When people submit a level or set
of levels, I thank them for submitting it/them and add the wad in question
to my list. In most cases people give me a download link, but sometimes it
happens that a wad-file is attached to the e-mail. This one was, and since
it holds 20 levels, the 1.3mb took some time for me to receive. This was not
just a piece of bad luck, it was a clear manifestation and warning of the
wad that is "Doom Special Edition"...
So what's wrong with it? No let me
rephrase that. What's good about it? The reason why, is because there's so
many bad things to say that it would take forever to write them here in this
review. It's much easier to just point out the few good and maybe excess a
couple of the the biggest flaws in the megawad. One of the good things is
that no level looks like the one before it. There's a great diversity in the
levels, and while people might tend to find that odd in most serious
releases, it actually fits in well with this sort of wad. The diversity
comes from the extremely broad spectre of textures and flats used. Without
saying too much, a good guess would be that every single Doom resource has
been used at some point. You never know when you'll be stepping out from a
hellish themed room into a tech or a mixture of them both! It's all very
extreme, and I leave the conclusion in your hands. The other good thing, is
that every level is very small. So spending a lot of time on it won't
happen. That's underlined by the fact that soul-spheres and mega-spheres are
plentiful in these levels.
The flaws, errors and questionable
methods of designing are also plentiful! At times you bump into a lamp
'naturally' casting a light, but mostly you'll just be wandering through
rooms and hallways lighted almost to the max. One of the other things which immediately
jumps you is the numerous, virtually countless amounts of mis-aligned
textures! These levels are full of them, and it just keeps coming in each
level never turning for the better! Detail is overall insufficient and
exists only in small amounts scattered throughout the levels. And when you
finally do stumble into one, it is most likely to be brutally destroyed by a
cruel item placement! As we all know, the chainsaw doesn't use any ammo, and
can only be picked up once. In a room I found three of them! Amazing,
nonetheless! Another thing which actually started to irritate me when I was
playing these levels, was the fact that you never know how a teleporter will
look like. Most of the time it is red small platform, but in one of the
levels I was amazed when it was in fact two Carved Columns which you had to
walk/bump into!! Other than that, this is actually just a bunch of levels
put together just for the cause of it. There's absolutely nothing that
connects the levels in terms of gameplay. Right from the start you'll face
big monsters, but luckily you'll have your trusty Plasma Rifle or Rocket
Lancher to finish them off. Did someone say sarcasm?
I'm not cruel or evil when I give
this score:
Score: 34%
