Summary

REVIEW

Screenshots

Author:

Warlord from the Leechpit

Doom

Reviewed by Sematary

From the author
Many years after the Invasion, UAC started to gather remainings of the two moon bases Phobos and Deimos. They wanted to rebuild the Portal to the other side, capture the Demons and use them for biological warfare. With a new trained assault team ready to travel into the world of the Demons nothing could go wrong. They believed they had everything under control this time. And so they succeeded. The Portal was rebuilt at a secret location. Not on a a new moon base, but here on planet Earth. Again an assault team went in. Suddenly they lost radio contact. Hours went by, but nothing happened. Until a large portal opened over the entire base. In a couple of minutes a legion of Demons attacked the UAC base, killing everyone in sight. This time it was much worse. Not only did the Demons come trough their own portal, but they were converting the Earth, merging their world with ours. Only a couple of hours after the 'unforeseen consequence' the remaining personnel contacted you, the marine who survived the first invasion. They told you everything that happened. What they were trying to say is that you're the only man alive who can stop them. Quickly you grabbed your weapon and geared up. It's time to step forward and close the Portal once and for all... Description Dismembered is a partial conversion for the Ultimate Doom. Here are the features you'll find in the demo version: -Level replacement for episode one through three -Additional graphics -A new weapon Along the way, and if you look hard enough, you'll find a dismembered Imp claw. This claw can be used as a weapon. It behaves just like the claw from those brown bastards. This also means that you have infinite ammo!

DIFFICULTY RATING

I must be spoiled rotten by playing Doom2 levels or I've just gotten so good that its not even funny.... mmmmmmm, no. This is just a demo of what will eventually be a larger project. This is the first three levels in the project and replaces e1m1 - e1m3. I didn't find it very difficult on UV, in fact I found it a bit easy so I hope the author takes that into consideration as he continues on with the project. Of course, being the first in a series of levels, it should be rather easy to work the player into the game. I know the first level of Descent Into Hell (my megawad project) was fairly easy by many standards but the second level was bitchin' - I expect this series will go in much the same manner...
rating:5

PLAYABILITY

The levels go together very nicely but as I said is a little easy. That said, it does play out well but offers a sort of linear type of play that many people may find a little too simple. For those who like a straight forward fight without and bs in between - this is your wad.
PLAYABILITY:6

LEVEL DESIGN

When I first began playing this it was sorta deja vu from the first level of The Shores of Hell. If you don't know what the Shores of Hell are then you're probably on the wrong site. Anyway - the deja vu left after a couple of minutes of play and the wad began to take on a feeling of its own. The author used a pretty straight forward design concept which when you play it will bring you back to the old days of original Doom. The architecture is fairly basic in this, the first map with decent lighting effect and linear approach to the game. The next two maps are also very Doomish with a fairly straight forward approach to the game, some decent design elements but nothing out of the ordinary in that area. The vine cage in the second level was pretty nice. Hopefully that texture will be used to more and better effect in future levels. I enjoyed myself in this one and the design didn't add or detract from the gameplay. On the good side of the design, I didn't find any errors in the map at all. I did find the "claw" the author mentions but didn't get unlimited ammo. :-( - perhaps if I'd loaded it with the exe that came with it instead of Jdoom or Zdoom.
Design: 6

OVERALL SCORE

This wad comes with a custom installation file that will place necessary files in the directory you specify. This is a set of maps that will definitely bring you back to the good old days. Don't let the final score fool you, this does look like its going to be a very good set of maps. The score is based more on the fact that people have higher expectations as far as difficulty and level design than they may have years ago. Now, topnotch architecture is almost expected as is a really hard fight. These levels are more of a blast from the past approach to mapping that isn't seen very often any longer but is a pleasure to play because of the nostalgic approach. I think, overall, because of that, that the total is better than any of the individual parts I've reviewed.
Overall: 7
 

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