[Music] hello there i'm mount paine27 and this is dean of doom the show we give grades to classic and contemporary doom wads why because ranking things is fun today's episode will be dedicated to speed of doom a mega wad released in 2010 by josh sealy and darkwave who divided the work so evenly between them that they actually alternate excluding the secret maps the odd numbered slots are all joshies with dark wave handling the evens it also features the musical stylings of then up and coming midi magicians stuart rinn and jimmy paddock who contributed over 20 original tracks which have seen use in many more projects thereafter taking inspiration from such classics as alien vendetta scythe 1 and 2 hell revealed on the plutonius speed of doom is a classic style megawatt that its creators originally planned to finish at a clip of one map per week a process dubbed semi-speed mapping and text file in the end the seven days couldn't contain the two mappers ambitions and the finale they ended up producing was much grander than they expected i for one am very glad things turned out the way they did speed of doom is a dynamic delightful collision of two creative minds i'm excited to get into this one so here's how the show works every map gets one grade for quality and one for difficulty on the quality side the grades go from a to f grade a levels are fun memorable visually distinctive creative and a fair challenge difficulty grades go from x to e x for extreme e for easy a through d in between keep in mind i'm not a doom god and i probably won't have the same ideas about what makes a great level as you do but that's okay disagreeing is part of the fun after all at the end of the day this show is really about spreading the joy of doom so let's do so real quick before we start the rules are we must play on ultra violence and pistol start each level i need to play the wad twice before reviewing it saves are allowed and we go for 100 kills in all levels making exceptions in cases where it's just not worth it i play on z doom with compatibility set to strict now to the wad map one first blood first blood is a docile opener for a megawatt with such a fearsome reputation it introduces speed of doom's famous green sky which apparently resulted from a demonic chemical attack on our planet and an earthy theme that persists for a good chunk of the megawad keep an eye on the hit scanners berserk often and you won't have any problems here grade b minus difficulty d minus map 2 mysterious cove this eerie dark wave debut is almost immediately reminiscent of the mucous flow with its uncanny textural similarity and foreboding atmosphere in fact the mucus flow seems like the most pervasive aesthetic reference for much of speed of doom's first episode and it's odd that joshi and darkwave never acknowledge it in the text file mysterious cove makes handy use of elevators which thanks to boom can make stops on multiple floors and also introduces one of speed of doom's signature tricks the pop-up monster ambush it's not that obnoxious here but it will get abused later on you'll see one thing you'll notice about dark waves maps is he loves secrets i admit they can get perplexing but after spending significant time with speed of doom i've concluded that darkwave is actually my favorite secret hider it makes them organic satisfying and visually appealing as often as he makes them useful word to the wise keep an eye out for off-color crates grade a minus difficulty c-minus map 3 constrained base the modest constrained base is a blink and you'll miss it map five minutes of miniature ambushes and tight corridors that leaves little impression it is however a good indicator of things to come joshi likes to increase difficulty by decreasing the size of the playing field this one falls short of speed of doom's standards but benefits from an excellent stewboy tune grade c-flus difficulty d-plus map four sedgemeyer sedgemeyer is almost as gorgeous as its traps are dizzying it feels strange to call a sewer level gorgeous but this map really is a sight to behold darkwave is a real knack for natural landscapes sedgemeyer draws from alien vendetta's toxic touch about as much as it calls the mucus flow's number but the gameplay is dark wave through and through it's loaded with jump scares and nasty ambushes but the ssg shootout with the imps and mancubi the spring-loaded yellow switch room and even this last encounter with eight imps and helmite are all carefully wrought and calibrated to not tolerate impatience trigger discipline will help you greatly in darkwave's maps sedgemeyer's secrets are worth the trouble of finding them and believe me they are trouble all i can say is look for a shootable switch if you want to survive the super slime dark wave did his own music for this one a vertigenous paranoid track that once again draws favorable comparisons to the mucus flow [Music] if you haven't yet adjusted to this megawatt's love of tactical traps and edge of your seat fights then now's the time to get your head right grade a difficulty b minus map five cliffside siege besides its relatively high difficulty for its early placement cliffside siege's lone similarity to its alien vendetta influence is jimmy paddock's interpretation of bobby prince's midi get ready to scramble for non-existent cover from start to finish joshi throws some pretty severe teleport traps at you none worse than the gaggle of chain gunners that appears after you obtain the yellow key budget your three rad suits carefully as dipping your toes in toxic sludge is pretty mandatory for a good example of bs pop-up monster usage look no further than this helmite cliffside siege has grown on me and even though it's still not exactly my cup of tea i have to respect how much its monster placement complements the layout especially the mastermind the long range imps and the flying foes grade b plus difficulty b map 6 dreamscape this was the moment i knew i was going to fall in love with speed of doom dreamscape checks all my boxes it's lushly detailed the fights are explosive the midi is intoxicating and the whole experience is surreal and memorable dreamscape is home to the first really meaty fights and speed of doom you've got a mess of chain gunners in the first room followed by two free roaming arch files a series of ambushes baited with tantalizing goodies and finally a big boy fight with two cyber demons a squad of revenants and barons and two arch files guarding the exit which leaves out the lethally trapped secret bfg you're gonna want that i hate to sound like a broken record but dreamscape is the most mucus flow-like of all darkwaves creations just look at this slime fall secret the arachnotron turrets the quiet creepiness of the derelict tech base you start in the magical overtones the resemblance is uncanny dreamscape is one of darkwave's hallmark maps it illustrates his design philosophy in a nutshell and cements his place as one of my all-time favorite mappers his attention to detail mastery of atmosphere and fondness for high body counts and heavy artillery had me at hello not coincidentally it's also the point where you start to realize what speed of doom has in store for you both in terms of spectacle and punishment grade a plus difficulty b-plus map seven simple prison yard oh i just got it dead simple prison and caught yard all in one map seven actually i'm so dim i didn't pick up on the reference till i read the text file simple prison yard takes you out to the woodshed serving up chain gunners and bullet sponges in tight spaces until the end where you're jumped by a buttload of teleporting maccubie and then you guessed it a mob of spiders i consider the mankive more dangerous as their criss-crossing firing pattern can blanket the whole arena right quick but the erect nose will tear you to shreds if you didn't save health and plasma two things i don't really like about this map are the cyber demon who's nothing but a time sink and the arachnotron teleportation which sometimes makes you wait like a minute before deciding to work properly definitely the feistiest joshie submission so far grade b difficulty b-plus map eight frenetic if you guys think darkwave paid me to write good things about him i don't even care this map is great frenetic is an unabashed romp through a fortified storage facility seasoned liberally with dark waves faves secrets gibbetude and searing arch file traps apparently darkwave took inspiration from fellow designer gusta who worried that he might fall into some stereotype with those spectacular brown and green sceneries and suggested he try creating a large indoor storehouse so darkwave did the result is a short and explosive caper that gets more and more fun with each replaying especially if you know where the secrets are grade a difficulty b map 9 depredation this is actually one of my favorite joshi maps depredation's confined setting generates suspense of a pleasanter variety than he usually goes for and stewboy's heart pounding midi makes for the perfect backdrop [Music] if you're too good for infighting things are going to be tight before you get your hands on the ssg and the periodical arch file interjections can catch you by surprise save rockets and cells for special occasions and you can trust the super shotgun for everything else not much else to say depredation is brisk fun and friendly for a joshi map grade a minus difficulty b plus map 10 vile pain i tell you what it's hard to beat speed of doom's first ten maps and even harder to top dark waves first five man's on a roll vial pain may well have inspired skillsaw's angry arch files series and less directly going down 200 megahertz giving top billing to its 28 arch files and throwing in 13 pain elementals for good measure darkwave lets you start each fight mostly at your own pace but that courtesy has a sinister ring to it as if he's saying ready when you are the further you progress through this forgotten complex the more it opens up and the more hell it unleashes the blue key section is especially nasty if you're not ready for copious surprise art files but sharp eyed secret hunters can net a soul sphere and mega armor to soften the blow with the blue key in hand you can access the plasma rifle on the red key both of which trigger very nasty ambushes one with spiders and meatballs one with a lot of pinkies and specters you can try to make a min fight which is pretty fun if you can keep from jibbing yourself on a spectre or take it one wave at a time the pigs and ghost pigs have trouble with stairs a weakness that you and your secret berserk can exploit if you can last until the invulnerability arch file lightning round you're made in the shade vial pain is a beautiful nightmare a hot-blooded concept map with style and thrills to spare one of dark waves best grade a difficulty b-plus map 11 transcension talk about a hot start this aggravating conclusion to speed of doom's first episode was allegedly joshi's attempt at a nice open-spaced and simple map i mean i wouldn't call it claustrophobic but i wouldn't call it nice either the arch file at the start the relentless macubus and revenant snipers in the stupid cave section with the pinky flash mobs and pop-up monsters in your face are pretty damn unfriendly thankfully the giant fight at the end is teaseable with infighting and patience i never liked this map it's trappy cheap and can't compete with dark wave aesthetically grade c plus difficulty b-plus map 12 the meat grinder the meat grinder sports a bloody castle theme which pairs nicely with the heretic music i do have to call a spade a spade there are a few distasteful encounters here like this pop-up arch vial these pop-up hell nights and this stupid trap with two more hell nights point blank with such well choreographed encounters as the opening infight this breathless hallway ambush and the title set piece i don't know why darkwave felt the need to stoop the secrets are pleasant and a bit weird this beautifully framed plasma rifle behind the bloodfall is a treat but the berserk secret which you get by pressing three red things with no audible feedback is kinda whack i always expect more from the ending you jump into a pit only to be greeted by a handful of arachnotrons and pinkies you have plenty of rockets to let them fly grade b plus difficulty b map 13 lucifer's tears man does this one make a bad first impression joshi is a master of disguising nastiness and petite monster counts and lucifer's tears is a perfect example of that with minimal medical supplies available early on those teleporting shotgunners ate me alive my first time through and the coverless yellow key area can turn into swiss cheese or grilled cheese in a matter of seconds the secret rocket launcher would have been nice to have sooner but i'll take what i can get brooding atmosphere-heavy maps aren't really joshi's mo but he does all right here grade b difficulty a minus map 14 sledge oh yes speed of doom's first out and out slugfest sledge is all muscle a breathless dark wave spectacular complete with bracing fights and beautiful scenery set to a soundtrack that never lets up [Applause] up till now we've only seen dark waves dr jekyll this is mr hyde we're talking 700 monsters including four cyber demons nine arch files and a dozen paint elementals flinging their children everywhere it's a chaotic mess of assorted bestiary screaming and infighting and generally getting in the way where's the bfg when you need it well cut through the boiling blood turn right and have a gander at this beautiful secret oh yeah give me that i have never seen anything like this backlit spectre bfg slaughterfest it's not hard or anything just completely unexpected and aesthetic as hell the map caps off with a cyber demon double team and a chorus of revenant kamehamehas i love love love this map it captures everything great about speed of doom the intensity the grandeur the heroism and by god the punishment a lot can go wrong in this map but the payoff sure is sweet grade a plus difficulty a map 15 descent to the core perfect hatred josh sealy edition according to the text file descent to the court took about 12 hours to make and it shows there's a certain spontaneity and freshness to this map's action that never gets old the frantic opening really ladles on the arachnotrons they exert stupendous pressure while you gather supplies and dodge chain gun fire leaving no way out except through them descent to the core also features another fretful spider mastermind placement and a very painful macubus cluster there are a few things i can't stand about this map unfortunately one this crusher hallway with the shotgunners arch vials and later pinkies and revenants in terms of tool them this is black and decker tier two this demon with your limited ammo allotment killing him is a pain in the ass three you're required to arch file jump over this health bonus if you want to experience the megawads absolutely must see secret maps to which i say id clever31 grade b plus difficulty a minus map thirty one one zero one zero zero one one zero one zero one of the most flawless integrations of gameplay and theme in all of doomdom 666 in binary is a cold unfeeling techno scape riddled with mechanically augmented enemies mancubi arachnotrons revenants masterminds and cyber demons are the only foes you'll face here working solely with futuristic weaponry it's your job to send these bionic freak shows back to the scrap heap under these self-imposed limitations darkwave and his only odd-numbered map succeeds at creating intelligent pulse-pounding and for as huge as they are surprisingly accessible combat scenarios and ice is the cake with a playful scavenger hunt finding and slaughtering all seven albino spacemen opens the gates to map 32 666 in binary is not a traditionally beautiful map but it never fails to knock my socks off it's all in the cold lifeless metal spilled sludge and synthetic blues indifferent to the blood-red apocalyptic sky i might sing darkwave's praises some more if he didn't owe such a huge debt to stuart rin whose midi is so good it's hard to believe a scintillating sci-fi tune that also manages to sound chilly computerized inhuman i call him the incomparable stuart wren for good reason [Music] one zero one zero zero one one zero one zero is one of the iconic speed of doom maps a thrilling unforgettable rampage through a bleak wasted techno hell grade a plus difficulty a minus map 32 pyramid of death so let's take a minute to talk about slaughter maps if you've spent time around people who talk about doom you've almost certainly heard the term slaughter map if we're being honest it's a term that functionally means very little i've seen it used to describe plutonia's go to it hell revealed alien vendetta sun lust holy hell sunder and occup but these examples are so wildly different that the only thing they have in common is at some point somebody playing them said man this shit's hard it's true some people use slaughter as a pejorative for anything beyond their skill level but it's often negatively associated with repetitiveness excessiveness or carnage for its own sake there's also a population of players who exclusively enjoy slaughter combat for the simple reason that everything else puts them to sleep so what do we talk about when we talk about slaughter it's probably easier to lay out what slaughter maps are not than what they are for instance maps with high monster counts are not automatically slaughter maps dehydration and anignoresis from ev eternity misery halek from alien vendetta screams aren't a crime yet from valiant and even fire and ice from scythe contain over 500 enemies but don't really qualify as slaughter you might argue with me about fire and ice yes it has big groups of monsters but it hardly offers any opportunities for run-of-the-mill circle strafing or bfg spam two oft-mentioned slaughter mapping tropes relatedly maps that make prominent use of the bfg are not necessarily slaughter maps if the map maker is giving you a bfg they need to throw a lot of monsters at you to even make it relevant i think the map starts to become slaughter when even with a bfg in hand the odds look stacked against you here's the bottom line slaughter is too easy and undescriptive a label to slap on most maps without further clarification i think it's unfair that slaughter tends to imply mindlessness because well-calibrated slaughter maps take careful thought and planning to master of course there are exceptions sometimes maps that meet the slaughter criteria can feel too hostile or exacting to enjoy but a few bad bananas shouldn't spoil a bunch the reason i digress is the discussion around slaughter maps will become increasingly pertinent to speed of doom the further we delve into it starting with pyramid of death which let me leave no room for ambiguity pyramid of death is a slaughter map josh sealy throws down the gauntlet in this super secret splatterfest though its visuals are bare bones at best pyramid of death still makes z doom chug a little so i switched over to pr boom plus for this recording it's been a while like alien vendetta's no guts no glory you may throw up your hands at the opening fight with its mounted spider masterminds bridge blocking cyber demons and waterways clogged with barons of hell but joshi gives you ample recovery items and once you fight your way through the pyramid things loosen up a bit rampant infighting is inevitable so take advantage of your enemy's distraction to score hits on the more threatening formations the massive fight by the blue key is so brutal it gives you two mega spheres and an invulnerability you can arch file jump to i know i often scoff at archbile jumps but you're really going to need that 30 seconds of god mode the arch files are so numerous they can literally blast you out of the arena and right after you deal with them an unholy entourage of cackos paint elementals in their spawn will blot out the sun handle this disaster and the rest is a piece of cake kill two quadruple large file jack in the boxes guarding the last two keys then get the mastermind at the top of the pyramid to invite six more arch files nuke them and you're done i can't say that i love this map but it's definitely memorable and joshi's blitzkrieg approach is a nice departure from a lot of his other work grade a minus difficulty x map 33 descent to nowhere yep speed of doom is a map 33 accessible only through cheating i'm not exactly sure why it was included but i won't say no to more doom descent to nowhere is like one of alien vendetta's milder tech base maps with a terrible terrible ending it's gray and trap heavy and i can kind of see why it was kicked from the regular rotation nothing about it really grabs me the final fight is essentially hell revealed the descent except 50 harder because it starts with a cyber demon can't be cheesed and limits your cell capacity you can arch file jump again through a specific window to unlock a secret bfg but i really couldn't be bothered and paid for my laziness with 12 minutes of my life play this map after you finish speed of doom to avoid messing with the megawatt's continuity grade b difficulty a minus map 16 the core beautiful in its simplicity the core is doom in a nutshell get keys get guns kill monsters repeat all the action takes place around the pulsating title structure while it's certainly fun to mow down hordes of demons while they rip each other to pieces the combat is decisively less sophisticated and therefore less fun than sledge's of course the visuals are still top notch and the ending where you destroy the core and the lights go out is dramatic as hell darkwave said of his map i was wanting to make a map with destroying a large number of enemies in a short time so this in that case mission accomplished grade a difficulty b map 17 the shrine the shrine is bite-sized and unexpectedly accessible all that brown and green brick brings to mind the plutonia experiment an association strengthened by stuart wren's plutonia 2 midi you'll be doing a lot of fighting over unavoidable hurt floors but joshi and a rare gesture of goodwill provides you plenty of radiation suits this map holds the distinction of being the only joshi map from speed of doom i've enjoyed every time i booted it up and it's a welcome wind down in the last few maps grade a minus difficulty b map 18 silent hour silent hour is an acquired taste only recently have i gained an appreciation for it mostly because i looked up secrets and have spent a lot of time with dark wave stuff in general silent hour plays rough before you get your hands on some bigger guns there are a few helpful secrets in the silver base but i can't make excuses for dark wave this time they're bs levels of cryptic patience is a necessity in this map as the optimal approach to each encounter isn't likely to present itself first try even after four playthroughs i'm finding new ways to do certain fights for example i usually wait until i get the bfg to tackle this quintuple arch file ambush but i miraculously survived a deadly game of peek-a-boo when i fell in accidentally this time the final fight is very satisfying especially if you wiped out those arch finals because the two-faced switch they're guarding lets you crush the mancubi and telefrag that nagging cyber demon silent hour isn't likely to be most player's favorite darkwave map but it demonstrates a lot of commitment to his more exploratory map making side grade b plus difficulty a map 19 impure serenity joshie describes this map as a breather but i've never found it all that relaxing especially in the beginning there's no comfortable way to deal with all the snipers and riffraff stuffing the hallways without tiptoeing to the non-secret megasphere which in itself doesn't take the pressure off completely maybe i'm just conditioned to feel ill at ease and joshy maps that use a lot of vegetation but the music lovely as it is just doesn't feel right it's much too soothing after effortlessly circle strafing this cyberdemon to death mentally prepare yourself because break time is over grade b difficulty b plus map 20 the path to hell a diabolical fusion of dark wave signature natural landscapes and emerging hellish theme likely inspired by scythes one and two the path to hell is where speed of doom stops [ __ ] around don't miss this early backpack secret behind the missing candle because you're gonna need all the ammo you can carry outside of the secret maps nothing in this megawatt has looked quite so grandiose the scale of darkwave's architecture slackens jaws and every fight feels like a major event none more so than this canyon of carnage just look at all this hyperbolic as it is the finale is not my favorite fight that title goes to the slime corridor which looks plenty intimidating to begin with but just wait till the arch files spawn in behind you as if the path to hell wasn't hardcore enough the level and the episode ends with doomguy blowing his brains out so he can pursue the rest of the demons back to hell holy [ __ ] that's commitment grade a difficulty a plus map 21 resurrection ah joshie you had a great idea man the player waking up in a shallow grave grabbing some guns ready to take the fight to hell and then what did you do you turned it into a tyson map with mancuby hit scanners cacademons and arch files not that i have a problem with punching arch files but two of them why because it takes longer and then another one and then another one and the lava who you have to save your bullets for if you want to get 100 kills jesus christ man resurrection is an absolute bear for completionists ammo is scarce the enemies are beefy and it's just generally annoying down to the exit being placed behind two timed doors presumably to keep you from peekaboo shooting the last screw you arch file i guess the e1m1 reference is clever but this map seems designed to grind gears grade c plus difficulty a map 22 dead echo to say this is dark waves most mediocre map is certainly a kind of praise by itself but i don't have much actual praise for dead echo the scenery is kind of derivative and the fights are some of darkwave's weakest cheap as they might seem the cramped ambushes in the red key room are some of the fights i most enjoy here i dislike the obligatory arch vials that pop out when you grab new weapons and the triple cyber demon rush is surprisingly aggravating especially if the accompanying monsters don't infight properly even the vanilla midi feels like a punt as if admitting to a lack of inspiration no need to dwell on this one grade b difficulty a minus map 23 poison ivy 2 no no no no no no no no this is the only map in speed of doom that i hate i hate this map more than most of the f's i've given on this show poison ivy 2 is the apotheosis of joshi's obsession with tiny maps high enemy density constrictive weapon and ammo dispensation and pop up monsters 99 times out of 100 if i call him out [ __ ] while i'm playing it i take it back after the fact because either i'm missing something i suck or ended up liking it when i go back to it having said that poison ivy 2 is [ __ ] clearly it's inspired by scythe 2's later jungle levels but even eric alms worst encounters don't subject you to random misfortune like this from what i've seen on the web it looks like the best strategy is to ignore everything and leap for the bfg early but i couldn't pull this off properly and i doubt this method is intended the other weapons are under strict cyber demon surveillance have fun with that and the arch files my god the arch files unless you're cowering in a corner which you won't be doing often assume that some arch file somewhere has got a beat on your forehead folks i died 46 times in this recording and i knew exactly what was coming if i never play poison ivy 2 again my life will be better for it grade d difficulty x map 24 hell's honeycomb i have a soft spot for hell's honeycomb it's the last of dark waves maps with that quiet pensive quality that so enriches episode 1. that's not to say it lacks excitement this hexagonal philic hellhole has an arch file infestation and some of these fights will put hairs on your chest the opening brawl is kick ass the blue key imp ram page is a treat the red key locks you in a room with a cyber demon and makes you blast your way out there are seven secrets in this map which i believe ties for the most in the megawad and they're uncharacteristically obvious by darkwave standards the mega armor baron secret will bruise the uninitiated and the bfg secret with the cyberdemon is unnecessary after all the map gives you a bfg for free if you find any of the three keys the yellow key room with all the trick arch files is kind of a headache the cyber demon sandwich finale is a little on the nose but all told hell's honeycomb is a handsome map and a welcome calm before the storm grade a difficulty b-plus map 25 death's nocturn probably the last joshi map that i don't actively dread playing death's nocturne greets you with a closed fist sicking shotgunners chain gunners and hell nights on you in deceptively close quarters joshi once again takes explicit inspiration from scythe 2 specifically map 17 and he takes a few combat cues from maricom as well notably with arch files revenants and up-close cyber demons after poison ivy 2 nothing intimidates me anymore joshi gives you a ton of rockets and enough bfg ammo to neuter the map's last few fights the first room in the map ironically might be the hardest grade b difficulty b-plus map 26 blessed hellscape nothing says speed of doom quite like a hundred revenants chasing you across a fiery plane screaming bloody murder believe it or not blessed hellscape is only darkwave's third most tempestuous map and it's mostly less scary than it looks the macro fights give you ample room to lead revenant rockets on a married chase and the smaller encounters give you plenty of health and ammo thankfully the majority of the map's 38 arch files are harmless or too busy resurrecting stuff to care about you which isn't to say you shouldn't worry about them dark wave secrets are once again idiosyncratic to the point of annoyance the plasma rifle is revealed when you press on one of these red bars for example and there's no audible feedback come on man the grand finale is a rollicking ass kick don't trip the line death at the cave entrance or this archival party will send you to the moon i gotta say dark wave does a mean hell map but by this point in the wad i miss episode one's earthy hues grade a difficulty a plus map 27 haze temple yet another scythe scythe-two-esque joshie excursion with a painful start hayes temple is an episodic slugfest set in a shadow-draped gothic hell the central hub is just the worst a chain gang of mancubi bombards you at every turn while revenants and arch files take pot shots in the peanut gallery silencing them is a chore because every corner of the room is guarded by pairs of barons and you can't reach the archies and revenants without the red and blue keys which you'll find in the east and west wings i think i prefer the blue key path chaotic as it is for its sumptuous visuals with both keys in hand think carefully about how you want to use the secret involvement megasphere the switch that opens the yellow key summons four cyber demons and grabbing it reveals more manky buy a mastermind and some vials guarding the exit hayes temple isn't as unpleasant as i remembered probably because it's one of the least claustrophobic joshie maps in the set grade b plus difficulty a map 28 twilight massacre a slaughter fest of staggering proportions twilight massacre is about as subtle as blunt force drama canonized by a top 10 spot on doomworld.com's most memorable maps twilight massacre is definitely distinctive but i'll be straight with you guys this probably wouldn't even make my top 10 favorite dark weight maps yes it's ambitious and dark wave impresses with this ability to orchestrate fights on such a massive scale but holding down the fire button with the bfg and zooming around at top speed does eventually get stale twilight massacre is an illustration of the limit that slaughter mapping asymptotically approaches at a certain point the bfg becomes the only relevant weapon in your arsenal and it's only so powerful some people will never get tired of pushing that big green ball and its 40 tracers to its maximum potential but personally i hate to see my ssg gather dust twilight massacre is worth a play for the sheer spectacle but i guess i'm trying to say it's overrated grade a minus difficulty a map 29 the ruins of calmneck more like the ruins of your day from the starting gun the ruins of calmneck goes for your throat speed of doom is no picnic and i expect heavy resistance from any map 29 but this is just excruciating joshi crams heaps of demons into a tenth of twilight massacre's real estate and half his map is covered in lava on which you can expect to fight cyber demons spider demons and up to six arch files at once so watch those rad suits tick tock tick tock just writing about this map is exhausting so you know what i'm just going to cut the review short here and let my death reel express the magnitude of misery the ruins of kalmak can lay on you grade b minus difficulty x map 30 darkness without end one of the bloodiest megawad closers ever darkness without end is you versus 2 000 demons spilling out of the void whose ranks are constantly being replenished by 40 yes 40 monster spawners don't worry it's not quite as bad as it sounds all you have to do is survive the onslaught for about three minutes and then you're free to blast romero's head it's not one of the megawatt's freshest ideas but it beats the tar on the vikana's sin fittingly darkness without end is one of the shortest maps in speed of doom grade b plus difficulty b-plus so speed of doom was one of the first mega wands i played after dean of doom debuted and it was a wake-up call because there i sat fancying myself a fairly knowledgeable and well-rounded doom aficionado but i'd somehow passed up speed of doom what an oversight at the time of its release speed of doom was quite polarizing with some people hailing it as the next alien vendetta and others absolutely hating its plutonic proclivity for traps and quote slaughter mappiness speed of doom as a final product is nothing like alien vendetta or plutonia of course rather it's a melting pot of early 2000s influences reforged into a brand of doom that belongs completely to its co-authors dark waves simmering secret hunts in cacophonous war-torn landscapes joshi's hellish crucibles these maps sit at a perfect juncture between the classic mega wands of old and the emerging modernity seen in the output of the biggest name to the 2010s most notably rubix and skill saw history lessons aside speed of doom is cracker jack stuff a special alignment of beautiful distinctive visuals and some of the best action around i'm happy to bestow a final grade of a on this beast of a megawad on the difficulty side of things speed of doom is a banger easily rivaling alien vendetta and only slightly outgunned by hell revealed's want and savagery i'll give it an a-plus now for my dean's list valedictorian map 31 666 in binary salutatorian map 14 sledge class president this was a tough one but i'm going to go with map 23 poison ivy 2 and the dunce cap goes to map 23 poison ivy 2 good riddance speed of doom is definitely honor roll eligible so let's quickly spotlight some more high achievers map 2 mysterious cove map 4 segmer map 6 dreamscape map 8 frenetic map 9 degradation map 10 vile pain map 32 pyramid of death math 16 the core map 17 the shrine map 20 the path to hell map 24 hell's honeycomb map 26 blessed hellscape and map 28 twilight massacre thank you very much for watching please feel free to share your thoughts on the wand down below i'd love to hear what you think and i'll heart your comments to let you know i've read them before i go i'd like to take a moment to acknowledge my generous patrons aaron allen aaron berger acolyte alec wehrmann alex topher alex max builder sith callum duncan kappa [ __ ] cheese wheel chris o'neil christophine place kiara p crafty one cal delirium dorothy miller emma essex final brett gary dave general roster rock glenn marman griffin upchurch gus shade holy hell revealed when jared c bly jesse taylor josh ballard camille bernadotte leon staton mark rowland marquis music master drew 117 mixer mr bombs cyndaquil my olden neurometry nick machado one true purple pyro she sid mennon sir marcy spinner 8 stupid nick susanna grimm tara cashino the bell tolls tjg-1289 and turbine 2k5 thank you i appreciate you all i'd also like to thank dcg retrowave for providing the midis for this episode you can find a link to his channel in this video's description this is mountpain27 and i'll see you in the next episode of dean of doom