...keeps the demons at bay.

I really dig the map's geometry and lighting. I'm not sure I ever really needed the switch numbers since the progression flows smoothly throughout (with only one minor hangup on the 3 for me), but they're a nice touch. The constant shifting of the layout through lifts is a great reusage of space (which are usually so obvious they aid the progression) that leads to a lot of tough closet ambushes.

I took these screenshots during a UV playthrough (as that's usually the difficulty I play on for AWAD), having beaten it once before on HMP. I personally preferred the latter, as UV feels a little too unrelenting, but it's a nice challenge.

I'm not that broken up about the one or two inescapable nukage pits, but this one felt way too easy to fall into.

The usage of Shotgunners is the main contributing factor to me preferring HMP - they're certainly well laid-out on UV, but they can shred your health into ribbons extremely easily, and are always immediately priority targets.

I feel like this has come up before, but "now run around on top of the network of platforms you walked around earlier" is up there with "this switch lowers the walls of this entire maze" on the list of things I wish were in more Doom maps because they're always neat.

There's also some bits of interconnectedness, which isn't terribly surprising given the author, but is nice nonetheless.

The ending feels a little anti-climactic, but that might be in comparison to Tech Gone Bad's big fancy finish.

The map's opening is difficult on a UV pistol-start. Unlike some other people who need to git gud, I thought it was pretty fun. It takes a death to figure out how it works enough to get through it easily, but then again so does E4M2 so whatever.

The red cracks that appear throughout the map drew some ire. I agree they shouldn't do such a high amount of damage, but once you're aware how dangerous they are they're usually easy to avoid.

The map looks great. There’s places where you can tell it was made in a more modern editor, but it still feels authentically like a polished 90s map.

I didn't find most of the actual Secrets, but a lot of the bits of interconnectedness packed throughout the map still felt like nifty finds.

There's some cramped rooms that still work well since they're large enough to not be painfully constricting, while still feeling like you’re in dangerously close-quarters.

I played this yesterday and had more trouble with the progression then for some reason. There's odd bits like the second screenshot's hub where you have to reach a walkover line, then run back and duck down one of the other walled off paths, but most of it isn't terribly opaque, and the map isn't particularly huge so it's not like there's many places to go.

This is also a map that works better without freelook, given the amount of drops into potential danger. Some of them give off a bit of an E1M1 Quake vibe, actually.

I'd mentioned interconnectedness before, but this is my favorite instance of it in the map. It's a loop back to an earlier room to drop to a previously unreachable switch which raises a path to another previously unreachable thing, and it feels neat.

The map, despite having an E1 feel, doesn't rip anything straight from the original maps, which is nice. This area feels a little like the dark maze from E1M2, but it's still its own distinct thing.

A lot has been made of the map's difficulty, but this teleport spam encounter felt like the only point where the map went a little too intense. Immediately rocket launchering the initial wave helps, but you're quickly in too close proximity for the launcher to help.

There's also some contention over the ending by people who don't remember that E1M8's ending was kind of anti-climactic to begin with.

I personally think this wouldn't be a fitting end for E1 due to both the difficulty and the sheer length of it, but this still at least looks cooler than the original room, and it's an alright encounter.

Even ignoring how obviously exciting it is to see Romero make a new Doom map, this is still pretty good. If you're reading this and haven't played it, you absolutely should; non-UV difficulty levels are even implemented to make things a little more manageable.

I had a little trouble with the opening. It helps to play this on HMP, but this is still a pretty rough WAD.

Despite the relative intensity of the combat, I thought most of it was actually pretty fun. It can get a bit cluttered, but the areas are well laid-out and there's usually enough room to work out how to dodge around stuff.

This fight was also a blast - there's just enough room to make it doable while still feeling claustrophobic. Health and ammo are also handed out pretty well.

This is a really obvious Secret and also a nice view, so I'm including it.

While the previously noted tight Revenant fight would make a fine ending, I was a little surprised after stumbling up this hill that the map can just end there.

I found it especially odd because there's a whole multi-boss monster fight here that I guess is completely optional despite giving you the BFG and being in a different looking environment from the rest of the map.

It's actually kind of a fun fight, too. I don't think you'd be able to use the BFG afterward given that you have to use it to kill the Cyberdemons, but hey.

I'm only missing a handful of monsters here, but I've got no clue where they are.

In summary: it's definitely on the hard side, but I thought it was a cool map, and I hope the author sticks around to make more, because this shows promise in basically every way.

E1M1 kicks things off right in general: the fights are punchy, well laid-out, and health and ammo are appropriately distributed...

...the visuals are varied, the progression is simple and logical, and there's even some good room reusage.

Like with a lot of the multi-map WADs I've covered for this blog, I initially forgot to screenshot this spawn.

That's partially because the rush off the first map immediately carries you into a tight, engaging, multi-step fight.

E1M2 ups the ante fairly significantly, without the raise in difficulty feeling unfair or like a sudden spike. Again, good health and ammo placement.

I'm not sure what I did to trigger that rocket Secret, but it was certainly welcomed.

E1M3 continues the WAD's trend of visual diversity pretty well.

E1M3's combat starts off on slightly more uneven footing than the first two maps', but it's still plenty fun.

I like the idea of this room (enter small building, leap out a window to combat a swarm of intruders), but I'm not the biggest fan of the execution. I think you're meant to quickly punch your way back over to the lift out once you've grabbed the red key, but Cacos can easily clog the routes out of the building, and the floor is almost immediately packed with Demons. Actually trying to kill everything goes even worse, as you can tell by the screenshot.

The darkness didn't really help either.

The progression works pretty well; things feel a bit more spread and open than the first two, but I didn't hit any snags.

This bit of pseudo-room reusage was also neat.

The final fight is, while a nice idea, a little frustrating. You're meant to hit switches on both sides of the room to open the exit (which is on a timer), but good luck doing that when the Barons keep hugging them and there's Lost Souls everywhere.

The first two maps are good, and the third just has some botched executions. This is a pretty solid 20 minute WAD.

Not sure why the map doesn't start here. No monsters can see you until you run out and alert them, and it gives a better immediate idea of how the map is laid out.

It would also mean not having to ride the slow lift that leads up here.

You're given access to a lot of rooms right at the start. This lead to the opening feeling a little aimless, at least for me.

At least it's a good looking place to wander around in though. The map's visuals are pretty rad throughout.

My main issue with the map presents itself fairly quickly: there's a lot of rough traps (like this multistep one that back-to-back piles monsters on you), and very little in the way of recovery for most of the map. According to the comments there's Secrets with health pickups, but I only found one, and it was fairly late into the map.

It's a bit of a shame too, because the map’s packed with good setups (the Archvile dropped into that previous room works great). The only thing that prevented this from being really fun was because I couldn't find some Secrets.

There's even some nice bits of room reusage, including a bit where you hop around the upper levels of that checkered floor area that I didn't screenshot for some reason.

I'll also say that the slight aimlessness at the start isn't really that big a deal, and the progression works fine once you're handed the red key.

...I don't actually remember this Archvile at all for some reason. Ah well.

This room has the one health Secret I found: an (unpictured because it's in a small area) Megasphere.

It's a good thing too, otherwise I couldn't have tanked this exit.

I thought it was too brutal, but it's a decent map, and it's possible I'm just not good enough at it.

Having something that important in a Secret seems like kind of a silly idea regardless, though.

I like the map's visuals in general, actually. They're a nice spin on the mostly-standard techbase look.

The combat is well balanced and well paced throughout. I can't think of any particular low points.

I think the progression works alright up until about here.

It took me a long time to figure out that this had opened up. As in I'd played this before to post about it and gave up because I couldn't find this area. It doesn't seem to be entirely my fault either, since a few comments mention issues with the map’s progression.

That switch lowers bars blocking this red key back on the other side of the map. I immediately walked around the loop just to see what was back here, but I can imagine someone else getting stuck here.

The ending mostly features low-tier monsters, but I think it works okay.

The progression is really the only issue here: the rest of the map is a perfectly serviceable techbase.