Game:

Doom (1993)

Duration: 14:11

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31

UAC_DEAD.wad.

One of the best WADs from 1994. Not only was the attempt at realistic architecture way ahead of anything else being produced (this includes most of DOOM II, oddly enough), but clever use of scrolling textures and other effects made the map incredibly immersive, moreso than anything found in the game's IWAD. But what about the gameplay? Surely that suffers?

Nope. Not at all. Gameplay is smooth, balanced and always dishing out something to shoot, without ever feeling tedious.

So what happens when it all comes together? It looks simplistic and blocky by todays standards, but it gets the job done efficiently without looking crap and messy either, despite having such a comparably low number of linedefs/sectors. With all the action going on from the start, you won't really have the time to sit around and start tutting about unaligned walls and pixellation before self-preservation becomes your primary goal.

Worth a special mention here is the first ever known intentional use of self-referencing sectors, a trick which exploits a rendering bug and creates all sorts of interesting, invisible platforms - in this case, it's probably one of the best stairways you've never seen.

It's not the hardest PWAD by any means, but I still recommend it for all players out there. Even if you've played it several times before, do yourself a favour and play it again.

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