Review 9 - DOOMBEARS

Well hot damn! It’s good to be back! It’s been ages since my last review, I know but have I got a treat for you! Before I even start to talk about DOOMBEARS, I might as well point out the bad side: only the beta testing has been enabled so far so it’s not fully available for now. Be sure to keep updated though as it’s sure to come out soon enough: DeimosComaBlack is working a lot on it to improve and get it ready for you guys.

Now what’s worse than being stuck in small, tight, labyrinthine corridors and realizing that there is very little ammo and even fewer health packs? Why, being stuck in small, tight, labyrinthine corridors being chased by enormous bear monstrosities! Yes, that’s right! DOOMBEARS puts the player in a labyrinth of sorts and sharing these halls of death are giant, fucking, floating, bear heads. The player must go down practically every corridor, systematically flipping switches to find the exit. All this, of course, whilst avoiding the swift jaws of death of those bears. Ammo is scarce and the bears have this nasty habit of turning the player into a gross, inside-out looking pile of gibbed material in less time than it takes you to say “OMG WTF?!”. So what does this tell us? The wad can be a pain in the ass when it comes to difficulty. Not that this is a bad thing, mind you, as it’s similar to the Ghouls Forest series where it’s seemingly impossible to pass but gives you an enormous sense of gratification when you managed to clear it. When looking at comments from players about DOOMBEARS I found comments very similar to those in the Ghouls Forest: “OMFG man! This is fucking impossible! Has anyone actually finished this wad?”

Multiplayer will, of course, make this wad significantly easier and very likely, a lot more fun. Since I have only played the beta version so far, I must say that I have not experimented this on multiplayer but just imagine what it must be like to play survival mode trying to get out of a bear-infested maze? I imagine it would be similar to playing The Ghouls Forest in multiplayer.

Ah yes; there is still one more treat when it comes to difficulty in this wad: changing the difficulty will have a great effect on the gameplay of the wad. There are two main difficulty levels. From everything up to Hurt Me Plenty there is one criteria; in Ulta-Violence and Nightmare we have the other. This is what’s mainly affected

I’m too young to die! / Hey, not too rough / Hurt me Plenty:

*The speed of Bears
*The damage the Bears cause

On Ultra-Violence / Nightmare:

*Bears are invisible until they spot you
*No health pickups or Plasma Rifle are supplied

GRADES

• What can I say about the new content other than it’s simply hilarious? Come on! Bears? This scores a 10 just out of plain randomness! You gotta love the bears!
• The difficulty levels having an effect on the bears and the equipment provided are a definite plus! This is worth at least a 9.
• Despite it’s lightning fast gameplay, it’s consistency and it’s challenge, the wad is still not the most innovative thing ever. It’s still a rather gun-down-your-enemies-as-you-try-to-survive type of wad. Gameplay-wise, it would only be worth a 7.
• Multiplayer is just speculation, really, but I imagine that it would be worth a 9 due to its fast-paced survival co-op feel.
• The maze is very well designed and what really pleased me in the architecture was the “bear wall”: instead of having the big skull thing carved into the wall, the player scores more laughs when they see the big bear head instead of a skull making up some parts of the walls! 8 points for this brilliant idea!

10+9+7+9+8 = 43

43 \ 5 = 8.6

DOOMBEARS scores an 8.6 out of a total of 10. A great wad and great for some laughs and a challenge. Unfortunately it is not available for the general public yet. Be sure to stay posted and play it as soon as it becomes available!

Unfortunately...

...it has been just over a month since I posted my latest review.

Truth be told I have simply not had time to play much DOOM. It is also unfortunate that I'm not here to tell you, faithful readers, that another one will be out just yet.

Time.

Time affects all of us, eh? And it seems, more and more, that we don't have enough.

The good news is that I'm going to have some spare time in 2 weeks. During one week I shall post 3 more reviews, if all goes well, to account for all that I have missed in this past month.

Afterwards, again, I shall probably not have time anymore, but I think it's safe to say that over December, January and February there will be the regular weekly waits for a review.

Review 8 - Mordeth E2

In 1997, a wad came out that was considered one of the greatest wads. It's a total conversion made up of 6 levels. 6 levels means that it's the equivalent of one episode of the original DOOM game.

The levels revolve around mansion-looking settings in the first 3 levels and moving on to city-like in the next 3 levels.

This wad is going to be reviewed a little differently than normal simply because, well, there is no wad to review!

Mordeth E2 (meaning Episode 2) made it to the 10th place in the Top 10 Infamous Wads simply because it is the "one of the longest-waited high-profile incomplete projects in Doom world."

I guess there's not really much else to say about this one. Don't worry though, I've reviewed number 2 in the list already (wow.wad) but I'll compensate this short one when we get to number one in the list: The Sky May Be.

A new review

Dear review readers.

Sorry I haven't posted a review in a while. I've just been very, very busy.

If all goes well, I'll have a review up by Sunday. And the good news is, it's the start of the Top 10 Infamous wads!

Review 7 - The Ghouls Forest 3

When I see someone reaching into glowing embers and managing to restart a bonfire, it just amazes me. Just in case you people have very uncreative minds that was a metaphor for someone recreating something amazing and new out of an "old". With the arrival of the first and second installments of the Ghouls Forest trilogy, it was clear that Cutman Mike had done exactly that. Whilst I particularly enjoy the first two Ghouls Forest wads it is really the Ghouls Forest 3 that is the diamond in the rough.

The Ghouls Forest 1 put the DOOM player against a never-seen-before foe. Good old Choke. In the Ghouls Forest 2, the players knew what to expect but knowledge on what was coming didn’t necessarily help them to survive.

The Ghouls Forest 3 puts the player against not 1, not 2, but 4 different Ghouls! The other detail is that each Ghoul is unique. It has different sounds, attack patterns, they look different… I won’t write much about them seeing as I don’t want to spoil much; but just to let you know that if you thought the first 2 Ghouls Forest wads were scary, just wait until you fight the Yurei or the Jittersk….hold on; I’m trying very hard to contain my excitement here!!

Oh, yeah…apart from the difficulty that you face when trying to battle different types of Ghouls, dear Cutman Mike thought he would be a little more generous to the player by giving them a weapon they’re certainly not used to using if they played a lot of DOOM: a bow and arrows. Yes, that’s right. The character of this wad is not the regular DOOM guy but another person called the “Hunter”, who is (as you may have guessed) a professional Ghoul hunter.

Well, in the interests of not spoiling too much here I’m gonna go straight to the

Grades

• Whilst each of the other Ghouls Forest wads presented us with new content; the Ghouls Forest 3 tops that off with simply fabulous Ghouls. Note the plural here! It's not only one Ghoul!! The new form of weapons is absolutely stunning too! 10
• Another glorious detail added here was the change in difficulty. Now, there are choices of how hard you want the game to be. This affects two details in the game: the number of arrows you have as ammo (although you can collect used arrows {if you find them, of course}) and the darkness of the forest. For example, in the easist difficulty, you have unlimited arrows and everything in the forest is pretty much visible. In the hardest, you're limited to only a few arrows and you can't see more than 2 metres in front of you! The change in difficulty allows easier or harder gameplay; therefore expanding the possibility of gameplay. 10
• The variety of gameplay is one of the most attractive features of the wad. When you've learned the attack patterns of one Ghoul and finally manage to slay it, you're forced to stay alert whilst waiting for the next Ghoul, as you have no idea at all of how to defeat it! 10
• The downsite of the whole Ghouls Forest series is the multiplayer experience, in my opinion. As stated in both other reviews of the Ghouls Forest series, it's practically limited to survival and co-op.8
• The architechture in this forest is very, very similar to that of the second Ghouls Forest. To be honest, other than the changes in darkness, there is not much to be said here. 8
  

10+10+10+8+8 = 46

46 / 5 = 9.2

The Ghouls Forest 3 gets a 9.2 out of 10!!

It's a brilliant wad! As Cutman Mike said, it's not for the faint of heart so don't play it if you have any problems about seeing blood, guts, or getting scared in general! If you can handle it, though, it's a wad that cannot be missed for anything!

Linguica's "Top 10 Infamous Wads" List

The Top 10 Infamous WADs article was created by Andrew "Linguica" Stine and Mike "Cyb" Watson for Doomworldscelebration of Doom's 10th birthday. It was created as a counter-article to the 100 best WADs ever.

- taken from the DOOM Wiki site.

Now whilst I haven't played all of the 10 wads on this list I have played most of them. I was filled with excitement at the idea of reviewing the list.

Tomorrow's wad is Cutman Mike's "The Ghouls Forest 3". After that, for the next 9 weeks I'll review the Top 10 Infamous wads. "Why 9?" you ask? It's simple: one of the wads in that list has already been reviewed. You may have guessed that it's Wow.

Oh, yeah...here's the list in the order I'll review them:

10. Mordeth E2 - Gaston Lahaut

9. Slige - Dave Chess

8. Mockery - Scott Cover

7. Imp Encounter - anonymous

6. Gothic99 - Matt Dixon & friends

5. Evilution - TeamTNT

4. Nuts - B.P.R.D.

3. UAC Labs - Eric Harris

(2. Wow) - Paul Thrussell

1. The Sky May Be - Doug the Eagle and Kansam

Review 6 - The Ghouls Forest 2

Well, what do you know? After killing Choke there still is another ghoul?

He's faster!

He's louder!

He's....er...living in a darker forest?

It's Sjas!!

Well, The Ghouls Forest (ghouls2.wad) has the same gameplay as the previous edition. Kill the ghoul in the dark, creepy forest before he kills you.

There are, however, a few modifications that Cutman Mike made on this one that led to some significant differences in the overall wad.

Probably the 3 most important differences are the weapons and ammo provided, the Ghoul that is your target and the map itself.

The weapons provided in this wad make it into a much more difficult situation for the player. We are given a super shotgun. This basically means that whenever we fire at Sjas, not only do we use up two shotgun shells, but we also use precious time to reload. Time that usually decides if you live or die.

Sjas is also a very different ghouls to Choke. He is easier to spot because he screams like a cat being tortured whenever he moves around. He's black and red as opposed to Choke's brown colour, but he's about as easy to spot as Choke, visually. Whenever Sjas gets shot, he disappears into a puff of smoke and the player usually thinks that he's dead. He's not. He just got teleported to another part of the map. This pretty much means that if you hit him you get a few seconds to recover before the next strike. If you miss...well....

In terms of architechture, the forest itself is not so different from the previous wad. The main difference is the size and lighting. Ghouls 2 has a much smaller forest. This makes it easier you to find Sjas...and for him to find you... The lighting also makes a difference because you can see much less in front of you. Cutman Mike, it seems, wanted to increase the sense of terror brought on by the first Ghouls Forest wad.

Other than these three main differences, there is not much to say that has not been said in the previous Ghouls Forest wad. They are sister wads so they are very similar.

Grades

• A new ghoul and a different forest. The New Content in this wad is good enough to get it a 7 again.
• Difficulty has been one of the main problems with The Ghouls Forest series. Many people have passed it off as a joke and not taken it seriously because of it's extreme difficulty. It's fun and a challenge, but it puts off many players and therefore looses points here. 5
• A "cat and mouse" gameplay is excellent and much more vivid than in Ghouls 1. Sjas as a new opponent as a new form of challenge is something to be craved in this wad. 9
• My friend Sh4dOwS14d3 and I played multiplayer on this wad together and the survival / co-op experience was great on this wad. Spectacular. It's great hearing Sjas screaming, thinking he's following you, then realizing that he was chasing your friend when you hear another person's death scream. 8
• The darkness of the level coupled with the smaller size, hence creating the cat and mouse feeling, give the architechture of this wad a high 8.

7+5+9+8+8 = 37

37 / 5 = 7.4

The Ghouls Forest 2 is a great improvement on the original Ghouls Forest. Cutman Mike goes forth to create an even more superb Ghouls survival wad in The Ghouls Forest 3.

Review 5 - Dystopia 3: Re-Birth of Anarchy

Even in “modern” games, we get a lot of players screwing around with the game engine trying to find out just how far the engine can be pushed to get new, creative and in many cases funny, results. In other games this can be simulating other games, movies or anything. It can be walking through walls or getting to places that are, otherwise, inaccessible. The DOOM engine is no exception. Despite being able to create their own levels and have fun with add-on wads or cheats to play the game in a different way, we occasionally have level designers that will go through the trouble of making something difficult that will have a “new” flavor to it.

Dystopia 3: Re-Birth of Anarchy is one these types of wads. It was released in 1996 and made by Anthony "Adelusion" Czerwonka and Iikka "Fingers" Keränen 11 action-packed levels mixed with memorable battles (one of the things that most tickles my fancy in a wad), beautiful level designs, interesting co-op and, best of all, the exploitation of the DOOM engine to get new effects and create new experiences. Since these are probably the best aspects of this wad, I’m going to review these mostly.

What usually pisses me off in wads is that they are either too easy or too hard. I mean, Hell Revealed 2 has us fighting just about every Revenant that Hell can spare to fight one marine whilst by adding EWeps.wad to your game will make even Hell Revealed 2 a walk in the fucking park.

Surprisingly enough, the comat in Dystopia 3 is very balanced. There is just enough ammo for when you need it, just enough health pack for when you need them and just enough cover to suit your needs. It’s not like other wads where you’re faced with an army of Heavy Weapons Dudes and you have no cover so you get turned into Swiss cheese in a second.

The levels have been strategically designed. Not only do they look brilliant, but they also provide the cover you need for each battle. For example, there are moments when you’re in a rock plain fighting a cacodemon. As the name of this type of terrain suggests, it’s a plain. Open. Still, Cacodemons only fire at a relatively slow rate and you can easily dodge their attacks if you’re careful.

On the other hand, if you are in a room filled with Zombiemen, shotgun guys, heavy weapons dudes, etc, you’ll be given a lot of things to hide behind. Or, at least, a few crates that provide cover from one or two spots.

Although this was is quite playable in single player mode, co-op if still quite fun. Although most of the experiences I had with co-op were simply my allies rushing to get a full health pack when they had about 60% of hp and I was down to about 30%...

I didn’t really enjoy deathmatch on this wad very much though. The levels were created with the purpose of defeating those opponents that are meant to be there. The levels we have here aren’t exactly well balanced for Multiplayer…

Ah, now we get to my favorite part of this review. It’s actually the reason I chose to write this review now, as opposed to writing about other wads that I’m dying to tell you about. “Adelusion” and “Fingers” have done a great; wait, not great: brilliant job at creating a completely original and new experience for the players. They created completely new and challenging concepts. Amongst these are deep water and a double bridge. The double bridge was a personal favorite of mine where one bridge is over another and you need to cross both at some point in the level. I still intend to contact Adelusion and Fingers to ask about this milestone in DOOM editing. The level editing in this wad is just an absolutely 100% stroke of brilliance.

Grades

• Other than a few new textures that can be seen in some places, we don't really get that much in the way of New Content. I won't take this into consideration in the grading. N/A.

• The wad is only as difficult as you make it. What I mean is; the wad is not very hard because there is not a lack in ammo and health packs. What is more, the number of monsters is quite managable. The difficulty is a nice touch here, however. 8.

• One of the most interesting things in Dystopia 3 is the smoothness of the gameplay. The wad just flows and never stops until the end. The levels are action packed, have just enough ammo and health for the managable number of monsters. What else can I say about this? Full marks!! 10.

• Multiplayer works fairly well in general. It's perfect for Co-op but it lacks in the way of deathmatch or any sort of gameplay where the players are against each other. This can only score the wad 6 here.

• The levels are made in a balanced way. They have some new textures and brilliant designs. The architechture of the level also presents us with many new ideas like deeper water and the double bridge. Again, this Wad would get full marks for this. 10.

8+10+6+10 = 34

34 / 4 = 8.5

Dystopia 3: Re-Birth of Anarchy will get an 8.5 as a final grade. This wad is brilliant. I would definately give it a shot if you have a chance to. Great level design, fair, balanced and memorable levels. Overall, a BRILLIANT WAD!

Review 4 - The Ghouls Forest

New ideas are always interesting. They might not work out so well and all we may be left with a large pile of what many would call “number 2” but it never ceases to be interesting. Nevertheless, many (I’d say most) of the wads containing new ideas I’ve played seem to be overall quite enjoyable and a satisfying experience.

The Ghouls Forest, a wad by Cutman Mike is probably one of the most revolutionary wads I’ve ever seen. It brings a whole new branch into the DOOM gameplay possibilities and leaves players with a feeling of “that was a fucking good idea! I wish I’d done that before!”

The basic premise of the wad is that you’re lost in a forest. It’s a dark, creepy forest where one could get lost very easily (and that’s not only cause all the trees look alike). As if it’s not enough that you’re completely lost, there’s this ghastly, horrendous moaning face floating around the map looking for you.

The rules of the map are simple: kill this Ghoul called “Choke” before he kills you. Sounds easy? Too easy? Think again. The map is dark. It’s hard to see Choke. He floats moves faster than a bloody meteorite falling towards the earth. He’s fast, he’s ugly, and he’s lethal. Just a few bites from him will take you out and, what is more, the player will probably be so freaked out that he pops out of fucking nowhere, that they’ll be too busy running away from him to shoot him!

The Ghouls Forest is one of the wads that have lead to some of the most varied opinions. Many see it as a brilliant and original masterpiece. Others see it as crap. Of course, most of the negative views stem from the fact that the players were “scared shitless” and/or had “shat bricks”. How can you be so stupid? It would be as ridiculous as saying that wow.wad is garbage because it lacks gameplay! The fact of the matter is that, similar to how wow.wad is a joke wad and is not meant to be taken seriously, The Ghouls Forest is a terror wad and is made to evoke feelings of horror and dread in the player. Cutman Mike himself constantly reminds players that the wad is not for the faint of heart.

I’ll be sure to review his other works at a later stage including, but not limited to: The Ghouls Forest 2 / The Ghouls Forest 3 / Ghouls vs Humans (GvH)

Grades

• This wad is all about new content. New levels, new sounds, new Ghouls! Brilliant! 7

• One of the many problems that players had with this wad was the fact that it's very difficult. Whilst Choke can kill the players in few seconds, they need to pump it full of rounds before it would die. Id give it a 6 because of this.

Gameplay is original, simple and fun. Not much can be said here. Definately something to get your mind off slaying Arch-Viles and Cyberdemons. 8

Although I've never played this wad on Multiplayer, I have read other people's comments and seen videos of co-op against the ghoul. Seems to be enjoyable and being able to see your friends killed through Choke's eyes after he's killed you is a blast. Pity it's practically limited to Co-op and survival mode. 5

Frankly, I didn't really like the Forest Architechture in this wad. The Ghouls Forest 2 and 3 improved on the detail there, but it still looks rather blocky and ugly in this wad. I'd give it a 4.

7+6+8+5+4 = 30

30 / 5 = 6

The Ghouls Forest gets a 6! A pretty good wad since it gives us a completely new idea to work on. However, it still has many problems related to difficulty and architechture. These are (mostly) corrected in the next wads in the series: The Ghouls Forest 2 and The Ghouls Forest 3.

Review 3 - EWeps.wad

Even seasoned players who’ve survived battle after battle and have faced just about every monstrosity that the gullet of Hell can spit out in your face will want an easier game. Practically a “break”. The problem, though, lies in the fact that many DOOM players don’t know about add-on wads and will simply type in the God Mode cheat and will subsequently cause the Hell spawn to piss their pants when they realize they don’t stand a fighting chance of taking out the player. Although they still die trying to take you out, which really makes me admire them, the horrible ugly beasts that they are.

But anyway, I’m digressing. This week I’m here to talk about an add-on pack that won’t make the monsters piss in their pants. Why? Oh, because they’ll be turned into a smoking pile of raw red meat before they even have the chance to be scared!

EWeps.wad basically replaces all the DOOM weapons and arms the player with the sort of weapons that would create red mist where there was formally monster spawn. Examples of these are the Uzi that replaces the pistol and has a higher rate of fire than Skulltag’s minigun, or the rocket launcher that launches about 2 rockets per second. Of course, players that aren’t very good with rockets may want to avoid this weapon since they’ll have a high chance of becoming as burnt and unrecognizable a corpse as the monsters who you took down with you.

Oh, and did I mention that when EWeps.wad is loaded the player has unlimited ammo? Poor monsters; I almost feel sorry for them; except for the revenants from Hell Revealed 2 because those bastards deserve every goddamn bullet that is fired at them….where was I?
Oh, yes: the ammo. Well, ammo is unlimited: hurray for you! Not so spectacular for the unfortunate monsters who, due to the conscription in Hell, are forced to battle an insane player who’s armed to the teeth with weapons that will outclass them in a way that they’ll almost with that the game engine would allow them to kill themselves…at least it would be less painful for them and would leave a more recognizable corpse.

Multiplayer is a fun experience when using EWeps though it seems to have a few balance issues. For one, even without picking up other weapons and fending only with the basic weapon that you’re given when you start, you’re quite capable of turning the other player(s) into Swiss cheese in under 3 seconds. After all, all it takes is one player hiding in a corner near a door for the game to get boring rather quickly. Anybody who goes through the door will find pieces of themselves both on the floor and on the wall before they even have a chance to get a good shot at the other player. Sure it’s gonna be surprising at first and the original idea was good, but how long will it take for this (at first) awesome idea to become predictable and expected in a way that would make it very, very boring for the person who dies all the time without having a fair chance of taking out the other?

Grades

• New content is the main aspect in this wad. The new weapons look awesome, I have to say. Many of them are taken from other games like “Shadow Warrior” For the new content, this wad scores a 7.


• We can practically day that difficulty-wise, this is the opposite of Hell Revealed 2. This is almost too easy and the difficulty is not a challenging aspect. In fact, I think that this should not even be graded. I’ll give it a N/A.


• Gameplay is fairly simple in this game. Sadistic players may find EWeps very enjoyable and a great way of relieving stress because you shoot at monsters that, essentially, don’t even have a chance to fight back. Still, the gameplay is fun scoring this an 8.
  
• As stated before, the multiplayer in EWeps is enjoyable but it is fairly limited. It will probably get very old very fast on game modes like deathmatch. Co-op is even more unfair (on the fiends! They barely have a chance against one player; imagine against more than one!!), 6 points is the maximum that EWeps can score on multiplayer.


• Architechture will also get an N/A because there are no new levels or textures.
  
  7+8+6 = 21
  21/3 = 7
  
  EWeps.wad gets a 7 as a final mark. It’s a great add-on wad if you want to play DOOM in a different way or, more likely, are a sadistic, heartless, inhuman bastard that want to orphan little baby cacodemons like Hissy here:

Review 2 - Hell Revealed 2

The DOOM wiki will, once again, describe this wad for me since they word the descriptions so brilliantly!

Hell Revealed II (HR2) is a 32-level megawad for Doom II and the sequel to the legendary Hell Revealed. The WAD was authored by a team of 14 members led by Jonas Feragen. It was released in December of 2003. Many have admired this megawad for being quite possibly one of the most difficult wads to date.

Hell Revealed II had a long gestation, with development beginning in 1998. On February 14th 2000 a "beta" version of the megawad was released with 15 levels, and two secret levels. A number of demos were recorded on this version. The intention was to release the full megawad that year, but several years passed before Andy Olivera pulled the project together and released the final version. One of the levels, Beyond The Sea, was actually taken from an earlier Andy Olivera WAD, D2200EP1, released in 1998.

Most of the fame of Hell Revealed 2 comes from it's difficulty. But what puts it apart from many other difficult wads is the fact that it is still playable. After all, many other "difficult" wads are simply impossible to play because no matter how well you fight and use ammo and health pack wisely, you'll still be ripped apart by the seemingly endless hordes of monsters.

Whilst Hell Revealed 2 at many points had me begging to use cheats to bypass a certain area of a map with, say, 30 or more revenants and it was looking very grim, I managed to do it without cheats. Sure, I died a lot of times and some maps were harder than others, but I still managed to finish it solo and on Ultra-Violence. This momentary brag was simply to show that the wad is hard (Oh yes! It occasionally seems like the only bullet left in your reserve of ammo would be better used to take your own life) but it's still playable and, with enough patience and will to try again, you can survive quite well.

The problem is that this patience is exactly what is key. Unfortunately, after being slaughtered by the SAME GODDAMN REVENANT for the 800^th time and reading the same taunting message saying that you “couldn’t evade” the GODDAMN fireball, you feel like screaming “SCREW THIS GAME!” at the top of your lungs and shutting it off. Of course, since I played this whole thing on Ultra-Violence and completely on my own, I got pissed off quite a few times.

Speaking of the revenants, I can safely say that they were the most annoying aspect of the whole WAD. After all, it takes two shots from a super shotgun to bring one down and whilst that doesn’t seem like a lot think of it in the long run. 4 shotgun shells per walking skeleton. In DOOM and DOOM 2 it wouldn’t have been much of a problem (if it was even a problem since they usually are stocked with health and ammo and the revenants don’t make up a lot of the monster population there) but the fact is, this is not DOOM or DOOM 2. It’s not even Final DOOM where this would have been significantly less of a problem. This is Hell Revealed 2 and Revenants breed like rats! Whenever you find a revenant (or even just see a rocket charging at you and turning in your direction) you can be sure you’re about to fall right into their breeding grounds. They are very, VERY rarely found in groups smaller than 5. What? You think that 4 shells aren’t a big price to pay to kill one? Well, think of it this way: 5 revenants. 4 shells. 4 x 5 = 20 shells. 20 SHELLS!! That’s 1/5 of your maximum ammo killing a small group of revenants. So, yeah. This rant was to tell you that revenants are a pain in Hell Revealed 2.

Oh, and did I mention that HR2 is not generous when it comes to ammo and health? Well, imagine a situation with you. You start a level and you have little ammo due to all the damn revenants that you had to slay in the previous level. You have to survive another intense battle against seemingly endless hordes of Hell itself until you get to a room with ammo. In this room, you come across a LOT of ammo. So much that it fills you up to the max that you can carry and there’s still a lot of it left. Sounds good, eh? Well, then you are forced to walk through another teleporter. You arrive in a room with, hmm say, 50 revenants and just enough Arch-Villes to revive them so they just keep coming. When you’re done blasting them to wherever they go when they die, you find your ammo backpack empty again. “Simple,” you think, “I’ll just go back to the room with that excess ammo”. Guess what? You CAN’T GO BACK TO THE ROOM. Either it’s too high up and you had to jump down or there’s no teleporter back or there’s a random gate blocking you from going back.

Speaking of gates blocking you, there are many times when you enter a room and when you realize that there is a horde or monsters in front of you, the door (or wall) will close behind you giving you about 3 seconds to find a suitable place to hold out. It was really great the first time and it scared the hell out of me when I had to avoid fireball after fireball while I’m trying to take out the horde. When I had survived and I was staring at the bloodied face of the DOOM guy with about 26% of health, I thought “This was a bloody amazing trap! I couldn’t have predicted that at all!!”

But frankly, having practically one of those per level (and in some cases more than once per level) is more annoying than having someone constantly tap the back of your head. ENOUGH! Traps are cool! We get it! We cannot charge into a room unprepared, but it looses it’s sense of urgency when we know exactly what to expect.

On a more positive note, many of the levels are quite memorable. As opposed to many other wads that I have played.

For example, the 7^th level, “Not so simple II” is a brilliant parody of the DOOM 2 level of Map07 “Dead Simple”. It’s layout is very similar to the layout of Dead Simple in the sense that when you push the button in front of you, the walls descend and you are surrounded by mancubi on tops of platforms, similar to the original level. The aracnotrons appear after the last mancubus has fallen, just like original, but Not so simple II is a much larger level that also provides a great challenge. There are mancubi, aracnotrons, demons, cyberdemons and even (surprise, surprise) revenants.

“The Siege II” is also a spectacular level. After the player has a chance to collect good powerups such as a megasphere, they teleport to a small castle that is surrounded by hundreds of monsters. They must survive whilst waiting for the teleporter that ends the level to finally open. This is one of the most balanced levels since the player has just enough ammo and megaspheres to stay alive. They also have just enough cover to be protected from many monsters but not enough to be completely safe.

Grades

· This wad uses content from the original DOOM and DOOM II. The new content is not present here, but it doesn’t make much of a difference. If you want to play some addon pack with this wad it is possible, enhancing the gameplay.

· The multiplayer in Hell Revealed 2 is one of the greatest aspects of it and whilst I played through the whole wad by myself, I have played on level or another on multiplayer. The multiplayer in this wad is brilliant is certainly scores a 10!

· The difficulty in this wad was the hardest point to analyze. The difficulty is exactly what makes the survival multiplayer so appealing. I would give it an 8 for that, but due to all of the annoying hordes and predictable traps, I’ll reduce that by 2 giving this criterion a total of 6.

· Gameplay is not so hard to analyze. Hell, it’s playable! I finished it solo and on Ultra-Violence. It’s very playable and, like I said before, with some patience it’s possible to move through the levels. 7 for this section.

· One of the most appealing aspects of the wad is also the architecture. The levels are beautifully designed and many of them are memorable for that reason exactly. The Hell effects on certain levels and the feeling of military outposts infested with monsters is also a great touch. Cover is usually provided in places where they are needed in a way that multiplayer, whether it is deathmatch or co-op is great. Architecture will defiantly score an 8.

10+6+7+8 = 31

31/4 = 7.75

Hell Revealed 2 gets a 7.75 out of 10! A brilliant wad and if you can get past the frustration of dying and running out of ammo quite frequently, you will have a great time. Be sure to try out this wad solo and on multiplayer!!

A Digression; whilst I finish Hell Revealed 2...

Well, as some of you may know, I am working my way through the second wad I'm going to review: a very popular wad called "Hell Revealed 2".

The thing is, however, HR2 is very, VERY difficult. I mean, we get cyberdemons very quickly and they're usually in pairs or something. Don't even get me started on the Arch-Viles...

I sorta wanted to post something in the meantime, I decided to pool all my favorite DOOM levels together to make my Top 10 Favorite DOOM Levels list.

I hope you guys enjoy it and, hopefully, agree with me on many of them!

10. Entryway (DOOM 2 - Map 01)

You may be wondering why such a simple and easy level is in this list anyway. Well, any time I try out a new addon wad or I don't manage to get the wad to work for some reason, I end up on this level. It's sorta grown on me. I dunno why.

9. Grosse (DOOM 2 - Map 32)

Grosse is one of the two bonus levels in DOOM 2. It is a re-make of one of the Wolfenstein 3D levels. For some reason, similar to Entryway, this is a pretty good map for testing wads and spawning bots for quick little deathmatches and stuff. The very tall ceiling and the long corridor with pillars on either side are excellent for this.

8. Cyberden (Plutonia - Map 31)

One of the bonus levels in the Plutonia part of Final DOOM. Simple yet challenging where you fight 4 Cyberdemons one after the other quickly. Something is just appealing about having those 4 big buggers looking down at you just waiting, whilst trapped in a cage and you just know that you're the one who's gonna have to set them free.

7. Phobos Anomaly (DOOM - E1M8)

This level is the end of the first chapter of the original DOOM game. It is also the first time where the player encounters and almost boss-like fight. After going up an elevator, the player stands before two stone doors. They each open together to reveal a monster never seen before: a pair of Barons of Hell. After they are (hopefully) killed, the player climbs up a set of stairs, goes into a teleporter and is killed by a big horde of monsters. This leads to the start of the second chapter on the Shores of Hell.

6. The Tower of Babel (DOOM - E2M8)

The Tower of Babel is a particularly marking level since it is the first encounter with a real boss monster. At the end of the second chapter of DOOM the player has to face what was referred to as the "Anti-Christ" by my cousin; a Cyberdemon. I remember when I first played this level and I thought to myself "What the HELL is that thing?!" Simple level yet very memorable.

5. Dis (DOOM - E3M8)

The final level of the original DOOM. It is yet another boss fight. This time it's the other guy: the Spider Mastermind in charge of the entire monster invasion from Hell. Despite the Cyberdemon having more health, this level can be more of a challenge since you can dodge rockets but not the Mastermind's bullets. Plus, the level is in an open field and there are very few places to hide.

4. Gotcha! (DOOM 2 - Map 20)

As you've probably deduced, I like boss fights with enormous enemies and the feeling of defeating a boss fight when you are very outclassed. "Gotcha!" brings the whole idea of a boss fight with a Cyberdemon and a Spider Mastermind to a while new level. A Cyberdemon and a Spider Mastermind but not enough ammo to finish them both off...how does one go about surviving this one?

3. Tricks and Traps (DOOM 2 - Map 08)

Now we get to the top 3. What can I say about Tricks and Traps? Well, for one you never know what to expect. Sometimes you walk in a room and get swarmed by Pinkies. Another room and you are faced with many Barons of Hell and a Cyberdemon. The icing on the cake here is the (literal) race to the finish. Wonderful level. I would someday like to thank the people who made this level personally.

2. Hunted (Plutonia - Map 11)

You start off in a room with just a Super Shotgun near you. You look to the left and see a scary number of Arch-Viles. You panick until you realize that they can't see you. You press the button to allow you to leave the room. The Arch-Viles disappear. There is a choice. Left or right. It doesn't really matter. 

You're now being hunted by Arch-Viles in a labyrinth and you have to desperately get out fast before one of those buggers gets you and burns you to death! Superb!!

1. Go 2 It (Plutonia - Map 32)

The bonus level following Cyberden. It's stunning, it's scary it's hard, it's exciting! Go 2 It is officially the hardest level I ever beat. My cousin and I  spent a day on it when we tried to beat it on Ultra Violence solo. Hell, we did it! But it took each of us a LOT of game time on it! By then we knew exactly where and when each monster would come from. The music is from "The Tower of Babel" and that just pumps me up. What got my blood flowing even more on this level was to find out that a large section of it is what seems to be the "Entryway" after a few years of monster invasion! BLAM! Number 1 on my favorite levels list!!

Review 1 - Wow

A long time before I even had the idea of making this blog, I played a lot of wads, as I've said before. And when the time to actually write the first review came up, I wondered what wad should be reviewed first.

Should I write about a Mega Wad? Should I review a Joke wad? Maybe a series of wads?

After considering many of the wads I have played, I decided to stick with reviewing a joke wad. I decided to review Wow.

(Wow can be found here: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=9955

Since quite a lot has been said about wow before, I am getting the description of it directly from the Doom Wiki:

The map is comprised of a single room with a BFG9000 and some ammo for it. There is no exit, and the main feature of the level is the "illusio-pit": a pit with a fake floor effect hiding it situated under a quivering torso hanging from the ceiling, with a cyberdemon in it. The pit is thus invisible until the player falls into it, at which point much of the screen is filled with hall of mirrors effect because of the missing textures. The text file accompanying the WAD gives the following explanation for the pit:

A cyberdemon has escaped from a lab, where they are trying to find his weakness. He was injured by a marine, which was made short work of, and he was trapped inside a illusio-pit.

Similar "illusio-pits" have been used in parts of Joke WADs such as Mock 2: The Speed of Stupid and The New Adventure as tributes to Wow.

After reading this little juicy nugget of information, I got interested in trying out the wad for myself.

I downloaded the wad and played it myself (I actually managed to kill the cyberdemon there! Be sure to see the video posted below). Unfortunatly, once the Cyberdemon's dead there's no way at all to finish the level. Since I managed to kill the Cyberdemon I assume that I 'finished' the level.

This wad has already been reviewed on Honest Gamers. Here's the link to it. It's certainly worth a read. http://www.honestgamers.com/systems/content.php?review_id=7514&gametitle=Wow

I do think, however, that Gary Hartley was too harsh in the review. I cannot say that I liked the wad, but at the same time I cannot say that I found it to be a waste of time, either. I have seen many comments on the wad and people keep giving the wad 0 or even 1 star out of a max of 5. I find this to be a little unfair: this wad is a joke wad and as such is not meant to be taken seriously as a story wad. From the second I finished its download and read through the text file, I knew it was going to be something rather...unusual.

Not surprisingly, this Wad is number 2 in the list of Top 10 Infamous WADs written by Andrew "Linguica" Stine and Mike "Cyb" Watson for Doomworlds celebration of Doom's 10th birthday.

I had forgotten this detail when I decided to review this wad. I'll be sure to review the other 9 Infamous Wad's at some point.

Okay, then. I guess it's time for the Grades.

• There was no new content in this Wad so it shall not gain or lose points on this.
• There was no multiplayer in this Wad either, but it would not really make a difference anyway. You can't exactly have a good deathmatch in a bare room with an illusion pit.
• Difficulty would score the game some points. The game scores 6 points for this.
• On the other hand, it gets just 2 due to gameplay. It simply has no point. Even if you manage to kill the cyberdemon, you still are not able to finish the level or get out of the pit (if you fell or jumped into it).
• The architecture was the one hard thing to assess here. The room itself was rather bad. On the other hand, I liked the fact that there is a corpse hanging over the illusio pit. You can more or less know where to expect it. I guess i'll give it 3 points for that.

Since New Content and Multiplayer don't gain or lose any points, I'll only find the average based on Difficulty, gameplay and architecture.

6+2+3 = 11

11/3 = 3.666666666666666

Therefore, this wad will get a 3.6