Yeah, this is the main problem for me. When I DID have enough ammo, I found the weapons too slow and unsatisfying to use.
Maybe I’ll stick with it a bit longer since y’all insist it gets better. It has a lot of things I really DO like but the actual gunplay has left me very underwhelmed so far.
Best TC is Batman TC don’t @ me
I finished the first episode of Rekker and my opinion hasn’t really changed. I do love the world, enemy, and level design. Level 7 in particular was spectacular to explore. But I still find the core of it too slow, clunky, and unsatisfying. I don’t think it’s bad, in fact it’s one of the best TCs I’ve played by far, but I’m just not gelling with how it plays so I’ll be jumping into something else next.
DOOM ZERO: Apparently this was made as a tribute to the original games. There are certainly nods to level design found in the classic WADs, the cutest one being a map that starts out like tricks and traps, but each door leads to different reference to an old level.
None of the levels match the flow or architecture of the older maps though, and as a result a lot of it ends up feeling like early 90s user levels. Not bad, just a bit unimaginative and quaint, though it does throw a few surprises at you, the impact of which becoming stronger with the predictability of the surrounding level.
About halfway through it starts introducing it’s own ideas more frequently and becomes much more interesting, though nothing spectacular aside from a few very cool moments, such as the brand new boss fight. Also has a few tedious platform and button puzzle bits, but nothing too awful.
Overall a solid WAD that’s worth playing and I had a good time with it, but there are more interesting ones out there.
Supplice started off as a DooM project and is now due to be a standalone GZDoom product. Details and more screenshots here at Brett Harrell’s blog.
Yeah, DooM Zero was okay. I liked the combination of visual openness and map dynamics in the early maps. That and the overlapping spaces made it easier to navigate, but I don’t like having to run over multiple gaps in a row. The new enemy was cool, but the low rate of fire and health didn’t really add much imo. I thought the callback to quake 1 and 2 in map 31 was adorable
I somewhat enjoyed Doom Zero but seem to remember its only distinction as Too Many Marines/Hitscan…?
As for other Dooming; Scythe 2 has at least half a campaign that isn’t balancing the BFG against ridiculous numbers
i started playing Rowdy Rudy 2 on recommendation from @sleepysmiles and i’m enjoying it. this is the sort of experience i’m expecting from the median random Doom wad that i download, that i often don’t get at all: you don’t have to blow my mind with anything fancy, just give me some good clean fun. easier said than done i suppose. it’s just like… a lot harder to make a level feel distinctive and fun even if you’re not doing anything fancy or new with it than it seems like it should be. and even a lot of big Doom mappers seem unable to understand or capture this fact.
Doomkid seems like a down to earth guy. The new wad he worked on in the video above looks pretty fun, have been unable to try it for myself though
Last night we filmed a bonus feature for Preserving Worlds, where my cocreator and I went into a bunch of random Doom multiplayer servers via Zandronum and Doomseeker. There was immense variation in the wads people were playing. There was one that REALLY stood out: Community Hotel.
It’s a modification of the popular multiplayer mod Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch that turns the competitive arena mod into a social/roleplaying/fishing game.
You choose your character from a VERY long list that included every Mega Man character I could think of, as well as a bunch of random other NES characters (I saw Bub from Bubble Bobble in there). Each have their own unique combat abilities, but this mod isn’t about combat at all. In some common spaces you can fight, but people were really there to chat and vibe out. The whole thing was soundtracked by a surprisingly robust playlist of upbeat chiptune music and city pop.
It’s a rather large map, and much of it is taken up by a large hotel filled with rooms that seem to belong to prominent members from the player community. Each room had its own unique style, and all were immaculately designed.
There was a whole fishing minigame, complete with multiple bodies of water, a ton of fish you can catch and log in a guidebook, and an economy of fish trading.
There were a lot of fun hangout zones, including a hopping bar with a jukebox that allowed me to change the music. It had all the meme songs… The Pumpkin Hill rap from Sonic Adventure 2, like every Homestuck song, Plastic Love, as well as a few surprises.
I recently read Masters of Doom and I was shocked by a much-too-brief aside about how, following Quake 2, John Carmack wanted to get back together with Romero and create a social “metaverse” using the graphics technology he’d developed. I would love to hear more about that, but it’s lovely to see fans actually making something like that happen decades later.
oh no
those voxel models are blowing my mind. Captures the pixel art beautifully
i just played through the tutorial of this and damn all i want is a full megawad, it’s so fun
GAMER!
