THE GHOUL'S FOREST 3
By Cutmanmike
So here you go. You are on your own in a dark forest with a bow and arrow just for protection and a bonfire to provide you with some light and warmth and then all of a sudden the fire goes out. You're trapped in complete darkness, the automap doesn't work and there is nothing apart from these rotting trees, or is there?. But all of a sudden you hear a whispering sound but you can't see where it is coming from but then its too late. The Ghoul's Forest 3 is the third and final in a series by the author Cutmanmike which places you in a dark forest all on your own in an attempt to scare the player and out of somewhere comes something, a scary creature in when it decides to attack you you are killed instantly even with cheat codes on. When I first played The Ghoul's Forest 2 I was wandering around and seeing the ghostly image of the ghoul (Sjas) charging at me was one of my most frightening gaming experiences ever. The Ghoul's forest combines 3 enemies, The Ghoul (Sjas), The Jitterskull and The Creeper which must be defeated, one after another in random order and then a you face a difficult to defeat boss named The Yurei and your only hope is your trusty bow and arrow. Once they are all completed the level ends. Once this level was released facing the two new enemies was one of the most scariest experiences but nothing gets scarier than the final boss which flashes around you to the sound of a heartbeat quicker and quicker and if you can't hit it you'll be presented to a series of terrifying flashing images and screaming noises. There is no escape because they all get to you easily. The MP3 music included in the wad file really gives The Ghoul's Forest 3 a spooky feel while the gameplay and challenge is also very good. Difficulty settings also adjust how dark the forest is, easiest the forest is quite light and you have more arrows but on the hardest skill settings its very dark, you have less arrows. The darker, the better I believe.
LINE UP OF ENEMIES
1. THE GHOUL (a.k.a Sjas) - A dark, ghostly and bloody transparent face that races around the forest with an endless scream. If you hit him he disappears and comes charging back at you from the same or other direction. The sequence repeats until he vanishes into a pile of flames.
2. JITTERSKULL - The Jitterskull is a huge, white human skull with one tooth missing and red circles in its eyes. It is easily seen amongst the darkness due to its light colour. The Jitterskull's teeth make creaky bone-like noises and when it gets close to you it charges at you (like a Lost Soul) with great speed killing you instantly and making a horrible screeching noise. It takes several arrows to defeat the Jitterskull.
3. CREEPER - The Creeper "creeps" around the forest floor whispering away in spooky fashion. If you get too close it creeps up on you, jumps up and screams your guts away. Be very careful because when you hit it with your arrows, you frighten it and it can charge in any direction and that can be towards you killing you instantly. This is indeed very scary and I must say it scared the shits out of me and almost killed me!
4. YUREI - Yurei is the final boss in the forest and you must defeat her in order to beat the level. Its not easy since she flashes around you to the sound of heartbeats in random places. The flashes and heartbeats get faster and faster and faster. If you can't hit her, you're vaporised by a series of terrifying noises and images quickly flashing upon you on the screen.
5. CHOKE - A floating, bloody moaning zombiefied face (from the original Ghoul's Forest) that moans you to death if you stay in the forest for too long. At least its rare.
The Ghoul's Forest 3 should provide you with hours and hours of fun and even several months after its release I love to sit down at night, in a dark room and play this level. It still sends shivers down my spine and is certainly fun to play if you can "summon" other ghouls and friendly enemies in using Zdoom's summon feature. If you want to play something scary and challenging you will not be disappointed with this level. I think Doom itself was not a scary game at all, while this level is based on Earth and not in hell think again what does make a scary Doom level. This requires the Doom 2 game plus Zdoom source port to play. A recommended download if you haven't played this!
GOOD: Scary, Challenging Gameplay, Excellent Music
BAD: Ugly texture usage
Gameplay: 9/10 - Challenge 10/10 - Architecture 6/10 -
Item Placement 5/10 - Fun Factor 10/10
OVERALL RATING - 8 out of 10