The DWmegawad Club plays: Eviternity II

MAP05 - “Departure” by Velvetic, Dragonfly

The final map of this episode offers up a couple of questions on my part, was this heavenly setting purely a smokescreen that is falling or is hell slowly subsuming this realm for its own ends? Either way the map looks the part (yet again), also we have a map that really starts to bite back. The big fights will offer up a reasonable challenge, the double archvile release is well calibrated in the red key area and is good fun rushing to take them out before focusing on the fodder. The astral arachnotrons are introduced well and are quite a shock to meet given their speed. Beyond that we get a big fight before the blue key which to me felt a little too easy (You get a megasphere and the BFG + Cells), in the end I didn't kill the astral spiders and allowed them to fight with everything else, to the point where I couldn't pick up all the cells for the double cyber fight, which to be honest is more for show than anything else, they are a pushover with all of that space.

Overall this map offers a lot, both in visual storytelling, combat and all round fun. Great map and I can only concur with the praise leveled on this one, it is the best map of the set.

GZDoom/UV/Contiuous/Saves

Write-ups from memory

MAP05: Departure - Velvetic and Dragonfly

The final map of the episode is easily the toughest. There's a few situations that are pretty dangerous throughout the map. At least the map looks great! This might be my fav in terms of visuals for the ep, with the heavenly gardens being slowly taken over by hellish elements in ways that are different from the previous maps. It's almost like parts of the map were cut off and replaced with the distorted versions, like a merger of 2 worlds. You can see that most in the skyboxes changing over the corrupted areas. It's a really cool look! The opening pagoda area looks like it came straight from Eviternity 1 MAP27 too. Combat is pretty snappy, with a decent amount of pop-up fights in the beginning. There's an early archie on one side of the pagoda area that can be tough to deal with if you don't see it coming as there's not much in the way of cover here. An interesting thing I like about this map, is finding the secret mega armor courtyard can allow you to skip a good chunk of the early section! You might not want to do that just so you can grab more goodies, but it's cool. The most interesting pop-up fight happens just before you lower the bars to the red key fight. At first, it just looks like the standard enemy fare. But as I was dealing with it, I saw a very intense volley of plasma come out of nowhere that was unlike anything I had seen before. Then I noticed the new enemy. Say hello to the astral arachnotron. These things are gray, really fast, a little tougher than normal arachnotrons and can melt you with that plasma beam. The plasma firing pattern is pretty cool, and while it is intense, there is a break in its beam, so at least it's not continuous. And as an added bonus, they drop cells when dead! Nice. The red key fight is pretty intense with the waves of enemies teleporting in with a few bonus archies, but it's a fun rocket and plasma fight. The incidental combat behind the red key switch area is fine, but it leads to the big fight of the map. Grab the BFG, then jump down to start another big teleporting wave fight. Initially, it's just several astral arachnotrons, but eventually a bunch of other chaff comes in. It's a fun fight, and it really shows how well the astral arachnotrons infight. Grabbing the blue key spawns in 2 cybs back at the pagoda. I'm kinda surprised the first instance of cybs in this WAD is 2 at once. Nothing the BFG can't handle. One last astral arachnotron is all that stands between you and the exit portal. 

Overall, a very strong finish to the episode! Great visuals, fun fights, and a cool introduction to a new enemy. Secrets are kinda tough to find. I'm surprised I found the soul spheres as easily as I did. The one shootable switch in the stairwell is one I'm surprised I found accidentally. I just happened to see it while going down the stairs. 

As a whole, this episode is a solid intro to the WAD. It reintroduces the themes of the previous WAD, while steadily introducing new and improved elements. Difficulty seems to be just right. Not really hard, but harder than the first's WADs first episode. Saving the astral arachnotron's introduction for MAP05 is a great touch, and shows the player there's more new stuff to come. 

Map 03: Sonder

  Since the effects are far more prominent here, I just want to champion how no expense was spared to make Eviternity II beautiful with nuance. Rain and particle effects were exclusive to GZ for the first one due to the restraints given my MBF. Now lifted, being able to see the poison drip from the sky, the trees losing vegetation in the wind, even the teleport pads and exit portals sparkling in radiance, is a sight for sore eyes. It’s pretty insane how few MBF21 wads really get a grasp on the expansion it allows for, and I really hope that this is encouragement for that. 

  Sonder doesn’t even begin to stop at the effects. It has the responsibility of dropping in so many new gameplay elements, from the Former Corporal acting as a capstone between the Zombieman and the Shotgunner, the gore pustule that triggers the locks on the progression, the secret exits that now have representation in each episode the Annihilator having its most annoying feature tweaked, the regimented use of the Nightmare Demon after reemerging in the last map. I have to admit, the exponential increase in density for each map is crazy impressive and well coordinated, and it doesn’t hamper the quality of the fights in the slightest. I will admit that I had some initial confusion on discovering how easy it was to escape the fights in the surrounding ring after breaking apart the blood ball, but it’s now clear that this was either the intent from the start, or well implemented enough down the line to where said intent is ambiguously believable. 

Map 31: Redshift

  Creation was one of my favorite maps in the original Eviternity, a very evident argument for the Afterglow Dragonfly team up because of how fun it was to wrap around that map, fueled by an expected Jimmy banger. All of those points are followed up and expanded for Redshift, applying a slightly greater amount of streamlining, but still allowing me to lap around a technical marvel.

  In an attempt to see how far I can get into writing this without mentioning the Perforator, the visual orchestration in this map, from the hyperbole of the plating, to the working laser grids, to the jostling of conveyer belts. I would normally not be excited to go back to poop world from Eviternity after just experiencing the first three maps of its sequel, but the way Redshift stacks its shipping supplies, the way it drains its nukage visibly from singular pipes and waste waterfalls, the way the many gaps reveal the beating heart of titanic glowing microchips (macrochips? chips?) put so much life beyond the color grading. Jimmy of course wrote another theme song for a show I could watch for years and years, the closest I could see to capturing the vibe of Creation without being a Member Berry. Eviternity II doesn’t really do anything in the way of sequel maps, for the most part, and yet Redshift, what honestly feels like a victory lap for the two authors, strips the downsides of the concept and delivers nothing but fresh glamor. 

  Ok, now the Perforator. Any weapon that can get me to shoot a BFG into a crowd of zombies because I want to save BULLETS cannot be swept under the rug. It’s clear that the entire level was based around putting this thing in the player’s hand. Bullet boxes are everywhere, it knocks out basically anything in one shot if they’re close enough, hordes of zombies that both explode from simply looking too long at the end of the weapon and drop more bullets to fuel the rampage, it’s got it all. Finding the BFG in the secret Blue Key fight was an insane experience to reflect upon, because it shows up for the first time in the WAD to a resounding “oh, ok” from me, who is currently ripping through its fight with what I now see as a more engaging weapon. Maybe I’ve just had years and years of BFG to be tired of it, but it’s more interesting now to have to worry about creating a line to cut down than simply looking in a direction when the ball comes out. Every other gun in this map is basically a pleasantry, one that I can appreciate for the speedrunning scene that I’m sure will emerge for the episodes.

  What can I say? It’s phenomenal.

Map 04: Engulfed

  It’s not fair to expect infinite growth from anything. Engulfed bring me back down to earth after being shot to the moon. It’s still singing with the seal of quality from this team, but it’s back to putting the pieces together that one would expect. The whole gimmick implied by the title, flooding this once proud keep with corrupted sludge, is really fun to play around with, and is such a natural evolution of the world. Drowning the Arch-Vile turrets in a torrent of the stuff was a wonderful touch, and allowed my curiosity for turret cleanup to pay off in a satisfying way. The inclusion of accounting for players and monsters trapped in the canals as the water rose is thoughtful, and taking any upwards glances toward the ceiling is truly inspiring for any prospective mappers, but, despite the incredibly high standard of the WAD, it’s pretty back to basics my comparison.

  I will have this map as a vessel for one thing I noticed about the WAD: Eviternity II’s secrets are brutal. They manage, most of the time, to avoid simply being wallhump city, always having some kind of completely fair setup, but it was the previous map that had me giving up on maxing every map because of how hard they were to find. It’s devious, but completely reasonable in regards to balance. I think the only secret I know I don’t like is in this map, being the “cross into some sludge to lower a Blue Armor”, because what the hell? 

Map 05: Departure

  I’m not sure where the disconnect is for me. Everything in this map is a pretty perfect for communicating an abandonment of this divine realm, a need to move on from the destruction of the last game. The looping back around through the anchor start is really well done, and the music has appropriate duration and closure for the last remnants of the first WAD’s release. It’s another thematic square peg in a square hole, perfection in its job, and yet I can’t be as excited in regards to playing it as the maps before. 

  My only guess is that this brand of loose fitting monster population is not for me. It’s very much incidental, but still applies an expectation of engagement which allows for a lot of flexibility, perfectly fine for anyone experiencing a map for the first time, but playing this one a couple times makes that juggle difficult on each recurrent attempt to get faster. The first Arch-Vile makes trying to lunge for the hitscanners foolhardy, the Rocket Launcher is dropped on you right before a sneaky camping Chaingunner walks right in front of you, and I never have a nice thing to say about a Revenant. The Plasma Rifle and BFG fights were fun, and watching a strategy to one shot an Annihilator without risk emerge from their changes is godly. 

  Astral Arachnotrons are a beautiful idea. The beasts that are seen as a bit huge, dopey, difficult to apply properly in maps, finally get a new life in the form of the gorgeous projectile stream that this new monster creates. It capitalizes on all the strengths of the Arachnotron: its difficulty to manage in a group, its pause between each plasma bolt creating possibility to cross an infighting stream with big risk, and it makes a very appealing new take that honestly comes off as a tad easier. Bumping a single plasma shot from an Astral Arachno is a lot less costly than the regular ones, and the need to jump between their shots is a lot more simply met when they’ve finished a single volley. All the custom monsters in Eviternity II strike wonderful chords.

  Last disclaimer, I can only size these maps up against each other, because they’re very much in a league of their own. If I come off as if I didn’t like something, it’s only because the competition is insurmountable.

MAP05 - Departure - Velvetic & Dragonfly (100%K/60%I/50%S):

I expected a boss fight at least for this episode finale, but the map greets us with another playground that, even though it looks quite open, it plays very linear. It has a main hub with several paths, and some copy-pasted fights, like the one for the red key, that happens to play similar to the fight after you get the plasma rifle. This was another quite hard map, but the only really hard part of it is where you have to fight in said plasma gun arena, with the appearance of a new enemy, those evil arachnotrons that look like those from Ancient Aliens, but behave nothing like a your regular arachnotron. They will waste their entire plasma reservoir in a fashion way to deal with you, making those be great infighters, but be sure to have something to hide from them. Nasty, I feel those will be a big problem later, as I don't expect them to be missused.

The map ends with a fight against our first two cyberdemons of the megawad. Nothing fancy, although the arena where they appear looks great, the map looks gorgeous with all that fake 3D stuff around the level, just like the last Episode of the first Eviternity did. Great level aesthetically. The level finishes with our beloved Eviternity portal, as usual.

Order of preference:
 

I'm already most of the way through this WAD! I'd probably be done by now if I weren't terrible at dodging Astral Cacos.

Only comment I have on the maps so far is that I think the MIDI choice for MAP05 is spot on. It's a long piece that gets you hyped for the rest of the WAD and propels you through the map, and it happens to have been made by Jimmy as a birthday present / tribute to Dragonfly, the project leader himself.

MAP05 - “Departure” by Velvetic, Dragonfly

This is another beautiful map with a great song. This might be the best looking map so far. The corrupt holes in the sky are especially interesting. In this map, it seems like the hallowed and corrupted ground are opposing each other, with great rifts in the earth where they meet.

This map announces that it isn't messing around with a cyberdemon's roar the first time you pull the trigger. Unfortunately most of the map doesn't really live up to that. It's still really fun, with mostly interesting incidental combat and a couple great set-pieces. I found the mega-armor right off the bat... which in hindsight was a mistake, because I was not prepared for the trap around the red key and plasma rifle. I died a couple times here until I figured out the flow of the fight. Luckily both archviles don't teleport in at the same time, or this would have been a lot harder. As it was it was my favorite fight of the map. The other watery fight after you get the BFG was also pretty fun. I managed to beat this battle without dying, although only barely. It was almost as fun as the previous water fight. The cyberdemon duo was fun, but not very dangerous. You get so many cells that it's really just a matter of not getting too greedy. I'm not good enough to try to two-shot them here, and why bother anyway? Outside of these three battles the map isn't very challenging, but that's not a problem. We're still in the opening episode after all.

We also get to meet a new enemy: the astral arachnotron. I got lucky here in that I heard one a long time before seeing it, and backed off to see what it was. I'm glad I did because it's actually scary. I'm both am and am not looking forward to seeing a bunch of these in later maps! The fact that they drop cells is really cool too.

I managed to find the megaarmor, berserk, and large cell secrets naturally in the course of playing the map. Both supercharges completely escaped me though. I ended up having to ask iddt and UDB for help. They both involved finding cleverly hidden shootable switches. One of them was just a matter of me doing a better job of looking in the right spot. I probably would have found it if I wasn't getting impatient to go to bed. The one hidden in the green fire though... it was really hard to see even once I knew it was there. At lower resolutions it might as well be completely invisible. This is the first secret in the wad where I'm not sold on the design. I'm not saying it's bad, but I didn't get a "well I should have found that" vibe once I saw where it was.

In the end, I think this is my favorite map so far. I'm definitely going to miss this style, of both the map design and music. I could probably play a whole megawad of this. Maybe we'll see something like it later. The whole episode was a nice opener to the wad. I'm sure the resistance is going to get more fierce as we move on, but so far it almost seems like this has an easier start than Eviternity 1. It's either that or I've gotten better at the game.

MAP06: Rite. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 81/81 K, 3/3 S, 2/2 I. Comp. time 14:49

On my first time around I wasn't so fond of this map; I mean, visually it's great, I like the "Mayan ruins" aesthetic a lot, but I'm always stressed out when I'm under the impression I'm playing a tyson map. This time around I had much more fun knowing what's to come (even if the map doesn't really subvert your expectations, as they say).

Also that tyson aspect was still a bit annoying, but only because bullets weren't that plentiful, and after I had obtained the rocket launcher to deal with the archies and the eventual annihilator, I would always automatically switch to RL when I'd run out of bullets. But that's not the map's fault.

This is also the final map I played during RC2, the rest are gonna be blind. While Rite isn't a perfect episode opener (it has lower difficulty than the last map, yes, but somehow it's not as impactful, and I hope the ammo starvation isn't going to be defining element of the episode -- that'd be a shame, because visual theme is, again, fantastic).
 

Map06 - Rite - An_Mutt

Tyson gameplay versus low tier and some mid tier (which is what this is) I usually like but paired with this amazon tomb raider atmosphere and most importantly, by this being an An_Mutt map my excitement does rise... I do not think I've ever played anything by this author I didn't thoroughly enjoy.

Enjoyed this one a lot, indeed! In fact escaped bad-stats-battered and bruised yesterday and wanted to have another go early morning today to see if I'll do any better. Excited child behaviour. Managed to get out with my hide expediently pummelled but intact the second time... no reloads. A couple more secrets and 100% kills at least. Even a day passing meant I had forgotten about nearly all the enemy placements. This is why spoilers are totally ok with me, what's your name, where am I??? uh.. anyway, even the second time I got beat up again. Which means me, the demons, everybody enjoyed themselves.

This map is pitch perfect, the midi is absolutely lovely and very fitting. I'm kind of falling in love with the variety of confident expressions of mapping concepts and we've barely even started. A solid tyson map is needed in any legendary set and it doesn't get more rock solid than this. That quote from Carmack on the recent stream when he explained that when they were adding features to idtech1 they were looking for SOLID feeling stuff, not flimsy, not 'works half the time but it'll sell copies' but solid solid solid. This map is solid like that. Nothing about it feels fake or a contrivance. And it's a looker if you like doom tombs. You do? Of course you do. 

A porous and shifting layout that seeks to teach us a red skull key and triggers three, to give rise to the modular bridge escape from this horror tomb. I loved how if you find certain secrets you'll be rewarded with extremely relevant tools to take a break from all the Dempsey rolling... and some additional challenge will spawn in to counterpoint your craftyness, interloper. Mirroring the behavior of any real life tomb we've in our profound lack of wisdom thought we could just waltz into and just take that shit.

I have to call out some columns by the exit ride for some really beautiful midtexture trickery, all so very subtle, and the area where you do finally get the red key is very striking. The textures in the lava corner of them map look so good as well, that arrangement of geometry and texture. The sense of atmospheric rise, tension release, the reuse and connection of spaces... it never resorts to being super hard by 2024 standards, it's just a solid challenge and a perennial fantasy sated for now - seriously, how many more tombs does our wanderlusting heart demand we plunge & vigorously, incandescently plunder? You'd think-- oh, it's an Egyptian space tomb next? gotta go- anyway, such an inspiring map, my favourite so far. 

first run. second run. 

MAP06: Rite by an_mutt

From a familiar, yet altered environment to something completely different. Episode 2, Sanctuary, starts in an underground ruin with a distinct mesoamerican aesthetic. It reminds me of Avactor somewhat (I need to finish that wad one day).

Rite is a map with a small cast of monsters, mostly fodder, though there are some revenants and archviles later on. However, the weapons are also scarce. Unless you look for secrets, you'll have to do with only your pistol, berserk and a rocket launcher at the end. If you search more, there's a hidden chaingun and SSG. The map is heavy on exploration, I'm not entirely sure how it works, all I know is you need to reach the pyramid outside, as it holds a red key. From there, you need to search for three switches that opens a way to the exit. 

It took me a while to complete it, once again I think I confused the intended way with secret paths, but I don't see it as a wasted time. There's this mysterious vibe I've last felt in Epic 2 and the midi adds to it. Definitely makes me interested what the next maps bring.
 

Map6: Rite (an_mutt) ===
Episode 2 is egyptian themed, just like scythe 2's episode 2. Map06 is pretty similar to scythe 2's own map06 too, it's dark and you get to punch out enemies with a berserk but they're still very different obviously. This map's dark and claustrophobic, combined with the midi and the style of gameplay this map certainly has a vibe. The gameplay is pretty resource-starvy, there isn't a lot of ammo so you gotta punch out some enemies but not get hit too much while doing so because armor and health is noticeably finite too. It's the hardest map of the wad so far imo.

Now with a full theme change the visuals get to be something different from episode 1 and it doesn't disappoint at all. It's very well made, the texturing, layout, detailing, all are all just right. You probably won't stop to look at the map but the map is seamlessly being exactly how it should be like. It's really cool.

Chapter 2: Sanctuary:


MAP06 - Rite - James "An_mutt" Collins (100%K/50%I/66%S):

Great opener for the new episode, seems we are going to traverse some old temples, and I love the theme going around here, everyone loves the temple aesthetic, since the old days of Alien Vendetta MAP20, or the second episode of Scythe 2, which, I guess, takes inspiration from.

The map is a solid semi-tyson map, where you will have to constantly mow down small enemies, with the occasional revenant roaming around. Right where you start seeing some revenants, is where the map starts going really hard, and you will have to check every corner so you don't eat extra damage. Luckly, secrets will help you a lot, by giving you better weapons for hard situations, like the encounters against those nasty archviles after the red key.
Really good looking map, as it is already stablished by the megawad.

Order of preference:

MAP04 - “Engulfed” by Velvetic, Dragonfly

> Mfw i didn't even noticed I had a rocket launcher until the end of the map ._.

Solid map, it reminds me a lot of that BTSX2 level where you flood/unflood a palace, and here some interesting layout can be seen from this effect, reusing the same space efficiently for progression. It's a little quieter than map 3, since there's mostly incidental combat in this one with lower and not so lower tier enemies, although that annihilator with the 2 archviles can be a jumpscare for the unsuspecting, but in like 5 seconds you press a random switch and they just die from crushers, except that asshole annihilator.

Secrets are very weird to find in this one, one you just have to cross a fucking waterfall linedef that lowers a lift, another you need to press a marble wall in a tight space. Other than that, I love the moldy marble textures around the black water, ist like these monolithic structures are truly decaying (haha, like withering, the episode name, laugh) and I didn't like the music, that guitar in sc55 just sounds weird to me, the rest of the composition doesn't grab me at all in it's attemp to make a tranquil piece more epic.

8/10

Btw, in this map i noticed the leaf particle effects despawn in midair, oversight or a limitation of mbf21?

MAP05 - “Departure” by Velvetic, Dragonfly

Fantastic episode ender, possibly the best map until this point. If a map starts with a dense armada of pinkies, imps and revs, you know the map is going to have SUSTANCIA!!!! Incidental combat and the ambushes themselves maintain a good momentum all the way throughout this 11 minute bruiser, the debut of the archvile in these encounters also feels welcomed, generating a very good dynamic between searching cover in mostly open ended arenas, most if not every one of these are in very closed spaces, in fights where they're coming hordes that can easily delete all of that space, making those about trying to maintain security from the viles while trying to not get your ass kicked by the low tiers.

There's also introduced an arachnotron variant borrowing more doom 64 sfx, that shoots similarly to the chaingunner elite from eviternity 1 and drops a cell charge on death, very cool. In this map particularly doesn't have much of an impact, since you can eliminate it quickly in some cases, and in other it just infights with most enemies in the arena, but I want to see what their potential is. 

That blue key ambush is a good crowd control practice for veteran's, for the unfamiliar it is probably somewhat hard, but you have a bfg, so ist not much of a problem. Then you just have to kick an annihilator's ass, and skip past 2 cybers and this new arachnotron to end the map. Very good shit I have to say.

To end this talk, I have to mention that even if i don't think this upbeat midi fits the map that much, is still fucking amazing to hear, feels very climatic and soothing. Also, I like this detail of the corrupting sky, one of the best uses I've seen of the sky transfer action.

9/10

I had to fill out an accident report yesterday so I have three levels to write up. I'll get number 6 in later today.

Map04 “Engulfed” by Kevin Martins (Velvetic) and Dragonfly

The first adventure map of the megawad, Engulfed is a scenic sojourn through a watery temple that again ups the bar visually. These trees and stony hallways are just so pleasing to look at, and if you check it out even the barely glimpsed area past the exit is a detailed recreation of much of the next level. Progression is again nonconventional, requiring the player to raise the water to reach the exit (reminds me of Fragport’s map03). I’ll also echo the sentiment that these secrets are high effort, with meaningful rewards to boot.

Combat is rather procedural this time around. There aren’t any threatening encounters, and the most dangerous enemies are immobile turrets that just need to be cleared out. There’re a good number of pain elementals but none of them pressure the player. It’s arguably the easiest level of the first episode (sans map01) and gives the map a leisurely stroll vibe. The pretty soundtrack makes me think this was the intent and I found both playthroughs very relaxing.

My only thought even resembling criticism is that this map isn't as memorable as some others, which is more a compliment to those levels than a dig on this one.

Map05 “Departure” by Velvetic and Dragonfly

Ok this level is really good.

The heightened enemy count and cyberdemon’s roar welcome us to the episode finale, and a worthy ending it is. Departure brings all the elements we’ve seen in the first episode together, with both visuals and combat at their peak for this part of the megawad. The level design has a mild hub element, with the beginning area branching off to various sections that must be completed to open the exit. Progression is linear, and each section includes a meaningful encounter.

After warming up with some revs and imps we start with the southwest pathway, looping around to reach a switch that opens the first large-scale fight. Along the way we get introduced to the uber arachnotron, a quick-moving metal monstrosity that spams plasma in a wide wavy pattern (and dominates infighting). The spread covers a ton of ground and is tough to avoid but the terrain makes it easy to take cover here, which I’m sure won’t be the case later. After hitting said switch we head northwest and drop into an arena featuring imps, demons, green helms, and two viles. This is my pick for toughest encounter of the first episode, and the secrets beforehand really help offset uncooperative vile behavior.

Now holding the red key we head east and loop around again to hit the switch that opens the northeast. After some cramped fighting we get a free BFG and a good number of cells, which no doubt sets off the alarm bells. Despite the intimidating setup, the ambush in the valley preceding the blue key is just BFG crowd control 101, don’t get pinned and you’ll be fine. The final fight against two cybers is complicated by the many pillars, but with no other distractions you can take your time if you’re nervous.

I have some nitpicks (that green fire secret switch I found by pure luck spamming the chaingun around) but overall this is a fun romp in a level that’s drop dead gorgeous. The best map so far and a fantastic episode ender.

MAP06 - “Rite” by an_mutt

Some interesting things in this one, the hefty usage of lost souls certainly makes up for the two figure monster count that is displayed. You will have to use your fists for large periods of this map. There are a lot of monsters that you would prefer to shoot, however you will need to find the secrets to get the chaingun and SSG. The fact that you need to hit three switches that require the red key to exit is a little unusual and obviously the map is fairly compact, but I don't know how well this ends up in reality. It is quite easy to miss monsters or have them sneak up on your and despite the archvile deployment, they weren't too much of a threat.

Overall this was an interesting map but this is probably the first that had a few irksome moments in it.

GZDoom/UV/Contiuous/Saves

Write-ups from memory

MAP06: Rite - an_mutt

an_mutt returns to the world of Eviternity with this map. Their collab with Dragonfly in the original WAD's episode 3 is on of my favs in that ep, and their collab in episode 4 reminds me a lot of an upcoming map in ep 3 here. So it's nice to see them back for this one, and with a full solo map to boot!

Episode 2 takes place in a mishmash of Egyptian and Mayan temples/pyramids. It's a pretty different setting for Eviternity to go to, but the new OTEX textures for this episode are great, and the mappers make good use of them here. mutt decided to make the introductory map for this ep more muted and subdued, not only in combat but in atmosphere. This map is pretty dark, as we spend most of it inside a temple with just the flickering of torches providing the light in most of it. There's the occasional pocket of sunshine that comes through, but most of time we're in the dark haze. Idk if this changed since I only played this map on RC1, but there were complaints about the strobing lights the torches causes. I didn't notice it when I played it, but then I watched playthroughs on YouTube of the map after seeing those complaints I totally did. I get why the lighting is like that as it feels more like light from a flame, but hopefully the crew toned that down since. 

On the combat side, this map is best described as a Tyson-lite map. You get a berserk pretty early, and while other weapons are available, most are in secrets. Still, with a decent amount of hitscan in the map, you'll want to keep at least your pistol on standby. The chaingun and SSG are the ones in secrets, but thankfully the RL is just resting by the red key. If you're good at punching, you shouldn't need the extra firepower too much in the early stages of the map, as revs and hell knights and be smacked to death pretty easily. The temple is filled with tight corridors, which does make beating things up more appropriate. The only time you go outside is to grab the red key and RL, as they're in an altar just outside. The outdoor visuals are nice, and are a good preview for the other outdoor areas in the rest of the episode. It's when you grab the red key when you'll want that extra firepower, as archies suddenly appear before teleporting away. Hitting the 3 red switches will send an archie apiece after you, so rocket (or SSG) them, but save ammo for the hard to hit annihilator at the exit when all 3 switches are hit. You definitely don't want to try to punch that. 

Overall, this is a pretty cool opener. It's moody and different, which is a nice alternative way to open the episode. The Tyson-lite gameplay is pretty fun. The one complaint I have is you can get lost at times, but that's nothing the map won't fix.

MAP07: Sovereign by DMPhobos

Sovereign is not my kind of tea. It's a large and fairly open map which, barring a handful of exceptions, is devoted fully to incidental combat. I get what its author was going for, a massive and beautiful place you can get lost in. I don't deny it and I'm sure there will be others who had a great time here, it's just I'm not one of them.

As I've said, the map is set in a beautiful temple complex, built of sandstone, with red outlines and gold decorations creating a memorable aesthetic. You can explore a bit, but sooner or later you'll hit a locked gateway and the map naturally funnels you towards the blue key. Meanwhile, you'll be eliminating chaff along the way, with only noteworthy fight taking place right before the key: cacodemons distract you, while annihilator and archvile appear behind your back.

The red key path is similiar, a drip-feed of imps, zombies and occasionally some bigger monster, culminating in a fight in a pit, where imps teleport in while you snipe astral arachnotrons. Sovereign ends with a bang, though. The yellow key gives you a plasma rifle (if you haven't found one already) and brings in a ton of monsters - cacodemons, revenants, pinkies and some pain elemental. Running around, spraying plasma, trying to not get blocked and avoiding missiles, that's a burst of energy the map overall lacked.

MAP06 - “Rite” by an_mutt

It's been a while since I've played an adventure map like this, and I didn't even realize I needed to play one until after I started playing it. This map, and presumably the episode, uses a mesoamerican theme. I don't see this very often, so I'm pretty excited that this is being used here. The place is very mysterious and is oozing with atmosphere, and the music definitely fits that vibe. There's one spot with some burnt out torches, and one has dropped on the floor. I love little details like that. For some reason I really love the "nested three faces with a demon in the center" texture.

The monster count isn't particularly high, but I felt like the map made good use of what it had to keep things interesting. I didn't die to any monsters, since the actual combat was pretty easy. It's not exactly a tyson map, since you do in fact get ammo and guns. But you're really going to want to punch what you can. You do get rewarded with rockets if you actually explore every nook and crannie, and it's pretty important for having enough ammo later in the map.

I did die while looking for the secret in the lava. I was being dumb and got myself killed. I ultimately had to give up looking for the soul-sphere secret, since I just ran out of time. I ended up looking it up in UDB. The switch for it was ingeniously hidden, but I still should have figured it out. The chaingun secret though I found on my own pretty easily, which may be why it didn't feel like a tyson map to me.

I really expected grabbing the red key to immediately teleport in a bunch of monsters on top of me. What actually happened was better... an arch-vile teleported in and out of my sight. Where did he go? I ran back through the hallways I came out of expecting an AV to pop out at any time. It definitely made me feel some anxiety. Instead one appears for each red switch you hit. I liked this form of progression here, since I think it fits thematically.

I had a lot of fun playing this level. It's not quite my favorite map of this set so far, but close.

The secret design in this whole wad so far has been fantastic. Good job to everyone who worked on them!

Map06 “Rite” by James Collins (an_mutt)

Another moody episode opener, Rite takes place in an underground ancient civilization/cavern setting with quality lighting to set the atmosphere. It starts out as a Tyson map, and you might have to do some bullfighting with flaming skulls to save bullets. Tyson gameplay will continue if you fail to find the secrets, which house the only non-RL weapons in the level. Monsters are deployed only a few at a time, so it’s hardly unmanageable.

Outside of the start which rushes us with a good number of enemies our trek is a slow burn. Progression involves reaching the back of the level to take a red key from an empty shrine, then using it to hit three switches you likely passed while exploring. The temple's nice, circuitous design allows multiple routing options and you can get all the secrets quickly if you know where they are. I will also praise the detailing, which combines with the lighting to give some extra verisimilitude (Ralgor's mention of the fallen torch is a good example). 

There’s a bit of switch hunting, most of it backtracking to hit three red key buttons that raise the exit pillars. I also had a pair of hell knights on some raised steps that were awkward to berserk (and at the moment I lacked any other weapon except the secret chaingun). A second playthrough definitely helped as I could grab the secret SSG before killing everything that time. This is the first map I found benefited from a second run-through and the first I found the secrets mattered for quality of life rather than just making fights easier. Not a big deal but I could see some elements not appealing to everyone.

Oh and if you use all your rocket ammo before the ending you’re going to have a bad time… just a heads up.

I have more to criticize than some earlier maps but again, its all basically nitpicks. Rite succeeds at what its trying to do and its superb ambiance sets the desired tone for the second episode.

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

Map 6: Rite - 15:47

A sharp change of pace from the previous few maps, Rite has you wonder and punch your way through a shadowy Mesoamerican-esque tomb. The map's kill count belies it's comparatively long completion time (at least for me). Unless you're able to track down the secrets, all you get for offense is a pistol, berserk pack, and near the end of the map a rocket launcher. The chaingun and SSG make the map a fair bit easier but the combat is by no means unfair or unpleasant without them. The toughest parts of the map involve punching revenants and an awkward rocket battle with an annihilator at the end. Two other things about Rite that stand out to me are 1.) the red switch hunt which nicely rewards a good memory, and 2.) the ziggurat that houses the red key and rocket launcher just outside it. The latter of the two is a really neat detail, as it seems to only exist to be something nice to look at and hold the red key (something I personally wish was more common in doom mapping). Another small but cool thing I noticed is that gibbing former corporals will net five armor bonuses rather than just one. Chapter two of Ev2 is off to a great start.
Difficulty: 3/15

Map 7: Sovereign - 20:11

Sovereign is probably the longest map so far next to map 5, and my feelings on it are admittedly a little mixed. My first playthrough of this map back during RC1 really impressed me. I loved the clean layout and pacing and the "desert fortress" theme is done exceptionally well from a visual and aural perspective. I remember thinking to myself "Wow, that was awesome. I think that was the best map so far". However, my second and third runs of map 7 did not grab me as much. There are some fun fights (all three key fights are good fun and the supercharge secret trap surprises me even when I know its coming), but the incidental combat bores me. It feels like too much running around chaingunning zombies and trying to remember where secrets are. Like with map 5 too I was wanting to take the right path first, and was slightly disappointed when I found out I couldn't get the red key first. Again, nothing inherently wrong with linearity, but I personally think the open nature of the map calls for more routing flexibility. I think Sovereign would have been a standout map in a wad like Epic 1 and 2 or something where secret hunting and exploration are the gameplay focus, but in Ev2 it feels noticeably slower paced compared to the maps in episode 1. I still enjoyed my time with it overall, though. 
Difficulty: 4/15
 

Map07 - Sovereign - DMPhobos
 

We go from An_Mutt's constrictive tyson tomb to a wide-shot reveal of a whole mesoamerican necropolis! The scale and juxtaposition between the two maps is of course stunning, and that's the beat this whole map will ride on. Before I continue I want to say that just because we've seen a lot of ambitious sprawling sector work (and we will see more even within this mapset I am sure) in the realm of doom mapping by 2024, it doesn't take away from acknowledging the amount of effort, talent and dedication it takes to map such a space. I cannot do it for sure, it's one thing to make a few ziggurats (one of the primeval doom mapping shapes), it's another to make a layout of such structures and have it flow well and interconnect in interesting ways. Just the no-monsters aspect of making effectively a sector-scaled 'gameplay city map' is and always will be extremely impressive to me.
 

In spirit, this still essentially flows from Downtown, though. And I don't love Downtown. I get easily lost at the best of times in doom maps and I almost never have as great a time in such a layout as I will in a helltomb with really only one or two strongly suggested ways to go.  Here's all the things this map does to still keep me entertained even though there's a natural ceiling to such enjoyment for this player.
 

First of all, the sky texture is out of out of a romantic Naturalist painting. The pinks and turquoises of the sky interplay with their more severe cousins in the red and blue architectural trims. The connective tissue is the masonry brown. As above, so below, held together by snaking midtextures of world serpents and other amazonian iconography. The map is quite the looker, in fact I do want to nomonsters fly around it in a little later.

The encounters really are an excuse to crawl around these ancient ruins and ziggurats and wonder what once was here to mean, similarly in some ways to the feeling one would get in a Bard's Tale dungeon. There is an oldschool dungeon delving blobber element to maps like these whose main navigational puzzle is that of elevation: can you 1. spot and 2. get to that walkway? Of course compared to Bard's Tale the pace of exploration is million miles per hour. 

Inducing awe with scale this one does, but sometimes in the map's hurry to be an ease-of-use Doom map more than a real lived-in place, it feels more like a Sonic themed map of a mesoamerican temple than an actual temple if you know what I mean. Of course, all doom maps are wildly closer to Sonic stage than historical recreation of actual human location, and by design, but I mean something further than the obvious. This is interesting to think on as we move from the last map, whose every corner was filled with a particular dread inducing personality and called imaginations of the particular story of that particular place. Both maps have about the same level of per-meter sector detail, so it isn't about that but the choices made about what the sectors are supposed to connote. Map making has its subtle poetry to it as well. 
 

This win some/lose some balance of the map is understandable because as you're dropped in this place and you realize you need to hunt for a blue and a red skull, the map is alive with incidental combat across the many ziggurats and the various turreted fortifications shaping them. The player will spend about 5 minutes just pacifying the opening shot, as it were. You get some familiarization with avenues to reinspect as you do this initial run but you cannot hide too many completely unique detours in this first open crawl as the eyes will have looked upon everything in a hurry, the automap, too, will pretend to have seen everything but in reality one just scrambled about to shoot every sergeant in short order, they didn't adventure through anything in that first mad rush. So a degree of layout simplification leads to paying more attention to actual landmarks (usually high up, at the top of structures conveniently perfectly shaped to climb higher and higher on), not hidden nooks and crannies across every corridor.
 

As one would expect from a well made city map, further exploration invites dangerous repopulation with higher tier monsters. As we search for two keys the map never feels completely conquered, which is important for an open plan ancient city kind of concept. The fantasy this map fulfills is indeed one of climbing at the top of the ziggurat, snatching a bloody skull key and surveying all of this lost city's horizon and asking yourself where next to conquer. In the only way that such a fantasy is weakened it is by the insidious slight seams of culture - is it not a brittle fantasy anyway? Already foundational to it an overexoticised and quaint by modern standards indiana-jones-stealing-artifacts-from-the-natives colonial imagination. Then one realizes the Phrygian melody in the midi, for a mesoamerican inspired video-game level and those minor sins against verisimilitude start to add up, but only so much... you still mainly shoot imps and hellskeletons with a rocket launcher so one could easily make the case that our doomguy is travelling the infinite quantum expanses of recombination and chanced upon Egyptian Aztek ruins, who's to say? take it easy... That fantasy, though, of reaching the high place and surveying an ancient city wide with eldritch angles and shadowed in menacing profundities, you get it in spades. Every time you grab one of the three skull keys. The maps knows well what it is and how to deliver.
 

Satisfying pillar hopping secret found, insinuated purely through an extra pillar to hop on leads to a very provisionally significant blue armor. I find another secret in a place where I just expected there should be one, satisfying. Died once because an archvile. Disappointing. Always frustrating when one spots in footage another secret they didn't mid-play, but that's just setting up a longing to return, is it not?

footage

MAP07: Sovereign. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 401/401 K, 5/5 S, 4/4 I. Comp. time 40:02

I'm glad the episode is not about resource starvation! Instead we get a sand-boxy ruins with a handful spicy encounters -- although I kind of was expecting the arena to absolutely fill with foes. No matter, it's a fun ride; Sovereign (isn't that a title from Eviternity 1? Like MAP04 or something?^{Never mind, I must confuse it with something totally different.}).  The hardest part here is the beginning, at least for me, it takes a while for everything to settle down.

I take that back -- actually the hardest part once again were the secrets :P Whenever I'd spend too much time looking for 'em, I call my good friend IDDT, but the maps are complicated enough to hide their secrets well.

I am sorry for being behind a bit.

A different 20-years old game received a huge Fan-made Mod on 31_12_2023, and it distracted me from Eviternity II.

As they say, "When it rains, it pours!". Never thought that this saying applies to breathtaking fan-made content, yet here we are...

Map 03 - “Sonder” by @Dragonfly

Another really awesome MIDI. But it is more subtle than "End of the line". I loved the soundtrack for map 02 almost in instant. "Spider Waltz" from map 03 didn't felt so striking at first. But in the end, "Spider Waltz" feels like The MIDI not only for map 03, but for the whole episode 01! It has a right mix of sadness, grandness, wonder, and mystery to resonate with all levels from this Episode.

Maps 01 and 02 had very notable "Grey Realm between Light an Dark" visual aesthetics. Sonder is a bit different: its aesthetics is not Grey, but Colorful instead. There is strong emphasis on lush greens. But those greens are also contrasted with Hellish Flesh-walls. In the end, this is also "A Realm between Light an Dark", but rendered in a different way: Cosmic Autumn instead of Cosmic Grey.

Structurally, Sonder strongly reminds me about Heliopolis, map 27 of Eviternity 1. Once again, there is a big patch of natural scenery with twisted passages and minor ambushes. And all this nature connects a set of dedicated "challenge areas", which house more dangerous encounters inside them. To complete the map, a full set of challenge areas must be cleared. But there are two big differences between 2018-19 Heliopolis and 2023-24 Sonder:

- firstly, the Sonder is much smaller in scale. Map of different scales play differently, obviously!

- secondly, there is two different sets of challenges to exit the map on Sonder. Set 1 - completing all Fell Heart fights unlocks a big arena in the center, and clearing this arena leads to exit. Set 2 - activating 4 switches connected to 4 secrets rises a Heliopolis-styled stairs, which lead to the Secret Exit. The player may chose whatever set of tasks they prefer.

Map 31 - “Redshift” by @Afterglow & Dragonfly

Here is the first secret level. Praised be UMAPINFO for enabling custom WAD progression in many different source-ports!

Aesthetically, Redshift is a brownish-red techbase with bright-green pools of Nukage. This is a tried and true visual design for FPS levels! It also can be seen as a twist on the SupernaturalAutumn Sub-theme of Maps 03, 04 and 05. Rusty-looking steel beams emphasise "It is time for everything to change around here", just like

the Autumn leaves, or red-and-yellow-and brown natural colors do.

Gameplay-wise, Redshift is dedicated to firing big super-weapons at the unruly hellspawn. The new Perforator Gun is the main treat here, but good old BFG-9000 can also be found and readily deployed. The level has all kinds of demons to test the guns against.

I will describe Perforator later, because I want to make a dedicated post about custom deHacked in episodes 1 and 2 of Eviternuty. For now, I will only say that perforator feels like a cross between normal Railgun-style FPS weapon and the SiegeMode Alt-fire for Doom 2016 Gauss Cannon.

Map 04 - “Engulfed” by @Velvetic & Dragonfly
Arguably, Engulfed does not include any ground-shattering moments. But this is not the problem at all, I think.

Engulfed is a set of extremely high-quality pieces - and this an absolutely valid way to construct a great level.

From the very beginning to the very end, I had a lot of fun playing this level. The monster variation is really great: if I am not forgetting anyone, than this level uses all low- and mid tier monsters from both Doom 2 roster and previous Eviternity 2 levels. Zombieman, Biting-Demons of all kinds, Archviles, Barons, Annihilators - everyone is here.

In the grand scheme of all things in Eviternity II, Engulfed brilliantly passes one crucial threshold. Any WAD which starts with easy-going minor skirmishes and aims for grander battles later on has to pass that threshold somehow.

I am, of course, talking about wide-spread Revenant deployment. Small maps with too many revenants are bound to feel vicious, at the very least in good old Plutonian way. Grand maps without Revenant squads are risking to feel lacking. (This does not mean, that one cannot make a grand map without Rev crowds, however! One can make even a Plutonia-style grand map without revs in any major fights! See Ozonia map27 by @Deadwing, if you don't believe me. But usually Revs are too useful a tool for a mapmaker to abandon in high-challenge levels)

Basically, any WAD with high-variety difficulty curve is bound to have a moment, when revenants become a common foe. And it is better to not feel too cruel, because revs are tanky, tricky, mobile and also have high damage! Engulfed acts as the dedicated mass-rev introduction for Eviternity 2. Revs are rather commonplace here. But they have company: Pain Elementals, Mancubi, an Annihilator, Hitscan squads... And map geometry of Engulfed seems to make dodging Guided Missiles easier. So revs feel like just another hellspawn variation rather than a dedicated "Ruin-Your-Day-Specialists".

Map 03 - “Sonder”, Map 04 - “Engulfed”, Map 31 - “Redshift” - all three are awesome maps, each with its own unique traits. I think, I prefer map 02 a bit more, but those three maps are great too.

MAP07 - “Sovereign” by DMPhobos

Wow, this is an incredible map. It's gorgeous of course. That seems to be a given for Eviternity II. You start out coming out of the temple you were in last map, and you get presented with an epic view. Things seem pretty quiet at first, but the cacodemons are honing in on your position. I waited around too long and so I had a bunch of them near the spawn, and I didn't geel that I had enough ammo to deal with them effectively. So I ended up exploring the map, which woke up even more enemies. The map does an excellent job at pushing you to move without overwhelming you. The SSG and rocket launcher can be found multiple times in the map, so if you miss one you can just grab the next one. Once you get the outdoor areas cleared out the map returns to a more linear progression.

The key traps are much more substantial though. The yellow key fight is the biggest and most difficult, but I managed to cause the trap to trigger even though I never actually grabbed the plasma rifle or the key. Luckily I had a plasma rifle from another area of the map, so I was able to win the fight. My favorite trap would probably the the red key trap, since four astral arachnotrons spawn in and act as turrets while imps flood the area around you. Also the entire ziggurat just drops down into a pit. That kind of freaked me out when it happened! The same trick was used with the yellow key trap as well. The blue key trap was also pretty difficult, but I had just grabbed a mega-armor so I made it through.

I ended up finding all of the secrets, and that led to me finishing the map without dying at all. The only secret I had to go back and look for was the switch on the fountain. You just get some ammo and health for that one. Grabbing the secret megaarmor and soulsphere right before the yellow key fight made that fight much easier, although I didn't actually take that much damage. I'm pretty sure I would have survived without either.

While the map was wasn't hard, I still had a ton of fun with it. I think this is my new favorite map in the set... so far.

10 hours ago, DMPhobos said:

The setup of this fight involves monsters blocking vodoo dolls to force the players to kill all the arachnos in order to progress, but i ended up overcomplicating it a lot, which ended up causing it to not work on some versions of gzdoom and softlock the map.

I wonder if using the bossaction of UMAPINFO would have worked? I don't remember any other astral arachnotrons in the map, so I think that could have been made to work.

1 hour ago, Ralgor said:

I wonder if using the bossaction of UMAPINFO would have worked? I don't remember any other astral arachnotrons in the map, so I think that could have been made to work.

In hindsight, yeah, it would had done the same effect (albeit with a slight delay), but at the time when i was doing this area i was still open to reusing the astral arachnos elsewhere in the map so i didn't wanted to limit myself there so the idea was replicating the effect with a different setup to not limit astral arachnos on a single area (tho in the end i ended up only using them there).

^{That's right, eviternity 2 map07 was a dead simple clone all along!}

MAP07 - Soverreign - DMPhobos (96%K/50%I/40%S):

I've got overwhelmed by the looks and the MASSIVE size of this map, an average classic Doom enjoyer feels small as we usually don't see this kind of big maps. It's not a long behemot map, but its layout and structure sure feels bigger than it actually is. A great job by DMPhobos, surely one of his better submissions to any project, and I have to say, quite different to his usual job, I did not notice it was him at all.

The map is as sandboxy as you can get, grab two keys, do some fights, then grab the yellow key and exit, kinda in a similar manner to MAP31, yet, obviously better in gameplay. I've really enjoyed my time in this complex, it's really making me feel like in Scythe II's temple episode, but in a more "aztec"-like landscape.

Order of preference:
 

MAP07 - “Sovereign” by DMPhobos

Given what this map offers, it is probably a little too big for its own good. Also I don't think that making the progression completely linear was a good idea (You have to go blue, red, yellow), instead giving the player the choice to go blue or red might have worked better. Otherwise this is another map that proceeds at a reasonable pace and there are a couple of neat fights within this temple complex. I guess the incidental combat could have had a little more bite to it as well. I guess for a large map that looks gorgeous I really should have more to say, but there isn't much to say outside of the bigger fights.

Map07 “Sovereign” by DMPhobos

Welcome to Sovereign, the sprawling capital city of the second episode. We begin in a wide-open plaza with a ton of baddies, many of them hitscanners, patrolling the streets and buildings so be sure to watch your health. Ammo can be tight at the start so consider ignoring enemies like cacos until you find some shell or ammo boxes (or just run for the eastern SSG like I did my second playthrough). Progression (I think?) is linear and we will need to head west for the blue key first.

Combat is amorphous, with enemies steadily placed throughout and many more small groups teleporting in after various triggers. At a monster count of 401 this is a lot of incidental combat, which gives the map an Epic 2 adventure vibe that was enjoyable to secret hunt in but didn’t endear me to playing a second time. We do have some arena fights, such as the astraltron/imp wavedance triggered by taking the red key. I was worried the uber arachnos would be replaced by turret viles upon death but thankfully at map07 the megawad isn’t willing to play that rough yet. The standout encounter is probably the finale, approaching the yellow key drops us in a pit and let’s loose a ton of enemies. Nabbing the plasma quickly helps greatly, but even if you don’t there’s enough room to get by with the SSG (you’re a braver soul than I if you opt for the RL against so many fast enemies here).

I usually like this type of level in moderation and this time around is no exception. It’s sandboxy, exploration heavy, and a little bit old-school. Given that most fighting is resting heart rate, I appreciate the handful of moments keeping me on my toes, such as the rude jumpscare pit drop trap with some shotgunners and hell knights which I wouldn’t always approve of but here it gave the level a needed adrenaline boost. Playing the map twice was unnecessary, so if I see another level like this, I’ll probably just do one run-through. Another thing I’ll give kudos is that this level didn’t really drag for me because despite the open layout nearly all the enemies are engaged in the natural course of progression. The secrets were fun to find as well, and were made more intuitive by having many of the items visible to hint at the general location.

A very well made epic.