One Humanity (New Romero Doom 2 level for Ukrainian Charity)

Just played it, wasn't bad! Very vertical, there's a bunch of thin catwalks suspended over a low water line where cyberdemons eventually spawn in. You get the evil eye switches we saw in SIGIL used for progression. Took me about 20 minutes to beat, and the money's for a good cause.

Can we play a game of what makes me feel worse?

Round 1:
If i pay for this and upload it to one of many different file hosting services and distribute the link, is that a dig on Romero or a high five to Putin?

Round 2:
Do i not care about Ukrainian war victims enough to donate or did i not care for Sigil? Do i really need to evaluate this right now?

Round 3:
Does being disinterested in a single map that has been probably overtested by the same testers that IMO have made generally some of my preferred mappers worse over the years make me a warmonger?

Yes 40oz, please elaborate. I want to get better at mapping and would like to know what to filter from criticism that which would reduce my skill level.

I watched decino play the map, from what I saw didn't look like it's worth my money; the first two minutes you spend using the shotgun on hell knights and cacos and then you drop into an arch-vile trap with no cover, then it plops down cyberdemons into an ineffective position, and then even the exit isn't marked, it's just a random door you press on. There's no quality in this map at all.
Not spending money on this garbage, I'd rather give my money straight to the charity if I wanted to support it.

Played the map yesterday and thought it was OK. There's some truth to what Joe's saying though, the unmarked exit really bugged me when I played it (it's actually worse than a random door, it's a walkover line before the door) and the cyberdemon positioning struck me as odd as I wasn't threatened by it at all. Didn't find it to be all that grindy though as there's a rocket launcher in the water and jumping into the liquid to get stuff is an old Romero trope that I knew to look out for. The lack of a custom MIDI seems really low-effort though.

I've never found Romero's Doom II work to be quite as good as his Ultimate Doom work and this hasn't really dissuaded me of that opinion. Perhaps its a bit unfair to expect greatness from Romero but while fun enough, it felt a bit like a rehash of his ideas from SIGIL without really bringing anything new to the table. Outside of chaingunners and a dickish arch-vile trap, not a lot of usage of the Doom II bestiary, which is a bit sad.

Well, thanks to Romero, I remembered that humanitarian relief exists as an option in general. Helping people through hard, unpredictable hard times is something I can get behind. Though, I'm wary of donating to something called the "UN Central Emergency Response Fund" or any conveniently branded flash fund in general. Last thing I'd want to see is a "Ukranian Freedom Fund" go viral and everyone congregate around it just because it sounds cool, while running harassment campaigns against those who are critical.

Red Cross is tried and trusted, and mostly clean though, right? I'll donate to them directly and pirate this wad (or happily wait for Sigil 2, more likely).

Here's my testing feedback.

I can't see very well in this lighting. I do appreciate the light sources when they're there but for the most part it's very dark against dark textures, even in the outdoor areas.

The hot start wakes up about a quarter of the monster population right from the starting area, with many of them being chaingunners. The level really doesn't give much in the way of space to move. The lower level area is nice but there isn't much to do in it. The drastic drop doesn't really give you a good vantage point to shoot anything with. The only way up is a couple of teleports that place you in the crosshairs of just about everything at once. The map feels like the designer kinda forgot that doomguy runs fast. I had to move really slowly and deliberately pretty much the entire time. Many situations were pretty close to impossible to avoid taking damage from.

I feel like this map is missing a lot of pickups. Most of my ammunition was from dropped enemies which would be problematic in coop, not that I would recommend a map in this style be played by more than one person. Though there are player 2-4 starts so I appreciate that. I had trouble with ammunition in parts. I wish there were more bullets since the monster population is like half hitscanners. Getting peppered by chaingunners and shotgun guys in between shotgun reloads was a real drag.

I don't really like all the shoot switches in a map with so little ammo. I wasn't exactly out, but I would like more to instill a little confidence in my actions. The effect is a little tired after a few of them, and I really didn't feel good about using the few bullets I had or my shells on so many of them just to advance around the map. Did you know you can use a switch texture on the lower wall of the line to make it make a sound when you hit it? That would be kinda cool.

The archvile encounter is just... really bad. I think I got through it with luck vs. skill and I don't really wanna try to do it again. I also don't wanna believe that it was your own idea to summon in two cyberdemons in the pits after you get the berserk. What am I supposed to do with that? I can't see where the missiles are coming from at my fixed viewpoint and then you're teleporting in monsters as I scale around the outside? Come on, man.

I was hoping the invulnerability was for the cyberdemons but I got roped into blowing up 6 barons with all of my rockets instead. I really didn't wanna bother with the cyberdemons after that.

The exit should be marked, and the door should probably open up to an exit room with a switch or something. There was really no indication that it was the end.

The loop around level design was cool. There are cool elements to this map that make good application of the doom engine's technology, like light contrast, and verticality. The texturing was kinda slapdash in places. I don't think the thin sliver cracks in the floor look very good either. In general i'd like to see John make maps where the player has more freedom of movement and is a bit more generous with weapons and powerups. I didn't find it to be a very fun experience to play. After a couple deaths I was really dragging myself to finish.

Attached is my demo. And also the wad too, because I don't think poor people should be paywalled from playing this.

[~]

If you trust the UN...

Mmm,. not gonna buy. As I said, I am feeling sick of the virtue signalling. But also this gives me no choices, what if I don't want to support for this cause (things are more complicated at the territory, I don't know what I am funding, and simply I don't care).

I would have liked more choices, like either paying for Ukraine support or testicular cancer research

My rate to this map: Virtue signaling/10

I saw walkthroughs. It's nothing special. And I doubt that romero put that much of time for make the 2005-ish map, really.

Also lightning in question.

... are we sure that was done by romero?

Thanks for sharing the map, 40oz. I played it casually and it feels a little "meh". Found 2/4 secrets.

Good point, but somehow I liked E4M2 more.