Doom 2 In Name Only (D2INO.WAD)

Doom 2 in Name Only arose out of discussions of Chris Klie's BF_THUD. After playing Klie's megaWAD, it's pretty clear that he took most of his design cues from the names of the map slots his levels appeared in. A thread by Hellbent prompted another thread by ella guro where the project took off and then stagnated until its untimely release in 2014 amid some controversy. The final product is a full-fledged megaWAD for Doom II that makes a claim for vanilla compatibility, but the sheer size of many of the submitted levels made for less than rigorous playtesting as far as technical details go. A limit-removing port should be used, at the very least.

Mayan Mishap (T-MAYA.WAD)

When he's not a jetsetting playboy fighting Nazis and curing cancer, Doomworld Forum superstar Tango messes around with Doom, and on rare occasions he actually finishes Doom maps. Mayan Mishap isn't just a collection of Doom II levels, though. Released in 2014, it's both the rare instance of a complete Tango project in the wild plus an attempt at a new yet familiar take on classic gameplay. The end product spans MAP01-04 plus MAP31 and is targeted at BooMBF ports but had the MBF BEX code converted to DECORATE so that it would run in stuff like Zandronum. As far as story goes, well, there isn't one. You don't really need an excuse to slaughter demons in a vaguely Mayan environment, though.

B/\|_||-|/\|_|S (BAUHAUS.WAD)

Doom authors are pretty content to stay within the confines pioneered by the IWAD levels. The original gave us Phobos, Deimos, Hell, and E4, while Doom II showed us starbase, city, and... even more Hell. Now and then, more novel settings appear, and every once in a while someone throws us all for a loop, like Didy and B/\|_||-|/\|_|S. Bauhaus is named after what else? but a German art school active between World War I and World War II, the name literally translating to "house of construction". The focus on art rings true to Didy's sensibilities, given that the goal of his Monster Hunter, Ltd. dirty pair was to recover a lost work.

Reconstruction/Decomposition (RCDC_V2.WAD)

RECONSTRUCTION/
DECOMPOSITION
by "Da Werecat"

Reconstruction/Decomposition almost slid past everyone, released in 2014 in the thread of its origin (mrthejoshmon's "My map to your map") and then later in its own to little fanfare until it was updated to include difficulty settings, among other things. It then received the interest that had thus far eluded it, and which is well-deserved. It's a MAP01 placement for Boom ports (.OGG support preferred) and, uh, I think it takes place on some kind of space craft, though whether the ship / station is still in conventional space at the level's end is debatable. There isn't any kind of framing story, but enough is implied for your imagination to run wild.

Mayhem 2048 (MAYHEM14.WAD)

Mayhem has been a Doomworld institution since 2012. TheMionicDonut had a dream, and that dream was to get as many people as possible to make a map over the course of a month - May, of course. The other part of the institution is to take as long as humanly possible compiling and fixing the darn thing, with 2012 seeing release in November and 2013 in March... of 2014. As of the time I'm writing this, the 2014 installment - Mayhem 2048 - is still not finalized, but maybe by the time this is published they'll pull together and slap the thing on the archives (EDIT: done as of Nov. 27!).

Thy Flesh Turned Into a Draft-Excluder (DRAFTEX.WAD)

Cannonball debuted his first megaWAD, ConC.E.R.Ned, back in 2013. It was an OG Doom mapset that spanned three episodes worth of author growth. He followed up on the experience in 2014 with Thy Flesh Turned Into a Draft-Excluder, which pursued the Episode Four theme as rendered in Powell's own particular style. It's still limit-removing, much like his megaWAD, but there is a certain elegance in the architecture and combat that suggests that Cannonball has grown vastly as a mapper in the interim.

The Wailing Horde (WAILHORD.WAD)

THE WAILING HORDE
by Chris Hansen

Chris Hansen was part of the millennial wave of Doom authors, earning a place in history as one of the contributors to 2002: A Doom Odyssey before launching his own, highly-lauded mapping career. The Wailing Horde is as of this writing his latest solo release, a single level for Doom's E2M1 that's meant (but not guaranteed) to be compatible with pretty much any port, with potential VPOs being the main exception for vanilla players. WAILHORD has no story; "Just kill everything and do it well!"

You Dig (YOUDIG.WAD)

YOU DIG
by "Tuxlar"

People can do crazy things with Doom. After cracking open You Dig, a single map for Doom II released in 2014, I was surprised to find that there is no crazy BEX or DEH to assist with Tuxlar's level design, which means that all of this is pure sector wizardry. As to what kind of wizardry... Well, the author is attempting to marry two very different gameplay experiences. In one corner, Doom II. In the other, the vast progeny of Infiniminer. That's right; in this PWAD, you dig. You dig a lot. You dig because you're stuck in some kind of cavern and have to find your way out, shovel in hand.

Resurgence (RESURGE.WAD)

Joshy released Surge in early 2012. It was an unfinished collection of speedmaps built upon the idea of forcing the player to "surge" forward through the level's action in order to clear a spot that was safe enough to stand in. After a hiatus from mapping, Joshy picked it up again and finished the set for release in 2014, re-branding it as Resurgence. Like its progenitor and Speed of Doom, this is a megaWAD for Boom-compatible ports that emphasizes gut-busting action and intelligent, fast-on-your-feet decision making. Unlike Surge, there's actually something of a story, with you waking up from the oblivion of death and having to fight your way out of Hell and back to the realm of the living on Titan before you can put a stop to Hell's invasion. Something goes wrong on the way, of course, and you're launched into the future where Hell is completely entrenched, but it wouldn't be a Joshy map if you weren't facing overwhelming odds.

Going Down (GD.WAD)

mouldy snuck into the Doom community in 2012, releasing The Eye as his debut. While contributing to community projects like NOVA and Doom 2 in Name Only, he began Going Down, his obligatory one-man megaWAD. It's a full 32-map replacement, completed in 2014 to be played in Boom-compatible engines, though some of its clever faux-scripting will leave you wondering if that is truly the case. mouldy's has a pretty simple story, with Doomguy assaulting an ominous UAC tower, starting at the top floor and then working his way down via elevator. Of course, he hits the ground floor at MAP07 and spends most of the rest of the time going... deeper. You also get to see the softer side of Doomguy, who rings up his mother occasionally as he makes his way through the infestation. If that sounds a wee bit cheeky to you, well, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Shadows of Chronos (KAISER_28.WAD)

The only thing more rare than a Hexen PWAD is a HACX PWAD. But, uh, this isn't about a HACX WAD - it's about Shadows of Chronos, a 5-map hub for Hexen released in 2014 by Doom veteran Kaiser. For those keeping track, this will be the first Hexen PWAD reviewed on my blog, but that's not because I hate Hexen. In fact, I love it to death. Hexen maps are just few and far between, due to a number of factors including but not limited to its relatively minor fanbase, balancing maps for three different classes, the original's presentation of hub-based gameplay, dependence upon puzzles that many players find to be obtuse, and only having four weapons at a time. It's basically the FPS version of a dungeon crawler, minus the cool loot, party system, and (for the most part) character progression. Hexen has its own definite niche, as small as it is, and if it even barely intersects with your interests, then read on.

Bloody Steel (BLDSTLP.WAD)

Big Memka was as one of the main contributors to Whitemare 2, the Russian Doom community megaWAD of 2014. His maps had a high level of visual polish and tended toward compelling, if linear, gameplay, excepting the now-infamous "Gloominarch's Realm". Bloody Steel, Memka's first solo release, gives us a deeper look into his personal predilections, free of the artificialities of speedmapping. Another foray into Russian realism, Memka delivers a nine (or ten if you're generous) map episode that's more varied in gameplay variety and, again, practically dripping with detailing. The levels were designed for Boom-compatible engines, I believe, but are best experienced in GL ports (GLBoom / GZDoom) mainly due to the skies. I made it all the way through in ZDoom before realizing, with only ugly visual bugs to show for my ignorance.

The Adventures of Square (SQUARE1.PK3)

Every now and then, someone uses the Doom engine to craft what is for all intents and purposes a brand new game. Heretic was the original, but then you got your Chex Quest, your Harmony, your Action Doom II... and now, The Adventures of Square. Jimmy had a vision, a vision of a plucky cigar-chewing square that fought the evil circles of Shapeland with gratuitous paint guns. Today, with a little help from his friends, that dream is now a reality. Right now, there's only one episode to Square's adventures, but two more episodes are promised in the selection screen - Cheddar Apocalypse and In the O-Void. If they're anything like this first release, well, I'm waiting, fellas.

Back to Saturn X E2: Tower in the Fountain of Sparks (BTSX_E2X.WAD)

It's been a little more than a year and a half, so it's about time that we saw the Back to Saturn X Episode II beta. BTSX started out as a single megaWAD, but an abundance of contributors caused an internal split into what eventually became three "episode" megaWADs. Get Out of My Stations, the "shareware" episode, made its public debut at the tail end of 2012. It got a lot of flak for its techbase stylings, but it's one of my favorite releases of the 2013 season for its impeccable visuals and light speed gameplay. Tower in the Fountain of Sparks looks to be one of the top releases of 2014, and for good reason.

Monster Hunter Ltd (Part 2) (MOHU2.WAD)

MONSTER HUNTER LTD
PART 2
by "Didy"

Didy published the first part of Monster Hunter Ltd in late March of 2014, and then after a grace period of about a month (maybe to make sure everything worked right since both maps were meant to be part of one great big level), he uploaded the inevitable Part 2. The first part detailed your actions as part of the company, Monster Hunter Ltd, which operates in a post-apocalyptic world where monsters now / still dominate the Earth. In the previous installment, you were tasked to retrieve a... highly valuable painting from what appeared to be an industrial complex. After returning home, you fall asleep, only to find that the demons have encroached in the morning, starting out with wrecking up your place. Being a Monster Hunter is never easy!

Monster Hunter Ltd (Part 1) (MOHU1.WAD)

MONSTER HUNTER LTD
PART 1
by "Didy"

Every now and then a kickass Doom release sneaks under the radar because the author just uploaded it to /idgames with virtually zero hype. Monster Hunter LTD is one of those projects, what was once a huge Boom map that got split in two because of technical constraints. Whether the narrative depends on any context to Doom II is anyone's guess. Basically, the world is in some post-apocalyptic state and monsters now (or still) dominate most of it. You're part of a company, Monster Hunter Ltd, who apparently functions as a mercenary organization that does things in the infested parts of the world. In Part 1, you're tasked to retrieve a valuable piece of art, which you've tracked to an industrial complex. If the monsters did in fact steal the painting, the "why" isn't really elaborated on, but that's fine because any excuse is a good excuse to go kicking demon ass.

Plasmaplant (PLASMAP.WAD)

PLASMAPLANT
by Sverre Andre "soundblock" Kvernmo

Doom's 20th Anniversary rolled around not too long ago and brought with it the return of some old community members. Sverre Kvernmo, of Cabal / Eternal Doom fame, had stuck around as "soundblock" but made a splash with this brand new level for Doom II. Plasmaplant is a MAP01 for ZDoom that has its origins in the Cabal series, some nineteen years ago, though you wouldn't know it looking at the design. Kvernmo sends you (either the last living marine OR the humanized Cyberdemon of the Cabal) to tackle an infernal organ player who is apparently the mastermind of the (current) demon invasion and make his eternal opus a fitting swan song.

NOVA: The Birth (NOVA.WAD)

Way back at the tail end of 2011, Doomworld Forum superstar kildeth had an idea for a community project. Where the Community Chest series aimed to combine the works of authors who would never be capable of making a megaWAD on their own, NOVA's goal was to make a limit-removing PWAD out of maps made by newbie authors. Now in 2014, more than two years later, we can reap the rewards of their learning experience. NOVA: The Birth doesn't have a story outside of the new intermission texts. Hell is warping reality again, and no one else can see it, almost as though it's drawing Doomguy into its infernal embrace. You're nothing if not an unstoppable evil-destroying siege engine, though, so the outcome of this encounter is all but predetermined.

Whitemare 2 (WHITE2.WAD)

The Russian Doom Community has this thing they do on occasion where they build a megaWAD out of selections from assorted "freakmapping" speedmapping competitions, after tuning up some of the submissions and adding a few new ones. This gave us Heroes' Tales back in 2009 and Whitemare in 2011. Whitemare 2, released in 2014, is a full-fledged megaWAD for Doom II for Boom-compatible engines (specifically PrBoom+). This time, the demons decide to ruin Doomguy's New Year celebration by stealing winter, disrupting the normal progression of the seasons. Or, something like that. I think that Doomguy starts off by fighting off another demon invasion, with them absconding with winter and causing a skip right on through to spring. You rush off to rescue it, and succeed, only to find that something evil has snuck back with the season.