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  • Bloodshedder
    2048 UNLEASHED (Pcorf community project 2) - Various
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 6.06 MB -
    Reviewed by: vtm
    2048 UNLEASHED (Pcorf community project 2) is a Doom 2 megawad with 49 new levels divided into episodes, the first one with 32 maps and the second one with 17 levels. This wad has 49 2048X2048 Boom compatible levels, so you must use PrBoom or ZDoom to play it.

    It takes advantage of Boom features in the maps, which are somewhat short. The maps are all well detailed and have a nice combination of textures; most of the maps are very nice looking, especially map 29. These maps are all somewhat hard, especially the later maps (map 24 Deaf Kamikaze for example, it took me by surprise the second cyberdemon twice). They are not high on ammo; usually there's plenty, giving you the chance to use any weapon you want. There is enough life to complete the levels; I didn't find myself dying too often, but I did get low on health several times in the same level.

    It includes new sounds for the final boss and has new music; some of it fits very well the maps. There are also new textures (some from Heretic and Hexen and some used by several others' megawads and maps).

    So, play it; it's very fun, and I really liked the majority of the maps. Some of them felt kind of boring for me in some sections, but overall they are very good. You won't regret it.

    Mano Laikas: A road to Gamzatti - Nicolas Monti
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 3.53 MB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Nicolas Monti is a quite well known author. In August of last year he released Erkattäññe, which won a Cacoward, but he wasn't done yet. A few months later, on the forums Mano Laikas made its debut, a full megawad for Doom 2, which it seems can be considered a continuation of Erkattäññe, to a certain extent. Many traits that are typical of this author are present here, like the distinct old-school/retro vibe, the not-so-great care for texture alignment, and the usage of a soundtrack that the majority of players will probably judge as weird or just plain unfitting in this modern era. So if you are already familiar with Monti's other works you may know what to expect, but in all the cases this is a wad that you will either love or hate. It may seem a shallow thing to reduce the judgment of a full megawad to a such short sentence, but both the things that are at the core of the wad and the various branches that they take to make things different lead to having that view of this project.

    Monti did a lot with little, and with this little he made 32 maps. There aren't actual differences between the episodes, and the maps don't follow very strict themes. Throughout the wad Monti likes to play with variations of the same stuff. Influences from E1/E2. The scale that goes from very big, high, and imposing to more comfy, flat, and almost cramped. The mood of the darker and brighter parts. Sometimes there will be lots of damaging floors to cover or some dynamic architecture. The leading thread stands in the high free form geometry and an abstract style that sometimes has flavors of a weird realism. Same goes for the gameplay, which puts lots of emphasis on using the Rocket Launcher. In particular, Arachnotrons and Mancubuses made lots of appearances in the encounters, and Arch-viles too, and they actually border on being overused.

    A shout-out must go to MAP31 which genuinely feels like it belongs on some '95 shovelware disk. While others may argue (or maybe it was the intention of the author himself and so this is the worst /newstuff Chronicles review ever made??!!) that all the wad was intended to be like that, but it has a some kind of coherence that leaves this MAP31 to be one of the most fitting MAP31s you can find in a wad.

    It's a wad that is worth playing, and it has plenty of cool and inspired stuff to check out. If after playing some maps you are struggling to find reasons to continue to play this wad, it probably isn't for you. If you are waiting for some drastic changes that will refresh your interest in playing this wad, you'd just better drop it, even for a while. On the other hand if you are keeping to enjoy this, prepare to live a fantastic adventure with what Mano Laikas has to offer you.

    DMPSMU: DooM PostScript Maps Utility v3.0 - Frans P. de Vries
    N/A - N/A - Vanilla - 180.94 KB -
    Reviewed by: yukib1t
    DMPSMU is a utility to create PostScript files of Doom maps. PostScript, for those who don't know, is a programming language that is basically the precursor to PDF. The ZIP file contains both binaries, some batch script, and the complete source. I compiled it from source and ran it on Linux for this review.

    DMPSMU can create overhead views of a Doom map, and has options for controlling what gets printed. There are options for various categories of map things, whether secret area are shaded differently, whether teleporter links are shown, and more. There are also options to print a nice border around the entire page, show a legend, and place some title text at the top of the page. There are a few options to control the overall layout and page size as well: A4, A3, tabloid, or letter sizes; landscape or portrait; and one, two, or four pages. Unfortunately, the output is entirely in grayscale. Having options to color in things or certain sector types would be of a huge benefit, and is a feature that is sorely lacking.

    I was not able to print out any maps directly on paper because my printer is currently on the fritz. But, I was able to view them in a few different programs. GhostView worked best for viewing the resulting files, while other programs seemed to cut off the top part of the page where the title and legend are printed. Using a converter (ps2pdf) also exhibited this issue. Whether this is an issue with the viewing programs or the PostScript code getting generated by DMPSMU is beyond me.

    Moving on, there are actually two separate programs included. In my opinion, this was the wrong thing to do. There is no reason they can't be one program, nor is there an advantage. The README file acknowledges this, however. Anyway, the first program, named dmpsmu, uses a text-based interface derived from DEU to give the program commands. There are a few useful perks to using this one, such as being able to print out (to the console, not to a PostScript file) a table of stats for the selected level, listing the directory of a WAD, dumping an entry to hex, and saving entries to raw files. Unfortunately, dmpsmu repeatedly crashed on me any time I tried to save a PostScript file. This was disappointing since this is the main purpose of the program. Additionally, the interface feels very outdated by modern standards, and I would have liked to see an ncurses-based interface instead.

    The other program, dmpsmap, foregoes the text-based interface for a command line interface. Unlike, dmpsmu, this one worked flawlessly. Additionally, dmpsmap tends to be much easier to use since the command line can be edited more easily. It also lends itself well to scripting, which is a major plus. One downside is that the command line arguments roughly need to be in a certain order, which isn't immediately apparent. Also, it lacks some of the other features of dmpsmu. Still, this seems to be the best way to go.

    One last thing: this only works for Doom-format WAD files. The Hexen IWAD didn't work, nor did a UDMF map. This is a very big limitation, and while the README acknowledges this, there doesn't seem to be any plans to support other WAD formats.

    Overall, DMPSMU can be pretty fun to play with, but feels unfinished and old. The bug in dmpsmu that prevented me from writing a PostScript file makes it nearly useless. Also, a newer ncurses interface for the dmpsmu program would go a long way in usability. So play with it if you want, but expect a few hiccups.

    Offhand note: why doesn't the Makefile remove the executables when doing a "clean"? :^(

    Baal Hadad - Gran-D-Knight
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 79.5 KB
    Reviewed by: Voros
    Baal Hadad is a Doom 2 map replacement WAD, taking the slots of MAP01 to MAP04.

    This title is strange. But the description looks promising.

    The design of all the maps are simplistic, but not bad. The detailing is pretty good, there is this sense of realism in these maps. One thing I didn't enjoy is that the challenge was not hard, but easy actually.

    The thing placement is well placed, but then again, it is still too undemanding on the player. You'll find enough cover to hide from the demons and ammo to kill them all. Just hide, shoot and move on.

    Overall, the mapset is a missed opportunity. Some more time with the editing of these maps could have made them something a bit more memorable.

    DMTXLS: DooM TeXtures LiSter v2.0 - Frans P. de Vries
    N/A - N/A - Vanilla - 65.93 KB -
    Reviewed by: yukib1t
    DMTXLS is a command line tool used to generate a list of the textures and flats used in a Doom WAD. The ZIP file contains both binaries, some batch script, and the complete source. I compiled it from source and ran it on Linux.

    There isn't much to this program: it lists texture usage stats. You give it an IWAD, an optional PWAD, a map number, and the name of the text file to save everything. There are also a few options to control what gets printed to the file, and to define what name gets printed at the top. There is no option to print to standard out.

    The output is clean and can be pretty useful for authors who want to really optimize their maps for size. The default is to list the name of the texture or flat used, and how many times it's used. It also gives the total number of textures/flats used, but this doesn't seem like it would be too useful. A somewhat more useful number would be the total number of unique textures used, or even better, both of these numbers.

    DMTXLS, like the author's other package, DMPSMU, only works on vanilla Doom WAD files. So no Hexen formatted WADs or UDMF. This is a major limitation.

    Overall, it's kinda useful, but seems like it needs to be fleshed out in terms of output features, or even like it should be merged with DMPSMU. Having it print to standard out would also be nice.

    Tyson's Delight - Walter "Daimon" Confalonieri
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Limit Removing - 175.84 KB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    Tyson's Delight contains not one but two Tyson-oriented maps by Walter Confalonieri, who has a solid reputation these days as a prolific creator of simple but well-designed levels. The two maps were made separately during different years, and each one approaches the Tyson theme in a very different way.

    "F****** Metal" (map 01) is a true Tyson map in that it never gives you any guns but the pistol, and it falls more into the "Tricks n Traps" school of mapmaking rather than being very action-oriented. You actually have to hunt around to find the Berserk Pack, and if you try to run through the map without looking carefully for it, you'll soon realize the hard way that you missed something. There's also a secret chainsaw if you prefer to use that, although once you have the Berserk pack there's not much need for it. Once you have your choice of melee weapon, the level is pretty easy, with most of the enemies being Lost Souls, Demons, and other weak monsters.

    "Techubus" gives you the Berserk pack right at the start, but the combat is much tougher. There are over 120 monsters on UV, including a Cyberdemon, an Arch-Vile, and the Mancubus that greets you as soon as you open the first door. The Manc ends up being pretty easy, since it can't leave its alcove and you can just pop out from around the corner to attack it -- I can't help but feel like it would have been more interesting to position it at the opposite end of the large main courtyard to put heavy fire on the player as they try to eliminate the weaker enemies and gain a foothold; if it had been more of a challenge and I'd had to work to reach it, it would have been much more satisfying to kill. All the same, the rest of the map certainly gave me plenty of threats to worry about. In addition to the Berserk, you can get the shotgun and chaingun (from zombies), as well as two rocket launchers. Ammo is moderately plentiful, but you'll definitely want to focus on melee whenever possible and use the guns for things like ledge snipers, chaingunners, and the Cyber and AV. Fortunately, you also get plenty of opportunities to get the Cyber infighting with other enemies while you work to clear the rest of the level and find the exit, but if you want to get 100% kills, you're in for a fairly nasty fight after it's the last enemy standing.

    It's cool to see such totally different Tyson maps paired together for contrast, and both are well made and fun. This is definitely a worthy addition to your wad collection if you're either a Tyson specialist or a fan of "good ol' Walter Confetti."

    Retribution: Part I - Fenes Octavian - Romulus (DooM_RO)
    Ultimate Doom - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 14.17 MB -
    Reviewed by: 3_nights
    Retribution: Part 1 is the debut wad of Fenes Octavian, and damned if it's not a huge one. When the player is first given a look at the souped-up techbase, they will not see much detail in the courtyard area. But inside the twisting, multicolored, dark corridors lay the author's meticulous attention to detail. Every beat in the level is orchestrated by Octavian, it seems, down to the quiet beginning and sparse monster encounters that crescendo into a brutal slaughterhouse packed with Sergeants and Imps. Ammo is tight, and Octavian pulls no punches when they introduce the next wave of enemies. The atmospheric beginning lulls the player into a sense of security, in a way, before the experience really kicks up.

    There are some visual bugs, as to be expected of a wad of this insane scope and size. The visuals themselves are impressive, with Octavian making good use of Boom's lighting effects as well as the classic Doom textures. There is much backtracking, thanks to the non - linear environment, but the level is cleverly laid out to minimize "Damn, where's that blue door?" wandering.

    Sometimes, however, Octavian lays it on a little too rough. The Hurt Me Plenty difficulty will kick your ass the first time around, and the atmospheric beginning is cool the first time, but not when you have to walk through it again - so save often! Particularly frustrating was an encounter in a cargo area, which includes a nasty (maybe a bit unfair) ambush.

    If you're looking for something a bit different and have your heart set on a longer level, give Retribution: Part 1 a go. Octavian's dedication and patience (seriously, it is a humongous wad!) are sure to not be in vain.

    Chaos - Adam Goldman
    Doom 2 - Deathmatch - Vanilla - 8.11 KB -
    Reviewed by: walter confalonieri
    Ok, now for starters: the author says this map is intended for Single Play, while in the description he just wrote: "Multiplayer fun" (that was kinda assured, mind you, but I will get to this point later), so I expected some little slaughter / hard map (due to the short file size of the zip), but instead what did I get?

    "Chaos" is a big deathmatch arena made by Adam Goldman, author of two other maps that I don't think I have played or downloaded yet, but this is because they weren't even uploaded to /idgames... so Adam, you lied to us saying that your level is intended for single play! How do you feel about that? That doesn't matter to you? I hope that the "multiplayer fun" will not be another lie...

    Layout of this map is pretty symmetric; there are four starting rooms, four pits with teleports that lead to the catwalk part of the level, and a larger teleport that leads to one of the upper 64x64 pillars, with a medieval theme and some misaligned textures.

    Gameplay in single player is pretty pointless since there's nothing other than you, but it is in the multiplayer department that the magic of spam begins!

    In multiplayer there's all the items, including shotgun at the spawning points, plasma guns, and four megaspheres as your health at the larger teleport pod at the center of the arena, and your gift for reaching the above mentioned pillars are BFGs, where you blast out lots of people (or bots, in my case) for a real spamfest, until you run out of ammo, and this is the major problem here: there wasn't a huge amount of ammo here. Maybe putting a shell box or a cell pack in the pits or somewhere else will make this more fun to play with a few players, but this map is intended to be played with lots of them (I played with 14 bots and 15 fraglimit at first, then 22 bots and 30 fraglimit for the second bot session, that was more fun), so download and play this level only if you want to start a LAN party of sorts, otherwise forget about it. Just your typical 1994 / DWANGO arena that has been seen from the days Doom came out... nothing special. But it is fun indeed.

    UAC computer centre. - John Cartwright
    Ultimate Doom - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 256.21 KB -
    Reviewed by: Voros
    Base-Tech is a Doom map made for E4M1, but filled with E1 references.

    The map is not bad at all. Detailing is all right (it is filled with E1 references, what'd you expect?), the geometry is basically spacious and abstract, usually with larger versions of parts from E1 (the computer maze in E1M4 is a good example), the demon placement is nicely done, the item placement needs some more thought. Overall, it was fun.

    The detailing, as I said, is all right. STARTANs, computer panels, and whatever else signifies E1. It was all inspired from E1 to make this map. Everything is so simplistic here, you'd think you were in the 90s era of map making. That doesn't mean it is ugly. It is just plain fun.

    The geometry is very spacious most of the time, and the E1 references tend to be larger versions of their originals. Take the classic zig-zag bridge from E1M1. It is huge here! And the computer maze from E1M4 is extremely big in terms of length. There's a lot of backtracking in this map, and they are usually not so obvious (say I press a switch here and a door opens ALL THE WAY down there). But for some reason, I kept getting confused during my play where I have to go, how I get there, why I came here, how did I get here, etc. I don't know why I felt so disoriented while playing this. Maybe it's the large, open areas with barely distinct texturing, but that's just me.

    The demon placement was unexpected. I expected the author to put hordes of demons in the player's vicinity, but no. Most of the time, there are small groups of minor demons inside the facility, with major hordes of demons outside. Easy pickings against the ones outside and inside too... except for the Cyberdemon.

    The item placement is enough for at least finishing the map, but 100% kills? Not really. The ammo and weapon placements should have been increased a bit to at least gain a high percentage of kills. The med kits are just right throughout the map. I found myself making it out with enough health, and I'm sure others will too.

    I like this map for having this basic detailing on a large scale. It's like the whole E1 episode remade in one map. Well done, John Cartwright, well done. Be sure to check this out!

    The /newstuff Chronicles is a usually-weekly roundup of new items uploaded to the /idgames archive, and it is written entirely by community members like you. If you wish to contribute, the /newstuff Review Center is the place to do so. Register on the Doomworld Forums first if you don't already have an account, because you need one to submit reviews. Special thanks goes to the nearly 300 users who have submitted reviews over the past several years.

    Liberation

    THT: Threnody released

    By Liberation, in News,

    THT: Threnody, a 20 level action-packed megawad including new music and skies made by the Doom community to pay tribute to the late Ty Halderman, has been completed and uploaded to /idgames. Check out its page here.

    Tormentor667

    WolfenDoom: Web of Agony

    By Tormentor667, in News,

    After a development time of over 1.5 years, Realm667 has unleashed detailed information about their latest project: Blade of Agony. They've put together an interesting read and a lot of valuable information about the plot, characters, villains, and features that are awaiting in the upcoming release. Blade of Agony is a story-driven FPS. The project is inspired by WWII shooters from the 90's and early 2000's, like Wolfenstein 3D, Medal of Honor, and Call of Duty, but with faster-paced gameplay in the spirit of Doom. The game can be played standalone using the GZDoom engine as a base. Take time to visit the official webpage, spread the word, and share your thoughts - the team is looking forward to your feedback.

    Bloodshedder
    Freudian Slipgate - Alter, Obsidian, Pinchy, General Rainbow Bacon, TheMisterCat, Marnetmar
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 9.47 MB -
    Reviewed by: Voros
    Freudian Slipgate, 22 levels of "Bull#$@$" for Doom 2.

    Title sounds interesting. The description: "You are playing Quake, you walk into the Slipgate only to find out it's Freudian, suddenly, you are in Doom.. #doomtwid realm, you have angered the #doomtwid gods and they throw you into the random maps for invading their privileges on internet." Not so much. I hope this wasn't a mistake.

    "Are you agitated enough to survive the Bull#$@$ maps?". Of course not.

    I must say, the maps are pretty good, but the whole WAD feels somewhat strange. That's what I get for reviewing a WAD with a description like that. Let's get to it.

    The map detailing is very pleasing look at. It's realistic design makes the player believe that he/she is in an actual place. It's very immersive. There's even a "TV" with a GTA IV cover showing on the screen!

    The geometry of the maps are pretty abstract really. And they all feel very spacious most of the time. The architecture usually resembles some kind of environment, like a library, a dead city, a dockyard and so on. These maps have a lot of backtracking involved and are very non-linear, so you'll probably get stuck in some areas. No biggie. Freudian Slipgate rocked with the urban levels, let me tell you that.

    The demons. Are they well placed? Yep. Although maybe cruelly at first, but once you get the big guns, they won't be too much trouble later on. Hordes, groups, duos etc. But some are really just a pain in the ass, like two Arch-Viles teleporting into a room full of dead demon bodies! With a Cyberdemon in the package. I recommend you have a Plasma Rifle with you at all times. And the final level, with its boss. Heh, it wasn't even big, or intimidating to me. More like a miniature Chinese dragon. But beware, it is fucking powerful... and it's got a bunch of towers filled with Revenants to help it kick your ass. The Big Fucking Gun is recommended.

    The item placements are enough. A Medkit here and there, some powerups too, no problem. But to me, I feel that there is a slight lack in ammo. I had to fight almost every demon with my fists at least once throughout the WAD.

    The music is dull. While the maps are fast paced, the music is slow. Is it atmospheric? Yes it is, but it just doesn't go so well with these action-packed levels. It's not very fun to listen to while mass murdering demons.

    The title picture is strange really, as you can see in screenshot X. The intermission screen is just as weird. From what I can tell, you're supposed to be looking at a cat's skeleton with X-ray vision? And a phrase is written: "Time spent with cats is never wasted". Yeah, I don't know what the authors are trying to achieve with that sentence, but I just came here to slay demons.

    Now some first impressions on some of the beginning maps!

    MAP01- I have nothing to say here. You've got to see it to believe.

    MAP02- Looks like some kind of UAC outpost. Oh dear, so much space and it is filled with demons.

    MAP03- Seems like a regular techbase from the '90s. It's a bit more claustrophobic than the previous map.

    MAP04- I'm on a bench. There is some garden of dead trees and bushes going along the stone walls. A big, flat building can be seen. Seems like a UAC facility for cargo handling.

    Freudian Slipgate isn't "Bull#$@$" at all. It's challenging, it's beautiful, it's fun. Be sure to have a go with this!

    MildDM - Born to be Mild
    Doom 2 - Deathmatch - ZDoom Compatible - 10 KB -
    Reviewed by: Voros
    MildDM is a Deathmatch map for Doom 2's MAP01.

    The geometry is basically a square room with mostly square-shaped sectors. Thankfully, there's enough space here for you to move around.

    The detailing is OK to me. STARTAN walls and a blood fountain, pretty strange combination. And it is not very mind blowing either.

    The weapon placement is perfect. Since the map isn't huge, you don't really require a large amount of ammo or even med kits. Kill or be killed.

    One thing I liked are the teleporters in the map. They decrease the chances of you getting cornered and increase the chances of survival. Adds a whole new twist to this simple arena.

    Simply, it is "mild", and is pretty fun to play deathmatch with your friends. Feel free do so!

    Toxic line - Vincenzo VTM
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 168.59 KB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Toxic Line is single map for Doom 2 with the good old setting of a nukage treatment facility. The mood of the map was really well done with a focus on the exploration of the place. The gameplay was rather good overall, but the map was too flat many times. On the visuals, the map feels a bit neglected; it's enough to look good, but even a few more details here and there would have been a good thing. It has its up and downs, but it's a quite good map overall.

    Confinement 256? - Xyzzy01
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 7.16 KB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Confinement 256 is a single map that mocks Congestion 1024 and 64. And that it is; you are sitting in a 256x256 room with a few monsters in the playable area and a few outside of it. The thing could have worked if the wad had more maps and if the author came up with some ideas, but as a standalone level this is really worthless.

    Phobos Mission Control - John Romero
    Ultimate Doom - Single Player - Limit Removing - 91.28 KB -
    Reviewed by: Jaws In Space
    With the Toxin Refinery in the rear-view, you make your way to Phobos Mission Control where the computers crunching the data from the Phobos Anomaly are located. You need to use them to gain access to the Phobos Lab, but remember hearing that the computers were tied into all areas of the installation and that you never knew when the environment around you would change. You need to keep your eyes alert to all movement - this place is not what it seems...

    Very few game developers are as involved with their fan community as much as the people of id Software. Romero is always leading the way with giving out goodies and information about Doom and its development. In 2015 he released a treasure trove of old pre-release material, much to the excitement of the Doom community. There was always one thing from Romero that we truly wanted, but it was one thing that Romero was very reluctant to ever give us, a new map. The release of Tech Gone Bad in 2016 was a real shock to many people, and it made quite a few headline in major gaming articles; John Romero had finally sat down and made a brand new map after having not done so since the 1996 game Quake. It turns out that Romero still had it; the level was very positively received, and it showed that his mapping style had evolved since the release of Doom, yet he was still able to create a level that would go quite nicely with the other eight maps of E1. Along with the release of Tech Gone Bad, he announced that he would start development on a new FPS game, so again we were kinda surprised by the release of Phobos Mission Control just a few months later.

    Phobos Mission Control plays in the E1M4 slot. The text file states that Romero made this level because E1M4 Command Control was a collaboration between Tom Hall and himself, and he wanted to give Doomers access to a pure Romero E1 for those who wanted that. Phobos Mission Control is a completely original map and doesn't take any inspiration from Command Control. Like Tech Gone Bad, Phobos Mission Control is a limit removing map, so you need to get yourself a source port to be able to play it, but the map only uses stock music and textures, so it still feels like it fits right in with the rest of E1.

    The map starts you off in a fairly open area in the center of the map. You quickly grab the Chaingun, which causes some hitscanners to drop in on a lift. There are many moving parts to this map: lift sections of the map often drop down, which in turn opens up the map more and subjects the player to enemy fire from multiple angles at once. The use of monsters at varying heights is very well done, where monsters will never just be on the same level as you are; there's always something above and below you giving the player lots of trouble. The overall difficulty of this map isn't too tough; death by shotgun guy is the most likely scenario, or if you're not watching your step, you might fall into one of the many inescapable nukage pits that litter the map.

    Romero uses a number system to help guide the player throughout the map. You will find the numbers 1 through 4 in two spots on the map; one of the numbers marks a switch, and the other number marks the door or lift that it activates. One of the best parts of this map is the computer maze. Unlike the computer maze that appeared in E1M2, this maze uses all sorts of lifts, windows, and platforms of varying heights to make for a much more engaging experience. One thing I really like about this computer section is that there is a raised platform that you must traverse. I fell off it and thought I would have to run back a ways to get back onto it, but it turns out that Romero placed raising stairs every so often, so I was quickly able to get back onto the the platform and back into the action. It's the little stuff in the map like those stairs which shows that Romero knows that it's really important to keep the action moving to keep the player engaged in the map.

    Overall I didn't like this level as much as Tech Gone Bad, but I do think that this map is better than E1M4, so I'm happy that it was made. If this map is a sign of what Romero has in store for us in his upcoming game Project Blackroom, then I do think that we are in for quite a treat. I suspect that this will be the last Doom map that we will see from Romero for quite a long time and we may never see another new one again, but I'm glad that Tech Gone Bad and Phobos Mission Control exist. It shows how much Romero cares for Doom and all the fans that still play it today. Now all we need is for some of the other classic id team to make a few maps for us :)

    Cute Demon Butt Collection - Zalewa
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 254 KB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Quoting from the credits: "Aleks, who liked the posterior of the Cyberdemon which inspired me to make this WAD.", so we must say also thanks to him for making this possible. After we exit from the starting tunnel there's the b-side of an imp that gives us a warm welcome; on the left awaits us the first fight of the map with a bullshit horde of enemies. Everything has a quite strong 94' vibe, and if you are still there, good for you. That sets the mood for what you will find in all the rest of the map, which offers us erratic shapes and weird texturing in an appealing way topped with fun gameplay with many nasty surprises. Maybe the initial impression and the joking nature of the map will turn you off, but if you want to endure all of this, you will be pleasantly surprised.

    Doom: Earrape Edition - TheSoldiersShadow
    Doom/Doom 2 - N/A - ZDoom - 481.54 KB
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    Doom: Earrape Edition is a mod that converts all of the sound files in Doom 1 and 2 by amplifying the volume and making them more distorted. It seems like the author's goal was to just be kind of an asshole and make Doom unplayable; they mention "pranking" people in the text file. In fact, just reading the text file is enough to piss you off as you realize just how pointless and unpleasant D:EE is going to be.

    The thing is, the mod isn't even very successful. The sounds are louder and more distorted, sure, but not to the point of being painful. Even the plasma rifle, which is half the reason I normally play with the SFX turned off, isn't that much worse than normal. I suppose it was fortunate for me that D:EE only affects the sounds and not the music, but either way, it isn't worth a download.

    You also have to love how the author claims this is vanilla-compatible but it comes as a PK3.

    Regardless of whether this wad even does what it tries to do, I think one of the reviewers (Ijon Tichy) on /idgames said it best: "I feel like somewhere along the line someone forgot what the word 'joke' means in 'jokewad.'"

    Somewhere in Time - Zoltan Schmidt "Katamori"
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Chocolate Doom - 964.05 KB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    Somewhere in Time is a set of 15 short-but-sweet mostly-vanilla maps. Katamori cites Scythe, TVR!, and Reverie as his main inspirations, and although the mapset lacks the silky smooth, can't-even-stop-moving-if-you-try flow of Erik Alm's levels, comparisons to van der Velden's and Krizik's work seem very appropriate. Many levels reminded me of the laid-back gameplay and almost cartoony faux-realism of TVR!, while others, with their increased intensity and slightly more understated detailing, felt a lot more like Reverie. There's only one level in the set that has over 100 monsters on UV, and the majority of them top out between 30 and 60. The soundtrack mostly comes from Iron Maiden, Metallica, and other metal bands, which I might find annoying if the levels were longer, but the galloppy, driving midis work well for the short, fast-paced levels.

    In recent years, most of the community's star mappers have been known for making very difficult levels, and as a result, the whole idea of good level design tends to be associated with pushing players to the limits of their skills. To me, Somewhere in Time represents the other side of the coin. Most of these levels are pretty easy -- and certainly none of them get near the kind of ovary-busting difficulty you find in Sunlust or Ancient Aliens -- but I was continually struck by Katamori's attention to detail. At the end of map 03, you get thrown into a fight with a pair of Mancubuses, and even though it's not a very difficult fight at all, Katamori sets it up to feel like a boss fight, just because he can. The setup is sort of dramatic, they're the toughest enemies you've fought so far, and there are crates to hide behind everywhere, even though you probably don't need them. It's cheesy, but it's also really fun. The whole mapset is full of those sorts of details; it's like Katamori put the same kind of extra care into it that a designer would put into a whole new game where the players are supposed to be complete newbies and the level design has to help prod them into learning how to play and how to think about the game world.

    The difficulty progression is a bit odd, with many of the easiest levels located toward the end of the set -- it looks like many of the later levels were made first but were placed at the end due to having a more hellish theme. The middle levels tend to be the most challenging, and there are definitely a few nerve-wracking situations. The end of map 06 takes place in a cool tech-void setting that combines a lot of open space with a lack of interconnectedness in the platforms to put pressure on you each time new enemies appear (especially when Arch-Viles show up). The Arachnotron section of map 07 has the spiders firing at you from distant platforms, forcing you to put some effort into killing each one of them while simultaneously avoiding the plasma fire from every other direction and a sizable horde of Lost Souls. The last level is an Icon of Sin battle, but rather than trying to destroy the brain, you have to figure out how to open up the exit before you get overwhelmed by the enemies filling up the level's small main courtyard.

    Somewhere in Time really shows what it means for a mapset to be well made without being very difficult. It reminds me of why TVR! has been one of my favorite megawads for years, and I would highly recommend these levels to anyone who isn't afraid to not be hardcore every now and then.

    Doom 3 Player Sounds - Mr. Chris
    Doom/Doom 2 - N/A - ZDoom Compatible - 548.06 KB
    Reviewed by: Voros
    This mod replaces Doomguy's sounds with Doom 3's player sounds.

    That's basically it. But it's not crappy. Feel free to check it out.

    Rumble in the Office - Carlos Lastra
    Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 133.85 KB -
    Reviewed by: Chezza
    This single map is essentially a replacement for E1M1. I will immediately suggest this for anyone who has just finished work and just wants a nice brief session of Doom. There is nothing in this wad that can offend anyone, and it's even difficult to nitpick.

    It is definitely inspired by the classic Dooms. The traps, secrets, lighting, monster placement, and difficulty match up quite well. The aesthetics and detail also gets a thumbs up from me. The size is what I will call medium; it doesn't overstay its welcome, nor does it end too suddenly.

    I only played on Hurt Me Plenty and encountered a very manageable number of Zombiemen, several Cacodemons, and a few surprisingly-well-placed Barons. The map seems to be well thought out; I never felt cheated or overstocked with supplies. The quality as a whole is quite high, and despite being just one of many E1M1 replacements mostly filled of zombiemen, it was actually refreshing to play.

    Kudos to the author.

    Operation UAC - Chapter 1 - Chezza
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Zandronum - 60.79 MB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Operation UAC - Chapter 1 is a wad specifically designed to be played with Brutal Doom (v20b) and it can be played only on Zandronum, as the other ports may not have the correct behaviour with some triggers and scripts. This will eventually be a megawad, maybe? But for now we will review the first nine maps, as the others are allegedly in development. Contrary to many maps that get released with a wording of "made with Brutal Doom in mind" or "must play with Brutal Doom!!" which gives more the feeling of "I just auto-load everything with that mod", this wad seems to actually want to use the mod as a stable foundation to start.

    Enough with the presentation, let's talk about the substance. Nine level which are all short, but they provide a nice sense of the journey we are going into. In addition, there are also some custom monsters used and two boss battles. The wad was played on what is the equivalent of UV and on classic mode. Overall it wasn't really difficult; cool moments of combat are there, but the ammo and health seemed rather absent many times, and it contributed to the challenge more than the monster usage or the battlefields themselves. A big problem with the maps is that unfortunately they don't go much beyond a room-corridor-room... stage, and thus combat rarely has interesting scenarios. The custom monsters were a nice thing and don't go out of their scope (the robots are inside the tech facilities, the sewer areas have their own "fauna"), but for a bit it felt like a "monster salad" where the author just wanted to slap many of them together for the sake of using them, and this is amplified by the low count of the maps. The bosses were all right, though the first one was more interesting to fight.

    Since this is still concerning the monsters, I want to spend some words about the cutscenes. There will be few of them in all the maps, but don't worry, you don't have to read to some stupid plot for minutes, it's just few seconds where the monsters do something and stuff happens. Some were quite cute, but others felt out of place (the imp-throwing revenants) or like the baron on MAP02. It was a bit ridiculous how preparing to fight a baron with an SSG was hyped. Most of my reactions to these was just: why??!!

    But how are the levels? Well they look quite nice and detailed, but they have some big problems. As said before, the maps won't go any more complex than room after room with corridors, which was a shame. At the start the levels seem quite promising; they manage to capture the atmosphere of the place you are going to visit; shame that in the end you get few elaborated rooms that, yes, they are well detailed, but they feel to be disconnected pieces. The other lacking thing was the lighting, and this one was really bad. The variations were almost absent, and everything looked pale and more bland than what it was. Also every room in the tech areas has tons of light sources, which can also be logical, and I don't know if the author wanted to create this kind of look of places lit like it's day-time, but the visual impression is very bad.

    Overall there seems to be a lot of effort put into this, and there are quite some interesting ideas. I wouldn't call it exactly a mixed bag; most of the stuff seem promising or interesting at first, though how the things were developed was rather underwhelming. Brutal Doom fans should definitely check this out if they haven't yet; even if you don't touch gameplay mods, it's a nice chance to try something different. Worth a play for sure, but really far from being something outstanding.

    The /newstuff Chronicles is a usually-weekly roundup of new items uploaded to the /idgames archive, and it is written entirely by community members like you. If you wish to contribute, the /newstuff Review Center is the place to do so. Register on the Doomworld Forums first if you don't already have an account, because you need one to submit reviews. Special thanks goes to the nearly 300 users who have submitted reviews over the past several years.

    Doomkid
    ZDaemon Thursday Night Survival #259 - Doomworld Mega Project 2015 (Part I)
    Date: 28th July 2016 19:00 BST/14:00 EDT
    Location: [L@P], Germany (usually lasts over 6 hours)

    ZDS #465 - Double-Domination Mappack
    Date: Saturday 30th July 2016
    Euro: 19:30 BST / 14:30 EDT
    USA: 01:00 BST / 20:00 EDT Zandronum FNF hasn't been announced yet for this week, but keep an eye on the multiplayer forum for any updates. Have fun!

    Doomkid
    ZDaemon Thursday Night Survival #258 - THT: Threnody
    Date: 21st July 2016 19:00 BST/14:00 EDT
    Euro session: at Ducks, Czech Republic (usually lasts over 6 hours)

    Zandronum Friday Night Fragfest #332: 3-way Madness CTF & Uptight TDM!
    European FNF: July 22, 2016, 18:00 UTC
    American FNF: July 22, 2016, 20:00 EDT

    ZDS #464 - The Brotherhood of Ruin Survival
    Date: Saturday 23rd July 2016
    Euro: 19:30 BST / 14:30 EDT
    USA: 01:00 BST / 20:00 EDT Check out the Multiplayer forum for discussion about clans, matchmaking and other fun events. Happy fragging!

    Bloodshedder
    Bloodstain - Pavel 'Pipicz' Tvrzník
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 11.12 MB -
    Reviewed by: Voros
    Bloodstain, a 32 level megawad for Doom 2, that'll blow your feeble mind all the way to Hell.

    I think I'm in love here, because this is just amazing. The detailing, geometry, thing placement, music, textures, almost everything is beautiful to enjoy in this WAD.

    The map detailing is damn superb, let me tell you that. Broken tile floor, dead trees and rocks on a rocky plain, hanging vines with mossy stone pillars, dark caverns, and even more! I love how the maps tend to explore different themes, rather than the whole "Techbase, Hellified Techbase, Hell" WADs out there (I'm not saying they're bad though). To fight the demons in such beautiful places is very refreshing.

    The geometry is pretty nice, always making the player go here and there and everywhere, with lots of backtracking. Makes my mind work overtime and my adrenaline spike insanely high. It can get a bit confusing at times, but nothing too serious, and can be quickly taken care of if you explore a bit.

    The demon placement is sure to lead you into huge battles, with the groups and hordes you'll encounter. Combine that with high speed and powerful weaponry, and it is the best feeling of awesomeness; even if you get killed, you'll see you did a fair number of killings yourself. But wait, Pavel has brought three new enemies into the roster:

    -a Z-Sec that shoots you in bursts.

    -a fiery Baron that throws green plasma two times instead of the regular one.

    -a flying, legless, fiery baron that throws four big fireballs together "like there's no tomorrow".

    This whole thing just got a lot more harder. And better.

    The item placement is fine. It stays progressive throughout the whole WAD, but can get very low or absolutely empty at times with all the demon slaying. Maybe a slight increase in ammo would be good. But you'll make it through to the next map and replenish your health and ammo from there. It's not even a problem here, just means you have focus your accuracy and move around more to avoid health loss. Now that's what I'm looking forward to.

    Music is wonderful for these maps. Yes, they may not be fresh tracks off the press, but they fit nicely with the maps. Even though the music isn't exactly original, that doesn't mean it's bad. I loved it all the way. The music ripping in my ears, while demons everywhere are getting killed one by one, in the very gorgeous places: extremely satisfying.

    The textures used give some amazing details to many maps, like the frozen waterfall or that huge ship on the sea of acid. It's amazing really to see all the great custom textures from the popular WADs and mods being used in one single WAD. Pavel's one heck of an interior decorator, I'll give him that.

    My only real complaint on this WAD would be the title screen and intermission screen. They look dreadful to me; the bright red with the nearly dark background just don't mix well here. It could've have been done better.

    Now some small first impressions on the first few maps!

    MAP01- A full 360 rotation, and I thought I teleported onto a secret UAC facility in the middle of a gigantic, thick forest. There are dead bodies laying all over the bridge ahead.

    MAP02- It looks like I entered into some closed area in a city because there is a closed gate and walls around me, with taller buildings inside, and outside there more buildings. This whole place feels more claustrophobic.

    MAP03- Looks like I'm in an old facility, and it looks like it broke down during the invasion, seeing the acid pools on the broken tiled floor. Lots of Imps here.

    MAP04- I'm in a facility again, and it looks like it was built around toxic falls. A room is full of dead bodies and Lost Souls lay there waiting. That felt creepy.

    I won't go any further, because you should play Bloodstain to find out. This WAD is amazing, and you really should download this. When you get to MAP30, I hope you succeed in beating him!

    Medieval Duel - D.Scracth
    Heretic - Deathmatch - ZDoom Compatible - 3.82 MB -
    Reviewed by: walter confalonieri
    A short and compact map for Heretic created by D. Scratch, and it's intended for duel gameplay. I played this map with Zandronum 3.0 alpha and bots.

    Layout is basic but there's some cool detailing, and I think this is good for the intended gameplay. Sometimes the bot gets stuck on some angles, but overall the experience is fluid; the layout flows well, and I didn't find any game breaking issues.

    Thing placement is good and uses the height differences well, with harder and powerful guns on upper platforms and lower (but lethal) guns near the starting spawn points for the players.

    Overall, a cool experience; maybe more levels will be better but also in this way it worked good. Download it and play this with your friends on some servers.

    Hellborg - Erdem KIRMIZI
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Zandronum - 27.95 MB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Hellborg is small episode for Doom 2 with six new maps. The author states in that text file that this wad is an edited version of Doom 2 with the first six levels used as base, which it puzzles me as the levels don't have areas/parts that resemble with the original maps of the same slot, but whatever. And to finally talk about the levels they have a nice mood which gives some TNT feelings, they feature quite some exploration, and they are all big and full of monsters (the lowest monster count is 380) and without being a slaughter-wad.

    But it's not all sunshine and rainbows, as there are some problems with this wad. At first you will notice that the texture alignment isn't done well, both vertically and regarding the use of the unpegging, but it isn't very important. The biggest drawback is in the layouts, which also affects the combat. As said before the maps are big and sprawl a lot; there will be lots of going through long corridors to reach what most of the time is another room. I guess many people will hate the progression, which isn't really obscure, but you will have to backtrack a lot, and there won't be monsters to repopulate the areas. For the most part, combat will be really flat and not particularly engaging.

    Despite the flaws mentioned above, it manages to have some cool traps and some decent fights overall, and also visually there are many inspired places. The first two levels aren't exactly brilliant, and the wad improves from MAP03. Personally I found it to be rather interesting on the whole; it takes some time to finish each level and the gameplay is a bit on the slow side, so if you want to play this, be ready to see some glaring ups and downs.

    Beautiful Doom (version 6.1.0.1) - Agent_Ash aka Jekyll Grim Payne aka zer0
    Doom/Doom 2 - N/A - ZDoom Compatible - 6.63 MB -
    Reviewed by: yukib1t
    Beautiful Doom is a graphics and gameplay modification that claims it "keeps original Doom gameplay but introduces lots of special effects and visual enhancements for deeper and more thrilling Doom experience." The mod comes as a PK3, but you can extract the WADs from the PK3 and use them individually in various combinations to suit your preferences. I went ahead and used the entire PK3 to give it the most thorough review I could.

    Right off the bat, you're given the choice to use either standard Doom weapons, or a set of enhanced weapons. The standard ones all feel pretty much the same as the original game, and I didn't notice anything changed as far as gameplay goes. The one difference is that the animations have been enhanced to be a lot smoother. The enhanced weapons, on the other hand, are all tweaked versions of the original Doom weapons. Most noticeable is the change in firing rates, and the addition of secondary attacks for all of the weapons but the chainsaw. Hitting F1 will bring up a list of these changes.

    Looking more closely at the enhanced weapons, as far as the primary attacks go, I found the changes to the gameplay to be quite a bit better than what is found in Brutal Doom. Basically things didn't feel too different from vanilla Doom, just tweaked. However, most of the secondary attacks felt gimmicky (like the plasma gun's rail gun attack), too different from vanilla Doom (homing missiles), or just pointless (the "shove" when using fists). For a mod that claims to keep the gameplay the same as the original, the secondary attacks just feel too out of place. If the weapons only had tweaked primary attacks and that's it, I'd feel like they were a worthwhile addition. But overall, I doubt I'd use the enhanced weapons much at all.

    Moving on, the graphical enhancements are a mixed bag. The high res in-world sprites are really nice, and I can see myself using them on a daily basis. Nothing looks out of place, or too different from vanilla Doom. Also nice were the blood effects (think Brutal Doom minus the gameplay changes... if you're using the original weapons, anyway) and some of the redrawn enemies. Again, nothing felt too out of place with these, and they blended nicely within the rest of Doom. However, some of the smoke and fireball effects look pretty silly, or even like they've been pushed too far. Especially the plasma gun bolts and the BFG bolt, which look very odd, out of place, and juvenile. I also wasn't a fan of a few of the new decals, and wish they would be a separate WAD option in the PK3.

    One other graphical change I want to bring up is the new status bar. Normally I play with GZDoom's full screen status, and so I normally don't see Doom's good ol' grey status bar unless I go into the automap. Well that's just what I did, and what I found was actually quite horrifying. The new status bar places health, armor, and secrets on the left hand side; kills, ammo, and keys on the right hand side; and a very out-of-place looking mugshot right in the middle. All of these also still have the original grey backgrounds as well, making the whole thing look butt ugly and take up way too much of the screen real estate. This should probably be a separate WAD option as well.

    Anyway, as far as the sounds go, things are mostly alright. The new additions are mostly pretty nice. Separate pickup sounds for keys, various powerups, and items are now different. Footsteps and environment sounds have also been added and sound pretty good. However, the switch sound is silly, mushy, and weak. In fact, when I first went to hit a switch, I thought I had missed it and kept trying to hit it, not realizing the sound had played. But this is the only new sound I didn't like.

    Weapon sounds and various death sounds have also been replaced. These are based on the original vanilla Doom sounds, but have been resampled to 32KHz. Now, just taking a sound and resampling it to a higher sample rate doesn't necessarily do a damn thing to make something sound better. If the information isn't there in the original sound, it won't magically show up by resampling it. So to compensate, it sounds like the authors either layered a few new sounds onto the originals (which generally sounds quite nice), applied an EQ with the high end emphasized (which sounds pretty crappy in my opinion), or a combination of the two. But still, the new sounds are pretty good.

    Overall, would I recommend Beautiful Doom? Well, that depends. If you want Doom to look smoother and bloodier, but not feel very different, then no. I would instead recommend a mod such as Smooth Doom. If you want Doom to look better and more full of special effects, but still play the same, then consider giving Beautiful Doom a try. Lastly, if you want Doom to look better, have more special effects, and some mild gameplay tweaks, definitely give Beautiful Doom a try. But in any case, go full screen and ditch that ugly status bar.

    THE TROOPERS' PLAYGROUND (repackaged edition) - Matthias Worch
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 885.95 KB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    The Troopers' Playground is a classic 9-level mapset from 1996. From what I gather it was pretty highly regarded at the time (in fact, "10 Years of Doom" names it as one of the best wads of its year), but it has been largely forgotten in the last decade due to the fact that most people couldn't play it; it had to be installed, not just unzipped, so you couldn't access the wad file without a DOS emulator or something similar. The author is Matthias Worch, a legendary designer who contributed to Memento Mori 2 and Requiem, created the famous Quake mod Beyond Belief, and has spent his years since then working in the mainstream game industry on games such as Sin, Rogue Squadron 3: Rebel Strike, and Unreal 2. Yeah, Unreal 2. Guy's kind of a big deal. Anyway, TTP was before all of that; it was pretty much his first foray into game design of any kind.

    When an ancient and long-lost wad by a respected author resurfaces from the depths of history, especially if it's his first wad, there's one obvious question to ask: is this really a hidden gem, or is it like one of those tiny, boring New England towns that refers to itself as "historic" because George Washington once stopped there to eat a sandwich? In the case of The Troopers' Playground, I'd have to say it's a little bit of both. By most standards it's kind of bland, and some of the levels are lacking in polish, but it also has a solid foundation and quite a few interesting ideas.

    The wad uses a handful of new textures (mostly pretty basic stuff) and a nice blue custom sky. The last level is sort of an abstract island of techbase floating in the starry void -- one of those levels where you can look down as well as up and see eternal empty space, hinting that you're very far from home. This type of theme has become fairly common (think lupinx-Kassman's CC4 map 20), but I'd be willing to bet that TTP was the first wad to really explore the idea. The level before that is a pretty nice techbase that uses custom textures well. The rest of the mapset is less interesting to look at, as it's basically all done in that sort of mishmash of wood/stone/metal/green marble/occasional tech elements that I like to think of as "Generic Somethingfort." It could be in Hell, it could be on Earth, it could be on Deimos, who really knows?

    The most interesting addition to the mapset is the new monster, an undead marine called the Trooper. It's basically a more powerful chaingunner; it seems to have a faster rate of fire, it has more health, and it's significantly less likely to flinch when you hit it. That probably sounds like a recipe for cheesy "fake difficulty," and in some cases it does feel that way. Thankfully, however, Worch is smart about using them, usually giving you some cover to strafe in and out of while you're trying to bring them down. He also uses them sparingly, limiting them to one or two per level, so that they feel sort of like minibosses. Personally, I think they add a lot to TTP. In fact, given how generic many of the levels feel, you may find them to be the wad's biggest saving grace.

    So how about those levels? There were definitely things I disliked about the set, and I found the first four levels particularly unimpressive. The rooms tend to be bare and boxy, the layouts of the early levels are uninspiring (usually about three sets of rooms off of a hub that have to be completed in linear sequence), and there isn't anything really interesting about the height variation, as it's mainly there to create another obstacle that you have to hit a switch to get past. Most of the traps open up right on top of you, making them pretty unfair the first time and much easier the second time when you're anticipating them. There are a large number of puzzles that revolve around timing, which is something I dislike personally.

    From map 05 onward, however, the design gets a lot better. The use of space feels more interesting, the lighting is better, the layouts flow much more smoothly, and the combat is more fun. I got a distinct Quake vibe from some of those levels, not just from the largely brown visuals but from the gameplay as well, perhaps because Worch makes good use of mid-tier enemies that appear in small numbers but confront the player in somewhat difficult spaces so that maneuvering becomes really important. It can still be difficult to know where to go at times, but there are some neat puzzles and environmental gimmicks in these levels. In map 05, there's a series of empty troughs and pits at the beginning of the level that fill up with blood after you've solved the puzzles and found all the switches, giving you access to the last key. Reaching a certain key-bearing platform in map 06 will drive you batshit crazy, but maybe in a good way. The last level is a ring of four rooms, each at a different height, around a central tower where the boss brain constantly raises and lowers, forcing you to chase it around the ring while monsters spawn in every room.

    If you're interested, the zip also includes a bonus solo level and two DM levels, one with a stony theme that felt sort of medieval and the other using the void/tech theme that I mentioned earlier. I thought the bonus level looked and played worse than the maps in the main episode, though I kind of liked the ending area.

    TTP has been on the archive for many years, of course, but this is a repackaged version (with Worch's permission) that circumvents the difficult, dated installation process of the original. It's worth noting that this wad still doesn't work properly in ZDoom, which can't read the dehacked file and therefore doesn't replace the new monster -- and that's probably for the best, because quite frankly, these simple, low-detail maps look horrible in ZDoom's high resolution.

    I find this mapset to be a mixed bag, with some nice high points and some really lousy low points. I won't blame you if you're waving your cane at me and shouting, "Show some respect! That's Matthias fucking Worch you're talking about!" I also wouldn't blame you if you never want to play this wad. If you were around when it was first released and remember playing it when it was new, then you'll probably find this re-release extremely welcome, and playing it will probably feel like catching up with an old friend. If you weren't around then but love the kind of levels that Worch and his contemporaries made, then you shouldn't miss this wad. If your tastes are more modern, then The Troopers' Playground is still worth having around as a piece of history, but you may want to keep it behind glass, as I can't guarantee that you'll enjoy playing it.

    Extreme Terror - Alexa "yukib1t" Jones-Gonzales
    Doom 2 - Single Player - GZDoom - 24.07 MB -
    Reviewed by: walter confalonieri
    This is a large level made by yukib1t for the GZDoom engine and is set inside a large canyon-techbase (similar to the Doom 3 techbase environment) with a hellish twist that leads you to hell and to a final boss that looks like a huge black mass of joined cacodemons, then to a twisting finale that you'll see only by playing and finishing this, and this will not be a easy task!

    The layout is contorted but somehow easy to navigate and even kind of linear, and changes from short, narrow corridors to large, ominous open canyons or crate storage rooms or hellish caves. There's really a lot of cool detailing and salient usage of (G)ZDoom special effects such as 3D floors, dynamic lighting effects, and "realistic" deep water effects, with a less intricate layout in the hellish part of the map. The only part with misaligned textures contains secret rooms, so be careful on that detail!

    Gameplay structure is based upon a series of missions that needs to be completed with a simple puzzle quest, all this while fighting compact groups of mid/high-tier monsters, with some little groups of mid-tier monsters like shotgunners, hell knights or arachnotrons as turret monsters in the first hell cave. There are also monsters that hide in box closets that create dangerous ambushes for the inexperienced player. The item placement is well done and, incredibly, I didn't found myself without ammo in the entirety of this level, and when O found myself with a short amount of ammo in a gun, I swapped to another gun while taking more ammo I found from the zombies' dead corpses or scattered around the map.

    Overall, this is a very well done map, same as the last /newstuff Chronicles, Comatose. It shares the same epic tone of that map but in smaller scale, but the epicness has been changed with fun and challenge. Download this map for a great and fun experience!

    Vispire - Michael Jan Krizik (valkiriforce)
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 1.12 MB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    Vispire is a set of 17 speedmaps by valkiriforce, who until this release had (understandably) been a lot less active since releasing two and a half megawads in 2011 and 2012. I'm not the sort of player who really finds the word "speedmap" appealing, as I prefer to see mappers spend a lot of time on detailing, selecting resources, and coming up with unique, clever layouts. As a result, my expectations weren't very high, and fortunately the mapset exceeded them.

    Vispire is a pretty good set -- nothing about it is bad, although nothing about it is super great either. The mostly Doom 1 soundtrack sets the tone well enough and doesn't get annoying. The lighting is moody enough to add some atmosphere, though this is mainly accomplished by making every level uniformly dim, at least up until the sky change at map 12 (there are a few really nice bits, though, like the flickering slimefalls and torchlighting in map 10). There's not a lot of detailing, and not as much of a strong sense of place as you find in the more memorable levels of Reverie and Eternally Yours, but the texturing is good.

    Which brings me to one of the things I like best about Vispire: the episodic themes. Maps 01-06 are primarily red brick and water, maps 07-11 are green brick and nukage, and maps 12-17 have a seaside/ocean islands theme with a twilight sky. The episodes really help to tie the set together and tell a bit of a story (even if it's rather abstract), and there's enough variation to keep the texturing from getting old. The first and last episodes in particular use themes that aren't very common, which kept me wanting to see what valkiriforce would do with them next. I never thought I'd appreciate those red bricks so much, but I like the way they're used in this set.

    As far as gameplay goes, the maps feel more like sets of isolated challenges than coherent, flowing levels. The majority of the levels play the same way: you start out in some kind of hub area, and you teleport (or occasionally take passageways) to about three separate arenas or islands to get the keys/hit the switches you need to exit. Hordes of a single monster type are very common, especially Demons and Revenants, though there are also many mixed groups. I found that this basic level design had started to wear out its welcome by the end of the set, but there's no doubt that valkiriforce is good at creating these arena challenges. Probably my favorite was the opening of map 09, where you have to hold back a giant oncoming horde of Pinkies in a narrow passageway while Hell Knights try to take you out from the sides.

    Not every level fits the hub/island mold, either. Map 05 takes place in a single fast-paced, fairly complex faux-urban area with small monsters all over the place, tempting you to rush deeper into the mess and get yourself killed. Map 10 is, for lack of a better term, a dungeon crawl. Map 13 is my favorite overall, with some interesting connectivity and a lot of that great sense of place that I loved in Reverie -- it's set in a little island town with passageways that go down underground into the cellars and, beyond that, an atmospheric cavern with a set of intense battles. Map 15 is surprisingly puzzley, with some great combat in the huge, open main area. Map 17 is a large, interconnected fortress, though the huge numbers of monsters made the gameplay feel like kind of a slog to me.

    Don't play Vispire just because you love valkiriforce's mapping style, as it isn't much like Reverie or any of his other major works. However, if you want to shoot your way through a series of difficult mini-challenges, you can't really go wrong here. This is one of the best speedmap sets I've played, but I haven't enjoyed many speedmap sets, so maybe that's not saying much.

    The /newstuff Chronicles is a usually-weekly roundup of new items uploaded to the /idgames archive, and it is written entirely by community members like you. If you wish to contribute, the /newstuff Review Center is the place to do so. Register on the Doomworld Forums first if you don't already have an account, because you need one to submit reviews. Special thanks goes to the nearly 300 users who have submitted reviews over the past several years.

    Doomkid
    ZDaemon Thursday Night Survival #257 - The Beginning of the End (Part II Revisited)
    Date: 14th July 2016
    Euro session: 19:00 BST/14:00 EDT at Ducks, Czech Republic (usually lasts over 6 hours)

    Zandronum Friday Night Fragfest #331: DBAB LMS & Push
    European FNF: July 15th, 2016, 18:00 UTC
    American FNF: July 15, 2016, 20:00 EDT

    ZDS #463 - 32in24-7 CTF - Part II - 2nd Chance
    Date: Saturday 16th July 2016
    Euro: 19:30 BST / 14:30 EDT
    USA: 01:00 BST / 20:00 EDT Be sure to check out the Multiplayer forum for discussion about clans, matchmaking and other fun events. Happy fragging!

    Doomkid
    ZDaemon Thursday Night Survival #256 - Plutonia Nightmare! - The Finishing
    Date: July 7th, 2016 19:00 BST/14:00 EDT
    Location: [L@P], Germany (usually lasts over 6 hours)

    Doomkid's Random DM Event #3 - ZDM + Miano's Deathmatch!
    When: July 8th, 2016 at 7:00:00 PM EDT (UTC-4 hours)
    Where: The [Doomshack.org] cluster on Zandronum

    Zandronum Friday Night Fragfest #330: IDL Skullbag & Mega5 LMS!
    European FNF: July 8th, 2016, 19:00 UTC
    American FNF: July 8th, 2016, 20:00 EDT

    ZDS #462 - 32in24-7 CTF - Part II
    Date: Saturday July 9th, 2016
    Euro: 19:30 BST / 14:30 EDT
    USA: 01:00 BST / 20:00 EDT Be sure to check out the Multiplayer forum for discussion about clans, matchmaking and other fun events. Happy fragging!

    Bloodshedder
    Comatose - Lainos
    Doom 2 - Single Player - PrBoom+ - 6.89 MB -
    Reviewed by: walter confalonieri
    In 2011, some people on iddqd.ru made an episode for Doom 2 called Sacrament. In it, there was a very cool map by Lainos (the author of this level) called Doxilamine Moon. Said level was a large, empty city, with some scarce encounters and a scary, desolate atmosphere.

    Why am I talking about that map? Because this is the spiritual successor of that map! Even if in the readme the author says it's a sequel to another map he made called "Overdose" (that I haven't played), so my introduction was unnecessary. Great.

    The same basics are present in this map (and even some parts of the city look like they came from Doximaline Moon); the level is set in a really large devastated town in... Russia? Europe? Anyway, you start into a room that looks like a lift where you're locked. When you get out from that place you start to roam the city searching for weapons, keys, and here and there you'll fight random low and mid-tier ghost monsters, such as ghost imps, ghost mancubuses, and ghost revenants.

    Graphics and detailing are just superb. Everything here gives you the impression you're roaming a nameless ruined city, with abandoned parks, broken buildings, graffiti and vandalism everywhere, and the feeling that whatever happened here, it happened recently, even if you don't find any tracks of the citizens. There's also some Egyptian / masonic symbolism in some parts of the map, giving more secrets to be solved.

    The gray and dirty brown schemes of buildings with the gray sky and the ominous music gives an oppressive feeling to the quest.

    Gameplay is good a bit hard; sometimes monster crowds appear via silent teleportation to the spot where are you are (and for the large part is spectres and lost souls with turret imps over top of buildings), and the surprise factor doesn't make you ready for combat and makes you die fast if you're not careful.

    But you can find some helpful items in the city, like some weapons, ammo, healthy blue soda and other stuff, so watch out for that and your journey will be easier. You need to find the keys that are set in some random spots of the town, and with that you can access the locked doors section of the city, and with one certain switch that uses two of the keys present in the map (also, I can't find the yellow key without cheating, shame on me) you can exit the map!

    Overall, this level is just amazing, one of the best I've played so far, highly recommended, but don't play with ZDoom and derivative ports, since I found some slowdown with my PC (a Intel core i5-2320 with 3GHz and 4 GB of RAM). But if you have a powerful enough computer or you play on prboom-plus, you have to play this! Download NOW!

    Jerry's Kids: Take #969 (version 2 'c') - Guy M. Babin
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 843.42 KB
    Reviewed by: Csonicgo
    WARNING: This map is disturbing, as it intentionally depicts the symptoms of schizophrenia. If this might be a problem for you, DON'T PLAY THIS.

    If you know me, you know that I like terrible maps. Maps that use 2S lines for solid walls. Maps with little lighting variation. Maps with Beavis & Butthead sounds. So when I heard how wacky Guy Babin's "Jerry's Kids" was, I thought this one would be easily a Top 10 in my "So Bad It's Good" list.

    I didn't expect to play a map that questioned my mental state. Or altered it. Yet, here I am. Here we are.

    What's wrong?

    Before I review this one, let's listen to some story snippets:

    "To understand this dilemma, you must know the tale of Jerry and his kids.

    You were doing a movie based on a truth story. Believe me, this is based on a truth story!! Jerry is a wacky & crazy guy who has nothing else better to do other than to irritate his kids to oblivion with his wacky rephrasing of words. Jerry has a habit of saying things or asking questions that have no specific meaning or "just plain dumb," repeatedly, that everyone in his right mind wants to kill him just to shut him up!

    Note: This is true. Jerry's kids had killed him for that. But unfortunately for them, they too killed themselves from the terrible torture of these repeated "chants" embedded in their unfortunate minds!!!"

    .....Wat?

    "'Jerry' has become some kind of a cult figure. The younger generation would establish camp sites around Jerry's house and even chant 'spells' to rise Jerry from the dead. This is why the film production company wanted you to make a scary movie on this particular issue arond the real house where Jerry used to live!"

    This is someone's HOUSE WAD! But not just any house WAD. One with a story so fucked to explain the new graphics and sounds that I sincerely question the thought of playing this. Is this some crazy occult shit?

    "Unfortunately, you didn't realize that a bunch of kids ('freaks'), had come the night before to finally cast the spell to waken Jerry... You have just remembered a newscast you've witnessed about the 'missing' freaks who hadn't come home.... You know that they were here at this house that night when you saw the 'Cat' who's wearing some of their clothes it took: the sunglasses and the shirt that says 'God.' "

    You know what could have worked? "Hi, this is my house in Doom, there are some funny characters and sounds I added that my friends found funny, enjoy!" But NO. That would be sane. We need to emulate a serious mental disease and the paranormal as well!

    If you didn't read the story and just played the map, this is nothing but one of those house maps that were popular in the 90s, full of inside jokes and ancient memes from the mapper's friends and whatnot. There are so many house and apartment WADs out there, and they always suck in the same way: low ceilings in an attempt to be "to scale", maximum sector brightness, sector toilets, and a flight of stairs to access two floors using teleport lines. Oh, and they always include a shitload of monsters in the yard. That's essential!

    Where's the cat?

    Let's cut to the chase: this map is absolutely terrible in ways that cannot be put fully into text. Imps have transformed into floating heads with fedoras. The actual floating heads, cacodemons, are Minnie Mouse heads. The baron of hell has been replaced with what looks like the abomination from "Cool Cat Saves the Kids". Oh, and the lost soul is now an Elmo head. Great.

    Are you asleep?

    The map layout? Equally atrocious. This trash has it all: texture misalignments abound (along with a convenient excuse in the text file as to why that is), cramped hallways, rooms with little purpose, unbalanced difficulty, and nonsensical monster placement. Even the starting room is hard, and there are zero monsters in the room! Did I mention arch-viles? They are very dangerous in this map since there is little cover outside and in the basement. The trick to defeating them in the basement is to use the teleporter outside, alert the monsters there, teleport out, and wait. Due to the way the teleporters are set up, and the position of the basement room, I was able to telefrag two arch-viles, a baron, and so many more, all without firing a shot.

    This map screams "I have not been playtested". And I mean that figuratively, as you could possibly be confused of this due to everything in the map asking you questions about your life. And it claims to support deathmatch? Hell no. Everyone would be telefragging each other trying to navigate the floors.

    But don't take my word for it, here's a review of this crap from /idgames: "I kind of wanted to just crawl into a corner and hide."

    Any more space in the corner? I think I'll settle in.

    And before you ask, "Where are the screenshots?", I want to let you know that some things don't deserve to be photographed. They must be experienced. You need to see this map in motion. Hear it. Only then will you know true pain.

    Plus, taking screenshots of this map could be the final step in giving this map a portal to the real world, and I'm not giving Jerry the fucking chance. Fuck off, Jerry. FUCK. OFF.

    TNT: Evilution: MAP31 fix - Team TNT [archive upload by Jonathan Dowland)
    Evilution - N/A - N/A - 118.8 KB
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    This is a modified version of MAP31 of TNT: Evilution which fixes the infamous bug of the missing yellow key in single player mode. Before it was hosted on the official TeamTNT site which unfortunately is gone now, and it was uploaded here to the archive so it can be in a permanent place.

    Second Infuscomus - D.Scratch
    Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 8.32 MB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    Second Infuscomus is basically a boss rush level set inside an extremely dark and creepy haunted mansion. The author was clearly aiming for a survival horror feel, with each boss enemy "haunting" you (silently teleporting in and out of sight) as you creep around the level, trying to hunt it down without getting killed in the process. In theory, this should be really cool and suspenseful, but I don't think it works so well in practice.

    The problems are A) the enemy teleporting isn't that well implemented, B) the bosses are super overpowered, and C) you can't see anything. The darkness is fairly tolerable, since Second Infuscomus is a horror mod and it fits the mood -- but to get a sense of just how dark it is, check the screenshots.

    The first boss is a suicide bomber based on the Lost Soul, and it's the worst of the bunch. The author has it set up so that when a monster appears in this level, it basically teleports right next to you, and you can imagine how great that is when you're fighting a suicide bomber. As soon as it showed up, I was dead. Over... and over... and over again. No chance to run, barely any chance to shoot. It just teleported next to me and killed me every time.

    The second monster is better, and if you're really good you might be able to beat it. It's much faster than an Arch-Vile, has a large chunk of health, and sprays lightning-fast fireballs all over the place. The final monster is one of those transparent pop-up ghost guys from Realm667 (the ones called Nightmares), and if you've fought them before, it behaves the way you expect it to, except that it has much more health and can kill you in one or two hits. If you can somehow survive a couple of its attacks, you should be able to bring it down -- but there's no other way to fight it, since it only appears when it's attacking you, and you can only hit it when it's visible.

    Some of you may have the right play style to have fun with this level, but for me it was intensely frustrating instead of suspenseful, and I could never see any hope of defeating any of the monsters. I ended up turning god mode on for each one of them after dozens of failed attempts. This seems like the sort of level that could be really fun if it were done properly, but Second Infuscomus just isn't designed that well. Even so, I appreciate that the author is willing to experiment; I hope that they're learning from it, and that we'll see better maps from them in the future.

    Maximum Stafe - D.Scratch
    Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 61.91 KB -
    Reviewed by: Not Jabba
    Maximum Stafe (I think it's probably supposed to be "Strafe"?) is a single smallish level that requires ZDoom, though as far as I can tell the only port feature is the scrolling floor texture used to create the outdoor nukage sea. The author has made a few other levels but is still pretty inexperienced, and it shows.

    The main problem with Maximum Stafe/Strafe is the complete lack of maneuverability. Despite the title, you almost never have much room to dodge, and the best tactic is usually to retreat around the last corner you passed and snipe the enemies from there. To make matters worse, most of the action takes place in a really tight crate maze with high stacks of boxes, and the player's height relative to the enemy becomes a frequent issue. More than once, I knew I had Cacodemons or Lost Souls floating somewhere high over my head but wasn't able to see or hit them until they finally dropped right on top of me. In three or four other spots, I got stuck at the top of a dropoff with enemies directly underneath me, shooting or biting me up before I was able to retaliate. Once you finally clear the maze and lower the yellow key, you're given a BFG and then plopped down in a tiny room in front of a door with 200 Lost Souls on the other side. Even without the BFG, it's an extremely easy fight, because you just let them herd themselves into the doorway and fry them with the Plasma Rifle and Chaingun while letting the rest infight each other to death on the other side. Admittedly, it's kind of fun to mow through them all. There was also an invulnerability sphere early in the level that I kept saving for later and never ended up picking up because I never felt like I needed it.

    There were a couple of bugs; there was one stimpack in the second room that I kept wanting to get, but I was never able to because an elevator kept raising it into the ceiling, where it got stuck. There's also a railing texture in that same room that runs down into the floor and creates a visual error. Other than that, the level looks pretty decent, and there's clearly some good effort put into it, but it misses a lot of its potential due to poor design choices.

    Old Refinery - Carlos Lastra
    Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 81.38 KB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Old Refinery is a quite short single map for Doom 2. It isn't really difficult, but the combination of low health and many hitscanners was quite tricky sometimes. Visually it has a nice style with some cute details. It will be required to jump few times, even though you can also avoid picking up a key to progress. It's a good average map overall.

    Pepper - Ribbiks
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 1.98 MB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Pepper is a small wad of three reality maps by Ribbiks. Reality is a game mode where you have to beat the map without taking any damage. Through DeHackEd in this wad, the maximum health is set to 1%, and it cannot be increased, so any shot you take will be deadly. It sounds really hard at first, but not as much as you may expect. The maps are small and have low monster counts; the hitscanners are the most threatening enemies now, but they weren't overused, nor does the wad put you in unfair situations. The density of the encounters will be low at the most, and the tight ammo makes you think about what monsters to tackle first and where to go to possibly find other goodies. Visually the maps have a nice brick setting (and if you play with a GL port you will also have a gorgeous sky), and the music gives a pleasant mood to the maps.

    Probably isn't among the best works of this author, but for sure it's a very good mapset with a gameplay theme a bit different from the usual. And if you struggle to play, remember that the difficulty settings are there for a reason.

    T 3 S T - Topi Hattukangas
    Doom 2 - Single Player - Limit Removing - 428.63 KB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    T3st is a wad with seven new maps for Doom 2. Although it looks just good enough to be bearable, it suffers for pretty much all the rest. The gameplay is boring, good weapons and reasonable amounts of ammo are lacking in all the maps, most of the time you will be use the pistol and only after the first few maps you get a shotgun, and you will find only zombies and imps as enemies. I understand that it encourages finding the secrets, but many don't have hints and you also find other monsters in them. The action takes place mostly in cramped places. There aren't any redeeming qualities in this wad; it isn't really worth to be played.

    Caged - zepolleon
    Doom 2 - Deathmatch - Boom Compatible - 43.75 KB -
    Reviewed by: Voros
    Caged is a Deathmatch map for Doom 2, taking the slot of MAP01.

    For a Deathmatch map, it's pretty small. The visuals are OK, but not mind blowing. The geometry of the map is simple, basically a modified square.

    I'll be honest here: it's not fun. The weapons and medkits are kept in hard to reach places, and trying to get to these places can leave you a sitting duck.

    It's too simple. Players can easily devise a technique to frag other players within a few seconds on the map. Easy frags, as they say. Not fun and too short.

    Jupiter Carnage! - Bzzrak Ktazzz
    Ultimate Doom - Single Player - Vanilla - 135 KB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    Jupiter Carnage is a map that replaces E4M1 on Ultimate Doom. It looks really bland; the places are mostly empty rooms, and there are some poor attempts at making furniture. The gameplay isn't any better; the fights aren't engaging, and the tight ammo made the things even more annoying. Not something that I can recommend.

    SNES SoundTrack - The massa
    Ultimate Doom - N/A - ZDoom Compatible - 1.14 MB
    Reviewed by: Jaws In Space
    This is a Doom wad that replaces the normal Doom midis with their SNES counterpart. It currently only works in ZDoom-based ports due to the music not being in MIDI format. If you're a fan of SNES Doom check this wad out, and if you are not a fan of SNES Doom check this wad out because these tracks are great, especially E2M2.

    Mario Kart 64's Block Fort REMADE - TheSoldiersShadow
    Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom - 221.91 KB -
    Reviewed by: walter confalonieri
    Block Fort REMADE is, as the the title suggest, a remake of the Super Mario 64 level with the same name, made by newcomer TheSoldierShadow, and as far as I know this is their first map.

    Anyway, this is a medium-large open and simple map, kinda similar to Dead simple, with four towers filled with hell knights, and each tower is connected via 3D bridges. Reach the top of each tower for useful stuff like guns and keys, and collect all the keys to unlock the central switch that leads you to the exit.

    New textures are bright and colorful, but too bad for that misaligned new sky that doesn't look that good. The new music works, even if if I don't get too much the Mortal Kombat movie theme as title screen music for a Mario-based mod, but hey, it's always cool hear that catchy theme!

    Gameplay is kinda easy if you're fast enough to dodge all the fireballs from the enemies, but I found myself dealing with more than 12 hell knights and 33 HP at the end, so yeah, maybe another pair of stimpacks would be welcomed here.

    Oh, and there's MAP02, just a broken map where you can exit the same way as MAP01, but without any keys and any other other rooms instead of the starting one, so this is a sort of "Thanks for playing" / skip map that doesn't have any reason to be here.

    Anyway, nice map, take a shot.

    "Fallen HQ" & "The Terminal" - Mario Augusto Puga Valera
    Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 116.23 KB -
    Reviewed by: gaspe
    "Fallen HQ" & "The Terminal" is the title of this wad, and as you can guess those are also the names of the two levels that you are going to play. Both levels are techbase-themed with a simple style that has a nice classic feel to it. Gameplay was good and fun with an average difficulty, and if there's a thing that didn't work very well, I must say that the monster placement often goes on quantity over quality, though you aren't spammed with monsters and the levels still flowed rather well. Overall this couple of levels is quite good; don't expect anything outstanding, but they are worth it.

    Beeeeees - pancirno
    Doom/Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom - 250.79 KB -
    Reviewed by: Jaws In Space
    Beeeeees is a mod for ZDoom that replaces all the normal Doom monsters with bees. Upon encountering where an enemy would be placed in a map, you will find a swarm of around five bees. The bees fly around the map attacking the player, are pretty weak and will drop dead if you wait long enough, and do minimal damage to the player, but in hordes like say on Doom 2 Map 8 Trick and Traps, they can easily take you down rather quickly. I would recommend turning down your volume when playing this mod, as the bees make a rather loud and annoying buzzing sound. The Icon of Sin has a special replacement where it will release a steady stream of bees for a few seconds, it makes defeating him quite challenging as the bees often get in the way of your rockets. There is also one custom weapon in the wad: the BFG is replaced with a flamethrower.

    The /newstuff Chronicles is a usually-weekly roundup of new items uploaded to the /idgames archive, and it is written entirely by community members like you. If you wish to contribute, the /newstuff Review Center is the place to do so. Register on the Doomworld Forums first if you don't already have an account, because you need one to submit reviews. Special thanks goes to the nearly 300 users who have submitted reviews over the past several years.

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