This is a good episode replacement wad. It starts off pretty humble in the first couple levels but escalates to a menacing slaughterfest by the end. Along the way there are a couple death exits to restart the player's arsenal.
I like the jungle ruins look and the deeper one goes into this wad, the more the environments shift into techbase fare. I played with Final Doomer so my BFG was exceptionally powerful so even on UV I had an easy time here.
I like the jungle ruins look and the deeper one goes into this wad, the more the environments shift into techbase fare. I played with Final Doomer so my BFG was exceptionally powerful so even on UV I had an easy time here.
Marathoned through this one in a single day. Skillsaw is really good at making bytesized combat focused maps, and almost all of the wad presents this degree of fun, but the last 2 maps feels like filler, the last one specially being a slog of 25+ minutes of waiting shit to kill it with the bfg and constantly collecting the fucking rad suits, soulspheres or ammo in large spaces with damaging floor, not living to the chaotic fast pace fights present here.
For a variety of reasons, Vanguard is probably one of the best introductions to Doom modding there is. For one thing, it's a very well-paced episode replacement, not short enough to beat in one sitting, but not long enough to feel like it's drags. For another, it's authored by skillsaw, who's undoubtedly one of the most talented and well-rounded mappers in classic Doom. Vanguard is also his only major work without any custom monsters whatsoever (others being Lunatic, Valiant, and Ancient Aliens, which all have at least two custom monsters each). But perhaps most importantly is the scope of gameplay variance captured in this WAD. There's bite-sized maps, adventure maps, arena maps, slaughter-lite maps, you name it, all of which are anchored by a very reasonable difficulty curve. While Vanguard seems unassuming on the surface, it's a classic through and through, and highly recommended for anyone wanting to dip their toes in the wonderful world of Doom modding.