Comprising of half of what would be known as "Final Doom," "The Plutonia Experiment" was created in 1996 by Dario and Milo Casali (the former being most known for his contributions to Half-Life). Their goal was to make the most challenging Doom wad ever created for Doom veterans who were bored with the base games of Doom and Doom II, and while I do think they succeeded on that front, I still think some of the maps go overboard making it feel impossible at some points. There are some specific maps I would like to talk about.

Most Iconic Map

MAP11: Hunted

The iconic Arch-vile maze accompanied by the endoom "Bunny" music is just quintessential Plutionia. I remember having nightmares of this map after finishing it the first time on just I'm Too Young To Die. Playing it on a higher difficulty this time around, and surprisingly it wasn't that hard. Not as punishing as some other maps that's for sure.

Worst Map

MAP16: The Omen

I was contemplating either putting this or Map 15: The Twilight as the worst map, but the more I think about this one the more it pisses me off. You have to beat it a specific way, or it becomes impossible, making it a really restrictive experience. I'm sorry, I enjoy maps that provide multiple paths for you to choose to beat it and this wasn't cutting it.

Best Map

MAP26: Bunker

One of the more brutal maps of the megawad, but one I grew to appreciate the map design after completing the game. The way the map loops around itself to make it feel more layered is a real nice touch.

While it does seem to fall into the rut that most megawads do of losing steam around the third act, and some of the levels get really frustrating at times, I would really call this a bad wad at all. Some of the levels are really fun and challenging. While I was actively frustrated during playing through the wad, afterwards I could really appreciate what they were going for gameplay and mapwise.

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.

Happy 30th birthday to the best, and most influential, game of all time. Doom. As such, I thought I would play through this newly released expansion by one of the creators of Doom, John Romero, and give my thoughts.

A sequel of the 2019 expansion "Sigil," "Sigil II" is a harder, more brutal sequel that offers great challenges. It uses the mechanics introduced in the original to great effect, sometimes hiding secrets and at other times opening locked doors.

Most maps in this set are exceptional, showing why his maps were the best in the original Doom games. The only map I had a problem with was E6M7, "Descent Into Terror." The only problem I had with it was the ending section. It wasn't made obvious to shoot the 4 stone face textures to open the exit.

Overall, I had a great time with this, and is an excellent way to celebrate Doom's 30th! I really hope John Romero makes more of these, because I always have fun with his maps.

Yup, this is definitely my favorite Star Wars FPS game (don't consider Jedi Academy an FPS game due to playing it mostly in 3rd person lightsaber mode). The team based combat really helps this game differentiate from other games in the genre. Forming strategies with Delta Squad to take out the enemy adds some fun challenges. The variety of weapons this game provides is really fun, too, with a surprising variety of enemies to take out throughout the three missions of the campaign. I really wish there was a sequel to this because I surprising enjoyed the hell out of it.

A game that really loses its steam around episode 3, but one that has a lot of unbridled imagination. I feel this game doesn't get as much love given that it was a DOS platformer (a lot of DOS platformers tend to get ignored, kind of like Commander Keen). This is a really solid platformer that is perfect to play around October. The slingshot is such a unique weapon, which really sets this game apart from others of the genre. I also love the idea of saving pets to thwart the main villain, especially cats. My only downside is the third episode, where it introduces too many new ideas very late into the game to the point it becomes confusing to the player. Aside from that I highly recommend this game!

Has some great new concepts that are executed greatly, it just unfortunately delves a little too much into slaughter map territory near the end. Highly suggest it, though. Provides a good challenge in the levels that aren't slaughter-y and the map design is great. The only map I got lost in was Map 19 "Back in Town," where it has house with blacked-out doors with teleporting linedefs to other areas of the map. It's a really cool effect, but it really obscured the exit when it opened. The final map, though, is complete tedium. You think it's going to be a race with another Doomguy with the title being "Last One Out is a Rotten Egg," but after a pretty challenging race course filled with monsters, the carpet is pulled out from under you and just gives you a slaughtermap. I don't know about the rest of the Doom Community, but I find slaughtermaps to be tedious and boring. There is no challenge to it at all, just spam BFG shots into the crowds of enemies (since there is plenty of ammo around) for around 20 to 30 minutes. At least with "Go 2 It" (the original Slaughtermap from Map 32 of "The Plutonia Experiment"), the monsters are spread out throughout a huge map, with plenty of cover to take breaks. Modern slaughtermaps don't even have that, just have all the monsters point at you and your supposed to deal with it. Aside from those two maps, the rest is a blast to get through. While it does delve into slaughterish territory from time to time (Map 27 comes to mind) it isn't as egregious as the final level and I found myself beating the levels in a timely fashion.

Originally Ion Maiden (still bitter about the name change), Ion Fury is a 2019 First-Person Shooter running on the Build engine. It was published by 3D Realms and developed by Voidpoint.

This is probably one of the better Build engine games (I at least had a better time with this than I had with Shadow Warrior. While that game is good, the comedy in it was very subjective to say the least). I had a fun time while playing this.

The attention to detail in every map is absolutely stunning, and certainly more detail than what Duke Nukem 3D was capable of at the time. Little quality of life touches like when you shoot a fire extinguisher, it's contents spray out before it explodes. Not only is that satisfying to do, but the hole it makes leaves item pickups you will need.

The weapon lineup is satisfying as well, with the pistol (named the Loverboy) probably the best pistol I've ever seen in an FPS game. The alt fire for it automatically headshots targets. It is extremely effective even late into the game.

Blowing up enemies is always beneficial. Kind of like Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal with glory kills, if you blow up enemies they drop a ton of armor pickups. This is very useful in this game because the monsters are relentless and will take advantage of Build engine jank to get to you.

The voice acting in this is so much better than Shelly in Duke Nukem: Alien Apocalypse. Voiced by Valerie Michelle Arem, she actually feels like a human and not a female clone of Duke Nukem. Heskel is especially great, played by John St. John. It's unfortunate that the final level doesn't have him as the final boss. But, it is a decent enough challenge so it can be forgiven.

Overall, I had a fun time with this, and I can't wait for the sequel coming out later this year!

Kind of underwhelmed by this. I was sure this was going to be a full episode, instead it was just 4 gigantic maps that is labeled as an episode. This game also features Bombshell from Ion Maiden as a co-op companion (you can also swap to her and she has a different loadout) but she sounds and looks nothing like Bombshell from that game, instead just being a genderswapped Duke Nukem. The voice acting from her (have no idea who it was) sounds really amateur and I cringed at a lot of her dialogue. The levels were too big for there own good, usually filled with just emptiness that really made this boring a lot of the time. The tougher monsters this mod do provide a good challenge, in co-op. It's complete bullshit when you're facing them alone, which you will be doing for 2 of the 4 maps.

A mixed bag for the most part, where most of the levels are frustratingly designed. I'm not going to lie, I had to cheat on most of these levels because the map design was so confusing that it had me wondering around for 20 minutes. The most fun I had in this wad was MAP23 "Showdown" by Milo Casali, which was a slaughter map (and I usually hate slaughter maps). But compared to the rest of the wad, that level was competently laid out and I could figure out where to go. One thing I will give this wad though, is the music is pretty catchy.