We’re really in the final stretch, folks, and Going Down is one I’ve meant to check out for eight years now. Outside of the Doom community, Going Down’s creator Cyriak Harris was already pretty well-known by 2014. In fact, if you’ve spent any time on the weirder side of YouTube, you’ve assuredly seen at least one of his bizarre, mesmerizing music videos. “cows & cows & cows” currently has about 68 million views, and that’s not even Cyriak’s most popular video. If those videos are your only experience with Cyriak, you may actually find Going Down to be rather tame
Tag: 2014 WADs
The Episode of Episodes!
To celebrate the 45th edition of this column, my plan was to take a look at some episode replacements I’ve always meant to play but never got around to. I’d heard good things about all of them (and in most cases, I’d enjoyed their creators’ other work), so I expected to play some pretty good maps… Instead, I played four of the most amazing episodes I’ve touched in years. I know I said just a few days ago that Mapgame was possibly my favorite ever Doom episode, but all four of these are in the running for that title now — and
Special Report: One-Map WADstravaganza!
By now you’ve probably noticed that I lean more toward bigger WADs and megaWADs to talk about in this column. As a result, I have a growing list of one-map WADs I’ve either enjoyed or been meaning to play that has just been getting longer and longer for years now… You know what the means! That’s right — it’s time for another special episode! Welcome to the One-Map WADstravaganza: eight single-level releases from the last five years or so. Let’s jump right to it, before I get wrapped up in some long, masturbatory introduction! Presented in alphabetical order: Big Woodchip
Thy Flesh – Turned into a draft-excluder
A draught excluder or draft stopper is used to eliminate cold draft and slow heat loss. It is placed in the bottom crack of doors and windows. – Wikipedia All of a sudden, so much of my life makes sense… Like what the heck that long, sand-filled thing was in my parents’ hallway, that I used to pretend was a scary snake. Also what the heck the title of Thy Flesh – Turned into a draft-excluder means. The only remaining question: how the heck is this WAD so good? Matt “cannonball” Powell nabbed a Cacoward last year for draft-excluder, and
Deneb Colony
Lainos won a Cacoward back in 2012 for his massive, atmospheric WAD, 5till L1 Complex. He’s back this year with a semi-sequel called Deneb Colony, a much smaller, more straightforward level that inherits almost nothing from its predecessor other than its visual style. That said, if you’re one of the many Doomers who loved 5till, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy Deneb. If you didn’t, though, definitely don’t dismiss Lainos’ new work as more 5till. I was in the minority as someone who didn’t really care for 5till, but Deneb Colony had me enthralled from beginning to end. Doom has few
Bedlam
Oh, Episode 3. You poor dear. They shower Episode 1 with nostalgic reverence. They love the clashing themes and weirdness of E2. They praise E4’s difficulty; its polished, masterful design. But what about you? What about the colorful, the clever, the outlandish, the otherworldly E3? They just don’t understand you, Episode 3. But I do — and so does Bedlam. Bedlam is one of the best E3 replacements I’ve played. Spearheaded by Memfis, the episode is the work of seven different mappers — Memfis, Antroid, C30N9, NoneeLlama, purist, Dragonsbrethren, and Sokoro. You might expect that many hands to result in
Loathsome Cleft
If you ever decide you want to send a little something for my birthday, I’ll say this: forego the greeting card and go right for the baked goods. Handmade, if you can. Those are what really take some time and dedication. And it’s personal; you do it with your own two hands. Who would pass that up for the cleverest greeting card in the world? Anyway, James “Phobus” Cresswell’s Loathsome Cleft… It’s a Doomworld tradition: One prolific WAD creator builds a map to celebrate another prolific WAD creator’s birthday. It sounds like something that could go one of two ways.
Favillesco Alpha Episode: Apostasy on Amalthea
Enough of a mouthful? Favillesco Alpha Episode: Apostasy on Amalthea, henceforth referred to (for your sanity and mine) as Amalthea, is the third release in the Favillesco series — though, as I understand it, something of a side, spinoff project and not part of the main series. In any case, I haven’t played the other entries in the series, nor any of Nicolás Monti’s previous WADs, unfortunately. That background information is interesting to know, because this… is an odd mapset. It’s obvious, even without playing his other stuff, that Amalthea is something of a departure from Monti’s norm: the weird
Flashback to Hell
Past few days I’ve been working my way through the meaty innards of Flashback to Hell, a megaWAD by Stormwalker, a name I admit I’m not at all familiar with. There’s some Cacoward talk surrounding it already, so you can pretty safely assume it’s good, but all I knew going in was this: it’s a classic-styled WAD. 15 levels. And with a story — something that a lot of WAD-makers leave out but I really appreciate when it’s there. I dove in with some definite expectations. I knew what I was getting into; I expected your standard oldschool WAD. All