Review: Fortress.wad
WatcherTwo
The "Official" form:
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Title : FORTRESS.WAD
Author : Curtis M. Turner II
Email Address : Currently: cho...@hubcap.clemson.edu
Real soon: ctu...@hubcap.clemson.edu
Misc. Author Info : Student at Clemson Univ. SC (Doh!)
Description : An evil haven battle fortress, chock
full of things to kill and places to
see. Enjoy the atmosphere, I do.
Additional Credits to : Well, I could thank alot of people
for their various efforsts, Id, All
those that worked on DEU and BSP, my
playtesters and friends, and my
functioning imagination.
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* Play Information *
Episode and Level # : E1M1 (Until you change it, rec: E?L7)
Single Player : Yes
Cooperative 2-4 Player : Yes
Deathmatch 2-4 Player : Yes
Difficulty Settings : Yes, fully implemented.
New Sounds : No
New Graphics : No
* Construction *
Base : New level
Build Time : Give or take 56 hours.
Editor(s) used : DEU5.0 BSP11x
Known Bugs : A few minor texture alignment problems
are all I know about, but I'm continually
touching all my works up as I get new
ideas and my ignorance of how Doom uses
these levels fades to nothing.
* Where to get this WAD *
FTP sites:
ocf.unt.edu and all mirror sites.
Secrets, yes there are alot of them ;) Don't expect to find them
all the first few times through (unless you're one of those cheating
types, then hey more power to ya), but none conceal "must have" items,
just boons. I manage to come off the level with max health and armor
on Ultra-Violence, but then I know where the secrets are. One hint:
Take a few seconds to look around, I'm sure something will pop
up, especially early on. (Spoilers way down at the bottom.)
Another hint, well nah, you'll see the first time you play ;)
And now on with the review!
[The Green clears ... (or the screen melts away to expose...)]
I immediatly pick up my shotgun (I think I'm going to like
this one!) and look around the room. I'm standing in front of
a large wooden door, the room seems to be made of steel, slightly
stained (are those blood stains? HeHe). I kick open the door and
find ... nothing.. no monsters, but there is another large door
ahead and a hallway leading left and right. I choose a hallway
and start wandering, picking off the wandering monsters as I go,
the walls here are stained with green, I sniff for the smell of
slim but can't pick up the scent. I watch the walls carefully
for signs of a secret and clear out the bad guys...
I eventually end out in a large open area surrounded by a very
long wall that curves in a half circle, this place is populated
with hairless bulls and flame throwing apes! I dodge around
making the apes hit the bulls and watch the fun! When I get
bored with that, I kill off what's left and search the area for
goodies! A plasma gun, now all I need is more ammo for it...
This level was very well constructed, I found only one place
where a wall was not quite smooth, of course I got stuck on it
in battle! I saw no HOM effect and the layout was very well
thought out.
I did find it irritating that you can start out right at the
beginning, take a wrong turn and be overwhelmed with monsters,
isn't that what keys are for? Please put the 'room full of
monsters' type thing either behind a keyed door or at the end
of an area where you have a pretty good idea that the player
is ready (read that as equipped) for it, like you did with
the other monster rooms.
There is a very large maze (You know how I feel about mazes)
on this level, it is also well thought out and properly stocked
with both monsters and equipment, I actually enjoyed making my
way through it.
I started out with a bad impression of the level because I
take dying VERY seriously, I expect to be smarter than the
author, more observant that he/she expects and survive the
traps that are layed out for me, on this level (at least in
the very beginning) that was not possible.
This author seems to like the 'room full of monsters' type of
thing so if you get a kick out of "mowing", you'll like a
couple of the places on this one a lot! I prefer the type that
take a bit more thought, quick reactions and close observation.
I did warm up to the level through the maze (I know, sounds
strange for me huh? The maze is very well done!) and overall
I enjoyed playing this level. I played on UV as usual, and the
level can be completed without finding the 'secret goodies'.
There is a bug in the layout of the secrets, if you do them in
the wrong order you can't get 100% of everything, and we all
want to do that!
Ratings are changing slightly, here is a quick list of what
each rating means:
1 - Please stop writing wads!
2 - Bad! even for a first attempt.
3 - an acceptable first attempt.
4 - Good for a first attempt.
5 - Average (You'll get better!).
6 - Slightly above average.
7 - Above average, not bad.
8 - Good level
9 - This author is great! (Email me your next level Please!)
10 - Exceptionaly done, Get this one! (Email me your next level Please!)
Anything below a 5 in both catagories I won't even bother with,
I may mention not to get it... that's all.
Watcher rating for Design?
8
Watcher rating for Game Play?
8
Wads to avoid (to prevent wasted download time):
All flames, comments, compliments(?), or requests for reviews
may be sent to Wat...@aol.com
Please, if you request a review, send a uuencoded message (The
Message can be as large as you like, AOL will chop it into little
pieces no matter what you do... 8^(, what a a pain!) if you can
of the zipped wad and it's .txt file.
********** Spoiler **********
Check the walls all along the hallway outside the starting room, there's
a decent cache to get you up to strength for a level of this type, since
it's supposed to replace (and will be in my own episode) E1M7.