This was a forward thinking megawad for '97. Not only does it display a number of technical tricks, it utilizes things that would become popularized in the ensuing decades like the use of tying the end of one level to the beginning of the next.

The megawad was known for its size back when it was released. Not only are its levels bigger than Downtown from DOOM 2, most of its level are like. It's like the devs wanted to cram the most game out of a single wad.

That makes the wad very exhausting to play, however, especially since this is a megawad from the early days of DOOM mapping and good navigation wasn't an idea that had been popularized yet. The switch hunting is out of control and there are times where you have to find doors that don't even look like doors. I think there were some mandatory secrets in there, too.

This game is a curiosity because it's a full early DOOM megawad that is doing some cool things but I quit halfway through because trying to figure out what the hell to do was too frustrating.

Eviternity II, like the first, is riding high on its own prestige, but I think it lives up to the hype. The texture pack, of course, is quite beautiful. The megawad paints its landscapes with such rich earthy colours.

This wad isn’t just eye candy, though. While enchanting towers might loom in the distance, the level themselves are designed well with lived-in atmosphere and dynamic combat encounters. There were a couple levels in the polar chapter that were nondescript and a secret level was gimmicky and annoying, but the batting average here is very high. I went back through the campaign, warping from one level to the next, and was surprised how many levels stood out. This is a megawad that knows spectacle and wows the player with setpieces, although it is pretty long. A handful of levels are huge and take at least a half-hour to finish, if not more. They're good, just... long.

There are a number of gimmicks and cool tricks, like on one level there is a switch the player can do to kill all enemies on an electric floor that added a new layer of strategy to a huge slaughter battle. There are outright non-vanilla monsters like the two brands of cacos that make a residence in Eviternity II and a very nasty breed of mancubi. They aren’t simple upgrades to existing monsters– they are tricky foes with new verbsets that the player will have to outmaneuver.

There’s also a new weapon I like. You can only get it through the campaign’s secret levels though and being that this is an episodic wad, you have to obtain it in each episode which wasn’t a hassle in itself, but the game has a number of death exits, including each time you enter a secret level. It’s weird to restart someone’s inventory so many times over the course of the campaign, so while overall I like the structure of Eviternity II, it’s two steps forward, one step back.

That’s about it on my criticisms for this megawad. A quick mention for the great soundtrack and, overall, it’s a definitive megawad with great gameplay, distinct levels, and a lot of its own personality. You can’t mistake Eviternity II for other DOOM wads. It’s a bespoke piece of retro FPS action.

Eviternity II, like the first, is riding high on its own prestige, but I think it lives up to the hype. The texture pack, of course, is quite beautiful. The megawad paints its landscapes with such rich earthy colours.

This wad isn’t just eye candy, though. While enchanting towers might loom in the distance, the level themselves are designed well with lived-in atmosphere and dynamic combat encounters. There were a couple levels in the polar chapter that were nondescript and a secret level was gimmicky and annoying, but the batting average here is very high. I went back through the campaign, warping from one level to the next, and was surprised how many levels stood out. This is a megawad that knows spectacle and wows the player with setpieces, although it is pretty long. A handful of levels are huge and take at least a half-hour to finish, if not more. They're good, just... long.

There are a number of gimmicks and cool tricks, like on one level there is a switch the player can do to kill all enemies on an electric floor that added a new layer of strategy to a huge slaughter battle. There are outright non-vanilla monsters like the two brands of cacos that make a residence in Eviternity II and a very nasty breed of mancubi. They aren’t simple upgrades to existing monsters– they are tricky foes with new verbsets that the player will have to outmaneuver.

There’s also a new weapon I like. You can only get it through the campaign’s secret levels though and being that this is an episodic wad, you have to obtain it in each episode which wasn’t a hassle in itself, but the game has a number of death exits, including each time you enter a secret level. It’s weird to restart someone’s inventory so many times over the course of the campaign, so while overall I like the structure of Eviternity II, it’s two steps forward, one step back.

That’s about it on my criticisms for this megawad. A quick mention for the great soundtrack and, overall, it’s a definitive megawad with great gameplay, distinct levels, and a lot of its own personality. You can’t mistake Eviternity II for other DOOM wads. It’s a bespoke piece of retro FPS action.