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?