Unholy Realms (UR_FINAL.WAD)

I've bugged a lot of people about a lot of projects, but I think I've ridden Doomworld Forums superstar Brian "Snakes" Knox's ass more than most. Unholy Realms started up back in early 2010 and has been kicking around during the majority of Knox's mapping career, finally seeing release in 2013. It's a limit-removing megaWAD for Doom II that gets some more use out of the Community Chest 4 texture pack, now fairly well known, but still appreciated to give these works some flair beyond plain ol' vanilla textures. As far as story goes, Knox emulates his forbears with a quick blurb about sections of reality being pulled from Hell and merged in the vision of the Icon of Sin, with you setting out to end shit before it all goes to Hell.

Pirate Doom (PIRATES!.WAD)

Pirate Doom started back in mid-2012, and what a long way we've come, baby. "D" Arch got the ball rolling with some humorous sprite edits and a few levels and developed the thing into a full-blown GZDoom TC, which saw its major final touches in 2013. Every monster you know from Doom II has undergone some fantastic work to fit them into the Pirate pantheon, from the lowly zombiman to the strapping Cyberdemon, and all the action plays across a wonderfully varied 18 or so levels, giving you plenty of time to get intimate with the changes as you swash and buckle your way through a brand new adventure.

Anniversaries

So, uh, I guess Hellbound became my 300th review, plus the Cacowards saw their 20th (10th) iteration, and somewhere along the way, this blog reached a run time of three whole years, if you count the six or so months I blew off playing a bunch of games that weren't Doom. Thank you, dear readers, whether you comment or don't, and special thanks to authors that chat back; that makes writing and playing so much easier. What follows is a list of WIPs I originally compiled back when the Cacowards were themselves in progress; I didn't edit it to what it is now, but I didn't want to have to be the one to cut stuff out in the first place. These aren't all the WIPs worth looking out for (it's excessively weighted toward map packs), and some of these may fail to impress when they're done, but thanks for making new content for Doom, because the user content keeps this community alive, even if I rarely if ever touch the gameplay mod side.

Hellbound (HELLBND.WAD)

Hellbound is the latest release from Doomworld Forums superstar Zoltán Sófalvi, aka Z86. It's a big, beautiful, limit-removing megaWAD published mid-2013 that chronicles another attempt by the forces of Hell to invade our constantly besieged world. This time, you start out at your own apartment complex when you're called in, only to find that the assault is well underway. You'll make an epic journey through the heart of the city, blown-apart UAC bases, the hostile wilderness, an outpost in the dimension that borders our world and Hell's, and then finally Hell itself. The fact that all of this is accomplished with virtually nothing but Doom and Doom II's textures is a feat in and of itself.

Kuchitsu (KUCHITSU.WAD)

Memfis is a pretty cool person who makes maps and releases them piecemeal instead of throwing together one of those hugeass megaWADs that tends to grind aspiring authors down. Kuchitsu, released early in 2013 for limit-removing ports, is therefore a little unusual as it's six levels long, serving as something of a minisode. Kuchitsu doesn't have an official story but there's kind of a tie between the levels, like taking a boat from "Lotus Island" to the docks of "Mechanical" and then fighting your way through a Doom City to an escape plane. The music that plays during the intermission is supposed to be the in-flight tune. I guess the tech-savvy Doomguy always carries a set of earphones!

Fuel Devourer (FUELDEVR.WAD)

FUEL DEVOURER
by "C4tnt" and "Archi"

The Russian Doom community has a little institution called the First-try Demo Contest. The basic idea is that someone makes a map that no one's ever seen before and then presents it to contestants at a predetermined time, who then record first-try demos trying to complete the map. If you're not familiar with FDAs, the point is to basically start recording your virgin playthrough of a level, deaths and all, until you reach the exit. Fuel Devourer was the level developed for FDC#11, released afterward in 2013 by its architects, iddqd.ru superstars C4tnt and Archi.

Drown Stone (DSTONE.WAD)

DROWN STONE
by Chris "lupinx-Kassman" Kassap

Drown Stone is the second map to have come out of Brian Knox's Secret Santa project, this one also Boom-compatible and finding release in 2013. A bunch of authors signed up and were randomly seeded with each other. Whoever you got, you had to attempt to produce a level in their style, after which the work would be presented in the thread, with a grace time for everyone to guess 1) who the author was and 2) which author he / she was imitating. DSTONE is Doomworld forum superstar lupinx-Kassman doing fellow superstar Stuart "stewboy" Rynn, to unusual results. All I really know of Kassman is his larger adventure levels so this offering - which is scaled to the polar opposite of Claustrophobia - comes as a surprise.