Latest Doom mapsets you have played

[JohnnyTheWolf]

I have been a roll lately and I played through several Doom mapsets.

Alien Vendetta

After many years, I finally mustered the courage to finish this one. The first 10 or so maps are pretty solid Plutonia-hard levels, but then the mapset pulls a bit of a bait and switch by forcing you through slaughtermap after slaughtermap with very few breather levels in-between.

After The Sequel

A compilation of console-exclusive retail and unused maps remade for Doom II. That includes the Playstation maps, the unused/prototype Doom 64 maps and even the recently-uncovered "Altar of Extraction" from the Jaguar port and "Pain Labs" from the Playstation port. Pretty cool, especially when played with Doom 64: Unseen Evil!

The Rebirth

A classic megawad that I recently got done playing. Aside from a couple unreachable secrets and stuck monsters, it is a must.

Hell's Bane

Chris Hansen's possibly final megawad for The Ultimate Doom. Excellent mapset all around, if you do not mind going back to The Ultimate Doom.

The Big Friendly Thud

A forgotten megawad from Chris Klie of Master Levels of Doom II fame. Most levels are kind of short and easy because the overabundance of supplies and the low monster population (according to Klie himself, it was because of his computer's low specs at the time) and it ends rather anticlimactically at MAP29, but the mapset still can get quite creative. Think of a mix between Doom 64's Fun Maps and Sandy Petersen's gimmick-centric level design.

The Lost Episodes of Doom

Basically, the TNT Evilution for Doom 1. Some okay levels - including a few reused from The Big Friendly Thud (or was it the other way?) - but the mapset drags on a lot due to its low difficulty and fairly forgettable maps, especially the Bob Carter ones. The custom menu screen is by far the most memorable thing about it.

Dr. Sleep's Inferno

I played the "finished" version by Elf-alchemist on the Bethesda Mods page. A bunch of classic maps mixed with Dr. Sleep's Master Levels submissions that I never got to play before. The standout map is weirdly not a Dr. Sleep map, but Xaser Acheron's tribute to the map Dr. Sleep never got to release prior to his death; regardless, it is an excellent map - Xaser made it from Ultimate Doom The Way Did - and playing it with Myrgharok's "The Eternal Emptiness" from the Ultimate Doom MIDI Pack made for an unexpectedly emotional experience, as I could not stop myself from thinking about the late John Anderson and how he never got to finish his Inferno series.

Cranium's Cabal

That one, I decided to play with Doom 64: Unseen Evil and I must say, Cranium really missed his calling, as his intricate maps full of devious traps and deadly ambushes really fit the Doom 64 aesthetics - most especially with Aubrey Hodges's gloomy soundtracks.

Jim Flynn's Titan

Similar to Cranium's Cabal. Fantastic stuff best played with Doom 64: Unseen Evil or at the very least Aubrey Hodges's soundtrack.

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What about you? Played any good maps lately?

[tuintje]

im actually looking for some new cool mapsets i haven't played any new ones for a while now

[JohnnyTheWolf]

I am in the process of playing recently-released mapsets right now, but aside from After The Sequel and Hell's Bane, I have not been able to finish them yet.

One such mapset that I would recommend is Doom II Minus Doom, which is a full megawad that reimagines Doom II with a twist: it only features Doom II assets when possible, lipogram style! I made it to MAP17 and it has been excellent so far. It is especially enjoyable with DrPySpy's Doom 64: Unseen Evil mod, which replaces the Wolfenstein SS with Mortal Kombat ninjas; since there is no Imp in the mapset, the Mortal Kombat ninjas work well as stand-ins with their own projectile balls.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

Snaxalotl's Abscission is a Plutonia-hard reimagining of Doom II: Hell on Earth with a dark ambient soundtrack.

Play it if you can. It is FAN-TAS-TIC!

[JohnnyTheWolf]

Matt Eldrydge's survival horror map FALAZ is great, if not a bit too generous on supplies - even on 'Survival' difficulty - and over too soon. Otherwise, it is a solid Doom 3-meets-FEAR experience featuring a rather unusual reimagining of the Doom 3 shotgun!

Ayba's Belot is the latest entry in her Kyst universe. Sadly, unlike previous entries, it is currently unsupported by GZDoom, so I had to settle for Nugget Doom, a port that does not support my favourite QoL patches (notably Zhs2's Intelligent Supplies. As for the map, well, it is Plutonia-hard, features tweaked Eminfaire arsenal and Hysterians roster and is set in a dark fantasy environment that is highly unusual for Doom, which I would describe as part Resident Evil's Spencer Mansion, part Oddworld. I strongly recommend keeping track of the destroyable Statues as you go so you do not have to backtrack through the whole level once you reach the door to the boss fight, which only opens after you have destroyed all 32 statues. Highly recommended, if you can overcome the deliberately steep difficulty curve. Also, make sure to be kind to the author if you leave her feedback!