Martian Bunker Maps
Simulation Core by Deadly0re
While there are a few tricks to ease the pressure (I particularly liked the timed crusher eliminating the arch-viles), overall it's just too much for an oldhead like me. The last showdown is pretty great for a slaughter map but getting there is just too much. 2 stars.
All Hell Broke Loose by Drelzar
Although there are many rough edges here, I did really feel like I was going through a narrative when I found a set of secret rooms - you are freeing yourself from this prison but also releasing some gigantic monster into the world, and you can leave without ever seeing them. An unusual understanding of storytelling in Doom, really remarkable. 4 stars.
all my pals love tech bases by Async Unicorn
All my pals love them too, and there is much to love about this little experience. It's highly polished and the mechanisms to release more and more monsters into the tiny level feel physicalized instead of simply teleporting everything around. There's a lot of shortcuts that could have been taken that aren't taken, to the credit of the level. Great stuff. 4 stars.
Cybercrusher Gaiden by Tamhiel aka Fighter
There's a lot of exciting ideas here. It's maps like this that make me happy that community efforts like RAMP occur. This is clearly an unpolished, early effort by an inexperienced mapper. Yet there are still innovations and ideas that could be polished and used to great effect in the future. The "dropping" of monsters, the use of automatic doors, the draining of hazardous areas, all these are really cutting edge and exciting. The use of the automatic doors in particular could make some really interesting dynamics in monster encounters. However, the roughness of the edges remains - this is the only map where I was soft-locked (fell into a pit that was clearly supposed to damage and kill me, but it didn't.) The automatic doors sometimes open in places that aren't easily visible or comprehensible even with a computer map. And the lighting is largely flat. Nevertheless I felt excited playing it just because of the potential I felt in it. 3.5 stars.
SHitscan by Jokey665
Despite the name, it's actually a well crafted, simple level with well-paced dangers revealing themselves slowly into a fully legible underground base. The "M1 aesthetic" is strong here - you just have hitscanners, and only a couple of rooms that are "chock full" of them. On that level it really works. 4 stars.
The Subcortex by Impboy
The lack of music, echoing SFX and dim lighting started intriguing, got annoying, but came all the way back around to intriguing by the end. Using very basic Doom textures and layout, the atmosphere is very nice. There are some odd choices in secret doors (unmarked but often opening automatically) and that leads to some questions in how the level should flow ("I flipped the switch, now what?") and these inconsistencies could be fixed, but don't let that keep you from trying what's a really fun level. 3.5 stars.
Mining Facility by PorthosGranados
A marvelously executed theme throughout, but what I really want to talk about is the nature of one of the best secrets I've ever seen in any Doom level. Although it does, yes, give you access to the super shotgun - sure, fine - what it actually does is allow you to enter an arena through a door you control rather than a slow elevator that makes you extremely vulnerable to the monsters if you want to retreat. It's a strategic secret rather than simply a resource allocation section, and as a result I really got pumped when I opened the door back to the main canyon and realized that instead of racing across it in a panic, I could draw in the monsters to me. What a discovery! 5 stars.
Hell is for Heroes by BouncingBlueSoul
A terrific use of space makes this small-in-size level feel full of secrets and "practical" reveals. A good monster closet, in my view, doesn't necessarily have to be surprising to the veteran Doom player to be effective. What it has to do is to reshape the understanding of the space you're in - cramped to large, or "safe behind me" to "dangerous behind me". That's what the monster reveals in this little gem of a map do. Again, in the "M1 canon" I'd say it's very strong. 4 stars.
Astral Causeway Levels
Ground Zero Terror by Daniel Unicide aka 2rueUnicide2
All right! How to break a reviewer's rubric in one easy lesson. This intentionally-scribbled, low-fi meme level takes me back to the days of making our own soundpacks and WADs where we teased our friends and used our favorite movie quotes and in-jokes to make a level. Cool. That all works for me. The opening sequence definitely sets a difficulty level, though I think the one-shot-kill makes enjoying the goofiness a little bit of a RNG grind. This only becomes more dramatic as the game progresses. I would also add that much of the map is just square rooms with monsters and some supplies in them; not really great showcases for either the jokes or the difficulty. As much as I wanted to love it, I really couldn't, for that reason. There's only about half a level here (free BFG and all). 2 stars.
Archibold's tower by Makros The Black
A highly ambitious and charming project with shops, quests and some fun use of geometry and space. However, its reach does exceed its grasp just a bit. Though I can forgive things like revenant fireballs acting strangely when going through level geometry that only exists from one side, there is also a softt lock based on the fact that you can jump down through the central shaft of the tower whenever you want, and there are times when there's no way to get back up - one door hasn't opened and another has sealed. Hopefully these issues are fixed in the "flood of RAMP playtesters" in the following year because it's honestly a tremendous achievement. 4.5 stars.
Of the Best by QuotePilgrim
A nice arena map with an unusual challenge - getting from arena area to area is often an extremely tight fit or requires some waiting at a slow elevator. This means that you can easily get trapped when you are trying to retreat, regroup or let infighting play itself out. Most arena maps like the big vistas in transitional areas so this is a cool new thing. A really nice start. 4.5 stars.
D RUNNING by Dom
Dammit, after multiple entries where I say "huge numbers of one kind of enemy just aren't fun", here's one to prove me wrong. After you fail this twice you will really start to think about rockets, cyberdemons and RNG in a different way. You end up feeling like you're navigating a high speed maze or traffic in a racing game rather than Doom. I do think that it's a bit long - while some gambling RNG is fine, you have to basically avoid snake eyes for far too long before some stray rocket gets out of the lanes you've tried to create with your running patterns. A shortened version of this (and perhaps with some particularly scripted cyberdemons to keep them pointing rockets in particular directions) would be a real blast. 3 stars.
Ramp Shape by CBM
Happy Pride, everyone! It's just a little too overstuffed to work quite right - a lot of the normal creatures end up frozen or walking backwards, monsters are stuck because whatever they use to move isn't handled quite right, the multiple multiple weapons are hard to sort through and there isn't any kind of learning curve on them since they're all dumped on you at once. The use of "just throw some weapons down with a few backpacks bro, it's fine" is different than careful placement and doling out different types of ammunition but I don't really think it's an improvement. I actually very much like the idea of a map where the monsters are weird cartoony versions of the monsters, and some of the set pieces (the blue key in particular) are fantastic, but it just can't stand under its own weight. A pity. 3.5 stars.
Fleshy and Liquidy Mess by ImBadAtDoom
I kinda get what you're supposed to do here, and there are some fun ideas (triggering the trap on the first cyberdemon is a great feeling) but ultimately it's not enough; getting through the second set of rooms is just a RNG gamble. I think if you feel like you're bad at Doom you shouldn't try to make high-challenge super-death levels, you should instead try for a level with some flow and rhythm to the monsters and supplies. Even a short one would be good. 1.5 stars.
Cacoroids by Artinium
A goofy fun arena. I didn't find it that hard, who rated this a "4"? I think more could even be done with the idea by building some even more weird cacodemon-themed monsters ("Ramp Shape" above has some funny stuff, like football helmets and so on). But if you go too much further you're going to have to wipe the corpses or else you won't be able to see a frickin thing! 3.5 stars.
Evil Demonic Super Toys by Obake
Just when I was getting excited for a long string of little encounters with increasingly weird mini-versions of monsters and other toy ideas, I got thrown into, essentially, a huge cluster-mess starring multiple cyberdemons and hitscanners, and RNG-ing your way through to a favorable infighting situation is your only chance. A disappointment (for me) in what's otherwise a great little map. 3 stars.
Pumping Station Levels
heartbeep by sidestepper
A truly genius mechanic is marred by platforming and (in places) fights that are (either) too cramped or need more ammo. Managing one limitation against the need for progress and the moment to moment tactical decisions is what Doom is all about, but putting two limitations on the player makes for a too-cautious gameplay loop for what Doom is. That makes it sound worse than it is, I actually loved this level, the many different types of challenges the new mechanics allowed were fantastic. 4 stars.
Outpost Omega by JorBore
A small, quick satisfying little bite-sized map. This is the kind of map that we want to see in a community map collection, something that has a plan and executes it well. 4 stars.
Bureaucracy by Crow
Stylish, challenging, fair, and an absolute banger of a soundtrack. Honestly a triumph, one of the best so far this year. Every time I thought it didn't have something new to show me, it did. 5 stars.
Normalcy Breach by ThatGuyGW
Wow, can't believe war criminal George W Bush is now a Doom mapper! Anyway, it's a little short to get a full picture of what could have been, a pity because the customization was fun and I was just getting into it! 3 stars.
Acid Refinery by RedThingy
Really nicely paced, and with atmosphere to spare, but the ammo situation and the cramped quarters combined to make the end few rooms a bit of a slog, not a great "Doom feeling". (See my analysis above for heartbeep). 4 stars.
UAC Reception by Morgoth
A solid, medium-sized map with a few tight challenges that you can approach in multiple ways, an unusual and welcome feature for maps of this size and type. Just having two differently situated entrances to an encounter is really cool. 4.5 stars.
Coffee Break by SeanShoes
A pretty straightforward map enlivened by the use of humor (you SHOULD take a coffee break in this map!) and unusual environmental features. A real pleasure, one of the best. 5 stars.
