TNT: Revilution (TNTR.WAD)

In 2009, Whoo opened the doors for TNT2, what was to be a spiritual sequel to TNT: Evilution. What followed was one of the longest and most protracted and most importantly PUBLIC development cycles in the community. Somewhere along the way, Steve Muller aka "Kyka" took the reigns of development along with a few other forum regulars who really wanted to see TNT2 make it to completion. I distinctly recall playing a gorgeous TNT2 demo map from Xaser. His teaser generated a lot of buzz for the project, but certain folks including a late-returning Whoo looked at the direction that Kyka had taken TNT2 and were vocally...dissatisfied. Somewhere after all the name-calling and aspersions, when the project heads could speak a bit more civilly in public, there was a project split in 2014, founded upon some sort of a level draft where levels were split up like dividing property during a divorce. A bit more level-headed than the divorces I've heard talk of, really. This is where Revilution's story begins, as a TNT2 spinoff.

Mutiny (MUTINY.WAD)

40oz had a dream, a dream of making a megaWAD with a dystopian Cyberpunk theme that leveraged the gimmick of collaboration. It was a great idea and Vail obviously had his expectations dialed back early since he was looking to compile sixteen levels. However, while bromancing maps worked pretty well for his and Super Jamie's UAC Ultra, the vast majority of the community's authors seem more inclined to tag-team megaWADs a la Speed of Doom than trust their artistry to a complete stranger. I can only assume that this issue was compounded by people perhaps taking up slots and then having others too skittish to follow. As a result, Mutiny took longer than 40oz really expected and saw release a year later in 2016. It's still pretty cool, though.

Bedlam (BEDLAM.WAD)

It's a wonder there aren't more community episodes. Why wait for a whole bunch of people to crap out the maps needed for an entire megaWAD when you can just band together and churn out an episode in a theoretical third of the time? Well, Doom lacks the dynamic range of action found in Doom II, and community Doom II episodes suffer from the mystique surrounding the megaWAD status that devalues anything that has less than 32 levels with some kind of inherent superstition. Also, in spite of being a mere episode, it took Bedlam two and a half years from its inception to release in mid-2014. The dream is still out there, though.

October (OCT11.WAD)

Here at Doomworld, we believe in the act of gifting. Authors release levels, and when I can get off my ass to do it, I give them a review! Some people prefer to give demos, so you can actually see someone else playing your map. And, well, some people go through the trouble to give Doomers maps on their birthday. October is a collection of six birthday maps for Doom II gifted to Doomworld Forum superstars in October 2011. Maybe, if you were generous / conceited enough, you might say that this is a birthday WAD to everyone born in October. Thanks, guys! This Halloween baby salutes you for your time and effort. Note that at least one of the levels makes no claim for vanilla compatibility, so use a limit-removing port for a full playthrough.

Doom 2 the Way id Did (D2TWID)

Doom 2 the Way id Did is a sequel to, well, the incredibly popular Doom the Way id Did, of course. Headed up by Doomworld forum superstar Alfonzo after the release of the latter, D2TWiD aimed to mimic the styles of the architects of Doom II. John Romero, American McGee, and Sandy Petersen are the headliners, of course. I think Shawn Green and Tom Hall were considered, but if they're represented, it's probably in Tom Hall's sprawling base layouts. As was the case with DTWiD, there is no change in the "story" of Doom II. Just load it up and ask yourself - if one of these levels had shown up instead of one of the originals, would you even have noticed? What if you mashed the two PWADs together - would anything seem out of place?

Interception (INTERCEP.WAD)

Interception started around the height of vanilla megaWAD madness, back in 2011. Matt534Dog wanted to make a megaWAD, and there was enough enthusiasm knocking about that everyone not working on their top secret projects said "Hell yeah!" and started pouring in the maps. Then on release, the Doomworld MegaWAD Club played it, undergoing a sort of playtesting by fire, after which the PWAD underwent some significant changes. The super double ultimate final release happened sometime in 2013, but there are still a few game-breaking bugs to stamp out. Funny, unless you're playing it and run across them, trying to find out whether you just don't have the solution or whether the puzzle itself is inherently broken.

Hadephobia (H_PHOBIA.WAD)

Hadephobia started a long, long time ago under the banner of "Progressive Fiction". It was something of a conceptual community project. Basically, someone started by making a map, writing a bit of a story to go along with it, and then passing it on to the next person, who would do likewise, and repeat until they had finished a full-fledged Doom II megaWAD for Boom-compatible ports. The story is a little scatterbrained at times as far as the finer details, but the main idea should seem familiar. After all the agony of the Doom games, you continue to have nightmares, some kind of psychic link with Hell which dubs you as a Hadephobe. The bad dreams start to get even worse and you're sure an invasion is imminent, but the UAC locks you up in a distant asylum, out of sight and out of mind. You're the boy / girl who cried Doom, though, and when another invasion breaks loose, you must fight for your life.