Vordakk Reviews

I got into Heretic again after a decade or so. Still know most of the secrets in the Shareware episode. It just becomes a chore for me, mainly the combat isn't as good, the weapons very similar, and there's isn't enough variety in the maps. Still a fun diversion for a bit. Hexen really shaped things up, they should have made the third installment on the Doom engine too...hasn't anyone done that? Fan-made Hecatomb? 

Unfortunately it will not, since Kristus uses assets from all three episodes in Curse of D'Sparil.

This wad turned me off because of the MUSIC choice, and that it felt too linear or straightforward compared to a normal Hexen map.

Well, it seemed too action-driven, instead of quest-driven. That probably fails my expectations of Hexen. Unlike others, I like hunting for switches and items. I guess I can play it again with -nomusic and finish it (hopefully there are enough ambient sounds to cover the silence).

Download here: www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/heretic/Ports/moc11

Author: Caleb & Doom_Warrior

Year: 2012

Masters of Chaos has been out since 2012, but I am just now getting around to playing and reviewing it. I was asked to review this wad by a forum member, and am I glad he suggested it. Caleb and his friend Doom_Warrior really knocked it out of the park with this massive dose of Heretic goodness.

Masters of Chaos is a 31-level Heretic pwad which requires ZDoom in order to be played. The levels do make use of ZDoom features, although not as heavily as some other ZDoom projects. You will need to jump and crouch in order to play through this mapset. The project is composed of 31 levels split into three episodes. MoC features a bunch of new enemies, new weapons, new textures, new sprites, and new music. I believe that all of the new music is from Hexen(although I could be wrong), and some of the new enemies are also from Hexen, but the rest of the additional bestiary and the new weapons, textures, and sprites come from a wide range of sources.

First, I will discuss the new assets. I really liked how Caleb and Doom_Warrior utilized the new resources at their disposal. They slowly introduce new weapons to the player; 2 new weapons appear in Episode 1, two more show up in Episode 2, and the final new weapon comes in Episode 3(or if you are really good, you can get it early in the secret map in Episode 2). Just this simple act of spacing the weapons out like that really goes a long way towards making this mapset feel important and really adds to the overall appeal. Likewise, the new enemies are drip fed in much the same way. The further you get into MoC, the more custom monsters appear. The new textures and sprites are used throughout the 3 episodes, and they are really put to good use in my opinion. Not only do they offer some new and different visuals, but they really give the levels a sense of place because of how well they are utilized.

The 5 new weapons in Masters of Chaos are pretty nice for the most part. The Frost Fang, a cool-looking staff which shoots icicles that can freeze enemies(which you can then shatter using another weapon), is most certainly the weakest out of the 5. It uses the same ammo as the Dragon Claw, but its projectiles are slower and are much more difficult to hit with, whereas the Dragon Claw is basically an instant hit weapon. When you combine that with the fact that it isn't any more powerful than the Dragon Claw, you end up with a weapon that never gets used. When you use the Tome of Power though, the Frost Fang shoots super-cold blasts of arctic air that do much more damage as well as splash damage, so that's pretty cool. The SkullStaff is a weapon that shoots purplish projectiles that do decent damage and travel fairly fast, and it uses its own unique ammo supply, so it's fairly useful. When tomed, it unleashes subterranean spines much like the Zerg Lurkers from Starcraft, doing pretty good damage. The Jade Wand is a useful weapon that shares ammo with the Ethereal Crossbow. It shoots an arcing projectile at a higher rate of fire than the crossbow, but be mindful that these shots cannot affect ethereal enemies. When tomed, it becomes a fucking death machine. It basically turns into the equivalent of an AA-12 shotgun, peppering anything in its path with continuous high-damage blasts. Great gun! The Wand of Embers is a fire weapon using its own unique ammo type, and it's damage is somewhere between that of the ElvenWand and the Ethereal Crossbow. It is a good close to mid-range weapon, firing a few projectiles in a spread when unpowered, and when powered up it simply fires more projectiles. Finally, the BloodScepter uses the same ammo as the Hellstaff, but once you get it you'll usually prefer it over the Hellstaff due to its power increase and better visibility. When you use it in conjunction with the Tome of Power, it shoots deadly red poltergeists which hunt down enemies, much like the Wraithverge from Hexen.

I know that many people are quick to find fault when new enemies are added to a pwad, but I was pleased to find that the enemies that Caleb and Doom_Warrior chose fit pretty well, at least in my opinion. I think one of the things that works against Heretic is that its bestiary doesn't offer as many gameplay possibilities as Doom II's does. Doom II has Arch-Viles, Cyberdemons, Chaingunners, Revenants, and Pain Elementals, all of which can be used to create advanced gameplay scenarios when thoughtfully applied. Heretic's baddies are a bit more straightforward, and thus they are less able to be used in creative ways. So I really felt as though the new enemies were a welcome addition. There are just too many new bad guys to delve into each one individually(plus I don't want to spoil the fun), but I will say that for the most part they are used very well and that they manage to constantly keep the player on his toes because of their unique attacks and movement patterns. I never knew what was around the next corner, and the tension of not knowing what attacks awaited me and having to think on my feet was one of the things that got me hooked on Masters of Chaos as I got further into the wad.

There are many things about Masters of Chaos that might offend today's Doom players, but I will go so far as to say that not only did these "problems" not bother me, in many cases they actually added to my enjoyment of this grand project. Texture alignment in MOC isn't always perfect, and often one will notice ledges which aren't lower-unpegged, walls that tile awkwardly, and other trivial graphical anomalies. It has become standard operating procedure for the modern entitled pwad player to whine incessantly about texture alignment when someone dares post a screenshot on their blessed forum. But you know what, fellas? It really isn't that big of a deal. The fact is that there are 31 levels in this set, ALL of them done by two guys. And almost every single one of these levels is massive, featuring great architecture, plenty of tension, surprises, and a great deal of new textures, sprites, and enemies. In that context, I really don't see these sorts of nitpicky imperfections as being that big of a deal. Especially for a project that costs zero dollars.

Another thing that Masters of Chaos relies heavily upon is backtracking. Often the player will hit a switch, and then it will be incumbent upon him to determine what path opened up because of his action. Many doors are locked at first and can only be opened by completing actions or pressing remote switches that don't always clue you in as to what they did. Being a big fan of Eternal Doom, I really enjoyed this approach because it allows the player to get a break from the action so that he can explore and soak in the atmosphere of the level he is immersed in, rather that just dashing through in a blind killing frenzy. But alas, any amount of backtracking whatsoever seems to infuriate the Doomers of today, who believe that Doom should be a constant stream of enemies to kill with absolutely no down time at all. God forbid someone has to walk back through an area he already walked through once.

The fact that Masters of Chaos did not win a Cacoward and was merely mentioned as a runner-up is unfortunate in my opinion, and I heartily recommend this wad to all Heretic fans, and perhaps even people who normally wouldn't gravitate towards Heretic.

Score: 8.5/10







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Something wonky happened to the formatting of this review. Half the sentences are all bunched up on the left hand side and only extend like 1/7th of the way across the page.

Looks perfect now. Nice review too by the way.

Doom: Damnation. 27 levels, DTWID-dy as hell. You have to play it.

Hahaha darknation has a good point. 

I just had a look at some of your reviews. A lot of popular megawads in there. That's not a bad thing, but if you were to post a "what's you favorite megawad" thread on doomworld, you'd get a lot of people suggesting those wads you've already reviewed. I would think most people would play it based on the recommendations of those people rather than reading an in depth review on it.

I don't want to put you down, but I think doomworld has you beat as far as wad reviews. /newstuff chronicles covers new uploads to the /idgames archive, cacowards talks about all the best stuff of the year, and kmxexiii is really good about finding the really good obscure stuff that not many people know about. There's no shortage of Doom gameplay streams and let's plays on youtube too.

If you're interested in my suggestion, your reviews could use some sort of a spin. Since your reviews cover general play information like gameplay and visuals and whatever that basically everyone in the world has done, maybe you could shake things up by approaching all Doom wads with a particular question in mind. I saw one video game reviewer who reviewed games with the question "Is this art?" and the entire reviews for each game he played sought to answer that question. He kinda ignored whether the game was fun to play, and instead compared it's visual aesthetic and theme to other games directly in its competition, and whether the game was original, compelling, and influential to the appearance of other games.

I don't know what it is you like best about Doom, but you mentioned you don't want to play any garbage wads. Maybe if you played it with some other question in mind other than "is this worth my time" you may be able to play wads with a different perspective and write a different kind of review that might be more original and fascinating to read.  8D

Too cool for the Internet

That's not what I meant!