Good Doom/Heretic/Hexen WADs

[Riskbreaker]

btw has anyone played Hell to pay?

Never played it meself, but I did read some praise for it and it seems like some folks hold it in pretty high regard compared to most other WizardWorks releases.
octavius might have played it, if he's still going thru notable early Doom stuff.

Anyway, I have to make a wee rant. I've been playing Bloody Steel, and good Lord if that thing doesn't have one of the most annoying and misleading opening maps ever. Basically, it's designed like any contemporary FPS level: you're following one line and you're made painfully aware of that fact, with an odd side area or wider space here and there. It plays like ass, with craploads of hitscanners placed in elevated areas and with pinkies spawning RIGHT IN YO FACE. Doesn't help that environments are something of an eyesore too, 'tis like some sort of semi-realistic industrial junkyard/slum with some excessive detailing and loads of clashing custom textures.
Anyway, I'm at map 4, and it seems like this things keeps getting better with each new map. Tho, I could still spare some choice words about overall gameplay or certain particularly cheap parts (map 2 had a part where you're basically dropped in a corner with two hell knights blocking your path only few meters away from you, with nowhere to back and with very little area for dodging their projectiles).

 

[octavius]

btw has anyone played Hell to pay?

Never played it meself, but I did read some praise for it and it seems like some folks hold it in pretty high regard compared to most other WizardWorks releases.
octavius might have played it, if he's still going thru notable early Doom stuff.

Hmm...it is on my play list, but beside its entry I've just written "pass". So I must have disliked it for a reason, but I can't recall why. Maybe I should give it (another) try.

 

[tormund]

kmexii really likes Hell to Pay, for whatever that's worth http://onemandoom.blogspot.ba/2011/04/hell2paywad.html
I never played it either. On the other hand I played first few maps of Perdition's Gate, but that was a weird Zdoom remaster with maps that had bunch of seemingly randomly placed colored sectors.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Spoiler

 

[ghostdog]

wat

 

[PeachPlumage]

thanks for the replies guys and I think Ninja Destroyer :D

Looks like Brutal Doom v20b is getting released 31st December. https://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/85235-brutal-doom-v2b-release-date

Brutal Doom v20b vs. v20 Performance Benchmark - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqf9qKw6pQc

 

[tormund]

Another promising TC to look forward this year, this one is inspired by 16-bit action jRPGs...

 

[Siveon]

Amazing.

 

[PeachPlumage]

Looks interesting although that rapid sword attack is somewhat annoying. In before Brutal Doom compatibility request

 

[tormund]

This looks genuinely promising IMO. It's nice to see that he already had weapon scripting and animations in place, instead of announcing his mod with few stills like so many others did. Action looks fun, art style is appealing, now we only have to see some maps.

In before Brutal Doom compatibility request

BD fanbase wouldn't be what it is if they didn't expect BD support from EVERYTHING that contains new maps, no matter how absurd.:D

 

[PeachPlumage]

BD fanbase wouldn't be what it is if they didn't expect BD support from EVERYTHING that contains new maps, no matter how absurd.:D

Indeed! I am currently enjoying beautiful doom although I will probably tweak it a bit to my tastes. Brutal Doom is not too shabby when not using the fatalities, taunts and shit.

 

[octavius]

btw has anyone played Hell to pay?

Never played it meself, but I did read some praise for it and it seems like some folks hold it in pretty high regard compared to most other WizardWorks releases.
octavius might have played it, if he's still going thru notable early Doom stuff.

Hmm...it is on my play list, but beside its entry I've just written "pass". So I must have disliked it for a reason, but I can't recall why. Maybe I should give it (another) try.

Turned out that I hadn't actually played it (probably because it's a TC (or more accurately Partial Conversion), which tend to have more gimmics than good level design), but given the favourable review at the Doomed blog I decided to give it a try. Been some months since I last played Doom so my I got some motion sickness, but so far (two maps) it's pretty much what I expceted. It seems to have a more coherent story than your average MegaWAD, but it's rather easy with few enemies, and plenty of health and ammo, playing on Hurt Me Plenty (renamed to Wrath of Hell in this Mega WAD).

 

[PeachPlumage]

Thanks, Octavius.

 

[Sothpaw]

Yea I just beat Plutonia. No I didn't do the secret levels and yes I played on Hurt Me Plenty and no I don't give a fuck. Any of the wads listed below a good place to start now that I've played through all the official stuff? I know Alien Vendetta has a rep for being really tough so probably not going to go there yet. I'm playing through Quake 1 using Dark Places in the meantime and really enjoying it.

Hell Revealed
Hell Revealed 2
Alien Vendetta
Icarus: Alien Vanguard
Eternal Doom
The Talosian Incident
Scythe
Scythe 2
Memento Mori
Memento Mori 2
Requiem
Insertion
Kama-Sutra
Whispers of Satan
Speed of Doom
Epic
Epic 2
Plutonia; Revisted
Reverie
Doom the way ID did
Doom 2 the way ID did
Unholy Realms
Resurgence
1Monster
Back to Saturn X
Back to Saturn X2

 

[Gragt]

Yea I just beat Plutonia. No I didn't do the secret levels and yes I played on Hurt Me Plenty and no I don't give a fuck.

You didn’t beat Plutonia.

Just took my first look at Back to Saturn X and sainte merdre I’m amazed at how good it looks!

 

[PeachPlumage]

Been playing a bit of Hell on Earth Starter Pack with Brutal Doom v20b and classic mode yet the levels aren't doing much for me. The levels in question don't play to the strength of Doom at all.

 

[Riskbreaker]

Just took my first look at Back to Saturn X and sainte merdre I’m amazed at how good it looks!

Aye, 'tis impressive how good a vanilla release can look as long as author has a good knack for aesthetics (and in BTSX's case, really classy new texture set and insane focus on visual polish).
Wait 'till you see what they managed to pull out in part 2. As good as BTSX E1 looks, both its gameplay and its visuals (reliance on the same rusty techbase theme) can get a bit monotonous. E2 fixed that issue most marvelously.

Speaking of great looking recent(ish) vanilla wads, this

Epic 2

is another great example. Plays great too... for the most part (some maps suffered from really unintuitive switch/key hunts, and others from that "Plutonia done wrong" ailment that was discussed earlier in this thread).

 

[ghostdog]

Frankly the only thing I didn't like about both BTSX episodes was the occasional teleporting ambush enemies (by principle I hate teleport ambushes. If you want to make traps don't be fucking lazy and implement secret doors), aside from that they are both great. E1 can get a bit repetitive but it's more tight. E2 has great variety and huge beautiful areas, but it can sometimes lose its pace. All and all amazing wads.

 

[tormund]

Any of the wads listed below a good place to start now that I've played through all the official stuff? I know Alien Vendetta has a rep for being really tough so probably not going to go there yet.

Whispers of Satan, Reverie, Epic 2, DTWID & D2TWID, BTSX series. Those are all nice start, they aren't too removed from originals in gameplay and difficulty. Alien Vendetta isn't as tough as some make it out to be, IMO not nearly as hard as some of the popular recent megawads like Speed of Doom or Resurgence. It's definitely a must play, really nice looking and varied megawad.

 

[PeachPlumage]

Are there any weapon mods that are worth having a look at guys?

 

[Cassidy]

Are there any weapon mods that are worth having a look at guys?

DoomRL Arsenal.

However, it is not only a weapons mod, for it also adds some minor RPG elements to Doom such as weapon mods and five classes specialized in automatic guns, pistols, shotguns, rocket launchers and modded guns respectively.

 

[PeachPlumage]

Thanks, Cassidy. I will check out DoomRL Arsenal sometime, mainly I want a weapon mod that doesn't alter the weapon balance but just changes the aesthetics of the weapons.

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

Thanks, Cassidy. I will check out DoomRL Arsenal sometime, mainly I want a weapon mod that doesn't alter the weapon balance but just changes the aesthetics of the weapons.

Smooth Doom

 

[skacky]

There's also a weapon mod that uses the sprites from Violence. Don't remember how it's called though.

 

[tormund]

You also have a mod with weapons from first episode of Demon Eclipse http://ionline.vectec.net/doom/eriguns.zip
This one changes gun properties, but only a little. Chaingun is more powerful but it swallows the ammo faster, and you'll get new rapid fire hitscan weapon. Remaining weapons are identical to vanilla weapons, other than using new graphics of course.