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!!