Doom Tourism: Valiant MAP03 - Tiers of Pain

Hi Mom!

       The spine tingling adventures through Skillsaw's recent mega WAD Valiant continue! I'm going to try something a little different with this update, so bear with me. 

MAP03 - Tiers of Pain

Window, by Stewboy

       Hi Mom, it's me, Doomguy. I'm writing to you from a hotel room a few miles outside of Hell. I know you were worried about me making it through that run down base, but I made it safe and sound. I took a few photos along the way, and have attached them and a few notes about my day yesterday. I hope this letter finds you well. I know you're busy these days killing demons yourself, but, well... I haven't heard from you in a while and just hope you're doing okay!

       

       So, when I showed up to this map I was stuck in a cage! It was kind of scary, I'd never been locked up before. The weird button didn't do anything when I pressed it, so I had to shoot it.

       But that alerted all the monsters to my presence. I know we talked about 'playing it safe' and 'not waking up the monsters unless I really really REALLY have to,' but I didn't have a choice here. At least there were these health orbs to give me an idea of where to go next. And some armor! 

       It was really hectic here, I had to keep on the move to avoid getting shot up. Mom, did you ever figure out why imps are hostile to humans? I mean, sure, they're demons, but there are nice demons, aren't there? I don't think I've personally seen any nice demons but there are probably a few.

       I don't know about you, but finding the regular shotgun always fills me with joy. Also I think red key doors are my least favorite. If I had to rank them I'd say Yellow > Blue > Red. What do you think?

       I forgot to get a picture, but I found a berserk pack. That's 3 for 3 so far on these maps. Punching demons is fun, but I just resorted to the shotgun. You always told me to be safe with berserking.

       Hahaha wheee! I love the rocket launcher! 

       Mom. Double barreled shotgun. Mom. It's so strong, Mom! I didn't even realize this thing existed! Scratch what I said about being overjoyed with the regular shotgun. This thing is way better!

       It's been awhile since we last spoke, but I was wondering if you had seen any switches like this one. It's like that first switch at the start of the map, I had to shoot it to get it to do anything. But I'm not even sure what it did!

       Ugh, one of these places where I have to drop down into the unknown. Wouldn't be a big problem if I could look down. I gotta get this neck brace off. Mom am I still covered under your healthcare? Please let me know ASAP.

       I decided to go the other way instead of into that mystery pit. This pistol is really nice, by the way. Thanks for sending it to me. Way better than the old UAC standard pistol. 

       Haha, I always thought cacodemons looked like flying tomatoes. Haha! Oh yeah, there's another one of those shooty switches. Still have no clue what they do...

       Hmm. Soulspheres are really useful. I couldn't climb up there, though. Just grabbed the blue key, and, hey! There's the red key. I don't actually know where I can use the blue key...

       Yikes! Imp invasion! Picking up the blue key made all these jerks teleport in. I don't know if you can see it, but there's a secret Soulsphere back behind the imps. I guess this is what those shooty switches did?

       I also made a few mancubi teleport in, but they're not a problem anymore. Remember that time when I was a teenager I got burnt real bad by a mancubus fireball and came running home to you? You weren't home so you probably don't remember... It was fine anyways, I knew where we kept the Medkits. But that taught me a lesson!

       

      Still no red key... I guess I'm gonna have to fall down that shaft...

       Haha, I was worried for nothing! The only thing down there was the red key. Naturally this made s'more imps show up. I love mowing down a nice horde of imps, but I wish I didn't have to... Why can't we just be friends, imps?

       Well, as I was making my way up to the red key door I got shot a few times by some stupid monsters that appeared out of nowhere. But I did find a hidden switch that let me access this Soulsphere! Lovely.

       And what do you know, behind the red key door was the blue key door. And behind that: the eXit! Hah, see what I did there? Cause the exit teleporter has a big red X? Haha, I'm glad I had this red pen!

       I wasn't sure where the last secret was... I wonder what was hidden in it? Ooh, maybe it was a plasma rifle! Or some surplus ammo! But... I didn't find it. Oh well. Maybe next time!

       That's gonna be all for this letter. Please send me a postcard from wherever you are, I'd love to hear from you! It's been a while so, you know, I'm kinda worried about you Mom. I'm sure you're fine though. Keep slaying those demons!

       ~Love, Doomguyson

Doom Tourism: Valiant MAP02 - No Rush

Slow Ride

      

       Welcome to episode two of Doom Tourism: Valiant. Skillsaw just updated the WAD to release client 2, but I played MAP02 with release client 1. Apparently nothing significant was changed for MAP02, so let's see what's going on in this one!

MAP02 - No Rush

Cold Wires by Stewboy

       I don't know if I mentioned in the last post, but I'll be playing through Valiant pistol-starting each map on the Ultra-Violence difficulty. Pistol starts are my favorite way to play usually. This just means I'll start the map with only the pistol, 50 bullets, and 100% health. The other way to play is continuous, so I would have started this map with all the guns and ammo from the previous map. Skillsaw said Valiant was designed for pistol starts, so that's what I'll be doing.

       Anyways, get a look at this starting view! There's so much information packed into this shot, all of it helps to inform the player. You can clearly see the red key AND the yellow key door giving you two immediate goals: get the red key, get the yellow key. The shotgun shells do a nice thing and lead the eye to a path.

       I almost missed this, but the yellow key is up on a little pillar to the right of the start. These stairs are where the shotgun shells led. Looks like there's another little path with a zombie guy patrolling. 

       I decided to run past that little path and check out this other courtyard. There's only one real way to go from here which is up those little stairs past the demon. I haven't really started shooting yet, even though the pistol in this WAD is pretty strong. Maybe I can find something better...

   
       Hey here we go. Get the orchestra together, it's about to be a shotgun symphony!

       Feeling a little more confident now that I have my trusty pump-action and some armor. Oh hey, a plasma rifle! How do I get it though? Secrets like this kind of bug me cause I never know what kind of switch or trigger I need to look out for.

       My health was getting a little low, so I decided to backtrack to that path I passed earlier. Blasted the one (1) zombie man and spotted the red key door. I know exactly where the key for that is! I also poked my head into the waterfall to the right of the door and found a lovely berserk pack. Time to PUNCH.

       KAPOW! The berserk'd punches have enough damage to blast imps and zombie men into delicious red giblets. It's very satisfying to use.

       Wow, Skillsaw doesn't fuck around! Another rocket launcher! 

       ohfuckohfuckohfuck. This mancubus was guarding the rocket launcher and he walloped me a good one. I had to retreat a bit. If both mancubus fireballs hit at the same time they can do some serious damage.

       Okay, I'm fine, time to go grab that red key. This map uses the old standby wrap-around layout. Looks like I'm gonna have to mow down some zombies on the way.

       Those are the shotgunners that were guarding the red key. I know I mentioned it last time, but I still gotta say, I love these vine textures. They look so cool and break up the oppressive gray textures.

       Handled. Now the red key can be mine (I took some damage, but don't worry, I'm a professional). 

       Don't tell anyone I saved. I'm afraid of key traps, can you blame me? After I picked off the zombies and imps on the other platform I went ahead and scooped up the red key. Time to go back to the red key door!

       No reason not to pick up some health along the way, too. These large medkits always give 25% health unless your at or above 100%. The smaller medkits seen in the secont screenshot give 10%. The red key door was locking off a little underground area, with monsters in it, natch.

       
       Yuck, a chaingunner. And a creepy flying ghost skull. That's a lost soul, and they're one of my least favorite enemies. Despite being small, they can take two shotgun blasts before keeling over. Really frustrating to have to deal with. I've spotted the blue key now, though. Not sure where I'm gonna use it.

       Gotta hop down into the water now. But there's some big guns down here! I think that's the chaingun, let's see...

       It is! And it's been modified just like the pistol. It fires HELLA fast now! Even though I have low health, this chaingun is ripping through fuckers before they can shoot me.

       Still gotta shoot a few rockets though, for good measure. I love a good explosion every now and then.

       Oh gross, it's one of these guys! This is a pain elemental. They don't attack the player directly, instead choosing to spew those lost souls I saw earlier. If you don't make a beeline to kill these guys, the map can get flooded with shitty floating skulls. Luckily for me, the chaingun can more or less stun lock them, preventing them from making even one lost soul.

       Great, picking up the blue key spawned some chaingunners in on me. I see a soulsphere though, so that will solve my low health woes. Again, the chaingun is just wasting these nerds. Really fun to shoot.

       I picked up this soulsphere, and it was actually a secret! Huh, I don't know what I did to reveal it... To the right of the soulspere is a blue key door, but I think I want to try to pick up that plasma gun from earlier.

      There we go! The UAC sign was a secret switch that lowered the plasma gun down. The plasma gun fires really fast relatively high powered balls of energy. It's a decent weapon, but I don't have a ton of ammo for it.

      Here's that blue key door. Behind it is an elevator. Is it finally time to get that yellow key I saw earlier?

       Almost, but not quite. Pressing this switch released some cacodemons! These jokers have pretty high health and they can float. Since Doom doesn't actually have three-dimensions, cacodemons can block the player's movement even if they're way above the player. This is called infinite height. It can be a real problem for speed running. 

       The switch also plopped down a mancubus and revenant. As annoying as they are, revenants are my favorite enemies in Doom. The have a really awesome sound of clattering bones when they die. Very satisfying. 

       I didn't notice right away, but that switch lowered the yellow key! Now I need to head back on that upper path where that revenant just was.

       I got a bit unlucky and god hit by a revenant rocket for a HUGE amount of damage. Revenant rockets can do anywhere from 10 to 80 damage with one hit. I'm pretty sure I got smacked for the full 80. But past him is the yellow key gate.

       And behind the yellow key gate was a kind of ugly little exit room. No worries though. Managed to find all the secrets and get all the kills again. Despite the name of the map, there were a few times where rushing helped me out. The MIDI for this map was one I had heard before from Resurgence even though it is originally from Speed of Doom. Resurgence is a great set of maps, though they get pretty brutal towards the end.

       But back to Valiant. Again, Skillsaw uses a fast ramping weapon progression. Getting a rocket launcher always feels great. It was pretty useful for this map, though I had to be careful in that underground area. Rocket launcher splash damage is no joke. I think outside of the initial view from the spawn location this map wasn't too interesting, visually. The layout was good and it was short.

       When short maps are bad, it's okay, cause at least it's short. When long maps are bad, it's awful. Luckily for me, this map was short and good! So it was fun the whole way through.