10 Comments

1. Niko

   11th September 2023 at 1:07 pm

   

   As a small disclaimer, i wanted to do a sort of in-depth review on this map, since there a literally none, so it got a bit long. This review includes my thoughts on each map and the time it took to complete them.
   If you don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s a TL;DR: It’s alright, there are some good maps, some bad and some ok, it was mostly enjoyable
   aight, it starts now

   Map 1: Doomed Research

   

   The whole map, progression and feel of the gameplay are pretty good as far as the map goes, there were a few custom weapon models, custom enemies (though the headless zombies and the small drone things that had shotguns were slightly annoying in the parts they showed up), and some attack and ammo values were changed (Like the combine rifle, which now can hold a few hundred bullets and has heavy recoil.
   The music was good, though I’m not sure where it came from, or if it’s original.
   The whole level and combat design gave off big “Early Doom Wad” vibes, which seem like what the intention of the map was. As a small nitpick, it felt too bright to be a Doom level, slightly less or weaker light sources would have helped with the atmosphere.
   The introduction of the guns felt organic and was very reminiscent of how it actually goes in the original Doom (Pistol is given right away, shotgun is dropped from enemies, etc) and the way pickups floated was a cute detail.
   There were also a few secrets, not sure how many, by myself i found one (the crack in the wall of the chaingun room) which showed me a message saying that i found a secret, there is also the Crossbow, which is kind of out of the way and next to a seemingly useless room full of those tanky headless zombies i mentioned earlier, but i’m not sure if it counts since no message appears.
   The final boss was fun, the music was good and both it’s attacks and design were interesting, the small buildup with the rising box(?) thing was also great, but the ending being a small text box was a bit underwhelming, but not a big deal.

   Completed in 13:18, normal difficulty

   Map 2: MooD

   

   First of all, the most noticeable part of this map are the enemy and weapon models, as they imitate a sprite based 2.5d style, similar to the classic Doom games. Though the models are very good looking and well done there were a couple of times when the weapon sprites glitched out, but nothing too major.
   The maps were also very well done, but a bit short and spammed monsters a bit too much and ammo was scarce when you didn’t get a new weapon, and they were obviously based on Hangar, Entryway and Nuts.WAD respectively.
   The start screen and the level end screen were also nice details. Overall it was the most “Classic DooM” feeling map of the pack, as it goes above and beyond to also mimic the visuals, and not just the level design

   Completed in 8:30, normal difficulty

   Map 3: Combine Mars Takeover

   

   The level begins nicely, you start in an empty room, get you HEV and a pistol, music starts blasting as soon as you’re ready and a door opens, leading to a metric ton of combine soldiers in the next room. Honestly, the enemy spam in this map make MooD’s “Deez.BSP” army look like a small friend group, every room is filled up in the middle, left and right with combine, it’s especially ridiculous when you realize that, considering you break the little box in the first room, you have a pistol and a single grenade to deal with the onslaught of the first room.
   Thanks to some luck I was able to grab a shotgun that made the room cleaning 10 times faster.
   The rest of the rooms are honestly just as bad, if not even worse. The next room is even more filled to the brim with hostiles. There are quite a lot of explosive barrels, but the positioning of them and the lack of a Gravity Gun makes them quite useless unless you just pick them up and chuck them at the Combine.
   There are a bunch of crates that serve as a full refill of your health, a bit of energy and some ammo. After you come back to the first room there are some invisible combine, they’re a cool detail, but also annoying as hell.
   The next room is not nearly as bad, but the room immediately after is absolute hell on earth. The enemy spam is worse than ever, it is filled to hell and back with Combine Soldiers, Elites and some weird red Metrocops (I’m honestly not too sure what they do, they just feel like lightly beefed up soldiers).
   After they’re somehow dealt with you press a button on the corner of the room and….. you’re booted to the menu. Honestly, that anticlimactic ending is the most fitting. At least the music was cool

   Completed in 8:55, normal difficulty

   Map 4: City 666

   

   (main reason being the absurd difficulty, if it was better balanced it would get a WOW from me, but if it wasn’t as pretty it would probably get a dire)

   Probably the map i expected the most from in this list, and honestly it feels kind of unfair to compare, say, Doomed Research to this one, the quality on this one is quite notable since the beginning, as the mapping is gorgeous and the dash helps set it apart from the others very clearly, as it takes more inspiration from Doom Eternal than the classic Doom games, which gives a nice breath of fresh air, as all the previous maps had a more geometric and basic approach to level design, while this one knocks it out of the park with some beautiful visuals that i can feel as if i found it on a promising moddb demo that lasts 7 minutes and hasn’t been updated since 2015, but i digress.
   After some appreciation and testing the dash, the first arena subtly hints at 3 of my main gripes with this map, that prevent me from giving it a 10 and inflated my playtime, which could have been around 10 minutes shorter without all the dying and falling off the arena.
   The first one is the pickup system, obviously, all the ammo and weapons are stylized like Doom Eternal, down to the glows and the floating weapons that bring me joy when i find them, but after some running around you notice a small problem, which is that the amount you pickup is honestly pathetic, i mean, i don’t want to exaggerate, but a lot of my issues in this map could have been solved if AR2 pickups gave more than 10 BULLETS.
   Same thing with the health and armor pickups, both of which give you 10 of the respective resource, and it definitely feels like armor pickups are rarer than gold sometimes. I understand that the same thing happened in the aforementioned golden child of ID Software, but the thing was that this restricted pickup system was there to incentivize the use of glory kills, the flame belch, and the chainsaw to replenish your resources, meanwhile in this map the pickups are your only friend unless i missed an important gameplay mechanic in the midst of my panicked running around, falling off ledges and quicksaving behind rocks after losing only half my health to kill a few Combine.
   Second: The arenas, as beautiful as they are, do not work as an effective place for combat. This is slightly noticeable in the first fight, where the walls are very restrictive and you only have 2 ways to go up, a jump pad and a convenient piece of debris, but is even more noticeable in the next one, where 7 (yes i counted them) of my 23 deaths were because of accidentally dashing away from my opponents and directly into my instant doom.
   These “mountain over lava” type scenarios were also heavily present in Doom Eternal, especially in the first few levels, but instead of dying instantly, you just got teleported back into land after a small slap to your health.
   The arenas in here, meanwhile, are way too small, and very occupied by tanky as hell enemies, i’ll get there in a second, and terrain, meaning most of the time you’ll be low on health, ammo and around 10 units away from falling to your death. The last arena is better at this, but that point is evaporated by the final boss; a hunter chopper that fires like 6 missiles every 10 seconds, and the INFINITELY SPAWNING ENEMIES that i guess were just teleporting into the corridor i just came from, though i’m just assuming, as i cleared out the area constantly before attacking the chopper, and still, no matter how many enemies i killed, i occasionally still got shot on the back by a new batch of soldier, but it could just be the map creator grossly underestimating how strong (and annoying) they were.
   Overall, this is the best in terms of visuals and gimmicks, mainly the dash, but is also the worst in terms of balancing, as you get very little resources from pickups, enemies do a lot of damage and tanky enemies, like those blue eyed things with long legs that i can’t recall the name of, are spammed willy and nilly, while you’re also constantly cornered by the constantly spawning enemies. The map is pretty to look at but is also soul crushing to play, the spam is not nearly as excessive as the previous map, but it’s more annoying and unfair because of the aforementioned issues. Maybe I should try replaying it on easy?
   TL:DR Map pretty combat bad

   Completed in 20:37, normal difficulty

   Map 5: Dark Halls

   

   A nice and simple map, with a pretty unique visual style in the weapons and enemies that helps it stand out from the rest of maps, and the level design was very nice and “Doom-Like”, though it does end a bit abruptly, which makes it feel more like the first level in a doom wad rather than a standalone thing, which is pretty nice.
   The aesthetic of the enemies and weapons was really cool and unique, but a small criticism would be that, for the amount of enemies, the map was really cramped and the weapons (other than the shotgun) felt a bit weak.
   A nice and short map with not much to talk about

   Completed in 7:18, normal difficulty

   Map 6: Doom-unition

   

   It’s ugly and has like 4 rooms counting the watermelon secret. Hey, at least there’s keys so you can tell they kinda tried

   Completed in 1:20, normal difficulty

   Map 7: Novoom Prospekt

   

   Another pretty good map. The combat was fun and fast paced, the beginning sequence was very cool, and the general design was overall good. My main complaint would be 2 small things, since this map doesn’t really have much to talk about, which would the the weird red filter that the first 2 combat sequences had, which honestly made by eyes hurt, the Antlion Guard in the second fight, when you really don’t have the resources to deal with it well enough (i had to resort to pistoling it to death lmao).
   The fights reminded a lot of the gore nests, which probably means they were inspired by those, which would explain the red filter, and the stalker totems were a really neat inclusion. A nice note to end a mappack that was just kinda ok

   Completed in 9:47, normal difficulty

   Welp, that was that. Thanks for reading, and if you played it you should also leave a small review with your stats and thoughts. Have a nice day!

   Installed:
   Manually

   Difficulty Played At:
   Medium

   Playtime:
   1 Hour, 9 Minutes

   Reply
2. Hec

   22nd October 2023 at 4:38 pm

   

   Okay, as some of you, and I really mean the only ones who read my recommendations, which I think is almost no one, hehe, may noticed I truly hate the whole Map-Lab format releases. Well, an old adagio says “Never say never” and I think this applies to this recommendation. I never thought a hideous Map-Lab release would be a Personal Favorite to me. But this is the case indeed.

   First of all, I think this Map-Lab concept is truly great, I mean, Doom is a unique FPS game, being really the first in which you totally can have fun in FPS hardcore battles without thinking too much into the context of the background story, as their developers never planned to really tell a deep storytelling at least in the first game of the saga. So that element of “pure FPS action joy” feels so great and here we actually have it at least on more than 3 or 4 entries.

   Now, Half-Life was also another FPS gaming revolution. As combat is intense at some points in the game, not at every level, and storytelling is also quite important to get hooked into the game and its universe… so mingling both concepts is a total blast.

   

   The first: “Doomed Research” is a quite cool example of the spirit of both games mixed as we have a perfect classic HL1 scenario with the Doom battle intensity, it was a great entry opener.

   

   The 2nd, “MooD” is for me the perfect winner for this Map Lab. is just beautiful, short but sweet, and full of old-school secrets and fun animation enemies and battles, and is a perfect tribute from the HL community, so yeah I just loved this one.

   

   The 3rd “Combine Mars Takeover” all along felt like a Half-Life 2 arena, but with intense combat which was kind of unfair at some points, but also enjoyable. It was just an OK entry that wanted to pay tribute to Doom hardcore combats but felt a bit short on this purpose.

   

   The 4th “City 666” despite it being annoyingly difficult at some points, especially at the end of the whole map, was just impressive as heck. The whole setup for the map and the background scenarios were absolutely a masterpiece of art, they were just beautiful and indeed transmitted the feeling of having this combat in some hell universe where both games in question get mixed. The movement of the player was fast and great, those high and long jumps suited perfectly for the combat, and basically moving fast and in many creative directions was the key to survival as a hardcore firefight is always stepping your ankles almost with no rest. Now about this point, I know many gamers can easily be frustrated so keep in mind that in this entry you just have to accept the fact combat is going to be hard as hell, but also pretty fun if you know how to move and shoot real quick. I also felt that this entry this one it was a totally worthy tribute that just awesomely reflects the spirits of both Colossus games.

   

   The 5th “Dark Halls” was also another great tribute from HL to Doom. The textures were great, the combat was hardcore as expected and you have to fetch cards old-school style while shooting tons of ammo at a bunch of enemies. Yeah, I guess it was a worthy tribute.

   

   “Doom-unition,” I think the pun name is intended, was a fair attempt to do a Doom tribute from a short HL2 map, but it was just too slow, and the last trigger where the Strider appears in the final patio was faulty as you can press the escape button anytime.

   

   “Noovom Prospekt” was the last and 6th entry, and most of all I felt it closer to HL2 than to Doom, pressing that button where the dimension turned red and hordes of zombies and CMB wanted to get you was an interesting touch but it didn’t convince me fully. Overall combat was hardcore and OK but closer to HL2 classic dynamics instead of the fun Doom ones.

   So overall it was a delightful Map Lab and in my opinion the best of all so far.

   Installed:
   Manually

   Difficulty Played At:
   Medium

   Playtime:
   2 Hours

   Reply
3. calembredaine

   7th September 2024 at 3:24 pm

   

   I am way too late to the party, but it’s tbh it’s mostly a first try of the site’s review system as a newcomer. That said, I do intend to review all sorts of old mods depending on whatever I try. If that’s somehow a problem, moderators please lemme know.

   First disclaimer: could not play Dark Halls. I game crash even by merely moving the mouse, let alone moving.

   Anyway, all the maps are combat-oriented, often with your default speed set to sprint’s. Most maps take doom 1 for reference in terms of map design or at least follow the old school shooter way: going room by room to clean it all up with guns, with sometimes keycards thrown in the mix.
   Visually, it’s often very blocky and simple (in line with doom 1). I felt most maps using hl2 assets looked a bit barren. It might have been because those assets are usually used with more complex map layouts.
   Overall, what you’d expect from mixing some doom (especially the first games). I had my fun as a hl2 combat aficionado.

   Per map review, in playthrough order:

   No. 1: Doomed Research

   

   Blocky, simple aesthetic. Level’s set in an outbrake of aliens contained by soldiers in some industrial complex, with you in the middle of it.

   Its charm is the combat: you move at sprint speed, have increased ammo cap on some weapons, have plenty of the funnier npcs to shoot. Some of the npcs are tuned up, and reasonably so (they may splatter your guts once or twice if you’re not careful, but they’re enjoyable once you get how they work). While it takes cues from classic doom, it does have a fair amount of verticality, which you can use to your advantage.

   From a casual “action fps” vibe, I believe it’s the best of what i’ve played in this lab.

   No. 2: MooD

   

   A throwback map. You’ll play through some doom levels but with hl1 as the coating, except it’s sprites instead of 3D models (and the enemy placement differs). Visuals may be eh even accounting the artstyle: you can tell the skybox is a fixed image due to Y axis aiming, and npcs have very limited sprite animations which rarely match what they really do.

   Gameplay-wise, it’s enjoyable. you have sprint by default, and weapons/npcs are derivatives from hl2, but made to be closer to the hl1 sprite they have. You might get annoyed by the sprites not matching the hitboxes.

   No. 3: Combine Mars Takeover

   

   An adaptation of E1M1 from doom 1. I had my fun personally, but I can see why others would call it meh.

   Very simple aesthetic, and honestly could not tell I was on Mars since it was apparently night time. Like No.1, it simply takes doom-like layout and applies hl2 assets, which gives a slightly barren looking result.

   A big trend with this map is to have you start a fight with combine soldiers from medium/long range. There are also a lot of soldiers in those rooms. You can safely close the gap and fight comfortably for 3/4 of the map, which is fine. Then, the last room ramps it up to a point where you can feel it’s messy map design. Your survival is greatly helped by the soldiers barely moving. If you struggle with that part: go to the right flank after cleaning it up, you should have ample cover, some health and ammo lying around and more importantly a spot remaining combines can’t reach.

   I must say I liked it most half way through: invisible soldiers with occasional smg grenades was not transcending but pretty funny.

   No. 4: City 666

   

   It’s wow in all sorts of ways, some you might not like at all. In any case, I can’t unsee the work poured into this.

   Visually it’s very pleasant. Not to mention it’s the only “eternal-like” map.

   Gameplay-wise it gives you a dash, sprint as default speed and beefier weapons (no pun intended). I also noticed combine soldiers struggled to track me in some circumstances, but IDK if it’s modded in or a limit of the vanilla AI.

   Anyway, the turn off for a lot of people will be the difficulty. First two/three encounters give you enough margin of error if you’re reactive, but it skyrockets in the second half, due to the following hurdles:
   –Combine soldiers have respawns. It seems they’ll keep spawning until you kill the more special enemies. Too bad they’re arguably the biggest threat due to being not too fat, fairly mobile and good damage hitscanners. You’re fast and their tracking is limited, but that’s not fast enough to evade bullets consistently.
   -It’s very easy to fall to your death amidst the chaos. You have limited space to run on. Plus the map geometry has rounded edges, which is pretty but, whoopsie, also makes you slide off.
   -You’re almost completely reliant on static pickups to stay alive. Soldiers don’t drop ammo. You don’t have Doom Eternal mechanics generating pickups from executions. Besides, you’re not given the time to understand that some pickups do respawn.

   In summary:
   You have infinite hitscan enemies until you kill some tanky targets, with limited space and almost limited supplies. Instead of killing everything, you must escape the soldiers, take down the hunters/chopper first, and then clean up. But more importantly, you’ve got to figure out all this in a fast-paced environment without the map telling you.

   Still, you can quickly learn and execute a winning strategy by quick saving. While it goes fast, you can outrun everyone, leaving you a few seconds of rest before they catch up.

   Personally my favourite of the bunch, if not all I’ve played from beefbacon and co.’s maps until now (including latest cold hard steele maps). I feel some of the second half’s hurdles are “cheap video game bs”, but as a whole they offered me a fight I rarely got to try and enjoy. Give it a try, then maybe enable god mode if you really don’t feel like working on it.

   No. 6: Doom-unition

   

   Blocky/simple doom 1 style map, and a very short one. You kill a handful of targets, most of them standing in mostly empty rooms. Fun enough for me, but very simple.

   No. 7: Novoom Prospekt

   

   Recycled map sections of nova prospekt from hl2’s campaign, made to box you in a small series of doom/old school style arenas.

   Visually it benefits from taking an already fleshed out layout. I felt it was a little less empty than No.1 and No.3. The “doom part” is some kind of doom 3 style horror where hell breaks loose and abominations spawn around you.

   Gameplay-wise, you are pitted mostly against the aforementioned abominations: mostly hooligans with pipes, soldiers plus some bosses mirroring hl2’s campaign like the antlion guard hitting you in the shower and the double gunship. You often have too little space and cover to avoid damage, but you can get by without dying even on hard.
   There is also a mechanic introduced roughly a 1/3 in: a totem to destroy so you stop the spawning. Honestly was not a fan of how it dropped that kind of requirement at its leisure when my health was ticking down from enemy fire and scarce cover, but still it’s fun enough.

   Installed:
   Manually

   Difficulty Played At:
   Hard

   Playtime:
   2 Hours, 30 Minutes

   Reply

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