EPIC 2

I simply can't put into words how good this wad is. Such a beautiful trip. Very challenging and very beautiful. Not a very common combination. I usually don't like anything with Pharaohs and hieroglyphs, but then the beauty ... the extremely well crafted beauty ... hit. Whoever did this, Sir, you created a MASTERPIECE.

Eternal love TNT!

It could be his custom title by now.

Vanilla magnum opus with lot of excellents on every area.
Uses a really awesome texture pack taken out from Exhumed/Powerslave to give the mapset a completelly new look.
Every map is a joy of design. The Egyptic setting with tombs, caves and, even better, outstanding alien spaceships is what drives the mapset to be so enjoyable. There is a sense of wonder at every step, breathtaking for moments, and the distinctive and main reason for exploratory and story driven mapsets like this one.

Eternal balanced what he loves from the old glorious days of Eternal Doom and Alien Vendetta and streamlined it to far greater degree. The maps are not that big in comparison to ED, but are still really well detailed and big, more in line to what AV made, so there is not a wasted space and every area has a reason to exist, be it monster placement, be mapping detail, be it architectural design.

The first map may baffle some, as it is cryptic on purpose to make the player feel like an archelogist entering a long forgoten and forbidden pharaonic tomb. But subsequents maps become far easier to traverse, with clear objetives, really good and mostly intuitive secrets, and a great sense of place, creating a complex yet flowing and visually appealing experience. There is a great use of verticality and revisiting areas by vertical ways. This is not forced at all, and feels natural during the progress of the mapset.

With all the joy, i can't just put in proper words the poetic nature of the landscapes Eternal created in this collossal mapset.
And i really like that history kinda repeat and goes full circle, somehow. Starting with Eternal Doom and it full exploratory and puzzle approach, then Hell Revealed high monster density, a refinement of this two sides of gameplay on Alien Vendetta, a step up with Kama Sutra, to finally reach EPIC 2 full development.
As what happened with AV, EPIC 2 is the last of the decade and the first of the new one, and one of those mapsets that is still highly influential to these days.

I'd played some of this mapper's work previously (Hellground and two shorter wads incorporating the 'Epic' title), and had been favourably impressed. This one doesn't quite make the grade though. It's graphically imposing and has some interestingly put together maps, but the gameplay is mostly of a 'stop-go' ambush based sort, and can get pretty wearing. The traps seem very contrived in places, and can be cheap as well.

What really put me off the wad however, and caused me to put it aside, was MAP21. This marks the start of the third episode, and you can easily wander around in it for an eternity (no pun intended) without meeting any monsters. Needless to say, it's an obtuse puzzle - there's an almost invisible 'switch' on a small bookcase which causes it to descend and gives you a 1% health bonus, but it also serves a dual purpose, revealing a shootable switch out of sight in another room for all of two or three seconds, which gives you access to the blue key and allows you to progress. Why do mappers do this sort of thing? Utterly pointless and simply designed to alienate the player, it seems.

All the indications from the previous map were that the wad was going to become a silly slaughter-type affair in its final third anyway, so I don't really regret calling a halt at this point.

Maps are interesting, but the gameplay sometimes gets repetitive as well as the switch hunting/puzzle solving is frustrating at times. Over reliance on ambush spawns and too many damn revenants for my liking, especially toward the end. Aesthetically the maps are consistently impressive, the setting and atmosphere are great and there's enough variety and memorability in them. Despite those drawbacks, its still an enjoyable experience for the most part. 

Great visuals and atmosphere; very, very, very boring gameplay.

The Eternal's Masterpiece.

Eternal Doom Lite. This speaks enough. Basically Eternal Doom with a bit softened puzzles and softened map progression with some Scythe element added after map 20. I have nothing much to comment. I'll never play it again or will play simply some miscallenious maps. But I don't think so. 

The effort was good at least. I can't tell if I really experienced the maps that well, but the fact this rips off so much from so many other wads and plays like Eternal Doom makes this wad not as good as you may think. Considering that, still it has a few highlights: 

• Map 26 - good combat at least 
• Map 27 - Those spider masterminds are bad*ss! 
• Map 28 - reminds me of Darkdome. My favourite here and Dardome anyways is my favourite in Eternal. 
• Map 29 - I find no words for it. 

But I'll never play this again. Not because of the difficulty, but because it's Eternal Doom Lite. I wanted something more original than this. 

Oh, and I don't think I liked map 24 either. Nothing new. 

Played at UV with keyboard only (as I always do). EPIC II is a very good megawad with challenging gameplay and very beautiful textures. After MAP 19 there're a lot of tough encounters, mostly with wave of chaingunners and cyberdemons in tight spots as well as frequent usage of archvile in all maps (with MAP 29 having 87 archviles at UV!).Thankfully the author gives enough ammo and powerups to deal with them, so it's fair game. However, a complain I have is in 3 or so maps the author uses teleporting cyberdemon to create artificial difficult to the player and in my opinion it's dumb enough to warrant the loss 0.5 less star. My final score is 4.5/5, but doomworld rating system doesn't allow this so I'm gonna rate it 5 stars. I will certainly replay this one and would recommend UV difficult only for advanced players.

Gorgeous Megawad which eases you in with compact maps and lots of switch hunting, before going full on chaingunners and archviles on you in later maps. I especially enjoyed the first third of this mapset, though, which feels like Tomb Raider, only with good controls. The layouts are intricate and interleaved and although you have to look really closely for some switches, it never gets too confusing or convoluting. There's always guidance and even *I* managed to finish it without noclipping. The alien spaceship levels are a bit jarring in contrast to the egyptian theme, but are in itself great maps too, as are the odd city themed maps.

In overall, highly recommended.

It's a very impressive megawad with a nice themed ancient Egypt atmosphere, with very nice choosing of textures to contribute to that theme, very nice architecture and impressive (and very risky) twist on the story going from ancient Egypt to alien spaceships, without using hi-pitched colors like in Ancient Aliens.

Also, very tough megawad, if you're masochist enough, you can play it with Complex Doom and add LCA for more doses of pain.

There goes Epic 2, a fun and sometimes mysterious megawad, still played through GlBoom+ .

So let's start this. Epic 2 is a megawad focused primarily on the gameplay while also putting care into the aesthetics. The gameplay is similar to that of Plutonia, while near the end it shows some slaughter tendencies, when enemies will often assault the player in waves, but most of the time they're largely relying on their placement to be fully effective. The megawad features a new menu background, HUD, sounds, soundtrack, enemy sprites, textures, weapon sprites, and a new enemy, a trooper equipped with a shotgun that lacks the pump action and is invisible before being alerted. They bear a striking resemblance to the ones seen in Ancient Aliens, with their key differences.

Indeed, it seems that various sounds used here would also end up in AA and Valiant, the most notable being the weapon sounds. Having played both before Epic 2, it would seem it was a major source of inspiration for the projects.

The gameplay is solid most of the time, however some enemies are used excessively near the end, the worst offenders being the Chaingunners and Arch-Viles. Almost every wave of enemies ends up using them, and at various points there's large waves made exclusively of Chaingunners. This happens only in the last few maps however that are noticeably more difficult.

The levels are beautiful and very immersive, making you really feel like you're exploring various iconic Egyptian locations, and are easy to navigate for the most part. Problems arise only near the very end of the wad, on MAP28 specifically. The level itself is quite large, but it's major issue is that in order to reach the red skull you must first locate a number of switches that have likely been located already. This makes backtracking excessive and navigation difficult due to the complexity and size of the map, it's very easy to get lost or become confused while looking for the switches again. MAP28, along MAP29 are the most difficult levels in the wad, but MAP28 would've been a much better candidate for a MAP30 instead. With a few changes it would've been a very fitting conclusion to the journey.

Talking about MAP29, this one has its own (minor) flaws as well. It's easily the most difficult level in the entire megawad and with the biggest enemy count (over 500), but it could've used a few tweaks in places in terms of balancing. Specifically, the room with the blue skull is the most difficult area in the whole level, because waves of Revenants, a few hitscanners, Arch-Viles, and 3 Cyberdemons will surround you after it's triggered and there will barely be any space left for walking. Best to clear an area and blow everyone else out from there. All the other rooms come with Invulnerability spheres, but surprisingly this one doesn't, making it look a bit unfair in comparison.

MAP30 here is an Icon of Sin level, one that's quite underwhelming, that is. It features only 100 enemies (almost all of them are killed after activating a few switches however), it's large yet short (some great areas are explored, although they're few), but blowing out the brains of the Pharaoh can be both a tedious and a very stupid task. The platform you must use moves slow when you deliver your first blow, and very fast afterwards. Was that really necessary? I doubt it, it could've been much better, but the experience this level delivers is mediocre in terms of gameplay. As I have previously mentioned, MAP28 and MAP29 could've easily been the perfect candidates for boss levels, with some changes, but not this.

Beside MAP30 there's no level I dislike or hate. Sure, MAP28 was a bit frustrating, but it's still a great map. And my sense of direction is awful in the first place anyway. As for my favorite maps, that's going to be MAP29 as well as MAP21. "Shore Dream"? Quite so. Unbelievable, breathtaking sights.

To sum up, despite the lackluster ending, Epic 2 is most definitely worthy of your time and the title of classic. It has its flaws, but then what doesn't (and most flaws are relatively minor), the result is what matters at the end of the day, and it's fantastic. Ever wanted to play AA but had serious trouble with it due to the great difficulty? Then this might be perfect for you. Nonetheless, Epic 2 is a wad everyone should play at least once.