Hello all,  ben_roprim here with some news for future doom noobies and fresh modders!


This morning I decided to give our frontpage a good ol' scrubbing of elbow grease, and update our page!

The Frontpage will now contain Site Resources to all your doom gaming/editing needs!

I have listed all the good quality resources I can think of, except 2 engines: Odamex and zDaemon. These 2 dont fit the bill anymore D:

So to all you future gamers of doom, I give you the gift of Doom itself! Have fun!

It's almost mid-February now and it's beginning to get darn chilly! We're really starting to feel the full force of...


Winter's Fury (click to download)

Click here for screenshots

INFO: 8 maps (with some divided into two parts). Requires DOOM2.WAD and GZDoom.

BUGS AND ISSUES: Using the latest January 25th, 2015 SVN build of GZDoom, the WAD kept freezing right after the next-to-last boss was defeated. You may want to use an older version of GZDoom. (Or do like I did and just be satisfied that you beat most of the WAD.) Map07B also tended to lag horribly after reloading a savegame for that map, so you may have to restart GZDoom before you load a save in that level. The WAD in general is quite graphically intensive, so those with slower computers will have a hard time playing.

RATING: 5 out of 5

Winter's Fury tasks you with fighting your way through the snowy mountains of Siberia. Gameplay is action-focused (but not slaughtery) with linear levels that only have occasional detours or backtracking, and almost no puzzles. (Only Map07 is more open.) The action is even more slick and quick than Doom normally is thanks to a revamped weapon set which speeds up the firing rate of almost all the classic weapons and feels very good. I heard a few complaints about the WAD being stingy with ammo, but I never had a significant issue with it on the standard Hypothermia skill. Just try not to miss too often. Short controlled bursts and all that. ;)

New enemies are here, though they're not much different from the standard Doom bestiary aside from having a chillier complexion. Their ice-ball attacks usually can't hurt other ice demons though, so this makes large squads of them more dangerous than their hot-blooded, infighting cousins. There's also several new bosses as well, but they're all pretty much what you expect: oversized ammo sponges that shoot tons of stuff at you with occasional enemy waves as backup. These fights aren't particularly hard, and are generally more a matter of endurance as you slowly whittle away their health bars. The change of pace from the typical corridor crawls is nice, but shorter battles against more dangerous bosses with patterns that you have to learn would've been more exciting than these overlong spamfest fights.

Invisible walls in the maps are another issue, not only damaging the immersion but also being inconsistent: sometimes an area in the background is just filler and you'll be blocked, and sometimes it's actually a secret area and you can go in.

So what really sells Winter's Fury? It's gotta be the presentation. Yes, the soundtrack is mostly generic techno/rock that, while catchy and energetic, does little to emphasize the icy ambiance (and is near-deafening in Map4A). Yes, the story told through in-engine cutscenes and text dialogue has flat characterization and isn't very interesting (though it does help bind the levels into a more cohesive whole). It's the level design, occasionally bordering on sheer gorgeousness, that pulls you in. The lighting is striking, generally relying on brilliant blue torches or other strong spotlights to punch through the foggy gloom, as white flakes flutter slowly from the sky and tremendous snowy vistas spread out before you. Frosted-over waterways cracking through cave systems mingle with the cold gray steel and steaming vents of UAC complexes. So...okay, maybe it gets a little too carried away with the gray, but it's still lovely to behold and highly immersive. And though it's a small thing you'll likely hardly notice, the WAD makes good use of sound reverb to emphasize the depth and chilliness of the environments.

Okay, so it's not a perfect WAD, but I had too much fun playing it to really care -- I liked it enough to replay it again immediately on a higher skill. That's gotta mean something. So I'm awarding it the perfect score anyway. Then again, I like snow a lot, so I might be biased. XD

Bonus Vicky Points! - The ice demons bleed ice blood, so seeing these demons leaving behind big grey-white splatters all over the walls is like a dream come true for me. Also, the story heavily revolves around stuff called Hellfire Fuel, which is some sort of energy harvested from demons. So yeah, it's a story about muscular hellbeasts being captured, exploited and thoroughly milked. Definitely gotta give high scores for a concept like that. ;)


~ victoriaviper

I don't know about you, but I've personally had a heck of a time finding some decent flashlight mods for Doom, but I finally found one. It's part of the Sneaky Doom package (which you can find the forum page for here), but more specifically the "Dark Doom" add-on pack.

Download the Dark Doom pack with flashlight here.

Just run dd_flashlight.pk3 (or dd_flashlight_low.pk3 if you've got an older computer) when you start up GZDoom, then once the game starts, go to Options, Customize Controls. At the very bottom, you'll see an entry for Dark Doom. Bind your preferred flashlight key to Toggle Flashlight and you're ready to go.

I tried it with the (overall good but obnoxiously dark) Pleiades levelset, and it made a world of difference. See for yourself!

Screenshot of the flashlight in action in Pleiades.

The left screenshot shows how that area normally looks; the right screenshot has that exact same view with the flashlight on. It's not bright enough to break the game and doesn't cover your peripheral vision very well so you still need to be wary in the dark, but it sure beats the crap out of stumbling into walls while shrouded enemies wail on you with cheap shots. Plus the dim blue illumination is a little creepy in its own right. And it never runs out of power and you can use it with any weapon.

So give it a try! Add it under your [Doom.Autoload] path in your zdoom-[username].ini file and have it ready any time the going gets tough (and dark).


- victoriaviper

So I just got finished watching the Mythbusters video game special, testing the myth of how detrimental it is for Doomguy to simultaneously carry all of those supplies he finds.

Obviously it's not all that accurate to the real (fake?) deal. For one, Doomguy has to carry MUCH more ammo than the measly two boxes they carried in the test. Classic Doomguy could hold 8 boxes of bullets, 5 boxes of shotgun shells, 20 boxes of rockets, and 6 big ol' plasma cell packs at once, and Doom 3 Doomguy could hold even more. Plus, there's some odd weapon choices in the test, with no BFG or rocket launcher, but three different handguns for some reason. And they also had to carry three medikits, when Doomguy never carries those.

Still, it was a ton of fun to watch. Adam and Jamie had a great time with the first set of tests and their enthusiasm was infectious, and even in the second test where they had to carry everything and weren't enjoying themselves anymore, it was still hilarious to watch these giant human-shaped piles of guns shambling around through the hallways. XD

The usage of actual Doom sound effects mixed into the simulated combat was great too, and they were generally used appropriately (plasma firing sound effects for the simulated plasma gun, etc.).

They even actually used Doom 3's mod tools to virtually remake the real-life warehouse they did the testing in. (I wish somebody would leak the level online!) Sadly, this virtual remake didn't get much screentime and I was hoping they'd do side-by-side comparisons of Adam and Jamie's runs alongside the in-game recreation, but it was still cool the little bit you got to see it. Humorously, it seems they used vanilla Doom 3 for these segments instead of the BFG Edition (you can tell from the louder footsteps). Yes, even Id Software themselves can't get any mods to run on BFG Edition. XD

So in the end, I don't think we really learned anything from these tests since they're not very game-accurate, but it sure was a blast to watch. And hey, whether they intended it to or not, they even got a bit of Doom going the Fruit Ninja segment too. ;)


- victoriaviper

http://youtu.be/xjdziQcEKFg

For Mythbusters' video game special next weekend (January 31st specifically), Adam Savage will be strapping on his nukage-burned space marine boots and stepping into a Doom level mock-up to answer that burning question we've always wondered: Can Doomguy really carry all that crap he picks up? XD

Obviously this is gonna be silly meaningless stuff more in line with their zombie survival special, but hey, from that clip alone, it already looks more exciting than the Doom movie. XD

Make sure to catch it on Discovery, Saturday, January 31st at 9/8c. (Or on some other channel at some other time, depending on where you live, I guess!)


- victoriaviper

Every artist needs to take a few breaks from commission work. I use that free time to play Doom and then write about it. XD



Disturbia (click to download)

Click here for screenshots

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

RATING: 2 out of 5

One of Disturbia's most unique features is that it has no shotguns whatsoever, which is virtually unheard of in Doom maps. In their stead is a "new" weapon: the super chaingun. While not really all that different from the regular chaingun aside from a slightly enhanced firing rate (and a darker paint job), it's a lot of fun to use, and it's hard to resist the temptation to cast aside all your years of well-honed Doom training and hold down the trigger until you make them all pay for shooting up your ride! (Oh wait, wrong game.) Unfortunately, it quickly becomes apparent that not only is this super-powered chaingun and its tremendous 800-round clip capacity totally necessary, but it's also completely insufficient for the torment you're about to endure.

This is just one of those kinds of levels I hate, where any bit of progress whatsoever always has some sort of drawback. "Wow, you fought really hard and barely survived, so here's some supplies for you. ...HA! It was a trap! Now you're almost dead again! Ha-ha! But no, no, seriously, here's an item that'll help you... OH MY GOD YOU FELL FOR IT AGAIN! What an idiot!" Even the exit pulls this sort of bait-and-switch cockteasing garbage. I guess this type of level design appeals to somebody, but for me, it was just an exercise in randomness and futility, where everything is staged just so for maximum annoyance, requiring more luck than skill on occasion. (The part where you have to run up a hill with no cover whatsoever just a short distance away from a cyberdemon -- a cyberdemon that, if killed, is instantly replaced with another cyberdemon -- comes to mind.)

It's like the level doesn't want you to feel any accomplishment, because anything you do accomplish is immediately crushed by a new crap-boulder dropped on top of you. I eventually just gave up out of utter frustration and hopelessness. And that was on Hurt Me Plenty! Ultra-Violence? Oh good golly, I'm not even sure Jesus could exorcise all the demons in UV. The latter areas seem to be an experiment to see just how many arch-viles and cyberdemons can fit in a single room.

The map avoids getting a 1 out of 5 score for two reasons. One reason is because frankly the map looks great. The architecture is intricate, impressive in scale, varied in color and not too shabby with lighting. The other reason is because, while I didn't enjoy the gameplay, it is elaborately staged and planned very well, and there's some genuinely clever and good ideas here. They're just buried under an insurmountable pile of frustrating cheap tricks the likes of which I haven't encountered since I last played the arcade version of Gradius 3.

So if you feel like spending an hour brute-forcing your way through an insanely tough map using a boatload of quicksaves, have at it. (And it might be good for a cooperative run too, since it's really more than one marine can handle.) Personally, I'd rather avoid the whole mess and maintain my blood pressure.



Crimson Canyon (click to download)

Click here for screenshots

INFO: 12 maps. Requires DOOM2.WAD and a limit-removing source port.

RATING: 4 out of 5

Maybe I shouldn't have bothered to cover this one since it was one of the winners of the 2005 Cacowards so it's probably pretty well-known, but I played it and if you wanna know what I thought, here you go. XD

The maps lean towards being large in scale, not necessarily being overly lengthy but featuring big, wide open areas on a fairly regular basis. Visually, these large areas are often pretty impressive in scope, with the multi-tiered design adding three-dimensional depth as you revisit areas often from higher or lower vantage points than before. The architecture itself also occasionally does a nice job of forcing pleasing curvature out of Doom's inherently blocky design.

This epic size occasionally comes with a price however, as you'll sometimes be storming up giant empty staircases and wondering why you need to hoof through so much desolate terrain just to get to the next area. This style can give the maps an "Eternal Doom Lite" quality, with all the switch hunting that entails. Thankfully it's never nearly as complicated as Eternal Doom was and you can generally figure out where to go if you retrace your steps and try to remember locked-off areas from earlier. But do expect to have your brain teased at least a little (which is either a plus or a minus depending on what kind of a Doom player you are).

The dazzling immensity of the bigger environments also masks the fact that detail is lacking on the small scale, with boxy hallways being lined with plain, flat walls with little of visual interest. (This is especially noticeable in the later levels, which are paradoxically cramped corridor crawls compared to their predecessors.) Texturing can be a bit repetitive as well, with levels often being painted almost wholly in one color. (And with this being Crimson Canyon and all, expect a lot of red.)

In terms of combat, the action is pleasantly moderate. There are larger fights with big squads of bad guys, sure, but there's generally plenty of maneuvering room and supplies to recharge you for the next battle if you look hard enough, and revenants and arch-viles tend to be rare. It's just enough carnage to keep you interested without kicking you in the teeth.

It's not without its share of shortcomings and the quality of the levels seems to taper off a bit after you finish Map09 (with the final level being especially mediocre), but with an often impressively grand visual scale, accessible challenge and brief playtime, Crimson Canyon is a decent way to kill a few hours. Even if you don't love it, it's over too quickly for it to be a problem. XD


~

Wrack is now available on Steam, at 10% off for a limited time.

Although not specifically part of the Doom universe, Wrack was developed by members of the Doom modding community and it emulates several aspects of Doom's/Quake's gameplay style, except with an added combo/chaining system that encourages quick action and rewards you with new attacks. It even has a soundtrack by Bobby Prince, composer for Doom & Doom 2.

So if you're interested in playing Doom with a slightly fresher, cel-shaded coat of paint, download Wrack and give the bad guys a whack. ;)

For more info, check out the official Wrack website.

-

After probably about six years of waiting for a QuakeCon reveal, the new Doom (just called "Doom" now, not "Doom 4") was finally unveiled at QC2014 for all the world to see! ...Just kidding. It was unveiled, but only for convention attendees. Everybody else gets to be blueballed yet again. Hooray. XD

Impressions from people at the con have been posted around the internet since then however, and this is what they seem to be saying. (Please note that this is all secondhand information and Doom Furs Club cannot confirm the validity of any of these details. Also POSSIBLE SPOILERS if you're trying to go into the game totally fresh):

-The game is yet another reboot of the series, much like Doom 3 was. It appears to be set on Mars again instead of Earth.

-The visual style seems very reminiscent of Doom 3, sporting lots of gray metal corridors. At least one attendee described the demo as being scary.

-Melee combat seems to be emphasized this time around, seemingly featuring hand-to-hand fighting with combo moves, and enemies that can be stunned with firearms and then finished off with exceptionally gory, Mortal-Kombat-style melee execution moves (possibly to capitalize on the success of the ever-popular Brutal Doom mod).

-The ability to aim down the sights of guns (as has been the standard since Call of Duty) was never shown in the QuakeCon demo, and the movement speed seems to be pretty fast. Regenerating health also seems to be absent: you get health from killing monsters.

-The chainsaw and double-barreled shotgun are back.

-There will be some sort of competitive multiplayer.

-Apparently will be using the Id Tech 6 engine, instead of the Id Tech 5 (Rage) engine as previously reported.

The con attendees seemed to be pretty psyched, so here's hoping Id finally got their act together and somehow have managed to compile a really awesome new game... But then again, Doom 3's prerelease demo was a big hit too, and we all know how that eventually turned out. XD

- victoriaviper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYjR5UzhcZA

Yep, that's right: some sort of official media involving the new Doom game has finally been released! There's not a whole lot to see though, with no actual game footage and only some dim, close-up views of a monster (obviously not rendered with the game engine) to look at.

What I find most interesting about the trailer are the UAC logos on the mechanical parts of the beast. Is the Union Aerospace Corporation actually manufacturing these things now? Or are the demons just stealing UAC tech for their own purposes?

The black Doom logo looks pretty cool at least. XD

- victoriaviper

I'm sure probably lots of you have played Doom: The Roguelike before, and while it's certainly a very cool (and free!) game, a turn based, overhead view RPG doesn't quite capture the Doom experience.

So you want to play a Roguelike version of Doom? Then try this out:

First, grab a development build of ZDoom from here, since you'll need one to run this mod. The topmost download should be fine.

Then, download the DoomRL Arsenal. This is a very cool ZDoom mod that replaces the gun and armor spawn locations in maps with random guns, armor and boots, inspired by Doom: The Roguelike. There's also mod packs you can collect in the game to add to the weapons you find in order to enhance them, and adding mod packs in a certain order can even let you assemble entirely new weapons.

Okay, so you've got the randomized goodies, but that's only half the Roguelike experience. What about the random levels?

That's where OBLIGE comes in. OBLIGE is an easy to use random level generator for Doom. Just fire it up, set the Length to Full Game for an entire campaign to play, and maybe change the Size to Small (since most Roguelikes have small, brief levels), and then click Build. Name the WAD, and there you go! 32 random maps to play. Start from level 1, and if you die at any time, immediately delete your save file and quit. (Death is permanent in a Roguelike after all!) Then build a new WAD with OBLIGE and start all over. (And disable jumping while you play, since OBLIGE levels aren't designed for it.)

(A word of warning: you might be tempted to just never save your game in order to truly preserve the Roguelike experience, but I wouldn't recommend that. ZDoom has an unfortunate tendency to sometimes freeze up when you exit a level. Save on every level just in case, but only reload a save if the game freezes or if you need to take a break.)

I've had hours of fun playing Doom this way. And hey, it's cheaper than buying Rogue Shooter. XD


- victoriaviper

 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

Blah blah, it's  victoriaviper. Blah blah, some sort of apology and/or justification for writing WAD reviews and possibly a theme for the reviewed levels. Blah blah, writing. XD


BloodRust (click to download)

Click here for screenshots

INFO: 11 maps. Requires DOOM2.WAD and a limit-removing source port.

RATING: 3 out of 5

Architecture is streamlined and unobtrusive, with conservative visual detail that is quite easy on the eyes but usually not particularly inspired or exciting. There's a few texture issues (a spot of HOM, missing doortracks, a couple walk-through walls that should be solid), but they're rare and don't detract much.

Levels start out exceptionally short but get longer as the game progresses. Still, even if you really take your time, you're looking at three hours of playtime maximum (probably shorter if you're not looking all over for secrets and places to take screenshots like I was). Although the difficulty does increase as time goes on (notably a sudden spike in Map07 which is -- you guessed it! -- a symmetrical arena with mancubi on elevated platforms followed by a wave of arachnotrons on the ground level BECAUSE OF COURSE THAT'S WHAT MAP07 IS), you generally have enough supplies to see you through the dangers (especially since many of the big secrets are easy to find), and while there are many ambushes, they're pretty predictable and easy to counter. Puzzles are rarely complicated either, boiled down to the most basic "take the key, go back to that door you saw earlier" kind of gameplay.

So if you want to waste a few hours one afternoon blazing through a series of straightforward, okay-looking maps with little surprises or much challenge but a good pace to the action, this is a fine choice. For me, I enjoyed it, but it's a little too simple and easy, and I zoned out a few times.

I'd like to take this time out to direct you to two other maps by the same author: SJS1: Streets of Fear and SJS2: Outpost. I played them before BloodRust (which is what made me want to play BloodRust in the first place since I liked these levels). While they're single, standalone maps, they look better and are a bit more challenging than BloodRust's offerings. I'd recommend you try them. :)



Forlorn (click to download)

Click here for screenshots

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

RATING: 4 out of 5

I actually saw this WAD featured in Doomworld's /newstuff Chronicles article over half-a-decade ago. Strangely, I kept a screenshot of it on my hard drive all this time because it looked cool, and had always meant to play it. Finally, I took the plunge, and I wasn't disappointed.

Originally meant as part of a sequel to The Talosian Incident -- a strange, very atmospheric set of maps from the late 90's -- Forlorn captures a lot of that same weird atmosphere, featuring an assortment of big, somewhat empty rooms. Detail is pretty sparse aside from some nice gradient lighting, leaving rooms feeling flat, but these wide, tall rooms being so silent and still gives the map a creepy abandoned quality. The screenshots really don't properly capture the vibe.

That's really what made this map work for me: atmosphere and pacing. It's not afraid to throw...nothing at you for periods at a time -- it doesn't pester you with a lot of random fodder enemies that exist solely as empty targets -- and the anticipation -- wandering through the dully-lit emptiness, waiting for the walls to come alive and start scrambling monsters after you -- is dreadful. And usually when something finally does spring up, it's not pleasant.

Compounding this is a tight ammo balance. Ammo is scarce enough that you'll pretty much have to instigate infighting or just run past enemies on a few occasions. (Oddly, because of this, the start of the map is one of the hardest parts, so don't be surprised if you die in the first two minutes.) This further enhances the survival-horror feel, urging you to take things slow, absolutely make your shots count, and identify escape routes ahead of time.

There's also a bit of nonlinearity too, with two main paths to investigate, so if things are looking bad down one route, try the other one...although it might end up even worse for you...

Doomworld's /idgames reviews have a lot of complaints about the map being broken in ZDoom and how you need to use PrBoom, but I didn't notice any issues in ZDoom aside from 100% kills seeming to be impossible to attain. Seemed to work just as well in PrBoom-Plus (although oddly I got 100% kills despite a lot of enemies still being alive...). Personally, for maximum immersion and enjoyment, I recommend downloading the PSX Doom music pack, loading it into ZDoom along with this WAD and using the CHANGEMUS console command to play some PSX Doom music. (I'd recommend FINMUS08, personally.) Really makes everything nice and spooky. ;)


Thanks to Sodaholic for his barless HUD mod that acts as a base for the status bars in this entry's screenshots, and super-special thanks to  reilsss for helping me modify the HUD to add the berserk, chainsaw, double-barreled shotgun and armor type indicators, as seen in the Forlorn shots. Now it's perfect! ;)

GamingHeads, the same folks that brought you the cacodemon plush, pain elemental plush, and Doom marine plush dolls, introduces a new item:

DOOM: Knee Deep In The Dead

This 12-inch-tall, 17-inch-wide polystone diorama recreates the original Doom's cover art, with our hero blasting away at nondescript, green-blooded demons that are clambering up a hill after him. (There's also apparently an exclusive edition with a light-up base, but I can't get the page to load myself.)

I do admit to having a few issues with it just from the pics on the site, like how the marine's gun doesn't line up with the bullets he's firing, the poses aren't completely accurate to the original artwork, the demon faces are a bit flat and more human-looking than their long, bestial muzzles in the original picture, and the way the demons are sort of half-buried in the ground is peculiar.

So why do I desperately wish I could buy this? Because of all the straining, sinewy, rippling, bulging, juicy, gorgeous, bare, vein-laced, grade-A, top quality demonic BEEF on display all over this thing. You see that fella in the back, grabbing the marine's arm? Just look at the abs on that sucker. And all the rest of them are tight-bodied muscle mountains as well. They've even got nipples if you look closely. This is seriously one of the sexiest male-oriented statues I've ever seen...though I admit to being a bit biased towards buff demons. XD

Sadly, the cost is utterly prohibitive, with the regular version costing nearly $400. I'll just have to look and dream and hope somebody buys it and takes a bunch of pictures of it for me. XD

On the plus side, the page mentions this being the first in a line of Doom statues. Hopefully the other ones will be made by this same sculptor and feature similar amounts of tremendous man muscle...at a lower price. XD

-

 victoriaviper once more, yet again wasting your precious time with more WAD reviews. After the surprising disappointment I experienced from playing Planisphere 2 (read the review here!), I was hungry for some superior city maps. I first turned to...


City Assault (click to download)

Click here for screenshot

INFO: 1 map. DOOM2.WAD required. GZDoom/Zandorum required.

RATING: 3 out of 5

Created by the designer of the famous Brutal Doom mod, this level sees you fighting through devastated city streets, as well as climbing into cramped apartments. The detail here is pretty impressive, with fire and smoke effects and abandoned cars and rubble strewn all about. Duke Nukem 3D graphics are applied liberally to good effect, resulting in a convincing urban environment.

The gameplay is a bit dodgy however. If you proceed as normal, most of the map is fairly intense, with limited supplies to keep you going, forcing you to proceed cautiously and use the environment as cover. A bit of simple platforming as you leap across 3D-floor fire escapes livens up things as well, and there's even a few parts where you can fight alongside AI marines (not that they're much help). Still, even if you really take your time, you're looking at probably twenty minutes of gameplay at most, and it's a very linear affair.

Well, it's linear if you don't sequence break. You can actually shear off a large chunk of play time by exploiting a design flaw in the map. This also lets you reach the map's big secrets earlier as well, but whether you reach these secrets early or at their normal time, they offer you such powerful supplies that they nullify all of the map's threats. There's even a section right at the very start of the level where you can leap over a barrier and get stuck permanently, leaving me to believe this map needed a bit more testing and balancing.

I genuinely had fun playing this. If anything, I was upset that it was over so fast -- it left me wanting more. But it is over too fast, making this level more of a pretty-looking snack than a main course.

Also, I wish you could actually climb the ladders! :)



This next WAD isn't exclusively a city-themed one, but it does have some urban areas. Let's try...


Remain 3 (click to download)

Click here for screenshots

INFO: 13 maps. DOOM2.WAD required. GZDoom recommended.

RATING: 3 out of 5

Remain 3 is a 13-map partial megawad (Not-so-megawad? Superwad?) that attempts to mix modern GZDoom features with classic Doom gameplay. Jumping and crouching are gone, freelook is not required and scripts are not used, just like the Doom of old. Instead, GZDoom's features are used to pump up the graphics and add new enemies.

Most of the new enemies (many of which you've probably seen in other WADs by now) aren't massively different from their classic counterparts -- some of them have merely had cosmetic alterations but otherwise act the same -- but they offer something a little new to keep you on your toes, with a few modified behaviors and attacks to make them marginally more dangerous.

On the graphical front, dynamic lights, 3D floors, deep water and other assorted effects along with some well-chosen custom textures add depth and immersion to the maps. Architecture offers up some very impressive views and cool, realistic, well-realized structures. But the maps are constructed in broad strokes: the scenes are nice to look at when viewed on the large scale, standing far away and taking it all in, but there's vast empty spaces inside them, and blocky, underdetailed rooms and hallways connecting them, resulting in bland stretches while waiting for the next neat-looking 3D bridge or building to show up on the horizon.

In terms of level design, my feelings are thoroughly mixed. Maps 1-6 are original and offer a nice variety of locales, including a requisite techbase, a foggy village, a cave system with a research lab built into it, and my personal favorite, a giant bridge over a lake, complete with a little zombie-manned pirate boat, both of which can be approached directly, or you can swim around in the water and pick off the bad guys from below.

Then inexplicably, the level author decided to start recreating Doom 2 levels instead, beginning in Map07 with the fifty-billionth remake of Dead Simple that I've played in my life. (Doom mappers, I beg you: come up with some new Map07 ideas!) Maps 8 & 9 are remakes of Doom 2 levels (Tricks and Traps and the Pit specifically) that even more blatantly reference the original levels than Map07 did, and while they're superior to the originals in several ways, you've done all this before, and these levels really don't fit with the rest of the package.

The Doom 2 recreations continue after that, but they mercifully become much more abstract, with Map10's Refueling Base being a cool-looking desert military compound. These abstract homages reach their zenith with the Meat Factory, a level dripping with creepy atmosphere (and blood!) that plays with conveyor belts in some interesting ways and just looks good. This map alone is almost the whole reason to play this WAD and really should've been the finale, as the dull fights and meandering mazes of the final level leaves the whole experience dragging to a close.

This is a fairly easy set of maps too, so if you want some meaty combat to sink your teeth into, look elsewhere. That's not to say there aren't some big battles, but they're uncommon, and aside from a few cheap tricks (the ending of Map04 being the most annoying), you won't end up face-down very often at all. There are occasionally some head-scratching puzzles that can make everything come to a grinding halt (I was stuck on Map02 for probably a good thirty minutes), but they're not very common either.

So if you want a fairly casual, painless set of maps with immersive atmosphere and bouts of inspired design, this one's for you. But the low difficulty, recycled maps and some weak design elements keep me from loving it.

 victoriaviper here yet again. After a significant hiatus, I'm back with a new DFC WAD review. This time, we have a rather unique map called...


Planisphere 2 (click to download)

Click here for screenshots

INFO: 1 map. Requires DOOM2.WAD. GZDoom recommended.

RATING: 2 out of 5

Planisphere 2 is a recreation of America's famous New York City. It's a really, really thorough recreation, with seemingly hundreds of buildings, streets and alleys painstakingly rebuilt in the Doom engine. I've never seen anything quite like it in Doom. It's pretty amazing to look across a river and see a cityscape on the horizon, and knowing it's not just background graphics: you can run over there and visit every single one of those buildings.

However, even if the map shines in terms of pure scale, to say it's a good-looking map perhaps isn't entirely true. It relies solely on stock Doom 2 textures, which aren't entirely convincing for making a realistic city recreation. Plus, many of the buildings are simply elongated cubes painted in single textures. Very few of the buildings can actually be entered either, making them little more than really big props, and leaving the game world feeling a bit flat and non-interactive. There's also no use of 3D floors or slopes, which really could've gone a long way to make the visuals more authentic.

The level author makes some other surprisingly amateurish mistakes too. There's lots of improperly unpegged door tracks (meaning the walls attached to doors slide up and down when the door moves). Oddly, skull keys are used as lights on top of many buildings and posts. You can even become permanently trapped in one spot if you don't have enough bullet/shell ammo to strike a shootable switch to free yourself. But perhaps most inexplicable of all, the author didn't bother to build map nodes, meaning you'll have reduced system performance and hit detection issues unless you manually run the map through a nodebuilder yourself. And this is kind of a major issue because this map is GIGANTIC and is almost guaranteed to slow down even the most powerful computers.

And even if you could ignore those issues, it's just not all that fun to play, even if it looks cool. Annoyingly, instead of giving you free reign to explore the city as you see fit, the level is a typical key hunt. Now you all know how difficult it can be to find keycards in complex Doom levels, so imagine how fun it is being tasked with searching all over New York for them. The city's at least divided up with barriers unlocked by said keys, narrowing down the search area somewhat, but it's still a pain scouring the many, many streets of the Big Apple for a handful of tiny trinkets.

You're not given much time to really look around either. Paradoxically, in an aggravating move that compels you to never actually stop and take in all the digitally-reproduced scenery of NYC, you are constantly harassed by cyberdemon snipers, stationed on an exceptionally high vantage point that allows them to target you virtually anywhere you are. The result is you constantly hurrying to the next location before another cyberdemon airstrike commences and reduces you to a pile of smoking barbecue.

Speaking of those cyberdemons, I have to warn that any players that are really sensitive about the 9/11 terror attacks should probably not play this level. That "exceptionally high vantage point" mentioned in the previous paragraph is one of the World Trade Center buildings. Strangely, the twin towers have been included in this recreation. In an especially tasteless move, the one tower eventually collapses into the ground, allowing you to finally fight the cyberdemons directly. You then teleport into one of the high floors of the other tower, and then have to leap out the window and drop to an area below to escape. I can't tell if this was supposed to be really dark humor or simply astounding ignorance on the part of the level designer, but I can imagine it would upset some players.

In the end, this WAD is merely a novelty -- an incredibly elaborate novelty, but one all the same. Aggravating gameplay and technical issues hold it back from being especially fun, but it sure is neat to behold. Still, if you're really intent on playing a hyper-realistic city level (and have a fairly powerful computer), play the classic Dawn of Reality instead. It looks better, sounds better, has better atmosphere and is at least marginally more fun to play than this.

In a gutsy move most likely thought up by Bethesda and not Id Software themselves, preordering Wolfenstein: The New Order will give you closed beta access to Doom 4 (or whatever the next Doom's going to be called).

Click here for the official page which shows a list of retailers offering the promotion.

What's unfortunate is that currently the offer only seems to apply to actual boxed copies of W:TNO: the Doom 4 beta FAQ says that you'll find an insert inside the box that has a code you can redeem for beta access. Not offering this promotion through digital services seems rather strange. And also, the FAQ freely admits that it has no idea when the beta will actually become available, so you could be holding onto that key for a long, long time.

So if you're a gambler willing to pay full price for a game that might not even be good just so you can get a beta key for another game that's coming out who-knows-when, here's your chance. XD

-

He knows when you are sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows that if you're bad
You'll get a rocket to the face

Oh! You better watch out
You'll probably just cry
You might as well pout
I'm tellin' you why

Santa Doomguy's coming to town!

Merry Christmas, Doomers! ;)

-

Due to technical difficulties, Doom Furs Club wasn't able to celebrate Doom's 20th anniversary back on December 10th. And I suppose that wasn't really so bad since we really didn't have anything planned for the occasion, or at least nothing good. I could've written some sort of retrospective article, but a bunch of actual professional writers for gaming & news websites already did a bunch of those. In fact, some of them were quite interesting reads. So instead of fumbling around with an article of my own, I thought I'd post links to the best articles I read on other websites that celebrated Doom's 20th.


Wired: Doom’s Creator Looks Back on 20 Years of Demonic Mayhem

John Carmack made the rounds doing various interviews in celebration of this Doom milestone, but this one was probably the most detailed and informative. Covering the evolution of game engines, modding, distribution and other facets of design, there's also a few brief tidbits about Carmack's feelings on Call of Duty, next-gen consoles and also the troubles plaguing Doom 4. It's fairly interesting if you've got enough time and patience to read all three pages. (Carmack has a tendency to go on and on once you get him on a subject. Note the "Carmack’s responses have been edited for space and clarity" disclaimer at the start of the article!)


The Dallas Morning News: Classic computer game ‘Doom,’ made in Mesquite, is 20 years old today

While the opening paragraphs of this article are a fairly perfunctory description of Doom and its history and impact (along with an interesting old snapshot of the Id team. The demon models were big!), the real treat is further down on the page: A DOOM BOOM, an actual newspaper article about Doom from May of 1994. This article really helps you understand the Doom frenzy of the day and how much success Id was rolling in at the time, and sheds light on what it was like to download and play the game back then. If nothing else, it's good for a laugh, seeing archaic terms like "information superhighway," "bulletin board services" and "America Online users." :)


PC Gamer: May 1994 - The peak of PC Gamer's Doom obsession

This article is also straight from May of 1994, but instead of a newspaper, it's scans of a 4-page spread in PC Gamer magazine. For those of us that used to read gaming magazines back in the day, it's a great little dose of nostalgia: the weirdly-tinted screenshots, the shallow and occasionally plain incorrect strategic info -- it's all here! I also particularly love the sound card advertisement with "FIENDISHLY DOOM COMPATIBLE!" listed as one of the features. I miss the days when "This thing can play Doom!" was a selling point for hardware. XD


Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Toast To The Monsters: 20 Years Of Doom

This one I liked because it features early Doom memories of three people who are not just Doom fans, but also professional writers, resulting in some funny, whimsical stories of the magic and awe instilled in their youths by the blood-splattered hellish nightmare we love so dear. Highlights include the constant chanting about Doom around school, a friend dropping mysterious, tantalizing hints about "the most violent game ever made," and having their minds blown by witnessing their first ever networked multiplayer game.


MetaFilter: Twenty Years of Ultra-Violence

And if you haven't had enough, this amazing article covers everything about Doom, with tons of excellent links detailing subjects like classic reviews, the comic, the movie, the novels, the Bill Gates Doom 95 video, the Doom Bible, two non-fiction Doom books, the soundtrack, levels, mods, tools, fangames, ports -- EVERYTHING!


This is  victoriaviper signing off. Keep Doom alive! ;)

 victoriaviper reporting!  nyss and  sabrewulf15 have brought an interesting item to my attention. Apparently Doom plush dolls are now available!

Cacodemon plush

Pain Elemental plush

(Note: Doom Furs Club and its staff members accept no responsibility for any damage done to your computer from visiting offsite links, or any fraud, identity theft or other issues you may encounter from purchasing anything from these sites.)

I don't know if these are official Id-licensed products, and currently only two demons are available: the roly-poly puffballs Cacodemon and Pain Elemental. But they sure look squeezable, don't they? XD

Personally, I'm holding out for a little stuffed imp, but this is a nice start.

Hello all,  ben_roprim here with a important journal about the Club.


Due to the lack of opinions and participation in journals regarding group or community plans for future events, we will no longer try to make private furry servers, gameplay livestreams, and other possible activities.

Since last year, there have been only 3 - 6 people participating in group discussions about future plans for the club and its activities. Since that is a very disappointing number to see, especially since we have 164 members, I am to assume that no one finds group activities and events interesting or fun.

So from here on out, the Doom Furs Club will only provide engine troubleshooting, continue to provide Liquid Doom Radio, offer to fix your DLL/Config files, and provide the occasional Doom Wad Reviews / News.

Im sorry to say we wont be doing any events like a real group. But with zero participation, whats the point?

That is all.

 victoriaviper here, spamming up your FA inbox with yet another WAD review. On the bright side, this is actually a brand-new set of maps that came out this year instead of some old, dusty thing I dug up out of the mid-90's. XD


ConC.E.R.Ned (click to download)

Click here for screenshots

RATING: 5 out of 5

On the surface, the outline of this WAD doesn't bode well. Oh sure, the story makes mention of you infiltrating the facility where the Large Hadron Collider is kept, which is certainly unique, but in the end, it's a Doom 1 WAD with the typical three-episode techbase/tech-Hell/Hell theme progression. Sound familiar? I do wish more Doom 1 WADs would break free of this routine. Regardless, ConC.E.R.Ned has more than enough modern touches to its visual flair to keep it from feeling like a retread, and generally looks quite good overall. Some areas look more plain than others (especially certain parts of the Hell maps, since visual design in Doom levels seems to go down the toilet when you're wandering through the dirt and rocks of the netherworld), but overall, it's repeatedly fresh to look at and pleasing to the eye, and occasionally looks outright great, with impressive skylights, archways and other bits of complex architecture.

In terms of gameplay, it's great fun. The first half of the WAD, I wouldn't say is difficult, just action-packed. Enemy counts are plentiful, but you generally always have plenty of supplies, cover and maneuvering room to take them all on. It's not until the latter portion of E2 that the true insanity of the WAD starts to shine through, and the BFG starts seeming like less of a luxury and more like a necessary tool to deal with the overwhelming odds. (I feel sorry for those folks that start every level with just the pistol and base stats.) Even so, the difficulty is generally balanced wonderfully, and while things are definitely tough and the odds are stacked against you again and again, it rarely feels cheap or frustrating: there's always a number of ways to approach a problem, sometimes including just running for your life if things look too overwhelming. (Although the demons aren't going to let you get away that easily!)

It's not a perfect WAD, of course: the soundtrack has a "random MIDIs I stole from other games and TV shows I like" quality to it (complete with some tracks being way louder than others, and one even fading out before looping), I got stuck in one secret area (I entered it in a way the level designer hadn't planned) and had to cheat my way out, and there are a couple of annoying spots. (Barons teleporting directly behind you in cramped hallways? Argh!) But in general, I just had a great time the whole way through and recommend this WAD to any Doom fan. If nothing else, it shows how you can have an exciting, challenging good time without a single corpse-resurrecting jerkoff or homing missile-hurling bonehead in sight. XD

Special mention must be given to E2M5: a large four-quadrant complex that's sprawling and impressive on its own, but also with teleporters leading to Earth and Hell mini-levels within the same map. What a cool idea! Oh, and I really liked how this WAD "stacked" its health/armor bonuses, so picking up one bonus might actually add 5% or 10% to your totals instead of just 1%. It's a small thing, but a nice touch.

Also, yay! Finally, a status bar where it says "ARMOUR" with a U for my friends in Canada and the UK to enjoy. I always wanted one. XD

Hello all,  ben_roprim here!


While playing some Doom, I started to think that maybe we should start doing some livestreaming. While during the live streams from different times, there will be:

- Zandronum Multiplayer Games (especially "All Out War")
- Single-Player Campaigns
- Special games with unique mods
- If you made a WAD or PK3, we'll make a date to play it!

There will be voice chatting, but if people dont like that we can have it off with only game sounds. So if this sounds good, let us know what you think! And if you have additional ideas, feel free to tell us as well!

Lets start Livestreaming!

But if there are no takers on the idea, the Livestream for the Club wont happen.

 victoriaviper here yet again! As per the suggestion of  reilsss, this review includes some screenshots. Four screenshots specifically, so I guess if a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm giving you four-thousand words worth of pictures. But I'm still giving you a lot of actual words too because I felt like it. XD

In this review installment...


Double Impact (click to download)

Click here for screenshots

RATING: 2 out of 5

Now here's a really rare treat: a full Episode 1 replacement for Ultimate Doom, released in 2011 no less, that isn't just a "Hey, remember John Romero's maps?" nostalgia trip. (Well, mostly.)

Visually, the levels are detailed really well in a "Doom" sort of way: not exactly realistic, but lights are given relatively logical sources, textures are highly varied but thematically-congruent (aside from a few spots when Hell textures creep into techbase areas, but they're applied sensibly to good effect), and there's plenty of variance in architecture and height levels to keep things constantly looking interesting and fresh. Admittedly, the design falters a bit when obvious references to Knee-Deep in the Dead maps are inexplicably thrown in, in a few spots. (Not every E1 replacement has to be a KDitD homage, people!) Many large portions of maps are also oppressively dark, which can be moody and immersive, or obnoxious and irritating depending on your viewpoint. I had mixed feelings: oftentimes I felt it artificially boosted the challenge and made gameplay frustrating, whereas other times, I genuinely felt uneasy wandering the dim halls.

In terms of gameplay, I went into this WAD expecting D1-style slaughtermaps -- sort of Hell Revealed without a super shotgun or revenants -- which is something you practically never see, but that's not really what I got. Much of it is typical corridor crawling, but you'll occasionally be thrust into small but lethal arena battles, where you have to work frantically to put down a group of bad guys all packed into a cramped area with you. The monster placement really shines in these segments, with demons off in the distance distracting you from trouble that's creeping up from behind, and if you run from the ambushes and scurry away to seemingly safe spots, it often puts you in an entirely new kind of trouble.

Those segments are pretty exciting, but it's everything else in between that's kind of a problem. Maybe it's just an inherent issue with Doom's smaller enemy roster compared to Doom 2's, but 90% of your time seems to be focused on wading through row upon row of zombies and imps, and the large quantities of weak opposition results in a lot of rather boring "hold the fire button until everything falls down" combat. The monster placement is still pretty devious, and scarce health supplies mean you're rarely safe. But in a way, with all the gun-toting meanies hiding in wait, it almost feels more like an old Rainbow Six or SWAT game instead of Doom: slowly enter the room, check every corner for (inevitable) ambushes, waste all the bad guys, secure the area, repeat over and over until finished. The tension and heightened awareness all becomes oddly routine after a point, and it feels like you're just going through the motions.

The verdict? Double Impact is honestly a great-looking set of techbase levels and certainly has its fair share of challenge, but it all just becomes so...predictable. Monsters lurk around every single corner. If there's an opportunity to hide a nasty critter so it can get a jump on you, the level will not pass it up. Every pit, every cubbyhole, stacked up behind every pillar -- it's a scavenger hunt to find all their hiding spots. So you're forced into a defensive, tedious style of gameplay, like a cover-based shooter, unless you wanna get blown away by surprise shotgun blasts in every room. It even becomes pretty obvious when those arena battles I touted earlier will occur, so no surprises there. Top it all off with a finale that practically reaches jokeWAD levels of impossible-to-beat absurdity, and I can't give Double Impact a very high score. Though I do wonder if it's more enjoyable on lower skill levels. Not having so many small fry enemies to slog through might make it more tolerable.

If nothing else, I must give this WAD credit for some of the most deviously-placed lost souls ever. The author took full advantage of how they make no sound when they spot the player, setting up some creative stealth attacks. Annoying little buggers. XD

 victoriaviper here again, doing my WAD reviewing thing because I feel like it. In this installment, a classic 5-level set for Doom 2, once voted as one of the greatest WADs ever made:


The Final Gathering (Doom 2 version, aka, Gather2)

(Click the name to download the file!)

You certainly wouldn't understand this WAD's legendary status from its first few levels. Map01 is about four rooms all total, populated entirely by zombies and a handful of imps. You could probably speedrun through it without firing a single shot. Map02 is like a laundry list of things I hate to see in Doom levels, including surprise instant-kill crushers, barrel traps, hidden doors that must be found in order to finish the level, and -- oh no -- radiation suit mazes. Radiation suit mazes are never, ever fun. If you like them, you're even more of a masochist than I am. And I like to wear leashes. XD

The action picks up significantly in Map03, with a battle in a large arena -- so large in fact that you can dodge most enemy attacks with relative ease. But it's Map04 is where things truly start to get interesting, with a semi-large complex to explore, as well as the grounds around it. The highlight for me was how it's relatively nonlinear, letting you stomp around outside and blast the interior monsters through the windows, delve right into the heart of the building, or simply wander about, finding random hallways and doors at your discretion. The level uses height variance to great effect as well, giving some impressive three-dimensional depth to the layout and navigation. (The "trick" that you discover later in the first room is especially charming.) Heck, there's even a little patio area with a bar and presumably a jacuzzi -- at least the best jacuzzi that could be rendered in Doom circa 1995. One can presume this hot tub was enjoyed by humans prior to the invasion of Hell, but now I imagine it's commonly filled with beefy, glistening demon studs needing to rest their bulky, overpumped muscles between battles. Yes, I'm certain this is exactly what the original author of the level intended me to think. XD

(Random cool moment I had in Map04: A heavily weakened spiderdemon and hell knight are approaching my position. I hold my fire. Suddenly, an unforseen volley of arachnatron plasma surges from far off in the distance and destroys the biomechanical spider behemoth, piercing straight through it and then killing the knight as well in quick succession. Convenient!)

Map05, the finale of the WAD, is easily the best-looking of the maps. The "manmade structures and caves" theming gives it a nice Heretic/Hexen vibe. The complex architecture, employing great use of elevated walkways and windows, is extremely professional. It's easily on par with -- occasionally better than -- the visual design of the commercially-released Master Levels. It's also probably the hardest of all the levels in the WAD, with the initial minutes of the map spent largely in a mad dash while you're attacked from every nook and cranny, of which there are many. But once the initial adrenaline rush dissipates, the map is a disappointingly brief affair.

It's hard to rate a WAD like this. Maps 01, 02 & 03 seesaw between being amateurish fluff and seemingly intentionally trying to be obnoxious. Map04 is genuinely inspired. Map05 looks great, but its limited scope almost makes it feel like a deathmatch map with monsters added. Several of the maps require you to find secret rooms in order to win. All things considered, this classic WAD that graced Doomworld's 100 Best of All Time list only gets a 2 out of 5 from me. However, skip the first three maps and it's probably more like a 4 out of 5, though largely for Map04 alone.

Hello!  victoriaviper here. I thought I'd start a review column for Doom WADs I'm playing, both to be informative to you, the reader, and just to amuse myself because I like writing reviews. I will submit reviews at random intervals because doing them on a schedule would be annoying. XD


In this installment, I'll be focusing on the Invasion series, created by Paul Fleschute.

Invasion

The original Invasion (or at least the last 1.9 version) was released way back in 1997. It replaces all four episodes of Ultimate Doom -- 36 maps in total. You can download it here.

The biggest draw of the mapset is probably the visual design. The theme revolves around outer space, and there's a real sense of place and cohesion throughout the levels. Windows give a view of star fields, nebulae and strange alien planet atmospheres, while computer consoles, beds, power cores and, of course, the ever-popular cargo rooms give a sense that people (or aliens) actually resided and worked in these places. The large amount of new textures only strengthens the atmosphere. Still, on occasion, this focus on graphics can work against the maps and you'll end up with rooms that seem to serve no purpose other than to add detail, as well as a few areas that seem needlessly gigantic. Overall though, this is quite possibly the best-looking vanilla Doom 1 mapset you can find. (The keyword being "vanilla." Something designed for advanced source ports like 2002: A Doom Odyssey or Knee-Deep in ZDoom would obviously look better.)

Not every map fares well however, most notably the cave levels, which consist largely of -- you guessed it -- lots of rocks. Seemingly endless twisting passageways and rocks. These levels can really drag. Some levels are also pretty blatant filler (like the all-too straightforward and easy E2M6) or not-so-subtle rip-offs of original Doom maps. (E3M7 is pretty heavily inspired by the original Doom's E3M6, E3M8 is a lot like Ultimate Doom's E4M8, etc.)

In terms of difficulty, Invasion is pretty casual, which can be good or bad depending on what kind of player you are. It's just enough carnage to keep you alert, but I almost never died, even on Ultra-Violence, and the included DEH file increases the maximum amount of ammo you can typically carry in Doom. The level layouts themselves can tease your brain a bit, as they tend to be somewhat large, taking 20-30 minutes each to complete if you slow down to explore, but I was never stumped for too long. There are new enemies, but they act almost exactly like the enemies they replace, with the only major changes being that "barons" move a bit faster and "cacodemons" are semi-invisible (which can admittedly make them kind of dangerous in certain areas). Oh, and they're robots now. XD

In the end, I would give Invasion a 3 out of 5: a genuinely good time with lots of content, but several levels could've stood to be overhauled.


Invasion II

Invasion II was technically never finished, released in a fully playable beta state back in early 1998. It's a full 32-level replacement for Doom 2, and you can download it here.

This one almost seems like a sequel to the original in name only, lacking the (admittedly silly looking) custom enemies, and largely eschewing the spaceships and alien planets of the original in favor of far more terrestrial, often urban surroundings. Many of the early maps are hard to stomach, as they take place outdoors during the night, forcing you to stumble around the levels nearly blind while shapes in the darkness take shots at you from nowhere. Hopefully you can stick with it, as things start to pick up around Map06, a large and really awesome (though still rather dark) city map complete with a bowling alley, movie theater, library and more. It calls to mind the map design of BUILD engine games like Duke Nukem 3D and Redneck Rampage, and helps connect itself better to the original Invasion and its "lived in" realism. It also has both Coke and Pepsi machines so you can have the cola of your choice. ;)

As the WAD goes on, the difficulty ramps up considerably, easily outclassing its rather leisurely predecessor. Some maps are almost Plutonia-like (but not that hard of course) in how relentless the traps and ambushes are. Many levels are also rather complex, with doors, walkways and corridors crisscrossing every which way. A thorough explorer (or clueless maze navigator) could regularly be looking at 40-60 minutes spent per level. While I appreciate their carefully crafted intricacy and depth, honestly, I wish several of the levels (Map19 in particular) had been trimmed a bit, as they are tedious to find your way around in and have too much switch-hitting filler. (A real example from Map27: you hit a switch that reveals an identical switch literally about six feet away, and that switch opens a door the same distance away from there. Nevermind that you a similar "switch, door, switch a few feet apart" routine about a minute prior.)

It becomes apparent at a few points that this WAD is still in a beta state, as well. The custom soundtrack is very incomplete, with only about the first third of the game featuring new music. There are various glitches throughout some maps too, usually just cosmetic, but they can force you to IDCLIP in extreme situations.

Invasion II has some genuinely fun, great looking levels that offer a balanced challenge. It also has enough overly dark levels, and heavily padded, congested levels with lousy flow that it brings down the whole package. Much like its predecessor, I'm compelled to give it a 3 out of 5. You may enjoy it more if you have a greater tolerance for gargantuan, complicated labyrinths.


Having trouble getting these or other WADs to work? Contact us and we can help!