I can’t quite believe that I’ve been writing about Doom since 2012, and here we find ourselves in the far-flung future of 2022. Turn the clock back another ten years, all the way back to 2002, and you’d find me discovering the vast universe of custom Doom content for the very first time. I could never have suspected then how deeply I’d ultimately venture into that universe… or how I would contribute to it in my own small way. For the last decade I’ve tried to pay tribute to the projects that inspired me to open a map editor all
Tag: Nicolas Monti
Mass Extinction
I said we’d see Nicolás Monti one more time, didn’t I? I’m nothing if not true to my word. Mr. Monti in fact commented on a previous review of mine, quite a few years ago now, recommending that I play his megaWAD Mass Extinction. His “most mature work” as he called it, and believed it would be up my alley. Well, I’m ashamed to say that it took me until late in 2021 to take him up on that, but he was spot on. Mass Extinction is more of the Nicolás Monti that I love. What else do you say
The Montiverse
You knew this was coming. How could I ever, ever end this column without taking a look at what Nicolás Monti has been up to lately? Some time in 2018 was the point where I started paying a lot less attention to Doom WAD releases. That was coincidentally around the same time Monti was taking a break from Doom. Even still, in the time since my review of Mano Laikas: A road to Gamzatti in 2017, our benevolent mapmaker has graced us with no less than ten new WADs. I’ve caught up on most of those and now I have
Mano Laikas: A road to Gamzatti
Nicolás Monti is an artist. Maybe the Picasso of Doom mapping. I’ve made a point of playing all his recent releases as they come. That includes my 2014 WAD Of The Year, Apostasy on Amalthea; one of my favorite WADs of 2015, Desecration on Thebe; and his most recent and expansive work, 2016’s Mano Laikas: A road to Gamzatti. Rounding out that roster is Erkattäññe, in my opinion Monti’s weakest WAD and yet the only one to win him a Cacoward. Erkattäññe didn’t work for me in large part because it was a Doom II WAD. Doom II’s textures just didn’t jive
Favillesco Alpha Episode 2: Desecration on Thebe
Favillesco Alpha Episode: Apostasy on Amalthea was my personal WAD-of-the-Year in 2014. I came for the promise of a WAD made entirely out of Doom alpha textures, and I ended up staying for Nicolás Monti’s one-of-a-kind mapping technique and bizarre stylistic sensibilities. This year he returned with an unexpected sequel, Favillesco Alpha Episode 2: Desecration on Thebe, and I had to know if lightning could strike twice. How does it measure up to Amalthea? For starters, Thebe ekes out a victory over its predecessor in the Length of Title category — one character longer! But seriously, as soon as you
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