The DWmegawad Club plays: Eviternity II

I like to think that me posting this a day late makes up for @Magnusblitz posting the original Eviternity thread a day early :P

No, because posting a day late was *totally* intentional because of the intro map... ;p

Okay, this is good enough reason to rejoin the club at least for this one month. I already started playing Eviternity II when RC2 came out, and I played until MAP07, when I thought I'd put this on pause to wait for a more final version, as they were getting updated before christmas quite often.

First, a little memory: I think it was Decino's Eviternity playthrough, when I first found out not only about his channel, but also about modern classic Doom. I had only been playing IWADs for better part of 2000s, and had no idea how far classic Doom modding had come since my teenage days. And when I finally installed modern source ports on my PC, Eviternity was one of the first (though not the first) PWAD I had liend up for me. It may not even be my favourite PWAD, but it's up there among my favourites, and when I saw the surprise release of Eviternity II, I was immediatly hyped.

*

MAP01: Elysium. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 1/1 K, 0/0 S, 0/0 I. Comp. time 3:52

Eviternity veterans will instantly recognize this scene and breathe in the somber ambience. There isn't that much to say, but while most of this map have (probably) been copy-pasted from Eviternity I, it must still have been quite a lot of work and one can only admire how much effort has been put to a simple introductory map with only one monster; our old acquaintance, Astral Cacodemon, who now spits slightly different projectiles than what we've last seen. Is it my imagination, but has its HP been nerfed? Is this is a special one-of-a-kind Astral we're gonna see?

*

MAP02: Vestige. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 96/96 K, 2/2 S, 2/2 I. Comp. time 6:51

The first actual map doesn't disappoint; I like the decrepit heaven style, I like the rain effect (even though it does, at times, seem like the graphics are glitching somehow, it's so subtle).

The enemy roster is mostly former human and lost souls, with a couple if imps and pinkies, even nightmare demons at the end. It's an easy map, but I gotta say, my first playthrough of this map took over 20 minutes back in early December. The secrets, especially the soul sphere secret was really hard for me to find. This time it was more a breeze. Sad that the ambush at the yellow key can be dealt by just leaving.

We're off to a promising start.

I was playing through it, but I was not expecting for it to be played in the club for two reasons, first of all, it has 37 maps, and most of them are behemots. Second of all, this is still a release candidate, and not a final release. The club is not used to do so. Yet, we will play it, let's see how much I can stand of it (Playing trough hour long maps with time constraints). I'm forced to return to the club after a bit of a hiatus because I was playing it.

Eviternity II.wad - Eviternity II - Dragonfly et al.:

Wow, here it comes, our awaited(?) sequel to one of the greatest mapsets from the modern Doom mapping era, Eviternity. Feels like it was only a year or two since it first released, but it is actually 5 YEARS. Damn, I'm getting really old, and that only fact already makes me feel depressed, I shouldn't have checked the dates...
The first Eviternity was massive, long, and beautiful looking thanks to the new texture pack made by the amazing Ukiro: OTEX. Said mapset released just to be a OTEX showcase (MAP32 is the biggest example of it), just in a similar manner to the old The Darkening, with the outdated, but beloved, Darkening texture pack. The thing is that, Eviternity evolved to be its own thing, a mapset that defined the new era of mapsets for a long time. All from the sudden, for its 5th anniversary, Dragonfly drops us a new release, the sequel, with new levels, and more new stuff and content. Have in mind that, the first release, had new enemies and such, but this installment has even more new things, even new textures that update the OTEX pack, if I'm not mistaken (someone will correct me in the thread if so).
It is difficult to be even better than Eviternity, but sequels are made just to risk it all, be the best, or fall into oblivion. Let's hope for the best.

Chapter 1: Withered:

MAP01 - Elysium - Tristan Clark (100%K/I/S):

This is more like an opening for the entire mapset, rather than a regular map. More like a playable cutscene, with only one enemy, our feared Astral Cacodemon, which isn't as hard to deal by himself, but feared in packs. Luckly, it's only one, and at the end of the cutscene-level. The problem is, you'll have to deal with him with a pea-shooter.
It's a nice cutscene level that starts where the first Eviternity finished, with most of said map's MAP29 structure, with the difference that, everything is now withered, and dark, and that aetherial world is now under grey clouds. The building and the setup is nice, although I think it could have been even more amusing. Still a really good starter.

MAP02 - Vestige - Ben "Bauul" Mansell & Joshua "Dragonfly" O'Sullivan (100%K/I/S):

Our first regular map is a short structure that feels like traversing through some abandoned buildings from ancient greece, or one of those old civilizations with similar structures. The map is not that hard, surprisingly, considering how hard Eviternity I tends to be right from the start. The setup is nice, how it plays, even better, though I feel a bit constrained by the layout, is it me or halls are a bit too claustrophobic? I don't know. Feels Eviternity II is going to do the same than its predecessor, connecting each map with the next one in a more seamless fashion, I already like it.

(UV - Playthrough/DSDA Doom)

I won't rate MAP01 due to it being a bit lackluster in gameplay, so order of preference is not open yet.

Well now I have to, don't I? I'll have to return to my home PC for that though.

Woof!, -cl21, UV, pistol-start with saves, blind

I'd like to make it clear that the original Eviternity is probably my favourite megawad of all time. I see it as an apex of 2010s blockbusters, combining high production values, memorable themes and exciting, yet still accessible gameplay. The release of the sequel came out of nowhere and got me insanely excited, but I haven't played it yet. I really wanted to experience it for the first time with the Club, I'm just surprised it was chosen this early.

MAP01: Elysium by Tristan Clark

I never knew I could feel nostalgic about a wad I've first played in 2020, but here we are. Eviternity II starts where the original ends - in an arena where you battled against Archangelus and his hordes. Now, the Heaven's splendour is covered by darkness and decay. Jump down a gaping hole and the trip down the memory lane continues.

As the name suggests, Elysium is based on MAP29 from the 2018 wad. It used to be a massive, combat-heavy map, now it's almost empty, save for a single astral cacodemon at the end. Reach the, and absorb the atmosphere along the way and marvel at the flight pad sequence, where you soar through a pretty light shot.

MAP02: Vestige by Bauul and Dragonfly

The first proper map of Eviternity II. The opposition isn't tough, mostly zombies, imps and lost soul (who again seem to have their health cut down - much appreciate). It's all a fodder for your new pistol - it fires faster and is more accurate than the original, plus it now sports a much nicer sprite. There's one cool fight for the yellow key, when you can mow a teleporting ambush with your newly-acquired chaingun and the fight by the exit, which brings back nightmare demons.

I think the true star is the aesthetic, a decayed version of celestial temples from Hallowed, drenched in black rain. Combined, Elysium and Vestige serve as a great way to open a megawad and I can't wait to see what's next.

4 hours ago, RHhe82 said:

Is it my imagination, but has its HP been nerfed? Is this is a special one-of-a-kind Astral we're gonna see?

I do agree with the statement @Azure_Horror has made, this entire episode gave me feelings of Ozonia, in fact I do expect something really similar for a possible sequel to Ozonia in the future, for some reason. The "cutscene" levels do scream Ozonia a lot.

I'm hyped for this, as this is a very good excuse and opportunity to play this monumental milestone, that literally came out of fucking nowhere. I'm completely blind for this, so let's see.

MAP01 - “Elysium” by Tristan Clark

A direct continuation after the final boss of eviternity 1, letting behind a carcass of what the ancient civilization of what is mentioned in the intermission text, actually was. Mere seconds into the wad, actually manages to tell visually what this is going to be all about from a visual standpoint, well maybe not exactly, since this megawad clearly is going to manage many different themes like its predecessor, but in terms of scale and visual quality. As a playable cutscene, the lonely dark atmosphere combined with that soothing midi, truly makes this feel very special, and how you are exploring the unknown, not knowing at all what to expect to pop up. That immobile astral cacodemon buildup, to the only fight in the level in which you only have your fucking pistol, is also a plus. Although, i'm just conflicted in the way you actually have to navigate the abandoned place.

That temple were the astral caco was, leading you to 4 pathways, is confusing to navigate, since the way in the front, leads you to a dead end, the same at the west path. Only the least expected pathway leading you to progression, it kind of annoy me, but obviously I got my jaw dropped for the entire level, and perhaps this was intentional considering the atmosphere this level is going for. That jumppad secuence with the teleporting candles, man, what the fuck, how you script things like that in doom? amazing stuff.

Only one more nitpick, is this is supposed to have direct continuity with eviternity 1, why the pistol sprite is different? It just breaks continuity and a bit of the immersion, but anyways.

8/10

MAP02 - “Vestige” by Bauul, Dragonfly

This can be called a tyson level? Everything is good and fine, as you just blast trough enemies with the buffed pistol from eviternity 1, this level taking more advantage of it compared to the first episode of that wad, since you get better resources relatively late into the level. I love how smooth the muzzle flash looks, I don't know if for the rest of the weapons they did the same since I didn't pay attention. You'll assume the secret berserk you get doing a strafe run through a window would make this map absolutely trivial, but no, there's enough hitscanners to make using berserk actually risky, and nothing shows it better than both the blue key fight and that chaingun fight, which has a relatively high density of enemies that force you to use the hitscan weapons. 

Well thought out for what i mentioned, straightforward, you know what you have to do, you have to play good unless you get chipped, it looks good, all good.

8/10

Ultra violence 100% kills/secrets, Pistol-start, Using saves
Played on DSDA Doom v0.27.5 -complevel 21

Map 1: Elysium - 13:11

Doomguy holding a pistol with both hands? Interesting. At least it still fires faster than the normal one, and has a cool new sprite. Elysium picks up where the first game left off, starting you off in a burnt-out, decayed and destroyed version of map 30 & 29 from Eviternity 1. Two specific things about this map I really like is 1) The red/blue torch spiral sequence where you jump platform to platform and have to face down an astral caco at the end. Thankfully he has reduced health, as explained earlier in this thread. It always amazes me how the original doom from 1993 and maps like this (and later levels in this WAD) share the same base engine. The second thing I like is that health and armor bonuses don't count as items. Good news for 100% nuts like me :). All in all a really nice, atmospheric opening stage whose beautiful MIDI complements it perfectly.

Difficulty: 0/15

Map 2: Vestige - 10:49

Nice short map set in a grimey, waterlogged, and ruined fortress. It's pretty easy navigationally and combat-wise aside from the start where you'll be dealing with a fair bit of hitscan enemies and lost souls, and there isn't a ton of health lying around. The nightmare demon trap at the end gave me a slight scare, admittedly, as I hadn't popped a save at that point yet. Didn't have any trouble with the berserk secret, but the supercharge secret took me a few minutes to track down (hence the overlong completion time). I also again really dig the bit of continuity at the end where the player is flung into map 3 via the angel-wing platforms from earlier. The trap when you pick up the chaingun outside is another highlight. Solid work.

Difficulty: 1/15

i enjoyed eviternity 1 without thinking it was particularly special so im interested to see if this betters or improves on the original in that regard!

added complication is having to download and setup dsda-doom to play it! if i can get that all working how i like i may join in :)

I already threatened to write a more in-depth review for this WAD in the thread for it, so maybe this is the place for it! I don't know if I'll replay any of it right now, just because of time, so I'm going to base all of my thoughts on my initial playthrough with RC1 and RC2, while using playthroughs on YouTube for reference if needed. Since this is so fresh in my mind, I remember a lot of it, so I probably don't need the references too much, but they are nice to have. I played through on UV continuous, using GZDoom.

MAP01: Elysium - Tristan Clark

I honestly did not expect this WAD to start the way it did. I guess it really is a direct continuation since it looks like it starts immediately after the first one ended. You are in the original's MAP30, with the Archangelus's sword sticking out of the ground in front of you, and the corpses of all the monsters you killed laid out all around the arena. I wonder if the amount of corpses equals the amount of enemies that were in that map originally, that would be cool. I try picking up the sword, but you can't. Kinda thought you could going off of the WAD's key art. The atmosphere of this map has done a complete 180 from its original incarnation. The sky is orange with black clouds, and there's a distinct stillness to everything here. The pillars surrounding the arena lower, breaking this stillness, but only for a few seconds. It's evokes this haunting feeling of sadness and awe, which is not something I expect from a Doom map. There's only one place to go, and that's through the hole in the center of the arena.

You fall in, but get immediately spit back out of the top, though we're not back in the arena. Instead, we're back in MAP29 of the original. The sky is now completely gray, and many of the textures have a grimy look to them now. Most of the playtime in this map is here, exploring the now desolate and decaying area. It's a weird feeling seeing this once bright and heavenly world I played through 5 years ago now decrepit. There's a MIDI here, but it's very quiet and minimal. Playing with GZDoom, I see the kill count and notice there's only 1 enemy in the map. I'm not expecting a boss or anything like that, but I'm not sure what it could be. Walking into the hub, it lights gradually lights up to reveal an astral caco in the center. Thankfully, it doesn't attack and seems more like a statue since you can't hurt it. Nothing else to do but wander around some more. The degradation of the map allows for a new path down into the water, which eventually leads back up to the side of the main entrance where the red key is. Grabbing it allows you to use the jump pads again and to head back to hub to find the astral gone. Uh oh. Using the red key takes you to an area not seen before in the original. It's a long platform with a dead marine at one end surrounded by clips. I thought for sure the astral would show up here, but no. Hitting the switch here reveals a new path with an incredibly awesome torch teleport sequence that creates a double helix-like pattern. Taking this leads you to the other side of the main entrance hall, and NOW we deal with the astral with nothing but a pistol. Thankfully, our new pistol is pretty cool. It fires faster and is 100% accurate, making it a good starter weapon! Add in the fact that the astral has been weakened by some explosions coming in, and it shouldn't be an issue to deal with. Interestingly, its attack pattern has changed from the original Eviternity, with one of its 3 mancubus fireballs turning purple and moving slower. Killing it grants access back into the entrance hall, where we can climb back up to MAP28, Going back into the entrance to this map finally ends the map.

Overall, a fantastic opening map. The atmosphere is incredible, being both sad and tense. It's nostalgic, but tainted. Very, very cool.

MAP02: Vestige - Bauul and Dragonfly

We get our first "real" map here, and the first instance of Bauul in the Eviternity series. This map is a lot smaller in scope, so it shouldn't take you too long to complete. It's also pretty open, so you can take a decent amount of chip damage from zombies, imps, and lost souls, so be careful. This map is a perfect showcase for the new pistol. You don't get any other weapons just yet, so you'll have to deal with everything with your trusty sidearm, but with its upgrades, it makes the encounters fun. Lost souls still have their reduced health too, so that makes pistoling them to death more manageable. This map is the best way to really experience the new textures of this episode. Eviternity II uses an expanded version of OTEX, so we get to see a lot more new visuals throughout. This episode's decaying heaven theme is really put on display here, especially with the textures coming out of the blackened water. These once pure pieces of marble now have these disgusting black intestines wrapping around them, just barely leaving the tops alone where you can see smidges of its former glory. Add in the general grime and dirt on all of the other walls, and it really sells how corrupted this place has become. Weird how quickly that happened after you killed the final boss of the first WAD. This is only, what, minutes after? Dang, guess they used some cheap materials here. Anyway, you need to hit a switch that opens up some light platforming to get the blue key (make sure to platform by this switch to grab the berserk as well). Grab the shotgun, platform to the key, and take out the lost souls. Using the blue key raises a bridge and also opens up a big monster closet with the first pinkies of the WAD too. After some more incidental combat, we get the yellow key fight. It gives us the chaingun, which is useful against this mini slaughter we get. All that stands in our way now, are 3 nightmare demons at the exit. Great, these things are back. 2 teleport in front of you, and one behind. I did die to this initially. The berserk is useful here, but the chaingun would work fine in this tight area. Hit the jump pad to literally jump into the next map.

Overall, a super fun map! I liked the pistol-focus of the first part of the map so much, I was kinda sad when I grabbed the shotgun. Combat was tight, literally in some aspects. The new textures really exemplify this episode's theme. The MIDI is solid, now that I can hear it. I didn't mention it before, but the soundtrack in this WAD is fantastic, and is a contender for being my fav Doom soundtrack now. Great warm-up map!

DSDA-Doom 0.27.5, Pistol-starts

I honestly didn't think this would happen seeing the votes come out and considering that Eviternity II has yet to finalize, but I'm happy to be here. Eviternity was a pretty omnipresent idea when it was being developed, from mapping livestreams to discussion on other platforms. That makes Eviternity II being dropped without another word all the more of a surprise. I had only seen Antares's map beforehand, and that was without the context of this project. The trade secret was held together incredibly well. Eviternity II is easily the generational skip for this decade, and I am so excited to talk about yet another time I can go through it.

Map 01: Elysium

  In what is probably the most easily defendable reason to paste a previously existing map down in a new scene, Elysium drips with the impact of Eviternity's story. Having an episode that was previously defined by its nontraditional color and locale now be draped in decay is pretty stunning, and dropping the recognizable land mass of Eviternity I's Elysium into this decrepit state feels so much more genuine than simply making reference to the fact that that WAD happened. All the lighting that reveals the sole Astral Cacodemon, the reuse of the jumppads to soar above the once dazzling spectacle now dead, the subtle hints at corruption from both Hell and a new Astral Plane, it's putting a whole lot of chips on the table. Taking an entire map slot solely to communicate narrative is a big gamble, one that pays off amazingly. My first time through, I couldn't imagine how they'd keep the ball rolling.

Map 02: Vestige

  And still, they did.

  I'm filing this one under "The pistol actually is good and you're wrong", because I swear, even without the pistol upgrades for this WAD it would still be an absolute juggernaut. The monsters are perfectly balanced for the length of time you're using the pistol, and the amount of options to hunt down in both weapons and secrets to alleviate those who will set themselves on fire before using the pistol is respectable. Lost Souls have their health tweaks in perfect order for being taken out by a couple bullets, and not having the map stretch on ad nauseum makes it where pistol kills feel significant. I will treasure this time I spend with this weapon.

  It is absolutely insane to me that this visual symposium was made with tools meant to edit Doom maps. There isn't a single misshaped seam, or wall that only makes sense in the limitations of Doom. The corrupted tar creeping up the marble wherever it pools is such a fabulous dedication to the lost realm, and being so close to all the dead foliage makes it seem so much more bleak. I'll get my singular gripe that I have for most of these maps out of the way, and it's partially not even Eviternity II's fault: MBF21 block ground monster lines are dumb with midtextures. I've seen so many Souls, Cacos, and anything else that flies have their bodies imbedded into a fence because they're an inch off the ground, and it never fails to suck me out of the splendor of the scene. This could easily be solved with a fake floor up to the height of the fence, which is something that Boom is already capable of. 

  It's also worth briefly touching on how good Eviternity II as a whole is in the soundtrack department. Without really using any musical terminology since I don't know any, "End of the Line" is perfect at presenting that "you have to fight through this evil" that is already visually here in spades. Everything about Vestige is incredible, passing beyond where words fail. 

This month's choice: Surprising literally noone.

MAP01 - “Elysium” by Tristan Clark

So we start quite literally where we left off, a map that is pure lore and virtually nothing else and in all honesty it sells itself superbly. The once pristine and bright heavenly realm is now dark, gloomy and grey. There isn't any real threats in this level apart from the sole astral cacodemon there to remind you that this realm isn't devoid of all life and unfortunately any remaining lifeforms are going to be hostile. So relax, take in the atmosphere and plink the caco, which isn't too tough. This map exists for one purpose and it does it perfectly. 

MAP02 - “Vestige” by Bauul, Dragonfly

The first proper map is a real looker, reinforcing the style of the previous map. The map is unsurprisingly open planned, thanks to the ruinous nature of the buildings, but Bauul and Dragonfly do a good job at steering the player around the ruins. The combat is a little so-so but that isn't really a complaint given this is map02 and the map is always going to play a little soft. I should add that the pistol feels well balanced to work on most of the monsters present here, pistol dominated combat is always a risk but here it works nicely.

Overall very solid and it is nice to see some of the surroundings of the next map being present here for continuity.

20 minutes ago, Bauul said:

 

• Be notably short, to ease players into combat after Map01
• Provide plenty of opportunity to use the new pistol and learn its strengths
• Show off the new textures
• Re-introduce the Nightmare Demon

 

Hey you nailed it! Only the lost soul part isn't very clear, since you can get the berserk early and just one or 2 shot them.

1 hour ago, Bauul said:

This is something we debated in the team a bit too.  The issue with using fake floors to make fences is they blocks hitscan attacks, which is contrary to how Doom has always treated mid-textures.  Ultimately we decided that the occasional visual weirdness of a low-flying Caco drifting through a fence was worth the expanded mapping options.

You're absolutely right about the ease of access for gameplay, and I wish I had made that clearer writing about it because the flow in Vestige is incredibly due to the compact nature. If it's worth anything, it's definitely the lesser of the evils. 

Introduction

After seeing the votes in the previous month's thread, I noticed that Eviternity II seemed to be in the lead. I was of mixed opinion about this. I don't mind playing wads late in development, but Eviternity II looks like a big wad, and I don't want to try to rush my way through it like I did for last month's wad. Because of this, I'm not entirely certain how far I'll make it through. I might still be posting to this thread in the middle of next month if things go poorly. Because once I start, I'm not going to stop until I finish this. I also tend to not read other's opinions until I've played the relevant maps and have written down my own, so if I do get behind I might also get behind in responding to anything. That said I expect this thread to be pretty long, so just keeping up with the posts might be more time consuming than playing the wad!

I've been playing using DSDA-Doom for quite a while, but given that this wad has specific support for GZDoom, I'm going to go back to that. Given that some of these levels are reportedly huge, I'm actually going to play this on my main gaming rig with an OLED TV. Hopefully top of the line hardware will keep the framerates up. I'm shooting for the best possible experience here.

I'll be using GZDoom 4.11.3, on UV, with saves and pistol starts. I played the previous wad but I'm going into this one totally blind. I haven't read the release thread or watched any videos on it or anything. I have the compatibility options set to MBF with No MBF21 disabled, but I suspect that all of the compatibility options are already forced to their correct values using ZMAPINFO.

CHAPTER I: WITHERED

MAP01 - “Elysium” by Tristan Clark

This level is quite creepy and atmospheric. I played the first Eviternity just about 18 months ago, so I still remember the levels this one is based off of. Seeing everything be dark and gloomy as opposed to radiant is a little depressing. This map does an excellent job of reminding you how the previous wad ended, and showing you the consequences of it. It's a great bit of environmental storytelling. I dare say it might have went on a little too long, but that was mostly because I had too many lights on in my room and couldn't really see much at first. I got lost since this map is very dark. I did go back with the lights out to experience it again. On an OLED in a dark room, with this excellent music, this level is absolutely haunting.

The torch race was really cool looking. That had to have been a lot of work to get all of the timings right. The astral cacodemon after that scared me a bit, since I wasn't expecting to fight something like that with so few resources. Luckily it went down easy thanks to the upgraded pistol. This pistol is way more useful than the standard issue one.

The use of poems as intermission is a nice touch that I haven't seen before. I usually don't pay much attention to the intermissions, but I think this time I will! The signatures on the automap is another cool little detail. It's like signing a painting.

What a great start to the wad!

MAP02 - “Vestige” by Bauul, Dragonfly

This map isn't particularly difficult. I remember the first Eviternity hitting pretty hard right off the bat, and honestly I'm kind of glad this is a little easier. The upgraded pistol along with the weaker lost souls make killing them pretty easy. This new pistol is pretty awesome, and I can see myself using it way more than I normally would. The only thing that even came close to substantially hurting me were the three mean green demons at the end.

I did beat this saveless without finding any secrets at first. Once everything was dead I went back to look for secrets. The berserk was easy enough to grab after thinking about it a moment. The soulsphere secret though was very cleverly hidden. I expected a shootable switch, but I wasn't sure if it would trigger a lift or open a teleporter. I looked everywhere, except I didn't look where it actually was. The immaculately curated automap definitely makes it way more difficult to find secrets like this, and ultimately I failed and had to open an editor. I definitely feel like I should have found it though, so I feel it's on me that I didn't.

This map is very good looking, so I really didn't mind the time I spent looking for how to grab that soulsphere. The music is pretty great as well. I had a pretty good time here. You can also see the next map from the exit, which is something I really like to see.

For some reason the central bridge/lift was completely silent. Is this a bug?

@dobu gabu maru I just noticed the chapter names in the OP are wrong past chapter 2. Looks like a copy and paste error. I noticed it when I copied them into my notes. :)

@Tristan I'm glad you stuck to your guns on MAP01. I think it worked out splendidly.

Also, I wish there were ogg recordings of these midis. Most ports support them now, and while I don't mind using fluidsynth, a real recording using whatever the author was using would sound even better.

Given that I just recently completed this a few days ago, I am not gonna play each map again just yet (though I might decide to replay some of them). But since I remember so much, I will still participate in writing about them. I played the wad on UV pistol start with saves.

MAP01: Elysium by Tristan Clark

A really nice intro map that shows that aftermath of our battle against Archangelus in the original Eviternity. This is a trip back to Map30, 29 and then 28 of Eviternity and even shares the same name as the first wad's Map29. Except, now everything is dead and the heaven environment is now withered and decayed. The only fight is against a lone enemy, a familiar Eviternity foe that somehow managed to survive up till now. Well not anymore :p

MAP02: Vestige by Bauul and Dragonfly

The first actual map of Eviternity 2. This map continues the decayed heaven theme from the first map. The combat is primarily focused on using pistol vs low tier enemies such as zombiemen, imps and lost souls (which have same half health as in Eviternity I). Though if you are observant, you can also find a secret berserk. We also get our hands on a shotgun and chaingun later on. The map concludes by (re)-introducing the nightmare demons at the exit. A fairly tame map, which is fitting of a Map01 or Map02 of a wad.

MAP03: Sonder by Dragonfly

Action ramps up in this map by introducing some of the Doom 2's higher tier enemies as well a new enemy, the Former Corporals. These are basically like the Former Captains of original Eviternity, except very toned down. They have same health as a shotgunner and fires a single fast projectile bolt, dealing low to moderate damage. 1 bolt doesn't do much, but multiple hits can add up to the chip damage. The good thing is that they drop 1 armor bonus when killed or 5 armor when gibbed. It's satisfying to hit a clump of these with the rocket launcher and then get a good deal of armor back. This map also brings back the Annihilator from the original Eviternity with some modification. Their chaingun attack is replaced by a burst of projectile bolts, making it convenient to fight them in the open.

In terms progression, this map somewhat feels like a toned down version of Map27 of Eviternity I. We need to do a series of small challenges around the map to open the path to the exit. There are also 4 secrets in the map, which contain switches that open the path to the secret exit teleport. Yes, for those who don't know, there are 6 secret maps in Eviternity 2 (due to the UMAPINFO feature allowing freedom from the usual Doom 2 level structure) and the first secret exit is in this map.

MAP31: Redshift by Afterglow, Dragonfly

Fitting for the secret map's title name, the map is shift from the decayed heaven theme to the red-orangey techbase theme, not too different from the likes of Quake 2. Even the textures are very similar looking to Quake 2 and you will even find areas with conveyor belts. The map itself is somewhat big and non-linear where we need to collect red and yellow keys to open the exit. Among the secret areas is an area blocked by lasers that can kill anything that try to cross it, showcased by the imps on the other side that try to cross it when they see you. This is an MBF21 feature that will play a more prominent role in a certain other map in this wad.

But none of the above things I mentioned are as important as the reward you get in this map...

The reward? Perforator!!! The new weapon in Eviternity 2 that replaces the chainsaw slot. This is a railgun-esque weapon that consumes 25 bullets with each shot. However, each shot does way more damage than what 25 bullets from pistol/chaingun would do to an enemy. For example, it takes about 100 bullets to kill a baron or 70 bullets to kill an archvile. But with Perforator, you can kill an archvile with 1 shot (25 bullets) or 1 to 2 shots for a baron (25-50 bullets) on top of being much faster as well. The map throws ton of meat at you, including many astral cacodemons, but a point and click is all it takes to kill those. Fun power fantasy map.

Alright, eviternity 2. I kind of hoped that the next DMWMC wouldn't be EV2 because I hadn't finished the first one and I assume this is a wad with many big maps but it's okay. If not for this DMWMC maybe I would put off playing this forever. Playing this one casually, saving as much as I want and not trying to get 100% every time, and I'll disable extended hud to get less spoilers on the map by the stats in bottom left corner of the screen.

Map 1: Asylum (Tristan Clark) ===
The first thing you see when you launch ev2 is the amazing art piece made for it. And also that it's widescreen instead of having black bars on the sides! The HUD is widescreen too and it looks really good, I wish more wad makers made widescreen assets for their wads built in. This little detail already seems like a reason to expect high polish.

Now the map: I assume it begins where eviternity 1 ended because the aesthetic had some similarity with the heaven themed screenshots I've seen and there's been some battle with all these demons lying around. It's a very atmospheric beginning, you almost don't fight any demons and instead just walk around and search how to progress. The midi is lovely too. It took longer for me to figure out how to progress than I expected but it's fine because it's not a combat map. The map shows amazing visuals. I don't keep up with modern doom mapping that much so I don't know what is usual but this is pretty impressive for me. This maps sets the standard for care and detailing so I probably won't comment about visuals in every single map to not be redundant.

The map introduces two things that I don't know if they were in ev1. A new monster that is introduced in a nice 1v1 where you can learn its attack patterns easily and flight. Flight is really cool, you step on a marked platform and fly to some set destination. I don't know how it's done, and it's impressive and looks very cool. I guess MBF21 is magic.

Map 2: Vestige (Bauul & Dragonfly) ===
Action begins here. The classic start of pistoling zombies and imps feels better with the improved pistol, the map can afford to keep you without weapons for longer because of it. I don't have much to say about the gameplay as in the encounters and setpieces but it's because the map aims to be a simple wadstarter. I noticed some very nice QOL dehacked changes though: lost souls have less health and always die on one shotgun shot, and either pinkies have less health or the shotgun's damage is more consistent but they always die in two shotgun shots. Feels pretty good!

I want to note how the progression in this map feels extremely polished. It's very hard to get lost in this map. The layout is clear, areas where you need to go are pretty easy to find and you always see what switches do when pressing them. I assume this is some modern mapping standard to confuse the player as rarely as possible. I feel neutral about this (because the idea of this perfected formula being repeated for a whole wad sounds a bit sad) but I'll need to see what's next to know. (This is probably just a small bias coming from I don't know where, not a criticism)

Map3: Sonder (Dragonfly) ===
These are just the first three maps and the wad slightly switched themes three times already. The first map was... some abandoned heaven castle? The second was... some heaven ruins? And this one is, like, heaven gardens? I don't pay attention to what these places are but the changes are very felt. It doesn't have to go away from heaven completely to be varied, these smaller changes already do wonders to variety while still being consistent.

Gameplay wise the map is now a bit more brutal than the last one. This map features a bunch of lock-in fights with more and more enemies being thrown into the arena in waves as time passes. I assume this is the style of combat that this wad is gonna have but it's too early to be 100% sure. I think it's pretty fun, there's obvious urgency to dealing with monsters because if you are slow you will be overwhelmed by new monsters that come in before you could even deal with the current ones. The way you initiate these fights is destroy some meat balls and then you get locked in. This is pretty neat, it's both a thematic tie between all the fights and a telegraph that lets you know that you should get ready.

Two new monsters (again, I haven't finished EV1. I've only seen the green pinkies there), each introduced in their own fights. The zombies in helmets that shoot projectile bullets instead of hitscan and a modified hell knight that first fires rockets and then a barrage of projectile bullets. The map uses the zombies as squishy turrets that keep pressure on the player without dealing unavoidable damage, and the cyber knight is just a (cool) bossfight here. I don't know what role exactly the zombies play in combat design and the cyberknights look cool but terrifying as a normal enemy. I'm very curious how the wad will use these guys in future maps.

Incidentally, I've seen a few people in this thread apprehensive about playing Eviternity 2 because of concerns over the maps being really long.

Be reassured, Dragonfly was very strict that the main campaign maps should not become overly long.

So if anyone was deciding against participating because of time concerns with giant maps, that's less of a factor with this megawad than some others.

I wasn't aware that each episode has a secret map and there's an entry into one on map03. I replayed map3 with -nomonsters, hunted for the secrets and must say that they are actually fun to look for in this wad. I only hope that it continues to show these secret map portals in plain sight so you always know if you need to search for secrets because I only want to play the secret maps.

Map31: Redshift (Afterglow & Dragonfly) ===
I played eviternity 1 up to map8 and that's the only reason I can tell why this map is a secret. This map's style closely emulates the second episode of eviternity 1, and I won't even be able to tell the difference between them. Basically ev1 reference secret.

This map introduces a massive gun: some kind of triple railgun. It shoots three times like SSG but with more bullets and all the bullets are clumped together into a very accurate shot. It consumes merely 25 bullets, obliterates barons of hell in one use and even kind of pierces enemies (like normal shotguns), the downside is only the very long reload after firing. The gun is super crunchy, its sound effect is very satisfying and the sprites are perfect. You get this gun pretty early into the map. After you do the map continues like normal and occasionally gives you great opportunities to try out this beast on hellknights, barons, revenants, cacodemons, archviles and the new cacodemons.

The map itself is very solid, but I found the progression a little confusing. I don't know if you can even do anything about it with a map with this complicated layout, maybe if the areas looked more different from each other. Not a massive deal, it's still easy enough to find the way if you get lost and wander around for a bit.

It might be a taller order to actually finish, but I can at least attempt to start with the club on this one, mostly to celebrate the zeitgeist with the community, I miss the club and I always read it even when I don't participate. I'll at least try to get through a couple of episodes before work crushes me, crossing fingers.

I'm late to the party so I'll try to not belabour points made before. I'll play on UV, pistol starts, saves, and I'm not gonna sweat 100% kills unless they're all out there in the open and I can find 'em, and secrets are cool if I get them organically. The playstyle when nobody's watching, right? Well, I'll make an exception and turn off my playlist and listen to the actual music of this megawad because it is very good, so not 100% cozy but more artistically valid an experience, makes the footage more legit as well as a point of reference. Debated continuous play because I suspect nobody's going to play continuous and it'd be nice to have that point of view as we go but I want to feel the pistol start intended flow for these.

Things to get out of the way: EviII is gorgeous, it's confident, it filled with stuff. I've sped through the first couple of eps on RC1 and I've watched vile play the whole thing on stream and even though the memories are already blurry, I did get the sense of all the above. So I won't be gushing on every map about how competently everything is made, how gorgeous it looks, all that. This doesn't mean I am not appreciative of all of it, it just means that in some ways EviII represents a boundary crossing for doom community content 30 yrs down the line so I won't be looking at it with the usual 'I am so glad you made a map and put it on the internet, friend' lens so much as I will as a confident piece of culture made by veterans, meant to communicate with and without the limits of this community. they don't need me to tell them their texture alignment looks awesome.

There's more to think about the 'boundary crossing' feeling, but it's hard to explain why I feel this way in short. Perhaps if I can stick with it I can put some more words to it. 

But not too many words, let's go

Map01 - Asylum - Tristan Clark

From the first couple of chords of this midi I make up my mind I'm not turning the music off for this set. I am not sure why people are calling this a cutscene level, or rather, I get it, I would just prefer we had a different perspective on this and accepted doom maps that aren't combat heavy as significant parts of the gameplay sometimes. I actually love the mood in this map and lingered further and poked around just to soak in the atmosphere although my stats (which I will in the future turn off) told me there isn't much to find. I recognise the place vaguely and get the storyline, but honestly I would 'get' the storyline just from the midi and the look of this place. Stunning, what a way to start a sequel! A powerful melody that sticks in the mind, and a resolutely nostalgic one at that is a difficult thing to do. Orchestration one can learn, what makes a good emotive melody is harder. It is a power move to start like this. I like the fly pads, I like the moods, I appreciate the low health astral caco to plink at. Super smooth, super polished, but not necessarily eager to make all concessions for the player's fun, atmosphere and vagueness trump streamlined play sometimes and I am glad EviII is making a statement of intent like this from the go. 

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Map02 - Vestige - Bauul & Dragonfly

intertext on map02 means we are umapinfo, if you know about doom stuff then you are already getting hints that this set will have all the latest bells and whistles. The copy is good, prose in doom is hard to do and take seriously but I respect anyone who tries, as I do not agree with the Carmack adage about story in a porno. Didn't then, certainly not 30 years later. Not sure about 'thou ascends' but anyway.

Even from the establishing shot you can learn so much about what to expect from the detail and architecture of this. Quite lovely muted palette actually, makes the gold trim pop. Love the sky, love the rain but I have to echo that sometimes it looks like slime trails, our brains are too used to notice slime trails. Could be solved with making the rain 2 pixels wide? but perhaps that would be obscurant to the gameplay and/or might not mitigate the slime trail impression after all. I won't repeat the stuff about good pistol, solid compact layout to use it on etc. Actually reminds me most of the Wolf3D pistol, just gorgeously repixelled and animated. Thank you for half-health souls as before. Music piece is cool and fits the action, didn't necessarily expect primarily major key, here but I will take any good composition that enhances the action. Further, is there some leitmotif going on, picking up from map01 midi? If so that's more of an expert touch to have themes show up between maps. If I'm not imagining this, extra props. Seeing secrets, not finding how to get to them. Such is life. Map has an interconnected vantages but bifurcated walkways kind of layout and it tells me that at least early on EviII will be about run and gun and good twitch and enjoyable setpieces, in a compact space. Let's see how long it keeps on with this early insinuation.

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Map03  - Sonder - Dragonfly

We are progressing through alterations of the theme as we go, which is really impressive if you think about it this is map03, heh. I found the layout a little more confusing than 02, honestly, but then again when I see open layout I immediately start running in whatever direction and waking up everything trying to find a gun, so it's more a product of my play style that I end up at places and then finally slow down and look around and realize I'm lost 20 seconds in the map. I did find fast shotgun and chaingun so the approach worked at least. The map turns out to be a big box so it's hard to get lost for too long. Midway through my stroll of the beautiful gardens I realize I am listening to yet another gorgeous midi. harp like glissandos with fake midi delays, *CLICK* nice. 

We are introduced to the beating hearts as a concept for lock-in arenas, which is cool. Any reason to explain why a hellworld has lock in traps besides 'you're playing doom' is above and beyond. I don't expect every lock in trap to be a heart, but I do understand what a heart will mean when I see one so I can at least strategize about when I want to get significantly locked in.

The caco and the added astral caco arena teaches us mobility, hit the switches, create an exit plan if you can, prioritize targets etc. I actually run out of the arena of the second lock in which I am sure the designer left in on purpose (since there's a reverse button to drop the wall to get back in the lock in, lol), but I appreciate being allowed to feel smart. The zombie trooper shooting really fast projectiles is a pain in the neck. The third lock in with the gradual release of the pinkies and the tealies that characterize eviternity is the coolest fight in the map because of its pacing, not dropping everything on you at once but complicating things with some sargeants as well. The ultimate challenge (where I suppose one could use that invuln if they can get it) is a sunken arena where we get a cybergoat punching some rockets at us in deep darkness, died a couple of times there, mostly because it's too dark for a swedish morning. Left the map with one dude still alive, but iddt x2 results in seeing all the mbf21 leaves in the map floating around so I didn't try to find the missing dude, it's okay. 

footage

I am quite enjoying myself so far (as I was when I tried the first episode on RC1), I do worry about this feeling of not fully grasping the environments because of secrets lost and hectic fights pushing my viewport around etc which means leaving maps with a slight sense of haunting regret, but that's a cool doom vibe as well because it leads to replays down the line.
 

MAP03 - Sonder - Dragonfly (100%K/I/S):

A really nice playground with different tasks to do to proceed, weirdly enough, you'll have to break those disgusting looking hearts that are scattered around the entire complex, so you can proceed to the end of the level. After breaking those hearts, you will, as expected, trigger some fights that are still, not hard enough, luckly. The attention to detail here is a lot, I don't know how it's done, but those falling leaves from the trees are beautiful, and gives a little bit of life to this dead-looking place. Love it.
What is a weird thing about this map, is that holds a secret level, clearly visible from regular playground, so you will need to trigger every single secret switch, carefully marked with a green torch, so you can access the exit portal. This is weird, as personally, I'm not used to having secret maps outside MAP15, seems that the norm will be that every single episode will have a secret map, and that's interesting. It gives a lot more of replay value to the wad.

MAP31 - Redshift - Derek "Afterglow" MacDonald & Dragonfly (100%K/I/S):

First secret map, first long map, and first map that I don't like that much. Feels like a BTSX I outtake because of its aesthetics, length and layout. The secret map welcomes us in an interesting way, as at the middle of it, it will present us a new, quite overpowered, hitscan weapon called The Perforator. It uses bullets in a really effective way, bursting most of it instantly, to deal TONS OF DAMAGE to enemies. And you get to test it damage by letting you one-shot barons of hell, and also lets you to mow down a pack of imps with it. Love it, it also consumes 25 ammo, so I think it is totally cost-effective. The level is, as I said previously, a BTSX I outtake. You will get lost a little bit, but your goal is easy, find both the yellow key and the red key, to escape and get back to the episode. The blue key is optional, but encouraged to get, as it is a secret that will also give you the BFG. Continuous players will be really happy at the end of this map. The feature I liked the most about this map, is the laser beam grid that instagibs everything that tries to pass through, said grid blocks the player the access to the blue key, that is granted via a secret. Really nice touch, I hope we can see those later in our gameplay (We will ;))

Order of preference:

 

Seems like it will get quite frequent to see secret maps outside MAP15 for most mapsets after this one, that's bad for the club enthusiasts with short time spans to play Doom.