Catching Up - Celestin's review thread (now playing: Plutonia 2) (2024)

Out of 9 maps Gene Bird submitted to Community Chest 1&2, Desacration is the only one that wasn't released prior. It's definitely an improvement, however, Desacration still share issues and quirks with the rest of his maps.

The map is, once again, a linear series of rooms with mostly SSG-based combat. I do have to admit, the fights feel spicier, with higher monster density, but it's forgettable. The design is more complex and varied than before, though there are a handful of parts with steep stairs leading downwards and enemies placed below player's line of sight. In a game where you can't look up and down, this is a major design flaw.

Still, this is a functional map and I don't mind something more conventional to play after The Mucus Flow.

This one is just weird. The start is a mess with chaingunners on a ledge and pinkies chasing you through a crate maze, but once this is over, Geist Halls turns into a slow techbase crawl, with a bulk of the opposition represented by hitscanners and pinkies. Also, the place is really tight and a low ceiling doesn't help. The progression feels cryptic, there's a ton of switches that do something, but I really have no idea what exactly. Some probably open secrets, there are 7 of them and I especially like the library with an armchair overlooking the cosmos.

If Dr. Zin was going for an uneasy, mysterious atmosphere, Geist Halls definitely succeeds, though I'd probably rememeber this as "that one map with Pink Floyd midi".

Prior to Gethsemane, I've played two maps by Mike "Use3d" Alfredson: Dirty Water from BTSX E2 and No Tomorrow from Community Chest 1 (the latter made me drop CC1), so I knew what to expect: a large, sprawling map with unclear progression. The start isn't bad, but it also feel deceptive.

Not far from the opening area, you can find a doorway blocked by red and blue bars. The blue skull key is nearby, but it's guarded by a large group of monsters plus a cyberdemon. I know this is just a combination of infighting and plasma spam, but this is where the map's energy peaked. The route to the red key is a complete and utter slog. It's a slow corridor crawl that requires a lot of backtracking, activating switches that do something, but you have no idea what and finally, fighting enemies dotted here and there with little health to patch your wounds. There are also other attractions, like a tightrope walk above a pool of damaging viscera that slows you to a crawl (Use3d seem to be fond of Boom's friction effects) or a part after a crusher-trapped button (which is another brilliant idea, by the way), where you have to jump down into a hole, not knowing what is below.

I can't deny it's a well put together map, the merger of rock, lava and demonic structures looks appealing, but it's still the map in CC2 I had the little fun playing.

No Room is a map designed to frustrate you. From copious examples of placing stuff below your line of sight (like that one supercharge with a death pit two steps further), low resources (especially early on) to a series of fake exits with chaingunners at the end. Other than the visual side, this is Mock 2 material. Hell, there's even a trip through a lower intestine of some large monster, so it fills the toilet humour quota.

The problem with No Room is that there is a good map to be found here, but it's buried underneath author's spiteful and trollish attitude towards the player.

Despite the effort, I can't really enjoy this map. The main goal of Event Horizon is to find red and blue skulls (not to be confused with red and blue keycards, which are also present here), place them on pillars and leave this corrupted techbase. The problem is, this place is a mess to navigate, I spent a good chunk of my playthrough running around, trying to figure out what did that switch do or what's the deal with this giant sector monster (spoiler, it's mostly a decoration).

There are some interesting ideas, I like the whole blue skull setup, where you need to travel to hell to find it (kinda like in MAP07), but what I experienced was mostly diluted by awkward progression and excessive backtracking.

How do you end a classic megawad? With a crappy Icon of Sin, of course. But here's a twist: the Icon itself isn't that bad - just run from switch to switch, collect three keys and press three switches to kill not one, not two, but three wall textures. The biggest hazard here is accidentally stepping on a cube destination. The Icon spawns so much crap that most enemies will just end up telefragging one anothers, and the path to the next objective can easily be cleared with a BFG. Not the best setpiece, but I've seen far worse IoS clones.

My issue is with the whole pre-Icon segment. It's repetitive as hell: kill two imps, open a way forward, kill three revenants, get a key, repeat 4 times. The final iteration replaces a key with an invuln sphere and throws four archviles to take care of with limited ammo and berserk, which is probably the sole exciting moment here. Also, there this whole place is full of damaging blood and health isn't plenty.

Overall, this is probably one of the better Icon of Sin fights I've seen in a while, too bad it's married to such start.