The DWmegawad Club plays: Eviternity II

Map7: Sovereign (DMPhobos) ===
The visuals in this map are crazy. Extremely well detailed and the architecture is impressive for doom. Someone (don't remember who) here once said that ev2 feels is like playing some triple-a game instead of a doom map and I really feel that here. Gameplay wise it's a big open map, which reminds me of scythe 2's second episode again (its map08 is a shift from dark atmospheric beginning to an open map like this one). When I see a very open map like this I immediately think that it's gonna be confusing and hard but this map is actually very approachable, wherever you go you will get the essential guns and the monster placements are not mean at all.

The combat in this "initial area" isn't very exciting because the monsters here are placed just to fill the giant space but once you get onto the key hunt the map gets fun. You start to go through various buildings in this map that are more closed and linear which gives the map the chance to implement tighter combat design. It even throws in some ambushes and even lock-in fights. Ambushes aren't super dangerous but keep you on your toes and the two big fights here are very fun. The first one is in some watery area with boxes of rockets lying around, waves of monsters teleporting in make a return here. First it's revenants, then a cyberknight and finally an archvile with cacodemons. it's fun to manage distance between enemies in this slightly cramped arena while rocketing everything. The second and final fight is a big mix of everything at once and finally a good opportunity to use the plasma gun in this wad. Run around, avoid getting hit and fire madly until everything dies, simple and pretty fun.

The final fight can be cheesed really easily, screenshots in the spoiler.
 

GZDoom/UV/Contiuous/Saves

Write-ups from memory

MAP07: Sovereign - DMPhobos

Idk why, but I can spot a DMPhobos map a mile away for the most part. When we played through Interception II for the club, I mentioned a map of his reminded me of a map from Mapwhich 2. It turned out the map I was thinking of was his. Heck, this map reminds me a lot of his map from Elementalsim (note to self: finish Elementalism). I think his linework and indoor layouts might be the calling card. Something about the way he designs hallways just gives it away. Weird, I know. But even though most of this map takes place outside, I look at it and am like "Yup, this is a DMPhobos map". This isn't a bad thing at all of course.

This map is one of the most non-linear linear maps I've ever played. Most of this map is wide-open, but you still have to collect the keys in a certain order to progress. The map seems big initially, but in reality it's not really. Most of this map is dealing with incidental encounters while scrounging for weapons and ammo. If you pistol start, there's a good chance you'll be waking a lot of monsters up while searching for some guns. The map is quite a looker! I love the red and blue accents that adorn the various temples and walkways. It really pops compared to the tan sand. Since most of map's combat is incidental, this map isn't as high octane as some previous ones It can feel a little lackadaisical at times, as you can just take your time exploring. There's a few set pieces out there, like the waterlogged rocket-based fight with cacos, revs, an annihilator, and an archie, but they're uncommon. Even if it is mostly incidental, if you charge through this map, odds are you'll wake up too many monsters and just have your health whittled down, so be patient and enjoy exploring the environment. The biggest fight in the map is the final one, that pulls a MAP03 on you and sends you into a pit while dealing with a crap ton of enemies. It's a definite jump up in difficulty compared to the rest of the map, but the jolt of energy is a nice note to end on. The secrets are plentiful and I managed to find most of them on my own. I think I only missed the one at the northeast end of the map initially. 

So overall, this is a nice leisurely map with fantastic visuals. The MIDI fits the environment perfectly as well. 

MAP06 - “Rite” by an_mutt

Episode 2 opener reminiscent of both scythe2 episode 2, and surprisingly, chasm the rift, in my opinion having more in common with the former since I played a bit of it recently, similar in layout and enemy placement, only lacks the weird polyobject shit that game had. It is basically a tyson map dungeon crawler to have a red key in an outside area, so no shotgun for you at all. Other than that, I don't have much to say about combat and stuff, since is very typical things for these kinds of maps, except the presence of shotgunners at all, the pseudo open ended progression with the 2 sidepaths is cool on paper, doesn't do that much in execution. 

After you get the red key and a rocket launcher, 2 archviles spawn and you need to raise platforms with that key to open the exit. Retracing your steps to find those switches again is not bad, just that I think is a bit unnecessary and doesn't make much rather than add 2 minutes more of gameplay, not even the archvile ambushes are too significant, since you can just spam rockets at them and have enough rockets to finish the job just fine. That annihilator at the end is also a bit unnecessary, just waste what bullets and rockets you have left, and its joever. Not a bad map or episode opener, but is a bit bland as a tyson map, specially considering the quality leading to it.

7/10

MAP07 - “Sovereign” by DMPhobos

If this megawad had borrowed music like eviternity 1, I'm pretty sure this would have used scythe 2's map 24 midi.

Another map with like 400 enemies, this time a lot more open ended in progression. For some reason, this map reminds me of evil egypt's map12: Abdicate the Throne. For signalizing positives and negatives, combat in this map is pretty cool, definitely applies perfectly the principle of "If there's enemies, you need to go here", the start feels dynamic for this reason, since cleanup is essential to make further progress, and even after that, there's still more enemies you need to deal with, never losing momentum in the slightest. Also, there's some replayability present in how you can progress through the map, since most of the key pathways are interconnected anyways, letting you decide to mixup aproaches in subsequent playtroughs.

Although, this good trait is also a bit of an Aquiles heel, since you can also get a bit lost in this map at the start if you cleaned up everything around, and considering how open ended it is, sometimes is easy to lose track. Also, I don't like the fact that this map is a slow burner, requiring multiples minutes to make advances, and there's volatile ambushes that can make you lose all your progress in saveless playthroughs, or just first-time playthroughs, like that fucking annihilator archvile ambush, or the end of the map, although this one is a bit more justifiable since is an end ambush the map teased you from the beginning and you have all your equipment by this point. To clarify something, all of these levels I'm pistol starting them, just making backup saves if it is possible since I'm trying to play as blind as possible, but still, this can be a bit frustrating.

Other than that, solid map, good egyptian aesthetics.

7/10

Map08: Oblation (Bri) ===
Strong prince of persia vibes from this map, love it. This map is more tropical than the previous maps of episode 2 and it looks amazing. I even want to mention one place in the map in particular: in the arena where you get the SSG there's a hole in the ceiling with vines hanging and the way lighting in this room shows how the light that comes through here is just soo cool. The gameplay in this map is great as well. It literally feels "hot" with its' moderately cramped fights that have a small degree of grindiness that somehow adds to the interesting feel of the map instead of being tedious.

I'd also like to appreciate how consistently good and fitting midis on all maps are. Always high quality and always match the aesthetic of each map perfectly. I don't comment on the midis because I can't say much about music and it's just so consistent that you'd say the same thing about how good it is every time, but I always notice.
 

MAP08 - “Oblation” by Bri

Unlike the previous two maps, this one is far more linear. You move clockwise around a central area, with each room having a new challenge. The central area itself houses the final battle. There is even some minor platforming, which I can tolerate. For most part this seemed a bit easier than the last map, but there was one hilarious (looking back anyway) hallway where an arch-vile and a revenant challenged me. I overextended myself because I wasn't taking it seriously, and ended up getting zapped. But that slowed me down enough for the homing rocket to catch up to me. The rocket had to have done high damage too, since I had full health and plenty of armor. I hadn't even bothered to save because it didn't seem necessary. The second time I breezed through the map up to that point, and completed the rest of the map without a lot of trouble. The last big battle for the red key was the most fun part of the map. My only real criticism is that circle strafing neuters all of the fights. I let infighting do a lot of the work for me.

One of the most fun moments of my playthrough was when I let the astral cacodemon into the SSG room early on my second playthrough. It then proceeded to just obliterate everything in the room. It was funny. I did the smart thing and killed it before it won though.

I think is the best looking map of the episode so far. Unlike the previous two maps, this one is bright, and has a mix of indoor and outdoor areas with some vegetation. There's just way more variety and color here. The music is really good too.

This was another map where I managed to find all of the secrets. The mega secret tripped me up for a little bit because I wasn't expecting TWO shootable switches, but luckily I saw the other one before I gave up. The other two secrets were very easy to find.

I really enjoyed this map too. Maybe not quite as much as the last map. Maybe. It's going to be hard to really compare these maps because I'm enjoying them all about the same amount, so whether I actually enjoy one more than another is quite likely going to be down to the details of my playthrough rather than the map itself. Hopefully we keep up the "no bad maps" streak right to the end. I'm confident we will.

MAP06: Rite by an_mutt

Episode 2 showcases the all new texture set added to OTEX 2. These textures seem to adhere to Egyptian/Mesoamerican/Mayan type setting. Since this is the first map of the episode, this starts low and easy by being a Tyson-lite sort of map taking place in the indoor/cavernous area. Due to its episode/map slot coupled with the setting, this almost feels like a throwback to Scythe 2 whose Map06 is also a Tyson map set in the Egypytian setting. Thankfully, there is plenty of health and if you are looking for secrets, you can find a soulsphere, a chaingun and an SSG on this map. Another thing that is not immediately obvious (I only figured this out via discord) is that the range of fists is very slightly increased, which makes berserking revenants and hell knights a bit easier.

Once you get to the outdoor area, you obtain the rocket launcher + red key and a couple of archviles will show up, only to immediately teleport away. With the red key, you can press the 3 red key switches, 2 of which will teleport an archvile that you can dispatch with the RL and the last switch, which is closest to the exit area platforms, will bring an annihilator which you can again safely kill with RL. A fairly tame and innocuous start to the episode.

MAP07: Sovereign by DMPhobos

Contrast to map06, this map is very big and sprawling map with mostly incidental combat and plenty of different places to explore which gives the map a pretty good feel of being an ancient village of sort. Though that isn't to say that there aren't some spicy moments. The fight for the blue key is a locked in fight involves revenants, an annihilator, an archvile and cacodemons and the red key fight involves being locked in a square arena with group of imps to fight and astral arachnotrons firing from platforms overseeing the arena.

But the final fight is what takes the crown. Group of imps, pinkies, revenants supported by a dozen something cacodemons and a couple pain elementals. Though you should have the plasma gun by this point, so keep circling and spraying the gun and you should be alright. I will say this, I was shocked that while the final encounter was quite spicy, there were no menacing use of Cyberdemons. Ever since I played his mapset "Arceon" and his 2 maps in 1000 Lines 3, I was expecting some really "menace to society" level Cyberdemon usage here but got none. Though, DMPhobos himself cleared it out that there in fact was a menacing Cyberdemon encounter at one point in this map.

MAP08: Oblation by Bri

Bri is a mapper who I have been observing since the first project he submitted "Attack on IO". Even from just his first project, it was clear that he had great taste in aesthetics and combat. And this map is no exception. In fact, its great to see how he has evolved since then to become one of my favorite mappers. The aesthetics are pristine and the gameplay is a great mix of incidental and combat arenas.

The red key arena fight was the most interesting part of the map, though apart from the final stage of the fight that has 2 archviles, the rest of the stages can be deal easily with good usage of circle strafing and monster infighting. The final part with the ton of enemies, including 2 archviles, annihilators, astral cacodemons and other tons of enemies can be quite dangerous though, I recommend to find the secret megasphere before even entering that area.

All around, a very solid map. Though there is one part I am slightly iffy about. The part just before grabbing the blue key, you encounter an archvile when there is almost no place to hide from his attack. Though luckily, I don't think I got zapped by him in my 2 playthroughs of the map. Thankfully, even if you do, the damage can be mitigated by finding the way to the secret soulsphere near that area.

Map08 “Oblation” by Brian Irving (Bri)

Between the music, map design, and aesthetics I think Oblation hits the Mesoamerican theme the best of the levels we’ve seen so far. The lush jungles, the vines, the golden glyphs, Mayan-like architecture, the lighting… I can’t really say it raises the bar due to the quality we’ve been getting but it’s certainly staying parallel. I like how the level takes us on a tour around the central plaza where the finale takes place, giving us glimpses of it throughout. The map gets a lot out of its relatively small acreage and is a good example of efficiency in level design.

For most of the level, combat plays like Irving has kid gloves on. The entrance to the temple has a stiff fracas but ambushes like the blue and yellow key felt like they should’ve been more severe. The open arena past the yellow key has a higher enemy count but there’s so much room you can circle-strafe with impunity, though I did enjoy watching the ubertrons wreck all the nightmare demons. Upon taking the red key, however, the kid gloves come off and we get a real fight against a pair of archviles and a host of meaningful mid and upper tiers. Maybe the rest of the level put my guard down but I took a lot of damage here, the various astralized enemies start showing some teeth with viles backing them up.

I would have come away with a positive impression regardless on the atmosphere alone but I’m happy Oblation ended with a real fight. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been a standout encounter, though I did take a cheap hit from a perched revenant concealed by leaves (center west right before the lift leading to the blue key, I feel like he should be more visible). I continue to be impressed with the gorgeous artistry at work here, the immersion is on another level just like the first Eviternity. Another strong entry, and well positioned following the longer runtime of the previous map.

MAP08 - Oblation - Brian "Bri" Irving (100%K/100%I/75%S):

Am I the only one that gets a lot of PSX-Nostalgia because of this episode? This map feels a lot like some random PSX game, but I can't recall which one. The level is quite linear, and a bit shorter than the previous one, luckly. Still it feels like an adventure. Shorter does not mean easier, though. The map is quite difficult, but the last battle was something that screams Eviternity One levels of difficulty. Hardest fight in the mapset yet, specially because of the openness of the arena, and the archviles that will snipe you no matter what. Try your best at making them infight with the rest, because there is no other choice, as hiding behind those small pillars at the middle won't do much because of the annihilators.

Order of preference:
 

MAP08 - “Oblation” by Bri (Pistol start, [technically] saveless, 97% kills/33% items/25% secrets)

Wow, this map looks amazing! the map author really took advantage of the Egyptian theme to deliver a beautiful dune outside an ancient temple. This map definitely is starting to increase difficulty, trying to leave in wrong moments only will get your ass kicked with more shit, like trying to avoid the annihilator in the blue key room will only greet you with mancubi point blank. Although, I considered it a bit less ball busting than some of the fights in the previous map.

First map to truly showcase the capabilities of the astral arachnotron, that asshole is really fucking quick and will easily snipe you with that ultra-fast rate of fire. The final ambush would be hard if 70% of the opposition wasn't just beating itself, even the archviles would be randomly joining the infighting party. Wow, this lasted 20 minutes? It felt like way less, because the linear progression is very good, letting you engage with the map in a very easy and intuitive way, fights end quickly, is just a very, very good map overall.

The midi is just fucking amazing, it reminds me of sunset over babylon a bit but in a higher key.

9/10

Map08 - Oblation - Bri

Also a mesoamerican tomb raiding adventure but it feels like we've zoomed in on the hex of the game map as it were, whereas the last map felt like madly running about 8 of said hexes. Both cool fantasies, more drawn to this one. Hard to tell why...

Everything looks bespoke, again. The exit is right by the entrance, so we'll end up here, can't get lost. We are offered an early rocket launcher before we're offered a chaingun, quirky and fun little details.  Two minutes in we finally leave the jungle behind and enter the first structure. Beautiful, foreboding symmetry, deep crimson smeared with the grotesquery of flayed bodies hooked up high, hanging-guts-garden style. To satisfy the gods the oblation will be blood! 

The fight that this area is set up for is for the SSG. It's a bit of a circlestrafe fight culminating in another astral caco close-up. By this point we should be familiar with the behaviour of this enemy. Gameplay slows down when we are introduced to a perched archvile in a beautiful little ravine between structures waiting for the beautiful prince to come (us). Perhaps the mapper would expect the player to cinematically make a run from from boundary to boundary but if the player has line of fire to a turreted archvile and enough ammo they will not be an intrepid movie protagonist, they will be a very pragmatic and stoic russian classic literature great war survivor and hole up and patiently snipe even if that slows gameplay down to a crawl. But perhaps I should have just saved some more rockets, there? Oh well.

All that leads to the blue key on a pedestal, a bit of a door fight (with some cruel imp revealed monster closets at both flanks that almost killed me). Found a timed secret, as usual finding at least one secret in a normal playthrough feels good. Lost the one life at the second archvile of the map this time, some progress I guess :/

Things escalate a couple of times in that blue key arena including some toe to toe with cybergoat but thankfully there's cover available. Mostly smooth ride after I realized red liquid isn't hurtfloor on this one. Eventually we hit the yellow key after dispatching an ineffectual archvile (and not figuring out a way to their clearly signposted megasphere). After that whole two key interior delve we find our way outside for a nominally hectic strafe fight and though I observe the contrast between a protracted amount of time spent inside and then hitting the wide open feeling space again, it would have landed a bit stronger if I wasn't immediately pressured to strafe around to live. However the action is welcome and it does familiarize one with this area for the next and final fight for the red skull, which involves stiffer reinforcements from a couple of archviles as well.
 

Though this and the last map do not differ in terms of objectives they are quite separate experiences. Some of it is down to irregular interior spaces without a lot of copy-paste contrasting with the necessarily modular and quasi-symmetric design of the city in the prior map, the other angle is the range of scalar relationships you find yourself in (the last map made me feel I am roaming around a miniature city, this one makes me feel tiny in comparison to every wall, even though it's a smaller footprint). This one also feels much more like an actual location, insofar that sectors excite that childlike part of our imaginations, everyone's different... I liked the challenge of the last fight enough to want to retry it to see if I could at least kill both of the AVs myself, not leave them to infighting. I did and so content I left the map with less than 100% kills and my only secret, what secret could that be? I would never tell, what sort of secret would it be otherwise? (it was a soulsphere)

footage

MAP08: Oblation by Bri

I wish I had more experience with Bri's maps (I've only played Attack on IO and Hydrosphere), from what I've seen, he has a talent of making pretty levels with exciting, yet accessible combat. He's one of the best recent mappers and a worthy addition to Eviternity's team.

It gets a bit boring to start every write-up with gushing over how pretty the map is, but I don't know how to avoid it when you have a wad like this. After emerging from the tunnel you exited Sovereign through, you see a valley of white sand and vibrant green. What a sight. The temple where you spend the bulk of the map also looks great, with a lot of red liquid on the floor. Is this a blood of people sacrificed here?

The fights are rather standard, a nice combination of incidental and arena combat. The yellow key room is a bit confusing with several revenants above and it's easy to trigger too many monsters at once, but that's probably the only part I did not enjoyed (I'm talking purely about gameplay here, the visual side of this place is good). Do yourself a favour and find a secret plasma rifle here, it's not that hard to spot, but it helps a lot with the final section: the red key arena. There are three waves here, the first one lets you test the infighting potential of astral arachnotrons, the second lets you test the infighting potential of an annihilator and the third one is a huge fight with two archviles mixed in.

Oblation is an enjoyable map, it feels like a breather somewhat, but I don't mind a low-key level like this.

Everything so far is played with:

UV difficulty, DSDA-Doom (outdated release?), Rewinds and saves welcome, Pistol Start

This my second playthrough of Eviternity 2.

Map 05 - “Departure” by @Velvetic & @Dragonfly

Thematically, Departure is a farewell to both Eviternity II Episode 1 and Eviternity I Episode 6. No wonder that this map starts with the famous temple structure from Eviternity I Heliopolis!

Fights vary greatly in scope between tiny skirmishes, and some quite explosive arenas. The archviles appear quite casually now, often with not that much cover in sight. There is also the first cyberdemon fight of the WAD (with two cybers, to make things interesting), and a new, improved Astral Archnotron variant. And even smaller wights can be quite vicious. My personal bane is that one astral cacodemon on top of the spiral staircase. It always manages to blindside me and land a full point-blank salvo! Plasma Rifle arena is also quite deadly, but it is a full-sized arena at least, does not feel so bad losing there...

But no matter where on the map I go, there is lots of background details to see. Despite modest size and linear path forward, the level really feels like a huge, sprawling area to explore.

And both those visuals and this gameplay really remind me of Struggle maps. Before checking the author's signatures, I was sure that @antares031 was invilved in making this map. But I digress.

Departure is the perfect finale for the Heavenly Residence of Archangelus sub-section of Eviternity duology. And in the context of Eviternity II, it offers yet another setpping stone to the crazy stuf which will come later...

Map 06 - “Rite” by @an_mutt

Episode 2 begins with a tyson-esque exploration of some temple ruins. The theme of this episodes seems to be Mesoamerica. To me personally, it also feels weirdly Egyptian... Something about OTEX textures and their deployment in Episode 2 has a subtle, but notable Egyptian connotation...

But no mater which pyramids and ancient cities we are exploring right now, they do feel properly grand and ancient.

Rite in particular is a dungeon crawl through some dark and deviously interconnected subterrain corridors. Weapons and ammo are limited, especially without secrets, but rocket launcher is notably present. Gotta say, Pistol + Berserk + Rockets is a very under-utilized weapon set in Doom pWADs... Glad that An_mutt created a map dedicated to this weapon set!

My favorite part of the whole experience is the rocket duel right before the exit. The player needs to cross a lava chasm using a set of raised columns. However, on the opposite side of the bridge, there is an Annihilator, armed with its signature Rocket Cannon and a novel Energy Machinegun. Fighting an annihillator across the chasm is quite tense, especially on a limited resource budget...

Map 07 - “Sovereign” by @DMPhobos

Lost Civilization is a good phrase to describe ancient cities with pyramids in them. But Lost Civilization is also a megawad, famous for its expansive and detailed maps.

Sovereign unites everything under one single rule: here we have detailed expansive map set in ancient Mesoamerican (and maybe also a bit Egyptian) city. That's a huge cool experience, and a nice contrast to both claustrophobic map 06 and smaller-scale levels from Withered Episode.

To me, Sovereign felt somewhat like a Serious Sam level. Something from Babylonian Espidode of TSE, to be precise. Shooting monster hordes in ancient cities is a Serious Sam staple, after all! Eviternity + Serious Sam TSE sounds a bit strange at first, but they seem to fit together quite well...

Map 08 - “Oblation” by @Bri

I think that I should play more maps by Bri. Oblation is a nice unique part of Episode 2, and Freya is definitely one of the best maps I played in a long while. (But Freya will be discussed later, on the 16th of January)

Oblation heavily reminds me about @skillsaw's work. Small-to-medium Ancient Aliens maps, and the "Coast to coast..." from BtSX3 are the closest points in comparison. Explosive fights are abundant, and they tend to have that memorable Skillsaw-esque bite in them. Last figght with its squad of roaming archviles, and many custom monster is arguably the deadliest fight in the WAD yet. The artistic side of things is also top-notch. It is beautiful, memorable, and also resonates well with the gameplay.

All in all, this is yet another great map. It works like a bit of a breather between grander maps 07 and 09, yet it also escalates the gameplay further, offering new and expanded fights to test the player's prowess.

MAP08 - “Oblation” by Bri

Well this is a looker, I think I prefer the greens pairs with the temple and occasional red aesthetic, it really pops and Bri does a great job of channeling something akin to Eternal's epic series into what is a more dungeon crawler type of map. Again this map felt a little too soft, in fact a couple of "traps" were a little laughable (The yellow key warps in two cacodemons in an open space. The final fight does turn up the heat and in a way it can easily catch the player off guard because it is several levels above anything else this map offers. Overall I liked this one a lot, but I kind of wished that there were a few extra barbs in this. However this doesn't spoil the map that again offers something a little different to what we have seen so far.

GZDoom/UV/Contiuous/Saves

Write-ups from memory

MAP08: Oblation - Bri

When looking through the list of mappers on the Eviternity II website, I was initially surprised to see Bri's name listed. I was like, "Dang, he's a new mapper! He's only released a few things." I definitely wouldn't expect him to be on this team of mappers who have been involved in the Doom community for so long. But it's not really surprising that he's here. I've played the various episodes he's released over the last couple years, and they've been incredibly high quality in terms of gameplay and visual design, so I was very excited to see how his maps would stack up to the others in this WAD. Turns out, they stack up quite nicely.

There have been lots of Mesoamerican/Mayan/Egyptian style maps throughout Doom's 30 year history. This map is the best looking out of all of them. Coming out of last map's exit and seeing the green leaves of the trees is a nice visual treat. You get a lot of that in this map. The area with the SSG has some really nice floor patterns for example. Stuff like that really makes me want to explore the map and not exit it as fast as possible. It also makes me want more maps in this theme, which isn't a problem since this is the middle of an episode just like that. As for general design, this is a very linear affair that happens to circle back to the beginning. You see the exit almost as soon as you start the map, so you'll know this is where you will end up. Combat is mostly incidental, though there are a few set pieces here, like the aforementioned SSG area. An interesting encounter is when you enter a hallway and find a rev. Nothing big about that, but as you're dealing with it, an archie comes moseying its way toward you. There's not really any cover here except for the closet the rev was in, and the turn of the hallway, so it's a surprisingly panic-inducing encounter. The only other incidental encounter with some teeth is the area with the yellow skull. There's snipers all around, plus an astral arachnotron on the ground. If you didn't notice their speed before, you will now as it will close the gap on you very quickly. The yellow key opens up the main set piece of the map. An outdoor courtyard with a multi-stage fight. The first part mostly has some blocks lower to reveal enemies teleporting in, but as you jump into the teleporter to grab the red key, that's when the big wave shows up. It's a whole mess of baddies, with many high-priority targets, so it's a tough one to sort out, but you can cause infighting pretty easily. IIRC, there's archies here so focus on those first with the RL, and just try to make sure astral cacos don't cause you to face rocket. Using the red key to leave will take you back to the start, where a few more astral cacos stand before you and the exit.

Overall, a fantastic map! One of the best looking maps in the WAD, which is saying a lot considering the visual quality of this WAD. Difficulty is a step up from the previous maps, but still nothing too bad. Secrets aren't too hard to find as long as you keep your eyes and ears open. MIDI is really good too. In the description for the YouTube upload of the MIDI, Tristan said that the reference track Bri sent him for this map was "I Would For You" by NIN. Would not have expected a Hesitation Marks deep cut to be the reference! I can kinda hear the similarities, but the MIDI instruments at least make the MIDI fit the theme of the episode. 

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

Map 8: Oblation - 16:51

Oh hey cute snake. Oblation is noticeably more inclined towards action than the previous two maps. I didn't find it that much more difficult, but it has a lack of dead air which I appreciate. The SSG room and hallways that surround the megasphere secret are particularly explosive. The final arena however might be my favorite room in Ev2 so far. It hosts *three* fights in the same space, each deadlier than the last. The third has multiple arch-viles, annihilators, and astral cacos... though they will mostly just fight amongst themselves. I kind of wish all of the fights in this map were as crazy. One thing I wasn't a fan of is the early perched arch-vile, who you need to either run away from and deal with later or slowly snipe him with few rockets or a chaingun. Oblation doesn't take a whole lot of time to complete nor do I suspect it'll stand out too much in the scheme of the whole wad, but it's acute pacing and non-stop action make it one of my favorite maps so far in the main progression. Also the MIDI is a serious jam. I wonder if it's Mark Klem inspired, as it sort of sounds like something he'd write to me. 
Difficulty: 4/15

Map 09 - Quetzalcoatl - Dragonfly

(and the beautiful midi to complete the experience if you watch the footage)

This ruin crawl comes courtesy of project lead Dragonfly.

Once again we have an initial framing of a foreboding temple as we arrive on the scene.  Berserk start is good start as far as I'm concerned! No music because I decided to record a demo to see if I can survive blind and on ffmpeging the demo I didn't do it right and didn't capture the midi. Still, made it out alive so the incentive to do a saveless run did help with motivation.
 

Once again man, what a beautiful map. Can't go understated how well the textures sky and topographies interplay. A joy to run and gun around this environment.

Had a rude meeting with the opening astral caco and almost died. Active teleporters means another frantic run and gun to pacify the opening shot with only a residual memory of the actual layout congealing as I run about... I should try to get better at making a mental map of places fast. This layout didn't turn out to be confusing in the least though.

There is a central megastructural landmark. This is where the skulls will be landing, we eventually find out. There's enough health around to make a full recovery from any near-fatal wound three times over so in that sense Evi II is still in its extremely generous phase. Rocket Launcher fight involves stemming a plague of imps as they run autoaim interference for some turreted revenants. Good fight. From the central megastructure I note that there's a contraption that requires all three skull keys, so we know what we'll be doing.

In the corner of the map there's a cavernous drop-in. Down there we are greeted with a nice little archvile encounter, kept simple but letting us know how the opposition will be as we make our ingress.

I had to take a screenshot of this it looked so lovely¤

At this point I've been at it for about 10 minutes and I'm over half kills so I start to play a bit more careful for the rest, and in the back of my mind I've got thoughts of what will cap off this map, heavy archvile or cyberdemon fight? It's good to play saveless and blind sometimes not for some tryhard reason but to experience this paranoiac tinge added to the mix of emotions of play that can only come after prolonged exposure without a safety net. Hence I almost panic and lose my life to a chaingunner ambush. Moreso to my point, I collect myself and make a comeback even if it means fighting an astral caco with a chaingun with 16% health. Exciting doom times, good map.
 

There's another good pincer fight on the bridge where you are beset at both sides with tealies and pinkies and imps and I got touched a bit too much there but once again the plentitude of health lying around on the layout helps. After you get the plasma there's actually quite enough ammo interspersed to make some judicious choices about which fights to honour and which to give yourself a little leg up on. That's a good feeling for a longer map. Storytelling blood-decals and dead marine sign the way to another plasma rifle. There's more than one of a lot of the key guns to be found, suggesting more nonlinearity. 

I get back to central structure and see my fucking about on the map has produced two keys thus far, they have lowered down on megastructure spokes. Cool, so only one wheel to turn somewhere and return to centre for the final key. There's a dicy little archie encounter in a dark and gleaming garden by a little mirror pool but thankfully the vile has a run up time towards the player, enough to pull out rockets and make it a short stay. There's a cool garage door opening fight with a couple of cybergoats and imps that makes you feel powerful for having well stocked plasma or rockets.
 

I find a free soulsphere and a blue armor at 320 kills out of 391 so a lot of late tension is ameliorated knowing I have that buffer. The final fight for the yellow key is actually a scenic moment more than anything, seeing them cacos flood over the ancient ziggurat and through the archways and openings coming to get you is very fun. Patience and one bottleneck trivializes the severity of the fight, but I'll take a slight anticlimax, actually, as I managed to survive even if it is with 99% kills and with my usual only one secret out of the bunch. I enjoyed this a lot, needless to say whenever one plays blind and saveless it's a special sort of thrill. Don't let the tryhardism of youtube content creators dissuade you from adjacent modes of play - you don't have to get 100% of everything to give the map a good chance to do its best to trill and chill. 

footage

• Antares made the Struglge map30 boss which automatically means he should contribute to every wad.

MAP09 - Quetzalcoatl - Dragonfly (99%K/90%I/66%S):

Another beautiful map with a complex layout focusing around key hunting gameplay. Keys are all at the middle of the pyramid, so in order to get them, you'll need to hunt for three switches all around the map. In addition, there is a hidden switch that will reveal the secret exit, to access it, you will need to find the, easy to find, BFG secret visible from the start of the map. Playground maps go really well with these kind of levels, rewarding exploration and openness to see those really gorgeous views of all the landscape, really feels like one of those early Ancient Aliens maps, but without those evil UFOs in the sky. We are only at MAP09 and I really think this is, so far, one of the best looking mapsets, if not the best, so far.

Gameplay-wise, I think Quetzalcoatl was the hardest overall. The last battle with the cacoswarm was a pain to deal with, and sadly, I did get my BFG just before exiting to the secret map, so I could not use it. Lovely map.

MAP32 - Charge - Tristan Clark & Guardsoul (99%K/77%I/30%S):

Secret maps are not exempt of beautiful landscapes, I love the autumn aesthetics around this map, the falling leaves give this map a lot of life, just like in the first episode. The map is big, and I mean BIG. Humongous. What a journey! Though it is linear most of the time, and you will, most likely, never revisit most of its areas, there is a lot of stuff to mention: the setup is one of the best of the megawad yet. The gameplay, is quite experimental and arcade-esque, don't get scared because of the monster count, as most of the enemies are low-tier fodder that can be mowed down easily with rockets. Also, most of them are at the end of it, where you will have to use switches that electrify the water where most enemies stand. What a show of guts and enemy screams it is every time you turn on the switch and instagib them. You have to do this 4 times, and every single time is as satisfying as always. Great last fight. Still, said switches are timed, so you will have to wait a bit until switches are available, so in the meanwhile, you will have to use your rockets to make your way through, and pray not to get blown up by meatwalls tanking them near your face.

The entire map feels like an adventure, and every single bit of it is well detailed. It is one of the greatest works I've seen in Doom in that department (Still, Anagnorisis takes the prize). My main problem, though, was obviously openness itself, as most of the time I've got sniped by some random rockets thrown at me by a random cyberdemon, without even knowing from where. Same with the troopers shooting you from Saturn. Apart from that, it was always satisfying to blow packs of small enemies to raise that kill count and make me feel that I'm accomplishing something. I think I've missed a lot of additional stuff, like the red key, entirely. But... ...go by yourself and try to 100% this map, I dare you. I don't have that much time, sadly, so if I see an exit, I proceed.

Excellent map.

Order of preference:
 

MAP09: Quetzalcoatl by Dragonfly

I see this as a superior iteration of Sovereign. It is also a large temple, but this one actually commits to the idea of non-linear exploration - the three keys needed to reach the regular exit are all in the centre of the map and you need to visit three wings to release each.

The map opens up with some incidental combat in the hub, which warms you up before you choose your own path. Most of the fights here involve going through corridors, surviving ambushes and lock-in fights, until reaching the switch at the end that unlocks the key. I think my favourite part was the yellow key one, it's the longest of three and most interesting. Tons of monsters to kill, surprised revenant ambushes and that one room where you can get two annihilators to kill a group of imps and then one another (I thought they were immune to splash damage, but I think I confused them with cybrusers from Valiant that use the same sprite). With all keys, you can trigger one last fight in the temple and move to MAP10.

Or find the secret exit. I think I've got better at finding secrets in Eviternity II, I've got 5 out of 6, plus an alternate exit (the only one that evaded me was a supercharge on the red key path, but in a hindsight, it was indeed marked - I should have spotted an odd-coloured torch). Essentially, drop down at the end of the yellow key route to open the way to the secret exit, then, after completing the blue key section, walk across a ledge to the BFG and follow a trail of health vials. Overall, Quetzalcoatl is a good adventure that will satisfy anyone who seeks an exploratory map. I know I was satisfied.

MAP32: Charge by Tristan Clark and Guardsoul

Just wow. You have no idea what you've in for.

I don't know where to start, there are so many things I want to talk about. The map is takes place during a gorgeous early autumn. I now understand why ukiro said OTEX 2 will be remembered for its trees, the red leaves are just so beautiful. It's a perfect backdrop for the map, a grimy mine with a lot of wood and metal. This sort of low-tech industrial vibe is an underappreciated aesthetic if you ask me.

The map itself is a giant adventure with 2000 monsters. Don't worry, most of them are trash to blow with rockets (which are in abundance here) and the rest is involved with two fights at the very end. You'll be moving through cliffs, tunnels and finally emerge in the open, next to a lake. There's a couple of interesting things here. There's a cyberdemon sniping you from a top of a watchtower, he's annoying unless you know how to deal with him, which I will touch upon later on. The blue key sits in a pool, picking it up energises the water and insta-killing anything that waddles in it. Then there's a stampede of pinkies on a bridge, which is a setpiece that would make any map stand out. It's a rush of hundreds of demons and you have to survive and get to the end. This is where the final fight takes place, with numerous cyberdemons and archviles standing in the water. While a nearby switch kills them all, a torrential flood of imps, demons, revenants and hell nobles follows. It would have been brutal, but you can (and should) periodically electrocute the horde, thinning it out and making space to move. Finally, they all should die and you can exit the map. 

At that point I had only found half of the map's secrets, so I went searching. The platform with the red key was something I've noticed but forgot about, so after a series of failed jumps (I didn't realise you could raise a platform that completely negates this) I managed to land there and flick a switch that both kills that pesky cyberdemon and lowers the key. What follows I'm putting behind a spoiler tag, you just have to experience it yourself.

Charge is a masterwork, a Cacoward material even in itself. It is my favourite map of Eviternity II so far and it will take a lot to topple it. Everything works here, from the unique visuals, exciting combat to really creative optional content. Tristan and Guardsoul, hats off.

MAP08: Oblation. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 229/229 K, 4/4 S, 3/3 I. Comp. time 32:51

Another great one; instead of sandbox, this one's more like a sequence of set encounters. Secrets aren't a problem this time, but like Sovereign, I had trouble with the first big fight. Nothing insurmountable. The final fight is harder, perhaps, but somehow took me less retries (only one). Love it, anyways. I guess my only gripe would be the shootable switches to gain access to the megasphere secret -- I'm not sure where I was supposed to stand; I activated them by standing on the narrow ledges of the pyramid structure and shooting SSG at them.

*

MAP09: Quatzecoatl. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 391/391 K, 6/6 S, 10/10 I. Comp. time 45:12

I forgot to wrote down this after playing, and a day later I'm a bit at loss. I guess Quatzecoatl slight mixes with Sovereign, since they are both sandboxy aztec ziggurat maps. It's still a great one, too, I remember thinking about Ancient Aliens ep1 maps, but I guess that's partly due to the sandbrick sort of the aesthetic.

Sometimes it is hard to come up with something original to say; Eviternity II is consistently masterful stuff. Blunders would give something to blab about :P

*

MAP32: Charge. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 2035/2037 K, 9/10 S, 8/9 I. Comp. time 71:29

Oh, wow. First things first: I didn't max this one: there's one secret I know the location of, but now how to access it. The soul sphere sometime after the big lift scene early-ish in the map. Then there are two enemies somewhere, I don't know where. Left a save to hunt them later, so I won't sour this experience by UVMAXOCD.

Okay, so, umm... I'm reminded of Anagnorisis from Eviternity 1 - the texture choices are reminiscent of that, as is the sheer massive size of it, although I guess Charge is a bit more linear. The scale made my laptop weep, I had to lewr the resolution to prevent frame rate dropping to 20s when you reach the big open area with a cyberdemon overlooking you and where you have to rocket hundreds of pinkies just before the final battle.

... The final battle, which is the higlight of the map. You're introduced to the etymology of the map (hence the map title). In short, there is a massive outpour of monsters into a flooded chamber, where you have to survive short periods before you can electrocute everyone standing in the water. My first few attempts didn't go well as I failed to realize the electrocution mechanic was reusable upon recharging. Even then, it's hairy fight, even the first imp waves would easily get me. At least Annihilators would get caught in infighting most of the time.

That's just the highlight, the whole map is a load of fun. At the very start I was feeling a bit exhausted (maybe because starting right after MAP09) and unimpressed, but that would change very quickly.

Also, if I haven't mentioned before: it's astounding the amount of work that's put into these maps. I could have exited somewhere around 50-60 minute mark, but at that point I hadn't still discovered the area leading up to the secret Perforator. That's not just a small room, but a small adventure in itself that you could easily just miss completely. You get to see how many bullets it takes to down a Spider Mastermind with Perffie, and then there's also another new foe, which I wonder is a one time encounter... truly golden cacoaward -worthy material :P

---

Couple of hours later: I knew the key to the secret wouldn't be that far, but you never know. Anyway, from Eviternity 1 days (and from many, many wads) you should always suspect lifts, that they activate more than the obvious.

Also found a couple of incidental imps around a corner hat I just somehow had missed.

---

Couple of days later: I totally missed the surprise enemy, you get glimpses of it throughtout the map. Ah well.

MAP09 - “Quetzalcoatl” by Dragonfly (Pistol start, used saves, 96% kills/60% items/50% secrets)

A bigger, better, badder version of map7. Something about the architecture actually represents the whole mesoamerican/mayan aesthetic than the rest of the episode, that central structure and the pillars just communicates something completely different. Although, a nitpick, why the midi sounds Egyptian if clearly all the environment is mayan? Idk if you knew but, those 2 are different. Also, the midi doesn't loop correctly.

All the positives I mentioned in map 7 apply to this, in an actual better and more polished way, there's even better landmarks than in map7 since the 3 locations to open the keys are even more distinct, and dragonfly goes above and beyond in the nonlinear aspect, having duplicates of guns in many places of the map, letting playthroughs to be even more customizable. Just how good the incidental combat is, makes like 30 minutes feel like 15, is crazy how manages to balance great aesthetics, substantial combat that at least ask some quick reaction from the player, and extremely intuitive progression that even if you don't know you are actually lowering keys, still has the competence to guide you in it's different areas organically, communicating with combat and smart details everything you need to know.

9/10 

MAP32 - “Charge” by Tristan Clark, Guardsoul (Pistol start, used saves, 99% kills/55% items/10% secrets)

It is very fucking hard for me to talk about this map. It started with the impression of "OMG THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE BEST MAP EVER, LOOKS AMAZING, THE MIDI IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING, IS JUST PURE DYNAMITE!!" then when I was like 20 minutes into the map, cleaned up most of everything and started searching for the blue key, and got my ass kicked by that astral caco ambush over a literal death floor, on a tight space with an asshole unreachable cybersniper almost hitting my forehead, and quickly changed to "Oh..." And then, that pinky army rocket launcher spam fight, with former corporal snipers combined with the previous cybersniper, making effectively the fight a random touhou dodging session, and 2 archviles with no cover at the end of that, changed again to "Eh, i think..." And then, a way to cheese the second row of pinkies just backtracking to the entrance of the tunnel with 60 rockets, completely deleting the pinkies and the rest of the challenge away, and again "I don't like this anymore."

My issue is pacing and progression, the map was basically a linear style over substance shootout for like over 80% of its runtime, rocketing low and midtiers like a badass, always pushing forward, then, for some reason, it introduces a small key hunt, suggested by both the presence of red and blue doors. Then, we are introduced to the electric water dead floor, once disabling it with a very marginal space traversal, and then in the astral caco ambush showing us before the fact that yes, this is instakill. 

The thing is, outside of these, the map never had a thing that mortal before. There where ambushes, yes, but they're very easy and popcorn-ish, like what I mentioned the map was, or you will tell me a sole baron in an elevator, and a flood of just low tiers that is made to be blown up by the rocket launcher is threatening? At least the map has one instance of threatening to kill all your progress beforehand, but is just so insignificant compared to the rest of the map that It doesn't tell anything by itself, I will argue the actual astro caco fight tells all of this by itself, so... why not more tough ambushes before then? To counteract that spike out of nowhere? 

Also, the key thing was completely unnecessary and disrupts progression for no good reason, the red key is secret I suppose, the blue key mandatory to exit is over a fight you can easily skip and then come back later, people not noticing it has the blue key on it can easily mistake it as nonimportant for progression, meaning you can lose time for something not completely intuitive. 

The volatility of the last ambushes would have been better if the whole maps was filled with more difficult stuff to counteract the fact, and then this wouldn't be a problem for me, since I know what to expect coming here, but how is executed makes it feel rough.

The final ambush is really good though, making the absolutely best use of that instakill floor action I've seen until now, letting you clean that monstruous 1300 enemies left with just the flick of a switch trading it with having not too much of a space for some seconds, making it a flashy timing challenge, but at this point the map lost all its momentum very hard, for qualities like these doesn't mean the map is bad by any metric, it's high notes are still very high, i just think it didn't reach the peak of its potential.

6/10

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

Map 9: Quetzalcoatl - 24:56

The map named after an (the?) Aztec serpent god of creation is another fun desertic/Mesoamerican adventure that hitches up the difficulty slightly from the last two maps. There are three keys to collect, but I'm not really sure what opens them/triggers them to be available. All three of them are on a pedestal in the middle of the map and all three times I played the map they were all just sitting there at the end waiting for me. I really like the deft pairing of dark watery caverns and ancient ruins in the first wing of the map. It's a standout visual moment in an already consistently gorgeous wad. I'm not wild about the second half of the map though, it feels a bit perfunctory to me and is much shorter than the first. The incidental combat doesn't mess around, either. Obtaining weapons and power-ups are often met with fierce demonic reprisals, one of which has you face down two annihilators and a gang of imps and another sandwiches you between two teleport traps of demons. The final fight is particularly vicious with revenant snipers along with a few astral cacos and annihilators. One thing that will always stick with me about this map is how many supercharges there are, especially if you track down all the secrets. I lost count after the fourth one. If you're able to find it, the secret exit and a gratuitous BFG share a secret area. The latter of which completely neuters the final fight (the secret exit is worth the effort to find though, trust me :)).
Difficulty: 5/15

Map 32: Charge - 30:55

Holy s**t, this map is awesome. Taking place in a large techbase and mining facility sharing space with a stunning autumn landscape, Charge is power metal from start to finish. The majority of the map leans on the rocket launcher and chaingun, and you'll face down large groups of low-tier enemies with them. One sequence in particular loads you up with rockets and throws like 100 zombiemen, shotgunners and imps at you to make salsa with. It isn't the subtlest gameplay loop ever but if you keep a good pace it is such a joyous time just blowing things up. There are ten secrets in this map and most of them aren't essential and a bit too obscure, but I urge anyone who hasn't yet to see the red key secret in it's entirely. I obviously won't spoil it's contents here, but obtaining the red key involves (the only way I found?) a somewhat tricky SR50 jump. Surrounding the blue key nearby is a grid of electrified water, and hitting the switch in the center lowers the platforms momentarily and shows it instantly killing the monsters that touch it. A mechanic that will be useful later. The final two fights are definitely the hardest parts of the map. The first is a pinky demon ambush from both sides in which you'll have to be bold with the rocket launcher to survive. The second one though is an extremely clever (and crazy!) fight that pits you against over a thousand demons. There are switches around the map that will electrify the water though as seen earlier, and will instantly kill all enemies in the water at that time. It will also kill you if you touch it, though. The first time I played this map I wasn't paying attention and didn't think to activate any of the lightning grid switches, and was really annoyed and baffled at the seemingly massive difficulty spike "WTF is this, sunder?!". Don't be me. Anyway, this is an excellent map. Massive kudos to the authors. 
Difficulty: 6/15

MAP09 - “Quetzalcoatl” by Dragonfly

For the most part this map was great, in general the strongest element is that central hub that is relatively easy to navigate and also presses the player constantly. You need to lower the three keys to leave the map, the red key felt the weakest in terms of combat, mostly going through a separate temple with pretty modest opposition. The exit fight also left a lot to be desired, I don't know but I think last months wad has left me a little tired of caco clouds, here the final fight was just a little slow to clear and like a couple of others I only found the BFG secret and secret exit after I killed everything. Overall this was a solid map with probably the bet gameplay of the episode, even if the final fight was a little underwhelming.

MAP32 - “Charge” by Tristan Clark, Guardsoul

Note - I only found 3 secrets and obviously missed out on a lot of content.

I am a little torn on this map, now the map is an impressive feat of world building and there are elements of this map that are simply awesome. However I am left with the feeling that the map was potentially two different things that have been stitched together in concept. Obvious we have the gimmick which is the electrified floors that instantly kill everything that touches them, now there are two fights, the first is the blue key where frankly I think the author could have gone a little harder, it was o time at all until the floor returned to a harmless state and only two astrocacodemons mean that there wasn't too much threat. The other fight is of course the final fight, which simply is awesome.

The other element of this map is that it clearly feels like a magnum-opus, it is a large adventure, but this is where the torn element comes in, the map is pretty easy to proceed from and it is clear the every effort was spared to make the map as quick to blaze through as possible, zombiemen line this place like few maps I have seen and there are also a lot of imps. In a way I get the feeling that the map may have been more hostile once upon a time, but was changed to bring down the run time of the map. As such the combat was lacking in places. The pinky blowout also didn't do much for me, it was easy to beat but also rather slow to blitz with the rocket launcher.

So that is all I can mention at the moment, now above I can see that there is clearly a lot of optional content and lore I missed, overall the map for what I saw was pretty darn good, but a large amount can be effectively auto-piloted at times, on the other hand I guess it meant I could take in the scenery, which of course is top-notch. This is one for the replay pile I think, because I don't think I have had enough time to fully appreciate this one. I am also questioning whether the gimmick could have been utilised a little more instead of only existing mostly in the final quarter of the maps runtime. 

As a final note - Tristan you can stop questioning your credentials as a mapper, seriously this is better than anything I have ever made :)

GZDoom/UV/Contiuous/Saves

Write-ups from memory

MAP09: Quetzalcoatl - Dragonfly

This map is similar to MAP03, in that it's pretty non-linear. There are 3 areas you need to complete, and each one lowers a key toward the center of the map. You need all 3 of them to access the exit, but You only need to do 2 of them if you want to get the secret exit and just exit ASAP. The center area houses some goodies and a nice imp/rev fight for the RL. The center area fluctuates heights quite a bit, which looks pretty nice. I mean, the whole map looks fantastic in general. Some of the side parts where you can lower the keys have these green flame textures that looks really cool and mystical. If you want to get a BFG ASAP, I recommend doing the area to the northwest first, as you can drop down by the switch that lowers the key to find a secret switch that lowers the pillars with pink tops. Then do the east side, so you can grab the BFG  right after lowering the key over there. The BFG is on the path to the secret exit, so you can take that now if you want, but might as well UV Max this thing. Both of the previously mentioned areas have some tough enemy placements, but there's an abundant of power-ups in this map. The secrets have a decent amount of soul spheres, but there's at least 2 non-secret ones in the northwest passage, plus a non-secret mega armor. The last area on the west has a funny secret where a lone blue torch will move out of the way to reveal a secret teleporter (and archie) that leads to a soul sphere. It's just funny seeing the torch slide to the side. The final fight has 2 pillars of revs firing down on you as enemies teleport all around the center area. Honestly, the BFG doesn't seem that practical for this fight, as the monsters are spread out. Actually, by the time you get it, the BFG is only really useful to melt the occasional archie. The secret plasma is more useful for most of the map. Still, it's nice to have. Overall, this is a fun one, and one of my favs from Dragonfly in the WAD. It's fun to explore, and it's a good sized map. Encounters are fun, and goodies are plentiful. Plus, it has the secret exit, so that means time for the secret map! And boy oh boy is that a map...

MAP32: Charge - Tristan and Guardsoul

When I first completed this map, I immediately went into the Eviternity II thread and made a very bold claim. I said that this was the single best map I have played in years. After posting that, I realized I was only 1/3 of the way done with the WAD. What if there's a better map? Then that claim was premature. It would be weird to go back into that thread and then say something like "actually, MAP14 is the best map I played in years". Almost seemed like it would take away the high praise I gave this map. So I was kinda worried about that. But I have finished this WAD, and have had sat with this for a few weeks. I've seen other playthroughs of the WAD, including this map. And I have come to a final decision.

While there are other fantastic maps in this WAD, including others that come close to this, this map is still the best in the WAD, and is indeed the best map I have played in years.

There's several reasons why. First, the visuals. I didn't realize until ukiro mentioned it, but the trees really are the best part of this OTEX update. Not only in this map, but all throughout the entire WAD. I think this map is the first one where I noticed it. This map is very autumnal, and the trees really sell that. 

Secondly, and this connects to the first in a way, this map has the best sense of place in the WAD. The map takes place in a power station of sorts, sitting at the end of a dam off the side of a cliffside mine. This map feels like a real place! It looks like it has a practical purpose in this world, instead of just acting like a video game level. There's little touches of seeing minecart tracks and roads that lead to areas we can't see or access. It really does feel like we're in a small part of a much bigger world with those little touches, and I enjoy that a lot.

Thirdly, this map is just fun to play! Charge is more than just the name of the map; it's the design philosophy. The 2K+ enemies would make it seem like this is a giant map, and while it is one of the biggest in the WAD, most of these monsters only appear in 2 fights. A majority of the map involves blasting through a linear romp filled with fodder enemies. Rockets are plentiful, and since there's no SSG in the map, it's the workhorse of the map. There's big clumps of hitscan and imps all throughout that are just prime to be rocketed. It makes progression fast and explosive! Using the blue key (the lone key needed for progression) unleashes a giant pinky sandwich on the dam, and the carved out passage behind you. Some corporals appear on the dam itself too, and the cyb on the watchtower that's been peppering you for a while can see you too, but this is mostly just a fun pinky rocket fest, and there's not many of those in Doom. It's not a challenge it's just fun. 

Fourthly, the final fight has some of the best usage of the new MBF21 kill things sector action (or whatever it's called). We enter the power station, take a lift, and happen upon a ton of cybs, archies, and imps in front of us. Looks pretty tough to put it lightly. But then you hit the switch in front of you, and see all of them get electrocuted to death. Teach them to stand in water. We've already seen the electrified water a few other times in the map. Most notably in the blue key fight, which has killed quite a few people I've seen play this, mainly since they didn't see it coming. I know more warning signs have been added to that area since RC1 to better convey the danger, but most people still don't see it coming. There's a small hallway in one of the bases with electrified water, but that one is always like that. There's no area with normal water becoming electrified before this, and it insta-kills, so it could be annoying on a first playthrough. It didn't kill me so I'm good with it, lol. Now in this final fight, we see just how useful this feature can be. While we did just kill everything already in the water, tons of monsters will now start flooding in. There's a charge meter on the sides of the arena. When it fills, the switches will rise, allowing you to electrocute them again. At first, it's all imps flooding the arena, but stronger enemies come out gradually, including revs and all three types of nobles. The trick to this fight is to rocket things in order to still have room to move around, then get to the switches when they come up. You should only need 3 switch hits to get rid of most of the enemies. It was kinda tough for me since I ran into packs of imps quite a bit and face-rocketed. But it's still one of the most fun fights I've had in Doom in a while! Super cool.

MtPain27 always said Dean of Doom is all about "Spreading the joy of Doom." This map is one of the best examples of "joy" in Doom. It's not about being hard, it's about being fun. And the mappers totally had fun making this. There's a part in the mine where part of it collapses, and their guts and guns spew out of the side of wall, only to have an astral caco burst out of a wall shortly after. That's just fun! So many aspects of this map are just joyful.

But even with all of this, there's 1 thing in particular about this map that puts it over the edge for me. It's what made me go "this is the best map I've played in years." It's the red key. I'm gonna spoil this cause it's really something and I see a few people haven't experienced it.

The map ends with 1 little sneak preview. There's 3 corpses of enemies we haven't encounterd before right by the exit portal. They have that mancubus sprite like the ones from Ancient Aliens. Well since astral arachnotrons use their AA sprites, I can only assume these must be astral mancubi. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

As you can see from this long write-up that took me about an hour+ to type, I really adore this level. It's the most pure fun map I've played in a long time, and is in contention of being my favorite map ever. Prior to this, my favorite map was Culture Shock from AA for its pure beauty and wonder. This one definitely has it beat in the fun department, but maybe not in wonder. It comes damn close though. Add in the truly incredible secret areas, and that makes this a map to remember. Well done Tristan and Guardsoul!

tl:dr, I like map a lot.

Map09 “Quetzalcoatl” by Dragonfly

Both stylistically and mechanically similar to Sovereign, Quetzalcoatl takes us around a large outdoor pyramid and gives us three indoor side areas containing switches required for progression. Unlike Sovereign, this map permits switch/key hunting in any order. I walked in with a gut feeling that there would be a difficulty spike. There… wasn’t one and in fact this map is easier than the last two, content with providing modest pressure during your adventure.

Praising the visuals would be redundant, they’re top notch as always. I will continue to praise the efficiency in level design, which again gets great mileage out of a smaller playing space than it would first appear. Detailing is also excellent as always and I like the nasty looking faces in the southwest section (even though they remind me of jumpscare flash images). I do wish the exit switch didn’t lock me in when I approached it though, I had to find the last secret (and take the secret exit) my second run.

Combatwise, we have a number of incidental or moderate strength encounters that sometimes have dangerous enemies but are never overly threatening due to the abundance of resources and artifact powerups (especially if you find secrets). I assume Dragonfly doesn’t want to deliver haymakers this early in the wad, which is probably the right call. I will say there are a ton of SSGs lying around and I spent an embarrassingly long time killing things with the single shotty my first playthrough. The final fight is good fun, with the perched revs and annihilators working well with the caco cloud to make things interesting.

Map32 “Charge” by Tristan Clark and Guardsoul

What a banger. Tristan “I’m not a level designer” Clark and Guardsoul team up to design my favorite level so far by a wide margin.

We start at the bottom of a canyon and are immediately presented with a gorgeous Autumn vista. If I made a list of the top 10 most spectacular visual performances I’ve seen in Doom, Charge might get in. That list would be competitive but so is Charge. Tristan and Guardsoul then take us on a long winding trek up the canyon, through several caves with industrial equipment, and into a massive complex. From here we engage the major fights of the level and can find an intriguing chain of secrets.

Despite the immense size you can actually storm through much of the map pretty quickly, most of the enemies are clumps of fodder for your chaingun. We get some larger scale fights along the way, which can be satisfyingly dismantled with the rocket launcher. My secret streak ended in this map at 9/10, and I’m pretty sure it’s to the southwest because I saw a switch I couldn’t reach there. Might check Doombuilder later. As for the aforementioned chain of secrets, I won’t spoil the latter part but I will say you start by getting to the (visible) red key, followed by gleefully watching the cacoaward wreck that asshole cyber sniper.

As for the complex fights, the two-front pinky pincer after using the blue door switch is a solid RL horde encounter. I’d recommend starting with the group rushing from the railway cave (west) because you don’t want to get pushed eastward if you can help it. This is also where we get introduced to the map's innovation and namesake, having temporary electrical floors that instakill anything touching them. I can’t say I’m a fan of the first instance, an electrified water cage with astral cacos coming after me. It’s not hard but slipping means “lol dead” regardless of health and that sniping cyber can BS you if you’re unlucky (though I think you can take him out beforehand).

So we reach the final arena and, yeah, this battle is awesome, containing shades of Sunlust’s map24. Hitting the switch in front of you fries the initial force and sets off a cataclysmic confrontation against around a thousand enemies that get spewed into the arena in waves. After each wave the switches are usable again, you just need to survive until they’re ready (and can reach one of them). The final wave is murderous, cementing this encounter as both the hardest and best designed combat arena of the wad so far.

Charge is both literally and figuratively electrifying, featuring everything a great secret map could ask for. Scale, epicness, astounding visuals, a rockin theme, and a memorable combat gimmick. A standing ovation to the duo... the next secret level has quite an act to follow.

The following probably didn't get as much editing as it should have, due to lack of time...

MAP09 - “Quetzalcoatl” by Dragonfly

This is probably the most nonlinear map we've seen so far. It's very open and spacious, and you can acquire the three keys in any order. It's pretty easy though, or at least feels that way. We're getting far enough into the wad that I was kind of expecting more resistance. There's so much health and ammo everywhere that anytime I did take a lot of damage, I could just backtrack and heal back up. So I never went anywhere without being healthy. By the end of the map I was grabbing soulspheres even though I already had 200 health. When I grabbed the secret berserk and invisibility (neither of which I needed) I went ahead and punched out everything. Needless to say I took a bunch of damage, and it was kind of a dumb idea, but it didn't matter because 15 seconds later I was at full health again. The only trap that nearly got me was one where four chaingunners are revealed right next to you. They lit me up and nearly killed me. But I escaped and eventually filled my health back up to 200/200.

Maybe I'm just getting better at this game as we move forward, but this map seems to be easiest of the episode so far. It's still pretty fun though. Most of my fun was had finding the six secrets. I did manage to find them all without having to get help.

The map of course is really good looking. It feels redundant to say so since they all are. The music track is one of my favorites so far though!

MAP32 - “Charge” by Tristan Clark, Guardsoul

Deaths: 4

Oh my. What a magnificent, massive map. The armies of hell are legion here, but the combat isn't going to really demonstrate that. It's more of a gimmick level that uses a lot of bullet/rocket fodder and technical wizardry. It's very impressive. Despite the level's hulk though, it's quite linear. There are a few places where the path forward splits, but it always ends back together eventually. You just move forward, eliminate the opposition, and then repeat.

There are three battles that stood out to me though. The area in the cave where you get locked in with an astral cacodemon was oddly enough the hardest part of the level for me. It might just be that I'm still not used to their movement patterns, but the damn thing seemed to read my mind and cut off my escape. It took me three attempts to beat it, which was half of my deaths for this level. Then there was the MASSIVE pinky swarm that really was just too much. It wasn't very interesting and took forever to finish. By far the best part of the level is the combat puzzle at the end. I call it a puzzle because you don't really need to kill very many monsters yourself, despite there being around 1000 of them on UV. There are switches you can hit that electrify the floor and that will kill everything on it. Including you if you stupidly step onto it like I did once. (I knew it would kill me, since the earlier blue key trap killed me once since I panicked when I saw the astral cacodemons. I was just dumb and forgetful.)

The map is very well designed. You have several distinctly themed areas you move through, for example there are caves (really mines), a giant bridge, and various buildings. In the caves, there is a part where the cave collapses, crushing a bunch of zombies. And then their goodies get spit out on the floor in front of you. I also liked the red key secret, where hitting the switch launches a plasma ball at the cyberdemon to destroy him AND the tower he's perched on. (I didn't see the golden astral cacodemon here... maybe an issue with GZDoom?)

The map also has crazy secrets. Nabbing the red key sends you on a secret mission to steal the perforator that is stored deep in an underground bunker. You even get a spider mastermind to use it on. Which was a good thing, as that was all I got to use it on. Everything else was already dead.

Finding these secrets was an adventure too. I managed to mostly find them all by myself, but I did end up using a youtube video to confirm that what I was trying to do to get the red key was correct. I was right, but there was a skill issue preventing me from actually getting it. Took me a good 15 minutes. (Later: Turns out that SR50 jump isn't actually required. There's another way I never found.) Later, I knew where another secret was, but I couldn't figure out how to access it. I could see the door, but not the switch. I had kind of given up on finding it, so I watched more of that same video without sound... only to see the tell-tale texture that would be the answer. I just didn't see it in my game. Oh well. I feel like I did most of the work at any rate. All of the secrets were very well designed, and the massive underground bunker was very rewarding to explore.

I had a ton of fun on this level. And it's very good looking, of course. I love the autumnal trees! And the music is great, of course. But you probably had already guessed that. I'm not sure I'd call it my favorite map I've ever played, but it's absolutely memorable. This might be the map I remember when I'm thinking about this wad years from now. If this were any other wad, it would risk being "that one wad with Charge in it", rather than Eviternity II.

MAP09: Quetzalcoatl by Dragonfly

Another medium sized adventure map, not too dissimilar to map07. However, where map07 required you to get blue key -> red key, this map is much more non-linear in that you can go to any part of the map at any point. I recommend going to the north-west side first since that area is fairly easygoing and you get SSG, backpack as well as even a plasma gun in a secret. Be on the lookout for secrets, because there are plenty of goodies such as even a BFG. But more importantly, the 2nd secret level exit is on this map.

On the difficulty side, I find this map easier than the previous 2 maps, since there are generous amount of soulsphere and other goodies and plus this map doesn't have any big final locked-in fight. But that's alright since both Map32 and Map10 (assuming you didn't find the secret exit) have you covered.

While I can't say much about the aesthetics of the map, apart from the fact that it looks gorgeous, I would like to mention the dedication towards the "slopes" (which I think are achieved by tiny 1px or 2px sectors) on the various platforms and the pillars/obelisks at the start of the map

MAP32: Charge by Tristan Clark and Guardsoul

If you are intimidated by the large monster count shown on stats, don't be. Most of the 2000+ monsters of the map are fodder variety (zombies, imps, pinkies etc.) and you get a chaingun and rocket launcher right at the start of the map. Definitely recommend folks to stick around and play this map.

Why? Because this map SLAPS!!! (imho). Firstly, the visuals of this map. The map takes place around some sort of power-station or an industrial facility. You start in the outdoor area with lush beautiful autumn vista. Your goal is to make your way through the canyon area to get to the industrial facility, to power it up to gain access to the central building, and then enter the central building to get to the exit.

Along the way, the map introduces kill-floors feature of MBF21 in an interesting way. Electrified water, that can electrocute you and enemies alike instantly upon stepping on it. The first fight that involves it is the blue key fight where it is used to limit your movement for a few seconds while you fight the astral cacos.

But the real deal is the final fight in the central building. Right as you enter the building, you will see a dozen+ archviles, few cyberdemons and a bunch of imps, all standing on water and have their backs turned towards you. Fighting them head on is ill-advised. Instead, just press the switch in front of you and watch them get annihilated. This is a tutorial for how to fight the hordes that will start pouring into the arena by the hundreds. The electrical switches lower after pressed and you have to wait around.... 40-ish seconds or something before the switches come back. This turns an otherwise 1000+ monsters grindfest combat into a sub-2 minute fight. Once you are done with the final fight, go to the exit room and you will find corpses of what are some new enemy. Foreshadowing of what is to come pretty soon.

The overall adventure isn't short, but never grindy. And you can find plenty of secrets along the way, including the whole red key sidequest. There is a lot to talk about just that sidequest alone, but I would just recommend to read the spoiler in TJG1289's comment if you really don't want to miss it. Definitely worth exploring (and not just because of the perforator).