If you’ve hung around these parts long enough, you’ve likely noticed an immensely prolific mapper’s conspicuous absence. Somehow I’ve made it ten years writing about Doom WADs and literally never mentioned him a single time? How could this be?! Well, don’t fret, old friend; even I know that there’s a special place in Hell for a WAD reviewer who ignores our most decorated mapper, Paul “skillsaw” DeBruyne.
But I have to admit up front that part of the reason I’ve not yet written about any of skillsaw’s WADs is because I’m not exactly sure what I think of them. I’ve never quite been able to reconcile my sometimes lukewarm feelings on mapsets like Valiant and Ancient Aliens with the otherwise universal acclaim they receive. And I kinda feel bad about that — like surely I must be missing something, or in some way I’m approaching them with the wrong expectations.
I’ve had the better part of a decade to visit and revisit some of these mapsets, and my feelings have changed precious little. So I think it’s about time I accept the fact that large swaths of skillsaw’s body of work are simply not for me, and that doesn’t mean I’ve failed as a reviewer. Nor should it in any way affect my enjoyment of the other swaths that are for me. None of this is to say that I don’t recognize the naked talent on display in every one of skillsaw’s projects, but just because something is awesome doesn’t mean you have to like it.
I guess the lesson here is to trust your own experience. No one can tell you how you feel about something except you. And my feelings on the following four WADs are maybe a bit unconventional.
Vanguard
This was one of the WADs that put skillsaw on the map. Hardly surprising when you look back, that a project so openly wearing its Scythe II inspiration on its sleeve, released in the year 2011, would be a hit. Only two years prior, Erik Alm had hit us with the first episodic release of Scythe X. We were still very much hoping more episodes would follow, but by this time also starting to realize it likely wasn’t not meant to be. Vanguard was a damn fine substitute, and if you had told me in 2011 that this was Scythe X Episodes 3, 4, and 5 I’d probably be like “yeah cool that checks out.”
Throughout Vanguard’s short 12-map run, skillsaw flawlessly channels the sensibilities that made Alm a household name in our little community: tight, polished maps with constant action and economical use of space. There’s always some monster closet opening, some teleport trap springing, to flood the areas you’ve cleared with fresh monsters. And each episode builds to the type of madhouse slaughter that Scythes always culminated in. Map10 is a particular favorite of mine — turret monsters squeezed onto platforms like sardines, projectiles flying like a sea of flame over your head, but all perfectly manageable if you know the dance.
skillsaw’s ability to mimic Alm is perhaps a bit too perfect — right down to the latter mapper’s common missteps. Despite an astoundingly strong start and a solid ten maps of joyous and breakneck action, the familiar cracks begin to show in the third episode, with map12 serving as a perfect encapsulation of everything that turned the final stretches of Scythe and Scythe II into such misery. The last map delves into the kind of wall-to-wall enemy placement where the threat comes not from the demons’ attacks but from simply running out of space to move, and lower difficulty settings don’t do much to alleviate the problem. The endlessly monotonous waves of demons is matched only by the endless monotony of the magma tunnels half the map is set in.
Nowadays I suspect Vanguard is a bit unremarkable, especially when viewed next to the grandeur of skillsaw’s later work. Certainly it lives very much in the shadow of Erik Alm. But divorced from all that noise, it’s an eminently playable mapset and a genuine classic. Besides, who among us hasn’t wished for more Erik Alm in our lives?
Valiant
By the time he released Valiant, skillsaw had found his voice. You can still see the influences if you squint, but skillsaw’s first full-length megaWAD is its own beast. Everything great about Vanguard has survived the transition, but Valiant has an edge to it that we’d never seen from the mapper before. It’s more daring, more confident, more willing to experiment.
The standout of course is the custom bestiary. Can you dodge imp fireballs in your sleep? Backpedal out of a demon’s bite with ease? No longer! Muscle memory will truly screw you over against the imp and demon tune-ups, and that’s only the beginning. Valiant’s modified arachnotron is very possibly the most genius custom monster in Doom history, and its freed brain fills the low-tier flying enemy niche I’ve always felt the game was missing. (Lost souls are just too meaty for my liking.) Doom’s most pointless enemies, the baron and hell knight, are gone too — replaced with variants that end up being far more compelling adversaries than just an imp with too much HP. I may hate suicide zombies as previously established, but skillsaw thankfully doesn’t overuse them. It’s only the beefed-up mancubus who is dead weight in this lineup, adding absolutely nothing that a regular mancubus doesn’t… except a less interesting firing pattern.
Combine the fantastic new roster of enemies with skillsaw’s old razor-sharp design and pacing, and then set it against five delightfully distinct and beautiful visual themes, and you’ve got Valiant. Even the moon setting from the author’s earlier WAD Lunatic and the underused orange Hell from Vanguard make a comeback and receive a big glow up. A fleshing-out, if you will. It’s like a greatest hits of skillsaw’s coolest aesthetics. My sole complaint about the episodic structure is that Scythe II truly nailed the perfect length at exactly five a piece. Valiant’s episodes all hover around six maps, and when each map within an episode looks so similar and blends together with its neighbors, you’d benefit from cutting the map count by just a hair. At the end of each episode, I was really craving a change of scenery.
An alternate solution would have been to lean more heavily into a concept-y style, but for whatever reason skillsaw seems only to flirt with gimmicks. The Mancubian Candidate and 14 Angrier Archviles are both memorable concepts brilliantly executed, and high points in the mapset too. A few more of those sorts of maps would have broken up some sameyness in the later episodes and kept the player from getting too comfortable.
Were Valiant just a tad more varied, just a little shorter, just slightly more experimental… it could be one of my all-time favorite WADs. But we’re far from the end of the story. Where does our mapper go from here?
Ancient Aliens
Ancient Aliens is a work of unparalleled beauty. A marvel of colors, sounds, and engine trickery. Maybe the defining WAD of the 2010s, and one of the few projects that has broken through to the mainstream gaming world.
It’s also by far the most not for me of any WAD on this list. If Valiant was samey in places, large chunks of Ancient Aliens are positively homogeneous. The combat falls flat without Valiant’s additions to the bestiary. There’s a real sense of humor to the text intermissions and whole concept of the mapset… but none of that playfulness comes through in the gameplay.
Is any of that bad enough to write off Ancient Aliens as a whole? I mean, skillsaw’s same talent for encounter design and clever action setpieces is still here. And yet… I just don’t know. More than anything, every time I play Ancient Aliens I’m left profoundly, bafflingly bored — to the extent that I start to question whether this is it: the point in my life where Doom simply holds no wonder anymore. After decades spent playing the same old game, am I simply tired of Doom? How else… how else could this feast of a mapset — this visual and aural smorgasbord — bore me? I can’t say I have an answer.
But then I play skillsaw’s next WAD and I’m just as in love with Doom as I ever was.
Heartland
Heartland is proof for the ages that Doom will never get old. The 7-map episode takes you on a mind-blowing journey through a dying industrial town and to the rot at its heart. There is such a strong sense of place in Heartland, from the overgrown grass retaking the town to the columns of flame still belching from the towers of the old factory. skillsaw’s vision of this setting is perfectly realized through both his own decade plus of mapping skill, but also through the tremendous OTEX texture pack by Ola Björling. OTEX provides the visual glue that holds the entire spectacle together; every map is unmistakably Heartland through and through, but at the same time has enough of its own identity to stick with you as a self-contained experience. I guarantee you will never mix Subway Sandwich up with Bruce R. and Son Construction Co. in your memory, or Reservoir Dog with Routine Flaring and Flailing. Just hearing those names again brings back a flood of images seared into my brain like the memory of my first love.
It’s map05 though, Titan of Industry, that is almost literally unbelievable. Never in Doom have I seen anything as layered and complex, as imposing and beautiful. ZDoom-based sourceports have long allowed for room over room but nothing so far created for those comes close to this. I don’t know anything about high tech engine stuff, but I’m led to believe it was only recent advancements in the Eternity Engine that made Titan possible, and that this is something beyond even the ken of GZDoom. It’s either that or skillsaw is the only madman brave enough to have attempted such a thing.
You’ve got everything in Heartland that you could ever wish for. These are the greatest skillsaw maps ever to see the light of day, hands down. Then fill them with devilish new monsters and devastating weapons. And the soundtrack. Undeniably one of the best parts of Ancient Aliens was the beginning of a match made in heaven, Stuart “stewboy” Rynn joining skillsaw as a regular composer. That relationship marches on into Heartland stronger than ever, carrying it from a solid 9 to a towering 10.
Heartland lives in the shadow of no one. It is the butterfly that I always hoped skillsaw’s caterpillar would become. Transcendent, unrivaled, and incomprehensibly technically advanced. Even if you don’t otherwise use Eternity, you absolutely must grab it for this WAD alone. Heartland is the Eternity Engine’s killer app.
Vanguard, Valiant, Ancient Aliens, and Heartland all require DOOM2.WAD. Vanguard and Ancient Aliens run on Boom-compatible sourceports, Valiant runs on MBF-compatible ports, and Heartland runs only on the Eternity Engine. If you’re not sure how to get them running, this may help. And for more awesome WADs, be sure to check these out!