Doom Wad Reviews : Planisphere 2 and Deimos Deja Vue

 I am doing 2 more doom wad reviews people.  This time around we are reviewing 2 new doom maps I've been playing lately. Lets start out with the worst of the two, Deimos Deja Vue.  Even though Deimos Deja Vue is the worst of the two, that doesn't mean it's a bad map.  In fact it's insanely good for an ultimate doom episode, replacing my favorite doom 1 episode, Episode 2, with modified levels that take rooms from the original levels, spice them up and switch around rooms a lot on top of that, so room a might be swapped with room b.  The levels in this level set are nice, fit episode 2 well, and are well balanced. The only issue I could find was the annoying map24-esque balancing act section of e2m2. Everything else was fine and I especially liked the later levels, I thought they improved e2m5-e2m7 well. E2m9 is ok thouigh, probably is the only bad level in the wad.

However, this wad has NOTHING on the next one I am going to talk about.

Planisphere 2 is maybe the BEST city level doom 2 has ever seen. Taking heavy influence from real places in New York City,  this level recreates ALL of Manhattan, Part of Brooklyn, Part of Eastern New Jersey and some other areas well. The sheer size of this level is amazing in itself. Clocking at 6 miles by 6 miles in virtual size, this level may win a guineas world record for the biggest Doom Map that performs well. On my system it runs really well which is nice.

The level starts you out in an appartment in New Jersey, and soon you go down an elevator that is triggered by a hidden switch on the wall and have to clear out Hoboken NJ and find a way to Manhattan. Finding a key on a dock you get to unblock access to the George Washington Bridge and then have to scurry through ALL of Manhattan to find a red key in Castle Clinton in Battery park, which opens a door that allows you to access one of the Twin Towers. That opens a door that allows you to access Brooklyn and there you have to go to LaGuardia Airfield to get the next key which leads to a split where you must blow up the other Twin Tower, to gain access to a teleport that takes you to the roof of the Empire State Building which leads to a secret entrance to a secret Cloning Lab, which has one of 2 switches you need to flip to access the exit which is behind the Yellow Key Door.  This process can take hours if you get stuck, so be prepared to spend a LONG time figuring out what you need to do, while exploring New York in Doom.

The level is so well constructed it's crazy. Buildings from New York look just like their real counterparts, and even Central Park is accurate. The scale is half size but that's only because Doom could never handle Manhattan at a realistic scale.  Many locations from New York are in the level, including Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, Some Park in Brooklyn, The Twin Towers, The Chrysler building, Trinity Church, The Empire State Building, and even though they aren't there anymore, the Twin Towers are in the level.  Even though it looks off, the George Washington bridge is in there too.

While this is not a 1 on 1 recreation of New York, it is the best damn recreation of a city I've ever seen in a video game.  Even Boston in Fallout 4 pales in comparison to this! Especially when you see how accurate this recreation is, and how it didn't take liberties with how the city in the game is structured. Fallout 4 has many roads that are frankly totally inaccurate, and this is coming from someone who is a Boston Native and a Fallout 4 fan.   In many places Bethesda took too much liberties with realism and frankly did a poor job getting their Boston to be accurate enough to be a real Boston recreation. This however, is 90% accurate to the Real New York City, you can tell by the street plan in Manhattan that it is spot on. Even though the blocks are smaller and there is less of them, the roads are shaped right, which is something Fallout 4 never did right in many places.

I think this map is on the top 5 best maps ever list for me now and to me is the best city level ever made for doom, beating out downtown from doom 2 by miles. It even lacks the crazy stupid unrealistic unbearable unfair hardcore platforming a lot of doom maps have, which is a HUGE plus. Only one jump is needed to beat the map and that jump is optional and if you avoid a certain road you can skip it. No sign of Bullshit platforming or Balance act Bullshit ANYWHERE, and that is a HUGE plus, coming from someone who is sick and tired of map24 style balancing sections and having to jump from platform to platform over inescapable lava when the platforms are so tiny you can't do it platform by platform.

Anyway, whoever made Planisphere 2 is a Mapping Genius! I doubt we will see a doom level this good for a LONG time. I had fun playing it, even when nomonsters was on to see how accurate it was to the Real New York.  It's too bad Deimos Deja Vue will never equal this, but it's not a bad level either. Either way, it's rare these days that I will get levels this good back to back.......

Screenshots of Planisphere 2:

(Screenshots taken with Doom RLA and an oblige mapset loaded with it and planisphere 2)

Doom Wad Reviews : Switchroom 2 / Coffee Break

 I am doing doom wad reviews now. This is my first one and it is of the doom 2 wad switchroom 2.  I won't be doing these very often but when a wad being played on a youtube channel by someone interests me I will review it.

Switchroom 2 is a project to take the original doom 2 maps and remake them with different themes. So map01 would not be hitech but hellish or urban, map20 would not be urban but hellish or hi-tech, etc. A previous project called Switchroom did the same thing for the ultimate doom levels.

Early on switchroom 2 is very good.  The first 16 levels are quite nicely done. The levels take the original maps and change their theme and when they do it well, they do it well. No issues in maps 1-16 so far for me. Beyond that is where it gets worse however.

Map17, map20 and Map28 devolve into bullshit platforming, a gameplay "style" I loathe.  Bullshit platforming is when you make the player run across multiple small platforms over lava you can't easily escape in one fell swoop, aka you can't do it one platform at a time. Many times they are at different angles and heights so you have to strafe precisely to make it across.  To make things worse, the maps beyond map20 are inconsistent. Map24 and map26 are just plain bad.  Map24 has nothing in common with the map it's supposed to remake (doom 2 map04) and map26 is badly designed with tons of misaligned textures and badly designed animated walls. Overall this was is actually kind of average, being only decent.

The second wad I will review, blows this one out of the water. Coffee Break is an 11 map wad by Matt Tropiano.  It's excellently designed.  I've personally played this one unlike the previous one, and think 99% of the maps I played in the first 9 were amazing.  Map03 is a personal favorite of mine, so is map08 and map09. Level design wise it is ridiculous with an insane attention to detail included.  Overall. this one is really really good.  The map has no issues for me, no bullshit platforming, no insanely hard puzzles, nothing like that, it's just plain fun.