Board 8 > Think im gonna do a doom playthrough/ranking topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Map 21 - Nirvana

Level 0.5/5
Difficulty 0.5/5

Again, it's so easy. At least this throws some barons and pain elementals, but it gives you tons of powerups to do whatever fights you need and never feels like a challenge for an instant. It is unclear, unkind, and annoying in its level design though. So....yaaaay

Map 22 - The Catacombs

Level 0.5/5
Difficulty 3.5/5

Well...I asked for harder. Plutonia lite has arrived and I fucking hate it. You start out with a super obvious secret housing about a half dozen chaingunners behind you, that leads you right in the middle of a whole squad of chaingunners. And if you go in that secret, it locks behind you and you can't go the right way. The level design is fucking awful, being super easy to get lost, having no memorable use of lighting, and being absolutely chock full of chaingunners in absolutely bullshit placements. The level is more an RNG fest than anything.

I remember as a kid, spending 2-3 hours on Citadel trying to figure out what to do. The secret-within-a-secret that is required to access the window, that lets you jump to the 5-teleporter building, is such garbage. They did not playtest this game at all.

And yup Courtyard coulda been great if they kept it short, didn't put in all the weird key placement stuff.

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Map 23 - Barrels of Fun

Level 2.5/5
Difficulty 3.5/5(5/5 from pistol start)

Fun level, but its jank hurts it. I love the beginning, but it stops using barrels after, and some of the triggers don't seem to reliably work. Not a bad level by any means, and I'm glad I played it, but could use some work.

gotta love that blatant Alice In Chains song too

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WazzupGenius00 posted...

gotta love that blatant Alice In Chains song too

One of many lol

Map 24 - The Chasm

Level 4.5/5
Difficulty 1.5/5(waaaaay higher on pistol start)

This level fucking rocks and the hate it gets is so undeserved. Just a fun adventure with a LOT of memorable encounters. Color me impressed.

yep Chasm is in my 4 good maps list!

also the karl jobst video on the speedrunning history of chasm, is extremely good

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Map 25 - Bloodfalls

Level 1/5
Difficulty 2/5

You mean to say the level made by someone who was only learning to make levels isn't great? WHAT A SHOCK. And what pathetic secrets. One I found before a single enemy and had nothing of note, the other is empty.

Map 26 - The Abandoned Mines

Level 4/5
Difficulty 2/5

This level is a dick, and I love it. The traps are never too mean, but they're panic inducing, like suddenly dropping the floor out from you over super lava, then when you rush to the other side a door opens up and releases a baron that you need to fight before you get too close. It's amazing fun, and short.

Abandoned Mines is my main proof that Romero has level design chops

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Map 27 - Monster Condo

Level 4/5
Difficulty 3.5/5

Oh yes more of this please. It's basically mini-slaughter. If the fights were more together it would be very similar to traditional slaughter, but I like the layout, with switches opening up monster closets in other parts of the level. So many memorable fights like the red key baron hoard, or the barrage of spooky skeletons that drop from the ceiling. I love how the level gets more and more open as it goes on.

Epyo posted...

Abandoned Mines is my main proof that Romero has level design chops

That'd be Doom episode 1 for me. That's the reason Doom got popular, and it's easy to see why.

Map 28 - The Spirit World

Level 4/5
Difficulty 3.5/5

Level design is a bit less awesome than Monster Condo, but the combat is way more intense. Love the music, love the texturing, love the absolutely cruel fights. Double mastermind and double archvile fights in the same level? Hell yes. I wish it could stay this good through the end.

RadiantJoyrock posted...

That'd be Doom episode 1 for me. That's the reason Doom got popular, and it's easy to see why.

Oh yeah, true true. I think the only thing with that is, maybe he's only good at making that techbase style of map, or, maybe Doom is just particularly good at that style of map. Whereas Abandoned Mines makes it clear, nope, he can make a sick threatening hellish map too.

Plus, I know Romero gets a ton of the authorship credit for E1 maps, buuuut I think some other people started some of those maps right? And, since it seems like the E1 levels generally were worked on throughout the game's development, I always had a hunch they all worked together on those levels, to some unclear degree (like I imagine they all playtested them a lot, and pointed out and fixed all the bad parts, over the months of development...)

(Oh also E4M2 is another good example of Romero making a especially unique/cool level too, of course.)

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Map 29 - The Living End

4.5/5
Difficulty 4/5

If this level were longer it would be perfect. Fantastic atmosphere, tons of badass fights, challenging as hell. The final cyberdemon is probably the best in all of Doom 1 and 2 for me.

Map 30 - Icon of Sin

Level 1/5
Difficulty 4.5/5, depending on RNG

Garbage. Would be done better, but not much.

Valiant Map 4 - Moonlit Stroll

level 4/5
Difficulty 3/5

Gorgeous level, simple fights, but I dig it. Meet the Arachnorb in this one, the floating head of an Arachnotron that flys and shoots the same plasma projectile, but dies as easily as a Pinky.

UAC Ultra Map 4 - Pyrolysis

Level 3/5
Difficulty 4/5

Lots and lots of fun fights in here, but mostly feels like it's going easy on me. Like, it drops an Archvile on me, and nothing else, with room to take it out. Feels made for pistol start though, that'll probably happen if I play it again.

Ancient Aliens Map 4 - Bad Medicine Men

Level 4/5
Difficulty 3.5/5

Damn good. Two archviles sit in towers with views of the whole level, and you don't have the resources to take them down. On the ground four manacubus sit in cages belching fire at anyone who sits too long. And then dozens of imps, shotgunners, and zombies pick at you as you move through. Search around the level and you'll find ways to make it up to the tower of each Arch Vile, killing them with a horde of barrels. Find the right secret, and your spirit bear helps you telefrag each manacubus. I cannot stress enough how absolutely gorgeous these maps are, and the music is a ton of fun.

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

Valiant's music is so fucking awesome, a lot of fun to listen to while I work

UAC Ultra Map 5 - Hardware

Level 3.5/5
Difficulty 2.5/5

Much more chill level built around one big central hub. Lots of fun fights, but nothing super challenging or memorable.

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Valiant Map 5 - Aggrovater

Map - 5/5
Difficulty - 4/5

Oh man, this one is awesome. One long fight from beginning to end in this tiny courtyard that somehow manages to have several memorable fights. Fighting Manacubus and Arachnotrons down long corridors, circling around revenants, two nasty archviles in cramped areas with lots of place to hide from them but lots of enemies to revive, and just more and more and more. The super shotgun and super chaingun are your best friends. Also, Arachnorbs are scary. Cacodemon-ish flying enemy with the durability of a Pinky but the addack of an Arachnotron. They can fuck up your day.

TNT Evilution Map 1 - System Control

Level 2.5/5
Difficulty 1/5

Gonna try evilution(and eventually plutonia and thy flesh consuners) at the request of people, first map is a nice basic map.

This topic got me to finally make an effort rebuild my personal WAD library. A hard drive failure back in 2015/2016 made me lose it all and I'd only grabbed a few since then. Now I have probably 90% of what I had before, plus some more recent stuff. It all comes out to about 1.3GB.

Also good luck with TNT! I think the good maps make up for the less than stellar ones, though I've seen plenty who disagree. It represents a more concerted effort to achieve a bit more realism in level design, something that continued to be a hallmark of Team TNT's designs going forward. Whether that actually resulted in better gameplay varied.

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Yeah I'm into Evilution, the level designs are weird, but in a good way. It's fresh.

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Ancient Aliens Map 5 - Last Refuge of the Anasazi

Level 5/5
Difficulty 3/5

The least difficult part of this level is the cyberdemon chasing you around. Such an awesome map, you're never given enough ammo to deal with him until the very end, but it's filled with some terrifying ambushes, lots of scurrying about looking for keys, and just tons and tons of fun.

Valiant Map 6 - Engineering Disaster

Level 4.5/5
Difficulty 4/5

It's a city level but....good. Really good. Still too much backtracking for my taste, but some brutal fights make up for it, like a spider mastermind and a half dozen arachnotrons in a cave, or an ambush on a rooftop where enemies start teleporting in above you, or a red key ambush that drops a dozen revenants in front of you and then a couple dozen arachnorbs around the city. Also fuck arachnorbs.

Next Valiant level is something truly special though

Valiant Map 7 - The Mancubian Candidate

Level 5/5
Difficulty 4/5

This one took me a few tries. You open the level and you find a cache of health and guns worthy of a boss level, and a couple switches drop walls to show you about two dozen archviles. Take a teleporter and you'll see the boss of the first episode, a lowly Mancubus. Trick is, he's in the center of the arena. He has vision on you at all times. And if he dies, all the archviles teleport into a level. You have to navigate this level while protecting the chubby boy from all the enemies that are going to infight him. Such an original concept, and it's closed out by this awesome duel in a strobe lit basement with a cyberdemon.

Save

Doom mood dropped off but I'm sure it'll be back

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