Reviews from

in the past


has some winners like maps 13 and 28. the rest is dominated by maps consisting of half-formed gobs of level design connected by giant, empty hallways or featureless outdoor spaces, and all of it is filled with constant boring fights against imps and hitscanners. early FPS level design can be aimless but still fun because the excitement of building in a 3D engine still shines through. this wad is a case study in finding exactly where that endearment runs out.

TNT Evilution: This didn't need to have 32 maps, it dragged on forever, and half of the maps aren't that great, anyway, not really worth it.

The Plutonia Experiment: Yet to be play this one, I got fatigued from playing a lot of classic Doom for 4 months in a row, but, I'll get around to play it one day.

ok so my computer's power supply suddenly died on me so i thought i'd have this whole console player arc but GUESS WHAT i bought a new one instantly and visited my parents for easter so i also ended up getting some time on my brother's PC just to play fucking TNT of all things.
/
it took me a good while to muster up the will to get past the first 10 levels which always made me drop the whole thing. TNT thrives on huge maps with weird combat setups, but those early ones are just boring, cramped, and don't work towards building its identity.

as soon as you get into some more inventive ones, though, it gets interesting.... so many far away hitscanners and barely populated arenas! so many attempts at roughly non-abstract areas... so many massive secret setpieces! map12 (Crater) was a standout for me, its namesake comes from an odd secret that lets you explore a narrow view of a nukage waterfall in the crater. the way it tries to do this kind of cute trick without much fanfare is what gets me. they made a mapset that tries making DOOM a little more "real", and the way it almost works is charming.

even the guest maps from the Casali brothers (who made Plutonia, the other half of Final DOOM [which i love]) build on TNT's concept well, but with more exciting combat. it's just that about half the playtime on this big, big WAD is spent on almost regular DOOM II maps but with no bite or cool surprises. just a bunch more hitscanners mixed in.

i can definitely tell why this was so influential, though. it does a lot to intrigue the player about trusting a big concept more than only trying to do tight combat loops over and over. map20 (Central Processing) is a blessing!

bonus: take a look at this fanmade remix of Into Sandy's City made for map32 (Caribbean). it's so cute!

Two things come to mind while playing TNT: Evilution, tedious and poorly designed. TNT: Evilution is the second half of Final Doom which also comprised of The Plutonia Experiment, and while it isn't as difficult as Plutonia, it sure is a confusing mess at points. Apparently, this was going to be a free megawad until id Software came and said they wanted the wad to be a part of their Final Doom package. That's why a lot of Doom fans hold a lot of resentment towards this wad, and honestly upon replay I don't blame them. I couldn't imagine paying a whole $60 to play this thing. The level that really highlights how incompetent some of the level design is would be Map 18: Mill, which has one of the more infamous puzzles the wad features. It features four buttons with 3 of them blocked off, and all the buttons lower sections to get a yellow key. Some of the rooms surrounding the buttons have some of the most confusing level design. At no point does it prepare you beforehand for some of the gamplay choices it implements. For example, a shootable wall to raise a lift. I wondered around for about 10 minutes before figuring that out. Then there is baffling design choices like Map 20: Central Processing, where the exit is not a button, but an exit sign that you have to press to exit. One level that remember most from this wad is Map 27: Mount Pain. The titular Mount Pain of the level sparked my imagination back then along with the first two Doom games, it's a shame most of the rest of the level is a tedious slog to get through, with a boring sewer segment to boot. I used to think this was a decent wad back when I first played it, but by revisiting it on a higher difficulty, the cracks really start showing in this wad. It's a shame, too, because there are some interesting concepts this wad tries to implement. It just never fully realizes that potential.

tnt es un laberinto d demonios, no tengo un problema con eso, si con que tengo adhd sin medicar y m hagan resolver 32 puzzles en un doom. lo unico no olvidable d este doom es el soundtrack a lo clasico


Towards the late middle, the levels get really lengthy and labyrinthine, to the point of sheer annoyance. Everything becomes very difficult to navigate without staring at the map the whole time. Some of the maps towards the very end are actually pretty good, with a decent feeling of setup and payoff, as late-level objectives are shown to you early, so you know which key you need or what you need to unlock in order to finish the level.
I can absolutely understand how pissed off Doom fans must have been when this WAD was suddenly made an official paid expansion, only to be... this. Without even being an expert, I know much better has been done with the engine in the time since this came out.

.....I played it again. I hate this WAD but I PLAYED IT AGAIN. My brother wanted to do this thing where we played a level each day to see if that made it more tolerable.

Spoiler alert: it didn't. Why do I do this to myself.

Got to about Map 18 of 32 before I got bored. Hopefully Plutionia is a lot better than this and the Master Levels.

This is a sequel to all the bad Doom II maps and Map 21 is like stubbing all your toes.

they somehow managed to make a set of levels even worse than doom IIs. every flaw that can be in a level is represented somewhere here. obnoxious hitscanner spam, overly long levels, too little health pickups, switches that dont properly convey what they do, custom music that is annoying or not at the right volume... each new level brings a new kind of stupid thing to make your experience unfun. the people who claim to enjoy evilution seem to mostly be people who save constantly and dont pistol start, which must make it a lot easier to ignore the constant issues. metal, administration center, and mount pain in particular are some of the least fun ive had in doom period. the ONE positive thing i can give it is that the levels are visually pleasing and aesthetically more interesting than doom IIs and its not even close.

Genuinely one of the worst things I’ve played in the DOOM franchise. Big empty levels filled with boring fights and empty space, aimless level design filled to the brim with backtracking, and an overall feeling that it never ends. Glad I never have to play it again.

Starts off okay but unfortunately it only gets more boring and tedious as it goes on. I'd only recommend this to real Doom-heads that want to see every official map even if they suck.

I chose to play through the "official" WAD expansions to DOOM before diving off the deep end into the world of DOOM (and DOOM clone) WADs, starting with TNT: Evilution. In a vacuum, it's... fine, but knowing what I know about where modders and WAD creators have taken this engine, it's pretty disappointing.

Starting with the pros: for a 1996 expansion, there are definitely some cool upgrades / expanded use of the old engine in ways that were enjoyable to experience, and makes me excited for some of the bigger / more modern WADs on the horizon that I've yet to play.

Cons: most everything else. Even that pro I listed above is a bit of a cop-out, as the original Aliens: Eradication total conversion mod came out before TNT and showcases a lot more flexibility than TNT does. The levels are too long, far too drawn-out, and don't do anything revolutionary enough to be worth folks' time at this point. Please, if you are interested in diving into the world of DOOM WADs and you already own Final DOOM, by all means, play Plutonia (understanding that it's pretty damn hard), and then just jump headfirst into running DOOM with free level packs, of which there are literally thousands, many of which are far superior to this "official expansion."

Pretty good time until a little bit over halfways through when the next few maps just blur together. Followed by some decent stuff near the end into a meh final map.

Civvie wasn't lying, this do be fucking boring