UnknDoomer's corner of ultra silence - Short WAD Reviews / Longplays / Hints

Discuss anything ZDoom-related that doesn't fall into one of the other categories.
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UnknDoomer
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Re: UnknDoomer's corner of ultra silence - Short WAD Reviews / Longplays / Hints

Post by UnknDoomer »

42. Silent Outpost (2024).

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/1 ... ost-1-map/

A single map focused on working with PsyDoom in combination with The Ultimate Doom, PSX. Despite its general simplicity and the fact that the number of monsters is generally small, it has two distinctive features. The first is a severe shortage of ammo. The second is a rather confusing architecture.
Settings and features:

* PsyDoom 1.1.1, difficulty UV.
* Complete completion will take ~ 20 minutes.
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Re: UnknDoomer's corner of ultra silence - Short WAD Reviews / Longplays / Hints

Post by UnknDoomer »

196. Tower of Devils (2024).

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/1 ... of-devils/

Wad for Heretic from 9 levels (1 secret), built on the principle of Hexen - there is a central hub and several sublevels, an abundance of switches, an emphasis on puzzles, non-trivial architecture. In addition, it is required, which is quite rare, active use of both the ability to jump and squat separately, and often in combination of the first and second. A number of local monsters, three types, came straight from Hexen.

Settings and features:

* GzDoom 4.12.2, difficulty 4/5.
* The custom boss in the final wada can be dealt with in a matter of seconds if you use invulnerability and then, due to the "six", push him out of the arena - he will instantly die. You can easily get rid of the lizards by turning them into chickens, fortunately, the supply of eggs by this time is more than sufficient.
* A full passage will take ~ 3 hours.

Secret level.

E2M6 -> E2M9. It is located behind a large door in the northeast of the map. I did not figure out how to open it. The level itself is unremarkable - just a square arena with 176 opponents. [/center]
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Re: UnknDoomer's corner of ultra silence - Short WAD Reviews / Longplays / Hints

Post by UnknDoomer »

43. Fortress of Whispers (2024).

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/1 ... ers-1-map/

A sequel to "Silent Outpost", built on the same principle. The only significant difference is that there is a secret exit, to get to which you will need to get the red key.

Settings and features:

* PsyDoom 1.1.1, difficulty UV.
* Full playthrough will take ~ 30 minutes.
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Re: UnknDoomer's corner of ultra silence - Short WAD Reviews / Longplays / Hints

Post by UnknDoomer »

197. Constriction: 1024 (2024).

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/1 ... s-release/

A wad of 32 levels (2 secret), the main feature of which, judging by the name, was the limit on the size of a single map with a grid of 1024x1024 or less. Despite the compactness of the levels, some of them are passed too quickly, partly due to the fairly high complexity. There are custom, but generally not unique textures that could be seen in many other works. Stylistically the wad is divided into two segments - conditional technogenic bases and gothic fortresses, among which something else is occasionally found, such as, for example, M19 in the style of Ancient Egypt. The narrative element seems to be borrowed from the famous BTSX dilogy, which was once analyzed earlier.


Settings and features:

* GzDoom 4.13.1b, UV difficulty.
* Complete completion will take ~ 5 hours.

Secret levels:

M15 -> M31. There is a niche to the left of the main exit. To get the key you will need to fight cyberdemon, two archviles and a series of other enemies.
M31 -> M32. The exit is on the lower deck of the submarine. It will open, apparently, after finding the secret with blue armor, for which you need to find a teleport to it.

Pros:

+ M15 - "The Transformer".
+ M31 - "We're All Killin in a Yellow Submarine".
+ M19 - "Mastaba".
+ M23 - "An Unsuspicious Village".
+ M26 - "Iron Sepulchre".

Contras:

- M30 - "Lament Constriction". Excessive complexity. Enemies regularly appear from four sides, in a small square. You need to run onto the platform, press the switch, run onto the platform again, wait for a short pole to rise, wait for Romero's head to appear in one of the four points and fire a shot. This sequence needs to be repeated several times and it's quite difficult to remember the timing and spawn point. I got through it by saving after each successful run and occasionally checking the timing in combination with "god", after which I did the next run in a proper way.
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Re: UnknDoomer's corner of ultra silence - Short WAD Reviews / Longplays / Hints

Post by UnknDoomer »

198. Hispanic Community Project (2023 / 2024).

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/1 ... n-idgames/

Wad jointly created by map builders from several countries (judging by the number of flags - 9; Spain, Mexico and others), united by a common language - Spanish. Consists of 43 (3 secret) levels, varying quite noticeably in scale, style and theme. If you try to describe the collective work in one term, it will be like this - magical realism, as opposed to standard design and brutalism, abstractionism and constructivism characteristic of my local region. The corresponding musical motifs are included.

The authors mention that they were inspired by the previously reviewed Doom 2 In Spain Only (2021). and Japanese Community Project, originally from Japan. I am not familiar with the second, but it has several components in common with the first - a pronounced, albeit to a lesser extent, shortage of ammo in places, vast, sometimes huge, locations combined with more compact ones, strongly floating difficulty.

Separately, it is perhaps worth noting that you should not count on a quick walk here - traditionally for such works the journey will be protracted. So, the passage of only one voluminous, technogenic, space and intricate base in the person of M25 can take an hour, as well as the same compact, but complex M21, due to the emphasis on specific "combat puzzles", can take half an hour.
Settings and features:

* GzDoom 4.13.1b, UV difficulty.
* At the start of a new level, in addition to the traditional display of the map name and the nickname of its creator, the flag of the country with which a specific author is associated is displayed.
* M19 can be left immediately at the start, however there is no particular reason to stay here - the huge map is a patchwork quilt, several large, half-empty segments, in places filled with enemies and diluted with non-obvious puzzles. To get to the majority of the map you need to solve the combination encoded behind the numbers 0111101. What this binary code could mean... I can only guess. The translation into the decimal system does not give any hints that some word or combination was encoded in Spanish could not be found.
* On M21, apparently, there may be problems with the passage - a couple of walls in the right places may not move. Potentially a conflict of scripts with GzDoom. The authors did not test the wad with it, although in general there were no very problematic segments during the passage.
* A full passage will take ~ 13 hours.

Secret levels:

M12 -> M41. You need to get the red skull, the path to which is blocked by a wall. Further actions are quite obvious, but I could not figure out how to access it. It seems there is no teleport, no switches nearby either. I used noclip.
M41 -> M42. Behind the door where you need a blue key, you can turn left and find a teleport.
M42 -> M43. To the left of the starting platform there is a switch that opens the passage to the teleport, although it is not clear how to climb back. Rocket jump cannot be used here, climbing over the heads of opponents, most likely, will not work, in addition to the fact that you will need to pick up invulnerability, there were no archviles around. I used noclip.

Pros:

+ M13 - "Calle 13".
+ M25 - "En Algun Lugar Del Cielo".
+ M32 - "My father is a borracho".
+ M33 - "Masa Critica".
+ Original final boss.
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Re: UnknDoomer's corner of ultra silence - Short WAD Reviews / Longplays / Hints

Post by UnknDoomer »

199. By Candlelight (2022 / 2024).

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/1 ... e-idgames/

A small wad of 9 compact levels (1 secret) for Heretic, created by comrade Death Bear during one of the summer storms and subsequently initially released to the public during the NANOWADMO 2022 event. The polished version reached the idgames catalog at the end of last July. The difficulty level can be assessed as moderately high.
Settings and features:

* GzDoom 4.13.1b, difficulty 4/5.
* Complete completion will take ~ 1,5 hours.

Secret level:

M6 -> M9. You can find a blue key behind the waterfall, then use it in the hidden section in the north.
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Re: UnknDoomer's corner of ultra silence - Short WAD Reviews / Longplays / Hints

Post by UnknDoomer »

200. Hermeticism (2023 / 2024).

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/1 ... retic-wad/

A 9-level (1 secret) wad for Heretic, the author's first work for this game. There are a small number of custom textures, boss battles, two malotaurs and D'Sparil respectively, take place in closed arenas.

Settings and features:

* GzDoom 4.13.1b, difficulty 4/5.
* Complete completion will take ~ 1,5 hours.

Secret level:

M6 -> M9. You need to get the blue key, for which a regular running jump should be enough.

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