WAD Review of SPIT.WAD
By Cameron Newham. (
[email protected])
Copyright (c) Cameron B. Newham, 1994
=====================================
Title :SPIT.WAD ;)
Author :Damon Casale
Email Address :
[email protected]
Misc. Author Info :Comments requested...
Description: A small complex near a volcano. There is also a
canyon with a climbable mountain. This is my first
public attempt at wad writing, so send me your
comments. Too small? Too easy? Too hard? Lemme
know! Thanks for your support...
=====================================
Having some time on my hands, here is another small review for this
weekend.
This level starts in a small room with a long dark corridor leading
off. The author of this level had pointed out that some of the
step textures had garbage on them - this was evident in the first room
and is caused by having a step texture defined and offsetting it for
the sidedef (in an attempt to get the upper texture correctly placed).
Note for the author: You need to make the upper texture "unpegged" and
have no Y offset for the sidedef - or, if you absolutely need to
offset it, use a texture other than a "step" texture (which is a non-
repeating texture and causes "pink gap" if not used correctly).
I followed this corridor leaving a side door for later investigation
and opened the door at the end. I battled a few denizens and then
grabbed a chaingun. This caused a number of door to open in the large
circular room I was in. I backed off and soon had the situation
under control. I then went and explored finding the first major
flaw in this WAD. One of the rooms I entered had a door which slid
open to reveal some goodies. I entered this room and the door closed
on me leaving me stranded, as it wouldn't open by pushing. Fortunately
I had saved the game so repeated the procedure a little quicker the
next time.
Having found no other doors, I headed back to the first door I had
passed in the corridor. Opening this revealed a dark room with
some monsters in it. It was exceedingly hard to see anything!
Luckily there weren't too many monsters (I was playing, as usual,
on "Hurt me plenty" - this level has difficulty settings implemented).
I once again blew these critters back to Hell and entered a lift
that rose for ages and finally deposited me at the top of what looked
like a canyon - or volcano as the author says it is.
I had more monsters to contend with and lept into the thick of things -
literally. This area had some nice creativity in the form of a river
of lava flowing through it. Having retrieved the weapons from the
recently deceased (maybe?) soldiers I rounded a corner to see a hill
with a few imps and sargeants scurrying around. These soon fell
to my trusty shotgun and I proceeded to scale the hill.
I got to the top.....
...and....
...nothing! No end. No switch. What a disappointment!
Overall I found this WAD too small and lacking in some obvious areas -
like an end switch. There is promise here but this WAD is essentially
an experiment on the part of the author. I don't recommend downloading
it.
On scales of 0 to 10.
Layout: 5
Textures: 7
Difficulty: 5
Level Logic: 7
Funness 4
On Cameron's overall scale of 0 to 10, Spit.wad scores a 5.6.
spit.wad is available via ftp on ocf.unt.edu.
- Cameron (
[email protected]).
==============================================
Score meanings:
All scores are 0 to 10.
Layout: Badly layed out, floors/lifts don't work as expected, incorrect
use of doors, etc. No atmosphere. --->
Well layed out, vantage points well chosen, all lifts/doors/floors
work as expected. Good atmosphere created.
Textures: Incorrect/clashing/misaligned/missing textures everywhere --->
All textures fit together well, are aligned and there is no HOM.
Difficulty: Too easy/impossible to complete on any difficulty setting * --->
Everything (health/ammo/weapons/monsters) is well balanced.
Level Logic: Items provided and never used/needed items don't exist/keys
cannot be found, too much doubling back required --->
All items are found in logical order and are used, level flows
smoothly.
Funness: Wished I'd never spent time even downloading it, let alone
playing it --->
I had great fun playing it and will play it more than once.
Overall score: 0 - 5: don't bother.
5 - 6: shows promise but not worth downloading.
6 - 7: if it was cleaned up it would be good.
7 - 8: good effort, worth downloading.
8 - 9: excellent.
9+ : like a unicorn.
* difficulty score is also modified by how hard the author claims it is and
whether this claim is supported on playing it.
