Summary

REVIEW

Screenshots

Author: Daimon

I don't have any other author info at this time. I haven't received a response from the young man who sent me this and there was no text file included with the project.

About the wad:

This is a full level replacement for Knee Deep in the Dead - maps E1M1 - E1M9

It does not appear to require a limit removing port but if you are using Windows XP you will probably want to at least get Zdoom or Gzdoom or Legacy (google them).

My Review:

This is a nine level replacement for the first episode of original DOOM. The first map is extremely small and is over in about 2.3 seconds or thereabouts. The levels increase in size AND difficulty as you defeat them. Don't expect to spend more than about 10 minutes or so on the first three maps. After that, it becomes a little more time consuming. Regardless, you probably won't require more than an hour or so of your time to complete the entire 9 maps.

With that in mind, let's begin with gameplay. I play on UV and based on that I would give the difficulty level a 5 on a scale of 1 - 10. I didn't really find the maps all that challenging, though I was caught out a few times. The last couple of maps, which really should have been the most difficult, weren't. In fact, the last map was fairly easy, despite the appearance (for the second time in the game) of the Cyberdemon and a shitload of Hellknights. The ending to this was also a little disappointing as you simply are killed (there is no other way to finish). The author gives you a message after this that you will have to wait for Suicide II to continue the mission. Lame. Despite this, I still enjoyed playing the maps, even if I thought they could have been made more difficult and also despite the fact that through a couple or three of the maps I spent as much time looking for a switch to get at a key as I did actually killing things. These maps definitely won't be for everyone but the average Doomer should have a good time for some of the reasons I'm going to outline below and because the gameplay was challenging at times (just not often enough).

The best part of these maps was the design. The author really has a keen eye for detail and that was abundantly evident with the lighting (spectacular at times) and with the simple, yet eye catching, detail displayed through all of the maps. Even the areas where there was not alot of detail seemed to be designed with that in mind - they were SUPPOSED to look that way - as opposed to alot of maps where the author simply didn't know HOW to add the detail. This author obviously does and chose to keep some areas of some maps bereft of intense detail on purpose. Again, the lighting in some areas was spectacular with some nice shading, etc... My ONLY complaint on the lighting was that some areas of certain maps were simply too dark. My guess is that it is my monitor, and not the map, that was the responsible party in this case though. Your experience may be somewhat different.

What else is left to say? This is nine NEW maps for Doom - a game that gets very little, if any attention in the Doom community these days. Most maps are designed for Doom2, not original Doom - for a variety of reasons, and it is good to see that there are still people interested in designing for the original game.
 

THE VIDEO!

Click on pics for larger view.

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