense ambience and atmosphere of this level. Assessment: 10! Overall: To sum up, Ed made a good job as for graphics and difficulty, but not so good as for gameplay, though it is not bad at all! New graphic resources and music are nice, but the new sounds were a bad choice and negatively affects the overall assessment. But "Sin City 3" is still a good .WAD to play, though maybe it is not par to its prequels. I suggest 3rd skill level to average players and UV to seasoned Doomers. Assessment: 7.5!

 

"Knee Deep in ZDoom" by various authors (KDiZD team): Playability: "Knee Deep in ZDoom" is probably one of the most hyped and discussed .WADs, but I am going to focus just on the .PK3 to review it objectively. It is a remake of Episode 1 of "(Ultimate) DooM" for (G)ZDoom: the authors reintepreted all the levels, exploiting all the features and special effects of one of the most used ports; they based their work on original level, but still creating maps from scratch and adding new areas, puzzles, monsters, weapons and other novelties. There's a new secret level, added to the classic 9 maps, that you can enter from Z1M7 only if you finish the map with good cumulative statistics! The story is that of "DooM" of course and the game starts with a nice intro scene (if you don't use the -warp parameter), then you can choose the skill level you prefer and your adventure on Phobos starts. Gameplay in all maps is quite different from that in the original levels, because the authors used puzzles made with ZDoom features and ACS Scripts and added more keys; but action never ends and you are always fighting enemies while solving puzzles or looking for keys; most puzzles are based on switches and that's quite simplistic, if you think to modern port features (think to DECORATE items and such): Z1M1 is quite good and the gameplay differs from the original E1M1, that it is based on, because of the search for 2 keys (Red and Yellow in order) and some nice puzzles, like that of the bomb to destroy a wall or that in the nukage area: puzzles in the next levels should have been like these, but on the contrary they are quite simple and mainly based on switches... and this tends to reduce player's expectation. Almost all levels are based on original map of Episode 1 of "DooM", but enhanced with new puzzles and search for more keys; they tend to be less linear than the original ones too, as well as longer, because of enlarged sectors and new areas... but sometimes this makes levels a bit too long and you can get annoyed soon, because you need to go to and fro. Z1M2 is nice and the gameplay, based on several puzzles, make you feel to be really in nuclear plant. In Z1M3 gameplay isn't based just on action and search for keys, but also on several (switch) puzzles, which make the level very complex and non-linear. There's a completely new and big area, the underground mine, that make your adventure much longer... maybe too long, as well as too complex, making it quite boring in a 10-level set! In Z1M4 gameplay is more classic, with few puzzle and a lot of action and search for keys. The level is quite linear, but not straightforward. In Z1M5, like the original map, gameplay is fairy linear, but faster-paced. In Z1M6 gameplay is based mainly on the search for keys and related puzzles, as well as action of course. The level is quite non-linear, but not too complex. warning: once you get all keys (Red, Grey, Blue and Yellow) and get Beta Clearance, don't go too far from the Command Control Room, to look for the switch that disengages the Master Lock: it is very near! I didn't notice it and lost a lot of time. Z1M7 is probably one of the most boring map of the episode. Why? Mainly because it is very non-linear and, even if it's hard to get lost, you have to go to and fro looking for keys: one of the most annoying thing is that once you got Red Key you need to go to the opposite side, then you take Green Key and you need to go to the East part again JUST to take the Blue Key and fight some new monsters! That's really tiring and useless: it's just to make the level longer! The authors could have put more monsters and some puzzles in the Eastern Area to take the Blue Key, at least. Notice that you need all the coloured keys to finish the level! Z1M8 is very different from the original one except for the 5-point-star-shaped arena and the area with the acid pit; gameplay is different too, because you need to complete some simple (switch) puzzles and the 3 keys (Blue, Red and Yellow) to gain access to arenas. After passing this "vestibule", gameplay pace accelerates with increasing difficulty and harder and harder challenges. Some nice scaring special effects with lights and laser force field in the first part make Z1M8 interesting. Now let's try to sum up: globally, gameplay is funny, entertaining, enthralling, interesting thanks to search for keys, puzzles and objectives and mission to complete to go forth and other nice special effects, ZDoom features and ACS Scripts, but also thanks to new enemies and weapons; most maps are quite linear and, when they tend to get non-linear, they never become complex. The problem is that some maps (especially Z1M3 and Z1M8) are too long, with too many puzzles and you need to go to and fro through those maps continuously! This forbids me to give a high assessment. Moreover I found a couple of bugs, which compels me to lower my assessment: 1. in Z1M5 you can get trapped among crates (see 6th screenshot in the relative section); 2. in Z1M/ you can get trapped again in a small room, if you haven't got Green KeyCard because the ladder visible in the 9th screenshot doesn't work - I mean that you can't climb it! Assessment: 7! Graphics: This is probably the department where the authors succeeded thanks to their hard and long work, though I can't refrain from pointing out few criticisms, that I'll write about later: they are not bugs, flaws or glitches, apart from the issues mentioned in the .TXT file. Every level is awesome with really great-looking graphics, good choice and combination of textures and flats, eye-catching colour patterns, highly detailed architecture with some nice ideas too, painstaking lighting. Original themes are preserved and developed from the map names. As for map layouts, they are always based on the original ones, but enlarged with new areas; better, in most maps the main areas of the original levels are interconnceted with new areas and corridors or new sections are built around the "old" main ones. We can say that all maps are well made reinterpretations of the original levels. Now let's examine maps one by one: in Z1M1, map layout is much bigger and more complex than the original E1M1, but it still preserves the main areas with the same main theme of the original level: they are enlarged and interconnected with new sectors and corridors. In Z1M2 lighting effects, texturing and detailed architecture make the level very good-looking and you feel to be in a sort of nuclear plant. In Z1M3 the "Toxin Refinery" theme is well executed, thanks also to ZDoom features and special effects; as forementioned, there's also a mine theme, that actually wasn't present in original E1M3, but it doesn't look out of place and it integrates nicely the original main theme; map layout is bigger with two main parts: the one based on the original map and the other new one set in the underground mine. With lots of computers, consoles and such, the main theme (tech base) is preserved in Z1M4, "Command control"; but the layout is completely different from that of E1M4: it is much bigger than the original one, with new large areas; it's a free interpretation of the original map, based on its title: it is not bad, but it's quite hard to find resemblances with the original level. Z1M5 is a very good elaboration of E1M5, with more detailed architecture, nice texturing, eye-catching colour schemes and painstaking lighting, though it is a bit too dark sometimes and some effects annoy player's eyes (like in the original map, after all). In Z1M6 it's a bit difficult to remember the original level from the new detailed architecture, that just sometimes vaguely resembles the original one; several areas are too dark: some more light sources would have made the level less annoying. In Z1M7 architecture is highly detailed... when light is sufficient to admire it; that's another flaw in this map, together with that mentioned in the gameplay department: it's too dark... though there are some painstaking lighting effects; darkness also prevents you from recognizing the areas inspired by the original E1M7, that are enhanced with more detail, better texturing and eye-catching colour schemes. As forementioned in the gameplay department, Z1M8 is pretty different from the original E1M8 apart from few areas, as for map layout; aesthetically it is an art-work thanks to detailed architecture, nice texturing, lighting and special lighting effects; hellish theme in the 2nd part of the level is added to the tech-base theme of the 1st part. To sum up: all levels are awesome as for graphics, with nice atmposhere and tense ambience thanks to good texturing and painstaking lighting and great lighting effects (coloured lights, moving lights, coronas around light sources, etc.); there are lots of details which make architecture very fine, thanks to ZDoom special effects, like slopes, 3D bridges, stacked sectors, translucent textures and floors, real moving fans, etc. My only complaint is about darkness, that tends to be overused as you progress in the episode: if wisely used, it can provides a nice gloomy and creepy ambience, that's true; but it negatively affects gameplay, making it more difficult, when it is abused, so that you can't see even the monster that's one step in front of you! And sometimes architecture details hinder your movements. This forces me to lower assessment again. I noticed only one flaw in the intermission scene: it's hard to describe, so I took a screenshot of it (it's the last one of the series for this .PK3 in the relative section), but authors warned players about this in the .TXT file, so I don't consider it in evaluation. Assessment: 9! Difficulty: In this department authors made quite a good work in almost every level... except for last map, Z1M8, but I am going to deal with it later. First of all let me point out that this .PK3 uses extensively but wisely several new enemies, who make their appearances gradually in the episode; they make all maps challenging and interesting to play, because are tougher than the monsters in the original Episode 1. Monsters aren't placed with care in the first maps, but soon monster placement gets better and can be even deadly (for instance Chainsaw Zombies around the lift to mines in Z1M3). Enemy population increases as you proceed of course. As already stated, unfortunately darkness raises too as you progress and this prevents you from seeing monsters, especially the dark ones like Shadows (dark crouching Imps which fire at higher speed and rate) and Dark Imps, making everything much harder than it would be... too much harder! Most fights take place in areas with enough room manoeuvre, but there are some close combats in narrow rooms too. If you play all levels in sequence, ammo is never tight, though you'd better alternate using your main weapons, i.e. Shotgun and Chaingun, to prevent shells or clips from running out. Health usually isn't ever enough, not well balanced, and scattered throughout levels. As for secrets, some of them are preserved from the original levels, whereas other secrets are removed or used in the "normal" map: finding them can be very useful, because you can find some weapons, before they are placed in next levels without being hidden. Secret areas aren't usually easy to find, most of them can be seen only by patient careful players with good eyes! Now let's examine all maps one by one: Z1M1 is not the same as the original level, but it is still quite easy, since it is populated mainly by Zombies and Imps plus powered Zombies (sort of Rapid Fire Troopers) and Shadows; clips for your pistol are quite abundant, shotgun shells are much fewer, so that you'll have to alternate your weapons; health is scattered everywhere and well balanced; one secret is easy to find, the other two require good eye! Z1M2 is a bit harder than the orignal one, because of better monster placement and traps, as well as new monsters (Satyrs, Stone Imps, Mauler Demons, Soul Harvesters); health and ammo are well balanced; some secrets are easy to find, others aren't so trivial; difficulty level starts to increase in Z1M3, mainly because of raising monster count, better enemy placement and new monsters (Blood Demons, Manticores - sort of Hell Warrior, Chaingunners); ammo is abundant, if you play it in sequence; health is well balanced, whereas most power-ups are hidden in secret areas, which are quite hard to discover: I couldn't find the secret area leading to the secret map (Z1M9), that's why I haven't reviewed it (moreover I can't cheat with IDCLEV, because of map names starting with Z instead of E!), as well as Z1M10, because I hadn't sufficient cumulative stats to enter it from Z1M7. In Z1M4 difficulty keeps increasing of course: you'll encounter more hellish monsters than before (Dark Imps, Hell Knights, etc.), but you'll also be provided with the Rocket Launcher; health is scattered here and there, ammo is abundant, but if you tend to use just one weapon (Shotgun or Chaingun), you'd better use both, in order to avoid to run out of shells or clips; secrets are quite hard to find, but some power-ups like Berserks and armours can be found without looking for secrets. Z1M5 is quite fast-paced with lots of easy and medium-hard enemies and few hard monsters in the "hot area"; ammo and health are balanced perfectly; secrets are quite easy to find, especially if you remember where those of the original map are placed and if you get auto-map: in two of the new secret areas there are the Grenade Launcher and the Super-Shotgun, not present in the original DooM, as well as the Hell Knight! In Z1M6 darkness makes difficulty higher than it is actually, though monster placement is good and increases difficulty too, moreover Hell's Fury will give you some interesting challenges; health is a bit unbalanced and scattered troughout the level, so that, if you need health, you'll have to navigate through the level again to look for it; ammo is better balanced than health and here you can get the Grenade Launcher, if you didn't find it in the secret area in the previous map; most secrets aren't easy to discover. Again what makes Z1M7 difficult isn't just monster population, but darkness, because it prevents you from seeing not much far from your nose: that's really annoying and disturbing - if authors wanted to make levels as dark as "Doom 3" maps, they could have provided the player with a torch at least, like in "Doom 3" - Shadows hiding in darkness and firing at you are very annoying; moreover health is badly placed and balanced: dark areas need more health; fortunately ammo is abundant, if you aren't playing this map from scratch; secrets are hard to find, but if you remember those in the original map, then you may find some of them: there are useful power-ups in secret areas. As for Z1M8, difficulty is the department where the authors failed piteously. Why? Let's exam it step by step. The first part, the so-called "vestibule", is ok, though health isn't well balanced; the first challenge with Demons, Hell Knights and Barons of Hell in the 5-point-star-shaped arena is beatable without many problems; the next challenge in a different hellish arena with Barons of Hell is beatable too and ammo is scattered in the arena; then you come back to the previous arena and get a Soul Sphere (but a MegaSphere would have been better!) and next challenge against Bruiser Demons starts: you must to face them with all the ammo you preserved till now... and, if you didn't save some rockets, this challenge could get quite hard! Another complaint is about the architecture that hinders you during the fight, though it provides some useful covers. At the end you'd think that was the last challenge... unfortunately no! There's a terrible challenge against the Deimos Guardian, the final boss: it is practically impossible, because of several reasons: 1) the previous challenge eated almost all your ammo and, if you don't explore the surrounding areas, you'll miss some shells, as well as Medikits and a Blue Armour; 2) the previous challenge eated a lot of your health too and you aren't provided with any power-up at the end of it; 3) the boss has an incredible amount of health, whereas you aren't provided even with health potions during this final challenge; 4) you are just provided with few shells and some bullets during the fight; 5) even if you preserved a fair amount of rockets, they aren't enough to beat the boss just with Rocket and/or Grenade Launchers and you'll have to mow it down with Shotgun and Chaingun, that's quite crazy! A more powerful weapon, like Plasma Gun or BFG, would have been desirable; maybe the Rifle would have been useful, but unfortunately I couldn't find it, because it is not provided in any level, except for one secret areas in Z1M7 and another in Z1M10 and not hidden in Z1M9; I think that the authours should have put it in Z1M10 without hiding it; 6) as if the boss isn't tough enough, it makes Imps and Lost Soul spawn too, making the battle almost impossible, because you must fight not just the boss, but also the monster it spawns! To sum up this topic about the final showdown: ...it is simply IMPOSSIBLE! I had to cheat by using IDDQD to finish the game. Do the authors know play-testing? If so, didn't play-testers say anything about it?! I can't believe that they said nothing! This together with the darkness that makes levels much harder compels me to lower again the assessment. Assessment: 8! New monsters: As you probably understood by reading the Difficulty section of this review, this .PK3 includes several new monsters, made in DECORATE and featuring new graphics of course. They all are well done. I'll just introduce them briefly: Rapid Fire Trooper, that is a powered Zombie; Shadow, a dark crouching Imp that fires at higher speed and rate; Stone Imp, a grey-ish massive and slow Imp that can just punch you; Dark Imp, with some variants, that are tougher than normal Imps and can even fire homing fire-balls, which hurt more then the usual Imps' fire-ball; Soul Harvester, a bit more stronger Imp, that fires "souls" homing you; Satyr, a small monster that can hurt you very much by scratching, if you allow him to get near you; Mauler Demon, a fast, jumping and biting Demon; Blood Demon, that is just a bit faster, but much tougher than the normal Demon; Hell Warrior, that is a sort of Hell Knight, provided with a shield that it uses for defense, and fires a yellow fire-ball and a grey one from the shield; the well-known Hell Knight from "Doom 2", though its sprites look a bit different; Hell's Fury, a monster resembling a Hell Knigt but with the haed like a Lost Soul: it fires a very fast red shot and 3 sort of homing souls (like those of the Soul Harvester); Ghosts, which make their scary appearance in the darkness only in few moments in Z1M8; Demon Cube, a flying cube like those spawned by the Icon of Sin in map30 of "Doom 2", but this one fires strange "electric" yellow things that really hurt; Bruiser Demon, a sort of big orange flaming Baron of Hell with big horns: it resembles CyberDemon and it moves as slow as that... and maybe it is as strong and powerful as the CyberDemon again, but with multiple attacks (horizontal stripe of fire in air, moving rays of fire on the floor and single painful fire-balls); at last there's the infamous boss, the Deimos Guardian, a big ugly (in all meanings, i.e. graphics is not very good!) monster, that hides periodically in a lava pool where it swims, fires homing painful fire-balls and stripes of Imp's fire-balls and can spawn Imps and Lost Soul. I don't give the highest assessment, because the sprites of the boss look quite odd (sort of 2D) and a bit ugly; moreover the authors made the final challenge with this boss unbeatable: I defy the creators of this monster and/or the authors who designed that final battle to beat it and record a demo throughout the whole level, from start to end. Assessment: 9! New weapons: If you didn't yet notice it in the previous parts of this review... "KDiZD" comes with new weapons too. The first one you are provided with is the Super Shotgun (SSG) in Z1M6 or in one of the secret areas of Z1M5 (if you can find it): it is not like that in "Doom 2" graphically and maybe in behaviour too - as for graphics, it looks a bit rough (look at 7th screenshot in the relative section) and I would have preferred the original SSG from "Doom 2"! In the same map where you find the hidden SSG there's another secret area with the Grenade Launcher (GL), an effective weapon replacing Plasma Gun, that it's even more powerful than the Rocket Launcher, though it uses rockets too: just try it and you'll notice that you can kill the same monster with less rockets, saving ammo! Again its sprites are quite odd: it looks like a sort of cannon or a single barrel of SSG (look at 10th screenshot in the relative section). If you can't find the GL in Z1M5, you'll find it in Z1M6 for sure. The third new weapon is the Rifle, maybe the most powerful weapon, but the hardest to find, because it is hidden in secret areas in Z1M7 and Z1M9 and it is placed without being hidden in Z1M10: as I already stated, I couldn't find it, so I can't preview it for you... sorry! Don't complain with me, but with the KDiZD Team about having hidden this weapon, that maybe is important for the final challenge against the Deimos Guardian! I give 7 as for this aspect of the .WAD, because I subtracted from 10: one point for the ridiculous graphics of SSG, another one for the odd sprites of GL and the last one for the hidden Rifle! Assessment: 7! New graphics: Since I already deal with graphics of weapons and monsters, here I will deal about other graphic resources, mainly new textures and flats, most of which are recoloured or modified versions of original textures and flats from "Doom (2)": most of them probably comes from Nick Baker's famous graphics resource .WAD: they all are good and wisely used in the maps. There are new nice skies too and new decorative sprites, like corpses of dead marines and monsters, new kinds of lamps and torches, columns, barrels, a microscope (!), etc. The .PK3 includes also various pictures used for intro and ending scenes (with credits). Everything is good and well done! I have no complaint in this department. Assessment: 9! New sounds: The .PK3 includes several new sounds, mostly ambient sounds (mechanical and electrical sounds mainly), but there are other sounds that make everything more realistic, like those of the clips and shells that hit ground after firing! They all are good, but the .PK3 doesn't include a TERRAIN lump: it's a pity, because in such realistic levels (thanks to great graphics) sounds related to steps on metal, rock or water and other liquids would have made this game an amazing realistic adventure! Assessment: 9! New music: Actually there is no new background music track, apart from those playing during the succeeding challenges in Z1M8: they really fit the pace and ambience of those showdowns with their rythms and they are quite catchy too. Good choice! Assessment: 10! Overall: Let's try to sum up this long review: "Knee Deep in ZDoom" is surely one of the best work ever made, but not the best one ever, because of some disappointing things that I would have never expected from such a big and experienced team, that even spent a long time on this project! "KDiZD" is a very nice reinterpretation of the original Episode 1 of "DooM" in all departments: it shows amazing graphics, detailed architecture and an awesome ambience thanks to new graphic resource too, its difficulty raises to challenging and even harder levels as you progress, classical gameplay based on action and search for keys is nicely integrated with puzzles, new weapons and monsters enhance gameplay and increase difficulty. Unfortunately there are some gameplay flaws, too long maps because of too many puzzles and non-linear gameplay; darkness, that surely enhances gloomy ambience, negatively affects gameplay and difficulty; the final challenge against the Deimos Guardian ruins what could have been a perfect game in the Difficulty department. So, finally, I suggest that you play it, in spite of these defects: maybe it's the not the masterpiece that you would have awaited because of the hype and discussion about it, but it is surely worth playing. Assessment: 8.5!

 

"Evil Journey - Plan A" by Arch: Playability: This .WAD is a 5 level set, designed for ZDoom, though actually it exploits just few features of this port, mainly ambient sounds, new DECORATE monsters, MAPINFO and terrain effects; so the author didn't use gameplay features of ZDoom, like ACS Scripts, special actions and such; he didn't even take the advantage of graphics effects and visual gimmicks of the port. This means that gameplay is very simple, based on exploration of maps and action: levels almost lack even puzzles, tricks and traps. All levels are very linear and straightforward. There's no story... it's just skecthed out at the end, with a final message... that's quite odd! According to the .TXT file, this is probably Arch's first .WAD; I didn't want to be rude and would have liked to give a 6, that means "you can do (much) butter", but in map04 there's a serious error, that can stop your journey according to your movements: the floor of sector 74 with tag 11 can raise till it traps you in the outer perimeter: unfortunately it happened to me... and I can't ignore it: this means a lower mark. Assessment: 5! Graphics: This is a controversial topic, because the author showed talent and good ideas, but almost all levels are graphically simple. Detail level is usually low, though it raises to pretty high levels somewhere: look at screenshots to have an idea: the 1st level is quite plain; the 2nd one set in the airport is nice with good details; the 3rd map is set in rocky landscape with a small village and shows the author's potential though the map is still simple; the 4th one resembles map06 of "Doom 2" as for gameplay, but it's completely different as for graphics with a dark and creepy ambience; the last is probably the best one, with a grand temple sorrounded by a pleasant courtyard with statues, fountain, a fosse filled with water, a bridge over it... moreover it has got an arena inside, whence the title of the 5th level ("Colosseum"). To sum up: Arch has a great potential and shows it with several nice ideas and a fine architecture and high level detail in the last map (though the arena is a bit plain - but what do you want to find in arenas?!); moreover he/she wisely used additional textures and flats from new graphics resources, in good combinations with the original graphic package from "Doom 2", colour schemes makes everything eye-catching and themes are consistent and well developed. Lighting is usually plain, but the author added few special effects (see map02 for instance) which envliven it. Keep up the good work, Arch. I would have liked to give a higher assessment, but I couldn't because of the variety of quality in maps and especially becaus of few glitches (such as misaligned texture in map01: look at the 2nd screenshot in the relative section). Assessment: 6! Difficulty: Almost all maps are very easy, mainly because they are filled with few weak monsters (Zombies, Imps, Shotgunners, Demons), which aren't even placed very well, so they rarely surprise you and give troubles. Traps are rare and quite simple. The weapons you are provided with suit the situation: you wonder throughout map01 with just your pistol, then you will be provided with Shotgun and you will face all fights with that; you will find Chaingun and Super Shotgun only in the last map and you really need the latter for the last challenge against the Baron of Hell, maybe the most difficult fight together with that against a horde of demons in the arena in the same level! Health is well balanced, whereas armour and ammo is plentiful. Power-ups? Be serious: you don't need them, really! Some secrets are very trivial, whereas other aren't so easy to find. To sum up: this .WAD is too easy, maybe even for newbies! Average Doomers and seasoned players can try Ultra-Violence and maybe even the -fast option to make levels more challenging and interesting. Assessment: 6! New monsters: The author included lots of new DECORATE monsters from the "ZDoom monster pack", but used just few, mainly Rapid Fire Troopers. If the author had used more new enemies extensively, levels could have been more interesting and enthralling. So: monsters themselves are good, but their use is limited and that's a pity! Assessment: 6! New graphics: The .WAD includes new textures and flats by Daniel and, of course, sprites for new monsters. There's a new grey sky too. The author also added a TITLEPIC and several INTERPICs, that actually are bad drawings (they change after each level, thanks to MAPINFO). Choice and combination of new textures and flats are good and make levels better-looking. Assessment: 7! New sounds: In spite of the statement in the .TXT file, there is no music replacement, though there's a track in the .WAD, but it doesn't work! However this is not a problem, since the author used several ambient sounds, that fit perfectly the various settings of maps, and add a nice touch to the whole .WAD. In combination with the TERRAIN lump, these sounds make everything more realistic: in fact, you can hear your steps when climb stairs or when you walk on water, mud, blood, grass, etc. This deserves the highest assessment! Assessment: 10! Overall: If this is first author's work, it is quite good after all! Gameplay is very simple, difficulty is too low, but graphically this .WAD shows author's talent and potential. All the addiotional resources make the .WAD more interesting. Don't discard it: it is worth playing! I wait for the next episode, for "Plan B": the author can learn from his errors and improve his style in all departments. Assessment: 6.5!

 

"Belial's Bad Brain" by Alexander "Eternal" S. a.k.a. Deadall: Playability: "Belial's Bad Brain" is a single map .WAD for limit-removing ports. This is a bit unconventional level because its peculiar gameplay, whose style resemble that of "Hell Revealed" as well as "Deus Vult", but difficulty is not as high as those .WADs. So gameplay is mostly based on action with lots of monsters to deal with, though you still need to look for keys to enter new areas filled with monsters. Simple puzzles with switches let you enter other areas. Since you often come back to main area, we could say that gameplay is non-linear, but not too complex, because you must explore areas in the sequence chosen by the author and take keys in the order: Red, Blue, Yellow. There's no story, but actually you don't need it in such kind of .WADs! To sum up: gameplay is quite poor, because it's just a "massacre level". Assessment: 6! Graphics: The main theme of this level is hellish, though the beginning doesn't look so hellish: the author made a great work, because he just used graphic resource of "Doom 2" with originality, wisely choosing and combining textures and flats, carefully creating colour schemes and patterns. Architecture is just awesome and rich with details (columns, niches, borders, etc.), though a bit too geometric, especially at the beginning. Lighting is painstaking with some good effects. Aesthetically it is different from "Deus Vult" and hellish maps of "Deus Vult II", though some parts compete with Huy Pham's levels. Assessment: 9! Difficulty: As stated above, this .WAD is HR-styled, because you have to face almost continuously great hordes of monsters, usually of the same type, since the beginning: in fact, you start in a room with MegaSpheres, BFG and Plasma Gun. In spite of the very high monster count (more than one thousand!), the level isn't hard at all and maybe isn't even so challenging! That's because the battles aren't studied and "designed" as in Huy Pham's .WADs and the author provides much more ammo than necessary, several power-ups (MegaSphere, Soul Spheres, Invulnerability Sphere, etc.), which are located in "hot spots", lots of armour... and health is scattered throughout the map; so you shouldn't have any trouble. You must be really stupid to fail it! Maybe even a newbie could beat it at low skill levels, whereas "Hurt Me Plenty" should be quite easy for most occasional players; maybe "Ultra-Violence" could pose a more serious challenge to average Doomers, but couldn't be challenging enough for seasoned players. Moreover there are just few simple traps, few of which are really effective. To sum up: just a very long pastime, nothing serious or challenging. Assessment: 7! New graphics: As mentioned above, the author didn't use any additional graphic resource. He just added a new TITLEPIC, that is a view of one of the biggest areas of the map with the the .WAD title: it is not a beautiful picture, but it's pretty decent. Assessment: 7! New music: There's a new background music track, that fits the ambience, but maybe doesn't fit perfectly the pace of the "war". Moreover it soon gets repetitive, but that's because the map itself is long! Assessment: 7! Overall: To be honest I was expecting something more challenging and maybe I should have played it on UV instead of HMP, as I usually do. However, the author made a great work in the graphics department, but I can't say the same in the other ones: gameplay is quite plain, based mostly on action, difficulty-wise it isn't challenging at all. I think that the author should learn how to choreograph battles and fights and how to balance gameplay and action from Huy Pham's "Deus Vult" and "Deus Vult II", if he wants to make more challenging .WAD: monster count isn't everything nowadays! Assessment: 7!

 

"Escape from Castle Chezcrea" by Paul Hiebert a.k.a. Creaphis: Playability: This Boom compatible .WAD is a single level that probably took inspiration from the first map of "Return to Castle Wolfenstein", though actually it doesn't look like a castle! The author wrote no story, but I think it's quite obvious from the title and the setting, since you start from dungeons. Creaphis states that the map is very linear, but actually it is not so straightforward, though it's not either complex at all. Unlike most levels, this one doesn't feature any keys and gameplay is mostly based on puzzles, some of which not so obvious, like that of the pickax to break stones in a cell and open a passage: you must press the "Use" key in front of the pickax to "pick" it (see 4th screenshot in the relative section) and then you can use it on the stone wall in that cell by pressing again the "Use" key in front of it. Assessment: 7! Graphics: In spite of the title, this level doesn't look like a castle, as forementioned. It features dungeons, torture chambers and sewers, but it whole resembles a castle quite vaguely. And this is quite a failure! What impresses player mostly is the great gloomy and dark ambience that permeates all the map, thanks to painstaking light and few lighting effects. The choice and combination of textures and flats, most of which are taken from various resources, make everything creepier. Moreover architecture is good-looking with neat details, such as fake doors with dormer windows, torches, columns, windows (with gratings), torture machinery, a saw and that "infamous" pickax, etc. To sum up: the .WAD could have gotten the highest assessment, but the fact that the main theme (castle) doesn't appear clearly weighs! Assessment: 8! Difficulty: This level mixes easy parts with hard ones and narrow rooms with large areas. The beginning isn't easy at all, because you start in the dungeon with just the pistol in your hands and Imps, Demons and Zombies coming out from darkness; once you survive the dungeon with a deadly trap near the end, there's a small arena with a Cacodemon and a Hell Knight, but you can get rid of them quite easily if you exploit infighting. Then you could choose two routes, but one is a dead end for now, so you reach torture chambers, full of monsters, but filled with health and ammo too, so it is not so hard. After the battle against an Arch-Vile, that could be troublesome if you don't face it properly, there's a large area with a strange machinery in the middle (don't pass through it: you could die instantly! - On the contrary, exploit it, so that the Baron gets killed): clearing it is quite easy; then take what you need and go back... After opening that "infamous" passage with the "infamous" pickax, you'll think you got it, that your escape is successful... unfortunately ground will fall down under your feet and you'll find yourself in the sewers, a nasty part because it's tight and filled with enemies. The finale with Pain Elementals is a big delusion, after such an adventurous escape. To sum up: good health and ammo balances, good placement of monsters with effective traps, well hidden secret areas, but disappointing ending. Assessment: 8! New graphics: The author used extensively a lot of new textures and flats from various graphic resources, made by TeamTNT, GothicDM team, Raven Software (some textures and flats from "Heretic") and id Software (the red sky from "Doom"), plus few textures made by Creaphis himself. All these resources help to create the right ambience and make the level great-looking. Assessment: 10! Overall: Before the final assessment, I'd like to point out that the level is map30 and exploits original music from "Doom 2", that fits perfectly the dark and gloomy ambience! That said, the .WAD would have deserved a higher mark, but unfortunately there's something in every department that disappoint players and could have been done better. So I'd like to say this to Creaphis: keep up the good work! Assessment: 9!

 

"Kobal" by Shadowman: Playability: Here is another single level .WAD from the same author of "Cheogsh": he shows again very good talent and this level has as high quality as the previous .WAD. There's no story behind it, but gameplay is good, a bit different from the classic one, because the author tends to create several puzzles, mainly based on switches and such, but they are well done. You must find all three keys in the following order: Yellow, Blue, Red, to challenge the final boss, the Spider MasterMind! The map is quite linear, but you can enter some areas from different entrances and explore few rooms in a limited area in different orders. Since it's for prBoom compatible ports, it doesn't feature ACS Scripts or ZDoom tricks, as "Cheogsh" did. So, considering the limits of the port which the .WAD is designed for, "Kobal" gets an higher assessment than the other level. Assessment: 9! Graphics: Shadowman has a good eye and good taste in graphics: the architecture and choices he did about texture and flat combinations, colour schemes prove it. The main theme is sort of gothic/ruins and tech-base. Detail level isn't top-notch like "Cheogsh", even because here the author didn't use GZDoom features as he did in the other .WAD, but the map is still good-looking, thanks to new graphical resources too. Maybe layout is a bit simple: if you see automap, you'll notice that most areas are symmetrical, but this doesn't affect my assessment at all, though somebody don't like symmetry. Lighting is quite plain, maybe even a bit too dark, with few variations. I couldn't notice any flaw or glitch, but I can't give the same assessment as in "Cheogsh" because of minor quality. Assessment: 8! Difficulty: "Kobal" is pretty interesting from this point of view: it's always challenging, thanks to sudden traps (with teleporting monsters), like the one at the beginning (but I don't want to spoil it here!), well placed monsters and use of tough monsters quite soon but just with conventional weapons. Zombies, shotgunners and Imps haven't ever been so hard... that' because of their placement; so always watch your back and lean over corners. Expect small hordes of monsters to await you in every room... and if you don't find anybody, be ready to fire after pressing a switch! Fortunately enough, ammo is well balanced (don't waste it!), health is scattered throughout the map and some power-ups are provided too where you (can) need them. Don't be scared by recoloured enemies: they are not new powerful monsters, they are the same as in original "Doom 2", but just recoloured. The final challenge with the Spider MasterMind is quite easy if you know how to get it down. To sum up: difficulty-wise "Kobal" is beter than "Cheogsh", though the final challenge is a bit disappointing and that's a pity after a good challenging level! Assessment: 9! New graphics: The .WAD includes a new map title and TITLEPIC, that actually isn't so nifty, as well as new sprites for the recoloured monsters (of course!) and new textures and flats, extensively but wisely used to enhance graphics. Assessment: 9! New music: There's a new background music, that is nice, but probably doesn't fit entirely the mood and ambience of the level, though quite creepy as the map. Assessment: 9! Overall: To sum up, this is a level that won't take much time because of its size, but will prove your skills,