victoriaviper here as always. This WAD review entry originally didn't have any kind of specific theme but now we're reviewing the best and worst Doom WADs I've played in a long time. To end on a happy note, we'll start with the worst first. XD



PstLevM (click to download)

Click here for screenshot

INFO: 1 map. Requires DOOM2.WAD and ZDoom or a ZDoom-derivative port.

RATING: 1 out of 5

Oh wow, this totally sucked. I wasn't expecting this. I was checking out some WADs from the early days of ZDoom, and I think I delved a bit too far into the past.

From the apocalyptic year 1999 comes the terror known as PstLevM. See the screenshot I included? I only needed that one shot because it pretty much sums up the entire map: some tan rocks, a castle made out of big gray bricks, lots of green slime and a few Quake 2 crates for no particular reason. (The WAD also uses Quake 2 sound effects for no particular reason, because random Quake sound effects in Doom levels was popular back in those days.) Every room is what you see in that picture, just arranged slightly differently. I mean, it's not as if the map looks awful, but it's like the author had a single flash of visual inspiration and decided to stretch it out through an entire level. It all gets tired and samey in a hurry, without even some interesting lighting to bolster things.

The WAD presumably wants you to enable jumping. At least, I could find no clear way to reach certain areas without jumping. But at the same time, jumping horribly breaks the map. You can jump to a megasphere in the very first room which destroys virtually all of the map's difficulty, and you can leap over to the yellow key as soon as you see it and skip the blue and red keys entirely.

The WAD uses a Dehacked file to add a few new tricks, like fiery exploding barrels (the flames do no damage however), splattering blood that leaves puddles on the floor, and it even turns your plasma gun into a railgun, which seems pretty nifty, except you're given nothing stronger than pinkies and chaingun zombies to shoot with it, so it's just another example of this level's terrible balance. Aside from the slime pools that look deeper than they are and are impossible to escape once you fall in, there's really no challenge or surprises at all. You walk from room to room and mow down the lowest-tier enemies in the game. The grand finale of the level is you going head-to-head with a whopping one revenant. Then the exit is permanently blocked and you can never finish the level. Top it all off with a rather obnoxious MIDI of a Guns n Roses song and you have the worst Doom level I've played in months. Yay! :D



Europa 1 (click to download)

Click here for screenshots

INFO: 1 map. Replaces Map22. Requires DOOM2.WAD and a Boom-compatible port.

RATING: 5 out of 5

Europa 1's claim to fame is its nonlinearity. The map is a large, interconnected network of tunnels and rooms that can be visited in virtually any order you choose, and to top off the nonlinear sundae, there are actually six possible starting areas which you can access via one-way teleporter when you begin the map. Naturally, some starting areas put you at a greater advantage than others, but some starting areas are virtually impossible to survive.

That's both one of the greatest strengths and weaknesses of this map: it is HARD. I died probably nearly a dozen times when starting out on Ultra-Violence, and eventually had to swallow my pride and turn the difficulty down to Hurt Me Plenty in order to make any progress. Using the foreknowledge of the map design from that attempt, I gave UV another try and managed to beat it this time. Trial and error is an absolute must in this map, and you'll spend a great deal of time dying and modifying your strategy. Thanks to the map's free-flowing design, you're given a lot of options, letting you approach battles from many angles, possibly allowing you to net equipment earlier than you did before so you can tackle a tough spot you weren't able to previously, or letting you avoid unnecessary battles by choosing a different route. As a matter of fact, there are actually nine keys in the map, but you only need to collect one red, one yellow and one blue to win, making the level flow extremely flexible. (Apparently getting three of one color nets you a bonus, but I was never good enough to pull it off.) It's a strange concept that results in brilliant design.

Visually, the map is perhaps a bit too fond of brown, and the architecture on the small scale, like hallways, tends to be somewhat simplistic, though the smaller, darker areas still display some nice lighting. When the rooms open wider, the area design is far more grand, impressive and complex, not that you'll have much time to admire it with all the fireballs headed your way.

I was really tempted to knock this map down a point for how tough it is, but the lower skill settings should make it tolerable for almost any player with some degree of experience. It's worth trying Europa 1 at least once, but even more worth trying multiple times on various skill settings, since virtually no two playthroughs are identical. With its almost puzzle-like tactical challenge, impressive size and incredible fluidity that lets you tackle situations how you see fit, you've got the best Doom level I've played in months. Yippee! :D