Doom Wads/Mods #466:Back To Basics

Channel:

Andrew Mullens

Subscribers:

916

Published on February 16, 2023 10:00:08 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9WJh521mns

Game:

Doom (1993)

Duration: 5:25

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https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/a-c/b2b As much as I enjoy new wads that break the mold on map design or textures, I also enjoy going back to the past and seeing brand new wads that stay true to the formula that I.D. Software set in 1993, with notable ones I've gone over include Phobos Anomaly Reborn, and the Doom The Way I.D. Did series, though non have polarized me as this 2007 released by the late Esa Repo (Espi) which earned a cacoaward in 2008, It's a great wad but has some serious issues in my eyes.

Back to Basics was released on December 16th 2007, It's a Episode 2 replacement for Doom, and with it contains 9 maps which all were made from scratch by Epsi with the first 4 being previous releases that were made some time ago, and it follows the Strict vanilla ways of Doom's maps, however between the good and the bad I'm sure this will divide opinion.

To begin with, I am not bashing Epsi at all, god rest his soul, though ammo placement and health placement was to me the worst aspect of Back to Basics, I first look at the health and ammo placed in the maps of a wad to better understand what the map is trying to make me do, and what the first map of Back to Basics did was cement my.. general hatred for ammo puzzle maps, I didn't find any shotgunshell boxes in map01 so that left me with only 25 rounds to spare against nearly 100 enemies and a chaingun that never went over 50 bullets later on.

Epsi's maps are massive I'll say, among some of the biggest I've played for the original Doom, and while long maps don't bother me usually, the first map ran much longer than I was comfortable with as we're needing all 3 keycards to exit but the path we go to get them is both ridiculous and quite surprising, health placement forced me to juggle small stimpacks and 1 armor throughout the first map and avoid even the slightest of damage and that makes me wonder just how someone would speedrun this episode with such low health placement.

Yet despite all the parts I don't like, Back to Basics strikes me as a final gift from Epsi who passed on from cancer in August 2009 and was among his last work including help on Eternal Doom IV and the Flashback 2 demo, and throughout all his releases, Epsi himself strikes me as a virtuoso of mapping, artistry, and speedrunning, He wanted the push players out of their comfort zones with new challenges and give surprise challenges we never expected such as in his caocaward winning Suspended In Dusk, and, in a way we have espi with us forever with the apply named "Espi Award" for lifetime achivement that was introduced at the 2013 Caocawards.

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