A mod for Doom II: Hell on Earth
Unholy Realms is a 2013 megawad by Brian Knox (Snakes) consisting of 32 limit-removing maps, all but four of which were designed by Knox. The soundtrack was composed entirely by John Weekley (PRIMEVAL). The megawad was in development for three and a half years, eventually uploaded to the idgames archive on 15 December, 2013. The megawad was one of the winners of the 20th annual Cacowards.
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This was a nice megawad to return to, with this playthrough being my third time around. The levels are snappy– they don’t usually take too long nor involve sloggy switch hunting.
The first act of the megawad has the player go through levels that feel like real places. There’s a sense of progression because the levels connect to each other. The second act takes some real Plutonia influence and this is where the wad changes gears. Many levels are open-ended and open hot with enemies immediately spotting you and attacking. There’s not really any safe spaces so you have to carve out a spot in the level to get a grip on the situation. I love that Doom level trope and this wad has it for most of the backhalf.
I played this megawad with a weapon mod that stomped down the difficulty like a pop can but I don’t think that impaired my judgment of this wad’s solid level design and brisk enemy encounters. The music was okay but aside from the “Congo” theme from map 13, none of it struck out to me. It didn’t take me out of the game, though, as it was pretty decent midi score.
The first act of the megawad has the player go through levels that feel like real places. There’s a sense of progression because the levels connect to each other. The second act takes some real Plutonia influence and this is where the wad changes gears. Many levels are open-ended and open hot with enemies immediately spotting you and attacking. There’s not really any safe spaces so you have to carve out a spot in the level to get a grip on the situation. I love that Doom level trope and this wad has it for most of the backhalf.
I played this megawad with a weapon mod that stomped down the difficulty like a pop can but I don’t think that impaired my judgment of this wad’s solid level design and brisk enemy encounters. The music was okay but aside from the “Congo” theme from map 13, none of it struck out to me. It didn’t take me out of the game, though, as it was pretty decent midi score.