Speed of Doom is a 2010 WAD comprised of 33 maps made entirely by Darkwave0000 and Joshy. Darkwave0000 is a somewhat mysterious, but deeply influential character in the Doom scene, and only really pops up when he contributes to the French Doom Community WADs (like the 3HA series and 180 MPV).
Joshy on the other hand has had a pretty long career since SOD. Having contributed to big projects like BTSX 2, Community Chest 4, and Ancient Aliens, being the project lead for both Plutonia Revisited WADs, and having his own 32 map WAD in Resurgence, Joshy’s impact on the Doom community can’t go unnoticed.
Both mappers have pretty distinct styles, and the fact that they alternate maps in Speed of Doom (Darkwave handles even # maps, Joshy handles odd # ones, besides the secret maps) highlights these differences even more.
In general, Speed of Doom combines influences from many of the most popular and influential WADs from the early 2000s. Scythe/Scythe 2, Alien Vendetta, Hell Revealed, and others can be seen in Speed of Doom, and it coalesces to form an entirely unique and influential mapping style in its own right. There’s a reason why so many modern mappers look to Darkwave and Joshy’s masterpiece for inspiration. Speed of Doom is incredibly fun, bloody, violent, and full of intense combat and heavily atmospheric environments.
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IWAD: Doom 2
Port: DSDA-doom 28.0
Compatibility: Boom (comp level 9)
Mapper(s): Darkwave0000
MIDI: Kevin Schilder - Dark (from Heretic)
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Speed of Doom: www.doomworld....
DSDA-doom: www.doomworld....
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Darkwave takes a different approach to this map, with a slower-paced crawl through some kind of medieval dungeon. As such, the Heretic music fits really well with the dank, creepy crawly atmosphere.
The combat as a result of this slower pace doesn’t excite me as much as Darkwave’s previous maps, but still provides some challenge. The beginning fight is still pretty fun though. Everywhere you go there’s some kind of danger, and the Arch Vile that gets released when you leave the room spices things up greatly. The final fight is also interesting, and is the home of the titular Meat Grinder, which does help quite a bit.
I find that immediately going for that beautiful Plasma Rifle secret helps to group up the enemies nicely. They all seem to clump together on one end of the arena when you come back, making it even easier to wipe them out.
I also have to say that the red wall segments secret is kind of insane for first timers. Unless they hear that faint sound of the bars raising on the final red wall segment, I doubt they’ll be thinking about pressing them.
Anyway, Darkwave still implements a lot of mini challenges all throughout the map that keep me interested, but none that truly get me hyped and excited like the last couple of maps.
The final part of the map has always been an interesting piece to me. The actual fight itself is pretty easy (even easier with the secret), and I really like the way you enter this area. It seems to setup the setting for MAP14 pretty well.
19 сен 2024
