วีดีโอ

Thanks! I actually liked the gimmick of this map, even if some of the fights seemed a bit harsh that the teleporters dropped you into. :-)

Now somebody needs to parody the whole song, lol. Yeah, I think going forward what I might do is, if I miss a secret exit, I'll do an idclev so it doesn't get missed. There are a lot of cool secret maps that get missed because I'm bad at finding secret exits, lol. So that will probably be next Monday's video!

I probably would have had an easier time if I wasn't trying to use the guide as little as possible (I was only looking at the secrets section.) Ah, well. IDClev is always an option, lol.

I think one of my favorite things about Cobalt Core's gameplay is that you don't really get the situation of "This run is already lost - it's just gonna be 5 more fights grinding me down until I finally lose." Like if you have a bad fight and survive, you can generally recover pretty well. Most of my failed runs are like this one, which I like. :-)

I generally tend to go as thin as I can manage, lol. It helps cut down on the RNG, so you can have a more reliable strategy. :-)

Every now and then, I manage to put together a good one-liner, lol.

It's the first death if we exclude the BS crusher in one of the early levels that I walked into while in map view, lol. I've been thinking I might start doing secret levels, even if I need to look them up. Even though looking them up kinda pushes the limits of what I'd call "casual", it seems like a shame to not cover those. :-)

@@davethefoxmage5797 Oh right, I forgot about that one. XD It was a 90s crusher, so let's just say that it doesn't count. Hey, there's nothing more casual than using guides, right? :P (Plus, I'm pretty sure almost everyone needs a guide for this secret-the Hell Revealed authors even said how to find the secret in the bundled infopack.)

Seems reasonable to me (for both, lol). The sad part with the crusher was that I knew it was there, and a split-second before I went under it I thought to myself, "Wait, in the map view I can't see the crush... Too late." lol

It was a yard-care service. Honestly, it weirds me out that door-to-door salespeople are still a thing. I have an aunt that had one push past her and barge into her house. To me, that's a home invasion. I give this one credit, though - he left when I politely said he caught me at a really bad time. My rule is that they get one polite no, then a firm no, then I pull the phone out and tell them if they don't leave immediately I'm calling the police. So far, it's always worked.

Yeah, that sounds about right, lol.

No problem! I had just found out about someone else running into the same issue with the same game, so I figured it was worth mentioning. :-)

Yup! Overall I've been enjoying Hell Revealed - I think the lower difficulty helps with some of the annoyances it is most known for. :-)

There's just something about video game characters and carrying stuff, lol. In Minecraft carrying a cubic kilometer of cobblestone, the Factorio engineer carrying stacks of nuclear reactors and locomotives in their pocket...

Yeah - I generally prefer toned-doen traps and fights on lower difficulties, rather than removing them completely. And if you don't spot them right away, a single chaingunner can be punishing without being TOO crazy. :-)

I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for that meddling miss-click!!! lol

Agreed! The random little details in this game are some of my favorite parts of it, I think. :-)

I had actually been thinking it was lighting-related, but there were more than 2 shades, so I was a bit confused, lol.

Hello there! I do, yes - same as my youtube and FA. Also, enough people have poked me about BlueSky that I'll be taking a look at that this weekend, lol.

Avast ye!

Yup! I actually did better than I expected with it, lol. I also love the character dialog that goes with it.

Thanks! It was rough not being in a good state to record for a few weeks. I'm thinking I'm going to try building up a bit of a buffer, just to cover those kinds of things.

@davethefoxmage5797 best wishes on the buffering

Agreed! Actually, the walls were low enough in the maze that I had started to think the key wouldn't be there because I couldn't see the topedge of it. I figured the walls were low enough that I would be able to see the very top. I'm starting to have a bit of a theory on the "switches that do...something?" issue, actually. Part of me wonders if a lot of these started out as shorter maps, but then they wanted to either extend them or make them *feel* less linear (even though it would still be linear). So they left the main path the same, but added little side-rooms that had some enemies and a switch, so it felt like you had to explore more. Just something that occurred to me when I woke up this morning, lol.

@@davethefoxmage5797 Glad to see you're back! :) I think I was lucky because when I played this I somehow was able to see the key over the maze; and you were quite unlucky here that - I think - you explored every part of the maze except where the key was. Looking forward for the next map.

Thanks - great to be back! Once I get back from a convention this upcoming weekend, I'm going to be building up a little bit of a buffer on videos. It's the first time I've had a few solid weeks where I couldn't record.

It's definitely going to be a challenge, but I am looking forward to giving it another try.

I was starting to think that, but had chalked it up to me improving since the IWADS. Maybe it wasn't just my imagination. The large rooms with like 3-5 dudes in them really call attention to how empty the levels feel. Maybe the others got caught in traffic somewhere? lol

@@davethefoxmage5797 I actually think I might be mentally comparing it with the original IWADs on UV. It's been a long time since I've even seen them on lower skills, so I don't really remember. That said, I did just play through Dead Simple on ITYTD and I can say for certain that it's harder than Arachnophobia, so it probably depends on the map. :P I'm really curious to see how badly things escalate when you get to episodes 2 and 3. Episode 1 feels weirdly tame (though I guess it's pretty tame on UV as well-it never really exceeds Plutonia levels of brutality).

Maybe it's trying to lull the player into a false sense of security. I definitely prefer Sunlust's difficulty handling, though (big fights but easier dudes, getting big weapons earlier in the level, etc.) I didn't notice this in the early maps, but these last couple have felt very empty.

@@davethefoxmage5797 That could be. I suppose another possibility is that the authors just didn't know how to balance the map for lower difficulties. I know I ran into that when I was making my DoomGPT map, though I had the opposite problem. I thought the easy/medium difficulties were fine until I had a friend (an HMP player) try it. He didn't stand a chance. XD Thankfully my next iteration ended up right where I wanted it to be.

I've seen at least a few indy games where that has happened - on some difficulty settings, the difficulty would ve wildly inconsistent, or they might reduce the rate of random encounters, but that just meant you had to spend twice as long grinding, etc.

Okay, that would make a LOT more sense. I think it's a combination of ITYTD and playing continuous, lol.

Agreed. Actually... I think there might be a way of doing that in the original engine, but I'm not sure.

Yup! That event is an interesting one - it basically lets you swap out a crew member mid-run, keeping the cards you already have for the character who leaves. I think you lose any of yhat character's artifacts, though.

Agreed, lol. I also love the moments of "Wait, but I already have a card that does X. Will that trigger this effect? Oh wow, it does - awesome!"

Yeah - it is interesting because if you took out the crusher (or made it a fast crusher so it wasn't guaranteed death), that was a very interesting room with the caco and specters. I think the crusher was a bit too far, though.

I think those are my favorite runs - the ones where you're going, "Uh... okay, how can I recover from this...?" I have the same feeling about FTL, lol. Actually... maybe I should do a Thursday series of FTL at some point.

@@davethefoxmage5797 I'd watch that series too.

I think for me, the thoughts I've had so far apply to pretty much every level. "Combat's fun, the maps are a short, beginner-friendly size so far, but there's a lot of hitting a switch and wondering what it did." I wonder if they would have benefitted from making the maps a little larger, but taking away 80% of the switch-flipping? Not sure, but that thought just hit me, lol.

@@davethefoxmage5797 that and remove all of the barons, though admittedly that'll probably be way less of a hassle on ITYTD

Very true, lol. I've gotta say, I've been very surprised just how much HR dials things back at lower difficulties. From its reputation, I went in half expecting the first video to be "So, uh, this is clearly a joke difficulty on this wad (similar to Italo Doom). Uh, new wad next week!", lol. That's been a very pleasant surprise, but they may have nerfed it a bit too far for this one. :-)

Well, the next wad I currently have in mind after HR will definitely be an ITYTD one (and probably also a poor life decision, lol). I'm thinking this map was just a bit on the easy side - even compared to the one before it. If the arachnotrons had been out in the open rather than separated out, it would have made a big difference. :-)

Even if sometimes easy, ITYTD casual gameplay has its stressfree charm:)

​@@CacovadingVery true! It could also be lulling me into a false sense of security for what's coming, lol.

@@davethefoxmage5797 Oh, yes, indeed! :)

Yeah - I'm thinking even compared to the map or two before it, this one was a bot underwhelming. Though I wonder if it might be a different story pistol-starting it, actually. On the other hand, they load you up as soon as the level starts, so...?

@@davethefoxmage5797 Yeah, holding off a bit on the rockets would have changed the dynamic a lot.

I think her mechanic is starting to click with me - my first time through the game, I struggled quite a bit with her, lol.

@@davethefoxmage5797 IMO Brooks is probably my favorite since she's so versatile. good block, good damage, good dodge, even has some good cards for midrow objects. though I can see why the Shard thing would be a bit hard to get past.

@@dotcomgamingd5564 I also wonder if she's had a little rebalancing since the first time I played. My first time through the game was within a week of it being released (bought it on release day), and they've definitely done a lot since then!

That's very true - they definitely have their place. I think for me I over-worry about dead draws in my first hand or two. :-)

@@davethefoxmage5797 oh don't worry I get that. too many times I've been nearly irreparably screwed over in either turn 1 or turn 2. usually happens in Slay the Spire more since block goes away after each turn, sometimes Ill get all attack cards and be forced to bite the bullet.

@@dotcomgamingd5564 "Okay, I should be fine as long as I draw at least one... crap..." lol

Same here - I tend to always expect a trap when grabbing keys or hitting switches, lol.

According to DoomWiki the baron count is greatly reduced across the board with one notable exception. MAP32 actually has *more* barons on easy and medium, but in that case it looks like they're likely using them in place of arch-viles, so that's probably a good thing. I did take a look at what's coming up and I can say with certainty that MAP07 is going to be a bit anemic.

@@Spectere Oh, yes it is. That will really take the teeth out of it. They needed some better balancing of challenge from ITYTD and HNTR to HMP, UV, and Nightmare on it.

So far, aside from a lot of "Okay, what did that switch do?", I've actually been finding HR pretty fun on ITYTD. It hasn't been very grindy yet, at least. :-)

I think they are my favorite mechanic in the game, because they make you completely change your playstyle. If you also have Isaac on your crew, it gets nuts, lol.

Good to know, lol. I'm pretty bad at finding secrets in Doom, so I tend to just assume it's some trigger I didn't find. :-)

Actually, it's thrown me off with at least one caco before. I had my back to it and expected it to come out into the main room. Then I went looking around for it assuming I'd lost it, lol.

So far, it's been surprisingly enjoyable. A couple maps have had a bit of "Okay, I flipped a switch. Which did... something, probably? Somewhere?", but combat-wise I'd say ITYTD has been pretty fun so far!

@@davethefoxmage5797 (whoops, this was from a week ago roflmaobbq) I didn't start feeling the CBT on UV until around MAP09/MAP11, so I guess we'll see if that holds true with ITYTD as well. :) The incoming damage being halved should help quite a bit…maybe!

Agreed! Every ship is pretty unique to play. :-)

Thanks!

That's very possible, lol. From what I've seen/geard with otgers playing it, there's definitely some meanspirited-ness mixed in with these maps.

Thanks! Yeah, I know I had seen someone get the BFG secret before (Spectere, I think?), but I couldn't remember how it worked, lol.

@@davethefoxmage5797 Interesting. I watched decino's gameplay (5 years old video) lately and he said there that this BFG cannot be taken... Either way a good map to spark such discussions. :)

@@Cacovading I also wouldn't rule out me misremembering, too. If decino said it can't be gotten, I'd trust that, lol. I've been going out of my way to not re-watch things before I do these videos. My goal is to do the experience of "Hey, a youtuber I like played these, and they looked cool. I wanna try it!" 🙂

Agreed - I love when games have things like that. Especially here, where there is so much dialogue that depends on what combination of crew and ship you have. :-)

Thanks! So far, I've actually really been enjoying it - Hell Revealed seems like it is much less grind-y on easier difficulties. So far, at least, lol.

I love the mechanics of the Jupiter, but in terms of sheer power, I think the Ares slightly beats it. Unless you have Isaac in your crew, which makes the Jupiter insane, lol.

​@@davethefoxmage5797oh lol I actually was talking about the Ares

@@dotcomgamingd5564 lol Yeah, I figured. i think the Ares is my favorite ship, but you can definitely cause some damage with the Jupiter and Isaac. ;-)

"I regret nothiiiiing!!!" lol