3star on Strat

The Tower of Babel

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

inspired by Going Down (mouldy)? The first track is by him and the concept seems related. AshtralFiend’s participation in this collab would make sense if that’s the case because mouldy’s work seems related to his generally.
- Going Up?
tiny maps (1024x1024)
these tiny maps really fit with most of what AshtralFiend has worked on so far, they seem fascinated by tiny tight maps
flr07: tight wave-based arena fight, feels pretty good
a lot of doomcute
flr15: using single skull next to doors to show that following this path will give you the appropriate skull/key, something to do myself
flr22: AshtralFiend feels like a main character in this community project, his maps stand out. This one is kind of wild, finally walking around the tower and being able to fall all the way down.
some of these later maps are atrocious
flr35: wild set piece

Atonement

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Unluckily, you’ve spawned right in the midst of a trap. The demons have already made it to Earth. It seems like you have just two options of atonement:

Save Earth or die trying.

a megamad made by one person of 5 years, and it feels like it for better or worse.
music is a little “coffebreak” a little elevator music, lacks the propulsive or mystical quality that I’m usually looking for.
The first few maps are serviceable and interesting but lack a certain jenesaisquoi. These were created first in the author’s DOOM mapping journey, so this makes sense. They’ve been touched up after the fact so they’re not horrible but they’re just OK.
Music gets better after the first 1/3 (map12 track pretty great).
13: mall center, now we’re “gaming”, solid mapping
14: the music gets kicking here
15: back to low fi beat to kill demons to, not my favorite
16: music kicks in exactly at the halfway point

What Lies Beneath

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

gothic horror, moody, starts off entering a spooky mansion and descending into the dungeon…
sort of like wad where you go up an elevator in a skyscraper but reversed?
vibes on point, gameplay not as tight, feels a little random enemy spawn-wise
great music
lack of consistency in vision and game mechanics and progression of ideas…, too many cooks, but each level has a lot of love put into it
map4 blacksite: sick
I think I’d take a group of less interesting less good maps that are thematically vibewise and gameplay wise cohesive than hodge podge of better maps
map8: where fools always trespass, elevator sequence
really too hodge podgy mix and match, lack of cohesion, but the highs are high. not my preference but very cool levels in here
map11: falling platforms section
last map might be a little too big