Ultimate Doom trials/Demonfear (fan-made megawad) Level 1 review

Ah, hell, since I never really think of anything cool to write about (only so many ways you can say...."woke up, went to work, went home, did whatever"), I figured that my Doom addiction can at least fill up a little screen time.

In Ultimate Doom, I got to the second level of "Thy Flesh Consumed" and ran into a juggernaut that my clumsy fingers haven't figured out how to survive. You have to run onto a ledge. Doing that causes two things to happen. First, a door opens on said ledge, releasing a Baron of Hell. Behind it, in an alcove, is a key that you need to get. Also, behind your location on another ledge, a wall opens and releases a Baron, as well as a health item and perhaps a berzerk pack.

Now, what I do know is that you can’t (easily) be expected to run up to the door before it opens, grab the plasma gun conveniently put there and start blasting away. Even if you’re flawless, the Baron will be released before you automatically switch to the new gun AND you’d just be stuck between two foes at this point. Even if you could kill the one in front of you, the second one would have clear shots at your back and it’s not like you can take too many direct hits from a Baron regardless of how strong you are. You also can’t grab the key and escape, because he can get in the entrance to the alcove and trap you (and even when I’m quick enough to get out, he kills me fairly quickly with one hit while I’m getting the key and one more as I’m escaping....)

It might be possible to trigger the encounter, then turn around and grab the berzerk. I guess it depends on how many berzerk punches a Baron takes before dying. If I could waste the second one that way, I’d at least be able to pick off the one by the key from a distance where I can dodge his shots. Something to think about....

Anyway, out of frustration, I started playing the fan-made megawad called “Demonfear” (aka “Dmonfear”). It’s pretty good, although (at least in being formatted for Mac use) it heavily uses the Doom game you’re running it off of — to the level where the shown level names are identical to that game....so I have the Plutonia Experiment (half of Final Doom) level names.... For more info on the review I’m thinking of giving the levels of this wad in my journal, since I’m not one of the Doom Masters who brag about breezing through everything on Ultra-Violence, I’m playing on Hurt Me Plenty.

Demonfear Level 1 starts you in your base. In a neat twist, you have the yellow key and immediately get a shotgun. The reason is that YOUR base has been invaded, so you should have access to the weapons you’d normally handle. The yellow key opens up the bunks of your former squad mates, so you can get some ammo. Initially, it looks like an easy map, until you turn a corner and see a Cacodemon. If you’re smart, you can pop around the corner with a couple of shotgun blasts and then go back to safety; repeating this until you’ve killed it.

Other than that fight, the main threat is from Imps, as there are a few areas you can get jumped from behind by them. The worst is right before the aforementioned Cacodemon battle, as you’ll have a few further down the hall coming for you, one or two in an alcove to the left and a couple more in a room to the right. Those two can open the door and likely will do so if you make too much noise shooting stuff in the halls.

One neat thing I noticed was the use of the red key. You don’t have to pick it up to beat the level — in fact, all it opens is one small room. However, in that room is the chaingun and some ammo/health items. You might get the rocket launcher, as well (I can’t remember, but I did get a few rockets, so it’s a possibility. I also really liked how the “exit” is simply you leaving the base, making me think the levels are all directly connected.

OVERDRIVE RATING: 9/10 — A very good opening map that actually serves as an introduction to the game. A couple of tricky areas are nice and the only flaw is that other than those tricky areas, enemies are few and far between. If you have your finger on the trigger when you open any door to prepare for imp sightings, you have it made here.

I started the second level and it looks pretty cool. You apparently exit the base to be in a yard outside a house or building of some sort. It’s dark on the outside and there’s a shotgun and some ammo near your start point. Things are reasonably peaceful...until you fire your first shot at an enemy. That will alert the denizens of the yard and you’ll then be swamped by a couple soldiers, a couple of imps, a decent number of demons and a cacodemon or two. They seem to come from everywhere, as in my time or two fiddling around with this area, I got attacked from behind a time or two. I think the key will be to shotgun as many weak enemies before dealing with the cacodemons, as the chaingun is perfect for them (you blasting them with that disrupts them from attacking you).