#Decade of DOOMstruction

[m39]

Decade of DOOMstruction(2000s): Partial and total conversions

Welcome, everyone, to the world of WAD conversions. Where you will find a lot of bizarre things – from WADs that add/change some of the mechanics of the original games, to the ones that turn into the entirely new game themselves.

And this category starts off completely nuts.

2000 – ZANZAN

And by nuts, I mean 3D models. Yes, just by 2000, there was already a WAD that implemented fully 3D models to the Doom WAD. An insane milestone that somehow worked.

But what about the rest of it? Well, it’s good; it is fun to play. Interesting weapons and enemies (and I finally learned how one of the weapons worked), it has branching paths (even if it all boils down to sparing the first boss or not from what I’ve seen), and the locations look great as well.

So basically, worth checking out, if only for the models. It felt kind of janky to play it again, though, so here’s my warning.

2001 – THE DARKEST HOUR

Yeah, not gonna lie, I wasn’t really excited to replay this WAD. It didn’t end up that bad, but at this point, this might be the WAD that aged up the most poorly.

It might give the Star Wars vibes, but at the same time the unskippable cutscenes are atrocious to sit through, fighting enemies tends to get annoying due to the fact that almost all of them are thinner than their original counterparts so you miss your shots more, and even the vibes that I mentioned earlier tend to fall apart because not all of the sound effects are replaced.

That’s what I think about this WAD now (not counting other, less severe cons). Honestly, you can skip this one.

2002 – CAVERNS OF DARKNESS

Another WAD that didn’t age that well. While I still think it’s good, it has tendencies for some annoying gimmicks, mostly when it comes to the modified enemy roster. Still, the moments where it shines are top-notch (most of the time, at least).

I have nothing else to add for this one. Check it out if you are interested.

2003 – DOOM RAIDER: CRYPT OF THE VILE

This map still holds up. It’s still fun to play, even if the traps seem to be a little bit too dickish (I know it was made like that on purpose, but still).

But the bugged section with the yellow key is even worse now than before. Previously, it had bugged toxic clouds that had infinite height even when infinitely tall monsters were turned off. It still functioned like a damaged floor, thankfully (with some additional damage for a few seconds later on). But now, with GZDoom 4.13, as soon as you start jumping above these pits, you are immediately poisoned. At this point, I don’t think it’s even possible to get past this part of the map without god mode.

Still, if you are interested in playing this map, go ahead. But don’t expect to finish it without cheating.

2004 – CHOSEN

If you are a sucker for ancient Egypt stuff, this WAD is perfect for it. It’s still really fun to play it, even if the lost soul replacement tends to be more annoying and enemies with shields are kind of a slough to fight with.

This one, unlike Caverns of Darkness, aged up rather well. Check it out. It’s underrated.

2005 – SIMPLICITY

Despite my latest playthrough being less than stellar and RNG being against me yet again, I was still having a blast while playing it. Two episodes of maps that you will probably finish in less than ten minutes full of non-stop actions, bosses at the end of each one, and with more arcade vibes if you are into it. It does get dickish sometimes, though.

It’s still a great WAD, though. Check it out.

2006 – ZEN DYNAMICS

This one is a big, stinky, mixed bag. It looks and sounds great, but gameplay-wise, while most of the new weaponry is good, some of the fights are hard for the wrong reasons, some of the enemies leak bullshit, and the reloading mechanics feel too slow to at least 1/3rd of weapons, making already annoying fights even more annoying. Not to mention how you lose all of your weapons in like 3-4 times as you enter a new map (plus taking away the best weapon in the final battle).

At least you can skip the more annoying cutscenes.

2007 – CHEOGSH

After playing Cheogsh 2, I was kind of skeptical about returning to its predecessor. And, yes, there are still problems here that became more severe in the sequel – unskippable cutscenes where you are frozen still (but at least in the sequel you could skip most of them), catacombs section that turns into the switch-hunting slog with the most annoying new enemy (nightmare), and trying to guess what to do next (mostly in the town section).

And yet, despite all of that, this WAD still rocks. Sure, the problems mentioned above ARE severe (although the last one not so much), but thankfully, the map’s pros greatly overwhelm them, whenever with its atmosphere, locations, music, spiced-up enemy roster (even though fresh meat might be a tiny bit too annoying); it’s all done well; and it pisses me off even more that Cheogsh 2 could’ve been great sequel to an overly great map, and it ended up as something that, if not already painfully outdated, it will become such.

100% recommendation to the first Cheogsh. Be wary of its… quirks mentioned above, though.

2008 – CHEX QUEST TRILOGY

Something that shouldn’t work in the first place, and yet, it slapped. And it still slaps now. Started as a bonus to Chex Cereals in the late 1990s’, ended as a trilogy of two, remastered episodes and the third, new one.

I don’t really have anything else to say about it, other than everything in this WAD is, at worst, good. Go check it out. Possibly a great choice for a first FPS for kids.

2009 – TRIBUTE WAD

Well, that’s an oddball here – a WAD compatible only with Skulltag, AKA the multiplayer-focused source port.

But despite the jankiness of this old source port, and the WAD itself, it was actually a blast to play it. Sure, you have to rustle for a while with Skulltag, some of the WAD’s weapons feel unnecessary and the humor in it might be outdated even by the time it was released, but under all of this is a fun WAD to check out. It makes me wish for a GZDoom port for it (or at least for ZDoom).

If you are willing to survive the outdated source port Skulltag is and make sure it works for your requirements for the lack of better words, you can give Tribute a shot.

WINNER

For me, when it comes to the best partial/total conversion WAD of the 2000s, it all came down between Simplicity and Cheogsh. And after thinking for a while, I have decided to give the Acid Trip award for the best partial/total conversion WAD of the decade to Simplicity. Cheogsh has many things that are better than in the former WAD, but it also has moments where it stagnates the progress for the sake of unnecessary quirkiness, while Simplicity doesn’t stop on its tracks. It knows what it is, and it doesn’t try to be more than dumb fun.

Of course, Cheogsh gets named the runner-up, along with Chosen, Chex Quest Trilogy, and Tribute WAD (because why the hell not; let’s give it some recognition). I would also name Doom Raider as such, but uhm… it’s busted now, and I don’t think it can be finished without cheats (at least on GZDoom).

…

Oh wait… There is also the case of-

DIAZ: LAST HOURS OF PURITY

Now then. Diaz is a gameplay mod that I wasn’t that fond of when playing; it was a janky mod with annoying randomness in enemy variety, and weapons that couldn’t automatically reload and did that by magazine and not bullets.

Still, it’s the only mod in the category of gameplay mods, so let’s give it an award. And I have a special award for it – Lucifer’s Bane, for the best Doom gameplay mod of the decade.

…

It still doesn’t say much about this mod.

“EPILOGUE”

And that’s all for the Decade of DOOMstruction when it comes to the 2000s’. Of all of the period’s highs and lows, at least I can say that ZDoom WADs got much better from the early to the late 2000s, and how the technicality in WADs became much more complex for the lack of better words again (that includes vanilla).

And although the main part of DoD is finally behind me, there is still some other WAD-related stuff to do before entering my foot into the 2010s – replaying some of the runners-up from the 2000s’ AND 1990s that were close to winning their year-related Revenant Award, but due to one thing or another, they failed; playing some bonus WADs/maps released up to 2009 (which now that think about it, it’s just one); and also a pseudo essay about a certain WAD that might have became the one that I despise the most… and a review of another WAD that mocks what this WAD (and others alike) did.

And as for me, I’m taking a break from reviewing for around a week.

Let’s hope I won’t be filled with cringe playing some of the oldest WADs again.

Oh, and by the way ==> MERR KRIMA!!1!

[m39]

Decade of DOOMstruction(1990s): Honorable mentions

While we are done with revisiting the best 2000s WADs in Decade of DOOMstruction, we are not completely done with this series for now. There are a couple of runners-up from Revenant Awards that lost to another WAD for one reason or another.

And today, we will be starting with the 1990s, checking out once again WADs that I thought were worth my time. I retroactively chose 6 WADs for this… re-review.

However, it will be different from the regular DoD part. We are not giving an award for the best runner-up; it’ll be just a regular re-review to see if these WADs are still holding up, even if most of them are almost three decades old at this point.

Starting with-

1994 – THE EVIL UNLEASHED

Boy! I don’t think you can get anymore outdated than this. Unneeded secrets inflation by stacking most of the secret sectors into one secret in most of the maps, mostly cheap difficulty because nobody knew how to properly make the map hard at the time, mind-boggling layout, and excessive backtracking; these are just a few things that plague this WAD.

And yet, I was expecting something worse and ended up with something that was just okay. I would rather play this than any of the earliest WADs made for ZDoom (aside from maybe one or two that didn’t tarnish its gameplay for gimmicks).

If you are interested in this WAD, go ahead and play it; at least to see what the Doom fans from that time played.

1995:

INFINITY

Forget what I said about TEU. This one is the fossil of fossils of WADs. Not only does it have the same mistakes as the previous WAD, but it also adds mandatory secrets (most of these aren’t even trying to actually be secret), more bugs that will soft-lock you, and is such a mess that it could teach Gene Bird of its le arte.

I only played 3/4 of it, and I threw a towel. At least with Evil Unleashed, I felt like the brothers behind Innocent Crew knew what they were doing. With this WAD, I felt like its authors were throwing random shit at the wall to see what would stick, and then translate it into the Doom WAD format.

I don’t even know why I liked it in the past. Just skip this WAD. It’s too outdated (at least for me).

A FISTFUL OF DOOM

Nothing like a good old trip to the wild west to calm my nerves… It didn’t completely help, unfortunately. -_-

This WAD gives out great vibes of the good old Dollar Trilogy Spaghetti Westerns… on the other hand, though, you fight hitscanners for at least 80% of the WAD, keys are too small and without any colors (you can’t even track which you have), not to mention at least one bug where the enemies can shoot through walls (you can even see through them).

So, yeah, overall, a mixed bag that I still recommend to play (just pop in some god mode and experience the vibes).

1996:

MEMENTO MORI II

Okay, so with this WAD, I’ve replayed over 2/3rds of it as of writing this words, but I think I’ll probably finish the rest of it in the future and just edit in my thoughts later, because this WAD tired me the fuck out, and there are two remaining to check. I should probably expect it from the sequel to one of the first community projects, but, hey, take a lesson from me. I thought that the maps wouldn’t really be suffering from the one map WAD syndrome, and got humbled… That, or it’s that damn Doom fatigue/burnout again.

But let’s cut to the chase. From what I’ve played of MMII, it’s rather good. Playing this WAD still felt rather archaic to me in probably every element of it, but it didn’t feel as fossilized as the previous half of the batch. Most of the music is GOATed; that’s the only thing about the WAD I can slightly elaborate on.

I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t play it. Just don’t marathon it.

ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE

Now, this WAD feels like the opposite of a slough. It’s a short but rather intense rollercoaster ride that felt like it laid the foundations for some of the custom enemies in the future like plasma crackheads and afrits. Sure, the enemy roster has some irritating elements (tougher Hoovy, Hoovy+arachnotron combo that doesn’t stop shooting when you are behind the wall, and helicopters being slightly overpowered), but other than that, it was a blast to play it again.

I still recommend it.

1997 – MORDETH

Last, but not least – a WAD that is still in development… for over 27 years at this point. I feel like whenever it will finally appear, it will be either the greatest WAD of all time or a gigantic slop of disappointment.

Anyway, when it comes to stuff that we got this many years ago, it’s still good. It might have too many window monsters in some areas, and some of the new enemies tend to get annoying, but other than that, I can’t see anything severely wrong with it.

It’s another WAD that is worth taking a look at least for historical reasons.

THE END

And that’s the entire roster for today. Half of these WADs aged up rather well. The other half… not so much. And from what I’ve seen, it was a good thing that some of the trends of that time died out.

I think I’ll probably have better than with runners-up from the 2000s. At least I remember playing them more fondly.

I’ll see you then.

[m39]

Decade of DOOMstruction(2000s): 30-32 maps WADs (vanilla)

Just a little warning before we start: Four WADs from this batch were played on easy because they were hard, and I want to be less tired when playing them. Avert your gaze if you are allergic to easy difficulty plebs. Also, try to guess which WAD I haven’t played like this.

BTW, I’ve decided to spice up my playthroughs of Revolution and Alien Vendetta with MIDI packs. It definitely helped with the former which has nothing but stocks.

Speaking of which…

2001 – REVOLUTION!

This WAD is still fun to play. It has some annoyingly cheap moments involving being surrounded by hitscanners, and the amount of damage floors might be too much in at least one-third of the maps, but the rest of it is great. I especially like the first third of the WAD, where stuff happens on Earth (at least I think that was Earth), and you explore many... earthly locations for the lack of better words (but there are still moments where the other maps shine).

Also, the MIDI pack has bangers. Worth playing with it if you are allergic to stocks.

This WAD is worth checking out, even if I feel like it should tone down with cheapness and damaging floors (even when I think that it’s easy).

2002 – ALIEN VENDETTA

Another WAD that still holds up. Sure, the last sixth of it might feel like a slog (not counting yet another oh-so-popular icon of shit map), especially MAP26 and MAP27 (to a lesser degree than the former), and, if I’m being honest, can be kind of outdated in some places, but other than that, it was a blast most of the time. Maps like Misri Halek are something that should be played without any prior knowledge. And the MIDI pack from 2022 only helps it (it made some of the more sluggish maps less annoying).

I 100% recommend checking it out, if just for MAP20.

2003 – SCYTHE

Aside from MAP28 (which I refuse to even touch with a 2m long stick), this WAD was also just as much fun as it was before. AKA pretty good. This WAD is a perfect choice for people who want to play small maps rather than some monolithic-sized ones, with only MAP26 and 30 being oddballs of slaughter fest variety. It also (haphazardly) splits into three episodes, starting easy and getting harder and harder with each episode.

Not to mention how it’s a megaWAD that doesn’t end on another icon of shit.

Check it out.

2004 – HELL REVEALED II

Oh… Oh boy…

I’m gonna be straight with you people – I skipped like four maps in this WAD (bonus ones, MAP27 and 28; not counting MAP30 because it’s yet another icon of shit) because I was that done with it using every cheap tactic at least once per map and the WAD itself overall. I felt like at least one-third of it was made with the idea of shoving as many monsters as possible on maps blockier than LEGO. And that’s just on easy. I’m still surprised I managed to finish it twice in the past on normal without burnout. If not for the fact that the music is great, I would probably throw a towel around half a point; up to the two first thirds if I would have a better mood.

Now, my rant aside, it’s not really a bad WAD per se, because it has some fun moments. It just feels so outdated even by the standard of the year it was released that I would recommend it only for people who are really curious about this WAD, or masochists who eat a couple of slaughter/hard maps on breakfast all at once.

I recommend checking Dean of Doom on this WAD to see how insane it gets (on Ultra-Violence that is)

2005 – SAMA KUTRA

Now, this WAD is what Hell Revealed II should’ve been. It has a smaller amount of blocky maps stuffed with demons (although, I still skipped two maps due to this fact) and replaces them with the ones with fun gimmicks like the map getting darker with each grabbed key, the one that happens on the sports gymnasium, and the one resembling a mini-golf course (and it’s a shame that the only map that’s talked about when the WAD is mention is MAP30 and its… Hellaverse fitting humor).

Not to mention the WAD feeling less cheap than the previous one (although, there are still moments here and there). The music could have less semi-duds, though.

Still, if I had to choose between this WAD and HRII, I would go for this one. It gave me much more fun.

WINNER

Back in 2022, I wasn’t sure if Alien Vendetta was the best WAD of the 2000s’ because I have so many more WADs like this to check out.

Today, I am confident to say that… it is (at least when it comes to having 32 maps and with vanilla restrictions). And so, it gets the first Queen of Diamonds award for the best 30-32 maps long megaWAD of the decade. And as for runners-up, I am naming Revolution and Scythe 1 as those.

For the next roster of WADs… oh God… get yourself some anti-insomnia pills.

We have community projects galore coming up.

[m39]

Decade of DOOMstruction(2000s): 8-9 maps WADs

One thing I noticed about episode replacements is that these are always made for Doom I. Seriously, it’s like moths flying to the nearest light source. That and in at least 8/10 cases they pay homage to the first episode from what I’ve seen.

But anyway, here are the best episode replacements for the classic Doom games.

VANILLA

2000 – THE CLASSIC EPISODE

Let me tell you now, that if you enjoy homages to KDitD, you will enjoy this WAD. If you are like me and expect something more from these, you can skip it.

One of the biggest restrictions in making Doom I WADs is the much smaller amount of enemy types, with this game having only one high-tier and one mid-tier enemy with the rest feeling like cannon fodder, where only hitscanners have a chance to hit you if you are a god of dodging. And this WAD suffers from it, with encounters being either boring or tiring due to having a small amount of rockets and cells until around the second half of E2M7.

Other than fights, it’s basically (and probably mostly) a bizzaro E1 – simple, yet abstract locations and rather simple to play through maps, with maybe one or two moments where you get stuck if you are an idiot like me and miss an important switch right next to you.

2002 – CH RETRO EPISODE

This WAD gave me a better experience than the last one since it doesn’t feel like it overstays its welcome until around the second half/ last third and it doesn’t have tiring encounters with cacos and barons; just boring and, sometimes, annoying ones.

Still, it’s basically another E1-based episode replacement that doesn’t really add anything significantly memorable.

2004 – PHOBOS REVISITED

I think this WAD might be the best one by far. Taking the foundations of the original episode and flipping some of its concepts upside down, giving it a fresh experience to the familiar locations, utilizing original secret areas as regular ones, and also making it harder and better looking (it’s still rather easy though).

Out of all the vanilla WADs in this category (at least the ones that I replayed now), I would say to try at least this one. This one is good.

2008 – BACK TO BASICS

While better WAD than Ruma, primarily due to having no new, piss-poor sound effects, I’m still not fond of Espi’s level design.

While I appreciate how it is not yet another E1 reference WAD like the previous one and how it manages to do some tricks with the engine on vanilla restrictions, it still suffers from the boring and (occasionally) tiring fights with Doom I’s limited bestiary (although the fights didn’t feel as boring as the previous WADs), added with infuriating backtracking that I feel like it forces you to go through at least half of the map per one just to open a colored door/press another switch. Topped with some of the secrets being annoying to grab due to forced SR40/50 straferunning and the fact that you are forced to pistol start the final map because fuck you and your BFG.

While I still recommend playing this WAD (if at least for the secret map that is), I don’t think it’s worth playing further after E2M7.

WINNER

Let’s cut to the chase, people – Phobos Revisited earns the first GoldenSpider Nest award for the best episode replacement of the decade. It’s kind of hilarious how the vanilla WAD that references Knee-Deep in the Dead the most in the one that gave the most fun.

Even though I am not that fond of the rest of the WADs, I must choose the runner-up. And for me, it’s the CH Retro Episode that deserves to get this title. Back to Basics might be better than that WAD, but at least CHRE wasn’t as frustrating as BtB.

Now, let’s move on to the second half of this category.

SOURCE PORT

Let’s hope that the following WADs will give me more fun than the previous ones.

2003 – PHOBOS: ANOMALY REBORN

And we immediately start off with a bang.

This WAD has some of the most gorgeous maps ever created in the 2000s; made even more impressive that it looked like it was all made with nothing BUT Doom I stock textures. It all looks insane.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though. Many encounters have a hard time living up to the standard of being actually fun, rather than being forced to fight barons with shotgun/chaingun, fighting hitscanners with next to no cover, or just being straight-up boring.

It’s not as great as it was when I first played it, but it's still a good WAD worth checking out, especially for its design and interaction with the environment.

2006 – THE CLASSIC EPISODE PART 2

A sequel to the original Classic Episode WAD, made by the same guy, and it’s at least 100% better than the original. Having a hub map that gets more corrupted when you reach it for the last time is great, along with encounters feeling much less boring, tiring, and (to some degree) annoying. And as for the complexity level of the maps, I guess it’s somewhere around the same level as the previous WAD, AKA not that much.

This one is worth checking out.

2009 – MAPGAME

Another, pretty solid WAD IMO. It kind of spices up the gameplay by switching the chaingun with a projectiles-based flare gun, and transforming spider mastermind into a much weaker turret (it’s still a hitscanner but at least it’s something fresh in the roster), but aside from these, it’s a rather standard E1 replacement with pretty locations (not as pretty as PAR though). That’s all I have to say for this WAD.

WINNER

And now, it looks like I have a problem since all of the WADs are good, but not really amazing. I would gladly give the second Golden Spider Nest award for Phobos AR, but then I am reminded that fun shouldn’t be hindered by pretty locations. So, ultimately, I give the award for Mapgame, and the other two WADs get named runners-up.

Now that I’m done with episode replacements, I can only hope that I’ll finally play some Doom II stuff in the next category.

I’ll see you then.

[m39]

Decade of DOOMstruction(2000s): 33+ maps WADs

We have reached the final category of the regular WADs from the 2000s. As in, the ones that go over 32 maps.

Two of these WADs are Doom I ones so I’m not really that excited to replay these.

Especially the first one on the list.

2002 – 2002 A DOOM ODYSSEY

I feel like per each good thing to talk about this WAD, there is one that makes me rip my hair out of my already balding head. Unintentionally swapped exits to the secret levels in E2 (in the third version that is), music that feels like it has one moment or instrument that feels like it came out of Mock 2, and, the worst of all, cheap difficulty bumps that start to become severe by the time you reach E2M4. The last con is the main reason why I played the WAD on easy from E2 onward.

But, to be honest, despite all of its problems, aside from E4, I was expecting worse from this WAD. It’s fine. It just feels like an original Ultimate Doom but more polarizing.

If you are interested in it, at least play up to E3. E4 will probably turn you red, especially on Ultra-Violence.

2007 – WONDERFUL DOOM

Hey, look! Another Doom I homage!

Despite me skipping four maps from this WAD (two because the very concept of these is piss poor and the other two because they tend to be annoyingly difficult) and playing the last episode on easy (Thy Flesh Consume homage), I had much more fun playing it than the previous WAD. If you want some nostalgia trip to the original Ultimate Doom but slightly different, you can play this one. Be warned, however, that this WAD also emulates some of the more annoying elements of the original game.

2009 – PLUTONIA 2

While writing these words I’m at MAP25, but I’ll tell it now: despite RNG being against me during this playthrough most of the time, this WAD might be the best out of this batch.

I might not be a fan of slaughter maps/WADs but some of the maps gave me more fun than the entirety of what the previous two WADs had to offer. And I would rate it higher if there were much fewer maps where you start up surrounded by enemies, along with sniping hitscanners.

A perfect WAD for masochists.

WINNER

And so, we reached a stalemate, because I cannot fully recommend any of these WADs; Odyssey is polarizing as shit, Wonderful is a fun nostalgia trip but that’s it, and Plutonia 2 is… Plutonia WAD.

But as always, it all comes down to the WAD that gave me the most fun (or rather, in the case of this category, I tolerated the most), and the WAD that pissed me off the least is Wonderful Doom, which gains the Calamity WAD award for the best 33+ maps WAD of the decade.

Plutonia 2 might be better on, probably, every level than WD, but the latter at least feels more accessible. Still naming P2 the runner-up, though. If it can’t get an award, then at least it deserves to be recognized to some extent.

WHISPERS OF SATAN

Finally, a WAD that wins by default!

But, yeah, Whispers of Satan gets the second Calamity WAD award. I think I had more fun with this WAD rather than Plutonia 2, even if this WAD had many maps with copied and pasted locations.

Still, it’s worth taking a look, I guess.

And… I guess that’s it for this category. And for the regular WADs. In the future, we will be weird with partial and total conversions.

I’ll see you then.

[m39]

Decade of DOOMstruction(2000s): 30-32 maps WADs (source port)

Okay… One thing before we start with today’s batch: I extend my playing on easy rule on community projects like the Community Chest series or the NDCP duology. These WADs tend to be very mixed bags, and I would be glad to go through them as fast as possible, AKA without getting completely tired and burned out.

Also, I will probably skip some of the maps from the WADs mentioned above. Definitely doing that with MAP21 of our first contestant. Great design my ass!

2000 – 10 SECTORS

This WAD is one of the more interesting community projects since, as its title suggests, it is made out of maps that have up to 10 map sectors. Most of the maps were fine, some were better, some… I would rather not talk about it. I would be glad if some of these had much less backtracking and less bullshit difficulty moments.

If you want to check this compilation, at least play from MAP27 to MAP30, cause these are considered the best ones by the competition’s juries (even though MAP29 doesn’t deserve the second place IMO). Other than that, I don’t think you will miss much.

2004 – COMMUNITY CHEST 2

To show you how this CP WAD is uneven, I skipped over 1/3rd of the maps, including Gene Bird’s work, MAP13 because I played it already in Crimson Canyon, and icon of shit at the end (at least this one isn’t shooting rockets through the tiny hole this time).

Ignoring that third, it was alright, I guess? There are definitely some bangers in this compilation, especially Mucus Flow. And there are still others that have interesting concepts, providing they aren’t filled with artificial difficulty bumps (MAP28’s ending, everyone?). Other than that, it’s not too much.

At least play MAP24 if you want to check this WAD out, for the love of God.

2005 – SCYTHE 2

Finally. Some quality content.

With the amount of slaughter maps increased by at least three (if you enjoy these), Scythe 2 is better than its predecessor in possibly every way possible while also being a great megaWAD on its own. While harder than Scythe 1, it can still be rather merciful. Not to mention six biomes per five maps and MAP30 that, once in a lifetime, is not another icon of shit.

100% recommendation. One of the greatest (and possibly most influential) WADs ever... created...

…

…

…

Huh…

You know what? I just realized something… Scythe 2 raised the bar so high that none of the community projects from the 2000s I chose (willingly or not) can top that WAD!

So how about this: Let’s just cut to the chase, and give Scythe 2 the second Queen of Diamonds award to not torture myself with community projects.

But, hey! I’m not going to leave these WADs out for nothing. I’ll play the rest of the community projects after dealing with DoD.

Also, Mucus Flow gets named runner-up in this category, because of all maps out of all community projects from here, this is the one I remember the most fondly.

I think I’ll start giving community projects such as these a separate category in the future.

Anyway, see you next time.

[m39]

Decade of DOOMstruction(2000s): 10-19 maps WADs

Disclaimer: I updated GZDoom to version 4.13, because 4.12 had a bug where partial invisibility couldn’t make enemies miss their shot.

With that said, let’s take a look at today’s patch of WADs.

VANILLA

2000 – THE DARKENING EPISODE 2

Finally, a Doom II WAD.

Being a homage to Quake II like the first Darkening to Quake I, this WAD ended up better than I expected. Sure, some of the levels tend to get annoying (like the final map being the biggest case of a mangled maze filled with corrosive slime), but it wasn’t that painful most of the time. And it was rather easy might I add (with a couple of cheap hiccups). Also, my past self was right; I do appreciate the music more now (although I still think some tracks are too loud and have questionable parts in them).

It might be an over two decades old fossil of the WAD, but it didn’t age that horribly.

2001 – SLAYER

Oh, great. This one.

It’s far from being a bad WAD. It’s just that I have so many pet peeves with it. Starting with relatively minor ones like pea shooter/chaingun and shotgun now sounding like hammers, to the more severe ones like how the WAD is hard for the wrong reasons, forcing you to fight hordes of mid to high-tier enemies in small areas, and/or hitscanners with next to no cover (especially during the latter half). Not to mention the piss-poor start of the first map, where you are forced to fight an armada of hitscanners with just a peashooter in order to get ammo/shotgun for later.

It’s basically not my cup of tea.

WINNER

Yeah, the winner should be obvious. It’s the Darkening Episode 2. It gets the Platinum Bone Zone award for the best 10-19 maps-long WAD of the decade. And, as much as I don’t like it, I am obligated to put SlayeR into the runner-up category.

That was the first half of this category. Let’s take a look at the second one.

SOURCE PORT

2001 – EQUINOX

Welcome back, B.P.R.D!

One of the earliest works of this guy, and... oh boy. New sound effects that are loud as fuck, some of the locations might feel too big in some places, and it’s overall kind of janky.

And yet, most of the time, I had a small blast playing again. Sure, it’s not as good as when I played it in the past, but there are still many great things about it: the music, some of the level design aging greatly, how it creates lore without any shred of dialogue or plot written in the textfile, and encounters, while being dry on ammo most of the time, were rather fun for around 80% of the playthrough.

Not to mention the hub area getting more, and more destroyed with each visit.

It might be old, and it might be janky, but I still recommend you to try this WAD out. But maybe play it on easy on the blind playthrough, just in case.

2005 – CRIMSON CANYON

This is another WAD that ended up better than I expected.

Sure, MAP05 tends to get annoying with its backtracking and switch hunting (its size doesn’t help), but the rest of the levels were pretty good. It all looks good as well, with enemy encounters being rather easy with a couple annoying ones sprinkled in between for the lack of better words. I wish the music was slightly louder, though.

Oh, and as a bonus, you can play an additional two maps from Congestion 1024 made by the author of this WAD.

2006 – HELLCORE 2.0

I still very much like this WAD; especially when it comes to how it was made. The original Hellcore was nothing but an unfinished mess of maps that both of its authors wanted to make but got burned out due to the 9 years of it being in development and released what was finished. But it looks like they weren’t satisfied, so they dusted-off, and revamped nine original maps, added three additional ones, and so they made something great (asides from the new enemy in the credits map; he kind of reeks of cheap shit).

This WAD gets my 100% recommendation.

2007 – IT ONLY GETS WORSE

And we drop the quality to another Mockaward winner… Yippee...

Okay, I’ll try to be brief: While not as bad as Doomworld Forums 3 (mostly because jokes aren’t related to the events of that site and its cutscenes are more polished), it’s still just a bunch of LOL SU FOONY maps for the sake of random stuff being thrown at your face. I might like random humor (mostly talking about Gmod/SFM stuff), but this WAD feels like a low-hanging fruit.

And people say Gen Alpha is watching brain rot.

2008 – REMAIN 3

Thank God! Eternal is back!

Now, on a more serious note, aside from a few annoying encounters/new enemies, I still really enjoy this WAD. I like how it pays homage to the original maps from MAP06 onward, either with their mechanics or visuals that look more like a title to the original Doom II map. Even then, the first five maps, more original ones, didn’t feel samey when compared to each other for the lack of better words. And hey! It’s not that hard (if you don’t mind it)!

Another banger worth checking out.

WINNER

Looks like we have a harder choice again with Hellcore and Remain 3. Both WADs are great, but hey. Only one winner.

Part of me wants to give the second Platinum Bone Zone to Hellcore 2.0 due to the sheer determination of its authors to create something great out of what was previously good at best; but on the other hand, Remain 3 was for me less polarizing than the former WAD.

And just by that, Remain 3 gets the award, but only by the margin.

Other WADs (not counting It Only Gets Worse) get named runners-up. Yes, even Equinox; despite its jank, it deserves some recognition.

THE DRY FARM OF SIEGE COWS

Normally, the next WAD category would be dedicated to the WADs with 20-29 maps along with its dedicated award – Ruby Dairy Farm.

But it looks like the category is dry for the 2000s decade since there were no WADs for it. It’s even more severe than the 1990’s because at least there was one WAD to talk about.

So, yeah. That’s all I have to say for now.

Next up, we will be looking back at 30-32 maps-long WADs, and, like with the first two categories, we split it into two parts due to it having over 10 WADs to replay.

And, by the way, there will be at least two WADs that I’ll play on easy to not drag out the making-of part of this project.

I’ll see you next time with more megaWADs.

[m39]

Decade of DOOMstruction(2000s): 2-7 maps WADs (source port)

Oh, boy! A full stack of WADs to check out today.

Let’s hope at least half of these will give me fun.

2000 – HELL FACTORY

Ah, shit.

This WAD is a perfect reminder of how much the early 2000s ZDoom WADs aged like milk. New sound effects that are louder than the rest of the game (although, this con fits perfectly with other types of WADs as well); unskippable cutscenes; stealth enemies that pop out of nowhere when they attack (including the hitscanners); cringy/pretentious dialogue (I don’t think it would be good even if the author was better in English back then); these are bigger issues that plague this WAD. These and it being somewhat confusing due to its hub-based design.

It does have good moments here and there, but personally? I think it will be better if you skip this one. There are better hub-based ZDoom WADs out there.

2001 – DOOM RESURRECTION

This WAD was a surprisingly better experience than I expected. It removes most of the ZScript-related problems (stealth shit was still there, unfortunately -_-), while adding some interesting stuff in between. I know I was expecting more fun with this WAD, but I think it exceeded my expectations.

If you don’t mind the stealth shit, you can check it out.

2002 – DARK 7

Christ on a bike! Another early ZDoom WAD?!

Well, the good news is – no more stealth shitlings… the bad news is that obnoxious, new sound effects are back… with a vengeance.

And I’m not talking about the ones from Doom 64 (since these are always good, even though here, these are incomplete). I’m talking about the rest of those, including the ambient noises that will make you want to rip your ears out after hearing generic announcement #whatever for the nth time on MAP04. I feel like none of them fits here, either due to not having their volume adjusted (weapon picking one being the worst case (I think it’s from Unreal but I might be wrong)), or sounding nonsensically (never put flak cannon’s firing sound into the Doom’s rocket launcher).

It’s sad to think that the rest of the WAD was IMO rather good (aside from two jumpscare explosions on the first two maps), but the new sound effects make a playthrough of it a half torture at best. It’s basically the same problem with Ruma – enjoyable only if you don’t mind these changes or mute them all together.

Honestly, you can skip that one.

2003 – THE BROTHERHOOD OF RUIN

Compared to the previous WADs, this one feels like a golden bar found in the pile of dung heap. And even without comparison, this WAD is still pretty good; and its Mesoamerican theme only helps even further. It has some cheap moments here and there (like crushers and traps/ambushes with hitscanners), but the amount of pros is overall bigger than the cons.

Worth checking out.

2004 – DOOMWORLD FORUMS 3

…

The hell am I supposed to say about that thing?

I don’t want to sound mean or anything, but this WAD is nothing more but a ZDoom slop made out of more annoying features of this port (at the time), sprinkled with unfunny, outdated humor that references stuff that happened in the Doom community twenty years ago, of which I recognize only the RTC stuff from the beginning.

The only highly positive thing I can think of is that the titular forums look rather dope.

You can skip this one. Only people who experienced these adapted events will probably enjoy it.

2005 – HI-TECH HELL 2 – ALIEN TECH

Well, here is something odd – a WAD made for Doom Legacy (it thankfully became compatible with ZDoom after a while).

Compared with other ZDoom-like WADs, this one feels like a milestone, probably due to the simple yet time-saving option to skip the cutscenes.

Other than that, it’s still a good WAD. Sure, it gets annoyingly loud sometimes (especially on MAP03) and the layout of it seems to get confusing in some places, but other than that, it looks great, and is not really that hard, even when enemies’ counter goes over 200 in three maps.

Not as good as Brotherhood, but I still recommend it.

2006 – VAE VICTUS 2

This one ended up better than I remember.

MAP05 might still be confusing and the new music tracks (at least the ones that I recognize) are kind of scuffed compared to the original versions, but other than that, I can’t recon more significant cons of this WAD. It’s really fun to play. Worth checking out.

That’s basically all I have to say about this WAD.

2007 – EPIC

And now, we reached the final, three WADs in this category; some of the best ones; all made by the same guy. But the question is, do they still hold up?

Well, for starters, this one is still a banger to play. While it is kind of janky (one of Eternal’s earlier works), it is the best WAD in this category that I've played so far. It is also the second WAD on the list with ancient civilization stuff AND a train level. What’s not to like?!

2008 – GRAVITY

This one is still great (as well). Sometimes I wonder if this WAD or Epic looks better, but it doesn’t change the fact, that these two maps have some of the most impressive-looking locations made in the late 2000s’. Some of you might complain that it’s not really hard, but even then, I still, fully recommend playing it. You won’t be disappointed (aside from Gravitown’s music… probably).

Also, it’s less janky than Epic.

2009 – HELL GROUND

Disclaimer: Forget about what said about the MAP07 boss in my review of this WAD. It is not bugged. I was just too stupid to realize I was supposed to shoot the left eye from the right platform and vice versa. Someone please assist me with [[YOUTUBE]]. I am a failure of humanity.

Seriously, though, I really like this WAD. It’s like almost everything fits in there; the music from American McGee’s Alice only makes it better. Some of the enemy encounters can get annoying and some music tracks don’t exactly fit and/or are too short, but the amount of pros is much, MUCH higher than the one of cons.

100% recommendation.

WINNER

Here is a little spoiler for the winner, folks: Each of Eternal's WADs deserves the second award for the best 2-7 maps WAD of the decade, but only one will earn it. And in my opinion, it’s Hell Ground that gets the second Pink Pack award. The other two Eternal’s WADs (along with the Brotherhood of Ruin and Vae Victus 2) are, of course, named runners-up.

I don’t know how to finish this part. All I’ve got to say is that there are 7 8-9 maps WADs to check again next, so there won’t be any slitting into two halves.

That’s all for today, people. See you next time, with 2000s’ episode replacements.

[m39]

Decade of DOOMstruction(2000s): 2-7 maps WADs (vanilla)

Looks like we have another case of over 10 WADs in the category (with two vanillas again). Which means splitting this one into two parts yet again.

I have nothing else to add. Let’s just get to the first WAD.

2002 – RIP IT, TEAR IT, SMASH IT

My opinion on this WAD hasn’t changed much since the last time I played it. The second map kind of overstays its welcome with some confusing moments, annoying fights, and one part with a chess floor lift (-_-) but overall, it’s still a good and easy WAD.

I think I remember having a much better (and easier) time during my previous encounter with RiTiSi; probably because I played it after 007 WAD, and I don’t want to talk about this filth (for now at least). Probably any WAD from 2002 would be considered gold after playing that shit.

Back on the track, if you are interested in this WAD, check it out.

2005 – FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLLS

I was expecting a worse experience with this WAD and without counting RNG screwing me over on this playthrough, it is a rather good WAD.

It’s detailed despite having vanilla restriction (probably because it’s basically one map split into two), and it’s not that hard, but some of the fights and gimmicks tend to get annoying, like tight areas and the arch-vile encounter at the end of the second part.

Still, it’s worth checking out, I guess? It won’t annoy you to the ass.

WINNER

It’s kind of hard to pick a winner for the first part of this category since both WADs are good, but that’s it.

But honestly, if I had to choose, I would choose Rip It, Tear It, Smash It to win the first Pink Pack award for the best WAD of the decade, with For Whom, of course, being named the runner-up. I just had more fun with the former WAD.

See you much later with another batch of WADs to check again.

[m39]

Decade of DOOMstruction(2000s): 1 map WADs (source port)

If you thought that there weren’t enough WADs to talk about previously, don’t worry. We have 4 times more of these today. And, oh boy… We are off with a bang.

2000 – CHORD 3

As in, the difficult type of a bang, the conclusion to the Chord series has a high chance to kick your ass. Unfortunately, by the end of 2000s standards, it’s closer to the cheap difficulty, with traps surrounding you with enemies, BEING surrounded by enemies at the start (at least there are no hitscanners at the start), the environment usually being against you, starving amounts of ammo until the end of the map, and the less we talk about the bullshit galore of the ending, the better.

I think I might have been more masochistic in the past since I found this map easier with my first review; probably because I found cheap stuff more acceptable and now I got more rusty.

Nonetheless, it’s still a fine map. I still recommend giving it a shot, even though the cheapness of this map might sour your experience with it. Don’t try it on UV when playing blind.

2001 – VRACK 2

This map, on the other hand, felt easier than the last time I played it. Sure, there are over 550 enemies on HMP, but on the other hand, you get a lot of rockets to use, and it doesn’t feel as cheap as the previous map; I’m not even mentioning how some of the secrets trivialize some of the harder moments of the map.

It still looks kind of impressive for a space station from a 2001 WAD. And it was less confusing than during my review of it (probably because I had a secrets guide I made for myself).

It might be an over-two decades-old fossil of a map, but it’s still a good map worth checking out.

2002 – RUMA

While Espi is still fondly remembered by the Doom community even to this day, and even after being dead for 15 years, I’m not really that fond of the decisions he made with his WADs.

Starting with this map, for instance, where the hardest thing to survive is not the small barrage of barons and revenants near the end, but the new sound effects. The pea shooter now sounding like an actual pea shooter, the profanation that is the super slapgun, and the horribly bitcrushed explosion from another game I don’t recognize which, makes me want to play this map muted.

Other than that, it’s still a good map in other parts of it. Sure, the army of zombiemen going down the hallway near the starting area is a bit much, but it’s not a hard map, and by the early 2000s, it looks neat. I think I might appreciate this map slightly more than the last time I played it since it doesn’t try to make unwanted gimmicks over the cost of fun.

If you think you can survive the new sound effects, go ahead and play this map. I don’t think it will disappoint you.

2003 – SPACE STATION OMEGA

It’s kind of hilarious how the author of this map would made the foundation for the Doom+2 port released this year.

As for this map, though? It’s basically one of those tech demos to see what ZDoom can do. My opinion on it doesn’t really change. Annoying? Sure. But it’s less annoying than some of the other tech demos of its time. You can give it a pass.

2004 – GROVE

Trees that block your every move. Darker than a baboon’s arsehole. Irritatingly cryptic in some places. Forces you to do things in a certain way to not rip your remaining hairs out. These are some of the elements that plague this map. A map that should fall apart, and yet it fits in many places.

It’s a marvel for eyes and ears, the atmosphere might be one of its kind, and despite ammo-starving you, you will still have enough ammo to kill all enemies if you know where to look.

This is a map only a madman with the mind of B.P.R.D. could understand 100%. Even though I still like it to some degree, it’s without a doubt one of the most polarizing maps in the WAD community. And yet, I still recommend you play it, if only for the sheer curiosity.

Check the bookcases in the house near the start.

2005 – ALTAR OF EVIL

This might be the best map in this category’s roster by far.

Not overly cryptic. Challenging but not going too far. Atmospheric. Good use of Doom 64’s sound effects. No hitscanners whatsoever.

It’s a really solid map worth trying out. It might have some sound glitches, and the starting area kind of reeks of bullshit, but hey, nothing is perfect. You won’t be disappointed with this one.

2006 – ONIRIA

Another great and fun map to play.

I don’t know how, but I think I enjoyed this map more than the last time I played it. Like Grove, it is one of the more unique experiences of playing Doom WADs, but at the same time, it is much, MUCH less polarizing than that map. Somehow trying to wake up from a monochromatic dream full of skulls to collect became one of the best 2000s WADs to play. And it’s a crime that it isn’t as remembered as the other maps from the roster.

Go ahead and play it. I 100% recommend checking this map.

2007 – SONGS OF THE DAMNED

Three great maps to play in a row, people. And the second one without hitscanners.

It slightly spices up the gameplay by nerfing cacos and lost souls… and plasma gun as well (SHIT), but aside from that, it’s a rather standard, but fun map to play. It might be cheap in some places, but aside from one secret that forces straferunning and the trial-and-error guessing game with the yellow key, this map wasn’t that cheap. It’s not that hard either. And it’s pretty fun to look at when it comes to its architecture and scale.

This map will not disappoint you either.

2008 – ESCAPE FROM CASTLE CHEZCREA

We end today’s roster with a little bit of a letdown (when compared to the previous three maps).

On its own, it is still a fun map to play; it has some interesting things to do, like picking up a pickaxe to unlock one of the secrets (and that pickaxe is not a sprite), but aside from that, it’s rather standard. Nothing else really sticks out aside from some cool locations.

Still, worth checking out.

WINNER

I believe the maps from 2005 to 2007 deserve the title of the best WAD of the decade. It’s like every element of each map snapped in the right place. Only one of them will get this title, though. And I believe that Oniria deserves the second One Man Army award for the best one-map WAD of the decade. The reason for its win is basically the same one why it was named one of the best WADs of 2006 – it stands out from both AoE and SotD.

That doesn’t mean that Altar of Evil and Songs of the Damned are left with nothing. I’m naming both of them runners-up in this category… along with Grove. I might be biased with the latter one, but look, despite its polarizing ideas, it should be at least recognized.

And that’s all for the one-map WADs. Stay tuned in the future folks. The time between each part will only get longer… probably.

[m39]

Decade of DOOMstruction(2000s): 1 map WADs (Vanilla)

Like with the 1990s’ WADs, we will be going from the lowest amount of maps per WAD, culminating on partial and total conversions; with vanilla WADs going on the first line. And this is the first map to check:

2001 – NULL SPACE

You know… I remember playing this map much more fondly years ago than playing it now.

This map aged rather badly. While the concept of two buildings being stranded in the void and looking bigger from the inside is still rather impressive by the 2001 standards, everything else is not. And while this map gets a huge thumbs up for not including any hitscanners asides from Spiderbitch, fighting demons on this map tends to get tedious and annoying most of the time, especially when it comes to a shit ton of imps behind small cages (I am mostly talking about the yellow key area and the bridge between two buildings). Not to mention how this map is mostly gray and brown.

Maybe I had a blast playing Null Space after playing SlayeR, which, wasn’t exactly great, to begin with. Maybe it’s because I was just starting with 2000s WADs and didn’t know much. Either way, while I wish this map could’ve been better, it wasn’t completely horrible to play.

2002 - CONGESTION CONTROL

I didn’t remember shit about this map, and yet I had more fun with it rather than the previous one. And this one starts with hitscanners in front of you.

It’s kind of a shame that this map isn’t more recognizable, because it beats Null Space in probably every department. It might be slightly annoying to move around the map, but other than that (and the fact that I didn’t recognize that I grabbed the blue key already a couple of minutes ago), I don’t think there are any bigger cons that trouble it. It doesn’t require any gimmick to be a very good map. It just is.

So, yeah. In the ironic twist of events, the first One Man Army award for the best single map WAD of the decade goes to Congestion Control, and it’s the Null Space that gets named the runner-up by default.

…

You know what? Since I don’t feel completely moody right now, I would like to come back to the 1990s for a moment and declare UAC_DEAD as another runner-up for that category. It honestly deserves it.

Okay. Enough of award-giving for today. Soon, we will be checking source port maps.

I’ll see you then.

[m39]

Decade of DOOMstruction(2000s): Introduction

So, uhm… How do I start this?

Somewhere at the end of February 2022, I started a project called Decade of DOOMstruction, where I took the best WADs from the 1990s, year by year (1994 onward to be exact), split them by how many maps they have (plus partial/total conversions), and chose which one gave me the most fun and named them the best of the decade.

And now, I’m doing it again, but with the 2000s’. Why not take a closer at that time period for a moment.

From what I’ve seen, by the 2000s’, source port requirement became a common thing in Doom WADs. With the release of the classics’ source code by the end of 1997, people went nuts with ports, raging from more accessible to modern computers, to allowing features from other Doom engine games like Heretic and Strife, ending on basically letting people make completely new games on this engine (something that is still happening with GZDoom). The same can be said about going nuts with WADs themselves, starting with the ones without the limits the original games have (although, there are still vanillas that keep these restrictions for lack of better words), going to the Boom-compatible WADs that use features related to the port (it might as well be marked as the unofficial Classic Doom 3 engine), to finally, ZDoom-compatible WADs, which were basically Boom-compatible WADs but with the amount of features on steroids.

Unfortunately, with the case of the ZDoom-compatible WADs, especially when it comes to the first half of the decade, many of these felt out of their heads and went too far. Like, the authors of these sniffed their own farts for so long, that they thought they were making another Half-Life-level of FPS revolution when in reality, these were just glorified tech demos of what was possible at the time with this source port and its following branches. But that’s just how I feel about the ZDoom WADs that I played from that period.

Despite knowing that some of the WADs I will play in the near future might not be rather fun (usually because many of these won their respective Revenant Awards by default), I’m still excited to see if these WADs hold up after playing them.

There are, however, some additional changes to the second part of the project:

Firstly, after choosing the winners in all categories, I will also be talking about honorable mentions; WADs that were close to becoming the winner in their respective RA categories, but lost due to one or two factors. That includes WADs from the 1990s.

Secondly, in cases of WADs where the amount of slaughter maps is higher than 33%/50% (I still can’t decide which option is better for me), I’ll be playing these on the easy skill level, because it will take me less time to finish these (and I won’t feel that tired after finishing them).

Finally, when the number of WADs (vanilla and source port ones combined) is above ten, I’ll split the category into two parts (one for vanilla WADs, one for the source port ones), in order to give you something to read and not wait long for the next part, and to not burn myself out.

I believe that’s all I have to say. In a moment we will be taking a look at the first batch of WADs (it would’ve been days earlier but personal stuff happened).

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: Community Chest 1

We interrupt Decade of DOOMstruction to give you some bonus slop.

B18: Community Chest 1

Main author(s): Various (project lead by Dale Harris (cadman))

Release date: June 13th, 2003 (database upload)

Version(s) played: ???

Required port compatibility: Boom

Levels: 32 (standard 30 + 2)

Well, folks… Community Chest series had to start somewhere. I reviewed the second and third installments, of which the former was a better experience despite being more polarizing. And now, we will be taking a look at the first one.

I’ve already talked about how this project came into fruition in my CC2 review, so I’ll try to be quick here – Dale Harris (TeamTNT member) wanted to give less-popular WAD makers a spotlight, came out with the idea for community project that was released around almost a year later, and one of its contributors, Kevin Reay (Magical), died weeks before CC1’s release, with his death only being known half-a-year later.

Now, before properly taking a look at this community project, I’d like to tell you that I won’t be playing the maps the aforementioned Kevin Reay contributed, AKA Goin’ Down (not to be confused with Cyriak’s WAD) and Citadel at the Edge of Eternity, because from what I’ve heard and seen, these two maps are borderline masochistic in terms of the difficulty (mostly the latter map), and crypticness. If I wanted to check these maps as well, I feel like the in-making progress of this review would get longer by at least two weeks just to calm my nerves after playing them.

Also, I only played most of the maps twice. I don’t really have enough patience to go through some of these more than one time.

The story with how the maps look is the same as with any other community project that I played, AKA mixed to the max. Some maps look great, some look primitive, some are in between, yadda, yadda yadda. All in the good, old, 2003 standards of quality.

You might as well mute the music while playing this project because only the title and text screens along with 6 other maps in the final third have the new tracks. Not to be an asswipe, but making the maps as orthodox as possible with textures and music doesn’t sound like a great idea to begin with.

Gameplay-wise, it’s basically the same mixed bag as with every other community project; maps are either big or small (although there weren’t many that felt like they overstayed their welcome), simple or convoluted, and might usually have at least one annoying gimmick that felt outdated even by 2003, like long backtracking, chess-moving floor (although it happened only once from what I can remember), areas that are dark as shit, etc.

I think that in order to not end this section too quickly for the lack of better words, it would be a good idea if I talked about some of the more memorable authors (mostly for the wrong reasons). Starting with Gene Bird.

scare chord

Now, I already talked about him in my CC2 review, so I’ll try to be brief – his maps feel like a 1994 mess made by a preteen back then, and then uploaded years later, only to end up in this community project, making me feel like these were filler maps, because not enough people were interested. But at least his maps were more enjoyable to play compared to some of the more moon-logic-filled WADs I’ve experienced in the past.

Ground Floor felt like a mushed-up, mangled maze; like it’s the first thing I would think of when it comes to bad WAD design, making me go around the large chunk of a map to reach an area right behind the wall I stand next to. But at least the theme wasn’t a complete mess like the maps from Gene Bird.

Mike Alfredson, meanwhile, puts out annoyingly large maps that tend to have a lot of backtracking to be brief. These maps are basically what I was expecting from the first CC. I played them only once, and I don’t think I’d like to play them again (even if MAP13 feels more straightforward)

Oh, yeah, there is also the Ultimate Doomer himself – Stephen Clark. His maps are actually interesting, with Pistol Panic (as the title says) focusing on playing most of it with only your peashooter, and Technodrome having a bomb at the end of it and giving you two minutes to exit the map after activating it (at least it’s not the entire map). But, for some reason, he shoved a bunch of Voodoo dolls into his maps, to make them artificially harder in some areas, because… uhm… Muh artistic vision. Am Le Artiste.

Pretentious snorting

I don’t think I’ll ever understand this guy.

Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. Icon of shit in MAP30. What a lovely surprise... At least it looks great and it has a cool gauntlet of enemies before it.

My opinion on how hard these maps are will end up incomplete (as I mentioned at the start, I only finished most of these maps twice), but I can’t recon them being hard. There were annoying moments for sure (like in every community project), but never into the terms of I don’t want to play this map ever again.

I do remember, however, seeing a couple of bugs; it was mostly demons getting stuck in the floors, at least one instance of void in the ground, and one of the voodoos stuck in the floor on the first map.

Community Chest 1 is rough, to say the least. At least 1/4th of the maps feel like a filler due to these being released before the compilation, and the rest of the content can be good at best, but that’s rather rare from my experience. I just feel happy that I won’t have to deal with this WAD anymore… well, not until 100 most memorable maps at least.

And yet, in spite of everything, I can’t really bring myself to hate this WAD. Because without it, I don’t think we would have bangers from future installments like Mucus Flow for instance.

Now with that WAD done, come back in the (hopefully) near future, as we will be going back to the Decade of DOOMstruction.

[m39]

Community Chest 1 review status

So I just finished my blind playthrough of this WAD a couple of hours ago. It wasn't as bad and tiring as I expected; probably because I skipped Kevin Reay's two maps that he contributed; I heard that these are insanely hard and cryptic. If I played them, I would still be suffering with this WAD for ages. I thought I would finally be able to break my curse of finishing community projects like CC quadrology or NDCP duology without interloping it with other WADs, but uhm... guess I was wrong. Again. Then again, Tetanus became another official add-on for the official Classic Doom ports from 2019 so I have a mighty need to play it. Speaking of ports, these were upgraded into one package called DOOM + DOOM II; now running on a KEX engine among other things such as a new mod standard called ID24, and the new WAD created by Id, Nightdive, and MachineGames called Legacy of Rust, specifically made for this mod standard. So basically, yeah, the blind playthrough for Community Chest 1 is done, new stuff for Classic Doom remaster is ready to check out, and as for me, I'm taking a week-long break from reviewing WADs to also play other stuff on my Steam library. After that, the Decade of DOOMstruction will be back with the 2000s best WADs I chose (with the CC1 review being made in between). See you all in the future.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette: Revenant Awards 2008

You look out of the bunker. You see nobody.

Okay, I think they are gone now. I’m back on the surface.

THE IRON KUNG FU DOOM GUY – REVENANT AWARDS 2008 EDITION

Well, folks... We did it. 15 years of the best Doom WADs (according to Doomworld and not even all of them) reviewed. It is another big milestone, yes, but only one WAD will win one of the awards, and in this ceremony, we will be choosing four winners (not counting the ones by default).

Okay, enough of the pretentious rambling. Let’s start with the first category.

SOLE SURVIVOR – BEST ONE-MAP WAD OF THE YEAR

In this case, we have a surprise. The winner is the underdog – Escape from Castle Chezcrea. I do realize that XXXI CyberSky is a better map in almost every department, but unfortunately, that map is also a slaughter-type one, and I’m not really fond of these. At least Chezcrea is more accessible.

PUG-OF-PINK – BEST 2-7 MAPS LONG WAD OF THE YEAR

Here, though, Eternal and his WAD, Gravity, easily win. Thunderpeak has its moments, yes, and gameplay-wise is more interesting to play, but, like many other ZDoom before it, it tends to have annoying and unnecessary moments that feel questionable at best. Not to mention Gravity looking much more pleasant and original compared to the other WAD.

PLATINUM REVENANT – BEST 10-19 MAPS LONG WAD/MEGAWAD OF THE YEAR

Another category, another slam-dunk by Eternal, this time with Remain 3. It feels like a reverse situation with Sole Survivor, where one of the two WADs (in this case Deus Vult II) is better than the other one in many departments but I still prefer the other WAD because it’s not a slaughter map/WAD. In that category, Eternal’s WAD lost; in this, however, his WAD won. Even when most of the non-slaughter maps from DVII are better than in Remain 3, I would still rather play the latter.

OFF THE WALL – BEST PARTIAL/TOTAL CONVERSION OF THE YEAR

I thought it would be harder to choose the winner here, but it wasn’t that hard. Of course, I removed Eternal Doom IV and BGPA from the equation because these are just more of the stuff that I hate in their predecessors. Meanwhile, Community is Falling 3 and Cold as Hell: Special Edition might be technical marvels at the time they were originally released, but the former’s almost entirely juvenile humor and the gameplay becoming more and more annoying as you progress, and the latter’s questionable decisions with some new mechanics and changes in gameplay, soured my enthusiasm for these WADs (but at least I managed to finish Cold as Hell compared to Community 3).

And so were are now with two golden eggs – Urban Brawl and Chex Quest 3 (or Chex Quest Trilogy as I like to call the latter). One is the FPP Beat ’em Up that came out of nowhere and became an instant classic that I am appreciating more and more with each passing day; the other is basically Doom for children that even adults can enjoy.

But there is one thing in Chex Quest Trilogythat makes it better by an inch– expectations. Urban Brawl is the prequel to Action Doom, an already fun homage to Contra and similar games, so people thought they would get a fun game too after playing the previous one (and they got); Chex Quest’s concept sounds like a perfect recipe for disaster and people were expecting flop before ending up surprised that it was a high-tier quality product. That’s what makes CQ3 the winner in this category.

But you know what? There is still a part of me that badly wants to play Urban Brawl again. Even if it’s not a winner of this category, I’ll still play this when the Decade of DOOMstruction returns as an honorable mention. I seriously need to try it again to see if I’m not losing my marbles.

OTHER AWARDS

And now for the WADs that won by default. Starting with Golden Spider (best episode replacement) and its winner, Back to Basics...

sigh

This WAD is lucky there wasn’t any other episode replacement, let alone the vanilla one.

But let’s not forget about Diaz: Last Hours of Purity. I didn’t like it that much, but it still deserves an award for being a gameplay mod for Doom. And so, I’ve come up with an award for it (and the future gameplay mods as well) – Tei Tenga’s Arsenal award for the best Doom gameplay mod of the year.

cricket noises

What? I couldn’t think of a better name.

CONCLUSION

And that’s all for the 2008 roster of Doom WADs. At this point of writing, I have reached the half point in Doomworld’s yearly lists of the best WADs. And that’s in almost four years since I started reviewing these things, with shorter or longer breaks.

Speaking of breaks, I need to finally finish both the original Half-Life and its Source remake Black Mesa. It might take me less than a week; it might take more than that. It will depend on how many WADs from the next year will check out. Either way, after one day of finishing both of these, I’ll start properly looking at the 2009 WADs.

Thank you all for reading my life-coping slop. I’ll see you next time.

Bye.

[m39]

Decade of DOOMstruction(90s): Partial/Total Conversions

Before we begin, let’s start with a reminder of what Partial/Total Conversion is:

From what I’ve learned, in Doom WADs, conversion is a type of WAD that changes/modifies the look and/or core mechanics of some/all things to make it different from the regular Doom gameplay. Sometimes it can even add new things like new enemies or weapons. Partial Conversion does this with at least some of this stuff, while a Total Conversion does it to almost all of the aspects, turning it into something that can’t be considered Doom anymore but a game made for Doom Engine.

But for me, it doesn’t matter how much it changes the Doom mechanics. What matters to me is how much fun I had with the WADs I’m about to play again. And the WAD can’t just have tweaked basic monsters and/or weapons. It needs something new added. Also, it needs to be confirmed as a conversion by DoomWiki to make sure I’m reviewing one.

Also, one last thing – at first when the Decade of DOOMstruction idea was starting to shape, I was thinking about judging the conversions like the regular WADs AKA giving a separate reward per map amount but then I realized that it would make it convoluted for all of us so I ditched that idea.

Now that rambling is over, we can finally start it up with something that Doom I was supposed to be at first.

1994 – ALIENS TC

We went a full circle here, folks.

This WAD is basically what can you expect from the title: an Aliens FPS mod created on Doom Engine. And yes, it is fun to play whenever or not you played any games with Xenomorphs in your life. Mostly it plays like the original Doom but with more scarce ammo, otherwise, it’s just as easy as the original stuff.

A little bit of advice: if you hate having a deficit of your ammo, skip the secret level. Otherwise, give it a chance. It won’t be as bad as you might think.

1995 – OBITUARY

Originally I planned to play A Fistful of Doom because I forgot that Obituary fulfills the requirements to be seen as a partial conversion. So I swapped that WAD with this one because I remember it giving me more fun than the Wild West filled with hitscanners.

Now, about Obituary. It’s still somewhat easy and fun WAD in spite of time not being kind towards it. This WAD feels inspiring for the Doom WAD community in my opinion since this might be one of the earliest cases of new weapons and enemies that would later appear in the future WADs like the Flamethrower and the Bazooka Man.

Unfortunately for me, I encountered two game-breaking bugs, forcing me to noclip to actually finish two maps. So be aware of this fact if you decide to play this WAD.

1996 – ARMY OF DARKNESS TC

This is the second out of three WADs that combine Doom Engine with the popular franchise. This time it’s the third Evil Dead movie. And I think it’s good WAD. It has several problems like The Pit and its convoluted mess of a labyrinth that might force you to waste your time if you want to finish this map by the book, and the variety of enemies being not really interesting since it was released for Doom I with a port for the sequel added later, thus making the fights boring for constantly killing Slaughtaurs with your Boomstick. Thankfully, the WAD’s atmosphere and the fact that it follows the story of the titular movie pretty decently, save it from being a complete boredom festival. If you are a fan of Evil Dead, go check this WAD out. You will have a blast.

Speaking of blast...

1997 – STRAIN

Now this is a fucking big one!

This WAD is a fucking goldmine of new shit – new enemies, new weapons, new textures, etc. Some of the best music tracks that were ever created in the 90s WADs! The tough but fair challenge for the most part! Pretty for the eye! Forget about your typical Doom strategy! You must adapt to the new enemies or else you will end up in a cemetery!

Although most of the enemies feel easier than the original counterparts, and new weapons feel underwhelming, this might be the biggest case of must-play WAD of the 90s that I can recommend. In fact, just stop reading and go download. Come back after finishing it.

1999 – BATMAN DOOM

...

I mean...

It’s fricking Batman WAD created by the creators of Rock of Ages! I don’t know how can you top that!

There are annoying enemies to fight, the Super Shotgun replacement is a rare case of it being overshadowed by the normal shotgun replacement, and you don’t really play as Bruce Wayne if you think about it, and yet this WAD mixes everything that makes Batman good (by the time it was created at least) into a single package. Another must-play to add to your WAD list.

THE WINNER

Welp... We might have a problem.

That problem is that both STRAIN and Batman Doom are so good that I feel like they are equal to each other. For different reasons, but still equal. But since I have to choose one, I declare STRAIN as the WAD who gets the Acid Trip award for the best partial/total conversion, with Batman Doom being the runner-up, but only, and I mean ONLY, because the former’s soundtrack is better than the latter’s one (and the Batman Doom’s soundtrack is also full of bangers).

TWILIGHT WARRIOR

Since we have only one conversion that requires a source port to launch properly, another award goes to Twilight Warrior by default. This WAD is basically a military shooter before this sub-genre became popular. From my personal experience that happened months ago, I can recommend this WAD only if you don’t mind hitscanners that much. Otherwise, it may not be a cup of tea for you.

CEREMONY CLOSING

And so, ladies, gentlemen, and others, we are done with conversions. In fact, we are finished with the 90s era of Doom WADs. I had a good time with most of these WADs that Doomworld recommended (the version of it from 2003 that is), while there were individual cases that pissed me off either by convoluted puzzles or unfair difficulty moments. I will remember the laughs, the cries, and other emotions from my underwhelming beginning as a WAD enjoyer to this day.

Phew

It’s time to take a break. Maybe for one week, maybe for two. It will depend on my work as an intern (that is not an April Fools joke lads, I’ve just started my three months long intern work today (let’s hope that my anxiety won’t stop me)) and if I’ll have motivation and time for this.

But until then, see you all next time.

Bye!