Vanguard (VANGUARD.WAD)

Vanguard is a Boom-compatible episode released in 2011 by Paul DeBruyne, aka "Skillsaw". In Paul's words, "Vanguard was planned to be a 32 level megawad inspired by Speed of Doom's development time and Scythe 2's episodic structure. However, I simply don't have the time/patience/focus to complete 32 levels at the moment, so I've decided the release the wad as-is." Would it have been nice if we'd gotten a full 32 level megawad? Yeah, and it'd be nice to have a solid gold cacodemon. You have to be happy with what you have to be happy, though, and there's plenty here to be happy with.

Vanguard has no story, though that's not to say that one was never planned. What Vanguard does have are three distinct "episodes" plus one amusing credits level. The first tier centers around a nature / ruins theme with lots of water and beautiful temple architecture. The second is a kind of gray concrete that for lack of a better term I'll call techbase, which includes a crate base, a parking structure, and an abstract UAC megastructure. The finale is Hell rendered in orange, with the first outing taking place around the eponymous "Temple of Asmodeus" while the second is an epic trek through a series of lava-filled caverns. Every level is gorgeous in detail, layout, architecture, you name it. The textures look natural and make these levels pop like nothing else.

Skillsaw has crafted a mapset with a broad variety of gameplay that runs the gamut from normal Doom II action to Tyson to arch-viles to out-and-out slaughter. There's also a good variety of that last one, starting with the pell-mell chaos of "Forgotten Village" and giving you the fairly toned-down "Free Parking" before the monolithic architecture of "Superstructure", after which you're all in. "Asmodeus" skirts slaughter for a bit, going with tricky enemy placement, but the big two fights at the end are nutso crossfires. "Chasm" is, well, slaughter all the way, starting off with a screaming pack of skeletons.

Is Vanguard difficult? Well, it can be. I honestly had more trouble with some of the later maps in the Memento Mori series, but I won't pretend that the task of clearing levels like "Superstructure" or "Infernal Chasm" isn't daunting. You may die; you may die a lot. But you'll have fun doing it, because nothing in these maps had me shouting "BULLSHIT!" or crying foul. They're well balanced, action-packed, and everything good Doom maps should be.

VANGUARD
by Paul "Skillsaw" DeBruyne

MAP01	Overgrown Sepulcher
	Ruins-themed map that starts out with some Tyson action. It's very short but very cramped and health is at a premium. Most memorable encounter would probably be flipping the switch that begins the teleport wave. Either that or the revenant. Architecture and detailing on this map is supreme.

Drowned Shrine	MAP02
Fun outdoor ruins map in the same vein. There's a lot of water; indeed, the level has a kind of flooded temple quality. There's plenty of ammo and plenty of nasties. I like the central courtyard's layout the most and the pillar that rises for the blue key and resets is an ingenious construction. No real standout encounter except maybe the twin hell knight trap.

MAP03

13 Angry Archviles

Continuing on with the ruins but with a more castle-like layout. It's very "Hunted" except instead of the fuckers running around willy-nilly stalking you they're waiting to ambush you in their particular quarters through the magic of teleportation. One of my favorite fights here involves a bunch of zombimen; you kill the zombies so that the arch-viles waste their time reviving them, all the while taking potshots at the shits. The yellow key fight is also a standout encounter, with a group of moving pillars you need to hide behind. There's plenty of health so you can afford to eat a vilebomb or two. All in all, a VERY fun level.

Hangman's Paradise

MAP04

Fun tough level with lots of stairs / floors and a huge outdoor area with several islands raised out of the drink. You start out looking at all three keys and have to get all three before you can leave, though the keys themselves are immaterial to the process of lowering each one. The outdoor area is an interesting assortment of bullet hell with dozens of imps firing at you. There's no real standout fight for me but I'd say the red key switch fight is the most memorable.

MAP05

Forgotten Village

So fun. Ruins level with an arena-esque layout. Reminds me of Memento Mori's "Showdown", except, not really. Everything is pretty much activated at the beginning and all the good weapons besides the SSG are located in various places, a few of which (along with key switches) will activate waves of baddies. There's more than enough ammo and all told, it's pretty easy. I didn't even get to use the rocket launcher as I picked it up last!

Punchline

MAP06

Short techbase map with some sweet exterior architecture. It encourages the use of the Tyson playstyle for the majority of the level. It's something I'm rarely forced to do so it's interesting to play through it. The Tyson portion of the map is vs. zombimen, imps and demons. Once you get the shotgun things get a little harder but hey, you have to earn your armaments. Incidentally, that's the standout encounter of the map, though I must say as Tysoning, it plays incredibly well.

MAP07

Dead Symmetrical

Fuckin' awesome techbase arena style map. As with "Dead Simple", there are two important waves, one involving arachnotrons and one involving mancubuses. I'd say the arachnotron wave is much trickier to handle if only because of a swarm of revenants, but really, it's all gravy. There's plenty of gunsnammo so just hold down the trigger and watch your ass. There's a nut in the center but it's not hard to crack.

Cratastrophe	MAP08
Large techbase with a warehouse theme. Yeah, there're crates, but they don't really ruin the gameplay. It's weighed with some hitscanners in the crate maze while you get your feet wet but afterward it billows out and you get some great shootouts, especially the end of level demon rush. It's also a fairly transparent level, with progression natural and gradually making the level less restrictive.

MAP09

Free Parking

Supremely entertaining slaughtermap that starts out as a close-quarters shootout in some dark tunnels and moves out to masses of demons getting cleared out of an abstract parking lot. It's big, it's huge, and it's infested. Pretty much every major fight here is memorable, from the first step off the elevator to the final swarm of demons. It helps to have a sixth sense for arch-viles; keep your BFG at the ready and don't be afraid to pull the trigger.

Superstructure

MAP10

Epic slaughtermap with four different battlefields in a techbase theme. The main battlefield is the one you have to sort out first, and involves the majority of the baddies. After you take care of the first pack of demons, it's really just grabbing a BFG and then clearing out some breathing room. Two of the other battles aren't quite so intense (taking place in both a tiered outdoor area and a gigantic cavern), with the most amped by far being the southern room, which is LOADED with shit in a gated fashion and quickly gets intimidating. There's plenty of infighting to be had, though, and as with anything, the key to avoiding death is by staying mobile. Very good stuff.

MAP11

Temple of Asmodeus

I guess I can consider myself no longer a slaughtermap virgin. Hell here is gorgeous, with orange dominating most of the visuals and lots of stained glass windows and carpets. The opening is a series of low-key firefights compared to what comes afterwards. There's a few teleporters in the outdoor area that warp in a wave of monsters, making for some nice pressure. But the main events are the blue key and yellow key fights. Each one leads to a slaughterwave scenario. The yellow key room's irregular shape and cramped quarters makes it a dicier proposition but it's actually a bit easier to handle than the exposed madness of the blue key room which took me a couple tries to learn. And what I learned was, no matter how cool you think rockets are, don't be afraid to pull out the plasma rifle.

Infernal Chasm

MAP12

Wow. Starts off intense and doesn't quit. It's maybe 5% like "Temple of Asmodeus", and 95% molten slag cavern saturated with monsters. Miraculously once I got into the chasm itself I had maybe one or two missteps before making it to the end. The biggest threat is handling the arch-vile wave when it appears, really. For the rest, it's just a matter of teasing out the demons until you can duck in behind them and grab all the goodies to commence to rumbling. The cavern itself is absolutely gorgeous, glowing orange with black plutons serving as your platforms. There's lavafalls and massive architecture and affirms why I always loved the idea of slaughtermaps but found the idea too intimidating. An absolute finale, not to be missed.

MAP13	Punch-Out
	A fitting end to a phenomenal WAD. Float like a butterfly, sting like a revenant.

VANGUARD

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THAT
OTHER VANGAURD.

YOU KNOW THE ONE.

This post is part of a series on
Doomworld's 2011 Cacowards

The Top Ten	Best Multiplayer
Plutonia Revisited	32in24-11: Occupy Doomworld
Vapordemo	Best Gameplay Mod
Lunatic	Brutal Doom
Double Impact	Mordeth Award
Vanguard	1994 Tune-up Community Project
Reverie	Mapper of the Year
Jenesis	Skillsaw
Icebound	Honorable Mentions
Mandrill Ass Project	Doom II Redux
Khorus's Speedy Shit	Doom64 EX