If you’ve hung around these parts long enough, you’ve likely noticed an immensely prolific mapper’s conspicuous absence. Somehow I’ve made it ten years writing about Doom WADs and literally never mentioned him a single time? How could this be?! Well, don’t fret, old friend; even I know that there’s a special place in Hell for a WAD reviewer who ignores our most decorated mapper, Paul “skillsaw” DeBruyne. But I have to admit up front that part of the reason I’ve not yet written about any of skillsaw’s WADs is because I’m not exactly sure what I think of them. I’ve
Tag: 2015 WADs
The Episode of Episodes!
To celebrate the 45th edition of this column, my plan was to take a look at some episode replacements I’ve always meant to play but never got around to. I’d heard good things about all of them (and in most cases, I’d enjoyed their creators’ other work), so I expected to play some pretty good maps… Instead, I played four of the most amazing episodes I’ve touched in years. I know I said just a few days ago that Mapgame was possibly my favorite ever Doom episode, but all four of these are in the running for that title now — and
Special Report: One-Map WADstravaganza!
By now you’ve probably noticed that I lean more toward bigger WADs and megaWADs to talk about in this column. As a result, I have a growing list of one-map WADs I’ve either enjoyed or been meaning to play that has just been getting longer and longer for years now… You know what the means! That’s right — it’s time for another special episode! Welcome to the One-Map WADstravaganza: eight single-level releases from the last five years or so. Let’s jump right to it, before I get wrapped up in some long, masturbatory introduction! Presented in alphabetical order: Big Woodchip
OCD-Doom
I adore Peter Hawes’ OCD-Doom… even if the WAD has jack shit to do with OCD. It’s a hard WAD to recommend, though. Its gimmicky focus means OCD-Doom has ended up with a relatively unflattering 2.5 stars on the /idgames Archive — and comments describing it as both “innovative” and “enjoyable” (5 stars)… and as “nauseating tripe” (0 stars). Hoo boy. You could say I’m something of a gimmick map aficionado, so OCD-Doom has got that going for it in my book. I also love me a black sheep, so I might be biased. But this WAD is just a heck of a good time,
Breach
Breach is beautiful. “Intricate” or “detailed” would also be accurate descriptors, though you’ve often gotta steer clear of those words in Doom circles. I think both terms are starting to transition out of bad word status — in part thanks to creators like Viggles and projects like Breach — but in the past they were too often associated with maps that either include so much detail that the architecture interferes with player movement, or that focus on detail as a substitute for any kind of stimulating gameplay. And trust me, I wouldn’t be talking about Breach if either were the
Monument
Chris Hansen is the God King of the single-map WAD, and virtually his entire two-decade body of work, outside of the occasional community project contribution or collaboration with Paul Corfiatis, fits that mold. Hansen has been doing what he does, and doing it brilliantly, for a very long time. So, of course, here comes Monument to change all that. Monument is Chris Hansen’s greatest hits album. Most of the Episode 2-styled maps he’s released throughout his career are assembled here as part of a nine-level episode. That includes last year’s award-winning The Wailing Horde (diced into three more digestible chunks),
50 Shades of Graytall
Limitation projects. Love ’em or hate ’em, there’s no escaping them. You see a lot of the standard bemoaning about the concept — “Why can’t anyone just make a normal WAD anymore?” — but the truth is you could do a lot worse with one of those “normal” WADs than you could with something like 50 Shades of Graytall. Of all the limitation projects that’ve come out in the last decade or more, 50 Shades may be the most compelling. The idea behind all these projects is to put creators in increasingly restrictive boxes — to force them to be
Oblivion
Oblivion is a Doom 1 episode by Stormwalker, who last year gave us the spectacular and surprisingly underrated Flashback to Hell. This is a lighter, more bit-sized release than Flashback was — one that you can probably finish in an afternoon, especially since it’s nice and easy on the challenge. It plays pretty casually, even on Ultra-violence, until the last couple maps, where the stakes rise, and rise quickly. In Oblivion, like Flashback to Hell, Stormwalker’s mapping style is unmistakable. Every room he creates is polished to perfection, without getting caught up in unnecessary details or going nuts with sector
Favillesco Alpha Episode 2: Desecration on Thebe
Favillesco Alpha Episode: Apostasy on Amalthea was my personal WAD-of-the-Year in 2014. I came for the promise of a WAD made entirely out of Doom alpha textures, and I ended up staying for Nicolás Monti’s one-of-a-kind mapping technique and bizarre stylistic sensibilities. This year he returned with an unexpected sequel, Favillesco Alpha Episode 2: Desecration on Thebe, and I had to know if lightning could strike twice. How does it measure up to Amalthea? For starters, Thebe ekes out a victory over its predecessor in the Length of Title category — one character longer! But seriously, as soon as you