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-
- WAD Review of WARHOUSE.WAD
-
- By Cameron Newham. (cam@iinet.com.au)
-
- Copyright (c) Cameron B. Newham, 1994
-
- =====================================
-
- Title :WARHOUSE.WAD
- Author :Mike Barker
- Email Address :s19788@hp.rmc.ca
- Misc. Author Info :Send Comments!
-
- Description :Imagine that a large, abandoned, warehouse in your
- home town has been overrun by nasties. It is up to
- you to save the day! You must first fight your way
- in from outside, make it through the outer offices,
- and then finally into the warehouse itself.
-
- ======================================
-
- This is my first review of a WAD. Please note that there are possible
- spoilers ahead, although I'll try to give nothing away. I hope you
- enjoy reading this review.
-
-
- Having read the rather interesting description I sat down on Sunday
- afternoon, ready for a game of Doom in the local warehouse.
- I fired up Doom and selected "Hurt me plenty" - after all, I wanted
- to be able to write this review in a reasonable time and not be
- beaten to a pulp!
-
- Initially I was quite impressed - a stone courtyard surrounding a large
- building with several enterences. I secured the area, cleaning up the
- patrols that lurked outside and blowing a large cluster of barrels
- away. I then entered the building.
-
- It was dark! Dark in every room! This was my first encounter with
- the overall darkness of the warehouse. Sure - abandoned warehouses
- are dark because they have no power, but this one was populated by
- badasses. A little light here and there would have been nice.
-
- I entered at a point that led into several small rooms connected
- by sliding doors. I soon cleaned these out and reached my first
- serious check. I needed a red keycard to get any further! Nowhere
- was this card to be seen. I searched the darkness for clues but
- to no avail. No gleam of red was to be seen. In desperation I
- had to apply iddt, which I *really* didn't want to do. There it lay
- hidden away in a section that I would never have found.
-
- Wad authors please note this in future - never never leave a player
- needing something and provide no clues. Id never did that with their
- levels. Eg: E1M2 - you see the chainsaw but have to work out how to
- get to it. Seeing it narrows the search area down. Providing no
- clues (slight wall texture differences/being able to see the goal, etc)
- means a lot of needless work for the player. If you do feel the need
- to do this, at least make the item non-essential for play.
-
- After retrieving the red key I proceeded. It wasn't an easy task.
- This level is built with platforms overlooking the storage area of the
- warehouse and there is no place to snipe from. Battered and weary
- I staggered out after downing the last Imp. I was also baffled.
- There a blue keycard lay - on top of a platform. No switches, nothing.
- How could I get it?
-
- Well I staggered off to the exit and discovered what I thought was
- one last nasty suprise. Having dealt with this attempt on my life
- I ran around a bit more and after some time discovered the blue
- keycard to be accessible. I was a bit non-plussed with this. In a
- way the blue card is too far away from the action and it's not
- obvious. That is, perhaps, more my personal opinion.
-
- After obtaining the key I was lowered into hell itself and had to deal
- with several more evils. I also discovered a plasma rifle - after
- I had killed everything! Not only a plasma rifle but a whole cache
- of health and armour bonuses. I think, perhaps, this would have
- done better at some other point in the level - after all, I didn't
- need any of it.
-
- As far as texture choice and placement is concerned, this WAD does
- quite well. There was, I felt, a bit too much "startan" for the
- the building - maybe just because, as a default for the Deu editor,
- I've seen one too many panels of this texture.
-
- Overall I found this WAD fun to play. It was also challenging,
- even on the lower skill level. I would recommend warhouse.wad
- to anyone wanting a generally challenging level.
-
- On scales of 0 to 10.
-
- Layout: 8
- Textures: 8
- Difficulty: 7
- Level Logic: 6
- Funness 8
-
- On Cameron's overall scale of 0 to 10, Warhouse.wad scores a 7.
-
- - Cameron (cam@iinet.com.au).
-