Game:

Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994)

Duration: 7:52

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5

Hello again Doom fans. Hot off the presses of Doomworld, we have the newest A2Rob mapset to explore - a 10-level, MBF21-compatible WAD called Escape from Sunveil Starport. Rob worked on this wad during NaNoWadMo2023 and describes it as a prequel to their megawad Machete. Given my appreciation for the author's other works like the Running Late series plus a bunch of beautiful screenshots in the Doomworld thread, I got super excited and quickly made the decision to check it out. In terms of storyline we don't have much to go on since Rob keeps the intrigue short and...intriguing:

"I knew firing that nutjob was a bad omen. It started with the security systems going haywire, then the explosions outside, and finally there were those damned shrieks down the hallway. At some point one has to wonder whether the job's worth it or not. I made that decision a few hours ago."

It appears that our hero - perhaps in the role of security chief at some top secret military facility or something - once again needs to pick up his weapons and deal with trouble.

Basic info
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IWAD: doom2.wad
Difficulty: Ultra-Violence (aka Hard) (pistol start)
Map author: A2Rob
Music: "Forgotten Town" by Deadwing
Port: DSDA-Doom 0.27.5
Compatibility level: 21 (MBF21)
QoL mods: Colored Blood
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Additional notes
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So much for quiet days at work. Apart from its expected function of further getting you into the specific alert combat rhythm that A2Rob is fond of, the most impressive achievement of 'Tactical Nuke' lies in how it creates a believable, realistic environment. I don't know about you but I genuinely feel like I'm taking a trip through a military facility where those ultimate instruments of death are stored. Rob took the time to design an actual warhead in the central room, which we must disable now that it's in the hands of the demons; and from what I gather from one of the monitors, either America or the monsters were/are planning to nuke Britain. Encounter-wise, Rob is absolutely not screwing around here. In the first minute, you'll be ambushed by two arch-viles in the tight yellow keycard corridor; in circumstances where the SSG is your best weapon, and where the instinct to run away will quite often result in the sorcerers and the newly-arrived imps blocking you, with fatal consequences. It's not a terrible idea to stay put and use the boomstick to get rid of them, saving the secret berserk for health emergencies. In line with Rob's flexible approach to problem-solving, you'd do well to use the zerk for punching whenever you can, lest you run into ammo trouble in the second half. The pressure isn't exactly constant all the time, but the fights can get hairy, especially the long-winded teleport assault of about 80 hitscanners on the warhead floor itself. If you keep it together, you'll most definitely have a good and sweaty time.

Secret 1: 0:01

Secret 2: 1:05

Links
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WAD:

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/144155-escape-from-sunveil-starport-9ish-mbf21-compatible-maps-rc1/

QoL mods:

Colored Blood:

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/118074-dsda-doom-source-port-v0243/?page=16

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