Date: 05-04-94 (17:36) Number: 9086 of 9416 (Refer# NONE) To: ALT GAMES DOOM From: BMETZ@UKELELE.GCR.COM, BRENT METZ Subj: *** PWAD REVIEW DOC! *** Read: NO Status: PUBLIC MESSAGE Conf: A.GAM.DOOM (1798) Read Type: TEXT SCAN (+) Message-ID: Newsgroups: alt.games.doom,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action Organization: Genuine Computing Resources 703-551-0095 login: guest D Review Listing Version 1.0 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (Now looking for a Copyright-free DOOM logo :( ) 1. Disclaimer No disclaimer. C'mon lawyers, take your best shot! :) 2. Thank you, thank you... I would like everyone to know how much of a group effort this is. Without the following people, this wouldn't exist: C. Sheldon (sheldonc@acy.digex.net) Chris Hopkins (chopkins@peinet.pe.ca) Spawn (saw@eniac.seas.upenn.edu William Harris (william@carsinfo.com) P. F. Mahoney (p.f.mahoney@durham.ac.uk) David Markfield (dmarkfi@indycms.iupui.edu) Fotis Jannidis (ue801aa@sunmail.lrz-muenchen.de) Bill Devos (watchertwo@aol.com) Mark Kornell (Kornell_Mark@pcp.ca) Jason Franklin (jayson@stat.tamu.edu) Daniel (dmccarty@sitvax.stevens-tech.edu) Cameron (cam@iinet.com.au). T. Bernard Holmes (T_.Bernard.Holmes%8N1@hyit.oau.org) Jeff Cochran (jeff.cochran@usacomputers.com) Geoffrey C. Grabowski (gcgst1+@pitt.edu) Kevin Humphries (kevin.humphries@m.cc.utah.edu) Graeme Merrall (graeme@inferno.manawatu.gen.nz) Kenneth S. Forte (fusioncon@cup.portal.com) (All of the above reviewed PWADs) Barry Bloom for setting up the /reviews dir & a little PR And, of course, iD software for giving us something to do. :) Oh, and myself, Brent Metz (bmetz@ukelele.gcr.com) for organizing reviewers and creating this document 3. The reviews... [To the point] -- (The overall scores) (Ignore this section for now) 11bones.zip 11inhell.zip 23castle.zip 666.zip abyss_ok.zip afro.zip ambush.zip arena.exe atrium.zip beholder.zip bobworld.zip cjme2m1.zip cortyr_b.zip daemon.zip daemon2.zip death.zip dethstar.arj DETHWALK.zip DeWadz1.zip doomjs.zip e1l1kp.wad e1m1cnc.zip e2m2bce.wad fear21.zip fez1.zip flash.zip florzoo1.zip fright.zip fy1a.zip gridwad.zip helipad.zip hockey10.zip jadml1m1.zip ledges.zip levpack.zip lewis21b.wad lewis21e.zip lithe2m1.zip markroom.zip marx1_1.zip marx1_2.zip mb_new.zip megawatt.zip netbeast.wad newtechn.zip octagon.zip octo.zip pet.zip pillars.zip sc.zip scream.zip shadwad.zip spunk.zip stewbeta.zip temple11.zip thinkwad.zip tlhwads.exe tncross2.zip tnspires.zip toe.wad mttadom11.zip wanton12.zip WARHOUSE.zip [Short and Sweet] -- Short reviews by Jeff Cochran 11BONES.WAD Another excellent .WAD file, with excellent graphics, monster balance, play difficulty and thought provoking design. Can be challenging in multi-player cooperative and deathmatch modes as well. The design elements in this .WAD are unique, with textures matching the design elements extremely well. 11INHELL.WAD Extremely unique use of moving floors and ceilings, excellent graphics. Unfortunately, another of the "see how many monsters I can kill you with you stupid player?" type .WAD files. No real cohesiveness, just a BUNCH of demons and barons out to get you, although if you are really good you can find a chaingun to fight them with (hey, at least the nukeage on the floor doesn't sap your health...). Play this one in Deathmatch mode with no monsters and it'll be acceptable. 666.WAD A little tough, especially for an Episode 1, Map 1 level, but can be completed. Excellent art, many tricks and traps, but all can be overcome with a little dexterity and thought. Can be especially tough on standard difficulty levels, but makes an excellent cooperative level then. AFRO.WAD Another fine .WAD file, with numerous secrets that take some work to discover. Great for Deathmatch play, very good for cooperative play as well. Excellent use of textures, teleporters, doors, lifts and just about every decent Doom trick or trap. No "instant death" traps, the right balance of monsters and weapons, and no end to surprises make this a collector's level. LEDGES.WAD An excellent layout, although the ratio of weapons to monsters is a little high, making it almost a simple win. This is an excellent level for Deathmatch, a little tame for a cooperative effort. Great to start on this level and finish through the rest of Episode 1, leaves you with so much of an armory you needn't worry. Lots of neat graphic tricks in this episode. DAEMON.WAD Typical "ha, ha, you're dead" level, start out with a pistol facing a baron and see how small a pile you'll crumple into. If you're masochistic, go ahead and play it, otherwise, you'll need to use a cheat to get off the first few sectors. Disassembled with DEU, this one isn't much better. The cheat you'll need is definitely invulnerability, a cheat to give you every weapon and unlimited ammo wouldn't even help. If you get a chance to download this one, pick a different one instead. DAEMON2.WAD The author got a few more things working correctly on this one, which make it a suitable second to the first DAEMON.WAD - It's twice as stupid the second time around. DEATH.WAD Not surprisingly, considering the name, this .WAD is a "kill the monsters with the shotgun" level. No redeeming values here, very little in the way of intellectual tricks or traps, just lots of Imps, Demons, Sargents and whatever will shoot and kill you. Grab a couple friends and go fire at anything that moves, if that's your style. This file also has a few serious linedef problems, including some hall of mirrors sections and a particularly nasty solid wall that your shells bounce off of, but the imps and sargents behind it can cheerfully blast you to bits. DETHSTAR.WAD At first glance, this level is pretty stupid, a Star of David with teleporters in each point that just bounce you around the room, but there's a trick to getting out. A well thought out level, but tough, possibly better in cooperative mode or Deathmatch. No flaws in this one at all, and a reasonable balance of monsters, bonuses and weaponry. You'll need it. This one is a definite keeper. GRRFY.WAD Not too bad a .WAD file, with much going for it in the way of design, but unusually simple to complete. There are far too many advanced weapons and bonuses for the number of monsters, especially in light of it being for Epsiode 1, Map 1. With a few more monsters or a little less in the way of weapons it'd be ideal. Makes a decent Deathmatch level, but no challenge for cooperative play. NEWTECHN.WAD Not really a level as much as a test of new ideas and new weapons. Pretty useless except for a rather unique arrangement of sectors, such that the steps and floor of a platform are invisible. Candles on the levels are the only indicator of where they are, a very un-nerving experience (especially in light of the cyberdemon in the corner...). PILLARS.WAD A very good and challenging .WAD, but simple to finish without going through the entire level. The pillars puzzle is more annoying than challenging, requiring dexterity more than brains. graphics are good, with no obvious flaws, and there's an adequate balance of monsters, weapons and bonuses. PROTO1.WAD Not too bad a .WAD file, tricks abound but all can be overcome (althought he first crushing ceiling is just designed to kill you once, you'll avoid it in the next life...). A little heavy on monsters, but different skill levels are available. There is one *major* problem in this level, the doorway to the second half won't open. Examination in DEU reveals a linedef defined as normal instead of a doorway, but it's hard to believe the author ever played his own creation. SPIRAL.WAD Excellent graphics and use of specials, reasonable balance of monsters, but really made for multiple players, especially Deathmatch mode. Several hard puzzles, including a few that really aren't made for single player. Play this one with a friend, but pass it up for some better levels for single play. STONES.WAD An excellent rendition of a .WAD file, with the right balance of monsters, weapons and bonuses. Can easily be completed without covering half the level, and has an unfortunate pit full of nukeage to grab you the first time through, with no exit available. Will easily become one of the classic Doom levels. THEPITS.WAD Interesting use of levels, essentially a single path, almost a gauntlet to be run to reach the top. Good balance of monsters and weaponry, although the rocket launcher is a bit much. A few inconsistencies in graphics, moving door frames, slightly mis- matched textures, but overall very good. WALKER.WAD This level is fairly challenging, but seems a little out of place, especially with a Spider Boss on Episode 1, Map 1. There are enough wepons to handle the situation though, but only if you're quick. One problem is that the level apparently won't end, the end switch isn't a switch. Not the best of designs, but anything's better than the DAEMON pair. WILLE1M1.WAD A small level, and not hugely tricky or populated by some designer's definition, but excellent play. Repetitve textures and layouts make the mapping function a necessity. A little tough on a single player, this would be a good level for cooperative play or deathmatch mode. More of a visual challenge than any play challenge, it is an unusually tough and fun level. Get it. [In-Depth Reviews, In alphabetacal order] Here is a quick list of what each rating means: 1 - Please stop writing wads! 2 - Bad! even for a first attempt. 3 - an acceptable first attempt. 4 - Good for a first attempt. 5 - Average (You'll get better!). 6 - Slightly above average. 7 - Above average, not bad. 8 - Good level 9 - This author is great! (Email us your next level Please!) 10 - Exceptionaly done, Get this one! (Email us your next level Please!) Anything below a 5 most categories we won't even bother with, and we may recommend that you not get it. 11BONES.WAD(Review By DrWu) Reviewers Notes: Technically, 11bones.wad is quite impressive, its very clean, and there are no unintetional Traps, howver the level is lacking in Chalange... You are able to get a Shot Gun and Chaingun very early on... making it very easy, on all but the higher skill levels... I was able to get all 3, 100%'s on ultra vilolnce in 7 minutes....... the Level makes for a very Fair deathmatch...up to four players... all warp relatively close to weapons...however...due to the Size of the level...things could get very crowded with 4 players.... Over all this level would make an o.k. replacement for the original E1M1 due to its small size and relative ease. Ratings: Challenge: 3 (realatively easy, on all but Ultra Violence) Design:6 (interesting, but small, not a lot of secret areas) Technical Ability: 9 (very good...supports skill levels..very clean) DeathMatchability: 7 (4 players, all players warp next to weapons) Total Rating: 6.5 ---- 666.WAD(Reviewed by Chris Hopkins) Author: stimson@leland.stanford.edu 666.wad is a mission that currently replaces Episode 1 Mission 1 (although I recommend e3m4 or somewhere in that vicinity). It is an `Inferno style' WAD featuring many of the more difficult monsters including Cacodemons, Barons of Hell and Invisible Demons. It is a rather large level and I personally thought it was very well done and planned out. There is plenty of challenge for the die-hard Doomer and I also thought that the skill levels were well thought out and fair. So whether you like a challenge or not, I recommend this WAD! (On UV mode I found myself typing IDKFA more than once ;) Another thing I like about this WAD is that it has plenty of decoration which makes it more like a level from iD. It has plenty of hanging bodies and other things to set the mood of the level, which can be very important. There's not really a lot to say on the downside for this WAD! I found it to be an excellent WAD and very enjoyable to play. The only thing some gamers may not like is it seems to be targeted for the single player more than those interested in multi-player gaming. (Though this probably would make a good level for co-op mode). All in all, I highly recommend you add this WAD to your collection. It puts many WADs I've seen to shame (including mine by far! ;)). So, check it out! Difficulty: 8.5 In UV mode it is fairly hard and there's still enough challenge in ITYTD mode to give the novice Doomer a run for his money! Playability: 7 The level seemed fairly playable though it's size could be confusing to the novice Doomer at times. Overall: 9 This author is deservant of a 9 for the work he put into this WAD. I highly recommend it for the `bored and looking for a good challenging WAD' Doomer. ;) ---- ARENA.WAD (Review by William Harris) Arena.wad is an example of a "concept" wad, featuring essentially one major idea without a lot of other complexity or subtlety. Arena gives you one large 10,000 unit square "arena" (hence its title) with a catwalk along the edges, filled with enough monsters to make it dangerous and enough weapons, ammo, and miscellaneous stuff to keep a deathmatch going at full blast for quite a while. Unfortunately, that's it. There are no puzzles, no secrets, and little other gameplay. Design: 4 The author accomplished pretty much what he set out to do, Ambitious to an extent, but it's really too simple for great play. It's good for confrontational deathmatches. Complexity : 2 One big square open area. What more can you say? Gameplay : 4 Really depends on what you want out of a deathmatch level. If you want sneaking around and chainsawing your friend in the back, this ain't the level. If you just want to slug it out with BFG or rocket blasts at 150 meters, this level is probably built for you! Balance: 7 Some people might find the central arena irresistible for half a dozen Spiderdemons or Cyborgs, but the author resisted this temptation and stayed with a fairly decent combination of Lost Souls, Cacodemons, Demons, and the assorted former humans. Level Flaws: Possibly due to the use of long lines (each side of the arena is a single line about 9950 units long), or due to some other defect, there is a "floating wall" illusion that occasionally pops up near the middle of the arena, and one of the walls in the startup area for player 1 (probably the startup areas for other players also) occasionally turns invisible. Overall score: 4 Not much of a challenge, but it wasn't intended to be a challenge. Cannot be used to replace existing levels, since there is no exit. Has some minor level design flaws that don't effect play. ---- ATRIUM.WAD(Review By William Harris) The action starts up in a largish room littered with trees and tree stumps, with the center open to the sky (the atrium of the title). I was quickly attacked by imps, but there's a shotgun and ammo readily available. Some dodging and shooting, and I was done with them. I quickly proceed through a couple of smaller rooms and then hit... The Barrel Puzzle. I died a couple of times and am not real sure I hit the author's intended solution, but I got past it and into the second largish room that contains a lot of enemies on platforms. A bit of ducking and weaving (well, actually a LOT of ducking and weaving), and they're polished off. I grab the key and move into the keyed doorway. Through a couple more rooms and back to a familiar area. I notice a skull pushbutton I'd swear wasn't there before. Punch it and HOLY SxxT! This is a small level, but well thought-out and quite entertaining. Seems pretty suitable as a replacement level for E3M1, E2M1 or E2M2. There are both puzzles and surprises, and an excellent use of a sudden blackout in one area. About the only minor problem I noticed was that the stairs up into the final area were too steep for the enemies to descend - but this does provide a shelter to duck into to avoid the critters in the area, so it may have been deliberate. Excellent difficulty differentiation; more monsters for each level of difficulty. Design : 7 For single user mode, about the only thing I could think of to add would be more secret areas, but then E3M1 itself only has one, so I wouldn't complain too badly about it. There may be a high fatality rate from the barrel puzzle solution, but the author clearly warns you about it in the accompanying text file. Complexity : 5 A short, simple level but with an interesting puzzle and enough fun surprises. Gameplay : 6 For an E2M1 or E3M1 intro level, very good. I'd expect a lot more from an E2M2 or E3M2 replacement level, but this does quite nicely for its purpose. For such a small level it has good gameplay value. Level Flaws: No noticible texture problems or HOM effects. The barrel puzzle might make it a bit too difficult for a true M1 replacement, but that could be fixed up pretty easily by setting the barrels to appear on Hurt me Plenty or Ultraviolence. This level does have one major flaw - the lack of multiuser support. There isn't even a starting location for players 2 through 4. It could be converted to a pretty good Deathmatch or cooperative level easily enough - looks like the author just forgot the multiuser possibilities. Overall: 6 (call it 8 if multiple players were supported, I'd score it 8 for single-player purposes.) ---- AVRAX.WAD(Review By Daniel) Author : John Lindsey Description: If you like huge deathmatch WADs this one's for you. Avrax con- tains gargantuan numbers of ammunition, and running out of ammo will happen right after cows begin to fly. Avrax is sort of just a bunch of rooms, with some hallways put between them. I couldn't find a theme for the area, but maybe I missed something. Avrax only plays as a multiplayer game (i.e., no monsters) and loads as e3l4. Lindsey says that it loads on this mission for the fact that "I like the music." Well, there is no music. The "music" on this level consists mostly of a bunch of sonar-like pings and other effects. * * * If you've read this far I've really got to congratulate you, because I have no idea why I've even written this far. To harp on the obvious just a little more, loading doom with -wart 3 4 is sort of a pain, and one of my doomates forgot and crashed the game on us (thanks, Sam). Avrax has a lot of rooms and a lot of ammo. The only room of interest maybe is a huge room with a skyscraper elevator. To console ourselves for playing a WAD in which we wandered around for twenty minutes and only managed 21 kills between us, we watched each other jump off this elevator as it neared the top. Quite a sight. Basically, playing Avrax means wandering around for a few minutes until you see someone, then holding a rocket-expenditure contest with your new-found death partner. Of course, the loser of this contest isn't the person who gets rid of the least rockets, but the person who gets rid of the one that kills you. Other than the fact that there's three plasma rifles, one BFG9000, three (?) chainsaws, and about four shotguns and chainguns (read: weapon overload) the textures of the rooms are ghastly. I'm not sure why Lindsey chose to include almost every texture DOOM.WAD contained in his level, but maybe I don't want to find out. As a believer in some sort of theme for a level, I found looking at the myriad of colors in each room somewhat annoying. Also, the "door and a half" part, where it was too wide for a standard door, so it looked like a door and a half, looked pretty crappy. Lindsey says he's from Georgia Tech. Come on, you ramblin wreck, you can engineer a better level than that. ;) On scales of 0 to 10: Layout: 6 Textures: 2 Difficulty: 4 Huntability: 6 Funness: 1 On a Cameron overall scale of 0 to 10, AVRAX.WAD scores a 4.8. Level Hint: Get 50 rockets, 300 cells, 200 bullets and 50 shells and sit yourself down in a corner. Fire waves of death at the first unfortunate that happens along. ---- BEHOLDER.WAD(Review by P. F. Mahoney) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From BEHOLDER.TXT: This WAD was created by Alex Cannon (Jeffrey Cannon- playtesting) using DE_250B4. Feel free to email me (acannon@cyberstore.ca) with comments and suggestions. I'm particularly interested in how difficult people find this level... that's w/o cheats guys... This level is complete, but I was planning on adding a hell of a lot more! Alex 4/02/94 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Review : There is a fine line in a level between making it so difficult that you get frustrated and give up and making it so easy that you just walk through it. Beholder moves past the "man, this is one tough level" and enters the "forget this, this is just too damn hard" zone. It's a well-put together level in terms of surprises and tricks as well as in the placement of new weapons. In fact, it is extremely good at giving you just the right weapon just before you need to use it. And before I started critising it, I also must admit that several of the ideas used in it were very, very good ones. On the negative side, there is at least one place where you can get stuck completely (so that you have to restart or type 'idspispopd' to get past it), most of the textures don't line up very well, there isn't by any means enough ammo to kill everything, and the lighting in the level doesn't really try to be atmospheric (it's either there or it isn't). There is also one wall that the monsters can shoot through (but you can't see them, shoot back, or walk through the wall). But these are all things that keep the level from being truly great, what really breaks this level is the difficulty. As I sat there at 4% looking in vain for a medkit with 25 shells and 75 bullets, and thinking "it's gotta end soon", it did, because one baron, two beholders and two invisibles came at me. I got all but one beholder before biting it for the 12th time in ten minutes and decided enough was enough (idkfa - so that I could review the damn thing and get it over with). In the text file, the author wonders how difficult people will find the WAD, I have to say that I found it extremely difficult. After playing the round what must have been my 20th time, I went off to play E1 M9 on respawn for a challenge I actually had a chance at doing. Graphics(If applicable) : 6 Little choice of textures, textures don't align. Sound(If applicable) : N/A Design : 8 There are several 'tricks and traps' in this WAD that I recommend other WAD builders look at. The overall design of the floorplan is very good. Complexity : 5 The WAD is only average in complexity and in size. Gameplay : 6 As I said before, this is a very difficult level with plenty of challenge in it. If you enjoy a rock-hard challenge, this is the PWAD for you. Overall : 6 It's certainly better than the average WAD, and if you finish with the best of the new PWADS and are looking for a well-built level with a seriously high challenge in it, have fun! ---- CJME2M1(Review by David Markfield) From the text file of CJME2M1 >This is just one of the rooms that I have been trying to build >into my new level. This is the only room that I am having >problems with. The main source of my problem is the center >piece in the large room. When I have it in there I get some >major clipping effects. I have tried to isolate the problem >by putting a wall around the center structure and this seems >to make the problem go away. I need help determining if this >type of setup just cannot be done, as I want to get my level >up an running for all to share. Please check this out and >let me know if you have any suggestions. I did not proceed with a review on this, as this WAD is currently available so that others may assist the author in designing the level. The area in question is a huge pentagon (I think) shaped room. It is accessible through any one of three ways...two ledges and a door. However there are MAJOR clipping problems no matter where you look. In particular these clipping problems are center around a platform in the center of this room. As I am still trying to ge a handle on designing levels myself I am unable to offer the author any assistance. However I would encourage some of the more veteran designers to take a look at this WAD and help the author out. ---- COURTR-B.WAD(Review by David Markfield) From COURTYR-B.TXT : >Try it out, it *is* worth your download time :) >More toward the atmosphere of an ID level, hope you like it. > > >Michael Kelsey Seeing these words I was definately intrigued. A level trying to be more like ID and by none other than the author of STONES. With that I went about downloading the file. COURTYR_B (hexidecimal version of COURTYARD) comes with 4 files, the PWAD, an LMP to help those who get stuck, a credits file and an info file. From the information file: > ........ This level is extrememly difficult for myself, >and I consider myself a *very* experience Doom player. Included with the >level is an LMP (demo) demonstrating the quickest routes to completing the >level. I had to re-record *many* times because I exceeded the 15 minute >recording limit. Also, I got nuked several times when attempting to cut >corners and bypass some of the trouble; it didn't work :) Anyhow, if you >get stuck (say you can't find one of the keys), watch the LMP, it should >clarify any confusion that may abound. > Yes! There is a central CourtYard for you pleasure. Also, through- >out the level you will find a power reactor, power conduits, big, big, >lights, a lamppost, a huge pit, jail bars, secret elevators, and some very >idle barons awaiting your company :) This level has been tested deathmatch, >and, believe it or not, I got my butt fragged even though I designed the >level! I admit that there are not enough linkages to fully enjoy DeathMatch, >but, I hope someone else will test out the level and see how it works for >them. In addition the author includes a bug notice regarding some clipping and texture problems....nothing too major to significantly detract from the level. You notice them on top of one of the elevators and in a slime pit you encounter. Finally the author includes a note that the level is not truly what he had intended...however due to compiling problems, extra doors, etc... were included....here is his disclaimer: > Lastly, *please* don't use this level as an example. As I stated >earlier, this level was only 75% complete, meaning I had to pull some >strings in order to keep the level flowing. Well after reading all that I was somewhat apprehensive on the one hand...STONES was quite solid but on the other the author was stating this PWAD had some problems...well onward...(on UV) You emerge in a hallway...with cages on both side and two doors. Well never believing in wasting ammo if i don't have to I ignore the cages.. and go for the doors.....courtyard is dim....looks empty but looks can be deceiving and theres a machine gun in plain sight....I can smell trap....but there's only one way to deal with a trap.....that's to spring 'em....and what a trap it is.... and courtyard takes off from there. Object placemnt was great on this WAD. As was placement of monsters. It seems at first like it could be excessive but trust me there is a way to survive and to kill all. There are alot of interconnecting rooms so you must be constantly on your guard...there is even a small maze for the maze fanatics....though nothing too excessive for those of us who can live without. The authors description gives a good feel for the WAD which I appreciate. There are lifts, lamps, variable lighting...secret doors, timed doors, and traps....my kind of level. The only criticism that I really had was that once you figure out how to access the exit you are stuck. Once you trigger the doorway and enter the exit chamber there is no turning back....but other than that a truly awesome level. I encourage everyone to check this out....and while difficulty levels are present....this level is made for UltraViolent. Graphics : 8 This could be capable of more but as the author stated there are a few problems. However all in all graphics are great. In particular I was impressed by the fact that a lot of new graphical features were introduced or that different twists were put on others. Design : 9 Nice mix of secrets and traps.....couldn't just stand and frag...had to think your way through a number of situations. Complexity : 9 Long and difficult no two ways about it. But then again the author stated that upfront...this one is a true challenge. Gameplay : 8 I REALLY enjoyed this one....it was tough but it kept you on your toes....my time didn't hit the sucks level but I was damn close :) Overall : 8 1/2 Design probs hold this back a little but not much. I'd love to see what this level was originally supposed to look like. It is a pleasure to play and review WADS like this. Michael Kelsey has shown again why he is one of the top PWAD designers around. I look forward to his next effort. ---- DEADBASE.WAD (Review By WatcherTwo) Author: Alberto BARSELLA (alberto@astrpi.difi.unipi.it) **** Reviewers Note **** Be sure to read the .txt file before playing this level And now on with the review! [The Green clears ... (or the screen melts away to show...) ] I spin quickly, but no need. I'm standing safe and secure at my post as I recall the conversation I had with General Vitesse. I quickly gather all the weapons I can carry, as ordered and teleport to the surface. I chose to teleport far outside of the base, just to be safe. I walk forward toward the small city that made up the base, looking for the reason Lt. Morrison had not responded. I considered walking a peremeter around the city before entering any of the buildings, but I must be getting old and lazy. I approach the first building and kick the door open. Time passes....... Well, Morrison must have survived for some time, he seems to have left a trail of death too, I've cleaned up a lot of his mess, I guess it's time to enter the main building. I spot the large double doors and toggle the lever to open them... Damn! It jammed part way up! Now I'll have to enter via the much narrower, much more dangerous back door! I wonder if Morrison cleaned up in here too? Well only one way to find out! As far as a theme goes, this one takes it above everything I've seen so far, very well done. I don't go around looking for texture problems so everything looked pretty good to me. It was very believable the way you walked up the stairs to the upper floor! If this is (as I expect) a level 1 to his episode, then it's pretty good. Yes, it is a walkthrough (if you're careful) but that's ok, it has very effectively set the theme for the level to follow, and it has supplied you with ammo for the coming levels. It wouldn't hurt to sprinkle a few more monsters in here and there for version 1.0. Watcher rating for Design? 10 (I just loved this level's design and theme!) Watcher rating for Game Play? 6 (Considering that any player to get this wad has completed E1-3 already, it was a bit simple) ---- E1L1KP.WAD (Review By WatcherTwo) Just overwhelming monsters in 2 rooms. Build time? 5 Min. ---- E1M7BCE.WAD (Review By Tom Holmes) >From E1M7BCE.TXT: -------------------- Totaly NEW level for DOOM. Used DEU v5 Beta4 to remap! This level is not finished yet, but feel free to look around. There is no end-level switch, so you'll have to use IDCLEV to pass. This level took about 4 hours to build so far, and it is not _near_ done. When its done, it'll be good for both multi- and single-player modes. Any comments or suggestions are welcome. Have fun! Brendy Ebel (jebel@spu1.uwsp.edu) -------------------- This is one particular wad that we shouldn't have reviewed. The author (as you can read above) released it at a very early stage of development, and, with the exceptions of an interesting teleport/keycard shuffle, doesn't have much in the way of redeeming qualities. ***** This designates 'spoiler' material that may detract from the fear factor of the level (if you choose to read it). This wad is very short, with no end of level switch. The single interesting aspect of E1M7BCE is the need to teleport back and forth between two rooms, throwing switches and collecting key cards as you go. Each jump opens slightly more of the level to you. It didn't take long for me to run out of level, so I cranked up deu 5.1 to see what I was missing. The danger level in E1M7BCE is about what you'd expect in the typical E3 level, at least in the beginning. ***** This section is a quantitative assessment of E1M7BCE: Graphics (if applicable): n/a Sound (if applicable): n/a Complexity: 4 Should improve dramatically when finished. Gameplay: 6 It was fairly interesting while it lasted. Overall: X I'll reserve judgement on this one until I can give it a fair test (i.e., after it's finished). ---- ELEVATOR.WAD(Review By WatcherTwo) A Wad to avoid (to prevent wasted download time). ---- FEAR21.WAD(Review By Tom Holmes) >From FEAR21.TXT: -------------------- Get ready to experience true FEAR! FEAR21 (episode 2 level 1) warning! this is an ADVANCED level ! It plays well in multi player mode and features some nasty adversaries in some very interesting tactical environments. Fear21 has been well tested in both multiplayer and single modes,and if played skillfully, you will have all the equipment and ammo you (and your group) will need to leave this horror alive. This level was designed to be exciting and challenging for advanced players even especially when the player is familiar with the layout, so if you keep getting creamed at first, try a lower difficulty level until you know the layout better. Have fun! Fear21.wad was created using deu5.0 by Walter Humphrey . Comments? write to tremmor@netcom.com. -------------------- Since this is the first PWAD that Brent Metz asked me to review, I've had to develop a methodology that will both provide a fair assessment of this PWAD and still allow enough flexibility to handle future efforts. The following review is the result of that endeavor. Reading the above text file that was included with FEAR21 caused me some trepidation--I was concerned that this WAD would be another example of an author who wanted to see how many nasties he could pack into one level. Fortunately, while there were an overabundance of extraordinarily dangerous critters, it was also well stocked with fun and interesting ideas. ***** This symbol designates 'spoiler' material that may detract from the fear factor of the level (if you choose to read it). FEAR21 is divided into four main sections. The first is a gauntlet consisting of a long, straight corridor with plenty of fireball throwing badguys at the other end. Alcoves are built into the hallway at regular intervals, allowing you to duck-and-cover your way down the hall while avoiding the machinegun-like fireballs coming down the corridor. With the exception of the baron, the monsters you will face are well balanced against the weaponry that is available. The second section is both the most interesting and the most unbalanced of the four. Walter shows an extensive understanding of raising and lowering ceilings and floors. One criticism I have of this section is the abundant use of columns as walls. These columns will often disappear at certain angles, making it difficult to navigate. Once you figure out how to get into the central platform, superweapons are plentiful. The problem is getting to that point. This section is rife with barons, with a spider demon and cyber demon tossed in for good measure. While the super-heavies are reserved for the latter part of the section, there are simply too many barons firing at you at one time. This is the section that really does need more than one player. The third section is interesting in that it uses a very narrow ledge running around the perimeter of the room. The floor is covered with painful glowing stuff, but there are two lifts available for those that manage to fall in. A disturbing feature of this section is a stationary platform with sky textures on the floor. Strange effect. The last section has a narrow nonlinear catwalk that must be crossed while a baron hurls fireballs at you. Of course, if he hits you, plooooop, you're in the radioactive goo. The ending is somewhat anti-climactic after the second section, but at least the section is more balanced and playable. ***** This section is a quantitative assessment of FEAR21: Graphics (if applicable): n/a Sound (if applicable): n/a Complexity: 7 a fair amount of strategizing muust be done to complete. Gameplay: 4 too many high-end nasties at one time. Overall: 6.5 well worth playing, if only for the clever and original constructs Walter has dreamed up. ---- FLASH.WAD(Review by WatcherTwo) Author: J.D. Frazer This is my first attempt at a big WAD file. I used mine1.wad as the basis [--- Cut non review related info ---] This is a very nice wad for a first attempt, I don't know what mine1.wad looked like so I don't know how much is whos but I did find a place that if you "search" the wall, you end out in HOM land and if you're lucky you may get out! I played on Ultra-Violence as usual, I found this to be a walk through level (ie. I walked through it once to complete it, never died). There are some interesting ways to use barrels to kill off the bad guys to conserve ammo (if you want to), I do that out of habit if I can, and an interesting barrel trap. I found 2 major problems with the design of this level: 1) The usual beginners "put the monsters WAAAAAAYYYYY up on the wall so they are a pain in the butt to see, if you can't see them when you fire, it's a miss, so they're hard to kill. (There is a way to get up there if you want to, maybe that was the intent) 2) The author saw fit to have a line def that had no Sector reference (It refered to sector ref 0, the default) and was a trigger for lights out, so when you walk across it the entire level goes dark! Yech! I hate that! (just a personal preference, others may like it) This review may be slightly tainted (with dislike) because of unusual circumstances. ***** SPOILER AHEAD ***** When I ran the level the first time I attempted to record it out of habit (I often send the lmp's to the author of new levels for them to get a feel for the learning curve required on their new level), When I HERE IS THE SPOILER.. SKIP IF YOU WANT TO PLAY IT got to the star the first time, I crossed it to get the blue ball and all the lights went out. I continued playing (I was no where near done with the level) and wandered around for what seemed like forever with the lights out, then ran out of time (DOOM 15 Minute recording limitation). When I ran it again later I avoided that star at all costs, you don't need the ball, and I didn't want to play in the dark. I didn't realize that it was the key to exiting the level. I got very frustrated trying to find the end of the level! ***** SPOILER OVER ***** All in all a VERY good first attempt (depending on how much was done by this author and how much was borrowed, I look forward to your next level, make it harder! (Not bigger monsters, harder doesn't mean putting me in a dark room with a Cyber Demon! Harder means creating a situation where I'm constantly having to watch my back because monsters are sneaking up behind me, or something more like that.) Watcher rating for design? 6 You need to clean up that HOM, it was nasty! Watcher rating for game play? 2 It was way to easy! ---- FLORZOO1.WAD(Review By Kevin Humphries) The opening scene slides down my monitor to reveal a large door just to the right of me. I turn around to survey my position and any possible threats to my safety. I immediately am drawn to the shotgun sitting only inches from my feet. I re-assuredly walk over and pick it up. A small grin crosses my face in anticipation of what to come. As I am looking down at the ground, I notice that it appear to be one big patch work of every floor tile I had ever seen in my past DOOM'ing experience. (Interesting concept, I thought). But I wasn't here to admire the scenery, so I started down the hall. My nerves are like steel, my reflexes honed in on any thing that could move, for any threat to my safety. I run past hall, after hall, nothing. Slightly disappointed I enter a new found door, hoping for the best, again no sign of enemy life. I begin to wonder how this could be a floor display/ZOO when it had no bad guys to "look" at. I open the next door, to my surprise there stand two sergeants ready to volley shots with me. Luckily my reflexes are faster than my brain, and they both find themselves on the ground. I then take the right corridor. Upon entering the next room, I see the famous "Weapons Display", mentioned in the text file. I remember the explicit "ZOO Rule" that the weapons display is not to be touched, but the BFG9000 call's my name. I am not sure that I can resist it. My iron will crumbles to a high power energy weapon. I run to get it but find that the pedestal is too high to climb on, and too large just to reach in and get it. So I do the next best thing, search for a button or something that will lower those weapons. ( Here is where I have my first big complaint about this level. When I go to check the door, it informs me that I need a blue key. I personally like to see the colored trim of the required key, but this might just be my personal taste.) By now I'm slightly upset that I can't have my weapons, so I leave and search the other corridor. Nothing but another display. So I proceed to go back to the big door at the beginning. As I near this impressive structure, my mind trails to thinking about the "beasts" I am about to see. With my shot gun ready and 10 shots, I open the door. Silence. I hesitantly enter the room. On both sides of me I see a "cage" with several of one kind of enemy inside, all facing backwards so as not to see me. I see monkeys, bald beasts, invisible beasts, former humans, sergeants, cacodeamons, if you were to name a monster it would be there. I go from inside the building to outside, where I see the dread Spiderdeamon. The ZOO rules enter my head, especially "Do NOT feed the beasts" and the rule about being quiet so as not to disturb the animals. I turn around and notice two tunnels, I decide to take the right tunnel. It slowly winds down and around getting progressively darker. (I was really impressed with the way this was done, the light change is not really noticeable until it is quite dark, and the whole time your senses are acute for any movement or sound. Very well done in my opinion.) As I enter the room I notice an invisible deamon in the far corner. I let a shot ring out, and realize that it now is echoing up the tunnel. I listen in horror as all the beasts that I passed roar to life. I finish my job in this room, pick up the needed items, and begin running for my life. As I come out again into the daylight I see a frenzy in each cage. Running I somehow manage to make it out alive. As the door closes I see a bench on the other side. I decide to sit down and take a breather. Green envelopes my sight... where will I land?? I'll leave it like that, if you are interested in seeing where you land then you need to play the level. However I didn't find the level all that exciting. It is the author's first attempt, however, or at least that what it said in the associated text file. The "ZOO rules" are a nice touch and if you follow them you will not get to badly hurt. That leads to a boring game. If you do break the rules the excitement increase exponentially. But you never find any armor that could help you avoid dying prematurely, which happened a few times to me. The author does stick to a theme, somewhat, which is a plus on his rating. Watcher rating for Design? 5 Watcher rating for Game Play? 4 ---- FOREST.WAD ver 1.3 (Review By WatcherTwo) Author : Jean-Serge Gagnon [The Green clears ... (or the screen melts away to show...) ] I hear a shot, Shit! I spot the rifleman and take him out, luckly he only nicked my shoulder. I had better search the area quicly before that happens again! I look around me and see lot's of green walls, I sniff for slime... nope but the faint scent of hot lava hangs in the air, I continue to look around. I'm on the 'safe' side of a wall separating me from serveral nasties HeHe, I notice a switch and toggle it (wonder what that did... ). I dodge around a bit to see if I can start a fight or two, then I decide to leave those nasties for a later date when I have more ammo. Parts missing here.... HeHe.... I notice some writing on the wall and begin to read... Sheesh, not already, advertising in DOOM? Damn... but wait, down here at the bottom is more writing... hmmm, that informatin could prove to be usefull! This is a very well done set of levels! I enjoyed these as much as I might have ID's interrum release. (NO there is none... I'm imagining! Please don't start any more rumors!) I loved the signs on the walls as much as I hated the advertising. Why advertise here? It detracts from the game, I'm into the new world you created and then I have to leave to read your advertising... please don't do that! As good a job as you did on these wads, we'll remember who made them! OK Jean? One more note on this subject, do you really think you are so good that you should Overwrite ID's credits? Are you taking over ID or are you just saying that you are better than them? Please find room on that screen for your credits, the colors you have used will make them stand out just fine. Whew, now that I'm done yelling at Jean... let me pat you on the back, shake your hand, whatever, I'm impressed! You have designed 3 levels that fit a theme and fit well together, as well as made them challenging and fun! I even used the demos to help me get through the 3rd level. BTW Jean, if you'd like I'll redo those demos for you, the game quality is as good as ID's (almost) but the demos... well, let me know if you'd like ID quality demos as well and I'll make some for you. There are still a few spots with a bit of HOM (what a shame huh?). Watcher rating for Design? 9 (clean up that HOM and you have a 10!) Watcher rating for Game Play? 10 (I had a blast... I think I'll go play them again!) ---- FORTRESS.WAD(Review by WatcherTwo) Author : Curtis M. Turner II Secrets, yes there are alot of them ;) Don't expect to find them all the first few times through (unless you're one of those cheating types, then hey more power to ya), but none conceal "must have" items, just boons. I manage to come off the level with max health and armor on Ultra-Violence, but then I know where the secrets are. One hint: Take a few seconds to look around, I'm sure something will pop up, especially early on. (Spoilers way down at the bottom.) Another hint, well nah, you'll see the first time you play ;) And now on with the review! [The Green clears ... (or the screen melts away to expose...)] I immediatly pick up my shotgun (I think I'm going to like this one!) and look around the room. I'm standing in front of a large wooden door, the room seems to be made of steel, slightly stained (are those blood stains? HeHe). I kick open the door and find ... nothing.. no monsters, but there is another large door ahead and a hallway leading left and right. I choose a hallway and start wandering, picking off the wandering monsters as I go, the walls here are stained with green, I sniff for the smell of slime but can't pick up the scent. I watch the walls carefully for signs of a secret and clear out the bad guys... I eventually end out in a large open area surrounded by a very long wall that curves in a half circle, this place is populated with hairless bulls and flame throwing apes! I dodge around making the apes hit the bulls and watch the fun! When I get bored with that, I kill off what's left and search the area for goodies! A plasma gun, now all I need is more ammo for it... This level was very well constructed, I found only one place where a wall was not quite smooth, of course I got stuck on it in battle! I saw no HOM effect and the layout was very well thought out. I did find it irritating that you can start out right at the beginning, take a wrong turn and be overwhelmed with monsters, isn't that what keys are for? Please put the 'room full of monsters' type thing either behind a keyed door or at the end of an area where you have a pretty good idea that the player is ready (read that as equipped) for it, like you did with the other monster rooms. There is a very large maze (You know how I feel about mazes) on this level, it is also well thought out and properly stocked with both monsters and equipment, I actually enjoyed making my way through it. I started out with a bad impression of the level because I take dying VERY seriously, I expect to be smarter than the author, more observant that he/she expects and survive the traps that are layed out for me, on this level (at least in the very beginning) that was not possible. This author seems to like the 'room full of monsters' type of thing so if you get a kick out of "mowing", you'll like a couple of the places on this one a lot! I prefer the type that take a bit more thought, quick reactions and close observation. I did warm up to the level through the maze (I know, sounds strange for me huh? The maze is very well done!) and overall I enjoyed playing this level. I played on UV as usual, and the level can be completed without finding the 'secret goodies'. There is a bug in the layout of the secrets, if you do them in the wrong order you can't get 100% of everything, and we all want to do that! Watcher rating for Design? 8 Watcher rating for Game Play? 8 ---- HHH-21.WAD (Review By WatcherTwo) Author : Robert Zubek Description : As usually at that time of the year, Hades was really, really bored. Aside from the usual job of taking care of the poor dead people, there was not much else he could do -- all of the goddesses were on vacations in far away lands, and Persephone herself was too busy watching the soap operas to even look at him. And that's when he came up with an idea how to entertain himself -- to build a maze- like house, put one of those unworthy mortals in it, and see if he'll be able to find the way out. Sadly enough, you happened to be the only person Hades could find before the sunlight started to hurt his eyes. And thus you have been dragged into the underworld, placed in the House, and the game began. The grand prize is your life. * Note from the Author * This is the first part of the "Hades' House of Horrors" series. Part two, HHH-22.WAD, is in the making right now. I'm planning to create a complete "Hades'" episode (L1-8). More on the story as it develops. And now on with the review! [The Green clears ... (or the screen melts away to show...) ] I hear growling! I quickly pull out my trusty pistol, that jerk is carrying MY shotgun! A few quick shots and it's over, I take a look around me before I go running up the hill to grab my shotgun. Strange, this appears to be a hill made of marble... green marble, the whole room is green, I see a hallway behind me, it appears clear, and a door at the top of the "hill". I climb the hill to get my shotgun... whatever's on the other side, I'll feel better with my favorite weapon in my hand. No problem, just a rifleman, I pull out my pistol to take him out (I only have 4 shotgun shells). I really can't tell you much more about this level without taking away from it, it's VERY small. I found only one place with a design flaw, if you run along the wall to grab the berserker (to conserve ammo) you get stuck on the wall. This should definatly be fixed! Aside from that I didn't notice any real flaws in design. I know this level is designed as a drop in for E2L1 but keep in mind that the person playing has already finished all the reg versions, this is no novice! Although this would make a very nice E1L1, well it still might be a bit too simple even for that. I think it should be expanded before releasing it as part of an Episode. Watcher rating for Design? 6 (Would be 7 if it were a bit larger) Watcher rating for Game Play? 3 (It's a short walk in the park) ---- LBLEV2.WAD(Reviewed by WatcherTwo) First a note from the authors: This file was released by the authors. 04/19/94 This file is not complete. Some gfx sound and parts of the level have been removed to make it smaller for downloading. The Full version comes if you register. This is level 2 of the Laura Beyer Add on level package. This program will change your original graphics, so it would be wise to back up your directory or create a new directory for these levels. This will give you new & Better graphics, Sound and more. You will see for the first time things like 3 dimensional walls invisible floors and more. (End note) I cut out lot's of stuff that I wasn't relevant to my review of this wad. This review is going to be a bit different, no story this time, suffice it to say that what the author says (see above) is quite true, the graphics are completely different (they import new Gifs into the wad file.) It is very well done (ID quality) and if you are checking out wad files, you need to check out this one. Please note, this is a "shareware" wad, they will send you the entire episode if you register. Ok, I'm interested in registering, let's determine what is a reasonable price. Well, ID charges $40.00 for the entire game with 3 full episodes... so this one (assuming that is written with the same quality as ID) should be 1/3 of that price right? So the price should be 13.50 for one episode... but wait a minute, ID might have spent a little time developing the game too, that should count for something! Considering the engine that is in DOOM, I would have to say that at LEAST half of the game's cost is in the engine, that leaves $20.00 for the three levels, right? Well how about thinking up the original ideas, the original artwork etc... that should count for something too right? Well, let's just say another $5.00 for misc... Fair? Ok, that sounds better, $15.00 / 3 = $5.00, we have now determined a "fair" price (In my humble opinion), I would consider paying $5.00 for a full episode of ID quality and ID size and ID imagination wad, anything more than that is an insult to ID and all those wad builders that are currently making higher and higher quality wads every day and handing them out for free! When you DL this wad (and you should!) check out the price. ---- LEDGES.WAD (Review By Daniel) Authors : Mark K. Gresbach Jr. Description: Ledges.wad is a one-room, multiplayer PWAD perfectly suited for a deathmatch. It loads as e1m1, and can be played as a single player or up to three of your friends (four players). "Ledges" is aptly named; it features a large circular open-air room, surrounded by ledges--staircases, balconies and an ele- vator. * * * Ledges can get tough, especially if you start with the monsters. There are a few little secrets--a couple supercharges and one invincibility. The level features all the guns, but if you want the BFG9000 you'll pay with about 25% health for it (unless you get it a special way--no, I'm not telling ;). And since there's only one elevator on the level, you'd better be ready to defend your right to it, because if your opponenets want to live they'll try to stop you from going up. With four people this level is a riot. A fight in the courtyard between you and all three opponents will leave you in a cold sweat, especially if you come out alive. And the weapons are _very_ nicely placed. The chaingun is always within easy reach, while the more powerful weapons are rightly more secluded. Playing with just two people is still exciting, but not as fun. For example, in your quest for more weapons, you will constantly see your opponent on an opposite ledge, gleefully snickering at you and no doubt yelling something about your momma. And you'll end up rushing madly down the stairs, praying to every god you remember that they aren't hiding around the corner, calmly wait- ing for you to pass before they launch a rocket in your direction. Hunting on this level is gratifying. Other than the above scen- ario, if you see someone you can generally find them. The light level in the area is always pretty high, so you won't be craning your neck to peer into the dark areas. The area partly rewards the hunters by giving them a view of everything that's going on while at the same time alotting the defensive players some time to prepare for the onslaught. The only problems I had with this level were some of the room textures, which, in some places, abruptly changed from one motif to another. This leaves something to be desired, and doesn't turn out looking very well. But in all, the level looks fairly nice. And "I wonder why he chose that pattern of blue" is NOT going to be your dying thought as you get blasted to bits with a plasma rifle. One known bug is that in the room that you would start in in one-player play, there is a green armor which sits in the corner but cannot be picked up. On scales of 0 to 10: Layout: 8 Textures: 6 Difficulty: 7 Huntability: 9 Funness: 9 On a Cameron overall scale of 0 to 10, LEDGES.WAD scores a 7.8. Level Hint: Try to be the first to rush up the elevator and get the plasma rifle and invicibility sphere. This way you'll be able to hunt your weapon-searching doomed opponents and not worry about taking the hits. But be prepared to back up your elevator claim with at least a chaingun--your friends may also have the same idea. ---- LEGEND.WAD (Review By WatcherTwo) First a quick look at the authors .txt file. Legend - The Series Author: Tony L. Hayes (hayes@ll.mit.edu) Description : This is a combination pwad. It contains all of the legend series levels released to date. When loaded, it replaces episode 1. Currently this pwad contains replacements for levels 1 and 2. This "episode" will be updated with each new level release in the legend series. Comments are always welcome! Look for level three in 1 - 2 weeks. And now on with the review... [The Green clears ... (or the screen melts away to show...) ] I turn full circle and see that I am in what appears to be a brightly lit cement building, I spot my shotgun! 8^) I check my weapon and it's load... I've got 4 shots, better be carefull. I kick open the first door, there appears to be a river of water running down a hallway, I test the waters (sorry about the pun, HeHe), no negative effects... I continue to wander, I run the hallways of water picking off the guys that are blocking the path as I go (gathering weapons). I seem to have cleared the open halls, I start checking doors. There are a few I can't open, I open one, kill the one or two monsters in there and grab a weapon........ This is an extremely simple wad, both levels. I know these are supposed to be M1 and M2 replacements, but that doesn't give you an excuse for making them boring... 8^(. It seemed very strange to walk on a river of water, each hallway had one, at most 2 guys to pick off, each room had 2-3 monsters and one weapon... zzzzzzzzzzz. Oh, sorry, I must have nodded off. I recommend that you drop M1 altogether, or rework it in a major way! M2 has some potential, these are both good starts on levels, but definatly not ready for distribution! Watcher rating for Design? 5 (It was clean, no HOM, no 'ruff' walls) Watcher rating for Game Play? 2 ---- LEVPACK.ZIP (Review by Kenneth S. Forte) Authors : Name not supplied (efj@pine.cse.nau.edu) Description : If there is anything that these three levels desperately need is more monsters. There is very little population. For Deathmatch play this is fine, but experienced solo players should have no problem even on Ultra-violence and may even find it a bit lacking in the blood department. EHD14.WAD is actually totally devoid of monsters and is therefore only suitable for Deathmatch play. Each level is described in further detail below: EHD11.WAD (Episode 1 Mission 1) Where there are monsters on this level, they are well placed. Most of this level alternates from total darkness to just enough light to see your hand in front of your face, and most of the monsters are in the darkest spots. There are even a few pitch black areas where no monsters appear, but you're probably so paranoid by the time you reach them that you'll go in blazing. I would also like to note the authors excellent use of dead "things" in some of the dark areas which make you wonder just how many enemies there are and is very effective in doing so. There is plenty of ammo and plenty of health to complete this level easily enough, even though there is a totally blind (unmarke by texture) poison area in which lies a suit of MegaArmor. Where this level falls short is in the textures and in the layout of the doors. Most of the door linedefs are mismatched with the textures used on them, creating ugly-half-cut-multiple-textured doors with some garbage between textures. The selection of wall and ceiling textures are fairly good, somehow clashing and meshing at the same time. There is also one linedef that is probably supposed to be impassable but is two-sided which leads to a clipping area and possible confusion as to how to get back into the actual defined areas of the map. EHD12.WAD (Episode 1 Mission 2) This level starts off with an interesting one-shot attempt to get a Soul Sphere. While not hard to accomplish, it would frustate anyone who rushed thru and happened to miss it. Afterwards things get a little crazy. Most hallways lead to a totally unique maze, which has the dubious distinction of having many one-linedef-thick walls thru which any monsters can take pot shots at you. The major feature of this maze, however, is that all of these one-thick walls are invisible on the map, and there is a neccesary key buried deep within the maze, making it fairly difficult to find. After the key has been found, you can enter another harrowing area comprised of a large circular room with several fake walls behind which wait about 15 Imps. Its hard enough to dodge the incoming fire let alone finding there hiding spots, and even the most experienced player may have a bit of trouble with this one. As in the previous level, there are several doors with poorly aligned textures. There are also a few places in the maze where BSP might have done a better job generating nodes than DEU did. In general, this level is full of good ideas, but some of them fall short in their application. EHD14.WAD (Episode 1 Mission 4) Due to the total absence of any monsters, this has to be considered a Deathmatch only level. Its playability in that department remains suspect. Granting that the author states that this level is still under construction, I won't say that it is totally unplayable, but since it only consists of about 25 square rooms with teleporters arranged in a very difficult fashion, its not inconceivable that Deathmatch players might never even find each other. All weapons not found in the previous levels are to be found here, including the BFG, but good luck finding something to use it on. Ratings : Ratings categories are on a scale from 0 to 10 with 10 being the best PWAD possible, and are explained below: Layout : effectiveness of the map layout : boring <-> genius Integrity : proper structural definitions : buggy <-> flawless Textures : tasteful use of textures : ugly <-> beautiful Difficulty : skill needed for Ultra Violence : none <-> impossible Playability : possibility of completing level : can't <-> difficult Enjoyability : chance that you will play again : never <-> always Overall Rating : averaged from the other ratings : worst <-> best Note that "Difficulty" is rated only in respect to monsters assuming that the more monsters there are the better, and that "Playability" is rated solely on the tricks and pitfalls of the level and tries to ignore monster hazard completely, assuming that the more difficult it is to solve the level the better the level is, but that an unsolvable level is useless. EHD11.WAD EHD12.WAD EHD13.WAD Layout : 7 8 3 Integrity : 3 3 9 Textures : 5 7 7 Difficulty : 3 7 1 Playability : 7 7 3 Enjoyability : 5 7 3 Overall Rating : 5 6.5 4.3 ---- MARKROOM.WAD(Review by Daniel) Description: This level is made for all you deathmatchers out there. It fea- tures one middle-sized room, with weapons 1 - 5 (chainsaw through rocket launcher) evenly spaced in the center of the room. It's fairly dark, so you should hope like hell that you're the "indigo" guy. You'll start at one of five (or six) drop points, four of which are at the corners of the room, and work your way towards the middle and to the weapons. * * * Get ready for a tough deathmatch level. Although you can play it with monsters as e1m1, its true greatness shines as an area where you can duke it out with your friends. As I've mentioned above, it's a relatively dark area, except for the weapon pick-up points, so you should get the rocket launcher and get the hell off the pedestal before someone blows your slow self to smithereens. Do you know how to navigate along twisty stairs? You'd better, because if you don't you're not gonna get a weapon better than a chainsaw. Yep, the four weapons that you can get are preluded by a set of twisty, winding stairs. And if you happen to fall off before you get it you'll have to start again. Hunting areas in this WAD are nicely placed. There are open areas along the sides, and narrow twisting places among the weapon-holding stairways in the middle. Whether you need to launch a rocket or chase a fear-stricken opponent with your chainsaw, there's a place to do it in this WAD. This is a great, fast-moving, deathmatch WAD. And while it lacks multiple rooms and passages between them, it more than makes up for them by the number of times you'll start cursing out your monitor after you just came within two inches of the shotgun and fell off the @#*!^$& stairs. I noticed no problems with this level. With three or more play- ers, you won't run out of ammo that often before you get killed, and if you do, there's a chainsaw that you can use for a kami- kazi attack. On scales of 0 to 10: Layout: 9 Textures: 9 Difficulty: 9 Huntability: 9 Funness: 9 On a Cameron overall scale of 0 to 10, SHADOW.WAD scores a 9.0. ---- MEGAPACK.ZIP (Review By Kenneth S. Forte) Authors : Casey Miller (98782359@wsuvm1.csc.wsu.edu until 5/6/94) Description : All I can say about these two PWADS is this: if Casey Miller can make 7 more levels as good or better than these, then whoever makes the levels at ID had better start thinking about cleaning out their desks. I'm not going to give these levels any "10" ratings, but only because I'm hoping to hold out for even better from this author in the future. Grab these levels and hold on to them. MEGAWATT.WAD (Episode 1 Mission 1) The observant player will be able to get a much needed plasma gun early on in this episode. The well-guarded chainsaw is also necessary, because even the most experienced player may be low on ammo by the time the real monsters show up. One of the best features of this level (as well as MEGALAB.WAD) is the attention the author gave to detail. Rooms aren't simply chunky, boring, 4-vertex squares, but have softer corners, and overhangs and lighting effects that, again, would put ID to shame. The structures show great imagination as well, being both artistic, functional, and deadly all at the same time. Only one thing mars the perfection of this level, and this a slight problem with one door behind which the player may get trapped if raising floor is activated before turning around and opening the door permanently. This does occur right at the very end of the level however, so unless the player missed the secret areas, most of which are marked in one way or another, it doesn't interfere with the completion of the level. The only thing on the wish list for this level is armor, as there seems to be none. On the other hand, there is an invulnerability sphere, a couple of berserker boxes, and the coveted BFG9000. MEGALAB.WAD (Episode 1 Mission 2) As far as structure is concerned, this level continues to excel where MEGAWATT.WAD left off. Its worth getting this PWAD just to see the runway and hangar, so realistic that you can almost imagine some form of spacecraft coming in for a landing. There may not be fewer monsters in this level than in MEGAWATT.WAD, but they aren't as densely packed, so finishing this level should be slightly easier, especially with the presence of the BFG9000 and, this time, armor. The secret areas aren't as clearly identified in this level either, and the absence of a Computer Map makes its time-consuming to actually find them all, but none of the secret areas are crucial to completing the level either. Only one poorly chosen door texture makes this level short of perfection, but in light of the fine details like the "personnel" and "cargo" doorways in the hangar makes it very easy to overlook. Again, the fine attention to detail makes this level stand out above most others, including ID's own. Ratings : Ratings categories are on a scale from 0 to 10 with 10 being the best PWAD possible, and are explained below: Layout : effectiveness of the map layout : boring <-> genius Integrity : proper structural definitions : buggy <-> flawless Textures : tasteful use of textures : ugly <-> beautiful Difficulty : skill needed for Ultra Violence : none <-> impossible Playability : possibility of completing level : can't <-> difficult Enjoyability : chance that you will play again : never <-> always Overall Rating : averaged from the other ratings : worst <-> best Note that "Difficulty" is rated only in respect to monsters assuming that the more monsters there are the better, and that "Playability" is rated solely on the tricks and pitfalls of the level and tries to ignore monster hazard completely, assuming that the more difficult it is to solve the level the better the level is, but that an unsolvable level is useless. MEGAWATT.WAD MEGALAB.WAD Layout : 9 9 Integrity : 8 9 Textures : 9 8 Difficulty : 9 9 Playability : 8 8 Enjoyability : 9 8 Overall Rating : 8.7 8.5 ---- ---- MXK_D-11.WAD(Review by WatcherTwo) [The Green clears ... ] I quickly turn and survey my surroundings... nothing, I'm safe for the moment. I smile as I spot a gift from the author... MY SHOTGUN! I grab my weapon and take a second to wipe the dust off of it, it seems that it has been sitting here for a while, after a quick cleaning, I head down the hall where I find a box of shells. Now I'm ready to kick some butt! As I turn the corner of this well lit corridor I pick off an enemy or 2 and hear lot's of others that seem to have noticed me. (Do people actually play this game without a sound card? If you don't have one purchase a sound card before registering, then play E1 again! 8^), THEN register the game!) As I begin wandering through these halls I begin to get slightly dissoriented, I'm hesitant to check my map, I can still hear lot's of growling! Is this going to be one of those mazes? (I hate mazes, just a personal preference, I'm sure there are many out there that love them so keep building them!) I continue opening doors and picking off the nasties and checking my map to see where I am. I find boxes of shells dispersed throughout the maze so there is no problem with ammo, but why am I being supplied with plasma? Hmmm, could get nasty further on! I find that I am getting the feel of this maze, and actually recognizing where I am without the map, good a nice simple maze, nothing confusing. I kick open the next door and exit the brown corridors to enter the green ones, good a color change to decrease the confusion! The difficulty here isn't the number of monsters, but the size, I'm killing off rooms with a mix of monsters and those pretty red heads aren't in short supply! (I love hearing them cry when they squish!) This is a well done level, if you are careful and you take your time you could do this in one pass (I was impatient and died). The textures are well done, and they change often enough so as not to become tiresome. The level has an 'airy' feel to it, lot's of room to breath (and dodge!). The largest monster on the level is a Baron, don't you just love those green fireballs? I enjoyed playing this wad even though it had the feel of a maze to it. It was a tad easy for UV though. Watcher rating for Design? 7 Good job, clean, but nothing especially imaginative. Watcher rating for Game Play? 8 Not exceptionaly hard, but you do have to watch your back! ---- NEWHITS1.WAD(Review By WatcherTwo) A Wad to avoid (to prevent wasted download time) : newhits1.wad (What is this, an attempt to put all the 2 minute garbage wads in one group so we can all piss on them all together? My appologies to the one or 2 good wads, they stand in shame in that group.) ---- OCTAFRAG.WAD (Review by Daniel) Author : Scott Coleman, ASRE Description: If you have a crave for elevators you'll love OCTAFRAG.WAD. Octa- frag is an e1m1 replacement, built for a deathmatch level. Its main feature is a quad of randomly (slow) moving elevators in the center of the level. The level is shaped in a square, but from moving around in it, that's the last thing you'd think about it. Octafrag comprises a series of interlinking rooms, making the pwad seem much larger than it really is. However, most of the rooms will only connect one way--i.e., there is a drop-off point or a teleporter to move into the next room. * * * Octafrag can be played as a solo, co-op or deathmatch game. Two can play, but it really takes three doomers to get things moving. Two playing co-operative on this level would be the best, as it takes at least two to exit the level, and this level does not play very well as a deathmatch level. The first reason this level basically sucks as a "frag 'em" level is the size of the rooms. Each "octafrag" room (octagonal room) is too small to hold a decent fight in with just two people, and three makes it a nightmare. And the narrow hallways (just wide enough for one person) make deathmatch playing nearly impossible. One shot to a person going down a hallway with a shotgun (basic weapon on the level, and note that shotguns do more damages in narrow hallways than in the open) will take off at least 50%, and by the time (s)he turns around it's too late to do anything but make the classic throat-clutch as the body drops to the ground. Also, about half the rooms have a teleporter pad in them, and for some reason the pad takes up about two two fifths of the room. Now this okay if you're fighting monsters, but when you're moving around in a room against a human opponent you'll inevitably end up stepping on the !@%*@^ teleporter. (note that these telepor- ters are all one way--there's no stepping on them and going back) One last problem with the size of the rooms is the fact that the rocket launcher, which is included in this level, becomes merely a suicide tool; there's is almost no way to use it effectively if you are not in a hallway. Speaking of the rocket launcher brings me to my next point: the weapons and object placement. The shotgun is the only weapon that is placed in open areas. The chaingun and the launcher are hidden behind two indiscernable hidden doors. And in the rocket room lie about twenty boxes of rockets, while the chaingun secret room houses the same number of ammo boxes. For a deathmatch game this is just plain stupid. And the objects are placed no better. In just one tiny secret room you'll find two mega armors, two supercharges, two invisibilities and an invincibility. I mean, come on. This goes beyond deathmatch pwad-making stupidity. The last problem that I'll mention here was the use of a different texture (or two) in every single room. While I'll agree that level themes don't mean a whole lot in deathmatch levels, it cer- tainly is annoying to walk through a single hallway whose walls change colors three times (and these are major changes--ex, a light gray hallway suddenly turns into a blue and pink striped one. puke. blech.) Picasso would have loved this level. My only recommendation for playing this wad is to play it as a solo (it can be done (it's tough), but you won't be able to exit) or as a co-op, where you'll be able to exit the level. The description that came with this pwad said it was "designed for optimal fragging." I found the fragging anything but "optimal," but at least it lived up to its name. In fifteen minutes I had just eight frags (octafrag, heh) and probably the same number of self kills (i.e., Surgeon General's warning: launching this rocket while in a miniscule room may be hazardous to your health). [Note: this is a known bug. In the file description is mentions that this pwad may hang up your system. It happened to one of my friends (running a 486/66 local bus) once, then when he tried it again it ran fine. I have no idea what caused it, but I'm sure Scott Coleman would appreciate any ideas on how to fix it.] On scales of 0 to 10: Layout: 6 Textures: 2 Difficulty: 9 Huntability: 3 Funness: 3 On a Cameron overall scale of 0 to 10, OCTAFRAG.WAD scores a 4.6. Level Hint: Co-op: I wouldn't advise hunting together; you'll only end up shoot- ing each other. Get your weapons and split up. Meet back when one of you finds a weapons/objects chache. Deathmatch: If you see all the central elevators are moving and you're well equipped, just sit it out on an elevator. [oh my god I'm advising ambushes--someone shoot me (no pun intended)] The level mandates that someone come along fairly often, so just be ready (and hope that you're elevator is higher than theirs!) Also, if someone starts shooting you from behind in one of the narrow hallways, don't try strafing or turn- ing around--you'll die. Instead, rush to the end of the hallway and sweep around the corner (if it's a hallway that has a corner and doesn't dead-end at the quad elevators). ---- OCTAGON.WAD(Review by Cameron) Description : This is an E1M1 replacement pwad. It's texture protected against shareware play. Written with DEU 5.0 and run past BSP11x.EXE, it supports 4 players. This level contains only the enemies you might expect to find in an E1M1 - Sargeants and Imps. Your only weapons are shotguns and a chaingun. Good hunting! Well, I rarely download and play other peoples WAD's and I have no idea why I downloaded Octagon. I think I was half asleep. I must say that given the above description you'd think this was a damn boring WAD but I am pleased to say nothing could be further from the truth! I took one look at the opening scene and said to myself "There's gonna be a review of this on Sunday". Octagon grabs your attention right from the start, mainly due to it's octagonal start room - almost like a lake-side gazebo. It was a nice lake view, but I was here for more serious stuff than picnic's beside the lake - I was here to toast evil. I started off with my trusty pistol but soon had a nice shotgun in my hands as I entered an underground maze of twisty passages, cleverly overlaid to give the impression of multiple levels. These passages were populated by imp's and sergeant's (as the description says) and, I have to confess, even after many hours of playing Doom, I jumped when an Imp unexpectedly ripped me from behind! Clearly the author of this WAD has done an excellent job at setting the scene with good use of light levels and textures. I finally exited the maze and was confronted by an "ornamental" pool of deadly acid, surrounded by a walkway with a dozen imp's in sight. I'd also seen a chaingun but couldn't get it because I couldn't fit in the narrow space it was in. I had fun straffing and blowing the heads off the Imp's, then it was up onto a very narrow ledge to retrieve a blue key-card. Having retrieved said card, I worked out how to get the chaingun and then entered the main "building". It was now clear why this WAD was named "Octagon" - most of the floor plan is made up of octagonal sectors. These sectors form huge columns and hide many of the evils of this level. Did I do some running! I survived and, with my trusty chaingun, soon had the area secured. I scoured the area and found a few "secret" doors which led off to various other sections of the level. It was in one of these sections that I found a novel idea for wall climbing. I'll let you play the WAD and see what I'm refering to - and I thought it was rather well done. After searching around for a while I found a rather interesting switch, which when thrown, causes rather a large change to the main octagon room. Several more Imp's fluttered their way back to Hell in the process. Well, all good things must come to an end and I found that end in the form of a blue door and an end level switch. On exiting I found that I hadn't quite killed everything and my "secrets" was only about 75% - so it would seem that my afternoon ramble through the Octagon wasn't complete. Octagon is what I would call a "nice little level". The only criticism I could level at it is that the blue key-card was found in the course of events (you'd have trouble *not* picking it up!) and there was at least one piece of equipment that I never used (a radiation suit). Octagon provided heaps more ammunition than was needed and was fairly easy to complete (I played on "Hurt me plenty") but this is fine considering this WAD is a drop in replacement for E1M1. I didn't find out if Octagon has difficulty levels implemented, but one would expect it to be only a little more difficult on Ultra-Violence. In summary, Octagon is well designed and executed and plays at the difficulty level it claims. I have no hesitation in recommending this WAD to Doom newbies and seasoned players. I certainly enjoyed it and look forward to more WAD's from this author. On scales of 0 to 10. Layout: 10 Textures: 10 Difficulty: 8 Level Logic: 8 Funness 9 On Cameron's overall scale of 0 to 10, Octagon.wad scores a 9. ---- SHADOWS.WAD(Review by Daniel) Description: This is purely a deathmatch level. It was created with DoomEd for Windows, and is a fast-moving wonderful WAD for your diehard DOOM friends. It loads as e1m1, and exits to e1m2. There are no monsters, and skill levels (seem to) make no difference in the placement of the weapons. If you have two or three buddies get together and waste an evening on this WAD; it'll be worth it. * * * For those of you who have gotten tired of E1M1 for your deathmatch forays, this WAD will do wonders for your DOOM life (gee, I sound like a sex therapist). It's a serious WAD for serious DOOMers, and the inexperienced need not try it. Then again, maybe the inex- perienced should try it--they'll never learn how to play DOOM fas- ter. SHADOWS.WAD, true to its name, features areas of near-complete dark- ness. As opposed to the areas of complete light, this offers an excellent transition. Also, the rooms are interconnected, making the area seem larger than it really is. So, while the entire WAD remains small, you'll end up bumping into your buddies a lot more than usual. The whole WAD caters to the experienced DOOMer. From the dovetail shaped alcoves where you'll pop in to get a weapon (or, more likely, pop into a wall a few times until you get the hang of it) to fight- ing in total darkness, relying on pure instinct and your opponent's sillhouette as (s)he fires at you, you'll find SHADOWS.WAD a never- ending challenge. The level features all types of weapons, and each weapon except the BFG9000 is placed twice. All this weaponry makes for a very quick- moving deathmatch, for those of you that get bored after running out of your fifty bullets and punching your opponent to death. The only problem is that the plasma rifle kills people _very_ quickly, and if you get the plasma rifle and the BFG9000, you've got eighty cells to commit mass murder with. Considering the fact that it only takes about eight close-up cells to kill someone, you've got a _way_ lethal weapon in your hands. Moral: get the damn plasma rifle quick! Unfortunately, the two areas where you can get them are near perfect ambush spots. Ambush spots brings me to the only two things I didn't like about this level. The level seems to cater to the wimpy ambusher, who likes to wait it out in some tunnel. Me, being a shoot-the-hell- out-of-you-where-the-hell-are-you kind of guy, found this slightly annoying. One-man nitches abound in the level, and there are two areas where there is a one-way-see-through wall. So, if you're the kind of guy who likes to sit in a corner for twenty minutes, waiting for someone to come along, you'll probably find your frags rising faster than the guy who used to kick the everliving piss out of you in the open terrain. The only other problem was the lack of an exit. It's possible that the level contained one, but neither I nor my friends ever found it. Personally, I always liked hitting that exit button and then gloating over the number of times I killed everyone. [one other possible bug was that while I was playing with a few friends, one of them managed to get himself outside the wall (in the area by the BFG9000). Either the wall wasn't joined right with the other wall, or it was a fluke. At any rate, we sprayed the area with BFG9000s and plasma rifle fire until he died and regenerated in a new spot.] All in all, this is a wonderful deathmatch level. It's small, fast, intricate and will keep you on the edge of your seat (or off it even) during your entire playtime. On scales of 0 to 10. Layout: 7 Textures: 10 Difficulty: 10 Huntability: 7 Funness: 10 (10, going on 15 trillion) On a Cameron overall scale of 0 to 10, SHADOW.WAD scores a 8.8 ---- STAIRS.WAD (Review by Cameron) Author : Jason Whittington Well, it's not quite Sunday, but I thought I'd start early and review this weeks WAD. Who knows - I might review another one tomorrow. I happened to see Stairs just after I'd uploaded my own WAD, so I grabbed it and had a play around with it this-evening. On to the review: I played stairs on "Hurt me plenty" difficulty, but viewing in Deu afterwards I discovered that levels have not been implemented. It's all or nothing. Stairs starts out in a techwalled room - no doorway in. I've noticed this in other WAD's (and my own first few suffered from this) and really, when one thinks about it - how the hell does that marine get there? It's always nice to put a door in (one that can't be opened) to give the idea we've just entered the place. Ahead of me was a large door which led to a passage way with some pesky soldiers and imps. I climbed some stairs and came to a nice window with a view of a rocket launcher (totally unreachable from where I was - so close yet so far!). Having found no way to get to this weapon of mass destruction I proceeded along a bit further and to encounter computer walls that shoot fireballs. Now, having a shoot through on an apparent solid wall is not my idea of believability. Certainly, having a shoot through computer wall is a long way from believability - but that's my opinion and I digress. Dodging back down the stairs I headed off to another section, killed some more pesky soldiers and then backtracked to the fireball wall area. I found some stairs I hadn't seen before and headed down to some of those large dead thorn trees. Hmmm - I spotted the first example of how this author has produced a nice level plan but spoilt it with lack of attention to detail. Unfortunately the stairs' rises had too large a spacing and the use of a bitmap texture with too small a height. This leads to "pink gap" on the texture - you get little bits of pink appearing where the Doom engine is trying to fill in the space where there is no texture. I also noticed misaligned textures on the sides of the stairs. I completed this area of the level and moved off to another area I had not been able to get into because of the lack of a key. This was an outside area with some more steps sporting pink gap. One of the doors here also has it because it has had textures defined incorrectly. Having blasted some pink apes and sargeants with my trusty shotgun I proceeded down a wooden corridor. Once again the effect was spoilt - a panel of "startan" glaring out from the wooden sides of the passage. At this point I was wearing a radiation suit - which unfortunately ran out before I reached the acid. It didn't matter as I could easily cross the acid danger without staying in it too long. Once again I found an example of lack of attention - a section of floor that automagically raised into the ceiling and beyond! Loading the saved game and standing on this caused it to lower infinately into the ground! It would appear that the author hasn't tested this part to see if it works. I found some teleporters that led of to secret areas with lots of goodies. Here too were badly placed textures - the teleport floors were misaligned. Teleporting back I proceeded further to a room with computer walls (incorrectly aligned) and into another area with a baron. This area has an upper texture undefined and hence sports some nice (fortunately minor) HOM. I fought my way through several other rooms and arrived at a nice area with imps firing fireballs over great distances - this was a good effect. The lone cacodemon bit the dust (or is that acid?) and I exploded several imps and sargeants with barrels. Once again, the full effect of this area was spoilt by badly aligned textures, many of them glaringly obvious. The lone sargeant guarding the exit switch didn't argue with the small lumps of lead that filled him and that was that. Overall I found this WAD nice to play. It was, as the author claimed, not too hard to play. It is a shame that it didn't have any of the rough edges taken off before it was released. Hopefully the author will play test and examine his WAD's more thoroughly before releasing them in future. I would only recommend downloading this WAD if you've got the time. I didn't play it in Deathmatch but I have a feeling it wouldn't play any better than solo as it lacks enough multiple paths for doubling back and ambushing. On scales of 0 to 10. Layout: 6 Textures: 5 Difficulty: 7 Level Logic: 8 Funness 6 On Cameron's overall scale of 0 to 10, stairs.wad scores a 6.4. ---- WANTON12.WAD(Review by WatcherTwo) [The Green clears ... ] I blink several times (my eyes are sensitive to the light from spending so much time in the underworld fighting demons!), as my sight clears I see an open space... this must be 2 maybe 3 football fields in length, and just as wide! (it took me 15 seconds to run from wall to wall). I smile... lot's of room to manuver and lot's of light... all I need now is my shotgun, where did I put that thing anyway? I begin to wander around outside looking for that lost item, picking off the odd humanoid and gathering ammo (wish I had a gattling gun to go with it!). After clearing the yard of garbage, I find my shotgun and a couple of boxes of shells tucked away just where I left it! (I must have a terrible memory!) Well, now that I'm loaded for bear, let's go have fun! Of the doors available in the yard, I can only seem to open one of them, I'll have to find one of those colored crowbars to crack the rest of them! I kick the door open and get ready to fight! Hmmmm, it's kind'a dark in here, I peak around to see if anybody has noticed me yet... I seem to be sneaking around ok. Well, it's a pitch black room, I don't hear anything, but I can't see if those lurkers are here or not! I do have my suspicions though! I fire a single shot with my pistol to see if I can wake anything up... sure enough I hear my least favorite monster... those darn Flaming Heads! I stay close to the door hoping to get some close shots at these pesky little buggers, they can be such a pain in a large room, and from the little specs of light I can see, I think this is a real big one. Well, after lot's of screaming and yelling and more than a few pistol shots (trying to conserve ammo, you never know), I clean up the mess and venture into the room. I hear a door behind me... It's the door I came in, it stayed open all this time, now it's closed... I check... I'm trapped! Oh well, I check out my surroundings as best I can, "Damn I hate pitch black rooms!", I seem to be standing on a fairly narrow walkway (well it seems pretty narrow in the dark!), from what I can tell, there's hot lava down there, I don't think falling off here would be good! I follow the narrow track and hear the soft whooosh of a door... but I can't tell where it's coming from. I turn carefully around and see more of those ^#$!*$(*$R($#%@ heads coming out of the wall from behind a panel, I must have tripped a trigger to some doors! [Parts of this review seem to be missing... 8^)] Whew, I'm out of those black rooms! What a relief! Now where to next? I make my way to the only other door that permits me entry (with my new crowbar) and begin to check out the surroundings... narrow hallways, I had better be careful here, there's no room to dodge fireballs or whatever might come down this hallway. Well, enough story, this wad is (I'm sorry to say) is the first wad that has managed to combine all the pieces and parts that I don't like in DOOM into one wad! Fighting in the dark is a pain in the butt! Please authors raise the light level a little! PLEASE! It's no fun to fight monsters that you can't see while teetering on a narrow ledge (especially Flaming Heads although you can see THEM!) and then going into cramped spaces (narrow hallways and very small rooms with barrels strewn about the walls), and fighting Red Heads! As I completed the level with all the monsters dead (but 0, read that as ZERO ammo), I took a peak at what was to come in level 2, more mazes.. and they looked nasty! I decided enough was enough. I don't think this was a bad level per say, it was just that it seemed to have all the stuff I don't like, others may love it! It was pretty clean, I did notice that when I got off of an elevator and turned around to have a look at it, the side I was looking at had NO texture... pure HOM! There were also a few places where you get that 'flash of HOM' as you walk onto an elevator or through a door, but with a level this size that is not surprizing. I really liked the way Jason broke the wad into 2 levels, well done! I do think that there will be those that will love this level, it was well thought out and a lot of hard work obviously went into it. To be honest if the author had not specifically requested me to review it I would not have because I think I'm to biased against it. My thanks to Jason for sending me this wad (all 12 messages of it, AOL broke it down for me, 8^() nice huh?) Watcher rating for Design? ? As far as dark roomed/maze wads go it looked ok to me, but I don't feel qualified to rate this one. 8^) Watcher rating for Game Play? ? As far as dark roomed/maze wads go it looked ok to me, but I don't feel qualified to rate this one. 8^) I would really appreciate if someone that likes this type of wad look this one over and fill in the ratings for me. All flames, comments, compliments(?), or requests for reviews may be sent to Watcher@aol.com Please, if you request a review, send a uuencoded message (I guess it doesn't matter what size, AOL will break it into little pieces anyway!) if you can of the zipped wad and it's .txt file. ---- WARHOUSE.WAD(Review by Cameron) Author :Mike Barker Description :Imagine that a large, abandoned, warehouse in your home town has been overrun by nasties. It is up to you to save the day! You must first fight your way in from outside, make it through the outer offices, and then finally into the warehouse itself. Having read the rather interesting description I sat down on Sunday afternoon, ready for a game of Doom in the local warehouse. I fired up Doom and selected "Hurt me plenty" - after all, I wanted to be able to write this review in a reasonable time and not be beaten to a pulp! Initially I was quite impressed - a stone courtyard surrounding a large building with several enterences. I secured the area, cleaning up the patrols that lurked outside and blowing a large cluster of barrels away. I then entered the building. It was dark! Dark in every room! This was my first encounter with the overall darkness of the warehouse. Sure - abandoned warehouses are dark because they have no power, but this one was populated by badasses. A little light here and there would have been nice. I entered at a point that led into several small rooms connected by sliding doors. I soon cleaned these out and reached my first serious check. I needed a red keycard to get any further! Nowhere was this card to be seen. I searched the darkness for clues but to no avail. No gleam of red was to be seen. In desperation I had to apply iddt, which I *really* didn't want to do. There it lay hidden away in a section that I would never have found. Wad authors please note this in future - never never leave a player needing something and provide no clues. Id never did that with their levels. Eg: E1M2 - you see the chainsaw but have to work out how to get to it. Seeing it narrows the search area down. Providing no clues (slight wall texture differences/being able to see the goal, etc) means a lot of needless work for the player. If you do feel the need to do this, at least make the item non-essential for play. After retrieving the red key I proceeded. It wasn't an easy task. This level is built with platforms overlooking the storage area of the warehouse and there is no place to snipe from. Battered and weary I staggered out after downing the last Imp. I was also baffled. There a blue keycard lay - on top of a platform. No switches, nothing. How could I get it? Well I staggered off to the exit and discovered what I thought was one last nasty suprise. Having dealt with this attempt on my life I ran around a bit more and after some time discovered the blue keycard to be accessible. I was a bit non-plussed with this. In a way the blue card is too far away from the action and it's not obvious. That is, perhaps, more my personal opinion. After obtaining the key I was lowered into hell itself and had to deal with several more evils. I also discovered a plasma rifle - after I had killed everything! Not only a plasma rifle but a whole cache of health and armour bonuses. I think, perhaps, this would have done better at some other point in the level - after all, I didn't need any of it. As far as texture choice and placement is concerned, this WAD does quite well. There was, I felt, a bit too much "startan" for the the building - maybe just because, as a default for the Deu editor, I've seen one too many panels of this texture. Overall I found this WAD fun to play. It was also challenging, even on the lower skill level. I would recommend warhouse.wad to anyone wanting a generally challenging level. On scales of 0 to 10. Layout: 8 Textures: 8 Difficulty: 7 Level Logic: 6 Funness 8 On Cameron's overall scale of 0 to 10, Warhouse.wad scores a 7. ---- WILLE1M1.WAD(Review by WatcherTwo) [The Green clears ... ] I quickly glance around me and listen for enemies... hmm... nothing, Ok then where is my shotgun? I begin the search for a decent weapon and some ammo... I see that I am in a normal building surrounded by green walls (who was the decorator in here anyway?), I check each hallway and see nothing, so I choose one and spin around the corner, I fire a few rounds into the raggedy looking humans, no harm done. I see another door, and what appears to be a hallway, I better run past it first just in case.. I do and spin, THERE HE IS, and he's holding MY shotgun! I riddle him full of bullets (Yea right, with a pistol) and grab my shotgun as it is about to hit the ground. I wipe off the grime from the previous owner and check the load... only 4 shells left, I need ammo, but I have a shotgun, I can take on the world now! I kick open the door and clear the next room (with green walls, I sure am getting tired of green!) tucking the shells into my ammo pack, now I'm ready! I'm beginning to wonder if this is going to be another walk through, or if I'm going to find a challenge here, after searching the area for secrets I head on though the only door unopened... a few more doors to choose from, I choose one and find another door (a green door, in a green room) no monsters... I back out to check some more.. I'm beginning to get a bad feeling about this, I don't have many shells... I begin to %@!^&$!&%$#@*^%&(&^#@#$%^@$#*^&%)(*_(%*^#%$#@&^ Hmm, what was that, line noise? I wonder how much just got cut out... well on with the story. I grab the invincibility and kick the switch (mentioned earlier, weren't you listening? HeHe), and clean out the green room, this really is a tough level! This was a challenging level, I died several times learning how to approach each new area, I have seen invincibility on lot's of levels, including ID's, but never needed them, this one is a requirement to completing this level! I saw no HOM anywhere! My only gripe is the fact that almost the entire level is GREEN. I don't mind green, but come on, unless there is a reason like you're on a level covered in slime pits (isn't that why the walls are green? from slime?). Watcher rating for design? 7 For a first level...would be 8 with some color. Watcher rating for Gameplay? 10 I don't know how you could make such a small level any more entertaining. ---- ZZONE.WAD(Review by Daniel) Authors : Ari Koivisto Description: "It's a room full of obstacles, lifts, ambush places and rocket launchers." Well, Ari's description of his e1m1 deathmatch wad is part true. Rocket launchers and ambush places? Yes--tons of them. Full of obstacles and lifts? No. I really didn't see any obstacles to mention, unless you count pillars or some- thing. And lifts? Well, there's two of them, and I have yet to figure out why someone would want to use them. ZZONE.WAD is an interesting deathmatch pwad. It's basically a one room level, and nearly the whole level is _dark_. With monsters, it loads up eight cacodemons and one cyberdemon. Two, players can play a relatively active game, but, as always, four players will keep the game much more alive. * * * The first thing you'll see about zzone.wad--the name--brings up an interesting point. zzone.wad--two lowercase z's--will vir- tually show up last on any FTP directory list. And when you're searching through a list of files, do you remember the b's and the m's? No. You'll look at the last part of the list and ex- claim, "zzone! what a nice looking little wad." Well, maybe I'm wrong on this. It could stand for something. Zebra Zone, maybe. Or Zima Zone? As I've already mentioned, zzone is a dark pwad. There are a good deal of ambush spots, though most of them are in the open and just very dark. And although it's dark, there isn't much that makes it stand out from the crowd of deathmatch levels. Zzone is packed with boxes of rockets. As many of you DOOMers might know, rockets and _dark_ areas don't mix very well. So if you should decide to play this level, a word of wisdom: if you want a frag instead of the mushing sound you get as your body blows to bits, aim _carefully_ before launching that roc- ket. There are about one hundred boxes of rockets in the area, but they end up getting used up rather quickly. So after a few minutes you'll be limited to weapons 1 - 5 (chainsaw to rocket launcher). Zzone is nice and small, but it's very ordinary and plain. It doesn't have very much special about it. And the weapons are not layed out very well. Walk over a three foot area in the middle and you'll pick up a shotgun, chaingun and chainsaw. Move fifteen feet in any random direction and you'll probably snatch a rocket launcher from somewhere. Zzone can be an interesting level, but you'll have to make it one. On scales of 0 to 10: Layout: 6 Textures: 7 Difficulty: 5 Huntability: 6 Funness: 7 On a Cameron overall scale of 0 to 10, ZZONE.WAD scores a 6.2. Level Hint: Strafe like a rabbit in a fox-coop for the first few fights (it will RAIN ROCKETS). In a few minutes the boxes of rockets will be gone and you can go back to fighting normally. [Second opinions] -- When two people reviewed a pwad STAIRS.WAD (Review By WatcherTwo) First a quick look at the authors .txt file. Hello, This wad was created with a (slightly customized) version of DEU 5.0/5.1, and the final level was compiled with BSP. It features some nice looks and some moderately difficult secrets. THis WAD replace E1M1 but you are free to use it as whatever level you like. It is fun as single player, not all THAT hard, and was designed with an eye for DEATHMATCH play. As such, all weapons are present, as well as a lot of "goodies". It is comparable in size/difficulty to E2L3 I think, and I invite any reviewers to review this wad and post comments on it. Happy DOOMing! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jason Whittington jawhitti@mailhost.ecn.uoknor.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [The Green clears ... (or the screen melts away to show...) ] I'm standing in front of a door in a small room, I quickly search the room for secrets (this is becoming a habit in opening rooms), I find one. I still have no weapon but my pistol but I am facing the backs of to riflemen, I take them out and check the next room. I get shot in the back a few times for my lack of caution but nothing serious, there is ample stimpacks to fix that up. I continue my wanderings, looking for my shotgun, it is nowhere to be seen... I'm beginning to become impatient now, I'm not getting hurt but I am having to fight Imps and riflemen together with just a pistol... this is getting boring. I finally find my rifle in a small room guarded by a few more Imps, I polish them off and check my trusty double barrel! Well, I've picked up lot's of shells in my wanderings so I'm very ready for whatever comes along! I pass out of the underground area and head up to the wooden area above... This level is well designed and well built, but very under populated. I walked through it easily without ever dying, if the author decides to work on this level as a single player level it could be a lot of fun. As it is now, it's a very nice walk in the park with few distractions from wandering marauders... I got stuck on the secret door that had to be shot, there was no way I would have shot it accidentally. I think there should have been something to encourage me to try shooting at it. If you are looking for excitement, this isn't it. If you would like to see how well you handle new situations with no prior knowlege of the level, this might be entertaining for a quick walkthrough. If this author builds another level for standard play instead of for deathmatch, I'd very much like to see it! Watcher rating for Design? 7 Watcher rating for Game Play? 3