The Inquisitor 3 (INQSTR3E.WAD)

I played Shadowman's Inquisitor and its sequel back in 2014. Both are experiments originally begat by Russian "freakmapping" contests where a procedurally-generated layout is used as the foundation for people to make their own levels. The original INQSTR was controversial for its political / sexual undertones focused around a mysterious, metaphorical allusion that sullied an otherwise pretty cool castle adventure stylized after Hexen II. The Inquisitor 2 pushed in a different direction, attempting to channel the dungeon crawler combat of the Diablo series complete with an overworld town and quests that you could accomplish to further your power, exploring a fair variety of dungeons all within the space of a single level. Its bold aspirations were tempered by highly claustrophobic combat and boxy architecture.

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.

The Inquisitor 2 (INQSTR2E.WAD)

THE INQUISITOR 2
by "Shadowman"

Back in 2012, Russian Doom community superstar Shadowman released The Inquisitor, a GZDoom adventure that pulled an Army of Darkness, sending Doomguy to one of the realms ruined by Hexen II's Eidolan in order to save it. Its biggest problem was that it was really a mod using Hexen's gameplay, but with faster, super-powered monsters. The Inquisitor 2 shares these same foibles, as well as the fact that it's a single map for Doom II to be played in GZDoom, but the delivery of the adventure is very different, with some improvements and some new issues privy to the format. It's still a very interesting experiment, one you might want to look into if you love first-person RPG gameplay.

Khorus (KHORUS.WAD)

Shadowman released Khorus in 2012, the same year he published The Inquisitor, which was set on a fan-fictional world called Khorus. I don't know whether the two are related, unless this is where Doomguy winds up after scouring Khorus from the taint of Eidolon. Given that Hexen iconography features in the title and intermission screens, that may very well be the case. KHORUS is a 9-map Doom II episode for Boom-compatible ports that takes place across wilderness landscapes, canyons, temples and sewers. I never did find my missing red cow, and I always knew why no one likes the Cyberdemon's voice, but I did feel the Spiderdemon's wrath. What is the court of Doom? Given that the episode just slides right in to "Refueling Base", it's a mystery I'll never solve... until Khorus 2.

The Inquisitor (INQSTR.WAD)

THE INQUISITOR
by "Shadowman"

The Inquisitor, as released in 2012 by Russian Doom vet Shadowman, is a single map for Doom II to be played in GZDoom. It's not really Doom II, though. Shadowman cribs a lot of the vibe (and story!) from Raven Software's works, particularly Hexen II. There's also an unsavory detail I'll get out of the way right now. There's an Easter egg found at the gallows in the map with three women, two of which have been executed. The detail of the original graphics (now quite different after the blowup) created an image of sexualized violence, though why Inquisitor got so much flak for this while Temple of the Lizard Men 3 skated by, I don't know.

Heroes' Tales (HT.WAD)

If I know anything about the Russian Doom community, it's that they love their speedmap competitions. A year ago, this gave birth to the Christmas time megaWAD Whitemare, but back in 2009 an assortment of entries were combined with brand spankin' new material to create Heroes' Tales. It's a full-fledged megaWAD for limit-removing ports that requires the Evilution IWAD for resources in several areas. HT doesn't work as a sequel to TNT, though. Its story is more or less draped over the framework of the rearranged levels. The text is vague and could really apply to any scenario, to the point that I'm not really sure it's even worth expounding upon. Suffice it to say that you're going to fight your way through a bunch of demon infested areas until you put the hurt on the big bad that's responsible.

Da Will (DAWILL.WAD)

Da Will is a 2009 release of Russian mapping team Clan [B0S], a ten-map episode for The Plutonia Experiment (Doom II) meant to be played in limit-removing source ports. Clan [B0S] has gone on to make more ambitious releases; Da Will should be a comparably comfortable mapset, especially for players more at home with traditional Doom II action (namely Plutonia). The plot takes the player through Central American jungles in search of the mysterious Object "33", continuing on from Lainos's Object "32". I think I've finally come to understand what the Objects are (though I'm probably wrong) – they're foreboding ruins which the UAC has foolishly constructed bases nearby. The installation by Object "33" has ceased communications, and you've been tasked with locating the ruins and finding out what went wrong.

Whitemare (WHITEMAR.WAD)

Whitemare is a Russian Doom Community project, steeped in the theme of winter. Near the tail end of 2010, iddqd.ru had a speedmap competition; twelve levels produced from the event form the base of this megaWAD, some undergoing serious renovation. The other six were added in after the fact, forming the eighteen-map work released near the beginning of 2011. It's got a rudimentary framework-plot to boot. Demons can't abide by Christmas and New Years celebrations so it's Doomguy's job to stop them from ruining everyone's fun. And, yes, this WAD has a very slight Christmas theme in addition to the general winter feel, if the numerous Christmas trees made out of level geometry didn't tip you off.