Good Doom/Heretic/Hexen WADs

[skacky]

Yup, but it was a very viable strategy in Nightmare though. Some custom levels (WARPSPASM in particular) don't provide enough ammo to kill all the monsters on Nightmare unless you make monsters fight among themselves.

 

[octavius]

Got Aliens TC to work with Doomsday Engine.
It was just like the movies; the square jawed cocky hero forgetting to check those corners, and then being swarmed by aliens. His last thought as he was ripped to pieces was "where the hell did they all come from?".

 

[skacky]

I just played a single-map WAD called Where Serpents ever Dwell for Heretic. It's a tough fortress with lots of Gargoyles, Nitrogolems and Disciples of D'Sparil, and it starts right off the bat with an intense battle. Ammo is pretty scarce until you acquire the Hellstaff; then it becomes a bit easier but it's still pretty challenging. The map is not big but it's very good looking, and offers interesting gameplay. Recommended.

 

[octavius]

Haven't had much time for gaming lately, but I recently completed Aliens TC.
It hasn't aged as well as Doom 2 did, IMO. It does manage to capture the Aliens feel, but only sporadically. But none can deny the technical achievement it was, being probably the very first Total Conversion in computer gaming history.
I don't remember why I didn't complete the mod back in the days, but I suspect it had something to do with my squeamish buddy who I used to play co-op with. Once he literally jumped half a meter up in the air when he was opening the door to an exit on a Doom 2 level, and there was a demon waiting in the "empty" room behind the door. Never knew he could be that athletic, but I still chuckle when I think about it.
And now that I think more about it, I didn't complete Aliens TC because I was still stuck with my Amiga back then, and when I finally got a PC Heroes of Might&Magic was what I devoted my free time to.

 

[skacky]

So I've downloaded this Curse of D'Sparil WAD for Heretic, which features 9 brand-new maps. So far I've completed the first two maps: map 1 is a nice romp which is already darn challenging even on skill 3, even though ammo is plentiful. It has nice visuals and quite a lot of monsters. Map 2 however is absolutely loaded with monsters in comparison, and I'm not kidding. It has almost 400 of them and features horde combat with lots of ranged attackers. You'll be strafing and using ye olde Time Bomb a lot in this one, since ammo is a lot rarer than in the previous map, and is mostly more hidden. It's not as good visually as the previous map but some sections are really well made, especially the blue key plaza.

 

[octavius]

Is there a Top 100 or so list of essential WADs for Heretic, like there is for Doom 1+2?

Just started Heretic using Doomsday Engine, and liking it so far. A bit too similar to Doom in gameplay and weapons, maybe, and graphics are somewhat poorer. Also, monsters don't seem to react to friendly fire, so less tactical.

 

[AngryEddy]

Is there a Top 100 or so list of essential WADs for Heretic, like there is for Doom 1+2?

Just started Heretic using Doomsday Engine, and liking it so far. A bit too similar to Doom in gameplay and weapons, maybe, and graphics are somewhat poorer. Also, monsters don't seem to react to friendly fire, so less tactical.

No, there are very few WADs for Heretic and Hexen, but lucky for us, most of them are either campaigns or megawads. I can't say it enough: if you want to play a good Heretic WAD, Hordes Of Chaos X is it. It's not only the best Heretic WAD, it's the best WAD for any ID game out there, who's only competition is Dark Tartarus V2 for Doom imo.

Any WAD developer who has the smarts to design the landscape as an obstacle the player has to overcome [like in Dark Souls or the Ninja Gaiden games for the original Xbox] gets a HUGE +1 in my book.

 

[octavius]

Is there a Top 100 or so list of essential WADs for Heretic, like there is for Doom 1+2?

Just started Heretic using Doomsday Engine, and liking it so far. A bit too similar to Doom in gameplay and weapons, maybe, and graphics are somewhat poorer. Also, monsters don't seem to react to friendly fire, so less tactical.

No, there are very few WADs for Heretic and Hexen, but lucky for us, most of them are either campaigns or megawads. I can't say it enough: if you want to play a good Heretic WAD, Hordes Of Chaos X is it. It's not only the best Heretic WAD, it's the best WAD for any ID game out there, who's only competition is Dark Tartarus V2 for Doom imo.

Any WAD developer who has the smarts to design the landscape as an obstacle the player has to overcome [like in Dark Souls or the Ninja Gaiden games for the original Xbox] gets a HUGE +1 in my book.

Thanks for the tip. Hordes is now on my 2005 play list, so it may take me some years to reach it.

After I posted my previous message I did notice some infighting between imps, but it's harder to arrange than in Doom.

 

[octavius]

Just completed the three original episodes of Heretic.
Playing on normal difficulty it was rather easy. The few times I had to reload was mostly when being trapped by crushers. Apart from that I mostly played without reloading. There was never any scarcity of healing potions or ammo, and the ambushes were generally not very dangerous. I hardly used any of the power-ups either, mostly Tomes of Power + Rings of Invulerability when facing Minotaurs and the Serpent Rider. I thought I had to something clever to kill him after unserpenting him, but it turned out I just had to strafe and shoot him him for 15 minutes.
I usually play shooters on the second highest difficulty, but I guess my confidence was shaken after I used an appaling 30 hours to complete System Shock...

Also, playing the Doomsday Engine with mouselook version I noticed a weird difference from the Doom games. In the Doom games you needed to aim along both the X and Y axes, but in Heretic the game would auto-aim along the Y axis as long as your aim was right on the X axis. Slightly annoying when I was aiming at those exploding bladders, and the game directed my fire at the monsters I tried to hit with the explosion.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=16630



Finished Reverie megawad, and it belongs to one of the best ones. Great pacing, even with brutal doom it's difficulty on ultra-violence didn't bother me. It's a good replacement of vanilla campaign. The number of monsters is moderate, although there are more teleporting "traps", especially on Mancubus groups and plasma spiders. There is one level where is 4 or 5 spider demons. Highly recommended!

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Also, playing the Doomsday Engine with mouselook version I noticed a weird difference from the Doom games. In the Doom games you needed to aim along both the X and Y axes, but in Heretic the game would auto-aim along the Y axis as long as your aim was right on the X axis. Slightly annoying when I was aiming at those exploding bladders, and the game directed my fire at the monsters I tried to hit with the explosion.

Can't speak for any of the engine remakes, but in original vanilla Doom it was like this. You could be shooting at a wall and the game would target the shots upwards to the monsters on top of the wall. I think some of the engie remakes have this as an option for you to toggle.

 

[Sceptic]

I usually play shooters on the second highest difficulty, but I guess my confidence was shaken after I used an appaling 30 hours to complete System Shock...

All of the early shooters, especially id and Raven's, are way too easy nowadays at medium difficulty. The medium difficulty was made to be of medium challenge to someone who had never played an FPS before (considering that, until the eventual deluge of Doom clones, there really weren't that many around), but today we have 20+ years' experience in playing tough FPSs. You really should've played on the second highest, the increase in difficulty for all of Doom, Heretic and Hexen is pretty sharp, with a lot more enemies (the tougher ones usually) and less ammo and health. Even then the original 3 episodes aren't that hard (though fighting 3 liches instead of just one offers a... different kind of challenge). If you have Shadow of the Serpent Riders you should definitely play through the 2 extra episodes (and if you don't.... just get it, it's a tiny patch). And on difficulty 4 these are quite challenging, especially at the very beginning, when you have no ammo and have to pick your battles.

Also, playing the Doomsday Engine with mouselook version I noticed a weird difference from the Doom games. In the Doom games you needed to aim along both the X and Y axes, but in Heretic the game would auto-aim along the Y axis as long as your aim was right on the X axis.

The Doom engine games didn't have any kind of look up/down until Heretic, so autoaiming along Y axis in Doom was a must. I don't remember if Heretic also autoaimed, so I'll trust UC's recollection, but pretty sure DE has a toggle for this. Odd it would have it on for Heretic but not Doom, but then despite the beauty of DE's renderer I don't like a lot of the things it changes from original (especially the way ambient lighting works - it completely ruins the effect in a lot of Doom levels that used non-realistic lighting).

 

[Luzur]

wow, Downtown really got a good remake by this guy:

 

[Roderick]

wow, Downtown really got a good remake by this guy:

yeah that one is really fun and looks great.nice music too.nice to play with Brutal Doom

 

[AngryEddy]

wow, Downtown really got a good remake by this guy:

Made by the guy who made Brutal Doom fyi.

 

[octavius]

Also, playing the Doomsday Engine with mouselook version I noticed a weird difference from the Doom games. In the Doom games you needed to aim along both the X and Y axes, but in Heretic the game would auto-aim along the Y axis as long as your aim was right on the X axis. Slightly annoying when I was aiming at those exploding bladders, and the game directed my fire at the monsters I tried to hit with the explosion.

Can't speak for any of the engine remakes, but in original vanilla Doom it was like this. You could be shooting at a wall and the game would target the shots upwards to the monsters on top of the wall.

I know. It felt rather silly even back then, and it does make thing somewhat more challenging when you need to aim in DE - without any crosshairs.

 

[AngryEddy]

Brutal Doom V19 release date: OCT 31

 

[AngryEddy]

New barrel effects. I really enjoy this addition, I hope we can also spill the green toxic waste barrels on people.

 

[octavius]

Currently playing the old (1995) Doom 2 MegaWAD/TC Obituary using Doomsday Engine. Obituary is supposed to be hard to get to work properly on modern source ports, so I was surprised it ran it all on DE. A few platforms in the first map didn't seem to work properly, or else they are one time, timed deals.
After having played all of the 1994 Doom 1 WADs on the Top 100 list Obituary was quite hard, but also more complex than the relatively simple design of the 1994 WADs. Level design is a bit "cramped", with a bit too many buttons and levers to operate for my taste. But it picks up in the middle. The 5th map, The Hidden Below, was epic with good use of the Z axis.

 

[octavius]

Just completed Obituary. Playing the top 100 Doom WADs in chronological order it was easily the best one so far. The new monsters were fun, like the rocket launching imps and the "blue meanies" that reminded me a bit about the Ninjas in Half-Life.
Great stuff!

 

[Tehdagah]

Doom 2 map with 23.216 enemies:

http://www.wad-archive.com/wad/oku2v31.wad

Good luck.


And a map with 430.109 enemies:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/vwtgh7

This one barely works

 

[lightbane]

Gentlemen... BRUTAL DOOM 1.19 IS OUT! IT'S TIME TO RIP AND TEAR!!!!

Personallly I'll give it a look whenever I have a chance, currently Blood Death Wish is quite fun to play.

 

[dnf]

New barrel effects. I really enjoy this addition, I hope we can also spill the green toxic waste barrels on people.

Brutal Doom always reminds me of Blood, wish is awesome.

 

[Turisas]

Doom 2 map with 23.216 enemies:

http://www.wad-archive.com/wad/oku2v31.wad

Good luck.


And a map with 430.109 enemies:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/vwtgh7

This one barely works

Is there a map with a million enemies?

 

[octavius]

I'm about to play Hexen for the first time.
I assume the difficulty is about the same as in Heretic? I played Heretic using Normal difficulty, and regretted it, since the game was too easy. I understand the expansion is far more difficult, though.

How would you rate the three different classes, from easiest to most difficult to play?
If I like Hexen as much as I do Doom and Heretic, I'll probably play all three classes eventually.