Havoc Crow

Bit of "style over substance" problem here; the map is visually polished but has barely any combat to speak of, and so the weapons and other pickups seem unnecessary. On the other hand, it can be seen as a pretty "jewelbox" for the player to explore and find all the secrets, with the monsters being just there for flavor. Annoyingly, couldn't finish this because, just before the end, a bug trapped me between a door and a nonfunctional lift.

Rather uninteresting visuals (apart from some attempts at fancy realistic decor). The level progression isn't too shabby, but the central room full of slow-moving lifts is annoying to go through. There's not a single exciting or difficult fight, especially if you play with the .deh that increases the health and ammo limits to ludicrous levels.

A 10-minute long map with fairly unremarkable gameplay. As is the case with many old maps, its main strength is the visual variety of the different locations. Still, there's not that much in terms of exploration or branching paths; a good part of the map is just going from room to room and shooting at the anemic groups of monsters. Not terrible, but not a classic.

A genuinely scary, atmospheric mod. The story may be cheesy but the mood is excellent, and the level is short enough not to wear out its welcome. Combat is difficult enough that each encounter is an unnerving drain on resources, although ammo starts getting more plentiful towards the end of the level. About my only complaint is that you're often left without an inkling where to go, since doing something in one area may reveal a pathway or a hotspot in another area without any indication. Also,

Six thousand enemies... so yeah. This is a level set around slaughter-style fights. The visuals are no-frills (to the point of having some square rooms with standard GZDoom Builder textures!) but the gameplay can get pretty fun. Annoyingly, there's quite a few doors and switches that look like regular walls. Hint: you are given an area map — use it! Unfortunately, some parts are simply tedious. For instance, there's a scenario where you have to travel across a narrow catwalk with hundreds of Chaingunners and Cacodemons crowding around you from all sides. Turns out, the author's preferred way to complete this part is simply to stand there in the starting alcove and fire rockets blindly while dodging caco fireballs in the tiny space until you finally thin out the enemy numbers enough. Yeah, no, this kind of thing is not fun. It gets worse. Later on you face a horde of hundreds of barons and you're forced to duck into a giant room with lots of BFG ammo, from which you slowly chip down the crowd one by one. No challenge, just crushing tedium. And then the final room, where you have to kill more barons on a tiered tower; simply get out your rocket launcher, circlestrafe around the tower holding down the fire button, and try not to fall asleep. Overall, this level is quite fun at times, and might be good practice for people who don't have much acquaintance with slaughtermaps. Sadly, the aforementioned dull parts significantly degrade the experience. PS. I'm not sure if any ZDoom features are used, but one reason why this map must be played in ZDoom is that the lifts don't work properly in prboom. Considering that prboom is usually considered the port of choice for demo-recording AND for maps with lots of enemies, it'd certainly be a good idea to fix this map to make it prboom-friendly! [Originally written in September 2018 for The /Newstuff Chronicles]

A set of 3-hour speedmaps, revolving around a common volcano theme. They are all quite friendly for first-time playthroughs, so you should be able to hop right in. MAP01: Do I Look Like I Know What A Volcano Looks Like? — A bite-sized map with just a handful of enemies. Press a few switches and you're set. The visuals are very polished. MAP02: Speedmap #04 — A trip through dank caverns. Again very nice visuals, and a good music track that I haven't heard anywhere else. MAP03: It Blows (The Volcano, I Mean) — One of the more atmospheric maps. It starts in moodily lit vine-overgrown corridors, then leads you to the edge of a volcano, complete with a breathtaking vista. The ending feels a bit awkward if you've run out of rockets but a secret megasphere can even the odds. This might be my favorite in the set. MAP04: Tectonic Arachnotronic — The weakest of all maps. It has you climbing a truly humongous mountain on your way to the exit at the summit (reminds me of the classic earth.wad a bit). There is little excitement here, you simply hold down the run key for a few minutes until you reach the end. The monsters are so sparse you'll likely want to run past them all. The few arachnotrons and mancubuses at the end are hardly a payoff either. Don't go the wrong way or you'll waste a minute running around the entire mountain to get back. MAP05: They Called Him Lava Man — Starts with you surrounded by enemies in a lava field, then you infiltrate a small base until finally unlocking the grand finale; all this set to comfy Donkey Kong Country music. The beginning is quite hectic, at least until you realize it pays off more to run into the building right off the bat. The ending is a little disappointing since there's nothing stopping you from ignoring all enemies and making a beeline to the exit. A cool little map, but I wish it had more of an incentive to face the hordes head-on instead of cheesing them from a safe spot. MAP06: Center of Chaos — Has a troublesome opening where you're always under fire with barely any weaponry to your name, unless you go out of your way to collect some. Avoiding the copious missiles and hiding behind crates is a pretty cool experience. The abrupt ending is likely to kick your ass the first time, but once you figure out how to approach it, it's really fun (I almost wish there were more enemies to fight in the lava cavern.) Overall, this is easily one of the better speed mapsets I've ever played. The choice of music is consistently great and especially the first few maps are polished technically (although not devoid of bugs — you can get stuck in a pit on map02). Recommended for everyone. [Originally written Dec 2018 for The /newstuff Chronicles]

An E2 replacement, consisting mostly of the author's previously released maps. Just like E2, the overarching theme here is a techbase being overrun by Hell. Thanks to the large amount of detail, the resulting distortion of reality comes across very strongly, with most rooms being a bizarre amalgamation of earthly techbase and infernal torture-chamber. What I didn't like were most of the outside areas, which look messy and ugly; the interiors are a lot more pleasant to look at. The difficulty level is perfect. The challenge is just high enough to keep you from dying too many times, although you'll have tense moments of low health. The mapset's a very good choice for people like me who like playing without saves; it is hard enough to be fun from beginning to end and has no unfair traps (except for an unexpected crusher near the end of map05.) I've grown weary of most Doom 1 mapsets, since they struggle to keep the action interesting across an entire episode without Doom 2's extended enemy roster, but in Deimos Incident the enemies are used perfectly and the fights never get old. Easily one of the best episode replacements I've ever seen, and one of the overlooked gems of 2017 (though, if you want to be exact, some maps were first released in 2016). Strongly recommended! [Originally written Jan 2019 for The /newstuff Chronicles]