Beyond Reality (BRFINAL.WAD)

Darsycho, aka Jack101 (aka the_afrit) wants to take you on a wild ride to a dimension of pure insanity. Beyond Reality chronicles a bizarro world on the fringes of Doomspace, filled with unusual monsters that bring their own dynamic to tried and true gameplay. There's no stated reason for your intrusion to this mixed-up place; it simply is, an amusement park concocted to test your conceptions of what should be. There are seventeen levels for Doom II in Beyond Reality; fifteen normal maps, a "credits" level that has some decent gameplay, and a hidden foray in the MAP31 slot. The features of the mapset require one of the ZDoom family of ports.

The Eye (EYE.WAD)

THE EYE
by Cyriak "mouldy" Harris

The Eye is an unassuming single map for Doom II, meant to be played in Boom (or Boom-compatible) engines. It isn't the first thing Doomworld forum superstar mouldy's made, but it's the first solo release that found its way onto the archives. There's no pomp and circumstance in the .TXT, just a terse description that gives you a vague idea of what you're in for. The Eye isn't exactly an enormous level. It's certainly smaller than other maps I've played featuring more than 500 monsters. But, yeah, there are a bunch of enemies to fight, found in what are essentially two different areas of the level.

Strife: Absolute Order (SABORD.WAD)

I love Strife, so it's cool to see that a few crazy people make WADs for it. Absolute Order was originally going to be a much larger project, but it's clear that Adam "Khorus" Woodmansey decided to finish the project as it was rather than languish due to disinterest. So, here's a short episode for the most neglected child of the Doom family (unless you count HACX). The plot is pretty simple. Even with the death of the entity at the end of the original game (uh, spoilers I guess), outposts of the Order remain. You're not the Strifeguy, apparently, just an agent of the front who's been sent to loosen tyranny's dying grasp on the world.

Putrefier (MA_PUT.PK3)

PUTREFIER
by Ed Cripps

Ed Cripps, known as the brains behind the famous Sin City series, released Putrefier in late 2012. Originally meant to be part of a much larger release (think legit TC), he saw fit to make one single level for Doom II in GZDoom. It's more or less a sequel to 2010's Valhalla, another single map for ZDoom. There's no given story, but with the context of the mission profile that pops up right before the level's finale, the character is ostensibly the Doom marine, sent to another charming military base that has since been corrupted and overrun by Hellspawn. And that's pretty much all there is to it, so grab the gear laid out for you at the front door and get to shooting!

Back to Saturn X E1: Get Out of My Stations (BTSX_E1.WAD)

I hear whispers every month, people bemoaning a lack of output in the Doom community. It's like all the mappers have had their output drastically cut off, leaving only eager newbies to make the megaWADs of the future. Or, you know, some dastardly villain had many of the authors we know and love working in secret. But no longer! Now, we get Back to Saturn X. I thought it was going to be a slammin' Doom II megaWAD of stuff to blast through, but there's more. There's so much more. Back to Saturn X went from megaWAD to triple megaWAD, seeing release in three "episodes" filled by eager authors. This review concerns the first episode, Get Out of My Stations.

Masters of Chaos (MOC11.WAD)

Hailing from Poland, Caleb260 and Doom_Warrior dumped Masters of Chaos on the unsuspecting populace back in May 2012. It's an unusual beast, a Heretic megaWAD for ZDoom totaling thirty-one levels. That's two episodes of ten maps and one of eleven, in case you were wondering. Masters of Chaos takes place five years after Corvus got home, whenever that happened. Apparently there was a fourth Serpent Rider waiting in the wings, "Mighty Voltrog". Well, he was originally part of the band, but the gigs got to his head and he went solo, and now he's using things called chaos crystals (not to be confused with emeralds) to drain the life from the worlds he conquers. It's up to you, of course, to put this pretender down and save the universe.

Upgrade

Overhauled the review index. I ditched the sorting codes (D1, D2, etc.) as the PWADs are now grouped separately in their own sortable tables. The only downside is you can't sort by author across multiple games, but that's the beauty of the WADs by Authors page. Enjoy!

Frozen Time (FROZENT.WAD)

FROZEN TIME
by Alexander S. aka "Eternal" aka "Deadall"

Eternal shoved Voodoo Guns out the door just in time to be hit by the Cacobus and did the same, more or less, with Frozen Time. Like Voodoo Guns, it's a large map for advanced source ports, targeting GLBoom and GZDoom in particular. I ran it without much trouble in GZDoom, but you might want to stick with Boom depending on your computer. While I would have liked to see more Eternal Doom stuff from him, or more stuff from the Voodoo Guns universe, I'm happy with this fairly straightforward and combat-centered map that has no associated story.