Summer Deep

Interesting change of direction from a graphics and visual point of view in the final episode! I've killed all the baddies in MAP28, and can't for the life of me figure out how to reach the exit.

Thanks again, it looks 'obvious' after the event, but I'd probably never have worked it out. In my view it's made unnecessarily cryptic by the presence of those columns on the right hand side - I assumed I was supposed to zigzag between them, which may well be impossible. I do like my Doom to be largely straightforward, and for it to be clear what the player is supposed to be doing, as you might have guessed by now!

Been enjoying this so far, but will probably have to call a halt at MAP18. I'm finding the platforming section with the rising and falling columns here to be impossible, unless the player possesses superhuman reactions and timing abilities. Maybe there's a short cut or trick that I'm missing, but there probably isn't..

^ Thanks for the assistance there! I hadn't encountered any difficulty getting into the main building or dealing with the opposition in there, it was just the bit after the player gets onto the lift. I had tried strafe jumping to that window ledge, but that doesn't work of course. What defeated me was the placing of those columns of water, which obscured the view of the correct path to take. I'm not a great fan of such cryptic and obscure progression, and think that the gameplay needs to be rattling along at a decent pace, especially at this early stage of the wad. It's all too easy to become bored and alienated from the game in these situations, though of course there are no doubt players who love this sort of thing as well!

Scythe: That's a proper Romero head ending.

Sunlust: Map 29 ruins an excellent wad.

LOL, I'm at my wits' end trying to make progress in MAP02. The issue is the red key. At first I assumed there would be a switch somewhere to lower the column on which it's mounted, but can't find one anywhere. In desperation I tried jumping into the watery area and exploring but.....(drum roll).....there seems to be no way of getting back out of there. I took a look round with idclip and it seems more likely that the player is supposed to jump from the room behind the red key in order to pick it up, but I can't find any way of legitimately getting into that room or the one behind it. I'm playing with the latest download of the wad, and have tried setting GZ Doom's compatibility to ZDoom as you suggested, but it made no difference....

This was a pretty challenging affair on UV, and I died about four or five times before completing it, but I did manage to get 100% kills and 9/12 secrets (including the megasphere).The large area with the two Mancubuses on the distant ledge, as well as numerous Arachnotrons, Revenants and Hell Knights was fun to play as well. I wasn't too keen at all on the use of lava which kills the player instantly - felt I should have been given a sporting chance to survive in such circumstances, and I'm not sure how well the opening area works, as one can simply run through the various monsters to get inside the main building. The monsters in that outdoor area didn't seem to count in the total of kills either!

I managed to play through these maps on UV without a death, and think they'd definitely be better as introductory levels to tougher ones in a full episode. Like the previous poster, I felt that MAP03 was the best in terms of action and scenery (loved the outdoor area at the start). For some reason the map had two yellow keys, neither of which I could find a use for, though I got 100% kills and there were apparently no secrets.

I've completed this (on HMP difficulty) and it's not bad at all. I feared the worst during the early stages of the first map, as I traversed cavernous, almost empty rooms with just token opposition, but the wad soon got into its stride after that. Great finale, but eminently doable! In MAP04 I did notice that if you go in the wrong direction after the final teleport and end up in the first fight room (the one with the Hell Knights and the Cyberdemon), then there's no way back out. Not such a big deal, as most players will probably have saved a few times within the level, but maybe just about worth a mention.

Not entirely sure what you mean, but the video below shows what I was referring to. Maybe the pillar isn't involved in it? Otherwise, it's maybe because I was playing in ZDoom?

Just discovered this mapset and have played the first 14 levels in UV continuous - great fun so far! It's presumably a bit late to point out issues after the final release, but I did discover that in MAP14 it's possible to bypass the red key section completely and gain access to the exit area by sliding over the pillar on this staircase. I would imagine that the player is not supposed to do this!

Where's the switch? I don't think one was visible.

I've been playing this wad on UV difficulty in continuous format. It's the second consecutive TNT megawad I've played, and has just served to emphasize that for me TNT maps are more enjoyable than Plutonia ones, though the latter seem to be more critically acclaimed. MAP16 was interesting, in that I'm not sure whether it has a bug - it seemed impossible to acquire the red skull key from its pedestal, but for some reason if the player goes to and fro in the blood pit in that room for long enough, they can sometimes accidentally pick up a randomly placed red key, though it's never actually visible. Is this a workaround to ensure that the player can finish the level, or is it just an inexplicable anomaly?

I've just completed this wad, and would have no hesitation in recommending it as a very worthwhile playing experience. I did this on UV in continuous format, and found the difficulty level challenging but perfectly manageable, the maps were an ideal size with mostly 100-250 monsters, and the environments were always interesting. The only gripes would be concerning MAP30, which seemed a bit one dimensional (but at least it wasn't an IoS) and had no final statistics screen (just a 'Thanks for playing' message), and MAP32 - I completed this on the two easiest difficulty levels, but felt that it became unreasonably tough in HMP. That's a setting which should be manageable for an averagely good Doomer, but I found the early part of it impossible, even if it was theoretically doable. It seemed to assume that the 'averagely good Doomer' can routinely accomplish 'two shot' kills on Cyberdemons, which would be necessary to survive at that stage, but I found this a hopeless task, despite the fact that I've completed more than 40 Doom 2 megawads on HMP or UV. Couldn't escape the feeling that this map was trolling the player, especially when the 11 'secrets' were revealed in the final room! EDIT: (21 March 2023) Lol I'm feeling a bit foolish now. I returned to this a few minutes ago, loaded up the wad on HMP setting and IDCLEVed to MAP32. Blew away all three Cybers with the BFG on the first attempt, two-shotting the first one and possibly the second as well, then finished the map, though I died a couple of times in the Heresiarch room. I might become a minor Doom God yet....