Review by Colin Phipps

"My First Attempts" is probably the least attractive name for a set of Doom levels that I can think of. But in fact the levels were fairly good, with some good ideas and tricks. It is a 4 level mini-episode for Doom 2 - you are warned that without a good source port there may be some minor problems, but it should work fine (I used LxDoom and had no problems).

REV_SCRENSHOT(RIGHT) The episode is industrial/high-tech in style, though the style was a bit patchy in places. There are some special effects used, and there was generally a good level of detail too.

There is plenty of action too; the first level is well balanced with all types of enemies, but the later level were dominated by archvilles and other big Doom 2 badies. Here are my thoughts on each level:

1. Beneath a Blue Sky - A moderately large level, with a great mix of badies; throughout the level there are a good mixture of all types of enemies to fight. The style is fairly industrial/high-tech, rather uneven maybe - there were definitely good and bad areas at this level. Plenty of traps and tricks to keey you busy, but there were some flaws like getting trapped if you try to do things out of order.
2. Neverending Story - This is a fairly long (fortunately not neverending :-P) level. The main enemies are the Doom 2 badies, in particular a lot of archvilles (like about an average of 1 per room). The archvilels are not well placed for resurrecting monsters usually (the level would be impossible with this many otherwise) and where they are you just blast them with rockets. There are some good areas early on which have more balanced monsters, and are correspondingly easier, but I prefered these to play. The architecture is generally good, but the level lacked an overall style - it was mostly high-tech but with other strange bits mixed in too.
3. Fear of the Dark - Another high-tech level, with quite a range of stuff in it. There is a good room that looks like the bridge of a spaceship, and there are some special effects like walking in air. There are some really strange things though, like repetetive texture use in places, and a large Quake II logo on one wall - I mean, why? Anyway, the level has planty of fights too, a couple of really nasty ones with archvilles, but there was a fair balance of enemies generally. Plenty of traps to watch out for.
4. The Very End - his is the showdown, against a spawn-cube-spawning-demon ala MAP30. There is a cyber and a load of barons to work through too, but basically it comes down to that rising pillar and timing your rockets like for MAP30. But it's quite clever - the distance to the target is different to the original, so you do have to work out when to shoot; also the spwaned monsters come at you from all angles. The level has strange architecture, with special effects giving high platforms of air above an acid floor - alas it is easy to fall off if you're not careful, and there's nothing more frustrating than falling off the pillar and dying in acid...

Overall a mixed set of levels, but quite interesting. Too many archvilles, and yet-another-big-showdown fight for the 4th level, were the things that annoyed me. But otherwise there levels are good, certainly a lot better than their name would suggest :).