Preface: I intended to post this in March of 2019 (during the last period in which I was playing a lot of Doom), then changed my mind when I decided not to complete the series. But I recently returned to continue the series, and now I regret not publishing this set of reviews when I wrote them.
As a brief introduction, Doomworld has published a list of some of the best and most notorious fanmade mods for Doom - a top 10 for every year following the original release of Doom in 1993, called the Cacowards (named after the Cacodemon enemy in Doom). It's a great place to start if you're looking to play some of the best wads ("wad" is an informal term for a set of Doom levels, named after the .wad file format) the fan community has to offer. I played a bunch of them in the past, but now with my recent resurging interest in Doom, I've gone back for a replay, and this time I'm going to write down some of my comments/impressions as I play through them, which I'd regretted not doing the first time around. (To avoid overworking myself, I'm going to keep them brief, except where I feel compelled to elaborate). Let's begin with the first year of the Cacowards - 1994 (links available @ Doomworld):
Crossing Acheron
Good level. Cathedral-style architecture. Mix of brightly lit halls and dark tunnels. Lacking in "ominous" atmosphere, however (as compared to the Unholy Cathedral level in Doom episode 3). Sort of like the difference in a haunted house between night and day.
Aliens TC
I'm including alternate links here, because they worked better for me in 2019 than the Doomworld links. These can be played in GZDoom. Here is the classic version, and this is a new version with updated graphics. (I played the classic version).
Aliens has the reputation of being the first ever "total conversion" for Doom - in which graphics, sound, and sometimes even gameplay is tweaked. Modern wads may be on a whole different level, but back in 1994, this was the epitome of what a total conversion could be. It's immersive, and a natural blend - Aliens and Doom both being sci-fi/horror titles with monsters - as opposed to just throwing pop culture characters (like Homer Simpson or Sailor Moon) into a Doom level sheerly for the novelty. I hear it generated enough buzz to overshadow the release of Doom's official sequel, Doom II!
Playing it again, I'm impressed with how well it holds up, even after all these years (and how much I remember from that one time I played it years ago). The mod's atmosphere is genuinely terrifying, and it's impressive how well it captures the mood of the film. As you explore the decimated colony on LV-426, you'll be constantly looking over your shoulder as you tiptoe down dark corridors, dreading the moment when the tech environments start to give way to organic tunnels (excellent use of the spine wall texture, turned green), unseen hissing heard 'round every corner, trying not to think about what's lurking in the shadows as you navigate the labyrinthine air ducts.
The author has made clever use of Doom's toolset to realize this project - in particular, I like how the Lost Soul's behavior is used to make the facehuggers lunge at you, and how Doom's tendency to hide monsters and spring them on the player unsuspectingly is adapted in the form of hidden rooms concealed by camouflage to simulate the xenomorphs seemingly coming right out of the damn walls! In this conversion, Doom has effectively been transformed from a shoot 'em up to a run 'n' hide, enforced by a relative scarcity of health and ammo pickups. One level even requires you to seal off certain passages to prevent the aliens - which you do not have nearly enough firepower to eradicate - from overwhelming you, in an inspired gameplay mechanic that I'd like to see more of in Doom.
Suffice to say, it's good. Real good. But I'm gonna stop gushing and move on.
Doomsday of UAC
Simplistic, but creative. Large open areas, touted for its "realistic" architecture - overturned cars, reception halls, even a public restroom with individual stalls. Plus a really neat invisible staircase. In theory, I like the fact that the manmade structures are mapped and the demonic tunnels not (like you're viewing a schematic of only what's supposed to be there), but in practice it turns out that I don't like wandering around areas that don't show up on the map. Great level for its time; if only today's levels could be judged by the same standards (I say as an amateur editor who doesn't want to be drowned by the big leagues).
Galaxia
Good concept. Notable in that it's more than just a level - there's a back story to it. I like the underground train/subway environments, although as one reviewer has said, it's a bit tedious running back and forth across these long tunnels. Some custom and remixed sound fx give it a slightly different feel from regular Doom (were those pig noises I heard, like from Duke Nukem?).
Serenity/Eternity
Two full episodes, made by the same team, put out in the same year. I daresay these levels feel like they could have used a bit more care and thought put into them. I mean, they're structurally sound (and that, in and of itself, isn't a cakewalk), but there's not much rhyme or reason to the architecture, the levels don't have much of a flow (despite the superficial gimmick of building one letter of the title into the layout of each level), and the gameplay isn't properly balanced. Shall I be more specific?
There are too many nukage barrels. I like a strategically-placed nukage barrel as much as anyone, but one in every corner is excessive. There's too much ammo - especially boxes of shotgun shells. I know you want to have enough to get the job done, but I find it annoying when I have to leave too many pickups behind, and I'm also a proponent of punishing the player for being too reckless with their weapons by forcing them to use a chainsaw or their fists (with a Berserk pack - I'm not a sadist). Plus, I know everyone's favorite weapon is the shotgun (it's mine, too), but I enjoy switching weapons for tactical advantage (e.g., chainsaw against spectres, chaingun against cacodemons and lost souls, rocket launcher against barons, plasma rifle for when you get tossed into the center of a heavy fray), but when there's so much ammo you can literally use the shotgun for everything and still have boxes leftover, there's no incentive to mix it up.
The enemy selection is also a bit irritating. For example, there are lots of projectiles in close quarters. With little room to dodge, you're taking a lot of damage and (unlike ammo) there isn't a corresponding amount of health pickups to make up for it. Armor is also very rare, so that's even less damage mitigation. Choice of enemies also feels very arbitrary - like a little of everything sprinkled into each wave. I prefer to evaluate the monsters' strengths and weaknesses, and suit them to the terrain, so it's more of a tactical challenge, and not a repetitive chore. One of my favorite things about playing Doom is the feeling of satisfaction that comes from eradicating all the demons from a map. But in this wad, it just becomes tedious. Without even the super shotgun (exclusive to Doom II), who wants to mow down all these dense mobs, with a cacodemon in every room? I know that original Doom suffers from a smaller roster of tougher monsters, but it's not fun fighting one Baron of Hell after another (they're called "meat shields" for a reason), when you don't even have the rocket launcher (or very many rockets) or plasma rifle to kick things into high gear. If nothing else, it makes you appreciate how well the official game was balanced.
The list of things I liked about these levels is pretty slim. There's some neat lighting featured, and I really like the idea in the first level (sadly never revisited) of using damage floors to simulate solar radiation (or a toxic atmosphere). The movie theater in the second level is cool (like with the public restroom in Doomsday of UAC, I'm sensing the vacuum that Duke Nukem 3D would fill upon its release in 1996). And I have to give props to Eternity for using a midi version of the Halloween theme for the intermission music. But honestly, I don't think these levels are worth the time unless you're really bored.
Trinity College
Hailed as the first "photorealistic" recreation of a specific real-world location (apparently, the authors took pictures of the college and rendered the images into Doom textures). It's certainly an interesting exercise, although as a Doom level it doesn't really stand out.
Return to Phobos
Not a terrible set of levels, although there are some questionable segments. Certainly better balanced and thus more tolerable than Serenity/Eternity. I like that the architecture is reminiscent of classic, episode 1 Doom. A couple of the levels have an overabundance of switches. Doomworld touts this as a positive, but I find it annoying. Half the time you don't even know what the switches are doing, and it's tedious having to go back and forth, poring over everything with a fine-toothed comb, thinking that the level might be changing at any time. At this stage, I think I prefer authors who have a neat idea for a standalone level over those who feel compelled to produce a full episode (or two or three), where the creativity is spread thin, and gaps must be filled in to complete the set. Leave that to the professionals, and let the fans explore some more creative applications of the level-building software.
Slaughter Until Death/The Evil Unleashed
Now this is how you do a levelset. This is an episode 2 replacement, with good, creative level design. It's well-balanced - challenging, without being impossible. Secrets are well-hidden (almost too well-hidden). There are parts that are legitimately shocking; sometimes involving enemy traps, other times a flair for theatrics - like careful placement of mutilated corpses, and rooms that tell a story (I can't help wondering about that one space marine's body accompanied by a pile of corpses and just a few demons left alive - he must have put up one hell of a fight). If you only play one straightforward, classic Doom levelset from 1994 (that is, not novelty or conversion levels), forget Serenity, forget Return to Phobos, play Slaughter Until Death. Or, its sequel, The Evil Unleashed, an episode 3 replacement which is more of the same, if not even better level design. Lots of cool, tech-based locales - including a reactor core - and good use of moving floors and walls to maximize efficiency of the space used. You can't go wrong with either one. Better yet, play them both!
JUDGMENT: Keeping in mind that for any wad to win a Cacoward, it must have distinguished itself in some way, I'm making the assumption that you don't have time to play them all, and that you value my opinion (otherwise, you wouldn't be reading my reviews), so here are my recommendations for which wads are most worthy of your time.
Must Play: Aliens TC, Slaughter Until Death, The Evil Unleashed
Time Killers: Crossing Acheron, Doomsday of UAC, Galaxia, Return to Phobos
Skip: Serenity, Eternity, Trinity College
See you in 1995!
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