RaRu Des2122

Dear @Chris Hansen, congratulations to you and us all on the release! Your name as a developer of Doom maps is already a certain quality mark for me personally and collecting them all in one megawad is a great gift for all of us by the end of the year! I had a slightly different suggestion: it seems to me that maps not included in Hell's Bane should be enough to assemble the fifth episode from them. A single style does not have to be traced in it at all - this episode can become a kind of "collection within a collection". It can include the maps you have proposed and 4 maps from 2022ado and for sure some more can be found from those that did not have enough space... But again, this is just a suggestion and nothing more.

I partially agree. It would be more rational to really put the cut levels on slots from the 78th to the 80th but getting on them after Like a Fist is somehow not very logical, in my opinion. It would be better to do this: we get to the Stormfall map after the 25th, on Anastas' Pledge - after the 26th, on Military Strength - after the 27th (in short, 25-78-26-79-27-80-28). So the player will be able to immediately compare both levels: first the newer one, then the older one cut out of Delta.

The appearance and number of different kinds of monsters at the Ultra-Violence difficulty. I have combined the secret and cut-out maps from Doom Core in one column. Of the interesting things here are a couple of points: imps occupy not the first or even the second place in terms of the number of representatives in the megawad and @valkiriforce really does not like lost souls who do not depend on the pain elementals. But why? ;)) The answer to this question is also interesting for the reason that such a small number of lost souls is observed both in Reverie and in Anomaly Report.

*** *** This megawad is the purest classic which can be updated as much as 10 years after its release and which will not become obsolete after another 10 years! Thank you very much, @valkiriforce, for the great pleasure! The next megawad will be Reverie, but again I do not undertake to designate the dates... And now some personal impressions: 1) Top of the best maps: - Map10: Artillery Base - Map12: The Old Abandoned Mill - Map14: Magnum Opus - Map15: Toxic Wastelands - Map16: Fistful of Lead - Map17: Spire of a Dove - Map26: Cages Apart - Map32: Like a Fist 2) Top of the least liked maps: - Map09: The Foxtrot - Map13: Subterranean Suburbs - Map23: Nexus - Map30: Frontiers 3) Top of the best soundtracks: - Map03: "Not for Peace" (Cybernator) - Map10: metal remix of the Las Vegas Theme (Top Gear) - Map21: "Suspense" (The Ultimate Doom) - Map28: "The Sewers" by @stewboy - Map29: "Gut Wrencher" (Duke Nukem 3D) - Map31: "Legion of the Lost" (Final Doom: TNT Evilution)

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And the last three maps: The fact that the source of inspiration for this map was MAP28: The Sewers from Plutonia can be seen absolutely everywhere. So its location on the 28th slot (in the original Doom Core it occupied the 29th) looks absolutely appropriate. *** Another big sewer map but which this time was not in Doom Core. Although it has almost nothing in common with the last one: metal textures are mainly used in its design, instead of brown slime, bright green splashes under our feet and in general, it feels bigger, larger and there are semi-slaughter moments on it more than once. As the penultimate test, this map looks much more appropriate than the previous one - and this is another reason why I like the set and arrangement of maps in the Delta version more than in the 2011 version. *** I can't stand IoS in general and such a small map as last gives the impression of a crumpled ending, so I won't dwell on it for a long time. However, I will note that this is the first map in my memory that is played at the Ultra-Violence difficulty in one way and in a completely different way at lower difficulty levels! I've never seen anything like this before... Formally, the megawad is completed but it's too early to sum up and go looking for a new one. There are still three maps that were originally intended for Reverie, became fillers in the original Doom Core and were thrown out of Doom Core Delta! In my opinion, this is quite unfair and they also deserve attention...

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The first of the three maps which was made specifically for Trilogy version and was not appear in the original Doom Core. That seems to be the usual techbase but not all the textures that I see here are used very often, so from a visual point of view the map was more likely to surprise me than not. The map requires increased accuracy due to the very large concentration of monsters at the end as well as due to the fact that this is one of the few maps in the entire megawad where it is impossible to find a new megaarmor instead of the one you have worn down in constant battles. *** The second of the three maps which was made specifically for Trilogy version and was not appear in the original Doom Core. The map seemed a little boring to me because of the monotonous brown color scheme and semi-dark lighting. Although I can still note a few interesting points like a cage with four archvile or a couple of non-trivially hidden secrets. *** This map was also not in Doom Core but it can't be called absolute new. The first half of it (on which 171 monsters out of 277 live) was conceived for the original megawad but in the end it was not inserted there and now it can only be found like MAP13 in Pulse. And the second half is the MAP28: Unknown left almost unchanged from Doom Core. All this was done in order to free up another slot for another new map. However, even before I read all this in a text file, this map already seemed to me like a gluing of two different parts. The first one is extremely straightforward and simply overflowing with obvious secrets and it can be passed without looking behind player's back at all. The second one is more complicated in structure, there are much fewer monsters and secrets on it and it is associated with the search for all three keys. Both parts do not intersect with each other in any way at all and there is no need to go back, even the smallest one.

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A short map in the hellish style (perhaps the only purely "hellish" map in the megawad) with easily guessed sources of inspiration: MAP29 from Doom II, MAP24 & MAP27 from Plutonia, MAP24 from Memento Mori and other similar levels. Why there is no cyberdemon on this map, although it usually appears at such levels? I've been particularly interested in this question ever since I found out that it WAS in the original Doom Core at MAP22! *** A pure slaughter map on which the search for all three color keys for the gradual opening of all the doors at the fork will be accompanied by a heavy and bloody battle with a horde of monsters which due to the constantly arriving new fighters will be reduced extremely reluctantly. I'm not a fan of this kind of levels at all so the only moment when I experienced at least some positive emotions was the exit from this Nexus. By the way, while I was going through this map, there was a strong smell of Memento Mori in the air again... *** Even though this map is objectively large, densely populated and it's impossible to pass it quickly, I still spent a lot of time on it even by my standards. In particular, I spent a decent amount of time trying to arrange the most massive infight for the entire megawad at the very end of the level. But I don't regret it at all ;)

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The megawad has already been uploaded to idgames and there is no single word about it in the profile topic!

The largest and most densely populated level in the megawad. This stronghold is so big that it can afford to be not too confusing to the player - it is still absolutely impossible to pass quickly... If the fact that this stronghold was built almost without an initial plan and anticipation then @valkiriforce definitely deserves applause! It's hard to say that the map turned out to be very rich in details but it seems very solid and is really perceived as a fortress that we are clearing from monsters step by step. *** We have not yet left the fortress which we reached on the last map but only climbed to its second floor. It is much smaller and, in fact, only the battles with cyberdemon and the spider mastermind are interesting here. We have a choice: kill them one by one as soon as we get them or suffer a little adversity associated with cyber's rockets flying past us and open the blue door - then we will have the opportunity to make them infight with each other. *** Creating of this level was inspired by two maps from TNT - MAP11 and MAP32. From the second there are several separate wooden houses standing on the water and from the first one of these houses is filled with boxes in such a way that we will have to squeeze between them, climb up and down from them and even pass through doorways in a certain way so that one of them descends. But unlike both of them, this level feels much more calm and serene. There are no really healthy and dangerous monsters here and those that exist do not arrange for us sneaky traps like attacking from behind or locking in a cramped room with subsequent shooting from all sides. I think "Suspense" which is one of my favourite tracks in first Doom also works for this atmosphere.

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A huge city map with very detailed houses and such a dense population that at first it is difficult even to leave the starting point. It is not recommended to run fast here for two reasons: firstly, visiting not all houses from the very beginning is useful to pass the level and secondly, doing this is harmful to health on any map with a population of 450+ monsters in general. This map personally seems to me the hardest among all the 32 in the megawad and at the same time one of the best in it. In the imaginary top of the best city maps that I have ever passed this one would definitely be in the top five. *** Another very short and relaxing level (along with MAP15) which can be called a very timely break after previous long trials. The map is made in a very pleasing to the eye bright blue color and is so easy that the most difficult moment on it I can only call a timely jump from the rising bars to the box. We will have to do this on the way to the yellow key. *** Not a bad dynamic and rather short level, which seems longer due to the fact that we have to run from one end to the other several times. Resistance due to the abundance of narrow corridors and cramped rooms will also seem fiercer than it really is. As far as I understood, according to the original plan this level was supposed to be one with the next two. Well, it will be interesting to find out where the monsters guarded the path so diligently...