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!

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!