Good Doom/Heretic/Hexen WADs

[tormund]

Prepare your ceremonial UAC chainsaws, men. We might have a beheading soon.

 

[Astral Rag]

The Twilight Zone II: Final Dreams (1999)
Pretty good 32 level megawad by Paul Corfiatis.
I wasn't too keen on the new weapons and lulzy features (baby Cyberdemon, silly textures, Keens everywhere,...)

Spoiler

Simply Phobos (2010)
Great Episode 1 replacement wad, also made by PC.

Spoiler

Phobos Revisited (2004)
Another Knee-Deep in the Dead style episode. This one looks very good and it's more faithful to the original. It starts out great but some of the later maps were pretty average. Definitely worth playing though.

Spoiler

 

[Baron Dupek]

Two 32-maps megawads.
Another pack for my DoomRPG venture.
I wouldn't be shocked if that Quake2 inspired wad reveal to be better than Q2 itself.

 

[tormund]

http://iddqd.ru/levels?find=Doom+Darkstar
This was interesting and unusual. Two maps for GZDoom source port, one huge spaceship map and one small boss fight map in hell style. Spaceship map is built in Doom 3 style, it feels like a mixture of Doom 3 and Doom 64. Really detailed, large, hard, uses a lot of 3D geometry... There is even a surprising zero gravity part later on.

 

[Riskbreaker]

I wouldn't be shocked if that Quake2 inspired wad reveal to be better than Q2 itself.

It is!
No really, Zaero is really, really good. Large-ish, exploration-heavy maps done right. Looks pretty good too, and that isn't something one expects from a wad littered with Q2 textures.
Real fucking shame that remaining episodes were never finished.

Astral Rag
I felt the same way about D2INO RDC, never found strength to go back and actually finish it. I reckon that map 5 would be way too exhausting even for a regular Eternal Doom fanboy.
I kinda wish that they go on with the project tho. It would be real cool to see reimaginings of Doom 2's urban maps with that kind of detail: they would be nice to look at and wander around, if nothing else.

 

[ghostdog]

WADs I've played recently:

ZDoom Community Map
One huge map created in collaboration by many zdoom community members. Some great structure, a couple of big slaughterfests, verticality and underwater parts. On the downside uneven interconnection and looks because of so many different authors.

Spoiler

20 Years of Doom
Megawad based on the looks of the original doom levels, but only superficially since it evolves into its own more complex thing. Very nice to look at and has some great parts, but not exceptional.

Spoiler

LOL I see YOU cyberdemon ! I wil-

FUUUUUUUUU

Armadosia the mad corridor
Armadosia has huge maps with complex architecture, vast areas, long mad corridors, a lot of exploration, memorable fights, simple but effective looks (apart from some texture misalignments). It would be one the best megawads ever if it wasn't for the convoluted lever-door shenanigans that force you to backtrack a lot in order to find the fucking door you just opened. Later on this shit becomes mad. Frustrating but worth a try for the first maps imo. Really, if the damned author just fixed the switch-door craziness this wad would be monumental.

Spoiler

Hmm, there's a plasma rifle behind those cubes.

typical.

 

[Baron Dupek]

I made few tests with that Twilight Zone 2 maps and DoomRPG.

Spoiler

I fucked up

I fucked up really bad.

I wanted to boost up loot and cash income a bit.

What you should edit at the start is your rank. Start with rank 1 and you can sell items anywhere.

Then I found answers for my questions.
First - both Advanced Power Armor (here called Nuclear Armor) and Gauss Rifles can't be bought, they are listed in SHOP only to be sold.
It's so elementary how could I miss that.
Second - Gauss Rifle work like FO3/New Vegas gauss shit, not like Fallout2 killing machine

 

[Riskbreaker]

MWDoom E1
https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/mwdoome1
8-map episode, first part of a planned Zdoom megawad. For the most part, this is one enjoyable and polished release. Zdoom features are mostly limited to visuals, and there are no custom enemies or weapons present. Visuals are really pleasant and polished.
With the exception of opening map and finale, maps tend to be of the medium-large variety. Layouts are rather straightforward tho, and author did his best to minimize aimless backtracking and switch-huntery. There is a nice amount of variety between maps: instead of sticking to one theme throughout entire episode, author decided to place each map in a different environment.
There are some nice Doom 1 touches too: cute intermission screen akin to those from D1, choice of music, and environments that sometimes have a very D1-ish feel to them.
Gameplay is of a classic variety, reliant on enemy placement and traps. Mostly reasonably challenging with some frantic bits, mostly fun, if sometimes a bit repetitive.
I have one rather big issue with gameplay in this episode, however. Thing is, author loves hitscanners! Really loves 'em! Especially chaingunners, which are present in increasingly large quantities as one progresses trough this episode. Also, they are sometimes placed in convenient sniping spots, or are parts of traps. There was a couple of other annoyances, like say placement of red key in map 6 which required some pretty annoying quasi-platforming. Other than that, this was pretty enjoyable affair... if one can stomach that chaingunner overload.

Spoiler

 

[tormund]

MotherMachinae
I'm planning to finally try DoomRPG. Can you recommend any megawad that plays well in combo with DoomRPG?

 

[Baron Dupek]

MotherMachinae
I'm planning to finally try DoomRPG. Can you recommend any megawad that plays well in combo with DoomRPG?

Any mappack with work (except Valiant, it's stated in the readme). Playing 32lvl mappacks is better with it.

I tried to install DoomRPG + Arsenal 3-4 times. Everything with instruction.
And I have no idea why it started working at 4th time...

Oh, and run with DoomRL Arsenal and Monster Pack.
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=37044

For some reasons everyone want to play with Brutal Doom that work after v0.91.
The only BD I accept is Project Brutality, which put in shame sgt mark4 or whatever is named that omegadweeber...

 

[Astral Rag]

Doom Magazine, monocled French magazine about Doom, Doom clones, level editing, MP,... There are some very early Quake screenshots in the second issue. The magazines came with a metric ton of wads.

 

[Astral Rag]

MWDoom E1

I really enjoyed this one.

My first attempt at creating my own doom episode

Moving clouds in Doom

Spoiler

Fully functional cctv cameras

DEATH TORMENTION 3

Good Thy Flesh Consumed replacement by PC

Spoiler

 

[octavius]

Any Duke Nukem 3D maps to recommend? (Should I open a separate thread?)

I've downloaded some maps from the Duke Nukem Depository in the past, but none of those I've tried so far have been very memorable. And when I tried the site again, the map sorting function no longer works.

 

[tormund]

Guys, Eisenfaust: Legacy is really huge and all around fantastic if you are in mood for some Wolf 3D.
It looks great, with bunch of new effects and textures. Mapping is great. There is lot of variety between maps in term of locations and visuals, and there is often a variety of indoor and outdoor environments within most maps.

There are some cool new features too, like friendly NPCs

Player can chat with some of them, they will sometimes reveal important info

Most weapons now require reloading

I'm really liking it so far. It can be pretty hard too. It starts easy, but there is a big jump in difficulty early on, in sewer map.

Some more screenshots

There is a great attention to detail in terms of audio too. Different sounds when walking across different surfaces, then in one of early maps there were slight variations between the sound of rain depending on whether the player is outside, beneath some shelter or inside.

Now I'm sorry because I never tried earlier Team Raycast releases before, but I will fix that as soon as finish this one.

 

[Sothpaw]

Whelp just finished Deathkings of the Dark Citadel (Hexen rules). Now just Final Doom and Strife to finish the Doom engine games and dive into some wads. Only 23 years of stuff to catch up on no biggie.

Oh and I have to play the Build engine games too.

 

[tormund]

Any Duke Nukem 3D maps to recommend? (Should I open a separate thread?)

I've downloaded some maps from the Duke Nukem Depository in the past, but none of those I've tried so far have been very memorable. And when I tried the site again, the map sorting function no longer works.

Separate thread for Duke 3D and eDuke maps & mods would probably be a good idea, just because of the sheer amount of user-made content for that game if nothing else.

 

[Astral Rag]

Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars

Doom fan detected

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

I wonder how many copies has the original Doom sold to this day and if the numbers are in any way comparable to modern games.

Also, people playing retro games with graphics filters are colossal fags who can't appreciate the beauty of pixel art.

 

[Sothpaw]

I wonder which guy on the team got to fuck that accountant.

 

[tormund]

You really need to ask?:D
I cant help but think that Romero is the one who got her into that video in the first place.

 

[Alex]

This might have been mentioned earlier in the thread, but are there any good Hexen mods?

 

[Sothpaw]

This guy has some in his playlists https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoBzPaIGPAKPHSetPxH2mvw

 

[octavius]

Also, people playing retro games with graphics filters are colossal fags who can't appreciate the beauty of pixel art.

'sup, hipster?

 

[tormund]

Alex

Since i am on a Hexen & Heretic marathon, here is some of favorite stuff for hexen:

Wrath of Cronos,
Rpg mod, monsters level with you but it usually stays doable & there are some cool spells.
https://zandronum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1224
I never did a full plathrough with this but i really liked it.

Wad 1, Wolfen:


Wad 2, Ressurection of Chaos:


Wad 3, Scourge of Viscerus:

I can't vouch for any Hexen gameplay mods like that first one, but each of those three hubs is good stuff.

There isn't that much stuff for Hexen sadly, even compared to Heretic. I guess that Hexen's level design is an acquired taste, and the fact that the knowledge of ACS scripting is required for creating hubs in style of original isn't helping either...