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.