So, Eviternity...
A little over two years ago, this was the first megawad I've played after the original Doom and Doom II episodes. And I loved every minute of it. At first, I tried to beat every map without saves (UV pistol start, of course), but stopped somewhere in the snow episode and continued playing with saves because it got too difficult for me back then. I left it as a challenge for another time.
Now I played through it again, not only to finally beat this challenge and see if my Doom skillz have improved, but I was also curious how it holds up now that I have a bit more experience.
And to my surprise, I could beat the majority of the maps with just one attempt. It's kind of a surreal experience when I get to parts that I clearly remember having big problems with, like the library arena in map 05 or the final fight in map 12. Like I'm mentally prepared for the worst, and then there's barely a handful of monsters showing up, with lots of space to move around. Why was this so difficult again? I also used to think the big Cacodemon wave in map 15 was "a lot of monsters". Seems rather cute in hindsight.
A few maps stand out though, like map 22, the second hell map with the Archviles, which was the only map that required actually planning a route (and a consistent method for the yellow key fight). Map 25, the final hell map, also took me multiple attempts. I still think this arena is pure chaos, and sometimes you just run into a Captain or Annihilator at the wrong moment. But my highest death count was in map 17 for some odd reason. I don't think that map is particularly hard. I was just tilting and got reckless.
And then there are, of course, the two long maps 32 and 19. My opinion on those has completely switched. I used to like 32 for its open and non-linear design. But to play this map again felt like a chore, seeing all those millions of Imps scattered on cliffs, sniping fatties everywhere, and then the Lost Souls... What were they thinking?! It's just so annoying and grindy. 20 minutes in, I realized that I wouldn't even want to play this map
with saves. So I skipped it.
Map 19, otoh, grew on me. Playing this without saves turns it into a completely different experience. At one point, somewhere in the last third of the map, I was stuck in an area with 11% health and no medikits around. One misstep could have cost me 40 minutes, and the only way to go was forward. That was intense. I would say this was the most difficult map, even though I only died twice in a relatively early fight with 3 or 4 Annihilators where I caught a random rocket each time.
How does Eviternity hold up? I still like it for the style, the visuals, and atmosphere. But the actual combat is a bit lame. Like, here is a big fight. How do we design it? I dunno, just throw in a bit of everything, I guess. Even the signature fight with the Cacodemon wave in map 15 is - Cacos aside - just a big hotchpotch of monsters randomly thrown into an open arena. The fights I've seen in the Sunlusts, Stardates, etc., and now also Fractured Worlds, are so much more interesting and diverse.
I still like the Langoliers, though. And I learned to respect the Nightmare Demons a bit more because they are faster than pinkies and consistently managed to block my path.
Curiously, almost all of my favorite maps from Eviternity were not made by Dragonfly, or at least not by him alone (22 is the only exception).
Maybe I should also revisit Ancient Aliens at some point.
