Review by DrCrypt

Excellent wad and very challenging. I though this level was going to be huge, because BOOM counted 280 monsters in it, and for the first twenty minutes or so I was never running up against more than a couple at a time. Then, the author threw about 70 of the mothers against me at once. I think that this is a good oppurtunity to talk about how one can fight 70 monsters at once and still have the fight be fair: all it takes is strategically picked monsters that are -mobile- and the right architecture. 70 revenants suddenly shooting at you out of a wall when you pick up a key is bad monster placement. 70 imps, demons, and shot gun sargeants trying to budge you and your super shotgun out of a tiny crevice is just good shotgun fodder.

I was rather impressed by this wad, and its going to earn my first "5". For one thing, I love bloody wads, and this level has blood gushing from the walls. The level is a steady challenge, but the author of the wad makes sure never to put you up against more enemies than you can currently handle. For example, at the beginning of the wad, he gives you just enough ammo to take out a steady stream of arachnotrons, macubuses, hell knights, and barons of hell that he throws at you, all with your sawed-off shotgun. However, he never throws more than one or two of these baddies at you at once, and there are always architectural structures around that you can flee to to increase your chances of survival and tip the scales in your favor. No trapped in a small room with arachnotrons here. For most of the level, your strongest weapon is a chaingun, yet he still manages to throw about every baddy at you in the DOOM arsenal and manages to keep the fights fair. At quite a few points I was forced to reload my saved game and try a different approach in a particular area of the map. Fights are bloody, fun, and only -slightly- fair. Just the way I like it.

Architecture is pretty good, though nothing particularly innovative. The level has been designed, however, to offer you fair fighting grounds as you battle off the various hell spawn. In fact, and I'm slightly embarassed to admit this, this level has 5 (!) cyberdemons in it, and it wasn't impossible. 3 of them you don't have to kill, and the other two are placed in such a way as that stationary archviles whittle away at their health for you. Any level that can implement one cyberdemon well, let alone five is a notch above other levels.

Overall, an excellent wad. Very challenging, very bloody, with long, epic battles and the satisfying scent of gunpowder wafting in the air. Very skillfully designed. Go git it.