For too long had this wad been
waiting to be reviewed. Not that I knew this level would not be good, thus
pushing the deadline for ages, because I had been playing some other levels
by the author before and knew that he stands for quality design. So I took
on Dark Castle expecting a good Doom gaming experience. Did it let me down?
No, not really, but...
I wasn't blown away either. The
detail is there and he's really managed to build quite an impressive castle.
A little repetitive in design, but well thought out nevertheless. There's
everything you'd expect would be there and the massive amount of new
textures and flats together with a replacement sky really finishes a job
well-done. The author put in the more usual library scene together some
dungeons. Seen before, but done in a rather scary and original way. However,
there's also a great portion of creativity in there with areas not similar
to anything I ever seen before in wad. All in all a very good mixture.
The gameplay is another story. A
very medium experience leaning a bit to the tedious and boring side. In a
wad consisting of three levels with an ongoing story well connected into
each other, I would have made it a bit more interesting. Maybe he should
have saved all those Arch Viles (of which you face more than a couple, and
sometimes in very narrow spaces), Spider Masterminds and Cyberdemons till
the end of the level-set. Facing a Spider Mastermind in level 1 in one of
the four towers aren't really that creative. A mood must be built up forcing
the player to get scared of moving to end of the level-set knowing that
he'll be facing some of the worst creations alive! And although he's
included many good ways of letting the monsters appear and attack you, they
aren't used enough. Still, prepare to be shocked once in awhile! Gameplay is
medium and holds that dreaded anti-climax in the end.
There was a also a very suitable
new music score which suits the levels fine. So don't worry about
downloading this 3 level-set. There's definitely some good entertainment in
here, however "Ash2Ash" or his latest
crazy, acid, sick and stomach turning "The Lost Seraphim" are
probably better.