Khorus's Speedy Shit (KSSHT.WAD)

Khorus took his Speedy Shit on Doomworld near the tail end of 2011. He didn't win man of the ure, but he clenched his Cacoward in little more than a month. KSSHT is a megaWAD for Doom II, composed of 32 small, tough nuggets. Don't let Khorus's diarrhetic stream of maps fool you – there's an assload of solid material here, full compatible with Chocolate Doom. These levels cover a broad variety of themes, like sewers, ruins, and cityscapes, before dumping the player into the hot, steaming bowels of Hell in the last turd.

Jenesis (JENESIS.WAD)

Jenesis is another one-man megaWAD released in 2011 after a long development cycle. It's for Doom II, playing in Boom-compatible source ports. Doomworld forum superstar James "Jimmy" Paddock released the megaWAD at three different stages, adding more maps and replacing the finale each time. The final product marks the tale of a space marine dispatched to the familiar locale of Phobos to deal with a demonic invasion. You'll have to fight your way across the moon, make your way to Deimos (again), and take the UAC teleporter there into Hell, where you will once again do battle with that jerk, Baphomet. You'd think they'd learn, really. How many times has Hell's invasion been stopped? You'd almost be better off warring against the dimension itself...

Vaporware (VAPRDEMO.WAD)

It's been a long time since I said I'd play the Vaporware demo. And, well, here I am! The only time I've used the Eternity engine in the interim is to check bugs across different ports in a few isolated instances, which after playing this seems like a gross misuse of a fantastic product. Vapordemo won a Cacoward in 2011, in part due to the belief that this was about as far as the project would ever progress. I sincerely hope that isn't the case, because this single excerpt from Vaporware (sadly the only Eternity Engine project besides Mordeth I can even name, excepting a few dual-compatible projects and the canceled TC) is a simply fantastic yet all too brief offering from Sarah "Esselfortium" Mancuso. When it was done, I wanted more, so at the very least it's fulfilled its basic criteria insofar as it's designed to get me interested in the full release.

Mandrill Ass Project (MANDRILL.WAD)

I can think of several reasons why the name of this GZDoom WAD is appropriate. First and foremost, you will at some point enter a mandrill's ass. Seriously, it's an important plot point. Second, it's got some very colorful maps, for the most part breaking away from the stock Doom II resources we're intimately familiar with. It also has a humorous edge hiding behind the gameplay, with short dialogues and little sidepieces setting the tone, as well as some outlandish scenarios. Finally, as Aluqah points out himself near the beginning of MAP06, Mandrill Ass Project's acronym is MAP. Really, he couldn't have chosen a better name. Especially because of the part where you have to climb into a mandrill's ass.

Reverie (REVERIE.WAD)

Reverie is the other vanilla-compatible megaWAD Doomworld forum superstar valkiriforce released in 2011. It's also the one that won a Cacoward (as well as the coveted Brandon D. Lade award, courtesy of Doomworld forum superstar Gez). Why Reverie and not Doom Core? Well, this is basically Doom Core 2.0, by which I mean the same principles and influences are present, tempered by experience gained up to and including Reverie. There's more coherence, more polish, and just higher quality all around. The story follows the marine from Doom, who realizes that the events of the past few games never happened – they were all a dream, produced by his coma-fueled imagination. He must therefore fight his way through another horde of demons, symbolically battling his illness. If victorious, he will return to reality.

1994 Tune-up Community Project (1994TU.WAD)

The 1994 Tune-up Community Project started with a simple concept. The general opinion of WADs from Doom's earliest era is not glowing; most 1994 maps are considered crude by today's standards. The disparity in appearance and playability is attributable to any number of sources, but Doomworld forum superstar Snarboo presented an interesting idea for a project, assisted along by GreyGhost and Travers Dunne. Rather than bitch about how awful '94 WADs are, why not take the ones authors released free to modify and renovate them? The target was limit-removing and Boom-compatible, freeing mappers from the dreaded visplane specter and allowing for a limited number of "advanced" features. The only caveat was to avoid rendering the layouts of the original maps unrecognizable, though contributors were free to make their own additions, provided they not increase the map's size by more than 100%. As a general rule.

Icebound (ICE_LUTZ.WAD)

ICEBOUND
by Christopher Lutz

Christopher Lutz's Icebound has the dubious distinction of being the first Heretic WAD reviewed on this site (as well as my first Heretic PWAD ever). It has a few more noteworthy aspects... It's the only Heretic WAD featured in the 2011 Cacowards (oh, it won one, too) and was in the running for the Mordeth award (seven years!) until someone pointed out that the 1994 Tune-up Community Project was technically in "development" for seventeen years. Admittedly, that last one seems more like a way to get 1994TU.WAD an honorable mention. Whatever the outcome, Lutz saw fit to thaw this shelved project out, an E1M3 replacement for Boom / MBF compatible ports, and we are the beneficiaries of his dogged persistence.

Plutonia Revisited Community Project (PRCP.WAD)

The Plutonia Experiment was a megaWAD created by the Casali brothers for id Software as part of the Final Doom package. In the years since, it's enjoyed a more favorable legacy than its sibling, TNT Evilution, so much so that it's had two unofficial sequels, Plutonia 2 and the WAD which this review covers, Plutonia Revisited. Plutonia Revisited's scope is a bit narrower than Plutonia 2, however, as the PRCP focused on vanilla compatibility (the trend of 2011). The only flaws you'll encounter when playing the original .EXE are a few maps that invoke the savegame buffer overflow (hooray for source ports!). In fact, this project has a few instances of mapping tricks that require vanilla emulation in source ports (notably some linedef hoodoo in MAP31). Redacted 05/01/12.

Lunatic (LUNATIC.WAD)

Lunatic is a five-map minisode by Paul "Skillsaw" DeBruyne for limit-removing Boom-compatible ports. To make a long story short, if you enjoyed Vanguard (another 2011 release by DeBruyne), Lunatic should be right up your alley. It's a similar style of gameplay with smaller, tighter maps (compared to Vanguard's later, sweeping epics), and a few new twists. It's set on the moon, which recently collided with a giant ball of demons, the combined mass breaking it from its orbit and sending it toward Earth. You've got to fight your way across Luna's surface and through the resident UAC outpost to make your escape.

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.

Double Impact (DBIMPACT.WAD)

A Ralphis and RottKing joint, Double Impact was released in 2011 for limit-removing ports as an E1 replacement. And, yeah, it does borrow some from Knee Deep in the Dead, but don't let that lull you into a false sense of security. Double Impact tells the story of a lowly mechanic who was busy fixing shit in the maintenance shop when Hell invaded the military complex where he resided. Sure, you're gonna kill all the beasties for slaughtering your buddies, but the real objective is to make it to the launch facility way on the other side of the base so that you can blow astro dust on the Hellspawn on your way out.