Doom 2: Alien Vendetta (w/ MIDI Pack) - Map 11: Nemesis (UV Max)

Alien Vendetta is a 2001, 32-map mega WAD given the title of “most influential PWAD of all time.” It’s also one of the VERY few PWADs eligible for Compet-n speedrunning, which it was selected for in 2002. That Compet-n version of Alien Vendetta is the one we’re going to be playing, and it received quite a few updates. Most notably, it gets rid of the original Map 25 (Valley of Echoes) and banishes it to the shadow realm, puts the original Map 24 in the newly vacant Map 25 slot (Demonic Hordes), and slots in a brand new Map 24 (Clandestine Complex). I haven’t played much of the original 2001 mega WAD, but I’ll happily stick to this version because it’s most likely the superior version in every way imaginable.
Alien Vendetta’s influence can’t be understated or ignored. It’s the tipping point for our little corner of game development history. You see Alien Vendetta in the DNA of nearly every single PWAD to have come out after it. It’s one of the earliest examples of a WAD that combines aesthetic beauty, atmosphere, and high quality, brutalizing combat with success. More specifically, Alien Vendetta puts Eternal Doom and Hell Revealed into a blender, tops it with some classic references and callbacks to the IWADs and other classic WADs, and blends it all together.
We’ll also be using the Alien Vendetta MIDI Pack for this play through. While a good majority of the maps have different MIDIs, there are still many maps that use stock IWAD MIDIs. While I do regret letting go of the MIDIs in map 8 and 10, I believe that overall, the MIDI Pack is a much better fit for the WAD.
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IWAD: Doom 2
Port: DSDA-doom 28.0
Compatibility: Vanilla (comp level 2)
Mapper(s): Martin Aalen Hunsager
MIDI: Bucket - Adversary
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Alien Vendetta: www.doomworld....
Alien Vendetta MIDI Pack: www.doomworld....
DSDA-doom: www.doomworld....
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Every time I get to this point in Alien Vendetta I always let out a big “alright let’s get this over with” type of sigh and trudge through the map.
It’s the one map that I almost always skip when replaying AV. It’s about as long, if not longer, than Toxic Touch, but provides almost none of the what makes that map engaging. It’s long and confusing and turns the player around, upside down, and inside out.
I have no idea what possessed Martin to make Nemesis the way he did, but I hope it never possessed him again because Nemesis is painfully mediocre in the first half and uncomfortably claustrophobic to the point of annoyance in the second half. Seriously, some of these passages are so damn tight that I feel like I too am getting squeezed by the walls just by watching Doomguy struggle to fit his ass between them.
Then there’s the combat which doesn’t really excite me at all. Most it is just pointblank SSG-spam and CQC with enemies I’d rather not fight up close. Mancubi, Hell Knights, Revenants, you get the point. I guess I have to give Martin credit for that central area, with the Cyberdemon and Mastermind that eventually teleports in. What I like about this is that you can easily sneak past them both, grab the BFG for free (which I’m not sure is allowed because I think the Cacodemon graciously triggered the bars to lower), and wipe them both out.
As much as I want to keep hating on this map, the visuals (not necessarily lighting-wise, just texturing, architecture, etc.) are pretty good and live up to the AV standards, and the new MIDI is suitably dramatic and adventurous. Sign of Evil is cool and all, but a new, amazing-sounding bespoke MIDI is just about the best thing that could’ve graced this map’s lap.

[@fx7075]

That bfg shot at the end😂

[@redpart]

и снова синий броник спас. был бы в зеленом, сдох бы. изначальное здоровье 160, прилетел урон 270, который пополам разделился. если бы зеленого даже 100 было, то здоровья отлетело бы 180, а зеленой брони 90, итого: труп -20хп, броня 10