/vr/ - Retro Games

CONGO (Congo collection #1)
jazz01a.zip (92 KB, 1995-07-12) - Ritche Macalaguim
https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=2633

a single map for doom2, in a style reminiscent of a number of others e.g. that mine map from requiem/dyst3. it is well-made and detailed, getting extra credit for non-orthogonal lines. being intended for deathmatch, it is highly interconnected and can be cleared in several different ways. monster population is mostly zombies / imps / demons and you will be using melee / shotgun / chaingun, often in fairly cramped conditions - there is enough, but not a great deal of room to move.

unfortunately though, after you have circled through the map a few times and run out of things to shoot at, you will start to wonder where the exit is. it turns out to access it you must solve a switch-finding puzzle. i felt it to be excessively hard - i had to resort to the map editor. there are three secrets, which aren't the things you'd think they'd be. one was fairly easy to find - a hidden room behind a fake wall - a monster inside wakes up as you walk past, giving the location away. as for the others, one sector which must be accessed as part of the exit-opening puzzle is marked secret, and the last i initially thought to require two players to reach. this turned out to be false, but the secret is uselessly empty on single-player. on the other hand, there are three things that look like secrets but aren't marked as secrets. a plasma gun on a ledge, an alcove with a soulsphere - you should check this repeatedly as part of the exit sequence - and a chain of passages leading to a megasphere below a slime river.

in summary this map is well-made for its time, with architecture, detailing, and texturing more like 1996-7. and it plays quite well, up to a point. but actually finishing it and/or getting 100% is frustrating, so unless you are an obsessive like me you might like to consider it complete when you run out of obvious things to do.