Sometimes they pop up. Those questions in the DoomWorld forums dealing
with people's favourite wads. A lot of nice levels, levelpacks,
megawads and tc's are represented. One that always makes it into
people's posts is Kristian Aro's 11 level pack of beautiful, difficult
and generally impressive creations more commonly known as the
"episode" 'Brotherhood of Ruin'.
I have
talked about it before, and I wont make an exception this time: Detail
is important. It is so much easier loving a wad where the author has
more than one skill. Yes, I love wads with great gameplay, however I
love a wad even more when it is combined with beautiful looks. Enter 'Brotherhood
of Ruin'. It is almost the perfect symbiosis of detailed architecture
and fun, action packed and eventful gameplay. The environments you are
travelling through are not all that different and off course there's
times when you feel like you've seen this particular spot before.
However, it never gets repetitive and you are dragged into this
strange, hostile Hexen like world where the mood is set by some
fantastic new textures and flats, and some very impressive and
well-made lighthing effects. It is not so much because of the epic
environments that I love the looks of this thing. It is more because
of the fact that they are extremely well-made, original and most
importantly include a believeable scenery suitable for the
environments created by the combination of the architecture and new
textures/flats.
The
gameplay is pretty straight forward with a tendency to be more than
good. 'Brotherhood of Ruin' tells you with big letter words that you
are playing the creation of a skilled and extremely talented guy. One
of Finland's finest, that is for sure! Like in any other Doom wad
there is your basic hunt for keys, weapons and objects. On the way, a
bunch of hell-spawn will try and stop you, and they will kill you!
There are spots in some of these levels where you are literally run
over by them are caught totally off guard! This is mostly because of
the fact that the ammo are a little scarce in some places. Try again
and you'll get through. The difficulty factor is definitly high,
however not high as in 'Slayer' high or something like that. Other
than that it is a blast and it entertained me formidably through all
the levels giving me the creeps, shocks and in certain spots making me
piss my pants in fear. Yes, the mood is set, and it is evil.
Magnificent, and almost flawless. You have probably downloaded and
played this thing before, however I urge you to try it out again and
preferebly in the darkness of the night with dimmed lights. Let it
suck you in, but do not let it ruin you, brother!
Score: 94%
